Psalms 1:1-6 Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly.The 1st Psalm, introductory This Psalm seems to have been placed first in the collection because, from its general character and subject, it formed a suitable introduction to the rest. It treats of the blessedness of the righteous and the misery of the wicked, topics which constantly recur in the Psalms, but it treats of them as if all experience pointed only in one direction. The moral problem which, in other Psalms, troubles the ancient poets of Israel, when they see the evil prospering and the good oppressed, has here no place. The poet rests calmly in the truth that it is well with the righteous. He is not vexed with those passionate questionings of heart which meet us in such Psalms as the 37th and 73rd. Hence we may probably conclude that his lot was cast in happier and more peaceful times. The close of the Psalm is, however, as Ewald remarks, truly prophetical, perpetually in force, and consequently descriptive of what is to be expected at all times in the course of the world’ s history. In style the Psalm is simple and clear. In form it is little more than the expansion of a proverb. (J. J. Stewart Perowne, B. D.) The felicity of the godly man, and infelicity of the wicked Verse 1. Teacheth a godly man.1. To beware of the ungodly man’ s persuasions;2. Of their order of life; and,3. Of their society and company keeping. Verse 2. Teacheth him by the contrary what he must do.1. Take delight and pleasure in God’ s Word; because we do hardly profit by those things which we take no pleasure in;2. Use all the means whereby we may be builded up in knowledge; for so generally do I take these words, “ meditate day and night.” Verse 3. A promise annexed for our better encouragement, which expresseth God’ s wonderful goodness, and our dulness and heaviness, that have need of such spurs. By which also we may see the right use of God’ s promises, namely, to provoke us to all well-doings (1 Corinthians 7:1). Verse 4. Doth not only contain judgments against the wicked, but also teacheth, yea, spurreth forward the godly, by beholding their punishments, to more heedy walking; and whereas the Holy Ghost resembleth the wicked to chaff tossed before the wind, it teaches us, that though the wicked think themselves glorious, and of long continuance, yet they are neither the one nor the other. Verse 5. Teacheth that God, with His fan, will make a separation between the good corn and the chaff (Matthew 3:12). Verse 6. Teacheth this, that God is the only judge to allow and disallow; men must not therefore stand upon themselves, or other men’ s judgments. For what are we that condemn another man’ s servant? He standeth or faileth to his own master. (Thomas Wilcocks.) The godly man happy The Prophet will maintain a godly man, against all comers, to be the only Jason, for winning the golden fleece of blessedness the other, that he will make it good upon the heads of all the wicked; that howsoever they make a show in the world of being happy, yet they of all men are most miserable. (Sir Richard Baker.) The blessed man Happiness is our nature’ s end and aim, and David tells us here who finds it. He describes his character-- I. Negatively. But all this is negative; and in a world such as this, and with a nature such as ours, no small part of religion consists in avoiding evil. Still, a negative religion is not sufficient. God’ s Word is, Cease to do evil, learn to do well. A man may “ not swear,” but does he “ pray” ? He may not rob, but does he relieve the poor? Therefore we have the blessed man described-- II. Positively. “ His delight,” etc. It is so, whether the law be the moral law or the Word of God. Much more may we say this who have the complete Bible. Day and night, our thoughts ever follow our affections. (W. Jay.) The true Christian 1. He is set forth as a “ man.” Sin un-mans, reduces the volume and value of manhood, until it brings its victim to a revolting animalism. The Christian is restored by grace to true manhood. 2. As a “ happy man.” Happiness is the flower and fruit of piety. Misery, the natural child of sin. None are so happy as those whom God makes happy. 3. As avoiding unholy society. As oil will not mix with water, light cannot co-exist with darkness, so piety cannot live in the poisonous atmosphere of evil-doers. Where there is no affinity of nature there can be no sympathy and fellowship of spirit. The tropical plant will quickly die at the roots in the Arctic region; and the saint cannot pass over to the frigid zone of the worldling’ s society, but at the peril of his sainthood--his life. 4. As a student of Divine truth. Religion makes men thoughtful. He is a glad student. “ His delight is in” ; a diligent student. “ Day and night.” It is not a nine days’ spell which novelty has thrown over him. He meditates ill it in the “ day” of prosperity, and does not forget to do so in the “ night” of adversity. 5. Under a beautiful and suggestive figure. “ Like a tree.” He does not grow up a Christian, he is planted as such. Religion is not natural, but engendered:--He is well positioned. “ By the rivers of water.” As a consequence he is “ fruitful.” No fruit in the life is a proof of no grace in the heart. He is always in “ season.” “ There are special times for the manifestation of suitable graces. Liberality when riches increase. Humility when cheered by others. Patience in suffering. Resignation in bereavement. Faith in trial.” He is “ evergreen.” “ His leaf also shall not wither.” The beauty of the believer is holiness, the communicated “ beauty of the Lord our God.” The sap of grace is always in circulation, hence his leaf does not wither. 6. Prosperous in all his undertakings. “ There is no lack to them that walk uprightly. Godliness is great gain.” 7. As divinely known. “ Knoweth the way of the righteous” (Psalms 1:6). His knowledge covers the minutiae of his life as well as the particulars of the road. This Divine knowledge is comforting, stimulating, faith-embolding, etc. Such is the inspired portrait of the “ happy” or godly man. In contrast we have the “ ungodly man.” He is like “ chaff,” without worth, or use, or root; the sport of the wind of circumstances, passions, frivolities, worldliness, sensuality, etc., devoid of true manliness, decision of character, etc. Verse 5 sets him forth as morally incapacitated to stand in the Court of Justice; and also as morally disqualified to associate with the holy. Both he and his way shall perish. (J. O. Keen, D. D.) A certain prescription for happiness There is a very beautiful story told of a king who, when he came to his throne a young man, had a silver bell made and placed in a high tower of his palace. Then the announcement was set forth that whenever the king was happy his subjects would know it by the ringing of this bell. It was never to be rung except when the king was perfectly happy, and then by no hand but his own, Days passed into weeks, and weeks into months, and the months into years; but no sound of the bell rang out either day or night to tell that the king was happy. At last the king, grown old and grey in his palace, lay on his death bed. His weeping subjects gathered around him, and he learned how through all the years his people had loved him; and then he was happy, and in his joy, with dying hands, he rang out the silver bell. How many years of wasted happiness because the king did not come to know and appreciate the love of his people! The little story may suggest to us a still greater loss in ourselves. Only the consciousness of God’ s love can make us perfectly happy. Many people go through life from childhood to youth, from youth to manhood, from manhood to age, and the lines of care deepen in their faces, and the silver bell of happiness never rings out, because all the while they are getting further from God, and there is no consciousness of that Divine love which alone can give perfect happiness and peace to the human heart. We have in this Psalm the thought of a keen-brained and spiritually instructed man as to what is required to make a happy man. We have here the testimony of a man of broad experience. David sets forth, at the beginning, that there are three things which it is important that we shall not do if we are to lead happy lives. The first of these is walking in the counsel of the ungodly. I do not understand that he intended to teach that to come under this head it is necessary for a man to seek out ungodly people and ask their advice as to how he shall live. The danger is far more insidious than that. The trouble is that ungodly people are always ready to speak their counsels of evil and lead others astray by them. Eve did not send for the devil to come and advise her, but he came of his own accord and spit forth his lying sophistries about the Lord. Many young men and women come to the city from Christian homes, expecting to live a frank Christian life; but in the boarding house, or the store or shop where they work, they are thrown into touch with ungodly people, who are ready at every turn with sceptical and insinuating remarks about the Church and about Christianity. Their counsels are for laxity of faith and conduct. Rev. W.L. Watkinson, in a recent sermon, recalls the fact that while we are careful to do our utmost to protect great buildings from fire and tempest, yet all the while those buildings are liable to another peril, certainly not less severe--the subtle decay of the very framework of the structure itself. The tissue of the wood silently and mysteriously deteriorates, and a calamity dire as a conflagration is precipitated. Many people think they are all right because they are not committing outbreaking sins, while the counsels to which they are listening, and the associations to which they are lending themselves, are really undermining all their spiritual strength. The fibre of will and conscience and feeling is secretly eaten away, and some day they awake to find they no longer possess the faith, the sensibility, and the resolution of other days. No swift and violent assault of world or flesh or devil has torn or stained them, but it has been like a moth fretting a garment. In the physical world sunshine is the sure antidote to the dry rot. So the only antidote to the counsels of the ungodly is to turn from them to the beams which fall from the Sun of Righteousness. Prosperous looking trunk. It was strongly made, and, although not very heavy, the speculators who examined its exterior concluded that it contained articles of value. One of them finally secured it for fifty-five dollars, and promptly prised it open, when he found within it only a disjointed human skeleton, which had probably been the property of some medical student. It is easy to understand the chagrin of the purchaser who, instead of gold and jewels, found only those relics of death. Multitudes have experienced a similar disappointment, but one infinitely more sorrowful, when they have discovered the real nature of the prizes which they gained by sin. There is still another place that a man if he will be really happy must avoid, and that is, “ the seat of the scornful.” God have mercy on the boy who has gone so far that he can make a joke of his mother’ s religion, that he can make a sneer about his father’ s God, that he can scorn the voice of God’ s Word that calls him to repentance! The sarcasm and cynicism and scorn of a sharp wit is often very fascinating to young people, but I assure you that the man who exercises it is never happy. It is a blossom which grows on a tree that is bitter at the heart. I have seen many scornful men and women, but I have never yet seen one who was happy. Well, we have been looking at some of the things one must not do if he is to be happy; let us turn to the brighter side, and see what one may do to ensure happiness. The prescription is given here, and is very plain. “ But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in His law doth he meditate day and night.” But, you say, “ How can I delight in the law of the Lord, and how can I begin to think about Him, if I am taken up with other things?” It is all very simple. You have been breaking God’ s law, and therefore you cannot delight in it. Stop breaking it. Turn right about and begin to obey the law of the Lord, and then you will have a chance to delight in it. God has made happiness and obedience to go together. As you obey the Lord, and as you feel the warmth of His smile on your face, you will take delight in Him. All this is perfectly natural. The man who has committed a crime, and has broken the law of the land, and is fleeing from justice like a hunted animal or has been caught and is being punished, takes no delight in that law. But the man who obeys the law and finds its strong arm of protection thrown around him, and rejoices in its security, delights in it, and in the consciousness of the presence of the law he finds rest and peace And what a glorious result is assured from such delight in the law of the Lord: “ He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water,” etc. What a beautiful picture that is! Ah, but, you say, “ Does God live up to that? Do not many Christians have hard experiences, and trying difficulties like other people?” Certainly, the hot sun beats down on the tree planted by the river just the same as it does on the one that is planted on the gravelly, sandy upland. But the one by the river runs its roots down into the refreshing streams beneath, and when the upland tree withers and turns brown the tree by the river is as green as ever. Christians meet the troubles of life like other people, but if they give themselves up whole heartedly to do God’ s will, and delight in the law of the Lord, they have peace and content in the midst of the sorest trouble. You want happiness. There is only one certain prescription for happiness, and that is to obey God. (L. A. Banks, D. D.) The happy man The opening words of this Psalm furnish its title Ashrey ha-ish, “ O the happiness of that man!” If ever a man pursued happiness under the most favourable conditions, it was King Solomon; yet this was his conclusion of the whole matter, “ Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.” John Trapp said quaintly, “ The Psalmist hath said here more to the point respecting happiness than all the philosophers; for while they beat the bush, he hath put the bird into our hand.” I. As to the character of this happy man. “ He walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly.” We must needs be in the world--not dreamers among the shadows, but men among men. The world has need of us. The workshop and the office demand us. The secular cares of this world are, of necessity, upon us. But the secret of true happiness is moral nonconformity. Being in the world, we should not be of it. While our associations must needs be in some measure with the ungodly, their counsels, their ways, their seats are not for us. God’ s people go to their offices and their workshops just like other men, but their affections are not set upon this world; they are ever mindful of their noble birth, their Divine inheritance, their glorious destiny. II. His attitude towards the Divine law. The “ Law of the Lord” was a Jewish phrase for the Scriptures. The happy man possesses a right estimate of the importance of the Word of God.1. He is a reader of the Scriptures. Thomas a Kempis said, “ I am never so happy as when in a nook with the Book.” 2. He reads “ with delight.” We are much given in these times to a critical study of the Word. The way to appreciate the beauty of Murillo’ s picture of the Immaculate Conception is not to approach it with spatula and ammonia for purposes of minute analysis, but to gaze upon it until we are filled with the mighty thoughts that went surging through the soul of the master genius who painted it. 3. He meditates in them. St. Augustine renders the word “ chattereth.” So in these spring days we hear the sparrows chattering with their hearts full of the prophecy of bloom and fruitfulness. So glad and happy are the souls that meditate with delight in the Divine law. III. The outcome of this happy life. Fruitfulness. “ Like a tree.” This life is rooted well. Its leaf shall not wither. The leaf shows the character of the tree. The man whose soul is full of truth and righteousness need not be saying perpetually, “ I am a Christian,” for his walk and conversation declare it. He bringeth forth fruit in his season. We shall be ever doing good as we have opportunity. There is an obverse to this picture. “ The ungodly are not so.”1. As to his life--it is chaff. There is no profit in it. 2. As to his death--it is like a furrow in the sea. 3. After death, he shall “ not stand in judgment.” Most of us have been disappointed in our pursuit of happiness. There is, however, a right way and a sure way to pursue it. (D. J. Burrell, D. D.) The way of the righteous I. A striking description of the character of the righteous. Among the evil, as well as the good, there are classes and gradations. Here we have forgetters of God, overt and habitual sinners, and settled scorners. How graphically is the progressive tendency of sin here exhibited! Observe the indication we here have of the tendency of sin to fixedness. Walking, standing, sitting; wrong principles, then sinful habits, and last settled scorn. But the righteous man is not simply one who keeps aloof from the ways described. His character has its positive side. It is needful to discriminate with respect to the kind of delight the righteous man takes in the law. How much there is in the Bible of valuable history! Its truths and precepts kindle the intellect, feed the imagination, and commend themselves to man’ s natural sense of what is true and good. The delight of the Psalmist is, however, something deeper and other than this. It is delight in the law as God’ s law, and because it is His. It is the delight of a mind in sympathetic accord with it and with its Author. Even in the Old Testament saint there was much of this spirit. Here is the difference between a truly righteous man and one who is only outwardly so. The latter obeys slavishly, and against his own will. The former serves joyfully, and in love. The interest the one takes in the Bible is intellectual; that of the other is also practical and spiritual. II. A delightful picture of the condition of the righteous. “ Like a tree.” The tree draws a portion of its nourishment from the surrounding atmosphere, but relatively this is small. Vastly the greater portion is taken up with the moisture at its root. Hence where there is little moisture the life of the tree is feeble, its growth is slow, its fruit is uncertain, its leaf withers. So it is doubtless true that the godly man derives material for growth, usefulness, enjoyment, and moral beauty from whatever surrounds him. He learns from nature, society, books; he derives profit and adornment from studies, companionship, and experience; but for that which is highest and best, whether of comfort, attainment, or serviceableness to his generation, he is indebted to revealed truth. It is this which sustains his true inner life. In Psalms 1:3 there is a change of figure. Of the righteous it is said, “ and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.” The meaning doubtless is that he shall prosper in all his godly doings; in the things to which the Divine will and word may prompt him; in ‘ those righteous undertakings by which he is distinguished. In other ages, if not now, it shall appear that nought of such labour was lost. It would be a mistake to understand, by the fruit here spoken of, external works only, or chiefly. The fruit of the spirit is “ in all goodness, and righteousness, and truth.” It is “ love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance.” First of all, it is inward, then outward. It would be equally a mistake to suppose that the leaf, which does not wither, is the symbol only of the honour and beauty which crown the character of the godly. Doubtless it stands for this. But the leaf is also useful. And that, too, not only in the pleasure it ministers to the beholder’ s eye, or the shade it affords to the passing traveller. Its benefits may reach very far. “ The fresh air we quaff from the hills has been purified and made healthy for us by the foliage of the trees, not merely those of our own country, but even the pines of Norway and the palms of India.” And so the godly man is blessed in what he is and what he does. III. A cheering intimation of the happy end which awaits the righteous. As is so often the case in the Bible, thought abruptly passes from time to eternity. Indeed, to the eye of faith, these are one: the latter is but the continuation of the former. Naturally, therefore, the characters contrasted in the Psalm are now made to appear for judgment. (Monday Club Sermons.) The blessed man’ s likeness Notes on verses. Verse 1. Ignorance is often bliss. All the characters mentioned here may have their excellence. The ungodly may be rich, the sinners convivial, the scornful brilliant, yet blessed is the man that has nothing to do with them. Blessed is the man who knows not the language or the masonry of the wicked. Verse 2. The idea is that of the man who sees the law of the Lord in all nature, history, and life, and delights to trace it out. The “ Law of the Lord” is Lot simply so much letter press, it is a life, a presence, a government. Verse 3. Where God is there is no famine. The likeness to a tree is full of suggestion. A tree is permanent, fruitful, beautiful; its branches are for refreshment, its shadow is for rest. It responds to the sun and the rain. It waits for God, and puts forth life at His bidding. “ Prosper.” In no mean or narrow sense, but really and ultimately If you say that, as a fact, the good man does not always prosper, remember that you may say the same thing about God Himself. Verse 4. Some ungodly men seem to be well established; they have more than heart can wish. But these are appearances only. At a distance chaff might be mistaken for wheat. The distinction is a vital one. To know where the wicked are, you must know where the wind is--the wind of popularity, success, Divine visitation. Verse 5. There is a judgment, a true and final test of character. Where are the ungodly of the last generation? Verse 6. Mark the three characters. The godly, ungodly, the Lord. The question is not what is the relation of the godly and the ungodly to each other; but what is that of each to the Lord? Are you blessed? Are you merely transiently happy? What is your fruit? (Joseph Parker, D. D.) The blessed man 1. He is partly described by negatives. We begin with children by teaching them what they must not do. The man who “ walketh in the counsel of the ungodly” is not a happy man. Nowhere in the devil’ s territories can you find the happy man. Men who have run the whole round of so called enjoyment unite to say, “ If you want to be happy, avoid our footprints.” And yet it seems as if every young man must go and try for himself. He will not take the experience of others; or follow the directions of the “ caution board.” 2. He is partly described by what he should do. God does not destroy our powers, but turns them in a right direction. How can we be happy? Study. He who thinks grows. Meditate in the “ Law of the Lord.” We are not a Bible reading people. The old-fashioned people in the Church were. Note the consequences of this “ delight in the Law of the Lord.” Beauty. Righteous men should have beauty of character. “ Whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.” When we fail the fault is ours, or if it be not, then the failure is for the sake of the success it shall lead to. “ The ungodly are not so.” The sinner has a brief day. It may not seem so now; but God says, he is “ like the chaff.” But we should not seek happiness as an end. Seek goodness, and the happiness will come. (Joseph Parker, D. D.) The character of the pious and profane I. A certain course described. Here is a two-fold gradation implied, the one relating to the characters referred to, and the other to the intercourse maintained. II. A sacred exercise described. “ In His law doth he meditate.” The godly man delights in the Law of the Lord for many reasons.1. Because it enriches his mind. 2. It cheers his heart. 3. It sanctifies his nature. III. An encouraging assurance given. “ He shall be like a tree.” Note the connection between loving the Scriptures and spiritual prosperity. IV. A solemn contrast drawn. The ungodly are like the chaff. Chaff is a thing that is--1. Unsightly. There is nothing to excite pleasurable emotions in the ungodly. 2. Worthless. Chaff cannot be turned, even in our inventive age, to any beneficial purpose. 3. Light and unsubstantial. There is no stability in the ungodly. They are tossed to and fro with every wind of temptation; and, being influenced by caprice rather than principle, no confidence can be placed in them. The Psalmist adds, “ therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment.” To “ stand” is a forensic term, and denotes “ to stand acquitted,” and with those who live and die ungodly such cannot be the case. V. A conclusive reason adduced. “ For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous; but the way of the ungodly shall perish.” (Expository Outlines.) The refusals of godliness But negatives in this case could not be denied; for if he had left out negatives, he had left out a great part of the worth and praise of godliness--for a godly man cannot always run in smooth ground--he shall sometimes meet with rubs; he cannot always breathe in sweet airs--he shall sometimes meet with ill savours; he cannot always sail in safe seas--he shall sometimes meet with rocks; and then it is his praise that he can pass over those rubs, can pass through those savours, can pass by those rocks, and yet keep himself upright and untainted, and untouched of them all. Besides, negative precepts are in some eases more absolute and peremptory than affirmatives: for to say, “ That hath walked in the counsel of the ungodly,” might not be sufficient; for he might walk in the counsel of the godly, and yet walk in the counsel of the ungodly too; not both indeed at once, but both at several times; where now this negative clears him at all times. And may it not also be a cause of using negatives, because it seems an easier way of showing what a thing is, by showing what it is not, than by using only affirmative marks; especially where a perfect induction may be made. (Sir Richard Baker.) Things marred by ungodliness We must yet go further, and the next word we come to is ungodly, and now certainly we shall have a full negative, for ungodliness is the herb that marreth all the broth, it poisons all the company that it comes in,--not only walking, a thing in itself indifferent, but even counsel, a thing in its own nature most sovereign: they are both marred by this one ingredient of ungodliness. Walking in counsel had been a safe proceeding, if the ungodly had not given it; standing in the way had been a lawful calling, it’ sinners had not made it; sitting in a chair had been an easy posture, if scorners had not framed it; but if the ungodly, or sinners, or scorners have any hand at all in our actions, have anything to do in our doings, both safety, and lawfulness, and ease, and all are utterly overthrown. (Sir Richard Baker.) The counsel of ungodly men But have, then, ungodly men counsel? One would think it were want of counsel that makes them ungodly, for who would be ungodly if he had counsel to direct him? Certainly, counsel they have, and wise counsel too; that is, wise in the eye of the world, and wise for the works of the world: but wise in the sight of God, and wise for the works of godliness, they have not; and in that kind of wisdom ungodly men are your greatest counsellors--greatest in the ability of counsel, and greatest in the busying themselves with counselling. The poison of asps is under their lips. It serves not their turn to do wickedly in their own persons, but they must be drawing others into wickedness by poisoning and infecting them with wicked counsel. (Sir Richard Baker.) Stages in sin They which think it an ascent, conceive it thus, that he which walketh in the counsel of the ungodly is yet but wavering, as misled by opinion, and makes but an error; he that stands in the way of sinners, stands out with obstinacy, and makes a heresy; but he that sits in the chair of scorners is at defiance with God, and makes an apostasy. They who think it a descent do thus conceive it: he which walks in the counsel of the ungodly, delights and takes a pleasure in his sin; he which stands in the way of sinners, stands in doubt, and is unresolved in his sin; but he who sits in the seat of the scornful, sits down and sins but for his ease, as being unable to suffer persecution. They who think it an ascent, conceive that the ungodly are but beginners in ill; that sinners are proficients in ill; but the scorners are graduates and doctors of the chair in ill. They who think it a descent, conceive that the ungodly are opposite to the godly, and offend generally; that sinners offend, though actually, yet but in particulars; that scorners might be sound at heart, if they did not set themselves to sale, and sin for promotion. The ascent may be briefly thus: that walking expresseth less resolution than standing, and standing than sitting, but in sin, the more resolute, the more dissolute therefore sitting is the worst. The descent thus: that walking expresseth more strength than standing, and standing than sitting; for a child can sit when he cannot stand, and stand when he cannot walk; but the stronger in sin, the worse; therefore walking is the worst. Many such ways there are of conceiving diversity, either in ascending or descending; but it needs be no question which is the worse, because, without question, they are all stark nought: they are three rocks, whereof the least is enough to make a shipwreck; they are three pestilential airs, whereof the best is enough to poison the heart. This only may be observed, that howsoever the case alter with walkers and sitters, yet standers in the way of sinners keep their standing still; and whichsoever is first or last, yet they are sure to be the second. But is it not that we mistake the Prophet, and make his words a gradation, when, perhaps, he meant them for level ground? And for such, indeed, we may take them, and do as well, and then there will not be either ascent or descent in the sins themselves, but only a diversity in their causes; as that the first is a sin caused by ill counsel; the second, a sin caused by ill example; the third, a sin caused by the innate corruption of our own hearts. Or is it that the Prophet alludes here to the three principal ages of our life, which have every one of them their proper vices, as it were, retainers to them?--and therefore the vices of youth, which is the vigour of life, and delights most in motion and society, he expresseth by walking in the counsel of the ungodly; the vices of the middle age, which is the steadfast age, he expresseth by standing in the way of sinners; the vices of old age, which, being weak and feeble, is scarce able to go, he expresseth by sitting in the chair of scorners, and it is as if he had said, “ Blessed is the man that hath passed through all the ages of his life, and hath kept himself untainted of the vices that are incident unto them.” (Sir Richard Baker.) The way of sin dangerous But a godly man is wiser than so; though he know that the way is large and broad, yet he knows also that the press is great; a man cannot stand here, but he shall be shouldered and thrust forward in spite of his teeth. (Sir Richard Baker.) Walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly.--Companions We are all of us naturally of such a social tendency that the influence of companionship is necessarily great. And this is so especially in youth. Moralists, like Cicero, have made friendship the theme of some of their purest teaching and counsel. Scripture tells us of Jonathan and David, and this Psalm gives a hint of the insidious gradations by which companionship attains its mastery over habit and character. Like a skilful angler “ playing” a fish, so does a congenial associate attach us to his company. He draws the glamour of his power about us, till we become wholly his. At first we meet him from time to time, “ walking in his counsels” ; then we protract the interview, and invite ascendency as we “ stand in his way” ; and at length we capitulate to his domination as we “ sit down in his seat.” Now, if it be good to resist such influence in the case of the ungodly, it is equally good to yield to it in the ease of the upright. Nothing more important than the choice of associates. Avoid such as-- I. Desire you rather as their prey than their friend. They protest vehement friendship; there is nothing they will not do for you; all that they have is at your service. These are not safe men who overact their part in this way. II. The fop and roué. The plucking of pigeons has been an art studied and perfected by knaves of fashion in every age, and has flung filth upon escutcheons which had known no shame, and blasted many a prospect of a noble future. III. The extravagant. We find it easy to declare that poverty is no disgrace; yet it is rare to find amongst the young the moral hardihood which can say, “ I can’ t afford it.” In humbler life it is by tens of thousands, not by ones or twos, that you may count the well born and the well trained who have fallen, some into suicide, some into prisons, some to the gallows, all into disgrace by becoming companions of those who have tempted them into extravagance. IV. Betting men. The slowly rising pittance of the clerk will not let him keep pace with the expensive pleasures of his rich associate, and fraud and forgery are led up to by the sure pathway of the betting ring. V. The flatterer, the sponge, who desires only to exhaust your purse. The cynic too. He is a flatterer who has established his ascendency so completely that he can afford to be rude. You cannot make a friend of a bully. VI. And let both young men and maidens be very careful of the companionships which they form, one with the other. A young man will do well who makes an honourable union the goal of his industry; and let her whose troth is challenged have nought to do with one whose life is stained with an unmanly taint. Choose Christian friendships, for companionship is the leaven of our lives and solitude their bane. But there is no solitude to him who has learned to cancel it with pure thought and spiritual communion. Healthy literature, taste, art, music, come with votive offerings to him who lingers by their chastened altars. But the best friendship is that of those whose Master is Christ. When the disciples were let go they went to their own company. Go you to yours, and let it be the company which gathers round the Lord. (Arthur Mursell.) Avoiding evil doers Like the Sermon on the Mount, this description of the way of the righteous begins with a “ blessed.” Those who go down into the busy streets day by day are in constant contact with those who are without God in the world. Not necessarily bad men in the common phrase, but possibly high-minded, free-hearted, companionable men, who yet have left God out of their lives. They do nothing to please Him. A part of the testing of our characters comes out in the fact that we do not always know we are walking in the counsel of the ungodly when we are really doing so. It is a hard tiring not to adopt the way in which people around us look at things, and the way of looking at things accounts in large measure for what we do. An atmosphere, intangible and still real, is thrown around all characters, and the moment we come into this atmosphere it affects us. If it is the atmosphere of prayer, and faith, and high endeavour, we feel without realising it, even when nothing is said to show the trend of thought. “ Nor standeth in the way of sinners.” We note the advance in wrong. “ Sinners” is a stronger characterisation of bad associates than the phrase “ ungodly,” and “ standing” is a more thorough committal to them than “ walking.” It implies more deliberation. Naturally, he who stands with sinners and gives his leisure to their friendship is fast reaching the day when he will sit with the scorners. What makes the scorner the worst case to reform? It is because a radical change has come over him, and evil has become his good. Embittered against the way which he has lost, he makes virtue a mockery. One who is in daily association with evil may not realise the loss he is meeting, may not see the bloom fade from the ripe peach, or from the hanging cluster of grapes, but the scorner is in a hell of his own. He has lost the childhood of the heart to which he must come back before he can see and enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Coming to the positive marks of the way of the righteous, we find that he delights in the law of the Lord, and meditates upon it day and night. This marks a high and almost perfect stage of moral attainment, and creates a certain loveableness in its possessor which a mere determination to do right never can do. We love those who love to do right and sing in the ways of the Lord, whose moral movements are not the working of bands and pulleys, but the curves of the bird in the free air or the bending of the tender grasses under the breeze. Effort pains us, but ease charms us. What a rare and wonderful thing it is to find joy in a rule--the law of God. We must get the law into the heart and say it without thinking, and live it by a second nature. And never since the Bible was given to men has there been so much study upon its form and details. Is there a corresponding “ meditation” upon it? Meditation is to thought and study what autumn is to summer--the ripe fruitage of past toil. (E. N. Packard.) The triads of transgression I. Three classes of transgressors. Shun them!1. Ungodly. Generally those who are (a) ignorant of God, (b) deny, or (c) defy God. Here means restless people. 2. Sinners.--The restless missing his way.3. Scorners.--Mockers, pests, impostors (Psalms 26:4-9). II. Three inducements to transgress. Resist them.1. Counsel.--Flattering and deceptive. Satan in Eden and the wilderness.2. Way.--Broad and attractive (Matthew 7:13-14).3. Seat.--Boisterous and popular. “ My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not.” III. Three degrees of transgression. Avoid them!1. Walking.--Initiatory.2. Standing.--Secondary.3. Sitting.--Grand Lodge degree in iniquity. “ The way of transgressors is hard” (Proverbs 4:14-18). “ Wherefore come out from among them” (2 Corinthians 6:17). (Homiletic Review.) Getting used to an ungodly atmosphere To make my meaning clearer, suppose a person steps out of pure air into a rather close room: the air is at first disagreeable and oppressive, he does not breathe freely, but in a little while he gets more used to it, and after a while he hardly is aware that the room is close, and that he is breathing impure air. Suppose also that then he goes into another room, which is much closer, the air of it much more impure: it will not seem to him, coming as he does from the first room, to be worse than the first room seemed when he came from the pure air. This just describes the way in which the man who is beginning to walk in the counsel of the ungodly, allowing himself to be influenced by them, soon learns to breathe at ease in an ungodly atmosphere. Probably his conscience is uneasy as he steps from his place of safety, but he soon accustoms himself to his new position, and then he is ready for the next step, and there is every prospect of his taking it. Nor standeth in the way of sinners.-- Counsels to the young I. The infectious nature of sin, and the danger of walking in the counsel of the ungodly. These warnings have been so often repeated and are now commonplace, not because they are unimportant, but because the good and wise of all ages have felt the necessity of them.1. We are all prone to sin. 2. And the young are ignorant and unsuspicious. 3. Vice is usually baited with pleasure. 4. The difficulty of bearing ridicule, which in corrupt society the young are exposed to. II. The hardening nature of sin.1. Its progress is gradual and insensible. 2. The strength and power of inveterate habit. III. The finishing stage of wickedness. To be of the scornful. On which note--1. The sin and danger of it to the scornful themselves. It is an audacious attack upon the majesty of the living God, and must strike every thinking person with horror. And this is not a sudden sin, but deliberate. Such contempt of sacred things shows an entire victory over conscience: all reluctance is gone. Also, over shame, and they design to destroy it in the minds of others. 2. Its sad influence. For it is public and intended to be so. It is an open advocacy of sin and an endeavour to break the restraints of conscience in others as well as themselves. Its malignant influence is seen in the fear that most persons have in opposing fashionable crimes. It lays hold on some human weakness that has been accidentally associated with religion, and ridicules religion as if it also were weak. Socrates was certainly the wisest and best of the men of Greece. His behaviour was such as demanded the esteem of all who knew him; yet was this worthy man successfully turned into ridicule by one whose writings are to the last degree contemptible. But yet this ridicule paved the way for the enmity which was raised against him, and which brought him to death. So ridicule often slays religion in the soul. Therefore let the young beware of evil company. Let parents strive to train their children in religion, and let all Christian men stand up boldly against profanity and vice and deal with these sins as they deserve. (J. Witherspoon, D. D.) True and false friendship False friendship is like the gaudy but scentless sunflower, that will bloom only in the sunshine of prosperity. True friendship, planted in mutual love and nourished by Christian principles, is like the sweet but modest violet that will flourish even in the dark shade of adversity, and will yield only fresh odours when trampled on by unkindly tread. (R. Venting.) Association with sinners The unhappy bids to associate with the profane arise from two causes.1. That rigorousness and austerity which some gloomy-minded Christians attach to their religion. God and nature have established no connection between sanctity of character and severity of manners. To rejoice evermore is not only the privilege, it is also the duty of a Christian. The votaries of vice put on the mask of mirth, they counterfeit gladness amidst the horrors of guilt. 2. The opinion that wickedness, particularly some kinds of it, are manly and becoming; that dissoluteness, infidelity, and blasphemy are indications of a sprightly and a strong mind. Those who have shone in all ages as the lights of the world, with a few exceptions, have been uniformly on the side of goodness, and have been as distinguished in the temple of virtue as they were illustrious in the temple of fame. (J. Logan.) Nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.-- A happy retrospect Sir Walter Scott near the end of his life said, “ I have been the most voluminous author of the day. It is a comfort to me to think that I have tried to unsettle no man’ s faith, to corrupt no man’ s principles.” (Quiver.) The fear of ridicule As the crackling of thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of a fool, and he is a poor invertebrate creature who allows himself to be laughed down when he attempts to stick to his principles and tries to do what he believes to be right. “ Learn from the earliest days,” says Sydney Smith, “ to insure your principles against the perils of ridicule; you can no more exercise your reason if you live in the constant dread of laughter, than you can enjoy your life if you are in constant terror of death. No coward is greater than he who dares not to be wise because fools will laugh at him.” (Quiver.) Psalms 1:2 But his delight is in the law of the Lord.The law of the Lord We should all like to be blessed, and here is the way--delight in the law of the Lord. I. What is this law? Not the Mosaic, not the ceremonial law, for which God often cared nothing; but the law according to which the Lord hath ordered all things. This is the law which God says He will put into our hearts and write on our minds. This is that true and eternal law of which Solomon speaks in his Proverbs as the Wisdom by which God made the heavens: and he tells us that that Wisdom is a tree of life to all who lay hold on her. This is that law which the inspired philosopher--for philosopher he was indeed--who wrote that 119th Psalm, continually prayed and strove to learn. Christ perfectly fulfilled it. He said, with His whole heart, “ I delight to do Thy will, O My God.” The will of God, for this law is nothing else. By keeping it we are blessed. What God has willed we should be and do. But if so, it is plain we must heed the warnings of the first verse. For no one will learn God’ s will if he takes counsel from the ungodly; or if he stand in the way of profligate and dishonest men. If he do this, all he will learn of God’ s law is the dreadful part of it told of in the 2nd Psalm. God will “ rule him with a rod of iron, and break,” etc. But there is more hope for him--if he repent--than if he sits in the seat of the scorners--the sneering, the frivolous, the unbelieving, who laugh down religion as enthusiasm and worse. When the greatest poet of our days tried to picture his idea of a fiend tempting man to ruin, he gave him just such a character as this: a very clever, agreeable, courteous man of the world, and yet a being who could not love anyone, and believed not in anyone; who mocked at both man and God, and who tempted and mined men in mere sport as a cruel child may torment a fly. Such was Mephistopheles. Beware, therefore, of the scornful as well as of the openly sinful. And remember-- II. This law is the law of the Lord--our Lord Jesus Christ. Who can stand with Him? “ Why do the heathen rage,” etc. Men will not believe in this law. But sooner or later they have to, and often in terrible ways they find out their mistake. “ He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh.” For Christ is on the throne of the universe. And His might and power are continually being made known. Even now He bruises His enemies as with a rod of iron. It is of no use to talk about the goodness of God and of the gentleness of Christ. We flatter ourselves that if gentle, He may be also indulgent and weak. But there is an awful side to His character. Think of these things. You are kings--at least over yourselves; and judges--at least of your own conduct. Therefore let each and all of us, high and low, take the warning and love law--for that is the true meaning--before the Son of God, as subjects before an absolute monarch, because His will is only and always a good will. (Charles Kingsley.) The good man’ s delight I. Such delight is necessary. By “ the law of the Lord” we mean religion both experimental and practical. Now such delight in it is necessary for a Christian man, because--1. Without it there is no heart in religion. But the very essence of religion lies in the heart. 2. Works and acts acceptable to God will not be produced. But it is for these that religion is designed. 3. A man cannot be a true Christian and understand the true gospel without feeling a delight in it. The true gospel, mark you, for there are gospels preached by some men that no man can delight in, But the true gospel must make the heart happy. II. The manifestations of this delight.1. He will continually think of the law of the Lord. 2. He will be sure to speak of it. There is too little conversation now about Christ. I suppose it is with some Christians as the sailor said it was with the parrot. He had a remarkable parrot which he sold to a good woman, telling her it could talk no end of things. After she had kept it a week and it had said nothing, she took it back to the sailor. “ Well, ma’ am,” said he, “ I dare say it has not said much, but it has thought the more.” And there are people like that parrot. Like it, too, in that the parrot did not think, though the sailor said it did. Nor do they, or else if they had thought they would have spoken. What is in the well will come up in the bucket. 3. Endeavours to spread the knowledge of it. 4. And will not rest until he has brought others to delight in it also. III. The happy effects of this delight.1. It Will make a man bold. 2. Very calm and quiet in the day of affliction. 3. It will prepare him for heaven. To you who have no such delight, this law of the Lord, which was designed to be your delight, will become your scourge. (C. H. Spurgeon.) A meditative life I. This Psalm is not a commendation of a meditative life only. We cannot in this world of imperative work live such a life. Those in cloisters and convents have tried and failed. As when we fix the eyes on one object only, they get weary, filmy, dull. But rightly understood, our life is to be fat more than meditation. It is to be like a tree planted and bringing forth fruit. The man is to be a doer, and what he does is to prosper. The law on which he meditates is specially related to men’ s active life. It is not merely to be thought about, but practically obeyed. Merely to meditate on it would be as if a soldier, having received from the general’ s hand the order book, were to take that book to his tent and were to sit down and spend all the hours of the day admiring his general’ s skill and the grasp of his mind instead of proceeding to obey the orders and to prepare the army for the impending battle. II. The meditation here commended is one thoroughly consistent with working, active life; indeed, is for this very thing. And the happy man is he who through meditation on God’ s law comes to live the life of holy service. He is to be “ like a tree” as contrasted with “ the chaff ” Our lives must be as one or the other. III. Note the force of the image employed. For a tree vividly sets forth the connection between thinking and working; between the roots and the fruit of conduct. Strong characters are produced only by strong thinking. Occasional, weak, fugitive thinking, even on good things, may exist--too often does--with evil lives. Thoughts must be deep, and go down to the roots of the soul and take possession of it. The ungodly man is he who does not take God into account. He acts upon expediency. Hence he is like the chaff. There are different sorts of trees, but any tree is better than the chaff. But seek to be like the tree told of here. IV. How? You must be “ planted,” that is, “ transplanted.” The tree has been put where it is designedly. And this is what meditation means. It is the self-planting of the man by the rivers of waters God has caused to flow forth for us from His Word. The rivers told of are not natural rivers, but artificial streams made for the purpose of irrigation. Solomon made many such in his day. And Hezekiah also. The Turkish Government has let them fall into decay, and hence Palestine is now nearly desert. Lord Lawrence made such streams for Northwest India, to its vast advantage. Merv in Central Asia is an oasis in the desert, for the Turcomans have dammed up the streams that flow down form the Afghan mountains and led their waters along artificial canals, and so the country is watered and reclaimed. Day and night the dam is watched by Turcoman sentinels, for if it were once destroyed the country would again become desert. But the herbs and the trees will never lack for water while these streams are preserved, and as long as the snows abide on the hills which lift their white peaks against the distant sky. What a parable all this is! If we would toil so to bring the living waters of God’ s Word into the moral desert of our souls, what a reclamation of waste places there would be, what lives like trees bearing fruit! Missions, churches, worship are all such endeavours. And what a channel for such streams is a godly, consistent life! Such lives are ever a blessing. As a tree is a thing both of beauty and of use, so are they. And every God-filled man and woman is such a tree. This is the secret of the happy life. (J. Vincent Tymms.) The godly man’ s pleasure Note the Christian duty and holy practice of a godly man. He is much and often in serious and Christian meditation. He is conversant with Holy Scriptures; his meditation is concerning the “ law,” that is, the heavenly doctrine which shows the will of God and His worship, what man must and ought to believe and do to gain eternal life. It is his daily study and continual exercise. Not that he doth nothing else; the meaning is, he setteth some time apart daily to serve God. The godly man, who is truly blessed and happy, doth wonderfully love, and is greatly affected with the Word of Almighty God, and hath exceeding delight and joy in the doctrine of God, because there is revealed the will of God, whereunto men must be careful to frame and conform all their desires, thoughts, words, and deeds, because herein is chalked out and declared the very highway of eternal life and salvation. It is a special note and property of a godly man to perform Christian duties to God willingly and cheerfully, and to make them his delight and joy. (Samuel Smith.) Blessed Bible reading I. Its characteristics. It is read--1. Independently.2. Thoughtfully.3. Frequently.4. Submissively.5. Gladly.6. Prayerfully. II. The results of such reading.1. Stability of Christian character.2. Fruitfulness.3. Freshness and beauty.4. Success in all his righteous undertakings. (J. Morgan.) The good man in relation to the Word of God I. His practice. “ His delight is in,” etc. How does he use the Bible?1. He studies it independently.2. Deeply.3. Sympathetically. II. His pleasure. His delight is in,” etc.1. He enjoys the pleasure of congeniality.2. Novelty.3. Profit. III. His prosperity.1. He is stable.2. Fair and fruitful.3. Successful. (J. Spencer Hill.) The believer’ s delight 1. The feeling with which the believer views the Holy Scriptures. 2. Some of the grounds which give rise to this delight in the heart of the believer. Its own intrinsic worth and excellence. He knows by experience its quickening and converting power. It has given and still gives the believer light. In the Word of God he has found peace. The Word gives the believer freedom. It consoles and supports the true believer in distress and temptation. 3. What is the result of this delight? What effect, does this feeling produce upon the believer’ s practice? He “ meditates on the law of the Lord “ day and night.” (C. R. Hay, M. A.) The saints’ spiritual delight I. The godly man is described by way of negation, in three particulars. “ Sitting” implies a habit in sin, familiarity with sinners. Diamonds and stones may lie together, but they will not solder or cement. II. By way of position. The not being scandalous will no more make a good Christian than a cipher will make a sum. It is not enough for the servant of the vineyard that he cloth no hurt there, he doth not break the trees or destroy the hedges; if he doth not work in the vineyard he loseth his pay.1. You may not be outwardly bad, and yet not inwardly good. Though you do not hang out your bush, yet you may secretly vend your commodity; a tree may be full of vermin, yet the fair leaves may cover them that they are not seen. 2. If you are only negatively good, God makes no reckoning of you, you are as so many ciphers in God’ s arithmetic, and He writes down no ciphers in the book of life. 3. A man may as well go to hell for not doing good as for doing evil. One may as well die with not eating food as with poison. A ground may as well be spoiled for want of good seed as with having tares sown in it. A two-fold description of a godly man. III. He delights in God’ s law. A man may work in his trade and not delight in it, but a godly man serves God with delight. What is meant by the Law? Take the word more strictly and it means the Decalogue, or Ten Commandments. Take it more largely, it is the whole written Word of God; those truths deducted from the Word; the whole business of religion. The word is a setting forth, and religion a showing forth, of God and Law. What is meant by delight in the law? Hebrews and Sept. render, “ his will is in the law of the Lord,” and that which is voluntary is delightful. A child of God, though he cannot serve the Lord perfectly, yet serves Him willingly. He is not a pressed soldier, but a volunteer. The saints’ delight in the law of the Lord proceeds from--1. Soundness of judgment. The mind apprehends a beauty in God’ s law, now the judgment draws the affections, like so many orbs, after it. 2. From the predominancy of grace. When grace comes with authority and majesty upon the heart it fills it with delight. Grace puts a new bias into the will, it works a spontaneity and cheerfulness in God’ s service. 3. From the sweetness of the end. Well may we with cheerfulness let down the net of our endeavour when we have so excellent a draught. Heaven at the end of duty causeth delight in the way of duty. Two cases to be put. 1. Whether a regenerate person may not serve God with weariness. Yes; but this lassitude may arise from the inbeing of corruption (Romans 7:24). It is not, however, habitual, and it is involuntary. He is troubled by it. He is weary of his weariness. 2. Whether a hypocrite may not serve God with delight? He may, but his delight is carnal. How may this spiritual delight be known? He that delights in God’ s law is often thinking of it. If we delight in religion there is nothing can keep us from it, but we will be conversant in Word, prayer, sacraments. He that loves gold will trade for it. Those that delight in religion are often speaking of it. He that delights in God will give Him the best in every service. And he doth not much delight in anything else but God. True delight is constant. Hypocrites have their pangs of desire, and flashes of joy which are soon over. Delight in religion crowns all our services, evidenceth grace, will make the business of religion more facile to us. All the duties of religion are for our good. Delight in God’ s service makes us resemble the angels in heaven. Delight in God’ s law will not breed surfeit. Carnal objects do oft cause a loathing and nauseating. We soon grow weary of our delights. For the attaining of this delight set a high estimate upon the Word. Pray for a spiritual heart. Purge out the delight of sin. (T. Watson.) Meditative Bible reading “ He shall be like a tree planted by rivers of water.” Who shall? He whose delight is in the law of the Lord. His life shall be rooted in the richest of soils; he shall never lack resources; his soul shall delight itself in fatness. But what is “ the law of the Lord” ? The laws of the Lord are scattered over this book with almost bewildering plentitude and variety. They are almost as thick as autumn leaves. The Orientalist takes great masses of rose leaves, and from them distils that precious essence we call otto of roses. Can anyone take these scattered leaves of law, mass them together, and give us the essence of all law? Can anyone take these almost unmanageable quantities, and return them to us in a small phial, which can be carried in the hand of a little child? Yes, Jesus Christ has done it. “ All the law is fulfilled in one word--thou shelf love.” Love is the essence of law. He who delights in love and loving shall be like a tree planted by rivers of water. Now we are permitted to look into “ the mind of Christ,” into love’ s great laboratory and see the great Lover at work. Love is the only element in which He works, but it is prepared in different ways. At one time love is very tender, to woo a tender blade; again it is very fierce, to burn a stubborn weed. It reveals itself in different ways to suit men’ s different needs. If, then, I would know how love should work I must study the mind of Christ, and meditate thereon both night and day. To delight in the law of the Lord is to live as devoted students in the mind of Christ. That mind is opened out for us in the gospel. All the dispositions of Jesus are laid bare. It is revealed to us how His love disposed itself in very varied circumstances and to very different needs. If we would be planted in a rich soil, and have a fruitful and luxuriant life, we must be rooted in the mind of Christ, delight ourselves in the mind of Christ. Now the mind of Christ cannot be known at a glance. It demands earnest and persistent study. We shall have to meditate in it day and night. The word “ meditation” has an antique, old-world flavour about it, as though it belongs to an age when men took slow, measured strides, and the wheels of time moved leisurely. How many of us meditate, hold the mind before a subject until it becomes steeped in it, saturated with it, through and through? We live in an age of mental haste and gallop. Impressions are abundant; convictions are scarce. Go to the academy in any of the summer months, and see how the crowds gallop round the galleries, hastily glancing at the hundreds of pictures which adorn the walls, with the result that the memory retains nothing in distinction, but only a recollection of masses of colour in endless confusion. How is it with the art student? He goes early in the morning. He selects his picture. He sits down before it. He studies it--its perspective, its grouping, its colouring, the artist’ s mannerisms, every line, every light and shade. He meditates upon it. The picture becomes imprinted upon his mind and educates his taste. It steals into his own soul, and afterwards imperceptibly influences his own pencil and brush, and becomes part of the man forever. Well, in the four Gospels we have four picture galleries, and the different pictures are different phases of the mind of Christ. Christ is depicted in different attitudes and conditions: alone on a mountain at prayer; in the midst of a vast inquisitive multitude; in the severities of temptation in a wilderness; in a quiet home at Bethany; facing the Cross; the triumph of Calvary. The real student, the real disciple of the Master, wants to know the mind of his Master, and he sits down before one picture at a time, and lingers before it, and studies every line and feature of it, and beauty after beauty breaks upon his delighted vision. He meditates upon it, and the beauty of the picture steeps into his soul, refines his moral taste, influences his hand and heart, and becomes part of himself forever. I tell you, we know almost nothing of the moral and spiritual loveliness of our Jesus, almost nothing of the mind of Christ, because we do not hold ourselves before it in lingering meditation. Why don’ t we? Why are we not devoted students of these pictures of the mind of Christ? Let us be frank with ourselves. Is not Bible studying wearying and wearisome? To how many of us is it a delight? It is because so many put the virtue in the reading itself. We think when we have read a chapter we have discharged a duty. People open their Bibles, and read a few verses, and close them, and think that by their reading they have pleased God. You may have displeased Him! Some people think that when they read the Bible the very act of reading is a kind of talisman to hedge about their lives with increased security. Oh no, it may be that you are falling into the very snare of the tempter! John Ruskin says there is nothing which so tends to destroy the accuracy of the artistic eye as a hurried gallop round an art gallery, even though it contains the works of the most eminent masters. May not that be equally true of this gospel gallery, where the mind of the great Master is exhibited in a hundred different ways; a hurried and half-indifferent gallop may only destroy the accuracy of the moral eye, and impair rather than strengthen your spiritual vision? Bible reading is virtuous when it leads to virtue. My text declares that those who thus live in continual meditation upon the ways of the Lord shall be in a rich rootage. They shall be like trees planted by rivers of water. They shall have vast resources. Are we all planted there? If we are rooted elsewhere our life will be stunted and unhealthy. “ His leaf shall not wither.” The leaf is the thing of the spring time. It is the first thing that comes. Well, in the Christian life spring leaf shall ever remain. The spring greenness of life shall not wither as the years roll by. The beauties of the spring time shall continue through all the seventy years. The beauties of early life, of young life, the beauties of childhood shall never be destroyed. “ His leaf shall not wither.” His childlikeness, the glory of the spring time of life, shall always be fresh and beautiful; it shall never wither away. There shall be other developments. Life shall grow. It shall increase in knowledge. It shall broaden in experience. It shall open out large capacities and powers. But, amid all the developments, the beatifies of childlikeness shall remain; his spring leaf shall not wither; the glory of the spring time shall never be lost. (J. H. Jowett, M. A.) Meditations Grace breeds delight in God, and delight breeds meditation. Meditation is like the watering of the seed, it makes the fruits of grace to flourish. If it be required to show what meditation is, I answer--1. It is the soul’ s retiring of itself. A Christian, when he goes to meditate, must lock himself up from the world. The world spoils meditation. 2. It is a serious and solemn thinking upon God (Hebrews), with intentness to recollect and gather together the thoughts. Meditation is not a cursory work. A carnal, flitting Christian is like the traveller, his thoughts ride post, he minds nothing of God. A wise Christian is like the artist, he views with seriousness and ponders the things of religion. 3. It is the raising of the heart to holy affections. Meditation is a duty imposed. The same God who hath bid us believe hath bid us meditate. It is a duty opposed. We may conclude it is a good duty, because it is against the stream of corrupt nature. As it is said, “ You may know that religion is right which Nero persecutes.” The meditation of a thing hath more sweetness in it than the bare remembrance. The remembrance of a truth without the serious meditation of it will but create matter of sorrow another day. A sermon remembered, but not ruminated, will only serve to increase our condemnation. Meditation and study differ in three ways. In their nature--Study is the work of the brain, meditation of the heart. In their design--The design of study is notion, the design of meditation is piety. In their issue and result--Study leaves a man never a whit the better; it is like a winter sun that hath little warmth and influence. Meditation leaves one in a more holy frame. It melts the heart when it is frozen, and makes it drop into tears of love. There are things in the law of God which we should principally meditate upon. His attributes. His promises of remission, sanctification, remuneration. Meditate upon the love of Christ; upon sin; upon the vanity of the creature; upon the excellency of grace; upon the state of your souls; upon your experiences. The necessity of meditation will appear in three particulars. 1. The end why God has given us His Word, written and preached, is not only to know it, but that we should meditate in it. Without meditation we never can be good Christians. The truths of God will not stay with us. Meditation imprints and fastens a truth in the mind. Without meditation the truths which we know will never affect our hearts. And we make ourselves guilty of slighting God and His Word. If a man lets a thine, lie by and never minds it, it is a sign he slights it. Answers to objections--1. I have so much business in the world that I have no time to meditate. The business of a Christian is meditation, just as the business of the husbandman is ploughing and sowing. 2. This duty of meditation is hard. The price that God hath set heaven is labour. We do not argue so in other things. Entering into meditation may be hard, but once entered it is sweet and pleasant. As to rules about meditation--Be very serious about the work. Read before you meditate. Do not multiply the subjects of meditation. To meditation join examination Shut up meditation with prayer, and pray over your meditations. Reduce it to practice. Live over your meditation. (T. Watson.) A man known by his delight And he seems to frame his process in this manner: a man is known what he is by his delight; for such as a man’ s delight is, such a man himself is; and therefore a godly man delights not to Walk in the counsel of the ungodly, nor to stand in the way of sinners, nor to sit in the chair of scorners, for these are all lawless delights--at least, delights of that law of which St. Paul saith, “ I find another law in my members” : they agree not with a godly man’ s nature, and though a delight there must be, there is not living without it; yet a godly man will rather want it than take it up in such commodities. The godly man begins to appear in his likeness; for this delighting in the law of God is so essential to godliness that it even constitutes a godly man and gives him his being. For what is godliness but the love of God? and what is love without delight? that we may see what a sovereign thing godliness is, which not only brings us delight when we come to blessedness, but brings us to blessedness by a way of delighting. For the Prophet requires not a godliness that bars us of delight; he requires only a godliness that rectifies our delight; for as the wrong placing our delight is the cause of all our miseries, so the right placing it is the cause of all our happiness; and what righter placing it than to place it in the right? and what is the right but only the law? But is there delight, then, in the law of God? Is it not a thing rather that will make us melancholy? and doth it not mortify in us the life of all joy? It mortifies indeed the life of carnal delights, but it quickens in us another delight, as much better than those as heaven is above the earth. For there is no true delight which delights not as much to be remembered as to be felt; which pleaseth not as well the memory as the sense; and takes not as much joy to think of it being done as when it was a-doing. For is it not a miserable delight when it may be threatened with this? You will one day remember this with pain. Is it not a doleful delight, when grief besets the borders of gladness--when sorrow follows it at the heels? Is it not a fearful delight when, like a magician’ s rod, it is instantly turned into a serpent? (Sir Richard Baker.) Delight in the Divine law And as in this study of the law of God there is no fear of melancholy, so in the delight that is taken in it there is no fear of satiety; all other delights must have change, or else they cloy us; must have cessation, or else they tire us; must have moderation, or else they waste us: this only delight is that of which we can never take enough--we can never be so full, but we shall leave with an appetite, or rather never leave, because ever in an appetite. It is but one, yet is still fresh; it is always enjoyed, yet always desired; or, rather, the more it is enjoyed, the more it is desired. All other delights may be barred from us, may be hindered to us; this only delight is free in prison, is at ease in torments, is alive in death; and indeed there is no delight that keeps us company in our death beds, but only this. All other delights are then ashamed of us, and we of them; this only sits by us in all extremities, and gives us a cordial when physic and friends forsake us. (Sir Richard Baker.) Delight in the law of God Many delight in the law, because it teacheth many hidden and secret mysteries; but these are vain men, and delight not in the law, but in superfluous knowledge. (Sir Richard Baker.) The law of God the chief joy of the believer And how, then, shall we come to know the delighting which is true and perfect from that which is counterfeit and defective? Shall we say, it must be a delighting only, or but only chiefly? Not only, for so we should delight in nothing else; and who doubts but there are many other delights which both Nature requires and God allows? therefore, not only, but chiefly; yet so chiefly as in a manner only; for chiefly is properly where there may be comparison; but this is so chiefly as admits of no comparison. In presence of this, all other delights do lose their light; in balance with this, all other delights are found to be light. (Sir Richard Baker.) A Constant delight in the Divine law For as it is but a dead faith that brings not forth the fruit of good works, so it is but a feigned delight that brings not forth the work of exercising; and as it is but an unsound faith that works but intermittingly and by fits, so it is but an aguish delighting that hath its heat but at turns and seasons; but where we see a constancy of good works, as we may be bold to say there is a lively and sound faith, so where we see a continual exercising, we may be confident to say there is a true delighting. The working shows a life of faith; the constancy of working, a true temper of that life. The exercising shows a delighting; the continuance of exercising, a sincerity of that delighting. (Sir Richard Baker.) Doing the Divine law Contemplation brings us but to, “ I see and approve the better” ; and if “ I pursue the worse” do follow, then godliness is stopped in her race at the very goal: the building is left unperfect when it is come to the roof. We cannot make a demonstration of true godliness out of all the premises, unless that be added which follows, “ And in His law he will exercise himself day and night” ; but if this be added, then the roof of the house is set on, and then the goal of godliness is won. And though it may seem a wearisome thing, summer and winter, day and night, all a man’ s life long, to do nothing else but always one thing, yet this is the godly man’ s task; he must do so, or he cannot be the man we take him for. For to be godly but sometimes is to be ungodly always; and no man is so wicked but he may sometimes have good thoughts, and do good works. But this serves not our godly man’ s turn; his sun must never set, for if he ever be in darkness he shall ever be in darkness; at least, he shall find it more work to kindle his fire anew than to have kept it still burning. Or if he should bestow the whole day in the exercise of godliness, and yet at night return to his vomit, that man would be but as a half-moon--bright on one side, and horrid blackness on the other. For godliness is a thing entire; it cannot be had in pieces. (Sir Richard Baker.) Doing the law day and night He will do it in the day, that men, seeing his good works, may glorify his Father which is in heaven; and he will do it in the night, that he may not be seen of men, and that his left hand may not know what his right hand doeth. He will do it in the day, to show he is none of those who shun the light; and he will do it in the night, to show that he is one of those who when in darkness shine. He will do it in the daytime, because, the day is the time of doing, as St. Peter [the Lord] saith, “ Work whilst it is day; and he will do it in the night, lest his Master should come as a thief in the night and find him idle. (Sir Richard Baker.) Meditation A fragment of spar at first seems lustreless and unattractive, but as you turn it in your hand and let the light strike it at a certain angle it reveals beautiful radiance and even prismatic colours. A fragment of Scripture which is comparatively lifeless to a superficial reader becomes to the real student a marvel of beauty. He turns it round, views it at every angle till he sees the light of God break through it, and it shines with the sevenfold beauty of the Divine attributes. The true beauty of Scripture does not lie on the surface, or reveal itself to the careless eye. As we reflect one truth is obvious. The principal lesson of the Bible is Christ. He is the light and lustre of each part. Faith cannot look but some new beauty of the Lord appears. (R. Venting.) Impressions fixed by meditation The photographer at the first has no security of the picture which he has taken. He cannot be said, in any true sense, to possess it. It is true, the impression is made upon the sensitive plate, but in its first condition, for all practical purposes, it is useless. The slightest exposure to the light would mar it hopelessly. It must be taken into the darkened room, and there, by being immersed in chemical solutions, it becomes fixed and assumes a permanent form. Just so is it with the thoughts which enter the mind. They are volatile and fugitive unless permanently fixed in the chambers of the mind by steadfast meditation. (Charles Deal.) Psalms 1:3 He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of waters. The tree similitude A beautiful illustration of the perpetual verdure and fruitfulness of the piety deriving its origin and sustenance from the Word of God. It is compared to a tree whose roots are refreshed by never-failing streams of living water, and whose every part is instinct with the life flowing from its roots. It is the same with the piety nourished by the Word of God. As the sap of the tree imparts life not only to its roots, and trunk, and larger branches, but also to the remotest twig and leaf, and to the very down upon the leaf, so the truly godly man’ s piety pervades his whole life, imparting its spirit and character and beauty to everything he does he is not a religious man in one or two departments of life, but he is a religious man everywhere. His religion is a mental habit--a habit of thought, of feeling, of purpose, of action, of which he never for a moment divests himself. He aims that not so much as a leaf on his tree of righteous living shall show signs of decay. The same spirit that actuates him in the largest, actuates him also in the least transaction of his life. His religion is not a thing that is put on,--it is the man himself--the man in the man. Consequently the storm that bows mock trees of righteousness to the earth, leaves him still standing; the drought that dries up their streams of life, leaves his still full, fresh, and flowing. Vigour, verdure, and fruitfulness are his evermore. His source of strength can never fail. It is the river of life flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb, reaching his soul through the law of the Lord, wherein is his delight and unceasing meditation. (David Caldwell, A. M.) Amongst the trees of the wood The blessed man is like a tree planted by the rivers of waters.1. Its blessedness does not depend upon its kind. It is not the cedar of Lebanon of which David is thinking, but any tree. It is not the tree, but the planting and the place, that constitute the blessedness. We need not think that we are the wrong sort. Two kinds of religious people in the world. There are those who always want to be somebody else: and there are those who want everybody else to be exactly what they themselves are. Now the woods need all the kinds of trees that God has made; and the world wants all the kinds of people that God has sent into it. Some people are perhaps very different from what God made them, but He wants us to be everyone after his kind. 2. We can none of us afford to make much of ourselves, but we can all of us afford to be ourselves. I am not much at the best; but I am best when I am myself. Now, timid soul, the heavenly Father has room for you. 3. Notice that the tree is planted. It did not plant itself. It surrendered itself wholly and utterly to the husbandman. He took it in hand and dealt with it, and that was the beginning of its prosperity. This utter and whole-hearted surrender of ourselves to the Lord is the first sign of the blessed life. The husbandman must have possession before he can do any planting. Planted, the tree begins to put forth at the one end the roots that go out and clasp the rocks, and at the other end the branches spread and leaves unfold, and it drinks in the rain and sunshine of heaven. It is the fair emblem of the man of God, rooted in obedience, rising to communion. There is the man of God; the law of his God is an authority supreme, that knows no argument, no exception, no choice. I must and I will grip the law of God. Here is stability, You know where to have that man. Right is might with him. But a tree is not all root. Here, laughing in the sunshine, sporting in the breeze, dripping with the shower, is the branch that pushes out over earth and up into heaven. The emblem of freedom. But the branch is always in proportion to the root. The obedience and the communion keep pace. 4. It is a tree planted by the rivers of water. There is not only a rock to hold on to, but there is the river to refresh it. Rock and river, river and rock, this is what the law of God becomes. They who do not know think of the law of God as the hard stern voice of thunder, with its “ Thou shalt.” But they who do know cry, “ Great peace have they that keep Thy law.” It is rivers of waters, sweet, refreshing, quickening. So, rooted in obedience and stretching up into communion, the blessed man comes to be like a tree; there is stability, and steadfastness. He knows whom he has believed, and is persuaded that that will hold though winds may blow and rains may heat. He bringeth forth his fruit in his season. He hath the real spirit for the hour; the very occasion seems to bring the grace he needs. (Mark Guy Pearse.) The supremely happy man We are here introduced to one who is said to be very happy. “ Oh, the happinesses of the man” would be a literal translation of the Psalmist’ s words; and the expression is one indicating fulness of happiness--more than ordinary joy. It is also to be noted that the happiness of the man is the first thing to which the inspired writer refers, and that circumstance is indicative of the truth stated, that man’ s happiness is so great and so excellent that it must have the first place. The springs of joy from which he drinks are sweeter far than the sweetest of those from which others drink. The flowers in his garden have a loveliness and fragrance the flowers in other gardens never have. The paths of other men may seem brighter and smoother, but this is only in appearance. Every difficulty overcome is a victory won, and adds to his happiness. In what does this man’ s happiness consist? To know the various elements of his blessedness we must study the picture--carefully note its several distinctive points. I. Our attention is directed to the fact that the tree is one carefully “ planted.” The word used by the Psalmist is not the ordinary term meaning to sow or plant, but the poetical and much rarer word. The same is found in Psalms 92:13 --“ Those that be planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God.” The trees planted within the temple enclosures would be planted with skill and care. This tree also is planted in a choice spot, and would therefore be planted well. It has sprung from no stray seed which the wind may have wafted hither, or some bird carried and dropped where grows the tree. And such is true of the man who is really happy and most happy. He is a tree “ of the Lord’ s right hand planting.” He is the offspring of wisdom that is perfect and care that is infinite. And this fact constitutes part of his joy. II. The situation of the tree must have our attention. The tree grows not on some barren waste, but “ upon the rivers of water.” By these rivers I understand the multitudinous and various overflowings of the Divine grace--the rivers of pardon, peace, comfort, teaching, sanctification, etc.1. The plural term indicates also fulness as well as variety of blessing in constant circulation round about the roots of the Christian’ s life. 2. There is also in it the promise of continuance. If one stream dries up there are other streams to draw from. 3. Another thought is expressed, namely, freshness. “ The rivers” are running streams. Here there is another element of the good man’ s happiness. He is felicitously situated. III. The fruitfulness of the tree must next be considered. As might be expected, the tree bears fruit. By this we are to understand the man’ s habit of doing good. The pronouns are to be noted.1. It is not said he brings forth fruit, but “ his fruit.” Christian activity takes many forms, and a man will do most good and do it best who is no servile imitator of another, but who works in his own groove, and in the way most natural to himself. And there is a beauty and gracefulness about work done after this manner that always adds to its value. The tree brings forth his own fruit, and the happy Christian does his own work. The Master gives to everyone his work. 2. Again, the tree brings forth his fruit in his season. Seasonableness is itself a virtue. Work done opportunely is the only work done rightly. Here we touch a leading difficulty in some earnest lives. The question as to when this should be done, and when that, is the perplexing point. He is therefore a man led of God’ s Spirit, and this leading saves him from the painful perplexity of not knowing what he should first do and what next. By this means his work is simplified. His duties come to him in natural order--one at a time. God shows him not only what he must do, but how, and when. Here is another clement of happiness. A fruitful life is a happy one. IV. From looking at the fruit of the tree we turn to its foliage. This is beautiful, and always so. “ His leaf also shall not wither.” Now if by the fruit we understand a man’ s works, by the “ leaf” it will be natural to regard his words. What a man does and says constitutes his character. Works have a great importance, but so also have words. “ By thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.” “ His leaf shall not wither” --his words shall not die. “ He being dead, yet speaketh.” Another element of happiness in the good man. The words of his mouth shall be established, and their influence shall be felt forever. The tongue is a little member, but how great is the happiness it may secure for the good man who uses it aright. And in making others happy one makes himself most happy. “ And all that he does shall prosper.” Here the works and words are interwoven. It is when the two do interweave and harmonise that there is prosperity. Note, it is not all he attempts or carries forward so far and there stops that shall prosper, but “ all that he doeth.” And this is happiness supreme--doing good--by work or word--crowned with prosperity. (Adam Scott.) Aspects of a godly life Three aspects of godly character. I. Its variety. The figure leaves room for the development of varieties of goodness. True godliness does not reduce men to a dead level. The variety which God stamps upon nature He means to have reproduced in character. It is often supposed that, by becoming a servant of God, a man loses all his distinctiveness, sacrifices many of his peculiar modes of power, and shuts himself up to a comparatively narrow range of activity; whereas the truth is, that no man ever finds out the variety of uses to which the human talent and power can be put until he begins to work under God’ s direction. II. Its Divine culture. The godly man is not like a tree that grows wild. He is like a tree planted, and that in a place which will best promote its growth. Godly character is developed under God’ s special supervision, and with God’ s own appliances. Has God no other means of revealing His will but through a burning bush or a stunning shock? His modes of revelation are as many as the characters and circumstances of men, and as varied; and He does not mean that His lowliest servant shall work under the shadow of a doubt, whether he is in his place or not. He may make circumstances, or conscientious judgment, or special dispensations His messengers, but whatever be the messenger, the message shall be clear to the open eye and the obedient spirit--“ I have planted you.” And if a man is working and growing where God sets him, he is always within reach of the means necessary for his growth and fruitfulness. He is always planted by rivers of water. Men find these channels in the most unlikely places, in the most unpromising parts of God’ s garden. In their very work they find something to engage their energy, quicken their enthusiasm, and develop their power. This is a mystery to men of the world. They look at the places in which some of God’ s servants are planted, and say it is Impossible they should bear fruit there. Circumstances are all against them. There are no capabilities in the place. And yet, amid sickness, bereavement, scant opportunities, hatred, scorn, they not only live, but grow, and have something to spare for other lives; yea, minister to them most richly and effectively. What is more, they themselves are cheerful and strong, and grow in sweetness no less than in power. III. Its fruitfulness. God’ s tree by God’ s river must be a fruitful tree. Note1. It is “ His fruit,” not any other tree’ s fruit. God gives the tree its nature, and plants it where it can best develop its nature, and looks for fruit according to its nature and place. You are not to waste time in admiring or envying other men’ s modes of power, but to give your whole energy to the development of your own mode of power. And if your best is only a single fruit you can say, God planted me that I might do that one thing. 2. The words “ in his season.” The seasons are different for different fruits. Some are early, some are late. Moral growths do not all fructify at the same time or rate. The latest fruit is usually the best. But, early or late, the fruit of godly character is seasonable. It will be found that God nourishes His men as He does the fruits of the earth, to meet the demands of special seasons; and that in each individual character Divine graces fructify as the occasion demands: courage for seasons of danger, patience for seasons of suffering, strength for seasons of trial, wisdom for seasons of difficulty; ill short, the beautiful fitness of godliness is no less remarkable than its fruitfulness. “ Shall prosper.” This suggests the standard of prosperity. It must be measured by God’ s rule, not man’ s. I stood last summer in a magnificent hothouse, where the luscious clusters of grapes were all around and above, and the owner said, “ When my new gardener came he said he would have nothing to do with these vines unless he could cut them clear down to the stock; and he did, and we had no grapes for two years: but this is the result.” It did not look much like fruit when the stock stood bare, and the floor was heaped with cuttings; but the gardener looked over the two years, and saw what we were seeing and tasting. (M. R. Vincent, D. D.) A tree sermon to children Six characteristics of trees.1. Contentment. I never heard of a tree complaining. They are perfectly contented with their lot. Did you ever hear of a maple wishing it were an oak? They have not so much to make them contented as we have. The Christ-Spirit in us will make us happy and contented. 2. Health. How many of you have seen an unhealthy tree? The perfect boy or girl is the one who, like the tree, is healthy. We should attend to these bodies of ours. We should be careful to eat and drink those things which will give us sound bodies. We need to keep our minds, bodies, and souls healthy. 3. Roots. A great part of a tree is underground. Two reasons for this--to hold the tree in its place, and to nourish the tree. A perfect man, a perfect woman, boy, or girl is one who is well-rooted. Among the roots which hold us stable and keep us from falling are-- (1) Good habits formed early in life;(2) good companions;(3) good books. 4. Importance. Trees are used in building, furniture, ships, and as medicine. Their fruit is important. The perfect man is important to society, to home, to national life. What should we do without the ideal man and woman? 5. Symmetry. The word means “ perfectly balanced in all its parts.” Some trees have perfect proportions. There are men who have only attended to physical development; others only to intellectual development. The symmetrical man is one who has attended to the development of the mind, body, and spirit. 6. Trial. A mighty oak is perfect, because it has been tried. Tempests have swept over it, but still it stands. The perfect man, woman, boy, or girl is the one who, when tempted and tried, comes off the victor. Tried, weighed, and not found wanting, Tried and found to be sound. (Frank S. Rowland.) A sermon on trees (to children):--1. One of the most wonderful things about the trees is the way in which they breathe. Does it make you smile to think of a tree breathing? Do you say, “ Well, I never thought of that before! I didn’ t know a tree could breathe.” But they do, if it does surprise you, and they could no more live without breathing than could you or I. If it was not for the trees and other plants breathing the air would soon become filled with poisonous gas which would make everyone sick, and soon cause us all to die. On the under side of every leaf of every tree, or shrub, or other plant there are thousands of little breathing holes or mouths. There are some also on the upper surface of the leaf. These are small openings through the outer skin of the leaf into the air chambers within, making a direct communication between the whole interior of the leaf and the air outside. You cannot see these little mouths with the naked eye. You have to use a microscope or magnifying glass, and then you can see them. The famous botanist, Professor Asa Gray, tells us that in the white lily, when they are unusually large, there are about sixty thousand of them to the square inch on the lower surface of the leaf, and about three thousand in the same space of the upper surface; and that in the apple tree, where they are under the average as to number, there are about twenty-four thousand to the square inch of the lower surface; so that each leaf has not far from one hundred thousand of these mouths. The trees are made by God to take out of the air a gas which would kill us all in a very little while if it u ere allowed to remain; and having taken it into their trunks they split it up into two parts, oxygen and carbon, and give us back the former that we may breathe it and live; while the latter they make into charcoal, which is used in a thousand ways for our comfort, convenience, and health. So kind is God in making all things work together for good unto us whom He so dearly loves.2. Another great use of the trees is, as we all know, to furnish food for man. Just think of all the things we get from them, and from other plants! Not only delicious oranges, and apples, and pears, and peaches, and all other nice fruits; but also starch, sugar, spices, oil, tea., coffee, flour, and grain. All these things are prepared by the plants out of the elements which they take in from the earth and air. They have been so made by God that they have the power to produce subtle chemical changes in these unpalatable materials, which they thus transform into delicious food for man. Says the same botanist above quoted, “ Animals depend absolutely upon vegetables for their being.” The great object for which the all-wise Creator established the vegetable kingdom evidently is, that the plant might stand on the surface of the earth, between the animal and mineral creations, and organise portions of the former for the sustenance of the latter. We must indeed see the goodness and the love of God in the goodly fruits of the trees. 3. Another very interesting branch of our subject is in regard to the habits or instincts of the trees. Wherever a tree may be growing, if there is a stream or pool of water anywhere near it, or a damp piece of ground, it will always push its roots eagerly toward that. It wants the hydrogen and oxygen which the water can furnish, and it will have them if it can possibly get them. In other words, it is thirsty, just as we are thirsty, and it eagerly seeks for water to drink. For example, I have read. (Horace Bushnell’ s lecture on Life) of a man named Madison, who had an aqueduct--that is, a sort of trough made of logs--which in reaching his house passed by a tree which was especially fond of water, at a considerable distance from it. Opposite to where the tree stood there was an auger hole in the log that had been filled with a plug of soft wood. Exactly to that spot the tree sent off a long stretch of roots, which forced their way through this soft wood plug, choking up the passage; “ and there,” says the account, “ they were found drinking, like so many thirsty animals.” The same writer who tells this incident, says “ that a strawberry planted in sand, with good earth a little way off, will turn its runners all toward that. But if the good earth is too far away to be reached, it will make no effort on that side more than on the others.” You can try this experiment if you want to, and see if it is not so. 4. Then it is wonderful to see a tree exerting its mighty strength. For in every tree in your garden at home, and in everyone that you can see from these windows, and in all the trees of the forests and on the hills, there is a life principle, the strength of which is as great as, or greater than, that of the largest steam engine you ever saw. Why, in the commonest garden vegetable there is a force capable of lifting an enormous weight. And if you go down here on the road a little way, some time, you can see a huge rock that has been broken right in two by the strength of a little tree not much larger round than my arm. Some time, years ago, a little cone lodged in the crevice of that rock, and pretty soon the rains and the warm sun caused one of the little seeds in the cone to germinate and grow. A little root ran out and down into the crevice, and began growing. Soon it had got as large as the crevice, and touched the hard rock on each side. And no doubt the grim old rock would have laughed, if rocks could laugh, and would have said to the tiny little pine tree, “ You insignificant little sprout, you can’ t grow here, for I won’ t let you, so you may as well not try.” But the little tree kept growing, and pretty soon began to press hard on the sides of the crevice; harder” and harder it pushed, and twisted round to get a good hold, filling up the whole space with its insinuating roots. And the rock hung together, and braced itself, and tried its best not to give way. But at last one dark night crack it went, and broke in two right in the middle. And all because of the little tree, which it had thought so weak and small. A tree has in it this wonderful power of growth and enlargement. It is always growing, running up taller and taller, and getting larger and larger every year. And if it is broken by storms or felled to the ground it often reconstructs its building, and rears itself again with all its wonderful ducts, and tissues, and breathing pores, like to the pattern which it bore before. And all the trees, so many kinds of which we can see around us in the forests, though they have different forms and characteristics, and are put to different uses, still contribute, each its share, to fulfilling the plans and perfecting the work which God gave them to do upon the earth. There is no confusion. Each has its law within itself, and fills the sphere which God intended it to fill. (F. H. Palmer.) The fruit tree and the chaff The 1st Psalm strikes the keynote of those statutes of God which are the songs of His people in their pilgrimage. Like an illuminated initial letter, it presents a graphic picture of the contrast between the blessedness of the righteous and the misery of the wicked under the emblems of a fruit tree flourishing beside a river and of a handful of chaff winnowed by the wind. Let us look at the picture presented. I. The fruit tree. This suggests--1. Stability. It is firmly rooted in the soil. Thus it tells of the stability of the righteous. 2. Access to a perennial mine of nourishment and refreshment: “ by the rivers of waters.” A river in the East is an artery of life. A tree, therefore, with its head in the torrid sunshine, and its feet laved by a perpetual stream flowing down from some far-up snowy mountain, is one of the most beautiful images of a righteous man. 3. It yields its fruit in its season. Fruit is that part of the tree which belongs not to the individual, but to the race. In the fruit the tree sacrifices its own life for the life that is to spring from it; converts branch and foliage that would have remained and ministered to its own beauty, into blossom and fruit that fall off and minister to the good of others. In no case does the fruit benefit the tree, but, on the contrary, burdens and exhausts it, as is clearly proved by the shorter lives of fruit than of other trees. So the distinguishing peculiarity of the righteous is self-sacrifice. They have truly learned that first lesson of the Cross of Christ. They, as He, come not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give their life for others. 4. Its leaf shall not wither. This is a remarkable feature. It is the old idea of the bush burning and not consumed. In nature it is only through the fading of the leaf that the fruit ripens. The yellowing autumnal foliage accompanies the development of the fruit. By the leaf the tree breathes and forms its wood from air and sunshine. It is its strength, yea is itself; for the whole tree is simply a modification and development of the leaf, as it is most certainly the creation of the leaf. The leaf, therefore, represents the righteous man’ s life. Not only does he do good to others, but he gets good to himself. Godliness is to a man’ s nature what sunlight is to a plant. It imparts living greenness and fadeless vigour. II. The chaff. This is a complete contrast.1. Chaff is a dead leaf that was once green and flourishing and full of sap and life. It once performed an important part in the growth of the plant. But now it is effete and has no vital connection with the plant. How worthless does a human being become who has lost his true life by sin. 2. It is driven away. It has fallen from the higher powers of the organic world and it comes under the power of the inorganic. And so with the ungodly man. That which separated him from the mass of creation--the Divine image--he has lost. But losing this he becomes a mere part of the creation, instead of having personal relations with the personal God. The ungodly have no individuality; they live, move, and act in the mass. The statistics of wrong-doing illustrate this. You can calculate the average of crimes; the number of paupers, suicides, and criminals there will be. The evil passions of men may be known as we know the coming of an eclipse. And thus the awful lesson is read to us that individuals when they have sold themselves to sin and so lose the spiritual life that bound them to God come to be controlled, notwithstanding all their waywardness, by laws which apply to mere things in which there is no power to resist. They pass beyond the sphere of the grace of God into the passive realms of matter. 3. All things become hostile to it. What ministers life to the living tree ministers more rapid decay to the chaff. Which are we? (H. Macmillan, D. D.) A tree by the river It is deeply interesting, in counting the circles of a section of some old tree, to note the variations, some circles being almost imperceptible for narrowness, and some so broad that you fear almost to have counted two as one. As you count the outer circles, your memory, reaching back to those years, can show a cause for this difference. The years of drought are the years of little growth. For the tree, as for our spirits, it holds true that a man can receive nothing except it be given him from heaven. There are surely seasons when one can make little increase save under exceptional circumstances, such as those of a tree by the river side, which shows little variation. It drew supplies from an abiding source. Precisely this sweet secret it is that finds expression in the 1st Psalm, “ He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water.” They who live near the Lord, who delight themselves in His law and meditate on it day and night, are ever growing and fruitful. (Sarah Smiley.) The oleander There is one tree, only to be found in the valley of the Jordan, but too beautiful to be entirely passed over; the oleander, with its bright blossoms and dark green leaves, giving the aspect of a rich garden to any spot where it grows. It is rarely, if ever, alluded to in the Scriptures. But it may be the tree planted by the streams of water which bringeth forth his fruit in due season, and “ whose leaf shall not wither.” (A. P. Stanley, D. D.) A believer like a tree Dr. John Paton, speaking of Namakei, his first convert on the island of Aniwa, says, “ He went in and out the meeting with intense joy. When he heard of the prosperity of the Lord’ s work, and how island after island was learning to sing the praise of Jesus, his heart glowed, and he said, ‘ Missi, I am lifting up my head like a tree; I am growing tall with joy.’” Constancy in religion I have read of a waterfall in a nobleman’ s garden, beautiful in its construction, but the water was never turned on unless his lordship was there. That is like much of the religion existing in the present age. It is only turned on when there is someone to see and applaud. Our service must not be kept for mere effect and display. (R. Venting.) That bringeth forth his fruit in his season.--Christian development This reference to the tree as the image of the good man’ s life, this garden which is thus summoned up before our minds, harmonises with almost all the early, and certainly with the closing, scenes in our Bibles. It is significant that the image which is chosen is not a tree of the forest, but a tree specifically planted by the water side. The image of the tree of nature--of the tree in its wild untended state--has been freely used by a school of thinkers as against any doctrine of human education whatever. But vegetable life may, under certain circumstances, gain very considerably by cultivation. Cultivation develops latent properties, latent powers. It prevents a waste of life, it economises time in growth. Man is not a tree, but he is like a tree. He has qualities and characteristics peculiar to himself. He has intelligence, and no doctrine of human improvement would be complete which did not provide for the development of his understanding. He is morally free, he is social; in these things there must be development. He is depraved, and if a man is left to himself he will grow in his depravity. Therefore man must be checked, reproved, chastised. There are points of similarity between human nature and vegetable growth. I. Each is gradual The growth of the spiritual life is in the nature of the case slow, because it consists chiefly in the formation of habits of faith, hope, love, prayer, inward conformity of the soul to the will of Almighty God. II. Each is mysterious. We cannot understand the mysterious processes which pass within the soul; we can only see the outer life, the words and the actions, which are the products of the feelings engendered by grace. As a tree requires soil, sunlight, moisture, and space for its proper growth, so the human soul requires certain ascertainable conditions, without which growth and development are impossible. I will mention three.1. The life of the soul should be based upon principles. They are the soil of the soul. Sentiments, opinions, and views belong to quite a different strata of mental life from the possession of principles. Principles--what are they? They are the basis of truth on which the understanding must lean if man is to rise to the destined tether of his greatness. The understanding is the basis faculty of the character, but the understanding itself must rest on something. And what is it to rest on if not on sound principles? This is true in science, in art, in speculation, and in religion. Some principles are natural. Seeing the difference between right and wrong; recognising the eternal law of justice and righteousness, these are natural principles. Some belong to grace, they are revealed, such as that Jesus is God equal to the Father, and that Jesus is our Judge. Sooner or later a principle brings forth its fruit in due season. But you may have long to wait for it. III. Christianity must expand. It must expand by love. The heart is the centre of life. The heart may be corrupted through being fixed on false objects, or it may be closeted up. Either of them is a misfortune so great that we can scarcely think less of it than that it is very ruining to character. Ascertain the object on which the heart is fixed and you have ascertained the direction in which moral and spiritual life is moving. One condition of the development of the soul is the discipline of the will. The will is the summit of the character, just as the heart is at its centre, just as the understanding is at its base. (Canon Liddon, D. D.) Fruit in his season Solomon uttered an axiom when he said, “ To everything there is a season.” The truth is applicable to all God does. As in creation its mode and time were not anyhow but appointed. And what is true on the larger scale is also true on the smaller. And to every individual. Your birth and death are appointed by God. To you there is a season. I. There is fruit appropriate to each season. This not only in the physical world but in the moral.1. Childhood has its fruits. Like the holy child Jesus you are to bear fruit by loving, trusting, and imitating Him. In your baptism you have been given to Christ and are His. He expects you to bear fruit. 2. Youth has its fruit. St. John speaks of “ little children, young men, fathers.” You occupy the middle position. “ I have written to you,” says the apostle. Young men and maidens, be sober minded and strong minded too. 3. Old age has its fruits. When the spring is gone, the summer vanished, how varied and multiplied the fruit of autumn. And there are fruits not only of season, but 4. Of time. Our Sabbaths, for example, and working days and days of relaxation also should have their fruit. And there are-- 5. Moral seasons. Conviction--how important this is. It is a solemn season when God comes near the soul. And the time of spiritual quickening when the soul longs for more of God. Seasons of sorrow, of joy, and of temptation, these all have their appropriate fruit. II. It is most important that the fruit appropriate should be borne in its season. For then it is best.1. Your lifetime--if it bear not its fruit it will never bear it at all. How are you spending it? 2. Religious impression--if that pass away, “ a more convenient season” you will never have. III. For this suitable means must be employed. It is the result of previously fulfilled conditions.1. Separation from the ungodly is one of them. 2. Meditation on God’ s Word. 3. Hidden supplies of God’ s grace, like the water at the roots of the tree. They flow along the channels of Divine ordinances, prayers, worship, sacraments. So will you bear fruit. (Josiah Viney.) The timeliness of fruitage A very practical lesson arises from these words. We are not to look even in Christian life for what is ordinarily understood by “ fruit” all the year round. Upon this point many Christians disquiet themselves unnecessarily. There is a time for rest, for recruital, and time spent in legitimate sleep is time made for larger and harder work. Let the tree be the symbol and image of our life. It has its season of fruitfulness, but not of fruitlessness in any blameworthy sense. The tree is part of the great course of things--a speck in an infinite system, and it keeps all the time and law of the stupendous universe. So it is with the Christian heart. There are times of abundant labour, of almost excessive joy, of hope above the brightness of the sun, and of realisations which transform the earth into heaven. There are times when our energy seems to be more than equal to all the exigencies of life; we can work without weariness, we can suffer without complaining; we are quite sure that the morning draweth nigh, and that in the end the victory will he with God. At other times there are seasons of depression, almost intolerable weariness, somewhat indeed of sickness of heart, as if a great pain had fixed itself within us; at other times we know that we are not bringing forth fruit to the glory of God or for the use of man, and in such times we call ourselves cumberers of the ground, and urge our idleness against ourselves with all the force of a criminal accusation. The Christian should deal with himself reasonably in all these things. The year is not one season, nor is human life one monotonous experience. We are not to be judged by this or that one day or season, but by the whole scope and circumference of life. (Joseph Parker, D. D.) Whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. The influence of religion upon prosperity 1. Piety and gratitude to God contribute in a high degree to enliven prosperity. Gratitude is a pleasing emotion. The sense of being distinguished by the kindness of another gladdens the heart, warms it with reciprocal affection, and gives to any possession, which is agreeable in itself, a double relish, from its being the gift of a friend. Not only gratitude for the past, but a cheering sense of God’ s favour at the present, enter into the pious emotion. 2. Religion affords to good men peculiar security in the enjoyment of their prosperity. By worldly assistance it is vain to think of providing any effectual defence, seeing the world’ s mutability is the very cause of our terror. 3. Religion forms good men to the most proper ,temper for the enjoyment of prosperity. A little reflection may satisfy us that mere possession, even granting it to be secure, does not constitute enjoyment. We all know the effects which any indisposition of the body, even though slight, produces on external prosperity. The corrupted temper and the guilty passions of the bad frustrate the effect of every advantage which the world confers on them. None but the temperate, the regular, and the virtuous know how to enjoy prosperity. Prosperity is redoubled to a good man by his generous use of it. It is reflected back upon him from everyone whom he makes happy. 4. Religion heightens the prosperity of good men by the prospect which it affords them of greater happiness to come in another world. What is present is never sufficient to give us full satisfaction. To the present we must always join some agreeable anticipations of futurity in order to complete our pleasure. Let this be our conclusion, that, both in prosperity and in adversity, religion is the safest guide of human life. Conducted by its light, we real) the pleasures and, at the same time, escape the dangers of a prosperous state. (Hugh Blair, D. D.) The song of the prosperous life I. The prosperous life is a life made prosperous by refusal.1. The man will refuse to think wrongly. Counsel--that is, the thought or creed of the ungodly. Non-use of thought in certain directions results in inability of thought toward those directions. Mr. Darwin confessed himself “ atrophied” toward music, painting, poetry, etc., through the so constant using of himself in ways simply scientific this atrophy of thought is just as possible in religious directions. A man who “ will not” take counsel toward God “ cannot” at last. The man of the really prosperous life will not walk in such counsel of the ungodly; he will think toward God. 2. He will refuse to practise wrongly, “ way of sinners.” At the battle of Ahna, in the Crimean War, one of the ensigns stood his ground when the regiment retreated. The captain shouted to him to bring back the colours; but the ensign replied, “ Bring the men up to the colours.” So this man of the prosperous life will maintain high and brave practice of the right, whoever may retreat from it. 3. Will refuse to speak wrongly, “ seat of the scornful.” Into their sort of speech he will not enter. II. By reception.1. He will receive all ennobling and uplifting objects of affection; but his delight is in the “ law of the Lord.” The controlling thing in a man is his topmost love. 2. This man loves to think of what he loves. “ Meditate day and night.” “ Hang this upon the wall of your room,” said a wise picture dealer to an Oxford undergraduate, as he handed him the engraving of a Madonna of Raphael, “ and then all the pictures of jockeys and ballet girls will disappear.” III. Results. Noble growth. Propitious placing. Sustenance. Fruitfulness. Beauty of character. Real prosperity. (Wayland Hoyt, D. D.) Psalms 1:4 The ungodly are not so, but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away.The chaff driven away Who are the ungodly? Are they open and wilful sinners? Certainly these are included, but not mainly intended. Are they the atheists, scoffers, and those who make a ribald jest of all sacred things? Yes, but not they alone. For the godly man is he who has a constant eye to God, recognises Him in all things, trusts Him, loves and serves Him. The ungodly man is he who lives in the world as if there were no God; he may be religious, but that is not enough. He attends to outward forms, but the heart of them he does not perceive. How many there are in all our congregations, therefore, who are ungodly. They do not love the Lord, or delight in communion with Him, or desire to be like Him. They are ungodly. Now concerning all such, the text utters-- I. A fearful negative. “ The ungodly are not so.” For1. They are not “ like a tree planted.” The Christian is so. The tree planted is visited and in every way cared for by the husbandman. But the wild tree in the forest, the tree self-sown upon the plain, no one owns, no one watches over it. 2. Not like a tree planted by the rivers of waters. The believer is. He is planted not by banks which may soon dry up, far less in a desert; but by the rivers of waters. And is it not so? We know what it is to drink of the rivers of Christ’ s fulness. But “ not so the ungodly.” Days of drought will come for them. 3. Does not bring forth his fruit in his season. The righteous does so. If the ungodly have here and there a shrivelled grape it is brought forth in the wrong season. Many think that so long as they don’ t do wrong it is as if they did right. But mere negative goodness will not suffice. The curse on Meroz was for not coming to the help of the Lord. They did not oppress, only did not help. 4. His leaf also shall not wither. Not so the ungodly. And 5. Whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. Yes, though the righteous may suffer much earthly loss. They have an inward prosperity even when the outward one is wanting. No so the ungodly. Is he really happy now? To him there is nothing good in this life. That which looketh fair is but as the paint upon the harlot’ s face. II. A terrible comparison. “ Like the chaff” --so useless, so light and unstable, so worthless. III. An awful prophecy. How near the chaff is to the grain. As yon godless parent of a Christian child. As yon helpers in various forms of Christian work; sitting side by side with the godly. Close to the grain, and yet only chaff. And to be driven away--Where, where? Jesus Christ has said, “ He shall burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” Who here is prepared to make his bed in hell? I beseech you by the living God, tremble and repent. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The gate to the threshing floor “ Not so!” The Psalmist does not dwell upon the details of their ungodliness. As in the case of the righteous, he confines himself to indicating the sources of their life. The great object of this Psalm is to show us the “ fountain heads” of moral character. The character that is “ not so” is set forth by a figure. We leave now the garden gate, and not far off behold a raised platform of earth beaten hard. It is the threshing floor. Here stand the workmen with their earthen vessels, and scooping up the threshed grain, mingled with chaff, throw it up into the air, or let it fall in a stream from the uplifted jar; and the wind, with its whirling gusts, which arise so suddenly on the plains, catches the chaff and drives it away before it. “ The ungodly are like the chaff” --light, shifting, worthless Here three aspects of the ungodly character--its instability; its worthlessness; its insecurity. One of the happiest phases of goodness is its fixedness. A life rooted in God, based on settled conviction, has a single aim, a uniform tendency, and a permanent result. In these particulars the opposite character tails. Take a life away from God, and you take from it unity of impulse. Passion, pride, selfishness drive it hither and thither as the winds drive the dismantled ship. Nowhere but in God does man find a consistent law. The second phase of this character is its worthlessness. The wind drives it away, and the husbandman is glad to have it driven away. Here we find ourselves in the track of gospel thought. An ungodly life is not used under God’ s direction and for God’ s uses. The present age is very susceptible to this fallacy--the identification of activity with usefulness. But we ask, under whose direction? For what? For whom? We call that man useful who works on God’ s lines, in God’ s ways, and for God’ s ends. It is the unchanging law of God, that the life which gives nothing has no place in His Divine order. The chaff, which only lives by the grain, which feeds no one, which has no power of reproduction, is driven away. The third phase of this character is its insecurity. The contrast is between the fixed tree and the shifting chaff: How safe is the man who abides in God, while he who puts himself outside of the restraints of Divine law forfeits likewise its protection. The weakness and instability of the character which is not founded in God’ s law shall finally be made manifest. The whole current of the Psalms moves in the direction of a day of final tests which shall lay bare the foundations of character. It is only in romances that virtue always triumphs and vice always goes under. But our Psalm does not leave us here. It carries us over this time of the growing together of wheat and tares, to the time of separation. There is coming a day of judgment, whose searching tests shall resolve the confusion, and make clearly manifest to the world what is weak and what is strong; what is solid and what is superficial; what is wheat and what is chaff. (Marvin R. Vincent, D. D.) The chaff in the wind My heart aches when I begin a sermon on a theme like this. But what makes my heart ache is that a man or a woman born so high should sink so low. That one who had the possibility of being the good grain in God’ s field, that might have been useful and happy, should have so resisted the gracious influence of God’ s husbandry as at last to have become of no value, and only to be compared to the chaff which the wind driveth away. Importance hinges on the word “ ungodly.” Who are the ungodly? I do not understand that it means, necessarily, that a man is outbreakingly and viciously wicked. The ungodly man or woman is simply a person who does not live in the way that God demands; one whose thoughts and purposes and conduct are not in harmony with God’ s laws; who does not please God. What a graphic suggestion is here of the vanity of a sinful life! The man who loves and serves God is building up a character which is abiding like a great tree. He is gathering many treasures of character and personality that can never be taken from him. Truth, and integrity, and love and faith, and hope, and patience, and gentleness, these great spiritual qualities in which God develops the Christian, are qualities that cannot be taken away from us by any disaster that can come. Money, and honour, and friends, and health, and life itself may go, and all these qualities remain in their full measure; but a sinful life, a life that resists God’ s grace, has nothing left that is substantial. If a man gives himself up to worldliness he may be ever so successful in his ambitions, but there is nothing about it that will last. A rich man goes out of the world as poor as when he came into it. His wealth fails, and is like the chaff which the wind driveth away Physical strength is fragile in the same way; often a man rejoices in his strength one week and the next he is in his grave. But if he lives to be an old man, with trembling hands and tottering footsteps, his physical strength fails him at last and is like the chaff in the wind. The same is true of physical beauty and all the attractiveness of physical life. Many people who do not obey God are nevertheless very ambitious to make themselves of some account in the world; but one’ s work must be like the chaff if it is not in harmony with God. God could not be the good God that you dream of if He did not make a difference between chaff and wheat. It is not that God is not good, but that the ungodly man has failed to avail himself of God’ s goodness, has sinned against God’ s goodness and mercy, and has brought ruin upon himself. You say that the chaff cannot help being chaff; yes, but the man can. You will not be chaff unless you choose to be chaff. God did not make you to be chaff; He made you ill His own likeness and image, and when you had wandered from Him by wicked ways Jesus Christ wrought out your salvation on the Cross. (L. A. Banks, D. D.) The fruitless life The second half of the Psalm gives the dark contrast of the fruitless, rootless life. The Hebrew flashes the whole dread antithesis on the view at once by its first word, “ Not so,” a universal negative which reverses every part of the preceding picture. The remainder of the Psalm has three thoughts--the real nullity of such lives, their consequent disappearance in “ the judgment,” and the ground of both the blessedness of the one type of character and the vanishing of the other in the diverse attitude of God to each. Nothing could more vividly suggest the essential nothingness of the “ wicked” than the contrast of the leafy beauty of the fruit laden tree, and the chaff, rootless, fruitless, lifeless, light, and therefore the sport of every puff of wind that blows across the elevated and open threshing floor. Such is indeed a true picture of every life not rooted in God and drawing fertility from Him. It is rootless, for what holdfast is there but in Him? or where shall the heart twine its tendrils if not round God’ s stable throne? or what basis do fleeting objects supply for him who builds elsewhere than on the enduring Rock? Chaff is fruitless because lifeless. Its disappearance in the winnowing wind is the consequence and manifestation of its essential nullity. Just as the winnower throws up his shovelful into the breeze, and the chaff goes fluttering out of the floor because it is light, while the wheat falls on the heap because it is solid, so the wind of judgment will one day blow, and deal with each man according to his own nature. It will separate them, whirling away the one and not the other. The ground of these diverse fates is the different attitude of God to each life. Each clause of the last verse really involves two ideas, but the pregnant brevity of style states only half of the antithesis in each, suppressing the second member in the first clause, and the first member in the second clause, and so making the contrast the more striking by emphasising the cause of an unspoken consequence in the former, and the opposite consequence of an unspoken cause in the latter. “ The Lord knoweth the way of the righteous” (therefore it shall last). The Lord knoweth not the way of the wicked (therefore it shall perish). The way or course of life which God does not know perishes. A path perishes when, like some dim forest track, it dies out, leaving the traveller bewildered amid impenetrable forests; or when, like some treacherous Alpine track among rotten rocks, it crumbles beneath the tread. Every course of life but that of the man who delights in and keeps the law of the Lord comes to a fatal end, and leads to the brink of a precipice over which the impetus of descent carries the reluctant foot. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) The wicked compared to chaff Natural chaff is light and unprofitable. It is light, containing in it no solid or weighty matter, but a very slight and frothy substance subject to many alterations; even so the wicked are not solid in their purposes and enterprises, and weighty in then carnage and courses, but as chaff, light, easily tossed and blown away. They are light in their words and light in their minds. They are unprofitable ill two ways. In matters temporal, concerning this life, wherein, though they have ability, they want the will to do good with the same. In matters spiritual, wherein, though they have a will, yet they want ability. In that the Spirit of God compares all wicked men to chaff, we learn that the estate and condition of wicked men is exceedingly inconstant, void, uncertain, mutable, and changeable. They have no certain stay, no sure and settled estate in this world. Whether we consider the matters of religion and God’ s worship, or the things of the world, we shall see them like unto chaff--vain, vile, uncertain, mutable. (Samuel Smith.) The ungodly described Where, first, we may observe that the prophet observes here a different course in handling of this proposition from that he held ill handling the former; for there he only described a godly man, but named him not; here, he only names the wicked, but describes them not; and, indeed, it needed not, for Rectum est index sui et obliqui [Justice defines both the just and the unjust]; by telling what a godly man is he tells, by virtue of the law of contraries, what the wicked are, for it that be affirmed of a wicked man which was denied of a godly, and that denied which was affirmed, the description is made ready to your hand, and you have him deciphered in his fulness. And yet we may take notice of a further reason, for godliness is subject to many falsifications; it may suffer much alloy by mixture of base metals, and there is need of a touchstone to try whether it be right or no. Many colours may be laid upon wickedness, to make it seem godliness, as Satan can transform himself into all angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:14); and then there is need of marks to know whether it be a good angel, whether it be true godliness or no; but in the case of wickedness it is not so; there is no need of any such marks, for there cannot a worse vizard be put upon wickedness than its own face, there is no baser metal to be mingled with it; and though a wicked man will be counterfeiting to be godly, yet it was never known that a godly man would counterfeit to be wicked; and therefore the prophet, who is no waster of words in vain, would not give marks where they needed none, but left wickedness to be known by its own ill face, which is seen plainly enough by the law of contraries. (Sir Richard Baker.) The wicked as chaff But may we not make a stand here, and question the prophet about his similitude? for look upon the wicked, do they look like chaff? One would think them rather, in all appearance, to be clean wheat, and the best wheat too, for they only are flourishing--they only carry the price in all markets. But the prophet speaks not how they look, but what they are; he saith not, They look like chaff, but, They are like chaff; and before he hath done, for all their appearance, he will make it appear they are like chaff, and chaff they are like to have for their similitude. Well, be it so: let the prophet have his will, and let them be like chaff; what hurt take they by this? for doth not the chaff grow up, and is it not brought up with the wheat? and when harvest comes, are they not both reaped together, and both together laid up in the barn? and what more misery in all this to the chaff than to the wheat itself? All this is true; the prophet sees it welt enough, and therefore stays not here neither; he ends not with saying, They are like to chaff, but, They are like to chaff which the wind scatters. For this is that which perfects the similitude; and now let any man except against it if he can. (Sir Richard Baker.) The wicked as chaff And such is the condition of the wicked; a gale of prosperity hoisted them up, that they neither know themselves, nor where they are; a blast of adversity blows them down, and makes them tear the heavens with murmuring, and themselves with impatience. No state, no time, no place contents them. (Sir Richard Baker.) The wind within The chaff hath the wind without it that disquiets it, but a wicked man hath the wind within him (his own passions) that disquiets him. (Sir Richard Baker.) Psalms 1:5 The ungodly shall not stand in the judgment. The day of judgment 1. None will deny that the law of God, which is holy, just, and good, explicitly condemns the sinner, and consigns him to the second death. By the law can no man be justified. It contains no provision for pardon. 2. He will not be able to stand in the last trial, because all the witnesses will be against him. His companions in sin will testify against him. The example of the righteous will testify against the impenitent. The sinner’ s own awakened conscience and memory will testify against him. So will the sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ. 3. The eternal Judge will be inflexibly strict in interpreting and upholding the law. And 4. The impenitent sinner at God’ s bar will have no advocate. (A. Dickinson,.) The ungodly rising to judgment They shall not rise in the judgment, this is more than St. Paul would have said himself if he had been in the prophet’ s place, for who ever thought the ungodly should rise in the judgment, who are sure to fall in the judgment, seeing their judgment shall be to condemnation and not to deliverance? To rise to the judgment is to be brought to public trial, and this is the general resurrection that we believe; but to rise in the judgment is upon trial to come off with credit, and, by the sentence of the Judge, not only to be justified, but advanced. And who ever believed this rising to belong to the wicked? (Sir Richard Baker.) A congregation in which sinners cannot stand And as there shall be a general judgment, in which the ungodly shall not rise, so, after the judgment, there shall be a particular congregation of the righteous, in which sinners shall not stand. And, indeed, what society can there be between a tree and chaff? or who can think it fit that trees and chaff should be made companions? And as there is no reason that the ungodly, having made others by their counsel to fall here, should rise themselves in judgment hereafter, so there is no reason, seeing the righteous could not be suffered to stand here in the way of sinners, that sinners should be suffered to stand hereafter in the congregation of the righteous. And here now a multitude of reasons seem assembled, as it were, to make it good, that sinners neither can nor ought to stand in this assembly. It is a congregation which none can make but the righteous; for sinners are all rebels, and would make it a rout. It is a court where all must be neat and clean; and so are none but the righteous; for sinners are all lepers, and would make it a spital. It is a company that makes a communion, and that can none do but saints, for sinners seek everyone their own, and are all for themselves. They must be all God’ s friends; at least, such as He knows; and such are only the righteous, for sinners are all mere strangers and aliens from God. (Sir Richard Baker.) Failure in judgment And now let the great men of the world please themselves, and think it a happiness that they can rise in honours, can rise in riches and estimation in the world; yet, alas! what is all this, if they fail of rising in the judgment to come? (Sir Richard Baker.) Psalms 1:6 The Lord knoweth the way of the righteous.The way of the righteous I. Contrasted pictures of life. 1. That of the happy man illustrated by the law of attraction and repulsion. See the sentiments, habits, and disposition (i) of the evil he is led to repel (Psalms 1:1); (ii) of the good to which he is attracted (Psalms 1:2). Delighting and meditating upon God’ s Word.2. By the law of vegetable life (Psalms 1:3). The happy life of the good, like a fruit tree, is (i) one of ceaseless appropriation and transformation, (ii) of seasonable fruit bearing, (iii) of prosperity under all circumstances.3. With all this the life of the ungodly is contrasted (Psalms 1:4-6): (i) As shown in the reason of the contrast. The character of the ungodly is self-evolved from their own nature. That of the good, from God. (ii) In the result of the contrast. The ungodly having no solidity, nothing substantial in themselves, are compared to “ chaff,” which is light and empty and easily carried away. And having no foundation, they cannot “ stand in the judgment.” And having nothing to support them, must perish while the good shall prosper evermore. II. Lessons from these contrasted pictures.-- I. That true happiness is not the result of chance, but of law--fundamental, immutable, Divine. This law may be thus stated: Every effect must have an adequate cause. An uprooted tree cannot bear fruit; so a soul whose faith and love are torn away from God cannot be happy or prosperous. The specific law of spiritual good is this: Character determines destiny.2. That God has so graciously arranged the conditions of happiness or misery that it is dependent upon each one’ s personal choice. (D. C. Hughes, A. M.) The Divine observation The question is not whether the righteous is apparently stronger than the ungodly, but what is the relation of the Lord to them both. The final award is not with man but with God. The destiny of the righteous and the ungodly is as distinct as their character. There is no blending of one into the other--the one lives, the other perishes. Consistently throughout the Bible life is always associated with obedience or righteousness, and death with disobedience or unrighteousness. Great value attaches to a consistency of this kind. It has a bearing upon the character of God Himself. It is because He never changes in His own moral quality that He never changes, in relation to the actions of men. That “ the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous” is the good man’ s supreme comfort. Not that the good man challenges the Divine scrutiny in the matter of his actions, but that he is able to invite the Lord to look into the secret purpose of his heart and understand what is the supreme wish of his life. To know that the motive is right is to know that the end must be good. What we have to be supremely anxious about is the main purpose or desire of life; that being right, actions will adjust themselves accordingly, and, notwithstanding innumerable mistakes, the substance of the character shall be good, and a crown of glory shall be granted to the faithful servant. (Joseph Parker, D. D.) The way of the righteous Or is it that the prophet saith not, God knoweth the righteous, but the way of the righteous; perhaps lest men, for doing one or two good deeds in all their life, should claim to be righteous, and for such righteousness claim acquaintance with God; and so indeed God might have acquaintance enough, seeing no man is so wicked but he may sometimes have good thoughts and do good deeds; but this will not serve: it must be a way of righteousness before God will know it. (Sir Richard Parker.) Resolute righteousness safe And here the godly may take his comfort by the way, that it is not their slippings or treading awry, which may he by ignorance, or infirmity, that can make, with God, this shipwreck of perishing; it must be a way of ungodliness, which is not usually made without much walking and exercising, without resolute intentions and endeavours, without set purposes and persistings, that if a man be sure he is free from these, he may then be confident he is safe from perishing. (Sir Richard Parker.) . Psalms 2:1-12 Psalms 2:1-12 Why do the heathen rage? The prophetical element in the Psalm But though the poem was occasioned by some national event, we must not confine its application to that event, nor need we even suppose that the singer himself did not feel that his words went beyond their first occasion. He begins to speak of an earthly king, and his wars with the nations of the earth; but his words are too great to have all their meaning exhausted in David, or Solomon, or Ahaz, or any Jewish monarch. Or ever he is aware, the local and the temporal are swallowed up in the universal and the eternal. The king who sits on David’ s throne has become glorified and transfigured in the light of the promise. The picture is half-ideal and half-actual. It concerns itself with the present, but with that only so far as it is typical of greater things to come. The true King who, to the prophet’ s mind, is to fulfil all his largest hopes, has taken the place of the visible and earthly king. The nations are not merely those who are now mustering for the battle, but whatsoever opposeth and exalteth itself against Jehovah and His anointed. Hence the Psalm is in the nature of a prophecy, and still waits for its final accomplishment. It had a real fulfilment, no doubt, in the banding together of Herod and Pontius Pilate against Christ (Acts 4:25-27). But this was not a literal one. It may be said to have an ever-repeated fulfilment in the history of the Church, which is a history of God’ s kingdom upon earth, a kingdom which in all ages has the powers of the world arrayed against it, and in all ages the same disastrous result to those who have risen “ against the Lord and against His anointed.” And so it shall be to the end, when, perhaps, that hostility will be manifested in some yet deadlier form, only to be overthrown forever, that the kingdoms of this world may become the kingdom of our Lord and His Christ. (J. J. S. Perowne.) A magnificent lyric The true basis of this Psalm is not some petty revolt of subject tribes, but Nathan’ s prophecy in 2 Samuel 7:1-29, which sets forth the dignity and dominion of the King of Israel as God’ s son and representative. This grand poem may be called an idealising of the monarch of Israel, but it is an idealising with expected realisation. The Psalm is prophecy as well as poetry; and whether it had contemporaneous persons and events as a starting point or not, its theme is a real person, fully possessing the prerogatives and wielding the dominion which Nathan had declared to be God’ s gift to the King of Israel. The Psalm falls into four strophes of three verses each, in the first three of which the reader is made spectator and auditor of vividly painted scenes, while, in the last, the Psalmist exhorts the rebels to return to allegiance. In the first strophe (verses 1-3) the conspiracy of banded rebels is set before us with extraordinary force. All classes and orders are united in revolt, and hurry and eagerness mark their action, and throb in their words. Verses 4-6 change the scene to heaven. The lower half of the picture is all eager motion and strained effort; the upper is full of Divine calm. God needs not to rise from His throned tranquillity, but regards, undisturbed, the disturbances of earth. What shall we say of that daring and awful image of the laughter of God? The attribution of such action to Him is so bold that no danger of misunderstanding it is possible. It sends us at once to look for its translation, which probably lies in the thought of the essential ludicrousness of opposition, which is discerned in heaven to be so utterly groundless and hopeless as to be absurd. Another speaker is now heard, the anointed king, who in the third strophe (verses 7-9) bears witness to himself, and claims universal dominion as his by a Divine decree. In verses 10-12 the poet speaks in solemn exhortation. The kings addressed are the rebel monarchs whose power seemed so puny when measured against that of “ my King.” But all possessors of power and influences are addressed. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) The holy war A vivid picture of the revolt against Messiah. I. The extent of the revolt. Nations, People, Kings, Rulers. Christ has encountered this opposition--1. In all nations.2. In all ranks.3. In all generations. Christ was rejected by His own age (Acts 4:27). II. The determination by which this revolt was characterised. It is--1. Deliberate.2. Combined.3. Resolute. III. The secret cause of this revolt. They rebel against the laws of God in Christ. IV. The vanity of this opposition to Christ.1. The unreasonableness of it. “ Why do the heathen rage?” No satisfactory answer can be given.2. The uselessness of it. It is “ vain,” because useless. V. The conclusion. The Psalmist gives--1. An admonition: “ Be wise now.”2. A direction: “ Serve the Lord.” Do Him homage. (W. L. Watkinson.) The Messiah King I. The King (Psalms 2:6-7).1. Divinely appointed. “ I have set.” The Father speaking.2. Divinely anointed. The name Christ or Messiah signifies anointed.3. Assured of universal rule (Psalms 2:8). The world belongs to Him. He has created it. He has redeemed it. He shall ultimately possess it. II. Messiah’ s foes (Psalms 2:1-3). The citadel assailed because of its Sovereign; the Church the target of malice and mischief because of the kingly Christ. Crowned heads in general have been sworn enemies of the Lord’ s anointed. The hostility of these foes is--1. Deliberate. They “ imagine,” rather “ meditate.”2. Combined. “ They take counsel together.”3. Determined. They “ set themselves,” as fully resolved to accomplish their object.4. Violent. They “ rage.” Nothing has ever excited so much hostility as Christ and His Church. III. Messiah’ s victory (Psalms 2:4-5). Fourth verse is strikingly metaphorical. The Victor is in the heavens--watching the plots, reading the thoughts, hearing the decisions of His enemies, and He “ sitteth” there, serene as the march of stars and suns, calm as the glassy lake locked in the embrace of summer morning. Shall “ have them in derision.” Their efforts shall result in self-defeat and self-destruction, and help to the realisation of God’ s own purposes. The devil and his agents often outwit themselves; they mean extinction, but God overrules it for permanent extension. No decree of the Divine government can be frustrated. Truth must prevail. He shall “ speak in wrath.” His wrath is not vindictiveness, but the recoil of His love; not revenge, but retribution. IV. Messiah’ s message (Psalms 2:10-12). This is a call to--1. Teachableness. “ Be instructed.” Learn your folly in opposing the Lord.2. Service. “ Serve the Lord.” Do His bidding. Be governed by His laws.3. Homage. “ Kiss the Son.” The Eastern mode of showing homage to a king.4. A call backed by the most weighty reasons: “ lest He be angry.” (J. O. Keen, D. D,) The King in Zion Two contrasted topics, the King and the rebellion of His subjects. I. The King.1. The dignity of His person. Not a King, or the King, but my King. One able and worthy to represent me. 2. The extent of His dominion. The nations of men measure not the realm of Christ. All grades of intelligences throughout the universe owe Him allegiance. 3. The greatness of His power. Wide as is His kingdom, His power is adequate to hold and govern it. Spiritual supremacy involves supremacy of every name. To secure it, upheavals and overturnings are inevitable. Under the pressure of spiritual forces, all other forces must give way. 4. The blessedness of His sway. The prophetic representations of the Messiah’ s reign are glorious and happy. All blessings come down upon the people. II. The rebellion of His subjects.1. Its universality. 2. Its wickedness. Men’ s treatment of Christ is more gratuitously wicked than anything else. He came, self-moved, to do them infinite good. 3. Its impotence. 4. Its folly. This rebellion is misery in its progress, and ruin in its result. It fills the soul with wretchedness and fear in time, and leaves it under the wrath of God in eternity. (Monday Club Sermons.) Messiah’ s rule I. The determined hate of the people (Psalms 2:1-3). The word “ rage” suggests the idea of Oriental frenzy and excitement of a tumultuous concourse of crowds of people, all wildly angry. “ Imagine” is the same word as is rendered “ meditate” in Psalms 1:2. While the godly meditate on God’ s law, the ungodly meditate a project which is vain. Let us not be in league with the world, for its drift is against the Lord. II. The Divine tranquillity (Psalms 1:4-6). The scene shifts to heaven; God is ever undismayed. III. Messiah’ s manifesto (verses 7-9). Standing forth, He produces and recites one of the eternal decrees. Before time was, He was the only-begotten of the Father. The world is His heritage, but the gift is conditional on prayer. For this He pleads, and let us plead with Him. The pastoral staff for the sheep; the “ iron rod” for those who oppose. IV. Overtures and counsels of peace (verses 10-12). “ Kiss,” the expression of homage (1 Samuel 10:1). (F. B. Meyer, B. A.) The reign of Christ The Psalm is full of Christ. It is referred to six times by New Testament writers, and applied to Christ. It is a beautiful dramatic prophecy, in which several personages alternately speak momentous truths, to animate the Church of God in her conflict with sin and the powers of hell. The two leading thoughts are--the powerful opposition, but total discomfiture of Christ’ s enemies; the certainty, universality, and blessedness of His reign.1. The opposition would be universal, and characterise all classes of men. 2. It is intense. The heathen “ rage.” 3. It is organised. They consult to find pretexts to justify their hostility. It is violent and aggressive. The restraints of the gospel are irksome and hateful. When argument and oratory failed, force was employed. It was foretold that all the crafty counsel and all the violent opposition should fail. Vain to imagine that human craft can contravene omniscience, or human power overcome omnipotence. It is the potsherd striving with his Maker. If God’ s expostulation be disregarded, then He speaketh in judgment. While adverse nations perish, the kingdom of Christ shall continue and become universal. When the Son says, “ I will declare the decree,” He has respect to future revelations as well as to the one then announced. He intimates that henceforth there shall be brighter and more ample discoveries of the Divine purpose. And the promise was verified by fact. The decree is not only declared, it is confirmed by the resurrection, the intercession and the enthronement of Messiah. The universality of the Redeemer’ s kingdom is certain, but do existing facts look towards its consummation? Wonderful preparations are indicative of this. The great programmes of discovery and of instrumentality nearly complete. The great programme of prophecy is nearly accomplished. (W. Cooke, D. D.) A great national hope This Psalm belongs to the class called Messianic. It is full of that great national hope of the Jews concerning Him who was to come. A nation without hope is like a man without hope. Cut off hope from any man, or any group of men, and at once you paralyse the worth of everything. The Jewish nation was full of vitality. The noblest kind of national hope, the highest idea of “ manifest destiny,” is not simply a great event, but a great character. It is the ideal of a great character that is to come to them, and then to create great character throughout all the people. The hope of the coming of such a being was the ruling idea of the Jewish people. A character is always nobler than any event that is going to happen. A great nature remains as a perpetual inspiration. Every Jewish child that was born might be the Messiah; every king might hold in his hand the Messianic sceptre. Through all their life there ran this great anticipation, this inextinguishable hope. We do not know of whom this second Psalm was written; we do not even know by whom it was written. What is the philosophy of the Messianic Psalms? Shall we say that back in those distant days men anticipated just what was going to come when Jesus was born in Bethlehem, and did His work in Galilee? There was nothing so monstrous as that. The whole of the Bible is much more natural than we are apt to make it. This Messianic Psalm was taken and applied in its completeness to the Messiah, who had really revealed Himself at last. The words then found a kingship worthy of them, and were sung of Christ. There are three speakers, or series of utterances. The first is the writer of the Psalm, who stands, as it were, to call the attention of the people to the two great speakers. These are the Lord Jehovah, and the Coming One, the Anointed, the King, the Messiah Himself. The writer stands as the chorus in the great tragedy. It is a great cry of astonishment from one who sees a great mercy coming to the world of guilt, bringing in redemption to the world, and the world setting itself against it. It is the everlasting wonder of the soul that knows Jesus Christ, that this world, with Jesus Christ waiting at its doors to save it, can set itself against Him, and not let Him in. But God’ s great purpose of making Jesus King of the world is unchanged and unchangeable. Whether the world will have Him or not, Christ is to be King of the world. The world has heard that, and it has brought a certain deep peace into the soul of mankind. The third speaker is Christ Himself. He says, “ I will declare the decree.” Christ is in the world, and He is sure of the world. Sitting upon the throne, recognising clearly who set Him there, He will never leave it until all the nations shall be His nations. Among the wonders of these last nineteen centuries has been the quiet certain confidence of Christianity. It cannot be crowded out and lost among the multitudes of mankind who are careless or hostile. It possesses Divine grace, which some day will be sufficient for the healing of the nations. At the close we come back to the writer or the chorus that tells us what the meaning of it all is. The Messianic Psalm presses itself into the lives we are living, and declares that if we are wicked we shall be powerless. If the most humble man puts himself upon the side of righteousness in company with Christ, if in his own little lot he does things pure and good and kind, he shall have a part with Christ in His great conquest of the world. He whom we worship as Christ is the centre of the world. Everything is verging to Him. All the past, however unconsciously, is ruled by Him; and all the future, however little it may now know its Master, will ultimately recognise Him. He who is everything, sanctification, redemption, in the fortunes of the individual soul, is the world’ s redemption. (Phillips Brooks, D. D.) Imagine a vain thing.--The opposition to God and His Christ The Psalm opens abruptly. Here is no prelude; it is an utterance of amazement, begotten in the soul, and breaking from the lips of one who locks out upon the nations and generations of man. He discerns, in all the widespread view, one perpetual restlessness, one ceaseless movement of discontent, the throbbing of a rebellion that cannot be appeased, of a vain, bitter, and ceaseless revolt. It is a revolt against God and His Christ running through the centuries, underlying human history, breaking out in fresh manifestations age after age, finding new utterance from the kings and rulers and wise men of this world. Why does the world fret against the government of God? Why does the world resent and resist the rule of the righteous God, and of the redeeming Lord Jesus Christ? Whether it be the sins and sorrows of one city that come within your range; whether it be the notes and tones of the very last phase and stage of philosophic speculation; whether it be the problems that vex and chafe and worry the civilised world; whether the spectacle of our exaggerated, over-developed militarism, under which the whole continent of Europe groans and bleeds; or whether the vexed problems that lie in our own streets and houses, alike the question arises--Why does the world, in things great and small, chafe against the rule of God--God the Source of wisdom, the Giver of all good? against Christ, the. Redeemer of human nature! against Christ, man’ s true King, Leader and Guide and Friend and Shepherd and Bishop of souls? “ Why do the heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thing?” (F. W. Macdonald, M. A.) Authorship and meaning of the Psalm The thoughts of the Psalm are so fresh and bold, and the poetical elevation so great, that the thoughts here seem to have for the first time taken hold of the writer, who is one, whom they directly concern.1. Some young king, entering upon the rule of God’ s Kingdom, has borne in upon his mind, from his very position, those strange and unprecedented words of Nathan--words of inexhaustible meaning, and yet quite fresh from their novelty--and entering into their spirit as, to a pure and thoughtful mind, they opened up regions of contemplation interminable in extent and full of wonders, and combining them perhaps with some show of opposition to his rule at home, or some threatened defection from his authority by tribes abroad,--the young king east his thoughts and aspirations into this hymn. 2. And what young monarch was in such a condition except Solomon? Every one of the conditions of the problem suits him. He was the seed of David, and therefore the Son of God. He was appointed king on Zion Hill. His rule tended to universality, and his aspirations, being those of a profound intellect and, at the same time, of an uncorrupted youth, must have aimed at conferring on all peoples the blessings of God’ s Kingdom. 3. If we could realise to ourselves the thoughts and emotions of those early Davidic kings--standing, as all of them did, to Jehovah as His anointed, bearing all of them the title of His Son, and pointing forward to such a heritage, even all peoples; and yet so surrounded with darkness, and having but such imperfect instruments in their hands wherewith to realise their ideal, and so circumscribed on every side--what aspirations must have filled their hearts as they stood thus before so high a destiny! And yet, as all things seemed to make it impossible for them to reach it, what perplexities must have tormented them till, wearied out by the riddles of their position, some of them turned wilfully aside from the true path! 4. But if we can ill fathom the thoughts of these great creative minds, how much less those of the true theocratic King, the true Messiah and Son of God, when entering upon His kingdom, and standing at its threshold with all the possibilities of it clear before Him, and the way needful to be trod to reach it also clear! We know that He was sometimes troubled in spirit, and sometimes rejoiced greatly, alternating between a gloom more dark than falls on any son of man and a rightness more luminous than created light. But with full view of His work He entered on it, and with full view of the glory He prosecuted it to the end. 5. The Psalm, if a typical Psalm in the mind of its human author, referred to the installation of the theocratic king on Zion, who took God’ s place over His kingdom, and stood to Him in all the endearing relations expressed by the name of Son. The writer to the Hebrews finds in it the statement of the manifestation of the true theocratic King and Son in power from His resurrection and ascension; and His principle is just. The one was a rehearsal of the other. All this Old Testament machinery, and this calling one who was king by the name Son, and the like, would never have been but for the other; it was only in order to suggest the other and prepare for it. It was a prophecy of the other. It contained the same ideas. And its having been imperfect, as it was, implied that the other--that which was perfect--should also be. Only, that which the Old Testament writer had not yet foreseen had now taken place; the material embodiment of the ideas of the kingdom had passed away, and all things had become spiritual in Christ. (Professor A. B. Davidson.) Psalms 2:2 Against the Lord, and against His anointed. Taking counsel against Christ Anointed here means the same as Messiah, and both words the same as Christ in the New Testament. How literally were the words of this verse fulfilled, when Herod and Pontius Pilate, and the rulers of the Jews combined together to put Jesus to death! How cordially they hated each other; and yet how cordially they united in persecuting Jesus! This has been the history of our religion from the beginning. Men who would take counsel together in nothing else have taken counsel together against the Lord and against His anointed. Christianity has been opposed by every form of religion beneath the sun. The civil ruler has opposed it with the sword; the bigot with the screw, the wheel, and the stake; the philosopher with sophistry and derision; and the multitude with lawless violence. All have been alike eager to nail it to the cross, thrust a spear into its side, and place upon its head a crown of thorns. And when asked to spare it the language of all has been, “ Not this man, but Barabbas!” This feature of heterogeneous opposition to our religion is conspicuous in all modern and liberal and infidel conventions, where men of all beliefs and of no belief, ignoring for the time being all their differences, unite heart and soul in a crusade against the Word of God. They care little what stars occupy a place in the religious heavens of the world, provided the Star of Bethlehem be not of the number. They will tolerate any other form of religion sooner than the religion of the Lord and of His anointed. (David Caldwell, A. M.) Psalms 2:3 Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.Sinners vainly attempt to dissolve their obligations I. The obligations sinners are under to God.1. Natural obligations. Their nature, as dependent creatures, forms an intimate connection between them and their Maker. They cannot exist a moment without the immediate exertion of Divine power. Their dependence is absolute and universal. It respects all their natural powers and faculties, whether corporeal or mental. They are not sufficient to think, or speak, or act of themselves, independently of the presence and efficiency of God. 2. Moral obligations. God is a Being possessed of every natural and moral excellence. He will never do anything contrary to the perfect benevolence of His heart. Every sinner is capable of knowing that God is perfectly good, so he is under moral obligation to love Him for His goodness. 3. Legal obligation. God’ s absolute supremacy gives Him an independent right to assume the character of a lawgiver. It properly belongs to Him to give law to all His intelligent creatures. II. Sinners endeavour to free themselves from all the obligations which they are under to God. They wish and endeavour to break His bands, and cast away His cords.1. This appears by their mode of speaking upon this subject. 2. By their mode of reasoning as well as speaking. They endeavour to reason away all their obligations to God. 3. It appears from their mode of acting, also, that they desire and endeavour to free themselves from all obligations to become reconciled and obedient to God. III. All their endeavours to get loose from their obligations to God will be in vain.1. They cannot destroy the existence of God. 2. Or their own existence. Improvement. (1) We may see what is the great subject of controversy between them and their Creator. (2) Though sinners are naturally disposed to free themselves from their obligations to God, yet they are not always sensible of it. They commonly think that they have no such disposition to complain of the bands and cords by which they are bound to God, and to desire and endeavour to break and cast them away. (3) We see why sinners are the most opposed to the most essential and important doctrines of the gospel. (4) If they endeavour to free themselves from their obligations, then they always endeavour to stifle convictions. (5) If sinners are under such natural, moral, and legal obligations to God as have been mentioned, then He can awaken and convince them at any time He pleases. (6) Sinners are extremely averse from prayer. (7) All sinners, without exception, are bound to be religious or to fulfil their obligations to their Maker, who has made them rational, immortal, and accountable creatures. (8) If sinners are bound to God by bands and cords which they cannot break nor cast away, then it is their immediate and imperious duty to cease from contending with their Maker, and to become cordially reconciled to the bands and cords by which He has bound them to Himself. (W. Emmons, D. D.) Tendency of the young to infidelity 1. From their limited views. A little knowledge is a dangerous thing, as it too often encourages self-conceit and lays the foundation for many a hasty conclusion. A slight and imperfect view of the subject is taken as the whole. Judgment is rendered without even hearing the evidence. A few second-hand objections are suffered to cover the whole ground. Bacon says, “ It is true that a little philosophy inclineth man’ s mind to atheism, but depth in philosophy bringeth men’ s minds back to religion;--for while the mind of man looketh upon second causes scattered, it may sometimes rest in them, and go no further; but when it beholdeth the chain of them, confederate and linked together, it must needs fly to Providence and Deity.” 2. From their defective training. In the religious education of youth the principal things have not always been made prominent. The youth perhaps knows no other Christianity than that which belongs to his own denomination, or some idle ceremony or some doubtful tenet has been inculcated with all the solemnity of religion and all the sanctions of eternity. The result is a narrow-minded, bitter bigotry. When the charm is broken, and its influence destroyed, the mind, left loose, too often swings at once to infidelity. The training is often defective in another way. That the mind may be free from unfounded prejudice and sectarian predilections, nothing is taught. To escape one evil they run into another and more fatal one. The native soft brings forth thorns and briars. 3. Another source of infidelity is the conduct of too many called Christians. 4. Another is an uneasiness of restraint. The spirit of wildness and wilfulness is manifest in the first dawn of intellect. The earliest period of childhood shows restlessness and hatred of restraint. Thousands are infidels because they dread the inspection of God and hate the restraints of religion. Their lives require such an opiate to their fears. 5. A love of distinction--an ambition to appear above the vulgar. Young men and boys affect infidelity for the same reason that they learn to swear or to chew tobacco. It gives an air of spirit and independence that spurns old traditions and vulgar prejudices. 6. Some are infidels in self-defence. They were once, perhaps, not far from the kingdom of God--it may be, deemed themselves citizens of that kingdom. But the world spread its charms before them. And they have found shelter from scorn and reproach in blank infidelity. Combine all these causes which are continually at work and is it wonderful that in the face of all the light of truth there should still be infidels? (D. Merrill.) Bands that cannot be broken The yoke that our Saviour would lay on this world is not a galling and exasperating code of laws, but a yoke in which humanity would be renewed, transformed, uplifted to the highest and eternal joy. It is of that “ yoke and burden” that the world’ s proud captains say, “ Let us break their bands asunder and cast away their cords from us.” Bands and cords! It is an invidious description of “ the yoke that is easy and the burden that is light.” What can be the issue of the effort to break the bands and cords of the Almighty? What can come of it? “ He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision.” The Psalmist is very bold: the laughter of God! the derision of the Most High! What a figure to use! It is a poet’ s phrase, but it is a prophet’ s truth. There is a spendthrift who is resenting the bands of economics and arithmetic; who says in regard to a plain and accurate cash statement, “ I will break these bands asunder,” and in his foolishness he makes the attempt; but he cannot divert from their inflexible proportions the laws of parts and quantities, of plus and minus considerations. He may wish that ten amid ten should make twenty-five, but they will not. “ He that sitteth in the heavens” ! Great fixed proportions!--they won’ t bend to amuse a prodigal; they won’ t break to gratify a spendthrift. They claim their value and issue their writ, and the man who has lived and spent as though two and two made fifty is the object of the laughter of arithmetical law, and is by it had in derision. (F. W. Macdonald.) Psalms 2:4-5 He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh . . . and vex them in His sore displeasure. First a laugh then a smite The heathen and the people, the kings and the rulers are answered with contempt, they are laughed at and derided; and if this be not enough to change their spirit and their purpose, they will be spoken to in wrath, and vexed in sore displeasure. It is interesting and instructive to remark how creation first laughs at and derides men who oppose it, and how in the next place it avenges the insults that are offered to its laws. When Canute rebuked the waves the sea laughed at him, and the waves had him in derision; had he remained upon the position he had chosen, laughter and derision would have been changed for vengeance and overthrow. Let a man attempt to put down the wind, and the only possible answer is derision; let him attempt to defy the lightning, and he may perish under its stroke. There is but a short distance between the derision of nature and its penal judgments. So every attempt to revile the power of God is contemned, and every insult offered to His holiness is avenged. A very curious process is indicated by these two verses. The laughter is expressive of an eternal law; things are not so constituted that they can be turned about at the pleasure of the wicked, nor is the purpose of the universe so fickle that the wrath of man can affect its fulfilment; great strength can afford to deride; infinite power can best express its own consciousness of almightiness by smiling upon all the hosts which array themselves against it. But this answer of contemptuous laughter must not be the only reply, for contempt can seldom have any moral issue of a really substantial and blessed kind; there must come a time when law must avenge itself upon those who would insult its majesty or mock its power. First, laughter, as a proof of the utter impossibility of injuriously affecting the standards and purposes of God; after laughter must come the judgment, which shows how dangerous it is to trifle with fire, and how awful a thing it is to defy the wrath of righteousness. It is for every man to consider under what particular phase of the Divine regard he is now living. For a period he may be amused, as it were, at certain phases of the opposition of nature, or the awkwardness of life; but let him not suppose that he sees the whole of the case: such opposition and awkwardness may suddenly be displaced by judgment, and vengeance, and destiny irrevocable. (Joseph Parker, D. D.) The laughter of God They scoff at us. God laughs at them. Severe Cato thought that laughter did not become the gravity of Roman consuls, and is it attributed to the majesty of heaven . . . Pharaoh imagined that by drowning the Israelite males he had found a way to root their name from the earth, but when at the same time his own daughter in his own court gave princely education to Moses, their deliverer, did not God laugh? Is Dagon put up in his place again? God’ s smile shall take off his head and his hands and leave him neither wit to guide nor power to subsist He permitted His temple to be sacked and rifled, the holy vessels to be profaned and caroused in; but did not God’ s smile make Belshazzar to tremble? Oh, what are His frowns if His smiles be so terrible? (Thomas Adams.) Psalms 2:6 Yet have I set My King upon My holy hill of Zion.The sovereignty Zion’ s King Christ is King in Zion, the alone Sovereign of His Church by his Father’ s appointment and ordination. I. This sovereign prince. The sovereignty and royalty appears--1. From Scripture prophecy.2. From types.3. From titles.4. From the concurring testimony of enemies and strangers.5. From the badges of sovereignty everywhere, ascribed to Him. See what happy persons the true and loyal subjects of Christ are. See the dangerous risk they run that invade His government and contemn His authority. Who are these? They that turn the authority derived from Him, to the hurt and prejudice of His kingdom and interest. They who venture to model His visible kingdom in the world after their own fancy. They who walk willingly after the commandments of men, in opposition to the commands of Christ. They will be found equally guilty who stand by and see those injuries done to the King of Zion by others, and are silent without witnessing against those things. II. This kingdom and the administration of it. The kingdom of the Son of God is two fold: it is either essential or personal. His essential kingdom belongs to Him as to His Divine nature. His personal or mediatory kingdom belongs to Him as Immanuel, God-man. In this He acts by a delegate authority or a power committed by the Father for the salvation of the elect that were given Him. The mediatory kingdom is either more general or special. His general mediatory kingdom extends itself over heaven, earth, and hell. The kingdom or Church of Christ is sometimes called His “ body” and His “ flock.” This Church is either militant on earth or triumphant in heaven. Why is this Church called the “ holy hill of Zion” ? The literal Mount Zion had two heads, one called “ Moriah,” the other “ the City of David.” Zion was the place of public worship. All the sacred things of God were kept there. In Scripture an opposition is stated between Mount Zion and Mount Sinai. Consider some of the properties of Christ’ s kingdom.1. It is spiritual.2. Of large extent.3. Not populous. It is--4. A kingdom of light.5. A heavenly kingdom.6. A regular and well-governed kingdom.7. Much hated by the devil and the world.8. A stable, firm, and everlasting kingdom.9. A holy kingdom. Consider the actual execution and administration of this kingdom. By the royal authority of Zion’ s King He overrules and governs all creatures and all their actions, yea, the most dark and cloudy dispensations for Ills own and His Father’ s glory. With respect to His invisible kingdom of believers, there are these acts of His royal power that He puts forth.1. He subdues them to Himself.2. He writes His law on their hearts.3. He enforces subjection to His laws.4. He casts a copy of obedience unto all His subjects, and calls them to imitate Him.5. He actuates and excites all His subjects to obedience to Him by His own spirit.6. He meekens the hearts of His subjects to a due regard to all the intimations of His mind and will.7. He corrects and chastens His subjects.8. He commands peace, quiet, comfort, and deliverance to them. Prove that Christ has a visible Church from these considerations. He Himself is visible as to His human nature. The laws, ordinances, and officers of Christ are all visible. There is a visible difference between the kingdom of Christ and the kingdom of the devil. The charge that is given to ministers in the dispensation of the solemn ordinances of the New Testament proves that Christ has a visible Church. And there is a visible and open war betwixt the seed of the woman and the serpent. Notice some acts of the royal authority of Christ ill His visible kingdom. Giving the lively oracles of His Word to His visible Church. Appointing the form of its government. Appointing its officers, and the way in which they are to be chosen. Appointing ordinances, such as preaching. Appointing censures for good discipline and order in His kingdom. Authorising the officers to meet in a judicative capacity in His name for the better and joint regulating of the affairs of His kingdom. Bounding and limiting all the courts and officers of His kingdom to govern His subjects, and to teach them no other thing than He has commanded. Giving express orders unto all His subjects to examine all spirits, doctrines, laws, impositions at the bar of the Word, and to contend earnestly for the purity of His truth and worship, ordinances and institutions. III. Why has God the Father set and ordained Him to be King in zion? This flows originally from the sovereign love and good pleasure of God. It was for the Father’ s glory and honour to set Him upon the throne. It was that He might bring about salvation to His mystical body, the Church. Because His shoulders alone were able to bear the weight of the government. Seeing Christ bought the Church to Himself with the price of His blood, it was fit that the government of the Church should be committed to Him. Application--(1) Words of exhortation to all those who profess themselves the subjects of Christ’ s kingdom. Imitate your King. Trust Him at all times. Be much at your King’ s throne as supplicants. Obey your King’ s laws. Keep His ordinances of worship. Stand up for the honour of your King. (2) Words of exhortation to you who are yet strangers to Zion’ s King, or enemies to His kingdom and government. Surrender your rebellious arms, and submit unto His royal authority. (E. Erskine.) The royalty of the Son of God I should question whether there could be produced from either sacred or profane literature a more remarkable instance of the power of putting a great deal into a few words than this Psalm. Its theme is “ the glory of the Son of God.” But that is not set forth in abstract sentences that would be crude. This is a great poem, and the theme is painted pictorially. There is not one picture, but four. They are different, yet all closely connected, and at the end are brought together into dramatic unity. The artistic balance is perfectly kept, the same number of words being given to each picture. There is no hurry or overcrowding. Every picture is painted broadly and freely, and even with a great deal of elaboration, and yet the whole Psalm only contains twelve verses. Look at the four pictures. I. Revolt. Painted in the first three verses. The nations crowded about the Holy Land have become restive under the yoke; a spirit of disaffection has spread. The movement has come to a head, and there has been effected an immense combination of insurgent states. The second verse takes us into the council tent. At last they come to a unanimous resolution (verse 8), “ Let us break their bands asunder.” That was the form of the truth; but the truth itself is perfectly modern. It is the resistance of the world to the gospel of Christ; it is the attempt of the persecutor and the traditionalist to arrest the progress of the kingdom of light and love; it is the natural enmity of your heart and mind to God and His Christ. II. Derision. At this point the poetic originality of this Psalm reaches its climax. This second scene is in heaven. Up in heaven there is seated One who is observing all this which is going on on earth. It is a very bold stroke of imagination to represent the Deity as laughing. It is not, however, unexampled. I want to say that we do not laugh enough; we do not sympathise enough with God’ s laughter: we take some things too seriously, we tremble too much for the ark of God. When someone begins vainly to give us his opinions about religion, of which he has no experience, we ought to see the ludicrous side of the matter; we should not become too angry about it. III. Interpretation. At this point the words of the poet become most pregnant and shorthand, so to speak. The scene is again changed. We are not in heaven now. Not among the insurgents, but in the opposite camp, because it is the Anointed, the Leader of the army, who is the speaker. He says, “ I will declare the decree,” and then He begins not to repeat it in the exact words, but to give the drift of it and its meaning both to it and to them. “ It means this,” He says, “ The Lord hath said unto Me, Thou art My Son; this day have I begotten Thee.” Among the Hebrews the reigning sovereign was sometimes called God’ s Son. No doubt all this referred originally to some Hebrew king and some crisis in his history. But beneath the words is a far more comprehensive reference to another. The reign of Christ is a reign of love. His kingdom is set up not upon the bodies, but in the hearts of men, and yet at the name of Jesus every knee must bow. IV. Admonition. Who is speaking now? Probably the poet himself. Like the chorus in a Greek play, he draws the moral of the whole. He urges the leaders of the insurgents to pause and be admonished. They can see themselves that this enterprise of theirs is hopeless, and that it may be fatal to themselves. Therefore it pleases them to kiss the Son, that is, to give Him the sign of allegiance. It should be, “ for His wrath is kindled at a little.” It is kindled by the affront shown to His Son; that He will always terribly avenge. (James Stalker, D. D.) Christ’ s kingly office I. Christ is a King.1. He was prophesied of in the Old Testament under this character (Genesis 49:10; Isaiah 11:1-3). 2. He was of old promised to His people under this notion. 3. He has all the ensigns of royalty, Sword, Sceptre, Crown, Escutcheon (Revelation 5:5), Throne. 4. He sealed this truth with His precious blood. II. The nature of Christ’ s kingdom. Christ has a two-fold kingdom. An essential kingdom, and an economical or mediatory kingdom. The administration is either external (general or particular) or internal in the hearts of. His people. III. The acts of Christ’ s kingly office. Subduing sinners to Himself, ruling and governing them, defending and protecting them, restraining His own and their enemies, and conquering them. Christ exercises His kingly office in ruling and governing His subjects: both externally, by laws, officers, and discipline; and internally, writing His law in their hearts, and persuading them by His spirit. IV. Properties or qualities of Zion’ s King. He is of ancient, glorious, and honourable extract. He is an absolute King, who makes laws for His subjects, but is not bound by any Himself, His will is His law. He is a wise, powerful, just, merciful, meek and patient, beautiful, opulent, everlasting King. Improvement.1. The kings of the earth have no ground to grudge the kingdom of Christ its freedom in their dominions, seeing it is a spiritual kingdom. 2. There is a government of the Church distinct from and independent of the civil government. 3. The government of the Church is not alterable by any power on earth, civil and ecclesiastical. 4. The Church shall ride out all the storms that can blow upon her, whether from earth or hell. (T. Boston, D. D.) Christ, King of Zion Christ as Redeemer executes the offices of prophet, priest and king. As a king He applies the redemption He has purchased so as to secure the full and eternal blessedness of those for whom it was designed. There is a principle of aversion to the, truth that Christ is king in the heart of every regenerate man--a dislike of Christ’ s spiritual authority. I. The kingdom described as God’ s holy hill of Zion. Zion was one of the hills on which Jerusalem was built. The name came to be appropriated to the temple and its courts. It is also applied to the worshippers in the temple if not to the whole inhabitants of Jerusalem. It is used to signify the Church of God. Sometimes it is applied to the visible Church, sometimes to the invisible, as Hebrews 12:22. In the text the whole Church is to be understood. The visible Church is as much Christ’ s Church as the invisible. It owes its existence to Him. Christ is King of Zion, and as King of Zion He is head over all--exalted above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion. II. The title by which He holds the kingdom. He reigns by the Father’ s appointment. His dominion as King of Zion is delegated and official. It is not the dominion that belongs to Him essentially as God that is here spoken of, but the power with which He is officially invested as Mediator by the act of the Father. His dominion in this respect is the Father’ s gift; bestowed on Him in fulfilment of the conditions of the everlasting covenant, as the recompense of His obedience and sufferings, as His reward for finishing the work which His Father gave Him to do. The dominion with which He is entrusted supposes His essential dignity as a Divine Person; for we cannot imagine that such dominion would ever have been committed to a mere creature. His appointment to His mediatorial throne was formally made when the covenant of grace was entered into in the counsels of eternity. It was not till His resurrection and ascension to heaven that His claim to royal dignity was fully recognised. But He exercised this authority from the beginning of time, in virtue of that atonement which He was to offer for the sins of men. III. The administration of the kingdom. This may be viewed, either in reference to the outward organisation and arrangements of His Church or in reference to that spiritual power--that Divine resistless energy, by which He effectually accomplishes the great ends for which His kingdom has been set up, and is maintained in the world. Christ prescribes the laws and institutions of His Church, and appoints its office bearers. But outward arrangements would be ineffectual without a Divine efficacy--without the power of that Spirit who is sent by Christ, and acts in accordance with Christ’ s commission. IV. The peculiar properties of this kingdom.1. It is a spiritual kingdom. The great design and purpose for which it has been erected is spiritual and heavenly. Human government views man in connection with this world. The kingdom of Christ views Him in connection with eternity. Its ultimate end is the advancement of the glory of God; its immediate end is the salvation of sinners. 2. It is destined to be universal. All adverse power and authority will be overthrown, all enemies vanquished, and nothing left which is not put under Him. 3. It shall last forever. It will not only continue while the earth exists; it will last through the endless ages of eternity. (James Ewing.) Christ, the King of nations I. Christ as King of kings, and Lord of lords (Revelation 19:16). In these words we have an important part of Christ’ s mediatorial character brought before us. When this name is applied to Christ we are to understand that power which Christ, as King and Head of Zion, has acquired over the nations and kingdoms of this world, The Church and the State being distinct institutions--the one being positive, expressly revealed, and exhibited in the Word of God; the other being founded on natural principles, and not on scriptural revelation--it is evident that as the rulers in the one hold their appointment directly from Christ as Mediator, so the kings and rulers in the other hold their appointment primarily from God as the Moral Governor of the world. But, whilst recognising this distinction, it does not follow that the powers which be and are ordained of God have no relation whatever to Christ as Mediator. Christ not merely the King and Head of Zion, but Christ the King of nations, by virtue of that power with which He is invested by the Father. Thus it is written, “ The Father hath put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be Head over all things to the Church.” Christ has power over all things. He has power and authority over societies and communities, and also over nations, which occupy so important a position in the social scale. Thus kings and rulers are spoken of as holding their appointment from the Father, but in subordination to Christ the Mediator, and subject to His control--“ By Me kings reign and princes decree justice” (Ephesians 1:20-21). It is true that Christ, in a very special sense, is the King and Head of Zion, but it is no less true that, in a very important sense, He is King of kings and Lord of lords. Standing in so important a relation to the Church, it is on her behalf that He takes to Himself this universal power and reigns. Holding this appointment from the Father, Christ is now exalted to the right hand of glorious power and majesty in the heavens. There He is seated on the throne, and wears the crown and sways the sceptre of universal dominion, and we are assured that all kings shall yet fall down before Him, and all nations shall serve Him. But where, it is asked, is the practical importance or application of this truth? We look abroad upon the world, and we see many nations and peoples who have never been brought to the knowledge of the truth, and who are therefore ignorant of the homage which they owe to Christ. We still say the truth is here, and must remain forever. It remains not only an unchanging truth in the Word, but shall yet become an accomplished fact in the history of every nation. What a blessed theme is here set before us for our contemplation! The kings of earth no more combining and conspiring against the Lord and His anointed, but coming with Christian loyalty to pay their tribute at the feet of King Jesus (Philippians 2:10-11). The fulfilment of these words may be in the far distant future, but of their certainty we are assured by prophecy already fulfilled in the history of those nations that had to make way for the coming of Christ. II. Duties devolving on nations under the kingship of Christ.1. Christian nations are bound to frame their laws in accordance with the Word of God. Every nation ought to act according to that degree of religious knowledge which it may possess. The very claims of morality and justice, the best interests of society, the welfare of kings and rulers and of all classes of their subjects, and the claims of God, the Moral Governor, demand that the laws of nations should be regulated by the Word. Was the law to be honoured under the Old Testament dispensation by one solitary nation under a theocratic government, much more shall it be honoured under the New, by many nations under many forms of civil government, but all subordinate to Christ, the King of kings and Lord of lords. By obedience to the laws of the King eternal shall righteousness be promoted, and righteousness exalteth a nation. 2. Christian nations are to be interested in the advancement of Christ’ s spiritual kingdom. III. By way of improvement of the subject, let us see its great importance.1. It is of the highest importance, because it is frequently and clearly revealed in the Word. Its certainty does not rest on a few solitary passages of Scripture, but large and consecutive portions are employed to describe the power and glory of Christ, the King of nations. 2. It has been important in the past history and contendings of the Church. 3. Nor is the truth of less importance in the present day. The Kingship of Christ over the nations has become a present truth. There is undoubtedly a spirit abroad in the land in opposition to it. Men in Church and State have condemned the very principle. 4. But in a word, it is of growing importance. It will become still more important when its certainty has been established and its application fully and gloriously carried out. As we have already seen, it is frequently the theme of prophecy. And so, fathers and brethren, believing as we do in the faithfulness of God and in the fulfilment of His Word, we must believe His own prediction--“ In His times He shall show who is blessed and only potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords.” The works of nature, the discoveries of science, the achievements of art, the efforts of earth’ s mightiest nations and of the Church universal, shall yet combine to promote the interests of King Jesus. And in prospect of this happy period, shall we say the subject is of no importance? If we are to be indifferent to it, what is to become of the Church’ s prayer, “ Thy kingdom come,” ? (C. S. Findlay.) Christ’ s kingly office I. The nature of Christ’ s kingly office.1. It is not simply as God, but as Mediator--as God-man--that Christ executes the kingly office, and exercises supreme dominion, and is entitled to the profoundest homage and the most implicit submission. Christ’ s kingship as Mediator is different from His eternal and unchangeable dominion as God, and rests upon a different foundation. We are to regard Christ’ s kingly office as properly and fully developed at the time when God raised Him up, and gave Him glory, and seated Him at His own right hand. Christ has been invested with the uncontrolled administration of the moral government of the world. He exerts and displays His kingly power-- (1) by subduing His people unto Himself;(2) by ruling and defending them;(3) by restraining and confining their enemies, who set themselves in opposition to the accomplishment of His purposes. II. Practical application. To receive Christ in His different offices is just to act in the manner in which the contemplation of Him in His different characters is fitted to lead us to adopt. Advert to the encouraging and consolatory reflections which the contemplation of Christ’ s supreme dominion is fitted to call forth with reference to the general state of His visible Church, and the interests of religion in the world. (W. Cunningham, D. D.) The King and the kingdom I. The character of this King.1. His sovereignty; as appears from prophecy, types, titles, enemies, and strangers. 2. His attestations of royalty; His enthronement, throne, coronation, sceptre, laws, courts, officers, power, and His universal sway. 3. His characters and qualifications. An ancient, wise, righteous, gracious, sympathising, rich, present, invisible and immortal, independent, warlike, glorious King. II. The Kingdom. “ My holy hill of Zion.” It denotes a place of safety; a place of society, of unity, of commerce; a free orderly, peaceable, warlike, beautiful kingdom. It is called Christ’ s kingdom, because dwells there; He built it; He governs it; it is His property, and the inhabitants are His. III. Why the Father constituted Christ the King of His zion. This springs out of His sovereign love to Him; to advance His own glory; to save His own people. Because Christ could sustain it, and when lost He redeemed it. IV. The improvement intended.1. To the inhabitants. Follow the example of your Prince. Trust your all in His care. Constantly surround His throne. Rejoice in His presence. Obey His commandments; and rest always in His love. 2. To His enemies. You oppose Him, but He will subdue you. You reject Him and He will reject you. You are miserable in this life, and will be in the next, unless His Spirit gain the victory over you. (T. B. Baker.) Christ’ s kingdom Jesus is King as well as Saviour. He requires subjects. They must know something of the nature, as well as the duties, of His kingdom. Two important questions call for consideration: What are the characteristics of Christ’ s kingdom, and what relation do we individually sustain toward it? I. Christ’ s kingdom enjoys the approval and sanction of God. He declares, “ Yet have I set My King upon My holy hill of Zion.” Jesus comes to the throne in an orderly way. He is no usurper. He rules in harmony with the will, and by “ the decree” of Him who is Lord of all. II. Christ is King by inheritance. He is God’ s “ Son,” His “ only begotten Son,” and so is entitled to rule, III. Christ, as King, proclaims His authority: “ The Lord hath said.” he administers the affairs of government as one divinely endowed. He is Divine, and so possessed of omniscience and omnipotence. IV. His is an extensive kingdom: “ The heathen,” or the nations, “ are given Him for an inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for a possession.” V. His is a judicial, as well as a saving kingdom: His enemies shall be broken with “ a rod of iron,” and dashed “ to pieces like a potter’ s vessel,” which, made of clay, cannot withstand forced contact with the hard ground. VI. Earth’ s forces antagonise Christ’ s kingdom.1. The heathen rise up in opposition to it.2. It is subject to popular machinations for its overthrow.3. Men in high station and leaders in public opinion conspire against it. VII. Christ’ s is a victorious kingdom. “ The Lord” and His “ anointed,” or the Messiah, are independent of hostile agencies. “ He that sitteth in the heavens shall have them in derision.” He, however, gives them reminders of His presence and power, speaking at times to “ them in His Wrath,” and at other times vexing “ them in His sore displeasure.” A kingdom so Divine, so potential, so extensive, and so gracious is not to be treated with indifference. It bears upon every person in the wide universe of God. It concerns man’ s weal or woe. Its proper consideration demands of us personally--1. Wise action.2. Due enlightenment.3. Judicious service.4. Considerate delight.5. Timely subjection.6. Implicit trustfulness. (H. M. Patterson, D. D.) The King in Zion The following points determine the principal features of the picture which the Psalmist draws for us. In the centre is the King of Zion. All around Him is the raging crowd of rebels and conspirators, who have set themselves against high heaven, and who will overturn His throne if they can do it. In His struggle with these enemies of righteousness He is to exercise a double power: a power of blessing and a power of condemnation. By the exercise of this dual power He is at length to conquer completely. It does not require a very vivid imagination to find in the history of the past eighteen hundred years the colours and the figures which are wanting to fill out, in part at least, this prophetic sketch of the progress of Christ’ s kingdom here upon earth. Take, for example, the conflict which Christ has been waging against evil. It is evident that the Church has emerged from her darkest days into the first clear shining of her millennial glory. How has the King in Zion achieved His triumph? He was endowed at the outset with a power to bless and a power to destroy. His office was to be not only that of a Saviour King, but a kingly Judge. This is the dual character in which they who look for His second coming have always expected He would appear. With Christ came a new sense of sin and evil. Christ flashes His light into the soul, and there comes the discrimination between the good the bad. We are receiving approval or condemnation for every act done in the body now. The parable of the sheep and the goats is being enacted now, every day: Judgment is one of the most solemn facts of this present life. (C. A. Dickinson.) The enemies of Christ I. The enemies of Christ. Great men described here partly from their wickedness, and partly from their weakness. They imagine vain things, but cannot carry then: out. II. Christ the Lord. The prophet brings in God the Father speaking, and the Son answering. The words of the Father are, “ I have set My King” ; where we have the inauguration of Christ, or His calling to the crown: the answer of the Son, “ I will preach the law,” which sets forth His willing obedience to publish and proclaim the laws of the kingdom: the reply of the Father, containing the reward that Christ was to have upon the publication of the gospel; which was an addition to His empire, by the conversion and access of the Gentiles, and the confusion of His enemies. III. Admonition to the princes and judges of the earth. What are they taught? To know their duty, and to do it. And the time for doing it is now. The reason is double, drawn from His wrath and the consequent punishment, and from the happy condition of those who learn to know Him, and fear, and serve, and adore Him. (William Nicholson.) Christ the fulfilment of prophecy On an artist’ s table some colours are lying. You glance at them, and that is all, for to you they have no meaning. A month after you come in, and you are attracted by a beautiful picture. The picture has been painted with the colours you saw before, but how different it is now when they are harmoniously blended. So Jesus Christ gathers into harmony in Himself the before ill-understood prophecies and types of the Old Testament; only then we see what they fully rueful. Christ the King Dean Stubbs says, “ When I was in Florence a year or two ago I saw on the outside of the town hall the sacred monogram, marking the spot where in former days were the words, ‘ Jesus Christ, appointed by the Senate the King of the Florentines.’ And on the battlements of the tower I could still read the Latin inscription referring to the same event, ‘ Jesus Christ, the King of Glory; He conquers, He reigns, He rules.’” By a solemn civic act the old Florentines chose Christ as the King of their city, and we shall never know personal, social, or civic progress until we too give Him the preeminence. Psalms 2:7I will declare the decree.The Lord’ s decree There is nothing in the economy of life and civilisation that is haphazard. Before all things and round about them as a glory and defence is the Lord’ s “ decree.” Under all disorder is law. The law is first beneficent, and then retributive. It is beneficent because it contemplates the recovery and sanctification of the heathen and the uttermost parts of the earth. It is retributive because if this offer of enclosure and honour is rejected, those who despise it shall be broken with a rod of iron, and dashed to pieces like a potter’ s vessel. In the study of the world’ s constitution and movement, look first of all at the Lord’ s “ decree,” the Lord’ s idea and purpose. Settle it that the decree is good, merciful, redemptive, and then judge everything in the light of that fact. If you were judging of a national constitution you would not pronounce it bad became of its prisons; you would, on the contrary, pronounce it good for that very reason. You would know that there was a strong authority in that land, and that the authority was good, because it imprisoned and rebuked the workers of evil. So the rod of iron attests the holiness of God, and hell itself shows that virtue is honoured of heaven. (Joseph Parker, D. D.) The Lord hath said unto Me, Thou art My Son.--Demonstration of sonship At the beginning of the Book of Psalms God gave to the Church a vision of the triumphs of Messiah before that of His sufferings and death. The prospect cheers as we enter the gloom. “ My King” was also “ My Son.” This was determined by the resurrection, as the crowning act of redemption. It was the resurrection which made manifest to the world that Jesus of Nazareth was the Eternal Son of Jehovah. I. The resurrection of the blessed Lord was the final attestation of His Divine mission and in one sense the strongest. Proof after proof was afforded that He was the Son of God; but without the resurrection the chain of evidence was not complete. The life was restored, not through the instrumentality of a prophet, but because He was the Son of God. II. The resurrection is the life of the Church. The disciples were scattered by the storm of the crucifixion. The dispersion would have been final had it not been for the word He had said, “ The third day He shall rise again.” A new departure was taken at the sight of the living Lord. The commission of the apostles was given in the light of the resurrection. They were to be accompanied by both His power and His presence. There must be the living Christ in the sermon, to make the truth effectual; in the ordinances, to render them spiritual; in the services, to inspire them into life; and in the conduct, to cause its light to shine on a dark world. III. The resurrection of the blessed Lord is the Christian’ s strength and hope. A very exalted conception of redemption should be entertained. It is the gift of God to the Eternal Son. When the living Saviour is at our side we have power to carry our burdens, and to resist the devil. (Weekly Pulpit.) Preaching the law I. The general matter of the sermon. It is a law. What manner of law? A law to be preached, as other laws used not to be. A law concerning what God said. Which is the reason why it is to be preached. Not a law at large, but a statute law (Elchok), which but by publishing none can take notice of. II. The text itself. Or the body of the law. In these words, “ Thou art My Son, this day have I begotten Thee. The points in it are five. Of a son. Of My Son, (that is) the Son of God. Genui, the Son of God begotten. Hodie, the Son of God this day begotten. And “ dixit genui,” (that is) “ dicendo genuit,” begotten only by saying. Only said the word and it was done, and the word became flesh. III. How can this (Thou art My Son) be called a law? It does not look like one. There be but two laws--1. Lex fidei; a law limiting what to believe of Him: of His person, His nature, and His offices. 2. Lex factorum; setting out first, what He doth for us; and then, what we are to do for Him. What He doth for us is, convey all filial rights. What we are to do for Him is, return to Him all filial duties. (Bishop Andrewes.) Psalms 2:8 Ask of Me, and I shall give Thee the heathen for Thine inheritance.The Church aroused to the missionary work I. The Lord’ s intercession, in reference to missionary enterprise. The great object of missionary enterprise is the subject of our Saviour’ s intercession. The object is the diffusion of the knowledge of Christianity throughout the world; that by means of the knowledge of Christianity, accompanied by the influence of the Divine Spirit, mankind of all nations may be converted to the faith and obedience of Christ, and be made wise, and happy, and good through Him. It is but natural to suppose that what was the leading design of our Lord in becoming incarnate, and suffering, and dying should be a subject of His intercessory prayers. Missionary enterprise, in the grand means by which these objects are to be effected, is one of the principal subjects of our Lord’ s intercessions. Secondary means are varied; the primary means is the Divine influence. In proportion to the degree in which this is communicated, missionary enterprise is prosperous; in proportion to the degree in which it is withheld, it languishes. And the communication of Divine influence was a leading object of our Lord’ s atonement, and must be a leading subject of His intercession. II. The dignity and importance of missionary enterprise. It is a clear proof of the estimation in which our Lord holds missionary enterprise, that it is the subject of constant intercession with His Father. In endeavouring to promote missionary enterprise we are doing something that is very pleasing to our Lord and Saviour. We may be sure that we shall have all the assistance that is necessary in order to perform our duty in reference to this undertaking. And the fact of our Lord’ s intercession gives us the most abundant assurance that this undertaking will ultimately be completely successful. (John Brown, A. M.) Prayer glorified by Christ’ s example It became Jesus to ask. Though He was a Son, yet learned He obedience. Many objections are made to prayer. Some of them are specious, but all are founded on ignorance. The best way to meet them is to take our stand on the Scriptures. God did not dispense with prayer, even in the ease of His Son. Therefore, how much more not with us. But how was He to ask? On earth He prayed like us. In heaven He continues His prayer. And here, through His people, He prays. And His prayers and ours rest on His atonement. Therefore He asks in His own name, and we in His. Let us be encouraged to pray. But let our prayers lead us to active endeavour. We cannot labour in vain. (W. Jay.) The heathen for Christ Here is a wonderful donation. The giver is Jehovah, the receiver is the world’ s Redeemer, and the gift is the heathen world--mighty populations lying outside of the Judaean realm. What an inheritance is this, and it is given to Christ! I. This vast inheritance is given Him to cultivate.1. This inheritance is worth cultivation. It is most prolific, its potential value is immense. It will grow the highest wisdom and the noblest virtues. Sages, poets, orators, apostles lie there by millions. 2. The cultivation of this inheritance has been sadly neglected. The fences are destroyed, the surface is crusted and overrun with thorns and thistles and noxious weeds. 3. Christ alone is able to cultivate it. Others have tried, but failed. Christ gives to the soul of heathendom that which it wants, and that which none other can give--1. A Deity in which all hearts can unite in supreme love.2. A creed in which all intellects can repose with unwavering confidence.3. A law which all consciences can approve without suspicion.4. An enterprise in which all souls can work without hesitancy or lack of interest. II. This vast inheritance is given Him to enjoy. It is a possession of immense value. It will be His as the reward of His mediatorial work. When its vast wildernesses will bloom as Edens, “ He will see of the travail of His soul and be satisfied.” What a joy will be His! Think of the joy of the husbandman surveying in autumn his fields bearing the richest crops of golden grain. Think of me joy of the patriot when he beholds the rebellious provinces bowing again in loyalty to the sovereignty of his country. Think of the joy of the philanthropist in seeing his benevolent efforts crowned with success in the removal of diseases that afflict the body or tyrannies that crush the man. (Homilist.) Christ’ s inheritance I. Christ is decreed to be the Son of Jehovah. As such He is both Priest and King. “ Christ toward us,” says Gurnall, “ acts as a King, but toward His Father as a Priest.” II. As the Son He is promised an inheritance. This inheritance includes all the nations of the earth. III. But though He is a King and has a promised inheritance, yet His government is to be established by the use of means.1. These means are the means of grace.2. These are to be offered to every creature on the earth.3. We live in that epoch of the world’ s history when the Church is actively engaged in having all men reconciled to the Son through the preaching of the gospel. IV. The time will come when His enemies will be subdued.1. The Church, therefore, should be diligent in the performances of its present duties.2. The world should heed the offers of grace ere it be too late.3. Blessed are all they that put their trust in Him.4. Let us wait upon God in prayer for the fulfilment of His promise to give the Son the heathen for His inheritance. (L. O. Thompson.) The uttermost parts of the earth for Thy possession.--Final triumph of Christianity This assured-- I. By the promises of the Bible, which are many, explicit, positive, and world-embracing. II. By the Divine origin and character of Christianity. Christianity is on trial; if it fails to fulfil its promises, then it will be demonstrated that it is not of God. III. By the measure of success which it has already achieved. There is nothing comparable with it. It saves “ the chief of sinners.” It transforms savages, demons, into saints. Christianity thus stands committed to the achievement of universal dominion. (J. M. Sherwood, D. D.) Prayer for missions I believe I am speaking to the right people when I ask you to pray. Unprayed for, I feel very much as if a diver were sent down to the bottom of a river with no air to breathe, or as if a fireman were sent up to a blazing building and held an empty hose; I feel very much as a soldier who is firing blank cartridge at an enemy, and so I ask you earnestly to pray that the gospel may take saving and working effect on the minds of those men to whose notice it has been introduced by us. (James Gilmour.) Universal dominion of Christ The boldest thought ever suggested to the human mind is Christ’ s proposition to convert this world to Himself. For originality of conception, simplicity of method, and certainty of result it has no parallel in the world of thought. Bolder than the dream of the Macedonian to conquer all kingdoms by his sword, than the purpose of the Roman to unify all governments into one, than the hope of Leibnitz to create a universal language for this our babbling race, it stands forth sublime in its isolation, to excite our admiration, inflame our zeal, invite our cooperation, and inspire our faith in the future of mankind. (J. P. Newman.) Psalms 2:9 Break them with a rod of iron.Jehovah’ s iron rod This cannot mean that Messiah’ s sway is a kingdom of force, but only that His enemies can no more withstand His power than an earthen vessel can withstand the blows of an iron rod. His only weapons of assault are truth and love; and if human power and institutions crumble at their touch and pass away, it is because there is something radically evil and defective in them. The northern oceans are often filled with mountains of ice, reaching not only far down into the deep, but towering also to the very clouds, and threatening to crush to atoms everything with which they come into collision. Nevertheless, how soon do a few days of the light and heat of the sun rob them of their strength, leaving the frailest barque to speed on its way over unobstructed waters! It is in this way that the Sun of Righteousness operates. By light and heat and truth and love He clears the way over the frozen oceans of human life, for the onward progress of the ark of His salvation to the haven where it would be. The only way in which Messiah can be said to break His enemies with a rod of iron, and dash them in pieces like a potter’ s vessel, is His leaving them to the natural and fearful destruction that flows from resisting truth and love, the two great laws of His kingdom, and indeed the two great laws of all well-being. (David Caldwell, A. M.) Thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’ s vessel. The power and triumph of the kingdom of Christ All things are at God’ s disposal--all nations, all men, collectively and individually. It is God who plants and destroys; it is He who builds up and pulls down. We learn from the Psalm that all things are at the disposal of God the Son. God the Father has given to Him the heathen for His inheritance,. . .and He shall break them with a rod of iron, He shall dash them in pieces like a potter’ s vessel. In Isaiah it is said (Isaiah 60:12), “ For the nation and kingdom that shall not serve Thee shall perish; yea, those nations shall be utterly wasted.” The Canaanites, the Egyptians, the Babylonians, the Persians, the Greeks, the Romans would not serve God, and they have perished. Kingdoms which will not serve Christ must be destroyed to make way for those who will serve Him. The kingdom of Christ will, sooner or later, swallow up all other kingdoms. The power of Christ’ s kingdom, the power of His Word, is in a measure conferred upon His believing people. Christ has given to His believing people great power and influence in the earth. The Word of God is powerful; it is irresistible. If the Word of God be once deeply rooted in the hearts of a people it there abideth forever. God has wonderfully shielded England from danger ever since His Word became deeply rooted ill the land. God breaks the power of ungodly nations that He may break men’ s hearts of stone. He destroys the kingdoms of this world in order to establish and enlarge the kingdom of this dear Son. To change the heart is the work of God. He must go with the missionaries. But much depends on our faith--our faith in God’ s promises. (R. Bickerdike, M. A.) The powers of evil broken Rods of iron crashing down upon the heads of men, dashing them in pieces like a potter’ s vessel, are figures of speech that seem to be very unlike the merciful methods of entreaty and persuasion by which Christ’ s kingdom is advanced on the earth; but we have need to remember that the Saviour is also the Judge. Not only in the future world, but also in this, history shows that the fate of nations has been determined by their attitude to Christ. While with individuals force is never to be employed as an instrument to conquer opposition, it is equally certain that in the providence of God antagonism to God’ s will inevitably leads a nation ultimately to its destruction. Though the hand that smites it is hidden behind political movements, in which perhaps nothing can be seen save the passions of men urging them into conflict, yet when the smoke of the battlefield has rolled away, and the strife has ended, there stands out this great truth: “ Thou dashest them in pieces like a potter’ s vessel.” Nothing that sets itself against the Christ of God can ever last. (E. R. Barrett, B. A.) Psalms 2:10 Be wise now therefore, O ye kings.Heavenly wisdom Wisdom is the mind’ s eye, by which she wyeth into all the secrets of nature and mysteries of State, and discerneth between good and evil, and prudently guideth all the affairs of life, as the helm doth a ship. She is the chief of the four cardinal virtues; and may rightly be termed the hinge that turns them all about. There are these four virtues--wisdom to direct, justice to correct, temperance to abstain, fortitude to sustain. Wisdom giveth a good relish to virtue. Discretion is the salt of all our actions, without which nothing that is done or spoken is savoury. What doth pregnancy of wit, or maturity of judgment, or felicity of memory, or variety of reading, or multiplicity of observation, or gracefulness of delivery, speed a man that wanteth wisdom and discretion to use them? In Scriptures a fourfold wisdom is mentioned. Godly wisdom is piety. Worldly wisdom is policy. Fleshly wisdom is sensuality. Devilish wisdom is mischievous subtlety. Of this heavenly light, this godly wisdom, we will display four beams--1. To begin with our end, and to provide for our eternal estate after this life, in the first place. 2. To inform ourselves certainly how we stand in the court of heaven: whether God’ s countenance shine upon us, or there be a cloud betwixt it and us. 3. To consider what infirmities or maladies of mind our natural constitution, state, place, or profession, or course of life maketh us most subject unto, and to furnish ourselves with store of remedies against them. To mark where we lie most open to temptation, and there to have our watch ready. 4. To observe the carriage of all affairs in this great city of the world, and to set a mark upon God’ s wonderful protection and care over the godly, and His fearful judgments upon the wicked. (D. Featley, D. D.) Psalms 2:11 Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Antagonistic forces The scientist tells us that the laws of nature are arranged on the principle of antagonistic forces; and it is somewhat thus with the laws of the Christian life. I. The two states of feeling referred to.1. Fear. There are two kinds, servile and filial. The latter is indicated here. A noble sensitiveness, an anxious consciousness, a salutary apprehensiveness. 2. “ And rejoice with trembling,” that is, with diffidence. II. These two states of feeling are not incompatible. They are only apparently so. How often in nature contradictory materials and forces blend--hydrogen and oxygen, nitrogen and oxygen. Attraction and repulsion are really complementary, and not contradictory. III. They are essential to the security and development of the Christian life. They not only may, but ought, to exist together.1. We ought to fear. The brighter the star the more it trembles. 2. And we ought to rejoice. “ Fear without joy is torment, and joy without holy fear would be presumption.” (W. L. Watkinson.) The reverence due to Divine Providence Fear, very necessary for us all. Yet not inordinate fear. Religion regulates it and God’ s Word cautions us against superstitious terrors (Jeremiah 10:2-3). But we are to take notice of what He does and learn His will thereby. Many fail to do this by the common events of His providence; hence special and extraordinary ones are, at times, sent to us. Men avoid the lessons of them. They say “ They did not do us harm.” But others may come and destroy you. And is not the fact of such forbearance a reason for not despising them? “ But they are natural,” say others, And are not life and death natural? Terror alone is of no use, but generally the first motive of reformation. “ But our dangers do not proceed from our sins: we are no worse than others” --so speak some. Are we sure that we are not greater sinners than others? Think of our national sins. Some would fly away from God’ s judgments. Fly from your iniquities, if you would be safe. Some are afraid to express their convictions lest the world despise them. But take care lest our Lord’ s words concerning them who deny Him before men apply to you. You are not called to forsake your proper duties, nor even relaxations, but your absorption in these things. Fear not man. The good will not shun you. Let the rest do so. Examine your state of heart. All is well if that be right with God. If not, humble yourself before Hint. (T. Secker.) Divine service I. The universal obligation. “ No man liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself.” We cannot even die without affecting others, much less can we live without influencing to a greater or less degree the condition and character of those by whom we are surrounded. This is not merely a fact, it is a law. There may be individual unwillingness, as in the case of a miser; or the principle may be socially counter-wrought. All classes unite in working for the common good; knowing it or not, whether they be willing or not, all serve the state-unity which they compose. In the language of the text, the business of all created life is to “ serve the Lord.” II. Particular obedience.1. To serve God consciously. 2. To serve God reverently. Think how great and how good a Master! Our particular place and work may be humble; yet the whole is sublime. Angels, free from all distraction in the sinless world, are working at the grander parts; our work and theirs are yet to be brought together. Ours, therefore, must be our very best, or better be left undone. 3. To serve God fearfully. As having failed, and yet having been forgiven. As having promised better things, and yet as knowing ourselves weak; and finally, as bearing in mind the testing time. (J. M. Stott, M. A.) Christian reverence In a Christian’ s course fear and love must go together. In heaven, love will absorb fear. No one now can love God aright without fearing Him. Self-confident men, who do not know their own hearts, or the reasons they have for being dissatisfied with themselves, do not fear God, and they think this bold freedom is to love Him. Deliberate sinners fear, but cannot love Him. But devotion to Him consists in love and fear, as we may understand from our ordinary attachment to each other. No one really loves another who does not feel a certain reverence towards him. It is mutual respect which makes friendship lasting. So again in the feelings of inferiors towards superiors. Fear must go before love. Till he who has authority shows he has it and can use it, his forbearance will not be valued truly: his kindness will look like weakness. We learn to contemn what we do not fear, and we cannot love what we contemn. So in religion also, We cannot understand Christ’ s mercies till we understand His power, His glory, His unspeakable holiness, and our demerits; that is, until we first fear Him. Not that fear comes first, and then love; for the most part they will proceed together. Fear is allayed by the love of Him, and our love sobered by our fear of Him. Thus He draws us on with encouraging voice amid the terrors of His threatenings. Are we in danger of speaking or thinking of Christ irreverently? We may not be in danger of deliberate profaneness, but we are in danger of this, namely, of allowing ourselves to appear profane, and of gradually becoming irreverent while we are pretending to be so. Careless language cannot be continued without its affecting the heart at last. Men become the cold, indifferent, profane characters they professed themselves to be. (J. H. Newman, B. D.) Rejoice with trembling. The mixture of joy and fear in religion Joy and fear are two great springs of human action. The mixed condition of this world gives scope for both. Each of them possesses a proper place in religion. Under the present imperfection of human nature each of these principles may be carried to a dangerous extreme. When the whole of religion is placed in joy it is in hazard of rising into unwarrantable rapture. When it rests altogether on fear it degenerates into superstitious servility. Joy tempered with fear is the proper disposition of a good man. I. Joy is essential to religion. Religion inspires joy. It confers the two most material requisites of joy, a favourable situation of things without and a proper disposition of mind within. It infuses those mild and gentle dispositions whose natural effect is to smooth the temper of the soul. Benevolence and candour, moderation and temperance, wherever they reign, produce cheerfulness and serenity, The consciousness of integrity gives ease and freedom to the mind. As religion inspires joy, so what it inspires it commands us to cherish. Religious obedience, destitute of joy, is not genuine in its principle. We serve with pleasure the benefactor whom we love. Exclude joy from religion and you leave no other motives to it, except compulsion and interest. As religion destitute of joy is imperfect in its principle, so in practice it must be unstable. In vain you endeavour to fix any man to the regular performance of that in which he finds no pleasure. Bind him ever so fast by interest or fear, he will contrive some method of eluding the obligation. Estimate, therefore, the genuineness of your religious principles; estimate the degree of your stability in religious practice, by the degree of your satisfaction in piety and virtue. II. When we rejoice we should rejoice with trembling.1. Because all the objects of religion which afford ground for joy tend to inspire, at the same time, reverence and fear. 2. As joy, tempered by fear, suits the nature of religion, so it is requisite for the proper regulation of the conduct of man. Let his joy flow from the best and purest source, yet, if it remain long unmixed, it is apt to become dangerous to virtue, It is wisely ordered in our present state that joy and fear, hope and grief should act alternately as checks and balances upon each other, in order to prevent all excess in any of them which our nature could not bear. 3. The unstable condition of all human beings, naturally inspires fear in the midst of joy. Vicissitudes of good and evil, of trials and consolations, fill up man’ s life. Whether we consider life or death, time or eternity, all things appear to concur in giving to man the admonition of the text, “ rejoice with trembling.” (Hugh Blair, D. D.) Psalms 2:12 Kiss the Son, lest He be angry.The symbol of the kiss I. Our duty. “ Kiss the Son.” An expression of love. To whom? The Son of God. The testimony of our love to this person is the kiss. This outward act has been diversely depraved and vitiated amongst men. It hath been ill-used. See cases of Joab with Amasa, and Judas with Christ. Treachery often, but licentiousness more, hath depraved this seal of love; and yet God stoops even to the words of our foul and unchaste love, that thereby He might raise us to the heavenly love of Himself and His Son. In innocent and harmless times persons near in blood did kiss one another. There is no person so near of kin to thee as Jesus Christ. The kiss was also in use as a recognition of sovereignty and power. There is the kiss of reconciliation. They kissed in reverence, in the olden times, even false gods. II. Our fear. “ Lest He be angry.” Anger and love, in God, are not incompatible. Anger consists with love. If God gave me nothing for my love I should not love Him, nor fear Him if He were not angry at my displeasing Him. Even the Son, whom we may kiss, may be angry. (John Donne.) An earnest invitation I. The command. A kiss has divers meanings in it, progressive meanings--1. It is a kiss of reconciliation, a sign of enmity removed and of peace established. 2. A kiss of allegiance and homage. It is an Eastern custom for subjects to kiss the feet of the king. Christ requires of every man who would be saved that he shall yield to His government and rule. Salvation cannot be cut in twain, If you would have justification you must have sanctification too. If your sins are pardoned they must be abhorred. You must give Him the kiss of fealty, of homage, and loyalty, and take Him to be your King. 3. It is the kiss of worship. It was the custom for idolaters to kiss the god which they foolishly adored. The commandment is that we should give to Christ Divine worship. 4. There is another meaning which is the sweetest of all. It is the kiss of penitent love; of deep and sincere affection. II. The argument. “ Lest He be angry,” etc. When He is angry it is anger that none can match. What a fearful conjunction of terms--“ the wrath of the Lamb.” III. The benediction. “ Blessed are all they that put their trust in Him.”1. They are really blessed. It is no fiction, no imaginary blessing. It is a blessing that will stand the test of consideration, the test of life and the trial of death. 2. They have a conscious blessedness. They know what it is to be blessed in their troubles, for they are in their trials comforted; and they are blest in their joys, for their joys are sanctified. 3. They are increasingly blessed. Their blessedness grows. They are blessed the more their experience widens, and their knowledge deepens, and their love increases. They are blessed in the hour of death, and best of all their blessedness increases to eternal blessedness--the perfection of the saints at the right hand of God. (C. H. Spurgeon.) A timely remonstrance The words were spoken, to those who had wilfully opposed the reign of our Saviour, the Son of God, the Lord’ s anointed. They had determined to reject Him. Hence the warning--“ Be wise now, therefore; be instructed; do listen a little.” Every wise man, before he commits himself to defend or withstand a policy, would make quite sure, as far as human judgment can, whether it be right or wrong; to be desired or to be deprecated. These words were spoken to those who ought to have been wise--to kings and judges of the earth. We are none of us so wise but we may profit by a little more instruction. He that cannot learn from a fool is a fool himself. The text has an especial reference to those who are thoughtless and careless about their best interests. People do not think. Some of them bold to the religion of their ancestors, whatever that may be. Not conviction, but tradition shapes their ends. Others are of the religion of the circle in which they live. Man seems to think of everything but of his God, to read everything but his Bible. Oh, when will men consider? The advice given in the text is--“ rebel no more against God.” You have done so some of you, actively and wilfully, others of you by ignoring His claims and utterly neglecting His will. It is not right to continue in this rebellious state. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Here is the pith of the advice--“ Kiss the Son, pay Him homage; yield the affectionate fealty of your hearts to the Son of God.” Between you and the great King there is an awful breach. God will deal with you through His Son. You must have an advocate. This advice is urgent. How is this advice pressed home upon us. The vanity of any other course is made palpable. The claims of the Son are presented. The exhortation is backed up with bright and beautiful congratulations for those who yield to it. “ Blessed are all they who put their trust in Him.” (C. H. Spurgeon.) The soul’ s kiss (to children) The first three verses give a life-like picture of a great mob or riot. The kings of the earth become unkingly, and join the rabble against the Lord and His anointed. From the tenth verse Jehovah gives advice to all on the earth. I. What it is to kiss the Son. When you kiss your mother it is a sign of love. When a friend brings you a present, you speak your thanks with a kiss. A kiss, then, is a sign of grateful love. A kiss is in some countries a sign of loyalty. In England the hand of the sovereign is kissed. To kiss the Son means much. You thereby give Him your all, and get it back with His goodwill. True loyalty is without selfishness, and without stint. Loyalty never means, how little can I do for my king? It asks only how much? II. Why you should kiss the Son. Because Christ’ s foes are under God’ s wrath. In this Psalm David shows us the terrors of God, so that fear may drive us to Him. And because Christ’ s friends are blessed. Blessed every way and blessed always. It is as plain as day that if all kissed the Son the most of our miseries would straightway cease. Count up all the ills of life, and then ask how many of them could continue if the Spirit of Christ ruled in every heart. But the true subjects of the King are not all blessed in the same way. God does promise that, come what may, all who kiss the Son shall be blessed. The curse and the blessing unite to add force to the appeal, “ Kiss the Son.” (James Wells, M. A.) Christ’ s wrath kindled You have heard of the prairie burning. The traveller has lit his fire and dropped a spark--the fire is kindled but a little, and a small circle of flame is formed. You cannot judge what will be the mighty catastrophe, when the sheet of flame shall cover half the continent. But mark that when it is kindled “ but a little,” it is enough to utterly destroy, for they shall perish from the way. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Blessed are all they who put their trust in Him. The blessedness of trusting in God Whether this Psalm has a primary respect to David, and the establishment of his kingdom on Mount Zion, or should be entirely referred to Messiah, is a point on which expositors are not agreed. The passage is quoted and expressly applied to Christ by the whole college of apostles, after they had received the plenary inspiration of the Holy Spirit. The act of trust is so familiar to all that it requires no explanation. Two things are implied in trusting. A conviction of need and a sense of dependence. A persuasion of the goodwill, ability, and fidelity of the person in whom we trust. The exercise of a saving faith is not more frequently expressed by any term than by trust. Man is so dependent on Providence for the common blessings of this life that trust in God for these is the state of mind which is becoming. In regard to spiritual and eternal blessings, our dependence is still greater; for man has already lost the favour of God, and has fallen under His dreadful curse. The inability of his heart and will, so far from furnishing any excuse to the sinner is the chief ground of his criminality. A three-fold misery is common to all the children of Adam--blindness, deadness, guilt. To qualify himself as a physician to cure the threefold malady, Christ has assumed as Mediator a threefold office, namely--of a prophet, priest, and king; and in this threefold office the sinner must trust in Him for salvation. All men need a refuge to which they may flee for safety; and happy are they who have been so made sensible of their danger and misery that they are anxiously seeking a place of safety. They cannot escape by their own wisdom or power, and no other creature has ability to rescue them from ruin. Whither, then, shall they turn? There is no hope but in the gospel of salvation. Sin cannot escape punishment in the just government of a holy God. But sin may be punished in an adequate substitute. It has been punished in our Divine Surety. The satisfaction is complete. Trust in the Redeemer supposes that He has manifested in some way a willingness to save us. In order that trust have a firm foundation it is requisite that there should be explicit promises of relief. Such promises are especially necessary in the case of the sinner. We find the gospel full of kind invitations and gracious promises to all who will come and receive salvation as a free gift. The first views of faith are not always clear; commonly the first light is like that of the dawn, which gradually increases. They who have once found Christ, and trusted in Him, however they may be tossed with temptations or distressed by doubts of their acceptance, never think of any refuge but Christ; they never attempt to build on another foundation. The believer also trusts in Christ for future help and future good. As to the blessedness of those who trust in the Redeemer, we note--1. They have received the forgiveness of sin.2. They have the indwelling of the Spirit of God.3. They are the special care of Divine Providence.4. They enjoy inward peace.5. When they leave the world they shall be blessed in the open vision of God’ s glory. They shall be perfectly cleansed from the pollutions of sin, and when they shall see their Saviour they shall be like Him, for they shall see Him as He is. (A. Alexander, D. D.) . Psalms 3:1-8 Psalms 3:1-8 Lord, how are they increased that trouble me.Morning thoughts With returning day there comes back on the monarch’ s heart the recollection of the enemies who threaten him, a nation up in arms against him; his own son heading the rebellion, his wisest and most trusted counsellor in the ranks of his foes (2 Samuel 15:1-37; 2 Samuel 16:1-23; 2 Samuel 17:1-29). Never, not even when hunted by Saul, had he found his position one of greater danger. The odds are overwhelmingly against him. This is a fact which he does not attempt to hide from himself: “ How many are mine enemies.” Meanwhile, where are his friends, his army, his counsellors? Not a word of allusion to any of them in the Psalm. Yet he is not crushed, he is not desponding. Enemies may be as thick as leaves of the forest, and earthly friends may be few, or uncertain, or far off. But there is one Friend who cannot fail him, and to Him David turns with a confidence and an affection which lilt him above all his fears. Never had he been more sensible of the reality and preciousness of the Divine protection. If he was surrounded by enemies, Jehovah was his shield. If Shimei and his crew turned his glory into shame, Jehovah was his glory; if they sought to revile and degrade him, Jehovah was the lifter up of his head. Nor did the mere fact of distance from Jerusalem separate between him and his God. He had sent back the ark and the priests, for he knew that God could still hear him from “ His holy mountain” (Psalms 3:4), could still lilt up the light of His countenance upon him, and put gladness in his heart (Psalms 4:6-7). Sustained by Jehovah, he had lain him down and slept in safety; trusting in the same mighty protection, he would lie down again to rest. Enemies might taunt, and friends might fail him, but the victory was Jehovah’ s, and He could break the teeth of the ungodly (3:7, 8). (J. J. S. Perowne.) A morning hymn The Psalm falls into four strophes; three of which are marked by “ Selah.”1. Verses 1, 2: The Psalmist recounts his enemies. As a morning Psalm this is touchingly true to experience. The first waking thought is often a renewed inrush of the trouble which sleep had for a time dammed back. His enemies are many, and they taunt him as forsaken of God. The Psalmist is finding refuge from fears and foes, even in telling how many there are, since he begins his complaint with “ Jehovah.” Without that word the exclamations of his first strophe are the voice of cowardice or despair. With it they are calmed into the appeal of trust. The Selah here is probably a direction for an instrumental interlude while the singer pauses. 2. Verses 3, 4: The utterance of faith, based on experience, laying hold of Jehovah as defence. By an effort of will the Psalmist rises from the contemplation of surrounding enemies to that of the encircling Jehovah. This harassed man flings himself out of the coil of troubles round about him, and looks up to God. He sees in Him precisely what he needs at the moment, for in that infinite nature is fulness corresponding to all emptiness of ours. How comes this sudden burst of confidence to lighten the complaining soul? Verse 4 tells. Experience has taught him that as often as he cries to Jehovah he is heard. The tenses in Psalms 3:4 express a habitual act and a constant result. 3. Verses 5, 6 beautifully express the tranquil courage that comes from trust. “ Surrounded by enemies, he was quite safe under God’ s protection, and exposed to no peril even in the night.” This suits the situation pointed to in the superscription of the Psalm. 4. Verses 7, 8 give the culmination of faith in prayer. “ Arise, Jehovah” is quoted from the ancient invocation (Numbers 10:35), and expresses in strongly anthropomorphic form the desire for some interposition of Divine power. Fearlessness is not so complete that the Psalmist is beyond the need of praying. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) The number of a man’ s foes When a man’ s enemies increase fit number the man should bethink himself, for surely they will not increase without reason. This is a matter which cannot be decided without careful consideration. It is no argument against a man that his enemies are millions strong, nor is it any argument in favour of a man that his friends are at least equal in number. At the same time, it may be spiritually educative and useful to consider why there are so many enemies. Enmity may be founded on jealousy, or envy, or opposition of conviction; or upon assurance that the individual against whom the enmity is directed is pursuing a mischievous course. It is for the man himself to retire within the sanctuary of his own conscience, to discover his moral purpose in everything, and, according as his integrity can be proved to stand fast even in solitude and desolation. But there is a self-analysis that is irreligious. It is conducted upon wrong principles, and the conductor of it is resolved upon self-vindication, rather than upon an absolute discovery of truth, be it on which side it may. It should be remembered, too, that there are some questions which cannot be decided in solitude, the help of social influence is necessary to modify the judgment and chasten the feeling of the inquirer. A second thought arising in this connection is that the very fact of the enemies being all but countless in number may be a tribute to a man’ s greatness. Armies are not sent to cut down mushrooms or bulrushes. The very magnitude of the host encamped against a man may say without words how great the man is and mighty, and how worthy of being attacked. To leave some men alone is to withhold from them every moral and intellectual tribute. The numbers of a man’ s enemies may be a tribute to the very greatness which they desire to modify or overthrow. (Joseph Parker, D. D.) A soul’ s complaint to God I. An enumeration of trouble (1, 2). Though God knows all, it relieves the surcharged heart to tell all unto Him. The foes were “ many.” They quoted his sin as a reason for supposing that God had forsaken him (2 Samuel 16:7-8). The word “ help” is “ salvation,” which belongs only unto God. II. An expression of unfaltering trust (3, 4). God our shield (Genesis 15:1). It is a good thing to use the voice in prayer as our Lord did. Words keep the heart awake (Hebrews 5:7). III. An acknowledgment of mercy (5, 6). It was the perfection of trust to be able to sleep under such circumstances. But it is possible (Mark 4:38; Acts 12:6). If we are where we should be God will save us, if not from, then in our troubles. IV. An urgent entreaty. He counts his foes as wild beasts, harmless because their jaws are broken and their teeth dashed out. They may prowl around, but they cannot hurt. (F. B. Meyer, B. A.) The great trials of life I. A good man under great trial.1. It involved great dangers: the danger of losing his palace, throne, reputation, life. 2. It came from an unlikely source. From his own and favourite son. 3. It was morally deserved. He had committed heinous crimes. His guilty conscience added much to the weight of the trial which now befell him. II. An all-sufficient friend under great trial. Here Jehovah is presented as--1. A protecting; 2. A glorifying; 3. A restoring; 4. A prayer hearing; 5. A life-sustaining friend. III. A right moral temper under great trial. Two characteristics in David’ s temper at this time--(1) courage;(2) prayerfulness. David’ s whole soul seems to have gone out in this prayer, and in truth all true prayer is earnest. “ As a painted fire,” says a brilliant old writer, “ is no fire, a dead man no man, so cold prayer is no prayer. In a painted fire there is no heat, in a dead man there is no life; so in a cold prayer there is no omnipotency, no devotion, no blessing. Cold prayers are as arrows without heads, as swords without edges, as birds without wings. Cold prayers always freeze before they reach heaven. As a body without a soul, much wood without fire, a bullet in a gun without powder, so are words in prayer without fervency of spirit.” (Homilist.) The via dolorosa The title is, “ A Psalm of David when he fled from Absalom, his son” (2 Samuel 15:1-37; 2 Samuel 16:1-23; 2 Samuel 17:1-29; 2 Samuel 18:1-33). I. None are exempt from trouble. The man who sorrows is a king, even David. All meet together in sorrow, for it is the lot of all. II. Troubles often come in troops. “ How are they increased that trouble me.” So was it here with David, and so was it with Job. All sorrows are akin, and hence they come in crowds. III. Our trouble may be our sin finding us out. It was so with David here. “ The backslider ill heart shall be filled with his own ways.” IV. Trouble is apt to stagger our faith in God. The enemy took advantage of David’ s troubles, and said to him, “ God hath forsaken thee, and left thee.” Men in trouble are prone to run into one of two extremes--despair or indifference. We are not to steel our hearts against chastening, for God means that we should feel it; nor, on the other hand, are we to faint. Doubt God’ s very existence sooner than His mercy. Plato defines suicide to be “ a desertion of our post.” We are to be like that Roman soldier who stood to his post in the sentry box at Pompeii, when the scoriae of Mount Vesuvius buried it with the city. V. The power of sustaining grace under affliction is here seen. “ I laid me down and slept.” There are myriads today who are able to testify of the peace of God, which passeth all understanding. David in flight finds God his Shield and high Tower, though he has but six hundred men. Ahithophel at court, backed by an army of twelve thousand troops, is in despair, and hangs himself. God keep us from unsanctified affliction. (E. S. Prout.) The harassed man 1. One element of the harassment is multitudinousness of trouble. A characteristic feature of the trouble time with Absalom. 2. Another element is unkind and taunting speech. The cruel scoff--“ no help for him in God” --cuts like a knife to the very centre of his personality. 3. Another element is a kind of internal despair. It sounds in the first sentences of the Psalm. What are the resources of the harassed man? Turning Godward. He flings himself out of the coil of troubles round about him, and looks up to God. The thought of God as possessing precisely what he, amid his harassments, needs. God is the three things he needs--“ shield,” or defence; “ my glory” ; and the “ lifter up of my head,” for God can both cheer the harassed man’ s spirit, and restore to him the consciousness of his own real dignity, notwithstanding his trials. I came upon the most beautiful illustration of all this the other day. One of those spiritual Christians, a Stundist as they call them in Russia, was standing amidst a lot of Russian criminals in the courtyard of a Russian prison, chained with them, and sentenced with them to Siberia for his faith’ s sake. His fellow prisoners were jeering at him. “ But you’ re no better off than we are. You are wearing the bracelets, as we do; if your God is of any use to you, why doesn’ t He knock off your chains and set you free?” The man replied reverently: “ If the Lord will, He can set me free Wen now; and though my hands are chained, my heart is free.” He was freed. But though he had been obliged to trudge the weary way to Siberia, for his free heart God would still have been shield, glory, the lifter up of the head. Calmness and courage can come to the harassed man. There is this possible mood for the harassed man--confident expectation. Salvation belongeth unto God; Thy blessing is upon Thy people.” (Homiletic Review.) Many are they that rise up against me. The Psalmist’ s complaint The superscription of the Psalm indicates the occasion of its composition (2 Samuel 15:1-37). I. The magnitude of his complaint. It proceeds from a heart at once oppressed by the grievousness of its sorrows, and terrified at the number of its enemies. The severity of the trial is evident from its progressive character. He has adversaries who even blaspheme God, and insultingly say of His servant, “ There is no help for him in God.” The best men have many faults, and sin often appears sweet to them. So God suffers them to taste the unpalatable fruit of transgression; but He even extracts sweetness from its very bitterness, educing from chastisement amendment of life, and help heavenward. Good men flee to their heavenly Father in the day of trouble, and this fact shows that the very nature of punishment is transformed. II. The nature of his trial. The Psalmist sighs over the extreme severity of his trials. But God never lays more upon His own children than they are able to bear. The sense of gracious support in the hour of trial is an evidence that God is assuaging grief and providing a way of escape from it. When the wicked are punished there is no such alleviation, nor any access to God. III. The source of his complaint. It does not proceed from mere human nature. The complaint originates with the Spirit of God, and with that spirit of adoption which He sheds abroad in the heart. The son, conscious of his father’ s affection, expostulates in the midst of his chastisement. He even feels that God suffers with him, and is deeply affected by the trials which He Himself sends. We shall do well to imitate David’ s complaint in our time of trouble, ever seeking profoundly to realise God’ s love in Christ Jesus. (Robert Rollocks.) Psalms 3:2; Psalms 3:4; Psalms 3:8 Selah.Stop and think That seems to sum up the several meanings of the word “ Selah.” Some say it is a direction to the musicians to play an interlude while the singers ceased; some regard it as a direction to the players to stop and tune their instruments. Others see an injunction to raise heart and voice, harp and organ, to their fullest capacity. Others see a reference to eternity, as if one interposed, “ World without end, Amen!” Many regard the word as equivalent to certain well-known signs in music, bidding you turn back and repeat. In any case, it is as if a solemn rock stood right across our path, bidding us “ stop and think.” On the ground of this injunction meet all meanings, however divergent they seem. “ No help for him in God.” Stop and think. Selah looks forward as well as back. God has been a shield for David; He can also lift up his head once more, and invest him with glory, the sunshine of the Divine countenance. For us who conduct the services of God’ s house, “ Selah” has a message. It bids the preacher rightly divide the word of truth. It bids him compare truth with truth, bringing out things new and old, and fixing each in its most telling place. It says--tune your hearts, voices, instruments. Seek inspiration, do justice to the Divine message and the gospel song, so that with holy passion, and sacred emphasis, and heart-felt pathos you shall lead our hearts to God, and incite our minds to things eternal. (Michael Eastwood.) Psalms 3:3-5 But Thou, O Lord, art a shield for me.A man’ s best confidence in trial These verses show how much a man may have in reality when he seems to have absolutely nothing in appearance. David has described his estate as one of loneliness, amounting almost to utter desolation, so far as social relationships are concerned. He seems to be alone in the very midst of threatening and desperate enemies. His soul is mocked and his prayers are blown aside by the furious opposition of his pursuers. What, then, has David even in the midst of all this loss and peril and fear? He himself seems to give an inventory of his riches.1. He has a sense of security. “ Thou art a shield for me.” The image of Divine protection under the type of a shield is of frequent occurrence in Scripture. 2. He has a sense of prayer. He describes God as the lifter up of his head: the meaning is, that though sore driven he could still turn his eyes towards heaven, expectant of spiritual deliverance and benediction, and that even when his enemies were most heavily pressing upon him he was lifted up higher than any of them--a target to be shot at; but he knew that no arrow of the enemy could strike the head that was divinely sustained. 3. Then David points out the fact of his own enjoyment of the quietness and refreshment of sleep,--“ I laid me down and slept.” An eye so critical as this could never be without an object of Divine care upon which to rest. We are too prone to think of God as only at the head of battles, and as leading great hosts in orderly procession; we forget that He giveth His beloved sleep, that He dries the tears of sorrow, and that He does about us the work of a servant, ministering to our life in patience and tenderness, and all bountifulness of love. The warrior who talks about a shield, and who rejoices in the lifting up of his head, recognises in sleep the benediction of God. God will never allow Himself to be excluded from what may be termed the more quiet and domestic spheres of life. (Joseph Parker, D. D.) My shield and my glory This is a sweet song, and all the sweeter when we note the estate of the songster. Some circumstances set the sweetness of music in pronounced relief. It is the song that rises out of dreariness that exercises such a fascinating ministry. Look at the outside of the Psalmist’ s life. His external comfort was disturbed. His piety was questioned, and his fellowship with the Divine was denied. Man fails him. He retired more entirely upon God. In God he found that which transcended comfort, he found peace. In God he found that which transcended success, he found glory. In God he found that which transcended human regard, he found the approbation of the Divine. The figure of the shield is a beautiful one. It suggests the all-sufficient protection which comes from the companionship of God. The Lord will not permit my external circumstances to injure my spirit. The Lord will also be a shield against the foe within. When the circumstances are unfriendly, man is apt to become embittered. The hostility may nourish revenge. Failure may make a cynic. The winter time may breed envy, malice, and uncharitableness. I need some defence against these foes within. “ Man needs re-enforcing against his worse self.” I claim all the real protections as the ministry of the king. “ My glory” In the approbation of God I find my honour. The crown that man can give me, man can take away. God’ s crowns are worn not as external dignities, but as spiritual dignities which adorn the soul . . . Men were unfriendly, circumstances were unsympathetic; this man “ cried unto the Lord, and He heard him.” There was a constant festival of fellowship, of fruitful responsiveness between man and his God. (J. H. Jowett, M. A.) God a shield “ Often,” says John Paten, during his early days on the island of Tauna, “ often have I had to run into the arms of some savage when his club was swung, or musket levelled at my head, and so clung round him that he could neither strike nor shoot until his wrath had cooled down.” One day, while toiling away at his house, the war chief and a large party of armed men surrounded the plot where he was working. They all had muskets besides other weapons. They watched him for some time in silence, and then everyone levelled his weapon at his head. Escape was impossible, speech useless. His eyesight went and came in a moment. He could do nothing but pray, and the text came into his mind, “ Whatsoever ye shall ask,” etc. The natives retired a little to another position, and they all levelled their muskets again, and urged one another to shoot, and ultimately withdrew. Once again was he saved as a bird from the snare of the fowler. God a helper in time of trouble Gerhardt was exiled from Brandenburg by the Grand Elector in 1659. The said Grand Elector wished to tune his pulpits. Gerhardt refused to preach save what he found in God’ s Word. Notice to quit was thereupon promptly served upon the intrepid preacher; he tramped forth a homeless exile, accompanied by his wife and children. Wife and weans at night, wearied and weeping, sought refuge in a wayside inn; Gerhardt, unable to comfort them, went out into a wood to pray. As he prayed, the text, “ Commit thy way unto the Lord, trust also in Him and He shall bring it to pass,” recurred to his mind, and comforted him so amazingly that he paced to and fro under the forest trees, and began composing a hymn, Englishised by John Wesley, beginning with the verse-- “ Give to the winds thy fears. Hope and be undismayed: God hears thy sighs and counts thy tears; God shall lift up thy head.” Returning to the inn, he cheered his wife with the text and the hymn, and they went to bed rejoicing in the confident hope that God would take care of them. They had hardly retired before a thunderous knocking at the door aroused them all. It was a mounted messenger from Duke Christian Meresberg, offering him “ Church, people, home, and livelihood.” So, adds the Chronicle, the Lord took care of His servant. (W. T. Stead.) The Lifter up of my head. Revival This verse is the triumphal shout of David when under peculiarly trying circumstances. Happy is the man who makes God’ s ordered and sure covenant all his salvation and all his desire. Three things in the passage. I. Favour. For Jehovah to become our “ shield.” If your religion is not opposed, it is not worth your having. Real godliness, real Christianity, cannot exist without being opposed. Sin is always opposed to grace. We are opposed on our journey heavenwards by ourselves. The Father shields us with His fixed decrees The Son shields us with His imputed righteousness. The Holy Ghost shields us by His operations in the soul. II. Our orthodoxy. “ Thou, O Lord, art my glory.” Theology may be brought into a very narrow compass; here it is in two words, “ my glory.” Every doctrine, every privilege, and every practice must glorify Him. The words “ my glory” contain the idea of fixedness, in opposition to fickleness. III. The revival. The lifter up of my head.” In times of experimental depression. From nature’ s ruin and degradation. This work is carried on by the Comforter’ s ministration. (Joseph Irons.) Psalms 3:4I cried mate the Lord with my voice. Turning to God in prayer I. The psalmist’ s exultation. “ But Thou, O Lord.” The second part of the Psalm shows how David’ s sense of the Divine presence and protection impelled him to rejoice, as if he were delivered from trial, although not yet actually set free. No sooner does he complain to God than he begins to experience consolation, for never does anyone flee to the Saviour for refuge in vain. But to particularise: what kind of help does the Psalmist receive when he seeks Divine aid? He fled from Absalom defenceless, and God, like a shield, completely protects him: he was in disgrace, God becomes his glory; prostrate, and God lifts up his head. In a word, Jehovah supplements every deficiency. This is ever true. Dost thou desire wisdom? He will be thy wisdom. Glory? He will be thy glory. Riches He will be thy wealth. Yea, He Himself will be all that thou cravest. The sweet sense of Divine compassion cannot be repressed, but will find vent in confession. Thus God is glorified, and the consciousness of His favour is increased by the very act of acknowledgment. II. Method of gaining deliverance. The Psalmist therefore unfolds the method which he, had adopted--turning to God in prayer--“ I cried unto the Lord with my voice.” For let no man think that God bestows His grace on those who do not seek it, or opens the heavenly door to those who do not knock, still less to those who despise and refuse His proffered mercy. In this way He disciplines our faith, although He never grants the least favour because there is anything meritorious in our prayers. III. The Divine response. “ And He heard me” --from the heavenly sanctuary, and also from the earthly tabernacle then radiant with the Divine presence. This is added so that all may know that God answers supplications, in harmony with His will, as quickly as we offer them, and thus causes success in prayer to stir us up to renewed petitions. The answer which was vouchsafed to David--God replying by deeds rather than by words--is specified at the end of the next verse, “ the Lord sustained me.” What he had stated before in several words, “ Thou art a shield for me my glory, and the lifter up of my head,” he afterwards expresses in a single phrase, “ the Lord sustained me,” thereby indicating his sense of Divine protection in the very midst of persecution. (Robert Rollocks.) Prayer answered John Rutledge, of Buffalo, a godly sailor, was used very much in winning his swearing, licentious fellows for the Saviour. They had left Buffalo when the lake was still dangerous with floating ice, and they had accomplished three-quarters of their way, when one morning, to the great alarm of crew and skipper, they saw the ice closing upon them. There was just a narrow passage straight ahead, and it was fast closing. If the ice close it will crush the ship to pieces like a tinderbox, and they will all be lost. The men’ s faces grew white, for the wind ceased and the calm came, as if to let the ice nip them and grip them to destruction. John Rutledge asked the skipper’ s leave to go down to his cabin and pray. The captain was a godless man, but eternity was nigh, and he believed in John Rutledge. He had sailed with John for many a voyage; and the Christian had commended Christ by his life. Happy soul when the man that works by you,--when your comrades, at any rate, acknowledge your fidelity to Jesus. They may not like you, but yet they believe in you up to the hilt; and they trust in you even when they profess to despise you. John Rutledge got the skipper’ s leave to go down to the cabin and pray. As he was there on his knees a few of the men gathered with him, and amongst them the captain. Rutledge prayed that God would guide the vessel, that God would steer the craft, that God would deliver them. The men heard, and listened attentively. As they returned to deck, the man at the wheel greeted them with, “ There is hope. The wind is nor’ -nor’ -east.” The wind began to “ sough” and sigh and fill the sails, and the ice began to part; and the men said to the captain, “ Shall we spread more canvas?” “ No,” he replied, “ not a stitch. Somebody else is guiding this ship. Let her alone.” A happy life is that when difficulties come, when rebellions arise, when doubts all drop upon deck, for the man to be able to say, “ Let her drive; there is Someone else controlling and guiding.” Psalms 3:5I laid me down and slept; I awaked; for the Lord sustained me.God’ s protection of the helpless The reason why we sleep in peace and rise up in safety is, “ the Lord sustained me.” This is one of those truths, long familiar and unrealised, which later on m our spiritual life may become to us fresh discoveries. Underneath the beating of every heart, and underneath the whole order of human things, and underneath the world and all worlds, there is forever a present active sustaining power from one generation to another, and that power is the power of God. The same truth is equally true if stated more widely. Whether we take as our measure the short time of the earth turning on itself, or the longer time of the earth travelling round; whether we speak of the day or of the sum of all the year, with its multitude of thoughts, its complexity of circumstances, its frequent risks and incessant occurrence of events;--still there is always abiding over us the same Divine protection, never tired, never slackening. Some people are so situated in life that they have but very little pressure and very few cares. All along the path of life seems smooth to them. That is but a tame life, and unless we have the nerve to make ourselves useful in some way, time so passed is a yoke which soon sits uneasy on the shoulder. Days wasted are a bad investment of life, and a dark account to be laying up. But the many are blessed with the pressure of responsibilities, and obliged to take up the happy burden of usefulness. All Christian burden bearers have laid them down to sleep, and risen again feeling that a benefit has been conferred on them, a sustaining hand has been bearing them up, and their good God has been giving to the human trial the promise He speaks of, “ As thy days, so shall thy strength be.” The Hebrew word translated “ sustained” means to place the open hand under a thing to support it. The Sept. renders by a word meaning “ to take hold of one another by the hand, the weaker being so supported.” How does the kindness of God support the weakness of all Christians? He tells His own secret in Colossians1. It is done by His Christ and our Christ. There He says how He has qualified us to partake of the portion of the saints in light; how He has rescued us from the power of darkness, and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of His love. It is in Him, He says, we have redemption through His blood, even the remission of sins. Let us count up, discover, and consider these many mercies until our heart warms into some honourable and loving recognition of this care, which is never tired of us and never leaves us. We may feel confident from the past that God will take care of us in the future. (T. F. Crosse, D. C. L.) Sleeping and waking One of the mysteries of life of which men hardly think at all is the mystery of sleep. “ Death’ s twin sister,” it has been called. Into its secrets the cleverest man cannot pierce, though all men share its blessings. See the tired man worn out after a heavy day’ s work, or burdened with care. He flings himself on his bed, his day’ s work or his day’ s trouble, his foremost, ever-present thought. Kind sleep touches his eyes. His fatigue is forgotten, his cares are gone. What thought strikes us most forcibly as we look on the picture of the sleeper? Surely the thought of helplessness. The strongest man asleep cannot defend himself or help himself. And yet the millions of mankind daily lie down to sleep, and daily rise again, safely and in peace. Why? We know why, though we so often carelessly forget it. Because God is with us always, never leaving us for an instant to ourselves; about our path and about our bed; the Almighty Father, with more than a mother’ s love and tenderness. Ought we not to have, at least, David’ s faith? I say “ at least” because we know so much more of God’ s truth than he did, have so much more light upon our path than he had. We know our weakness and helplessness, but we know our Helper. If we will only love and serve God in Christ, and consecrate our lives to Him, we are safe. (Samuel Pascoe.) A trustful sleeper Luther noticed one evening a bird quietly settling down for the darkness of the night, and he exclaimed, “ That little fellow preaches faith to us all! He takes hold of his twig, tucks his head under his wing, and goes to sleep, leaving God to think for him.” Preserved amidst the dangers of the night In Mongolia we had one rather serious adventure. The south edge of the plain is famed for storms, and the night we camped there, just after dark, began one of the fiercest thunderstorms I can remember having seen. The wind roared, the rain dashed, the tent quivered; the thunder rattled with a metallic ring, like shafts of iron dashing against each other, as it darted along a sheet-iron sky; the water rose in the tent till part of our bed was afloat. It was hardly possible to hear each other speak; but amid and above all the din of the tempest rose one sound not to be mistaken, the roar of rushing water. There was a river to right of us, but the sound came more from the left. Venturing out, I found there was a great swift-flowing river on both sides of us; that we could not move from the little piece of elevated land plain on which we had our tent; and that a few inches more water, or an obstacle getting into the path of the upper river, would send the full force of the current down on our tents. Flocks, herds, men are said to be swept away now and again in Mongolia, and for an hour our case seemed doubtful; but about 11 p.m. the storm ceased and the danger was over, and, though we had hardly anything left, we went to sleep, thanking God for His preserving mercy. (James Gilmour.) And rose up again. Christian uprising The whole world is full of Divine tokens. Everything should put us in mind, more or less directly, of Jesus Christ our Saviour. The sun rising in the east is nature’ s token, to remind us of Christmas Day; and here in the text we find a no less clear token of the mysteries of Easter, our Lord dying and rising again. It is not anything new to have such a verse applied to the death, burial, and resurrection of our Lord. The old fathers and bishops so explained it from the very beginning of the Church. We do well to connect thin mystery with our own lying down and rising up as often as night and morning return. Sleep is an image of death. To a Christian it is an image of the death of Christ. Our daily lying down and rising up is given us for a sacramental sign and pledge of Christ’ s death and resurrection, and of our own. Our falling asleep is a mystery, a thing which takes place we know not how, a thing out of our power, as much so as death itself. What becomes of us during our sleep? That longer sleep which we call death may come on us we know not how, and leave our bodies without power or thought for awhile, our souls in the meantime departing we know not where, and employed we know not how. There is a still higher and more awful depth of mystery in the Psalmist’ s words, spoken as they are in His person, who is both God and man. It is as if we heard Christ Himself, risen from the tomb, and saying, “ I laid Me down and slept, and rose up again, for the Lord sustained Me.” The Lord, the most high and glorious Godhead, still in our Saviour’ s Person, inseparably joined to His human soul and body, even while the one was in the grave and the other in Paradise, or elsewhere in the regions of the dead,--He still continued the same Christ, very God and very man, and by virtue of that Eternal Spirit He raised Himself from the dead when His time was come. Notice what gracious help is afforded to those who are willing so to lift up their hearts, by Christ’ s making so common a matter as our daily sleep and awakening a token and sign of this most awful mystery. Christ, even now abiding in His people, makes them already in this world partakers of a heavenly and Divine life. He sustains them, sleeping and waking, in life and in death, in their beds and in their graves; for in both conditions they are alike members of Him. But all this depends upon our keeping our baptismal vows. One or two rules of recovery and perseverance--1. Since it is Christ only who sustains us, when in our lying down, or sleeping, or rising up, how dare any of us lie down or rise up without solemnly committing himself to Christ on his knees in devout prayer? Private devotion must be one great help towards saving and recovering the heavenly life which our Lord offers to sustain in us. 2. The Holy Communion of the Body and the Blood. This is the sacrament of perseverance and growth in grace, as baptism is of repentance and regeneration. The heavenly life which Christ has begun in us can be sustained in no other way besides that which He has appointed. Prayer, then, and Holy Communion, are necessary to all. (Plain Sermons by Contributors to “Tracts for the Times. ”) I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people, that have set themselves against me.--Faith stronger than fear It is said that the Romans were accustomed only to inquire where the enemies were and not after their numbers Faith revived and invigorated by prayer and fixed on God alone is a stranger to fear in the worst of times. (Bp. Horne.) Psalms 3:7 Thou hast smitten all mine enemies upon the cheek bone. The secret of David’ s confidence This shows that David’ s expectation of victory was not in himself, in his personal prowess as a warrior, but in the faithfulness of the Lord his God. Hence his impassioned cry, “ Arise, O Lord! save me, O my God!” It is true that David marshalled his forces as a skilful and experienced general should, and as carefully as if everything in the battle to ensue was to be accomplished by the sword alone;--and yet he still looked to God alone for success. And to inspire himself with confidence that God would give success, he refers to the victories He had given him in times past, saying, “ Thou hast smitten all mine enemies upon the cheek bone; thou hast broken the teeth of the ungodly.” This imagery of breaking the cheek bone and teeth of enemies is likening them to wild beasts whose great power is in their jaws and teeth, so that when their jaws and teeth are broken their power to injure is gone. The imagery, then, indicates that the Lord had always destroyed the power of David’ s enemies to injure him. And as the Lord had subdued his enemies before him hitherto, David could not but believe that He would subdue them still. This, his belief, was not in vain, as the speedy winding up of Absalom’ s rebellion showed; for Absalom’ s forces, though outnumbering his father’ s probably more than ten to one, were utterly routed and dispersed, and himself slain, in the first and only battle fought. The battle was the Lord’ s, the victory His, and to Him David ascribes it. (David Caldwell, A. M.) Psalms 3:8 Salvation belongeth unto the Lord. Thanksgiving after peace I. The meaning of this sentiment. The words carry a general confession of the influence of Divine Providence upon every event, and in particular with respect to salvation, or deliverance from impending danger. The words imply three things.1. All confidence in man stands opposed to the sentiment. It is not opposed to the use of means, but to an excessive reliance on second causes of any kind. Success in any attempt is to be ultimately attributed to God. 2. The Psalmist had in view the omnipotence of Providence. God has not only the direction and government of means and second causes, but is Himself superior to all means. Salvation signifies a great and distinguished deliverance. 3. The sentiment has respect to the mercy and goodness of God, or His readiness to hear the cry of the oppressed and send deliverance to His people. Power and wisdom alone give an imperfect display of the Divine character. II. Divine providence in dealing with the united states of america. In conclusion, some practical improvement of the subject.1. It is our duty to give praise to God for the present happy and promising state of public affairs. 2. We should testify our gratitude to God by living in His fear, and by a conversation such as becometh the gospel. 3. And by usefulness in our several stations. Let us guard against using our liberty as a cloak for licentiousness, and thus poisoning the blessing after we have attained it. (T. Witherspoon, D. D.) God the Author of salvation This will be seen if we consider-- I. The work of the Father in devising it.1. Adam fell by his own sin, and so involved all posterity. 2. Thus all needed salvation; and. 3. God’ s flee grace devised it. II. The incarnation and atonement of Christ, the Son of God, which executed it. III. The work of the Holy Ghost in applying it. For of ourselves we cannot repent and believe. And yet unless we do we are lost. It is the Holy Spirit that brings us into a state of grace. (T. Myers, A. M.) Thy blessing is upon Thy people.--Blessings At the Mint a piece of gold is put under the stamp, and in the twinkling of an eye the machine descends and the gold becomes a sovereign. So when we see that God is our Father, and that He in Christ died for us, then in a moment, like the stamp on the gold, we receive the witness of the Holy Spirit. The gold bears the stamp of the a the image and blessing of God. I. What is a blessing? Not merely when we have what we wish, but far more when we do not wish what we have not. II. The greatest blessing is to know that we have the Lord for our Father. III. It is a great blessing when we can live temperately. What a curse is drunkenness. IV. Is not the Bible a blessing? An infidel said one day, “ There is only one thing that troubles me: I am afraid the Bible is true.” But what a blessing that it is so. When Sir Walter Scott lay dying he requested a friend to help him into his library, so that he could look out from the window on the river Tweed. Then he asked for something to be read to him. His friend said, “ What book shall I select?” Sir Walter replied, “ Can you ask? There is but one--the Bible.” Is this book a blessing to you? V. The Lord gives His people the blessing of being able to trust Him. In the darkness of night you may strike a match and try to light the candle, but you must first take off the extinguisher. And so you cannot feel happy while you keep on the extinguisher of doubt over your heart. How blessed it is to trust in God. VI. What a blessing to know that Jesus died for us. (William Birch.) God’ s blessing, and the way to gain it I. What is God’ s blessing? Given an occasion upon which we are called upon to write on paper our idea of the Divine blessing: hand me the papers and I will examine them: shall I find in a thousand instances upwards of nine hundred that will run after this fashion?--God’ s blessing is sunshine, music, prosperity, deliverance from all affliction, distress, fear; God’ s blessing is on the house where there is no vacant chair, upon the fold where there is no dead lamb, upon the estate where there is no covered grave. So your papers would read, and so would they be wrong. God’ s blessing may be upon a man without any sense of external sunshine. The clouds do not alter the month. There may be dark clouds upon a June noonday, but it is still June, the sun is still warm, summer is still on the eve of coming upon us, with all its countless flowers and all its ineffable music. God’ s blessing does not mean exemption from pain; nor does God’ s discipline mean mere penalty. God’ s blessing is not a sleeping draught but an inspiration. If you are asleep when you ought to be awake do not say, This is the blessing of God. God’ s blessing, I repeat, is not an opiate; it is an inspiration, an excitement, a voice in the soul that says, Onward! II. How are we to know that the blessing is on us? Easily; there need be no difficulty about that. When you feel that you must do more work, God’ s blessing is upon you. Be sure of that confidence. When you want to be idle, God has withdrawn from you because you have withdrawn from Him. When are we to know that God’ s blessing is upon us? I will tell you: when you feel that you must help other people more liberally than you have ever done; not when you tie your purse strings, but when you open them is God’ s blessing on you. You have done nothing yet; I have done nothing yet. It is the crime of the Church that it has played with its responsibilities. We are always compounding with God, we are always filing our bill in the chancery court of heaven, and asking God to accept a penny in the pound. Do not close your eyes under such circumstances and say, This is the comfort of grace. When you feel that you must go four-and-twenty hours in the day in doing good, God’ s blessing is upon you. Of course, nature will say, Lie down, poor child, and rest awhile, because time spent in sleep is time spent in true labour; thou shalt in sleep recover thine energy, and do ten fold more because of a good night’ s rest. But when the first thought is work, and the middle thought is work, and the last thought is work, then say, Thy blessing is upon Thy people; this is no longer an inspiration but a fact accomplished. III. We cannot arrange for the Divine blessing. Do not accept the sophism that the Divine blessing can be used as an element in speculation or investment. The Divine blessing comes as the wheat comes: it comes after ripping up the earth, sowing it, preparing it, and after a long process, it may be, of waiting; so it comes not by itself but as the final mark in a series, as the blessing upon a process. When the golden wheat swings in the autumnal wind and throws back the autumnal sunlight, all the seasons of the year seem to culminate in that one motion. Winter is there, because winter gave the earth its hospitality of sleep; spring is there, and summer is there, and autumn is there: in that golden wheat the four seasons of the year hold harmonious festival. Some have not begun yet to do anything. When the lists are made out our names will not be upon them. The first shall be last and the last shall lie first. (Joseph Parker, D. D.) The blessing of God I. God’ s special relation in the world. “ Thy people.” The king of a nation and the father of a family hold peculiar relations II. From God’ s special relation spring special benefits. “ Thy blessing.” The ruler of a people, from his position and power, holds in his hands benefits which are for his nation alone. A loving father has a peculiar regard for the welfare of his own family. Israel enjoyed benefits that were not extended to other nations. III. The benefits springing from the special relation must be sought by prayer. Spiritual blessings are obtained only by prayer. The Apostles had a definite promise given to them of the Holy Ghost, yet they were commanded to pray for His descent (Acts 1:4-14). So in the individual life (Luke 11:18). (William Harris.) The best inheritance This was the confidence and comfort of the Psalmist when deprived of earthly friends and earthly comforts. The more we know of the power of sin, the more we shall prize the sovereignty of God. I. The nature of this blessing which is upon the people of God. All the blessedness they have is by Christ Jesus the Lord; and to understand the blessing we must look to the Lord Jesus Christ. As there was a fourfold curse pronounced upon the serpent, you will find the very reverse relative to the Lord Jesus Christ and His people.1. The serpent was to “ go upon his belly.” While the enemy is condemned in all that he does, the Lord Jesus Christ is justified in all that He does. The Lord Jesus felt that all He thought, and all He did, and all He said was right. He felt that He had no sin of His own. He enjoys the consciousness that all He has done and does is right, and we in Him get rid of all our sins, guilt, and fears, and rest not in a consciousness of our fleshly, personal, legal right, but in a consciousness of the righteousness of Christ, the efficacy of His great salvation, the eternity of His glory. Draw a line of distinction between a moral reality and a spiritual reality. Moral reality is good, and a good principle to act upon among men; but if I go to eternal things I must go beyond this--I must come to the reality of atoning blood, I must come to the reality of saving grace. 2. The enemy was “ to eat dust.” This is to be understood figuratively. As for the enemy, and all that are with him, their attainments shall be all perishable--shall be but dust. Was the Lord Jesus to feed upon perishable things? No. His meat His attainments are imperishable, His honours incorruptible, His glories inimitable, His grandeur indescribable. While He lived in this world He lived upon immortal things. He is with us in these infinite provisions, in opposition to that destitution, that famine, that state of misery which we deserve. The “ blessing” overcomes a great curse. While dust shall be the serpent’ s meat, our bread shall be royal dainties. 3. The serpent was to be cast out. There was to be enmity between him and the woman, and between his seed and her seed. They should come together, and one or the other must prevail. “ The prince of this world is cast out.” 4. The serpent’ s head should be bruised. Here is the confusion, the defeat, of all his plans. But can confusion ever reach the infinite mind of Jehovah-Jesus? II. The progression of this blessing. It has been progressive from age to age; and nothing has met with so much opposition. Look at some typical circumstances and watch the progression. Cases of Joseph, David, Mordecai, the Redeemer Himself. See the progress in two individual cases, that of Jeremiah and that of Paul. There is this difference between providence, and grace. Grace is progressive, but providence is retrogressive. The fruit we had last year is gone, but the grace we had when the world was created we have now. None of it passes away. III. The continuation of the blessing. This originates chiefly in the manner of it. There is no way in which anything contrary to it can enter into the vitals of this blessing, or into the union which the people have with Christ, to affect that union. If you look behind them there is mercy behind them from everlasting. If you look at what is before them, it is eternal life, eternal salvation, eternal glory. So that from the very manner of this blessing no curse can come in. (James Wells.) The people of God I. The people. The children of Israel were, in a national sense, the people of God. But were they so individually? It is not the name of Christian that can stamp us the people of God. It is in a personal, and not merely in a national or ecclesiastical sense, that God’ s people are an elect people. II. This people are a purchased people. What shall be the price paid down for that spiritual people, the Church of the firstborn? We are redeemed, not with corruptible things, such as silver and gold, but with the blood of Christ. III. The people are a voluntary people. They do not follow God reluctantly, as did the literal Israel. Everyone can say with David, I have “ chosen” the way of truth. IV. A holy people (Deuteronomy 14:2). The sanctity of Israel was only external and relative; only a type of the purity of the invisible Church. The whole body of the people of whom we speak are holy in an internal and personal sense (John 1:13; 1 John 3:24). V. A people valued and beloved. We value the objects of our choice because we have chosen them. God’ s blessing is on the people themselves, and on their allotments, enjoyments, and even their afflictions, and their labours and connections. (T. Kennion, M. A.) Trust in God’ s overrule Dr. Stewart of Moulin said, “ I remember an old pious very recluse minister whom I used to meet once a year. He scarcely ever looked at a newspaper. When others were talking about the French Revolution he showed no concern or curiosity about it. He said he knew from the Bible how it would all end, better than the most sagacious politician: that the Lord reigns; that the earth shall be filled with His glory; that the gospel should be preached to all nations; that all subordinate events are working out these great ends. This was enough for him, and he gave himself no concern about the news or events of the day, only saying, “ It will be well with the righteous.” . Psalms 4:1-8 Psalms 4:1-8 Hear me when I call, O God of my righteousness.A gentle remonstrance This Psalm is mainly a gentle, earnest remonstrance with antagonists, seeking to win them to a better mind. The cry for an answer by deed is based on the name and on the past acts of God. The pronoun “ my” is best attached to “ righteousness,” as the consideration that God is righteous is less relevant than that He is the source of the Psalmist’ s righteousness. Since He is so, He may be expected to vindicate it by answering prayer with deliverance. He who feels that all good in himself comes from God may be quite sure that, sooner or later, and by some means or other, God will witness to His own work. The strophe division keeps together the prayer and the beginning of the remonstrance to opponents, and does so in order to emphasise the eloquent, sharp juxtaposition of God and the “ sons of men.” Verse 6 may be the continuance of the address to the enemies, carrying on the exhortation to trust. Verses 7 and 8 are separated from Psalms 4:6 by their purely personal reference. The Psalmist returns to the tone of his prayer in Psalms 4:1; only, that petition has given place, as it should do, to possession and confident thankfulness. The Psalmist here touches the bottom, the foundation fact on which every life that is not vanity must be based, and which verifies itself in every life that is so based. The glad heart possessing Jehovah can lay itself down and sleep, though foes stand round. The last words of the Psalm flow restfully like a lullaby. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) The great trials of life I. Praying.1. A recognition of God’ s righteousness. He might have thought upon God now as the “ author” of his righteousness, and felt that all that was righteous in his own heart and life came from God; or as the vindicator of his righteousness who alone was able to defend his righteous cause; or as the administrator of righteousness, conducting His government upon righteous principles and bringing even upon him only the sufferings he justly deserved. There is something deep in the soul of man which leads him to appeal to the righteous God when he feels himself to be the victim of fraud or violence. Even Christ Himself did so. 2. A remembrance of God’ s goodness. “ Thou hast enlarged me when I was in distress.” The reference is to some deliverance which he had experienced. He remembered, perhaps, the goodness of God to him when, ill the field guarding his father’ s flocks, he was delivered out of the paw of the lion and out of the paw of the bear; or His goodness to him in delivering him from the giant of Philistia. The memory of God’ s past mercies to him gave courage to his heart and an argument in his prayer now. Because God has helped us we expect Him to help us again, and thus we plead. Not so with man. The more our fellow being has helped us the less reason we have to expect His aid. Man’ s capacity for help is limited. The capability of God is unbounded. 3. An invocation of God’ s favour. “ . . .Have mercy upon me and hear my prayer.” Mercy is what we want. Mercy to forgive, to renovate, to strengthen the soul, to labour and to wait. II. Rebuking. David having addressed the righteous God in prayer, hurls his rebuke at his enemies. His rebuke is marked--1. By boldness. “ . . .O ye sons of men” --ye great men of the land--“ . . .O how long will ye turn my glory into shame, how long will ye love vanity and seek after leasing. In this appeal the speaker’ s sense of honour, justice, truth seems to have run into a passion that fired and flooded his whole being. 2. By alarm. “ . . .Know that the Lord hath set apart him that is godly for Himself: the Lord will hear when I call unto Him,” which means, “ Know this, the Lord will take care of me whom He has elected King to serve Himself, and He will hear when I call upon Him.” Your opposition is futile. Beware, you are rebelling not merely against me, but against Omnipotence itself. It is a terrible thing to oppress or injure God’ s elected ones. 3. By authority. “ . . .Stand in awe, and sin not, commune with your own heart on your bed, and be still. Selah.” --Mind this. This command includes three things. (1) Cease from your rage. Let your insurrectionary passion be hushed. The soul under wrong passions is like a rudderless bark driven by the tempest; shipwreck is all but inevitable. (2) Retire to thoughtfulness. “ Commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still.” It is in man’ s own soul that God meets with him, and communes with him as He did of old before the mercy seat. (3) Practise religion. “ . . .Offer the sacrifices of righteousness, and put your trust in the Lord.” What is righteous sacrifice? The consecration of our energies, our self, our all, to the service of justice, truth, and God. “ . . .The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart Thou wilt not despise.” III. Teaching. “ There be many that say, who will show us any good? Lord lift Thou up the light of Thy countenance upon us.”1. The universal craving of humanity There are many that say unto us,” etc. Men are everywhere craving for happiness. From shops and sanctuaries, from the peasant’ s cot and the prince’ s castle, from the bush of savages and the bench of senators, from all lands and lips the cry is heard,. “ Who will show us any good?” We are children walking m the dark, who will show us the way; we are dying with thirst, who will moisten our fevered lips; we are starving with hunger, who will give us any bread? Man, the world over, feels that he has not what he wants. 2. The only satisfaction of humanity. What is it? Fame, wealth, sensual pleasure, superstitious observances? No, these have been tried a thousand times, and failed. Here it is: “ Lift Thou up the light of Thy countenance,” which means the conscious presence and favour of God. IV. Exulting. “. . .Thou hast put gladness in my heart more than in the time that their corn and their wine increased.” Some render this from the time in which their corn and wine increased, supposing David to refer to the hour when abundant supplies began to come into him, an exile at Mahanaim (2 Samuel 16:1; 2 Samuel 17:28). This may be the correct version. The language in either version expresses the feelings of a soul happy in God.1. God made him inwardly happy, even in his poverty. He had lost for a time his palace and his kingdom, and was dependent upon the supplies of friends. Yet he was happy, and who made him happy? “ . . .Thou hast put gladness in my heart.” God alone can make us happy anywhere and anywhen. “ . . .Although the fig tree shall not blossom,” etc. (Habakkuk 3:17). What does Paul say? “ . . .I glory in tribulation.” Martyrs have sung in dungeons, and triumphed in flames. 2. God made him consciously secure. His enemies counted their millions. His death they desired. Yet what does he say?--“ . . .I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep.” God was his refuge and strength, etc. “ . . .If God be for us, who can be against us?” Learn from this poem where happiness alone can be found. It is in God. An ancient Italian author, in one of his romantic legends, tells us of a tree, many branched, and covered apparently with delectable bunches of fruit; but whoso shook that tree in order to possess the fruit, found, too late, that not fruit, but stones of crushing weight came down upon his head. An emblem this of the tree of unholy pleasure. It is many-branched, it is attractive in aspect, its boughs bend with rich clusters of what seems to be delicious fruit, the millions of the world gather round it, and, with eager hands, shake it in order if possible to taste the luscious fruit. But what is the result of their efforts? Stones come tumbling down that paralyse the soul. “ What fruit had ye in those things whereof ye are now ashamed; for the end of those things is death.” (Homilist.) An appeal for mercy to the God of righteousness I. The Psalmist’ s appeal. This book is full of such appeals. It is remarkable that there has come down to us a book full of the most confidingly, reverent, pleading utterances, addressed to the unseen and eternal God. There are not many petitions in this Psalm. “ Hear me when I call” --only “ hear me,” that is enough. Is there no heart to respond to us? Yes, He is hearing, that is enough. II. The grounds of the appeal. Two considerations on which the appeal is founded.1. The character of God. Not simply “ my righteous God,” but “ God, the author of my righteousness, from Whom all that is true and right in me has come.” 2. And the goodness already experienced. “ Thou hast enlarged me.” It was not untried mercy. No one looks to history for a message of despair--at any rate, no good man--for he always finds that the storm ends in calm, that the darkest hour precedes the dawn, that the struggles result in progress. Let us also appeal for mercy to the God of righteousness, and take the past as an argument. There has been care in the past; there has been goodness in the past: Gethsemane is in the past; Calvary is in the past. Plead the past. (James Owen.) Thou hast enlarged me.--Prayer and answer to prayer I. David’ s prayer for mercy desired.1. The tide which David here puts upon God. “ God of my righteousness.” That is, the God who makes me to be righteous: the Author of it. Better here, the God that shows me to be righteous, that maintains my righteous cause. Look at this-- (1) Directly in itself. God does own the righteousness of those who are His servants. This is grounded on His nature. His affection and His relation carries Him to it likewise. He is my God, and therefore the God of my righteousness. There is also His covenant and interest. In two ways God owns our righteousness. In clearing it and in avenging it. (2) Reflexively, as coming from David; who, having righteousness and equity on his side, does now with a great deal of boldness and confidence take himself to God for redress. Whence we see what is to be practised by everyone else. 2. The request itself. “ Hear me when I call” has respect to David’ s complaint in case of injury. “ Hear my prayer,” that is, grant me that particular request which I desire of Thee. See his desire of being heard in his performance, “ when I call.” Attention must be given to the matter of prayer, that it be such as is according to God’ s will; the manner of prayer, that it be with zeal, fervency, and intention; the principle of prayer, that it be done in faith. There should also be the ordering of ourselves in other things suitable hereunto, as their hearing of God Himself. Hearing of others in their necessities: abstaining from all kinds of sin whatsoever. 3. The terms whereupon he deals with Him. On account of mercy, grace, and favour. We must have recourse to His mercy, and urge upon Him this consideration above all others. Let us make much of this attribute of mercy, and improve it to our own comfort and advantage. II. David’ s acknowledgment of mercy received. God loves to manifest His power in deliverance. He brings into distress, and so from thence takes occasion to enlarge. There is a double enlargement, one of state and condition; the other of heart and affection. There is a double enlargement of spirit, the one is in order to duty, the other in order to comfort. (Thomas Horton, D. D.) Spiritual enlargement This enlargement is the great thing to be desired and sought after in all our histories. Sin dwarfs us--it lowers us alike in the scale of creation and in the scope of our immortal being. So possible is it for all true spiritual life to be crushed, all inward growth and spiritual development to be repressed, by worldliness of heart and aim. The contrast therefore is a study; enlargement of estate, or enlargement of soul. “ Thou hast enlarged me. Here is a beautiful consciousness. I. The cause revealed. “ When I was in distress.” Distress had driven me to Him Who revealed me to myself. He diminished my estate and my health; but He enlarged me. II. The question suggested. Why? Because I am a man capable of enlargement. You cannot enlarge the merely finite like this. Every spiritual advance is only a step upward and onward in the immortal ascent, every enlargement is only a prophecy of yet wider range. Not one word can be said too much of the majesty of the soul. Standing on the verge of eternity after long years of life, the soul is yet young, and feels the immortal pulses. It is just beginning to know. Unless we grow in grace we may question if we are Christians at all, for life means growth, and the knowledge of God is the infinite study of eternity. III. The influence created. An enlarged man has a glorious might of personal influence; such a man elevates social intercourse as he moves among his fellows, and treats their interests in the light of their larger being. The enlarged man seeks to have part in the kingdom which brings life and peace to all his brethren in Christ. IV. The expectation enjoyed. For what is all this enlargement given? Surely the Divine ministries have a worthy end and aim, or else we have a mystery in man which we have in no other sphere of use or adaptation. The soul implies Divine training and immortal rest. Heaven is the corollary of soul life. Faint not under the good hand of God, for He will exalt you in good time. The enlarged life will have a sphere, where it can enjoy and serve God, forever and for evermore. Thus, too, may we bear distress aright. (W. M. Statham.) Enlargement in distress This Psalm and the previous one are Psalms of distress, utterances of a soul that is crying to God out of the depths; yet, none the less, they are songs of faith, hope, rest in God. In the text we see that gladness comes out of the sorrow, and light shines out of the darkness. I. Through distress there comes an enlargement of personal character.1. Suffering strengthens character; brings to light the hidden qualities of a man, and teaches him courage, endurance, and self-reliance. I have read of a great botanist who was exiled from his native land, and had obtained employment as an undergardener in a nobleman’ s service, that while in this situation his master received the present of a valuable plant, the nature and habits of which were quite unknown to him. It was given to the care of the head gardener, and he, supposing it to be of tropical growth, put it into a hothouse, and treated it like other hothouse plants. Under this treatment the plant began to wither and die. One day the undergardener asked permission to examine it, and as soon as he had done so he said, “ This is an Arctic plant, and you are killing it with this hothouse treatment.” So he took it out to the open air, and heaped ice round it, to the great astonishment of the head gardener. The result justified his wisdom; for the plant was soon perfectly healthy and strong. This story is a parable of human character. It is ease, not difficulty, that is dangerous. Put a man under hothouse treatment, surround him with luxury, hedge him in from opposition; and you take the surest means of sapping him of life and power. Teach him to suffer; and you teach him to be strong. 2. But in a large character, sympathy must be present as well as strength. Without sympathy no character can possess that breadth which is so essential to its perfecting; and there is no such teacher of sympathy as suffering. II. Think of the larger and surer place which suffering gives us in the world of men. There is something in the experience of suffering which enhances a man’ s social influence. In every walk of life the men of sorrows are the men of power. We may not be able fully to explain why this is so; but we know quite well that the very fact of suffering gives a man a claim upon us, and a hold over us, which nothing else can give. “ Under our present conditions,” says one, “ there is something in the very expansiveness of joy which dissociates, while sorrow seems to weld us together, like hammer strokes on steel.” Do we not find that the influence which Jesus exerts is an emanation from His Cross? He was made “ perfect through sufferings” --not perfect in His own nature, for that was perfect already, but perfect in His power to touch and save and bless; and so His dominion was enlarged through His distress. III. No doubt David was thinking most of all of a religious enlargement--an enlargement of his heart towards God, and an enlargement of God’ s mercy towards him.1. Men are enlarged through their distress. Their horizon grows wider and deeper. The sunlight fades, the night falls; but in the darkness a greater and more glorious world appears; for the stars shine out from the immeasurable depths--those “ street lamps of the City of God.” 2. Our enlargement in distress does not lie only in our new thoughts about God, but in God’ s new mercies towards us. The Lord has special mercies for His children in distress, as a mother has kisses and fond soothing words for her little child who has hurt himself by a fall. Did you ever consider this, that there are stores of blessing held in reserve within the eternal treasuries, the fulness of which you can only know in the day of trial? 3. In one of two ways distress works--it makes a man either better or worse. We have seen it making people narrower and more selfish and more sullen. We have also seen it making them broader and more sympathetic, more considerate and more gracious. All depends upon their way of meeting it. Meet it in the Psalmist’ s faith, hope, and patience. (J. G. Lambert, B. D.) Psalms 4:3 Him that is godly. The godly man “ The godly.” They are evidently a distinguished, a peculiar people. They have undergone a process of change. There may be a very exalted scale of morals observed by men, but still it amounts not to the scriptural idea of godliness, for all that comes within the range of moral observance may be entirely without reference to God. Godliness is a state of mind and heart which is derived from a source higher than man. I. The source of godliness. It must be God Himself; Almighty power, acting out the dictates of Almighty grace and love, can alone bring a sinner, from his state of abject denudation, near to God, and pour into his nature the renovating spirit that shall bring upon him the lineaments of that perfection in which he was at first created. If God “ sets apart” or “ chooses” a sinner, therefore, it is in order that there may be produced in him affinity to Christ, likeness to Christ--likeness to Christ in principle, in desire and intention, in motive, in affections, in actions. Incidental to this, and essential to it, is the conviction of sin which the Spirit of God creates in the heart. It includes also a closing with the terms of salvation, on the part of the sinner--the laying aside of sin in the act, though he cannot lay it aside, in his own will, in its inward power and principle--the laying aside of sin in the act, and looking for grace that shall subdue sin in its power. It includes also the acceptance of a free pardon of all past sin--an assurance of the imputation of all sin to the Saviour, in order to its expiation, and the impartation of the Saviour’ s righteousness to the sinner, in order to his justification. It includes that simple exercise of faith which is of God’ s bestowment. II. The end proposed. “ The Lord hath set apart him that is godly for Himself.” He is brought into a state of sonship with God. He may not at first have, but he expects to have, the witnessing of the Spirit. God has created all things in the universe for His own glory. We may at first, while contemplating the great purposes of the gospel, imagine that God’ s primary end was to rescue the lost and to pardon the guilty. But by man’ s creation God glorified Himself, and by man’ s fall He acquired glory, inasmuch as in the recovery of man was brought into exercise that bright and blessed attribute of mercy which could not otherwise have been manifested. III. The privileges connected with a state of godliness. “ The Lord will hear when I call unto Him.” How full of privilege is this avowal and assurance! It implies that--1. The godly man has the privilege of access, when he will, to “ the King of kings and Lord of lords.” The presence chamber is never closed. The believer has a kind of precedence of others into the presence of the Sovereign. 2. The godly man has a claim upon God; and this we would put in the strongest terms. At first he has no claims on God; but being conformed to the image of Christ, or even beginning to be conformed, he immediately has a claim on Him--a claim based on God’ s paternity. 3. To “ hear” in Scripture language means to “ answer.” The Lord will hear on account of the agreement there is between the Spirit that animates the believing heart and his own mind and intention. Tell me what is in the wide world, for which men are bartering such blessed prospects for eternity, worth a moment’ s notice, when godliness, with all its happy privileges, is fully set before you at the foot of the Cross of the Redeemer? (George Fisk, LL. D.) Psalms 4:4 Stand in awe. Awe of God All sin is an offence against God, and nothing tends more powerfully to correct it than worthy thoughts of God, and of our relation to Him. They who have no habitual thought of God, who set Him not before them in their daily walk, find no principle and no power present with them to prevent the admission and indulgence of evil. If you would cease from shining, stand in awe. Let there be a fear and dread upon your mind, arising from a sense of the power, and holiness, and justice, and presence of the Almighty. There is nothing which can enable us to stand firm and upright in the presence of evil, but a due sense of the presence of Almighty God, and of the relation which we bear to Him under the gospel covenant. If the awful feeling, the sense which is due from every rational creature to the Creator, were formed, and cherished, and carried into the scenes of daily life it would become a powerful preservative from sin. To impress our hearts deeply consideration should be had of those declarations of holy writ which assure us that the necessity of a pious awe is by no means done away under the covenant of loving kindness and tender mercy. (J. Slade, M. A.) The duty of reverence I. The advantages of maintaining seriousness and devoutness of mind. The greatest of happiness consists in regulating, with propriety, the various offices of human life. Every department of life is beautiful in its season. There is a time to be cheerful, and a time to be serious: an hour for solitude, and an hour for society. A serious frame of mind is the guardian and the protector Of religion, and it also associates with other virtues which belong to the Christian character. This serious frame of mind cherishes those higher virtues of the soul which are called “ the armour of God.” In the solemn silence of the mind are formed those great resolutions which decide the fate of men. This temper is no less favourable to the milder virtues of humanity. A serious mind is the companion of a feeling heart. II. The suitableness of this temper of mind to our present state.1. It is suited to that dark and uncertain state of being in which we now live. Human life is not formed to answer those high expectations which, in the era of youth and imagination, we are apt to entertain. 2. The propriety of this temper will appear if we consider the scene that soon awaits us, and the awful change of being that we have to undergo. 3. This frame of mind is peculiarly proper for you now, as a preparation for holy communion. (J. Logan, F. R. S. E.) Awe and trust Words like awe, fear, trembling appear to be almost obsolete now. Our speech finds its emphasis in such words as happiness, joy, peace, comfort. The Psalmist throws us back to quite a different plane. This man had a vision of the great White Throne. He had been contemplating the terrors of the Lord. His levity is changed into trembling; his indifference is broken up in awe. Why is there so little awe in our religious lives today? Is it because we have lost the Face of God? We gather up all the gracious promises. We lift them out of their context. Promises gathered in their relationship to warnings will tend to our good. We see the same tendency in our choice of hymns. We do not like the hymns in which the whirlwind sweeps and drives. We prefer the hymns that are just filled with honey. Many of us have lost the severities of the New Testament. It is because these terrors are left out in our religious conceptions, and in our preaching, that the frivolity of men is gratified and coddled by illegitimate sweetness. We must re-proclaim the elements of severity which minister to a bracing holiness. Men do not feel the power of the gospel when in Christ they discern nothing to fear. Thomas Boston said that the net of the gospel needed to be weighted with the leads of the terrors of the law, or it would lightly float on the surface and no fish be caught. We must steadily keep in view the sterner patches of the New Testament teaching. We must contemplate the whiteness of the Eternal, and stand in awe, “ and put your trust in the. Lord.” How graciously the passage closes The awe and the trembling converge m fruitful trust! The discovery of the holy Sovereignty, the discovery of personal defilement, the discovery of a Redeemer, are consummated in the discovery of rest. When I have found my “ righteousness” my part is now to trust. The awe, the purity of the holy Sovereignty will become mine. Trust keeps open the line of communication between the soul and God. Along that line convoys of blessedness are brought into the heart; manifold gifts of grace for the weak and defenceless spirit. When I trust I keep open the “ highway of the Lord,” and along that road there come to me from the Eternal my bread, my water, my instructions, my powers of defence. “ I can do all things through Christ who strengtheneth me.” I can work out my own salvation with fear and trembling.” (J. H. Jowett, M. A.) Reverence The most prominent sin of this age is flippancy. Familiarity breeds contempt. In many instances knowledge only leads men to treat law as a light thing, and its operations with thoughtless neglect. How can this evil be overcome? The answer is not far to seek; it is by fostering in men the principle of awe that David here enjoins. I. We should stand in awe before nature. The stupendous magnificence and mysterious changefulness of nature appeal to even the most apathetic and thoughtless. No part of nature and of human life is free from the dominion of law. Everything has its own peculiar laws. II. We should stand in awe before conscience. The knowledge of right and wrong is co-extensive with the existence of humanity. It is the essential basis of society, and of all mutual intercourse of men. Under the shadow of this great possession all men meet as brothers. We realise the influence of conscience first as our teacher. III. We should stand in awe before experience. Instinct is the stronger force in the animal life, and reason the stronger in human life. Experience is peculiarly the guide and teacher of humanity, and he who cannot profit by its teaching fails to progress as a man should. Experience is one long series of revelations to a man. No one can stand before the revelations of experience without feeling awed. If we reach a definite realisation of the magnificence of human life, the majesty of man, and the God-like powers, high purposes, and glorious destiny that, as Christ shows, are ours, we will be so filled with awe that sin will become an abhorrent thing to us. If we stand in awe we cannot sin. (D. L. Francis, M. A.) And sin not.--The nature and consequences of sin In uttering the word “ sin” how few are there amongst men, even though serious minded, who connect with it sentiments and feelings corresponding to its own true force and significance! Yet this is a word pregnant with all the terrible calamities which flesh is heir to. I. The nature of sin.1. Sin is a gathering evil. Its first indulgence ends not in itself, but the gratification strengthens the desire. The first act of sin will often make a second necessary, by placing us in situations which we had not contemplated. 2. Sin is a deceiving power. It always wears a mask. It allures under the semblance of beauty, hiding its serpent length among the roses. 3. Sin is a gradual hardening of the heart. Every fresh act of sin is the shutting up of some pore of moral sensibility. 4. Sin is ineffaceable. The action that is done cannot be undone. 5. Sin is a contagious evil. It affects those about us. II. The consequences of sin. Generally the loss of health, life, reputation, friends, the loss of fortitude under trials, consolation in suffering, the loss of peace in a world of strife, the loss of hope in nature’ s most despairing hour, the loss of a calm assurance at the last. Ponder the recorded judgments of God, this will strengthen your fear of Sin. And remember against whom you sin. A God, a merciful God, a Father, a King: against your Redeemer, and the interests of your immortal souls. (T. J. Judkin, A. M,) Plain directions to those who would be saved frown sin I. Feel reverent awe. “ Stand in awe.” Tremble, and sin not. Awe is not a common emotion nowadays, Men are triflers rather than tremblers. True religion must have a savour of awe about it, for--1. There is a God, and He is our judge. 2. There is a life to come. Behold that day of wrath when justice will sit upon the throne! II. Thoughtful self-examination.1. Think of the state of your heart. Are you right with God? 2. Commune with your heart in loneliness and quiet. 3. Think for yourself. 4. Keep on thinking, till you come to be still. III. Approach unto God aright. “ Offer the sacrifices of righteousness.” Interpret thus, come to God in His own way, as Israel came bringing their sacrifices. They first made confession of sin. Bring the offering which God has divinely appointed and provided. Come to God by faith in Christ; plead His precious blood. IV. Exercise faith. “ Put your trust in the Lord.” As willing to receive you. As He reveals Himself in Christ. For His Holy Spirit to renew you. For everything. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The duties of religion Religion is to be improved by exercise and application of mind. There is a certain art of virtue. In this art no man was ever so well accomplished as the Psalmist. Here he discovers to us the gradual progress which a good man makes in this art.1. The great business of religion is to teach us not to sin. To subdue our unruly lusts, and reduce our troublesome affections, and to bring every rebellious thought into subjection to the will of God; to restore virtue to its proper place, and reason to its due command; and to recover the natural freedom of our will from the tyranny of our passions, and the usurpation of vice. There is nothing of greater moment to us than to form our minds aright, to keep a strict hand upon our manners, and critically to confine ourselves to the paths of life. To correct our extravagance, and to keep us within the bounds of wisdom, is the proper work of religion. In our miserable lost estate, whilst we were tied and bound with the chain of our sins, God in His mercy instituted a holy religion to set us free, and restore us to that paradise of innocency from which we fell. II. The way not to sin is to “ stand in awe.” There is nothing but an awful regard for God, and a just respect for His holy attributes, that can effectually put a restraint upon us, and overrule the violence of our passions. What other design had God in imposing religious worship on us, but that it might bring us to a religious awe, that having God more immediately in our thoughts, and all His holy attributes before our eyes, we might learn to purify ourselves even as He is pure, and to abhor those sins of ours that make us unworthy of His Presence. Fear is now become a necessary qualification in man, not only to preserve his virtue, but to accomplish his nature too. III. This religious awe is to be wrought in us by “ communing with our own hearts.” It is a great art and excellence in man to know how to think; to look into the nature of human actions; to weigh well the causes and compare the consequence of things. When God reckons with the world for sin, ignorance may be some excuse, but inconsiderateness is none at all. Whensoever we find ourselves tempted into sin, and see our virtue strongly beset from without, let us retire within our own souls, and see what assistance we can fetch from thence. But we may think we have no leisure for such inquiries. Nothing is so apt to fill as vanity, and no man is more busy than he that has least to do. IV. If we would have this “ communion with our own hearts” to be effectual we must “ retire into our chamber and be still.” There we may learn to compose our thoughts, and bring ourselves to a better temper; give our passions time to cool, and then our affections quickly will be changed. There is nothing like solitude and retirement to recollect our thoughts and make us come unto ourselves, after we have been reduced by conversation and enchanted by the multitude. It is a shameful thing to think how long some men can live and yet never know themselves. When we have prepared and qualified ourselves in private, then we may expect that our public devotion shall, be effectual. (Charles Hickman, D. D.) Commune with your own heart upon your bed and be still.--Meditation David seems to have possessed in a remarkable degree both the qualifications for public and the virtues of private life. Vigorous in action, he loved repose. We need seasons of retirement to restore the balance of things and put the claims of heaven in their right order.I. The nature of godly meditation. We need not identify the exercise with religious contemplation, that higher form of intellectual homage which the mind, when elevated above the level of earthly things, pays to the wisdom of God. Meditation is contemplation turned within. Meditation is not to be confounded with reading. In meditation we are not learning truths, but applying them. Distinguish also from the ordinary act of prayer. It is the handmaid to prayer. It is not so much a religious act in itself as a preparation for all other religious acts. Meditation is not an act to be learned, but a habit to be formed. We attain expertness by diligent and persevering practice Much depends on power to govern our thoughts. II. David intimates the desirableness of securing an outward solemnity and seriousness in this exercise. The entire seclusion from all human friendships, the hushing of all voices, both from within and from without, that we may be quite alone with God. There is a sort of holiness in silence. Meditation, to be profitable, must be conducted with a fixed and holy intentness of mind. A close self-scrutiny also is enjoined in the words, “ Commune with your own hearts.” (Daniel Moore, M. A.) Self-communion Fond of conversation as we are, few of us converse with our own selves. Men are glad of anything--pleasures, cares, occupations, employments of whatever kinds, that will but step in between them and an uneasy conscience. I. What is it to commune with our own hearts? It is “ to examine our lives and conversations” by the rule of God’ s commandments,” that we may perceive “ wherein we have offended, either by will, word, or deed.” From day to day, and more especially in his private and solitary moments, the serious man “ searches and tries his ways,” and makes himself to render in a serious account of his tempers, feelings, and affections. II. Uses and benefits of this self-examination. By this means a man arrives at a knowledge of his own character. By this means we attain to a better knowledge of the Saviour--of the preciousness of His salvation. Who can be aware of the value of Christ crucified whilst he conceives he has few sins to be forgiven? Equally does that man rejoice in the blessed offices of God the Holy Spirit, by whose holy inspiration the thoughts of a vile heart are cleansed. Another use of a man’ s talking with his heart is, that it puts him upon prayer. It is the parent, too, of self-distrust. Such a man may also derive from heart examination an assurance of sincerity, and that he is indeed a subject of the grace of God. (A. Roberts, M. A.) On self-examination Self-communing will produce two most happy effects.1. It will enable us to judge aright concerning our chief good, and the true character and conduct which we ought to maintain. As perfect goodness is the great original of which every good man’ s life is a copy, so we cannot judge of the resemblance of the copy without a just apprehension of the original. We must know all the features of a right mind that, upon comparison, we may discover if those of our own mind bear a likeness to them, or are in any part distorted or unlike, and to what degree this distortion or want of resemblance prevails. To know this we must “ commune with our own hearts.” God has furnished the heart of man with a teacher and judge of what is right and good for him, and “ to commune with our own hearts” is to consult this inward instructor and judge. All revelations from heaven are intended to enlighten this internal judge and monitor. 2. It will most effectually direct and assist us in discovering our defects and vices, and in adjusting our dispositions and actions to the right judgment it has enabled us to form. We must not take it for granted that we are free from faults. But what they precisely are, we cannot know till we have carefully considered our actions, and compared them with the rule of righteousness prescribed by the Almighty, and approved by our own minds. The fear of making mortifying discoveries restrains men from communing with their own hearts, and keeps them unacquainted with their defects, whatever they may be. When we are employed in searching out our vices, there are some of such a nature that we cannot be deceived in them, if they really do belong to us. It is well to consider what are the parts of our character which we wish to conceal from all the world. Thus we shall discover our real faults. Every action of a suspicious nature,--every action which we are afraid to let the world know; ought to undergo the most accurate review. The other things to be brought under review, when communing with our own hearts, are our supposed virtues. Many men are chiefly concerned to gain the reputation of virtue. The favourable opinion of the world, reflected back upon their own minds, establishes in them the imagination that they are really virtuous. Thus their self-deceit becomes more fixed, and harder to be cured. But a mistake here must have a fatal influence on our integrity Without knowing ourselves, we cannot correct our errors, or become wise, or good, or happy. (J. Drysdale, D. D.) Self-examination When David said to his enemies, “ Commune with your own heart,” he seemed to refer them to their better judgment, when their temper was unruffled and their passions not excited. Without supposing any of you under the influence of a hateful, persecuting spirit against true godliness, it may yet, suitably and profitably, be said to every one of you, “ Commune with your own heart.” The exhortation might be addressed to each distinct class of men. I. The unconverted. Why are you unwilling to be called unconverted sinners? What is the reason you are displeased? Be candid with yourself. Does not your displeasure arise from a secret consciousness that the charge is true, and a dislike to be reminded of it? Let me exhort you to “ commune with your own heart.” Take counsel now within, and consider with yourselves what is the use of performing a service which God does not accept, nay, that is really offensive to Him; for “ the sacrifice of the wicked is abomination unto the Lord” ? II. The converted. You that know the truth, and serve the Lord Jesus. Some considerations render such an exhortation peculiarly suitable at the present time.1. The remarkable character of the religion of the present day. It is an age of energy and activity, of zeal and excitement. 2. Satan is ever on the watch to do us harm. Another reason why it is seasonable to exhort you to “ commune with your own hearts.” You have been invited to receive the sacrament. Self-examination is the constant habit of every Christian. But before we come to that holy feast, we have more than ordinary need to examine ourselves. (R. W. Dibdin, M. A.) Self-communing Communing has been defined as talking together familiarly. Retirement is much more common than self-communion. You may go apart from the crowd, and yet never speak to your own heart.1. The familiar maxim, “ Know thyself,” shows that self-knowledge has for ages been deemed desirable. In the ethical codes of the wiser moralists of the ancient world, the duty of self-analysis was prominent. But it is with the heart in its relation to things unseen and eternal that we are to commune. This communing must be marked by uncompromising fidelity. Honesty and impartiality should characterise our inquiries. In our self-communings, Scripture should be our guide. When we attempt to explore our vain and wicked hearts, we find that a manual is indispensable to success. That is to be found in the Bible alone. 2. The effect of self-communion. The Psalm is an appeal to God against the misapprehensions of the “ sons of men” who love vanity. Their behaviour is founded on a miserable delusion. Some aspects of the stillness to which communion leads. (1) It is the stillness of settled conviction.(2) Of steady growth.(3) Of assured peace. But some men carry these self-communings so far as to destroy the peace they ought to create. They are the victims of an ill-regulated self-analysis. How does this perversion of a devout habit arise? It comes of neglecting to take with us God’ s own Word, and His Son. Do not neglect this duty of self-communing because you think you have no time for it. “ Commune--upon your bed” means, do it anywhere, at any time, in any place, only do it. The heart is a book which you can always read. Let us not be without some places and some seasons at which we commune with our own heart specially, some spot, some hour, in which we can say, “ I am alone with God and with myself.” (A. MacEwen, D. D.) On religious retirement Though entire retreat would lay us aside from the part for which Providence chiefly intended us, it is certain that, without occasional retreat, we must act that part very ill. There will neither be consistency in the conduct, nor dignity in the character, of one who sets apart no share of his time for meditation and reflection. As he who is unacquainted with retreat, cannot sustain any character with propriety, so neither can he enjoy the world with any advantage. If uninterrupted intercourse with the world the man wear out of pleasure, it no less oppresses the man of business and ambition. The strongest spirits must at length sink under it. Let him who wishes for an effectual cure to all the wounds which the world can inflict, retire from intercourse with men to intercourse with God. Religious retirement is also necessary, in order to prepare us for the life to come. He who lives always in public, cannot live to his own soul. Our conversation and intercourse with the world is, in several respects, an education for vice. Breathing habitually a contagious air, how certain is our ruin, unless we sometimes retreat from this pestilential region, and seek for proper correctives of the disorders which are contracted there? The acts of prayer and devotion, the exercises of faith and repentance, all the great and peculiar duties of the religion of Christ, necessarily suppose retirement from the world. Solitude is the hallowed ground which religion hath, in every age, chosen for her own. There her inspiration is felt, and her secret mysteries elevate the soul. The great and worthy, the pious and virtuous, have ever been addicted to serious retirement. It is the characteristic of little and frivolous minds to be wholly occupied with the vulgar objects of life. A more refined and enlarged mind leaves the world behind it, feels a call for higher pleasures, and seeks them in retreat. Consider some of those great objects which in retirement should employ our thoughts.1. Commune with your own hearts concerning God. Impressions of Deity, besides their being the principle of what is strictly termed religion, are the great support of all moral sentiment and virtuous conduct among men. Impress deeply on your mind this important truth, that there is, undoubtedly, a Supreme Governor, who presides over the universe. To commune with ourselves, to any useful purpose, is not to speculate about what is mysterious in the Divine essence, but to contemplate what is displayed by His perfections; to bring home to the soul the internal, authoritative sense of God, as a Sovereign and a Father. Him you are never to confound with the works of His hands. The pious man walks among the various scenes of nature, as within the precincts of a great temple, in the habitual exercise of devotion. 2. Concerning the world. The world is the great deceiver, whose fallacious arts it highly imports us to detect. But, in the midst of its pleasures and pursuits, the detection is impossible. It is only in retreat that the charm can be broken. Will you commune with your heart concerning what the world now is, consider also what it will one day appear to be? Contemplate the world as subject to the Divine dominion. 3. Concerning yourselves, and your real character. Men are generally unwilling to see their own imperfections; and when they are willing to inquire into them, their self-love imposes on their judgment. It is said that there are three characters which every man sustains, and these differ from one another. One which he possesses in his own opinion; one which he carries in the estimation of the world; and a third which he bears in the judgment of God. It is only the last which ascertains what he really is. Whether the character which the world forms of you be above or below the truth, it imports you not much to know. But it is of eternal consequence that the character which you possess in your own eyes, be formed upon that which you bear in the sight of God. (Hugh Blair, D. D.) Self-examination As long as people are going on in a gay, thoughtless, easy way, in good health and spirits, and their minds fully occupied, it is next to impossible that religion should gain any solid and lasting hold on their affections. People go from youth to old age with a shallow, external service, which passes for religion, but which really has nothing of it but the name. When careless, thoughtless persons are brought to a deep sense of the importance of Christian doctrine, they are often inwardly alarmed, but will not confess it even to themselves. They try to fly from it by avoiding serious reflections. But in running from these reflections, they are rejecting the healing medicine afforded by the heavenly Physician. They are advised not to trouble themselves with deep and high speculative questions; to set thought on two things--their own sinfulness and the Divine mercy. Concerning the divinely consolatory warning.1. You cannot but observe how plain, simple, and unimpassioned, how far from all perplexing notions, and from all rapturous heights and flights of feeling, is the description here given of the repenting convert, the accepted child of God. 2. Notice in what a tone of solemn warning this passage is delivered. “ Stand in awe, and sin not.” In these words is clearly implied the greatness of our danger, and of our again drawing back to sin. 3. How soothing and consoling is the view here presented to us of our religious state and duties. We are not to harass ourselves with perplexing doubts about our final acceptance, to seek after any special inward convictions, as they are called, of feeling; these, whether right or wrong, are plainly not necessary; but it is necessary that we stand in awe, and sin not, and offer the sacrifices of righteousness; then, and not otherwise, we may with cheerful, though chastened hope, put our trust in the Lord. (Contributors to “Tracts for the Times.”) On communing with the heart I. Consider the obligations we are under to converse with our own heart in secret.1. Because we are rational creatures capable of thought and reflection, and the only creatures upon earth capable of religion. Without self-examination, we cannot possibly know ourselves, or what manner of spirit we are of. If we do not know ourselves, we can have no fixed or determined character, but must remain the sport of our own passions, or of those of other men, unconscious of the great end of our existence, and incapable of acting up to it. 2. Retirement is indispensably necessary for the improvement of our minds in useful knowledge, and in that knowledge especially which relates to the life to come. It is absolutely necessary that we cultivate retirement, in order to acquire a taste and a relish for those sublime truths which will hereafter occupy our attention, and delight our minds forever. II. Consider advantages attending the faithful discharge of this duty.1. In regard to our happiness in this world. Retirement furnishes an asylum; it draws a wall of separation between us and the scenes without, and hides from our eyes the fashion of a world that passeth away. It is in retirement that we view things as they really are. 2. The chief advantage of religious retirement consists in its loosening our attachment to the objects of sense, and in raising our desires to the things that are above, and thereby assimilating our souls to the delightful employment and happiness of the heavenly world.. This subject will furnish us with a very easy and a very certain criterion by which we may ascertain the state of our hearts towards God. (James Ross, D. D.) Self-fellowship Three thoughts are suggested. I. Man has a spiritual nature. It is here called a “ heart.” It stands for our whole spiritual being.1. We have more proof that the soul is than that the body is.2. We have an intuitive belief in the existence of the soul; and3. The Bible most unmistakably reveals it. II. Man has a capacity to commune with his spiritual nature.1. He can observe all its phenomena; and2. Trace them to their causative principles. III. He is bidden exercise this capacity. Would he understand his own nature, let him do this. But yet more for moral purposes. For1. We know not how evil we are.2. We must know this ere we can seek that correction which is indispensable.3. The correction must take place here and now. (D. Thomas, D. D.) Know thyself I. What should we commune about?1. Our sins.2. Our relation to God.3. Our principles.4. Our pleasures. II. How? 1. With dependence upon God.2. With reference to His Word. III. Its advantages.1. Assistance in the performance of religious duties.2. Direction in the use of the means of grace.3. Power over temptations. (W. W. Wythe.) On self-communion I would introduce, must I say, a stranger? to your acquaintance; one whom it infinitely concerns you to know, and to be intimate with. Our text will tell you his name--“ commune with your own heart.” I. What it is to commune with our own heart. Communication supposes two persons, but here a man’ s own heart must supply the place of both. It is what we call soliloquy. It is the soul’ s inquiry into and of itself. And it may be either--1. Direct: we can bid our soul ponder our ways. 2. By way of reflection. And this should be ordinary with us; the soul should talk over every occurrence with itself. But sometimes, when there is a more than common call for self-consultation, it should be extraordinary. II. What should we thus commune about?1. About our state; our former state--what we were; and of our present state--what we are. Our first salutation to one another when we meet is, “ How d’ ye do?” --let this be every man’ s first address to himself, “ Heart, how dost thou?” Especially if you are living in sin, or walking inconsistently with your Christian profession. And we should converse also about our future--what we are likely to be. Have we a good hope, or are we in danger of hell? 2. About sin. 3. Duty. III. When should we commune with our own hearts? When should we not? We cannot do it too often. But more especially--1. When we are most at leisure. 2. When the conscience is in any way awakened. 3. When we are under any particular trouble. “ In the day of adversity consider.” (Ecclesiastes 7:14). 4. When we engage in the solemn duties of religion. 5. The Lord’ s day. 6. When we in the immediate prospect of death. IV. Why should we do this? Because--1. God commands it. A good man who had a wild and wicked son, whom neither tears nor entreaties nor threatenings could reclaim, left it as his dying charge to his son, and gave him an estate expressly upon this condition, that he should spend half an hour every day alone. The good man died; and the next day, the young prodigal, rather than lose his fortune, shuts himself up. But what an age did the first half hour seem I How impatiently did he count the slow-moving minutes; and as soon as ever they had gone, joyfully haste away to his gay companions. Sometimes he would spend the time in fretting at or ridiculing this odd command of his father. “ What could he mean by it?” (at length he began to think); he was always kind, and could never design to vex me. And yet what good can I, get by sitting here moping and musing? I begin to grow melancholy already. However, he persevered, in obedience to the will; and at length it pleased God to give his mind such a thoughtful turn, that he came to long for the half hour as much as formerly he dreaded it. He was led on from step to step, until he became a serious and exemplary Christian. Now God hath as positively enjoined on us this duty (2 Corinthians 13:5; Galatians 6:4). Then, thinks-- 2. The thing itself is reasonable. What should we think of a man who was hardly ever at home, sauntering up and down all the day long, and letting his own affairs be neglected? 3. And it is useful also. It prevents waste of time. Helps to improve ends of time. Saves from many snares. Makes us thrive in grace. 4. And necessary. V. How must we thus commune?1. Seriously.2. Particularly.3. Resolutely.4. Rightly--do not judge yourself by a false measure. Weigh your actions and thoughts in the balance of the sanctuary (2 Corinthians 10:12; 2 Corinthians 10:18). But some of you will not do this, and the reason is--you are afraid. And yet you must die. Is it not better, then, to obey, and hear what your heart will say (G. Lavington.) And be still. The excitements of the age as they affect religion We live in an age of excitement and unrest. How often brain and heart alike give way in the midday! It very naturally follows that these dancing waves of excitement break into the sacred quietudes of religion. Reverence is not superstition. As Creator, we know by faith that God made the worlds; and, as Redeemer, we know, by faith too, that the Christ works within us, as the Absolver from guilt, and the Saviour from sin. We thus revere God, and such reverence is the root of all religion. Our Saviour, in His human experience, knew much of solitude, and quiet, and worship. There is less of holy meditation and calm, thoughtful worship, than ill the old times before us. And, consequently, our religious life must lose that mellowness which comes from the quiet touch of the sunbeam, and the still air of the garden. The text suggests-- I. How little we know of ourselves. We have been surfeited with counsels concerning the dangers of introspection. But there is still need to “ watch and pray,” to “ look to ourselves,” to “ examine ourselves.” This no one can do for us. We may become morbid analysts of moods and experiences. But how seldom do we even seek to become, in any true sense, acquainted with ourselves. There is no unexplored continent less known to us than the wonderful land within us. By “ commune with your own hearts” is meant, make inquiry concerning its health and its energy, its growth and its godliness. II. How much we need solitude. “ Upon your bed.” There, where you are removed from the garish light of day. Upon our bed we have seen visions of ourselves and God which have melted us to gratitude, and moved us to tears of penitence and joy. There are places in men’ s hearts “ which only hear the foot of conscience at the dead of night.” III. How much we need stillness. This brings us to the centre of our subject. We need quiet hours. We are too much in society. In still hours we learn what cowards we really are; how often we are afraid to be ourselves, and to speak and act out the truth that is in us. In still hours we learn how much Christ is to us. In still hours we learn how little anything outward can really affect us. We live more and more in what we are. In still hours we learn the value of true friends. We see that the Christlike in men is that which alone is truly to be loved and honoured. Still hours! How seldom they come to us! Should we not seek to have more? And should not our religious service itself be characterised by a greater devoutness and reverence? (W. M. Statham.) Alone with God There is no religion, no praise, no worship, but of the individual. The text is what must be said to every single, solitary person. It addresses him ill the most solitary, silent time--when his day’ s work is done, and he is going to sleep. God spreads the curtain of darkness round about us, just that He may shut Himself in with His child. It is not bodily stillness alone. That is compelled. You cannot help going to sleep, God makes you. If it were not for this bodily sleep, we should all go mad. If there never be a silence in the soul, and a man goes on always with his own thoughts and schemes and endeavours, it brings about a moral and spiritual madness. It is not in the midst of the tumult of life that a man first of all is able to hear God. We have not got up to Jesus Christ yet; God was always with Him. So He is with us, but Jesus knew it and felt. But even He went out to the mountains at night, that there might be nothing between Him and God. I think God has sometimes great trouble in separating us far enough from Himself that He can look round and know us. It is the most natural thing that God and man should meet, and know and understand each other, that there should be the meeting together of the thought of the One with the thought of the other. If we do not do the will of God in the day, it is not likely that we will be still upon our beds that He may come and visit us. We need not be without Him during the day. Let us be jealous over ourselves. God will be readier to come to His child the next night if, during the day, he has been living childlike, walking in the steps of his Father, holding fast by Him. The one eternal, original, infinite blessing of the human soul is when in stillness the Father comes and says, “ My child, I am here.” (George Macdonald, LL. D.) Solitary reflection I. Explain meaning of text. It is to ponder the matter over with ourselves. The wicked love not to do this. Note the place--your bed; the time--at night, when all is still. It is well to examine our actions, but best, the heart. Ask of it such questions as these:1. Does it choose and follow after these things which conscience tells me to be right? 2. Is my conscience instructed and informed by the Word of God? 3. Have any of, or all of, my pursuits ever yet afforded me satisfaction? 4. Will the course I an, in do to die with? 5. If I should die in an unconverted state, can I endure the wrath of an offended God? II. Enforce its exhortation. Because--1. There are things you have doubted, but which, if you would commune with your own heart, you would find to be true. 2. Things which you have objected to, which you would see to be unobjectionable. 3. One reason why you know so little of your heart sins is that you commune with it so little. 4. There are things which you value much which you would see to be worthless. (Andrew Fuller.) Psalms 4:5 Offer the sacrifices of righteousness, and put your trust in the Lord.Sacrifice and trust What are we to understand by this expression, “ The sacrifices of righteousness” ?1. By way of specification. The sacrifices of righteousness are righteous sacrifices, sacrifices and oblations under the law. The sacrifice of contrition and humiliation. The sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving. The sacrifice of alms and charitable contributions. The exercise and practice of righteousness. To offer the sacrifices of righteousness is to be abundant in acts of justice and equity, and righteousness betwixt man and man. 2. By way of modification or qualification, as to the manner of performance. In a righteous manner; from a righteous principle, to a righteous end. In faith, in obedience, in humility. Notice the privilege of all true Christians under the gospel. Sacrifice is not now confined to any particular place. It is performed with less difficulty. The Christian sacrifices are sanctified by the sacrifice of Christ, who has offered Himself up for us. Take the second sentence of the text, “ Put your trust in the Lord.” This is a duty by itself. Faith in God is required, together with righteousness to men. Look at this duty in its connection with the first sentence, “ Offer the sacrifices.” A double force in this--as the sacrifices are preparatory, and disposing to this trust; and as this trust qualifies and regulates those sacrifices. The best ground of our trust is the free mercy of God in Christ. (T. Horton, D. D.) The sacrifices of righteousness Taking the language of the text in its most rigid meaning, estimating our sacrifices of righteousness by the perfect rule originally given to us,--and remembering that God cannot receive anything less valuable without violating the faithfulness, and compromising the purity of His character,--we have no sacrifices to offer to Him which will justify us in expecting that, for the sake of these, we shall regain and enjoy any of those blessings which His goodness ever prompts Him to bestow upon His rational offspring, as constituting at once their honour and their happiness. Still, we are commanded to offer the sacrifices of righteousness, and we are encouraged to trust in the Lord. The two things must be consistent. It must be practicable for us, fallen though we be, to do both the one and the other.1. Offer the sacrifices of righteousness, by cherishing those sentiments of humility and sorrow which become creatures who have lost their righteousness; and trust in the Lord, that if you do so, He will comfort you, and lift you up. Humility and sorrow, it is true, cannot compensate for the want of righteousness. They amount to a recognition of that want. Humility and sorrow answer the purpose assigned them, as being a heartfelt testimony on the part of the transgressor to the infinite excellence of God’ s law, and to the fitness and importance, and necessity, of that obedience which it demands. In this there is a tribute paid to the authority of God. Presenting this sacrifice of righteousness, you need not be afraid of your offering being rejected or disdained. 2. By a believing application to the obedience of Christ, as constituting that righteousness for the sake of which God justifies the ungodly. Our humility, however deep, and our sorrow, however sincere, come far short of what God’ s law requires of us. And so must all the best affections, and all the worthiest doings, of which we are capable. It is the grand object of the gospel dispensation, to provide for us that righteousness of which we are naturally destitute, but which, nevertheless, the holiness and immutability of God’ s law render absolutely necessary. This provision has been made by appointing Christ as our surety and substitute. In what manner does the righteousness of Christ become ours, so that we may offer it as a sacrifice to God, and trust in Him, that, for its sake, He will forgive and bless us? It is appropriated by faith, by that faith which implies a renunciation of all dependence on our own inherent righteousness as the instituted method of justification. We offer to God the sacrifice of this righteousness when we direct our views to it, and place our confidence in it. 3. By an earnest desire and uniform endeavour to be adorned with the graces of personal righteousness. Personal righteousness is absolutely, and in every case, indispensable. Strive and pray that your offering may be cheerful, unreserved, and constant. Thus offering the sacrifices of righteousness, you may trust in the Lord that your offering shall not be in vain. 4. By striving to promote the interests of righteousness among your fellow men. No doubt our principal concern is to be holy ourselves. But if we are sincere in that work, we will be anxious that our neighbours shall be holy in the same manner, and to the same extent, and will make every exertion that may be requisite for attaining that end. And explicit obligation is laid upon us to aim at the suppression of sin, and at the prosperity of virtue among our fellow creatures. As to the means by which you are to promote this object, it must strike you at once that the grand and efficient means of diffusing righteousness is to be found in the diffusion of Christianity. Christianity is a system of righteousness. If you would secure for Christianity its purifying effects in their best style, and in their fullest measure, you must present it to men in its true and native character, as it has been set forth by God Himself. And you must exhibit its purifying influence on your own deportment. (A. Thomson, D. D.) Psalms 4:6 There be many that say, Who win show us any good? Seeing for good Truth and happiness go together, like light and heat in the sun. God is the fountain of blessedness, because He is the Father of lights; so that the only proper answer to the question, “ Who will show us any good?” is, “ Lord, lift Thou up the light, of Thy countenance upon us.” I. The question. They who ask such a question are not happy. They have some secret cause of dissatisfaction and disquietude. There is a great blank in their moral life; a part of their very nature is left unprovided for. But they want something shown to them, something that their senses can appreciate. Yet they neglect to seek good in God. What is the true good, and who can show it to us? What is the true good with regard to our present happiness? One seeks it in the pleasures of the mind; another in the honours, dignities, and applause of his fellow men; others in wealth, ease, and competence, in prosperous schemes, and golden harvests, and plenteous stores. But these, in themselves, prove disappointing. What is the good which God shows us? The light of His countenance, so that heart to heart, and face to face, we may continue with the invisible God. How is this true good to be obtained? II. The implied answer to the question. The good man will not be satisfied with “ any” good; he must have the chief good, the best good-living water, not water from the cistern. A sense of reconciliation with God, of a granted pardon from Him, of a realised covenant engagement with Him. The chief good is thus described, to “ do justly,” “ to love mercy,” “ to walk humbly with thy God.” (Daniel Moore, M. A.) The natural man’ s choice No natural or unregenerate man can lift up his heart any higher than unto a worldly happiness, and content in the creature. When you have, in the most powerful and moving manner, discovered spiritual duties, and the necessity of conversion to God, yet they matter it not; they will say, “ Who will show us any good?” To bring this coal of fire into your bosom, consider several propositions.1. Herein lieth the general character of these two citizens--one builds up Babylon, the other builds up Jerusalem. The whole world consists of two sorts of men--the one who are of the world; the other, though in the world, yet not of it. Every wicked man makes some creature or other to be as a God, and so the ultimate end, to him. To clear the heinousness of this wretched temper, consider, 2. That all the good things which the creatures do afford unto us, they are but as means to carry us to a further end. They are but as the rounds of a ladder, not to stand upon, but thereby to ascend higher, even to heaven. 3. Take notice that there is a higher and grosser sort of unregenerate men than happily this expression will comprehend, and that is those who make such things as are formally and expressly evil the good things they would have showed to them. Such are all gross and profane sinners, who live in the daily practice of some loathsome sin. 4. The schoolmen do well to place in every sin a two-fold respect; there is the aversion from God, and the conversion to the creature. 5. It is acknowledged by all that there is inbred in a man an appetite or desire after felicity and happiness. There were above a hundred opinions amongst the heathen in what true felicity consists: but though some were not so gross as others, yet all come short of the true end. 6. The persuasion of what is the best good, and which is chiefly to be desired, is wonderfully diversified, according to the several inclinations, humours, and conditions of men. 7. The preferring of the creature above God, though it be the sin of all mankind, and as large as original sin itself, yet, like that, is hardly discerned and discovered. Antidotes and means against this creature-affection. (1) You cannot address yourselves unto God in prayer while your heart is not above the world. (2) Thy heart; it is the choicest and chiefest treasure about thee; it is too noble for any creature. (3) Meditate on this--that all those who ever loved the creature immoderately, have at last found the vanity and unprofitableness of it. (4) God hath mingled gall with the honey of every creature, and therefore it is that everything is obtained with difficulty, and possessed with cares, so that we might not rest in the creature. (5) These creatures, whatever they are for comfort, they are not originally and of themselves so, but are only instruments and conduit pipes. They are defective in these particulars. They cannot give any comfort or content of themselves. They cannot fill themselves with any comfort objectively, any further than God puts into them. They are streams that have water no longer than the spring filleth them. The creature, in being but an instrument, and having all from God, doth thereby demonstrate how much blessedness is in enjoying God Himself. (6) Lay this to heart, heaven and glory cannot be obtained without a preeminent and transcendent affection to all other things. (7) Neglect not this meditation--what heathen and superstitious persons have done in a misguided way for some notable end. (8) If Christ hath reproved those who were godly for their external cares, how much rather will He condemn those who are immoderately addicted to these things? (Anthony Burgess.) The different language of the godly and the ungodly descriptive of their different characters Scripture divides mankind into two classes, godly and ungodly. They differ as to their actual state in relation to the law and favour of God, and in their real character in the dispositions and affections of the soul. In this text we see how different are the prevailing desires of godly and ungodly men. I. The language of worldly and unconverted men. “ Who will show us any good?” All pursue the object which appears to them good. But it is only some worldly good. “ Corn and wine.” In their search, of whom do they seek information? Only of men like themselves; of men who are following worldly objects. Many of the things after which worldly men inquire are lawful. The degree in which it is done often makes the inquiry unlawful. They pursue it inordinately. This is the circumstance which clearly marks their characters, and decidedly proves them to be worldly. II. The language of the people of God. The very form which the language takes points out a marked distinction. It is a prayer, not a question. This has always been a marked feature in the people of God. They are a people who pray. They attempt nothing and desire nothing, apart from prayer. Here, for what objects do they pray?1. For the Lord’ s countenance; for His special approbation and love. 2. For the light of His countenance. Not only the possession of God’ s favour, but the enjoyment of it. Conclusion:1. You who are walking “ in the light of His countenance,” be thankful for the great mercy vouchsafed to you.2. Be watchful.” Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. (E. Cooper.) The cry of the many, and the prayer of the few I. The cry of the many. Humanity is little changed in its characteristics from what it was in David’ s days.1. This is the cry of destitution.2. Of bitter disappointment.3. Of sensuousness.4. Of recklessness.5. Of despair. II. The prayer of the few.1. It is directed to the proper source.2. It supplicates the highest blessing. Show us Thy favour. Regard us with approval and complacency. Let us know ourselves the objects of Thy love. (C. M. Merry.) The inquirer after happiness guided All seek after happiness of some kind or other. Yet there is nothing in which men more generally fail. There must then be an error somewhere. I. The language of the world, as expressed in this text. There are in the world mistaken inquirers after happiness, and they are many. More seek it in the wrong way than in the right. These wrong inquirers are all dissatisfied--Solomon, Colonel Gardiner, Lord Byron, Cardinal Wolsey. These inquirers after happiness are ignorant of the only real source of joy. They never seek it where it can be found. They will not seek their happiness in God. The happiness of these men is evanescent. Supposing that they are happy, their happiness does not last. II. The contrast between the state of the worldly man and the state of the christian. The Christian’ s joy is a specific joy; it is a joy immediately and directly derived from God. It is a satisfying joy. It is unaffected by external circumstances. It is an everlasting joy. (George Weight, B. A.) The influence of Christianity in the heart, in the home, and in society It may be asked whether the truth of Christianity necessarily follows from its joy-giving power. Such a proof is only a part of the cumulative evidence whereupon Christianity is built. There is a further and more serious objection. Arc you not, by showing that religion promotes joy, appealing to motives of abject fear and personal profit? Morality, not pleasure, should be the true end of religion. But it is just because Christianity has holiness for its object that it is able to promise the happiness which holiness involves. It does indeed appeal to hope and fear; but the fear and the hope which it invokes are not selfish; not, certainly, in that invidious sense which implies the wrong or the neglect of others. Nor can it be said for a moment that the Christian’ s fear or joy ignores the claims of morality. Why, the very conviction of sin upon which such a fear is based recognises the breach of a moral law. That same fear becomes ennobled in its onward course, being daily transfigured from the dread of offending a righteous, judge into the filial fear of offending a loving Father. And as with the Christian’ s fear, so with his joy and his hope. Even in its beginning, it involves a recognition of moral law, and it daily tends to further holiness. Both the Christian’ s fear and joy are essentially moral in their character. But it may be asked--Is this joy really attainable? and if attainable, is it of any value? “ Is life worth living?” Christless pessimism is a natural oscillation from a Christless optimism: in other words, to look for true joy in the heart, the home, or society, except as the outcome of true religion, is to build up hopes that can only end in despair. What has Christianity to offer in the place of Christless optimism? What are the virtues and the accompanying joys to which it invites us? It would be untrue to assert that morality and happiness cannot exist in any degree apart from Christianity. And we must not assume that Christianity has promised to bring about, in this dispensation at least, universal goodness, or universal happiness. Let us not look for more than has been promised. Take1. The heart joys of the individual Christian. Christianity intensifies the joys that are common to all; there are some joys that are peculiarly her own. Such as, the power to dispel those foul vapours which, as our Lord tells us, come naturally from within, and which are necessarily destructive of all inward joy. True religion also offers the joy of pardon. But the heart joy of the Christian does not end with pardon. There is the still greater and holier joy which he feels in the consciousness of being an object of love and care to a heavenly Father, a sympathising Saviour, an abiding Comforter. 2. The home joys of the Christian. In the eyes of the Christian the very idea of home has a holy and Divine meaning that reaches far beyond its earthly significance. He has before his eyes the revelation of an Eternal Father and a Divine Son. True religion enjoins, with a terrible earnestness, those sacred obligations on the observance of which the happiness of home depends; and true religion provides a further home joy in its truth of resurrection. 3. The society joys of the Christian. True religion tends to promote joy in society. The chief source of happiness in a community is liberty, and a chief friend of liberty is true religion. What are the features which give special peace and happiness to the social circle? Are they not courtesy and unselfishness? Are not these Christian virtues? In conclusion, face this question. If Christianity be a failure, what do you propose to put in its place? (Archbishop Plunker, D. D.) The Cynic’ s query answered The Cynics were a sect of Greek philosophers founded by Antisthenes. He was a proud, stern, and unfeeling man, of such a snarling temper as to be named “ dog,” kunos, and his school, “ the dog school.” He appeared in threadbare attire and was reproved by Socrates, who told him that his pride spoke through the holes of his clothes. His follower, Diogenes, outdistanced him, and appeared at noonday with a lantern, seeking, as he pretended, to find a man. When Alexander compassionately asked him on one occasion, “ What can I do for you?” he replied, “ Stand out of my sunlight.” He was an incarnate sneer. “ Who will show us any good? Is there any good? Are we not all dupes of delusions?” The text answers the scorner’ s query--“ Lord, lift Thou up the light of Thy countenance upon us.” We learn that there is good. It can be unfolded and recognised. God is its root, blossom, and fruit. The Cynic is silenced. Satire has its place and function. It may cut to cure, may lacerate yet heal, may lash popular vices and effect good. But satire is earnest, while cynicism is not. Let us, therefore, look at this good which may be defended. Life is not a blunder. It is not a mirage, a stream that runs on only to be buried in sand. Good we can define and know it sharply. It can be made a part of ourselves, and we thereby be made rich and strong. We are not drifting clouds floating away to melt into nothingness. Human life may be opulent, and human destiny glorious. I. This good we are to think about is personal. It is something realisable, actual, to be recognised by us all. The genesis of it is in God. God is the Saxon word for good. It is in the light of His countenance that we are to realise the possession of genuine good. God does not throw at us as a king in his chariot may fling coin to the crowd about him, but enriches us by reason of our likeness and affinities with Him. We are His children. The paternity of God broods over each life and blesses it. Supposing on one of these spring days there was held a council of the trees and grasses, and each leafless tree and spire of grass should say, “ We must have the sun, the dewfall and the rain if we are to live. We must have not one warm shower, but many, if we are to lead on the beauty and bounty of summer. Are we certain of these things?” The sun whispers to each, “ I will not forget you, but speak the word to the sea, which shall give of its waters to the cloud, and the cloud shall drop the rain. The dew shall also come, and I, the sun, the father of the earth, will shine upon you. Fear not, I will care for you.” But is not God the primal force, the unseen Creator? He speaks by sun and sea, by cloud and dew. So in the moral world He is the atmosphere in which we are to live. Warmed by His light we shall rejoice and bring forth fruit. II. Notice the form which this good has taken. God’ s beneficence is incarnated. Its concrete form is the living Christ. He is the answer to the query, “ Who will show us any good?” He, the express image of God, meets man’ s spiritual nature perfectly, shining into and enriching it as the sun vitalises and fructifies the earth. This higher nature needs Divine ennobling. We live in the lower too much. We materialise ourselves too much and forget our spiritual selfhood to which the abiding good must minister. He comes, not as a transient, but perennial supply; not to a transient need, but to our permanent wants as immortal beings. It is not food or raiment which we most need. Christ gives character. If that be built up in man he is a recognised child of God. It is not an easy work, the toil of a day, but that which requires earnest endeavour so long as life shall last. There are endless possibilities in each of us. What possibilities with God indwelling! A good man is a God-man. This is the grand outcome. He dwelleth in us. When then the peering, muttering cynic comes groping round with his lantern asking, “ Who will show us any good?” our answer is, a good man! III. How is such a goodness built? Only through the same line that Christ passed Himself. Every noble soul grows into other lives. Goodness grows by giving itself away. A good life is a great argument. As the sun streams into a dark cloud and washes out its gloom, clothing it with splendour, so does the Sun of Righteousness shine into a human life and make it glorious with the Divine lustre of the heavenly life. IV. God in Christ takes hold of the whole of us, and the possession is perpetual. (J. Wesley Davis, D. D.) The quest for good The quest for good is a perplexing one. Its sources, like the Nile’ s, are not easily found. “ There be many that say, Who will show us any good?” Good in the highest sense is not the natural heritage of man. Youth with its brightness is a very short season; the burden and heat of the day come very soon; old age with its decrepitude and weakness hovers not far off. Even the best earthly lot does not satisfy. I. There is dissatisfaction and inquiry. Alone of all the creatures, man seems to have an ill-fitting lot; and alone of all the creatures, he is conscious of his misery. Very wretched according to our standard is the life of the worm that crawls in the damp earth, or the mole that burrows blind and cold in the ground; still more wretched are the lives of those animals that riot in putridity and fatten on corruption: but whatever their lot may appear to us, they are conscious of no want, and may quite contentedly fulfil the ends of their being. It is otherwise with man. He is not in his right place; he is not “ in harmony with his surroundings” ; he was meant to be happier. The bee is quite satisfied gathering its honey; the sheep is quite pleased nibbling the green meadow; the swallow desires nothing better than to skim the summer air, and build its nest and rear its young under the eaves of the old castle, and be oil again in winter to the sunny south. Of all creatures, man alone feels that his lot is not satisfactory. In his nature alone there is an unsatisfied longing. He is ever on the alert to hear of “ good,” in case it be the thing that will allay his craving. But commonly he looks in the wrong direction. Are there any instances of true repose and satisfaction of soul obtained from the broken cisterns? It is not on what men have, but on what they are, that their true happiness depends. And men cannot be what they should be till they come to Christ. “ I am the Bread of Life: he that cometh to Me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on Me shall never thirst!” II. There are various answers. How poor and unsatisfying are the answers often given to, the quest, for good! “ I have been reading such, an amusing book,” says one, “ a very delightful tale; do get hold of it, you will enjoy it so much.” “ Have you been to such and such an entertainment?” asks another; “ it is so superior to anything of the kind.” Or, taking some of the answers given in a somewhat different sphere of life--one tells of a market where commodities are got cheap; another of an improvement in the management of his business; and another of a way of making the house more snug, or the person more comfortable or more comely. The advertisements of the newspapers, the prospectuses of new companies, the circulars of tradesmen, the critiques of reviewers, the arguments of politicians, are all in their way answers to the question, “ Who will show us any good?” All very well in their way and in their place; but very miserable surely if there is no higher level of good--no higher region to which the soul may aspire. III. The true answer. The Psalmist tacitly puts all these aside; one blessing, and one only, fills his eye and his heart; and it deserves our best attention--“ Lord, lift Thou up the light of Thy countenance upon us.” It was common among the Hebrews to speak of a person’ s countenance as low or fallen when he was grieved or angry, and as lifted up when he was pleased and happy. We hold down our face when we are dejected, we hold it up when we are glad. So, also, a radiant or shining countenance stands opposed to a dark or gloomy one. The lights of the countenance, the eyes, sparkle in the one ease, and are dull in the other. The two emblems are combined in the request to God to lift up the light of His countenance on us. The thought is, “ Look on us with a happy, shining face--with the happy, shining face with which Thou didst look on our Elder Brother, when Thy voice was heard from the clouds, ‘ This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.’ Transfer to us the satisfaction which Thou hast for Him; accept us in the Beloved. Transform our hearts into His image; make us to resemble Him, ‘ the firstborn among many brethren.’” If only we are in a right relation to the Son of God, the countenance of the Father is sure to be lifted up. Has the light of God’ s countenance never yet been lifted up on someone? Why should it not? “ God is in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing unto them their trespasses.” We are His ambassadors entreating you to be reconciled! And the way to all good is so open and so glorious. (W. G. Blaikie, D. D. , LL. D.) The inquirers after good Various as are the tastes and pursuits of mankind, all are pursuing one object--to be happy. But what is true happiness, and where is it to be found? There are two classes of mankind. I. The class mentioned in the text.1. They are numerous. Not confined to persons of any particular age or station. 2. The nature of this restless inquiry is shown in the question itself. The question is thrown out to the whole world, to the good and the bad, to the wise and the ignorant, that each may answer it as he sees fit. How various and inconsistent are the answers made! 3. Not only are persons thus restlessly inquiring, but their expectations of finding satisfaction in it are constantly disappointed. They are perpetually trying new experiments, but always with the same result. II. Can any satisfying good be found? Our text furnishes the answer. God’ s favour, the light of His countenance, His presence, His protection, these are satisfying good. God is indeed the source of all good. Then why do not all men seek happiness in God? The temptations to make the world our portion are ever at hand, and press upon us; they appeal to our senses and appetites; they present themselves according to our ages and circumstances in life, in the various forms of profit, pleasure, or worldly distinction, and exhibit innumerable allurements adapted to every taste. Mankind, having forsaken God, find a painful void which the manifestations of His favour alone can fill. (Christian Observer.) The open secret, or the world’ s cry and Heaven’ s answer I. The world’ s cry. With the question, as such, no fault is to be found, seeing it is natural to man. But the questioners are of varied type.1. The unrestrained sensualist. 2. The orderly, selfish, even tempered, moral, prudential worldling, against whom society can bring no positive charge, but from whom it can expect no conscious benefit. 3. The striving and ambitious, whose ruling passion is acquisitiveness. 4. The recluse student, calculator, bookworm, who gives his ,life to the pursuit of knowledge. Many of them are martyrs of science. “ Oh,” cried one, “ for a century to study a grain of sand, or a blade of grass!” “ More light!” exclaimed the dying Goethe. But many and potent as are the charms of science, if pursued as a chief aim, it can only end in disappointment. 5. There is the agnostic, and the insatiable man of action, whose delight is in adventure, discovery, heroic achievement, social influence. 6. There is the type aesthetic, the worshipper of the beautiful in literature and art. But the beautiful alone can never satisfy. II. Heaven’ s answer. It is the light of God’ s countenance that will fill our hearts with gladness and peace. This “ good” is--1. Universally accessible to the earnest seeker. A certain writer speaks of “ youth as a blunder, manhood a labour, and old age a regret.” God could not have meant that they should be so. 2. Enduring. 3. Adequate. 4. Without it nothing else can be of real use to us. Classical story, tells of a philosopher, who was admitted to a grand merrymaking of the Celestials. He was informed that, among the noble and majestic forms around him, there was one, and only one, earth born like himself. He was asked whether, looking at them in all the pomp of royalty, he could pick out his fellow mortal. Contrary to expectation, there was not the slightest difficulty. Though enthroned among gods, and though, like them, he carried a sceptre, and wore golden sandals, and a purple fillet, and talked and nodded as divinely, the man was instantly and unmistakably detected by the restlessness of his eye. That ,is a profoundly melancholy, and yet a triumphantly suggestive allegory. “ Rest!” exclaimed Peter of Russia to his jaded soldiers; “ you will have rest enough in the grave.” Is that all? Have we no “ parish rights” anywhere in the universe? Yes, there is a love if you will but accept it, a power which, if you yield to it, will make this earth the very gate of heaven. (R. Griffith, F. G. S.) The difference between worldly and godly men I. The unrenewed men seek for happiness in worldly enjoyments.1. The frequency of this conduct. The disposition of mind, expressed in this inquiry, belongs to every man until, by renewing grace, he is enabled to set his affection on things above. It is the language of their hearts, their lips, and their actions. There is, indeed, a great variety of objects that engage their attention and pursuit. 2. The foolishness of their conduct. Though desirous to enjoy good, they apply not to God, who alone can give that which is good. Thus they show that they are under the influence of corrupt passions, and wish to live, if it were possible, independent of God. 3. The dangerousness of their conduct. The creatures are unable to help you in your greatest extremities when you most need assistance. This practice entails upon them that follow it certain misery and woe. It gives to the creatures the glory and honour which is due to the Creator. II. The gracious, godly man esteems the favour of God above every earthly enjoyment. When men are reconciled to other men, they view them with complacency and delight. Any good will not satisfy the godly man’ s desires; the wealth of the world cannot make a portion for his immortal soul. The “ light of God’ s countenance” includes--1. God’ s reconciled favour and love. 2. A sense of its excellence and sweetness. 3. Experience of its joyful fruits and effects. All the temporal and spiritual mercies proceed from God’ s favour and goodwill. (W. M’Culloch.) Of the nature and pursuit of good This question forms the complaint of many sinful, or mistaken men.1. It may be asked by the misanthropist. Whatever such persons contemplate is viewed, not only with an expectation, but an intention, to spy out imperfection or deformity. Habits of moroseness and suspicion will contaminate the purest actions. 2. Another vain inquirer after good is the sceptic, and minute philosopher. Surrounded with mists, or dazzled with excess of light, they can never see their way clearly. Every question begets a string of possibilities. Such persons often enter into tedious and perplexed labyrinths of thought, which terminate in no practical result. 3. Another is the voluptuary, and the mere man of the world. Those who, at their first outset, so far mistake the road, as to suppose that the gratifications of sense, or the vanities of ambition, can constitute the happiness of a creature that was formed for immortality, must, in a short time, expect to be disappointed. The pleasures of novelty soon grow familiar, and those of appetite are quickly cloyed. 4. The melancholy inquiry may express the desponding complaint of those who have suffered much, and who seem to sorrow without hope. We are all children of discipline, passing through this land of shadows into a state of immortality, in which we must give account of the things done in the body. Let me advise everybody, who feels this evil doubt and despondency gathering round his mind, to approach the throne of grace with the short but energetic prayer of the holy Psalmist, “ Lord, lift Thou up the light of Thy countenance upon us.” (J. Hewlett, B. D.) The cry of the heart Life is not all a thing of beauty. If we listen to a Psalm, it may have as many hearse-like harmonies as notes of gladness. The minor rapidly succeeds the major. Weariness is implied in this cry of the human heart. There is social, political, religious unrest. But let us thank God that it is as it is. This despair, this conflict between right and wrong, this struggle after the true way, all these tell of the grandeur and nobility of our nature. These very longings carry along with them assurances of satisfaction; these desires prophesy fruition. They tell the story of the soul’ s fatherhood,--it was made for God; and He who formed the soul alone can fill it. Thus we have reached back to the Infinite at last. Oh, that I know whore I might find rest! Oh, for a living, loving, personal God! The heart must have something to love; something whereon to rest; something ill which to trust. God is not an abstraction, but a very present Help. Not afar off, but close at hand. Not merely love, but the Loving One. Not cold Omnipotence, but the Helping One. A being who rewards personal longings with personal gifts; personal cravings with personal sympathy. All this we find in the dear Christ of the Cross. He will show thee, O man, what is good. Trouble may now and then ruffle the fringes of your outer life, but the life hidden with Christ in God shall never be stirred by the winds and waves of earthly care. Founded upon the Rock, you shall never, never be moved. (John Hemphill.) The general depression Beneath the conventional smiles and cheerful salutations of society there lie heavy burdens on many hearts, and there may be heard “ groanings which cannot be uttered.” There is on every side a great deal of care amounting to anxiety, and of depression bordering on melancholy. At present, the troubles of our fellow men are heavy indeed, through the more struggle for existence. Another cause of the general depression is the sickness which abounds. This has been a very unhealthy season. Another great sorrow is the perpetual exile of grown-up sons into distant lands. Add the trouble endured through domestic servants, and through bad children. There are unhappy souls who live in a perpetual atmosphere of melancholy, who, whatever be their circumstances, habitually look only on the dark side of things, and seem unable to do otherwise. See the exquisite beauty, and simplicity, and reasonableness of the remedy for trouble which the Psalmist recommends. His remedy is prayer. But prayer for what? He does not pray for the removal of one of life’ s burdens, for the reversal of one of God’ s decrees, or for the smallest interference on God’ s part with the conditions in which we find ourselves. It is a prayer only for the light of God’ s countenance to shine upon our souls. That is the only good worth showing or giving. That is the panacea for all life’ s ills. That gives strength to carry the burden, instead of taking the burden away. That gives courage to face our danger, instead of taking the danger out of our path. That is the only cure in heaven or earth for depression of mind. “ The light of God’ s countenance” is a way of expressing the soul’ s vision of God--seeing Him, and knowing that He sees us. Some of us may drill ourselves into a hardened stoicism. That is not happiness, it is death. Many think to be happy by the removal of their present troubles. It is a mistake. In trouble man learns that he needs God. In his darkest hours man has seen the brightest visions of the ineffable glory. (Charles Voysey.) A restless quest of satisfaction There is said to be a strange plant in South America which finds a moist place and sends its roots down and becomes green for a little while until the place becomes dry, when it draws itself out and rolls itself up and is blown along by the wind until it comes to another moist place, where it repeats the same process. On and on the plant goes, stopping wherever it finds a little water, until the spot is dry; then in the end, after all its wanderings, it is nothing but a bundle of dry roots and leaves. It is the same with those who drink only of this world’ s springs. They drink and thirst again, blown by the winds of passion and desire, and at last their souls are nothing but a bundle of unsatisfied desires and burning thirsts. We must find something better than this, or perish forever. Summum bonum:--1. In the history of ancient Greece we read of two sages--the Weeping and the Laughing Philosopher. The one saw nothing but the dark side; the other looked always at the bright. We all know people belonging to both of those schools. It depends very largely on natural temperament to which of the two any person belongs; for some are naturally melancholy, others sanguine. Partly, too, it may depend on fortune; an early disappointment or the treachery of a supposed friend may poison a man’ s mind to all healthy influences; whereas those into whose soul the iron has never entered are disposed to think lightly of the sufferings of others. 2. Somewhat analogous to this division of mankind is that in the text; only, it goes far deeper. It speaks of a dissatisfaction with life which is consistent with much surface gaiety, and of a satisfaction which may be felt amid misfortune. I. The restless human heart. You may have seen a picture called The Pursuit of Pleasure, in which pleasure is represented as an airy winged figure of dazzling beauty, floating just above the ground, turning her enchanting face towards those who are in pursuit of her; but still retreating from them, as she draws them on. In the forefront of her pursuers are the young, with flushed faces and confident eyes, almost touching with their outstretched hands the fringes of her robe. Farther behind are those who have been longer in pursuit; they are falling back in the race, and there is the dread of disappointment in their eyes; but their determination is all the stronger not to miss the prize. In the rear are those following in despair; and some have stumbled and fallen, and are being trodden upon as the mad pursuit rushes by. Is it not too true? Who can say, My desires are fulfilled, and I am satisfied? If the blinds were drawn up from the windows of our hearts, what would be seen within? The pain of desires which have found no fulfilment, the disappointment of hopes once cherished but abandoned now, the dread of coming change, which may strew the ground with the fair fabric of our prosperity. So difficult is it to catch the butterfly of happiness, and it is still more difficult to keep it. The men of thought and the men of action and the men of leisure arrive by different ways at the same result. They are seeking some great good which will satisfy the heart, but they have not found it; and they are going about asking, Who will show us it? And then life is so short. Now or never you must find the secret. Are we to live and die without once clasping our fingers over the prize, without once getting our hearts filled to the brim? II. The heart at rest. “ Lord, lift upon us the light of Thy countenance.” He is not asking, “ Who will show us any good?” for he knows the secret, he has found the supreme good, and he has nothing else to desire but this--that more and more God would lift on him and those for whom he speaks the light of His countenance. What does it mean? The phrase is a very Oriental one. It is derived from the experience of an Eastern court. The light of the countenance is the expression which it wears when it is pleased. We know on what conditions God is now well pleased with the children of men. He is always well pleased with Christ, and with all whom He sees in Christ. This, therefore, in the language of Christian experience, is the solution of the problem--to have Christ, and ever more of Christ. How is this the solution? How, in other words, does Christ give the heart rest?1. He does so by taking it off itself. When the kindness and love of God are revealed to the heart, when the self-sacrifice of Christ becomes the great theme of our joy and hope, a similar disposition is begotten in us: we love all those whom God loves and for whom Christ died, and we are ready to serve them, because Christ has said, Inasmuch as ye do it to the least of these, ye do it unto Me. You cannot help thinking well of mankind when you are trying to do them good, and you can never despise any soul if you believe Christ has esteemed it worthy of His life. 2. Not only does Christ draw the heart off itself, but He also gives it an object large enough to satisfy its desires. It possesses the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Who can estimate all that this implies? How can anyone with such a heritage go about moaning, c, Who can show us any good?” No, “ the voice of rejoining and salvation is in the tabernacles of the righteous” ; “ the shout of a King is in their midst.” The human heart is large and hungry; but Christ can fill it, and He can keep it full. 3. This is a satisfaction which will never fail, but become deeper and more precious at the very stage when all other satisfactions are failing. It is not a wise view of religion which represents it as a substitute for all the good things by which life is enlarged and enriched--such as knowledge, love, health, work, and success. Rather is religion the sunny atmosphere in which all these things are to be enjoyed. (J. Stalker, D. D.) Heavenly satisfaction best “ The old Rabbis say that when the famine came on in Egypt and the storehouses were opened, that Joseph threw the chaff of the grain upon the Nile, that it might float down the river and show those who lived below that there was abundance. So the blessings of this life are nothing more than the husks of God’ s bounty, compared with spiritual joys and heaven.” Lord, lift Thou up the light of Thy countenance upon us. The light of God’ s countenance I. What is the light of God’ s countenance?1. That we are noticed by the Divine Being. He takes cognisance of your affairs. 2. That He is interested in us, as a father in the doings of his children. 3. That we are the objects and recipients of His favours. He favours our undertakings, circumstances, and conditions. 4. That He approves of our acts--accepts and fills us with peace. 5. That He helps us. God’ s favour is no empty pretence--His aid comes timely. 6. That He blesses us. His benediction conveys the good. II. The results. It puts “ gladness into the heart.” Why? Because--1. It is the countenance of a powerful, wise, omnipotent Being. 2. It is the exuberant gladness--overflowing joy--beyond any worldling’ s mirth--unending. How disquieted should those be from whom God’ s face is averted and for whom there is on His countenance a frown! (William Landels, D. D.) The godly man’ s choice 1. A gracious heart doth more esteem the favour of God, and the light of His countenance, than any earthly thing whatsover. What does the phrase “ the light of Thy countenance” express? It supposes that all our iniquities and sins are pardoned and blotted out. So long as our guilt is upon us, and God seeth that, He turneth His face from us. There is implied, God’ s favour and love toward us. The original and cause of all God’ s gracious mercies in time. That God hath a peculiar respect unto His children. The efficacy and powerful effects thereof; for as the sun by its beams doth enlighten the whole earth, and give life and motion to everything, thus also doth God where He favours. This acting of God’ s face in reference to the godly, emptieth itself in two ways, in respect of outward and temporal mercies; and in respect of spiritual mercies. 2. The qualifications or characters of those who do value and desire God’ s favour above everything else. They are such as have a deep and true sense of the guilt of their sins. Such are often afflicted, persecuted, and of great exercises in this world. They who renounce their own righteousness. They who are spiritually-minded. They who live by faith, and are affected with things as revealed by the Scripture. They can esteem the favour of God, who have had experience of the sweetness and excellence of it. They who have the Spirit of God working in them. They who walk closely with God. (Anthony Burgess.) The chief happiness of man is found in the enjoyment of God All the various pleasures which this world affords are unsatisfying in their nature, and transitory in their duration. Happiness is the one object in pursuit of which all men are engaged.1. True and satisfying enjoyment is not to be found in the pursuit or possession of the things of time. There is an obvious and acknowledged disparity between all the objects and pursuits of time, and the capacity of that being which was formed after the image of God. Various are the expedients which the wise men have recommended for the attainment of happiness. 2. The chief end of man, in so far as happiness is concerned, is the enjoyment of God Himself. Jehovah is the infinite source of all good. If a consciousness of His favour and love can be acquired, this will give the assurance of every blessing. The very conviction that God is, is a source of joy unspeakable. The contemplation of the relations in which the eternal God stands to us, is the source of His highest enjoyment. Above all, it is the knowledge of God as in Jesus, his reconciled Father, his covenant God, that gives him peace, and confidence, and joy. It is thus that, even now, Jehovah is enjoyed by all His believing people. (Alexander Turner.) The source of the Christian’ s joy I. What are we to understand by the light of God’ s countenance. The light of one’ s countenance denotes that peculiar aspect which bespeaks affection and favour. By the light of God’ s countenance we understand that clear and full manifestation of God to the soul, which assures it of an interest in His favour. There is a manifestation of God to the soul of the Christian, which is not enjoyed by other men, even with the Bible in their hands, nor always by the Christian himself. Though he does not pass beyond the limits of the written revelation, yet he sees in a peculiar manner what lies within its limits. He sees God, the great object of this revelation, in the light and radiance of reality. This manifestation of God is made to the Christian in the exercise of holy affections, and he is therefore assured of the Divine favour through the promises. In proportion to the strength and intenseness of holy affections, the misgivings of doubt, and fluctuations of faith, vanish. The assurance consequent on this manifestation of God to the soul is through the medium of the Divine promises. Whether God has promised--whether God is faithful, is not a matter of doubt to the Christian’ s mind. II. Why the christian desires the light of God’ s countenance above all earthly good.1. He thus values and desires it, as it removes a sense of quilt from his mind. 2. He desires it for its own inherent consolation. This state of mind implies the serenity of unreserved confidence. Confidence in God, under a full manifestation of God. In this state there is a peculiar manifestation of God’ s love to the Christian. There is, also, between the soul and God, a delightful fellowship of affection and of interests. 3. He desires it, as it gives assurance of those future blessings which are the objects of hope. Thus we see why Christians so often mourn the hidings of God’ s face. The subject addresses those who have been taught to value and desire the light of God’ s countenance above all things. (N. W. Taylor, D. D.) Men’ s true happiness consists in the favour of God 1. There is necessarily implanted in the very nature of man a desire of promoting his own happiness. This is a self-evident truth, and needs no proof. The only difference in men lies in determining wherein their true happiness consists, and by what methods it may best be attained. True religion is so far from discouraging men in their search after happiness that it forbids not the enjoyment of any one temporal blessing which God has created for the use of man, but only disorderly instances and unreasonable excesses. 2. Wicked and corrupt men seek this happiness in the sinful enjoyments of the present life; and their choosing to do so is their great error and folly. The enjoyments of this world are ranked by St. John under three heads, “ the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life” : that is, pier, sure, riches, and honour. Every one of these has a great mixture of evil attending it, has at best much emptiness and imperfection in it, and has much unsatisfactoriness and disappointment going along with it. They are not at best complete enough to satisfy the mind of man; and if they were, they cannot continue long enough to maintain and preserve its happiness. Whatever will make the mind of man happy, must be able to satisfy it both in its whole capacity and in its whole duration. Whatever is not sufficient to effect this, cannot be man’ s chief and final happiness. 3. Virtuous and good men place their chief happiness in the knowledge and favour of God, in the practice of virtue and true religion; and their acting according to this principle is the greatest and indeed the only true wisdom. (1) Wherein does this true happiness consist? Partly in their contemplating with delight, and meditating with pleasure, on the perfections of God the supreme good. Partly in the sense of God’ s present favour to them, arising from the consciousness of their agreeableness and conformity to His holy and Divine will. They know that God’ s favour and protection always accompanies righteous and just men. The favour God bears to virtuous and good men, they find belongs to themselves; and this affords them at all times and in all cases, a solid and rational satisfaction. Partly in the expectation of eternal rewards, with which hope they are supported here, and the actual possession of them, which they shall enjoy hereafter. (2) In what respect it excels the happiness of sensual and corrupt minds. I shall only observe that this happiness, which is the reward of virtue, exceeds all other pleasures infinitely in the two forementioned qualifications of happiness, namely, perfection in degree, and continuance of duration (Psalms 16:11). (S. Clarke, D. D.) The great desire of the saints However all men have a common nature, yet grace makes a vast difference among them. As it makes difference in their understandings, so in their wills. In this text the world is divided into two parties. In some things they agree; as in the sense of defects; and in their desire of supplies. There are some things in which they differ, as the object of their desires; the ways they take for accomplishing their desires; the success of their desires. Doctrine: It is a great desire of gracious souls to have the light of the Lord’ s countenance lifted up upon them. I. Speak to the case here supposed. The saint, the child of light, may sometimes sit in darkness. How far may this darkness proceed? It may go so far that they cannot see to read their evidences for heaven; they cannot see above them, nor look up to heaven. The very thing that was their light before may be as darkness to them. They may be unable to discern their best friend from their foe. They may lose sight of their guide, and of their way-marks. They may be weary of their very lives. II. The desire of the gracious soul. To have the light of God’ s countenance implies a state of reconciliation with God; the Lord’ s laying aside any special controversy with the soul; a communication of gracious influences, and an intimation of God’ s love to the soul. (T. Boston, D. D.) The blessed man Here we are taught how to carry and behave ourselves in times of danger. I. A disposition in all men to seek after something that may make them happy. It is true, indeed, that naturally men do not distinctly know wherein their happiness lies; but, as Aquinas observes, there is a general knowledge of happiness, add there is a distinct and right understanding of it. Now though all men have not this distinct knowledge of our happiness, yet all men have a special knowledge of it, and they know that it is good for them to be happy; surely, therefore, there is a disposition in all the children of men to seek after something that may make them happy. II. Men are generally mistaken in the matter of their happiness. Is not he mistaken herein that doth bless himself in the way of his sin; or in the enjoyment of the creature? Some place their happiness in pleasure, or riches, or honour, or power, or health, strength, and beauty of body, or knowledge, wit, and learning, or in moral civil life. But what creature excellency is there that can give happiness to the sons of men? Certainly none. How comes it to pass that men are thus mistaken? Sometimes the mistake arises from ignorance of the right and true notion of happiness; or from the misapplication of the true notion of happiness; or because men measure their happiness by their present want; or because they do not hearken to and consider what is spoken to them about true happiness. III. There is a generation of men who have found this blessedness. They are blessed because their sins are forgiven: when the Lord teaches them the mysteries of the kingdom. They are blessed who wait at the posts of wisdom, and are made wise thereby; they who are meek; they who know and do the work of their place and office; they who wait for the coming of Christ; they who die in the Lord. IV. Wherein doth this true happiness consist? In the shine of God’ s face. The face of God is His favour. If God hath ever blessed you in truth, then hath His face shined upon you. (W. Bridge, M. A.) True happiness found in God’ s favour only In this text two different and opposite characters are introduced. The true Christian differs widely from all others, with respect to the ultimate object of his desires and pursuits. His treasure is in heaven, and there his heart is also. He draws all his hope and happiness from the favour of God, and the enjoyment of His love. I. The disposition of unregenerate men, as represented in this text. “ Who will make us to see good?” To see good is an expression which denotes the enjoyment of it. This desire, and the manner in which it is expressed, imply--1. A departure flora the original constitution of human nature. Man was a creature flamed to derive all his happiness from intercourse with his Maker. While he continued in a state of rectitude, he enjoyed consummate blessedness. Man, in innocence, found in the Divine favour and fellowship a source of happiness pure and inexhaustible. What a melancholy change sin produced. Communion with God was wholly interrupted. Man came to ask for “ any good,” any present, sensible, worldly good. 2. An idolatrous attachment to the world. Fallen man having cast off God, exalts the world into His throne. All natural men set their hearts on some created good, from which they expect their best happiness. Whatever draws the heart away from God, and occupies His room in the affections, is a sin of the deepest dye, it is the vilest idolatry. 3. A disposition strictly to examine all the sources of worldly bliss. Every object that promises entertainment is greedily embraced. 4. The question is expressive of the dissatisfaction attendant on all earthly pursuits. Many are the expedients which are devised by the lovers of this world to obtain the “ good” which they do ardently pant after, but they all fail of success. The world, with all its splendid ornaments, is a mere picture of felicity, and ever disappoints and deceives its votaries. True peace and rest they never find. 5. A disposition to renew the pursuit after worldly happiness, notwithstanding repeated disappointments. II. Contrast the disposition of these with that of renewed and sanctified souls. The text gives the breathings of their hearts. The terms used are figurative, but highly significant. God is a Spirit, and therefore hath no bodily members. He is pleased to address men in their own language. Men express favour or displeasure by the different appearances of countenance which they assume. The “ light of God’ s countenance” denotes a sense of His love as a reconciled Father in Christ Jesus. This ardent desire to enjoy the smiles of God’ s benign countenance includes in it--1. Some knowledge and experience of the condescension and grace of God in accepting sinners through Christ Jesus. God has manifested His love in providing a Saviour for us exactly suited to our wants. 2. This prayer is expressive of supreme delight in communion with God. Nothing is more characteristic of a Christian than this. He pants after the Divine fellowship, as the principle of all his enjoyment, the very happiness of his being. 3. Cordially to join in this prayer of the Psalmist, supposes the high value and diligent use of every means of Divine institution where God has promised to meet with His people. 4. It also implies a longing desire for the full enjoyment of God in heaven. Conclusion: (1) Let everyone here inquire what is the temper of his mind and the tendency of his heart. (2) See the extreme folly of those who yield themselves to this worlds influence for the attainment of happiness. (T. Chalmers, D. D.) The hindrances to our living in the light of God’ s countenance What David here speaks of was not a glowing and happy state of feeling exercised upon spiritual subjects, but something more substantial and real. Feelings are ever varying in their ‘ clearness and amount. It was not of so uncertain a thing as the ebb and flow of this changing tide of emotion. That of which he spoke was the practical carrying out into the events of daily life of that great truth which lies near to the foundation of all religion--that it is the very condition of our individual and eternal being and consciousness that we should be really nearer at all times to the great God than we can be to any other being.1. The first hindrance Christians find is, allowing themselves in a formal and indevout character of service. If we rest in the acts of worship or devotion, we lose that which is their chief benefit, communion with God. The same loss is incurred by making religion to consist in “ feelings” of devotion. 2. Christian men form too low a notion of the holiness which God has put within their reach. They are too apt to think of holiness as mainly valuable because it is an evidence of faith. Hence, when they are satisfied about their faith, they are in danger of becoming somewhat languid in seeking after holiness. 3. Another hindrance is a multitude of worldly cares. There is such a natural agreement between our heart and earthly things, that they are apt to lay hold again and again of those affections which we perhaps had hoped were truly weaned from them, and set upon things above. Two chief means by which the power of the world may be resisted are, first, on the appearance of the danger, honestly examine whether you are not multiplying cares which you are not really called upon to meet, and which therefore are more than you can bear. And, secondly, do all this worldly business as unto the Lord; endeavour to bring the presence of God into it all. 4. The want of earnestness is a hindrance. This is seen in many ways--in the evident coldness of prayer; in frequent absence from some among the means of grace; or in a careless walk, and remissness in resistance of temptation; and in their being ready to acquiesce in such a state as that in which they must continue. The want of earnestness may spring from different causes. It may be the effect of a lurking infidelity. Another cause of this inaction is a secret hope that some time or other you will find it easier to turn to God, to serve Him heartily. Sometimes it pleases God to withhold spiritual comforts, and the sense of His gracious presence from the soul, even when we cannot find any cause of carelessness in the believer. This is, when it happens, a fearful part of the believer’ s discipline. Doubtless it is sent to work some blessed end. (Bishop Wilberforce.) A satisfying view of Christ An earnest Christian woman lay upon her deathbed in a Boston hospital. She had devoted herself to an unselfish life, and contracted the disease that caused her death, in spending her life for others. The night she died she said to her attendants, “ Please raise the curtain.” There, on a great church opposite the hospital, flooded by moonlight, stood Thorwaldsen’ s statue of the Master. Long and silently she gazed upon it. “ Don’ t drop the curtain,” she pleaded. “ I want to look at Christ.” Our doubts, our sins, our troubles, our perplexities, are all curtains that fall between us and the true meaning of a simple Christian life. Raise them and look at Him. Happiness in God’s favour:--Four things briefly put about the happiness that comes of God’ s smile.1. It goes to heighten other joys where they are possessed. There are such joys, sources of satisfaction for the intellect, for the social heart, for every want of man except that of the soul. Let this deepest need of man be met, and all other things will yield more good. 2. Further, true happiness remains when other sources of joy have passed away. Failures, reverses, losses, are always saddening; but have we not known men m whose heart happiness has held its seat even amidst the wreck of their fortunes? Yet again, the joy of God dwells within the soul of many a man who never had many other sources of comfort. God’ s poor are gladdened by the light of His countenance. 3. Lastly, this happiness will be enjoyed in proportion as we are seeking it. The Christian living beneath the sunlight is the happy Christian. The Christian who often lives without seeking it, lacks the joy. So, then, here is the secret of a happy life--it is with God. It is living in friendship and fellowship with God; it lies in the consciousness of His favour and love. The one spot on earth where happiness is to be found is the heart of a good man. (J. B. French.) Psalms 4:7 Thou hast put gladness in my heart, more than in the time that their corn and their wine increased. Thanksgiving for harvest 1. The joy in harvest is based on the successful result of labour. Labour is God’ s law, and obedience to it secures a result corresponding to the means used, and that result is a real blessing in the ratio in which God is recognised and honoured, by obeying Him in the law which He has enjoined. Spiritual blessings are only attained through spiritual means. How few men recognise, in God’ s ministration of natural plenty, a silent sermon on the passage, “ He giveth all things richly to enjoy.” A Christian looks upon a plentiful harvest, not simply as a pledge of cheaper bread, but as a mark of God’ s approval of the industry which wrought for this end. All industrious nations are thriving, though all are not God-fearing nations. 2. Joy in harvest commemorates the termination of solicitude, in reference to a favourable season for ripening and gathering in the crops. Scripture alludes to many of the trials and disappointments of the husbandman. There is a proverbial impatience and murmuring among tillers of the soil. A like impatience is not rare among some Christians. The harvest, as an annual ripening and realising of profit, should suggest annual inquiry into our own scale of personal maturity in the things of God. Has the past year yielded a good spiritual return for mental toil, and thought, and prayer, and the means of grace? 3. The joy of harvest reasonably includes the prospect of an adequate supply for our own and others’ necessities. There is danger, as well as misery, m a public deficiency of the necessaries of life. The law and the loaf flourish best together. 4. The joy of an abundant harvest should stimulate us to renewed and enhanced confidence in God. If He thus blesses the labour of the field, doubt not He will bless every believer in his personal calling. (Joseph B. Owen, M. A.) Plus gladness Christianity is a religion of gladness. You cannot have one Divine idea in you without being glad. You cannot have any Divine ideas so long as you are unpardoned. It is the distinction of the gospel to proclaim possible forgiveness, and when forgiveness has taken effect then joy begins; on every bough of every tree there is a singing bird. But until we are pardoned, and pardoned at the Cross, we cannot admit God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost into our hearts to abide with us and sup with us and manifest themselves to us, and therefore we cannot have this simple, pure, celestial, inexhaustible joy. Christianity gives joy unspeakable, joy unutterable. Joy has no words; joy takes up all our little words, and uses them, and then says, I want more, more, another language, and because it has no more articulation it bursts forth into songs without words, it mingles with the melody of the spheres. To that high festival we are called! But is not the religion of Christ a religion of melancholy? No. It has in it the deepest melancholy ever known, but one thing is so often forgotten by Christian evangelists: Christ died only once. They will not think of that--only once. He did die--died as never man died; He was despised and rejected of men, He gave His back to the smiters and His cheeks to them that pluck off the hair; but He died only once. He lives for evermore. Why do we not at our Eastertides remember this?--the death for a moment, the life forever! So we come up out of darkness to sing of light; we leave the desert, one little mile long, and enter upon the boundless paradise of God. Do not condemn yourselves because you have not a continual consciousness of this joy. Much of that want of consciousness may be due to physical infirmity; we are fearfully and wonderfully made; the body may be having the upper hand for a time. Then some men’ s self lies such a long way within themselves they have to shed off coat after coat, to slough off bad skin after bad skin a thousand in number, before they get at their real Ego, their real I, their real and divinest self. Some of us have a hard fight. Some of you think you are going to lose. Hear me: you are not. “ Gad, a troop shall overcome him, but he shall overcome at the last.” For the moment he is down, but God is in him, and he will spring from the dust, and at the last even the poor tribe called Gad shall sing of victory, sit down with conquerors! (Joseph Parker, D. D.) The duty, method, and importance of being happy There are wants of the soul which no earthly good can satisfy. The happiness to meet these wants consists in a calm, cheerful, submissive, contented frame of mind. I. This happiness is not only a privilege, it is a sacred and most important christian duty.1. By far the greater part of the unhappiness which people complain of, is of their own procuring, and is to be set down as resulting, not from any unavoidable necessity, either in nature or circumstances, but from a perverted free agency, from violating some of the laws of our being, from voluntary indiscretions, errors, and sins. Remove the sources of unhappiness, and little comparatively would remain to embitter the cup of life, or make us unhappy. If the unhappiness is caused by ourselves, then it is our “ duty” to cease from so profitless, so bad a work. 2. It is our duty to be happy, because it is our duty to be right--right in our feelings, principles, habits, and aims; and just so far as we are so, we must, and we shall be happy. The happiness of which I speak is in the state of the mind, and independent, in great measure, of outward circumstances. 3. God wishes us to be happy. This cannot be doubted by any who believe that God is a Being of infinite wisdom and goodness. True, in our present state, there are many things within and without, which tend to perplex and try us, and, in point of fact, do often greatly interrupt and disturb our happiness. These, we have seen, are partly our own procuring. So far as they come in the course of Divine Providence, they are means designed of our Father in heaven to promote our present and future happiness. They are among the “ all things that work together for good.” 4. Look at the constitution of man as made in the image of God, and formed to share, in his measure, in the happiness of God. A law pervades your whole mental constitution, making it certain that the right normal exercise of your powers and affections can result only in making you happy. 5. From the abundant means God has provided to render you happy. He who made you, and made you to be happy, has provided means adapted to gratify all your desires and aspirations, so far as they are right and proper. The means God has provided for our happiness do not stop in the things of earth and time. II. The method or way to be happy.1. We must leave off making ourselves unhappy. Turn out all those consumers of happiness which are so apt to find a home in the bosom. Their name is legion, and by many they are indulged and nursed to the overthrow of all internal peace and comfort. 2. Cultivate kind and benevolent affections--love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, meekness, goodness, truth. These virtues, in habitual exercise, as they are required to be, cannot fail to diffuse sunshine and pleasantness over the whole mind and life. 3. Note the Saviour’ s prescription for being happy, as contained in the opening of His Sermon on the Mount. “ Blessed are they, etc. What is the principle, the source, of the blessedness expressed in these different terms? Plainly it is internal; it springs from the affections. III. The importance of being happy. It is not necessary to dwell on this. It is not, however, common for happiness to be inculcated as a duty. It is usually regarded as a matter which everyone must be left to dispose of as he chooses, without incurring any moral responsibility. (J. Hawes, D. D.) Religion no enemy to joy Joy and pleasure are things so truly desired by all mankind, that religion suffers by being thought an enemy to them. Religion restrains us from nothing, but what our own reason and interest should restrain us from, In all harmless and innocent satisfactions, that neither entrench upon the honour of God, nor the rights of others, nor our own peace and quiet, we have leave to pick and choose. I. The nature of this inward joy and pleasure. Not a natural gaiety and cheerfulness of humour, or a few light and transient fits of mirth, nor yet any strong and confident presumptions of God’ s love and favour, or any rapturous transports, and sensible ravishments of joy. That which I intend is, a solid and rational satisfaction of mind, in the goodness and soundness of a man’ s estate towards God, and flows usually from these two things--from a sincere and regular discharge of our duty, which brings its own comfort and tranquillity along With it. And from a cheerful reflection upon a man’ s innocency, and the integrity of his actions, when a man dares look back upon what he has done, and knows that he has the testimony and approbation of heaven on his side, bearing witness to the vote and suffrage of his own conscience. II. What influence religion has upon the joy and pleasure of a man’ s mind.1. Religion restores a man to the grace and favour of God, and assures him that his sins are pardoned, and his peace made with heaven. 2. A course of virtue and religion subdues our inordinate appetites and vicious inclinations, which are the great fountains of inquietude and trouble. Religion circulates through all our powers, disposes every faculty to act in its due place and order, and determines every affection to its peculiar object. 3. A pious and religious life secures to a man the peculiar care and protection of the Divine Providence, than which there cannot be a stronger support and comfort to the mind of a wise and good man. 4. Religion refreshes the mind of a good man with a joyful assurance of the glory and blessedness of the Other world. III. The excellency of the pleasures of religion, above all the delights and pleasures of this world. “ More than when the corn and the wine increases.”1. The delights of this world are gross and corporeal, and affect only the external senses, and are the pleasures of the brute, rather than of the man. 2. The pleasures of religion are more solid and satisfying than anything this world can afford. They fill our appetites, and fix our desires, and settle the soul upon the right basis and temper. 3. Religions pleasures are more large and comprehensive, they take in a vaster compass, the delights both of this and of the other world. 4. The pleasures of religion have infinitely the advantage of all others in point of duration and continuance. They abide with us when other comforts fly, or are rifled away from us The sum is this--“ the work of righteousness is peace, and the effect of righteousness is quietness and assurance forever.” (William Cave, D. D.) The saint’ s gladness The chief distinction between a child of God and a man of the world lies in the prevailing tendency of their desires.1. The Psalmist’ s description of opposite characters. See the description of worldly men, in Psalms 4:6 : It is obvious-- (1) That this question betrays a great degree of inward dissatisfaction and perplexity. They say “ any good,” anything to fill up the craving vacuity of our minds. At the time of the question they cannot find anything in their lot that deserves the name of good. (2) The only good they inquire for is some present sensible enjoyment, which may be pointed out to the eye of sense, They look not “ at the things which are unseen and eternal.” (3) They make no discrimination of the objects which they seek after. (4) They do not turn their thoughts at all to God. They seek counsel from others, but none from Him. Turn to consider the temper of a child of God. He too seeks “ good” ; but (i) It is not “ any” good that will satisfy him. He cannot feed upon husks. He seeks the “ chief good.” (ii) He knows where that good is to be found. The favour of God, and the sense of His loving kindness, are the only sources of true happiness. The worldly mind is in a state of perpetual fluctuation. (iii) The child of God goes directly to God Himself, and begs the blessing from Him. (iv) The Psalmist, in the name of the godly, uses this prayer in direct opposition to the carnal language, of worldly men. Intimating to us, that a child of God can relish no sweetness m any inferior good, till he be assured of the Divine favour.2. The propositions which arise from this comparison. (1) Worldly men have little cause to rejoice in the temporal advantages which they possess. These outward things may consist with the present misery of the person who possesses them. Indeed, these things are frequently the means of making men miserable, and of fixing them in that deplorable state. These things may end in misery, and leave the owner in everlasting woe. (2) Consider those solid grounds of joy which belong to the people of God. He is possessed of the joy which results from comparing his present and happy condition with the misery in which he was once involved. Source of joy to a child of God, also consists in the actual honours and privileges conferred upon him. He is advanced to the dearest and most intimate relation to God, adopted into His family, and invested with all the rights of a son. The joy of a saint also proceeds from the contemplation of those future blessings which are yet only the objects of hope. These sources of joy are of such a nature as that no outward distress or calamity can take them away. Improvement of this subject.1. Inquire which of the characters described by the Psalmist belongs to us. 2. I exhort those of you who are yet carnally minded, to think seriously of your condition. 3. Let those who have been taught to value the light of God’ s countenance above all things, learn to be humble and thankful. (R. Walker.) Christians should reflect on their felicity “ Living in Rome, a famous antiquarian and artist (Winkelman) tells how he gave himself half an hour every day to meditate on his Italian happiness. Thousands have lived in Rome with the same pure sky smiling over them, and the same articulate antiquity on every side accosting them, and never been aware of their felicity.” And is it not thus with the average Christian life? For the want of reflection and a calm survey of our standing and inheritance in Jesus Christ, our icy and gladness are intermittent instead of perennial and abiding. (James Hamilton, D. D.) Happy without a fortune Recovering from an illness, Mr. Wilberforce remarked, “ I can scarcely understand why my life is spared so long, except it be to show them a man can be as happy without a fortune as with one.” A happy life Now, as they were going along and talking, they espied a boy feeding his father’ s sheep. The boy was in very mean clothes, but of a very fresh and well-favoured countenance, and as he sat by himself, he sang-- “ He that is down needs fear no fall; He that is low no pride; He that is humble ever shall Have God to be his guide. I am content with what I have, Little be it or much; And, Lord, contentment still I crave, Because Thou savest such. Fulness to such a burden is, That go on pilgrimage: Here little, and hereafter bliss, Is best from age to age.” Then said their guide, “ Do you hear him?” “ I will dare to say that this boy lives a merrier life, and wears more of that herb called heart’ s ease in his bosom, than he that is clad in silk and velvet.” (John Bunyan.) Psalms 4:8I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep: for Thou, Lord, only makest me dwell in safety.Signs of a quiet spirit In the text are two subjects. David’ s privilege or happiness itself. The ground or foundation of this his happiness. In the letter and proposition of it, we have the comfortableness and advantage of natural rest. In the scope and drift of it, we have the comfortableness and advantage of God’ s favour. The security and fearlessness of a godly person, who is in the love and favour of God, and hath this evidenced and made good to his soul. He is one that is free from all inordinate disturbance, and disquietness of spirit. Those who are reconciled to God, and in His love, have privileges beyond others, so as “ in patience to possess their souls,’ in the midst of the greatest outward trouble. This is grounded upon that persuasion which they have of God Himself, and of His affections towards them. It is implied, that none can well thus compose themselves, but those which are thus affected. None can lie down in peace and sleep securely, but those who have made their peace with God, and are in favour with Him. A guilty conscience can never lie down in quiet. Great estates in the world are, for the most part, occasions of great distraction and disquietness of spirit, and such as are subject to break men of their natural rest. Why could David sleep with his estate, rather than his enemies with theirs? Because his was sanctified and sweetened to him by the love of God. Note the ground of the godly man’ s composure. “ Thou, Lord, only makest me dwell in safety.” The blessing itself--a safe and secure habitation. As we desire to dwell safely, let us be careful to dwell holily: and that includes piety and religion; justice, honesty, and righteousness; peace, friendship, love and quietness of spirit; charity and giving to the poor. This blessing flows from God Himself. It is not a business of mere casualty, there’ s a providence in it. Not a business of mere endeavour, it comes by the blessing of God. (T. Horton, D. D.) How to close the day with God This may be understood, either figuratively, of the repose of the soul, in the assurance of God’ s grace, or literally, of the repose of the body, under the protection of His providence. The Psalmist having given the preference to God’ s favour above any good, having chosen that, and portioned himself in that, here expresses his great complacency in the choice he had made. Those who have the assurances of God’ s favour toward them, may enjoy, and should labour after, a holy serenity and security of mind. It is the privilege of good people that they may be thus easy and satisfied; and it is their duty to use the means appointed for the obtaining it. The Psalmist, after an anxious day, now retires to his chamber with the words, “ I will lay me down in peace, and sleep.” Here we have David’ s pious thoughts when he was going to bed. Observe his confidence in God, his composedness in himself Doctrine: As we must begin the day with God, and wait upon Him all the day, so we must endeavour to close it with Him. Let us retire to lay us down. Some sit up to do mischief to their neighbours; others sit up in pursuit of the world and the wealth of it; others sit up in the indulgence of their pleasures. But let us lay down with thankfulness to God, and with thoughts of dying; with penitent reflections upon the sins of the day, and with humble supplications for the mercies of the night. We should be convinced of it that we are still contracting guilt. We should examine our consciences, that we may find out our particular transgressions of the day past. We should renew our repentance, for whatever we find has been amiss in us. We should make a fresh application of the blood of Christ to our souls, for the remission of our sins, and the gracious acceptance of our repentance. We should apply ourselves to the throne of grace for peace and pardon. Let us also lie down with humble supplication for the mercies of the night. We must pray, that our outward man may be under the care of God’ s holy angels, who are the ministers of His providence. We must pray, that our inward man may be under the influences of His Holy Spirit, who is the author and fountain of His grace. And when we lay down, our care and endeavour must be to lay us down in peace. Let us lie down in peace with God; for without this there can be no peace at all. Let us lie down in peace with all men: we are concerned to go to sleep, as well as to die, in charity. Let us lie down at peace with ourselves. But when may we lie down in peace at night? If we have, by the grace of God, in some measure done the work of the day, and filled it up with duty. If we have by faith, and patience, and submission to the Divine will, reconciled ourselves to all the events of the day so as to be uneasy at nothing that God has done. If we have renewed our repentance for sin. If we have put ourselves under the Divine protection. If we have cast all our cares for the day following upon God. Having laid ourselves down in peace, we must compose ourselves to sleep. It is by the power of God’ s providence that we are kept safe in the night. (Matthew Henry.) Sleep Sleep is the image of death. Jesus Christ abolished the terrors of the first death, the death of the body. In the text is not a prayer of David, but a determination on his part. To a certain extent, peaceful sleep depends upon ourselves. A peaceful state of mind has a great deal to do with the power of enjoying God’ s gift of sleep. And, similarly, a peaceful death depends on ourselves. There is such a thing as the quietness of a stupefied conscience. How may we, as far as conscience is concerned, carry out the resolution that we will lie down in peace?1. By doing all that in us lies to preserve a peaceful conscience during the day. Begin the day with earnest prayer. Our morning prayers may show us what we wish to be, but the temptations of the day show us what we are. Our consciences cannot but be injured, if we are guilty of faults and errors during the day, and take no account of them at the dose of the day. Self-examination gives an earnestness and a reality to the prayer for pardon. If it be true that the last sleep of all makes the sleep of each night more solemn, it is also true that each night’ s sleep makes the last sleep of all less strange. What is each day but a picture of the whole life, and each night but a picture of death? Then we must do all that in us lies to preserve a peaceful conscience during the years of life. (W. H. Ranken, M. A.) The Christian good night This is one of the many verses in the Bible, especially in the Psalms, which, must come home to every heart of man, if read with any degree of simple faith. It sets full before us the most comfortable and refreshing picture or a devout, sober, honest person, after his day’ s work is ended, his passions kept in order, his sins repented of, and his prayers seriously said, laying himself down to his night’ s rest, in the full consciousness that he is neither alone nor unguarded; that as there has been a merciful Eye watching over him, a mighty Hand stretched out to guard him, through the dangers and temptations of the day, so it will be with him in the night also. This entire rest and tranquillity of God’ s faithful servants, when they lay them down on their bed at night, is beautifully expressed in the text, “ I will lay me down ‘ all together’” ; all my powers of mind and body agreeing, as it were, one with another; not torn by violent passions, by desire on the one hand, and remorse on the other. How catholic, how universal is the thought expressed by the Psalmist. There is no one condition of life that it suits better than another. The need of taking rest is an universal law of God’ s providence over men here in this lower world. As death, so sleep may be truly called a great leveller. As sleep is the image of death, and as the slumber of every night is a kind of sacramental token of that last long sleep, these words may be used for a dying Christian also. Only a Christian has a warrant from Holy Scripture to regard death as no more than a quiet sleep. The Father, acknowledging them as His children, receives them at their death into the everlasting arms. As all the blessings which we have or hope for depend on the Passion of our Lord and Saviour, so this blessing of taking our rest, whether in our bed or in the grave, seems to bear an especial relation to the mystery of the burial of Jesus Christ. Our warrant for our hope is that the Son of God died for us, bought us to be His own in such sort, that we should be really joined to Him, mystically made members of His body. As members, inseparable members, of the Man Christ Jesus, we hope to have our bodies buried with Him; and for our souls, our true selves, we hope that when they pass away from our bodies they may be with Him that day in Paradise. Except we have this hope in us, we cannot apply to ourselves the comfortable words of this Psalm. How is it that in sleep, and still more in death, Christian men may humbly depend on a peculiar presence of our Lord Jesus Christ to guard them?1. Because He is King, who has promised, “ He that keepeth thee will not sleep.” 2. In this act of lying down comes in the remembrance and the power of our Lord’ s sacrifice. That deep sleep of His, on the Cross and in the grave, has sanctified and blessed the sleep of all penitent Christians for all time to come, whether in their beds or in the bosom of the earth. Sin and its punishment, disease and misery, is the great disturber of sleep. Then to have a reasonable hope, grounded on a good conscience, that blemished as you are with many infirmities, you have not forfeited the blessing of Christ’ s death; this is the secret of good nights, and a comfortable death time. Again, we are taught in Holy Scripture to regard the Holy Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ as one very especial safeguard for the sleeping, until they wake, and for the dead, until they rise again. (Contributors to “Tracts for the Times.”) A good night watchman I have noticed in the books of travellers, this observation, “ We found it exceedingly difficult to obtain a tent keeper who could keep awake at night.” One gentleman speaks of discovering a thief in his tent, and when he went outside to call the watchman he found that the man had gone so soundly to sleep that he could only be aroused by one or two gentle kicks. When a man has been travelling with you all day, it is unreasonable to expect him to keep awake through the night to, take care of you. Hence the beauty of the words, “ Behold He that keepeth Israel.” etc. (C. H. Spurgeon.) . Psalms 5:1-12 Psalms 5:1-12 Give ear to my words, O Lord. The inward and outward sides of the Divine life The Psalm falls into two main parts-- Psalms 5:1-7, and Psalms 5:8-12. The inward comes first; for communion with God in the secret place of the Most High must precede all walking in His way, and all blessed experience of His protection, with the joy that springs from it. The Psalm is a prayerful meditation on the inexhaustible theme of the contrasted blessedness of the righteous, and misery of the sinner, as shown in the two great halves of life: the inward of communion, and the outward of action. A Psalmist who has grasped the idea that the true sacrifice is prayer, is not likely to have missed the cognate thought that the “ house of the Lord, of which he will presently speak, is something other than any material shrine. But to offer sacrifice is not all which he rejoices to resolve. He will “ keep watch” ; that can only mean that he will be on the outlook for the answer to his prayer, or, if we may retain the allusion to sacrifice, for the downward flash of the Divine fire, which tells his prayer’ s acceptance. The confidence and resolve ground themselves on God’ s holiness, through which the necessary condition of approach to Him comes to be purity. God’ s holiness shuts out the impure. The Psalmist’ s vocabulary is full of synonyms for sin, which witness to the profound consciousness of it that law and ritual had evoked in devout hearts. In Psalms 5:7 the Psalmist comes back to the personal reference, contrasting his own access to God with the separation of evil-doers from His presence. But he does not assert that he has the right of entrance because he is pure. The second part may be taken as his prayer when in the temple, whether that be the outward sanctuary or no. The whole of the devout man’ s desires for himself are summed up in the prayer for guidance. He breaks into prayer which is also prophecy. We come into the sunshine again at the close of the Psalm, and hear the contrasted prayer, which thrills with gladness and hope. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Prayer to God This Psalm hath two parts--1. The prophet prayeth the Lord to hear his prayer; which thing the wicked cannot, or may not hope for. 2. He beseecheth the Lord to direct him, that the enemies might take no advantage of him; whose nature he describeth, praying God to overthrow them; comforting, on the other side, the godly with excellent promises. Verse 1 teacheth that God’ s children many times use words in their prayers, many times not. So did Moses, and Anna the mother of Samuel. God’ s children should strive to earnestness in prayer, and should pray unto none but to Him alone. Verse 3 teacheth that we should break our sleep in the morning, to the end we might pray unto the Lord. Seeing God cannot away with wickedness, His children should abhor it likewise. In Psalms 5:6 are comprehended judgments against the ungodly, namely, against liars, cruel persons, and deceitful men. We may not appear before God in the trust of our own merits, which indeed we have not, but of His mercies only. Also that with reverence we should repair to the places of God’ s service, and reverently also there behave ourselves. Unless God guide us, we shall go out of the way; the strength of our corrupted nature carrying us headlong thereto. Also we should pray for a holy life, and to this end, that the mouths of our enemies may be stopped from evil speech. Verse 9 is a lively description of the qualities of the ungodly: they are inconstant, they imagine mischief, they are given to cruelty and to flattery. It is lawful to pray against the enemies of the Church, that their counsels and desires may be scattered. The faithful may rejoice at the overthrow of God’ s enemies. From Psalms 5:12 we learn in what assuredness they are, whom the Lord defendeth; those who repose themselves upon the rock of His almighty protection cannot miscarry. (Thomas Wilcocks.) David’ s state of mind in relation to God and society I. In relation to God. Here are revealed--1. His beliefs of God. In His omniscience the Eternal knows our “ meditation.” In God’ s moral holiness, God’ s being is the foundation, God’ s will the standard, and God’ s influence the fountain, of all moral excellence in the universe. In the administrative rectitude of God. The holy God must punish unrepenting sinners, wherever they are found. There is administrative justice in the universe which will righteously balance the affairs of humanity one day. 2. His feelings towards God. The feeling of personal interest. My King. He felt that the Guardian of the universe was in a high sense his; his Guardian, his Father, and his Friend. A feeling of earnest supplication. And the feeling of practical expectancy. David “ looked up” expecting. 3. His purpose in relation to God. He purposed early prayer; orderly prayer; there is a becoming order in worship. II. In relation to society.1. He regards all who are his enemies as enemies to God. See in David’ s conduct the common mistake of bigots, and the persecuting spirit of bigots. 2. He regards all who were God’ s friends as his own. God’ s friends should be our friends, His people our people. (Homilist.) The prayerful and unprayerful I. The address and manner of prayer (1-3). Uttered words tell not all the heart meditates. These meditations are the groanings which cannot be uttered, but which the Spirit understands (Romans 8:26-27). As soon as we awake at early dawn let Us speak to God, “ direct,” set in order, our prayer. We are not to pray without method; and having prayed, look out for the answer (Habakkuk 2:1). We miss many answers, because we get tired of waiting on the Quays for the returning ships. II. Contrasted characters (4-7). There are here severe expressions for the ungodly. They may not even “ sojourn” with God, as a wayfaring man (2 John 1:10). They speak leasing, an old English word for lying. Not in the spirit of boasting, but of humble gratitude does David turn to himself (1 Corinthians 15:10). “ Thy holy temple” (Daniel 6:10; 1 Samuel 1:9; 1 Samuel 3:3). III. The prayer (8-12). We may appeal to God’ s righteousness to vindicate His righteous ones. Because He is what He is, we may count on Him (2 Chronicles 16:9). How terrible is the description of the ungodly (9), yet it is almost entirely concerned with the sins of the tongue. Wicked men are like sepulchres, fair without, corruption within, and exhaling pestilential vapours. Verse 11. “ Trust,” and with it goes joy and love (Deuteronomy 33:23). (F. B. Meyer, B. A.) The oratory gate This Psalm is a prayer. And while the subject matter is of great interest, the Psalm is peculiar in setting forth the characteristics of prayer in general.A suggestion of the variety of prayer (Psalms 5:1-2). Prayer is a provision for a universal need, and must therefore be capable of a large variety of adaptations. If a man is to pray without ceasing, he must pray under an endless variety of circumstances. That is prayer which is denoted by the word “ meditation” ; that which lies in the heart as unexpressed desire or aspiration; which indicates a state or habit of mind quite as much as an act. “ Meditation,” says Gurnall, “ is prayer in bullion; prayer in the ore--soon melted and run into holy desires.” The soul’ s unexpressed aspiration is often more truly prayer than the well-rounded formula. Distinguish between the spirit and the habit of prayer. The spirit can be the result only of the life of God in the soul; the habit of prayer may be the result of education merely. Another variety of prayer is suggested by the word “ cry” --the passionate outburst of a soul in distress, or dejection, or danger; throwing out a prayer like a strongly-shot dart, which gives to such prayer the name of “ ejaculatory.” “ These darts may be shot to heaven without using the tongue’ s bow.” Such prayer as this links itself closely with meditation. Verse 2 directs thought to the appropriating power of prayer. God is addressed as “ my King,” “ my God.” Our Lord’ s model of prayer strikes at all unselfishness in our petitions. But it does not exclude the personal element. Verse 3 points out the statedness and decency of prayer. It is well that prayer should be spontaneous; but also well that it should be properly regulated. A rich soil is a good thing; but its richness is no reason why its fruits and grasses should be allowed to grow up in confusion. The suggestion of decency in the act of prayer is furnished by the Word “ direct. The original word is used of arranging the wood and the sacrifice upon the altar day by day. Read, “ I will pray, setting forth my supplication in order.” In this there is nothing to repress spontaneity or to fetter liberty. It merely teaches that prayer should be decorous and well pondered and marked by an intelligent purpose. We should do well to cover less ground in our prayers, and to ponder their details more carefully. Verse 3 gives another characteristic of prayer--expectancy. “ I will watch, or look up.” He who has thoughtfully and reverently set forth his prayer before God, should expect the answer. We are to watch unto prayer--with reference to prayer. Someone has pithily said that the man who does not look after the prayers he has put up, is like the ostrich, which lays her eggs and looks not for her young. Verse 7 gives another characteristic--confidence. The Psalmist speaks as one who has a right to come into God’ s house. It is his house because it is God’ s. This confidence by no means excludes humble reverence. It is of free grace, of undeserved compassion, of abounding love, that I am permitted to come. And such an approach to God must involve the last element of prayer suggested by the Psalm--joy. On earth, the intercourse of love is often marred by danger; but he who talks with God in His own house, always communes in safety. Thus this Psalm is a great lesson on prayer. (Marvin R. Vincent, D. D.) The poverty of speech in prayer “ The power of language has been gradually enlarging for a great length of time, and I venture to say that the English language at the present time can express more, and is more subtle, flexible, and at the same time vigorous, than any of which we possess a record.” So writes Richard Jefferies in one of his latest essays. But, notwithstanding all this, he recognises that we have still thoughts and feelings beyond expression. “ How many have said of the sea,” he exclaims, it makes me feel something I cannot say. And how much more does this feeling possess us as we commune with Him who made the sea. Words fail to express the thoughts, and thoughts fail to fathom the truth. Consider my meditation.--The unspoken part of prayer And not only must his tongue be listened to, his thought must be interpreted as well. He implores, “ Understand my meditation.” This is the old Prayer Book rendering, and seems to come nearest the Hebrew (bin). A parallel passage is, “ Thou understandest my thought afar off; for there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O Lord, Thou knowest it altogether.” The petition “ Understand my meditation” coming after “ Give ear unto my words” is deeply suggestive. It implies that there was a voiceless meaning in his prayer which was not only more than he could express, but more than he himself could, even to himself, perfectly explain. In the profoundest prayer not only more is meant than meets the ear, but more is meant than the mind itself can quite decipher. And expansion in Romans 8:1-39 is very wonderful, very touching, and encouraging: “ We know not how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit Himself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And He that searcheth the heart knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit.” (B. Gregory, D. D.) Psalms 5:2 For unto Thee will I pray. Prayer If you “ restrain prayer before God” --1. You act in opposition to your sense and confession of what is right. You know that you ought to pray. How can you repel the charge of inconsistency, when prayer is excluded from your practical system? 2. By neglecting prayer, you resist the authority of God. God has commanded you to pray. Can you venture to treat His command with contempt, and yet hope to prosper? What title have you to expect that, in this particular more than in any other, you can disobey God with impunity? 3. Without prayer vain will be to you all the provisions that are made in the gospel for your deliverance and happiness. The gospel is a dispensation of Divine wisdom and goodness. It proposes to bestow on men the benefits of salvation. But it proposes to bestow them in a certain way, and according to a certain scheme. Do you know any ground for believing that these benefits can ever belong to those who do not pray for them? Lessons: (1) It becomes us to form and adopt the purpose of the Psalmist. His purpose was to pray; and that purpose should be ours. We have many motives and inducements to engage in this exercise. (2) It should be with great earnestness that we pray to God. Not going about the duty in a cold, formal, or perfunctory manner. (3) We are not to pray as if God were unwilling to hear us, and to bestow the blessings which we need. He has revealed Himself as the hearer of prayer. (4) Do not forget that the God to whom you pray is a holy God. Observe that the Psalmist did not satisfy himself with private prayer; he also resolved to engage in the exercises of public worship. The resolution of the Psalmist should be ours. (A. Thomson D. D.) The directness of prayer No priest stands between the worshipper and his Lord. Every man must state his own case. We pray for one another, but not instead of one another. What can be more beautiful than the picture which is thus represented? God is put in His right place as the throned Father, listening to each of His subjects as the subject may feel impelled to address Him. Every word is charged with tremulous life. No man can pray for another in the same exquisite and vital sense as a man can pray for himself; there are always circumstances in the case of the petitioner, which the petitioner alone knows, and even though he cannot throw such circumstances into literal expression he can suggest them all by the very tones of his voice. We mistake the nature of prayer if we think it can be limited to words. Even when we use the words of another in our devotional exercises, we throw into their expression accents which are personal and incommunicable. It is in such tones and accents that the true quality of prayer is found. If prayer consisted only in the utterance of certain words, then the wicked might pray, and pray with great elocutionary effect; but the prayer is hardly in the words at all, it is a subtle fragrance of the soul, an inexpressible something which we understand most nearly by the name of agony. This being the nature of prayer, it follows that whatever priestly mediation there may be in the universe--and that there is such mediation no student of the Bible can deny--the individual himself must stand in a direct relation to God, receiving help from the priest, but not in any degree to obliterate his personality, or reduce his spiritual enjoyment. (Joseph Parker, D. D.) On the advantages of prayer Prayer is the pulse of the soul. To be prayerless, or little inclined to pray, is the most dreadful state in which a human being can possibly be. But it is nearly as lamentable to pray under the influence of improper sentiments and feelings, as not to pray at all. It is by no means the province of prayer, to inform the Deity of what we need, or to induce Him to alter His purposes, or to prevail upon Him to bestow upon us whatever we may think fit to solicit from Him. To the omniscient God all our wants must be well known; even better than they are to ourselves. Nor can He be supposed, in consequence of our prayers, either to deviate from the course which He had determined to pursue, or to submit the disposal of His favours to our direction. The advantages of prayer must be considered as confined to ourselves; and we have only to reflect for a moment on the state and temper of mind which it is instrumental in cherishing, to be convinced that it is eminently calculated to promote our real improvement and happiness.1. Prayer, in consequence of the dispositions which it excites and cherishes in the mind of the suppliant, is well calculated to produce the happiest effects upon his conduct and condition. There is not an error in the understanding, a wrong propensity in the will, or a blemish in the outward conduct, which may not, either directly or indirectly, be traced to a temper of mind, the reverse of that of the Christian suppliant, and which a similar temper to his would not tend either to prevent or remove. 2. Prayer qualifies the suppliant for receiving the enlightening, sanctifying, and comforting influences of the Divine Spirit. That the Spirit of God can communicate direction, energy, and purity to the soul in a secret and incomprehensible manner, cannot be denied. That it is chiefly by means of prayer such communication is made, is a truth, which the experience of every genuine Christian sufficiently corroborates. Prayer is the means God has appointed to be used for obtaining the influences of the Spirit, and for cherishing that frame and temper of mind which peculiarly qualify him for receiving them. 3. Prayer is happily fitted to fortify against temptation Our temptations chiefly arise from the world, and the things of the world. The influence which worldly objects produce upon the different tempers and circumstances of men is so great, that it is not to be described. The best way to counteract this influence, is to avert the mind as much as possible from earthly things, and in the frequent exercise of prayer to lay it open to the impression of things invisible and eternal. Prayer renders us independent of the world, by fixing and strengthening our dependence upon God. 4. Prayer imparts to the Christian such a serenity, strength, and stability, as fit him for all that is truly amiable, and great, and good. It renders him serene, composed, and cheerful. Seeing, then, that prayer is attended with such important and blessed effects, how gladly ought we to avail ourselves of this precious privilege! (J. Somerville, D. D.) Objections to prayer answered No argument has ever been adduced against prayer, which may not be traced to the source of human corruption. Men disrelish the duty of prayer, and then the judgment is set at work to devise arguments against it. Some tell us that they see little or no necessity for prayer: that God, who is rich in mercy, will bless them, whether they pray or not. Many are so irregular in the exercise of this duty, that they can scarcely be said to pray at all. They would pray, and they would not. Their hearts are divided. But how can they imagine that God will be served with a divided heart? Others say, for what purpose are we to pray, seeing that our prayers can have no effect upon God to dispose Him to grant us what we need, to alter His purposes, or to ward off from us those dangers by which we are threatened? Why we are to pray for quite another reason; namely, to produce the greatest and most important, and most beneficial effect upon ourselves. The purpose of prayer is answered, when, through the Divine blessing, a holy frame of mind is thereby wrought in us; when we are brought to yield to the impression of spiritual things. Some well-disposed persons allege that they cannot pray. This does not furnish any reasonable objection to prayer. Not to pray at all, because we are unable to pray well, is as absurd as it would be in a child not to walk, because it cannot walk with the elegance and grace of a full-grown man. Such an objection is too likely to arise from indolence, and the want of a real disposition to pray. It is not the manner or language of prayer that renders it acceptable to God, but the temper and dispositions with which it is offered up. If the poor afflicted sinner has right dispositions, he will approach the Lord, though in the most imperfect manner. Some sincere Christians say, they are conscious of so much sin and unworthiness, so much weakness and depravity, in the sight, of God, that they dare not pray. But their forget, the great Intercessor,. standing before the throne, with the golden censer in His hand, and offering up much incense with the prayers of the saints. By this, their fears are dissipated. Another objection to prayer is apt to arise in the minds of true Christians. However earnest and sincere they may have been in the performance of this duty, they have no reason to suppose that an answer to their prayers has ever been vouchsafed. This objection is sometimes made when prayers have been answered, but not in the particular form desired. God may have reasons for delaying or withholding answers. The true suppliant does not immediately cease to urge his suit, when he thinks that he is not heard. God knows both what is good for the Christian, and at what time, and in what manner, it should be granted. Therefore it becomes the Christian, instead of lessening his importunity when he thinks he is not heard, to wait with patience, and a renewed earnestness, till God be pleased to vouchsafe to him a gracious answer. (J. Somerville, D. D.) On the nature of prayer Prayer is well defined as an offering up of our desires to God, for things agreeable to His will, in the name of Christ, with confession of our sins, and thankful acknowledgment of His mercies. Prayer may be considered as a generic term, including adoration, confession, petition, and thanksgiving. All these are equally the result of a devotional temper.1. The true suppliant is deeply conscious of his being in a state of dependence, weakness, ignorance, and inability to promote his own happiness. Without this, there may be a form of prayer, but nothing of its spirit. 2. The true suppliant comes to God in the firm belief of His existence, and with a confidential application to Him, as both able and willing to help all who put their trust in Him. Without such faith and confidence, there can be no such thing as prayer. 3. The true suppliant draws near to God, with clean hands and a pure heart. In all ages and nations, rites of purification have usually preceded the immediate approaches to Deity. If we “ regard iniquity in our hearts, the Lord will not hear us.” But imperfection cleaves in a greater or less degree to the people of God in the present life; and as they are deeply conscious of this being the ease, and as such a consciousness naturally tends to weaken their confidence in God, observe-- 4. That the true suppliant draws near to God, through the mediation of His Son, Jesus Christ. “ Through Him we have access by one Spirit unto the Father.” Nor is this a recent appointment. 5. The true suppliant, in all his requests at the throne of grace, is regulated by the word and will of God. The desires of mankind are as various as their imaginary wants. The will of God, and not his own will, is the Christian’ s guide in devotional duty. Let me remind yon of the glorious privilege of prayer; a privilege so great, that by improving it aright, dependent and sinful creatures like ourselves may lean with confidence on the Rock of Ages Himself. But such prayer as has been delineated is no natural attainment. The sentiments and feelings of the true suppliant are the produce of a Divine principle, specially engendered and nourished by Him who is denominated, “ the Spirit of grace and supplications.” (J. Somerville, D. D.) Psalms 5:3 In the morning will I direct my prayer unto Thee.How go begin every day with God I. The good work itself that we are to do. To pray. A duty dictated by the light and law of nature, but which the gospel of Christ gives us better instruction in. See how David expresses his pious resolutions.1. My voice shalt Thou hear. Understand as promising himself a gracious acceptance with God. “ Thou wilt hear.” It is the language of his faith, grounded upon God’ s promise, that His ear shall be always open to His people’ s cry. Wherever God finds a praying heart, He will be found a prayer hearing God. Understand as David’ s promising God a constant attendance on Him, in the way He has appointed. God understands the language of the heart, and that is the language in which we must speak to God. We must see to it that God hears from us daily. He expects and requires it. Thus He will keep up His authority over us: and testify His love and compassion towards us. We have something to say to God every day: as to a friend we love, and have freedom with; as to a master we serve, and have business with. Our happiness is bound up in His favour. We have offended Him, and are daily contracting guilt. We have daily work to do for God and our own souls. We are continually in danger. We are dying daily. We are members of that body whereof Christ is the head, and are concerned to approve ourselves living members. Lay all this together, and consider whether you have not something to say to God every day. If you have all this to say to God, what should hinder you from saying it? Let not distance, or fear, hinder you. Let not His knowing what your business is hinder you. Let not any other business hinder our saying what we have to say to God. II. We must direct our prayer to God. We must with deliberation and design address ourselves to Him. The term “ direct” indicates fixedness of thought, and a close application of mind, to the duty of prayer. It speaks the sincerity of our habitual intention in prayer: the steadiness of our actual regard to God in prayer. III. We must look up. We must look up in our prayers; and after our prayers, with an eye of satisfaction and pleasure; with an eye of observation, what returns God makes to our prayers. Let us be inward with God in every duty, to make heart work of it, or we make nothing of it. The particular time fixed for this good work is the morning. Then we are fresh and lively. Then we are most free from company and business. Then we have received fresh mercies from God, which we are concerned to acknowledge. In the morning we have fresh matter ministered to us for the adoration of the greatness and glory of God. In the morning we are addressing ourselves to the work of the day, and therefore are concerned by prayer to seek unto God for His presence and blessing. (Matthew Henry.) Morning prayer I. The Christian’ s resolution. To pray.1. Prayer is a duty and a privilege. It implies spiritual life--filial relationship--freedom of access to God. The spirit of prayer must be earnestly cultivated. 2. God is the supreme and immediate object of prayer. “ I will direct my prayer unto Thee.” The mediation of priests and saints or of the Virgin Mary superfluous. “ Call upon Me in the day of trouble,” etc. 3. Prayer must be definite in its aim. “ I will direct, etc. A soul soliloquy is not prayer. Nor is the enumeration of the Divine attributes hid. True prayer is the earnest expression of the deep necessities and longings of the soul in the simplest language possible. The grain of prayer should not be lost in the chaff of vague generalities. II. The best time for private prayer. “ In the morning,” etc.1. There is a greater freedom from the distracting cares of the family, business, etc. 2. We should seek Divine strength in anticipation of duties, trials, temptations, etc. 3. A day begun with prayer, generally proves a happy day. 4. The most eminent Christians have devoted the early morning to prayer. Mention some. III. The becoming attitude for a prayerful soul. “ I will look up.” Describe watchtower.1. We should not be satisfied without the conviction that our prayers have been heard by God. Many prayers never reach the goal of the throne of grace. 2. Our prayers should not be forgotten, but an answer looked for. It will he so if our eye be single and our aim definite. 3. Such an attitude prepares us for the recognition of the Divine hand in answer to our prayers. (Homilist.) Morning devotion The essence of real religion is a filial disposition of heart towards God.1. Morning is the time for reflection. It seems natural to think, and to be quiet, in the early morning. The very laws of our physical being demand quiet in the morning. 2. Morning is the time for observation. The curtain is drawn aside and we look upon the lace of God’ s creation. 3. Morning is the time for purpose. We may begin again, every morning, with fresh purposes, that will be achieved if the strength of God is made perfect in our weakness. 4. Morning is the time for prayer. As the morning gives wings to the day, so prayer gives wings to the morning. Wise reflections will become wiser through the power of prayer, and our purposes will only be binding on the conscience, or wrought out in the life, as prayer gives them their character of sincerity or religiousness. Mornings are monitors, text books, and registers. (W. G. Barrett.) The protective power of prayer Among the elegant forms of insect life, there is a little creature known to naturalists, which can gather round it a sufficiency of atmospheric air--and so clothed upon, it descends into the bottom of the pool, and you may see the little diver moving about dry and at his ease, protected by his crystal vesture, though the water all around and above be stagnant and bitter. Prayer is such a protector--a transparent vesture, the world sees it not--but a real defence, it keeps out the world. By means of it, the believer can gather so much of heaven’ s atmosphere around him, and with it descend into the putrid depths of this contaminating world, that for a season no evil will touch him; and he knows where to ascend for a new supply. (James Hamilton.) Morning prayer A battle is every morning fought in every Christian’ s closet. The morning is the key of the position. The season of morning prayer is, so to speak, the citadel, the Hougomont, the critical point in each successive day. If he wins those morning minutes, the devil knows he has won that day. (James Hamilton.) The upward look It is said that the monks of Mount Athos are accustomed to hypnotise themselves into trance conditions by gazing at their own bodies--no very ennobling objective if true. In some of the Buddhist monasteries of Eastern Asia devotees are pointed out who have sat facing blank walls for twenty or thirty years and have gazed themselves into mysterious ecstasies. In the modernised Buddhism of London and New York theosophy the same virtue is ascribed to intense and sustained contemplation. What change, think you, ought to effect itself within us if with the same steadfastness we contemplate the personality of Him who is the leader and consummator of our faith? (Thomas G. Selby.) Psalms 5:4-5 Thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness.The great matters of religion If we inquire how it comes to pass that man is fallen under God’ s displeasure, the text resolves it all into “ wickedness.” This is that which makes all the breach between God and us. This is that which bath wrought all the mischief and disorder that ever hath been in the creation of God from the beginning. This is that which hath so sunk and debased the nature of man, and made it so unlike the Divine nature. Whosoever is in love with evil, cannot be in love with the ways of goodness and righteousness. Whosoever consents to iniquity, does voluntarily part with God, and God leaves him. Atheists make the prosperity of wicked men an argument against Divine Providence. To make a man a wicked person in the sense of Scripture, there must be either gross carelessness and neglect of God and religion: voluntary consent to known iniquity, known hypocrisy, or great apostasy, in matters of doctrine, or in matters of practice. Those that are wicked cannot have to do with God; they stand at a great distance from Him, and are banished from His throne. We best know God by imitation and resemblance of Him. We cannot build upon any report concerning God, which a bad man makes; for if he should speak right of God, he would condemn himself. Goodness, which is God’ s perfection, and wickedness, which is man’ s acquisition, can no more consist together than light and darkness, health and sickness, soundness and rottenness. Persons of naughty minds have no true thoughts either of God or man. What, then, are the great matters of religion, and what are those things that will consist with it? To reverence and acknowledge the Deity. To live in love, and bear goodwill towards one another. To deal justly, equally, and fairly in all our transactions and dealings each with other. To use moderation and government of ourselves, in the respect of the necessaries and conveniences of this state. The following things are matters of offence, and of the creature’ s ruin. Things contrary to the due respect and regard which we ought to bear towards God. Things that are contrary to the general love and goodwill which ought to run through the whole creation of God. Things contrary to that fairness, justice, righteousness, and equal dealing which ought to be among fellow servants, among fellow creatures. Things contrary to the sobriety, chastity, temperance, and due moderation of ourselves Two things concerning repentance.1. It doth alter the very temper of the sinner.2. It is a motive with God, and doth affect Him. It doth procure atonement in respect of God. (B. Whichcote, D. D.) God’ s hatred of sin 1. Some of the grounds of that displeasure which God cherishes towards sin. The justice of God must lead Him to view with displeasure that evil and abominable thing. The love--the service which God requires, is love and obedience. To withhold this service is to act unjustly towards Him. The benevolence of God must ever lead Him to regard sin with abhorrence. What is sin but a soul going away from its Maker, from the great Fountain of living waters? As the great Lawgiver of the universe, God must look with deep displeasure on sin. The law is holy, and just and good. When we act in opposition to this law, we, in fact, lift up our testimony against the law. Further, God is the Author of all our mercies, and as such must look with deep displeasure on the workers of iniquity. How great is the debt and obligation under which we are laid to Him by the load of His providential bounty! There has not been a moment of our lives in which the God who made us has not been doing something for us. What must He think of that evil thing which leads to such ingratitude for these blessings? And God must look with displeasure on sin, because it is opposed to all those great schemes, all these grand schemes, which we read in the Scriptures, of Jehovah having imparted; such as creation, providence, redemption. 2. Manifestations of the existence and the extent of that hatred of iniquity which God habitually cherishes. We find many such manifestations. Illustration--Angels that lost their first estate. Loss of Eden. Story of Sodom, etc. (James Marshall, A. M.) Thou hatest all workers of iniquity. God’ s hatred of sinners Here is a plain declaration. I. That God does hate the persons of impenitent sinners. It is often said that God hates sin, but not sinners. The point now to prove is, that God hates sinners themselves, as vile and odious creatures. It is allowed that God loves all that love Him, and it is equally true that He hates those who hate Him. The Old Testament abounds with passages in which God expresses His displeasure, His wrath, and His indignation towards sinners. II. Why does God hate the persons of sinners? Many consider sin in the abstract, and God as hating it in the abstract. But who can conceive of sin without a sinner? Or of sin that no person ever committed? Every sin is a transgression of the law, and renders the transgressor both criminal and hateful. The transgression cannot be separated from the transgressor, any more than his reason, or conscience, or any other property or quality of his mind can be separated from him. The apostle represents sin as corrupting all the powers and faculties of sinners. This moral corruption of sinners he represents as rendering them vile and hateful, even in their own sight. Their evil hearts render their persons morally evil and hateful in the sight of God. It is holiness of heart that makes saints lovely, and the reverse is equally true of sinners. III. How God’ s hating the persons of sinners is consistent with His loving them. Some have attempted to evade this difficulty by supposing that all the Scripture says about the displeasure, the hatred, the wrath and anger of God, is to be understood figuratively; and that no such exercises or emotions of heart can exist in the mind of an absolutely perfect and immutable being. But to suppose that God does not really hate sinners is evading rather than solving the difficulty. Others say that God loves sinners themselves, and only hates their sins. But it is abundantly evident from Scripture that God does really and literally love and hate sinners at the same time. What kind of love does God exercise towards sinners? They are not proper objects of approbation or complacence, but of disapprobation and hatred. It is only the love of benevolence that God exercises towards totally depraved sinners. He loves all His creatures, whether rational or irrational. If He loves them with the love of benevolence, He cannot love them with the love of complacence. Benevolence hates selfish and sinful creatures, as much as it loves holy and virtuous creatures. Holiness in the Deity produces love to the holy, and hatred to the unholy. There are two things in sinners which render them objects of both love and hatred. Their capacity to enjoy happiness and suffer misery renders them proper objects of benevolence, and’ their sinful character renders them proper objects of displeasure, disapprobation, and hatred. God views them in both lights. His love towards them is benevolent love, and His hatred towards them is benevolent hatred. Improvement.1. If God’ s hatred of impenitent sinners is consistent with His love of benevolence towards them, then it is consistent with His benevolence to hate them as long as they continue impenitent. 2. If God loves and hates sinners in this world at all, then He loves and hates them more than any other being does in the universe. 3. If impenitent sinners themselves are as much the objects of God’ s hatred as of His love, then it is very important that they should be made sensible of it. 4. If it be consistent with the benevolence of God towards sinners to hate them, then it is consistent with His benevolence to express His hatred towards them. 5. If God’ s hatred of impenitent sinners flows from His benevolence, then His punishing them must flow from His benevolence. 6. If it be the benevolence of God that disposes Him to hate and punish impenitent sinners forever, then it is extremely absurd and dangerous for sinners to rely on His mere benevolence to save them in the eleventh and dying hour. This subject calls on all to inquire and determine whether they are saints or sinners. (N. Emmons, D. D) The relation of the righteous God to wicked men In the second century, Celsus, a celebrated adversary of Christianity, distorting our Lord’ s words, complained, “ Jesus Christ came into the world to make the most horrible and dreadful society; for He calls sinners and not the righteous; so that the body He came to assemble is a body of profligates, separated from good men, among whom they before were mixed. He has rejected all the good and collected all the bad.” “ True,” said Origen in reply, “ our Jesus came to call sinners--but--to repentance. He assembled wicked--but to convert them into new men, or rather to change them into angels. We come to Him covetous, He makes us liberal; lascivious, He makes us chaste; violent, He makes us meek; impious, He makes us religious.” Psalms 5:7I will come into Thy house in the multitude of Thy mercy.Sanctuary worship This noble resolution. It manifests-- I. An independence of character. “ As for me.” How many there are who follow the crowd! Whether for evil or good, where the multitude go they will go. Hundreds stay away from the house of God either because it is not fashionable to go there or because they are afraid of being singular. Such was not David’ s course. II. A noble determination. “ I will come into Thy house.” Two or three thoughts will show the nature of the act.1. David was a king. He might have thought it beneath him to leave his throne and humble himself before God in the worship of the temple. But kings as well as subjects need the pardon of their sins, the help of the Holy Spirit, and the Divine favour. And no king could do a more noble act than show an example of pious devotion. 2. David was a man of war. He was constantly engaged in bitter contests. But he did not, therefore, abstain from attending the house of God. 3. David was a busy man. He had to manage the affairs of a large and distracted kingdom; yet he still found time for attending the house of God. 4. David was a clever man. He was also a good man. He might have said, “ What good can I get from the temple? I know the services,” etc. But humility always attends those who have real merit, while those who have little to boast of fail to avail themselves of opportunities of improvement because of their self-conceit. A real Christian feels his deficiencies. III. A worthy object. “ I will come into Thy house.” Public worship is the most important part of Christian life.1. It is obeying the Divine command. The duty of gathering ourselves together is imposed upon us in many parts of the Scriptures. Not only was it insisted upon in the Old Testament, but it is still more urged in the New. 2. It is the means of developing the Christian life. In the assemblies of the saints the Holy Spirit was given at first, and is still bestowed. Here spirituality is deepened and the work of conversion carried on. 3. It is the appointed means of communing with God. We can pray in private; but we have particular access in the house of prayer. (Homilist.) The tribute of worship From the sense the Psalmist had of God’ s manifold, repeated favours to him, from the multitude of the Divine mercies towards him, he would be always glad and ready to resort to the house of God; there to prostrate himself with all humble reverence, and there to pay Him the tribute of a public and solemn worship. I. The reasonableness of this resolution. His reason in this instance was indeed occasional and particular, and but one of the many motives which persuade to the discharge of this important duty. Consider well the intrinsic grounds of that fitness which it is so generally agreed there is in the worship of our Maker. Moral duties have, besides His will and pleasure, reasons of their own. How doth the relation of a reasonable creature to an all-perfect Creator, infinite in wisdom, goodness, and power, introduce the fitness of any application from the one to the other, in the offices of religious worship? How should it appear, if God had not commanded it, that He would either expect or accept such a service from us? With what view do we lay our wants before Him? Doth He not know them beforehand much better than we do? Or doth His goodness want solicitation to induce Him to be yet more gracious than He is? Or when we deprecate the punishment of our sins, and implore His merciful pardon, do we intend to make our impressions upon the tenderness of His nature? Or when we approach Him with the charity of our intercessions for His mercies and blessings to our fellow creatures, is it that we are better than they? Are we more mindful of their interests than He is? Or when we praise Him for His benefits with joyful lips, do we mean by the pleasing sound of our eucharistical oblations to engage ‘ His goodness in the more and further largesses of His favour? If these are improper regards, what more proper reason will be left for the support of our worship? Why are we commanded to pray? Because prayer recognises and settles upon our minds a sense of those several attributes and perfections in God, the dutiful and cordial acknowledgment whereof is most likely to maintain and preserve us in the state of dependence and subjection we were made for. When we approach God in the humble strains of penitential sorrow, what a scene of melting and moving considerations must open to our minds! What indignation that we have not yet approved, what fear that we may not, what vehement desire that we may approve our hearts before Him in all holy obedience. Do we engage in the charitable office of intercession for others? The seeds of mutual benevolence are fostered hereby and greatly cultivated. We cannot ask with any decency the forgiveness of their sins at the hands of God, whose trespasses against ourselves we should not be willing to remit or pardon. Finally, the offices of praise and thanksgiving add the motives of gratitude to the sense of our dependence, and inspire us with a more generous and honourable principle of obedience. II. The fitness of the place He chose for it. The palace of God’ s holiness where numbers resorted for the purposes of public prayer and thanksgiving. An appropriate place is necessary to the purposes of public worship. III. The manner of executing the pious resolution. In the fear of God with an awful sense of His wisdom, goodness, and power. With reverence and godly fear. This every attribute of God, when duly improved to us by proper reflections, may help to enforce and to inculcate. Even the forgiveness that there is with Him, by the manner and method wherein we partake of it, was, with our holy Psalmist, a motive to the fear of Him. (N. Marshall, D. D.) In Thy fear will I worship toward Thy holy temple. The Christian worshipping in God’ s temple Two qualifications of a right worshipper of Jehovah are here set before us.1. “ I will come into Thy house in the multitude of Thy mercy.” He seems to trace all the multitudinous streams of the Divine goodness to one great fountain, and then as he looks at that fountain overflowing on every side, and pouring out its waters in those numberless streams, he calls it a multitudinous fountain; he says, “ The multitude of Thy mercy.” He will go to God’ s house - (1) With a thankful remembrance of the Lord’ s great mercies past.(2) With a lively sense of God’ s great mercy now. And(3) With great expectations from His mercy. 2. “ In Thy fear will I worship.” Fear, as we generally experience it, is a humiliating and painful feeling. We suffer under it, and are ashamed of it. And because of this, we cannot disconnect the ideas of pain and humiliation from it. But fear is not necessarily a painful thing. Real godliness is called a “ holy fear of God.” Perfect love does indeed cast out fear; but what fear? Only the fear that hath torment; servile fear. The fear David means here, is that feeling which naturally arises in the human mind from the contemplation of any object immensely superior to ourselves. It is made up of admiration, awe, and reverence. The phrase “ worship toward His holy temple,” is taken from a custom among the Jews of always turning towards the temple or tabernacle when they prayed. 3. See these two things conjoined. They may be conjoined; and it is good for us to have these two things conjoined. The union qualifies us for the service and worship of God in His house. And these feelings must correspond with God’ s character. Let us all, then, seek to cultivate these holy feelings. (C. Bradley.) Worship, a sight of God Belief in God is the great regenerating force of the world. The loss which the unbeliever suffers is enormous. For it does matter what God a man believes in, for his character will be as his faith. Darwin says, “ That with the existence of the more civilised races the conviction of the existence of an all-seeing Deity has had a potent influence in the advancement of morality.” But morality means the highest welfare of mankind. Faith in God depends upon culture: we are not born believers. There are races who seem to have no such faith; and there seems, alas, in too many Christian countries, a tendency to revert to primitive barbarism in this respect! Its beginning may be detected in the neglect of public religious service. When a man begins to neglect his church, he loses one of the things which keep faith in God alive within him. But if such faith is to be a power, it must have some finer education than can be had from mere formal attendance at church; it must, in fact, be a sight of God. This is the highest act of religious service, it is the act and state of worship. What is worship? It does not mean all sorts of religious services, but it is one particular state of mind. And this not a self-regarding one. It seeks not to get something for itself, though indeed it gains much. But that is not its object, which is the looking upon that which attracts the mind by its own intrinsic worth or worthiness. This is the real meaning of the word “ worship.” Of the self-regarding states are our appetites and passions. They are for self. And prayer, whilst it looks to God, is yet that it may gain for self. Its two great words are, Give and Forgive. But there are states of mind which look quite away from self. Nature, in her highest moods, and Art, in some of its grandest expressions, are able to thus absorb us and hold us spellbound. The mind is taken out of itself and placed in a strange mysterious atmosphere. And so worship is the mind entranced, fascinated, spellbound by the sight of what God is in Himself. Thus worship implies a sight of God. But not any sight. Some views of God are so oppressive and terrifying as to palsy the mind with fear. For many practically hold God to be the author of evil rather than of good, and think of Him only to find out how they may appease Him. They come before Him in awful dread. But the highest form of religious service--seen with such lofty pathos in the worship of our Lord and Master, and presented to us as the absorbing occupation of heaven--is the beatific vision of God and the dwelling upon Him until earthly pains and sorrows and sins fall off from us and all is tranquil as a dreamless sleep. “ In such access of mind, in such high hour Of visitation from the living God, Thought was not; in enjoyment it expired. No thanks he breathed, he proffered no request, Rapt into still communion that transcends The imperfect offices of prayer and praise.” Now we might and should have more of this Divine elevation in our religious services. If there were there would be no fear of the neglect of public worship. But for this we must prepare ourselves. Like David we should sit still for a while. We should come as he says, here in the text, that he will come. In praise we have the best opportunity of rising to adoration, as in the “ Te Deum” and in the “ Gloria in Excelsis.” But we cannot drop into a grand view of God as we drop into our seats at church. To such an elevation we must climb. This is the ideal after which we should reach. It is no sterile contemplation. It gives tone to the character, and dignity to the life. (W. Page Roberts.) The solemn service of God I. The motives we have to join in the solemn service of God. One leading object which we ought to have in view is to promote the glory of God by the conversion or confirmation of others; but still it is in consideration of His mercy that we magnify Jehovah in His other attributes. The Psalmist considered it to be an invaluable privilege that he was permitted to take part in the solemn and public worship of God. He knew the comfort and benefit which flowed from that privilege. II. The dispositions to be acquired in order that it may be an acceptable sacrifice. The value to ourselves depends on the use we make of it, and on the state of our own hearts. The true worshipper is studious.1. To bring into the sanctuary a purified heart, at least a heart that seeks to be purified and to experience, in the serious and faithful use of the appointed means of grace, the renewing and refreshing influences of that Spirit who helpeth our infirmities. 2. The spirit of purity requires a spirit of fear. “ In Thy fear will I worship.” We are invited, by the Sabbath bell, to an act of solemn and direct intercourse with our Maker, our Redeemer, our Sanctifier, and our Judge. Is that an employment which we can presume to take in hand without the most serious consideration, the most entire collectedness of thought, the warm glow of thankfulness and love? 3. The worship must be attended with faith and hope. The experience of mercies past, and the sure promise of their continuance, the gracious invitations and affectionate expostulations of Him who has described Himself as hearing and answering prayer, should fill us with the spirit of supplication. God loves to listen to the united praises of those who are met together in His name. (Bishop Bloomfield.) Psalms 5:8 Lead me, O Lord, in Thy righteousness.A resolve and a prayer God is addressed as a friend. Three things in David’ s prayer.1. What is the rule according to which he looks for this Divine guidance? “ Lead me in Thy righteousness.” The righteousness here is God’ s faithfulness. All God’ s dealings with His people have been faithful. 2. Why he wishes this leading. It is that he may be divinely instructed in the right path. The Christian may sometimes be in a state of great perplexity as to the way he should go. He desires Divine guidance in the path of Christian experience, in the path of practice, and in the path of precept. 3. The motive he pleads to enforce it with God. The margin reads--“ Because of my observers. Who are our observers? The world, fellow Christians, ministers, angels, and God. (William Jay.) Make Thy way straight before my face.--Practical paths Two men aspire to be inventors of first-rate rank. The one spends all his life in study and experiment, and lights upon nothing new; but the other has some surprising discovery to put before the public every year or two. How do we explain the difference? Is it luck and nothing more? The unsuccessful inventor, with perhaps equal ingenuity, is following impracticable and unremunerative paths for a lifetime. The successful inventor knows in what direction others have toiled without profit, and scarcely ever spends a week on a misleading scent. His shrewd despair of finding anything new or remunerative in certain directions shuts him up to one golden path of fruitful research. (Thomas G. Selby.) Psalms 5:11 Because Thou defendest them.Our Protector I. The Lord is our good protector.1. A sympathising Protector. He that toucheth you toucheth the apple of His eye.2. A sure Protector. He will save us with His right hand.3. A personal Protector. He does not deal with the mass, but with the individual.4. An everlasting Protector. Underneath us are the everlasting arms.5. A loving Protector. The most endearing images are used in the Bible to tell us of the love of our God. II. The condition required. They who would be protected must trust themselves in His care and be guided by His wishes. Is it not easy to trust in Him when we remember His almighty power, His perfect wisdom, and that He is our loving Father? III. The protection He affords to His trusting people. He protects us--1. From the slavery of sin.2. From the penalty of transgression.3. From the penalty which our sin leaves on us.4. From the despair of failure. (W. Birch.) Trust and joy in God At an early period of his life Mozart, the composer, gave his heart to God. When he was twenty-one years of age he wrote, “ I have God always before me. Whatever is according to His will is according to mine, therefore I cannot fail to be happy and contented.” . Psalms 6:1-10 Psalms 6:1-10O Lord, rebuke me not in Thine anger.A song of sorrow It is needless to look for a historical occasion of the Psalm; but to an oar that knows the tones of sorrow, or to a heart that has itself uttered them, the supposition that in these pathetic cries we hear only a representative Israelite bewailing the national ruin sounds singularly artificial. If ever the throb of personal anguish found tears and a Voice, it does so in this Psalm. Whoever wrote it wrote with his blood. There are in it no obvious references to events in the recorded life of David, and hence the ascription of it to him must rest on something else than the interpretation of the Psalm. The worth of this little plaintive cry depends on quite other considerations than the discovery of the name of the singer, or the nature of his sorrow. It is a transcript of a perennial experience, a guide fern road which all feet have to travel. Its stream runs turbid and broken at first, but calms and clears as it flows. It has four curves or windings, which can scarcely be called strophes without making too artificial a framework for such a simple and spontaneous gush of feeling. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) The cry of the penitent The strains of this Psalm are two-- Psalms 6:1-7, the petition to God for himself; and Psalms 6:8-10, an insultation over his enemies. I. The petition.1. A deprecation of evil. He prays God to avert His wrath. 2. A petition of good. He entreats to be partaker of God’ s favour, both to his body and to his soul. The petition he enforceth upon divers and weighty reasons: from the quantity and degrees of his calamity; from the continuance of it; from the consequences that were like to follow. That he was brought to death’ s door is seen by three symptoms, sighs and groans, tears, eyes melted away. Moreover, he had many ill-willers. II. The insultation. At last, receiving joy and comfort from his penitential tears, he begins to look up, and from his complaint he turns upon his enemies, who gaped after his death, and over them he insults . He rejects these reprobates from him with scorn and indignation. He assigns the cause in effect, because God had been moved by his prayer to reject them. Then follows his imprecation; made up of three ingredients, which he prays may light on them--shame and confusion, vexation, eversion. These two last he aggravates by the weight and speed. He desires that their vexation should be nor easy, nor mild, but very sore; and that their shame and overthrow linger not, but be present, hasty, and sudden. (William Nicholson, D. D.) The penitent suppliant Though God will be no example of upbraiding or reproaching repented sins, when God hath so far expressed His love as to bring that sinner to that repentance, and so to mercy, yet, that He may perfect His own care, He exercises that repentant sinner with such medicinal corrections as may enable him to stand upright for the future. I. The person upon whom David turned for succour. His first access is to God only. It is to God by name, not to any universal God. That name in which he comes to Him here is the name Jehovah, His radical, fundamental, primary, essential name. II. For what he supplicates. His prayer is but deprecatory; he does but pray that God would forbear him. He pretends no error, he enterprises no reversing of judgment; at first he dares not sue for pardon, he only desires a reprieve, a respite of execution, and that not absolutely either; but he would not be executed in hot blood, not in God’ s anger, not in His hot displeasure. To be rebuked was but to be chidden, to be chastened, to be beaten; and yet David was heartily afraid of the first, of the least of them, when it was done to him in anger. “ Rebuke” here means reprove, convince by way of argument and disputation. What David deprecates is not the disputing, impleading, correcting, but that anger which might change the nature of all and make the physic poison. When there was no anger in the case David was a forward scholar to hearken to God’ s reasoning. Both these words “ chasten” and “ hot displeasure” are words of a heavy, vehement significance. David foresees that if God rebuke in anger it will come to chastening in hot displeasure. (John Donne.) The prayer of the a afflicted soul 1. In our afflictions we must look to God, and not to secondary causes. 2. To go to God for help in our distresses. When, then, we are wounded, we must go to one who can cure us, even Him who hath heaved us up, and cast us down again, and will again raise us up. 3. Prayer is our wings to fly to God in our affliction. 4. Means by which God brings us to obedience. (1) His Word.(2) His rod. If we refuse to be ruled by God’ s Word, then God will not fail to correct us with His rod. (A. Symson.) Rebuke needed As I deserve it for my sin, so I need it for my amendment, for without rebuking what amending?--what amending, indeed, without Thy rebuking? for, alas! the flesh flatters me, the world abuseth me, Satan deludes me; and now, O God, if Thou also shouldst hold Thy peace and wink at my follies, whom should I have--alas I whom could I have--to make me sensible of their foulness? If Thou shouldst not tell me, and tell me roundly, I went astray, how should I ever--alas I how could I ever--be brought to return into the right way? To Thy rebuking, therefore, I humbly submit myself. I know Thou intendest it for my amendment, and not for my confusion; for my conversion, and not for my subversion. It may be bitter in the tasting, but is most comfortable in the working; hard, perhaps, to digest, but most sovereign being digested. Yet I cannot endure Thou shouldst rebuke me in anger; I cannot endure it in affection, but I can less endure it in ability. When I consider with myself the many favours--undeserved favours--Thou hast vouchsafed unto me, and consider withal how little use, how ill use I have made of them all, though I know I have justly deserved Thy rebuking, yet my hope is still Thou wilt add this favour also, not to rebuke me in Thine anger. (Sir Richard Baker.) Angry chastening deprecated If Thy chastening be intended for reforming or for polishing, what wouldst Thou do with indignation, that tends to abolishing? (Sir Richard Baker.) Rebuke combined with anger Thy rebuking, O God, is to me as thunder, but Thine anger is as lightning; and is it not enough that Thou terrify my soul with the thunder of Thy rebuking, but Thou wilt also set this flax of my flesh on fire with the lightning of Thine anger? Thy rebuking of itself is a precious balm, but mixed with anger turns to a corrosive. (Sir Richard Baker.) God’ s anger terrible A certain king, being once very sad, his brother asked what ailed him. “ Oh, brother,” he said, “ I have been a great sinner, and am afraid to die and appear before God in judgment.” His brother only laughed at him for his melancholy thoughts. The king said nothing, but in the dead of night sent the executioner to sound his trumpet before his brother’ s door, that being the signal for a man to be led out to execution. Pale and trembling, his brother came in haste to the king and asked to know his crime. “ Oh, brother,” said the king, “ you have never offended against me; but if the sight of the executioner be so dreadful, shall not I, who have grievously offended God, fear to be brought before the judgment seat of Jesus Christ?” Angerless reproof often quite effective There was a boy at Norfolk Island who had been brought from one of the rougher and wilder islands, and was consequently rebellious and difficult to manage. One day Mr. Selwyn spoke to him about something he had refused to do, and the lad, flying into a passion, struck him in the face. This was an unheard of thing for a Melanesian to do. Mr. Selwyn, not trusting himself to speak, turned on his heel and walked away. The boy was punished for the offence; and, being still unsatisfactory, was sent back to his own island without being baptized, and there relapsed into heathen ways. Many years afterwards Mr. Bice, the missionary who worked on that island, was sent for to a sick person who wanted him. He found this very man in a dying state, and begging to be baptized. He told Mr. Bice how often he thought of the teaching on Norfolk Island; and when the latter asked him by what name he should baptize him, he said, “ Call me John Selwyn, because he taught me what Christ was like that day when I struck him; and I saw the colour mount in his face, but he never said a word except of love afterwards.” Mr. Bice then baptized him, and he died soon after. (Life of Bishop John Selwyn.) The difference between a cross and a curse David deprecates not God’ s rebukes or corrections, but that He would not rebuke him in His anger. It is tree there is a great similitude between a curse and a cross, and oftentimes God’ s children have been deceived thereby, and through His hard handling of them have judged Him to have become their enemy; but indeed there is a great difference. And to the end ye may know whether they come from the hands of a loving God or no, consider these marks and tokens.1. If they lead thee to a consideration of thy sin, which is the ground and cause of them, so that thou lookest not to the instrumental or second cause, but to thyself, the cause of all, they come from the hand of a loving God. 2. If they make thee leave off to sin and reject it, they come from a loving God. 3. If under thy cross thou run unto God, whom thou hast pierced, that He may deliver thee, and not say with that godless King Jehoram, Why should I attend any more upon the Lord? they come from a loving God. 4. The Cross worketh in the godly a wonderful humility and patience, so that they submit themselves under the hand of the living God, that they under it may be tamed, and from lions be made lambs. The wicked either howl (as do dogs that are beaten) through sense of their present stroke, or if they be humbled and seem patient, it is perforce as a lion which is caged and cannot stir. (A. Symson.) The anger of God as pure as His mercy But alas, those persons did not consider the difference betwixt the qualities that are in our sinful nature, and the essential properties which are in God; for He is angry and sins not. His anger is as pure as His mercy, for His justice is His anger, but our anger is mixed with sin, and therefore evil. (A. Symson.) God’ s anger against sin God will be angry at nothing in His creatures, but only sin, which bringeth man to destruction; for as if a father saw a serpent in his child’ s bosom, he would hate the serpent notwithstanding his love to the boy: so we are God’ s children, He loves that which He made of us, our body and soul, and hates that which the devil hath put in us, our sin. (A. Symson.) Neither chasten me in Thy hot displeasure. A revengeful God the creation of a guilty conscience There are two knowledges of God; the one is the absolute, the other is the relative. The former comprehends God as He is, embraces the Infinite; the other comprehends only glances of Him, as He appears to the mind of the observer. There is but one being in the universe who has the former knowledge, and that is Christ. “ No man hath seen God at any time; the Only Begotten, who is in the bosom of the Father, hath declared Him.” David’ s idea of God here was relative. He represents the Eternal as He appeared to him in the particular state of mind which he experienced. We make two remarks on his idea of God’ s “ hot displeasure.” I. It was generated in a guilty conscience by great suffering. The writer of this Psalm was involved in the greatest distress both in body and in mind.1. That he was conscious of having wronged his Maker. His conscience robes infinite love with vengeance. 2. He was conscious of having deserved God’ s displeasure. He felt that the sufferings he was enduring were penal inflictions, and he justly deserved them. Had his conscience been appeased by atoning love, the very sufferings he was enduring would have led him to regard the great God as a loving Father disciplining him for a higher life, and not as a wrathful God visiting him in His hot displeasure. God is to you according to your moral state. II. It was removed from his guilty conscience by earnest prayer. His prayer for mercy is intensely importunate. “ O Lord, rebuke me not in Thine anger,” etc. “ Have mercy upon me, O Lord.” “ O Lord, heal me.” “ O Lord, deliver soul,” etc. What is the result of his prayer? “ Depart from me all ye workers of iniquity, for the Lord hath heard the voice of my weeping,” etc. True prayer does two things.1. Modifies for the better the mind of the suppliant. It tends to quicken, to calm, to elevate the soul. 2. Secures the necessary assistance of the God of love. One great truth that comes up from the whole of these remarks is that man’ s destiny depends upon his moral state, and that no system can effectually help him, that does not bring his heart into a right relation with God. So long as God appears to him burning with hot displeasure he must be in an agony like that which the Psalmist here describes. The mission of Christianity is to bring men into this happy relation. (Homilist.) Psalms 6:2 Have mercy upon me, O Lord, for I am weak.Cure for the soul’ s weakness There is a very immediate connection between soul sickness and bodily ailments. The material affects the mental, and presently the mental affects the soul. When David was weak in body he became more than ever conscious of his sinful condition before God. And the enemy took advantage of his weakness and oppressed him when his heart was sore sick. The saint’ s extremity becomes the devil’ s opportunity to annoy and to distress him. But he was by no means forsaken of his God. I. The complaint--Soul weakness. It is not a disease exactly, and yet there are points about it which make it very much like a disease. Many persons cannot say they are ill, but there is a lack of physical force, a lack of stamina. They are the weaklings of the flock; and it is so in Christian experience. There are Christians lacking that power which makes a man act like a man, and speak like a man, and think with vigour and purpose, Next to listlessness, there is with these invalids a sort of fretfulness. Everything--even the grasshopper--becomes a burden to them. Then there comes to these poor sick souls a sort of fearfulness, their nervous force has gone. These people are very retiring in disposition--nervous, and bashful, and hesitating, very timid and timorous. What are the causes of this spiritual disease? Some are born frail. But the weakness is often due to the disease of harbouring unkind thoughts about anybody. An unhealthy climate is often the reason, physically speaking, for weakness of health. Weakness may be due to unwholesomeness of food. II. The prescription. “ Have mercy upon me, O Lord.” God’ s mercy must be the antidote for my misery. This is the only remedy for spiritual weakness. If I go to the physician and complain of weakness he will probably give me some medicine which may not be very palatable. Well, then, take the medicine. (Thomas Spurgeon.) The cry for mercy To fly and escape the anger of God, he sees no means in heaven or in earth, and therefore he retires himself to God, even to Him who wounded him, that He might heal him. He flies not with Adam to the bush, nor with Saul to the witch, nor with Jonas to Tarshish, but he appeals from an angry and just God to a merciful God. Next, observe what David craves--mercy; whereby we may perceive that he was brought to a consideration of his own misery, or else he needed not to have asked for mercy. Then it is necessary, that to the end we may more effectually crave pardon, every one of us first have a sense and feeling of our own sin and misery. Moreover, see that David doth not present his merits, whereby to redeem the filthiness of his sins, neither yet prayers, praises, almsdeeds, victory over God’ s foes, wherein he was frequent, but he leaveth them all as a broken reed, to the which he could not well lean in the day of his spiritual temptation, and hath his only refuge in God’ s mercy. The merits of men (alas!) what are they? The best works we do are so full of imperfections that there is more dross than gold in them. What man would be content for good gold to receive such coin as is nearby altogether dross? And think ye God for His perfect law, which He gave us to observe and do, will receive our imperfect works? David, under the name of mercy, includeth all things, according to that of Jacob to his brother Esau, “ I have gotten mercy, and therefore I have gotten all things.” Desirest thou anything at God’ s hands? Cry for mercy, out of which fountain all good things will spring to thee. The blind men, seeking their sight, cried, “ Have mercy upon us, Thou Son of David.” The Canaanite, who had her daughter possessed, cried, “ Have mercy upon me.” If ye have purchased the King’ s pardon, then ye may enjoy the privileges of His kingdom; if ye have mercy, ye have all that God can give you, ye have title to Christ, to heaven, to all the creatures, ye are freed and delivered from the prison of hell. (A. Symson.) A good plea for the penitent But is this not a weak plea, to allege weakness for a plea? weak indeed with men who commonly tread hardest upon the weakest, and are ever going over where the hedge is lowest; but no weak plea with God, whose mercy is ever ready upon all occasions, and then most when there is most need; and seeing there is greatest need where there is greatest weakness, therefore no plea with God so strong as this, Have mercy upon me, O God, for I am weak. But why should David pray for mercy to help his weakness? for what can mercy do? Mercy can but pity his weakness; it is strength that must relieve it. But is it not that mercy, I may say; is as the steward of God’ s house, and hath the command of all He hath; that if wisdom be wanting for direction, mercy can procure it; if justice be wanting for defence, mercy can obtain it; if strength be wanting for support, mercy can command it; and therefore no plea so perfect to be urged with God as this, Have mercy upon me, O God, for I am weak? But why should David make his weakness a motive to God for mercy? for is not weakness an effect of sin? and can God love the effect when He hates the cause? But it is not the weakness in David that God loves, but the acknowledging of his weakness; for what is this but the true humility? and who knows not in how high account such humility is with God, seeing it is indeed of this wonderful condition, that though nothing be so low, yet nothing reacheth so high, and therefore no motive so fit to move God as this, Have mercy upon me, O God, for I am weak. Mercy, indeed, looks down upon no object so directly as upon weakness, and weakness looks up to no object so directly as to mercy; and therefore they cannot choose but meet, and meeting, not choose but embrace each other: mercy, weakness as her client; weakness, mercy as her patron; that no plea can be so strong with God as this, Have mercy upon me, O God, for I am weak. (Sir Richard Baker.) An argument taken from weakness But behold what rhetoric he trieth to move God to cure him: “ I am weak” ; an argument taken from his weakness; which indeed were a weak argument to move any man to show his favour, but is a strong argument to prevail with God. If a diseased person would come to a physician, and only lament the heaviness of his sickness, he would say, “ God help thee” ; or an oppressed person come to a lawyer, and show him the estate of his action and ask his advice, he would answer, “ That is a golden question” ; or to a merchant to crave raiment, he will either have present money or a surety; or a courtier for favour, you must have your reward ready in your hand. But coming before God, the most forcible argument ye can use is your necessity, poverty, tears, misery, unworthiness, and confessing them to Him, it shall be an open door to furnish you with all things that He hath. (A. Symson B. D.) A forcible plea The tears of our misery are forcible arrows to pierce the heart of our heavenly Father, to deliver us and pity our hard case. The beggars lay open their sores to the view of the world, that the more they may move men to pity them. So let us deplore our miseries to God, that He, with the pitiful Samaritan, at the sight of our wounds may help us in due time. (A. Symson B. D.) O Lord, heal me.--Healing There is something very soothing, very beautiful in that word “ Heal.” It seems so full of beneficence, so full of restoration, so full of balm. “ Heal,” so near “ Health” --it is a beautiful word. The healing is found in Him. There are some medicines which are called polychrists, they heal so many diseases. Heaven knows but one Polychrist. It is one to heal not only many diseases, but all, and that one is the touch of Christ. (P. B. Tower, M. A.) Psalms 6:3 My soul is sore vexed. Yoke fellows in sin, yoke fellows in punishment Yoke fellows in sin are yoke fellows in pain; the soul is punished for informing, the body for performing, and as both the informer and performer, the cause and the instrument, so shall the stirrer up of sin and executor be punished. (A. Symson, B. D.) But Thou, O Lord, how long?-- The delays of God 1. That there is an appointed time, which God hath measured, for the crosses of all His children, before which time they shall not be delivered, and for which they must patiently attend, not thinking to prescribe time to God for their delivery or limit the Holy One of Israel. The Israelites remained in Egypt till the complete number of 430 years were accomplished. Joseph was three years and more in the prison till the appointed time of his delivery came. The Jews remained 70 years in Babylon. So that as the physician appointeth certain times to the patient, both wherein he must fast and be dieted, and wherein he must take recreation: so God knoweth the convenient times both of our humiliation and exaltation. 2. See the impatiency of our natures in our miseries, our flesh still rebelling against the Spirit, which oftentimes forgetteth itself so far that it will enter into reasoning with God, and quarrelling with Him, as we may read of Job, Jonas, etc., and here also of David. 3. Albeit the Lord delay His coming to relieve His saints, yet He hath great cause if we ponder it; for, when we were in the heat of our sins, many times He cried by the mouth of His prophets, “ O fools, how long will you continue in your folly?” and we would not hear. And therefore, when we are in the heat of our pains, thinking long, yea, every day a year till we are delivered, no wonder it is if God will not hear. Let us consider with ourselves the just dealing of God with us, that as He cried, and we would not hear; so now we cry, and He will not hear. (A. Symson, B. D.) Broken prayers I. An instance of what may be called a broken prayer. Dr. Maclaren calls it “ daring and pregnant in its incompleteness.” Is it not natural that prayer should often be incomplete? The man who has never broken down in his prayer has hardly yet learned to pray.1. Prayer must be broken at times, because some petitions we would offer we may not. Prayer has sometimes to be restrained. 2. Because we cannot tell how to pray. True piety has its dilemmas. What may precisely meet our need cannot always be defined. 3. Because words cannot compass our desires. The intensest feelings of our hearts cannot find adequate expression. II. Broken prayers may be the most earnest expressions of the soul. The Psalmist’ s very earnestness brings him to a standstill. Such a break is the safety valve of the impassioned soul. Prayer is often most sincere when it is least eloquent. A sob may be a real prayer. III. That prayers are broken does not prevent them from being heard and answered. If this Psalm opens amid the thick gloom of troublous misgiving, it does not close till a new light has chased these shadows away. However poor and faltering our own words, we shall not be disappointed about an answer. God can interpret the prayer that has never even found utterance. When a man begins to pray, however brokenly, light is not far off. (G. Edward Young.) Psalms 6:4 Return, O Lord, deliver my soul.A postulatory prayer “ O Lord, return” implies a former presence, a present absence, and a confidence for the future. This is God’ s return to us, in a general apprehension. After He hath made us, and blest us in our nature and by His natural means, He returns to make us again, to make us better, first by His preventing grace and then by a succession of His particular graces. In Scripture there are three significations of the word translated “ return.”1. To return to that place to which a thing is naturally affected. So heavy things return to the centre, and light things to the expansion. The Church is God’ s place, God’ s centre, to which He is naturally affected. 2. The word is also referred to the passion of God, to the anger of God; and so the returning of God--that is, of God’ s anger--is the allaying, the becalming, the departing of His anger. When God returns, God stays; His anger is returned from us, but God is still with us. 3. The word applies to our returning to Him. There goes no more to salvation but such a turning. So that this returning of the Lord is an operative, an effectual returning, that tunes our hearts, and eyes, and hands, and feet to the ways of God, and produces in us repentance and obedience; for these be the two legs which our conversion to God stands upon. When the Lord comes to us by any way, though He come in corrections, in chastisements, not to turn to Him is an irreverent and unrespective negligence We come now to the reasons of these petitions in David’ s prayer. His first reason is grounded on God Himself. “ Do it for Thy mercy’ s sake.” And in his second reason, though David himself and all men with him seem to have a part, yet at last we shall see the reason itself to determine wholly or entirely in God, too, and in His glory. “ Do it, Lord, for in death there is no remembrance of Thee.” (John Donne.) The obscured presence of God As the sun goeth not out of Thee, though it may be obscured by overcasting clouds, or some other natural impediments, so, albeit the clouds of our sins and miseries hide the fair, shining face of God from us, yet He will pierce through and dissipate those clouds, and, shine clearly upon us in His own appointed time. God is said to “ return to us,” not by change of place, for He is in all places, but by the dispensation of His gracious providence, and declaration of His new mercies and benefits to us. (A. Symson.) For the sake of mercy Indeed, this motive, for His mercy’ s sake, is the first mover of all motives to God for showing His favour. He had never delivered the Israelites out of Egypt but for His mercy’ s sake; He had never saved Noah in the ark but for His mercy’ s sake; but, above all, He had never sent His Son to save the world but for His mercy’ s sake. And how, then, can I doubt, and not rather be confident, that for His mercy’ s sake He will also deliver my soul and save me? Never, therefore, my soul, look after any further motives; for upon this motive will I set up my rest. His mercy shall be both my anchor and my harbour; it shall be both my armour and my fortress; it shall be both my ransom and my garland; it shall be both my deliverance and my salvation. (Sir Richard Baker.) Psalms 6:5 In death there is no remembrance of Thee.Does consciousness cease with death There is some obscurity in these words, literally understood. They at least seem to teach that all thought and consciousness ceased with man at his death. If that be their meaning, they certainly show that David’ s views of a future life were quite defective. If that be their meaning, we may well say, he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. We can hardly believe, however, that David meant to teach that thought and consciousness ceased with man at death. The death here intended is probably the second death, and the grave intended the prison of the lost: that is the “ death,” and that the “ grave,” from which David prays to be saved--the death and the grave of “ both body and soul in hell.” And surely there is no grateful remembrance of, and giving thanks to, God there. On the contrary, all who have experienced that death, and descended into that grave, gnaw their tongues for pain, and blaspheme the God of heaven. In view of such an issue, well might David pray, “ Return, O Lord, deliver my soul; O save me for Thy mercies’ sake.” For surely a more terrific thought cannot be presented to the human soul, than the thought that it must remain a pining and suffering creature forever, a moral blot on every part of the universe to which it may flee; hateful in its own eyes, and hateful in the eyes of God. (David Caldwell, A. M.) In the grave who shall give Thee thanks?--Death makes life important This Psalm is the first of those called penitential, and composed in confession of sin. From consideration of birth sin the writer turns to the littleness of man, and the shortness of life compared with God’ s greatness and goodness. As references to the silence of the grave and the departure of the dead occur frequently, we may ask in what sense we are to take such words. David evidently understood that this life is our only period of probation. He had apprehensions of a judgment day. David felt that, whatever he was to be, to become, to receive, or to suffer, in the state beyond the grave, was all to be begun while he was in the flesh. David felt how essential to his happiness it was to obtain God’ s favour, and that at once, without delay. All our hopes beyond the grave rest on our few years’ passage through this life. There is no preparation after it. We are hastening on to the unalterable state, where we shall praise God for over, or never. We are like the sculptor, chiselling an inscription upon marble. Well done or badly done, clearly engraved or badly formed, or wrongly spelt, still those letters remain in imperishable characters. The sculptor’ s success, or his mistakes, both remain; no time will fade, no water will wash away, what is engraved in stone. So with our heavenly and eternal work, “ the time is short” ; but its records and its effects are lasting; they endure from generation to generation. Let us be stirred up by such thoughts to engrave for ourselves in the imperishable records of the Book of Life the record of a life spent by us, through God’ s grace, to His honour and in His service. (W. J. Stracey, M. A.) The Psalmist’ s Sheol The second plea is striking both in its view of the condition of the dead, and in its use of that view as an argument with God. Like many other psalmists, the writer thinks of Sheol as the common gathering place of the departed, a dim region where they live a poor shadowy life, inactive, joyless, and all but godless, inasmuch as praise, fellowship, and service with Him have ceased. That view is equally compatible with the belief in a resurrection, and the denial of it, for it assumes continued individual consciousness. It is the prevailing tone in the Psalter, and in Job and Ecclesiastes. But in some Psalms which embody the highest rapture of inward and musical devotion the sense of present union with God bears up the Psalmist into the sunlight of the assurance that against such a union death can have no power, and we see the hope of immortality in the very act of dawning on the devout soul. May we not say that the subjective experience of the reality of communion with God now is still the path by which the certainty of its perpetuity in a future life is reached? The objective proof in the resurrection of Jesus Christ is verified by this experience. The psalmists had not the former, but, having the latter, they attained to at all events occasional confidence in a blessed life beyond. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) A plea for continued life 1. Concerning death, consider first, that there is a necessity of death laid upon all flesh, wise men and fools, king and prophet, etc., neither the grandeur of the king nor holiness of the prophet can exempt them from death. 2. Next, that it interrupts the service and praise of God, as it destroys man’ s nature, albeit it interrupteth it only for a time, and in a part; the soul in the meantime praising God under the altar, till that both soul and body meet together and praise Him world without end. 3. That it is lawful to crave the continuance of our life, to the end that we may praise God. Would we desire the continuance of our life, that we may continue in sin? God forbid. Likewise we may desire death, not for being weary of temporal pain, or fear of shame; but with the apostle, that we may be dissolved and be with Christ, and be freed of the burthen of sin by our death, yet in both our desires let us submit ourselves to the good pleasure of God, and say with our Saviour, Thy will be done, not as I will, but as thou wilt. 4. We see in his sickness he seeks the continuation of his life at God’ s hands, who hath the issues of death in His will, thereby teaching us, neither with Asa to put our trust in the physicians, neither with Ahaziah to go ask counsel at Beelzebub; but with good Hezekiah turn to the wall, and with David here beg the prorogation of our lives from God. 5. Observe the difference between the godly and the wicked, in their contrary desires of the continuation of their lives: for the wicked, being tied to the bed of sickness, crave longer life, to the end they may enjoy their riches longer, and use, or rather abuse them; in the meantime never conceiving or nourishing an hope of celestial good things. But the godly, that they may record fruitfully the praises of God in the congregation of the righteous; besides, the fear of death in the reprobate, is because they see by it an end put to all their earthly felicities. (A. Symson, B. D.) Psalms 6:6-7I am weary with my groaning.The penitent’ s sorrow The penitent here expresses the effects which his sorrow had upon him in its outward manifestations. His eye was consumed because of grief, and he was weary with his groaning. An impression now seems generally to prevail that outward manifestations of feeling in matters of religion, instead of being proofs that the feeling is sound, are rather proofs that it is otherwise. Certainly, in themselves they are no unequivocal evidence of sincere and deep feeling; and in assemblies of God’ s people it is better in general that they should be repressed than indulged in. But where such feelings exist they must in some way or other be expressed: “ I am weary with my crying,” says the Psalmist; “ my throat is dried; mine eyes fail, when they waist for my God.” They mourn by reason of affliction. I have stretched out my hands daily unto Thee. Tears have been my meat day and night. And we can see no reason in the nature of things why such strong feelings of grief should be absent in religion. Surely, if the prospect of losing an earthly friend--a husband or a brother--causes the eye to run down with tears, the breast to heave and be convulsed with sobs, and the heart to be poured out like water before God--the prospect of losing eternal life may be no less overpowering. Assuredly, if a fall from riches to poverty, from circumstances of comfort to a condition of wretchedness, has shaken men of firm nerves--the prospect of an eternity spent in inconceivable misery, with the worm that dieth not, and in the fire that is not quenched, may appall the stoutest heart. We should therefore be surprised to meet with one who had passed from death to life through the terrors of the law, and yet was wholly a stranger to such feelings. We should regard him as a man of more than mortal mould. But let us observe, that true grief is unobtrusive. It seeks retirement. It is in the night that the Psalmist makes his bed to swim. He speaks not of his tears shed in the assemblies of God’ s people. The great question is, What are your feelings towards Him in private? Can the watches of the night bear witness to your meditating on His death and atoning sacrifice, and of your vows to be His, and His alone? Such was the Psalmist’ s experience; and light arose on his darkness. The day spring of hope and gladness broke forth on him. Suddenly be changes the notes of woe for those of exultation, “ Depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity; for the Lord hath heard the voice of my weeping. The Lord hath heard my supplication; the Lord will receive my prayer. Let all mine enemies be ashamed and sore vexed. Let them return and be ashamed suddenly. (G. Innes.) I water my couch with my tears.--David’ s sorrow These strong expressions imply a sorrow so deep, unusual, and excessive as to provoke the inquiry, what could possibly occasion and justify them? From Psalms 6:7-10 we conclude that the sufferer is brought into great and grievous peril by the arts of malicious enemies. But we may better seek the origin of his distress in influences of a more inward and spiritual character. While our affairs are prosperous, nothing is so common as a condition of spiritual heedlessness and self-satisfaction. Let God make a breach upon us, so that suddenly riches depart and enemies rejoice and friends begin to look cold, and then not uncommonly our conscience awakes from its long slumber and brings against us grievous, accusations. The feeling that he is suffering God’ s rebuke, smarting under God’ s correction, is at once a comfort and a grief to the Psalmist: a comfort when he remembered the loving wisdom that corrected him; a grief when he called to mind the sinful ingratitude that needed correction. How can we wonder at the depth and extent of his grief? It is by the depth and reality, yea, the passion and abandon with which he utters the profoundest feelings of the pious heart, that David has moved so mightily the soul and spirit of the world. It is impossible to withhold our deep respect from the stoic, seeing that his endurance of the ills of life implies a control and self-denial almost, if not altogether, sublime. If sorrow, when viewed in relation to its uses, is a good, how can we best apply it to those uses? By acknowledging its existence. Its right to exist, as long as there is sin in our hearts or suffering in the world. Sorrow is but the normal expression of a holy sensibility when excited by the contemplation of suffering or sin; and it is not therefore sorrow in itself, but only the excess and selfishness of it, that is to be restricted and overcome. (J. Moorhouse, M. A.) Repentance in time will be remembered when repentance is impossible Oh, let my remembering Thee in life supply the place of my forgetting Thee in death; and when I lie in my grave senseless and silent, be pleased to remember how I have lain in my bed sighing and weeping. (Sir Richard Baker.) Mourning for sin First, he sighed and sobbed for his sin, and now he mourneth for the same. Look whereunto our follies tend! The pleasures of sin ever end in displeasure, for which either we must of necessity, mourn in this life, or eternally in the life to come. The measure of his mourning is expressed by the washing and swimming of his bed with tears, which indeed is an hyperbolic speech, and doth express unto the vehemency and greatness of his grief, and that he did not esteem light of his sin, yea, I may affirm never had man greater displeasure for so short a pleasure as had David: neither was he in worse case with God, but rather the multitude of his tears were as many seals of God’ s favour towards him, and of the remission of his sins: showers be better than dews, yet it is sufficient if God at least hath bedewed our hearts, and hath given us some signs of a penitent heart: if we have not rivers of waters to pour forth with David, neither fountains flowing with Mary Magdalene, nor as Jeremiah, desire to have a fountain in our head to weep day and night, nor with Peter weep bitterly, yet if we lament that we cannot lament; and mourn that we cannot mourn; yea, if we have the smallest sobs of sorrow and tears of compunction, if they be true and not counterfeit, they will make us acceptable to God: for as the woman with the bloody issue that touched the hem of Christ’ s garment was no less welcome to Christ than Thomas, who put his fingers in the print of the nails, so God looketh not at the quantity, but the sincerity of our repentance. “ My bed.” The place of his sin is the place of his repentance, and so it should be, yea, when we behold the place where we have offended we should be pricked in the heart, and there again crave Him pardon. Sanctify by tears every place which ye have polluted by sin “ Every night” So one hour’ s sin may bring many nights’ pare, and it may be done in one hour which cannot be amended in our life. Learn, therefore, in time to be careful, and fall not into that ditch, out of which hardly can ye be freed. How easy is it for a man to fall into a pit, but with what difficulty is he delivered therefrom! As the night is secret, so should the work of thy repentance be; repent thou secretly, that the Lord may reward thee openly. Mark here that repentance should be constant, not one night, but every night. It is not seemly to a king to weep for his own private calamities, lest he might seem to be cast down from his courage; but nothing more royal than to mourn for the offence committed against the King of kings. Finally, mark what force tears have with God, that they can blot out the multitude of iniquities: be true and not counterfeit, they will make us acceptable to God. God looketh not on the quantity, but the sincerity of our repentance. (A. Symson, B. D.) The righteous man’ s assault by his enemies The pirates, seeing an empty bark, pass by it; but if she be loaded with precious wares, then they will assault her. So, if a man have no grace within him, Satan passeth by him, as not a convenient prey for him, but being loaded with graces, as the love of God, his fear, and such other spiritual virtues, let him be persuaded that according as he knows what stuff is in him, so will he not fail to rob him of them, if in any case he may. (A. Symson, B. D.) Psalms 6:8-9 The Lord hath heard the voice of my weeping.A change from sorrow to hope I. Grateful acknowledgment of mercy. The expressions of the Psalm indicate sorrow of no ordinary kind. Much of this sorrow caused by a sense of the indignation of God against sin (Psalms 6:1). What he pleads for is the pardon of sin, the restoration of the light of the Divine countenance. His plea is God’ s mercy and God’ s glory. II. Holy determination to forsake sin. “ Depart from me all ye workers of iniquity. Those who have experienced God’ s pardoning mercy will never be content to continue in sin. III. Humble confidence. The Lord will receive my prayer. When under the pressure of different causes of sorrow the believer may take confidence from former deliverances. (J. D. Lane, M. A.) Sorrow and deliverance The earlier verses of this Psalm are a wail, but it ends in song. It is like a day of rain which clears at evening. I. The elements of the Psalmist’ s sorrow (1-7). There was the pressure of Divine displeasure on account of sin (1, 2), combined with soul-anguish (3, 4), perhaps accompanied with sickness, brining nigh unto death (4, 5), whilst enemies add their hate (6, 7). II. The certainty of the Psalmist’ s deliverance (8-10). The prayer is no sooner uttered than answered. The consciousness of having been heard steals over the weary soul like a glint of light on to a bed in the hospital ward. Weeping has a voice for the ear of God. The Revised Version reads the imprecations of Psa 6:10 as future tenses--“ they shall be ashamed and turn back.” When God returns, cur enemies turn back. (F. B. Meyer, B. A.) Sin pleasant to begin with, but painful to end with The work of sin seems pleasant and gainful; but in the end ye shall find it both unpleasant and painful when you get your wages paid you from your master, the devil, you shall know the truth of the saying of the apostle, “ the reward of sin is death.” (A. Symson, B. D.) Workers of iniquity Let us refuse, therefore, to work any longer task unto Satan, and betake us to a better Master and better service, and work in the Lord’ s vineyard. (A. Symson, B. D.) The voice of weeping. As David’ s prayers were not dumb, but had a voice, so they are not dry but full of tears: those sappy prayers be acceptable to God, which proceed not from a barren and dry heart, but from a heart well watered with the clouds of heaven, hearts planted at the Rivers of waters which we should all pray for. Think ye not that a mother will discern the voice, but much more the weeping of her own child, and the ewe discern the bleating of her own lamb among a thousand; and will not God regard the prayer of His own child being in affliction? (A. Symson, B. D.) Psalms 6:10 Let all mine enemies be ashamed and sore vexed. The tolerance and intolerance of the gospel A difficulty is often felt in reading or repeating these imprecations. These denunciations are appalling, withering. Are they not essentially personal, the breathing of a Jewish spirit of revenge, and in no sense Christian and universal?1. I can find no difficulty in granting that the Old Testament spirit was a harder and a sterner spirit than that of the New. The emblem of the New Testament is the cross, which signifies passive endurance. The emblem of the Old Testament is the sword. As the Spirit of God freely uses individual thought, style and expression, overruling them so as to bring out His own higher meaning, I should not be surprised to find occasional phrases of a fiercer and an angrier complexion than any which occur in the New Testament, and which I should interpret with a different signification from that which their utterer designed. We need not consider these imprecatory Psalms as the utterance of David’ s longing for personal revenge It is very singular that each of the Psalms in which the strongest imprecatory passages are found contains also gentle undertones, breathings of beneficent love. 2. When under the old covenant, earthly prosperity was the portion of the wicked, and earthly adversity of the pious, the whole moral government of God seemed to be veiled in clouds and darkness. Now, when all seems troubled, we can look up and behold by faith the glory that shall be revealed. “ God is patient because He is eternal.” Man is impatient when he is not assured of his immortality. 3. We must interpret every book by the mind of the author. If so, we must apply this to the Bible and to the Psalms. The real author is the Holy Spirit. “ The prophet seems to speak as if in prayer--when he sees that which will certainly come--showing that the known counsel of God, which He has firmly and immutably fixed, should not displease us.” Conceive a created spirit enlarged so as to embrace the will of God in relation to all the children of men--a spirit looking from the margin of an eternal world upon the petty histories of the past, purified from personal hatred, partiality, and prejudice, measuring all things by the counsels of God, such a spirit could say without a taint of personal revenge, “ let all mine enemies be ashamed.” Turn to two passages of the New Testament (Luke 9:49, and sequel). We think of St. John as a man of angelic, or at least of feminine, gentleness. But in his nature, as in the blue sky of his native Galilee, there were sudden storms and fierce lightning flashes. As yet the brothers knew not Jesus thoroughly. They would build up by force the kingdom whose walls are cemented, not by “ blood and iron,” but by love. Such is the spirit of intolerance, which would in one age offer to God the hideous thing called by a fearful profanation an auto-da-fe; which in another would rivet the chains of penal laws upon a population; in another, with the cant of toleration upon its lips, stamp out an unpopular minority by rubrics and definitions. Is there any intolerance in the gospel? For answer see 2 John 1:10. To deny that Jesus was the God-Man was to question His legitimacy and impugn His truth. Pagan toleration has been invidiously compared with Christian intolerance. But pagan toleration is a conclusion drawn from the false premises that all religions are about equally true; while Christian persecution is a conclusion falsely drawn from the true principle of the exclusiveness of true religion. Commend the spirit of tolerance to all whom our Church tolerates. Amidst much that is depressing there is one happy sign of our times. There are tokens that Churches sundered hitherto are yearning to be one. A day is coming, even on the earth, when the inward unity of Christ’ s redeemed shall manifest itself outwardly; when the prayer of our High priest shall he fulfilled, “ that they all may be one.” (W. Alexander, D. D.) . Psalms 7:1-17 Psalms 7:1-17O Lord my God, in Thee do I put my trust.An appeal from the slandered I. The appeal (Psalms 7:1-2; Psalms 7:6). A petition for freedom and deliverance from his persecutors, in which he desires God to be attentive to him, because of the relation between them, and because he trusted Him: and he also desires God to be benevolent, because he was in danger of death, having many enemies. II. His reasons. He makes protestation of his innocency, and appeals to God’ s justice. He wants God to do justice both to him and to the wicked. The close of the Psalm is a doxology,--thanks that a true, just, and merciful God would judge for the righteous, save those who are true of heart, establish the just, and take revenge upon the wicked; for this, says David, “ I will praise the Lord according to His righteousness.” (William Nicholson, D. D.) David and his enemies This Psalm consisteth principally of three parts. In the first part he prayeth for deliverance from his enemies, setting out his innocence and upright dealing toward them (Psalms 7:1-5). In the second he prayeth against his enemies, declaring what good shall come to his children by the overthrow of the wicked (Psalms 7:6-10). In the third he pronounceth God’ s judgment against the ungodly, which, being once manifested, he promises to yield hearty thanks unto the Lord (Psalms 7:11-17). Learn that trust and confidence in God is always necessary to them that pray to Him; for otherwise all our supplications are but lip labour, and lost. Also, we learn to pray for deliverance from our persecutors, or else we might justly be accounted betrayers of ourselves. Many of God’ s children may stand upon their innocency to men-ward, and say in their measure--which of you can convict me of sin, but not before God. We may sometimes pray against some enemies of the Church, but we should make God’ s promises (general or particular) the ground of our prayers. When men will not judge rightly we may by prayer refer our causes to Him who hath no respect of persons. Verses 12, 13 declare what mischievous minds the wicked carry toward the godly, and what means they will work to accomplish their naughtiness; and that should teach us wisdom and circumspection, that we fall not into their nets. (Thomas Wilcocks.) The ferocity of persecutors It is reported of tigers that they enter into a rage on the scent of fragrant spices: so do ungodly men at the blessed savour of godliness. I have read of some barbarous nations, who when the sun shines hot upon them, they shoot up their arrows against it: so do wicked men at the light and heat of godliness. There is a natural antipathy between the spirits of godly men and the wicked (Genesis 3:15). (Jeremiah Burroughs.) Exemplary conduct under social trial David’ s conduct indicates three things. I. Earnest application. In the midst of his trial he looks to heaven. In his supplication, see--1. A strong confidence in God as ever accessible; equal to all emergencies; large enough to receive all sufferers; immutable amidst the revolution of ages. 2. A terrible sense of danger. “ Lest he tear my soul like a lion.” 3. A deep consciousness of innocence. “ If there be iniquity in my hands.” 4. An earnest invocation for help. “ Arise, O Lord, lift up Thyself.” His ideas of God throughout this Psalm are very anthropomorphic. In this invocation he has respect for three things-- (1) The spiritual good of his country;(2) the administrative justice of God;(3) the universal extension of wickedness. II. Devout meditations (Psalms 7:10-16).1. On the character of God; as a friend of the just; an enemy of the wicked, whose opposition is constant, terrible, and avoidable. 2. On the condition of sinners. He regards his position as (1) painfully laborious;(2) abortively laborious;(3) self-ruinously laborious. III. Reverent adoration. Note--1. The character in which he worships the Almighty. As righteous and as supreme. 2. The spirit with which he worships the Almighty. “ I will sing praise.” Song is the language of happiness. True worship is happiness. All happy spirits worship, and worship is song. (Homilist.) Turning to God in time of need I. Prayer (Psalms 7:1-2). If David desired deliverance from his foes, how much more do we need deliverance from our arch enemy (1 Peter 5:8-9). II. Protestation (Psalms 7:3-5). (1 Samuel 24:1-22; 1 Samuel 26:1-25). So far had he been from the offence they charged him with. III. An appeal (Psalms 7:6-9). By a bold metaphor he attributes the success of his foes to some temporary abdication on God’ s part of His throne, and he entreats Him to reassume His throne and give His decisions, as Eastern judges are wont to do, in the midst of the people standing around. IV. Prediction (Psalms 7:10-16). Evil recoils like a boomerang on those who set it in motion. Ralph the Rover perished at the Incheape Rock. The huntsman at eventide falls into the pit prepared in the morning for his prey. (F. B. Meyer, B. A.) Trust in God I. The conditions of trust in God.1. We must lay to heart the glorious truth of the everlasting love of God towards us, and realise that He is our reconciled Father in Christ. 2. We must ever seek to do His will. We cannot “ rest in the calm sun glow of His face” if we are not earnestly seeking to do the things that please Him. 3. We must not trust in ourselves. The pride of the human heart is great, hence we are unwilling to confess our inability to keep God’ s commandments. 4. We must not trust in others. Asa’ s end a warning against trusting in an arm of flesh (2 Chronicles 16:12-13). II. We ought to trust in God.1. In times of loneliness and depression (John 16:32; Psalms 56:3). 2. Times of danger, difficulty, and temptation. God is our refuge (Psalms 57:1); our guide (Psalms 48:14); God is faithful (1 Corinthians 10:13). III. The result of trust in God.1. Blessedness (Psalms 84:12). 2. Perfect peace (Isaiah 26:8). (J. P. Wright.) Psalms 7:2 While there is none to deliver. Times when there must be a God Why pray so loudly, clearly, and distinctly? Because the enemy is mighty, and he may “ tear my soul like a lion . . . while there is none to deliver.” If it be a question between man and man, woe betide the weak! If the great battles of human existence are to be measured by the strength of the contending parties, virtue will be thrown down, discrowned, destroyed. But there are times when there must be a God: controversy would be intolerable, doubt would be out of place--not blasphemy against heaven, but blasphemy against the agonised heart. In these dark times we may be said to create a God. Judge these questions in your high moods; there is no intellectual ladder that you can set up against this mystery, and by which you can climb your way into the presence of the throne: the heart can fly all the distance, counting the separate constellations nothing in the exercise of its infinite strength, created by infinite trust. What we have lost in all these matters may be described as the Divine fire. We have thought to beat cold iron into shape. Iron will only obey the hammer and the hand when fire has undertaken to do the intermediate work; it is when the soul is on fire that we have no doubt about God. When we are prosperous, too highly indulged, even sated with luxury and plenty, we play the agnostic, the atheist, the speculative thinker; but when circumstances change, when the floor gives way, when the earth rocks, when the sun sinks, as if in mortal fear, and shuts out the day; when the child dies, and when all nature seems to be set in array against the processes of life--then the real man within us will talk. When agony is stinging the soul, and darkness is accumulating itself upon the life like a burden, then let man say whether he is imbecile, whether he is unworthy of the related condition of things, and of the sovereignty which overrules and guides and crowns them all. (Joseph Parker, D. D.) Psalms 7:3-5O Lord my God, if I have done this; if there be iniquity in my hands.The appeal of conscious integrity When near his end Mahomet made an effort to obtain himself the peace and pardon of the living before presenting himself before his Judge. Sustained beneath the arms by his two cherished disciples, Abubeker and All, he trailed himself along to the pulpit of the mosque, and said, with a feeble voice, “ Mussulmans! if I have ever maltreated any among you, let him now come and strike me in turn. If I have offended any of you by word, let him return insult for insult. If I have taken from any his property, let him take all I possess upon the earth. And these are not vain words; let no one, in doing himself justice, apprehend my resentment. Resentment and anger are not in my character.” A man dared to step from the crowd and claim of him a concealed debt. “ Help thyself,” said the prophet; “ it is better to blush in this life before men, for one’ s injustice, than to blush in the other world before God.” (Lamartine’s Turkey.) Psalms 7:6 Arise, O Lord, in Thine anger: lift up Thyself because of the rage of mine enemies.The first of the imprecatory Psalms Comminations are present in verses 11-17, and imprecations upon the writer himself (under certain contingencies) in verse 5. I. The psalm is not vindictive.1. It is certainly David’ s composition, and by his twice sparing Saul we know this was not his character. Cush the Benjamite was some follower of Saul who had plotted against David. It is probable that in 1 Samuel 24:1-22. we have the historic setting of the Psalm. The points of contact between the two are many. 2. And Cush was flagrantly an evil-doer (verses 2, 3, 4, 14, 15). Hence these denunciations are uttered. II. See what he prays for. It is simply that God will awake. III. What he predicts. That the Lord will whet His sword, etc. Neither in prayer nor prediction is there any disproportion between the sin and its punishment. It is less than what God had Himself said He would do (Deuteronomy 32:23; Deuteronomy 32:42). IV. Why he thus denounces. Not because although he had spared his enemy, yet in his heart he was thirsting for revenge. If he had wanted revenge he could have taken it. But--1. From the instinct of self-preservation.2. Desire for the repression of crime.3. For the glory of God. We deny, therefore, that the Psalm is vindictive. (Joseph Hammond.) Psalms 7:7 For their sakes, therefore, return Thou on high.David’ s strong language David had no difficulty in invoking a tremendous punishment upon his enemies. But the language must be judged by the times in which it was employed. Not only so, but every man has his own language. In a sense there is a private and individual tongue. You must know the speaker before you can understand the speech. The man explains the mystery that is round about him. David’ s language was very strong; but David was a poet, and a Hebrew poet, a poet of poets. All the poetry that had gone before him was but as a pedestal, on which he stood to lift himself and his art into a nobler elevation. We must not, therefore, judge David’ s language, especially when it is imprecatory, with our critical notions of propriety and measure. No other terms would have expressed his then feeling. Were he with us now, none would be so sweet in song, none so tender in prayer. (Joseph Parker, D. D.) Psalms 7:8 Judge me, O Lord, according to my righteousness, and according to mine integrity that is in me. Integrity and peace A truly noble confidence! and yet many of our time would call the language very dangerous, if it were spoken by any but one of the Scripture saints. Some, on the other hand, charge it as a fault in our doctrine of salvation by grace, that it lets down even the standards of our morality itself; because it is a part of our merit, under grace, to have no merit. Let us see if we can find the true place for integrity under the Christian salvation by noting-- I. How the Scriptures speak of integrity. The text cited does not stand alone. David says again, “ Judge me, O Lord; for I have walked in mine integrity.” Good men are called “ upright,” “ just,” “ righteous,” and “ right.” It is even declared that they “ shall deliver their own souls by their righteousness.” The Christian disciples of the New Testament dare to say that they have a conscience void of offence. They exhort others to walk so as they have them for examples. Making the strongest confessions of ill-desert, and resting their salvation on the justifying grace of God, they are still able to be free in professing their own conscious integrity in their discipleship. The explanation is not difficult if we consider-- II. What integrity means. As an integer is a whole, in distinction from a fraction, which is only a part, so a man of integrity is a man whose aim in the right is a whole aim, in distinction from one whose aim is divided, partial, or unstable. It does not mean that he has never been a sinner, or that he is not now, but simply that the intent of his soul is to do and be wholly right with God and man. Distinguish between commercial integrity and the higher integrity of religion. What does it signify that a man gives men their due, and will not give God His? God is a person as truly as men are, more closely related to us, a better friend, one who has claims of right more sacred. Does it entitle one to the name of a just man that he is honest with men of one colour and not with those of another? What, then, shall we think of mere commercial integrity taken, by itself? Real integrity, ready to do right to God as to men, to men as to God, must be the condition of Christian character itself. Let us inquire-- III. In what manner? If Christ saves men, not by their merit, or on terms of justice or reward, but by purely gratuitous favour, what place have we for insisting on the need of integrity at all? It seems to be the comfort of what some call their piety, that God is going to dispense with all merit in them, which they take to mean all sound reality of character,--all exactness of principle and conduct. Integrity is wholeness of aim or intent; but mere intent does not make a character. Yet it is just that by which all evil will be vanquished, under Christ and by grace, because it puts a man at the very gate of faith, where all God’ s helps are waiting for Him. His new and better aim is his way of coming into the righteousness of God. The Scripture conditions all help on the integrity of the soul. “ Ye shall seek and find Me, if ye search for Me with all your heart.” Let us note, in conclusion--1. What it is that gives such peace and loftiness of bearing to the life of a truly righteous man. Storms of detraction and malignant conspiracies against his character may drive their clouds about Him, but he sits above with his God, and they all sail under. “ The work of righteousness shall be peace, and the effects of righteousness, quietness and assurance forever.” Here, too-- 2. Is the ground of all failures, and all highest successes in the Christian life. Only to be an honest man, in this genuinely Christian sense, signifies a great deal more than most of us ever conceive. Little do we realise how honest a man must be to pray, how heartily, simply, totally he must mean what he prays for. Perhaps he prays much, and has it for a continual wonder that God does not answer his prayers. Perhaps he has conceived a higher standing in religion, and has tried long to reach it, and finds it not. Strange as it may seem, here is the root of the difficulty--that his projected attainments are dear ahead of his integrity. Some traitor is hid in his soul’ s chambers, that is kept there, and carefully fed. Success is the fixed destiny of any soul that has once reached the point of whole intent. I note-- 3. A very important deduction, namely,--that every man who comes into a state of right intent will forthwith also be a Christian. Whoever is willing to be carried just where it will carry him, cost him what it may, in that man the spirit of all sin is broken, and his mind is in a state to lay hold of Christ and be laid hold of by Him. “ For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect towards Him.” God is on the look-out always for an honest man--him to help and with him, and for him, to be strong. And if there be one, God will not miss him; for His desiring, all-searching eyes are running the world through always to find him. (Horace Bushnell, D. D.) Self-respect and self- righteousness Is this speech self-righteous? If so it is a bad speech: for self-righteousness is a bad temper of mind; few are worse. But there is another temper of mind which looks like it at first, but is not so, and which is right in its way. I mean the temper of Job when his friends tried to make him out a bad man. He declared he would tell no lies about himself. “ Till I die I will not remove mine integrity from me. I have, on the whole, tried to be a good man, and I will not make myself out a bad one.” St. John said, “ If we say that we have no sin we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” I. But we may misuse that doctrine. Many do.1. Some people try to confess as many sins as possible. They do not go and commit them, but they fancy themselves guilty of them. This is all too common. It is ruinous oftentimes to the body; I have seen people kill their own bodies and die early by this folly. And they kill their souls too, and enter into strong delusions and believe lies. And yet one pities them more than we can be angry with them, and all the more because they are generally the most innocent, and who have least to confess. We should pray for them. 2. But there is a worse misuse of St. John’ s doctrine than this. A man may be proud of calling himself a miserable sinner, and of confessing his sins. But if he really knew the misery of sin he would not talk so much about it. His talk is only another way of saying, “ I am a better man than you. I confess my sins, and you do not.” II. But what is the right use of the doctrine? If you refuse, like Job, to own yourself guilty of what you know you are not guilty of, such a man will tell you that you are ignorant of the first principles of the gospel. You are building integrity and morality. Now, he is partly right, and so are you. St. Paul will help us, for he said, I judge not mine own self; for I know nothing against myself, yet am I not hereby justified; but He that judgeth me is the Lord.” Now, no man was ever less self-righteous than Paul, and yet he says, “ I know nothing against myself.” Then, here is the rule. If you have done wrong, confess that; if you have done right, be not afraid to say you have. And to keep up self-respect, go on trying to do right. Wrong no man, least of all, a woman, But, mind, your right-doing will not justify you, for we all have sinned. III. Remember the Lord will judge you. Be glad of this, as David was, for he knew that the Lord would bring him out of his sin. You must not think of God as hard, or you will fret and not fight. But if you believe Him good you will fight and not fret. And you will be able to leave yourself in His hands. (Charles Kingsley.) Psalms 7:9-16 Let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end.The self-destroying power of wickedness The accents require Psalms 7:9 to be rendered, “ Let wickedness make an end of the wicked,” but that introduces an irrelevant thought of the suicidal nature of evil. It may be significant that the Psalmist’ s prayer is not for the destruction of the wicked, but of their wickedness. Such annihilation of evil is the great end of God’ s judgment, and its consequence will be the establishment of the righteous. Again, the prayer strengthens itself by the thought of God as righteous, and as trying the hearts and reins (the seat of feeling). In the presence of rampant, and all but triumphant evil, a man needs to feed hopes of its overthrow, that would else seem vainest dreams, by gazing on the righteousness and searching power of God The last section is a vision of the judgment prayed for, and may be supposed to be addressed to the enemy. If so, the hunted man towers above them, and becomes a rebuker. The character of God underlies the fact of judgment, as it had encouraged the prayer for it. What he had said to himself when his head drooped he now, as a prophet, peals out to men as making retribution sure: “ God is a righteous judge, yea, a God that hath indignation every day.” The absence of an object specified for the indignation makes its inevitable flow wherever there is evil the more vividly certain. If He is such, then of course follows the destruction of everyone who turns not. Retribution is set forth with solemn vigour under four figures.1. God is as an armed enemy sharpening His sword in preparation for action, a work of time which in the Hebrew is represented as in process, and bending His bow, which is represented as a completed act. Another second and the arrow will whiz. So the stern picture is drawn of God as in the moment before the outburst of His punitive energy--the sword sharpened, the bow bent, the arrows fitted, the burning stuff being smeared on their tips. What will happen when all this preparation blazes into action? 2. Verse 14: A figure of the automatic action of evil in bringing punishment. It is the Old Testament version of “ Sin when it is finished bringeth forth death.” The evil-doer is boldly represented as “ travailing with iniquity,” and that metaphor is broken up into two parts, “ He hath conceived mischief,” and “ He hath brought forth falsehood.” The “ falsehood,” which is the thing actually produced, is so called, not because it deceives others, but because it mocks its producer with false hopes, and never fulfils his purposes. This is but the highly metaphorical way of saying that a sinner never does what he means to do, but that the end of all his plans is disappointment. The law of the universe condemns him to feed on ashes, and to make and trust in lies. 3. The idea in “ falsehood,” namely, the failure of evil to accomplish its doer’ s purpose. Crafty attempts to trap others have an ugly habit of snaring the contriver. The irony of fortune tumbles the hunter into the pitfall dug by him for his prey. 4. Verse 16: The incidence of his evil on the evil-doer as being certain as the fall of a stone thrown straight up, which will infallibly come back in the line of its ascent. Retribution is as sure as gravitation, especially if there is an Unseen Hand above, which adds impetus and direction to the falling weight. All these metaphors, dealing with the “ natural” consequences of evil, are adduced as guarantees of God’ s judgment, whence it is clear both that the Psalmist is thinking not of some final future judgment, but of the continuous one of daily providence, and that he made no sharp line of demarcation between the supernatural and the natural. The qualities of things and the play of natural events are God’ s working. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) A prayer for the ending of wickedness I. The wickedness of the wicked.1. It is the genuine fruit of a depraved nature.2. It displays itself in various forms.3. It presses into its service the whole man.4. It has abounded in all ages of the world. II. When may this wickedness come to an end? The end of a thing is its termination.1. It comes to an end partially in the individual conversion of sinners to God.2. It will come to an end generally by the conversion of the world to God. III. This is a most desirable object.1. On God’ s account.2. On our own account.3. On account of those who are the immediate subjects of this wickedness. IV. What means can be adopted to put an end to it?1. Give no countenance to wickedness.2. Warn the wicked of their danger.3. Pray that their wickedness may come to an end. Wrestle with God in their behalf. (Sketches of Four Hundred Sermons.) Prayer for the termination of sin Our text is a prayer, and teaches us--1. To pray against all sin; to pray it, if possible, out of the world. 2. To pray for all saints, for all good people. If we would be on the Lord’ s side in the day of inquiry, we must by our prayers act in concert with the just. I. What we are to desire and pray for.1. That wickedness may come to an end. That wicked principles may be exploded and abandoned. That wicked practices may be prevented and restrained; that though Balsam be still the same, yet he may not be suffered to curse Israel; though Sennacherib has still an inveterate rage against God, yet he may be made to feel that God has a hook in his nose and a bridle in his jaws. Thus let wickedness be ashamed and hide itself, and that it may not be propagated and spread so as to infect others. 2. That God would establish the just in their integrity and retain them in it, is their comfort and hope. In their undertaking against wickedness: that they may not be shaken by any discouragements they meet with. II. Why this is and ought to be the desire of all good people. Because--1. Such have concern for the honour of God; and 2. They have tender love to the souls of men. 3. They have great value for the grace of God, for what it has done and is promised to do; and 4. They are hearty well-wishers to their native land. III. For application of what has been said.1. Let us address ourselves to God in prayer that He would further the reformation of manners in our land. Let ministers thus pray, and those who are engaged in the societies for reformation support their undertakings by their prayers. 2. And let us follow prayer with endeavour. You who are rich and of station in the world be favoured to appear in person to uphold this work. Your influence is a talent you must account for. Assure yourselves that the cause of religion and piety is the cause of God and must prevail. (Matthew Henry.) For the righteous God trieth the hearts and reins. The searching Divine test The one thought of God’ s judgment seems to run through the Psalm. To understand the Psalm aright we must refer it altogether to the assurance that God will ultimately clear those who are falsely accused of anything in this world, which they feel and know that they have never committed. Often evil does seem to prevail over good. In the end God will justify the righteous, and condemn the wicked. This assurance may uphold faithful men in all times of difficulty, trial, and persecution. Oftentimes God brings it to pass upon wicked men that they perish by the very way and means they designed for the destruction of the righteous. It is not merely that God knows every way of all men; it is not merely that His eye readeth, as it does, the very thoughts and intents of every heart amongst us: it is that He trieth each separate thought and intent of that heart, He weighs every word; He marks every little variation and complexion of man’ s thoughts, and words, and works, and intents. He registers it all, because He will one day “ judge the world in righteousness.” To say to ourselves, “ The righteous God trieth the very heart and reins,” will make us think more of what we call “ little” sins, and it will make us value more and more every greater or less opportunity of receiving grace or of doing good. It will make us also watch more carefully the springs and intents of our hearts. (W. J. Stracey, M. A.) Psalms 7:10 My defence is of God, which sayeth the upright in heart. God, the shield bearer of the upright Lit.: God is my shield bearer. Fig.: I hang my shield upon God. The idea is that of going to war, and having God as the carrier, the bearer, of our shield, so that before we can be struck down, God Himself must be wounded and overpowered. “ My defence is of God.” There are times when we need great defences. There arise m life crises, points of agony, when we can only be silent, having first said to God, “ Undertake for me.” There are times when it seems to us but a small thing, or a course quite natural, to claim all heaven as our defence. These are supreme moments. The bulk of life is commonplace, lived on an ordinary level, requiring the discharge of common duties. There are times when the whole heaven is no longer a defence, but an accusation. These are the terrible moments of life. Where, then, is man’ s defence? Let man in such moments look within; let him trace the course of his own spirit and action; and if he can find in that action reasons for self-condemnation, then let him be penitent and broken-hearted; let him find God through his tears. The tears must not be selfish: no man must make an investment of his broken-heartedness. Repentance must be perfect, vital, sincere, all-inclusive. He does not repent who cries simply because the consequences are painful. Contrition has nothing to do with consequences. God may be both accuser and defender. He prefers the accusation with the reluctance of wounded love; through the accusation He causes to shine the light of the prepared defence: His mercy endureth forever. He is the defender of the sinner, when the offender falls down in contrition and self-examination. The Psalmist falls back upon the vital element of character. “ Saveth the upright in heart.” Is God, then, only the defender of the righteous, who have never sinned? No such meaning is here. “ The upright in heart” may not always be the upright in conduct. Men cannot go beyond conduct; God goes into motive, purpose, secret thought. May there, then, be broken conduct and yet a heart truly upright before God? There may be, and that is our hope. God does not look upon us as we are, but upon what we would be if we could. Where there is this integrity or uprightness of heart, all the rest will be well. When you have the upright heart all needful consistency will be guaranteed. A growing life is never a literally consistent one. Many a man is mechanically consistent who is spiritually self-contradictory. Do we want to be upright in heart? There is but one gospel way. The grace of God alone can make the heart true and new and beautiful. We cannot give ourselves uprightness of heart. It is not in man to make himself clean. (Joseph Parker, D. D.) The upright in heart I. A character described. The upright in heart. Now it includes inward principle as the wheel which puts the whole machine in action; and outward conduct is the result of it. Take as example--1. Nathaniel. He was a man whose outward character corresponded with the promptings of his heart. 2. Remember there may be uprightness of heart with many failings. God looks at the intents of the heart. Only they must be sincere. II. The privilege of this character.1. God’ s defence. We see how God defends the tender plants from winter’ s cold and summer’ s heat. But yet more does He protect His children. For His love is deeper, stronger, and more lasting than that of a mother. 2. God’ s salvation. “ God raiseth the upright in heart.” But our salvation is in Christ, there is none out of Him. (W. D. Howard.) Psalms 7:11 God is angry with the wicked every day.God’ s anger against the wicked I. Who are the “ wicked” in the Scripture sense of the term? The Bible divides all the human race into two classes only--the righteous and the wicked. Those are righteous who have true faith in Christ, whose spirit is consecrated to God, who live a heavenly life on earth, and who have been renewed by the Holy Ghost. Their original selfishness is subdued and slain, and they live a new life through the ever-present grace of Christ Jesus. Right over against them in character are the wicked, who have not been renewed in heart; who live in selfishness, under the dominion of appetite in some of its forms,--and it matters not in which, out of all possible forms, it may be, but self is the great and only ultimate end of their life. II. God is angry with the wicked. This is the testimony of God Himself This truth is also taught by reason. If God were not opposed to the wicked, He would be wicked Himself for not opposing them. Sinners know that God is angry with them, and ought to be. Else, why are they afraid to die? III. The nature of this anger.1. It is not a malicious anger. God never has a disposition to do any wrong in any way to any being. 2. His anger is not passion in the sense in which men are wont to exhibit passion in anger. Reason for the time is displaced, and passion reigns. 3. God’ s anger cannot, be in any sense a selfish anger; for God is not selfish in the least degree. Positively, His anger against the wicked implies-- (1) An entire disapprobation of their conduct and character. He loathes the wicked with infinite loathing. (2) He feels the strongest opposition of will to their character, as opposed to His own character. (3) Strong opposition of feeling against sinners. In our attempts to conceive of the mental faculties of the Divine mind, we are under a sort of necessity of reasoning analogically from our own minds. As we have intellect, sensibility, and will, so has God. From our own minds we infer not only what the faculties of the Divine mind are, but also the laws under which they act. (4) God is not angry merely against the sin abstracted from the sinner, but against the sinner himself The sin has no moral character apart from the sinner. It grieves and displeases God that a rational moral agent, under His government, should array himself against his own God and Father, against all that is right and just in the universe. (5) The anger of God against the wicked implies all that properly belongs to anger when it exists with good reason. IV. The reasons of God’ s anger. Causeless anger is always sinful. God never Himself violates His own laws--founded as they are in infinite right and justice.1. Wicked men are entirely unreasonable. God has given them intelligence and conscience; but they act in opposition to both. God has given them a pure and good law, yet this they recklessly violate. We know that, by a fixed law of our being, nothing can be a greater temptation to anger than to see persons act unreasonably. So when God looks at the unreasonable conduct of sinners, He feels the strongest indignation and displeasure. 2. The course of the wicked is utterly ruinous. No thanks to the sinner if his influence does not ruin the whole world. By the very laws of mind, the sin of any one man tends to influence other men to sin, and they spread far and wide the dreadful contagion of his example. What influence can be more potent than that of example? 3. God is so good and sinners are so wicked, He cannot help being angry at them. Since, in His wisdom and knowledge, He knows more fully than they do the great evil of sin, by so much the more is lie under obligation to be displeased with sin and angry at the sinner. V. The degree of God’ s anger against sin. It ought to be equal to the degree of their wickedness, and must be if God is what He should be. We judge of men’ s guilt by their light, and by their capacity for governing themselves by light and reason. God’ s anger against sin is in proportion to the sinner’ s guilt, estimated in view of the light he enjoys and sins against. VI. The duration of God’ s anger. It must continue as long as the wickedness itself continues. If they turn not, there can be no abatement, no cessation of His anger. VII. The terrible condition of the sinner against whom God is angry. Look at the attributes of God. Think of the case of the sinner’ s exposing himself to the indignation of the great and dreadful God. Look at His natural attributes. Power. Omniscience. Look at His holiness, and His mercy. Such is His nature, and such His character, that you have nothing to hope, but everything to fear. His dreadful anger against you must be expressed. Remarks:1. God is much more opposed to sinners than Satan is. 2. If God were not angry, with sinners, He would not be worthy of confidence. 3. God’ s anger with sinners is not inconsistent with His happiness. 4. God’ s opposition to sinners is His glory. 5. Saints love God for His opposition to sinners, not excepting even His opposition to their own sins. This text is to be understood as it reads. Some have supposed that God is not really angry with sinners, but uses this language in accommodation to our understandings. This is an unwarrantable latitude of interpretation. In God there is a fixed eternal displeasure and opposition against all sinners because of their great guilt. 7. God’ s anger against the sinner does not exclude love--real compassionate love, the love of well-wishing and good-willing. 8. It is plain that sinners do not realise God’ s anger, though they know it. If they do both know and realise it, they manifest a degree of hardihood in iniquity which is dreadful. But the fact is, they keep the thought of God’ s anger from their minds. (C. G. Finney.) God’ s anger with the wicked Many think that God, in order to be perfectly benevolent, ought not to be angry at anything But the idea of a Supreme Ruler, who would not be displeased whenever wrong is done, would be the most frightful idea that ever could pass through the minds of any creatures whatever. This is certain, the God of this Bible is a God that hateth iniquity. What is the anger of God that rests upon the head of a sinning man? It is not hatred. It is not revenge, which implies a sense of injury and a feeling of ill-will, It is not implacable offence. What is it? It is hatred of a bad action, with displeasure against him who does that action. You can separate the doer from the action, so far that while you hate the action you shall not hate him that does it. But you cannot separate the doer so far, that if the action is a hateful one, and you feel rightly, you can hate the action, and yet feel favour towards him that does it. God’ s displeasure against sin is the simple and inevitable result of God’ s purity and God’ s goodness, and is in itself the strict expression of justice. But it is a forbearing anger, and always ready to, forgive. It is no dead sentiment that will be inactive always. What duty, then, does this truth devolve on you and me? Repent; and cease to do evil; and turn unto thy God, saying, “ Hide Thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities.” (W. Arthur.) God angry with the wicked Were any one of us to be completely in the power of some mysterious stranger and did we know that we had done that which would arouse his anger, how anxious we should be to know his purposes towards us. But men do not feel like this in regard to God, against whom they have sinned and in whose power they know they are. They are careless and confident as if all was well with them. But Scripture gives them no encouragement. Consider our text and think-- I. Of what the anger of God is. Anger is only right where there is that which can properly arouse it. Human anger is, generally, only selfish, and therefore sinful. But the anger of God is only that indignation which benevolence itself must feel toward the enemies of all good. II. And this anger is on the wicked every day.1. Scripture affirms this. 2. The holiness of God necessitates it. “ The righteous Lord loveth righteousness” ; He, therefore, must have anger towards its opposite: else He would be as destitute of affections as a statue. Holiness is repugnance to all moral impurity and deformity. 3. The justice of God and the tendency of sin. For the justice of God is His moral perfection directed to uphold His moral government. It is in this character that He is “ a jealous God.” III. Conclusion.1. How false and dangerous to deny the reality of the Divine anger. Many do. 2. The wicked cannot have God’ s favour while they continue in sin. 3. How changed the condition of the righteous. 4. How awful the situation of the stupid sinner. (M. W. Taylor, D. D.) Psalms 7:12 If he turn not, He will whet His sword; He hath bent His bow, and made it ready.Turn or burn So, then, God has a sword, and He will punish man on account of iniquity. This evil generation hath sought to take away from God the sword of His justice. Perhaps the Puritans insisted too much on the wrath of God, but our age seeks to forget that wrath altogether. I. What is the turning here meant?1. It is actual, not fictitious; not one that stops with vows and promises. 2. It must be entire. Many will give up many sins, but not all: there are certain darling lusts which they will keep and hold. Remember that one lust, like one leak in a ship, will sink a soul. 3. And it must be immediate. There must be no procrastination. “ Today if ye will hear His voice.” 4. And hearty--no pretended repentance. 5. And perpetual: it must not be transitory or superficial. In old times when rich and generous monarchs came to their cities they made the fountains run with wine. But tomorrow it ran with water as before. It is hard to distinguish between legal repentance and evangelical repentance. Legal repentance is a fear of damning; evangelical, of sinning. And this is far deeper than the other: the man feels that only by sovereign grace can his sin be put away, that no mere course of holy living can blot it out. Christ alone can dig its grave. II. The necessity that God should whet His sword and punish men if they will not turn. Richard Baxter used to say, “ Sinner! turn or burn: it is thine only alternative.” And it is so: for--1. God cannot suffer sin to go unpunished. How could He govern men if He had no justice? 2. The Scriptures are full of declarations of this truth. 3. All which conscience confirms. You may say you have no such belief. I did not say you had, but I say that your conscience tells you so. As John Bunyan said, Mr. Conscience had a very loud voice, and though Mr. Understanding shut himself up in a dark room, where he could not see, yet he used to thunder out so mightily in the streets that Mr. Understanding used to shake in his house through what Mr. Conscience said. But I am tired of this terrible work of proving that God must punish sin. However, I should like to act as if there were a hell, even if there is no such place; for as a poor and pious man once said to an unbeliever, “ Sir, I like to have two strings to my bow. If there should be no hell, I shall be as well off as you will; but if there should, it will go hard with you.” But why say “ if” ? You know there is. III. Now what are the means of repentance? You cannot repent of yourself. But Christ is exalted “ to give repentance and remission of sin.” Then if you feel that you are a sinner, ask Him to give you repentance. Many a man says he cannot repent while he is repenting. Keep on with that till you feel you have repented, then believe and be saved. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The Divine anger an everlasting principle Polarity, as it is called, exhibits both attraction and repulsion, and at the same pole attraction and repulsion, and by the same law, at the same pole, attraction and repulsion. At the same pole the magnet attracts and repels. And Divine benevolence has polarity. At the same pole it attracts and repels. By the same law it attracts and repels. By the same eternal, Divine necessity it attracts and repels. With the same Divine force it attracts and repels. Its attraction is love, its repulsion is wrath; but wrath is love turned round, and both wrath and love are the opposing poles of that one attribute. Hence it is the more to be regretted, and the more to be lamented, that so many ministers of Christ, not to say members of the Church of God, have wrong conceptions of the wrath of God. Watts was wrong when he made the Psalm to say of God-- “ Whose anger is so slow to rise, So ready to abate.” The fact is, God’ s anger never rises, and it never abates. It is always at flood tide, at the flood mark; and that is the mark of infinite perfection. It does not go up and down, like the impulsive, impetuous, and capricious passions of men. It is an everlasting principle, not a passion at all--an everlasting principle--eternal love of righteousness, eternal detestation of unrighteousness. (A. F. Pierson.) Psalms 7:13 He ordaineth His arrows against the persecutors. God’ s arrows Mercy and love often lurk in the meanings of these Psalms, which on their surface seem, like Saul on the road to Damascus, to breathe threatenings and slaughter. David thought only of the arrows of God’ s judgments; the Christian loves to think of these arrows of conviction and of love which God hath often discharged against the persecutors of His Church, such as Saul was. See this in his conversion. The disciples awaited his coming to Damascus in fear and trembling. But God’ s arrow was ready against him, had been “ ordained” long ago. It was of God, of Christ. For of Him it is said: “ Thine arrows are very sharp; and the people shall be subdued unto Thee, even in the midst among the King’ s enemies.” Such were the Pharisees, of whom Saul was one. When Jesus appeared to Saul He spoke not of arrows, but of goads--the ox goads, which when the oxen lash out against them only wound themselves the more. Conscience had been such a goad to Saul. The influence of Stephen’ s death; the calm patience of those whom he had cruelly persecuted--all this must have made him feel as every persecutor, down to the inquisitors of later days, must have felt, that he was doing the devil’ s work. Yet he hardened himself and kicked out against the goads of conscience and went on madly persecuting Jesus. But this arrow was too much for him; it was altogether too sharp. The great lesson, then, of our text is that no persecutor will be allowed to proceed too far. If the arrows of conviction will not serve, then God “ will whet His sword.” As with Antiochus Epiphanes. Such an one most strikingly was that Julian the Apostate, who was perhaps more dangerous to the Church than any Nero or Decius, because he knew her weak points, and because he mingled so much craft with his violence. It was in very sooth an arrow--a Parthian arrow, shot at random in some paltry skirmish--which ]aid that persecutor low, for God had ordained it against him of old. He himself would seem to have been aware whence that arrow came, and who it was whom he had been so bitterly persecuting, for it is said that when he perceived his wound to be mortal, he threw some of his blood up into the air (after the manner of dying gladiators) and exclaimed, “ Thou hast conquered, O Nazarene!” (R. Winterbotham.) God’ s arrows not shot at random It is said that God hath ordained His arrows against the persecutors; the word signifies such as burn in anger and malice against the godly; and the word translated “ ordained,” signifies God hath wrought His arrows; He doth not shoot them at random, but He works them against the wicked. Illiricus hath a story which may well be a commentary upon this text in both the parts of it. One Felix, Earl of Wartenburg, one of the captains of the Emperor Charles V, swore in the presence of divers at supper, that before he died he would ride up to the spurs in the blood of the Lutherans. Here was one that burned in malice, but behold how God works His arrows against him: that very night the hand of God so struck him, that he was strangled and choked in his own blood; so he rode not, but bathed himself, not up to the spurs, but up to the throat, not in the blood of the Lutherans, but in his own blood before ha died. (Jeremiah Burroughs.) Psalms 7:14-16 Behold, he travaileth with iniquity.The enemies of the Church 1. That all the labour of wicked men against the Church is but labour in vain in respect of their own intent and expectation. 2. That the labour of wicked men is turned clean contrary to their own intent and expectation. These things are set down in metaphor and in express speech. Doctrine: The wicked counsels and enterprises of the enemies of the Church are not only vain in respect of others, but mischievous against themselves. God scattereth the devices of the crafty, so as they cannot accomplish what they enterprise. The misery of the enemies of the Church may be seen in four particulars.1. All their pain and labour is for their own destruction. 2. That they live in perpetual peril of destruction. 3. That unexpected destruction comes when they expect the sweet fruit of all their labour. 4. That the mischief plotted against the greatest enemies recoils upon themselves, as a gun overcharged and recoiling. There is little cause why God’ s people should envy the prosperity of their enemies, or study for revenge. They should rather pity them, and pray for them, so many as are curable, for their last dish will mar all the feast. Little do they know what they are doing. They are twisting a cord to hang themselves. They are digging a pit, but the earth falls on them, and smashes them to pieces. (T. Taylor, D. D.) The saint’ s sagety in evil times These words express the conception, birth, carriage, and miscarriage of a plot against David. In which consider-- I. What his enemies did. This is likened to a bodily conception, for the mind hath such as well as the body. The seed of it was some wicked thought cast in by Satan, the understanding was the womb to conceive, the will to consent. From first to last, from the conception to the bringing forth, they intended the destruction of David, but brought forth their own ruin.1. And how great was their sin? It was voluntary and with delight, and it was spiritual and artificial--there was much art and cunning in it: they were very diligent in it, for it was a curious web. Judas is awake when Peter is asleep. And, which is worst of all, they were so well pleased with the bent of their own brain that they travailed of it. The more the soul dwells on any sinful plot, the more estrangement there is from God. The more deliberate in sin, the more the soul is pleased with it. Many seek out the delight of sin before they act, as Esau pleased himself by thinking, “ the day of mourning for his father would come, wherein he might be revenged of his brother.” 2. But by whom and against whom was this plotting? By children of the Church, not uncircumcised Philistines; and that opposition is the bitterest of all. 3. And it was against David, a man after God’ s own heart. Envy hath an ill eye. It cannot look on goodness without grief. And this plot was cunningly carried. First, they kill his good name, that so slander may make way for violence. Satan is a liar first, and then a murderer. See what David did. Innocency was his best apology. He saw God in the wrongs he suffered. We need not be ashamed to learn some things of our very enemies. If they be so set on evil, why not we on good? I am sure we serve a better Master. True love is full of inventions; it will be devising of good things. II. What God did. Now I come to their miscarriage. They brought forth a lie, God defeated them.1. How this was done. By disappointing them. They fell into danger of their own contriving, and into the same danger that they plotted for another. Compare the history of Haman and Mordecai. Why does God do this? First, in regard to Himself. He will be known to be God only wise. Secondly, in regard of His tender care over His children, who are the apple of His eye. Another reason is, the virulence of the enemies whose fierceness turns to God’ s praise (Psalms 9:16). And God’ s children will give Him no rest. They prevail on Him by importunity. 3. But it will be objected that wicked men do prevail over the children of God. Tully could say, “ The gods show how much they esteem the Jewish nation, by suffering so often to be conquered.” Where, then, is the bringing forth of a lie? I answer, when they do prevail it is but one part only, not the whole. Over men’ s lives, but not their spirits. A true Christian conquers when he is conquered. Our enemies shall do no more nor less than God wills: their mischievous attempts fail in the end; for did ever any harden themselves against God and prosper long? The greatest torment of the damned spirit is that God turns all his plots for the good of those he hates most. III. What we all should do. We are bidden “ behold.”1. The subtlety, malice, and restless endeavour of the enemies of goodness, and their bootless enterprise, they bring forth a lie. 2. But especially the mercy of God to His children, and how He confounds their enemies. (R. Sibbes.) Psalms 7:15 He made a pit, and digged it, and is fallen into the ditch which he made.Social sappers There is much among men of the particular sin rebuked in this text. I. How this pit digging may be done. It may be done by attempting to lower a man’ s reputation. We are often guilty of talking in such a way that we “ lower” people. The society papers live on this sort of thing. Scandal is a most, prominent form of the pit-digging business. It may be done by sapping a man’ s business. We have a general idea of what is fair and unfair within the world of trade. Now, some men steadily set themselves to ruin their neighbour’ s business, thinking this essential to their own aggrandisement. You may do it by your capital, by your tongue, by your influence. Men sometimes seek to entice their neighbours into plausible and ruinous speculations. It may be done by endangering a man’ s character. Men will knowingly and designingly ruin their brother; they “ let them in” to some sin or other. They will do this for the sake of gain, for a companionship in guilt, and sometimes out of a mere delight in iniquity. Sometimes we dig a pit for others when we do not think of all that we are doing. We have no right to lay snares, nor to put an occasion of stumbling in our brother’ s way. If our brother shows a tendency to slide we must not grease his path. II. Characterise this work of pit digging.1. It is dark work; it has to be done secretly, under cover of night: to be done softly, to be wrapped up. Let us decline all that kind of work in which we should be ashamed for society to see us. The great motto of Positivism is, “ Live without concealment.” So live that you would not care if your house were glass. Let us decline all that work we should shrink from bringing under the eye of God. 2. It is dirty work, ignoble, base, disgraceful. Whatever aims to lower men is of this character. Such conduct involves only base qualities. Sometimes it is prompted by covetousness. Or it springs from envy or from revenge; or from mere levity. Pit diggers may be well dressed, but their work is of a far dirtier kind than that of the delver in the earth. 3. It is dismal work. All the true work of life has a joy in it, but there is no brightness or blessing in letting people down. It is a joyless thing to be a gravedigger among living men: to dig graves for men’ s reputations. Lighthouse building is better than pit sinking. Let our life be devoted to the uplifting of men. 4. It is degrading work. As soon as you begin to dig you stoop, and whatever progress you make you sink with your work. All true work resembles the work of the builder. If in conversation we talk down others, if that is our habit and pleasure, we talk ourselves down at the same time, whether we know it or not. As George Sand says, “ Insults, harsh words, detractive utterances, kill morally those who give expression to them.” You narrow and debase your own thought and feeling, you wrong your own soul. If the spirit of our life is sympathy, and if we find readily and praise readily whatever is good, beautiful, clever, successful in the work of our fellows, we are really nourishing and promoting our intellect in an eminent degree. And so in our business life. It was said to me concerning one of the richest men in Bradford, “ He has made more gentlemen than any man in Bradford.” That is the way, so to rise that you lift others up with you. The whole idea of the New Testament is, that a noble life is devoted to raising one’ s fellow men. This was the grand task of the Master. He was constantly raising what was fallen. (W. L. Watkinson.) The self-avenging power of sin The man that travaileth with iniquity, who is big with thoughts and purposes of evil, shall experience, as the issue of his birth throes, nothing but mischief and falsehood, misery and disappointment. Sin is a thing that recoils upon its perpetrator, and inflicts its heaviest blows upon the soul conceiving it, intending it, and giving it life and form. It was in accordance with this self-avenging power of sin that Saul was slain by the Philistines (1 Samuel 31:2-4), whom he had designed to be slayers of David (1 Samuel 18:21; 1 Samuel 18:25); that Haman was hanged upon the gallows he had erected for another (Esther 7:10); and that the Jews themselves were destroyed by the Romans, whose aid they had invoked and received to crucify their Messiah. This recoiling, self-avenging power of sin is conclusive proof that a holy, just, and living God is moving everywhere in nature, and in the affairs of men, to paralyse the arm of the evil-doer, and to make man feel in every blow that he inflicts upon truth and right, upon innocence and virtue, a counter blow of overwhelming force. It is the conviction of this great truth, as a principle permeating the government of God, that makes David speak of the discomfiture of his enemies as a thing already accomplished. He sees every blow aimed at him recoiling upon themselves; every machination concocted for his overthrow, rendering their own still more inevitable. A fearful thought this, to the wicked, that “ his own evil shall slay him” ; and yet, to others, a thought full of hope, that God has so ordered things in His universe that evil must destroy itself. (David Caldwell, A. M.) Retribution The story of Phalaris’ s bull, invented for the torment of others, and serving afterwards for himself, is notorious in heathen story It was a voluntary judgment which Archbishop Cranmer inflicted on himself when he thrust that very hand into the fire, and burnt it, with which he had signed to the popish articles, crying out, “ Oh, my unworthy right hand!” but who will deny that the hand of the Almighty was also concerned in it? (William Turner.) . Psalms 8:1-9 Psalms 8:1-9 How excellent is Thy name in all the earth! David’ s poetical sensitiveness In all probability this Psalm is the first, or at all events one of the very first, David ever wrote. It breathes the spirit of those lonely nights which he must so often have passed keeping watch over his father’ s sheep on the wild hills of Bethlehem. To a lad of his strong poetical temperament, the glory of the Syrian sunset, the gradual assembling of the stars, as of an innumerable flock in the silent pastures overhead; the moon, “ like a fair shepherdess,” walking in her beauty; and, as night began to wane, “ the bright and morning star,” flashing over the hills of Moab, must have spoken in a language which he was inspired to understand of the excellence of the great Creator of all--of the nothingness, yet at the same time the dignity, of man. In after life how often had he to “ tune his harp to notes of woe” ? but its first recorded strains are those of adoring praise. David appears to me to stand out eminently from other men, as hearing a voice in the phenomena of nature. I account him as the first of the prophets of nature, of whom, in some sense, Wordsworth was the last. The lessons once learned have become obvious; but to utter them for the first time required inspiration. (Henry Housman.) The excellence of the Divine name and nature universal Joshua Reynolds closing his lecture on art said, “ And now, gentlemen, there is but one name which I bring to your attention, it is the name of Michael Angelo.” And so in all the spheres of art, science, and discovery, there are names which rise peerless above all others. But names which are known in one land are unknown in another, or their right to distinction is often disputed. You would not get universal unanimity about any one celebrity, however worthy. Only concerning Christ can it be said, “ How excellent is Thy name in all the earth.” The glory of God in His works The glory of God in His creatures, rightly considered, should, for the excellency of the work, strike an astonishment into us on the one side, and enforce us on the other to be thankful unto Him, that maketh His power and providence appear so clearly in them, and that not only for His glory, but for our good. God’ s power and providence seen in His creatures serveth for a double end--the comfort of His children, and the terror and confusion of the wicked. Verse 4 serveth to humble man, and to beat him down; for if he be compared with other creatures, there is no such excellency and durableness in him as in them; neither yet such as he himself imagineth to be in himself. Verses 5-8 set forth the graces and blessings that God hath bestowed upon man, not to the end that man thereby should wax proud, and swell above measure, but to enforce him--1. To thankfulness to the giver;2. To a right use of them in himself and for others;3. The more and more to humble him. Let man consider what excellency he hath lost through Adam’ s fall, and bewail his misery; and let him, on the other side, well weigh the grace bestowed on him in Christ, and be joyful and thankful for mercy: knowing this, that if the creatures be not now subject to us, it is by reason of the body and relies of sin which yet remain in us; and that therefore, if we would have a conquest over the creatures, we must begin first to get a victory upon sin, or else we shall never profit or prevail that way. If any man will object and say that many creatures are subdued to many people that are without a God in the world, and which notwithstanding remain in their sin, I answer, that God’ s dispensing in mercy with our iniquity, or other men’ s, is no impeachment of the truth of this doctrine; nay rather, it should the more further us, not only in thankfulness to Him for His goodness, but in valiancy and courage to combat against iniquity, and that unto blood, because we already have half a victory, and may be sure of all needful supply in order to complete the victory. (Thomas Wilcocks.) The supremely excellent name Was “ Gittith” a tune or instrument brought from Gath? (1 Samuel 27:2) This exquisite ode, which can only reach its fulfilment in Christ (Hebrews 2:6-9), was evidently composed at night. It probably dates from the early shepherd days, when wild creatures crept around the fold, and night birds screamed, reminding the singer of the animal world, as constituting the human kingdom. I. The inscription (Psalms 8:1). Jehovah our Lord. Our Lord Jesus is here. II. The ascription (Psalms 8:1-2). His name excellent, and so mighty that His strength communicated to babes is mere than enough to vanquish and silence His foes (1 Corinthians 1:25; Matthew 21:16). III. The comparison (Psalms 8:3-4). At first sight there is a great descent from the glory of the heavens to frail man. But we may not confound size and greatness. There are as many worlds of wonder too minute for our vision as there are which are too great for our understanding. IV. The compensation (Psalms 8:5-8). Man, though so seemingly insignificant, was only a little lower than the angels, and is invested with the vicegerency of the lower orders of creation (Genesis 1:26). As yet the Psalm is fulfilled only in Jesus. But it shall be restored to man (Isaiah 11:6-9). (F. B. Meyer, B. A.) Good reasons for praising God I. As filling the universe with his glory:--1. His excellence fills the earth--in its natural constitution, in its human history, and in its redemptive economy. 2. His excellency is above the heavens. How high are the heavens! II. As honouring the feeblest instrumentality. He does not depend, like human sovereigns, on the great and mighty. History abounds with examples of God accomplishing great ends by feeble means--such as, the exodus of the Jews by Moses, the redemption of the world by Christ, the propagation of the gospel by feeble men. This truth serves to cheek an unholy humility, and also an unholy pride. III. As creating the wonders of the stellar heavens. Here is a figurative mode of representing the skill and delicacy of the work--“ the work of Thy fingers. How does the study of the heavens impress man with the glory of God! IV. As regarding mankind with His special favour. The Psalmist seems to be impressed with God’ s infinite goodness to man in three respects.1. In the greatness of the attention He pays him. 2. In the greatness of the nature He has given him. 3. In the greatness of the authority He entrusts to him. This Psalm reminds us of our heavenly origin, wonderful natures, and sublime destinies. (Homilist.) The excellency of the Divine name How affecting to the mind is the traditional and immemorial suppression of the name “ Jehovah.” Though false in principle and destitute of Scripture authority, it cannot be denied that this reticence has something almost sublime about it, and is far better than the frivolous levity with which God’ s holy name is tossed from mouth to mouth, not only in profane discussion, but even in courts of justice, not to say in the pulpit and in ordinary religious speech. Religious awe was no doubt indicated by the suppression of this name, and could not have been associated with a more legitimate or worthy object than that pregnant tetragrammaton, in the four characters of which, as in a sacramental symbol, is wrapped up the germ, or rather the quintessence, of that wonderful preparatory system which excited and sustained the expectation of the Saviour until He came. We cannot tell all the reasons for the use of the two principal Divine names by the sacred writers in specific cases, but there can be little doubt that Jehovah is distinguished in the Hebrew Scriptures from all other names of the Godhead as the name of the God of Israel, His Church, His chosen people. Elohim was a generic name which was common to the true God with all others, but Jehovah was the name of God as in especial covenant with His people. It suggested no vague idea of divinity, but was a much warmer name, telling of God as making Himself known to and dwelling in the midst of them. But the name itself does not signify anything of this singular relation, it suggests nothing of a local or national kind, but only tells of God as the self-existent, independent, and eternal essence, “ I am what I am.” This may have been in order to remind Israel that He was not a God distinct from the Creator of the universe, but the one sole self-existent one. And there was need for such precaution, for never was a people more prone to arrogate to themselves exclusive possession in God. They would not allow that He was the God of the Gentiles also, and from this the fatal step was almost unavoidable to the conclusion that their God was not the God of nature or the universe, but either the antagonistic principle in some monstrous scheme of dualism, or an inferior Deity restricted to the Holy Land. And so the Greeks and Romans learned to sneer at the provincial God of Palestine. The Scriptures contain the clearest exposition of the true sense of the name Jehovah, and declare His name glorious in all the earth. They describe the heavens as the work of His fingers. Hence, as men saw His glory they saw too their own littleness, and wondered that God should remember man. It is not, however, before their material works that man is called to bow, for matter is no more above mind on a largo scale than on a smaller one, no more in the earth than in a clod, in a sea than in a drop. Mind is ever superior to matter. Hence the Psalm boldly declares of man, “ Thou hast made him to lack little of divinity” --for so the words affirm,--“ Thou hast crowned him with glory and honour.” And yet more because of man’ s moral resemblance to God. But though unfallen man might have triumphed in this blessed likeness, how can we who have fallen away from it so terribly? How, then, could David so speak of man? He could not had he deemed that likeness irrevocably lost. He contemplates man as saved in Christ, not only reinstated, but exalted higher--“ The first man is of the earth earthy, the second man is the Lord from heaven.” Contemplate, then, the glorious face of nature, and remember what man once was, what he is, and what he yet shall be. Then shall we, as Stephen, exclaim, “ Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God.” Read, then, the name of God our King and Saviour traced in letters of light upon the whole material universe. (J. Addison Alexander, D. D.) Religious affections in their objective ground Gracious affections spring from the beauty and excellence of Divine things. “ Christian love is the fountain of all gracious affections. The Divine excellency and glory of God and of Jesus Christ, the Word of God, the works of God and the ways of God, are the primary reasons why a true saint loves these things; and not any supposed interest that he has in them, or any conceived benefit that he has received from them. Self-love cannot properly be said to be the first foundation of his love to these things.” I. The world’ s people.1. Self-love is a principle that is entirely natural, and hence cannot be the foundation of what is gracious or spiritual (Luke 6:32). 2. Self-love is also the foundation of gratitude in the world’ s people. 3. Self-love may give rise to a sort of love to God. False education will make men grateful to a God of their own imagination. Insensibility to the heinousness of sin may move the natural affections toward a being they imagine to be like themselves. II. The hypocrite. The genesis of their affections follows much the order of the world’ s people.1. They rejoice in themselves. 2. They secondarily rejoice in God because He is so good to them, and has made so much of them. 3. They rejoice in their own experiences. 4. Their affections are moved by impulses, pride, conceit, and selfish considerations. 5. They are great talkers about themselves. If we will believe them, they are no ordinary saints. III. God’ s people.1. They contemplate and adore the matchless perfections of God, the beauty of Christ, the sweetness of grace, the wisdom of redemption, the completeness of God’ s law, and the like. A natural affection does not have its chief roots in such a soil as this. 2. Secondarily, they rejoice that so glorious a Being is theirs. 3. Then they love God because of His marvellous kindness and unparalleled condescension (Psalms 116:1). 4. In God’ s goodness they see a mirror that reflects the beauty, the grace and the perfection of His being and attributes, and from hence are begotten a holy gratitude and a heavenly love. 5. “ The saints’ love to God is the fruit of God’ s love to them, as it is the gift of that love.” 6. As is the genesis of love, so is the genesis of spiritual joy, delight, and pleasure: “ All my springs are in Thee” (Psalms 87:7). (L. O. Thompson.) The excellent Name I. This psalm is--1. A hymn of praise to the Creator, giving glory to “ Jehovah our Lord.” By His “ Name” we understand His revealed nature, as made manifest in His-- (1) works of creation (Psalms 8:3; Psalms 8:6-8);(2) acts of salvation (Psalms 8:4-5). 2. A Messianic hymn-- (1) referred by Christ to Himself (Matthew 21:16);(2) quoted of Him (Hebrews 2:6-9; 1 Corinthians 15:27). 3. A hymn of the Ascension. This seems the special thought (Hebrews 2:9, where verse 5 is alluded to, and Acts 2:33). II. The text in particular is expressive of the great doctrine of the ascension.1. “ Our Lord” Jesus Christ is “ the Lord,” i.e. Jehovah. His “ Name” is indeed the Divine Name, for Jesus signifies “ Jehovah-Saviour” (Hebrews 1:4;-see its lengthened form in Numbers 13:16). 2. “ The earth” is the sphere in which the “ excellence” of His Name is manifested. (1) In the past, by the marvellous revelation of His sinless human life, by His mighty words and works, by His sacrifice for sin, and by His “ glorious resurrection and ascension.”(2) In the present, by the power of His gospel, subduing, as it is, all things under His feet.” 3. “ All the earth” shall one day be brought to own that His “ Name” is “ excellent.” 4. Yet His chiefest “ glory” is now “ set” “ above the heavens,” to be revealed in its full excellence only when He shall come again to take to Him His power and reign. III. The “ Name” of Jesus should be proved “ excellent” in our experience.1. As a power to salvation (Acts 4:12). He is ascended up on high to perpetually plead the merits of His saving Name. And it is in that Name alone that there is hope for sinners. That Name, “ Jehovah-Saviour,” means one able and willing to save; and it is the only “ excellent” one to which all must look (Isaiah 45:22). 2. As a power to holiness (Acts 2:33). The ascended Saviour has given to the Church the grace of His Holy Spirit, to be implored in His “ Name,” and sent forth in His “ Name” (John 14:26; John 16:24). The Holy Ghost teaches us the “ things of Christ,” and makes us so realise the excellence of His name, that for it we “ count all things but loss.” (T. H. Barnett.) Psalms 8:2 Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast Thou ordained strength.The strength of feeble instrumentalities The sudden drop from the glories of the heavens to the babble and prattle of infancy and childhood is most impressive, and gives extraordinary force to the paradox that the latter’ s witness is more powerful to silence gainsayers than that of the former. This conviction is expressed in a noble metaphor, which is blurred by the rendering “ strength.” The word here rather means “ a strength,” in the old use of the term--that is, a stronghold or fortress; and the image, somewhat more daring than cold western taste finds permissible, is that out of such frail material as children’ s speech, God builds a tower of strength, which, like some border castle, will bridle and still the restless enemy. There seems no sufficient reason for taking “ children and sucklings” in any but its natural meaning, however the reference to lowly believers may accord with the spirit of the Psalm. The children’ s voices are taken as a type of feeble instruments, which are yet strong enough to silence the enemy. Childhood, “ with no language but a cry,” is, if rightly regarded in its source, its budding possibilities, its dependence, its growth, a more potent witness to a more wondrous name than are all the stars. In like manner, man is man’ s clearest revelation of God. The more lowly he is, the more lofty his testimony. What are all His servants’ words but the babbling of children who “ do not know half the deep things they speak” ? God’ s strongest fortress is built of weakest stones If the two parts of the Psalm are to be kept together, the theme of the compendious first portion must be the same as that of the second, namely, the glory of God as revealed by nature and man, but most chiefly by the latter, notwithstanding and even by his comparative feebleness. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) God glorified by children’ s mouths This Psalm sings of the grandeur of God as seen in creation. Our subject is His power displayed in human weakness. I. There is a conflict. Our text speaks of enemies. We know who they are--the seed of the serpent. We know how it began, and it goes on, on the enemy’ s part, in the same fashion. God uses weapons, mainly, of a moral and spiritual sort. He has used, and He can and will, when needful, use others. II. In this conflict the weapons are very singular. “ Out of the mouth of babes,” etc. Bring hither that sweet babe. See that little mouth--it challenges a kiss: and note with joy that God may use that little mouth as His conquering weapon against the devil. I have seen many an ancient cannon upon which were moulded in bronze the words, “ The last argument of kings.” Yes, but the gracious arguments of the King of kings are sent home by a human mouth, and that of a little child. How Satan must be angered that his craft is not met by craft. Already the testimony of feeble men has been used as the great power of God. How are these weapons used? These strangely soft, yet sharp, feeble, yet mighty weapons--how are they used?1. They smite by prayer. Children pray and they are heard. 2. By praise, which louvers the pride of His adversaries, while they cry “ Hosannah!” and sing the praise of Jesus’ name. 3. And by testimony. We never know what one child’ s mouth can do. Christ is the Word, but these mouths supply the voices by which it is sounded forth. The Hebrew reads, “ hast Thou founded strength,” as if the very foundation of the Church’ s strength lay in the mouths that God moves to speak. III. The warriors in this warfare are very special. “ Babes and sucklings” (Matthew 11:25; 1 Corinthians 1:1-31). Such are those who proclaim Christ in the world. Our Lord would get little honour from our race if all children’ s voices were hushed, and all childlike spirits with them. Scribes and Pharisees never cry “ Hosannah!” they are so busy binding on their phylacteries, washing their hands, and devouring widows’ houses. The first to cry “ Hosannah!” are the children, and the next are those who are like them. Some say, “ To shout and sing is children’ s work” ; so it is, and it is ours because we are children too. Now, note IV. That the qualification of these warriors lies in their weak side. If it lay on the strong side, we should react, “ Out of the mouth of men of middle age, in the prime of life; of wise old men, who have had long experience, God ordaineth strength.” But no, it is “ Out of the mouths of babes,” etc. Thus the Lord puts the adversary to a perpetual reproach. He puts a child against His giant foe, and overcomes him. Our power to serve God lies on our weak side. He uses not our greatness, but our littleness. You know what the learned men say is the weak part of some of us--they put it something like this: “ We regret the preacher’ s total inability to keep abreast of the times; his incapacity for modern thought; and his want of affection for the higher culture.” That is our weakness. Yes, and our strength, and therefore we glory in it. “ I determined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” If all God’ s servants will come to this, they will do far more good than by the so-called “ culture,” which is nothing but the science of growing more weeds than usual I have desired to be a little child again, and wished that I had never heard of the existence of a quibbler. We hear now-a-days much of “ great thinkers” ; we prefer to be great believers. When the Church gets back to her simple faith in Jesus, she shall be qualified for victory. She shall vanquish the world. When she has thrown aside the wooden sword of carnal reason and has taken up the true Jerusalem blade of faith in God. Then because of all this, let me plead-- V. For a loving reverence for childhood. It seems to me that in the Lord’ s battle there is always a babe in the forefront. The child found in the ark of bulrushes crushes the power of Pharaoh; the boy David, Goliath; and the still loftier story of the battle of the Lamb opens in like manner, “ Unto us a Child is born,” etc. Never doubt the possibility of children’ s conversions. Never despise them. Do not say, “ Oh, they are only a parcel of boys and girls!” What if they are? May they not be a better parcel than some of you? If we could get the simple trustfulness of childhood back again, it would be a great gain. Let us not undervalue the praises or the service of children. That is a sweet vein. “ And Samuel ministered before the Lord, being a child. In the victory of the Church it is written, A little child shall lead them.” This city of ours is better evangelised by our Sunday schools than by all the rest of us put together. Little Mary and Tommy come back from school, and they find that father is hardly dressed; he has not been to a place of worship, but reading the Sunday paper; he don’ t want any of your singing and preaching. But the children begin to sing, and when dinner is over, they talk about What teacher said, and perhaps say something about the sermon. And so the father gets more singing and preaching than he bargained for. When they go to bed, they clasp their little hands and pray for their father, and he is obliged to hear them. Thus he gets praying as well as singing. The children are missionaries. They enter where others cannot. Tommy and Mary can’ t be shut out. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Little children God’ s stronghold for troubled men The common interpretation is, that God uses men who are, for weakness and insufficiency, as babes. Not that He literally uses “ babes and sucklings.” This interpretation, so common in the Church, has never found favour in the synagogue. The Rabbis have a surprising love for children. They apply to children and schools all the Scripture verses that speak of flowers and gardens. The Talmud is full of stories which indicate this love for the little ones--e.g. “ There was once a great drought, and the most pious men wept and prayed for rain, but none came. At length an insignificant person prayed, and instantly the heavens covered themselves with clouds, and the rain fell, ‘ Who are you,’ they cried, ‘ whose prayers have alone prevailed?’ And he answered, ‘ I am a teacher of little children.’” Again, “ When God was about to give His law to His people, He asked them whom they would offer as guarantees that they would keep it holy, and they said, ‘ Abraham.’ God said, ‘ Abraham has sinned; Isaac, Jacob, Moses himself, they have all sinned; I cannot accept them.’ Then they said, ‘ May our children be witnesses and our guarantees?’ And God accepted them, even as it is written. ‘ From the mouth of the little babes has He preached His empire.’” The literal rendering is to he preferred. This verse is quoted in the Gospel by Matthew in a way which is quite decisive of the meaning. That we should thus understand them is shown--1. From the general drift of the Psalm. The little children trust and love and are at peace, though men be so different. 2. From sympathy and agreement in this truth, which we find in other great poets, such as Wordsworth, “ Trailing clouds of glory,” etc. 3. From our own experience, children suggest helpful, restful thoughts. If in his origin man is so pure and so divine, must he not be capable of a Divine strength and blessedness? (Samuel Cox, D. D.) The useful ministry of children In the Middle Ages lived the great theologian, the great Chancellor of the University of Paris, Jean Gerson, whose whole life was spent in storms of political struggle and religious strife, and when, after his long years of turbulent battle to beard popes and burn heretics, he took refuge in the silence and solitude of a monastic cell, his one joy was to gather the little children round his bed and bid them pray, “ Lord, have mercy on Thy poor servant, Jean Gerson” ; and even the strong combative soul of Luther melted to tenderness in the presence of little ones; and it was the voice of a little girl singing a hymn on a doorstep at Weimar that dispelled the heartache of Philip Melanchthon; and the agonies of the Scotch martyr Wishart were soothed when, to the taunt that he had a devil, the voice of a little child was heard replying, “ You man does not speak like a man that hath a devil” ; and George Whitfield was cheered and encouraged when he saw the little boys and girls who had gathered around his pulpit lifting to him in pity their tearful faces when the mobs pelted him with stones and dirt. And thus to these saints, and many more, has the trustfulness and simplicity of little children been, as it was to the heart of David, a strength made perfect in weakness to still their own enemies and the enemies of God. And which of us personally has not felt from the reminiscences of his own childhood, if, indeed, a pang of shame to think that we are in some things farther from heaven than then, yet also an inspiration of hope and strength? (Dean Farrar, D. D.) A prophecy of the Incarnation These words are alleged by our blessed Saviour (Matthew 21:16), to prove that Christ must reign till He has subdued all His enemies under His feet. He that reads this whole Psalm would think it were nothing else but a description of man’ s excellency, whom God had made next to the angels in dignity, and given him dominion over all things He had made. How is that which is a description of mankind in general, a prophecy of Christ in special! The key of the interpretation of this Psalm is to be sought in the words, “ Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings,” etc.1. The meaning of the words as they stand in the Psalm. The whole drift of the Psalm is to praise and glorify God for the dignity wherewith Fie hath invested man. This glory and honour is seen in two particulars. (1) In that God hath ordained that weak and feeble creature man to subdue and conquer His enemies.(2) In that He hath made man the lord of all His creatures. 2. The purport of these words was fulfilled in our blessed Saviour’ s incarnation. The devil by sin brought mankind into thraldom, and became the prince of this world, himself with his angels being worshipped and served everywhere as gods. To vanquish and exterminate this enemy, and redeem the world from this miserable thraldom, the Son of God took on Him, not the nature of angels, but the nature of weak and despicable man, that grows from a babe and suckling. And the Son of Man enables also other sons of men, His disciples and ministers, to do the like in His name. 3. This victory, as for the event, so for the manner of achieving it, is agreeable to our prophecy. Forasmuch as Christ our General nor fights, nor conquers by force of arms, but by the power of His Word and Spirit, which is “ the power of His mouth," according to the text, “ Out of the mouth,” etc. (Joseph Mede, B. D.) Psalms 8:3-4 When I consider Thy heavens.Considering That is what people will not do. They are thoughtless, superficial, frivolous; they do not sit down and put things together and add them up, and ask the meaning of the poetry of the total.1. “ When I consider” --I become a new man, much larger, nobler, saintlier. What does consider mean? I wonder if any six men in any audience could tell the meaning, etymological and historical and parabolical, of consider. It is a word which everybody knows. It is two words, it is two Latin words; it is con or cum, with, together: sider--what is there in the word sider? Nothing. Take care! Sider comes a long way up the track of language; it was born sidus. That is what you say when you write, your married name; under it you put nee, born--another name, your father’ s name, which you have relinquished in favour of another name. Sidus means star; it is the root of siderial heavens, the starry heavens, the stellar universe, and the like. Considerealise--when we star together--put the planets into syllables and words and paragraphs; when I considerealise, make a lesson book of the stars; when I punctuate my discourse with millenniums, then I pray. If men would do this they would be religious, but they are frivolous--“ What is in the paper this morning?” Ah me! ‘ tis hideous and disheartening. When I, said the Psalmist, who kept his shepherd’ s crook in the belt of Orion, when I considerealise, talk in stars and think in planets and pray in constellations--Reverence is the basis of true character. Little subjects will make little men; gossip will dethrone an Aristotle. 2. How this considerealising of things changes their whole aspect, their entire value, relation, and meaning. We do not loop our subjects on to the great cars, so we perform little journeys, and we are no sooner out of the house than we are in it again. We do not outrun the height of the planets; we are so easily excited by subjects that really have nothing in them. Who would speak of a great earthquake? There never was such a thing, except within the limits of the little earth itself; then it was very great, it almost shook down the chest of drawers in my house! For a time I thought the bookcase was going to fall over me; it was a great earthquake! No, a spasm not worth talking about; if the earth had quaked itself out of existence it would not have deserved the epithet great. God is great, and His heavens are as nothing before Him, and the universe is to Him like a dewdrop trembling on the leaf of a flower. 3. We must therefore get into the right way of thinking about things; we must consider, we must read much in starlight; we must bring the right scale to bear upon the events which disturb us so much, and then they will disturb us no longer. The Psalmist says, “ When I consider Thy heavens, the moon, and the stars, which Thou hast ordained,” then I get the right view of everything else. We must get back to the geometric measurements, to the stellar spaces, to the all-quieting immensities; then we shall be great, because we shall be in our measure like God. 4. And when I thus consider, my spirit is tranquillised; a great peace steals over my soul. When I look at death I am disquieted and overborne and impoverished; when I look at immortality I am young, I come out of my chamber as a bridegroom ready to run a race, like a giant that cannot be tired. Thus there are two views of life, the detranquillising view and the all-tranquillising view. We may spend so much time with death as to think the universe is but a ghostly shadow. Why art thou disquieted in me? hope thou in God, count His stars, be familiar with His heavens; hear the man of science who tells thee that, having seen the night glory, the telescope has found forty thousand galleries such as the gallery which is visible to the poor struggling astronomical instrument; and when thou dost bathe thyself in the rivers of the stars thy flesh shall come again as the flesh of a little child, and thou shalt begin to praise God in a new sweet hymn. 5. “ When I consider,” I find that things are not so roughly related and antagonised as at first they seemed to be. I was not looking from the right point of view, I did not get far enough away from my subject, I was in the thick of the battle, in the very midst of the storm of dust, I could not see things in their right relation and proportion; but when I climbed the stairway of the stars and looked down upon the earth and time and measurable space I said, All things work together for good to them that love God. 6. “ When I consider,” consideralise, put the stars together, I get time drawn into its right relation or driven off into its right prospective, I punctuate the literature of Providence properly. Consideration, properly defined, is a religious duty. In 1 Samuel 12:24 you have exactly what I mean--“ Consider how great things He hath done for you. Job says the same thing in his own grand way, “ Stand still and consider the wondrous works of God” (Job 37:14). Put things together; give God time. You are impatient because you are little poor fussy fools; give Him time. Consideration is a great element in wisdom and practical prudence. Sometimes men cannot go to the stars, so God has made some little stars for them to look at. How kind He is, and condescending! He says, in effect, The stars are too many for you, you feel a noise in your little heads, and it is not good for you to look at the Milky Way and the Great Bear and the gleaming Orion and the beauteous Venus; so I will make some starlets for you, little living stars, asteroids. How sweet! Hear His voice through the medium of His prophet, “ Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider” --the same word, with all its stars and Milky Ways--“ consider her ways, and be wise” (Proverbs 6:6). So you can get the lesson reduced as to mere size; you can have a universe in a microcosm, you can have all creation reduced to a minimum, so that you can see God’ s meaning and learn God’ s philosophy. Consideration is the only profitable use of history. We find, then, in Isaiah 43:18, “ Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old. That is the reason why you are so poor, and why you are so easily driven about. You might be rich in history, you might be millionaires in retrospect. Consideration is the best use of nature. Consider the lilies, how they grow: connect them with the stars. And consideration is the greatest impulse to true piety, as we are taught in Hebrews 10:2-3, “ Consider Him that endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself.” Consideration is the greatest guarantee of self-control. “ Consider thyself, lest thou also be tempted.” Stars have fallen, angels have dropped out of line; consider thyself. Solitude is often necessary to true consideration. God said to the prophet, “ Go forth into the plain, and I will there talk with thee” (Ezekiel 3:22). (J. Parker, D. D.) The revelation of God in His works I. All the Divine works express the Divine character. Long after Niebuhr had ended his eastern travels, when he had become blind and debilitated by old age, he beguiled his weary hours “ in recalling the aspect of the oriental heavens. As he lay in his bed, the glittering splendour of the nocturnal Asiatic sky, on which he had so often gazed, or its lofty vault and azure by day, imaged themselves to his mind in the hour of stillness, and ministered to him his sweetest enjoyment.” Not the heavens alone, but the whole earth is full of its Maker’ s glory. He said, “ Let the earth bring forth its plants.” And it did so. He said this in willing it. His act of choosing is virtually His act of speaking; and as a printed word is a permanent memorial of the speaker’ s thought, so the plants yielding seed are perennial mementoes of their Author’ s mind. And God said, “ Let the earth bring forth its living creatures.” It was so; and these living creatures are the published words of Him who spake, and it was done. There are forces in matter and in mind. These forces are preserved, as they were originated, by the positive act of God. This act is His speech. II. The methods in which the Divine character is revealed by the Divine operations.1. One of these methods is the use of signs, which are fitted in their very nature to suggest the truth pertaining to God. There is a natural language for expressing spiritual ideas. The proverb is, that actions speak louder than words. The tear makes known what the tongue conceals. The sigh, the groan, the blush, the drooping head expose the secrets which no words can tell. Now, if an elevated gesture of man have a fitness to express a lofty thought, much more has the expanse of the firmament, or some mountain of the Lord, a fitness to suggest an idea of His exaltation. The works of God are adapted to an end; this adaptedness is an effect, and therefore a sign of His skill. His works are fitted to a good end; this fitness is a result, and thus an exponent of His wisdom. His works are so adjusted as to awaken the hope of a reward for well-doing, or the fear of a penalty for ill-doing; this adjustment is an effect, and thus a declaration of His purpose to remunerate the good and to punish the bad. If any object be suited in its structure to impress the mind of man, this very suitableness is an expression of the mind of God. Whoever attends to the teaching of nature listens to the conversation of Him who speaks through all nature. The laws of health are prescriptions from the great Physician. The inward structure of things will sometimes awaken in the most atheistic mind a fear of that mysterious Agent who “ maketh darkness His pavilion round about Him,” and “ gathereth the winds in His fists.” Nor is the natural language in which God reveals His attributes limited to external symbols. 2. We feel the internal signs of His character and plans. The approval of a good man’ s conscience has a meaning higher than that of a mere human phenomenon. It is an expression of the Divine justice. It is a smile of God alluring us to persevere in well-doing. The remorse of conscience is also an alphabetic sign in the book of nature that God is just. Their sensibilities, more than the stars of heaven, declare the glory of God; and their intellect, more than the firmament, showeth His wisdom. 3. Another method in which the works of Jehovah express His character is the use of signs which have a conventional fitness to suggest ideas. He has superadded arbitrary to natural language in the communication of His truth. The rainbow has nothing in its structure adapted to reveal a Divine promise respecting another flood; but the Author of it gave it a meaning, and made it, as it were, an epistle printed on the clouds and recording a Divine purpose. The articulate speech of men also is, not less really than the earth itself, a work of God. He inserted within us the tendency to use arbitrary language. These influences of speech “ declare the glory of God.” But more than this. He uses our words as His own vocabulary. He employed arbitrary language in conversing with Adam, Abraham, Moses. He adopted Hebrew, Chaldaic, Greek, Aramaean sentences in communicating His truth through prophets and apostles. He now instructs men in the words of His ministers. David exclaims, “ 0 Lord, our Lord, who hast set Thy glory above the heavens,--out of the mouth of children Thou hast prepared for Thyself a power that shall overcome the enemy” ; and if the voice of babes “ declare the glory of God,” then much more do the lips of His evangelists “ show His handy work.” III. Consider some of the reasons why Jehovah unfolds His character in His works.1. One obvious reason is, that the manifestation of His attributes is inseparable from the exercise of them. If He act at all, He must act out the principles of His being; and to act them out is to make them known. When He governs the world He puts forth His attributes; in putting them forth He exposes, expresses them. He exerts His wisdom in giving to the mind an impulse to infer the nature of the cause from the nature of the effect. In exerting this wisdom He exhibits it; for it is this wisdom, as the cause, to which the mind reasons from itself as the effect. He cannot form an image of Himself without disclosing the original excellence which is imaged forth. How can He let His benevolence have its free scope unless He form sentient beings able to enjoy His benevolence; and how can they fully enjoy it unless they perceive it; and how can they perceive it unless He show it unto them; and how can He show it unto them clearly unless it appear in His deeds? If He exercise His mercy toward men, He must relieve the suffering; if He do give this relief, He must therein manifest the mercy which He feels. It is necessary for Him either to repress His love or to express it. Why should He repress it? Why close the gates through which His benignant favours flow forth as a stream? 2. Another reason why Jehovah makes use of His works as a language revealing His attributes is, that He promotes the welfare of His offspring by the revelation. The Father pleases His children by appearing to them. The disciples were troubled until they heard the cheering voice, “ It is I, be not afraid.” The Psalmist, in our context, was triumphant when he beheld the sun coming as a bridegroom out of his chamber, and rejoicing as a hero to run a race. Other men are often in solitude; or if in society, they have no friends. But the child of God, wherever he moves, is near to his Maker. Under the venerable oak, or on the skirts of the deep sea, or in the pure air of the mountain top, he talks with the Great Spirit. The laws of his own mind are the words of his Friend whispering within him. In the constitutional workings of the soul God does manifest Himself to it. An author of an effect must be some free will. But many effects without us and within us are not produced by a created free will; then they are produced by the Uncreated. They make known God’ s laws. They disclose His feelings. The acts of conscience testify of His purposes. The decisions of the reason speak His counsel. The necessary beliefs of men are His teachings. All ethical axioms are His revelation. The moral freedom of men is His express summons to a right preference. Their innocent joys are His words of good cheer. Perhaps it is impossible for any power to impress on the mind any truth, by mere words, so deeply as by acts, which are emphatic words. 3. Another reason why Jehovah reveals His excellence through His works is, that He promotes His own blessedness by the revelation. He might, in merely written syllables, inform us that He is omnipotent; but as a Sovereign He chooses to speak to us by the globes of heaven, which declare Him to be Almighty. He might, in a merely artificial language, indicate His benevolence; but He prefers to address us in our own joys and hopes, which rehearse His loving kindness. But why do we presume that the blessedness of the Most High is promoted by His development of His excellence? So far as we have learned, it is the law of all sentient beings to express themselves. Even the cattle on a thousand hills, the birds of the air, have an irrepressible longing to make known what they feel. It is the law of all mind, above all a pure mind, of course then an infinite mind, to bring itself out to the light. Why then should not the Being of whom we are the image feel an immeasurable bliss in gratifying His desire to manifest, in the view of others, what He enjoys Himself? But He has more than this constitutional tendency to develop His character. This character is a good in itself, and deserves His own as well as our supreme love; delighting in it, He must be happy in the radiating of it upon His offspring. The exercise of His attributes is a source of bliss, and we have seen that He cannot exercise them in their normal way without manifesting them; He must therefore rejoice in their manifestation. He cannot raise men to their destined thrones without illustrating His own mercy in their exaltation: why should He hide that mercy? These things, such things, are not done in a corner. A fountain does not keep itself compressed in a ball of ice. The sun does not bind its rays to and within itself. From within, outward, all affections flow forth. From the recesses of the soul to the well-being of the universe all right affections move forward. The diffusing of its own joy is the law of a loving heart, and only in the diffusing of it is the full development of it, and only in its development is the consummating of its rest. IV. Remarks which are suggested by this theme.1. The reasonableness of Jehovah in His retributive administration. He loves virtue. His constitutional desire is to manifest His love. Why should He restrain this desire? But if He express it His nature prompts Him to express it by act. And the act by which He will make known His love of virtue,--known thoroughly by being felt deeply,--is the exciting of the moral sensibility of virtuous agents in favour of their own rectitude. Their complacency of conscience, and many of its preliminary and consequent joys, will be their reward. The reward is worked out according to the laws of their constitution. But these laws are the work, and therefore the word of God. They express His remunerative justice. He will reveal His loving approval in our moral judgments; these will be the heavens declaring the glory of God. And is it not reasonable that He should honestly express what He inwardly feels? This disposition to express His delight in the pure of heart, and to make them blissful in receiving the expression, is His remunerative justice to them. Equally reasonable is the punitive justice of the Most High. He abhors sin. No finite mind can ever fathom the depth of His displeasure toward one solitary transgression. Shall He conceal His displeasure? His abhorrence of sin is nothing dishonourable, nothing wrong. Why should He hesitate to express it? It is what it ought to be, noble, magnanimous. Why shall He not be honest in revealing it? And if He do reveal it, why shall He not adopt the method which He prefers in His ordinary dispensations; the method which the law of His being has prescribed; the method of action, the emphatic, the Divine speech? The punishment is worked out according to the laws of their constitution. But these laws are the device of God. They express what He feels. The upbraidings of conscience are the declarations of His punitive justice. And is it not a punishment from Jehovah?--what can be a severer recompense than for us, if we are left incorrigible, to have the inward assurance that our Friend, our best Friend, is ever near us, frowning upon us,--our compunction being His frown;--not because He is indifferent to our persons, but because He loves them, and therefore abhors our suicidal crimes, and exposes His abhorrence, not in artificial forms of speech, but in our own reason, in our moral judgment, in all the pains by which He awakens our displacency, and which He appends to it. 2. The consistency of the atonement with other parts of the Divine administration. As the Most High loves to express Himself in the material world, so He loves to express Himself in the phenomena of the mind and heart. As He chooses to disclose His attributes in the punishment of the wicked, when this punishment is needful for the common welfare, so He chooses to dispense with punishment when He can disclose the same attributes, and impress the same truths, and promote the same well-being in some equivalent way. The power of any language to suggest ideas and excite emotions is mysterious. Articulate speech is a wonder. The significance of penal suffering is felt more clearly than it can be described. But the fulness and variety and intensity of meaning and of impression in the atonement are what even the angels desire to look into. 3. A third remark, suggested by our theme, is on the harmony of both the visible and invisible works of God with the feelings of a devout man. He keeps his ear attent to the sounds of the land, air, sea, and therefore they express to him rich truths. Ebal shouts to Gerizim, and Gerizim shouts back to Ebal the words of the Lord. He draws nigh to them who seek Him in His works, and He hides Himself from them who care not to listen for His voice. The longer we listen to a distant sound, so much the more distinctly do we hear it; for the atmosphere becomes wonted to it, and our minds become expert by discipline in detecting the auricular vibrations. So the longer we listen to the voices of nature, they become the more full and rich in their expression of Divine truth. Old age refines the spiritual ear; and as the body decays the soul becomes more and more sensitive to the undulations of the spiritual atmosphere. And as century after century rolls by, the whisperings of the Divine Spirit will be more and more clearly recognised, and that volume of sound which came to the ear of David from the skies by day and by night will be gaining new emphasis and new power, until, at the millennium, the heavens will declare the glory of God, so that all men shall hear, “ as it were, the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of many thunderings, saying: Allelujah, for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.” 4. The Christian preacher is an interpreter both of nature and of revelation. One spirit reigns in both. The truths of the Bible are illustrated by the phenomena of life, and the phenomena of life are explained by the truths of the Bible. The analogies between the two are needed for comprehending the two. The prophets and apostles vivified their discourses with these analogies. Thus is all nature alive and vocal, when the prophets describe it. More than one folio volume has been filled with comments on the suggestions which have been gathered from the myrtle, cedar, olive, willow, palm, and all trees; from the eagle, dove, sparrow, lion, viper, dragon, leviathan, and all animals; from the silver, pearl, jewel, ruby, and all manner of precious stones; from the wells without water, clouds without rain, floods, winds, flaming fire--all of them ministers of God; from children, fathers, ambassadors, rulers, shepherds, trumpeters, soldiers, captains; things in heaven and on earth and under the earth, all laid under contribution,--the grave itself forced to give up its dead men’ s bones, to express and to impress some truth which men would overlook if they were not startled into an attentive mood. And since the day when men spake with tongues of fire from the Holy Ghost, the Chrysostoms and the Bernards and the Jeremy Taylors and the Whitefields of the Church have lifted up the clarion of the Gospel, and waked the echoes from the woodland and the mountain, and have made the rocks and the streams resonant with the voice of God. Now, as of old, it is the high office of every minister to gather into his own mind, that he may diffuse through the mind of his people, instructions from the sea and the field, from science and from history, from the arts and the aims of men. He should make all the events of life pay tribute to Him who governs, as He created, the world for the Church. (E. A. Park, D. D.) The Gospel and the magnitude of creation Some persons object to the inaccurate language of Scripture in regard to the sun’ s rising and setting, and other truths established by modern astronomy. But the Scriptures were given to man to lead his soul back to God, and to do this in a way suited to every stage of man’ s progress. Therefore it was the common language of men, and not of the science of the schools. But there is another objection deeper than this. It is, that the Gospel revelation is out of proportion to the magnitude of creation. This difficulty arises from the view of the universe given to us by astronomical science. Our earth is very small compared with other planets revolving round the sun, and with the sun itself And the sun is but one centre amongst myriads more. But coming more directly to the objection that is urged, we note that it takes one of two forms. I. That man, looked at in the light of such a material universe, is too insignificant for such interposition as that of which the Gospel tells. But1. The aim of the Gospel is spiritual, to save men from sin, and hence moves in a sphere entirely distinct from that of astronomy. Moreover, 2. It is the presence of intelligent life which gives significance to creation. What were the Alps and Andes; what Niagara, what the ocean, but for the thoughts they suggest? The real grandeur of the world is the soul which looks on it. Mind breathes into matter the breath of life, and so it becomes a living soul. “ Man,” says Pascal, “ is a feeble reed trembling in the midst of creation; but then, he is endowed with thought.” The very discoveries of astronomy attest the greatness of man’ s mind, for the discoverer is ever above the discovery. 3. Then think of man’ s moral capacity. He can think the material universe out of being, and we believe that once it did not exist; but moral ideas--truth, right, goodness--these are eternal both in faith and thought. 4. And mind is immortal. The material universe changes, but mind lives on in conscious identity. If in matter there is infinite space, in mind there is infinite time. 5. And if it was befitting of God to create the world and man, then it is befitting of Him to care for what He has made. Is it a worthy idea of God to think that He abandons things to chance hazard here? that the highest part of man’ s nature will be left to neglect? And if the supernatural interposed to create, might it not interpose to save? 6. And the argument from astronomy helps rather than hinders faith. For if God has lavished so much pains upon the material universe, will He not do as much for the moral and spiritual for whom He has made the material? And if it be asked, why should God do so much for mind here and not elsewhere? Why here alone? How do we know He has not? It is to be expected that in other worlds He reveals Himself in infinitely varied modes, according to the need of each. II. God is too exalted for us to expect such an interposition. This is the second form of the objection--it brings God too low.1. But if we allow Him a free hand in His works of power and wisdom,--which we all confess are infinite,--are we to deny Him like freedom in His display of goodness and mercy? 2. Can we say that because He is so great in the heavens, therefore He cannot be great in stooping down to our sin and misery? Such is not our standard even for men; how much less for God! No, “ As high as the heaven is above the earth, so great is His mercy to them that fear Him.” His greatness is the measure, not of His distance from us, but of His nearness to us. 3. Further, the balance of qualities which we require in a perfect character, supports the teaching of the Gospel. Pascal has finely said, “ I do not admire in a man the extreme of one virtue, as of valour, if I do not see at the same time the extreme of the opposite virtue.” Therefore in God, may we not expect that if we see, as we do, the extreme of power, there shall be also corresponding love? Is God’ s character ill-balanced? And power and genius are never so great as when they stoop to lift the fallen and the lost. And if God gave us this instinct, must not His own character be in harmony therewith? Could we reverence in God that which we cannot respect in man? He, therefore, is far more than mere power--infinite in goodness and in truth. It is to the glory of the Gospel that it has given us this view of God, and reveals Him crowned with loving kindness and tender mercy. (John Ker, D. D.) A sketch of the modern astronomy St. Paul was wont to avail him self of all common ground between himself and his hearers, whatever it might be. And doubtless he would do the like today, though, in so doing, he might soar above the understanding of many amongst us. Hence I have attempted to meet the men of science on their own ground, though, in so doing, many a humble Christian will find little for his own edification. But if those whose welfare is contemplated can be won to the Gospel, surely then others can only, and will only, rejoice. It is right to appeal to the works of nature. Our Lord did so, and the Psalmist here takes a lofty flight. He contemplates--it was probably a meditation born of the night--the starry heavens. There is much in such a scene to elevate the soul. But what are these starry lights that we behold? Their distances and their magnitudes have been calculated, and vast numbers of them have been observed. But when we see how small a spot this earth of ours is in the immensity which surrounds it, can we think that here only is the exclusive abode of life and of intelligence? Are these other far vaster worlds, which roll in other parts of creation, not also worlds both in use and dignity? Why should the Great Architect call these stately mansions into existence and leave them unoccupied? And in confirmation of this we observe that they are formed upon a system similar to our own. They have their revolutions round the sun and their succession of day and night. And future ages will probably make yet more discoveries concerning them. And we know that beyond the boundary of the planetary system there is a multitude of other lights which sparkle in our firmament and fill the whole concave of heaven with innumerable splendours. These fixed stars are at an immeasurable distance from us, but they are not shined upon by our sun; their light is self-derived, they are so many suns. And they, too, resemble our sun, in its revolution, and their number is simply incalculable. Where, then, can we limit the Almighty, or cease to trace His footsteps? And how vast are the movements of our sun and its planetary system. Not only does it revolve, but it goes forward through space, and carrying along with it all its planets and their secondaries with them. And since our sun may only be one member of a family, taking his part along with millions of others in their mighty movement for which there is ample space in immensity, how insignificant does our world appear. Think of the nebulae also. Are all these worlds unpeopled? Does God care only for us? (Thomas Chalmers, D. D.) Results of contemplation I. We are impressed with God’ s infinite independence of human help. We cannot touch one of His stars; we cannot control their courses; we cannot increase or diminish their light. Yonder they shine, away from our poor patronage, indifferent to our powerless opinion. When, then, God asks our help in anything, He does so for our good, and never to fill up the circle of His own ability. How these star-lit heavens rebuke my officiousness! II. We see that creation is established upon a basis of order. There is no controversy in all those heavenly spaces! The stars are quiet. There is no collision of orbits. Everywhere there is sovereign law. The moral significance of this is plain. See what God would have in the moral universe! In the individual heart; in families; in churches; in nations. God is the God of order, and order is peace. III. We see the infinite sufficiency of God to preserve all the interests we commit to Him. If He can sustain that firmament of worlds, can He not sustain our little life? Can He who numbers the stars not also number the hairs of our head? Is our house greater than God’ s heavens, that He cannot be trusted with it? “ Commit thy way unto the Lord, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass.” Does His work in the starry creation ever fail? Does the starlight waste because of the insufficiency of God’ s glory? O Thou who carriest the worlds in Thine hands, carry, too, my poor life! IV. We see the essential difference between physical sovereignty and moral control. The weakest man is greater than the most magnificent star! God has made man greater than the heavens, though physically he dwindles into nothingness in presence of their vastness and glory. In what does his superiority consist? In all that is implied in the term “ will.” Man can say “ No” to God. Physical government is an act of sovereignty, but moral control involves the consent of the life that is governed. The house cannot be shaken, but the tenant may spend his days in controversy and bitterness against the builder. Why cannot human life be as peaceful as the quiet heavens? Because human life has a will of its own. God seeks by all the tender persuasiveness of His love, as shown in Jesus Christ, to bring that will into harmony with His own;--when that is done, there will be a great calm. A consideration so conducted will(1) Enlarge and strengthen the mind.(2) Show contrastively the power and weakness of man.(3) Excite the highest hopes regarding human destiny.(4) Tranquillise the impatience and fretfulness incident to an incomplete life. (Joseph Parker, D. D.) Contemplations on the starry sky There is nothing of all that we can behold that more elevates the mind, or pervades it with more and grander thoughts and emotions, than the view of the starry sky. The starry sky says to us--1. Adore the greatness and glory of God. How couldst thou fail of perceiving Him, the Eternal, the Infinite, the Almighty, the Supremely-wise, the All-gracious, in these His works? Endeavour to form a conception of the whole of this infinite system of suns and worlds, and then raise thy mind to Him who made and preserves them all. How great, how inconceivably great, must He be, the Creator and Father of all worlds, the primordial source of energy and motion, the first, eternal cause of all things, etc. Then be absorbed in devotion, in adoration, O man, when thou contemplatest this theatre of the marvels of thy God. 2. Be sensible also of thy insignificance, and learn humility. Thou oughtest not to be proud, but neither shouldst thou be of an abject mind. 3. Have a proper sense of thy dignity, and learn to think generously and nobly. 4. Presage thy future perfection and happiness, and get a foretaste of them! (G. J. Zollikofer.) Two voices of nature The poet first looks out upon nature, and feels his littleness; then he thinks further, and sees his greatness. He knew very little of the universe compared with what we know. We look upon the earth, these rivers, these mountains, this ocean, we look back historically upon the tremendous forces which have pushed these continents up, and are pushing them, so that it is estimated that within the last five years Scandinavia has been pushed up over three hundred feet into the air from the ocean bed; we look upon the starry firmament with these immensities of space, and it will be very strange if we are not inclined to say, “ What are we? Insects on a globe of sand; the world an ant hill, and we but ants upon it.” “ Who am I, that I should think the Creator of these blazing orbs, the forth-putter of this tremendous power, the wisdom that has planned and keeps in order this marvellous mechanism--that He should count the hairs of my head, or think of me as His son?” Yet, if we think deeply, we shall come also to the thought of the Psalmist, and see in the very grandeur of nature a testimony to the grandeur of man. If we have learned something which the Psalmist never knew respecting the greatness of nature, we have learned something also which the Psalmist never knew concerning the greatness of man, for whom the world has been made. Not only has this wonderful world been given to us, not only has this wonderful world been mastered by us, but it has been given to us to find the way to the mastery of it ourselves. If you consider that this world is a university. All its powers are hidden from us until by our own energy we have discovered them, mastering us until by our own supremacy we have dominion over them; if you consider that all this has been given to us to make “ character” --does it seem so strange that this world should be also the theatre of a more Divine redemption, the place whereon a greater service to character has been wrought than can be wrought by cloud, or tree, or mountain stream, or ocean? This world is not an ant hill. It is God’ s house; it is man’ s house; God-given for man’ s use and man’ s supremacy. (Lyman Abbott, D. D.) Man and the universe It is possible to measure man against the universe on more than one scale, and the result will be strikingly different according to the scale which we use.1. The scale of space and time. How instantaneously, how inexpressibly, are we dwarfed by the result! What are we but microscopical insects, crawling in indistinguishable multitude upon the face of a planet, which, in comparison with the countless orbs of space, is itself no more than a grain of stardust? We can reduce astronomical results to figures, but to all this the mind responds by no adequate effort of conception. So also it is with periods of time. I am not sure that we do not feel our littleness more when we think of the thousand millions of living beings on the earth now, and of the thousand times a thousand millions who have mouldered into its elemental dust. We may heap figure upon figure to express our physical insignificance, and we shall not find the level of our nothingness. 2. There is a radical distinction between man and the universe. It is a necessity of man’ s nature to divide the whole vast sum of things into two marvellously unequal parts--himself, and all that is not himself. The sense of personality, this discrimination between the I and the not I, is so strong and fundamental, that it requires, in most of us, an effort to take the other view, and to consider ourselves as a minute and undivided part of the whole. The moment you introduce the ideas of personality and consciousness, it becomes necessary to measure the relations between man and the universe on quite a new scale. Thought has no magnitude. When we apply the words greater and less to feeling, it is only by way of metaphor. Whatever lives the life of consciousness and reflection, though never so feebly, is separated by an immeasurable gulf from that which simply exists, unwitting of its own existence. This fact of reflective consciousness would seem strange and significant enough, if it implied no more than the power of simply cutting ourselves off from the universe, and so recognising ourselves. But it becomes stranger and more significant still, when it is seen to involve the power of setting up the “ I” over against the “ All,” and, weak, ignorant, transitory, as each one of us is, of distinctly comprehending the vast and complex totality of which we form a most minute and undistinguished part. Compare me with the universe on the physical side, and words are utterly powerless to express the inconceivable contrast of greatness and littleness. But think of one philosopher bringing into correlation to the same law the falling apple and the revolving worlds, and another reducing to theoretic uniformity the speed at which the planets circle in their courses, and a third demonstrating, with glass of new magic, the constituents of the solar atmosphere, and you will see how there can be no comparison between that which thinks and that which simply is. If, on the one hand, nature is our irresponsible tyrant, on the other, we are masters of nature. This is much more the case when we bring within our survey the moral element. How decisively this moral element differentiates man from nature. Take humanity out of the universe, and it is neither moral nor immoral, it is simply natural. The world of morals is emphatically human, and as emphatically not material. It is in connection with human morality alone that what I may call the moral indifference of nature receives some measure of explanation. There is a further sense, in which both man and the universe may be said to receive and reflect God, and so in this highest capacity of being to be again at one. And yet while this is so, at no point is the difference between them more radical; for the reflection of mind in matter is another and less thing than the reflection of mind in mind. The world reveals God without knowing Him: but man consciously receives God as a Divine guest, and feels His vivifying and purifying presence. The pure heart sees, and knows, and welcomes God. The keen conscience leaps up to answer His least command. The disciplined will submits, and rejoices in submission. The fine life lives in the Divine and eternal life, and is unspeakably content. (C. Beard, B. A.) The greatness and littleness of man I. The estimate we make of man’ s place in God’ s universe depends upon the criterion by which we judge. There is a sense in which, viewed as a physical force in the world of matter, man is nothing. II. It becomes necessary, therefore, to measure man’ s place and importance in God’ s universe by altogether other standards.1. If we contemplate man simply as a being of intelligence, the scale begins to turn. The fact of a thinking mind in man puts him above sun and moon and stars. Mind is above matter, intelligence above force. 2. The importance of man in the universe is greatly heightened when we advance from the mental to the moral. “ Two objects,” said Kant, “ fill my soul with ever-increasing admiration and--Above us the starry heaven, within us the moral law.” Man is a member of the kingdom of spirits. He is capable of virtue and of sin. He is a free being, capable of self-improvement and self-destruction. He can contend with his Maker. 3. Man as a sinner is of special importance. A creature who sins always makes himself of importance. An offending member of a family assumes a significance he did not have before. Viewed simply as a sinner, man looms up in the Divine government above the stars. 4. A sufferer is a being of importance in God’ s universe. He is worthy of God’ s thought and visitation. However feeble, and obscure in rank, if he suffers, and is liable to suffer forever, he becomes of importance in the Divine government. 5. The crowning proof of man’ s greatness and worth must be taken from God’ s own estimate. That is found in the sacrifice that God has made to restore man to the high place from which he has fallen. The moon and the stars cost nothing--the redemption of the soul cost God’ s Only Begotten Son. Inferences:1. The reasonableness of the fact that God is mindful of us. 2. The real greatness of man as a sinner lies in his penitence, contrition, confession. 3. If a man is worth so much to God, he surely ought to be of great value to himself. 4. If man is so important a creature as a sinner and a sufferer, how much more so as a Christian! (James Brand, D. D.) Vastness of the material universe The contemplation of this must have immense power over the mind. The nightly vision of the starry heavens has three daughters, Religion, Superstition, Atheism. It is very important that believers in God should reason rightly. For Atheism is hastening to occupy the ground which Superstition long ago filled. If the mind of man were in unimpaired simplicity, the spectacle of the universe would teach him piety; but, being as he is, piety must be first imparted by other means. But being imparted, this vision of the heavens will be one chief means for aiding both his reason and imagination. For the heavens display the infinitude of God, and that infinitude filled with existence. They symbolise and demonstrate His Divine attributes by the vastness and richness of His visible universe. Such is the doctrine of mind reason. But if reason be corrupted, there follows Superstition, as in the East; or Atheism, as amongst modern scientific men. Bacon, who originated our modern philosophy, and Newton, who verified it,--the two minds who more than any other have ruled the world of mind,--both believed in the Supreme Intelligence which the material universe demonstrated. But it is otherwise with their successors. And that men of science should doubt disturbs many who cannot bear to think that the Divine existence should be called in question. They forget that all arguments other than those of the mathematician can be assailed again and again, and are always open to question. Only mathematical argument excludes, or can exclude, controversy. Further, it should be remembered that these men of science have elevated their abstract laws to the position of effectual causes of things, and so have Set aside the first great Cause, and, in their minds, supplanted the higher truth. But there is another and more modest form of this same impiety, and which is derived from the contemplation of the vastness of the universe. This world and man are so insignificant that it is incredible that God should be mindful of him. But this false modesty will be confuted if we remember that the universe is composed of separate parts, and that the whole is but the vastness of accumulation. Our argument is briefly this: The material system, so far as it is open to our knowledge, surpasses all power of conception. Yet this immensity is but the immensity of matter; and we know by consciousness of an order of existence incomparably more excellent than matter, even in its most admirable combinations. It is probable, therefore, that this higher order of existence actually spreads itself over the entire surface of the material system, and is developing itself in some manner proportionate to its superior dignity. Hence the material universe, great as it is, may be nothing more than a stage for the accomplishment of the destinies of this higher order of existence. And concerning these destinies, we may infer from the ease and tranquillity of the messengers of heaven that all is well, if looked upon from a point sufficiently high. Just as when a father, stationed on an eminence, is watching the progress of his sons through a labyrinth, they may confidently presume that their course is the right one, so long as they see a cheerful smile on his face. And are we not taught modesty by this very vastness of the universe? What is our knowledge but that of a single spot? (Isaac Taylor.) Wonders of grace in the height and in the depth It is charged against earnest Christians that they are unable to see the wonders of God in the world; that from holding so rigidly to the letter of the Scripture, the taste has been lost for the Divine displays in the firmament and in the glory of earthly nature. It may be true of some, but where this is so it is opposed to Holy Scripture and to Christ Himself. Nowhere shall we find any hymns in which the glories of God in nature are more tenderly and devoutly celebrated than they are in these Psalms. So, then, let us meditate-- I. On the wonders of Divine grace in the heights above. This Psalm is a night Psalm, called forth by the contemplation of the glory of the starry heavens. Wonderful is the scene which is opened to the eye when it looks from earth to heaven. Men need such a view. They would not then be quiet in having no certainty on earth concerning heavenly and eternal things. What wonders fill the heart when we look up into those distances of light. How flee, how calm, how regular they are as they float in wide space--how innumerable. And are they empty, and what is their destiny? But if I have no other theatre of His grace than that one so infinite I can call Him the Infinite, but the name of Father dies away on my lips. What is man when compared with immensity? The greatness of God crushes our hearts if we look only at the wonders in the heights above, and the expression of amazed and humble thanksgiving is also the language of doubt. “ What is man, that Thou art mindful of him?” Let us, then, hasten on, that in the infinite we may see the Father, to consider-- II. The works of God’ s grace in the depths below. They throw light upon His works of grace in the heights above. There are two kingdoms in which our Lord and God reigns upon earth:1. The kingdom of nature. Now, would it not take away from His glory if His creative power had called forth so many worlds in the immensity above us, but His preserving and sustaining power could not keep pace with it? If the eye which guides the four thousand nebulae could not see the falling tear which is wept upon this little earth? But it is not so. The microscope, when the telescope was discovered to support human doubt, seems to have come into existence to meet that doubt. And by its means we find the infinitude of God in every flying straw and in the smallest grain. None can say where God is greater, in the great or in the little, in the immensity on earth or in the infinity in heaven. But if the flying straw and gnat display His wonderful works, what will He not have done in and for man? Man has a spirit which can think and soar and worship. But though it can soar to heaven, it brings down no certain news. I see the heavens full of stars, and man’ s heart of anticipations and forebodings. Yes, these are the only relics which man has rescued from the Fall. And no philosopher can still those longings and forebodings. But are they forever to remain unsatisfied? No, for see-- 2. The kingdom of grace. Man, without Christ, might have expected that the Divine wonder-working power would show itself in and for his spirit more than in the flowers of the field. He needs it so much, but knows not the way of life. God, who feeds the ravens and gives food to the young eagles, was He not to have taken care to feed man’ s heart? Yes, for the Saviour came, God manifest in the flesh. And the angels sang, “ Glory to God in the highest,” etc. So on the whole earth weary, heavy-laden men have ever since drunk of the water of life which quenches the thirst forever. (J. Tholuck.) Night thoughts How cometh he to mention the moon and the stars, and omit the sun? the other being but his pensioners, shining with that exhibition of light which the bounty of the sun allots them. It is answered, this was David’ s night meditation, when the sun, departing to the other world, left the lesser lights only visible in the heavens; and as the sky is best beheld by day in the glory thereof, so, too, it is best surveyed by night in the variety of the same. Night was made for man to rest in. But when I cannot sleep may I, with the Psalmist, entertain my waking with good thoughts. (Thomas Fuller.) God’ s stars and their message An atheistic leader of the French Revolution said one day to a Christian villager, “ We are going to pull down your church tower, so that you may have nothing left to remind you of God or religion.” “ You will not only have to pall down the church tower,” said the man, “ you will also have to blot out the stars, before you can destroy all that reminds us of God; they speak to us of Him.” (W. Walters.) Work of God’ s fingers This is most elaborate and accurate; a metaphor from embroiderers, or from them that make tapestry. (John Trapp.) What is man, that Thou art mindful of him?--What is man The influence on religious faith and hope of what we call “ nature” --of the sun and the moon, the stars, the mountains, and the seas--varies with different men, and varies with the varying temper and mood of the same man at different times. There are some aspects of nature which sometimes make it difficult to believe that there can be any real communion between the Creator and ourselves. Those of us who live in great cities are perhaps especially sensitive to the austere influences of the material universe. If we perished, what difference would it make to this stupendous universe? Ages ago David felt the insignificance of man when compared with the greatness of God’ s material works, and expressed it in the words of our text. Our humiliation is deepened by the discovery that our own life is kin to the inferior forms of life around us. In the very highest there still survive affinities with the lowest. What right have I to claim a different rank? The Most High appears to take no heed of the moral qualities of men, or of their weakness and helplessness. What right, it may be urged, have we to claim any special remembrance from Him? This is the gospel of science. Is it true, or is it false? The truth in it David had a glimpse or: But instead of yielding to the grovelling fear, David triumphed over it, turning with exulting confidence to his assurance that, after all, God is mindful of us, that God doth visit us. What are these pleas worth?1. We are told the whole world in which we live is a mere speck in the universe, and it is incredible that God can have a special care for it. But there is a certain intellectual and moral vulgarity in attaching such importance to mere material magnitude. 2. The life of man is too brief and momentary compared with the ages during which the universe has existed. But science itself contains the reply to this argument. All these ages have been necessary in order to render it possible for a creature like man to come into existence. 3. We are encompassed by laws which take no heed of the personal differences of men, of the varieties of their character, or of the vicissitudes of their condition. To ask God to deal with us separately and apart is to forget that He guides the whole universe by laws which are fixed, irreversible, and irresistible. But this too is a fact, I am conscious of a power of choice--of moral freedom. That must be taken into the account. You tell me of law, but there is another law, the law of my moral nature. I am not absolutely bound by the chains of necessity in my moral life. In the centre and heart of my being I am free. Separated from nature, I may be akin to God. As for those modern thinkers who deny the moral freedom of man, they are engaged in a hopeless struggle. Their controversy is not with philosophy or with religion, it is with the human race. The whole history of mankind is the proof of man’ s consciousness. So long as in our moral life we know that we are free we can look up into the face of the living God with the hope that He will deal with us separately and apart, that He Himself will care for us, and that there may be direct communion between us and Him. (R. W. Dale, M. A.) Man, what is he This language of the Psalmist shows that there were two facts in his mind that had settled down as undebatable convictions. The first is, that God is the Creator and Proprietor of the heavens. “ Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers.” He was neither Atheist, Polytheist, nor Pantheist. The second is, that God pays special regard to His creature man. “ Thou art mindful of him,” etc. Now with these two facts in his mind, he studied; “ considered” the heavens. A wonderful study are these heavens! Who can compute the number of yon flaming orbs? Think of their infinite variety. No two alike. Think of the swiftness and regularity of their revolutions. What is man? I. Negatively. He does not mean to imply that man constitutionally is a contemptible being--a creature too insignificant for notice. The very next verse shows that he could not mean that, for he says, Thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, etc. Man is an immortal intelligence, and therefore great. He does not mean that man is insignificant in comparison with the heavens. The heavens are incapable of studying their Maker; man can. The heavens have no power of self-modification--they cannot move slower or faster, grow brighter or dimmer, of their own accord; man can. The heavens will not continue their identity forever. “ The stars shall fade away,” etc.; but man will abide.3. He does not mean to imply that there is a probability of man being overlooked amidst the immensity of God’ s works. 4. He does not mean that it is essentially inconsistent with God’ s greatness for Him to notice man. This cannot be entertained. Great and small are relative terms to creatures only. To the Infinite they have no meaning. II. Positively. What, then, does he mean?1. The great sentiment in his mind at the time was undoubtedly the infinite condescension of the great Creator and Proprietor of the heavens. This condescension would impress him as he thought of man as a spiritual creature. 2. This condescension would impress him much more as he thought upon him as a mortal creature, a creature only of a day, “ who cometh forth as a flower and is cut down,” etc. 3. This condescension would impress him most of all as he thought upon man as a sinful creature--ungrateful, disobedient, rebellious. (Homilist.) The subject of religion--the soul Religion is the maintenance of a real bond between God and the individual man. Its object is God, but its subject is the soul. I. What is the soul? Man is not his accidents; not those things with which we associate him when we speak of any one man. But he is a person--something separate and distinct from all others, and whose identity can be traced, year after year, all through life. And of all this we are conscious. The lower animals do not possess this sense of personality. But man is a personal spirit, separate from all others. Now, this consciousness is not the result of our physical constitution. Thought, after all, is not merely phosphorus. But we are conscious of the spirituality of the soul. The Bible takes it for granted, and appeals to it. Christ cares not for the outward, but for the spirit of a man. And because we have this soul we are capable of religion But-- II. Whence comes this soul? There are the ideas--1. Of the East, which tell of the transmigration of souls. 2. Of the West--especially of Plato--which teach that the soul has had a former existence, and is here as a penalty for former sin. This doctrine travelled to Alexandria, is found in Philo, and in the Talmud, and in the Gnostics. 3. The Church opposed it, for it has no basis in Scripture; it contradicts the doctrine of original sin, which tells that its consequences devolve on those who had not sinned as Adam had. And it is equally at variance with the account of the Creation, which teaches the simultaneous creation of both soul and body. And experience is against it. We have no memory of such pre-existence. 4. Whence, then, came the soul? Is it begotten by the parents? Tertullian and Augustine leant to this view, the latter finding in it explanation of the transmission of sin. But when Lactantius asked, “ From which parent came the soul, or was it from both?” no answer could be found. And, as a fact, the child resembles the parent in temperament, that which is of the body, but not in genius or will. Is the soul, then, created by an immediate act of God? In favour of this is the consideration that so the truth of the spirituality of the soul is maintained, and of the simultaneous creation of both. But against it it is urged-- (i) That God ceased creation on the seventh day. But, in reply, we have new species of animals. (ii) That it binds the Creator to create a human soul at the will of man, perhaps an adulterer. But man cannot sin without Divine assistance. He is dependent for everything. (iii) That there can be no transmission of sin. But sin is a defect of the soul rather than a positive quality. Therefore, on the whole, the creative theory is to be preferred. And it agrees emphatically with the Scripture distinction between the “ fathers of our flesh” and the “ Father of our spirits.” But both teach that God creates the soul. Then-- III. What is the destiny of the soul? Some say, “ We cannot tell; the dead return not.” But when death comes near us this reply will not serve. We cannot believe that our loved ones cease to be. The moral argument is, after all, the strongest. Justice demands a future state. Is the soul’ s growth to stop? The Bible takes the truth for granted. The doctrine of Sheol, the sayings of the prophets, the heroism of the Maccabees all countenance this truth. We have the resurrection of Christ as the great argument for the resurrection of the body as well as of the soul. Both are necessary to complete life. IV. Religion is based on the sense of immortality. It is impossible without it. Suicide would be reasonable, and, indeed, has been advocated as wise. Seneca contends for it, but the Church by her teaching of the value of each soul counteracted all such views. Our main business, therefore, is to save our soul. (H. P. Liddon, D. D.) Immortality The Psalm reveals not the littleness, but the greatness of man. One of the most plausible of the objections of unbelief has been the attempt to prove fallacious the prospects which Christianity offers to men beyond this world. Consider, then, the Christian idea of an immortal and heavenly life hereafter. It is this which is imperilled. I take the Psalm before us as furnishing a triumphant and lasting reply to the kind of unbelief in question. In nature, first, God shows us His estimate of man. The ascent is easy from nature to grace, in which the Divine estimate is raised to its highest point. Was not everything the earth contains made for our use and enjoyment, in measure increasing with every new discovery? We are invited to look still further afield. This world, which is made for us, is not independent or alone. It is in no sense self-sustained. It is part of a wonderful and incomprehensible whole. Other great creations concur in its maintenance. The whole host of heaven has been brought into co-ordinate and helpful relation to it--yes, it, the world, exists for us! When I consider the manifold bearings of Thy universe upon man--what is man? We do not say that we are the only moral and spiritual beings in the midst of so many worlds. But we do say--and science combines with Scripture to compel us to say--that these worlds have been in part created for us, just as our world has been in part created for them. So much, then, for what nature teaches. The first step being taken, another follows. Man is an object of the manifold agencies of myriads of worlds. He is so as man; and the relative position he holds, intellectually, morally, or socially, to his fellow men has nothing to do with the fact. Nature ministers to the Caffre and the Hottentot as truly as to the man of most advanced civilisation. Why, then, should man refuse to believe that he is an object of solicitous love to that God who created him, who made him what he is, and who thus crowned him with glory and honour? The prospect of human destiny as opened up by Christianity is grand; but not too grand to be ascribed to Him who created the universe, and so arranged it that it should constitute one vast system of ministration to us. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/bi/ Psalms 8:5 For Thou hast made him a little lower than the angels.Man a little lower than the angels While the Psalmist refers primarily to man, we learn from St. Paul that the text has a further reference to the Lord Jesus Christ. I. The text, as spoken of men. Perhaps it was not so much in nature as in position that man, as first formed, was inferior to the angels. Nothing higher could be affirmed of the angels than that they were made in the image of God. If, then, they had originally superiority over man, it must have been in the degree of resemblance. The angel was made immortal, intellectual, holy, powerful, glorious, and in these properties lay their likeness to the Creator. But were not these properties also given to man? Whatever originally the relative position of the angel and the man, we cannot question that since the fall man has been fearfully inferior to the angels. The effect of transgression has been to debase all his powers; but, however degraded and sunken, he still retains the capacities, of his original formation, and they many be so purged and enlarged as to produce, if we may not say to restore, the equality. Take the intellect of man; there is no limit to its progress. Use the like reasoning in regard to power, or holiness, or dignity. The Bible teems with notices, that so far from being by their nature higher than men, angels even now possess not an importance which belongs to our race. It is a mysterious thing, and one to which we scarcely dare allude, that there has arisen a Redeemer of fallen men, but not of fallen angels. And angels are represented as “ ministering sprints.” Believers, as the children of God, are attended and waited on by angels. Then, while human nature is still walled off from every other in its special properties, risen spirits may stand on a par with the very noblest-created intelligence, glowing with the same holiness, arrayed in the same panoply, and gathering in from all the works of God the same immenseness of knowledge and the same material of ecstasy. II. The text, as spoken of our Lord Jesus Christ. His being made “ a little lower than the angels” is represented as with a view to the glory which was to be the recompense for His sufferings. This is a very important representation, and from it may be drawn a strong and clear argument for the divinity of Christ. We could never see how it could be humility in any creature, whatever the dignity of his condition, to assume the office of a Mediator, and to work out our reconciliation, if an unmeasured exaltation was to be the Mediator’ s reward. A being who knew that he should be immeasurably elevated if he did a certain thing, can hardly be commended for the greatness of his humility in doing that thing. He must be the king already, ere his entering the state of slavery can furnish an example of humility. And yet in consenting to be “ made a little lower than the angels” our blessed Redeemer actually humbled Himself. Who, then, can this man have been before becoming man? We cannot suppose that the attributes or properties of Godhead were capable of being laid aside or suspended. Shrouded and hidden, but not laid aside, was the divinity of Christ. If He could not lay aside the perfections, He could lay aside the glories of Deity. Every outward mark of majesty and greatness might be laid aside. He passes from the form of God to the likeness of men. It is not in the power of language to describe either the humility or the compassion thus displayed. It was literally the emptying Himself, the making Himself poor, “ that we through His poverty might be made rich.” (Henry Melvill, B. D.) Man and angel I. Man lower than the angels.1. By creation the angel is the “ elder brother” of the two, for he was created first. Angels’ songs always bear some reference to man; something pertaining to man invariably forms part of their theme. Not only in time is man lower than the angels, he is so-- 2. In the substance from which he is formed. Angels are pure spirits, but one part of man is formed out of the clay. 3. In his habitation. God gave heaven for an abode unto the angels, but “ the earth hath He given to the children of men.” 4. In his powers. Angels “ excel in strength.” “ Man that is a worm, and the son of man that is a worm.” 5. In his character. Man was not made as he is, but he has made himself so, by his sin. II. Man equal to the angels.1. Although not in the same workroom, they are in the same service. The king’ s livery is worn by the humblest guard of the mail, as well as by the highest officers of the household. The angel said to John in Patmos, “ I am thy fellow servant.” 2. They are equal in rights and privileges. The godly man is as sure of heaven as any of the angels who are now there: only as yet he is not made meet for it. 3. In kindred, for man, too, is a child of God. 4. In duration of existence. Every man is to exist forever. “ Neither can they die any more.” III. Man higher than the angels. That is, in his glorified state.1. He shall have a better feast. There will be dishes on man’ s table that angels can never taste. 2. Better apparel. Man’ s garments will be the workmanship of “ grace.” They are more expensive. Angels’ garments cost only a word; but blood was essential to wash the robes of the saints and to make them white. 3. A better song. Saints have themes the angels cannot think upon, and strains which they can never reach. 4. A better position, and superior privileges. Angels shall approach very near the throne; but they shall never sit upon it. (David Roberts, D. D.) God’ s idea of man What is the “ little” which marks man’ s inferiority? It is mainly that the spirit, which is God’ s image, is confined in and limited by flesh, and subject to death. The distance from the apex of creation to the Creator must ever be infinite; but man is so far above the non-sentient, though mighty, stars and the creatures that share earth with him, by reason of his being made in the Divine image--i.e., having consciousness, will, and reason--that the distance is foreshortened. The gulf between man and matter is greater than that between man and God. The moral separation caused by sin is not in the Psalmist’ s mind. Thus man is invested with some reflection of God’ s glory, and wears this as a crown. He is king on earth . . . Such then is man, as God meant him to be. Such a being is a more glorious revelation of the Name than all stars and systems. Looked at in regard to his duration, his years are a hand breadth before these shining ancients of days that have seen his generations fret their little hour and sink into silence; looked at in contrast with their magnitude and numbers, numberless, he is but an atom, and his dwelling place a speck. Science increases the knowledge of his insignificance, but perhaps not the impression of it made on a quiet heart by the simple sight of the heavens. But besides the merely scientific view, and the merely poetic, and the grimly agnostic, there is the other, the religious, and it is as valid today as ever. To it the heavens are the work of God’ s linger, and their glories are His, set there by Him. That being so, man’ s littleness magnifies the Name, because it enhances the condescending love of God, which has greatened the littleness by such nearness of care, and such gifts of dignity. The reflection of His glory which blazes in the heavens is less bright than that which gleams in the crown of glory and honour on man’ s lowly yet lofty head. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) The dignity of man--his restlessness “ But little lower than God” (R.V.). It seems as though man were born with the rudiments of omniscience, and was therefore bound to be made impatient by the discovered presence of anything that declined to be known; and born, likewise, with the rudiments of omnipresence, and therefore bound to be disquieted by the sight of any frontier not yet transcended. That is one of the startling proofs of the impatient in our nature. Put a man in a room, and, no matter how large the room, he wants the window up; every place crowds and we want to move out. From the time when Abraham crossed the Euphrates and Joshua went over the Jordan, mankind has been wanting to get out and over the river. We do not know all the lakes in Africa yet, but some of us are a good deal more interested over the imagined discovery of canals in the planet Mars than we are over the seas and waterways of the distant parts of our own globe. No pasture is so large but we want to get over the fence and crop the grass on the other side. Not only are we irritated by limitations of place, and try to be ubiquitous, but are similarly annoyed by limitations of time, and attempt to explore and map the centuries that preface recorded history, and even the ages that are the threshold of the present history of the earth and heavens. We are so accustomed to this habitual intrusion into untraversed domains that it can easily escape us what a certain irrepressibleness moving within us all this betokens; and this sailing out among the stars and then coming home, for a little while, to make a book of what we have seen there, what the stars are made of, how large they are, how much they weigh, whether they are young or old, infant, middle-aged, grey haired, or imbecile, and this groping back into the old years of our universe, towards the primeval days, tracking the progress of events, or trying to decipher the wheel marks made in the old strata or on the cosmic star mist by the giant car of onward movement when creation’ s springtide was yet on, and then coming quietly back to today, and in an easy chair by the fire complacently penciling diary notes of the world’ s babyhood, and with no feeling at all but that it is the thing for a man to do, that the universe is to be known, and that man is here to know it--well, there is a Titanic audacity about it all that is to me superbly uplifting. Man may bare failed in a good deal that he attempts, a good many diary memoranda he may have entered under the wrong day of the month or even under the wrong month, but there is a hugeness in the very venture that betrays Titanic fibre. There are certain heights of audacity that the fool may essay to scale, but there are cloud-piercing pinnacles of audacity that there is not room in a fool’ s mind to even conceive or tension to adventure. But not only can man stand up in the face of nature and cross question it and compel it to testify too, but he can exercise upon nature a volitional as well as an intellectual mastery, and can harness it to his own purposes. We are not afraid of the World any more, in the old way in which men used to be, partly because we know her way. We know how to take her. We have a presentiment of what she is plotting before she does it, and so not likely, as once, to be caught napping. The forces that used to play about us with all the untrained friskiness of wild horses prancing and cantering over the plain we have caught, some of them, and have put a collar about their necks and bits in their mouths, and, by means of a good deal of draft tackle that we have rather ingeniously devised, have set them drawing our loads, turning our wheels, working our machinery, and running all our errands. And, now, what we call Civilisation is, a good deal of it, simply a matter of the success with which we make nature do our work. We are not, of course, claiming for man that he has completely subjected the world’ s wide energy. Storm and steam have still to be dealt with warily--a thunderbolt is still hot if handled carelessly; but the entire attitude of man towards all these things is changed. A lion is stronger than a man, and if the two meet on brute ground the lion will always be a good deal more than a match for him; but man is a good deal smarter than the lion, and if the two meet on an intelligent ground, the lion will be driven to the wall. So in regard to the raw energies of the material world, if man undertakes to wrestle with nature on material ground, man will invariably be whipped, and the bit of lightning would be just as demoralising to a Socrates as to a mule or pony, providing the encounter take place on territory that is distinctively the lightning’ s own. But let a man take that same bit of lightning on to ground that is distinctively his own, and he will file its teeth and put a muzzle over its nose, and tie a string around its neck and attach a letter to that string and send the little amphibious streak either under the water to London or overland to San Francisco, and all over so quickly that you see his muzzle on the return trip almost before you had time to know that he was fully off. That is the sort of thing that man is when he steps off from the ground of materiality or of brutality and gathers himself together on the imperial platform of his own God-imitating personality; and there is where he wants to keep himself in all this matter of trying to appreciate his true and genuine denotement. Damaging and discouraging suspicions of diminutiveness are never going to insinuate themselves and get the better of us till we have been allowing our measure to be calculated on some other basis than that of what we distinctly are as personal beings. That is why David in the earlier part of this very Psalm was oppressed by thoughts of man’ s littleness; he undertook to compute human greatness with an astronomical tape line; he was distressed by the small figure he made as seen against the vastness of the stellar sky taken as a background. But the mere arithmetic immensity of the heavens has properly nothing to do with it; yardsticks are utterly foreign to the account. It was a far greater thing to be David contemplating the heavens than it was to be the heavens making eyes at David. It is a greater thing to be able to think the heavens than it is to be the heavens. (Charles H. Parkhurst, D. D.) Man’ s glory--its loss and recovery In the apse of St. Sophia’ s, Constantinople, the guide points out a place where there is a hidden face of Christ portrayed by some early Christian artist. When the Mohammedan conqueror possessed himself of that noble Christian temple he ordered all Christian symbols to be effaced. This beautiful head of Christ was covered over with canvas. When the Christian conqueror again enters the gates of Constantinople the canvas will doubtless be torn away and this bit of early Christian art be brought to light and restored; and let but the gates of the city of man’ s soul be opened to the conquering King, and his Lord shall strip away the sins that hide God’ s glory in these fleshly temples, and the resplendent image of God shall be seen in men once more. Psalms 8:6-8 Thou hast put all things under his feet, etc.--Cruelty to animals If the lower creation were not too insignificant or worthless to contribute to the glory of Jesus, they cannot be deemed too insignificant for Him to care for, and for us to protect and honour. We know it is said of His saints that “ he that toucheth them, toucheth the apple of His eye.” In other words, He feels what is done to His people as sensitively as if it had been done to Himself. And, of course, while there is a sense in which, using human language, He must be jealous of them, as He is in regard to no other (they being emphatically the fruit of the travail of His soul), yet if all creatures have been intrusted to His sovereignty, and are the subjects of His sway, He must regard any wanton injustice or cruelty inflicted on the meanest and the lowliest as an unwarranted aggression on what the old divines call His “ rectorial rights.” It may seem to some an unnecessary straining of the subject: that it would be better to rest and vindicate it on principles of ordinary benevolence. It is well, indeed, that we can take up the lower ground too, and, for those who would scorn the appeal to gospel motive, address ourselves to the claims and sympathies of our common humanity. But I do confess it seems to me that this theme secures a far more commanding demonstration when we see the lower animals, whose oppression we are called to denounce, placed under the especial care and authority of the Redeemer; that as the living creatures were brought one by one to the first Adam to be named and placed under his protection, so the second Adam, the Lord from heaven, who is to restore in every respect what the other forfeited, has had among the “ all things put under His feet,” “ all sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field, and the fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the sea.” Though the members of the lowlier creation are represented in the text as subjected to the rule of Christ, they have been subordinated by Him to the care of man. To man, as high priest of creation, they have been made over at once for his use, and to secure his protection and kindness. In thus consigning them to his custody, this great Lord of nature has given significant intimation of the treatment He Himself designs them to receive at the hands of their deputed governor. He has manifested on every side a desire for the happiness of His creatures. Pain is in no instance the law or condition of their being. The sport of the insect, the carol of the lark, the gambols of the quadruped, the gush of summer song in the groves and woods, all read the design and intention of a bountiful, beneficent, and benevolent Ruler. And if man, therefore, abuse his delegated authority, and instead of the merciful guardian and friend of the helpless, become the rigorous tyrant and torturer, does he not thereby set himself up in guilty defiance of the purposes of the Almighty, and do what he can to abridge the happiness he was commissioned to provide and promote? We shall proceed to enforce, from a few brief considerations, the duty of abstaining from the infliction of pain on the inferior creation, and their paramount claims on man’ s sympathy, protection, and kindness. Let us advert, at the outset, to a lurking and widely accepted fallacy with regard to the lower animals having a comparative insensibility to pain. That they are capable of a certain amount of suffering none dare dispute, but we question if there be not at the root of much of that reckless torture of which they are the subjects, an impression that their wild and untamed habits of life and their iron frames make them proof against the physical anguish of which the human being is susceptible. I would ask what in anatomy, what in physiology is there to bear out such an hypothesis? How can I more befittingly stun up this subject than by a closing reference and reply? Some have ventured to assert that the lower animals, being infinitely beneath us in the scale of being, are unfit subjects and objects for any such special and exceptional tenderness as that for which we plead. I ask, Where should we have been at this moment if this were a recognised and universally-acted-upon law in the government of God--that a being, because superior in the scale of existence, should refuse to bestow regard or interest on those who are some degrees beneath him? Is not the whole scheme of redemption one marvellous display of the condescension and kindness of one Being to those immeasurably below Him? Man’ s condescension to the lower animals! What is this in comparison with God’ s regardfulness of man? The former is but the attention and kindness of one creature to another, both springing from earth, both hastening to dissolution. But the kindness of God to the human offspring is that of the Infinite to the finite, Almightiness to nothingness, Deity to dust! Oh, if God, the great God Almighty, thus visits the guilty with tenderness, shall we visit the innocent and unoffending with cruelty and oppression? when He has thrown the shield of His merciful, but unmerited, protection over us, shall we thus requite His kindness by acting toward the humbler creatures of His hands with contempt and disdainful neglect? No! as we behold His kingdom stretching downwards from the pinnacles of glory to every living thing in the habitable parts of the earth, where from the beginning His delights have been, let us recognise the beauty and profound meaning of that magnificent vision which burst on the prophet by the river Chebar--significant exposition of the Mediator’ s sovereignty: the four fold resemblances or images of creature forms, of which only one was human, and the other three of the lower animals--the lion, the ox, and the eagle; while over all, in the sapphire firmament, we read, was “ the likeness as the appearance of a man.” It was the very truth and language of our text embodied and symbolised: the all-glorious and glorified Mediator presiding over the Kingdom of Providence, and demonstrating in the most extensive sense “ His Kingdom ruleth over all” ! Seeing, then, that all creatures thus wait upon Him, that He gives them their meat in due season, let the topic of our meditation (pleading, and pleading all the more earnestly for those who cannot plead for themselves) receive the loftiest enforcement by joining in with the loyal ascription of the Psalmist--“ Thou hast put all things under his feet.” (J. R. Macduff, D. D.) The supreme rule of Christ This Psalm is stamped with a worldwide breadth; it is of no nation, it is of all time; it shines with a light transcending that of mere human genius. We are brought face to face with these three--nature, man, and God. Here is no picture drawn from nature. This description--“ Thou hast put all things under his feet” --does not, as a matter of fact, describe man’ s present position on the globe. All things are not put under him. He does not reign over nature, he wrestles with nature. The Psalmist is not using here the language of prophetic inspiration. He is looking back to the primitive glory, the primeval character of man as it is written upon the very first page of this book. The Bible grasps so firmly the unseen future, just because it plants its foot so strongly upon the past. Human nature did not crawl up from sentient slime; man was born with the likeness of his Father shining out from his very countenance, able to converse with God, and to render intelligent and loving obedience to God. Turn to the New Testament Scriptures. A new light, a new glory, suddenly breaks forth from them. “ We see Jesus . . . crowned with glory and honour.” In Scripture there is but one Divine right, and that is God’ s own right. “ His Kingdom ruleth over all.” This authority is the inherent, eternal right of God in the very nature of things. Is it impossible to transfer it? Is it conceivable that the Almighty God should give His glory to another? Jesus said, “ All authority is given to Me in heaven and in earth.” In the days of His humiliation, our Saviour constantly exercised four kinds of authority--the authority to forgive sin; the authority to declare truth; the authority to rule nature; and the authority, over human hearts and consciences--the claim of universal and absolute obedience and faith. These four are in close and inseparable moral unity. (E. R. Conder, D. D.) . Psalms 9:1-20 Psalms 9:1-20I will praise Thee, O Lord. Praise, trust, and prayer In the Septuagint, this Psalm refers to the death of the Divine Son, and recites His victory over death, the grave, and all our foes. I. There is a predominant note of praise. (Verses 1-5, 11, 12, 14.) Let us not praise with a divided, but a whole heart. It is incited by recounting all God’ s works. Let memory heap fuel on the altar of praise. II. There is an assertion of trust. (Verses 7-12, 18.) The oppressed, the humble, the needy, and the poor have strong encouragement. Calamity drives them to God, and so they come to know Him, and then the more they trust Him. Doubt is born of ignorance. Leave God to vindicate you; He will not forget. III. There is a petition for further help. (Verses 13, 19, 20.) What a contrast between the gates of death (Psalms 9:13), and the gates of the Holy City (Psalms 9:14)! See Haman as illustrating Psalms 9:15. He who lifts the righteous, hurls down the wicked. It is a sin to forget God (Psalms 9:17). (F. B. Meyer, B. A.) The ministry of praise “ I will praise Thee.” That is the note that is too commonly silent in our religious life. We rarely gather together for the supremely exhilarating business of praise. In the Psalm is a man who sets himself to the business of praise, as though he were about to engage in a great matter. He sets about it with undivided attention--“ with my whole heart.” The word “ heart” is a spacious word. It includes all the interior things, all the central things; when a man comes to praise, will, intellect, and imagination must all be active. He must bring to the ministry of praise the worship of his feelings. Come will, and make my praise forceful. Come intellect, and make it enlightened. Come feeling, and make it affectionate. In the words, “ I will sow forth,” is suggested that he will score it as with a mark, he will not allow it to slip by unrecorded. He will keep a journal of mercies. He will not only register the “ marvellous works,” he will publish them. The word is suggestive not only of a notebook, but of a proclamation. “ I will rejoice,” the word is suggestive of the exulting bubbling of the spring. The two words, “ glad,” “ rejoice,” together give us the image of the leaping waters with the sunshine on them. And such is always the joy of the Lord. It is fresh as the spring, and warm and cheering as the sunlight. (J. H. Jowett, M. A.) A praiseful heart We should praise God more, and thank Him more often for His ceaseless goodness. How can we forget His countless benefits? Dean Alford said, “ It seems to me that five minutes of real thanksgiving for the love of our dear Saviour is worth a year of hard reasoning on the hidden parts of our redemption.” Of the last days of the Venerable Bede, his disciple Cuthbert wrote, “ He was much troubled with shortness of breath, yet without pain, before the day of our Lord’ s resurrection, that is, for about a fortnight, and thus he afterwards passed his life cheerful and rejoicing, giving thanks to Almighty God every day and night, nay, every hour, till the day of our Lord’ s ascension. He also passed all the night awake in joy and thanksgiving, unless a short sleep prevented it, in which case he no sooner awoke than he presently repeated his wonted exercises, and ceased not to give thanks to God with uplifted hands. I declare with truth that I have never seen with my eyes, or heard with my ears, any man so earnest in giving thanks to the living God.” Psalms 9:4 Thou hast maintained my right.Thou satest in the throne judging right. Man’ s right, and God’ s right The first part of the fourth verse seems to be merely personal, but the second clause of the verse is universal. In the first clause we may put so much emphasis upon the personal pronoun as to make this a merely individual instance, as if God had specialised one man as against many men, without inquiring into the merits of the ease. The second clause reads, “ Thou sittest in the throne judging right.” That is the universal tone. Not--God sitting in the throne selecting favourites, distributing prizes and rewards according to some arbitrary law, but God sitting in the throne judging right, whoever was upon one side or the other in the controversy. The whole encounter is delivered from the narrow limitation of personal misunderstanding and individual conduct, and is made one of rectitude, and God is indicated as taking part with the right. This is comfort; this, in fact, is the only true and lasting solace. If there were anything narrow, in the merely personal sense, in the government and providence of God, we should be thrown into unrest and faithlessness, or the most humiliating fear; but make the providence of God turn upon right, and then every man who does right, or who wishes to be right and to do right, may lift up his eyes to heaven and say: My help cometh front the everlasting hills; I will bear all difficulties bravely, with a really manful and sweet patience, because in the end right will be vindicated and crowned. Right is not with any set of persons, right is not a possession guaranteed to any one kind of office in the Church: it is a universal term; it rises like a universal altar, within whose shadow poor men and needy men, as well as rich and mighty men, may be gathered in the security of prayer, and in the gladness of assured hope. (Joseph Parker, D. D.) Psalms 9:7-8 The Lord shall endure forever. The abiding God David here draws a contrast between changing man and the unchanging God; between evermore vanishing thrones and the throne of God, high and lifted up--His throne of judgment--a throne erected to try and determine the cause, not of David only, nor of his people only, but all men--to judge the world in righteousness. He teaches that right and wrong everywhere are objects of the Divine regard, and will be through all time, and will be when time shall be no more; that the Divine judgment, like the Divine Omnipresence, embraces every creature in the vastness of its range. In this way David ascends in his reasoning from the particular to the general, and from the general to the universal, making the Lord’ s dealing with him, and His people Israel, the basis of the conclusion, that so He will deal with all men. He thus encourages all men everywhere to pursue the right, assuring them that, in pursuing it, the God of all righteousness is with them, and will in due time decide it in their favour. (David Caldwell, A. M.) And He shall judge the world in righteousness. The witness of conscience to righteousness Corwin, the great orator and humorist, was once talking with several gentlemen. The conversation, which had been witty and epigrammatic, became grave and serious. One of the company made a remark about the unknown future. Corwin took it up, and said, “ When I reflect that I am to be judged by a righteous and omnipotent God, I nearly go mad.” So it is that the conscience within bears unequivocal testimony to our responsibility, not to a Something, of which we can form no conception, but to a Personal Being, who is the “ righteous and omnipotent God,” whose “ offspring” we are as a Father, and whose subjects we are as Sovereign Lord Supreme. Psalms 9:9-10 The Lord also will be a refuge for the oppressed.The refuge of the oppressed I. The Lord also will be a refuge for the oppressed.1. What is a refuge? Shelter--in the cities of refuge; strongholds (2 Samuel 22:23); a harbour of refuge, as on a rocky, dangerous coast. Thus the leading idea is shelter. Now the Lord Jehovah as Father, Son, and Spirit is such refuge. 2. But who are the oppressed? Not only those who are oppressed in natural things, as many are; but in things spiritual. The heavy burden of sin. By Satan. Daily conflict with sin. Now the Lord is a refuge for such. II. A refuge in times of trouble. The Scriptures always put together the malady and the remedy. As to these times of trouble, they are sometimes--1. Seasons of temporal trouble; 2. Of spiritual trouble. These make us know that the Lord is our refuge, for we can find none elsewhere. There is no definition of what troubles, so that in all trouble we may claim this promise. III. And they that know Thy name will put their trust in Thee. The name means the revealed perfections of God. His eternal faithfulness. His loving kindness and tender mercy. His infinite wisdom. But who are they that know His name? They to whom the name of God has been revealed to their consciences. It is an experimental knowledge, and here is the grand line betwixt life and death. IV. For Thou, Lord, hast not forsaken them that seek Thee. This takes in the poor, the halt, the lame, the little ones of God’ s family. In order to seeking God--1. We must have a desire to find something; and then, 2. Know that God, from whom we seek what we would find. (J. C. Philpot.) The Lord our refuge It is reported of the Egyptians that, living in the fens, and being vexed with gnats, they used to sleep in high towers, whereby, these creatures not being able to soar so high, they were delivered from the biting of them. So would it be with us when bitten with cares and fear, did we but run to God for refuge, and rest confident of His help. (John Trapp.) A free refuge The Hospice of St. Bernard, and the wild scenery surrounding it. The place is so cold that fish will not live in the lake, and we have seen the snow lying knee deep at mid-summer. The Hospice is a refuge from the storm in which many travellers have rested securely, who otherwise might have been lost in the snow. This noble institution receives all passers freely, whoever they may be, without money and without price; and in this respect it is like the salvation of our Lord Jesus, for Jesus gives freely of His grace to those who have nothing to offer in return. Psalms 9:10 They that know Thy name will put their trust in Thee.The name of God Know Thy name! What does that imply, but to know all that is included in the revelation of the nature and attributes of Almighty God? Every reader of Scripture is well aware of the infinite importance which it attaches to the word Name in speaking of God. It signifies not merely a designation, however expressive and full of meaning, but a manifestation of the Eternal Deity. The trust of His rational creatures in Him is commensurate with their knowledge of all that is involved in the name. The early patriarchs knew Him by the name Elohim, a marvellous name, containing implicitly the mystery hereafter to be revealed of a plurality of persons in the unity of the Divine nature. They knew Him so far, and adored Him with deep awe and absolute trust in His power, righteousness, and goodwill. That name raised them out of earthly and debasing associations, delivered them from the fetichism of idolatry, and brought them into near contact with the spiritual world; they trusted in Hint according to the measure of their knowledge, and were saved by their faith. A further disclosure of the Divine goodness and love was made by the revelation of the name Jehovah, when the Lord made all His goodness pass before Moses, and proclaimed, “ Jehovah, Jehovah Elohim, merciful and gracious, long suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth.” With that revelation was associated an entire system of typical institutions, preparing the way for a still more perfect discovery, at once quickening the conscience, making it sensible of the extent of human sinfulness, and indicating the conditions and principles of a future atonement. The forms of the living Word, of the living Spirit gradually disclosed themselves to the prophetic vision, never fully revealed, yet ever approaching nearer to a personal manifestation. But the Name itself in its highest sense was first suggested, then declared, by the voices which heralded the incarnation, and by the utterances of the incarnate Word. The full meaning of the words of angelic adoration, “ Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of hosts!” flashed upon the spirit of man when the Saviour commanded the initiatory rite, the pledge and condition of a new life, to be administered “ in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.” To the exposition of that meaning the purest and highest intellects of Christendom have devoted themselves from the beginning; and if the forms in which their exposition has been accepted by the Church are true and scriptural, can it be questioned that they involve issues of infinite importance to our souls? Can it be a matter of indifference to us whether any one of the leading propositions in such a confession is true or not? can it be a matter on which we can err in wilfulness or negligence without peril? We are responsible indeed only for so much truth as we have the means of knowing. Every man is judged “ according to that he hath, not according to that he hath not” ; but for so much as we have received we are, and must be, responsible. The warmth and earnestness of our devotions, of our endeavours to do God’ s work, will be proportionate to the sincerity and good faith with which we receive into our hearts that truth which the Eternal Father has communicated to us through the Son and by the Holy Spirit. Our salvation from evil here, and from the penalties of evil hereafter, can only be secured by the access which God the Holy Spirit opens through the Son to the Father--an access of which the conditions vary according to circumstances known only to our Judge, but of which the certain assurance is inseparably bound up with knowledge of the Name by which the Church adores the Triune Jehovah, three Persons, one God--Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. (Canon F. C. Cook.) Trusting in God Few words are more frequently used in the Bible than the word faith, and the thing which it is intended to describe is of prime importance. The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews devotes an entire chapter to showing its majesty and weight. In the Epistle to the Romans the word faith plays a leading part, but the word is not defined. Still, the word is not always used in the same sense. Sometimes it is applied to what a man believes, the body of doctrine which constitutes the Divine deposit of the Church. Sometimes the word is used to describe the firmness of a man’ s personal convictions, or the consistency of his conduct, as when it is said that whatever is not of faith is sin. In the great majority of instances, however, faith describes a personal relation of unqualified confidence between man and God. This is the simple root from which the other forms of faith grow. Faith is trust, a trust without suspicion or fear, trust passing into glad and habitual surrender, so that He in whom we trust becomes our teacher, guide, and master. Such trust, if intelligently exercised, promotes fixedness of conviction and steadiness of moral purpose--it issues in deliberate fidelity and loyalty. And when this trust is challenged by the reason, either the reason in me, or the reason in others, the answer forms a bed of truth which takes the name of “ faith,” because it represents the rational basis of trust or conviction. Faith as a system of doctrine simply states what I believe, or why I trust. Faith as fixedness of personal conviction simply describes trust as perfect and habitual. Primarily, therefore, faith is neither a body of doctrine nor a mental and moral quality, but a purely personal relation between myself and another, the relation of trust on the part of man in God. Saving faith is just this, confidence in God issuing in consecration. For it is plain that I can neither trust nor distrust an imaginary being, a being of whose existence I have no evidence. To trust in God is to affirm that He is. Still, that alone does not provoke confidence and surrender. We do not trust all whom we know. Knowledge of another may prevent confidence, as well as provoke it. His character may be such that we are repelled from him, instead of being attracted to him. They in whom we trust must be trustworthy. It depends altogether, therefore, upon what God really is, whether the knowledge of Him is fitted to provoke our trust. It is plain, therefore, that the statement of the Psalmist must not be made to mean that all men will put their trust in God when they come to have a right knowledge of Him. Ignorance is not the sole cause of unbelief and sin. The real thought is this, that wherever men come to put their trust in God, it will be because they have come to know what God really is. Knowledge may not issue in trust, but without knowledge trust cannot be. There is nothing magical about it. Faith, or trust, is not a supernatural gift of God, bestowed or withheld at His pleasure; it is His gift only so far as His enlightened Spirit is His gift, only so far as a true knowledge of what God is is the gift of God. Three conceptions of God we can trace in the history of the world; but of these three there is only one, the Christian conception, which provokes to sweet and sunny trust. We may think of God as the embodiment of almighty power, personally indifferent whether He creates or destroys, with countenance as cold, as impassive, as that of the Egyptian Sphinx, eternally rigid in His will, eternally frigid in His emotions, without either smiles or tears, without hate and without love. Or we may think of Him as the embodiment of almighty energy, rooted in and confluent with eternal reason and absolute justice, never Himself guilty of folly or of wrong, keeping Himself beyond the reach of deserved reproach, but enforcing His law with pitiless severity, claiming His pound of flesh, whether the surgery kills or cures, exacting the debt to the last farthing, deaf to all entreaty, granting no reprieve, proffering no help. Or, we may think of Him as in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself, as righteousness and love incarnate. The first repels; the second chills; the third alone attracts and warms. The first is a monster of cruelty; the second is an iceberg; the third alone is a life-giving sun. The first deifies power; the second deifies reason; the third deifies love, love carrying the cross in its heart, and which is indifferent to none. The gods of paganism simply represented superior power and cunning. They were greater than men, but they were no better than men. Faith in the gods there was none, and there could not be. And it is not otherwise with that more refined conception of God which identifies Him with force, the energy by which all things are constituted, without personal consciousness and without moral qualities, without either love or hate, without either vice or virtue, hearing no prayer, rewarding no obedience, punishing no disobedience. Such a god is only a god in name. He does not care for me; He does not know what care is, and how then can I care for Him; how can I bring myself to trust in Him? Nor is the case much better with that truer and deeper conception of God which identifies Him with the absolute reason and the moral order of the universe. It was impossible for thoughtful men to rest in a conception of God which robbed Him of thought and character. The law of cause and effect assorted itself. The ground of the universe must be possessed of all that appears in the universe. But there is thought, at least in me, and there is conscience, at least in me. And if these be in me, they must be in the First and Universal Cause of all things, whether that cause be regarded as distinct from the universe or not. And so, even the ancients came to look upon the universe as embodied reason and justice. Things were not loose and disjointed; they were compact and ordered. Plato regarded the Idea as formative and eternal energy. Aristotle dilates at length, and with warmth of eloquence, upon the universal presence of design. Science has itself dug the grave of vulgar materialism. A rational origin and a moral end of the universe are everywhere recognised. The very word “ evolution” is a confession of universal reason and of orderly movement, Neither the old nor the new philosophical theism can produce faith. It is like an iceberg, majestic and imposing, but chilling the air. It may produce, it has produced, moral awe and resignation to one’ s lot; but it has not produced, and it cannot produce, trust--with the quiet heart and the radiant face and the laughing, singing lips. It may produce Ecclesiastes, but it cannot write Psalms 23:1-6. For in all this reign of reason it discovers no indulgence for ignorance; in all this reign of justice it hears no gospel of mercy for the sinner. There is no pity for the weak and the wicked. The name of God is not unconscious and unfeeling energy, from which we shrink; nor is it crystallised and crystallising reason and justice, before which we are self-condemned and dumb; but it is Jesus Christ, who came to seek and to save the lost. The omnipotence of God does not make Him attractive to me. The omniscience of God sounds the death knell of my hope. The justice of God thrusts me into the dungeon of despair. In such an atmosphere there cannot be the first breath of faith. But when you make it clear to me that this omnipotent, omniscient, holy God is also infinite in His tenderness, that He loves me and wants me, that He is my Father, and that in Christ His Fatherhood has become Incarnate, so that when I see Him I see the Father, my faith is kindled and my trust knows no misgiving. “ Perfect love casteth out fear.” But perfect love in you and in me is the response to perfect love in God for you and for me. So faith will be perfect, trust in God will be fearless and sunny only as we know God’ s name, and hide ourselves beneath its sheltering wings. Here is the secret of peace; all is well, because God loves me. (A. J. F. Behrends, D. D.) The knowledge of God essential to trust in Him The secret of all holy living is trust in God. The eleventh chapter of Hebrews is the great Bible proof of this. But how to obtain this faith? that is the question. For nothing is harder to a human soul. Diverse answers might be given.1. Ask it of God, for faith is His gift. But our text tells another way. 2. Know God better. “ They that know Thy name will,” etc. In earthly affairs we do not confide where we do not know. And so if God be unknown by us we shall not trust Him. Abraham was called the friend of God--he knew God so well, and so he got another name--the “ Father of the faithful,” because he so trusted in God. Now this knowledge must not be merely theoretical, but that of the heart. Then such “ will” trust in Him; they cannot help it. (C. M. Merry.) Trust in God The Psalm expresses the confidence of Israel in Jehovah. Some say that these Psalms are only patriotic odes, and that we have no right to draw inferences from them in regard to spiritual religion. Now, no doubt, many have read into these Psalms ideas and feelings that are not and could not be there, for they are Christian in their origin. But still we are justified in using them so as to maintain our own faith. For the religion of the Old Testament (compare the old Roman law) had a wonderful expansiveness. No doubt the trust told of here meant Israel’ s confidence that when they went into battle Jehovah would be with them. Now consider-- I. The condition of this trust. Knowledge of Jehovah’ s name, true heartfelt and experimental knowledge. II. The trust itself--a confidence not for infallible success, but that life could not be in vain. III. The reason for this trust. “ Thou hast not forsaken,” etc. Experience proves this true. (J. A. Picton.) Confidence Names in Scripture are descriptive of character in those to whom they are given. I. The name of God therefore tells of His character. The declaration of God’ s name (Exodus 34:1-35). Now this name of God is different from our conceptions. Some rob Him altogether of the awful features of His character, and others of His goodness. All the attributes of Jehovah have met in Christ. Love, justice--see Gethsemane and the Cross as showing God’ s hatred of sin. II. The knowledge of this name. It means the knowledge of approval, of heart assent to what he finds in God. If we wanted to get a child to trust his parent, we would speak not so much of the child’ s duty as of the parent’ s character. Hence, to awaken trust in God, we are to show the excellence and beauty of the character of God. (J. Blundell.) Vital knowledge necessary to real peace At many a martyr’ s stake, at many a dying bed, in many a scene of trial, these words have been proved true. His people have felt God near to them at these times, and this is file God in whom we must all trust. And this trust is through knowledge.1. It is not a commonplace possession of every man. Far from it. What is it? It is not mere hearsay nor any theoretical knowledge of God. 2. But it is the knowledge of love. Love gains knowledge as nothing else can. The world does not love, and so does not know God. 3. And it is in harmony with the convictions of the understanding. 4. It is the knowledge of experience, resulting from holding communion with God. Love leads to such communion, and that to experience. We learn by experience the delicate excellencies of a character, which we could never have seen by a momentary glance; we understand its harmonious proportions which a cursory look would never have shown us. The man that loves to hear the ocean breaking on the shore, will detect harmonies in what is monotonous to everyone beside. Now this knowledge of experience or of communion is what God’ s people have of Him. But you must make real effort to know His name. The mere repetition of Lord, Lord, will do but little. But to utter His name in the fulness of knowledge is to uncurtain heaven, and see its glories once. But if we will not know God as we should, then we are sure to misjudge Him. A guilty conscience makes everyone suppose that God is nothing but severe. And then you cannot trust. Look again; would you “ see Him as He is” ? See Him in His love, in His sacrifice for you, and then you will learn to trust Him. And this is most important, for there is DO shelter but in Him, and unless we trust Him we cannot enter that shelter. And that means death. Oh, then, may God give us to know His name. (P. B. Power, M. A.) The name of God The name of God is the revelation of the Divine perfections, through His works and Word. He is-- I. A just God and a Saviour. Much was said in words and by promises under the old dispensation bearing witness to this name. The sacrifices did the same. But Christ was the great witness of this name. The servants of Benhadad believed in the name the kings of Israel had for mercy, and therefore submitted themselves. And the Publican believed in God as merciful, and therefore appealed to Him. Thus the Lord proclaimed His name to Moses. And at last that mercy of God appeared in Christ. All His works while on earth confirmed it. And He was made perfect through suffering, made perfect in mercy thereby. II. As Almighty. That name is impressed upon creation, but is seen most in Christ in delivering His Church. And in His resurrection and His dominion over the empire of death, and His upholding of His kingdom in the world, and giving success to the preaching of the Gospel. III. As righteousness. This is seen in His atonement, whereby God’ s righteousness is declared, so that He can be just, and yet the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. IV. As wisdom. This seen in creation, but yet more in redemption. For in it the law and its transgressor are exalted together. Once the law might have said, “ To spare him will be my disgrace” ; but the wisdom of God appointed that to spare him would be its highest honour. The person of Christ is the chief wonder of this wisdom. This is the treasury of the Divine name. In Him all fulness dwells. V. And this name will be trusted by all who know it. Many have heard of it who do not know it. The way to know it is to read it in Christ. (D. Charles.) The effect of knowing God By those who know God’ s name, are meant those who know God Himself and His nature. Trusting in God, does very naturally take in all the expectations we have of what He hath promised, and knowing His name is a raising our minds to a just sense of His nature, by the contemplation of His works of creation and providence. Apply to three points-- I. The immortality of man. Men stumble at this, that our weak race, which is hasting to a change that hath all the appearance of ending, should not really die, but live on, and have their share in all the revolutions which the world is to undergo, as long as God Himself shall have His being. Consider what we have in the knowledge of God, and His works, which may further us in the belief of it. There must be an eternity of time and duration. Through it God must surely preserve His being, and He surely will preserve a world. He will always have creatures before Him. Is it most likely that God should choose to continue creatures before Him, by giving eternity to the souls of men: or by letting these die, and end as they do in appearance, and by raising up other new ones in their places? If the souls of men are really abolished, and end at death, I do not know; but we may say that they are the only substances in the whole compass of beings that are so. If the eternal duration be granted, there is-- II. The greatness of the glory and reward. Descriptions of heaven are but borrowed expressions from such things as we understand, but the happiness itself is something that is greater than we can yet conceive. The fabric of the world, wonderful as it is, is really a thousand times greater, and more wonderful in itself than it is in our thoughts. For we only behold creation through a perspective. III. The punishments of the other world. To their fears of these, unbelieving men oppose the great goodness of God. But consider God’ s providences and judgments upon us now. Evidently, we ought not to argue that God’ s goodness will not suffer Him to punish, for it does. (Francis Hutchinson, D. D.) Thou, Lord, hast not forsaken them that seek Thee. Dilemma and deliverance Let us note-- I. A fiery dart of Satan constantly shot at the people of God. It is the suggestion that God has forsaken us. Of all the arrows of hell it is the most sharp, the most poisonous, the most deadly. It is sent against us--1. When we have fallen into sin. Then comes the suggestion, this fiery dart, “ Ah, wretch that you are, God will never forgive that sin; you have been so ungrateful, such a hypocrite, such a liar.” 2. In time of great trouble. The deep waters are around and almost overflow you; just then, when in the very deepest part of the stream, Satan sends this suggestion into your very soul--thy God hath forsaken thee. 3. In prospect of some great toil and enterprise. When the trumpet is sounded for some dreadful battle, when there is a deep soil to be ploughed, there comes this dark thought. And this arrow is most grievous, and most dangerous; and it bears the full impress of its Satanic maker. II. The Divine buckler which God has provided against this fiery dart. It is the fact that God hath not, no never, forsaken them that fear Him. How dreadful to think that the child of God might fall and perish. What witnesses these are to the truth of the text. From Abraham down to Paul. And your own experience, if you will be honest with yourself, will prove it yet again. And look at the teachings of nature as to the fidelity of God. We believe in the truth and love of earthly friends. Shall we not believe in God? III. Let us wear this buckler, and so use our precious privilege to seek God in the day of trouble. You, afflicted ones, you oppressed with the sense of sin. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Psalms 9:13-20 Consider my trouble.A note of trouble in a triumph Psalm The second part of the Psalm begins with Psalms 9:13. The prayer in that verse is the only trace of trouble in the Psalm. The rest is triumph and exaltation. This, at first discordant, note has sorely exercised commentators; and the violent solution that the whole of the Cheth stanza (verses 13, 14) should be regarded as “ the cry of the meek,” quoted by the Psalmist, and therefore be put in inverted commas (though adopted by Delitzsch and Cheyne), is artificial and cold. There is little difficulty in the connection. The victory has been completed over certain enemies, but there remain others; and the time for praise unmingled with petition has not yet come for the Psalmist, as it never comes for any of us in this life. Quatre Bras is won, but Waterloo has to be fought tomorrow. The prayer takes account of the dangers still threatening, but it only glances at these, and then once more turns to look with hope on the accomplished deliverance. The thought of how God had lifted the suppliant up from the very gates of death heartens him to pray for all further mercy needed. Death is the lord of a gloomy prison house, the gates of which open inwards only, and permit no egress. On its very threshold the Psalmist stood. But God had, lifted him thence,, and the remembrance wings his prayer. The “ gates of the daughter of Zion” are in sharp, happy contrast with the frowning portals of death. A city’ s gates are the place of cheery life, stir, gossip, business. Anything proclaimed there flies far. There the Psalmist resolves that he will tell his story of rescue, which he believes was granted that it might be told. God’ s end is the spread of His name, not for any good to Him, but because to know it is life to us. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Psalms 9:16 With long life will I satisfy him.Healthy religion Through the mistake of its friends religion has been chiefly associated with sickbeds and grave yards. It is high time this thing were changed, and that religion, instead of being represented as a hearse to carry out the dead, should be represented as a chariot in which the living are to triumph. Religion, so far from subtracting from one’ s vitality, is a glorious addition. It is sanative, curative, hygienic. It is good for every part of man. Religion has only just touched our world. Give it full power for a few centuries, and who can tell what will be the strength of man, and the beauty of woman, and the longevity of all! Practical religion is ever the friend of longevity. I. It makes the care of our health a positive Christian duty. Whether we shall keep early or late hours, take food digestible or indigestible, etc., is often referred to the realm of whimsicality; but the Christian man lifts this whole problem of health into the accountable and the Divine. The body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, and to deface its altars, or mar its walls, or crumble its pillars, is a God-defying sacrilege. II. It is a protest against dissipations which injure and destroy the health. Bad men and women live very short lives. Their sins kill them. There are many aged ones who would have been dead twenty-five years ago but for the defences and equipoise of religion. III. It takes the worry out of our temporalities. It is not work but worry that kills men. When a man becomes a Christian he makes over to God not only his affections but his family, his business, his reputation, his body, his mind, his soul--everything. He gives God the management of his affairs. If the nervous and feverish people of the world would try this almighty sedative, they would live twenty-five years longer under its soothing power. It is not chloral or morphine that they want; it is more of the Gospel of Christ. IV. It removes all corroding care about a future existence. Everyone wants to know what is to become of him. There are people who fret themselves to death for fear of dying. The Gospel offers you perfect peace now and hereafter. What do you want in the future? This is the robust, healthy religion that will tend to make you live long in this world, and in the world to come give you eternal life. (T. De Witt Talmage, D. D.) Psalms 9:17 The wicked shall be turned into hell.A description of the wicked I. The characters specified.1. All those who wilfully violate the plain and positive precepts of God. Drinkers. Profane persons. Those who dishonour God’ s holy-day. The dishonest. 2. All the persecutors of the people of God. 3. All hypocrites and impostors in religion. 4. All must be denominated wicked who are unregenerate. Wickedness is not a superficial defect, but a profound radical principle, deeply rooted in the heart of man. The “ nations that forget God” refers to heathen nations whose gods were idols. The wicked are described as they who “ forget God” --in His character as Benefactor and as Sovereign. He forgets the all-prevailing presence of God, and he forgets the Word of God. II. The affirmation made concerning Him. “ Turned into hell.” Note, the place into which they shall he turned; “ the manner how it will be done; and the certainty of the affirmation. “ Hell” describes--1. A place of punishment; 2. The nature of the punishment; 3. The exquisite sense of punishment the wicked will feel; 4. The companions of their punishment; 5. The perpetuity of it. “ The wicked shall be turned into hell.” This shall be done unexpectedly, suddenly, irresistibly. The certainty of the affirmation in the text may be inferred-- 1. From the general consent of mankind;2. From the justice of the moral governor of the universe;3. From the moral unfitness of the wicked for any other situation;4. And from the testimony of Holy Scripture. (Sketches of Four Hundred Sermons.) Hell for the wicked I. The place, or state, here mentioned. “ Sheol” is often put for “ the grave.” Not to be so understood in the text, because hell is here peculiar to the wicked, and the grave is common to good and bad. It signifies the place or state of the lost. It has two branches. The punishment of loss, and the punishment of sense. An eternal privation of the blessed and glorious presence of God, and all the joy, comfort, and happiness that is attending thereupon. The punishment of loss is further aggravated from a threefold consideration.1. The possibility of preventing it, if there had been care taken about it. 2. The occasion of this loss, and the way of falling into it. 3. The beholding of others to enjoy that happiness which themselves are deprived of. The punishment of sense; which consists in the unspeakable torments inflicted upon soul and body forever and ever. Set forth by “ unquenchable fire,” because fire being one of those things which is most grievous to corporal sense, is therefore fittest to express this condition to us. II. The persons adjudged.1. The comprehensive representation in the word “ wicked.” A word of great latitude and extent, including all open and notorious sinners. All close and reserved hypocrites. All carnal and unregenerate persons whatsoever. 2. The emphatic representation. “ All the nations that forget God.” The subjects of the punishment are “ all the nations,” all that prove to be wicked. There is ground for this in God’ s power and omnipotency. The importunity of sin and guilt makes for this likewise. The guilt fastened upon these subjects. That is, forgetting of God. Apply to the essence of God; the nature of God; the Word of God; the providence of God. Consider then, the doom and sentence passed upon all such persons as described; and use the passage as a caution and admonition. Look at our general state and condition in grace. Look to our particular life and conversation. (T. Horton, D. D.) The history of ungodliness I. Its germ. Forgetfulness of God. This is common. “ Nations.” Contrary to man’ s true nature, obligations, and circumstances. II. Its development. It leads to all kind of wickedness. Both Scripture and experience prove this. To forget God is to sin without restraint, without remorse, and without bounds. III. Its consummation. It is “ Hell.” This is inevitable and certain. There the wicked are abandoned by God, without excuse, without resource, without hope, forever. Consider this ye that forget God. (W. Forsyth, M. A.) The sure hell Heaven and hell are opposite states of being or conditions of humanity. Heaven is a present possession, not a mere future blessedness; a temper of mind and heart rather than a special locality. Hell is the opposite of heaven. Does heaven mean the service and consciousness of the love of God? Then hell will prove the selfishness and degradation of separation from God. If we say that heaven is inward happiness and peace, we must also say that hell is dissatisfaction and unrest. Character is the standard which determines whether a man is in heaven or in hell. Theories (concerning hell) once held by almost the entire Church of Christ are honeycombed with doubt and disbelief, and, to a large extent, the very idea of a future punishment of the wicked is regarded as but little more than a delusion of superstitious fancy. What has brought about such a revolution of sentiment? Probably the frightful and unworthy distortions of the doctrine, as proclaimed by the various creeds and churches. In Scripture we find no sure ground for any belief in a material hell, but a distinct and unmistakable enunciation of the fact of a natural hell of cause and effect. That wilful wrong-doing will inevitably be followed by its just punishment is the teaching of every Bible reference to the fact. Evil deserves, and calls for, punishment. And death does not change character. After death we shall be as we were before death, or the future can have no possible meaning for us. The irresistible laws of the moral world steadily bring the punishment. I make no absolute statement concerning the great problem of retribution; I formulate no theory; but it seems to me there is a truer and nobler satisfaction to Divine justice than the tortures of the damned. I believe evil will be followed by fearful penalty, for every principle of right and law of God demands that it should. Further I may not go; for justice there can be none, where mercy is not. What God is I know. He is wise, and sees the best. I can, I will trust Him. (George Bainton.) Awful words Yes, so awful that it seems almost presumption to preach on them. But woe is unto us if we do not warn the sinner. The words show that God doth regard (Psalms 94:17). I. The characters described.1. The wicked. This means not all mankind, though all are wicked, but gross transgressors.2. The nations that forget God. Practical atheists. How many do this? II. The future portion decreed them. They “ shall be turned into hell.” There will be--1. Tormenting pains.2. A sleepless conscience.3. Mutual reproaches.4. Unrestrained and full-grown passions.5. The certainty of eternal despair. Then come this very hour to Jesus. (J. Jowett, M. A.) The existence, punishment, and duration of hell I. Let us meet some false opinions concerning hell and establish its real existence. The Bible maintains it. But consider--1. The ancient belief is found both in sacred and profane writers. We read of it in the Old Testament. Moses tells of the anger of God burning “ unto the lowest hell.” Homer speaks of Ajax sending men to hell. And other passages show that the ancients believed in hell. 2. Some deny the existence of any hell beyond the bounds of time, and assert that through God’ s love all mankind shall be saved. But this contradicts Scripture, and confounds the distinctions between right and wrong. 3. Others say that hell is here in our present sufferings and that there is no other, but that beyond the grave mankind will be glorified. But then, why should Christ die? What pardon do we need if we suffer all the penalty of our sin here? And our sufferings would be the cause of our salvation. 4. Some assert that conscience is hell. But conscience was not designed to be either man’ s full reward or penalty, but only his guide. It is a witness, a judge, and to some extent an executioner. 5. Others, that the grave is the only hell the Bible speaks of, and that there is no future punishment. But only in 1 Corinthians 15:55 can “ hades” be consistently translated “ grave.” In all other places it means hell. II. The duration of hell eternal. Some say that after a while the torments of the damned will be terminated, and the damned will then be saved. But this is to make hell the Saviour, and not Christ. And the word “ everlasting” is the true rendering of Aionios. And how can a man be regenerated in hell; but unless he be born again he cannot enter the Kingdom of God? And for the protection of the righteous the wicked shall be shut off from them. III. In what the punishment of hell consists.1. The loss of all worldly good. 2. The society the lost will find there. Vile men and devils. 3. The lake of Fire. If this be figurative, then how awful must be the punishment which requires such a figure. 4. The loss of the glories of heaven. 5. And chief of all, of God Himself. (W. Barns.) Hell God’ s cemetery for the corrupt “ Does it not seem cruel to put a loved form in the grave damn and cold? A wife for instance, who has been shielded from every breath one week, the next she is left here in the rain and exposure.” So we queried, and the answer taught us a lesson. “ It is necessary to do so, for the good of the family and the community; it does seem cruel, and death, as it is the consequence of sin is always cruel, yet the putting away of the dead is kindness. Hell is God’ s cemetery for dead and corrupt men; it is for souls what graveyards are for bodies. It may seem cruel of God to put souls away, but being dead it is necessary, indeed it is kindness to the living members of His family.” (W. Luff.) The end of the wicked “ All wickedness came originally with the wicked one from hell; thither it will be again remitted, and they who hold on its side must accompany it on its return to that place of torment, there to be shut up forever. The true state, both of nations and the individuals of which they are composed, is to be estimated from one single circumstance, namely, whether in their doings they remember or forget God. Remembrance of Him is the well-spring of virtue; forgetfulness of Him, the fountain of vice. (George Horne, D. D.) And all the nations that forget God.--The hopeless state of the heathen The time was when all the nations of the earth knew, and acknowledged, the only living and true God. This time, however, was of short duration. Soon after their separation from each other, they lost their religious traditions, grew vain in their imaginations, and degenerated into all kinds of idolatry. As the king of God’ s peculiar people, David viewed all the heathen nations as his personal enemies; and as a prophet of the true Church, he viewed all the heathen nations as enemies to the true God and the true religion. Hence it is, that he so often blends his enemies with the enemies of God, and speaks of both as exposed to both temporal and eternal ruin. The text is a description of all the heathen world, who are destitute of Divine revelation. To make it appear that the heathen will be finally lost, observe--1. That God, many years ago, gave them up to judicial blindness and hardness of heart. Paul, speaking of the heathen, says, “ God gave them up to a reprobate mind.” 2. When God formed the seed of Abraham into a distinct national and visible Church, He shut the door against the heathen nations. The present heathen nations are as ignorant and wicked as the ancient heathen nations were. 3. When God sent Christ into the world to bring life and immortality to light, He directed Him to preach to the Jews, and not to the Gentiles. 4. When God sent the apostles to preach to heathens, He sent them to turn them from heathenism to Christianity. 5. God has told us that He intends to convert all the heathen nations, and that He intends to do it by the instrumentality of the Gospel. Improvement. (1) If God will not save the heathen who are destitute of the Gospel, then we have no reason to think He will save the Jews, while they disbelieve the Gospel. (2) If God will not save the heathen, then we have no reason to believe He will save atheists, deists, and those who deny the fundamental principles of Christianity. (3) He will not save any, under the Gospel, on the ground of their external obedience, morality, or virtue. It appears, from what has been said, that the heathen are in a deplorable and perishing condition. (N. Emmons, D. D.) What are our memories That we forget is our commonest excuse for any omission, in great matters or in small. The excuse is put forward, not only as sufficient ground for pardon of our omission, but as one saving the credit of our intentions. In the text and elsewhere the people of God are warned that they will be held closely and severely responsible for forgetting God. There is no part of our mind’ s powers which we reckon to be less under our control than our memories. It does not follow because we have not the command, that therefore we might not, and ought not, to have it. What are our memories? The recalling of things that have made an impression on us. The impression may be made at once by some striking circumstance, or it may be the result of frequent and diligent attention to some particular object. The ministering of our memory to our thoughts will depend, therefore, upon what the character of our interests has been in the different stages of our life, for according to this will be the character of our impressions. It must be one of the trials of these who have lived sinful lives, and after turned to God, that their memories will recall to their involuntary thoughts the scenes and works of other days, and contaminate with them their after endeavours after holier reflections. The memory must and will be occupied. What is the great conclusion? That if our memories depend on our impressions, and we have not remembered the Lord our God, then we have not been impressed by deep thought of Him. The utter confusion of such a sentence comes upon us if we consider it more piecemeal. It means this, that upon each opportunity of becoming deeply impressed by the thoughts of God, we have remained unimpressed, and, therefore, forgetful of His greatness. Time would fail us, if we were to attempt to show how the sinful nature of man resists the varied impressions he might receive through the innumerable manifestations of the attributes of our Almighty Father. Memory is a minister of good to the good, of evil to the evil, for it is our former selves waiting upon us. (Archdeacon Mildmay.) Forgetfulness of God Familiarity with the words of the Bible makes them lose their force to us. The Lord’ s Prayer, the Liturgy generally. But this is no argument against a form of prayer. If we are to give up a form because of this danger, then we may give up reading the Bible for the same reason. But formalism is our fault, not that of the form we use. And this familiarity tells upon the truth taught in text. I. Men’ s forgetfulness of God. And yet we ought to fear, for if in David’ s day, when men were under the law, our text was true, how much more now in our state of greater privilege. See how we ward off the blow threatened by the idea that we are not of the number of those who forget God. This is true in a sense, for no one can quite forget God. Conscience will not let him. Not the infidel even, still less the profligate. The text, therefore, tells of something short of total forgetfulness. Who, then, are they who forget God?1. Those who do not habitually remember Him. Such persons may be respectable before men. 2. Those who are afraid to do right because of the ridicule of the world. 3. Those who think that He will not punish sin. II. This danger of forgetfulness presses on us all. And it is worse in us than in David, for we have the Holy Spirit given us in our baptism. If we call on Him He will help us to resist temptation. Pleading forgetfulness only adds to our fault if we fall. Therefore let us seek to remember God. (F. E. Paget, M. A.) Tender words of terrible apprehension Many ministers of Christ have been accused of taking pleasure in preaching upon this terrible subject of “ the wrath to come.” It were strange, indeed, if it were so. To preach Christ is our delight, the joy of our heart; but while it is bard to preach the terrors of the law, it were harder still to bear the doom which must rest upon the silent minister, the unfaithful watchman who did not warn the sinner, and whose blood must therefore be required at the watchman’ s hands. None ever spoke as did Jesus on this terrible theme; no preacher ever used figures of such glaring horror as did He. Upon such a subject we cannot afford to trifle. Must the eternal and holy Son of God offer up His life for us, and is the world to come a thing about which men can idly sport or dream? But this forgetting of God. I. Let me charge this sin upon you. Gross sinners will receive their doom. God will not treat them with leniency; He will not wink at their follies, “ the wicked shall be turned into hell.” But observe their companions--“ those who forget God.” Now I charge this sin upon many. Sinner, thou forgettest--1. God’ s infinite majesty;2. His mercies;3. His laws;4. His presence;5. His justice. II. The reason of this forgetfulness.1. It is because the thought of Him makes the sinner afraid. The guilty man always dreads the eye of the judge. 2. It is irksome to thee. Thy heart revolts. Thou sayest, “ Why should I think of God?” 3. Such thinking and going on in sin are incompatible, and thou preferrest thy sins. Sin loved, God is abhorred. III. Your excuses for it. You say--1. A man is excusable if he has not had enough in early youth to impress God upon his memory. You, who have been trained by godly parents, cannot say that. 2. To think of God always is very hard. Have you ever made the attempt? How, then, do you know it is hard work? Your forgetting never caused you to weep. If it were not wilful and wicked forgetting you would repent of it. Everything around you reminds you of God, and what warnings many of you have had. IV. I would persuade you to repentance. I would plead--relying on the Holy Ghost.1. By the terrors of the law. In hell the thought of God shall be as a dagger in your soul. “ Son, remember,” that was the word of Abraham to Dives in hell, and an awful word it was. But 2. By the mercies of God. He saith, “ As I live, I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, but had rather that he should turn unto Me and live.” There is hope for thee in Christ Jesus. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Psalms 9:18 For the needy shall not always be forgotten: the expectation of the poor shall not perish forever.Good cheer for the needy The value of a text depends very much upon the man to whom it comes. The song of the troubadour was very charming to Richard, because he knew the responsive verses. The trail is full of meaning to the Indian, for his quick eye knows how to follow it. So will those who are spiritually poor and needy eagerly lay hold on this promise. It is literally true that the needy are remembered of God. In bitter times He will so order governments that they shall look with peculiar interest upon the poor. In text we have-- I. Two bitter experiences ended.1. The needy shall not always be forgotten by former friends and admirers; in arrangements made and plans projected; in judgments formed and in praises distributed; in help estimated and reliance expressed. Such are usually left out of our calculation, forgotten as a dead man out of mind. But this will not be always so. 2. “ The expectation of the poor shall not perish forever.” You have been disappointed, in your natural expectation from justice, gratitude, relationship, age, sympathy, charity, etc.; in your confidence in man; in your judgments of yourself; in your expectations of providence. II. Two sad fears removed. 1. Not forever shall you be forgotten. You shall not meet with final forgetfulness. Nor in the day of severe trouble. In the night of grief and alarm for sin. In the hour of death. 2. Nor shall your expectation perish. Your weakness shall not frustrate the power of God, nor your sin dry up the grace of God. Your constitutional infirmities shall not cause your overthrow. III. Two sweet promises given.1. You shall not be overlooked by the Father, Son, or Holy Ghost. 2. You shall not be disappointed. Peace shall visit your heart, sin vanquished, and an abundant entrance into glory. Then, hope in God. (C. H. Spurgeon.) . Psalms 10:1-18 Psalms 10:1-18 Why standest Thou afar off, O Lord?A theological difficulty, a haughty impiety, an earnest prayer I. A theological difficulty. “ Why standest Thou afar off, O Lord?” Some great enormity was now under the eyes of David. We know not what. He had witnessed many such scenes. They have a tendency to suggest that God is indifferent. Even Christ felt this. “ Why hast Thou forsaken Me?” Why does not God interfere? We cannot fully answer the question, but we may consider--1. That God respects that freedom of action with which He has endowed man. 2. The sufferings which the wicked inflict upon the good are often disciplinary. Faith rests itself deeper. 3. There will be a period of retribution, “ For all these things God will bring thee into judgment.” II. A haughty impiety. “ The wicked in his pride doth persecute the poor. See this impiety--1. In its conduct towards men. It is cruel--“ persecutes.” It is fraudulent--“ his mouth is full of deceit and fraud,” both in speech--“ under his tongue,” etc., and practice--“ he sitteth in the lurking places,” etc. 2. In its conduct towards God. There is here--1. An expressed contempt for the Eternal. “ For the wicked boasteth of his heart’ s desire,” etc. 2. A practical disregard for the Eternal, “ God is not in all his thoughts.” He is without God. 3. An awful calumny on the Eternal. “ He hath said in his heart, God hath forgotten me.” Haughty impiety indeed. III. An earnest prayer. Arise, O Lord; O God, lift up Thine hand. He desires--1. A merciful interposition on behalf of the good. “ Forget not the humble.” Piety ever breathes its prayers to heaven for such. 2. A righteous interposition against the wicked. “ Break Thou the arm,” etc. “ Seek out his wickedness,” etc. We cannot justify this part of David’ s prayers, which were often as imperfect as many parts of his conduct. IV. An exultant faith. “ The Lord is King forever and ever.” David believed--1. In the perpetuity of God’ s Kingdom. 2. In His attention to human entreaties. “ Lord, Thou hast heard the desire of the humble.” 3. In His vindication of the right. “ To judge the fatherless,” etc. The wicked man is in an especial sense “ the man of the earth.” Sprung from, living by and for it, and it only. (D. Thomas, D. D.) Man’ s cry for a solution of the felt distance of his Maker There are many other passages which express the same sentiment (Jeremiah 14:8). This cry implies--1. That the distance is unnatural; and 2. Undesirable. Hence the question, How can this distance be explained? There are three sources to which alone we can look for light. I. Human philosophy. It may theorise thus--1. That God is too great to allow of close connection with Him. This is the Epicurean view. But no true thinker can accept it. 2. That the cause of the felt distance is God’ s method of agency. This is mediatory and uniform; not direct, but indirect. He stands concealed behind the machinery of the universe. But this no satisfactory explanation. He acts mediatorially in heaven, and yet all there feel His presence. And there is uniformity in heaven also, but neither does that hinder the realisation of His presence. II. Speculative theology. This says that man by sin has offended God, and hence God has in anger withdrawn from men, and will not return until His wrath is appeased by sacrifice. But this explanation fails--1. Because inconsistent with the immutability of the Divine character. He cannot pass from love to anger, from the placid to the furious. It is impossible. 2. And inconsistent also with the moral excellence of God. Can what is unamiable with man be right with God? I trow not. III. Divine revelation. It teaches that we by our sin have departed from God. The sinner is the prodigal son. Now,1. This is a satisfactory solution. When we have sinned we feel God distant from us, and, moreover, indignant with us. So He appears to the sinful mind. In reality God is near him and loves him infinitely. But the Bible often presents God as He appears to the mind, as it speaks of natural objects as they appear to our senses. And 2. It is a vital solution. Knowing the cause is indispensable to its removal. And this the Bible teaches. (J. Parker, D. D.) Psalms 10:4 The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God. The wicked, from pride, refuse to seek God In this Psalm we have a full-length portrait of a careless, unawakened sinner, drawn by the unerring pencil of truth. Two of the features which compose this portrait are delineated in our text.1. An unwillingness to seek after God. 2. Pride, which causes that unwillingness. I. The wicked will not seek after God. They do not, because they will not. To this purpose they obstinately and unalterably adhere, unless their wills are subdued by Divine grace.1. The wicked will not seek after the knowledge of God. This is evident from Scripture statement, and from the experience of all ages. The wicked will not pray for the knowledge of God, nor improve their opportunities for acquiring the knowledge of God. 2. The wicked will not seek the favour of God. Knowing nothing experimentally of His excellence and perfections, and ignorant of their entire dependence on Him for happiness, they cannot of course realise that the favour of God is life, and His loving kindness is better than life. 3. The wicked will not seek after the likeness of God. That they do not at all resemble Him is certain. They do not wish or endeavour to resemble Him. There is, indeed, in their view, no reason why they should. There are but two motives which can make any being wish to resemble another. A wish to obtain the approbation of the person imitated; or admiration of something in his character, and a consequent desire to inscribe it into our own. But the wicked can be influenced by neither of these motives to seek after conformity to God. 4. The wicked will not seek after communion with God. Communion supposes some degree of resemblance to the being whose communion is sought, and a participation of the same nature, views, and feelings. II. The reason why the wicked will not seek God.1. Pride renders God a disagreeable object of contemplation to the wicked, and a knowledge of Him as undesirable. Pride consists in an unduly exalted opinion of one’ s self. It is therefore impatient of a rival, hates a superior, and cannot endure a master. 2. The pride of the wicked prevents them from seeking the knowledge of God, by rendering them unwilling to be taught. Pride is almost as impatient of a teacher as of a master. 3. Pride renders the wicked unwilling to use the means by which alone the knowledge of God can be acquired. It renders them unwilling to study the Bible in a proper manner. Pride also renders the man unwilling to pray. And it prevents him from improving public and private opportunities for acquiring religious instruction. The pride of the wicked will not allow them to seek after the favour or the likeness of God. It makes them unwilling to seek after communion with God. Reflections--1. How evident it is that salvation is wholly of grace, and that all the wicked, if left to themselves, will certainly perish. 2. How depraved, how infatuated, how unreasonable do the wicked appear! 3. How foolish, absurd, ruinous, blindly destructive of its own object does pride appear! The subject may be applied for purposes of self-examination. (E. Payson, D. D.) The pride of man restrains seeking after God Christianity made but few converts amongst the disciples of Zeno. Why should it have been so? With their simple and self-denying habits, why were they not attracted by the purer morals of the Gospel? and with their superiority to the surrounding superstitions, why did they not hail that unknown God whom Cleanthus had sung, and whom Paul now preached? The answer we fear is to be found in that little word pride--that little word which is still so great a hindrance to many wise men after the flesh. Amongst the Greeks and Romans the Stoics occupied the same place as the Pharisees amongst the Jews. The very foundation of their theory was to make the virtuous man self-sufficing, and usually they got so far as to make him self-sufficient. In cutting off all other vices the Stoic, like the cynic before him, fostered to enormous magnitude pride or self-complacency, and, as Archer Butler says in his Ancient Philosophy, sought not so much to please the Deity as to be His equal. (J. Hamilton, D. D.) God is not in all his thoughts. The sinfulness of forgetting God A characteristic mark of the ungodly man. Forgetfulness of God is the concealed spring from which the evil and bitter streams of outward wickedness derive their origin. I. What is intended by having God in all our thoughts. It is not meant that we should have our meditations constantly and invariably fixed upon God. Nor that the most pious and spiritual state of mind will disqualify a man for transacting the proper business of his station. We are here reminded of the necessity of an abiding and habitual impression of our obligations and accountableness to God. The text implies that we should take God as our portion, and expect our highest and best happiness from Him. Whatever it be from which a man expects his chief good, to that his thoughts naturally revert whenever he is not compelled to fix them upon some other object. It will be the favourite topic of his meditations. II. The consequence of the want of this principle. The man described here is one who lives in a state of habitual forgetfulness of God; acts without an abiding sense of his obligation and accountableness to Him; lives to please himself, rather than Him who made him. This state of mind is the very thing that leads to every act of gross outward sin. Conclusion:1. Learn not to be satisfied with ourselves, because men approve of us. They cannot at all look at our motives. 2. If, in order to our being approved of God, it is necessary that we should have such a constant regard to Him, is it not clear that the retrospect of our lives will show us that we have been lamentably defective in His sight? Our subject may remind us of our exceeding sinfulness, and of our need of the mercy and grace of God as revealed in the Gospel of His Son. (T. Scott, MA.) Who are the wicked The text says that God is not in their thoughts.1. This is because of practical atheism. God is put out of the way by various theories. One makes the world ten thousand years old, and another ten million. The Bible is sneered at as an old, antiquated book. 2. Ignorance of God’ s character is another reason why God is not in men’ s thoughts. We, as sinful and blinded creatures, cannot justly comprehend a holy God. Even Christ’ s disciples but poorly comprehended God’ s character as revealed in Christ. Much more in the case of the sinner is it true that God is not in his thoughts on account of the blindness of sin. Justice and holiness are obscured. 3. A misconception of their own moral condition follows. They lose sight of God because they are not awake to their own ill-desert. 4. Another reason why God is not in the wicked man’ s thought is because of absorption in the things of the world. The demands of business should be met, but those of God are not to be forgotten. Men know that there is a future life, though some may argue against it. The Sabbath is given as one preparative. (J. H. Hamilton, M. D.) The place where God is not God is everywhere, and yet the verse tells us where He is not--in the thoughts of wicked men. This is--1. A notorious fact. Millions live day by day as if God were not. 2. An astounding fact. It is unnatural, impious, calamitous. Why, then, is God not in their thoughts? I. Negatively.1. It is not because there can be any doubt as to the importance of thinking of God. 2. Nor because there is any lack of means to remind men of Him. All things are full of Him. 3. Nor because of the unbroken regularity of the material world. In heaven, where there is the same regularity, their minds ever delight in Him. 4. Nor because man has no consciousness of restraint in action. But all holy souls are equally free. II. Positively. The cause is in the heart.1. Fear--the guilty conscience. 2. Dislike; hence men exclude God from their thoughts. Learn, the appalling wickedness of man, and his need of Christ. (D. Thomas, D. D.) A searching description of the wicked The heart of the wicked is the only place in the creation of God whence, if we may so speak, the Creator is banished. Inquire-- I. Into the causes of such a state of mind. They penetrate deeper than may at first sight appear. It is nothing temporary or accidental that causes the forgetfulness of which the Psalmist complains; the evil is general and radical. It has its source in our original apostasy; it extends to us all by nature; no man is free from its influence. Subordinate to this primary and leading cause there are individual causes which, though but results of the former, become in their turn new and fruitful causes of the same effect. The constant pressure of worldly concerns, even when lawful, tends to banish God from our thoughts. But mere inattention is not the whole cause why God is not more in the hearts of men. They wilfully and deliberately banish Him from their thoughts. They are anxious to forget Him. And the reason is that they do not truly love God. What we love is always welcome to our thoughts. II. Into the evils resulting therefrom. In fact, all the vice that exists among mankind arises from their not having God in their thoughts. Did men seriously think upon God they would not dare to sin as they too often do. III. Into the method of overcoming this unhappy state of character.1. Learn to contemplate the Almighty in the magnitude of His terrors, 2. Let us view God in the abundance of His love. (Christian Observer.) A discourse on habitual devotion It is characteristic of a good man that he “ sets the Lord always before him,” whereas it is said of the wicked, “ God is not in all their thoughts.” This seems to furnish a pretty good test of the state of a man’ s mind with respect to virtue and vice. The wicked man is a practical atheist. The good man sees God in everything, and everything in God. An habitual regard of God is the most effectual means of advancing us from the more imperfect to the more perfect state. Recommend this duty by an enumeration of its happy effects.1. An habitual regard to God in our actions tends greatly to keep us firm in our adherence to our duty. It has pleased Divine Providence to place man in a state of trial and probation. This world is strictly such. God has placed us under laws. We are certainly less liable to forget these laws, and our obligation to observe them, when we keep up an habitual regard to our great Lawgiver and Judge, when we consider Him as present with us. 2. An habitual regard to God promotes an uniform cheerfulness of mind. It tends to dissipate melancholy and anxiety. 3. Fits a man for the business of this life, giving a peculiar presence and intrepidity of mind, and is therefore the best support in difficult enterprises of any kind. Consider the most proper and effectual methods of promoting this temper of mind. (1) Endeavour to divest your minds of too great a multiplicity of the cares of this world;(2) Do not omit stated times of worshipping God by prayer, public and private;(3) Omit no opportunity of turning your thoughts to God;(4) Never fail to have recourse to God upon every occasion of strong emotion of mind;(5) Labour to free your minds of all consciousness of guilt and self-reproach;(6) Cultivate in your minds just ideas of God. (J. Priestley, LL. D.) Psalms 10:5 Thy judgments are far above, out of his sight.Man’ s judgment at variance with God’ s There is an obtuseness and impenetrability that attach to the mind of man respecting the character of moral obligation that prove absolutely invincible to all his powers of meditation and research. This inability is of a moral, not of a natural kind, having its origin not in his natural constitution, but in his adventitious circumstances. The powers of the human mind receive a wrong direction. Reason turns renegade, and to escape a hated conclusion flings itself incontinently into the arms of delusion. It is thus that the stoutest intellect becomes the most impregnable. Numberless are the subterfuges, speculative as well as practical, that are continually held in play by the human mind in order to elude the embarrassment of its untoward circumstances; for there is no middle road to peace once the soul has begun to grapple with the momentous investigation. This obliquity of mind, that likes not to retain the knowledge of God, is the true and only source of all the difficulty that attaches to the reception of religious truth. Truth of this description lies no way more remote from our apprehension than any truth of natural science, till it begins to molest us with the sense of moral obligation, and to make its demands on our acquiescence in the form of duty. Men have not generally disputed much about what is virtue, their approbation of it being required only in the form of encomium. They willingly unite in applauding exemplary specimens of justice, disinterestedness, and generosity, and in the condemnation of their contraries . . . Our consciences ought not to sit so easy under the sins of our country, or even of mankind. That character in man which separates betwixt him and his Maker, and provokes the Divine judgment, also renders the Divine proceeding in judgment more obscure and unintelligible to him. Conclusion: See the indubitable equity, harmony, and consistency of the Divine administration in judgment. (H. Grey, M. A.) The unseen avengers On the whole and in the rough, unquestionably sin in this world does not remain unavenged. This is true when society is looked at in the mass; yet in the history of individuals it is constantly found that no such obvious sequence of crime and punishment can be traced. There are plenty of cases in which offenders against the moral law have seemed to get off scot-free. It even almost appears at times as if they were specially favoured in the struggle for existence. Is there some hidden explanation of cases of this kind? The text says, “ Thy judgments are far above.” They are there, unerring in their action, unslumbering in their determination, but they are too great, too solemn and awful for the Psalmist’ s sin-dulled eyes to behold. God has many ways of avenging sin. It may in reality be far worse for a man when he is left for a long while to delight in his sins, when they grow round him and in him, like some choking creeper, some deathly parasite that sucks out the vitality from that which it encircles, leaving at last only the mere semblance of life. Trace the action of these unseen avengers. I. After the commission of downright, unmistakable sin. There are many sins of the flesh that ought to meet with open punishment from the Divine laws which they violate. Yet obviously ill deeds are often not so chastised. Take the case of secret drinking. There may be exposure. Or the habit grows more dominant. Even if its physical consequences are delayed, a degeneration of spiritual faculties sets in. It becomes increasingly difficult for such persons to see any goodness in their fellow creatures. Tell me not that sin is unavenged when the whole character becomes deteriorated, when the will becomes paralysed, when all impulses for good are rendered impotent and sterile, when blindness has come upon the eyes to all that is fair and glorious and uplifting in the world. II. Take another instance, that of hypocrisy. The Chadbands and Pecksniffs of humanity, the religious and moral humbugs of the world, how do they fare? Are they always discovered? Hypocrisy is of various degrees. It commences in the bud by timid fear of speaking the truth, and it ends in the full-blown flower of brazen dishonesty and imposture. In this necessary development it is ever finding its dreadful reward. Here, again, the sinner may be unable to understand the doom which has fallen upon him. It is supposed that in past generations the blind fishes of subterranean lakes in America found their organs of sight not required, so nature dropped them out. They may be happy in their blindness, but who would exchange conditions with them? We cannot be untrue to what we know to be right without bringing upon ourselves a like Nemesis. The inevitable punishment of doing a false action is the increased difficulty of either doing or seeing what is true. III. Worldliness. For the most part the consequences are obvious enough of devotion to the fancies and fashions of a luxurious, indolent society. Folk become weary and jaded. The upper-class world has, too, its seamy side. There are not often open exposures. The decorum of advancing age smooths over everything. In those cynical words, “ We are all respectable after seventy.” The wrong is not done with when forgotten. What if the fires of passion and emulation are only banked in temporarily by the worn-out crust of mortality? They may be ready to flare up in another world. Anyway, their effects ever remain. All that might have been--all wasted, misused, handed over to the powers of evil! How terrible would these pitiable failures show if seen by eyes purged to discover things in their true reality! Worse thought still, may not this deplorable vision of life’ s wasted opportunities be forced, branded upon the soul for ever hereafter? (G. Gardner, M. A.) Judgments of life In this Psalm David gives one of his emphatic descriptions of the wicked man, and the fate that awaits him. We in our day are apt to think of every bad man as partly good, and of every good man as partly bad; that character is always mingled. Hence good and bad characters do not stand out so clearly before us as they did before David and, I think I may say, as they stood out before Christ. But whilst our perception of the weakness in every man’ s character is very good, David’ s thought is, no doubt, the true one--that there is, after all, in every character determination for right or wrong. The wicked man is he whose face is not away from righteousness and is content with unrighteousness. Now one thing about this man David affirms. Verse 5: “ Thy judgments are far above, out of his sight.” It is so. There are regions of which men never think, in which they are being judged every day. A man’ s life depends much upon the judgments passed upon him. And if he be content with the lower judgments` relating to his earthly condition, be will pass by all the higher ones, and which are judging all his life. In the heavens there is a long series of thrones, growing whiter and whiter, until the great white throne stands above them all. And the richness and sacredness of a man’ s life depend on his consciousness of these judgments. The condemnation of the wicked is that he has no such consciousness that God’ s judgments are “ out of his sight.” How many of us live in the lower judgments--that of pleasure, or profit, or reputation. And all the time there tower above us these great judgment seats of God. Think of some of them. I. The universe. As to whether we have found or are finding our own true place in it. There is such place. Are we filling it? II. Absolute righteousness. That calm abstraction which we call the right, which makes itself known so really in all the operations of the world. It casts us aside for our perversity or it takes us into its embrace. III. All the pure and noble men. They are forever judging us, not malignantly condemning us, but deciding as each one of us comes into their presence, whether there is any use in us. And above all there is-- IV. The judgment of God. He, knowing us altogether, is judging whether we are capable of receiving Him. He ever seeking us, and we ever either inviting or rejecting His love. That love which beats at the door of our nature is judging us, the judgment of the soul being in the refusal of the offer of God. How dreadful, then, to live with all these judgments out of our sight. Sometimes you see a man, once content, now full of discontent. The world satisfies him no more. He is seeking the higher judgments. Jesus ever sought the judgment of God--to please Him. (Phillips Brooks, D. D.) Psalms 10:6 The wicked hath said in his heart, I shall not be moved. Godless confidence--its mad arrogance The wicked man said a good many wrong things “ in his heart.” The tacit assumptions on which a life is based, though they may never come to consciousness, and still less to utterance, are the really important things. I daresay this “ wicked man” with his lips was a good Jew, and said his prayers all properly, but in his heart he had two working beliefs. One is thus expressed, “ As for all his enemies, he puffeth at them. He hath said in his heart, I shall not be moved.” The other is put into words thus, “ He hath said in his heart, God hath forgotten, He hideth His face, He will never see it.” That is to say, the only explanation of a godless life, unless the man is an idiot, is that there lie beneath it, as formative principles and unspoken assumptions, guiding and shaping it, one or both of these two thoughts--either “ There is no God,” or “ He does not care what I do, and I am safe to go on for evermore in the present fashion.” It might seem as if a man, with the facts of human life before him, could not, even in the insanest arrogance, say, “ I shall not be moved, for I shall never be in adversity.” But we have an awful power--and the fact that we exercise, and choose to exercise, it is one of the strange riddles of our enigmatical existence and characters--of ignoring unwelcome facts, and going cheerily on as though we had annihilated them, because we do not reflect upon them. So this man, in the midst of a world in which there is no stay, and whilst he saw all around him the most startling and tragical instances of sudden change and complete collapse, stands quietly and says, “ Ah! I shall never be moved” ; “ God doth not require it.” That absurdity is the basis of every life that is not a life of consecration and devotion--so far as it has a basis of conviction at all. The “ wicked” man’ s true faith is this, absurd as it may sound when you drag it out into clear distinct utterance, whatever may be his professions. I wonder if there are any of us whose life can only be acquitted of being utterly unreasonable and ridiculous, by the assumption, “ I shall never be moved.” Have you a lease of your goods? Do you think you are tenants at will, or owners? Which? Is there any reason why any of us should escape, as some of us live as if we believed we should escape, the certain fate of all others? If there is not, what about the sanity of the man whose whole life is built upon a blunder? He is convicted of the grossest folly, unless he be assured that either there is no God, or that He does not care one rush about what we do, and that consequently we are certain of a continuance in our present state. Do you say in your heart, “ I shall never be moved” ? Then you must be strong enough to resist every tempest that beats against you. Is that so? “ I shall never be moved.” Then nothing that contributes to your well-being will ever slip from your grasp, but you will be able to hold it tight. Is that so? “ I shall never be moved.” Then there is no grave waiting for you. Is that so? Unless these three assumptions be warranted, every godless man is making a hideous blunder, and his character is the sentence pronounced by the loving lips of incarnate truth on the rich man who thought that he had “ much goods laid up for many years,” and had only to be merry--“ Thou fool! Thou fool!” If an engineer builds a bridge across a river without due calculation of the force of the winds that blow down the gorge, the bridge will be at the bottom of the stream some stormy night, and the train piled on the fragments of it in hideous ruin. And with equal certainty the end of the first utterer of this speech can be calculated, and is foretold in this Psalm, “ The Lord is King forever and ever. The godless are perished out of the land.” (A. Maclaren, D. D.) The false security of the wicked Carnal security opens the door for all impiety to enter into the soul. Pompey, when he had in vain assaulted a city and could not take it by: force, devised this stratagem in way of agreement; he told them he would leave the siege and make peace with them, upon condition that they would let in a few weak, sick, and wounded soldiers among them to be cured. They let in the soldiers, and when the city was secure the soldiers let in Pompey’ s army. A carnal settled security will let in a whole army of lusts into the soul. (Thomas Brooks.) Psalms 10:7-18 His mouth is full of cursing.Black arts A missionary from Polynesia brought home a “ soul trap.” It was a series of rings twisted in cocoanut fibre. If a native should commit a great offence, or offend a sorcerer, he proceeds to make a new ring in his chain, so as to form a trap to catch the poor man’ s spirit. Soon the sorcerer asserts that the soul of the culprit, assuming this form, has passed into the trap. It is immediately known throughout the tribe that a certain man has lost his soul. As a matter of fact, it invariably happens that the soulless man shortly afterwards dies, of course through sheer mental distress at having had his soul thus entrapped. We smile at such traps, but we are all familiar with soul traps of a far more subtle and dangerous character. In the verses before us the Psalmist vividly pictures the crafty schemes of the wicked in order to entrap their victims. They seek by most subtle arts to entangle and destroy. I. It is thus that selfish men set wraps for the young and inexperienced. With lies and enticements the covetous seek to entrap and destroy the young. Soul traps for the young! How numerous they are! How cleverly contrived! The utmost artifice and plausibility. How successful they are (Psalms 10:10). “ Crouching down as low as possible, he lies on the watch, and the feeble and defenceless fall into his strong ones, i.e. claws.” --Delitzsch. How many thus fall! Our cities are full of fallen young men and women. We have thousands of heartless men in society answering to the vile robber pictured in these verses. For the sake of gain they set traps in which the health, honour, happiness, soul of the youthful perish. The whole civilised world was shocked the other day by the discovery that, by means of an infernal machine, a villain sent ships and their crews to the bottom of the sea for the sake of the insurance money; but thousands of atheistical, covetous men, for the sake of gain, are ingeniously seeking to sink the souls of the people in the gulf of hell. II. It is thus that the world contrives traps for the godly. The world does not like the godly, and in various subtle methods it seeks to worst them.1. It has traps for their reputation. “ His mouth is full of perjury and deceit.” He sets a net of cunningly devised speech, that he may be able to bring their good name into discredit. 2. It has traps for their fortune. It will “ privily seek” to damage their circumstances. It will adroitly circulate reports, frame laws, to bring them into financial trouble. 3. It has traps for their character. They know the natural weaknesses of a Christian, and they bait their hook, set their net, accordingly. He is short tempered, and they contrive to put in his way occasions of auger; he is given to levity, and they provoke his mirth; he has strong appetites, and they put drink to his lips; he is feeble in faith, and they press him with scepticisms. The world hates the righteous, and when it cannot injure them openly it will secretly. The devil is a wily destroyer, and his children imitate his tactics and seek to murder the innocent. III. It is thus that Satan sets traps for us all. He is the great bandit pictured in the text; he is the great sorcerer whose soul traps beset us at every turn. What a clever fowler is he! what a politic huntsman! what a subtle angler! The devil hides himself, he disguises his movements, and in an evil hour men are drawn “ into the net.” Here he betrays by pleasure. Bates tells us of a spider in South America which looks like a blossom, and insects alighting on it for sweetness find death. So the great foe, under the aspect of pleasure, betrays thousands. Here he betrays by honour. One of the Roman emperors used to fish with a net of purple and gold; the devil has used this net largely and taken great prey. And by many other devices does he destroy the unwary. Beware! Beware of those soul traps made of flowers, called pleasure; of those purple-lined ones called greatness; of those gay-painted ones called fashion; of those scientific ones called philosophy; of those jewelled ones called honour; of those golden ones called wealth; of those most plausible ones called morality. “ Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.” The devil will lie, fawn, flatter, and do this patiently for years to ruin us.1. Let the innocent put their trust in God, and walk circumspectly. The afflicted committeth himself unto Thee; Thou art the helper of the fatherless” (Psalms 10:14). Alas for us if we attempt to stand in our own strength, and take our defence into our own hands! “ He that takes himself out of God’ s hands into his own, by and by will not know what to do with himself.” --Whichcote. And in our darkest hours of temptation and trial we may have the fullest, assurance that God has not forgotten us. The wicked say, “ God will never see it” (Psalms 10:11). But the Psalmist replies, “ Thou hast seen it; for Thou beholdest mischief and spite to requite it with Thy hand” (Psalms 10:14). “ The Psalmist means to say, so far from the assertion of the wicked man being true, that God is forgetful of the poor, He is, on the contrary, observant of their trouble and vexation; and in order not to forget their calamities He places a memorial of them on His hands” (Isaiah 49:26). 2. Let the wicked be assured that God’ s eye is upon them, and that justice must overtake them (Psalms 10:15). “ Because the Lord continues to spare them, therefore they go on to provoke Him. As He adds to their lives, so they add to their lusts. Because justice seems to wink, men suppose her blind; because she delays punishment, they imagine she denies to punish them; because she does not always reprove them for their sins, they suppose she always approves of their sins. But let such know that the silent arrow can destroy as well as the roaring cannon. Though the patience of God be lasting, yet it is not everlasting.” --Spurgeon. (W. L. Watkinson.) Oppression turns princes into roaring lions, and judges into ravening wolves. It is an unnatural sin, against the light of nature. No creatures do oppress them of their own kind. Look upon the birds of prey as upon eagles, vultures, hawks, and you shall never find them preying upon their own kind. Look upon the beasts of the forest as upon the lion, the tiger, the wolf, the bear, and you shall ever find them favourable to their own kind; and yet men unnaturally prey upon one another, like the fish in the sea, the great swallowing up the small. (Thomas Brooks.) Psalms 10:13 Wherefore do the wicked contemn God? On the unprincipled contempt of religion How astonishing that any should be guilty of this. Excellence and station and authority shield men from contempt. But yet the wicked contemn God. Notwithstanding He is unspeakably glorious and great, the blessed and only Potentate possessing vast dominions, sustaining His creatures and glorified in all His works. And all things depend upon Him. Some, allured by His grace, with cheerfulness adore Him; others, constrained by His power, reluctantly Submit; but others are wicked enough to contemn Him. Their conduct and temper-- I. Toward Him show this. They have no delight in Him, they put the world far before Him, they deliberately disobey Him. II. Towards things relating to Him. His ordinances they count weariness, His word they disregard, His people they scorn, His ministers they despise, His day they neglect. III. Why do they thus act? Not from superior wisdom, but from depravity of the will, and encouraged by inconsistent Christians and by the strifes amongst such. But what an awful sin it is. Amazing madness! (John Erskine, D. D.) The wicked contemners of God Let us examine our hearts, our lives, and the Scriptures of truth.1. Look at your mind and you will be forced to acknowledge that you seldom think of God. 2. Pass to an examination of your words. 3. Consider your actions. 4. The manner in which you treat the threatenings of God. 5. The regard you pay to the promises of God. 6. Your contempt of God is manifested in your disobedience to His commandments. 7. The declarations of One who perfectly knows you place this matter beyond a doubt. (H. Rollock, D. D.) Expostulation with contemners of God I. A question propounded.1. Somewhat is here implied, something is laid as a charge. The wicked does contemn God. Take the word “ wicked” collectively. Three ways wherein wicked men may be said to contemn God: In His ordinances, in His providences, in His servants. Whence does this proceed from them? Partly from pride, partly from ignorance. 2. Somewhat is expressed. The absurdity of such a temper is seen in this, that no good account can be given of it. See the inequality of it in reference to God. He does not deserve it. See the danger of it. Those that contemn Him, He will contemn them again. And His contemning is followed by His condemning; those whom He despises, He destroys. II. The ground or occasion of this question. “ He hath said in his heart, Thou wilt not require it.” According to the absolute sense, this is a declaration of the temper of wicked men. According to the relative sense of them, they seem to he either a proof or an account of what was said before concerning such persons, as to their contemning of God. This is a proof that they do so, and this is a reason also why they do so. “ They say in their heart, God will not require it.” (T. Horton, D. D.) Retribution--the world’ s old age in sin It has been a puzzle to some good men, and a pretext for unbelief to many wicked men, that the sinner, a moral and responsible being, could rest unconcerned in his sins. Why do not wicked men repent? This can only be resolved on the ground suggested in the text, the practical infidelity of wicked men. They do not believe in God as a just and inflexible moral governor. They do not accept the ideal of an exact and certain retribution. A carelessness of retribution. Moral law is held as an abstraction, and the reality, the extent, the terribleness of its sanctions are actually forgotten. Till this general sense of security be assailed, till this general indifference be shown to be causeless, the instances of awakening and conversion among sinners will be few. I. Explain and illustrate the carelessness of retribution prevalent in the world.1. The world’ s old age in sin. Sin has been producing its appropriate results, modified mainly, and almost alone, by the fact that men exist in successive generations, and not in an uninterrupted, individual life. But as the generations of men all overlap each other, so that everyone includes some members both of preceding and succeeding ones, it follows that each new generation is not cast entirely back to the starting point of its predecessor, but gains a little upon it. It will be found that whatever has characterised one age morally, intellectually, or socially, also has characterised in a less or greater degree the following one. Sin is not an institution peculiar to any age or country. The same corrupt principle is more corrupt in the sons than it was in the fathers. Is not the world wicked now as it never has been before? II. The world’ s prosperity in sin. Existence is in itself a blessing, and an element of prosperity. Man’ s existence at every period has had much to make it pleasant and desirable. God, as Sovereign and Judge, has benefited the subject and sinner. In this age the world still sins and prospers. Everybody, almost everybody, boasts of a prosperous world. But the world sins as well as prospers. Is not the world, with all its pomp and pride, a wicked world? Individualise the sinner. He has, in these days, so high an idea of personal dignity and independence and irresponsibility to any power that is not a reflection of his own will, as to have become very thoughtless of the Divine law, and very careless of its sanctions. We may examine the growth of this idea, and illustrate its prevalence. When the sinner is thus individualised and made to think so much of his own happiness and rights, is he not apt to forget God? Consider now the judicial hardening of the world. The powers of darkness and the powers of holiness are at enmity with each other by Divine appointment. There is such a thing as a judicial permission and even encouragement to wickedness, whereby God asserts His sovereignty over free moral agents, and makes them ready, and makes all things ready, for the final manifestation of His glory at the coming of the Lord. One great reason why the world is so careless of approaching retribution is, that it is judicially hardened, rendered insensible to the proofs of its coming, and the fear that ought thereby to be awakened. (John H. Lord.) The day of no judgment dreaded Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil. Pitt said, ‘“ I have no fear for England; she will stand till the day of judgment.” Burke answered, “ It is the day of no judgment that I dread.” (The Quiver.) The reckoning will come to the sinner The wicked contemn God. Why? “ Because they say He will not require it.” Ah! They forget that it is as true of God’ s threatenings as of His promises,, that although He delays He does not deny them. A reprieve is not a pardon. It defers the execution, but does not necessarily cancel the sentence. And how many men in business, hard pressed for money and tottering on the edge of bankruptcy, have known too well that the bill which they had got the money lender to renew was not thereby paid; that, however often renewed, it has still to be paid, and that the oftener, indeed, it is renewed with interest added to the capital the debt but grows the larger, the payment the heavier. Just so will it be with you if you persist in rejecting the Saviour. Every day of mercy here will but aggravate the misery of hereafter, and the reckoning, by being long of coming, will be the more terrible when it comes--as that storm roars with the loudest thunder which has been the longest gathering. (T. Guthrie.) Psalms 10:16 The heathen are perished out of His land.An encouragement to prayer Does this sentence point back to the great instance of exterminating justice in the destruction of the Canaanite? It may do so, but it is rather to be taken as referring to the victories celebrated in the previous and companion Psalm. Note the recurrence of the words “ nations” and “ perished,” which are drawn from it. The connection between the two Psalms is thus witnessed, and the deliverance from foreign enemies, which is the theme of Psa 9:1-20, is urged as a plea with God, and taken as a ground of confidence by the Psalmist himself for the completion of the deliverance by making domestic oppressors powerless. This lofty height of faith is preserved in the closing stanza, in which the agitation of the first part and the yearning of the second are calmed into serene assurance that the Ecclesia pressa has not cried, and never can cry, in vain. Into the praying, trusting heart “ the peace of God which passeth understanding” steals, and the answer is certified to faith long before it is manifest to sense. To pray and immediately to feel the thrilling consciousness “ Thou hast heard,” is given to those who pray in faith. The wicked makes a boast of his “ desire” ; the humble makes a prayer of it, and so has it fulfilled. Desires which can be translated into petitions will be converted into fruition . . . The prayer of the humble, like a whisper amid the avalanches, has power to start the swift, white destruction on its downward path; and when once that gliding mass has way on it, nothing which it smites can stand. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Psalms 10:17 Thou hast hoard the desire of the humble. The desire of the humble encouraged I. The characters here spoken of. Though there be great difference between man and man with regard to natural character, yet the truly humble before God are those only whom He has humbled. The humble are those whom God doth teach the plague of their own hearts. He humbles them by discoveries of themselves. II. The desires here spoken of. The soul of man is a restless principle. The souls of the humble ones do desire. The humble soul wants a clearer inward witness of his adoption; a renewed application of the blood of Christ to his conscience; a deeper sense of his acceptance in the Beloved; a closer walk with God. III. The encouragements here spoken of. Three expressed in the text--1. “ Thou hast heard the desire of the humble.”2. “ Thou wilt prepare their heart.”3. “ Thou wilt cause Thine ear to hear. (J. Evans.) The desire of the humble I. Here is a character described--“ the humble.” It is a characteristic of all Christians. Humility befits us if we regard--1. The meanness of our origin--“ dust”2. Our sinfulness.3. That pride is hateful in the sight of God. What evil it has wrought; how unwarrantable it is.4. But God hears the desire of the humble. What is that desire? It is to know the want of Himself. To have an interest in Christ. To think highly of others. To adore the goodness of God, and to be obedient to His will. II. God prepares such a heart.1. By giving conviction of sin.2. By encouraging trust in Christ.3. By giving desire after holiness.4. By emptying him of self. III. God hears and answers prayer.1. Because they come in Christ’ s name. Because--2. He is their Father.3. He Himself has bidden us pray; and4. Prepared their hearts to do so. He who will not pray has no excuse. (T. Scott, M. A.) Thought-reading extraordinary I. The lowliest form of prayer may be most true and acceptable. “ The desire of the humble.” It is only a desire. It may not be uttered. Many prayers are very prettily expressed, in fact, so grandly that their tawdry fineries will not be tolerated in heaven. God will say, “ They were meant for men, let men hear them.” The desire of the humble may not be recommended by any conscious attainments, if your stock-in-trade is made up of empty vessels, and little else, the Lord can deal with you as He did with the prophet’ s widow, “ who had empty vessels not a few.” Your little oil of grace He can multiply till every vessel is filled; and you may have no confident expectation. I would chide your unbelief, but I would encourage your desires, for that desire which God hears is not to be despised. Note that it is “ the desire of the humble.” It has this advantage about it that it is free from pride. Now, to be humble is a sweet thing; there is no lovelier spot on the road to the Celestial City than the Valley of Humiliation: he that dwells in it dwells among flowers and birds, and may sing all day long. The desire of the humble is saturated with a gospel spirit, and therefore is acceptable to God. II. And he is quick to heal it. “ Thou hast heard the desire.” This must be a Divine science. We hear much about thought reading now. Whatever this may be, here is a wonderful instance of it with the Lord. It is an act which God has exercised in all ages. “ Thou hast heard,” etc. It is a matter of frequent fact, the record of a deed. III. The heart is the main matter in prayer. Desires are the fruit of the heart. “ Thou wilt prepare their heart.” When a fair wind fills the sails of desire, then make all possible headway. IV. God Himself prepares the hearts of His people. “ Thou wilt prepare their heart.” I am rejoiced at this statement, because preparation is such an important business. And it is often difficult as it is important. Surely none but the Lord can prepare the heart for prayer. One old writer says it is far harder work to raise the big bell into the steeple than to ring it when it is there. This witness is true. In that uplifting of the heart lies the work and the labour. Now, God prepares the heart by restraining wandering thought by giving us deep sense of need, and by working in us strong faith. V. Prayer from prepared hearts must be heard. “ Thou wilt cause Thine ear to hear.” He will, for if God had love enough to prepare your heart He has grace enough to give you the blessing. His goodness and faithfulness ensure that He will. Where God leads you to pray, He means you to receive. Be comforted, therefore, you beginners in prayer. God is inclining His ear to catch the faintest moan of your spirit. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The gracious desires and prayers of the humble Lord Bolingbroke once asked Lady Huntingdon how she reconciled prayer to God for particular blessings with absolute resignation to the Divine will. “ Very easy,” answered her ladyship; “ just as if I were to offer a petition to a monarch of whose kindness and wisdom I have the highest opinion In such a case my language would be ‘ I wish you to bestow on me such a favour; but your majesty knows better than I how far it would be agreeable to you or right in itself to grant my desire. I therefore content myself with humbly presenting my petition, and leave the event of it entirely to you.’” . Psalms 11:1-7 Psalms 11:1-7 In the Lord put I my trust. Jehovah the Protector and Avenger of the persecuted saint The Psalmist, beset by malicious foes, is warned by some of his adherents to seek refuge in flight. The Psalm is his response to this suggestion. In Jehovah, he says, is his trust, and there is no need for him to fear; Jehovah is watching all human actions from His heavenly sanctuary, and it is certain that He will eventually whelm the ungodly in a terrible ruin, and cheer with the light of His countenance the righteous whom He has proved in the furnace of adversity. The Psalm is Davidic by title, and may perhaps be assigned to the period when David’ s life was imperilled by the rebellion of Absalom. (A. C. Jennings and W. H. Lowe.) Safety in God The singer is in danger of his life, and timorous and fainthearted counsellors would fain persuade him to seek safety in flight. But full of unshaken faith in God, he rejects their counsel, believing that Jehovah, the righteous King, though He tries His servants, does not forsake them. Not the righteous, but the wicked have need to fear. The Psalm is so short and so general in its character that it is not easy to say to what circumstances in David’ s life it should be referred. The choice seems, however, to lie between his persecution by Saul and the rebellion of his son Absalom. Delitzsch decides for the last, and thinks the counsel (Psalms 11:1), “ Flee to your mountain,” comes from the mouth of friends, who were anxious to persuade the king to betake himself, as he had before done when hunted by Saul, to the “ rocks of the wild goats.” The expression (Psalms 11:3), “ When the foundations are destroyed,” points to a time when lawful authority was subverted. (J. J. Stewart Perowne, B. D.) Faith’ s answer to timid counsellors The structure of the Psalm is simple and striking. There are two vividly contrasted halves: the first gives the suggestions of timid counsellors, who see only along the low levels of earth; the second, the brave answer of faith which looks up into heaven. Verses 1-3. The Psalmist begins with an utterance of faith, which makes him recoil with wonder and aversion from the cowardly, well-meant counsels of his friends. The metaphor of flight to a stronghold, which is in the word for trust, obviously colours the context, for what can be more absurd than that he who has sought and found shelter in God Himself should listen to the whisperings of his own heart, or to the advice of friends, and hurry to some other hiding place? Safe in God, the Psalmist wonders why such advice should be given, and his question expresses its irrationality, and his rejection of it. Have we here a good man’ s dialogue with himself? Were there no voices in him: the voice of sense which spoke to the soul, and that of the soul which spoke authoritatively to the sense?. . .. The timid counsel is enforced by two considerations: the danger of remaining a mark for the stealthy foe, and the nobler thought of the hopelessness of resistance, and therefore the quixotism of sacrificing one’ s self in a prolongation of it. Prudent advice, when the prudence is only inspired by sense, is generally foolish; and the only reasonable attitude is obstinate hopefulness and brave adherence to duty. In the second part the poet opposes to the picture drawn by fear the vision of the opened heaven and the throned Jehovah. To the eyes that have seen that vision, and before which it ever burns, all earthly sorrows and dangers seem small. There is necessarily in the Divine nature an aversion to evil, and to the man who has so completely given himself over to it as to “ love” it. Retribution, not forgiveness, is here the conception of the relations between man and God. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Moral courage We have in this Psalm a striking instance of Christian heroism. The Psalmist is found in circumstances of great moral perplexity and personal danger, but he stands his ground, trusting in God. I. The severity of his trial. David’ s timid counsellors bring before him several pressing reasons why he should despair of his cause, and retire from the scene of conflict.1. The desperate designs of his enemies.2. Their perfidious policy.3. Their successful action. II. The constancy of the tried. What were the sources of this sublime courage?1. The presence of God.2. The majesty of God.3. The knowledge of God.4. The righteousness of God. Here the Psalmist rested, and here may we rest. God loveth the wise, the just, the good, and in Him may we rest. III. The certainty of the triumph.1. All God’ s people may expect to be thus tried. At one time or other our faith, principle, hope will be thus severely tested. 2. Let us at such times beware of the temporising policy of faint-hearted men. It is often a sorer trial for faith to withstand the pleadings of well-meaning friends than to arm itself against open enemies. 3. Let us trust confidently in God, and He shall make us to triumph. (W. L. Watkinson.) “ Courage,” says Webster, “ is that quality of mind which enables men to encounter danger and difficulties with firmness, or without any fear or depression of spirits.” I. Genuine moral courage tested. By the alarming intelligence and cowardly counsels, not of enemies but of friends. They presented to his mind two facts to prompt him to a cowardly flight.1. The imminence of his danger. 2. The uselessness of religion. II. Genuine moral courage explained. All this did not intimidate David. On the contrary, it reinspired him. What was the very spirit of his courage? Trust in an all-sufficient Helper. “ In the Lord put I my trust.” To show that He in whom he trusted was sufficient to help him, he refers to four things.1. God’ s authority. “ The Lord is in His holy temple, the Lord’ s throne is in heaven.” He is the King of the universe, and is able to control the events that are transpiring. 2. God’ s knowledge. “ His eyes behold, His eyelids try the children of men.” He is not ignorant of what is going on, nor is He a mere spectator. He examines the motives of every actor m the scene. 3. God’ s feeling. “ The Lord trieth the righteous; but the wicked, and him that loveth violence, His soul hateth.” He not only superintends and sees all that is going on, but He has a heart in the matter. His feelings are interested. He loves the good; He loathes the wicked. 4. God’ s retribution. “ Upon the wicked He shall rain snares,” etc. Such is the God he trusted in. One who has moral feelings, who recoils from the wrong and sympathises with the right. One who will exercise a righteous retribution. Who that trusts in such a God as this need fear? (Homilist.) A song in the night The environment of the Psalm is stormy. The singer is a soul in difficulty. He is the victim of relentless antagonists. It is a song in the night. I. Inadequate resources. The Psalmist hears the voices of counsellors. They are urging him to get away from the exposed plains to the strongholds. But to the Psalmist the suggested defences are inadequate. The enemy can reach him there. Against these imperfect defences the Psalmist proclaims his own confident boast, “ In the Lord put I my trust.” Look at some of our suggested refuges. Take up literature, music, science, or art. All such suggested strongholds are inadequate. II. The all-sufficient security. Upon what, then, shall the driven soul depend? “ In the Lord put I my trust.” The Psalmist enumerates some of the foundations upon which his joyful confidence is built. See some stones of the grand foundation--the Lord’ s immanence, the Lord’ s sovereignty, the Lord’ s discernments, the Lord’ s repulsions, the Lord’ s purposes. (J. H. Jowett, M. A.) Trust in the Lord Birds of high flight and of great strength make their nests in mountains. When these creatures are alarmed and desire a place of refuge you find them flying not to the valley, but to the mountain. Every man is liable to fearfulness and alarm. And every man has his mountain--wealth, friends, patronage. The man of God has his mountain in God. Many a good man forgets this, and advises others by his fears rather than by his faith. David is speaking of such people, for such have given him bad advice. I. The proper influence of trusting in god. It should give you a firm adherence to that which you feel to be right. The man who trusts in God keeps from doing anything until he sees the right thing to be done. The effect of this is the production of peace of mind--calmness of spirit. II. God does not disturb this quietness, but there are those who do. Not Satan and his angels only, but also your fellow men. Do not put the blame of every mischief on Satan. We are our own Satans very frequently. Whatever use a man may make of friends, neighbours, and religious advisers he will take care that they never come between him and God. III. Infer your duty from your principles. Whatever is consistent with trust you may do. The application of the principle of trust will keep you consistent, and will settle ten thousand matters that otherwise would perplex you. (Samuel Martin.) The secret of faith’ s victory The exercise of genuine faith is frequently involved in a conflict with unbelief; and they not seldom get entangled one with the other, like wrestlers, so that they can scarce be distinguished. Just such a struggle is set forth in this Psalm. It tells of David’ s experience as a believer assaulted by suspicions and fears and perplexities prompted within him by unbelief. I. The manner in which the assault was made (verses 1-3). We cannot tell the circumstances which occasioned their suggestions. But the danger represented was well-nigh desperate. The very foundations of his safety were threatened. Then it was said to him, “ Flee, flee as a bird to your mountain.” The suggestion was insidious in form, of a prudent and very practical hint for self-preservation. And yet it was alien to his faith. That was not disturbed in its depths where it was anchored on the Lord. Their suggestions did indeed ruffle his feelings, but did not make him doubt the truths of his faith. Hence he avows his trust. “ In the Lord put I my trust.” “ How dare ye say to my soul, flee?” II. How he met the assaults of unbelief. By turning his gaze outwards and upwards to the Lord. From Him he derived all the power wherewith to meet their assaults. III. The Psalm may be taken as a dialogue.1. The suggestion to “ flee” is met by asking how they dare to say that when “ the Lord is in His holy temple.” 2. That “ the wicked bend their bow” is met by the thought, “ His eyes behold, His eyelids try the children of men.” As if He could not see! 3. “ That the foundations were destroyed,” by the thought that if they were the Lord was dealing with him; “ the Lord trieth the righteous;” and “ I put my trust in Him,” “ who of old laid the foundations of the earth,” in Him the Eternal. Then, should such a man as I flee? IV. Lessons.1. Dread and resist the faintest whisper of retreat, whatever be the troubles and dangers of your course. 2. Live much aloft in communion with the Divine object of a victorious faith. (Robert R. Muir.) Confidence in God The utter helplessness in which David’ s soul was plunged may be inferred from the advice which his friends had kindly, yet foolishly, tendered to him. They had advised him to flee as a bird to the mountains; in other words, they had advised flight from trouble,--the coward’ s cure for the distresses of life. The quality of David’ s spirit is seen from the answer which he returned to this mean counsel. It was absolutely intolerable to him, creating in him a sense of revulsion and utter disdain. There is only one flight possible to the truly good man, and that is a flight towards the Lord, his Infinite Deliverer. “ The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous runneth into it, and is safe. The suggestion made by the friends of David shows their own irreligiousness, and shows indeed all that the world has to offer to the soul when it is in its last extremity. In the case of the Christian there is no need to invent any religious alleviation of trouble, for that alleviation is abundantly supplied by the promises of God, which are exceedingly great and precious, never so great as when greatly needed, and never so precious as when every other voice is silenced, and all the world confesses itself to be unable to touch effectually the tremendous agony. It is beautiful to notice how an assault of this kind is repelled by the very character of David. “ In the Lord put I my trust.” That was the solidity of his character. Outwardly he was troubled enough; waves and billows were rushing upon him in great storms, so rapidly that he had not time to lift up his head and open his eyes upon the fair scene that was above; but inwardly there was a religious trust which made him what he was--a secret, unfailing, abounding confidence in the living God; all this confidence seemed to the outward observer to be eclipsed and indeed destroyed, but it was still there, making David’ s heart strong amidst all the temptation and wrath which turned his life into daily suffering. (Joseph Parker, D. D.) The mission of trial It is very remarkable that this world has always hated the good and loved the evil; but it has always been so. The world and the Church are perpetual and eternal enemies. Darkness and light continually are opposed to one another. If we look down the list of God’ s servants from the first, we find it as an invariable rule that the world has ever hated them in their generation. Men cast them out of whom the world was not worthy. Still, they all maintained their faith in God; each could say with the Psalmist, to the close of his life, “ In the Lord put I my trust.” And God has never forsaken them that trust in Him. Sorrows may fall thick around them at times, trials grievous to be borne, and divers temptations may come upon them; but all these things tend only to strengthen faith in them that are saved. If a man enjoys all good things on earth--great prosperity, continual ease, nothing to vex him--then it needs, we know not what an amount of grace, and what years of careful training in himself, and of prayer and watchfulness, to keep that man from falling away. There are so few of us who would really love and serve God if we met with no trials in life, that in His great mercy God sends these things, first upon one, and then upon another amongst us. It is out of love to us He does so. No less true is this principle of faith, and trust, and security as applied to a nation, as it is to a church, or to each individual Christian among us. It is the secret of all national security, and prosperity, and peace. (W. J. Stracey, M. A.) Flee as a bird to your mountain. Times for flight It is by no means always an easy question for the good man to decide when he shall flee, and when resist, the storm of immorality and irreligion that may be prevailing in the community to which he belongs. He may err as widely in precipitating the time for doing a thing as he can in allowing the time to pass by unimproved. It is as much the part of a good general to know when to halt as when to advance; when to retreat as When to attack; when to save life as when to cast it away. The only question for him to settle is, which course for the time being will, in the end, best promote the cause he has in hand. Our Lord both spoke and acted on this principle, counselling His disciples at one time to save themselves by flight, at another to remain at their post, even at the cost of their lives. He counselled them to determine their line of conduct, not by its consequences to themselves, but by its consequences to the cause in which they were identified. If flight would best promote its interests, they were to flee; if remaining at their posts, they were to remain; and, if needs be, die there. Many a bishop in the primitive Church did this; fleeing, so lone as flight could best serve their Master’ s cause; but when it demanded the surrender of their lives, giving themselves up freely to martyrdom. David, for years after he had been divinely designated to the throne of Israel, fled before his persecutors like a terrified bird. In this Psalm his affairs are no longer as they have been. The time has come when the cause with which he has identified himself can no longer be promoted by his flight. It demands champions and defenders, and it may be martyrs. (David Caldwell, A. M.) Psalms 11:3-4 If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do? Christian firmness in evil times We have here a description of a faithful heart in time of trial declaring itself resolved to trust on God alone, when some would advise it to fly or to draw back. No man need despair; but still, when the foundations are assailed, and perhaps (humanly speaking) destroyed, it is the plain duty of believers to consider what they ought to do; to consider how they may most effectually, under God’ s blessing, join hands with Him in maintaining, against the world, the cause of true religion in His Church and household. If our lot is cast in times and places when and where the truth as such is slighted and set aside, it is easy to see that, so far as such opinions prevail, the foundations are destroyed. If men come to think it of small consequence whether or not they embrace and hold fast Divine truth, they will, by degrees, go on to doubt whether there is any such thing as Divine truth at all; and so, beginning with what they were pleased to call Christian liberty, they will end in unbelief. If men should be led to encourage the opinion that God’ s most holy Bible is to be handled, judged, criticised, praised or blamed like other books, then, beyond all doubt, however human reason may triumph, Divine faith will be undermined, and by degrees will be destroyed from its foundation. The thoughts of serious Church people are now directed to inquiry into the nature of the Christian Church and the duty of cleaving fast to it, more and more, as the world seeks to destroy its foundations. Some persons think the Church means anything, and some think it means nothing, but, at all events, it is of no great consequence what it means. Another danger is that of mistaking or slighting the great Christian doctrine of Divine grace. Whatever concerns the foundations of belief or practice concerns all Christian people as Christians. (Contributors to the “Tracts for the Times. ”) The foundations of the true faith indestructible The Christian’ s would be friends are often his worst enemies. Instead of Strengthening his faith when he is in difficulties, they counsel him to fly. Thus was David tempted by the feeble faith of well-meaning friends. He was sure that the foundations of his faith could never be destroyed, because--1. God is present in His Church. Ever present to preserve, revive, and defend it. 2. Because the Lord’ s throne is in heaven. By His throne we understand His authority. Not human laws, not Church authority, not creeds, which are fences rather than foundations. 3. Because His design is to try His people. Hence all these alarms and trials. Then we should have stability in our faith. Distaste for profitless controversy. Patience in well-doing. (Stephen Jenner, M. A.) An immovable foundation The “ if” comes suddenly upon us.1. Consider this “ if” as being nothing but an “ if.” There are certain spiritual foundations which never can be removed. (1) There is the foundation book. (2) The foundation doctrine--justification by faith. (3) The foundation fact--“ God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself.” (4) The foundation work--the blood of Jesus applied by the Spirit of Divine grace. (5) The foundation hope--the blessed hope of eternal life with Christ. These foundations can never be moved. 2. Take this “ if” as being something more than an “ if.” The foundations of many things may be removed--of civil government, of commerce, of one’ s estates, of all trust between man and man. Now suppose them removed, what should the righteous do? If the worst come to the worst-- (1) He can bear it with a holy equanimity. (2) Hope for the best cheerfully. (3) Do right. Be upright, whether he fail or not. (4) If we have a hand to spare we will help a comrade up. (5) He can trust in God that it will be well in the end. And (6) The righteous can commune with Christ therein. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Lost foundations Here is the expression of a mortal fear. The idea occurred to the mind of the Psalmist that the very foundations of law and order may be destroyed. This is the most disastrous temptation that can assail the human mind. Immediately following it are all the consequences of a panic. So long as evils seem to be open to the restraints of civilisation and the penalties of righteous law, society retains a considerable sense of security, notwithstanding occasional and even violent outrage. In this case, however, the idea has occurred that the very foundations of law, justice, and equity might be ploughed up and utterly destroyed. Then the question arises, What will the righteous do? All life that is to be solid and lasting is really a question of “ foundations.” Our inquiry should be into basis, principles, original necessities, the eternal fitness of things, the harmony that is based upon the very nature of God. Whatever errors there may be in the superstructure of society, there should be no doubt about the solidity of the cornerstones upon which the building is set. The great necessity of Christian civilisation is to have a solid basis, to lay down principles which do not admit of disputation, and to secure assent to laws which express the spirit of eternal righteousness. Hence the work of Christianity is profound. It is the honour of Christianity that it alone is profoundly careful concerning the bases of society and the bases of the individual life. It insists upon the foundation being Divine, not human. (Joseph Parker, D. D.) Disturbances in nations All disturbances in nations are but appointed dispensations marked out on the plan of God. We may safely trust God to reign in a manner worthy of Him. Do you ask why God’ s purposes cannot be fulfilled without all this earthly trouble? They would have been, if sin had no dominion on earth. But man being sinful, the way of suffering is the only way for him to pursue. Often have men thought that the foundations were destroyed. They thought so in David’ s time. But the greater the activity and apparent disorder of the hive, the more does the fruit of the honeycomb abound; the more the threads which cross and appear to confuse with each other on the loom, the richer and purer is the damask. See what days of blessing have followed days of adversity and trial It is sometimes difficult to see which of two courses of action should be chosen. Weakness submits to evil circumstances; decision overcomes evil with good. Hanani grieves over the condition of Jerusalem; but Nehemiah resolves to amend it. Erasmus denounced with his pen the evil in the Church of his day, but kept aloof from the work of reformation. Luther nerved himself for battle. When political troubles threaten, what are we to do? Some Christians refuse to take action. But political action may be requisite, and if a man can see a plain way of duty he should follow that way. Whatever may be the disturbances of the foundations of society, it is the duty of the Christian to trust. There have also been ecclesiastical disturbances, but let us be sure that God will bring good out of them. Let our ruling aim be to nourish in ourselves the life hidden with Christ in God. (John Jessop, M. A.) Psalms 11:4 The Lord is in His holy temple.The earthly temple How are we to be assured of the truth that the Lord is in His holy temple? We have no visible sign; but He reveals Himself in our hearts, and requires that we should know and feel His presence there. How, then, are we to meet Him in the temple?1. We come as created beings to offer a tribute of gratitude. Are any so worn with trouble as to think the gift of existence not worth the expression of gratitude? Let such remember that here we are but preparing for a blessed immortality, and that our trials, well endured, will add to the measure of our bliss hereafter. 2. We are dependent creatures. Then we should offer our thanks for the past, and supplications for the future. 3. We are sinful creatures. Then we should make confession to our God, whom we have so often and deeply offended. 4. We are accountable creatures. Then we should come here to learn His holy will, and of our obedience to it exact account will be required. 5. We are social creatures. Then we should ask blessings, not for ourselves only, but also for others. The sinner, the penitent, the believer, the sorrowful, the sufferer--all are remembered in our prayers. Learn so to worship that you may ever feel that you have indeed been with the Lord in His holy temple. (Edward Rice, M. A.) Psalms 11:5 The Lord trieth the righteous.The godly discipline I. The characters tried--the righteous. This word righteous is used for two reasons.1. Because in God’ s sight they are such.2. Because they are such in the sight of men. II. The various ways in which the righteous are tried. They have their natural dispositions even as other men. Though trials come to all, they differ in character, and are proportioned in degree. Christians are tried when--1. They are led to investigate the character and tendency of their life.2. When special and direct afflictions are sent.3. When alterations and changes in our family circumstances occur.4. When temptations of a trying character are permitted to come in their way. III. The ends that are to be answered by these trials. There is nothing purposeless in the plans of God. We are tried--1. That we may be corrected.2. That we may be proved.3. That we may be purified. Learn to recognise the Lord’ s hand in our trials, and to distinguish between the results of our own folly and God’ s chastisements. Let us rejoice in the anticipation of a world without sorrow, the “ unsuffering kingdom” of our Lord. (W. G. Barrett.) Trials and their lessons David was living at the court of Saul, and many were plotting for his destruction. But his support was that God would permit no real harm to come to him, and that his trial was from God. They wanted David to flee away. They said, the foundations were broken up, and what could the righteous do? You never know what you can do when God helps you.1. Believers are righteous--by the pardon of the past, which conceals it as if it had never been. Because God puts within them a new heart and a new spirit. And practically, by fulfilling God’ s commandments. 2. Righteous people are tried. In one sense the probation of the wicked is over. Believing people are on trial. You have accepted mercy--and your trial is whether you will be faithful to the grace given, whether you will persevere to the end. The truth that there is a possibility of your falling away has its practical value. It ought to lead you to caution, vigilance, and self-denial. 3. It is the Lord who tries you. Then you will not be tried too much. The Lord has the control of all your trials, whether they come through prosperity, adversity, bereavements, persecutions, or the sufferings of others. 4. Why does the Lord try the righteous? That they may know themselves, to train and discipline character, to make us more useful, and to advance His own glory. It is God’ s opportunity of showing the truth of His promise to help. You ought to learn to get good out of your trials. “ Glory in tribulations also,” that the power of Christ may rest upon you. (Samuel Coley.) The mission of trial He tries them for their own good, that they may know themselves. He tries them for the good of others, that the world may learn how powerful a thing faith in God is, when it has once laid fast hold of His promises. It was for this purpose that He tested Abraham when He commanded him to offer up his son Isaac, with his own hand, a burnt offering unto the Lord. The trial taught Abraham--what he could never have known of himself without it--the character of true evangelical obedience, that it falters at no sacrifice known to be required by the will of God. It is these testing trials of the righteous that bring out their graces, develop and perfect their virtues. The hand of God is in them all, seeking higher praise for Himself, and working out a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory for the believer. “ The Lord trieth the righteous” ; only, however, to consume their dross and refine their gold. The wicked have no just cause for triumphing over him, when they see the righteous man in affliction. The hand of God is thus upon him only for his good. His trials are no evidence that the fact is otherwise. The prosperity of the wicked is by no means indicative of the Divine approbation. (David Caldwell, A. M.) The testing of the perfect Pure gold may remain in the fire a thousand years without loss of substance, without contracting a single stain or losing an atom of its weight. The fire that burns the oak into ashes, marble into dust, iron into rust, has no power to destroy or even injure a metal that shines but the brighter for the glowing flame. Gold is therefore called in the language of metallurgy--a perfect metal; and were we perfect, perfect in holiness, the only effect of fiery trials would be, not to burn up, but to brighten God’ s image. (Thomas Guthrie.) The test of trial The sword is not tested until the battle rages, the ship is not proved until the storm blows, even diamonds are now so wondrously imitated that the best judges can only tell them by putting the steel file to their facets--that does no mischief except to shams; the genuine fear nothing, fire only purifies the real gold. So trial will show the real value of Christian character. The general is best estimated in the battle, the skill of the physician in the sick room. (R. Venting.) Psalms 11:6 Upon the wicked He shall rain snares.Divine rectitude in punishing sin I. Hell is now annihilation. Many would wish it were. God’ s plans and purposes are not to be affected by what men wish. II. Hell is an abode of misery.1. Possibly physical suffering. It is called “ everlasting fire,” outer darkness.2. Spiritual misery. It is spoken of as, a prison, the blackness of despair.3. Wretched reflections. “ Son, remember. III. Hell is of eternal duration. “ Its worm dieth not, and its fire is not quenched.” If hell could change we might justly judge that heaven also might change. IV. Hell is consistent with divine attributes. Nay, more than that, it is a very necessity of His existence. “ Upon the wicked He shall rain snares, for the righteous Lord loveth righteousness.” God does not punish men from passion--passion passes away; but He punishes from fixed, unalterable principle. Neither does He punish from pleasure (Ezekiel 18:23). He is essentially benevolent. (Homilist.) Psalms 11:7 The righteous Lord loveth righteousness.The righteous God and righteousness “ Righteousness may be taken as but another word for rightness, equity, justice, the being and rendering what is right. Here it describes God. It is the quality which binds and blends into a perfect unity all His Divine perfections. We feel instinctively that righteousness is essential to Divine perfection. Show how this statement that God is a righteous God bears on matters of faith and practice. God, because He is the righteous Lord, loveth righteousness.1. This will explain a peculiarity in the redemption accomplished for us through the atoning death of Christ. The problem to be solved was, how can the love of God be manifested, and righteousness be at the same time upheld in all the majesty of its eternal rectitude? 2. There is much which is mysterious, perplexing, and inexplicable in God’ s providential dealings. But throw on all these mysterious providences the light of this statement, that “ the Lord is righteous and loveth righteousness,” and you calm the troubled spirit to patience and submission. Then with entire trustfulness you would leave yourselves in God’ s hands. In the conviction of His righteousness, let us face the problems and perplexities which confront us in the world. Now see how this statement bears on all the business of life between man and man. “ His countenance doth behold the upright” : beholds them, that is, with special favour and approval, because He sees reflected in them, however imperfectly, the lineaments of His own Divine image. (R. Allen, M. A.) . Psalms 12:1-8 Psalms 12:1-8 Help, Lord; for the godly man ceaseth.--This, according to the title, is one of David’ s Psalms; but there is nothing in the circumstances, so far as we know them, of his history, which can lead us to associate the Psalm with any particular period. Tholuck thinks it is aimed at persons by whom David was surrounded in the court of Saul. Others suppose that it was occasioned by the treachery of the Ziphites (1 Samuel 23:19), or the treachery of Ahithophel, in Absalom’ s rebellion. But it is not one or two prominent individuals whose conduct forms the burden of the Psalmist’ s complaint. He is evidently smarting from the falseness and hypocrisy of the time. The defection which he deplores is a national defection. Like Elijah in the desert, he feels himself alone. A taint has spread through society. Falsehood is everywhere, truth nowhere. The heart of man is double; their lips are flattering lips (verse 8). And whilst they utter slander, hypocrisy, and lies, they boast of their power; and not only give their tongues licence, but justify the licence: “ Our lips are our own; who is Lord over us?” Now this utter hollowness and insincerity are very hard to bear. The few who, in the midst of general corruption, still retain their integrity are persecuted, and sigh for deliverance. This deliverance is promised them in the form of the Divine interposition. The singer, filled with the spirit of prophecy, consoles himself, and those afflicted like himself, not in his own words but in the words of God (verse 6). And then, remembering how pure those words are, how unalterably true,--not like the words of men, which seem so fair, but are false,--he feels that there he can rest, calm in the conviction that, though the wicked walk on every side, Jehovah will save them that love Him from all their machinations (verse 8). The Psalm consists of two principal divisions. I. A complaint (Psalms 17:1-4).1. The cry for help, because good men are nowhere to be found; and lies, and flattery, and insincerity prevail. 2. The prayer that flatterers and liars may be destroyed (Psalms 17:3-4). II. The answer to that complaint (Psalms 17:5-7). Including God’ s promise of help in answer to the cry for help, and the Psalmist’ s Amen, and the assurance and hope built upon the promise (Psalms 17:7-8). (J. J. Stewart Perowne, B. D.) A prayer of David to God, to save and help him, and keep him from the deceits and contagion of the wicked, of which the world is too full.1. A prayer, and the reasons of it (Psalms 12:1-2). The petition is brief and jaculatory, for he breaks upon God with one word--Help, or Save. Of which he gives two reasons-- (1) The penury and scarcity of good men.(2) The great abundance of the wicked, and the licentious times. 2. A prophecy of the fall of the wicked, whose arrogance he describes (Psalms 12:4). The prophecy shows what shall be the end of their dissembling. 3. God’ s answer to David’ s petition. Is it so that the wicked are thus numerous, thus tyrannous, so proud, so arrogant, then “ I will arise” ; “ I will not delay” ; “ I will set him in safety.” That which moveth Me is his pitiful condition, his sighs and groans. Of this let no man doubt. In God’ s words there is no fallacy. 4. A petitiory conclusion. “ Keep them, O Lord.” Without God keep them, they will be infected. Keep them from this generation. For there be a generation of vipers. And ever make them persevere; for without Thy aid they will fall. (William Nicholson, D. D.) Dark ages I. The golden age of a country may be a dark age in the estimate of the saint. The true glory of a country is moral, and where the moral element is wanting all other glories are dim. Philosophers, poets, commanders, artists, orators, statesmen, millionaires, do not make a “ Golden Age,” but the presence of many virtuous and godly men. II. The faults with which a splendid civilisation may be chargeable.1. Lack of faithfulness.2. Untruthfulness.3. Pride. “ Talking big.”4. Boasting.5. Goodness is treated with contempt. III. The duty of the Christian patriot.1. To cry mightily to God against the prevailing wickedness.2. To protest by word and act against this iniquity.3. To rest, in days of triumphant wickedness, in the word and power of God.4. To claim God’ s promise, and keep himself unspotted from the world. (W. L. Watkinson.) The moral degeneracy of society The poem is a picture of a morally rotten age. The devout author felt himself living in corrupt times. Hence he notes this degeneracy-- I. As a fact for devout lamentation. He mourns because of three things--1. The absence of the true. “ The godly man ceaseth.” 2. The presence of the false, vain man,--“ they speak vanity.” Obsequious men “ flattering lips.” Insincere--“ a double heart.” They spoke one thing and meant another. Proud--they spoke “ proud things.” Cruel--“ the oppression of the poor.” What a spectacle for a devout eye. 3. The exaltation of the vile. “ The vilest men are exalted.” II. As a reason for Divine interposition.1. “ Help, Lord.” So he prayed. 2. Divinely promised. “ Now will I arise, saith the Lord.” This comes as an answer to the prayer. “ Before they call I will answer.” 3. Heartily expected. “ Thou shalt keep them, O Lord. III. As suggesting by contrast the excellency of God’ s Word. “ The words of the Lord are pure words.” They are so for--1. They are unmixed with falsehood; and 2. They have been thoroughly tested. “ As silver tried in a furnace of earth,” etc. How thoroughly it has been tried these six thousand years, by persecution, by hostile criticism, by the profoundest experience of the good in all ages. (D. Thomas D. D.) The degeneracy of a soul “ Help, Lord!” This is the wailing supplication of a soul oppressed with the degeneracy of society. It is a cry for security amid an evil epidemic. This Psalm marks off the steps of social degradation. We can see the progressive descents from the worship of God to the exaltation of vileness. Regard these stages of decline in their relationship to the individual. Society only reflects the individual man. Regard the passage as a vivid description of the degeneracy of a soul.1. The decay of the sense of reverence. The beginning of degeneracy is to lose touch with God. We lose our touch with God when we cease to feel after Him. It is the effort to feel that preserves the sensitive touch. 2. The decay of the sense of honour. Faithfulness faileth, the dependableness of character is impaired. When reverence is benumbed, trustfulness is broken. 3. The decay of the sense of responsibility. “ Our lips are our own; who is Lord over us? ‘ The perversion of honour destroys the sense of responsibility. Men become self-centred, and therefore blinded. 4. The decay of the sense of humanity. “ The spoiling of the poor, the sighing of the needy.” Where irresponsibility reigns, cruelty abounds. The birth of cruelty synchronises with the death of reverence. 5. The decay of the sense of right. “ Vileness is exalted.” This is the last stage of the appalling degradation. Evil at length becomes man’ s good. He has lost his moral discernment. How can we be saved from this perilous decline? The wish to be saved is the beginning of salvation. Exercise thyself in feeling, and thou shalt become expert in touching. Everywhere and at all times be reaching out for God. Pray for Him everywhere. The good Lord is dependable; He is better than His word. (J. H. Jowett, M. A.) The departure of spiritual worth lamented This text is the language of feeling. But thought and feeling should not be placed in opposition to each other. They are mutually dependent. Thought without feeling would be powerless; feeling without thought would be wild, turbulent, and reckless. I. Spiritual worth. The two words “ godly” and “ faithful” express this. They correspond with other Bible words, such as “ devout” and “ just.” They cover the two branches of human holiness, piety and morality. In what does spiritual worth consist? Every man sustains two fundamental relations: the one connecting him with God, the other with society. The individual man lives in the social. In the spiritual constitution of man there are two controlling tendencies corresponding to these relationships. These tendencies are designated the religious and social affections. The religious element is the soul of man’ s soul; its perversion has been his degradation, and its right development is essential to his true elevation. The very constitution of the soul is theistic, the being of a God is implied in its structure, laws, and operations. The right state of these controlling tendencies constitutes spiritual worth. The right state of both is a state of love. Social morality springs out of piety. This worth enriches a man. It is valuable for its own sake. It is absolute worth. How is man to come into possession of it? This is the problem of life. All spiritual power we trace to the gospel. We would not depreciate other influences of spiritual culture. II. Spiritual worth departed. Various ways in which spiritual worth departs from a community. Change of locality. Change of character. Change of worlds. What principles will regulate the circumstances of death in the case of individuals?1. That death would be always peaceful in proportion to a man’ s goodness. 2. That death would be postponed in proportion to a man’ s usefulness. Actual experience controverts both these anticipations. The departure of spiritual worth lamentedIII. It is the language of lamentation, “ Help, Lord.”1. Their departure is a great loss. Has death terminated their existence? 2. It is a loss to society. 3. The loss requires the interposition of God. The separation is material, not spiritual accidental, not essential. The mental bond is closer through the dissolution of the bodily. (D. Thomas, D. D.) The death of the godly an incentive to prayer I. Because there are so few of them in the world. Such men are the salt of the earth. God teaches us their worth by removing them from this world. II. Their presence and service here seem essential to the cause of God.1. On account of their example.2. Their influence and usefulness. III. Because it is so difficult to fill up their places. IV. The grace and providence of God suggest the only remedy--prayer. “ Help, Lord,” etc. (Anon.) The loss of godly men The Psalm appears to have been composed in a time of great degeneracy and corruption of manners. I. The important, useful, and amiable characters here specified. Godly and faithful. The word “ godly” is sometimes translated “ merciful.”1. Consider godliness as a principle that comes from God, not in a natural but supernatural way. Holiness is the work of the Spirit of God. No man is godly but he in whom God has wrought a saving change, whose heart is turned from sin to God, from self to Christ, from earth to heaven. Wherein does godliness consist? Godliness is God’ s likeness. Wherever that is, there is a supreme love to God. Every godly man loves God, not only because God is kind and bountiful to him, but because God is holy in Himself: He is a godly man who is a sincere and a constant worshipper of God. The love of a child to a parent is exemplified by his obedience. A child of God obeys his heavenly Father from love. Every godly man worships God in secret. Everyone who is godly professes a regard for the public worship of God, and makes conscience of attending it. A godly man is not free from frailties and infirmities. But his heart is habitually right in the sight of God, and his way of life prevailingly corresponds with his religious profession. Consider-- 2. The other branch of the word godly, namely, merciful. (Isaiah 57:1) Merciful men are men of kindness such as show kindness. As they fear God, so they regard man. Happy for society when these two things are conjoined, a ready heart and a bountiful hand. 3. The faithful. The truly godly are faithful to God; and also faithful to men. Where godliness is, there will be honesty. II. The great cause we have to deplore the loss of such persons. When David wrote, it was a time of abounding iniquity among all degrees of people, and there were very few to be found who preserved these characters. The ceasing and the failing of them is to be considered also descriptive of their dissolution. When the judgments of God are abroad in the earth, and a dark cloud hangs over a sinful kingdom, is there not cause to bewail the departure of such as were men of prayer and of a public spirit? III. The duty of crying to God for help when such characters fail. Vain is the help of man. Our help is in the name of the Lord.1. Let us pray that the Lord would help us to attend to such a speaking providence, and improve it to our spiritual advantage. 2. That the Lord would so help in the present exigence and trial as to raise up others to supply the place of such useful men. (Richard Winter.) Times of spiritual dearth and solitude In the days of Savonarola, Italy was abandoned to its passions, its corruptions, and its vices. The rich tyrannised over the poor, and the poor were miserable, helpless, and abandoned. The zealous monk found himself at war with the world and the Church, and was shocked by the profanations that existed around him. “ There is no one,” he said, “ not even one remaining, who desires that which is good; we must learn from children and women of low estate, for in them only yet remains any shadow of innocence. The good are oppressed, and the people of Italy are become like the Egyptians who held God’ s people in bondage.” Good men taken from the evil to come Even as a careful mother, seeing her child in the way when a company of unruly horses run through the streets in full career, presently whips up her child in her arms and taketh him home; or as the hen, seeing the ravenous kite over her head, clucks and gathers her chickens under her wings; even so when God hath a purpose to bring a heavy calamity upon a land, it hath been usual with Him to call and cull out to Himself such as are His dearly beloved. He takes His choice servants from the evil to come. Thus was Augustine removed a little before Hippo (wherein he dwelt) was taken; Paroeus died before Heidelberg was sacked; and Luther was taken off before Germany was overrun with war and bloodshed. (E. Dunsterville.) The faithful fail from among the children of men. Our imperfect estimates We must not accept the words of this Psalm as true because they happen to be written here or anywhere. It is perfectly possible for us to take an unwise and incorrect view of social conditions. David did not keep a register of all the “ godly” and all the “ faithful.” Another prophet said that he alone was left; the Lord corrected his estimate, and said, No, not alone; I have seven thousand who have never kissed the lips of Baal. It is unwise to take the opinion of dejectedness and forsakenness upon any topic. When we are in extreme positions, either of joy or of sadness, we are not qualified to pronounce broadly and correctly upon the whole scope of Divine Providence. In high joy, the glee that all but dances in the sanctuary, for very ecstasy of heart, we may think all men good, all causes excellent, all the features of the times beautiful. In dejection, despondency, orphanhood of heart, we may think we alone are left, and that the gift of prayer will perish with our breath. All things wear a sombre aspect; the whole year is one long November; the very music of childhood is but an aggravation of our suffering. That opinion must not be taken. Within the limits of the man’ s own personality it is quite true, but no great generalisation must be built upon it. David did not know how many godly men there were in the world, nor how many faithful; but his experience is valuable up to this point, namely, that he felt everything of the nature of trust, confidence, progress depended upon the presence of godly and faithful elements in the world. That the population of the globe had increased was nothing to David, if the godliness and faithfulness of the community had gone down. (Joseph Parker, D. D.) No trusting in men To one reflecting that God’ s kingdom of truth and righteousness in the earth is to be maintained through human agencies, it is a saddening sight to see one after another of its champions and defenders disappearing from the conflict. The sight often smites the heart of the survivor, as it would have smitten the heart of the Israelite to have seen David fall in his combat with Goliath. Few, indeed, are the communities, whether civil or ecclesiastical, whose histories do not exhibit epochs and closes in which their whole future well-being seemed to depend upon the life of a single man, or at most, upon the lives of a very small band. And when such men fall in the conflict, or depart hence in the course of nature, good men feel that society has suffered a loss that cannot be easily repaired. But how much more severely is the blow felt when the champions of a cause are lost to it, not by death, but by turning traitors; when a Judas betrays the Church, and an Arnold the State. Now it is in this latter sense that we are to understand David’ s words, “ the godly man ceaseth,” etc. It was not by the sword of an enemy, nor by natural death, that they had been lost to the cause of law and order, truth and right, but by betraying it, and fighting against it. David’ s own son, and subjects, and generals, and ministers had conspired to overthrow the cause they had sworn to defend; and thus situated, he appeals to the only power that can now avail him, saying, “ Help, Lord, man has failed me; Thou alone canst now deliver.” (David Caldwell, A. M.) Trustworthiness He is a faithful man who keeps faith. Faith is the equivalent of fidelity, and fidelity is what we mean by trustworthiness. We are growing. Modern civilisation is not a failure. But it may be a question, whether we are keeping pace by moral growth with our intellectual and physical development. All signs of material advancement are of little account, if the ethical power of the Gospel is left out. Without fidelity to all the duties of a true man in society there can be no religion which is of any value. It is quite possible for men to ‘ make religious sensibilities and religious experiences a substitute for ethical integrity. It is a growing impression that men are becoming more and more untrustworthy. One of the features of our times is a growing looseness in fidelity. Consider this in regard to truth, which is the central trunk of trustworthiness. Men in ordinary conversation are not as careful of truth as they should be. I refer to carelessness of truth, to heedless and rash statements. There is a low sense or tone of conscience in regard to accuracy and fidelity on the subject of truth speaking. Truth is the backbone of honour, and indeed of manhood itself. In the rivalry and pressure of affairs there is a growing tendency to misrepresent the truth. Men really trap each other by half-truths. Half-truths are the devil’ s whole lies. Promises are not now kept as they should be. Unless men put their word into legal form, it is not generally considered that their promises are worth much. Trustworthiness, also, under assumed obligations, seems to me to be relaxing. It seems to me that the sentiment of service is becoming very much enfeebled, Now human society cannot cohere where a man cannot trust his fellow man. You cannot discharge your duties to humanity without being in subordination one to another. Society organises itself by relative superiorities and inferiorities. It is a constant complaint that it is the hardest thing in the world to find competent young men who can be trusted . . . I like to hear of eminent Christian experiences. Change of heart is good, but change of life is better. It would at least be more agreeable to one’ s neighbours. How is it in this matter? Is there anything in religious doctrine that is an equivalent for ethical Christianity? Is there anything that is a substitute for fidelity between man and man? (H. Ward Beecher.) Godly and faithful A prayer of David’ s to God for help on this ground--that there was little or no religion, or honesty left among men; and that therefore he had no reason to trust them, or to expect a blessing on such instruments. I. The importance of the two characters--godly and faithful, “ Godly” imports a benign, gentle, and good-natured man, but this has such a relation to religion, and is such a disposition to it, that among the Jews the word was in common use extended to a man that was exact to all the duties of religion, and strict in the performance of them. A godly man is not one that places his religion in many assumed practices, that do not tend to make him better. Nor he that understands his religion well Nor he that is very regular in all outward rules and matters of form. The truly godly man has an inward sense of a supreme power that is over him, and endeavours to resemble this being, and to govern all his actions in conformity to the will and laws of God. He believes that God, by His providence, watches over all things, and consequently resigns himself up to His will, and submits to everything that conies to him from that hand. A godly man is a faithful man. He that has a true sense of religion knows that God is true, and so he always speaks the truth. He is severe in matters of truth. He is raised to such a pitch of candour and sincerity that every man who has any concerns with him will soon see what he is to trust to, or to depend upon. A faithful man is he that hates both lies and liars. He is true in his actions as well as in his words. II. David’ s complaint. “ The godly ceased.” On what grounds did he make this complaint? III. The dangerous and desperate state of a nation, in which godly and faithful men do fail. Dangerous by reason of the natural effects that follow, and by reason of the judgments of God. IV. The only remedy for all this. Which is an earnest prayer to God for help. (Gilbert Burnet, D. D.) Zion bereaved of the faithful I. The fact. But who are faithful?1. They who are faithful to themselves will not deceive themselves as to their state before God. 2. To God. Maintaining His truth. 3. To the Church, the election of grace. Declaring to them positive truth, resting on the covenant, tracing all blessing to the Holy Spirit. II. The exclamation. “ The faithful fail.” It is--1. The voice of mourning. 2. Of appeal to God to raise up others. 3. Of the soul that cares for Zion. 4. Craving further nourishment. III. The warning--that when the Lord has taken home a few more of His faithful, then a storm of persecution will burst forth upon His Church. The night is approaching. Make sure work of your own salvation. (Joseph Irons.) A touching plea We feel that we cannot well spare the good from this earth in its present demoralised condition; because-- I. We need their example. Example is both (a) Demonstrative, and (b) Educational. II. We need their influence. It is the good of this world who preserve it from total moral corruption. III. We need their counsels. But God’ s dispensations are all right. He makes no mistakes. (W. H. Luckenbach, D. D.) Psalms 12:3-4 The Lord shall cut off all flattering lips.The lawlessness of the tongue The language of agitators is indicated in this text, of men who think to carry everything by free speech, a free press, and a free pulpit. God forbid that we should ever see the day when either of these three great agencies for enlightening, exciting, and directing human thought shall not be free. However much they may be abused, they are still the chief glory of a country. It is not to be denied, however, that they are abused. Instead of being used only for the defence of truth and right, they are often prostituted to stirring up the most fearful passions that can agitate the human breast; to array brother against brother, citizen against citizen, section against section, and Church against Church. You may remonstrate with the men so engaged, but the only answer you can obtain from them is likely to be, “ With our tongue will we prevail; our lips are our own; who is lord over us?” They act as if freedom of speech implied the right to say whatever fancy may dictate, where it may dictate, when it may dictate, and as it may dictate. Hence the recklessness with which not only opinions, but characters and motives, are assailed. The right of free discussion is often indulged by its advocates, till they seem to have forgotten that men have any other rights. Nor is this lawlessness of tongue confined to partisan leaders, and to those in authority; it pervades and embitters private life. We meet, in every walk of society, persons who pride themselves on their fearlessness of speech, and who, in sheer wantonness, inflict wounds upon the characters and feelings of others that time can never heal. (David Caldwell, A. M.) Flattery dangerous The philosopher Bion, being asked what animal he thought the most hurtful, replied, “ That of wild creatures a tyrant, and of tame ones a flatterer.” The flatterer is the most dangerous enemy we can have. Raleigh, himself a courtier, and therefore initiated into the whole art of flattery, who discovered in his own career and fate its dangerous and deceptive power, its deep artifice and deeper falsehood, says, “ A flatterer is said to be a beast that biteth smiling. But it is hard to know them from friends--they are so obsequious and full of protestations; for as a wolf resembles a dog, so doth a flatterer a friend.” (The Book of Symbols.) Our lips are our own. Conversation Thoughts, words, actions: these are the three activities in which our life is spent. The first and the last, as representing the inner and the outer life, are constant topics of religious teaching; but perhaps words, on account of their ambiguous character, as midway between thought and actions, have not received equal attention. To the thoughtless a word appears the most trivial of all things; what is it but a breath carried away on the air to be immediately extinguished? Yet, in truth, this activity is one of the great sides of life, in which we may either honour or dishonour God, in which we must display our own worth or unworth, and for which we shall at the last be either approved or rejected. Our conversation, indeed, is even more than this: it is a kind of index or epitome of our whole life; what we are in it, the same shall we be found to be in every other respect. It is to this effect that St. James says, “ If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body” : and our Lord still more solemnly, “ By thy words shalt thou be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned, as if nothing else required to be considered even at the final tribunal. Conversation is a daily, an hourly thing; it is continued from week’ s end to week’ s end, and from year’ s end to year’ s end; it goes on throughout life, from the time when the tongue of the child learns to babble the first words till the time when the old man eloquent is celebrating the days when he was young. It takes place in the house and by the way, where two or three are met together, and where crowds exchange their fleeting salutations. It passes between friend and friend, and between friend and foe, between neighbours and between strangers. There is no limit to the subjects which it may embrace. It takes in both the objects which present themselves to our observation in the places where we live, and those which are brought us by report from a distance. It ranges over the world invisible of thoughts and feelings, as well as the visible world of things and men. It moves easily from topic to topic, and may in an hour traverse a hundred subjects, passing from land to land in space, and from age to age in time. If the amount of our conversation could be represented to us visually it would astonish us. If it were printed, for instance, how many pages would an average talker fill in a single day? In a year it would amount to as many volumes as the collected works of a great author. In a lifetime it would fill a library. The mere bulk of this activity shows how momentous it is. But there are weightier considerations than this. Conversation is a forth-putting of the strength of the soul to produce an effect. It may be an effort of stupendous strength, or it may have no more force than the fall of a feather; for conversation, as an instrument of the mind, may be compared to those steam-hammers which can be worked either with such force as to grind an iron bar to powder, or with such gentleness as only to chip the shell of an egg. But whether the effort be great or small, that which it always aims at is an impression on another mind. Conversation is not the affair of one person, but always of, at least, two. It is perhaps the most direct and powerful means we have of influencing our fellow men. I put forth my hand and lay it on my neighbour’ s person; but in so doing I am not touching him so closely as if I speak a sentence in his hearing. In the one case only our bodies touch; but in the other our souls touch. Conversation is the touching of souls. Souls never touch each other except for weal or woe. Every touch leaves a mark, which may be either a black mark or a point of splendour. No doubt the impressions made by conversation are generally minute. But all the impressions which we make in this way on different persons, when added together, amount to a great influence; and to those who for years are constantly hearing us speak we cannot but be doing much good or harm. One snow-flake is nothing; it melts away on the outstretched hand in a moment; but, flake by flake, the snow accumulates till it is the only thing visible in the landscape, and even boughs of the oak crack beneath its weight. And such is the cumulative influence of the conversation of a lifetime. (James Stalker, D. D.) Who is Lord over us?--The ideal Christianity When we mistake our proprietorship we cease to be religious, and we give up the possibility of being religious. What is the first lesson in true Christian religion? The first lesson is that we are not our own, have no right, title, or claim to ourselves; we are branded; we have the burnt in mark upon us that we belong to Christ Jesus, that we are blood bought, that we are not our own; we have not a moment of time, not a single thought, energy, wish, will, desire, that is our own. That is the ideal Christianity, the very purpose and consummation of Christ’ s priesthood, the tree meaning--that is, the large and complete meaning--of self-denial, saying No when anything within us claims to have an existence or right of its own. So long as we think that our lips are our own we shall speak what we please; when we begin to learn that our lips are not our own, nor our hands, nor feet, nor head, nor heart, we shall have but one question: “ Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do? Tell me, and give me strength to do it.” That will be the day of jubilee, the morning of coronation. (Joseph Parker, D. D.) Psalms 12:5 For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, now will I arise, with the Lord; I will set him in safety from him that puffeth at him.The poor set in safety God’ s family in all ages have resembled each other. Hence the Word of God is rich in consolation. I. God’ s Word deals with and is addressed to characters. Two such are named.1. The poor--the poor in spirit, conscious that they have no good in themselves. God brings all His people to this state. 2. The oppression of the poor. Poverty gives room for oppression. The rich are not oppressed. And so it is spiritually. Hezekiah, near to death, cries out, “ Lord, I am oppressed; undertake for me.” The law on a man’ s conscience does this. “ It strikes the dying dead.” Thus the Lord deals with His people to bring them down. But their sighing is a sign of life. The dead in sin feel nothing. They may have alarming fears of hell, but no trouble of conscience; they, as Isaiah says, may “ cry for sorrow of heart and howl for vexation of spirit,” but “ they do not cry unto God with their heart when they howl upon their beds.” II. For the sighing of the needy. A man may be poor without being needy, without having any desire for what he does not possess; he may be content with his poverty.1. But the needy are they who are not content, who feel and utter their need. This is true of spiritual things. He is full of needs. He wants more and more of the grace of Jesus. 2. He sighs. He is sighing after God, sighing unto the Lord under the burden of his sins; he wants the light, life, liberty, peace of the Gospel of God. III. The answer to these cries.1. “ Now will I arise.” As if the Lord had been looking on but sitting still; as a father may watch his child at play, but let him perceive the child in danger, then will he start up and rush to the rescue. It is this sitting still of the Lord that so puzzles and perplexes God’ s family; that He should seem to take no notice of them. But He will not be always so. A time is fixed when He will arise. 2. “ I will set in safety,. . . puffeth at him.” Then poor people are puffed at, not only poor and oppressed. Yes, for Satan in one that puffs at them. Sinners do also. And saints can do it to. Then much of pride and annoyance are to be found in God’ s children. But the Lord will set them in safety. Not, perhaps, deliver them, but set them in Himself, a safe spot indeed. And there is the puff of flattery, and of enmity. Through much tribulation we must enter the Kingdom. But thither we shall be brought. (J. C. Philpot.) Divine interposition in time of great peril On one occasion, being driven from my station, two teachers and myself escaped for our lives to another missionary station at the other end of the island. We remained there for some time, and one afternoon, tired with watching (for the savages were constantly trying to take our lives) I fell fast asleep. About nine at night a retriever dog, that had been trained to warn me of approaching danger, sprang upon me and awakened me. I jumped up and saw a number of savages approaching; they went to the beautiful new church and set it on fire. I called the other missionary, and told him that in a few moments our house would be in flames. He suggested that we should prepare for the great change, for that night we would be with Jesus. He prayed to God to have mercy upon us. I went out and pulled the fence down that joined the church to the house. I was quickly surrounded by the savages, who lifted their clubs to strike me. Jesus has all power in heaven and earth; no blow could be struck without His permission. “ I defy you, in the name of Jesus!” I shouted; “ you think I am alone, but my God is here. He will protect me. I defy you, in the name of Jesus!” Just as I uttered those words a tornado burst upon us. The wind blew the flames from our house, and the rain soon extinguished the fire. The savages were affrighted. They said, “ Jehovah God is fighting for them,” and then disappeared into the neighbouring wood. The age of miracles has passed, but the God of miracles still lives and reigns. I firmly believe that in answer to prayer God sent that tornado. (J. Paton.) Psalms 12:6 The words of the Lord are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. The excellence of the Holy Scriptures I. The holy description of the sacred writings here given. It tells of--1. Their high authority. The men who wrote these books say, “ The Spirit of God spoke by me, and His Word was upon my tongue,” “ Thus saith the Lord,” and so on. Thus they claim high authority. But you may ask, “ How are we to know it?” Therefore note-- 2. Their inherent sanctity. “ The words of the Lord are pure words.” And are they not so? Some say the book is immoral because it records immoral actions. But could the Scriptures have given a faithful account of human nature without such records? Those who study the Bible most are those who most of all live and practise all the public and social virtues. Modern infidels are not so candid as those of the former century. Rousseau could say, “ I will confess that, the majority of the Scriptures strike me with admiration, as the purity of the Gospel hath its influence on my heart. Peruse the works of our philosophers, with all their pomp of diction: how mean, how contemptible are they compared with the Scriptures! Is it possible that a book at once so simple and sublime should be merely the work of man?” 3. Their intrinsic worth. In our text they are compared to the finest silver and gold. And in Psalms 119:1-176. And this eulogy is deserved, because they speak of God and man reasonably and in harmony with our experience. They satisfy man upon the most anxious questions. II. The scrutiny they have endured. “ Tried in the furnace, purified seven times.” The reference is to the searching process of the refiner, by which he detects the presence of any alloy and removes it. And the Word of God has passed under a scrutiny like that of fire: It is not accepted on mere hearsay and because of the teachings of priests.1. It has been thoroughly investigated. Josephus gives his testimony to the sacred books of the Jews. Hence the Old Testament is evidently not a book of yesterday. And from the testimony of the Fathers we know that the books of the New Testament have existed from the time they profess. The ancient versions confirm this. The entire New Testament might be collated out of the quotations made by the Fathers. 2. Then there has been antiquarian and scientific research. And these do homage to the testimony of revelation. 3. Philosophical and moral discoveries likewise bear their testimony in the philosophies of China and India, and yet others, have been searched, and they have been found poor and unsatisfactory, like the glimmer of gas lights at noonday, compared with the Scriptures. That eminent Oriental scholar, Sir William Jones, says, “ The Scriptures contain, independently of a Divine origin, more true sublimity, more exquisite beauty, purer morality, more important history, and finer strains, both of poetry and eloquence, than could be collected within the same compass from all other books that were ever composed in any age or in any tongue.” Now these are not the testimonies of priests, but of laymen, learned, travelled, and who have become acquainted with the literature of all nations. And should any be disposed to trifle with the Bible, let me quote to him two lines from a poem penned by one of the greatest geniuses that has ever adorned our empire, and whose intellectual light has been just lost to us-- “ Better he had ne’ er been born Who reads to doubt, who reads to scorn.” (J. Blackburn.) Testing the truth The Psalmist is telling of the Word of God, and contrasting it with the words of men. He tells of those who speak vanity. “ With flattering lips and a double heart do they speak.” He wants something better, and finds it in the Word of the Lord. For in contrast with man’ s weakness and falsehood there was the Divine promise immediately made, “ For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, now,” etc. May that be depended upon! May we take heart? Yes, “ For the words of the Lord are pure words,” etc. So then, we may apply this text to the Bible. I. By the prolonged and severe conflict it has had with all the evil of our world. There are two great forces in the moral world, that of evil--the world, the flesh, and the devil, and that of good--in truth, in holiness, and in love. And God is the source of all this good. Now, if the words are of God they will be like Him; which is just what they are. And they will occupy His place, bitter against nothing but evil, enamoured of nothing but good. And they will do His work. So they do, have done everywhere and always, under all circumstances and amid all conditions. II. By all the contradictions of unbelief. Concerning Him it is said, “ He endured the contradiction of sinners against Himself.” Just so it has been with the Word of God, and is so now. They have heated the furnace to the intensest heat, and cast the Bible in, and the result is that it has lost nothing but the tinsel of man’ s folly or the bonds wherewith men’ s authority sought to bind it. III. By the evil consequences of the conduct of false professors. We complain of the unfair dealing of unbelief. Naturally. But there are others who deserve our indignation far more, and these are those who profess to be, but are not, friends of the Gospel or of the words of God. Worldly men, who have determined to make it a political engine. Hence it has been encumbered with ceremonies and dogmas; kept back from the people; man’ s own interpretations fastened upon it, as if they were the words of God Himself. IV. The infirmities and inconsistencies of its real friends. Many of you here profess to be its real friends. Some of you hold prominent positions, and, like Peter and John, you bid men look on you and see what your religion can do. And men do look on you and judge the Word of God by you. And they see very soon where there are inconsistencies in you; whilst, on the other hand, there is nothing so awes the world as the spirituality, unselfishness, and devotedness of earnest holiness. But who of us can profess fitly to represent the Word of God? How imperfect are the best of men. V. By the spiritual discernment of all sanctified men. In one sense the Word of God tries a man, for according as he acts towards it so does he reveal his spiritual state. On the other hand, all holy souls test the living Word. “ My sheep hear My voice,” said the Saviour, “ but a stranger will they not follow.” VI. By the personal experience of both saints and sinners. VII. by those, most of all, who have most thoroughly lived in it and worked hardest for it. If I want to know the sustaining qualities of any particular kind of food I observe those who live most on it, yet do the greatest amount of work, and with the greatest ease, and, nevertheless, show the most robust health. And so, would I know what the Word of God can do, I turn to those who are such as I have described. See Paul. Hear him say, “ I can do all things through Christ, who strengthened me.” All of you who hear the Word, bind it to your hearts, and let it be your holy resolve, God helping you, to live as well as speak His Word. (John Aldis.) The Word of God tested and proven The fable that there were animals that lived in the fire, called Salamanders, came from the glowing brilliance of some metals that, when they are heated to a white heat, acquire a supernatural splendour, and apparently a new and mysterious life. The metal seems now to live, breathe, heave, move at every new expansion and contraction; a hundred hues, indescribably brilliant and radiant, play around the molten surface. Of all books, the Word of God is the only one with Salamander qualities. The flames of persecution and hostile criticism, instead of effecting its destruction, have but added to its lustre and strengthened its claims to be indeed “ the Word of the Lord that endureth forever.” (A. T. Pierson D. D.) . Psalms 13:1-6 Psalms 13:1-6 How long wilt Thou forget me, O Lord?Distress and confidence This little Psalm begins in agitation and ends in calm. However true it is that sorrow is “ but for a moment,” it seems to last for an eternity. Sad hours are leaden footed and joyful ones winged. That “ How long,” reiterated, betrays how weary it was to the Psalmist. Very significant is the progress of thought in the four-fold questioning plaint, which turns flint to God, then to himself, then to the enemy. The root of his sorrow is that God seems to have forgotten him; therefore his soul is full of plans for relief, and the enemy seems to be lifted up above him. Left alone, without God’ s help, what can a man do but think and plan and scheme to weariness all night, and carry a heavy heart, as he sees by daylight how futile his plans are? The agitation of the first strophe is somewhat stilled in the second, in which the stream of prayer runs clear without such foam as the impatient questions of the first part. The storm has all rolled away in the third strophe, in which faith has triumphed over doubt and anticipates the fulfilment of its prayer. The sad minor of “ How long?” if coming from faithful lips, passes into a jubilant key which heralds the full gladness of the yet future songs of deliverance. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Sorrow lingers That which the French proverb hath of sickness is true of all evils, that they come on horseback and go away on foot; we have often seen that a sudden fall, or one meal’ s surfeit, has stuck by many to their graves; whereas pleasures come like oxen, slow and heavily, and go away like post horses, upon the spur. Sorrows, because they are lingering guests, I will entertain but moderately, knowing that the more they are made of the longer they will continue; and for pleasures, because they stay not, and do but call to drink at my door, I will use them as passengers with slight respect. He is his own best friend that makes the least of both of them. (Joseph Hall.) The relative changes of the immutable God He is unchangeable. “ Job says, “ He is in one mind.” James, “ With Him there is no variableness.” And He Himself says, “ I am the Lord, I change not.” In reality He is thus, but relatively He seems to change. I. God as looked at through the soul in trouble. He seemed to be--1. Forgetful. “ How long wilt Thou forget me?” 2. As unkind. “ How long wilt Thou hide Thy face from me?” To turn away the face was the sign of aversion and displeasure. 3. As utterly neglectful. “ How long?” Four times he repeats this. As if God was utterly regardless of him. So it seemed to him. II. God as looked at through the soul in devotion. In the midst of his troubles he prays, “ Consider and hear me, O Lord, my God: lighten mine eyes,” etc. As he prays the cloud withdraws, and he cries, “ My heart shall rejoice in Thy salvation.” Prayer changes the night of the soul into morning, its discords into music, its dark and chilly November into a sunny and life-giving May. III. Conclusion.1. The power of circumstances to disturb the soul. While no man need be their creature, it is impossible for him not to feel their influence. 2. The rapid changes which occur in the mood of the soul. The Psalm begins in gloom and ends in sunshine. 3. The influence of prayer to elevate the soul. Prayer is the power that changes the whole horizon of our spiritual nature. (D. Thomas, D. D.) What total desertion by God would mean When the king removes, the court and all the carriages follow after; and when they are gone, the hangings are taken down, nothing is left behind but bare walls, dust, and rubbish. So if God removes from a man or a nation where He kept His court, His graces will not stay long behind; and if they be gone, farewell peace, farewell comfort; down go the hangings of all prosperity, nothing is left behind but confusion and disorder. (J. Staughton.) Soul eclipses I. The nature of such eclipses. It is quite true that God never ceases to love His children, but still the people of God are sensible of eclipses of the soul such as the Psalmist describes in this Psalm. God has not really deserted His children, but it seems as if He had. In providential matters they fail to recognise His hand; His consolations cease in their spirits, and they are full of darkness and bitterness. II. The causes of these eclipses. Why does God thus appear to desert His people at all? The end of God’ s discipline is to make His people feel their absolute dependence upon Himself. These eclipses teach us--1. That God is the source of happiness;2. The source of wisdom;3. The source of strength; and4. The source of life. Why does God hide His face so long? Simply because we are so slow to learn the great truths which He designs to teach. III. The duty of the saints in these hours of darkness. Not discontent, and not despair.1. Wait in faith.2. Wait in prayer.3. Wait in hope. When the trial is over your soul shall be deeper, brighter, and more fruitful. (W. L. Watkinson.) A sigh and a song The “ salute” of this Psalm is a sigh, the “ adieu” is a song. We sight the Psalmist prostrate before the mercy throne, wrapped in grim shadows of gloom, bowed in soul by the weight of a great sorrow, and howling “ How long?” We leave him sitting in the stillness of a new confidence, enwreathed with sunbeams of gladness, pealing forth from harp and lip an exultant Te Deum! I. Earliest inquiry (Psalms 13:1-2). A fourfold inquiry. Can God forget? He hides His face, not willingly, but of necessity, that we may seek His face. And the longer, that we may seek it the more earnestly. II. Devout and fervent entreaty (Psalms 13:3-4). Trouble gives point, pathos, and power to prayer. Genuine entreaty comes from a soul that has--1. A clear recognition of its personal relationship to God. 2. It is definite in request. It knows what it wants, and asks for it. Entreaty has aim, directness, special need; hence is definite in request--e.g., Jacob, Jabez, etc. Here it seeks the Divine attention. The Divine illumination. 3. Genuine entreaty has powerful reasons for what it requests. “ Lest I sleep,” etc. This is from the self-side. “ Lest mine enemy say,” etc. This is from the God-side. Prevailing against him would be injurious to the truth. III. Entreaty rising into triumphant assurance and praise. Here we have trustfulness--1. Well located; 2. Triumphant; 3. Exultant. (J. O. Keen, D. D.) God’ s forgettings It is quite unnecessary to point thus: “ How long wilt Thou forget me?--For ever?” as if there were two distinct questions. It is natural to a perturbed and doubting heart thus to express itself in a confused and almost contradictory manner. In its despair it thinks, “ God hath forgotten me” ; and yet out of the very midst of its despair there rises up the conviction, “ No, not forever” ; and then its hopelessness is changed to expostulation, “ How long wilt Thou forget me?” We may, if we choose it, paraphrase, “ How long wilt Thou make as if Thou wouldest forget me forever?” God’ s anger, the hiding of His countenance, as Delitzsch observes, cannot but seem eternal to the soul which is conscious of it. Nevertheless, Faith still cleaves to the Love which hides itself under the disguise of severity, and exclaims, “ Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him.” “ When we have long been crushed by sufferings, and no sign appears that God will succour us, the thought will force itself upon us, God hath forgotten me. For by nature we do not acknowledge that God cares for us in our afflictions; but by faith we lay hold of His invisible providence. So David, so far as he could judge from the actual state in which he was, seemed to himself forsaken of God. But at the same time, because the Light of Faith was his guide, he, with the eyes of his mind, looked through and beyond all else to the grace of God, far as it might seem hidden from his sight.” --Calvin. “ Does he not portray in fitting words that most bitter anguish of spirit, which feels that it has to do with a God alienated, hostile, implacable, inexorable, whose wrath is, like Himself, eternal? This is a state in which hope despairs, and yet despair hopes at the same time. This no one understands who has not tasted it.” --Luther. (J. J. Stewart Perowne, B. D.) The continuance of trial In laying forth his grief he beginneth at his apparent desertion; then speaketh of the perplexity of mind arising herefrom; and, last of all, he mentioneth the continuance of his outward trouble from his enemies. Whence learn--1. Trouble outward and inward of body and spirit, fightings without and terrors within, vexations from heaven and earth, from God deserting and men pursuing, may fall upon a child of God at one time, and continue for a long time enough, as here. “ How long wilt Thou forget me; how long shall mine enemy be exalted over me?” 2. When trouble is continued, and appearance of delivery is not, and God withholdeth inward and outward help, sense calleth this the Lord’ s forgetting and hiding of His face. “ How long wilt Thou forget me, and hide Thy face? 3. The Lord’ s children, in their resolution for faith and patience, do set to themselves a shorter period usually than the Lord doth for making them have their perfect work; therefore, when their hope is deferred, it makes their heart sick, and to cry out, “ How long?” 4. When comfort trysteth not with our time, fear of eternal off-casting may readily slide in; and this fear a soul acquainted with God, or that loveth Him in any measure, cannot endure. “ Wilt Thou forget me forever?” saith he. 5. Whatsoever sense do speak, or suggested temptations do speak, faith will relate the business to the Lord, and expect a better speech from Him. For in this condition the Prophet goeth to God, saying, “ How long, O Lord?” 6. A soul finding desertion multiplieth consultations, falleth in perplexity, changeth conclusions, as a sick man doth his bed; falleth in grief, and cannot endure to live by its own finding, but runneth upon God for direction, as here we see it. “ How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart daily?” 7. The enemies taking advantage (by the continuance of trouble upon the godly), against his cause and religion and against God, doth augment both the grief and temptation of the godly. “ How long shall mine enemies be exalted over me?” (David Dickson.) Psalms 13:2 How long shall I take counsel in my soul?Plan making The literal rendering of this verse brings before us the folly of mere plan making. David is taking counsel in his own soul: inventing plans of self-deliverance; making up schemes of daily life and programmes of service and progress. He no sooner makes one plan than it is displaced by another. His schemes follow in quick succession, but the second always amends the first, and both give way to the third, and he finds that in much scheming is much disappointment; it brings sorrow into his heart daily. By day he is mocked by harassing thoughts; by night he reverses all his plans in dreams; and in the morning he awakes to forget both day and night in some new vision of possible self-deliverance. Thus the mind, left to itself, is self-tormented; being limited in range, it is continually checking its own conclusions, and hesitating as to its own purposes. How true it is, “ Without Me ye can do nothing.” This is what Jesus Christ said to His disciples, and we feel it to be true in our own souls when we endeavour to invent plans for ourselves, and to make our will into a kind of divinity. It is curious to observe, too, how the Psalmist continually mixes up the right view and the wrong one, and how he is certain to fail into the wrong view the moment he turns away his complete attention from the living God. In this verse he occupies the wrong standpoint when he is wondering how long his enemy is to be exalted over him. When a man is truly living in God he has no time to think about his enemy, nor any disposition to consider what that enemy will do. God occupies the whole soul with equal vividness at every point, and dominates in gracious sovereignty over every beating pulse and living thought. (Joseph Parker, D. D.) Having sorrow in my heart dally. Sorrows Can this be a common experience? Many of us would say so. Sorrow is an excellent discipline, and a healing medicine. Let us notice a few of our sorrows. I. There is that of our lonely path. Many people find a friend, husband, wife, business, pleasure on which they can lean, but there comes a time when you feel helpless. Sometimes you say, “ There is nobody who has to walk in a path like mine.” This is true, but then we all feel the same. Let our loneliness teach us to seek the presence of God. You will always be disappointed until you feel the touch of God. II. That which is too painful to receive sympathy in words. See the history of Job, when his three friends came to mourn with him. “ None spake a word unto him; for the) saw that his grief was very great.” None but God can comfort you. III. That which arises from doubt. Satan said to our Lord, “ If Thou be the Son of God.” So we all feel at times, and we say, “ Is there really a God?” “ Can He care for me? No,” seems the answer to everything at times. You may have a medicine chest in your house, which may help you in slight disorders; but there may come a time when it fails, and you look for other help. And so, at times, the Bible, the Church, and the minister are like that medicine chest, and you turn from each, saying, “ I cannot obtain any relief there.” At such time go into your room, shut your door, and speak to God Himself. It is a sin to doubt if you make it despair. Last night, when I went up to bed, my little child called out, “ Papa, I am so afraid!” I comforted her, and said, “ Don’ t be afraid, dear!” She whispered, “ Papa, leave your door wide open, and then I can go to sleep.” I went to my room, and let the door bang against the chair, to let the little one hear that it was wide open. The thought that my door was wide open, and that my care reached her from my room to hers rested her little, anxious heart, and she slept the sleep of the innocent. In your doubts and fears keep fast hold on this fact--that Jesus Christ is God’ s door, wide open for you. IV. That from temporal losses. A ruined merchant came home one afternoon earlier than usual, and, sitting in his chair, buried his face in his hands. When his wife touched him on the shoulder he exclaimed, in a groan like as from a man who is being buried alive, “ Mary, I have lost all! I am ruined!” She said, “ But, James, you have not lost me!” Then a sweet child came up, saying, “ Father, you haven’ t lost me either!” One of his daughters said, “ Father, have you lost God? Another asked, Father, have you lost heaven? Stupid man, he said he was ruined! Fancy a man saying he has lost “ all” when he has at least one or two kind friends, and also a loving God and a blessed heaven! V. That from sin. There is great sorrow in the heart of a sinner, and it is well to be so. It would be a calamity else. The wages of sin is the death of happiness, but the life of misery. VI. That from bereavement. Some of you keep relics of your departed ones. The boy’ s rusty knife, with only one blade, and that broken; but how the eyes of the mother glisten when she looks on that old knife. Here is a toy soldier, without a head; but see the tear of that strong man drop thereon. Ah, your children who have gone from you! Are they not the Lord’ s magnets to draw you up to heaven? (William Birch.) Advice to the dejected To “ commune with” our own hearts and to “ take counsel,” as is meant here, are not the same things. We may pore over our guilt and wretchedness, and overlook our highest mercies. Such, for a time, was the case with David, and there are many who still do the same. I. The disconsolate situation, with the remedy to which he repaired under it.1. He was sorely persecuted. 2. The Lord seemed to prosper his persecutors and not him. 3. His most intimate acquaintance seemed to have forsaken him. 4. And there were spiritual distresses beside. The Lord “ hid His face.” 5. And for a long time. “ How long,” etc. Now concerning all this load of trouble, he is said to have taken “ counsel in his soul.” He was in much perplexity and distress. It did not last long, however, for, he says, “ I have trusted in Thy mercy.” What cannot Divine mercy effect? II. Those who are like David and need the same help. Such are--1. Those who sink into despondency under the adverse providences of God. 2. Those who at the outset of their religious concern are encompassed with darkness and long-continued dejection. Various are the causes of this. Circumstances without them. False ideas as to election. Something within them, as a propensity to take unfavourable views of themselves; or a species of self-righteousness. 3. Those who during the most part of their Christian profession live under habitual fear lest they should prove reprobate at last. Now if we would wish to discover whether there were any particles of steel in a heap of rubbish, the best way would not be to search for them, but to hold a large and powerful magnet over it. And this, if it be there, is the way to discover true religion in our souls. Hold the truths of the Gospel over them and this will draw it forth. (Andrew Fuller.) Sources and remedies of disquietude Presumption and despair are the two fatal rocks on which we are in danger of making shipwreck of faith and of a good conscience. A vain conceit of our own righteousness and strength exposes to the one; sad and gloomy reflections on our own sin and corruptions, as if they exceeded the mercies of God and excluded us from the hope of forgiveness, plunge us into the other. There is a godly jealousy of ourselves which is highly proper and necessary, as it leads to watchfulness and circumspection and a constant dependence upon Divine strength. But this jealousy may, like zeal, be without knowledge, and may exceed its just and proper limits. Point out some of those things on account of which good men take counsel in their souls and have sorrow in their heart daily.1. Many humble and sincere Christians are apt to complain of irregular and wandering thoughts, in prayer and other religious duties. Whence they conclude that their minds are not duly impressed with a sense of Divine things. Doubts and fears of this nature constitute the grand distinction between man, as a being capable of religion, and the inferior creatures. In everything we attempt we are interrupted with various impressions and distractions of mind. There are many who cannot attend upon any religious duty with that steadiness and alacrity which they discover in their secular employments. Others, more deserving of our sympathy, both desire and endeavour to have their minds composed when engaged in devotional duties; but, to their sorrow of heart, they fall short of their wishes and fail in their attempts. The best of men are not wholly exempted from these wanderings of heart. It may be asked, how are we to distinguish the suggestions and temptations of Satan from those that arise from the remains of sin and corruption in the renewed heart? We may distinguish them by the welcome reception we give them on the one hand, and by the pain and uneasiness they give us on the other. Do you abhor the evil thoughts and suggestions you complain of? In that case you have no reason to be east down or discouraged. His grace will be sufficient for you. It is the consent of the will that constitutes the criminality of any action whatever; and, while it is our daily struggle to withhold this, and we are, by Divine grace, enabled to withhold it, we have no reason to be cast down or disquieted. 2. Another source of inward disquietude arises from the defects and imperfections that attend our best services. There is not a just man that liveth and sinneth not, is the language of Scripture and of universal experience. But this consideration, though it ought to humble, need not discourage us in our Christian warfare. Though we cannot hope wholly to eradicate our sins and corruptions, it is our duty to resist and oppose them by our constant endeavours and fervent prayers. Those who imagine that they have arrived at sinless perfection must be unacquainted with the spirituality of the Divine law, and with the extent of its obligations. This is our encouragement, that if any man sin we have an advocate with the Father. With regard to those who have fallen into grievous sins after the most solemn engagements, their case requires to be treated with the utmost caution. A good man may be “ overtaken in a fault.” Such are fit objects of Christian compassion, and stand in need of all that comfort which the nature of the Gospel covenant, rightly understood, abundantly administers. 3. Another source of disquietude arises from the outward troubles and afflictions of life. When these overtake the Christian he naturally looks up to God for relief. But guilt is suspicious, and there is sin enough in the best of men to justify the severest trials with which they may be visited in this world. When affliction brings the sins of men of distinguished piety to their remembrance the recollection of them is accompanied with many aggravating circumstances. In all the trying circumstances of this changeful life the Christian has an anchor of hope sure and steadfast. 4. Another source of disquietude is seen in the case of David--“ The Lord hid His face from him.” He walked in darkness. This is not peculiar to the case of David. The exercised Christian knows what is meant by it, and has felt it in his painful experience. Job experienced the same. David says, “ I have trusted in Thy mercy; my heart shall rejoice in Thy salvation.” This remedy will be found effectual in every similar case. We shall not pretend to state all the reasons why God permits some of His dearest children to lose their spiritual comfort. One reason may be, that they are apt to build too much on their frames and feelings. Practical reflections-- (1) If the thoughts of our hearts and the actions of our lives have so great an influence on our present peace and future happiness, we ought constantly to observe and duly to regulate them. (2) Religion is intended to regulate our practice, as well as to soothe and elevate our minds. As in the natural, so in the spiritual life, activity and enjoyment are essentially connected with one another; and the more we attend to the weightier matters of the law, the more will our comforts abound. (James Ross, D. D.) Psalms 13:3 Lighten mine eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death. Moral and spiritual death The Psalmist’ s cry was for a physical deliverance from mortal danger--probably from a violent death at the hands of his enemies. With little or no straining of the words they may be turned into a prayer against the peril of moral and spiritual death. Under the emblem of death, virtuous and pious souls in all ages have been wont to depict a torpor, coldness, and inactivity of the moral and spiritual faculties. We dare not affirm that spiritual death is, like physical death, a final condition.1. Moral death. The main point in bringing up children is to give moral life, so that at maturity conscience may be in them a living power. You must not only give your child rules of conduct, you must teach him likewise to hate evil and to love goodness. For moral death in the young man or woman there is but one remedy--the opening, lightening of the eyes. Another form of moral death is discoverable in those of maturer years, whose whole morality consists in simple imitation of others by habit, and in ruling the life by the ordinary customs and opinions of one’ s own little circle. Hundreds and thousands of quite respectable people are destitute of moral life. The essential conditions of moral life are absent. Such temptations as may come to then, are resisted from motives of self-indulgence rather than of self-denial and self-conquest. The worship of ease and respectability has gradually brought them into a state of moral torpor, indifference, and inactivity--has brought upon them, in fact, the sleep of death. Close akin to this is another form of moral death, into which some sink who once knew the nobility and the blessedness of the moral life. They began their worldly career not only innocent, but good, longing and striving to be good; but through adverse circumstances, through the pressure of the struggle for existence, they have been led to follow the evil example of the multitude, to copy their small dishonesties and their petty deceits in the matter of business, and to cease to have scruples in doing things and conniving at things which in their early days they shrank from as wicked. They become morally weaker from day to day, and at last the sleep of death comes over their hearts and consciences, and moral activity or heroic virtue is for them no longer possible. It is forgetfulness of God that most of all brings on this dreadful torpor. For the great mass of people, as they are, I can affirm, without fear of contradiction, that a religious life, a life of earnest prayer to God, is absolutely indispensable to a life of true and lofty morality. 2. Spiritual death. Moral death is widespread, even among respectable citizens. Spiritual death is equally prevalent among professedly religious people. Torpor, indifference, and inactivity of soul towards God is, I fear, the rule rather than the exception. And this is due to ignorance rather than to baseness, to a darkness which only the light of God can dispel. Spiritual death may be brought on by such means as these: by falseness in the creed detected, but not rejected; by superstition; by an unfounded fear of God; by undue regard for the mere externals of religious observances; by ignorance of what is really essential to true religion. These may be called the intellectual agents of spiritual disease and death. But there are other agents which are practical, such as being over-engrossed in worldly pursuits, giving up regular habits of prayer, seeking too eagerly the pleasures and indulgences of the flesh. We need a knowledge of the truth, which only God can give us, and which is much more than intellectual accuracy and consistency in our creed. The sleep of death may creel, over us when exhausted by the eternal problems which we make for ourselves, or find already made in our search after God. (Charles Voysey, M. A.) Death in the midst of life David was under no ordinary distress of mind, arising from some adversity into which he had fallen through the instrumentality of a fellow mortal. David knew that adversity is uniformly attended with one of two results: either a serious consideration of the causes which have brought down these inflictions and a consequent turning to God, or a reckless inattention to and a hardened disregard of the dealings of God’ s providence, which eventually lead to an utter disregard of Him here, and an eternal separation from His favour and presence hereafter. In the text we have three petitions--1. That the Lord would condescend to make him the object of His most gracious consideration. He grounds his plea upon a sense of utter helplessness in the sight of God. How blessed are days of adversity, when they bring with them such distrust in ourselves, and such unshaken confidence in the protection of God! 2. That the eyes of his spiritual understanding might be lightened. 3. That he might not be permitted to sleep the sleep of death. By death the Psalmist does not exclusively mean the separation of soul and body. We are inclined to think he is praying for deliverance from that spiritual death in which all, though naturally alive, are involved, on whose heart the spirit of the living God has not wrought a saving work. (James Robertson, A. M.) Letting in the light A passer-by one day asked of an Irishman, whom he observed breaking a large hole in the wall of an old cellar, what he was doing. The answer of Barney was prompt, “ Shure, an’ I’ m lettin’ out the dark.” We spend much time and energy in the same foolish idea; we attack the dark, instead of putting all our powers into the glorious work of letting in the light. Whether the darkness be that of uncivilised ignorance, or infidel prejudice, let us shine in the light of the glorious Gospel, and the darkness will fly. (W. Luff.) Psalms 13:5 But I have trusted in Thy mercy.On the mercy of God I. What is meant by the mercy of God? Mercy differs from goodness in that it supposes guilt. Without the fall of man there could have been no occasion for his redemption; and without the plan of redemption it does not appear that we could have formed any opinion of the Divine mercy. II. How does it remedy man’ s misery? The two evils to which man is exposed are sin and death. Yet they differ only as cause and effect. Sin is the distemper, and death the issue of it. Against sin God hath provided by giving us the light of Scripture; against death by the new principle of life infused into the Christian from the time of his baptismal regeneration. III. What is it to trust in this mercy? We cannot do so till we know what we have to fear. But men are insensible of this, because self-satisfied and resting in a mistaken confidence. To trust in God is to renounce all self-confidence, and to rely on the mercy of God. Do not mistake presumption for trust. They who do, think that God’ s mercy is only to deliver from punishment. It is to deliver from sin. IV. The joy and comfort following. “ My heart shall rejoice in Thy salvation.” (A. Jones, M. A.) Mercy and joy The minister of the Gospel is to proclaim free grace everywhere. But the heart must be awakened ere it can receive the truth of God’ s grace. I. The experimental statement of David. “ I have trusted in Thy mercy.” He was a sinner, but here was all his hope. This the test of true discipleship, whether we have come to trust as David did, and to hope in the mercy of God through Jesus Christ. And he knew this experimentally. Dry doctrines will not suffice alone. They would starve a soul. There must be experience. David here tells out his sorrow. He mourns God’ s delays. But he trusts in God. II. His experience. “ My heart shall rejoice in Thy salvation.” He had trusted, and he anticipates rejoicing. Here was the shelter, the anchor of his soul. The Church and the Christian can never be ship wrecked, for the anchor holds. He speaks of a heart joy. No one can know anything about heart rejoicing but those who have been heartachers. “ Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted.” How blessed it is to experience the stillness and the quietness of the peace of God. Compared with this, what is the world worth? (J. J. West, M. A.) My heart shall rejoice in Thy salvation. A renovation of heart essential to a state of salvation 1. Without the renovation of the heart there can be no distinct knowledge of the Gospel. The natural mind cannot receive the things of God; they are spiritually discerned. The mind must be renewed, that the man may become spiritual. 2. Nor can there be a new nature. This is essential to the enjoyment of salvation. For how can we enjoy that which is opposed to our feelings, desires, habits? We have no enjoyment in the society of those who are the objects of our aversion. The “ enmity” of the mind must be “ slain” by the constraining power of the love of Christ; but this involves renovation. 3. Unless the heart is renewed by the Spirit of God there is no possibility of accounting for the discovery and preparation of a plan of redemption at all. Was it worthy of the Divinity to do all that He has done in redemption for the sake of saving those He never intended to change and purify? 4. This renovation of heart is essential to the enjoyment of heaven. Take an individual from the lowest ranks of society, and place him in the midst of the high born, the educated, the refined; where will be his enjoyment? The unrenewed man, set in the midst of those who have their “ conversation in heaven,” has no relish for the company, and gladly turns from it. The reason for finding no interest in heaven is--unrenewedness of heart. (J. Burnet.) Psalms 13:6I will sing unto the Lord.The passing of morbid states of mind Much spiritual darkness is no doubt caused by the mind’ s sympathising with a morbid condition of the body, a condition not always known to the sufferer, and often not even suspected. Nevertheless, the morbid condition exists, and prevents the mind from rightly estimating the evidences of its conversion. No sooner, however, is the believer’ s health restored than he finds himself in a new world of religious hope and feeling, and yet without a single new evidence of his being a child of God. His repentance is not more sincere, his faith more entire, nor his purpose to serve God more determined. His restoration to health alone has invested his evidences of conversion to God with pleasurable emotions. He has, of course, more enjoyment in his religion, but not an iota more of genuineness and safety in it than there was before. (David Caldwell, A. M.) Joy in God’ s ways with us This Psalm, like many others, begins in sorrow, but ends in joy. In all God’ s works there is a great likeness running throughout--a change from bad to good, from hope deferred to real enjoyment; as the proverb has it, “ No cross, no crown” Thus it is that daylight succeeds the darkness of night, and disperses it. Health and strength follow so often after a bed of sickness, inward joy after a long period of outward sorrow. Our Lord Himself “ went not after joy; but first He suffered pain.” And such is the life’ s history of all God’ s most chosen saints. How differently a man goes through the world who dwells upon the blessings he has received more than the sorrows and trials he may have undergone, who tries to see in all circumstances of his life God’ s goodness towards himself, instead of repining continually in discontent at everything which crosses his will or his hopes. It is in this way that God so often draws the hearts of men to Himself, weans them from the love of this world, makes them to love Him supremely before all else, and thus sows the seed of eternal life in their hearts. We are all surrounded by a thousand blessings, of which we take little or no account. These words of the text contain a direct expression of our own individual blessings and mercies. It is the work of God’ s Holy Spirit in us to shed abroad in our hearts the love of God. And when we love God we love all that belongs to God. Let this be one object of our daily life, to see more and more God’ s love towards us. (W. J. Stracey, M. A.) . Psalms 14:1-7 Psalms 14:1-7 The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. The practical denial of God the root of all evil The heavy fact of widespread corruption presses on the Psalmist, and starts a train of thought which begins with a sad picture of the deluge of evil, rises to a vision of God’ s judgment of and on it, triumphs in the prospect of the sudden panic which shall shake the souls of all the “ workers of iniquity,” when they see that God is with the righteous, and ends with a sigh for the coming of that time. The staple of the poem is but the familiar contrast of a corrupt world and a righteous judge who judges, but it is cast in very dramatic and vivid form here. We listen first to the Psalmist’ s judgment of his generation. Eras of great culture and material prosperity may have a very seamy side, which eyes accustomed to the light of God cannot fail to see. The root of the evil lay, as the Psalmist believed, in a practical dental of God, and whoever thus denied Him was a “ fool.” Practical denial or neglect, of His working in the world, rather than a creed of negation, is in the Psalmist’ s mind. The biblical conception of folly is moral perversity rather than intellectual feebleness, and whoever is morally and religiously wrong cannot be in reality intellectually right. The practical denial of God lies at the root of two forms of evil. Positively, “ they have made their doings corrupt and abominable” --rotten ill themselves and sickening and loathsome to pure hearts and to God. Negatively, they do no good things. The next wave of thought (Psalms 14:2) brings into his consciousness the solemn contrast between the godless noise and activity of earth and the silent gaze of God that marks it all. The purpose of the Divine Guest is set forth with deep insight as being the finding of even one good, devout man. Other Scriptures present the gaze of God as for other reasons, this one in the midst of its solemnity is gracious with revelation of Divine desires. What is to be the issue of the strongly contrasted situation in these two verses: beneath, a world full of godless lawlessness; above, a fixed eye piercing to the discernment of the inmost nature of actions and characters? Verse 3 answers. The Psalmist’ s sad estimate is repeated as the result of the Divine search. But it is also increased in emphasis and in compass. This stern indictment is quoted by St. Paul in “ Romans,” as confirmation of his thesis of universal sinfulness. But this baffled quest cannot be the end. If Jehovah seeks in vain for goodness on earth, earth cannot go on forever in godless riot. Therefore, with eloquent abruptness the voice from heaven crashes in upon the “ fools” in the full career of their folly. The thunder rolls from a clear sky . . . Finally, the whole course of thought gathers itself up in the prayer that the salvation of Israel--the true Israel, apparently--were come out of Zion, God’ s dwelling, from which He comes forth in His delivering power. The voice of the oppressed handful of good men in an evil generation is heard in this closing prayer. It is encouraged by the visions which have passed before the Psalmist. The assurance that God will intervene is the very life breath of the cry to Him that He would. Because we know that He will deliver, therefore we find it in our hearts to pray that He would deliver. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) The practical atheist Thus the Bible ever speaks of those who have cast off the fear of God. They are those whose understanding is darkened, who, professing themselves to be wise, become fools. Such men, who make a boast of their reason, and would fain walk by the light of their reason, prove how little their reason is worth. The epithet is the more cutting because persons of this kind generally lay claim to more than ordinary discernment. There is here rather a practical than a theoretical atheism; not so much a denial of the being of a God as a denial of His moral government of the world (cf. 10:5) ; and this evinced in their actions rather than in their words. Their lives show what the thought of their hearts is. The “ fool” is not the philosophic atheist with his arguments (“ subducta ratione vel formatis syllogismis” --Calvin); but the man who by the practice of wickedness so stifles and corrupts within him the knowledge of God that he virtually acknowledges no God. South, in his sermon on this verse, lays a stress on these words, as implying that the atheist dare not avow his atheism, lint only cherishes it within. But the occurrence of the phrase elsewhere--e.g. 10:6, 10, 13--does not justify this stress. (J. J. Stewart Perowne, B. D.) The character reasonings, and folly of the fool I. The character The “ fool” in Scripture is the man who makes a wrong choice of good; who, when two objects are placed before him, one a lesser good and one a greater good, chooses the lesser in preference to the greater. Preferring the future life to the present is wisdom, preferring the present life to the future is folly. Why must the poor fool say in his heart--“ No God. I wish there were no God” ? The reason is, that when a man makes the wrong choice, his heart is miserable within him. The world cannot make him happy. The soul is immortal, and nothing short of immortality can content it. The soul is spiritual, and nothing but a spiritual God can bless it. The soul is sinful, and nothing but a Saviour can give it peace. The fool knows all this, yet will not come to God that he may have peace. So he says in his heart, “ Oh, that there were no God to judge me!” II. The reasonings. The reasonings of the spiritual fool! Alas! there can be none. There is no infidelity in the world but that which proceeds from ignorance or from sin. If you are the character described you have no reasonings by which to justify yourself; and I cannot therefore waste your time by attempting to refute what does not exist. III. Folly. The wish which you form in your heart--the wish that all religion were false, the wish that there were no God to judge you at the last--is utterly and totally impossible. Is it not wisdom to put away your foolish hope, that God will not call you to judgment, and to turn to God, and to thank Him that He has promised forgiveness of sins to all those who, with a true penitent heart and lively faith, turn to Him? (George Townsend, M. A.) The folly and wretchedness of an atheistical inclination All nature so clearly points out, and so loudly proclaims, a Creator of infinite power, wisdom, and goodness, that whoever hears not its voice and sees not its proofs may well be thought wilfully deaf and obstinately blind. Every faculty, every object of every faculty, demonstrates a Deity. Can a man possibly conceive that such wonderful order and perfect beauty should be ever formed by the fortuitous operations of unconscious, unactive particles of matter? The expression in the text may denote, not the man’ s real opinion or persuasion, but his inclination and desire. He secretly wishes that there were no God, and endeavours to draw his belief that way as much as he can! To wish against the being of a God is to wish mankind the greatest mischief and distress that can possibly be conceived. Were there no awe of a supreme Being, no terrors of a future judgment to restrain us, what government on earth would be able to maintain itself, or find protection for its subjects? What wise man would choose, or dare to live in a community of atheists, if such a one could be found? Consider how the minds and conditions of private persons would be affected by the supposition of a forlorn and fatherless world. Under the tuition and government of infinite wisdom and goodness everything appears with a comfortable aspect. Men never need to want the purest comforts and most perfect satisfactions while God is their portion. On this account, whether the world frown or smile, the wise man is neither highly transported nor deeply dejected. Whatever be his lot, the peace of his mind is secured, and his heart is at rest. For his hopes are founded on a rock, and his treasure fixed where nothing can touch it. Without a God, a providence, and a future state there could be no such thing as prosperity, no satisfaction, no real enjoyment for rational beings; nor even any true peace or tranquillity of mind. What dismal effects atheism would produce in adversity. How inexcusably foolish and criminal are those men who believe and acknowledge a God, and yet live as if there were none! (J. Balguy.) The withered heart The word “ fool” has been traced to a term which signifies the act of “ withering.” The sense would be represented by the expression--the withered heart hath said there is no God. Though in the Scriptures the term “ heart” is often employed as signifying the mind or judgment, yet in this case, judging by the consequences that are detailed, the reference is evidently to the moral nature. A distinction is indeed made in the Old Testament between “ mind” and “ heart,” as in the instance of the first and greatest commandment. The point to be observed then is, that the “ heart” or moral nature has in this instance “ withered” ; affection is blighted, moral instinct is perverted, the natural and noblest aspirations of life are utterly extinct. A difference is to be marked between a purely intellectual scepticism and a corrupt moral aversion. There are speculative agnostics whose outward life may be unquestionable as to honour and faithfulness; but there are also deniers of the existence of God whose object is to get rid of responsibility and judgment It is not transgressing the lines of fact and observation to say that it is the “ heart” which first and most truly believes in God. Where the “ heart” or moral purpose is simple and constant, intellectual aberrations will certainly be rectified or rendered spiritually harmless. Everything of a religious nature depends upon the purpose and faithfulness of the moral nature. The heart feels after God. The heart is first conscious of the Divine absence. The heart soon becomes a medium of accusation through which the whole nature is assailed with just and destructive reproach. (Joseph Parker, D. D.) A fool indeed What does he say? “ There is no God.” Why, everything he sees, hears, touches, contradicts him. The very worm he treads on, yea, every blade of grass, affirms “ There is a God.” We are all ready to admit that he who denies this is a fool. But stop; observe in what way he says it. Not with his lips, but in his heart. How many things are said there but never spoken out, God and ourselves only know. And it is not the mind or the understanding which says it, but the heart, the affections. His understanding may not deny, but his heart does. In his affections, his desires, his thoughts, his life, his conduct are all as if there were no God. If the life be taken as proof, how many of these fools there are. For they never pray, they never regard God as the orderer of their lives. They speak of chance, accident, but put God out of the question. And they never think of asking His direction in any of their actions; His book they throw on one side, and scarce ever look at it. They deem themselves quite able to direct their own steps. And they say the same who secretly sin, and think none seeth them, or that their sin will never find them out. If they escape human punishment they fear no other. In fact, what are all men saying who live after the flesh, or who neglect the gospel of Christ--but that “ there is no God” ? “ The fool” told of here, then, is not so uncommon a person as might be thought. And is he not a fool? Let us each ask ourselves the solemn question the text suggests, “ Are we or are we not amongst those foolish men who say in their hearts ‘ There is no God’ ?” If we are, may He turn us from darkness to light. (A. Roberts, M. A.) The folly of the fool The first great principle of the Christian religion, and the first announced fact of Divine revelation, is the being of God. We have, in the text, the solution of all practical atheism in the world. Infidelity is the root form of sin. I. The bold assertion. “ No God.” Such a denial involves tremendous difficulties. There are physical mysteries to be accounted for. There are intellectual phenomena to be explained. There are moral intuitions, soul out-reachings, spiritual instincts and aspirations to be satisfactorily interpreted. The universe evidencing marks of intelligent design, traces of omnipotent power, infinite skill, beauty, and beneficence must be the effect of an adequate cause--the work of a self-existent, independent, infinitely wise God. What shall we say of man--physically, mentally, morally? Can such marvellous beings have been raised out of nothingness by the revolving wheel of time, until its revolution shall crush them into nothingness again? This bold assertion is also in direct antagonism with the teachings of revelation. “ In the beginning God created.” Blot out God from your creed, and the Bible becomes at once a useless volume. It cannot be interpreted. The evidence of the genuineness of Divine revelation is overwhelming. It rests on four grand arguments, namely, the miracles it records, the prophecies it contains, the goodness of the doctrine, and the moral character of the penman. II. The region in which this assertion is made. “ In his heart.” Man’ s great defect is a corrupt heart. It is the fruitful source of all evil, the centre of all impiety, and the seat of foolishness and infidelity. The atheism of the times, and of all times, has been and still is the sad effect of heart derangement rather than brain disorder. The intellect has often been blamed when it should have been the heart. It better suits the promptings and desires of the carnal nature to negative the existence of a Divine Ruler than to admit it. Let man be set right at heart, and the philosophy of fools would vanish into thin air. (J. O. Keen, D. D.) The fool’ s denial of God’ s existence The folly of atheism is undeniable when we remember-- I. That the thing so ardently wished for is absolutely impossible. The all-seeing God can no more shut His eyes to the conduct of mortals than He can cease to exist. As His superintending care is necessary for the preservation of the universe, so is the constant exercise of His moral government required for the vindication of His own honour. It is told that a Frenchman once visited a castle in Germany where dwelt a nobleman who had a good and devoted son, his comfort and his pride. In the course of conversation the Frenchman spoke in such unbecoming terms of God that the baron said, “ Are you not afraid of offending God by speaking in this way!” The foreigner announced, with cool indifference, that he knew nothing about God, for he had never seen Him. The next morning the baron pointed out to his visitor a beautiful picture on the wall, and said, “ My son painted that.” “ He must be a very clever youth,” courteously replied the Frenchman. Later on the baron took his visitor over his gardens, which were of rare beauty and contained many choicest plants. On being asked who managed the garden, he replied, “ My son, and he knows almost every plant, from the cedar to the hyssop.” “ What a happy man you must be,” said the Frenchman, “ to have such a son!” “ How do you know I have a son?” asked the baron, with a grave face. “ Why, because I have seen his works; and I am sure he must be both clever and good, or he never could have done all you have shown me.” “ But you have never seen him!” returned the baron. “ No, but I already know him very well, because I can form a just estimate of him from his works.” “ Well, then, if you are able to judge of my son’ s good character by seeing his various works, how does it happen that you can form no estimate of God’ s goodness by witnessing such proofs of His handiwork?” If the fool could have his way, and banish the Almighty One from His own dominions, it would-- II. Be an unspeakable damage to all even in this world. If men would put an end to the beneficent rule of our heavenly Father, what would they offer as compensation for so irreparable a loss? Should any have reached this extreme point in foolishness that they have wished there were no God, let them ponder these thoughts.1. Before you are again drawn so far within the dreary region of unbelief, ask this question: Have I a sincere desire to know the truth? I put the matter in this shape, because thousands have really hated the truth, when they fancied that they loved it. 2. In order to strengthen your feeble faith, make diligent use of the light which you already possess. 3. Be willing to ask God, in humble prayer, to give you light, and to guide you into all truth. One of the fiercest of the French revolutionists said to a simple peasant, “ I will have all your church steeples pulled down, that you may no longer have any object to remind you of your old superstitions.” But, returned the peasant, with an air of triumph, “ you cannot help leaving us the stars.” Instead of the blank, cheerless lot of such as would fain believe that “ there is no God,” the wise in heart will rather be disposed to adopt the language of the great philosopher, Sir Humphrey Davy, as their own, “ I envy no qualities of the mind in others--nor genius, nor power, wit, nor fancy; but if I could choose what would be most useful to me, I should prefer a firm religious belief to every other blessing.” (John N. Norton.) The folly and impiety of infidelity Consider the text-- I. As an impious wish. This is what he would desire: it would gratify and gladden his heart if it were so. II. as a bold declaration. This goes much further. He has come to this pitch of daring, to affirm “ There is no God.” Not believing in God, he does not believe he has a soul and a hereafter. No wonder that he becomes abominable. True, all do not go to such lengths. Some would only say, “ There is no such a God as people who believe the Bible say there is.” There is some God, but He either takes no notice, or He is far too good to punish men for their little deviations from virtue here. This is deism. And there is yet another kind of infidelity. Men who will not go so far as either the deist, and certainly not as the atheist, yet they deny that God interferes with the affairs of men, or that He has given us in the Bible a guide for our conduct and a measure for our expectations. At the judgment, for they believe there will be a judgment, they say that men’ s good actions will be found to outnumber their bad ones, and so they hope to escape. Nor does infidelity stop even here. It stalks abroad under the guise of liberality of sentiment, or the dominion of rationalism. Truth to them is but the handmaid of reason, and no one is bound to believe what he cannot understand. They say a man is no more accountable for his faith than he is for the colour of his skin and the shape of his body. Let a man do the best he can, let him live up to the light of nature, and let him never fear any hereafter. These are the most dangerous people of all, for whilst many would shun an atheist or deist or Socinian, the theologian can spread his sentiments, like a deadly poison, unchecked. This is why the Gospel is so scorned and neglected. Men are taught that they can do without the Gospel, they do not want a Saviour. III. But the Word of God calls all these men “ fools.” Think of their unutterable folly. For see the evidence of creation--heavens, earth, man in body and mind. Does not reason bid them believe? And if there be no God to whom we must answer, whence the curse that is upon the world? How came the certain fact of the universal deluge? What is the meaning of conscience? Why must all die? He strikes, too, at the very root of the honour of God. The controversy is not as to whether there be any God, but who shall He be? “ Who is Lord over me?” is the principle of infidelity. The man wishes to be his own lord. It is the very spirit of devilism. Reflect, then, what a horrible creature man is. How needful it is that man should learn humility. How just will be the judgment of God upon all atheistical and unbelieving sinners. How cheering and consoling to the true Christian are the very truths which infidels ridicule and scorners deny. (R. Shittler.) The heart speech of a fool The Christian faith, like the Christian man, has to pass through many a conflict. In every age of its existence it has had to fight, not only for its final developments, but also for its first principles. The Bible is not passive in this conflict. It strikes as well as bears--assails as well as defends. And when scepticism has run its usual course to atheism, and the man who began with doubting Revelation goes on to deny the Revealer, it comes forth with the lofty sarcasm--“ The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.” Observe the scope of the utterance. I. As to its matter. The Bible all through tells us of God. “ In the beginning God.” And it tells of Him as a Personal Being of the highest attributes. But the “ fool” denies it. II. The manner of the utterance. It is private rather than public; he saith “ in his heart,” that is, when alone. It may lie the breathing of a wish rather than a conviction. III. The causes of the utterance. We shall find them in our hearts.1. We do not like the mystery of God. It is so humbling to us to believe in a being whom we are utterly unable to understand. 2. We do not like the authority of God. Now we come nearer home. We could bear with the mystery if it had nothing to do with us. But the claims of God upon us are infinite and endless. His hand is ever upon us. It is as much as I can do to submit to the ordinary laws of social life; but a law that pursues me everywhere and always, and sends its mandates into the secrecy of my mind and heart--that is more than I can bear. I wish there were no such law. 3. We do not like the prospect of meeting Him. To most men it is most unwelcome. IV. The character of such an utterance. It is the fool that says it. See how gross his folly. (F. Tucker, B. A.) Atheism The Bible never attempts to prove the existence of God. Atheism, which is the denial of Him, is either practical or spiritual. The former has always and everywhere been. But speculative atheists are fewer in number. “ I had rather,” says Lord Bacon, “ believe all the fables in the Legend, and the Talmud, and the Alcoran, than that this universal frame was without a mind.” The burden of proof rests with the atheist. I. His folly may be seen by glancing at the unanswerable argument from existing objects. See all the phenomena of nature. And there is the moral evidence. II. By its unwarrantable assumptions. How can a man know that there is no God? III. By its injurious character. “ No atheist, as such, can be a true friend, an affectionate friend, or a loyal subject.” See what came of it in the French Revolution. IV. By its inadequacy to encounter the hours of trial and of death. In an Alpine village is the peaceful grave of one who died upon the Riffel-horn: over his grave is the significant inscription, “ It is I, be not afraid.” The good man, and only he, is not afraid. (J. H. Hitchens. D. D.) The being of a God I. General evidences for the being of a God, independent of Scripture.1. That it has been acknowledged by all nations in all ages. Polytheism does not deny but confirm the truth. Only individuals, never nations, have denied it. And the lives and the end of these men show that their opinion has often been shaken. Hobbes, one of the chief of them, said that be could not bear to be left for a moment in the dark; and just before he died he told the spectators that he was about to take a leap in the dark! So it was indeed. A few such individuals, rejecting an important doctrine, can form no argument against the doctrine itself. And even of these, some have, at particular seasons, confessed their folly. Thus Volney, in a storm at sea, called upon the very God whose existence he had denied. Thus Voltaire, when dying, confessed the Christian religion to be true, and had the audacity to partake of the Christian sacrament as a sort of passport to heaven. 2. All creatures manifest and declare it. Look at their production, their preservation, their adaptation. Look at the nature of man also, body and soul. 3. The extraordinary occurrences that have taken place. II. The scripture name of those who deny this truth. III. Practical improvements of the doctrine. But we must know God in the heart. (T. Mortimer.) The folly of atheism That any should say this, is not easy to imagine were we not forced to believe it possible. History tells us of such, and we have no cause to have so much better opinion of the modern age as to doubt that it has those who are ready enough to vent the same impiety. I. The assertion made. “ There is no God.” By which--l. We may understand absolute denial of His existence or a denial of Gods providence. Epicurus was of this opinion. He confessed there was a God, but as for His interposing and concerning Himself in our affairs, this he utterly denied; and the reason he gave was that such superintendence would interfere with the Divine ease and felicity. We take the text in both these senses.2. The manner of the assertion, “ said in his heart.” It wears the badge of guilt, privacy, and darkness; and as if it were sensible of the treason it carries in its own bonds. The atheist will not speak out, but in his heart he can and does say what he likes. 3. What is implied in this saying. An inward wish that there were no God. His seeking out arguments to persuade himself it is true. A readiness to acquiesce in such arguments. It is a sign that a man is falling when he catches at straws. For why should there not be spiritual substances? And if there be disorder and seeming chance now, do we not look for a day of retribution? The man’ s placing his trust and dependence for his good on other things than God. This is a loud denial of God. It may not be a verbal denial, but it is no less real. II. The author of this assertion. “ The fool.” For--1. He contradicts the general judgment of mankind. The notion of God is one that a man is not catechised but born into; his mother’ s womb was the school he learned it in. Now it is morally impossible for any falsity to be universally received and blessed, both as to all times and places. 2. He lays aside a principle that is reasonable, for one strange, harsh, and, at best, highly improbable. 3. His motives show his folly. These are, great impiety and great ignorance. 4. From their instability. They will not stand to them in tithe of great danger, or when death draws near. Affectation expires upon the death bed. It is not in any man’ s power to extinguish the witness for God in himself. But they may do so for a while. Great and crying sins such as waste the conscience--sensuality and discontent with God’ s providence--lead to this. Therefore, beware of them. (R. South, D. D.) The existence of God The Psalm describes the deplorable corruption of universal human nature. It begins by declaring that the faculties of the soul are corrupt. “ The fool hath said in his heart,” and then it goes on to show the evil streams thence issuing--“ abominable works.” “ The fool” signifies a vicious person, a wicked man. The speaking in the heart means his thoughts. “ There is no God” does not so much deny His existence, though it amounts to that, as deny that there is any living ruler and governor of the world. This is to strip God of all His glory. And the motive of them who make the denial is evil--that they may be the more free to sin. Now, it is a great folly to deny the existence of God. For he denies what is attested on every hand, and what is made clearly known. Of old, men had many gods, now they say there is none. But the existence of God is the foundation of all religion. And it is well to be able to give reason for our belief, and to put down that secret atheism which lurks in us all, and to confirm in the faith those that love God. But, more particularly, note the atheist’ s folly. I. He denies the sentiment of all nations both in their judgment and practice.1. No nation has been without this belief. Idolatry, the worship of many gods, does not weaken this argument, but rather confirms it. The existence of God was never disputed, though nearly all things else were. 2. And it hath been a constant and uninterrupted consent; for-- (i) In all the changes and vicissitudes of governments, states, and modes of worship this has been maintained. (ii) Men’ s fears and anxieties would have led them to destroy it if possible; there has been no want of will to do so. (iii) The devil deems it impossible to destroy it. When he tempted Adam, it was not to deny God but to become as God.3. Such sentiment is natural and innate. For-- (i) It could not be by mere tradition. For then we should have had told us not only the existence of God, but the right mode in which to worship Him. Why have men remembered this if it were tradition, and forgotten all the rest? But even if it were, it was not an invention of the first man. If it had been, his posterity would soon have found it out. And why should he have invented it? (ii) Neither was it by agreement and consent amongst the rulers of men. Why should they do so? How could they so long maintain the imposture? (iii) Nor was it man’ s fear that first introduced it. His fear did not create God, but God was the cause of his fear.II. He denies that which all things in the world manifest. The Scriptures assert this (Romans 1:19-20). St. Paul does not say “ are believed,” but are “ clearly seen.” The world is like a large mirror which reflects the image of God (Psalms 8:1; Psalms 19:1; Psalms 91:2), etc. Now, the world does manifest God.1. In the production of the creatures it contains (Isaiah 40:12-19). They could never have been their own cause. The world and every creature had a beginning (Hebrews 11:3). The matter of the world cannot be eternal Nor time; for all motion hath beginning, therefore the revolutions of our earth. Nor the generations of men and other creatures; for no creature can make itself. Nothing can act before it be. That which doth not understand itself nor order itself could not make itself. If the first man made himself, why did he not make himself better? why is he so limited and faulty? If we made ourselves we can preserve ourselves, which we know we cannot. And why did not man create himself earlier, if he did so at all? Therefore we accept the Scripture as giving us the most rational account of the matter. Then, further, no creature could make the world, no creature can create another. For if it create of nothing, then it is omnipotent and not a creature. If of matter, who formed the matter? We are compelled to go back to a first Great Cause. Man cannot create man. If he could he would understand him, which he does not. There is, therefore, a first cause of things, which we call God. And this first cause must necessarily exist, and be infinitely perfect. III. He denies that which man’ s own nature attests.1. His bodily nature does. For see the order, fitness, and usefulness of every part--heart and mouth and brain, car and eye and tongue. And see, too, the admirable differences in the features of men. No two are Mike. What vast advantage comes from this? 2. His soul does. For consider the vastness of its capacity, the quickness of its motions, its union with the body, and the operations of conscience. But all this proves the existence of God. The vastness of the desires in man is in evidence. For the desires of other creatures are fulfilled. “ They are filled with good.” Then shall man not be? IV. They deny what is witnessed by extraordinary occurrences.1. Judgments (Psalms 9:16; Acts 12:21), which occurrence Josephus also relates. 2. Miracles (Psalms 72:11; Psalms 72:18). “ Who only doeth wondrous things.” The truth of the Scriptures stands or falls with the miracles of which it tells. They must have been, or else the records are a pack of lies. 3. Accomplishment of prophecies (Isaiah 41:23; Isaiah 46:10). V. Uses of above argument.1. If atheism be a folly it is a pernicious one; for it would root out the foundations of all government and introduce all evil and villainy. The two ever go together (Jeremiah 3:21; Ezekiel 22:12). To the atheist himself (Job 18:7 to the end). 2. How lamentable that atheism should be so common. But since all are tempted to it, let them remember-- (i) It is impossible to prove that there is no God. (ii) Whosoever doubts of it makes himself a mark against which all creatures fight. All things condemn him. (iii) Atheists have been sometimes much afraid they were wrong. (iv) The motives of atheism are bad and vicious. (v) How unreasonable to run such risk. (vi) Have we done all we can to attain to the knowledge of God?3. Let it be our wisdom to be settled in this truth. Therefore study God in His creatures as well as in His Word, and view Him in your own experience of Him. 4. If we believe, then worship Him and often think of Him. (S. Charnock, B. D.) Practical atheism Unfold the conception which you have formed of the existence and attributes of God.1. We all involve in our conception of God the idea of personality. 2. To this Infinite Being we involuntarily ascribe self-existence. 3. Both reason and revelation teach us to ascribe eternity; to the Deity. 4. We ascribe to Him infinite and absolute power. 5. And omniscient wisdom. 6. And every moral attribute in infinite perfection. 7. He is revealed as the Father of the creatures He has made. The most astonishing manifestation of the goodness of God is made to us in the remedial dispensation. Evidently the existence of God, and especially of such a God as the Scriptures reveal, is by far the most practical truth of which we can possibly conceive. What, then, must be the condition of a man who believes in the existence of such a God, and yet suffers not this belief to exert any practical influence upon his conduct? (F. Wayland.) Practical atheism This is natural to man in his depraved state. Not natural to him as created, but as corrupt. And it is universal (Psalms 58:2; Romans 3:9-12). For the proof that atheism is natural to man we note-- I. That man would set himself up as his own rule instead of God. For--1. He naturally disowns the rule God sets him. Every man naturally is a son of Belial. He would be without any law. Hence he desires not to know God’ s law. The purity of the Divine rule renders it nauseous to him; so impure is man’ s heart, and therefore atheistic likewise. Hence he neglects the means of knowledge, or endeavours to shake off as much as he has (Romans 1:28). Or if he cannot do this he will not think of it, and his heart rises against God both inwardly and in outward art (Psalms 14:4). What knowledge they seek for they desire only from impure motives. What they have they hold very loosely. One day it is “ Hosannah,” the next “ Crucify Him.” Some try to wrest their knowledge of God’ s truth to encourage their sin (2 Peter 3:16). But all this dislike to God’ s truth is a disowning of God as our rule. God’ s law cast against a hard heart is like a bail thrown against a stone wall, by reason of the resistance bounding farther from it. They show their contempt by their presumptuous transgression of the law, by their natural aversion to the declaration of God’ s will. That will they dislike and turn from. And this the more His will tends to His honour. 2. Man naturally owns any other rule rather than that of God. “ They are lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God” (2 Timothy 3:4). They will prefer the rule of Satan. Or of the world, for this is evident from their regarding more the dictates of men than of God; and what regard they have for God’ s will, it is only because it is the world’ s will also, which they ever put before the will of God. But especially they prefer their own self-will. Self is the great opponent of God, the great Antichrist. 3. Man would make himself the rule for God, and give God law. We are willing He should be our Benefactor, but not our Ruler. This mind is seen in our striving against His law. In our disapproving the methods of His government. In impatience in regard to our own particular concerns. Because Job did not do this he is commended (1:22). In envying the gifts and prosperities of others. In praying importunately for things which we do not know will please God (Proverbs 7:14), or which we do know are contrary to His declared will. As when men pray to be saved, but neglect the means of salvation. Or when we try to bend God to our own will. In all these ways, and yet others, man shows that he would have God take rule from him, and not he from God. II. As man would be a law to himself, so also would he be his own end and happiness.1. For proof see his frequent self-applause (Romans 12:3-4). His ascribing to himself the glory of every success. His desire to have self-pleasing doctrines. His concern if he is injured, but not if God is wronged. His self-trust. All this is a usurping of God’ s prerogatives, and a vilifying of God and destroying Him so far as man can. 2. Man would make anything his end rather than God. 3. Man would make himself the end of all creatures (Ezekiel 38:2). 4. Man would make himself the end of God. He does so when he loves God only because God sends him good things, but would not if God sent him evil things. When he abstains from sin for his own sake, not because of God. When he renders duties for a mere selfish interest (Genesis 34:21-22), which is evident from his reluctance to religion when self is not concerned (Job 21:15; Job 35:3). And man’ s practical atheism is further shown in his unworthy imaginations of God, from which spring all idolatry, superstition, and presumption. And in his desire to be distant from God. Naturally we have no desire either to remember, converse with, return to, or imitate God. 5. The uses of the foregoing truths. They are-- (i) For information, for they give us occasion to admire God’ s mercy, and justify His vengeance; they show our need of a new nature, how difficult conversion is. Also, the cause of unbelief in the Author of all grace; that there can be no justification by works, and the excellence of the Gospel. (ii) Exhortation: to labour, to be sensible of this lurking atheism, and watch against it. (S. Charnock, B. D.) Theoretical atheism The denial of the existence of God may be either theoretical or practical. It is theoretical when we affirm that no such being as God exists. It is practical when, professing to believe that He exists, we act in all respects as though we believed that He does not exist. Theoretical folly may manifest itself in two forms, either in that of absurd credulity, or of absurd incredulity.1. It is an evidence of absurd credulity to believe an assertion, respecting any subject whatever, when no evidence is brought forward to sustain it, and when, from the nature of the case, the evidence, if it did exist, is beyond the reach of the human understanding. Anyone who reflects upon the fewness and feebleness of the faculties of man, and then upon the boundlessness of the universe, must be convinced that the assertion that God does not exist involves within itself all the elements of the most revolting absurdity. 2. Atheism is equally absurd in its unbelief. It disbelieves a proposition of which the evidence is interwoven with the very structure of the human understanding. (1) The idea of power, of cause and effect, is the universal and spontaneous suggestion of the human intelligence. It springs tip unbidden and irrepressible from the first perception of a change. (2) The mind not only asks for a cause, but for a sufficient cause. (3) If we arrive at the notion of underived causation, may not several independent causes originate the changes which are taking place around us? Everything that we behold is manifestly a part of one universal whole. The cause of causes is everywhere one and the same. (4) When we reflect upon human conduct we find that we always connect the outward act with the spiritual disposition, or intention, from which it proceeds. In every action we perceive the quality of right or virtue, or of its opposite, wrong or wee. As the characteristics are universally the same there must be a single and universal standard. We see the perpetual acting of the Almighty and learn the moral attributes that compose His character. (F. Wayland.) Belief in the being of God A belief in God as a self-existent, intelligent, and infinitely perfect Being is the basis of all religion. In what manner and through what means do we come by this conviction? Some have maintained the idea of God to be innate. Others assert the Divine existence to be an intuition--an immediate perception of the reason, independently of any suggestion, argument, or evidence. By others it has been attempted to establish it by the rigid steps of mathematical demonstration. Kant, and those who follow him, insist that the moral nature of man--his conscience and sense of moral obligation--affords conclusive proof of the being and moral government of God. We believe the true statement of the matter to be this: That the human mind is constitutionally fitted to know God, so that the notion of Him and a persuasion of His existence necessarily arise within the soul whenever the faculties are in any good degree developed; and that in its own moral consciousness and in the great variety of facts and phenomena external to itself it finds, on reflection, proofs that He does exist, proofs of a moral nature, yet sufficient to establish the fact as an absolute certainty, in the view of the understanding.1. It is a well-known fact that the idea of God and of spiritual existence is, and always has been, nearly or quite universal among mankind. 2. A belief in the existence of a God has always been found exceedingly difficult to be eradicated. 3. The more thoughtful, and especially the more virtuous, men are, the more, as a general rule, they are disposed to cherish the idea of a Supreme Being. 4. The atheistical idea, when fully and distinctly placed before the mind, is abhorrent to the moral feelings of the soul. 5. A belief in the existence of one supreme and perfect God is in a high degree elevating and happy in the influence which it exerts on the mind and heart of man, while the views of atheism have tended only to demoralisation and debasement. There is a God; it is only the fool who denies it in his heart. (R. Palmer, D. D.) Practical atheism This is God’ s world, and yet how godless. God made it and the men in it, and yet “ in all their thoughts God is not.” The origin of this alienation is in the heart, and the subject of it is pronounced a fool. His heart is just what it would be were there no God. Inquire-- I. To whom this charge may be applied.1. To the avowed atheist. He who sees the proofs of God in creation and can yet deny Him, can neither love nor fear Him. 2. To those who entertain false views of His character. They deny that He is the righteous Governor of the moral world. But this is much the same as to say, “ There is no God.” 3. To those who deny or disregard the providential government of God. He lives without God in the world. 4. To those who supremely love the world. Is this treating God as He ought to be treated? 5. Who have no delight in the worship of God. They act the part of atheism. 6. Or who live in disobedience to God. They act upon a principle which subverts the sovereignty of God. 7. All who reject the Gospel. By his unbelief the man makes God a liar. What more could the avowed atheist do? And there are yet other characteristics. But note-- II. The folly of these men. This appears--1. From the fact that there may be a God. No man, unless he himself is omnipresent and omniscient, can know that there is not somewhere some other being to whom these attributes belong. If there be no God, the believer suffers no loss; but if there be, then the atheist is undone. 2. His belief is contrary to the fullest evidence. He shuts his eyes and stops his ears. 3. They deprive themselves of all real good. For without faith in God there can be no rational enjoyment of the world. Nor can there be true excellence of character. For be places himself beyond the reach of every motive which ennobles character and elevates man to the end of his being. Without God there is no rule of action, no accountability, no futurity, no retribution, no influence to operate on man for his spiritual good. And he must become supremely selfish. The spirit may be concealed in its true nature and tendency. But take off the garb, let the real selfish heart be uncovered, let it be seen in its true character, and we abhor it. And he has no support under affliction or support on the bed of death. But believe in God and how altered affliction and death become. A man may have lived an infidel, but for the most part he dies a terrified believer. How must he feel, when death comes, who admits that there is a God, and yet that he has lived as if there were none? Beware of that eternity which is opening on you. (N. W. Taylor, D. D.) Religion and materialism In David’ s time it was “ the fool” who said there was no God; in ours, it is the philosopher who proclaims it upon the housetop, and invites us all to bask in the mild light of the science which has made this as its last and highest discovery. Some may think it out of our way to advert to discussions which touch the very foundations of our faith and of all religious belief whatsoever, because we feel our faith to be too firmly fixed that we should be perplexed by any such questions. But we can never tell how near us these questions may come, or in what shape we may find them meeting us. You may have seen a coat and hat which at their beginning were articles of handsome clothing, and were worn on Sundays and in good society, descending through various vicissitudes, until at last, perched on a stick in a turnip field, they performed the disingenuous function of a scarecrow; and just so an opinion or a theory which was at first started on a solemn occasion, and by a philosopher, may filter down through minds of less intelligence until, half understood and misapplied, it serves only to mislead, and fulfils purposes altogether different from those which it served originally. I have found far down in the ranks of society such distortions of opinions and speculations which were safe enough in learned hands, but full of practical mischief in those that are unlearned. Now it is religion that is at stake in this question of modern materialism; religion not only as a faith but as a morality. If it be true, all religions are mere impostures. Note its theory of the origin of life. You know the theory the Bible teaches, that God is the Lord and giver of life. And it would not be essentially contradicted even were the theory of development fully proved, as it is not yet. Suppose that man is developed from a baboon, and differs from it not in kind but only in degree. Yet you could not mark the stage at which the spirit of God was inbreathed. But that makes all the difference. There may have been inferior types before man’ s outward organism was complete, before God said, “ Let us make man.” Development does not deny Scripture truth. But the new theory is different. It ascribes all to “ matter,” affirms that it contains within itself “ the promise and the potency” of all life, and that it is eternal; that there is, in fact, no such thing as an eternal mind but that which we call “ matter,” which we can see, handle, weigh, analyse, is that and that only which is from everlasting to everlasting, and is Divine if anything is to be so called. They who say all this set aside Scripture as incredible and irrelevant, for they do not believe in God and a spiritual world; nor in anything which their scales cannot weigh, their process analyse, their figures calculate. “ But,” we ask, “ why is eternal matter more credible than an eternal mind?” Both cannot be, but why should we be shut up to the materialist’ s creed? We find it easier and better to believe in an eternal and Holy Spirit which devised all the forms and laws of life than in an eternity of senseless atoms, without spirit, without intelligence, without life, coming together somehow, and somehow forming this world and all things we see. And it and it only provides a basis for religious life. Materialism is the death of morality. For it gets rid of the idea of God, and so of His judgment to which I am accountable, of conscience and my spiritual nature by which I was in some sense a law to myself. Farewell to all dreams of a higher life, to all aspirations after the Divine. “ Let us eat and drink, for,” etc. This the natural conclusion. All our Christian ideas are fictions, “ the baseless fabric of a vision” which ought to and which will fade utterly away. It is easy for a man, a man possibly of dull spiritual perceptions, standing amid all the light of revelation and on the safe and serene height of Christian civilisation, to follow out physical investigations to the point to which his knowledge can conduct him, and then to turn round and say, “ I have tracked life almost within sight of its very source, and I see no hand of any God in it, and no indication of any spirit; but let us pursue our researches in a pure and just temper, and let us strive to elevate our life and to live nobly” ; but he forgets that, but for the revelation of that God whose existence he denies, purity and justice would be as little known among men as among the lion and the tiger, and the higher life as impossible an idea to a human creature as to an ostrich or an ape. But the history of man shows that the elevating power has been the spiritual, and that his belief in the unseen has been the parent of the noblest achievements of his life. Take these away and he sinks at once. Ponder, therefore, much ere you abandon the Bible for the teachings of this new science. (R. N. Storey, D. D.) The creed of atheism The creed is one of the briefest ever penned--“ No God.” Its practical result is the saddest ever recorded--“ No hope” (Ephesians 2:10). Deprive us of a personal God and you render life an enigma, begun without an author, pursued without a motive, and ending without a hope. Are there any who hold such a gloomy creed? Arrange them into four classes--1. The heathen, who are ignorant of God. They acknowledge not one God, but many. To them every department of nature has its presiding deity, to whom homage is paid. They have not been enlightened by the beams of revelation. How far are the heathen to blame for continuing in their ignorance? How far are the works of creation a guide to men in finding out God? There is wrapped up in nature a Divine revelation, which mankind may read by exercising their faculties. 2. Atheists, who deny the existence of God. They assume towards Divine things an attitude of active antagonism. Not liking to retain God in their knowledge, they wilfully give themselves over to conduct in defiance of His laws. Their conduct springs from wish rather than conviction. You may shut your eyes to the sunlight, but the sun still shines; you may deny God’ s existence, but God remains. It may be doubted whether there is such a person as a positive denier of God, an atheist from intellectual conviction. To say “ There is no God” necessitates a claim too sweeping for a reasonable man to make, for it implies that he who makes it has himself been in every corner of the universe at one and the same time, and failed to discover the Divine Being. Is anyone prepared to make such a claim? 3. Agnostics, who say we have no knowledge of God. A numerous class. Their creed is a negative one. They differ from atheists in this, that while the creed of pure atheism is positive denial of God, agnosticism consists, roughly speaking, in making no assertion, positive or negative, respecting the Divine existence, but merely in taking up a position of passive intellectual indifference. He simply “ does not know” ; God has not made Himself known with sufficient clearness. The agnostic creed resolves itself into an attempt to trace everything to natural causes, and thus dispense with the supernatural, and that is virtually to banish God from the universe. The senses are proposed as the test of truth. But to say that all our knowledge comes through the senses is not sound philosophy. Is there no such thing as intuitive knowledge, knowledge that comes to us neither through experience nor through proof? It is idle for the sceptic to talk of the inadequacy of evidence. What he wants is the disposition to weigh the evidence he has got. 4. Nominal Christians, who disregard the claims of God. A sound creed is no sure guarantee for upright conduct. There are sham professors. Among professing Christians there is an alarming amount of practical atheism. A man’ s denial of God may assume a variety of forms. Application, applying equally to the four classes. (1) They have no guide in life.(2) They have no hope in death. We decline to accept a gospel of despair. (D. Merson, M. A.) Atheisms and atheisms This text is much misunderstood; but some people take a wilful delight in using it. To tell everyone who does not believe in God that he is a fool is charming, it saves all argument; after that assertion argument is useless. But there are atheisms and atheisms. They differ widely in character, and the atheism of one man may be better than the theism of another. Belief in what men have called God, and enthusiasm for what men have called religion, have more embittered the human heart, have caused more bloodshed, and have damned more hopes than all the atheisms the world has seen. The atheistical tree has grown no more folly than the papistical tree. Do you think there is any other atheism than the one of which you and I are constantly guilty--the atheism of living without God in the world? Is it a thing to be angry at that a brother has lost the hope and love and faith which are so sweet to us? Should we not grieve for such a man according to the largeness of the faith we hold? The very fulness of our blessing should be the measure of our pity. I can find no scorn for him who has lost the basis of faith, the occasion of hope, the consolation of sorrow. Another gracious theological business is to tell every man who says he does not believe in God that he wants no God, that he elects to live in darkness rather than light because his deeds are evil. I need not go abroad to learn that evil living dims faith; but to say that it is not possible for any man to come to this conclusion without being an evil liver is to tell a simple lie. Cannot you see the unspeakable difficulty of reconciling all we see and know with theological belief? The man who thinks may never fail to find the grief which underlies all things, but may sadly fail to find the master hand that guides the whole. Without faith what can man do in such a world? The God our theologians show us is fearful, incomprehensible, and only to be wondered at. (George Dawson, M. A.) Is there a God I. God is provable by nature. The very commonness of nature causes us to regard it as a thing of course, rather than a thing of God. Nature, no doubt, is a great mystery; and man, even when developed into a philosopher, is a very small affair. But we are so constituted that we cannot help believing nature to be an outflow and effect of a Divine cause, whatever opinion we may hold of the design argument. Our instincts are stronger than our logic, and our intuitions than our metaphysics. Let the heart say there is no God, and the head will give it the lie; or let the head say there is no God, and in wrath the heart stands up and says, “ There is.” II. God is provable from history. Do not nations know, do not individuals know, do not you and I know, that man proposes, but God disposes? Whilst the world was drowning, and Noah was floating, was a God not ruling? A God, you may seek Him among the stars, but you will find Him best among the incidents of your own life. Circumstances reign, but God rules. III. God is provable from the soul. A world long lacking its man would not be a God’ s world. God has moved, a soul has been created, an image has been stamped, and there is a man. Mind only could produce mind--a living God only could produce a living man. Therefore, having man and his attributes before us, we must admit a God. Man shows forth God. A soul without aged is an impossibility. IV. God is provable from conscience. The wonderful moral faculty of the soul. It is a marvellous thing to see a Newton soaring among the stars; but it is a more marvellous thing to see a wayfaring man tremble under a sense of sin. Conscience makes cowards of us all by morally demonstrating that there is a God to punish and a hell to be punished in. V. God is provable from revelation. Amid the variety of circumstances which tell us of a God, revelation stands out in marked prominence as a more excellent way. From other sources we get, as it were, the pure white light of Deity; but from the revelation source we get the bright rays themselves. (W. R. Graham.) On the atheism of the heart The term “ fool” is not to be confined to one who is really deprived of the exercise of reason. We must understand it of the sinner; not merely of him who is addicted to the habits of vice and to a life of gross impiety, but of everyone who is under the power of the natural wickedness of his heart, under the dominion of sin, or in an unrenewed state, although his life should be externally sober and blameless. It is declared of the spiritual fool that he hath said in his heart “ There is no God.” These words do not express the persuasion of the sinner, but his affection and desire. He is not convinced that there is no God, but he wishes that there were none. I. Some general observations on the subject. There cannot be a speculative atheist in the world. By a speculative atheist is meant one who is firmly convinced in his mind that there is no God. The works of creation contain so powerful a demonstration of the existence of the Supreme Being that a man must wilfully shut his eyes ere he can presume to deny it. This truth is further demonstrated by the tendency of all earthly things to destruction. The dictates of conscience afford the same testimony. There have been, and there are, many heart atheists; those who, although they do not in their judgments disbelieve this fundamental doctrine, yet ardently wish in their hearts that they had no ground to believe it. There are many practical atheists; men who, although they believe the being of God, live as if there was none. Their life is a practical denial of His being, because it is a life of impiety. Every man is naturally an atheist in heart. The natural atheism of the heart is greatly confirmed and increased by continuance in sin. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/bi/ Psalms 14:3 They are all gone aside.Man falls lower and lower The mind end heart having gone astray--having been turned aside like a deceitful bow,--nothing became easier than to sink into ever-deepening abysses of iniquity; the case is put also negatively, so as to fill up the measure of the great accusation, “ There is none that doeth good, no, not one.” Man cannot stop in a morally negative condition. Again and again this solemn lesson has been forced upon us by the whole current of history, and yet an insidious temptation assails the heart with the thought that it is still possible to forsake religious convictions and professions, and yet to preserve a pure and noble life. The backslider and the truth seeker must never be regarded as one and the same person. God having been surrendered as the supreme thought of the mind and the supreme rule of conduct, a scene of infinite confusion presented itself: workers of iniquity carried on their evil service as if in darkness; their mouths were opened in cruelty upon any who feared and worshipped God; the counsel of the poor was treated with contempt, and the poor themselves were devoured rapaciously. Where reverence has been abandoned it has been impossible to sustain true and self-sacrificing philanthropy. In this case reverence has been formally given up, and so a great act of moral spoliation has been accomplished. (Joseph Parker, D. D.) There is none that doeth good, no, not one. Man fallen and depraved I. The inborn depravity of our nature.1. What saith the Scripture? 2. The records of human experience are to the same effect. See the moral misery of the world. Look at the evidence of our inborn depravity in the manifold outbreakings of wickedness in every age and circumstance of life. Notice also the corruption and infirmity which is found remaining even in good men. We cannot read the sins of Abraham, and David, and Peter, and Moses without many painful and humiliating thoughts. Who can stand if they fell? II. In what does this original depravity of our nature chiefly consist?1. In the depravation of our intellectual faculties. The mind of our race has become blinded. Civilisation gives no Divine knowledge. 2. In the perversion and rebellion of the will. By the will we understand the commanding faculty of the soul by which it chooses or rejects anything that may be offered to it. 3. In our disordered and alienated affections. Such a threefold cord against God and holiness we might well fear could not be broken. But thanks be to God, there is one who can break it. “ Thanks be unto God, who giveth us the victory, through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (D. Moore, M. A.) Psalms 14:4-6 Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge? Conscience I. Conscience informed. It is quite true that the workers of iniquity seem like brute beasts, as if they had no common sense, no conscience; but they had these gifts, and it is this fact which renders their conscience so dark.1. We sin against our understanding. Our reason protests against sill. 2. We sin against conscience. Our moral sense echoes the words and thunders of Sinai, and protests against transgression. 3. We sin against experience. Our history shows how all that is desirable and honourable lies in the path of obedience, and how paths of transgression are paths of misery and shame. Sin is not a mistake or a misfortune, but a crime. II. Conscience asleep.1. Asleep as to men (Psalms 14:4). 2. Asleep as to God. “ Call not upon the Lord.” Thus men stifle their moral sense, and live neither fearing God nor regarding man. III. Conscience aroused (Psalms 14:5). Men awake to find that “ God is in the generation of the righteous.” All is true that the righteous held, and the angry God is ready to avenge Himself on the proud sinner. (W. L. Watkinson.) . Psalms 15:1-5 Psalms 15:1-5 Lord, who shall abide in Thy tabernacle? An ideal worshipper The ideal worshipper of Jehovah is painted in this Psalm in a few broad outlines. The tone of the Psalm accords with the circumstances of the time when David brought the ark to Jerusalem. The two main points are: the conception of the guests of Jehovah, and the statement of the ethical qualifications of these. The Psalmist consults the Master of the House as to the terms on which He extends hospitality, which terms it is His right to prescribe. The character of the God determines the character of the worshipper. The roots of ethics are in religion. The Old Testament ideal of the righteous man flows from its revelation of the righteous God. Not men’ s own fancies, but insight gained by communion with God, and docile inquiry of Him will reliably tell what manner of men they are who can abide in His light. Verse 2 sums up the qualifications of Jehovah’ s guest in one comprehensive demand, that he should walk uprightly, and then analyses that requirement into the two of righteous deeds and truthful speech. True, the ideal here is not the full Christian one. It is too merely negative for that, and too entirely concerned with acts. Therein it reproduces the limitation of the earliest revelation . . . Usury and bribery were common sins, as they still are in communities on the same industrial and judicial level as that mirrored in the Psalm. The Psalmist, in the last verse, clearly recognises that such a character as he has outlined not only dwells in Jehovah’ s tent, but will stand unmoved though all the world should rook. Righteousness is the one stable thing in the universe. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) The good citizen The qualities which are required of one, not who visits the tabernacle merely, but who dwells in it,--not who ascends the hill only, but rests on it,--are those of an ordinary citizen, those without which a man cannot fulfil any of his common duties in the world. Nay, the qualities are chiefly negative. It is not said that he must be brave, magnanimous, ready to sacrifice himself. He is not to be corrupt in his life, not to take reward against the innocent, not to lie. One of the conditions reads as if it were drawn merely from the civil code of the nation. We have talked as if people might be very good in all relations with their neighbours, and yet not be servants of God. They must be something over and above true citizens for this. But the Old Testament books never teach this. They say boldly, “ You are not honest and straightforward in your dealings, and so you think God is the same with you. You do not trust Him. You do not confess your sins to Him, nor draw nigh to His holy hill.” And has the New Testament altered this? Does it teach another lesson? No doubt there is this, that it teaches more perfectly how we may rise up out of our old evil habits; how God has revealed His righteousness in Christ for the remission of sins. But He has revealed His righteousness, and no unrighteousness call have fellowship with Him. Christ is our help to this righteousness, that we may share His nature. Now, do we agree to this? Then let us rejoice and sing; for Christ has ascended on high, that we might be delivered from our old evil life, and that we might possess a righteous life in Him. But if this is not what we want, if we want a religion that will make us easy and comfortable in the frauds which belong to our different crafts and professions,--if the shopkeeper lifts up his voice loudly in the denunciation of Popery or some unpopular opinion, that he may more securely and with less sense of self-reproach adulterate his goods, and use the false weight and the deceitful balance, which are abominable,--then we ought to be told, one and all of us, that the hill of Sinai, with all its thunders, is not more terrible than the Zion on which God dwells; that the New Testament is not more but less tolerant of such practices than the Old, and that God will appear as a swift witness against our crimes and falsehoods. And this not because we are wanting in some transcendent qualities which men have dreamed of as befitting a Church, but because we have those qualities which are the death of nations. But many look upon the nation and the Church as scarcely compatible, indeed, as mostly the opposites of each other. No doubt that with the theory of some in regard to the Church they are opposites. But a nation is pledged, to maintain a wholesome, practical, manly morality, entirely opposed to that morality of “ touch not, taste not, handle not” which a Church such as I have described must by its nature favour, and has always favoured in fact,--a morality consistent with the grossest deviations from common truth and honesty. And I solemnly conjure Protestant assertors of individual holiness to see well to it that by their teaching they are not hindering the great protest against idolatry which is involved in the very existence of a nation; whether they are not substituting certain capricious and artificial maxims for the homely morality of the Bible, and whether thus they may not be preparing their sons for that very system which they most dread. But, on the other hand, I would maintain that a holy Catholic Church, in its truest, widest, deepest sense, does lie beneath the holy and righteous nation; that they are not contraries, but that one is the vestibule to the other; that each is the support of the other; that this Church is no imaginary utopian society, no artificial society, but a real society constituted in Christ our ascended Lord. Thus the ascension of Christ to the right hand of the Father, that He might fill all things, is the meeting point between these two Divine principles, these two human societies. In it we find the consummation of all the expectations and hopes of the old world, that in it we might find the beginning of all that is purest and holiest in the new. (F. D. Maurice, M. A.) Who shall abide with God Religious people are concerned to know, for their own comfort, whom God will receive at last into His own tabernacle above. I. Abiding in God’ s tabernacle. Or, dwelling upon His holy hill. We understand these expressions as meaning God’ s residence in heaven. Who, then, shall dwell with God in glory everlasting? Let us take heed to our ways, and walk with care and endeavour, by God’ s grace, to make our calling and selection sure, that so an entrance may be ministered unto us abundantly into the everlasting Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. II. In answer to this earnest inquiry. Those who walk uprightly, and work righteousness, and speak the truth in their hearts. An heir of heaven walks with God as reconciled to Him, and walks uprightly, i.e. sincerely and honestly. If we work righteousness we must have a principle of righteousness implanted in us by the saving grace of God. The expression, “ speaking the truth in the heart,” is strikingly singular. It shows that people may speak the truth, and yet the heart not love it; but all Christian believers are inwardly what they appear outwardly. (R. Horsfall.) The Church militant This is a question by David propounded. Consider--1. Who demandeth, David, the man of God, seeing the wonderful hypocrisy of men in frequenting the holy assemblies, and making a pretence of religion, being stirred up with singular love to true religion, inflamed with a fervent zeal to God’ s glory, burning with earnest desire to know the true saints from dissembling hypocrites, and demanded this question--“ Lord, who shall dwell in Thy tabernacle, who shall rest in Thy holy hill? 2. Of whom he demandeth. He flieth unto God, because it passeth the knowledge of men, who only look into the things apparent and outward. The Lord alone can sunder the wheat from the chaff, the tares from the wheat, the grain from the cockle and darnel. It is the Lord who is Father of all the whole family, which is named either on heaven or on earth, which is His Church; it is the Lord that is the chief Governor and Ruler of His house, which are His subjects; it is God alone who keepeth the Book of Life in the closet of His own heart, wherein He hath registered all His saints. It is the Lord, and not men, which pitched the tabernacle and testimony of His presence. It is the Lord whose property and prerogative it is by right to know the heart. It is the Lord whose eyes are upon all His creatures. 3. What is demanded. By “ tabernacle” here some understand the Church militant. By the “ hill of God” they understand the Church triumphant. The question then is,” Who shall I make some reckoning of, to be Thy Church visible and militant?” The Church of God militant here on earth is compared to the tabernacle, and to the holy hill of God.1. To the tabernacle. This Moses reared. As the tabernacle was pitched here and there, and removed from place to place, so the Church militant hath no certain rest in any appointed place, but is now in this place, now in that, at the appointment of the Lord. As in the time of the ark and tabernacle, God there showeth Himself and His glory unto the people, so doth the Lord reveal Himself in the Church and Assembly of His saints, there declaring His glory. As the Lord promised by Moses to dwell in the tabernacle, and there to walk and be conversant with Israel His people, so does Almighty God the Father and Jesus Christ His Son, our Saviour, dwell in the Church which is His immaterial tabernacle. The Church and Assembly of God’ s saints is called the House of God, because He dwelleth therein. The Church militant is also compared unto a hill or mountain. 1. For the allusion that it hath unto Mount Zion, in Jerusalem, being Mount Moriah, where Abraham would have sacrificed his son Isaac. This hill was a type of the true Church, among whom God dwelleth forever. 2. The Church may be called a hill or mountain, for the height, altitude, and lifting up thereof. 3. And for the open sight thereof. 4. In regard of the strength and stayedness, the Church may be called a mountain, for the hilly and high places are most strong and most impregnable. The Church is called a “ holy hill,” because God hath sanctified it and made it holy for Himself, because in the Church the Lord giveth manifold testimonies and signs of His holiness, and because the Lord taketh the defence of His Church into His own hands. Doctrines--1. See how great the hypocrisy of man oftentimes is in the pretence of godliness. 2. The prophet flieth unto God in the discerning of the true saints from hypocrites. However apparent things may be known unto men, hidden things belong only unto the Lord. 3. Learn not to play the hypocrite. 4. When we lack wisdom we should flee unto God for instruction. 5. Learn the state and condition of the militant Church. It is but as a tabernacle. 6. In this world the saints must not look for any rest, continuance, or certain abode. 7. We must not forsake the Church of God because of afflictions and troubles. 8. Who shall rest in the holy hill of God? The Church militant rejoices in the hope of happiness to come. 9. There is no true and sound rest save in the holy hill of God. (R. Turnbull.) Earth as seen from the holy hill of communion with God Unto this mountain, if we should ascend but in thought, as Scipio once did in his dream, and from thence should behold the earth, we should easily contemn this inferior world with the desires thereof. For the whole globe of the earth, together with the water, which seemeth now so great unto us, if we could see it from the highest heavens, would appear unto us like a mote in the sun. But if withal we felt the unspeakable joys of heaven, and from thence should cast down our eyes unto this valley of tears, there to behold the vanity of vanities, as Solomon saith, it cannot be expressed with how fervent a desire we should be inflamed to have our habitation in heaven. Peter, when as he was present in the transfiguration of Christ in the Mount Tabor, and had a taste of the heavenly glory, he was straightway ravished therewith, and desired greatly to remain there. “ Lord,” saith he, “ it is good being here, let us make three tabernacles,” etc. (G. Downame.) Dwelling on the holy hill Our abode in the mountain of God is expressed in the word “ dwelling,” whereby two things are signified, perpetuity and rest. Perpetuity, for there the children of God remain not as pilgrims for a time, but as citizens and heirs forever. Whereupon the kingdom of heaven is also called an heavenly inheritance, wherein are everlasting habitations, and an inheritance immortal and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for us. Again, the word “ dwelling” importeth rest. For there the children of God do not wander as pilgrims, neither are subject to any molestations, but do wholly rest from their labours. And for that cause the kingdom of heaven is called the rest of God, and as it were an eternal Sabbath. In respect whereof the land of Canaan was a type of our heavenly country. (G. Downame.) The soul of man turned towards heaven. Man is a mirror, and it is an all-important matter which way the mirror is turned. If downwards, it can reflect only earthly things,--the mire, the dirt, the filth of the earth; if turned upward, it may reflect the heavens, with all its glory of sun, moon, and stars. The mirror turned downward is the carnal mind, the mirror turned upward is the spiritual mind. Sometimes in an instant of time the inversion is accomplished, and he who before was of the earth earthy, comes to discern and reflect the things of God and heaven. (A. T. Pierson, D. D.) A question and an answer Question: Who is the man who would be able to ascend unto that hill of God where the highest visions of the Almighty may be perceived? The answer is: The man whose life is blameless. All that follows is a description of the moral qualifications of such a man. What is striking in the Psalm is the moral principle which seems to underlie it. There are laws in the spiritual kingdom, and the Psalmist gets a glimpse of these spiritual laws, and he makes them the subject of his poem. The law here is this, that the condition of power in life, and the condition of the vision of the Almighty, is to be found in the ethical or moral considerations. It is the man whose life is blameless, the man whose character will bear investigation, the man whose whole being and nature are animated by a strict regard of what is morally right and true, that comes by degrees to this possession of strong invincible character, and that capacity for seeing the highest things of God. There is no idea here that the Psalmist can purchase the vision of God by the payment of so much good done. To do that would have been to vitiate the whole moral basis of the idea; for if a man seeks heaven for profit he is not, of course, a heavenly-minded person. Morality and spirituality must be genuine and sincere if they are to be moral or spiritual things at all. What the Psalmist does set forth is this, that the conditions of this insight and power of life lie, not so much in the possession of intellectual force as in the possession of moral capacities. There is a constant tendency to confuse religion with theology. Theology is only the scientific expression of the ideas which are incorporated in religion. Religion itself is quite different. A man may be religious who has very small theological opinions. Our power of seeing Divine things does not depend so much upon our moral integrity as upon our spiritual devotion. Religion is a moral sympathy between the soul of the creature and the spirit of the Creator. It is the moral sympathy between you and me in this world and the great God who put us into this world. That is what is said in the Gospel of St. John, “ If any man will do His will,” --if a man has a moral desire to follow out the Divine ideal in his life, if his soul is in sympathy with the Divine moral earnestness, then he shall be able to understand; he will gain a perception of the meaning of God’ s action, and the vision of God which would otherwise be denied him. Observe the wonderful way in which the same thought underlies the great creation of the Italian poet. This Psalm is a sort of “ Divine Comedy” in miniature, for it exactly expresses the thought which Dante had in his mind. What are the conditions, according to Dante, in which a man can enter into the vision of the great paradise over his head? He must have understood evil, and seen it in all its hideousness, and must have overcome and climbed that steep of purgatory, disciplining by degrees the moral defects in him, until at last, when he climbs to the summit of the mount of purgatory, he is the immovable man, the man who is crowned with crown and mitre, as god over himself. And only when that is achieved, when that moral sincerity is at last made a real thing in him, is he capable of ascending under the guidance of Divine truth into the lofty regions of paradise. This is exactly the same thought. What an enormous source of joy that ought to be to the human heart. Let us remember that we have within us a Divine Spirit that is constantly prompting us to higher things. (W. Boyd Carpenter, D. D.) Practical Christianity Religion is not a far-off, but a pressing and everyday affair. The very humblest of mankind may be the greatest saint of God. It is only small and ignorant natures which shrink from lowly tasks. Nothing can be ignoble which a noble purpose glorifies. In this Psalm you have the things necessary for the man who may claim the high blessing of God. What are they. Strange to say, they are precisely those things that we should demand of the ordinary English gentleman, of the ordinary English tradesman, of the ordinary English working man. Mere morality, you may say, and for the most part, negative morality. David does not say he was to be brave, magnanimous, self-sacrificing. He only says that he must not be a liar or a slanderer, or one who wrongs others, or takes rewards against the innocent. You may be tempted to say, surely David puts the scale too low! Had, then, David a less overwhelming sense than we have of the High and Holy One who inhabiteth eternity? If you think in that way to get over the difficulty you are mistaken. But is it really so small a thing to keep innocency and do the thing which is right? The New Testament speaks, over and over again, identically the same language. David’ s truth, and the truth of Christ Himself, is, that those who desire to be one with God, everyone who nameth the name of Christ, must, as the first essential, depart from iniquity. You cannot escape these conclusions by saying, “ Yes, Christ spake these things before, and not after, His great work was finished, and would have preached otherwise if He had preached after His resurrection.” If you make that answer you subject yourselves to the overwhelming refutation of Scripture. See the Epistle of James, the Lord’ s brother. See also the loftiest and most spiritual of St. Paul’ s Epistles, that to the Ephesians. If you would rest in God’ s holy hill this is quite certain, you must keep innocency, and do the things that are right. (Dean Farrar.) The citizen of Zion described The Psalm consists of a question and an answer. David asks the question. He was a good mall, concerned for his own soul. He asks it of the Lord, for He is the infallible Teacher and Law-giver. He asks it in Old Testament terms, speaking of the tabernacle and the holy hill of Mount Zion. The doctrine arising from the words is this--It challengeth everyone’ s most serious consideration what sort of persons, sojourning with God here, shall be inhabitants of heaven hereafter. Therefore let us-- I. Show what is implied in this consideration.1. That all shall not be inhabitants of heaven; some will perish. For all the sons of men will not be saints in heaven. There will be a great company on Christ’ s left hand at the great day, doomed to everlasting fire (Matthew 25:41). And many of those who are now about the tabernacle will be a-missing in heaven (Matthew 7:21-23). To see those who had not the tabernacle of God among them fall short of heaven is not strange; but many who in external privileges have been exalted to heaven will be brought down to hell (Psalms 125:1-5, ult.).2. They are persons of a distinguished character now who shall be inhabitants of heaven hereafter. Not of the common gang of the world, nor of professors either. Many professors are foolish virgins, that will get heaven’ s door cast in their face (Matthew 25:2-4). 3. In this world they sojourn with God in His tabernacle who shall be the inhabitants of heaven hereafter. The world is no more their home. They are in a peculiar manner consecrated to God and His service (Romans 12:1). All Israel had access to the outer courts of the tabernacle, but the priests only to the tabernacle itself. They are admitted to communion with God in ordinances. And they will enter heaven because they are born from above. II. The reasons wherefore we should thus seriously consider who shall be the inhabitants of heaven.1. Because there is a heaven and a hell, and all must land in one or the other. 2. And the laws of heaven admit only such as are qualified for it. 3. None who are capable of such considerations will ever see heaven without it. The work of grace begins here (Lamentations 3:40). 4. If we miss heaven we are ruined eternally. III. Application of the subject.1. Consider of it fixedly and solemnly. 2. With application to yourselves. 3. And practically that you may set yourselves to strive for heaven. 4. Divinely, as in the sight of heaven. For remember, heaven is not plenished but with chosen people (2 Corinthians 6:17-18). Hell receives all comers, but not so heaven. None can come there but sealed ones, such as God has marked for Himself (2 Timothy 2:19). And separated ones from the sinful world (1 Corinthians 6:11; Matthew 25:32). As your life is here, so will it be there. (T. Boston, D. D.) Psalms 15:2 He that walketh uprightly. The model church member The visible Zion was typical of the Invisible Church. In the “ holy hill” God dwelt in symbol, in the Universal Church He dwells in viewless spiritual realness. Spiritual citizenship is the common privilege and honour of all who in moral character are abreast of the standard fixed in this Psalm. Who is a Christian, or a worthy member of Christ’ s Church, is here perfectly outlined by the infallible pert of inspiration. I. What he is, in word, deed, life. He only abides in God’ s tabernacle who abides in God, and God in him.1. His walk is in uprightness. This implies spiritual life, exercise, health, progress. 2. His work is in righteousness. This implies activity, beneficent activity, the holiest activity; righteous in its motive, method, and results. 3. His words in truth and love: this implies conversation and testimony. Invisible truth shrines itself in holy words, holy works, a holy walk. Being upright, the Christian cannot be crooked; being righteous, he cannot be a hypocrite; being truthful in his heart, he cannot be false in his conversation and deportment. II. What he is not (verses 8, 5).1. No backbiter. 2. No evildoer. 3. No receiver of slander. Were there no ears to receive scandal there would soon be no tongues to speak it. The receiver of such pernicious goods is as vile as the trader in them. 4. No usurer. 5. No patron of bribery. He daily endeavours to maintain a pure hand, a pure purse, a pure ear, a pure heart, and a pure tongue. He will contemn evil wherever found; honour holiness however manifest; swerve not from his word when given, though to personal injury, and be permanently steadfast in his work of faith and life of love. (J. O. Keen, D. D.) Life a walk Now, if we be travellers or wayfaring men we are to be careful of three things.1. That we go in the right way; for if we go out of our way, the farther we go the farther we shall be from our journey’ s end. This way is the true religion of Christ, which in the Scriptures is called the way, the way of life, the way of peace. 2. The next thing whereof we must be careful is, that being set in the right way we go forward therein, proceeding from faith to faith, and from a less measure of grace unto a greater. For neither must we stand still ill this way, neither must we go back; for if we do so, how shall we come to our journey’ s end? We must take heed therefore lest we be non-proficients, and let us fear lest when we cease to be better we begin to be worse. 3. The third thing is, that we be upright in the way, neither treading awry by secret dissembling, nor halting downright betwixt God and Mammon. (G. Downame.) The God-approved man The man with whom God will hold communion is described. I. As to what he is.1. He is a man of whole heart and life; who does the will of God, and speaks the truth because he loves it: it dwells in his heart, and he speaks it there first, before he speaks it with his tongue. Luther says, “ It is a beautiful order. First, the person must be acceptable by cleanness (alluding to the Vulgate translation,--qui ingreditur sine macula), then the work by righteousness; then the word by truth. So God has regard to Abel (himself) first, and then to his gifts.” 2. He is not one who injures others, either by word or by dead or by listening and propagating slander. This is the meaning of the last clause. It may be rendered either: “ hath not received (i.e. from others) a reproach,” etc., or, “ hath not taken up,” i.e. has not stooped so as to pick up dirt out of the dunghill, that he may cast it at his neighbour; or, “ hath not lifted up,” i.e. so as to place it like a burden upon his neighbour. II. As to what he is not.1. He is one who turns away from the evil and honours the good, who regards as inviolable the sanctity of an oath (not a casuist who sets himself a pretext for breaking his word when it is inconvenient to keep it). 2. He is not one who loves usury or takes bribes. The taking of usury is strictly forbidden in the law, and denounced by the prophets. Kimchi’ s casuistic distinction, that it is lawful for the Jew to take usury of strangers, but not of his own people, is very significant; and, like too many Christian as well as Jewish interpretations of Scripture, framed to support a convenient and profitable practice. Thus in heart, in tongue, in actions, in conduct, as a member of society, he is alike free from reproach. Such is the figure of stainless honour drawn by the pen of a Jewish poet. Christian chivalry has not dreamed of a brighter. We have need often and seriously to ponder it. For it shows us that faith in God, and spotless integrity, may not be sundered; that religion does not veil or excuse petty dishonesties; that love to God is only then worthy the name when it is the life and bond of every social virtue. Each line is, as it were, a touchstone to which we should bring ourselves. To speak truth in the heart--to take up no reproach against a neighbour--would not the Christian man be perfect (teleios) of whom this could be said? And that other trait in this Divine character, “ who honoureth them that fear the Lord,” --is there a surer test of our spiritual condition than this, that we love and honour men because they love Christ? (J. J. Stewart Perowne, B. D.) Uprightness of character “ He that walketh uprightly.” Let us mark the strong, masculine beginning of this description of the man who is privileged to be familiar with the Lord. He is “ upright” ! He is characterised by backbone. There is nothing crooked, wriggling, or soft about his temperament. There is a certain straightness and rigidity which, in all his relationships, is never absent. And mark where this fine masculinity begins. He “ walketh” uprightly! The word is descriptive of the movements or motions of life. Now our motions are determined by our motives. Our motives are our motors. To understand, therefore, the inner content of the Psalmist’ s words, we must get away into the inward parts, into the secret places of the life. Our motives must be strong and upright. There must be nothing limp and compromising about them. “ Strength and beauty” must be in our sanctuary. (J. H. Jowett, M. A.) The citizen of Zion an upright walker I. Unfold this character of walking uprightly.1. It is union in the frame and disposition of his heart (Psalms 125:4). There cannot be uprightness of life without uprightness of heart. If the cripple is made to go straight his legs must have a new set (Psalms 78:37). 2. He walks entirely in the interests of religion (Genesis 17:1). 3. He walks uniformly, his religion is of a piece (Colossians 4:12). As John the Baptist (Luke 7:24). 4. He walks in the way of all known duty, as thus told in Luke 1:6. And as David (Acts 13:22). Hence he will be free from gross pollution of the outward man (Psalms 119:1). The upright want not their spots, sins of daily infirmity,--but they will not wallow in the mire, Nor will he allow himself in any known sin, seen or unseen of man, 5. He walks as under the eye of God (Psalms 16:8). 6. And singly (2 Corinthians 1:12). As opposed to the “ double-minded man.” And to the deceitful (Colossians 3:22). And the selfish (Ephesians 6:5). 7. And he walks constantly in uprightness (John 8:31). He perseveres in the Lord’ s ways. II. Those who so walk shall dwell in heaven. For--1. Heaven is the land of uprightness (Psalms 143:10; Psalms 140:1-13., ult.).2. The new birth which is from heaven makes them meet for heaven. 3. An upright walk is the saint’ s walk, in which they make forward to the kingdom (1 Kings 3:6). The contrary way is the way of the wicked (Proverbs 2:15). 4. The Lord hath in His Word determined this (Proverbs 28:18). III. Application. This truth shows that there are few of this generation that will dwell in heaven if they turn not over a new leaf. For men do cling to some beloved lust or other, so that neither the word, nor conscience, nor providence can make them part with it. And they care far more for the eye of man than for the eye of God; and are impatient of reproof: Contrary to Psalms 141:5. And they labour not to approve themselves to God in their dealings; but are altogether selfish, considering nothing but their own profit. (T. Boston, D. D.) The marks of the saints “ Thamim” therefore we may rightly interpret upright, that is, void of dissimulation; and it may be two ways considered:(1) as referred to God, and so it signifieth sincere, or void of hypocrisy; (2) as referred towards men, and so it signifieth simple or void of guile. So that he in this place is said to be upright who is void of hypocrisy towards God, and free from guile towards men. And first we are to speak of uprightness in respect of God, in handling whereof I purpose to observe this order. First, to show what it is. Secondly, that it is, as here it is made, a note proper to the children of God. And thirdly, because we are not to be idle hearers of this discourse, we are to try and examine ourselves whether this note agreeth unto us or not. And fourthly, if we do find our defectiveness therein, either in whole or in part, we are by certain forcible arguments to be stirred up to embrace it. And lastly, we are to show the means whereby to obtain it. (G. Downame.) What uprightness is I. Towards God.1. For first, to be upright, it is to walk with God, or before God (as the Lord saith to Abraham, walk before Me and be upright, Genesis 17:1), that is, so to lead our lives as in the sight and presence of God, who seeth the hearts and searcheth the reins of men. 2. Again, to be upright is to walk with a right foot, neither covertly treading awry with Peter (Galatians 2:1-21), nor openly halting with the Israelites (1 Kings 18:21). 3. It is also to be void of hypocrisy and doubling, not to have an heart and an heart, or to be double minded, but to be single hearted. 4. Lastly, this virtue of uprightness is commended unto us under other names, namely, sincerity and truth, sincerity being opposed to mixture, and truth to falsehood, both which hypocrisy is. II. Now that uprightness is a proper note to the citizens of heaven, it may easily appear by the reciprocal conversion which is betwixt them. For if all the citizens of heaven be upright, and all that be up right are citizens of heaven, then is it manifest that uprightness agreeth to all that be the sons and heirs of God, and to them alone. III. It behoveth us diligently to try and examine ourselves, whether this note doth belong unto us or not. For unless we be upright we shall not rest in God’ s holy mountain, but must look to have our portion with hypocrites.1. And first, the study and endeavour of the upright is to approve himself to God. 2. It is the property of upright men to yield simple and absolute obedience to the Word of God, denying themselves, their own affections and reason. 3. A third sign of an upright man is, so to contemn the world, and to be weaned from worldly desire, as that he preferreth the keeping of a good conscience. 4. The property of an upright man is to hate sin as well in himself as in others, and to be exercised in judging himself. 5. The upright man repenteth of all sin, having an unfeigned purpose and resolution to abstain from all sin, and not to retain anyone, howsoever besides and contrary to his purpose he may fail in some particulars. But the hypocrite, howsoever he may be brought to abstain from diverse sins whereunto he is not so much addicted, yet he will be sure to cherish and retain some sin or sins that are more dear unto him. 6. It is the property of the upright to love and reverence the good and godly for their godliness sake, and to contemn and despise the wicked, though mighty in the world, because of their wickedness. 7. It is the property of the upright to prefer the greater and weightier duties before the less, the substance before circumstances, the works either of piety or mercy before ceremonies. 8. Another note of an upright man is humility. As contrariwise, pride is the companion of hypocrisy. 9. Again, the upright man, being imbued with a good conscience, is confident in good causes and courageous in time of peril; as Solomon saith, “ He that walketh uprightly walketh boldly” (Proverbs 10:9; Proverbs 28:1). And again, “ The righteous are bold as a lion.” 10. It is the privilege of an upright man to be constant in good things and to persevere to the end, keeping also a continued course of piety; for the upright man is he which hath built upon the rock, and therefore cannot utterly be overthrown by any blasts or tempests of temptations. IV. To consider by what argument we may be stirred up to embrace this virtue if we want it, or to continue and increase therein if we have it. The argument may be reduced to three heads, the excellency, the profit, the necessity of uprightness. But if neither the golden reason of excellency can move us, nor the silver reason of profit allure us, then must the iron reason of necessity enforce us to integrity and uprightness of heart. For first, such is the necessity thereof, that without integrity the best graces we seem to have are counterfeit, and therefore but glorious sins, the best worship we can perform is but hypocrisy, and therefore abominable in God’ s sight. For uprightness is the soundness of all grace and virtues, as also of all religion and worship of God, without which they are unsound and nothing worth. Wherefore in the Scriptures it is required that our faith should be unfeigned, that is, such a faith as inwardly purifieth the heart, and outwardly worketh by love; otherwise it is not a true and a lively, but a counterfeit and dead faith. Likewise our love must be unfeigned, that is, as John saith, we must not love in speech and tongue, but in deed and truth; or as Paul speaketh, our love must proceed from a pure heart, a good conscience, and faith unfeigned. Our wisdom also must be without dissimulation. Lastly, our repentance and conversion unto God must be unfeigned and from our whole heart. As of prayer: to the acceptable performance whereof there is required uprightness, not only in the action itself, but also in the life of him that prayeth. V. Let us observe these few rules.1. Let us, according to the example of David, learn to set God always before our eyes, and ourselves in the sight and presence of God. And to this end let us meditate on His omnipresence and omniscience. 2. To meditation on His omnipresence and omniscience, let us add the consideration of His omni-sufficiency, remembering, as the prophet Hanani said to Asa, that the eyes of the Lord behold all the earth, to show Himself strong with them that are of an upright heart towards Him. 3. Thirdly, to the former let us join a serious meditation of the just judgment. Hitherto we have spoken of integrity, as it is referred unto God; it followeth now that we should entreat thereof as it hath reference unto men. For as we must walk before God in truth and sincerity without hypocrisy, so must we have our conversation among men in simplicity and singleness of heart, without dissembling or guile. To conclude, therefore, this first note: seeing uprightness is made a proper mark of the true child of God and citizen of heaven, whereas contrariwise dissimulation and deceit are the brands of the wicked: it behoveth everyone to apply this note to himself. Dost thou walk uprightly without hypocrisy towards God, without guile towards man? happy and blessed art thou, for thou shalt see God, and as thou art now a sound member of the Church militant, so shalt thou be an inheritor of glory in the triumphant. Dost thou not walk in sincerity towards God, and simplicity towards men, but in hypocrisy and dissimulation? then most fearful is thine estate, unless thou repent, for thou hast no part or fellowship in the doctrine of salvation, or in the communion of saints, but thy portion shall be assigned thee with hypocrites, where is weeping and gnashing of teeth. (G. Downame.) The marks of the saints 1. The first virtue and mark to know the true saints of God is innocency of life. By “ walking,” in Holy Scripture, conversation and living is usually understood. Men call them innocent whose life is hurtless and harmless, neither stained nor defiled with iniquity or gross sins. The honest conversation of the saints, confirmed with undoubted testimony of a good conscience, is the harmless, hurtless, simple, innocent, and upright life, in this place required. In which virtue excelled Abel, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Job, Moses, David, and the prophets, Paul, Peter, and the Apostles. Righteousness, doing good, and performing of Christian duties to all men is often in Holy Scripture commended unto the saints and lively members of God’ s Church, and the doctrine thereof is large and ample in the Sacred Word. 2. The second thing wherein the people’ s duty consisteth is to give the labourer his wages, the workman his hire. There is righteousness of parents, of children, of servants, of the hirer and the hired. 3. The third virtue in God’ s saints is truth in tongue and talk. The tongue is a necessary instrument in our common life. Truth is required both in our private and in our public life. To this there are sundry motives and things to stir us. The commandment of Almighty God. The example of Jesus Christ. The Gospel which we profess is truth, and the word of truth. We are inspired with the Holy Spirit of God, whose temples we are. The Spirit is called the Spirit of truth, who “ leadeth into all truth.” To speak the truth from the heart is a mark of them which shall dwell in God’ s tabernacle. Doctrines: 1. Hypocrites, by their external life, are easily descried. 2. Religion and faith are showed by works of the second table.3. Sacrifices without works of mercy are rejected.4. We need not divide ourselves from the Church because there are some hypocrites in it.5. There is no sound rest in the Church for any but those who desire to live honestly. (R. Turnbull.) Practical piety St. Anthony, the first hermit, lived a hard and strait life in the wilderness, praying constantly and meditating on the things of God. There is a story that a voice came to him from heaven, saying, “ Anthony, thou art not so perfect as is a cobbler who dwells at Alexandria.” Anthony, hearing this, rose up forthwith and took his staff, and went on his journey till he came to Alexandria, where he found the Cobbler. The cobbler was astonished to see so great a saint come to his house. Then Anthony said to him, “ Come, tell me thy whole manner of life, and how thou spendest thy time.” “ Sir,” said the cobbler, “ talents I have few, and good works have I none, for my life is but simple, for I am but a poor cobbler. In the morning, when I rise, I pray for the whole city wherein I dwell, especially for all such neighbours and poor friends as I have; after that I set to my work, in which I spend the whole day to get my living; and I keep from all falsehood, for I hate all manner of deceit; wherefore, when I make any man a promise I keep it and perform it truly. In the evening I teach and instruct my children, as far as my knowledge serves me, to fear God and do His will. And this is the sum of my simple life.” In this story we see how God loves those that follow their calling and use His gifts as best they can. Allied virtues The virtues all lock into each other. They cannot stand alone. Like the stones of an arch, no one of them can be wanting without making all the rest insecure. That character alone is trustworthy in which each virtue takes its relative position, and all are held in place and confirmed by the keystone of a living faith in the great central fact, that there is a God of infinite goodness and truth, whose commandments are the law of life in this world and in the world to come. Worketh righteousness. A mark of Zion citizenship The favoured citizen is a man who is industrious in goodness. Righteousness is not to him a mere department of moral philosophy upon which he has to speculate or theorise, nor is it satisfied with the delineations wrought out in language by heroic poets; it is a condition of spirit and heart before God admitting of culture within and sanctified expression without. The good man may be described as building a life temple of righteousness; he is continually looking around for material which he can put into his building, and his satisfaction is in proportion to the largeness and beauty of the edifice. Those who are addicted to iniquity are described as “ workers” ; they are not ashamed of their wicked profession, nor is their service marked by self-indulged lethargy. The sojourner in the holy city is not only to do a better work, he is to do it with more serious determination and industry. He is not to be silent in the presence of unrighteousness, but is at all costs to speak out in favour of true justice and virtue. In his circle he is to be known as a man who will spare no effort to advance righteousness, whether found in the claims of an individual, the necessities of an institution, or the policy of a nation. Suspect any form of so-called righteousness that can be silent in the presence of oppression, and that can let wickedness pass by without indignant repudiation. (Joseph Parker, D. D.) Righteousness in character “ And worketh righteousness.” There is not only backbone but energy. And the energy is of a special and peculiar kind. It maketh ever for righteousness. It is not only that the issues of life are just and equitable; the equity is found in their very birth. The word “ worketh” might be equally well translated “ ordaineth.” The friend of God inspects the wishes and purposes and ambitions which appear in his life. He marks their tendency and their aim. Some of these wishes and ambitions he suppresses and rejects; others he selects and welcomes. He discriminates among his allurements. He “ ordains” the purposes that make for righteousness, and labours for their judgment. So that the companion of God is holding in his secret place a perpetual ordination service. The righteous suggestion and aspiration are being continually approved and ordained to the ministry of actual life and service. (J. H. Jowett, M. A.) The transcendent importance of social morality It is time to preach the doctrine of this Psalm--that there is no true religion apart from social morality. I. An abiding friendship with God is essential to the happiness of man. The idea in Psalms 15:1 is, “ Who shall have permanent friendship with Thee?” This is the cardinal want of humanity. That an abiding friendship with God is essential to man’ s happiness may be argued from two things.1. From what is in the human soul. There is a trusting tendency, an infinite craving, a sense of guilt. 2. From what is in the Divine Word. Nothing is more clearly taught in the New Testament than this. II. Social morality is essential to an abiding, friendship with God. Look at social morality in two aspects.1. As described. (1) Honest,(2) truthful,(3) unmalicious,(4) character regarding,(5) rigorous fidelity,(6) unextortionate,(7) incorruptibly just. 2. As necessary. Our conduct towards man determines our relation to God, and our destiny too. True social morality always implies true love to God. It is the practical expression of true religion. Then true social morality is the best means of promoting genuine Christianity. That man does most to spread the religion of Jesus who, in all his connections with his fellow men, does the just and the generous, the merciful and the Christ-like. (Homilist.) The citizen of Zion a worker of righteousness It is he that worketh righteousness now shall dwell in heaven. I. Unfold the character.1. He is a believer in Christ, and righteous by faith. He that does not work faith works no righteousness at all (John 6:29). For a man must first be righteous before he can work it. A soul not united to Christ cannot do this (John 15:5). All life and strength spiritual is in Christ (1 John 5:11-12). Until the conscience be purged from dead works he cannot work righteousness (Hebrews 9:14). Truth is the spring of all good works (1 Timothy 1:5; 1 John 3:12; Hebrews 11:4). Therefore, let men work as they will, until they be true believers in Christ they cannot work righteousness. Works without faith ruin the soul. See the Pharisee (Luke 18:11-12). But the citizen of Zion is a believer. Also faith without works ruins a man, for it is but a dead faith (James 2:11; James 2:14). 2. He worketh righteousness towards God. He seeks to give God His due (Matthew 22:21; Isaiah 64:5; Acts 10:35). 3. He worketh righteousness towards man. He will wrong no man. He will be blameless and harmless (Philippians 2:15). He seeks to do as he would be done to (Matthew 7:12). And makes conscience of giving everyone their due (Romans 13:7). Not that they are perfect. Good Asa was not (2 Chronicles 16:10, and in Genesis 20:9). But their sins are not deliberate and of set purpose. He is a sincere worker of righteousness towards man. Hence in his particular relations, in the special duties of such relation as husband, wife, parent, master, etc. In a word, he is conscientiously righteous in all things that concern his neighbour (Micah 6:3). II. Confirm this doctrine. Consider--1. God is a righteous God. 2. It is the great end of redemption that Christ’ s people may be righteous (Luke 1:74-75). 3. And judgment will be according to works. Then be workers of righteousness. (T. Boston, D. D.) And speaketh the truth in his heart.--The citizen of Zion a speaker of truth in his heart This is the third character of the citizen of Zion. Not only does he speak truth, but he speaks it in his heart; that is, his thoughts and reasonings are consistent with truth. The doctrines that are deducible from the text are, that those that shall be inhabitants of heaven speak the truth here, and that they speak it in their hearts as well as to others. As to the first of these. I. Explain the character or part of the character of a citizen of Zion. Therefore inquire--1. What is truth? Pilate asked this question, but stayed not for the answer. Truth is a sacred harmony or agreement of things. Anatomists have observed that the tongue in man is tied with a double string to the heart. And so in truth spoken there is necessary a double agreement of our words with our hearts--that we say what we think; and with the thing itself, that it be as you say. 2. What is it to be a speaker of truth? He makes conscience to speak out the truth seasonably (John 18:37). We are to remember (Ecclesiastes 3:7, and Proverbs 29:11). This was Doeg’ s sin (Psalms 52:1-9). Those whose tongues are like a loose window in wind, ever clattering, have little wit or grace. Talkativeness is both a sign of little awe of God and is the badge of a fool (Ecclesiastes 5:3; Proverbs 14:33). But the citizen of Zion speaks the truth seasonably, that is, when called of God to speak it. This call may be private and providential, or public and authoritative, as in the courts of justice. When thus called he will speak fully, freely, clearly, and sincerely (2 Chronicles 12:9; 2 Corinthians 2:17). 3. And of speaking nothing but the truth (Isaiah 63:8; 2 Corinthians 13:8). We are never to lie (Job 13:7-8). Let us heed this both in speaking to God (Psalms 68:36) and to men (Ephesians 4:25). II. Confirm the doctrine. It is evident, for--1. In the saints the image of Satan is defaced (Revelation 21:1-27, ult.). But 2. The image of God is repaired in them, and truth is a shining lineament in it (Ephesians 4:24; Titus 1:2; Numbers 23:19). And 3. The Christian life is a walking in truth (3 John 1:3). There is truth of heart in true Christians, and that makes truth of conversation. 4. And the Lord has expressly declared that liars shall inhabit hell, not heaven, for God is the God of truth. III. Application.1. This doctrine writes death on the faces of two sorts of people--those who are concealers of the truth which God calls them to speak out, and all liars. This sin is a common vice; but it is the black brand of one who shall never see heaven. They are barred out of heaven thereby, whether they be jesting liars, who lie to make others merry (Hosea 7:3; Proverbs 26:18-19), or officious liars, who will lie to do themselves or others a good turn. Or pernicious liars, whose motive is mischief (Proverbs 6:17). Or covetous liars, who lie to get gain (Proverbs 20:14). Or proud, boasting liars, who lie to raise others’ esteem of them (Proverbs 25:14). Or flattering liars, who lie to curry favour with those they flatter (Psalms 12:2-3; Proverbs 26:28; Proverbs 29:5). Or fearful liars, who, for fear of others, make lies their refuge, as children often do (Psalms 58:3); and others, too, who are but children in courage (Proverbs 29:25; Revelation 21:8). “ Or talkative liars (Proverbs 10:19). Those who are given to much talking will hardly be found regardful of truth. Or rash liars, who lie through inadvertency and customary looseness as to their words (2 Samuel 13:30). Much sin is contracted this way. 2. Speak the truth and keep from lying, for God is the God of truth (Deuteronomy 32:4; Titus 1:2), but the devil is the author and father of lies (John 8:44). He ruined the world at first with a lie (Genesis 3:4-5). Lying, too, is the bane of human society, and a mean, base, and contemptible thing, the native product of the corruption of nature, the spawn of the old serpent left in men’ s hearts (Psalms 58:3), and is an abomination to God (Proverbs 6:17-19; Proverbs 12:22), and will ruin your souls for evermore. Check it in the young, as ye love their souls. (T. Boston, D. D.) On truth David begins this short but beautiful Psalm with a warmth of devotion peculiar to himself. Among other essential requisites that entitle a human being to the distinguished honour of dwelling on the Lord’ s holy hill, truth and sincerity are particularly noticed. Some of the obligations that the religion of Christ inculcates are limited by circumstances and will admit of being modified by different causes. But the great virtue of truth is necessary at all times, and binding under all the relations of life. It is never a mere ornament of the mind, or a virtue of the middle order whose absence may be excused. It is absolutely necessary to all virtue; it is the broad basis on which they all rest. I would, then, impress upon you its sacred obligations and guard you against the shame, the guilt, and degradation of falsehood. There is nothing which is a greater recommendation of character. It at all times inspires confidence and ensures respect. It is a proof of innocence and fortitude combined. As charity is said “ to cover a multitude of sins,” so an inviolable habit of truth will atone for many imperfections. But its loveliness is never more conspicuous than when contrasted with falsehood. There is nothing that men more complain of than of being mistaken. Treachery and hypocrisy are by no means unusual; but duplicity, equivocation, and behaviour that has a tendency to deceive are amongst the commonest breaches of truth, and are the causes that daily increase the mortifications and disappointments of the young, while they confirm the selfishness and suspicion of the aged. The violator of truth, therefore, is the great corrupter of the world. Those whom nature intended to be open, confidential, and affectionate, freeze into misanthropy, or else become uncandid, suspicions, and deceitful. But the liar is soon caught in his own snares. He will not be believed even when he speaks the truth, and gains no credit even when he deserves it. Whatever other good qualities he may have, the vice of falsehood poisons the whole. He can do no good to others, for no one will confide in him. If we inquire why men violate truth, we shall find that their motives are often vanity, or fear and imbecility. Some are so greedy of a name that they care not how they violate truth if they can gain belief Who will deny that the vanity of giving men information has often polluted the pages of history, degraded philosophy almost to imposture, and inspired even sceptics with something more than the credulity of ignorance. But truth is yet more violated from fear and imbecility. Where this is so our pity and indulgence are appealed to. Children are often led to transgress truth for the sake of some trifling gratification before they can be aware of the depravity of falsehood. They think it the nearest way to enjoyment, and an easy and effectual method to escape detection. It is difficult to correct this when it proceeds from fear, for it often requires much fortitude to speak the truth. Men feel this; how ranch more children. They should be taught in their earliest years that there is no fault so great as falsehood. Needless severity era capricious kind of alternating tyranny and indulgence terribly foster this vice. And nothing but religion will help us herein. God is the God of truth. His works and His Word alike declare that “ God is truth.” (J. Hewlett, B. D.) Truth in the heart “ And speaketh the truth in his heart.” When a man speaks the truth to himself he will speak it to his neighbour. The beginning of all sincerity is to be sincere in one’ s self-communings. No man will be guilty of equivocation who does not first deceive himself. The companion of God is absolutely frank and candid with himself. In his heart is to be found the fair angel of truth, and he does not defile her garments by any ill doctrine of reserve or self-evasion. (J. H. Jowett, M. A.) Speech spoilt by the underlying evil of a corrupt heart A lady who had lost a little daughter took a photograph and painted it with rare skill and laid it in a drawer, and was grieved to find that soon afterwards it was covered with ugly blotches. She painted it again, and it was again marred. There was something wrong with the paper, some chemical ingredients in undue proportions. No matter how beautiful the picture made on its surface, up ever out of the heart of the paper would come the ooze of decay. So with human life, the heart being wrong spoils all. (J. R. Miller.) Psalms 15:3 He that backbiteth not with his tongue.How may detraction be best prevented or cured The abuses of the tongue are many, one whereof is the malignity of it. A man can scarce come into any company but his ears shall be filled with censures, detractions, reproaches; party against party, person against person. Doctrine: It is the duty, and must be the care, of every true Christian not to take up a reproach against his neighbour. I. Explain the point.1. Who is my neighbour? It is the peculiarity of the Gospel that every man is made my neighbour. Augustine says, “ Every man is a neighbour to any other man.” Kimchi says, “ He is called my neighbour with whom I have any business.” 2. What is a reproach? (1) It is nothing else but an evil report, or an evil speech, unduly uttered concerning another. A report is evil in two ways--when it is evil in itself, a false report, and when it is evil to a man’ s neighbour, when your speech tends to your neighbour’ s disparagement and defamation. (2) When a man publisheth a neighbour’ s secret infirmities or sins. (3) When a man aggravates the real or supposed faults of his neighbour either in opinion or practice. Men often censure others for things indifferent and of small moment, as, for example, in their habits and garbs. 3. What is it to take up a reproach against a man’ s neighbour? It is a defective manner of expression, and therefore is diversely supplied, but especially and most reasonably two ways--when he takes it up into his mouth, and is the first raiser of the reproach, or the spreader and promoter of it; and when he takes it into his ear. This he may do when he quietly permits it, and gives no check to it; when he hears a reproach greedily, and with delight; and when he easily believes a reproach. II. The proof of the doctrine. This shall consist in the representation of the sinfulness and injury of this practice of censuring, backbiting, and reproaching of others.1. It is injurious to God. As an invasion of God’ s prerogative: a manifest breach of His laws. It is against particular and express Scriptures; against the fundamental law of love and charity; against the “ royal law” of Christ; against the great law of maintaining peace among men; against the great command laid upon all Christians, of excelling other men: it is a sin against the whole design and scope of the Scriptures; it is a great injury to God, because it is a confederacy with God’ s greatest enemy, the devil. 2. It is an injury done to thyself. Hereby thou dost contract guilt, the worst of all evils. Hereby thou dost expel or weaken that excellent grace of love, that necessary and fundamental grace, that sweet and amiable grace. Hereby thou dost lay a foundation for thy own reproach. 3. It is a great injury to the person whom thou dost censure and reproach. Thou dost rob him of the best treasure he hath in the world. Hereby thou dost disenable him from getting good, both as to his outward and as to his inward man. Hereby thou dost hinder him from doing of good in the world. 4. It is a great injury to other men. Thou corruptest others by thy example. Thou art a disturber of human society. Thou art a great enemy to the Church of God. Two questions--1. May I not speak evil of another person when it is true? A man may be faulty in so doing. A man may speak evil of another person when necessity requires it. If you will speak evil of others, do it in the right method. In doubtful cases silence is the safest way. 2. If the man I speak against is an enemy of God and His people? Well to remember there is much sinful zeal in the world and in the Church. Con-eider how easy a mistake is in this case, and how dangerous. And you must not go out of your way to meet with God’ s enemies. Application:1. Lamentation for the gross neglect of this duty, or the frequent commission of this sin. 2. Take heed that you be not found guilty of this sin. 3. Avoid the causes of this sin. Take heed of uncharitableness, in all its kinds and degrees. Take heed of loquacity and multitude of words. Take heed of pragmaticalness, which is when men are inquisitive and busy about other men’ s matters. Take heed of man-pleasing. 4. Learn the government of your tongues. (Matthew Poole, A. M.) The good man no backbiter “ He that backbiteth not with his tongue.” That is an extraordinary expression! To bite with the tongue! But the word is even more expressive still. The backbiter is one who walks along the way for the purpose of spying out another’ s defects. He then takes the products of his ugly search and presses them into his social intercourse, and endows his words with teeth that are coated with venom. The companion of the Lord paces the common way with quite a different purpose. He, too, spies about, but not with the eyes of the cynic, but with the eyes of a friend, and “ his words are a fountain of life.” (J. H. Jowett, M. A.) Venomous speech We saw in the museum at Venice an instrument with which one of the old Italian tyrants was accustomed to shoot poisoned needles at the objects of his wanton malignity; we thought of gossips, backbiters, and secret slanderers, and wished that their mischievous devices might come to a speedy end. Their weapons of innuendo, shrug, and whisper appear to be as insignificant as needles, but the venom which they instill is deadly to many a reputation. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Slander avoided 1. Slander. All reproachful, opprobrious, and vile speech of or to our brethren is condemned; and that speech which, uttered in their absence, tendeth to their disgrace, discredit, or defamation. This evil is against the law of charity. Satan is the author of slander. See his words to Eve. St. James, speaking of slander, said the tongue was full of deadly poison. This sin is in sundry ways committed. Diogenes, being asked, what beast bit sorest, answered, “ Among wild beasts, the slanderer; but among tame beasts, the flatterer.” (1) When anything is falsely said of us, and we are charged with matters that are untrue. (2) When men, by vehemency of words, aggravate and amplify the infirmities and light offences of men. (3) When men blaze abroad the secret sins and infirmities of their brethren. (4) When we deprave the good deeds and well doing of men. (5) When, by our manner of speaking, we leave a surmise and suspicion in the hearts of the hearers. (6) When we report truly the faults of men, yet not for love to the truth, but for envy to the persons. The chief causes of slandering seem to be these: Love of yourselves. Malice towards others. Desire of revenge. Hope of commodity. Study to please. 2. Injury. Men do injury and evil unto other men chiefly in four ways: in body, in goods, in rights and privileges, in name and estimation. 3. Receiving and believing false reports against brethren. Men should not be too light of belief. They are often even pleased with false reports. 4. Flattering the wicked. To hate the wicked and favour the just is a point of equity. 5. Breaking promises. This is usual in the wicked. (R. Turnbull.) The backbiter The backbiter is so called because, like the dog, he steals behind those in whom he wishes to flesh his teeth, deals in innuendoes, insinuations, evil surmisings, significant shrugs and looks, words meaning one thing in their literal sense and altogether another thing from the tone in which they are uttered, and so destroys a good name that no open assault could have affected. In this way the weak often overwhelm the strong; the vilest the most pure. The blow from behind and in the dark accomplishes its work of ruin before danger is even suspected. The truly good man, however, will assail no man’ s good name. If he cannot speak good of another he will say nothing. He thinks, and justly too, that he has no more right to injure another’ s character, than he has to injure his health; to destroy another’ s good name, than he has to destroy his life. If he discover a neighbour’ s faults he does not noise them abroad, but tries to conceal them; and so, if he discovers his neighbour’ s necessities, he does what he can to relieve them. Moreover, be taketh not “ up a reproach against his neighbour” ; that is, either he will not originate a reproach, or he will not listen to one. The willing listener is as bad as the tale bearer. If there were none to listen to the tale of scandal, there would be none to start it, and none to repeat it; the slanderous ear is as detestable as the slanderous tongue. (David Caldwell, A. M.) Nor doeth evil to his neighbour.--The good man no evil-doer “ Nor doeth evil to his neighbour.” I think we are still in the region of speech, and the Psalmist is still describing the influence of destructive conversation. To do evil in one’ s speech is to spoil one’ s neighbour; to break him to pieces. We have preserved the equivalent of the Psalmist’ s phrase down to our own time. We still speak of “ picking a person to pieces.” This is precisely the significance of the original word. There is a conversation which mercilessly engages in the exercise of spoliation; breaking up the reputation of another, and leaving it like the bones of some poor bird which has been picked to pieces by a destructive hawk. The speech of the companion of the Lord is quite otherwise. It ever seeks to construct and strengthen. “ Let no speech proceed out of your mouth but what is edifying.” (J. H. Jowett, M. A.) Detraction From the day that Adam fell, thorns and thistles, with other noxious plants, have sprung up to vex and molest the sinner. As travellers wending their way through some dismal swamp, let us pause a moment on the way and pull up one of these weeds and examine it for our instruction. We may have it in our own garden plot; who knows? The weed we speak of is--Detraction. I. It is owe of a class of sins. There are many of them, such as slander, calumny, defamation, revilings, aspersions, vilifications, and libel. All these are worse in some respects than detraction; they are coarser, uglier, bigger weeds. Calumny involves deliberate false statement. The defamer publishes his unfriendly message to the world. The libeler writes down and prints, and so puts before the eyes of a thousand readers in lasting form, the expressions of his malignity. And they who revile and asperse give us the idea of common scolds and scatterers of mud and offal, and show meanly themselves for the very manner of their work. But the act of the detractor is different from all these. It needs not lies nor aught which is essential to the others. II. What, then, is it? It is a taking something away, a kind of petty minute robbery. It consists in depreciating and disparaging others, It is made up of slurs and innuendoes, of hints and gestures; and is often clad in graceful and witty garb. But it is very villainous. For with all our weakness and faults there is some good in everybody which is very precious to its possessor. Now the Lord sees this, however little it be, and makes the most of it. But detraction makes the least of it it can. III. The causes of this sin.1. Personal interest. People think there is something to be gained by it. 2. Envy. They cannot endure the prosperity or happiness of others. What evil it works in all public affairs. It is the crying scandal of our day. And in business, men use it to supplant their rivals and to advance themselves. The envious detractor is moved thereto by his bad temper and also by the pleasure, which he ought to be ashamed of,--the pleasure which people take in hearing of the misfortunes of others. Who is not conscious of this pleasure, vile as it is? But 3. Vanity is the chief motive of detraction. Reputation for wit is gained in such easy way by it, and a vain, weak person cannot resist the temptation. Nobody would listen to him on any other subject, but let him open his lips with some wretched gossip or scandal, and all listen. What punishment is too severe for this? It is the pest of society; but as for reform, it is all but impossible. Habit, and rivalry, and lack of high aim maintain it. But we have need greatly to fear if we be guilty of it. (Morgan Dix.) Nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbour. Evil speaking not to be listened to “ Nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbour.” Then we are not only forbidden to speak evil, we are forbidden to listen to it. We are not only forbidden to cast a slander, we are forbidden to take it up when another has hurled it. To repeat a thing is to incur guilt quite as much as if we originated it. I think that one of the great needs of our day is the grace of sanctified hearing. How much the Master made of the responsibility of possessing ears! “ He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.” “ Take heed how ye hear.” There is a discriminating way of listening. There is a listening which encourages the speaker of slander, and there is a closing of the ears which reduces the slanderer to silence. There would be much less evil speaking if there was much less evil listening. The evil speaker yearns for the reward of attention and applause. If these are withheld he will soon tire of his nefarious trade. The companion of the Lord listens for commendations, eulogies, and repeats them to others. He likes to hear a good thing of somebody, and he sings it again into the ears of somebody else. (J. H. Jowett, M. A.) The law of the lip I. The nature of slander.1. The origination of an evil report concerning our neighbour.2. The circulation of an evil report invented by others.3. The listening to such a report. Giving it the sanction of our ear. II. The evil of slander. What mighty unhappiness it causeth.1. It demoralises the slanderer.2. It demoralises the person to whom the slander is related.3. It wrongs the party slandered. III. The cure for slander. It is a most difficult thing to rule the tongue, and refrain from evil-speaking. What is the grand cure for all sins of the lip? He “ speaketh the truth in his heart.” The heart must be changed, enlightened, exalted. Out of a pure fountain flows a pure stream. (W. L. Watkinson.) Psalms 15:4 In whose eyes a vile person is contemned.Second moral appreciations “ In whose eyes a vile person is contemned; but he honoureth them that fear the Lord.” Then he is a man of sound moral appreciations. He does not pay respect where no respect is deserved. He does not withhold respect where it is merited. Says an old Puritan, “ We must be as honest in paying respect as in paying our bills.” But let us pay them in the right quarter. Do not let us call the vile person honourable because he is clothed in purple and fine linen, and fareth sumptuously every day. And do not let us esteem the honourable man as vile because his equipage is poor and his nobility is clothed in rags. Let us call villainy vile wherever we find it, and let us esteem nobility as noble in whatever guise it may appear. This is one of the great characteristics of the friend of God; to whom the sweet is sweet and the sour is sour; evil is evil and good is good. Nothing is allowed to interfere with the soundness and sobriety of his judgment, and no verbal jugglery is permitted to destroy the healthiness of his discriminating vocabulary. He knows the superlative, and loves it! “ As for the saints that are in the earth, they are the excellent in whom is all My delight.” (J. H. Jowett, M. A.) The believer’ s regard for those who fear God Mr. Fox being asked whether he remembered not such a poor servant of God who had received succour from him in time of trouble answered, “ I remember him well; I tell you, I forget the lords and ladies to remember such.” (John Trapp.) He that sweareth to his own hurt, and changeth not. The obligation of an oath Among the duties mentioned in this Psalm we find this of constancy and faithfulness in keeping those promises which we have confirmed by an oath. Because the greatest temptation to the breaking of oaths proceeds from fear of some temporal damage, or prospect of some worldly advantage, therefore it is said, “ He that sweareth to his own hurt, and changeth not.” I. In what cases an oath doth oblige. No oath can oblige to that which is impossible; or to that which is unlawful; for justice requires that we do not invade the rights and privileges of other men. Oaths contrary to charity or mercy or humanity are void. No oath can oblige when it hinders a greater good. What if the matter be purely indifferent? There can be here no occasion of difficulty, except the matter be also of no moment. He is undoubtedly guilty of great irreverence towards God, that will cite His name to a trifle. If the matter of the oath be such as causeth a man to doubt whether it be lawful or no, in that case he had better perform it. There are cases relating to the person that swears. Here, whensoever we shall determine that an oath doth not bind, it will be for the want of the person’ s rightly understanding that he made one. A man may not know what an oath is; or he may swear when affected by anger, or by drink, or by fear; or by any other passion; or if a man swears to save his life, as from robbers. II. In what sense an oath ought to be taken. That sense is to be taken which is most suitable to the business men are about. We may not precisely, without limitation, accept the sense of the swearer, or of the imposer, or that which the words of the oath will bear. The swearer may equivocate, or use mental reservations. What if a man swears and doth not intend to swear? Something of intention is always required to an oath. It would be a frivolous excuse for a man to say, he intended to swear, but did not intend to be obliged. III. How great the obligation of an oath is. It is a solemn invocation of God to witness what we say, by His favour and mercy to us, if it be true; or by His vengeance upon us if it be false. It is a high advantage and privilege which God vouchsafeth to us, in that He gives us leave, upon urgent and weighty causes, to make use of His glorious Name as a seal to confirm the truth of what we assent. If, therefore, we take it up to avouch a falsehood, we are exceedingly ungrateful, we falsify that seal, we profane that dreadful name, we apply that which is most sacred to the worst of uses . . . For these and the like causes an oath hath generally been looked upon as a sufficient assurance and confirmation of the truth of any matter. He that seriously considers what an oath is cannot surely believe that any man is above the obligation of it. And as no man can be too great for such an obligation himself, so neither can he dispense with it in others. (Henry Hellier, M. A.) Immutable in covenant “ He that sweareth to his own hurt, and changeth not.” Then he is immutable in covenant. His word is his bond. He is dependable. When he promises he redeems. And he does it even to his own hurt! If it necessitates bleeding, he still redeems it. He is “ faithful even unto death.” He is grandly consistent, consistent not in the sense of never changing his opinion, but in the grander sense of never altering his loyalty to truth and his relationship to God. His word is a tower in which the weak and defenceless have a strong defence. (J. H. Jowett, M. A.) Psalms 15:5 He that putteth not out his money to usury.Unclean money eschewed “ He that putteth not out his money to usury, nor taketh reward against the innocent.” The companion of the Lord rejects the fruits of oppression. He will have no money that bears the marks of blood. Nothing unclean will he take into the building of his estate. In earning his bread he will never use a sting; in labouring he will never bite. He will never allow himself to gain an advantage by illegitimate means. He will accept no bribe, nor give any. “ Better is a little with righteousness than great revenues without light.” (J. H. Jowett, M. A.) The examination of usury I. Define what usury is. It is that gain which is gotten by lending, covenanting before with the borrower to receive more than was borrowed. Someone, defining usury, calls it the contrary to charity; for “ love seeketh not her own,” but usury seeks another’ s that is not her own. Then it is far from love; but God is love; so usury is far from God. Usury has her name of biting (nesher), and she may well signify it; therefore St. Paul saith (Galatians 5:15), “ If you bite one another, take heed,” etc. II. Its unlawfulness. 1. It is against the law of charity. 2. Against the law of nations. For all nations have laws against usury, and some restraints against it. 3. Against the law of nature, that is, against the natural compassion which should be among men. 4. Against the law of God (Exodus 22:25; Leviticus 25:37; Deuteronomy 23:19). It is a miserable occupation to live by sin, and a great comfort when a man can feel, of his gold and silver, that it is all well gotten, and that he leaves of his own to his children. The usurer loveth the borrower as the ivy loveth the oak, to grow up by it; the usurer would grow rich by the borrower. The ivy claspeth the oak like a lover, but it claspeth out all the juice and sap, that the oak cannot thrive after it. So the usurer claspeth the borrower with such bonds that he ever after grows poor as others grow rich. Christ bids us lend freely. God bade Adam live by the sweat of his brow (face), his own, not that of another, which usurers live by. David says, “ A good man is merciful and lendeth,” and then he adds, “ he shall never be moved.” In Exodus 23:1-33, it is said, “ Lend unto him which wanteth without usury, that the Lord may bless thee.” III. The different kinds of usury. There be more sorts of it than there are tricks at cards.1. Some will not take usury, but will have the use of your land or your cattle, and so get even more than by usury. 2. Others will take plates, bedding, and other household stuff, to use or wear, (Amos 2:1-16) “ They lie down upon the clothes which are laid to pledge.” 3. Others will take a pawn, which is better than the money they lend, and if the money be not returned by a certain day, they keep the pawn. 4. Others will buy goods at a small price, and then covenant that the borrowers buy them back at the same price on such a day, or else the goods will be theirs (1 Thessalonians 4:6). IV. The arguments by which usury is defended. There be three opinions. Some say, like God, “ Thou shalt die.” They think that usury is utterly unlawful, because God hath forbidden it. Some say, like the woman, “ Peradventure thou shalt die” ; they doubt whether usury be utterly unlawful or no, because it is so much tolerated. Some say like the serpent, “ Thou shalt not die” ; they think usury lawful, because it is gainful, as Saul thought that the idolaters beasts should not be killed, because they were fat (1 Samuel 15:9). The arguments for usury which are pleaded are--1. God doth allow some kind of usury (see Deuteronomy 23:1-25). “ Of a stranger thou mayest take usury.” But a stranger signifies an enemy such as they were commanded destroy; only to such might they be usurers. But men take usury of their brother. 2. They say they lend for compassion. But how so when you partake not of your brother’ s losses but his gains? 3. They say If he gain, and I gain too, is not this well? Should he not be thankful? Yes, if he hath received a good turn from you. But you bind him to requite it. 4. It is necessary for orphans, widows, and such like, which have no other way of getting their living. But how did the Jews do without it? If it was good for them not to have, is it good for us that we should have usurers? 5. They say, “ If I may not gain by the money which I lend, I will keep it to myself.” But you must not do that (Matthew 5:42; Ezekiel 18:1-32).6. It is only the biting usury which is forbidden. But all usury is that. 7. They, allege the law of the land, which allows it. But if God’ s law forbid thee, can man’ s law excuse thee? It did not serve Adam to say, “ The woman gave me.” And furthermore, the law only restrains. No man is to take more than ten in the hundred; if he do he shall be punished. The law doth not sanction any usury, but only holds back the usurer. V. The usurer’ s punishment.1. Not only God’ s law, but the canon law doth condemn the usurer. It doth excommunicate him, as having no communion with saints. 2. It doth detain him from the sacraments, as having no communion with Christ. 3. Will not suffer him to be buried, as if he were only worthy to lie in hell. 4. It treats his will as he will. But hear the judgment of God’ s law. The usurer doth receive two incomes, one of the borrower, and another of the revenger. The first is gem, the other punishment. All the Scripture prophesieth evil unto him. Solomon saith (Proverbs 28:8), “ He which increaseth his riches by usury, gathereth for them which will be merciful to the poor.” God saith that He will smite the usurer with His fist (Ezekiel 22:13). As his hands were shut against the poor, so shall God’ s hands be against him. And here David saith, “ they shall not dwell in God’ s temple, nor rest in His holy mountain.” But this punishment is all punishments. Yes, usury signifieth biting, for when it has bitten others it shall bite the usurer too, and never cease. If, therefore, Christ be come to your hearts, as He came to Zacchaeus’ house, restore now, as he did, and escape this judgment. VI. The giving of usury. Is this lawful? Jeremiah says he never gave nor took (Jeremiah 15:10). But he meant he was no meddler with the world, whereby they should envy him as usurers were most of all envied. But many will borrow who will never lend; and it is said, if there were no borrowers there would be no lenders, if no bribe givers there would be no bribe takers. And there is as much difference between the two men as between covetousness and necessity, for he which borroweth upon, usury borroweth for necessity. But for this God has allowed many things--Adam’ s sons to marry with Adam’ s daughters; and David to eat the shewbread (Luke 6:4). And so when immediate help is needed to prevent a great mischief, many think that it is lawful to resort to the usurer. But if some may borrow upon usury it does not follow that all may. Yet many borrow who have no need. They borrow because they reckon that they can get more by the money than the money they pay for it. Hence it is that goods are so dear. And there are some who borrow because they want to make their creditors think they are bare of money. These are like foxes, and I doubt not there be more sorts than I know. VII. What should they do who have got their money by usury? Restore it again. If you cannot say as Samuel said, “ Whose goods have I taken?” then you must say as Zacchaeus said, Whose goods have I kept? The best thing is to do no man wrong, the next best is to make amends. For as humility is the repentance of pride, and abstinence of surfeit, and alms of covetousness, and forgiveness of malice, so restitution is the repentance of usury. As a camel when he comes home casteth off his burden at the door, that he may enter into his stable; so they which are laden with other men’ s goods, when they go to heaven, must leave their burden where they had it, lest they be too gross to enter in at the narrow gate; therefore that you may not die in your sins, make restitution (2 Samuel 2:26), so do you remember whether this course will be sweet or bitter in the end. Now, seeing that you may not be usurers to men, be usurers to God (Matthew 19:29). (H. Smith.) The sins of usury and bribe By usury understand--that gain which, by composition, compact, and agreement going before, is taken for the duty of lending above the principal. It is nothing prejudicial to the dangerous adventures of lawful merchants; neither condemneth it tolerable gains in the retailer. But when, for very lending, without labour, without danger undertaken by transporting goods, or otherwise, there riseth commodity and gain, the principal returning, there is usury. Usury is against God’ s law. The Roman Commonwealth decayed after usury was therein entertained. Usury is condemned by the general consent of the Church and the Fathers. The wise men among the heathen condemned it. The usurer is an idolater, for he is covetous. The last forbidden evil is corruption and bribery. The taking of rewards whereby justice is perverted, and the innocent oppressed. (R. Turnbull.) The lawfulness of usury considered The Rev. W.J. Dawson, replying to the question “ Is usury right?” says: “ John Ruskin replies, No. His contention is that if a man has £15,000 it is his duty to spend his principal pound by pound, but to put it to usury, that is to interest, is a sin against society. I confess I have never been able to accept this doctrine. When we talk of £15,000 it is one thing; but apply it to £1000, which we will say is the entire fortune of a widow. If she spends it pound by pound she will soon came to beggary. If it be wisely invested, someone else has the use of it in the promotion of business, and she has a small annual income, which is the barrier between her and want. I do not understand Christ as denouncing usury. What the whole spirit of the Bible denounces is excessive usury.” (The Young Man.) He that doeth these things shall never be moved.--On tranquillity of mind Inquire whether any line of conduct can be pointed out which, independent of external situation in the world, shall tend to make us easy in mind; shall either bestow or aid that tranquillity which all men desire. Direction:1. That we imitate the character of the man who is described in this Psalm; that we study to preserve a clear conscience, and to lead a virtuous and honourable, at least an inoffensive and innocent, life. So great is the power of conscience over every human being that the remembrance of crimes never fails to overthrow tranquillity of mind. Let him therefore, who wishes to enjoy tranquillity, study, above all things, to act an irreproachable part. 2, Join humble trust in the favour of God. As, after the best endeavours we can use, no man’ s behaviour will be entirely faultless, it is essential to peace of mind that we have some ground of hope in the Divine mercy, that through the merits of Jesus Christ our defects shall be forgiven, and grace be shown us by heaven. But a man may be both pious and virtuous and yet, through some defects in the management of his mind and temper, may not possess that happy serenity and self-enjoyment which ought to be the portion of virtue and piety. There is therefore some discipline to be studied; there are some subsidiary parts of character to be attended to, in order to give piety and virtue their full effect for conferring tranquillity. 3. Attend to the culture and improvement of your minds. A fund of useful knowledge and a stock of ideas afford much advantage for the enjoyment of tranquillity. In a mind absolutely vacant, tranquillity is seldom found. The vacancy will too often be filled up by bad desires and passions. 4. Be always careful to provide proper employment of our time. Regular industry and labour, with intervals of ease, is perhaps the state most conducive of any to tranquillity. But if relaxation degenerate into total idleness it becomes in a high degree adverse to tranquillity. 5. Learn to govern our passions. These are the frequent disturbers of our peace. Such of them as belong to the malignant and unsocial class evidently tend to promote vexation and disquiet. If those which are accounted of an innocent nature obtain the entire mastery of our minds, they are sufficient to overthrow the tranquillity of life. This self-command is particularly necessary in all that relates to habitual temper: those slight emotions which ruffle or sour the temper are sufficient, by their frequent recurrence, to poison all self-enjoyment. He who would possess a tranquil state must cultivate calmness and gentleness of disposition. 6. Never expect too much from the world. High hopes and florid views are great enemies to tranquillity. When rashly indulged they are constantly producing disappointments. One of the first lessons, both of religion and wisdom, is to moderate our expectations and hopes. It is a middle region which is the native station of tranquillity. Do not form too high expectations from the character of those who are in social or domestic relations with you. 7. Mix retreat with the active business of the world, and cultivate habits of serious thought and recollection. Reflection and meditation allay the workings of many unquiet passions, and place us at a distance from the tumults of the world. The three great enemies to tranquillity are vice, superstition, and idleness. (Hugh Blair, D. D.) A man unmoved “ He that doeth these things shall never be moved.” How glorious is the assurance! The companion of the Lord shall never slip. When he is walking over the enchanted ground he shall be preserved wakeful and vigilant. He shall know where the slippery places are, and where the traps are hid, and he shall cross the devil-haunted ground in security. He shall not be carried away by the storm. He shall be unmoved in the blast of adversity. When death comes he shall still stand! The Lord is his keeper, the Lord is at his right hand, disaster shall only strengthen him. “ All things shall work together for his good.” Such is the companion of God. Into that fellowship we are all called. What God wishes us to be He is prepared to make us. His ideals are His promises. His commandments are invitations. His high callings are gracious evangels. “ Our sufficiency is of God.” (J. H. Jowett, M. A.) The fixedness and safety of the ungodly A ship’ s compass is so adjusted as to keep its level amidst all the hearings of the sea. Though forming part of a structure that feels every motion of the restless waves, it has an arrangement of its own that keeps it always in place, and in working order. Look at it when you will, it is pointing, trembling perhaps, but truly, to the pole. So each soul in this life needs an adjustment of its own, that amid the fluctuations of the “ earthen vessel” it may be kept ever in a position to feel the power of its great attraction in the skies. (A Parsons Penn.) Of false pretences to godliness Religion consists in action; the truth and power of piety lie in practice. “ He that doth these things.” Prove--(1) From the subject of religion, the mind, heart, soul of man. Actions are the best expressers of the mind. (2) From the nature of the covenant betwixt God and us. Action is the condition on our part. (3) From the manner of procedure on the great day of accounts, when the eternal retributions shall be adjusted to men according to their works. It is not a bare external profession which many poor ignorant souls content themselves with that will serve the turn. A Christian profession, without a life answerable, will be so far from saving anyone that it will highly aggravate his condemnation. There are those who think it enough barely to believe, and take faith alone to be the only Gospel term, and of itself all sufficient for salvation. Faith is, however, not a strong fancy or a rash presumption. Faith is no unactive principle, but a stirring grace that purges and purifies the heart, the source of actions and works by love. He that would be sure of his justification by faith must first be sure to justify his faith by his works. If faith will not do, much less can opinion. It cannot be imagined that any system of notions swimming in the brain should bear us out, and help us to attain our end. What shall we say of those whose whole religion is built upon uncertainty, and whose main principle is irresolution? Neither can I approve the ordinary mode of some that pretend to more than ordinary piety, to place all religion in the ear, that take up so much of their time in hearing that they have scarce leisure to practise. It is not lining the ears, nor tipping the tongue with religious discourses that will do the business. Neither preaching nor prayer of themselves will do. We must work as well as pray. A word must be said of the “ well wishers,” who rest upon their good intentions, and take it for a sufficient ground for them to hope well because they mean well. This harmless “ meaning well” is not enough to approve a man’ s spiritual state, or acquit his obligations. (Adam Littleton, D. D.) . Psalms 16:1-11 Psalms 16:1-11 Preserve me, O God: for in Thee do I put my trust.Faith in the presence of God This term suggests that the Psalm is one of strongly marked, incisive thought. It is a Psalm doubly notable--1. Because it contains one of the brightest and most unhesitating expressions of faith in the presence of God, as extending through and beyond death, and preserving the life both of soul and body. It therefore stands in marked contrast with the desponding doubts of such passages as Psalms 88:1-18 --basing itself on the conviction, which our Lord declared to underlie the whole covenant, that “ God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.” 2. Because it is quoted most explicitly in the New Testament as a Messianic prophecy, an inspired utterance, which was no doubt in some degree applied by the Psalmist to himself as having unity with God, and therefore defying death, but which could be in its full meaning spoken of the Messiah alone (Acts 2:25-31; Acts 13:35). For in Him alone was the, unity with God to be perfect--so that He should be at once “ the son of David,” and yet “ God with us” --therefore in Him alone was it impossible that humanity could be “ holden of death,” either in the “ prison” of Hades (1 Peter 3:19) or the “ corruption” of the grave. (Alfred Barry, D. D.) Jehovah, the believer’ s chief good This poem naturally falls into three strophes.1. The writer’ s utterances to God, and God’ s people of his supreme delight in Jehovah (Psalms 16:1-4). 2. The direct statement of the blessedness of such a lot (Psalms 16:5-8). 3. The assurance that it would prevail over death and the grave (Psalms 16:9-11). Cheyne says, the Psalmist assumes successively the tone of profession, of description, and of prophecy. I. The profession. In view of the fluctuations and uncertainties of the world, the writer invokes God’ s preserving care, for the reason that this is his habitual resort. He neither has nor wishes any other. But this absolute dependence on the Most High is very far from being servile or constrained. It is spontaneous and joyous. He knows no fountain of true happiness save Jehovah. The love of saints and the abhorrence of idolatrous apostates go together. II. The description (Psalms 16:5-8). Here is an emphatic statement of the fact that nothing earthly, visible, material is what satisfies the Psalmist, but only Jehovah Himself. It is the Giver, not His gifts, that meets his wants. The happiness of such a condition is insisted on. In David’ s eyes God is no abstraction, but a person real, living, walking by his side. Hence his abiding confidence. The whole utterance is one of strong triumphant faith. III. The prophecy (Psalms 16:9-11). Here the description of the present passes into a forecast of the future. Some of the terms are peculiar. “ Glory” probably means “ tongue.” “ Sheol” is the place of departed spirits. “ Corruption” may mean “ the pit.” The poet is taking a calm outlook upon death and the grave as they lie before every man in the natural course of events. Shall this be the end of his career? Nay, heart and flesh alike are safe. David will not be abandoned to the dismal shades, nor will his bodily frame perish irrecoverably. The Psalm as a whole is a remarkable exhibition of Old Testament piety. (Talbot W. Chambers, D. D.) A good hope The heading of this Psalm, and of Psa 56:1-13; Psalms 57:1-11; Psalms 58:1-11; Psalms 59:1-17; Psalms 60:1-12, Michtam, may mean “ Golden Psalm,” or “ Sculpture Psalm,” this latter term indicating a Psalm of strong incisive thought. The Psalm seems, “ by its tone of fresh, joyous confidence, to belong to the early part of David’ s career.” It may have been written when David was in the wilderness of Ziph (1 Samuel 26:19). The Psalm may be used to illustrate the following points:1. Only out of an experience of God’ s gracious dealings can a full trust in God be gained. David had known God from his early shepherd life. 2. The uncertainty of all things on which men rely; men change or fail; riches take wings; of many possessions we tire, but trust in God never disappoints. He is the one satisfying good. 3. Those who have God at all must have Him for all in all. No idols must draw us away. Self-seeking and world-seeking pleasures may be our idols. 4. Keeping close to God is security for this world, and for the world to come. Really right is right with God, and whoever is really right is right forever. The joy we have in God, neither time, nor change, nor death can end. The following subjects are treated: Soul joy in God. Soul joy in the godly. Soul fear of the ungodly. Soul confidence in the present. Soul purpose to maintain the godly life. Soul assurance that God will maintain loving relations with the godly forever. (Robert Tuck, B. A.) The good man’ s plea The Psalmist entreats Divine protection, rejoices in his religious privileges, and expresses unbounded confidence in God. I. A good man’ s cry for divine protection. Whether his peril arose from the idolatrous heathen or from domestic enemies, we cannot say; but it was sufficiently urgent to drive him to God for shelter. Is not this one of the chief uses of earthly trials? II. A good man’ s arguments for a divine response.1. He pleads his faith in God. 2. He pleads his own moral value (Psalms 16:4-6). A holy exultation now thrills the Psalmist’ s heart. There are two sources of his joy.1. The sight of the misery of idolaters. 2. The contemplation of his own blessedness. The figurative language of Psa 16:6 is derived from the division of the land of Canaan amidst the tribes of Israel. Precious truths underlie it. (1) The nature of his inheritance.(2) The certainty of his inheritance.(3) The pleasantness of his inheritance. (Robert Rollocks.) The Divine preservation The Psalmist will be “ preserved” ; he will not only be created. There is a cold deism which says, “ Having been created, that is enough; the rest belongs to myself; I must attend to the details of life; creation may have been a Divine act, but all education, culture, “ progress, preservation must fall under my own personal care.” The Psalmist begins in another tone. He opens his Psalm with the great word “ preserve” --equal to, Attend to all my cares and wants; pity my feebleness; take hold of my right hand, and of my left hand, and be round about me, and never leave me for one moment to myself. That is true worship. Only a sense of the Divine nearness of that kind can adequately sustain a noble and growing religion. We need a daily prayer; we die for want of daily food; every morning must be a revelation in light, every night must be a revelation in rest. This is not a selfish preservation, a preservation from evil, or danger, or suffering only, but the kind of preservation that is necessary to growth. Who has not seen the guards round the trees, especially the little trees, the young growths, so that they may have a chance of taking hold of the earth, and lifting themselves up to the sun, and bringing out of themselves all the secret of the Divine purpose in their creation? A selfish preservation would be an impious desire, but the preservation being asked for as an opportunity of growth is a preservation for which the noblest souls may daily pray. It is, then, not enough to have been created; even that Divine act becomes deteriorated and spoiled, impoverished, utterly depleted of all ennobling purpose and inspiration, unless it be followed by continual husbandry or shepherdliness, nursing or culture--for the figure admits of every variety of change; the end being growth, strength, fruitfulness. (Joseph Parker, D. D.) The portrait of a God-trusting soul Such soul is represented in two aspects. I. His experience under the influence of the present. He has--1. A profound consciousness of his dependence for safety and for good. “ My goodness extendeth not to Thee.” That is, my happiness is not independent of Thee. 2. A delight in the fellowship of the good. “ The saints, the excellent, in whom is all my delight.” 3. An abhorrence of the practices of the wicked. “ Their drink offering of blood will I not offer.” 4. An exultation in the Lord as his portion. 5. A high satisfaction with providential arrangements. “ The lines have fallen to me,” etc. II. In reference to the future. He is--1. Thankful. “ I will bless the Lord.” 2. Thoughtful. “ My reins also,” etc. 3. Calm. “ I shall not be moved.” 4. Happy. “ My heart is glad.” 5. Trustful. “ My flesh also shall rest in hope” -- (i) Of restoration to life. “ Thou wilt not leave,” etc. (ii) Of happiness. “ The path of life.” (iii) Of fulness of joy in God’ s presence. (D. Thomas, D. D.) The plea of our trustfulness The first thing David does is to commend himself to the protection of God, as the God in whom he had placed his confidence. This is what all of us will do who are living under the influence of vital and experimental religion. If we be among the number of His people, we may confide in Him with our whole heart, for every communication of His grace, and for every exercise of His power, which our varied circumstances may require. This trust we will constantly repose in God, because He is constantly deserving of it, and because it is constantly demanded for our personal comfort and stability. It will be especially active and vigorous when we are exposed to those peculiar difficulties and dangers by which every Christian is beset in the course of his pilgrimage. We may not rest satisfied with a mere consciousness of unlimited reliance on God; we may give it free expression in the language of devout and fervent supplication. We have found in God an all-sufficient refuge. This Psalm intimates that he had taken the Lord to be his Lord; and it is impossible for any of us, who are acquainted with our duty and our interest, to make a better or a different choice. He is entitled to the supremacy over us in every respect in which that supremacy can be either exercised by Him or acknowledged by us. It is not only our duty, it is also our interest, to take the Lord for our Lord. In this dedication of ourselves to God it is necessary that the heart be really and chiefly concerned. It is the soul that must say to Him, “ Thou art my Lord” Aware of our aptness to forget what we have resolved and promised in reference to God, we must frequently remind our souls, as it were, of the ties by which they are voluntarily and solemnly bound to Him, and of the consequent obligations which they have to fulfil. We are not our own, but His. We cannot be too careful to prevent this impression from being impaired Another evil is to be guarded against the Pharisaical idea is apt to steal upon us, that we have something to boast of, that our labours may be beneficial to Him to whom they are rendered, and that on account of these we are entitled to His favour and protection. There cannot be a greater or more pernicious mistake. While our goodness extendeth not to God, so as that it can be useful to Him or meritorious in His sight, the Psalmist says, “ It extendeth to the saints that are in the earth.” There are saints in the earth. But their holiness has much imperfection mixed with it, and comes far short of what the Divine law requires of them. It exists in their principles, in their desires, in their endeavours, and in their actual acquirements. Being thus “ saints,” they are “ excellent.” God is the standard of excellence, and they are like God. The Psalmist not only asserts the excellence of the saints, but declares that in them was “ all his delight.” And such will be the case with us if our minds are actuated and governed by right sentiments. We shall delight in God as the centre of all perfection, and as the fountain of all good. We shall delight in such of His creatures as are entitled to our complacency from the resemblance which they bear to Him. It is to the saints, who are thus excellent, and in whom we take delight, that our goodness extends; we do them good according to our ability. Between them and us there is a spiritual and intimate relationship. And we are especially careful to let our goodness extend to them when they are suffering persecution on account of their marked separation from the world, and their faithful adherence to the cause of truth and duty. (A. Thomson, D. D.) Psalms 16:2O my soul, thou hast said unto the Lord, Thou art my Lord. Dedication to God The Host High is a God of truth and faithfulness. The text alludes to David’ s dedication of himself to God, and implies that he had done so deliberately and sincerely.1. Apply the words for admonition. Remember that it were better not to vow than, after having vowed, not to pay. A dedication is one of the best preservatives against temptation and sin. 2. Apply for instruction. They teach us what David thought of God. They teach that his dedication was deliberate and sincere. 3. Apply for comfort and encouragement. If you have thus dedicated yourself, then to you the promises and consolations of the Gospel belong. Reflections by way of improvement-- (1) Abide in Christ.(2) Do much for Him to whom you owe so much.(3) Be assured that God will do much for you. (John Ramsay, M. A.) The advantages of a Christian reviewing his dedication to God I wish I could have heard what you said to yourselves when I read these words. I could guess the language of some of you. You thought, “ I never said anything to the Lord, except it was--Depart from me.” Others of you, perhaps, said, “ I believe that I did once say so to the Lord, but it was so lung ago that I had forgotten it. It must have been when I was in trouble. But I cannot say it now.” Others said, “ Yes, I have said that, and often, and I am glad to say it again.” Good men are excellent company for themselves, for they can converse with their souls. David is doing so here. He is telling of his dedication to God, and reviewing what he then said. Now this is a good thing to do. I. It is useful in the hour of temptation. It will not prevent, necessarily, the assaults of sin, nor our being overcome by them. The eleven disciples forsook Christ, though they had solemnly engaged not to do so. But it is a help against such temptations to be often reviewing our vows to God. It arms us against sin. II. As a bond of diligence and consistency in duty. Many also would stand back from wilful sins and grosser vices, yet grow remiss in their duty and become less circumspect, Now against this it is well to preserve a remembrance of our covenant engagements. III. To afford great relief in distress. The believer may be subject to great spiritual distress. The light of God’ s countenance may be withheld, and grace be very feeble. Then such communion with our own souls and with the Lord, as is indicated here, does help us much. Tell Him how we desire to stand to our engagements, and to be His forever. So our hearts will brighten even in the midst of flowing tears. IV. As a support and encouragement in the immediate prospect of death. Nothing, then, but what is real and substantial will serve. Death is rapidly approaching. “ So let it,” cries the devoted servant of God; “ the sooner it comes the better. The God whom I have served is able to deliver me; and He will deliver me from thy sting, O death, and from all the power of the grave. Many years ago I said to the Lord, Thou art my Lord, and He honoured me with a place among His servants; and now I feel Thee, blessed Savour, to be the strength of my heart; and I depend upon Thee as my portion forever. Into Thine hand I commit my spirit; for Thou hast redeemed me, O Lord God of truth.” Well, then, do you not think that happy is the people whose God is the Lord? But I want more than your approval. I want to know if you have said to the Lord, “ Thou art my Lord.” Let me ask--1. Have you ever felt the misery of being without God? 2. Have you ever given time for serious thought on this question? How solemn is your condition who live all your days in a hurry of business or thoughtless dissipation! But you who have taken the Lord to be your God, I would say to you: Cleave to God with purpose of heart. This is the bond of the servants of the Lord. “ I, such an one, whose name is hereunto subscribed, do hereby renounce all other masters which have had dominion over me, and bind myself to the Lord, to serve Him in holiness and righteousness all the days of my life: So help me God.” And do much for Him. Also expect much from Him; you shall not be disappointed. And finally, you shall receive a crown of life. None ever served God for nought. (S. Lavington.) A sacramental meditation I. Before partaking. It was David’ s wont, when in distress and ready to doubt whether he had really dedicated himself to God, to remind himself of the solemn transactions which had passed between him and God.1. Let us consider the meaning and import of these words. He acknowledges God’ s property in him, and claim upon him. And that he desires to be the Lord’ s; that he prefers God to all else. He had chosen and acknowledged God as his God. And now, in distress, he repeats all this. 2. Let us remember what professions we have made. It is reasonable that we should; for we are in danger of forgetting. The world wears out the memory of them; and our afflictions tempt us to doubt that Jehovah is our Lord. Therefore it is good to renew our covenant. And it will help us to be more sensible of our duty, and will animate us under every suffering. And as we thus renew our vows we shall see such excellence in them as will engage us to fulfil them with diligence. 3. And there is no more fit time for this than at the Lord’ s table. We commemorate the everlasting covenant. We profess our faith in Christ’ s sacrifice. By His blood, which the wine represents, we are brought nigh to God and admitted into endearing relation to Him. Therefore let us, etc. II. After partaking. Let us take review of what we have done, and each adopt the language of David, “ O my soul,” etc. This means, “ I entirely approve, and give thanks for being inclined to say this.” And acknowledge past unworthy behaviour. Failure in love to Him, and in faithfulness. But “ I desire that I may not again neglect my duty, that I may not yield to temptation, nor follow the world too eagerly, nor say to it what I had said to the Lord.” Are we in affliction? That is a time to repeat the acknowledgment. “ Thou hast said to the Lord, Thou art my Lord: in Thee I have all things. Thou canst and wilt support and comfort me; make up my earthly losses, and teach me to glory in tribulation.” Finally, do we feel the sentence of death in ourselves? There is no time more proper to repeat the acknowledgment, “ Thou hast said unto the Lord, Thou art my Lord; my God, whom I have sincerely loved and served; to whom I have often committed my soul through Christ; and I would do it again with gratitude, hope and joy, when flesh and heart are failing.” Let us thus, in every circumstance of life and death, remember our covenant transactions. If you have sincerely said, and are saying to the Lord, “ Thou art my Lord,” let this be your comfort, that “ He hath said, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.” (J. Orton.) Psalms 16:3 All my delight is upon the saints that are in the earth, and upon such as excel in virtue (P..V.). Divine love for the saints of God On All Saints’ Day our mind seems almost to sink beneath the great and holy thoughts which come crowding in upon it, when we think of that vast multitude which no man can number, of all ages, of all nations, of all ranks of life, of all mental and bodily endowments, who, having come out of great tribulation, now rejoice in the presence of Him whom on earth they loved. The Church today is proclaiming the truth of the words of our text. But it is not the Church alone, our Lord Himself shares in this delight. He beholds the beautiful things that He has made; but the King of the heavenly Jerusalem has fairer prospects than these. There is something on earth which He sees and values. The saints for the most part live a hidden life; the world despises their aims, perhaps laughs at their frailties. They pass away, and their names are forgotten, or live only in the memory of the Church, but the Lord makes them the sum and centre of His care and love. He greatly rejoices in the work of His grace, as it displays itself in His elect. Their shortest prayer, their slightest act of self-denial He notices. He gathers them, one by one, out of the ruined mass of humanity, to be jewels in His heavenly diadem. (S. W. Skeffington, M. A.) The saint’ s ministry to his brethren God’ s goodness should make us merciful to others. It were strange indeed a soul should come out of His tender bosom with a hard uncharitable heart. Some children do not, indeed, take after their earthly parents, as Cicero’ s son, who had nothing of his father but his name; but God’ s children all partake of their heavenly Father’ s nature. Philosophy tells us that there is no reaction from the earth to the heavens; they, indeed, shed their influences upon the lower world, which quicken and fructify it, but the earth returns none back to make the sun shine the better. David knew that his goodness extended not unto God, but this made him reach it forth to his brethren. Indeed, God has left His poor saints to receive the rents we owe unto Him for His mercies. An ingenuous guest, though his friend will take nothing for his entertainment, yet, to show his thankfulness, will give something to his servants. (William Gurnall.) Moral distinctions Is this an arbitrary and invidious distinction? We read of the “ saints,” and the “ excellent.” Are there, then, some people who are not saints, and some saints who are not excellent? The Bible does not create distinctions. If there were no Bible the earth would still be distributed into qualities, orders, classes, and the like. The Bible proceeds to a finer discrimination. It analyses honesty, it puts wisdom to the test, it searches into the credentials of faithfulness. The Bible asks, What is the motive underlying character? By “ saints” understand separated men. The word “ saint” is simply a moral or spiritual distinction. It involves more than is commonly understood by an honest man, or a good man, or a well-living man. It indicates of necessity a connection with the ineffably holy, the perfect, the Divine. It means, at least, an inspiration eternal, rising towards the eternity inaccessible--that is, the supreme life--that is, the life Divine. The terms “ saints,” “ excellent” are of a universal quality. The reference is to character, not to opinion, nor to varied ways of looking at things which cannot be positively settled. The Psalmist dwells upon the eternal quantity--character, holiness, excellence, pureness; these speak all languages, assume the hues of all climes, and under manifold outward diversity conceal an agreement subtle and indefinable as life itself. (Joseph Parker, D. D.) The saints of God Since the seventh century the first day of November has always been dedicated to the memory of All Saints. Such a day suggests thoughts as solemn and as needful as any which could be presented to us. We watch the procession of mankind as it winds through the long centuries of history, and we note its most striking figures. The vast mass consists of a nameless throng. To our eyes mankind is mainly divided into the eminent and the obscure, the known and the unknown. But to the eye of God, to the eyes of all spirits, it may be, the aspect of that procession is very different. To them the inch-high differences of human rank have simply no existence; for them the thistles of human loftiness have no elevation, and the paltry mole hills cast no shadow. For they know but one distinction, that of the evil and the good. We can see, on the whole, that some men have dared to be eminently good, and that others have been conspicuously, infamously bad. With unspeakable relief we turn from them to the saints of God. “ In them is the healing of the world.” Do not think of the mere title “ saints” ; it has been given to some, at least, who have no claim to it, and it has been denied to many more who have been consummately worthy of it. On All Souls’ Day we may think not only of those whom the Church has called saints, but also of the long line of heroes of the faith in olden times who are not called saints--of the patriarchs, of Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Moses, and many more; of brave judges, glorious prophets, patriot warriors, toiling apostles; of the many martyrs who would rather die than live; of hermits who fled from the guilt and turmoil of life; of the missionaries, Paul, Columba, Benedict, Xavier, Schwartz, and a long roll call of others. Of reformers, of wise rulers, of the writers of holy and who walk with Him in white, for they are worthy. If we would comfort our hearts, strengthen good resolutions, and retain that high estimate of human nature which it is such a misfortune to lose, and which so often threatens to succumb, let us in days like these make ourselves acquainted with Christian history and biography as the antidote to the degeneracy of these worldly and evil days. From earth’ s mire and darkness lift up your eyes to this galaxy of great examples. We need something to keep alive our faith in the dignity of man. I, for one, find that something, most of all, in dwelling in the life and sufferings of Christ, and next, in considering the blessed example of those who have followed Him, each bearing his own cross. They will help us by furnishing gleaming instances of pure and possible human goodness; they show us how, by true faith in Christ, men just as weak as we are, tempted as we are, yet did gloriously and conspicuously triumph over sin, the world, the flesh, and the devil, and thereby proved to us that we can do the same. See how the universal idol, selfishness, has been gloriously overcome. Pride, too, has been subdued. St. Thomas, of Aquino, was by far the greatest man of his age. One day at Bologna, a stranger arriving at his monastery asked the prior for someone to help him to get provisions and carry his basket. “ Tell the first brother you meet,” said the prior. St. Thomas was walking in meditation in the cloister, and, not knowing him by sight, the stranger said to him, “ Your prior bids you to follow me.” Without a word the greatest teacher of his age, the “ Doctor Angelicus” --the angel of the schools, as he was called by the affection of his admirers--bowed his head, took the basket, and followed. But he was suffering from lameness, and since he was unable to keep up with the pace, the stranger rebuked him soundly as a lazy, good-for-nothing fellow, who ought to show more zeal in religious obedience. The saint meekly bore the unjust reproaches, and answered never a word. “ Do you know to whom you are speaking, who you are treating in this rude way?” said the indignant citizens of Bologna, who had witnessed the scene. “ That is Brother Thomas, of Aquino.” “ Brother Thomas, of Aquino?” said the stranger, and, immediately throwing., himself upon his knees, he begged to be forgiven. “ Nay,” said St. Thomas, “ it is I who should ask forgiveness, since I have not been so active as I should have been.” And this humility, so rare in little men, was the chief characteristic of this great man. From that disciplined and noble spirit of the first man of his age all pride had been expelled. “ Give me, O Lord,” --this was his daily prayer,--“ a noble heart which no earthly affection may drag down.” What more would we have if, even through so deep a valley of humiliation, there still lies the path to heaven? You see a life spent in brushing clothes, and washing crockery, and sweeping floors, a life which the proud of the earth would have regarded as the very dust beneath their feet, a life spent at a clerk’ s desk, a life spent at a tradesman’ s counter, a life spent in a labourer’ s hut, may yet be so ennobled by God’ s mercy that for the sake of it a king may gladly yield his crown. Thank God there have been and are tens of thousands of holy and faithful, and therefore happy, souls, full of inward peace. Will you be one of their number? (Dean Farrar.) In whom is all my delight. The moral force in the world of God’ s elect The history of mankind, whether secular or religious, resolves itself ultimately into the history of a few individuals. For though the masses live, yet it is these few who determine the direction and shape the spirit of the age. The rest die and are forgotten; one epitaph would do for them all, except for two or three out of the million. Another fact, and a sadder one, is that the human race seems to tend downwards. The old Greek proverb says, and truly, “ the majority are evil.” The few only are saints, the few only are heroes. There is bitter truth in David’ s saying, “ All men are liars” ; and in Carlyle’ s, that “ the world is peopled by a thousand millions, mostly fools” How dreadful then would the condition of the world be were it not for God’ s elect few. The deliverance of man has never been wrought by the multitude, but by the individual. See this illustrated in poetry, in philosophy, in art, in science; the leaders are a few, all the rest follow. But art and the rest will not alone save a people. History shows how along with them nations have sunk into the abyss of degradation. So will England, so will every nation, if she refuse the message of God. Of what use would the spangles of art and science be upon the funeral pall of the dying race if death were the end of all? The hope of the world lies in the recognition of, and in obedience to, the Word of God as uttered by His special messengers; and by so listening as to reflect in myriads of gleams, and to reverberate in millions of echoes, the light and the voice of inspiration. In illustration of all this glance at the moral history of the world. What drear darkness in the main prevailed from Adam to Abraham, that great hero of the faith. After him darkness again until Moses. After him till Samuel and the prophetic order. After them till Christ and the apostles. After Him and them the world gradually grew worse; Christianity itself became corrupted till St. Anthony, forsaking all, made his home in the lonely desert, to convince his generation of the infinite value of every human soul. And from his day, now and again, great saints were inspired of God from time to time,--such as Benedict I, Gregory VII, Francis of Assisi, until in the midst of another dark period the lion-hearted Luther shook the world. It is by such men the world has been kept from moral death; such seems to be the method of God’ s working. Now let us note some of the lessons of this Divine method. I. What is the secret, the sole secret of moral power? Who that reads the signs of these times can fail to see how much this age needs that secret? What was it that again and again overcame the world? Was it not faith showing itself by self-sacrifice? See it in Abraham, Moses, Samuel, and all else. II. That the work of these saints is never permanent. There is infinite pathos in the failures of men and of institutions. Their work has perpetually to be renewed. Abraham died, and ere a century had elapsed his children were slaves. And so with all the rest. III. Apparent failures were never absolute failures. No good man ever lives in vain. Each saint has his own Calvary. St. Telemachus was butchered in the arena, but because of his death an end was put to gladiatorial games. What a candle did Latimer and Ridley light in England through their martyrdom, and its light glows still. Then let man think, however discouraged he may be at the moral aspect of men, that a holy Christian life can never be in vain. (Dean Farrar.) Psalms 16:4 Their sorrows shall be multiplied that hasten after another God.The sorrows of idolaters There is no other fact more incontrovertibly established than the fact that idolatry of every sort is a system of sorrows. Forsaking the one living and true God to serve other gods has written the scroll of human history, within and without, with mourning and lamentation and woe. The command, “ Thou shalt have no other gods, but Me,” is a command grounded in the nature of things, and the necessities of the human soul. The human soul cannot have any other god without piercing itself through with many sorrows. The moment it adopts, as the object of its supreme love and adoration, any other being than the Lord God it begins to degenerate. The result is the same degeneracy where the attempt is made even to blend with the worship of the true God the worship of other beings. Saint worship has proved as disastrous to human progress as the worship of pagan gods and heroes. Italy has been as sadly degraded by papal as it ever was by pagan Rome. Jupiter, and Venus, and Bacchus, and Mars have only been displaced by saints as little entitled to our respect. It is only as the soul chooses for its worship an object of supreme excellence that it rises in the scale of moral and intellectual dignity. Such an object David’ s soul had chosen as the God of its worship: “ Their drink offerings of blood will I not offer, nor take up their names into my lips.” Drink offerings of wine were offered by the Israelites; but all such offerings of blood were forbidden them (Leviticus 17:9-14). The heathen, however, in their worship, both drank and offered blood. It will be recollected by the reader of history that Catiline pledged his accomplices in a goblet of blood, binding them by fearful oaths to the performance of fearful deeds, previous to explaining to them his plan for the massacre of the Roman senate and people. Hannibal, too, is said to have made a blood-drinking vow. We have read also of a tyrant who, piercing his enemies with hot irons, and gathering the blood in a cup as it flowed, drank one half of it, and offered up the other half to his god. These illustrations go to prove that worshipping other gods than the true God degrades men more and more, until the words “ brute” and “ fiend” are the only words that accurately describe him. (David Caldwell, A. M.) The misery of idolatry The Psalmist here introduces the subject of idolatry, and forms respecting it a worthy and decided resolution. He speaks of the misery of such as attach themselves to the worship and service of false gods. Not only shall they be subjected to calamity, but their calamities shall be manifold. This arises from two causes. The gods in whom they have placed their confidence are mere imaginary beings. And by forsaking the true God they have forfeited all the advantages which trust in Him and obedience to Him would have certainly produced. On account of the sinfulness and misery of such conduct the Psalmist determined that he should not be chargeable with it. True, we are not in danger of becoming idolaters in the literal and original sense of the word. But the substance of the crime is contained in your feeling and showing a stronger attachment to some other being than to the Supreme Being. It is of no consequence what it is to which you thus pay the homage and give the glory which are due to God alone. Idolatry is to serve the creature more than the Creator. Beware of the guilt of idolatry, and of the vengeance which impends over those who indulge in it. The Psalmist goes on to say, “ The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance.” This refers both to the future life and to the present, “ the life that now is.” In all that happens to us we will recognise the operation of His combined mercy and wisdom and faithfulness. Then our “ lines will have fallen in pleasant places.” But our principal concern is with our spiritual circumstances. (A. Thomson, D. D.) Psalms 16:5-6 The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup. Man’ s true treasure in God I. All true religion consists in deliberately choosing God as my supreme good. Now, how do we possess God? We possess things in one fashion and persons in another. The lowest and most imperfect form of possession is that by which a man simply keeps other people off material good, and asserts the right of disposal of it as he thinks proper. A blind man may have the finest picture that ever was painted; he may call it his, that is to say, nobody else can sell it, but what good is it to him? A lunatic may own a library as big as a Bodleian, but what use is it to him? Does the man that draws the rents of a mountain side, or the poet or painter to whom its cliffs and heather speak far-reaching thoughts, most truly possess it? The highest form of possession, even of creatures, is when they minister to our thought, to our emotion, to our moral and intellectual growth. We possess even things, really, according as we know them and hold communion with them. And when we get up into the region of persons we possess people in the measure in which we understand them, and sympathise with them, and love them. A man that gets the thoughts of a great teacher into his mind, and has his whole being saturated by them, may be said to have made the teacher his own. A friend or a lover owns the heart that he or she loves, and which loves back again; and not otherwise do we possess God. And the ownership must be, from its very nature, reciprocal. And so we read in the Bible, with equal frequency: the Lord is the “ inheritance of His people, and the people are the inheritance of the Lord.” He possesses me, and I possess Him, with reverence be it spoken, by the very same tenure, for whoso loves God has Him, and whom He loves He owns. We have God for ours in the measure in which our minds are actively occupied with thoughts of Him. We know Him. There is a real, adequate knowledge of Him in Jesus Christ; we know God, His character, His heart, His relations to us, His thoughts of good concerning us sufficiently for all intellectual and for all practical purposes. I wish to ask you a plain question. Do you ever think about Him? There is only one way of getting God for yours, and that is by the road of bringing Him into your life by frequent meditation upon His sweetness, and upon the truths that you know about Him. There is no other way by which a spirit can possess a spirit that is not cognisable by sense, except only by the way of thinking about Him to begin with. All else follows that. That is how you hold your dear ones when they go to the other side of the world. II. This possession is made as sure as God can make it. “ Thou maintainest my lot.” The land, the partition of which amongst the tribes lies at the bottom of the illusive metaphor of my text, was given to them under the sanction of a supernatural defence; and the law of their continuance in it was that they should trust and serve the unseen King. It Was He, according to the theocratic theory of the Old Testament, and not chariots and horses, their own arm and their own sword, that kept them safe, though the enemies on the north and the enemies on the south were big enough to swallow up the little kingdom at a mouthful. And so, says the Psalmist allusively, in a similar manner the Divine Power surrounds the man who takes God for his heritage, and nothing shall take that heritage from him. The lower forms of possession, by which men are called the owners of material possessions, are imperfect, because they are all precarious and temporary. Nothing really belongs to a man if it can be taken from him. What we may lose we can scarcely be said to have. They are mine, they were yours, they will be somebody’ s else tomorrow. Whilst we have them we do not have them in any deep sense; we cannot retain them, they are not really ours at all. The only thing that is worth calling mine is something that so passes into and saturates the very substance of my soul, that, like a piece of cloth dyed in the grain, as long as two threads hold together the tint will be there. That is how God gives us Himself, and nothing can take that out of a man’ s soul. He, in the sweetness of His grace, bestows Himself upon man, and guards His own gift, which is Himself, in the heart. He who dwells in God and God in him lives as in the inmost keep and citadel. The noise of battle may rage around the walls, but deep silence and peace are within. The storm may rage round the coasts, but he who has God for his portion dwells in a quiet inland valley where the tempests never come. No outer changes can touch our possession of God. They belong to another region altogether. Other goods may go, but this is held by different tenure. Root yourselves in God, making Him your truest treasure, and nothing can rob you of your wealth. We here in this commercial community see plenty of examples of great fortunes and great businesses melting away like yesterday’ s snow. Then, too, there is the other thought. He will help us so that no temptations shall have power to make us rob ourselves of our treasure. None can take it from us but ourselves, but we are so weak and surrounded by temptations so strong that we need Him to aid us if we are not to be beguiled by our own treacherous hearts into parting with our treasure. A handful of feeble Jews were nothing against the gigantic might of Assyria, or against the compacted strength of civilised Egypt, but there they stood, on their rocky mountains, defended not by their own strength but by the might of a present God. And so, unfit to cope with the temptations that are round about us as we are, if we cast ourselves upon His power and make Him our supreme delight, nothing shall be able to rob us of that possession and that sweetness. III. He who thus elects to find his treasure and delight in God is satisfied with his choice. “ The lines” --the measuring cords by which the estate was parted off and determined--“ the lines are fallen,” because they would be thrown, “ in pleasant places; yea!” not as our Bible has it, merely, “ I have a goodly heritage,” putting emphasis on the fact of possession, but “ the heritage is goodly to me,” putting emphasis on the fact of subjective satisfaction with the inheritance that he is to receive. No man that makes the worse choice of earth instead of God ever, in the retrospect, said, “ I have a goodly heritage.” One of the later Roman emperors, who was one of the best of them, said, when he was dying, “ I have been everything, and it profits me nothing.” No creature can satisfy your whole nature. Portions of it may be fed with their appropriate satisfaction, but as long as we feed on the things of earth there will always be part of our nature, like an unfed tiger in a menagerie, growling and grumbling for its prey, whilst its fellows are satisfied for the moment. No man that takes the world for his portion ever said, “ The lines are fallen to me in pleasant places.” For the make of your soul as plainly cries out “ God!” as a fish’ s fins declare that the sea is its element, or a bird’ s wings mark it out as meant to soar. Man and God fit each other like the two halves of a tally. You will never get rest nor satisfaction, and you will never be able to look to the past with thankfulness, nor into the present with repose, nor into the future with hope, unless you can say, “ God is the strength of my heart, and my portion forever.” But oh! if you do, then you have a goodly heritage, a heritage of quiet repose, a heritage of still satisfaction, a heritage which suits, and gratifies, and expands all the powers of a man’ s nature, and makes him ever capable of larger and larger possessions, of a God who ever gives more than we can receive, that the overplus may draw us to further desire, and the further desire may more fully be satisfied. The one true, pure, abiding joy is to hold fellowship with God and to live in His love. The secret of all our unrest is the going out of our desires after earthly things. They fly forth from our hearts like Noah’ s dove, and nowhere amid all the weltering flood can find a resting place. The secret of satisfied repose is to set our affections thoroughly on God. Then our wearied hearts, like Noah’ s dove, will fold their wings and build, and nestle fast by the throne of God. “ All the happiness of this life,” said William Law, “ is but trying to quench thirst out of golden empty cups.” But if we will take the Lord for the “ portion of our cup” we shall never thirst. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) The Lord the portion of His people There are two things intimately connected with each other, and bearing much upon ourselves, which can neither be expressed nor conceived--the extent of human misery, and the depth of human sin. But our text calls us not to measure the extent of human misery, so much as to look at the mercy of God to all them who fear Him; not to let down line and plummet into the abyss of human depravity, but to look upon an exhaustless spring of consolation-the river that maketh glad the city of God, and of which we may drink forever. We have not to listen to the self-upbraidings of those who have chosen wrong; but to describe the happy condition of those who have chosen right. We fearlessly assert that they only are happy who can say, “ The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance,” etc. I. The character here described.1. To such a man God is recognised in His real character, sovereign and supreme, the Source of all that is enjoyed here or expected hereafter. Here is the difference between those who serve the Lord and those who serve Him not. There is nothing of good in this world which is not open to the believer as much as to anyone else; all instruments and appliances of happiness are bestowed on him as well as on them. But besides all this he can say, “ The Lord is the portion,” etc. How wretched they who have only this world. 2, But is God your portion? that is the great question. Do you know of any sinking into the grave without God, who have turned away from opportunities which will never return? Think of them, and resolve never to be as they. II. The distinctive feature of the blessing,--perpetuity. The “ lot” of the believer is to be “ maintained,” no matter how terrible and distressing his circumstances may be. And it is so, But this cannot be said of any worldly lot. Solomon had the world’ s best, yet his heart took no rest. “ Vanity and vexation of spirit” is his verdict upon it all. But the wisdom and the power of God uphold the “ lot” in which the believer rejoices. And this is not all a matter of opinion and faith. For the life of the godless will not bear reflection. Hence they hate solitude. But the believer when alone can say, “ I am not alone, for the Father is with me.” And death has lost its sting, and the future brings no fear, for he knows that God will ever maintain his “ lot.” (T. Dale, M. A.) How to use God When the soul of man is born at the Cross foot it is born into the inheritance of God; but no soul of man in that first moment of rapture realises all its inheritance, or comprehends what is meant by that gift. But as the years go on, amid the varied teaching of the Holy Spirit and the strain of daily life, the soul begins to press its fence work out and more and more to see God, until in hoary hairs the aged saint, upon the very brink of the other world, is able to feel that though he had all of God in the first moment of his conversion, he never knew ]low much God could be as when the vision of the other world is breaking upon his sight. I want to speak upon how the whole of God is yours, and to teach you how to use God, how to raise harvests from God’ s nature for your daily wants, how to find in God the harvests and the vintage and the ore, the jewels, the gold, and all the buried treasures of His nature, and how to take these things which are yours by right, and to make them living, permanent, and blessed realities in your daily experience and life.1. God is the true portion of the soul. The inheritance is ours by gift. The sun gives itself to the flower to nourish it, and paint it, and feed it; and so the great God, in all the extent of His infinite nature, gives Himself to every soul of man, to become his portion, his inheritance. He gives Himself, but the gift is through birth. When you are regenerate, when you are born again, by the very fact of that supernatural act which has been wrought within your soul you become an heir of God and a joint heir with His Son. But it is not only yours by gift and by birth, it is yours through Christ. And it is by the Holy Ghost. Notice how goodly a heritage it is. Because it is so perfectly adapted to us. Have you ever thought of the perfect adaptation of this earth to man? The macrocosm tallies with the microcosm, the outward with the inward. As the whole nature of man is fitted to the world where God has put him, so is the spirit of man fitted for God, and God for it. Even if there were no revelation of God, by a study of the yearnings of the heart of man, as the heart cries for God, you might formulate the essential features of the being of God: there is such a perfect adaptation between nature and the external world, and there is such a perfect adaptation between the soul and God. It is a goodly portion, because it satisfies us. The unrest of life comes in because you let your desires wander hither and thither like bees over a flower garden. If you would only let God be your portion you would find that rest would hush your soul, and the peace that passeth understanding would settle down upon your life. And it is inexhaustible. There shall never come a time when you and I shall have reached the limit of the fulness of God. And it is secure. The soul that has made God its portion can look upon the unrest of the political world, the strife of man about money, the shattering of colossal fortunes, and the breaking up of great societies secure, because it has found its pasture land, its harvest, its vintage, its ore, in God’ s nature, friendship, and presence. 2. How to use it-- (1) Choose it.(2) Put away out of your life everything that interferes with your enjoyment of God.(3) Meditate on God.(4) Appropriate Him. (F. B. Meyer, B. A.) The Lord the believer’ s portion It was the speech of Paulinus, when his city was taken by the barbarians, “ Domine ne excrucier ob anrum et argentum,” --Lord, let me not be troubled for my silver and gold which I have lost, for Thou art all things. As Noah, when the whole world was overwhelmed with water, had a fair epitome of it in the ark, having all sorts of beasts and fowls there; so he that in a deluge hath God to be his God hath the original of all mercies. He that enjoyeth the ocean may rejoice though some drops are taken from him. (George Swinnock.) God the only happy portion. Some years ago an eminent English noblewoman was studying at our Bible Institute in Chicago. I remember the day she left us. She told these two incidents. She said, “ One day, over in the home country, I had a letter from a dear friend of mine, a lady, asking me to go at once and see her. I hurried to her home, and as I went up the elegant marble stairway, and saw the costly paintings which lined the walls, I said to myself, ‘ I wonder whether all this splendour and wealth make my friend happy.’ I did not have to wait long to find out. The lady came rushing into the room, dropped into a seat by my side, and told me the misery of her heart. All the honours, all the dignity of her position did not give her joy. A time after this I went to visit a blind woman. She lived in a very poor cottage. It was a rainy day, and the water was dripping through the thatch over her head and gathering in a little pool at her feet. As I went in there, and saw the poverty and the blind eyes, I was driven to turn to the woman and say, ‘ Maggie, are you not miserable?’ She turned those sightless eyes upon me, and said, ‘ What, lady,--I miserable! I, the child of a King, inheritor of the mansion He has gone to prepare for me--I miserable? No, lady; I am happy.’” Wealth had not brought joy to the one; a living faith had brought joy to the other in the midst of her poverty and misfortune. (R. A. Torrey, D. D.) Psalms 16:6 The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places.We ought to be content with providence You have so many accommodations on the road of life that nothing but ignorance and ingratitude can make you discontented. Consider the age of the world in which you live. What conveniences of life we have now. Consider the country which you inhabit. If you could see all other countries you would prefer this. Especially notice the civil liberty which we enjoy. Consider the religion of this country. You have the Scriptures in your own tongue. To people under affliction I would give four words of advice--1. Observe the false principle on which you have founded your discontent. You have laid it down as a principle, that you ought to be free from all trouble in this present life. This is a bold step. 2. Observe the sufferings of others, and compare conditions. 3. Note the benefits you derive from afflictions. 4. Consider afflictions in the light of preparations for glory. Christians, of all men, should be least prone to discontent. (Anon.) The inheritance of the people of God The allusion in the text is to the measuring of land by lines, and appropriating each part to the proper owners. It may be understood of the great salvation and large inheritance which the people of God have in Christ. I. The locality described.1. Pleasant places are rich and wealthy places.2. Places of security.3. Places of rest.4. Hiding places.5. Places of provision.6. High places. (Isaiah 58:14.) II. The nature of the vouchsafement. “ The lines.” The expression may remind us of the enclosures or spiritual blessings which we have in Christ.1. By lines may be meant the truths of the Gospel.2. The line of everlasting love.3. The line of redeeming grace.4. The line of justifying righteousness.5. The line of renewing grace. (T. B. Baker.) The heritage of the sailors What call we wish for in an heritage that is not to be found in God? Would we have large possessions? He is immensity. Would we have a sure estate? He is immutability. Would we have a term of long continuance? He is eternity itself. (W. Arrowsmith.) The happy lot of the godly We may put this acknowledgment into the month of--I. An indulged child of providence. There are many such; their cup runneth over. But let them remember their peril, which is that they should trust in uncertain riches, and make the creature a substitute for the Creator. The writer, some years ago, in a neighbouring city, received in the pulpit the following note, “ The prayers of this congregation are earnestly desired for a man who is prospering in his worldly concerns.” If he did this sincerely he did well, for such men need prayer. Yet these things are good in themselves, and show the bounty of God. What must that soul be who never owns, “ The lines are fallen,” etc. All cannot use this language, for all are not thus indulged. Yet more might and would did they but think how much brighter is their lot, though they murmur at it, than that of so many others. Let them look at this brighter side. II. An inhabitant on this favoured country. It is natural for men to love their native country though it be but a poor one. But our lot--how favoured. III. A Christian with regard to his spiritual condition. “ The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance.” God has made over Himself to His people with all He is and all He has--to pardon, to sanctify, to support, and to receive them to eternal glory. (William Jay.) Our goodly heritage I. The goodly land. The dominant expression of the Psalms is joy in God: entire trust, perfect hope, therefore abounding joy. There is something of childlike gladness in the songs of the Hebrew people mingled with the deep moans of life’ s sadness. Still, the joy is dominant; and it meant that deep down, under all man’ s sense of strain and struggle, there is an abiding belief in his heart that, through Christ, the order of things in the universe is good; that the world is good; that life is good; that the ways of the Lord are mercy and truth everywhere and always. Now, I want that we should make the language of the text our own, and so I would dwell on some of the more prominent features of the “ goodly heritage” which we all enjoy. And we shall speak of the goodly land. The goodly land in which God planted His people, the goodly land in which He has planted us. I. Palestine is the England of the east. I think it is Miss Martineau who says that nothing which she had seen about the world so reminded her of the rolling Yorkshire moors as the approach to Palestine by Hebron. God planted His people in a country singularly fair, glad, fertile, and homelike; where men could pass from under the shadow of the turn of nature, could lie in her lap and bask in her smile. Think of its physical condition (Deuteronomy 8:7-10; Deuteronomy 11:10-12). It was in strong contrast to the monotonous regions around, a land of rich variety, of marked feature and animation. There is this sympathy between man and nature. Egypt and Mesopotamia are sympathetic with despotism; their rich, fat plains, vast and monotonous, have possessed little to occupy the imagination. They nurtured great herds of men, but there was little for men to cling to, to cherish, to fight and die for. Egypt was a long monotonous tract where life was lavish, especially in its baser and uglier forms, in the rich soft alluvial mud. Melons, onions, garlic, fish in abundance, in over-abundance. Cats and crocodiles were promoted to the temples; while the people, like the Egyptian fellahs to this day--the men who made the Suez Canal--were the helpless herds of weary workmen who built the Pyramids for the Pharaohs, and were content to drag on a dull, dreary, hopeless existence. And with Mesopotamia it was much the same. But pass into Palestine and you have at once a new world. Moses speaks with contempt of the agriculture of Egypt, where the land was watered with the foot, “ as a garden of herbs.” The country, as it were, tilled itself. Not so Palestine. Like the Rhineland or Switzerland, it was a matter of constant care. To live in it, as compared with Egypt or Babylonia, was an education. “ Out of Egypt have I called My Son.” Palestine, not Egypt, was their goodly home. II. And then, our own land, England, the Canaan to which in the early morning twilight of Christendom God led His sons. Yea, we have a goodly heritage. It is a land that demands but repays toil, is full of beauty, of fair skies, with sweet fruits and strong herbs, and where all the products of the world are accessible. No doubt there is a dark side as well as a bright one. But marred as it is by sin, still, “ Behold, it is very good.” Seek by your prayers to draw it closer to Christ. III. The goodly fellowship. A goodly land can help us but little without goodly human fellowships to inhabit it. Here in England the human element has always been in full force. The nature of the people is strong, somewhat coarse in the grain perhaps, but, like the rude granite, capable of exquisite polish, and with a grandeur all its own into whatever form it may be wrought. And it has had a strong development. Are there anywhere stronger and deeper affections than there are in England? Love is that which binds, that seeketh not her own. Nowhere on earth has the battle of life been fought more sternly, with a result in individual character and energy which places us amongst the strongest and most masterful races of the world. And the fellowship of such a race has borne very rich and noble fruit. The men whom we have produced hold their own in comparison with any others, whether in the intellectual, political, or military world. When I number up my mercies I count it among the chief that I am born an Englishman. And God designed the ministry of human fellowship for the development of our nature (Genesis 3:14-19). It is all there, in all its sadness and in all its gladness, its blessings and its pain. Our life was meant, from the first, to be one of close association. That of the Jews was. It was, like ours, a rich, stirring, closely knit social and political life. They were shut up with and to each other during their best years. And so was it with our own people. Men like King David came out of the one; men like King Alfred came out of the other. God’ s idea of man’ s life is not that of the ascetic who flies into the lonely desert from all human associations, but that by their associations and activities his higher life is to be saved. The Jewish state was distinctly built on the family. The woman had honour there such as she has in Christian England at this day--nay, a deeper honour. At the root of all human relations lie self-control and self-denial; not self-assertion. But the whole education of a man under the influence of society is an education in self-control and self-denial. It begins early with the mother. And yet how the mother loves her burden of children’ s cares. And the father takes up the burden and denies himself for his children. The success of Scotch lads is largely owing to the lessons of self-denial which they have seen practised, and so have learnt in their own homes. They have seen how their parents sacrificed themselves for their children. And such spirit is the principle of order, growth, and true prosperity. “ I desire not this power,” said King Alfred of his kingship; “ but that I might leave behind me a memory of good works.” IV. Our goodly tasks. For these are by no means the least precious part of the goodly heritage. The fundamental part of man’ s being is not with things, but with beings; not with the creation, but with his fellow man and God. It is said that the totally blind are as a rule more serene and cheerful than the totally deaf. That means, that man belongs to his fellows by a closer and dearer bond than any which binds him to nature: he can better spare the vision of the whole universe than the voice of human sympathy and tenderness. So needful is human association and fellowship. But another ordinance of heaven for our good is our work. “ In the sweat of thy brow shalt thou eat bread.” It looks hard and stern, yet it is most benignant. Hard toil under a fatherly discipline is reforming, and so heaven established it as the condition of our sinful lives. The sentence from a father’ s lips made the wilderness a goodly heritage for the exiles from Eden. Nature became a monitress rather than a mistress, urging him to toil, rather than wooing him to rest and play. But, we say, the tasks are goodly tasks, and you are bound to praise the Lord for them. The popular philosophy of the day denies this, though not in this country, where we seem to take more kindly to toil than do those under more sunny skies. “ It is a hard world,” you say, “ a hard lot, a hard God.” The Bible answers, “ It is all ordained by a God who loves you and cares for you and who gave His Son to die for you. Of all the loving things which He has done for you, there is none more loving than this.” Consider--1. The necessity of toil, hard and constant. It is connected, like death, with sin (Genesis 3:17); teaches that the conditions of life are harder for us than the Creator designed for the man whom He made in His own image. The life of a pure and happy being is symbolised in Eden. We need not trouble about its historic verity: of its spiritual verity there is no doubt at all. But for sin there would be only labour, not toil,--the bitter element is born of transgression. 2. Note the fundamental principle of this ordinance of toil. It is to restore man to right relations to the things around him. Transgression had put him in a false relation, though the tempter told him it would be far otherwise: he would win all he could desire at once (Genesis 3:1-6). “ Ye shall be as gods.” The sentence of toil fell on man as a disenchantment. Sin had brought him into collision with the higher will, which orders the whole system of things, a collision which will bruise and crush him until he learns to obey. Hence toil is hard that we may learn this. And the ordinance has been effectual. They who have lived the life of toil have been ever those nearest the kingdom of heaven. V. The goodly discipline. It is the supreme exercise of faith to believe in its goodness, to accept it as a part of the heritage of benediction. It is hard to praise when the fibres of the soul are throbbing with anguish, and the heart reels under a pressure which it can no longer endure. Are there not nights too dark for even heaven to expect a song? And God is compassionate and gentle. But yet there is no depth Of misery out of which praise may not come. Read 2 Timothy 4:7-8; 2 Timothy 4:16-17. The gladdest songs have gone up from the profoundest depths. True joy springs from communion with those whom you most love, and that, no calamity can rid you off Christ’ s presence, and smile, and tender touch and tone, no glooms, no depths can obscure. Nay, the darkness but makes the presence more luminous, and charged with richer benediction. Much of the complaints of our spirits God interprets as compassionately as in the passionate outbursts of a child in pain. God looks at the heart, not at the maddened utterances which the torture of pain produces. There are passages of human experience which hardly come within the pale of that goodly heritage of discipline for which I bid you praise. You cannot sing in them. “ I was dumb because Thou didst it,” is the most that we can say. But not of these depths, but of the ordinary discipline of life, do I speak,--the fact that life is a discipline, that we have not only to toil but to suffer. It is a school of culture, not a home, a rest. It would be very terrible for sinful man if he could command the stones to be made bread--that is, if he could make things obey him instead of God. What a hell he would make out of life. But the pain of life throws a man’ s thought back on his sin, shows him that in all its forms it is armed with scourges to smite him, and that his flesh shall quiver and the thongs shall be stained with his blood, ere he shall live on in the dream that the way of transgressors is peace. So would God wean us from sin and vice and folly. And when we learn the lesson, and are led to self-control and self-denial, the pain ceases and peace descends. But another and yet higher end of discipline than even conversion is to elevate, purify, and conform us to the image of God. VI. The goodly hope. This is the last feature which I dwell upon. It completes and crowns the whole. Without the hope man’ s lot is a heritage which a brute might shrink from. For the broad fact of man’ s history is, that “ he is born to trouble.” It is written everywhere, it is the burden of life to us all. Nor is it the weakest and poorest in nature who are pressed most heavily, but the strongest, the bravest, the noblest, and the most faithful souls. Job was the righteous man of his era, and yet his life was an unspeakable curse till he remembered his hope, “ I know that my Redeemer liveth.” But if these things be so, you may ask--What is the use of talking about the goodly heritage? How can men praise for such a life as this? And it would be mockery thus to speak but for the hope, the “ good hope through grace.” A few days ago I was talking with one of our ablest and most eminent writers in his department of literature, and he said, “ I have absolutely no hope. God, Christ, immortality, I have no hold of; they are nought to me. All is darkness!” It was not said in bravado, not even in bitterness. But profound sadness was on him as he said it. No hope, because no Christ. All dark, because no hope. Now, the broad fundamental principle which lies at the root of this portion of our subject is, that man is here on earth not a settler but a pilgrim. The patriarchs of Israel are the true patriarchs of our race. As they dwelt in Canaan, man dwells in this world. But they were kept constantly moving; no place was suffered to be as home to them. Long ages of training had to be endured, as our long years of discipline, before they entered the goodly land into which the Lord had brought them, and could call it home. Now, behind this condition of pilgrimage lies the blessed fact that man is made on too large a scale, with too vast capacities, for this world to be enough for him. God has made us for eternity and for such a world as heaven. And so man is born to trouble precisely as a schoolboy is born to tasks and toils. “ The heir differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all.” Were man only of this earth, how much would be his imagining and longing for beauty and goodness more than this world can ever give. But all goodliness that is here is suggestive to them of a higher kind yonder. Fellowship is blessed. Yet without the hope, how terrible the breaking up of our earthly associations by death would be. But with the hope they are blessed. And the tasks are good, but what drudgery they would be were there no hope to irradiate them. And so, too, of our disciplines. But to what end they, and the Cross, the symbol of them all, if hope is but a dancing marsh fire, and “ glory, honour, and immortality” but a brilliant dream? If the highest outcome of life is that scene in Gethsemane and Calvary, and for Christ, and for those like Him, there was and is nothing beyond, what words can curse with sufficient emphasis the whole order of the universe? No, rather than believe that, may-- “ Thy hand, great Anarch, let the curtain fall, And universal darkness bury all.” But how is this hope assured?--(1) By the revelation which is afforded to us of the essential nature of God and His revelation to the world; and (2) By the light which the Incarnation, the Resurrection, and the Ascension of the Lord Jesus casts upon life and its destinies. “ We have not followed cunningly devised fables.” The Gospel story is one of solid historic truth, and our hope is the anchor of our soul. (J. Baldwin Brown, B. A.) The quietude of true pleasure Christian pleasure contrasts strongly with that of sin. For-- I. Christian pleasure is an inexhaustible force. The pleasures of sin are for a season. Permanency is the true need of life, but the pleasures of sin burn up the nature, they exhaust. Now, to some extent when you get intellect you get permanence; but in animalism, only impermanence. But those which are filled with the mind, the heart, the spirit are fresh, and they do not exhaust. And the pleasure of the spirit in God is the true joy of the soul. It is filled with all the fulness of God. II. Christian pleasure is not a deteriorating power. It never debilitates our nobility and manhood, it never lets us drown. But how much pleasure there is of which this cannot be said. III. Christian pleasure is not a noisy thing. If I were asked what we have too much of, I should say, “ Noise.” We hear the blare of trumpets, and everything is loud. How quiet the old meeting houses were. The Quaker quiet--how pleasant it is. IV. Christian pleasure is not a dangerous power. You cannot have too much of it. Some pleasures, even innocent ones, are dangerous; they tend to preoccupy the mind. You let them in as guests, and by and by you find they have taken up all the house. V. Christian pleasure is not a selfish pleasure. We should prove this question on ourselves as to our pleasures, whether they are in the main unselfish. Pleasure will not come if you seek it, but if you pursue duty pleasure will be found. Religious ways, are ways of pleasantness. The quiet Christian life which many have led has had in it more of charm than any other. (W. M. Statham.) The saint’ s goodly heritage This expression is the language of the highest contentment, of holy exultation, of the most superlative satisfaction. I. A scriptural drawing of this goodly heritage. The saint’ s heritage is comprehensive of all the blessings of grace and glory. It must be good if these be its contents. This goodly heritage knows no bounds or limits. Appeal to the saint’ s charter. The saint is an heir of righteousness, of salvation, of the kingdom of heaven, of all things; an heir of God Himself. Have the saints such a goodly heritage, then see cause:-- II. To contemplate and adore the unbounded generosity of the most blessed God. The thought of this threw the Apostle John into an ecstasy. We are not to estimate the saint’ s wealth or grandeur from what he possesses in this world. Poverty is often their lot on earth. (W. Taylor.) The goodly heritage How little does the infant, over whose cradle glistens the coronet first won by the stout arm of a soldier ancestor, understand of the inheritance to which he has been born. The ancestral home, the far-spread lands, the noble rank, the prestige of an ancient and lofty lineage--all these are his; but years will pass ere they can be fully realised or appreciated. It is impossible for the saint to estimate the value of the inheritance purchased by the precious blood of Christ, and which soon he will possess. (R. Venting.) Psalms 16:7-8I will bless the Lord who hath given me counsel: my reins also instruct me in the night seasons.The night counsels of the Lord Under whatever circumstances the Lord gives His people counsel, they will find reason to bless His holy name. Well does this Psalm bear the title of Michtam--that is, a golden Psalm. Note-- I. The kind of counsel given to the believer. It was, that by no arguments, however specious or however backed by circumstances, should he be diverted from faithful allegiance to God. There were many such arguments. Saul tried to draw him off from God. David tells how “ they have driven me out this day from the inheritance of the Lord,” saying, ‘ Go serve other gods.’” But the Lord’ s counsel, was, “ Wait on the Lord and be of good courage, and He shall strengthen thine heart.” Now, the Lord gives similar counsel to all His people. David was a representative man. The transcript of his feelings forms a commonplace book for all God’ s servants in which they may find a counterpart of their own. As David was, so are they, anointed of the Lord. As Saul persecuted David, so Satan persecutes them, and seeks to make them “ do despite to the Spirit of grace.” II. The times and circumstances under which this counsel is frequently sought and obtained. It is night counsel, “ My reins (thoughts) also instruct me in,” etc. The night seems to be no uncommon time for communications to pass between God and His people. David seems to have had frequent experience of this. “ I remembered Thee upon my bed,” etc. When the sense of responsibility comes upon a young man and the weight of care is felt, often, though fatigued with the toil of the day, will he at night think seriously and long over his position and its needs. Sometimes he can say, as in Psalms 77:1-20, “ Thou boldest mine eyes waking; I am so troubled that I cannot sleep,” etc. And often his meditations are very gloomy--“ Will the Lord cast off forever, and will He be favourable no more?” And after more of this there comes the telling of the Lord’ s sympathy, “ I said this is mine infirmity, but I will remember,” etc. He says again and again, “ I will, I will remember, I will meditate.” It was difficult, but he was determined. And here he says, “ I will thank the Lord, who hath given me counsel.” And our blessed Lord had His night conflicts--“ He was in all points made like unto His brethren.” And “ He was heard in that He feared.” Let us copy His example--do what He did, and you, too, shall find counsel. (T. E. Hankinson, M. A.) Psalms 16:8I have set the Lord always before me. Facing God Convictions are of two kinds. They are born of emergencies and experience. The former are instinctive, springing into life full grown. The latter mature slowly. A ship strikes a rock and begins to sink. The conviction of danger, and of possible destruction, takes shape at once in the minds of all on board. This is the conviction of emergency, But the conviction of a man’ s worth must come by experience, and must wait long for its maturity. Belief is not conviction, but only its germ. Conviction is faith in fruition, which takes time. The text is the utterance of such conviction, and it is the keynote of the whole Psalm. I. It is of the greatest importance what that is which is continually before us. That which is constantly in a man’ s eye must help very largely to shape him. I have heard a very significant criticism on a certain picture, to the effect that, though it was a good piece of artistic work, it was not a good picture to live with. You would not wish to have hanging up in your sitting room, and constantly in sight of your children, a picture of Herodias with the head of John the Baptist, or of a crazed mother in the act of murdering her babe. You try to keep pictures of wholesome subjects as well as of beautiful forms before your children’ s eyes; because you know that they are insensibly educated by familiarity with such things. In an age of few books, men and women learned mostly by the eye. It was not wholly nor mostly idolatry which filled the old churches up with pictures. The visitor to St. Mark’ s, in Venice, may follow for himself the footsteps of the earlier catechumen; ]passing into the Christian temple through a vestibule of Old Testament history wrought in mosaic pictures, and then reading on the walls and domes within the truths of crucifixion, resurrection, the baptism of the Spirit, and the coming of the Lord to judgment,--all arranged in the order of Christian thought. The peasant who passed over the old wooden bridge over the torrent at Lucerne had daffy before him, in the painted compartments of the bridge, a reminder of that other stream which all must cross sooner or later. Nature sets her mark on character. If her surroundings are gloomy and savage they impart a sombre tone to the men who live among them:--Men tend to be narrowed or broadened by their daily task. The man who has columns of figures forever before him may easily degenerate into a mere calculating machine. If the thing which is constantly before us is larger and better than ourselves, its hourly presence rebukes our littleness and our badness, and works to assimilate us to itself. If it is worse than ourselves it draws downward. There was philosophy as well as enthusiasm in the apostle’ s exhortation to run, looking unto Jesus, and in Paul keeping his eye on the prize of his high calling, and reaching forth to that which is before. II. But it may be asked, is not God always before us? Can we help its being so? Assuredly we can. David does not say, “ The Lord is always,” etc.,” but, “ I have set Him always,” etc. His own will and act have had something to do with the matter. He has been at pains to bring God into the foreground, and to keep Him there. Because God is ever manifesting Himself, because every common bush is afire with Him, it does not follow that men recognise the fact. They do not. There is abundance of sweet music, but there are multitudes of people to whom it means no more than the rumble of the carts in the streets. III. Thus, then, God will not be in any true sense before our face unless we set Him there. It needs special training, determination, and practice. There is a spiritual inertia to be overcome, and a perverse tendency. The bar of steel does not point naturally to the pole, but anywhere. It must be acted on from without, must have magnetic virtue imparted to it. And persistency is needed. I have set the Lord “ always” before me. It was not enough that once or twice God was in the line of vision, He was to be kept there. A compass needle would be to a sailor of no more account than a knitting needle, if only by some shock it were made to point northwards. It is the fact of its always pointing there that gives it its value. And it is this fact of persistence which gives value to David’ s saying. When a man has shut himself up to one thing as the source and strength of his happiness he will find out a great deal about that one thing. Thus did Robinson Crusoe, when he found out that he should have to live on his island. And so is it with men and God. IV. Many are the discoveries which the man who sets the Lord always before him will make.1. He finds Him self-revealed. In the Shinto temples in Japan the shrines contain no altars, pulpits, or pictures, but only a circular steel mirror. What it means is not known. But it would be an appropriate symbol for a Christian shrine. James draws a picture of a man beholding his natural face in a glass. The man who studies God studies self at the same time. 2. It carries with it a power of growth. For God is ever going before us and beckoning us on. A mountain is a constant temptation to climb, and when we find yet higher summits beyond we want to climb them also. And so is it in learning of God. 3. It engenders hope. Amid the darkness and vagueness of the Old Testament future, this Psalm is like a sweet flute note amid the crash and discord of a vast orchestra. I know of nothing more soothing than these verses. “ I shall not be moved” ; all is well, “ because He is at my right hand.” (Marvin Vincent, D. D.) The earthly and heavenly forms of companionship with God Now, the two expressions, “ before me” and “ in Thy presence,” are substantially synonymous and convertible. Notice the other clause. “ He is at my right hand.” “ At Thy right hand are pleasures for evermore.” God before my face, and I before God’ s face; God at my right hand, and I glad at His. I. If we turn our faces to God here His face will shine on us yonder. “ I have set the Lord always before my eyes.” “ Before Thy face is fulness of joy.” The one is the summing up of the devout man’ s life on earth. What can the other be but the prophecy of the devout man’ s life in heaven? Observe how for us, here and now, circumstanced and occupied and distracted as we are, that clear consciousness of God’ s presence will inevitably fade and shatter unless we are careful to preserve it. “ I have set the Lord,” --that implies a great deal of definite effort, of fixed will, of stem resistance to and rejection of hindrances and things that come between. God’ s presence cannot be proved. The consciousness of it depends upon our whole nature. It is what people call a moral thing; and it rises and falls like a sensitive thermometer, if a cloud comes between the bulb and the sun. You can crowd Him out of your minds by plunging yourselves fiercely into your daily duties, however sacred and elevated these may be. No more than the sunshine can be flashed back from a tarnished steel mirror, can the consciousness of God’ s presence live in an impure soul. And the heart must be kept still, flee from agitation, from the storms of passion and the tyranny of eager desires. A cats paw that ruffles the surface of the lake shatters the image; and unless our hearts are quieted from earth they will never mirror heaven. “ Walk thou before Me, and be perfect,” is at once a commandment and a promise. And they only are wise who answer, “ I will walk before the Lord in the land, and the light of the living.” As I have already said, this thrilling and continual consciousness of the Divine presence is the surest basis for the expectation of immortal life. It is too precious to die; it is too great and pure and noble to have anything to fear from the accident of corporal death. So we come to consider that higher form of the Divine presence which is suggested by the contrast in my second text. “ In Thy presence is fulness of joy.” But that presence is not secured by the individual’ s efforts, but is poured upon him in its effulgence from the throne itself. If I try to keep God in sight here, yonder He reveals Himself in all His greatness. We are not to understand that that future vision which is all expressed in these words of my second text--“ before Thee” --consists in any measure which is analogous to the sight of the body. Nor are we, I suppose, to understand that then, any more than now, we are able to comprehend the incomprehensible and infinite. “ The face of God” is the Scriptural expression for that side of the Divine nature which is capable of being manifested by Him, and apprehended by us; and Jesus Christ is the face of God. Yonder it is that we shall see Him as He is; and yonder it is the Christ whom, having not seen we “ love,” and whom seeing we shall see the Father. There will be, as I suppose, new and unimaginable modes of manifestation, about which the less that we say the wiser we are. For if our experience here on earth teaches us anything, it teaches us that the body shuts us off from as much as it brings us into contact with; and that our senses are but like little slits in some grim old fortress, only wide enough to let in the requisite light and air, and that beyond their limits in both directions there are notes of which the vibrations are too numerous, or too few, in a given time to be apprehended by our ears; and rays in the spectrum at either end, which the human eye cannot see. So that, with new modes of manifestation and new capacities of apprehension, we shall draw nearer and nearer to the sun that we beheld here shining through the mists and the clouds. If we, amidst the shows and gauds of time and the crowds of thronging men and the distractions of our daily occupations, steadfastly seek and see the Lord, and have beams coming from Him, as a light shining in a dark place, He will lift us yonder, and turn the whole benediction of the sunlight Of His face upon us, and, saturated with the brightness, we shall walk in the light of His countenance and be amongst the people of the blessed. II. If we keep the Lord at our right hand He will set us at His right hand. The emblem of the “ right hand” has a double meaning in Scripture, one part of which applies more to our present and the other to our future. When we speak of having at our right hand anyone, we mean as counsellor, companion, strengthener, ally; as fellow fighter, guide, and defender. And it is in that capacity that we have to set the Lord at our right hand. If we have Him by our sides we are never alone. I suppose that the saddest fate for a man is to live solitary. I suppose that we mortal millions live alone after all companionship; like islands in a waste of ocean, with no communications. Ah! How many of us have known what it is for the one that stood at our right hand to vanish, to change. If we live so companioned, counselled, championed, by a God made present, not by His omnipresence but by our consciousness of it, then be sure of this, that the time will come when He who came to earth, as it were, and stood at our right hand, will lift us to the heavens, and plant us at His. I at His right hand. What does that mean? Let me quote you two or three plain words. “ The sheep at His right hand; the goats at His left.” It means that. It means favour, acceptance in that great day of account. “ And he called his name Benjamin:--the son of his right hand.” It means that; paternal love, a yearning heart, a longing to pour all a Father’ s blessing on the child. And it means that the man, thus acquired and taken to the Father’ s heart, is distinguished and honoured--“ grant that these, my two sons, may sit, the one at Thy right hand, the other at Thy left.” Nor must we forget that there is still a loftier conception attached to this emblem of “ the right hand,” which was not within the horizon of the Psalmist, but is within ours. Jesus Christ our Brother has been exalted to that session at God’ s right hand, which indicates in disturbance, completed work, royalty and power. And He, hath said, “ I go to prepare a place for you, that where I am there ye may be also.” So if He is at my right hand, as champion, I shall be at His right hand and share in His dominion. III. If we stay ourselves on God, amidst struggle and change here, He will gladden us yonder with perpetual joys. “ Because He is at my right hand I shall not be moved.” A very humble result to be accomplished by so great a thing as the actual presence of God at a man’ s side. Only this, that I will be able to keep my place, and stand steadfast. And there is only one thing that will make us steadfast, and that is that we should be, if I might use such a figure, bolted and lashed on to, or rather incorporated into, the changeless steadfastness of the unmoved God. God comes to us here, and is sword and shield; yonder He will be palm and crown. “ In Thy presence is fulness of joy.” Every faculty and capacity will be satisfied, every yearning met, and nothing left to desire but the continuance which is guaranteed, and the increase as capacity increases, which is as certain. Here there is always something lacking; yonder there is fulness of joy and no satiety. “ Pleasures for evermore” --both because there is an uninterrupted succession of such--like the ripples upon a sunlit sea, that all day long come rolling to the beach and break in music and sparkles of light; and because each pleasure is in itself perpetual, seeing that there is no possibility of these delights becoming stale and common. Thus begin with realising the Divine presence. We must begin all this on earth. The seed of heaven is sown in the furrows of this world. Philosophers talk to us about the law of continuity. That applies in regard to the life here and the life hereafter. If you ever are to come into the blessedness of the life yonder, you must begin with the life of faith in Jesus Christ here and now. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) God as a dominant idea Dissipation is the parent of mediocrity. Because there is neither government nor concentration nor dominant idea in men’ s lives, they never do much, never grow any size. The subject before us is self-government by means of a dominant idea. A dominant idea is an idea which mixes itself with all other ideas, giving them its own colour and character; so that you cannot take out any thought from a mind in which a dominant idea exists and analyse it, but you shall find traces of this one idea. Constantly we meet with men who have one thought by which they explain everything, and they infect us with a dominant feeling that they are very tiresome. Restraining, ruling ideas spring up naturally. The emotions are the first parents of ideas. Primitive man hears a voice rebuking mere animal desire, which says, “ Thou shalt not cat of it,” and the moment that voice is heard a moral nature has arisen and heaven becomes possible. The great majority of men allow their lives, as they do their beliefs, to go anyhow. They have never formed a distinct opinion as to the shape their life is to take. It is in our power to choose what idea we shall be ruled by, and, having chosen, it is in our power to make the idea a ruling one. We must determine to associate our idea with all our pleasures and labours; to bring it before our mind every day. And what shall be our dominant idea? The idea of God is our birthright. The idea of God stands upon exactly the same ground as all our other intuitions. Clifford says, “ Belief in God and in a future life is a source of refined and elevated pleasure to those who can hold it.” Here is the idea ready to our hand. The idea is your birthright, but you have to make it dominant. (W. Page Roberts, M. A.) The practice of the presence of God God always sees us, whether we think of it or not. It makes no difference as to the fact whether we believe it or not. But it makes all the difference to ourselves. It makes just the difference between a godly man and an ungodly man. The truly religious man is he who has formed the habit of living under the influence of the thought of the presence of God. To set the Lord always before us is the secret of good living, is the true preparation for heaven. This is one reason why regular habits of prayer, of worship, of reading God’ s Word, of Holy Communion are so helpful and cannot safely be neglected. They are means of drawing near to God, of coming into His presence. If we are doing anything, whether work or amusement, in which we could not bear to think of God, we may be sure that work or amusement is wrong. There is a beautiful custom in some countries. Sacred pictures are placed at intervals by the wayside, among the mountains and woods, in the streets of villages and towns. They are roughly made, badly painted and tinselly, but for all that they are reminders to people of holy thoughts; they are meant to call the mind of the passers-by in the midst of work or amusement to God. And how are we to set Him before us? How are we to think of Him? We may set Him before us in the completeness of His Divine Being--God the Father, the Son, the Spirit. Try to form the habit of setting the Lord always before you; for if He is at your right hand you shall never fall. Always in earnest prayer at the beginning of every day. Always when things go well with you, and in trouble, turning to Him as the one trusted help and refuge. (J. E. Vernon, M. A.) The setting of the Lord before us This and the following verses are quoted by Peter in his sermon on the Day of Pentecost.1. Those who set the Lord always before them have an habitual impression of His all-seeing eye and immediate presence. David, we know, had this habitual impression. He was aware how highly important to him was this near presence of the Almighty, and what a beneficial, influence it shed over all his prospects. 2. It implies an habitual regard to the Lord’ s will as the rule of our actions. Faithful Christians must make it their constant study to ascertain what is the will of God respecting themselves, and then set this will before them as the rule of their life. It should not only be a consideration with them, but their chief consideration. Those who make the will of God their rule cannot err. They look at it as sailors to the pole star, in order that they may direct their course thereby. 3. It implies making the Lord’ s glory the end of all our aims. The glory of the Lord is that one object of surpassing importance which absorbs all other considerations. To set the Lord always before us is to keep this end always in view. 4. It implies making Him the object of our trust and dependence in all circumstances. 1. The practice of setting the Lord always before us is a bright evidence of the sincerity of our faith. Faith is a living and abiding principle, constantly in operation. Faith is that principle within the man which realises and embodies everything which is spiritual. 2. A constant sense of the presence of God is a sure means of counteracting the influence of the fear of man, which bringeth a snare. 3. A sense of the Lord’ s constant presence would be a spur to our diligence and activity in endeavouring to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. A persuasion that the eye of the Lord is in every place, beholding the evil and the good, would have a wonderful effect in exciting the runners of the Christian race to put forth their utmost powers to strain every nerve, that they may come in first to the goal. Now see a few lights in which you should make it your habit to set the Lord always before you-- (1)You are directed to set before yourselves the Lord as your chief good, the highest object of your aims. (2) We are to look upon God, in Christ, as our owner. God possesses a right over us as our Maker and Preserver. (3) We are to set the Lord Jesus before us as a Judge. We should not merely give a general assent to the truth of the judgment which will hereafter take place, and that Christ will occupy the throne then, but we are to consider Him as seated now upon the tribunal, and taking cognisance of all our transactions. (T. Chambers, M. A.) Things that intercept the Divine presence There are three things that, taken together, build up for us a very thick triple wall between us and God. There is sense, and all that it reveals to us; there are duties, necessary, possibly blessed, but actually often disturbing and limiting; and the thickest and most opaque of the three screens, there are the sins which dim our capacity, and check our inclination of realising the Divine presence. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Thought must concentrate itself upon God That needs that we shall shut out a great deal besides, as a man that wants to see something on the horizon will hold his palm above his eyes to exclude nearer objects and the glare that dazzles. It needs that we shall resolutely concentrate our thoughts upon Him. We have to be ignorant of a great deal if we would know any of the sciences, or of the practical arts. And we have to shear off not less if we would know the best knowledge, and be experts in the highest art in life. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) God near and yet afar There may as well be no God, as far as a great many of us are concerned, in the most important matters of our lives, as a God that we never think about. He is not far from “ every one of us” ; but we may be very far from Him, and we are very far from Him unless by effort we set Him before us. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) The stability of the good man The presumptuous man in one of the Psalms speaks thus: In my prosperity I said, I shall not be moved. But when prosperity fled self-confidence fled with it, and at length he learned to say, as he goes on to tell us, “ by Thy favour Thou hast made my mountain to stand strong. Thou didst hide Thy face, and I was troubled.” Ah! think of the instability of our resolutions, think of the fluctuations of our thoughts, think of the surges of our emotions, think of the changes that by subtle degrees pass over us all, so as that the old man’ s grey hair and bowed form is less unlike his childish buoyancy and clustering ringlets than are his senile thoughts and memories to his juvenile expectations. And think of the forces that are brought to bear upon us, the shucks of calamity and sorrow by which we are beaten and battered, the blasts of temptation by which we are sometimes all but overthrown, the floods that come and beat upon our house. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Steadfastness That steadfastness will come to us by the actual communication of strength, and it will come to us because in the consciousness of the Divine presence there lies a charm that takes the glamour out of temptation and the pain out of all wounds. He being with us, the dazzling, treacherous brilliancies of earth cease to dazzle and betray. He being with us, sorrow itself and pain and all the ills that flesh is heir to have little power to shake the soul. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Pleasure for evermore That presence which amidst strife, warfare, weakness, and mutability manifested itself in its gift of steadfastness will then, amidst the tranquillity of heaven, manifest itself in a joy unlike all earthly joy, in that it is full; and yet more unlike, if I may say so, all earthly joy in that it is perpetual. Here there is ever something lacking in all our gladness, some guest at the table that sulks and will not partake and rejoice, some unlit window in the illumination, some limitation in the gladness; yonder it shall be full. “ I shall be satisfied when I awake in Thy likeness.” Here, thank God! we have brooks by the way; there we shall stoop down and drink from the fountain, the ocean of joy. And the gladness is perpetual, in that, having nothing to do with physical causes or externals, there is no cause of change and no certainty of reaction. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) The habitual recognition of God If we observe the pursuits of men of the world we see how they set their object, be it what it may, always before them. Success cannot be had without this. The same necessity exists in religion. If we would desire any real help now, and promised blessings hereafter, God must be to us ever present. Such piety is attended with God’ s constant protection and friendship. I. What it is to set the Lord always before us. It is to maintain a supreme and habitual regard for God, according to the relations which He sustains towards us. In the world, if a man has fixed his supreme regard on wealth, though he may often think and talk on other subjects, yet he never forgets this one. Let anything occur that will affect it, and you will always find that his object is before him. Now, it is in the same way that we set the Lord always before us. We shall always regard Him as infinitely perfect--as our Lawgiver and Sovereign; as our Creator, Preserver, and Benefactor; as our Redeemer and Sanctifier; as a covenant God; as our Judge and Rewarder. Now, so to habitually regard God as to secure the practical influence of all these perfections and relations of God upon us is to set the Lord always before us. II. The advantage of so doing.1. In the daily business of our life--to keep us diligent, just in our dealings, and honest in all our transactions. 2. In the more unimportant and ordinary occurrences of life--to keep us faithful in life’ s little things, contented, cheerful, patient, devout. 3. In temptation we shall not be moved. It guards the heart against the world and Satan. 4. In holy obedience we shall be steadfast therein. 5. Preparation for all the scenes of life, for death and heaven. In prosperity he will remember God; in adversity he will trust God; in death he will be without fear; in the judgment day he will have confidence. And we can thus set God always before us. Is it safe or wise ever to forget Him? Do we thus set God always before us? What will they do from whose thoughts God is habitually excluded, when He shall be revealed in the clear light of eternity? (M. W. Taylor, D. D.) Our great Example The terms of this portion of the Psalm show distinctly that it is prophetic of the Messiah. I. The first prediction is that Christ, when He should come, would “ set Jehovah continually before Him,” i.e. He would live on earth realising by faith the presence of an unseen God, to dwell continually in His sight. Our Lord did this. He said, “My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me.” II. Jehovah would be at His right hand. We find our Lord continually sustaining Himself by the consoling presence of His Father. And all who tread in His steps may share in His consolation. III. His heart would be glad. How could He be otherwise, when He knew the resources of the Father? Our Lord walked with God on earth, rejoicing in hope of the glory that should be revealed. So also may we, and do we? IV. His flesh should rest in hope. This implies--1. His death. His death was predicted no less than His triumph. He looked forward to His death, and repeatedly foretold it. And He resolutely met it. Let us ask for grace to enter into His spirit. 2. The limitation of death’ s dominion. “ I have power,” said He, “ to lay it (My life) down, and I have power to take it again.” “ I lay it down of Myself.” He did as He had said. He took again that dishonoured body, to be dishonoured no more. V. God would guide him to the path of life. “ Thou wilt show Me,” etc. The way of the grave did not seem the gate of life, but in reality it was so. Conclusion: He will bring us there. Decide for Him now. Sympathise with Him in His glory. (Baptist W. Noel.) The habitual thought of God David could only do this mentally. “ No man hath seen God at any time.” And when he says “ always” he does not mean that he was always actually thinking of Him. We cannot do this. We are not to be slothful in business. Yet David means that he believed and felt God to be near him, and that he would frequently hold communion with God. This leads to a state of mind in which we can readily recur to God in our thoughts. Let us do this, setting the Lord always before us. I. As our protector. Our religious course is a constant warfare. We need the courage which only the presence of the Lord can impart. II. As our leader. III. As our example. IV. As cult observer. Nothing escapes His notice. A heathen philosopher admonished his disciples to imagine that the eye of some illustrious personage was always upon them. But what is the eye of Plato to that of God? What stimulus this to zeal. (William Jay.) On habitual remembrance of God Our text directs our thoughts to the greatest of all Beings, the source of all happiness. I. What it is to set God always before us. Represent to yourself the proceedings of men, who have proposed to themselves as their main pursuit the possession of some worldly attainment. Observe in what manner they set their object, be it what it may, always before their eyes. Contemplate the votary of science. Behold him absorbed in laborious researches: in the investigation of causes and effects; in the construction of theories, and the explanation of the phenomena of nature. Behold him day after day bending all the powers of his mind to the invention and application of mechanism; to the arrangement and superintendence of experiments; to the development and illustration of philosophical truth. At home and abroad, in cities and in the fields, in solitude and in society, behold him steadily bearing in mind the object to which he has dedicated his life. Survey the votary of ambition. Behold every nerve, every faculty, upon the stretch to supplant, to undermine, or to surpass his rivals, and to attain the dizzy preeminence to which he aspires. Receive then a lesson from the children of this world (Luke 16:8). Then wilt thou discern what it is to set the Lord thy God always before thee. II. The different characters under which it is our duty to do this.1. Regard Him as Creator. If you deem life a blessing, remember Him-- 2. As your Preserver. 3. As your Redeemer and Sanctifier. 4. As your Sovereign and your Judge. See then that you obey Him, lest you be destroyed forever. III. Give examples of the duty of thus setting the Lord always before you.1. In prosperity--by being grateful to Him. 2. In adversity, sickness, and death--by trusting Him, submitting to Him patiently, remembering how little your sufferings in comparison with your sins. Look up to Him and be comforted. 3. In youth--by not withholding from the planter the prime of the fruit. When wilt thou serve thy God if not now? 4. In age--by remembering that the night cometh; work, while it is called today; seek mercy while yet it may be found. 5. Under all circumstances, in common duties, as well as in specially religious acts. If you are cultivating your farm; if you are selling your articles in the market or in a shop; if you are serving a master in your daily labour; if you are managing the concerns of your friend or of your country: remember that God is contemplating all your motive, all your thoughts, all your words, all your actions; and that for all your motives and thoughts and words and actions you will have to render an account at the judgment seat of Christ (Revelation 20:12). IV. The recompense. The Lord is at their right hand; they shall not be moved (1 Samuel 2:30; John 14:23). (T. Gisborne, M. A.) The secret of a happy life In the preceding verses we read, “ The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places, yea, I have,” etc. The speaker, therefore, is a very contented and happy man. How is it that he is able to feel so happy? Let us seek out the way. Perhaps his road may fit our feet. But who is the person who is thus singularly content? It is the Lord Jesus Christ. It is He who by the Spirit here speaks. All this is so much the more encouraging to us because if He, the “ Man of Sorrows,” was nevertheless able to possess so sweet content, it must be possible for us, whose lot is not so bitter. We are not sent to make atonement for sin, and hence our sorrows are few compared with our Lord’ s. Our text clearly imparts to us the secret of this peace, It is-- I. Living in the Lord’ s presence always. “ I have set . . . always before me.” Now, this means--1. That we should make the Lord’ s presence the greatest of all facts to us. Jesus did so. He saw God everywhere. From morning to evening, until you fall asleep “ as in the embraces of your God,” see Him everywhere. This is happy living. 2. The making of God’ s glory the one object of our lives. 3. So to live that the presence of God shall be the rule and support of our obedience. So Jesus did. The Master’ s eye is to many servants most important, to make them careful and diligent. For many are eye servers and men pleasers. But how should we live if God were seen looking on? He is looking on. 4. As the source from which we are to derive solace and comfort under every trial. This it was that made Him suffer and never complain. 5. That we are to hold perpetual communion with God. He was always in converse with the Father, and He could say, “ I knew that Thou hearest Me always.” 6. We must follow this life, because of our delight and joy in it. Such a life cannot be lived in any other manner. If you find walking with God dull, then you have not the first essentials of such a life. You must be born again. If you are the Lord’ s you will delight in living near to Him. You may lose your roll, like Christian in the arbour, and you may go back again and find it, lint it is very hard going back over the same ground. The hardest part of the road to heaven is that which has to be traversed three times: once when you go over it at first, a second time when you have to return with weeping to find your lost evidences, and then again when you have to make up for lost time. Abiding with God creates peace like a river. II. Trusting always in the Lord’ s presence, “ Because He is at my right hand I shall not be moved.”1. With any regret or remorse as to the past. Christ had many sorrows but no regrets. 2. From our consistency in the way of true religion. 3. With terror. 4. By temptation, so as to be swept into surprising sin. 5. So as to fail at last. Conclusion: 1. You who are not Christians, you are not happy. Set the Lord before you. 2. You who are not Christians, but think yourselves happy. How flail the pillar on which your happiness rests. 3. You Christians who are not happy; here is counsel for you. 4. You happy Christians, you can be happier still by coming nearer to God, This is heaven below. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Because He is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. The faithful heart and the present God This Psalm touches the high-water mark of the religious life in two aspects--its ardent devotion, and its clear certainty of eternal blessedness beyond the grave. These two are connected as cause and effect. I. The effort of faith. “ I have set the Lord always before me.” It took a dead lift of conscious effort for the Psalmist to keep himself continually in touch with that unseen God. This is the very essence of true religion. Mark how the Psalmist came to this effort. It was because his whole soul clave to God, with the intelligent and reasonable conviction and apprehension that in God alone was all he needed. If a man does not think about God and His love it is all one as if he had not Him and it. II. The ally of faith. The second portion of the text is to be interpreted as the consequence of the effort. “ He is at my right hand.” The Psalmist means that by the turning of his thoughts to God and the effort he makes--the effort of faith, imagination, love, and desire--to bring himself as close as he can to the great heart of the Father, he realises that presence at his side in an altogether different manner from that in which it is given to stones and rocks and birds and beasts and godless men. That Divine Presence is the source of all strength and blessedness. “ At my right hand” ; then I stand at His left, and close under the arm that carries the shield; and close by my instrument of activity, to direct my work; my Protector, my Ally, my Director. III. The courageous stability of faith. “ Not be moved.” That is true all round, in regard of all the things which may move and shake a man. The secret of a quiet heart is to keep ever near God. We shall not be moved by circumstances. How quietly we may live above the storms if we only live in God. The Psalmist feels that the great change from life to death will not move him, in so far as his union with God is concerned. A realisation of true communion with God is the guarantee that the man who has it shall never die. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Psalms 16:9-10 Therefore my heart is glad. Christ joyful in suffering The remainder of this Psalm we are to consider as spoken by David in reference to the Messiah, of whom he was both a prophet and a type. I. This passage reminds us of the sufferings of Christ. Old Testament types, promises, and predictions describe Christ as a suffering Saviour. The view of Him thus given through the medium of prophecy is completely realised in His actual history. Well may such an emphasis be laid on the sufferings and death of Christ; for this was the instituted method of redemption. II. This passage affirms the constancy and cheerfulness with which Christ was to bear His sorrows. “ My heart is glad, and my glory,” that is, my tongue, “ rejoiceth:” So said David, personating the Messiah; and all this was realised in Messiah’ s actual deportment. Remarkable was the constancy and cheerfulness with which our blessed Saviour bore His sufferings. And we cannot but admire the character in which this excellence was so conspicuously displayed. To our admiration of His unequalled magnanimity we must add the more valuable tribute of our gratitude; for it was in love to our souls that His engagement to suffer and to die had its origin. If we ought to love Him, because He so loved us, oh how deep seated should our affection be! III. What was it supported and cheered our Saviour in the midst of His sufferings?1. He “ set the Lord always before Him,” as the great object of His regard. 2. He was cheered by the assurance that “ God was at His right band.” The arm of Jehovah was stretched out for His stay and deliverance. 3. He was supported by the hope of a resurrection of life and blessedness. (A. Thomson, D. D.) My flesh also shall rest in hope. Dying welt and comfortably Doctrine: That it is a sweet, desirable, and Christlike way of dying, to be inwardly willing and joyful, and outwardly triumphing and praising God, from a confidence and hope of His promises. I. Grounds of comfort.1. Your God will be with you, and at your right hand, that you shall not be moved. 2. Death is your friend, to bring you to rest. Jesus has, by His death, removed everything from your death that is legally penal and a curse. 3. You shall be raised again to everlasting glory and happiness. 4. Your Lord after the judgment will present you faultless before the presence of His glory. II. The foundations upon which these consolations against death are built.1. The Psalmist looks to the acts of Christ’ s mediation as the foundation of all His consolations against death. 2. These consolations are certain in themselves, and to you, from the promises of the covenant of grace, and are founded on them. III. You must do your part, that you may be comforted, rejoice and triumph when you come to die.1. You must have faith to believe these reasons of comfort. 2. You must have a lively hope in exercise. What must you do?-- (1) Come speedily out of a state of nature into a state of grace.(2) Impartially and accurately examine your state, whether in Christ or not.(3) Live a life of faith.(4) Keep your consciences pure and void of offence, both towards God and man, and labour to be holy in your lives and conversations.(5) Be much in the exercise of love.(6) Live with your hearts weaned from a present world.(7) Carry well towards the Spirit of joy and comfort, and keep communion with Him. He is the Comforter.(8) Be frequent in actual preparation for death--promises ready, evidences ready, experiences ready. (James Robe, M. A.) Immortality This is an idea which has been growing in the Old Testament. Now and again some word has been interjected into the story that did not seem to belong to it, or was of another quality--a word with a colour, a flush, as if light from an unknown source had struck upon it and lighted it up into new beauty. Job had said one or two words for the explanation of which we must wait; the Psalmist now speaks of his flesh resting in hope, of his soul not being left in an unseen place, and of the Holy One not seeing corruption To impair the doctrine of immortality is to strike at the goodness of God. In denying immortality we may be said to deny the Creator. We cannot treat immortality as a doctrine only; it is really part of the Divine nature. Given God, and immortality in some form is a necessity. Has He created us simply to let us die? Has He given us all these gifts merely to mock us at the last, by allowing us to drop into oblivion and nothingness? Does He permit us to climb to the very door of heaven, and to hear the songs that are sung inside, simply that He may thunder to us--You cannot have part or lot in this inheritance; your destiny is obliteration? Some argument must be founded upon instinct, impulse, yearning, longing, speechless unconsciousness. When we are all, body, soul, and spirit, lifting ourselves up to Him, is it like Him to deny the aspiration? Or like Him to give us that further movement which will connect us consciously with His own eternity? To this latter faith I incline. God has not created aspiration which He cannot satisfy. There is more in us than we can tell, and to these wordless impulses God sends this revelation of immortality. (Joseph Parker, D. D.) The flesh and its three states We would speak on the fortunes of the flesh in its three stages of existence. I. On this side the grave. Note the word “ also.” It carries our thought back to the higher joy of the soul. Neither the essence of sin nor of glory is in the flesh at all. We therefore do not exclude the soul, but rather make it the great centre of all, though we speak more of the flesh. The Redeemer shall satisfy our whole nature. There is no danger, ordinarily, of our forgetting the flesh. It makes its presence predominant enough. Nothing but the regenerated spirit can keep it under. How we admire the heroic deeds of those who in some holy struggle for liberty or for love assert the superiority of the spirit over the flesh. They can die, die in torture, and that gladly, by the power of the spirit within them. But yet the Gospel does not forget even the flesh. How all the natural feelings are deeply touched. This is an argument for the after life of the body. How close is the link between the soul and the body. How they act and react on one another. It, therefore, can never be a matter of indifference to the soul what becomes of the body. And our Lord became flesh, was incarnate, and He has taken it, now glorified, permanently into union with His Godhead. We have no hint that He will ever put it off. It is the same human body which was nursed at the heart of an earthly mother, and which hung upon the Cross in death. Therefore, how can we despise the body? And the hope of the flesh is bound up even with the glory of God Himself. For He did not, at first, mean those bodies to die. There was no death in His counsels. That came by sin. Thus the Divine will was contradicted by Satan. But redemption was to undo Satan’ s work. Yes, each one may cry out in joy, “ My flesh also shall rest in hope.” II. In the grave. It is a state of rest. The word implies both labours past and repose present. Hence “ sleep” is the condition in which faith loves to regard the body in the grave. And like as in sleep, the body in the grave is free from pain and toil, from sin and suffering, from want and weariness and all pining. And it is a state of unconsciousness, so far as the flesh is concerned, an unconsciousness of the very state in which it lies. The resurrection will appear to follow instantaneously upon death, as our awaking after deep sleep seems to follow close upon our falling asleep. And like sleep, it is but for a while; there will be an awakening. The principle of life is held in abeyance: in sleep, by a natural change; in death, by the immediate will of Him who has all life to give and withhold as He wills. What a holy and loving charm do these thoughts throw around even the decaying flesh: what a light upon the grave. III. Beyond the grave. It is far more easy to realise with something like precision the future glory of the flesh than that of the spirit. And yet even the body’ s glory is far more than we can conceive, because we have no experience of a body free from the penalties of sin. But we have known, at times, fulness of life, of buoyant vigour, and of such pleasure in movement and living that we have been filled with delight. Imagine that eternal. And add new capacities and powers. (Edward Garbitt, M. A.) Psalms 16:10 Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell.Christ’ s descent into hell The afflictions and calamities which fall upon many men in this present state are such that, were it not for the hope which they have in God, their only comfort would be that expectation of death which Job expresses (Job 3:17). But true religion affords virtuous and good men a very different prospect; and teaches them to expect, that if God does not think fit to deliver them out of their troubles here, yet even the grave puts not an end to His power of redeeming them. They may look upon death itself, not barely as a putting an end to their present afflictions, but as a passage to a glorious and immortal state. In its real and most proper sense the text is not applicable to the Psalmist himself, but to Him of whom David was both a prophet and a type. The word “ hell” now signifies “ the state of the damned,” but David was not condemned to that place of torment, nor did Jesus descend there. Hell frequently means “ the state of the dead” (Psalms 89:1-52; Proverbs 27:20; Proverbs 30:15). In the New Testament it means the same, but at times, also, the place appointed for the punishment of the wicked. But this ambiguity is in our own language only, and not in the original. There the place of torment is always Gehenna. The Scriptures nowhere teach that Christ ever entered the place of the damned. Nor is there any reason why He should. The satisfaction of Christ does not depend on the sameness of His sufferings with ours, but on the good pleasure of God. If He had entered the place of the damned, Christ could not have known the sting of their punishment, the worm that never dies, the endless despair of the favour of God. Some say Christ went there to rescue those who were there. Others say He went in order to triumph over Satan in his own kingdom. But our Lord triumphs over him by converting men from their sins and debaucheries, from their unrighteousness and iniquities, which are the works of the devil; to the practice of virtue, justice, goodness, temperance, charity, and truth, which are the establishment of the Kingdom of God upon earth. Upon the whole, therefore, there is no sufficient foundation, either in the reason of the thing or in the declarations of Scripture, to suppose that our Lord ever descended at all into the place of torment, into the place appointed for the final punishment of the wicked. But the full meaning of the text is, that our Lord continued in the state of the dead, in the invisible state of departed souls, during the time appointed; but that, it not being possible for Him to be holden of death, He was raised again without seeing corruption. (Samuel Parker, D. D.) He descended into hell Our Lord had not only a human body, but likewise a human soul. His body was laid in the grave, but His soul departed from the body. What is meant by “ descending into hell” ? Some say “ hell” signifies the place of spirits and eternal woe. Others think it does not signify a place of torment, but the place of departed souls; that unseen world into which the spirits of the dead are received when released from the body. Some suppose that there was a great object in the salvation of mankind, which our Lord wrought in going down to hell, or the place of the departed; that He there preached to the dead. And no doubt His soul’ s departing into hell was for our sakes, to carry even there, also, an atonement for us; to carry with Him some inconceivable blessing and benefit for us into that place also. As everything that our Lord underwent for our sakes appears to have been set forth, and typified beforehand, in His law, so also was this descent into hell. Illustration: Scapegoat of the day of atonement. The departure of the soul from the body into the unknown land of spirits is, of itself, so awful a thought, even to the goodman, that this article of the creed may be a point of great consolation to him. For a Christian to die, even before the day of judgment, is to be with Christ, and to be released from life as from a burden, and to be in joy. It is the great day of judgment which the Bible is ever setting before us. Yet the little that is told us of the state of our souls before the day of judgment, and immediately when they depart from the body, is of itself very deeply affecting, awful, and concerning. It may be profitable to dwell upon these two, what are called intermediate, states: our condition between death and judgment; the states in which our friends are now, and we shall soon be. When work is done, then is the time for contemplation and reflection; and then, when our labours are all over and we are waiting for our judge to pronounce sentence upon them, we shall no doubt form a far more correct judgment of them than now we do. Even if we had been told nothing of the state of the departed, we might have supposed that to be waiting for the judgment, and to be removed from all things here in which the soul can take delight, must be awful beyond all description. We may see how much of mercy and goodness, and how much benefit to us, may be contained in this one article of the creed, that Christ descended into the place of the dead. By going there Himself, after tasting of the bitterness of death, He seems to say to His faithful followers, “ Come, My people, enter thou into thy chambers” (Isaiah 26:20-21). It is good for us that we should think often of the spirits of the dead, of “ just men made perfect,” of them who are released from the burden of the flesh, and are waiting in awful and blissful silence for the revelation of the great day. By His descent into hell Jesus has sanctified and blessed the place of our souls. (Plain Sermons by Contributors to “Tracts for the Times. ”) Our Lord in the intermediate state Stress is laid on the fact that our Lord’ s blessed body saw no corruption. It lay not long enough in the grave for that change to have taken place in it which we know to be the lot of all human bodies when they have been any while dead. He had not been dead more than thirty-six hours. There seems a special propriety in its being ordered that the only body which was never stained by sin should also be the only one exempt, though not from the pains, yet from the loathsomeness of death. It was a way of giving the whole world, angels and men, clearly to understand that, although God had laid on Him the punishment due to sinful men, yet He never ceased for a moment to be the only beloved of His Father.1. This text proves the truth of our Saviour’ s human soul and body; proves that He took on Himself, really and truly, the substance of our nature in the womb of the blessed Virgin, and lived and died in all respects a man, sin only and sinful infirmity excepted; so also, in the unseen state, He continued to be a man among men. Here is a token and earnest that our merciful God sympathises with our natural care and anxiety as to what shall become both of our friends and ourselves during that awful interval which is to come between death and resurrection. Souls departed and bodies in the grave are within the merciful care of Him who is both God and man. 2. Observe the difference between the language of the Old Testament, even the most evangelical portions of it, where they speak of the state of the dead, and the language of the blessed Gospel itself relating to the same subject. 3. How happy and comfortable soever the Paradise of the dead may be, it is not a place of final perfection, but a place of waiting for something better; a region not of full enjoyment, but of assured peace and hope. So much is hinted, in that God is thanked and glorified for not leaving our Saviour’ s soul in that place. Here is something very apt to raise in us high and noble thoughts of that which, in one way or another, we are shamefully used to undervalue--the mortal body of man. 4. What does the prophet teach concerning our Saviour’ s body? Our Saviour’ s Person was holy because of His most high Godhead. And the same name, “ Holy One,” is ascribed to His sacred body as it lay in the grave, three days and three nights, separate from His soul. It was still holy, still united in a mysterious but real manner to the Eternal Word. 5. Seeing that, even in the grave, the Godhead of the Lord Christ still abode with His blessed body, seeing that body was still God’ s Holy One, it could not be suffered to see corruption. And to whomsoever He has given power to become adopted sons of God He gives something glorious and immortal, a seed of a heavenly life which can never decay. Living or dying, nothing shall separate them from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord, nothing but their own wilful unworthiness. (Plain Sermons by Contributors to “Tracts for the Times. ”) On the descent of our Lord Jesus Christ into hell Doctrine: Our Lord Jesus Christ, the blessed and Holy One of God, was deeply humbled by His entrance into, and continuing in, the state of the dead for a time. I. Premise some things.1. That our Lord Jesus Christ not only endured, in His last passion, most painful sufferings in His body, but also most grievous torments immediately in His soul. Many great divines understand by the words, “ He descended into hell,” these soul sufferings of Jesus. 2. The Son of God willingly laid down His life; yielded to the power of death. 3. Though death made a separation of HIS soul from His body, yet His soul and body retained their union with the Divine nature, subsisting in the Person of the son of God. II. How Jesus was humbled by being in the state of the dead for a time. Death exercised its dominion over Him, as far as it could in law.1. Death continued its power and dominion over Him for a time. 2. While in the state of the dead He was cut off from the comforts of this life. 3. Men took occasion to give Him over for lost, and to judge Him as one totally vanquished by death, and without any help or hope. 4. He was further humbled by His soul entering into heaven as the soul of a dead man. 5. In regard that His blessed body was buried and laid in the grave. 6. In regard that His dead body was in the power of His enemies for a time. III. How long did our Saviour continue in the state of the dead? Three incomplete days and nights in the territories of death, and land of darkness and forgetfulness. IV. Why did the Lord Jesus continue in the state of the dead for a time? That He might conquer death and the grave in their own territories. Use for consolation. Against all challenges for guilt from the law and justice of God, from Satan, or your own consciences. Use for exhortation. Labour to have an interest in the death of Christ. (James Robe, M. A.) Neither wilt Thou suffer Thine Holy One to see corruption. The devout heart defying death I. The ground of this triumphant confidence. The text begins with a “ therefore,” and that sends us back to what has preceded. The realisation by faith of the presence of God, and of the calm blessedness and stability of continual communion with Him. The religious experiences of the devout life are of such a nature as to bring with them the calm, sweet assurance of their own immortality. The capacity for communion with God surely bears witness that the man who has it is not born for death. Though we have the objective proof of a future life, in the fact of the resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ, and though that historical fact is the illuminating fact which brings life and immortality to light, there is needed for the conversion of intellectual belief into living confidence the witness of our own personal enjoyment of God and His sweetness, here and now, which will bring to us, as nothing else will, the calm assurance wherein our hearts may be glad, our spirits may rejoice, and our very flesh may rest safely. If you would be sure of a blessed future, make sure of a God-filled present. II. The contents of the psalmist’ s triumphant confidence. The expression “ leave in” should be “ leave to” ; it does not express the notion of a permission to descend for a time into Sheol, then to be recalled thence, but it expresses the idea of not being delivered at all to the power of that dark world. The Psalmist is not thinking about any resurrection of the body, but is thinking that for him, by reason of his communion with God, death has really been abolished and become non-existent. The threatening shadow is swept clean out of his path. Could any man, knowing the facts of human life, ever cherish such an expectation as that? The answer is to be found in distinguishing between essence and form. The essence of the Psalmist’ s conviction was, that his communion with God was unbroken and unbreakable, and in the light of that great hope the grim figure that stood before him thinned itself away to a film, through which the hope shone like a star through the cloud. Whatsoever may have been the obscurity that lay over his conceptions of his own future, this was clear to him,--and this was the all-sufficient thing,--that the content, the stability, the immobility which he enjoyed in his communion with God had nothing in them that death could touch, and would run on unbroken for evermore. The text does not contemplate resurrection as an article of belief, but resurrection is a logical result of the Psalmist’ s way of thinking. For, says he, “ My flesh also shall rest secure.” The over-strained spiritualism which pays no attention to the body, except as the clog and prison house of the soul, has no footing in Scripture representations. The perfection of humanity is to be found in the rising up of a perfected spirit, and the investing of it with a body of glory,--its fitting instrument, its joyous friend. Turn to the positive side of this triumphant confidence. “ Thou wilt show me the path of life.” That means a road which is life all the way along, and leads to a more perfect and ultimate form thereof. The Psalmist is sure that when the path dips down into any valley of the shadow of death it is still a path to life. Mark the other portions of this triumphant positive confidence. Communion of earth, imperfect as it is, yields analogies, by the heightening and purifying of which we may construct for ourselves some dim, indeed, but reliable, visions of the blessedness of heaven. The enlargement and perfecting of this earthly experience is to be looked for in two directions. “ The fulness of joy” is “ in Thy presence.” And “ at Thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.” III. The fulfilment of this triumphant confidence. The Psalmist died. The essence of his hope was fulfilled; the form was not. The words point to an ideal which the Psalmist strained after, and did not realist. In Christ alone was realised, in its completeness, that life of communion which delivers from,, death. Though there still remains the physical fact, all that makes it “ death” is gone for him who trusts in Jesus Christ. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Joy in Christ’ s resurrection We are warranted in taking this Psalm to ourselves, inasmuch as the first verses of it plainly belong to David as well as to Christ. Every part of the Psalm may be applied to David in some sense, except that one clause m which our Lord only can be meant, “ Thou wilt not suffer Thine Holy One to see corruption.” See what consolation devout persons had, even under the Old Testament: they did, as it were, keep a kind of Easter beforehand. Observe what use the man after God’ s own heart made of his nightly pain and sickness. As he lay awake he practised himself in heavenly contemplations. In what he says he could not mean less than this: that he had a fair and reasonable hope of being somehow delivered from the power of death, and made partaker of heavenly joys in the more immediate presence of God. Yet even the greatest of the old fathers only saw through a glass darkly the things which Christians see face to face. Such as desire to offer to God thanksgivings worthy of His Gospel will find it no small help to know that their unworthy thanksgivings are very far from being single and alone. The saints before Christ partake of our devout joy and hope of immortality.1. See what kind of persons may reasonably hope to persevere in well-doing and in God’ s favour; namely, those who make it a rule to live always as in God’ s especial presence. If you want to have a cheerful and rational dependence on your continuance in well-doing, this one thing you must do, you must set God always before you. You must never act as if you were alone in the world. This is the only “ assurance” of salvation that can be reasonably depended on by any man in his own case; namely, the sober yet cheerful hope which arises from a pure conscience, from long-continued habits of real piety and goodness. All assurance besides this is more or less fanciful and dangerous. If a man is endeavouring to keep on this safe ground of assurance he may, without presumption, look for the other comforts mentioned in the Psalm. He may indulge in a calm and reverential joy of heart. The Psalmist notices, as another, the greatest of all fruits of holy trust in the Almighty, that it causes our very “ flesh,” that is, our mortal body, to “ rest in hope” ; it makes sleep quiet and secure, and it takes out the sting of death. The chiefest of all privileges is to have hope in the grave; hope that through Him, to whom alone these sacred promises belong of right, our souls shall not be left in hell,--in that dark, unknown condition to which, before the coming of Christ, the name of Hell was usually given. There need not now to be anything forlorn or desolate in our meditations on our departed friends, or on the condition to which we are ourselves approaching. The unseen region where the soul is to lodge is the place where once the Spirit of our Saviour abode, and is therefore under His especial protection, even more than any church or place that is most sacred on earth. (Plain Sermons by Contributors to “Tracts for the Times.”) Christ contemplating His future blessedness We must consider these words as our blessed Master’ s own words, as much so as though they came from His own lips. They describe the feelings of His human soul while dwelling in a human body in our world. And this gives them a very high interest. We have here some of the outpourings of His soul before His Father. I. The title He applies to Himself.1. He calls Himself God’ s “ Holy One.” It tells how eminently, conspicuously holy He was. 2. His application of this title to Himself shows us that He deemed it an honourable title. He delights in it, more than in anything besides. II. His prospect of His resurrection. We learn--1. That our holy Lord was, as we are, made up of both body and soul. He speaks of both: “ My soul,” and of His body in referring to the “ corruption,” which it should not see. 2. At His crucifixion these two parts of Him were separated. A real dissolution took place. The flesh and the spirit were rent now comes something peculiar to Him. 3. His human frame was saved from corruption. The least taint never touched it. We are familiar with death, and therefore the corruption of death does not make us shudder. But if we saw it for the first time we should abhor it, we should look on it as a token of God’ s disgust with us, a fixed purpose on His part to degrade and punish us to the utmost for our transgressions. 4. The resurrection of Christ consisted mainly in a reunion of His body and soul. It is implied in the words, “ Thou wilt show me the path of life.” And here comes out that wonderful truth, the eternal manhood of the Divine Saviour. Death made no essential change in Him. He is not a stranger to us. “ He is not ashamed to call us brethren.” Wonderful condescension! III. The view He had of His heavenly blessedness. Heaven is meant, we cannot doubt, in the last verse of this Psalm. And we observe-- 1. How our Lord tells of nothing in it peculiar to Himself. He places Himself on a level with His people. 2. See the nature of this blessedness. It is “ joy,” and not one only, but “ pleasures.” 3. And perfect, for it is “ fulness of joy.” 4. And permanent, “ for evermore.” 5. And the source of it--God. It is at God’ s right hand. St. Peter, quotes the passage thus: “ Thou shalt make me full of joy with Thy countenance.” 6. We and our blessed Lord shall be sharers together in the same happiness in His kingdom. IV. The effects which His anticipation of this blessedness produced in Him.1. Joy, gladness of heart. True, He was the Man of sorrows, but they were not unmingled. Many a gleam of light pierced through the darkness. And His joy burst forth in exultation and praise. Luke (chap. 10) tells us how “ He rejoiced in spirit.” And He left the world with something like a conqueror’ s shout. 2. Hope. It reconciled Him to death. It was but as a sleep to Him. (C. Bradley.) Christ’ s being the Holy One of God Jesus Christ is that Holy One of God, as--1. All the holiness of God is in Him. 2. In the special peculiar relation in which He stands to God. 3. He has more of the holiness of God communicated to Him than all other creatures. 4. The holiness of God is more manifested in and by Him than in any other way. 5. He is set apart in a peculiar manner for the bringing about God’ s great design of glorifying Himself, in putting an end to sin, and malting an elect world of mankind sinners holy. (James Robe, M. A.) Psalms 16:11 Thou wilt show me the path of life.The path of life Not merely, that is, the life of the body. This is shown by the pleasure and joy spoken of afterwards, which are to be found in God’ s presence, and in communion with Him. “ Life,” in the only true sense, is union with God, and from that springs, of necessity, the idea of immortality. It seems impossible to suppose that David, who here expresses such a fulness of confidence in God, such a living personal relationship to Him, could have dreamed that such a relationship would end with death. In this Psalm, and in the next, there shines forth the bright home of everlasting life. Why should man question this? Even the heathen struggled to believe that they should abide after death. Would they to whom God had revealed Himself, and who were bound to Him in a personal covenant, be left in greater darkness? Impossible! The argument which our Lord used with the Sadducees applies here with special force--God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. They to whom God has made Himself known, they who are one with Him, cannot lose that Divine life of which they are made partakers. Immortality (and a resurrection, Psalms 17:15) follows from the life of the spirit. And though probably there would be many fluctuations of belief, though the spiritual eye would not always be clear, it seems impossible to doubt, when we read passages such as this, that there were times at least when the hope of life beyond the grave did become distinct and palpable. At the same time, in the utterance of this confident persuasion and hope David was carried beyond himself. (J. J. Stewart Perowne, B. D.) The two ways (Taken with Proverbs 14:12.) There is such a thing in this dying world as a “ path of life.” This is represented as leading into fellowship with Him, in whose presence there is fulness of joy. “ At Thy right hand,” and thither the path leads, “ there are pleasures for evermore.” There are two distinct and contrasted ways or lines of life. The one is called “ the way of life,” the other is “ the way that seemeth right unto a man.” Set the two ways before you, and ask a deliberate choice. The first thing in journeying is to know where you are going. The one is the way of life, because it is a way which can only be traversed by those who live in the full sense of the word. The highest faculty of our nature is that spiritual capacity which enables us to hold communion with God. And also because it is the way in which alone life can be sustained. And further, because it leads to life. Look at the other way. It “ seemeth right unto a man.” Only “ seemeth.” But it is not what it seems. It is very popular. Everybody takes it. That does not make its character good, or its end desirable. (W. Hay Aitken, M. A.) The desire for life Beyond the fact that this Psalm was written by David, we know nothing of the circumstances of its authorship. It is evidently called forth by some signal display of the Divine goodness. The Psalmist felt round about him the strengthening sense of that protecting power and presence of God which filled his heart with confidence and made his cup to overflow with the wine of joy. I. Every true religious sentiment meets with universal response. Like as the aesthetic sentiments of mankind, our best feelings of the beautiful in art and music, were given to the Greeks to preserve and develop; so the religious sentiments of mankind, our feelings of the Divine and spiritual, seem to have been the especial care and heritage of the Jewish race. And as our feelings of beauty are eternal, so that Greek art and poetry will never be unappreciated, so are our intuitions of righteousness, our yearnings for the Divine eternal, and hence the Bible will never die, its perennial fountain will never dry up. II. Life is universally desired. Else why the frantic struggles to maintain it, even in its most wretched conditions. Only when reason has lost her sway does the suicide do his work. III. But none can say what life is, any more than we can say what electricity is, what gravitation is. We see it, we feel it, we are conscious of it; but that is all. We know it only by its manifestations, and if we can see in what these agree, what they have in common, our text will have much meaning. The exotic cannot bear frost, the camellia from the hothouse perishes before it. The luxuriously reared child suddenly flung into poverty and want would probably die. Now, in all these cases there has been change in the surroundings; but if, with the changed outward conditions in each case, the inward conditions as well could have been changed, the mischief in each case would not have happened. But they were not so changed, and so there was either death or else a diminution of the powers of living. For life, then, there is needed the complete correspondence between the inward nature and the outward surroundings, harmony between them and our nature. Apply all this to the spiritual life. For this life also there must be harmony between itself and its surroundings. What are these, what its soil, atmosphere, elements of growth, its habitat or dwelling place? God--is the answer; there is none other. God revealed as our spiritual Father is the spirit’ s fit outward surroundings, its external relations. Hence, would we live the true spiritual life we must be in harmony with God, our environment. The low, sensual, selfish life kills the spiritual life, as the frost killed the flower. But where, as in Christ supremely, there is harmony between God and the soul, there is the true life. Christ is the way, because He is the revelation of God. (H. Varley, B. A.) The path of life 1. It is the path, because while all other paths end at death, this begins there. 2. Christ took the first step in this path. Someone must lead in it, and He did, and now says, “ Follow Me.” 3. It is a customary road; a path is so. There never was another than this, and never will be. 4. Everyone who walks in it makes it plainer and easier. We help others to walk in it by walking in it ourselves. 5. Beware, as we go through life, of diverging paths that lead astray to death. 6. The Bible is the lamp in our path. 7. We are always walking in some path--either of life or death. We cannot stand still. 8. To walk in a path we must put forth energy and activity. We must not only know it but walk in it. 9. The path of life, to those who walk in it, grows brighter and brighter unto the perfect day. 10. Divine guidance is necessary and promised. “ Thou wilt show me the path of life.” “ He will direct thy paths.” 11. Am I walking in it? (J. Stanford Holme, D. D.) The path of life The whole passage primarily refers to our Lord Jesus Christ, and the recalling is--My heart is glad, etc., for Thou wilt show me the path of life, or, Thou hast shown me. But we may apply the words to all who are Christ’ s, who may be considered here-- I. As rejoicing in the life of grace. God quickened in them this life (Ephesians 2:1); for they were spiritually dead. Not Scripture alone teaches this, but observation and experience. Religious things make no more impression on the spiritually dead than sunbeams on a rock. But God’ s mercy comes in conversion, which is the quickening spoken of. Then are we born again, and begin really to live. II. They rejoice, also, in the assurance of being conducted safe to glory. How else should a dying saint have any comfort at all? How shall a poor stranger in such a dark abyss find the path of life? Then--1. How thankful should we be for the Gospel. Reason may argue in favour of the immortality of the soul, but could never show that such sinful creatures as we are should be admitted into the presence of God. 2. How sharply to be reproved and greatly to be pitied are they who will not walk in the path of life. (Samuel Lavington.) The path of life I. Thoughts suggested by the metaphor. A path. The believer’ s life is a journey--a walk (Genesis 17:1; Genesis 5:24; Isaiah 30:21; Ephesians 4:1). We need both a door and a path. An entrance into life, and a pathway in it. II. The teaching contained in the passage. The Psalm is prophetic of Christ. To Him “ the path of life” was first opened. Lost man had no way to God. The path to life was from the manger to the Cross. The path of life is from the Cross to glory. Adam through sin had forfeited his right of access into the presence of God. Through Christ the way to paradise is opened. III. Lessons. Man cannot make his own way to God. It is a path already opened for us. We need God to reveal it to us. We must be brought to its true starting point. The path brings us into the presence and puts before us a prospect. The path brightens as we advance. (E. H. Hopkins.) The path of life I. An encouraging promise of divine direction. Consider the text in reference to God’ s answer to prayer. Has not everyone the greatest need of Divine direction and heavenly illumination in his passage through life? What untiring diligence, unceasing watchfulness, and persevering prayer is every Christian constrained to use in his hourly converse with the world! How solicitous should every Christian be that, as every step of his life is leading to the path of death, he may be so guided by Divine counsel as to be directed to the path of life, to the path of glory, honour, and immortality, even eternal life. II. The happy and blessed results arising from attention to this direction. An admission into His presence, where there is fulness of joy. It is the presence of God, our heavenly Father, which constitutes this fulness of joy. Fulness of joy can only be consummated in the other world, But what tongue can unfold the felicity of that state? III. The eternal duration of the heavenly glory. This it is which invests the subject with the most momentous and overwhelming magnitude. (Nat. Meeres, B. D.) The assurance of our personal immortality, and what it involves Annihilation of man, or even of an atom, is unknown in God’ s universe; while the grave is the place in which is covered what would otherwise be painful, offensive, and injurious to survivors. We know life is uncertain; but we practically regard it as certain, at least for a few years. There is in all of us faith in a future life, and hope and desire that in that life our merciful Creator will perfect our nature, and confer upon us a painless and unbroken happiness. The immortality of our race is deeply interesting, but our individual immortality, and what it involves, should be to us a matter of practical and daily concern. There is a sense in which men discover their value in the scale of being. They learn that they have not only a body but a soul, that not only must the wants of the body be supplied, but the mind must be trained, and the soul kept under God’ s government, for its present health and future bliss. There are three states of man’ s reasoning mind which no instinct of the lower animals that we are acquainted with has ever suggested--1. We have no evidence that any creature except man expects death; or has any knowledge of it. 2. The idea of a future life cannot be entertained by the horse or the elephant, by the ant or the bee. 3. As little capacity have they for the desire of it. The instincts of brutes concern their present wants; but man, by his superior endowment, ranges over the present and the future, over what is near and far distant, and by the high faculty of reason can awake to a consciousness of God, and of his own personal immortality. Christianity has given to man a familiarity with pure religion for the soul, for moral and holy discipline, and for appreciating his destiny, which none of the old philosophies had the power to give or to enforce. We are now assured by Jesus that we shall live forever, and, assuming this, it should involve hopes and duties in relation to ourselves and others of high and practical import.1. It should involve sacred regard for our own life, and for that of others. The sacredness and value of our own life, and of that of others, should ever be a practical lesson inwrought daily with our very being, whether on the smallest or largest scale. Crime against the person cannot cease unless humanity is respected. There can be no respect for it where there are no just views of its dignity, worth, and moral and religious power; and the way to elevate it is not by depreciating and debasing it, nor by discouraging or damning it; but by loving efforts for its recovery, by purifying the sources of temptation to crime, etc. It also demands on our part sacred regard for the life of others. A hope of immortality also involves a sacred regard to our personal virtue, and to that of others. Whatever will purity our nature, control our passions, convince us of the evil and bitterness of sin, elevate our thoughts and affections, and help us onward in our Christian course, we should seek more perfectly to possess in the prospect of an immortal life. 2. If we had not the immortal life before us we should think of death as our end. In the prospect of our immortal life it must be wise, and every way worthy of us, to form the purest, most holy, and most just conceptions of the blessed God. But how can this personal immortality be assured? We have a soul; it implies immortality. The inequalities of the present state of man imply a sphere of readjustment. We desire immortality. The Bible declares it. These grounds of assurance with our individual consciousness, desire, and hope, are what men rest upon in relation to their immortality. It cannot be mathematically, philosophically, or logically demonstrated. (R. Ainslie.) In Thy presence is fulness of joy.--The bliss of the Divine presence Heaven is often described by negatives, but here we have positive statement as to that in which it consists. Therefore consider its perfection. I. In extent. The state contemplated will be after the resurrection, as it was for our Lord after His resurrection. Hence St. Paul says, “ Our conversation is in heaven.” And he tells us also of the “ glorious body,” the “ spiritual body” which shall be ours then (1 Corinthians 15:44). And the mind also will partake in this glory, this fulness of joy. How much will result from memory. Also from survey of the present--the heavenly city, the glory of God, the Saviour, And the future, too, will minister to this joy. And the affections likewise, profound admiration, ardent gratitude, entire confidence, perfect love. II. Its degree. This, too, will be perfect. There will be difference of capacity, and so of degree, which will be determined mainly by character. All that hinders full excellence here will be absent there. III. In duration. It will be endless, and therefore perfect. “ These are pleasures for evermore.” Without this we could not be satisfied. “ A perpetuity of bliss is bliss.” Could we fear an end to it, it would wither. Many have denied eternal punishment, but none eternal bliss. Remember its spirituality and purity, and anticipate it with joy. (J. Kay.) God’ s presence manifested in heaven The manifestation of God to man, which was begun in paradise, is to be continued through eternity. It has been maintained by some that the soul of man ceases to exist at the death of the body, and that there is an actual hiatus in man’ s being from the moment of death to the period of the resurrection. Others, while admitting the continued existence of the soul, divest it of all consciousness, and suppose it to pass into a state of torpor, until awaked on the morning of the resurrection. In the dissolution of man we see these two distinct substances, body and soul, separated one from the other, and each consigned to a widely different destiny, the body to the earth from which it was taken, and the soul to a continued existence in the spiritual world (Ecclesiastes 12:7; Matthew 10:28). Here it is evidently taught, such is the vitality of the soul, that no power can annihilate it but the omnipotence of that Being who brought it into existence; and therefore to deny its immortality is to contradict the plainest testimony of God Himself. Equally opposed to the authority of Holy Scripture is the theory which teaches that, at death, the soul passes into a state of unconsciousness until the resurrection Our Lord, when confuting the materialists of His day, who cavilled at His doctrine, asserted the actual conscious existence of the Jewish patriarchs, though at that time the latest of them had been dead nearly two thousand years. When the Saviour was about to expire as our atoning victim He said to the thief, who was dying by His side as a penitent malefactor, “ Verily, today shalt thou be with Me m paradise.” When Lazarus died, angels carried him into Abraham’ s bosom; and when the rich man died, in hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torments. Now, had the souls of men passed at death into a state of unconsciousness, the condition of Lazarus and of the rich man would have been perfectly alike; but here their state is that of awful contrast, the one of blessedness, the other of torment. In conformity with these representations the apostle Paul speaks of death as being preferable to life. But why preferable? Because, as he affirms, to die was gain. Yet to pass into a state of unconsciousness would be to suffer loss--the loss of all the enjoyments and privileges of life (Philippians 1:21-23; 2 Corinthians 5:6-8). While these passages decide the question as to the continued existence and consciousness of the soul, they also unfold the grand Cause of its blessedness--it is in the soul’ s being with Christ. The promise to the dying thief was, not only that he should be in paradise, but with Christ in paradise. The blessedness anticipated by St. Paul consisted in his being with Christ. “ And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.” Thus these two ideas--the presence and manifestation of God to man--belong to the dispensation of eternity as well as time, and constitute the blessedness of heaven as well as of earth. The soul was made for God, and can find neither happiness nor satisfaction without Him. This is a law of our being, and is as applicable to the future as it is to the present life. Gravitation is not a more universal and imperative law in the physical universe than is this law of dependence on God in the spiritual world. Let us notice some of the conditions which render heaven an advanced dispensation for the realisation of the presence and manifestation of God to the human soul.1. In heaven there will be perfect freedom from all the evils, sufferings, and dangers of the present state of being. Ever since man fell from God he has been subject to the evils and sorrows of a fallen state; and though religion greatly mitigates the sufferings of humanity, and supports us under them, yet its highest attainments cannot remove them. The world, the flesh, and the devil are antagonistic to our spiritual welfare, and the Christian life is an athletic struggle--a warfare against active foes and evil influences, which beset us at every step. We inherit diseases, afflictions, and death. Though such a state of things may suit a period of discipline and probation, it is not compatible with a state of absolute safety and perfect enjoyment. The battlefield may develop the courage and valour of the warrior, but the tranquil bower suits the contemplation of the philosopher. The storms of winter may cause to strike deeper the roots of the tree, but the calm sunshine of summer is required to develop its foliage and ripen its fruit. The struggles and tears of a probationary life may give nerve and athletic vigour to the Christian, but the calm rest which remaineth for the people of God is the state better suited to the contemplation of the Divine perfections and the deep consciousness of the Divine presence. 2. In heaven the powers of the soul will be quickened and its capacities enlarged. In the present state the soul, being united to a material fabric, performs many of its acts through a material organisation. A large proportion of its ideas are received through the medium of the senses. There is, however, as clear a distinction between the faculties of the soul and the material organs through which it acts, as there is between the soul itself and the fabric in which it resides. It is the soul that sees and hears, and the eye is merely the optical instrument through which it sees; and the ear is but the acoustic apparatus by which it perceives the various sounds, harsh or harmonious, which are made by the vibrations of the atmosphere. The same principle applies to the other material organs, through which the soul receives impressions and performs its various operations. Besides, it must be remembered that the Holy Spirit has the power of communicating, and the soul the capability of receiving, ideas and impressions by direct and immediate contact, without the interposition of the bodily senses. Hence the inspiration of prophets, and the Divine illumination and spiritual emotions of believers. The mind can abstract, compound, reason, imagine, cherish principles, and experience emotions of deepest joy or anguish, by its own internal operations, even when some of the organs of sense are destroyed. What visions of beauty and grandeur did the mind of Milton create after his eyeballs had ceased to admit a ray of material light! But in this case the mind is already furnished, all its faculties stimulated by exercise, refined and expanded by knowledge, and its emotions excited by experience. Let us then suppose such a mind, during the life of the body, bereft not only of one, two, or three, but of all the five senses: what then would be its state? True, it would be cut off from all further communication with the external world; but it would still have a world within itself--a world of thought, reasoning, and imagination, equally capacious, and of emotion far more intense than it had before. If such, in truth, would be the state of a soul deprived of the organs of sense, but still linked to the living material fabric, what should hinder it from possessing and exercising the same powers and realising the same state when the body ceases to breathe? Death is nothing more than the dissolution of the material fabric--the understanding, the memory, the judgment, the conscience, the powers of volition and emotion are still inherent, as essential properties of its nature, and must remain with it forever; but vastly increased in their activity and intensity, in consequence of their separation from the earthly tabernacle in which they had resided. All the representations of Holy Scripture sustain these views of the soul in the separate state. The soul of the rich man in hell was in a state of vivid consciousness, having a clear knowledge of the present, with a full recollection of the past, a keen susceptibility of suffering. That the faculties of the soul in the separate state are more vigorous and capacious, and therefore better adapted for receiving the manifestation of God, than while in this mortal body, may be further argued on various grounds. The body has many wants of its own which, though inferior, are imperative in their demands, and retard the development of mind. But on the soul’ s dismissal from the body these wants all cease, together with all the cares and toils they occasioned, leaving the soul unbroken leisure for contemplations and pursuits congenial to its nature, and exercises adapted to accelerate its highest attainments in knowledge, holiness, and bliss. While united to the body in its present state, the soul is located to a confined and narrow spot of Jehovah’ s dominions, and cannot explore those displays of the Divine perfections which are presented in other and brighter regions of the universe. Nor is a world abounding with error the most fitted for the perception of truth; nor a world of sin the best adapted to the growth of moral excellence. Even now, the mind borrows from art means to supply the deficiencies of its own material organs: the microscope to magnify the diminutive, the telescope to discover the remote, and the acoustic tube to convey distant sounds, because the eye and the ear are not fully adequate to the mind’ s investigations. Hence our best perceptions are but limited and obscure. The narrow grating of a dungeon admits a portion of the light of heaven, but let the incarcerated captive emerge from his cell and he beholds the whole hemisphere beaming with light, and an extended prospect filled with ten thousand beauties unknown before. So may the soul on passing from the body, which now limits its operations. Besides, this material fabric is too frail for the full exertion of mental power. Intense thinking softens the brain, and intense feeling, whether joyous or painful, soon exhausts the nervous energy. Progress is the law of mind, but decay the law of matter; and, within a very few years, the body becomes incapacitated as the medium for mental attainment and progress. So that were not death to relieve the soul from the restraints of physical weakness and the decay of age, the development of mind must be arrested and its noble powers be doomed to stop in their progress, just at a point when most fitted to make the greatest advancement and to realise the highest joys. But the soul, on emerging from the body, escapes from these restraints; it breaks its fetters and enters upon a state in which it may exert its vigorous powers unhindered by weakness, unarrested by decay, and expand its capacities without limit and without end. In such a state how adapted the soul to drink in the knowledge of God, to receive the disclosures of Jehovah’ s perfections, to enjoy the manifestations of His presence, and to sustain an exceeding great and eternal weight of glory. The sublime mysteries of creation, providence, and redemption, continually unfolding new glories, will astonish and delight the mind forever. 3. As another facility for the manifestation of God, the soul shall be admitted into His immediate presence. Heaven is a place as well as a state of being. It is said that spirit has no relation to place, but we confess to the vulgar conception that if a spirit exist it must be either everywhere or somewhere; that unless it be ubiquitous it must have a limited presence. And, as in the present life, the human spirit is located in the human body, so in eternity it must have a location. As there was a locality for the Shekinah, the visible symbol of the Divine presence, so there is a sacred place, a distinct region, where the personal presence of Jehovah is manifested and displayed. To determine the particular locality where heaven is, no man is able. As to the description of this glorious place, language fails to set forth its beauty. In every inspired description of heaven the Shekinah, or the visible presence of God, is made prominent. The earthly temple, while forming a shrine for the Shekinah, was a mode of its concealment from the ordinary view of the people. The glory was curtained off and shut in, so that the radiant symbol was enthroned in solitary majesty in the most holy place. But in the New Jerusalem no temple is seen, for no external shade is required; and in the brightness of a better dispensation, concealment and restriction have disappeared. Here, then, is the first consummation of the believer’ s aspirations and hopes. At last the wilderness is left, and the promised paradise is gained; the weary pilgrim has arrived at home; the absent son and heir has entered his Father’ s house. The journey of faith ends in realising vision and actual possession. “ Whom have I in heaven but Thee? And there is none upon earth that I desire besides Thee.” But love longs for the sight and presence of its object. But while the promises, which speak of our seeing God, imply an optical vision of the Deity, they imply also a more enlarged, comprehensive, and profound knowledge of His character and perfections; for the manifestation of the Deity, in order to our enjoyment of Him, is the end of all His dispensations, and applies to heaven as well as earth. Hitherto we have seen a gradual brightening of this manifestation, as one economy has succeeded another; and the manifestation in heaven shall be brighter than all its predecessors. Moreover, as the perfection of our vision always depends upon the perfection of the visual organ, and its proper adjustment to the object beheld, as well as upon the degree of light thrown upon it, so does the perfection of the soul’ s knowledge of God depend upon its moral state, as well as upon the increased light which will beam upon it in eternity. So the untutored savage and the sensualist perceive but little, though they see much, for a brutish man knoweth not these things. Hence there is an amazing difference between men’ s power of perception and appreciation, arising from the difference in their mental state, their education and habits of life; and often as great a difference between the same men in different periods of their own history! But the pure in heart see God. Their eye is open to perceive Him; their affections are sanctified to appreciate Him, and their aspirations are spiritual to enjoy the Holy One; and thus men see God just in proportion to their personal purity and their resemblance to Him. Here, then, we perceive important reasons which account for a deeper, a richer, a sublimer manifestation of God to the soul in heaven. All the conditions of the mind will favour this development. While absent from a world of illusion, while free from the restraints of a weak and decaying body, it is free from every vestige of sin; while dwelling in the light of the Divine presence, it is capacitated by a state of perfect holiness for seeing and appreciating the beauty of the Lord. There sin shall no more avert the eye from God, nor blur its perception of His glory. 4. In heaven the disposition for communion will be perfectly developed, affording the highest and most perfect gratification of that social principle which God has implanted in our nature. Man was formed for society. Yet society, as it exists in this world, is confessedly imperfect. Sin has infused its poison into this, as well as into every other cup of earthly happiness. There is a want of confidence, of disinterested affection, of constancy and fidelity. But in heaven this defect shall be supplied. For there angels and archangels, and the spirits of just men made perfect--all beings of unspotted holiness and full of love--will be our companions and our friends. “ In this world the possession of a few friends, nay, even of one friend, is justly deemed an invaluable treasure, but what will be our blessedness in that world where all are our friends, and where the soul, like the region where it dwells, will be capacious enough to admit them all?” No rival interests, no conflicting aims, no jarring passions, no malign or discordant tempers disturb the society of heaven. This holy fellowship of heaven will contribute, in no small degree, to the grand purpose of a further manifestation of God to His intelligent creatures. In such a state of being, and favoured with such society, how rapidly must the soul grow in the knowledge of God! What are earthly teachers, however erudite, eloquent, and profound, compared with our instructors in heaven? What are our learned libraries here compared with the accumulated treasures of heavenly wisdom and knowledge there? What, indeed, are our present revelations, conveyed as they are through the imperfect medium of human speech, and received by minds so dull in their apprehensions? 5. In heaven there shall also be the most intimate, delightful, and ennobling communion with God. The disposition for communion dwells in the Deity Himself and ere a solitary creature existed it was reciprocally exercised between the persons of the Godhead--the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Man being formed in God’ s image and likeness, this disposition for communion was implanted in his nature; and while it gives man delight in the society of his fellow man, and makes the communication of thought and affection a source of happiness, it finds its highest gratification and development in fellowship with God. There the soul, dwelling in the immediate presence of Deity, and disengaged from the absorbing cares and distractions of a secular state of being, will realise the most intimate and uninterrupted fellowship with God. It will not, indeed, as the oriental philosophy teaches, be absorbed into the Deity, and, losing its personal consciousness, be swallowed up in the abyss of the Godhead; but with its identity preserved, as distinct and personal as it is in this inferior state, it will realise a union with God so perfect in the aspirations of its desires, in the intercommunion of its thoughts and affections, that it will live in God and God in it. We know a man best, not by seeing his picture or reading his history, but by personal intercourse and communion. Thus two congenial minds penetrate rote each other’ s thoughts, and reciprocate each other’ s dispositions; they see as they are seen, and know as they are known. And thus it is (let us reverently speak it) that the soul knows the great and eternal God--not merely intellectually, as His perfections are displayed in His works and His character unfolded in progressive dispensations, but in the deep personal consciousness of our union with Deity. In this manifestation of the Deity the Holy Spirit will operate in heaven as He does on earth, but with an augmented power proportioned to the superior state and capacity of disembodied souls. Searching, as He does, the deep things of God, He will reveal them to the blessed, with whom He will abide forever. 6. In heaven the saints will be engaged in the most ennobling employments. 7. There is one word uttered by an inspired apostle which is more pregnant with meaning as to the manifestation of God to the soul in the spiritual world, and of the eternal happiness flowing from it, than could be expressed by a thousand volumes. It is the single declaration that we “ are heirs of God.” The apostle says the believer is an heir--not of the material universe, for that is poor compared with the treasure named--not of heaven, for that is not expressive of the opulence intended; but he is an heir of the God of the universe, of Him whose presence makes heaven what it is--an heir of the Deity Himself. As the mind has no limit to its development, nothing but the infinite can suffice for it; and there is nothing infinite but God. Of God Himself, then, the believer is now an heir; in eternity he enters into his possession and enjoyment, with free and full access to the fountain of eternal blessedness. All there is in God is his: his to know, so far as his understanding can comprehend; his to enjoy, so far as his capacity can contain; and eternity itself is designed to yield successive developments of the infinite fulness there is in God. 8. The state of the soul in heaven is one of further expectation. No dispensation which God has given to man in the present world has been a complete and ultimate good, but an instalment of some greater good to come. Promise and prophecy have ever led the mind onward and upward. Indeed, the exercise of faith and hope has been a prominent and indispensable element in that educational process by which the great Teacher has trained and developed the human mind in every age. Hence the progressive development of the Gospel plan, from the first promise of a Saviour through the successive stages of the Divine economy. Hence, too, the transition from the cloudy symbol of the temple to the personal manifestation of the incarnate God. Thus faith and hope live in heaven as well as on earth; and though much once promised is now realised, yet from the elevation to which he is exalted he beholds a wider horizon of truth and a brighter prospect of future blessedness; and faith in the promise and hope of the expected good are elements of his present enjoyment. Having noticed the various elements of the happiness of heaven, we ought here to remark that the essential qualification for this blessedness is holiness. We cannot conclude without adverting to the awful contrast presented in the condition of the wicked after death. They have the same nature, but a different doom. (W. Cooke, D. D.) Heavenly felicity I. The nature of heavenly felicity. It is living in the presence of God. It is living at the right hand of God, that is, in a state of exaltation, dignity, and glory. It is a state of joy. It is a state of pleasure. II. The plenitude of heavenly felicity. Expressed by the word “ fulness.” Here our enjoyments, even our religious enjoyments, are accompanied by fear, mixed with sorrow, frequently interrupted, at best but partial, and at most but small. There will be fulness, what is pure, without any alloy; perpetual, without any interruption; and what is enough, without any satiety. III. The duration of heavenly felicity will be for evermore. “ Evermore” is one of the scriptural expressions denoting interminable duration. (Sketches of Four Hundred Sermons.) The power of a presence Not necessarily a spoken word or an act performed--simply a presence. There is a Divine presence, distinct from any word, or act, or exercise of Divine power; the charm is found in this, that God is there; it is what He is, not what He does or says, which His presence emphasises. The use of worship is partly this, that it makes His invisible presence a reality. The more forms and ceremonies corrupt the simplicity, of worship, the more is attention diverted from God as a spirit. Closet prayer is especially helpful, if not hurried and superficial. To wait until a proper conception of God’ s presence impresses the soul makes prayer of vastly more service to the suppliant. Every human being has a presence. It used to be said of Lord Chatham, that in the man was something finer than in anything he said. We hear with us a power that for good or evil is greater than any influence exerted by our deliberate acts or words. Swedenborg called it an “ atmosphere.” It is as inseparable from the person as the fragrance from the flower. It is the unconscious reflection and transmission of character. It sometimes contradicts the words and studied externals; and it sometimes coincides with and confirms their witness. That atmosphere makes the home and the Church and society more than all else. Negatively a good “ presence” restrains, and positively, it inspires. To stay in Fenelon’ s society, an infidel said, would compel him to be a Christian. While we emphasise the deliberate and voluntary part of our lives, God doubtless sees that the most potent, for good or evil, are the influences which silently and unconsciously go out from us, like the savour of salt and the radiance of light. (Homiletic Review.) True happiness I. True happiness is not to be expected here. This is implied in the text. The world is not our home. This life is but a small part of our existence. Take a general survey of the condition of human life. How weak and helpless is infancy! Childhood and youth are vanity! How many dangers always attend us! Who is secure? Changes of condition and circumstances are many times as sudden as they are sad. God is good and wise, as well as great. His benevolence is as unbounded as His power. Joys are mingled with our sorrows. Religion does not undertake to preserve its friends from affliction, but forewarns them of it, that they may be prepared to meet it. And it is a mighty support and cordial under it. Moreover, we have never found in the world as much as corresponds with all the capacities, and fully answers all the expectations, and gratifies all the desires of our souls. II. Where shall we partake of that happiness of which our nature renders us capable? We must die before we can thus live. Death will transmit the children of God to the glorious presence of their heavenly Father, and there shall they be blessed. III. The properties and excellencies of our future blessedness.1. As to the degree--perfection. Nothing is wanting to render the joy complete. 2. As to the duration--perpetuity. The joys are for evermore. God is the fountain; and pleasures flow at His right hand in an endless stream. Reflections. (1) Give not up your prospects and hopes of heavenly pleasures, perfect and perpetual as they are, for the sake of any worldly profits or sinful pleasures. (2) To be without God’ s gracious presence with us upon earth is very grievous; and with that we ought to give no place to fear and dejection, fear of evils that may happen to us, or dejection under such as have already overtaken us. (E. Sandercock, D. D.) The happiness of the saints Joy is the soul’ s rest and satisfaction in the enjoyment of a suitable good.1. The character of those who shall have fulness of joy. Such as repent of their sins; believe in Christ, are upright in their profession, and follow the example of Christ. 2. Wherein this blessedness consists. The presence of God is the presence of His glory; the presence of His face, without a veil; His immediate presence, without obscuring mediums; His countenancing presence, as a pleased friend and father; His fixed and abiding presence, we shall be forever with Him; His influxive and efficacious presence, a glimpse of which made Moses’ face to shine. Their happiness is also occasioned by those joys and pleasures which are at God’ s right hand. The joy and pleasures of the heavenly world are spiritual and heavenly, not carnal and earthly. Pure without mixture. A multitude without number. Full without any want. Constant, without diminution or interruption. Perpetual. Improvement: 1. Hence see the folly and madness of those who seek their portion in this life. 2. Let such glorious views and expectations comfort the heirs of glory in the midst of all their tribulations. 3. Let it excite all such to diligence and activity in the ways of God. (T. Hannam.) The emotions of a saint just arrived in heaven Fulness of joy is a most comprehensive expression. It implies the perfection of enjoyment in all the faculties of being. That joy which is destined to ultimate extinguishment cannot be said to be perfect joy. The expression “ fulness of joy” cannot have relation to this world. It must stand related to some other and higher sphere. Heaven is the goal of the Christian’ s race.1. The glorified Christian will feel that he has been the subject of a change which affects everything connected with him save his identity. One source of singular emotions is the absence of the body, the former inlet of physical pain, and of general suffering. 2. Another source of new and joyful emotions springs from the unencumbered action of the spirit, and its unconstrained inspiration in the air of heaven. 3. Another source of happiness is the fact that the believer has now entered into more exalted society than he enjoyed on earth. 4. The friendships of heaven will be of a higher order than those of earth. 5. Another element will be the clear light which will then be shed upon all God’ s dealings with the believer while he was upon earth. 6. That which will give fulness of joy to the glorified believer will be the unutterable privilege of standing in the presence of his Saviour Jesus Christ. (A. S. Gardner.) The presence of God I. What we are to understand by the presence of God here. God is present everywhere by His infinite knowledge and almighty energy. He fills universal nature. But the Psalmist speaks of a more gracious presence, those peculiar manifestations of Himself with which He delights His believing and obedient people, and which He affords them through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. It is only in Jesus Christ that we, sinful creatures, can see or think of a holy and just God with any comfort. II. How does it appear that in this presence there is fulness of joy? Consider this presence as it is known in--1. This world. Here the enjoyment of it first begins. To the good man the Divine presence gives a peculiar and most lively relish to every enjoyment here. The creatures around us, the beauties of nature and art, the social connections in life, the Divine Word, and all means of grace, are all more desirable and delightful as tokens of the Divine presence are found in them. We are all exposed to affliction, trials, perils and death, and our consolation in all comes from the presence of God. 2. The world to come. There our joy will be full indeed, because-- (1) It will be absolutely pure and unmixed. It will be all joy, without any alloy of sorrow; without even the fear of it. (2) It answers to every want and desire of our nature. It includes every possible delight, and will leave no desire unsatisfied. (3) It will be full in point of duration. It will fill even the endless ages of eternity itself. (4) It is all derived from, and supported by, the fulness of Christ. Improvement: 1. Hew mean the sentiments and pursuits of the bulk of mankind appear in view of this truth. 2. There must be some very great change wrought in us, before we can so enjoy the Divine presence as to find our happiness there. 3. How invaluable a blessing the Gospel is. (Daniel Turner.) The presence of God, as it is the beaten and happiness of the saints The presence of God maketh heaven, and the perfect happiness to be enjoyed there. I. The characters of those who shall be blessed by being in the presence of God forever.1. Those who believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ with a Divine, practical, heart-purifying, and life sanctifying faith. 2. You who are upright in a good profession. 3. You who are Christ’ s honest servants. II. What presence of God makes heaven unto the saints. The presence of His essence is as really on earth as in heaven.1. The presence of God that makes happy in heaven is the presence of His glory. 2. It is the presence of His face; in the glory of the Mediator. 3. His immediate presence, manifested no longer through obscuring mediums. 4. His countenancing presence. 5. His fixed and abiding presence. 6. His efficacious and influxive presence. (James Robe, M. A.) “ Fulness of joy” to come There can be no doubt that in their primary application these words bear reference to the Lord Jesus; for of Him only could it be said, “ Thou wilt not suffer Thine Holy One to see corruption.” But while we thus believe that the Psalmist is writing chiefly about Jesus, we at the same time feel that, He being the Head of the body, the Church, these verses may for the most part be applied to all those who are made living members of His body by the mighty operation of the Lord the Spirit. The text speaks of a “ fulness of joy,” and tells us where it is to be had. Jesus always intended His people to be happy. One of His sweetest discourses closes with the words, “ these things have I spoken unto you, that My joy might remain in you and your joy might be full.” But the believer has to confess, notwithstanding all the blessed promises of God’ s Word, that his joy is not full. He has real joy, spiritual joy, springing from the consciousness of the love of God; and this joy is a great help to him. But he wants more. Now, amongst the things which interrupt the fulness of our joy on earth is-- I. The weakness of our faith. There are very few, even of the most advanced Christians, who do not mourn over weakness of faith. Abraham himself failed once and again. We walk by sight overmuch, or at least desire to. II. The slowness of his growth in grace. He longs to love God with all his heart and soul and strength; to be holy even as Christ is holy, perfect even as his Father in heaven is perfect. But when he sits down to examine himself, and weighs his thoughts, his words, his deeds, in the scales of the sanctuary, he finds so much of worldly conformity, so much cleaving to the earth, so little rising in thought and spirit to heaven, that he rises from the examination with a drooping spirit and an aching heart. III. The power and ascendency of besetting sin. Whether it be pride, or covetousness, or envy, ill-temper or uncharitableness, whatever it be, we have all of us some sin which has a greater power over us than others. It may be we fondly deemed we had wholly subdued it. But in a little while some trifling temptation is laid in our way; it looks enticing, fascinating, profitable; away go all our good resolutions, and we are betrayed into the commission of that very sin against which we had prayed so earnestly, and whose power we thought we had broken. IV. Seasons of spiritual desertion. He has been walking for some time in the light of God’ s countenance, rejoicing ever to look up and see a Father’ s smiling face. But things are sadly altered now. Prayer goes up, but the answer comes not. Difficulties encompass him on every side; his enemies are many and mighty, yea, they come in like a flood; he cries aloud, but his Father makes as though He heard not; distress, tribulation, anguish come upon him. Again he well-nigh sinks in despair. V. Care concerning provision for the future. You, my poorer brethren, will understand what we mean. Most, if not all of you, have to earn your bread by the sweat of your brow. We meet you looking careworn, anxious, depressed; joy has departed from you, and trial wears you down. Very many, we fear most of you, increase these cares and troubles by carrying them yourself instead of casting them on Jesus; and you lose much of the joy that religion affords, because you refuse to see a Father’ s hand in all that befalls you. But to you, who are the Lord’ s own dear people, we say, yet a little while and these cares shall be over. VI. The loss of the near and the dear. But look on to blessed reunion in Christ. (Henry J. Berguer.) At Thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.--Heaven Two ideas are here brought together,--fulness of joy, and the presence of God. Joy is the realisation of God’ s presence in heaven. This absolute necessity for some distinct and uniform characteristic in order to the enjoyment of heaven seems to be very generally forgotten. The general idea is that everyone is to be perfectly happy there, according to his own inclinations. Heaven is not a place in which the evil disposed could find pleasure if they were put there. Consider what is happiness. On what it depends. Happiness is a relative term. In circumstances precisely the same, one man would be happy and another miserable. To produce happiness, circumstances and character--position and disposition--must agree, and if they do not, either must change so as to become suited to the other. If a man who is now wicked would be happy in heaven, his character must become changed to suit his circumstances. Our Lord Jesus has secured for all who believe on Him the free pardon of all sins. He has opened to all a heaven which they never could have earned by their own acts. But He has never abolished the necessary qualification for actual admittance there. (J. C. Coghlan, D. D.) On the presence of God in a future state In the early age of the world those explicit discoveries of a state of immortality which we enjoy had not yet been given to mankind. But in every age God has permitted such hopes to afford consolation and support to those who served Him. I. The hope of the Psalmist in his present state. “ Thou wilt show me the path of life.” There are different paths or courses of conduct, which may be pursued by men in this world; a path which leads to life and happiness, and a path which issues in death and destruction. These opposite lines of conduct are determined by the choice which men make of virtue or of vice; and hence men are divided into two great classes, according as their inclinations lead them to good or to evil. The path of life is often a rough and difficult path, and it conducts us up a steep ascent. The hope that good men entertain is, that this path of life shall be shown them by God; that, when their intentions are upright, God will both instruct them concerning the road which leads to true happiness, and will assist them to pursue it successfully. In all revelation there is no doctrine more comfortable than this, that good men are pursuing a path which God has discovered and pointed out to them. Every path in which He is the conductor must be honourable, must be safe, must bring them in the end to felicity. The Divine Being will never desert those who are endeavouring to follow out the path which He has shown them. With Him there is no oblique purpose to turn Him aside from favouring the cause of goodness. No promise that He has made shall be allowed to fail. II. The termination of these hopes in a future state. All happiness assuredly dwells with God. The “ fountain of life” is justly said to be with Him. Whatever gladdens the hearts of men or angels with any real and satisfactory joy comes from heaven. Every approach to God must be an approach to felicity. The enjoyment of His immediate presence must be the consummation of felicity. The whole of what is implied in arriving at the presence of the Divinity we cannot expect to comprehend. Surrounded now with obscurity, no hope more transporting can be opened to a good man than that a period is to come when he shall be allowed to draw nearer to the Author of his existence, and to enjoy the sense of His presence. In order to convey some idea of that future bliss, by such an image as we can now employ, let the image be taken from the most glorious representative of the Supreme Being, the sun in the heavens. There are two sublime and expressive views of the Divine Essence given us in Scripture, On which it may be edifying that our thoughts should rest for a little--(1) God is Light. The revelation of His presence infers a complete diffusion of light and knowledge among all who partake of that presence. This forms a primary ingredient of happiness. Ignorance, or the want of light, is the source of all our present misconduct, and of all our misfortunes. The light of God’ s presence not only banishes the miseries which were the effects of former darkness, but also confers the most exquisite enjoyment. (2) God is Love. His presence must, of course, diffuse love. Heaven implies a society, and the felicity of that society is constituted by the perfection of love and goodness flowing from the presence of the God of love. Hence follows the entire purification of human nature from all those malevolent passions which have so long rendered our abode on earth the abode of misery. Considering God under these two illustrious characters, which are given of Him in Scripture as Light and as Love, it follows that in His presence there must be fulness of joy. Remember that, in order to arrive at the presence of God, the path of life must previously be shown to us by Him, and in this path we must persevere to the end. These two things cannot be disjoined, a virtuous life and a happy eternity. (Hugh Blair, D. D.) Heaven I. Our truest notions of heaven are derived from considerations rather of what it is not than of what it is. How glorious a liberty it will be to attain “ the redemption of our body.” Think of the toil it has to undergo, the distempers and pains to which it is subject. But then, we shall be out of the reach of these. There will be no sickness, no withering old age; no poor shall cry for bread, none shall thirst or hunger any more. And there will be no more death. No, not of the irrational creation; the sheep and cattle will be slaughtered no more. And there will be no more sin. Then the nations learn war no more. Sin is the root of all our miseries. But days of innocence that we cannot know here will be realised there. Such are some of its negative blessings. II. Let us consider some of its positive blessings. The happiness of heaven is occasionally described under the most captivating forms of rural pleasure. We read of its green pastures, its clear fountains, its rivers of pleasures. When I sometimes walk in a garden, amidst fruits and flowers, and birds that sing among the branches, I feel relieved in turning to those promises which hold out to us, as it were, a renewal and restoration of these calm delights, in an unchangeable world, in the paradise of God. And sometimes the state of blessedness is likened to a city; and its brilliancy and magnificence are described. See the description, in the Revelation, of the holy city, the new Jerusalem. Such is the residence which God has prepared for His people. There they will pass, not a solitary existence, but will form a united and happy society together. All jarring interests, all selfish and discordant passions unknown. And then we shall meet the holy and illustrious dead: all who have walked with God on earth, or suffered for the testimony of Jesus. To see there, perhaps, those who led us to Christ, and our parents who watched and wept and prayed over our souls, and the children who followed their good example. Above all, we shall meet the Lord Jesus there. He has promised this to all His faithful ones. The evil hearts of men are made known by their desertion of God, but so are also all faithful souls which confess Him when all the world is against Him. How will His faithful flock hail their triumphant Shepherd, when He appears in glory! And then, there is the beatific vision of God--Himself unveiled without a cloud. But we have not now faculties for so high a theme. And these joys are for all who will accept Christ. We could never reach them by ourselves. Receive the Gospel in its fulness and it will prepare you for them. We, then, pray you, “ Be reconciled to God.” (H. Woodward, A. M.) The future happiness of God’ s people set before the unconverted God appeals to us by various motives. Amongst others this, which is addressed to our natural desire for happiness,--the blessedness of the children of God in another world. In the hope that some may be constrained thereby to seek Christ, we would consider the words before as. Now were the promises of our text to be realised, then, what in a few years would be our happiness? I. It would be complete. “ Fulness of joy” is there. No more evil. Especially no more sin. Therein “ dwelleth righteousness.” It may be a far more glorious earth than ours, but this is not the substance of our hope. That hope is for freedom from sin; no more tormenting passions, no more envy, or anger, or tyrannical appetites. And there will be no more sight of evil in others. And no more temptations of Satan, And no more exposure to the wrath of God, for there shall be “ no more curse.” And death and sickness and pain shall be no more. Nor toil, nor weariness, nor want, for the Lord is our Shepherd and we shall not want. And then we shall see His glory and His bliss. And all this will make us like Him. Our body shall be changed “ like unto His glorious body.” That was revealed, in fact, at the Transfiguration. And what is better, we shall be like Him in mind as well as form. When we see His wisdom, goodness, holiness, truth and love, then shall we contract something of the same glory. And we shall share in His glorious bliss. It will be “ fulness of joy.” Each as happy as his soul can be. II. Then joys will be as eternal as they are complete. Death shall not take them from us, nor will they be liable to decay. It is an inheritance “ incorruptible” and that “ fadeth not away.” And yet many “ make light” of these promises. They have no heart for such a heaven. May God change their heart. You, whose hope this is, live as those who look for such a heaven. (Baptist W. Noel, M. A.) Nature and excellencies of the happiness of heaven I. What is meant by the joy and pleasures at God’ s right hand.1. There are pleasures in heaven capable of giving joy and satisfaction. 2. There is a communication of these pleasures unto them who are in the immediate presence of God. 3. The saints have joy in the vision of God, the immediate fruition of Him and their likeness to Him. II. The excellencies of these joys as expressed in the text. They are spiritual and heavenly, pure without mixture; a multitude without number; a fulness of them without want; a constancy without interruption or diminution, and a perpetuity without end. (James Robe, M. A.) Little joy to be found on earth The ancient Thracians used to keep a box in their houses into which they dropped a white stone to mark the day when they were happy, as it was an event which so seldom occurred. Lord Nelson wrote to a friend, “ I am persuaded there is no true happiness in this present state.” Such was the mournful experience of one of the world’ s heroes, on whom plenty, pleasures and glory combined to wait and minister. Lord Byron writes to the poet Moore, “ I have been counting over the days when I was happy since I was a boy, and cannot make them more than eleven, I wonder if I shall be able to make them a dozen before I die.” . Psalms 17:1-15 Psalms 17:1 Hear the right, O Lord, attend unto my cry,. . .that goeth not out of feigned lips. Conscious sincerity The Psalmist is quite sure that he himself is sincere. The verses which follow seem to be a kind of anticipation of the Pharisee’ s self-satisfied prayer; but they are nothing of the kind. The reference is not to sinlessness, but to sincerity. The Psalmist does not say, I am a pure man, without a stain upon the heart or hand. He says, I am a sincere man, the general purpose I have had in view is a purpose marked by honesty. He does not represent himself as pure snow in the face of heaven, but as a man whose supreme motive has been a motive of honesty and general truthfulness. Sincerity can appeal to the right. We draw our prayer out of our own character. This suppliant is so sure of his own honesty that he says, Let the whole case be settled honestly. At other times, when he knows there is not a clean spot upon his whole constitution--one sound healthy spot--he falls right down before God and weeps out his soul ill penitence . . . We should be sure of our motive before we invoke the doing of right. It is better for us to invoke the exercise of mercy. Most men will get more from pity than they ever can get from righteousness. (Joseph Parker, D. D.) Prayer out of feigned lips It is observable that the eagle soareth on high, little intending to fly to heaven, but to gain her prey; and so it is that many do carry a great deal of seeming devotion in lifting up their eyes towards heaven; but they do it only to accomplish with more ease, safety, and applause their wicked designs here on earth; such as without are Catos, within Neros; hear them, no man better; search and try them, no man worse; they have Jacob’ s voice, but Esau’ s hands; they profess like saints, but practise like Satans; they have their long prayers, but short prayings; they are like apothecaries gallipots--having without the title of some excellent preservative, but within they are full of deadly poison; counterfeit holiness is their cloak for all manner of villanies, and the midwife to bring forth all their devilish designs. (Peter Bales.) Justice, mercy, and perfection I. A cry for justice (Psalms 17:1-7). Things in the mind of David. 1. A sense of truthfulness. He was conscious that there was no discrepancy between his speech and his spirit. The man, unless he feels that he is sincere, will never dare to appeal to heaven for justice. Virtuous sincerity requires that there should be not only an exact correspondence between the speech and spirit, but also between the spirit and eternal realities. 2. A desire for the Divine verdict. “ Let my sentence come forth from Thy presence.” The human soul everywhere holds that there is justice at the head of the universe, and that it will sooner or later vindicate the right. 3. A consciousness of a Divine searching. “ Thou hast proved mine heart.” A man may be deeply conscious of his imperfection before God, analyst conscious of his innocence of the charges brought against him by man. 4. A determination to be blameless in his speech. “ I am purposed that my mouth shall not transgress.” What he means is, I will utter nothing wrong concerning mine enemies, nothing that can justify their harsh and cruel conduct. 5. An assurance of Divine protection. He was protected from ruin. Protected by God. And protected in connection with his own agency. God’ s agency in connection with man’ s deliverance neither supersedes the necessity nor interferes with the freedom of human effort. 6. A dread of falling from rectitude. “ Hold up my goings in Thy paths” . This means--I am right as far as mine enemies are concerned at present. I am conscious of no wrong. I am anxious to retain my blamelessness. To retain my blamelessness I need Divine help. 7. A confidence that God will attend to his prayer. The meaning is--I have invoked Thee heretofore, and do so still, because I know that Thou wilt hear. II. Here is a cry for mercy. “ Show Thy marvellous loving kindness.” A prayer for protection from enemies. Note the character in which he appeals to God for protection. He appeals to Him as a mighty Saviour. The manner in which he desired protection. The enemies from whom he sought protection. The cry for mercy is as deep and universal as that for justice. III. Here is a cry for perfection. Three facts deduce from the words.1. That the death of a good man is an awaking from sleep. There is much spiritual torpor and spiritual dreaming even in the best. 2. In this awaking at death there will be the complete assimilation of the soul to God. 3. In this assimilation will consist the everlasting satisfaction of our nature. There is no satisfaction without this. The spiritual powers will not work harmoniously under the dominion of any other disposition. The conscience will frown upon any other state of mind. The Great One will not bless with His friendship any other state of mind in His creatures. Likeness to God is likeness to His controlling disposition. His controlling disposition is disinterested love, and this is that well which springs up to everlasting life. (Homilist.) Psalms 17:3 Thou hast visited me in the night.God’ s visitations in the night God has two daily messengers of His love for men, bringing to them His gifts of love--Day and Night. Let us think of His visitations to us by night, when we are still and when He would have us reflect. The Psalm is evidently an evening Psalm. I. How well it is that the day should close with reflection, that God should visit us thus. Rest alone would be a visitation from God, His gift. But sleep is the better when we pass to it from prayer. If a knock comes to the door at night when all is quiet how it startles us. In the day we should not notice it, but at night we needs must. And Christ may say, “ I came in the day but was not heard; behold, I now stand at the door and knock.” It is well to reflect at the close of each day on each day. In the bustle of business we do not understand the meaning of our life. Perhaps we never shall till the bustle of all life’ s days is done and we stand on “ the safe and quiet shore of eternity.” There are, too, our own ways that need to be understood. Conscience needs to be quickened, and one day it will be. Just as the manipulations of the photographer in the dark chamber bring forth a picture which has been burnt into the plate by rays o flight before, that when completed it may be brought to light again, and men may see what manner of men they were; so in the dark chambers of the dead, in the hidden spirit world, there shall be a quickening of conscience. And God has given to us the darkness of night in which, away from busy life, we may bring forth the pictures of the day that are imprinted on conscience. Cultivate this photography of life. II. And there is the night of trouble. God visits those who trust Him then. Let there be also in this night reflection, review. Memory is given us that we may not depend for happiness on the present. And review in this night your conduct in your joys. Ah, who is worthy of their joy? Be willing then to bear the night. “ God’ s blessings come in the night,” so says a German proverb. There is no night in which God is not near us. No, not the last eventide, the darkest of all In Christ we need not foal (T. Gasquoine, B. A.) The religious aspects of night There is no necessary contrast between what are called the scientific and the religious aspects of nature. Science keeps its eye upon the facts of nature, carefully verifies and measures them, and seeks to discover their exact relations to each other. Religion, too, is interested in nature, and behind each natural fact sees chiefly Him to whom both effect and cause are traceable. Religion is more necessary to us men than science, and therefore God has taught us religion first of all. The succession of day and night will illustrate what I am saying. We know the physical causes of night, but it has another and a higher meaning, and this is hinted at in our text. The religious aspects of night are many. It strikes us first of all-- I. As an interruption. It breaks in upon and suspends all human occupation. At the very least eight hours in the twenty-four, a quarter of a century in the life of a man of seventy-five, are withdrawn from the demands of labour, And as each day the shadow of night creeping around the world advances, millions of human workers hail the approaching pause in toil which is thus mercifully imposed upon them. Man might have been so fashioned as not to need this, but this enforced suspension of activity cannot but suggest a meaning. It suggests not merely the limited stock of strength at our disposal which needs thus often to be refreshed and replenished, but it also reminds us that we have a higher life than that of the activity of the day, and which shall last when all belonging to this shall have passed away. II. Night suggests danger. The daylight is of itself protection. When it is withdrawn much becomes possible which it forbids. Night is the opportunity of wild beasts and of evil men. They ply their trade during its dark and silent hours. And thus St. Paul describes the workers of darkness as “ unfruitful.” Our Lord compares the unexpectedness of His second coming “ as a thief in the night.” If, indeed, St. Paul were to visit London on the afternoon of a bank holiday, it is to be feared that he would have to reconsider his remark that “ they that be drunken are drunken in the night.” Still, on the whole, the night is the season of peril and disaster. We yet need to pray God that He would “ protect us from all perils and dangers of this night.” For notwithstanding brilliantly lighted streets and well organised police there are yet special perils--such as those of fire in our large and lofty houses, from which the tenants of rude huts and shepherds cabins would find ready escape. It is with civilised as with savage man, God is, in the last resort, our only Protector. III. Night is a time during which God often speaks to the soul of man. No believer in God’ s existence can reasonably deny that He can communicate with the mind of man. We think sleeplessness a great misfortune, but it may be a great blessing. For never does God speak more solemnly, more persuasively to the human soul, than in the waking hours of night. Then conscience has a chance; we listen and hear no other voice. Conscience revives the past, and the eye of sense rests upon no object which can compete with and efface the awful impression. Then religion asserts its empire, and we acknowledge to ourselves with sorrow how much we have forgotten or despised that had the first of all claims upon us. See the many references in the Psalms to these holy uses of the night. One practical lesson, at least, we may remember as bearing upon this subject--the duty of storing the mind while we are yet comparatively young and strong with that which in the hours of sleeplessness and pain will enable us to rise up to God. A mind thus well stored need never fear that the waking hours of night are lost. (Canon Liddon.) I am purposed that my mouth shall not transgress.--Restraining the tongue Such was the pious resolution of the Psalmist when the tongues of his enemies were transgressing both against him and his God. Silence would produce the better effect, both on his own mind and on his enemies. I. The evil which the psalmist dreaded. Transgressing with his tongue. The tongue, indeed, is only the channel through which the depravity of the heart proceeds, but it is a channel of remarkable facility. It is liable to transgress--1. Against God. By murmuring at the providence of God. 2. Against mankind. There are cruel expressions of malice and revenge sometimes uttered by one man against another to ruin his character. There are those who injure religion and their character by a propensity to speak with levity or bitterness. There are those who transgress by flattery-an evil more injurious than the keenest reproach sometimes. II. The best means of avoiding this evil. “ If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man.” What does this purpose imply?1. A serious regard to Divine inspection and authority. 2. Attention to the state of the heart. 3. We should aim to cultivate religious knowledge, and promote, at every proper opportunity, religious conversation. The most likely way to preserve the tongue from evil is to employ it in what is valuable and useful Prepared by the secret exercises of piety and devotion, we shall enjoy the full delights of domestic and social life without injury and without remorse. (Homilist.) The mouth kept front transgression A friend of Archbishop Leighton said that, in free and frequent intercourse with him for twenty-two years, “ I never knew him say an idle word, or a word that had not a direct tendency to edification; and I never once saw him in any other temper but that I wished to be in at the last moment of my life.” Psalms 17:4 Concerning the works of men, by the word of Thy lips I have kept me from the paths of the destroyer.Young men warned against unsound principles Many are the nets that are spread for the souls of men, especially of young men. By means of evil associations and unsound or unscriptural principles. Of these latter we will speak now. They may be classified under three heads. I. The principle of expediency or compromise. Things are done to serve a present purpose without regard to their being right or wrong, or whether Christian rectitude approve or condemn. II. Self-indulgence, or animal gratification. Here he is in danger of being misled both by his equals and by himself. It is said that appetites were given, not to be crushed but gratified; that religious requirements and natural tendencies, emanating both from God, can never be incompatible with each other, and that asceticism and austerity are signs, not of a true but of a false religion. But in this case, as in every other, be who proves too much proves nothing. The natural appetites were designed not merely for gratification, but for moral discipline. They are not to be gratified alone, but subordinated, and due subordination is not asceticism, nor proper control of the affections, austerity. Religious requirements harmonise with natural tendencies, in that they impose a restriction at the very point where satisfaction terminates and excess begins: they apply reasonable and salutary restraints. Regard first the culture of the soul and you will never compromise the welfare of the body; preserve only what is due to God and you will be in little danger of withholding what is due to man. III. The principle of false appearances or false assumptions. For it adopts a fallacious standard, superseding God’ s Word by popular opinion. It is peculiarly necessary to guard against this in an age where names, self-assumed, are a prolific source of deception, and evil often puts on and parades the semblance of good. It is the way of the world, that lives without and forgets Him. It is the way of those who are often men of high honour, but of low principle; of strict uprightness, but of lax morality; men of reputable conduct, but of no religion. And especially avoid that “ path of the destroyer” amidst the works of men, and of which Solomon says, “ Let not thine heart decline to her ways.” The number and effrontery of those who yield to this temptation make it peculiarly subtle and fatal. The young man, new to the world, sees what others do, and that they are not the worse thought of for it, nor think at all worse of themselves; he hears some avowing it and others vindicating it--how shall he escape? Only “ by the word of Thy lips” : that word “ hid in the heart,” and its principles known and embraced. So shall you be enabled to stand in the evil day. (Thomas Dale, M. A.) Psalms 17:5 Hold up my goings in Thy paths, that my footsteps slip not. Slippery places The blessing of sanctified affliction is that we are made to see our weakness. David here seems as a little child, ready to fall, stretching out its hand and crying to its Father, “ Hold up my goings,” etc. I. The believer’ s position is often a very slippery one. Christ told us, “ in the world ye shall have tribulation,” and this is part of it. We are sent into the world to glorify God’ s holy law. And this we do by a life of simple faith in Jesus. II. It is so even in the paths of God. Even in His very paths. Liberty may degenerate into licence; holy caution into legalism; activity into neglect of communion with God, and that into neglect of service. Reliance in Christ to forgetfulness of the Spirit of Christ; and even joy in affliction to an overlooking of our sin, which is the cause of it. III. The petition. “ Hold up my goings,” etc.1. It is the very picture of helplessness. “ I can do nothing, cannot stir a step, without Thee.” Oh! to be brought here. The omnipotence of weakness. 2. It is the language of faith. In Psalms 17:6 he says, “ I know that Thou wilt hear me.” How simple but how strong this faith. 3. There is also the testimony of an upright conscience. 4. The memory of God’ s past dealings with him. (J. H. Evans, M. A.) The Christian praying to be upheld We cannot ascertain at what period of his life David wrote this prayer. It was probably before his lamentable fall If so, we are ready to say he must have forgotten it after he had written it, for otherwise his fall could not have happened. But let us make this prayer our own. I. True religion is a walking or going on is God’ s paths. Think of a country with many tracks in it perhaps, but without any marked roads or paths; a country like one immense down or waste, where in the main men go hither and thither just as they will. Now this is how most men regard the world and their own condition in it. But God appears and marks out certain ways or paths in this world, and bids us inquire for them and keep to them. And this is true religion--obedience to this Divine call. It is a ceasing to live at random, to live as God dictates. II. The prayer we have to consider. It Implies--1. A lively apprehension of the evil consequences of falling. An ordinary man does not care, he knows nothing of the malignity of sin. If for a moment sin has disturbed him by reason of some unusual transgression, the effect has been very shallow, very transient. Not so is it with the traveller in God’ s ways. He knows how evil and bitter a thing sin is. 2. A consciousness of his proneness to fall. Liability is not a word strong enough. All, even the holiest creatures, are liable to fall--witness Adam and the once holy angels--and even in the holiest places. But in us there is a direct tendency to fall. 3. A belief in the ability and willingness of God to thus hold us up. “ Thou wilt hear me, O God,” so he says in the next verse. There is such a thing as dwelling, if not too frequently, yet too exclusively on our weakness and danger. This is better than ignorance of them, and much better than knowing them, to be careless about them; but it comes far short of the perfection or completeness of true religion. That sees not alone the evil in us, but also the fulness of help for us which there is in God. Let us think much of the helping hand of God. III. The manner in which we may expect such a prayer as this to be answered.1. By mercifully removing occasions of falling out of our way. 2. By calling the sustaining graces of His servants into exercise. This a more honourable way for us. 3. By sending such afflictions as are calculated to keep them from falling. 4. By keeping alive a spirit of prayer within us for His upholding. As long as God keeps you prayerful, humbly and earnestly prayerful, be the ground what it may that you go over, you are safe. (C. Bradley, M. A.) The religious course of life sustained Religion is intercourse maintained between God and us. What condescension on the part of God. They lose much who are strangers to Him. Let us observe David, and learn to pray as he prayed. I. See his course. “ My goings.” Religion does not allow a man to sit still. All religion is vain unless he is, so to speak, set a-going--unless he says, “ I will walk in Thy truth.” His goings are in God’ s paths.1. Those of His commands.2. Of His ordinances.3. Of His dispensations. II. His concern respecting this course. “ Hold up my goings,” etc. It is the language--1. Of conviction. He know the injury that would result from a fall or even a slip in religion.2. Of apprehension, for he knew his footsteps were prone to slide.3. And of weakness; he knew he could not keep himself.4. Of confidence, for he was sure that God could and would hold him up. (W. Jay.) How to walk without slipping In considering the feelings that breathe in this prayer we note that they express-- I. A vehement desire to walk in God’ s ways. There is a sense in which all men desire to walk in God’ s ways. For they know the consequences of disobedience, how it provokes His anger and involves punishment. They dislike obedience, but they desire its rewards. Like a hireling, they labour at their task, but only for its promised hire. Could they only be assured that they could get the wages without the work they would gladly leave it alone. But those who have been pardoned through the blood of Jesus, though they have no fear of punishment, yet desire to walk in all the commandments of the Lord, doing what is well-pleasing in His sight. II. A distressing sense of weakness is discovered and bemoaned in himself. It is “ when he would do good,” i.e. when he desires, and in proportion as he desires, to do good that he is conscious of the evil present with him. If he does not much desire to walk in God’ s ways he will not be much distressed at his failures. But if his desire be vehement it is far otherwise with him. III. The cry. Of one who believes that the Lord is able and willing to hold him up. It is the cry of faith, not alone of desire. And the lesson of the whole is, that would we be upheld, our cry must be of vehement desire, of deep sense of need, and of firm faith. (W. Grant.) Psalms 17:8 Keep me as the apple of the eye.The plea for Divine protection The world is no friend to righteousness; its spirit cannot endure the restraints that holiness imposes upon its workings. Hence the world’ s hostility to all those who live truly godly lives. To understand the full force of keeping one as the apple of the eye it is necessary to consider first, how the whole eye is protected, sheltered by bones and sinews, opening and closing doors, light-softening and dust-excluding curtains, and then, that the pupil of the eye, located farther in, is protected by guardians equally wonderful and peculiarly its own. There is no other part of the human body so wonderfully protected, and no other part that, when endangered, we so instinctively try to shelter from harm. And so God guards His people as tenderly as we guard the pupil of our eye; yea, as tenderly as He guards the pupil of His own eye. (David Caldwell, A. M.) The eye, a similitude The man knows something of himself who sincerely offers this plaintive petition, “ Keep me. Is there not a sorrowful confession implied? But it implies knowledge of God too. What He is and will do. The keeping desired is that with which men guard the eye. It means, therefore-- I. Keep me with many guards and protections. The eye is kept by eye bones, eyelashes, eyelids, which serve as outworks, fences and barricades to protect the pupil of the eye, God has bestowed extraordinary pains upon all that concerns the eye. Sentries keep ward lest it should be imperilled. Whenever it is threatened, with agility so brisk that it seems almost involuntary, the arm is lifted up and the hand is raised to screen it. All the members of the body may be regarded as a patrol for the wardship of the eye. So should we pray to be kept with many protections--providence, grace ordinances, the Holy Spirit, the angels. II. With constancy, unintermitting continuance. The eye is always guarded. Without our thinking of it. If a grain of dust enter, forthwith a watery burnout is exuded to carry it away or to dissolve it. The pain is a mercy, for it makes you restless until you get relief. When you fall asleep the curtains fall, the blinds, as it were, drop down, and the windows are shut up securely with lash and lid. So, and in yet other ways, doth the parable of the eye suggest the prayer of the text. Evermore, O Lord, watch over me. Remark here, that at no season is a Christian more in danger than when he has just been in communion with God. The footpads in olden time did not meddle with the farmers as they went to market; it was when they were coming home, and bringing back their money bags full. Our ships of war attacked the Spanish galleons not on their way to but from America, when they knew them to be laden to the Water’ s edge with silver and gold. You need keeping, then, always. III. From little evils, the dust and grit of this world. Your eye needs not to be guarded so much from beams as motes. Be this your prayer, “ Keep me from what the world calls little sins.” To one, a Puritan, who was offered great preferment if he would but comply with the government demands, it was said, “ Others have made long gashes in their consciences: could not you make a little nick in yours?” But those “ little nicks” swiftly run to the rending of the conscience from top to bottom. There was an officer who kept in his house a tame leopard which had been born in the house. It had grown up as harmless as a domestic cat. But one day when its master was asleep it gently licked his hand. The creature’ s tongue passed over a slight but recent wound. A little blood oozed out. The taste roused the demon spirit of the beast at once, and had it not been promptly shot its master’ s life would have been its victim. When the thief cannot break in at the door himself he puts a boy through the window, and then the great door is speedily opened. IV. Sensitive, tender in heart, as the apple of the eye. God has made it thus sensitive for its own protection. The conscience should be a real indicator: if in good keeping it would be a wonderful tell-tale. It will startle you from your lethargy, it will arouse you as with an alarm. V. As the eye ought to be kept. It should be “ single,” clear, far-seeing. As an ornament, for the beauty of the countenance is in the eye. So should we “ adorn the doctrine” and the Church of God. Useful, a genuine Christian will pray to be useful, not like a glass eye, a mere counterfeit. And then, though the remark may seem strange and quaint, I would entreat the Lord to keep me in the head. Solomon has made the shrewd remark, “ The wise man’ s eyes are in his head, but the fool walketh in darkness.” I would give this a spiritual turn, and ask to be kept in Christ Jesus. Of what use were the eye of a man if not in the head? And what we, apart from Christ? There are some to whom this prayer is, nothing, for they are not Christ’ s. Let your prayer be, “ Lord, save me, or I perish. Once saved, you may pray to be kept. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Two Bible emblems God’ s Word and works, the two great sources of our knowledge of God. When we want to get clear and vivid conception of any truth we employ analogy and institute comparison, and say it is “ as” or “ like” some object in nature. Text an illustration of this. It means-- I. That the royal Psalmist prays to be Divinely protected. He did not possess all our modern knowledge of the anatomy of the eye, but he must have known much or he could not have penned this prayer. Of all the organs of the body the eye is the most delicate and precious, and is protected by the most wonderful and elaborate contrivances. The eyes are the sentinels of the body, and keep constant guard over it. They are the windows through which the soul looks out upon all things within its range. They are closely connected with the brain, and by a mysterious telegraphy of nerves convey to the brain knowledge of what is passing in the outer world. The eyes are like citizens within the entrenchments of a fortified town, surrounded by outworks, fences, and barricades. And the arms are like two warders to defend them. Note some of their protections. A protruding socket, like a wall around it: with overhanging brow to carry off drops of perspiration; with eyelashes to guard against dust and insects; with lids that automatically close at the approach of danger; with glands which secrete tears that clean and lubricate the ball of the eye; with beds, cushion like for their softness, upon which they repose and revolve with safety. All these and many more show how carefully God keeps the apple of the eye, and help us to see how David desired that God would keep him. II. And he would be Divinely preserved. “ Hide me under the shadow of Thy wings.” This emblem, like the former, is exceedingly suggestive. There may be reference to the wings of the cherubim which were the symbol of God’ s presence in the tabernacle of old. David had ardent love for the house of God, he even envied the sparrows that built their nests near God’ s altar. In the time of trouble he would be hidden in God’ s pavilion, in the secret place of the tabernacle; and there, hiding as under the wings of the cherubim, he would find a shelter and a home. (F. W. Brown.) Psalms 17:10 They are enclosed in their own fat.A figure for self-complacency To be enclosed in one’ s own fat means, to be wrapped up in pride and self-complacency, the effect upon weak and ignoble minds of worldly prosperity. It is said that the purely fatty part of the human body, having no nerves of sensation, can be cut and pierced without experiencing any feeling of pain. Hence, in Scripture phraseology, to say that one’ s heart is fat is equivalent to saying that it is hard and insensible, void of moral and sympathetic feeling, and not to be affected by any appeal made to its pity or sense of right. It indicates a haughtiness and insolence of bearing towards others that is hard to be borne by them. Alas! how a little worldly elevation sometimes changes the best character into the worst! How it renders the man proud who before was humble; the heart hard that before was tender! To be delivered from the tender mercies of mindless wealth, of heartless prosperity, is a prayer that others besides David have breathed into the ear of Divine mercy. It was not the poor, but the proud, the prosperous, the high in station and authority, that chased the Son of God to the Cross, and reviled Him there. (David Caldwell, A. M.) Psalms 17:14-15 Which have their portion in this life.The uncertainty of worldly prosperity Like many other passages (such as Job 21:7-13; Psalms 73:12), these verses clearly show how little “ the old Fathers looked,” or indeed could have looked, “ only for transitory promises.” While they held, and rightly held, that under the general law of God’ s providence happiness should follow obedience to the will of Him who made and guides all things, they yet recognised the disturbing influence of evil in the world, through which the unrighteous prosper, having to the full the only portion they care for (comp. Matthew 6:2-5; Luke 16:25), leaving wealth and fame to their children. At times this was to them a sore trial of faith (Psalms 73:3), sorer than to us who have the clear vision of the future life. But they felt that far above this outward prosperity was that which the worldly cannot have, the communion with God, in itself the eternal life of the soul. The sense of Psa 17:15 cannot be doubtful. David knows that now “ he shall behold the presence of God in righteousness,” and in it have the higher spiritual life. Therefore (as in Psalms 16:9-10) he draws the inference which our Lord Himself justifies, that death cannot break the tie of this communion; therefore that he shall awake in the image of God, and, so awaking, shall be “ satisfied with it,” possessing it in the fulness which on earth he can only desire and long for (comp. 1 John 3:1-2). All other explanations than this sin against the whole spirit of the passage, and could never have been thought of except to support the false conclusion that, because the knowledge of a future life in heaven was not unchequed, by doubt in the saints of old, therefore it had no flashes of brightness and reality. (Alfred Barry, D. D.) The worldly man’ s portion The world is at total enmity with God. Its spirit, maxims, and pursuits are at utter variance with the laws and spirit of God. I. Describe the character. Among the signs and marks is--1. Unregeneracy.2. They are distinguished for worldly principles.3. Their maxims are worldly.4. They are distinguished by their associations;5. By the unvarying tenor of their pursuits;6. By their worldly affections and delights. II. The portion the world confers upon them. They do not serve the world for nought. The chief reason why it does not satisfy is--1. Because it is unsuitable. The ethereal mind must have ethereal enjoyments. The soul was made for God and spiritual things.2. This portion is only a present one.3. It is uncertain.4. It is a ruinous portion. If a man will make the world his portion he cannot have Christ’ s salvation, God’ s favour, or eternal life. (J. Burns, D. D.) Men who flourish on carrion There was a famine in the land. All birds and beasts, with the exception of the crows and vultures, and a few others of a similar species, looked ravenous and emaciated. Even the lion lay before his den so reduced by starvation as to be unable to hunt. A giraffe with drooping head ventured to approach him. “ Sire,” said he, “ have you observed the full crops and plump appearance of yonder vultures? Can you tell us the secret of their prosperity in these hard times?” The lion groaned, “ It is as great a mystery to me as to you. But see! an eagle approaches this way, pray ask his opinion.” The eagle willingly stopped in his weary flight. And in reply to their question simply said, “ I know their secret, but I mistake you, indeed, if you will be the happier for hearing it. If you would flourish as they flourish, you must bring your mind to eat carrion, and plenty of it.” (Andrew Griffen.) Men who have their portion in this life I have seen men so carried away with the game of chance into which they have plunged on shipboard that they quite forgot the goal for which the ship was shaping. They would scarcely lift their head a moment to look for land and port and home. Never suffer yourself to be swept along the tide of rushing years like the dumb creatures packed into cattle ships. Some men are hurried on to the goal without any thought or care for what is before them, and land upon an anathema which can never be reversed. (T. G. Selby.) The disappointment of men who seek satisfaction in earthly treasure Meditating at a window, in a sort of daydream, a fly continued to pass before me. Mechanically I sought to catch it. I put my finger quickly to the pane, but the fly was gone. I followed it and clapped my hand on the very spot it occupied, but I had not taken it. Yet there it was just under my hand. Why had I failed? Excellent reason, the insect was on the other side of the glass. Ye sons of men who seek pleasure in the things of this world, ye must miss it; even when it seems within your grasp ye cannot reach it. Happiness is not to be found on your side of Christ and the new birth, except in seeming. Ye are victims of a delusion, your chase is vanity, your end will be disappointment. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The city youth To every young man there comes sooner or later the brief but startling message, “ Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’ s house, unto a land that I will show thee.” You cannot always abide in the house of your childhood, But such a call to go forth is very serious. A thoughtful young fellow, who is in a house of business in the city, comes to me for a little conversation; he tells me of his religious difficulties, of his inward conflicts and his desire to live a Christian life; and ere we part I say to him, “ Now, how many in your establishment seem to be at all seriously inclined?” How many in that huge drapery business? How many in that bank? How many in that workshop? Ten to one his reply is, “ There is just one I know of that is a real Christian” ; or, “ Just two or three that take any interest in these things.” It is the old story, “ Few there be that find it.” Now I ask you, “ To which group do you wish to belong?” If to the men of the world, I don’ t know what brought you here, nor have I any message for you; but if to the men of God, then I want to speak to you. Now, by “ the men of the world” is not meant merely a shrewd, sagacious person, but one who is a mere earthworm, sinful, sordid, and greedy of gain, whose only thought is to make money and feather his nest well. Think-- I. Of these men of the world and their portion. It is a great mistake to think that as soon as you are purse rich you will be heart rich. There is many a Midas in this city today, at whose touch everything seems to turn into gold, who would frankly tell you he had a far lighter heart when, as a young clerk, he was earning £60 or £80 a year. The wealthy Sir Charles Flower only spoke for many a rich man like himself when, to a beggar who asked him for money to get a piece of bread, he said, “ I would gladly give you a sovereign if you would give me your appetite.” Riches do make happy; but it is not the riches of the pocket, but the riches of the mind and heart. The riches of taste, of culture, of affection, and, above all, the riches of God’ s grace. But men do not believe this. They hear it said, and then seek after riches as if riches were everything and the Bible all untrue. But let such remember that after all, let them gain what they may, it is only “ a portion for this life.” Not a farthing can you take to the other side of the grave. It will be with you as with the partridge (Jeremiah 17:11). Men of the world, go you over your portion and tick off each particular, and say, “ This, this, this, must be loft behind. Lord Chesterfield said, I have run the silly rounds of business and of pleasure, and I have done with them all. I look back on all that is past as one of those romantic dreams which opium produces, and I have no wish to repeat the nauseous dose.” Yes, “ a portion in this life” is but a poor unsatisfying portion at the best. II. The contrast: the man of God and his portion. “ As for me,” says David in the next verse, “ I will behold Thy face,” etc. He speaks of himself as quite an exception, a rare case amid the common throng. But these are the happiest men after all. David’ s heart was set on God. “ The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance. I have a goodly heritage.” He meant that not one of them was so happy as he. See David’ s secret of happiness.1. “ I will behold Thy face in righteousness.” Yes, the first secret of a happy life is to get right with God. I know many of you feel this to be true. Then surrender yourselves to Him now. It will introduce us to a new and most blessed experience, As that thoughtful and devout French believer, Lacordaire, wrote, speaking of his own conversion, “ He who has never known such a time has not fully realised life. Once a real Christian, the world did not vanish before my eyes; it rather assumed nobler proportions, as I myself did. I began to see therein a sufferer needing help; a mighty misfortune resulting from all the sorrows of ages past and to come: and I could imagine nothing comparable to the happiness of ministering to it, with the help of the Cross and the Gospel of Christ.” 2. “ I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with Thy likeness.” No doubt the notion of the resurrection is mainly meant here. But we may take the awaking as telling of each morning’ s awakening, and of a prospect which will satisfy your soul. Oh, tell me, have your eyelids ever opened with the earthly dawn, and found you saying, with the first moments of returning consciousness, “ I am satisfied” ? Rather, have not care, and depression, and a feeling of life’ s monotony weighed down your own spirit, as another day called you forth to its duty and routine? Ah, you want something nobler than the prospect of gain to give a sparkle and a beauty to life, and to make the heart truly glad; and that nobler thing is the prospect of being like God. This is the prospect that cheers a true Christian, “ We know that when He shall appear we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.” (J. Thain Davidson, D. D.) Men of the world David prays to be delivered from the Wicked, that he might not fall under their power, nor be numbered with them as “ men of the world which have,” etc. Now note-- I. Wicked men may have a large portion in this life. God deals thus with them--1. To prove the extent and kindness of His providence; 2. And that judgment is His strange work, and how disingenuous is the conduct of the wicked whom He daily loadeth with benefits. 3. Wicked men, in the hand of Providence, may do some services for God or His people, and for this He will bless them (Ezekiel 29:18-19; 2 Kings 10:30). 4. Because they choose their portion here and He lets them take it, and therein all they shall have. 5. For judgment, since wealth will surely corrupt them yet more. 6. To instruct the righteous-- (1) In the evil of their own hearts, that they cannot trust them: they will promise and vow what they will do if they become, rich, but they never, do it. (2) How little value the things of the world are in God’ s sight, for God gives them often plentifully to His enemies. (3) That our present condition is no true prophecy of our future. Neither when we are rich or poor. (4) That there is something far better for them. They “ shall behold God’ s face,” etc. (5) That they must belike God, who does good to His enemies and them that hate Him (Matthew 5:44-45). II. Living and dying, what the wicked have here is their all.1. By their choice, they think this world best. 2. Their names are therefore written in earth as limited to it. 3. They are only fit for a portion in this life; and 4. They have abused their portion here, and shall never be tried with any other. 5. They are not the children of God by faith in Christ. 6. Having desired no more than the world, there is no more for them: only misery. III. Upon what accounts their condition may be said to be miserable. It is so because--1. They hold their portion by so uncertain a tenure. 2. Without the added joy of the love of God. 3. And without Christ. 4. Without foundation for solid peace and comfort. For their sins are unpardoned; conscience alarms; the secret arm of God is on them (Deuteronomy 28:17). Then 5. Their prosperity tends to their destruction, leading them to forgetfulness both of God and heaven. 6. And will be succeeded by such awful misery. IV. Whence is it that saints reckon it to be so? Because--1. They have found the world to be vanity and vexation of spirit. 2. And they see the end of all things approaching. But 3. They look by faith to another and over-enduring world. Application:1. With what certainty may we infer a day of judgment from the wicked having now so large a share of outward good, whilst some of the heirs of heaven have scarce where to lay their heads. 2. They reckon without looking to the end who envy the men of the world (Psalms 73:18). 3. What reason have we to pity those on whom Christ’ s words will fall in their full weight (Luke 6:24). (D. Wilcox.) Psalms 17:15I will behold Thy face in righteousness.The vision of the face I. The vision of the face of God.1. The object of this vision: “ Thy face.” (1) A sensible glory: such a glory was seen by Moses at Sinai, afterwards in the tabernacle, and at the transfiguration. (2) An intellectual glory: glory is resplendent excellency, real worth made conspicuous. This glory is the conspicuous lustre of Divine perfections. 2. The act of beholding: glory has a peculiar respect to the power of seeing. Sight is the most perfect sense: noble, comprehensive, quick and sprightly. The act of the mind is called seeing. The blessed shall have the glory of God so presented as “ to know as they are known.” II. The soul’ s participation of His likeness. How strange an errand hath the Gospel in the world, to transform men and make them like God.1. There is a sense in which we cannot be like God. God will endure no such imitation of Him as to be rivalled in the point of His Godhead (Ezekiel 28:6-10). 2. There is a just and laudable imitation of God: we are to be imitators of God (Ephesians 5:1). 3. Man has already a likeness to God: the material world represents Him, as a house the builder; spiritual beings, as a child the father: others carry His footsteps, these His image. 4. There is a natural image of God in the soul of man, inseparable from it, its spiritual immortal nature, its intellectual and elective powers are the image of the same powers in God. There is also a moral likeness, wisdom, mercy, truth, righteousness, holiness. 5. Assimilation to God in moral perfections conduces to the soul’ s satisfaction and blessedness: “ We shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.” How great a hope is this! Were the dust of the earth turned into stars in the firmament, what could equal the greatness and wonder of this mighty change. III. The resulting satisfaction: the soul’ s rest in God, its perfect enjoyment of the most perfect good, the perfecting of its desires in delight or joy. Desire is love in motion, delight love in rest. It is a rational, voluntary, pleasant, active rest: action about the end shall be perpetuated, though action towards it ceases. It is the rest of hope perfected in fruition. (John Howe.) Who has the best of it This Psalm is called a prayer, and how appropriately. It is such as comes only out of a sufferer’ s heart. We owe our whole salvation to Christ, but, secondarily, we recoil much through the sufferings of men. The world will never know, till its whole history is reviewed and all its mysteries explained, how much instruction, comfort, incitement have flowed from the trials and sufferings of this one man. In this respect David and Paul have done more for the race than perhaps any two men who ever lived. Their great souls were often and heavily pressed by adversities and afflictions, in order that sweet wine of comfort and strength to others might flow from them. I. This verse is the mount of victory. The dust of the battle plain is passed over, the perplexities of life left, and here we have a clear prevision of a perfect solution, and some realisation of it also. The verse does not refer exclusively to the awaking from the sleep of death at the resurrection; nor to the perfect moral likeness of God and the beatific vision which we shall then enjoy. This is not the first interpretation that suggests itself, and ought not, however true, to be taken as its exclusive meaning. II. What, then, is the case? The nature of it is sounded out in the very first words of the Psalm. “ Hear the right, O Lord!” It is a ease of conflict as between him and other men. It is the great struggle of this life in which many are engaged; in which, if we judge simply by outward appearances, some gain a very considerable and striking advantage over others. They seem to have the best of it. To David the conflict at this time was hot and searching, with a great deal of personality in it. He speaks of “ the wicked that oppress” , of “ deadly enemies compassing him about” ; of men who “ spoke proudly with their mouth” ; of men “ enclosed in their own fat” --so well fed, so prosperous, so like prize men were they;--of others “ lurking like the young lion in secret places, greedy for the prey” --ready to grasp advantage ready to spring on him with their teeth. Then he describes their character generally, in the fourteenth verse, in language which applies to one age almost as much as to another. He calls them “ men of the world, which have their portion in this life: whose belly is filled with hid treasure” --with the things they gather, and hoard, and store away. Men, too, who keep and bequeath to their children what they have gathered. These were the men against whom David felt himself striving; he felt that if they were right and happy, he must be wrong and miserable, and vice versa. But he was quite sure that he was right and not they, and that their misery was coming. Hence he says, “ As for me, I shall be satisfied,” etc. He would awake day by day, when the present sorrow had passed, as he knew it would, to see God’ s beautiful likeness and to have it in a measure in himself. With this he would be satisfied. This would be victory even now. To be made and kept righteous, to see God in my life, His face in my prayers, and to watch His image forming in my soul: this is to win the battle. I will complain no more! I am satisfied! Now, this is just-- III. The judgment we ought to form in our own case. It is a question always on trial, and always coming to some settlement--How is the best of life to be found? How shall we taste the sweetness, and gather the flower, and wear the crown, and say with joy, self-respect, and full conviction, “ This it is to be a man” ? Here, on the one hand, are “ the men of the world.” David tells us, and we know, what they are in their aims, motives, and ways, and in their successes. They get wealth, position, name, influence, and some of them a considerable measure of low happiness and contentment. See, this is the man, coming out of his chamber in the morning after sound sleep, radiant and healthy. And these are his children, to not one of whom he has ever named seriously the name of God, but to each of whom he will probably leave a good deal of money. And these are his gardens and parks, fair to the eye, and fruitful in their season. And this is his chariot, with the swift horses to bear him to the city. And in the city, when he comes, see how he is received, and what a power he is! How with his pen he can remove ships to the far ocean, and open railways on the land! And he can speak, and “ make the worse appear the better reason” ; and, as with magician’ s wand, raise success out of failure itself. Now take a simple Christian man, who just has enough and little over, who has no name in the public, who is known but to a small circle, who can cheer a fellow pilgrim here and there, and offer a prayer at a sick bed. How small he seems in the common estimation beside this great “ man of the world.” “ The simple man is very well in his own place and way, and it is a good thing for him that he has the consolations of religion and the hopes of the future life to cheer him amid the struggles and hardships of his lot. But it cannot he said that his lot, even with these consolations, is at all to be compared with that of the other man in this life. After this life is over his lot will be better, but here it is worse.” “ No,” says the text; “ it is better now, and here. He is the great man who is good. He is the happy man who sees the face of God. He is the noble man who strives after righteousness, and who satisfies himself with the Divine likeness in his soul.” IV. It concerns us much to get and keep this judgment of things. It needs an effort. It is an advanced lesson in Christian living. People stop short of it, and many miss it habitually. As when they conjecture that worldly men have a great deal of inward misery which they never tell--fear, guilt, and apprehension of danger haunting them like ghosts. Now, this may be true of some, but certainly not of all, nor most. They are well satisfied, and have no misgivings. But what then? Are they who are thus satisfied better off than the devout, struggling, praying servant of God? How mean of us to think so. In reality there is no comparison between the two. The tried Christian in full view of the prosperous and happy man of the world can say, “ As for me, I behold Thy thee in righteousness I am satisfied with Thy likeness.” Then, again, we say that “ compensation is coming--that the next life will rectify all.” That also is true. But that is not “ the present truth.” The present truth is, that we have the advantage now; that we do not need to wait for the compensation; that godliness is better than ungodliness all the world over; that the face of God shining down upon a man is the supreme felicity and the last ideal; and that to awake morning by morning and realise the growing likeness of God in our spirits is joy like that of heaven. But if a man send his heart hankering after the joys of a life to come because he thinks he has not his due here, and that then and there it will be made up to him, what is this but worldliness after all? But if, on the other hand, any man loves the light of God’ s face more than every visible creature and thing, and strives after His righteousness by the aids of His grace, and puts on His likeness as dress and beauty, and “ awakes in it now and again to his thankful joy and satisfaction, saying, “ This it is to live! let this blessed experience grow in me until it blooms and brightens into heaven” --then he may take a text like tiffs and follow its most spiritual suggestions, and lift it to its last and highest applications, make it speak the resurrection from the dead, the appearance in heaven, the immortal life. (Anon.) The vision of visions The mind of man is invisible, yet its workings are often evident in the changes of the countenance. Thus the playful smile indicates pleasure; the clouded brow, wrath. In like manner, though the mind of God is invisible, yet are His attributes variously manifested. I. The face of God is any expression of His character.1. The Shekinah, therefore, is styled His face. (1) Thus Moses is said to have entreated the face of Jehovah when he interceded for Israel amid the storm and flame in which God descended upon Sinai (Exodus 32:11, marg; see also 33:11). (2) So Aaron, after gazing upon those awful involutions of the glory between the cherubim, came forth and blessed the people, invoking for them the spiritual reality of what he had seen in symbol (Numbers 6:24-26). (3) The invocations, “ Lift up Thy countenance,” “ Cause Thy face to shine,” and such like, of frequent occurrence, allude to the cloud of glory. 2. Christ is preeminently the face of Jehovah. (1) Within the cloud there was a radiant human form which is distinguished as the “ Similitude of the Lord” (Numbers 12:8; Ezekiel 1:26). This adumbrated the taking up of the manhood into the Godhead in the Incarnation. (2) Christ is anticipated in prophecy as the “ Glory of the Lord to be revealed,” and in the fulfilment He is described as the “ Face of the Lord” (Isaiah 40:1-3; Luke 1:76). (3) Christ is preeminently the face or expression of the character of God as His most perfect Revealer (John 14:9; 2 Corinthians 4:4; Colossians 1:15; Hebrews 1:3). II. Righteousness is our qualification for beholding the face of God.1. God requires in us this qualification. No wonder, seeing the mire of worldliness clings to us, that we fail to experience as we might the spiritual manifestations of the Son of God (John 14:21; Ephesians 1:17-18). Divine manifestations are terrible to the unrighteous. When God “ looked out” from the cloud upon the Egyptians, that was the signal for their destruction. “ The ungodly shall not stand in the judgment” (Psalms 1:4-6; Revelation 6:16-17). 2. Righteousness is attainable through faith. (1) Of this we have a notable illustration in the history of the first filmily. Cain laments his excommunication from the place of the Presence--“ From Thy face shall I be hid” (Genesis 3:24; Genesis 4:3-14). (2) The history of Jacob wrestling is an example no less appropriate (Genesis 32:24-30). He called the place of his triumph Peniel, or the Face of God. III. Fruition will be perfected in heaven.1. The soul cannot be satisfied on earth. 2. Satisfaction is promised in the resurrection. (J. A. Macdonald.) The vision of the face The opening phrase of this verse is expressive of a noble singularity. “ As for me.” It is the utterance of moral manhood. The Psalmist has been speaking of those who have their portion in this life, and he says, “ Be the animals that you are! As for me, I will seek higher things. As a being made in the image of God, I will find my satisfactions in contemplation of and assimilation to that image.” “ As for me” is the language of true soul nobility. And there are times when we too must dare to utter it, if we would be true to our higher nature and count for anything in the world. The men of the period when this Psalm was written had very dim and vague notions of immortality. With them a life beyond the grave was but a fitful hope or a sublime peradventure, and expressions such as this are to be interpreted of the present life and experience, and not of the heavenly state. The vision of the Divine face here anticipated is not the beatific vision after death, or that only ill a very secondary and shadowy sense, but the daily experience of the earthly life. The Psalm is poetry, couched in poetical imagery. Life to the Psalmist would be worth living just in the proportion ill which he could have the sight of God. What, then, did he mean by the Divine face? The more enlightened prophets and lawgivers of old had a profound sense of the danger of thinking of God otherwise than in His spiritual relations to men. Hence the prohibition to make any pictorial image or statuesque representation of Deity. Yet there is a very real meaning in this expression, “ the face of God,” and it may be a very real vision to us all. In the face, character is preeminently revealed. The face is the man. Look into the face and you read the soul. The play of all the affections is there. There are faces that are the rendezvous of all the virtues. The face of God then stands for the nature of God; and the Psalmist’ s anticipation of beholding that face meant the prospect of his happy realisation of the Divine gentleness, strength, and righteousness. It is men’ s faces that are the face of God. As His spiritual qualities are bodied forth in men’ s lives, so may we see Divine lineaments in the features of men. We are taught to behold “ the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” The true glory of God is in His moral attributes, and Christ incarnated those Divine qualities in His nature. Whoso looked up into His face saw there the glory and the beauty of the Ineffable; and so many a human countenance, if not the face, is a face of God: for the radiance of a Divine love, the lustre of a Divine purity, the patience of a Divine charity, the tenderness of a Divine sympathy is there. Each of these is a lineament of Deity. The dying Bunsen, as he looked up into the eyes of his wife bending over him, said, “ In thy face have I seen the Eternal.” Few artists have dared to essay the Divine form and features. But I once saw in the gallery at Florence a picture which very much struck me, and the memory of it has been with me ever since. It was by Carlo Dolci, and entitled “ L’ Eterno Padre,” --the Eternal Father. It was a bold and unconventional conception. There was no attempt to deify the figure. It was just a man’ s form and face, and not only that, but the face was full of human grief and misery. An aspect of ineffable sadness was in the eyes, and the whole countenance wore an expression of infinite sorrow and solicitude. And surely there must be an unutterable sorrow at the heart of the world! This vision of the face, then--when are we to see it? Tomorrow. “ I shall be satisfied when I awake” --that is, tomorrow morning, every morning, this morning. Include in the Psalmist’ s expression the conception of the Divine nearness. To see a face, you must be near the person. Near, to faith’ s apprehension, is the Divine presence. Something more than vicinity is meant. Intimacy of fellowship is implied. Familiar interchange of thought and affection. There is another thought hinted by the figure of the face, namely, propitiousness. When he speaks of beholding the face of God, it is in the confidence that God is his friend and not his enemy. Oriental monarchs only showed the face to those to whom they intended to be element and gracious. The Psalmist was happy in the conviction that, humbly endeavouring to walk in the ways of righteousness, he could look even God in the face, and that His face would not be turned away . . . There are two elements in this satisfaction.1. The perception of the Divine image.2. The assimilation to that image. In contemplating that likeness we grow into it. (J. Halsey.) The Christian’ s prospect “ A Christian is the highest style of man,” and the noblest work of God. The text tells of his high and exalted state of happiness which he shall obtain in the heavenly world. It consists in-- I. The full vision of the Divine glory. Note--1. The grandeur of the vision.2. The manner of it. “ In righteousness,” that is, the righteousness of Christ.3. The certainty of it. Scripture and experience assure us of it. II. The complete resemblance to the Divine image.1. The glorious expectation--to be like our Saviour and our God.2. The period of accomplishment. “ When I awake,” that is, on the resurrection morn.3. The satisfaction obtained. Conclusion: See1. The value of the soul.2. The vanity of the world.3. The excellence of religion. (Ebenezer Temple.) Beholding God’ s face This is the language--1. Of a man whose mind is made up, who has decided for himself. “ As for me” --let others do as they will. 2. Of a man rising in life, and with great prospects before him. He had looked beyond this world, though he was to rise therein. 3. Of a Jew. For in Judah was God known; His name was great in Israel. And though their knowledge was dim, it was real; and here is an onlook to the blessed future life. I. The beholding of God’ s face meant the enjoyment of His favour. This its constant meaning. And in heaven “ They shall see His face.” All that means we cannot know now, but this one thing we know-- II. How it will be realised. It will be in and through righteousness. For merit and meetness this is needed. Our title to behold God’ s face must be righteousness, and that we have in Christ. Our meetness and preparedness for it is righteousness, and this the Holy Spirit will work in us. No one longs for the Christian heaven but the Christian soul. (William Jay.) The believer’ s vision I. What the Psalmist means by “ in righteousness.” Speak of the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. It involves everything in it necessary to deliver and to save man forever and ever. The passive obedience closed the gates of hell; his active obedience opened those of heaven. Connected with this righteousness there must necessarily be another. Rectitude of principle. If ever we behold the face of God, either here or hereafter, in triumph, we must behold it in the image as well as in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. II. The believer’ s vision of deity. God intended we should, even in this life, have very glorious views of His perfections. The face is frequently an index to the bosom. By the face is sometimes meant the loving kindness of the Lord. III. The believer’ s prospective view. He is now fully satisfied with his God, but dissatisfied with his little knowledge of Him and his little love to Him. The discipline of life is to end in fixing the full face of His child on Himself. Application:1. We must have righteousness in principle as well as the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ.2. Are there any who are satisfied with the creature?3. Are there any who would make the creature their portion forever?4. Address those who have God for their portion. (W. Howels.) The hope of future bliss It would be difficult to say to which the Gospel owes most, to its friends or to its enemies. For when they have persecuted Christ’ s servants they have scattered them abroad, so that they have gone everywhere preaching the Word. Jesus Christ would never have preached many of His discourses had not His foes compelled Him to answer them. So with the Book of Psalms. Had not David been sorely tried, we should have missed very many of these holy songs. This Psalm is one of those which had never been written but for his great trouble. Our text tells of his consolation in the hope of future bliss. We note-- I. The spirit of the text. It breathes the spirit of one who is--1. Entirely free from envy. The wicked may do as they will, but I envy them not. “ As for me, I,” etc. 2. Looking into the future. “ I shall be satisfied.” It has nothing to do with the present. He looks beyond the grave to another world. He who lives in the present is a fool; but wise men are content to look after future things. When Milton wrote his Paradise Lost he might know, perhaps, that he should have little fame in his lifetime; but he said, “ I shall be honoured when my head shall sleep in the grave.” There are many things that we never hope to be rewarded for here, but we shall be by and by. Christian, live in the future. 3. Full of faith. There is no “ perhaps” about his words. “ I will behold” ; “ I shall be satisfied.” And there are many of God’ s people who can say the like. But such must expect to have trouble, for God never gives strong faith without fiery trial. He will not make you a mighty warrior if He does not intend to try your skill in battle. God’ s swords must be used. The old Toledo blades of heaven must be smitten against the armour of the evil one, and yet they shall not break. II. The matter of this passage.1. David expected to behold God’ s face. We have seen His hand in both awful and gentle forms. And we have heard God’ s voice; but the vision of God, what must that be? It is said of the temple of Diana, that it was so splendidly decorated with gold, and so bright and shining, that a porter at the door always said to everyone that entered, “ Take heed to your eyes; you will be struck with blindness unless you take heed to your eyes” But oh! that view of glory. Who can know what it is to see God’ s face? 2. There was a peculiar sweetness mixed with this joy. For he should behold God’ s face “ in righteousness.” How our sins have dimmed our sight, that we could not get a clear prospect of Jesus. But yonder we shall, see Him as He is. 3. And there will be satisfaction. “ I shall be satisfied.” Imagination, intellect, memory, hope--all will be satisfied. 4. But when shall this satisfaction be? “ When I awake in Thy likeness.” Not till then. On the resurrection morn, when complete in soul and body, they will awake. Their bodies till then are in their graves. But then they shall be restored. When a Roman conqueror had been at war, and won great victories, he would very likely come back with his soldiers, enter into his house and enjoy himself till the next day, when he would go out of the city and then come in again in triumph. Now the saints, as it were, steal into heaven without their bodies; but on the last day, when their bodies wake up, they will enter in their triumphal chariots; and the body is to be in the likeness of Christ. The spirit already is. III. Here is a very sad contrast implied. We are all together now, undivided; but the great dividing day will come when Christ, the Judge, shall welcome His own people, but with lifted sword shall sweep the wicked into the bottomless pit. But now, whosoever will may be saved. (C. H. Spurgeon.) I shall be satisfied. The satisfaction of the future I. The satisfaction of the future is often the support of the Christian in the present.1. This fact explains the anomaly of the Christian’ s earthly experience. The Christian experience is not to be ascertained by outward circumstances and conditions. 2. This fact reveals the secret of the Christian’ s strength. II. The satisfaction of the future consists in a participation in the Divine likeness.1. The original type of the soul is to be found in God. Had we retained our pristine glory we should not have had to mourn the misery and emptiness of earth. It is the loss of purity that has reduced us so low, and made us so degraded. The soul can never be satisfied but in the complete restoration of the Divine likeness. The true Christian’ s most exalted desire is, to resemble Christ in moral character here, and to be like Him in heaven. III. The Divine likeness is communicated to the soul through the vision of Christ. By contemplating the glory of Christ’ s character we become changed rote His image.1. The Divine vision assimilates to the Divine likeness. 2. When the Divine vision is perfect the Christian’ s happiness will be complete. (Homilist.) Satisfaction This Psalm is called simply a prayer, which is the oldest and most comprehensive name of the Psalms. But it is the prayer of one who is in trouble. Men never pray so frequently and so fervently as then. Doubtless it is David who thus prays, and the Psalm agrees, almost line for line, with the circumstances in which he was placed when pursued by Saul in the wilderness of Maon (1 Samuel 23:25). I. That there is no satisfaction in the things of this world. Men there were who had their portion in this life; but David did not covet their portion, for he knew that they were not really satisfied. There are such men still, but that they are not satisfied is certain.1. From the nature of the world itself. For what is it apart from God? It is a vain delusion, an empty show, a shadow that passes quickly away (Ecclesiastes 6:1-12). Momentary pleasure it gives, but not satisfaction, not contentment, not repose. The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear with hearing, and hence men flit about from one object to another, never resting anywhere long, and always desiring something which they do not possess. Bitter disappointment is the lot of all who seek satisfaction in merely temporal things. 2. From the nature of the human mind. God has made us for Himself. Our capacities are large almost to infinity. We aspire after the highest good. How, then, can we be satisfied with things temporal and vain? II. Satisfaction is realised in the service of God and in the possession of true religion.1. Religion satisfies the intellect. Man is a creature of mind. He can think, reflect, and reason; and in the exercise of his mental powers he finds some of his richest pleasures. But where will he find subjects for thought so noble and so elevating as in the mysteries of revelation? Nature, science, philosophy will no doubt furnish him with many such subjects; but unless his mind is a strong and vigorous one they will often prove too difficult for him to understand. In Divine revelation, on the other hand, there are shallows in which a child may wade, whilst there are depths in which a philosopher may swim. 2. Religion satisfies the conscience. Man is a moral and responsible being; but he shows that he is a guilty one, and the monitor within condemns him for his violations of the law of God. What can calm it? what can satisfy it? Here the world is utterly powerless. 3. Religion satisfies the heart. Man is an emotional being. He is not a statue, or an automaton, or a curious piece of mechanism. He is not a cold intellectual being incapable of feeling, incapable of love. He is possessed of affections of the noblest kind, and he can only be happy where they are in active play. But on what object can he place them? He may love and ought to love his friends, his kindred, and his fellow me: but any one of these may be torn from his embrace, and then how lonely does his heart become. Divine revelation points to another object of affection--to Christ Jesus our Lord, and when the heart reposes in Him it is satisfied indeed (Son 1:14-16; Ephesians 3:17-19). III. But our text goes further, and we observe that full satisfaction will be realised when we awake with God’ s likeness! The eye will be satisfied with seeing, for it will see the King in His glory (Isaiah 33:17; 1 John 2:2). The ear will be satisfied with hearing, for it will hear the music of the heavenly choir (Revelation 5:11-14; Revelation 14:2; Revelation 15:2-3). The intellect will be satisfied in knowing, for it will comprehend the grandest mysteries of nature, providence, and grace. The soul--the whole being--will be satisfied with what it feels and loves It will love throughout eternity the Triune God. (Thornley Smith.) Satisfaction Two kinds of satisfaction are brought to view in this verse. I. The natural satisfaction. The aim, the current of desires is limited to things of this life. There is danger of mistaking dissatisfaction with our earthly lot for genuine repentance. Looking for a good time in heaven, one may overlook the indispensable preparation. II. The spiritual satisfaction. Dr. Bushnell says, “ If your feeling reaches after heaven, and your longings are thitherward; if you love and long for it, because chiefly of its purity; loosened from this world, not by your weariness and disgusts, which all men suffer, but by the positive affinities of your heart for what is best and purest above this also is a powerful token of growing purification.” Compare the two satisfactions; how do they look. Compare Byron’ s “ canker and the grief” with Paul’ s “ I have fought a good fight . . . henceforth,” etc. This deep satisfaction made it possible for the once timid Peter to take the lead in the warfare in behalf of this spiritual kingdom that now extends to the ends of the earth. It gave him, and all martyrs since, that sublime patience whose persistence no dungeon walls, nor rack, nor faggot could subdue. It is a peace the world cannot give nor take away. (C. M. Jones.) The Christian’ s completed life Men often speak and live better than they know. The text is prophetic and far-reaching in significance. It suggests-- I. The power and nature of Christian contentment. Soul rest comes from God alone. Nothing can afford the soul repose save its union with Christ in God. In vain do we look to the world for satisfaction. How transitory and unsatisfying are all worldly pleasures and pursuits. Whoever depends upon them for real happiness will be bitterly disappointed. Enjoy God rather than His creatures. II. The Christian should not expect perfect satisfaction in this life. Not that the Christian religion does not do all that it promises to do in this world. The work of this life is only preparatory, and therefore incomplete. Imperfection is the just characterisation of this world. The Christian constantly finds himself enveloped in mystery and darkness. Anti his surroundings are unfavourable. Sin is in this world. Here he is contented, though not fully satisfied. III. In the Christian’ s completed life heaven will afford perfect satisfaction.1. The Christian will be satisfied with heaven as a place.2. The Christian will be satisfied with the society of heaven.3. We shall be satisfied with our own condition. We shall carry our intellect and our memories with us. Think of the joy that shall fill our souls when we arrive at the eternal home, enter our Father’ s house, and behold His face in righteousness, and by the power of His infinite tenderness and love be drawn into such Dearness with Him as to repose on His bosom with infinite satisfaction and delight. (G. M. Mathews.) Satisfaction The Lord’ s people are not strangers to satisfaction now. They are satisfied early with His favour, with His goodness, with the fatness of His house. They have found the supreme good But they desire more of it. Hence David speaks of his satisfaction as future. “ I shall be satisfied when,” etc. So, then, see here-- I. The insatiable ambition religion inspires. We have witnessed this grandeur and elevation of soul even in the humblest walks of pious life. How poor the aims of the worldly hero compared With this. II. The excellency of the soul. It is the prerogative of many only to be capable of such sublime satisfaction. Other creatures have a food suited to their nature, partake of it and are satisfied. But man is not, cannot be, with aught he finds here. III. What a blessedness that must be that can and will satisfy every longing of the soul. Yes, though it be the soul of a Newton or Bacon. Then make this prospect sure; keep it clear; bring it near. Use it daily, in religion, in trials, when you come to die The old and fictitious idea, that if a man travelled with a myrtle wand in his hand he would feel no fainting or weariness, is realised here in this blessed hope. (William Jay.) The sailor’ s satisfaction We may here observe-- I. The genuine temper of a gracious soul as distinguished from the world--to be taken up with God as his chief good. And this is so with him.1. From a settled conviction of emptiness and insufficiency of any created good to be to them instead of God. 2. There is everything in God that may commend and endear Him to His people. 3. ‘ Tis the property of grace to carry His people to Him as their chief good. 4. Gracious souls have all found that rest, and some of them that joy in God, that nothing in the world besides can give, and which they would not exchange for anything it can offer. But-- II. What it is, with reference to God, that sums up His people’ s happiness. It is the beholding His lace, and the satisfaction that results. More especially the likeness of God in Jesus Christ. Or the likeness may mean that which is impressed upon the soul, a resemblance of the Divine glory. Oh, happy they who, from seeing God’ s back parts, are thus gone to see Him face to face. III. Whoever is admitted to behold God’ s face, it must be in righteousness.1. Righteousness imputed. Jesus said, “ I am the way.” 2. Righteousness inherent. And this is necessary from the nature of the thing (2 Corinthians 6:14). What would sinners do in the presence of God? IV. However much we may enjoy of heaven here, there is much more reserved above which they shall at last obtain.1. God’ s people do have much of happiness or heaven, begun through God graciously showing Himself unto them. 2. But much more of heaven is yet reserved. And this is in order to wean them from the present world, and that they may have the quicker relish of their final blessedness. And, 3. This is what they are aspiring to, and shall at length obtain. V. There is a fixed and proper season for the saints’ satisfaction.1. The soul awakes when it is set free from the body. It does not descend into the grave with the body, but ascends to behold God’ s face. How calmly, then, should we contemplate death. 2. Both soul and body awake at the resurrection. The body is sown in corruption, but it shall be raised in incorruption. (D. Wilcox.) The believer’ s present standing and assured anticipation What a contrast do these words felon with what goes before. The men of the world and Himself; their satisfaction and His. This Psalm not to be applied exclusively to Christ. Much tells of Him, but much also of ourselves today. Note-- I. The high attainment of the real child of God. He gets it now; now he beholds God’ s face in righteousness. Christ’ s righteousness, not his own, even the best of it. And we behold God’ s face thus when we appropriate for ourselves what Christ has done. If we have done this we shall live holily, because under the influence of Christ. II. The interesting expectation. “ I shall be satisfied.” How much of that likeness have I now? Ask yourselves that. The awaking, it includes both transformation and translation. Holiness and eternal life at the Resurrection. III. The solemn assurance. “ I will behold” --very bold: “ I shall be satisfied.” “ I hope and trust” --seems kicked out of doors. “ I will,” and “ I shall.” Now, intimacy with God, personal intimacy with God, is the only thing that can warrant such an assurance. Whatever you may know of doctrine, and whatever your walk may be with regard to morality (the more of it the better), I tell you, in the name of the living God, that you cannot--must not--dare not--claim this “ will” and “ shall” unless you know something about intimacy with God. Believe me, beloved, in that which I have often stated to you--this is the vitality of religion. (Joseph Irons.) The satisfaction of the righteous man Every man is conscious of desires that find here no befitting object. Nothing here comes up to the full aspirations of the soul. It is, and has been, the design of providence to teach men by example that a finite world is incompetent to fill out the demands of an immortal mind. I can never expect to be satisfied on this earth. Here the stupor of sleep is upon me. But not always shall I sleep. I shall awake. I shall behold the face of God in righteousness. In the future there are two periods when the righteous will have two reasons for exulting in their Maker. The Christian looks forward with the brightest hope to one or other of these two periods. So soon as his soul is released from the body it will rise as on the wings of an eagle to new knowledge and new bliss. Then is the eye of the intellect opened. Then the mental ear is made sensitive to every word of God as no uncertain sound. At death we pass into intimate contact with Him who keepeth all created minds vigilant in their measure like Himself. When the Christian repeats the words of the text he often alludes to the breaking up of his spiritual slumber, and says that the present world is a dream, and the bright world to which he goes is one of wakeful joy. But he often alludes to a richer scene than this. In some aspects he looks to the end of life as the end of trouble, and looks at death as a state of rest, of sleep in Jesus. A devout heart is a prophecy of ultimate enjoyment. We are sure of a holly peace if we have a holy appetence for it.1. The righteous man will be satisfied with the Divine intellect. It is in compliance with the imperfect language of men that we speak of their Maker’ s intellect. This is His power to perceive all truth--all facts and all possibilities, Heaven is the abode of minds bearing His intellectual image. 2. The righteous man will be satisfied with the Divine sensibilities. He will be satisfied with God as the Spirit all whose involuntary emotions are exactly appropriate to their objects. 3. The righteous man will be satisfied with the holiness of God. He glorifies his intellect and sensibility with perfect benevolence. Moral rectitude is benevolence. Moral rectitude is moral beauty. The Christian also hopes to be satisfied in having a form like that which he adores: in possessing, so far as a creature is able to possess, the likeness of the Creator. It is said, “ I shall be satisfied.” He is to awake suddenly. As the commencement of this joy is sudden, so the date of it is uncertain. And if we are to be in this image, then we must cheerfully submit to all the influences needed for our transformation. (E. A. Park, D. D.) The three-fold hope of the Christian I. For the righteous there is a glorious hope. This creed concerning the future has three clauses: “ I shall awake; I shall be like Christ, when I awake; when I awake like Christ, I shall be satisfied.” Simple and deep, as the very purposes of God!1. “ I shall awake.” Tired eyes fall asleep, tired feet rest; but after God’ s beautiful ordinance of sleep is fulfilled we shall awake rested, refreshed, re-invigorated. What was it that David believed would wake up? What was it that David believed went to sleep? There is more than a little obscurity on this point. More than one modern writer speaks as if the soul were asleep. That we cannot think. We must apply sleeping and waking to that part of us to which it belongs. We put the body to sleep; we lay it in its narrow grave. We do not know what the Divine alchemy may do for these bodies of ours. 2. I shall be like Christ when I awake. Our bodies will be like Christ’ s body. The bodies of the saints will be glorified bodies, like the body of the Son of Man. And I feel glad that He lived a little while after the resurrection. 3. I shall be satisfied. (1) We shall be satisfied with ourselves.(2) We shall be satisfied with our homes.(3) We shall be satisfied with Christ. II. The glorious hope belongs only to the righteous. The first clause indicates those who will certainly enjoy this blessed hope. Those who can say, “ As for me, I will behold Thy face in righteousness.” You cannot see His face at all, if you do not see it that way. Righteousness as a state we call holiness. He who by faith in Jesus has righteousness as a standing will, also by faith, receive the grace of the Holy Spirit, which shall save him from sin and all uncleanness. We shall never be able to say, with any firmness of tone, “ I shall be satisfied,” until we can also add, “ Not m my own righteousness, but in the righteousness which is of God in Christ.” But that will lead to the other inevitably. (John Bradford.) The man of the Bible We have in Scripture a revelation of God, but we have also a revelation of man. This revelation of man, this that we call the human element mingling with the Divine in the Bible, is what makes it come home to our feelings, our conscience, our bosom, in a way that a simple revelation of the Divine thought by itself could never have done. We have much to be thankful for that God has given us the revelation of Himself through men. In this Book of Psalms it is men that speak to us under the influence of the Spirit. Look at this Psalm as representing to us the man of the Bible.1. This man has a consciousness of a religious, Divine life in Him. It is a humble, thankful, moral, spiritual consciousness that this man, believing in God, loves Him, has communion with Him, and, under the influence of that Divine faith, keeps himself from the path of the destroyer, from the works and the society of the wicked. 2. This Divine faith, this religious consciousness in the man, develops and expands until it culminates in the persuasion of a future life, and an expectation of being with God and beholding Him. Men say there is nothing in the books of the law about a future life. But the Hebrews had a religion before they had the law. There was the patriarchal faith, the faith of Abraham and Jacob, and there was hope of the future in it. 3. This man anticipates a waking up,--that there will be something like an abruptness, something like suddenness in the crisis; that all at once be will come face to face with God, into a fulness of the revelation of the Divine countenance, and a conformity to His image. His words may have been uttered by David without his understanding distinctly what was in them but feeling that there was some great idea suggested to him by that condition of his Divine life under which the Spirit was then influencing him. The idea of a future life among the Hebrew people gradually expanded until it took the form of a resurrection. Our Lord did not bring life and immortality to light as a new thing; He took it as a thing existing in the Hebrew mind, existing imperfectly and indistinctly, and He threw light upon it, brought it out in “ all fulness and completeness and perfection. 4. This man will be perfectly satisfied. If God has created a species of beings with spiritual and religious faculty; then the infusion into the spirit a participation in the Divine blessedness must be satisfaction; all the faculties regaled, every want met. 5. The man expects all this through righteousness--“ in righteousness” --that is, as the outcome and end of a righteous life, heroic in its contest with evil, grand in its development of obedience and duty. That is the doctrine of the Bible from beginning to end. That is, then, the idea of the man of the Bible; believing in God, he lives near Him and with Him, and has a consciousness of a spiritual and religious life, that expands into the anticipation of a future life; that takes the particular form of rising from the lowest at one step to the highest, face to face with God, with something of suddenness. And with that he expects an ultimate and perfect satisfaction, and he expects it in the way of righteousness. Now, what do you think of that man? We are quite capable of forming a moral judgment. Take this man, then, weigh him, measure him, judge him, what sort of man is he?1. The foundation thought of this man must be approved and justified. If there be a God, can anything be more right or justifiable than that an individual with the capacity of religion, the power of faith, should pray to, worship, and trust God, believe in his Fatherhood, and seek to have spiritual, religious communion with Him? 2. Then take the next idea--that this religious faith expands into the anticipation of a future life. There are grounds and reasons on which common sense would say, “ The man is right, the man is reasonable.” He belongs to a system in which what we call nature wastes nothing. Nature is the most thrifty thing you can imagine. There is not a single atom of matter annihilated. It changes its form, it takes another position, but it is there. Are all minds to be wasted? Is she to be extravagant just here? Nature never deceives. All the instincts, all the faculties, which are in any of its creatures, there is always something to meet them. Is nature to play loose with the moral aspirations of man, the spiritual instincts, the irrepressible anticipations of which he is capable? 3. Take the other idea. He anticipates a kind of abrupt, sudden rise. You will say, How can that be justified? Would not gradual successive steps be more reasonable? But the religion of the Bible gives us the idea of a terrible catastrophe that happened to humanity. Humanity is in an unnatural condition, and therefore there comes down the supernatural. There is the supernatural revelation of a Mediator and redemption, therefore the process is altogether changed. It seems to be more consistent under the new circumstances that a man should awake and suddenly find himself at home with God. And there will be a likeness, an awaking in His image. This man anticipates it, and he will be satisfied with it. (Thomas Binney.) Satisfied The Psalmist has a morning in his view unspeakably desirable and glorious. How are we to understand his words of mystic devotion, and ecstasy, and hope? Not, surely, of the following, morning in the. Psalmist’ s life. The singer does not merely look forward to a deliverance from his present sorrows and sufferings. That is John Calvin’ s interpretation. It is, however, difficult to find a worthy meaning, unless we think of the sleep of death and the radiant morning of eternity which is to follow. It may seem strange to listen to so definite a statement of the everlasting future at so early a stage in the revelation. But a devout man who is in communion with God, and who knows the delights of that matchless friendship, will reach up now and then to the conclusion that the communion and friendship are destined to survive the present world. Let us single out some of the elements of this blessedness, this satisfaction. I. There is the beatitude of the senses. We may believe that there is aggrandisement, expansion, growth in store for our senses. Have we not hints of it already? In the Christian life on earth these bodily faculties are sometimes marvellously quickened and sharpened. II. There is the beatitude of the mind. We think; we study; we seek after truth, and find it. It is one of the highest glories of our manhood that it is so governed by the passion for knowledge, and so resolved to grow in wisdom. Our minds, once we have learned to sit at the feet of Jesus, are admitted to new marvels and delights. We are scholars in the most blessed school. We grow not only in knowledge, but in holiness and trust and love. But much continues to be veiled and covered even from the sanctified intellect. In the hereafter we shall understand. What an awakening it will be for our intellect! III. There is the beatitude of the memory. Such a weird and tremendous power is our memory. It retains our past, storing up our experience, letting nothing slip out of its tenacious grasp. And it reproduces our past, summoning it all back again when it chooses, to scourge as it did Manasseh, to solace and strengthen us as it did St. Paul. Memory can never be the bringer only of good tidings to God’ s people in this life. Memory is too precious a chamber of the soul to be scattered and destroyed. What will make its words only good and comfortable in heaven is, that it will live there in the perpetual presence of Christ. IV. There is the beatitude of the conscience. We carry about with us a faculty which is at once a mirror of right and wrong, and a law enacting royally the path in which we ought to go, and a tribunal condemning us sternly and terribly for our wandering from the straight road, and a voice of God Himself within our breast. A priceless and momentous possession indeed, but an exceedingly troublesome one to many of us. V. There is the beatitude of the heart. It is the heart which loves. But what heart has gained its end and arrived at its goal? There is no satisfied heart. In the city of God all hearts are satisfied. Heaven is the heart’ s harbour made after the weary and stormy sea. (A. Smellie, M. A.) The Christian’ s future likeness to Christ David and Paul and John looked for the same blessed consummation of their happiness for eternity, in being like their Lord. I. The assured hope of satisfaction at a future time. The cause of his satisfaction is the likeness of God. We to whom the New Testament is given know what that likeness is, for to that end is the history of Jesus Christ given us. David could only have had a vague and indistinct idea; but still it had a practical hold on his mind, and influenced his character. David’ s was a personal God, a living person, to whom like a child to its parent he could run and take refuge. And therefore, as his hope here was clear and well defined, so was his hope hereafter. They always go together in this. II. The subject matter of his satisfaction. Satisfied expresses more than joy. It is the fulness of joy. The idea is purposely contrasted with the state of things around him, in which, at the best of times, there was always something wanting. He will be satisfied. There will be nothing left to wish and long for, and it will be all comprised and contained in that one absorbing brilliance of his hope, the likeness of his Lord. Break this up into some of its particulars.1. There are the real pleasures of life, such as do contribute to man’ s happiness, and to the well-being of the world. And life has such pleasures, and many of them. But there are cares. There is no satisfying portion in our pleasures. There is, and ever will be, much that is hollow. Not so when we wake up after the Saviour’ s likeness. We shall have attained to the Saviour’ s likeness, and that admits of nothing higher that we can attain. 2. Look for a moment at the body. The body is a wonderful instrument. The body is not a thing to be cried down and despised, as we shall know full well when we have it in the Saviour’ s likeness. 3. It is the same with the mind or intelligence. The mind presents the same absence of a satisfying fulness, that its lower companion, the body, does. 4. Paul hints that it is thus with what even now is really good. 5. Look at that which is beyond yourself. It is the same with the society you must mingle with. III. The time specified. “ When I awake.” On the morning of the resurrection. David, under all the cares of government, in all the discomforts and troubles of his family and his position, turned for consolation to that bright hope which gilds the horizon of the waiting Christian. (G. Deans, M. A.) When I awake.--The dream and its awakening How does our life show itself, to the devout and reflective mind, as little better than a vision of the night! Think what dreams are in themselves, taking them generally, and then think what any devout man’ s life, or any man’ s life, appears when he comes to look back upon it from old age, and you will have no great difficulty in answering this question. There is an absence of method in dreams. They are incongruous, incoherent, disconnected, confused. Our dreams come like shadows, and so depart. In all this the devout mind finds resemblance to its own history. Many thoughts and feelings of a better kind have been stirring within us. But there is no order, no properly connecting link. Perhaps we should find it difficult to put anything like order into our present spiritual state and feeling, to say nothing about the past. There is a lack of any right measurement of time in dreams. In a single moment of sleep we may seem to live through weeks, and even months and years. There is no real time in sleep. All is illusive. We are equally at fault in our attempts to estimate our life. Bliss lessens it, sorrow lengthens it out. The past takes its tinge from our present condition. Surprises are rare in dreams. We may meet our own funeral procession, but we feel no surprise. Here the likeness holds good of other things. There is enough of the wonderful in our lives, and in the lives of those around us, if only we could see it, if only we were awake. There is in dreams an indistinctness and liability to fade. We see, and yet we do not see. There is a blurred image of something. We are like men attempting to catch a shadow. An old feeling is one of the most difficult things to recall, because it was dependent upon much that was temporary; and some thoughts are like feelings. But this fleetingness and indistinctness in our life is brought more vividly before us as all other impressions fade. The memory decays, or seems to decay. We find it hard to recall names. Perhaps also our perception appears to decline, through the failing of the body. Life is slipping away; and life seems then little better than a dream. Now look at the other side. If life is as a dream, death is the awakening from it. Some refer the Psalm to awakening from simple sleep. We regard them as distinctly referring to the resurrection. There is a certainty about this awakening. The evidence of the resurrection is strong and manifold. See that supplied by Christian literature; by religious observances; by Christian character and life. As death is certain, so is the awakening after death. If our life be as a dream, our death will be as the light of morning awakening us from a sleep. Consider the attractions of this awakening. There is the Divine resemblance which will be enjoyed by us in it. Death does not possess any regenerative power; but there is nevertheless the promise of completeness to the believer in the world beyond the grave. There is full contentment in that other world. We never get this out of anything here. However we plan and fore arrange, we are always stumbling upon something which brings disappointment. But there, no bitter disappointment ever comes. In that fair clime there is no tempter, no doubt, no sin. Should not the thought of this better life also check undue expectations as to the present? (J. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/bi/ Psalms 18:1-3I will love Thee, O Lord, my strength.The tale of a life In this magnificent hymn the royal poet sketches, in a few grand outlines, the tale of his life--the record of his marvellous deliverances, and of the victories which Jehovah had given him--the record, too, of his own heart, the truth of its affection towards God, and the integrity of purpose by which it had ever been influenced. Throughout that singularly chequered life, hunted as he had been by Saul before he came to the throne, and harassed perpetually after he became king by rivals, who disputed his authority and endeavoured to steal away the hearts of his people--compelled to fly for his life before his own son, and engaged afterwards in long and fierce wars with foreign nations--one thing had never forsaken him, the love and presence of Jehovah. By His help he had subdued every enemy, and now, in his old age, looking back with devout thankfulness on the past, he sings this great song of praise to the God of his life. With a heart full of love he will tell how Jehovah delivered him, and then there rises before the eyes of his mind the whole force and magnitude of the peril from which he had escaped. So much the more wonderful appears the deliverance which accordingly he represents in a bold poetical figure, as a stooping of the Most High from heaven to save him--who comes, as He came of old to Sinai, with all the terror and gloom of earthquake, and tempest, and thick darkness. But God delivers those only who trust in Him and who are like Him. There must be an inner life of communion with God, if man will know His mercy. Hence David passes on to that covenant relationship in which he had stood to God. He had ever been a true Israelite, and therefore God, the true God of Israel, had dealt with him accordingly. And thus it is at the last that the servant of Jehovah finds his reward. (J. J. Stewart Perowne, B. D.) Have we permission to love God It will awaken surprise in you to hear this question, yet it cannot exceed mine on hearing it, as I once did, from a distinguished man whom I had long regarded as truly devout. Being together at the house of his relative, this man, of worldwide reputation as a man of genius, astonished me with this question, “ What do you understand by love to God?” I looked at him with surprise; but before I could speak he added, “ I know what fear of God means; but I do not understand what is meant when I am called upon to love God.” Had I uttered the thought which arose in my mind I should have said, “ I always supposed you to be a Christian; can it be possible that you have need that one should teach you the alphabet of religious experience? But I put questions to him, encouraged by his frank nature, and I now discovered that his difficult was this, that loving God implied a degree of familiarity which seemed to him unsuitable in a finite creature when approaching his Creator. He acknowledged that the language of the Bible encouraged the idea of familiarity in our intercourse with God; still, he preferred to explain all such permission by what he called Orientalism. In vain was it urged in reply that Orientalism rather forbade than encouraged liberty in approaching Majesty; prostration, even to abjectness, was enjoined on ministers of state, as well as menial servants. Hence there are two extremes against which we have need to be on our guard. One is familiarity; the other is stoicism. The apostles maintain a just medium between these extremes. The question which I have already mentioned as put to me by a man of distinguished genius was also expressed by a plain man, a mechanic, he was in the last stages of a decline, but in full possession of his faculties. Once as I was leaving his bedside he said, “ One thing more I wish to ask: I lie here and talk with God in a way which startles me. I use expressions of endearment, address Him by affectionate names, make requests as a child to a parent, indulge in words of adoration; all of which, on second thought, seem to me too free for a mortal to use in his intercourse with his Master. Yet my feelings are so strong that I cannot restrain myself.” I said to him, “ You ask, May you love God thus? The Saviour says, quoting the Old Testament, ‘ Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind.’ Do you ever exceed this. An expression of satisfaction came over his face. The next day he had gone to see Him “ whom not having seen” he “ loved.” The words of the text leave no room to question that the, predominant feeling of David was this, “ I will love Thee, O Lord, my strength.” Then he proceeds to heap up epithets of love to God. He draws them from his experience in wildernesses and caves. Had he been a seafaring man we doubtless should have had him saying, “ Thou art my lighthouse, my pilot, my harbour; to Thee I am homeward bound; with Thee I am safe home.” How enthusiastic in passionate expression of love to God is all true religious poetry. And when a man is converted, how his heart goes out in love to God. See this in Paul. And here is one instance from the preaching of the Gospel, and there are scores of such. A man was riding home on horseback after evening service, meditating on what he had heard. He was secretly persuaded to yield himself up to God, when all at once light from heaven broke upon his mind, revealing to him the way of salvation by Christ with a sense of peace with God and the joy of pardoned sin; so that he found himself in a new world. Unable to contain his joy at the discovery, having no one at home who could enter into his feelings, turning his horse’ s head, he rode back three miles to the minister’ s house, and called him to the door. Taking both of the minister’ s hands in his, he cried out, “ Oh, sir! what a God we have!” which was the substance of all that he said, for it was impossible for words to express his emotions, and he mounted and rode home, singing and praying. No one would have found it more impossible than he to answer the question, “ What do you understand by loving God?” --he whose whole being was at that hour flooded with it could have found no words to define his emotions. Does anyone say, “ Of what value can such emotions be to God?” We might answer him, Of what value is anything to God? He will one day give up this globe to fire. There is nothing of any value to God except love. The whole object of God in the Bible seems everywhere to have been to make men love Him. I. The experience of men in the Bible shows us that the sum of human duty is to love God. See the Book of Deuteronomy, to which our Lord so often referred. It is full of expostulations to urge Israel to love God. Joshua, too, does not hid them tremble, as he well might, in view of their stupendous history, but “ love the Lord.” Some will say this seems very strange. Let such consider that there is no way in which, on account of the hardness of our hearts, God brings us to love Him more effectually than by His terrible dispensations. When night comes down in the Azores the lavender beds yield perfumes which all day long the hot sun had consumed. After a storm we look for sea mosses and pebbles which the working of the sea has ,brought on shore. “ The Lord hath said that He will dwell in the thick darkness” --so spoke Solomon, and it is true. If God desires to draw a Christian very near to Himself, He will almost always send a heavy trial upon him. David said, “ When He hath tried me I shall come forth as gold.” We see Christians who have been grievously afflicted, cleaving to God the more that He smites them. If God has set His love on a man He may honour him by great trials. He cannot trust all to bear great trials. He said of Saul of Tarsus, “ I will show him how great things he must suffer, for My sake.” Probably there is nothing which excites the admiration of angels more than to see us loving God the more that He afflicts us. Then they see the power of faith; how it makes a man endure as seeing Him who is invisible. II. The Cross of Christ is the Divine testimony to man, not only that he may but that he must love God. See how John in his epistles insists on this, that God is Love. The governing principle in God is love. Other attributes belong to Him, but He is none of them. “ God is Love.” Therefore He must desire the love of His people. They are born of the Spirit. Shall man, His new creation, be a cold, phlegmatic, intellectual being? May we be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height; and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge, that we may be filled with all the fulness of God. (N. Adams, D. D.) A text that looks two ways I. Backward, upon the mercies and deliverances of God. These are expressed in the titles used--strength, rock, fortress, etc. These are synonymous phrases, signifying one and the same thing. There is not here merely the exuberance of a poetical style. The apparent exaggeration in David’ s hymn flows from the abundance of a devout and grateful heart labouring to empty and discharge its fulness. How well such a full acknowledgment would become us! II. Forward, in the returns of duty, to which he engageth himself.1. Of love (Psalms 18:1).2. Of trust (Psalms 18:1).3. Of praise and prayer (Psalms 18:3). We are to love God for His own excellencies, because He requires it, and in response to His love. Trust is an act of friendship, and the greatest fruit it yields, mutual confidence, springing naturally from mutual affection. (J. Dolben, D. D.) A song of thanksgiving in review of a troublous life This Psalm is a fervent outpouring of gratitude, not for any single deliverance, but for all the deliverances of his tried and stormy life. I. A life greatly troubled. Four facts concerning “ ungodly men.” They were worthless, numerous, violent, and indefatigable. And our sufferings, as David’ s, grow out of our physical constitution, our social relationships, our moral delinquencies and remorses. II. A God equal to all emergencies. God appears to David in his trials in a two-fold aspect--passive and active: resting as a rock, and moving as a thunderstorm.1. God appeared to him as his all-sufficient protector. A refuge impregnable, ever accessible, and everlasting. 2. God appeared as his triumphant deliverer. The description of God moving for his deliverance is grandly poetic. This poetic description is both natural and religious. Three observations are suggested-- (1) It is a movement in answer to prayer.(2) It is a movement sublimely grand.(3) It is a movement completely effective. III. A soul alive with true sentiments.1. Love. Love to God is the essence of goodness, and the sum total of man’ s obligation. 2. Trust. This is connected with love. True love has respect to excellence, and will ever lead to trusting. 3. Praise. “ I will call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised.” Worship is heaven. (Homilist.) Love to God possible.. “ I cannot love God,” said a thoughtless man, “ for I have never seen Him.” “ Canst thou not?” replied his companion. “ Then thou canst do less than the little blind girl who sits under the shade of the chestnut tree on the village green. She can love her father and mother, though she has never seen them, and will never see them till the latest hour of her life.” Jesus is my love The Lollards’ Tower in London, constructed by Chicheley, Archbishop of Canterbury, in his palace at Lambeth, at the cost of six hundred pounds, was often filled with persons accused of heresy. The walls of this dungeon still bear witness to the sorrows and hopes of those who suffered in this place. The words “Jesus amor meus” (Jesus is in Love), written by some poor martyr, may still be seen upon the wall in the Lollards’ Tower. David’ s thanksgiving for his deliverance Many songs of thanksgiving were composed by David. Perhaps it would be too bold for us to say that this Psalm excels them all; but we may say without hesitation, that none of them excels this. I. Of David’ s deliverance from the hands of his enemies. In the early part of David’ s life he obtained signal instances of God’ s preserving mercy. A lion and a bear came to destroy a lamb of his fold; David had the courage to attack both these fierce animals in defence of the young of his flock, and the Lord delivered him. A great deliverance was granted to himself, and through him to his people, when the Lord delivered into his hand the terrible giant of Gath. Many and wonderful were the deliverances which he obtained from Saul. David sometimes thought it necessary for himself to leave the Lord’ s land and to seek refuge among strangers, who were not such heathens as many of his own people. Among them, too, he found protection and obtained great deliverances. The king of Moab behaved to him with kindness, so far as we know. Among the Philistines he was more than once in extreme danger. But the Lord was still his stay and his helper. When the Philistines were brought low by many terrible engagements, David was still exposed to great perils, but the Lord preserved him whithersoever he went. Neither Moabites, nor Ammonites, nor Syrians of different kingdoms could stand before him, either singly or in conjunction, for the Lord taught his hands to war and his fingers to fight. But when the Lord had given him rest from his enemies round about, evil rose up against him out of his own kingdom and out of his own house. Sheba rose up after Absalom to seek his life, but he soon lost his own, as his predecessor in wickedness had done. These were some of David’ s deliverances from his many visible enemies; and they were attended and sweetened by other deliverances, not less, but still more important. He was sometimes almost overwhelmed by fear and dejection of spirit. He was often in great bodily distress; but he cried unto the Lord and was healed (Psalms 30:1-12). But the most dangerous of his troubles were those which he suffered from the law in his members warring against the law in his mind, and bringing him into captivity to the law of sin which was in his members. II. Of God as the deliverer of David. “ Salvation is of the Lord” (Psalms 3:8). Everywhere we find him giving to the Lord the glory of the salvation wrought for him. “ The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer. The God of my rock, in Him will I trust: He is my shield and the horn of my salvation; my high tower and my refuge, my Saviour, Thou savest me from violence” (2 Samuel 22:2-3). “ For who is God save the Lord? Who is a rock save our God?” (2 Samuel 22:32). We know that there were many heroes who obtained a just and glorious name for the valiant exploits which they performed in the defence of their king and country. One of them had the honour of preserving the life of David when the hand of a terrible giant was lifted up against him. And there were many besides his mighty men to whom he was greatly indebted for signal service. His life was at one time saved by the kindness and wit of his wife Michal, at another time by the good offices of Jonathan, and even the Philistines were at one time made the instruments of preserving the life of that champion of Israel who was to be the destroyer of their power. But we never find David employing his fine genius in celebrating the exploits of these heroes to whom he was so greatly indebted. God is pleased for the most part to employ means and instruments in His works of mercy or of vengeance. But they do neither less nor more than God has intended to accomplish by them. It was God who made use of the Philistines for the salvation of David at Selah-hammah-lekoth. They were far from meaning so, neither did their heart think so. God employed not only men on earth, but the angels of heaven, for the deliverance of David from his enemies, and therefore, in his commendations of the goodness of God to himself, he assures us that the angel of the Lord encamps round about them that fear the Lord, and delivers them. “ Let their way be dark and slippery, and let the angel of the Lord persecute them” (Psalms 35:1-28). Whatever were the means employed for the deliverances of David, no doubt was left in the mind of any reasonable man concerning the great Author of his salvation. The Lord gave us sensible proofs of His presence with David and of His indignation against his enemies, as if He had in the literal sense bowed the heavens and come down. Had we hearts like David we would often be rejoicing in God, and singing His praises, when our corrupt dispositions prompt us to utter complaints as if God had forgotten to be gracious, because He will not resign the management of all our affairs into our own hands. III. Of this Psalm of thanksgiving to God felt all His deliverances. In this Psalm we find David expressing--1. The ardour of his love to that God who had blessed him with so many and such wonderful deliverances. Dearly he loved the God of his salvation, before he needed any of the deliverances which gave occasion to this Psalm. But every new deliverance increased the ardour of his love. 2. We find him expressing his firm reliance on God as the God of his salvation. His faith was powerfully invigorated by every new deliverance. And would we not greatly dishonour Him if we withheld from Him our confidence after a thousand proofs of His special favour? (Psalms 18:2-3). 3. He expatiates on the greatness, on the grace, on the glory of these salvations which had been wrought for him. He illustrates the greatness of the salvations by representing the dreadful danger from which he was delivered. The terrors of death had fallen upon him. He was like a brand plucked out of the burning, or like a man raised out of the grave. His deliverance was the answer of fervent cries addressed to God from the depths into which he was cast. We are too much disposed to look with a careless eye on the great works of God. 4. He celebrates the excellency of those Divine perfections which were manifested in his deliverance. He shews forth the glory of that righteousness which appeared in the gracious rewards bestowed on himself, and the vengeance inflicted on his wicked enemies. He shows forth the glory of the Lord as the God of salvation, who bad given striking and incontestable proofs of His saving power and grace in the salvations wrought for him. None of the gods of the nations had ever given any proofs of their power to save their worshippers that trusted in them. Great things God had done for David. David had himself performed wonderful things, and achieved victories that were to make him famous through all generations. But not to himself, but to his God was the praise due. 5. He praises God, and expresses his unshaken confidence in Him for the great things that were yet to be done for him, and for his seed after him. On the whole, we are taught by this Psalm what improvement we ought to make of the great works of God, recorded in His Word. If David saw and admired and celebrated in such strains of rapture his deliverance from the hand of his enemies, can we sufficiently admire the glory that shines forth in the whole train of providential administration recorded in the volume of inspiration? Manifold were the salvations wrought by God for Abraham and Jacob, for Moses and the people of Israel. Nor ought we to forget any of God’ s deliverances wrought for ourselves. Nor ought we to forget the obligations that lie upon us to praise God for our friends and brethren. (G. Lawson.) The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer. Shutting the gates of Derry In token of his gratitude to Jehovah for deliverance from Saul’ s malevolence, David wrote this Psalm, a glowing composition, in which martial similes abound. Thanksgiving is not only a national, but an individual duty. There are few today who seem to apprehend this obligation. With simple truthfulness it might be affirmed of most of us--“ Prayers are many, thanks are rare. How many of us who, in critical moments and in sad emergencies, resorted to our God for deliverance and protection, sought His presence again when He heard our prayer and saw our tears?” Not without deep meaning and subtle experience of human perversity did David write, “ I will pay Thee my vows which I spake with my mouth when I was in trouble.” (M. B. Hogg, B. A.) The horn of my salvation.-- “ The horn of my salvation” The allusion here is doubtful. Some have supposed the reference to be to the horns of animals, by which they defend themselves and attack their enemies. “ God is to me, does for me, what their horns do for them.” Others consider it as referring to the well-established fact, that warriors were accustomed to place horns, or ornaments like horns, on their helmets. The horn stands for the helmet; and “ the helmet of salvation” is an expression equivalent to “ a saving, a protecting helmet.” Others consider the reference as to the corners or handles of the altar in the court of the tabernacle or temple, which are called its horns. Others suppose the reference to be to the highest point of a lofty and precipitous mountain, which we are accustomed to call its peak. No doubt, in the Hebrew language, horn is used for mountain, as in Isaiah 5:1. A very fertile mountain is called a horn of oil. The sense is substantially the same whichever of these views we take; though, from the connection with “ shield” or “ buckler,” I am induced to consider the second of these views as the most probable. It seems the same idea as that expressed (Psalms 140:7), “ Thou hast covered,” and Thou wilt cover “ my head in the day of battle.” (John Brown.) Psalms 18:3I will call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised. The object, nature, and effect of prayer Few men have known more of the variegated scenes of human life than David. I. David’ s purpose. “ I will call upon the Lord.” Here we have what he declares concerning the Lord--that He is “ worthy to be praised.” By considering why we praise men we may be furnished with reasons why God is worthy to be praised.1. We praise men for the beauty of their persons. 2. For the largeness of their minds. But what are all the intellectual attainments of mortals compared with the infinite mind of God? 3. For the benevolence of their hearts; for their tender sympathetic feelings towards the objects of distress. Then how much does God deserve our praise for His benevolence? This in God is universal, absolute, wonderful, and perpetual. “ His mercy endureth forever.” 4. For the liberality of their actions. God scatters His gifts with a most liberal hand. That we may conceive how worthy God is to be praised, consider Him not only in His absolute, but also in His relative character. As a friend, a king, a father. Man’ s excellency is derived, God’ s attributes and perfections are essentially His own. II. David’ s confidence. Or what he asserts relative to himself: His purpose was pious, rational, scriptural, necessary, and beneficial. He says, “ I shall be saved from mine enemies.” This supposes--1. That he had enemies. 2. That he was in danger from his enemies. And 3. That he had no expectation of saving himself. (Sketches of Four Hundred Sermons.) Psalms 18:4-6 The sorrows of death compassed me. Estimating our sorrows No attempt is here made to diminish the severity of the crisis. Often when a great agony is overpast, the sufferer himself forgets its intensity and is inclined to think that it might have been cured by less ostentatious menus than had been adopted for its pacification. We are seldom critically correct in the recollection of our sorrows. We either unduly magnify them, or we so far modify their intensity as to make any remedial measures look as simple and superficial as possible. David vividly remembered all his afflictive experience. He does not hesitate to speak of that experience in words which are metaphorical, if not romantic, without at all affecting the reality of the trouble through which he had passed. He says, “ the sorrows of death compassed” him. Some have interpreted this expression as birth pangs; others, again, have used the word cords. It has been thought that the figure of the hunter in the next verse, in which we read of the “ snares of death,” fixes the meaning there to be cords. In Samuel, David represents himself as submerged or overwhelmed by the progress or waves of the trouble which had been made to pass over him. Sometimes, indeed, we do not know what real trouble we have been in until we have been removed from it for some distance, and thus enabled that we may also recollect our greatest deliverances. There is no true piety in undervaluing the darkness and the horror through which the soul has passed. Instead of making light of the most tragical experiences of life, we should rather accumulate them, that we may see how wondrous has been the interposition of the Divine hand, and how adequate are the resources of heaven to all the necessities of this mortal condition. Even admitting the words to be metaphorical, they present a vivid picture of what human sorrow may be,--whatever may be rationally imagined may be actually undergone; as to David’ s consciousness, what is here stated was a matter of the sternest reality. It should be borne in mind, too, that trouble is a different thing to different men, even when it comes in the same guise and quantity. Much must depend upon temperament. Things animate suffer; things inanimate do not respond to the blow with which they are struck. The poetic temperament is the most suffering of all. According to the sensitiveness of the nature is the terribleness of the stroke which falls upon it. (Joseph Parker, D. D.) David’ s afflictions and fears We never can be duly thankful to God if we forget the troubles which we have suffered, and the distress of our souls when they were pressing us down. “ The sorrows of death compassed me, and the floods of ungodly men made me afraid.” When Paul speaks of a great deliverance bestowed upon him in Asia, he says that God had delivered him from so great a death. In another passage he protests that he died daily. I. Of the great distresses and dangers of David. David probably enjoyed such happiness and tranquillity as this evil world can afford before he was anointed by Samuel to be king over Israel; but almost from that time, whilst he was yet in early youth, his troubles commenced. His sore distresses were not at an end when he was advanced to the throne. But the greatest of all his dangers after his advancement to the kingdom was that to which he was exposed by his unnatural son Absalom, and his treacherous counsellor Ahithophel. II. The consideration of the state of his mind under his troubles.1. Great sorrow often obtained possession of his soul. “ My soul is exceeding sorrowful,” or encompassed with sorrow even unto death. And as David was an eminent type of that blessed person, his sorrows may be considered as an emblem of those unequalled sorrows which seized on our Redeemer when He was bearing our iniquities. Poverty, exile, reproach, and danger of life are evils which make a deep impression of grief upon the minds of most men, especially when they meet together; and David, though a wise and an holy man, was not exempt from the feelings of human nature. But David was often compelled to dwell amongst men who without cause were his enemies (Psalms 56:1-13). And his friends were afraid to perform the offices of friendship. But exile is more distressing to a lover of his country than poverty. It was peculiarly distressing to an Israelite indeed, who could not leave his country without leaving behind him the sanctuary of his God. “ They have driven me out this day from abiding in the inheritance of the Lord, saying, Go serve other gods. Woe is me that I dwell in Meshech, and sojourn in the tents of Kedar.” His heart was broken with reproach whilst he heard the slanders of many. Continual dangers to himself and to his adherents could not fail to fill his mind with great uneasiness. He had indeed promises which assured him of a happy event to himself, but there is no wonder that his faith, of these promises was sometimes shaken. But to his grief for himself, and for his friends, let us add what he felt for his country, for the indignities done to his God, and even for the guilt and misery which his enemies were bringing upon themselves, and we shall see that he drunk deeper than most other men have done in any age of the cup of affliction. He hated and abhorred every false way, and therefore he was pierced with grief at the sight and hearing of that wickedness which everywhere abounded. 2. Great fear often seized upon him. The floods of ungodly men made him afraid. But of whom was he afraid? Did he think that the Lord had forgotten to be gracious, and had in anger shut up His tender mercies? Surely he was a firm believer in the mercy and faithfulness of God. And yet his faith had a great fight to endure. It was sore tried by many enemies and by ham dispensations of providence. In days of great temptation it is very difficult to restrain those corrupt reasonings by which faith is embarrassed. What if he had made God his enemy? He surely deserved to be rebuked in God’ s indignation, and chastised in His sore displeasure. God was true to His word, but His faithfulness was not bullied by destroying in the desert that generation which He brought out of Egypt, although they had the promise of entering into God’ s rest which would have been fulfilled to them if they had not come short of it through their own unbelief. Such might be the workings of David’ s mind at the times when a deep consciousness of guilt, and a terrifying sense of Divine displeasure discomposed his mind, although during the greater part even of the days of tribulation he could glorify God by an unshaken confidence. No man is always himself. David could often say, “ The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?” But at other times he cried out in the agony of his soul, “ I am cut off from Thine eyes; I am poor and needy, and my heart is wounded within me; I am gone like the shadow when it declineth; I am tossed up and down as the locust.” III. Why God suffered the holy man to be brought into such calamitous situations. May we not reasonably hope, that those men whom God blesses with His special favour will be preserved from those sorrows and fears which are the just portion of the wicked? Can He not by His Divine power, by which He rules over the world, set them high above all their enemies, and fill their mouths at all times with songs of triumph? Undoubtedly he can, and undoubtedly He would do it if He saw that it would tend to their best advantage.1. His faith was tried and approved. We are called to count it all joy when we fall into divers temptations, knowing this, that the trying of our faith worketh patience. Some remains of unbelief were found in David when his faith was tried as it were by fire (Psalms 27:13-14; Psalms 118:1-29).2. His sore afflictions were means for quickening his devotions. Never was there a more fervent supplicant at the throne of grace. 3. He learned from his sore adversities the value of the Word of God. He learned the value of its promises, its precepts, its warning, its histories. 4. Those graces were improved in him by his afflictions, to the exercise of which he was to be called in the days of his prosperity--his humility, his meekness, his humanity and tenderness of heart to the poor and afflicted. David would not have been such an excellent model for kings as he was if he had obtained the throne like his successors, by hereditary right, without passing to it through a great fight of afflictions. The experience of misery taught him to pity and succour the miserable. 5. His great and sore afflictions prepared the way for those marvellous loving kindnesses which inspired him with joy and praise. He would not have spoken so rapturously on many occasions of the salvations wrought for him by the God of his salvation if he had not tasted the bitter dregs of the cup of affliction. 6. He was designed to be an eminent type of our Lord Jesus Christ in his sufferings and in his exaltation. Many of his Psalms speak of the sufferings and glory of Christ under the figure of his own sufferings and glory. 7. The Church in every age was to derive unspeakable benefit from David’ s sufferings, Improvement--1. Think it not strange that you must endure many chastisements and trials in the world. Are your afflictions equal in number or greatness to David’ s? 2. Admire the providence of God. He knows how to execute His purposes by means which seem calculated to defeat them. 3. Be ready to meet with every occurrence in the course of your lives. You do not know what evil shall befall you; but you know that man is born to trouble. Whilst you enjoy peace and quietness, be thankful but not secure. (G. Lawson.) The floods of ungodly men made me afraid.--Excessive wickedness destructive to a nation By the overflowing of ungodliness the holy writer may be presumed to mean an uncommon prevalence of wickedness exceeding its ordinary measure and proportion in the world. The image represents to us impiety grown to the height, of insolence,. regardless of all rules and unrestrained by discipline.1. Ungodliness may use to such a pitch of insolence as to be without restraint from laws or authority. The truth of fact is apparent from all histories; and it cannot be wondered at that, when the fear of God and the remonstrances of conscience have lost their force, all human authority proves weak and ineffectual. Civil government is ordained for the punishment of evil-doers, and the praise of them that do well, and whenever it is duly executed it promotes and secures the happiness of society; but unless it be assisted, supported, and conducted by religion, all its strength will be but weakness, and all its wisdom folly. If the magistrate be without any restraint flora conscience and religion, the provision of laws will become of little effect. And if the subjects of any community are without any sense of the obligations of conscience and unrestrained by religion, human laws will be found but a weak provision for peace and justice among them. 2. Whenever this is the case there is reason to apprehend the greatest evils in consequence of it. Consider the miserable consequences which even naturally must attend it. When all the wild lusts and passions of corrupt nature are let loose to their several pursuits, unrestrained by Divine and human laws, no person is secured from injury, no property from fraud or rapine. Consider such a land as exposed to the vengeance of an offended God. The natural effects of prevailing impiety are indeed properly inflictions of God, they execute an established rule and constitution of providence, by which it is ordained that all sin should be attended with some immediate punishment. But the justice of God often visits the wicked with some more signal and extraordinary inflictions. 3. What conduct is in duty and prudence required from all who are in view of such a danger. (1) The ministers of God are by a peculiar call and obligation required to lift up their voice and cry aloud, to warn the people of their transgressions. They are placed as watchmen, and as they that must give account. Besides the special duties of those who are distinguished by a public character, every private subject who has any zeal for the glory of God, or any concern for the welfare of his country, must labour together with them, and according to his station and capacities endeavour to dispel the cloud and divert the impending ruin. (2) By a resolute application of private reproof and admonition, by a just and open detestation of impiety, and by a vigorous assistance to the magistrate in the assertion of his authority, and the execution of all good laws, to repress the insolence of wicked men, and make the workers of iniquity ashamed. (3) Upon the whole, everyone who fears God will under so just an apprehension of His judgments set himself with all his strength and with all his might to reduce within bounds the overflowing of ungodliness, and recall the spirit and practice of religion. If this happy effect can be obtained by the united labours and prayers of good men, God will be entreated for the land and turn away His anger from it. (J. Rogers, D. D.) Psalms 18:7 Then the earth shook and trembled. Earthquakes, their moral suggestions It is not for us to speculate concerning the physical causes of earthquakes. With the Bible in our hands we are privileged to regard the mightiest and the most destructive forces of nature as the ministers of His will “ who is wise in counsel, benevolent in purpose, and almighty in power.” I. The perilous condition of our earthly existence. Deep is the sense of insecurity which the earthquake strikes to our inward souls. But this is only one out of many perils that every moment threaten our destruction. This insecurity shows--1. The absurdity of setting our affections on material good. Set your affection on things above.2. The folly of postponing the preparation for eternity. How absurd to presume one minute upon the future, when every minute is uncertain. II. The probability of a coming crisis in the history of our planet. Geology teaches that the subterraneous forces of the earth have effected wonderful crises in its history. It is only natural to suppose that the forces which swept away races that preceded them will one day sweep man from its sphere, and make the earth the habitation of other races of existences yet to be created. Science gives a testimony concerning a coming crisis that is positive and satisfactory. The Bible assures us that a crisis awaits the world (2 Peter 3:1-18). III. The element of severity in the Divine government. Storms, pestilences, famines, and earthquakes attest severity in the government of God.1. The sinner deserves the severity.2. The sinner requires the severity. IV. The wisdom of seeking the Divine protection.1. That protection can be obtained through a practical reliance on the mediation of Christ for acceptance.2. The protection has been obtained. The ancient believers enjoyed it.3. The protection secures from all danger. Then is God your protector? (Homilist.) Psalms 18:11 His pavilions round about Him were . . . thick clouds of the skies.The ministry of the cloud His pavilions are thick clouds! Then the cloud is not a destructive libertine, some stray, haphazard, lawless force, the grim parent of shadow and chill and tempest. “ His pavilions are thick clouds.” The clouds are the dwelling places of God. He lives in them; He moves through them; He pervades them with the gentle ministries of grace and love. “ The clouds drop down their dew.” Then the clouds are more than shutters; they are springs. They do more than exclude the sunlight; they are the parents of the fertilising rains, and the drenching mists and dews. It is something of a triumph when we have got thus far in our religious faith. The cloud may hide the light; it does not destroy it. The cloud does not disprove the light; it is really the proof of the light. Without the warm and genial light there could be no cloud; the cloud is the creation of light. When, therefore, the cloud is forming, it means the sun is working. Raindrops can be traced to sunbeams. Love yearns to send a gentle rain, and so love prepares a cloud. So, the cloud is part of the answer to our prayer for dew. If, therefore, I have been asking my God for a softening, fertilising rain, I must not be discomfited by the appearance of a chilling and darkening cloud. If I have been asking for a drenching baptism of dew, I must not lose my heart when there comes a confusing mist. We asked the Lord to bless our nation; there came a chilling disappointment; the answer was in a cloud! Have you ever noticed how many of the dispositions of the perfected life can only be richly gained in the baptism of shadow and tears? And when I contemplate the dispositions which are the creations of the Spirit I feel that for their perfect nourishing something is needed of moistness and of shade. Here is a short list of the beautiful things: “ Love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance.” I am more inclined to call them ferns than flowers! I don’ t think they would come to any luxurious profusion and beauty if they were grown in the prolonged and cloudless glare! Here is an exquisite fern--“ gentleness.” Where will you find it growing in richest profusion? You will find it growing in the life that has known the shadow and the tear. There is no touch so tenderly gentle as the touch of the wounded hand. There is no speech so insinuatingly sympathetic as the speech of those who have been folded about by the garment of night. Gentleness is a fern, and it requires the ministry of the cloud. Here is another rare and beautiful fern--“ long suffering.” How can you grow that in the “ garish day” ? “ Long suffering” is a fern, and it needs the ministry of the cloud. And is it otherwise with the ferns of “ goodness” and “ love” ? How this love fern expands when life passes into the shadow; when husband or child is laid low, how love puts on strength and beauty, whether the lover be peasant wife or queen! Now, I do not think we have any difficulty in perceiving the influence of the cloud in the individual life. “ in my distress Thou hast enlarged me.” Enlarged! It is a very spacious word, and includes the complementary meanings of broadening and enrichment. “ In my cloud experience Thou hast enriched me!” A man goes into the cloud rough and boorish, and full of domineering aggression, and he emerges from its ministry strangely softened and refined! He entered the cloud hard and dry as a pavement; he emerges with disposition suggestive of the fernery. “ In my distress Thou hast enriched me!” But the cloud experience is not only the minister of enrichment, but also of enlargement! It is in the cloud that men grow the fern of a spacious tolerance. Narrowness is transformed to breadth. In the personal life, if it were not for the cloud we should become and remain dry and infertile as Sahara; it is the providential cloud that calls forth the hidden growth, the sleeping ferns, and transforms, the dust heap into a thing of grace and beauty. It is not otherwise with the ministry of the cloud m the sphere of the home. There is many a family which never realises its unity until it is enveloped in the folds of a chilling cloud. Health and luxury are too often divisive; sickness and sorrow are wondrous cements. Luxury nourishes a thoughtless individualism; adversity discovers hidden and profounder kinships. “ We shall know each other better when the mists have roiled away!” Ah! but we sometimes never know each other until we meet together in the mist! It is in the common cloud that the family finds its kinship. It is in our sorrow that deep calleth unto deep, and our communion is revealed. Is it otherwise in the larger life and family of the nations? Does the cloud ministry exercise its influence in the State? Surely we may say that the common life of a people is deepened and enriched by the ministry of the shade. A people is not consolidated by common material interests end aims. It is not by free trade or by reciprocity that we shall forge the links of enduring fellowships. Juxtaposition is not fellowship. It is not the prosperous glare that makes us one. We fall apart in the noontide; we draw closer to each other in the night. It is in the national clouds and shadows, and in the nation’ s tears that you will find the forces of a true consolidation. The clouds, in their courses, have been the friends of the national life. (J. H. Jowett M. A.) Psalms 18:13 The Lord also thundered in the heavens.The terrors of an Eastern thunderstorm There is said to be something peculiarly terrific in an Oriental thunderstorm. Its vivid lightning and intense darkness, succeeding each other with startling rapidity, are appalling. This is indicated in the words, “ at the brightness that was before Him, His thick clouds passed” ; that is, passed away. So intense is the light of the lightning’ s flash that the whole mass of dark clouds seems to pass away, and their place to be occupied for an instant by a mass of solid light, shedding its beams over everything upon the earth like a midday sun. The light, however, is only for an instant--and then a darkness, that may be felt, shuts up the whole from every vision but His, to whom the darkness and the light are both alike. Meanwhile the roar of the thunder, the voice of the Most High in the clouds, is incessant; the lightnings flashing from cloud to cloud, from the clouds to the earth, and from the earth back again to the clouds. Moreover, it seems as if He who measureth the waters in the hollow of His hand had poured them out, for the rain descends in torrents, mingled at times with destructive hail, while coals of fire--balls of meteoric flame--run along the ground (Exodus 9:23). (David Caldwell, A. M.) Psalms 18:16 He sent from above, He took me, He drew me out of many waters.Divine interpositions We are not as those who believe in two co-existent forces, each supreme, one of whom shall create disasters, and the other distribute blessings. The prince of evil is, according to our faith, subordinate to the great Lord of all. Everywhere is God, and in all things His hand is present; in the things which seem to us evil, as well as in the events which appear to us good, God is at work. We freely admit that we do not understand this, and therefore we do not attempt to explain it; but we believe and adore. We need not try to justify the ways of God with men, for He asks no defence at our hands. If there is a providence, why are such terrible evils permitted? I. Miraculous interpositions in the calamities of this life are not to be expected.1. Such interpositions would change the whole arrangement of the world. 2. If interpositions were given to save the lives of godly men alone, as some would have it, then this world would become the place of judgment, which it is not intended to be. 3. If God were to interpose in the case of all calamities it would involve many evils. It would encourage idleness, neglect of sanitary laws, carelessness, etc. 4. Divine interpositions of a miraculous sort would not be attended with the advantage to the ungodly which we might suppose, because if there were miracles of mercy on the behalf of God’ s people to snatch them from a watery grave or other perils, then we might expect to have, and naturally should have, miracles of judgment too. II. Providential interpositions are frequent among God’ s people. They come in the way of deliverance from floods of trouble. “ He took me, He drew me out of many waters.” He does this not by miracles. He violates no law of nature, but yet delivers in a marvellous way. He does not quench the violence of the flame, yet a precious life is saved from a burning building. The Lord allows all the forces of nature to drive on in their ordinary course, and yet the outcome of it all is, that His servant is delivered and his prayers are answered. This He does in various ways. The sick are restored to health. Business is made to prosper. Enemies are turned to friends, or they die, like Haman. Then believe in the unexpected. Believe that God will do for you something which you know nothing about. The Lord always has a plan in reserve. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Deliverance out of deep waters The testimonies of experience are always welcome to us. In sickness, those of the experienced physician. In battle, those of the proved commander. This Psalm seems to be a leaf taken out of David’ s private diary. I. Let us inquire whence it was that God took David. “ He sent from above, He took me, He drew me out of many waters.” The term “ waters” is used in the Scriptures to express a state of trouble and mental disquietude. Apart from the naturalness of the imago as descriptive of something which overwhelms, and desolates, and lays waste, to an Eastern mind this image would have a peculiar force and beauty; for in the mountainous parts of Judea, even as in Switzerland to this very day, the people were liable to sudden inundations, which would sweep away flocks and herds, towns and villages, in their disastrous and overwhelming torrent. Well, David says, “ God drew me out of many waters” ; intimating, first, his deliverance from the depths of outward danger. And as from many dangers, so from many sorrows had God taken David out. Think of the sorrow of his exile, the sorrows so many and terrible that came upon him through his great sin. And yet God took him out of them all. But sickness, bereavement, exile were not David’ s deepest waters; but sin, the displeasure of God, merited condemnation for his offences, who could hold up the bead in such waters? “ A wounded spirit who can bear?” The image in the text is commonly used in connection with David’ s sins. The penitential Psalms will be found to abound with such allusions. “ Out of the depths have I cried,” etc. “ I am come unto deep waters.” “ Thou hast afflicted me with all Thy waves.” His sins had plunged him into many deep waters. And as with sorrows, so with sins, have we not known a like experience to that of David? May not the same confession of misery which they caused us, and of God’ s “ God,” says Bunyan, gracious deliverance out of them, come truly from our lips? “ God,” says Bunyan, “ will sometimes cleave a saint with a wedge of his own timber,” that is, He will make him feel the consequences of his own sin, in order that the bitterness of his distress may draw him to a better choice. But to draw a struggling man out of the waters and to take no further care of him--to leave him on the brink of the same pit, and liable again to make shipwreck in the same sea, this is not the way of Him “ whose work is perfect” and therefore we inquire, not only whence God took David, but-- II. Whither He took him. This David beautifully expresses in the 40th Psalm. “ He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings.” Here, then, we have the deliverance perfected. Not only is he raised from the depths, but he is exalted to the heights; not only is he drawn out of the waters, but be is set upon a rock. Fear is superseded by the tranquilities of the promise; a calm conscience stills the agitations of despair. In all your afflictions, therefore, whether of “ mind, body, or estate,” trust to the arm which once drew you out of the waters. You are safe where He would draw you; it is even to the rock of His protection, to the secret of His pavilion, to the covering of His arm, to the tower of His great name. And so your comfort is, that if the waters be many, the succours shall be ninny. God will “ send from above” ; grace from above to deliver you, promises from above to cheer you, a Spirit from above to guide you, a Saviour from above to defend and bless you. When your race is over, when your struggles are finished, and when you are landed safely on the eternal shores, then to the God of all grace shall you sing this song of praise. “ He sent from above, He took me, He drew me out of many waters.” (Daniel Moore, M. A.) Saved from the depths Jewels long hidden under the lava flood at Pompeii have been recovered undimmed, and divers have recently been searching for valuable gems lost in the sea near Trieste in 1822. When the river overflowed the summer palace of the Shah of Persia at Lar he fled in such haste that his jewels were forgotten. An astute officer of the court gave orders that the banks of the river were to be searched when the flood had subsided, and by this means he restored the jewels to his master, and was rewarded by being promoted to high rank. (W. Y. Fullerton.) Psalms 18:20-27 The Lord reward me according to my righteousness.Of the justice of David’ s behaviour I. David’ s righteousness. Righteousness consists in rendering to all their due, and the revealed will of God is the standard of it (Deuteronomy 6:25). As we are under infinitely greater obligations to perform our duty to God than we can be under to perform any services to our fellow men, righteousness includes in it that piety which has God for its object, as well as the performance of those duties to which our neighbours have a right. Yet it is not seldom used to denote the rectitude of our dispositions and conduct to our fellow men, as godliness denotes right tempers and behaviour towards God. David laid it down as his settled purpose to walk in the law of the Lord, the great standard of righteousness, and through Divine mercy he was enabled to keep his resolution inviolable through the course of his life. He did not pretend to perfection. He referred all his actions to the glory of God; he loved His testimonies with his whole heart, and took pleasure in the habitation of His house. He made use of all his power to advance the honour of his God.1. He behaved righteously towards King Saul, his first and great enemy. He was just to all his fellow subjects whilst he lived under the government of Saul. He acquired a high reputation for the prudence with which he managed all his affairs, and he would not have attained this honest fame if he had not abstained from all appearance of evil. We have no reason to form the least doubt of the care that David took, when he was an outlaw and a fugitive, to keep his followers from using any unwarrantable means for the supply of their wants, although they must often have been in extreme poverty. We have a testimonial from Nabal’ s servants of the honesty of David’ s men, and even of their generous care of Nabal’ s substance, at a time when the ,good man was almost reduced to beggary. We have no reason to doubt of David’ s rectitude of behaviour in all the dealings that he had with strangers. He had transactions in the time of his troubles with the king of Moab, to whom he committed the care of his father and mother when they could no longer dwell with safety at Bethlehem. We have no further account of any dealings with that prince, although we afterwards find him carrying on a bloody war with the Moabites. We have not the means of knowing whether the king of Moab had provoked this war by cruelty to David’ s father and mother; but we can have no doubt that the cause of the war was just on David’ s part. After the kind treatment which he received from the king of Gath, he took Gath out of the hands of the Philistines, but the Philistines themselves were the authors of the war. David in his government was a man of blood, but in his disposition he was a man of peace. A necessity was laid upon him to fight the battles of the Lord, and of the people of the Lord. When he was advanced to the throne of Israel it is testified of him that he did justice and judgment to all his people. He tells us (Psalms 75:1-10; Psalms 101:1-8) how he intended to govern his family and his kingdom, and doubtless, as far as human infirmity would permit, he kept his resolution. Gratitude may well be considered as an ingredient of justice. We owe returns of love and of the proper fruits of it to friends who love us, and who are glad to serve us according to the best of their abilities. David’ s gratitude to his benefactors was a remarkable part of his character. We find him sending presents of the spoils gained in battle to those places where he and his men were accustomed to haunt. When Saul was dead he was so far from expressing resentment against him, that he inquired whether there were any left of his family, that he might show them the kindness of God for Jonathan’ s sake, And many years afterwards he showed that Jonathan was not forgotten by him, when he took care to secure Mephibosheth from the destruction brought upon the family of Saul, at the requisition of the Gibeonites. He was grateful for favours even to those heathens from whom he received any kindness. Nahash, king of the Ammonites, showed kindness on some occasions to David, perhaps rather from hatred to Saul than goodwill to the poor man whom Saul oppressed. Yet David showed kindness unto Hanun, the son of Nahash, for his father’ s sake. Righteousness in a king will dispose him to an impartial execution of the laws against criminals. A wise king crusheth the wicked, and bringeth the wheel over them. But how was this consistent with the favour showed to Joab and to Absalom? Did he not know that God had forbidden any satisfaction to be taken for the life of a murderer? Yes, he knew it very well, and took measures even when he was dying that Joab’ s grey hairs should not come down to the grave without blood. It is perhaps impossible entirely to justify him for suffering that bloody man to live so long above the ground. Yet never was lenity to a criminal more excusable. Seldom has a prince or a nation been more indebted to a subject than David and his people were to Joab for brilliant services. And it appears to have been almost impracticable to bring to condign punishment a man so popular, and of such power in the army as Joab. David himself made this excuse for himself when he said, “ These men, the sons of Zerniah, are too strong for me.” We may observe likewise that David was once indebted for his own life to Abishai, the brother of Joab, who seems to have had some share in the blood of Abner. He might with some appearance of reason think that he owed a life to the family of his sister Zeruiah, or that at least he might incline to the favourable side when plausible reasons could be advanced for their exculpation. We cannot pretend to vindicate his behaviour in the case of Uriah. But we cannot reprobate that part of his conduct in stronger language than David himself did. We may make the same observation concerning another instance of David’ s procedure, which has given occasion to animadversions on his conduct; I mean the charge given to Solomon concerning Shimei. “ Behold thou hast with thee Shimei the son of Gera, a Benjamite of Bahurim, which cursed me with a grievous curse in the day when I went to Mahanaim; but he came down to meet me at Jordan, and I sware to him by the Lord, saying, I will not put thee to death with the sword. Now, therefore, hold him not guiltless, for thou art a wise man, and knowest what thou oughtest to do unto him, but his hoary head bring thou clown to the grave with blood.” We might have observed that fidelity in performing engagements is an essential part of justice in which it cannot be supposed that David would be deficient. But how could David observe his promise and oath to Shimei if he brought down the hairs of Shimei with blood to the grave by the hands of Solomon? A man is no less accountable for what he commands to be done, than for what he does with his own hands. Can we reasonably suppose that David on his deathbed would commit an act of wickedness for which his memory might be detested by all who feared an oath? In fact, we find that the crime of cursing David at Mahanaim was not the ground of the sentence against Shimei, although the reason he had given by that crime to suspect his loyalty was the cause why he was laid under a prohibition of leaving Jerusalem under pain of death. But there is another reading of the last part of the charge equally agreeable to the words of the original, which clears the character of David from all blame, Neither bring down his grey hairs to the grave with blood; keep a strict eye over him as a man disaffected to my family; punish him for any new crime by which he may merit punishment, but let my oath be sacred, and bring not down his grey hairs to the grave with blood, for that crime which I sware by the Lord not to punish with death. Charity is essential to justice. There are duties which we owe to all men, by the second great commandment of the law, the commandment to love our neighbour as ourselves. If David had not conscientiously observed this precept he could not have so often appealed to God, the Searcher of hearts, as the witness of his inviolable regard to these Divine testimonies, which were the light to his path and the lamp by which his feet were guided in the way of peace. II. God’ s regard to David’ s righteousness in the deliverances granted to him from his enemies. Without all doubt, David ascribed all the rich favours he received from God to that sovereign and free mercy to which every saint of God must be infinitely indebted (Psalms 86:11; Psalms 116:4-5). He was sensible, like his father Jacob, that he was not worthy of the least of God’ s mercies, and that there was no merit in the least of his works (Psalms 138:2-3). But he knew at the same time that, through the infinite mercy of God, the good works of His people are accepted and rewarded by Him (Psalms 11:6). Mercy and truth meet together in God, righteousness and peace kiss each other, and display their united glories in the administrations of His providence to His people. The Lord shows forth the exceeding riches of His grace in making them righteous, and when they are made righteous He shows both His grace and His justice in rewarding them according to their righteousness. There is so much sin mingled even with their good works that, if they were still under the law, they could not escape the condemnation at once of all their works, and of their persons likewise. But all their iniquities, and amongst other iniquities those which cleave to their holy things, are covered from God’ s sight. Their good works, therefore, cannot but be well-pleasing to God, and richly rewarded by Him. He will never be unrighteous to forget any of their works or labours of love, and therefore those who follow after righteousness shall have a sure reward. But did not David glory in himself rather than in the Lord when he spoke of his own righteousness m such high terms. This question leads us-- III. To consider David’ s consciousness of his own righteousness. He speaks with perfect assurance concerning the regard which God expressed to his righteousness. Is this the language of humility? It would indeed be very presumptuous to form and to express such a judgment concerning ourselves without searching our own hearts, without comparing them with the law of God, and without finding good evidence that our hearts are sound in God’ s statutes. But in none of these particulars had David been negligent.1. He had searched his heart as well as his ways. “ I thought,” he says, “ upon my ways., and turned my feet unto Thy testimonies.” He was far from thinking that his ways could be right unless his heart was right in the sight of God. 2. His standard by which be tried himself was the law of his God. He was fully sensible of the folly of trying himself by any other standard. 3. He found in his heart and ways an habitual conformity to the law of God. He was indeed constrained to acknowledge that in many things he had offended God. When he meditated on the admirable purity of the law he cried, “ Who can understand his errors? cleanse Thou me from secret faults.” Yet he could with confidence say that he had hoped for God’ s salvation, and done His commandments. This conclusion he did not rashly form from the consideration of a few of his actions, or of the frame of his heart at some particular periods of his life. Many deceive themselves by forming a hasty judgment of themselves, founded on temporary impressions made upon their minds in some moments of seriousness, excited by some particular circumstance of providence, or by the transient influence of some Divine truths. He knew the deceitfulness of the heart of man, and that without Divine illumination he might easily deceive himself. He therefore referred himself to God, the Searcher of hearts, to preserve him from entertaining any false hopes of the goodness of his own condition (Psalms 139:23-24). IV. The assurance which David had of God’ s respect to his own righteousness in the deliverances granted to him by His gracious providence. We must not place humility ill all affected ignorance of what is true, either concerning oar own personal righteousness or concerning God’ s acceptance of it. Nothing could be more dangerous than the presumption that God is well pleased with us if our way or our heart is perverse before Him (Micah 3:10-12). Nothing could be more unbecoming in a Christian than the forgetfulness of his infinite obligations to that grace which has blotted out his innumerable transgressions. Yet it is desirable for every child of God to be well assured of the cleanness of his hands in God’ s sight, and of the acceptance of his works as well as of his person. As it is our duty to pray to God for the acceptance of our services, it must be our duty likewise humbly and thankfully to acknowledge God’ s righteousness and grace in His dealings with us. The riches of Divine mercy appear in the acceptance of our works, and in the consequent rewards bestowed on them, as well as in the acceptance of our persons. Were it not that our iniquities are hidden from God’ s sight, such works as even David’ s could not have been rewarded by that God who is of purer eyes than to behold evil. “ Go thy way,” says Solomon, “ eat thy bread with cheerfulness, and drink thy wine with a merry heart, for God now accepteth thy works.” If God does not accept our works, we can have no well-grounded pleasure in the bounties of His providence. On the whole learn--1. The great advantage of walking in the ways of God. “ The Lord loveth him that followeth after righteousness. Say ye to the righteous, it shall be well with him.” What reason have we to adore that plan of mercy which allows us to hope for Divine acceptance, and for the reward of our works done to please God, although they are so imperfect that we must daily seek from God the pardon of our iniquities. 2. God’ s people ought patiently to hold on in the way of righteousness amidst the most discouraging dispensations of providence. David had, after all his dismal days, a new song put into his mouth to magnify the Lord. 3. When we obtain deliverances it is our duty to consider how we behaved under our troubles. Yet we still ought to bless God for deliverances hem trouble, although we should not dare to say that we have kept the way of God when we are under it. 4. Let us give praise to God for the great salvation wrought by our Lord Jesus Christ. The deliverances of David were salvations to all Israel. It is to be feared that many of us are totally destitute of righteousness. (G. Lawson.) Justification by works Why did God delight in David? The Psalmist declares that the ultimate reason was no arbitrary favouritism, but that God delighted in His servant because of his personal faith and character. David asserts the sincerity of his desire to please God; he asserts the uprightness of his conduct before God. The spirit of this appeal is far removed from Pharisaism; it is not an outburst of self-complacency and vain gloriousness, but the legitimate expression of conscious integrity. If the grace of God has done anything for us, why should we not simply and candidly realise and express the fact? Nothing succeeds like success, and we are ignoring a fountain of inspiration when we timidly shut our eyes to, the clear evidences of the victories of the inner life. To the glory of God’ s grace let us honestly acknowledge to ourselves and others the growing dominion of righteousness in our soul.1. God deals with us as we deal with Him. “ Therefore hath the Lord recompensed me.” God had dealt with him as he had dealt with God. He trusted God, and God delivered him; he loved God, and God delighted in him; he served God, and God honoured and blessed him. This is ever the great canon of the Divine rule. As we love God, He will love us. “ We love God, because He first loved us” ; but having known His love, there is a very true sense in which its proportion is henceforth determined by the measure of our reciprocation. As we trust God, He will succour us. A great faith sinks Alpine ranges to a plain, it crosses Atlantic depths dryshod. The lack of such faith entangles us in many embarrassments and miseries. As we serve God He will requite us. According to the measure of our love, faith, and service shall be our safety, strength, and bliss. Are any poor in joy, grace, power, and peace? Let them act more generously towards God. 2. God deals with us as we deal with one another (see Psalms 18:25-26). The great truth taught in these verses is, that God’ s dealing with us is regulated by our dealing with one another. This is the clear, hill teaching of the whole of revelation. How mistaken are those who imagine spiritual religion to be anti-social. It is a common complaint that religious faith is a weakening, impoverishing, disintegrating influence in social life: the love given to God is supposed to be subtracted from our love to humanity; the service rendered to the kingdom of God is considered as so much filched from the service of humanity. No mistake could be greater. God does not judge us apart from society, but strictly in and through our relation to it. As we deal with our brother the great Father deals with us. Some people are religious without being good; that is, they are not kind to their fellows, just, generous, truthful, helpful. This will not do. A true Christian is both religious and good. God does not test us by our ecclesiastical life, but by our social, human life. Social duty and spiritual prosperity are closely related. When we suffer stagnation of spiritual life we search for the reason in the neglect of Church fellowship or worship, the reading of God’ s Word, or of the sacraments; but the reason will just as often be found in our failure to do justly and to love mercy in our social relation. 3. God deals with us as we deal with ourselves. “ I was also upright before Him.” As we honour ourselves by keeping ourselves pure, God honours us by abundance of grace and peace. There is a true sense ill which He accepts us according to our own valuation. If we reverence our body, hallow our gifts, prize our fair name, esteem our time and influence as choice treasure, God follows up such self-respect by great spiritual enrichment and blessing. If we would realise the fulness of blessing we must respect ourselves and keep from iniquity. (W. L. Watkinson.) God’ s interpositions I. As a vindication of his own character.1. He--David--regarded his character as very excellent. Of that excellency he speaks in terms emphatic and strong. Can his language be justified? Not in an absolute sense. Morally, in the sight of God, David was very far from a perfect man. It can be justified in an average sense, and in an official sense. 2. David regarded his character as divinely influential. Was he right in supposing that God came to his deliverance on account of what he was in himself, or on account of what he had done to serve Him? 1. Individual character is known to God.2. Individual character is interesting to God. Nothing in the universe touches the heart of the Great Father so much as the moral character of His children. II. As an illustration of God’ s manifestation. He rises to a view of the great principle with which God deals with all His moral creatures. As man is, so is God to him. This is true in two respects.1. As a personal power. God treats man according to his character. 2. As a mental conception. Man’ s idea of God is his God, it is the deity, he worships. Man worships the God he has imaged to himself; and men have different images, according to the state of their own hearts. The revengeful man has a God of vengeance, the sectarian man has a God of sects, the capricious man has a capricious God, the selfish man has a greedy God, the despotic man has an arbitrary God, and the loving man has a loving God. Our moral nature rises and falls with our conception of God, for “ man must need assimilate himself to what he worships.” “ Every man copies the God in whom he believes.” (Homilist.) Psalms 18:23I was also upright before Him, and kept myself from mine iniquity.The upright heart, and its darling sin Things that David here takes notice of.1. The greatness of the danger he was in. 2. The glory of his deliverance, regarded as an answer to prayer. 3. The fruit of it. The love of God is enlarged and inflamed. His confidence in God is enlarged. He is by this quickened and encouraged unto prayer. 4. The grounds of all these mercies. God’ s free grace. In the person to whom the mercy is bestowed; for as God stands in a peculiar covenant relation to His people, so He hath a peculiar providence over them. God is with His people at all times, but He is nearest to them in the worst times. David shows wherein his sincerity doth appear. “ I have not departed from God wickedly.” “ All His judgments were before me.” “ I was also upright before Him, and I kept me from mine iniquity.” A sincere heart hath the most serious resolutions, the most unfeigned detestations, and therefore the greatest and the most diligent watchings against his own iniquity, that sin to which his nature is most prone, and wherein he is most apt to be ensnared. In the text are two things. I. David’ s profession of his sincerity. There is a two-fold perfection. A legal perfection, which is a perfect conformity in nature and in life to the law of God. This was not the perfection that David here spoke of, for his failings were known and confessed by himself. There is an evangelical perfection, according to the tenor of the second covenant, and this is two fold: a perfection of justification, and a perfection of sanctification. There is a walking with God, before God, and after God; that is, in reference to the precepts of God, the providences of God, and the pattern and example of God; and these three expressions set forth a choice perfection. A godly man may have his heart upright and perfect, even in the imperfection of his ways. A man that is sincere is in God’ s account a perfect man; sincerity is the truth of all grace, the highest pitch that is to be attained here. Sincerity of heart gives a man boldness, even ill the presence of God, notwithstanding many failings. II. The testification of it. How did he prove this perfection? “ I have kept myself from mine iniquity.” He refers to some proper and peculiar evil and way of sinning that Was his “ special darling” ; a beloved sin. His care was to keep himself from it. A man cannot keep himself: the Lord is his keeper. But the Lord will have us cooperate with Him. When we perform anything, by His grace we do it. So we are said to “ cleanse ourselves.” The doctrine is this--even the best and dearest of God’ s people have some sins that they are more prone to than others, which may be called their own iniquity. What is a man’ s own iniquity? In every man by nature sin doth reign, and a man is in just judgment given up unto the power of it. The reign of sin is double, virtual, due to original sin; and actual, due to bias of will. Actual sin is that way of sin and death that a man chooseth to himself, he having looked abroad upon all the contentments of the world, his own corrupt inclination doth choose unto himself to follow with greatest sweetness, and contentment, and delight, as that wherein the happiness of his life consists. What is it for a man to keep himself from his iniquity?1. He takes care to keep the evil of that sin always in his eye, and to keep himself low in this consideration, that he hath been guilty of it in times past. 2. There is no sin that the heart of man is more perfectly against. The godly man hates that sin most, and breaks out against it with the greatest detestation, by which God hath been most dishonoured, and whereby his conscience hath been most enslaved in times past. 3. He is in this, above all other sins, most jealous of his heart; he fears it in respect of every occasion, and opportunity, and temptation. 4. This sin he prays most against. 5. He turns the edge of the threatening against this sin. 6. He endeavours to grow up in the contrary grace, and strengthens it by all means. How doth this prove a sincere heart? It shows a man to be truly affected by God’ s dishonour. It shows the truth of a man’ s self-denial, and his hatred against sin. It shows forth the sincerity of a man’ s love for God. How may a man know what his “ darling sin” is? It is that where a man’ s treasure is. It is what is most sweet to him; what he favours most, and hides most. This sin makes all a man’ s lusts serviceable to it. It is the sin that most interrupts thee in holy duties. (William Strong.) I kept myself from mine iniquity. Kept from iniquity I. A personal danger. “ Mine iniquity.” This is a dreadful possession to have in the house: a man had better have a cage of cobras than have an iniquity, yet we have each of us to deal at home with some special form of sin. Each man has his own way of sinning. It may take its speciality from our natural constitution. He who judges all men alike does them an injustice. Our tendency is to decry the particular form of sin that we find in others. It may be engendered by education. How impressible we are in childhood! Certain forms of iniquity grow out of our particular condition. Each period of life has its own special snare. It is so with the condition of our life as to our outward circumstances. The rich man has his temptations, and the poor has his. Iniquities come through both prosperity and adversity. Iniquities surround us all in daily life. Your iniquity is likely to be that iniquity which thou hast oftenest fallen into in thy previous life. And that which you do not like to hear condemned is, very probably, your iniquity. II. A special guard. “ I kept myself from mine iniquity.”1. You must find out what it is. You must get a clear idea of your own iniquity. Endeavour to get a due sense of its foulness and guilt in the sight of God. Ask the Lord to make thee hate most that sin to which thou art most inclined. 2. Be resolved in the power of the Holy Spirit that this particular sin shall be overcome. There is nothing like hanging it up by the neck,--that very sin, I mean. The true path of safety is to pray and believe against all sin. We conquer sin by faith in Christ. III. A happy result. If we do keep from sin, what a blessing it will be to us. It will be a triumph of grace. It will be our best testimony to others. And what a sweet peace this will give to the conscience. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Resolute restraint A noted characteristic of Mr. Cecil was his decision of character. It is said that he had studied for a painter, and after he had changed his object he retained a fondness and taste for the art. He was once called to visit a sick lady, in whose room there was a painting which so strongly attracted his attention that he found himself diverted from the sick person and absorbed by the painting. From that moment he formed the resolution of mortifying a taste which he found so intrusive and so obstructive to his nobler pursuits, and determined never again to frequent the exhibition. Our own iniquity David comforts himself in his innocence and integrity, but ascribes that to God’ s restraining and assisting grace, which kept him back from that iniquity to which be was strongly tempted. What that particular sin was is not here mentioned. I. There is some particular sin which each one may call his own iniquity. What it is in each case is certainly known to God. And every man may know it himself, by communing with his own heart, and considering his ways; by laying his life to the rule of his conscience, and measuring his conscience by the rule of God’ s law. That there is greater proclivity in every, one to some peculiar sins is sufficiently evident from every man’ s private conscience.1. We are more inclinable to some sins than to others, through our natural tempers and complexions. The corruptible body presseth down the soul. And such is the predominancy of some elements and humours, to which the naturalist ascribes the diversity of constitutions, that from thence also the moralist derives the different tempers of men’ s minds and inclinations, Thus the sanguine incline most to lust and wantonness, incontinence and intemperance; the choleric to anger and passion, pride and contention; the melancholic to envy, discontent, distrust, and despair; the phlegmatic to covetousness and idleness, and lukewarmness in religion. So that, according to the different constitutions of men’ s bodies, there arise different inclinations in their souls and minds; and as it is the proper business of reason to find out and restrain, so it is the great work of grace and religion to subdue and mortify the predominant passion. II. At some certain periods of our lives we are more inclinable to some sins than others. Every age of human life has some peculiar darling that commonly bears the sway. In age, men are prone to such things as most conduce to their temporal advantage; they hoard up riches. In youth, men are prone to such things as most gratify their sensual appetites. III. We are more inclinable to some sins than others, by reason of our education or our company. By these things men’ s minds and manners are as much, if not more, fashioned than by nature itself. IV. We are prone to some sins through the several states and conditions of life into which providence brings us. When we are healthy and strong we are apt to forget God. Sickness tempts us to be impatient towards Him. Prosperity makes men proud, and abundance insolent and wanton. Adversity tempts us to be envious and querulous, fraudulent and pilfering. There are more temptations to some sins than others, from the different professions or courses of life men take upon themselves. V. There are some particular sins to which men are liable through religion itself. Many men’ s confidence of their own way is often attended with great censoriousness and uncharitableness towards all that differ from them. Observe that it is possible to keep ourselves from our own particular sins, as David did. This we may do by cherishing the grace that is freely given us of God, and remembering the vows we have so often made Him. What helps and directions are needful?1. By constant and fervent prayer implore the Divine aid.2. In vain may we expect God’ s help without our own diligent endeavours.3. Take care to avoid such things and decline such occasions as are most likely to ensnare us.4. Never think the evil of sin less than it is.5. Be tender of violating your consciences. (Henry Dove, D. D.) The Christian successful in conquering his besetting sins I. Every man has one or more particular sins to which he, as an individual, is especially prone. The iniquity is emphatically his own. Varied and numerous, indeed, are the sins of the human heart, against which the Christian must guard; but every man has some particular sins which especially cleave to him (Hebrews 12:1), and David seems to allude to such. It would be well for us frequently to examine our own hearts for the express purpose of finding out our besetting sins.1. There is usually a constitutional propensity to the sin. 2. The circumstances in which the individual is placed may favour the indulgence of the sin. How ill would it have been for Joseph, had he been of profligate nature, that he was placed in the house of Potiphar. 3. And Satan is particularly busy in furnishing temptations to the commission of the darling sin. He knows too well the evil propensities of the human heart, and, like a skilful angler, varies his baits to suit the tastes of his victims. When he saw pride working in the heart of David he provoked him to number Israel. II. Every good man, conscious that he is prone to some particular sins, will direct his principal efforts against them. He is anxious to keep himself from his own iniquity. His efforts proceed on enlightened principles. The good man does not presume on his own strength; he devoutly prays for the assistance of the Holy Spirit. At the same time, he is persuaded that vigorous efforts on his part are indispensable, in the order of means. True, no man, strictly speaking, can keep himself.. David could not, he knew he could not; but he means that he had so exerted himself that God had given him success. How to secure this for ourselves I urge--1. The importance of acknowledging our individual sins when we come before God. Be not content with general confession. For sometimes, when the conscience prompts to minute confession, we restrain the impulse, through a secret misgiving that if cherished it would either prevent the gratification of our favourite lust, or at least augment our subsequent distress, by rendering us the more inexcusable in the indulgence of it. Guard against this delusion. Go and spread your ease, with all its aggravations, before God, and cry for help against the darling sin. 2. The Christian makes it his especial business to mortify the sin: he is not satisfied with merely weakening its power; he aims at its destruction. 3. He forms strong resolutions against the sin. All the powers of his mind are in exercise; he deliberates and resolves to oppose his iniquity. His vows are recorded not on tables of stone, but in the fleshy tables of the heart. Aware of his own weakness, this is his determination--I will go forth against the sin in the strength of the Lord of hosts. 4. He carefully shuns everything which may facilitate the indulgence of the sin. Is intemperance the favourite propensity? In vain do former jovial companions invite him to partake of the intoxicating cup. The Christian will not go in the way of evil men. When unavoidably in circumstances of danger he is doubly on his guard. We are, at times, thus unavoidably placed in such positions. 5. The first risings of the sin he quickly and stoutly opposes. Nothing is more important than this. It is the part of wisdom to commence the attack, before the enemy has time to concentrate his forces. The smallest aperture in the embankment of a mighty river should be stopped, or it will increase, and the waters deluge the surrounding country, in spite of all resistance. The single spark must be extinguished, or a general conflagration may ensue. 6. The Christian furnishes his mind with cogent arguments, especially Scriptural ones, against his particular sins. If the prince of heathen philosophers could subdue his passionate temper by considerations derived from reason only, how much more may be expected from us who have reason and revelation both. Let the Psalmist teach us, who said, “ Thy word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against Thee.” 7. He will carefully cherish the opposite graces. The timid child we stimulate to acts of bravery, convinced that as these acts increase his timidity Will decline. It is thus in the school of Christ; the more individual graces are cherished, the more their opposite vices will diminish. 8. He vigorously perseveres, till he has in a great measure gained his end. III. Success in his efforts the good man will ever regard as an invaluable blessing. He can scarcely find language sufficiently elevated to express his feelings. Oh, success in these efforts, what a blessing!1. It is a signal victory: a powerful enemy is subdued. Would you estimate its power? How difficult victory was. How many have fallen ill such conflict. 2. No other victory can equal it. He that ruleth his spirit is better than he that taketh a city. 3. The results are glorious. For-- (1) Other conflicts are rendered comparatively easy: The soldier who has stormed the strongly fortified castle has no difficulty in battering down the mud walls of a cottage; and the Christian who has subdued his reigning sin has a fair prospect of overcoming his other iniquities. (2) It affords the most decisive evidence of personal piety. How anxious the believer is to make his calling and election sure, and where is he to look for decisive evidence? But if he be successful in the subjection of reigning lusts, his conscience assures him this is the best evidence. (3) It enables the Christian to discharge the duties, and realise the privileges of religion, with greater spirit and delight. (4) It diffuses a sweet calm over the soul and imparts solid satisfaction. Suppose the reigning passion indulged, what evil consequences ensue. The gratification, too, is but momentary. Soon it biteth like a serpent and stingeth like an adder. How delightful the feelings of David when Abigail kept him from shedding the blood of Nabal. (5) It is particularly pleasing to God, and will be honoured, not only now but hereafter, with the emphatic marks of the Divine approbation. Oh, ye in whose hearts sin reigns without opposition, beware lest iniquity be your ruin. Take refuge in the Lord Jesus. Pray for the Spirit of God. Christians, if the subject has been exemplified in your happy practice, be humble, be grateful, and give God the praise. If it has reproved and grieved you, remember it is designed to stimulate and profit you. Rely upon the Spirit of God, and fear not to say, “ I will keep myself from mine iniquity.” (Essex Remembrancer.) Psalms 18:25-26 With the merciful Thou wilt show Thyself merciful.Poetic justice actual justice What we call poetic justice pervades the whole Bible. We feel ill the advancing civilisations that there is a reaching more and more to a realisation of this justice. In Job we have its full exemplification. There the latter end of the history of the mart vindicates all. It is a dangerous teaching that some people try to wring out of the New Testament, that good people must not expect success in this world; that only the children of this world are wise in their generation, and can secure to themselves worldly prosperity. The opposite teaching is not near so dangerous, and not so wide of the truth, that all things will come out well in this life for those who do right. It does not always so turn out, but this is the tendency. We do not believe it is a good policy even in the material world to be bad. With the merciful God is merciful, and with the pure He is pure, and with the froward He is froward. Let us go beyond the physical world into the moral world. God is present with His world, governing it constantly. I do not believe that He is unknowable. He has wrought Himself in all His work, and is, of all powers, the most perpetually forced upon our attention. All science, all art, all of our studies are theological studies. Now, God reveals Himself as always on the side of right. In the moral world penalty follows wrong, and reward follows right with unfailing certainty. There is no confusion, there is no uncertainty in the moral world. Judgment is present everywhere. Of all scepticism, that is the most dangerous that questions the fundamental difference between right and wrong in their nature and tendencies. Plutarch speaks of the delay of judgment. There is no such delay. It comes, and comes at once. There are various elements that go to make up this penalty. Remorse, which is everywhere present in greater or less degree. Various social and civil penalties. The actual loss in our moral natures. Our idea of God is determined largely by our own character. The vision we have of God in the plain of the intellectual perception is a reflection of our own selves. The God of each man is different from the God of other men. As you are, so is your God. (John W. Chadwick.) God’ s mercy among Christians It is only in a rough sort of way at the best, as far as observation of individuals will carry us, that we see distinction made by Providence between the upright and the froward. But as no one knew better than the author of this Psalm, it is not to the fortunes of men, but to their whole experience as rational and spiritual beings, that we have to look in order to see how true it is that God shows Himself to every man according to what every man is. I. In the first place, our life is experience of God; for in Him most literally we live and move and have our being. If we find that this set of actions has one result and that set has another--this, as far as it goes, is a most authentic revelation to us of God. To say, therefore, that life is different to different men, above all as they differ in point of spiritual character, is to say that God shows Himself to them as so many different gods. To an honest man life is different from what it is to a rogue; different to a merciful man from what it is to a churl or a miser; different to a pure man from what it is to a sot or a debauchee. To take the illustration which is nearest at hand--David would have had a different experience from Saul whether he had or had not got Saul’ s place. The one man could be eminently happy with a shepherd’ s crook, and it mattered little to either so long as each was what he was in character. No two men could have had a more different experience in their lives; but the difference, such as it was, we can see, was in themselves--not made by their fortunes, but by their characters; not by the events of peace or war, but by the quality of mercy in the one case and of wilfulness in the other. Thus justice is done between man and man where justice is sure, and where it is perfect--in themselves. Many good people at the present time are haunted by an alarm which is altogether visionary. Look, they say, how many who live vicious lives know nothing of remorse! If there be no such thing as eternal punishment for the wicked, then there is no punishment; if there be no hell, there is no harm. But this is to take a very narrow view of human experience. There is much more remorse in people’ s hearts than they wear upon their sleeves. Many a smiling face, if you could get behind that mask, would show you grim enough features. At the same time, I grant readily that if remorse, so called, were all the difference between man and man on the score of character, the difference might seem to be trifling. It is the best and not the worst natures which know most of remorse. A good man falls into sin, and he knows what hell is. The wicked have no bands in their death. Consciences, which ought to burn, are seared; they should be live coals, and they are white cold ashes. I grant all this. But is there nothing besides remorse in question as between life and life? For apart from remorse and everything like it, and in the nature of things, and everywhere and always, it is one thing to be upright and another to be wilful, it is one thing to be a kind man and another to be an unkind, one thing to be pure and another to be impure. The good of being good is ill being so, and not in having no remorse; and the evil of being evil is in being so, and not in having remorse. Why will people so constantly forget this or overlook it? It is not that these different men have here and there, at odd moments, different or contrary experiences, but that the world in which each lives is a wholly different world. I know, for certain, that he who loves righteousness and truth and goodness would think that fate the cruellest of all possible which condemned him to be a rogue or a hypocrite. Thus, in the first place, because life is experience of God, to different men God is different. But I hasten now to remark that to different men-- II. He is also different as an object of study and reflection. On many other subjects, or rather on most, if people agree they do agree, and if they differ they differ, and there is an end of it. But it is different with regard to the highest object of human thought--God. People may agree, and do agree, in their language respecting Him, who have little or nothing in common in their thought and meaning. In point of fact, I venture to say, in the first place, among us, who all profess the same creed, there are Gods many and Lords many. Wesley, it is said, remonstrated with Whitfield as to his ideas of God, telling him, “ your God is my devil.” And is it not obvious that something of the same sort might be said by sets of Christians at the present day to other sets? It is not what you read in sacred books, but the common notions of men that shape the common beliefs about God. Protestants do not believe in the God of the Romanist, nor he in heirs, though they have the same Bible and the same great articles of faith. To be condemned to think of God, as some men think of Him, and must think of Him, their life being stronger than their creed, not as a being to be loved, but as one to be feared or hated--this is punishment. If the light that is in you be darkness, how great is that darkness? If your religion is night, where is your day? If God is a bugbear, what is your life? What other gain, or reward, or happiness, on the other hand, would you desire than the religion of Christ--to love righteousness and truth and goodness with all your heart and soul and strength and mind, and to believe that God, who is over all, and is the Beginning and the End of all, is all that you love? What other reward, gain, happiness would you have than that? Christianity is a sorry gain, I admit, to many who profess it, except it be the only escape from the bottomless pit, and from the lake of fire and brimstone. It is a sorry gain to those, and they are many, whose notion is that something which God can give them, or some place in which He can put them, will be heaven. But that which makes God Himself our heaven is great gain, without reference to any life but this. With this a man might live and die, and doubt if he is to live again, and with his last breath bless God--the merciful man’ s God, and his exceeding great reward. III. I have but to add, then, last of all, as the practical lesson which we get from all this--a man may change his Church and his creed and not change his God; but he changes his God when he changes his life. Let us, by trying to do the will of God in our daily life, learn of the truth whether it be of God. Otherwise we shall never learn it. (J. Service.) The attitude of God towards good and bad men Even as the sun, which unto eyes being sound and without disease is very pleasant and wholesome, but unto the same eyes, when they are feeble, sore, and weak, is very troublesome and hurtsome, yet the sun is ever all one and the self same that was before; so God hath ever shown Himself benign and bountiful to those who are kind and tender hearted towards His saints, and are merciful to those who show mercy. But unto the same men, when they fall into wickedness, and grow and are full of cruelty, the Lord showeth Himself to be very wrathful and angry, and yet is one and the same immutable God from everlasting to everlasting. (Robert Cawdray.) Psalms 18:28 Thou wilt light my candle. Lighted candles In the East the poorest people burnt a lamp all through the night time, for they dreaded a dark house as a terrible calamity. When they had light they were happy, and in some degree prosperous. David says that God will light his home lamp for him, and will thus make his home happy for him. In Proverbs 20:27 we find this sentence, “ The spirit of a man is the candle of the Lord.” The question is, are we lighted candles? Away in the north there is a lighthouse that has no light at all in it; but yet it shines, because a light that burns upon the shore is reflected into the lantern far out at sea. All very well for the lantern, but it will not do for us; we must have the light within ourselves. But we cannot light ourselves. Jesus must light up our souls by giving us His Spirit, and when He does this then we can give light to others and get more light from Him. If He does this for us we must continue burning. Jesus desires this, and also that we should burn properly. George Whitfield said he hoped he “ should die blazing, and not go off as a snuff.” And remember that our lighted candle may light another candle, and yet have as much light as it had before. God uses one soul to help and bless another soul. In the diary of Thomas Carlyle there was a sketch of a candle that burned as it wasted. Underneath Carlyle had written, “ May I be wasted, so I be of use.” (J. J. Ellis.) Lighting our candles at heaven’ s torch That which makes a candle what it is is its adaptation to receive light, and by burning itself to transmit that light. God is the great Light of this universe, and we know not of how many universes besides. “ God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all.” That is the one great central fact which keeps mankind from despair,--the assurance that at its heart the universe is not dark but bright; it is bright with wisdom, bright with power, and bright with love. It is man’ s supreme glory that he has this kinship with God. However dark his nature may have become through sin, it is of such a kind that it can be lighted from heaven’ s torch. There has never yet been discovered any man or any tribe of men who did not have this power or capacity to receive Divine illumination. Now, there is one thing to which I specially desire to call your attention, and that is that the candle, in order to receive the light from the match or the taper or the torch, must yield itself to the light. There is no way to shine except by burning ourselves. Though we were created as the candles of the Lord, we have the power to refuse to give our hearts up to be lighted by heaven’ s fire Indeed, we may, if we are foolish and wicked enough to do it, lend our hearts to be lighted by the devil’ s fire, and give forth a baleful flame that will make the darkness deeper not only for ourselves, but for everyone who is influenced by us. God will not forcibly take our candle and light it at the heavenly fire. We must yield it to His hands through our own decision. (L. A. Banks, D. D.) The Lord my God shall make my darkness to be light.--Light out of darkness David’ s deliverance from his enemies was the work of no human strength or skill, but of the unseen Master whom David served, and therefore he is so buoyant and hopeful as he looks forward to the future. The future had troubles in store for David,--troubles in his family, troubles with his subjects, and, worst of all, troubles that would come of his own misconduct. But be the future what it may, David can rest upon the moral certainty that he will still enjoy that illuminating and strengthening presence of which he has had experience in the past. This confidence in a light that will not fail in the dark hours of life is eminently Christian. There are three dark shadows which fall across every human life--the shadow of sin, the shadow of pain, and the shadow of death. I. The shadow of sin. Sin is the transgression in will or in fact of the eternal moral law. Sin itself is the contradiction of God, it is the repudiation of God, the perverse activity of the created will. Sin is not always an act: often it is a state; it is an attitude of the will, it is an atmosphere of mind and disposition; it pervades thought, it insinuates itself into the springs of resolve, it presides over life where there is no conscious or deliberate intention of welcoming it, it changes its form again and again. But throughout it is one in root and principle, the resistance of the created will to the will of God: and this resistance means darkness, not in the sky above our heads, but far worse--darkness in the moral nature, darkness in the moral intelligence, darkness at the centre of the soul. This darkness was felt in the degree possible to them by the heathen. It explains the vein of sadness which runs through the highest heathen literature. For us Christians the sin is blacker, and the shame is greater in proportion to our higher knowledge of God and His will. In order to escape from this dark shadow, men have tried to persuade themselves that sin is not what we know it to be, and the conscience which reveals it to us is only prejudice, or a bundle of prejudices accumulated through centuries of human life. But the shadow of sin cannot be conjured away; it lies thick and dark upon human life. Upon us, sitting as we are in the darkness of the region of the shadow of death, there shines the sun of God’ s pardoning love, and He, our Lord and God, in very deed makes our darkness to be light. II. The shadow of pain. We know pain, not in itself, but by its presence, by its effects. The problem of pain is a distressing, almost overwhelming one. It is pain which dogs our steps from the cradle to the grave. It is not limited to man’ s bodily constitution; the mind is capable of sharper pain than any that can be caused by a diseased or wounded body. How to deal with pain; how to alleviate it; how to do away with it--these have been questions which men have discussed for thousands of years. Pain, on the whole, remains inaccessible to human treatment, and especially does it resist attempts to ignore its bitterness. Pain in the world of men is the consequence of wrong-doing, but our Lord did no guile, and yet He was a sufferer. Man suffers more than the animals, the higher races of men suffer more than the lower. As the Man of Sorrows, our Lord showed that pain is not to be measured by the reasons for it which we can trace in nature; it has more and larger purposes, which we can only guess at, but as associated with resignation, love, sanctity, pain is most assuredly the harbinger of peace and joy. On the Cross its triumph was unique; it availed to take away the sin of the world. III. The shadow of death. The thought that death must come at last casts over thousands of lives a deep gloom. No real comfort is to be had by reflecting that the laws of nature are irresistible. The darkness of the grave is not less lightened by our Lord and Saviour than is the darkness of sin or the darkness of pain. He has entered the sphere of death, and with Christians death is no longer dark. That our Lord makes these three dark shadows to be light is the experience in all ages of thousands of Christians. (Canon Liddon.) Psalms 18:29; Psalms 18:33-34 By Thee have I run through a troop.Surmounting impossible difficulties This is a poetical way of representing the fact that impossibilities have often been made possible in our own experience. Looking back upon certain combinations of circumstances, we cannot but feel that we were surrounded by great and high walls, and that troops of dangers thickened around us in deadly array, Now that we see ourselves in a “ large place,” we are tempted to believe that we are still in a dream, and that our liberty is a thing which we hold only in the uncertain light of a momentary vision. When our imagination is vexed by the cross colours which make up the panorama of life, it is easy to persuade us that tomorrow we shall be back again in chains, for we have enjoyed but an imaginary liberty. Then, under happier circumstances, we see how the miracle is a simple reality,--that we have in very deed escaped perils which at one time seemed to be insurmountable, and that our escape is due entirely to the exercise of the almightiness of God. It is remarkable how, under such circumstances, we unconsciously magnify our own importance in the universe. We do not mean to be ostentatious and proud when we declare that God has exerted Himself specially on our behalf, and has indeed Himself been disquieted until our comfort was restored and established. The Psalmist speaks here as if he were the sole object of the Lord’ s care, and as if the Infinite took delight only in his well-being and prosperity. (Joseph Parker, D. D.) Energy put into a man Sir Alexander Ball was one of those great men who adorned our navy at the end of the eighteenth century. The following anecdote is told of him by his friend the poet Coleridge. “ In a large party at Malta I had observed a naval officer listening to Sir A. Ball with a mixed expression of awe and affection that gave a more than common interest to so manly a countenance. This officer afterwards told me that he considered himself indebted to Sir Alexander for that which was dearer to him than his life. ‘ When he was Lieutenant Ball,’ said he, ‘ he was the officer I accompanied in my first boat expedition, being then a midshipman, and only in my fourteenth year. As we were rowing up to the vessel which we were to attack, amid a discharge of musketry, I was overpowered by fear, and seemed on the point of fainting away. Lieutenant Ball, who saw the condition I was in, placed himself close beside me, and still keeping his countenance directed towards the enemy, pressed my hand in the most friendly manner, and said in a low voice, ‘ Courage, my dear boy. You will recover in a minute or so. I was just the same when I first went out in this way.’ ‘ Sir,’ added the officer to me, ‘ it was just as if an angel had put a new soul into me. With the feeling I was not yet dishonoured, the whole burden of agony was removed; and from that moment I was as fearless and forward as the oldest of the boat’ s crew.’” One trophy for two exploits What is true of David is true of David’ s Lord. The Holy Ghost has presented to us the experience of Jesus in that model of experience through which David passed. So the text tells both of Christ and the believer also. Let us speak of it. I. In relation to Christ. And1. For the first sentence, “ By Thee have I run through a troop.” Christ’ s enemies were as a troop for number. Who can count them? But also for their discipline. They were marshalled under that skilful and crafty leader Satan, the arch fiend and Prince of Darkness. And his servants are well trained. He came against Jesus with his army, in settled order. It was no wild rush of Some Tartar host, but a well arranged and well regulated attack. Never let us undervalue the strength of Christ’ s enemies. Now, this sentence has been read in varied ways, and each is very suggestive. One reads it, “ By Thee have I run to a troop” ; so that Jesus did not wait for the attack, but made it Himself, See how He went forth to meet Judas and the armed band on the night of the betrayal. But our version reads, “ through a troop,” and this is also accurate. For His victory was complete. They stood firm as if they would not flinch, they thought they had defeated Him; but His Cross was the very symbol of His omnipotence, for in weakness was He strong. See Him running through this troop. And how speedily. His sufferings were but short. What a stride was that which Jesus took when He marched right through His enemies, and laid them right and left slain before Him. There is yet another version, “ By Thee have I run after a troop.” As if he would say, “ I met them, fought them, vanquished them, pursued them, and captured them.” “ He led captivity captive. Note the words, “ By Thee. He acted as the servant of God. But it is blessed to think that the Father as well as the Son, yea, the whole Trinity of sacred Persons, is engaged for our redemption. 2. The second sentence, “ By my God have I leaped over a wall.” David seems to be describing the capture of some fortress, such as Jebus, afterwards called Jerusalem. Now Satan had shut us all up in a mighty fortress. It had as one bulwark the strength of sin and the law; as another the suggestions of Satan to men’ s hearts; and then there was the deep ditch of men’ s sins, and the mound outside of Human Depravity. Now Christ comes, and He leaps over these walls. And He not only Himself surmounted these walls, but brought all His people on His shoulders, as AEneas carried off his old father Anchises. And all this also was “ by my God.” He acted as Mediator. Let our souls meditate much upon Christ’ s victories. II. To the believer. He has his troops of enemies and his imprisoning wall. But sometimes he makes the mistake of trying to climb over the troop when he should break through them, and of trying to break through the wall which he should climb over. Let him have courage for the troop to run through them, and discretion for the wall to climb over it. And by means of faith he can do this. Luther often used to defy Satan to battle. I care not to do that, but he used in his queer quaint way to say, “ I often laugh at Satan, and there is nothing makes him so angry as when I attack him to his face, and tell him that through God I am more than a match for him, tell him to do his worst, and yet I will beat him; and tell him to put forth his fury, and yet I will overcome him.” He that has made God his refuge need fear no storm. “ Look,” said a poor woman to a lady who called to see her, “ Look, ma’ am, I’ ll show you all I’ m worth.” And she showed her her cupboard with nothing in it but a dry crust; and a chest, but it was empty. “ That is all I am worth, ma’ am, but I have not a doubt or fear but that God will supply my need.” Now that woman bad learnt how to run through a troop and by her God to leap over a wall. What have you for your soul like that? (C. H. Spurgeon.) Psalms 18:30 As for God, His way is perfect.God’ s ministries Many mythologies have told how the gods arm their champions, but the Psalmist reaches a loftier height than these. He ventures to think of God as doing the humble office of bracing on his girdle, but the girdle is itself strength. God, whose own “ way is perfect,” makes His servant’ s way in some measure like His own; and though, no doubt, the figure must be interpreted in a manner congruous with the context, as chiefly implying “ perfection” in regard to the purpose in hand - namely, warfare - we need not miss the deeper truth, that God’ s soldiers are fitted for conflict by their “ ways” being conformed to God’ s. This man’ s “ strength was as the strength of ten, because his heart was pure.” Strength and swiftness are the two characteristics of antique heroes, and God’ s gift bestowed both on the Psalmist. Light of foot as a deer, and able to climb to the robber forts perched on crags as a chamois would, his hands deft, and his muscular arms strong to bend the bow which others could not use, he is the ideal of the warrior of old; and all these natural powers he again ascribes to God’ s gift. A goddess gave Achilles his wondrous shield, but what was it to that which God binds on this warrior’ s arm? As his girdle was strength, and not merely a means of strength, his shield is salvation, and not merely a means of safety. The fact that God purposes to save, and does act for saving, is the defence against all dangers and enemies. It is the same deep truth as the prophet expresses by making “ salvation” the walls and bulwarks of the strong city where the righteous nation dwells in peace. God does not thus arm His servant and then send him out alone to fight as he can, but “ Thy right hand holds me up.” What assailant can beat him down if that Hand is under his armpit to support him? The beautiful rendering of the Authorised Version, “ Thy gentleness,” scarcely conveys the meaning, and weakens the antithesis of the Psalmist’ s “ greatness,” which is brought out by translating “ Thy lowliness,” or even more boldly, “ Thy humility.” There is that in God which answers to the peculiarly human virtue of lowliness; and unless there were, man would remain small, and unclothed with God-given strength. The devout soul thrills with wonder at God’ s stooping love, which it discerns to be the foundation of all His gifts, and therefore of its blessedness. The Singer saw deep into the heart of God, and anticipated the great word of the one Revealer, “ I am meek and lowly in heart.” (A. Maclaren, D. D.) The perfection of providential dispensations David had by this time followed the Lord through many a dark step, and he had endured various troubles. Now he is looking back and giving his verdict as to them all. There is--1. A magnificent preface--“ As for God.” He is standing up for God. 2. What of God he commends--“ His way,” whether it be that in which men walk with God, personal holiness, or the way wherein God walks with men--the way of His providence, His dispensations. 3. The commendation is perfect. Now, in illustration of text-- I. To our corrupt eyes God’ s way is not always perfect. Because--1. We cannot always see the reason of it (Psalms 77:19). The Lord leads man he knows not where. We have to wait to know (Acts 10:17; John 13:6-7). 2. It sometimes seems to forget the promises. We are ready to cry, as in Jeremiah 15:18, “ Wilt Thou be altogether unto me as a liar?” Abraham went in to Hagar for this reason. 3. It sometimes goes cross to the promises, as when Abraham was commanded to offer up Isaac. See also Hezekiah (Isaiah 38:1). The way in the wilderness is often crooked. 4. It runs at times seemingly quite contrary to the design of Providence. The Lord designs good, but disappointment after disappointment cross it more and more. Thus it was with Joseph when cast into the dungeon. Oftentimes Providence reads best backwards (Deuteronomy 32:36). Sometimes-- 5. It lays aside the most likely means (1 Corinthians 1:23-24; 2 Kings 5:11; John 16:6-7). Sometimes-- 6. It falls on means quite contrary to its design. As when clay was used to cure the blind. When the Lord heals by wounding (Romans 8:28). Then-- 7. Providence smiles though wicked men get the sunny side of the brae and walk contrary to God. This made Asaph stammer (Psalms 73:12-14, and Jeremiah 12:1-2). But there is no fault in this (Psalms 92:7). See the end of all these things. 8. The good troubled (Ecclesiastes 8:14). Job. But 2 Corinthians 12:9-10. And-- 9. Great afflictions meeting the Lord’ s people in the way of duty. This often Jacob’ s case. II. But God’ s way is perfect. It is according to the pattern shown in the Word. Is suited to our need (Deuteronomy 32:4). Is ever suited to the time. Is stable. (T. Boston. D. D.) The Word of the Lord is tried.--The Bible tested and triumphant Look at some of the severe tests to which the Bible has been subjected, and by successfully meeting which it has vindicated its claims to a Divine origin, and to universal human acceptance. I. The bible has stood the test of time. Since the Sacred Canon closed, how many and how vast are the changes which have gone on among men. Hardly one of the ancient powers is today extant. How great have been the strides of human progress! Yet the science of salvation, as taught in the Bible, has needed no remodeling. The race does not outgrow the religion of the Bible. Compare the case of the Bible with the poems of Homer. The two works are, in a certain sense, contemporaneous; critics have denied to the Bible any higher inspiration than that of human genius; and Greek poetry held among that ancient people very much the same place as did the sacred Scriptures among the Jews. Three thousand years ago the two works stood before the world on a comparative equality. How stands the case today? Homer is read as a model of epic verse and specimen of old Ionic Greek. The Bible is read everywhere as a transcript of the Eternal. II. The test of criticism. Criticism, the most searching and severe to which any work has ever been subjected. A criticism often hostile. But the old Book has come out of it only purified. III. The test of practical trial. In the patent office are models of many beautiful machines that could not be worked. The Book will stand every practical test. It gives the solution of the great enigmas of the human soul, and provides the consolation for life’ s dark hours, those hours of disappointment, adversity, sorrow, and bereavement which come so surely to us all. (B. B. Loomis, Ph. D.) The Word of the Lord commended to our faith by its being a tried Word A thing that has been tried is deemed all the more valuable on that account. A medicine which has been found on trial to be a sure remedy for certain kinds of disease is held in high estimation. It is thus that the Word of the Lord is commended to our high esteem. It is a tried Word. I. Science has tried it. For though at first it denied, now it does homage to the Word of God. For example--1. Geology. In its early development many facts were brought forward that seemed to bear hard on Scripture statements. Several years since the discovery was made, or was thought to be made, by perforating the successive lavas formed by the volcanic overflowings of Mount AEtna, that the earth must have existed, in its present form, at least fourteen thousand years. The discovery was published by Brydone, an English traveller in Sicily, and flew like light through Europe, and was seized upon by multitudes as furnishing complete evidence that the chronology of the Bible is false and the Bible itself untrue. But subsequent investigation has proved that the supposed discovery was based on an entirely false view of facts. At a later period the astronomical tables of India were supposed to furnish incontestable proof of a much higher antiquity belonging to our globe than is assigned it according to the writings of Moses. But these same astronomical tables were afterwards examined by the great French philosopher Laplace, and were demonstrated to be of comparatively modern date, and furnish not the slightest evidence against the Mosaic chronology. In like manner the variety of languages, and the diversity of colour and form which distinguish the different races of men, have often been urged with great confidence as disproving the account given in Genesis of the common origin of mankind. But the study of ethnography, or the classification of nations by a comparison of their languages, together with a better acquaintance with the natural history of man, has removed this objection, and shown to the satisfaction of the most competent judges that the human race sprang from a common pair. It is with science as it is with the human mind in youth, it is apt to be self-conceited and sceptical; but in its maturity it becomes humble, modest, and reverent of God’ s Word. Hence, as Professor Hitchcock of Amherst College says in his Religion of Geology, “ Every part of science which has been supposed, by the fears of friends or the malice of foes, to conflict with religion, has been found at length, when fully understood, to be in perfect harmony with its “ principles,” “ and even to illustrate them. II. Time has tried it. It is with the Bible as it is with its Divine Author: “ One day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” III. Friends have tried it. For they have been all made such by the transforming and subduing power of the Word itself. Consider their numbers, and what it has done for them, and the circumstances under which they have made trial of it and never found it fail. IV. Enemies have tried it: by persecution; by laws directed against it; by ridicule; by philosophy, and by every means left at their command. Still the object of all these attacks remains uninjured, while one army of its enemies after another has passed away in defeat and dishonour. Though it has been ridiculed more bitterly, misrepresented more grossly, opposed more rancorously, and burnt more frequently than any other book, or perhaps than all other books united, it is so far from sinking under the efforts of its enemies that it is plainly gathering fresh strength from age to age, and the probability of its surviving until the consummation of all things is now far greater than ever. V. It has been tried in its influence on individual character, upon society, and all the best interests of man. See what institutions it has founded for human good, and maintains them still. Hence learn--1. There is no fear for the future. As nature’ s answers are ever uniform and constant and true, so are those of the Word of the Lord. 2. It is a serious matter for anyone to set himself “ against” it. Voltaire said, “ It has been the boast of ages that twelve men established Christianity in the world. I will show the world that one man can destroy it.” But where is Voltaire, or what did he accomplish of his impious boast? He lived long, and he worked hard and went down to the grave, cursing the horrid work in which he had spent his days. 3. Let us all prepare to meet the scenes which it tells us are yet before us: death, judgment, eternity. Prepare to meet your God, prepare, through His mercy in Christi to meet Him in peace. For the time is at hand when all that He has said in His Word of the righteous and the wicked, and of heaven and hell, will be matter of experience, of personal unchanging experience to us all. (Joel Hawes, D. D.) . Psalms 18:29; Psalms 18:33-34 By Thee have I run through a troop.Surmounting impossible difficulties This is a poetical way of representing the fact that impossibilities have often been made possible in our own experience. Looking back upon certain combinations of circumstances, we cannot but feel that we were surrounded by great and high walls, and that troops of dangers thickened around us in deadly array, Now that we see ourselves in a “ large place,” we are tempted to believe that we are still in a dream, and that our liberty is a thing which we hold only in the uncertain light of a momentary vision. When our imagination is vexed by the cross colours which make up the panorama of life, it is easy to persuade us that tomorrow we shall be back again in chains, for we have enjoyed but an imaginary liberty. Then, under happier circumstances, we see how the miracle is a simple reality,--that we have in very deed escaped perils which at one time seemed to be insurmountable, and that our escape is due entirely to the exercise of the almightiness of God. It is remarkable how, under such circumstances, we unconsciously magnify our own importance in the universe. We do not mean to be ostentatious and proud when we declare that God has exerted Himself specially on our behalf, and has indeed Himself been disquieted until our comfort was restored and established. The Psalmist speaks here as if he were the sole object of the Lord’ s care, and as if the Infinite took delight only in his well-being and prosperity. (Joseph Parker, D. D.) Energy put into a man Sir Alexander Ball was one of those great men who adorned our navy at the end of the eighteenth century. The following anecdote is told of him by his friend the poet Coleridge. “ In a large party at Malta I had observed a naval officer listening to Sir A. Ball with a mixed expression of awe and affection that gave a more than common interest to so manly a countenance. This officer afterwards told me that he considered himself indebted to Sir Alexander for that which was dearer to him than his life. ‘ When he was Lieutenant Ball,’ said he, ‘ he was the officer I accompanied in my first boat expedition, being then a midshipman, and only in my fourteenth year. As we were rowing up to the vessel which we were to attack, amid a discharge of musketry, I was overpowered by fear, and seemed on the point of fainting away. Lieutenant Ball, who saw the condition I was in, placed himself close beside me, and still keeping his countenance directed towards the enemy, pressed my hand in the most friendly manner, and said in a low voice, ‘ Courage, my dear boy. You will recover in a minute or so. I was just the same when I first went out in this way.’ ‘ Sir,’ added the officer to me, ‘ it was just as if an angel had put a new soul into me. With the feeling I was not yet dishonoured, the whole burden of agony was removed; and from that moment I was as fearless and forward as the oldest of the boat’ s crew.’” One trophy for two exploits What is true of David is true of David’ s Lord. The Holy Ghost has presented to us the experience of Jesus in that model of experience through which David passed. So the text tells both of Christ and the believer also. Let us speak of it. I. In relation to Christ. And1. For the first sentence, “ By Thee have I run through a troop.” Christ’ s enemies were as a troop for number. Who can count them? But also for their discipline. They were marshalled under that skilful and crafty leader Satan, the arch fiend and Prince of Darkness. And his servants are well trained. He came against Jesus with his army, in settled order. It was no wild rush of Some Tartar host, but a well arranged and well regulated attack. Never let us undervalue the strength of Christ’ s enemies. Now, this sentence has been read in varied ways, and each is very suggestive. One reads it, “ By Thee have I run to a troop” ; so that Jesus did not wait for the attack, but made it Himself, See how He went forth to meet Judas and the armed band on the night of the betrayal. But our version reads, “ through a troop,” and this is also accurate. For His victory was complete. They stood firm as if they would not flinch, they thought they had defeated Him; but His Cross was the very symbol of His omnipotence, for in weakness was He strong. See Him running through this troop. And how speedily. His sufferings were but short. What a stride was that which Jesus took when He marched right through His enemies, and laid them right and left slain before Him. There is yet another version, “ By Thee have I run after a troop.” As if he would say, “ I met them, fought them, vanquished them, pursued them, and captured them.” “ He led captivity captive. Note the words, “ By Thee. He acted as the servant of God. But it is blessed to think that the Father as well as the Son, yea, the whole Trinity of sacred Persons, is engaged for our redemption. 2. The second sentence, “ By my God have I leaped over a wall.” David seems to be describing the capture of some fortress, such as Jebus, afterwards called Jerusalem. Now Satan had shut us all up in a mighty fortress. It had as one bulwark the strength of sin and the law; as another the suggestions of Satan to men’ s hearts; and then there was the deep ditch of men’ s sins, and the mound outside of Human Depravity. Now Christ comes, and He leaps over these walls. And He not only Himself surmounted these walls, but brought all His people on His shoulders, as AEneas carried off his old father Anchises. And all this also was “ by my God.” He acted as Mediator. Let our souls meditate much upon Christ’ s victories. II. To the believer. He has his troops of enemies and his imprisoning wall. But sometimes he makes the mistake of trying to climb over the troop when he should break through them, and of trying to break through the wall which he should climb over. Let him have courage for the troop to run through them, and discretion for the wall to climb over it. And by means of faith he can do this. Luther often used to defy Satan to battle. I care not to do that, but he used in his queer quaint way to say, “ I often laugh at Satan, and there is nothing makes him so angry as when I attack him to his face, and tell him that through God I am more than a match for him, tell him to do his worst, and yet I will beat him; and tell him to put forth his fury, and yet I will overcome him.” He that has made God his refuge need fear no storm. “ Look,” said a poor woman to a lady who called to see her, “ Look, ma’ am, I’ ll show you all I’ m worth.” And she showed her her cupboard with nothing in it but a dry crust; and a chest, but it was empty. “ That is all I am worth, ma’ am, but I have not a doubt or fear but that God will supply my need.” Now that woman bad learnt how to run through a troop and by her God to leap over a wall. What have you for your soul like that? (C. H. Spurgeon.) Psalms 18:34 He teacheth my hands to war. Divine endowment for service God raises up men specially qualified to meet the exigencies of human society--the soldier, the statesman, the lawgiver, the teacher of religion, the ready writer, the eloquent man, and the cunning artificer. He had need of a soldier to accomplish the purposes of His will, and He qualified David for the work, and so long as David prosecuted his wars, free of ambitious and malevolent feelings, and solely with the desire of accomplishing the will of God, he served God as acceptably in the field as he could have served Him in His temple. Provided his cause be just, and he prosecute it with right motives, the patriot soldier is engaged on as holy a work as the priest at the altar. God so taught David the art of war that “ a bow of steel was broken by his arms.” It required the use of both hands and feet to bend the ancient bow of steel; how great, then, must David’ s strength have been to break it with his arms. This verse has, of course, a spiritual application, showing how easily God can clothe with overcoming might all who are engaged in the good fight of faith, enabling them to overcome, with a moiety of their strength, the strongest weapons with which they may be assailed. (David Caldwell, A. M.) Psalms 18:35 Thy gentleness hath made me great.The gentleness of God When the coarse mind of sin makes up gods by its own natural light, those gods reveal the coarseness and the sin together. The God of revelation contrives to be a gentle being; hiding His power that He might put confidence and courage in the feelings of His children. I. What do we mean by gentleness? God’ s gentleness lies in His consenting to the use of indirection, as a way of gaining His adversaries. Instead of coming down upon man in a manner of direct onset, to carry His submission by storm, He gently lays siege to him, waiting for his willing consent. It is the very genius of Christianity itself to bring men to obedience by a course of loving indirection from what is revealed in that wondrous indirection of grace, the incarnate life and death of Jesus. But where is the gentleness of God in those inexorable forces of the external world? Is it such a God that moves by indirection? Yes, and all the more properly, because these terrible forces permit Him to do it. He can hide His omnipotence--can set His will behind His love for a time, because He has these majestic inexorabilities for the rear guard of His mercies. II. The end God has in view in condescending to these gracious methods,--to make us great. The Christian Gospel is a plan to bring down the loftiness of our pride and the wilfulness of our rebellion, but to make us loftier in capacity and power and personal majesty. This is true of our will and of our intellect. Then, how perverse are those who require God to convert them by force. Let us adjust our conceptions of the true scale of a Christian man by God’ s careful respect for our liberty, the detentions of His violated feeling, the sending of His Son, and the silent intercession of His Spirit. Be it ours to live with a sense of our high calling upon us. (Horace Bushnell, D. D.) The Divine gentleness The idea here is, goodness manifested in gentle dealings, in loving kindness and tender mercy--an exhibition of the goodness of God which had often awakened his heart’ s warmest gratitude and led him to ascribe praise to Jehovah. The idea of lowliness enters into the meaning of the word gentleness; it is indeed essential to it. Gentleness is put in contrast with greatness. There is first God stooping down to that which is lowly, and as the result of this, His condescension, we have the gentle tender rule of His loving administration. I. The gentleness of our father’ s rule. It was due to the Father’ s gentleness--1. That we were brought under His genial sway. 2. That we have been kept in the school of Christ. There He conquers our dulness and wilfulness by His gentleness. 3. The gentleness of the Divine rule is revealed to us in the experience of life. Illustrate from our days of sin, days of punishment, days of affliction, days of weariness, and the hour of death. II. The effects which this genial sway produces in us. Sept. reads, “ Thy discipline.” The Chaldee paraphrase reads, “ Thy word hath increased me.” There are some Christians of whom you feel that their humility--so beautiful and sincere and unpretending and unobtrusive--is an honour to them. Do you know the secret of this their greatness It is the product of Divine culture. We know some Christians whose zeal for God and God’ s house is such that they are made honourable by it. It is because the Divine gentleness has been so sweetly realised as to create a passionate desire to make some expression of its gratitude. Saviour Divine! may Thy gentleness make us gentle--gentle in thought, in intent, in speech, in action,--that we may live gentle lives of loving devotedness to the God whose discipline and leadings are ever tender and kind! (Edward Leach.) Gods gentleness our greatness It is remarkable that the Psalmist should speak of God as gentle, and of himself as great, and that he should ascribe his own greatness to God’ s gentleness, as the effect to the cause. This would appear to reverse the natural order of things. The greatness of God might well teach us a lesson of gentleness. I. The import of that gentleness which is ascribed to God. Contrast it with His infinite power and universal sovereignty. There is united in the Divine character surpassing gentleness and transcendant greatness. To what but the Lord’ s gentleness, forbearance, long suffering, and tender mercy is it owing that our rebellious and guilty race haw been so long spared and so graciously dealt with? But it is in the person of His well-beloved Son, the meek and lowly Saviour, that the gentleness of God is exhibited to us in a visible and palpable form. Was not the Spirit of Christ emphatically one of gentleness? Did not that lovely Spirit, so aptly typified by the similitude of a dove, characterise His every word and action? Such a combination of gentleness with fortitude; of meekness with dignity; of the tenderest love with the most inflexible firmness, belongs only to Immanuel. The delineation of the character is far above human power. II. The nature of the greatness which the Psalmist affirms to be the effect of the Divine gentleness. Is it the grandeur of wealth, power, fame, or royal dignity to which he refers? His own testimony negatives the supposition. It is of moral greatness, as distinct from earthly grandeur,--greatness of principle, of soul, of destiny--that greatness which teaches man to contemn sensual indulgences, that greatness which consists in spiritual endowments, and heavenly relationships--this is the only greatness which really dignifies and ennobles a never-dying spirit. This true spiritual greatness is at once the evidence and the effect of a Divine nature. To such heavenly greatness God’ s gentleness would lead us by Christ Jesus. The one subject of our everlasting songs will be, the gentleness of God in Christ. (W. F. Vance, M. A.) The genesis of greatness Hengstenberg calls this Psalm the great hallelujah of David’ s life, and one with which he retires from the theatre of action. David was at his best when he wrote these words. There were times when he was not fitted to pen such an ode. I. The character of true greatness. The world has admired and even deified the human earthward side of greatness, and overlooked the spiritual, Godward side. Men have exalted power, wealth, intellectual superiority above character or moral greatness, founded in faith, purity, and trust in God. Since the religion of Jesus Christ has prevailed, men are beginning to put character in the light of His matchless Excellence. How far like Him is any admired character? It is a cheerful sign that Christian communities demand some degree of moral greatness in those called to posts of power. The greatest nations of the globe are Christian. The most influential statesmen are reverent in their attitude, if not professedly converted men. True greatness is moral goodness. II. The source of this true greatness. David is here reviewing his life. He is getting at the force that wrought in all these years and led him safely on and up, that has developed an inward life as well as an outward opulence and power. It is God. “ Thy gentleness hath made me great.” This word “ gentleness” is translated condescension or benignity. It is gracious kindness to one’ s referrer. The sun pours its fervid rays on the earth, kiting its flowers and fruits into beauty, and ripening its bounty year by year. So the face of God, like Divine sunshine, calls out of you and me all that is good and really great. We realise this fact as we muse on the Divine love, so unwearied and continuous through our lives. Let us all strive to realise that God’ s eye of love rests on us. He sees our joy and grief, our loss and gain, our sin and our sorrow. Let us ever keep the windows of our life open to Him. God’ s benignant grace makes us truly great. (George E. Reed, D. D.) The gentleness of God, and our greatness The gentleness of God--it is a wonderful word: a word that never could have originated with man. There are gods of might, grim and terrible. Man has never invented a god of gentleness. Jove is but a hurler of thunderbolts. Unto us our God hath revealed Himself, and lo, He is our Father, Almighty and Everlasting, yet His chosen emblem is the Breath, the Dew, the Lamb, the Dove,--all that sets forth the gentleness of our God. How best may we get hold of this wondrous truth? Gentleness is many sided. The word is rendered condescension, goodness, patience--but gentleness is more than these, or less. With us it may be but a lack of energy, a lack of decision. What passes for gentleness may be only a colourless mixture of weakness and unconcern, a forbearance that amiably smiles at everything and everybody, because it is less trouble than doing anything else. But it is difficult to think of gentleness in an intense nature. How can such an one be gentle? It is David, the valiant champion and captain of Israel, brave, heroic, chivalrous David, the man, too, of fierce passions, who gives us this experience. He knew as well as any the power and majesty of the Most High. And yet as he looks back upon his life he sees that the greatness of it has grown up out of the gentleness of God. We see the gentleness of God bearing in this brave soldier its own fruit, making him gracious and gentle; and at such times it is that he rises to his highest greatness. For myself I think I get furthest into the heart of this truth when I think of gentleness as the grace of one who puts himself in our place, making himself so one with us that he understands how we feel, taking our weakness and our difficulty and doubt and fear as his own. God is our father and mother too--setting ever before Himself the loftiest purpose concerning us, yet ever seeing our weakness, feeling it, and stooping tenderly to help us. That is the gentleness of God. If I am to think of God as the sublime, the majestic only, what hope have I? What allowance can be made for weakness, for ignorance, for peculiar difficulties? But if the infinite love and gentleness of God do bring Him down to be one with me in my very flesh and blood, one with me in all the round of daily life and circumstance, then I may set out with confidence. If He understand me in all my peculiarities and needs, and be ever ready to help me, then may I triumph--His gentleness shall make me great. This perfect understanding of us away by ourselves, and this perfect sympathy with us, this separate love and separate help, is the very strength and sweetness of the Gospel of Christ. God is not consumed, as some have thought, with an incessant craving for His own glory. God is consumed with an incessant longing for the welfare and blessedness of His children. All things are set and perfectly adjusted to this end. You to whom the beginnings of the life of God are a perplexity, goodness is a despair--He calls you to Himself that His gentleness may make you great. His purposes concerning us are altogether too great to be won by force; they can only be fulfilled by His gentleness. (Mark Guy Pearse.) The gentleness of God, and the moral greatness of man I. The gentleness of God.1. Not a quality men usually ascribe to God. The sense of sin is the prime cause of the dread of God. 2. Not a single, but a complex attribute. Its base is goodness. Its aspects and operations are manifold. It is always sympathetic, but it is not mere softness. It does not exclude severity when severity is demanded. God both hurls the thunderbolt and distils the dew. II. The effect of God’ s gentleness on the moral greatness of man. The faculties of man are great, his destiny is great, and the Gospel of his salvation is great. The character and conduct of man are often little, very little indeed; but the powers and possibilities of his nature cannot be trivial. The Divine gentleness seen in--1. Convincing of sin. 2. Prompting to a better life. 3. Upholding the saint in his progress toward perfection. The afterlife of the believing man on earth needs the ministry of God’ s gentleness. In the fight with evil within, the soul not infrequently grows sick of itself, weary of its own infirmities, and loses all heart about its own predicted victories. In such hours the experience of God’ s great patience with us, when we have given up all patience with ourselves, is of priceless value. III. Conclusion.1. Other attributes besides the gentleness of God must contribute to the moral life and welfare of the soul. Rigour and tenderness are both requisite to the moral guidance and training of our race. 2. In the moral development and perfection of fallen men the gentleness of God discharges the highest function. The strong hand retains, the hand of gentleness elicits and fosters. Authority moulds from without; love inspires from within. 3. The aim of the moral activity of God in this planet is to ensure the moral greatness of man. 4. Let none fail to weigh the condemning power of God’ s gentleness. The sufficiency of any moral force to encourage, inspire, and exalt is the exact measure of its ability to condemn. (H. Batchelor, B. A.) Great lives Gentleness is love in action. Geologists tell us that the silent influences of the atmosphere are far more powerful than the noisy forces of nature: quiet sunshine than thunder, and gentle rain than earthquake. So the gentleness of God is His grandest excellence. His gentleness shows itself in the goodness which teaches us to know Him and inspires us to become like Him; in the mercy which, remembering that we are but dust, forgives our sins and blots out the record of our iniquity. The spirit of the New Testament reveals the gentleness of God as manifested in the life of our Saviour; for gentleness was the prevailing disposition of Jesus. Jesus was gentle in all His words, and meek in all His actions. In His disposition you have a picture of the spirit of the Almighty God. And His object is ever to make us truly great. I. The gentleness of God in the inspiration of His love. Love is the strongest force we know. Impelled by it, the wife has not feared to suck the poison from the wound of her husband, and love has ever been willing to lay down its life to save its beloved. Love is refining and elevating in proportion to its purity and power. Even the love of a dog makes a bad man better than he otherwise would be. There is a hunger for love in the human heart. The prisoner for life is the better for the love of the rat who creeps about his dungeon. One of the worst characters portrayed by Charles Dickens is that of Bill Sykes--a creature apparently without natural affection--yet even he had a soft place in his heart, and was moved with pity when trying to drown his faithful dog. The most helpless being in this world is a newborn child; and it is this very helplessness that appeals so strongly to our love. But when you realise that you are loved of God, it makes you great in noble deeds. Love calls forth love. God’ s gentleness is known by its record in the Bible and by its inspiration in our carts. And so the New Testament tells me of a fact--that in the heart of God there is love for me. But what should be the result when we know that our Saviour laid down His sacred life for us? Surely, that love, when it is felt in our heart, shall make the feeblest man great. II. Notice His gentleness in the pleading of His spirit with every man. The Holy Spirit pleads with every man; and we are taught not to grieve God by resisting that hallowed influence. III. The gentleness of God in giving us the power of the risen life of Jesus Christ. May God make us great--1. In our friendship to one another. 2. In our obedience to God. 3. In our actions. 4. In bearing our trials. You are one of God’ s jewels. But the polishing on the wheel must be if it is to shine brilliantly. 5. In our homes. Let us put away our littleness of character, and our feebleness in charity, and all that makes us mean and unlovely. We should be great in action as in thought. It is far more noble to be great than to be a king. Be great because God in His gentleness intends to lead you to paradise to be kings and priests. Let your actions be worthy of your high destiny; and may the gentleness of God uplift you from sin, and make you His children, whose lives shall adorn the Gospel of our Saviour. (W. Birch.) The Divine gentleness Whatever may have been the special link of association in the Psalmist’ s mind between the dignity to which he had himself been raised and the condescension of the Most High, the text naturally suggests to our own minds the connection subsisting between the gentleness of God and the true greatness of man. I. Consider the fact of the Divine gentleness; Gentleness is more than kindness. A man may be benevolent, and yet rude. He may do much good to others, and yet his well-doing may lack tenderness, and even his condescension may be a phase of his pride. But when we speak of the “ gentleness” of any man or woman we speak of a quality into which enter the elements of humility, sympathy, simplicity, delicacy of feeling, calmness of spirit, patience, and long suffering. It is a quality which eludes definition. It is to be felt rather than described. Gentleness is, so to speak, an “ expression” on the face of love, the power of which may be realised in a moment, but the characteristics of which can with difficulty be transferred to the canvas. Now, when we speak of the gentleness of God we speak primarily of a quality in the Divine nature, made known to us, as it could only be, by its manifestations, by the revelation of an actual feeling in the Divine heart. We know how the gentleness of the human heart expresses itself,--in smiles which steal their way into the soul as the sunbeams steal into forest nooks; in tones which fall upon the ear as dew upon the grass, or as “ snowflake upon snowflake.” And so, when we find in God’ s works and ways the characteristics of lowliness and tenderness, we ought not merely to say that God acts as if He were gentle, but we ought to trace these characteristics upwards to an actual quality in the Divine nature. Carrying, then, this principle with us, let us look at some of the modes in which the Divine gentleness is revealed. And--1. The very language which I have just been using about the sunlight, the dew, the summer breeze, may suggest to us that God manifests His gentleness in the minuter forms and quieter aspects of nature. Creation reveals God: His wisdom, power, glory, but also, to some extent, His character. Not all things in nature thus reveal His character, but most do. We have in nature that which tells of what is grand and awful in Him. The vast mountains, with their wintry summits hidden in snow and mist; the ocean, lashed into fury by the tempest which strews upon its waters the wrecks of human industry; the earthquake and volcano, the thunder roar and lightning flash--these are manifestations of a majesty which is almighty to create or to destroy. But when, on the other hand, we walk out into the fields on some fresh spring morning, and see the buds opening in the hedgerows; or when, on the quiet summer eve, we stroll by some streamlet and hear the birds sing among the leaves which are gleaming in the sunset, then God seems nearer to us than in thunder roar or ocean tempest. Nearer to us, because the nearness is one which we can more easily bear--not of majestic power, but of quiet gentleness. How this gentle presence steals into our hearts amid the flowers. Yes; even if there were nothing else to testify to the gentleness of God, the flowers would bear their silent witness. Mere power could manifest itself in ten thousand other and grander ways. What must be the nature of Him who finds a delight in thus clothing the earth with beauty? Pluck one of the daisies at your feet, and think--the great God who made the worlds has made this little flower to grow! Must not He Himself, then, be gentle and lowly, even as He is mighty? “ A fevered child hushed to sleep by its mother” look at that picture for a moment. 2. Another mode in which the Divine gentleness is revealed--namely, in the creation and maintenance of human affection. It is God who is the Inspirer of that love within the mother’ s heart. He it is who has constituted those relations which bind us to one another, and which tend to elicit the deepest and tenderest affection. And has not man been created in the Divine image? Would he have been constituted with these capacities of affection unless his Maker delighted in beholding their exercise? How near God draws to us in the gentle courtesies of home and friendship: more near than even in the quiet scenes of nature. How often does some daughter within a household become, through her loving ways, as “ a smile of God” to her parents; and the cradle of a sleeping infant, as another “ Bethel” to the grateful mother, a very “ gate of heaven” to her soul, giving her new glimpses of the presence and tenderness of God. Yes, “ out of the mouth even of babes and sucklings God,” etc. And in friendship too, with its tender ministries and patient loving help--how this tells of the Divine sympathy, and of Him who “ healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds.” There could be no tenderness at all in us, if its archetype were not first in Him. 3. God has also manifested His gentleness in the gift and Person of His Son Jesus Christ. Here, indeed, the revelation of the Divine humility reaches its climax. We cannot kneel in imagination before the manger of Bethlehem without feeling how real is the lowliness of God. The incarnation of the Divine Son was itself a humiliation. And this incarnation, remember, was the answer of the Creator to the sin of His creatures. Men were forgetting and forsaking Him, and trampling His laws under their feet. And all this enmity of theirs He meets--not with another deluge, not with fire and brimstone from heaven; but with the gift of the only-begotten Son, to take upon Him their nature, that the Divine Life might thus be inwrought, as it were, into the very texture of humanity, and that the world might be saved. Oh, what patient humility is here! How gently did the great God thus steal into the midst of the human family in the form of this Bethlehem Child. And how all through His life on earth does He show the same lowly gentleness. I might speak to you of other modes in which God manifests His gentleness. I might remind you how tenderly He often deals with us in His providence--erecting barriers of circumstance which help to keep us in the path of safety; mingling mercy also even with His chastisements; laying a gentle hand on the wound which must be probed, and sweetening the bitterness of the cup which must be drunk. Think, too, of the gentleness implied in the gift of the Holy Spirit the Comforter, who wrestles with us when we are tempted to sin, rebukes our transgressions in deep whispers within the soul, and gives peace and consolation by His own indwelling presence. II. The effect of the Divine gentleness upon ourselves. It “ makes us great.” It enlarges our being: helps us to the attainment of noble spiritual character. And He does this--1. By raising our estimate of our own nature. So long as we think only of the greatness of God and of His holiness, our own weakness and sin make us feel almost as if our existence were a worthless thing. But when God draws near to us in His gentleness, and calls us His “ children,” then we begin to be conscious of the dignity of our being. 2. The gentleness of God “ makes us great” by inspiring us with faith in Himself. Humility, not pride, is the godlike attribute; and faith in God is the root of all the highest creature greatness. For it is the key to self-conquest; and “ he who ruleth his own spirit is,” etc. What has not faith done in and by those who have been inspired with its might? (Hebrews 11:1-40) Now as faith is the secret of all this higher spiritual greatness, so the gentleness of God is the secret of this faith. We could not look up to God with a childlike confidence if He were merely in our thoughts “ the Thunderer of Olympus.” But, being lowly and gracious in His own nature, He so manifests His fatherly gentleness as to win our trust. And thus the Divine gentleness “ makes us great,” by awakening within us that faith which is the root of greatness. 3. The gentleness of God “ makes us great,” by inducing the development of all our highest capacities. It has been remarked that civilisation has proceeded with more rapid strides and has reached a higher stage on the broader plains of earth, amid the tamer and quieter aspects of nature, than in the neighbourhood of the loftiest mountains and the grander features of our world. See the contrast between the populations of India or South America and those that cover the plains of Europe. The theory is that, in presence of the more sublime phenomena of nature, the spirit of man is awed and crushed, so that his development is cramped and fettered; whereas, on the broader plains of the world, his spirit becomes freer, and he learns to master the forces of nature, instead of cringing before her like a slave. But, however this may be, we know from our own experience that men who are greater, wiser, nobler than ourselves, help us in proportion as they stoop to us and identify themselves with us. To be met with gentleness is to be mightily helped, if it be only the gentleness of a strength which we respect. And thus it is that the Divine gentleness induces the development of our noblest powers. So long as we think only of the majesty of God there is danger lest terror paralyse our souls. But it is far otherwise when we realise the Divine lowliness--when we feel that God is drawing near to us in tender sympathy, and encouraging us, as “ dear children,” to do our best for Him. Then our reverence for His greatness only makes our gratitude for His condescension the more intense; and this gratitude is a stimulus to all holy energy. Our meditation suggests two practical lessons-- (1) Learn how you may yourselves become greater. Your whole being will shrivel if you worship a colossal fate or an almighty spectre. The devotees of mere power grow weak. Let awe and trust blend themselves in your souls. (2) Learn how you may help others to become greater. Treat them with gentleness, not with a weak softness--that will only enervate. Cultivate robustness of character. But see to it that you cultivate gentleness also. Has some poor ship dashed itself on the rocky coast, and would you save the crew with that strong thick rope of yours? Then attach to it the slender cord, and throw them that; that may bring them the strong rope, which will prove the means of their deliverance. Would you save men from a spiritual shipwreck? Would you strengthen souls in the hour of temptation? Then the stronger your own character is, the better; but let your strength avail itself of gentleness, and it will become the mightier to protect and redeem. Would you make men wiser? Then the wiser you yourselves are, the better; but your wisdom must in gentleness stoop to their ignorance, if you would educate and instruct them. Would you make men purer? Then the purer your own heart is, the better; but your purity must in gentleness bear pityingly and patiently with them, if you would arouse them to a truer self-respect, and lead them into a higher and holier life. It is the gentleness of greatness that makes men great. (T. Campbell Finlayson.) The power of God’ s gentleness No one can glance, even in the most hasty manner, over this Divine song without observing the recognition of God’ s hand in all things by which it is pervaded. I. And at the very outset we find rising out of these words the question, what is that greatness which in the Christian is produced by God’ s gentleness? Scarcely two individuals have the same idea of greatness. All, indeed, will agree that it denotes preeminence, but each will have his own preference as to the department in which that is to be manifested. Some associate it with the deeds of the warrior on the battlefield, others with the triumphs of the orator, or the achievements of the artist, the poet, the philosopher, the man of science; others, with the acquisition of rank or wealth or power. But the greatness which God’ s gentleness produces may co-exist with many of these, but is independent of them all. For man is great in the proportion that he resembles the holy God who made him. Man’ s greatness, therefore, is greatness in holiness. It is a moral thing, for the truest manliness and the highest God likeness are convertible terms. Behold our Lord Jesus Christ. Is there anyone who imagines that His greatness was lessened by the fact that He laboured at the carpenter’ s bench and was one of the poorest of the people? Not among warriors, poets, artists, statesmen, or the like do we name Him; yet even in the estimation of those who deny His deity, He is regarded as the greatest of men. Why? Because of His preeminence in holiness. Now, true greatness in man is precisely what it was in Him who, because He was the God-man, was the archetypal man. It is moral excellence, the greatness of character, preeminence in holiness, and is such that no external meanness can obscure its radiance, and no blaze of earthly glory can outshine its brightness. Thus, whatever our outward sphere may be, to be truly great we must have an inward character of holiness manifesting itself in all our actions; and he will be the greatest who, wherever he may be, is likest Christ. Some years ago a poor Spanish sailor was brought into a Liverpool hospital to die, and, after he had breathed his last, there was found upon his breast tattooed, after the manner of his class, a representation of Christ upon the Cross. You call that superstition, and perhaps you are right; yet there was beauty ill it too, for if we could have in our hearts what that poor seaman had painfully, and with the needle point, punctured over his, we should be great indeed. Is not this, in truth, the open secret of Paul’ s preeminence? for he thus describes himself: “ Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus may be manifest in our body.” The manifestation of the life of Jesus: that is greatness, and to get that we must bear about in the body “ the dying of the Lord.” II. But how does God’ s gentleness make us great?1. It is because the human heart is always more deeply affected by tenderness than sternness. See this in the reformation of criminals. If you attempt to drag a man by force his nature is to resist you; but if you attempt to attract him by love, it is equally in his nature to follow you. And this is the principle of the Cross of Christ. God might have left us justly to our sins; but He would make us great, and therefore Christ died. It is this which turns the heart to God as Sinai could never do. But the manifestation of this love attracts: in other words, His gentleness produces in me that love to Him which is the source and inspiration of holiness. But, passing from the general to the particular, you may see the words of the text verified in the manner in which God receives individuals into His love, and so begins in them the greatness of holiness. “ The bruised reed He does not break; the smoking flax He does not quench” ; and there is no one here whom He will not willingly and lovingly receive. Read those gentle and beneficent words which fell so frequently from His lips. Peruse such parables as that of the lost sheep, or that of the prodigal son. Ah! who can tell how many have been encouraged to go to Him by such declarations and invitations as these? And now, as they revert to the first faint stirrings of the new life in them which these words evoked, they can say with truth, “ Thy gentleness hath made us great.” 2. See this also in the manner in which God in Christ Jesus trains His people after they have come to Him He does not leave them to themselves. He teaches them yet more and more of His grace; yet, in truest tenderness, He teaches them as they are able to bear it. 3. And in His dealings with His people now. Terrible are, at times, their trials, but “ He stayeth His rough wind in the day of His east wind,” and if the thorn of trial be not extracted, there comes the precious assurance, “ My grace is sufficient for thee; My strength is made perfect in weakness.” The subject has a two-fold application. It presents Jehovah to the sinner in a very affectionate attitude. Think of it, my friend. God is tender toward you. How often you have provoked Him with your iniquities, your ingratitude, your procrastination! Yet He has not cut you down. You are living evidences of His gentleness. Finally, this subject shows the Christian how he should seek to bring others to the knowledge of Jesus. The gentleness of God should be repeated and reproduced in us, and we should deal with others with the same tenderness and affection as God hath dealt with us. Parents, seek the greatness of your children, that is their godliness, not by rigorous, unbending sternness, but in tender forbearance. You have heard of the mother who, as she was sitting on the brow of a hill, suffered her child unnoticed to wander from her side, until he stood upon the very edge of the beetling cliff. She was appalled when she discovered where he was, but her maternal instinct would not let her shriek. All she did was to open her arms and beckon him to her embrace, and the little fellow, unconscious of the danger in which he stood, ran to be folded to her bosom. So let it be with you. When you see your young people standing on some precipice of temptation, do not scold or blame or cry out about it; that will only push them over. Rather open to them the arms of your affection. Make home to them more attractive than aught else. Let your fatherhood and motherhood become more to them than ever and by your very gentleness you will make them great. Sabbath school teacher, this text speaks to you, and bids you, in your earnest efforts for your scholars’ welfare, show to them the same gentleness that Jesus manifested when He took the children in His arms and blessed them. Do not lose your temper with them, but be gentle with them, even as God for Christ’ s sake hath forgiven you. (W. N. Taylor, D. D.) Psalms 18:36 Thou hast enlarged my steps under me, that my feet did not slip.The double blessing of enlargement and safety A smooth pathway leading to spacious possessions and camping grounds had been opened for him. Instead of threading the narrow mountain path, and hiding in the cracks and corners of caverns, he was able to traverse the plains and dwell under his own vine and fig tree. It is no small mercy to be brought into full Christian liberty and enlargement, but it is a greater favour still to be enabled to walk worthily ill such liberty, not being permitted to slip with our feet. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Psalms 18:46 The Lord liveth; and blessed be my Rock; and let the God of my salvation be exalted.The Rock of salvation True religion has nothing in it cloudy, melancholy, depressing. It is in itself full of fire, love, light, warmth. Our sadness arises from our sin and sorrow, but in God there is that to fill us with joy. Now here we have-- I. A living Lord. It is a living Christ that sheds a glory around Calvary, and around the tomb in which His body was laid. What would be our grief if He were not living? II. A solid rock. Christ will build His Church thereon. And it is a rock for refuge. III. Its exaltation. He is exalted by tab Father; and in the Bible; and in the contrite believing heart; and in the life and purpose of all His people. Let us build on this Rock. (George Merrell.) Psalms 18:49 Therefore will I give thanks unto Thee among the heathen.David’ s deliverance and thanksgiving I. Of David delivered. The wonder is, how so good a man, so gracious a prince, should have enemies and rebels; should fall into such dangers and afflictions; should need so many deliverances. But even in the best men there is something amiss. All saints are sinners, and sin will be punished in God’ s children soonest of all. It is impossible for governors to escape the smart of popular murmurings, tumults, and rebellions; for Moses the meekest, David the best, and Solomon the wisest of kings did not. The best of kings may be under the Cross, and need deliverances. II. Of God his deliverer. That all deliverance comes from the Lord needs no proof, from Scripture or reason. Philosophers, poets, historians all acknowledge this truth. The heathen everywhere ascribe all good successes to their gods. Among us there are some who will not allow God to govern in His own house, but deny Him any care of things below. As He only brings us into affliction, so He only can remove the afflictions. If we believe this most certain truth, that all deliverance is from the Lord, we must show the fruits of that faith when in distress. III. Of David’ s thankfulness for his deliverance. Here observe--1. The person performing it. That is, David. “ I will do it,” saith he. 2. The duty itself That is, thanksgiving. “ I will give thanks.” 3. The manner how he will do it, and that is-- (1) publicly,(2) cheerfully. Gratitude is not the business of a year, but of a whole life. (Gilbert Sheldon, D. D.) Psalms 18:50 Great deliverance giveth He to the King. Great deliverances This is Christ’ s resurrection Psalm. It is a Psalm of deliverance or salvation--the two words are the same. This deliverance is one of love, power, and righteousness. The whole history of the Bible from beginning to end pertains to what God calls deliverance. First of all, we have King David’ s history, the history of deliverance. Secondly, we have in Israel’ s history a history of deliverance. Thirdly, in Messiah’ s history we have a history of deliverance. Fourthly, in the Church’ s history we have a history of deliverance. And lastly, in the history of each individual man we have a history of deliverance. It is deliverance from first to last. (A. Bonar.) . Psalms 19:1-14 Psalms 19:1 The heavens declare the glory of God.The glory of God Nature exists not for a merely natural, but for a moral end; not for what it is, but for what it says or declares. I. What nature tells us to think of God.1. Nature reveals God. The race as a whole have heard the declaration of His eternal power and Godhead. In proportion as they have heard, adoring, they have risen in the scale of manhood. 2. Nature declares the knowledge and power of God. The marks of mathematical and geometric law in nature are conspicuous. The more we explore the different departments of nature, the more we find it pervaded by strict arithmetical and dynamic laws. We meet thought everywhere. The race of man, as a whole, has heard, and to some extent understood, the testimony of nature to infinite thought and power. 3. Nature declares that God is just and good. This has been called in question. Nature says that every natural law, if obeyed, tends to happiness. Nature’ s laws are benevolent, Men have not fully appreciated this, for one reason, because they have so commonly broken those laws and have suffered. But does nature in any wise speak of the Divine mercy? This question has often been wrongly answered. Listen attentively, and you will hear nature say that God is merciful. It is a striking fact that very many, if not all, physical penalties can be mitigated, if not relieved, by some counter law, some curious side-process or arrangement. God has so made nature as practically to encourage self-sacrifice for each other. Whenever men take pains for each other, to help each other over their faults and their consequences, there is an illustration, however faint, of the Divine principle of mercy. Mercy is the policy of the Divine government; it is the character of God Himself. II. What God thinks of nature.1. God looks upon nature as a basis of language. Let the heavenly orbs be for signs. Signs are vehicles of ideas. Let them say something; let them be words. The universe is God’ s telephone, God’ s grand signal service system by which He can flash messages from the heights above to the deepest valleys below. The material system is God’ s great instrument of conversation. 2. God tells us what to think of this eloquent material system. It is God’ s most glorious schoolroom by which to teach us reality,--above all, to teach us self-government, and painstaking for one another. Why are we in such a world? Because we needed to be. We need what we get here. We need that knowledge of ourselves which nature can give. We need to be where we are. We need just the restraints and the liberties, the trials and the triumphs, the joys and the sorrows, the smiles and the tears, the bliss and the anguish of this strange life. And in all, and through all, we need to know Him who placed us here, and is revealing Himself to us in a thousand ways. (Charles Beecher.) The Biblical conception of nature The whole of revelation reposes on this broad platform: how God and nature stand to one another. Now, there are two opposite extremes into which our conceptions on this point may fall. We may immerse God in nature; or we may isolate nature from God.1. We immerse God in nature if we treat nature as itself possessed of properties which are strictly personal; as when, for example, we accustom ourselves to think of it as originating its own processes, as intending its own results, or as conscious of its own plan. Men talk of nature as though it were aiming at certain ends, striving to accomplish them, adapting itself to new conditions, overcoming fresh obstacles, and so forth. The corrective lies in the scriptural idea of creation as an act of will of One who is outside of material being. Scripture is strictly philosophical when it traces all phenomena, all change, ultimately to a will. But will is an attribute of personality; and the Person whose will determines that nature should be what it is must be a Person not Himself included in the nature which He wills shall be. He is God. Again-- 2. We may unduly isolate nature as God’ s workmanship from God the worker. We do this, e.g., when we conceive of the universe as teaching us nothing of God, being only a whirl of material change without spiritual meaning; or when we represent it as a machine which, being somehow endued with a given stock of force, must go on so long as the force lasts, like a watch that has been once wound up. To separate the work from the worker after this sheer and mechanical fashion may do some harm to science, and it leaves hardly any foothold for religion. Again, the spiritual conception of creation will furnish the corrective. According to it, God is personally separate from and above nature, yet for all that He has put into His handiwork His own thoughts. We may fairly say that both sides of the idea lie in embryo in the solitary phrase, “ By the Word of the Lord were the heavens made.” For the word of any person serves two functions: it is the organ of command, conveying an act of will; it is also the organ of expression, revealing the speaker’ s nature. Stupendous conception of primary force! The force of personal will, resident in the Supernatural Being, in the one sole unmade, unborn Person, who is that He is; is, and was, and is to come, the Almighty. The sole cause; sole origin of being; sole efficient factor in the beginning; is this act of volition or self-determination of an Infinite Personal Will. “ He spake, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast.” It accords with experience; it satisfies philosophy; not less does it meet the religious necessities of the spirit; for if I am to worship at all, where shall I find a nobler object of worship than the Person who will give being to all beings but Himself? On the other hand, the word of a speaker while it utters his will must no less reflect, consciously or unconsciously, his inner self. It seems to me that in this Biblical conception of nature as the revelation of its Maker we find the common root whence have grown two very dissimilar growths of the ancient and of the modern world. The great fact of the whole ancient world was this, that its multiform religions started from a nature basis. The sun and stars, the reproductive forces of animal and vegetable life, the decay and revival of the year, the wondrous cycle, in short, of cosmic change through which nature accomplishes herself, was the common fact which very early riveted the attention of primitive man, till out of it there grew up in many lands, under many shapes, a system of religious observance everywhere the same in principle. Being whose thoughts these objects revealed, men began to adore the symbol, and to forget the Invisible Person behind it. Easy and rapid was the downward plane to idolatry and polytheism and gross fetish worship. Yet what is worth noting is, that such nature religions would have been impossible had not nature really spoken to unsophisticated men a Divine message, had it not been charged to their souls from the first with Divine ideas. We are far enough removed now from that early stage of human experience. The world is grown aged, and the work of its age is not to worship nature, but to master it. Yet this modern science which leads to the utilisation of physical forces for human needs is not less an outgrowth from the same root. For all our power over nature reposes immediately on our correct reading of natural laws. Observation of naked facts will never put into man’ s hand the sceptre of the physical world, Naked facts must lead on to the discovery of law; and law is the Divine idea governing the facts; and when man has discovered and mastered that Divine idea, then he becomes in his degree a divinity on earth, a lord over matter, a maker and disposer in his turn. What does this mean but that we come to read behind phenomena the thought and will of One whom, because He is a personal Spirit as we are, we can comprehend? We reach the secret principles on which He makes, not made merely but is ever making, the world; and when we thus know His mind, or on what lines His will moves, we enter upon a share of His dominion; we fall in with His working plan; we, too, govern by imitating Him. I have cited both ancient nature worship and modern nature study as alike dependent for their possibility upon the same truth of Scripture; this, namely, that nature, being made by God’ s Word, speaks to us His thoughts. But if I desired conclusive evidence how insufficient is this revelation of itself to guide men to friendly communion with God, where could I find any more conclusive than is furnished by the history both of ancient nature religions and of modern science! Of the one the tendency was more and more to immerse God in nature, till He was wholly lost in His own handiwork. Of the latter--modern science--the tendency very decidedly is to isolate nature from God, as a wholly separate existence whose relationship to its Author (if any) is at least unknown. This moral revelation, which began with Abraham and culminated in Jesus Christ, admits of being both compared and contrasted with the older nature revelation. 1. The later revelation starts from and builds upon the earlier one. It is not so often recollected as it should be, but once seen it cannot be doubted that underneath every other relationship which the God of the Bible claims to sustain to us as Lawgiver, Father, Redeemer, Promiser, Saviour there lies this broad, original relationship of all--that He is our Creator. That tie to Him, which we share with even the dumb cattle and the dead earth, bears up and justifies all the rest. Man is a portion of the created universe, and its Maker must be his Lord and King. 2. It must be clear that such a revelation as we actually possess in the Bible is only possible if God be (as the Bible teaches) at once above nature, and yet present, self-revealed in nature. First of all, we are ourselves part of the world, and if we are to receive communications that transcend what the world itself can tell us, then He who gives them must stand outside of and above the world. The supernatural is impossible if God be inseparable from nature or be its slave. On the other hand, the actual revelation recorded in the Bible employed nature as its organ. In the revelation of new truth God is constantly found availing Himself of the old creation. Dreams, and visions, and voices to the ear, the thundercloud on Sinai, the cleft sea, dearth and the plague, the vicissitudes of war, conquest, and revolt were all turned into vehicles for teaching saving lessons to mankind. The whole of Bible teaching, too, attaches itself to the parables of nature. Above all, His final revelation of Himself is in the life of a Man, a true natural life resting on the physical basis of a true body, “ born of a woman” ; so that the highest of all revelations is in appearance the most human, the least supernatural. 3. The voice of the new revelation agrees with the voice of the old. To develop the congruousness of the Divine image in nature with the Divine image in Scripture would take too long; I only suggest it to you. The absolute unity of plan which strict research is daily proving more and more--a unity now known to reach as far as the planets in their spheres--attests that the Creator is one. And Scripture proceeds on the unity of God. (b) Throughout all nature we find a will at work whose method is to bind itself by orderly method and fixed law. This reveals a mind in God intolerant of what is arbitrary, eccentric, or illegal. All is variety, yet all is system. Now, the revelation of the Divine will in Scripture is likewise the revelation of a law, and its chief end is the reduction of moral anarchy to moral order. (c) Again, we are daily learning how patiently, and through what long, slow, even laborious processes God has been pleased to build up His physical universe, as though a thousand years were to Him of no more account than a single day, so long as the results are wrought by growth and evolution, rather than by sudden shocks or interventions. This is God’ s way in nature, and it has been His way in grace. (d) Once more, the God of nature avenges the transgression of every physical law by a sentient creature. Scripture discovers precisely the same features in the moral and spiritual rule of God. So far the two revelations walk abreast. Thanks be to God, the Gospel continues its parable where the voice of nature falters and grows mute. Of law, of transgression, of penalty and reward, of life and death, nature has no less to say than the Bible has. But of another law higher than that of penalty, of grace which transcends judgment, of the spiritual law of self-sacrifice, of redemption of life by life, and giving up of the just for the unjust, and forgiveness of sin and regeneration of the lapsed,--the physical universe is wholly, or all but wholly, silent. (J. O. Dykes, D. D.) God’ s works and Word Providence is the best schoolmaster. This Psalm leads us, and is designed to lead us, to a contemplation of nature. Not the faintest apprehension appears, lest contradictions may be discovered between the world book and the word book. The sympathy with nature is complete, and not the less so because the poet has been enabled to penetrate the closest of her secrets. “ The wisest of men are those who with pious eagerness trace the goings-forth of Jehovah as well in creation as in grace.” Just that is the wisdom here. The study is a reverent study. God is seen everywhere. The lines are saturated with theology. There are, however, other voices of praise. While, doubtless, the heavens are the work of God’ s fingers and declare His glory, His Word is yet “ more to be desired.” Fascinated as David has been with the contemplation of the Creator’ s works, he does not make the blunder of despising the written revelation. Some of the grounds for a conclusion which so exalts the Word above the works.1. A comparison of the contents of the two revelations. From nature we may learn the existence of an infinite personal God. But is this mighty Author of the universe a friend? There throbs the tremendous interrogation concerning which the heavens make to the eager shepherd boy no answer. With regard to the problems which most deeply affect our welfare, nature only baffles us. The Gospel far surpasses all that nature can be made to teach. 2. Not only in its contents, but in the proclamation of them, is the Word magnified. Consider the instrumentalities selected for the utterance of the Gospel. Angels, the Son of God. 3. Consider by what enforcement of his Word God is magnified. In nature there is no provision for effectively reaching the conscience and moving the will. To apply to us the redemption purchased by Christ, the Spirit has come. 4. Observe the stupendous effects produced, by God’ s Word. “ Enlightening the eyes.” “ rejoicing the heart, making wise the simple,” “ converting the soul,” here are effects chiefly wrought by God’ s Word. (Hanford A. Edson, D. D.) The testimony of the works and the Word Nature is the volume in which the Godhead of the Creator is plainly discoverable. Scripture is the volume in which all may read the Divine will concerning men. I. Nature’ s testimony to the existence of God. Nature is here pictured as comprising the “ heavens” and the “ firmament,” together with alternating days and nights--these sublime works witnessing for God. David attempts to teach no lesson in astronomy. He imagines an observant and thoughtful man opening his eyes upward, and affirms that what this man beholds proves the presence and power of God. These heavens are forever telling or revealing the presence, power, majesty, supremacy of the Infinite. What he means to say is, that the realm of nature, beautiful in outline, vast in proportions, grand in order and methods of movement, illustrates glorious qualities of being and of character, and that in this creation the good of man and of all sentient beings has been so manifestly sought and secured that God therein is plainly revealed as ever present in power and in proclamation of Himself. Here, then, is not astronomy, but revelation. A scene in which he affirms that the humblest observer may be convinced of God’ s existence and glory. These things could not have originated in what has been called a “ casual hit of atoms,” they must have had a Creator, and the Creator can be no other than an infinite and eternal God. II. The revelation of God in Scripture. Looking first at the stellar world, and viewing the splendour of a solar day, David confesses his vision of God is incomplete, and so he affirms the Infinite to come nearer to man than in the stars, and making Himself better known in “ the law,” “ the testimony,” “ the statutes,” “ the Commandments,” and in the providences which play around him. The term “ law” may refer to the “ preceptive portions of Scripture” ; “ testimonies” may mean doctrines; “ statutes,” ordinances and forms of worship; “ commandments” are directions to duty; “ fear” indicates anxiety to please God; and “ judgments” are God’ s record or declaration of the results of unforgiven sin. But all these terms may be gathered up as referring to the body of Scripture, revelations which have been made either by voice, or vision, or inspiration in any form. The writer’ s purpose was to indicate the excellent properties and purposes of Scripture, including precept, promise, and perfect rules of life. Calling this revelation the “ statutes of God,” the idea evidently is of something binding on universal man. Calling it “ the fear of the Lord” seems to refer to that filial affection which reigns in a human heart, making man ashamed of sin, and becoming for him a cleansing power. “ Judgments of the Lord” is a comprehensive phrase, summing up the substance and object of Scripture. III. The law, testimony, statutes, commandments, fear, and judgments of the Lord tested. Put them to the test of personal experience. This shall prove whether or no the claim of the Psalmist has warrant in the lives of men. There never was a man who received the law of God into his heart and obeyed it who did not become a “ new man,” enriched thereby beyond all measurement or estimate. (Justin E. Twitchell.) God’ s glory in the skies The immediate outlook upon nature is independent of scientific elaboration. It is unalterable by intellectual mutations and advances; it rests on those permanent relations which hold between the soul of man within and the world without. But the whole stress of the Psalm is laid on that aspect of the natural world which it is the work of science to emphasise and to extricate. What the Psalmist sees is the manifestation of law, of regularity, of reason. There is about it all, as the mighty drama discloses itself, the calmness, the majesty, of rational knowledge. The awful silence in which the tremendous scene proceeds is more eloquent than words. Dumb in the vault, yet filled with voices that toll in our ears, voices that cry without a language, and assure us of that eternal consciousness which possesses the entire round of the heavens, whose rule and line goeth out throughout all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world. Universal law acting in silence, with absolute security of rhythm. The mystic eloquence of law. That is the vision which overawes the Psalmist; and is not that the very essence of our scientific presentation of nature? Law acting in silence, that is nature as science discloses it. Silent as it may be, this perfect law, this undeviating order, this calm precision, this infinite regularity of succession, this steady certainty of movement, this unbroken universality, these disciplined forces, this rhythmic harmony, this balance, this precaution, this response of day to night, and night to night, that is intelligence, that is reason, that is consciousness, that is speech! No one can face it in its wholeness, part answering to part, and each to all, without becoming aware of its mystic eloquence. It all speaks, speaks as it works, speaks without a language, speaks without a sound. The Psalmist has but to lift his eyes, and then above it, allied to it, a corresponding world opens out,--a world, too, of law, of certainty, of regularity, of order, no less than the world of nature. Here, too, all is sane, rational, secure, quiet, and sure, as the silent stars in the night. This higher order of life moves along the course set before it, and its laws never flag or fail; no chance confuses it, and no unruly accident disturbs it. This world is the world of consciousness, the world of the moral law, the world of the religious spirit, the world of the fear of the Lord. Laws, statutes, testimonies, commandments,--no physical world could be based on grounds more fixed and uniform and sure. Everywhere precision, everywhere unalterable rigour--that is what delights him. Error, wrong, sin--these may be on his own side, but this does not shake the absolute authority of this reign of law without him. Only, it makes him tremble, lest even unwittingly he may have introduced any quiver of disturbance into this fabric of exquisite and harmonious order. Who can tell how oft he offendeth? “ Oh, cleanse Thou me from secret faults.” Can we recover at all for ourselves this mental temper of the Psalmist? This world of which he is speaking is what we name spiritual, religious, supernatural, and as soon as we have touched such names as these we recall something wholly unlike nature, wholly opposed to scientific law and the necessities of reason. Yet veracity, regularity, universality, these are the very notes of the Divine action in both spheres, and in both, therefore, there is the same ground for reason to work upon. Nature will enable us to understand the supernatural. Our faith in Christ Jesus lays large and unfaltering trust in the veracity of human faculties, in the solidity of knowledge, in the reality of an instructed and intelligent experience. Base your belief in Jesus on the convictions that form the ground of your confidence in the stability and reality of life. (Canon Scott Holland.) The moral law and the starry heavens “ Two things,” said Kant, “ fill the soul with awe and wonder: the starry heaven above, and the moral law within.” How many of us have felt this amazement without expressing it! Approach man from a material point of view, and he is utterly insignificant; but view him from a spiritual point of view, and how wonderful is he! That strange faculty within him which witnesses to a law above himself, which speaks to him of the right even when he is yielding to the wrong, which enables him to hold communion with infinite perfection, which gives meaning to such words as “ trust,” “ duty,” “ obedience,” “ religion,” that faculty which perpetuates in him the image of his Maker; whence did it come? “ Yes,” said Pascal, “ man is a worm, but then he is a worm that thinks.” This is exactly the mystery which filled a mind so powerful as that of Kant. To see no mystery in man and his spiritual nature is a sure mark of a shallow and second-rate mind. What is the thought which the contemplation of the heavenly bodies presents to us most prominently? Is it not order or “ law” ? But how about the spiritual world? Are there laws for mind as well as for body? Is there not an order in moral things which cannot be violated with impunity? The Kingdom of Heaven is a reign of law too. One order alike for the material and the moral. The law of the material world we reach through observation and generalisation; the law of the soul through God’ s revelations of Himself to man’ s spiritual nature, but both are alike of God, and not two laws but one. How pure, elevating, and ennobling was the writer’ s conception of true religion. (J. A. Jacob, M. A.) God’ s works and Word Every varying mood of nature is an index finger to the power and glory of the Creator. His works lie open beside His Word,--the one a volume of illustrations, the other a book of inspired principles. In the 19th Psalm these double volumes of revelation are bound together. There is both a world book and a word book in the Psalmist’ s thought. Both are bearing eternal witness to the Creator. I. The witness of the heavens. In the clear dry air of the East the heavens shine with a strange brilliancy. To the reverent soul of David, the stars in their courses and the moon in her phases were nightly lessons of wonder and of God. To the Psalmist’ s eye the whole firmament was written over, and the whole universe was resonant to his ear with the name of God. And to the eyes of this devout shepherd, this witness of creation to its Creator was continuous. And yet this witness of the heavens is silent. It is their silence which puts such terrible emphasis upon the testimony of the heavens; for silence is the great law of the universe. This witness is also universal in its reach and influence. The stars preach a gospel of Divine law and power, before which worshippers of all races and generations have kneeled in reverence and awe. But man, made in the likeness of God, is not measured by physical, but by moral standards. The moral law written upon conscience and soul has brought man into fellowship with the Infinite, and there follows that sharp transition in thought which cuts this Psalm like the keen stroke of a knife when David remembers the glory of God’ s law. Grander than that of the heavens is-- II. The witness of the moral law. In this sudden rebound from the glory of the sun to the greater glory of the truth the Psalmist seems to chide himself for having forgotten the greater in the less. For what the sun is in the natural world, bringing light and inspiring growth, the law of God is in the spiritual, revealing moral darkness and quickening the life of souls. Climbing up adjectives of admiring descriptions, David unfolds the nature of the Word of Jehovah. It is “ perfect,” with a completeness which fits all needs and encompasses all souls. It is “ sure,” --an eternal verity to which men may anchor and never drift. It is “ right,” with an absolute rectitude and justice. This Divine law not only reveals the glory of Jehovah, but also-- III. It reveals the heart of man. Without the revelation of the mirror man is a stranger to his own face; without the revelation of God’ s law we were strangers to the guilt of sin. For the law lays a man bare to himself. Gather up the lesson of the Psalm--1. That there is no conflict between God’ s works and God’ s Word. There may be conflict between the flippant guesses of men and the “ Thus saith the Lord” in the Book. But the world book and the word book are one and the same truth. 2. The Psalm reveals the vastness and variety of the witnesses which God has put about us. The heathen of all lands have deified the forces of nature and the planets of the sky, and worshipped. Such witness is ours, but supplemented by the written Word, the enlightened conscience, the civilised state, and the Christian Church. (Monday Club Sermons.) The revelation in nature Modern poets are never tired of dwelling on the beauties of nature. The Hebrew poet perceived these just as keenly, but he never set them forth for their own sake. He considered them only as they bear on our moral and spiritual relations with God, or as they illustrate the being and glory of the Most High. So it is here, The first line sets forth the continuous action of the transparent vault which arches over the earth. Its order and beauty and splendour are not the work of chance or the product of blind unconscious forces, but bear willing witness to the perfections of the one Supreme Creator. He made them, and they are forever telling the story of His unsearchable riches. There is no pause, no interruption in the testimony. Day after day, night after night, the unbroken succession goes on. It is poured out as from a copious, gushing fountain. The sentiment is as true as it is poetical. In every age and land the starry heavens have proclaimed to the thoughtful observer: “ It is He that hath made us.” The fact that this is done without the use of articulate language, so far from weakening the testimony makes it stronger. A modern critic coolly expunges this couplet on the ground that it is prosaic and that it directly contradicts the preceding verse, whereas it is a fine statement of the fact that words are not literally used; and there is no more contradiction in it than in the common proverb, “ Actions speak louder than words.” The heavens “ have a voice, but it is one that speaks not to the ear but to the devout and understanding heart,” as Addison has well expressed it in the well-known stanzas, according to which the radiant orbs, though they move in solemn silence, still in reason’ s ear rejoice. In the next couplet the poet proceeds further. Not only is the testimony of the heavens distinct and clear and unbroken, but it is also universal. Their “ line” means their measuring line, for this is the established meaning of the word, and there is neither need nor justification for changing the text. The province of these witnesses for God is co-extensive with the earth. Everywhere the heavens compass the globe, and “ everywhere they preach the same Divine sermon.” In the Epistle to the Romans (Romans 10:18) the Apostle employs these words to express the wide diffusion of the Gospel among the Gentiles, and its freedom from all national or ecclesiastical restrictions. As Hengstenberg well says, “ The universal revelation of God in nature was a providential prediction of the universal proclamation of the Gospel.” The Apostle says their “ sound” instead of their “ line,” because he followed the Septuagint version. The sense is, of course, the same. In Paul’ s day the Gospel occupied the central position in the Roman world: it is for Christians now to make it actually as universal as the witness of the heavens. To carry still further forward the figure, the sun is introduced because his apparent course indicates clearly the width of the domain covered by the testimony of the heavens. In them is his position. All talk of sun gods in this connection is simple folly. David is not reciting mythology, but writing poetry. In this view he compares the bright reappearance of the morning sun to that of a bridegroom coming forth from the nuptial apartment, and his steady ongoing through the skies to the rapid course of a hero on his joyful way to the goal of victory. Nothing can be more striking than these figures. The king of day starts from one end of heaven and never pauses till he reaches the other, and his presence is one that can be felt as well as seen, for nothing can hide itself from his heat. Here comes a quick transition from God’ s revelation of Himself in nature to the similar revelation in the written Word. Its abruptness is quite excusable in view of the analogy, the law being in the spiritual world what the sun is in the natural. (Talbot W. Chambers, D. D.) God’ s works and Word The Bible recognises no conflict between science and religion. It asserts a unity of origin for the Word and the world. Faith takes God’ s word; science takes man’ s. But “ Science walks with humble feet To seek the God that faith has found.” I. That the Bible nowhere contradicts established science. This is an amazing statement, for the Bible was written by unlearned men. Every truth of today has been opposed by men, not by Scripture. No doubt the Bible often speaks of things as they appear to the eye, as sunrise and sunset. But these are not contradictions to science. II. The Bible always has been, and is yet, far in advance of the discoveries of science. Ere science discovered the order of progress in the developed world, or that the strata of the earth were formed by the action of water, and that the mountains were once under the sea; or that the earth was a sphere; or that the earth was upheld by no visible support; or that the stars were innumerable; or that light makes music as it flies; or that the sun had an orbit of its own--the Bible had said all these things. The Word is as full of undiscovered wisdom as the world. III. Very few scientific men recognise any antagonism between the revelation by word and that by works. The American Association for the Advancement of Science embraces the great names in this country. At its last meeting it was found that seven-eighths of these were professing Christians. The greatest of them see God in nature today. IV. Nature is a universal revelation of God, but of the lowest kind. The heavens so declare the glory of God that even a heathen savage is without excuse if he do not discern God. The law of the Lord is the next higher revelation. See what is here said of it. But the highest revelation is Christ. He brings life and love to light; reveals a greater power in spiritual realms than gravitation is in material realms. But all revelations are one and of one God. (Bishop R. W. Warren.) The revelation of the prophecy of the heavens I. The heaven’ s a revelation of God. They show God’ s character, as all works show character. The fault has been in men if they have not apprehended the declaration of the heavens. Paul said it could be “ clearly seen.” This revelation is--1. Ceaseless. 2. Wordless. The Hebrew rightly rendered reads--“ No speech nor language; their voice is not heard.” That is, they utter no articulate words. 3. Universal. “ Their line” --the measuring line used for the determining the boundaries of estates--takes in the whole earth; throughout this vast territory the signs which proclaim God are found. II. This revelation a prophecy of that of the Gospel. For it also is universal. Hence Paul quotes this Psalm. But how came Paul to see this meaning in David’ s words? Because the heavens are Christ’ s handiwork. “ Without Him was nothing made that was made.” And they manifest and declare Him. It is plain, therefore, that if He thus send His heavens to proclaim Him through all lands, and to sing His praise, much more will He desire that the Gospel of His grace by which far more glory will be His should be known far and wide, to the ends of the earth, that none may be hid from its saving light and heat. What a teacher, then, we have in the heavens. They sing to us of God, and of God in Christ. They declare the glory of Him whom not having seen we love. (Samuel Cox, D. D.) God’ s two great preachers I. Nature as a preacher. It continues its eloquent discourse from age to age, and its aim in all is to draw the mind of man from the visible to the invisible, from the material to the spiritual, from itself to universal being. II. The Bible as a preacher. This preacher is called by different names, “ law,” “ testimony,” “ statutes,” “ commandments,” “ fear of the Lord,” “ judgments of the Lord.”1. The character of this preacher. Perfect, established, righteous, holy, thoroughly sound, precious. 2. The work of this preacher. (1) A soul-restoring work.(2) A mind-enlightening work.(3) A heart-gladdening work.(4) A life-regulating work.(5) A sin-convincing work.(6) A prayer exciting work. The Psalmist prays against sin, and he prays for holiness. The text implies three facts concerning human words and thoughts--1. That God takes cognisance of them. 2. That God is pleased with right words and thoughts. 3. That God aids man in the promotion of right words and thoughts. (Homilist.) Nature a preacher Five subjects for thought. I. The subject of the discourse. “ The glory of God.” Nature proclaims God’ s existence, government, and attributes.1. The fact of nature reveals the being of God.2. The vastness of nature, the immensity of God.3. The uniformity of nature, the unity of God.4. The regularity of nature, the unchangeableness of God.5. The arrangements of nature, the wisdom of God.6. The happiness of nature, the goodness of God.7. The purity of nature, the holiness of God.8. The beauty of nature, the tastefulness of God.9. The variety of nature, the exhaustlessness of God. II. The incessantness of its delivery. Nature as a preacher never tires, never pauses. Whilst generations come and go, this great preacher continues his sublime discourse without a break or pause. III. The intelligibleness of its language. Its language is that of symbol; the easiest language for man to understand. A language of signs, addressed to eye and heart. So intelligible is the language that there is no excuse for ignorance of God. IV. The vastness of its audience. Their “ line” --that is, their instruction. All men live under those heavens, all of which are vocal with discourse of God. V. The immensity of its resources.1. The greatest light dwells in the heart of this preacher. 2. The greatest light circulates through the whole being of this preacher. From the subject learn-- (1) Man’ s capacity to study and to worship God. (2) Man’ s obligation to study and to worship God. Study nature scientifically and religiously. (Homilist.) Nature in Scripture The scientific contemplation of nature is wholly absent from Scripture, and the picturesque is very rare. This Psalmist knew nothing about solar spectra, or stellar distances, but he heard a voice from out of the else waste heavens which sounded to him as if it named God. Comte ventured to say that the heavens declare the glory of the astronomer, not of God; but if there be an order in them, which it is a man’ s glory to discover, must there not be a mind behind the order, and must not the Maker have more glory than the investigator? The Psalmist is protesting against stellar worship, which some of his neighbours practised. The sun was a creature, not a god; his “ race” was marked out by the same hand which in depths beyond the visible heavens had pitched a “ tent” for his nightly rest. We smile at the simple astronomy; the religious depth is as deep as ever. Dull ears do not hear these voices; but whether they are stopped with the clay of earthly tastes and occupations, or stuffed with scientific wadding of the most modern kind, the ears that do not hear God’ s name sounded from the abysses above have failed to hear the only word which can make man feel at home in nature. Carlyle said that the sky was a “ sad sight.” The sadness and awfulness are taken away when we hear the heavens telling the glory of God. The unscientific Psalmist who did hear them was nearer the very heart of the mystery than the scientist who knows everything else about them but that. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) God revealed in nature Is the picture to be accepted as a revelation of the artist’ s genius? Is the poem to be regarded as a test of the poet’ s mental power? Then carry this rule with you in all your contemplations of the universe--as you walk beneath the dome of heaven, as you tremble in the shadows of the everlasting hills, as you rise into rapture while gazing on the swelling grandeur of the great deep and feel yourself wrapt in the presence of God. The universe is the thought of God made visible. (R. Venting.) God seen in nature The immortal Newton exclaimed, “ Glory to God, who has permitted me to catch a glimpse of the skirts of His garments. My calculations have encountered the march of the stars.” So sang Copernicus, Volta, Galileo, and Kepler. How truly did Young write, “ the undevout astronomer is mad.” The firmament sheweth His handiwork.--The comet and its teachings Not often during the lifetime of a generation does a comet present itself. Give thought to the bright vision which no doubt engages the attention of other worlds beside our own, and on which the gaze of the unfallen inhabitants of celestial spheres may be fixed in reverent admiration.1. Notice its beauty. In the exhaustless provision which God has made for our love of the beautiful we recognise an assurance that He regards with yet tenderer care our far deeper longings, the moral wants of our souls. 2, As we gain from science a knowledge of the movements of the comet we are impressed with the supremacy of law. No portion of the universe is more completely under the control of law than these comets, which were once supposed to be so erratic. Whatever is within the attraction of the sun moves upon one of three curves. As soon as a sufficient portion of the course of any body is known its whole curve can be ascertained. It is to the universal supremacy of law that all the achievements of science have been due. The supremacy of physical is a guarantee for the authority and permanence of moral law. The same Being who has established the one has pledged His veracity to the maintenance of the other. 3. Further knowledge of this comet impresses us with the magnitude of the universe. How numberless are the bodies inhabiting the measureless expanse. Of these worlds, is it likely that ours alone is inhabited? 4. Viewed in the light of these considerations, how insignificant does the world appear! And how insignificant is man! It is his soul alone that gives him dignity in the scale of being. 5. What a conception does a just view of the universe give us of the greatness and dignity of God! Who can escape His eye? Who can defy His power? 6. How great is the Divine condescension, especially as manifested in the atonement! (H. L. Wayland.) Psalms 19:2 Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge. Instruction to be derived from the revolution of day and night I. The almighty power of the Creator and Preserver of the universe. The very act of creation, or the producing of any being out of nothing, gives us the most enlarged idea of Omnipotence. The Almighty not only at first created, but continually upholds, the work of His hands. His mighty energy is continually displayed in the preservation of all the creatures He hath made. II. The goodness of God. Attend particularly to man, the noblest work of God. Every faculty of our nature and every circumstance of our condition afford abundant evidence of the goodness of God. Through the faculty of reason we are blessed with moral perception: we know what is right and what is wrong. The exercise of our mental powers is accompanied with pleasure. In the scheme of redeeming grace unfolded in the Gospel we have the most illustrious display of the Divine benignity which men or angels have ever witnessed. And if we consider ourselves as creatures in a state of trial we find ourselves furnished with all the direction, assistance, and encouragement that such a state requires. III. The wisdom of God. Wisdom, whenever it is employed, must have happiness for its object; and when that is promoted by fit means, wisdom shows itself to the utmost advantage. Every object that contributes to our happiness is admirably contrived for that end; and every evidence of Divine goodness brings with it a concomitant proof of Divine wisdom, The body and the mind want the rest of night, and partake of this refreshment, The faculties of the soul cannot long bear intense application. Attend now to the religious and moral instructions which this subject suggests.1. Let every revolution of day and night raise our thoughts to God. Let us attend to the daily revolution, not with the coldness of a philosophic inquirer, but with the ardent piety of devout worshippers of the God of nature and grace. But it is in the scheme of redemption, unfolded in the Gospel, that we behold the Divine perfections shining with the most resplendent lustre. The light of the sun of righteousness throws new beauty upon the creation of God. 2. Consider the experience we have had of the power, goodness, wisdom, and mercy of God in the by-past of our life. It were endless to enumerate the instances of the Divine goodness and mercy in which we have shared. 3. Every revolving year, every revolving day, tells us that the period of our probation is hastening to an end. Then watch against a worldly temper and disposition of mind. Watch against building our hopes on general truths and promises, without any evidence of our interest in them. (James Ross, D. D.) Silent sounds It sounds rather curious, does it not, to hear about one day speaking to another? Though you have listened ever so hard, yet you have not been able to hear a day speaking. That is true; and David, who wrote this Psalm, knew that also, for he says in the very next verse, “ No speech, no language, their voice is not heard” --and yet, “ day unto day uttereth speech” ! How can theft be? Because there are more ways of speaking than one. There is the way the deaf and dumb speak--on their fingers. Their voice is not heard, yet they speak. Then a book speaks. The moment it is open, and you see the words, you understand what they mean--they speak to you. There is a tribe of savage people tar away, and what do you think is the name they give to a book? They call it “ the whisperer.” But it does not whisper; it has no voice nor sound, and yet it speaks. Now, how do you come to understand what people say--when they speak on their fingers? or how do you ever come to know what a book says? Isn’ t it by first learning how to understand? And you carry the way to understand inside yourself. So is it that we understand thousands of things round about us, and that tells us of God, The way, then, to understand what the days speak is to get much of God’ s spirit into our hearts. The days say-- I. There’ s nothing new! Today is just like yesterday. Yesterday came up beautiful, became brighter, had clouds and sunshine, and then faded away. So it will be with today. Yesterday carried away on its white wings the spirits of thousands of men and women, and wee, wee children too; and the night came, and covered their bodies, and they were seen no more. So it will be today. There’ s nothing new. But as you listen again you hear the days say-- II. Everything is new! There is nothing new about the day, but everything is new about you. The temptations you will have today won’ t be the same that you had yesterday; the night has come like a black wall between you and yesterday, and today you get a fair start again; and today you may do better than yesterday, or today you may do worse, but you can’ t blame yesterday. It is gone; this is a new day, but, take care! you will be tempted today in another way. So, you can t afford to forget Jesus: a new day means a new way, and only Jesus can guide you rightly upon it. But this also the days say-- III. Time tells of eternity! As the days pass away, we pass away with them--passing away, out into eternity. When you are in a train or a tramcar you notice that all the people do not go to the journey’ s end. Some go only a little way, others go farther, new ones come in; perhaps you yourself get out before the whole journey is done. Anyway, they are very few who go all the way. It is just the same with our lives. Some only go a short distance through the days--God calls them away when they are young. Some go a little farther, others a little farther still; but they are very few indeed who come to be very old. Shouldn’ t every day, then, make us think of what is to be the end of all? (J. Reid Howett.) Night unto night sheweth knowledge. The teaching of the night God divided the sovereignty of time between day and night. I. Night teaches the individuality of our being. For more than the day, it shows us what it is to be alone with ourselves and God. It drives all the faculties and sensibilities of the soul inward upon itself. The hours of darkness are fearful to those who are afraid to be with themselves and God. Jesus used to retire to desert places, that He might, during the night time be alone with the Father. I have myself spent the hours of night alone upon high mountains. A solemn experience. II. The retirement of the soul, in which God’ s presence is most felt, need not take us away from the crowded paths of life. Where we see most of man, there we can see most of God. A spiritually minded man once said that he felt God’ s presence with him in walking the crowded and noisy streets of New York as really as he did in the sanctuary or in the solemn hour of devotion. III. The night of the natural world is the symbol of the deeper night of sorrow and disappointment that settles down upon the soul. God surrounds us with both, that we may feel for His hand in the darkness, and find ourselves safe with His protection. We learn from the night of affliction and trouble many lessons which we could never master in the light of broad day. In the awful night hour of death we need not find ourselves alone. He has been all the way through the valley of the shadow of death, and He will not leave us to grope in vain for His hand. (D. Marsh, D. D.) Psalms 19:3 No speech nor language; their voice cannot be heard. Silent voices The Psalmist, like a true poet, had a keen eye and ear. He saw in the firmament the glory of God, and he heard, around him and beneath, a chorus of praise to the Most High. Two interpretations have been put upon this verse. The first, that there is no country or clime, “ no speech or language,” where the voice of the firmament, etc., is not heard, seeing their “ line” or instruction “ is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world.” The other is, that there is no audible voice, no sound that falls upon the ear. Addison writes, “ What though in solemn silence,” etc. I. Silent voices have often a most powerful influence.1. They may move a man more than uttered words. The voices of nature, the music of the spheres, as it is called, is silence. Lectures have their place, but audible voices are not so soul-stirring as voices inaudible. 2. The spring, and every season of the year, brings many lessons, and yet “ there is no speech or language, its voice is not heard.” No man ever heard, with his bodily ear, the language of either day or night, yet every day speaks of God’ s infinite resources--of His goodness, of His power and glory--more articulate than any man could speak. 3. Solitude speaks to the soul. The mountain top, the dense forest, the restless sea; but their “ voice is not heard.” The expression of human feeling is often more powerful when inarticulate. II. In order to apprehend silent voices we must ourselves be silent. Put away distracting thoughts, and humbly listen only to God as He speaks to the soul and conscience. Men cannot even hear music unless they are still, silent, and undistracted. With the soul men hear God, and not with the physical ear, unless they are still and undistracted. It is very desirable that men should commune with God in their work, and be still before Him with their souls, and not with their intellects only. The active intellect is more often used against God than for Him. But God cannot be reached by intellectual processes any more than love, or than the beauties of a landscape can be explained by argument, or than music can be brought home to the soul by logical syllogism. (James S. Swan.) The silent testimony Language is always a difficulty, a snare, a temptation, an inconvenient convenience. It brings us into all our troubles; it is when we speak that we create heterodoxies; could we but be silently dumbly good--could we look our prayers, and cause our face to shine with our benevolence, and our hand do a quiet work of beneficence, how happy would the world be! Words do not mean the same thing to any two men; they may be accepted for momentary uses and for commercial purposes, but when it becomes a matter of life and death, time and eternity, truth and error, words are base counterfeits, that should be nailed to the counter of creation, as things by which a false commerce has been kept up amongst earnest and ardent men. Blessed be God for the silent testimony, for the radiant character, for the eloquent service. All history is silent; it is only the immediate day that chatters and talks and fusses about its little affairs. Yet the dead centuries are eloquent: the characters are all gone; the warriors are dead and buried, the orators have culminated their eloquence in the silence of death, the great solemn past is like a banquet hall deserted, but it is eloquent, instructive, silently monitorial. Silent history--great, sad, melancholy, impartial history--the spirit of the past should govern the unrest and the tumult of the present. (Joseph Parker, D. D.) Psalms 19:4 Their line is gone out through all the earth. The Christian brotherhood the support of Christian missions All tradition has interpreted this Psalm of the goings forth of the Spirit in the everlasting Gospel. Nor could a nobler image of the diffusion, the all-pervading and all-penetrating progress of the Gospel of peace be conceived than what the visible heavens present. In antiquity there was no more favourite emblem of the all-pervading presence of Christ than the sun, which, set in heaven, is yet, in its infinite and ceaseless communications of life, present on earth also. Nor does any emblem more frequently occur in Holy Scripture of the bright and peaceful outgoings of the teachers of the faith than the stars; nor any of the streaming in of Divine grace upon the souls of men, in their onward course, than that of light. The Psalmist expresses the view of the Catholic Church, not as man has marred it, but as existing in the eternal mind. And, indeed, the first promise of its fulfilment seemed to foreshow such an end. Who would not have expected from the Acts of the Apostles a very different conclusion from what we now see? Even after the apostolic age there seemed no check in the wondrous progress of the unearthly faith. If the united voice of the Church Catholic, with one undeviating witness for her Lord, had sounded out unceasingly during the fifteen centuries that have since passed, would not the full scope of the prophetic vision have been fulfilled? But a change soon came over the Church’ s course. What is our prospect now? To us--the English portion of the Catholic communion--a wider field has been opened and ampler powers given for our extension, than ever since the days when the Apostles dispersed themselves from Jerusalem, have fallen to the lot of any single people We are comparatively powerless when we work alone. We are bound together on the principle that mutual intercessions are the strength of the Church’ s work. But all efforts fail unless Christ be within us as our life and power. How can we move onward unless He go forth with us? (T. T. Carter, M. A.) The being of God proved from universal consent David does in this place affirm the universality of religion. He supposes the heavens to speak, an universal language, heard, and understood, by all. Hence we argue the existence of God. The argument is, according to Lactantius, that universal and unanimous testimony of people and nations, through all courses of time, who, otherwise differing in language, customs, and conceits, only have agreed in this one matter of opinion. Opinion of Aristotle as to degrees of probability: that which arises from this source approaches near to demonstrable truth, Testimonies of ancient philosophers to this agreement, as well as to its force and efficacy. That men should thus conspire in opinion must needs arise either--1. From a natural light implanted in man’ s nature; or,2. From a common inclination in his soul; or,3. From some prevalent reason, obvious to all men; or,4. From some common fountain of instruction or primitive tradition. And from any one of these ways being allowed our argument will gain weight and force. If we acknowledge either of the two first we do in effect yield the question: if nature forcibly drives men into this persuasion, how extravagant will it be to oppose her! And if we grant that plain reason, apparent to the generality of men, hath moved them to this consent, do we not, by dissenting from it, renounce common sense? But if we say that it arose in the last manner, from a common instruction or primitive tradition, we shall be thereby driven to inquire who that common master or author of the tradition was: of any such we have no name recorded; we find no time designated when it began to arise. Who, then, were the teachers, but the first parents of mankind? Thus does this consideration lead to another very advantageous to our purpose: first, as proving the generations of men had a beginning; secondly, as affording us their most weighty authority for the doctrine we assert. For--1. Supposing mankind had a beginning on this earth, whence could it proceed but from such a Being as we describe? 2. Supposing this notion derived from the first men, who instilled it into them? Why should they conceive themselves to come from God if He that made them did not discover Himself to them? Thus do these two notions, that of general tradition concerning God, and that concerning man’ s origin on earth from one stock, mutually support each other. As to His eternity: if God made all things, He could not receive being from another; and what reason is there to suppose that He should? But as nothing can receive a being from itself, or from mere nothing spring up into being, therefore the Maker of the world must be eternal. Something of necessity must be eternal, otherwise nothing could have been at all; other things show themselves to have proceeded from the wisdom, power, and goodness of One: whence that One is eternal; and so all nations have consented that God is. That He is immortal and immutable doth also follow plainly: for He, not depending for His being, or anything thereto belonging, or any other thing, neither can He depend for His continuance or conservation; having power superior to all things, as having conferred on them whatever of power they have, nothing can oppose Him, or make any prevalent impression on Him, so as to destroy or alter anything in Him. Also, from His making, His upholding, His governing all things, is consequent, that He was ever and is everywhere: where His power is, there His hand is; for every action with effect requires a conjunction of the agent and patient; nothing can act on what is distant. That with His presence and power He doth penetrate all things, operating insensibly and imperceptibly, doth argue the spirituality of His being; and that He doth consist of such matter (so extended, so divisible) as those things do, which we by sense perceive. His overreaching wisdom implies Him incapable of being deceived; and His overbearing power signifies that He doth not need to deceive; and His transcendent goodness proves Him unwilling to deceive: the like we may say of doing wrong; whence are consequent His perfect veracity and justice. Lastly, the excellency of His nature, the eminency of His wisdom and power, the abundance of His goodness; as also, His having given being, then preserving it to all things, do infer His rightful title to supreme dominion; and accordingly, that all love, all obedience, all praise and veneration are due to Him; according to the devout acknowledgment of those blessed elders: “ Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive the glory and honour and power (or authority), because Thou hast made all things; and for Thy will they are and were created.” (I. Barrow, D. D.) In them hath He set a tabernacle for the stem.--The gifts of nature There was once a time, in the history of the world, when it was the strongest possible temptation to mankind to worship the great objects of nature, but especially those in heaven, and of these especially the sun. In those countries more particularly where the sun is so bright, so powerful, so omnipresent throughout the year the temptation was stronger than anywhere else. Wherever in the Old Testament we hear of the worship of Baal, it is the worship of the sun; and of all the temples so dedicated, this is the most splendid, and the ancient city was called from this worship “ Baalbec,” or “ the City of the Sun.” We know from the Bible, we know also from the history of this very temple, that this worship was corrupted into the most shameful sensuality; so that, to the Israelites first, and to Christians afterwards, it became a duty to put it down altogether. And this corruption is in itself instructive, as teaching us that the highest love of art and the keenest appreciation of what is beautiful, if left to itself without some purer and higher principles, may and will degenerate into mere brutal self-indulgence and cruelty. But it is always better, if we can, to see what was the good element which lies at the bottom of any character or institution--what there was in the thoughts that raised these solid foundations and these towering columns, which we may also imitate for ourselves. Without falling into those dark errors and sins with which they were once connected. Therefore we could have chosen no more fitting text than the one read to you. Its words tell you of the genial life-giving power of the great light of day, of the glory of his rising, of the strength of his rays, of the regularity of his course, of the penetrating power of his heat, and they spring from a feeling common to the Hebrew Psalmist and to those who raised this heathen temple. What, then, are the good points in that ancient belief which the true religion has adopted for its own and sifted from the surrounding evil? This temple itself is connected with the history and traditions both of the wisest and greatest thoughts of ancient times, and with the basest and most foolish. Its earliest foundations are said to go back to the days of Solomon, the wisest of men. In its latest times it had for its High Priest the most infamous and effeminate of all the Roman emperors--the miserable Heliogabalus. Between the two there was at first sight but little in common. Little, indeed, there is; but it is that little which is so useful to consider. I. The sense of deep thankfulness for the gifts of nature. Those who lived in old time expressed, as we see, their gratitude and reverence for the gifts of nature by this magnificent temple. Let us express our gratitude and reverence in the offering of pure hearts and good lives to Him who has thus graciously guided us so nearly to the close of our pilgrimage. II. And this brings me to the second truth which the contemplation of the natural world--of the sun in his strength--suggested to the Psalmist: the order, the regularity, the law of their operations. And this law immediately recalled his mind to the highest example of all law--the unchangeable moral law of God. He tells us how the law of God (the revealed law of goodness, the natural law of conscience) is not only what we are bound to follow as our duty, but is the surest source both of our wisdom and our happiness. See how he expatiates on this theme in the remainder of the Psalm. (Dean Stanley.) The sun of righteousness There is no doubt that this verse describes the nativity of our Lord. The sun, that we see in the eastern heavens, is made to us an image of our incarnate Lord and Saviour, issuing from the Virgin’ s womb to be the light and life of the Church. It is not a new or strange thing for Holy Scripture to give such a turn as this to the works of nature, the things which we see daily. Compare the figure in Malachi. “ Unto you that fear My name shall the Sun of Righteousness arise, with healing in His wings.” And the figure used by Zacharias, “ The Day spring from on high hath visited us.”1. Everyone may understand that as the sun is beyond comparison the brightest object in these outward and visible heavens, so the great privilege of the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom and Church of God’ s saints, is to have the Sun of Righteousness, God-made man, especially present, abiding and reigning in it. The same is true of every soul which is inwardly and spiritually conformed to God’ s holy Church. It is lull of Christ, of Jesus Christ Himself, silently and mysteriously coming in and dwelling there. 2. As Christ is a sun to his Church by His glorious abiding in it, so the manner in which He came to be so is likened to “ a bridegroom coming out of his chamber,” a figure for Christ’ s marrying the nature of God to the nature of man, by taking on Him our flesh. Our Saviour, God made man for us, born for us, crucified and risen again, fills the whole Church and the whole world. Christ is whole in His whole Church, and in every part and member of it, as the sun in the firmament shines impartially on the whole world beneath him, and in his circuit visits each part in turn with his warming and life-giving beams. But Christ’ s faithful people are more particularly made aware of His presence by the outward means of grace and the visible ordinances of His holy Catholic Church. (Plain Sermons by Contributors to “Tracts for the Times. ”) The tabernacle of the sun It was not till the fourth day that God gathered the light together into the sun, and set the sun in heaven to give light upon the earth, and to rule the day. Like to this was the course which the same wisdom of God took in manifesting the light of truth, without which there can be no spiritual life or peace or joy. Such is the waywardness of man, that he can turn God’ s choicest blessings into curses. The darkness was fighting against the light, his sin went well-nigh to choking it. But, in the fulness of time, God gathered the light together, as with the natural sun at the creation, and in His Son, to the end that all might see and know from whence and from whom the true spiritual light came If there was music in heaven when the Eternal Son left His throne, and departed to clothe himself in the weakness of humanity, what joy there must have been when He returned as conqueror. It was in the heavens that God set a tabernacle for the sun; and so in the heaven of heavens He set a tabernacle for His only-begotten Son. The Gospel, which till His ascension had been like a young half-fledged bird, which never ventured but a few paces from its nest, now suddenly put forth its wings, and flew to and fro over the earth, and ever and anon returned to its ark with an olive leaf in its mouth, telling that the waters of sin were abating. And as the sun gives not only light but heat, so does Christ soften, melt, and warm the heart by His grace There are eclipses of the sun; the shadow of the moon comes between the earth and the sun, and cuts off its light. This is like the reason of man. It was intended to give us light, but, like the moon, it can only give light as it reflects light from the sun, Christ. There are many things by which the light of Christ may be eclipsed from us. If we pray to Him diligently and heartily be assured He will not leave us in darkness. (J. C. Hare.) Psalms 19:6 There is nothing hid from the heat thereof.The moral uses of the weather 1. The contrasts and the changes of the season’ s. What a picture of the vicissitudes of human life is in them! The experience of thousands has ranged from the extreme severity of winter’ s poverty to the scorching blaze of midsummer prosperity. The man of wealth yesterday has become the beggar of today. Such contrasts and changes seem to have been far more numerous of late years than formerly. 2. Doubtless the extremes of heat and cold have their part to play in the beneficent economy of nature; yet no one doubts the physical evils that arise from them. To some, no doubt, the cold of winter seems invigorating and bracing, but to multitudes severity means death. So, too, there may be those to whom poverty and trial are stimulants to patient endurance, and develop some of the nobler qualities of the soul. We question, however, whether those are not the exceptions rather than the rule. Many of those around us are what they are largely because of their surroundings. When a man loses the stimulus of hope it is not very likely that his life will blossom into much moral beauty. We often hear it said, that prosperity is more dangerous to a man’ s virtues than adversity; but we question whether there is not far more moral evil traceable to human poverty than many well-to-do philosophers are apt to imagine. 3. The poets have been influenced by something more than fancy when they have associated the ideas of cold and death, heat and life. Cold is only a relative term. Heat is essential to life. 4. The sun is the chief source whence heat is derived. The resistless energies of this omnipotent and all-pervading agent are in constant operation. There is not an instant or time that heat is not performing some important duty in fulfilment of the Divine purposes. 5. How dependent we are upon the weather for a bountiful harvest! Every summer brings us within a measurable distance of absolute want. The harvest, at best, does but provide for the wants of the year. It is seemly, then, that we should pray to the Lord of the harvest, that our “ garners may be full.” Practical lessons-- (1) Earthly prosperity may be a legitimate object of desire. There is a cheap affectation of virtue which pretends to despise wealth. (2) Do not overlook the connection between circumstance and condition. (3) Recognise the lesson that spiritual, not less than physical, life, is dependent upon heat. It is so in the individual soul; it is so in the Church. Some men lament their own spiritual deadness, yet never take any steps to increase their store of vital heat. Death is the absence of life; cold is the absence of heat. Nothing can quicken the life of the soul, or produce in us the beauty of holiness, but the direct influence of the Sun of Righteousness. Only as we can get more perfectly into the presence of God, and have our cold natures warmed and our languid pulses quickened by His life, shall we have that for which we yearn. (F. Wagstaff.) Psalms 19:7 The law of the Lord is perfect. The best book I would not have you forget the true and proper mission of the Bible,--to reveal saving truth. But it is well to remember that, even as a classic, no book equals the Word of God. The Bible has exercised a remarkable influence in the department of literature. “ The English tongue would lose its grandest monument if the works which the Bible has inspired were blotted from it.” Religious books, of course, get everything from the Bible; but writers with no distinctly religious object are enormously beholden to its inspiration. There is not a notable book--a book of transcendent genius or power--which has not culled from the Word of God either thought or illustration or telling phrase. We need not, even in an age of advanced education and culture, be ashamed of the Bible. Its study will confer as much credit on our intellect as on our piety. We are not such Bible readers as were our fathers. This is one evil of the multiplication of books. In this generation we are better educated, we know more than our fathers. But have we the same robust and vigorous intellects? It seems to me that there is a deterioration in this respect along with our neglect of Bible study. There are three things which should make the Bible popular among young people--1. Its fervid style. There is not a dull passage, if we except a few chronologies and such like, from Genesis to Revelation. 2. Its exuberance of illustration. It is a book of pictures. 3. Its practical wisdom. If you live seventy years you will not have gathered all the practical wisdom you may learn now from studying the Bible. Do not forget that you may find in the Bible eternal life. (A. F. Forrest.) The Bible a book for all nations Of what is not the Bible the foundation and the inspiration? To what interest of human life does it not give its great benediction? The system of doctrine and duty which the Bible contains is a fixed final system, not a progressive one, and one introductory to a higher, and the Bible will never become obsolete, and will never be supplemented by any other revelation. This proposition has been most flatly contradicted. It is argued that the Bible has accomplished a very good purpose in the world, but it cannot long satisfy the world’ s need, because it does not keep pace with the world’ s progress. By and by we shall need a broader basis on which to construct the religion of the future. A time, it is said, must come when the theological will be too narrow in its range for the demands of the race, and too dogmatic in its tone for the more liberal, general, comprehensive religion of the future. We are invited to mark the universality of this beautiful law of progressive development in nature, in literature, in the fine and in the useful arts, in human laws and institutions. But those who reason thus overlook the distinction between the apparent and the real progress of man. The true progress of man is the progress of mail’ s self, apart from all organisation. Those who eulogise modern progress confine their attention to what man does to promote his convenience and comfort. How absurd it is to mark the progress of a man by that which a man manipulates and moulds and makes subservient to his use! The Bible is the book for the soul, and God put into it exactly those truths that He knew were calculated to regenerate the soul. Unless the soul needs to be made over, and given new facilities, you do not want a new Bible, or any annex to the old one. There is another great distinction to keep in mind. While the Bible is fixed and will never be supplemented, the principles contained in it are admissible of universal and of endless application, and for that reason the Bible will never need to be supplemented. It is with the Bible as it is with nature. No new laws have been given to nature from the beginning. And yet how constantly are men discovering laws that for long ages were hidden from human eyes: and men of science will tell you that there are now many latent forces in nature awaiting the genius of the occasion when they shall be discovered and applied to the use of man. What the world wants is not a new Bible, or new principles, or new truths, but the recognition of the old, and the legitimate application of the old to the purposes for which they were intended. So when new forms of old errors arise, we do not want a new Bible to find new truths with which to antagonise these old errors. The fact is, there are no new forms of scepticism. We do not need any other Bible, or a supplement to the old, because the Bible is a book that has a friendly voice and a helping hand to every race. Here is a book equally adapted to the Oriental and the Occidental mind; adapted alike to the Mongolian and the Circassian mind; adapted to all the different divisions into which society is divided. The Bible is sufficient for the world’ s need, because it goes down to the very foundation of man’ s mental and moral structure, and takes hold of that which is sinful in his soul’ s life. As long as sin and sorrow are in the world, so long will this book take hold of that which is deepest, and truest, and profoundest in the soul’ s immortal life. And the Bible gives us a perfect ideal in the character of our blessed Saviour. Moreover, we do not need a new Bible, because we do not want any new motives to the practice of the greatest virtue. (Moses T. Hoge, D. D.) The perfect law “ The law of the Lord” is the Bible phrase for describing the duty which God requires of man. This law embraces all those principles by which our inward life of disposition and desire and our outward life of word and action ought to be guided. It is an expression of the Divine will respecting human conduct. But perhaps the most correct view of the Moral Law is that contained in a sentence which has often been used in the pulpits of Scotland, “ the Law is a transcript of the character of God.” Justice and truth and love are the very elements, so to speak, of His own moral being; they have an inherent rightness, and so, while it is true that they are right because He wills them, a deeper truth is that He wills them because they are right. In other words, while the authority of the law rests upon the Divine will, the law itself has its basis in the Divine nature. The law of the Lord is woven into the very nature of the universe. It is graven in indelible lines on the conscience of man. But we must turn to the Holy Scriptures for the fullest exhibition of the Moral Law. The Bible, however, is not a hand book of morals after the common style. We do not find in it a systematic exposition of law for national or individual life; and even those parts of it which, to some extent, have this appearance, come far short of being a full expression of the perfect law. The Mosaic economy, for example, looked at in the light of the higher attainments and the wider wants of Gospel times, is admittedly an imperfect economy on its moral as well as on its ceremonial side. No one would dream of introducing into modern law its enactments respecting (to take a case) usury or divorce. In the same way the moral lessons taught by those histories of nations and individuals of which the Bible is largely composed are often doubtful. All this impresses us with the necessity of some guiding principle to enable us to gather from the rich variety of Holy Scripture the law of God--His will for our guidance. Where, then, shall we go for this guiding and testing principle? We answer without hesitation--to Jesus Christ Himself. The chief cornerstone of the Church is also the chief cornerstone of Christian morality. He came “ to show us the Father,” and so in Him, in His own character and conduct and teaching, we have the clearest and most authoritative revelation of the Father’ s law. We cannot overestimate the value of having the law of God exhibited in a life as opposed to any statement of it in words. Ill the life of our blessed Lord, as recorded in Holy Scripture and interpreted to His followers by the Holy Spirit and by the providence of God, we have the final standard of moral theory and practice. He is the incarnate Law. Having defined what the law of the Lord is, we pass on to see wherein its perfection lies, and for one thing, it exhibits the quality of harmony. Every lover of art knows that the chief excellence of a painting lies in the consistency of its various parts and their subordination to the main design. A similar principle applies to music. What is true of beauty presented to the eye or ear holds good of truth and righteousness, the beauty which the mind only can perceive. The ultimate test of any new doctrine lies in its harmony with those Scripture sustained convictions which we have already formed. The law of the Lord has this crowning element of perfection--it is a harmonious unity whose parts never jar or clash. Of course, we are quite familiar with the objection that one precept of Holy Scripture sometimes comes into antagonism with other precepts. The obedience which a child owes to God, for example, can only be rendered sometimes by disobedience to a parent whom God has commanded the child to obey. We revert to our definition of the law, and reply that this objection confounds the law which is perfect and eternal with particular commandments which are from the nature of the case inadequate and temporary expressions of the law. The commandment may be inadequate, for it is only the verbal form in which the spiritual principle is clothed, and the letter can never exhaust or completely unfold the spirit. The commandment, moreover, may be only the temporary form of the eternal law. The Decalogue is indispensable on earth, but how many of the relations which it is intended to regulate will have ceased to exist, or be radically changed, in heaven! Thus the particular precepts of the law may be temporary, but the law of the Lord which is perfect abides in all its force wherever intelligent beings are. (D. M’Kinnon, M. A.) A tribute to the law of God The law is characterised by six names and nine epithets and by nine effects. The names are law, testimony, statutes, commandments, fear, judgments. To it are applied nine epithets, namely, perfect, sure, right, pure, holy, true, righteous, desirable, sweet. To it are ascribed nine effects, namely, it converts the soul, makes wise the simple, rejoices the heart, enlightens the eyes, endures forever, enriches like gold, satisfies like honey, warns against sin, rewards the obedient. The central thought or conception about which all gathers is that of law. There is a profound philosophy in this passage. It presents Jehovah as Lord, i.e. “ Law-ward, or guardian of law. We are to conceive of God’ s law as--1. A perfect rule of duty, having a basis of common law beneath all its statutory provisions, an eternal basis of essential right and wrong. “ Thou shalt” and “ thou shalt not,” based upon eternal principles, not upon an arbitrary will. We are to think of this fabric of law as-- 2. Supported like a grand arch, upon two great pillars: reward and penalty. The whole passage is therefore a challenge to our adoring homage and obedience.1. The law is a perfect product of infinite wisdom and love, (Romans 7:12; Romans 7:14) “ holy, just, good, spiritual.” 2. It is enforced by Divine sanctions of reward and penalty, and these are each equally necessary to sustain the law and government of God. The testimonies and the judgment are equally perfect. The love that rewards and the wrath that punishes are equally beautiful and perfect. The transcendent thought of the whole passage is that obedience is a privilege.1. Law is the voice of love, not simply of authority, therefore only love can truly fulfil. 2. Obedience is self-rewarding and disobedience self-avenging. The general thought of this whole passage is, obedience the highest privilege.1. The law is the expression of Divine perfection; hence leads to perfection. 2. Of the highest love; hence must be interpreted by love and fulfilled by love. 3. Of the highest bliss--key to blessing; hence the door to promises. 4. “ Our schoolmaster to lead us to Christ.” Cannot justify, but only conduct to the obedient One who can justify. (Homiletic Monthly.) The perfect law of God By the law we may understand the entire written Word. I. The character of the law. Perfect, that is, complete and entire. See the testimony--1. Of Moses (Deuteronomy 6:6-8).2. David, throughout the Psalms, as here in our text.3. Jesus, the Son of God.4. Paul (1 Timothy 1:8-11).5. Peter. II. Its effects. “ Converting the soul.” Note what conversion is, the great spiritual change in a man’ s heart. III. Practical lessons.1. That it is not enough to have a mere intellectual acquaintance with the Word of God.2. The vast criminality of those who would withhold the Word of God from men.3. How dangerous and wicked to turn from it to the lying fables of deluded or designing men. (J. Allport.) The light of nature It was not in the material heavens, which with all their grandeur the Psalmist had been contemplating, that he found the lesson of perfection. He turned from them to the law of the Lord, and there he found it. With all that the contemplation of nature is able to do, it cannot regenerate the spirit. Neither poetry nor philosophy can help man in the great exigencies of life. None of them can do any good to a dying man. The damps of the sepulchre put out their light. Nor is this to be wondered at. The works of nature were not made to last; hence how can they teach lessons for immortality? They may serve man in many ways here, and aid his piety too, if he be a converted man. But they will never convert him. Man needs the Bible to convert him to God and to fit him to die. This truth has to be insisted on in our day which speaks so much of “ the light of nature,” and which subjects the Bible to its pretended discoveries. But we maintain that it is insufficient, and for proof we appeal-- I. To fact--history. Glance--1. At the heathen world--the people are in gross darkness. 2. At antiquity--they knew nothing of immortality, or the holiness of God. They never had any natural religion; what they had was all unnatural, monstrous. Reason failed them. They knew nothing certainly, though they made many conjectures; what little light they had came from tradition and through the Jews. II. The scriptures themselves. These teach that the heavens declare the glory of God, but they do not say that man was ever converted thereby. III. The inconclusiveness of the arguments employed by the disciples of nature. They say, nature teaches the existence of one God. But until the Bible has taught you this you cannot know it. What we see would rather teach that there are two deities, a good and a bad one. And, in fact, without the Bible men never did believe in the unity of God. And so of the Divine attributes. His unchangeableness and goodness, His spirituality and His will, the sanctions of His law and the ,immortality of the soul. The real utility of all the light of nature on the subject of religion consists in this: that it demonstrates its own insufficiency for teaching us a single important truth, and thus turns us over to the Word of God; and having done so, shines as a constant witness, and everywhere, to impress the lessons of Bible teaching upon us. It strikes the infidel dumb, and aids the devotions of the Christian, living or dying. But alone it teaches nothing. God never said it could. And its reasonings, proudly called in the schools “ science” and” philosophy,” vanish into smoke when we touch them. You will never read God’ s world rightly till His Word teaches you how. After it has taught you you may gather proofs of religion from nature which you could not gather before. The lesson is in nature; but nature is a sealed book to a sinner. It may silence a sceptic, it cannot satisfy a soul. She has no Christ to tell of, no atonement, no pardon, no firm foothold on immortal work. She cannot make men wise or good or happy, or inspire with blessed hope. (J. S. Spencer, D. D.) Converting the soul.--The restoration of the soul I. What is here meant by conversion? In margin it is rendered “ restoring.” This restoring the soul is from its fall in Adam to its salvation in Christ.1. From the darkness of ignorance to the light of Divine knowledge. Ignorance is general where the means of knowledge are not realised. The light of Divine knowledge, employing and enriching the understanding, is essential to the restoration of the soul. 2. From the oppressive weight of contracted guilt to a state of conscious acceptance with God (Romans 5:1). 3. From inward depravity, derived from our first parents, to a conformity to the moral image of God. The removal of guilt from the conscience, and the being “ sanctified wholly,” are distinct attainments in the Christian life. 4. From a state of misery to the possession of real happiness. How can men but be miserable in sin! II. The means by which this restoration is effected. By the perfect law of the Lord. For law read doctrine. This doctrine is--1. Divine in its origin. 2. Pure in the means of its communication. 3. Harmonious, and well adapted to the condition of man in all its parts. 4. Energetic in its operations. Improvement,--ministers must understand the doctrine of the Lord before they can make it known to others. (Sketches of Four Hundred Sermons.) The Word of God converting the soul The text might be read, “ The doctrine of the Lord is perfect restoring the soul.” I. The soul of man in its natural state requires to be converted or restored. See how abundant is the Scripture testimony to this truth. Even the best men have confessed their need: David says of himself, “ Behold, I was shapen in iniquity,” etc. There has been but one bright exception amongst men, and that is “ the Man Christ Jesus. He alone “ knew no sin.’ It is the exception which proves the rule. II. But many take exception to this by denying the fact of the perversion of the human soul. “ As for God, His way is perfect,” as may be clearly seen from those of His works which sin has not depraved. But as for man, Scripture and experience alike attest that he has “ corrupted his way.” III. By denying that man’ s recovery is possible. But wherefore? Is anything too hard for the Lord? Cannot He who at first made man upright remodel him after His own image? IV. By denying the adequacy of the means of recovery. It is said the Word of God is not an adequate instrument. But experience has proved the contrary. For the word, or doctrine, of the Lord is perfect, complete. It will never fail of the desired issue in those who come to the study of it in a right spirit. (Thomas Dale, M. A.) The excellency of Holy Scripture There are two methods which God has taken for instructing mankind. He has taught them by the glories of creation and by the words of Holy Scripture. But man as a sinner has no ear to hear the voice of God in His works. It is only by the revealed works of Scripture that he can find the way of pardon and holiness. I. The excellent properties of the word of God. As a law it is perfect. Nothing can be added to it, nothing taken from it. It contains all our duty and all our consolation; all that is necessary to make us happy and holy. The writings of the heathen philosophers contain a few mutilated principles and some fine sentiments, but they are not directed to any great end, nor are they complete in themselves. As a testimony the Word of God is sure. Considered as the solemn witness and attestation of God to all those truths which concern man’ s everlasting salvation, it is sure. It comes with a force and authority to the conscience. It follows that the statutes of the Lord are right. The equity and holiness of them equal their completeness and certainty. They are in all respects true and just and excellent. There is nothing harsh, nothing defiling, nothing erroneous, nothing arbitrary in them. They have not only authority, but goodness on their side. It is a further property of the Word of God that, as a commandment, it is pure. The Bible is a clear and perspicuous rule of duty. Its pure light has no need of proofs, reasonings, evidences, or study. When considered producing the fear of the Lord it is eternal. The obligations of revealed truth are perpetual. II. The surprising effects which the word of God produces.1. It converts the soul. This is the first thing the fallen creature needs. Scripture begins, where man’ s necessities begin, with the heart. It unfolds the depravity of our nature. It exhibits the astonishing scheme of redemption in the death of the incarnate Saviour. 2. After conversion follows joy. 3. The sincere student will advance in knowledge. 4. It induces a holy, reverential fear of God. Impress the high and affectionate regard which we should pay to Holy Scripture. (Daniel Wilson, M. A.) Revelation and conversion Trees are known by their fruit, and books by their effect upon the mind. By the “ law of the Lord” David means the whole revelation of God, so far as it had been given in his day. It is equally true of all revelation since. We may judge by its effects upon our own selves. I. The work of the word of God in conversion. Not apart from the Spirit, but as it is used by the Spirit, it--1. Convinces men of sin: they see what perfection is, that God demands it and that they are far from it.2. Drives them from false methods of salvation to bring them to self-despair, and to shut them up to God’ s method of saving them.3. Reveals the way of salvation through Christ by faith.4. Enables the soul to embrace Christ as its all in all, by setting forth promises and invitations which are opened up to the understanding and sealed to the heart.5. Brings the heart nearer and nearer to God, by awakening love, desire for holiness, etc.6. Restores the soul when it has wandered, bringing back the tenderness, hope, love, joy, etc., which it had lost.7. Perfects the nature. The highest flights of holy enjoyment are not above or beyond the Word. II. The excellence of this work. Its operations are altogether good, timed and balanced with infinite discretion.1. It removes despair without quenching repentance.2. Gives pardon, but does not create presumption.3. Gives rest, but excites the soul to progress.4. Breathes security, but engenders, watchfulness.5. Bestows strength and holiness, but begets no boasting.6. Gives harmony to duties, emotions, hopes, and enjoyments.7. Brings the man to live for God and with God, and yet makes him none the less fitted for the daily duties of life. III. The consequent excellence of the word.1. We need not add to it to secure conversion in any case.2. We need not keep back any doctrine for fear of damping the flame of a true revival.3. We need not extraordinary gifts to preach it, the Word will do its own work.4. We have but to follow it to be converted, and to keep to it to become truly wise. It fits man’ s needs as the key the lock. Cling to it, study it, use it. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Psalms 19:8 The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart.Joy in God’ s statutes Not content with celebrating the eternal fitness and rectitude of the Divine statutes, the Psalmist recommends them by an argument of a less abstract nature, more closely adapted to our feelings and interests, by adding that in consequence of their inherent rectitude they tend to rejoice the heart. The word “ statutes” includes the whole system of Divine precepts contained in the Scriptures. Such is the goodness and condescension of God, that with our duty He has strictly connected not only our happiness in general, but even our present pleasure. Two things are necessary ill order to produce true and rational joy in the human mind, namely, objects suited to its faculties, and faculties in proper disposition to receive impressions from them. In each of these views the Holy Scriptures, as they contain the Divine laws, are calculated to produce this happy temper. What has here been asserted of all the discoveries and demands of God’ s revealed will is particularly applicable to its perceptive part, which has a tendency to rejoice the heart of the sincerely pious, in theory, in practice, and on reflection. What further evinces the excellence of the Divine statutes is, that the joy they inspire is pure and unmixed. The religious joy which arises immediately from reflection on a virtuous practice increases the sublime pleasure which springs up in the mind of a good man when he contemplates his relation to his God and Saviour. (P. C. Sowden.) The Bible right. Old books go out of date. Whatever they were about, men no longer care for them. Books are human; they have a time to be born, they grow in strength, they have a middle life of usefulness, then comes old age, they totter and they die. Many of the national libraries are merely the cemeteries of dead books. Some were virtuous, and accomplished a glorious mission. Some went into the ashes through inquisitorial fires. Not so with one old book. It started in the world’ s infancy. It grew under theocracy and monarchy. It withstood the storms of fire. It grew under the prophet’ s mantle and under the fisherman’ s coat of the apostles. In Rome, and Ephesus, and Jerusalem, and Patmos tyranny issued edicts against it, and infidelity put out the tongue, and the papacy from its monasteries, and Mohammedanism from its mosques, hurled their anathemas; but the old Bible lived. It came across the British Channel and was greeted by Wycliff and James I. It came across the Atlantic and struck Plymouth Rock, until, like that of Horeb, it gushed with blessedness. Churches and asylums have gathered all along its way, ringing their bells, and stretching out their hands of blessing. But it will not have accomplished its mission until it has climbed the icy mountains of Greenland, until it has gone over the granite cliffs of China, until it has thrown its glow amid the Australian mines, until it has scattered its gems among the diamond districts of Brazil, and all thrones shall be gathered into one throne, and all crowns by the fires of revolution shall be melted into one crown, and this Book shall at the very gate of heaven have waved in the ransomed empires--not until then will that glorious Bible have accomplished its mission. (T. De Witt Talmage.) The Bible right I. The Bible is right in its authentication. I say, if the Bible had been an imposition; if it had not been written by the men who said they wrote it; if it had been a mere collection of falsehoods, it would have been scouted by everybody. If that book has come down through the centuries without a scar, it is because there is nothing in it disturbable. When men began their opposition to it there were two or three thousand copies; now there are two hundred millions, so far as I can calculate. Would that have been so had it been an imposture? Further, suppose there was a great pestilence, and hundreds of thousands of men were dying of that pestilence, and someone should find a medicine that in one day cured ten thousand people, would not all men say that was a good medicine? But just so it has been with the Bible. It has cured men of the worst leprosy, the leprosy of sin. Modern discoveries in Petra, Nineveh, Palestine have all gone to prove its truth. II. The Bible is right in style. I know there are a great many people who think it is merely a collection of genealogical tables and dry facts. That is because they do not know how to read the Book. You take up the most interesting novel that was ever written, and if you commence at the four hundredth page today, and tomorrow at the three hundredth, and She next day at the first page, how much sense or interest would you gather from it? Yet that is the very process to which the Bible is subjected every day. An angel from heaven reading the Bible in that way could not understand it. The Bible, like all other palaces, has a door by which to enter and a door by which to go out. Genesis is the door to go in, and Revelation the door to go out. These Epistles of Paul the Apostle are merely letters written, folded up, and sent by postmen to the different Churches. Do you read other letters the way you read Paul’ s letters? Suppose you get a business letter, and you know that in it there are important financial propositions, do you read the last page first and then one line of the third page, and another of the second, and another of the first? Besides that, people read the Bible when they cannot do anything else. It is a dark day and they do not feel well, and they do not go to business, and after lounging about awhile they pick up the Bible--their mind refuses to enjoy the truth. Or they come home weary from the store or shop, and they feel, if they do not say, it is a dull book. While the Bible is to be read on stormy days, and while your head aches, it is also to be read in the sunshine and when your nerves, like harp strings, thrum the song of health. While your vision is clear, walk in this paradise of truth; and while your mental appetite is good, pluck these clusters of grace. Note its conciseness. Every word is packed full of truth. Nine-tenths of all the good literature of this age is merely the Bible diluted. See also its variety; not contradiction or collision, but variety. Just as in the song, you have the basso and alto, and soprano and tenor--they are not in collision with each other, but come in to make up the harmony--so it is in this book, there are different parts of this great song of redemption. The prophet comes and takes one part, and the patriarch another, and the evangelist another, and the apostles another, and yet they all come into the grand harmony--the song of “ Moses and the Lamb.” God prepared it for all zones--arctic and tropics, as well as the temperate zone. The Arabian would read it on his dromedary, and the Laplander seated on the swift sledge, and the herdsman of Holland, guarding the cattle in the grass, and the Swiss girl, reclining amid Alpine crags. Thus suited to all is it, and hence I cannot help saying, The statutes of the Lord are right. III. And the Bible is right in its doctrines. Man, a sinner; Christ, a Saviour--the two doctrines. All the mountains of the Bible bow down to Calvary. IV. And in its effects. I do not care where you put the Bible, it just suits the place. Whether in the hands of a man seeking salvation, or one discouraged, or one in trouble, or one bereaved--it is the grand catholicon for them all. Father and mother, take down that long-neglected Bible. Where is it now? Is it in the trunk, or on the upper shelf, or is it in the room in the house where you seldom go save when you have company, and then not to read the Bible? In the name of the God who will judge the quick and the dead, and by the interests of your immortal soul and the souls of your children, I charge you today to take up that old Bible, open it, read for your own life, and read for the life of your children. How can you go out on the dark mountains of death, and take your children along with you, when you have such a glorious lamp to guide you? Put that Bible on every rail train, until all the dark places of our land are illuminated by it. Put it on every ship that crosses the sea, until the dark homes of heathenism get the light. While I speak, there comes to us the horrid yell of heathen worship, and in the face of this day’ s sun gushed the blood of human sacrifice. Give them the Bible. Tell them, “ God so loved the world that He gave,” etc. (T. De Witt Talmage.) The Word of God rejoicing the heart I. The statutes of God are the first principles of religious duty, or the means of grace. They are rules of life and action relating, first, to our communion with God, our religious service; and then, to our intercourse with one another. And they are “ right” in many different senses--counteracting the tendency of man’ s sinful heart, supplying a stimulant to duty; right, too, in their operation and in their consequences, both as to this world and the next. What they engage to do they accomplish. Infidelity can make no such boast. II. They rejoice the heart.1. What is rejoicing, the joy of the heart? We should base it upon natural affection, mutual harmony and confidence, rendering and receiving to and from all what is due. It operates in the home, and amongst our neighbours, and throughout society. Such are a happy people. 2. And the statutes of the Lord do effect this; hence God’ s statutes have been our songs in the house of our pilgrimage. (Thomas Dale, M. A.) The Bible always right If my compass always points to the north I know how to use it; but if it veers to other points of the compass, and I am to judge out of my own mind whether it is right or not, I may as well be without the thing as with it. If my Bible is right always, it will lead me right; and as I believe it is, so I shall follow it and find the truth. A wrong and a right standard It is stated that when the United States Government’ s dock at Brooklyn was finished, on inspecting it, it was found to be two feet too short to take in the vessels which needed repairs. This involved a reconstruction of the work at great expense. How it occurred was a mystery, but it appeared on investigation that the contractor, in making his measurements, used a tape line which was a fraction of an inch too short. Either it had shrunk, or it was imperfectly made at first; in some way the tape was too short, and so the dock was too short also. The importance of a correct standard can hardly be exaggerated. Whether it be a standard of weights, measures, values, or moral qualities, a slight variation from that which is right and true produces disastrous results. The Bible right, the reader may be wrong As a mirage is mistaken for a reality, because of the effect of the sun’ s rays upon the organs of vision; so with those that are detecting flaws in the Bible. It is because the eye is diseased, and sees double where the object is single. The fault is in the eye, not in the Bible. The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The spiritual nature and enlightening efficacy of the moral law The purity of the law, if there were no other evidence, is sufficient to establish the fact, that it is the commandment of the Lord. We wish to set before you the moral law in its essential and Divine purity. During the patriarchal ages there was no written document bearing the sanction of a Divine moral law. Tradition, so long as man is eider fallible or fallacious, cannot possibly, for any length of time, from a channel for truth. By and by it pleased God to inscribe with His own finger upon tablets of stone the substance of those floating intimations which He had made from time to time to His servants of old. The law was ordained for something beyond the mere curbing of transgressions; its further object was to detect, expose, and condemn the transgressing principle; in other words, by the purity which it developed and enforced to enlighten man’ s eyes upon the character of God, the extent of his own moral ruin, and the absolute necessity of the restoration of the moral principle. The human soul never was suffered to lose an intuitive sense of the simple fact that there is a God; but having assented to this simple fact, the human mind, by its own light, made no further progress towards the discovery of the Divine character. We attribute this failure to moral rather than physical causes. The intellect was not so much in fault as the heart. Man’ s favourite sins were thought by him not only to experience the Divine toleration, but even to form no insignificant elements in the Divine character, so that he had nothing to do but to turn over the records of the pagan theology, whensoever he wished to place some act of crime under the protection and the patronage of the god of lust, or fraud, or violence. It was in order to afford some remedy for this dreadful evil--in order to vindicate His own character as well as to elevate that of His creatures, that God published His moral law. The tenor of the law proclaimed at once the high strain of moral perfection belonging by right of nature to the God with whom we have to do. But does man like these ordinances? Do these definitions of duty suit his feelings? If he confess the truth he will confess that he hates such instruction. Many, however, even with the law of God in their hands, are never brought to this confession. They have not been led to see the mighty moral difference between the mind that originated and the minds that received the law. This comes of carelessness and prejudice. Upon the careless generalising of human with Divine systems of law the whole mistake hinges about Christian morals. But human laws only touch actions. Divine laws touch morals, that is, touch motive and action in conjunction. Therefore I am a transgressor of Divine laws if motive as well as action do not tender homage and obedience. Bring human perfection, of whatever nature, side by side with the perfection of the moral law, and of the first the end appears at once. The law shows us our moral ruin, our spiritual death But “ Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth.” (T. E. Hankinson M. A.) Psalms 19:9 The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. The Word of God enduring forever We are to consider the abiding and habitual effect of the Word of God upon believing hearts. And this effect is expressed in this phrase, “ the fear of the Lord.” Note what is said of it. I. It is clean--its purity. It is so, because it is the only true and sound basis of a due social regard to man, and the only valid bond of union, whether domestic, private, or public. Every believer ought to bear witness to the cleansing, purifying power of the fear of the Lord. II. Its perpetuity--“ enduring forever.” This tells of the effect of the principle rather than of the principle itself, though this latter is not to be omitted. But in its effects it is consistent, unswerving, abiding, all-powerful. It enters into the man, and goes with him wherever he goes. He cannot and would not shake it off. And its effects are eternal, they can never pass away. And all may possess it, through Christ. It shall be for your peace here and happiness hereafter. (Thomas Dale, M. A.) The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. The Word of God altogether true and righteous I. Consider these judgments as matters of fact. Take--1. The expulsion of our first parents from Eden. None can understand why God created man capable of falling, and foreknowing that he would fall. But this does not say that God made him on purpose that he should fall. This would be to assume that we know all God’ s purpose in creating man, which we do not. We cannot reconcile the supremacy of God and the free agency of man. It is of no use to attempt to be “ wise above what is written,” but our duty is to take man as he is--capable of understanding and obeying God’ s command, which Adam unquestionably was. There was in him no moral difficulty as in us, since the imagination of his heart was not, as ours, “ evil continually.” We must deplore the instability of the man, bat we cannot on that account take exception to the judgments of the Lord. And the transmission to offspring of the properties of the parent--this law had been ordained before this fatal event, and what right have we to think that He who made all things “ very good” should remodel or reverse His laws in consequence of that event? Hence, although “ in Adam all die,” was it unrighteous in God to act in accordance with His own previously established law? Adam himself caused, of his own choice, that it should work ill to him and his. But are we to blame God for that? 2. The judgment upon Cain. Surely this was far less than he deserved. And the gate of mercy and of grace was not closed upon him. 3. The deluge, the overthrow of Jerusalem, and many others. In reference to each of these we might prove it to be “ altogether righteous.” For by righteous we understand perfect consistency with previous revelations given by God--with the laws enacted and bearing on each case, and with the penalties threatened by God and consciously incurred by man. And when men object to these judgments they do not attempt to justify the conduct of the sinner, but only to condemn the law under which, and the Judge by whom, he was condemned. They affirm that God is without compassion for human frailty, and without consideration for human folly. II. As matters of faith--they are altogether true. Necessarily, many of the judgments of God are matters of faith. For the interpositions of God, though sometimes seen in the crisis and agony of nations, are, in the case of individuals, scarcely, if at all, discernible. III. In their bearing upon ourselves. As we cannot impeach God’ s righteousness in His judgments in the past, can we, in what we expect in the future, doubt His truth? Meantime “ the victory that overcometh the world is this, even our faith.” (Thomas Dale, M. A.) Psalms 19:10 More to be desired are they than gold. The Holy Scriptures I. The excellence of the holy scriptures. None are ignorant of the value of money. Money gives access to every other possession. Point out the vanity of riches. They cannot benefit the possessor beyond this life. They are unsatisfying in their nature. The attainment of them is only within the reach of a few in every community. And they bring temptations to sin. Then, is not the Word of God more to be desired than gold? II. The way to know the value of Scripture, and to taste its sweetness. Many are but formal readers. To read aright, you must be renewed in the spirit of your minds. There must be a Divine illumination. Pray more for the Spirit’ s influence. If we would understand the value of the Scriptures, we shall find it useful to reflect upon their designs and our circumstances. And we must read them with patient perseverance. (Carus Wilson.) The Bible valued above all else On yon stormy shore, where, amid the wreck the night had wrought, and the waves, still thundering as they sullenly retire, had left on the beach, lies the naked form of a drowned sailor boy. He had stripped for one last, brave fight for life, and wears nought but a handkerchief bound round his cold breast. Insensible to pity, and unawed by the presence of death, those who sought the wreck, as vultures swoop down on their prey, rushed on the body, and tore away the handkerchief--tore it open, certain that it held within its folds gold, his little fortune, something very valuable for a man in such an hour to say, I’ ll sink or swim with it. They were right. But it was not gold. It was the poor lad’ s Bible--also a parting gift, and the more precious that it was a mother’ s. The priceless worth of the Bible A Christian soldier told us of a comrade who called the Bible “ his Klondyke,” and, as samples of what he called “ good lumps of gold,” gave us Psalms 91:15. “ I will answer him. I will be with him . . . I will deliver him . . . satisfy him, and show him My salvation.” Let us put in for a claim in this Klondyke, and dig for its hid treasures. The excellence of the Scriptures I. The important discoveries which the Scriptures contain. They make known to us the glory of the invisible God, as a pure and perfect Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in His being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth. An explicit revelation of His will to man, and of the manner in which He requires to be worshipped and served. Here is discovered to us our once innocent and exalted, but now guilty and fallen, state. Here is made known to us the way of salvation, by which we may be restored to the favour, the image, and the enjoyment of God. II. The effects which they produce upon the condition of mankind. Even in respect of outward civilisation much advantage has arisen to the world from the introduction of the Scriptures. Even where they are not attended with saving efficacy they are often seen to produce a considerable influence upon the external manners, and sometimes too upon the inward dispositions of men. But the transcendent excellence of the Scriptures is peculiarly manifested in their efficacy, when accompanied with the influence of Divine grace. The Scriptures are the means of spiritual illumination, of conversion and regeneration, of sanctification and a meetness for eternal life. III. The admirable adaption of the scriptures to the various circumstances of men. Here is something suited to every rank and every age. The Scriptures set forth a perfect rule of duty, with which no system of heathen morality is once to be compared, and they exhibit incitements and encouragements, as well as examples of holiness, which are nowhere else to be found. Their excellency is especially seen in their tendency and efficacy to afford consolation in time of trouble and in the prospect of death. Lessons--1. Admire the distinguishing goodness of God toward us.2. Diligently use God’ s gift.3. Recognise the obligation to circulate the Scriptures among our fellow men. (D. Dickson.) Sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. The Bible sweeter than honey Among the insects which subsist on the sweet sap of flowers there are two very different classes. One is remarkable for its imposing plumage, which shows in the sunbeams like the dust of gems; and as you watch its jaunty gyrations over the fields, and its minuet dance from flower to flower, you cannot help admiring its graceful activity. In the same field there is another worker, whose brown vest and straightforward flight may not have arrested your eye. His fluttering neighbour darts down here and there, and sips elegantly wherever he can find a drop of ready nectar; but this dingy plodder makes a point of alighting everywhere, and wherever he alights he either finds honey or makes it. What is the end? The one died last October along with the flower; the other is warm in his hive tonight, amidst the fragrant stores which he gathered beneath the bright beams of summer. Honey is the sweetest of all substances, and the ancients, who were unacquainted with sugar, attached even more importance to it than we do. “ A land flowing with milk and honey” presented the very strongest attractions to the Oriental taste. The idea conveyed by the text is this: that the truth of God, as revealed to us in the Bible, affords more real pleasure to the soul than that which epicures consider the most desirable luxury does to the palate. In that remarkable book, The Eclipse of Faith, there is a chapter entitled “ The Blank Bible,” in which the author describes a dream, wherein he fancied that on taking up his Greek Testament one morning, to read his accustomed chapter, the old familiar volume seemed to be a total blank. Supposing that some book like it had, by accident, got into its place, he did not stop to hunt it up, but took down a large copy of the Bible, and this, to his amazement, proved also to be a blank from beginning to end. While musing on this unaccountable phenomenon, his servant came in and said that thieves must have been in the house during the night, since her Bible had been carried off, and another volume of the same size, but containing but blank paper, had been left in its place. The dreamer then went forth into the street, and heard a similar report from all whom he met. It was curious to observe the different effect of this calamity on the various characters whom he encountered. An interest, almost universal, was now felt for a book which had hitherto been sadly undervalued. Some to whom their Bible had been a “ blank” book for twenty years, and who would never have known whether it was full or empty but for the lamentations of their neighbours, were among the loudest in their expressions of sorrow. In marked contrast with these was the sincere regret of an aged woman, long kept a prisoner in her narrow chamber by sickness, and to whom the Bible had been, as to so many thousands more, her faithful companion ill solitude. I found her gazing intently on the blank Bible (says our author), which had been so recently bright to her with the lustre of immortal hopes. She burst into tears as she saw me. “ And has your faith left you too, nay gentle friend?” said I. “ No,” she answered; “ and I trust it never will. He who has taken away the Bible has not taken away my memory, and I now recall all that is most precious in that book which has so long been my meditation. I think I can say that I loved it more than any possession on earth.” Even the warnings of the Bible are wholesome for us, for by them we are made to know our own evil. Merle d’ Aubigne, during a visit to England, related an incident which happened in 1855, in connection with the circulation of the Bible among soldiers. A colporteur reached Toulon just as the French troops were embarking for the Crimea. He offered a Testament to a soldier, who asked what book it was. “ The Word of God,” was the answer. “ Let me have it, then,” said the man; and when he had received it he added most irreverently, “ it will do very well to light my pipe.” The colporteur felt sorry that a book which might have been of service to somebody had been thus thrown away; but there was no help for it, and he went his way. About a year later he happened to be in the interior of France, and took lodging at an inn, where he found the family in great distress, from the recent death of a son. The poor mother explained that the young man had been wounded in the Crimean War, and had only been able to reach home to die. “ I have much consolation,” she added; “ he was so peaceful and happy, and he brought comfort to his father and to me.” “ How was this?” asked the colporteur. “ Oh,” she said, “ he found all his comfort in one little book, which he had always with him.” So saying, she showed him a soiled copy of the New Testament (the very one which he himself had given to the reckless young soldier), and read on the inside of the cover, “ Received at Toulon (with the date), despised, neglected, read, believed, and found salvation.” “ Sweeter than honey” are these Divine oracles of God, and “ in keeping of them there is great reward.” (Anon.) Psalms 19:11 By them is Thy servant warned.Scripture warnings We are not to confuse the imperfections of religious professors with the unchangeable sovereignty of the Divine laws. I. Call attention to some of them thus connected with our own history, and the warnings they give.1. Those which relate to the heart of man. We are told its deceitful character.2. Examples in human character. They, as well as the words of Scripture, warn us against sin.3. Those that come from the truth of eternity and of judgment to come. II. The reward of obedience.1. It is present in the conscience; and2. Prospective, in heaven.3. And it is great in comparison with our deserts.4. And in obedience itself there is great reward. (W. D. Horwood.) Bible warnings At Tramore, near Waterford, a place where the Atlantic breakers dash with sublime fury against the rocks, there are on the headlands three towers, and on the middle one stands what is called “ The Metal Man.” This is a figure made of metal, and painted to resemble a sailor. With his finger he points to some very dangerous rocks that are to be shunned. There are rocks in life’ s troublesome sea that are ready to shipwreck the bodies and souls of the young. In keeping of them there is great reward. The reward of keeping God’ s commandments In this Psalm David speaks of the two great books by which God administers instruction. The volume of nature. The volume of inspiration. Having enlarged on the excellent properties and glorious effects of the Divine Word, he illustrates its value by a comparison with the things of this world, by the results of his experience, and the infinite advantage connected with the observance of it. David possessed, in the Scriptures then extant, an abstract of all those glorious truths revealed to ourselves, and an abstract of sufficient clearness to guide him to God, to peace, to holiness, to heaven. The possession of the Scriptures, however, is not sufficient to bring the soul to God. These statutes must be kept as well as possessed, for it is in keeping them that there is great reward. The book not only supplies ideas, it also raises the character of the humble student. The Scripture is a book of privileges. There is not a Christian but is entitled to all the clustering promises which grow on this tree of life. Practice is necessary to complete our duty to the Scriptures. All religion hinges upon this point. The Psalmist says, “ In keeping of them there is great reward.” Reward is that which is earned by an equivalent, or that which is a suitable recompense for the action performed. But the reward of observing the Word of God is not merely a consequence, neither is it earned by what can be claimed as an equivalent. They are rewards of grace, both in this life and in the future life. (T. Kennion, M. A.) The advantages of religion to particular persons I. Religion conduceth to the happiness of this life.1. As to the mind; to be pious and religious brings a double advantage to the mind of man. It tends to the improvement of our understandings. It raises and enlarges the minds of men, and makes them more capable of true knowledge. It improves the understandings of men by subduing their lusts and moderating their passions. Intemperance, sensuality, and fleshly lusts debase men’ s minds. Religion purifies and refines our spirits. Freedom from irregular passions doth not only signify that a man is wise, but really contributes to the making of him such. Religion also tends to the ease and pleasure, the peace and tranquillity, of our minds. This is the natural fruit of a religious and virtuous course of life. Religion contributes to our peace, by allaying those passions which are apt to ruffle and discompose our spirits; and by freeing us from the anxieties of guilt and the fears of Divine wrath and displeasure. 2. Religion also tends to the happiness of the outward man. The blessings of this kind respect our health, or estate, or reputation, or relations. II. Religion conduceth to the eternal happiness and salvation of men in the other world. The consideration of future happiness is our most powerful motive. How religion conduces to happiness in the new life is seen from--1. The promises of God; and 2. From the nature of the thing. It is a necessary disposition and preparation of us for that future life. When all is done there is no man can serve his own interest better than by serving God. (J. Tillotson, D. D.) On the pleasures of religion “ What is the chief good?” was the great inquiry of the ancient schools; and the different answers to this question formed the principal distinctions amongst the various sects of philosophy. Happiness is the end of all the pursuits of men; it is the object of all their sighs. Yet are they almost always disappointed in the means which are taken to obtain it. They follow the dictates of their passions. And it is not till after they have sought it in vain through every form of false pleasure that they come at length to find it, where alone reason and religion have concurred to place it, in obedience to God and a life of virtue. Here the anxious mind finds a calm and settled peace which it had not known, and which it could not know amid the agitations of the world. I purpose, in this discourse, to confine my view to the internal comforts that flow from religion. It offers the highest satisfactions to the mind; it yields the purest pleasures to the heart; it introduces serenity and peace into the breast; and finally, it affords a source of happiness which is always within our power, which is secure from the vicissitudes of life, and which shall be eternal. (S. S. Smith, D. D.) The advantages of a religious life Compare this text with the saying of Paul, “ If in this life only we have hope in Christ we are of all men most miserable.” Where, then, is the present reward of keeping God’ s commandments? There might be a reward hereafter; how could there be one now? What are we to say to this apparent contradiction? St. Paul was supposing a case; we must ascertain what his supposition was not, and what it was. Take a man whose whole soul was in his religion, who upheld himself in every trial by the consolations of the blessed hope. He has staked everything on the truth, and having surmounted a thousand obstacles and made his way through a thousand foes, and offered his body on the altar of the living God, he is pressing on with rejoicing and elevated spirit. Tell him that there is no resurrection, and no hope in Christ for an after state of being, and what then? That man would be most miserable if he took into his heart your message. You may say that in shutting out the future we still leave the present; but the present is the foretaste of the future. In cutting off the streams you destroy the fountain. If such a man were told that after fighting through life he would be vanquished in death, what would be left him of gladness? Who, then, shall rival the Christian in misery if, after setting out in the expectation of a blessed immortality, he discovers that only in this life is there hope in Christ? Our object has been to show that there is nothing in the quoted words of St. Paul which militates against the fact alleged in our text, and in other parts of Scripture, that, in respect of present happiness--happiness during this life--the godly have the advantage over the ungodly. (Henry Melvill, B. D.) Immediate reward of obedience You will observe the Psalmist does not say after, but in the keeping of the commandments there is great reward. That reward is the pleasure which lies in God’ s service now, not in the payment which is judicially made for it afterwards; just as the eye is regaled in the instant by sights of beauty, or the ear by the melody which falls upon it. I. What are the ingredients of the present reward?1. There is the happiness that flows direct from the sense of doing or having done what is right. The testimony of a good conscience. There is a felt and present solace in the taste of that hidden manna which it administers. 2. The affections of the heart which prompt to obedience. For love, whether it be towards God or towards men, is blessed. In its play and exercise there is instantaneous joy; there is delight in the original conceptions of benevolence, and delight also in its outgoings, whilst malignity, envy, and anger do but rankle the bosom. And we can confidently appeal, even to ungodly men, for the truth that in the grovelling pursuits, whether of sense or avarice, they never experienced so true a delight as in those moments when their spirit was touched into sympathy with other spirits than their own. And not only of love, but of all the other virtues, the same can be said. They one and all of them yield an immediate satisfaction to the wearer. The moralities of the human character are what make up the happiness and harmony of the soul. They are the very streams of that well which, struck out in the bosom of regenerated man, spring up there into life everlasting. II. The advantage of the reward being in, and not after, the keeping of the commandments. Suppose it had been after, and quite distinct from that enjoyment of which we have spoken, and which lies directly and essentially in the obedience itself. This can easily be imagined--a heaven of gratification to the senses as a reward for holiness. Virtue then would be so much work for so much wages; heaven would not be looked for as a place of holiness, but as the price that is given for it. The candidates of immortality would be so many labourers for hire. And it would be no evidence at all of the love which you have for a work, that you have a love for its wages. It makes all the difference whether or no we love our work. Sordidness and sacredness are not wirier apart. This is so in common and ordinary work. How much more when it is the service of God that is in question! III. How the Gospel of Jesus christ affects this question.1. It releases you altogether from the law as a covenant. It tells you that you are not to work for heaven, because that heaven is secured to you in another way. Eternal life is the gift of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. We could never pay for it, and therefore God gives it to us. And how blessed this is even for our characters as the subject of God’ s will. The old economy of “ do this and live” makes up the very spirit of bondage, and of low mercenary bargaining. With the fears of legality, the sordidness of legality is sure to make entrance again into the heart. Hence the only access to a sinner’ s heart for the love of holiness in itself is by making him the free offer of heaven as an unconditional gift, and at the same time making him understand that it is, in truth, holiness and nothing else which forms the very essence of heaven’ s blessedness. These are the things which constitute the difference between the real and the formal Christian. The inferior creatures may be dealt with by terror or by joy as well as he; his very obedience may proceed from the earthliness of his disposition. Much of the Christian may be put on; but the question is, if you delight in the law of God after the inner man, or whether you obey it because of consequences? Whether you are allured to holiness by the beauty of its graces, or by the bribery of its gains? Surely there is nothing noble in him who labours for the reward that comes after keeping the commandments, and thinks not of the “ great reward” that comes “ in keeping the commandments.” (T. Chalmers, D. D.) Psalms 19:12 Who can understand his errors?Cleanse Thou me from secret faults. The tenacity and sophistry of sin The vulgar vices reappear subtly disguised in cultured circles. The grossness of the vices has been purged, but the viciousness is not extinct. Is there not something like this in the saintly life as compared with the old life? All the vices to which the soul is heir strive to reassert themselves in the Christian believer, and too often succeed in disturbing his peace and injuring his character. They are not now gross, offensive, violent; they are smooth and subtle, filmy and tenuous; they may even fail to provoke the notice and criticism of those who know us best. Yet we recognise in them, through their profoundest disguises, the deadly vices which, seen in their nakedness, all men loathe. All the bad passions insinuate themselves into our life unless we steadily detect and reject them. Anger, covetousness, indulgence, pride, self-will, vanity, all these motions and outgoings of unrighteousness are ever striving to assert themselves in the Christian soul and life. The tenacity of sin is marvellous, so is its sophistry. These evil thoughts and imaginations of the saintly heart may appear faint and inoffensive sins when compared with the crimson transgressions of the actual world; but the true disciple will not think so, nor will he treat them tenderly. The desires, weaknesses, and sins of the natural life are greatly diminished in the spiritual life; they have altogether lost their alarming aspect; their capacious jaws seem no longer fringed with teeth; but they are none the less of the breed of monsters, and we must show them no mercy. (W. L. Watkinson.) Self-ignorance There is no kind of knowledge which it is so important for a man to possess as knowledge of himself. No man can be blind to himself without sooner or later having to pay serious penalty for such blindness. The best of the ancients regarded self-knowledge as the very beginning of wisdom, just as they regarded self-mastery as the very beginning of practical virtue. It is said that Socrates, on one occasion, excused himself from giving attention to some important questions, on the ground that he could not possibly come to know such things, as he had not yet been able to know himself. There, the grand old heathen felt, was the true starting place of all true knowledge. Wisdom, like charity, began at home. There are few things, judging at first sight, of which a man might be supposed to have fuller and more accurate knowledge, than he has of his own mind and character. The subject of study is always within his reach. To avoid self-thought is impossible. To the great majority of men the subject is one of perennial and engrossing interest. Nature has so ordained it that, in many important respects, the object of greatest concern to every one of us is himself. History may be a blank to a man, science a name, literature and art dark and mysterious as the grave; but himself!--here surely the man is at home, or he is at home nowhere. The Psalmist, however, is of a widely different opinion. Of course, a certain amount of self-knowledge is thrust upon us all. Much ignorance of self, too, is corrected by our contact with men and things. Many a false and foolish notion is thus ruthlessly swept away as the years pass on. Life and God are great teachers; and, unless a man be a hopeless fool, they compel him to learn something of himself. Still, the exclamation of the Psalmist hits off an universal fact. “ Who can understand his errors?” There is a touch of pensive surprise in the words, as if he had just had an unwonted revelation of himself, as if he had just made discovery of faults and sins hitherto hidden from him. He had no idea that there was so much lingering mischief within. He is not quite sure that he has seen the worst yet. By “ secret faults” the Psalmist does not mean guilty things, that is, things of actual wickedness done in secret. Open transgression is the path of death. Secret transgression is more deadly still. By “ secret faults’ he means faults hidden away, not from others, but from ourselves. And it is more than probable that such “ faults” exist in all of us. It is no uncommon thing to see a man blind as a bat to some infirmity of temper, some coarseness of manner, some infatuation or rooted prejudice, conspicuous as the sun at noonday to his friends, and not quite so pleasant! Another evidence of this lack of self-knowledge is to be found in the grave discoveries we sometimes make of our actual character and condition. The matter is sometimes brought home to us by the faithfulness of a friend. It may come through the home thrust of an enemy. Our hope is in God. The head need not have turned grey before we discover that, in a world like this, “ it is not in man to order his steps aright.” Happy he who once and forever abandons the fruitless task, finds his way to a Saviour’ s side, shelters beneath the Rock that is higher than he. (J. Thew.) The difficulty of understanding our errors At this point the Psalmist pauses. He has been looking at his life in the light of the holy law, and, realising how full of imperfection it was, he resumes again in a penitential strain, “ Who can understand his errors?” There is not only the acknowledgment that life is full of error; there is corruption at the very spring of life. He also acknowledges the difficulty of understanding our errors. Sin destroys the power by which we detect it. It creates a false standard, by which we judge ourselves. There is a personal touch in this acknowledgment. “ Who can understand his own errors?” The sinner is sometimes sharp in discerning the errors of other people, although blind to his own. Thus it was with David himself. We are all too ready to acknowledge sin in a general way, without trying to note the particular sins we are most guilty of. There follows the prayer, “ Cleanse Thou me from secret faults.” These include--1. Faults unknown to ourselves. If we are trying to follow Christ, and live a straight and honest and pure life, we find difficulties at every turn. Temptations are strewn thickly around on every path. Unknown sins are the most dangerous to the soul. Sins noted and marked upon our memories are less likely to be ruinous to the soul than those secret sins which elude the observation. 2. Faults known to ourselves, but known only to ourselves. Each lives three lives: the life by which we are known to the world, the life by which we are known to our household, and the life known only to ourselves. All sins are, to a certain extent, presumptuous. Sins of presumption, properly speaking, are sins of will, knowingly and wilfully committed. It is a sin of presumption to act as if we needed no mercy. (T. Somerville, M. A.) The deceitfulness of sin The sense of sin, the joy of pardon, and the yearning for goodness are essential features in the religion of Christ. If the sense of sin gives the deepest pain, the joy of pardon is the sweetest joy. The thought of the Psalmist in this passage is the difficulty for each man of understanding his sins. Error means straying, wandering from the path. There are sins of ignorance and of infirmity, unconsciously, unintentionally done through lack of self-knowledge, or of zealous vigilance against the deceits of the world and the snares of Satan. There are also sins of presumption, done with deliberateness and hardened pride and a sort of insolence against God. There are also sins which do not usually come earliest in the moral history, but which are the inevitable result and penalty of sins of carelessness and infirmity; and which imply, nay, sooner or later create, that awful insensibility which is the sure symptom of spiritual death, and for which no forgiveness, because no repentance, is possible. The sinfulness of sin consists in its being done against the majesty and holiness, and authority and love, of God. The more we know of God the more shall we feel the depravity, the wickedness of sin. The incessancy of it is a very painful and humbling, but incontestable truth. Our sins of omission, which perhaps come most home to us in the riper years of the Christian life; the sins of commission, in which we actually violate the law of God--were they to be brought up against us at the end of a single day, might turn our hair white with shame and sorrow. Its deceitfulness is one of its most malignant and dangerous features. To call good evil is not to make it evil, and to call evil good is not to make it good. Yet we love to have it so, and God answers us according to the multitude of our idols. Nevertheless, when the moral sense is darkened it is on the way to be extinguished. How then shall we keep alive in our hearts the instinct of righteousness, and the sorrowful consciousness of having come short of it? This Psalm shows us that the key of the secret, and the instrument for each of us to use, is the Word of God.1. Would we feel about sin as God would have us feel, let us pray earnestly and constantly for the Holy Spirit. 2. Let us be on our guard against an artificial, hysterical, self-inspecting, pusillanimous remorse. Let penitence come rather through the habitual contemplation of God in Christ, than by swelling the swamps of our own corrupt nature. 3. The sense of sin, if we would avoid unreality and a sort of complacency in our humbleness, should ever be accompanied with a continuous and strenuous effort to overcome it. 4. St. Paul never forgot his past. We need not forget that we have sinned, if only we have cause to believe that we are forgiven. We may be perfectly clean, though imperfectly holy. (Bishop Thorold.) A man’ s errors 1. Man’ s ignorance of himself is the result of man’ s ignorance of God; and the knowledge of God comprehends the knowledge of man. If a man would “ understand his errors,” he must first know Him who can forgive, correct, and prevent them. A capacity of spiritual discernment is essential to man knowledge of himself. 2. Man’ s knowledge of his ignorance is the first stage in his educational progress towards the possession of wisdom, and the first expression of that knowledge is prayer. 3. A tendency to err in thought, in word, and in action, combined with the inherent deceitfulness of sin, is the secret of the unfathomable mystery of human error,--unfathomable, that is, by any sounding line of mere human intellect or human conscience. A tendency to err produces error. A biassed ball cannot run straight. The deceitfulness of sin, however, rather than this tendency, is the preponderating element in the unknowableness of one’ s own errors. Sin usually wears a disguise, and often a man does not know his own sin. The sinful heart is a cunning logician. 4. To “ understand one’ s errors,” one must know the fact of the universal defilement of sin consequent upon the fall. 5. The “ errors” of a man include “ secret faults” and “ presumptuous sins.” To sin knowingly is to sin presumptuously. A secret fault is one unknown to others or ourselves--to either or to both. It is a mockery for a man who has not searched himself to ask God to search him. 6. All true wisdom, possessed or attainable by any one of the human race on earth, involves constant self-scrutiny and constant prayer. Men must be advised to look both within and without. It is because we look within that we also look without. 7. All true wisdom is increasing wisdom, for it involves increasing sanctification, and included in sanctification ,is the joy of a heavenly fellowship. (T. Easton.) The searching power of God’ s law Notice David’ s holy perplexity.1. The occasion of it. David was now looking into the law of God, and a beam of that light had darted into his conscience. The Word of God has a secret, unavoidable power upon the soul to convince it of sin. In the Scripture is presented a transcendent rule of holiness, the infinite purity and sanctity which is in God Himself. The soul, seeing this, is at once convinced of infinite impurity. In Scripture there is an exact rule of holiness prescribed. The law forbids all sin, and enjoins all holiness. It is a spiritual rule, not resting only in an outward conformity. It keeps secret thoughts under awe. The law of God is operative, not as a dead letter: it has an active power to work upon the heart. The Spirit of God goes along with it, and makes it quick, and powerful, and sharp, and mighty in operation. As to the-- 2. Nature and purpose of David’ s perplexity; it may be resolved into these three expressions. (1) It is the speech of a man who confesses his ignorance; he knows not his errors. (2) It is the speech of him who sees many errors in himself, and suspects more, and is astonished at the consideration of them. (3) He utters his thoughts with a sighing accent, and groans within himself at the sense of them. As to the matter of this question, take it thus--Who understands the nature of all his actions, whether they be erroneous or not? Or thus--Who ever yet kept such a careful account in his conscience as to register the just number of his sins? Or thus--Who understands the many aggravations that may make a seemingly small sin out of measure sinful? What is the ground whence arises this difficulty of discerning errors? Chiefly from these three. The Divine excellency of the law of God. The marvellous subtlety and closeness of man’ s spirit. The falsehood of Satan, his depths of deceitfulness. Use the subject for conviction, and for consolation. (Bishop Browning.) Knowledge of one’ s sins I. To acquire a knowledge of our sinfulness is exceedingly difficult. This may be inferred from the fact that very few acquire this knowledge, and that none acquire it perfectly. We learn, both from observation and from the Scriptures, that of those sins of the heart, in which men’ s errors or sinfulness principally consist in the sight of God, they are all by nature entirely ignorant. Men will not come to the Saviour because they do not feel their need of Him. It is difficult to get a knowledge of our sin, for the influences of the Divine Spirit are represented as necessary to communicate this knowledge. But it would be needless to convince men of sin if they were not ignorant of their sins. Mankind are so blind to their own sinfulness, so ignorant of their true characters, that the Spirit of God alone can remove this blindness. II. Show why it is so.1. Because men are ignorant of the Divine law. By the law is the knowledge of sin. St. John says, sin is a deviation from the law. But mankind are naturally ignorant of the Divine law. They are alive without the law. He who would understand his errors must understand the Divine law. 2. Another cause is the nature of the human mind. It is like the eye which, while it perceives other objects, cannot see itself (save in a mirror). Men find it difficult to examine themselves. 3. Another cause is the prevalence of self-love. Every man is extremely partial ill judging himself, and exceedingly unwilling to discover his own faults. 4. The deceitfulness of sin is another cause. 5. Another is the effects which sin produces upon men’ s understandings and consciences. These faculties are the eyes of the soul, without which he can discern nothing. Just so far as sin prevails in the heart and life, so far it puts out or darkens these eyes of the mind with respect to all spiritual objects; so that the more sinful a man really is, so much the less sinful does he appear to himself to be. (E. Payson, D. D.) Self-ignorance It is no supposition, but an unquestionable fact, that to not a few of us, from the first moment of existence, there has been present, not beneath the roof but within the breast, a mysterious resident, an inseparable companion, nearer to us than friend or brother, yet of whom, after all, we know little or nothing. Many are the reasons why we should be acquainted with our moral nature. Other portions of self-knowledge we may with comparative harmlessness neglect, but to neglect this is full of peril. And we can never depute the work to another. Unnoticed error in the heart, unlike intellectual deficiencies, not merely affects our temporal condition or our social reputation, but may issue in our eternal ruin. Yet a man’ s moral defects are most likely to elude his own scrutiny. There is a peculiar secrecy, an inherent inscrutability, about our sins. It is the peculiar characteristic of moral disease, that it does its deadly work in secret. Sin is a malady which affects the very organ by which itself is detected. One reason why the sinful man does not understand his errors is-- I. That sin can be truly measured only when it is resisted. So long as evil reigns unopposed within it will reign m a great degree unobserved. Resistance m the best measure of force. Sin’ s power is revealed only in the act of resistance. When the softening principle of Divine love and grace begins to thaw the icy coldness of a godless heart, then it is that the soul becomes aware of the deadly strength of sin. Then comes the feeling of an hitherto unrealised burden. II. Sin often makes a man afraid to know himself. A man often has a latent misgiving that all is not right with his soul, yet, fearing to know the whole truth, he will inquire no further. Most men prefer the delicious tranquillity of ignorance to the wholesome pains of a self-revelation. Easily alarmed in other cases, men become strangely incurious here. With many, life is but a continuous endeavour to forget and keep out of sight their true selves. III. The slow and gradual way in which, in most cases, sinful habits and dispositions are acquired. There is something in the mere fact of the gradual and insidious way in which changes of character generally take place, that tends to blind men to their own defects. Everyone knows how unconscious we often are of changes that occur by minute and slow degrees, as in the case of the seasons. How imperceptibly life’ s advancing stages steal up on us! Analogous changes equally unnoted, because equally slow and gradual, may be occurring in our moral nature, in the state of our souls before God. Character is a thine of slow formation. Each day helps to mould it. In a thousand insignificant sacrifices of principle to passion, of duty to inclination, a man’ s moral being has been fashioned into the shape it wears. IV. As character gradually deteriorates, there is a parallel deterioration of the standard by which we judge it. As sin grows, conscience declines in vigour, and partakes of the general injury which sin inflicts on the soul. Sin, in many of its forms, has an ugly look at first, but its repulsiveness rapidly wears off by familiarity. The danger of self-ignorance is not less than its guilt. Of all evils a secret evil is most to be deprecated,--of all enemies a concealed enemy is the worst. However alarming, however distressing self-knowledge may be, better that than the tremendous evils of self-ignorance. (Principal Caird, D. D.) Sin unmeasurable What we know is as nothing compared with what we do not know. This is true of our errors. I. Explain the question. We all own that we have errors, but who of us can understand them? They mingle with our good, and we cannot detect them so as to separate them. And this not only in our feelings, but in our actions. And their number, guilt, aggravation--who can understand this? Let each one think of his own errors and their peculiar wickedness. II. Impress it on the heart. In order to a man’ s understanding his errors he must understand the mystery of--1. The fall. Here is a piece of iron laid upon the anvil. The hammers are plied upon it lustily. A thousand sparks are scattered on every side. Suppose it possible to count each spark as it falls from the anvil; yet who could guess the number of the unborn sparks that still lie latent and hidden in the mass of iron? Now your sinful nature may be compared to that heated bar of iron. Temptations are the hammers; your sins the sparks. If you could count them (which you cannot do), yet who could tell the multitude of unborn iniquities--eggs of sin that lie slumbering in your souls. And so we are not to think merely of the sins that grow on the surface, but if we could turn our heart up to its core and centre we should find it as fully permeated with sin as every piece of putridity is with worms and rottenness. The fact is, that man is a reeking mass of corruption. His whole soul is by nature so debased and so depraved that no description which can be given of him even by inspired tongues can fully tell how base and vile a thing he is. 2. God’ s law especially in its spiritual application. It is exceeding broad. 3. The perfection of God. 4. Hell. 5. The Cross. George Herbert saith very sweetly--“ He that would know sin, let him repair to Olivet, and he shall see a Man so wrung with pain that all His head, His hair, His garments bloody be. Sin was that press and vice which forced pain to hunt its cruel food through every vein.” You must see Christ sweating, as it were, great drops of blood. You must drink of the cup to its last dregs, and like Jesus cry--“ It is finished,” or else we cannot know the guilt of our sin. III. The practical application.1. The folly of hoping for salvation by our own righteousness. 2. Or by our feelings. 3. What grace is this which pardons sin! Blessed be God, the spotless flood of Jesus’ merit is deeper than the height of mine iniquities. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The soul’ s error “Error,” what a word, what a thing! It is the foundation stone of Satan’ s kingdom in the world; ay, and by it be builds up and sustains his empire in the world. Two things are suggested here concerning the soul’ s errors-- I. They are mysterious. “ Who Call understand his errors?”1. They are mysterious in their origin. Wire can explain the genesis of error? 2. They are mysterious in their number. Who can count them? They baffle all human arithmetic. 3. They are mysterious in their working. How Wondrously they work! 4. They are mysterious in their influence. Who shall tell the influence of one error, on one individual, on society, on the universe? II. They are polluting. “ Cleanse Thou me.” Errors stain the conscience and the heart, they are moral filth.1. The cleansing of the soul from error is a work of supreme urgency. “ Cleanse Thou me.” Without this cleansing there can be no true liberty, dignity, or happiness, no fellowship with God, no heaven. 2. The cleansing of the soul from error is the work of God. “ Cleanse Thou me.” We cannot cleanse ourselves, though our agency in the matter is indispensable. “ Create ill me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.” (Homilist.) The difficulty of attaining to a knowledge of our sin We have here a question put and a prayer offered. But the implied answer to the question must be taken with some limitations; for-- I. Some knowledge of one’ s errors is essential to salvation. Such as--1. Will awaken the soul of man. 2. Drive him out of all the refuges of lies to which he will betake himself for salvation. 3. Convince him that he is utterly helpless and deserves to perish. 4. Make him come to Christ and accept the Gospel. But when men are brought to all this, then they ask-- II. Who can understand his errors? For--1. He cannot understand the errors that he knows--their nature, their variety, their number, their aggravation, their demerit. 2. Of many of his errors he has no knowledge at all. See how long men remain in sin and are not disturbed by it. Conclusion: How humbled should we be. How forbearing is God. How precious Christ’ s redemption. How mighty the work of the Holy Spirit. How thorough in its working true faith is. But how little of it there is. (J. R. Anderson.) Self-knowledge The foundation of all spiritual wisdom must be ]aid in self-knowledge. Yet men neither desire nor seek such knowledge. There is nothing that they desire less. Yet without there can be no true religion. The form may be maintained but the power will be unknown. But the good man will seek this knowledge, though he will not fully attain it. I. The humiliating confession implied in the Psalmist’ s question. It is implied that no man can understand his errors. And reasons for this are--1. The infinite purity of God’ s law, surpassing our comprehension. 2. Self-love, which makes him tender and partial in estimating his own faults. 3. The impossibility of recollecting every instance, even of undoubted transgression. They are so many, so varied, so secret. II. The humble petition which follows this confession. David knew that none of his sins were hidden from God, though they might be from himself. And he knew that they defiled and polluted his soul. Hence his prayer. It is the blood of Jesus Christ which alone can cleanse us. Turn, therefore, in confession and penitence to Him. (J. Jowett, M. A.) Difficulty of knowing our faults A small portion of light, it is said, only serves to render darkness more visible; so, when the light of truth begins to penetrate the mind, it shows that there is within us a dark abyss; and every additional ray discovers more of the intricate windings of the human heart. For there is not only dense darkness, but many false and deceitful appearances which turn out upon investigation very different from what they seemed to be. David felt this, and hence our text. I. Inquire why it is so difficult to know our own faults. We may know an act to be a sin, and yet not know all the moral evil that is in it. But--1. One reason why we know so little of ourselves is, that so few reflect. 2. Another is, our thoughts are so fugitive. 3. Our feelings are so mixed as to their character. 4. Pride and self-love. 5. Our dislike of that which excites, as our sins do--painful feelings. Remorse is an intolerable pain. And so is the “ looking for of judgment.” 6. We judge ourselves by the flatteries of others; 7. And by the ordinary conduct of men. 8. Failure to apply to ourselves the true standard of rectitude. “ I was alive without the law once.” How, then, ought we to watch our hearts and continually seek the grace of God. II. The import of this prayer. It is for deliverance not only from known, but from hidden sins also. And there is a two-fold cleansing--1. That of expiation. 2. That of sanctification. Not only do we need pardon, but the continual purification of our souls. Conclusion--1. The best evidence of the existence of a holy nature is the sincere and prevailing desire of perfect holiness. A gracious state is not proved by the persuasion that we have attained it, but by the ardent, habitual desire after it. 3. When on account of sin the conscience is again burdened, we must turn again to the blood of Christ. 4. Remember many of our sins are hidden, but they lead on to presumptuous sins. (A. Alexander, D. D.) Thy heart’ s ignorance of itself I. The question. “ Who can understand his errors?” “ Error” is one of the mildest words we use to describe wrong-doing. Sin, guilt, wickedness, iniquity, seem to be terms that carry heavy blame along with them; but when we say of a man merely that he is “ in error,” we consider we are speaking leniently. And yet “ error” really conveys, perhaps, a clearer idea of what sin in its essence is than any of the other words. For what is error but the straying out of a path, the wandering from a way? There is no better definition of sin. The soul has a way, a path, designed for it, just as a planet has an orbit. The difference between the star and the soul is, that the one keeps to its appointed course while the other wanders; but when we ask why this is so, when we try to find out the cause of such unlikeness of behaviour, we touch one of the deepest senses in which it is possible to ask the question, Who can understand his errors?1. Who can understand error as such? Why should that be true of the human soul which is true of nothing else that is or lives, so far as we know, namely, that it is able to break the law? 2. Who can understand his errors, in the sense of understanding the way in which the principle of sin works in the heart, and manifests itself in the life? (1) How often men, in the bitterness of their souls, cry, What can have possessed me that I should have said or done thus or so? They cannot imagine their true selves having said or done the thing, and so they fall back upon the fancy that some other being came in and took unrightful possession of the conscience, usurped it, thus making possible that which would have been impossible had the lawful sovereign continued on the throne. But this only shows how little we know ourselves, how hard it is for us to understand our errors. (2) When we take into account hereditary tendencies and dispositions, when we consider how much easier it is for one person to resist the temptation to intemperance, or violence of speech, than for another, the problem becomes still more complicated. (3) Letting go the past altogether, when we try to distinguish between the various sources from which, and channels through which, our temptations approach us, how embarrassed we find ourselves. We are conscious that some of our temptations come directly through the channels of sense; we see that others, such as the allurements of ambition and the attractions of praise, touch us from the side of “ the world,” so-called, or society; while of still others we can only say that they either originate in our own spirits or else are communicated by contact with other spirits, of whose nearness at this time or that we are ignorant. Yet when we have conceded the justice of this analysis, it remains exceedingly difficult to decide, in any given instance, from Which one of the three possible sources the temptation which happens for the moment to be pressing us with its vehement appeals has come. It is a point in favour of a beleaguered army if the general in command only knows on which side to anticipate the next attack, but where there is uncertainty about this, or what is worse, where there is the fear that the assault may come from all quarters at once, there must be corresponding loss of heart. II. The prayer. “ Cleanse Thou me,” etc. Here is the help, just here. Invite the Saviour of the soul to enter in through the gateway of the soul, and to take up His dwelling there. There is no one who comprehends a piece of mechanism so well as the inventor and the maker of it. You may call this a rough figure of speech, and yet, up to a certain point, it is a just one. The soul is, indeed, something much better than a watch; but still the watch and the soul have this much at least in common: each has had a maker, and it is only reasonable to say that no one can possibly understand the thing made so thoroughly as the one who made it. But note carefully the precise point where the soul has the advantage of the watch. It is here; the watchmaker touches the wheels and springs from without. He handles them with most marvellous dexterity, to be sure, but still, after all, it is only handling. The Maker of the soul can do more than handle His workmanship. He has the added power of entering in and dwelling within it, yes, actually within it, as intimately as the life power dwells within the very juices of the plant, making it lily or carnation, anemone or violet, each after its kind. Those cures are the most effectual that heal the man from within. Surface remedies are proverbially disappointing. Defects of constitution, deeply concealed flaws of nature, yield only to healing forces that, like an atmosphere breathed in, penetrate to the very inmost sources of life. It is so with the secret faults, the hidden flecks, the unnoticed weaknesses which mar the wholeness and sap the strength of the spiritual man. We need to breathe in more of God if we would breathe out more of goodness. We need to have within our veins and bounding in our pulses more of the blood of Christ if we would have the blood of Christ save us indeed, for it is not by an outward washing that God is making ready a people for Himself, but by that inward cleansing which begins at the heart. (W. R. Huntington, D. D.) Errors By errors he means his unwitting and inconsiderate mistakes. There are sins, some which are committed when the sun shines, i.e. with light and knowledge, and then, as it is with colours when the sun shines, you may see them, so these a man can see and know, and confess them particularly to be transgressions; there are other sins, which are committed either in the times of ignorance or else (if there be knowledge) yet with inobservance: either of these may be so heaped up in the particular number of them that, as a man did (when he did commit them), take no notice of them, so now after the commission, if he should take the brightest candle to search all the records of his soul, yet many of them would escape his notice. And, indeed, this is a great part of our misery, that we cannot understand all our debts: we can easily see too many, yet many more, he as it were dead, and out of sight; to sin is one great misery, and then to forget our sills is a misery too: if in repentance we could set the battle in array, point to every individual sin, in the true and particular times of acting and re-acting, oh how would our hearts be more broken with shame and sorrow, and how would we adore the richness of the treasure of mercy which must have a multitude in it, to pardon the multitude of our infinite errors and sins. (O. Sedgwick, B. D.) Errors discovered to the heart Nevertheless, though David saith, Who can understand his errors? as the prophet Jeremiah spake also, The heart of man is desperately wicked, who can know it? yet must we bestir ourselves at heaven to get more and more heavenly light to find out more and more of our sinnings: so the Lord can search the heart; and though we shall never be able to find out all our sins which we have committed, yet it is possible, and beneficial, for us to find out yet more sins than yet we do know: and you shall find these in your own experience, that as soon as ever grace entered your hearts you saw sin in another way than ever you saw it before, yea, and the more grace hath traversed and increased in the soul, the more full discoveries hath it made of sins: it hath shown new sins as it were, new sins, not for their being, not as if they were not in the heart and life before, but for their evidence, and our apprehension and feeling: we do now see such ways and such inclinations to be sinful which we did not think to be so before: as physic brings those burnouts, which had their residence before, now more to the sense of the patient: or as the sun makes open the motes of dust which were in the room before, so doth the light of the Word discover more corruption. (O. Sedgwick, B. D.) Cleanse Thou me from secret faults.--Secret faults Temptation comes to all men everywhere, and St. Bernard roundly says, “ All life is a temptation,” which means that it is a history of attacks and resistances, victories and defeats, in spiritual things. How could we ever expect to hear the praise, “ Well done, good and faithful servant,” if we had gained no victories over self? And how shall we gain them without effort? Temptation has various sources--our own weakness, Satan’ s plots, and God’ s purposes. Examination shows that temptation is allowed for in God’ s plan. Still, we are not to think God is Himself the author of temptation. The fact is, temptation has different meanings and objects, according to the different sources from which it comes. It was from mere malignity Satan tempted Job. It was from party spirit and self-sufficiency the lawyers questioned Christ, tempting Him. It is from coveting that those who would be rich fall into temptations; but when God allows us to be tempted, His trials are for our good, to disclose our weakness, to increase our strength, to rebuke our waywardness, or bring back our wandering steps. Even in their fails God’ s love pursues and overtakes His children. The first thing for us to do is to discover what is our temptation and our tempter. There are inveterate habits of thought, speech, and conduct which are chronic temptations one has hardly a knowledge of, and no will to resist. And here, in these, are the great battlefields for us; and the discovery of these to us is a special occasion of God’ s grace to us. When you have found out your special sin, the next thing is to enter the lists against it in a solemn way, a solemn and prepared way. We want the Holy Spirit’ s help to know what cannot otherwise be known, the sin which doth most easily beset us. This is to be prayed for, and waited for, and worked for, and part of the prayer must be the attitude of the praying life, a watching soul, a secretly self-questioning soul, a retirement into a sort of inner oratory in one’ s own self, there expecting and asking that God may show us ourselves, and enable us to discover, judge, and disapprove ourselves. (T. F. Crosse, D. C. L.) Secret sins In the Lateran council of the Church of Rome a decree was passed that every true believer must confess his sins, all of them, once a year to the priest, and they affixed to it this declaration, that there is no hope, else, of pardon being obtained. How absurd. Can a man tell his sins as easily as he can count his fingers? If we had eyes like those of God we should think very differently of ourselves. The sins that we see and confess are but like the farmer’ s small samples which he brings to market when he has left his granary full at home. Let all know that sin is sin, whether we see it or not: though secret to us, it is as truly sin as if we had known it to be so, though not so great as a presumptuous sin. But we want to speak to those whose sins are not unknown to themselves, but still are secret from their fellow men. Every now and then we turn up a fair stone which lies upon the green mound of the professing Church, surrounded with the verdure of apparent goodness, and we are astonished to find beneath it all kinds of filthy insects and loathsome reptiles. But that would not be just. Let me speak to you who break God’ s covenant in the dark and wear a mask of goodness in the light, who shut the doors and sin in secret. I. What folly you are guilty of. It is not secret, it is known. God knows it. This world is like the glass hives wherein bees sometimes work: we look down upon them, and we see all the operations of the little creatures. So God looketh down and seeth all. II. The misery of secret sins. They who commit them are in constant fear of discovery. If I must be a wicked man, give me the life of a roystering sinner, who sins before the face of day: let me not act as a hypocrite and a coward. A mere profession is but painted pageantry, to go to hell in, the funeral array of dead souls; guilt is a “ grim chamberlain,” even when his fingers are not bloody red. Secret sins bring fevered eyes and sleepless nights. Hypocrisy is a hard game to play at. III. Its solemn guilt. You do not think there is any evil in a thing unless somebody sees it, do you? If somebody did see, then there would be evil. But to play a trick and never be discovered, as we do in trade, that is all fair. I do not believe that. A railway servant puts up a wrong signal, there is an accident, the man is tried and punished. He did the same thing the day before, but there was no accident, and so no one accused him. But it was just the same; the accident did not make the guilt, but the deed. It was his business to have taken care. Secret sin is the worst of sin, because in his heart the man is an atheist. IV. The danger of secret sin. It will grow into a public one. You cannot preserve moderation in sin. The melting of the lower glacier in the Alps is always followed by that of the higher. When you begin to sin you go on. Christians, you dare not spare these secret sins; you must destroy them. V. I beseech you give them up. You who are almost persuaded to be a Christian. Will you have your sin and go to hell, or leave your sin and go to heaven? Some say, “ You are too precise.” Will you say that to God at the last? Secret sinner, in the great day of judgment what will become of thee? (C. H. Spurgeon.) The cry from the chasm The Tay Bridge fell because of “ secret faults,” --a few little blisters on a girder or two. David fell through “ secret faults.” Three lives we live, concentric circles they are, within one another, connected yet separate.1. The outside life, in society, among our fellow men. This outside life, comparing with the other inner lives, is lived with a dangerous facility. Society life is lived very easily. And yet it may be one seething mass of rottenness and hypocrisy. Yes, this outside life is easily lived, profession easily made, and easily and spotlessly acted up to, and because of that we find this prayer of the Psalmist does not refer in particular to this outmost circle, although, of course, to this outmost circle all the eddying movements for fouler or cleaner must in time extend. 2. An inner life we live when the door flings to its hinges on the world, the life in our home group, in our family circle. Here we manage to raise a little the society mask; we can almost lift it up and lay it down, and let our eyes look on our real selves. Our surroundings at home are more favourable to the revealing of our true character. The inspection of our home privacy is prejudiced in our favour. But here again there is a Pinchbeck imitation. A saint abroad, they say, may be a devil at home; true, but a devil abroad may be a saint at home. And a saint abroad and a saint at home too may be a devil at heart. The whole role of the saint we can easily act to minutest detail as a member or office bearer of the Church, and the “ pious fraud” can be carried through without a hitch in our home circle. The imitation may defy detection from the search of the strongest household microscopes. 3. The inmost life, the region of David’ s prayer for cleansing, is heart life. Into this privacy not another being is admitted. Here is solitude unbroken. If unbosom we would, we could not. God has walled round the spirit world with the walls unclimbable and unwingable. Nobody knows but Jesus--the battles of the soul, the halting, the stumbling, the fainting, the falling, the fleeing, the thoughts hard, the thoughts bad, the thoughts harsh and hateful, the temptings, the struggles, the sins, the uncleanness--the black poisoned streams pouring from the old death jets of the fountain day by day. Why does David pray for cleansing? What is prayer? It is the appeal to power from powerlessness, the strong cry from helplessness to help. Here in this inmost life faults are truly “ secret” --secret from the man himself. That is the bidden plague-spot, and well may we wince when we touch the place. We cannot play the hypocrite here. “ As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.” No mask here. Entirely helpless; if we seek cleansing, we must get it outside ourselves. For it we must pray to God. Why, O burdened psalmist heart, needest thou pray for cleansing of secret faults? In most folk’ s vocabulary “ secret” is comfortable, quieting, secure, and safe. Well dost thou know that faults secret to others, and secret to thee, are not secret to God. The prayer is from David’ s helplessness before the secret faults of his own soul; but the agonising timbre of the petition is from the overpowering sense of this inward depravity and corruption, secret and unknown to him, yet spread out in a terrible roll before Him who cannot look upon the shadow of sin. This staggering thought is one reason for the earnestness of this prayer. (J. Robertson.) Secret faults The Psalmist is thinking of the errors that we don’ t understand, and of which we are not conscious.1. There are faults which are secret, because they are bound up with our dispositions and characters. We see every day how blind men become to their own habitual faults. 2. There are secret faults which are due to the influence of our surroundings. There is a law known to naturalists as the law of protective colouring, according to which animals grow into the likeness of their environment. There is such a law in society. Human beings tend to assimilate themselves to the customs and opinions of the world around them. In the business world men do, without hesitation, what they could not do if they applied the law of Christ to the regulation of their daily calling. The society in which we live affects us. It tends to bring us down to its level, and imbues us with its opinions. 3. There are secret faults which consist of undeveloped germs and possibilities of evil that lie lurking in our hearts. How are we to be delivered from these secret faults?1. Set about the work of self-examination. Careful and judicious self-examination lies at the bottom of all progressive Christianity. It may be done in a morbid, introspective way, but it need not be. 2. We must apply ourselves to the study of the Word of God. 3. We should bring ourselves into the holy presence of Jesus Christ. 4. We must learn to pray the Psalmist’ s prayer. We cannot cleanse ourselves, we need to be cleansed. Christ must live in us by His Holy Spirit if we are to be cleansed from our secret faults, and to become pure even as He is pure. (J. C. Lambert.) Secret faults Unless we have some just idea of our hearts and of sin we can have no right idea of a Moral Governor, a Saviour, or a Sanctifier. Self-knowledge is at the root of all real religious knowledge. Self-knowledge admits of degrees. No one, perhaps, is entirely ignorant of himself Most men are contented with a slight acquaintance with their hearts, and therefore a superficial faith. Men are satisfied to have numberless secret faults. They do not think about them either as sins or as obstacles to strength of faith, and live on as if they had nothing to learn.1. A ready method of convincing ourselves of the existence in us of faults unknown to ourselves is to consider how plainly we see the secret faults of others. 2. Now reflect on the actual disclosures of our hidden weakness, which accidents occasion. Integrity on one side of our character is no voucher for integrity on another. We cannot tell how we should act if brought under temptations different from those which we have hitherto experienced. 3. This much we cannot but allow; that we do not know ourselves in those respects in which we have not been tried. But further than this: What if we do not know ourselves even where we have been tried, and found faithful? The recorded errors of Scripture saints occulted in those parts of their duty in which they showed obedience most perfect. 4. Think of this too: No one begins to examine himself, and to pray to know himself, but he finds within him an abundance of faults which before were either entirely, or almost entirely, unknown to him. That this is so we learn from the written lives of good men, and our own experience of others. And hence it is that our best men are ever the most humble. 5. But let a man persevere in prayer and watchfulness to the day of his death, yet he will never get to the bottom of his heart. Though he know more and more of himself as he becomes more conscientious and earnest, still the full manifestation of the secrets there lodged is reserved for another world. Call to mind the impediments that are in the way of your knowing yourselves or feeling your ignorance.1. Self-knowledge does not come as a matter of course; it implies an effort and a work. The very effort of steadily reflecting is painful to some men, not to speak of the difficulty of reflecting correctly. 2. Then comes in our self-love. We hope the best; this saves us the trouble of examining. Self-love answers for our safety. 3. This favourable judgment of ourselves will especially prevail if we have the misfortune to have uninterrupted health and high sprats and domestic comfort. 4. Next consider the force of habit. Conscience at first warns us against sin; but if we disregard it, it soon ceases to upbraid us; and thus sins, once known, in time become secret sins. 5. To the force of habit must be added that of custom. Every age has its own wrong ways. 6. What is our chief guide amid the evil and seducing customs of the world? Obviously the Bible. These remarks may serve to impress upon us the difficulty of knowing ourselves aright, and the consequent danger to which we are exposed of speaking peace to our souls when there is no peace. Without self-knowledge you have no root in yourselves personally; you may endure for a time, but under affliction or persecution your faith will not last. (J. H. Newman, B. D.) Concealing faults Various causes contribute to conceal from a man his faults. I. A defect of knowledge. Many sin against God without being conscious of it. Where ignorance is unavoidable there sin may be excusable; but a man who would avail himself of this plea must make it appear that his ignorance was not owing to any want of care on his part to find out the law. One principal cause that our sins are so much concealed from our view is, that we form our standard of what is right, not from the pure and holy law of God, but from the general opinion of our fellow sinners. The custom of the world is our guide. II. The want of a right disposition of mind. While we were flattering our pride with the hope of having done everything right, we may have deceived ourselves in the very idea of right. The want of right dispositions is a subject little considered. We are often under the influence of desires and tempers positively evil, without knowing it, through the deceitfulness of sin and of our own hearts. Consider this subject as the means of rendering us humble. And let it make us watchful. (Christian Observer.) Secret faults Look at this two-fold deliverance asked for--grace to cleanse from secret or presumptuous faults. All sins come under the category of secret sins, or those of presumption. The conscience of David was becoming more sensitive; secret sins could be secret no longer. We may perhaps compare that development of moral sensitiveness which the law is always promoting within every right-minded man with those advances of physical science by which unknown worlds above and beneath us have been brought into view, and disease detected in stages in which its presence was unsuspected by our forefathers. A century ago man’ s observations had not got very far beyond the range of his unassisted senses. Our astronomers have scarcely completed the sum of the stars brought into view by the newest telescopes. The biologist has discovered just as many new worlds as the student of the heavens. He finds sphere of marvellous life within sphere, and yet other spheres more deeply bidden within these, like ball within ivory ball in Oriental carving. An Italian doctor brings his microscope to bear, and, floating within a foot of the soil of the Campagna, finds the malignant bacillus which is at the root of the malarial fever of Rome. Our forefathers knew only the superficial facts of disease, corruption, decay. The biologist brings his concentrated lenses and his polarised light to bear, and he watches every movement of the tiny armies of iconoclasts as they undermine and break up the structure of the body at points where the ordinary observer did not suspect their presence. He projects an electric beam through tubes filled with stifled air, and the air is found to teem with spores that are undeveloped epidemics, with potentialities of worldwide disaster in them. Within recent times we have heard of the elaboration of instruments that may reveal new worlds of sound to us, as marvellous as the worlds of form revealed by the microscope. It is said that no man ever knows what his own voice is like till he hears it in Mr. Edison’ s phonograph. We are told of another instrument by which the breathings of insects are made audible. The medical expert may yet be able to detect the faintest murmur of abnormal sound in the system that indicates the approach of disease. And in the same way there must be the growth within us of a fine moral science, that will bring home to our apprehension the most obscure of our secret faults. But of all the sciences it is the most primitive and the most neglected. All that we should know is known to the Searcher of our heart long before we become conscious of it. He not only detects the flagrant faults, but the hidden blight that poisons the vitality of religion. But how can there be responsibility for sins of which we are ignorant? And how can there be guilt without responsibility? If ignorance is fated and inevitable, there can be no responsibility. But ignorance is often self-caused. Many of our sins are secret because we insist upon judging ourselves by human rather than Divine standards of life and righteousness. Our sins assume popular forms and ramifications. No more striking illustration of what the naturalists call the “ law of protective colouring” can be found than that which presents itself in the realm of ethics. You know what that law is. The arctic fox, it is said, assumes a white fur in the winter months, so that it may pass undetected over the snows. When the spring comes and the brown earth reappears, it sheds those white hairs and assumes a fur the colour of the earth over which it moves. Many fishes have markings that resemble the sand or gravel above which they make their haunts. You may watch for hours, and till they move you are unable to recognise their presence. The bird that broods on an exposed nest is never gaily coloured. However bright the plumage of its mate, it is always attired in feathers that match its surroundings, if it has to fulfil these dangerous domestic duties. Large numbers of insects are so tinted as to be scarcely distinguishable from the leaves and flowers amidst which they live. One insect has the power of assuming the appearance of a dried twig. And is there not something very much like this in the sphere of human conduct? Our sins blend with the idiosyncrasies of the age and disguise themselves. Of course, we do not sin in loud, flashing colours, if we make any pretension to piety at least. Our sins always perfectly compose with the background of our surroundings. As a rule, they are sins into which we fall in common with men we esteem, men who have established a hold upon our affections, men whose sagacity we trust, and who by their excellence in some things lead us to think very lightly of the moral errors they illustrate in other things. Oh, the blinding tendency of this judgment by popular standards to which we are so prone! All this was sure to be illustrated in the history of the Psalmist. In the rough and tumble of his wandering life and coarse associations he would be prone to forget the inner and more delicate meanings and obligations of the law. The moral atmosphere pervading the Cave of Adullam was not more wholesome than that pervading our unreformed bankruptcy courts. The cave was not the best possible place in which to school a man in the finer shades of right and wrong. Most of David’ s sins in after life seem to have been lurid reflections of the brutality, the unthinking ruthlessness, the impetuous animalisms of his former companions in arms. He evidently felt the danger he was in of falling to the level of his surroundings and of forgetting by how much he had fallen. Let us beware of gliding into an unconfessed habit of testing ourselves by human standards, when God has given to us higher and holier standards by which to measure ourselves. It is said that all organic germs cease a few miles out at sea. Air taken from the streets or the warehouses of the city yields large numbers of these germs. The air circulating through the ship in dock is charged with them. After the shore has been left behind the air taken from the deck is pure, but they are still found in air taken from the hold. After a few days at sea the air on deck and in the hold alike yields no traces of these microscopic spores that are closely connected with disease. Let us be ever breathing the spirit of God’ s love. Let us get away from the din and dust and turmoil of life, out upon that infinite sea of love that is without length or breadth or depth, and our secret faults will vanish away and we shall by and by stand without offence in the presence of God’ s glory. Passion, prejudice, ambition often blind men to their faults. When great passionate forces hurry us on we are not more apt to see the shortcomings and specks of corruption in the motives and actions of the passing moment, than the traveller by a racing express to see the little ring of decay in the lily of the wayside garden past which he is flying. During the Franco-Prussian War a regiment of Prussian soldiers was deploying from the shelter of a wood, in full face of French fire. The appearance of the regiment as seen from a distance, said one of the war correspondents, was like that of some dark serpent creeping out from beneath the wood. The far-stretching figure seemed to leave a dark trail in its path. The correspondent looked carefully through his glass, and this trail resolved itself under close inspection into patches of soldiers who had fallen under French fire. Some of them were seen to get on to their feet, stagger on a few paces, and fall again. The passion of battle was upon them, and they were scarcely conscious of their wounds. And is it not thus with us? We are intoxicated by the passion of life’ s battle, the battle for bread and place and power and conquest of every kind; and we stagger on, unconscious of the fact that we are pierced with many a hidden wound. The excitements that are in the air whirl us along, and we are all but insensible to the moral disaster He sees who watches the battle from afar. Our slowness to recognise the hurt that has overtaken us may be the sign that the pulse of vitality is fluttering itself out. “ Keep back Thy servant also from presumptuous sins.” It is restraint, not purification, from presumptuous sin that the Psalmist asks in the second portion of his prayer. Presumptuous sin has no place in a true child of God. “ He that is born of God doth not commit sin.” Cleansed by the forgiving grace of God, we ought to need only deliverance from errors of inadvertence and infirmity. “ He that is bathed needeth not save to wash his feet.” No hallowing process, however complete, can remove susceptibility to the temptation even to presumptuous sins. The work of cleansing from secret fault sometimes creates a new peril. We need to be kept back from it, as the restive horse needs the curb. David felt this, and therefore prayed this prayer. (Thomas G. Selby.) On the duty of examining into our secret faults The faculties of the human mind are never acknowledged to be more imperfect, or at least more inadequate, to the object proposed, perhaps, than when applied to estimate the real merit, or demerit, of men’ s actions; for, in order to form an opinion on this subject that might have the sanction of strict justice, we must know the motives and intentions of the heart. The generality of men divide their service between two masters, and hence are neither wholly good nor wholly bad. And as we cannot fully understand or appreciate the real character of others, so neither can we our own. Hence the petition before us. Yet we can do something towards the understanding many of our errors and secret faults; and this is our duty. Therefore I would-- I. Recommend the important duty of examining into our latent imperfections. And this because the growth of character is so gradual. Not all at once do we become vicious, and certainly not all at once do we attain the summits of virtue. We are in a great measure the children of discipline, and therefore the sooner this begins the better. Our great perils are not from the temptations of the open day, but those which are from within. These are the parents, of almost every evil deed. How important, then, to attend to these “ secret faults. II. Specify some of those secret faults to which we are apt to be inattentive. They assume all manner of disguises, and the mind will throw false glosses over its own deformity. The mean rapacious wretch will call his conduct prudence, temperance, and provident wisdom. The gloomy bigot will despise the warm, steady devotion of the rational Christian. Pride will call itself independence of spirit; and meekness and gentleness will be branded as meanness and pusillanimity. But above all things, we should attend to the nature and the grounds of our satisfactions and pleasures, our griefs and vexations, in the intercourse we carry on with the world. III. Point out secret faults which, though conscious of them ourselves, we industriously keep from the eyes of the world. There is hypocrisy in these, and hence they are worse than others. As, for instance, courtesy in order to deceive, a wicked affectation of Christian gentleness. These are wolves in sheep’ s clothing. Such are religious from mere worldly motives. They are hypocrites. Yet those who take no care to cleanse themselves from errors of this sort must live and act under a state of the most wretched bondage to the world. All is sacrificed to appearance. The passions, indeed, may be often mortified and suppressed, though not from a sense of religious duty (for then it would be virtue), but from “ respect of persons,” or the fear of losing some advantage. Men who are thus wedded, as it were, to sin are often as cruel and oppressive as they are selfish and hypocritical. Though they cringe to power, and flatter to deceive; yet they will frequently retire from the insults and vexations of the world within the circle of their respective authority, and there vent their angry and malignant passions with redoubled vehemence and malice. IV. The correction of these evils. Live as in the sight of God, before whom the secrets of all hearts shall be disclosed. We may deceive men, but we cannot deceive Him. A time will shortly come when we shall be convinced that there is but “ one thing needful,” which is the mercy and protection of God, through the merits and atonement of Christ our Lord. The fashion and the appearance of this world will then be so strangely reversed that, among many good and faithful servants who are worthy to enter into the joy of their Lord, we shall see some whose merits we thought highly of shrink from the awful trial of the last day, and vanish like smoke before the wind; while the meek and humble virtues of those whom we might have overlooked and neglected, or perhaps despised, shall shine forth like the sun in His kingdom. (J. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/bi/ Psalms 19:13 Keep back Thy servant also from presumptuous sins.A conjunction of requests I. There may and should be a conjunction, even of great petitions and requests (at once) unto God. David ends not at that request (keep me from secret sins), but goes on also, O Lord, keep me from presumptuous sins; he multiplies his suits according to the multiplicity of his necessity and exigence. There be divers qualities about our prayers.1. One is an urgent fervency. 2. Importunity. 3. Patient perseverance. 4. A variety or multiplicity of matter, like as a patient who comes to the physician, we may and should open not; only one want, but all our wants; and crave help not in one thing, but in every thing: we should multiply requests. Reasons hereof are these:1. God can hear every request as well as anyone. A multiplied request as well as a single request: for He takes not, nor observes things by discourse, where one notion may be an impediment to the apprehension of another, but all things (by reason of His omniscience) are equally at once present unto Him. 2. Nay, He can grant many and great requests as easily as the single and smallest petition. The greatest gift comes as freely and readily out of His hand as the most common mercy. 3. Christ is as ready and able to implead many and great requests as well as some and inferior. 4. God hath for this end made manifold promises; therefore we may put up many and great requests at once. 5. Lastly, God is rich in mercy, and plenteous in compassion; His mercies are often styled manifold mercies. II. That even a good christian should have a fear of great sins as well as a care of secret sins. “ Keep me also from presumptuous sins.” Reasons whereof may be these.1. The latitude of original sin, which as it is yet remaining in the best, so it is in them an universal fountain naturally apt to any vile inclination. 2. The instances of great transgressions: even those saints who have been as the highest stars have left behind them their twinklings and sad eclipses. Now when cedars fall, should not the tender plants tremble? if the sins of others be not our fear, they may be our practice; what the best have done, the weakest may imitate if they do not hear and fear. He is a wise and sincere Christian who resists the smallest, and fears the greatest sins: Keep back Thy servant from presumptuous sins. I observe from the words absolutely considered-- III. That a good man is God’ s servant. “ Thy servant,” etc. Servants, not of force, but of affection. IV. That we are God’ s servants, should be used to move the Lord to help us against sins. V. That our special relations to God should be special reasons to work a care not to sin against God. The very nature of sin carries along with it a condemnation of sinning, because sin formerly is a transgression, an enemy, and a rebellion, which alone is an inglorious thing. Again, the laws and threatenings of God should be “ as forcible cords to draw off the heart from sin. And again, all the mercies and goodness of God should exasperate the heart against sin. Again, all the attributes of God might hold us. Now, with these this also may come in, namely, the specialty of our relation to God, that we are His children. Reasons whereof are these--1. Admissions of sinnings here do diffuse a greater ingloriousness to God: sin is more darkening in a white cloud than in a black, as a spot is more eminently disgraceful in a fair than in a foul cloth. 2. Their great sinnings do make them the sorer wounds and work: no sinning wounds so deep as such which have more mercy and goodness to control them. Oh then, let us improve our interest in our God. Should such a man as I flee, said Nehemiah; so then, should such a man as I sin thus, walk thus, live, do thus? Why? God is my God, He is my Father; I am His child, His servant. (O. Sedgwick, B. D.) Presumptuous sin 1. This is a prayer to be delivered from gross and undisguised sins. “ Secret sins” are subtle and hidden; presumptuous sins are open, glaring, outrageous. But are the people of God in any danger from coarse and notorious sins? It is well to remind ourselves that there is no temptation we can treat lightly. The world today is full of those who have grievously fallen. 2. Another act of presumption against which we must guard is the unnecessary exposure of ourselves to temptation and harm. The foolhardiness of some is surprising. They expose themselves to sceptical influences, to worldly entanglements, to animal indulgences, to many yawning abysses which threaten body and soul. Myriads perish through standing on the slippery places and dizzy heights of temptation. 3. A branch of presumptuous sin is to treat negligently our secret faults. The presumptuous sin is often first one of those secret faults mentioned in the preceding verse; it is the secret fault matured and ripened. The mistake is that we are not sufficiently impressed by the faint, hidden evil, and we do not make immediate and serious efforts to deal with it. It is thus that our faults increase in magnitude and deepen in colour. Safety lies in dealing with the earliest aberrations of our mental, emotional, and physical nature, and not giving them opportunity to strengthen and display themselves. The Kingdom of Heaven is first as a grain of mustard seed; but we forget that the kingdom of hell in its beginnings is equally microscopic. A medical authority has recently declared that elephantiasis is often occasioned by the bite of the mosquito. 4. Another sin of presumption is to face the natural and inevitable perils of life without availing ourselves of every possible advantage of vigilance and defence. The diver does not descend into the depth without being sure of his panoply. Nothing is more remarkable in nature than the way in which animals and plants are armed against their enemies. The most ferocious thorns and spines protect cacti from destruction by the wild quadrupeds of their desert home. Protective mechanics of a most complicated order are found in a number of plants, which would otherwise be endangered and perhaps entirely destroyed by the attacks of ravenous snails. And God has not left us without a “ whole armour” ; it would be very unlike Him if He had. But alas! we often neglect to fortify ourselves; we go into a dangerous world with sandals, sword, helmet, and breastplate missing. 5. It is essentially an act of moral presumption to live in a low state of spiritual power. There is no presumption greater than to live with a cold heart, a weak faith, a vacillating purpose. We invite failure and ruin. We are free from harm and condemnation as we live full of power and enthusiasm. (W. L. Watkinson.) Of presumptuous sins Everything evinceth the Almightiness of the great Creator. Three instances--1. The glorious fabric of the spangled vault above us. 2. The vicissitude of day and night. 3. The excellencies of that great minister of nature, the sun; considered in the comeliness and beauty of his person, in the force of his incredible swiftness, in the largeness of his walk, in the universality of his influence. The Bible, or hook of holy writ, is described by its several names and titles. Note the terms and appellations, the qualities described, and the effects or operations. The third book is the conscience. What finds he there? A foul blurred copy, that he is puzzled how to read. The conscience being convicted of sin, where there is any sense of true piety, the soul will address itself to God for pardon, that it may be cleansed from secret faults; and for grace, that by its restraints and preventions and assistances it may be kept back from presumptuous sins, and, if unhappily engaged, that it may be freed at last from the dominion of them. There is here a request, and the ground of it, which is the advantage and benefit thence arising. Consider two propositions.1. That the very best of men, without Divine restraints, are liable to the worst of miscarriages, even presumptuous sins. Secret faults are such as hide themselves, the common errors and frailties of our life: sins of infirmity, constitution, and temper; sins of surprise. Deliberation and consent make any sin to be a presumptuous sin. The course of sin is, the invitation of the sensual appetite, the inclination of the will, a force upon the judgment, a full consent, the act itself. This is aggravated into presumption when the daring sin gets the dominion and power over a man. From act it proceeds to delectation; this leads to new acts, and at last objuration and final impenitence. Note the ways and means God uses either to restrain and keep back men from committing presumptuous sins, or to rescue and recover them from under the dominion of them. These are partly on account of providence, partly from common morality, and partly from special grace. The best of men are still men, partakers of the same common nature with other men. They have the same affections and passions, the same fleshly appetites, which many times betray them into the same inconveniences. 2. Presumptuous sins, even in the servants of God themselves, are offences of a damnable and desperate nature. They tincture them with a deep guilt, subvert their spiritual state, and throw them out of God’ s favour into disgrace. And this reasonably, because of their ingratitude to God, and the great hurt of their example, as a scandal to religion, by the hardening of wicked men and the discouragement of the pious. (Adam Littleton, D. D.) The means of moral preservation What is it to sin presumptuously? The word means, “ with a high hand.” Then, to sin presumptuously is to sin in an aggravated degree.1. To sin in opposition to knowledge is to sin presumptuously. This is not characteristic of all sins. Some sins are products of ignorance. 2. To sin in contrariety to conscience is to sin presumptuously. 3. To sin in defiance of the common operations of the Divine Spirit. 4. To sin after having deliberated about the commission of it. 5. To sin when there is no strong temptation to the commission of it. 6. To sin notwithstanding adverse dispensations of Divine providence are loudly calling for sin to be abhorred and avoided. 7. To sin in the hope of ultimately obtaining mercy. (A. Jack, D. D.) The nature and danger of presumptuous sins They are such as have more of wilfulness and malice prepense than of ignorance and infirmity in them; when a man sins with a high hand against the dictates of reason and the checks of conscience, through the stubbornness and perverseness of a depraved, distorted will. Consider the malignant qualities and mischievous effects of presumptuous sinning.1. They spring from the corruption of the heart, from some evil lust or affection, some predominancy of pride, avarice, or voluptuousness. 2. After sinning in this manner it is very hard to repent. 3. Supposing a man relents soon after, and is disposed to repent heartily and turn to God; yet it will be difficult for him so to heal the breach which those sins have made as to come with delight and humble confidence to God as before. Advice and directions how to avoid these sins. (1) Be instant in prayers to Almighty God to preserve us by His preventing grace from failing into them. (2) After prayers we must use our best endeavours to help ourselves. We must look well to our hearts, that they may be set right and kept with all diligence. Sinning presumptuously is, as it were, revolting from God and running off into another interest. Our hearts are not whole with God when we do it. (3) We should be often reflecting upon the infinite value of heavenly things above all earthly enjoyments. (4) Our care should be to keep out of temptations as much as possible. (5) We should be watchful of our whole conduct, and especially beware of the beginnings of things. (T. Waterland.) Avoiding presumptuous sins 1. Be sure never to do anything against the clear light of thine own conscience. 2. Strive to be master of thine own will. We count our horses to be unserviceable until they be broken. It is a great point in the art of education for parents betimes to break their children of their wills. 3. Beware of sinful engagements. A man may have already done some evil from which he cannot handsomely acquit himself, but to his loss and shame, unless he either cover it or maintain it by laying another sin upon it. Seldom doth a man fall into presumptuous sin, but where the devil has got such a hank over him. The only way to get free is to break out of the engagement. 4. Harden thyself with a holy obstinacy and wilfulness. (Bishop Sanderson.) Presumptuous sins Some sins are greater than others. Every sin has in it the very venom of rebellion, but there be some which have in them a greater development of its essential mischief, and which wear upon their faces, as do presumptuous sins, more of the brazen pride which defies the Most High. Though under the Jewish law an atonement was provided for every kind of sin, there was none for this. “ The soul that sinneth presumptuously shall have no atonement; it shall be cut off.” Very terrible, then, are these sins. I. What are they?1. Those that are committed wilfully against manifest light and knowledge. Conscience furnishes often such light; it is the voice of God in the heart. If conscience warn you, and yet you sin, that is presumption. 2. Deliberation is another characteristic of these sins. There are some who can think upon a sin for weeks, and dote upon the thought of it and plan for it, and then when opportunity comes, go and commit it. 3. Long continuance in it. 4. Design. See the punishment of the Sabbath breaker told of in the Book of Numbers. He was punished, not merely because he gathered the sticks on the Sabbath, but because the law had just been proclaimed, “ In it (the Sabbath) thou shalt do no manner of work.” 5. The hardihood born of fancied strength of mind. “ It won’ t hurt me,” say many. But they find that they are hurt. It would be presumption for any man to climb to the top of the spire of a church and stand upon his head. “ Well, but he might come down safe if he were skilled in it.” Yes, but it is presumptuous. You have heard how Dionysius the tyrant punished one who had displeased him. He invited him to a noble feast. Rich were the viands that were spread upon the table, rare the wines he was invited to drink. But he was utterly miserable, he sat in his chair in agony. For over his head, immediately over it, there hung a sword, bright and sharp, suspended by a single hair, and he had to sit all the tinge with this sword above him. He could not escape, he must sit where he was. Conceive the poor man’ s misery. But you, who will procrastinate, are willingly placing yourself in a position as full of peril, and yet you make mirth. II. The sinfulness of these sins. It is because they are against light and knowledge, are deliberate and wilfully done. III. The appropriateness of this prayer. It was the prayer of a saint. “ Hold me in, Lord, I am prone to these sins.” See how Paul warns saints against the most loathsome sins. There is enough tinder in the heart of the best of men to light a fire that shall burn to the lowest hell. But how much more have we need to pray this prayer. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The anatomy of presumptuous sins I. What presumptuous sins are.1. That presumptuous sinnings are proud adventurings of the heart upon sin; there is a large difference ‘ twixt foilings by temptation and adventurings by presumption. Temptation beats down that actual strength of grace resisting: but presumption tramples down the light of the Word opposing. A man doth even try it out with God, and provokes Him to His face; and maintains the devices of his heart against the purity and equity of God’ s will. 2. In presumptuous sinnings a man knows the thing and way to be unlawful: and therefore the presumptuous sinner is opposed to the ignorant sinner; the presumptuous sinner holds a candle in one hand, and draws out the sword with the other. 3. The presumptuous sinner adventures against express threatenings. 4. Presumptuous sins do arise from a false confidence; there are two things upon which the presuming sinner doth embolden himself. (1) One is the facility of mercy: when a man sets mercy against sin, he doth well; but when a man sets mercy against justice, now he offends. “‘ Tis true, this is a sin, and Divine justice will not take it well, but I will adventure on it, hoping that Divine mercy will pacify the rigour of the threatening; I will sin and offend justice, but then I will decline that court by flying to the mercy seat” (Deuteronomy 29:19). (2) Another is the self-possibility and strength of future repentance: he is one of the worst patients in a way of sinning who is confident that he can be his own physician: no soul wounds itself more than that which vainly thinks that it can presently cure them. There are two things which the sinner cannot assure himself of. One is the lengthening of his life; for this candle is lighted and put out, not according to our desires, but according to Divine pleasure: all life has its limits from the Lord of life and death. Another is the returning of the heart from sin. 5. In many presumptuous sinnings there is a slighting contempt (Numbers 15:30-31): presumptuous sinning is called a despising of the Word of the Lord. 6. Lastly, presumptuous sinning may rise higher than all this, as when a man sins not only knowingly and wilfully, but most maliciously and despitefully against God and Christ (Hebrews 10:29; Hebrews 6:6). II. What that strength is which keeps back regenerate persons prom presumptuous sins; and what difference ‘ twixt the restrainings of evil men and this keeping back of good David.1. Restraint is any kind of stop ‘ twixt the inclination and the object; when the nature is inclined to such a thing, and a bar falls in to keep them asunder, this is restraint. 2. Restraint of any agent ariseth from a greater strength of a superior agent: whatsoever keeps a man back from a sinful acting, it is (at that time) whiles a restraint of more actually strong force than the present inclination is; as in the stopping of a stone or water, that which is unequal in strength, a lesser force is not able to keep in the stronger. Though sinful inclinations be strong, yet God can overrule and bound and bind it in. 3. All restraint presupposeth an aptness, a disposition ready to run and get out. The child whose desire is to lie in the cradle is not there said to be restrained; and the tradesman whose shop is his paradise is not therefore restrained from going abroad; but when a servant would be gadding, and yet is kept in, this is restraint. 4. All restraint of sin is from God. 5. All evil men are not equally restrained by God. 6. The restraining of any sinner is an act of a merciful Providence unto him. 7. God doth restrain the good and the bad from sin. 8. God doth diversely keep back or restrain men from particular sins and sinnings: sometimes-- (1) By enlivening the conscience.(2) By self-reflecting apprehensions.(3) By legal imprintings.(4) By denying and crossing opportunities.(5) By denying or withholding of temptations.(6) By causing diversions, which may call aside the employment of the sinner another way.(7) Lastly, by beginning and supporting and enlarging the principle of sanctification. 9. The restrainings of good men are exceedingly different from those of evil men. The restrainings of evil men are but as locks upon the out door; and the keeping back of good men is as the lock upon the closet. One is all impedite to the actions, the other is an impedite to the inclinations; one is a bridle upon the lips and bands, the other is a bond upon the heart and disposition. They differ in their efficacy: restrainings of evil men do not impair the state of sin, no more than chains and prisons do the nature of the thief or lions. Mere restraints do not deal justly with sins, they make a stop in one, and leave open a gap for other sins: like a vessel of many holes, though the water break not out in one place, because it is stopped, yet it freely flies out in the rest. So where a man is restrained only, though that sin cannot find a way in that vein, yet it will find a course (like the water which is hindered under ground) another way. But the holdings back by renewing grace do indispose generally and evenly. They differ in the fulness of duration; for mere restraints hold in the nature no longer than the things remain by virtue of which the mind was restrained. Let the fear of death expire, put aside the edge of the law, be sure that shams shall not follow, and the only restrained sinner breaks open school, so that he goes to the sin. But holdings back by renewed grace are cohibitions of the heart upon permanent grounds, namely, the perpetual contrariety twixt God and sin, twixt sin and His will and holiness and goodness and honour. They differ in this, that the heart of a man only restrained doth, being at liberty (like waters held up), pour forth itself more violently and greedily, as if it would pay use for forbearance. They differ thus. An evil man is kept back as a prisoner by force against his will; but a good man is kept back as a petitioner. It is his heart’ s desire. Oh, that my ways were so directed that I might keep Thy statutes. It is an evil man’ s cross to be restrained, and a good man’ s joy to be kept back from sin. Take what I conceive, briefly thus: God keeps back His servants from sin--1. By preventing grace, which is by infusing such a nature, which is like a bias unto the bowl, drawing it aside another way. 2. By assisting grace, which is a further strength superadded to that first implanted nature of holiness, like a hand upon a child holding him in. 3. By quickening grace, which is, when God doth enliven our graces to manifest themselves in actual opposition, so that the soul shall not yield, but keep off from entertaining the sin: as when in the motions of sin He inflames the heart with an apprehension of His own love in Christ. 4. By directing grace, which is when God confers that effectual wisdom to the mind, tenderness to the conscience, watchfulness to the heart, that His servants become greatly solicitous of His honour, scrupulously jealous of their own strength, and justly regardful of the honour of their holy profession. 5. By doing grace, which is when God effectually inclines the heart of His servants to the places and ways of their refuge, safeties, and preservations from sin. III. What causes or reasons there should be which might move David to put up this prayer: “ Keep back Thy servant from presumptuous sins.”1. If he considered himself, there were sufficient grounds for such a petition, because-- (1) His aptness by virtue of original corruptions, even to presumptuous sins.(2) His impotency and self-inability to keep off himself from such sins. 2. In respect of the sins themselves. Amongst which higher ranks of iniquity are presumptuous sins and sinnings, which may appear thus-- (1) The more shining light of grace is trampled over for to act the sin, the viler is the sinning.(2) The more pride of heart accompanies any kind of sinning, this makes it the more vile.(3) The more impudency and boldness attends a sinning, the worse it is.(4) The more abuse of mercy concurs to the sinning, the more heinous it raiseth the sin. 3. In respect of others. (1) Such sins would be exemplary and noted.(2) Such sinnings from him would be trophies to evil men. 4. In respect of God. (1) What God had been to him might cause him to pray against presumptuous sins.(2) What he was to God. Why? David was His servant. (O. Sedgwick, B. D.) Presumptuous sins A man is guilty of this sin when, without having sufficient strength, he undertakes to do something of himself; or, without warrant, reckons to receive some extraordinary aid from the mercy or power of God. Over-valuing of ourselves as to our own strength, as Peter did; or trusting to the mercy of God without the warrant of a promise, as did the sons of Sceva, is presumption. Sins are distributed into sins of ignorance, of infirmity, and of presumption, as related to the understanding, the will, and the sensual appetite or affections. If the fault lies in the understanding, the sin may be a sin of ignorance. If in the affections, the sin may be a sin of infirmity. Where sin has none of these excuses it is a wilful, that is, a presumptuous, sin. See the sins of Paul before his conversion, of Peter in his denial, of David in the matter of Uriah. Paul’ s was a sin of ignorance, Peter’ s a sin of infirmity, David’ s a sin of presumption. Observe how great and mischievous, presumptuous sins are. They originate from a worse cause than other sins, and thence are more sinful; they produce worse effects, and so are more dangerous. They harden the heart They almost annihilate the conscience. Presumptuous sins cannot be removed by ordinary humiliations. A more solemn and lasting course of repentance is necessary. These sins leave scars behind, like bad wounds, when healed, leave in the flesh.1. A presumptuous sinner rarely escapes without some outward affliction. 2. Presumptuous sins are often scandalous, leaving an indelible stain on the offender. 3. Presumptuous sins leave a sting in the conscience of the sinner. How may we avoid such sins? (1) Never do anything against the clear light of thine own conscience.(2) Strive to be master of thine own will.(3) Beware of engaging thyself to sin. As in the case of Herod with Herodias. (Bishop Sanderson.) The nature, danger, aggravations, and cure of presumptuous sin I. When is a man guilty of this sin?1. When sin is committed against the powerful dictates of his own conscience and the clear conviction of the Holy Ghost. 2. When sin is upon long deliberation and forecast, plotting and contriving how it may be accomplished. When the affections are calm and quiet, no hurrying and perturbation of passion to cause the sin. 4. The temptations, and our behaviour under them, will show when the sin is presumptuous. Were but sinners truly apprehensive of their wretched estate, how they stand liable every moment to the stroke of Divine justice, how that there is nothing that interposeth betwixt them and hell but only God’ s temporary forbearance of them, truly it were utterly impossible to keep them from running up and down the streets like distracted persons crying out with horror of soul, “ Oh, I am damned, I am damned” ; but their presumption stupefies them, and they are lulled asleep by the devil; and though they live in sin, yet they still dream of salvation; and thus their presumption flatters them, till at length this presumption ends then, where their damnation begins, and never before. II. Some aggravating considerations concerning these sins.1. They do exceedingly harden and steel the heart to go on in them, making men resolute and secure, or else leaving them desperate They cry out with Cam, My iniquity is greater than can be forgiven. Despair of pardon oftentimes exasperates to more and greater offences. As if a thief, when he is robbing of a man, should argue with himself, “ If I am detected of this robbery it will cost me my life; and if I murder him I can but lose my life” ; just so do many argue: “ My sins are already so many and so great, that I cannot avoid damnation for them; it is but in vain for me to struggle against my own fate and God’ s decrees. It is too nice a scruple, since God hath given me up to the devil, for me not to give up myself to sin.” And so away they go to sin; and sin at random, desperately and resolvedly. Oh, horrid hardness! 2. They brazen the face with most shameless impudency (Isaiah 3:9; Jeremiah 6:15). For they will dare to commit foul sins publicly and knowingly. Others will boast and glory in them, and yet others will boast of wickednesses they never dared to commit. As cowards brag of their exploits in such and such a combat which yet they never durst engage in, so there are a generation in the world who dare not, for the terror of their consciences, commit a sin, that yet will boast that they have committed it; as if it were a generous and honourable thing to be called a daring sinner. 3. What if God should cut off such in the very act of their sin, giving them no space for repentance? 4. How hard it is to bring presumptuous sinners to repentance and reformation. Certainly, they that dare sin when they see hell before them, there is no hope that they will leave sinning till they see hell flaming round about them, and themselves in the midst of it. III. The best christians are prone to them. This we may learn from--1. The examples of others. See Noah, David, etc. 2. The pressing exhortations against them in the Bible. 3. The irritating power that the law hath (Romans 7:6). Our corruptions have made us combustible matter, that there is scarce a dart thrown at us in vain; when he tempts us it is but like the casting of fire into tinder, that presently catcheth; our hearts kindle upon the least spark that falls; as a vessel, that is brimful of water, upon the least jog, runs over. Satan hath got a strong party within us, that, as soon as he knocks, opens to him and entertains him. And hence is it that many times small temptations and very petty occasion draw forth great corruptions; as a vessel that is full of new liquor, upon the least vent given, works over into foam and froth; so, truly, our hearts, almost upon every slight and trivial temptation, make that inbred corruption that lodgeth there swell and boil and run over into abundance of scum and filth in our lives and conversations. IV. It is God’ s power only that can preserve the christian from presumptuous sin.1. We should have thought that such dreadful sins would be easily kept at arm’ s length. For such sins generally give notice and warning to prepare for resistance. And natural conscience doth especially abhor and more oppose them. And the fear of shame and infamy in the world often holds men back, as doth often the fear of human laws and penalties. And yet-- 2. We still do greatly need this prayer, “ Keep back,” etc., as Scripture and experience alike attest. But-- 3. Some may object, if we have no power to keep from these vices, why doth God complain of us for doing what we cannot help doing, and which He only can preserve us from? But we say that a man has power, as, for example, to rise up if he be seated; no one would deny such power, and yet he cannot exercise it unless God excite and rouse it in him, for “ in Him we live and move and have our being.” All our powers are latent and sleepy until God rouse them up. V. How God keeps men back from presumptuous sins.1. Frequently by a strong hand of Providence upon them,--as (i) shortening the lives of sinners (Psalms 64:6-7; Ecclesiastes 8:13); or (ii) by cutting short their power (Psalms 76:5; John 7:30; Hosea 2:6); or (iii) by raising up opposition to them, as when Saul would have put Jonathan to death, the people would not let him; or (iv) by diverting men from their purpose (Daniel 11:30), as He did Joseph’ s brethren from killing him. (v) By removing the object against which they intended it, as Peter from Herod. And there are other ways still. But what woeful estate wicked men are in whom not grace but only Providence restrains. How we should thank God for such providences for others and for ourselves. But-- 2. God keeps men back by His grace. And this He does by either restraining or sanctifying grace. These differ--1. In respect of the subject. Restraining grace is common, and works upon wicked men as well as others. As in Esau, who was restrained from hurting Jacob (Genesis 20:6). But none but the children of God have sanctifying grace. 2. In their nature and essence. Sanctifying grace is wrought in the soul by the Spirit of God (Jeremiah 31:33, and 1 John 3:9; Matthew 12:35). But restraining grace has no such habit and principle, but is only occasional and temporary. 3. In their operation. Sanctifying grace keeps the soul from sin by destroying it; restraining, only by imprisoning it. The former strikes especially at the sins of the heart, the latter only hinders the sins of the life. Sanctifying grace engages the will against sin; but restraining grace only rouses up the conscience against it. Now, a wicked man may Sill against his conscience; but it is impossible that he should ever sin against his will. That is continually set upon sin; and were it not that God sometimes raiseth up natural conscience in him to oppose his corrupt will, he would every moment rush into the most damning impieties without any of the least regret or sense of it. When the devil presents a sin to the embraces of the will, and when the will closes with it, and all the faculties of the soul are ready to commit it, God sends in conscience among them. “ What, Conscience, art thou asleep! Seest thou not how the devil and thine own devilish heart are now plotting and contriving thine eternal ruin?” This rouses conscience, and makes it storm and threaten, and hurl firebrands into the face of sin, while it lies in the very embraces of the will; and, though it cannot change the will from loving it, yet it frights the will from committing it. This is the most usual way which restraining grace takes for the prevention of stir, by sending in conscience to make strong and vigorous oppositions against it. VI. Application of all this1. How erroneous to ascribe our preservation not to the grace of God, but to our own will. 2. How we ought to praise God if we are preserved from these sins. 3. How we should guard against provoking God to withdraw the influence of His grace from us. He will never utterly forsake us; but yet He may so far depart from us as that we may have no comfortable sense of His presence, nor any visible supports from His grace. We may be left a naked and destitute prey to every temptation; and fall into the commission of those sins out of which we may never be able to recover ourselves to our former strength, comfort, and stability. We may fall, to the breaking of our hones; and we may rise again, possibly, but it will be to the breaking of our hearts. (E. Hopkins, D. D.) Intentional sins These stand contrasted with unconscious sins, or those committed ignorantly. See Deuteronomy 1:43, which contains a direct charge of wilful and intentional sins. Sins of ignorance are told of in Deuteronomy 4:2. But we speak of the former, and would note-- I. Their guilt. For--1. They are the embodiments of forethought.2. Are the result of desire.3. Are prompted sometimes by circumstances.4. Are committed with the hope of escaping the consequences;5. And against the voice of conscience.6. They are antagonistic to God; and are7. The greatest of all sins. II. Their restraints.1. Providence (Genesis 20:6).2. Truth.3. Divine influence.4. Mediation, the intercessory life of Christ. III. The relation of prayer to these restraints. Prayer is--1. Power.2. The greatest power.3. It is exerted in harmony with a preconcerted plan of salvation. IV. The value of prayer to him who prays against these sins.1. Freedom--“ Let them not have dominion over me.”2. Rectitude--“ I shall be innocent.” (J. H. Hill.) Presumptuous sins It is a humiliating thought that even good men are prone to commit sins of presumption. Iniquity is of a progressive character, a growing evil, and from thoughtless sin we advance on until we come to these, the worst of all. I. What are we to understand by “ presumptuous sins” ?1. They are to be distinguished (1) from the imperfections which attach to the obedience of good men. We all come short of the Divine glory. Our best services are imperfect. And (2) from the sins of ignorance. Scripture admits the extenuating power of ignorance. And (3) from sins of infirmity arising from the depraved condition of our being. To ascertain the presumptuous character of a sinful action, the temptation itself must be considered, and the way in which it assails a man. If the adversary comes in like a flood, and carries him down the stream before he has time to reflect on his position, the guilt is less than when he has deliberately considered the evil and calmly decided on its perpetration. If a man be suddenly provoked and conceives an injurious thought, or utters a passionate exclamation; if an unlawful or impure desire suddenly starts into existence in the soul, which the man shortly represses, he is not chargeable with a sin of presumption, but with a sin of infirmity. Let no one, however, from these remarks, seek a palliative for his guilt. Even those actions which a man seeks to excuse himself for, if he dwell upon all the extenuating circumstances of his sin, it is no longer his infirmity; it is a cherished evil, and the pains he takes to defend it to his own mind indicates it to be a sin which he has rolled under his tongue as a sweet morsel. Having thus cleared the way by these necessary distinctions-- 2. Let us examine more particularly what are presumptuous sins. (1) Presumption is unreasonable confidence, and, applied to sin, it is adventurous daring in iniquity. It is doing that which we know to be wrong, and yet persuading ourselves that we shall go unpunished, or determining to venture the risks and brave all hazards. Scripture speaks of it in the strongest terms to indicate its foul enormity. Presumption in sin is sin in its most malignant form But we go further, and say, if the action be of doubtful character, presumption attaches to it. If we are inclined to do that which we suspect is sinful, about which we doubt whether it be lawful, if we gratify our inclinations while our suspicions of its evil character remain, we are guilty of presumptuous sin. (2) Deliberation and forethought greatly increases its presumptuous character. Some sins, as we have seen, come suddenly upon a man. The sin of Peter was of this kind; he had no intention of denying his Master, but to acknowledge Him. Though his sin was great, it was not presumptuous; but when a man considers with himself whether he shall sin or no, and he ponders over it, looks at the desired object, at the sin which is in his way to it, at the sanctions of the Divine law and the offence it will be to God, weighs each in his mind, and at length determines on the transgression, then that is indeed great and presumptuous sin. Do not imagine this is too great an evil for a Christian to commit. (3) So also does defiance of conscience and the strivings of the Spirit of God with the soul. (4) All perseverance in sin deserves this dreadful character. (5) If men yield to slight temptations. II. How necessary it is for us to be kept from presumptuous sins. Because of its virulence it is greatly to be dreaded. And there is great danger even of Christians falling into such sin. Man is prone to self-confidence. “ Take heed to yourselves,” says our Lord. One sin allowed brings others. Of all sins this is most difficult to cure. For it benumbs the conscience and perverts the judgment. Cherish a deep sense of the sinfulness of these sins, and that will make you sincere and earnest your prayer. (E. Summers.) Presumptuous sinning I. What are presumptuous sins?1. Sins committed against the light of our understanding and the plain dictates of our conscience. 2. When committed with deliberate contrivance--with purpose of heart. We “ make provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof.” 3. Sin upon slight inducements and small provocations. 4. Sin in spite of correction, rebukes, and obstacles which God throws in their path. Balaam. Ahaz. 5. Systematic sin, by an abuse of God’ s free mercy in the Gospel. These are the worst of all. II. Good men are liable to these sins. This is David’ s prayer. He knew that he was liable. And so are nil good men. For--1. See the exhortations addressed to them. 2. Facts recorded about them. 3. The prayers they offer. III. How God answers this prayer.1. By natural means, such as moral and religious education--a regard to reputation. Fear of public punishment and disgrace. 2. Providential restraints. God puts, at times, obstacles in our way; or diverts the mind; or renders it essential to us to practise diligence and frugality; or removes the object of temptation. A wise minister used often to say, “ We ought to be thankful for the graces of providence as well as the influences of grace.” 3. Spiritual and gracious methods. Giving the new heart and causing us to delight in the law of God. (George Clayton.) On the nature of presumptuous sins I. What these presumptuous sins are. Three parts go to make up such a sin--1. That a man undertake an action known by him to be unlawful or at least doubtful. 2. That, notwithstanding, he promise to himself security from the punishment due to it. 3. That he do this upon motives utterly groundless and unreasonable. He cannot plead ignorance nor surprise, II. Instances of such sins. Of the most notable kind are--1. To sin against the goodness of God manifesting itself to a man in great prosperity. What ingratitude this. 2. To sin when God is judging and afflicting us. When He is trying to hold us back from our sins. What is this but to wage war with God? 3. To sin when the sin is clearly discovered to us in the Word of God, and when God has wrought in us conviction concerning it. 4. To sin when God’ s providence is seeking to thwart it and, as it were, lies cross to the commission of it. As when Pharaoh would go after the Israelites notwithstanding God made him know He would not have him do so. 5. When conscience has checked, warned, and remonstrated against such sin. It is to resist God’ s Spirit. 6. When we know that by such sin we destroy all our joy in God, and all our happiness and power in serving Him. 7. When we go back again and again to the same sin. Flies are accounted bold creatures, for drive them off from a place as often as you will, yet presently they will be there again. But for a man who has by God’ s grace been rescued from some gross sin to go back to it--what hope is there of that man’ s being saved? III. Consider some remedies against these sins.1. Try to get deep apprehension and persuasion of the evil of sin generally. To this end see what evil sin hath wrought. 2. Then let a man reflect seriously upon God’ s justice. 3. Think how men would be exasperated if we were to deal with them so. IV. Why does David thus earnestly pray? He prays against them as so many pests, so many direful causes of God’ s wrath, so many devourers of souls. And he thus prayed because--1. Of the danger of falling into these sins. Our nature so prone to them. Men measure their beliefs by their desires. Most men are of a debonair, sanguine, jolly disposition, so that where despair has slain its thousands presumption has slain its ten thousands. And the greatness of the mercy of God leads men to presume, for it is more manifest than His anger, and Satan is ever busy to put men in such sins (1 Chronicles 21:1; Luke 22:3; Acts 5:8). 2. The sad consequences of them. They grow by indulgence. They waste conscience and so are hard to cure. They bring down greater judgments than any others. They are big with confusion, disaster, and curse. God must thus confound an audacious sinner in his course. (Robert South, D. D.) Let them not have dominion over me.--What dominion of sin doth import Dominion is given sometimes to God, sometimes to Christ as Mediator, sometimes to man over man, sometimes to Satan over man, sometimes to death, which is said to rule, and sometimes to sin, when it is betwixt sin and the sinner, as betwixt a king and his subjects. As a reigning king hath dominion, so sin, it acts in all things like a king.1. It hath possession: original sin of our hearts; actual sin of our lives. 2. Hath a title, our forsaking of God, and voluntary election and compact. 3. Hath a throne, our souls. 4. Hath servants, our members. 5. Hath a council, our carnal wisdom and corrupt reasonings. 6. Hath power to give laws, and see them executed. Paul speaks of the law in his members, and the law of sin (Romans 7:21-22). But more distinctly for the better understanding this, observe these particulars--1. That dominion properly is the right and power of a lord over a servant; it is a word implying superiority and subjection, one who hath authority to command, and another whose condition is obediential, and to serve. 2. Observe that dominion is two fold: it is-- (1) Original and absolute, and this is when the Lord hath a natural, and prime, and irrespective title. (2) Derivative, and depending, and limited: such is the dominion which God hath given man over the creatures. 3. Observe that there is a two-fold dominion. One is lawful, such a dominion and subjection which the Word and will of God doth or will warrant. Another is unlawful, and as it were usurped. 4. Consider that the dominion of sin doth imply two things. (1) One is singular power, and strength joined with authority. (2) Another is quiet, willing, and total yielding of subjection to that authority, law, and command of sin: when a man is as cheerfully prepared to obey his lusts, as any subject is to embrace the commands of his prince. Sin may be said to have dominion--1. In reflect of assent: when the understanding subjects itself to his motions a man may apprehend sin as working, and yet he may not embrace, but resist that working of sin. And then it is not sill in dominion, but subjection puts up sin into the throne. And here, too, we must again distinguish of that subjection of assent which denominates dominion, that it is not a mere passive subjection (as when a man is taken prisoner), but an active subjection, a subjection of approbation, as when a servant hears the will of his master, and he likes it so. 2. In respect of the consent of the will, when the will declares itself expressly as a party for sin. Here now falls in a subtle and deep inquiry whether all resistance impairs dominion, and no resistance doth always infallibly argue it. I answer briefly to the first. That all resistance doth not prejudice dominion. A man may hold a firm league with sin in his heart, though sometimes in some particulars he may skirmish and quarrel. There is therefore a double resistance, or denying with sin. One is collateral and accidental; which doth not arise from an immediate contrariety of nature, but from a contrariety of effects. Another is natural and immediate; which depends on an holy nature implanted in the soul, which opposeth sin as a thing formally evil and displeasing to God. This resistance doth prejudice sin in its dominion, but the former doth not. No resistance. Both imply the consent to be plenary, and therefore sin to be in dominion: when the estate of the soul is such, that no contrary quality stands ‘ twixt the command of sin and the obedience of a sinner, it is easy to point who is lord of the house; and indeed, what doth more palpably demonstrate dominion than a quiet subjection? But yet another question is raised, whether a good man, in whom sin hath not dominion, may not yield a plenary consent of will: which if, then plenary consent argues not dominion.1. It is possible that he may sin willingly. 2. That there is a double concourse of the will’ s consent to sin. One is real, when in truth the whole inclination of the will is for sin, and where it is thus there sin is in dominion. Another is sensible, which is an observed acting of the will as embracing, and leaguing it with sin; when all is a corrupt inclination and consent. Now here I conjecture, that possibly sin may not always have dominion, where yet, for the present, and for a particular, the whole sensible part of the will seems only for sin. My reason is this, the resistances of grace are secret and more hidden; and again, when the soul is hurried to a sin in the heat of temptations and passions, it is not easily able to observe every secret and transient regretting and opposition. 3. You must distinguish ‘ twixt dominion of sin, and twixt a strong inclination to sin: dominion of sin is a thing more natural, but the strong inclination may be preternatural. 4. Lastly, you must distinguish ‘ twixt facts, and ‘ twixt courses; and ‘ twixt particular, and ‘ twixt general intentions; and ‘ twixt too much yielding, and a plenary yielding and resignation. The will may come on to sin (where it hath not dominion) in respect of facts; and by a particular intention, and by a partial yielding: but where the will comes on as to a course, and with a general intention, and with a plenary yielding, there is dominion. Thus of the dominion of sin in respect of the will. The dominion of sin may be considered in respect of the work or service; the working of sin, and obedient acting of it, doth also include and express its dominion; hence they, in whom sin hath dominion, are said to serve sin, and they are said to obey sin, and they are said to commit sin, and they are said to do the work of the devil (John 8:44). Again, we must distinguish of obedience to the commands of sin. One is simple and absolute: which is when to sin, though it be not every particular thing which a man doth, yet it is a principal thing unto which he applies himself: as that is a man’ s trade, not presently which he looks upon or deals in, but wherein he doth principally and chiefly deal in, unto which he applies the current and strength of his stock. Another is cursory or transient: as a bee may light upon a thistle, but her work is to be gathering at flowers: or a sheep, may be in the dirt, but its work is to be grazing on the mountains, or in the meadows: or an honest traveller may be beside the way in a wood, or in an house, but his work is to go on in the king’ s road. So is it possible for a man, in whom sin hath not dominion to touch upon sinful facts. 5. I conjecture: that it is fit to add one thing more in the general about the dominion of sin, as respecting its powerful commands that it is either-- (1) Habitual, where sin in the course behaves itself as a king, it rules, and commands, and disposeth of the person to its base services and lusts. (2) Actual, and this is not properly its dominion, though it be miscalled so, yet to give a little scope to freeness of language, I will call it an actual dominion, which is rather a particular prevalency of acts, than a sovereignty or dominion in the nature, when though the heart and nature have surrendered themselves to Christ as the only Lord, and to His will as the only law, yet in many particulars sin gets the better over grace, though it cannot be said to rule, yet it may be said to conquer. Against which, if I mistake not, David doth here principally bend himself when he prays “ Let not them have dominion over me,” that is, not only let them not rule, but which is beyond that, let them not so much as prevail over me. (O. Sedgwick, B. D.) Why David prays against sin in dominion Remember that precedent distinction of actual dominion, which comprehended a particular prevalency over the soul for particular acts of sinning: and of habitual dominion which intimated the full resignation of the heart to the commands of corruption. In both respects there may be great reasons why any man should pray against the dominion of sin. I. Against actual dominion.1. Because though actual dominion doth not infallibly testify the person to be bad: yet it is ever a breaking forth of what is very bad; forasmuch as the action in this case is but sin acted. Now consider-- (1) That every sin (as acted) is therefore the worse: you know that sin, though it be a vile thing, yet it tends towards a perfection (in its kind); lust, when it hath conceived, bringeth forth sin, and sin when it is finished, etc. (James 1:15). (2) That the acting of the greater sin is always a greater kind of sinning: I mean, if things be equally set together. A high sin, a presumptuous sin in temptation, is not so guilty as the same presumptuous sin in dominion; for all sin in service is ever worse than any sin in conflict: though sin may trouble a man more when it inclines and tempts, yet it wounds a man more when it prevails and overcomes. 2. Actual dominion, though it doth not always conclude the absence of grace, yet it always impairs and weakens the strength of grace. 3. Because actual dominion though it doth not always cut off the union, yet it may and doth disperse and check the comforts. It is an eclipse, though it be not a night. 4. Because actual dominion (especially of great sins, and over a David) is accompanied with great prejudice to Divine glory: the better the man is, the more dishonourably foul his offendings are. II. Habitual dominion.1. Habitual dominion decides the estate: the question of a man’ s soul is, whose servant he is, whether he belong to God and Christ, or to sin and Satan. Now, particular failings do not determine this, but the dominion of sin doth, his servants we are whom we obey. 2. There is no dominion in all the world so vile: whether you consider it-- 1. In the commands of sin; or2. In the service of the sinner. The commands of sin are the vilest commands. For--1. They are illegal.2. They are purely sinful: all its edicts and desires are but rebellions.3. They are extremely unreasonable. 1. The service of sin: it is the most disloyal service in respect of God renouncing Him, denying Him His due, and conferring it on His only enemy. 2. It is the most injurious service to our souls. 3. It is the basest service. 4. It is the drudgingest service. A man who is a servant to sin, he is at the command of every lust. 5. It is a most unprofitable service. Though in some service there may be but an uncertain gain, yet in the service of sin there is a most certain and great loss; what profit had ye in those things whereof ye are now ashamed (Romans 6:21). 6. It is a most uncomfortable service. How oft is the servant of sin in the depths of fear and in the heights of trouble; his very sinnings are more his torments than his joys. (O. Sedgwick, B. D.) It is an hard thing to get off the dominion of sin. Sin is a strong man, it hath possession, and goes not out by entreaty or bribe, but it must be by force, by one that is stronger. I assure you, that the almighty God must reveal His own arm, and He must cast down strongholds, He must work a kind of a miracle, or else sin will still be a lord, and the sinner will be a servant to his lusts. A man may change any master soever, and with more ease than sin. (O. Sedgwick, B. D.) A man may deceive himself about the dominion of sin There are many erroneous deceits.1. One is the unsensibleness of its power: when a man feels no violence of sinful inclination, no stirrings, no opposition, no commands, but there is a calm and quietness in his spirit and in his way, which could not be as he thinks if sin had dominion and rule on him. Now, this is a deceit; for-- (1) It is most probable that sin hath the strongest dominion where the heart is most insensible of the law and commands of sin. (2) This unsensibleness and quietness may arise, partly from the oneliness of sin, and partly from the ignorance of a sinful condition, and partly from the habitual custom of sin. Whether the sun doth shine or not, there are as many atoms and motes flying in the room, there they are really, though not sensibly till the light comes in to manifest them. When a man is in a deadly disease, he may be void of all sense of it. Nay, and as we see men in bondage and slavery, when they are long in the same, grow insensible, and the hand which is used to iron and nettles is not sensible of them. 2. Another deceit may be a freedom from many courses of sinful actings. Though a man doth not all evil, and his way or course is not universally spreading in all the kinds of sinning, yet sin may rule in that man, it may have dominion; forasmuch as-- (1) Particular subjection is sufficient to set up dominion. Though a servant hath but one master, and doth not serve every man in the parish, yet he is a true servant in respect of that one master; so though the sinner is not at the command of every lust, yet if he be the servant of any one lust, sin hath the dominion over him; for it is not the multitude of sins which doth absolutely and necessarily concur to dominion, but a subjection to the power of anyone. (2) A man may do all that service to one sin, which others do to many sins; he may devise, and study to fulfil it, he may cheerfully and greedily receive its commands; he may heartily love it, and go on in it, and for its sake oppose the sceptre and dominion of Christ, he may consecrate all his strength to the obedience of it. So though in some men many sins do rule, and in others someone only, if the heart obeys many or few, or one, it is enough to declare dominion. (3) Yet again, another deceit may be, not only declination of some sins, but also opposition; which a man thinks cannot possibly consist with dominion; for a kingdom is not, or should not be, divided against itself. To this I answer, that there may be notable deceit in this also; forasmuch as to that of exemption from great and gross sins: it is not the greatness, but the power of sin which makes it reigning; the princes in Germany have dominion, though the dominion of the emperor be more large. The least sin acknowledged, loved, served, sufficeth to dominion: the dominion of sin is most within the heart. (O. Sedgwick, B. D.) No dominion in the world like that of Christ 1. None so holy. 2. None so gracious; He doth not exact beyond what He gives. 3. None so peaceable; His very service is a kind of wages to the obedient. 4. None so assisted; His commands are accompanied with strength and spirit. 5. None so rewarded; no man serves Christ too much or for nought. 6. Lastly, be thankful, for if dominion be off, then damnation is off. There is no condemnation (saith Paul). (O. Sedgwick, B. D.) Differences ‘ twixt the dominion and victory of sin First, particular victory depends upon inequality of actual strength, but dominion depends upon the fulness of a corrupt nature. Secondly, particular victory is a sudden act, but dominion is a more sober work. Thirdly, where the sinning owes itself not to dominion, but to particular victory, or tyranny, there the person, when he comes to himself, feels the yoke and would shake it off. 4. Therefore in the fourth place, if it be but victory, the person is not only troubled at his fall, not only loathing of his actions, but he is actively working, he is using his victorious weapons to raise up himself, to free himself again; he is grieved at the bondage, desires liberty, and will fight hard for it. Lastly, if it be but particular victory, the soul will rise again, and it will not rise without revenge. (O. Sedgwick, B. D.) Differences ‘ twixt acts germinated and custom in sin 1. Where the renewed acts of sin owe themselves to custom, there the possession is both strong and quiet. 2. Where the renewed acts are acts of custom, there the acting is natural and easy. 3. Where the renewed acts owe themselves to custom, there a man is not easily brought off. (O. Sedgwick, B. D.) How to be kept from the dominion of sin 1. For the first let us inquire what keeps up and strengthens the natural dominion of sin, and accordingly work against it. There are four things which do it-- (1) One is ignorance. The blindness of the understanding is a principal guard of reigning sin. The devil is a prince of darkness. (2) A second thing which keeps up the natural dominion of sin, is a violent love of sin. (3) Another thing which keeps up the dominion of sin is error and deceit; there is a lie in every sin. (4) A fourth thing which keeps up dominion is custom. 2. What may demolish and break down the natural dominion of sin. (1) That which doth this, it must have a greater power than sin, for natural dominion goes not off but by a stronger hand. (2) That which doth this, it must be a contrary nature unto sin. (3) Again, it must be something which may gain the affections. (4) Again, it must be something which may breed a stiff and courageous resolution, that the heart will not serve sin, but will go free. And hereupon, against all inward and outward opposition, breaks forth into the use of victorious means. 3. Against actual dominion. Thus for directions against the natural dominion of sin. Now I proceed to some helps against actual dominion, which is the particular prevalency of a Sin into act. Let me premise a proposition or two, and then you shall have the special directions themselves. (1) Actual dominion (I speak in respect of gross acts) is usually in respect of some particular lusts: which works with more strength in the soul than any other lusts. (2) Secondly, actual dominion is ordinarily by such a sin which hath the advantage of a natural complexion, and outward condition, and occasions, and affections; upon these doth sin set the temptation, as an engineer doth place his battery upon such a piece, of ground, which doth best advantage and further his shot against a city. A man’ s natural temper and complexion doth mightily facilitate his acts. Now I come unto some special directions against the actual dominion of a particular lust. First, preserve in thy soul a constant and humble fear, and that will keep off the actual dominion of thy sin (Proverbs 28:14). There be some graces which are, as it were, the guard of other graces: look as faith is a grace which feeds all the rest: so fear is a grace which keeps all the rest. 2. Get a sound and uncorrupt judgment: there be three cases in which a man is apt to fall under the actual dominion of sin. One is, when he thinks or says that the sin is little. Another is, when he saith that his own strength is great. A third is, when he assures himself of easy pardon and recovery. (O. Sedgwick, B. D.) Then shall I be upright. The anatomy of uprightness That it should be the great bent, aim, desire, and endeavour of a man to be upright (Genesis 17:1). I am the Almighty God, walk before Me and be thou upright. I. What it is to be upright. The heart is upright when it is sincere, and then it is sincere when it is unmingled: there is a difference ‘ twixt adherence and commixture. To the purest lana there may adhere some thread or spot uncomely, but in commixture the qualities or substances are in a sort mutually confounded; sin adheres or cleaves to the nature of the most upright person, but yet it mingles not, it is a thing which the renewed heart is thrusting off; it would be rid of it, the new nature, like a spring, is working it off, so that a man may be said to be upright whose heart will not suffer any sin to incorporate or settle itself. Uprightness is a sound and heavenly frame or temper of a gracious heart or spirit given by God, by which graces are acted, sins are opposed duties are performed affectionately, directly, and plainly, in reference to God, and not for by respects. It is a temper or frame of the heart, a composition, as it were, in which methinks two things may be observed. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/bi/ Psalms 19:14 The words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart.Words and thoughts The prayer speaks for itself, as the prayer of a truly righteous man. One might almost call that man a perfect man whose whole life was lived in perfect accord with it. For the majority of us, it is far easier to control one’ s actions than one’ s words. What mischief is done by the exaggerated denunciations of violent language, and by the false position of guilt in which strong epithets and expletives are usually placed. All expressions of bad feeling are wrong, not because they are expressions, but because they spring from the bad feeling, and that is the thing of which we ought to be ashamed and afraid. The use of expletives has been put on a false footing altogether, and the way in which they have been condemned has done more to increase it than to stop it. Yet how very far better it would be for us never to use rash or violent or misplaced words. All habits of this kind are bad. What a safeguard the prayer of the text is against all corrupting influences of the tongue, and against lying. By the words of our mouth, how vast is the influence we may exercise for good or evil! Of all the common forms of sinning with the tongue, the most common, and perhaps the worst, is the sin of lying. There is an amazing amount of careless falsehood spoken. What gives religion its preeminence as a moral power, is its recognition of a holy God who looketh on the heart, and m whose sight the pious soul longs to be wholly and alway acceptable. The earnest desire to be right in the sight of God would give an immense impulse to the instinctive love of truth which belongs to our nature. The most vital part of religion is, intense desire to be made righteous, and entire trust in the strength and grace of God. (Charles Voysey.) Acceptable words Meditations into which a man puts his heart will surely prove the spring of action. The depths of this prayer are reached in the petition concerning the meditations of the heart. Meditation is only unuttered speech. We think in words. Yet the words we utter have a separate existence, and most powerfully affect the thoughts of our mind. Language has a reflex influence upon our thoughts. Thought is revealed in speech, but speech reacts upon thought. The Bible is fully alive to the importance of right words. Consider some of the essentials of acceptable words,1. They must be truthful words. Our words must be in harmony with our thought. Our speech should be photographic of our thought. There are thoughts which seem to reach beyond the capacity of language. Speech is the clothing of thought, and, like clothing, should fit. Right thoughts would exclude-- (1) All exaggerated words. This is a special failing of our own day.(2) All unreal words.(3) All flattering words. 2. They must he charitable words. There are men who have an instinct for searching out evil, just as hounds have for scenting out their prey. Evil ought so to sorrow our hearts as to make it impossible for us to blazon it abroad. Truth and goodness ought to be so attractive to us as to lead us to dwell thereon with delight and joy. Oh, that we had greater tenderness for sinful, wandering souls! 3. They must be godly words. Earthly speech may be seasoned with godly thoughts. Earthly things may be seen m a heavenly light. The spirit of a Christian may be seen in common ways, in ordinary work, in earthly speech. (W. Garrett Horder.) The acceptableness of the words of the mouth and the meditation of the heart in God’ s sight It is a strong evidence of the love of God towards sinful man, that any thing such a frail and erring being can do or say can be acceptable to Him. There are few sins which can be less excused, or which are committed with less temptation, than the habit of uttering improper or indecent language. It is our duty to resist such temptations, and this duty is to be performed by making the meditations of our hearts acceptable to God. To this end we must begin with striving to acquire, and with earnestly praying for, purity of mind. Our minds become tainted before we are aware of the importance and the value of cleanliness of thought. The voluntary meditation of our hearts now form an image, an anticipated representation of the state in which “ we shall be.” Whatever gives us most delight and heartfelt pleasure in this world is that which will give us strength in the next. (John Nance, D. D.) Consecration of word and thought I. The utterance of the text as an act of sacrifice. A dedication to God such as any devout man may make both of words and thoughts.1. There is nothing so much in our power as are our words. We cannot change our heart, but we can our speech. Perhaps some man exclaims that his temper has overmastered him; that he is possessed by the devil; that he cannot govern his own thoughts; that volleys of wicked words issue from his lips, and that his words cannot be acceptable to God. I reply, as far as “ words” are concerned, you have simply and solely yourself to blame, However hot your passion, you are not forced to speak; for God has given you power to hold your tongue. It is pure absurdity to put down those curses or those noisy slanderous words of yours to your own depravity, or to Adam, or to the devil. You have only your present self to blame, and neither Adam nor the devil will bear a particle of the responsibility. There are certain devilish words that even you would not utter ill the hearing of a child; there are others that you would repress if a holy man were standing by your side; there are many which your instinctive reverence for the sanctuary would have the power to hush. These simple facts may do much to convince you that dominion over the tongue is given you, and that it is within your power to present to God even words that may be acceptable to Him. The Scriptures contain many words which it were acceptable for the most vile to speak unto God. 2. The meditations of our hearts. These may seem to be less fitting for sacrifice; but they, too, can largely be brought into the control of our will; and then we may offer them to God on the altar of spiritual sacrifice. II. How comprehensive the prayer. “ All the words of my mouth.” These include--1. All my soliloquies, my unuttered thinkings. 2. All my conversation, all my speakings whatsoever. 3. All I say unto God, in praise and prayer, in cries and ejaculations of gratitude and entreaty. 4. The meditations of the heart include even a larger share of human existence than the words of the mouth. These meditations reveal the habitual objects of reverence or distrust; the whole empire of fear, hope, and suspicion; of faith, prayerfulness, and love. Now, if this text is a prayer that all these things may be acceptable in the sight of God, it sweeps up into itself a large portion of our whole being. The prayer itself is a holy prayer, for “ this is the will of God, even our sanctification.” (Henry Reynolds, D. D.) The meditation of my heart.--Mental prayer There are four kinds of prayer, distinguished by the purposes for which the soul approaches God: namely, to praise Him, to thank Him, to propitiate Him, or to invoke His help. But we note now another division of prayer. That which we have referred to depends upon the motive of the soul, this upon the maimer of the act of prayer itself. The Psalmist, having prayed that he might be cleansed from sin, and “ innocent from the great transgression,” proceeds further to desire that he may become pleasing to God--“ Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in Thy sight.” In these words he provides us with the main division of prayer, based on the organ or faculty which is employed in it: by “ the words of my mouth,” vocal prayer is suggested; by “ the meditation of my heart,” mental prayer is described. Mental prayer is transacted entirely within the soul; vocal prayer employs the ministry of the tongue, or in some other way finds expression. The order of the Psalmist is that of acquirement and attainment. We learn in childhood first to say prayers, afterwards to think them: we govern our words first, and then bring under subjection our thoughts. All prayer is either mental or vocal. Mental prayer includes meditation and contemplation. Vocal is such as is used in the services of the Church. I. First, we will deal with the practice of meditation, and consider--1. Its authority, which is derived from the Scriptures. We have instances of it in the Old Testament, Enoch, Noah, Isaac, of whom it is first expressly spoken (Genesis 24:63). In the New Testament it is twice told of Mary how she “ pondered in her heart” the things that were told her. Christ Himself gives examples of this kind of prayer (John 18:2; Matthew 14:23; Luke 6:12). Mary of Bethany. The apostles also (Acts 1:14; 1 Timothy 4:15; Galatians 1:17-18). And so in the writings of the saints we have constant reference to the practice of meditation. St. Ambrose bids us “ exercise ourselves in meditation before conflict, that we may be prepared for it,” and in a striking passage describes the nutritive effects of meditation; he says, “ we ought for a long while to bruise and refine the utterances of the heavenly Scriptures, exerting our whole mind and heart upon them, that the sap of that spiritual food may diffuse itself into all the veins of our soul,” etc. St. Augustine enumerates the steps which lead up to “ prayer,” --“ meditation begets knowledge, knowledge compunction, compunction devotion, and devotion perfects prayer.” St. Basil enjoins mental prayer as a means of exercising the faculties of the soul. St. Gregory mentions the morning as a fitting time for meditation; he says, “ as the morning is the first part of the day, each of the faithful ought at that moment to lay aside all thoughts of this present life, in order to reflect upon the means of rekindling the fire of charity.” St. Bernard represents meditation and prayer as the two feet of the soul, by which it ascends. St. Ignatius, in his Spiritual Exercise, systematised it. St. Theresa declares it “ essential to the Christian life.” 2. Its dignity. It involves a continuing in communion with God in tender and affectionate intercourse, growing into a holy familiarity and friendship. St. Augustine in his confessions records the joy which he experienced when his soul found its resting place in God--“ Sometimes thou bringest me to certain feelings of tenderness, and to an extraordinary sweetness, which, should it still increase, I know not what would happen.” Such communion is surely a preparation for heaven and a foretaste of beatitude. It is said of St. Francis de Sales, that one day when he was in retreat, and holding continuous and close communion with God, he became so overwhelmed with joy that at last he exclaimed, “ Withdraw Thyself, O Lord, for I am unable any longer to bear Thy great sweetness.” 3. Its importance. This is because of its rich productiveness in the fruits of prayer; we have found that, whether it be regarded as a good work which stores up favour with God, or as an act of compensation for past neglect, or as a means of adding force to our petitions, or as to its subjective effect on our life--it outstrips other kinds of prayer in the number and quality of its effects. 4. Its nature and exercise. There are preliminary acts, such as-- (1) Adoration.(2) Preparatory prayer that we may have the aid of the Holy Ghost.(3) The endeavour to picture to yourself the event upon which you are to meditate. Then there will be called into exercise: memory, that you may have the subject of meditation before the mind; understanding, that you may reflect upon it and investigate its meaning; the will, for we have to stir ourselves up to this exercise. The will acts On the body, by causing the muscles to contract; on the mind, by determining what trains of thought it shall pursue; on the spirit, by holy resolve: this its most wonderful power. Such resolve must be definite, and its execution not delayed. And the meditation will end with appropriate devotions and inquiries. But mental prayer includes also-- II. Contemplation. It is a gift which is very rarely possessed. It is said that, besides a peculiar elevation of soul towards God and Divine things, on the natural side contemplation requires certain qualities of mind and character, and is seldom attained except after a process of spiritual trial and purification; so that, in passing from the consideration of meditation to that of contemplation, we feel that we are going off the thoroughfare into the byways of religion. Some of its special features.(1) There is no labour in it, as in meditation, but the soul beholds truth intuitively, and remains gazing upon God. The amazement of delight fills the soul as it beholds the things of God. So that it is (2) a foretaste of eternal bliss, like to that which St. Peter enjoyed on the Mount of Transfiguration. (3) Another feature is repose. It is restful calm, and closes the senses to the external world. It is ever associated with the idea of rest. Mary sat at Jesus feet and heard His word. (4) The union of the soul with God is another mark, and is the first object of contemplative prayer. III. A difficulty in the use of this mental prayer. It is dryness of spirit.1. Its causes are-- (1) The condition of conscience,--some sin, perhaps hidden, may have come between the soul and God; or (2) bodily health; or (3) the providence of God. He sends it as a spiritual trial, and this form of it is the most severe. (Job 29:2-4; Psalms 22:1-31 :l, 42:5, 143:7.) If we find no sin in the conscience, after diligent search, it is best to leave the matter in the hand of God. Only, never let dryness of spirit cause us to give up mental prayer. Let us not think that because we have not happy feeling therefore our prayer cannot be acceptable to God. God may delight in that which gives us no delight. As when the moon is in crescent, there are a few bright points still visible upon its unillumined part; and those bright points art supposed to be peaks of mountains so lofty as to be able to catch the sunlight; so in the darkness of the soul, the withdrawal of grace is not total, but there are still, as it were, certain eminences, which the Sun of Righteousness now and then touches with His glory. But whatever the dryness or the darkness be, if we persevere, the light will return at last. (W. H. Hutchings, M. A.) David’ s desire All wish to please--1. Some to please themselves. Whoever is offended, they must be indulged. 2. Some to please men. And this is not in all cases improper. “ Let every one of us please his neighbour,” but it must be “ for his good to edification.” 3. Some endeavour to please God. Such were Paul and his companions. “ We labour . . . to be accepted of Him.” And such was David. He would dedicate all his powers to God. A natural man cares for his conduct as men see it. But he makes no conscience of his speech, or of his thoughts. I. David’ s prayer shows his humility, he asks only that his works may be acceptable. II. His affection. He desires only to please Him. III. Consciousness of duty. He knew that he was bound to seek God’ s favour. IV. Regard to self-interest. It could not but be well for him if he pleased God. Innumerable are the benefits of pleasing God. (William Jay.) Pious desire In these words we are taught-- I. The interesting light in which to contemplate the character of God.1. God is His people’ s strength. Of their bodies and of their souls. 2. Their Redeemer. He is so from the curse of the law; from sin; from the power of death and the grave. And at what cost of suffering was all this effected! 3. And we have individual interest in God. “ My” strength: “ My Redeemer. II. The pious desire of those that fear the Lord.1. It is an habitual desire, but felt more strongly at certain seasons, as in meditation. 2. What David was persuaded of, that to the Lord everything was perfectly known. 3. About what he was concerned, that his words and thoughts might “ be acceptable in Thy sight.” God delights in such meditation of His people. (Anon.) . Psalms 20:1-9 Psalms 20:1-9 The Lord hear thee in the day of trouble.A battle prayer This, it is believed, is the battle prayer or litany which was solemnly chanted in the sanctuary on the eve of the great expedition to crush the formidable rebellion of the Ammonites and their Syrian allies (2 Samuel 10:1-19), and which was also used in after times upon similar undertakings.1. To enter into its spirit we must transport ourselves in imagination to the old temple at Jerusalem while the special service invoking the blessing of Jehovah upon the intended enterprise is in progress. The courts are thronged with enthusiastic patriots, each eager to strengthen with his own voice the chorus of supplication for Israel’ s success. The king in his robes of royalty is standing by the altar in the sanctuary. He has just presented his gifts and offered his sacrifice; and now the choir and the whole congregation break out into this mighty hymn on his behalf, assuring him that in this day of trouble, occasioned by the revolt of his subjects or the invasion of strangers, the Lord will hear him, will defend him, will send him help from the sanctuary, and uphold him out of Zion. These his offerings shall be remembered, this his sacrifice shall be accepted; the desire, too, of his heart--the overthrow of the enemy--shall be granted. 2. They cease. The vast multitude stands hushed, while one voice alone is heard; it is that of the king, or of some Levite deputed to speak as his representative. In a strain of fullest confidence he declares the petitions on his behalf have been heard. 3. As the king ceases the choir and people again break out into chorus. (Henry Housman.) The day of trouble Have we heard of that day? Is it a day in some exhausted calendar? Is this an ancient phrase that needs to be interpreted to us by men cunning in the use of language and in the history of terms? It might have been spoken in our own tongue: we might ourselves have spoken it. So criticism has no place here; only sympathy has a fight to utter these words; they would perish under a process of etymological vivisection; they bring with them healing, comfort, release, and contentment when spoken by the voice of sympathy. Is the day of trouble a whole day--twelve hours long? Is it a day that cannot be distinguished from night? and does it run through the whole circle of the twenty-four hours? Is it a day of that kind at all? In some instances is it not a life day, beginning with the first cry of infancy, concluding with the last sigh of old age? Is it a day all darkness, without any rent in the cloud, without any hint of light beyond the infinite burden of gloom? Whatever it is, it is provided for; it is recognised as a solemn fact in human life, and it is provided for by the grace and love of the eternal God. He knows every hour of the day--precisely how the day is made up; He knows the pulse beat of every moment; He is a God nigh at hand; so that we have no sorrow to tell Him by way of information, but only sorrow to relate that with it we may sing some hymn to His grace. The whole world is made kin by this opening expression. There is no human face, rightly read, that has not in it lines of sorrow--peculiar, mystic writing of long endurance, keen disappointment, hope deferred, mortification of soul unuttered in speech, but graved as with an iron tool upon the soul and the countenance. (Joseph Parker, D. D.) Defence in the day of trouble Commentators have positively perverted this whole Psalm. They have put it all down to David; but it is a beautiful dialogue between Christ and His Church,--He addressing her as her Advocate and Intercessor amid all her troubles. I. Christ’ s recognition of His people in the day of trouble. All have to bear trouble, but the believer has a God to go to. His troubles arise from his inflexible enemies, the world and its children, the devil, the flesh. And from his spiritual conflicts when first brought to conversion. The thunders of Sinai, the Slough of Despond--these are some of his troubles at such time. And when he is pardoned and hugs his pardon in his bosom, there are some troubles yet, through miserable backslidings. II. The excitement which our intercessor gives us to prayer. “ The Lord hear thee” ; this intimates that we are already excited to earnest prayer. For our encouragement let us remember Christ’ s constant intercession on our behalf in heaven. III. The appeal which the intercessor makes to our covenant head. “ The name of the God of Jacob defend thee.” Who is the God of Jacob? The God that gave him the blessing of the birthright, though he was the junior; the God that delivered him from the murderous hand of his brother in the day of his trouble; the God that enriched him with Laban’ s spoil, and gave him the desire of his heart; the God that protected him, and manifested Himself to him--his covenant God. How I have been delighted with the thought that Jehovah should recognise the unregenerate name!--for Jacob was the name of the patriarch in his unregeneracy. IV. The demand for our defence. “ The name of the God of,” etc. But you say, how will the name of the God of Jacob defend me? Try it: I have over and over again; therefore I speak what I do know, and testify what I have seen. “ The name of the God of Jacob defend thee.” Get encircled with covenant engagements and covenant grace, and covenant promises, and covenant securities; then will “ the Lord hear you in the time of trouble, and the name of the God of Jacob will defend you.” (Joseph Irons.) The war spirit of the Old Testament I. The probable time and occasion of its composition. They are related in 2 Samuel 10:1-19. II. Its construction. It begins with an address to the monarch under the peculiar circumstances of the exigency. Then, with the words, “ We will rejoice in Thy salvation,” the speakers turn from prayer to the avowal of their confidence and of the spirit in which they would go to the war. Then the high priest might add the next clause, “ The Lord fulfil all thy petitions.” And now there appears to be a pause, and the sacrifices are offered, and the priest, catching sight of the auspicious omen, exclaims, “ Now know I” (from what I observe of the indications of the Divine acceptance of the sacrifices--now know I) “ that the Lord sayeth His anointed,” etc. Then comes a response from the people, encouraged by what they have heard. “ Some trust in chariots, and some in horses” --the very preparations that had been made against them, “ but we will,” etc. The whole closes by the acclamations of the people. “ The Lord save the king! God will hear us. Save, Lord; let the king hear us when we call: we will pray for the king, we will call upon the Lord, we who remain at home when the army advances to the field. This reminds us of and illustrates a passage from R. Hall, entitled “ Sentiments Proper to the Present Crisis,” a warlike, though at first sight it appears not a very Christian, address, written about forty-four years ago, at the time of the threatened invasion. Addressing a company of volunteers, he introduces a sentiment very similar to that which concludes this Psalm. “ Go, then, ye defenders of your country, accompanied with every auspicious omen; advance with alacrity into the field, where God Himself musters the hosts to war. Religion is too much interested in your success not to lend you her aid; she will shed over this enterprise her selected influence. While you are engaged in the field, many will repair to the closet, many to the sanctuary; the faithful of every name will employ that prayer which has power with God; the feeble hands which are unequal to any other weapon will grasp the sword of the spirit; and from myriads of humble, contrite hearts the voice of intercession, supplication, and weeping will mingle with the shouts of battle and the shock of arms.” III. Suggestions from this review of the Psalm.1. Although all this is very imposing and grand, yet it is not the ideal of humanity. We do not wish such scenes to be permanent or universal. It was all very well for the time, but it is not well now. This is not the way in which God should be worshipped, nor the feelings which we should carry away from His altar. The New Testament tells us again and again that its aim is something altogether different from this “ mustering of the hosts to war” --this “ Go, ye defenders of your country” --this murdering and slaughtering. War may be brilliant, but it is not a good thing for the world, for humanity. 2. In proportion as the spirit of the Old Testament has been imbibed by nations, they have been retarded in the development of national character, and in the realisation of the Christian ideal. Ceremonies, hierarchies, ritual, a national priesthood, a vicarious religion, an ecclesiastical eastern special class of men being set apart to spend their nights and days in praying for the people--all these come from Judaisers. And so again with the national war spirit, the military art regarded as a profession, the consecration of colours, and the rest,--these are Jewish, not Christian. We laugh at the Covenanter and the Roundhead, but where they were wrong was in imbibing the Old Testament spirit. 3. War is not always without justification, but we ought to shrink from it as an abhorred thing. 4. Let the Psalm remind you of King Jesus, and of His victory and our own through Him. (Thomas Binney.) Help in trouble A sentinel posted on the walls, when he sees a party of the enemy advancing, does not attempt to make head against them himself, but at once informs his commanding officer of the enemy’ s approach, and awaits his word as to how the foe is to be met. So the Christian does not attempt to resist temptation in his own strength, but in prayer calls upon his Captain for aid, and in His might and His Word goes forth to meet it. The name of the God of Jacob defend thee. The name of Jehovah I. The name of Jehovah a consolation in trouble. No character is exempt from the ills of life. The highest dignity cannot guard off trouble; and crowns especially are often lined with thorns. Few plants, says an old writer, have both the morning and the evening sun; and an older than he has said, Man is born to trouble. But in the deepest, darkest, wildest distress, Jehovah is the refuge of His people; and His name soothes the keenest anguish and lifts up the most despairing. II. The name of Jehovah an inspiring battle cry. “ In the name of our God will we set up our banners” (Psalms 20:5). Banners are a part of our military equipage, borne in times of war to assemble, direct, distinguish, and inspirit the soldiers. They have been often used in religious ceremonies. It is the practice of some people to erect a banner in honour of their deity. In a certain part of Thibet it is customary for a priest to ascend a hill every month to set up a white flag and perform some religions ceremonies to conciliate the favour of a dewta, or invisible being, who is the presiding genius of the place. The Hindus describe Siva the Supreme as having a banner in the celestial world. The militant Church goes to war with the name of the Lord of Hosts on her banner. III. The name of Jehovah is the strength of the militant Church. “ We will remember the name of the Lord our God” (Psalms 20:7). The world trusts in the material--in rifles, mitrailleuse, turret ships, and torpedoes; but the Church is taught to trust in the spiritual--the mysterious, invisible, but almighty power of Jehovah. The material fails, the spiritual never. When the saint relies fully on Jehovah, and is absorbed in His holy cause, he is surrounded with an impenetrable defence. (W. L. Watkinson.) The God of Jacob I. Its history. The character of Jacob is one of the standing difficulties of the Old Testament, because of the interest and love God cherished for him. David offers to us much the same difficulty: “ the man after God’ s own heart,” and yet so base and vile in his great sin. But it is the Bible which tells us what these men were. Its frankness is conspicuous. But David, after all, does not puzzle us as Jacob does. There is a vein of pure nobility and of splendid genius through David’ s character and life, which helps us to understand the relation of God to him. But Jacob’ s character fails to kindle a corresponding enthusiasm. He does not stand out before us a man of genius, as a hearty lover, a faithful friend, or even as a noble and gallant foe. A vein of trickery and treachery runs through his nature, so unlike David’ s frank and self-forgetful generosity. Stratagems are his delight; the easy refuge of his weakness. And when we find through life the same tendency to underhand tricks prevailing, we begin to wonder what God could see in the man to make him a prince in the heavenly order, and why throughout the Scripture the name God of Jacob, God of Israel is the name in which He especially delights. It seems to them the purest exercise of the Divine sovereignty on record. But it is sovereignty of the same order as that which moves Him to elect to be the Redeemer of the world. The spring of that redeeming love lies within His own nature. It arose out of the depths of the Divine nature, and must be based, we may be sure, on essential reason. God chose Jacob, and chooses to be called the God of Jacob, just because he was a man so full of human infirmity and littleness, mingled with those higher and nobler qualities without which the spiritual culture of mankind becomes impossible. Had God chosen only to be called the God of Abraham or Moses, and to take supreme interest in such lofty lives alone, alas! for you and for me and for mankind. Jacob is more within our sphere. What God was to him, we can believe that He may be, He will be, to us; thus the name “ God of Jacob” has a sound hill of comfort, full of assurance to our ears. That it might be so, we may be sure. He chose it. Now, see this when developed in history. God, as the God of Jacob, did make Himself a glorious name in the earth (Deuteronomy 2:25; Joshua 2:4-11). Their internal organisation under the constitution which God had ordained marked them out as a favoured people. There was nothing like them in the wide world, until the German races appeared and brought the same love of freedom, the same domestic affections, the same noble womanhood, the same essential manliness, to build on the foundation of Christian society. Again, Israel was the only nation of freemen, in the largest sense, in the Old World. The people were knit into a brotherhood of liberty, with special safeguards in their constitution as a nation against the lapse of any Jewish freeman into serfdom, or even into penury (Deuteronomy 15:1-23; Leviticus 25:23-31). They were facile princeps among nations, witnessing to the heathen around them of the blessedness of obedience to God. And what men they produced! The Greeks are their only rivals. But while Greece produced the heroes of the schools, the Jews produced the heroes of the common human world. Every man and every people is conscious of a relation to them, such as he sustains to no other race which has played its part in history. The lives of the great Hebrews belong to us as no Greek belongs to us. They are literally part of our history. How few know Greek; who knows not the histories of the Bible? They are our fathers whose lives we read there, our history, our hymns. Man’ s history is the elucidation of this title; the God of Jacob has written for Himself a glorious name in the records of the world. II. Its work--the functions which this name fulfils in the culture of our personal spiritual life.1. The God of Jacob tells us, by the very name, that He is a God who is not deterred by a great transgression, or by great proneness to transgression, from constituting Himself the guide of our pilgrim life. If ever your heart dies down within you under the consciousness of an inbred sinfulness, which you think must alienate you from God’ s love and care, let the name of the God of Jacob reassure you. “ Long suffering” is the quality which the name of “ the God of Jacob” seems specially to suggest to us. Jacob was a man of many and grave infirmities. And the God who came to Adam with a promise which implied a pardon came also to Jacob, and comes to us all. God undertook the guidance of that man’ s pilgrimage, because he was a sinful man, a man full of infirmities and treacheries, but with a nobler nature beneath and behind which He made it His work to educate by suffering, until Jacob the supplanter became Israel the prince. Jacob was as full of folly, falsity, and selfish ambition as most of us; but he had an instinct and a yearning for deliverance. God’ s promise rang full sweetly on his ear. The worm Jacob, trained to be a prince, is full of precious suggestions to us all. 2. The God of Jacob must be a God who can bear to inflict very stern chastisement on His children, and to train His pilgrims in a very hard, sharp school of discipline, without forfeiting the name of their merciful and loving God. “ Few and evil have the days of the years of my life been,” said the aged patriarch, reviewing his life course before Pharaoh. Why? Because through life he had been under the hard, stern discipline of the hand of God. And so, as his life was spent in learning, it was spent in suffering. God did not shrink from wielding the scourge to the very close. Then, he witnessed a sad confession before Pharaoh, such as Abraham and Isaac would have had no occasion for; for they lived better and happier lives than Jacob. But it is this very discipline which makes Jacob’ s life so instructive. It teaches us-- (1) The thoroughness of the Divine method, that we have to do with One who will sanctify us wholly; will search out the very real fibres of evil within us, and scathe them, whatever may be the cost. (2) Let the name of the God of Jacob assure you that there is no extremity in which you have a right to cry, “ The Lord hath forsaken me, my God hath forgotten me.” Jacob’ s life is surely the witness that the veriest exile cannot wander beyond the shelter of the Father’ s home; the most utter outcast cannot stray beyond the shield of the Father’ s love. There is no condition of darkness, of straits, of anguish, inconsistent with your standing as a son and God’ s tenderness as a Father. For-- (3) The God of Jacob is the God who will bring the pilgrims home. “ He is not ashamed to be called their God, for He hath prepared for them a city.” Led by the God of Jacob, your bones can never whiten the sands of the desert; your choking cry can ever be heard from the waves of Jordan. Mark the splendid and joyous picture of the end of all our pilgrim wanderings, toils, and pains, which is painted there. The Angel which redeemed him from all evil is redeeming us through pain as sharp, through patience as long, through discipline as stern. And He has caused all this to be written for our learning, that the hope of a final and eternal triumph over evil might sustain us through the conflict, through the wanderings, and assure us that in His good time the God of the pilgrim Jacob will bring us into His rest. Weary, worn, with shattered armour and dinted shield, we may struggle on to the shore of the dark river. A moment, a gasp--and there is a white-robed conqueror, with the dew of immortal youth upon his brow, led by the angels before the Throne of God and of the Lamb. (J. Baldwin Brown, B. A.) Psalms 20:2 Send thee help from the sanctuary.The sanctuary I. It is the place where God’ s honour dwells. When Israel would have the help and guidance of Jehovah, they made application at the temple where His glory was seen in the holy place, and where He had appointed to respond to their supplications. II. The house of God is the place of united and fervent prayer. The increased efficacy of prayer when united and fervent, and the assurance that it will have unity and fervency in the sanctuary, point out that place as the source of their help in the hour of danger and of suffering. III. The house of God is the radiant point of sanctifying truth. From the lips of the living preacher go out those doctrines that operate to sanctify the hearts of men. And who dare hope that society can prosper where no hearts are sanctified? VI. The instruction of God’ s house is the grand agent in the formation of public sentiment. An influence goes out from the holy place to affect all men, whether they will or will not be controlled by the influence. To the ungodly, public sentiment is an irresistible law. There is no means powerful like the house of God in the formation of public opinion and sentiment. V. The house of God sustains all the other civilising and healthful influences. Identified with it are a preached Gospel and the ministry of reconciliation. These all sustain each other. VI. From the house of God are selected the subjects of His grace. Those only who frequent the sanctuary are at all likely to be regenerated. It is in the lips of a living ministry that God has pledged Himself to bless. Men bring misery on themselves when--1. There is a satiety of hearing the Word of God.2. When the spirit of decay esteems the support of Gospel institutions a burden.3. When there is a disrespect for the ministry of the reconciliation. (D. A. Clark.) Help from the sanctuary The name sanctuary means the holy place, and sometimes refers only to that which was the most holy place, but at other times to the tabernacle generally. It was made holy by God’ s dwelling there, and specially by the manifestation of His grace through mediation and sacrifice. To the sanctuary the pious Israelites turned when in trouble and in great emergency, specially besought the Divine protection by clinging to the horns of the altar. Something of the same kind we find in mediaeval Christian times in connection with particular churches. In the Chapter House of Westminster there is a beautiful picture depicting a scene which was often witnessed at the abbey porch. The venerable abbot, with the elevated host in his hand, is staying the progress of a strong angry warrior, while behind him a woman and her children, with terror in their faces, are clinging to his vestments and claiming his protection. But we take the word sanctuary as in its common meaning amongst us today; as the house of God, the place of worship. Help from the sanctuary, therefore, suggests the spiritual strength obtained through the observances of the religious ordinances connected with the day and the house of the Lord. Christ blesses us through them. They are no charms or talisman, but simply channels of His blessing. I. We all need help. Every soul has its own sadness. Some spiritual, through the conflict with sin. Others temporal, through the difficulties of life. II. It is a comfort to know that there is help from the sanctuary. For in the sanctuary we draw near to God as the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and as we appropriate Him to ourselves as our own God we find ourselves strengthened and encouraged. We are in our lives like a schoolboy learning to write, and every week is a page in our copy book, and every day a line. On the first line, and in the sanctuary, Christ has set before us His own beautiful example, and we start out to imitate it. But as we go down line after line we too largely lose sight of that which He has written, and when we get to the bottom our work is all irregular and blotted, and the paper, mayhap, also blistered with our tears. Then comes the first day of the week again, and when we enter into the sanctuary Jesus speaks to us words of cheer and sets us a new copy, and so we begin again. Thus page after page is covered. It is poor work enough, but it improves a little every time, and it is much better at the end of the book than it was at the beginning, for at the bottom of the last page the Master writes, “ Well done!” Thus the sanctuary counteracts the evil influences of the week. And there have been special blessings coming to earnest Christians through some particular portion of the service of God’ s house. The Lord guides His Word to the hearts of His people. He knows how to direct the minister to preach aright. See how minute are the directions given by which Cornelius was to find Peter and Ananias to find Saul of Tarsus in Damascus. And the Holy Spirit acts in like manner still. III. To get this help we must come to the sanctuary. I do not deny that we can get to God in Christ anywhere. But a particular promise is made in connection with the sanctuary. “ Where two or three,” etc. It may be difficult to analyse this special blessing, but it is reality. How lamentable, then, that so many stay away, and on such slight pretexts. IV. If he would be the means of conveying this help the minister must keep close to Christ. For it is the Christ of the sanctuary that constitutes its value, and if he, on whom most of all the character and quality of the services depend, loses sight of Him, then the Church is reduced at once to the level of the Lyceum, and all spiritual power is gone. The soul of a saint cannot be nourished by a scientific disquisition. The best way to defend the truth is to expound it. Above all, must they know Christ experimentally. (W. M. Taylor, D. D.) Psalms 20:3 Remember all thy offerings.Holy offerings “ What shall I render unto the Lord for all His benefits towards me?” There are people who will say that we can give nothing to God, who giveth all. These are the selfish folk, who really mean, even if they do not say so, “ Get all you can from God, God wants no return.” Now, the Bible says just the opposite. The Bible says “ Present our bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God. The people who talk about “ the finished Work of Christ,” and who say that He has done all, and that therefore there is nothing for us to do, forget that there are two parts in the scheme of salvation. Jesus has indeed done His part, but He bids us do certain things also. We have nothing to pay. But would it not be base ingratitude if someone had been good and kind to you in trouble, and you had not tried to make some return, however small? Well then, “ how much owest thou unto my Lord?” Do you remember what the Lord Jesus paid for us? Have we nothing to pay or to give to Him? You will answer that you have nothing good enough to give to Him. But you have; you can give Him what He asks for, your heart, your love. How, then, can we show our love to God, what offerings can we present to Him? In a word, one of the holiest offerings we can present to God is worship. And to do this should be our chief motive for attending church. How various and how unworthy--some of them--are the motives which govern us in this. The common notion about church going springs from mere selfishness. The question is, how can I best honour Him who has done all for me? Above all, we offer an holy offering of praise in the highest act of worship, in the celebration of the blessed sacrament. In the service of the Holy Communion we take part with the saints and angels in heaven in worshipping God. Is there, then, nothing to pay? Oh, yes! a life of devotion, a life of thanksgiving; there is everything to pay, even the best we have. “ I will pay my vows now in the presence of all His people,” says holy David; and yet there are some who tell us “ there is nothing to pay.” Thus far we have seen that we can show our love to God by giving Him the offering of a holy worship. Again, we can make an offering to God by giving alms to His Church. God gives us all we have, our money, and our means of making money; and we are bound to dedicate, to consecrate a part of what we have to Him. Again, this false teaching goes on to tell us that there is nothing to do, and nothing to tear. You know that it is written, “ without holiness no man can see the Lord.” Now, do you think that you have nothing to do? Do you find it very easy to lead good lives; to keep yourselves pure, and gentle, and patient, and forgiving? Do you find nothing to do in resisting temptation, in keeping under your temper, in checking bad thoughts? But, as said a saint of old, “ God, who made us without ourselves, will not save us without ourselves.” Jesus has done His part, but He nowhere tells you that you have nothing to do. Often when people say, “ I belong to Jesus, I am safe,” they are simply deceiving themselves. Some of the most atrocious criminals have talked in this way. “ By their fruits ye shall know them.” If you do really love the Lord Jesus you will try to obey Him: There is yet another offering which we can give to God, the sacrifice of self. Every act of self-denial, every pleasure abandoned for the sake of others, will be accepted by Him who gave up all for us. (H. J. Wilmot Buxton, M. A.) Psalms 20:5 We will rejoice in Thy salvation. Joy in God’ s salvation The joy, the gladness, the rhapsody, the exultation, the young heaven begun in the heart of the newborn convert is the nearest thing to Paradise that earth ever saw. On the day that our sins are pardoned God sets all the bells of heaven ringing, and then the bells of our heart chime in melody. On the day when God is pleased to blot out our sins, He hangs every lane and every alley of Mansoul with splendid flags and colours, and gilded lamps and bright jewels; then He bids sweet music play in every part of the city, and He makes the fountains run with wine. (C. H. Spurgeon.) In the name of our God we will set up our banners. The banners of the Temperance Reformation There is the battle of life and its hard struggle, with which we are familiar. And there is that other battle of a higher kind--the battle of salvation, in which we have to carry on a warfare against our spiritual foes. And every great reform has been of the nature of a battle, because of the opposing forces arrayed against it. The Temperance Reformation is no exception to this rule. Many and mighty are the forces arrayed against it: ignorance and appetite, custom and fashion, prejudices and “ vested interests,” and yet more. This is the battle we have to wage. But we survey the field of this warfare not at all with discouragement, but rejoicing in the salvation which God has wrought by the temperance cause. I. Enumerate some of the great truths which are the banners of the temperance reformation. We know how useful signs, banners, and such symbols are in any warfare. What great service they render.1. Now, amongst ours are abstinence and health. No one imperils their health by joining our cause, though some think they will. But it is altogether a mistake. There is no need for their coming as martyrs, for no one’ s health will be injured by abstinence. And how vastly health is promoted by it is a fact becoming more recognised day by day. 2. Temperance and safety. Perfect safety is not the lot of man, but relative safety is largely within our own power; and abstinence from all intoxicating drinks is one great aid to such safety. “ Wine is a mocker,” and the victims of its deceptions are gathered from every rank, age, and calling, the most sacred not excepted. Therefore it is well to make ourselves, by abstinence from strong drink, as safe as we can in order that we may more fully execute the will of God and the work of life. 3. Temperance and charity; that is, love for our fellow man. For the sake of others we should keep from that which does others so great harm. Love will ever swell the ranks of the temperance cause. 4. Temperance and piety. The one does not involve the other, but it is a great helper thereto. A practical connection exists between them, and temperance has brought multitudes to cast in their lot with the godly, and to walk with them in the heavenly way. 5. Temperance and prosperity. What hinders national and individual prosperity so much as intoxicating drink Y What, then, could more help than abstinence from it? II. Exaltation of these banners is binding upon us. We are to set them up, not as the only things to be exalted, but yet as certainly amongst them.1. Why shall we set them up? (1) As a protest against prevailing errors and fallacies which still are held by multitudes of people. (2) For publicity--that all may know what we believe and teach. (3) For the sake of propagandism. We want these truths spread. 2. Where shall we set them up? In the home, the school, the church, the press, the legislature, wherever, indeed, we may. 3. The means. By the living voice, by the printing press, by personal example, by social influence, by the franchise. III. The Divine sanction under which we act. We care for such sanction and we have it: His authority, honour, service, all sanction our efforts. Let us all be of those who take our text as their own resolve. (J. Dawson Burns.) A holy warfare I. Publicly declared. A “ banner” is a military ensign, and to set it up is a declaration of war. To “ set up our banner” and to declare a moral war against wrong is what all should do. It is indispensable. We are ruined else.1. Righteous. There are unrighteous wars, but this is not one of them. 2. Life long. It will not end until “ the last enemy” be destroyed. 3. Glorious. It has a glorious Leader, glorious examples and victories. Unfurl your banner, then. It should be-- 4. Public. Let it be seen floating over the scene of your everyday life. II. Its animating spirit. “ In the name of our God.” This may imply--1. A conscious need of Divine help. Jehoshaphat’ s prayer is suited to us (2 Chronicles 20:12). 2. A determination to follow the Divine direction. He is the Captain of our salvation. What a magnificent description we have of Him as a Chieftain in Revelation 19:11-16. The religious banquet A banner is a symbol. Hence its significance and value. Every country, every nationality has its banner, from the Roman Empire with its eagles, that aspired to universal dominion, to the smallest principality. The banner symbolises what is dear to the patriot heart, and every patriot is prompted to cling to it. Every soldier stands by his colours. Every religious body has its banners. They may not be visible flags; they may be symbols of different kinds. The creeds were formerly called symbols. Every Church has a creed or symbol of some kind. Some Churches may not have authoritative statements of faith and opinion to which subscription is required as a condition of membership, but every Church, every organisation, has its controlling thought, its characteristic faith, which in some form or other it expresses and makes its symbol or banner. Such banner every religious body ought to have, and it should set it up in the name of its God; that is, under deep conviction that its banner symbolises and sets forth truths, principles, duties accordant with the will of God and helpful to man’ s highest interest and truest welfare--mental, moral, and spiritual. And to the banner thus set up it should be unfalteringly true. It should stand by its colours. Better have no colours than to have them without the manliness to stand by them. Neutrality, where important principles are involved, is pitiable; but better be neutral, better openly declare that you have no convictions, than not to have courage to maintain those you profess to have. If you have a faith, never be ashamed of it. Be ashamed of not having a faith, or of not bravely defending the faith you have. (J. H. Heywood.) Psalms 20:6 Now know I.A point of knowledge There comes a point of knowledge in the spiritual education of the soul. For a long time the soul knows nothing, can explain nothing, is groping after everything, but is quite sure that it is groping in the right direction. Then there comes a point of positive knowledge--a birthday--a day never to be forgotten. Such days there are in intellectual illumination. The scholar, opening his book, knows nothing; the first pages are weary reading; he asks if he may not omit a good many of the pages, but he is told that not a single word is to be omitted. The reward is not on the first page; it begins about the middle of the book, but only begins to those who have read carefully every word up to that point; then for the first time the reader sees one beam. Now his interest in the book deepens, every page becomes an enjoyment, and he is only regretful when the last page is reached. We know the meaning of tiffs kind of illumination in the acquisition of languages. For a long time we seem to be speaking incoherently, even foolishly; the sounds are so unusual to our own ears that when we say them aloud to any listener we smile, as if we had made a possible mistake, or might be mistaken for persons who had altogether misapprehended their natural talent and genius. A little further on we speak, perhaps, with a shade less hesitation; then, mingling with people who are always speaking the language, we get into the hum and music of the utterance, and then venture our first complete sentence; and when it is answered we expect it to be answered, a great satisfaction comes into our soul, and from that point progress is comparatively easy, These illustrations all help us to understand something about the religious life. When a man first bears his own voice in prayer it is as if it thundered. It is a terrible thing to hear the voice the first time in prayer to those who are naturally timid and self-obliterating. But there is a point of knowledge. The Psalmist reached it in the sixth verse. He felt the saving hands of God were under him and round about him, and his confidence was grand. After this, what would he do? He would “ set up his banners,” that is to say, he would bear public testimony. There should be no doubt about which side of the war he was on. The fact of our having a banner is nothing; the heathen have banners, and are not ashamed of them; the thing to be noted is the name in which the banner is to be set up; they are our banners but it is God’ s name. (Joseph Parker, D. D.) That the Lord sayeth His anointed. God saved the king So said David, for he was the Lord’ s anointed. “ The Lord took him from the sheepfold,” and anointed him to feed Jacob His people, and Israel His inheritance (1 Samuel 16:1-23). Again and again had the Lord saved David ere he came to the throne, and afterwards he experienced much trouble, so that he knew and confessed his need of the Divine protection. Persons are not less exposed by rising in life and spreading abroad in the world. I. The saved. God is the “ Saviour of all men,” but “ specially of them that believe.” Thus He is called “ the Preserver of men” ; but “ rest deliverance giveth He to His king, and showeth mercy to His anointed, and to His seed forever.” If, therefore, there be (and who can question it?) a peculiar providence, no wonder that it watches with a special care over those in whose lives so many destinies are bound up, and on whose welfare the welfare of so many thousands depends. II. The salvation. All are exposed to evil and danger. And only see now what a salvation God has wrought for us. Consider the greatness of the peril. III. The Saviour. It was the Lord, it was a Divine interposition, and undeserved by us: let our praise be sincere and practical. How much as a people we have to be thankful for. (W. Jay.) Psalms 20:7 Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the Lord our God.Remember the name of the Lord our God By the name of God is meant the various properties and attributes of God. Now, whilst some trusted in earthly power, the Psalmist confides in “ the name of the Lord our God.” It would seem to an ordinary observer, if he were ignorant of the Gospel, that the name of the Lord would excite terror rather than confidence. If there be good in the moral government of God, how much of suffering, evil and sorrow there are, notwithstanding. How then can confidence arise from remembering the Divine name? We distinctly admit that there are attributes of God which, because they seem arrayed against sinful beings, can hardly be supposed to be subjects of encouraging remembrance. “ The name of the Lord our God” includes justice and holiness; and these are qualities from which we seem instinctively to shrink, as though we felt that they must necessarily be opposed to rebellious and polluted creatures. And so they must be. If there be certain Divine properties, the remembering of which might be comforting even to the disciple of natural religion, undoubtedly there are others which can furnish nothing but cause of disquietude, unless there be full acquaintance with the scheme of redemption. It is in respects such as these that natural theology, if it would keep its disciples at peace, must forbid their recollecting the name of the Lord their God. These are points which must be slurred over, for to examine them deeply would be to destroy all foundation of hope. But it is not so with the disciple of revealed religion.” Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, there is no property involved in the Divine name from which we need shrink, none which is not actually ranged on our side, if we believe on Him who gave His life a ransom for the world. Did you ever consider what emphasis there is in St. Paul’ s answer to his own question, “ Who shall lay anything to the charge of Gods elect?” His answer is, “ it is God that justifieth.” What is there in the fact that “ it is God that justifieth,” which proves that earth, and sea, and air might be ransacked for an accuser, but that none could be found who could make good any charge against “ God’ s elect?” Is it not because God is the justifying agent; not this property, not that attribute of God, but God Himself--God the combination of all possible perfections? If it be God that justifieth, the justification must be that in the effecting which holiness and justice concur. And therefore is it that all accusation is silenced; for if the satisfaction made to God on our behalf hath met every attribute of God, it is not possible that there should remain place for any charge. Justice as well as love demands our acceptance. Who can condemn when the Divine Judge Himself acquits, nay, pronounces approval? You should not fail to observe that our text furnishes a great criterion, and that we ought to test by it our spiritual condition. Is it, or is it not, our habit to “ remember the name of the Lord our God,” whilst others, either neglectful of religion or adopting false systems, turn bewildered to “ chariots and horses” ? It is, if with David we have “ entered into covenant with God,” through the Mediator: it cannot be, if we are still virtually aliens, living in the darkness and rebellion of nature. Oh, we too well know that there must be some amongst you whose only happiness is in keeping God out of their thoughts, and who are glad of any excuse for not considering His nature and attributes. Any “ chariot,” any “ horse,” which may bear them away from the contemplation of their Maker! What a state! To be afraid of meditating on that Being before whom they must inevitably appear, and who “ has power to destroy both body and soul in hell” ! If the banishing Him from your thoughts could finally keep you from contact with Him in His awfulness; if there were a “ chariot,” if there were a “ horse,” which would bear you away from His “ everlasting wrath,” we might not wonder at your perseverance in forgetting Him to, the utmost of your power. Try for one hour to “ remember God’ s name” --“ God’ s name” as traced by natural theology, and yet more vividly by revealed. I know that you will be disturbed and appalled, I know that as one property after another of the Divine nature passes before you, you will shrink back, and be tempted to exclaim--Oh! for the “ chariot,” oh! for the “ horse,” to bear us away from this terrible God! But this is what we wish. We wish you to see in God “ a consuming fire,” --a Being of terrors, and those terrors all armed to strike down and to crush you. But we do not wish you to be left in dismay; neither will you be. When “ remembering the name of the Lord” has made you feel yourselves lost, you will hear with unspeakable gratitude how God laid your iniquities on His own well-beloved Son. If God out of Christ appeared to you “ a consuming fire,” God in Christ should appear to you as a “ reconciled Father.” (H. Melvill, B. D.) Divine and human trust contrasted I. The charge brought against those whose trust is merely human. There have been such always. Now, the guilt of such trust lies in the oversight of God,--regarding chariots and horses as sufficient in themselves. And we are inexcusable in this, because God, though invisible, is ever perceptible to the understanding. And all such trust is irrational. It has no solid foundation in reason or conscience. II. The purpose. “ We will remember,” etc. The trust of the Christian begins memory. It acts as a stimulant to the believer, and loosens every other bond and makes it easy to let go all which the world gives. III. The consequences. “ They are brought down,. . .but we,” etc. Now, the results of trust in human power are sad and unexpected. It was so with Pharaoh and his army. But they are in accordance with the natural course of things. If we sow to the flesh we shall of the flesh reap corruption. But the Christian trust issues in this--“ We are risen, and stand upright.” (W. D. Horwood.) Chariots and horses I. The vanity and the variety of earthly dependences. “ Some trust in chariots and horses.” They were the appendages of war; hence were forbidden to Israel, for war was not their trade, They had no standing, army. They were always to be conscious of the inadequacy of their own resources, and thus to be taught to trust implicitly in God. Nor were they to be exposed to the temptation of conquest. They were never so triumphant as when trusting in God alone. But the text points to the tendency which men have to trust in the creature rather than in the Creator (Jeremiah 17:5-8). II. The foundation of Christian peace and courage. “ But we will remember,” etc. The name of the Lord is perpetually recurring in Scripture and has ever a deep and portentous meaning. The name of Jesus has now the same energy. “ The Lord our God” --all the best blessings of time and eternity belong to the covenant of grace which is in Jesus. Is God our God? Can we adopt the words of the text? (W. G. Lewis.) Trust in chariots and horses vain France, in the Revolution, hung up her motto--“ Liberty equality, fraternity. Napoleon changed it to Infantry, cavalry, artillery, says Punch. Christian loyalty Every good Christian is necessarily a loyal man. The subject now considered is, the insufficiency of all human expedients to secure happiness for a people unless God be honoured in the councils of their rulers, and His name be remembered by themselves. Human policy, if separated from Divine wisdom, leads to ruin and disgrace; but they rise and stand upright who “ remember the name of the Lord our God.” In what manner is a nation called upon to remember the name of the Lord our God? The right administration of justice and the true worship of God are the only sufficient securities for the permanent happiness of a state. It is the peculiar province of the law of God to instill a hatred of sin. Human laws may bind the hand, fetter the foot, and imprison the body, but nothing can control the heart, and curb the thoughts, and purify the motives by which we are influenced except the Spirit of God. He alone can subjugate the whole man. (A. Watson, M. A.) . Psalms 21:1-13 Psalms 21:1-13 The king shall Joy in Thy strength, O Lord; and in Thy salvation how greatly shall he rejoice.The feelings of the good in relation to the subjugation of evil Take the literal view of this Psalm as a type of the moral one against error and sin, and we have-- I. Thanksgiving for victory. Verses 1-7 are a triumphant declaration of some victory. “ Thou settest a crown of pure gold upon his bead.” Now--1. His conquest was a source of joy. “ The king shall joy,” etc. 2. His conquest was of Divine mercy. “ Thou hast given him,” etc. That mercy went before him. “ Thou preventest him,” etc., and transcended his progress. “ He asked life of Thee, and Thou gavest it him, even length of days forever and ever.” 3. His conquest exalted him to honour. “ His glory is great,” etc. And-- 4. Was connected with his trust in God. “ For the king trusteth,” etc. II. Expectation of yet further victory. “ Thine hand shall find out all Thine enemies,” etc. In moral struggles, past victories promise future ones. Because--1. The opposition is weakened. 2. The weapons cannot be injured. The sword of the Spirit cannot rest nor decay. 3. The resources are inexhaustible--God’ s wisdom, love, and power. 4. The enemies already overcome are as great as any remaining; and 5. Each new conquest weakens the foe, but increases the strength of the conqueror. III. Desire for victory over all enemies. And this shall be. “ Be Thou exalted, Lord, in,” etc. (D. Thomas, D. D.) The Lord Protector of princes Here is God assisting, and the king trusting; God saving, and the king rejoicing; the king desiring, and God satisfying his desires to the full. In this verse are three remarkable conjugations. God is joined with the king. Strength with confidence. Salvation with exceeding great joy. Thus they depend on each other. The king on God. Confidence on strength. Joy of salvation. God exalteth the king. Strength begetteth confidence. Salvation bringeth with it exceeding joy. God is above the king. Salvation is above strength. Exceeding joy above confidence. 1. The only security of princes and states is in the strength of the Almighty. 2. God holdeth a special hand over sovereign princes. 3. Princes mightily defended and safely preserved by the arm of God must thankfully acknowledge this singular favour, and deliver their deliverances to after ages, that the children yet unborn may praise the Lord as we do this day. (D. Featley, D. D.) Rejoicing in the strength of God “ Oh, it is good rejoicing in the strength of that arm which shall never wither, and in the shadow of those wings which shall never cast their feathers! In Him that is not there yesterday and here today, but the same yesterday, today, and forever! For as He is, so shall the joy be.” (Launcelot Andrews.) In Thy salvation how greatly shall he rejoice. The joy of the heavenly King I. This joy arose from a consciousness of newly-achieved victory.1. This victory was achieved by supernatural power. Not by the ordinary tactics of military genius, or by the prowess of a human arm. The salvation of humanity is a Divine work. 2. This victory was granted in answer to earnest prayer (Psalms 21:2). The agony of wrestling prayer is often turned into the rapture of success. II. This joy was accelerated by possessing an affluence of Divine blessing.1. He was surrounded with evidences of the Divine beneficence. God’ s gifts are God’ s love embodied and expressed. 2. He was invested with the most illustrious dignity (Psalms 21:3; Psalms 21:5). Jesus wore a thorn crown, but now He wears the glory crown. 3. He enjoyed the consciousness of an imperishable life (Psalms 21:4). He was raised from the dead to die no more. 4. He became the source of endless blessing to others (Psalms 21:6). In and through Him all nations of the earth are blessed. 5. He exults in the Divine favour (Psalms 21:6). The countenance of God makes the Prince of heaven glad. III. This joy was intensified by the assurance of the unshakeable permanency of His government.1. The permanency of Messiah’ s throne is secured by the Divine mercy (Psalms 21:7). He who is most high in every sense engages all His infinite perfections to maintain the throne of grace upon which our King in Zion reigns. 2. The assurance of this permanency is strengthened by Messiah’ s confidence in God (Psalms 21:7). The joy and confidence of Christ our King is the ground of all our joy and confidence, and the pledge of final conquest over all our foes. (Homiletic Commentary.) A completed salvation, Messiah’ s triumph I. Look at our King as having accomplished salvation. But few Christians believe in a salvation finished, perfected. The salvation in Christ Jesus is complete; there is not an iota more to pay, not a single act of meritorious obedience left to perform, and not an enemy to combat but He has engaged to vanquish. Look at the manner in which He accomplishes this salvation.1. By His suretyship and substitution.2. By His atonement.3. The entire labour is exclusively His own. II. Our glorious King invested with kingly power to dispense salvation.1. By His victories.2. By application. III. The King rejoicing in God’ s salvation, seeing the trophies of it brought in and brought home. My soul seems in an ecstasy of thought in the contemplation of this. Precious Christ! It is all Thine own--all Thy work from first to last. (Joseph Irons.) Psalms 21:2 Thou hast given him his heart’ s desire.The desire granted In this Psalm the joy bells of praise and thanksgiving are rung, and “ Te Deum laudamus” sung, as after a great victory. It follows close on Psalms 20:1-9, celebrating the fulfilment of the petitions there offered.1. We are reminded of the connection between desire and prayer. Desire is the mainspring of life. Could the infinite multitude of desires be annihilated, hope and effort would die, and the busy drama of life come to a standstill. Desire is therefore the test of character. Not what a man does or says, but what he desires, marks him for what he is, and makes him what he is. Desire, therefore, is the soul of prayer. We see here, perhaps, the deepest reason why God has ordained prayer, namely, that what is deepest, most dominant in man’ s nature, should be consecrated to God, and supremely refer to Him. 2. The whole invisible world of human desires (never the same two moments) lies open to God’ s eye. God can, if He sees fit, give us our “ heart’ s desire.” No lawful desire but He has created the means of its satisfaction; and if He disappoints it, this is but for the sake of some nobler end, some richer blessing. Unlawful desires are forbidden, not because He grudges our joy, but because their fulfilment would be our injury and ruin. 3. We have a practical test suggested both of our desires and of our prayers. (1) Of our desires. Are they such as we can put into prayer? Are they pure--such as God can approve; reasonable--such as we need not be ashamed to put into prayer; unselfish--such as consist with the great law of love; unpresumptuous--within the scope of God’ s promises? (2) Of our prayers. Do they indeed express the desires of our heart? Prayer without desire is a dead form; a featherless, pointless arrow that will reach no mark. (E. R. Conder, M. A.) Psalms 21:3 For Thou preventest him with the blessings of goodness.God going before us The word “ prevent” is now generally used to represent the idea of hindrance. “ Thou preventest him” would mean commonly, “ Thou hinderest him.” But here the word “ prevent” means, to go before. Thou goest before him with the blessings of Thy goodness as a pioneer, to make crooked ways straight and rough places smooth; or, as one who strews flowers in the path of another, to render the way beautiful to the eye and pleasant to the tread. God’ s anticipation of our necessities by His merciful dispensations. The leading idea of the text is expressed elsewhere. In Isaiah 52:12, “ The Lord will go before you, and the God of Israel shall be your reward.” Here is not only the idea of God following a man to shelter him and to protect him; but of God going before a man to make what preparation is necessary for his safety and comfort. God prevents us with the blessings of His goodness-- I. When we come into the world. II. When we become personal transgressors. III. When we enter upon the duties and cares of mature life. The word “ providence” seems to represent something more passive than that which it is essential God should be to us and do for us. For example, you might make a provision for another, put that provision within his reach, and then leave both him and the provision you have made--and that would be providence. But that is not God’ s providence. He leaves nothing. He is with everything--with things great and with things small. God has not, you know, constructed this world as a clockmaker constructs a clock--adapting the machinery to work rightly without his oversight or his interference, but only needing a little attention on the part of the individual who owns it. God has not put this world in such a position as that. Everything that acts, moves, and works--acts, moves, and works under the direct impulse of God. I know that men try to drive God away from His world, by talking of the laws of nature and of the powers and resources of nature. But as I understand the laws of nature, they are God’ s usual mode of working. He does a particular work in the same way, month after month, and year after year--that is a law. But then, the law is nothing in itself--the law is no power or force; it is only God’ s mode of doing the thing. You might as well talk of the law of carpentering, or the law of cabinetmaking, in terms which would show you do not consider the presence of the carpenter or the cabinetmaker necessary to his work. There are rules of carpentering and rules of cabinet making; but you require the carpenter and the cabinetmaker. Just so with reference to God. He works in the same mode, month after month, and year after year; but pray do not put the mode, the method, in the place of Himself, and speak of the mode of working as though it were the worker. And so God goes before us. He has been busy about that business of ours which we have just taken up as our occupation through life. He has thought of, cared, and provided for us. IV. When we enter upon new paths. V. When we enter the dark valley of the shadow of death. VI. By giving us many mercies without our asking for them. What wretched beings we should be if God limited His gifts to our prayers! I know that sometimes we do ask great things, when our hearts are enlarged and when our lips are open; but I know that, at other times, we ask God nothing, and that our prayers are as poor as ourselves; and if God restrained His giving when we restrained our praying, in what utter destitution we should be! VII. By opening to us the path of heaven and by storing heaven with every provision for our blessedness. Then let us praise God for His goodness, and let us imitate Him by seeking to prevent others in like manner. (Samuel Martin.) The goodness of the Creator preceding the history of the creature I. In the natural provision made for us as men. Let us look a little at this, and see how goodness went before us, worked for us ages before we made our appearance on the stage of life.1. There was a home exactly fitted for our reception. How exquisitely fitted this earth is to our senses and our wants! Do we crave for beauty? What a gallery of magnificent pictures! Have we an instinct for music? What an orchestra, redolent with every variety of melodious strains! Do we need sustenance? What a rich banquet nature spreads before us! Do we crave for delicious odours? The air is laden with perfumes. Do we need facilities of transit? There is the prancing steed; by our side there grows the timber that will bear us over oceans, and there are the elements ready to our call. Goodness made everything ready here before we came. 2. There was parental love to welcome us. We were not sent into a world of strangers to make acquaintance with those who for us had no sympathy. 3. There were educational elements to develop our powers. Here was the piece of work waiting for us to do it. Here were men and women whose knowledge qualified them to instruct us: schools were here, and libraries. 4. There were wholesome laws to guard our rights. Goodness went before us and made this government. II. In the spiritual provision made for us as sinners. Pardon and spiritual cleansing were here awaiting us. Redemptive agencies were at full work all about us as we commenced our life. III. In the heavenly provision made for us as disciples. What this world was to us before we entered it, heaven is to us now.1. This world was unknown to us. How ignorant is the unborn child of the home into which he is to be introduced! How little we know of heaven! “ Eye hath not seen,” etc. 2. This world was exquisitely fitted for us. Its soil, climate, productions. 3. This world has infinitely more than we can enjoy. It is so with heaven,--its provisions are rich, varied, and unbounded. 4. This world welcomed our existence with love. (Homilist.) Psalms 21:4 He asked life of Thee, and Thou gavest him a long life, even forever and ever. Religion a life In Christ these words are true of all who love our Lord Jesus Christ, as they are supremely true of Him who is the fountain of life. “ He asked life of Thee.” Is thin true of us? That depends upon what meaning we attach to the petition, “ asking life.” What we should ask for is life given to God here, in the hope of life to be received from God hereafter. We may put out of all hope of this life eternal all who openly reject it. It is the heart given to God which God requires. Religion may only too easily be in any man like the clothes which he so regularly takes off at night and puts on in the morning. It must be the life, the heart, the will, the whole inner man given to God here, through faith and hope of that eternal life which He will bestow upon His true people in the world beyond the grave. Our life in this world must be, as far as we can make it, a resemblance of His pure and blessed life while He was on earth, the perfect example of what every man ought to be who is made in the image and likeness of God. What He was perfectly and altogether, that we must be in part. Then shall we have life from His life. Do not suppose that any Christian can obtain that life without communion with Christ. It is as we live in and for Christ in this world that we shall find life--life from Him here, life with Him hereafter. (W. J. Stracey, M. A.) Life and life eternal There is an evident distinction drawn here between what we may term natural life and eternal life; between that life which we are now living outwardly in the flesh, and that life which is of inward consciousness, of spiritual experience. No one would contend that by “ life eternal” is meant the indefinite extension and prolonging of this present mode of existence. The very term or condition “ eternal” precludes the idea of transitoriness and uncertainty. In what does the distinction between life and life eternal consist? The origin of life is, in a philosophic point of view, involved in inscrutable mystery. Life is that invisible, inscrutable, mysterious, subtle essence which not only animates solid matter, but from the moment of our birth to the day of our death is definitely apportioned us by God. We have each one of us a life rent of this world, and no more. And this life is very dear to us. It is very precious, because of its fond affections, close friendships, many interests, enjoyments, opportunities, and, to some minds, certainties. Say what men will of life in their more sad and desponding moods, we do cling tenaciously to life. The passion for life is the strongest of all our instincts. To ask to die is unnatural. Physical death is not the punishment of sin. The death to which Adam was sentenced was banishment from the presence of God. Viewing life as it really is, immortality here on earth, and an immortality of this life present, would be a curse and not a boon. What, then, is “ life eternal,” and how is it to be obtained? It is that hidden, inward, spiritual reality which, as in the ease of natural life, finds its best definition in the language of Scripture--“ This is life eternal, that they may know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent.” Eternal life is to believe in Jesus, and that eternal life is given us as soon as we do believe. Eternal life is the gift of God in Christ, given for the asking, as much, as truly, as consciously, as natural life is given or restored. It comes by faith, and that faith is a spiritual gift. I do not know that language can describe what eternal life is, any more than it can define natural life. In either case it is a matter of vivid consciousness, not of verbal definition or analysis. But eternal life is of present experience. “ He that hath the Son hath life.” There is a present pardon of sin, a present sense of forgiveness, a present joy and peace in believing. Possessed of this eternal life, enjoyed as it may be together with your natural life, it will sweeten its bitter waters with its own healing. It will ennoble, it will sanctify. It will make a life consecrated to God. (Francis Pigou, M. A.) The Gospel promise of long life Though it be true that every man is fond of life, yet it is certain that very few appear much concerned about life eternal. The covetous man will not give, though it be but a small portion of what he has, to make his chance better of coaling to everlasting life. Persons thus fond of life would have their expectations raised very high by the beginning of the promise in the text. “ Thou gavest him a long life.” But when these persons discovered that the promised life was eternal they would feel disappointed. This sort of message would, indeed, be disappointing to most people; and yet this would be only granting them what they asked, life, in much greater perfection and excellency than they asked for it. Men have got such a liking for the pleasures and profits of this bad world that, without them, the thought even of eternal happiness seems dull and tiresome. How many are there among ourselves who, if they should speak the truth, must needs confess that they care more for the shadows of enjoyment on earth than for the substance of it in heaven! No man in good earnest cares for heaven--has any taste or desire for it--except so far as he has a taste for devotion, and can delight in the thought that he is with God, and God with him. Now, this is what no one can do whose heart is set upon either such pleasure or such profit as are to be had on this side the grave. (Plain Sermons by Contributors to “Tracts for the Times. ”) Future life. When Carlyle and Tennyson were once together “ the talk turned upon the immortality of the soul, and Carlyle said, ‘ Eh, old Jewish rags; you must clear your mind of all that,’ and likened man’ s sojourn on earth to a traveller’ s rest at an inn; whereupon Tennyson rejoined that the traveller knew whither he was bound and where he would sleep on the night following.” The future life was a most interesting and most firmly held article of faith with Tennyson. (Christian Commonwealth.) Psalms 21:5 His glory is great in Thy salvation.The glory of God In this Psalm the poet is giving thanks for victory. The soldiers are returning from war, and are met by a chorus of maidens shouting praise to the delivering God. The poetry is not equal to the moral enthusiasm of the occasion. We are called upon to contemplate God’ s glory as being great in human salvation. We thus enjoy the basis and the application of the thought. It would seem to be beneath Almighty God to care for a world so small and foolish as ours. It is not for us to estimate even our own worth. It does not become us to say that the world is insignificant, mean, or worthless; it is the work of God. What God has thought it worth His while to make, He may well think it worth His while to redeem. We do not see the whole world, nor do we comprehend all the issues of its discipline and nurture. When Jesus sees the travail of His soul He shall be satisfied. To save one soul is glory enough for any mortal man. What must it be to save the souls of all men, the souls of the ages and centuries incomputable? It is the delight of God to save, to redeem, to construct; the function of the enemy is to overthrow, to weaken, to debase, and to bring all life into dishonour. The course which the enemy has taken is the easier, since it is always easier to destroy than to construct. We glorify God by our goodness. God does not exist to be glorified in any sense of being merely hailed and saluted by songs and rapturous applause. When we are most quiet we are most really glorifying God. By meekness, by pureness, by gentleness, by quiet spiritual wisdom, by accepting the lot of life in a spirit of self-sacrifice, we may be bringing true glory to God. Do not think of the glory of God in any merely magnificent sense. We must change our definition of magnificence. In the sight of heaven it may be magnificent to be poor in spirit, gentle, and meek; and it may be mean and contemptible to own estates and crowns and sceptres. It is upon moral emotion, aspiration, and service that God sets His seal of blessing. (Joseph Parker, D. D.) Psalms 21:6 For Thou hast made him most blessed forever: Thou hast made him exceeding glad with Thy countenance. Exceeding gladness You have heard a great many sermons upon the Man of Sorrows, you cannot have heard too many; but probably you have never listened to a discourse upon the Man of Joys! I venture thus to name the Christ of God. We do not meditate enough upon the happiness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Remember, it was for the joy set before Him that He endured the Cross; and the expectation of joy is joy. The light of that expectation shone on His daily path. Sin is the mother of sorrow, and Jesus knew no sin. He was the Prince of Peace, even when He was despised of men. He had the joy of knowing that His Father heard Him always, and that His every word and act were blessings to fallen men. A man cannot be full of such benevolence as that of Christ and be utterly miserable. Unselfishness necessarily brings with it a measure of joy. The fountain which yields such streams of blessing has its own flash and sparkle; we feel sure of it. As pearls may lie in plenty in caverns over which there rolls a dread tempestuous sea, so there slept in the heart of Jesus treasures of joy even when the ocean of His holy soul was lashed with hurricanes of woe. And what must not His joy be now in heaven! To this the text and the verses preceding primarily refer. As God, as Mediator, He is filled with joy; for His work is finished. “ Consummatum est” is written at the foot of His throne. And He is the fountain of priceless, numberless, endless blessings to men. “ Thou hast made Him blessings forever,” for so our text may be read. It is ever good to be the channel of blessing to others; what, then, must be the joy of Christ? Think, too, of His joy in the conversion, the comfort, the justification, the salvation of every soul that comes to Him. We read, There is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth.” Nearly all readers take this as telling of the angels’ joy. And no doubt they do rejoice. But the Word does not say so. It says, “ There is joy in the presence of the angels; that is to say, they are present where there is joy, they look upon the face of Christ, and see the joy which fills His heart. And He has joy in all the deeds of His saved people, and in their patient suffering, and especially in their joy. He is the blessed Leader of a blessed company. And now, turning to His people-- I. That gladness is the peculiar privilege of saints. Why should we not be glad?1. It is all right between us and God. There is no quarrel between the believing soul and God. And-- 2. Many are their present solaces. We can count our sorrows, we are quite “ au fait” at adding them up. But recapitulate your joys with equal readiness. Why not? Review the shining ranks of your mercies Are they not new every morning? I heard a brother in a prayer meeting say, “ The Lord hath done great things for us, whereof we desire to be glad” ; and I wanted to jump down that man’ s throat, and pull that passage back again, and put it into its natural shape. What business had the brother to mend the Bible and talk such wretched stuff. Whereof we desire to be glad! Why, if the Lord has done great things for us, we are glad. 3. We have a brilliant future before us. And-- 4. All blessings secured to them. In the parable it is said, they began to be merry, and it is not said they ever left off. Let us also begin. II. Their gladness is of a peculiar sort.1. God has wrought it. 2. It is permanent. 3. Exceeding. Who would think it to see many Christians? I am told that many shopkeepers are so poor that they put the most of their goods in the shop window; but this is a method which few Christians follow, for the opposite is the fact; their window is badly set out, and yet they have a costly stock upon their shelves. The children of this world are wiser in their generation in this as in other things. I would recommend such believers to dress their windows a little, and show some of their better things. Put your ashes into the backyard, but pour out the oil of joy in the parlour. Let people see it. 4. It comes to us in one way--“ with Thy countenance.” Have you not sometimes been made very glad with the look of a friend’ s face? But what must the countenance of God be to us, when He smiles on us as reconciled, as approving us, when listening to us? 5. But through many channels. Read the Psalm--“ The King shall joy in Thy strength,” and “ in Thy salvation.” Answers to prayer are told of. Preventing With the blessings of goodness, giving us mercies before we seek them. Then, be glad in the Lord, as we are bound to be. “ Blessed be the God and Father of our Saviour, Jesus Christ, Who hath blessed us with such blessings, all uncounted and unpriced; Let our high and holy calling, and our strong salvation be Theme of never-ending praises, God of sovereign grace, to Thee.” (C. H. Spurgeon.) The light of God’ s favour Flowers, when deprived of the rays of the sun, lose their bright colours, and become pale and sickly. This is generally seen in the night-blossoming plants, which are, for the most part, pale and unattractive. The soul that has not found God will lose all joy, and the beauty of life will fade without the presence and love of Christ. If it is to flourish, it must be ever basking in the healing rays of the Sun of Righteousness. Psalms 21:8-9 Thine hand shall find out all Thine enemies.The exposure and punishment of sin I. The exposure of sin is inevitable. Iniquity delights in cunning, and is itself a masterpiece of cunning. It may succeed in deluding its victims, and for a time escape detection. But there is One to whom every detail of the plot is fully known. Sin is often its own detective. An unguarded word, a suspicious sign, an unconscious oversight, will unmask the most skilfully disguised plans, and lead to exposure and misery. It is the theme of many a ballad, how the cranes aided in the discovery of the assassins of Idycus, the poet. Recently the house of the Caliph of the Ben Oreazen in Algeria was entered by a band of robbers, and a box containing 25,000 francs stolen. In their haste to escape the thieves left behind them an Arab cake bearing a particular mark, which one of the bakers of the town recognised as the sign used by Ben Xerafas, it being the custom for each family, in sending their bread to the oven, to mark it so as to distinguish the loaves. The police acted on the information, and, descending on a certain hut, caught the robbers asleep, with a portion of the plunder still in their possession. A simple Arab cake was the insignificant agent of discovery and exposure. II. The exposure of sin will extend to the inmost feelings of the heart. “ Those that hate Thee.” That sin is not always the worst which is most apparent. III. The punishment of sin will be terrible and complete.1. It will be terrible. The sins of the impenitent wicked will supply fuel to the fire of their own sufferings, and perhaps be used as an instrument for punishing others. 2. It will be complete. “ Swallow them up in His wrath.” Nations are an example--Antediluvians, Sodomites, Jews. Individuals are an example--Korah, Dathan, Abiram, Saul, and Judas. (Homiletic Commentary.) Enemies found out by God Oh, what a wonderful prophecy that is! Christ’ s hand shall find out all His enemies. If they hide themselves, He shall discover them. If they cover themselves with chain armour, yet still His hand will find out their vulnerable parts, and touch their very souls until they melt with fear. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Psalms 21:9 Thou shalt make them as a fiery oven in the time of Thine anger.The deluge of fire How, then, shall it fare with sinners when, after all, shall come that general fire so often foretold, which shall either fall from heaven or ascend out of hell, or (according to Albertus Magnus) proceed from both, and shall devour and consume all it meets with? Whither shall the miserable fly when that river of flames or (to say better) that inundation and deluge of fire shall so encompass them, as no place of surety shall be left; where nothing can avail but a holy life; when all besides shall perish in that universal ruin of the whole world? What lamentations were in Rome when it burnt for seven days together! What shrieks were heard in Troy when it was wholly consumed with flames! What howling and astonishment in Pentapolis when those cities were destroyed with fire from heaven! What weeping was there in Jerusalem when they beheld the house of God, the glory of their kingdom, the wonder of the world, involved in fire and smoke! Imagine what these people felt; they saw their houses and goods on fire, and no possibility of saving them: when the husband heard the shrieks and cries of his dying wife; the father, of his little children, and, unawares, perceived himself so encompassed with flames that he could neither relieve them nor free himself. (Jeremy Taylor.) God’ s anger I have read that a frown of Queen Elizabeth killed Sir Christopher Hatton, the Lord Chancellor of England. What, then, shall the frowns of the King of nations do? If the rocks rend, the mountains melt, and the foundations of the earth tremble under His wrath, how will the ungodly sinner appear when He comes in all His royal glory to take vengeance on all that knew Him not, and that obeyed not His glorious Gospel? (Charles Bradbury.) Psalms 21:11 For they intended evil against Thee . . . which they are not able to perform.A memorable instance of intended evil that the wicked were not able to perform At Rome the news of this great blow (given by the massacre on St. Bartholomew’ s Day) was hailed with extravagant manifestations of joy; the Pope (Gregory XII) and cardinals went in state to return thanks to heaven for this signal mercy, and medals were struck in its honour. Philip II. extolled it as one of the most memorable triumphs of Christianity, compared it to the splendid victory of Lepanto, and boasted that the total ruin of Protestantism was now finally assured. Nevertheless, this great wickedness, like all state crimes, was quite ineffectual for the purpose toward which it was directed. The Huguenots had lost their ablest leaders: they were stunned, confounded, scattered, weakened, but they were by no means wholly crushed. As soon as they recovered from their consternation they once more rushed to arms . . . The persecuted party once more raised their heads, and within a year from the date of the great massacre were in a position to address the king in bolder and more importunate language than at any former period of the contest . . . The full and public exercise of the reformed religion was authorised throughout the kingdom; the parliaments were to consist of an equal number of Protestant and Catholic judges; all sentences passed against the Huguenots were annulled, and the insurgents were pronounced to have acted for the good of the king and kingdom; eight towns were placed in their hands for an unlimited period; and the States-General were to be convoked within six months. Such were the conditions of the “ Peace of Monsieur,” as it was termed, which was signed on the 6th of May 1576--less than four years after that frightful massacre by which it was hoped that the Huguenot faction would be finally extirpated from France. (Students’ France.) . Psalms 22:1-31 Psalms 22:1-31 My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?The prophetic image of the Prince of sufferers Who is the sufferer whose wail is the very voice of desolation and despair, and who yet dares to believe that the tale of his sorrow will be a gospel for the world? The usual answers are given. The title ascribes the authorship to David, and is accepted by Delitzsch and others. Hengstenberg and his followers see in the picture the ideal righteous man. Others think of Hezekiah or Jeremiah, with whose prophecies and history there are many points of connection. The most recent critics find here the personalised genius of Israel, or more precisely, the followers of Nehemiah, including the large-hearted Psalmist. (Cheyne, Orig. of Psalt., 264.) On any theory of authorship the startling correspondence of the details of the Psalmist’ s sufferings with those of the Crucifixion has to be accounted for. How startling that correspondence is, both in the number and minuteness of its points, need not be insisted on. The recognition of these points in the Psalm as prophecies is one thing, the determination of their relation to the Psalmist’ s own experience is quite another. It is taken for granted in many quarters that every such detail in prophecy must describe the writer’ s own circumstances, and the supposition that they may transcend these is said to be “ psychologically impossible.” But it is somewhat hazardous for those who have not been subjects of prophetic inspiration to lay down canons of what is possible and impossible in it, and there are examples enough to prove that the relation of the prophets’ speech to their consciousness and circumstances was singularly complex, and not to be unravelled by any such obiter dicta as to psychological possibilities. They were recipients of messages, and did not always understand what the “ spirit of Christ which was in them did signify.” Theories which neglect that aspect of the case do not front all the facts. Certainty as to the authorship of this Psalm is probably unattainable. How far its words fitted the condition of the singer must therefore remain unsettled. But that these minute and numerous correspondences are more than coincidences it seems perverse to deny. The present writer, for one, sees shining through the shadowy personality of the Psalmist the figure of the Prince of sufferers, and believes that whether the former’ s plaints applied in all their particulars to him, or whether there is in them a certain “ element of hyperbole” which becomes simple fact in Jesus’ s sufferings, the Psalm is a prophecy of Him and them. In the former case the Psalmist’ s experience, in the latter case his utterances, were divinely shaped so as to prefigure the sacred sorrows of the Man of Sorrows. To a reader who shares in this understanding of the Psalm it must be holy ground, to be trodden reverently and with thoughts adoringly fixed on Jesus. Cold analysis is out of place. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Summary of contents The exclamation from the Cross--“ My God,” etc., led us to consider the Lord Jesus as our Surety, standing at His Father’ s judgment seat, and, conscious of innocence, inquiring what new charge was laid against Him to cause this new and most severe affliction, the hiding of His Father’ s countenance. We concluded that one reason why our Lord so earnestly cried to His Father was that He might ascribe to Him the glory of His deliverance, being unwilling to appropriate it to Himself by any exertion of His own power. And we found that the whole verse comprised three inquiries, to which we conceived these to be appropriate answers--First, Why hast Thou forsaken Me? Because Thou art bearing the sins of the world. Second, Why art Thou so far from helping Me? That the victory may be altogether Thine own. And third, Why art Thou so far from the words of My roaring? That Thou mayest learn all the required obedience by the things which Thou art suffering. We perceived that our Lord, in continuing His supplications, complained to His Father, but would not complain against Him; and that He fully acquitted Him of unkindness or injustice, by subjoining this filial and beautiful acknowledgment, “ But Thou continuest holy.” In the fulness of His sorrow our Lord next contrasted His own experience with that of the Father’ s, whose prayers were heard, and whose expectations were not confounded. He denominated Himself a worm, allied by His human nature to the meanest part of the creation--a crimson-coloured worm, covered with the imputed guilt of men, and He regarded Himself as “ no man” ; neither what man is by sin, nor what man was intended to be by his Creator. Our Lord’ s life in the flesh, we saw, might be illustrated by the heathen doctrine of metempsychosis; for He brought the recollections of the world of glory into this state of being; and therefore human life must have appeared, to His eyes, infinitely more mean, wretched, and loathsome than we can possibly conceive. We were next led to contemplate the enumerated mental sufferings of our much-tried Lord--the reproaches with which He was assailed, the mockery by which He was insulted, and the taunts which wounded His spirit to the quick. In the 9th and 10th verses we considered that pathetic and touching appeal which our dying Redeemer made to the heart of His Father, arguing from the helplessness of His infancy to the helplessness of His manhood; and casting the latter upon that paternal care which had provided for the former. We perceived how earnestly our Lord followed up this appeal with renewed entreaty for His Father’ s presence, expressing this great and only desire of His heart in these words, “ Be not far from Me.” The corporeal sufferings of the Man of Sorrows were next brought to our notice. The assault and encompassing of His enemies on every side was the first particularised; where also we considered the assaults of Satanic hosts upon the spirit of our Lord. Consequent on this assault succeeded universal faintness over His frame, complete languor and an extreme exhaustion, with intense and burning thirst. The piercing of our Lord’ s sacred body, in His hands and feet, was then considered, and the lingering death by crucifixion was described. Extended on the Cross, the emaciated state of the Saviour’ s worn-out frame was exposed to view, and all His bones might be told. In this condition He was subjected to the insulting gaze of the multitude. The soldiers also seized every article of His clothing; they parted His garments among them, and cast lots upon His vesture. Urged by these various and sore afflictions, and desiring with intense anxiety to enjoy again before He died the light and peace of His Father’ s presence, our blessed Saviour, in the next three verses, prayed with the most vehement importunity for a speedy and immediate answer. And whilst He was yet praying His Father granted His petition. Light dawned upon His soul. Darkness was dispelled from the face of nature, and from the heart of the Redeemer. And, as though issuing from a kind of spiritual death, and enjoying a spiritual resurrection, our Divine Surety exclaimed, “ Thou hast heard Me.” Importunity prevailed with God. The whole tone of feeling and sentiment in the Psalm becomes changed from this verse. Gratitude and thanksgiving occupy all the remaining portion. The Saviour, as it were, from the Cross, invited the members of His Church to join His eucharistic song He prospectively beheld the conversion of the world and the establishment of His own glorious kingdom. And the Psalm represents the Saviour as solacing His dying spirit, in the midst of His enemies, with the assurance of a holy and numerous seed, who should be counted to Him for a posterity. He heard, as it were, from His Cross, the song of the redeemed. (John Stevenson.) The great Sufferer and His relief This Psalm sets forth the last extremity of human suffering, yet without any confession of sin, and closes with the sure hope of deliverance. We consider it an idealised description of the great Sufferer. I. The complaint (Psalms 22:1-10). The cry with which the Psalm opens is not an utterance of impatience or despair, but of grief and entreaty. It is the question of faith as well as of anguish. The second line suggests the great chasm between His outcry and the help He implores. God stands afar off, i.e. withholds His help. In the olden times the fathers trusted, and were not put to shame; why is the present case made an exception? It is such, for instead of being helped He is left to be reproached and despised; all the spectators join in derision. But faith turns the mock, cry of foes into an argument for deliverance. II. The prayer against violence (Psalms 22:11-21). Having shown that He was justified in expecting Divine aid, He now shows that the necessity for it exists, It was no time for God to be far off, when distress was so near and there was no other helper. The figures that follow are taken from pastoral life. III. The expression of thanks and hope (Psalms 22:22-31). The Sufferer’ s certainty of deliverance is shown by His intention to give thanks for it. This will be done, not in private, but before the whole nation The experience here recorded, alike of sorrows and of joy, far transcends anything which we have reason to think that David passed through. (Talbot W. Chambers, D. D.) A picture of suffering sainthood I. The prayer of such sufferer. In Him who was “ the Man of Sorrows” it finds its chief fulfilment.1. The sufferings; they are-- (i) Spiritual, through feeling of God’ s desertion of Him (Matthew 27:46). In regard to Christ, it was not a fact that God had deserted Him, but He felt as if it were so. And of God’ s disregard of His prayer (Psalms 22:2). (ii) Social, for the Sufferer was the victim of social contempt (Psalms 22:6), and cruelty: “ they pierced,” etc. (Psalms 22:16), and He tells of the physical effect of all this (Psalms 22:14; Psalms 22:17).2. The supplications; in which note-- (i) The character in which God is addressed--“ holy” (Psalms 22:3). The God of His “ fathers” (Psalms 22:4), and of His earliest life (Psalms 22:9). (ii) The object for which He is addressed,--that God would come to Him (Psalms 22:11; Psalms 22:19), and that God would deliver Him (Psalms 22:20). (iii) The earnestness with which He is addressed (Psalms 22:1-2). II. The relief given. See this set forth in Psalms 22:22 onwards. Its results were--1. The celebration of the Divine goodness (Psalms 22:22; Psalms 22:24). 2. The conversion of the world to the true God (Psalms 22:27). This shall be through (i) men remembering and turning unto the Lord. And (ii) because the kingdom is, etc. (Psalms 22:28). And (iii) it shall be complete, including all nations, classes, and conditions.3. The celebration of His religion to the end of time (Psalms 22:30-31). Not only is there a time to come when the whole generation shall be converted, but all the generations following shall celebrate His praise. (D. Thomas, D. D.) The withdrawal of God’ s sustaining presence from the Divine Son So far, in this Psalm, we have had described to us the mental sufferings of Christ on the Cross; His physical sufferings and His final triumph are set forth in the portion of the Psalm yet to be explained. His mental sufferings were caused by the withdrawal of His Father’ s sustaining presence, and the reproaches of His enemies. The two united pressed His spirit with a weight of woe such as none besides have ever experienced sustained by His Father, as He had always hitherto been, He no doubt could have endured the reproaches of men without complaint; but when His Father withdraws His sustaining presence there bursts from His riven heart the agonised cry, “ My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” Why has the Father Almighty forsaken His only begotten Son? For our sakes. For no sin of His Son, but for our sins the Father forsook Him. It was as our surety and substitute that Messiah felt in His soul the wrath of God against sin. He had taken the sinner’ s place, to endure the wrath of God due to the sinner’ s sin; and the Father Almighty could not spare His Son and save the sinner. One or the other must die; and God so loved the world that He gave His Son. He forsook His Son that He might not forsake us. Again, the Father Almighty forsook His Son that the Son’ s victory over death and hell might be altogether His own victory--His own as man, sustained by simple faith in God. It was the Father’ s purpose to discomfit Satan by the very same nature over which he had triumphed in Eden. Accordingly a holy human nature sustained by faith in God, was the Saviour’ s only protection and defence in the final conflict. God the Father has left Him, God the Spirit has left Him, and He has also renounced all reliance on His own God-like power to aid Him, so that He stands before His enemies having, as His only weapon of defence, what Adam had in Eden, a holy human nature to be sustained by simple trust in God. A holy human nature, sustained by faith alone, was the weapon with which the first Adam should have conquered Satan; a holy human nature, sustained by faith alone, was the weapon with which the second Adam did conquer Satan. He used no other weapon to gain Him the victory on Calvary, than that which Adam had in Eden. He withstood the onset made upon His holy will and nature, only because His faith in God was steadfast unto the end. And God left Him to Himself, to prove to Satan and the world that a pure heart, sustained by an unwavering faith, is a match, and more than a match, for every assault that can be made upon it. What a thought is this for the soul to rest upon. (David Caldwell, A. M.) Christ forsaken of His Father I. How are we to interpret these awful words?1. Not the cry of a mere martyr. 2. Not wrung from Him by agony of body, but by anguish of soul. II. Why this cry of anguish?1. His disciples had forsaken Him, but it was not for that. God had forsaken Him. Christ was hanging there as our Surety and Substitute. 2. No other way of explaining this cry. This does explain it. Conflicting attributes in the Godhead to be harmonised before man could be accepted and forgiven. God found a way to reconcile them in the work and suffering of Christ. III. Learn from this cry--1. The true nature of Christ’ s death--a ransom, an atonement. 2. The evil of sin, and how God abhors it. 3. The greatness of God’ s love, and how we may obtain His mercy. (W. Pakenham Walsh, D. D.) The saint forsaken in what sense Sometimes God takes away from a Christian His comforting presence, but never His sustaining presence. You know the difference between sunshine and daylight. We have often daylight but little sunlight. A Christian has Gods daylight in his soul when he may not have sunlight; that is, he has enough to light him, but not enough to cheer and comfort him. Never was Jesus so forsaken as when He cried, My God, My God, etc., and yet was He never so strengthened by God’ s sustaining presence, for angels were at His service to minister to Him if He needed their ministry. (J. Cumming.) Forsaken of God, but not finally Did you ever read that Christ did finally forsake a man in whose heart and soul He still did leave His goods, furniture, and spiritual household stuff? A man sometimes goes from home, and sometimes he does not quite leave his home. There is much difference between these two. If a man leave his home and come no more, then he carries away all his goods; and when you see them carried away you say, “ This man will come no more. But though a man ride a great journey, yet he may come again;” and you say, “ Surely he will come again.” Why? Because still his goods, wife, and children are in his house; so, though Christ be long absent, yet if His household stuff abide in the heart--if there be the same desires after Him and delight in Him, you may say, “ Surely He will come again.” When did Christ ever forsake a man in whose heart He left this spiritual furniture? (S. Bridge.) Psalms 22:2O my God, I cry in the daytime, but Thou hearest not; and in the night season, and am not silent.Why so many prayers art unanswered Our prayers often fail of success-- I. Because of want of faith. There are a multitude of prayers offered to God with something like this feeling: “ Well, perhaps God will hear and answer; perhaps not. At any rate, I may as well pray; and if the answer comes, well: if not, I at least have done my duty.” Now, such a feeling as this, though it be not positive infidelity, is so near to it as to be most offensive to God, and can only bring forth His severe displeasure. The matter of prayer is one thing, the manner of prayer is another. If the manner of presenting our prayer is right, and the matter wrong, then, of course, will it miscarry. If the matter is right and the manner wrong, the prayer is likewise fruitless of good. II. Because we evince a practical unbelief in God’ s ability to grant us our requests. We act as if probabilities affected God as they do us: we measure His ability by our own. We do not remember that “ with God nothing is impossible.” III. The indulgence of some one or more known sins. Do we not read, “ If I regard iniquity in my heart the Lord will not hear me.” To pray, and yet to commit wilful sin, or still to pursue a course of secret or open iniquity, is not only mocking God with lip service, but is also acting with hypocrisy, professing one thing but doing another. A praying spirit and a sinning heart cannot dwell together. IV. Remissness in the performance of our Christian duty. This tendency in the minds of many to divorce prayer from all the instrumentalities which God has connected with its being answered is one fruitful source of evil, and a cause why so many prayers are uttered in vain. To illustrate this: suppose that you are threatened with shipwreck--the storm rages fearfully, the vessel is dashed upon the rocks and is broken up, every hope of escape seems gone, and in the extremity of your distress you cry unto God to save you from this threatened death! But how do you expect He will save you?--by a miracle?--by bearing you through the air and landing you safely on the shore? Or do you not rather look for an answer to your prayer by means of human agency, and by physical and natural instrumentality?--by a lifeboat, by a cable fastened to the rock, by the buoying up of some part of the wreck until it is washed upon the beach. And suppose that, having prayed to God for succour, you yet refuse to use the instrumentality which, in answer to your prayer, He has furnished for your safety. You decline to get into the lifeboat, or object to be drawn ashore by a rope, or will not commit yourself to some means provided for your escape: can you be saved? God answered your prayer, not by giving you instantaneously the end desired, but by giving you means adequate to secure that end; and if you refused the means you could not expect the end. So with spiritual blessings. God answers us through the instrumentality of duties; and we find the end we desire when we use the means He has enjoined. Another reason why our prayers are not answered is-- V. Because we do not persevere in prayer. One other way in which we ask and receive not, because we ask amiss, is-- VI. By asking things which do not accord with God’ s purposes of discipline or mercy. We must not forget the great truth, that God uses this world as a school of discipline, to fit us for a holier state above. In this state trials, disappointments, etc., are the necessary instruments whereby our souls are purged and fitted for heaven. Yet we often pray that God would relieve us from this trial, that He would exempt us from this threatened affliction; but in His infinite wisdom He knows that to grant these requests would be productive of evil rather than good, as it is “ in the furnace of affliction” that God often chooses His saints, and “ through much tribulation that they enter into the kingdom of heaven.” (Bishop Stevens.) Prayers which are not answered They that have conduit water come into their houses, if no water come they do not conclude the spring to be dry, but the pipes to be stopped or broken. If prayer speed not, we must be sure that the fault is not in God, but in ourselves; were we but ripe for mercy, He is ready to extend it to us, and even waits for the purpose. (John Trapp.) Psalms 22:3 But Thou art holy, O Thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel.A habitation of God There is ordinarily something like a proportion maintained between the power of a monarch and the splendour of his palace. If you visit countries you will generally find that the mightier the king and the more extended his sway the more sumptuous are the royal residences. And the criterion is altogether a just one; for we have a full right to expect that the residence of the monarch will be a kind of index of his might; that in proportion to the largeness of his revenues and the extent of his dominion will be the magnificence of architecture and the richness of decoration which distinguish his mansion from those of his subjects. The house is, indeed, in most cases throughout society, the sign of the means of its inhabitant; it grows loftier than before, and is furnished in a more costly style as a man advances in the world and gathers to himself more of opulence and influence. There will be exceptions to every such rule; but these will ordinarily be in cases of meanness and penuriousness. But there is a King whose empire is all space, and whose subjects all that breathe. What shall be a fitting palace for Him? How shall the rule we have laid down be proved applicable in the instance of our Maker? It must fail, because nothing, oven of His own workmanship, can bear any proportion with Him. Solomon said, “ The heaven, even the heaven of heavens, cannot contain Thee.” And when we go on to speak of churches, we are compelled to finish Solomon’ s sentence and say, “ How much less this house which I have built.” And yet as that temple, so churches may be properly styled--houses of God. He abides in them as He abides not in any other structure. And they ought to be beautiful. It is no good sign when palaces are more and more costly, and churches less and less noble. If God is to have a house at all, that house should be the noblest that we have the power of rearing; bearing such proportion as our ability can effectuate, to the greatness of the Being who is to show Himself within its walls. Otherwise, if our churches be inferior to our other structures, less splendid in design, less rich in architecture, we give the strongest of all possible proofs that we are less disposed to do honour to God than to ourselves; that we think the “ curtains” good enough for the ark, and reserve the “ cedar” for our own habitation. It was not thus with our ancestors, whom we are ready enough to accuse of superstition, but in whom there must have been better and loftier feelings. Witness the cathedrals which yet crest our land; mightier and more sumptuous, as they ought to be, than even our palaces. Tell me not that a mere dark superstition actuated the men who designed and executed these sublime edifices. The long-drawn aisles, the fretted reels, the dim recesses, the soaring spires, all witness that the architect had grand thoughts of God, and strove to embody them in combinations of the wood and the stone, even as the poet his conceptions in the melodies of verse, or the orator his in the majesty of eloquence. It is a cold and withered piety which catches no inspiration from the structure. And there must, we believe, have been lofty and ardent piety in those who could plan structures that thus seem to furnish instances of their piety to successive generations. The cathedral, with its awe-inciting vastness, its storied windows, its mellowed light, its deepened shadows, appears to me like the rich volume of some old divine: I gather from the work the mind of the author, and it is a mind which has grown great in musing upon God. But we have another cathedral to throw open before you, another dwelling place of Deity, not builded up of the stars which God originally wrought into His pavilion, nor yet of the marble and the cedar, which we ourselves may work into sumptuous edifices. Listen to our text. How is God therein addressed? “ O Thou, that inhabitest the praises of Israel.” It is the Lord Jesus Christ who speaks, and He it is who directs attention to the structure, declaring that it has not only been reared, but is actually inhabited by God. For though “ Israel” be only the Church, and every member of that Church have been born in sin and “ shapen in iniquity,” I find no less a Being than the Redeemer Himself, and that too in His last moments, when trial was before Him in all its severity, addressing His Father as “ Thou who inhabitest the praises of Israel.” Now, is there any proportion here between the house and the inhabitant? Here is a cathedral built of human praises. Why should it be a cathedral in any sense worthy of God, or one within which God might be expected to dwell? You tell me that very rich and acceptable must be the thanksgiving of angels; burning and beautiful creatures, who spend existence in magnifying the Being by whom it was bestowed. Who doubts it! But they have only to thank God for creation. Their praise must be like that of Adam, whilst he was yet in innocence, and paradise in loveliness; whose morning and evening hymn spoke glowingly of a glorious Benefactor. And I can thank God for creation. The angel’ s song is mine, though mine belongs not to the angel. But I have to thank God for more than creation, for more than life. I have to thank Him for a second creation, for life out of death; and angels must yield to me here. If, then, sanctuaries are to be builded of praise, who shall be the architects of that in which Deity may be most expected to take up His abode? Behold the structures. Yonder is that which unfallen creatures are roaring; and very noble and brilliant is the fabric. How lofty those columns, which are formed out of anthems that commemorate the inaccessible majesties of Godhead! How solemn those dim recesses, where mention is made of the mysteries of the Divine nature! How rich that roof, which is wrought out of melodies which hymn the goodness of the universal Parent! But now turn to that which fallen creatures build. It is based on the “ Rock of Ages” ; the sure foundation stone, which God Himself laid in Zion. And its walls, what are they but the celebration of attributes, which would have been comparatively hidden if not discovered in redemption? Its pillars, what but song upon song, each witnessing to perfections which could not show themselves in an unstained creation! Its aisles, what but prolonged choruses, telling out, till lost in the depths of eternity, the marvels of a work which even cherubim and seraphim had failed to imagine! And what its domes, its pinnacles, its spires, but soaring notes which bear aloft the stupendous truth, that He who is to everlasting could die, and that He who was from everlasting could be born; that God became man, and that man may now rise into fellowship with God! Ah! this is the cathedral. This could never have been built had not God come out from the secrecies of His magnificence, and thrown open depths in Himself which the most penetrating intelligence could never have explored. There is not a stone in this which may not be said to have been hewn by Himself out of the unfathomable mine of His perfections; there is not a niche which is not filled with a brighter image of Deity than the universe could have furnished had there never been transgression; there is not an altar on which burns not a more brilliant fire than could have been kindled had not the flame of God’ s wrath against sin been quenched in the blood of God’ s only begotten Son. And Christ, as He hung upon the Cross and contemplated the effects of the work which He was then bringing to a close, must have looked on wondrous structures, each of loftiest architecture and splendid ornament--the regenerated earth, the universe no longer defiled by one dark spot; but He knew that His work was to be preeminently illustrious, and the source of the highest glory of all to our Creator. Upon this, therefore, might He be expected to fasten; and though all orders of being were before Him, eager to build their Maker a house--angel and archangel, from whose swelling choir started, as by enchantment, a thousand ethereal temples--who shall marvel that He selected us the feeble, us the sinful, and knowing that He was making us “ heirs of God,” yea, “ joint heirs with Himself,” left us to rear a sanctuary which should be more honoured than any other; addressing Himself thus with His dying breath to His Father--“ O Thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel” ? (H. Melvill, B. D.) Psalms 22:4 Our fathers trusted in Thee. The God of our fathers. A sermon to young men The age in which we live is an enlightened age. And no man is bound to be religious for no better reason than that his father was religious before him. With advancing light and knowledge great changes are coming, or have already come. But how far do such things affect our attitude and utterance like those of the text? Offer first one or two regulative thoughts.1. It is only right and fair to remember that the great facts of human nature and of human life with which religion has to do remain substantially the same throughout the ages. In the great matters of essential religion, in the main, no one age is more favoured than another. “ Our fathers’” disease is our disease; and may not “ our fathers’” cure be our cure? 2. Scepticism and unbelief are not new. It is ignorance of the history of unbelief that makes modern unbelief, to many minds, so formidable. Scepticism may change its form,--now the light raillery of a Voltaire, now the learning and logical acumen of a Hume, now the bitter wail of a Mill,--but it is one thing, one principle, one substance. Every age has its sceptic, or its sceptics. It looks almost as if Almighty God permitted them that, intellectually, the Church might be kept from going to sleep. 3. Science is doing grand things today. Her beneficent step is heard almost everywhere. But physical science is comparatively young. And you know the characteristic defects of youth. It is headstrong and impatient, and often irreverent. It is sometimes not over reticent, even on matters concerning which it cannot form reliable judgments I now speak on “ the claims of the religion of our fathers.”1. It was “ our fathers’ .” That the sires trusted in God is a very sufficient reason why the sons should hesitate, and hesitate long, before they reach the grave conclusion that there is no God, or that if there be He cannot be trusted because He cannot be known. One of the healthiest facts of human nature and of human life has ever been that spirit of reverence for the past which links generation to generation, and practically makes the race one. We Englishmen are by no means destitute of this fine sentiment. 2. Our fathers proved it. What is the testimony borne by honest men who have preceded us? It is that the religion of Jesus is a grand reality and not a human dream; that the Bible contains a Divine and all-satisfying revelation of God; that it is not a fabrication or an imposture; that the heart of man is weary till it find rest in Christ; that there is such rest in Christ; that in the Cross of the Crucified One there is hope for all, comfort for all, heaven for all! And how are we asked to receive that testimony Some would have us believe that it is untrustworthy. Surely “ our fathers” were not mere intellectual weaklings? What are we to say of the testimony they bore? We will go long before we speak ill, or listen with patience to ill spoken, of the bridge which bore them over! 3. They died in the faith of it. For me, I believe in the “ God of my fathers.” I believe in the religion of my fathers. I will take the liberty of expressing it in forms suited to the spirit and the habits of thought of the age in which we live; but the essential Gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ I keep. (J. Thew.) Gods faithfulness to ancient saints good ground for trust and hope Those who look upon this Psalm as having a primary reference to the King of Israel attribute great beauty to these words, from the very pleasing conjecture that David was, at the time of composing them, sojourning at Mahanaim, where Jacob, in his distress, wrestled with the angel and obtained such signal blessings. That, in a place so greatly hallowed by associations of the past, he should make his appeal to the God of his fathers, was alike the dictate of patriarchal feeling and religion. (John Morison.) Strong warrant for trust Our hope is not hung upon such untwisted thread as “ I imagined so” or “ it is likely,” but the cable, the strong hope of our fastened anchor, is the oath and promise of Him who is eternal verity; our salvation is fastened with God’ s own hand and Christ’ s own strength to the strong stake of God’ s unchanging nature. (S. Rutherford.) Psalms 22:8 He trusted on the Lord that He would deliver him. Faith among mockers David experienced “ cruel mockings.” The flesh may not be cut, but the heart may be torn. But text tells of the Lord Jesus. David knew reproach but in small measure compared with Him. It is the common heritage of the godly. But-- I. Their trust in God is known. Hence we learn--1. Our trust in God should be apparent, manifest, public. That in Christ which revealed it was His wonderful calmness. We ought distinctly to avow our trust, life man has a right to be a secret believer. 2. Our general conduct should reveal our faith. If I trust the Lord about my soul I must trust Him about my body, wife, children, and all my affairs. 3. This trust should come out most distinctly in times of trouble. For then it is our adversaries are most likely to notice it. In bereavements, business troubles. Let the possession of godliness tell its own tale, the spikenard its own fragrance. II. The world does not understand this trust. Our Lord’ s enemies restricted His trust to the point of His being delivered. But--1. Our faith is not confined to merely receiving from God. We must not live and wait upon God merely with a cupboard love. 2. Nor to what men call deliverance. Our Lord trusted still, though the cup did not pass from Him. The blind world cannot understand this. They say, like their father, “ Doth Job serve God for nought?” And-- 3. Our faith is not tied to time. Christ’ s enemies thought that if the Lord did not deliver Him then, His trust would be proved a folly. But it is not so. We may not be delivered from our distresses tonight, nor tomorrow, nor next month; it may be for years. We do not tie God down to conditions, but we trust Him all the same. 4. Nor will it judge at all by present circumstances. How wrongly the world judged of Christ when it judged of Him by His sorrows. III. This true faith will, in all probability, be mocked at some time or other.1. Some men scoff at faith itself. It is an honour to have one’ s name written up on such an Arch of Triumph as that of Heb 11:1-40. But many think it no honour at all. They hold faith to be a folly of weak minds. 2. Others, at the very idea of Divine interposition. “ Look,” they say, “ he fancies that God will deliver him; as if the Creator had not something else to do besides looking after him, poor miserable that he is!” They believe in laws, they say, irreversible, immutable laws, that grind in like the great cogs of a machine which, when once they are set in motion, tear everything to pieces that comes in their way. 3. And some mock at all kinds of faith in the Divine love. How the world rages against electing love! The heathen could not make out a certain brave saint because he called himself Theophorus, or “ God bearer” ; but he stuck to it that he was so, though they hated him all the more. 4. Some find amusement in the trials involved in the life of faith. Their cry, “ Let Him deliver him,” implies that their victim was in serious difficulty, but that was only sport to them. Such mocking is a part of the covenanted heritage. IV. The time shall come when our trust shall be abundantly justified.1. It is no small thing to have the ungodly bearing witness. “ He trusted in God.” It helps one to believe that he is really God’ s child. 2. Another justification will come when God shall deliver His people. That day will come. Dives sees Lazarus in Abraham’ s bosom: what a sight for him. At the last great day ungodly men will witness for the saints. They will have to own, “ They did trust, for we mocked them for it.” But whether men mock or praise, we trust in God. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Psalms 22:9-10 Thou art He that took me out of the womb.David’ s acknowledgment of God’ s goodness 1. He takes notice of common mercies. Such mercies as most men are partakers of. To come safe and sound into the world, and to be persuaded and sustained in it, they are such things as most men have allotted and vouchsafed unto them. But there are very few who are sensible of common mercies,--such is the corruption of our nature and our base ingratitude. 2. He acknowledges ancient mercies. He remembers those mercies which another would have forgotten. The mercies of his infancy and childhood and younger years. We should remember both temporal and spiritual mercies. 3. He remembers primitive or original mercies. Those mercies which he had at first, in the very entrance or beginning of his life when he first came into the world, and were likewise the ground and foundation of all the rest. It is with mercies as with judgments, one makes way for another, and the first is so much the more considerable as it induces and brings in the rest. 4. He takes notice of constant mercies. Those which were continued to him from the first moment of his being till now, through the whole course of his life to this present. He takes notice of the goodness of God to him in the full latitude and extent of it. See now the specification of the several particulars. (1) The blessings of the womb, in his birth and first coming into the world.(2) The blessings of the breast, in his nursery and first sustentation in the world.(3) The blessing of the cradle, in the tutelary care of his orphanage and desolate condition.(4) The blessings of the covenant, in the continued and mutual interest which he had in God and God in him. (T. Horton, D. D.) Thou didst make me hope when I was upon my mother’ s breasts.-- On the nature and influence of hope To a contemplative mind nothing will suggest more powerful inducements, perhaps, for adoring the wisdom and the goodness of God than a distinct consideration of the many faculties, passions, and propensities with which a human creature is furnished. Exposed to various evils; encompassed with manifold infirmities; subject to pain and labour, to poverty, disease, and death, we might soon feel life a burden unless there were some pervading principle which seems to connect us with futurity, and bids us forget our past calamities and our present sorrows in the bright prospects that are to come. Hence by the goodness of God we are all possessed of that lasting and universal passion, Hope. Now let us consider-- I. Its nature and influence. It enters largely into every man’ s system of happiness, whether they be prosperous or afflicted. It is the spring of men’ s conduct, the end of their life. It keeps his soul alive within him, invigorates his faculties, purifies his passions, and directs the exertions both of his mind and body to their proper objects. II. By what principles to regulate it. A passion so general, and that has such an influence on the sum of life, cannot be too carefully regulated nor disciplined to its proper objects. In this, as in most other cases of moral and religious duty, the folly and the danger of extremes should be avoided. The happy medium, which we should all labour to attain on the present occasion, lies equally remote from silly and extravagant expectations,--from sluggish indifference and helpless despondency, or the dead calm of insensibility. The one is apt to lead to every kind of excess, and to end in misery and disappointment; the other disqualifies us for fulfilling the duties of life, and is, in fact, the destruction or subversion of every virtue. III. The objects to which it should be directed. These are to be found in the blessed future world. (J. Hewlett, B. D.) The meaning of hope as an instinct of the soul The text is a strong figure intended to express the idea that hope is an inbred sentiment of the soul. The body, it is true, may exist without the eye, but in a very incomplete state. And there are emaciated souls, souls with deadened senses and broken faculties. But hope is yet an instinct keeping the face of the soul ever towards the future. Now, this instinct-- I. Implies the goodness of God in the constitution of our nature. For it is one of the chief blessings of humanity.1. It is one of the most powerful impulses to action. 2. It is one of the chief elements of support under trial. Hope buoys us up beneath the load; gives us a steady anchorage amid the fiercest surgings of the storm. 3. It is a source of joy. The joys of memory and the pleasures of the passing hour are not to be compared with the joys of hope. II. Suggests a future state of existence. It may not prove such existence, but it does much in that direction. For--1. Analogy supports it. All our senses and appetites have provision made for them--light for the eye, sounds for the ear, etc. And so in our social relations. 2. The Divine goodness leads to belief in it. III. Means that progress in blessedness is the law of our being. Hope points not only to the future, but to good in the future. IV. Shows the fitness of Christianity to human nature. For--1. It reveals eternal blessedness; and-- 2. Supplies means of its attainment which are both soul pacifying and purifying. V. Indicates the congruity of the religious life with our nature. Therefore, if we quench this hope midnight reigns; and sin tends to do this. (D. Thomas, D. D.) Psalms 22:11 Be not far from me; for trouble is near; for there is none to help.Help in trouble In this Psalm “ a greater than David is here,” even Christ. You cannot pay a visit to Calvary, while reading this Psalm, without being struck wire the record as giving a history of what subsequently took place in the sufferings and agony of our Lord. I. First of all, let us look at the principle laid down--a mountains; yet when we approach them we find them to be mole hills, which we can easily step over with a little exercise of faith. But our precious Lord foreboded nothing but what He knew was near and would come to pass, and therefore when He cried out, “ Father, save Me from this hour, He immediately adds, “ For this cause came I to this hour” ; as if He withdrew the petition and would not escape the sorrow. But mark the most prominent feature of His distress was distress of soul. When we look at the fact that Divine wrath lay heavily upon His soul we wonder not that He cried out, “ Now am I troubled.” And so there is distress of soul of which His disciples are the subjects.1. In their first awakenings. 2. In their after conflicts. 3. But it is never, to the believer, judicial punishment as it was with Jesus. It was Divine wrath that lay upon Him. 4. And there were external assaults. The powers of darkness were let loose. His Church must expect the like. The world and the Church cannot agree, unless the Church will compromise her dignity, her purity, her spirituality, and cringe to the world’ s carnal pursuits and carnal religion; then they may go on pretty well, hand in hand; but the curse of God will rest upon them both. A Christianity that brings you out from the world will be sure to bring upon you Satan’ s rage and fiery darts and the world’ s scorn. May you be able to make Moses choice, and choose “ rather to suffer affliction with,” etc. Jesus told you it would be thus. “ Marvel not if the world hate you.” 5. And the Church has yet another trouble near. II. The appalling fact. “ There is none to help.” Now this, so far as Christ is concerned, is a peculiar mercy. For if any had been with Him they would have shared the honour. And for us, too, it is often well that there should be none to help, for if there were we would turn to them and not to God. III. The concentration of our expectations. For when all help is gone elsewhere there comes the cry, “ Be not Thou far from me.” Oh! we live too low, we cleave to earth too much; but when we can soar, and mount as on eagles’ wings, gaze on the sun, and enjoy the smiling countenance of our covenant God, our troubles then are mere mole hills; if we look down on them at all we can hardly see them. (Joseph Irons.) Psalms 22:14-18 They pierced my hands and my feet.Our Lord’ s passion The great mystery of the passion of our Lord is one which in all its fulness the human mind cannot comprehend. In what manner His sufferings purchased our redemption, and what was the precise nature of those sufferings, are points which we shall in vain attempt to ascertain or demonstrate by words, however forcible; but that Christ died for our sins, and that we are redeemed by His precious blood, are amongst the many declarations of Scripture which place beyond all doubt the truth that the sufferings of Christ were an atonement for our sin. I. The sufferings of Christ as man. Every kind of pain tortured His body. The closing scenes of His life mark Him most conspicuously as “ the Man of Sorrows.” II. The sufferings which Christ endured as the Son of God. The sins of the whole world oppressed Him. Sin when duly felt is a heavy burden. How heavy, then, must have been the weight of the sins of the whole world! How wondrous is the outpouring of such love on the part of Jesus and of God! Let the memory of it guard us from attempting to extenuate sin, or in any way making light of it. And when we are called upon to suffer, let the example of our Lord’ s meekness and humility be that which we shall follow. (T. R. Redwar, M. A.) The influence of a great sacrifice It is strange to think that any man should think lightly of sin viewed in the light of Calvary Cross. It has a wonderful power and influence if you would view it aright. One day a little girl, sitting by her mother’ s side, gazed very intently at her parent’ s hand. A mere stranger would have said, “ What a deformity!” as the hand was blurred and twisted. The girl asked her mother why the hand was different to the other. The mother told her that years ago when her little child was a baby the cot in which she lay caught fire, and her mother in her terror and anxiety tore off the curtains to stop the flames and wrap the child in. In doing so she so burned her hand that for months after she was unable to use it. You can think how the child’ s love multiplied beyond all words as she heard the story. Her future delight was to save that injured hand all the work she could possibly. Psalms 22:20 Deliver my soul from the sword; my darling from the power of the dog.The dog Dogs in the East are not much thought of, and never properly treated. The varieties with which we are familiar they knew nothing of. The dogs they had were but of one kind,--all hungry, half-starved, savage, cowardly, and more like wolves than dogs. But with us the dog is not only useful and beloved, but often displays the noblest qualities. For instance-- I. Courage. God expects us to have courage (Deuteronomy 31:1-30). And the dog sets us a good example in this respect. Take this story of an incident which took place in the town of New Brunswick, New Jersey. A horse attached to a waggon, in one of the streets, became frightened, and started off in a run. The owner of the waggon was thrown from his seat as the horse started, and was left lying on the street. The horse went galloping along, increasing his speed every moment, till he reached the corner of the next street. There a large Newfoundland dog made his appearance. He looked at the horse for a moment, and then sprang out into the street and rushed towards the horse’ s head. The dog made repeated efforts by springing up to grasp the bridle firmly with his teeth. But he failed each time and fell to the ground, narrowly escaping injury from the horse’ s feet. But the brave dog kept on trying, and at last, making an extraordinary spring into the air, he grasped the bridle firmly in his teeth and, pulling down the horse’ s head, put a stop to his running away. As soon as this was done the dog turned round quietly and walked away. But the people standing by, who had witnessed the dog’ s noble action, when they thought of the injury which might have been done by the runaway horse, felt disposed to praise very highly the conduct of the dog for the greatest act of courage they had ever seen a dumb animal perform. The next lesson we may learn from the dog is-- II. Intelligence. God looks for intelligent understanding of His will in us all. See the opening verse of Pro 2:1-22. And the dog sets us a good example of understanding and then obeying what we are told to do. A gentleman connected with the Newfoundland fishery had a dog of remarkable intelligence and fidelity. On one occasion a boat’ s crew in his employ were seen to be in circumstances of great danger. They were near a line of breakers outside of the harbour over which the waves were dashing and roaring in great fury. The danger of passing those breakers was so great that the men, brave as they were, did not dare to attempt it. A crowd of people stood watching them on the shore with great anxiety, but could do nothing to help them. Much time had passed, and the danger was increasing every moment. Among the people on the shore was the fishery master’ s great Newfoundland dog. He seemed to understand what the danger was. Presently he ran to the water, jumped in, and swam towards the boat. He soon made his way through the surf, and the men in the boat saw him coming near to them. At first they thought he wanted to get into the boat, but it soon became evident that that was not his purpose. He did not come near the boat, but kept swimming round it. While doing this he looked earnestly at the men, and would whine from time to time. The men wondered what he wanted. At last one of them cried out, “ Give him a rope; that’ s what he wants!” The rope was thrown; the dog seized the end of it with his mouth, and then turned round and swam towards the shore. The men waiting there took hold of it, and began to pull it, and in a short time the boat with its crew was hauled through the dangerous surf, and the men on board of it were landed safely on the shore. And so the lives of that boat’ s crew were saved by the intelligence of that noble dog. III. Affecting. Love brought Jesus to die for us. “ God so loved the world that,” etc. And He desires love to be the ruling principle in our lives. Even dogs have shown this in remarkable ways. The captain of the artillery company of South Carolina was killed in a battle in Virginia during the American Civil War. His body was placed in a coffin, which was put into a strong box and carried to the home of his family in Columbia. It arrived there about a week after his death. On his arrival the captain’ s dog that he had reared and petted during his lifetime was at the gate, and, approaching the house, began to smell about him, with a good deal of excitement. When the coffin was taken from the hearse he ran under it and followed it to the house between the pall bearers. Although a week had passed by since his master’ s death, and his body was closely fastened up in the coffin, yet by the sense of smell alone the dog had found out that it was his master’ s body which was in that coffin, and this stirred up all his affection for him. When the coffin was put on the table in the parlour the dog lay down under the table, and remained there till the funeral took place on the next day. Then after the funeral the dog took his place on the grave of his old master. They tried to coax him away, but in vain. He would stay there. He refused to eat or drink, but lay moaning there till the third day after the funeral, when he died on his master’ s grave. How real and genuine that dog’ s affection for his master was! IV. Fidelity. This is a most important lesson. Whatever other good elements of character we may have, they will all be of little use to Us without faithfulness. The want of it is like a hole in a purse, which lets all the money run out and be lost. Now, dogs have often been noted for fidelity. A French merchant was riding home on horseback one day. He had a large bag of gold with him, which was tied to the saddle in front of him, and was accompanied by a faithful dog. After a long ride he stopped to rest himself, and eat a lunch which he had with him. He alighted from the horse and sat down alder a shady tree, taking the bag of gold and laying it down by his side. On mounting his horse again he forgot to take his bag of gold with him. The dog saw the mistake his master had made, and tried to take the bag to him; but it was too heavy for him to drag along. Then he ran after his master, and tried by barking to remind him of his mistake. But the merchant did not understand what the dog meant. Then the dog went in front of his master and kept jumping up before the horse and barking loudly. The merchant called to him to be quiet and to stop that jumping. But the dog wouldn’ t stop. Then his master was alarmed, He began to think that the dog must be going mad. And as the dog went on barking and jumping with increasing violence, the merchant felt sure he was right. He said to himself, “ He may bite me, or someone else. The only safe thing will be to kill him.” Then he took a pistol from his pocket and, pointing it to the dog, fired at him. The poor dog fell weltering in his blood, and his master, unable to bear the sight, put spurs to his horse and went on. “ I am very unfortunate,” he said to himself; “ I would rather have lost my bag of money than my good dog.” Then he felt for his bag, but it was not there. In a moment he saw what it all meant. The dog had seen that he had left his bag of money behind him, and was trying the best he could to get him to go back for it when he shot him! How sorry he felt! Then he turned his horse, and rode back to the place where he had left his money. On reaching the spot he found the dog there. He had crawled back, all bleeding as he was, and had lain down beside his master’ s money to protect it, This brought the tears into the merchant’ s eyes. He kneeled down by his dog, petted him, and spoke kindly to him. The dog looked lovingly into his face, licked his hand, and then turned over and died. The merchant had the body of the dog carried home and buried in his garden; and over its grave he had a stone slab set up, and with these words engraved on it: “ In Memory of a Faithful Dog.” Such are some of the lessons we may learn from the dog. (Richard Newton, D. D.) The power of the dog (Sermon to Children):--The Bible does not generally speak well of dogs. The word dog in the Scriptures often means a wicked person. When he says, “ Deliver my darling from the power of the dog,” it is a prayer that God would deliver His only Son from the hands of wicked men. In Eastern countries dogs are reckoned as unclean animals, and there if you want to give a man a bad name you call him a dog. But there are good dogs and bad dogs, dogs to be trusted and dogs to be avoided. Let us think about the good dogs first. Most of you have read the beautiful story of the hound Gelert. And in Scott’ s beautiful story of the Talisman there is a story of Roswal, a noble deer hound who kept guard over the English standard. And there are the dogs of St. Bernard, who go out in the snow to rescue lost travellers. And there are the blind men’ s dogs. All these are good dogs. But there are bad ones. Here are the names of some of them. First, there is a dog called Sulky, a black do. I remember when I was a little boy my mother used to tell me not to let the clack dog get on my shoulder, that is, not to be sulky. When a child is bitten by that black dog his face becomes quite changed. All his beauty goes; and his character is altered too. He becomes stubborn, obstinate, won’ t work, won’ t play. His speech is altered too; he is rude, and the very tone of his voice is quite different. Beware of that black dog. Then there is another dog--a red one this--and he is called Passion. Yes, a very fiery red dog, with gleaming, cruel eyes and foaming mouth. If he bites you he sends you mad for a time. The old Romans were quite right when they called anger a snort madness. If you see a child with a very red face, kicking and stamping and screaming, you may be sure that the fierce dog Passion has bitten him. Julius Caesar, when he was provoked, used to say over all the letters of the Roman alphabet before he gave an answer. Beware, then, of that fierce dog Passion. There is another dog of which you must beware. He is called Idly. You never see him doing anything useful--carrying a basket or a bundle, as some dogs will, He lies in the sun sleeping, almost too lazy to get up and eat his food. Don’ t let him bite you. If he bites a child the boy or girl becomes heavy and slow. Instead of getting up in the morning fresh and bright, with plenty of time to say his prayers and start for school after breakfast, the child bitten by dog Idle gets up late, and so begins the day badly. The only thing he cares for is play, and very often he is too idle even for that. There is another dog called Mischief, which is very dangerous. You must not think that I am speaking of Fun and Merriment,--they are good dogs, which skip and play about, and do good, not harm. But Mischief is sly and secret, he goes about in dark places, and is never safe to meddle with. When a child is bitten by dog Mischief no one can tell what harm he may do. I know a poor man blind for life through a stone thrown by a mischievous boy. There is another dog of which you must beware. His name is Careless. He is not so bad as some dogs,--at times we can scarcely help liking him, and yet he does much harm. When a child is bitten by dog Careless things go badly with him. Perhaps, in school, the child is writing a copy, suddenly he lets a great drop of ink fall on his copybook, and there is a blot. And he is guilty of more things than these. Be on your guard against dog Careless. There are many other dogs of which I could warn you, but! will only speak of two. There is dog Selfish,--one of the worst dogs of all. When we get a bite from him we are never happy ourselves, and we make others unhappy too. Then there is another dog called Greedy, and he is a very near relation to dog Selfish. Children are often bitten by him, and they generally suffer; for greedy people by trying to get too much often lose all. There is a fable which tells us how dog Greedy was one day crossing a bridge over a river, and carrying a piece of meat in his month. As he looked into the river he saw his own shadow. Thinking it was another dog who carried a larger piece of meat than his own, dog Greedy flew at him with an angry bark, and as he opened his mouth the meat fell into the river and was lost. So it is often with greedy people, because they are not contented with what they have they lose it altogether. (H. J. Wilmot Buxton, M. A.) Psalms 22:22-23 In the midst of the congregation will I praise Thee. Jesus the example of holy praise I. Our Lord’ s example. He renders two-fold praise unto the eternal Father.1. That of declaration. He did this in His teaching, by His acts, but most of all in His death. And He continued to declare God’ s name when He rose from the dead. Probably He does this still in heaven to the saints there. And certainly, by the spreading of His Gospel on earth. “ In the midst of the congregation,” etc. When His people here on earth offer praise and prayer He is united with, them. In our praise He is the great singer, rather than we. And in the great day of redemption, when all shall be gathered in, it will be the same. Here also let us follow His example. II. The Lord’ s exhortation (Psalms 22:23). Praise Him, glorify, fear Him. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Public worship To assemble at stated seasons for the public worship of their gods appears to have been the custom in all ages and nations of the world, and most especially of those who best understood the nature of such worship and the perfections of that Almighty Being to whom all worship ought to be addressed. But this duty is sadly neglected, so we consider its obligations-- I. The explicit command of God Himself. The institution of the Sabbath shows His will. II. The advantage which we expect to derive from the performance of this duty. We do not come to church to hear what we did not know before. Few need to come for such reason. But discourses from the pulpit form no essential part of Divine worship. A sermon is not a prayer. It is an address of instruction to men, not an act of adoration to our God. It is when we enter the temple of the Most High, not so much to be delighted or instructed by the eloquence of the preacher, as to humble ourselves before our God in penitence or prayer. It is then that we shall experience the first advantage of public worship, and lay the foundation of all the rest. We shall gain help to make us a clean heart and to renew a right spirit within us. III. Our love of God is confirmed and increased and our zeal for His honour and service. How sacred and helpful are the feelings which reverent worship of God in His temple produces. If such devotion be regularly continued till it become the settled temper of the mind it will not fail at length to produce a settled habit of pious and virtuous conduct; and pious and virtuous conduct is the greatest blessing which in his present state man can attain. IV. To this love of God public worship tends directly to add the next rest virtue of the heart, the love of man. In public worship we are surrounded by a number of our fellow creatures, oppressed by the same wants, petitioning for the same favours, or giving thanks for the same blessings, labouring under the same infirmities, confessing the same offences, and depending upon the same Saviour for pardon. But all this not only exalts and animates our devotion to God, but excites and extends our humanity to our fellow men. V. Every portion of our worship suggests and enforces appropriate excellence in the conduct of those who attend it in a right spirit. VI. For the sake of example. The young, the ignorant, and the thoughtless are the most effectually instructed by the conduct of the devout, the aged, and the wise. The corrupt and depraved are the most effectually shamed by the piety and virtue of the just and good. If, on the contrary, you frequently absent yourself from public worship, if you spend the Sabbath in idleness at home, your friends will be encouraged in the same criminal neglect. VII. The injury to our own principles and morals which follows from the neglect of it. You will come in no long time to do without God in the world, without the hope of better things to come. VIII. Prayer is the indispensable condition of obtaining many of the blessings of heaven. But as in public worship we are greatly aided in prayer, here is another reason wherefore we should join public to private devotion. IX. The Redeemer himself went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day; and shall we venture to be absent? Shall we presume to expect the favour of Providence if we think it not worth while to come to His temple and pray for it? X. The day will come when, if we neglect this duty now, we shall regret it much. Youth and health and strength cannot always continue. Evil days must come. Age and sickness and sorrow must overtake us. And where, then, shall we seek the consolation which we shall certainly want? Happy will it be for us if we are enabled to seek it where only it can be found,--in the remembrance of a well-spent life, in that purity of heart which public and private devotion have produced. (W. Barrow.) Psalms 22:26 The meek shall eat and be satisfied.Feasting on the sacrifice The custom of sacrificial feasts was common to many lands. I. The world’ s sacrificial feast. The Jewish ritual, and that of many other nations, provided for a festal meal following on, and consisting of the material of the sacrifice. That which, in one aspect, is a peace offering reconciling to God, in another aspect is the nourishment and joy of the hearts that accept it. And so the work of Jesus Christ has two distinct phases of application, according as we think of it as being offered to God or appropriated by man. In the one case it is our peace; in the other it is our food and our life. The Christ that feeds the world is the Christ that died for the world. The peace offering for the world is the food of the world. We see hence the connection between these great spiritual ideas and the central act of Christian worship. The Lord’ s Supper simply says by act what the text says in words. The translation of the “ eating” into spiritual reality is simply that we partake of the food of our spirits by the act of faith in Jesus Christ. Personal appropriation and making the world’ s food mine, by an individual act, is the condition on which alone I get any good from it. II. The rich fruition of this feast. “ Satisfied.” Jesus Christ, in the facts of His death and resurrection, being to us all that our circumstances, relationships, and inward condition can require. III. The guests. It is the “ meek” who eat. Meek usually refers to men’ s demeanour to one another. The expression here goes deeper. It means both “ afflicted” and “ lowly,” --the right use of affliction being to bow men, and they that bow themselves are those who are fit to come to Christ’ s feast. Men are shut out only because they shut themselves out. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) The recompense of piety In genuine religion there is great reward. Nothing is so conducive to the happiness of man, nothing so effectually secures it. I. The temper to be cherished. Meekness, lowliness of mind, which so becomes us as sinners. II. The conduct to be pursued. We should seek the Lord. This supposes--1. That we have suffered loss. We do not seek what we have. We have lost the knowledge, favour, image, and the enjoyment of God. 2. That this loss may be regained. The Gospel shows us how. 3. The use of proper means is also implied. III. The blessings which shall be secured. We shall eat and he satisfied; shall praise the Lord, and live forever. (T. Kidd.) They shall praise the Lord that seek Him.--Good news for seekers These are the words of Jesus on the Cross. He died to further the Father’ s glory. This was the object He sought, and He solaces Himself with the thought of all the kindreds of the nations turning to God, and that they who seek the Lord shall praise Him. The assurance of text very encouraging. Note-- I. The persons--the seekers of the Lord. These are they--1. Who really desire to commune with God. Not mere repeaters of a prayer, but those who really seek the Lord.2. Who know that they are at a distance from Him.3. But are anxious that that distance should be taken away.4. And would feel themselves to be the friends of God.5. And desire all this now. All this prepares the man to praise when he finds the Lord. II. The promise. “ They shall,” etc.1. It is fulfilled unconsciously while the man is seeking.2. The praise abounds when the desire is granted. You who seek, you shall surely find salvation, and that ere long. God may try yon, let you wait a while before He gives you the joy of realised pardon; but seek on still.3. You shall go on seeking and go on praising. III. The praise. It will be--1. Because we found Him as we did.2. That we found such a Saviour.3. Because of our security.4. Because we ever sought the Lord at all. Conclusion: Let us who have sought the Lord praise Him. Let us show our poor friends the seekers the way. We sought and we found; let us magnify the Lord at once. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Arduous seeking becomes joyous in finding All his seeking, I say, helps him to prize Divine mercy when he receives it, and trains him to praise God according to the promise of our text, “ They shall praise the Lord that seek Him.” Never is a babe so dear to its mother as when it has just been restored from a sickness which threatened his life; never does a father rejoice over his little child so much as when he has been long lost in the woods, and after a weary search is at last brought home. No gold is so precious to a man as that which he has earned by hard labour and self-denial: the harder he has toiled to gain it, the more rejoiced is he when at length he has enough to permit him to rest. No freedom is so precious as the new found liberty of a slave, no enlargement so joyous as that of one who has long been sitting in the valley of the shadow of death bound in affliction and iron. No return to a country is so full of delight as that of sorrowful exiles who come back from cruel Babylon, by whose waters they sat and wept, yea, wept when they remembered Zion. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Seekers become singers As a bird lies hidden among the heather, but is seen when at last it is startled and made to take to the wing, so doth praise take to the wing and display itself when at last those who seek the Lord are permitted to find Him. What thunderclaps of praise come from poor sinners when they have just found their all in all in God in the person, of Christ Jesus. Then their joy becomes almost too much for them to hold, vastly too much for them to express. Oh, the praises, the day and night praises, the continuous praises, which rise from the returning, repenting soul which has at last felt the Father’ s arms around its neck and the Father swarm kisses on its cheek, and is sitting down at the table where the happy household eat and drink and are merry. Praising time has come indeed when finding time has arrived. Happy day! Happy day! when we meet with God in Jesus Christ. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Your heart shall live forever.-- The immortality of the affections The heart has been employed by the inspired writers as the symbol of human affections. So the heart of man is said to be tried by God--to be opened, established, enlightened, strengthened, searched by God. The text asserts the absolute indestructibility of our religious affections. Work up to this through the intervening lessons.1. There is one thing in this fleeting world which is immortal. Man wears on his forehead the crown of his regnant majesty; for his nature is undying. No soul has ever yet passed out of existence. 2. The text draws a distinction between life and mere existence. Into this word “ live” we must suffer a new increment of meaning to enter. These hearts of ours may have one of two moral states. Whichever of these is possessed as a permanent character decides destiny. The heart that “ seeks God” enters immediately into the nearness of God’ s presence, where there is fulness of joy. The heart that wilfully refuses to “ seek God” is forced into the darkness of utter banishment from God for the unending future. The first of these conditions is “ life,” the second is “ death.” 3. The text evidences its authority by language peremptory and plain. The word “ shall” is of itself sovereign and conclusive But the form of speech employed is not that of prediction so much as that of promise. There are also three fixed laws of human nature which, fairly working together, render it absolutely certain that our affections will survive the shock of death, and reassert themselves hereafter. (1) One is the law of habit. The pressure of such a law holds more surely in our mental and moral nature than in our physical. Loves are stronger and hates are more inveterate than simple habits of body and mind. (2) Another law is that of exercise. “ Practice makes perfect.” Under this law the memory is often so wonderfully strengthened that it disdains data of aid. The most curious working of this law will appear in the fact that when our affections are wrought upon their increase is supreme. One’ s prejudices become his master. (3) Then there is the law of association. Most of all, this is subtle and forceful. When its action reaches a man’ s moral and mental natures working together it seems almost irresistible. These three laws actually intertwine themselves together, and accelerate the action of each other. 4. The text teaches that human immortality is quite independent of all accidents and surroundings. Augustine says, “ Our life is so brief and insecure that I know not whether to call it a dying life or a living death.” It is not in the body that our immortality resides. Your “ heart” is yourself. There is one thing in man, only one, that is immortal--the soul. Human affections will live forever in the line of their “ seeking.” The heart therefore is independent of all surroundings. 5. The text fixes all its force by an immediate application of its doctrine to such as are meek enough to receive it. If your heart is to live forever, then much consideration ought to be given to your aims in life, for they are fashioning the heart that is to be immortal. And our companionships ought to be chosen with a view to the far future which is coming. If our hearts are to live forever, then some care should be had concerning our processes of education by which our affections are trained. And if our hearts are to live forever, then surely it is now time some hearts were changed powerfully by the Spirit of Divine grace. (C. S. Robinson, D. D.) Immortality of the affections Transient and occasional bursts of inspiration in the Old Testament anticipate what Christianity was afterwards to teach. They seem like lightning flashes, illuminating the deep obscurity for a moment. How much is implied in these words, “ Your heart shall live forever.” They mean that the body shall not,--in its present elements it shall not; it has nothing to do with the life immortal. The happiness of the future existence shall not come from the body, from the gratification of its passions nor the exercise of its powers; and just so far as a man depends for his enjoyment on these earthly indulgences he is unfit for that spiritual state to which death will soon translate us, and for which it is our wisdom now to prepare. These words of the text also imply that the mind, though it shall endure, will not be the source of happiness in another existence. We know too little of its nature to say whether death will change it; but certainly it will change our estimation of it; for now, in this world, talent, force of mind, genius are set highest among the gifts of God. The affections (or the heart) are as much above the understanding as the mind is above the body. It is in the affections that the elements of heavenly happiness are to be found. These words teach us what should be our constant object, and lead us also to consider how abundantly God has provided for it on every side. Consider--1. How all the arrangements of this life favour the growth of those affections which are the elements of life immortal. The home, requiring of each within it to suppress those selfish passions which darken over everything which they touch, and making it manifest that all the sunshine and comfort of the dwelling depend, not on its magnificence, not on the luxuries within it, but simply and entirely on the spirit of love within. And the circle of friendship carries out those same affections into wider range. That these are Divine arrangements may be seen from the moral and spiritual laws which run through theme--which ordain that these affections shall move in paths of duty. But these arrangements of life for a certain purpose are not meant to effect that purpose of themselves; it rests with us to trace out, to follow, and improve them. The first business of the Christian life is to deny ourselves, which means not to deny ourselves a blessing here and there, but to resist the strong selfish tendency of our nature, to train our affections in the right Way, to regard them as the beginnings and indications of our future destiny, and to keep our heart with all diligence, since out of it are the fountains of immortal life. Once attach this thought of immortality to the affections, and how mighty and solemn those interests become! 2. All the arrangements of death, all of which have a purpose and meaning, are even more fitted to form for immortality the heart which is to live forever. The world is changed by the presence of death; wherever it comes we feel that a new influence is there, a power is there which was not there before. Each one who feels at all feels that something is meant by it, that it is a communication addressed to him. Never do the affections come forth in purer or more disinterested action than in the presence of death. 3. The arrangements of the future existence are also of a kind to favour the growth of the affections. The foresight of the future state, the vision of it which lies before us in the light of the Gospel, must necessarily have a great effect on the efforts we make to reach it. Awake, then, to a sense of the importance of the heart. See how all your welfare for this world and the other depends on the right unfolding and care of its affections. (W. B. O. Peabody, D. D.) Psalms 22:27 All the ends of the world shall remember, and turn unto the Lord.The return to the Father In this Psalm the utterance of the believing heart in trial and in deliverance becomes, at various points, a prophetic anticipation of the experience of Christ. In one verse after another we seem to hear out of His own mouth the sorrow and the triumph of Christ. Regarding the text in this light, as an expectation which a believer might naturally express in the hour of his own enlargement, it brings before us an interesting connection of thought. A believer who has been brought into great temptation and trouble, and whose faith has been drawn out into lively and lowly exercise, when the deliverance comes will be aware of something more than the worth and the gladness of that particular deliverance. He has been holding converse with the mercy of God under pressure. There comes afresh into his heart the impression of the love of God, of which his own relief is only an instance and expression. So God teaches him--forces him to learn afresh--what a blessedness this is to have this God for his God forever and ever. Then how naturally he may go on to such an anticipation as that in the text he has a fresh sense of that in God which saves and blesses. How natural it becomes to cherish even so great an expectation as that the ends of the world may turn to the Lord! If all believers had the fresh sense they might have of Divine compassion there would be less uncertainty about the prosperity of the Gospel, less of feeble and dubious effort. And we may also hear the utterance of a Saviour’ s joy and exultation when it is said, “ The ends of the world shall remember, and shall turn to the Lord.” I. The prospect from the cross. So taken, the text suggests to us our Lord’ s consciousness of the virtue that lay in His atoning sacrifice. The life of perfect holiness and perfect love was crowned by the death in which He put away sin. Exceeding glory to God and good to man were to be unfolded from it. This lay fully before our Lord’ s eye from the first. What He saw it becomes us to believe--the ends of the world shall remember, and turn to the Lord. II. The soul’ s awakening. “ They shall remember.” It is as though something long forgotten had come to mind, had melted their hearts within them. In what sense is the truth in Christ new? It is not so new but that it has also something old in it. Just this lay behind many a transient conviction, many a vague and dim impression. Whatever of new has come has put unspeakable meaning into all the old. III. Man’ s place with God. This is not so only with those for whom conversion comes after years of acquaintance with the Christian creed, and with the form of Godliness. It holds for men as men. The God who in Christ becomes ours is the very God for whom man was made. This is the meaning of man. And the blessedness which redemption brings is for the heart of man, as man was planned and made. IV. The inevitable return. The text points to a time when turning to God shall be the main thing, the prevailing thing, as if a mighty tide setting that way, carried all before it. For the present we do not see this. (Robert Rainy, D. D.) Three stages in religious life I. Reflection. “ Shall remember.” We use the word reflection here because the usual Bible significance of the word “ remember” is not simply “ recollect,” but meditate, consider. The act described is far more than one of memory; witness the words, “ Remember now thy Creator.” Here also the Psalmist means “ remember the Lord.” Thought is the first stage in true life. Right thought on a right subject is essential to right life. “ As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.”1. Think about God. 2. Think what God’ s ways with men are. 3. Think of your relationship to God. In the past; now; for the future. II. conversion. “ Turn unto” would be a synonym; or “ return.” “ Turn ye, turn ye, why will ye die?” These passages, with that in our text, remind us--1. That man is turned away from God. There is aversion and alienation. 2. Man may be restored to God. His face may yet look into the face of the Father, his life spent in Godward sympathies and activities. 3. This conversion, i.e. moral turning round, implies human effort and Divine help. Man is to turn, and God will turn him. Then, and then only, will his back be towards vanities and sins, and his face towards the true and the pure. More than passing sentiment is needed. There must be the putting forth of all the strongest forces of manhood, and the energising grace of God. III. Adoration. “ Shall worship.” This is the climax. It is the fullest development of the higher life, the crown of human destiny. Adoration of God is--1. The instinct. 2. The obligation. 3. The satisfaction of souls. (U. R. Thomas.) The importance of true religion, and the care of God to preserve it I. To glorify and enjoy God are the great ends of our creation and redemption. This is the great and fundamental article of religion. God’ s design in the creation and government of the world must have been the manifestation of His perfection, and the conferring happiness on intelligent creatures in proportion to their capacities. To what purpose hath God distinguished man with a rational and immortal soul resembling Himself, but to make him capable of religion and eternal life. What the character of God and the nature of man so clearly demonstrate on principles of reason, God hath expressly declared to us in His Word. II. God has given men proper information of His character, will, and grace as their rule of duty and their guide to happiness. The existence of the creation demonstrates the existence of the Creator; its greatness proves His immensity; its order, His wisdom; and the provision made for the happiness of His creatures, His boundless goodness. In every state of man the only perfect rule of religion is Divine revelation, which confirms all the principles of natural religion, and informs us of many things necessary to be known which our own reason could not have discovered. The dispensations of God’ s providence subserved the design of His revelations for preserving religion and virtue in the world. III. That before the coming of Christ the worship of the true God should be generally forgotten and neglected by mankind. This melancholy truth the history of the world hath but too amply verified. True religion must always have the true God for its object, and His moral character and revealed will for its rule. False religion originates in a departure from the worship of the true God to that of idols; either as objects of religious adoration or as the means of it. To this cause Moses ascribed the idolatry of Israel. The sun, moon, etc., from being worshipped only as representations of God, came to be considered and worshipped as so many distinct deities. As the multitude of gods worshipped by the heathen distracted their religion, and turned it away from the only true God, so their mean and immoral characters shamefully debased it. Religion is the chief part and foundation of moral righteousness. As before the coming of Christ the Gentiles had grossly departed from the knowledge and profession of the true religion, so the Jews had greatly degenerated from the sincere belief and practice of it. IV. By the Gospel and the grace of Christ all nations should be brought to remember and turn unto the Lord. The coming of the Saviour was the era of light, reformation, and happiness to the world As to the proper improvement of these truths, let us ever live under the serious belief and impression that, to glorify and enjoy God, our Creator and Saviour, are the great ends of our existence, and can be attained only by the knowledge and practice of true religion. (W. Dalgleish, D. D.) Nature and extent of true conversion under Messiah’ s reign I. The nature of true conversion.1. It is to remember. It is fitly expressed by the ease of the prodigal, who is said to have “ come to himself.” The Holy Spirit is ever seeking to make us remember. Sometimes by adverse providences, as with Joseph’ s brethren. At other times by His Word. Sometimes it is without any apparent cause. “ I thought on my ways,” says David, “ and turned my feet unto Thy testimonies.” And there will, however brought, be many ways which we shall remember with sorrow and shame. As our ways of open immorality: things which we thought were no harm, since other people did them; and ways which we have thought nothing about--sins of the heart. And ways, too, that you have counted good you will thus remember. All your religion while unconverted will appear odious to you. 2. It is turning unto the Lord. This is very important, for it is possible to remember our evil ways without turning from them. And it is possible both to remember and turn, and yet not to turn to the Lord. And-- 3. There will be worship--the homage of the heart presented to God according to His will. II. The extent. “ All the ends of the world” ; “ all the kindreds of the nations,” etc. It was fit that the accessions of the Gentiles should be reserved for the Gospel day, that it might grace the triumph of Christ over His enemies. And the good work then begun must go on, no longer limited to the seed of Abraham. But the time will come when our text will be abundantly fulfilled. Nor can the time of fulfilment be far distant. The last branch of the last of the four beasts foretold by Daniel is now in its dying agonies. But while we are concerned for all the world, let us not forget our own souls. (Andrew Fuller.) The assistance derived by Christianity from human learning it is matter of doubt whether there is real improvement in the world in morals and religion. In some parts matters seem to have become worse. But in others, our own country especially, since the Reformation there has been improvement, and such as is not likely to be lost. Still, we are far enough from perfection. For that we must look on to the kingdom of God yet to be established, but meanwhile we must help it forward as we best can. But note--I. What are the causes of the improvement we have noticed? They are--1. General experience, though there are instances in which the moral and religious condition of the people are no better now than they were ages ago. The reason of this is that these communities have possessed no literature, and hence the teachings of experience have been lost and each generation has to begin anew. 2. Letters and learning. Hence these teachings no longer die with those who have acquired them, but are handed on to their successors. But we have instances in which--as in Egypt, Greece, and Rome, where there have been letters and learning, but because separated from true religion--the world has not been morally advanced by them. The experience of France in the eighteenth century is in point here. 3. The revelation of Christianity. But this from an early period down to the time of the Reformation being loaded with superstition, the moral life of men was but little benefited. Hence we gather that there must be the union of Learning and Christianity if any real progress is to be made. II. What assistance Christianity has received from human learning. This learning may be distinguished--1. As the study of ancient languages and composition. Hence now we have the Scriptures translated, and this learning is useful not only to translate but to teach us the rules of interpretation, and of just criticism, and of the best models of composition, and to give freedom and strength to the imagination. Even the elegance of ancient writers, though often considered as merely ornamental, is not without its use towards the perfection of Christian morals. There is a connection and a sympathy which, though they do not always appear, have yet a tendency to prevail, between whatever is simple and elegant in the arts, and a simplicity and elegance of manners. By this connection we are rendered more sensible of any thing that can soften the human mind, can heighten the enjoyment of social life, or prepare us for that Christian charity which is the bond of peace and of all virtue. 2. The study of philosophy, which is not merely useful in the discovery of curious and useful arts. It serves a much nobler and more generous purpose, that of promoting our progress towards the perfection of our nature, and of advancing the interests of true religion. (W. Pearce, D. D.) The triumph of Christianity Some regard this Psalm as our Lord’ s soliloquy when expiring on the Cross. It may be so. Fitter words could not have been conceived. The mighty hero sees the conflict ended, anticipates the victory, and begins to chant the conqueror’ s paean. I. The conversion of the nations to God may be expected. It is much to be desired. But the battle is long and weary and the end is not yet. Some think it is not to be looked for. But--1. Our newborn nature craves for it; and-- 2. Is it not unlikely that on this earth where God has stood in the person of His Son, that evil, after all, should vanquish Him? 3. And see the promises of reward made to our Redeemer. “ He shall see of the travail of His soul and shall be satisfied.” And the Scriptures are full of such promises, in the Psalms and in all the prophets. It is good to be reminded of them, for we shall not labour well if we do not labour in hope. And as yet we have not done so much as to give the fragments of the Gospel feast to the nations. When the Church is ready for great events they shall occur to her. II. Such conversion will occur in the usual manner of other conversions. “ The nations,” says our text, “ shall remember, and shall turn unto the Lord, and shall worship before Him.”1. They shall remember. In this manner conversion begins. 2. They shall turn.3. They shall worship.III. The means to accomplish this result are to be found at Calvary. This is a Calvary Psalm; its connection is full of sacrificial suffering. Every conversion is the result of Christ’ s death. And His death is our motive for spreading the Gospel. And it is the security of future triumph. We shall conquer the world, but it will be by the Cross. The old legend of Constantine, “In hoc signo vinces,” hath truth in it for us. By this we shall conquer--by the Cross, by the preaching of Jesus Christ. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Psalms 22:28 The kingdom is the Lord’ s.An universal religion The law of Moses was confined, by the terms of its promulgation, to the land of Judaea: and other systems which have been embraced as Divine attempted to ensure their success In some quarters of the globe by an accommodation to local manners which prevented them from spreading to distant regions. But the religion of Christ has all the internal characters of an universal religion. The manner in which the Gospel was introduced corresponds to these characters of an universal religion. Before He ascended to heaven the Founder constituted His apostles witnesses to Him unto the uttermost parts of the earth, and sent them forth to make disciples of all nations . . . We readily recognise in Jesus that illustrious descendant promised to Abraham, “ in whom all the families of the earth were to be blessed” ; that Prince of Peace whose universal dominion the prophets have painted by various imagery, “ in whose reign the righteous were to flourish, and the knowledge of the Lord was to cover the earth.” But when we look beyond the destruction of Jerusalem these bright views seem to vanish, and we mark, with wonder and regret a striking inconsistency between the earlier and later history of the Christian Church: This religion was, for many ages, persecuted and despised by the powers of the earth. For a long time it was involved in the superstition and barbarism of the dark ages. The fact is, that, after seventeen hundred years have passed, the religion of Jesus is established in less than a fifth part of the globe. The faith of Mahomet, which has been permitted to overspread a larger portion of the earth, retains undisputed possession of its conquests. What can be said as an answer to the presumption, drawn from present appearances, against the fulfilment of the promise of universality for Christianity?1. Though the Almighty may do all His pleasure by the word of His mouth, He generally chooses to employ means in accomplishing His purposes, and the operation of those means is so gradual as to admit of a progress ill which one thing not only paves the way for another, but gives notice of its approach. We are not warranted, by the analogy of any part of Divine providence, to expect, in the communication of religious instruction, that haste which to our imaginations may appear desirable. 2. As in natural productions there is a time of maturity to which all the preparation has tended, so the season destined for the appearance of the Gospel, which is called in Scripture “ the fulness of the time,” was produced by a preparation of four thousand years. 3. The partial propagation of Christianity has already diffused a large measure of religious knowledge, which concurs with other circumstances in preparing the world for its being universally received. 4. The partiality, the delay, and the imperfection in the propagation of Christianity are fully accounted for by the nature of those human means which, without a succession of miracles, it was necessary to employ . . . Presumption against the universal propagation of Christianity, which has been drawn from present appearances, is contradicted by the general analogy of the Divine government, by the effects already produced, and the forward tendency of things. (G. Hill, D. D.) The oldest kingdom and the best government What can be a more consoling fact, in times of national convulsion, than the one declared here? The Lord’ s kingdom is distinct from all others. I. The greatest kingdom ever. Known. My text says the Lord is the governor. I much question if He has a kingdom for His own upon the face of the whole earth now. There was a time when He appeared signally to recognise our own dear old England distinctly above all other nations; but now it has gone down, in some instances, to downright infidelity, or, in others, perverted to gross idolatry. Whatever He may please to do with the land of my nativity, I shall rejoice to know we have in it yet more of His own kingdom than any other nation upon earth. Of the Lord’ s kingdom we note--(1) It is a chosen one: men enter it through a broken and contrite spirit; others who have not known this are not in the kingdom. (2) Hence it is His by conquest over human hearts. He has subdued them unto Himself. (3) It is under His own special care. And (4) He peopled it with the precious souls that He had ordained from everlasting. (5) And He dwells and abides there. (6) Its constitution is “ righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.” It is a sacred kingdom and no unclean thing shall enter it. (7) How vast are its treasures--grace and glory. II. It has the wisest, holiest, and best of governors.(1) His sovereignty is absolute over all nations for His own people as well as in them. (2) It is exercised in the hearts of His subjects. Who ever heard of any other governor who reigned in the heart of every one of his subjects? (3) He never revokes any of His decrees. “ My covenant will I not alter.” His statutes stand forever, those in His secret statute book and those in the Scripture, the inspired abstract of His will. (Joseph Irons.) On providence I. Prove the doctrine. That God presides in every department of nature, and exercises a superintending care over the works of His hand, has been believed in every nation and in every age. The cavils of sceptical men are not to be considered as detracting from its universality. What is providence but the exercise of the Divine attributes? Sound philosophy never supported the atheistical system which would exclude the Almighty from His kingdom, and surrender to blind chance the government of the universe. The Divine government is recognised in the material system, but it is not confined to that. In the moral as in the natural world His pervading energy appears. What are the annals of nations but a continued detail of its operation? The world is a great scene, where from age to age a series of providential interpositions has been displayed. Some invisible power is employed in overruling human affairs. An infinite mind must have access, though we cannot perceive it, in many different ways, to the human heart. But man is conscious all the while that no violence is offered to his will, that he is acting as a moral agent, without any infringement of his freedom. II. Recommend a becoming trust in divine providence. His perfections demand our veneration and justify our confidence. Infinite goodness, added to Almighty power, constitutes the very character which claims our dependence. (T. Lawrie, D. D.) Psalms 22:29 None can keep alive his own soul. Life’ s need and maintenance Begin by noting the connection; then take text in a spiritual meaning. I. The inner life must be sustained by God. None of us can make his own soul live, nor can we keep it alive. Old Christians cannot, more than young ones. At no time or place, however sacred, can we do this. The analogies of nature, which show that repeated, continued help must be given, tell us of our constant need of fresh grace. Experience asserts the same. In each separate act of the Divine life we need help. Our own blunderings and failings when we have not sought renewed help teach the same lesson. The number and strength of our adversaries teach it. If we could, why is such full provision made in the Gospel? II. This truth brings glory to Christ. III. Suggests the path of wisdom for ourselves. We are to remember that we want not only grace to begin with, but grace to abide in Christ. Diligently use all means of grace. Keep clear of all that which tends to destroy life. A sane man does not willingly take poison. Look to Christ day by day for everything. Do not become self-satisfied. Never say, “ Soul, take thine ease,” --to say that is to be a fool, as was the rich man who first said it. “ Day by day go to Christ. IV. This subject indicates a way of usefulness for all God’ s children. It is a grand thing to be blessed of God, to turn sinners from the error of their ways; but there is equally good work to be done by helping struggling saints. The old Roman said he thought it as much an honour to preserve a Roman citizen as to slay an enemy of his country. Let us watch over one another; be pastors to one another. Help one another. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Spiritual life not self-preserved Go, young man, even you who are a zealous Christian, go without your morning prayer into the house of business, and see what will befall you. Venture, my sister, down into your little family without having called upon God for guidance, and see what you will do. Go with a strong resolve that yon will never be guilty of the weakness which dishonoured you a few days ago, and depend upon the strength of your own will and the firmness of your own purpose, and see if you do not ere long discover to your shame how great your weakness is. Nay, try none of these experiments, but listen to the Word which tells you “ none can keep alive his own soul.” (C. H. Spurgeon.) Psalms 22:30A seed shall serve Him.Good men as seeds This figurative expression signifies Christ and His people, who yield true obedience to God,--they are called by this name in a spiritual and figurative, but most appropriate sense. The idea is taken from the operations of the husbandman, who carefully reserves every year a portion of his grain for seed. Though it be small, compared with all the produce of his harvest, yet he prizes it very highly and estimates it by the value of that crop which it may yield in the succeeding autumn. Nor does he look only to the quantity; he pays particular regard to the quality of the seed. He reserves only the best, nay, he will put away his own if spoiled, that he may procure better. The very smallest quantity of really good seed is, to him, an object of great desire, and if by grievous failure of crops he should not be able to procure more than a single grain, yet would he accept it thankfully, preserve it carefully, and plant it in the most favourable soil. Such is the source from which the metaphor is taken. (John Stevenson.) Psalms 22:31 They shall come, and declare His righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that He hath done this. The dying thoughts of Christ 1. Jesus complains that God had deserted Him. Bearing our sins caused this intolerable suffering. Yet even whilst thus suffering He adores the uprightness of God. 2. Jesus turns His thoughts back to the past history of the people of God. 3. The Father at length heard His earnest, importunate entreaties. 4. That which was in our Saviour’ s mind illustrates St. Paul’ s meaning when he tells of our Lord, that “ for the joy set before Him He endured the Cross, despising the shame.” (Alex. Irwin, M. A.) . Psalms 23:1-6 Psalms 23:1-6 The Lord is my Shepherd.Exegesis of the Psalm This Psalm, so personal and tender in its tone, may be called a lyric; and its reference to shepherd life makes it a pastoral; and being such, it becomes by its brevity and finish an idyll--an idyll excelling in naturalness and truth any that Theocritus, the father of idylls, ever wrote. But in its simplicity it sets forth the weightiest theme. Feeble man may have constant companionship with the mighty and everlasting God, may cast all his anxiety upon Him, for He careth for each one of us. The Psalmist was not unacquainted with the shepherd’ s office; for he had fed his father’ s sheep in the mountains about Bethlehem, and often in solitude shut up to their lowly and loving companionship, by sympathising in their wants, he had loved them much, and for their sake had struggled hard with lion and bear. Verse 1. The Lord Jehovah; from derivation, the “ Everlasting One” --the “ One that is.” Verse 2. Lie down--Applies to animals that lie upon the breast with the limbs gathered under them. Pastures--The place where one settles down. It can stand for the dwellings of men, for dens of wild beasts, for encampment of flocks. Green--Implying grass in its early growth. Still waters--or waters of rest. Verse 3. Soul--or spirit; used of animals as well as men. They and we lose spirit by exhaustion. We lose spirituality by sin. Paths of righteousness--Not only a right course, but one which ends in righteousness or safety. Verse 4. Valley--Not death, but a deep ravine overhung with rocks or trees, and full of gloom, even at midday. Rod and staff--In the Himalayas the shepherd has been seen using his crook to draw a straying sheep from the brink of a precipice. Verse 5. Preparest--We set a table, putting all upon it in fit order. Runneth over--Literally, my cup (is) abundance. Original of abundance is used of draught that satisfies for quantity. Verse 6. Follow--Its original is often used of the eager pursuit of enemies and persecutors. (T. H. Rich, D. D.) The Psalm of faith This has sometimes been called the Psalm of faith, and certainly with great reason. It breathes in every line the air of serene and happy confidence undisturbed by a single doubt. Nowhere else is the absence of misgiving or anxiety so remarkable. Yet equally noteworthy is the connection of this state of safety, rest, and peace with the statement made in the opening words; for the fact that Jehovah condescended to be the writer’ s shepherd was the underlying basis of the whole experience. The representation of God as a shepherd is found first in Jacob’ s blessing of Joseph (Genesis 48:15), “ the God which fed me,” --literally, who was my shepherd. It was afterwards often used in reference to Israel as a people, and in the New Testament is applied to our Lord both by Himself and by His disciples. The whole tone of the lyric is personal, and this it is that makes it so precious. Jehovah cares for the flock just because He cares for each member of it. The believer is never lost in a crowd. “ I shall not want.” The expression is absolute and unlimited. Neither food, nor protection, nor guidance, nor loving care and sympathy shall be lacking. The believer is sure not only of repose, restoration, and guidance, but also of protection and deliverance even in the most trying circumstances . . . The last verse of the Psalm summarises what went before, with the additional thought of its continuance. “ Only goodness and loving kindness” means that the favour bestowed on the believer is unmixed, or that the exceptions are so few as to be unworthy of consideration. Goodness supplies our needs, and mercy blots out our sins. (Talbot W. Chambers, D. D.) A Psalm of personal trust in God The world could spare many a large book better than this sunny little Psalm. It has dried many tears, and supplied the mould into which many hearts have poured their peaceful faith. To suppose that the speaker is the personified nation chills the whole. The tone is too intense not to be the outcome of personal experience, however admissible the application to the nation may be as secondary. No doubt Jehovah is the Shepherd of Israel in several Asaphite Psalms and in Jeremiah; but notwithstanding great authorities, I cannot persuade myself that the voice which comes so straight to the heart did not come from the heart of a brother, speaking across the centuries his own personal emotions, which are universal because they are individual. It is the pure utterance of personal trust in Jehovah, darkened by no fears or complaints, and so perfectly at rest that it has nothing more to ask. For the time desire is stilled in satisfaction. One tone, and that the most blessed that can be heard in a life, is heard through the whole. It is the Psalm of quiet trust, undisturbed even by its joy, which is quiet too. The fire glows, but does not flame or crackle. The one thought is expanded in two kindred images, that of the shepherd and that of the host. The same ideas are substantially repeated under both forms. The lovely series of vivid pictures, each but a clause long, but clear cut in that small compass like the fine work incised on a gem, combines, with the depth and simplicity of the religious emotion expressed, to lay this sweet Psalm on all hearts. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Serenity of soul Is there anything in the religious life outside of Christianity that shows such trust in God as this Psalm? There are psalms of the pantheistic religions in which the soul seems to lose itself in the great current of the Divine Being, and become but one drop in the ocean of universal existence. They have the idea of rest and repose and freedom from disturbance and trouble. But in this Psalm there is something different. There is indeed the individual consciousness of love resting on the soul, that still has its own right to live and to know its past. Every religion bears its testimony to us of God dwelling in human nature. I do not know of a religious yearning of mankind in any part of his spiritual history which has not sought to see beyond the clouds the peace of God resting on the human soul. That is the great mission of religion in the human soul. There are times in our experience when we are inclined to overstate the necessity for turmoil in the soul. The soul at times needs to be disturbed and broken hearted; but always in anticipation and preparation for the calm that lies beyond. The ultimate condition of the human soul is repose, such as fills the sweet rich verses of this Psalm of David. It is a man who has been through great experiences who thus lifts up his voice and sings to God in absolute trust in the Divine goodness and strength. This Psalm is an outpouring of the soul to God, never matched in all the riches of the Christian day. It is the utterance of a soul absolutely unshaken and perfectly serene. In the New Testament many of the expressions of deepest faith have their origin in this Psalm. Jesus said, “ I am the good Shepherd,” . . .” I shall not want.” There are two ways of not lacking a thing in this world. He lacks nothing who has everything. The better way is for a man to look up, and bring his desires down to that which God sees fit to give him. This applies emphatically to things of faith . . . There are two ways by which we come to “ green pastures and still waters.” God had led David into sweet and beautiful circumstances, where it was easy for him to walk. But a place is not simply a thing of the outward life. It is a thing of the inward life. To go with calm soul, because it calmly trusts in God in the midst of tempests and tumults, and say, “ I am at peace and rest,” --that is the triumph of the Christian state. First of all comes a peaceful condition within the soul, and by and by comes the kingdom of heaven with all its scenery . . . ” For His name’ s sake.” The poor soul loves to think that God is taking care of him for his own sake, because it is precious to Himself. Many a time the soul has to flee from the sense of its own little value to the thought that God values it because it is dear and precious to Him “ In the presence of mine enemies.” This does not mean separation from our enemies, nor driving them away. God gives us peaceful moments in the midst of the distress and struggle of our lives Let your souls rest in peace on God. Only, be sure it is really He on whom you rest. He is continually caring for your souls, and will not let you rest in absolute torpor. You cannot rest too peacefully, too tenderly on the love of God, if only it is really God’ s love. (Phillips Brooks, D. D.) Religious conceptions coloured by secular vocation This Psalm does not provoke our thinking: it touches us away down below our philosophy and our theology; comes to us rather like a covert from the heat, a refuge from weariness, a shelter from the rain, and folds as unthinkingly into the creases of our souls as water adapts itself to the thirsty. The longings of the human spirit have their own beatitude, and better than any other interpreters make clear the meaning of the Holy Word. Round this oasis of truth, this 23rd Psalm, tired, hungry, erring, and anxious men and women have gathered, and found green pasturage, still waters, recovery from their wanderings, and gentle light to guide them through the valley of the death-shadow. This Psalm brings us not only near to God and our own souls, but also near to one another. It is a great, roomy catholic Psalm. The things which the Gospel has to supply are the great, deep, common wants of all human souls. We can all stand up in front of this Psalm, and feel ourselves so far perfectly “ brothered” in each other. David must have written this Psalm when he was a good deal more than a youth. It is not dated, yet its quality is its own date, as the wine tester finds the age of the wine in the flavour of the wine. Time is a factor in the arithmetic of all life and growth. Experience and discernment ripen much in the same way as corn and wheat ripen. Ripeness is not to be extemporised, nor is it transferable. Time is one factor, suffering is another. The two together and the product sanctified is Christian maturity. This writer had learned the lesson of weariness; he had passed under the discipline of sin. He had learned to know himself by sinning, and learned to know God by enjoying the Divine deliverance and recovery from sin. He had tested God, and found Him faithful, and tested Him so many times that he knew He would always be faithful. The imagery of the Psalm suggests to us as a passing lesson that every man paints religious truth in the colours furnished by his own character of life and mode of occupation. Objects and relations that are familiar to us furnish us with a vocabulary whose terms even the Holy Ghost Himself will have to use if He is going to make to us any revelation. A shepherd, familiar only with pastoral relations, can apprehend the bearing of God toward us only under the figure of a shepherd. He thinks in that way. The one impression that flows from off this entire Psalm is that of a man who has come now where he is able and glad simply to trust and let himself be taken care of; and that, too, is a long and very slow lesson. Faith is distilled from unquiet experience. We have to learn to trust. (Charles H. Parkhurst, D. D.) Sufficiency in God I. The great name--Jehovah. In Egypt thousands of gods, but no Jehovah. II. A great faith--“ My Shepherd.” III. A great sufficiency--“ I shall not want.” The insatiable character of man. Life a hunger and thirst, intellectual, social, emotional. David’ s contentment arose from finding sufficiency was in God. The Lord was more to him than the manna, or the stream in the wilderness. He is sufficing beyond all thought, feeling, hope. To whom is He thus? To the weary, troubled, perplexed, and penitent. (G. S. Reaney.) The shepherd God But let us notice the result in us.1. First, there is the banishment of want. David says, “ I shall not want.” 2. The Good Shepherd banishes fear. David says, “ I will fear no evil.” Perhaps there is no blessing so great for the happiness of the soul as the driving away of fear, which God does for those who give their hearts to Him. He rescues us from the fear of punishment. He takes away the fear of the judgment. The man who has received a pardon from the President of the United States has no longer any fear of punishment for his crime. What a blessed relief that is! God takes from us also the fear of death. How many have been held slaves to the fear of death. Many people are so afraid of death that they will not attend a funeral service. 3. Finally, what a beautiful and glorious hope the shepherd God holds out to us of the future life, toward which He is willing to lead us through all our life’ s journey. “ I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” Our Good Shepherd said to His friends just before He went away, “ In My Father’ s house there are many mansions. I go to prepare a place for you.” (L. A. Banks, D. D.) Personal relationship with God “ My Shepherd.” Every believer is not only permitted to say, but has that within him which constrains him to say, “ O God, Thou art my God.” It should be to us a source of unfailing comfort to know that His nature undergoes no change or modification when it is directed towards us and the exigencies of our condition. The wisdom, the power, the goodness with which He controls the affairs of the universe are in their measure available for our individual needs. And as the shepherd knows each sheep of the flock, and calleth it by its name, so God knoweth each of us, and gives Himself to us with the whole energy and affectionateness of His being.. There exists between God and ourselves a distinct personal relation. He recognises the individuality of every human soul, and ascribes to it a separate worth. Bound as we are by innumerable ties to the great brotherhood of men, we are, in the deepest centre of our life, isolated from them, and stand before God alone. Under many current systems of thought this individuality is endangered. Beyond the ken of an omnipresent spirit and the power of an almighty friend we cannot go. He is about our path and our bed, and the secret thoughts and desires and needs of all hearts are open to Him. We may be weak, obscure, despised, but He thinks of us with as special a care and as devoted a love as if we alone, in all the vast universe of men, were dependent upon Him and claimed His gracious aid. (James Stuart.) Confidence in the Shepherd It is not as a literary gem, rich and rare though it be in that respect, that its chief attraction lies. What renders it so exceedingly precious to the experimental believer are the blessedness of its truths and the sublimity of its sentiments--the delightful spirit it breathes and the hallowed impressions it produces. By it the faith of God’ s people in every age has been confirmed, their hearts have been gladdened, their hopes elevated, and their strength renewed. “ The Lord is My Shepherd.” Our faith is greatly lacking as respects three things--1. It is not sufficiently confiding.2. It is not sufficiently realising. “ Faith is the substance of things hoped for.”3. It is not sufficiently appropriating. (Anon.) A deep consciousness of God I. The deep consciousness of God that pervades the Psalm. Its great outstanding thought is God. And God, too, present to the mind and heart of the writer: a living, personal agent, who touches his life at every point, and with whom he holds conscious and happy intercourse. Here we have a man evidently walking not by sight but by faith. This consciousness of God manifested itself in two ways.1. He found in his own humble employment as a shepherd a representation of God, and a means of fellowship with Him. By the thoughtfulness, tenderness, sympathy, and care he exercised in his shepherd calling he learned and realised the heart and character of God. 2. His daily employment was to him a symbol of God, and of God’ s relation to him. II. The relation of God to the individual life. Nowhere is God presented in such close relations with individual life and experience as in the Psalms of David. We have here the precious scriptural doctrine of a special providence. It is objected to this doctrine, that it is derogatory to the greatness of God that He should be thought of as concerning Himself with the minutiae of life. But “ great” and “ little” are only relative terms. It enhances His greatness that He can comprehend at once the vast and the minute. III. The happiness of the man whose God is the Lord. One characteristic of the Psalm is its repose, its serene enjoyment. IV. The man whose God is the Lord can look hopefully into the future. In order to do this he must be reconciled to God, and regenerated and renewed in the spirit of His mind. (Alexander Field.) The God of the world as seen by the good He appears as a Shepherd to the good. Those who follow this Shepherd are truly blest.1. They are blest with deliverance from the fear of want. “ I shall not want,” or as some render it, “ I do not want.” The fear of “ want” is one of the most disturbing fiends of the human soul. Men are everywhere fearing that they shall lack a something which they regard as vital to their interests, Godliness expels this fear from the human heart by inspiring unbounded confidence in the bountihood of heaven. 2. They are blest with the enjoyment of satisfying good. “ He maketh me to lie down in green pastures.” He has allayed my appetite, dispelled my anxieties, satisfied my nature, and caused me to “ lie down” amidst the affluence of His love. 3. They are blest in being calmly led along the river of life. He leadeth me beside the still waters. 4. They are blest with the reinvigoration of soul. “ He restoreth my soul.” There is a wear and tear of soul as well as of body. The holiest and the strongest angel would soon get exhausted were it left to depend upon itself. God is the strength of all finite intelligences, however pure and strong. 5. They are blest with being divinely conducted into the paths of rectitude. “ He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness.” There are as many paths of life as there are men. As every star has its own orbit, so every man has his own particular path. No two men can walk in exactly the same way, from the diversity of their faculty and their training. All human paths are of two descriptions, the morally right and the morally wrong; The good man’ s path, whether it be that of a labourer, mechanic, artist, poet, philosopher, statesman, king, or preacher, is “ a path of righteousness.” 6. They are blest with the moral heroism in their march to eternity. “ Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil.” (Homilist.) The life of faith I. Faith’ s recognition (Psalms 23:1). “ The Lord is my Shepherd.” A spiritual recognition made through the medium of His surroundings, Faith makes the same recognition today. It is an old recognition. It is a comforting recognition. Recognising God as our Shepherd, what an infinitude of tenderness, watchfulness, love, and carefulness that recognition involves! “ I shall not want.” This is no guarantee against poverty; because poverty may be, in the Divine estimation, better for us than riches. It is no arrant for indolence or thriftlessness. Work and diligence in it are again and again commended. No want would be universal were it not for these two widespread evils! II. Faith’ s experience (Psalms 23:2-3; Psalms 23:5). Verse 2 expresses repose rather than feeding. Repose in “ pastures of tender grass,” hard by the “ waters of quietness.” It is also expressive of satisfaction. “ To lie down.” Sheep stand to eat, but lie when filled. Life only finds satisfaction in God; the world is too small to fill the soul. The fulness of the Godhead alone can meet this moral necessity. Verse 3 sets forth restoration and guidance. Leadeth, not driveth. Law drives, love leads. Example is more forceful than command. Eternal footprints He has left on the pathway of virtue, patience, purity, self-sacrifice, benevolence, obedience, that we may plant our feet in them and be as He was in this world. Verse 5 suggests plenty and protection. God gives banquets in unlikely places and at unexpected times. III. Faith’ s prospect (Psalms 23:4; Psalms 23:6).1. Celestial attendants all the days of life. 2. Companionship in the shadowed valley. Inspiring confidence and courage; and preventing unrest and disquietude. (J. O. Keen, D. D.) What the Lord is to the believer What the Lord is to the believer is here set forth in a poem peculiarly Oriental in imagery. Two figures are employed, the Shepherd and the Host. The one is expressed, the other is implied. Two figures are employed because either alone is inadequate. Each is complemental to the other. The second uniformly is an advance upon the first. Seven suggestions are very prominent.1. All wants are met in God.2. All energy and joy are supplied in God.3. All needed guidance.4. All blessed companionship.5. All security.6. All comfort in sorrow.7. An abiding place for homeless souls. All this depends on our faith, whether we can appropriate god and truly say, “ my shepherd.” it is curious to notice how the second figure is left to be inferred. Why did not David, in introducing the second part, say, “ Jehovah is my Host” ? Perhaps because the feelings of this relationship waited to be revealed (John 1:11-12). God is in Christ more than host, and we are more than guests. He is our Father, and we are His sons and daughters. Hence our welcome home, and our dwelling place there. He is ours and we are His, and all that is His is ours, To the Jew He was Shepherd, to the Christian believer He is Father. (Arthur T. Pierson D. D.) The Shepherd figure for Jesus “ Shepherd.” That precious word for God was uttered first by Jacob--himself once a shepherd--as he lay a-dying in his hieroglyphed chamber; and with the long thoughts of old age went back to the imagery of his early life, speaking of God as having “ shepherded him all his life long.” All through the Bible the golden thread runs, until in its closing pages we read of the Lamb who leads His flock to the rivers of the waters of life. The Eastern shepherd occupied quite a unique position towards his flock; and a friendship sprang up between him and the dumb creatures of his care to which there is no counterpart among ourselves. He can do almost as he wills with any of them, going freely in and out amongst them, without exciting the slightest symptom of alarm. Now, all this is true of the Lord Jesus, that Great Shepherd of the sheep.1. He has a shepherd’ s heart, beating with pure and generous love that counted not His life-blood too dear a price to pay down as our ransom. 2. He has a shepherd’ s eye, that takes in the whole flock, and misses not even the poor sheep wandering away on the mountains cold. 3. He has a shepherd’ s faithfulness, which will never fail nor forsake, nor leave us comfortless, nor flee when He seeth the wolf coming. He has a shepherd’ s strength, so that He is well able to deliver us from the jaw of the lion or the paw of the bear. 4. He has a shepherd’ s tenderness; no lamb so tiny that He will not carry it, no saint so weak that He will not gently lead, no soul so faint that He will not give it rest. He pities as a father. He comforts as a mother. His gentleness makes great, he covers us with His feathers, soft, warm, and downy, and under His wings do we trust. (F. B. Meyer, B. A.) The pasture gate If David’ s shepherd life had furnished nothing else than the materials for this wonderful pastoral ode we should all be inclined to say that no period of David’ s history would have compensated the Church for the loss of his shepherd life. Yet the Psalm is not the utterance of the shepherd days, though it perpetuates their memory. This peaceful idyll is a voice out of the maturer life of the Psalmist; a voice that tells that peace and rest of heart depend not upon the absence of life’ s burdens, nor on the presence of nature’ s tranquillising scenes, but solely upon the shepherding of God. The keynote of the whole song is--God’ s servant finds his all in God. He wants nothing. All needs are met for him by that one fact--the Lord is my Shepherd. The problem of life is thus reduced to its very simplest statement. “ But one thing is needful.” The possession of all gifts is included in possessing the Father. Then the true end of every man’ s life is to become one of God’ s flock. And here the figure, while it magnifies the wisdom and tenderness of God, correspondingly depreciates the wisdom of man. The dependence of man upon God must be just as absolute as that of the sheep upon the shepherd. The guidance of the life cannot be shared between God and man, any more than between the shepherd and the sheep. There is a comforting assurance in the comparison of man to a sheep. A sheep is not a wild animal. He is a property. And man is God’ s valuable property. The Spirit leads us forth into the pastures.1. Provision is made for two sides of man’ s life in his new relation to God. A godly life, if it be healthful, must be both an active and a contemplative life. 2. Provision is made for restoration. “ He restoreth my soul.” Here we see restoration under three phases. (1) Forgiveness.(2) Rest and refreshment.(3) Righteousness or rightness. (Marvin R. Vincent, D. D.) The Lord a Shepherd I. God gives His people nourishment. One of the first duties of an Eastern shepherd was to provide ample pasture for the flock, to lead them hither and thither that plenty might be found. The Lord, as David’ s Shepherd, would make provision for his necessities. And not for David only, but for all His people “ the Lord will provide.” We have here--1. A repudiation of naturalism. The advocates of this system maintain that though God made the world and its noblest inhabitant--man, He now feels no interest in the work of His hands. “ He is so great,” say they, “ that it would be beneath Him to notice the little things of earth or the concerns of man.” The love, compassion, and Fatherly goodness of God are here ignored. A meagre view of the Divine character is this. God is a Shepherd, and will never neglect His flock. 2. A truth to which God has pledged Himself God cares for less important creatures than man: the blade of grass, the lily, the sparrow (Matthew 6:24-34). II. That God gives His people protection. It was as really the duty of the shepherd to protect his flock from harm, as to supply them with food. He would even expose himself to danger for the safety of his flock. David did when he grappled with the lion and the bear. God protects His people.1. The good have enemies-- (1) Numerous.(2) Cunning.(3) Powerful. 2. The Great Shepherd is engaged to protect them. (1) He protects their bodies. He gives “ His angels charge,” etc.(2) He gives spiritual protection. He is--to change the figure--a “ Shield,” “ a wall of fire,” etc. God is “ more than all” who are against His people. III. That God gives His people rest. God, as a Shepherd, will give His followers rest.1. Here. From storm within, and from oppression, etc., without. 2. Hereafter. He will take His own to be in His presence forever. Learn--1. The importance of being “ the sheep of His pasture.” Only those who are such have any claim to this provision, protection, and rest. 2. The value of trust in Him who has condescended to sustain to us these gracious relationships. (John Hill.) The Lord our Shepherd I. How He reveals Himself to the sheep.1. AS the good Shepherd Love (John 10:11)--His death. 2. As the great Shepherd Power (Hebrews 13:20)--His Resurrection. 3. As the chief Shepherd Glory (1 Peter 5:4) Second Advent. II. What he does for the sheep. Gives His life for them and to them (Zechariah 13:7; Matthew 26:31; John 10:11; John 10:15; John 10:28). Seeks them out and brings them home (Ezekiel 34:12; Luke 15:4-5). Gathers them and heals them (Isaiah 40:11; Ezekiel 34:4). Guides and feeds them (Psalms 23:1-3; John 10:3-4; John 10:9). Protects and preserves them (Job 31:10; John 10:28). III. What He expects from the sheep. That they should--1. Hear His voice (John 10:3). 2. Follow His leading (John 10:4; Matthew 9:9; John 21:22). 3. Rest under His protection (Psalms 23:1-2). (E. H. Hopkins.) The song of the flock, View it-- I. As expressing thankfulness for the past. Jehovah, all-sufficient, has been my Shepherd. Many there are who can see no better law or principle regulating the allotments of their daily life than accident and capricious fortune. They see the shuttles of apparent chance darting hither and thither in the loom of existence. They do not see that the shuttle is in the hands of the Great Artificer. Life is not a mere kaleidoscope. II. As implying confidence in the present. Jesus, all-sufficient, is my Shepherd. How blessed thus to repose our present in God, and to say, “ Undertake Thou for me.” He does not consult our short-sighted wisdom in what He does. A necessary result of this confidence in the wisdom of God’ s shepherd dealings will be contentment with our lot, whatever it is. And if we thus confide in God He will confide in us. III. As expressing trust for the future. Jehovah, all-sufficient, shall be my Shepherd. That dark future. How many are speaking of it as such. It is in the Shepherd’ s keeping, and we may well leave it there. Let us banish all unholy distrust of the future. (J. R. Macduff, D. D.) The shepherd king of Israel We do not know at what period of David’ s life this Psalm was written, but it sounds as if it were the work of his later years It is very beautiful to see the old king looking back with such vivid and loving remembrance to his childhood’ s occupation, and bringing up again to memory in his palace the green valleys, the gentle streams, the dark glens where he had led his flocks in the old days. The faith which looks back and says, It is all very good, is not less than that which looks forward and says, Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. The train of thought in the Psalm is clear and obvious. The Psalm falls into two halves. I. The divine shepherd and his leading of His flock. The various methods of God’ s leading of His flock, or rather, we should say, the various regions into which He leads them, are described in order. These are rest, work, sorrow.1. God leads His sheep into rest. The Psalm puts the rest and refreshment first, as being the most marked characteristic of God’ s dealings. It is so. The years are years of unbroken continuity of outward blessings. The reign of afflictions is ordinarily measured by days. But it is not mainly of outward blessings that the Psalmist is thinking. They are precious chiefly as emblems of the better spiritual gifts. The image describes the sweet rest of the soul in communion with God, in whom alone the hungry heart finds food that satisfies. This rest and refreshment has for its consequence the restoration of the soul, which includes in it both the invigoration of the natural life by the outward sort of blessings, and the quickening and restoration of the spiritual life by the inward feeding upon God, and repose in Him. 2. God guides us into work. The quiet mercies are not in themselves the end of our Shepherd’ s guidance; they are means to an end, and that is--work. Life is not a fold for the sheep to lie down in, but a road for them to walk on. Rest is to fit for work, work is to sweeten rest. All this is emphatically true of the spiritual life. It is not well that our chief object should be to enjoy the consolations of religion; it is better to seek first to do the duties enjoined by religion. Joy in God is the strength of work for God, Rut work for God is the perpetuation of joy in God. Here is the figurative expression of the great evangelical principle, that works of righteousness must follow, not precede, the restoration of the soul. We are justified, not by works, but for works. The basis of obedience is the sense of salvation. 3. God leads His people through sorrow. The “ valley of the shadow” means any and every gloomy valley of weeping through which we have to pass. Such sunless gorges as we have all to traverse at some time or other. It is never given to the human heart to meditate of the future without some foreboding. Some evils may come; some will probably come; one at least is sure to come. So there is never pure hope in any heart that wisely considers the future. But to the Christian heart there may be this, the conviction that sorrow, when it comes, will not be evil, because God will be with us. Strange as it may sound, the presence of Him who sends the sorrow is the best help to bear it. II. God as the Host, and us as the guests at His table and the dwellers in His house. All is here intensified.1. God supplies our wants in the very midst of strife. The mercy is more strikingly portrayed as being granted not only before toil, but in warfare. Life is a sore fight; but to the Christian man, in spite of all the tumult, life is a festal banquet. Always the foe; always the table. This is the form under which experience of the past is presented in the second portion--joy in conflict, rest and food even in the strife. Upon that there is built a hope which transcends that in the previous portion of the Psalm. As to this life, “ goodness and mercy shall follow us.” Higher than all rises the confidence of the closing words,--“ I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” This should be at once the crown of all our hopes for the future, and the one great lesson taught us by all the vicissitudes of life. Yonder we sit down with the Shepherd, the Master of the house, at His table in His kingdom. Far off, and lost to sight, are all the enemies. We fear no change; we go no more out. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) The Shepherd King of men I. Knowledge of God. David believed that all the attributes of the shepherd relation and service belonged to God.1. God’ s intimate acquaintance with us. 2. Intense practical sympathy. Once a clergyman told the wife of a besotted drunkard that the Lord had abandoned her husband to his evil habits. Said she, “ Do you say that God has abandoned my husband to his sin? Then it is high time I should stand up for him, and see him through. I will be God for him if God is of your mind.” It was a noble speech from a noble-hearted woman. 3. Disinterestedness. He “ giveth His life for the sheep.” What will not a mother do for her child? At its service she puts the whole store of her being. Carry this thought up, as Christ taught us, into the sphere of the infinite, and you will have gained some conception of the disinterested tenderness and unselfish love of God. II. Relationship to God. “ My Shepherd.” He appropriates God. Learn to use this syllable of endearment, and the blessedness and power of David’ s Psalm are at once felt. III. Confidence in God. “ I shall not want.” If we believe that God is the Shepherd of His people, we must conclude that He will supply all their wants. If we have learnt to call Him “ My Shepherd,” then we shall confidently add, “ I shall not want.” (George Bainton.) The Divine Shepherd What with post and rail fences, and our pride in Southdown, Astrakhan, and Flemish varieties of sheep, there is no use now of the old-time shepherd. Such an one had abundance of opportunity of becoming a poet, being out of doors twelve hours the day, and ofttimes waking up in the night on the hills. If the stars, or the torrents, or the sun, or the flowers, had anything to say, he was very apt to hear it. The Ettrick Shepherd of Scotland, who afterwards took his seat in the brilliant circle of Wilson and Lockhart, got his wonderful poetic inspiration in the ten years in which he was watching the flocks of Mr. Laidlaw. There is often a sweet poetry in the rugged prose of the Scotch shepherd. One of these Scotch shepherds lost his only son, and he knelt down in prayer, and was overheard to say, “ O Lord, it has seemed good in Thy providence to take from me the staff of my right hand at the time when to us sand-blind mortals I seemed to be most in need of it; and how I shall climb up the hill of sorrow and auld age without it Thou mayst ken, but I dinna.” I. Of the shepherd’ s plaid. No splendid apparel, but rough strong apparel fit for his hard work. The Lord our Shepherd coming out to hunt the lost sheep, puts on no regal robe, but the plain garment of humanity. No; in the wardrobe of heaven He left the sandals of light, the girdles of beauty, the robes of power, and put on our besoiled and tattered raiment. The work of saving this world was rough work, rugged work, hard work; and Jesus put on the raiment, the plain raiment, of our flesh. The storms were to beat Him, the crowds were to jostle Him, the dust was to sprinkle Him, the mobs were to pursue Him. O, Shepherd of Israel! leave at home Thy bright array. For Thee, what streams to ford, what nights all unsheltered! II. The shepherd’ s crook. This was a rod with a curve at the end which, when a sheep was going astray, was thrown over its neck; and in that way it was pulled back. There is no animal that struggles more violently than a sheep when you corner it and catch hold of it. Down the glen I see a group of men around a lost sheep. A ploughman comes along and seizes the sheep, and tries to pacify it; but it is more frightened than ever. A miller comes along, puts down his grist, and caresses the sheep, and it seems as if it would die of fright. After a while someone breaks through the thicket. He says, “ Let me have the poor thing.” He comes up and lays his arms around the sheep, and it is immediately quiet. Who is the last man that comes? It is the shepherd. Ah, be not afraid of the Shepherd’ s crook. It is never used on you, save in mercy, to pull you back. The hard cold iceberg of trouble will melt in the warm Gulf Stream of Divine sympathy. III. The shepherd’ s dogs. They watch the straying sheep, and drive them back again. Every shepherd has his dog--from the nomads of the Bible times, down to the Scotch herdsman watching his flocks on the Grampian Hills. Our Shepherd employs the criticisms and persecutions of the world as His dogs. There are those, you know, whose whole work it is to watch the inconsistences of Christians, and bark at them. If one of God’ s sheep gets astray, the world howls. It ought to do us good to know that we are thus watched. It ought to put us on our guard. They cannot bite us if we stay near the Shepherd. The more dogs take after you, the quicker you will get to the gate. The bloody muzzle of the papacy hounded fifty million Protestants into glory. IV. The shepherd pasture grounds. The old shepherds used to take the sheep upon the mountains in the summer, and dwell in the valleys in the winter. It was well for the sheep to be out of doors. Wells were dug for them, and the shepherd led his flock wherever he would: nobody disputed his right. So the Lord our Shepherd has a large pasture ground. He takes us in the summer to the mountains, and in the winter to the valleys. Warm days of prosperity come, and we stand on sun-gilt Sabbaths, and on hills of transfiguration; and we are so high up we can catch a glimpse of the pinnacles of the heavenly city. Then cold wintry days of trouble come, and we go down into the valley of sickness, want, and bereavement, and we say, “ Is there any sorrow like unto my sorrow?” But, blessed be God, the Lord’ s sheep can find pasture anywhere. V. The shepherd’ s fold. At shearing time--a very joyful time to all the country round--the sheep were put in a walled enclosure, where they could easily be counted, and any wanting would at once be missed. This was the sheep fold. (T. De Wilt Talmage.) Jesus as “ my” Shepherd Some time ago a gentleman taking holiday in a rural district came across a little boy minding sheep. The stranger entered into conversation with the lad, and asked him if he knew the 23rd Psalm. The little fellow answered “ No.” “ Then let me teach you the first sentence,” said, the gentleman. “ Say these words after me, ‘ The--Lord--is--my--Shepherd!’” The boy repeated the words; “ Now repeat each word again, and count a finger as you do so; in this way. And he told off a finger at each of the words. “ And when you come to that word my, grip your fourth finger tightly with your other hand, and never forget, my lad, that the Lord is not only a Shepherd but your Shepherd.” The stranger went his way, and the boy told his parents at night of the strange gentleman and his lesson. During the following winter the snow fell heavily in that district. One day the boy and his sheep were missed. They were discovered in a deep drift. After the sheep had been dug out, the search party came upon the dead body of the boy--his left fourth finger tightly grasped in his right hand. Now the sequel. A distinguished Baptist minister was quite recently preaching Sunday school anniversary sermons in a northern town. Not far from the chapel lived the M.P. for the district. He was rich toward man, but not rich toward God. He had a great fondness for hearing children’ s voices; and when he heard of the anniversary services he decided to attend the afternoon meeting for the children. The preacher told the simple story given above and presently the service ended. During the following days the rich man was taken ill, and died somewhat suddenly. When the doctors came to examine him, they found him already dead, and clasping his left fourth finger with his right hand. Not in vain did the stranger teach the shepherd lad; not in vain did the preacher tell the simple child’ s, story; not in vain is the sequel, now printed. Let every, one who reads this remember as he goes through life that “ The Lord is my Shepherd.” Jehovah This name Jehovah is, as I may so speak, the most eminent of all the names of God; it carries that in it which is all in all, and, as it were, above all; namely, the verity or fidelity of God, making good all His goodness to us. The Hebrews make it to be an invariable and ineffable name, and it hath no pronouns affixed unto it, nor doth it admit any demonstrating article before it, and it wants the number of multitude; it is a name singular and proper to God. (O. Sedgwick, B. D.) The properties of a good shepherd 1. One is science: I am the Good Shepherd, and know My sheep, saith Christ (John 10:14). A skilful knowledge, by which he must understand how to handle them or deal with them. 2. A second is providence. The good shepherd provideth pasture and water for the sheep, and always that which is wholesome, lest the sheep rot and die; as he is not negligent that the sheep want feeding, so he is diligent that they have wholesome feeding (Ezekiel 34:13). The Lord will provide sufficient pasture, and the best too. 3. A third is guidance, He doth not leave them to the misguidance of sin or Satan, or the world, or their own hearts. 4. A fourth is vigilance. The sheep are weaponless, weak, unarmed creatures, and they have many and strong enemies, as the lion and the wolf and the dog. Jacob watched night and day (Genesis 31:40). Such a Shepherd is God over His people; His eye is ever over them (1 Peter 3:12). 5. To which, as a part, may be added defence. He is my defence, saith David (Psalms 59:9). The Prophet Zachary calls Him a wall of fire round about His people (Zechariah 2:5). 6. The good shepherd does not only provide pasture but coverture also for the sheep: he hath his shady places from the sun, and retiring places from the storms, to refresh, as well as to flesh the sheep (Psalms 121:5). 7. A seventh property of a good shepherd is tender prudence, for in a flock of sheep there is great diversity: one part may be strong sheep, and they are driven; another part may be weak lambs, and they are sometimes carried by the shepherd. Some of the sheep may be sound and well, others may be diseased; some keep in better, others are more apt to stray (Isaiah 40:11). 8. Lastly, diligence and care, lest any one sheep be lost and perish. The good shepherd would not lose any of the least of all the flock. (O. Sedgwick, B. D.) Choice properties of sheep 1. One property in them (which the Scripture doth express) is obedience (John 10:4). 2. Another property of sheep is meekness and patience. 3. A third property of sheep is usefulness. 4. A fourth property of sheep is unity and peaceableness. (O. Sedgwick, B. D.) The chiefest Shepherd to be yours But more particularly thus, you have--(1) A most wise Shepherd. (2) You have a most tender Shepherd; and as He is tender in corrections, so in His directions (Genesis 33:13). (3) You have a most faithful Shepherd; One who will never intermit His care over you. (4) You have the most loving Shepherd; He loves you with the highest degrees of love in all kinds. (5) Lastly, you have the most rewardful Shepherd. Have you such a Shepherd as Jehovah? Then be counselled in a few particulars. 1. Be contented with His pasture. God is pleased to feed us sometimes in the valleys with much plenty, variety, ease, delight; and sometimes, again, He is pleased to drive us to the mountains, to a shorter, sharper condition of life; if we be His sheep, we must be still contented with His pasture. 2. Carefully regard His voice. 3. Thrive under His feedings. 4. Cleave together as the flock of one shepherd. The wolf, it is his property to scatter the flock, and then to make a prey of one after another. 5. Lastly, if God be your Shepherd, then be not disquieted at His dealings with you. (O. Sedgwick, B. D.) I shall not want.-- A trustful confidence The confidence was well grounded.1. You shall not want a guardian; I will protect you. 2. You shall not want a justifying righteousness, by which you may have a good right and title to a place in My kingdom. 3. You shall not want a meetness for the kingdom of glory. I will make you free from the accursed bonds of sin. 4. You shall not want persevering grace. I, who have “ begun a good work in you, will perform it.” 5. You shall not want spiritual refreshment. 6. You shall not want needful support. The world shall not overcome you. You shall gain the victory over its smiles and frowns. The Great Shepherd will crown you with His loving kindness forever. (J. Jennings.) The Divine supply of human want Then the useful application of all this unto ourselves. I. In what sense the assertion is to be understood.1. There are two sorts of things: some which do conduce to make the condition good and happy; others which do serve to make the condition smooth and delightful. As about an house there are pillars and rafters, etc., which are the bones, as it were, and absolute ingredients; and there are the varnishings and paintings which do set forth the house. Or, as in a garden, there are profitable fruits, and there are pleasant flowers only to look on and smell. So it is with us: there are some things which make our hearts truly good, and tend to our everlasting salvation; there are other things which do only serve to cheer and refresh us in our passage. Now, when David saith, I shall not want, they conjecture this to be the sense: Nothing shall be wanting to me which concerns the making of my estate truly happy; though delightfuls may be wanting, yet principals shall not. 2. Some things are (1) redundant,(2) necessary. Those things are redundant without which a man may well pass over his condition of life. As a man may well serve God, though he have not an estate of riches or honour comparable to another, or always equal to itself. Those things are necessary without which a person cannot well serve God, as our daily bread, for which Christ would have us to pray: our bodies cannot be fitted to duty without these external necessary supplies of food and raiment. Even a good man, a David, may want superfluities; his table may not he variously furnished, nor his garments gaudily embroidered, nor his coffers excessively stuffed and piled. But yet he shall not want necessaries, though he be not sure of plenty, yet of enough (Isaiah 33:16). He doth not say his wines are sure, but his waters; and he doth not say his feast, but his bread shall not fail. Though he hath not always what he needs not, yet he shall have always what is needful. Though he hath not the lace, yet he hath the garment; though he hath not the sauce, yet he hath the meat; though he hath not the palace, yet he hath the chamber; though he hath not the softness, yet he hath the bed; though he hath not what he may spare, yet he hath what he may use,3. Of necessary things, some are desirable, and some seasonable. Those things are desirable which have any kind of good in them; those things are seasonable which have a kind of conveniency or fitness in them. It is granted that there are many desirable goods which a good man hath not many times. Yet no seasonable good shall he want: When health is good for him, Hezekiah shall recover; when liberty is good for him, Joseph shall be loosed; when favour and dignity are good for him, then David shall return and be settled. It is good for me, saith David, that I was afflicted. A good man may want this thing and that thing, but he shall not want anything that is good, nor when it may be good for him. 4. Again, divines say that good things may be had two ways, either explicitly: when a person enjoyeth the individual or particular things (suppose health, strength, liberty, friends, and other comforts); interpretatively, when a person enjoyeth that which is equivalent to those things (a citizen may not have a garden, a farm, sheep or oxen, yet he hath thousands in his purse which are equivalent to all these). Thus do they say of a good man, that either he enjoyeth the very particular good things which he needs, or else those things which are equivalent to them, nay, far exceeding of them. Though he cannot have much lands, yet he hath many graces; though he cannot have the countenance of men, yet he hath the favour of God; though he cannot enjoy quiet abroad, yet he settleth peace within his conscience. He that hath but one diamond may have far more than he who hath a thousand stones digged out of the quarry. 5. You must distinguish ‘ twixt absence and ‘ twixt indigence. Absence is when something is not present; indigence or want is when a needful good is not present. If a man were to walk, and had not a staff, here were something absent; if a man were to walk, and had but one leg, here were something whereof he were indigent. It is confessed that there are many good things which are absent from a good person, but no good thing which he wants or is indigent of. If the good be absent, and I need it not, this is not want; he that walks without his cloak walks well enough, for he needs it not. 6. There are two sorts of wants: in some part of the condition, in the heart and affection; as a man may abound in his condition, and yet want in that of his affection. He may have abundance in honour, in estate, in wealth, and yet through an endless covetousness and vain discontent he may be in want, still complaining, murmuring, craving. So a man may want something in his external condition, and yet abound and not want in that of his inward affection. Though he hath not the outward thing, yet he wants it not, for he is contented with the absence of it. 7. Lastly, you must distinguish ‘ twixt real wants and imaginary wants,--a want to the person and a want to the corruption: a child is sometimes clamorous for a knife, and sometimes he cries for bread; when he cries for bread his father ariseth and fetcheth the loaf, the child shall not want bread; but when he cries for the knife this he shall not have, the father will not satisfy his wantonness, though he will supply his wants. Our corruptions are still craving, and they are always inordinate; they can fled more wants than God needs to supply. God will see that His people shall not want, but withal He will never engage Himself to the satisfying of their corruptions, though He doth to the supply of their conditions. It is one thing what the sick man wants, another what his disease wants. Your ignorance, your discontents, your pride, your unthankful hearts may make you to believe that you dwell in a barren land, far from mercies (as melancholy makes a person to imagine that he is drowning, or killing, etc.), whereas if God did open your eyes as He did Hagar’ s, you might see fountains and streams, mercies and blessings sufficient; though not many, yet enough; though not so rich, yet proper and every way convenient for your good and comfort. How far the verity of this assertion extends, whether to soul and body, to spirituals and temporals. I answer briefly, it holds firm of both; both soul and body are the object of Divine providence and of Divine love, and both of them are serviceable to Divine glory.1. That the soul shall not want, the Scriptures are abundant. It shall have grace and glory: there is redemption for it, righteousness for it, sanctification for it, and salvation; there is the Word to help it, the Sacraments to help it, afflictions to help it, and the Spirit of God still to help it-- (1) to justifying grace,(2) to sanctifying grace,(3) to strengthening and assisting grace,(4) to comforting and refreshing grace: you shall never want proper comforts, nor seasonable. 2. That the body shall not want in respect of temporals; take them in any kind, and as suitable, and necessary, and seasonable. How it may appear that the people of God shall not want, and why. (1) It may appear by a series of experimental instances.(2) It may appear by the wonderful supplies of God unto His people rather than they should want; sometimes God hath created helps unto them--manna in the wilderness.(3) Shall not heaven and earth pass away before any one word of God doth fail?(4) Fourthly, consider His present donations.(5) His special affection to His people.(6) His singular relations. The Lord is to His people as a father to his children (2 Corinthians 6:18).(7) Lastly, take the acquaintances and acknowledgments of all the servants of God that they have made unto the Lord and delivered under their own hands (Genesis 32:1). But now it is objected against all this, that there are no people in the world that are in such want as the people of God for outward things. You know that all these outward things are promised not peremptorily, but(1) with condition, if good for them;(2) with exception of the Cross. Now I come to the application of this point to ourselves. Shall not the flock or people of God want? Then you who take yourselves to be the people of His pasture, give ear and hearken this day unto two things.1. Your sins: That you suffer your hearts so to be cracked with fears, and your minds to be filled with cares. Thou hast no reason at all to conclude that thou shalt want. Consider, what hath God been unto thee already? What is the nature of God for the present: Is He like man, that He should change? Was He God all-sufficient? is He not so still? thy loving and compassionate God? is He not so still? thy almighty God? is He not so still? Is He deceitful? or is His band shortened? Doth He cease to be God, or to be thy God? If the fountain still lives and runs, why shouldest thou imagine to die by thirst? If the sun still shines, why shouldest thou fancy nothing but darkness? What is the promise of God for the future? Thou hast all the reason in the world to conclude that thou shalt not want, when thou considerest that fulness, infinite fulness which is in God. But Divine goodness is such a common as cannot be overlaid: though there be not water enough for a few ships in the river, yet there is water and room enough for all the ships in the world on the sea. That great God who feeds a whole world every day, He is able enough to sustain thee all thy days. That willingness that is in God to do thee good. 2. Your duty: To be humbled for vexatious cares and fears, and then to cast your care on God. The motives, which shall be drawn--From the evil inconveniences of not trusting on the Lord your Shepherd to supply your wants. They are very many. It is a dishonourable thing not to cast your care on the Lord. (1) You do dishonour to God.(2) Your holy profession: how apt are people to fasten all miscarriages of godly men upon godliness itself.(3) It is an unpeaceable thing: you lose all your peace until ye can rest upon God by faith for your supplies.(4) It is a prejudicial thing.(5) It is a very sinful thing: of all sins unbelief is one of the greatest, and a causeless unbelief is the greatest of all. There are three things in God, whereof if a man be ignorant he will be much in cares and fears of want.1. One is God’ s fulness. If he apprehends not a fulness in all and every of God’ s attributes, his soul will fear and care. If I conceive that God is fully able to supply one want, and not many, or many of my wants, but not all, or all my personal wants, but not my domestical wants; all my wants heretofore when I was a single person, but not all now, when my charge increaseth and multiplies by children and servants. He who thus conceives of God, no more than of a half God, of a God of the valleys and not of the mountains, one who can supply low and mean, but not high and great wants; few and not many wants, former wants, but not present, present but not future wants, extremely mistakes the fountain of supplies, and must necessarily be tossed and crucified with perpetual waves and darts of rolling fears and cutting cares. 2. God’ s affectionateness. 3. God’ s immutability or unchangeableness. David reasoneth so in this place. Jehovah is my Shepherd, I shall not want. The Lord is my God, He hath undertaken for me all my life, therefore I am not solicitous. Christians are exceeding faulty in this, to make sure of God, and yet it is the way to make sure all His mercies. The mathematicians must have some principles granted unto them, and if once you assent unto those truths they will thence infer many infallible and undeniable conclusions. Among Christians this should be a principle made firm that God is their God, and then they may quietly sit down, and confidently conclude all comforts for soul and body. Be diligent in your callings. He who eats the bread of idleness, may well resolve to drink the waters of carefulness. (O. Sedgwick, B. D.) The Lord our Shepherd The relations subsisting between man and the lower animals play no insignificant part in the formation of human character and the discipline of human life. No relations appeal to heart and imagination more than those of shepherd and sheep. The emblem is dear to us yet, even to the dwellers in town and city. The emblem is dearer still, because it has been confirmed and hallowed by the lips of One greater than David. I. We want nourishment. Body, mind, spirit, each need this. II. We want refreshment. The shepherd brings his flock to the “ waters.” As pasturage is an emblem of that which nourishes, so water is an emblem of all that refreshes. The difference between the pleasures which the devil gives and those which the Lord gives, is just this--the former intoxicate, but these exhilarate. Think of all the pleasure of simple, innocent recreation--of nature, music, poetry, and art; of friendship and the pure affections of the home. Let us never forget that the rapids and the cataract are sometimes only farther down in the very same stream, beside the still waters of which the Lord is leading His people. There is a boundary beyond which lawful pleasure passes into lawless. III. We want rest. The shepherd makes the flock lie down in some cool, shady place. So every night the Lord maketh us to lie down. And He provides rest for the soul also. There is too little repose in the life of most of us. Too much bustle, too much impatience. IV. We want guidance. Often we are perplexed as to what is our right path; and when we have found it we are liable to go astray. V. We want restoration. From sickness and from wilfulness. He restores when we are weak and weary. VI. We want the comfort of protection. Through the hilly gorge--even through death. (T. Campbell Finlayson.) David’ s confidence in the prospect of the future The grounds of David’ s freedom from anxiety are-- I. The relation in which the Lord stands to him. It is not the mere utterance of a promise, but his recollection of the fact that the Lord is his Shepherd. Now, in order to see God sustaining such gracious character towards us, we need--1. A view of God as a gracious God; One who is gracious to sinners. This we can only know as we see Him in Christ. 2. And we must know this gracious God to be err God. II. God’ s presence with him. “ Thou art with me.” We ]nay think little of this presence, but the godly man thinks much, and has habitually this recollection in his mind. III. God’ s present mercies. Probably David was thinking more of spiritual mercies than of temporal. He notices--1. Their abundance. 2. The safety with which he enjoys them. 3. The strange circumstances under which these mercies were enjoyed, “ in the presence of mine enemies.” 4. The honour which the Lord puts on him while blessing him, “ Thou anointest my head with oil.” After having reviewed these mercies which he enjoys, he ends by making the inference that all his (lays goodness and mercy shall follow him. My Shepherd will be with me on earth, and take me at last to heaven. (C. Bradley, M. A.) Psalms 23:2 He maketh me to lie down in green pastures. The green pastures The image, so clear and beautiful in itself, is singularly forcible and suggestive in relation to our inner life. Is not the background of the picture true to the facts which we everywhere witness around us, and the needs and aspirations we have felt within us? How much there is in life to remind us of the long tracts of desert sand, the fierce and scorching rays of the sun, the lassitude and ennui of worn-out and wearied hearts. Without attempting to push the details of the imagery to excess, we may assert that the green pastures and still waters find their counterpart in the truths and doctrines of Scripture, in the ordinances of the Gospel, and the means of grace established for our sustenance and growth. For permanent comfort and strength we are dependent upon the revelations of the Divine Word. God Himself is the source of our satisfaction and peace. When our hearts, “ ceasing from self,” can stay themselves upon Him, and find in their obedience to His will the great purpose, and in their consciousness of His approval the great reward, of their life; when, moreover, we can look forward to complete assimilation to, and eternal fellowship with, Him in heaven,--it is only then that we can realise the expressive image of the text, and “ lie down in green pastures, and beside the still waters.” To these resting places God leads us, even on earth. (James Stuart.) The oases of life These sentences do not describe the regular and uninterrupted experience of those who follow the Great Shepherd. They are by no means always reclining in green pastures, nor being conducted by the restful waters. Moreover, life after such a pattern would be entirely unsatisfactory and insufficient. Green pastures and still waters would prove an unspeakable curse if life contained nothing else for us. How soon we should grow weak and indolent and useless. The text refers to the occasional privilege rather than to the common experience of the sheep of His flock. David was passing through a time of sorrow, want, and wandering. And if the way of your life often seems to lie through the desert, you need not lose heart and hope. Following God’ s guidance, you will not be denied needful refreshment and rest. God will bring you to the oasis where the quiet waters lie, and the grass is fresh and green. He will discover to you some peaceful hour, some shady nook, some prepared table, where the soul may be refreshed and renewed. It would be easy to enlarge upon the many privileged occasions which, in our wilderness life, answer to “ green pastures and still waters.” Everything that brings relief from the ordinary pressure of daily life and revives the drooping spirits may be so regarded. Music, friendship, and religious privileges are as still waters. And it is hardly possible to overestimate the worth of a wisely spent summer holiday. As far as in us lies, and especially in opportunities afforded by the summer holiday, let us search out the green pastures and the still waters, and “ reap the harvest of a quiet eye.” (G. Edward Young.) Spiritual rest Three things are needed ere sheep or human spirits can rest. I. A consciousness of safety. Who can rest so long as eternal destinies lie uncertainly in the balance? Against this our Shepherd Jesus has provided. He has Himself met the great adversary of our souls, and has forever broken his power. II. Sufficiency of food. A hungry sheep will not lie down. The shepherd who can provide it with plenty of good pasturage will soon bring the most restless animal to lie contentedly. We can never rest so long as the hunger of the spirit is unappeased and its thirst unslaked. There is no answer to the unrest of the inward man until the voice of Jesus is heard saying, “ He that cometh to Me shall never hunger.” The Word of God may be compared to green pastures. There are many spiritual realities corresponding to the waters of rest. III. Obedience to the shepherd’ s lead. The tenderest shepherd cannot bring the flock to rest unless they follow him. This test of following the Shepherd’ s lead is most important. It is by no means wonderful that we lose our rest when we run hither and thither, following the devices and desires of our own hearts. We substitute our plans for His. We do not look up often enough to see which way He is going, and what He would have us do. Ann so our rest is broken. We must follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth. (F. B. Meyer, B. A.) Green pastures I. Man’ s want of green pastures. In this hustling world it is difficult to enjoy a pleasant repose. The hard-working servant of the community, whether it be by hands or by brain that he chiefly performs his part, is apt not only to feel a strong necessity for rest, but to pant and sigh for a more retired and soothing kind of rest than his position often permits him to attain. II. The discovery of green pastures. III. The experience of green pastures. It is one thing to behold the picture of a rich and fertile pastureland; it is another thing to be in actual contact with richness and fertility in the locality of our dwelling place. The Psalmist refers, not to one pasture only, but to pastures. The field of enjoyment to which Jesus introduces the once wandering soul is extensive. The provision of the field is various. When brought to be at peace with God, through the blood of the Cross, the soul is set in a large place. The power, the wisdom, and the goodness of the Almighty have prepared innumerable sources of pleasure for His intelligent creatures. The treasures furnished by Divine loving kindness are inexhaustible. IV. The expectation of green pastures in greater and more abundant measure. Experience of past love is the strongest foundation for the anticipation of future love. He that maketh me to lie down in green pastures is the very One from whose power I may hereafter expect a provision of green pastures in larger varieties and in greater richness. (H. Wellwood Moncreiff, D. D.) The Guardian care of God I. Divine provision for needed rest. The picture presented is that of happy satisfaction and calm delight. Even for timid sheep all sense of danger is gone, and the whole aspect of the flock speaks of peace, quiet, repose. It tells of a soul in harmony with God, passion hushed, discord in the unruly will, and the struggle of sinful desire destroyed. II. Divine provision for appropriate sustenance. “ Pastures of grass, and waters of quietness.” Supply not only sufficient, but suitable for the needs of the flock. It answers to the Gospel--the good tidings of God and from God, a proclamation of what God is, and how God feels towards us. Says George Eliot,--“ The first condition of human goodness is something to love, the second, something to reverence.” In the character of our Lord Jesus Christ we have that which inspires both love and reverence. III. Divine provision for renewal of strength. Few creatures are more helpless than sheep. The thought of God as physician to His flock brings Him into most intimate and close relationship. IV. Divine provision for active service. He will lead, and it will always be in righteousness. No guarantee for character like that of God’ s leadings. Character is not predestinated. It is won by achievement, and it will be won if we follow where God leads. “ For His name’ s sake” --that is the secret of all His kindness, and it is the secret of our consecration. (George Bainton.) The green pastures and still waters where the flock are fed Here we have the ample supply of grace afforded to the believer in the new covenant, to meet all his spiritual wants. I. The idea of rest and security. “ Lie down.” The pasture is indicative of perfect repose. The life of man is a constant striving after rest and satisfaction. True rest can be found in God alone. II. The idea of abundant provision. It is not one piece of pasture ground that is spoken of, but pastures. There is no scant supply. And what diversity there is in God’ s spiritual provision for His people! Grace for all times and every time “ Still waters.” These words convey, under another figure and symbol, a description of the same calm and hallowed repose, secured to the believer, which the Psalmist had in his mind in the preceding clause. This is an inland river, a quiet, gentle stream. Here, too, as in the former figure, we have the abundance of God’ s mercies set forth; not only varied pastures, but varied waters. We have streams of peace, of purity, of pardon, of sanctification,--all exceeding great and precious. Conclude with the reflection suggested by both clauses, that religion is happiness. (J. R. Macduff, D. D.) Pastures that please as well as feed Not only He hath green pastures to lead me into, which shows His ability, but He leads me into them, which shows His goodness. He leads me not into pastures that are withered and dry, that would distaste me before I taste them; but He leads me into green pastures, as well to please my eye with the verdure as my stomach with the herbage, and inviting me, as it were, to eat, by setting out the meat in the best colour. A meat though never so good, yet if it look not handsomely, it dulls the appetite; but when besides the goodness it hath also a good look, this gives the appetite another edge, and makes a joy before enjoying. But yet the goodness is not altogether in the greenness. Alas, green is but a colour, and colours are but deceitful things: they might be green leaves, or they might be green flags or rushes; and what good were to me in such a greenness? No, my soul, the goodness is in being green pastures, for now they perform as much as they promise; and as in being green they were a comfort to me as soon as I saw them, so in being green pastures they are a refreshing to me now as soon as I taste them. (Sir Richard Baker.) Good pasturage 1. Here is fulness (pastures and waters). Pastures alone are not enough for sheep, but they must have waters too. 2. Here is goodness. Though there be pastures, yet if they be not wholesome, the sheep are not fed, but destroyed by them. Not mere pastures, but green pastures; not mere waters, but still waters are provided here for David. 3. Here is well-pleasedness. I. That God doth provide enough, or sufficiently for His people. II. That as God provides a full estate, so the best estate for His flock or people. Pastures which are green, and waters which are still. To omit many things there is a threefold estate of God’ s people:(1) Their spiritual estate;(2) their glorious estate;(3) their temporal estate. That the condition of the godly is much better than the men of this world do judge it. Godliness is no parched wilderness, no barren heath, nor like the mountains of Gilboa: it hath the greenest pastures, and the stillest waters. (O. Sedgwick, B. D.) Repose in life I. Here is a promise, then, to the weary, of repose. Thank God this is not an age of idleness. Can we equally say, thank God this is not an age of repose? It is almost the prevailing stamp which defines the character of the present day--its restlessness. Call it, if you will, impatience; call it hurry. Certainly, whatever is the opposite to repose. It is just the same wherever we look. Politics, religion, social movements, are all whirled along, catching up in their gusty flight whatever is on the surface, whatever is light and movable, one scheme sweeping on the dust of another, as if men had imbibed the creed which proclaims, “ Whatever is, is wrong, and therefore the opposite to the present system, whatever is, is right.” How much there is around us and about us to think of, if only we would be still! The world is eloquent with parables on every side; the walls of our daily environment are hung with pictures. The sower as he sows is also preaching; the lilies as they grow, the ravens as they fly,--all are our teachers. How much there is to observe, as naturalists alone will tell us, to our shame, if we are only patient and ready to watch! And, besides the pastures of our daily experience, there are the deep cool pastures of good books, with a ready supply for our need; above all, there is the Holy Spirit, ever shedding His freshening dew on the daily events of our common life. What can we expect, if we never meditate, if we never think, if we never read; if there is no repose and no green pasture, but only such hurried nibbling of roadside verbiage and well-worn platitudes as lie along the dusty track of our daily routine? If the pastures of God are green because they are fresh, they are also green because they are sheltered. Around them is the protecting hedge of God’ s Law. God’ s service is the service of perfect freedom, where to admit any taint of sinfulness is to admit weariness and distastefulness. Let us try, then, and gain some repose in the midst of this weary restlessness. Repose, if possible, in our methods; for God works slowly, and to work together with Him means to work slowly also. Let us gain repose in our daily spiritual life. Restlessness is at the bottom of many hasty actions, which end in flying in the face of God’ s good providence for us. The restlessness of unsettled belief, the restlessness of no belief, are the punishments which await the neglect of spiritual repose. These green pastures are no luxury of religion; they are a necessity of life. Each day must have its Nazareth of devotion, as life has its own Nazareth of subjection in childhood. II. Another note which rings out clearly in this verse, is peace. “ He maketh me to lie down . . . He leadeth me.” How sadly the soul needs peace--peace in His felt presence! The world is sown with trouble, but still “ He maketh me to lie down . . . He leadeth me.” Panting and affrighted, and doubtful of ourselves, He makes us lie down, He feeds us, He leads us on, where the temptation at one time had seemed likely to kill us. Peace rises out of their furious onslaught, or their petty annoyance. And yet how often little troubles seem to have power to vex and irritate us, even more than great ones!--such things as distraction, interruption, accident, disappointment; so many barriers put in our path to deflect us into duty, so many obstacles to provoke our peevish ill-will. Let us cheerfully recognise that, if the Good Shepherd is leading us, there is no such thing as accident. Trifles may very easily interfere with our peace of mind; but they may also be God’ s messengers to teach us to cast away all appearance of grumbling and fretfulness, and if an obstacle arise in our ministry, to recognise that it is of the Holy Ghost. III. And yet there is a third note which swells up in the triple harmony of this verse; and that is, comfort. “ In the multitude of the sorrows that I had in my heart: Thy comforts have refreshed my soul.” “ The waters of quietness” have become in one version of the Psalm, which is very dear to us, “ the waters of comfort.” (W. C. E. Newbolt, M. A.) He leadeth me beside the still waters.--Still waters I. Still waters are distasteful to the worldly spirit. Men of the world seek for novelty and excitement, but their pleasures dry up like a summer brook. The edge of appetite gets dulled, and he succeeds best who can give fresh keenness to the world’ s appetite. Still waters? No! These to worldly hearts would be misery. We can, however, often see behind all these brilliances of earth. Within, there is an aching, dying soul. II. Still waters make us hear the voice of our Saviour. Sometimes silence itself is rest. III. Still waters are not stagnant waters. They are deep, pure, living, flowing. The waters are living waters. True of the Bible. IV. Still waters are in the keeping of Christ. The Shepherd has beforehand surveyed the mountains and the plains. What road are we to take when there seems no path? Amid the broken debris of rocks the Shepherd leads the way. V. Still waters are with us all the journey through. “ Beside” them. The path and the waters go together. We may miss some joys, they are temporary--suited to certain tastes and eras in our life. The curtain has fallen over them. Can that photograph represent your childhood? Can you ever live again as once you did? As the rivers from their simple fountain--along their broadening course--flow into the sea, so these other “ waters” lead on to the great ocean of immortality. Listen for the voice of the Good Shepherd. Human hearts hungry for the sacrament of truth hear Him. By the still waters of meditation and Scripture and prayer, we make silence in our hearts for Him. (W. M. Statham.) Beside the still waters God’ s chosen ways of working in the physical world are not wholly of the sudden and violent sort. Storm and earthquake and flood have undoubtedly played their part; but God seems to work, by preference, slowly and in silence. The same is true in the moral world. It is indeed difficult to overestimate the force of a great soul. It is well to remember that not all dislocating and disturbing spirits put forth any true claim to greatness. One indeed speaks what the many feel; but his word is with power because of the dumb aspirations stirring in many breasts, and a universal emotion which has not yet found expression. And this is even more the case with regard to moral operations of a quieter and less signal, though hardly less important kind; forces which do not so suddenly change the world, as keep it sweet and pure, and perhaps, in the course of ages, urge it a little nearer the throne of God. A father’ s integrity; a mother’ s sweet goodness; the quiet air of a happy home; a domestic courage and patience, at which you have looked very closely, and whose every line and lineament you know; some ancestral saintliness, which is a household tradition, and no more, but which has never withered in the fierce light of public estimate,--these things have inspired and nourished your nobler part. They are the refreshing dew and the fertilising rain, the restful night, and the kindling day of God’ s moral world. We insist too much on our own estimate of small and great in the moral world, forgetting that any single fact or individual life is but one link in an endless chain of causes and consequences, of which we ought to know the whole before we can rightly estimate a part. No mistake can be greater than to suppose that all the world’ s best work is done by the eloquent tongue and the busy hand. God Himself provides a diversity of work for His own purposes; but God tempers His weapons in His own way. (C. Beard, B. A.) Still waters You have, I daresay, often seen a stream rising up on the mountain side, amid rocks and ferns and twisted roots, and the short, sweet herbage of the hill. With many a playful plunge and headlong leap it finds its way to the valley, and as it pursues its course passes through various scenes. So flows our life. Now in sunshine, now in shadow, now torn by strife and doubt, and now reposing by the quiet waters of rest. The variety adds to our moral healthfulness and vigour. Few lives have been more varied than that of David. The extremity of danger and even the dread of death he knew, as well as the heights of success and the intoxicating sweets of power. In firm faith upon a Divine and unchanging love he had found the quietness and assurance of which he speaks. There are times when rest seems the one thing we most long for. As when-- I. In the conflict of doubt. Faith is difficult in our day. There are two ways in which a man may seek rest--one by thorough examination of the ground of his faith; the other by trusting those feelings which carry us beyond reason; to faith which sees and hears God where reason cannot. II. Under conviction of sin. This is a dread experience. But it would be good for many to know it who now lead a smooth and easy life, sailing merrily over sunny seas. There is much in the Bible to awaken such conviction of sin--the Divine wrath, the severity of Christ. It is when we see Christ as Saviour, we have rest. III. In suffering and loss. But rest in God is possible. And this happy condition of mind is to be cultivated by meditation, worship, prayer, and communion with God. (P. W. Darnton, B. A.) Still waters And now see the great goodness of this Shepherd, and what just cause there is to depend upon His providence; for He lets not His sheep want, but He leads them “ beside still waters” ; not waters that roar and make a noise enough to fright a fearful sheep, but waters still and quiet, that though they drink but little, yet they may drink that little without fear. (Sir Richard Baker.) Psalms 23:3 He restoreth my soul. The restoration of the soul 1. It implies the quickening and invigoration of the soul in seasons of depression and exhaustion. A sheep may languish from internal weakness and disorder, and may need the application of medicinal restorations. So the soul may suffer from its inherent liabilities to weakness and weariness, and mistrust of God, and from its inability to rest calmly and in good faith upon the precious promises of His Word. At such times, He who has hitherto sustained us will act as a wise and good physician, and restore us to health and vigour. 2. The distemper of which we complain is in truth a form of sin, and has its source in a declining faith, and in a relaxed hold on God. The main feature of the restoration implies the wandering of the sheep from the pasture and the fold. Thank God there has been revealed to us a love which is not measured by our merits, and which our needs cannot exhaust; a love which bears with us tenderly and patiently in the midst of all unfaithfulness; a love stronger than death--many waters cannot quench it. In our wildest and most distant wanderings the eye of God wistfully follows our course, nor will He suffer our disloyalty and ingratitude to baffle His purpose of mercy, or sunder the ties that bind us to Him. (James Stuart.) Happy restoration Restoration, like conversion, is the work of God. Who can convert a sinner? God only. Who can restore a backslider? The Almighty alone. I. The means God employs to bring the backslider to repentance. Anyone who has tried to deal with a backslider knows how difficult it is.1. He uses memory (Matthew 26:75); of warnings; of promises.2. He reveals Himself as unchangeable.3. Makes known His faithfulness.4. His tenderness (John 6:37). II. Thy way of return.1. It is a way of humility.2. Of prayer.3. Of distinct renunciation of evil.4. The return must be whole-hearted and unreserved. I would say, however, do not try to work yourself into a certain state of feeling, or, as an old writer has said, “ Do not go on spinning repentance, as it were, out of your own bowels, bringing it with you to Christ, instead of coming to Him by faith to receive it from Him.” Of the exact nature of your feelings you never can be a proper judge. But this I would urge, look your sin steadily in the face; judge it as in the presence of God; consider it in the light of His warnings and promises, His exhibition of Himself, and His former dealings with you. Ask that you may see it as He sees it, and in all self-loathing and self-renunciation cast yourself afresh at the feet of Jesus. III. The joyous experience of the restored. Pardon is enjoyed, Life realised. Peace. Zeal and rest in work. And all heightened by contrast. (W. P. Lockhart.) Restoring the soul The soul is the chief part of man; it is the offspring of God. All that relates to it must therefore be full of interest. I. A painful fact implied. The soul may wander. All have done so, but even the converted may wander, foolishly, perilously, without power to return,--and all this through sin. II. A pleasing truth expressed. “ He restoreth,” etc. We cannot do this of ourselves. The Lord restoreth--to real safety, to prosperity and enjoyment. He does this by various means--by affliction, by mercies heaped upon us; by His Word; through the ministry of the Gospel, and chiefly by the power of the Holy Spirit. In all this He displays wisdom, power, compassion. III. The obligations which result. Penitence, gratitude, watchfulness, dependence. You who are strangers to this restoring grace, take heed, think, pray, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. (T. Kidd.) The soul restorer I. What are the several methods or ways wherein the soul of a converted Christian may be oppressed and made to droop on languish?1. Conscientious apprehensions of sinful guilt. 2. Insolent operation of sinful principles. 3. Incessant assaults of temptation. 4. Ample and more permanent desertions. 5. Near and strong afflictions. II. How doth God refresh and bear up comfortably the soul that languisheth under any of those kinds of oppressures?1. By His Word. This was that which quickened David in his afflictions, and kept him from fainting (Psalms 19:7). 2. By His Spirit. Who is therefore styled the Comforter, because He doth restore joy and cheerfulness. 3. By faith. This is the great restorer of life to any oppressed Christian. III. Why doth the Lord restore life, as it were, and comfort unto the souls of His people?1. Necessity on their part. Sense of sin is a heavy thing. 2. Goodness of compassion on God’ s part. 3. Fidelity and truth in God. 4. His affections are much towards oppressed, and distressed, and languishing souls. Consider a few particulars,1. Soul oppressions are very painful. The soul is the seat of sweetest comfort or deepest sadness. A little thing in the eye will trouble, and a small thing on the brain is weighty, and any burden on the soul is very heavy. 2. Soul sinkings are very prejudicial. 3. The Lord only hath power over the soul, and the burdens of it. We can mar, and we can trouble our own souls and cast them down, but it is no power and art but that of a God which can raise up, revive, and settle the soul again. The air may be good to refresh some bodies, and merry company to hearten a melancholic body; for sinking bodies, physic, diet, recreation, etc., may be good restoratives; but for souls that are sinking, or sunk, no helps can restore them but such as are like themselves. Spiritual souls, spiritual maladies, are to be raised up with spiritual restoratives only. (O. Sedgwick, B. D.) Soul restoration “ He restoreth my soul. That is just what the sinner needs. It is idle to talk about Christian culture, or Christian growth in any way, until the soul is restored again from sin. Before you can expect your plant to grow you must plant it out; before you can expect the sheep to be led in green pastures, and by still waters, and protected from enemies, it must be brought back from its wandering. He wants to bring you back to your lost goodness; your lost innocence; your lost relation to God, when you could pray to Him as naturally as you could talk to your mother; your lost peace of heart; your lost tenderness of conscience; your lost love for good things; your lost sense of safety; your lost hope of heaven and eternal life. (A. L. Banks, D. D.) The great Restorer I. God will preserve the grace that is in His people. The new nature in the believer is the workmanship of God; he hath a new nature. There is in that new nature that which is like God’ s nature, that which is some reflection of God. There is not a single grace of the believer but what shows forth some of the attributes there are in God. In order to keep His people God puts them into the hands of His Son. Jesus said, “ Neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand.” What an infinite suitableness and propriety there is in Jesus to restore. Look at His name--Jesus. It supposes a restorer. As God He is omnipotent; as man He has infinite sympathy. II. The sort of restoration. Many a man has shed tears for sin who has never come to a knowledge of its true evil. There is a sorrow which does not work death, a godly sorrow. It is oftentimes difficult to tread the maze in the labyrinth of our hearts about repentance. I think of those who have no one with them when they fall; they are alone. It is an ,awful thing to be alone with God. The subject, however, has a sweet aspect to God’ s tried and tempted children. If through depravity and strong inward corruptions we are led into sin, let our motto be, “ Quick restorings” : no delay; no spirit of self-dependence; seek restoration in true repentance. (J. H. Evans, M. A.) Revival The Psalmist describes the revival which in the periods of spiritual languor and decline he derived from the care of the Lord his Shepherd. I. The care which the great shepherd takes to reclaim His people. From the erroneous and sinful courses into which they do but too often allow themselves to be betrayed. Even the renewed man is not in this world so thoroughly established in holiness as to be beyond the possibility of sinning, beyond the reach of temptation, beyond the assaults of spiritual danger. But even when astray, He will in His wisdom and love seek them out and bring them back to Himself. II. The of the soul from languor and despair. Often David had felt his soul when it was, as it were, overwhelmed with anguish and despondency, refreshed and revived by the assurances of the Good Shepherd’ s love, by the experience of the Good Shepherd’ s soothing care. David’ s experience is that, mere or less, of every Christian soul. III. The design of this comfort. It is that the Shepherd may lead the soul “ in the paths of righteousness.” in the word of God the Psalmist recognises the only absolute and infallible rule, whether of belief or duty. And it is as copious and complete as it is accurate and sure. (T. B. Patterson, M. A.) My Restorer This sweetest of the Psalms sings of many mercies which the believer receives, and traces them all to one source--the Good Shepherd Himself. Text reminds us-- I. Of our true position. It is that of a sheep abiding close to its shepherd. Now this should be ours because of--1. Our obligations to Christ.2. Our relationships to Him.3. If we would have happiness.4. Our daily necessities.5. Our infinite perils.6. The benefits of fellowship. II. Of our frequent sin. “ He restoreth my soul” --He often does it; He is doing it now. With many suspended communion is chronic. This most wrong. And where it is not so bad as this, there are sad seasons of declension. They are brought about by worldly, conformity, forgetfulness of duty. Jesus is a jealous lover. III. Of our Lord’ s faithful love. He will never give up His sheep. For His name’ s sake. He will use all manner of means. IV. Of his supreme power. It is He who does this. It was He who begun the work of grace in you, and therefore He will restore. No outward temptation has force when Christ is present. His presence is the death of every sin, the life of every grace. I see the green leaves of a plant most dear to all who love the woods in spring. It is seen nestling under a hedge under a shelving bank, just above a trickling stream. I ask it why it does not bloom, and it whispers to me that it will bloom by and by. “ But, sweet primrose, why not put forth thy lovely flower at once, and gladden us with thy beauty?” She answers, “ I am waiting for him--for my lord, the sun; when he cometh and putteth forth his strength I shall put on my beauty.” “ But wilt thou not need soft pearly drops of dew to glisten on thy leaves, and the violet and the harebell to keep thee company, and the birds to sing to thee?” To which she replies, “ He will bring them, he will bring them all.” “ But art thou not afraid of the frost and the dreary snowstorms?” “ He will chase them all away; I shall be safe enough when he comes. Now, we are the plant and Jesus is our sun. And He restores us entirely, and now. Come to Christ direct, not round by Sinai. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The Shepherd of the lost sheep If He has appealed to my love as the Good Shepherd of the green pastures, even more does He claim my adoration, my reverence, my heart, as the Shepherd of the lost and straying sheep. I. There is no disguising the fact, hide it as we will, of our frequent falling away. Be it the weakness of our human nature, ever prone to evil; be it the corrupted atmosphere in which we live, the swampy marsh of the world, from which rises up, in stealthy, deadly fumes, the vapour of bad public opinion, which we call the world, where the mosses are brightest, and the flowers the fairest, and the sunbeams dance the merriest; be it Satan, above all, with his terrible power of trickery and deceit;--whatever it may be, try as hard as we may, we have to reckon with a constant deflection from a high ideal. And all along the course of our life, His efforts to restore us, to help us to persevere, are spread out. Think only of the many new beginnings which He offers to us. The oft-recurring strength of our Communion, the storehouse of Sundays, the manifold means of grace which surround oar path, are well known to us. But think, also, of such things as the disposition of day and night, the necessity of sleep, and the like: these are all merciful new beginnings which offer us occasions for fresh efforts after amendment. It is so with the Church’ s seasons, with the great round of fast and festival, each with a fresh aspect of Divine grace, each with a fresh hope of a better life. II. And being restored, once more the paths of righteousness lay open before us--the paths which come from righteousness, which end in righteousness, and are righteousness. Certainly we ought to strive for a more harmonious life of goodness. Our lives are too often sharply divided up, as you might divide a concert, into sacred and secular. Most certainly we should all strive to live by rule. It is impossible to overestimate the importance of rule. Rule makes us like Jesus Christ, to whom every action apparently had its hour, and whose whole life was a fulfilment of minute prophecy. Rule, once more, helps us to utilise life. It is the scaffolding from which all the materials which daily life brings us can be placed upon the wall. The paths of righteousness, the very highest paths, are open to us; our very sins may be stepping stones to higher things, and produce, if not humility, at least watchfulness. Christ will bring out character, if only we do not hinder Him, until it becomes established in righteousness. III. And this will He do “ for His name’ s sake.” “ The revealed name, which gathers up and expresses for man just so much as he can apprehend of the Divine nature.” His name is Jesus. As great conquerors are named after their victories, so He is named from His. “ He shall save” ; “ able to save” ; “ mighty to save.” Through Jesus is the way to escape. This, perhaps, is Satan’ s chief terror which he holds over us--the impossibility of escape. His name is Emmanuel, “ God with us” : with us, in every stage of our life; with us, when we broke away; with us, when we came back; with us, as we are gaining strength. His name is the Christ, the Prophet who warns me, the Priest who atones for me, the King who rules me. So He restoreth my soul; so He leads me in the paths of righteousness; so He pledges to me the assurance of His holy name. (W. C. E. Newbolt, M. A.) He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His name’ s sake.--Guidance in the right path There is a well-known similitude which represents human nature as a chariot driven by two horses, one of them high-spirited and aspiring, the other, heavy, tame, and grovelling; and the charioteer unable to exercise over either of them absolute control, yields first to the one and then to the other, so that the chariot is not carried along a straight, continuous path, with uniform progress towards its goal, but frequently, turns aside and stands still. The image is in itself so striking, and so true to experience, that it needs no explanation. There is in all men a higher and lower nature, which are utterly at variance, one drawing us toward good, the other drawing us toward evil; one having its source in the spirit, the other in the flesh. And hence there is within us a more or less perpetual conflict; and even when we have been awakened to the realities of the spiritual world, and have felt the attractions of the Divine life, our difficulties have not ceased. In addition to accurate knowledge of the right, we need a motive power which will ensure obedience to its claims, transform our intellectual perception into spiritual deeds, and harmonise all the powers of the soul in the presence of the highest light. And such an efficient of morality is suggested to us by the words of the text, “ He leadeth me.” Referring to the custom of the Eastern shepherds--going before their sheep. So God guides us. We enter the paths of righteousness, not because we are driven into them, not because we are subjected to some irresistible force, but by the attraction of our Lord’ s loving presence, and the persuasive power of His holy will. The Bible, valuable as it is, is not the only means of God’ s guidance. In some conditions of mind the wisest words of themselves cannot suffice us. Apart from the living will of which they are an expression, they are poor and inefficient, and our hearts can be reached only as we see the Father. But the great principles of religion are presented to us not as dry and formal statements, as mere axioms and rules, but are clothed with flesh and blood, and embodied in a perfect life, He leadeth in the paths of righteousness, and thus gives us the encouragement of His own perfect example. Christ trod before us every step of the way which He wishes us to tread. It is wonderful to see how there is in Christ a manifestation of every virtue we have to acquire. “ He leadeth,” and therefore He draws us after Him by gentle and gradual guidance, in which He graciously accommodates Himself to the measure of our strength. Then the motive power of our life must be found in our love to the Great Shepherd of our souls. He goes before us that He may win our affections and draw us after Him. The value of the Divine guidance is enhanced by the ground on which it is seen to rest, the reason for which it is given--“ For His name’ s sake.” The name of God is symbolic of His nature. Probably the Psalmist’ s main idea is that God will lead us in the paths of righteousness, not because He is urged by considerations external to Himself, but as prompted by, and in order to honour the wisdom, the love, and the power which constitute His nature. If the name which David has especially in view be that of the Good Shepherd, God will do for, men all that that term implies--He will not deny Himself. (James Stuart.) God’ s guidance How much would be gained, and how much would be lost, if we came to the conclusion that this Psalm was not written by David? A great deal would certainly be lost. For David is a man whose character and experience have an enduring moral and religious interest; everything that throws light on his sorrows and joys, his faith, his fears, his sins, and his repentance, is of great value; and his Psalm contains a very striking illustration of the depth and strength of his personal trust in God. It helps to make one part of David’ s life real and vivid to us. Something perhaps would be gained. If it was written by some obscure saint this might seem to draw the Psalm nearer to some of us, and to give us a stronger claim to all its disclosures concerning the blessedness of a life in God’ s keeping. David was an exceptional man; what applies to him may not apply to us. Whoever was the author, the Psalm was written more than two thousand years ago, and but for our familiarity with it, its very antiquity would interest and move us, as we are interested and moved by an ornament that belonged to a Greek who lived under the Ptolemies, or to an Egyptian who worshipped in the temple of Carnac, in the time of its glory. But the Psalm has another and pathetic interest. This Psalm has been in daily use for more than two thousand years. It has become the expression of the experience, not of a solitary saint, but of a countless multitude of saints. The Psalmist says that he belongs to a flock of which the Living and Eternal God is the Shepherd. All that a good Eastern shepherd is to his flock when he is guiding them from pasture to pasture and stream to stream, God will be to us. It is very easy to lose our way in life, and very hard to find it again. Without any evil intention, we form habits of living which are sometimes injurious to a noble morality, and are still more often fatal to an earnest loyalty to God. When a man learns that he has gone wrong, he should appeal at once to the pity of the Good Shepherd, who goes after the lost sheep till He finds it. It is easy to lose our way when we are not looking to Him to guide us; it is impossible without His guidance to find it again. The better thing is not to lose it. The really devout man has submitted himself to the authority of God, has committed himself to the love of God, and may rely confidently on the guidance of God. It was not the truth alone that the Psalmist relied upon to guide him, but God Himself, the loving God. Religion is a right relation, not between man and truth, not between man and law, but between living person and living person--between man and God. The Psalmist had consented to follow God’ s guidance, and he was relying on God to guide him in “ the paths of righteousness.” Those words, however, do not precisely convey the Psalmist’ s meaning. He says that God will guide His flocks in the “ right paths,” the “ direct paths,” to their water and their pasture. And only righteous paths can bring us to where God desires us to come. The Psalmist means that if a man is under God’ s guidance he” will be protected from making a wrong decision in critical moments; he will not take the wrong path. God’ s guidance keeps a man from sin; but it also keeps him from wasting his strength and failing to make the most of all his powers and opportunities. In all projects for doing service to mankind, a devout man may trust God to guide him in right paths. We may miss our way in the service we endeavour to render to others, as well as in the ordering of our personal life, because we lean too much on our own understanding, instead of trusting in the Lord with all our heart, acknowledging Him in all our ways, and looking to Him to guide us in right paths. (R. W. Dale, LL. D.) The Divine leadings I. Some of the means by which God leads us. That is, by which He prompts us to, guides and encourages us in, a good and righteous conduct.1. God hath implanted many principles in our nature which prompt and incline us to a righteous conduct. These may be more powerful and more obvious in some than in others; but in some degree they exist in all: nor can they be referred but to an intelligent cause. All that is good in us comes from God. If there are found in the soul of man certain feelings and propensities, certain desires and affections, which incline him to a good and righteous conduct, let us give glory to God, and in all these acknowledge His hand leading us in His righteous paths. Feelings of sympathy and commiseration are general and powerful principles in the heart of man. There are not many who can witness severe distress unmoved. The principle of conscience is a powerful principle operating to the same end. It will rarely fail to point to the righteous path; it will plead with us to adopt it; it will remonstrate against deserting it; it will applaud us when forming the resolution to persevere in it. The desire of honest fame which men so generally feel; the dread of the disgrace which they know follows the discovery of an unworthy deed; the pleasure felt upon hearing of a generous act; the indignation, the honest indignation, which arises when we are told of flagrant injustice or merciless oppression,--are further instances of strong internal feelings all favourable to a righteous life. But God can work by any means and suit His dealings to any character. 2. By events which take place in the course of His providence, God urges us to a good and righteous conduct. To a person of a serious and well-constituted mind, the most familiar objects, and the most common events will convey instruction. If there are those who are insensible to the ordinary benignity of the ordinary operations of Providence, there are few who will not be impressed by more affecting events which at times occur. 3. From the Divine communications which God hath been pleased to make to us, we learn yet other means which He employs to guide, to animate, to support us in the paths of righteousness. II. Acknowledge our obligations to God, for employing so powerful means for so gracious an end. The paths of righteousness are the only paths of peace. In the paths of righteousness one may find difficulties, and may be called to some painful efforts, but they lead to certain and everlasting bliss. Can we be blind to the great criminality of our conduct if we resist these means which God employs to urge us to a good and righteous life? Let us wisely improve what God hath done for us. When He is employing these varied means to “ lead us in the paths of righteousness, it is that He may conduct you to the mansions of bliss, and that you may dwell in His house for evermore. (Robert Bogg, D. D.) God leading His people I. That even converted persons need a God to lead them. O Lord, saith the Prophet (Jeremiah 10:23), I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps. And therefore David prays, (Psalms 143:10) Teach me to do Thy will. What the leading of God is which is here meant.1. There is a double leading. One is general in a way of common providence. Another is special and proper to the state and acts, and ways of grace and salvation, whereto a more singular aid and influence is necessary. 2. This efficacious guidance or leading consists of these particulars. (1) Of a clearer illumination. They have eyes given them to see their Leader, and ears given them to know their Leader and His voice: This is the way, walk in it (Isaiah 30:21). Show me Thy ways, O Lord, teach me Thy paths (Psalms 25:4). (2) Of a peculiar inclination of the will or heart to obey and follow the direction of God, which some do call exciting grace. (3) Of a special cooperation, wherein Divine assistance concurs with the will renewed and excited, enabling it both to will and to do those things which are pleasing unto God, for it is God that worketh in us both to will and to do. (4) Lastly, of a singular confirmation, which some call sustaining grace. II. This for the nature of this guidance, now for the manner of it. It is delightful as well as gentle. It is a safe leading. It is a faithful leading. Such a leading as will not mislead us. Such a leading as will not fail us. III. But why should converted persons need the leading of God?1. In respect of the imbecility that is in their graces. Grace (considered in this life) though it be a sweet plant, yet it is but a plant very tender; and though it be a pleasing child, yet but a child very weak. 2. In respect of the difficulties which are in the way. Though righteous paths be heavenly and holy, yet many times are they made stormy and uneasy. 3. In respect of that erroneous aptness in us, even the best of us; error is manifold, and truth simple; many ways to miss the mark, one only to hit it. 4. Christians must make progress in grace, as well as find an entrance of grace. 5. Lastly, in respect of that backwardness that is in our spirits: The flesh is weak, saith Christ. The journey to heaven is up the hill, we fail against wind and tide. The first use shall be to inform us of the great love of God towards His people, whom He is pleased not to leave, but to guide and lead, to make and keep, to raise up and lead. It may likewise inform us, that we have no cause to glory in our own strength. IV. It will prove our best comfort, having such a leader to follow him. (O. Sedgwick, B. D.) In the paths of righteousness.--Right paths I. The paths. The Lord can lead us in no other paths than such as He walks in Himself. The paths of creation are all right paths. There is nothing crooked, perverse, or capricious in the laws of nature. The paths of Providence in which God walks before us are paths of righteousness. People never question it when He goes before them in the glow of sunshine, dropping rich bounties every step He takes. But when the Lord walks before us covered with clouds, and a rod in His hand, how common then to talk of “ mystery.” In whatever way the Lord is going before you now, the way is not only a right one because it is expedient for your good, and will yield you benefit at last; but it is absolutely, constantly, and without exception, a righteous one. The paths of duty, too, in which God would have us walk before Him are paths of righteousness. They are perfectly straight. The paths of Christian faith, and obedience, and self-denial, and purity, and truth, and honesty, and love, are all straight. They run parallel with the laws of the whole outer universe. They run parallel with the laws of our own being. They run parallel with the interests of the eternal future. Sin runs across those interests. II. The guidance. It is Divine. He, the covenant-keeping God, leadeth me. His character is a pledge that He will lead me right. It is individual. “ He leadeth me.” He leadeth and we are led. How many thoughts this suggests.1. How manifold are the methods of His leading! 2. How mysterious is the innermost secret of His leading! (John Stoughton, D. D.) The paths of righteousness There is a world of comfort contained in the simple words, “ He leadeth me.” There is a Divine hand and purpose in all that befalls us. He leads in righteousness. He has an infinite reason for all He does. It is not for us to attempt to unravel the tangled thread of Providence. What a grandeur and dignity, what a safety and security it would give to life, if we sought ever to regard it as a leading of the Shepherd,--God shaping our purposes and destinies, that wherever we go, or wherever our friends go, He is with us. Let us learn the lesson of our entire dependence on our Shepherd Leader, and our need of His grace in prosecuting the path of our spiritual life. Be it ours to follow after that holiness, that righteousness, without which no man can see the Lord. (J. R. Macduff, D. D.) Right paths It is noted as a further mark of our Shepherd’ s care that He leads us in the paths of a good and right way. What these paths are, a study of the context will enable us with little difficulty to decide. They are spoken of in conjunction with the restoration of the soul, and refer to the guidance which completes and crowns it. Our revived life is directed in a worthy course, and we are prevented from further wanderings and transgressions. God directs us into right paths, as opposed to such as are crooked, uneven, and deceptive--paths which lead directly to the goal which, as reasonable, responsible men, we ought to reach, and which, indeed, we must reach for the completion of our life’ s work and the satisfaction of our nature. The standard to which we are bound to conform is righteousness. We must live in rectitude and integrity of character. There is one course open to us. We must act up to the light that is in us, be conscientiously faithful to our conceptions of right, and submit with all loyalty of heart to the decisions of our judgment and conscience. (James Stuart.) Paths of righteousness I. What the paths of righteousness are. A path is nothing else but an open and beaten way or tract to walk in. There are two sorts of paths wherein men may be said to walk. Some are called erroneous and false ways; the Scriptures sometimes call these crooked paths, because they do not lead us directly to heaven, but wind off. Sometimes our own paths, because they are not ways of God’ s institution, but of our own invention. Sometimes paths not cast up (Jeremiah 18:15), in opposition to ancient and established and perused ways prescribed by God, and insisted in by the old faithful servants of God. These paths are those of infidelity and impenitency and impiety. In this place they are called paths of righteousness, which again are two-fold, either--1. Doctrinal, in which respect the precepts of God are called the paths of righteousness, a rule to a man in his journey, and that, if which he will still follow, will assuredly bring him to his journey’ s end; so the precepts of God are the rules of our lives, according to which, if we do square them, everlasting life would be the end of that journey. 2. Or practical, and this path of the righteous is that which the Scripture calls the path of the just, or the way of good men (Isaiah 26:7), and the paths of uprightness (Proverbs 2:13). And they are called paths in the plural number, not for diversity, but for number, and some of them respect-- (1) God;(2) Man. (O. Sedgwick, B. D.) Righteous ways The ordering of our hearts and lives according to the right line or rule which is God’ s Word; a course, not an act. II. What is it to be led in the paths of righteousness? And they are called righteous paths--1. Because the righteous God prescribes them. 2. Because the righteous person only walks in them. 3. Because they are the ways which are the right and only ways to lead us to our journey’ s end. III. But why doth the Lord propound righteous paths to His servants, and cause them to walk in them?1. Because they are paths and ways suitable to His own nature. Every leader hath ways suitable to his own nature: the devil leads in ways like himself, sinful, unclean, etc. And God leads in ways suitable to Him; He is an holy God, and therefore leads in holy ways; a righteous God, and therefore leads His people in righteous paths. 2. Righteous paths are the best paths. God is the best God, His people are the best people, and righteous paths are the best paths. Best in many respects-- (1) No paths so holy and clean. (2) Nor so safe. The way of the wielded seduceth them (Proverbs 12:26). Nothing exposeth us to more hazard than a sinful way; false ways are always unsure, many snares and dangers. (3) Nor so pleasant. On a good way, a man hath the company of a good God, and the peace of good conscience. (4) Nor so honourable. Wicked ways are ever most shameful. IV. Righteous ways are the right way to heaven. God will lead His people in such ways wherein--1. He may receive glory from them. 2. They may receive glory from Him. Their graces would never be exercised, nor sins subdued, were not the paths righteous, etc. For what is the exercise of grace, but a motion in a righteous path, graces breaking out, working, walking, if grace were only bestowed for our conversion, and not for our conversation? Consider--1. There are divers paths and ways that men may walk in besides the paths of righteousness. 2. Though every man hath a path to walk in, yet naturally the way of righteousness we do not know. 3. Of all paths to walk in, our hearts are most averse to these. 4. What avails it though paths of righteousness be propounded unto you, and that you do know them, if all this while you are not led in those paths of righteousness? The properties of righteous paths are these-- (1) They are supernatural.(2) They are difficult. It is more difficult to creep in a righteous path than to run in a wicked way.(3) They are holy.(4) They are straight, and not winding and crooked. One is a rectitude of conformity. Another is a rectitude of tendency.(5) They are solitary. The qualifications of those persons who do or can walk in paths of righteousness. As affection is a property of these righteous walkers, so likewise is subjection. Circumspection is another property. Perfection. What a man must do, so that he may come to walk in paths of righteousness? He must get such a light of understanding which must clear his mind of(1) extreme vanity, and(2) of unjust prejudices. There must be resolution and courage.1. Walk in these paths diligently. 2. Uniformly. Haltings and excursions, tripping in the way, or starting out of the way, are both opposite to a righteous walking. 3. Answerably. Not only to his profession, that his conversation be copied out of it, but also to his means and long standing. 4. Progressively. 5. Undauntedly. (O. Sedgwick, B. D.) For His name’ s sake.--The Divine name a plea But why is it that this great Shepherd will do those great things for me? Is it because He finds me to be a sounder sheep and to have fewer blemishes upon me than some other? Alas, no; for I am nothing but blemishes and unsoundness all over; but He will do it for His name’ s sake; for seeing He hath taken upon Him the name of a Good Shepherd, He will discharge His part, whatever His sheep be. (Sir R. Baker.) Psalms 23:4 Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death.Valleys of the shadow The royal poet is putting a spiritual meaning into the various experiences of his shepherd’ s life; and as he once led his flock to the green pastures and by the still waters, so he ascribes whatever of peaceful happiness, his own life had known, to the kindly guidance of God. Today let us give David’ s metaphor a practical application to our own character and fate. No man knows what is the real meaning and worth of life till he has consciously passed through the valley of the shadow of death. All healthy life is at the beginning unconscious. The analogy of the body helps us to understand this. A happy child lives without at all thinking of life--what it is, when it begins, how it must end. One can conceive of such a life as this prolonged through manhood and old age; but there would be something less than human in its unconsciousness. And there are lives, far more frequent, which are unconscious in another way, because today they eat and drink, and tomorrow die, and never know that there is anything more in existence than this; which are below the consciousness of sin, and never rise to a knowledge of their own wretchedness. So much is common to these two kinds of unconsciousness, that they can only be startled out of themselves by a touch of pain. The consciousness of sin can alone reveal the infiniteness of duty, the pangs of sorrow make plain the depth and compass of life. But no one of us ever goes down into the valley of the shadow of death of his own accord. We are willing to live the unconscious life if we can. We know the depths that lie below, but none the less rejoice to skim lightly over the surface. By and by God comes, and with His own Fatherly hand He leads us into the gloom, and leaves us there awhile alone. There is not one of us who would not rejoice in life-long exemption from bitter bereavement, who would not, if he could, choose this form of blessing almost before shy other. And yet it is far better that God’ s visitation should come this way than not at all. If the soul has in it a certain capacity of education into the likeness of God, and can acquire a strength and a sweetness that were not in it at the first; if, moreover, this growth into a finer force, and symmetry is to be manifested upon a larger than any earthly scale,--then these blows of fate are not mere subtractions from the sum of happiness, and therefore to be wholly deprecated, but stages of discipline, states of training to be accepted, when they come, as part of the tuition of life. There are troubles and distresses the characteristic of which is to recall us to God from the mere external shows and shadows of life, and so out of seeming darkness to bring us into real light. But sometimes a darkness falls upon us which will not lift, and whose peculiar horror it is to rob us of the belief that there is any light at all. It may be the result of misfortune; it may come from reasoning overmuch; it may be the dizziness of the imagination. Every day men go down into this darkness, not knowing it, and able, almost content, to live in it. Can anything be so truly pitiable as to be altogether without life’ s divinest thirst, as never to know the desire which transcends all others, as to be wholly unconscious of the satisfaction which, once felt, is recognised as including all strength and all happiness? It would not be good for us never to go down into the valley of the shadow of death until we were called upon to make the inevitable transit from this life to another. Until we are shaken out of our moral unconsciousness by some great shock and conflict of the spirit we cannot tell what nobleness of strength, what debasement of weakness, lie concealed within us. Our faith is never firmly rooted in our hearts till we have looked out upon life and faced what it would be without faith. We never know what God is, and may be, to our spirits till we have gone down with Him into the valley of the shadow, and there in the thick darkness felt the stay of His presence and the comfort of His love. (C. Beard, B. A.) Fearless in dangers I. That great calamities, and terrible dangers, even the shadows of death may befall the people of God. For the understanding of this assertion premise these particulars, namely, that there are several shadows of death, or terrible dangers; some are--1. Natural: as grievous diseases and sicknesses, which do even close up the day of life. 2. Malicious: which arise from Satan and from evil men, his instruments. 3. Spiritual: these dangers of all others are the most sore. These shadows of death, or great and near dangers, do cause them to shake off their great security. When a storm ariseth it is time for the mariner to awake and look to his tackling, and when the city is beleaguered it will make every man to stand to his arms. Standing waters gather mud, and disused weapons rust. They do demonstrate the solidity and validity of true grace. They increase the spirit of prayer more. They do dissolve and loosen the affections more from the world. Shadows of death make us better to discern the shadows of life, the poor empty vanities of the world, and set the heart more on heavenly purchases. II. That righteous persons are fearless even under the shadows of death. And the reasons or causes of this fearlessness of man, or dangers by man, are these--(1) God hath wrought in them a true fear of Himself; He hath put His fear into their hearts (Jeremiah 32:40). Now, the true fear of God purgeth or casteth out all vain fear of men. (2) They know that the originals of fear are not in the creatures. Men are afraid of men because they take them to be more than men. (3) They are in covenant with God, and God with them, therefore they fear no evil. (4) They have much clearness in conscience; and integrity in conscience breeds audacity in conscience. (5) They have faith in them, and can live by faith. The just shall live by his faith (Hebrews 2:3). (6) Lastly, they may be fearless notwithstanding all dangers, forasmuch as those dangers shall never do them hurt, but good. And who is he that will harm you if ye be followers of that which is good? (1 Peter 3:13.) III. That God is present with His people in all their dangers and troubles, and that presence of His is the ground of their confidence.(1) That God is present with His in all their dangers. (2) Divine presence is the ground of Christian confidence. Some distinguish thus; there is a fourfold presence of God-- (1) One is natural. And thus is He present with all creatures. Whither shall I flee from Thy presence (Psalms 139:7).(2) A second is majestical. And thus is He said to be present in heaven; and we pray to Him as our Father which is in heaven. (3) A third is His judicial presence. And thus is He present with ungodly men. (4) A fourth is His gracious or favourable presence. Consider the qualities of His presence with you, and it may yield you singular comfort and support.(1) It is the presence of a loving God.(2) It is the presence of an Almighty God.(3) It is the presence of an active God. At such times you will certainly need the presence of God. Our affections are apt to be most impatient. Our fears are apt to be most violent. Our unbeliefs are apt to be most turbulent. Our consciences are apt to be most unquiet. And Satan is most ready to fish in troubled waters. (O. Sedgwick, B. D.) Light in a darkened way I. A picture of the way of life darkened. When this will be we know not. Bunyan puts it midway, but sometimes it is nearer the beginning than the end. Childhood knows it not; gladsomeness and enjoyment are his of right. But later on life darkens. But come how and when it may, it will come at the right time and in the right way. If it ever work evil, the fault will be ours. Sometimes the shadows are those of sorrow. At others, of doubt. At yet other times it is the result of some sin. The sorrow of wasted power, of lost confidence, of violated vows, is a pang which wrings the human heart with an agony it knows not how to bear. Such experiences are stern and solemn realities. II. No man need go down the valley alone. There is light in the darkened way. “ Thou art with me.” And He is with us to help and protect. Augustine would leave Carthage to go to Rome. His pious mother, fearing the snares of Rome for her wayward boy, begged him not to go. He promised to remain, but in the night stole away. But there, where his mother feared he would be lost, he was saved. Years after he wrote thus, “ Thou, O God, knowing my mother’ s desire, refusedst what she then asked, that Thou mightest give her what she was forever asking.” (George Bainton.) The valley of the shadow of death I. The pass and its terrors. “ The valley of the shadow of death.” Get the idea of a narrow ravine, something like the Gorge of Gondo or some other stern pass upon the higher Alps, where the rocks seem piled to heaven, and the sunlight is seen above as through a narrow rift. And so troubles are sometimes heaped one upon another, pile on pile, and the road is a dreary defile. It is exceedingly gloomy. Some of you don’ t know such troubles. Do not seek to know. Keep bright while you can. Sing while you may. Be larks and mount aloft and sing as you mount. But some of God’ s people are not much in the lark line; they are a great deal more like owls. But desponding people, if to be blamed, are yet much more to be pitied. Still, the covenant is never known to Abraham so well as when a horror of great darkness comes over him, and then he sees the shining lamp moving between the pieces of the sacrifice. And there are parts of our life which are dangerous as well as gloomy. The Khyber Pass is still terrible in men’ s memories, and there are Khybers in most men’ s lives. No doubt the Lord’ s ways are ways of pleasantness, but for all that there are enemies on the road to heaven. And then its solitude. This is a great trial to some spirits, and mingling in crowds is no relief, for there is no solitude of the spirit so intense as that which is often felt in crowds. Still, this valley is often traversed. Many more go by this road than most people dream. But it is not an unhallowed pathway, for our Lord Jesus Christ has gone along it. II. The pilgrim and his progress.1. He is calm in the prospect of his dreary passage. 2. And is steady in his progress. He walks through, does not run in haste. 3. And he is secure in his expectancy. There is a bright side to that word “ through.” He expects to come out into a brighter country. 4. And he is free from fear. I have read of a little lad on board a vessel in great peril. Everybody was alarmed. But he kept playing about, amused rather at the tossing of the ship. When asked what made him so fearless he replied, “ My father is the captain. He knows how to manage.” Let us so believe in God. Yet-- 5. He is not at all fanatical. He gives a good reason for his fearlessness. “ Thou art with me!” III. The soul and its shepherd. “ Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me.” The rod and the staff, the tokens of shepherdry, are the comforts of the saints.1. The rod is for the numbering of the sheep. 2. For rule. 3. Guidance. 4. Urging onward. I have had to lay on the rod at times on certain fat sheep not so nimble as they ought to be. But their wool is so thick that I can scarcely make them feel. But the Great Shepherd can, and will. 5. For chastisement. 6. For protection. How David defended his sheep. May God give us all the faith expressed in our text. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The path of life I. The path of life as shadowed by death. “ The valley of the shadow of death.” David does not speak of the article of death here as some suppose. He does not say, though I may walk, or though I should walk, or though I must walk, but though I walk. He is speaking of his walking it now. There is a bright sun, it is true, in the sky of life, otherwise there could be no “ shadow” : but the figure of death is so colossal that its shadow covers the whole sphere of our existence. II. The path of life as trod with a fearless soul. “ I will fear no evil.”1. Some tread the valley of life with a stolid indifference. They seem utterly regardless of the dark shadows on the path, and whither the path conducts them. “ Like brutes they live.” 2. Some tread the path of life with a giddy frivolity. The everlasting jest and ceaseless round of hilarious excitement indicate that they have never been penetrated with a true idea of life. 3. Some tread the path of life with a slavish dread. They are afraid of their end. 4. Some tread the path of life with moral bravery. Thus did David. III. The path of life as walked in companionship with God.1. Thou art with me as the infallible Guide in the ever-thickening gloom. 2. Thou art with me as a safe Protector from every conceivable evil. (Homilist.) The valley of the shadow of death Preparation for death is two fold--of state and of susceptibility. We may be prepared in state, as David was when he cried, “ Oh, spare me that I may recover strength before I go hence and be no more seen,” but he was not prepared in feeling. But here in our text he is prepared in both ways. “ I will fear no evil” ; his experience was ripe for death, and he could anticipate the event with confidence. The Psalmist looked upon the Shepherd in this place as the Master of death, and so “ feared no evil.” I. To some the valley of the shadow of death is a place of danger and alarm. That one could say he feared no evil is no proof that there is no evil for others. For the ungodly there is. For--1. He must feel “ the sting of death,” which “ is sin.” That removed, death is no more dangerous than a serpent whose sting is withdrawn. 2. Then, too, conscience will be roused, and there will be no means to pacify it. Conscience cannot sleep then, though they have dozed and slumbered undisturbed by the thunders of Sinai, and the noise of death cutting down some old barren fig tree in their neighbourhood. 3. Then, too, Mercy will depart forever. She outstays all others, but now even Mercy says, Good-bye forever. Thou didst never see a morning when I did not meet thee with my arms full of kindnesses toward thee. Thou art now going where I have not been and whither I shall never come--Good-bye! And the hope of man is lost! 3. There also must he meet the wrath of God without a hiding place. It had been declared many times that it was approaching; but there was no way of escape. But now it is too late to turn back. God’ s wrath must now be faced. The terrors of God array themselves against the ungodly men. II. The godly man’ s confidence in the face of death. “ I will fear,” etc. Yet how terrible the description of death.1. A valley--a deep and dismal place. Some live their lives in the hilltops of prosperity, others in the vales of adversity and sorrow, but this valley lies lower than these. Yet the godly man fears not. 2. A dark valley--a valley of shadow, “ the shadow of death where the light is as darkness.” 3. A dreadful valley--for it belongs to death. This is its home, here its court and throne. Some have fainted at the sight of some of its subjects; what of the King Himself? But here is one going down into its domains. It is probable that he will run silently through, and as swiftly as he possibly can, until he is nearly breathless. No. He intends walking slowly through, as if resolved to view it well, the only time he shall go that way. Probably he intends crossing it in the narrowest place. No. He speaks of walking the whole length of the valley. Is he afraid he may fail and faint half way? No. He confidently trusts that he will reach the farther end. III. The grounds of his confidence. God’ s presence. “ Thou art with me.” No one is so timid as a godly man without God. He will go nowhere without Him. But with Him he will go anywhere. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth. (David Roberts, D. D.) The valley of the shadow of death I. the circumstances in which the believer is placed. “ The valley of the shadow of death” has been supposed to describe a gloomy defile in which the traveller sees, as it were, the image of death depicted wherever he turns his eyes. Others, again, and perhaps with greater simplicity of interpretation, have found the idea of dark shadow, impenetrable gloom cast by some overhanging object which shuts out all light. The natural effect of peril is to create alarm; and it is nothing less than a signal triumph over the strongest instincts of the human constitution for a man, when he walks “ through the valley of the shadow of death,” to fear no evil. It is, however, a triumph over nature, to which the religion of the Bible frequently calls, and for which she abundantly prepares her followers. II. The feelings which in these circumstances he is able to entertain. The Psalmist does not say, “ I will not fear,” though even had he said so we should have known how to interpret his words with due restrictions; but he says, “ I will fear no evil,” that is, I will apprehend no real or ultimate injury. The Psalmist had made too enlarged an observation, he had passed through too varied an experience of life, to suppose that the clouds which lowered upon the scene before him would always pass away innocuous. Exactly so the Christian now has no reason to expect that he will be spared the suffering--and that to the extremity of mortal endurance--of what is painful, and desolating, and agonising; but every Christian may be assured that all these things shall fail to do him real evil. And while this is the feeling which every child of God may be expected to entertain, in every condition in which he can be placed of deadly gloom and peril, so it is peculiarly the sentiment which he is called upon to cherish when treading in particular that dreary path which, to most minds, Is suggested by the appellation, “ the valley of the shadow of death.” A sharp thrill of undefined yet overwhelming terror is apt to shoot across his soul that, in the words of the Psalmist, he exclaims, “ My heart is sore vexed within me, and the fear of death is fallen upon me.” But it will be but for a moment that the Christian, trusting in his Redeemer, will suffer such gloomy thoughts as these to involve his spirit; presently, as he proceeds deeper and deeper down the perilous descent, you will hear a voice of solemn yet not desponding melody ascending from the shades, “ I will trust and not be afraid” ; “ Yea, though I walk through,” etc. III. The reasons on which the Psalmist grounds and justifies his persuasion. That, with whatever circumstances of direct and most deadly peril he might be environed, no real evil should befall him.1. The fact of Jehovah’ s friendly presence. 2. The fact of Jehovah’ s pastoral care: “ Thou art with me; Thy rod and Thy staff, they comfort me.” The Scriptural expression, “ to be with one,” denotes the special presence of Jehovah with those whom He loves, to guide, to help, to protect, to favour, and to bless them; as when Abimelech, for example, congratulated Abraham on the manifest tokens which his history presented that he was the object of Almighty favour, by saying, “ The Lord is with thee in all that thou dost,” --when our Lord, in order to encourage His apostle amidst the arduous toils and trials that awaited him at Corinth, spake to him in vision,--“ Fear not, for I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee.” (T. B. Patterson, M. A.) A funeral sermon Death is what human nature is prone to dread. Most men shrink, as long as they are able, from the entrance into “ the valley of the shadow” of it. Let us consider what are the evils to he encountered in passing through “ the valley of the shadow of death.”I. In the first place, the pains of death must be encountered by us; and these fill many minds with dismay. God has been pleased, notwithstanding the redemption of our race from utter destruction, to leave in the world demonstrations of their fall, and amongst these are the anguish and manifold distresses which accompany our mortality. II. The valley of death is rendered terrible to man, because it interrupts and terminates all his earthly pursuits and expectations. III. The separation from the objects who were endeared to us, and the scenes and pleasures which delighted us in the present world. But how happy those who in this solemn hour can entrust not only themselves, but all whom they love, to the tender and faithful protection of God. IV. Another thing which renders death terrible to many is the darkness with which it is encompassed. Shadows, clouds, and gloom rest upon it. To the infidel it is dismally obscure. Bones and ashes are all he can discover. Conscience fills it with ghosts and spectres and images of terror. They shudder as they enter. They cry aloud for light. V. But the greatest of all the causes of anxiety and fear which the children of men encounter at the approach of death is the apprehension of the judgment which will ensue. (Bishop Dehon.) Through the dark valley Observe that dark valley attentively. Consider what it is; whither it leads; what its shadow means; what are its evils; what its security in the midst of those evils. You are daily approaching it. I. A gloomy shadow. II. A fearless traveller. III. A present God. (R. Halley, M. A.) The valley of the shadow We are debtors, every one of us, to that old poet, whoever he was, who, in ransacking a teeming brain--teeming with images of idyllic peace and happiness, and also with images, of nameless dread and gloom--lighted upon the “ valley of the shadow of death,” as Bunyan afterwards lighted upon a “ place where was a den,” and gave to all that in human experience which before death is worse than death itself, a local habitation and a name. Different forms of the religious sentiment have their different values in regard to the dismal experience thus happily named. None of them has actually the value assigned to it. Religion, natural temperament, courage, cheeriness, all mingle in the confidence of him who here says “ I will fear no evil.” For aught we know, there may have been as much of the one as of the other. Natural temper and disposition count for much, usually for more than anything else, in the most trying moments of human life. Then, the natural man is apt to part company with his costume of habits and customs, and to show himself as he was born, the bravest of the brave or the weakest of the weak. It is not the most pious man in the regiment, I suppose, who is always the coolest in the forlorn hope. Some men, like John Wesley, are brave on land who are great cowards at sea; others, like some of Elizabeth’ s buccaneers, are timid in regard to the least adversity occurring in a hospital, but undaunted in regard to it if it threatens in a gale. Not according to differences of religious belief, but according to idiosyncrasies of disposition or accidental habits of mind, the valley of the shadow of death varies its character. As regards the last fact of all, which makes all human life a tragedy, we who look forward to it with a shudder cannot help envying the coolies of St. Helena and elsewhere, who lie down to die as peaceably as if it were to sleep; or the Turkish soldiers at Plevna, who preserved such coolness in presence of the horrors there. You can scarcely call their fatalism religious sentiment, yet it did that for them. Some surgeons say that there are people without nerves. What is a terrible ordeal to some in the way of pain, to others is a mere trifle. Now, though religious people will hardly allow, it, it is a fact that natural temperament has far more to do with heroism in its most striking forms than religion has. But religion has to do with it, and different forms of the religious sentiment have, therefore, different values in this respect. That it is glorious to die for one’ s country was an idea with which the whole Greek and Roman life was saturated in a way unknown to the Hebrew race. That sentiment produced its natural effect in Plutarch’ s Lives, the reading of which is like reading the Charge of the Light Brigade. But it is when you come down to Christian times that you have the religious sentiment, the rise of which takes you back to this Psalm and earlier, and we find it so pervading the lives of multitudes of common men and women that they are found to be instinct with a courage and patience which can hardly be matched in Plutarch. It is a heroism, not of the general and his staff, but of plain people. And we have it here in this Psalm. The trust in the Divine Shepherd is an antidote to all alarm. What that sentiment has done to lighten, for countless multitudes of human beings, all adversity, and the last adversity of all, to make the unendurable tolerable or even welcome, may be partly imagined but cannot certainly be told. It is still what it has been--to multitudes it is still what nothing else is or could be in the way of solving the enigmas of life and making the heavy and the weary weight of it intelligible and supportable. (J. Service, D. D.) Deep shades The image of David’ s Heat distress, “ the valley,” or ravine, “ of the shadow of death,” or, as it may be translated, “ of deep shades,” can, without any fancifulness, be connected with the scenery through which he passed in his flight. He must, after crossing Olivet, have descended to the fords of the Jordan by one of the rocky passes which lead from the tableland of Jerusalem. These deep ravines are full of ghastly shadows, and David passed down one of them as the evening had begun to fall, and waited by the ford of Jordan till midnight. It is not improbable that we have here the source of the image in this verse. Such a march must have impressed itself strongly on his imagination. The weird and fierce character of the desolate ravine, the long and deathly shadows which chilled him as the sun sank, the fierce curses of Shimei, the fear behind him, the agony in his own heart repeating the impression of the landscape, fastened the image of it in his memory forever. He has thrown it into poetry in this verse. For now, when be mused upon his trial, he transferred to the present feelings of his heart at Mahanaim the agony of that terrible day, but added to it the declaration of the faith in God which his deliverance had mane strong within him. And his words have become since then the expression of the feelings of all men in the intensity of trial. Not merely in the last Heat death trial, for God knows that there are valleys of the shadow of death in life itself which are worse than death a thousand times. Thousands welcome death as the reliever, the friend,--they who have seen every costly argosy of hope sink like lead in the waters of the past, and whose future stretches before them a barren plain of dreary sea on which a fiery sun is burning; and they who look back on a past of unutterable folly and darker sin, and who know that never, never more “ the freshness of youth’ s early inspiration can return.” The innocent morning is gone, and they hide their heads now from the fiery simoom of remorse in the desert of their guilty life. It is the conscience’ s valley of the shadow of death. There are times, too, even in youth, when, by a single blow, all the odour and colour have been taken out of living, when the treachery of lover or friend has made us say, as we were tortured and wrung with the bitterest of bitterness, that all is evil and not good. It is the heart’ s valley of the shadow of death. And there are times in the truest Christian life when all faith is blotted out, and God becomes to us a phantom, a fate, impersonal, careless, and we cry out that we have no Father in Heaven; and of our prayer, too, it may be said though we have prayed, oh how fervently, “ He answered never a word.” It is the spirit’ s valley of the shadow of death. Now, what was David’ s refuge in one of these awful hours? It was faith in God, the Ever-Near. David had entered the valley of the shadow of death of the heart; he had been betrayed, insulted, exiled by the one whom he had loved best. It was enough to make him disbelieve in Divine goodness and human tenderness, enough to harden his heart into steel against God, into cruelty against man. In noble faith he escaped from that ruin of the soul, and threw himself upon God--“ I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me.” The next verse, supposing the Psalm to have been written at Mahanaim, is at once comprehensible. For far away in the Eastern city there came consolation to David, through the visit and help of Barzillai, who brought him food. “ Thou preparest a table for me,” etc. One of the sad comforts of trial is this, that it is the touchstone of friendship. We realise then who are true gold. We often lose in trial what is calculable; we oftener gain what is incalculable. Precisely the same principle holds good in the spiritual world. The blessing of all trial is that it disperses the vain shows of life on which we rested, and makes Christ, the eternal Certainty, more deeply known. But how? How do we know another? Only by entering into his spirit, by sharing in his life. There is a broad distinction between an acquaintance and a friend. We may see an acquaintance every day, but we never see his heart. We hover with him over the surfaces of things, touching, it may be, now and then the real inward life as a swallow touches a stream in its flight, but we never dwell with him within the temple of inward thought or enter with him into the inner shrine of feeling. A friend--how different! one to whom your heart has opened itself freely, to receive from whom is pleasure, for whom to sacrifice yourself is joy. So we become at home in his nature, and so is it with Christ and the Christian man. If you would be the friend of Christ you must partake of His life--the life of self-sacrifice. (A. S. Brooke. M. A.) The shadow of death This valley, in Bunyan’ s dream, lies about midway in the journey of life. This is one of those revelations of the soul’ s experience which makes Bunyan’ s book a mirror. If this valley lay right across our path at the outset it would wither our life at the spring. While if it came too near the end it would be too late to bless our souls. No, not near the beginning is that valley. I have often seen a little child sit beside the coffin that held its mother, with as fair a light on its face as I hope to see in heaven. And I have said, there is no valley and shadow of death for these little ones. Nor, either, for those who are still young. Sorrow comes, but they recover. They soon resume the natural habit of their life if you let them alone. They break out into the warm bright world again, like a Norway spring, and it is by the tender mercy of God that they do so. And in old age that valley and shadow lie behind us. When a great English painter in water colours was past work, and was waiting for his summons to depart,--for he was ninety-one,--he told his servant to bring in his masterpiece, that he might see it once more before he died. It was a picture of a shipwreck. He looked at it a good while and then said, “ Bring me my pencils and lift me up; I must brighten that black cloud. It used to seem just right, but I see now it is too dark, and I must brighten it before I go.” And when it was done he died. Now, I doubt not that when he painted that picture the cloud was not one shade blacker than be felt it ought to be; because true painters always dip their pencils first in the water of their own lives, and press the pigments out of their hearts and brains. But the way from middle age to ninety-one had lain upward into the light, the sweet, calm sunset of his life. And so it is with every healthful old age. Travelling into these high latitudes we touch at last a polar summer, where the morning twilight of the new day comes out of heaven to blend with the evening twilight of the old. The fear of what death may do, and the awful sense of what death can do, falls on us most heavily, through the prime of our life, when all our powers are sturdiest. It is in mid-ocean that the storms come. And this experience is universal. I notice it in all the saints whose lives are revealed to us in the Bible. And Christ Himself passed through it. Bunyan makes all his pilgrims who come to any good go down into it. But with a wonderfully sweet pathos, he makes it easier for the lame man who is getting on in years, and for the maiden, and for the mother with her children, than he will ever allow it to be for stout stalwart souls like his own. If a man should come to me and say, “ I have never been down there, I know nothing about it,” then his future is a sorry one. It is because we bare a soul and a future that we have to go through all this. But for this man would be mere vanity and hollowness. And there is a great growth of goodness down in that valley. Do not go alone, then. Have God with you as David did. Muster all the promises you can hold in your heart. I would try to trace the beatitudes even in the flames of hell. And look on to the dawn of the new day. (R. Collyer.) The valley of the shadow of death This hymn is the pilgrim’ s song of the soul on its way to eternity. The Psalm is beautiful and impressive, if we take the central death as its keynote. Then all that goes before is the preparation for that dark crisis which is the turning point of endless joy. The valley rules the whole; what precedes is its anticipation, and itself is the anticipation of heaven.1. Mark with what exquisite simplicity the anticipation of the valley is introduced. The idea of death is inwrought into the habitual thought of the godly man. There is a sense in which life is a continual alternation of light and shade, of open pastures and shaded valleys. The whole of our probation may be said to be spent under the shadow of the great death that sin hath begotten, of the terrible cloud that has come between us and God. True religion is a constant and distinct realisation of the fact that we live to die, and must so live as not to be taken by surprise. This will give to life a certain solemnity and pathos which nothing else will give. It is, nevertheless, certain that the expectation of the valley cannot really distress the religious soul. It is very different from that horror which the ungodly and the unsanctified feel. There are, indeed, some who are all their lifetime in bondage, though true Christians, through want of trust in the resources of the Gospel. Many reasons conspire to this palsy of their faith. They love the world too much, they do not drink deeply enough of the river of life, they do not meditate as they ought on eternal things, and thus they cannot join the chorus of our hymn. But the anticipation that makes this Psalm so glad is better taught. The Christian singer is one who lives under the powers of the world to come; and those powers are to him the working forces of the present state. He lives in a supernatural world, and regards everything in its relation to that world. The thought of the valley becomes the familiar and cheerful habit of the soul. It does not diminish the energy of life nor blunt the appetite for such pleasures as God does not interdict. 2. The singer sings his way into the valley that he had predicted for himself. The language of his poetry blends the future and the present, “ I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me.” The pilgrim is guided into the valley by the Good Shepherd Himself. Here is the secret link between death and preparation for death. The blessedness of all our religion, whether in life or death, is union with Jesus. Our preparation to die well is the habitual communion of our soul with God. Jesus went that way of sorrows before us. We may be sure that the Saviour is most intimately with and in His dying servant. His rod is the symbol of His authority in the domain of death: it is His alone. The staff is the symbol of the strength He gives the dying saints. The pastor’ s crook, the shepherd’ s rod, is no other than the Redeemer’ s mediatorial sceptre swayed over one special region of His vast empire, that which is under the shadow of death. We may interpret the staff as that special support which the Redeemer affords to every dying saint when his heart and flesh would otherwise fail. (Mr. B. Pope.) I will fear no evil.-- On the fear of death Fear, though a natural passion, becomes the occasion of innumerable disquietudes and infelicities. It has the same effect upon the real evils and calamities of life which a misty air has upon the objects of sight: it makes them appear confused and indistinct, and at the same time much larger than they are in reality. The object most universally dreaded is death. It requires all the aids of philosophy and of religion to enable the wisest and best of us to look forward to this event with composure. Give some general directions which may enable us in measure, to overcome the fear of death.1. That we maintain a virtuous habit of mind and course of life, and exercise ourselves to have a conscience void of offence, both towards God and towards man. 2. Make the idea of death familiar to our minds, by frequently considering our latter end. Many of the usual terrors of death appear upon examination to be imaginary, or of very little moment. 3. Reflect that this is a natural and unavoidable event which is common to all the human race. 4. We should preserve in our minds a lively conviction and devout sense of the wise and righteous government of Almighty God, and cheerfully resign ourselves and all our concerns to His direction. 5. Look forward, with joyful expectation, to a state of perfect and endless felicity in the life to come. (W. Enfield.) Courageous faith That true faith is a courageous grace; it inspires the soul with a holy and undaunted boldness amidst the greatest of dangers.1. Some of those evils that are ready to intimidate and discourage the hearts of the Lord’ s people in a time of danger. Their own weakness and insufficiency. The might and multitude of their enemies. A sense of guilt and fear of wrath. The prevalence of indwelling sin. The black clouds of desertion. The wrath of man, and fury of the persecutor. The dangerous situation of the Church and cause of God, and the approach of death. 2. Some account of that faith which fortifies the soul against the fear of these evils. Sometimes it is called a trusting in the Lord, or a looking to the Lord, or a staying ourselves on the Lord, or a casting of our burden on the Lord. Some of its ingredients are--a knowledge and uptaking of a God in Christ, revealing Himself as reconciled, and making over Himself to us in a well-ordered covenant. A firm and fixed persuasion of the truth and certainty of the whole revelation of God’ s mind and will in the Word. An application of the promises to the soul itself in particular. A persuasion of the power, love, and faithfulness of the Promiser. A renouncing of all other refuges. Some concomitants of this faith. A blessed quietness and tranquillity of soul. A waiting upon the Lord in the way of duty. Earnest prayer at a throne of grace. A holy obedience or regard unto all God’ s commandments. Often with a soul-ravishing joy in the Lord. The courage of faith appears from the serenity with which it possesses the soul; the hard work and service it will adventure; the bold and daring challenges it gives to all enemies and accusers; the weapons which it wields; the battles it has fought and the victories it has gained; the heavy burdens it will venture to bear; the hard and difficult passes that faith will open; the great exploits which it has performed, and the trophies of victory and triumph which it wears. 3. That Christian fortitude and boldness which makes a believer fear no evil. The seat and subject of this Christian fortitude is the heart of a believer, renewed by sovereign grace. This fortitude consists in a clear and distinct knowledge and uptaking of the truth as it is in Jesus. It makes God’ s Word the boundary of faith and practice. A tenacious adherence to truth and duty. A holy contempt of all a man can suffer in this present world. Cheerfulness and alacrity of spirit. 4. The influence faith has upon this boldness. It inspires the soul by presenting God to the soul; by enabling the soul to make right estimate of truth, and by curing it of the fear of man. It views the inside of troubles for Christ, as well as the outside of them. And it keeps the eye of the soul fixed on Jesus. (E. Erskine.) On death This Psalm exhibits the pleasing picture of a pious man rejoicing in the goodness of heaven. He looks round him on his state, and his heart overflows with gratitude. Amidst the images of tranquillity and happiness one object presents itself which is sufficient to overcast the mind and to damp the joy of the greatest part of men; that is, the approach of death. With perfect composure and serenity the Psalmist looks forward to the time when he is to pass through the “ valley of the shadow of death.” The prospect, instead of dejecting him, appears to heighten his triumph, by that security which the presence of his Almighty Guardian afforded him. Such is the happy distinction which good men enjoy in a situation the most formidable to human nature. That threatening aspect which appalls others, carries no terror to them. Let us consider what death is in itself, and by what means good men are enabled to meet it with fortitude. It may be considered in three views. As the separation of the soul from the body. As the conclusion of the present life. As the entrance into a new state of existence. The terrors of death are, in fact, the great guardians of life. They excite in every individual that desire of self-preservation which is nature’ s first law. They reconcile him to bear the distresses of life with patience. They prompt him to undergo its useful and necessary labours with alacrity; and they restrain him from many of those evil courses by which his safety would be endangered. If death were not dreaded and abhorred as it is by many, no public order could be preserved in the world . . . To preserve it within such bounds that it shall not interrupt us in performing the proper offices and duties of life is the distinction of the brave man above the coward, and to surmount it in such a degree that it shall not, even in near prospect, deject our spirit or trouble our peace, is the great preference which virtue enjoys above guilt. It has been the study of the wise and reflecting, in every age, to attain this steadiness of mind. Philosophy pursued it as its chief object; and professed that the chief end of its discipline was to enable its votaries to conquer the fear of death. In what lights does death appear most formidable to mankind.1. As the termination of our present existence; the final period of all its joys and hopes. The dejection into which we are apt to sink at such a juncture will bear proportion to the degree of our attachment to the objects which we leave, and to the importance of those resources which remain with us when they are gone. 2. As the gate which opens into eternity. Under this view it has often been the subject of terror to the serious and reflecting. We must not judge of the sentiments of men at the approach of death by their ordinary train of thought in the days of health and ease. Their views of moral conduct are then too often superficial. Here appears the great importance of those discoveries which Christianity has made concerning the government of the universe. It displays the ensigns of grace and clemency. What completes the triumph of good men over death is the prospect of eternal felicity. To those who have lived a virtuous life, and who die in the faith of Christ, the whole aspect of death is changed. Death is no longer the tyrant who approaches with an iron rod, but the messenger that brings the tidings of life and liberty. (Hugh Blair, D. D.) Facing death When Sir Henry Havelock lay dying he said to his friend and fellow soldier Sir James Outram, “ For more than forty years I have so ruled my life that when death came I might face it without fear.” Looking into the great abyss How we die is certainly of much less importance than how we live; but still it strengthens faith to see the hope and courage that are sometimes, but by no means always, felt by God’ s own people at the last. During the sixteen weeks in which Sir Bartle Frere was dying, though he was nearly always in great pare, not one murmur escaped him. Just at the end he said, I have looked down into the great abyss, but, God has never left me through it all.” “ Name that Name when I am in pain,” he once said to his wife; “ it calls me back.” (Quiver.) The power of the presence of Christ “ Thou art with me.” I have eagerly seized on this; for out of all the terrors which gather themselves into the name of death, one has stood forth as a champion fear to terrify and daunt me. It is the loneliness of death. “ I die alone.” Now, loneliness is a thing which we must learn to face in our work, in the separations of life, and in times of quiet. Certainly, whether we like it or not, we must be alone in death, as far as this world is concerned. And men preach to us detachment. “ Sit loosely to the world,” they say, that the wrench may be less when it comes. But the Good Shepherd says rather, learn attachment. It is His promise, “ Fear not; I will be with thee.” It is our confidence, “ I will fear no evil: for Thou art with me.” Nay, more; it is our joy, “ Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?” And is not this the true answer to our fears: How call I go to meet that shadow? How will my faith stand its cold embrace? How shall I ever believe in the bright promise of a land beyond, when here all is dark? Let us ask rather: How am I going to meet the duty just before me? Is He with me now? Have I learned to find Him in the quiet hours of the day? Have I found His presence in desolating sorrow? Have I felt His hand in darkness and doubt? If so, I need not look forward. He is leading me on, step by step and day by day. He is habituating me, little by little, to the withdrawal of the light, and to utter trust in Him. “ Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.” “ Thou art with me.” Now is the time to make firm that companionship. To be still, and know that He is God. To find the guiding Hand in all its strength and security amid the death and life of each day’ s hopes and fears. And then, when we enter the shadow, still it will be “ with God onwards.” (W. C. E. Newbolt, M. A.) Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me.--Comfort through the rod and staff What is the shepherd’ s rod? It is the symbol of his defending power. It is the weapon by which our Shepherd strikes down our adversaries. He is ever on the alert to ward off from us threatening ills. What is the staff? We would rather call it the shepherd’ s crook, which is often bent or hooked at one end. Beneath it the sheep pass one by one to be numbered or told. By it the shepherd restrains them from wandering, or hooks them out of holes into which they may fall; by it also he corrects them when they are disobedient. In each of these thoughts there is comfort for the tried child of God. We are numbered amongst God’ s sheep as we pass one by one beneath the touch of the Shepherd’ s crook. By the Shepherd’ s staff we are also extricated from circumstances of peril and disaster into which we may have fallen through our own folly and sin. By the staff the shepherd also corrects his sheep. (F. B. Meyer, B. A.) The wonderful staff I. It is wonderful for its power to protect. David had found this as a shepherd when, by means of his staff, he vanquished the lion and the bear. So the Bible is our defence against our soul’ s enemies. See how Jesus used it (Matthew 4:1, etc.). It is wonderful for its power to protect. II. It is wonderful for its power to comfort. Well, God’ s Word is like a staff for this reason. It gives strength to His people when they feel weak and ready to faint under their labours or their trials. III. It is a wonderful staff, because of its power to save. (James 1:21.) The Word of God is able to save the soul. (R. Newton.) The shepherd’ s rod and staff In 1849 Dr. Duff was travelling near Simla under the shadow of the great Himalaya mountains. One day his way led to a narrow bridle path cut out on the face of a steep ridge; along this narrow path that ran so near the great precipice he saw a shepherd leading on his flock following him, but now and then the shepherd stopped and looked back. If he saw a sheep creeping up too far on the one hand, or going too near the edge of the dangerous precipice on the other, he would at once turn back and go to it, gently pulling it back. He had a long rod as tall as himself, round the lower half of which was twisted a band of iron. There was a crook at one end of the rod, and it was with this the shepherd took hold of one of the hind legs of the sheep to pull it back. The thick band of iron at the other end of the rod was really a staff, and was ready for use whenever he saw a hyena or wolf or some other troublesome animal coming near the sheep, for especially at night these creatures prowled about the flock. With the iron part of the rod he would give a good blow when an attack was threatened. In Psalms 23:4, we have mention made of “ Thy rod and Thy staff.” There is meaning in both, and distinct meaning. God’ s rod draws us back, kindly and lovingly, if we go aside from His path. God’ s staff protects us against the onset, open or secret, whether it be men or devils which are the enemies watching an opportunity for attack. (Life of Dr. Duff.) Psalms 23:5 Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies.The Lord’ s guests This is a desert scene. A hot, panting fugitive is fleeing for his life, pursued and hunted by the forces of a fierce revenge. At last he touches the tent rope of a desert man, and now he is a guest, and a guest is safe. Such is the undimmed glory of Arab hospitality. To injure a guest is the mark of the deepest depravity. Such is the desert symbol in the text. What is its spiritual significance? The soul is a fugitive, in flight across the plains of time. The soul is pursued by enemies, which disturb its peace and threaten its destruction. What are these enemies that chase the soul across the ways of time?1. The sin of yesterday. I cannot get away from it. 2. The temptation of today. Sometimes he approaches me in deceptive deliberateness; sometimes his advance is so stealthy that in a moment I am caught in his snare. 3. The death that awaits me tomorrow. Man seeks to banish that presence from his conscience, but he pathetically fails. Whither can we turn? On the whole vast plain is there one tabernacle whose tent ropes we may touch, and in whose circle of hospitality we may find food, refuge, and rest? In the Lord our God is the fugitive’ s refuge. In the Lord our God we are secured against the destructiveness of our yesterdays, the menaces of today, and the darkening fears of the morrow. We are the Lord’ s guests, and our sanctuary is inviolable. And what shall I find in the tent? The enemies frown at the open door, while the Psalmist calmly sits down to a feast with his Lord. We shall find a sure defence, refreshing repose, and abundant provision. (J. H. Jowett, M. A.) Feasting amidst enemies 1. That the malicious envy of evil men hath not been able to hinder blessings from descending upon the godly. 2. That it hath not been able to tear off the blessings which have descended. 3. That upon their greater fretting and contriving God yet hath added more blessings upon His servants. God doth not at all depend up, on wicked men in the benediction of His servants. (O. Sedgwick, B. D.) God’ s hospitality 1. He provides for His guests a feast in the midst of their enemies. “ Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of my enemies.” (1) The life of the true is a feast. The figure implies three things. A variety in the pleasant. Variety is ever the characteristic and the charm of banquets. How boundlessly varied the blessings which heaven has spread out for the enjoyment of the good on this earth. There are the sensuous, the intellectual, the social, and the religious. The figure implies an abundance in the pleasant. It is almost essential to a feast that the provision should be ample. Meagreness and scarcity are carefully avoided at banquets. How immeasurable are the blessings provided for the good. The figure implies a social participation in the pleasant. A feast is not for one but for many, and generally for those of such kindred sentiment as will heighten the enjoyment. Life is social. (2) The life of the tree is a feast prepared by God. “ Thou preparest.” Not only does He prepare the feast for His guests, but He prepares His guests for the feast. The banquet, however sumptuous and varied in its provisions, is worthless to all but those who are inclined to participate, and who have the necessary appetite. But the point here is that the feast is spread out in the “ presence of enemies.” A good man has ever had enemies, and ever will. David had them. They now surrounded him as he was feasting at the table of God’ s providence. There is something gratifying to a man in feasting before enemies.(1) There is a gratification of the feeling of independence. Enjoying a banquet with the eye of an enemy on you, you seem to dare him to do his worst. You have the happy feeling that unrighteous malice cannot injure you. (2) There is a gratification of the feeling of benevolence. Sitting down, enjoying a banquet sufficient for all your enemies, and to which they were invited but would not enter, you feel that as they look on there is a splendid opportunity for them to learn their folly, relent, and attend the entertainment. (3) There is a gratification of our religious feeling. You feel, as you enjoy the rich banquet provided for you, that you have an opportunity of showing your enemies the wonderful bountihood of the Master of the feast. You give Him the praise. As a Host. 2. He follows His guests constantly with His goodness. “ Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.” 3. He entertains His guests forever in His house. “ And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” What a house is His. How vast, how grand, how infinitely numerous and elegant its apartments! The universe is His house. “ In my Father’ s house are many mansions,” etc. To dwell in this house forever, no longer a prodigal in a far country, no longer a wearied pilgrim in the desert, but a son settled down for ever in the mansions of the Father. (Homilist.) The conflict of life That life is a conflict is an assertion made so frequently that it has become one of the common places of moralists. But the common place assertion contains, nevertheless, a deep truth to which we have all at some time or other to bear undisguised and heartfelt witness. We have enemies; we are liable to commit grievous mistakes. We find, in ways innumerable, that our very strength is weakness, that we are sadly imperfect and fallible. Our enemies take advantage of our weaknesses, and use them as weapons for our destruction. It is no vague and meaningless metaphor which describes as our enemies “ the world, the flesh, and the devil.” Whether we will or not, life is a conflict, as God doubtless designed it to be. The hostile influences awaken and invigorate the noblest elements of our nature, supply them with a field of action, and by means of risks and dangers train them to hardihood and endurance. God is educating us for higher things, that we may be resigned amid trial, pure in the midst of temptation, trustful though surrounded by darkness, and thankful even when our will is crossed. The servants of God are to be heroes. How can they triumph if they do not strive? There is deep truth enshrined in that old Oriental legend, according to which no one can sing a song to the immortals who cannot be the hero of his tale or live the song he sings. He must in this way vindicate his right to speak of deeds of high and holy daring, and therefore does God place him under such forms of life as his own imagination has portrayed, that He may try him whether he be a hero indeed. (James Stuart.) The lyric of perfect trust “ The nightingale of Psalms,” somebody has called it--filling the night; flooding it with its song when every other song is hushed. “ The pearl of Psalms,” another has called it pure, beautiful, and beyond price. “ The Pleiades,” says a third, among the constellations into which these ancient singers have mapped the heaven of love and hope and peace which bent over them. Hero is a man who believed in God, believed in Him in no fictitious sense. David had in his mind a personal Being of infinite love, wisdom, and beneficence whom he had made his own--“ my Shepherd.” What has such a man to say of life? Four things. I. The wealth, completeness, fulness of it. It is something worth possessing. A new science has been developed of late--the science of being miserable. Side by side with this there is a mistaken and exaggerated pietism, which, in the name of religion, takes hold of everything by the wrong end. Things are what you make them to be. Life is what you make it. Take the man who has a personal hold of God. See in him the wealth, completeness, fulness of life. Full provision is made for all the necessities of man’ s nature. Life is a feast: “ Thou preparest a table for me.” I will tell you how life looks to me.1. I am--personal existence is mine. I have a being, the integrity, the sanctity of which even God respects, the boundaries of which even my Maker does not trench upon. 2. The world is mine. The heavens and the earth are mine. 3. Then there is the world of ideas, which come greeting you like troops of angels, from the books of gifted souls, from the mystic recesses of your own heart. 4. Friendship has been yours. The joy of serving, the joy of charity, the joy of dispensing sympathy, of bearing burdens which are not your own. 5. The happiness and ennoblement of benefiting the world. II. Here is the sense of perfect security, of absolute freedom from all anxiety. “ Goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.” What a load would be lifted off some minds if they could only say that, and be sure of it. Many are spoiling their life through the dread of what may be somewhere in the future. III. You have the record here of deliverances, restorations. “ He restoreth my soul.” The Psalm does not give an altogether rose-coloured view of life. Perils, fears are implied, if not plainly stated. They are the background of the Psalm, but that only brings out the Psalm into brighter relief Take the dark side first. “ Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death.” That is not the valley of death. It is the valley of doubt. It is the sorrow into which you can put no meaning. It is the agony of remorse. But from these things God restores us. Very graphic is this language. Engulfed, overwhelmed in these things, He giveth back my soul to me. Shall I speak of forgiveness, or of sorrow, or of doubt? IV. A determination arising from this experience of God. “ I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” It means, I will live in free intercourse, in frank fellowship, in unbroken friendship with God. That is the first meaning; but it does mean the material house also,--the temple of the Lord, where we meet to renew our vows, and to remind ourselves in concert of the God who is the inspiration of our life. (J. Morlais Jones.) The table prepared in presence of foes These words are generally supposed to allude to the seasonable hospitality which Barzillai and his friends gave to David during his flight before Absalom. Then the hospitality of strangers upon whom he had no claim revived the heart that had been sorely stricken by the ingratitude of his own flesh and blood. Such was the table to which David refers; and such were the enemies in whose presence it was prepared. It was so remarkable, so well-timed, and so suitable in every respect that the Psalmist could not fail to recognise in it the direct interposition of God’ s own hand. It was a miracle of Divine providence. There are three points of resemblance between the provision made for David and the provision made for us. These are its Divine preparation, its abundance and suitableness, and its being made in the presence of our enemies. I. The enemies in whose presence our table is prepared. In ancient Greek fable we are told about the Harpies, monstrous creatures with the bodies and wings and long claws of birds, and the faces of maidens pale with hunger. They were sent by the gods to torment the blind prophet Phineus, who had offended then by his misdeeds. Whenever a meal was placed before the unfortunate man the Harpies darted down from the air and carried it off, and either devoured the food themselves or rendered it unfit to be eaten. It was with the utmost difficulty that he was delivered from these frightful enemies, by the prowess of two of the Argonauts who had come thither in search of the golden fleece. Like all classic fables, this one has a profound moral. Here man is represented as a tiller of the ground, upon whom the Divine curse has been pronounced because of his sins, that in the sweat of his face he should eat bread; wise by insight and experience in regard to the common operations of agriculture, but blind as to the issues and results of these operations, and ignorant of what may be the increase of his sowing and the harvest of his toil, if any. In the Harpies we see represented the various enemies that are connected with the growth and supply of our food that are constantly on the watch to prevent us reaping the fruit of our labours, and rendering it unprofitable and unpalatable when it is reaped. Since sin came into the world God has ordained that man should encounter in full force the unkindly elements of nature. Nothing is more precarious than the growth of the corn upon which we depend for our daily bread. It is surrounded continually by innumerable enemies. There is--1. Unsuitable soil and climate. It is within a comparatively small area of the earth’ s surface that we can grow our corn. Beyond that area it is too cold or too hot. 2. The growth of our corn has many enemies of the animal and vegetable world to encounter. It has to contend with its own kind. Weeds, thorns, and thistles cumber the ground, and in their growth endeavour to choke and starve the corn and gain sole possession of the soil for themselves. There are birds that eat the seed as soon as it is sown in the field. There are caterpillars and insects that prey upon the tender blade. And worst of all, there are rusts and mildews that grow with its growth, and appear only when the full corn is in the ear, and turn the nutritious grain into black dust and ashes. And there are human enemies as well as natural. Competitions and rights restrict the cultivation of the soil; and commercial interests cause unequal distribution of its produce. The farmer has to encounter the difficulties of the market. Man, in having thus to grow his food amid a continual struggle with hostile forces, is taught in the most impressive way the solemn lesson of his dependence on God. II. The table which is thus prepared for us. It is wisely adapted to our necessities as human beings. What a table is thus spread every year. On the table of the wilderness is spread spontaneously a plentiful feast of grass, wild fruits, and herbs for the sustenance of the dumb, helpless creatures that can neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns. On the table of the cultivated haunts of men are spread, year after year, the golden cornfields which witness to human industry, prudence, and foresight. What sacred memories gather round the table thus so richly furnished! III. Who it is that has prepared this table for us. The harvest is the subject of a Divine covenant engagement. Our table is prepared by God’ s own hand. The common event hides from us the Divine hand. In reality, in every human operation man’ s part is utterly trifling compared with God’ s. When we ask God to give us day by day our daily bread we simply ask that God would enable us to live from hand to mouth during all our life. To the use of one day’ s supply the laws of providence restrict the rich and the poor alike. (H. Macmillan, D. D.) Feasting before enemies In the former part of the Psalm the writer represents himself as a sheep enjoying the sure protection of a Divine Shepherd; but here he represents himself as a guest, receiving all the attentions of a kind and generous host. I. That David considered himself as provided for and distinguished by God. All in prosperous circumstances should adopt the language of the text. Would that they did. Then they would recognise in all the good things they enjoy so many provisions of a feast prepared by His abounding love. But not alone will this thought reveal your privileges, it will impress your obligations. It was accounted, of old, an awful thing to violate the understood obligations of hospitality. The eating together bound together. “ He who did eat of my bread hath lifted up the heel against me” was the pathetic complaint of the Psalmist. Does not this show, in a striking light, the conduct of those who receive good at the hand of God, to return evil? They are guests, entertained with bountiful kindness, and breaking all the laws of such entertainment; they dishonour the author of their weal and their welcome, and add treachery to transgression. But if the description of the text applies to the blessing of our outward and temporal estate, much more does it apply to the state of grace in which believers in Christ Jesus stand. The provisions and enjoyments of the Gospel excel all others. What table, however richly spread, is to be compared to that to which Christ unites us? II. And all this was and is “ in the presence of mine enemies.” David reached the throne of Israel through such opposition that it made him a type of Him who, before He sat down at the right hand of God, “ endured the Cross and despised the shame.” The associations of things wonderfully augment and diminish their importance; and the association of witnesses is one of the most potent of all. Disgrace and punishment would lose the greatest part of their evil if they lost all their publicity; and honour and reward are rendered infinitely more sweet by being conferred before our fellows. It was not the confinement so much as the exposure of the pillory that made it terrible as a mode of chastisement; and where would be the heroes of this world if there were no despatches and no histories? The best of us live far more in other men than we are willing to acknowledge; we are the meek servants of social opinion. And as social opinion is a motive, so is it a recompense. The censure of the world may be a great chastisement, when there are no other pains and penalties; and its praise a sufficient guerdon, without riches and honours. In David’ s case there was everything that could make the presence of spectators significant and important. He rose to dignity and plenty in spite of fierce opponents. Many beheld him thus exalted who would fain have kept him down; and the elevation was more delightful on this account. If we may so say, it cost God more to put him there than it would have done otherwise. To be on the throne, then, in spite of opposition, enemies numerous and strong, after many toils and tears, not only as a dignity but a triumph--this was a far greater and more blessed thing than if there had been little or no difficulty at all. Men do delight, and ever have delighted, in the overthrow of the wicked. There is no man, however good, who is not pleased that thieves and liars and murderers are found out and punished. Whatever commiseration we may have for their sufferings as men, we feel complacency in the fact that they do suffer. It is possible to cherish revenge, which is wrong; but it is also possible to rejoice without cherishing it, which is right. The sentiment is natural, whether the object on which it feeds be present or prospective. Let us not take a narrow view of this feeling. It is not rejoicing in suffering as such, but as suffering on particular accounts. Suffering in defence of right we honour. But suffering and shame brought on those who have trampled on all righteousness and goodness we rejoice in, and are right to do so. It is not a pitiful vengeance, but a right healthy moral sentiment. David’ s feast in the presence of his enemies is a type of many feasts. But things worth having involve trouble and expense in the getting. You can attain to honour and joy only in “ the presence of enemies.” “ Faith” is “ a good fight” and Christian enterprise is a “ wrestling with spiritual wickedness.” Wherefore “ anoint the shield,” “ take the sword of the Spirit,” that ye “ may be able to stand in the evil day, and having done all to stand.” (A. J. Morris.) Feasting in presence of enemies “ Thou preparedest a table for me.” I notice that all our commentators teach that there is a break here. A sheep at a table; that will not do, although the idea of feeding will do. Well, the kaleidoscope seems to have taken a turn. “ Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies.” What does that mean? I somewhere met with an idea which has always stuck to me. I do not know what commentator it was in, for I cannot find it now; perhaps it was somebody whom I heard. In old warfare they had rather savage ways of retaliating upon their enemies. After the battle the victors had a feast, and, in order to enjoy the feast, they took their leading captives--the leading men of the opposing army whom they had vanquished, and bound them to pillars in the banqueting hall, and compelled them to look on while those whom they had meant to destroy sat and feasted royally and uproariously an their presence. It was a savage way of acting--to prepare a table and sit down and drink to the confusion of their enemies, and their princes and their captains chained to the pillars. It gave zest to the feast, did it not? Ah, there is a true idea in that. “ Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies.” (John M’Neill.) A table among enemies I. First, there are temptations, commonly so called, which can be a trouble even when they have ceased to be a dread. Just when all is peace and glory there comes the ribald murmur of an evil thought, the haunting disquiet of some evil imagination. Or doubts, again, rise up at the most solemn moments, at some turning point in our path. “ This steep road cannot be right. The higher path of duty is a mistake. The view of uninterrupted splendour which I have promised myself will never come! The path leads nowhither; it is but a sheep track, beaten by the tramp of unenquiring generations. I am the slave of an imposture, the victim of a cunningly devised fable.” Doubts are certainly among those that trouble us. And then there is the constant weakness, the weariness of the road, the faintness which makes us stumble, the distaste for prayer, the distractions which perplex us. He does not concern Himself with them; He is busying Himself about me. The way lies through obstacles more and even greater than these. It is not His care to remove temptation, but to strengthen the tempted. He never promised to remove trouble; but He has promised to make anxiety out of the question. He never promised to remove pain; but He has promised to elevate it into a bearing, supporting cross. “ He prepares a table before me in the presence of mine enemies.” II. And what is this table, so strange, so unexpected, prepared in the presence of enemies thirsting for my life? Preeminently it speaks to a Christian of the blessed Sacrament of the Lord’ s Body and Blood. In a wider meaning it is our Holy Religion. It represents all those different ways and means of grace in which God strengthens us against temptation. If, then, we are to push our way through these obstacles, He would seem to say that above all things it is necessary that religion should preoccupy the soul; it is the empty soul that is so mercilessly tormented. A man that has no principle, no settled religious beliefs, no settled religious obligations, who depends on his surroundings and companions, it is he who is so mercilessly tormented. And no less in “ the table” do we trace a provision of strength. Over and over again Holy Scripture appeals to us with warning voice, “ Be strong.” God knows the strain which we have to undergo, the unhealthy atmosphere, the miasmatic plain, the poisonous swamps and jungles through which the path winds, and therefore He prepares a table of strength. What strength we might have if we made use of this table of religion! We should find ourselves a source of strength to all around us. And yet again, the table is a feast of good things. There is the intense interest of religious life and religions work. Worldly men cannot understand it, simply because they have not thrown themselves into it. It would seem to be a fact that our enjoyment of everything is in direct proportion to the interest which we bestow upon it, and to the extent in which we devote ourselves to it. Even the very games and recreations of life are insipid when we cannot play them, or neglect to enter into them. “ The joy of the Lord is your strength.” See how joyful, how bright God is all around us in His marvellous works. Do not let us despise enthusiasms; they carry us on. They are a table of delight prepared in the presence of our enemies. III. And as the angels came and ministered to Christ after His temptation, so the anointed head and the replenished cup speak of the joy and gladness which wait on those who overcome. There is the oil of joy and grace poured over our heads, which makes us prophets, priests, and kings of God to all those with whom we are brought into contact. And at the end there comes the full cup. Everything contributes to the store of wealth, and all things work together for good, because we love God. Life in all its changes, health, prosperity, affliction, all add to the great store of blessing, and God’ s mercy fills the cup of happiness to overflowing. (W. C. E. Newbolt, M. A.) Thou anointest my head with oil.--The anointing I. David had been anointed to kingship. All Christians are kings, even as all Christians are priests; but kings only anointed not crowned, as they are priests ordained, not yet admitted to celestial ministries; and though the ordination to priestly service be now the more prominent honour, it is not such as to distrust or overshadow the kingly name and destiny. II. David had been anointed from on high. David’ s crown was a sure one, and surer than that already worn by Saul; and so is every Christian’ s. God’ s purposes in providence and grace are sure as the seasons and the sun. The kingship of every believer rests not on his own might or wisdom, not on the counsels and plans of his fellow men, but on the irreversible and sovereign grace of God. III. David had been anointed to present rule, as well as future honour. He had forthwith to rule himself as a preparation for ruling others. IV. David was anointed of the Spirit. With the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord. V. David was anointed in secret. The anointing of David was not a public act. VI. David was anointed with the oil of joy. Oil was a symbol of joy. “ And oil to make his face to shine.” Of Messiah it is said, “ Thy God hath anointed Thee with the oil of gladness above Thy fellows.” (John Stoughton, D. D.) My cup runneth over.--The wealth of life The overflowing idea is everywhere. I. Our cup of natural blessing is not simply sufficing but redundant. We see this--1. In the beauty of creation as opposed to mere utility. The sad philosopher of antiquity confessed, “ He hath made everything beautiful in his, time” : and the poet of today rejoices, “ All things have more than barren use.’ Some modern cynics have roundly abused nature, and tried hard to show the seamy side of the rainbow; but the loveliness and grandeur of things are too much for them, and the poet’ s vocation is not yet gone. 2. In the abundance of creation as opposed to mere sufficiency. “ Thou preparest a table before me.” And how richly is that table furnished. We have a school of political economists tormented by the dread of population outstripping the means of subsistence, and which is ever warning society against the awful peril. But how foolish are such fears, seeing we dwell in a world so rich and elastic. Let man be wise and good, and however thronged “ the habitable part of the earth, there shall be” no complaining. The legend tells us that in olden times the ear of wheat extended the whole length of the straw, and it was through the sin of man that the ears of corn spring as we see them now. Truly this legend reflects the truth at all times, that the exuberance of God has been marred by the folly of man. II. The superabundance of our cup of social blessing. Think of home, and all that means; and friendship; and philanthropy. And art, science, literature. Commerce is a whole vine in itself, and we gaze at its embarrassing lavishment with amazed delight. Surely, when the nations return to wisdom and virtue they shall no more be an hungered, but find the world their Father’ s house, with bread enough and to spare. And in those days, too, it shall no more be felt that the individual is impoverished by society. Now, we too often feel that the multitude is the enemy of the individual; that the increase of the number makes the struggle all the more bitter for each member. But really, society is the instrument of God for multiplying the world’ s riches and joy, and in the day when the human brotherhood shall dwell together in knowledge and love each shall serve all, and all each, until in the sublime reciprocity the land overflows with milk and honey. III. The munificence of God is revealed to the uttermost in the cup of spiritual blessing. The cup of salvation runs over. It was not the study of God just to save us, but to save us fully, overflowingly. We see this--1. In the pardoning of sin. God does not forgive sin with measure and constraint, but graciously multiplies pardons. The overflowing cup is the sign of a grand welcome, of a cordial friendship, of a most hearty love. 2. In the sanctification of the soul. We are not merely saved by Christ from ruin, but into a surpassing perfection of life. The Psalmist prayed, “ Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.” What is whiter than snow? We have white clouds, flowers, foam, shells; but in the whole realm of nature know nothing whiter than snow. But the human spirit aspires to a truthfulness, purity, and beauty beyond that of the physical universe, it pants to be whiter than snow; and this sublimest aspiration of our being is destined to attainment in Jesus Christ. “ They are without fault before the throne of God.” Here, at least, the actual reaches the ideal. How full and rich the Almighty grace! “ Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.” 3. Our last illustration of the boundless love is the provision for the soul’ s satisfaction in Christ Jesus. History tells that an ancient king granted pardon to some criminals under sentence of death, but when these discharged malefactors applied for relief at the palace gates the king refused them, protesting, “ I granted you life, but did not promise you bread.” This is not the theory of the Gospel; Christ not only saves from destruction, but opens to the soul sources of rich strengthening and endless satisfaction. Annually when the ice breaks up in Russia the Czar goes in state to drink of the River Neva, and having drunk, it was long the custom for the Czar to return the cup to his attendants full of gold, but year by year the cup became so much larger that at length a stipulated sum was paid instead of the old largesse. But however large the vessel we bring to God, and however much it increases in capacity with the discipline of years, God shall still make it to overflow with that peace and love and joy which is better than rubies and much fine gold. (W. L. Watkinson.) The overflowing cup Every few years we have people critical of the thanksgiving proclamation. They say, “ We have nothing to be thankful for. Commerce down; manufactures dull; commercial prospects blasted. Better have a day for fasting than a day for feasting.” Indeed, have you nothing to be thankful for? Does your heart beat? Do your eyes see? Do your ears hear? Did you sleep last night? Are the glorious heavens above your head? Is the solid earth beneath your feet? Have you a Bible, a Christ, a proffered heaven? Ay, those of us who are the worst off have more blessings than we appreciate, and “ our cup runneth over.” I. Thanksgiving in the house. I just want to look around and see what God has been doing for you in your home. “ Oh,” you say, “ our house is not so large now as the one we used to have.” I answer, what of that? It is a great deal of trouble to keep a large house clean. Besides that, a small house is so cosy. Besides that, it is a bad thing for children to have a luxuriant starting. But I step into your parlour, and I find there the evidences of refinement, and culture, and friendship. I go on to the next room and step into your nursery, and I am greeted with the shout and laughter of your children. They romp; they hide; they clap their hands. Busy all day, without fatigues, they fall asleep chattering and wake up singing. And the little baby has its realm, waving its sceptre over the parental heart, and you look down in its wondering eyes and see whole worlds of promise there, and think to yourself, “ those little hands will smooth my locks when they get grey, and those little feet will run for me when I am sick, and those eyes will weep for me when I am gone.” Thank God today that upon your home has come the brightness of childhood, and drop a tear of grief for those who weep over a despoiled cradle and toys that never will be caught up again by little hands now still, alas! forever. And I go into the dining room, and I find you have bread enough and to spare; and into your library, and you have books to read, many of them, and of the best sort. Thank God for books--plenty of them--books to make you study, books to waft you into reverie, books to make you weep, books to make you laugh; books of travel, of anecdote, of memoir, of legend; books about insects, about birds, about shells, about everything. Books for the young, books for the old. “ Oh,” says someone, “ I have not all these luxuries; I have not all these comforts of the parlour, of the nursery, of the dining hall, of the library.” But certainly you know something of the height, and depth, and length, and breadth of that sweet, tender, joyous, triumphant word “ home” ! “ Oh, give thanks unto the. Lord; for He is good; for. His mercy endureth forever” ; and let each one clap his hands, and say for himself, My cup runneth over. II. I pass on now to look at thanksgiving in the hovels of the poor. No banquet smoking on their table. Oh, it is hard to be hungry in a world with ripe orchards and luxuriant harvests and herds of cattle driven to the slaughter. You rich, remember these poor today, and help them to join in the thanksgiving of us all. III. Thanksgiving in the Church. I know there are those who think the Church is a museum of antediluvian fossils. They think it did very well once, but it is behind the times. That is not your opinion. You love, first, your home, and next, your church. O ye descendants of the men who were hounded amid the Highlands of Scotland, and who fell at Bothwell Bridge; O ye sons and daughters of the men who came across wintry seas to build their log churches in the American wilderness; O ye sons and daughters of those who stood in the awful siege of Leyden, and shouted the martyrs’ triumph in the horrors of the Brussels marketplace; O ye descendants of the men whose garments were dyed in the wine press of Saint Bartholomew Massacre; ye sons and daughters of the fire, what do you think today of a quiet Church, and a free pulpit, and a Gospel winged with mercy and salvation? What imperial edict forbids our convocation? What sword thirsts for our blood? What fires are kindled for our torture? None. Defended by the law, invited by the Gospel, baptized by the Spirit, we are here today free men of the state, free men of God. Let us give thanks. And let there be-- IV. Thanksgiving in the city--for good laws, just judges, quiet Sabbaths, noble churches, etc. V. Thanksgiving in the nation--for peace and prosperity, etc. (T. De Witt Talmage.) The overflowing cup The Psalm culminates in this expression. It could only have been in reference to spiritual things that David could thus speak. I. Some men’ s cups never run over. Because taken to the wrong source. Such are the cups held beneath the drippings of the world’ s leaky cisterns. Some cups are never filled, because the bearers of them suffer from the grievous disease of natural discontent. The heart is like the slough of despond, into which thousands of waggon loads of material were cast, and yet the slough did swallow up all, and was none the better. Some cups never run over, because their owners are envious. The green dragon is a very dangerous guest in any man’ s home. And unbelief is sure to prevent a man’ s cup running over. II. Why does the cup run over? Because, being believers in Christ, we have in Him all things. Between here and heaven there is nothing we shall want but what God has supplied. Because the infinite God is ours. When do we feel this? In the answer of our prayers and expectations. The Lord has given you more than imagination pictured. When Henry the Eighth was proposing to marry Anne of Cleves, Holbein was sent to paint her picture, with which Henry was charmed. But when he saw the original his judgment was very different, and he expressed disgust instead of affection. The painter had deceived him. No such flatteries can ever be paid to the Lord Jesus Christ. So beyond all conception of mind and heart is He. Sometimes the text is true of the Christian’ s joy. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Bounty should lead to charity If God makes our cup to run over in His bounty we should make it to run over in our charity. And indeed, wherefore doth the Lord make our cup run over but that others should be refreshed by the droppings of the same. (O. Sedgwick, B. D.) Outward blessings abused The ways by which God’ s outward blessings are abused, are principally two.1. Iniquity. 2. Vanity. They are abused when they are made serviceable and occasional unto any iniquity. I will give you some special instances for this-- (1) When we make our plenty the ground of an idle and unprofitable life; to live without any calling and employment, as if Divine goodness in any kind were a discharge from all industry. (2) When we consecrate, nay, that word is not fit, when we embezzle, God’ s bounty and mercies to luxury and drunkenness. 3. A third sin is loftiness. 4. A fourth sin unto which God’ s plenty may be and is abused is carnal confidence. 5. A fifth sin is covetousness and love of the world. But I proceed to the second way wherein men do abuse the plenty of God’ s goodness to them, namely, to vanity; and that is two fold, either of-- 1. Feasting.2. Apparelling. (O. Sedgwick, B. D.) Psalms 23:6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me.A good man’ s thoughts in his old age The Psalm itself consists of two pictures--what we call “ the shepherd,” and what we should not err in calling “ the king.” Both have to do with character, spiritual character, relation to God. They may apply to other things, national or ecclesiastical, but here is their chief intent. The poem supposes the man who speaks to have spiritual life in him, and the good man thus utters his confidence in the protection and in the care of that God under whose loving fatherhood he has been brought on his way. In the second part of the Psalm we have another figure--a different sort of allegory altogether. It refers, perhaps, to a more advanced stage of the Christian life. I call this parable “ the king.” And it reminds us of the “ certain king who made a marriage supper for his son.” It tells of man made a partaker of the Divine nature, and coming into intimate communion with God. And all tells of the richness, variety, and depth of the soul’ s satisfactions in such communion. And then comes the good man’ s utterance of his subjective feelings after taking this review of life. Reasoning from the past to the future, he says, “ Because Thou hast been my help, therefore in the shadow of Thy wings will I rejoice.” By just giving a little turn to the, last expression of the text I see three things--1. Firm faith. “ Shall follow me.” “ Goodness and mercy.” These are just the two things into which God’ s beneficence, generally considered, naturally divides itself. Goodness to creatures; mercy to sinful creatures. An angel is the object of one; man of both. The good man says, “ I have needed both; I have had both all my days, and surely they shall follow me all my days.” 2. There is also the idea of settled purpose. “ Shall follow me.” By daily habits of devotion, by the culture of a child-like faith, by holy familiarity with Divine things, I will seem to myself to be constantly engaged in God’ s service. 3. Then comes the assurance of expectation and hope. “ I will dwell in the house of the Lord.” We take the faith and feeling of the man to expand and enlarge, till they embrace the great and ultimate future of the life that is to be, and he says, “ I feel that I have been led onwards to that. These capacities and affections of mine, the stirring of a spiritual life within me, were never made to find their perfection here. I carry within myself, in my own religious consciousness, a prophecy, an earnest of something greater than the life that now is.” 4. Observe the beautifulness and the blessedness of a Christian old age. Age is a thing that may be very beautiful. It is when “ the hoary head is a crown of glory, being found in the way of righteousness” --when there are no marks upon the countenance of extinct volcanoes, dark shadows from wrought-out passions, impressions of darkness and crime, but when the life has been spent for God. It is, if I am not mistaken, Scougal--the author of that little book The Life of God in the Soul of Man--takes a review of life, looks back upon its prominent events, its afflictions and its trials, and upon his inward experience, and ends all by saying, “ I am this day such and such an age, and I bless God that ever I was born.” Voltaire does just the same thing as to the review, but with a totally different result. In one of his books you may find a review of his life. The querulous old man puts together all that he had gone through, finds it dark and disappointing, and concludes by saying, “ I am this day so and so, and I wish that I had never been born.” There is the difference! “ I thank God,” says the one, “ that ever I was born,” because he can take the 23rd Psalm, and in the 23rd Psalm he can read the history of his inward life. And the other man, though he had great ability and great genius, and had a long and wonderful life, which, however, nobody would say, or pretend to say, that he spent it in walking with God, he says, “ I wish that I had never been born.” Poor man!--they smothered him with flowers and killed him with fame--and it came to this! And the last thought is, that the best way to be able to end life with an utterance like this is to begin it well. (Thomas Binney.) The believer’ s security and confidence I. To David the events of life were displays of God’ s goodness and mercy. To some, in view of David’ s life, this seems an exaggeration. Such an opinion must, however, be founded upon either erroneous or defective views of the nature of God’ s special providence, or on ignorance and misapprehension of the objects to which that providence is directed. God’ s special providence implies that he exercises a controlling influence over all our actions, they being to a certain extent determined as being the necessary effects of man’ s constitution and circumstances combined, and which God has formed, appointed, and arranged. He has always some definite object in view. If that object be to promote man’ s happiness, then it will follow that all the events of his life will tend, directly or indirectly, to that end. It is necessary to settle what happiness consists in, or at least what is the test of its existence and degree. In the constitution of things the decree of God has established an immutable connection between happiness and holiness, and that consequently the degree of holiness furnishes a certain test of the degree of happiness. Man’ s nature is in itself most unholy, entirely alienated from God, and devoted to sense and sin. How are they to be roused from lethargy and really impressed with Divine truths? Calamities and misfortunes are the means God uses. These are well fitted to make the truths of the existence and moral government of God, and a future state of rewards and punishments, really effective truths. No doubt affliction often fails to produce permanent good results, but this fact only aggravates the man’ s condemnation. Even moral evils and sins may be made instrumental in the promotion of the same great objects. We do not palliate or excuse moral offences on the ground of the good account to which they may be turned, for this would be to act on the principle of “ the end sanctifying the means.” For if a man whose ordinary conduct is respectable has, through the force of hidden corruption, been led into any open and unquestionable violation of morality, it may, by the blessing of God, be made the means of producing a useful and salutary result, by rousing into action natural conscience, by inspiring suspicion and alarm, and by leading to serious conviction. Even to unconverted persons moral transgressions may be of great use in leading them to God. II. In what circumstances, or by what persons, this statement may be properly made. No one can expect goodness and mercy to follow him save in virtue of God’ s promises. It is a fearful doctrine, but clearly stated in Scripture with regard to many individuals of the human race, that, so far from “ goodness and mercy following them all the days of their life,” everything that He gives them seems only the more to estrange them from God and goodness. This is just a statement of a fact; and if such persons believe that the dispensations of God’ s providence with reference to them are intended to cause “ goodness and mercy to follow them all the days of their life,” or that they will in fact do so, they are labouring under a fatal delusion. Before, then, any person is entitled to assert, with reference to his own afflictions, that God does everything for the best, and to apply this as a ground of comfort and consolation to himself, he must not only love God, but know and be convinced that God loves him. It is really astonishing to see how very seldom, in a professing Christian country, this question is seriously entertained, and on what slight and trivial grounds men are contented to take it for granted that all is safe with them. No one loves God but a true Christian, because nothing will produce love to God but the belief of the Gospel; and of course, it is the belief of the Gospel that makes a man a Christian. (W. Cunningham, D. D.) The evidence of things not seen We cannot--no one can, not the profoundest philosopher tell what life is, but we know that it is fed from without. And the higher the form of existence the more of external help it requires in order to its proper development. See this in plant life, in animal life, in human life. And this last needs most of all. And abundant supply is forthcoming for it, real, wholesome, beautiful satisfaction. In this last verse of the Psalm David gives utterance to a grand assurance and anticipation concerning the life that now is. He should not want. Goodness and mercy would follow him all the days of his life. Hence what could he do but pour out his thankfulness unto the Lord, in the courts of the Lord’ s house, in the presence of all His people? He tells us that goodness and mercy are special marks of God’ s dealings with men. Let us think of them. I. Goodness. “ Good” and “ God” in Anglo-Saxon are the same word. Goodness or Goriness, an element of God’ s nature. “ There is none good but One,” said Jesus, “ that is God.” It is simply impossible for Him ever to decree or wish to do anything evil. Ill will or bad purpose on His part is inconceivable. II. Mercy. This also is characteristic of the Divine relation to man. In giving this emphatic testimony to the nobleness of mercy David does but voice the dearest assurances of the human heart concerning the omnipotence of love. God is good, and therefore He must be merciful. He could not else be good. He has bound Himself by His own promise to be merciful and forgiving. Hence it is said, “ If we confess our sins He is faithful and just to,” etc. No wonder, then, that David felt so secure when thinking of the future. (George Bainton.) Goodness and mercy This text refers to the time when Absalom had risen in rebellion, and David had been driven to seek refuge in Mahanaim. Retribution had been following on his track with feet shod with wool, and he was now only reaping what he had sown in an alienated people and a rebellious son. But the light of heaven shone through the darkness in ntis soul, for at the same time he felt himself compassed about with a sense of deliverance. Goodness and mercy were following him to make reparation for his evil days. God gave him back the faith of his childhood. The idea is a beautiful one, the idea of God’ s mercy outrunning our necessities; but in our deeper moods we feel we need it to follow us. We need God for our yesterdays as much as for our tomorrows, for our rereward as much as for our leader. Not as an American Indian pursuing his enemy to the death; not like an avenger of blood, in his awful vendetta, on the track of the manslayer: but as a healer of the wounds we have inflicted He comes, to neutralise the consequence of our folly, ignorance, and sin; to separate us from the debasing associations of sin, and to give us a sense of recovered freedom. The consequences of our sins may be transformed into sources of joy and fruitfulness by the precious alchemy of grace. The disappointments of earth may become the appointments of heaven. To us goodness and mercy are no abstract qualities; we have them personified in God’ s Son. (H. Macmillan, D. D.) The goodness of God following man I. The blessings here anticipated. “ Goodness and mercy.”1. Goodness. The goodness of God is a most delightful and animating theme; it touches every chord of the Christian’ s heart. “ How great is Thy goodness, which Thou hast laid up for the children of men.” 2. Mercy. Pardoning mercy. “ Who is a God like unto Thee, that pardoneth iniquity,” etc. Protecting mercy. The good man has his difficulties and dangers. “ Why art thou cast down, O my soul, and why art thou disquieted within me? Hope thou in God, for I shall yet praise Him who is the health of my countenance,” etc. Sustaining mercy. Amid holy enterprises, spiritual conflicts, arduous duties, severe afflictions, trying bereavements, God has sustained His saints. Supplying mercy. “ My God shall supply all your need out of His riches in glory by Jesus Christ.” But we are prone to look on the dark side of His providence, and to ask, with the murmuring Israelites, “ Can God furnish a table in the wilderness?” II. The manner of its conveyance. “ Shall follow me.” As the mother’ s eye and hand follow her little one as he makes his first wobbling attempt to toddle alone; as the needle follows the lodestone; as the water out of the rock followed the Israelites through the desert; as the pillar of glory went with them by night and by day: so goodness and mercy shall follow the faithful, in the closet, in the family, in the church, in the world. It shall follow incessantly, supply fully, solace richly, sustain powerfully, pass with him through the Jordan, and enter with him the bright portals of glory. Here we have--1. The continuance of it. All the days of my life--that is, all my life long--even to the last. 2. The certainty of it. “ Surely,” etc. “ Hath He promised, and shall He not bring it to pass?” As sure as you need it, you shall have it; as sure as you require it, you shall realise it: It shall come seasonably at the best time, in the wisest manner, and from the most unexpected quarter. Its certainty is founded upon the Divine existence; its communication upon Divine veracity; its possession is the fruit of immutable, unwavering, undying love. Surely, etc. III. The consummation of it. “ And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Conclusion--1. Learn to be grateful. Beware of sinking into the vortex of selfishness, and burying your mercies in the grave of forgetfulness. 2. Learn to be trustful. 3. Learn to be active. If you have the pledge that “ goodness and mercy shall follow you all the days of your life,” should not those days be spent for the glory of Him--whose you are, and whom you serve? Work while it is day. (John Woodcock.) Behind and before The Psalmist is looking at his yesterdays. He is gazing at the panorama of his past life. You know how sometimes we come to a corner of the road in the journey of life which brings the whole of our past way vividly before us. Perhaps we are laid aside by sickness, and in the time of seclusion the memory wanders back and retreads the path of the years. Or maybe we are standing by the open grave of a comrade whose path has run close by our own; our memory tugs us backward, and our past life opens out before us in marvellous clearness and intensity. Or sometimes a little commonplace incident unlocks the doors of the past, and in vivid recollection we pass through all its rooms. Now, when we are compelled to look back at the past of our life, how does it look? Gazed at with unprejudiced vision, with nothing to make us morally colour blind, how does it all appear? To the Psalmist, as he recalled the way he had come, it appeared to be one long unbroken path of failure and sin. His path was marked as the path of a snail or a slug over some tender plant, which leaves behind it the slime of its own passage. The retrospect oppressed him--yesterday became the burden of today. And is not that so with all who seriously think, with all who solemnly estimate the tenour and quality of their days? The retrospect becomes oppressive; they cannot comfortably recount the detailed stories of their lives. There are some whose burden is tomorrow. Their fear and their anxiety centre on the morrow. They want an angel to go before them to prepare their way. But I think that where there is one soul burdened with the fear of tomorrow, there are many burdened with the fear of yesterday. The burden of conscience never comes from tomorrow; it is rolled up from our yesterdays. It is not prospect, but retrospect, that lays the heaviest weight on the heart. And now to a soul so oppressed there comes this beautiful thought of God contained in my text, “ Goodness and mercy shall follow me.” Goodness and mercy shall follow me, shall come on after me and wipe away that slimy track. I think that is a very gracious and inspiring thought. A God in our rear. A Father coming up behind. Goodness and mercy following us. You have seen the sands at a popular watering place cut and dug by a thousand hands and feet, littered with paper and all kinds of refuse, and befouled in a hundred ways. Then rolls up the tide, and the refuse is buried in its bosom, and all the unevennesses are smoothed away. It is even so with those sands of time, the sands of past years, in which we have left the track of our sins; the tidal waves of Divine goodness and mercy roll up, and the, unseemly track may be smoothed away. “ Goodness and mercy shall follow me.” Suppose it had been, “ Justice shall follow me,” avenging justice, cold unsympathetic law. If justice were to follow even the best of us, our hearts would shake with fear. It is not even “ Righteousness shall follow me,” but goodness. There is something rich in the very word. “ Goodness shall follow me,” and mercy. Grapes with the bloom on. Goodness in surpassing sweetness and beauty. “ Goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.” Can you think of anything fitter in expression, anything that could more tenderly unfold the nature of the God who comes in the rear of our life? “ I have blotted them out like a thick cloud.” Do you see the force of the figure? You are going along the dry and glaring road, and you stir up the dust, and it flies like a thick cloud in your rear. And God says that as we go along the way of life we stir up clouds of sin, and He blots them out. As John Bunyan says, He sprinkles upon it the water of grace, and the dust is laid. Is not this just what we all need? But there is something more than this. “ Goodness and mercy shall follow me” not only to blot out our sins, but to gather up the fragments of our goodness. We want a God in our rear who will pick up the fragments--bits of good resolution, stray thoughts, stray prayers, beginnings of heroism, little kindnesses, all the broken bits of goodness, all the mites, the forgotten jewels--to gather all the fragments so that nothing be lost. “ Goodness and mercy shall follow me,” and shall miss nothing; the God who follows us is “ like unto a woman, who lost one piece of silver, and who lit a candle and swept the house and sought diligently till she found it.” It was this great conception of a good and merciful God in the rear which converted a gloomy retrospect into a glorious hone Our Father is behind us, goodness and mercy follow us; let us leave our yesterdays trustfully to Him. But now in the second part of my text the Psalmist turns himself round from retrospect to prospect. He turns from a contemplation of the past to a contemplation of the future. What is his idea of futurity? “ I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” Well, you say, there is nothing peculiarly glorious or definite about the conception. Stay a little. Before you can estimate the quality of anyone’ s heaven you must know their condition on earth. Our hopes about tomorrow are very largely shaped and coloured by our condition today. Look at the Psalmist’ s position. When this Psalm was composed he was a wanderer, exiled from the peace and blessedness of his own home. All our conceptions of the future are formed in a similar way. No two of us have precisely the same conception. The special bliss we anticipate is shaped out of our special burden now. Go down to our coast and speak to some old fisherman’ s wife,whose husband and sons have all been lost in the deep, and ask her what in her loneliness is her conception of heaven, and would you wonder if to her one of the preeminent glories of the place is this, “ There shall be no more sea” ? Go to some invalid who is held by some chronic disease, ask her what is her conception of heaven, and would you wonder if to her one of the great glories of the place is this, “ There shall be no more pain” ? And all the anticipations are true. Every man’ s present need discovers one of the glories of the future. It takes all our different needs to discover the glory and sufficiency of the things prepared for us. We all need this tug of the future, the tug of the days that are to be. We can only get out of the deep ruts of today by the powerful tug of tomorrow. Life grows heavy and stagnant when tomorrow ceases to pull, when the “ forever” has lost its power. Present burdens grow light in the strength of the “ forever.” Present homelessness can be almost cheerfully endured when in its coldness the Psalmist can sing, “ I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” (J. Jowett, M. A.) Goodness and mercy behind us The ugly things that are lying in wait for us sometimes, when we are wholly at rest and quiet, like ambuscades towards which, all blindly, gay troopers ride, carolling love ditties or exchanging jests, and are suddenly cut down. How, sometimes, ugly things have lurked in our path, big with sorrow for us, that could have been so easily avoided, and would have been had we only known. But we knew not, we suspected not, and were allowed to go forward lightly, as though we were going to receive a boon instead of a crushing blow. Occasionally, indeed, we are visited and disturbed before some tragic misfortune with an unaccountable anticipation of evil to which we refuse to listen, shaking it off determinedly, and thrusting it from us, and it has seemed to us afterwards as if a guardian angel had been trying to save us, and, striving in vain, had been obliged to leave us to our fate. But in the case of each of us, how close we have often been, doubtless, without perceiving it, to calamities which yet were spared us; that drew very nigh while we heard no sound of their footfall beside us, and all but touching us, passed harmlessly by. And may we not say that goodness and mercy are frequently following us to our salvation from threatening mischief in the truer thoughts, the better feelings, that start up behind our frequent false inclinings, and prevail against them, in the wiser mind that presently awakes to arrest and scatter the foolish; in the wohlesomer heart that rises to check the unhealthy. From what degradation we have been snatched once and again upon the brink of which we were tottering; as we lingered and leaned ready to slide, there was that from within which laid hold on and drew us back. Or suppose that in certain moods of ours, in certain moments of passion or soul relaxation, opportunity had occurred--as with some in like moods and moments it has occurred to their undoing, to their headlong plunge into baseness or crime--how different matters might have been with us today! How much of what would be termed our virtue seems to us, when we reflect, to have been but a providential hindering of our inclination towards, and our ripeness for, what would have been the very opposite of virtue! We have been guarded and hedged in to preservation from ourselves. Can you not say, on looking back, that here and there, in this and that crisis, it was as though God had been our rearward, warding off from us devastation and havoc that threatened? True, every day bears upon it the fruit of yesterday’ s sowing, yet have we not felt, when enduring the judgment of some previous mistake or misdeed, that the judgment was tempered with mercy--that it is not so severe as it might have been expected to be? Yes, while the iniquities and inequities of the past are laid upon us, we are constrained to acknowledge often that they might well have burdened us more heavily than they do. They are not upon us to the uttermost; there are withholdings--there are abatements, as though a gracious power were keeping them back from us in part. (S. A. Tipple.) God following His people That God may follow His people with these many ways, either in respect of--1. His intention and affection.2. His assistance and preservation.3. His concurrence and augmentation.4. Evidence and manifestation. (O. Sedgwick, B. D.) The pilgrim’ s rearguard, goodness and mercy John Condor, afterwards D.D., was born at Wimple, in Cambridgeshire, 3rd June 1714. His grandfather, Richard Condor, kissed him, and with tears in his eyes, said, “ Who knows what sad days these little eyes are likely to see?” Dr. Condor remarked, upon mentioning the above circumstances, “ These eyes have, for more than sixty years, seen nothing but goodness and mercy follow me and the Churches of Christ even to this day.” Goodness and mercy following to repair Goodness and mercy pursues to repair the ravages sin has wrought. Nature follows the footsteps of man, and strives to obliterate the ravages she causes. The blasted rocks that have been exposed on the hillside she soon plants with the serf-sown trees and shrubs and hides their deformity. The stone wall which in its newness and rawness looks such a discordant feature in the landscape she subdues by the grey colouring and soft tenderness of her lichens and mosses into beautiful harmony with surrounding scenery. Similarly do goodness and mercy work; but they are now no longer abstract qualities, for they have been personified in the Son of Man. Goodness and mercy I. At once these words “goodness and mercy” attract our attention. It was “ goodness and mercy” that led us first out of the fold, with an aim and object in life. There was “ goodness and mercy” in that shelter from the noontide heat. But low it is “ goodness and mercy” all the days of my life. We owe a good deal to the grace that comes after; the grace that only gives us the wish to do what is right, not only the grace that starts us and helps us in what is right, but also the grace which helps us to finish. Here is that striking characteristic of the love of God Almighty which comes, out in all His dealings with us, namely, its completeness. “ Having loved His own which were in the world, He loved them unto the end.” Creative love, which placed man in the world, did not exhaust the goodness of God towards us: Redemptive love met him when he fell. And as if Redemptive love itself were not sufficient, Sanctifying love came in to fill up where Redemptive love seemed to lack. So it is with each single soul. God completes His work. And, indeed, we all need this following grace, this persistent love of God. Think how much misty and trouble come to us from past sins, attacking the heels of life. How many would faint and fail if God’ s grace did not follow them! “ The glory of the Lord shall be thy rereward” (Isaiah 58:8). “ Lord, we pray Thee that Thy grace may always prevent and follow us.” II. “And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” It is your hops and desire, and, please God, it will be your privilege, to dwell much in the house of the Lord. You will have frequently to go there, to plead the great Sacrifice. Day by day you will have to go into the Holy Place to offer the incense. It will be yours to kindle the lamp of a never-ceasing devotion, to place the Eucharistic Shewbread before the Lord. Make your life all temple, all part of the τεμένος, the sacred enclosure. Enlarge it towards the east, where we look for our Saviour’ s coming. Let it be a life of patient witness for God. Enlarge it towards the west, where the sun of our life is gently dipping towards the grave, in a life of preparedness. Enlarge it towards the north, on the frontier of Satan. Enlarge it towards the sunny south; take in many a piece of ground which is now covered by worldly occupations, business, or pleasure. “ I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. This should be our aim, to attain to the realisation of the life hid with Christ in God; and to this God is separating us off, that our sojourn with Him may be eternal. III. “The house of the Lord forever.” The days are coming when God Himself will measure the temple, His house, to see who are His, and who shall dwell in His tabernacle. It is the permanence of heaven that is one of its greatest joys in prospect. It is an abiding place, a mansion. There is no restoring there, no troubling there; no dark misty shade of death to chill the sunlight of the road. (W. C. E. Newbolt, M. A.) I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.--The Church as a home This text simply means, “ I will have a home in the house of the Lord forever.” Whatever temple or church or chapel stands to us for a centre or rallying place of our religions belief and life, we should cherish it as a sort of other home. Churches stand for the common brotherhood of all, and for kindness and helpfulness to all. What should be our relation to these Churches? A home that all value. We know what that means. We don’ t sit there all our time, but from thence we go forth to toil and struggle in the world. Then we return for life’ s innermost peace and friendliness, reposefulness, and renewal. Just so it is when we make the Church into a home--a “ dwelling place,” to use the Psalmist’ s words. Thither we go for the inspiration, fellowship, and renewal of that deeper life in us; thither we go as children gathering about the feet of the Great Father, to feel His presence and to feel it altogether, and thence we go forth to do our busiest and highest part in the world. That is the use of the Church. Not to be always in it. That was the old monkish idea. They desired to make it a permanent sacred enclosure, where God’ s saints might live out of the common world and so keep pure amid never-ceasing worship, or as nearly so as might be. But Christ teaches us a nobler idea, the idea of home and of active life in the world, and doing its work and busy in its interests; and religion, with a constant spirit setting up this other home of prayer and worship where we feel together peace, rest, refreshment, a common fellowship to the infinite life, and brotherhood to each other. So we renew life at the best part of it. Is it not true that the busier one’ s life and the more even its resting times are crowded with great interests, attractions, and engagements, the more is it necessary, in order to give the deeper, inner life a chance, to make a definite time and place for its development among life’ s regular engagements and duties? That is what you do by setting yourselves to have a church home. Some people do not know what pleasure there is even in the mere joining with others in the church. It may not be much they may be able to do or to give, but their sympathy, their encouragement openly declared, towards those who are struggling to keep some little church home going, is in itself a help. Anyone who thus joins in that fellowship of religious life gives a certain added strength and cheer to the whole body. Everyone who thus says to some little group of worshippers, “ I am not much, but such as I am I am with you,” helps them more than can be figured in any statistics. Himself!--That is the help I plead for, the help to oneself and the help to one’ s fellow creatures. Life needs this closer cohesion in its great thoughts and aims, this quiet home coming, as it were, of the single worshipper, this sense of having an anchorage in the midst of the wide, rushing stream of life. (Brooke Herford.) The Christian’ s dwelling place This “ house of the Lord,” observe, is on the other side of “ the valley of the shadow of death” ; and therefore it is just a description of heaven; and if the character of a shepherd sets forth the conduct of God towards His people while in this world, the character of a monarch sets forth His character towards them in the world to come. I. The scene referred to. “ The house of the Lord.”1. Because it is the scene of His familiar glory.2. Because it is the temple of His worship.3. As it is the palace of His kingdom.4. As it is the abode of His family. II. The assurance expressed by the Psalmist. “ I will dwell in it.”1. This language implies the assurance, on his part, of the existence of a state of future blessedness. Reason says there must be such a state; conscience says there is such a state. Hence men often lull their conscience; but there it is--they cannot destroy it, and ever and anon conscience speaks like thunder. Like some chemical characters, in certain temperatures they are illegible; but raise the temperature and they appear in all their reality. But apart from these considerations, let us come to the revelation of the Bible. Jesus taught immortality: no one taught it as He did; no one preached it as He preached it. He said, “ I am the resurrection and the life: he that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live; and whosoever liveth and believeth in Me shall never die.” 2. The extent of the Psalmist’ s assurance. He says, “ I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” He only sojourned in it here. Man is never satisfied here. There is quite enough here for the satisfaction of the animal; and the mere animal lives here in contentment, and takes its fill of happiness for its little inch of time. But not so man: man is a rational being. If he were a mere intellectual being, and nothing more, then he might dwell here. But man is not a mere intellectual being; he is a moral being, a spiritual being, and therefore he cannot dwell here. “ But in the house of the Lord,” says David, “ I will dwell forever.” “ I shall have enough there.” 3. The Psalmist’ s strong confidence of dwelling there “ forever.” This confidence rests in the promise of God, the finished work of the Redeemer and the sealing of the Holy Ghost. Let this prospect reconcile us in the midst of all affliction, if we be Christians, and let us prepare for that dwelling in the house of the Lord forever. (Joseph E. Beaumont, M. D.) The earthly and the heavenly sanctuary I. The Church below. This leads us to speak of the Sabbath, when the church is most resorted to. The solemn setting apart of places for divine worship is not of human device, but possesses all the sanctions which can be derived from the known will of our Creator. And thus when we assemble ourselves in the church we bring ourselves into the position in which God hath declared that by those who seek acquaintance with Himself He shall be found, and we are looking in the channels through which it is especially promised. II. The Church in heaven. But St. John says there is no temple in heaven. But what does that show but that men will be so changed there that churches such as we have known here will not be needed? You could not draw a richer picture of a regenerated earth than by just supposing such an extension of its Sabbaths as alone would render safe the removal of its churches. (Henry Melvill, B. D.) God’ s house the home of our hearts Is our Father’ s house so unwelcome and dreary a place that there can be any cause for keeping outside as long as the winds are gentle and the skies bright, and only going in when the rain comes and the clouds of night hang heavily in the heavens? Thank God, He does not refuse to let us in when we come to Him as our refuge in time of trouble; but it would surely be a better thing that He should be our “ dwelling place,” the home of our hearts, when our joy is perfect, and not merely the asylum of our wretchedness. (R. W. Dale.) . Psalms 24:1-10 Psalms 24:1-2 The earth is the Lord’ s and the fulness thereof.The earth the Lord’ s So the Psalmist in this place speaks of the Divine sovereignty and of the Divine purpose and programme. The Divine sovereignty--the earth is the Lord’ s, and the fulness thereof. God stretches out His sceptre over all places, all peoples, all events. However you parcel the earth out, He is the great Landlord and the Sovereign Ruler doing according to His will amongst the inhabitants of the earth. And the Psalmist tells us in this place on what this rests. God created it, and He sustains it. What a great deal you see in the world that your ancestors did not see, and what a great deal your children will see in it that you do not see! It is a mysterious world, with the fulness thereof. How there is wrapped up in the world unknown possibilities to be manifested in due season. When God created the world He did not leave it; He lives in the midst of the splendour He first created. He is evermore active in all the things of nature and of history. You build a palace, and it comes to ruin, but the earth never comes to ruin. You never have to put an iron band round the firmament to hold up the dome as they have put an iron band upon the dome of St. Peter’ s at Rome. Now, the Psalmist here tells how God seeks to accomplish His great purpose in the world that He created, the world that He maintains, the world that He redeemed. He hath founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the floods. What is that? That God, who is the Sovereign of this world, has a great purpose in its government, and He seeks to accomplish that purpose through endless mutability and conflict. Now, you see the very same thing when you look into nature. God has made this world in exactly the same way, and the tangible world, the planet itself, how has it come to pass? He called forth His Spirit, and His Spirit moved on the face of the waters. Movement, you see. So it was in that strange old world, out of movement, mutability, catastrophe, out of these seas and floods, that this lovely earth arose, as the Greeks fabled that Venus arose out of the foam of the sea. Why, you know the history of your planet now pretty well. You know, your fathers, when they wanted to explain the configuration of this planet, always used to talk about the flood and the deluge. Oh! the deluge explained a lot. But you know a great deal better. You have studied geology since then. Nowadays you do not talk about Noah’ s deluge having made the planet what it is. You push it a great deal further back than that. For all that went on in these revolutions have left their signs on the rocks. What terrific floods, what mighty deluges, what burnings, what ages of frost and glaciers, and through all that God never lost sight of His final purpose to make this planet into what you see it today--music, colour, fragrance--a great and delightful theatre of intellectual and spiritual life. He hath founded it upon the seas and established it upon the floods, and out of movement, unsettlement, change, it arose, the lovely planet that you see it today. And mind, it is always going on just the same today. One would think sometimes, to look at the earth, that it was asleep. But make no mistake about that. The one thing nature never will stand is immovability. She won’ t tolerate stagnation. They say that sometimes in the Pacific they have periods of absolute calm, and in a few days the very sea begins to rot, and the stench is insufferable. Nature won’ t stand it, she is full of unsettlement, full of movement, full of catastrophe. That is the way you keep the ocean pure, the atmosphere sweet, and the earth full of vitality. Now, I want to say to you that that is all just as true in the history of ourselves. If you will look down the history you will find that God has ever been active in the midst of the nations, always overturning that He may introduce a civilisation that is a shade better than the civilisation that preceded it. You never can make a nation fixed and permanent. The world from the beginning amongst the nations has been in a state of unrestfulness and changefulness. But I believe there never has been a change in this world but it has been for the better. Mind you, it often seems to a careless eye as if the world were going back, but whenever the critical period comes the best is always on the top. You go back in history to the great conflict, say, between the Greeks and Orientals, when there seemed a time that the Oriental world was likely to swamp Europe, when it was likely to destroy the civilisation of Greece, which was the promise of all future civilisations. But when the critical battle came the Greek was master of the situation. It was just the same again when you come to the great conflicts between the Romans and the Phoenicians. As you know perfectly well, there seemed a day when the Phoenician, with his dark superstitions, his terrible practices, was going to triumph; but when the ultimate time came, when the final battle was fought, the Roman was at the top, with his wiser, healthier, and nobler conceptions, ideals, and strivings. It was just the same again a little later when Mohammedanism came into contact with Europe, and the Moor was at the very gate of Vienna. It seemed as if the inferior civilisation was going to swamp the nobler, but God, who sat upon the face of the waters, said, “ Hitherto and no further,” and Mohammedanism was turned back, and it has been going back ever since. It has stopped a bit at Constantinople, but it will have to go. God has not made this world to go backwards. He has made it on the principle of a sure but ofttimes obscure development. Mind, I confess it looks as if it were not so. It seems sometimes as if we made a great deal of movement for positive retrogression. It looks so until we think about it. The world keeps going to pieces continually, and you never get anything fixed. But I am not going to lose sight of the fact that in the midst of instabilities and revolutions God is always quietly present. Always His end is to make men and nations pure and perfect. He has done it in the past; He will do it still. Why, you know well enough, in the fifth century--was it in the fifth or sixth?--a few fishermen laid the foundations of Venice in the slime of the lagoons. These men, with a few sticks and stones, began the creation, and as time went on there grew out of this slender and rude beginning the city of solemn temples, gorgeous palaces, the city of great painters, sculptors, and poets. And they built it out of the seas and established it upon the floods--the ideal city, the city dear to all lovers of the perfect. A few fishermen, in the first century, under the direction of the Master Builder, laid the foundations of a new world in the modern rottenness of the old civilisations, and now for 1900 years another building has been going on, the Church of Christ, the City of God, the Spiritual Venice. And mind, there is not a single movement in this world but aids it. There is no revolution but puts another bit of marble into it. He has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the floods, and I can stand sad see the whole world going to pieces with the utmost tranquillity, because I know that the destructive is also the constructive, and God never destroys unless He is going to build in its place something that is larger and more rational and more perfect. And all this is true of the individual life. Prepare yourselves for it. Just look at your lives. They have been one course of unsettlement, and it will be so until that man in white comes and reads over you that we never continue in one state. That is the way with us here. People imagine sometimes that they have got things pretty fairly square, that they have got things on a good basis, and that they are going to have a nice, tranquil time of it. Not a bit of it. He has built it upon the seas and founded it upon the floods. He will turn it over directly. You may be sure of that. When people marry and settle down, you sometimes hear people say, “ Oh! they are, married and settled now.” You fancy you have got things into shape. You don’ t know where the next change is to come from. But it will come. There is no settlement; but mind this, every time God unsettles you it is for a great moral end. There ought to be no change in your life which does not leave you stronger and purer. So look up, the world is not purposeless: no man’ s life is a chaos. With endless variation, contrast, conflict, and catastrophe God is with us, and He will bring it out well at last, because when I get to the last page of the Book I read, “ And there shall be no more sea.” (W. L. Watkinson.) God’ s mundane property and man’ s moral obligation I. His property.1. Its extent. The earth and its fulness (Psalms 24:1).2. Its foundation--creatorship. “ He hath founded it,” etc. (Psalms 24:2). II. Man’ s moral obligation.1. It urges him to be just. “ Will a man rob God?”2. To be humble.3. To be thankful. It is God that has given us ourselves, with all our capacities and means of improvement and of pleasure.4. To be acquiescent. God has a right to do what He likes with His own. Let the text be written on our hearts. It is engraved on the front of the Royal Exchange, but how few pause to read it, and fewer still ponder it in their hearts. (D. Thomas, D. D.) The earth and its fulness There was a time when every separate department of nature was supposed to have a separate deity ruling over it. Every nation, every district, every sphere of life, every profession, every trade had a god of its own. There was a time when each race and tribe acknowledged no god but one. Then there comes the conviction that the Power which all are in some form seeking after is one and the same everywhere. We never can pass from His dominions. I. The Divine presence in the world. It is His power and His presence which we behold around us. He hath created and preserveth all. The universe is itself a manifestation of Him; it is His garment, it is illuminated and aglow with the Divine presence. As with the earth, so with its fulness. Its products are irradiated With a heavenly glory. They, too, come from Him who is wise in counsel and excellent in working. The earth is given to the sons of men, that it may be subdued and cultivated, that its boundless treasures may be sought out and developed. There is no doubt a wrong way as well as a right way of availing ourselves of them. II. All things God’ s good gifts. If this can be said of meats and drinks, how much more may it be said of the manifold gifts with which the earth is ripe; the means placed at our disposal for the amelioration of human suffering, the lessening of toil, the advancement of knowledge, the increase of well-being in every shape and form. There was recently brought to light in Cornwall an old picture of our blessed Lord, in which His precious blood is represented as flowing over the various implements of industry--the reaping hook, the scythe, the shuttle, the cart--implying that by His incarnation all human labour has been sanctified, that everything wherewith we carry on the work of the home, or of the world, is cleansed and consecrated through the life and death of Christ; that in Him all things are gathered together in one, and are made meet to be laid upon the altar of God. (P. M’Adam Muir, D. D.) God’ s claims upon men There is a strong tendency in the present day to forget the immanence of God in creation. We do well to emphasise the constant dependence of the universe upon the preserving power of God. The Psalmist was wiser than the wisest atheistical philosopher when he declared that the earth is the Lord s, for He hath founded it. The more we learn of the Creator and His works the more must we realise His infinite wisdom and almighty power. They tell us that the propositions of the evolutionist, if true, obviate all necessity for a personal Creator. But there must have been a great creative plan or this universe could not have come into being, and behind that plan there must have been an Omniscient Personal Intelligence. To what extent have men realised, and do men realise today, the conception of the text? How far have they grasped the thought that the earth is the Lord’ s and they are His stewards? The Jew was vividly reminded of the truth by that strange institution, the “ Year of Jubilee.” It served to remind the whole nation that “ Jehovah was the Supreme Landlord under whom their tenure was held.” The Psalmist goes a step further when he declares not only that the earth is the Lord’ s, and the fulness thereof, but also “ the world and they that dwell therein.” Not merely because we are created beings do we belong to God. We have realised an immeasurably higher claim upon our service. It is created by His “ inestimable love in the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ,” --in a word, by the mercies of Calvary. How many of you thus recognise God’ s claim upon you in this definite manner? (Henry S. Lunn, M. D.) The earth is the Lord’ s The best of God’ s gifts are often those which are least valued. It is the same with truths as it is with things. Whenever a truth becomes very common, whenever, that is to say, it is put by Divine Providence into the minds of all, we begin to neglect it, and to forget that God should be praised for it. To one of these old and familiar, yet preeminently useful, truths attention is now directed. From the earliest dawn of our reason we were taught that God made us, that a Wise and Holy Being who loves us was our Creator and the Author of all that exists, and what we were taught we believed, and still believe. But while we may both know and believe this truth, nothing is more likely than that, owing to its very commonness and our familiarity with it, we may realise most inadequately the worth of it, and feel very little of that gratitude to God for the revelation of it which we ought to feel. It is not yet a truth known to all the peoples of the earth. It is not a truth which any man, if left to himself, would be sure or even likely to find out. Great men, giants in the intellectual world, have failed to attain to a clear knowledge of God as the alone Creator and Lord of nature. He who believes in God as the Creator and Ruler of the universe can be neither atheist, materialist, or pantheist. The faith in God as the Creator is the necessary basis of all higher spiritual faith.1. The world being recognised as the work and manifestation of God is thereby invested with a deep religious awe, a solemn religious significance. 2. It is a source of pure and holy joy from which we may draw whenever we look upon anything in nature that is fair and well-fitted to fulfil the end of its creation. 3. By thus sending men to nature as well as Scripture for their religion our text tends to give breadth and freedom to the religious character. 4. Only through realising our relation to nature can we realise our relation to God Himself. We owe all to God, and nothing is our own. (Robert Flint, D. D.) The truth of Divine providence 1. Though this is generally acknowledged in principle, it is departed from in practice. Only casual and transient thought is given to the never-ceasing care and kindness of Divine providence. 2. All the children of God have, in successive ages, proclaimed and deeply felt the truth of the providence of God. Many instances might be adduced from the lives and declarations of the patriarchs to prove that whether in prosperity or adversity the sense of God’ s providence was ever present, and His right of possession and disposal ever uppermost in their minds. 3. Practical reflections. The business of commercial life tends to corrupt the mind and the affections, to withdraw them from the Creator and to concentrate them on the creature. We learn the duty of gratitude for all those blessings which out of that fulness He has showered on us. Since the world and its fulness is God’ s and not ours, as He can give so He can take away. As God has distributed to us some part of the world’ s fulness, for the use and abuse of our trust we are responsible to Him. The text further declares that not only the “ earth is the Lord’ s, and the fulness thereof,” but also “ they that dwell therein.” “ All souls are Mine,” saith the Lord. (Henry Clissold, M. A.) The merchants of Britain I. Of the advantages of commerce.1. How vast it is. Its standard is planted upon the Andes and the Himalayas. The great Pacific and Atlantic seas are beaten white by our ships. From the ghauts of Malabar to the sands of Coromandel, from the steppes of the Cossack to the wilds of the Arab, from the Thames and the Mersey to the Mississippi and the Missouri, the commerce of Britain has extended its influence.2. This great commercial power has done some good. It has opened up new channels of intercourse with mankind. It has created links of sympathy and bonds of union where all was severance and estrangement before.3. It has gathered round it great homage and eclat.4. It is very successful.5. Of great importance to the State.6. Must ever be associated with agricultural power.7. Is one of the greatest securities against war. II. Its perils.1. Avarice.2. Considering everything from the trade point of view.3. Absorbing care.4. Reckless speculation.5. Pride.6. Forgetfulness of God. III. Its responsibilities.1. Merchants should acknowledge God.2. Seek to extend His kingdom.3. Remember they are but stewards of their wealth.4. Pity the poor.5. Spread the Gospel. (J. Cumming, D. D.) The religiousness of secular learning This title is not a happy one. “ Religiousness” seems to indicate, according to the conventional usage, a flimsy, fussy attention to the externals of religion, rather than a participation in the essential spirit of it. By the use of the adjective “ secular” you might suppose I draw the usual broad distinction between things sacred and profane. My question is this, What of religion of the religious spirit--is there about that which is usually called secular learning? By all other kinds of knowledge than the theological? When a man is studying languages, literature, or science, what is the attitude of the soul towards God? My doctrine is founded upon the principle asserted in the text. “ The fulness,” that is, all which makes it up, every particle and grain of which it is composed. All things are directly related to God as effects are to their cause, as phenomena to their basis, substance, or reality. They exist in Him and by Him.1. All secular learning is directly or indirectly religious, because it directly or indirectly brings us into contact with the mind of God as manifested in His works. When you have learned a fact in nature you have learned a thought of God. 2. Secular learning is directly religious in its tendencies, because it trains and educates the mind for the clearer and fuller comprehension of theological truth. (J. Cranbrook.) Psalms 24:3-4 Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? Climbing the mountain We may fairly compare the life of a Christian to the ascent of a mountain. Propose the text as a serious question. I. Some who answer “ we shall” are young beginners. They have not yet tried the rougher part of the mountain. Be not overconfident. There is a sense in which to be weak is to be strong, II. Others speak out of sheer ignorance. “ Oh,” say they, “ it is not far to heaven. It is a little thing to be a Christian. You have only to say, ‘ God be merciful to me,’ and the thing is done.” Oh, poor ignorant soul, your folly is too common. To the unaccustomed traveller, nothing is more deceptive than a lofty Alp. You think you can get to the top in half an hour, but find it a full day’ s journey. It is so with religion. III. Others think they have found a smooth road by which they may avoid all roughness. Take care, presumptuous soul, for the greener the path the greater the danger. IV. Others think they will be sure to ascend because of what they carry with them. This is the way in which the worldly-wise and self-sufficient talk, and those who are rich and cumbered with much serving in the world. V. But others seem very sad. Why mourn you? “ Oh,” say they, “ we shall never ascend the hill of God.” I should have thought you the very ones who would ascend. Why do you think you shall fail?1. One says: “ I am so weak, and the hill is so exceeding high. I can do nothing good. But God will help you. 2. I am so sorely tried, and the way is so rough.” But the road to heaven never was anything but rough, so you may be the more sure you are in the right way. 3. “ But I have been sorely tempted; and across my path there is a swollen torrent, and I cannot wade through it.” But the Lord knows how to deliver thee. In one of the wild valleys of Cumberland we were rained up for two or three days. The little brooks had been swollen until they roared like thundering rivers. But I noticed, when we did make the attempt, that the sheep which fed upon the mountain side could spring from stone to stone, rest a moment in the middle, while the angry flood rushed on either side, and then leap and spring again. I thought of the text, “ He maketh my feet like hind’ s feet.” 4. “ But I have lost my way altogether, I cannot see a step before me; a thick fog of doubt and fear hangs over me.” We too have passed through such fogs. Let him not fear but trust in the Lord. 5. “ But my woe is worse. I have been going down hill. My faith is not as strong as it was; my love has grown cold; my depravity has burst out. I am sure it is all over with me,” In climbing a mountain it often occurs that the path winds downward for a season, But Christians never mount better than when they descend. 6. “ But I am in such danger. I fear I shall fall.” When a Christian looks down it is likely to make his head swim. Look up! The Scripture does not bid us run our race looking at our own tottering legs, but “ looking unto Jesus.” VI. Look at the man who is able to ascend the hill of the Lord.1. He is well shod.2. Girt about his loins,3. He has a strong staff.4. And a guide.5. He marks the way. And oh! the joy when the sunset is reached. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The message of the Ascension Psalms On its historical side the Ascension of Christ is an event of surpassing grandeur and sublimity. It is an event without parallel in the history of mankind. For the Ascension of Christ rises far beyond the translations of Enoch or Elijah. His ascension was the ascension of a risen and immortal man, of a spiritualised and glorified body. It was therefore a perfectly unique and unparalleled event. This historic fact, applied to ourselves, penetrating our inmost being, conquering our wills, directing our motives, stirring our thoughts, exalting our actions--this, and this alone, is of redeeming service and eternal consequence. One of the greatest needs of our age is this applied Christianity; this application of historic, doctrinal religion to daily righteousness. We want the life of Christ imputed to us; and imputed, not by some ecclesiastical or juridical fiction, but in a plain, honest, practical way--the way of faith shown forth by works. What a poor paltry thing our modern respectable Christianity too often is! The Christianity of the Gospel is real and glorious. It begins with the cradle, and does not end with the grave. It has no will except the will of God. What is the message of the two Ascension Psalms (24; 25.)? Their first message is of Christ. That message was primarily and historically fulfilled when Christ Himself passed through the heavens. But the message is not concerning Christ alone. It concerns every Christian in so far as his character and conduct are fashioned after the model of Christ, his redeeming Lord. For as with the Resurrection, so also with the Ascension of Christ. He is the first fruits; afterwards all that are His. His ascension is the pledge and guarantee of our final ascension. Why did Christ our Lord ascend? The Psalmist answers: “ Because He had clean hands and a pure heart.” Because Christ was perfect in heart and life; it was impossible for Him to be holden of death or of earth, Not only because He was perfect Son of God, but also because He was perfect son of man, He ascended into the heavens. His Ascension was accomplished by the force of a Divine and spiritual necessity--a spiritual necessity engendered by His absolute and unblemished righteousness. As fire ascends towards the sun by a natural law, so by a spiritual law goodness ascends towards God. What is true of Christ in perfection is also true of every Christian in part. All who, in humble faith, imitate His character will, by virtue of the same spiritual necessity which compelled His Ascension, themselves also at length ascend whither He has gone before to prepare a place for them. We must earnestly endeavour to practise the character and imitate the conduct of Christ before we can hope to follow in the shining path of His glorious exaltation. Ascension in heart and mind, in conversation and conduct, must be the forerunners of final, bodily ascension. (Canon Diggle.) Who shall ascend Sometimes the question is asked merely from idle curiosity. Sometimes with a sigh of hopelessness, in sheer despair. See the answer of the Psalm. Not only outward morality, but inward purity. His walk, his work, and his conversation must all be absolutely pure; he must be able to bridle his tongue, as well as keep his heart pure. The text comes to us on Ascension Day to tell of one who has climbed this hill. It is because He has gone up before us that we too are able to enter into that heavenly hill. He has ascended up on high, as our great forerunner. This day’ s truth once more inspires us with courage. (E. A. Stuart, M. A.) A great question, and its answer This introductory question, sung as the procession climbed the steep, had realised what was needed for those who should get the entrance that they sought, and comes to be a very significant and important one. I. The question of questions. It lies deep in all men’ s hearts, and underlies sacrifices and priesthoods and asceticisms of all sorts. It sometimes rises in the thoughts of the most degraded, and it is present always with some of the better and nobler of men. It indicates that, for life and blessedness, men must get somehow to the side of God, and be quiet there, as children in their father’ s house. The universal consciousness is, that this fellowship with God, which is indispensable to a man’ s peace, is impossible to a man’ s impurity. So the question raises the thought of the consciousness of sin which comes creeping over a man when he is sometimes feeling after God, and seems to batter him in the face and fling him back into the outer darkness. That this question should rise and insist upon being answered as it does proves these three things--man’ s need of God, man’ s sense of God’ s purity, man’ s consciousness of his own sin. The “ ascent of the hill of the Lord” includes all the present life, and all the future. II. The answer to this great question. The Psalm contains the qualifications necessary. They are four. They mean, “ Holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord.” An impossible requirement is laid down, broad and stern and unmistakable. But is that all? Read on in Psalm, “ He shall receive a blessing from the Lord, and righteousness from the God of his salvation.” So then, the impossible requirement is made possible as a gift to be received. In Jesus Christ there is the new life bestowed that will develop the righteousness far beyond our reach. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) The soul’ s cry and the true response I. The soul’ s cry. “ Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord?” The spirit of this question is, how is fellowship with the great God to be attained? This state of fellowship with God is the great want of human souls. It is--1. A very elevated state. It is the highest state of moral being. A soul in communion with God is high up above the mists, impurities, and tumults of worldly life. 2. A very holy state. Communion with Him is the holiest condition of souls. 3. A very desirable state. All should ascend, but what is the qualification for ascending? Of all the desirable things in life there is nothing so desirable for man as fellowship with God. For this his nature craves. II. The true response.1. The way of reaching this state. (1) Moral cleanness. A man may be clean handed so far as the eyes of men are concerned, and black hearted to the eyes of God. The clean hands must be hands washed by the pure sentiments, motives, and aims of a holy heart. The means-- (2) Moral reality, 2. The blessedness of reaching this state. “ He shall receive the blessing from the Lord.” This blessing includes all others--loving fellowship with himself, and the possession of conscious and divinely recognised rectitude of character. (Homilist.) The one requirement Who may ascend, was a picturesquely appropriate question for singers toiling upwards; and “ who may stand?” for those who hoped presently to enter the sacred presence. The ark which they bore had brought disaster to Dagon’ s temple, so that the philistine lords had asked in terror, “ Who is able to stand before this holy Lord God?” And at Beth-Shemesh its presence had been so fatal that David had abandoned the design of bringing it up, and said, “ How shall the Ark of the Lord come to me?” The answer which lays down the qualifications of true dwellers in Jehovah’ s house may be compared with the similar outlines of ideal character in Psalms 15:1-5 and Isaiah 33:14. The one requirement is “ purity.” Here that requirement is deduced from the majesty of Jehovah, as set forth in verses 1, 2, and from the designation of His dwelling as “ holy.” But this is the postulate of the whole Psalter. In it the approach to Jehovah is purely spiritual, while the outward access is used as a symbol; and the conditions are of the same nature as the approach. The general truth implied is, that the character of the God determines the character of the worshippers. Worship is supreme admiration, culminating in imitation. Its law is always, “ They that make them are like unto them; so is everyone that trusteth in them.” A god of war will have warriors, and a god of lust sensualists for his devotees. The worshippers in Jehovah’ s holy place must be holy. The details of the answer are but the echoes of a conscience enlightened by the perception of His character. In verse 4 it may be noted that of the four aspects of purity enumerated, the two central refer to the inward life (pure heart; lifts not his desire unto vanity), and these are embedded, as it were, in the outward life of deeds and words. Purity of act is expressed by “ clean hands,” --neither red with blood nor foul with grubbing in dunghills for gold and other so-called good. Purity of speech is condensed into the one virtue of truthfulness (swears not to a falsehood). But the outward will only be right if the inward disposition is pure, and that inward purity will only be realised when desires are carefully curbed and directed. As is the desire, so is the man. Therefore the prime requisite for a pure heart is the withdrawal of affection, esteem, and longing from the solid-seeming illusions of sense. “ Vanity” has, indeed, the special meaning of idols, but the notion of earthly good apart from God is more relevant here. In verse 5 the possessor of such purity is represented as receiving “ a blessing, even righteousness,” from God, which is by many taken to mean beneficence on the part of God, “ inasmuch as, according to the Hebrew religious view of the world, all good is regarded as reward from God’ s retributive, righteousness, and consequently as that of man’ s own righteousness or right conduct” (Hupfeld). The expression is thus equivalent to “ salvation” in the next clause. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Character fitness for worship The occasion of this Psalm is one of the grandest and most illustrious that anywhere occurs in history. By the phrases of ascending into the hill of God and standing in His holy place, the Psalmist would point out the persons who are to be admitted to worship God in His temple. In ascertaining the qualifications of the citizens of the spiritual Jerusalem the Psalmist does not so much as mention the external observances, the costly and laborious rites of the ceremonial law, but dwells alone on the great and essential duties of morality, which are of universal and eternal obligation. The qualifications here are those of the heart and of the life. “ Clean hands and a pure heart.” It is not enough that we wash our hands in innocency before men: we must be pure in heart before the eyes of infinite perfection. True religion is religion of the heart; it is a principle dwelling in the mind, that extends its influence through the whole man, and regulates the life. Unless our religion enter the heart we have no religion at all. We can never attain to the true beauties of holiness unless, like the king’ s daughters, we be all glorious within. A life sacred to devotion and virtue, sacred to the practice of truth and undefiled religion, joined to a heart pure, pious, and benevolent, constitute an offering more acceptable at the altars of the Most High God than whole hecatombs of burnt offerings and a thousand hills of frankincense in a flame. (J. Logan, F. R. S. E.) Character developed by association As soon as spirit touches spirit there springs up between them a relationship which we call moral. Whatever rightly flows from such spiritual contact is morally good. It is in the intercourse of human society that man proves himself to be a moral being. Faith, by admitting us into fresh contact with God and with our fellows, by endowing us with new relationships that have become ours through our inclusion within the new humanity, even the body of Christ, has necessarily laid upon us new moral obligations, responsibilities, and functions, all of which spring out of the very nature of our corporate faith. If we would determine the lines and features of the Christian temper and character we must look to the nature of that great fellowship into which we have been called. The Christian character asked of us is that habit, that activity, which must follow on our acceptance within the assembly of the first born, within the city of God. Whatever that acceptance makes desirable and natural, that is good and that is holy. The Church is a moral conception, a moral condition, by which we are to determine character. I. The Church is a household. What are the virtues essential to a household such as our Lord pictures, an organised kingdom of work? Fertile activity. The character will be forthcoming, energetic, stirring. The household demands activity of character, and it asks for a skilled and trained activity. What type and rule of character is suggested by-- II. The Church as a family. It is a nursery and school of virtue. A family produces a character of courtesy, a sensitive recognition of varying characteristics, a delicate sense of others’ rights. It instills self-repression, self-control, honour for one another, esteem of one another, the stooping of the strong to the weak. Negative self-repression will learn to give itself positive outflow in sympathy, tenderness, and affection. III. The Church as a body. What stamp does that great conception set upon character? It adds one peculiar note, the note of witness. A body is in essence the evidence, the proof, the pledge of that which acts through it. Its sole function throughout all its parts is to make manifest that secret presence which animates and directs it. The Christian who is of the body has mission, has vocation. He is there on earth to declare the name, to manifest the glory of God. The Christian character must therefore be stamped with the seal of mission. IV. The Church as a temple. There is to be positive beauty in the Christian character, It is to be full of delicate and lovely refinement. There is to be a touch upon it of grace, a charm of majesty and consecration. A character built up out of purity and love will have about it also the sense of mystery, the spirit of the temple. Purity and mystery, the temple gifts, where are they? Where are they in us, in our lives, so mixed, so unpurged, and so worldly? Not until we are more evidently of the body and of the temple will men be able to recognise and confess, “ this is the generation of them that seek Him, that seek Thy face, O Jacob!” (Canon H. Scott Holland.) Even he that hath clean hands and a pure heart.--The pure in heart High up among some lofty mountains you may at some time have been surprised and delighted by the sudden and unlooked for discovery of a crystal-like lake, nestling cosily amid giant cliffs, or hemmed in and well-nigh hidden from you by a forest of solemn and majestic pines or cedars. By day its placid surface reflected with dazzling splendour the sun’ s effulgence; while in the night the lovelier and more subdued glories of the moon and stars were so clearly reflected that the lake seemed transformed into a crystal setting which held these shining, jewels. In like manner is the Psalmist’ s assertion of the text but the reflection of that which has ever been in the mind of the Creator, and which later on was enunciated by the God-man in the beatitude, “ Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” But why such stress upon this virtue of purity? Because-- I. Impurity is the sin God most hates. In proof, see what brought on the Flood, the destruction of Sodom, and the most terrible punishments which came on God’ s people. In the history of nations purity, preeminence, and power go together. Let a nation throw down the statue of Purity and it sounds its own death-knell. II. A pure heart purifies all that it approaches. It is so even with the most ferocious natures, and so it is with human beings. A corrupt heart draws out in an hour all that is bad in us; a spiritual one brings out, and draws to itself, all that is best and purest. Such was Christ. He stood in the world the tight of the world, to which all rays of light gradually gathered. He stood in the presence of impurity, and men became pure. III. We who are God’ s children must seek to become and to be like Him. As light can have no fellowship with darkness, so can there be no fellowship between us and Him who is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity. Impurity has on the spiritual man precisely the same effect that paralysis has on the physical man. The sin of impurity severs us from Christ. IV. How may we win this purity of heart? We would say--1. Stand out firmly against evil thoughts and imaginations. A man’ s heart may become so foul that purity refuses any longer to be its guest. Then Satan has won the battle. 2. Be careful as to the influence of your companions. 3. Also be careful as to what you read. Books often blunt the moral sense. Dwell often upon the spotless purity of the Creator, and of the Master while upon earth. Pray daily for grace and power to hate everything that can take away from the whiteness and cleanness of your soul, and to guard against it. (Henry Mottet.) Spiritual catharsism This new term, derived from a Greek word signifying purity, has been invented by Mr. Tomlinson to distinguish between ordinary and chemical cleanliness; for the two things are not by any means the same, We imagine that our bodies, when we haw thoroughly washed them, are perfectly free from all impurity; but the chemist proves to us by convincing experiments that, though we wash ourselves with snow water, and make our hands never so clean, we are still unclean. We cannot be made chemically clean by any process which would not injure or destroy us. The slightest exposure to the air--the great receptacle of all impurities--covers our skin with a greasy organic film, which pollutes every substance with which we come into contact. It is well known that the process of crystallisation in chemical solutions is set going by the presence of some impurity, in the shape of motes or dust particles, which act as nuclei around which the salts gather into crystals. But if the solution be protected from all floating impurities by a covering of cotton wool, which filters the air, it may be kept for any length of time at a low temperature without crystallising. A glass rod that is made chemically clean by being washed with strong acids or alkalis, such as sulphuric acid or caustic potash, can be put into the solution without exciting any change in it; but the smallest touch of what the most fastidious would call clean fingers starts at once the process of crystallisation, thus showing that the fingers are not truly clean. Nature is exceedingly dainty in her operations. Unless the agents we employ are stainlessly pure they will not produce the results which we naturally expect from them. Thus, for instance, if we scrape a few fragments from a fresh surface of camphor, and allow them to fall on water that is newly drawn from the cistern tap, into a chemically clean vessel, they will revolve with great rapidity, and sweep over the surface. But if the vessel, before being filled, has been rubbed and polished with a so called clean cloth, or if the water has stood awhile, or if a finger has been placed in it, the particles of camphor will lie perfectly motionless; thus proving that, however clean the cloth or the vessel or the finger may seem, an impurity has been imparted which prevents the camphor from exhibiting its strange movements. Or to adopt a more familiar experiment: if we pour a quantity of lemonade, or any other aerated fluid, into a glass which seems to be perfectly clean and bright, the lemonade will at once effervesce and form bubbles of gas on the sides of the glass. But if we first wash the glass with some strong acid or alkali, and then rinse it thoroughly with fresh water newly drawn, we may pour the lemonade into it and no bubbles will be seen. The reason is, that in the former case the glass was not really clean, and the impurities present acted as nuclei in liberating gas. But in the latter case the glass was really clean, and so could no longer liberate the gas from the liquid. Could we keep it clean we might stir the liquid a whole day and no sparkle would be raised. So, then, in common things, and yet more in spiritual, our utmost purity is a mere relative or comparative thing. We are never really clean. Our idea of purity and God’ s idea are two very different things. See Job’ s confession, “ Now, mine eye seeth Thee; wherefore,” etc. The physical fact is but a faint image of the moral; and chemistry, in showing us the wonderful purity of nature’ s operations, gives a new meaning and a deeper emphasis to the declarations of Scripture that nature’ s God is “ of purer eyes than to behold iniquity.” But to some men the infinite purity of God is a mere proposition exciting no emotion in the soul, a mere scientific truth like the chemist’ s talk about cleanliness. To another it is the most intense of all experiences, stirring and transforming the whole nature. Impurity in natural things is caused by waste, disintegration, or combustion, When objects have served their purpose in one form they become effete, and therefore impure. Running water is living water, and therefore is sweet and pure; but whenever it becomes stagnant it loses its life, begins to putrefy, and becomes foul and unwholesome. A rock is called a live rock so long as it is hard and sound in the quarry, “ glistens like the sea waves, and rings under the hammer like a brazen bell,” but whenever it is cut out of the quarry and exposed to the air it begins to lose the life that kept its particles together, and crumbles into dust. In its native bed the rock is pure, but when it is weathered by exposure it forms the mud of the highway, or the dust that pollutes everything by its presence. The clay and soil of our fields are caused by the oxidation or burning of pure metals; are, in fact, the ashes of metal’ s. The dirt that cleaves to our footsteps, as the emblem of all impurity, is produced by the disintegration of the brightest metals or the most sparkling jewels. We say of a tree, that it is living when it is growing and putting forth foliage and fruit, and in this state it is pure and beautiful; but whenever it ceases to grow it dies, and decay begins, and it harbours all sorts of abominable things, the products of corruption. Everywhere throughout nature impurity is caused by objects ceasing to preserve the natural life that is in them, ceasing to serve the purpose for which they were created. And so is it with man. Impurity in him is caused by the loss of spiritual life. He has broken the law and order of his existence, and his whole nature has disintegrated in an atmosphere of sin. And just as mica is the first product of the purest crystal when it is broken down from the law of its creation, so all impurity in man is the vile product--the rust, as it were--of a nature made in the image of God, through its corruption--that is, as the word implies, its breaking up together by sin. Separated from God, his rock, he has suffered decay in all his parts. Ceasing to grow and abide in the Tree of Life, he has been cast forth as a branch and is withered, the prey of vile lusts and morbid vanities. And this is true of all men. Yet all men are not alike. Many feel incapable of the vices which they see committed around them. But such moral purity as we see in some individuals, causing them to thank God in their hearts that they are not as other men, is like ordinary cleanliness as compared with chemical cleanliness. We think our hands, or a glass of water, or a tablecloth clean; they certainly seem to be pure and spotless; our senses can detect no defilement in them, and for the common purposes of life they may be sufficiently clean. But when we submit them to the test of chemical experiment we find out the hidden impurities, and understand how widely different our notions of cleanliness are from the absolute truth. Chemical cleanliness, I have said, is produced by washing vessels and substances that are employed in experiments in strong sulphuric acid, or with a strong solution of caustic potash, and then rinsing with water. Analogous to these powerful appliances are the means which God often employs to produce moral purity, those chastenings of the flesh and crucifixions of the spirit which are not joyous but grievous. He sends sickness, that wears out the body; trouble, that racks the mind; and sorrow, that takes all the relish out of life. He mortifies self-seeking by disappointment, and humbles pride by failure. He makes lust its own scourge, and the idolatry of the heart its own punishment. By all these searching and terribly energetic purifiers, that corrode the soul as sulphuric acid does the body, He helps forward outwardly the Spirit’ s work of renewing in the heart. His will is our sanctification. But it needs the burning heat of severe, oft-repeated, and long-protracted trial, working together with God’ s Spirit, to evaporate the incongruous elements of sin and sense that make us impure, and to build up the pure transparent crystal of Christian simplicity. And this process is ever going on,--and amid the common exposures of our daily work. Not out of the world, but in the world, are found the disciplines which purify the soul. (Hugh Macmillan, D. D.) The qualifications for our heavenly ascension This Psalm is associated with the removal of the ark of the Lord to the temple which stood on Mount Zion. It sets forth those who should be regarded as qualified to ascend Mount Zion, and take part in the proceedings of that memorable day. I. Clean hands. The Jews attached great importance to clean hands, especially before eating and worshipping. In the literal sense, clean hands may not be regarded as a necessary qualification for Christians in order to their admission to the true holy place, which is heaven, but rather what clean hands typify and represent in a spiritual sense. Our hands are the representatives of our actions. Therefore clean hands, to us Christians, would mean what we understand by stainless conduct. They mean lawful and right, honest and irreproachable actions. Our hands, our practical conduct, must be clean, morally unstained, undefiled, if we are to follow in the track of Christ’ s ascension. II. A pure heart. The character of a man’ s heart determines, above all things, his standing in the sight of God, his fitness to see God. Clean hands without a pure heart, an outward stainless life without the inward spirit of purity, will not suffice to admit a man to the holy place of God’ s presence. What is a pure heart? It means that the fountain source of a man’ s nature, from which flow all the streams of his life, is unpolluted by sensual lusts, by forbidden passions, by foul imaginations, or by anything whatever that is morally unclean. By a pure heart is meant not simply a chaste heart, but an altogether uncorrupt heart, of which chastity is only one of many forms. III. Hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity. Hebrew, “ hath not set his heart upon a thing of nought.” Not fixed his heart upon things whose intrinsic value is worthless; such things as money, titles, society, worldly knowledge, earthly treasures, and the pleasures of this life. He does not set his affections on things of the earth. He does not allow them to take that place in his heart which is due to God, and to God only. IV. Nor sworn deceitfully. By this is meant swearing falsely, taking an oath to a lie. The man who shall stand in God’ s holy place must be a “ man of truth” ; a man like Nathaniel, in whom there is no guile, no artfulness, no pretence, no insincerity, no hypocrisy, no unreality, no untruth in any shape whatever. He must also be true “ in the inward parts,” in his motives, aims, intentions, and aspirations. Ascending to heaven is a matter of spiritual character. Then who, among ordinary mortals, is really qualified for ascending to heaven? All that we can do is to keep the standard daily before our eyes, and do our honest best to reach it as far as possible. The life we are now living day by day may be an ascending life, ever moving upward, heavenward, Christ-ward. (H. G. Youard.) Psalms 24:5 And righteousness from the God of his salvation. God’ s blessing of righteousness The first glance at these words might suggest that they told us one of the rewards which the man who had fulfilled the preceding requirements received from God. But that would he but a poor thing to say; there would neither be gospel nor logic, as it seems to me, in it. For, according to that, all that was said here would simply be that, if a man would make himself righteous, God would then make him righteous; that if a man cleansed his heart, and got his hands pure and his soul fixed upon God and his lips truthful, then, after that, God would give him righteousness, which, by the hypothesis, he has already got. I do not think that is the meaning of the words, both because such a meaning would destroy the sequence of thought, and because a man cannot so make himself righteous at all. It is more natural to take these words as carrying on the description of the man who is fit to stand in the holy place, than as introducing the new thought of certain other blessings which the righteous man of the previous verse receives. So regarded, we have a deep thought here in answer to the unspoken doubt which must needs arise on hearing such conditions. One can well fancy the hearer replying, your statement of qualifications is only a round-about way of saying No one: how can I or anybody attain these requirements? If these be necessary, we may as well loiter in the flowery vales below as toil up only to see Alps on Alps arise, and the temple shining far above us, inaccessible after all. But if we rightly grasp the sequence of thought here, we have here the blessed truth that God’ s impossible requirements are God’ s great gifts. We may put that as the second great principle in these verses: the men who are pure receive purity as a gift from God. God will give righteousness. That means here outward and inner purity, or, in effect, the sum of the qualifications already insisted on. That is a grand thought, though it sounds strange to some men, that moral condition--a certain state of heart and mind--can be given to a man. Many people dismiss such a hope as an illusion, and smile at such a gospel as an impossibility. So it is for us. We can but try to bring motives and influences to bear on one another which may tend to shape character. But God can work on the springs of thought and will, and can put into our hearts purity and righteousness, however alien and remote they may be from our natural dispositions and from our past lives. Another great truth here is, that God can put into a man’ s heart someone germinal principle which shall develop and flower out into all graces and purities and beauties of character: all these things that make up the qualifications, they can all be given to a man in germ from God’ s own hand. Still further, these words imply that righteousness, in the sense of purity and holiness, is salvation. “ He shall receive righteousness from the God of his salvation.” David did not merely think of salvation as merely temporal deliverance, and we are not to think of mere deliverance from external punishment or some material hell as exhausting its meaning, but to understand that the main part of salvation is that God shall impart to us Himself, and fill our souls with His righteousness. But we have to remember that all this is made a great deal more plain to us in Jesus Christ. He comes and brings to us a righteousness by which we shall be made pure if we will only love Him and trust Him, and in our hearts there will bloom and grow the exotics of holy and virtuous character, and our lives will be fragrant with the precious fruits of holy and virtuous conduct. By the implanting within us of His own Spirit, by the new life kindred with His own, which we thence derive, of which righteousness is the very life breath--for, as Paul says, “ The renewed spirit is life because of righteousness” --as well as by the mere ordinary means of bringing new and powerful motives to holiness, by the attraction of His own example, and by love which moulds to likeness, Christ gives us righteousness, and implants at least the germ of all purity. The last thought here is--the men who receive righteousness are the men who seek it from God. “ This is the generation of them that seek Him, that seek Thy face,” and, as the last words ought to be rendered, “ this is Jacob, the true Israel.” So then there is an answer to another unspoken question that might arise. The question might still remain--How am I to get this great gift? The Psalmist believed in a heart of love so deep and so Divine that there Was nothing more needed in order to get all the fulness of His righteousness and purity into our stained spirits, but simply to ask for it. To desire is to have, to seek is to possess, to wish is to be enriched with all this purity. And we know how, beyond the Psalmist’ s anticipations and the prophet’ s hopes, that great giving love of God has drawn near to man, in the unspeakable gift of His dear Son, in whom the most sinful amongst us has righteousness, and the weakest amongst us has strength. And we know how the one condition which is needed in order that there should pour down into our foul hearts the cleansing flood of His granted righteousness, is simply that we should be willing to accept, that we should desire to possess, and that we should turn to Christ and get from Him that which He gives. In this world things of little worth have to be toiled for. Nothing for nothing is the inexorable law in the world’ s markets, but God sells without money and without price. Life and the air which sustains it are gifts. We have to work for smaller things. In the sweat of our brow we have to win the bread that perishes, but the bread of life “ the Son of Man will give unto us,” and of it we have but to “ take and eat.” “‘ Tis only heaven can be had for the asking, ‘ Tis only God that is given away.” Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter. Men have been asking all through the ages, “ Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord?” They have built for themselves Babels “ that their tops might reach heaven,” but it has been all in vain. You have tried to climb. Your progress has been slow, like that of some crawling insect upon some smooth surface--an inch in advance with immense pains, and then a great slide backwards. But heaven bends down to us, and Christ puts down the palm of His hand, if I may say so, and bids us step on to it, and so bears us up on His hands. We shall not rise without our own efforts and many a hard struggle, but He will give us the power to struggle, and the certainty that we shall not set a stout heart to a steep hill in vain. So put away your hopelessness, and cease your painful toils. “ Say not in thine heart who shall ascend into heaven--the word is nigh thee,” --even the word of promise that trusting to Christ, and filled with His strength, we shall mount up with wings as eagles. The conditions may seem hard and even impossible, amounting to a perpetual sentence of exclusion from the presence of God, and therefore from light and well-being. But be of good cheer. If you hunger and thirst after righteousness you shall be filled. Seek God in Christ, and then, though nothing that has not wings can reach the steep summit, you will have the wings of faith and love budding on your shoulders with which you may reach it, and be invested by your righteous Saviour with that “ fine linen, clean and white, which is the righteousness of saints,” arrayed in which you will be fit to pass into the secret place of the Most High, and to dwell for evermore in the blaze of that pure Light. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) The gift of righteousness Among the Mexican Catholics there used to be great anxiety to provide themselves with a priest’ s cast-off robe to be buried in. These were begged or bought as the greatest of treasures; kept in sight or always at hand to remind them of approaching death. When their last hour drew near this robe was flung over their breasts and they died happy, their stiffening fingers grasping its folds. The robe of Christ’ s righteousness is not provided for the dying hour merely, for the hasty investiture of the spirit when about to be ushered into the presence of the King. Psalms 24:7-8 Lift up your heads, O ye gates.The ascension of Christ It is generally admitted by expositors that these words have a secondary, if not a primary, reference to the return of the Mediator to heaven, when He had accomplished the work of human redemption. Bishop Horsley affirms that the Jehovah of this Psalm must be Christ; and the entrance of the Redeemer into the kingdom of His Father is the event prophetically announced. But you will say, Are we to rejoice in the departure of our Lord from His Church? Suppose that Christ had not been exalted to the right hand of God, would not the supposition materially affect our spiritual condition? The resurrection of Christ was both the proof and consequence of the completeness of His mediatorial work. If He had remained in the grave we could only have regarded Him as a man like one of ourselves: we could not have looked on Him as our substitute. It is easy to certify ourselves of the indispensableness of the resurrection, but why may not the risen Mediator remain with His Church? We reply, the reception of our nature, in the person of our surety, into heavenly places, was necessary to our comfort and assurance. So long as Christ remained on earth there was no evidence that He had won for our nature readmission to the paradise from which it had been exiled. If He had not returned to the Father we must always have feared that our redemption was incomplete. The plan of redemption was designed to reveal to the world the Trinity of the Godhead. There could not have been the thorough manifestation of the Divinity of the Son had not Christ ascended up on high. His ascension and exaltation may well furnish us with great matter of rejoicing. (H. Melvill, B. D.) The two ascensions of Christ “ The King of glory” is our Lord Jesus Christ, as we acknowledge Him every morning in the Te Deum, “ Thou art the King of glory, O Christ.” He is the King of glory, the Giver and Owner of life and glory; the Brightness of His Father’ s glory and the express Image of His Person. That holy Son had on the day of His incarnation emptied Himself of His glory for a while, and had become like unto the meanest of His creatures. On the day of His crucifixion He offered up all His humiliation, for a sacrifice to His Father; on His resurrection day He showed Himself ready to take His glory again; and on this ascension day He actually took it. The King of glory is Christ the Lord of Hosts, and the gates which He commands to be opened to Him are the gates of heaven--the gates of His own chief city, to which He is returning as David returned to Jerusalem, after His triumphant warfare against His and our enemies. He returns, as the Lord mighty in battle, having bruised Satan under His feet, first in His temptation, then in His passion on the Cross, lastly in His descent into hell. And as David came accompanied by his guards and soldiers, who had been fighting on his side, and could not but rejoice, as faithful and dutiful subjects, in their king’ s victory; so the Psalm represents the Son of David returning to the Father’ s right hand with a guard of angels; who, as they come near the holy and awful gate, cry aloud and say, “ Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors.” But why is the song repeated? Why are the everlasting gates invited to lift up their heads a second time? We may not pretend, here or in any place, to know all the meaning of the Divine Psalms. But what if the repetition of the verse was meant to put us in mind that our Saviour’ s ascension will be repeated also? He will not indeed die any more; death can no more have any dominion over Him; “ there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin.” Neither, of course, can He rise again any more. But as He will come again at the end of the world, to judge the quick and the dead, so after that descent He will have to ascend again. Now observe the answer made this second time. Christ ascending the first time, to intercede for us at His Father’ s right hand, is called “ the Lord mighty in battle.” But Christ, ascending the second time, after the world hath been judged, and the good and bad separated forever, is called “ the Lord of Hosts.” Why this difference in His Divine titles? We may reverently take it, that it signifies to us the difference between His first and second coming down to earth, His first and second ascension into heaven. As in other respects His first coming was in great humility, so in this, that He came in all appearance alone. The angels were indeed waiting round Him, but not visibly, not in glory. “ He trod the wine press alone, and of the people there was none with Him.” He wrestled with death, hell, and Satan alone: alone He went up into heaven. Thus He showed Himself “ the Lord mighty in battle,” mighty in that single combat. But when He shall come down and go up the second time, He will show Himself “ the Lord of Hosts.” Instead of coming down alone, in mysterious silence, as in His wonderful incarnation, He will be followed by all the Armies of heaven. “ The Lord my God will come, and all His saints with Him.” “ The Lord cometh with ten thousand of His saints.” Thus He will come down as the Lord of Hosts, and as the Lord of Hosts He will ascend again to His Father. After the judgment He will pass again through the everlasting doors, with a greater company than before; for He will lead along with Him, into the heavenly habitations, all those who shall have been raised from their graves and found worthy. This is Christ’ s second and more glorious ascension, in which He will be visibly and openly accompanied by the souls and bodies of the righteous, changed and made glorious, like unto His glorious body. The angels and saints will come with Him from heaven, and both they and all good Christians will return with Him thither. (J. Keble.) The three processions I. The primary reference of the text. See the account of the removal of the ark from the house of Obed-Edom to Jerusalem. II. The similar scene in the New Testament. The triumphal procession on palm Sunday. That procession could boast but few circumstances of dignity and majesty. III. The spiritual passage of Christ by faith into the stronghold of the heart of man.1. The heart is susceptible of comparison in many particulars with the literal city of Jerusalem. 2. The remedy is to be found in admission of Christ into the heart. He alone can thoroughly cleanse the desecrated temple. 3. Therefore lay aside your pride and self-righteousness, and become Christ’ s disciples. IV. The second advent is hastening forward. That progress is to be triumphant in character. Its issue must be certain victory. (E. M. Goulburn, D. C. L.) Psalms 24:8 Who is this King of glory. The King of glory In the old days, when the king of England wished to enter the city of London through Temple Bar, the gate being closed against him, the herald advanced and demanded entrance. “ Open the gate,” shouted the herald. “ Who is there?” questioned a voice from within. “ The king of England!” answered the herald. The gate was at once opened, and the king passed, amid the acclamations of the people. But the custom was an old one, and stretched back perhaps thousands of years before England was known under that name. Jesus is our “ King of glory.” He is our Lord, “ strong and mighty in battle” We may apply it very fitly to Christ’ s ascension to heaven after His life and suffering and death and resurrection here on the earth. When Christ came to be born in Bethlehem He put aside the glory which He had before the world was, and, though He was rich, for our sakes He became poor. As one of the old preachers said, Christ has gone to heaven as a victor; leading sin, Satan, death, hell, and all His enemies in triumph at His chariot wheels. Christ went back to heaven after the mightiest battle ever fought in the universe, and went back triumphant over sin and death. We might properly apply these words to the coming of Christ, to the life of man, and to the civilisation of the world. Christ has been taking possession of the life of mankind. He is King of glory in modern civilisation. In spite of all the wickedness there is in the world, it has already come about that the most dominant personality in it is Christ. Christ has possessed and become King of glory in the very counting of the years in modern centuries. Christ has knocked at the gates of the world of art, and He is the King of glory in it. Go back and look at the works of the great masters and you will see that they are pictures of the Christ. And when, in modern times, has the world of art and modern invention in illustration been so stirred as in Tissot’ s “ Life of Christ in Art” ? Christ has knocked at the door of literature, and He is the King of glory in the literature of the world. Where there is one book written against Christ there are a hundred thousand books written to illustrate His teaching or impress the lessons of His life. We may apply it also with great appropriateness to the door of our hearts. (L. A. Banks, D. D.) Psalms 24:9 Lift up your heads, O ye gates.A triumphal entrance I. The great thing to desire is the entrance of the king of glory into our souls. Without it thou wilt be like a house without a tenant--cold, cheerless, dilapidated, desolate. Thy heart will be as a nest without a bird--a poor, sad thing. II. There are impediments to this coming into our hearts. The text speaks about “ doors” and “ gates,” and there are such to our hearts, and they need to be “ lifted up” ere the King of glory can come in, Sometimes it is our wicked prejudice. We do not want to know the Gospel; or our love of sin, which we do not care to give up. Then there is the door which I may call the iron gate, that entereth into the city--the door of unbelief. That unbelief is the ruin of souls. III. If Christ is to enter we must be willing to remove all these. The text says, “ Lift up your heads,” as if they were to lift them up themselves. Though salvation is of grace, it is never against, but always with our will. IV. It is grace that must enable you to be thus willing. Picture the inhabitants trying to lift up the gates themselves. They cannot, and what shall they do? An invisible spirit stands by them, puts his power with theirs, and up go the gates. V. Jesus will enter. He was willing to come in before: the unwillingness was all in us. VI. And He is the King of glory. This title belongs to the Saviour. It proclaims Him in His highest authority. What peerless prince is this, with a name above every name? (C. H. Spurgeon.) Christ the High Priest of our profession in heaven The common notion seems to be that all the offices of the Mediator to us-ward took place before the ascension. Consistently with this belief that high festival is despised and neglected. The truth is, that His acts after His ascension are as distinct and important as those which took place before that event. It was not till the ascension that He offered “ gifts and sacrifices for men.” As the efficacy of the slain victim of old depended on its blood being brought into “ the holiest of all,” so the efficacy of that sacrifice consummated on the Cross depends and is assured to us by its continual presentation by our Mediator in heaven. The heavenly gates have been lifted up, and the King of glory has gone in. But “ who is this King of glory?” The Eternal Son of the Father, clad with the white robe of expiation, girt with the golden zone of the priesthood, pleading the cause not only of the Church at large, but of every individual member thereof. There is not a trial we have, as we pass through this vale of tears, but He knows it and recognises it as the lot of humanity from His own actual experience. (T. Huntington, M. A.) The triumphant ascension of Christ into heaven Every circumstance in this description is suited to impress us with a lofty sense of the majesty of the Son of God.1. He is described as a powerful conqueror. In what conflicts has He been engaged? We can speak of Him as having overcome the world, and as subduing the great enemy of man and bruising the serpent’ s head. 2. The universal sovereign. Note His preeminent dignity. He is seated upon the throne of the universe. 3. He is “ the King of glory.” This title includes in its meaning the substance of the description previously given. This is a subject in which we all are deeply concerned. For henceforth we can look to Christ as our Mediator at the right hand of God; as the Head of His Church, and the Author of all spiritual blessings; and as opening the kingdom of heaven to all believers. Lessons-- (1) The subject is suited to inspire us with a sure trust in the Captain of our Salvation. (2) It invites us to have our thoughts and affections in heaven. (3) It teaches us to look forward to another ascension yet in futurity, and calls us to prepare for it. (Will. Dealtry, D. D.) The ascension of Christ Consider the prophetic reference of these striking words. The ark was the type of Christ. We may regard the removal of the ark to Mount Zion as typifying Christ’ s ascension to the heavenly Jerusalem. I. The title which is here given to Him. “ The King of glory.” When He lived among men little did He appear like a king at all. But in spite of all mockeries He was a King even then. There are multitudes who have still low thoughts of the Lord Jesus, and there are many religious systems whose tendency is to produce such a result. II. The dignity and blessedness claimed for Him. Admission into the heavenly mansions. Who are the persons that Claim for Him this high honour? The angelic hosts. And the spirits of just men made perfect took part. See the right which He had to the honour and blessedness which were now claimed for Him. That is taken for granted. No favour is craved. Admission is not a privilege implored or supplicated. He had a right to the heavenly kingdom as the promised reward of His toils and sufferings. He had also a right on the ground of conquest. The connection between the victory which He won and the glories which awaited Him is quite obvious. III. The reception which awaited Him. Here we can say but little, for on such a theme poor is thought, and altogether impotent the most emphatic expressions. Well may we, therefore, rejoice in the ascension of Christ. With the fact of the ascension we should combine its special objects and purposes. They relate not to Himself alone, but to us likewise. The ascension of Christ should remind us of the glorious, yet solemn and momentous, fact of His second coming. (Expository Outlines.) An urgent demand, and an earnest inquiry I. The demand. It may be applied to three events--1. To the entrance of the ark into the holy city (2 Samuel 6:1-23; l Chronicles 15).2. To the advent of Christ at His incarnation. The doors and gates of the world’ s heart were shut against Him. “ He came to His own,” etc. 3. To the ascension of Christ into heaven. 4. To the admission of Christ into the human heart. “ In the Gospel history,” says an old writer, “ Christ had a four-fold entertainment amongst men. Some received Him into their house, but not into their heart, as Simon the Pharisee (Luke 7:44). Some into the heart, but not into the house, as the faithful centurion (Matthew 8:8). Some into neither, as the faithless Gergesenes (Matthew 8:34). Some into both, as Lazarus, Martha, and Mary.” And Christ now seeks admission into men’ s hearts, but the gates are closed. 5. To the return of Christ to heaven at last. “ After the judgment,” says Keble, “ He will pass again through the everlasting doors with a greater company than before; for He will lead along with Him into the heavenly habitation all those who shall have been raised from their graves and found worthy (1 Thessalonians 4:14-18). II. An earnest inquiry. Who is this King of glory? The question is twice put. None can be of greater importance. The answer tells.1. That He is one strong in Himself. “ The Lord strong.” 2. That He is “ mighty in battle.” His conquests are moral, and how numerous, constant, universal, and ever-multiplying they are. 3. That He is vast in command. “ The Lord of hosts.” All material existences, all spiritual are His hosts: the heavenly orbs are His hosts. He marshals them as a commander his battalions. (D. Thomas, D. D.) The God who dwells with men Notice the application, the historical and original application, to the King who dwelt with Israel. But the texts speak of the Christ who dwells with men. The devout hearts in Israel felt that there was something more needed than this dwelling of Jehovah within an earthly temple, and the process of revelation familiarised them with the thought that there was yet in the future a “ coming of the Lord” in some special manner unknown to them. When was that fulfilled? Christ is the highest raying out of the Divine light, and the mightiest exhibition of the Divine power. Application of these words to the Christ who will dwell in your hearts. His historical manifestation here upon earth, and His incarnation, which is the true dwelling of Deity amongst men, are not enough. They have left something more than a memory to the world. He is as ready to abide, as really within our spirits, as He was to tabernacle upon earth amongst men. And the very central idea of that Gospel which is proclaimed to you all is this, that if you will open the gates of your hearts He will come in, in all the plenitude of His victorious power, and dwell in your hearts, their Conqueror and their King. What a strange contrast, and yet what a close analogy there is between the victorious tones and martial air of this summons of my text, “ Lift up your heads, O ye gates! that the King of glory may come in, and the gentle words of the Apocalypse, Behold. I stand at the door and knock; if any man hear My voice and open the door I will come in to him.” But He that in the Old Covenant, arrayed in warrior arms, summoned the rebels to surrender, is the same as He who in the New, with the night dews in His hair and patience on His face and gentleness in the touch of His hand upon the door, waits to enter in. Open your hearts, “ and the King of glory shall come in.” And He will come in as a King that might seek to enter sonic besieged and beleaguered city far away on the outposts of His kingdom. If the relieving force can be thrown into Khartoum, the clouds of enemies will scatter. If the King comes in, the city will be impregnable. If you open your hearts for Him He will come and keep you from all your foes, and give you the victory over them all. So to every hard-pressed heart, waging an unequal contest with toils and temptations and sorrows and sins, this great hope is given, that Christ the Victor will come in His power to garrison heart and mind. As of old the encouragement was given to Hezekiah in his hour of peril, when the might of Sennacherib insolently threatened Jerusalem, so the same stirring assurances are given to each who admits Christ’ s succours to his heart. “ He shall not come into this city, for I will defend this city to save it for Mine own sake.” Open your hearts and the conquering King shall come in. And do not forget that there is another possible application of these words, lying in the future, to the conquering Christ who shall come again. The whole history of the past points onwards to yet a last time when “ the Lord shall suddenly come to His Temple,” and that Christ shall so come in like manner as He went into heaven. Again shall the summons ring out. Again shall He come arrayed in flashing brightness, and the visible robes of His imperial majesty. Again shall He appear mighty in battle, when in righteousness He shall judge and make war. For a Christian one great memory tills the past--Christ has come; and one great hope brightens the else waste future--Christ shall come. That hope has been far too much left to be cherished only by those who hold a particular opinion as to the chronology of unfulfilled prophecy. But it should be to every Christian heart “ the blessed hope,” even the appearing of the glory of Him who has come in the past. He is with and in us in the present. He will come in the future “ in His glory, and shall sit upon the throne of His glory.” All our pardon and hope of God’ s love depends upon that great fact in the past, that “ the Lord was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory.” Our purity which will fit us to dwell with God, our present blessedness, all our power for daily strife, and our companionship in daily loneliness, depend on the present fact that He dwells in our hearts by faith, the seed of all good, and the conquering antagonist of every evil. And the one light which fills the future with hope, peaceful because assured, streams from that most sure promise that He will come again, sweeping from the highest heavens, on His head the many crowns of universal monarchy, in His hand the weapons of all-conquering power, and none shall need to ask, “ Who is this King of glory?” for every eye shall know Him, the Judge upon His throne, to be the Christ of the Cross. Open the doors of your hearts to Him, as He sues for entrance now in the meekness of His patient love, that on you may fall in that day of the coming of the King the blessing of the servants “ who wait for their returning Lord,” that when He cometh and knocketh they may open unto Him immediately. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Christ demanding admission into sinners’ hearts 1. Entrance solemnly demanded. The demand is addressed to the gates (that is, princes or heads. Vulg.). Hence it is understood of Christ’ s ascension into heaven. Literally, by the gates are recant those of the Temple, which was a type of heaven. The gates were to be thrown wide open, as was fitting when the ark should enter. It tells of the receiving of Christ into the soul. 2. For whom the demand is made--for the Lord Jesus Christ. When the ark of Gospel ordinances comes, Christ Himself comes to the hearts of sinners for admission. I. Inquire what is the ark of Gospel ordinances.1. The Word read and preached.2. The two sacraments. II. How Christ comes to sinners.1. With the offer of Himself.2. Exhibiting Himself in the sacraments.3. In both He demands admission. III. Inferences from the foregoing.1. The presence of Gospel ordinances shows that Christ is come to our hearts seeking admission.2. This coming will aggravate the condemnation of those who refuse. IV. What is it to open the heart to Christ? There is an initial opening at conversion, and a progressive one afterwards. The opening of the door of the understanding and of the will. V. Why we should do this? The house is His own. The Father who gave it to Him demands this. It was solemnly made over to Him at your baptism. Some will not so much as open the outer door. Others, not the inner door.1. It is Satan who keeps Christ out.2. See who it is that seeks admission. The King of glory.3. How unworthy the house is of Him.4. Note His condescension--He will come if you open.5. This offer cost Him dear.6. Your positions will be one day reversed.7. You are solemnly called now.8. The offer will not last always.9. There is no other way to be saved. (T. Boston, D. D.) Man’ s Brother in heaven When we were in Cuba a young woman over at Marianne told us she walked over to Morro Castle every morning. It was a long walk, and she said she did it because her brother was a prisoner there. She had never been inside that castle, and had no interest in it until her brother had been incarcerated there; and then every morning that sister walked all the way from Marianne to the great castle, and looked at it until she could count every stone and knew every tower, and knew the colour of every archway, and recognised the position of every sentry. She was interested in the castle because she had a brother there. We would be interested in heaven’ s towers, and would count its embattlements, and would love to read about and study it, if we appreciated the value of our Christ who is there. (R. H. Conwell, D. D.) . Psalms 25:1-22 Psalms 25:1-3 Unto Thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul. David depressed I. David was at this time in a state of great trouble. This is the children’ s path; it is the path most of God’ s family walk in. It is not an uncommon path. The Master trod the path before them, and told His people to expect tribulation. In this Psalm we see affliction in every variety. David traces his afflictions up to his sins (Psalms 25:18). All sin is the cause of suffering. If no sin, no suffering. If no body there would be no shadow. There may have been some searching out of peculiar sins. Times of affliction are usually times of deep searching of heart. II. David was at this time depressed. The very expression “ lift up” implies a previous casting down. Verse 16, he says, “ I am desolate and afflicted.” The believer, compared with the unbeliever, is a strong man; he must needs be strong. But the strongest is not always strong. All borrowed strength is of necessity strength that fluctuates. Creature strength is dependent strength, and therefore it is but comparative weakness. Faith’ s wing does not always soar aloft; love does not always burn brightly. Unbelief always weakens. David looked to his troubles and was depressed. In our afflictions there are two especial dangers--that of despising them, as if they came fortuitously; and the danger of being encumbered and weighed down by them, looking at the circumstances, and not at the God of the circumstances. III. David betakes himself to his remedy. The believer has but one remedy. The world talks of its many remedies, but all are ineffective. A general view of God, in the power of faith and by the power of the Holy Ghost, lifts up the soul. Nothing so lifts us up against soul trouble as when we are enabled to say, “ O my God, I trust in Thee.” Is there anything above God’ s promises? Yes, God Himself is above His promises, and the very substance of them. Our trust is in Him. (J. H. Evans, M. A.) The nature of true prayer This opening sentence is as if David had said, “ Let others lift up their souls to vanity, I will dare to be singular, I will lift up my soul to Thee.” Holy resolution, blessed determination. I. The realisation and recognition of the presence of God. II. The abstraction from the influences of the world. “ I will lift up my soul.” III. The consecration and concentration of all the energies of the man. The consecration willing and loving. If the soul be lifted up all the powers are so. IV. The results of such lifting up of the soul. We shall be--1. Transported with the Divine nearness.2. Transformed into the Divine likeness.3. Translated into the Divine presence now and hereafter. (F. W. Brown.) Uplifting the soul It is not easy to do this. “ My soul cleaveth unto the dust.” We may lift up hands and eyes and voices, but it is another thing to uplift the soul. Yet without this there is no real devotion. And the Christian will be no more satisfied than God. This marks the spiritual worshipper. He may have failed in words, but his soul has been lifted up to God. And the spirituality of religion is its enjoyment. It is good to draw near to God. Then we attend on the Lord without distraction. And when such a worshipper comes forth he will recommend Christ to others, and that not without effect. For his profiting will appear unto all men. His face shines. His heart speaks. His life speaks. His character speaks. He cannot but do good, even without design and without effort. (W. Jay.) The uplift of the soul in prayer Gotthold, in his Emblems, says, “ Doves have been trained to fly from place to place, carrying letters in a basket fastened to their necks or feet. They are swift of flight; but our prayers and sighs are swifter, for they take but a moment to pass from earth to heaven, and bear the troubles of our heart to the heart of God. These messengers no hostile force can detain; they penetrate the clouds, never linger on the way, and never desist until the Most High attends. A tyrant may shut up a godly man in the deepest dungeon, immure him between massive walls, and forbid him all intercourse with his fellow men, but these messengers he cannot restrain; in defiance of all obstacles they report to the Omniscient the affliction of the victim, and bring back to him the Divine consolation.” The lifting up of the soul to God The names which he gives God are Jehovah and Elohim--the first taken from His nature, the other from His power; and he applieth them to himself, my strong Gods, including the persons of the Trinity. He leadeth us to God in our prayers, Whom have I in heaven but Thee? He that cometh to God must believe that God is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.1. First, He must love thee, and then He will defend thee. Blessed is the people whose God is the Lord. Those are foolish who seek His protection, not first having assurance of His love. If He be to thee Jehovah, then shall He also be to thee Elohim. His prayer is signified by his circumscription, “ I lift up my soul to Thee” ; and his faith, “ I trust in Thee.” What is prayer but a lifting up of the heart to God, for the heart must first be affected, and then it will frame all the members of the body, and draw them up with it. Whereby it appeareth that there is no prayer or spiritual service acceptable to God but that which comes and is derived from the heart, “ My son, give Me thy heart” Ye are praying, but your heart is as the eye of the fool everywhere. Sometimes ye are thinking of the earth, sometimes of your pleasure, sometimes sleeping, sometimes ye know not what ye are thinking. And sometimes your voice is repeating some idle and deaf sounds, your heart no whir being moved, but as a parrot, uttering uncertain sounds, or a bell, sounding it knows not what; so are ye with your mouth praising God, your heart being absented from Him. 2. Next, his faith is not carried about hither and thither, but only fixeth itself upon God. 3. Thirdly, the lifting up of the heart presupposeth a former dejection of his soul. (A. Symson.) Phases of a pious soul I. A pious soul rising to God. An indication of the true elevation of man; what is it?1. The elevation of the soul, that is, the rational and spiritual nature, that which was the divinity within him. 2. It is the elevation of the soul to God. The soul going up in devout thought, in holy gratitude, in sublime adoration, in moral assimilation to the Infinite Jehovah. 3. It is the elevation of the soul to God by personal exertion. No man can lift up my soul for me. II. A pious soul trusting in God. “ O my God, I trust in Thee.” What does trust in the Lord imply?1. A sense of dependency in the truster.2. A belief in the sufficiency of the trusted. III. A pious soul waiting upon God. “ On Thee do I wait all the day.”1. To wait means patience.2. To wait means hope.3. To wait means service. IV. A pious soul praying to God. “ Let none that wait on Thee be ashamed.” The prayer, from Psalms 25:3-7, falls into two divisions.1. Prayer for self. (1) Prayer respecting Divine deliverance.(2) Prayer respecting Divine guidance.(3) Prayer respecting Divine remembrance. 2. Prayer for others. (1) For success to the good.(2) For defeat to the wicked. (Homilist.) Psalms 25:2 Let me not be put to shame.Deliverance and guidance Trust that was not vindicated by deliverance would cover the face with confusion. “ Hopes that breed not shame” are the treasure of him whose hope is in Jehovah. Foes unnamed threaten; but the stress of the petitions in the first section of the Psalm is less on enemies than on sins. One cry for protection from the former is all that the Psalmist utters, and then his prayer swiftly turns to deeper needs. In the last section the petitions are more exclusively for deliverance from enemies. Needful as such escape is, it is less needful than the knowledge of God’ s ways, and the man in extremest peril orders his desires rightly if he asks holiness first and safety second. The cry in Psalms 25:2 rests upon the confidence nobly expressed in Psalms 25:3, in which the verbs are not optatives, but futures, declaring a truth certain to be realised in the Psalmist’ s experience, because it is true for all who, like him, wait on Jehovah. True prayer is the individual’ s sheltering himself under the broad folds of the mantle that covers all who pray. The double confidence as to the waiters on Jehovah and the “ treacherous without cause” is the summary of human experience as read by faith. Sense has much to adduce in contradiction, but the dictum is nevertheless true; only, its truth does not always appear in the small are of the circle which lies between cradle and grave. The prayer for deliverance glides into that for guidance, since the latter is the deeper need, and the former will scarcely be answered unless the suppliant’ s will docilely offers the latter. The soul lifted to Jehovah will long to know His will, and submit itself to His manifold teachings. “ Thy ways” and “ Thy paths” necessarily here mean the ways in which Jehovah desires that the Psalmist should go. “ In Thy truth” is ambiguous, both as to the preposition and as to the noun. The clause may either mean God’ s truth (i.e. faithfulness) as His motive for answering the prayer, or His truth (i.e. the objective revelation) as the path for men. Predominant usage inclines to the former signification of the noun, but the possibility still remains of regarding God’ s faithfulness as the path in which the Psalmist desires to be led, i.e. to experience it. The cry for forgiveness strikes a deeper note of pathos, and, as asking a more wondrous blessing, grasps still more firmly the thought of what Jehovah is and always has been. The appeal is made to “ Thy compassions and loving kindnesses,” as belonging to His nature, and to their past exercise as having been “ from of old.” Emboldened thus, the Psalmist can look back on his own past, both on his outbursts of youthful passion and levity, which he calls “ failures,” as missing the mark; and on the darker evils of later manhood, which he calls “ rebellions,” and can trust that Jehovah will think upon him “ according to His mercy,” and “ for the sake of His goodness or love.” The vivid realisation of that Eternal Mercy, as the very mainspring of God’ s actions, and as setting forth in many an ancient deed the eternal pattern of His dealings, enables a man to bear the thought of his own sins. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Psalms 25:4 Shew me Thy ways, O Lord; and teach me Thy paths.Divine authority upon earth All right-minded men will agree with Matthew Arnold’ s famous saying, that “ Conduct is three-fourths of human life.” It will be also admitted that the professed aim of all Churches and religious societies is to regulate and improve conduct. Sometimes, alas! orthodoxy, or right opinion, has been put not merely first, but by itself alone as the one chief aim to be enforced by the clergy, and to be accepted by the laity. But it seems only fair to say that these were examples of departure from the original ideal of a Church and its purpose. The claim of Divine authority to control the minds, hearts, and lives of the people, and to interfere even forcibly with individual freedom of thought and action, was designed, in the first instance, for the welfare of society and the moral elevation of its various members, and in that light must not be ruthlessly condemned. But the principle was liable to abuse, and the mischiefs wrought by its abuse have been terrible. They have been the cause of conflict which will continue as long as the claim of Divine authority is made on the one hand, and the sense of a God-given right to individual freedom remains on the other. What is the mischief that we want to remedy? It is the belief in the “ Divine” authority of that which is but “ human” ; and as a consequence, the separation of the human soul from personal and direct intercourse with God--the substitution, in short, of the human for the Divine. We have these objections to it which are fatal. I. That it is false. It is sufficient to expose the fallacy of the argument by which the claim of Divine authority is defended. And nothing is easier than this. The Church of Rome asserts, without proof, that God Himself lived on earth in the Person of Jesus, who transmitted, or delegated, His Divine power and authority first to the apostles, and subsequently to the Church founded by them, and to every succeeding head or pope of that Church; and that this Divine authority extends to matters of faith, i.e. doctrines to be believed, to rites and ceremonies, and to discipline and morals. Over all these, at least, the authority of the Church is claimed to be identical with the authority of God. But when we reverently ask on what ground we must accept the alleged Divine authority of Jesus, in the first instance, we are distinctly told that we must take all that on the authority of the Church. This is arguing in a circle. II. The claim is needless. That is to say, men would get on in all things good, in the attainment of truth, in the adoption of religious ceremonies, and in the practice of virtue, quite as well without a divinely instituted Church as with it. It is not hard to show that the absence of belief in the claim to Divine authority has not been generally followed by any detrimental results either to religion or virtue. What is true and good and useful is entirely discoverable without the aid of miraculous revelation. It may be argued, this claim is needful, because the mass of men will not, or cannot, think for themselves; and the vast majority crave for certainty in things Divine, which certainly they cannot attain without the intervention of a divinely appointed authority upon earth. Because men crave for an external authority in matters of faith and duty, does not involve that they really need the authority they desire. (Charles Voysey, B. A.) A prayer for Divine enlightenment The text expresses the sincere desire of every Christian. He feels that he needs a Divine Teacher to enable him to understand Divine truth and obey the Divine precepts. Hence he approaches the fountain of all wisdom with the prayer of the text. I. A prayer for Divine enlightenment.1. The importance of a knowledge of God’ s ways.2. A willingness to follow Divine teaching. Every Christian is a learner, conscious of his own ignorance, and anxious to be divinely taught, he is prepared to renounce everything in his creed and conduct not in harmony with the Word of God.3. A willingness to obey Divine teachings.” “ Lead me in Thy paths.” We must first know God’ s will, then do it. II. God is the Teacher of His people. How does He teach? Human spirit can speak with human spirit. Who shall dare to say that the human spirit cannot be communicated with by the Divine?1. By His Word.2. By His Spirit.3. By His providence. III. The Psalmist’ s method of obtaining the Divine teaching. “ On Thee do I wait all the day.”1. Wait humbly.2. Wait earnestly.3. Wait believingly.4. Wait perseveringly.5. God’ s response to prayer is certain. Let us have confidence in God. If the greatest Being deserves the profoundest reverence; if the kindest Being deserves the heartiest thanks; and if the best of Beings deserves the warmest love, then our highest reverence, thanks, and love are due to God. (H. Woodcock.) Taught in God’ s ways In this verse are contained--1. The Person whom he implores, Jehovah; whom he describeth, leading him, teaching him, receiving him in favour, and nourishing him (Psalms 25:4-6; Psalms 7:1-17). 2. What he seeks. God’ s ways. 3. By what means? Teach me, and lead me. 4. The reason. Because Thou art my God, and I trust in Thee. So should pastors do. Who would be a good master, let him be a good apprentice; and this same should all private Christians desire, that God would teach them that way which will please Him best, even His own ways. (A. Symson.) The knowledge of God in His ways Two ways in which we may understand this Psalm. The writer may mean it as a prayer for direction, that he may be taught what to do, how to walk so as to please God. Or that God would declare Himself to the petitioner, and manifest to him what he is doing; that God would show His own ways to David, and teach him the issue of the hidden paths in which he was walking towards Him; not the paths the writer ought to follow, but those which the Almighty was pursuing. Consider this latter view. Such petitions and such complaints are common in the Scriptures, and natural to the heart of man. They are found in the secret thoughts, and not seldom in the expressed prayers of experienced and advanced Christians. Job was no common adept in the use of grace, and yet he earnestly begs, Show me wherefore Thou contendest with me. Jeremiah was a deeply exercised man, yet he could plainly perceive the difference in his own mind between belief and faith, between principle and practice. He says to God, “ Let me talk with Thee of Thy judgments.” In the text the Psalmist appears to have the natural feeling more subdued. He cannot tell what God is doing. It is all dark and mysterious, and probably he thought that on that account he could not learn any lesson of wisdom from it: a conclusion which does by no means follow. It is not, “ Show me Thy way, O Lord,” but ways; plural, not singular, not as though it were one and definite. What is mysterious, but intricate and manifold, often crossing one another, and apparently inexplicable, on account of seeming contradictions; not merely such as we do not understand on account of our ignorance, but such as seem impossible to be explained, because of their contrariety in themselves. And in very deed this is often the appearance of the ways of God. They are not only so plural, but so infinite in their plurality; so intertwined with and intersecting each other that there is reason to believe that if they were fully laid open to our view we would not be able to understand them, so intricate is their network. There is not a circumstance that occurs to ourselves or to others that is not an organised part of God’ s instrumentality for bringing His purposes to pass. Consider the ways in which God deals with a soul in mercy.1. In awakening, warning, and opening the eyes. 2. God’ s ways in securing to Himself the heart of His child on earth are oftentimes perplexing. Discipline may succeed when love fails. 3. The ways in which a soul is led to feel after and find the Lord. No one can tell beforehand of another or of himself what will be the effective way, or what will fail. 4. It is the same in the teaching and building up of a soul. (G. Jeans, M. A.) David’ s desire in the time of trouble I. The petition. David may have meant, “ Show me Thy ways, O Lord, in Thy providence.” He may have wished a clearer insight into the great ways of God in His grace. He may have desired to know more distinctly the path in which he should walk. See how earnestly he urges his plea: he has every sort of motive in it. There is the plea of blindness, of ignorance, of utter weakness. II. The plea.1. “ Thou art the God of my salvation.” 2. It is the God of my salvation. 3. He says, “ On Thee do I wait all the day,” that is, throughout the whole day. Points for consideration. See what the true mark of a spiritual man is. See that God’ s ways are always deep. His providence--how often it is intricate. The administrations of His grace--how profound they are. 4. See the humbleness of sanctified affliction. Sanctified affliction, because it is quite a mistake to suppose that all affliction is blessed to a child of God. It may ultimately tend to good, but there are many afflictions that are not immediate blessings to him. (J. H. Evans, M. A.) O Lord, teach me Thy loaths.-- The Lord’ s path The wicked say to God, Depart from us, we desire not the knowledge of Thy ways; the good man acknowledges God in everything, and he commits himself entirely to His guidance and guardian care. I. The prayer. The subject of the prayer--“ Lord’ s paths.”1. Paths of Divine providence. Often dark, mysterious--always wise and right and good. 2. Paths of grace. Way of holiness, happiness, etc. Way through the desert to Canaan. Sometimes obscure and clouded. Pillar of cloud necessary. 3. Paths of duty. “ Lord, what wouldest Thou have me to do?” Duty and ease, duty and interest, duty and desires, often at variance. The prayer itself is for Divine teaching--“ Lord, teach me.” Here is an admission of ignorance, of insufficiency, of anxiety, and of application to the right source. “ Lord, teach me” --1. Clearly to understand Thy paths. 2. Heartily to approve of them. 3. Constantly to walk in them. Notice-- II. The importance of this prayer. It is important to our intellectual and spiritual improvement. To grow in knowledge, path shine more and more, etc. (2 Peter 1:5). (J. Burns, D. D.) Psalms 25:5 Lead me in Thy truth, and teach me. Guiding and teaching A short but expressive prayer. All need it. We need it when we are surrounded with gloom, when we are tempted, and when we find bur path very rough. I. The petition for guidance. We need it because--1. We are ignorant of the future.2. The way is dark.3. We need thus to pray, from a deep conviction that we dare not go alone.4. Because we are so weak. The Psalmist asks that God will lead him according to His own revealed will. “ In Thy truth.” II. The petition for instruction. How much we need to learn. How little we know after all these years. We don’ t know our bodies, still less our souls. We know not about time, how precious it is, but yet less of eternity. How little we know of life or of men, Therefore we need to pray, “ Lord, teach me.” (William Scott.) On Thee do I wait all the day. How to spend the day with God Who can truly say this? Who among us lives such a life of communion with God? This waiting is that of patient expectation and constant attendance. God was keeping David in suspense. He could not tell what was the mind and will of God. But he waits continually on Him. And so, in like circumstances, must we. I. What is it to wait upon God?1. It is to live a life of desire towards Him. Our desire should be, not only towards the good things God gives, but towards God Himself. 2. It is to live a life of delight in God. Desire is love in motion, as a bird upon the wing. Delight is love at rest, as a bird upon the nest. 3. It is a life of dependence on God, as the child waits on the father. 4. It is a life of devotedness to God, as the servant waits on his master. 5. And it is to make His will our rule; for our practice or for our patience, as the will of His providence may ordain. II. This we must do every day, and all day long.1. Every day. Servants in the courts of princes have their weeks or months of waiting appointed them, and are tied to attend only at certain times; but God’ s servants must never be out of waiting. Sabbath days and weekdays, idle days and busy days, days of prosperity and of adversity. 2. Toto die,--or all the day through. By casting our daily care upon Him. By managing our daily business for Him. Receiving our daily comforts from Him. Resisting our daily temptations, and doing our daily duties, in the strength of His grace. Application: Consider this need of waiting on God at particular times. At family worship. When teaching your children. At shop or business. At meal times. On friendly visits. God waits to be gracious to those who wait on Him. (Matthew Henry.) Waiting on God I. Illustrate the spirit and meaning of this verse.1. It does not mean that David was incessantly occupied with religious exercises. 2. The words are quite consistent with a knowledge of many transgressions. 3. The words involve a figurative meaning. This “ waiting” is the spirit of trust, of loving obedience, of hope and confidence, of a most intimate friendship, of the deepest reverence. II. In what way would a day be spent by one who sincerely uttered these words?1. The day would be begun with God. 2. One who has begun the day with God will remember His presence, and seek His favour through the day. What is wanted of all of us is to carry the habit of religion into our ordinary pursuits. (W. G. Barrett.) Prolonged waiting upon God The thoughtless rush before God, in which we expect to get all we covet and away again, is worse than sacrilege. The unapproachable glories cannot be known in the twinkling of an eye. One of Ruskin’ s pupils once said to him, “ The instant I entered the gallery at Florence I knew what you meant by the supremacy of Boticelli.” “ In an instant, did you?” was the somewhat withering reply. “ It took me twenty years to find it out.” If we wait before God for a lifetime we shall only just begin to feel His enchantments. (Thomas G. Selby.) Psalms 25:6-7 Remember, O Lord, Thy tender mercies. Things to remember and to forget It is only by a figure of speech that we can speak of God as remembering and forgetting. It is an accommodation to our human weakness and ignorance. He who sees all things at a glance has no need to remember, and is incapable of forgetting. Yet God acts towards us as if He both remembered and forgot, and it is enough for us to think of Him in that way. Here the Psalmist’ s mind seemed to sway backward and forward between these two words “ remember” and “ remember not.” And so-- I. We wish to be remembered by God. It is sweet to be had in remembrance by friends. No one of us likes to be forgotten. The religious man desires, above all things, to be remembered of God. It is the sign and proof of His sincerity. If there be no serious and solemn purpose in life; if all its aims and motives and actuating impulses are vulgar, sensual, selfish, there will be no wish to have God’ s eye upon it; there will be a sort of relief in the thought that He takes no notice of it, that He passes it by in forgetfulness. But to one whose endeavours are after the higher life the thought of having no place in God’ s mind is dreadful. II. We are happy in the thought that God remembers. But we wish, like the Psalmist, that He could both remember and forget. Memory brought back to David the sins of bygone years. O God, he cried, forget all those crooked and dark things, as I would forget them, and call to mind only Thine own goodness and love. What a strangely mingled cup it is that memory gives us to drink--full to the brim, overflowing with sweetness. Yet we cannot take a deep draught of the cup without coming to bitter ingredients, nay, perhaps to fiery morsels that burn and blister the mouth. Memory is as the Ebal and Gerizim of our lives. The Psalmist wished to separate these two elements of memory. He was afraid lest God should eternalise those old sins by keeping them in mind. He did not like to remember them himself. He wished to think only of the brighter, lovelier things--the Divine, the promising, the hopeful. O God, forget the evil, that I may forget it too. Yes, forget as far as possible the dark scenes of the years that lie behind. Forget the very sorrows and trials and bereavements, unless, indeed, they are so recent and so acute that it would only mock you to ask you to forget them. Bring with you out of the passing years a large and generous legacy of sweet and pure and holy memories. Be sure that all the mercies which we have ever known, all the Divine love and pity and helpfulness which we have ever proved, all that compassion and sympathy of Jesus Christ which have been our stay, will be repeated in the coming days. He will not forget. (J. G. Greenhough, M. A.) The Divine remembrance An aged Christian, lying on his deathbed in a state of such extreme weakness that he was often entirely unconscious of all around him, was asked the cause of his perfect peace. He replied, “ When I am able to think, I think of Jesus; and when I am unable to think of Him, I know he is thinking of me.” For they have been forever.--The eternity of God’ s mercies A fair commendation of God’ s mercies from the eternity thereof. His mercies had no beginning, as Himself had none, and shall have no end--From everlasting to everlasting Thou art our God. As the ocean and main sea can never be exhausted, but would furnish water to all the world, if everyone should bring vessels to draw water therefrom; so if we have faith and prayer to seek grace from God, He is all-sufficient in Himself to furnish us all. (A Symson.) The antiquity of mercy Let the ancientness of Divine love draw up our hearts to a very dear and honourable esteem of it. Pieces of antiquity, though of base metal, and otherwise of little use or value, how venerable are they with learned men! and ancient charters, how careful are men to preserve them; although they contain but temporary privileges, and sometimes but of trivial moment! How, then, should the great charter of heaven, so much older than the world, be had in everlasting remembrance, and the thoughts thereof be very precious to us; lying down, rising up, and all the day long accompanying us! (J. Cole.) Psalms 25:7 Remember not the sins of my youth.Youthful sins The Psalm belongs to the later days of David. In youth we live in the present; in age we live in the past. I. Youthful sins are remembered when the sinner attains to an advanced age. Generally speaking, the youthful sinner is a thoughtless sinner. He does not trouble about the sin or its consequences. There is a fallacy about, that the sins of youth are not actual sins. If youthful follies gradually developed themselves into manly virtues, then all hail, ‘ youthful follies! But if sin always remains sin, and wild oats sown will only grow up wild oats, then this is a fallacy indeed. There comes a time when youthful sins rise up to remembrance, both with the sinner and with the saint. The saint may know that his sins are forgiven, but that does not alter the grief with which he remembers them. How much more sadly true this is of the sinner, who does not know of sin forgiven. There comes a time when old iniquities, long forgotten, shall rise again from the dead, and like spectres haunt the man. There will come a time when the sins of the past will march before you and demand judgment; and what then? II. When in advanced age the sins of youth are remembered, the cry of the soul is, O God forget what I must remember. David does not ask that he might forget his sins, but that God would forget them. It would not be well for us to forget them, even when they are forgiven. Arc your sins in God’ s memory as well as in your own? There are those who have their sins in the memory of God, but not in their own. Others have their sins in their own memory and in the memory of God too. And others have their sins in their own memory, but not in God’ s. (Archibald G. Brown.) The sins of youth We have no ground for supposing that the youth of David was sinful in the ordinary sense of the term, that he lived otherwise than “ soberly, righteously, and godly” ; or that he did not serve God purely, willingly, and lovingly. So far as we know, his offences against God in his youth were but the inevitable faults of his age--shortcomings, indeed, negligences and ignorances, and so things to be deplored and avoided; but there is nothing like any intimation of a vicious youth recorded against him in the Word of God. Nevertheless, there are always undeveloped tendencies towards evil lurking in every youthful heart, and on their encouragement or discouragement the tenor of the future life depends. The presumption is, that David was no longer young when this Psalm was composed. So we have this lesson, that his penitence and sorrow for sin were not things which, being once expressed, were thought of no more, but that they were ever before him, for years and years after his sins were committed. So must it be with those whose early years are stained with the defilements of sin. Either they will go on as they have begun, adding sin to sin, or they must be content to pass the remainder of their days as mourning penitents. As we sow we shall reap. If we have engaged in a course of sin we must be content to have a course of sorrow afterwards. Is a course of indulgence in any sin whatever worth the miseries into which sin inevitably leads? David is said to be a man after God’ s own heart; but only because, when he fell, he did not continue in sin. He was not a man after God’ s own heart with his sins, but without them, because of his readiness to cast them from him, and of his life-long, loving, trustful penitence afterwards. (F. E. Paget.) The registry gate The true significance of the present is not revealed in the present. The present usually tells us only half truths, and sometimes falsehoods. Only the lapse of years makes us dispassionate judges of our earlier selves. Hence the past comes into our maturer life as an clement of pain and reproach. The text is the utterance of a rich and ripe experience--of a man about whom the shadows have begun to lengthen, and who is letting a sorrowful and faultful past come home to his matured judgment, to be tried by its higher standards and by its clearer discrimination. In view of what we know of David’ s youth, why does he so earnestly plead that the sins of his youth be not remembered by God? The answer is found in the standpoint from which David contemplated his life; for while the cool retrospect of a life brings disappointment and disgust to every thoughtful man, the nature and degree of this disgust are regulated according to the standard of judgment which is applied. The majority of men come, sooner or later, to think of themselves as fools in their earlier years, but they do not likewise come to think of themselves as sinners. When one begins to review his life from the standpoint of his moral relation to God, he sees through a glass which greatly enlarges the range of his retrospect, thoughts as well as deeds, intention as well as performance, motive no less than act--enter into his review. Secret faults come under inspection, with presumptuous sins; what he is not as well as what he is. The truth assumed in these words is one which concerns the character of God, which gives tone to this whole prayer of David, and which it very much concerns us to see as plainly as he did--the truth, that God cannot be passive in any moral relation. Sin cannot come to the notice of God without setting something in motion against itself, any more than the poles of a battery can be brought together, without starting an electric current. God cannot let sin alone. As a Lawgiver, He must take cognisance of violated law. As a Father, He must strive to restore an erring son. As an Administrator, He must anticipate the far-reaching consequences of a violation of moral order. Here men make a vital mistake. They are deceived, and mock God by thinking that He can, by any possibility, be false to His own pure Being. They measure Him by their own standards, and think that their own good-natured tolerance of sin is measured in Him. If a man will once deliberately consider the out-branchings and consequences of a single sin, even in the light of the familiar laws of cause and effect, he will readily see what a stupendous problem is that of forgiveness, and will echo the scribes’ question,--“ Who can forgive sins but God only?” We are not to expect God will literally shut our sins out of His remembrance: Nor that He will change His attitude towards sin. While God’ s relation to sin remains fixed, His relation to the sinner may be changed. How, in answer to such a prayer as David’ s, will man stand related to the follies and sins of his past life? He will not be entirely rid of their consequences, especially of their physical consequences. Nor will God cease to use the faultful past in the new man’ s education. But He will never taunt him with the past. He wants to use the past only as a help, not as a sting. And into the heart there will come a tranquil rest, a deep peace, founded not upon hone of retrieving the past, for there may be little time left; but simply upon the conviction that God has taken the whole sadly confused and stained life into His own hands. And there will come a turning with fresh zest to redeem the time which remains. (Marvin R. Vincent, D. D.) Youth should be given to God The first born should be sacrificed to God, the first fruits should be offered to Him, yea, the firstlings of beasts if they had not been redeemed, their necks behoved to have been broken. Think ye not that God hath more respect of the first fruits of our life than He hath of the first fruits or firstlings of bullocks? Thou shouldst consecrate thy beginnings to God with Josiah, who in the morning of his life, even early, began to seek the Lord. (Marvin R. Vincent, D. D.) Psalms 25:8-9 Good and upright is the Lord; therefore will He teach sinners in the way. The guarantee in God for guidance from God The Psalmist exchanges petition for contemplation; and gazes on the character of God, in order thereby to be helped to confidence in an answer to his prayer. Such alternations of petition and contemplation are the very heartbeats of devotion, now expanding in desire, and now closing on its treasure in fruition. Either attitude is incomplete without the other. Do our prayers pass into such still contemplation of the face of God? I. The Psalmist’ s thought of God. “ Good and upright.” God equals here, kind, beneficent. He binds the two quantities together in the feeling of their profoundest harmony. Neither of these reaches its highest beauty and supremest power except it be associated with the other. In the spectrum analysis of that great light there are the two lines; the one purest white of righteousness, and the other tinged with a ruddier glow, the line of love. We are always tempted to wrench the two apart. Hence you get types of religion in which one or the other is emphasised to such a degree as almost to blot out the other. God is love. We cannot make too much of His love, unless by reason of it we make too little of His righteousness. II. The calm confidence builded on this conception of the Divine character. What a wonderful “ therefore” that is!--the logic of faith, not of sense. The co-existence of these two aspects in the perfect Divine character is for us a guarantee that He cannot leave men, however guilty they may be, to grope in the dark, or keep His lips locked in silence. The Psalmist does not mean guidance as to practical advantages and worldly prosperity. He means guidance as to the one important thing, the sovereign conception of duty, the eternal law of right and wrong. What is love, in its loftiest, purest, and therefore in its Divine aspect? What, except an infinite desire to impart, and that the object on which it falls shall be blessed. God is the “ giving” God. Not our happiness, but our rectitude, is God’ s end in all that He does for us. Since righteousness is blended with love, therefore He comes, and must desire to bring all wanderers back into the paths which are His own. God can find His way to my heart, and infuse there illumination, and pure affections, and make my eye clear to discern what is right. III. The condition on which the fulfilment of this confidence depends. “ The meek will He guide,” etc. The condition of our hearing and profiting, by the guidance is meekness; or what we might call docility, of which the prime element is the submission of our own wills to God’ s. The reason why we go wrong about our duties is mainly that we do not supremely want to go right, but rather to gratify inclinations, tastes, or passions. Some of us do not wish to know what God wishes us to do. Some of us cannot bear suspense of judgment, or of decision, and are always in a hurry to be in action, and think the time lost that is spent in waiting to know what God the Lord will speak. If you do not clearly see what to do, then clearly you may see that you are to do nothing. Wait till God points the path, and wish Him to point it, and hush the noises that prevent your hearing His voice, and keep your wills in absolute submission; and, above all, he sure that you act out your convictions, and have no knowledge of duty which is not represented in your practice, and you will get all the light which you need: sometimes being taught by errors, no doubt, often being left to make mistakes as to what is expedient in regard to worldly prosperity, but being infallibly guided as to the path of duty and the path of peace and righteousness. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Our Divine Teacher Men die for lack of knowledge, hence teaching has ever held a high place in God’ s dealing with sinful man, and the Divine Teacher--the Holy Spirit--not only points out the way of life, but confers power to pursue that way. The first without the second would prove ineffective to accomplish the salvation of any man. “ It would have been,” says T.G. Selby, “ a cruel absurdity if someone had stepped up to Caliban or to Quasimodo, the dwarf in Victor Hugo’ s Notre Dame, who impersonates all ugliness, and had said ‘ Be Apollo, he is the one mould of physical perfection into which you may try and compass yourself.’ It would be insane stupidity if Tadema or Burne Jones were to go to some limbless monstrosity in a penny show and say, ‘ Join our school, paint according to our methods, reproduce our best characteristics.’” The poor wretch lacks the natural endowments which fit him to take his first lessons in art. The meditation of a devout soul upon God God guides the soul in a certain way. What is it? I. It is the way of moral excellence. It is described as--1. “ Judgment,” i.e. rectitude.2. “ His way,” the way which is in accordance with their nature.3. “ His covenant.” All these expressions mean holiness, for thereinto doth God guide the soul. II. Of experimental blessedness. “ All the paths of the Lord are mercy (Psalms 25:10).1. They experience the mercy of God in their use. In healing their diseases, sustaining their existence, removing their perplexities, etc.,2. The truth of God in their use. “ Mercy and truth.” III. Of forgiveness. “ Pardon mine iniquity,” etc. (Psalms 25:11).1. There is an urgent need for pardon; and--2. A sovereign reason,--“ Thy name’ s sake.” IV. Of moral wealth. Such wealth is--1. Abundant. “ His soul shall dwell at ease.” He shall lodge in goodness, as the margin has it.2. Permanent, “ dwell.”3. Transmissible. “ His seed shall inherit the earth.” A truly gooey man can transmit his goodness to his children, and bring them into the spiritual inheritance. And these--not the owners of broad acres--are the true inheritors of the earth.4. Free. “ What man is he that feareth the Lord? Him,” etc. It does not matter who he is, if he has true religion. V. Of Divine friendship. “ The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him.” The man who walks in this way gets so intimate and grows so friendly with God that he becomes initiated into His secrets, acquainted with His counsels. There is no mystery in this. We see it every day where there is strong mutual sympathy between two minds. VI. Of ultimate deliverance. “ He shall pluck my feet out of the net.”1. Men are entangled in dangers. The devil has laid his snares in all directions.2. True men will be delivered. The “ net” will be broken, the snarer confounded, and the soul set free.3. For their eyes are ever towards the Lord. God fills up the horizon of a good man’ s soul. (Homilist.) Psalms 25:9 The meek will He teach His way.The humble The heathen moralists give many admirable counsels, but always forget humility. They had not, indeed, the word for it. The term “ humility” before Christianity meant what is base, despicable, vile. Humility can only come with the knowledge of one’ s self, and man did not truly know himself until he had made a study of himself in the light of the holy God. Comparing himself only with his fellow men, he would never learn humility. There is something still more efficacious than the sight of the perfection of Jesus Christ to produce humility, it is the sight of His love. It is at the foot of the Cross humility is born. Christian humility should penetrate our entire being. Our intelligence must be humble. We are in danger of forgetting this in this age of criticism and discussion. Only that intelligence which humbles itself before God can readily teach. Our heart must be humble. We can submit our intelligence entirely to God, sacrifice our reason to Him, boast of a blind faith, and shelter in our hearts a whole world of pride. So far as humility has not yet reached and conquered our heart, it is but a theory. It happens, in the Church, that the men to whom God has dispensed the finest gifts advance in humility in the same measure as they advance in age and experience. Consider the promises which God makes to the humble. “ The meek will He teach His way.” Unless man be taught he will never find God’ s way. Today man’ s intelligence has assumed an immense and superb confidence in itself. It has faith in its powers; it thinks that it has come to an end of all problems, that it will surmount every obstacle. It is not in the power of ignorance and mediocrity to produce humility; very often they nourish pride. Let intelligence grow, but let it never forget its dependence on God. People talk of the benefits of trial. Yes, when it is accepted in humbleness of heart: otherwise it will rather harden. It is a marvellous thing that God has never wanted to be served by the strong, but always by the humble. Pass in review all those who have served His designs, all those by whom He has taught and saved men, you will see that they all have been formed in the school of humility. Let, then, those who work for God lay hold on the thought that to humble souls alone has God taught the way of success. (E. Bersier, D. D.) The humble taught the Lord’ s way The righteous Lord will teach sinners His way; but the sinners, in order to be thus divinely taught, must be humble. Men are comparatively little attracted by the more quiet and passive virtues of life, and among these the virtue of humility is one of the least popular. The truth is, that we are still under the influence of pagan notions about it. The philosophers of the past never understood it. Christianity has transformed and ennobled the despised word by giving us the thing itself. In Christ we see that humility makes no man contemptible. The words before us present this virtue of humility under one special aspect. Man has something to learn, and God has something to teach, and humility is teachableness. Humility is the result of self-knowledge, and this cannot be obtained until man has learned to know himself in the light of God’ s wisdom and holiness. So long as he compares himself with his fellow creatures around him, it may seem to him that there is no necessity for such an element of character as this. God teaches us humility in another way. He shows us His love in Christ. How can we be proud when we know that God has loved us, and that Christ has died for us? The very faith which accepts the Gospel has its root in lowliness of mind. All our Christian life, in one aspect of it, is a growth in humility. This beautiful virtue affects our whole being, rescuing for God all that has been usurped by sin. Our reason must be humble. Our heart must be humble. Our conduct must be humble. God’ s promise to “ teach His way” applies to our knowledge of Divine truth; the everyday dispensations of life; our bearing towards others; and to our Christian work. (Clement Bailhache.) Psalms 25:10 All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth unto such as keep His covenant and His testimonies.The dealings of God with His people This text is intended to represent a universal attribute of God, in all His ways in His government of the world. As such it sets before us an important element of strength to the Christian. To the saved, every event, of whatsoever kind or magnitude it may be, or seem to be, is under the ordering of one sole guiding hand, and is a token of mercy and truth. I. The ascription of mercy and truth to all the paths of the Lord. Mercy in sparing and delivering His people when they do not deserve it. Truth, in that it is in accordance with promise. His Word will in the end be found faithful to the letter, and whoever takes his stand on that shall never be ashamed. There is a close connection between the Word of God and His paths. There is a great deal implied in the word “ paths” : in all the events of the world we may see God moving, see by faith, that is; for His paths are in the deep waters, obliterated from view in the very act of making; His footsteps are not known, except as revealed to the spirit by the Spirit. Whatever comes to us is a path of God. For the illustration of this idea, see the evens of David’ s history. You cannot unravel the web of Providence; but this is certain, “ all the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth.” II. The persons in whom this attribute of God’ s acts is verified. “ Unto such as keep His covenant.” Hereby is intended such as have come out from their worldly conversation, and are endeavouring to run the race of God’ s children as Christians in the world. The lowest may be said in some sense to “ keep His covenant.” The highest do not keep it perfectly. What of the remainder? (G. Jeans, M. A.) The covenanter I. The spiritual covenanter. We have heard of the old Covenanters of Scotland. I have a picture of one. But we have to speak of those who at this day keep the covenant of the Lord. The first covenant with our first father Adam shuts up the soul in despair. But there is a new and better covenant. God has shown it to us, and written it on the tablets of our heart. The redeemed man has been the subject of a special call, and is now united to God in Christ Jesus. A true covenanter says, “ Sooner death than false of faith.” II. The covenanter’ s notable experience. “ All the paths of the Lord are mercy,” etc. So, then, the Lord makes many approaches to covenanting men. I like the word “ paths,” for it seems to say that the Lord has walks of His own. He makes them for Himself, and comes along them quietly, taking us at unawares. And they are all of mercy and truth. That is to say, God has always shown the truth of His Word. To this rule there is no exception. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The interpretive value of obedience The text seems, at first, to mean that the Lord is merciful and faithful to such as do His will. They shall have His blessing. As they deal with Him, so will He with them. There is a covenant, a spiritual contract, between them: on the one hand, so much obedience and loyalty; on the other, so much truth and mercy. This conception is drawn from the transactions of the market, and in its lowest terms puts religion on the level of mere sale and barter. There is, indeed, an element of truth in it; see Galatians 4:7-8. It is certain, however, that they who work just to be rewarded by God will miss it altogether. The true reward is the approval of God, and they alone will gain it who think more of God than of themselves. This is the distinction made in New Testament between faith and works. The difference is seen by comparing Jacob’ s bargain with St. Francis Xavier’ s “ My God, I love Thee, not because I hope for heaven thereby,” etc. The Christian saint gives everything and asks nothing. I do not believe, however, that the text teaches that we are to obey God in order that He may be merciful and true to us, The meaning, I take it, is rather that those who obey Him are thereby enabled to understand His ways, and to see, even when the paths of the Lord are blind and steep, that they are, nevertheless, the paths of mercy and truth. They who keep the covenant and the testimonies of God have their eyes opened to know the purpose and motive of God’ s acts. The secret of the Lord, the understanding of His strange dealings with us, is open and plain to those who are near to Him, who fear Him with the fear of devout reverence, and obey Him in the keeping of His covenant and testimonies. I. This is plain enough in our relation to the world of nature. How shall we come into complete harmony of eye and ear and touch with our environment; how shall we see the “ desirable, clear light of the new morning,” and listen fitly to the music of the brooks; how shall we so conduct ourselves that the sun and the rain, the clouds and trees and stars, the sights and sounds of nature, shall give us the satisfaction and benediction that God intends? The way is as evident as it is simple and homely: we must keep the covenant and the testimonies of God as they relate to our daily health of body; we must sleep and eat and work aright; we must answer the fitting, natural demands of our physical being, and keep ourselves alert and strong and well. Nothing else will avail. No amount of beautiful poetry read by lamplight, and no prayers said behind closed doors, can take the place of that imperative obedience to the primitive laws of bodily health by which alone we may hope to look through clear eyes upon this fair and wonderful world. II. This everlasting fact of the interpretive value of obedience holds true in religion as in everything else. The Bible is never weary of teaching it. It is one of the eternal principles that lie at the heart of spiritual truth. The ten lepers who are cleansed as they obey are representatives of all of us: as we go along the way on which God sends us, strength and health of soul go with us. The pure in heart shall see God. They who are devoted to God, who hold all else subordinate to their service of Him, whose love of Him is the supreme fact in their lives, who live in His conscious presence, see Him and understand Him. It is as simple and natural as friendship. Their obedience opens their eyes. The chosen disciples of Jesus were able to understand Him better than the crowd, because they were keeping, as best they could, though with many blunders, the eternal laws which expressed His own will and way. He was interpreted to them by their obedience. We, too, if we would knew Him, must approach Him by this way. Not by the path of reason, perplexing ourselves among the arguments of theologians; and not by the path of authority, taking what the ecclesiastics tell us and thinking no more about it, like a blind man trying to understand a sunrise by a formula; but by the path of personal obedience is Christ best sought, so that, doing His will, we come into real sympathy with Him, and of our own selves recognise Him and believe in Him and love Him. So it is with certain hard duties to which He summons us, and which are tests of true discipleship. To love our enemies seems at first not only a difficult but an unnatural and unreasonable affection. It appears like an injustice to our friends. We say flatly, we cannot do it. And the other devout exercises which are of a piece with it, such as speaking as well as we honestly can of those who speak ill of us, and turning the other cheek, and going two miles for those who would compel us to go one, and doing good to those who despitefully use us, the more we simply talk or think about these requirements of Jesus, the more impossible they seem. But when we stop discussing and obey! when in this or that immediate instance we do the Master’ s will, hard as it is, going out of our way to render a kind service to one who has injured us, forbearing to defend our rights, giving up our own strong case and letting our importunate neighbour have his way, actually permitting him to take advantage of us if he will; when we simply do what Jesus tells us to do, and what He Himself was forever doing, then the blessed light shines out upon us, and we understand how this Christian behaviour is not only the best thing in a vague and general way for society, but is the very best for us in particular, and there is a consciousness of the approbation of God, and a new and consequent joy in living, which is far better than any advantage we might have gained by pushing in ahead. We keep the covenant and the testimonies of God, and our obedience interprets them, and it is made plain and sure to us that His paths are truth and mercy. Or, to take another illustration, misfortune of some kind befalls us, grief attends us, the world goes wrong, the light of life is turned of a sudden into black darkness, and a sore burden, too heavy, we think, for us to bear, is set upon our shoulders, and it is desperately hard to see how the paths of the Lord are “ mercy.” They may be “ truth,” they may be right; we may be punished for our sins; but how they can mean “ mercy,” how there can be any fatherly love in them, as the Gospel tells us, passes our understanding. Then, if we betake ourselves to philosophy, there is but cold and scanty comfort. A wise man wrote a book on the consolations of philosophy, and another wise man advises us to be revenged upon fate by becoming philosophers; excellent counsel for the minor perplexities and vexations that beset us. But under a black sky, when things are not only amiss, but dreadfully and tragically amiss, it is a weary and unsatisfying occupation. We cannot by our understanding find out the ways of God. What shall we do, then? Let us submit and obey. Let us take up the new burden and carry it, facing life anew under these strange and hard conditions, and seeking to do our daily duty in it, keeping the covenant and the testimonies of the Lord. That is the way that leads to light. So it is throughout, in every alternative; everything comes right if we obey God. This very world in which we live our daily lives is already heaven to those who do the will of God as it is done in heaven. Here and today, they who keep the commandments receive the blessing of which Jesus assured us; they enter into life. (George Hodges, D. D.) Psalms 25:11 For Thy name’ s sake, O Lord, pardon mine iniquity; for it is great.A prayer for pardon and its plea The context shows that this is the prayer of a man who had long loved and served God. Yet side by side with this consciousness of devotion and service there lie the profound sense of sin, and of the need of pardon. This consciousness of transgression and cry for pardon are inseparable and permanent accompaniments of a devout life all along its course, but they are the roots and beginnings of all godliness. As a rule, the first step which a man takes to knit himself consciously to God is through the gate of recognised and repeated and confessed sin, and imploring the Divine mercy. I. The cry for pardon. There are two elements in forgiveness. There is the forgiveness known to law and practised by the lawgiver. And there is the forgiveness known to love, and practised by the friend, or parent, or lover. The one consists in the remission of external penalties. But there is a forgiveness deeper than legal pardon. We must carry both of these ideas into our thoughts of God’ s pardon, in order to get the whole fulness of it. Scripture recognises as equally real and valid, in our relations to God, the judicial and the fatherly side of the relationship. II. The plea for pardon. “ For Thy name’ s sake.”1. The mercy of God flows from the infinite depths of His own character. He is His own motive. He forgives because He is God. 2. The past of God is a plea with God for present forgiveness. “ Thy name” in Scripture means the whole revelation of the Divine character. 3. The Divine forgiveness is in order that men may know Him better. Nothing reveals the sweetness of the Divine name like the assurance of His pardon. III. The reason for this earnest cry. “ For it is great.” That may be a reason for the pardon; more probably it is a reason for the prayer. The fact is true in regard to us all. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) A prayer and a plea Consider this prayer.I. It is an unreserved confession of sin.1. As his own.2. As great. In both respects men fail in such confession. They acknowledge sin in general, but not as their own; or they extenuate and excuse it. II. A humble application for mercy. The unregenerate man will not thus humble himself, but will trust to his good works and his fancied good deservings. III. The plea urged. “ For Thy name’ s sake.” It is drawn from God, not from himself. It looks to the Saviour, who is the manifestation of God’ s name. Let this be our only plea. IV. The strong faith of this prayer. David believed that God would forgive though his sin were great. Most people see God as all mercy or all wrath. Not so David. Have we such holy faith? (T. Cooper.) A plea for pardon I. A confession of sin. We shall be induced to make such a confession, if we consider that--1. Our sins are great in number. How often do we offend! How many have been the follies of our childhood, the crimes of our youth, and the backslidings of our riper age! 2. Our sins are great in their turpitude. This appears from the Being against whom sin is committed; from the dignity and circumstances of its subjects, from the degrading character which it sustains, and from the awful effects which it produces. 3. Our sins are great in their demerit. The punishment due to sin must be in proportion to the majesty and glory of God, whose dignity it daringly insults, and whose law it impiously violates. II. An request for pardon.1. The language of genuine repentance. 2. The language of devout solicitude. 3. The language of humble confidence. III. AN argument urged to obtain success. It suggests--1. The pardon of sin displays the glory of the Divine perfections. God’ s name signifies His nature. 2. The pardon of sin demonstrates the efficacy of Christ’ s atonement. 3. The pardon of sin exemplifies the truth of the sacred Scriptures. In conclusion, warn the careless, encourage the penitent, and congratulate the saints, who have received the “ knowledge of salvation by the remission of their sins.” (Sketches of Four Hundred Sermons.) Confession and absolution I. Confession is to be made distinctly and directly, and only to the Lord. There were priests and prophets in those days, but David unfolds the story of his sin to God Himself. He realises that all sin is directly aimed at God. Observe in David’ s confession the utter absence of excuses. In this confession there is no mention of punishment. David does not ask to be let off. He asks for pardon solely and simply. And David had a true conception of the heinousness of sin. II. A pleading prayer. Two pleas, The first he finds in God. “ For Thy name’ s sake.” He was God’ s own child, and he pleads his sonship. The second he finds in his own sinfulness. Many mistake by asking pardon because the iniquity is small. The strongest plea is to say to God, “ Have mercy upon me, for I am a great sinner. I have sinned in a thousand ways, and even ten thousand times.” True confession brings the true absolution. (Thomas Spurgeon.) The prayer for pardon I. The prayer for pardon. The Psalm is an appeal for Divine guidance amidst the perplexity of life. But the author is driven to think of his unworthiness to receive it because of past perverseness. Are we not all thus placed? The reason why many are lost in the mazes of doubt is because they have not humbled themselves to penitence. II. The grounds of the prayer for pardon.1. God’ s faithfulness. The “ name” God is used constantly as synonymous with His character. Forgiveness is a Divine disposition as well as an act. God is acting in accordance with His own nature in listening to this prayer. The words not only suggest God’ s character, but His word. “ For Thy name’ s sake” means for Thy honour, who hast pledged Thy word. 2. The suppliant’ s need. “ For it is great.” This is an argument that needs no mastering. For who cannot expatiate on his needs! Rejoice in the knowledge that the very thing which dismays thee, O sinner,--the greatness of thy offence,--may be used as a reason why God should forgive thee. At the door of our good and bountiful Lord the plea of utter destitution will ensure relief. The wretchedness of thy crushed condition beneath a mountain load of guilt will stir the Divine compassion. (Walter Hawkins.) A true mark of a penitent A true mark of a penitent sinner, to aggravate his sin. Some use to extenuate their sins by comparing them with the sins of others, which they think far greater than theirs are; others excuse them, as Adam did when he said, The woman which Thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat; she again excused herself, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat. But let the children of God search and find out the greatness of their sins, and aggravate them, that God may extenuate and so forget them. Are ye laden with sin? remember it, and God will forget it, and ease you; if ye have it before your eyes He shall cast it behind His back; but if you think nothing of sin, God will bind it on your back, so that it shall press you down as a millstone. (A. Symson.) A strange plea We should not expect a criminal before an earthly judge to advance such a plea as this. Yet before the highest Judge of all this is the argument, the wise argument, of the awakened soul. We should not value God’ s pardon when obtained if we thought lightly of our sin. When our eyes are opened to see the extent of our ruin we can turn this appalling discovery into the argument of the text. These words represent a real personal conviction of sin.. We are ready enough to accept such a statement about our sins, without the slightest degree of humility or penitential sorrow. Consider what it is that makes sin great. I. It is great according to the position it occupies in the moral scale. There is a subjective as well as an objective measure of sin. Each sin may be judged in the abstract according to its heinousness; but when it is committed we have to consider the conditions under which it was committed. Its guilt must depend on a variety of considerations. Two offenders may commit precisely the same offence, and yet one may be morally much guiltier than the other. II. Sin is great, in proportion to the advantages and privileges of the sinner. Many will not admit this. Respectable church-going people plume themselves on their privileges, as though the possession of these might be accepted as a proof that their own spiritual condition could not be otherwise than satisfactory. III. Sin is great, in consideration of the character of those against whom it is committed. The exceeding sinfulness of sin lies in its being an offence against infinite love revealed. IV. Sin is great, in proportion to its frequency. If a man is proved to be a confirmed criminal, then you may be sure that the heaviest sentence the law allows will be meted out to him. How often have we sinned against God! V. Sin is great in proportion to the amount of deliberate intention with which it is committed. Some of our sins are the result of a momentary temptation, and may be attributed to a passing weakness. This may extenuate our guilt. But we cannot speak thus of the determined, deliberate, and resolute resistance that we have offered to the pleadings of the Holy Ghost in our souls. The text contains another plea, “ For Thy name’ s sake.” Our hope lies there. It is the glory of God to undertake our case when it is desperate, and He shows His almighty power most chiefly by showing mercy and pity. The moral glory of God shines out more, so far as we can judge, in pardoning a sinner than in making a world. And we honour His name most when we trust Him to do this. (W. Hay Aitken, M. A.) Contrition God’ s principal aim is to bring us all to feel that our iniquity is great. I. David declared that his was great. What is it that makes our sin great?1. Against whom it has been committed.2. That it is offence against most just and equitable law.3. That we who owe so much to God should sin against Him. Think of the number of your sins and the lack of all provocation. We have sinned for sinning’ s sake. And we have gone on in sin after we have known and felt the evil of it. II. There is a plea in the very greatness of our sins. The pith of the whole text lies in the words which we forget to quote--“ For Thy name’ s sake.” The confession is an argument now. There is a valid plea here. If salvation were by merit, then the least offender would get off best. But it is all by grace; and hence the greater the pardon, the greater the glory of that grace in bestowing it. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The cry for pardon I. The confession. “ Mine iniquity, for it is great.” The confession of a regenerate man: the spirit teaches and prompts. The natural man excuses, palliates, minimises his sin; uses false weights and measures. Our view depends on distance, position, light, and medium. God views according to unerring standard, and in clearest light; so more and more does the spirit-taught soul. Sense of sin grows as we come nearer to God. This confession is not vague, unmeaning, mere form. Take one sin--anyone--and look at it in the light; weigh it in the scales; it is great. Consider the magnitude and multitude of your sins. II. The prayer. “ Pardon.” Appeal from law to grace; of these there can be no mixture. Great sins do not bar this appeal. Great sin means great need. No extenuating circumstances can be urged; none are needed. Pardon is free, immediate, complete, and continual. III. The plea. For Thy names sake. All selfment is disowned. God delights to pardon. God has promised to pardon. God’ s name, character, word, promise, covenant are all involved in hearing prayer--this prayer. Christ is the embodiment of the Divine name for sinners, and the sinner’ s plea with God. (James Smith, M. A.) Psalms 25:12 What man is he that feareth the Lord? The fear of God a restraining influence This secret fear, if it be once planted in the heart, will direct thee in all good actions acceptable to God, and correct thy evil doings. The love of God hath a constraining power whereby it compelleth and forceth us to serve Him: the fear of God hath a restraining power, by which it restraineth and stayeth us, and keepeth us back from offending Him: this is like a bit, that like a spur. Abraham feared that the fear of God was not in the place whereto he went. Joseph being enticed by his mistress to commit wickedness with her, answered, How can I do this great wickedness, and so sin against God? The Lord plant this fear in our hearts. This is a filial fear which he craveth, coming from love, and not a servile fear, which cometh from fear of punishment. The preserver of this fear in thee is a continual nourishment in thy mind of the presence of God, to whom thou presentest all thy actions. Will He teach the way that he shall choose. He promiseth four benefits to the man that feareth God,--He heapeth upon him grace upon grace: before He pardoned him, and now He directeth the man whom He forgave: for no sooner receiveth He any man in His favour, but He immediately takes the protection and direction of him. But out of these words we see three things. First, that there are divers, yea contrary ways, as there are contrary ends, the broad and the narrow, the King’ s way and by-roads, the way of life and of death. This is against such as dream to themselves that whatsoever religion they profess, or howsoever they live, they shall go to heaven; but they are deceived, for if thou be not in the way to the kingdom thou shalt never attain to the kingdom; many, yea the most part, are not going but riding, not running but posting, to hell; of whom, if it be demanded whither they go? they will answer, to heaven; yea, and they will brag that they are nearer God than the preacher himself, even as if one should dream of life at the point of death. Next, we see that a man cannot of himself choose the right way to heaven; for the natural man cannot apprehend those things which appertain to God’ s kingdom, neither yet can he see them, for they are spiritually discerned. Whereupon followeth the third, that is, how man shall choose the good and refuse the evil way. It is not in him that runneth, nor in him that willeth, but in God that sheweth mercy. Moses chose rather to suffer with the Church than to be called the son of Pharaoh’ s daughter. (A. Symson.) The fruits of godly fear The “ fear of God” is a familiar expression in the Scriptures. Let us lay hold of one element in the spacious word. When we profoundly fear a thing we are haunted by it. It affects everything. To fear God is to be God-haunted, God-possessed. But this figure is defective. In all fruitful fear of God there is no cringing, no slavishness, no paralysing terror. Perfect love “ casteth out” this type of fear. Change the figure. We speak of being haunted by an air of music. In such a way the man who fears God is haunted by God’ s presence; God is an abiding consciousness. Everything is seen in relationship to God. What would be the fruits of such a fear? The succeeding verses give some outline of the spacious ministry. “ Him shall He teach in the way that he shall choose.” He shall be guided in his choices. He shall have the gift of enlightenment. His discernment shall be refined so as to perceive the right way when the ways are many. His moral judgment shall be instructed. The moral choice shall be firm and sure. The practical judgment shall be nurtured and refined in the Lord’ s school. “ His soul shall dwell at ease.” Restlessness and worry shall be abolished. The sense of the companionship of God will make every place the realm of promise, and in every place he will find the riches of grace. “ His seed shall inherit the earth.” Children become heirs when parents become pious. The God-possessed transmits a legacy of blessing. It would be a profitable thing to calculate what one may inherit because another man was good. “ The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him.” They are taken into intimate fellowship. To be made the depository of a rare secret is to be sealed as a friend. How can we become God-haunted? Let us begin by deliberately consulting God in the individual movements of our busy life. Refer everything to His decision Begin by distinct acts of volition This may become at length an easy-fitting habit, and may even ripen into the spontaneity of an instinct. (J. H. Jowett, M. A.) Psalms 25:14 The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him.-- The secret of the Lord Then the Lord has a secret. Why does He not tell it to every man? Why do we not tell our secrets to every man? Every man does not understand us. We always best understand those who are like-minded with us. God gives His secret to them that fear Him. We individually give our secret--knowledge of our inner self--to those who see eye to eye with us, and by so much would not, cannot, offend us. That which must necessarily be a secret to some, even knowledge of ourselves, is, all else being equal, most obtainable by them that fear us; by them who put confidence in us. It is even so with society; its secret is with them that fear it. Outrage the moral sense of society, or even its sense of propriety, and refuse to be reconciled, and society will cast you adrift. He who acquiesces in the ways of society is received by society, and gets from it such secret as it has to reveal. He knows society through reconciliation, through a species of fear, in which there is an admixture of love.. The secret of business is with him who bends his will to it. The secret of all science, and all art, is with them that love it. No love, no secret, in personal intercourse, in industrial pursuits, in society. The more love, the more knowledge or secret. Admiration, devotion, love, each according to its nature and degree opens all locks and doors and souls. Have the spirit of any given man, and his secret is yours. Have his spirit entirely, and you have him. Harmony with God, sympathy, animation by His Spirit is necessary to knowing Him. (J. S. Swan.) The secret of the Lord I. The class of persons spoken of. Those that “ fear the Lord.”1. Fear sometimes signifies fear of God’ s punishments. This fear is better than none at all, as it exercises a restraining power over men who would otherwise commit sin. 2. But there is a fear which merits the severest reprobation: when it fears God because it considers Him to be an angry, vindictive being. 3. There is a fear which deserves the highest commendation; it is filial fear, the fear which an affectionate child has of grieving its father, or causing him pain. II. The privilege which such persons enjoy. “ The secret of the Lord is with them.” God holds communion and fellowship with men whose hearts are rightly disposed towards them. Suppose a group of persons discussing the conduct and policy of some public man. All kinds of opinions might be expressed, favourable or otherwise. But of what worth would they be compared with the word of one who knows this public man personally, intimately, who is in his secret, and can speak with confidence regarding his public conduct? Or the “ secret” may be illustrated ill another way--by the relation in which two friends stand to each other, who are in perfect sympathy with one another. How they would understand each other! A glance of the eye, a mere hint, suffices to reveal the mind of the one to the other. So the favour and fellowship of God are enjoyed by the man who fears Him. What do we know about this “ secret” ? The infidel Hume taunted his servant with believing in nonsense. He replied that in his History of England Hume told of Queen Mary, who said that when she died, Calais would be found written on her heart. So, the servant said, Christ was written on his heart. This is the secret of the Lord. (W. Logan, M. A.) The teachings of God within and without God reveals Himself in two ways to man. God wrote His word “ on the pages of the elements.” But even on the heathen He wrote a more inward law, which answered to the outward and interpreted its voice--the law of conscience. Each of these voices is made more distinct as man is brought nearer to God. And when we forget both, He has given us the writings of the law, the voices of the prophets, the melody of the Psalms, the instruction of Proverbs, the experiences of histories, the words of Jesus and the Apostles. He speaks, too, by His Spirit. God ever speaks to the heart, as He speaks through the Word; for He cannot contradict Himself. What then? Because God must prepare the heart and open the ear and Himself speak to it, does nothing depend on us? It is with us to hearken or no. “ The secret of the Lord” is a hushed voice, a gentle intercourse of heart to heart, a still small voice whispering to the inner ear. How should we hear it if we fill our ears and our hearts with the din of this world? There are two conditions, as there are degrees of inward hearing. You must fear God. You must be hushed yourselves. They who do not fear God cannot hear the secret. In grace, God forecomes man, and man follows grace given. In sin, on the contrary, man begins; he casts out grace, deadens his own car, until God’ s voice sounds fainter and fainter. The question on which all hangs is this--is the flesh subdued to the Spirit, or the Spirit stifled by the flesh? This is the first condition of knowing the will of God, that we will to know it wholly. In vain is heaven opened to eyes fixed on earth. Love sees God The Psalmist speaks not of the “ secret of the Lord” only, but of a “ secret converse” with the soul, as of a friend with his friend. To have the love of the Great Friend, we must desire no love out of Him. St. Bernard says, “ A secret counsel calleth for a secret hearing. He will assuredly make thee hear of joy and gladness if thou receivest Him with a sober car.” “ They who would behold God,” says St. Gregory, “ dwell in a loneliness of soul, and free from the tumults of worldly cares, thirst for God.” (E. B. Pusey, D. D.) The knowledge of God revealed to them that fear Him The secret of the Lord means, that which cannot be known unless the Lord reveal it. And the phrase here implies an intimate knowledge of the Divine perfections, of the dealings and dispensations of God; a holy and vital communion with Him; an entire trust in His providential care and government, together with that peace which always dwells in the bosom of a true, penitent, pious believer. All this, including, as it does, a full acquaintance with the doctrines and duties, the privileges and comforts of the life of faith, is called the “ secret of the Lord,” for man naturally knows nothing of them (Proverbs 2:6; Proverbs 2:9; 1 Corinthians 2:9). Men think all this enthusiasm, and have no notion that there is anything in religion which they, by their own skill, are not competent to discover. But, for instance, how can any man who neglects the worship of God pretend to decide upon its importance or utility? It is a matter of experience, and he is unqualified to judge. Because the sinner, when overtaken by sickness or affliction, declares that he derives no comfort from religion, are we therefore to conclude that religion has no comforts to bestow? The promises of the Gospel belong to them that fear the Lord. These persons, when they read the Scriptures, are blessed through them; theirs, too, is the secret of peace in the midst of trouble and in the hour of death. (T. Slade, M. A.) The reward of fear Think what God’ s secret told to a man must be. I. It must be one of knowledge. You all know what the Bible is to the natural heart. It gives information, much and valuable, about most important things. But there it ends. It does not touch us, does not move us, does not make us feel. But see the true Christian over his Bible. How he drinks in his words, and how they refresh and comfort him. How he trusts them, and lives by them. He has got the secret of his Bible. II. It must be a secret of safety. “ The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous runneth into it, and is safe.” That is just what we cannot do; we have no such tower. Life’ s troubles find us out of doors, and beat upon us. How insecure, defenceless, comfortless we are. A tale was once written of a man who had committed a murder, a base, treacherous, but well-concealed murder, after which he lived for many years in respect and honour, in the gratification of all tastes and wishes, in affluence, and comfort, and domestic love, till a day of late discovery and late retribution. People spoke of this as an “ immoral story,” because it gave the man half a life of enjoyment. But that was a short-sighted judgment. How little could such observers know of the torture that man endured from the one fact of his consciousness of insecurity; that at any moment ruin might come. Without security, which is a sense of safety, no happiness is worth the name. The secret of the Lord is a secret of safety. III. A secret of strength. How strong a weak person may become who has it. And we have known strong men become weak for the lack of it. IV. A secret of peace. The wicked are like the “ troubled sea.” There is such a thing as a false peace; but a man must have gone very far astray before he can know that, the peace of spiritual death. Between these two extremes, the peace of God and the peace of death, there lies a very wide and dreary morass, a state of disquiet and unrest. V. Consider the communication of this secret. It is given to them who “ fear Him.” There are two kinds of fear: that fear which is cast out by love, and that fear which is part of love. It is a very serious thing when the foundations of religion are not laid deep in the fear of God. Remember that the fear of God, like everything else, must come instrumentally by practice. Abstain from something tonight, each one of you, some thought, some word, some act, by a great effort if necessary, on this single ground, that it will displease God. Do so again tomorrow; in a little while it will become easier to you, at last it will become habitual. (C. J. Vaughan, D. D.) A palace of Divine secrets I ask you to come with me through a spiritual palace, and I will describe the several apartments. I. We turn aside into a wide and spacious hall. Before us is a throne, high and lifted up,--it is the throne of grace. Watch the comers as they enter; their penitential aspect, humility, solicitude; listen to their confessions and their requests. They have come with woe, care, perplexity, sin. But they all fear Him, and so are admitted to the secret of prayer. II. Another chamber--the armoury of light. Nations boast their arsenals, but there is none like this. Watch those who are coining in and being armed. III. The treasure room which contains the book of life. Old books are counted as treasures. Here is one of the oldest, and it is indestructible. Let Mosaic chronology be mistaken, it only makes this book a little more venerable; for it was made ere the foundations of the earth. Whose names are in it? This is one of the Lord’ s secrets. But all those who have been born again of the Spirit of God are written there. IV. The chamber of consolation. Numerous visitors come crowding in. Heavily laden, worn-out, exhausted, fainting ones. They have all come to the right place. Here are staffs, cordials, medicines, anchors, lights, garments of praise. V. The room named “ Cross of love.” This is the highest of all. Here is revealed the secret of secrets. A soft and heavenly light fills the whole chamber. St. Paul was often in this room; it had a special charm for him. VI. The tower of the palace. It is the “ Tower of Vision.” Winding up its alabaster stairs, well-worn but ever-renewed, we at last reach the lofty summit. Below us is the world, half hidden by the mist, its hum scarcely audible. Our eyes climb up to the regions of serene and perpetual light, to the holy splendours of the city of our God. (W. A. Essery.) Hidden manna, or The mystery of saving grace The saving grace that the children of God have is a secret that none in the world know besides. It is called a secret in three ways. Secret to the eye of nature; but this is not meant. Secret to the eye of taught nature; but this is not meant. Secret to the eye of enlightened nature; this is meant. It is a secret to all unsanctified professors. It is called a mystery. Grace is spiritual, and can only be received by the spiritually minded. A man must have another secret before he can know this secret. He must be a new creature.1. Use for instruction. Is God’ s secret with them that fear Him? Then the godly are the friends of God. Then the godly are all one with God. 2. For refutation. Away with all who say that God gives no secret thing to any one man more than another. 3. For consolation. They are so honoured with the Lord that God hides no good thing from them that is necessary to their salvation. 4. For terror to the wicked. Here is horror to all the ungodly; they are strangers from God, they are not admitted into God’ s secrets. (W. Fermer.) The Lord’ s secret 1. The fear of the Lord--its origin is of God. Its effect is cleansing, purifying from the power and love of sin (Psalms 19:9). The fear of the Lord is clean, or cleansing; its evidence is in assembling with the Lord’ s people (Malachi 3:16). “ Then they that feared the Lord,” etc., but this fear is not the cause of the blessings spoken of, but the proof. 2. In every heart thus filled with the fear of God there is a communication of a secret. The Lord opens His mind and His heart to them, and, to begin with the lowest, there is the secret working of His grace, in conviction of sin, of righteousness, of pardon and peace--in the creation of a spirit of prayer and praise; all these being the work of grace in the soul. Then there is the secret witness of the Spirit, testifying to their adoption into His family, and the secret whispers of His love, whereby He continues to assure the soul by these tokens, that He has loved that soul with an everlasting love, and prepared it for a crown of glory. 3. The promise. Something more in prospect--He will show them His covenant. The “ everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure;” this was Davids support in trouble and in the hour of death. He will show them, will teach them, more and more therein, the nature of it, the duration of it, its comprehensiveness, its security, its terms and conditions, its blessings and promises, all in Christ, and Christ in all. (A. Hewlett, M. A.) God’ s greatest secret The secret of the Lord is His sending His Son into the world for the redemption of lost mankind. I. The Gospel of Christ is a mystery. It is not attainable without supernatural revelation. It was undiscoverable by the most exalted powers of human understanding until God, out of infinite mercy, was pleased Himself to reveal it. But even after the clearest revelation that our present state is capable of there must be owned to be, in the Christian religion, mysteries far surpassing the highest pitch of human understanding. To “ know in part” is too poor and mean a degree of knowledge for our modem Christian philosophers. To them there must be nothing in Christianity mysterious. Examine their pretensions, and we shall find that they neither speak of faith as becomes Christians, nor of reason as becomes men. How far are we glad to allow the use of reason in Divine matters?1. Reason is of great use in asserting the principles of natural religion, such as the Being of a God; the obligation to worship Him; the immortality of the soul; and the eternal and essential difference between good and evil, partly discoverable by natural light. 2. Reason is useful, since it is from rational inducements that we first admit even revelation itself. It is by reason we distinguish what is truly Divine from enthusiasm and imposture. 3. Reason is of excellent use in expounding and interpreting the mind and meaning of Holy Writ, as long as it is sober and modest and keeps strictly to the analogy of faith. 4. Reason is usefully employed in stopping the mouths of gainsayers, in enlightening their blindness or subduing their contumacy, in confuting heretics by turning their own weapons upon them, and vindicating Divine truth from all those calumnies which are unjustly brought against it. But in the sublime mysteries of our religion reason has no more to do, when it is once satisfied and convinced of the revelation, but to receive from it those truths which by its own natural powers it never had been able to have found out. II. The qualifications requisite in those that are to receive this great mystery. “ Them that fear Him.” The fear of the Lord is the beginning of that wisdom which alone makes wise unto salvation; and that--1. By a natural efficiency. Whoever loves the precepts of God, and delights to do what He commands, will meet with little difficulty in believing what He reveals. There is a natural and easy passage from loving to believing. True saving faith requires a devout and humble submission of the mind and heart, a complacency and delight and joy in the truths that it receives. 2. Besides this natural tendency, there are through the whole Scripture many signal examples, as well as positive promises, of faith and heavenly knowledge to a due and sincere practice of what we already know. Inferences-- (1) Since pride and self-concept and a too confident relying upon our own reason have been shown to be so dangerous and destructive of our holy faith, let us strive to attain a deep and true humility of spirit, and a just sense of our own natural blindness and infirmity. Let us avoid all curious and nice inquiries into things that are too high for us. (2) Let us heartily and industriously and zealously set upon this work, the fulfilling the whole will of our Lord. Then there would soon be no remains of infidelity left in us; we should soon, then, to our unspeakable joy and satisfaction, feel, by a sincere and strict observance of the Christian duties, that we should no longer have any doubts or scruples of the Christian faith. (R. Duke.) God’ s secrets All religions have their areana, or secrets known only to those who are within. The religion of the Bible does not disdain to acknowledge its own secrets, and to drive away from its archives those who come with irreverent curiosity to pry into the contents of revelation. By “ secret” we are hero to understand familiar intercourse. The word here rendered “ secret” is traced to a word which means couch; the idea is that of two friends seated upon the same couch, holding confidential intercourse. The talk is as between companions, and is conducted in eager whispers. God is represented thus as bringing to a loving heart His own peculiar messages and communications, which he will not publish to the general world. God has so made His universe that its various parts talk to one another. Men hold friendly and confiding intercourse. The sun is full of lessons, so are the flowers, so are all the winds that blow, so are the forests, and so are the oceans. All these may be said to be open secrets; that is to say, men may discover their meanings for themselves--by comparison, by the study of analogy, by the watching of the coming and going phenomena of nature. But beyond this open revelation there is a secret covenant. God calls His children into inner places, and there, in hushed and holy silence, He communicates His thought as His children are able to receive it. “ he will show them His covenant” ; He will read to them His own decrees; He will be His own interpreter, and make plain to the heart things that are mysterious to the intellect. We are to remember that in holding these secrets we do not hold them originally, or as if by right: we hold them simply as stewards or trustees, and we are not to make them common property. The heart should always know something that the tongue has never told. Deep in our souls there should be a peace created by communion with God which no outward riches can disturb. “ The secret of the Lord” may not mean any curious knowledge of mere details, or of future events, or the action and interaction of history; but it may mean, and does mean, a complete and immutable confidence that God reigns over His whole creation, and is doing everything upon a basis and under a principle which must eventuate in final and imperturbable peace. The universe is not governed in any haphazard way. This word “ covenant” has been, no doubt, abused, perverted, or misapplied; but its use indicates that the Divine plan is sovereign, settled, unchangeable. The universe is the Word of God, and it cannot fail of its purpose. Revelation is the heart of the Most High, and every jot and tittle of it will be fulfilled. The truly religious life is not a matter of mere intellectual intelligence, or information, or power of argument; it is a profound persuasion clothe heart, a real, simple, solid trust in the righteousness and goodness of God. How such a trust lifts us above the fret and the anxiety of ever-changing details! This passage is in perfect harmony with many assurances given by Jesus Christ Himself. He promised the Holy Spirit to abide with the Church, to show the Church things to come, and to take of the things of Christ and show them unto the Church. The secret of the Lord is thus an ever-enlarging mystery--an ever-enlarging benefaction. (Joseph Parker, D. D.) Revelations to those who obey There are commentators who refer this verse, not to the external orderings of God’ s providence, but to the mental assurance which God gives those that fear Him, of the truth of His Word, and the adequacy of the religion it reveals, to satisfy the wants of the soul. This mental assurance, wrought into the soul by God Himself, is thought by some to be the secret of the Lord here intended. The Saviour is believed to refer to this secret assurance in the words, “ If any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God” (John 7:17). The Jews had denied the Divine reality of His miracles, and also that the Messianic prophecies had been verified in Him. “ Very well,” answers our Lord, “ I propose to you another means of testing My claim to be your Messiah and Saviour. Practise the precepts of the religion I teach you, and you shall soon have revealed to you the secret whether it be of God. Do His will, and you shall know of the doctrine. In obeying the precept, all else shall become plain.” I knew a man who acted upon this saying of the Saviour. He admired, as perfect, the preceptive portions of the Bible, but stumbled at some of its peculiar doctrines. He determined, therefore, to ascertain what effect obeying the precepts would have toward dissipating his difficulties in regard to the doctrines of our religion. He therefore at once endeavoured to live in every respect as he would have lived had he been a Christian: reading, praying, attending public worship, and making the moral code of the Bible his only rule of action. So obeying the precept, in less than a twelvemonth’ s time the secret of the Lord was revealed to him, the truth of all the doctrines of God’ s covenant of redeeming mercy in Christ was made plain to his understanding and grateful to his heart. Here is a cure for scepticism within the reach of every man. (David Caldwell, M. A.) Knowledge the reward of obedience 1. There are some parts of the Bible which none but a learned man can understand or explain. There are seeming difficulties and discrepancies in the Bible which may escape the notice of the casual reader, but of which all well-instructed theologians are aware, since they are standing objections in the mouth of the sceptic or the scorner. 2. There are some parts of the Bible which all can understand. No one who reads the New Testament, or who hears it read, can doubt what be ought to do, and what he ought not to do. The Bible is clear about many of its doctrines. 3. There is a middle class of truths that are easy of comprehension to some, and hard to others,--truths which human learning cannot impart, nor the want of learning, as such, exclude from the mind. These are the most solemn and most important teachings of Scripture, which tell us of the intimate relations which exist between man and his God: such as, the doctrines of the corruption of our nature; of the degrading and shameful conduct of sin; of our need of salvation and purification; of our own inability to purify and save ourselves; of the priceless blessings involved in the atonement of Jesus, and in the gift of the Holy Spirit. Of all these doctrines it may justly be said, they are easy or hard to be understood by different persons, and sometimes even by the same persons at different times. The practical knowledge of these great truths is an effort beyond the power of the intellect, apart from the convictions and aspirations of the soul. The natural man understandeth not the things of the Spirit of God. They are spiritually discerned, and mere learning cannot spiritually discern. “ If any man will do God’ s will he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God. An obedience springing from true faith is the key by which we are to unlock the hidden and more precious mysteries of the heavenly kingdom. (G. W. Brameld.) The knowledge of covenant securities The Rev. F.B. Meyer, when speaking of God’ s faithfulness to His covenant promises, used the striking illustration of the deed to a house. The deed may be very old. It may be hard to decipher. The parchment may be stained and cracked. The inmates of the home in their busy life may forget all about it. But the very existence of the home depends upon it, and if it were lost and could not be replaced, sorrow and poverty and wretchedness would be the portion of that household. So our peace of soul, our very spiritual life, depends on the covenant which God the Father made long ago on our behalf with Christ the Son, that for His sake our sins should be forgiven and we should have a right to the many mansions. Psalms 25:16-18 Turn Thee unto me, and have mercy upon me; for I am desolate and afflicted.A sufferer’ s prayer How tender is this language, and how instructive too. David was a sufferer as well as a king. But he is a petitioner also, He prays for-- I. Deliverance. II. A kind look from God is desirable at any time, but in affliction and pain it is like life from the dead. Therefore he says, “ Look upon mine affliction and pain.” III. Pardon. “ Forgive all my sins.” This was his meaning; let it be ours. (W. Jay.) The cry of the afflicted Look at Loch Lomond. A hundred feet of water, deep and dark and deadly; the waves that slumber yonder at the foot of the Ben will drown you. Yes, but when God sent out His frost, when from the caves of the north there crept the congealing influence, lo! the waves slumbered and slept, and you walked and skimmed on your ringing steels across the congealed billows. The same lake, but so transformed that you could skim across its surface. Some of you know what it is to be almost overwhelmed with the billows of trouble. They roll over you again and again, and recede but to Come on with redoubled power, until at last you cry out, “ Lord, save me, or I perish.” Then there comes a great calm, and you just skim across the billows of your daily toil, because Christ your Saviour has told the troubles and difficulties and monotony to sleep. Oh, what a glorious thing the grace of Christ is! (John Robertson.) David’ s prayer I wonder if they are able to say of us in the time of sorrow and bereavement and trouble, “ Behold, he prayeth.” Those travellers, as they pass, are suddenly arrested by a sound that is strange to them, and they ask what it is. It is David at his prayers. Ah, he is all right! Pray on, David; do not be ashamed of your voice--let it sound out. It is nobler thus to pray, than with loud, uplifted voice to give the command to thine armies to fall in to the front: and David’ s voice had done that for many a day. A ringing, clarion peal the warrior had given in his time: “ Fall in to the front. They loved to ear it in Israel. When the king spake, it reminded them of the old days when the right arm of the young warrior did valiant things for Jehovah; and they liked to hear his voice rise above the din of battle: but it is nobler, kinglier, and far more grand to hear the old king with his quavering voice lifted up in prayer. A godly man’ s appeal I. On behalf of self.1. For deliverance from suffering (Psalms 25:16). “ The road to heaven,” says an old writer, “ is soaked with the tears and blood of the saints.” 2. For forgiveness (Psalms 25:18). He traced his sufferings to his sins. Sin is the gall in the cup of life; the root of the pestiferous tree of all natural evil. From suffering we infer sin. He believed that his sins had to do with God. Wrong in any form or department of life is sin against Him. “ Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned.” He knew that Gods forgiveness was necessary to his deliverance. 3. For preservation of life, of confidence, of character (Psalms 25:21). II. On behalf of society (Psalms 25:22). There is nothing selfish in genuine piety. The man who prays and struggles only for his own salvation is utterly destitute of genuine religion. His creed may be correct, and all his religious observances, but he has not the root of the matter in him. (D. Thomas, D. D.) Psalms 25:18 Look upon mine affliction and my pain.A troubled prayer I. It is well for us when our prayers about our sorrows are linked with prayers about our sins. Our sorrows profit us when they bring our sins to mind.1. They give us time for thought. A sick bed has often been a place of repentance. 2. Our sorrows are often the direct result of our sins. Then we cannot but remember them. Not to have sorrow when we sin is a mark of the reprobate. 3. When our sorrows are so like our sins. Jacob was a crafty deceiver, and he in his turn was, once and again, craftily deceived. He was a great bargain maker, and he in his turn was once and again craftily deceived. He cheated his father, and so everybody cheated him, of course. How often we have to eat the fruit of our own ways! 4. They drive us out of an atmosphere of worldliness. There is our nest, and a very pretty, snug nest it is; and we have been very busy picking up all the softest feathers that we could find, and all the prettiest bits of moss that earth could yield, and we have been engaged night and day making that nest soft and warm. There we intended to remain. We meant for ourselves a long indulgence, sheltered from inclement winds, never to put our feet among the cold dewdrops, nor to weary our pinions by mounting up into the clouds. But suddenly a thorn pierced our breast; we tried to remove it, but the more we struggled the more deeply it fixed itself into us. Then we began to spread our wings, and as we mounted we began to sing the song which, in the nest, we never should have sung, the song of those who have communion with the skies. 5. Sometimes they remind us of our ingratitude. How sad a blemish upon the character of Hezekiah it was that he rendered not again unto the Lord according to the benefits done unto him. 6. Sometimes sorrows remind us of want of sympathy with those who have like sorrows. 7. Sorrow is also sent to admonish us of our neglect of Divine teaching. Why that rod? Why that whip and bridle? Because I have been like the horse and the mule which had no understanding. Let us humble ourselves before God, and ask with Job, “ Show me wherefore Thou contendest with me.” II. It is well when we are as earnest about our sins as we are about our sorrows. The chaplain of Newgate says many of the prisoners will pretend very great repentance when he is talking to them about spiritual things, but he can always tell whether their repentance is genuine or not, by their trying to bring him round to tell them something about their punishment. Before their tidal they frequently ask to know what term of imprisonment they are likely to get. Then, when they are undergoing punishment, they frequently try to get some trifling favour through his means. They think much more of the punishment than they do of the crime. If I go to God and only ask to have my sorrows taken off me, what is that? I am no true penitent. It is the pain and not the sin that troubles me. III. It is well to take both sorrow and sin to the same place. David took both to God.1. Take our sorrows to him, not to any neighbour or friend. 2. But let us take our sins also. 3. The most mournful and the most sinful are welcome to the Lord Jesus. 4. He can with equal ease remove both. IV. Go to Him in the right spirit. David says, “ Look upon,” that is all. But when he speaks of his sins he is much more definite as to what he would have done with them, “ Forgive all my sins.” I must have them forgiven, I cannot bear them. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Comfort under affliction We know not the nature of the sufferings under which David laboured, whether of body or of mind, or both; but this we know, that in all of them his first refuge and his principal relief was prayer. Suffering times are times both of searching and discovery. It is a fire that tries a man’ s work, a man’ s temper, and a man’ s state whether he be really a child of God. If he be not, when suffering comes, his angry almost blasphemous speeches will reveal that. But the good man, out of the good treasure of his heart, will bring forth good things. God being pleased with him, he is pleased with every thing. Hence in affliction, knowing that it is laid on in love, and that he deserves much more, he prays, “ Look upon mine affliction,” etc. Two things are taught us here-- I. That a kind look from God is very desirable in affliction; for it is--1. A look of special observation. As to the kind, the degree, and the duration of our affliction. 2. Of tender compassion. 3. Of support and assistance (Exodus 3:7; 2 Chronicles 16:9). Now here we generally stop; if the Lord will but grant us this, it is all we ask, we will not trouble Him for more. We forget our sin. II. That the sweetest cordial under affliction is the assurance of Divine forgiveness (Psalms 32:1; Romans 4:7).1. Because trouble is very apt to bring our sins to remembrance (Jeremiah 22:21; Genesis 42:21; 1 Kings 17:18; Psalms 40:12). 2. Because a sense of pardon will largely remove all distressing fears of death and judgment. When we feel our flesh wasting and this earthly house of our tabernacle ready to tumble about us, we cannot help inquiring, with a trembling anxiety, “ When I am turned out of this house where shall I live next?” And if we have no evidence and no hope of an interest in the Saviour, how terrible the prospect. But if we are forgiven, how all is changed. So then, let us--1. Praise God that He should condescend so graciously as to look favourably upon us. 2. From former mercies of the Lord, if the Lord is looking upon us, let us hope for future ones. 3. If a kind look from God be so comfortable, what must heaven be? (Samuel Lavington.) Psalms 25:21 Let integrity and uprightness preserve me; for I wait on Thee.Resolutions made and strength invoked for a year of duty What should our memories do for us? If we are really humbled and grateful for the past, what should we resolve on now? We should strive to “ grow in grace,” that “ love may abound more and more.” How may we realise this desire, for we have many enemies?1. The first disposition essentially requisite to our success is said to be “ integrity and uprightness.” The petition implies that he would be sincere and upright towards God. If we are to be sincere we must correct our own faults. We must cherish those dispositions which God approves. We must try to fulfil our duty better. And we must do all the good we can. We have instances in Scripture of resolutions that were very fruitless. Israel said at Sinai, “ All that the Lord hath spoken we will do.” And yet in less than six weeks they were dancing before the Golden Calf. Surely the wreck of many a fair hope in past years may tell us it is not wise to depend on ourselves. The Psalmist says, “ For I wait on Thee” --“ I look to Thee to sustain that integrity, I look to Thee to bless it, without Thee I can neither continue upright nor secure a blessing from uprightness.” The grace of God alone can enable us to profit by any external advantages. It is God who must help us to conquer even the least fault. It is God alone can help us to walk with any measure of steadfastness in the path of obedience. (Baptist W. Noel, M. A.) Justice, honesty, truth, and sincerity Integrity and uprightness are terms of like import, and signify a virtue that is essential to all true religion and morality. I. The nature of integrity or uprightness in our dealings with men.1. With respect to our actions; and so it may be taken for justice and honesty, in opposition to injuring and cheating. It is very dishonest to borrow money or goods, or to trade upon credit, without upright designs and fair prospects of paying everyone his own. 2. With respect to our words. This may be taken as truth, in opposition to lying. But to understand a lie there are moral distinctions that must be attended to. The wrong of falsehood consists in knowing or thinking one thing and saying another with an intent to deceive. There are lies which men call ludicrous, but they had better be avoided. Others, called, officious, which are told to hide a fault, or to prevent some mischief. The worst of all is the injurious lie. II. Recommend this integrity.1. In its native beauty. 2. For the reality and honour of religion. All religion is mockery, and vain pretence without it. 3. The safety and happiness of all society depend upon it. There is no living with a man of a false heart and tongue. 4. Integrity is of high advantage to ourselves. It prevents abundance of guilt, and many a throbbing wound in the conscience which a contrary temper and behaviour would subject us to. It screens us from the reproach and vengeance of wicked men. This should excite a religious care, upon Christian principles, to exceed the brightest of the heathen in our moral conduct. Let us see that our hearts be made upright by the renewing of our minds. (J. Guise, D. D.) Integrity Truthfulness, integrity, and goodness--qualities that hang not on any man’ s breath--form the essence of manly character, or, as one of our old writers has it, “ that inbred loyalty unto virtue which can serve her without a livery.” He who possesses these qualities, united with strength of purpose, carries with him a power which is irresistible. He is strong to do good, strong to resist evil, and strong to bear up under difficulty and misfortune. When Stephen of Colonna fell into the hands of his base assailants, and they asked him in derision, “ Where is now your fortress?” “ Here,” was his bold reply, placing his hand upon his heart. It is in misfortune that the character of the upright man shines forth with the greatest lustre; and when all else fails, he takes his stand upon his integrity and his courage. (Christian Weekly.) Psalms 26:1-12 Psalms 26:1-12 Judge me, O Lord; for I have walked in mine integrity.Leading proofs of personal piety I. A strong craving for a knowledge of the real state of the character. “ Judge me, O Lord.” Implying--1. A belief in the possibility of being self-deceived.2. A desire to be made right, at whatever cost. II. A practical recognition of God’ s mercy. “ For Thy loving kindness is before mine eyes.” The life of the godly is marked by--1. The strongest gratitude.2. The highest courage. III. A profound consciousness of sincerity of conduct. “ I have walked in Thy truth.” The godly man hates hypocrisy and loathes shame. IV. A strong repugnance to all ungodly society, “ I have not sat with vain persons,” etc.1. He declares that he never had any fellowship with them (Psalms 26:4).2. He expresses his hatred of them (Psalms 26:5).3. He prays that he may not be gathered to their company (Psalms 26:9). Good men shun the society of the wicked, because (1) it is wrong;(2) because it is pernicious. V. A delight in the public worship of God. “ I will wash mine hands in innocency,” etc. True worship--1. Requires personal preparation.2. Consists in public acknowledgments.3. Is inspired with the presence of God. VI. A fixed determination to walk ever with the holy. “ But as for me, I will walk,” etc. (Psalms 26:11-12). (Homilist.) The character of an upright man sketched by himself To do this requires much introspection. Yet there may he circumstances when such work becomes necessary. I. The Psalmist had a good foundation on which his life was built.1. Trust in Jehovah (Psalms 26:1).2. God’ s loving kindness (Psalms 26:5).3. God’ s truth; that is, His faithfulness (Psalms 26:3). Note: all the supports of his integrity were outside himself. Happy the man that can stay his mind on Divine faithfulness and love! If these props cease to sustain, moral and spiritual worth pine from want of motive and hope. II. The life built on this foundation is worthy of imitation. It was a life of--1. Integrity (Psalms 26:11).2. Straightforward progress (Psalms 26:1).3. Avoiding evil associations (Psalms 26:4-5).4. Cultivation of holy worship, song, and thanksgiving (Psalms 26:6-8; Psalms 26:12). Note--(1) Those who have God as the support of their life will show a life worthy of such support. (2) Those who most value communion with God will most freely appreciate and cultivate the stimulus and comfort to be obtained from united worship. (C. Clemence, D. D.) An appeal marked by specific entreaty Four lines of supplication. I. That God would vindicate him and not let him be mixed up with those he hates (Psalms 26:1; Psalms 26:9-10). II. That God would search and prove him (Psalms 26:2). III. That God would purify him (Psalms 26:3). Upright before men, he does not pretend to be perfect before God. IV. That God would entirely deliver him from the surroundings of ungenial and unholy men (Psalms 26:9-10). (C. Clemence, D. D.) David’ s appeal and its issue I. An appeal to God to be his judge. II. The causes that induced him to it.1. His faith and confidence in God.2. His integrity. (1) How he carried himself to men: abstaining from all association with wicked doers.(2) How to God: showing marks of his piety. III. The petition. That God would not suffer him to be polluted with the conversation of wicked men, nor involved in their punishment IV. His gratitude. He will praise the Lord in the congregations. (Bp. Wm. Nicholson.) David’ s integrity It would be madness in any man, however blameless his life may have been, to call upon God to enter into judgment with him for his offences against Him. It is, however, often otherwise in regard to many of our fellow mere We can safely invite the omniscient Judge to decide between us and them. We can say in regard to, them, as David does, “ Judge me, O Lord; for I have walked in mine integrity.” Though Saul sought David’ s life, and once with his own band hurled a javelin at him to slay him, David never for a moment swerved from the conduct of a dutiful subject, he still fought Saul’ s battles for him, and though Saul was pursuing him as an outlaw, spared him when it was in his power to kill him. He never raised his hand against the king, nor allowed those under his control to do so. Integrity had marked his whole conduct, so that Saul himself was obliged to acknowledge with tears, “ Thou art more righteous than I; for thou hast rewarded me good, whereas I have rewarded thee evil.” So should it be with the Christian always. He should never allow the injustice of others to mar his integrity. Principle, not passion, should be the pole star of his course. (D. Caldwell, M. A.) Psalms 26:2 Examine me, O Lord, and prove me; try my reins and my heart.Our need of Divine scrutiny I. It is possible that we may try ourselves by false principles. Self-examination is an all-important duty, but when we have searched most diligently we need that God should examine us. Now, we are prone to err in regard to our repentance, our faith, and our obedience--these which are the grand requisites for salvation. II. We are prone to be partial to ourselves,--to make allowances where we should not. III. And our motives in our conduct are so difficult to ascertain by any but God. IV. And when we discover imperfections we cannot correct them, even by that Divine grace which He is willing to bestow. V. The Divine judgment will determine the decisions of the last day. What we think, or our fellow men believe, will not avail then. VI. What is needed to prepare for heaven. (S. Morell.) Examinations (A talk with children):--As a rule, children are not very anxious for examinations. They do not see what possible good can come out of them. If most of them had their wishes, they never would have one at all. Yet in days to come these children will see that of all things that they did in their school days perhaps the most important were these very examinations. Now, David here asked God to examine him; he asked a very keen examiner to take the task in hand. He knew what that meant: he knew that no weakness, no ignorance, no sin would remain hidden; but that everything would be known, not only to God, but also largely to David himself. And that was one of the reasons why he wanted to he examined. I. Now, observe that the word “ examine” here is a very forcible word. It means “ to examine by fire,” and, therefore, by that which shall burn up all the dross, and only leave behind that which can pass through fire. Again, the word “ try” is further expressive. The Hebrew word means “ melting by fire” ; in other words, it means “ examine by fire to the point of melting.” Thus the examination the Psalmist asked for was an examination by fire--an examination that should burn away everything that was impure. II. The result of an examination to a large extent is to make one know oneself. If it were not for the examinations which children get, some of them would get, very conceited, and would think that they knew everything. When anyone begins a study he is convinced in a week or so that he knows all about it. If you see him again in a twelvemonth he begins to doubt it; but if you see him in two years be is quite convinced he knows very little. Now, examinations are very helpful in that way. The condition of learning is just to learn, first of all, that we know next to nothing, and thus to be dissatisfied with ourselves. Then, and then only, we shall make an effort. III. Failure in examination has very often led to determination on the part of a boy or girl never to fail again; thus failure has been one of the greatest blessings they have had in life. David felt sure that if God examined him he would know very much more of his own poor miserable self than he did before, and some path of sin which had escaped his notice would be revealed to him. Indeed, he was anxious that the Lord should not conceal from him anything that was evil in him. To be conscious of one’ s error is the first step necessary to avoid repeating it. IV. Again, there was another feeling on the part of David, namely, that thorough as God was as an examiner, and thorough as the exposure would be by such an examination, God was nevertheless very kind; for David says in the following verse, “ For Thy loving kindnesses are before mine eyes.” Our best loved teachers have been those who, though they saw all our failings, all our mistakes, very clearly, yet did not hold us up to ridicule, but sympathised with our difficulties and put the best construction on all our actions. So it is with our Lord. He knows our hearts, and reads every thought before we express it in words. Hidden desires are all known to Him. But then, He is so kind, so loving, so forgiving, we can leave ourselves in His hands. (D. Davies.) Self-examination examined Self-examination is to many disciples a kind of first point in practical religion. It is heard and read on all sides. But there are only two Scripture passages which can be at all cited for it, one of which (2 Corinthians 13:5) certainly has no such meaning; and the other (1 Corinthians 11:28) carries no sufficient authority for the practice. Scripture sends us to God: “ Examine me, O Lord” ; “ Search me, O God” ; “ The Lord trieth the heart.” I. God certainly can examine us, and we cannot in any but the most superficial and incomplete sense examine ourselves. For--1. Our memory is too short and scant to recall or restore the conception of one in a hundred million of the acts that make up our lives. 2. Even if we could recall them, everyone, we could never go over the survey of such vast materials, so as to form any judgment of them or of ourselves. 3. And since the understanding of our present state is impossible without understanding all the causes in our action that have fashioned the character and shaped its figure, our faculty is even shorter here than before. Omniscience only is equal to the task. II. In what is frequently understood by self-examination there is something mistaken or deceitful which needs to be carefully resisted.1. It is a kind of artificial state, in which the soul is drawn off from its objects and works, and its calls of love and sacrifice, to engage itself in acts of self-inspection. 2. He may even be so engrossed in self-examination as to become morbidly selfish in it; for nothing is more selfish than to be always boring into one’ s self. III. How much is implied in a hearty willingness or desire to have God examine us and prove us. A mind seeking after truth, ready to receive it; more, a soul already found to be in God’ s friendship, sealed with the witness of His acceptance. IV. There is a way of coming at the verdict of God whatever it may be. God designs always to give us the benefit of His own knowledge of our state. He never intended us for, and never puts us to, the task of testing ourselves. He expects to do this for us. We are complete only in Him. He is, and is ever to be, our Light, and we only know ourselves in Him. God is manifested in the consciousness of them that love Him and are right towards Him. They will know God by an immediate knowledge or revelation. They will have His Spirit witnessing with theirs. God has planned our life so as to bring us into a perception of the many defects and errors lurking in us, and to set us in the same judgment of them that He has Himself, proving us at every turn, trying even the reins and heart, that our most secret things may be revealed. If there should be any legitimate place for self-examination it is in the field where we go to discover our faults and the sins that require to be forsaken or put away. (Horace Bushnell, D. D.) Morbid self-inspection kills love Many years ago I knew an excellent much esteemed Christian mother, who had become morbidly introverted, and could not find her love to God. Seeing at once that she was stifling it by her own self-inspecting engrossment, which would not allow her to so much as think of God’ s loveliness, I said to her, “ But you love your son, you have no doubt of that.” “ Of course I love him, why should I not?” To show her, then, how she was killing her love to God, I said, “ But take one week now for the trial, and make thorough examination of your love to your son, and it will be strange if, at the end of the week, you do not tell me that you have serious doubt of it.” I returned at the time, to be dreadfully shocked by my too cruel experiment. “ No,” she said, “ I do not love him;” I abhor him. She was fallen off the edge, and her self-examination was become her insanity! (Horace Bushnell, D. D.) God trying the reins and the heart It is wonderful to see with what skill God has adjusted all our experiences, in this mortal life, so as to make us sensible of our errors and defects. As the invisible ink is brought out in a distinct colour by holding what is written to the fire, so God brings out all our faults and our sins by the scorches of experience through which we are ever passing in the fiery trials of life. If we are proud, He has a way to make us see it, and to break down our pride. If we cherish any subtle grudge or animosity, He will somehow call it out and make us see it. If we are selfish, or covetous, or jealous, or frivolous, or captious, or self-indulgent, or sensual, or self-confident, or fanatical, or self-righteous, or partial, or obstinate, or prejudiced, or uncharitable, or censorious,--whatever fault we have in us, whether it be in the mind, or the head, or the body, or I might almost say the bones, no matter how subtle, or how ingeniously covered it may be, He has us in the furnace of trial and correction, where He is turning us round and round, lifting us in prosperity, crushing us in adversity, subduing us with affliction, tempting out our faults and then chastising them humbling us, correcting us, softening, tempering, soothing, fortifying, refining, healing, and so managing us, as to detect all our drossy and bad qualities, and separate them from us. He sits as a refiner and purifier of silver, and allows nothing to escape either His discovery or our correction. No self-examination we could make would discover, at all, what He is continually bringing to the light, and exposing to our detection. (Horace Bushnell, D. D.) Psalms 26:4-5I have not sat with vain persons.Separate, yet near The eyes which have God’ s loving kindness ever before them are endowed with penetrative clearness of vision into the true hollowness of most of the objects pursued by men, and with a terrible sagacity which detects hypocrisy and shame. Association with such men is necessary, and leaven must be in contact with dough in order to do its transforming work; but it is impossible for a man whose heart is truly in touch with God not to feel ill at ease when brought into contact with those who have no share in his deepest convictions and emotions No doubt separateness from evil-doers is but part of a godly man’ s duty, and has often been exaggerated into selfish withdrawal front a world which needs good men’ s presence all the more the worse it is; but it is a part of his duty: “ Come out from among them and be separate” is not yet an abrogated command No man will ever mingle with “ men of vanity” so as to draw them from the shadows of earth to the substance in God, unless his loving association with them rests on profound revulsion from their principles of action. None comes so near to sinful men as the sinless Christ; and if He had not been ever “ separate from sinners” He would never have been near enough to redeem them. We may safely imitate His free companionship, which earned Hint the glorious name of their Friend, if we imitate His remoteness from their evil. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) I have hated the congregation of evil-doers.--With wicked men, but not of them Although, when driven into exile, everyone that was in distress, in debt, etc., gathered themselves unto David, and he became a captain over them,--he never led them against his king and country, but only against their enemies; and in time changed the most reckless and turbulent of men into the best of soldiers and citizens. There is no place where the sincere Christian cannot make his influence felt for good: in the army, in the navy, in trade, at the bar, on the bench, in the halls of legislation, and everywhere; not by sacrificing, but by maintaining and exhibiting his principles in his spirit and conduct. (D. Caldwell, M. A.) Psalms 26:6-7I will wash mine hands in innocency: so will I compass Thine altar, O Lord.Purity of heart and life I. What this resolution implies.1. All apprehension of the holiness of God.2. The condition--holiness--in which alone he could have communion with God.3. Great desire for it.4. Willing to give up all that stood in his way, all sin, especially. II. What is implied in keeping such resolution.1. Renunciation of present sin.2. Repentance for what is past.3. Restitution and confession.4. Regard to the rights of others in all respects--plain honest dealing and kindness. Oh, the endless tricks of selfishness, and the endless subterfuges with which men excuse themselves; and yet so much piety in the midst of it all. Sometimes it is that persons would not on any account stay away from church on the Sabbath, but they would cheat you in their business on the Monday if they had an opportunity of doing so. Suppose you say, well, I am seeking to get money that I may give it to the missionary cause! Let me tell you that a man might as well fit out a pirate ship for the same purpose! You take advantage, lie and cheat, to get money for God! Well, when you have got the money so for God; just go into your closet, lay the money down, and say, “ Lord, Thou knowest how I got this money today: there was a man came into my shop and wanted a certain article, and I had not what he wanted, but I had one not so good, but I managed to get him to take it, and I charged hint a little more than it was worth, because! wanted to give something to the missionary cause!” Now, would that be washing the hands in innocency? Would an infinitely holy God accept such an offering? Judge ye! III. We now pass to show that both the resolution and the keeping of it are indispensable conditions of acceptance with God. When we talk of persons being justified by faith we always mean that faith implies repentance, making restitution, obedience, and holiness of heart. The faith that takes hold on Christ implies all this. We are justified by faith; but it is the faith of obedience to God, the faith which leads to sanctification, the faith which works by love and purifies the heart, the faith that overcomes the world. Ah, the faith that overcomes the world, that’ s the faith to mark an honest man! No man has faith that justifies him who has not faith that makes him honest. If you are not honest you have not faith; in God’ s sense of the term you have not the faith of the Gospel. Now, suppose that every person in this house were at this moment willing to do as the Psalmist did, and were to come right out and say, “ I will wash my hands in innocency” --what is there to hinder? (C. G. Finney.) Preparation for Divine worship “ Innocency” does not here imply moral perfection. David was innocent of the charges advanced against him by his enemies, the aiders and abettors of Absalom’ s rebellion; but he was not morally pure as was the God he worshipped. He desired, therefore, that God would try his reins and his heart, so that he might know and confess his sin. Washing the hands, as emblematic of purity and innocence, was enjoined on the priests, to typify that inward holiness which alone rendered service acceptable to God; and also on the elders of the city nearest to which the body of a homicide was found. Viewed in the light of these two ceremonials, David’ s words may here be regarded as a protestation of innocency in reference to the more outward sense by which religion is dishonoured, and a declaration of sincerity in worship. It was then he would draw near to the altar in company with the worshippers who gathered round it. As the pious Israelite looked towards the altar, so the Christian turned his thoughts to the Redeemer whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood. It was David’ s chief joy to visit the habitation of God’ s house, the place where His honour dwelt. With a like devout joy should we enter His sanctuary, and especially when we approach His holy table, and preparation for this worship should engage the Christian’ s prayerful attention. I. Its necessity may be argued from Scripture. Jacob was commanded to go from Shechem to Bethel to fulfil his vow; and for this he and his household prepared by purifying themselves and putting away the strange gods from among them. When before Sinai, Moses was instructed to sanctify the people and prepare them for God’ s presence on the mount. There is, too, that solemn preparation for the Passover after Hezekiah had reformed the temple services, when its observance had to be delayed because some had come up to the feast without the prescribed purification of previous religious services. II. It may be argued also from the nature of the thing. God is the infinitely high and holy One, and if before His throne the angels veil their faces, how reverently should we enter His gates and fall at His footstool! We must approach unto His presence with humility, penitence, and prayer. His presence there is assured; for He cannot lie. Love should be present in all our worship, and especially at that memorial of the atoning sacrifice of our Redeemer to whom we owe so much. (P. Mearns.) The devout worshipper With all his disadvantages and drawbacks, David was the “ man after God’ s own heart.” If he sinned, and that exceedingly before the Lord, we know how thoroughly he repented. One feature in his character is very noticeable--his love for the house of God. I. David’ s preparation for the house of the Lord. Though an exile in the land of the Philistines, banished from the service and worship of the sanctuary, surrounded by those who would watch every action and note each shortcoming, he yet resolved to give them no opportunity of triumphing over him. A lesson for Christian worshippers.1. Such preparation is becoming. What amazing condescension to be allowed to speak with God, and to come before Him with thanksgiving! 2. It is necessary. Worship cannot be acceptable to God unless our hands are washed in innocency. How impressive the instructions given to Aaron and his sons (Exodus 30:17-21); Paul directs Timothy to see that the Church lifts up holy hands in prayer (1 Timothy 2:8). 3. It has most happy results--“ the blessing from the Lord, and righteousness from the God of our salvation.” II. David’ s engagements in the house of the Lord.1. David knew it was the place where God’ s honour dwelt. Though only the tabernacle, it was nevertheless the place the Lord had chosen to place His name there--and there too was the glory. We have a better dispensation. 2. David was filled with gratitude at the recollection of past mercies (Psalms 26:6-7). Shall not we? Learn--1. How necessary that we manifest a becoming reverence in the house of God. 2. Our services can only be reasonable and acceptable when we realise the purposes for which we assemble. 3. The dispositions of mind pleasing to God are the same under the new as under the old economy. 4. Let the text lead us to a holy self-examination. Have I washed? etc. (W. G. Barrett.) The sacrament of the Lord’ s Supper I. The duty of attending it. The command of Christ to “ do this in remembrance of Me” is indisputable; His design in that command most gracious; the benefits accruing to ourselves in obeying it are great and certain. The duty of communicating, therefore, is unquestionable; the sin of neglecting so to do is great. It is as dangerous to our spiritual condition to treat the sacrament as nothing, as to give to it a mysterious efficacy which the Scriptures do not warrant. To faith Christ is present, not bodily but spiritually, in the power of His death; and in this sense His flesh is meat indeed, and His blood is drink indeed, to the comfort, support, and nourishment of those who feed on Him in their hearts by faith with thanksgiving. Christians in the present day suffer much in their own souls, and the work of conversion in others may be greatly hindered by the neglect of a due and worthy participation of the Lord’ s Supper, inasmuch as its observance is closely connected with spirituality of mind, and a prayerful desire for the spiritual welfare of our fellow men. II. The state of mind in which we are to draw near to the Lord’ s table. David “ desired to wash his hands in innocency,” and so compass the altar of God. What did these words mean to him? Not that he would root up all corruption from his heart, and make himself entirely free from sin; for then he must needs wait until the day of his death before performing his vows. His meaning is to be found in his description of the blessed state of the true believer, in Psalms 32:1-2. St. Paul quotes this passage in Romans 4:1-25. to prove the doctrine of our pardon and justification through Christ, by which he leaves it beyond doubt that David understood that doctrine, and described the happiness of the true believer who by faith in the atoning sacrifice of Christ as typified in the Jewish sacrifices had obtained such forgiveness. In this state of mind he desired to approach the altar of God; and in this state of mind the Christian too must approach his Father’ s table. (R. Oakman, B. A.) Compassing the altar The Psalmist will go round and round the altar, looking at it, looking at the blood on its base, and the blood on each of the four horns, towards north, south, east, and west, and beholding the smoke of the fire, and thinking of the sacrificial victim that has died there,--all in the way of joyful thanks for salvation provided for men! It is a survey of redemption work taken by the Redeemer; such a survey as every member of His body often takes after having felt the power of free forgiveness, and while aiming at “ innocency.” For the “ compassing” of the altar takes place after pardon; it is made in order to view it leisurely. (Andrew Bonar.) Psalms 26:7 That I may publish with the voice of thanksgiving, and tell of all Thy wondrous works.--Declaring boldly God’ s mercy and goodness I have no notion of a timid, disingenuous profession of Christ. Some preachers and professors are like a rat playing at hide and seek behind a wainscot, who puts his head through a hole to see if the coast is clear, and ventures out if nobody is in the way; but slinks back again when danger appears. We cannot be honest to Christ except we are bold for Him. He is either worth all we can lose for Him, or He is worth nothing. (H. G. Salter.) Psalms 26:8 Lord, I have loved the habitation of Thy house.The importance of public worship The form of godliness may often remain when the power is wanting; but the power cannot well subsist where the form is altogether absent. Consider the importance of public worship-- I. As it respects God. If there be a Supreme Being, a Creator of the race, worship should be rendered to Him, both private and public. The natural sentiments of mankind universally attest this. And now that revelation has been given, the light of the Gospel has come, we are inexcusable if we do not obey the desire. God does not need it, but is willing to accept it. II. As it concerns the world. Independently of its effect on the moral principles of the race, it tends to peace and order, it humanises and civilises, it strengthens the bonds of the social relation and brings out the best that is in man. III. As it concerns ourselves. We are parts of a great whole, each with duties to the rest. Public worship aids in these. It gives warmth to piety and adds solemnity to moral virtue. As members of the universal Church, we adore the God and Father of us all, through the Redeemer of the race, by the sanctifying Spirit in whom we all have access. (Hugh Blair, D. D.) Love for the sanctuary I. The object of the Psalmist’ s affection. It is “ the habitation of Thy house and,” etc. “ Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh,” and when anything is thoroughly loved it is very hard to put into one or two words all that you want to say; language seems to fail. Hence, again and again does the Psalmist tell of his affection for the house of God. II. His profession of this affection. Some people make no profession; that they make none is their main profession. Let them take care lest, if now they regard not the Lord, He at the last them: a poor thing this. But how different was the Psalmist’ s oft-repeated avowal. III. Some of the reasons for this profession. They have to do with present enjoyment and hope of the future. (J. Aldis.) The institutions of God’ s house I suppose that nothing short of an entire suspension of the privileges which we recount of our Sabbath would make us understand what the house of God is worth to us, and enable us to enter fully into the mind of the man who, driven forth an exile from Zion, uttered the longing of his heart in these burning words: “ As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so,” etc. (Psalms 42:1-2). There are those who cannot remember the time when they did not love the habitation of God’ s house; others have found, perhaps late in life, what blessings are for them there. But let us note some of the reasons in which this love of the house of the Lord is founded. I. There I first learned to know myself and Thee. There has been rest since you knew the worst of yourself, and knew that God knew it, and pitied and loved yon still. II. There I have learnt most richly the meaning of Thy discipline and found strength to endure. Some of you have gone thither crushed by burdens, pressed by temptations, beggared by losses, bewildered by difficulties; ready to cry, I can strive no longer, I am worn out, I give up the battle at last in despair. And then blessed words have seemed to stream down on you from the height, with a soothing sweetness, with an invigorating force such as no words which you have ever heard elsewhere have conveyed. III. For there I was guided into Thy most blessed service. IV. There I found meat and fruitful fellowship, and so did those I love best. We little estimate what the house of the Lord has been worth to our souls. As little do we measure its worth to our homes: what peace, unity, charity it has engendered; what wandering, schism, and bitterness it has spared. (J. Baldwin Brown, B. A.) The house of God I. Reasons for loving the house and worship of God.1. Because we love Him whose house it is.2. Because of the exercises there performed: prayer, reading, and exposition of the Word, praise.3. Because of the company we meet there: God’ s children, angels, God Himself.4. Because of blessing received there: pardon, guidance, comfort, joy. II. How this affection should be shown.1. By regular attendance.2. By entering heartily into the services.3. By using our influence to bring others.4. By contributing to maintain the house and worship of God. (Robert Newton.) Public worship The most vital thing, as far as the welfare of our country is concerned, is not what we call its constitution, nor its fiscal policy, nor its elementary education, nor its intellectual or industrial achievements; but, paradoxical as it may sound, its attendance at the sanctuary on the Lord’ s day. I. Our highest being is dependent on our conception of the character of God. If there is no power outside a man greater than himself whose law he recognises and to whom he responds, then, saving the law of the state and the convention of society, he is subject to no law, he is the free creature of his passions. But if man needs an authority outside self to control his selfish passions, he needs an ideal standard above that of common attainment if he is to reach to higher moral excellence. With a lofty ideal, a standard above ourselves, we are always being dissatisfied with ourselves and forced to make efforts to improve. Men may rise towards their God; they cannot rise above Him. One thing more, man needs also within himself an impulse to work, for virtue is often very hard unless you have some motive which shall lead to higher desires. If we turn from theory to history and to personal experience, is it not a fact that morality has risen or gone down just in proportion as faith in God has been strong or feeble? Even so calm and unprejudiced an observer as Darwin said that with the more civilised races the conviction of the existence of an all-seeing deity has had a potent influence on the advancement of morality. II. This faith in God is to a great extent dependent upon public worship. In this busy distracting age, were there no stated times for public worship, men would run great risk of forgetting God and becoming avowed atheists. If, then, the life of faith largely depends on Divine worship, and upon the life of faith depends the highest well-being of society, then everyone who by his example encourages the neglect of public worship, whatever be his motive, is contributing to the degradation of his country, while in many cases he is securing his own. And while attending service ourselves, we should do our utmost also to induce others to be present; to be rid of all which keeps men away from the house of God; and to acquire everything that may properly attract them there. (Canon Page Roberts.) The value of public worship I. Worship is an institution for our instruction. Not only is intellectual enlightenment gained, but a deep insight also into many weighty truths, a juster discernment of right and wrong, an intimate acquaintance with the state of our own heart, the need of salvation and growth in grace. II. It re-confirms our good resolutions. They need to be again and again renewed. In the congregation we enter into the communion of saints, and are mentally incited to keep our vows. We join a brotherhood possessing the same frailties and having the same needs. The inequalities of life, so apparent in the world, vanish here, where all are drawn with the same bonds of love, and inclined to encourage and assist each other on the way of life. III. It renews and strengthens our religious feeling. We often approach a service with the world still about us, with trouble and sorrow surging round. In the sanctuary, prayer and praise and the Word have calmed our minds, raised us to a higher plane, given us a truer sense of the proportion of things, juster views of God and His dealings. (Homilist.) David’ s affection for the house of God I. David had an affection for the sanctuary.1. An ardent affection.2. A constant affection.3. A practical affection. II. Reasons for this affection. Because of--1. The Proprietor’ s residence there.2. The company it furnishes.3. The blessings it affords,4. The habits it induces. (Sketches of Four Hundred Sermons.) The sanctity of Christian art: a church-restoration sermon The Greek version of this passage may be translated, “ Lord, I have loved the beauty of Thy house, the place of the tabernacling of Thy glory.” It was the beauty of God’ s house that excited the ardour of the Psalmist. It was not beneath the dignity of inspiration to care for the decent and splendid provision for the worship of the Supreme; and in Bezaleel and Aholiab, art received her first consecration to the worship of God. I. The duty of reverent care for the externals of worship.1. It may be urged that it is not right to affirm that an ordinance suited to an early age of civilisation must continue, notwithstanding the advance of human knowledge. But, at the same time, it should not be forgotten, that that part of the ceremonial law connected with the fabric of the temple had in it an element of stability. 2. It may be alleged that what was necessary to draw the minds of the Jews from the tawdry splendours of the Canaanitish worship is unnecessary in these days of Christian enlightenment. But what was attractive in the old beliefs was Probably a remnant of the old tradition of reverence to God which had never wholly died out amongst the heathen. 3. It may be asserted that the spiritual nature of the Gospel is entirely alien from a system that appeals to the senses and enlists the imagination. But it can be answered, that the profoundest theological reasons may be adduced for a worship and adoration appealing to every power of humanity: as witness the early Christian services, the Epistles, the Catacombs; and when the taste and bearing of Greece combined with the practical skill of Italy to erect and adorn shrines for worship, all the arts found their legitimate sphere in the service of the Christian religion. II. The final cause why God has implanted in us a sense of the beautiful. In Him alone is perfection, beatitude, joy. All that is beautiful and lovely here below comes from Him. Even in our fallen human nature there remains sufficient virtue and grace to make us acknowledge and revere the true. We love the beautiful. And where can we find a place for it so appropriate as the courts of the Lord’ s house? It may confidently be asserted, that in the history of the world the highest manifestations of the beautiful have been evolved in the sublime adoration of God. (A. P. Forbes, D. C. L.) Our worship of God The words are those of an old Jewish poet, spoken centuries before the rise of Christianity. They express a pious feeling which is a dominant irate of the Psalter. The affection of those inspired singers for the sanctuary of the Lord seems irrepressible; out it must, whatever the theme--whether a prayer, or a lamentation, or a thanksgiving, or a sorrowful confession of sin, or a song of victory. The temple of Jerusalem was the Keblah towards which God’ s ancient people turned the face in prayer, wherever they might be. They speak of “ abiding in God’ s tabernacle,” of “ dwelling in His house forever,” of “ dwelling in His courts,” and being “ satisfied with the beauty of His house, even of His holy temple.” They never weary of describing the glory of Mount Zion, and the happiness, the exultation of Divine worship.1. Avoid narrowness in your religious views. Open your heart and mind to the whole Bible, not only to a part of it. No portion of Scripture is superfluous, but everything is necessary in its place--as a link in a chain, a stage in the growth, a step on the ladder that reaches from earth to heaven. 2. Never imagine that while beauty and stateliness are desirable in secular buildings, they are superfluous in the house of God. Never dream that spirituality of worship is furthered by poverty of accessories, by absence or meagreness of ornament, by an utter lack of comeliness in the consecrated place. All outward and visible beauty is a symbol and prophecy of the Unseen and Eternal Beauty, and therefore naturally fitted to lift our hearts to that great Object of all worship. The Church may rightly be made glorious with lavish expense of art, and time, and means: if only because the masses of God’ s poor stand in pressing need of some such contrast with their ordinary haunts, to waken in their souls the sense of something higher, purer, nobler than the sights and sounds to which hard necessity has restricted them. 3. Every church is “ holy ground,” for it is a meeting place of God and man; and what is holy should be beautiful. Beauty is the natural stimulus of love. The truth that God meets us here in a special way does not contradict the truth of His Presence everywhere. The prophets and teachers of Israel knew quite well that the Spiritual is the only Real, and that spiritual worship means a worship which is heartfelt, not hollow, reasonable not magical and meaningless,--a worship in which the entire consciousness, the whole nature, concentrates itself upon God. Sursum corda--Lift up your hearts! and your churches may be perfect shrines of beauty, and your services musical as the song of angels; your worship will not therefore be less but more spiritual. (C. J. Ball, M. A.) Love to the house of God I. The object of the Christian’ s love.1. This habitation, or house, is designed by the Great Proprietor of it for public worship. 2. It implies the manifestation of the Divine Presence. II. The Christian’ s love to the house of God.1. The love of affection. 2. The love of preference. 3. Because of advantages realised by attending it. (1) Children of God are born there.(2) There the believer was convinced of sin.(3) There the presence of God is manifested.(4) It is the banqueting house.(5) It is the place of instruction.(6) Its exercises sweeten for glory. 4. Because they worship with good men. 5. It is a practical love. (1) Regular attendance.(2) Engagement in its services, according to ability.(3) Invitation to others to attend.(4) Pecuniary support.(5) Prayer. III. Application.1. How great the importance and advantages of Divine worship. Christ and His apostles honoured it (Luke 4:16; Acts 2:46). 2. How great the guilt and danger of neglecting the house of God (Psalms 73:27; Zechariah 14:17; Zechariah 14:19; Hebrews 10:25). 3. If the earthly temple is so loved, what love will the heavenly temple create! (Helps for the Pulpit.) Psalms 26:9 Gather not my soul with sinners.The great care and concern now that our souls be not gathered with sinners in the other world, considered and improved It is taken for granted that at death souls are gathered together after their own sort, and that horror is felt at being gathered with sinners. In discoursing on this doctrine we shall note-- I. Some things implied in it.1. Here souls are mingled together. The result of this is that it keeps both parties uneasy; they are a mutual check one upon another, and providence varies in its dispensations accordingly. 2. In the other world there will be separation; and that-- 3. The time for this is at death. But-- 4. The saints have a horror of being gathered with sinners, and so, too, have the wicked. Balaam (Numbers 21:10). II. Who are sinners. All unjustified and unsanctified persons; such as they who neither know nor care about religion: the profane, the mere moralists (Matthew 5:20), and formalists (2 Timothy 3:5). For all these miss the mark men should aim at, and all are guilty of death before the Lord (1 Kings 1:21; Romans 3:19), and they can do nothing but sin (Psalms 14:3), since the principles that govern them are wrong (Titus 1:15). III. The meaning of the soul being gathered with sinners in the other world. The soul is separated from the body at death and goes to its appointed place, which is separate from that of saints. IV. The concern felt in reference to this. It implies an earnest belief in the foregoing truths, and a dread of what they declare, together with an acknowledgment that God might justly condemn them; wherefore they betake themselves to His mercy (Job 9:15). V. The reasonableness of such concern.1. Because to be gathered with sinners is to be separated from God. 2. In a most doleful place (Isaiah 24:22). 3. With the most frightful society (Matthew 25:41). 4. Suffering the heaviest punishment (2 Thessalonians 1:9). 5. To be left in their sin there; which will itself be their punishment. Their passions will rage, but they cannot be satisfied. 6. And this forever. VI. Lessons from this doctrine.1. However favourable the condition of the sinner in this world, it is a miserable one after all. 2. That the great business of our life is to learn to die, and to prepare for the next world. 3. We are in great danger of perishing, and therefore should be all the more earnest. 4. Therefore let the careless, slothful, delaying, malignant sinners take heed. But-- 5. Such as are showing this concern may be comforted, for they are in the way of duty, and are taking their work in time; it is the Spirit who works in them this concern, and they have to do with a good and gracious God (Ezekiel 23:11). Then-- 6. Your concern is quite different from that of the ungodly, who also shrink from hell, as Balaam did. For your concern is, not to be separated from Christ, and not to be left in sin; and you are now forsaking sin with true purpose of heart. Wherefore-- 7. Be thus concerned all of you, come to Christ, forsake all sin, unite with the godly, observe ordinances, avoid the way of sinners now. For how important this matter is; nothing is to be put before it, and now is the accepted and the only time, and the gathering in the other world will be eternal and unutterable. Wherefore, upon the whole, let me obtain of you-- (1) That you will take scale serious thoughts of the other world in both parts of it.(2) That you will inquire what case you are in for it. And--(3) That you will lay down measures timely, that year souls be not gathered with sinners there. May the Lord persuade and incline your hearts unto this course. (T. Boston, D. D.) The saint’ s horror at the sinner’ s hell We must all be gathered in due course. It may come tomorrow; it may be deferred another handful of years. Filled with a holy horror of the hell of sinners, let us make most sure our calling to the heaven of the blessed. Consider-- I. The gathering. There have been many such--Korah, Dathan, and Abiram; Jericho and the Canaanites; the destruction of Jerusalem. But forgetting all these inferior gatherings, let us look on to the last great one, which is proceeding every day to its completion As the huntsman, when he goes forth to the battle, encompasses the beasts of the forest with an ever-narrowing ring of hunters, that he may exterminate them all in one great slaughter, so the God of Justice has made a ring in His providence about the sinful, sons of men. None can escape. I will not attempt, to describe, what our Saviour, veiled in words like these: “ These shall go away into everlasting punishment.” II. The prayer itself. We are all agreed about it, every one of us. Sinners do not wish to be gathered with sinners. But the reasons of the one prayer are different in different persons. A selfish desire to escape misery is sufficient to account for it with sinful men. There is a class of sinners that some would like to be gathered with now. Can we say, when we look upon the bright side of the wicked, “ Gather not,” etc.? If we cannot we really cannot pray the prayer at all. But the Christian prays this prayer because, as far as his acquaintance with sinners goes, he does not even now wish for their company. We cannot be with them and feel ourselves perfectly at home. And even now, when God comes to punish a nation, the Christian has to suffer with the rest. He may well, from the little taste he has had of their company, pray, “ Gather not,” etc. I do not know any class of sinners whose company the Christian would desire. I should not like to live with the most precise of hypocrites, nor with the formalist; and as for the blasphemer, we would as soon be shut up in a tiger’ s den. And there are other reasons. When sinners are gathered at the last their characters will be the same. And think of the place, the pit of hell. Their occupations, cursing God; their sufferings, the pain of body and soul they know. And they are forever banished from God and Christ. III. But there is in our text a fear, as if a whisper said, “ Perhaps, after all, you may be gathered with the wicked.” This fear may arise from remembrance of past sin. Before we were converted we lived as others. Present backwardness, unfruitfulness, and our conscious weakness, these all rouse this fear. Therefore note-- IV. The answer to this prayer. Have you the two things that David had, the outward integrity and the inward trust? If so, then you cannot be gathered with sinners. For the rule is, like to like. And our comrades here are to be our companions hereafter. And we have been too dearly bought with Christ’ s blood, and are too much loved by God; and the new nature given you will not allow of it. Careless and thoughtless one, I entreat you to consider if it be not a dreadful thing to be a sinner. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The awful association Many disputes there are concerning the origin of human souls. The Bible assigns the first origination to God, and closely connects all with the first man. “ All souls are Mine; as the soul of the master, so the soul of the servant.” He is the great Lord of human souls. I. The worth of the human soul. Evinced--1. By its intellectual capacities: thought, reason, memory, conscience, affection. 2. By its moral capacities. It is naturally endowed with an ability to know, serve, love, and enjoy God. 3. By its immortality. It perishes not with the body. “ The spirit of man goeth upward,” --to God. 4. By the efforts of fallen spirits to effect its destruction. 5. By the means which God has used for its salvation. II. The souls of all will be gathered together, classed and fixed forever, in a state suitable to their character.1. What is more reasonable than such an association of similar minds after their probation? 2. Its probability is to be inferred from the nature of God and the present state of trial. 3. Its certainty is proved by Divine testimony. “ He will render to every man according to his works.” III. The souls of sinners are gathered at death into a state of shame and suffering.1. This is a matter of positive Divine assertion. 2. Realise the fact. An entire company of lost souls!--shut up with such forever. Think of a prison full of felons and blasphemers! 3. Consider the threatenings connected with the fact. The wrath of God. Sin will forever live in them and incur wrath. Spiritual death will triumph over their soul, and never cease. IV. The prayer of the text. “ Gather not my soul,” etc.1. How can this be answered, seeing we are sinners? The language of the prayer proceeds from a consciousness of deserving to be gathered with sinners. 2. Yet the prayer supposes the possibility of being heard and answered. The scheme of salvation shows how it can be. 3. The sincerity of the prayer will be proved by returning to God practically and in heart. If we would not be gathered with sinners at last we must break off from them now. (Evangelist.) The eternal separation I. The good man is chiefly concerned about his soul. Many anxious as to health, earthly comforts, security of goods, and so on. The care of the godly is his soul.1. The soul is the man. 2. The salvation of the soul is necessary for the glory of God and the true ends of our being. The soul is ill desperate peril; and none but Christ can save. II. The good man knows that the destiny of the soul is settled at death. Death comes to all. And “ after death the judgment” : inferred by reason, foreboded by conscience, revealed by Scripture. II. The good man recoils in horror from being associated in destiny with the wicked. Why? Because he abhors(1) their character;(2) their society;(3) their doom. Do we shrink from the society of the false, the impure, the revengeful, the slaves of lust and selfishness, how much more should we recoil from eternal fellowship with these and such as these! (W. Forsyth, M. A.) The gathering time of souls As there is a gathering time for the fruits of the earth, so there is a gathering time for men. Death is the reaper. With his scythe he mows down the generations, and justice gathers whom he mows,--some to misery, some to bliss. Who would be gathered with the sinners in the great world of retribution? (D. Thomas, D. D.) A desire to be separate from all sinners Even those of you who are not renewed by Christ despise vice when she walks abroad naked. I fear me ye cannot say as much when she puts on her silver slippers, and wraps about her shoulders her scarlet mantle. Sin in rags is not popular. Vice in sores and squalor tempts no one. In the grosser shapes, men hate the very fiend whom they love when it is refined and delicate in its form. I want to know whether you can say, “ Gather not my soul with sinners” when you see the ungodly in their high days and holy days? Do you not envy the fraudulent merchant counting his gold, his purse heavy with his gains, while he himself by his craft is beyond all challenge by the law? Do you not envy the giddy revellers, spending the night in the merry dance, laughing, making merry with wine, and smiling with thoughts of lust? Yonder voluptuary, entering the abode where virtue never finds a place, and indulging in pleasures unworthy to be named in this hallowed house, does he never excite your envy? I ask you, when you see the pleasures, the bright side, the honours, the emoluments, the gains, the merriments of sin, do ye then say, “ Gather not my soul with sinners” ? There is a class of sinners that some would wish to be gathered with, those easy souls who go on so swimmingly. They never have any trouble; conscience never pricks them; business never goes wrong with them; they have no bands in their life, no bonds in their death; they are not in trouble as other men, neither are they plagued like other men. They are like the green bay tree, which spreads on every side, until its boughs cover whole acres with their shade. These are the men who prosper in the world, they increase in riches. Can we say, when we look at these, when we gaze upon the bright side of the wicked, “ Gather not my soul with sinners” ? Remember, if we cannot do so without reservation we really cannot pray the prayer at all; we ought to alter it, and put it, “ Gather not my soul with openly reprobate sinners” ; and then, mark you, as there is only one place for all sorts of sinners, moral or immoral, apparently holy or profane, your prayer cannot be heard, for if you are gathered with sinners at all--with the best of sinners--you must be gathered with the worst of sinners too. I know, children of God, ye can offer the prayer as it stands, and say, “ In all their glory and their pomp, in all their wealth, their peace, and their comfort, my soul abhors them, and I earnestly beseech thee, O Lord, by the blood of Jesus, ‘ Gather not my soul with sinners.’” (C. H. Spurgeon.) The company and destiny of sinners undesirable As for blasphemers, we could not endure them a moment. Would you not as soon be shut up in a tiger’ s den as with a cursing, swearing, thievish profligate? Who can endure the company of either a Voltaire or a Manning? Find out the miserly, the mean, the sneaking, the grasping--who likes to be with them? The angry, the petulant, who never try to check the unholy passion, one is always glad to be away from such folks; you are afraid lest you should be held responsible for their mad actions, and therefore, if you must be with them, you are always ill at ease. With no sort of sinners can the child of God be hail-fellow. Lambs and wolves, doves and hawks, devils and angels are not fit companions; and so through what little trial the righteous have had, they have learned that there is no sort of sinners that they would like to be shut up with forever. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The final separation of mankind In Jersey City, over from New York, there is one of the largest distributing centres of passenger traffic in the world. All the passengers for the various ramifying routes are gathered together in the waiting hall, with the doors closed. Suddenly these doors are flung open, and in a high, shrill key the railway attendant calls out the route of the train that is about to start, and goes over the names of the big towns on that route, in a tale long enough to make him need breath when he has finished it. “ Philadelphia,” etc., etc., and you see passengers start from their seats among the throng and hurry to the exit the railway man indicates. They are bound for Philadelphia, and the rest. The doors close, and the throng inside the hall settle down again.” After some time the doors are flung open again, and the same sing-song of the route and the list of stops. Chicago and St. Louis,” and you see another company of passengers make their way out to the waiting train. They are those going to Chicago and St. Louis. Again the doors close, and again they are flung to the wall, and this time the list of names the fellow calls out ends with “ Montreal,” and, when I heard that, I started up and made for the door; I was going to Montreal. In a few hours they that were one company inside the waiting hall of the station of Jersey City are separated by hundreds of miles, and never all to meet again. That is like this world. We are gathered together in one waiting hall in the station of time, and those sky doors have yet to be flung open, and the voice of God, the last trump, is to burst on every mortal ear, and companies and groups have to separate and gather according to their destination for eternity. Here passengers for heaven: there passengers for hell. You cannot tell in the waiting hall what passengers are bound the glad one way or what passengers are bound the sad other way. The outward appearance is all we can see. He that looketh upon and knoweth the heart is the Lord. Some presumptuous folk would try to erect a dividing barricade in the waiting hall, and divide it into two sections, whose partitions would be covered in regulation form with ecclesiastical jagged broken glass, mostly coloured, I know. But it will not do: it will not do. Leave the division to the Divider Himself. Judge not, but wait till the shout of the archangel of the coming King is heard through the suddenly flung open doors--in a moment, in that moment, in that twinkling of an eye, at that last trump. There are only two groups, and two departures, and two destinations from this waiting hall of time. How fitting the prayer, “ Gather not my soul with sinners.” (John Robertson.) Psalms 26:10 Their right hand is full of bribes. Virtue hated by the wicked Saul not only sought David’ s life with his own hand, but bribed others to seek it, and betray him into his power (1 Samuel 22:6-19). In this way the Jews treated the Son of David. Failing to accomplish His death themselves, they at last bribed one of His own disciples to betray Him into their hands. It is strange that goodness should have always met with such treatment at the hands of the world. Many have thought, in their ignorance of the human heart, that virtue only needs to be presented in her own beautiful colours to be at once loved by all. So an eminent Scotch divine thought when, after depicting in terms of glowing eloquence the moral beauty and amiability of virtue, he exclaimed, “ O virtue, if thou wert embodied, all men would love thee!” His colleague later, addressing the same congregation, said, “ My reverend friend observed that if virtue were embodied all men would love her. Virtue has been embodied. But how was she treated? Did all men love her? No; she was despised and rejected of men, who, after defaming, insulting, and scourging her, led her to Calvary, where they crucified her between two thieves.” (D. Caldwell, M. A.) Psalms 26:12 My foot standeth in an even place: in the congregations will I bless the Lord.An even place I. The even place on which the believer’ s foot will stand. II. The benefits in possession, in experience, and in prospect which he will derive from this standing. III. The occasion, and the manner in which it will become him to express his gratitude. (Thomas Dale.) Worship in the beauty of holiness By the foot, the instrument of motion, we understand the whole turn and conduct of life. Thus the ways of a man denote his doings and his dealings, the affections which govern him, and the actions proceeding from them. When these are right, or even, we may appeal to God as Judge, worship Him in the beauty of holiness, bless Him in the congregations. I. Holiness of life is a proper qualification for all who would worship God with acceptance. Holiness likens us to God. He desires the holy to worship Him, respects their service, and bestows His blessing. II. Holiness of life is an essential as well as a proper qualification for all resorts to God in religious offices. Worship is not enjoined on us for the sake of God, but for our own benefit. Its main intent is to lodge with us a sense of our depending upon Him for all we have and all we hope for, to the end that it may secure our obedience to His commands and provide effectually for our final happiness. We cannot, therefore, approach Him in worship without a heart and life corresponding. (N. Marshall, D. D.) Blessing God in the congregation If a saint’ s single voice in prayer is so sweet to God’ s ear, much more His saints’ prayer and praise in consort together. A father is glad to see any one of his children, and makes him welcome when he visits him, but much more when they come together; the greatest feast is when they all meet at his house. The public praises of the Church are the emblem of heaven itself. There is a wonderful prevalence in the joint prayers of His people. When Peter was in prison the Church meets and prays him out of his enemies’ hands. A prince will grant a petition subscribed by the hands of a whole city, which, may be, he would not grant at the request of a private subject. (H. Gurnall.) . Psalms 27:1-14 Psalms 27:1-14 The Lord is my light and my salvation. Implicit trust This psalm was written by a man who was at the moment far down in the depths of spiritual conflict, and yet was holding a steady front against his troubles, after all. He prays so passionately, that we should deem him weak even to cowardice, if it were not for the fact that he praises so jubilantly, and lifts his head with a most unsubdued ring in his voice. The psalm is like a summer cloud just before a storm, in that it reserves an overcharge of power to be driven on by a sort of induction into the very verge of the final verse, from which it explodes with a glorious flash of lightning, which clears the air instantly. What are the conditions of implicit trust in the Lord of our salvation, such trust as will ensure peace and comfort? It is likely that most of God’ s children, sooner or later, are permitted to journey on wearily over what seemed a highway, only to find, at the last, the sign inscribed, “ No thoroughfare here.” A grim kind of consolation enters one’ s heart as he murmurs, “ Some one has been here before to put up the guideboard, at any rate!”1. The main condition of resting in the Lord is found in looking outside of one’ s self. There is a habit of morbid self-examination which needs to be shunned. Some experiences there are which are too delicate to bear this rude analysis. A woman’ s love for her husband, a child’ s confidence in his father, could be disturbed fatally and for ever, if only half as much violence were brought to bear upon it as some Christians are accustomed to exert upon their religious feelings. One can tear himself all to pieces, to no sort of profit, and to every sort of harm. The Lord is the one to look at, not ourselves. 2. The next condition of spiritual repose is found in the avoiding of unwise counsellors. We must learn to trust our trust, and not keep rooting it up. No plant grows which is continually being rooted up. 3. Another condition of rest in God is found in drawing a clear distinction between historic faith and saving faith. What secures to us a perfect salvation is spiritual trust in the Saviour, and this is the gift of the Holy Ghost. It is easy to receive facts, perhaps, but not so easy to understand experiences which lie deeper than any mere outward acts. Historic faith is not necessarily saving faith. 4. We are to cultivate confidence in the slowly reached answers to our prayers for Divine grace. 5. We must distinguish between emotions and religious states. The one may vary, the other is fixed. Faith is a very different thing from the result of faith; and confidence of faith is even a different thing from faith itself; and yet the safety of the soul depends on faith, and on nothing else. We are justified by faith; not by joy or peace or love or hope or zeal. These last are the results of faith, generally, and will depend largely upon temperament and education. 6. This unbroken courage is a condition of rest. David said that he came near to fainting, and should have done it, only be kept on believing to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. We must not think everything is lost when we happen to have become beclouded. (C. S. Robinson, D. D.) Confidence in God This psalm is an instance of what an old divine has called “ confidence in God the best succour in the worst seasons.” I. the occasion of this confidence. In David’ s case we find this confidence--1. In times of peril. The true children of God are oft in peril, and at such times nothing can stand them in such stead as this assured confidence. Luther felt it at Worms. Armed with it, the Christian may ever look even death calmly in the face. Man without it is in time of peril like a ship without anchor in the fury of the storm. 2. In times of privation. Apparently David was (Psalms 27:4) in exile, and deprived of the privileges of worship in the house of God. But he found his great support in his confidence in God. 3. In times of desertion. When he needed friends most, the ranks were thinnest, his standard most deserted. But he had a Friend who would never forsake him. Happy the man who, amidst general unfaithfulness, has found the great treasure of a friend that sticketh closer than a brother. 4. In times of calumny. A bitter element in David’ s cup were false witnesses and slanderers. II. some of the grounds on which this confidence rests.1. The nature of God Himself in His personal relation to us: “ My Light, my Salvation . . . the Strength of my life.” It is not what we are, but what God is, that affords a solid ground of confidence in time of trouble. There is an emphasis on that pronoun my which speaks of an eternal covenant, an appropriating faith, a mystical union. 2. Previous interpositions of God for our help. Verse 2 evidently refers to a period in the psalmist’ s past history when he was delivered from great danger. As the child of God looks back on the way by which the Lord has led him, and sees how Divine strength has been made manifest in his weakness, confident is he that the grace which has brought him thus far will lead him safely home. 3. The religious experiences he has enjoyed (Psalms 27:8). 4. The promises of God received and rested on by faith. III. the fruits of this confidence.1. Complete deliverance from all fear (Psalms 27:1). Fear is unworthy one to whom Jehovah stands in such relations. 2. A positive sense of security from all harm. Jehovah, the Captain of our salvation, takes the timid soul into His own royal tent. 3. A well-spring of happiness. The Christian life has its hosannahs as well as its misereres--its notes of joyous triumph as well as its plaintive “ songs in the night.” (T. H. Witherspoon, D. D.) A psalm for life’ s storms I. courage in life’ s storms.1. This courage is founded on confidence in God. When the soul feels God with it, it becomes invincible. 2. It is heightened by memories of past deliverance. Recollection of past mercies strengthens our faith in future supplies. 3. It defies all future enemies, and faces the mysterious future with a jubilant soul. II. shelter in life’ s storms.1. The scene where the shelter is sought. The house of the Lord: the place where He specially manifests Himself to His people. 2. The means by which the shelter is to be secured. Dwelling with God; delighting in God; inquiring after God. 3. The source from which it is to be derived. God Himself. 4. The spirit in which it is accepted. Confidence and praise. III. prayer in life’ s storms. The prayer is--1. An earnest appeal to mercy for relief. 2. It expresses ready compliance with the Divine request. God requires us to seek His favour, not because we can induce Him to be more merciful; nor because our prayer can merit His favours; but because earnest prayer qualifies the suppliant to rightly receive, appreciate, and use the blessing sought. 3. It deprecates the disfavour of God as a terrible evil. 4. It recognizes the transcendent character of Divine friendship. Though all forsake, He remains faithful. 4. It indicates the true method of safety. Obedience to Divine law; interposition for Divine help. IV. self-exhortation in life’ s storms. “ I had fainted unless,” etc. An admonishment to himself to be strong.1. Faith in Divine goodness. The vision of Divine goodness is the only moral tonic for the soul. 2. Consecration to the Divine service. To wait upon the Lord is to serve Him lovingly, thoroughly, faithfully, practically; and such service is moral strength. (Homilist.) Confidence in God The Psalms are the outbreathings of the universal heart, a voice for man at all times. We are here reminded of-- I. A profound sense of need and danger This psalm is the cry of a soul in distress. David’ s throne, honour, wealth, did not exempt him from suffering; rather they became occasions of distress. To all, the sky of life is often overcast, its path lies along a toilsome way, with burdens too heavy to be borne. Where find rest and safety? II. the security of trusting in God. God was his Light, and in the consciousness of that light he could see that all things worked together for good to them that love God. The Lord was his Salvation: his safety was assured. Cast into a fiery furnace, One appears with the Christian whose form is like the Son of God. God was the Strength of his life, awakening holy impulses, irradiating his whole spiritual being. III. the necessity of appointed means in communing with God. In the sanctuary, in the place and in the way of Divine appointment, the psalmist was filled with a sense of the Divine presence. There God’ s light, salvation, strength, appeared in a reality and beauty nowhere else displayed. There God appeared not in nature, but in grace; not as a power, but as a Person; not as Creator, but as Redeemer. The psalmist therefore longed for the sanctuary. IV. obedience to God is indispensable to confiding intercourse with him. At once he would seek, and actively seek, the Lord’ s face. There is no real confidence in God without loyalty: obedience is the only atmosphere on which the wing of faith can rise. (Monday Club Sermons.) The Christian’ s boast David was a boaster, but it was in God; hence it was lawful: “ My soul shall make her boast in the Lord.” In any other source of confidence it is unlawful and dangerous. I. the “ one thing” of which David here speaks. The abiding sense of the Divine presence. The temple, or “ house of the Lord,” was the place of God’ s special manifestations. Abiding in this presence will give--1. Light--the light of His countenance. It is one thing to abide in our own or in other light--as “ the Pharisee” and Zaccheus; a different thing to be in the light of God’ s face or presence. This light does two things: it reveals to us God, and shows us what sin is; it reveals God to us, and shows us what salvation is--making the Lord to be our salvation. 2. Satan may accuse, but, if God acquits, whom shall we fear? If the Law has been satisfied, the debt paid, we need fear neither penalties nor imprisonment. There is a second sense in which the Lord is light and salvation. No longer “ afraid” of the condemning power of sin, we are warranted in standing in fear of its ruling power in our hearts. Therefore we are exhorted to “ work out our salvation.” To do this we need the light to guide us into all truth, the salvation to deliver us from all evil. 3. Strength. “ If God be for us” strength is on our side. 4. “ The beauty of the Lord.” The beauty of His attributes, as they meet and harmonize for our blessing. The beauty, too, reflected in us; for in His light and salvation and strength we are “ changed into the same image.” 5. Joy and singing. When our joy is dependent on the consciousness of what we are or ought to be to God, it is a very uncertain joy, and will rarely produce singing, but rather sighing. But when it is dependent on the sense of what God is to us, then we can say, “ I will offer in His tabernacle sacrifices of joy.” To have this joy we must be taken out of self.II. the condition of attaining this “ one thing.” We must “ seek after it.” We must “ wait on the Lord.” To navigate the sea of life we must keep the eye fixed on this one thing, on the one magnet--Christ. Paul did this, which made his bark “ press toward” the haven with such grace and nobility. (The Study.) The Christian’ s triumph A beautiful affirmation; important possession; glorious triumph. I. the affirmation.1. The Lord is light in nature. “ All things were made by Him.” All light in nature comes from God’ s Son, who is emphatically the Light of the world. 2. In the sphere of reason. God made man with a mind to know, a will to obey, a heart to love--elevated far above the rest of creation. By sin the mind is darkened, the will perverse, the heart depraved. Hence-- 3. God is light in the sphere of grace. Man, by the Fall, deprived himself and the race of “ those divine gifts” ; hence the need of a Redeemer. This we have: “ the Lord is salvation.” Light shows us where and what we are--lost, ruined, dead. Christ, our salvation, brings us from the depths of the Fall, recreates us, imparts to us His Spirit, righteousness and life. II. A most important possession. “ My light,” “ my salvation.” The beauty of the Psalms is in the pronouns. Light must be in us, or we walk in darkness; bread be eaten, or we starve; so an unapplied Saviour is no Saviour to man. This possession is ours only as we stand in living union with Christ Jesus our Lord. III. the glorious triumph. “ Whom shall I fear?” etc. In possession of Christ’ s light and life, the Christian need fear neither sickness, death, grave, nor hell. Over all these lie has complete victory (Romans 8:34-39). (J. Hassler, D. D.) David’ s confidence in God I. what God was to David.1. The fountain of gladness to his heart.2. The author of safety to his person.3. The giver of strength and might, for the preservation of his life. Uses--1. For instruction. (1) God’ s all-sufficiency in Himself, for all His children.(2) The happy estate of those who are in covenant with God. 2. For admonition. (1) Search and try whether God be that to us which He was to David.(2) If we find defect we must give all diligence thereunto (2 Peter 1:5).(3) In the fruition of any of these blessings, see whither to return the honour and praise, viz. to God. 3. For comfort. II. what benefit David reaped thereby. Having the Lord for his God, he is armed against all fear of men or other creatures (Psalms 118:6; Psalms 23:1-4; Psalms 3:3-6). Uses--1. For instruction. (1) There is great gain in true godliness, and much fruit in religion, to those who attain to true righteousness (1 Timothy 6:6; Psalms 58:11). (2) See here the true ground of the difference between the wicked and the godly, about slavish fear and godly boldness (Proverbs 28:1). The godly have the Lord with them and for them, and that makes them bold; but the wicked have the Lord against them, and that strikes their hearts with fear and dread. 2. For admonition. (1) Unless God be for us, the heart will fail when evils come. And none have the Lord for them but those that stand rightly in covenant with God; ‘ repenting of their sins, believing in the Lord Jesus, and walking in new obedience. (2) Those who have true courage and comfort in evil times must learn hence to give God all the glory (Psalms 18:29). (T. Pierson.) The pathway of power Light--salvation--strength: three great waves of the sea, telling that the tide can rise no higher. The tide is full. Even so it is with the heart that can say-- I. The Lord is my light.1. In the natural world God gives us a night between every two days, and in the life beyond we hear of a bow of emerald that breaks the dazzle of the great white throne. Light means truth, and, as it advances in precision and purity, the steps of discovered truth become the songs of degrees with which the tribes go up to the great temple of God. 2. In the spiritual life, both as regards salvation and service, much depends on clearness of vision, and knowledge of how and where to look and what to look for. II. the Lord is my salvation. The words “ Christ for us” have now a clear and exact meaning, setting forth the condition and character of Salvation. And before Christ was crucified for sinners, the main feature of salvation was the same; it was from the Lord, a gift from His hand. “ Blessed is the man whose sin is covered.” Sin was then also a transgression, a taint, and a tyranny, and from all the Lord delivered. It was His to deliver the soul from death, the eyes from tears, and the feet from falling. This fact at once humbled and upheld him; it was the Lord’ s gift, and yet it was his own possession. And so he could say--“ Whom shall I fear? The Lord is my salvation.” III. the Lord is my strength. Light for the understanding and its judgment; salvation for the heart, its hardness and anxiety; and strength for action and usefulness. How often we come to the Lord, like James and John, and say “ we are able” ; but the Lord makes a thorough work of the first and second, the light and salvation, before lie entrusts us with the third, the strength on which He puts His own almighty name. We often bring misery upon ourselves, and darkness upon others, by trying to come into the Lord’ s service before coming to the Lord Himself. Let us seek the power in the pathway of power:--light, salvation, strength. (G. M. Mackie, M. A.) The Divine Light I. David says this. He is in exile, engaged in some struggle on the frontiers of his kingdom: his foes have received a check: he is closely watched, but is, nevertheless, confident of victory. This is the only occasion in which David speaks of the Lord as his Light: the expression occurs only twice in the Old Testament. Micah says, “ the Lord shall be a light unto me.” In other places light is spoken of as God’ s gift--the light of revelation and of conscience. But here David says, “ the Lord is my light.” David’ s life was one of great vicissitude, and his temperament was very changeable. Hence he was liable to great depression, especially through the recollection of his awful sins--adulterer and murderer that he was. And yet he was a man after God’ s own heart, because a man’ s life is to be judged not by its exceptional acts, but by its governing principles. Nevertheless, David was damaged deeply and permanently by his sins. But they did not destroy, though they did deface his real character, his profound religious sense of God’ s presence and claims. The leading acts of a man’ s life may look one way, the governing principles of his life another. Philip II. of Spain encouraged and paid for the publication of the second great polyglot Bible that was ever printed. But how wrong it would be to infer from that one action what manner of man he was. And so with David: his exceptional acts do not reveal him in his real character and mind. Saul had no depth of character: moral levity and indifference to the claims of God are constantly chargeable against him. But David’ s sins, though terrible, were but temporary, and never became the habit of his life, and they did not extinguish in him his deep love of God. Hence, still he could say, “ The Lord is my light.” II. Apply the words to our Lord jesus christ. In their deepest sense they can apply to none else. He whom Jesus said was greatest of woman-born--John the Baptist--was yet “ not that light, but came to bear witness of that light.” Christ alone could say, “ I am the light of the world.” Some of us may remember that great work of Christian genius, called the “ Notre” : it is by Correggio, and is reckoned amongst the chief of the art treasures of the Dresden Gallery. In it the Divine infant is represented as with a body almost transparent with light, and from Him all around are illuminated, and in proportion to their nearness to Him. It is a representation on canvas of a great moral and spiritual truth. For Christ is the one light of men. III. To the church. Was it not so in the days of persecution? Road the history of the martyrdom of Stephen. IV. To Christian education. Our text is the motto of the University of Oxford, and expresses the truth that education apart from Him is vain. V. To the individual conscience. Then refer to Him all teaching, all content. “ Lead, kindly Light . . . lead Thou me on.” (Canon Liddon.) Facts and arguments I. The facts.1. “ The Lord is my light and my salvation.” The soul is assured of it, and therefore declares it boldly. Into the soul at the new birth Divine light is poured as the precursor of salvation. Where there is not enough light to reveal our own darkness, and to make us long for the Lord Jesus, there is no evidence of salvation. After conversion our God is our Joy, Comfort, Guide, Teacher, and, in every sense, our Light: He is light within, light around, light reflected from us, and light to be revealed to us. Not merely does He give light or salvation; He is light, He is salvation; he, then, who has laid hold upon God has all covenant blessings in his possession. 2. “ The Lord is the strength of my life.” Here is a third epithet to show the writer’ s hope was fastened with a threefold cord which could not be broken. We may well accumulate terms of praise where the Lord lavishes deeds of grace. II. the arguments. 1 “ Whom shall I fear?” A question which is its own answer. The powers of darkness are not to be feared; for the Lord, our light, destroys them. The damnation of hell is not to be dreaded; for the Lord is our salvation. This is a very different challenge from that of boastful Goliath: that rested on the conceited vigour of an arm of flesh; this on the real power of the omnipotent I am.2. “ Of whom shall I be afraid?” Our life derives all its strength from God: we cannot be weakened by all the machinations of the enemy. This bold question looks into the future as well as the present. “ If God be for us, who can be against us,” either now or in time to come? (C. H. Spurgeon.) Christ the True Light In the New Testament, the idea which is hinted at in the language of David is expressly revealed as a truth. God does not merely give us His light. He is light, just as He is love in His own uncreated nature. “ God is light,” says St. John, “ and in Him is no darkness at all.” When St. John would teach us our Lord’ s Godhead as clearly and sharply as possible, he calls Him the “ light,” moaning to teach us that as such He shares the essential nature of the Deity. He is “ light,” because lie is what He is--absolute perfection in respect of intellectual truth, absolute perfection in respect of moral beauty. And hence those momentous words, “ I am the light of the world” ; and hence that confession of the Christian creed, “ God of God, Light of Light.” Thus the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ was to the spiritual world what the rising of the sun is in the world of nature. It had effects even upon the orders of the heavenly intelligences, of which St. Paul hints in his Epistle to the Ephesians. But, for the human soul, it meant a passing from darkness to light, from warmth to sunshine. And thus a prophet had bidden Zion arise and shine since her Lord was come, and the glory of the Lord had risen upon her; for He was announced as the Sun of Righteousness who should arise with healing in His wings, so that although darkness had covered the earth, and gross darkness the people, yet the Lord should arise upon Zion, and His glory be seen upon her. And, in the Benedictus, Zechariah salutes Him as “ the day-star from on high, who hath visited us to give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death.” And Simeon, holding the Divine Saviour in his arms, says that He is “ a Light to lighten the Gentiles” ; and himself felt that the word of prophecy was fulfilled, when the people who walked in darkness had seen a great light; and they that were in the region and shadow of death, on them hath the Gospel light shined. Some of us may remember that great work of Christian genius, the picture of the Nativity--the “ Notre,” as it is called, of Correggio, which is among the treasures of the Dresden Gallery. In it the Divine Infant is represented as with a body almost transparent with light; and from Him all around are illuminated. His mother, His foster-father, the angels who bend in adoration, they are illuminated in the ratio of their nearness to Him. And this is but a representation on canvas of spiritual and eternal truth. He is the one Light of the intellectual and moral world; and we are in the light just so far, and only so far, as we are near to Him. (Canon Liddon.) Light and salvation The combination of the two ideas, “ light and salvation,” is very suggestive. Light is essential to life, health, and growth. What wonderful medicinal efficacy it possesses! There is no tonic like it. It imparts that green hue by means of which the plant changes inorganic into organic matter, creates and conserves what everything else consumes and destroys, and acts as the mediator between the world of death and the world of life. Take away the light from man, and immediately he becomes a prey to the dead, inert forces of nature. The tissues of his body degenerate, and the powers of his mind decay. It affects the stature, the blood, the hair, the liver, the whole body inwardly and outwardly. Under solar radiation, sickness is more speedily cured, wounds heal more rapidly, and the healthy acquire fresh vigour and elevated vitality. It is difficult even to express the full enjoyment of all the senses, except by metaphors drawn from light. Owing to this healing, life-giving power of natural light, we see how it becomes the salvation of the natural man. And in regard to our souls, the Lord is our salvation because He is our light. The plant instinctively and inevitably turns to the sunlight, wherever it is, because the sunlight is its salvation, its very life. Shut out from the light, it can neither live nor grow. A plant growing in a cellar, where but a feeble ray of light penetrates, is a dwarfed and forced growth, exhausting all there is in its seed or bulb mechanically, but adding no new material of growth, without any sign of inward vitality or promise of perennial production. It is a weak, blanched ghost of a plant, without any sap in its veins, or colour in its leaves, without any power to produce blossoms or fruit. But bring the miserable shadow of life out into the open sunshine, and it recovers itself; its white, brittle stem becomes green and full of sap; its leaves assume their natural vivid hue, and open out their blades in the golden air. The whole plant revives as if by magic, and speedily puts forth its beautiful blossom and fruit. What the sunlight is to the plant, God is to the soul. (H. Macmillan, D. D.) Man’ s True Light When we were at New York, Professor Simpson and I went one night to the observatory. We found the astronomer by the light of a small candle, groping about for his instruments, and arranging the telescope. But when he had got the star full in view he blew out his little candle. He had now got the light of the world, and the candle served only to obscure his view. The dim light of your reason is of use only if it brings you to the Great Light. (Henry Drummond.) Whom shall I fear?-- The believer’ s freedom from fear This is not the language of vain presumption, or the boastful utterance of affected boldness, but the confident, yet humble, utterance of Christian assurance. I. shall we be afraid of God?1. Is He not revealed as a sin-hating God? And are not all men sinners? How comes it, then, that the Christian man, though sensible of many infirmities, shortcomings, and aggravated sins--sins of thought, of word, and of deed--can say that he has no cause to be afraid of God? It is because of the new relation into which he is brought to God by virtue of his union to Christ, and of what Christ has done for him. The work of Christ was to satisfy Divine justice and reconcile us to God. Nor is this all. Every believer in Christ becomes a partaker of the Divine nature, sustaining a relation to him near and dear as that which His own Son sustained. 2. Is not the Christian exposed to temptation? May he not be stripped of the safeguard which Divine grace has thrown around him, and be exposed again to the dread vengeance of an insulted God? No; though he may fall, yet shall he rise again. So long as he is Christ’ s he has nothing to fear from God, but everything to hope. The love of God dwelling in him, there is no place for fear, for “ perfect love casteth out fear.” II. shall we fear the law? “ Cursed is every one that continueth not,” etc. “ He that offendeth in one point,” etc. If a man’ s life is to be brought to the test of the law, if he is to stand on the footing of his own merits in the eye of the law, then, indeed, is his condition hopeless, for “ there is not a just man upon the earth that doeth good and sinneth not.” “ By the deeds of the law shall no flesh living be justified.” Now though all this be true, it is no less true that even of the law the Christian has no need to be afraid. To him it is invested with no terrors, on him it never flashes its lightning, against him it never peals its thunders, and why? Why, just because “ the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made him free from the law of sin and of death.” Why? Because “ there is no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” III. shall we fear Satan? When we think of the life he has led us, the misery in which he has involved us, the grinding nature of that servitude be exacts from every one who is led captive by him at his will, we may well tremble at the thought of such an enemy, for unless we are ransomed from his hands by a mightier power than our own, well may we say that he is indeed a power to be feared. But it is only when under his power that this can truly be said of him. It cannot be so said of the believer, for his position is altered to Satan, and Satan’ s is altered to him. Christ “ has taken the prey from the mighty, and spoiled the captive of the terrible one.” IV. shall we fear affliction? To fear it would be to mistrust the promises, and to doubt the faithfulness of Him by whom these promises are made. “ Fear not, for I am with thee; be not dismayed, for I am thy God.” “ When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee,” etc. V. shall we fear death? Death, which the world calls “ the king of terrors,” and which wicked men feel to be such! Death, which for six thousand years has lorded it over the human race, and to whose sceptre countless myriads are yet destined to bowl Shall we not be afraid of death? No! To the Christian there is nothing in death to make him afraid. To the Christian all his power is over the material, not over the spiritual; over the body, not over the soul; and even ever the body not long. To the Christian he comes as an angel of mercy, as a messenger of peace. (H. Hyslop.) The fearlessness of the good I. springs from personal faith in God.1. Intelligent.2. Appropriating.3. Soul-saving. II. strengthened by the remembrance of past deliverances. Confidence comes of experience. The remedy we have proved we readily try again. The friend we have found faithful we trust to death. The commander under whom we have conquered we follow bravely to other fields. So should we act as to God. III. sufficient for the greatest emergencies. What terror had Ahab for Micaiah, the man who had seen God? (1 Kings 22:19). What cared Elisha for “ the horses and chariots” at Dothan, whose eyes beheld the angels of God ranged in his defence? (2 Kings 6:15). “ If God be for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31). (W. Forsyth, M. A.) David’ s preventive of fear The heroic man shows us the secret of his heroism. I. the Lord was the psalmist’ s light. Few things man recoils more from than darkness, whether physical, or of ignorance or of sin. This fear was no longer possible to David. He even anticipates John’ s grand utterance, “ In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.” What light was and ever had been to the world, the Lord was to David. II. the lord was his salvation. As man dreads darkness, so he dreads captivity and oppression. David rejoices in God as his salvation. This conception of God first found expression in the song of Moses (Exodus 15:4), when God led the children of Israel through the Red Sea into the light and calm of day. The word “ salvation” is Jeshua--Joshua--Jesus. So near does David come to the parallel Gospel phrase: “ He shall be called Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins.” Thus the psalmist gripped in advance two of the central truths of the Gospel--God as light and as salvation. In face of these assurances he asks, “ Whom shall I fear?” This is the question of every reformer, who, in the strength of a mighty conviction, in the inspiration of high aims, goes to the help of the Lord against the mighty. III. the Lord was the strength--the stronghold--of his life. The word has a more subtle meaning still. David looks upon God as the Life of his life, the Father of his spirit. He thus falls back upon a third Gospel truth: “ God is a Spirit.” David’ s life was in possession of a power which needed not to fear any foe. By a mighty faith he drew upon God’ s omnipotence: be had not only enough obedience to be active, he had enough to be restful; and that power is greater than all other. Many a man, like John the Baptist, has courage and enthusiasm enough for the rush and battle of life, but falters when withdrawn into the hush of it, to await the oncoming of the foe. The strength of the psalmist enabled him to pass from “ Whom shall I fear?” to “ Of whom, then, shall I be afraid?” Therefore the second verse followed naturally: “ When the wicked . . . they stumbled and fell.” (D. Davies.) Fear banished Having God as his light and salvation, the psalmist might well say, “ Whom shall I fear?” Having his heart at rest in God, and having his times in God’ s hands, what cause for fear remained? With peace within, and light without, he was raised above all earthly fears. His eyes were opened; and while he was compassed about with foes innumerable and most formidable, he saw himself at the same time surrounded with horses and chariots of fire, and realized that greater was He that was with him than all that could be against him; that the hostile things and persons of life could have no power at all against him, were it not given them for wise and gracious purposes by his heavenly Father. And so, if we fear God, we need know no other fear. That divine fear, like the space which the American settler burns around him as a defence against the prairie fire, clears a circle, within which we are absolutely safe. The old necromancists believed that if a man was master of himself, he enjoyed complete immunity from all danger; if his will was firmly set, the powers of evil could not harm him; he could defy a host of devils raging around. Against the malice of human and infernal power, the citadel of a man’ s heart that is set upon God is impregnable. It is sin alone that is adverse to us; it is sin that makes cowards of us all. The soul infected with this radical evil is weak, and open to all adversities. Everything is adverse to it. It is out of harmony with God’ s universe. But let this primary adversity of sin be removed, and all secondary adversities vanish; all things work together for good to them that fear the Lord. All providence becomes to us special providence; all things are eager and tender ministers to us. More important interests are involved in our salvation than in the fate of the whole natural creation; and sooner than a hair of our head shall be injured, God would bury the whole physical world in ruin. “ God is our refuge and strength.” Perfect trust in God is perfect peace. (H. Macmillan, D. D.) The Lord is the strength of my life.--David’ s strength The keynote of David’ s character is not the assertion of his own strength, but the confession of his own weakness. Nevertheless, he had strength, and that of no common order: he was an eminently powerful, able, and successful man. But he says it was from God. Even his physical prowess he ascribes to God. It is by God’ s help he slays the lion and the bear, and has nerve to kill Goliath. It is God who makes his feet like harts’ feet, and enables him to leap over the walls of the mountain fortresses. And no doubt this was so: it is not mere metaphor. David was not likely to have been a man of gigantic strength. So delicate a-brain was probably coupled to a delicate body. But it is as the fount of light and goodness in his own soul that he chiefly thinks of God. In a word, David is a man of faith and prayer. And it is this which sustains him in every trouble, and gives enthusiasm and fire, life and reality, to his triumphant psalms. He had the firm conviction that God was the deliverer of all who trust in Him. And the same faith it is which gives to his penitence its manly tone, free from all cowardly cries of terror. He sees no angry, but a forgiving God, though he knows he is to be punished for the rest of his life. But he utterly trusts God, and is sure that God will restore him to goodness that He may thereby restore him to usefulness. Hence it is God demands not torturing penance or sacrifice, but the heart, the broken and contrite heart. It is such utterances as these which have given their priceless value to the little book of the psalms of David. Every form of human sorrow, doubt, struggle, error, sin; the nun agonizing in the cloister; the settler struggling for life in Transatlantic forests; the pauper shivering over the embers in his hovel, and waiting for kind death; the man of business striving to keep his honour pure amid the temptations of commerce; the prodigal son starving in the far country, and recollecting the words which he learnt long ago at his mother’ s knee; the peasant boy trudging a-field in the chill dawn, and remembering that the Lord is his Shepherd, therefore he will not want--all shapes of humanity have found, and will find to the end of time, a word said to their inmost hearts, and for them, to the living God of heaven by the vast humanity of David, the man after God’ s own heart; the most thoroughly human figure which had appeared upon the earth before the coming of that perfect Son of man, who is over all, God blessed for ever. (C. Kingsley, M. A.) Psalms 27:2 They stumbled and fell.God’ s preservation of David in extreme danger I. the state and condition of David’ s enemies, They are wicked men. The reason whereof is the enmity put by God Himself between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman (Genesis 3:15), which David found (Psalms 38:19-20; John 15:15; John 16:33). Uses--1. For instruction. The godly must expect bitter opposition and enmity from the wicked (Matthew 10:16). 2. For admonition. (1) To the wicked: that they consider their state in God’ s sight, when they are so spitefully bent against the godly. (2) To the godly: to be both wise as serpents and harmless as doves, and to beware of men. 3. For comfort to the godly, that their adversaries are wicked men, for they may hereon rest assured that God will not join with their enemies unless it be for trial of grace, as in Job, or for the sins of the godly, in forsaking Him. II. the purpose and attempt of David’ s enemies against him. They came upon him to eat up his flesh; that is, utterly to destroy him.1. Because of his religion and piety, with which their corruption could admit no accord (Psalms 38:20; 2 Corinthians 6:14; 1 John 3:12). 2. Because of the honour and dignity whereto God had advanced him (Psalms 4:2; Psalms 62:4). Uses-- 1. For instruction. (1) To discover the exceeding measure of corruption that is in natural men, and thereupon their fearful state in soul to Godward (Psalms 53:1; Psalms 53:3-4; Psalms 83:4; Acts 22:22). (2) To manifest that there is a special providence of God over His Church and children, that preserves and keeps them, notwithstanding all the spite and rage of the wicked against them (Psalms 105:12-14). 2. For admonition. (1) To the wicked, to consider of their corrupt affection, in spite and hatred against the godly, whence it comes, that so they may discern their fearful state in soul, and labour to alter it. (2) To the godly, often to bethink themselves what their religion may bring upon them from the wicked; that so they may get the sure shelter from it, viz. to have God for them. III. the issue and success of the cruel attempt of David’ s enemies against him.1. They did not only fail of their purpose against David, but even themselves stumbled and fell. 2. The reason or cause hereof was in God, who for just causes stood for David, and set Himself against David’ s enemies. (1) He found him out, and chose him to do Him service, in that place and state wherein he was so mightily opposed by his enemies (Psalms 89:20-21). (2) David trusted in God, and so was holpen (Psalms 60:1-3). (3) David prayed unto the Lord, and so was preserved (Psalms 56:9; Psalms 34:4). (4) David made conscience of sin, and walked in obedience (Psalms 18:21; Psalms 18:24). (5) God would not be with his enemies, because they were not called of God, nor sent by Him against David; they were wicked men, workers of iniquity; they did neither regard God’ s word nor God’ s works; they trusted in their own might and outward means. Uses--1. For instruction. (1) See what a great blessing and privilege it is to stand rightly in covenant with God; whereby He becometh light or salvation to a man or to a people, and the strength of their life. (2) See the misery of those that be out of covenant with God, for the Lord’ s power is ever against them. 2. For admonition: to give all diligence to be truly in covenant with God, that so it may be with us as it was with David. 3. For comfort to the godly, fighting the Lord’ s battles, and yet overmatched. (T. Pierson.) Psalms 27:3 My heart shall not fear.A stout heart These are the words of a veteran, not of a raw recruit in the battle of life. A first disaster brings consternation; a ripened experience alone can take calamity calmly. God educates His servants by hard discipline, in conflict with the forces of evil; and He educates the world by calling it to watch the contest. I. in the strife between good and evil, the good seems to be fearfully overmatched. The host of Midian were as grasshoppers for multitude, but the Israelitish army consisted of three hundred picked men. The Christians in workshops are but a feeble minority. Temples of vice are more crowded and longer open than Christian churches. The Devil’ s recruits far outnumber those of the Prince of Peace. II. evil ever appears to be hanging over the heads of the godly. To take a Christian stand is to expose oneself to ridicule and to danger. The struggle seems to be a hopeless one, both against the evil without and the evil within. Many an earnest Christian is fearful at times, lest the evil within should finally overmaster him. There seem to be times when the spirit of the lotos-eaters takes possession of us, and we feel that we must take a rest, and let sin sweep over us. Were it not better to make peace with powerful evils rather than contend longer against them? III. but the threat of disaster is worse than the reality. The Devil’ s bark is more frequent than his bite. Many a dark cloud passes without bursting with the threatening storm. The darkest hour is often that before the dawn. In any case, to treat a threatening evil as an actual one is to suffer needlessly. The coward dies a thousand deaths before he dies once. Courage! Do not yield to evil because the siege is a strait one. IV. apparent odds are no test of ultimate victory. He who has not lost courage is master of the future. It is not true to say that “ God is on the side of the biggest battalions.” What of Gideon’ s three hundred, and the ten thousand Greeks at Marathon? What, too, of the immense hosts of the Spanish Armada? God’ s greatest victories have been won by the smallest and apparently most feeble forces. V. the suffering of apparent defeat in the cause of right is but sharing the burden of God. The hermit who stopped the gladiatorial contests at the cost of his own life, chose a nobler lot than they did who occupied seats of honour in the amphitheatre; and we all see it now, though few saw it then. We may do more for God’ s cause by our suffering than we could by our prosperity. “ How can man die better?” VI. the calm endurance of calamity brings its own blessings. A regiment is of but little use in battle until it has been “ shot over.” The tried man is the blessed man. By such endurance we bring a nobler ideal nearer to men. And we secure the sympathy of the noblest souls for truth and righteousness. (R. C. Ford, M. A.) Fortitude Fortitude is opposed to timidity, irresolution, a feeble and wavering spirit. It is placed, like other virtues, between two extremes: at an equal distance from rashness on the one hand, and pusillanimity on the other. I. the high importance of fortitude.1. Without some degree of fortitude, there can be no happiness; because, amidst the thousand uncertainties of life, there can be no enjoyment of tranquillity. The man of feeble and timorous spirit lives under perpetual alarms. On the first shock of adversity he desponds. On the other hand, firmness of mind is the parent of tranquillity. It enables one to enjoy the present without disturbance; and to look calmly on dangers that approach, or evils that threaten in future. It suggests good hopes. It supplies resources. It allows a man to retain the full possession of himself, in every situation of fortune. 2. If fortitude be thus essential to the enjoyment of life, it is equally so to the proper discharge of all its most important duties. He who is of a cowardly mind is, and must be, a slave to the world. He fashions his whole conduct according to its hopes and fears. He smiles, and fawns, and betrays, from abject considerations of personal safety. He can neither stand the clamour of the multitude, nor the frowns of the mighty. The wind of popular favour, or the threats of power, are sufficient to shake his most determined purpose. 3. Without this temper of mind, no man can be a thorough Christian. For his profession, as such, requires him to be superior to that fear of man which bringeth a snare; enjoins him, for the sake of a good conscience, to encounter every danger; and to be prepared, if called, even to lay down his life in the cause of religion and truth. II. the proper foundations of fortitude.1. A good conscience. There can be no true courage, no regular persevering constancy, but what is connected with principle, and founded on a consciousness of rectitude of intention. This, and this only, erects that brazen wall which we can oppose to every hostile attack. It clothes us with an armour, on which fortune will spend its shafts in vain. What has he to fear, who not only acts on a plan which his conscience approves, but who knows that every good man, nay, the whole unbiassed world, if they could trace his intentions, would justify and approve his conduct? 2. He knows, at the same time, that he is acting under the immediate eye and protection of the Almighty. The consciousness of such an illustrious spectator invigorates and animates him. He trusts that the eternal Lover of righteousness not only beholds and approves, but will strengthen and assist; will not suffer him to be unjustly oppressed, and will reward his constancy in the end, with glory, honor, and immortality. III. considerations which may prove auxiliary to the exercise of virtuous fortitude in the midst of dangers.1. It is of high importance to every one, who wishes to act his part with becoming resolution, to cultivate a religious principle, and to be inspired with trust in God. The more firmly this belief is rooted in the heart, its influence will be more powerful in surmounting the fears which arise from a sense of our own weakness or danger. The records of all nations afford a thousand remarkable instances of the effect of this principle, both on individuals and on bodies of men. Animated by the strong belief of a just cause, and a protecting God, the feeble have waxed strong, and despised dangers, sufferings, death. 2. Let him who would preserve fortitude in difficult situations, fill his mind with a sense of what constitutes the true honour of man. It consists not in the multitude of riches, or the elevation of rank; for experience shows that these may be possessed by the worthless, as well as by the deserving. It consists in being deterred by no danger when duty calls us forth; in fulfilling our allotted part, whatever it may be, with faithfulness, bravery, and constancy of mind. These qualities never fail to stamp distinction on the character. 3. But in order to acquire habits of fortitude, what is of the highest consequence is to have formed a just estimate of the goods and evils of life, and of the value of life itself. For here lies the chief source of our weakness and pusillanimity. We over-value the advantages of fortune; rank and riches, ease and safety. (H. Blair, D. D.) Dauntless courage A Dutch fleet once drew near to Chatham. Fearing it might effect a landing, the Duke of Albemarle determined to prevent it, and endeavoured to inspire his men with his own dauntless spirit. Calmly he took his position in the front, thus exposing himself to the hottest fire from the hostile ships. An affectionate but over-cautious friend, seeing him in such danger, darted forward, seized him by the arm, and exclaimed, “ Retire, I beseech you, from this fierce shower of bullets, or you will be a dead man!” The Duke, releasing himself from his grasp, turned coldly on the man who would tempt him to cowardice in the hour of his country’ s need, and replied, “ Sir, if I had been afraid of bullets I should have given up the profession of a soldier long ago.” (Quiver.) Psalms 27:4 One thing have I desired of the Lord. Singleness of purpose in worship Worship is a necessity to the spiritually awakened soul. Public worship was an urgent, pressing necessity in the psalmist’ s case. When, on another occasion similar to that on which he penned this psalm, he found himself deprived of the refreshing and ennobling services of God’ s house, he exclaimed (Psalms 84:2). Our text teaches us much about David as a worshipper. I. his singleness of purpose in worship.1. No moment in the history of his soul was so full of meaning as that moment when, as though he saw the Invisible, he poured the petitions of his overflowing soul into the ear of Him who listens to the cry of the raven, and also the cries and supplications of His needy people, and supplies their every want. In worship he learnt more, felt better, and understood the purposes of life more thoroughly than in any other act of his life. He placed everything else on a lower plane as of less importance, that he might pray to God, fully persuaded that he could obtain more for his soul and the souls of his fellow-creatures by that means than by any other method. 2. The vehemence of the psalmist’ s desire would have consumed him had he not been able to embody the desire in the act. Like another servant of God’ s, the passion to act was like a “ burning fire shut up” in his “ bones,” until he moved to seek after that which he so ardently desired. Religion was a business with him who penned this psalm, not a mere pastime. The more the soul possesses of the spirit of true piety, the more active will it become. 3. David having found the Lord to be to him all he tells us in the first verse, it is only natural that his most earnest spiritual desires should be towards Him. II. the particular place where he desired to worship. “ O that I might be able to perform all the duties of life in the house of God, beneath His eye, and in His immediate presence; that every act of my life might be an act of worship.” He did not, monk-like, desire to spend his life in self-imposed idleness; his active, kingly nature would not permit him to waste precious time in such a selfish luxury; but he desired, above all things, that his life should be supremely spiritual. If all who are engaged in the world’ s work in the various walks of life were seeking to perform its many duties as though they were conscious that they were in the presence of God, who approves or disapproves of every act done by men, doubtless a much greater number would be actuated by the spirit that breathes in the text. Then every factory, warehouse, exchange, shop, market-place, school-room, and study would be a sacred place, made such by spiritual men and women. Every building may be a house of God if there be a child of God in it. III. His determination to persevere in the worship of the true God. “ All the days,” etc. This is really a spiritual necessity. If the soul is to live and grow in the virtues of religion, its needs must be attended to every day, and as long as life lasts. The bread of life that came down from heaven is the soul’ s portion, and it is everything we can desire. Then there is the river of life, the streams of which never dry. Let us constantly seek these grand essentials in the worship of God. (D. Rhys Jenkins.) The simplification of life Here is a man whose life has reached its uttermost simplicity, his longings are reduced to one. The whole force of his being is concentrated upon a single aim. “ One thing have I desired, that will I seek after.” I do not suppose he had been able to say this always; there was a time when, if he spoke his heart, he said, “ Many things I desire.” All of us have gone through that, some of us are going through it still. The child is possessed by what Wordsworth called “ chance desires.” Every shop window is crowded with objects of desire; he wants so many of the sweet and pretty things, that it is cruelty to ask him to say which. There is another stage. The same great poet sings, “ He became the slave of low desires.” Many a man is set on things which cannot be called base, but they are low; they are natural and pleasant, but there is nothing exalted or exalting about them; if they do not degrade, they do not elevate. Many such things have we desired. We cannot help the fact that we start low, but we sin if we finish there. This man had passed through both these stages of experience. There came a moment when a new desire was borne into his life and leaped like fire upon the other longings there, and caught them up into itself. “ One thing have I desired; that will I seek after.” And this experience is not so singular as may appear. Life is a process of simplification; the many things that we desire in youth dwindle, or rather coalesce into one dominant desire, just as the many streamlets of the hills all join the river in the vale. Every man down at the core of him desires one thing. The difference between them is in the thing which they desire. This man has told us what it was he had at heart when he exclaimed, “ One thing have I desired.” It was to dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of his life, to observe His beauty, and to inquire in His temple. Translated into modern speech that means, “ The one thing for which I long above all others is to be true and noble, and like God; I want to be the best that God can make me, I pant to attain the highest that is possible for me. That is the passion of my soul for which I live, and pray, and toil each day and all day long.” (James Mursell.) A great desire I. the great object of his ardent desire.1. A permanent residence in the house of God. The psalmist desired to engage permanently in the service of the Lord. What a contrast is this to the conduct of those who attend only occasionally when opportunity appears to them to favour it, or when worldly engagements do not interfere. The psalmist had an ardent desire for this object. What a contrast does this present to those who come to the house of the Lord, but who come from improper motives, who are induced to come from submission to authority, from a compliance with custom, or from the accusation of conscience, 2. The object of the psalmist’ s desire includes the enjoyment of the Divine presence in His ordinances, to behold the beauty of the Lord. The beauty of the Lord is that display of His presence and perfections which is made to the minds of His true and spiritual worshippers. The services of the ancient temple were beautiful. They were typical of Gospel times; yet the ancient saints rejoiced in the glory which was to be revealed. We possess the full revelation of that glory which they “ beheld through a glass darkly.” In our temple, though no cedars cast around their fragrance, nor are the sunbeams reflected from burnished gold--though we have no priests arrayed in costly vestments, nor do clouds of incense wave around us; yet in the full revelation of the Gospel, and in the more abundant influence of the Spirit, we behold a beauty which far surpasses the beauty of the ancient church. 3. The object of the psalmist’ s desire includes an obedient, and diligent, and successful study of the Divine will, and to inquire in His temple, II. the ardent intensity with which the psalmist desired this object. “ One thing have I desired,” etc.1. This is the language of decision. 2. Of decided preference. Elsewhere he says, “ I had rather be a doorkeeper,” etc. (Psalms 89:1-52.). I commend his choice to you. (T. Raffles, D. D.) David’ s desire “ One thing,” says the psalmist, “ I desire; that will I seek after.” Now what do you suppose it was? If you yourselves were about to express, at this moment, the one desire of your hearts--I mean that which was really and sincerely so--what would it be? Many of you would point, I have no doubt, to various things in which happiness is generally regarded as consisting--such a situation, such an income, such family comforts, such temporal enjoyments, and so on. You would, you think, be well content with these. Some few, however, would say that the “ one thing” they would desire is to be Christ’ s. Well, now, read the text fully, and you will see that David is not of your mind who care only for the good things of this world. Consider, then-- I. the thing David desires, viz. “ to dwell in the house of the Lord,” etc. II. THE fervency and sincerity of his desire. “ One thing have I desired of the Lord,” etc. III. the cause of his desire, or the ends for the sake of which he entertains it; viz. “ to behold the beauty of the Lord,” etc. (A. Roberts, M. A.) A breathing after God In this psalm we have shown us David’ s comfort. It was altogether in the Lord, and in his faith that God would destroy his cruel enemies. Hence he had great courage (Psalms 27:3). And now in the text we come to his chief care and concern: “ One thing have I desired,” etc. I. consider this generally.1. By “ one thing” he means that this was the chief and principal thing. There are differences in things, but this includes all. And God requires this supreme regard from us, for so only will the soul be in earnest, and this which David desired is the chief thing for the soul’ s good. 2. The affection itself, in its degrees. He desired this “ one thing,” and he would still “ seek after it.” Desires are the aims of the heart, and determine its character. This was a spiritual desire, stirred up by the Spirit of God. We may test our being really Christians by our desires. If we be such, then they will be spiritual, fervent, constant, springing from the love of God, tending to His honour, and leading us to diligent use of means, and greater than any earthly desire. 3. Its object. Of the Lord he desired this “ one thing.” When we have holy desires, turn them into prayers. 4. Its earnestness. “ That will I seek after.” Prayer must be with importunity. II. particularly.1. “ That I may dwell in the house,” etc. By this David meant the sanctuary, the type of the Church, the true house of God on earth. For there God is present. Now here David would ever dwell, because so he would dwell in God’ s love and care; and in love to and for Him; and all this continually. His present attainment in good things does not satisfy him; he yet is hindered by much inward corruption: there is yet far more to be realized, and where God is present all good must be. 2. “ To behold the beauty of the Lord.” God is beautiful. This seen in His house, for there we see His grace and love in Jesus Christ our Lord. And the house of God is beautiful also because the angels are present there: and because of the order of the Church, and the means of salvation--prayer, the Word, the Sacraments--which are there. And the praises of God are delightful. How evil, then, the condition of those who care not for the house of God. Seek after spiritual senses, whereby you can apprehend this “ beauty of the Lord.” If as yet you fail to behold it, writ still on the ordinances, come to them in believing prayer: meditate much upon them. To induce us to seek this love for the house of God, let us remember that so only can true glory rest upon us: that our souls were made to behold the glory of God, and that disregard of His ordinances will cause God to depart from us. If we do not prize heavenly things we shall not be allowed to keep them. (R. Sibbes.) David’ s paramount desire I. the object of David’ s desire was to “ dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of his life.” God’ s house was, to David, the tabernacle, to Solomon, the temple, to any one, whatever spot is consecrated by God’ s special presence. A statelier pile was never reared for God to dwell in than that which crested the holy height of Moriah, and yet bow truly exclaimed the pious monarch in his dedication prayer, “ Will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold the heaven, and heaven of heavens cannot contain Thee, how much less this house that I have builded?” The lofty soul of Isaiah thus sympathetically responds to this grand organ swell, “ Thus saith the Lord, The heaven is My throne, and the earth is My footstool: where is the house that ye build unto Me?” (Isaiah 66:1-2; Isaiah 57:15). Yet He inhabits also the contrite heart. He whom not even eternity can bound, who, on the contrary, calls eternity in every sense His own can make a house of the contrite heart as well as of the heaven of heavens. How marvellous the condescension! And yet not so marvellous after all; for the heart of the contrite sinner, even in its wreck and ruin, is a grander thing than the mere place called heaven. An ancient sage grandly observed, “ On earth there is nothing great but man; and in man there is nothing great but mind.” David found God everywhere, but none the less did he love God’ s holy hill of Zion. And let the like love for our own sanctuary characterize us. To dwell here is to be in sympathy with all that is here that is spiritual and good. To all this one thing is essential. If we would “ dwell in God’ s house,” we must first “ dwell in God.” To be at home in His house, we must be at home with Himself. We must meet God in peace and love over the Great Sacrifice. The prodigal must return; the enemy must be reconciled. Then, like holy men of old, you will feel, “ It is good for us to be here” --good to linger where Christ is, and where heaven and earth, Old Testament and New, conspire to give Him glory. II. its character. This desire of David was intense: “ One thing,” says he, “ have I desired.” Oh how impressive these “ one things” of the Bible I Martha was cumbered about many things, but “ one thing was needful.” The rich young moralist had much, but “ one thing he lacked.” Paul had scope and faculty for varied action, but, as if gathering himself up into a thunderbolt, he said, “ One thing I do.” And such a desire could not stop short of being also a practical desire: what he desired as a “ one thing,” and desired “ of the Lord,” that, we are prepared to hear him add, “ will I seek after.” For our particular sanctuary many a desire has gone forth, many a prayer, many an effort. Then, all the more continue to pray and strive, and strive and pray, “ that the word of the Lord may have free course and be glorified” in it. III. its end--“to behold the beauty,” etc. to see, and to go on inquiring that he might yet further see, the beauty of the Lord--His moral glory, which rays forth in brightest splendour from the face of Jesus Christ. Whoever you are, whatever you need, behold the love of God, His beauty, in Christ, and come unto Him and live. (T. Guthrie, D. D,) Concentration An anonymous writer has left us a very discriminating comparison of two great British statesmen. He likens Canning’ s mind to a convex speculum, which scattered its rays of light upon all objects; while he likens Brougham’ s to a concave speculum, which concentrated the rays upon one central, burning, focal point. (A. T. Pierson, D. D.) Unity of purpose Clio will have no divided worship. Gibbon did nothing else than devote himself heart and soul to the Decline and Fall. When Grote undertook the History of Greece, he had to give up his business. Macaulay, when he began the History of England, hod to drop writing articles for the Edinburgh Review. (Peter Anton.) Life’ s limitations In a garden at Mentone is a tree upon which may be seen at the same time oranges, lemons, citrons, and shaddocks. All the grafts were alive, but they were not all equally vigorous. If I remember well, there was but one fruit of each kind on any but the orange and the lemon, and the orange greatly preponderated in fruitfulness. The stronger wins the day. The more vigorous of the grafts took the sap to itself, and left the others to pine. One kind of fruit is enough for one tree, and one great object is enough for one man. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The good man’ s desires after the house of God I. what the desire of the psalmist, and so of every saint, is fixed upon. It is as if he should say, “ As long as I live I would gladly live in the house of God, be always near to Him, have uninterrupted communion with Him, be employed in hearing from Him, praying to Him, praising of Him; and if there be a heaven upon earth, it is found in such works and enjoyments as these. I am nowhere so well as in the house of God: no company like His; no entertainment like His. Here I would be, not as a wayfaring man, that turneth aside to tarry for a night, but as one that belongs to the family, a stated inhabitant. I desire to dwell in the house of the Lord, and this not for a short and limited time, but all the days of my life: as long as I remain upon earth, the house of God will be my most delightful abode.” II. the desire itself.1. Take notice of its characters. It is a real desire, not feigned. Fixed. “ One thing.” Supreme; he desired it before and above all else. With this he was content, without it nothing could satisfy him (Psalms 42:1-2; Psalms 84:2). Constant and abiding--he has desired it, and still he “ will seek after” it. And it is influential upon his practice. It makes him pray and endeavour. 2. Whence it springs. It is from God’ s Spirit. We did not bring it into the world ourselves, and we could not produce it ourselves. III. the aim he professes to have. “ To behold the beauty,” etc.--God in Christ--“ and to inquire,” etc. Let us be thankful for “ the house of the Lord.” (D. Wilcox.) Dwelling in the house of the Lord I. the desire of the psalmist, “ To dwell in the house of the Lord.” His desire was--1. Paramount. It was the “ one thing” above all others. 2. Operative. “ Seek after.” He strove to attain the permanent position, overriding all difficulties. 3. Uniform. 4. Permanent. “ All the days of my life,” II. the design of the psalmist. Why did he want to “ dwell in the house of the Lord” ?1. To admire. “ To behold the beauty of the Lord.” Admiration is one of the chief elements of human happiness. Hence The universe overflows with beauty. 2. To think. “ To inquire in the temple.” He did not desiderate merely an empty gaze, or a luxuriating in admiration, but to think also. (The Homilist.) The house of God (I.):--The learned tell us that this psalm is made up of two independent poems, the second of which begins at the seventh verse. And certainly the great difference of thought and feeling between the two parts goes far to justify the suggestion. But is not the first half also the work of two writers? Can the speaker of the first three verses be the same as the speaker of the next three? At the fourth verse the sentiment and atmosphere undergo an entire change. Before that you have represented the active, after it the contemplative life. The temperament of the earlier speaker is practical, of the later aesthetic. In the former part you are stirred by “ the trumpet’ s loud clangour” and the defiant tones of the warrior; in the latter you are subdued to the awe and serenity of the mystic. The two types thus represented are, indeed, common. We know them both well. The strenuous, hustling man of affairs, who can’ t bear to be inactive, and loves the bustle of modern life. And that other we also know, “ his brow sicklied o’ er with the pale east of thought” ; of intellectual or aesthetic bent; who is never so happy as when alone “ far from the madding crowd,” surrounded by his books and his pictures. And God made them both and appointed to each his part. And both find their strength and delight in Him, who is at once God of might and of wisdom, Lord of battles, and Prince of peace. What causes the surprise is that these contradictory, if complementary, temperaments are represented as being united in one and the same person. Here is the active man who loves contemplation! The warrior in the high places of the battlefield, who sighs for the solemn hush of the sanctuary! The public man who longs for the heritage of the recluse! How are we to regard such a phenomenon? Have we here a melancholy illustration of life’ s misfits? Is this a case of a man who has missed his calling, who, as the proverb says, is “ a square peg in a round hole” ? There are such cases. Men intended by nature for a contemplative life who have been forced by circumstances into the active. But the true explanation is not, I think, in that direction. The speech of a mystic, turned warrior against his will, would bewray him in his utterance of the warrior’ s defiance. But this challenge is beyond suspicion. It is quite evidently characteristic and sincere. This man is not seeking a way of escape from his present duties; he has no wish to obtain release from the strain upon him. On the contrary, he rather enjoys the fray. He is glad of the occasion that keeps all his powers at full stretch, and taxes his strength to the uttermost, and adds the excitement of risk and peril. He “ rejoices as a strong man to run a race.” But he recognizes the obvious fact that the more constant and exacting the demand upon a man’ s powers the greater need of time for recuperation; the more one draws on the reserves the greater the necessity of proper provision for their replenishing. On the other hand, one may use the surface water without stint, if one is sure that the deep springs are being fed. Now in the words of the text, this Samson is confessing where his great strength lies. The light by which he makes his midnight marches, the strength in which he wrestles, the confidence that nerves his arm, and braces him to engage in a fight against fearful odds and, with an exultation that has almost a boyish swagger about it, to “ sing defiance to the gates of hell,” comes from his God. And it is in the vision of God, and the sense of communion with Him, which he realizes in the sanctuary that he receives the retrieving and replenishing grace which “ soothes his sorrows, heals his wounds, and drives away his fear.” This surely is the true connection of the two parts of the psalm. The active and the contemplative lives are not so much antagonistic as complementary. The high pitch of perfection which is now expected in front rank men makes specialization a necessity, and so tends to the separation of the two. But nature is wont to wreak vengeance on such as lose sight of her great law of balance. To keep up the pace, the active, pushing man of affairs must have his period of reflection. He needs an opportunity for self-refreshment, a vantage ground from which to view the direction of his energies, and what the psalmist here avers, uttering it with the deep feeling of strong conviction and happy experience, is this: that for real change and for all recuperative purposes of body, mind, and spirit, there is no place like the house of God. Wiser than many busy men of to-day, he sees that the strenuousness of life, so far from justifying indifference to worship and absence from the house of God, constitutes the strongest argument for regular and eager attendance. In order to meet the supposed demand of exhausted nature, modern society has instituted the custom of week-ending. London, they say, is empty on the Sunday! A similar exodus takes place from the great cities of the provinces. The bustle of the town has invaded the country! Where is the rest and quiet the travellers sought? A change of air and scene without a doubt has its value. But change of sky unaccompanied by change of thoughts is only partially restorative, “ The mind is its own place!” Again, we need a period of relief from the busy round of daily duties in order to gain a better view of the trend of our life. One wants a vantage ground where one can see the whole. The general must not get entangled in his fighting line. The artist steps back from his easel in order that he may see if the effect he is producing is that which he really intends. The business man needs to stop buying and selling, and to take stock, so as to see what department is remunerative and what is being run at a loss. Now it is just these needs which the psalmist says the house of God supplies. It affords that detached point of view from which the whole of life may be surveyed. Inquiry in the Lord’ s temple obtains the answer to many a riddle for the lack of which men live in the weakness of indecision, or receives a grace and assurance even better than the difficulty’ s solution. Again, is there any place in which you are so quickly conscious of a change of atmosphere affecting the whole being as the house of God affords? Just as the Embassy of another nation is considered a portion of the territory of that nation, so the house of God is a little bit of the Eternal world let down into the world of time. Pass within its doors, You have, as it were, entered the territory of another State. Here reigns another Monarch, a different language is spoken, other laws obtain, different sanctions hold sway, than those recognized by the world outside. The house of God stands for and witnesses to other thoughts and other feelings than those of the market-place, the battlefield, the law court, and the university. It is tenanted by a different spirit. It introduces to a life loftier and deeper, richer and fuller, more strenuous and more peaceful, more joyful and more sympathetic, more self-denying and more self-abandoning, than any of which the world has dreamed. From its beauteous worship a man goes forth at once softened and exhilarated, subdued and strengthened. On another occasion we must consider hew this great purpose is accomplished. (F. L. Wiseman.) The house of God (II.):--The particular aspect of the subject I am striving to present is the peculiar utility and profit of the house of God to the men and women of a busy age like the present. The psalmist, engrossed in the pressing cares and duties of a strenuous life, realizes his need for a period of relaxation and a place in which his exhausted powers may be recuperated, and the deep wells of his nature replenished. In the house of the Lord, as he states, he finds just the answer to his need.1. The very name of the place seems to indicate as much. It is “ the house of the Lord.” The place where God is to be found and known. Not, of course, that that is the only place in which he is to be met with. The heaven of heavens cannot contain Him, how much less the house that is built with hands? As our Lord has taught us, wherever there is one who would worship in spirit and truth, God is near. None the less, however, the house built for His glory, and dedicated to His honour, is His peculiar habitation in this sense, that it is there that man recognizes Him. Attendance on the house of God is the acknowledgment of God, the living God, in His infinite and glorious perfections, and in the righteousness and beneficence of His rule. Here man recognizes in his own heart, and before his fellows, the being and the presence of the everlasting, ever-present, all-holy, all-wise, all-loving God. And the more the set of the stream with or against which his daily life flows has been away from God, the greater the need and the boon of just such a reflection. Further, in the house of God man sees God in a right light: sees Him as He wishes to be known. As the psalmist reminds us, God’ s revelation of Himself to man is conditioned by the state of mind and heart of the person to whom the revelation is made. It may, therefore, assume an aspect in which He Himself has no pleasure. To the pure He shows Himself pure; but to the perverse He appears as froward. The view of the character of God which a sinful and rebellious age obtains needs therefore correcting and supplementing. But in the place where men come to seek His face, in His temple in which they inquire after Him, He can and does appear as He would be known, in His “ beauty,” as the text says. Here, alongside His unimpeachable righteousness, He proclaims His name as gracious and merciful, slow to anger, plenteous in kindness. 2. The text further suggests another alluring and uplifting aspect of God’ s house, to which both other Old Testament Scripture and the Lord Jesus Himself give utterance. His house is called a house of prayer. He who goes to the house of God goes to the place where prayer is wont to be made. In other words, he there learns the nature, not only of God, but of himself also. Prayer is an acknowledgment of God’ s supremacy and of man’ s dependence. Is there any climate so grateful, so restoring, so bracing as the atmosphere of prayer? On every side one hears complaints of the hardening influence of modern commercial life. Keen competition leads to self-assertion, callousness, and indifference to the interests of others. The successful man is apt to become self-sufficient, inconsiderate, arrogant; the unsuccessful, bitter, cold, sardonical; and all more or less reserved and unreal. To some, therefore, it is an excellent discipline surely to come to the place where one’ s very presence acknowledges dependence and confesses how little our native power avails. To others it affords an exercise of trust to bow before the will of God. And to all it must be an unspeakable relief to come where one can be exactly oneself: where all the traditions and influence gathering around the place conspire to say, “ Ye people, pour out your hearts before Him; God is a refuge for us.” 3. But there is yet another and still more intimate term by which the house is known. It needed a child to discover it, and that child the Holy Child. When the anxious mother chid her wondrous Son that He had caused her three days’ sorrowful search, He gently and brightly replied, “ But how is it you went about looking for Me; did it not occur to you that I should certainly be in my Father’ s house?” My Father’ s house--that is Jesus’ name for the house of God. Verily He makes all things new, The house of God is the place to which the Child would naturally go! It is home! The Father’ s house! Is there any place so beautiful, so restful, so welcome? Here one may enjoy the most delightful of all fellowship, the fellowship with the members of one’ s own family; and fellowship with the Father and with the Son. The cleansing, soothing, refreshing, renewing, strengthening, enwisening, sanctifying influence of such a place and such a fellowship who can compute? No wonder that the psalmist, who had enjoyed it, longed to dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of his life, or bewailed that fate had made him a dweller in the tents of Kedar or in the high places of danger and strife. But note the great discovery he makes. He finds that, though now he has returned from the house of God, he has not left it! The house of God has followed him, and in some mysterious way is still his habitation and shelter. The time of worldly trouble and danger acquaints him with the fact. In the time of trouble he is hid in the secret of his Father’ s pavilion, and on the battlefield screened in the covert of the tabernacle! It is the perpetual miracle of the Father’ s providence. He who loves the house of God, and goes to it as he has opportunity, will dwell under its influence all the days of his life. (F. L. Wiseman.) God seen and man taught in the temple Note-- I. THE “ one thing” of the psalmist’ s desire--“ that I may dwell,” etc. II. the object for which he cherished this strong desire.1. That he might behold the beauty of the Lord--the outward beauty animated with the service of the Lord: that which we should desire to see is the spiritual beauty, the various perfections of His character. 2. That he might inquire in His temple. David needed to inquire of God as a king; also as a man; as a transgressor. And how many are the subjects on which we shall do well to inquire of God in His temple? (John Corbin.) Guests of God I. the true meaning of the aspiration. What the psalmist desires is that he may be able to keep up unbroken consciousness of being in God’ s presence, and may be always in touch with Him. He had learned what so many of us need to learn far more thoroughly, that if our religion does not drive the wheels of our daily business, it is of little use; and that if the field in which our religion has power to control and impel is not that of the trivialities and secularities of our ordinary life, there is no field for it at all. II. the psalmist’ s reason for this aspiration. “ That I may dwell in the house of the Lord.” That is an allusion, not only, as I think, to the temple, but also to the oriental habit of giving a man who took refuge in the tent of the sheikh guest-rites of protection, and provision, and friendship. So the psalmist says, “ I desire to have guest-rites in thy tent; to lift up its fold, and shelter there from the heat of the desert. And although I be dark and stained with many evils and transgressions against thee, yet I come to claim the hospitality, and provision, and protection, and friendship which the laws of the house do bestow upon a guest.” That is to say, the blessedness of keeping up such a continual consciousness of touch with God is, first and foremost, the certainty of infallible protection. Oh I how it minimizes all trouble and brightens all joys, and calms amidst all distractions, and steadies and sobers in all circumstances, to feel ever the hand of God upon us I There is another blessing that will come to the dweller in God’ s house, and not a small one. It is that by the power of this one satisfied longing, driven like an iron rod through all the tortuosities of my life, there will come into it a unity which otherwise few lives are ever able to attain, and the want of which is no small cause of the misery that is great upon men. Most of us seem, to our own consciousness, to live amidst endless distractions all our days. III. the method by which this desire is realized. “ One thing have I desired,. . . that will I seek after.” There are two points to be kept in view to that end. A great many people say, “ One thing have I desired,” and fail in persistent continuousness of the desire. No man gets rights of residence in God’ s house for a longer time than he continues to seek for them. But the words of the text not only suggest by the two tenses of the verbs the continuity of the desire which is destined to be granted, but also by the two verbs themselves--desire and seek after--the necessity of uniting prayer and work. Many desires are unsatisfied because conduct does not correspond to desires. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) David’ s delight in the house of God I. David’ s desire. To “ dwell in the house of the Lord,” or to regularly attend the same, is very desirable--1. Because of God Himself being there (Matthew 18:20). No wonder that any one who is “ spiritually minded” should wish to be continually present with Christ. 2. Because of the blessings to be obtained there. (1) Light, i.e. knowledge, holiness, joy.(2) Salvation.(3) Consolation.(4) Strength. II. David’ s design. III. David’ s determination. “That will I seek after.” This supposes obstacles or hindrances. Various and many are the hindrances to public worship. Some, I fear, absent themselves because they are niggardly; but, I believe, others stay away often because they are poor, and cannot give as they would like to. Some are kept away by domestic engagements, the opposition of relatives, sickness, or young children; or, on week-days, by business. Satan seeks to hinder, and some neglect because of indifference. Let no one watch for excuses, but all look out for opportunities, seize them promptly, and use them earnestly; and thus, in spite of all drawbacks, like David, “ seek after” the worship of God. (S. Stubbings.) Dwelling in the house of the Lord This is the singular disclosure, the private feeling of a great man full of power: but Scripture teaches us in this way, not only by laws but by lives as well; and while its rules speak very clearly, its examples are more forcible still. The grace of the Holy Spirit offers us to-day to ascertain from David the inclination Christians ought to have for the services of the Church. Every one of us has a bias, an habitual motive, a master impulse, which, as other influences weaken, makes itself felt. To know what this is, is to know the key to the character, and the clue to the conduct. David’ s impulse is a good one: he tells us his secret: it is an inclination to religion--the best bias in the world. He did not want, like some, to have the wings of a dove, and fly into the holy sanctuary, away from the duties of life which lay before him, and to choose some new set of duties for himself. His part was given him by the will of God: it was to serve his generation in active life. To have left this for the pleasures of uninterrupted religious worship would have been to abandon duty for inclination. The services of the Church are not the only duty of Christians in the world; but they are the one duty which prepares us to do our other duties well. David’ s wish was, that he might feel so much interest in religion, and have such an assurance of God’ s presence in the Church, as always to take pleasure in going there, always to profit while he was there, and always to bring so much good away with him that, though his body might be absent from the temple, his heart might still remain in it, and the memory of its services might be his spiritual food. We are convinced by experience that the necessary business of life tends to drive religion out of our heads, even if it does not drive it out of our hearts. We are quite annoyed when we find ourselves out, and can see how some little matters of only passing interest have made us quite forget for a time the presence of God. We do not wish to be ungrateful or worldly. This will not do, we think. We must try again to be more spiritual. This will grow by practice (1 Corinthians 15:46). There is comfort in this, that by trying we shall be improved, and that it is by gradual and imperceptible training we hope some day to be able to say with all our hearts, “ One thing have I desired of the Lord, and that will I seek after; that I may remember my Church constantly, and live in the presence of God.” It is a good beginning to have a clear object in view: “ One thing have I desired.” And it is better still, after having clearly fixed on one’ s object, to steadily pursue it: “ that will I seek after.” If we walk uprightly, and speak uprightly; if we despise the gain of oppression, and shut our eyes from seeing evil; then thy heart shall crave for the rest of the blessed, thy mind shall company with the saints in glory, thy loving ear shall catch the echoes of their song, and (Isaiah 33:17). This was the final object of David’ s desire: this the end of his search. This was why he would inquire and dwell in the temple, that there, in heaven’ s rest, in all the days of heaven’ s life, he might behold the beauty of the Lord. (T. F. Crosse, D. C. L.) A soul longing for God The character of this psalm is akin to that of the twenty-third in its language, ideas, and devotional spirit. I. the soul’ s resolve. What is life without aim, without purpose? It is a moral waste. The true soul will ever have its resolve, its mark, its aim.1. It is single--“ one thing.” In a multiplicity of aims men fail. 2. It is earnest. That will I “ seek” after. The earnest man is the real man. II. The soul’ s desire. This prompted the resolve, and moved the soul to action. It was for--1. The enjoyment of the sanctuary. “ That I may dwell in the house of the Lord.” To souls depressed, what may not the house of God be to them--a Bethel, a “ burning bush” where they may hear God’ s voice. 2. That this enjoyment may be life long--“ All the days of my life.” His soul found such delight in those services, and he would have this perpetuated. III. the soul’ s purpose.1. To behold the Divine glory--“ the beauty of the Lord.” 2. To drink at the Divine fountain--“ to inquire in His temple.” God is the eternal Fountain of Truth and Goodness. (J. W. Kaye.) The influence of religious institutions I. The influence of religious institutions upon men, with respect to their religious capacity. True piety indeed is not confined to the sanctuary. High is the pleasure, and great the benefit, of private devotion. But sure I am, that they who have entered into the spirit, and tasted the pleasures, of devotion in secret, will not be thereby prevented from approaching to God in the ordinances of public worship. Society heightens every feeling, improves every delight. All that charms eye, ear, imagination, or heart, is attended with double pleasure, when we share it in the company of others. A holy emulation will rise in the bosoms of the faithful: the ardour will spread from breast to breast, and the passions of one inflame the passions of all. II. The effect of religious institutions upon men, with regard to their moral character. Men in general have no principle of moral conduct but religion, and if that were taken away, they would work all impurity with greediness, whenever they could withdraw from the public eye. Human laws would often be of little avail, without a sense of Divine legislation; and the sanctions of men have little force, unless they were enforced by the authority of God. Mutual confidence between man and man would be destroyed; human life would be thrown into confusion, the safety of mankind would be endangered, and the moral world totter to its ruin, if such a pillar were to fall. And what is it that maintains and spreads religious principles in the world? What is it that keeps alive on the minds of the people, the fear of God and the belief of His providence? It is the public institutions of religion; the observance of the Lord’ s day; our assembling together for divine worship. III. The effect of religious institutions upon men, with regard to their political state. The political systems that take place in the world, the facility with which the many are governed by the few, is one of the most wonderful things in the history of man. What prevents bloodshed and devastation, and all the evils of war? Nothing! so much as the influence of religious principles upon the minds of men, Christianity gives honour to civil government, as being the ordinance of God, and enjoins subjection to the laws, under its own awful sanctions. And not only by particular precepts, but by its secret and less visible influence, it prepares the minds of men for submission to lawful authority. Obedience to spiritual authority paves the way for subjection to the civil power. Hence wise legislators have, even on this account, favoured the progress of religion. IV. The influence of religious institutions upon men, with respect to domestic life. A new bond will be added to the conjugal union, when those whom it connects walk to the house of God in company, take sweet counsel with one another, and set out jointly in the way that leads to life. Watered by the dews of Heaven, which fall here, the olive-plants will flourish round your table. There is a beauty, also, when rich and poor, high and low, who seldom meet together on other occasions, assemble in one place, one great family, in the presence of their common Lord, when they are stripped of every adventitious circumstance, and where virtue makes the only distinction among them. It is the image of those golden times when society began; it is the image of the state which is to come, when God shall be all in all. (John Logan.) The affection of David towards the place of God’ s worship I. David’ s heart was set upon the house of God above all other things. He was moved thereto by the wonderful, rare, heavenly blessings which are enjoyed there, and nowhere else.1. Here God gives direction in every good way (Psalms 32:8). 2. Here is plentiful provision both for soul and body (Psalms 34:10; Psalms 37:3-4). 3. Here is safe protection and preservation, by special providence (Psalms 91:1; Matthew 10:29-31). 4. Here is most admirable remuneration, even in this life, with the honour of grace, and favour to be His friends (John 15:14-15), and His children (1 John 3:1), and to have the attendance of the angels (Psalms 34:7; Psalms 91:11); but most abundantly in the life to come. Uses-- 1. For instruction. (1) See here a plain evidence of the great ignorance and unbelief of natural men in the things of God. Not one in a thousand has David’ s affection to God’ s house. (2) Undoubtedly it is a wonderful privilege and prerogative to be a true member of God’ s Church and to live in His house. 2. For admonition. (1) To try our affection towards the house of God, by David’ s. (2) To get David’ s affection to God’ s house; which will be had by knowing their misery that are out of it. II. the means he used, and the course he took, to obtain this blessing. David did with prayer join other endeavour to get this blessing. The reason of this behaviour is twofold.1. Obedience to God’ s ordinance, who required of those who would dwell in His house three things. (1) Repentance from dead works. (2) To be beautified in soul with inward graces, through regeneration, as faith, virtue, godliness, etc. (3) To be adorned in life with new obedience (Psalms 15:2-3; Psalms 24:3-4). 2. Desire to enjoy the blessings of God’ s house, wherein he knew that man’ s true happiness did stand (Psalms 65:4; Psalms 84:4). III. the length of time for which he desires to dwell therein. All the days of his life.1. For the fruition of the good things of God’ s house. 2. For his better opportunity to glorify God (Psalms 63:4; Psalms 146:2). 3. He knew that to be out of God’ s house was to be out of God’ s favour (Genesis 4:14; 2 Kings 17:18; 2 Kings 17:20). Uses--1. For instruction. See plainly in David that the hearts of the godly do sincerely desire and faithfully strive for perseverance in the state of grace which at this day is dwelling in God’ s house. 2. For admonition to those that are weary of God’ s house, and the exercise of religion. IV. the blessed ends for which David desires this.1. To behold the beauty of the Lord. As in the works of creation He showed the eternal power and wisdom of the Godhead, so in the ordinances of His service He makes known His justice, goodness, love, and mercy in Jesus Christ. 2. That he may inquire in His temple; i.e. diligently seek direction of God in all cases of doubt or difficulty. Reasons hereof (1) God’ s own ordinance, directing His people to this duty (Exodus 25:21-22; 1 Kings 6:19; Numbers 27:21; Deuteronomy 17:8-9). (2) For the fruition of the benefits add comforts of this privilege. Freedom from many evils that accompany men’ s miscarriages who walk in their own counsels (Joshua 9:14, etc.). Assurance to be acceptable to God, and blessed of Him in the things they take in hand, even of this world (2 Chronicles 15:2; 2 Chronicles 15:15). Undoubted fruition of glory in the life to come (Psalms 73:24). Uses-- 1. For instruction. See plainly that the true members of God’ s Church are advanced in privilege, dignity and honour above all other people. 2. For admonition. It serves effectually to move all who live in the Church to look unto their state and carriage, that it be such as may give them some good assurance that they have right to this privilege. Let us see-- (1) That we be in covenant with God, else we have no right to this prerogative. (2) That we keep covenant, living in conscionable obedience. (T. Pierson.) Delight in the sanctuary David in the midst of a turbulent life finds refuge from the storm in the harbour of God’ s sanctuary. I. the realized fact that he who inhabits eternity condescends to dwell in earthly sanctuaries dedicated to his worship. “ The Lord loveth the gates of Zion.” His presence makes it morally beautiful. He is the light and glory of it. Without Him the most gorgeous temple becomes a tomb. II. delight because of its august and inspiring services. The praise and prayer--the unfolding of the Word of God, and the illumination coming from the effluence of the Holy Spirit. III. the delightful repose of the passions, and refreshing of the affections, and quickening of the life by the vision of those harmonies that meet in God--His nature, works and ways, and which constitute the “ beauty of the Lord.” (Homiletic Review.) David’ s master-passion The first word suggests an important thought--Singleness of aim. Men of one idea--specialists. One man weighs so little versus the community, the State, the race, that his whole force and influence are needed in one place to accomplish anything. The rifle-ball has greater penetrating power than shot, not simply because it is larger, but because the force of powder is concentrated on the one projectile. So the men who have penetrated society with their ideas and made a lasting impression. David illustrates this law. He had-- I. A master-passion. He was a shepherd boy, yet could say, “ One thing,” etc. A soldier, renowned; a ruler, with great power; a poet, with great celebrity; a father, full of affection; amid all the changes of his varied fortune, “ one thing” was the master-passion of his life. II. its object.1. “ That I may dwell in the house of the Lord,” etc. Habitual church-going and fellowship with God: “ Blessed is the man whom Thou choosest” (Psalms 65:4). 2. “ To behold the beauty of the Lord.” Sanctuary, a place for the manifestation of God and for the education of the soul. David wished to appreciate the beauty of the divine character. This required a development of his capacity, a spiritualizing of all his faculties. “ God is a Spirit” : spiritual things are spiritually discussed. David wished an intimate knowledge of God. Men travel thousands of miles to look upon the beauties of ancient art. These must fade. The “ beauty of the Lord” is eternal. 3. “ To inquire in His temple.” David came to God’ s house as a learner, an inquirer, sincerely desiring to appropriate to his own heart and life the spirit and excellence, the beauty and worth of Him who condescended to dwell with men and be their God. III. the result.1. A literary immortality. 2. The divine approval. “ I have found David, the son of Jesse, a man after Mine own heart.” Earth affords no such commendation, no such sweet and lasting reward. For this divine approval brought-- 3. Present security (Psalms 27:5), and eternal well-being (Psalms 23:6). Make David’ s master-passion your own. (J. C. Allen.) Moral effects of communion with God Prayer is conversing with God. We converse with men, and then we use familiar language, because they are our fellows. We converse with God, and then we use the lowliest, awfulest, calmest language we can, because He is God. Our intercourse with our fellow-men goes on not by sight, but by sound; not by eyes, but by ears. Hearing is the social sense, and language is the social bond. Prayers and praises are the mode of the Christian’ s intercourse with the next world, and they have an especial influence upon our fitness for claiming it. He who does not use a gift loses it, and he who neglects to pray is but in a way to lose possession of his divine citizenship. He who has not accustomed himself to the language of heaven will be no fit inhabitant of it when, in the Last Day, it is perceptibly revealed. For prayer has a natural effect in spiritualizing and elevating the soul. And it gives fixedness of mind and of will; and clear perception of duty, and fellowship with the Lord. (J. H. Newman, D. D.) To behold the beauty of the Lord.-- The secret of beauty In the New Testament the word “ beauty” or “ beautiful” is only used once in its literal sense. As in “ the gate Beautiful.” But the Old Testament has it frequently, and applies it to things, qualities, actions, persons. This one of the differences between the Old Testament and the New, the one teaching the benefits of religion in regard to time, the other in regard to eternity. Hence the Old Testament seeks to bring men into harmony with natural laws; the New, with those which are spiritual. In the one we have truth represented through the senses, but in the other truth is taught in a more spiritual way. There are many scriptures in the Old Testament which speak of beauty, as in text. Reference may be designed to the beauty and splendour of the ritual service of Israel, but the more instructed people rose up from the lower forms of beauty to those higher ones which the house symbolized. Men’ s first ideas of beauty are physical, and in such beauty there is real pleasure, for which those who possess it may well give God thanks. But the idea of beauty means much more when it is applied to moral qualities. Of these, the earliest which was thought beautiful was courage, the power to do and endure. Then men went on to admire self-sacrifice. The man who would die the most dreadful death rather than desert his post. Or the helmsman who would not quit the wheel-house of his steamboat though she was in flames. Then, a mother’ s love has always been counted beautiful. Hence all artists have been fond of painting Madonnas. And the love of lovers, because it is the commingling of two hearts. Then the love of the philanthropist. What a halo surrounds the name of Florence Nightingale! And of such men as Kossuth! But to perceive spiritual beauty we must possess it. One of the evidences of Inspiration is its admiration of Moral Beauty, the high praise the Bible gives to goodness. But all such beauty must be real, not pretence, and, when so, it is like music. Melody is beautiful, but harmonies are yet more so. But musical taste is needed to appreciate them. Some prefer a simple ballad to all the glories of Handel or Mozart. No beauty is to be despised, and if the higher be present it will impart some of the lower. The good come to work good. All, therefore, may be beautiful through the possession of moral goodness, and the beauty of moral conduct. You often see this in old and faithful servants. An old negro servant of my father’ s was a great saint as well as a most lovable man. To me he was always radiant as an angel. He was not black--to me he was as white as the clouds. And there are many such. On the other hand, a man may be in all his surroundings--house, furniture, etc.--adorned after the manner of a palace, but if he be mean, selfish, sensual, all external beauty will not avail. Let no one mourn that they have not such things. If we could be pictured as we are, what different portraitures there would be! Then love moral beauty everywhere, and despise that which is sensual. Let text be our prayer. (H. W. Beecher.) The influence of prayer upon character I. prayerful habits tend to cultivate a form of sustained thought. True prayer engages the understanding in its most vigorous efforts, and always in a definite direction--that of God. Prayer, if not a supreme intellectual effort, certainly exercises our highest faculties. As an educational discipline it is very apparent in godly men who have had no scholarly training. They have a power of fixing their attention and of thoughtfully considering a matter in all its bearings, which is of the utmost value to win conclusions. II. they give decision of character. Prayer brings the soul into the holy calm of that presence where they are no longer carried to and fro by every passing wind of opinion. In His presence we are enabled to feel, and that with power, that to our own Master we stand or fall. A man can hardly be habitually prayerful and yet be changeable and unreliable. For in God’ s presence we are lifted into a region where the passions and conflicts of this world cannot enter, and where all seem to say to the agitated soul, “ Peace, be still.” There have been times when a tumultuous crowd, rushing into a venerable church, where a single priest was saying the sacred office, or where a little company of kneeling worshippers bore witness to other and higher interests than those which stirred the passions of the hour--has been awed, arrested, and turned back from its sacrilegious purpose. The sound of the bell summoning to the accustomed evening prayer has been found sufficient to calm passionate excitement, because of the obedience to the summons it secured, and the consequent soothing influence which was obtained through drawing near to God. III. prayer has very blessed social effects. For it “ gilds social intercourse and conduct with a tenderness, an unobtrusiveness, a sincerity, a frankness, an evenness of temper, a cheerfulness, a collectedness, a constant consideration for others, united to a simple loyalty to truth and duty, which leavens and strengthens society.” IV. in all spiritual work our efficiency may be measured by our prayerfulness. A great deal of the religious teaching of the day is coldly intellectual, and therefore powerless, because it has not been nourished and quickened at the bosom of prayer. But we must not, we cannot, maintain the habit of prayer simply because of these subjective benefits upon our souls. If we do not believe that God answers prayer we shall soon cease to pray. (E. W: Shalders, B. A.) Saints desire to see the beauty of the Lord I. in what the beauty of the Lord consists. We call nothing beautiful but what is pleasing; and we call nothing pleasing in a moral agent, but what is morally excellent, or truly virtuous. The beauty of the Lord, therefore, must signify that, in His moral character, which is pleasing to a virtuous and benevolent heart. His beauty is the beauty of holiness. God is love; which constitutes His supreme beauty, and comprises all that is virtuous and morally excellent in His nature. Pure, disinterested, universal benevolence, forms the most beautiful and amiable character conceivable. II. good men are capable of seeing this moral beauty of the divine character. Those who love God have the same kind of love that God has and exercises towards them and all holy creatures. They see God as He sees Himself, glorious in holiness, and of consequence, glorious in all His other attributes, which are under the influence of His perfectly benevolent heart. They see supreme beauty and excellence in His power and wisdom, in His justice and sovereignty, in His mercy and grace, as they are continually exercised for the highest good of the universe. III. why good men desire to see the beauty of the Lord.1. Because the goodness of God, which forms His supreme excellence, spreads a glory over all the other perfections of His nature. Saints as well as others can see no excellence in the greatness and majesty of God, separately from His perfect holiness and benevolence. 2. Because it spreads a beauty over His works, as well as character. 3. Because it spreads a beauty over all His conduct. 4. Because it spreads a light and beauty over His Word. It enables those who are holy as God is holy, just as God is just, and good as God is good, to see why He commands all men to love Him supremely. Conclusion-- 1. If it be true that the supreme beauty or glory of God consists in His pure and universal goodness, then sinners hate God for that for which alone they ought to love Him supremely. 2. If saints sincerely and ardently desire to behold the beauty of the Lord, then they are essentially different from sinners. 3. If God be perfectly good, and His goodness spreads a moral beauty and excellence over all His perfections, then there is nothing to hinder sinners from loving Him but merely their own selfishness. 4. If the supreme glory of God consists in His goodness, then the more clearly His goodness is exhibited before the minds of sinners, the more difficult they always find it to be to love Him. 5. If saints desire to see the beauty of the Lord, then we see one good reason why they love to attend the public worship of God in His house constantly. (N. Emmons, D. D.) The vision of the beauty of God:--As we confess our belief in God as Three in One and One in Three, the saying of the psalmist is fulfilled in us who, as we dwell in God’ s temple, rejoice in the vision of God’ s beauty.1. Intense was the longing of the psalmist for that vision. It was the “ one thing” he “ desired and longed after,” and in some faint measure attained to. And here, as ever, he but gives voice to the universal cry of man’ s spirit. Man cannot know what God is except as God reveals Himself to him, “ He dwelleth in the light that no man can approach unto;” “ He is One whom no man hath seen or can see.” The finite cannot know the Infinite One until He brings Himself within the reach of his knowledge. And yet for this knowledge he must of necessity yearn. In the Man Jesus Christ, God in Himself is revealed. We are not of those whose lot is in the night and whose language is but a cry. No, “ we are of the day” : for us “ the darkness is passed and the true light shineth.” For us the Trinity is rest in a measure attained: we rest in the vision of the beauty of God. 2. There are two things that especially arrest us in the beauty of God, as we are taught to contemplate it in the creeds of the Church. (1) There is in Him the beauty of unity. “ Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord.” The unity of God is the primary truth of the Christian faith, and on it as its chief corner stone rests the structure of Christian morality. “ Because He is One “ we are to love the Lord our God with all our heart and mind and soul and strength.” The simplicity of the Christian character is the practical acknowledgment of the unity of God. Because He is One, He only is to be loved and served. “ I am the Lord; that is My Name: and My glory will I not give to another.” A divided allegiance in His sight is treason. Because He is One, He is to be served wholly, He is not the God only of the inner self, or of the external life; He claims to reign without and within. (2) There is in Him the beauty of love. In the one God there are three Persons, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Our God is no solitary Monad, eternally and essentially solitary, silent and inactive. He is love, and because love is of the very essence of His Being, He must have in Himself love in eternal action. There are and can be in God no dormant powers, no undeveloped capacities. Deus est purus actus, this is the necessary condition of His eternal perfection. God is love; see this in the mystery of the Blessed Trinity. Eternally is the Eternal Son begotten of the Eternal Father; eternally is the Eternal Spirit proceeding from the Eternal Father through the Eternal Son. God is love; within Himself He finds not only an eternal sphere of loving activity, but the satisfaction of love’ s craving for an eternal communion. The vision of the beauty of love in God draws His people to Him to live in the sunlight of that love. As thus they live, they themselves become possessed by that love which is shed abroad in their hearts by the Holy Ghost. More and more they look on men with eyes enlightened by God’ s light; they feel for men as does the heart of God. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/bi/ Psalms 27:5-6 For in the time of trouble He shall hide me. Safety in time of trouble I. David makes account that, while he lives here on earth, he is liable and subject to manifold evils. Reasons--1. God’ s Divine sovereignty, whereby He may do with His own what He will, and dispose of His dearest children to endure both sorrow and great affliction. 2. Because of iniquity. (1) David’ s own sins made him liable to evils of affliction.(2) Likewise the sins of the wicked in his time.(3) Satan’ s malice.(4) The malice of the wicked, who are the seed of the serpent. Uses--1. For instruction. See from David’ s resolution what is the case and condition of all the godly, viz. to be subject to evils and troubles. 2. For admonition. (1) To the wicked of the world, to beware of self-deceit in promising to themselves continued happiness and freedom from evils, because for the present they enjoy peace and prosperity (1 Peter 4:17-18). (2) To the godly, to bethink themselves with David that troubles may come, and therefore to prepare for them, and to glorify God under afflictions. II. When God shall grant to David to dwell in His house, he doth assure himself of special safety, and protection in times of trouble (Psalms 61:3-4; Psalms 61:6-7).1. He put his trust and hope in God (Psalms 21:7; Psalms 11:1; Psalms 16:1; Psalms 86:2). 2. He testified his trust in God by prayer (Psalms 7:1; Psalms 116:3-4). 3. He made conscience of a godly and upright life, and thereon grounds his assurance of special protection (Psalms 4:3; Psalms 18:17; Psalms 18:20) Uses--1. For instruction. See here with David the true and right way of safety in time of trouble. In the days of grace, and times of the New Testament, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He dwells with them (Revelation 21:3). 2. For admonition. As we desire safety and shelter in time of trouble, so we must with David strive to endeavour after a sure place in God’ s house, become true members of God’ s Church. (1) Break off the course of all known sin, for that prevents society with God. (2) Labour for true faith in Christ. (3) Walk in new obedience. 3. For comfort;. This makes greatly to all true believers, in times of trouble: for certainly they have right and title to this immunity of God’ s house. (1) God will not fail them, nor forsake them (Hebrews 13:5-6). (2) God will cause their troubles to work for their good (Romans 8:28; Hebrews 12:10). (3) God will give an issue with the trial, that they may be able to bear it (1 Corinthians 10:13). (T. Pierson.) The influence of religion upon adversity To a thoughtful mind, no study can appear more important than how to be suitably prepared for the misfortunes of life; so as to contemplate them in prospect without dismay, and, if they must befall, to bear them without dejection. Power has endeavoured to remove adversity to a distance; Philosophy has studied, when it drew nigh, to conquer it by patience; and Wealth has sought out every pleasure that can compensate or alleviate pain. While the wisdom of the world is thus occupied, religion has been no less attentive to the same important object. I. religion prepares the mind for encountering, with fortitude, the most severe shocks of adversity; whereas vice, by its natural influence on the temper, tends to produce dejection under the slightest trials. In the course of living righteously, soberly, and godly, a good man acquires a steady and well-governed spirit. He has learned firmness and self-command. He is accustomed to look up to that Supreme Providence, which disposes of human affairs, not with reverence only, but with trust and hope. The time of prosperity was to him not merely a season of barren joy, but productive of much useful improvement. He had cultivated his mind. He had stored it with useful knowledge, with good principles, and virtuous dispositions. These resources remain entire, when the days of trouble come. His chief pleasures were always of the calm, innocent, and temperate kind; and over these the changes of the world have the least power. His mind is a kingdom to him; and he can still enjoy it. The world did not bestow upon him all his enjoyments; and therefore it is not in the power of the world, by its most cruel attacks, to carry them all away. II. the distresses of life are alleviated to good men, by reflections on their past conduct; while, by such reflections, they are highly aggravated to the bad. During the gay and active periods of life, sinners elude, in some measure, the force of conscience. Carried round in the world of affairs and pleasures; intent on contrivance, or eager in pursuit; amused by hope, or elated by enjoyment; they are sheltered, by that crowd of trifles which surrounds them, from serious thought. But conscience is too great a power to remain always suppressed. There is in every man’ s life a period when he shall be made to stand forth as a real object to his own view: and when that period comes, woe to him who is galled by the sight! Whereas, tie who is blessed with a clear conscience, enjoys in the worst conjunctures of human life, a peace, a dignity, an elevation of mind peculiar to virtue. The testimony of a good conscience is indeed to be always distinguished from that presumptuous boast of innocence, which every good Christian totally disclaims. The better he is, he will be more humble, and sensible of his failings. But though tie acknowledge that he can claim nothing from God upon the footing of desert, yet lie can trust in His merciful acceptance through Jesus Christ, according to the terms of the Gospel. He can hope that his prayers and his alms have come up in memorial before God. Tim piety and virtue of his former life were as seeds sown in his prosperous state, of which he reaps the fruits in the season of adversity. III. ill men, in the time of trouble, can look up to no protector, while good men commit themselves, with trust and hope, to the care of heaven. The human mind, naturally feeble, is made to feel all its weakness by the pressure of adversity. Now, whither should the ungodly, in this situation, turn for aid? After having contended with the storms of adverse fortune till their spirits are exhausted, gladly would they retreat at last to the sanctuary of religion. But that sanctuary is shut against them; nay, it is environed with terrors. They behold there, not a Protector to whom they can fly, but a Judge whom they dread; and in those moments when they need His friendship the most, they are reduced to deprecate His wrath. But of all the thoughts which can enter into the mind, in the season of distress, the belief of an interest in His favour who rules the world is the most soothing. Every form of religion has afforded to virtuous men some degree of this consolation. But it was reserved for the Christian revelation to carry it to its highest point. For it is the direct scope of that revelation, to accommodate itself to the circumstances of man, under two main views; as guilty in the sight of God, and as struggling with the evils of the world. Under the former, it discovered to him a Mediator and an atonement; under the latter, it promises him the Spirit of grace and consolation. The same hand which holds out forgiveness to the penitent, and assistance to the frail, dispenses comfort and hope to the afflicted. IV. good men are comforted under their troubles by the hope of heaven; while bad men are not only deprived of this hope, rut distressed with fears arising from a future state. How miserable the man, who, under the distractions of calamity, hangs doubtful about an event which so nearly concerns him; who, in the midst of doubts and anxieties, approaching to that awful boundary which separates this world from the next, shudders at the dark prospect before him; wishing to exist after death, and yet afraid of that existence; catching at every feeble hope which superstition can afford him, and trembling, in the same moment, from reflection upon his crimes! But blessed be God who hath brought life and immortality to light; who hath not only brought them to light, but secured them to good men; and, by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, hath begotten them unto the lively hope of an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away. Justly is this hope styled in Scripture, the anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast. For what an anchor is to a ship in a dark night, on an unknown coast, and amidst a boisterous ocean, that is this hope to the soul, when distracted by the confusions of the world. In danger, it gives security; amidst general fluctuation, it affords one fixed point of rest. (H. Blair, D. D.) A sure promise If a man should write upon his sign-board the words, “ Call upon me in the day of trouble, and I will deliver thee,” he would have plenty of callers. No man dare try the experiment; but God has had those words written above His door for thousands of years, and none have ever called upon Him in vain. (S. Sellars.) In the secret of His tabernacle shall He hide me.-- Safety in the secret of the tabernacle Not only are non-Muhammadans forbidden to enter the sacred enclosure at Mecca, but the territory around Mecca--the Beled el-Harem, or district of the sanctuary--is regarded as a sacred asylum. Here, according to the sacred law, no war can be waged, no blood can be shed, no animal can be killed, no tree can be cut down. Not even a fly can be killed in the sacred district; but if any of the insect pests which are so common in the East annoy the pilgrim, it is permitted to him, “ if they cannot well be endured any longer, to remove them from one part of the body to another.” The idea which underlies these whimsical rules is that the place of God’ s sanctuary should be open only to true believers, to whom it should always be a safe retreat from peril of their enemies. Burton, in his El Medinah and Mecca, gives several specimens of Muhammadan belief regarding the miraculous safety to be found in Mecca. The Black Stone and the Place of Abraham have been miraculously preserved from their foes; at the time of the deluge, the great fish of the sea did not eat the little fish of the Meccan Sanctuary; ravenous beasts will not destroy their prey in the Beled el-Harem; no one is ever hurt in the Kaabah; ten thousand mercies descend upon it daily; and when men see the sacred building for the first time their hearts are filled with awe and their eyes with tears. The Quran expressly teaches that the Kaabah is a safe place of refuge: “ Verily the first house appointed unto men was that which is in Becca (Mecca). . . therein are manifest signs, the place where Abraham stood; and whoso entereth therein, shall be safe.” This is but the relic of the old sanctuary idea which is seen in the case of the cities of refuge among the Jews, and in the (limited) right of sanctuary at the horns of the altar (1 Kings 2:28-31). In many of the ancient Greek temples criminals were given the right of sanctuary, and protected from their pursuers; and in some of the old English churches a stone seat beside the altar was provided for those fleeing to the safety of the church. In pre-Protestant Scotland, excommunication was the penalty of dragging a fugitive from the sanctuaries of the church. A trace of the sanctuary law still exists in Scotland (or existed until lately) in the sanctuary for debtors in the Abbey of Holyrood. (American Sunday School Times.) Now shall mine head be lifted up above mine enemies.-- The head uplifted among enemies As contrasted with Occidentals, the Orientals seem in many respects to be simply grown-up children. They do not attempt to veil extravagant or unseemly demonstrations of joy or grief, as a European would do, but display their feelings as openly as does a junior schoolboy. Especially is this seen in the conduct of enemies toward one another. Those who were in Egypt after the massacre in Alexandria, and before the bombardment, say that they will not soon forget the change which passed over the bearing of the natives toward the foreign Christians at the time of the massacre. Those who before showed an almost servile respect toward the European residents, now marched proudly through the streets, pushing the hated Franks insolently out of their way, and gibing and jeering at their comparative helplessness. All travellers in the East notice the different bearing of an Oriental when he is in an enemy’ s country, and when he is in a place where his friends are in a majority. The man who skulks in Medeenah will swagger in Mekkeh. An Oriental seldom cares to conceal his consciousness of power, nor does the ruling party conceal its contempt for the ruled. Let a revolution of the political wheel reverse the position of two parties, and the former serf passes into the braggart, and the former braggart into the serf, without any shamefacedness on either side. The psalmist, therefore, compares the safety which he feels to be his in God, to the confident security of the man whose power is assured, and who can lift up his head without fear in the midst of his cringing enemies. (American Sunday School Times.) Psalms 27:7-14 Hear, O Lord, when I cry with my voice.A prayer of desire and dependence David here expresses-- I. his desire towards God. If he cannot now go up to the house of the Lord, yet, wherever he is, he can find a way to the throne of grace by prayer.1. He humbly bespeaks, because he firmly believes he shall have, a gracious audience (verse7). 2. He takes hold of the kind invitation God had given him to this duty (Psalms 27:8). (1) The true nature of religious worship. Seeking the face of God. The opening of His hand will satisfy the desire of other living things (Psalms 145:16), but it is only the shining of His face that will satisfy the desire of a living soul (Psalms 4:6-7). (2) The kind invitation of a gracious God to this duty. He calls us by the whispers of His Spirit, to and with our spirits, to seek His face; calls us by His Word, by the stated returns of opportunities for His worship, and by special providences, merciful and afflictive. (3) The ready compliance of a gracious soul with this invitation. A gracious heart readily echoes to the call of a gracious God, being made willing in the day of His power. 3. He is very particular in his requests. (1) For the favour of God, that he might not be shut out from that. (2) For the continuance of His presence with him. (3) For the benefit of a Divine conduct (Psalms 27:11). (4) For the benefit of a Divine protection (Psalms 27:12). II. his dependence upon God.1. That He would help and succour him, when all other helps and succours failed him (Psalms 27:10). God is a surer and better friend than our earthly parents are or can be. 2. That in due time he should see the displays of His goodness (verse 18). Even the best saints are subject to faint when their troubles become grievous and tedious. Their spirits are overwhelmed, and their flesh and heart fail; but their faith is a sovereign cordial. They that walk by faith in the goodness of the Lord, shall in due time walk in the sight of that goodness. 3. That in the meantime he should be strengthened to bear up under his burden (Psalms 27:14). Whether he said it to himself or to his friends, it comes all to one. “ He shall strengthen thy heart,” shall sustain the spirit, and then the spirit shall sustain the infirmity. In that strength-- (1) Keep close to God, and to your duty. (2) Keep up your spirits in the midst of the greatest danger and difficulties. (Matthew Henry, D. D.) David’ s prayer for audience and answer I. what David prayed for. The audience which David prays for is not the bare act of hearing, in taking notice of what he said in prayer, for he knew well that would never be wanting in God towards man. But by hearing, he means God’ s favourable act of audience, testified by gracious answers (Psalms 143:1).1. He knew that God did often, for just causes, deny to give such gracious answers, even to the prayers of His servants. (1) When He would bumble them, and correct them for their sins (Psalms 66:18). (2) When He would stir them up to more zeal and fervency in prayer (Matthew 15:22, etc.). (3) When He will exercise them under some affliction (Psalms 22:1-2). II. the manner of David’ s praying. He cried with his voice; which notes great fervency, zeal and earnestness.1. Prayer is a good thing, and zealous affection in a good thing is always commendable (Galatians 4:18). 2. Zeal and fervency in prayer is very moving (James 5:16; Luke 11:8; Luke 18:1-5). 3. God’ s mercies, testified by gracious promises and answerable performances, notably encouraged him to be zealous and earnest in prayer (Psalms 22:4-5; Psalms 107:6; Psalms 107:13; Psalms 107:19; Psalms 6:8-9). 4. His own necessities urged him (Psalms 18:4-6). III. David’ s esteem of this work of God, when he gives audience and answers to his prayers. The reason is, because he, as every other man, stood guilty of sin, which separates between God and us (Psalms 59:2). (T. Pierson.) Prayer, a child’ s cry to God Telephones have been fixed near the cots of sleeping infants, that when they awake and begin to cry the mother may hear them at once and fly to comfort them. Prayer is a child’ s cry, and God is always listening for it. (R. Brewin.) Psalms 27:8 When Thou saidst, Seek ye My face; my heart said unto Thee, Thy face, Lord, will I seek.A sweet echo One of the sweetest marvels of nature is “ the echo.” It is nature’ s poetry that charms and captivates the mind. Standing, some years back, on a lone mountain side, with giant peaks towering up above on every side, I broke the intense silence with a shout. There was a moment’ s pause, and then those silent mountains found tongue. From side to side a very artillery was maintained. Echo awoke echo, and a second only gave birth to a third. But there is another echo--that of the heart; the soul’ s response to the call of God. We have such in the text. Let us consider-- I. the call.1. It is one we often find it very difficult to hear. For the world is not as a silent glen, or lone mountain side, but a very Babel of confused noises. 2. Still it is not impossible to hear it. The ear rightly attuned will hear it, clear as a silver bell, ringing out its note above the surrounding din of business and common cares. 3. But some have never yet heard it, and those who do, hear it in different degrees. There are some persons naturally calm and contemplative, that “ dwell with Mary at the Master’ s feet,” and who seem ever to hear it; but there are others, anxious to hear it, but the very clatter of their preparations fill the ear to the exclusion of the Saviour’ s Word. 4. It comes to us by different instrumentalities. By His Word. The means of grace--the Sabbath especially. The Mercy Seat. The manifold goodness of God in His providence. By trials. By the influence of the Spirit. II. the echo.1. It is one of the heart. “ My heart said,” etc. You may read the Word, utter the prayer, keep the Sabbath, and yet there be no heart in it. Like a waxwork figure moved by machinery, you may nod, and smile, and lift up your hands, and yet not have one iota of life. Let us ask how has it been with us in the past? 2. Now let me give some closing counsels. Be ever listening to hear the voice. When you hear it give the echo at once. “ When Thou saidst, Seek ye,” etc., “ My heart said,” etc. When the voice says to you, “ Pray,” pray at once. Rest assured you shall, if you seek the Lord’ s face, never be disappointed. “ I have never said to the seeking seed of Jacob, Seek ye My face in vain.” (A. G. Brown.) The voice and the echo I. the reference.1. How brief it is. Though a text of but four syllables, it is in itself a Bible; so much is in it, and this much so good. Plainly faith does not require the complete revelation of the Bible to warrant and sustain its exercise. In general, it is not a long passage, but a short) sentence, like the point of an arrow striking the mark, or the edge of a sword cutting through and through by a single blow, that does it.2. How precise it is. It admits no vagueness, no ambiguity, no uncertainty.3. How affectionate it is. What condescension, benignity, loving-kindness. II. the response.1. How practical it is. It does what is required--readily, hopefully.2. How simple it is. Voice answering to voice, heart echoing to heart.3. How cordial it is. III. the connection between them.1. The reference elicits the response.2. The response fulfils the reference. (E. A. Thomson.) The Divine call and the human response I. the divine call. It suggests to us--1. The spiritual condition of unsaved men. They are estranged from God. They have built up between themselves and their Creator an icy cold barrier of heartless indifference, or else an almost impregnable wall of dearly loved sins. This separation is the fruitful cause of all possible misery and destitution, for there is no hell of woe that can give greater pain to human spirits than the consciousness of their apostacy from God. 2. The condescending grace of God in His dealings with unsaved men. He speaks to them, makes gracious overtures, and sends them a message, tender with sympathy, rich in mercy, and pregnant in the promise and potency of a pure and vigorous spiritual life. S. The nature of true religion. It is the heart of man coming back to God. II. the human response.1. Personal. In some things men move in masses without any realization of individual responsibility. It is not so with this momentous question. There is no rest for the sin-troubled heart until it personally turns to God. Personal submission is needed to put our hearts into a right condition for receiving Divine grace. Personal faith brings to our hearts the saving and sanctifying influence of the Spirit. And personal love to the Divine Father is the only guarantee that our peace is made with Him. 2. Prompt. Procrastination is full of danger, it is not only the thief of time, but also the rock of peril upon which many good-intentioned souls have struck and perished. The Ancients taught a solemn truth when they represented Time as an old man with wings on his shoulders, a scythe and hour-glass in his hands, and on his wrinkled forehead one lock of hair, all bald behind, and therefore offering no hope to us when it is past. Let us then seize time by the forelock. 3. Explicit. Men will do anything rather than make an uncompromising surrender. They will turn over a new leaf, sign the pledge, attend the sanctuary, and even take the sacrament. All these are good and right in their place, but they are no substitute for salvation, they cannot set the heart at peace. Any one who tries to make them a compound between God and his own conscience will fail. 4. Sincere. It came from the heart. It is related of a Greek musician that his touch was so delicate and his ear so quick that he would often play a tune on his harp that only his own ear could catch. Whether fact or fable, this incident illustrates God’ s intercourse with men’ s hearts. You hear the preacher, but he does not hear your response to his appeal. God always hears it. He is speaking to you now, and His ear is close to your heart, listening to what it will say. (W. Wheeler.) A call and a response We have here a report of a brief dialogue between God and a devout soul. The psalmist tails us of God’ s invitation and of his acceptance, and on both he builds the prayer that the face which he had been bidden to seek, and had sought, may not be hid from him. I. God’ s merciful call to us all. “ Seek ye My face.” Have we to search for that as if it were something hidden, far off, lost, and only to be recovered by our effort? No! a thousand times. For the seeking to which God mercifully admits us is but the turning of the direction of our desires to Him, the recognition of the fact that His face is more than all else to men, the recognition that whilst there are many that say, “ Who will show us any good?” and ask the question impatiently, despairingly, vainly, they that turn the seeking into a prayer, and ask, “ Lord I lift Thou the light of Thy countenance upon us,” will never ask in vain. By the very make of our own spirits He calls us to Himself. You remember the old story of the Saracen woman who came to England seeking her lover, and passed through these foreign cities with no word upon her tongue that could be understood of those that heard her except the name that she sought. Ah! That is how men wander through the earth, strangers in the midst of it. They cannot translate the cry of their own hearts, but it means, “ God--my soul thirsteth for Thee” : and the thirst bids us seek His face. He summons us by all the providences and events of our changeful lives. Our sorrows, by their poignancy, our joys, by their incompleteness and their transiency alike, callus to Him in whom alone the sorrows can be soothed and the joys made full and remain. Our duties, by their heaviness, call us to turn ourselves to Him, in whom alone we can find the strength to fill the role that is laid upon us, and to discharge our daily tasks. But, most of all, He summons us to Himself by Him who is the angel of His face, “ the effulgence of His glory, and the express image of His person.” II. the devout soul’ s response. The psalmist takes the general invitation and converts it into an individual one, to which he responds. God’ s “ ye” is met by his “ I.” The psalmist makes no hesitation or delay--“ When Thou saidst . . . my heart said to Thee.” The psalmist gathers himself together in a concentrated resolve of a fixed determination--“ Thy face will I seek.” That is how we ought to respond. Make the general invitation thy very own. God summons all, because He summons each. Again, the psalmist “ made haste, and delayed not, but made haste” to respond to the merciful summons. Ah! how many of us, in how many different ways, fall into the snare “ by and by “ I” not now” ; and all these days that slip away whilst we hesitate gather themselves together to be our accusers hereafter. It is poor courtesy to show to a merciful invitation from a bountiful host to say, “ After I have looked to the oxen I have bought, and tested them, and measured the field that I have acquired; after I have drunk the sweetness of wedded life with the wife that I have married, then I will come. But, for the present, I pray thee, have me excused.” And that is what we all are doing, more or less. The psalmist gathered himself together in a fixed resolve, and said, “ I will!” That is what we have to do. A languid seeker will not find; an earnest one will not fail to find. III. A prayer built upon both the invitation and the acceptance. “ Hide not Thy face far from me.” That prayer implies that God will not contradict Himself. His promises are commandments. If He bids us seek He binds Himself to show. His veracity, His unchangeableness, are pledged to this, that no man who yields to His invitation will be baulked of his desire. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) The accepted call I. God’ s call. “ Seek ye My face.”1. It teaches that peace with God is not a human device, but a Divine revelation. “ Thou saidst.” True religion originates with God.2. Indicates what religion is. “ Seek ye My face,” --not My Church, or Book, or ministers, but Me.3. It implies estrangement. “ Seek.”4. That estrangement may cease. II. man’ s reply. “ Thy face, Lord, will I seek.”1. Personal. “ I.”2. Prompt. “ When Thou saidst.”3. Emphatic. “ Thy face, Lord, will I seek.”4. Thorough. Reply, almost an echo of call. David practically said, “ I mean just what God means.”5. It came from right place. “ My heart said.” Lips lie, heart never. (T. Kelly.) The call and the response I. the call that comes to you--“ Seek ye My face.” Many reasons urge you to ‘ listen to this call. Amongst the chief is--1. The character and condescension of the Saviour from whom the call comes. 2. The Divine love that prompts 2:8. It is the assurance of blessing--Divine, precious, abundant, everlasting. How poor is the mirth of the prodigal, how soon it all fades I There is no blessing for such until they come back to God. II. the response.1. It is a true response. It is the very echo of the call, like the echo of a trumpet amid mountains. 2. It is personal. 3. Hearty. 4. Immediate. 5. Decided--“ Thy face will I seek.” Conclusion--1. What if you do not seek God?2. What if you do? (J. P. Chown.) The echo Ready response to God’ s call is--1. The natural duty of man.2. But is nevertheless the work of the Holy Spirit.3. And is an evidence of election unto salvation. Now concerning this spirit of response to God-- I. its too frequent absence. In so many and for so long, though at times it has been disturbed. For Christ stands at the door, and knocks. Beware of resisting God. II. its cultivation. It should be our constant spirit, prompt to obey whenever God calls. See call of apostles (Luke 5:1-12). See, too, the personality of David’ s reply, and hearty likewise. And there was full resolve in it. Such echo of God’ s word is very sweet, like the echo of music amongst the hills. III. its special outlet. The seeking of God’ s face. God is over calling us to this. Let our days be more filled up with this blessed work. IV. its reward, The margin reads--“ My heart said unto Thee, Let my face seek Thy face.” It means that the reward of such seeking is blessed communion with God, the joy of Eden restored to us. Our first parents had communion with God, which they lost by sin; but it is now more than restored to us in grace. (C. H, Spurgeon.) Seeking the face of God There appears to be a good deal of autobiography in this psalm, David in his backward glance fixes on two objects. The past as illumined by God’ s favour, and the past as his own wherein he strove to love and serve God. And from both he draws encouragement to hope that God will be the same, and he humbly resolves that He will be, I. God’ s voice to the heart--“ Seek ye My face,” The expression is of course figurative. But the most spiritual conception of God is reached, not by a pedantic scrupulosity in avoiding material representations, but by an unhesitating use of these, and the remembrance that they are representations. The unsubstantial abstraction of the metaphysical God, described only in terms as far removed as may be from human analogies, for fear of being guilty of “ anthropomorphism,” never helped or gladdened any human soul. It is but a bit of mist through which you can see the stars shining. But the God whom we need and can know and love, comes to us in descriptions Cast in the mould of humanity, and loses none of His purely Spiritual essence thereby. “ The face of the Lord” means the same as “ the name of the Lord,” and both mean the manifested character of God. If these things be true, then we may learn what it is to “ seek His face.” We do not need long and painful search, as for something lost in dim darkness, in order to find the sun. We do not need to seek the sun with lanterns, nor to grope after God if haply we may find Him. A man need only come out of his dark hiding-place to find it. If he will but turn his face to the light, the glory will brighten his features and make glad his eyes. And, in like manner, to seek God’ s face is no long, dubious search, nor is He hard to be found. Endeavour, then, to keep vivid the consciousness of that face as looking always in on you, like the solemn frescoes of the Christ which Angelico painted on the walls of his convent cells, “ that each poor brother might feel his Master ever with him.” Make Him your companion, and then, though you may feel the awe of the thought, “ Thou hast set our secret sins in the light of Thy countenance,” you will find a joy deeper than the awe, and learn the blessedness of those, sinful though they may be, who walk in the full brightness of that face. II. the heart’ s echo to the voice of God. “ My heart said unto Thee, Thy face,” etc. Immediate, as the thunder to the lightning, the answer follows the invitation. And it needs to be so. If we delay the response it is apt never to be made at all. The first notes of the Divine voice have more persuasive power than after the heart has become familiar with them, even as the first song of the thrush in spring, that breaks the long wintry silence, has a sweetness all its own. The echo answers as soon as the mother-voice ceases. But too many of us hesitate and delay. The only safety, the only peace lies in prompt obedience and in an immediate answer. There is also brought out here very plainly the complete correspondence between the Divine command and the devout man’ s resolve. Word for word the invitation is repeated in the answer. Like the sailor at the tiller, he answers his captain’ s directions by repeating them. “ Port,” says the officer. “ Port it is,” says the steersman. “ Seek ye My face.” “ Thy face will I seek.” The correspondence in words means the correspondence in action and the thorough-going obedience. How unlike the half-and-half seeking, the languid search, as of people listlessly looking-for something which they do not much expect to find, and do not much care whether they find or no, which characterizes so many so-called Christians! They are seekers after God, are they? Yes, with less eagerness than they would seek for a sovereign if it had fallen from their fingers into the mud. Note, too, the firm and decisive resolution shining through the very brevity of the words. In the original the brevity--three words only--is yet more marked. Fixed resolves need short professions. A Spartan brevity, as of a man with his lips tightly linked together, is fitting for such purposes. Waverers and the feeble willed try to brace themselves up by talking, making a fence of words around them. But if we are quite resolved, we shall, for the most part, say little about it. What a contrast is this clear resolve to the indecisions and hesitations so common amongst us! The ship heads now one way and now another, and that not because we are wisely tacking--that is to say, seeking to reach one point by widely-varying courses--but because our hand is so weak on the helm that we drift, wherever the wash of the waves and the buffets of the wind carry us. Further, we have in this heart’ s echo to the voice of God the conversion of a general invitation into a personal resolution. The call is, “ Seek ye.” The answer is, “ I will seek.” That is what we have all to do with God’ s words. He sows His invitations broadcast; we have to make them our own. He sends out His mercy for a world; we have to claim each our portion. He issues His commands to all; I have to make them the law for my life. The stream flows deep and broad from the throne of God, and parts into four heads, the number expressive of universal diffusion throughout the world; but I have to bring it into my own garden by my own trench, and to carry it to my own lip in my own cup. III. the heart’ s cry to God founded on both the divine voice and the human echo. “ Hide not Thy face far from me” is clearly a prayer built upon both these elements in the past. Both give me the right to pray thus, and are pledges of the answer. As to the former, “ Thou saidst, Seek ye My face.” You may have exactly as much of God as you want and desire. Then “ seek His face evermore,” and your life will be bright because you will walk in the light of His countenance always. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Face to face with God The law of creation and of salvation are one, one thing. Both are a process of generation--regeneration. The sun’ s face and the earth’ s face must be brought together, in full relationship, and then creation is inevitable. So God’ s Spirit and man’ s spirit being brought face to face, the new creation of the soul is inevitable. The sun says to the planets, “ Children” --for they are all children of the sun--“ seek ye my face.” The planets reply, “ We will; thy face will we seek. We are cold, dreary, bloomless, barren, we will seek thy face.” And forthwith they climb, and climb, a six months’ climb from January to June, to the zenith, to the meeting face to face. What then? All that summer and harvest means follows. It is a parable of the soul’ s salvation. But it is only a parable: infinitely greater and more glorious is the summer which results from the direct relationship of the spirit-face of God and the spirit-face of man; the all-giving face of an infinite Creator, Lord, Father, Saviour, and the receiving faces of His sons and daughters. The most god-like centre of all the glory of God is His own human face. It creates all faces, the angels; for the face of an angel is one that has been so long receiving God’ s glory that it has become lovely. The face of God is “ the express image” of His personality. Your face is not your person, but I see what sort of person you are by your face. Face to face relationship means the exchange of personal thought and feeling, friendship, closest intimacy. All the beauty in the universe comes from the light of God’ s face. The face of God, the personal face of the personal God, is the meaning of the universe and man. The power that comes from that we call Christ. And He is in every heart. So that the dear mother in the interior of Africa when she was first told about Christ, said, “ Oh, that is the name that I have seen in my dreams, one that loves me and comes to me; the beautiful man of the heavens.” And God says, “ Seek ye My face” at the time that our heart is most disposed to hear it. In your sorrow; at death. (J. Pulsford.) An invitation and reply We are told here that God spoke to the psalmist and what was his reply, but we have no intimation as to the mode of intercourse: whether God spoke through providential dealings, or through the ordinances of the Church, or by His Spirit. And it does not matter. If there be various methods in and through which God is wont to make Himself audible to the human soul, we may take any or all of them as employed to syllable the words, “ Seek ye My face.” As to the mode in which the psalmist replied, nothing need be said in explanation of that; the reply itself is the all important thing. It is a conversation between God and the soul, very brief and with no kind of variety, but full of instruction nevertheless. We will, therefore, endeavour to sift this conversation; not only examining the precise meaning of what God directs and man promises, but searching out, also what may be more incidentally but not less decisively taught. Now observe-- I. that in the reply man does little more than repeat the words of God. God says, “ Seek ye My face” ; man replies, “ Thy face, Lord,” etc. Now the disposition thus distinctly marked is one the want of which is at the root of half the practical unbelief and miserable inconsistencies by which the visible Church is deformed. Men acknowledge the Divine authority of the Scriptures, but hesitate and cavil as to obeying them. What could be more inconsistent and unreasonable? If God speaks and men know and confess it, then what else is there for them but to obey? Nevertheless they do not obey. Even professedly religious men do not. They object, and deliberate, and find excuse; they do anything but obey. Now it is the very opposite of this which we find here. There falls upon the ear--no matter how--a message which David feels to be from God. It is not a message about which there can be no room for question as to its meaning and the manner in which it should be obeyed. But the observable and admirable thing is, that David did not wait to deliberate, but instantly made his resolution upon hearing God’ s injunction. II. observe that God addresses us in plural number, but man’ s reply is in the singular. “ Thy face, Lord, will I seek.” Now the individualizing God’ s Word, the taking it individually to oneself, as though designed for oneself, and spoken to oneself--this is very closely connected with the whole practice and the whole comfort of religion. For example, the human race is addressed in Scripture as “ fallen and depraved” --far gone from original righteousness, inclined only to iniquity and that too continually. Well, so long as you speak to a man as a man, merely as being one of a sinful kind, one whose sinfulness, like the colour of his skin, he has in common with millions around him, he will generally quite complacently meet the accusation. It will hardly touch him. He may confess to the fact, but give in his confession with a smile. When, however, you try to single him out from the mass; when you speak to him like Nathan to David--“ Thou art the man!” then he is full of indignation and resentment, and with Hazael of old is ready to exclaim--“ Is thy servant a dog that he should do this thing?” Yet, till a man thus separates himself, takes himself out of the mass--feels and confesses without any regard to his being one of a multitude, “ I have gone astray, like a lost sheep,” till then he has nothing of that feeling of being a sinner that will lead to genuine repentance. Oh! it is so easy to join in a general confession; the hard thing is to make the confession individual. And so with the precepts of Scripture. When they are delivered in the plural they can be listened to with great composure. But make the precept individual and personal, then what shrinking there is, what aversion, what refusal! Reduce therefore piety to a personality. The call may be general--“ Seek ye” ; the answer must be individual--“ I will!” No being content with the confession of masses and multitudes! Alone thou must stand in judgment; alone thou must take thy resolution. When Thou saidst, “ Seek ye My face,” O Lord, it may have been to the millions that Thy voice was addressed; it may have been by millions that that mighty voice was” heard; but I paused not to know whether these millions would keep silence; whether they would join in one vast refusal, or in one vast consent; at once--on the instant--whatever the millions might determine to do, my heart said unto Thee, “ Thy face, Lord, will I seek.” III. what is it to seek God’ s face? The more ordinary signification of the phrase, “ the face of God,” is the love and favour of God--“ Make Thy face to shine upon Thy servant.” “ Cause Thy face to shine and we shall be saved.” How much, then, is implied in this simple bidding--“ Seek ye My face” ! God would have us come back to Himself. Manifold are the methods by which God thus addresses us. But how often His message is heard and refused, and how terrible if this refusal be persisted in! But if obeyed, then how blessed are we! (H. Melvill, B. D.) The successful seeker In the former verse David prays, “ Hear, O Lord,” etc. Now this verse is a ground of that prayer, for God had said to him, “ Seek My face,” and he had replied, “ Thy face, Lord, will I seek.” Note-- I. God’ s command.1. God shows Himself to His understanding creature. But why should God bid men seek Him? Because He would have men worship Him, and in order to this God must show him how He will be served. It may be objected that everything proclaims this, to seek God. Though God had not spoken, nor His Word, every creature hath a voice to say, “ Seek God.” All His benefits have that voice to say, “ Seek God.” Everything hath a voice. We know God’ s nature somewhat in the creature, that He is a powerful, a wise, a just God. We see it by the works of creation and providence; but if we should know His nature, and not His will towards us--His commanding will, what He will have us do; and His promising will, what He will do for us--except we have a ground for this from God, the knowledge of His nature is but a confused knowledge; it serves but to make us inexcusable, as in Romans 1:19 it is proved at large. It is too confused to be the ground of obedience, unless the will of God be discovered before; therefore we must know the mind of God. 2. God is willing to be known. God delights not to hide Himself. God stands not upon state, as some emperors do that think their presence diminisheth respect. God is no such God, but He may be searched into. Man, if any weakness be discovered, we can soon search into the depth of his excellency; but with God it is clean otherwise. The more we know of Him, the more we shall admire Him. None admire Him more than the blessed angels, that see most of Him, and the blessed spirits that have communion with Him. Therefore He hides not Himself, nay, He desires to be known; and all those that have His Spirit desire to make Him known. 3. God’ s goodness is a communicative, spreading goodness. Two things make us very like God, that much concern this point: to do things freely of ourselves, and to do them far. To communicate goodness, and to communicate it far to many. The greater the fire is, the further it burns; the greater the love is, the further it extends and communicates itself. There are none more like God than those that communicate what good they have to others, and communicate it as far and remote as they can to extend it to many. 4. The ground of all obedience, of all holy intercourse with God, is a spirit of application. Applying the truths of God, though generally spoken, to ourselves in particular, if we do not--as indeed it is the fault of the times to hear the Word of God loosely--we care not so much to hear the Word of God, as to hear the gifts of men. We desire to hear fine things, to increase notions. We delight in them, and to hear some empty creature, to fasten upon a story or some phrases by the bye. Alas I you come here to hear duties and comforts, if you be good, and sentences against you, if you be naught. We speak God’ s threatenings to you that will wound you to hell, except you pull them out by repentance. It is another manner of matter to hear than it is took for. “ Take heed how you hear,” saith Christ (Luke 8:18). So we had need, for the Word that we hear now shall judge us at the latter day. Thereupon we should labour for a spirit of application, to make a right use of it as we should. For if we do not, we dishonour God and His bounty and give joy to the devil, for the devil rejoiceth when he seeth what excellent things are laid open in the Church of God, in the ministry, what sweet promises and comforts, but here is nobody to take them and lay hold on them; like a table that is richly furnished, and there is nobody comes and takes it. It makes the devil sport, it rejoiceth the enemy of mankind when we lose so great advantage, that we will not apply those blessed truths and make them our own. II. the obedience to the command. “ Thy face, Lord,” etc. I will seek by Thy strength and grace. And this obedience was--1. Present, at once.2. Pliable, that of a ready, obedient heart.3. Perfect and sincere.4. Openly professed, as Joshua 24:15.5. Continued, and--6. Suitable, answerable to the command. Faith will see light at a little crevice. When it sees an encouragement once, a command, it will soon answer: and when it sees a promise, half a promise, it will welcome it. It is an obedient thing, “ the obedience of faith” (Romans 16:26). It believes, and upon believing, it goes to God. As the servants of the king of Assyria, they catch the Word presently, “ Thy servant Benhadad” (1 Kings 20:32); so faith, it catcheth the Word. (R. Sibbea.) The answering heart I. the Lord’ s invitation. An invitation--1. Supremely beneficent.2. Graciously merciful.3. Infinitely condescending. II. the believer’ s reply,1. A wise resolve.2. A blessed heritage.3. An eternal privilege In heaven they see His face. III. THE given opportunity--“ When Thou saidst.” This opportunity is--1. Universal. To all who hear the Gospel.2. Continuous. From life till death.3. Varied. Bible, conscience, providence.4. Unsolicited. God makes the first approach. (Homilist.) Kind words should awaken kind echoes Walking one day in the Queen’ s Park, Edinburgh, I heard the music of a military band. I could not see the musicians, but the great rocks above me echoed the music, note for note, and one could have thought that the players themselves were hidden there. Now if granite rocks render sweet echoes to sweet music, how much more should our souls respond to the sweet calls of our Saviour’ s voice and say, “ When Thou saidst unto me, ‘ Seek ye My face,’ my heart said unto Thee, ‘ Thy face, Lord, will I seek.’” (R. Brewin.) Psalms 27:9 Hide not Thy face far from me. Hide not Thy face from me 1. The surpassing worth and excellence of God’ s special favour, whereof he would not be deprived (Psalms 30:5; Psalms 63:3). 2. He knew the displeasure of God was a most heavy and grievous thing, which no creature is able to bear (Psalms 76:7). 3. He knew his own guilt of sin, both original (Psalms 51:5) and actual (Psalms 51:3-4). 4. He was not ignorant of God’ s sovereignty over all, whereby He may, even for trial of grace, hide His face, and seem angry with His dearest servants. Uses-- 1. For instruction. (1) See in David what the godly think of the want of God’ s favour: that it is a most grievous and bitter thing; as if a father should put away a child in anger, leave him and forsake him. (2) See here that the true child of God may, for a time, want the feeling of God’ s special favour, and remain under the sense of His displeasure (Psalms 38:1-2). (3) See that prayer is a blessed and sanctified means whereby the child of God may comfortably wait for the blessing of God’ s favour. 2. For admonition. (1) That we examine ourselves, how our hearts esteem the want of feeling God’ s special love and favour in Christ. (2) Learn not to be dismayed for the temporary hiding of God’ s face or sustaining of His anger. (T. Pierson.) Thou hast been my help; leave me not, neither forsake me.-- A mighty plea In times of distress it is not well always to have a choice of helpers. For while we are selecting, our danger may have overtaken us. While the fox was considering which way to run, the hounds had seized him; while the sick man was selecting the physician, his disease carried him off. It is well to be shut up to one help, if that help is all we need; as the old proverb hath it: “ Hobson’ s choice, that or none.” Now, this is the believer’ s condition. And it is well in going to God to have a good plea, such as is provided for us here: “ Thou hast been my help.” A soul in sore distress is in no fit condition to puzzle itself over deep, dark reasonings; it wants a child’ s plea, just as Dr. Guthrie, when dying, wanted “ bairns’ hymns.” It is told of a famous Hebrew scholar, Dr. John Duncan of Edinburgh, that he was easily imposed upon; but the imposition never moved him, and he was willing to submit to it for the chance of doing good. He said, “ I find they know how to get round me; they say, ‘ You helped me before ‘ ; and I never can resist that: it teaches me how to pray.” And do we not like to help our old pensioners? and they know we do. Now, in our text we have: I. experience gratefully telling her tale. How many of us can and must say, “ O God, Thou hast been my help” ? Go over the history of David, and see how often he had cause to say this. II. necessity pleading experience. She pleads, “ It is consistent with Thy holiness; it is within Thy power; it is fitting to Thy wisdom; or else all that Thou hast done will be thrown away. Thou art the unchanging God, and to Thy love I appeal.” It is the plea of a child to a father, “ Father, thou hast always fed me: wilt thou let me starve?” III. experience instructing faith. To trust, because God has been your help for so long; and so constantly and so singularly; and with glory to Himself. (C. H Spurgeon.) Psalms 27:10 When my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up.Perishable good measured against the unchangeable portion Change is earth’ s perpetual motto. It is grown on her ever-varying seasons; it gives material for her daily history; and it marks with chequered and subtle lines the biographies of her happiest sons. It were an unprofitable question to inquire how far, apart from religious considerations, man is the better for this law of change. He loves it not. He would be content with a much smaller amount of earthly comforts could they but be made permanent and secure for him. But this security never can be given, and even where it is given to the largest extent possible to human circumstances, men are restless and discontented still, always desiring something other than it is. But as this desire of change tells us that we are not as our Creator made us, so the existence of change tells us that this world is not our home. In heaven we shall require no change, and it will furnish none. There will be progression, but not change. The soul may be nearing ira approaches to the blessedness and purity of its Author, without ever finding the terminus of its own perfection, or feeling that it can expand no more. But here the soul is subject to change. Now it soars aloft on hope’ s joyous pinion; now falls, with its broken wing, into the pit of despair. And who of all men knew the vicissitudes of life more than the author of this psalm? But David had learned when earthly joys failed him to set his heart on heavenly ones. Let us, then, consider-- I. the precarious tenure in which we hold every earthly blessing. Health, life, possessions, intellect, home affections--what security have we that any of these things will last? Do we not know how easily they may, any or all of them, be broken in upon and lost? II. the sufficiency of the Christian’ s portion when all other blessings fail. God seems to say, “ I must remind them that this is not their home: I must cause that cherished object to forsake them, in order that My infinite mercy may take them up.” But we may be certain that the Christian’ s portion is sufficient because:1. Of the comprehensiveness of the Divine assurances. 2. Of the perfections of the Divine character. 3. The intercession of our great High Priest, Jesus Christ our Lord. (Daniel Moore, M. A.) Forsaken by man, favoured by God I. that David’ s father and mother, and so his nearest and dearest friends, might leave and forsake HIM.1. Through fear of Saul. 2. By Divine disposition, for the trial of David’ s faith and patience. Uses-- 1. For instruction. (1) It shows most plainly how vain and uncertain the help of man is in time of need (Psalms 60:11; Psalms 62:9). The mutability of his affection. The instability of his condition. (2) See in David what may be the case of God’ s own dear children, even to be forsaken of their nearest and dearest earthly friends in time of distress (Psalms 68:9; Psalms 68:20; 2 Timothy 4:16). 2. For admonition. (1) That, seeing father and mother may forsake us, we put not our trust in men, be they never so near or dear unto us (Psalms 146:3-4). (2) That we be not dismayed when our friends do fail us (Matthew 10:24-25). II. that when David’ s nearest and dearest friends forsook him, then the lord would gather him up.1. David stood rightly and truly in covenant with God, and so was interested in God’ s special providence. 2. David trusted in God (Psalms 7:1; Psalms 125:1; Psalms 91:1, etc.). 3. David was holy in life and conversation, which gave him good assurance of special preservation (Psalms 18:17; Psalms 18:23). Uses--1. For instruction. (1) The stability of God’ s love towards those that are truly His (Hebrews 13:5; John 13:1). (2) The happiness of the godly. 2. For admonition. It serves effectually to move every one that desires this comfortable state both to get and preserve those graces in his soul, and also to testify that behaviour in life which entitled David to it. 3. For comfort. The godly, in times of distress, must call to mind this property in God, to be more firm and faithful to those that are His than natural parents are to their dearest children. (T. Pierson.) God our succour when others fail 1. The love of our heavenly Father towards all men, but especially His children by adoption and grace, is infinitely beyond the love of earthly parents towards their children. (1) They may prove unnatural; their bowels may be crusted up against the fruit of their own bowels. But the Lord cannot but love His people. He can as well cease to be, as to love. (2) Their love may be alienated by needless jealousies, or false suggestions, and so lost. But His love is durable; He loveth His own unto the end. He knoweth the singleness of their hearts, and will receive no accusation against them. They, alas, are negligent enough; unthankful, undutiful children: nay, stubborn and rebellious. But as David’ s heart longed after Absalom, because he was his son, though a very ungracious one: so His bowels yearn after those that are no ways worthy to be called His sons. Forgiving all their by-past miscarriages upon their true repentance; receiving them with gladness, though they have squandered away all their portion with riotous living, if they return to Him in any time with humble, obedient, and perfect hearts; and in the meantime using very many admonitions, entreaties, and other artifices to win them to repentance; and forbearing them with much patience; that they may have space enough to repent in. And if upon such indulgences and insinuations they shall come in; He will not only welcome them with kind embraces, but do His part also to hold them in, when they are even ready to fly out again, and were it not for that hold, would in all likelihood so do. (3) Parents’ affections may be so strongly biassed another way, that in the pursuit of other delights they may either forget or disregard their children. But no such thing can befall our heavenly Father, who taketh pleasure in His people and in their prosperity, 2. Fathers and mothers, through human ignorance, cannot perfectly understand the griefs of their children, nor infallibly know how to remedy them if they did. But God, who dwelleth in light, nay, who is light, knoweth the inmost recesses, the darkest thoughts and secrets of all men’ s hearts, better than themselves do lie perfectly understandeth all their wants, and what supplies are fittest in their respective conditions. His blessings are our daily food, His corrections our physic. 3. Whereas our earthly parents have a limited and very narrow power, and cannot therefore do their children the good they would; our heavenly Father’ s power is infinite: not hindered by any resistance, or retarded by any impediments; not disabled by any casualties, occurrences, or straitness of time. 4. Our fathers and mothers, where are they? And do prophets, or Princes, or any sort of men live for ever? They all pass like a shadow, wither as grass, and are driven away as the grasshopper. When they must go, they cannot help themselves: and when they are gone, they cannot help us. They are mortal men; lie the immortal God: they are dying men; He the living God. Life is one of His prerogatives royal. And therefore, when our fathers and mothers, and friends forsake us, because either their love faileth, or their skill faileth, or their power faileth, or their life faileth: our heavenly Father, who wanteth neither love, nor wisdom, nor power, nor life, but is infinite in all; we may rest assured in every way accomplished to succour us at all assays, and to take us up. And that He will engage all these for our relief, if we will but cast ourselves wholly upon Him; we have His gracious promise to fill up the measure of our assurance. (Bp. Sanderson.) God’ s care over the forsaken On the topmost stone of the Royal Exchange in the centre of London is carved a large grasshopper. That figure is a sermon in stone upon this text. Some four hundred years ago a woman was passing along a country lane some miles from London, and placed a baby boy under a hedge, carefully wrapped up in a shawl. Soon after a boy passed by on his way home from school, and his attention was attracted to a grasshopper that crossed his path. Stooping down to find it, he saw the baby fast asleep. He joyfully took it home to his mother, who adopted the little stranger. The forsaken child thus providentially saved became one of London’ s greatest merchants, and after years of prosperity he built the Royal Exchange. Psalms 27:11 Lead me in a plain path, because of mine enemies.Our observers Instead of “ enemies,” the margin reads “ observers.” And we have many such. I. the world--with keen and malignant eye. If we act inconsistently with our profession, they will be sure to notice it and despise us, and our religion accordingly. II. saints. They observe us from a sense of love and duty; they are commanded to “ admonish,” “ exhort,” and “ consider one another.” III. ministers are our observers. They are to take heed to the flock over which, etc. IV. angel observers. We are a spectacle to angels as well as to men. V. above all, God observes us. He bids us walk before Him and be perfect. We are men in secret, but observed at all times. Surely we need wisdom and strength far above our own. (W. Jay.) Divine direction I. the text is applicable to relievers in all ages, since all need the same direction and instruction. How many have attempted to reach the summit of Parnassus, from which they might view the flowers of rhetoric and the fruits of philosophy flourishing beneath their feet; but how few have ascended far above the base of the mount before they have been discouraged by its amazing height, when they have returned in despair of ever attaining to such an elevation. Although David prayed to be led in a plain path, yet he neither thought nor expected that this path was to be attended with no difficulties ,--free from all pain, and full of unfading pleasure. All that any one can reasonably desire, who prefers the prayer contained in the text, is that God would graciously vouchsafe such guidance, that we may not swerve from that true and living way, marked out in the councils of His love, and made manifest by Him who declares Himself to be the “ way, the truth, and the life.” One reason why so many mistake the plain path, arises partly from the pride of the human mind, which would rather employ its faculties upon those subjects which relate to things temporal, as bearing upon man’ s present enjoyment, than direct its energies to the pursuit of those objects which lie beyond the precincts of time, and are connected with unseen and spiritual realities. How often are the most elevated minds and soaring spirits engaged rather in those speculations which tend more to increase scepticism, than to diminish error! How unwilling is the loftiness of intellect to bow to the humiliating doctrine of the Cross! And how reluctant is the philosophic sage to stoop from the heights of scientific discovery, and condescend to the humble condition of a learner at the feet of the despised Nazarene! II. the ordinary way in which God leads his people to their heavenly rest, Surely the rewards and punishments of another life, which the Almighty has established as the enforcements of His law, are of sufficient weight to determine the choice, against whatever pleasure or pain this life can show, when the eternal state is considered in reference merely to its bare possibility, of which possibility no one can have any doubt. If the good man be in the right, be is eternally happy; if he mistakes, he is not miserable, for he feels nothing. On the other hand, if the wicked be in the right, he is not happy; if he mistakes, he is infinitely miserable. But in that manifestation of mercy; vouchsafed by that better and brighter dispensation made known by Christ, we are not left to mere hypothesis in order to elucidate the vast extremes of infinite felicity and eternal misery. Since life and immortality are brought to light by the Gospel, we can behold in the mirror of Revelation that light and joy, which we could not see inscribed in the fairest productions of Nature, nor ever attain, in the ample reign of philosophical research or metaphysical discussion, but in the path marked out by Him who hath left us an example that we should walk in His steps. (N. Meeres, B. D.) Safe leading amid many dangers As a great ocean steamer nears a coast., the captain and helmsman need a minuteness of knowledge which they do not possess. Unknown dangers, hidden rocks and shoals, are all around them. So a pilot comes off from shore, climbs on board, and takes his place at the wheel. Instantly the control of the ship is transferred from ignorance to knowledge and incompetency to ability. Just, such a transfer takes place in a life that is surrendered to the Infinite Pilot. He knows every sea, to the least shifting bar and the slightest wind that blows. He will bring us to the desired haven. (Christian Commonwealth.) Psalms 27:13I had fainted unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. The goodness of God in the land of the living The words “ I had fainted” are not in the original. The sentence is a broken one, such as one utters under strong emotion, suggesting possibilities, but leaving the hearer or reader to supply them for himself. “ O had I not believed to see the goodness of Jehovah in the land of the living” --and then he breaks off, and we are left to imagine what dreadful thing would have happened. I. God’ s goodness is often a matter of faith rather than of sight. A good purpose of His often takes time to ripen. Sometimes it is long before it even appears above ground. Meanwhile there is the bleak, dreary field. In Nature we know what to expect, so that the harvest is hardly a matter of faith. Still, our Lord teaches that the attitude of the farmer, while he waits for the harvest, should be that of His disciples in regard to the Kingdom of God. Faith in God implies faith in good. The word “ God” is “ good.” God is not God except He be good. But it is easier to believe this as an abstract fact than in its practical applications; for there are times when we cannot see the goodness of the Lord. II. we faint because we do not see it. This brought out more strongly by the added words, “ in the land of the living.” It is here where we want to see it, here in this scene of strife, rebellion, cruelty, extortion, and all manner of evil. We are not troubled about God’ s goodness in the next world. The believer takes it for granted, indeed, that there every cloud will be dispelled and every hard question settled. It is God’ s goodness in the land of the living which sometimes puzzles him. It might be comparatively easy, as I have said, to frame an abstract conception of a perfect being, and to write under it “ Supremely Good,” but goodness is not an abstract thing. Goodness takes shape and consistency only by contact with objects. As a mere abstract quality it has no practical significance. You may as well affirm it of a statue. It has meaning only as it is exercised. But if God be infinitely good, how can sin and evil be? This is the knotty point. Neither the Epicurean, by getting rid of God in human life; nor the Deist, nor the Pantheist, give any real help. Given the existence of a personal God, and the existence and work of evil is not an easy matter to resolve. The question is summed up in a passage of that favourite book of our childhood, Robinson Crusoe, where the poor heathen Friday asks in all simplicity why God, being all-powerful, did not kill the devil. Many of us have asked the same question. And yet the fact of such goodness visible in the world and in human life is assumed by the psalmist. He has faith in it. He believed to see it in the land of the living. Can we see as much?1. God does not throw us entirely upon testimony as to this, for His goodness can be seen, both here and now. However hard we may find it to reconcile this fact with other facts, it is true that the world and human life furnish multiplied evidences of God’ s goodness which appeal to the ordinary sense. The provisions of Nature are illustrations of this. It was something more than mere ingenious artifice which made the bread-fruit grow in the tropics and not in the northern latitudes. Similarly this goodness is seen in a thousand things in the social and domestic life of men. There is the setting of the solitary in families, and the blessed ties which unite husband and wife and parent and child. There are these things and many more like them. And each one of us if we had our sorrows, we have had our joys. Life has brought blows, but it has also brought balsams: calamities, but also mitigations. Labour has been offset with rest; tears with smiles. No life has been utterly bleak and barren. And for many of the worst of our calamities we have had only ourselves to blame. They have come through our refusing the goodness of God. Now all these appeal to our senses, and God would have us reason from the seen to the unseen, from that we can comprehend to that which we cannot. If we look at the state of society alone and affirm the evidence of a beneficent will, we must often confess what seems as if the contrary were true. 2. But we must hold to what we know of God’ s goodness and trust where we cannot know. The popular proverb says, “ Seeing is believing” ; but the Scripture reverses that proverb; “ believing is seeing.” We shall faint if we do not believe. Because there is an earthquake shall I cease to believe in gravitation? I remember a land-locked bay, which, from some peculiarity or other, the tide used to leave two-thirds bare when it ebbed. It was one of the loveliest spots I ever saw at high water, but one of the most ghastly when the tide was out. I might stand by the shore and look out over the dismal expanse of mud, and say, “ The place is ruined: it never will be beautiful any more.” I look down into the stagnant pools, and they are glassy and motionless under the hot sun, and I say, “ The tide is gone, the joy and life of the ocean come hither no more.” Fool that I am. Out yonder in the ocean depths, even while I mourn, the sea is rallying, and gathering itself up to move upon the land. By and by the stagnant pools will begin to stir, and the little eddies to whirl, and pool to reach over to pool and to run into one, until soon the bay will be brimming again, and the mud-banks hidden and the fresh, living tide enfolding the rocks. There are periods of slack-water in the history of individuals, of churches, and of nations; periods of mud and stagnation; days and years without a ripple. And when the ripple begins to come, and the stagnation begins to be stirred, that which is the presage of better things often makes the prospect look uglier than before. It takes-strong souls to go through such periods; believing souls, which have settled faith in the laws of God’ s tides, and which believe in the force when they do not see the ripple or the wave. Breaking-up is a not uncommon fact in the lives of good men and women. Occasionally they are thrown out of their tight, comfortable ships, and see the strips go to pieces, and have to cling to fragments or make rafts. It is hard to see goodness in such wreck as that; and yet when a ship goes down at sea, the man who has a life-preserver or a timber thinks himself happy. The question is whether we can bring ourselves to think that God is good when He transfers us from the ship to the timber: whether we can stretch the word goodness to cover timbers and rafts, and life-preservers as well as ships. If we have taken it for granted that God’ s goodness means only a sound ship and a voyage compassed the whole way with its protections and comforts, then the wreck and the raft will come to us as terrible surprises. If, on the other hand, we believe in the fact of the goodness of the Lord, any way, ship or raft, storm or sunshine, sailing into port or washed ashore, we shall be strong-hearted and hopeful on the raft no less than on the ship. Only it is well that we take care how we build our ship to begin with. If it is to go to pieces, it is well that the pieces be strong; well that we provide something that will float when the wreck breaks up. If a man’ s life is put together with selfishness, greed, pride, vanity, he stands a poor chance when the structure is broken up. If he puts out to sea with only his money or his cunning or his social repute or his political or professional or business-standing under him, he will find that such timbers will not float him. They will break with the breaking of the ship. But faith, hope and love are buoyant. If a man has in his ship this triple plank of faith, nothing can send him to the bottom. Life’ s currents will bear him to land alive. (M. R. Vincent, D. D.) A sure cure for pessimism I. faith expects to see enrapturing visions.1. What? “ The goodness of the Lord.” The forces of God are adequate to overcome the forces of evil. The eternal right must prosper. God will do more than hold His own. No good reason is there to be hopeless about a world that has God in it and over 2:2. Where? “ In the land of the living.” That the goodness of the Lord will be seen in the land of the dead no one doubts; what we sometimes forget is that we are to look for increasing revelations of His goodness in the present. “ Godliness hath the promise of the life that now is.” “ The meek shall inherit the earth.” “ Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.” II. faith awakens fortitude. It gives strength of heart and hope; inspires courage; lights the eye; nerves the impotent arm; plucks victory from defeat. III. faith leads to fidelity. Those who are full of faith are characterized by faithfulness; they can be depended upon to do their duty, for they have an abiding principle of obedience within their hearts. So long as we are in the world we must needs battle against adverse circumstances, but let us see to it that over against every evil we put the Heaven-provided antidote; that over against worldly trouble we put Divine comfort; that over against painful discipline we put the Divine purpose; that over against the world’ s sin we put the world’ s Saviour. (J. M. Campbell.) Pessimism, an untenable theory of the Universe Yet, though the creed of despair it throws its dark shadow over thousands both in Germany and England. It argues thus:--Seeing the evil and misery that exist and have existed from the beginning, how is it possible to believe in a Being who is omnipotent and omniscient? If He knew of all this, He could have prevented it; and if He did not do so, how can I believe in His goodness? Now, none of us can fully despair of the difficulty, but yet there are considerations which may help our faith; as, I. great as is the misery of the world, it is not so great as it sometimes seems. Anguish, suffering, sorrow, are not the prevailing notes in the music of earth. Calamities are the exception, not the rule. II. Much of the misery we deplore is not so great to those who bear it as it appears to us. Use is second nature, and what we are used to does not make us unhappy as it otherwise would. III. the capacity for sorrow is essential to the capacity for joy. A sorrowless world would be a joyless one. IV. with much of man’ s misery God is not chargeable at all. It is the result of man’ s sin. (W. Garrett Herder.) Believing to see I have taken the whole verse, but the words at which I catch are these: “ Unless I had believed to see.” Most people see to believe; but here is the true Gospel order. Oh that some now may believe to see I Note--I. A doctrine stated. Salvation is by faith. That is the great act by which man is saved. If he believes he is saved. II. difficulties of the awakened soul.1. Want of feeling.2. Sense of ill-desert.3. Cannot see evidences in ourselves. But these will come if you believe first. They are the product, and not the cause, of faith.4. Repentance not deep enough.5. No great joy.6. Sanctification and likeness to Christ so slight. III. directions to more advanced believers. The whole course of the Christian life must be believing to see. In our enterprises for God in our inward conflicts. In doctrinal perplexities. In times of prosperity our only safeguard is to believe beforehand. In our journey to heaven. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The soul’ s faith in the goodness of God I. the condition of saints in this present world, as to the trials they are subjected to. We are born sinners into a world that lies in wickedness; and hence are brought forth to sorrow, as the sparks fly upward. We are cast on a climate where Satan rules. And those who are new-born, are the peculiar objects of his hatred and rage: whom he will, by policy or power, seek to deceive and destroy. It were hence easy to show, that the trials of saints in the present life are neither light nor few. II. the soul’ s faith in the goodness of God in the land of the living. That is, the felicity of the better world. Now, this faith is1. Of a very earnest kind.2. It causes the soul to prefer this goodness of the Lord above all things else.3. It is accompanied with a well-grounded hope of the happiness to be enjoyed above.4. It works the heart to a patient waiting for it.5. It excites to most serious diligence that they do not come short. III. in what manner this faith keeps the soul from fainting,1. Because of the transcendent excellency the believing soul discerns in what God has promised.2. Because such souls see in their sufferings that which will prepare them for the heavenly felicity (1 Corinthians 4:17).3. Because they anticipate what awaits them there.4. Because it arms them against all present temptation and murmuring of the flesh, and endues them with courage to hold on their way. IV. application.1. It is vain to expect peace on earth.2. Hence be assured there is an after-state where God will distinguish between the good and the evil.3. Consider how great our privilege in the Gospel.4. Make sure that you be born again for a better world. (D. Wilcox.) The fainting relieved by faith What are the lessons which our text teaches? I. It teaches that submission to the will of God flows from the word of God as the means. In the Word there are many clearly established principles, designed and calculated to quiet the mind under trials.1. God admonishes us to this effect. The Word of God is the inspired commentary on the book of Providence. Compare the events of your life. Providence illustrates the Scriptures, and they explain Providence. If you look only at Providence, you cannot see the love of God to His people in those dispensations which are dark and afflictive. You would think that your heavenly Father trod forgotten you. But the Word of God answers us that it is not so. 2. For they show us that all events are appointed or permitted by God. Nothing is by chance. 3. And that all temporal things are subservient to what is spiritual (Romans 8:28; Psalms 25:10; 2 Corinthians 4:17). 4. That death does not terminate our existence. Look to the future state in the light of Divine revelation: that unravels the whole mystery. All that was dark in the ways of Providence is there illuminated; all that appeared disorderly is there arranged; all that seemed evil is there felt and acknowledged to be good. II. submission flows from faith as from the instrument. Many have read the discoveries of Divine revelation, and have been strangers to unfeigned submission, because they do not fully and firmly believe these discoveries. That the exercise of faith is necessary in order to maintain this state of mind, appears from the following considerations:--1. Those truths contained in the Scriptures, designed and calculated to produce submission, relate to things unseen and eternal (2 Corinthians 4:1-18.). 2. Faith prevents hasty and unwarranted conclusions respecting the doings of God. It is a common error, when a trial befalls us, to conclude at once that it is against us; and this error results from unbelief of the faithfulness of God to His promises. This was the conclusion of David, who “ said in his heart, I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul.” But “ Blessed are all they that wait for Him.” “ It is good that a man should both hope, and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord” (Hebrews 2:3-4). 3. Faith has respect to the time past, as well as the time to come: to what is recorded of the doings of the Lord, as well as to what is promised. 4. All the treasures of grace are communicated through Christ, and by Him to His people; and of His fulness they all receive. (Robert Cranston.) Psalms 27:14 Wait on the Lord, be of good courage, and He shall strengthen thine heart; wait, I say, on the Lord. The Christian’ s strength The Church of God has often been in a low, languishing, and, to all human appearance, in a desperate condition; yet one thing, as Solomon says, is set against another, and it has been at such times that His people have realized most fully the comforts of His providence and gracious presence. These stars shine brightest in dark winter nights. How wonderful have been God’ s deliverances of His people. The Bible is full of such records. And during their trials God does not leave His people comfortless. See this psalm. David here gives his own experience, and he bids us “ wait on the Lord.” Note-- I. how we are to wait on God.1. In His ordinances. Where did Simeon and Anna wait? Where did Joseph and Mary find Jesus when they had lost Him? He was surprised that they had not thought of the temple, where after three days they found Him. The first place they should have sought Him in was the last they thought of. Nowhere is the sinner more likely, or so likely, to find Him as where the crowd is met and the cross is raised--in His Father’ s house. Besides the public ordinances of religion, such as the communion table and Sabbath services, in the use of which we are to wait upon the Lord, there are other means of grace at our service; and still more fully within our reach. The communion table is but occasionally spread, and the doors of the church may be thrown open only once a week; but the pages of the Bible are always open, and the gates of prayer, like those of heaven, are never shut. And we are to wait with faith and perseverance. The farmer sows in faith that the harvest season will come, he waits and works for it. Far away from the billows that are breaking out on the sandy shore, the vessel lies upon the beach, doomed as it would seem to rot; why then do men climb her shrouds, and man the yards, and shake out broad sheets of canvas, and loose her moorings, to catch the breeze and bear away across the deep? Theirs are acts of faith; they believe in the law of tides, and that, every billow breaking nearer and nearer, the waters at length shall wash her keel, and, rising on her sides, float her off the sands--they wait and work for that. II. they that wait on the Lord shall receive strength. Thus God shall make good His promise, “ As thy days are, so shall thy strength be.” Why, then, it may be asked, do men go from the house of God and from a communion table to be worsted “ as at other times before,” by the devil, the world, and the flesh? Baptize a withering plant with water, and it lifts up its head, casts off the old leaves, and puts out a fresh crop of buds and blossoms. But why, then, are men not always the better for the ordinances of religion? The plant revives. Why not the soul? The answer is not far to seek. The ordinances of religion are compared to wells of water; but then, they are like Jacob’ s well. The water lies far below the surface; and to the men of the world, the mere professor of religion who has the name but not the faith of a Christian, we may say, as the woman said to our Lord, “ Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep.” Faith is, as it were, the rope, and our souls the vessel which we let down into this well to fill them with living water. But that they do no good to some, forms no reason why we should despise, or neglect ordinances. It is no fault in the bread, that, thrust between a dead man’ s teeth, it does not nourish him. The truth is, that we must have spiritual life to get the benefit of religious ordinances. Water will revive a withering, but not a withered plant; wine will restore a dying, but not a dead man. (T. Guthrie, D. D.) Waiting on the Lord No one could be better qualified than David to offer this counsel. Now to you who are tried by the delay of God’ s promises, as David was, we would explain from the text. I. the remarkableness of waiting upon God. For--1. He alone can supply our need. “ Our expectation is from Him,” whether it “ be spiritual or temporal deliverance that we desire. 2. He is faithful as well as all powerful. 3. And He knows what is best to be done. He has all wisdom. God sees, as we do not, all the consequences of granting our desires. II. the necessity of it. There is no alternative for us as believers. God is under necessity to be good, He cannot be otherwise; therefore we are under necessity to wait for Him. III. the benefit of so waiting. God “ will strengthen thine heart.” And that there will be good to us arises from--1. The fact of Christ’ s intercession for us. 2. The Holy Spirit is ever ready to help us. See the experience of Paul when troubled by “ the thorn in the flesh.” He waited upon the Lord and he was helped.” And so shall it be with us. (Thomas Dale, M. A.) Waiting on the Lord This waiting on the Lord must be-- I. an humble waiting. Humility is not so much to think meanly of oneself, as not to think of oneself at all. The high places of God are very low. The lowly in heart find Him. II. A patient waiting. In the midst of trial and opposition we are to wait. Patience is born of storm and disaster. Tribulation worketh patience. III. A persistent whiting. Patience shines in persistence more than in acquiescence. The Scotch girl’ s definition of patience is a true one: “ Wait a bit, and dinna weary.” Yet patience does not consist in taking things as they come. It is not non-resisting. God likes to be persistently inquired of. Heaven is taken by violence. Those who will not help themselves will not be helped of Heaven. IV. an active waiting. Faith without works is dead. Prayer without works is just as dead. The sick man must use the remedy if he would get well. The business man must be fervent in business, the soldier must keep his powder dry. This applies to the work of saving souls. We must use the means within our reach, as well as trust in God. “ Wait “ is a large word. Take it in its full meaning, and it leaves nothing else for us to do. (Herrick Johnson, D. D.) The duty of waiting The Christian soldier is long in learning to wait. Marching and countermarching are much easier to God’ s warriors than standing still. There are hours of perplexity when the willing spirit anxiously desires to serve, but knows not how. Shall it vex itself by despair? fly back in cowardice? turn aside in fear? rush forward in presumption? No; simply wait; but-- I. wait in prayer. Call upon God; spread the case before Him; tell Him the difficulty; plead His promises. II. wait in simplicity of soul. In dilemmas it is sweet to be humble as a child. It is sure to be well with us when we feel and know our folly, and are willing to be guided by God’ s will. III. wait in faith. Express unwavering confidence; for unfaithful, untrusting confidence is an insult to the Lord. Believe that though He keeps us tarrying He will come at the right time and will not tarry. IV. wait in quiet patience. Not rebelling under the affliction, but blessing God for it; nor murmuring against second causes, as the children of Israel against Moses; nor wishing to go back to the world again; but accepting the case as it stands, and putting it simply and whole-heartedly into the hands of our covenant God. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Brave waiting There are two perils to which Christians are exposed; the one is that under heavy pressure they should start away from the path which they ought to pursue,--the other is lest they should grow fearful of failure, and so become faint-hearted in their holy course. Both these dangers had evidently occurred to David, and in the text he is led by the Holy Spirit to speak about them. “ Do not,” he seems to say, “ do not think that you are mistaken in keeping to the way of faith; do not turn aside to crooked policy, do not begin to trust in an arm of flesh, but wait upon the Lord;” and, as if this were a duly in which we are doubly apt to fail, he repeats the exhortation, and makes it more emphatic the second time, “ Wait, I say, on the Lord.” I. God is to be waited on.1. As a beggar waits for alms at the rich man’ s door. Beggars must not be choosers. Believingly to wait upon the Lord, pleading the all-prevailing name of Jesus, is the suppliant’ s best posture. 2. As learners for instruction. The pupils of the old philosophers were wont to walk in the groves of Academia till the wise men were ready to come and speak with them; and when any one of the wise men began to speak, the young disciples quietly followed his steps, eagerly catching up every precious sentence which he might utter. Much more should it be so with us towards our Lord Jesus; let us follow Him in every page of inspiration, study every line of creation, and learn of Him in all the teachings of His providence. 3. As a servant waits upon his lord. (1) Oh, to be always waiting to do yet more and more for Jesus. I would go up and down my Master’ s house, seeing what I can do for His little children, whom I delight to cherish; what part of the house needs sweeping and cleaning, that I may quietly go about it; what part of the table needs to be furnished with food, that I may bring out as His steward things new and old; what there is to be done for my Master towards those who are without, and what is to be done for those already in His family. You will never be short of work if with your whole heart you wait upon the Lord. (2) Sometimes the servant will have to wait in absolute inaction, and this is not always to the taste of energetic minds. It is said that Wellington kept back the Guards at Waterloo till far into the fight, and it must, I should think, have needed much courage on their part to remain calm and quiet while cannon were roaring, and the battle raging, and the shots flying about them. They must not stir till the commander-in-chief gives the order, “ Up, Guards, and at them!” then will they clear the field and utterly annihilate the foe. They were as much serving their country by lying still till the time came as they were by dashing forward when at last the word was given. Wait, then, upon your Lord in all sorts of service and patience, for this is what He would have you to do. 4. As a traveller waiting the directions of his guide, or a mariner waiting upon the pilot who takes charge of his ship. We are to wait upon God for direction in the entire voyage of life; He is at the helm, and His hand is to steer our course. 5. As a child waits upon its parent. “ My father knows what I have need of, and I am sure he will give it me.” 6. As a courtier waits upon his prince. Sir Walter Raleigh was wise in his generation when he took off his richly embroidered cloak to spread it over a miry place, that Queen Elizabeth’ s feet might not be damped; the courtier knew how to smooth his own road by caring for his queen; and thus, with unselfish motives, out of pure reverence for our Lord, let us be willing to be made as the street to be walked over if Jesus can thereby be honoured. Let us lay out for our Lord the best that we have, even to the character which is dear to us as life itself, if by so doing we may bring glory to the holy and blessed name of our Redeemer. II. courage is to be maintained. “ Be of good courage.” Our good Lord and Master ought not to be followed by cowards. 1. Be of good courage concerning the faith which you are exercising upon Christ. He is very good to those who seek Him. 2. Be of good courage, you who have newly found Him, to avow your faith. Wear your colours before the face of all men. 3. Be of good courage in endeavouring to spread the faith which you have received. Undertake great things for Christ. 4. Be of good courage, when you pray for others. Intercession has great influence with God. 5. Be of good courage, in making self-sacrifices for the cause of Christ. 6. If you are called to endure great affliction, sharp pain, frequent sickness; if business goes amiss, if riches take to themselves wings and fly away, if friends forsake you and foes surround you, be of good courage, for the God upon whom you wait will not forsake you. Never let it be said that a soldier of the Cross flinched in the day of battle. III. waiting upon God sustains courage. You have heard of the famous giant whom Hercules could not kill, because the earth was his mother, and every time Hercules dashed him down he obtained fresh strength by touching his parent, and rose again to the fight. We are of like nature, and every time we are driven to our God, though we be dashed upon Him by defeat, we grow strong again, and our adversary’ s attempt is foiled. Our heart is strengthened by waiting upon God, because we thus receive a mysterious strength through the incoming of the Eternal Spirit into our souls. No man can explain this, but many of us know what it is.2. Waiting upon the Lord has an effect upon the mind, which in the natural course of things tends to strengthen our courage; for waiting upon God makes men grow small, and dwarfs the world and all its affairs, till we see their real littleness. 3. And then it inflames the heart with love. Nothing can give us greater courage than a sincere affection for our Lord and His work. A raven was hatching her young in a tree. The woodman began to fell it, but there she sat; the blows of the axe shook the tree, but she never moved, and when it fell she was still upon her nest. Love will make the most timid creature strong; and, oh, beloved, if you love Christ you will defy all fear, and count all hazards undergone for Him to be your joy. 4. Waiting upon the Lord breeds peace within the soul, and when a man is perfectly at rest within he cares little for trials or foes. A heart unsettled towards God is sure to be afraid of men, but when the soul waits on the Lord in glad serenity it stoops not to fear. 5. This waiting upon the Lord produces the effect of increasing our courage, because it gives us often a sight of the eternal reward, and if a man getteth a glimpse of the crown of glory, the crown of thorns will no more prick his temples. IV. experience proves this. The text is a summary of the entire psalm. All the rest of the verse may be compared to the figures of an account, and this closing verse is the casting up of the whole--waiting on the Lord is the path of wisdom. (C. H. Spurgeon.) “ Tarry thou the Lord’ s leisure” That is the rendering of the Prayer-book version, and it brings out the exact meaning of the word “ wait,” which we have interlarded and lost sight of by making it mean such things--and legitimately enough--as prayer. It just means “ wait.” Wait for Him as you would wait for a friend at the trysting-place who does not come. Wait for Him, and wait, and wait until He does come. We know it to be a Christian duty to be patient with our fellow-men; have we ever thought of the necessity and the duty of being patient with God? “ O tarry thou the Lord’ s leisure.” It is hard, I admit it is hard, to have this patience. Indeed, the more earnest you are, the more alive you are to the needs of the world, the more eager you are to see the Kingdom of Heaven brought in among men; and the more you do on behalf of the Kingdom, the more is the temptation to lose grip of this patience with God. “ Why tarry the wheels of His chariot?” are we not saying every day, and as we go out into the world and see the evil and sin of the world we say it with a more plaintive note in our voice than ever. We strain, some of us, and hurt ourselves straining to help the Kingdom of the King to prepare the way of the Lord. Some faithful Christian work may be said almost to be the fruit of faithlessness. Some make up in zeal what they lack in faith. Some rail at God for His leisure with the world and with the Church, and act as if their efforts in His cause are almost a rebuke to God. O that His steps among the stars would quicken! O that His ears would hear when we are dumb! Many the hearts from which the hope shall sicken, Many shall faint, before His Kingdom come. Patience is the Divine method in the world. Everything in the world is wrought patiently, smoothly, softly, naturally, sweetly. The seasons come and go. The world has been brought thus: far not by cataclysm but by change, by growth, not by creation, and it is so morally. The world has boon brought thus far by God with groanings and travailings that cannot be uttered until now, by His own Divine method of patience. The moral education of the race has gone on, step by step and stage by stage, as men were able to bear it, and able to understand it. Think of the patience of Christ. He came for the sake of the whole world to redeem the world, and He limited Himself of His own accord to twelve humble men, and He limited Himself still further, and He went on, over and over again, teaching these twelve men, preparing that morsel of soil for the precious seed. O man that art impatient, and speakest about the smallness of thy sphere, the small ministry you have in which to serve; think how limited Christ’ s sphere was, and the patience with which He began the redemption of the world. That is the Divine method for the world, and for the Church, and for ourselves. (H. Black, M. A.) Beggars should be willing to wait One morning I noticed a tramp knocking at a house door. A kind-hearted woman lived there, and when she had opened the door and seen the beggar, she ran back into the kitchen to get him something to eat. After standing a moment, he turned and went on his way. Then she came to the door with the food in her hand and called after him. He almost missed that meal because he did not wait, Perhaps we have quite missed some great spiritual gift for which we have asked because we had not learned to “ wait on the Lord.” (R. Brewin.) Wait for an answer to prayer When I lived in Exeter an eccentric clergyman who occupied a house in the Mint passage had had placed, under the knocker of his door, the polite request, “ Please don’ t knock unless you wait for an answer.” There was a school near, and I think the boys used to give him trouble. We often give God trouble, too, when we knock at His door but do not wait for an answer. (R. Brewin.) Christian valour Courage is the calm, determined pursuit of the right, notwithstanding the nature of the road, ignoring the world’ s flattery, despising the world’ s menace, disparaging the transient garland and the transient crown. Courage is simply the disposition to go right on, irrespective of the world’ s swords or of the world’ s crowns. “ Be of good courage.” Where shall it be exercised? Sometimes in silence. I think if we could make comparisons between one aspect of the Master’ s life and another, if everything in the Master’ s life was not superlative; if we could put some things in the positive and some in the comparative and make comparisons; and if I were to be asked to put my finger on the one place in the Master’ s life where the courage of the Lord shone out the most resplendently, I should put my finger on the word where it says, “ And He answered him nothing.” It is superlative valour. The valour of silence, when to speak might mean gain. The courage to keep a close lip, the courage to restrain a laugh when somebody has made a filthy jest. The courage to present a perfectly passive face when conversation is becoming unfair; the courage to withhold applause when applause would simply add fury to an unclean fire. That is the courage that our Master seeks--the courage sometimes to withhold the laugh. There is many a young fellow would restrain for ever from an unclean, filthy jest if he were left in the shivering experience of a quiet and passive reception. Courage in silence; courage sometimes by speech. I think nothing shows out more radiantly and more conspicuously the valour of the Apostle Paul than that experience which he describes for us in the Epistle to the Galatians, where he tells us that when he encountered Simon Peter who was destined to be a pillar of the Church, a living light in the metropolitan church, and who had gone down to Antioch, and who had played and trifled with the truth, who had worn one coat one day and another on another day, “ I withstood him to the face.” A thing like that is not to be received in silence. “ I withstood him to the face,” warned him, rebuked him, to his face. Now, suppose you could get a radiant, confident, optimistic courage, a disposition that would keep its lips still and closed when it might appear as though to open them would be immediate gain, and that would speak though speech should wreck a possible career, that would go right on disregarding on the one hand a menace, or, on the other hand, a smile--suppose you could get a disposition like that implanted into the personality of men, suppose it had become part of my constitution, part of my make up--pure, clean, clear courage, what would be the influence of it? First of all, the influence of it on myself. Would it have made any influence upon my body? I want to say that it would; I want to proclaim--and I think it is a note that is not sufficiently proclaimed, and emphatically proclaimed--that Virtue makes for physical health. I would say to any athlete here, “ You would become a finer athlete if you were a finer man. Virtue ministers to health rather than vice, and courage will send your blood in a glow around your body rather than cowardice, when you are beset by the hostility of the world.” It will influence the body, it will still more influence the mind. Would it influence the soul? I use the word “ soul” there to describe the highest part of man’ s personality, the power which lays hold of and apprehends and appreciates and appropriates God. Would it affect that? There is a fine suggestive sentence in one of Emerson’ s essays which will serve my purpose to quote it now, “ God never gives visions to cowards.” Why does not God give visions to cowards? Because, my brethren, He cannot. Cowards close the doors, shut out the Divine. The light cannot enter the spirit, cannot find access when a man is timid and cowardly; all the entrances in his life are blocked. But if a man is valorous and courageous, having his eyes set on the truth and the pursuit of it, a man is porous, porous to everything that is Divine. The Divine can simply soak into him. If a man of a valorous spirit takes up a book to read, as he reads through the book all that is lovely in the book steeps into him; he is porous towards the lovely and the true. If he goes into a picture gallery, all that is wonderful and beautiful and spiritually suggestive about the pictures soaks into him; he is porous towards the lovely. God cannot give these things to cowards, because they are closed, they are nonporous. It was when Peter had become bold we are told that he had visions; it was after he had become great that he began to have visions of the ineffable glory, and when a man has set his eye upon the truth in the resolute, determined pursuit of it, then I say he is open in every door of his spirit to the entrance of the ministry of the Spirit of God, he becomes the tabernacle of the Almighty. That is how it would influence myself; how would it influence my neighbour? I am afraid we talk a good deal about the contagion of vice--I do not think too much--but I do not think we talk half enough about the contagion of virtue. We talk a great deal about the leaven of hypocrisy, but I do not think we speak half enough about the leaven of sincerity and truth. Everybody knows that one man can impart a vice to another by simply living with him. There is a most subtle contagion which can pass almost through the mystic influence of thought, and still more by the transmission of speech, but there is a wonderful contagion of virtue, and a man in whom the valorous temperament is enthroned, might give spirit and inspiration to a crowd. Napoleon says: “ There is a moment in every great war when the bravest troops feel inclined to run; it is the want of confidence in their own courage,” and then Napoleon says: “ The supreme art of generalship is to know just when that moment will come and to provide for it. At Arcola” --I am quoting the words exactly--“ I won the battle with twenty-five horsemen. I anticipated the moment of fright and flight, and I had twenty-five men ready of cool nerve and decision, and just at the appropriate moment I turned the twenty-five into the host, and the battle was won.” Twenty-five men who had not lost their nerve brought back confidence to a host who were inclined for fright and flight. The man who was cool for fight brought back the hordes that were ready for flight. Has that no analogy in the realm of the spirit? One brave member of a family may save the whole household from moral perdition; one young fellow in a warehouse may save all his mates from the timidity which means hell; one fine, brave lad in a school who will despise all meanness and set his eyes upon the true and follow it, may gain a whole form for the army of the Lord. How, then, can we get this fine, valorous disposition? “ Wait on the Lord” --“ Wait, I say, on the Lord.” How painfully inadequate. Inadequate! There are some things in the spiritual which any man can prove in a day. There are some things which inevitably and almost immediately result from the life of the spirit which any man can put into momentary and daily proof. Here is one. Suppose that you find you are becoming possessed by the spirit of anger, and that passion is rising within you like an angry flood, and you feel as though you were about to be overcome, and the flood is going to merge in indiscreet and bitter and violent speech. Just then wait on the Lord, and in the name of God Almighty I promise you, with the most consummate assurance, that you will find your anger will there and then begin to subside, until it becomes as calm as a peaceful sea. If you find that you are becoming the victim of lust, “ Wait on the Lord,” and even while you kneel you shall find that the unholy fire is being put out. If you are possessed by the feeling of envy or of jealousy, and if you are being consumed by the hateful thing, “ Wait on the Lord,” and I promise you--and I dare you to put it to proof--that while you kneel the envy and the jealousy will pass away from your vision just as the steam passes away from our windows in the cooler light of the dawn. If I come with my spirit of timidity and cowardice into the presence of the Almighty, and say, “ Lord, I have a will like a reed, I would like s will like adamant,” will nothing result? Will the Lord, who says to the passion, Be still; and who says to the lust, Die out; and who says to the envy, Evaporate, have nothing to say to a timid and cowardly will? “ He shall strengthen thine heart.” When? Not just then, perhaps. I would like to make that clear if I may. It will be when you need, because perhaps just then, when you kneel, you may not need. (J. H. Jowett, M. A.) The temptation to discouragement Among the whole legion of evil spirits that harass the Christian, there is none more mischievous than that dark-visaged demon called Discouragement. He tries to hamstring us just at the critical time when we need all our faculties and all our graces. If he can persuade us to give up, we are gone. History is never were of telling us of those resolute spirits who would not give up--of Disraeli’ s reply to the jeers of the British Parliament, “ The time will come when you will be glad to hear me;” and of George Stephenson and Robert Fulton persisting with their experiments in the face of ridicule. But “ the children of light” are not always as wise as “ the children of this world” in carrying their point. All the more shame to us, because the man of the world has no special promise of the Divine help, and the child of God has. The one has to encourage himself in his own brain-power or his “ pluck,” but the other may encourage himself in the Lord his God. One thing we who enlist in the service of Christ must be assured of, and that is that our campaign is for life. Regeneration does not end the fight; it is only its beginning. Our arduous work will not be done until we have gained our crown. God sees that it is trot best that we should get to heaven before ourtime, and so he ordains that this life shall be one of perpetual conflict, temptation, trial, discipline. One of the most frequent temptations to discouragement arises from the want of apparent success in the best undertakings. Brave Dr. Judson preached in Burmah six years without a visible convert. After these six years of subsoiling and seeding came a steady crop of conversions, (T. L. Cuyler, D. D.) He shall strengthen thine heart.--The strengthening of the heart What do we mean by the Heart? Now, just as the Will is the seat of basal, executive force, and just as the Conscience is the seat of moral instinct, so the Heart is the seat of feeling, the home of emotion, the empire of the sentiments. I wish to discuss what I may call the aristocracy of the feelings. I call them the aristocracy because they possess a certain subtlety of refinement which distinguishes them from others which are more closely and intimately related to the flesh. Like other aristocracies the members are both good and bad. Envy is a purely spiritual feeling, and may exist in all its intensity even when the vesture of the flesh has been finally dropped. Gratitude is a purely spiritual feeling, and may exist in undiminished power when the flesh has turned to dust. There are other feelings which are largely contingent upon the flesh, and which seek their gratification exclusively in the ways of the flesh. These will only indirectly concern us in the present discussion. Let us confine the attention to the more ethereal feelings--to feelings more subtle and more refined, more refined in evil and more refined in good. Now it is very evident that these feelings appear in different kinds and in varied intensity among different people. That is a very obtrusive fact in human life. If with the Divine vision we could enter into some hearts it would be like passing into a cathedral: everything is so sweet and chaste and reverent and beautiful. But if we entered into other hearts it would be like passing into a cellar: dark, damp, and forbidding, abounding in vermin and uncleanness. In some hearts the feelings lurk like carrion vultures; in others they sing and soar like the lark. Have we any responsibility as to the character of the feelings which possess the Heart? Has Conscience, the moral palate, any judgment to give concerning the things of the Heart? Is its dominion confined to the regions of thought and speech and deed, or does it, s jurisdiction reach to the inhabitants of the Heart? Yes, Conscience indicates some feelings, and definitely condemns them. Conscience indicates other feelings, and definitely approves them. What Conscience condemns I am commanded to remove. What Conscience approves I am commanded to entertain. But in the judgments of Conscience there is a larger implication even than this. That which Conscience commands me to remove I have power at hand to remove. Let us mark that well. Moral commandments are indications of possible moral attainments. Conscience searches my heart and commands me to turn out this feeling, and to give more room to that feeling, and to let in another that for long has been standing at the gate. And all this is a solemn indication to me that, according to the teaching of Conscience, I have power over my own Heart, and that for the exercise of this power I shall be called to account when I stand before the judgment-seat of God. Conscience, then, proclaims that we are responsible for our feelings. Do we recognize the obligation? Let us seek for evidence in our common judgments. Our common judgments recognize that men have power over their own hearts. We condemn a man for ingratitude. If we can exercise no dominion over our feelings the ungrateful man should be regarded with tenderest pity as the poor victim of a hard and petrifying rage. We praise and commend a man because of his warm and bounteous love, because of the bright and sunny influence with which he transforms our dull November seasons into merry days of June. Why should we commend him if men have no power over their own hearts? He is rather to be regarded as a very lucky man, who, by a most fortunate chance, has entered into a golden heritage, which less lucky men have been denied. But no such element of chance is allowed to enter in and shape and colour our judgments. If it were needful to give further elaboration to this it would be easy to detach fragments from our common speech which clearly indicate that in cur practical life we acknowledge that men can exercise sovereignty over the empire of the Heart. For instance, we blame one man for “ allowing his feelings to run away with him,” we commend another for having his feelings “ well under control.” I do not think this truth receives sufficient emphasis when we are considering the culture of the spiritual life. We have command over the Heart. We have authority over the feelings. Whatever feeling we want we can get. Whatever feeling we do not want we can reject. If we desire the feeling of love we have means to obtain it. If we desire the feeling of malice it will come at our bidding. How, then, are feelings created? Upon what are they dependent? They are largely, if not exclusively, dependent upon thought. Out of thought there comes feeling, just as fragrance is born of a rose, and a noisome stench of a cesspool. Our sentiments are the exhalations of our thoughts. Every thought tends to create a feeling. There are no thoughts devoid of influence. From every thought there proceeds an influence which goes to the making of a disposition. A single thought in the mind may exhale an almost imperceptible influence. But the influence is there, and steals like an intensely subtle odour into the Heart. Let the thoughts be multiplied, and the delicate odours unite to form an intensely powerful influence which we call a feeling, a sentiment, a disposition. But suppose the thought is not like a sweet rose, but like a poisonous nightshade. Here again the influence of a single thought may be too subtle for our detection, but let the thoughts be multiplied, and the poisonous exhalations will unite to form a sentiment of most destructive strength. Let us lay hold of this as a most practical principle in the culture of the spiritual life. We cannot have a good thought and not enrich the Heart. There is no chance or caprice about the matter. It is governed by immutable law. We cannot have one kind of thought to-day exhaling one kind of feeling, and the same kind of thought to-morrow exhaling another kind of feeling. No; each thought creates its own feeling, and always of one kind. There are certain thoughts which, if we will take them into our minds, will inevitably create the feeling of envy. Take other thoughts into the mind, and from them will be born the sentiment of jealousy. Take other thoughts into the mind and the Heart will speedily swell with pride. Fill the mind with another kind of thought and in the Heart will gather the sweet and tender sentiment of pity. Each thought creates its own sentiment, and we cannot help it. Some sentiments gather rapidly. They appear to attain to mature fulness in a moment. Other sentiments accumulate slowly. It often happens that the sentiment of jealousy comes to her throne only after the lapse of many years. On the other hand, anger can mount the throne and govern the life in a day. Tim mode of its operation is quite familiar to us. Anger is the distinct and immediate creation of thought. We bring certain thoughts into the mind, and from these thoughts there proceed certain sentiments. We think, and think, and think, and the feeling accumulates and increases with our thought, until at last the Heart is full with feeling, and explodes in violent passion. And so we counsel a man not to think about the injury which he has presumedly suffered, “ not to nurse it,” and by our counsel we imply that with the rejection of the creative thought the created passion will subside. Let us advance one step further. Our thought creates our feelings. Our deeds react upon and strengthen the feelings which by thought were created. My thought plans a kindly deed. Well, the thought itself will most inevitably tend to create a kindly feeling, but the doing of the deed will also assuredly tend to reinforce the feeling. Our deeds react on the feelings which prompted them, and confirm and augment them. That is one way by which our God rewards His children. He rewards our mercifulness by increasing our resources of mercy. He rewards our deeds by enlarging our hearts. That is the law of our God, and the law finds application on the bad side as well as on the good. Every act of greed strengthens the feeling of avarice. Every act of impurity intensifies the feeling of lust. What, then, is the secret of the culture of the Heart? It is this--we must get back to the origin of feeling. We must get back to imaginations, to ideas, to ideals. As is the mind so will be the Heart. A stony Heart finds its explanation in the mind. A pure Heart may be interpreted in the mind. “ Set your mind on things above,” exhorts the Apostle Paul; “ Set your mind on things above,” and your feelings will soar heavenward, like white-winged angels making their way home. It is on those serene and lofty heights that a sound and healthy Heart is to be gained. It may be only a depressing revelation to a man to tell him that health can be found on the wind-swept summit. You bring him a gospel when you tell him how to get there, how means may be found even for him, however impoverished he may be. “ Set your mind on things above.” There is no gospel in that. I so easily move amid things that are below. Is there any gospel which offers to me a heavenly gravitation to counteract the earthly gravitation, some triumphant power which will tug me towards the things that are above, as this mighty world-power drags me down to things which are below? In this word of the Master I find the gospel I seek: “ I, if I be lifted up, will draw . . . ” That is the gospel we need. The power to resist the gravitation of worldliness--to “ ascend into the hill of the Lord,” to “ set the mind on things above,” to think and live on the pure and heavenly heights--is to be found in a crucified and exalted Christ. Committing ourselves to Christ we shall rise with Him, and the mind will share in the resurrection. Drawn by Him we shall rise into “ newness of life.” With the “ renewing of the mind” we shall be “ transformed” : high-born feelings will come to be our guests, and the pervading influence of these fragrant sentiments will sweeten all tam common ways in which we live and move and have our being. (J. H. Jowett, M. A.) Divine strength They that waft on the Lord, and encourage themselves to do, in the times of affliction, shall have the Lord in mercy to put strength into them, for their better enabling to wait on Him (Psalms 31:24; Psalms 40:1-2; Isaiah 40:30).1. Reasons-- (1) To wait on the Lord, and to encourage ourselves in affliction, are notable actions of faith. Now, the grace of faith entitles us to the participation of God’ s power (2 Chronicles 20:20). (2) In waiting on the Lord, and encouraging ourselves in time of affliction, are the right improving and employing of the talents which the Lord hath left with us; for in so doing we set faith a work. And this behaviour hath little to increase (Matthew 25:28-29). 2. Uses-- (1) For instruction. See here plainly that God’ s gracious gifts and works in our hearts are vouchsafed, though not for, yet in, and upon our endeavour, in obedience to His will, in the use of those means wherein He is pleased to work the same (Isaiah 55:3; Romans 10:17; John 11:26). See here the true fountain of all that courage and boldness which in all ages God’ s children have shown for God’ s glory and for the maintenance of His truth (1 Samuel 16:32; 1 Samuel 16:34; Psalms 3:6; Psalms 23:4; Daniel 3:16-17; Acts 3:13). (2) For admonition. Observe the ways and means whereby God strengthens the hearts of His children, that so we may therein wait upon God in the day of affliction, for increase of strength, and courage in our souls, His Word spoken, either by God Himself (Joshua 1:6-7; Joshua 1:9), or by His servants (Hebrews 12:12). The works of His providence, wherein we have had experience of His goodness in former deliverances (1 Samuel 17:34-37; Psalms 22:4-5; 2 Kings 2:14). The company of the godly (Acts 28:15; Proverbs 27:9; Proverbs 27:17). Prayer to God, as well by ourselves as by others in our behalf (Acts 4:24; Acts 4:29; Ephesians 6:19). God’ s inward way of strengthening the heart is by the work of His Spirit (John 14:16; Isaiah 11:2; 2 Timothy 1:7). We must labour to be such, both in state of soul and behavior of life, as to whom God will vouchsafe the blessing of strength of heart in evil times. That beforehand, in the days of peace, we beware of sin, and break off the cause thereof by true repentance. That we are truly in covenant with God. That by faith we rest and rely on God’ s mercy in Christ Jesus. That we be upright-hearted towards God (2 Chronicles 16:9; Psalms 18:2). (T. Pierson.) . Psalms 28:1-9 Psalms 28:1-7 Unto Thee will I cry, O Lord my Rock. The prayer of a saint in distress I. He prays that God would graciously hear and answer him now that, in his distress, he called upon him (Psalms 28:1-2). Observe--1. His faith in prayer. “ O Lord, my rock.” 2. His fervency in prayer. “ Unto Thee will I cry” --as one in earnest, being ready to sink unless Thou come in with seasonable succour. 3. How solicitous he is to obtain an answer. “ Be not silent to me.” 4. His plea. (1) The sad despair he should be in if God slighted him. “ If Thou be silent to me,” etc. If God be not my friend, appear not to me, and appear not for me, my hope and my help is perished. (2) The good hopes he had that God would favour him. “ I lift up my hands,” etc. The most holy place, within the veil, is here called “ the oracle.” That was a type of Christ; and it is to Him that we must lift up our eyes and hands, for through Him all good comes from God to us. It was also a figure of heaven (Hebrews 9:24); and from God, as our Father in heaven, we are taught to expect answers to prayer. II. he deprecates the doom of wicked people (Psalms 28:3).1. Save me from being entangled in the snares they have laid for me. 2. Save me from being infected with their sins, and from doing as they do. 3. Save me from being involved in their doom. III. he deprecates the just judgments of God upon the workers of iniquity (Psalms 28:4). This is not the language of passion or revenge; nor is it inconsistent with the duty of praying for our enemies. But--1. Thus he would show how far he was from complying with the workers of iniquity. 2. Thus he would express his zeal for the honour of God’ s justice in governing the world. 3. This prayer is a prophecy that God will, sooner or later, render to all impenitent sinners according to their deserts. Observe, he foretells that God will reward them, not only according to their deeds, but “ according to the wickedness of their endeavours” ; for sinners shall be reckoned with, not only for the mischief they have done, but for the mischief they would have done, which they designed, and did what they could to effect. And if God go by this rule in dealing with the wicked, sure He will do so in dealing with the righteous, and will reward them, not only for the good they have done, but for the good they endeavoured to do, though they could not compass it. IV. he foretells their destruction for their contempt of God and his hand (Psalms 28:5). Why do men question the Being or attributes of God but because they do not duly regard His handi-works which declare His glory, and in which the invisible things of Him are clearly seen? Why do men forget God, and live without Him--nay, affront God, and live in rebellion against Him, but because they consider not the instances of that wrath of His which is “ revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and Unrighteousness of men” ? Why do the enemies of God’ s people hats and persecute them, and devise mischief against them, but because they “ regard not the works” God has wrought for His Church, by which He has made it appear how dear it is to Him? (Isaiah 5:12). (M. Henry, D. D.) A cry for help 1. To the right person.2. At the right time.3. With the right motives.4. In the right way. (J. E. Scott.) The instincts of the heart I. the sense of dependence upon God. How sweet it is to say unto God, “ My Rock.” This gives confidence in life and in death. Said a dying saint (the Rev. John Rees),” Christ in His person, Christ in the love of His heart, and Christ in the power of His arm, is the rock on which I rest; and now” (reclining his head gently on the pillow), “ Death, strike.” II. craving for fellowship with God.1. God s silence deprecated as the greatest evil.2. God’ s fellowship sought as the greatest good: (1) Humbly.(2) Earnestly.(3) Importunately.(4) Through faith in the mercy of God. III. confidence in the eternal justice of God.1. Deliverance sought from the doom of the wicked.2. Retribution craved. IV. gratitude foe the goodness of God.1. For answered prayers. 2. For assistance in time of need.3. For assurance of hope. V. exulting joy in the saving strength of God. VI. trust in the ultimate triumph and blessedness of God’ s people. (W. Forsyth, M. A.) A supplication metaphorically expressed I. The object of prayer is here given in metaphor.1. His nature. “ Rock.” What so immutable, abiding? (1) Deep in the nature of every man is the desire for some object on which to settle its confidence and its love. (2) The human spirit, without a fixed centre, is like the sea--never at rest. (3) All outside the soul is unsettled and shifting as the clouds. “ Riches take to themselves wings and flee away;” friends drop into the grave. The soul wants a Rock amidst this surging sea. 2. His attitude. “ Silent.” Even Christ on the cross exclaimed, “ My God,” etc. Does not this prove man’ s intuitive belief in the fact that fellowship with the Great Father is happiness? Whatever may be man’ s theoretical credenda concerning the Eternal, his primitive faith is, that happiness is attained only by close communion with Him. 3. His salvation. “ Lest I be like them who go down into the pit.” From what a pit does the great God deliver His people-- (1) The pit of uncorrectable depravity.(2) The pit of unpardonable guilt.(3) The pit of unrelievable despair. II. The nature of the prayer is here given in metaphor.1. Prayer has respect to a special manifestation of God. “ Toward Thy holy oracle.” What the “ Mercy Seat” was to the Jew, Christ is to humanity in these last times--the Temple in which God is to be met, and where the Shekinah radiates--Emmanuel--God with us. Man in prayer requires that his Deity should appear as a local personality. 2. Prayer is the elevation of the soul to God. “ I lift up my hands.” The lifting up of the hands symbolizes the lifting up of the heart. (Homilist.) Be not silent to me, lest if Thou be silent to me I become like them that go down into the pit. The Silences of God The instinct of religion is to cry to God. The personal providence of God is the reason of prayer. The psalmist is in trouble, and as he prays his imagination suggests what it would be if God were silent to him. I. Is God silent to our prayers? We pray expecting His answer. Prayer is not the mere utterance of surcharged hearts, like Lear’ s raving to the winds. There is moral benefit in simple desire, and that desire grows by utterance. The Rock may not speak to us, but we can lean against it and find shelter under it. But the idea of God speaking to us is as essential for prayer as our speaking to Him. We ask for response, not merely that He would listen. In what sense may God be silent to a praying man? It is a possibility, and as such it is deprecated. Perhaps David was impatient because the answer did not at once come. Sometimes the answer may follow at once, as the thunder-clap the lightning. “ I will, be thou clean,” was the instant answer to the leper’ s cry. But the answer to the Syro-Phoenician, to the centurion, to the disciples in the storm, to the sisters of Lazarus, were purposely delayed. The long winter is not a capricious delay of spring; it prepares for a fuller, a more luxuriant life. Surely was not the Father, in this sense, silent to the well-beloved Son Himself when He prayed in His agony, thrice, “ Father, if it be possible.” His cup might not pass, but “ He was heard in that He feared.” Our hasty desires are often not wise. The thing demanded might send “ leanness into our souls.” II. there are other silences that perplex us. What is the meaning of many of God’ s laws--the economy of violence, of death, of death as the condition of life? Why are the secrets of Nature so hidden? Why did not God tell at the first what powerful generations have just discovered? Wherefore do the wicked prosper? Why is God silent when His people are wronged with impunity and success? No doubt, much that we call God’ s silence is speech that is unheard. It is not His silence, but only our deafness. Christianity has taught us how to regard suffering itself as a gospel. III. concerning his kingdom we are perplexed. “ Lord, are there few that be saved’ ?” He is silent to our curiosity even when prompted by benevolence. IV. in spiritual things, again, we often think, in our obtuseness, that God is silent. We do not always hear God’ s voice in our own souls. The Babel voices of passion drown it. He that will do the will of God shall know of the doctrine. Some men see and hear God everywhere; others never see or hear Him at all. To the spiritual soul God’ s world is a whispering gallery--dead stones speak. V. to such a soul the thought that God may be silent to him is intolerable. He would be as those who perish. Every delay was painful. The Divine Fatherhood has such meaning to us that we cannot bear “ the hiding of God’ s face.” This is the meaning of all the great yearnings after God with which the Psalms are full. To be thrown upon the mystery and sin and trouble of life, “ all the burden and the mystery of this unintelligible world,” without God is, to a religious soul, intolerable. How terrible to think of men to whom God is always silent, who are spiritually so deaf that they cannot hear, and to whom, if they could hear, God has no words that He could speak but of rebuke. There are men who all their lives have been saying prayers but have never prayed, and to whom God has never spoken. What if the silence should never be broken? (H. Allen, D. D.) The silence of God I shall treat the subject mainly from the standpoint of those to whom the silence of God is a burden, more or less perplexing, mysterious. I. while complaining of God’ s silence, are you really so certain that he is silent? What if God has been speaking distinctly and repeatedly, while from faults of your own you have not heard Him? There are two pre-requisites to the catching of God’ s voice! Listen for it in the proper quarter. Many miss the Divine message because they fail to realize how often it comes to us in the ordinary and the commonplace. “ Where is the Christ?” do you ask?--“ the Christ that I need to save me, to guide me?” Why, in the weekly sermons you hear, in the daily Scriptures you read, in the temporal experiences that befall you, in the spiritual aspirations that stir in you. Lay your ear to the things that are close to you: customary ordinances, customary providences, as well as your yearnings and anxieties for a better life. Christ is speaking in these.2. Listen for it with the necessary sympathy. Otherwise, though close to the sphere where God speaks, with His messages ringing all round about you, you may miss or mistake their meaning; they will be no real messages to you. Who are those that appreciate the poet’ s message? Only such as have a portion of the poet’ s soul. Who are those that appreciate the musician’ s message? Only such as have a portion of the musician’ s taste. And who are those that appreciate the Divine message? Only such as have an element of the Divine character, that raises you to the knowledge of the Divine, instals you into fellowship with the Divine. II. in complaining of God’ s silence, are you sure that his silence will continue? Remember the Syro-Phoenician woman. If your prayer be a prayer for simple relief, cud if you are careful to ask for it in the right spirit, willing to wait for it till the right time, you need not lose heart, though Christ at the outset be silent. The speaking will surely follow. And meanwhile through the very silence Christ may work by blessing as well as by speech. He may keep you waiting for a time that faith may be strengthened, that hope may be fanned, that love may be refined, that patience may be perfected, that desire may be purified. III. in complaining of God’ s silence, are you sure it would be good for you if he spoke? (John 16:12). He meets many a question that goes up to Him about concealed things in life and doctrine with a shake of the head, the attitude of reticence and of reserve. And the reason is this--the knowledge of such matters is meanwhile unsafe. A modern religious writer has beautifully said that the key to God’ s silence on many points is to be found in the simple words, “ We shall be changed,” and the fact that God waits till the change takes place. IV. in complaining of God’ s silence, are you sure you are not provoking him to keep silence? how? By sin that is wilfully indulged in, or sin that is insufficiently repented of-inadequately realized and confessed (Psalms 66:18). “ But,” you say, “ I have grieved over my iniquity.” Yes, but there is grieving and grieving. Have you renounced it? Have you renounced the fruits of it? Have you gone to God with such an absence of self-justification and self-excuse as to say, “ I and not another have done this thing, and against Thee and not another has this thing been done” ? For if not, grieve as you may, plead as you may, be prepared for God’ s silence. V. in complaining of God’ s silence, are you sure you are giving him the opportunity to speak? “ Truly,” says the psalmist, “ my soul waiteth upon God.” It ought rather to read, “ is silent to God.” A friend told me some time ago that a Christian lady startled him with a question worth the repeating. She first asked, “ Do you pray? Yes.” “ And how long do you remain on your knees, after you have prayed, waiting for an answer? Well,” he said, “ it is strange; I never thought of doing that at all.” We forget the duty of stillness, of quietness. We forget the duty of now and again being silent to God in the attitude of expectancy and recipiency. (W. A. Gray.) The silence of God I think it was Thomas Carlyle who used those pathetic words when speaking of the Deity: “ He does nothing.” The world moved ever onwards; men and Women struggled and loved and hated; vice lifted its head unblushingly in our streets, and dishonesty and cruelty worked havoc in the peace of the universe. And yet the God of purity and of justice never seemed to interfere. The world ran riot, and He put not forth His lined; men cried to Him for help and deliverance, and He remained for ever silent. Now, this Eternal silence has had a twofold effect upon men. In one class it has given rise to defiance; in another it has given rise to despair. The unbeliever challenges the Divine interference, and when silence is the answer to his demand he denies the power of the Eternal Spirit; the man of faith appeals to God for light and leading, and the silence nearly drives him to desperation. There is nothing more trying to the faith of men than this silence, or seeming silence, on the part of God. Does God speak to you, or is He silent? Is the silence of the universe for you ever broken by the mysterious voice of an Unseen Being? Can you with the eye of sense look at the heavens above you, and with the eye of faith pierce the eternal blue, and believe that the God who lives in the universe is a Being who has ears but heareth not, who has eyes but seeth not, who has a heart but knows nothing of the wants and needs of that broken heart of yours? If prayer does nothing else for a man, it at least bears him up on the wings of faith, far from the vexing trifles of the present into the unknown region where the Father dwells; and no one can live for a moment in that holy place without hearing the voice of God. “ Prayer purifies,” says Richter; and purity is the voice of God. Again, we may hear the Divine voice in Nature if we open our ears to its sound. That voice was for ever in the ears of the psalmist; he heard the voice of God in the hurricane and in the calm. And the reason why men to-day do not hear God speaking to them in Nature is simply that they allow the murmur of the world to stifle the whisper of heaven To hold silent communings with the silent God you must leave the bustle of the world behind you. It is not often that God speaks to a man through the noise of his hammer in the workshop, or the columns of his ledger in the office, or the pages of his bank-book. Leave these things behind and go away and seek God’ s face in the lonely valley or on the silent, hillside. There you will discover the truest part of your manhood, you will see that the life of thought is the nearest akin to that of God, and in every blade of grass you will see the mystery of the Divine workmanship, in every peeping flower you will see the Eternal smile, in the murmur of the mountain streamlet you will hear the music of the angels, in the breeze which kisses your cheek you will feel the breath of God. We hear the voice of God also in the voice of conscience within us. If you stifle that voice it will become fainter day by day till it altogether dies away; if you listen to its appeal it will ultimately lead you to where you may see God face to face. Once more, the voice of God may come to you in the memory of the past. Your life must have been a very uneventful one if you cannot look back upon it and see many stages plainly marked which give the lie to the assertion of the silence of God, if you cannot point to many struggles, many victories, and also many defeats in your life’ s history where you heard the voice of God breaking the silence around. But, above all, do we hear the voice of God in the memory of departed friends and comrades. There is a great deal more meaning than we think of in the words, “ He being dead yet speaketh.” The memory of the departed lifts us up to higher things, and we hear their voices calling us to walk nobly and endure manfully. The memory of a dead parent often keeps a young man’ s feet from walking in the paths of sin; the memory of a dead friend stimulates us to a higher ideal and a nobler end. What man who has a dear child in the eternal kingdom does not feel better and purer and more Christ-like when he thinks of that angel face smiling upon him in tender affection? (A. Warr, M. A.) The seeming silence of God The seeming silence of God means human incapacity and dulness. This is the obstacle to hearing. There is an eternal reality corresponding with the ancient phrase, “ Communion with God.” But this implies more than the existence of the Heavenly voice. It implies organs made sensitive to it. The material world is full of sounds which are constantly failing upon ears that are too dull or too deaf to hear them. We speak of the silence of the sea, of the silence of the night, of the silence of the mighty mountain. But to men with ears, to men not wanting in “ the vision and the faculty divine,” these things are unceasingly eloquent with speech. To some God does not seem to speak because there has been no preparation for hearing. Where the soul is filled with the noise of mundane voices, the Divine voices which are resounding through its chambers cannot be distinguished. The man who cries despairingly to God, “ Be not silent to me,” needs to remember that it is himself more than God that needs to be stirred. He must set himself to understand the language in which the Divine One is wont to communicate with the human spirit. Even among men the spoken and the written word are not the only methods of intercommunication. To the trained eye of friendship many an important message may be conveyed without the use of any audible or written word. We speak to God in a voice audible, but He may answer us in impressions, in impulses, and similar. And this language, the language of the spirit of the unseen God, cannot be understood without any instruction. The one who rushes into the Divine presence with petitions, his soul full of earth’ s voices, having never learned even the alphabet of the spiritual world, cannot expect to understand the answer he may receive, any more than a man ignorant of the telegraph code could interpret the dots and dashes which he is given to understand are the reply to a communication which he has flashed along the speaking wires. To the aspiring, sensitive soul, God is never silent. (J. Hunter, D. D.) Psalms 28:4-5 Give them according to their deeds. Saints desire God to punish sinners I. why impenitent sinners deserve to be punished. Their wickedness lies in their endeavours, or intentions, to do evil. All their free, voluntary exercises are entirely selfish and criminal, for which they deserve to be punished. II. some sinners more deserve to be punished than others. One may design to take away a man’ s property, another may design to take away a man’ s life, and another may design to destroy a nation. These are all bad designs; but the second is worse than the first, and the third is worse than the second. Ill desert is always in proportion to the ill design of the agent; and the ill design of the agent is always in proportion to the magnitude of the evil he designs to do. III. what is implied in God’ s punishing finally impenitent sinners according to their deserts.1. According to the duration of their deserts, i.e. for ever. 2. According to the degrees of their guilt. Christ expressly declares that it shall be more intolerable for some sinners than for others in the day of judgment. IV. why good men desire that God would punish the finally impenitent according to their deserts.1. It is the nature of true benevolence to love justice. 2. It is the nature of true love to God to desire that He may be glorified for ever. 3. To promote the highest good of the universe. Conclusion:1. If the ill desert of sinners essentially and necessarily consists in their free, voluntary design to do evil, then neither the foreknowledge, nor purpose, nor agency of God can ever afford them the least ground or reason to complain of Him for punishing them for ever. 2. If good men, for good reasons, desire God would punish the finally impenitent according to their deserts, then they are prepared to rejoice when they shall see Him display the glory of His justice in their future and eternal punishment. 3. If good men desire God to punish the finally impenitent for ever, for the reasons that have been mentioned, then sinners will never have any just ground to reproach or complain of them for feeling and expressing such a desire. 4. If good men desire God to punish the finally impenitent for ever, then they have no more reason to disbelieve and oppose the doctrine of reprobation than the doctrine of election. 5. If guilt or ill desert consists in the evil intentions of the heart, then there is a wide difference between awakenings and convictions. Sinners are commonly awakened before they are convinced. It is one thing to be sensible of danger, another thing to be sensible of guilt. 6. If guilt or ill desert consists in the selfish and sinful affections of the heart, then we may see why moral sinners commonly experience the deepest convictions before they are converted. They are not so easily awakened and alarmed as more open and profligate sinners. 7. Since all guilt or ill desert consists in the evil affections of the heart, it is easy to see why good men have been so much borne down with the burden of sin. Job, David, and Paul had a deep and habitual sense of their great criminality and guilt. The reason was, they had experienced keen convictions of conscience before they were converted; and this made their conscience always tender afterwards. (N. Emmons, D. D.) Psalms 28:6-8 Blessed be the Lord, because He hath heard.A thanksgiving truly inspired These verses throw light upon the religious experience of the psalmist, and from them we learn-- I. That his experience testified of answers to his prayer. There are two ways in which God answers prayer--1. Sometimes by granting the thing sought. Thus the prayers of Elijah, Moses, Hezekiah, were often answered, and thus the prayers of His people, in all ages, have sometimes been answered. 2. Sometimes by endowing the suppliant with the spirit of resignation to the Divine will. This is the most general, and the most efficient way. Acquiescence in the Divine will is the highest strength and happiness of moral beings. II. That his experience assured him of divine assistance.1. Strength What is the highest strength? Moral strength, strength arising from an unbounded confidence in God; strength to brave perils with a fearless heart; strength to endure trials without repining; strength “ to labour and to wait.” 2. Shield. Jehovah was his protector. No weapons can penetrate Omnipotence. He is the All-sufficient Guardian of His people; “ under them are His everlasting arms.” III. That his experience involved a conscious trust in Jehovah. “ My heart trusted in Him.” This is something more than to believe in His existence, His government, His claims, His Word; it is to exercise unbounded confidence in Him, in His character and procedure, in both His ability and disposition to help us. Because David trusted in Him, he said, “ I am helped.” There is no help for the soul without this trust in God. IV. That his experience was identified with exultant gratitude. “ Therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth.” True religion is happiness; happiness was the end of Christ’ s interposition. “ These things have I spoken unto you, that your joy might be full.” There is no genuine religion where there is no happiness. (Homilist.) A glorious answer 1. Immediately given.2. Gratefully received.3. Rejoicingly acknowledged. (J. E. Scott.) The fact of answered prayer demonstrated That God hears prayer is abundantly proved in the experience of George Muller and his successor in the management of his great orphanages. He made vast plans, requiring an annual expenditure of £46,000. He never went into debt. He had not a penny of assured income. And yet his orphans never went hungry to bed. He reckoned some 30,000 direct and wonderful answers to prayers received on the very day of his asking. He never made a request of man, but he received in this way of private prayer more than £800,000 to carry on his vast undertakings. Mr. W. T. Stead considers George Muller’ s life to be a triumphant scientific experiment regarding the power of prayer. (A. R. Wells.) Psalms 28:7 The Lord is my strength and my shield.A sacred solo Note in the three sentences-there is in each that which is inward and that which is outward. “ The Lord is my strength” --that is inward; “ My shield” --that is outward. “ My heart trusted in Him--inward; “ I am helped” --outward. “ My heart greatly rejoiceth” --inward; “ With my song will I praise Him” --outward. It teaches us that truth and beauty of form are to be linked together: to be holy we need not to be uncouth. Slovenly preaching, doggerel verses and discordant singing are to be avoided in our worship. I. We have here A sure possession. With double grip the psalmist takes hold of God. “ The Lord is my strength and my shield.” It is not anything belonging to the Lord, but the Lord Himself that he thus lays hold on. He also can say this has a large inheritance which death cannot wither, nor space compass, nor time limit, nor eternity explore. He may be short in pocket money, as owners of large estates sometimes are; but he is infinitely rich, for he hath real property and an indefeasible title to it. Notice how God is laid hold of--1. Inwardly, as his strength. You cannot tell how strong you are if you can say this: what marvellous capacity for endurance. Increase of burden is nothing to groan at if there be increase of strength. And with this we can, also, do anything. Then-- 2. There is the outward manifestation. God is our “ shield.” “ Where would you hide yourself,” said one to Luther, “ if the Elector of Saxony should withdraw his protection?” He smiled and said, “ I put no trust in the Prince of Saxony. Beneath the broad shield of Heaven I stand secure against Pope and Turk and devil.” So he did, so do we. And many of us can attest this. II. A definite experience. “ My heart trusted in Him and I am helped.” He does not say, “ I trusted” as one who makes a profession with his lips, but “ my heart trusted.” Happy the man who in his “ heart” trusts. Did you ever notice the middle verse of the whole Bible? It is Psalms 118:8. “ It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man.” The comparison will not bear a thought, the preference is infinite. May the heart always trust, and in God alone. Then we have the outward manifestation of the inward experience, “ I am helped.” Not “ I was,” nor “ I shall be,” but “ I am.” Old Master Trapp says, faith has no tenses, because faith deals with a God whose name is “ I am.” With man we trust and are often disappointed or deceived, but never so with God. III. A declared emotion. “ Therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth, and with my song,” etc. Some people’ s rejoicing is but skin deep. They laugh: their face is surfaced over with smiles, and their mirth bubbles up with silly glee. Nothing is more sad. You may perhaps have heard of Carlini, one of the most celebrated clowns of the beginning of this century, a man whose wit and humour kept all Paris in roars of laughter; but he himself had little share of the cheerfulness he simulated so well and stimulated so much. His comedies brought him no comfort; he was a victim of habitual despondency. He consulted a physician, who gave him some medicine, but advised him by way of recreation to go and hear Carlini. “ If he does not fetch the blues out of you nobody will.” “ Alas, sir,” said he, “ I am Carlini.” And so often men make mirth for others, but live in gloom themselves. Not so the man who has laid hold on God. “ My heart greatly rejoiceth.” And we should tell out our joy. “ With my song will I praise Him.” Hard-worked mothers, toiling labourers, wearied servants, sing praise unto Him. The birds, the flowers, the many-tinted shells in depth of ocean, all praise Him. Do you the same. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The Lord acknowledged and praised I. the Lord acknowledged.1. AS the source of strength. (1) Physical.(2) Intellectual.(3) Spiritual. 2. As a shield. (1) Against temptation.(2) Against the fiery darts of Satan.(3) Against the attacks of personal enemies. II. the Lord trusted.1. With the heart. 2. For the salvation of the soul. 3. For the power to keep from falling. 4. For help in every hour of need. III. the Lord rejoiced is.1. Because the soul is at peace with God. 2. Because of the consciousness of security in God. 3. Because of the manifested presence of God in the soul. IV. the Lord praised.1. For the manifestation of His power. (1) To give strength in the hour of weakness.(2) To give encouragement in the hour of despondency.(3) To give light in the hour of darkness.(4) To give inspiration in the hour of conflict. 2. For the manifestation of His love. (1) In cleansing the heart from all sin.(2) In inscribing the name in heaven.(3) In the adoption of sons into the Divine family.(4) In the blessed assurance of an eternal home in heaven. (O. T. Adams.) The security of those who have God for their strength and shield He is invulnerable whom God shields. The devil might spare his arrows, for not one of them will take effect on him whom God shields. David rested in his God in the midst of trouble, for God was a shield unto him. Oh, man, what about your fortifications? The French, yonder in Paris, put out statements and bulletins about the state of the fortifications--about the condition of the chain of forts that encircle their city. Now, as you walk around the walls of your own soul, have you got God as a shield? You, young fellow, are you shielded by God? Is God your shield? Have you covenanted with Jehovah? If you have, then--oh, hear it!--you are safe, for “ the Lord is thy shield.” (J. Robertson.) Psalms 28:8 My heart trusted in Him; and I am helped.The earlier and the later song There are two actions of the heart--prophecy and memory. In the morning of life I look forward, “ my heart trusted” ; in the afternoon I look back, “ my heart rejoiceth.” The morning trust comes before help; it is the prospect of the West seen from the crimson dawn. The afternoon joy follows help: it is the memory of the East seen from the setting sun. My heart is like the migration of the swallows. Every swallow makes its first migration in faith; but at the second its prophecy is turned into a memory. It is no more the heart trusting, but the heart rejoicing. My soul, which of thy migrations is the nobler? Is it the trusting or the rejoicing, the prophecy or the memory, thy journey from East to West, or thy travelling from West to East? The psalmist prefers Shy evening song--the song of memory. It is the swallow after migration. It is a song in spite of storm. It is a praise of life as it is. Faith may sing of the rose behind the thorn; but love sits upon the rose bush and smiles back upon the thorn. Faith journeys from Egypt to seek the promised land; love rests in the promised land, and blesses the journey from Egypt. Faith vows all worship if it shall come without pain to the Father’ s house; love reposes in the Father’ s house and says: “ It was good for me to have been afflicted.” The song of memory is a song of praise. (G. Matheson, D. D.) Psalms 28:9 Save Thy people, and bless Thine inheritance; feed them also and lift them up for ever.A prayer for the Church militant Here are four choice blessings. I. save thy people. This prayer may refer--1. To their conversion.2. Their sanctification.3. Their recovery from backsliding.4. Their deliverance from temptation.5. The need of the whole church. If we pray this prayer we must try and save souls. II. bless thine inheritance. After men are saved they have still many wants: such as--1. Greater unity in the Church.2. More earnestness.3. More happiness. When we pray this prayer select some out of God’ s inheritance and pray especially for them. And take care practically to prove the sincerity of your prayer. III. feed them also. Hence pray--1. For ministers to be provided.2. A clear insight into God’ s truth.3. Invoke communion with Christ. And here, also, see that we practically carry out this prayer. IV. lift them up for ever. God’ s people want lifting up, they are heavy by nature. They need it--1. In character.2. When in conflict; and--3. At the last, that we may get home to be with God; (C. H. Spurgeon.) An intercession sublimely catholic This short prayer contains a sketch of the blessedness of the good--here called God’ s people and His inheritance. I. deliverance. “ Save Thy people.” They are in danger. From what must men be delivered in order to be made happy? Sin. This is the great enemy.1. Man must be delivered from its guilt. Sin resting on the conscience is the thundercloud of hell; this cloud must be “ blotted out.” 2. Man must be delivered from its dominion. Man under the control of sin must be miserable. He has eternal battling with self, the universe, and God. 3. Man must be delivered from its consequences--remorse, despair, etc. From all this man must be saved, and the salvation can only be accomplished through Jesus Christ. II. guardianship. “ Feed them also,” that is, “ take care of them.” Be to them what the faithful shepherd is to the sheep.1. Ward off the enemy, Keep the lion and the wolf at a distance. 2. Restrain from dangers. Let not the flock fall over precipices, or go into bewildering thickets. 3. Supply with provisions. Lead them into “ green pastures.” All this the Great Shepherd of souls does for His flock. III. sustentation. “ Lift them up for ever.” Deal tenderly with them, as the shepherd with the weaklings of his flock. It is said of Christ that “ He shall lead His people like a flock,” etc. (Homilist.) A benevolent prayer 1. For salvation.2. For blessing.3. For a Shepherd’ s care. (J. E. Scott.) The secret source of the saints’ supplies An old Scotch baron was attacked by his enemy, who encamped before his gates, and would allow no provisions to enter them. He continued the siege long enough to have exhausted the supplies within, but there were no signs of capitulation. Weeks and months passed away, and yet no surrender. After a long time the besieger was surprised, one morning, to see a long line of fish, fresh from the sea, hung over the wall, as much as to say, “ We can feed you; and surely you cannot starve us out so long as there are fish in the sea, for we have an underground connection with it, and the supply is exhaustless!” So Satan may besiege our gates, but he can never compel us to surrender, for our food comes, not through the gates, but from above, and through channels invisible to his eye, the supply of which is inexhaustible.. Psalms 29:1-11 Psalms 29:1-11 Give unto the Lord glory and strength. The glory of God’ s government in the natural world This psalm has been explained, but without sufficient reason, as telling of the power and progress of the Gospel in the latter days. But it is intended to represent the majesty of God, the aids we may expect from Him, and the homage we ought to render to Him. It begins with a summons to the chiefs of the nations, especially the chiefs of Israel, to “ give Unto the Lord glory and strength,” that is, the glory of all their victories; and to do this in the holy sanctuary--worship and praise Him there. There comes the description of the thunder which is declared to be the voice of God, as it rolls and resounds through the vast expanse on high. Beneath its deep-toned peals and reverberations, all living nature shrinks and trembles. It “ breaketh the cedars” ; the thunderbolt which in a moment rends and shatters the Strongest trees, such as were the cedars; or the tempest, which overwhelms and lays them prostrate in a moment. The earthquake is next described. “ He maketh Lebanon and Sirion also to skip like a calf.” That is, the Mamir mountains are shaken and made, as it were, to dance, so that the cedars whirl as the plaything of a child. Not the thunder or the tempest would accomplish this, but the earthquake, which shakes the solid fabric of the globe, and tells so emphatically of the majesty and power of God. The lightning blaze is told of next. The voice of the Lord divides the flames of fire, bidding them either shine under the whole heaven, or retire into its chamber, so that all becomes dark again. He gives to the coruscations of the lightning its beautiful forms and tints, or causes it to descend from the sky in one continuous stream. The wondrous accompaniments of the giving of the law at Sinai--the wilderness of Kadesh--are referred to next (Psalms 68:7-8). The last circumstance introduced seems to be derived from the effect of all. “ The voice of the Lord maketh the hinds to calve.” In their terror the pains of parturition come upon them prematurely, and the hurricane makes bare the forests, penetrates their thick array, discloses their dark recesses, strips and scatters their leaves, and lays their twining honours low. The beasts of prey are driven forth from their hiding-places, and their covert is concealed no longer.. But over all this wild war, as it seems, God rules, and from all receives homage, and His power is for His people. (John Mitchell, D. D.) Psalms 29:2 Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. The worship of holiness Worship meant at first worth-ship, or the condition of being worthy, as friendship is the condition of being friendly. The best worship is not merely to thank God for what He has done for us, but to show ourselves worthy of this. It is very clear that this is the best kind of worship for us; for it results not in mere words, but in character. We are better for our religion, which cannot always be said of the outward kind; and surely it must be more acceptable to God. You would rather have your boy thank you for what you give him, and recognize your kindness, than not. But you would rather even than this have him use what you give him wisely. As between the boy who thanked you very profusely, and even sincerely, and then spent your money in some degrading way, and the boy who took your money carelessly and without a word, but spent it in a way that made you proud of him, you would surely choose the latter. But what is it that makes us worthy? It is “ the beauty of holiness.” And what is holiness? Here we have another word that has lost its first and best meaning. Our dictionary tells us that “ holy” is the same word, essentially, as heal, hale, whale. A man is physically holy when he is healed, or in health, when he is hale, when he is whole. Holiness is wholeness. No man is holy who is not a whole man; and, to be a whole man, he must care for his body as well as for his soul. “ What we shall be it doth not yet appear;” but it is very certain that while we are here, the body is part of the man. Holiness is wholeness; and wholeness means a sound body and a sound soul together. But it means more than that: it means sound judgment, common sense. Good people are the salt of the earth. But it is possible to have too much salt in proportion to your porridge. It would be hard to say that anybody is too good; but it is very certain that many a man’ s goodness would be worth a great deal more if only he had a little practical judgment to direct it. The world needs its dreamers, its men and women of enthusiasm and ideals; but it needs also the calm, steady balance and ballast of the men and women of common sense. There are other things that one needs to be a whole man, as a warm heart and a strong will, without which he does not fulfil the Divine ideal, and so does not render back the worship that God loves. These are enough to show what is meant, so far, by the worship of wholeness. But we have yet to see that mere individual wholeness is not possible unless the individual recognizes larger wholes than himself, of which he is a part. In the first place, in so far as a man is a body, he is a part of the great whole of matter, or the universe. The man who does not realize that he is so far a part of the world cannot be a whole, cannot be holy. The farmer must put his work into line with the material laws of soil and season; the engineer must put his work into line with the laws of steam, and the physician with the laws of the human frame. If either tries to do otherwise, to set up a world of his own invention or imagination, the great universe calmly sweeps over it and him, as the sea sweeps over the child’ s house of sand on the beach. Let a man in any way separate himself from this great universe, and he suffers. As a man faints when he shuts himself into a room, away from the atmosphere that clothes the world, so he faints if he shut himself into his own life and interests. Just as the value of his land grows, though he may do absolutely nothing to it himself, simply because other people come and settle near him, and make a city about him, so his life grows, though he may not try to cultivate it at all, simply because other people are about him, and with him day by day. There are things that a man can do better in solitude than in society. There are necessities that sometimes drive individuals away from their fellows. There are circumstances that sometimes compel men and women to live destitute of the companionship which makes life rich and deep for others. But, though there may be a gain on one side, there is loss on others. There is about the recluse something less than human. The great currents of thought and emotion that sweep through society and keep hearts and minds fresh, as the breezes keep the air fresh, are lost by the recluse. It is a great mistake for those who are in grief or misfortune to shut themselves away either from the fresh air of nature or the fresh air of human companionship. Health is wholeness with nature and with man. To-day, human sympathies are broadening out with the spread of commerce; and, as it slowly dawns upon us that the good of the world is the good of every nation, so into our hearts comes a thrill of pity and desire to help, when we hear of the suffering of any part of this variegated human race. This is the beauty of holiness that is the best worship. In old days, when the sacrifice was not of the soul, but of the body, it was counted an unworthy thing to bring to the altar of God a bullock that had spot or blemish. To-day, it is not a one-sided any more than a stained manhood that makes a man worthy of the Divine love. It must be a whole man, body, mind, heart, will, and soul, all rounded and complete, at one with the world of nature and the world of man,--that is the acceptable offering. (W. H. Lyon) In holy attire Do we really worship God? I. We worship God in the beauty of holiness when worship is characterized by reality. We should act with the same propriety, feel as much awe, dread of vulgarity, entering the old meeting house, as into the court and presence of an earthly king. As much? Yea, how much morel II. We worship God in the beauty of holiness when our worship is characterized by recollection. Let the soul withdraw its faculties from men and time and affairs, come face to face with God and His righteousness, His truth, and His love. Bring by the process of recollection, as Miss Havergal says, your sins for cleansing, your uninterpretable heart, the cares from which you cannot flee, griefs you cannot utter, the joys of love, and the life you would no longer know as your own. III. We worship God in the beauty of holiness when our worship is characterized by receptivity. The open souls are not sent empty away. IV. We worship God in the beauty of holiness when our worship is characterized by responsiveness. I mean, carrying the ideals, impressions, determinations of the sanctuary back into the world and allowing them to mould our temper, habits and sentiments in the labours and recreations of life. If worship be true, character shall grow in strength and gentleness, and influences shall stream from us, bearing no tardy fruits, to our fellow-men. (D. B. Williams.) Psalms 29:3-4 The voice of the Lord is upon the waters.The voice of Jehovah upon the waters The very pathway of the Lord’ s people is said to be “ through the waters” ; and they are a people “ that do business in deep waters.” How Israel, how Peter, found the truth of our text. But when passing through deep waters we are more inclined--and it is a crying evil--to listen to the roar of the waves than to the voice of my precious Christ. I. afflictions are compared to “ waters,” “ billows, . . . deep waters.” And these may come upon the Church at large through hatred of the truth by Papists, Arminians and Socinians and others. And upon private persons, through temporal trials and persecutions. But these are other waters, blessed ones, such as told of in Ezekiel 47:1-23. II. the Lord’ s voice on these waters. It is an overruling and comforting voice, in waters of affliction: of conviction, comfort and direction, in the waters of the sanctuary. III. the attention demanded to such a voice. Listen for it more than to any other whether persecutor or preacher. Supernatural joy comes from listening to the Lord’ s voice. Have you all heard it? If not, may it awaken you now. (Joseph Irons.) The voice of the Lord is full of majesty.-- The majestic voice All God’ s works praise Him, but there are some which praise Him more than others. There are some of His doings upon which there seems to be graven in larger letters than usual the name of God. Such as the lofty mountains, the thunders and lightnings. The old and universal belief was, that the thunder was the voice of God. But there are spiritual voices of God, and of these we would speak. Samuel on his bed heard it. Saul at his conversion. And God often speaks to man by the Holy Spirit. And the voice of God is ever full of majesty. It is so-- I. essentially; it must be so. Think whose voice it is. How God’ s voice is full of majesty because--1. It is true. 2. Commanding. 3. Very powerful. “ Let there be light, and there was light.” 4. And because God’ s voice is His Word, and His Word was His Son the Lord Jesus Christ. II. always. God’ s voice, like man’ s, has various tones, but it is always full of majesty.1. Let the tone be what it may, whether harsh as in threatening, or sweet as when consoling, or august as when commanding. “ Speak to the children of Israel, that they go forward.” And at the Resurrection of the dead, and at the Judgment Day. 2. And in all the different degrees of its loudness. Some calls of God are loud, others gentle but all majestic. 3. And in all its mediums. The meanness of a speaker for God does not hinder this. III. in its effects.1. It is a breaking voice. “ The voice of the Lord breaketh the cedars.” The proudest and most stubborn sinner is broken before Him. 2. Moving. “ He maketh them (the mountains) also to skip like a calf.” No mountain of error, falsity, or sin can stand unmoved when He speaks. 3. Dividing. “ Divideth the flames of fire.” Where God’ s Word is faithfully preached it is ever a dividing power. 4. Shaking “ shaketh the wilderness.” God’ s Word does this in men’ s hearts. 5. Bringing forth--“ maketh the hinds to calve.” So God’ s Word makes the soul bring forth holy desire and joy, and whatever a man has in him it has to come forth. 6. Discovering--“ discovereth the forests.” Hypocrites hide, but God discovers them. Oh, listen to His voice bidding you believe and be saved. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The Voice of the Lord This sacred poem from which our text is taken, is one of the most elevated and sublime to which the poetry of inspiration itself has given birth. But the words are capable of other than their primary application. I. consider the modes in which God speaks to man.1. Through Nature--see this psalm, 2. Through the dispensations and in the government of Providence. 3. Through His revealed truth, and-- 4. Chief of all, through His Son. II. the attributes by which these communications are prominently distinguished--Power and Majesty. Consider--1. The glory of His nature from whom they proceed. 2. The contents of the communications themselves. They speak of the Divine perfections and chiefly of God’ s method of redeeming sinful man. 3. The issues in which attention to, or neglect of, these communications is to terminate. They are identified with the destinies of man’ s deathless soul. III. THE tribute which these communications made by God to man imperatively require.1. Faith. 2. Gratitude. 3. Prayer for ourselves and for our fellow-men. How, then, shall you who are despising these communications of God answer it in the great day of Judgment? Oh, come to Jesus now. (James Parsons.) Psalms 29:9 In His temple doth every one speak of His glory. Nature’ s should of praise “ In His temple everything saith Glory!” The temple of which the psalmist here speaks is the temple of Nature. He believed that every object in the visible universe was engaged in singing paeans of praise to its Creator--“ fire and hail.” Too many of us lack almost entirely this sixth sense, “ the vision and the faculty divine;” we hear scarce a whisper of this great shout of praise that goes up from all creation. But in what sense does everything in Nature cry, Glory! In what sense does the material universe sing the praises of God? It does so, I doubt not, directly. For God’ s pleasure all things are and were created, and doubtless the incense which arises from Nature’ s altars, the songs which are chanted in her leafy aisles, the perfume of her flowers, the beauty of her landscapes, are as grateful to the Creator as man’ s acts of worship. “ The trees clap their hands, and She little hills rejoice together before the Lord.” But there is another sense in which natural objects praise God, and it is this we shall meditate upon; they awaken gratitude in the heart of man and thus transmute themselves into conscious praise. Man’ s soul is the great organ upon which Nature plays her anthems of praise; the five senses are the keys; and through the medium of this instrument every created thing in God’ s Temple crieth, Glory! I. nature incites man to praise by her beauty, Think of one or two of those myriad appeals to our admiration which Nature makes, and which, for the most part, go unregarded.1. Reflect how God’ s glory reacheth unto the clouds. The clouds, perhaps more than all other objects in Nature, teach us the immanence of God, teach us how His presence may penetrate and transfigure even what is most commonplace and familiar. For what are clouds? When they rest on the surface of the earth they are just choking fogs and clinging mists disfiguring everything they touch. But raise them away into the purer strata of the air to which they rightly belong; let the wind churn them into flakes of snow, and the moon pierce them with its silver arrows; and the sun suffuse them with its golden ardours; let them become the womb of the lightning and the chariot of the storm--and they present such visions of glory as can be seen nowhere else. Thus God would teach us that evil is but good in its wrong place, and that the fogs and mists of earth’ s sins and sorrows are the substance out of which God will weave hereafter golden visions of ethereal beauty. 2. Think what praise we owe God for the loveliness of all watery forms with which He has robed and adorned the earth, and of which clouds are but a part. The brooklet seeks the river, and the river empties itself into the sea, and the sea sends aloft its multitude of clouds, and the clouds form themselves anew on the face of the earth. That which is part of a stagnant ditch to-day may be a radiant dewdrop tomorrow, and what is now a peaceful pool may anon be a part of the stormy ocean which writhes its white fingers in the shrouds of sinking ships. But whether in forms of sublimity or of tenderness, how varied is its loveliness, and how varied are the notes of praise it should educe from man. Think of it as the iceberg and the glacier; as the snow that robes the mountain, and the hoar-frost that bejewels the branches; as the foam ball upon the torrent and the dewdrop on the rose; as the cataract spanned by the rainbow, and the crystal pool, the mirror of the woods 1 And then, perceiving how beautiful these things are in themselves, and what a throb of gratitude they awaken in the heart of him who feels their beauty, you will be impelled to link the gratitude of conscious and unconscious nature together, and to cry with the psalmist, “ All Thy works praise Thee, O God, and Thy saints give thanks unto Thee.” 3. Whether we gaze downward at our feet, where God has covered the earth with a carpet of emerald, and embroidered it with flowers, and, lest we should weary of their colours, has decreed that they shall bloom and fade, and be succeeded by others, month by month, and season by season; or visit those mountain regions which are, as an eminent writer has said, “ the great cathedrals of the earth, with their gates of rock, pavements of cloud, choirs of stream and stone, altars of snow, and vaults of purple traversed by the continual stars” ; whether it be the lichen which softens the scarred ruin or the forest which clothes a mountain side which engages our attention; the insect which flutters its hour of sunshine and is gone, or the star whose light takes a thousand years to bridge the space between it and us--alike, if we have indeed ears to hear, shall we be impelled to confess that everything in God’ s temple crieth, “ Glory!” --alike we shall declare with the psalmist, “ Thou, Lord, hast made me glad through Thy works, and I will rejoice in giving praise for the operation of Thy hands.” II. nature incites us to praise by her bounty. The beauty of those natural objects of which I have spoken appeals to our higher nature, but our lower nature also needs ministering to. “ Man shall not live by bread alone,” but without bread he cannot live at all. And, therefore, Nature awakens our gratitude by her material as well as her spiritual gifts. The clouds not only delight the eye; they are, as a psalmist calls them, “ the river of God,” and rain plenteousness on the earth. The flowers of the field do not merely charm us by their loveliness, they yield up to us their colours and their perfumes; they serve us with their seeds and their fibres; they give us medicine to heal our sickness. The oak, the pine, the cedar, and the ash are not only types of strength and gracefulness; they yield timber for the ships and rafters for the homestead. The mountains serve not only to sanctify and delight the human heart by their sublimity, they help to make the earth habitable by purifying the air and giving birth to the rivers; without them the ground would become stagnant morass and the atmosphere would breathe pestilence. The mighty ocean, which is, in calm, as a waving veil of iridescent colours, and in storm-- The mirror where th’ Almighty’ s form Glasses itself in tempests, is also the helper of man, bearing on its bosom the argosies of many nations, and in its depths the harvest of the sea, without which the harvest of the land would be insufficient for our needs. All nature thus ministers to us-- The whole is either our cupboard of food, Or cabinet of pleasure, And, moreover, nothing is too insignificant to be serviceable. Says Dr. Macmillan: “ Even the hoary lichen on the dusky rock, that has drunk ill all the hues of the spectrum and made no sign, yields, when artificially treated, its hidden store of colour, and produces a violet and golden hue not unworthy of the fairest garden flower.” III. nature incites to praise by the moral qualities she educes in man. This is Nature’ s chief glory, her highest honour, that she is the instrument by which God educates human souls and fits them for their immortal destiny, For we are placed here under the discipline of Nature, and she is a severe task-mistress, from whom nothing is to be had for the mere asking. Nature exacts laborious toil in exchange for all her gifts. She hides her pearls in the depths of the sea, her gold in the sands of the river or the crevices of the rocks; she buries the metals, man’ s most useful allies, and the coal to smelt those metals, deep down in the heart of the earth; she secretes her balms and her subtle essences where even the cunning chemist can scarce track them. Her most powerful forces, such as electricity, are ever the most elusive and the hardest to be subdued. Everything man extorts from Nature he must win, not only by the sweat of his brow, but by the sweat of his brain. He wrestles with her for her blessing as Jacob wrestled with the angel at Penuel, till almost he seems crippled with the strain. But the conflict proves at last that as a prince he has power with God and has prevailed; he wins the blessing, and, lo! it is not only corn and oil and wine, but rich endowments of mind and heart as well. Think about it, and you will see that almost all the highest moral qualities of our race--patience, endurance, forethought, courage, mutual helpfulness--are the outcome of the necessity to work which Nature lays upon us. (A. M. Mackay, B. A.) Glory! glory! glory! - I. The statement of this verse holds good when we consider the temple of the universe. In it everything says, Glory! The whole universe is, to the devout mind, as one huge sanctuary in which all things show forth the praise of their Creator. Incline your ears to listen, open your hearts to catch the sweet sounds, as flowers, and clouds, and beasts, and birds, rocks, hills and trees, declare that God is worthy to be praised! We must not let them sing alone. We’ ll take our key from them, and say, Glory, too. II. in the temple at Jerusalem everything saith, Glory. I know that when this psalm was written the wondrous pile on Zion’ s hill had not been commenced. But it was already in David’ s heart to build it, and, for aught I know, some of the plans of the sacred premises were by this time in his hands. With a prophet’ s eye he foresaw the building of that holy Temple--its grace, and its grandeur. As Abraham saw Christ’ s day and was glad, so David, with a seer’ s vision, perceived the temple crowning Mount Moriah, and said of it, “ In His temple everything saith, Glory.” III. We may refer this also to our blessed saviour, for Jesus called His body the Temple of God. I sometimes think that David, who already foresaw his greater Son, may have thought of Jesus when he said, “ Everything in His Temple saith, Glory.” A greater than the temple is here. Study Christ’ s life, and you will find that He lived to God’ s glory from first to last. At His birth the angels sang, “ Glory to God in the highest.” In His boyhood He must be about His Father’ s business, and all through life He did always the things that pleased Him. Everything about Christ, God’ s Temple, said, Glory: every word was to the praise of the Father, every work glorified Him upon the earth, every grace and characteristic reflected the glory of God the Father, for Christ was the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His Person. “ Twas when He came to die that His body, broken for our sakes, said, Glory! loudest and most emphatically. IV. Is Christ’ s church everything says, glory. Oh, to get out of the set-Hess of our proprieties. “ Everything in His temple saith, Glory.” V. This brings me to a still more personal matter, viz. the temples of our persons. “ Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost?” Does everything in the temple say, Glory? Are all your powers devoted to the service of God? Are all the wondrous influences that you exercise employed to the praise of Jesus? Is the royal standard flying over every gate of Mansoul? Does it float above the citadel? Do our highest faculties of thought, and memory, and affection, and imagination, pay to God the homage that is due unto His Name? “ The chief end of man is to glorify God, and to enjoy Him for ever.” Oh, for this full consecration, this entire surrender. VI. Let me remind you of the heavenly temple to which, as the years fly past, we are hastening on. Oh, for a peep into the land of light. John helps us, for it was his privilege to gaze right into the Glory. There His servants serve Him day and night in His Temple. There the hearts of the redeemed sing out His praise, like the voice of many waters. (T. Spurgeon.) Psalms 29:10 The Lord sitteth upon the flood; yea, the Lord sitteth King for ever: God’ s throne upon the flood; or, Divine control There is a well-known line of an English poet, which tells us to “ look through Nature up to Nature’ s God. ” And not a few of our national poets have nobly done this. But the Bible is the supreme example. Its writers did not refuse to look at Nature; they were ever doing so. I. That the course of events on earth is full of changes. Calm today, storm to-morrow. II. but “ jehovah sits upon the flood.” The changes of human life do not disturb Him. Yet more, He controls them all, “ He sitteth King for ever.” Natural science shows how the smallest and seemingly most insignificant events are all guided by law. Nothing is arbitrary or of chance. God watches over and controls them all.1. Scripture asserts this. There may be seasons when His people seem to be forsaken so that their enemies ask exultingly, “ Where is now their God?” And yet, even then, the answer is, “ Our God is in the heavens; He hath done whatsoever He hath pleased.” 2. Fulfilled prophecies confirm it. For example, the Advent of Christ. That was predicted seven hundred years before He came, and that He should be born at Bethlehem. 3. The continuance of true religion in spite of all opposition. III. the manner in which events are overruled.1. By general laws. See the illustration of the text, “ the flood.” That obeys the law of its nature. Now one of God’ s general laws is this--that sin is always followed by suffering--and another is--that generation shall be followed by generation: wicked men are removed to make way for better. 2. By special interposition. See the miracles. IV. lessons.1. Let the Church of Christ be comforted. 2. Also each individual Christian. (F. Tucker, B. A.) King at the flood The king is revealed in the time of the flood. Smaller personalities appear kingly when the waters are smooth; they disappear at the flood. Military officers are very much alike when they are on the parade ground; their genius and quality are revealed on the battlefield. The captain of the boat and the landsmen seem equally efficient when the boat glides over still waters, and the days pass in a long picnic, and games are played on the deck; but when the whirlwind awakes, and the boat staggers like a drunken man, the king is seen enthroned! I will measure and judge any one who seeks the throne of my life by his demeanour and worth amid my crises. Among all the candidates for honour and homage I will yield the crown of my obedience to the one who proves to be king at the flood. Let us look round upon two or three men who have come to one of life’ s emergencies, and who are in need of a sovereign helper.1. “ I am come unto deep waters where the floods overflow me.” What is the character of this man’ s crisis? “ Iniquities prevail against me.” He is the victim of unclean desire. The inner rooms of the spirit, the holy place, is defiled. He is unable to contemplate the beautiful and to love it. The floods of carnality overflow him. Or perhaps the victim is overborne by the spirit of envy which too frequently manifest itself in deceit and treachery, or he is possessed by the passion of jealousy which makes him a conspirator against his neighbour’ s good. Whatever may be the type of the man’ s besetment, the flood is at the gate, and he is overpowered by the invasion of its unclean deeps. What shall we say to him? One would perhaps advise him that the secret of his redemption will consist in “ plain living and high thinking.” But the counsel is worthless. We are advising a man who is overborne by appetite to control the appetite, and suggesting that a man who is the victim of his own thought should order it in beautiful regularity. How fares it if we call in the Lord Himself? The Master’ s speech is full of healing confidence and hope. He speaks of a clean heart and a right spirit. He not only unfolds an ideal, but He offers the power by which it can be realized. The unclean channels are flushed and cleansed, and all the powers in the life are quickened and revived. 2. “ Save me, O Lord! for the waters are come into my soul.” What is the type of this man’ s sorrow? It is a flood of trouble, perhaps arising from common circumstances such as we are familiar with in our own life. (1) Here is a case of slow cancer. The growth is eating its way, but, oh, so slowly! Day after day, and night after night, the wolf gnaws at the vitals. Let us speak to the victim. What shall we say to her? Matthew Arnold once said:--“ In poetry our race will find an ever sure and surer stay.” What kind of poetry can we give to the cancer-ridden? If God be gone and the Man of Nazareth is only a pleasing fiction, and immortality only a winsome dream, whatever we offer will be only as dead ashes; gravel where the soul is pining for bread. Let us call in the Lord God. The very thought of His appearing is comforting. “ What I do thou knowest not now.” “ When thou passest through the waters I will be with thee.” (2) Here are a father and mother whose son is in the far country. Their hopes are blighted, their ambition is overthrown. They are overwhelmed, and the waters have come into their souls. What says the world about their child? “ He is too far gone; . . . he is a hopeless case; . . . he is too old to mend; . . . there is no remedy for a bad heart.” The world has no ministry to offer in the time of the flood. Let us call in the Lord God. Here is His speech: “ What man of you having a hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine and go after that which is lost until he find it?” What a hopeful and uplifting word to speak to a broken-hearted father! 3. All Thy waves and Thy billows have gone over me.” “ The sorrows of death compass me.” This type of overwhelming sorrow is one of the most familiar sights in the common way. Here is a beautiful wedded, life. The early intimacy was like a spring day. The wedding was only the welding of ties already sanctified. The home was a haunt of love and peace. Then a storm came, and the billows rolled against the little sanctuary. The sorrows of death compassed it, and the wife is gone I Now, leave God outside, and let us go inside. What shall we say to the bereaved husband? Shall we tell him that “ other friends remain,” that “ loss is common to the race” ? Let us call in Jesus. “ Thy brother shall rise again.” “ I go to prepare a place for you, that where I am there ye shall be also.” “ There remaineth therefore a rest for the people of God.” “ Weeping may endure for a night, but-joy cometh in the morning.” “ He that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live.” Who is King? “ The Lord sat as King at the flood.” (J. H. Jowett, M. A.) A turbulent scene and a tranquil God This psalm shows the influence of Godliness upon the intellectual faculties, the social sympathies, and the religious instincts of human nature. The text gives us:-- I. A turbulent scene. “ A flood.” A flood suggests--1. Commotion. The moral domain is all commotion. Look at it spiritually: “ There is no peace, saith my God,” etc. Look at it socially,--nationally. Souls are all in commotion here. 2. Innovation. It was broken down barriers, etc. So have souls. 3. Distress. It is furious and violent, etc. The moral world is not like a river, flowing on peacefully in its channel. Nor like the ocean, moving, even when most tumultuous, within its own proper boundaries. It is a “ flood.” II. A tranquil God. “ The Lord sitteth.” This implies on His part--1. A consciousness of His right to reign. If He had any moral misgivings He would not be at ease. An usurper could not be tranquil over such a tumultuous empire. 2. A consciousness of a supremacy of power to reign. He has no feeling of incapacity, lie can control with consummate ease the whole. We rejoice in His supremacy over the flood. (Homilist.) Psalms 29:11 The Lord will give strength unto His people: the Lord will bless His people with peace.God’ s gifts to His own I. the blessings promised,1. Strength. How needed this is, for sin has made man weak. He tries to hide his weakness, but in vain. Nor can he heal himself. And after he is converted he still needs God’ s strength, “ who giveth power to the faint.” He would certainly fall and perish without it. And from this gift of strength comes-- 2. Peace. The mariner in the storm is at peace because he knows that his ship is sound and strong and his pilot skilful. II. the recipients of these promises. “ His people.” These are they who have been chosen from the beginning, brought to Christ, and received His adoption as Sons of God. Two chief marks of His people are--1 Humility.2. Faith. And these shall be blessed with peace. Some men are cursed with it--the peace of indifference, hypocrisy, and the hardened heart. For unbelief produces a counterfeit peace when God lets a sinner alone in his sin. (Stephen Bridge, M. A.) Promise of strength and peace I. what is the value of the blessings here promised?1. Strength--to contend with-- (1) The powers of darkness (Ephesians 6:12; 1 Peter 5:8; 2 Timothy 2:26) (2) The world--a continual snare to the people of God. Its smiles and frowns, its promises and threatenings, are equally dangerous to their peace and safety. It draws them from the path of duty by flattering prospects of pleasure, of wealth, of honour, of ease, or power. It strives to shake their firmness by the dread of poverty, shame, or persecution. (3) Their own natural depravity, and the sin remaining in their hearts (Galatians 5:17; Romans 7:23). 2. Peace--the great blessing of the Gospel (John 14:27). (1) Peace with God--through Christ (Ephesians 1:6). (2) Peace of mind (2 Corinthians 4:8; 2 Timothy 1:12). II. who are the Lord’ s people, to whom these blessings belong? Those who value them; feel their need of them; and are earnestly seeking of Him an interest in them. (E. Cooper, M. A.) The peace of God, the strength of His people Our text in its first clause points out the process by which we are prepared, and the second is a declaration of the privileges which are to be enjoyed by Christians. I. what is that peace which God promises to his people? “ My peace I give unto you.” The peace of Christ--enjoyed by Him, and bequeathed to His followers--was not a peace resulting from a sense that sin was forgiven, for He had done “ no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth.” It must have been the thorough harmony which there was between His will and the Divine, His perfect acquiescence in every appointment of the Father, His undeviating confidence in His protection, and His imperturbable assurance of His love. These we may believe to have been the elements in the peace of a being, who was “ holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners” ; but who, notwithstanding His freedom from all guilt, had to make His way through much tribulation to a throne prepared for Him at His Father’ s right hand. And, though there must be respects in which the peace attainable by ourselves will differ from that enjoyed by our Saviour, still, forasmuch as He left His own peace to His Church, we may expect that the points of resemblance will be more numerous than those of distinction. We have every right to contend that there will enter into the constituent elements of a Christian’ s peace, that harmony with the Divine will, that acquiescence in the Divine dealings, that confidence in the Divine protection, and that assurance of the Divine love, which must have composed thee peace of Christ; for these belonged not to the Saviour as He differed from ourselves, but rather as He was a man, living the life of faith in the midst of trials and temptations. If the peace of God reigns in your heart, you will have a consciousness that sin is forgiven; an ever-growing earnestness in striving after holiness; a tranquillity undisturbed by the calamities of life; a hope superior to the terrors of death. II. the connection between this peace and that strength with which it is identified in the text, In spiritual things, the Christian has need of being strengthened both in the head and heart; and now let us see whether in giving him “ peace,” God does not give him “ strength” both in the one and in the other.1. First as to the head. You are always to distinguish very carefully between what we may call the offensive and the defensive weapons of a Christian; between the arguments with which he may attempt to beat down the infidelity of another, and those which may suffice to the keeping off infidelity from himself. If the believer know little or nothing of the external testimony on the side of revelation, he will be no match for his opponent, and must not expect to undermine his scepticism. But will he, on this account, be himself an easy prey to the infidel? is there nothing to be expected but that, because unequipped with weapons for an offensive war, he will be found unprepared to maintain a defensive? We reply, that, on the contrary, his mind is too well strengthened to be carried by the assaults of an enemy. We are speaking of a man who, although he may not have studied what are called the evidences of Christianity, has been long acting on the supposition that the Bible is divine, obeying its precepts as the precepts of God, and relying on its promises as the promises of God. And we can be sure of such a man, that he has not proceeded in this course without becoming his own witness to the truth of the Scriptures; acting on the precepts, he has found himself partaker of the promises, and thus has obtained simple, irresistible evidence that the book is true, and therefore divine. 2. See next how this peace will strengthen the heart, or the affections. It is through our not setting the standard of Christian privilege sufficiently high, that even believers are so often overcome, whether by the world or the flesh. If they aimed at what we are sure they might acquire--an abiding, elevating sense of God’ s love and favour; an actual delight in Him; and such an anticipation of heavenly joys as would make them already dwellers in His presence; they would have comparatively no relish for base and transient pleasures, and would therefore be little moved by the solicitations which now too frequently prevail. If the heart were thoroughly and deeply engaged in religion, they might oppose, as it were, pleasures to pleasures, riches to riches, honours to honours--the pleasures, riches, honours, which God alone can bestow, to those which are proffered by the world; and thus would they be attached to the service of piety, by the very same ties which attach others to the service of sin, even the ties of inclination and preference. It ought to be thus; and it would be thus, if greater heed were given to religion, as an internal, vital, happy-making thing. But so long as Christians remain in a languid, half-hearted condition, slaving through duties in place of finding them privileges, talking about heaven in place of obtaining its foretastes, obeying God as a master, in place of delighting in Him as a Father,--what wonder if the world often gain an easy victory, so that what is ignoble attracts them, what is transient detains, what is worthless fascinates? And it is in thorough agreement with these statements that the psalmist in our text identifies strength with peace. We have shown you, that in this peace are included an abiding sense of Divine favour, a firm hope of future happiness, and such earnests of heaven as shall stimulate, whilst they gratify, the Christian. And what power will the world, with its vanities, its gauds, its riches, its pleasures, have over an individual in whom this peace abides? III. How This peace of God may be obtained. If you would enjoy this peace, you must cultivate a devotional habit--a habit of communion with your Father which is in heaven. We can hardly doubt that one great reason why Christians make so little progress, and have so little enjoyment is, that they are so scant in their private devotions. God is ready to bestow great blessings; but then they must be asked for, and importuned for. “ Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it.” We have but to enlarge our desires; and God will increase His supplies. Let none of us then wonder if he have not much of that Divine “ peace which passeth all understanding,” and if, in consequence, he be often overcome by temptations and disturbed by fears, if he be little in the habit of secret prayer and meditation. It is a good thing to be diligent in public worship; but nothing can make up for negligence in private. You may learn and obtain much in church, and so forsake not the assembling of yourselves; but it is, after all, in the closet that you may expect the best lessons, and the finest glimpses of immortality. See to it, then, ye who name the name of Christ, that ye be frequent and fervent in private prayer to God. Thus shall our text be fulfilled in your experience, and the Lord Himself shall “ bless you with peace.” (H. Melvill, B. D.) The Christian’ s peace Our text closes this wondrously beautiful psalm. There seems to be an allusion to the priestly benediction with which the sacred services of Israel were concluded--“ The Lord bless thee and keep thee . . . and give thee peace.” And it points us to that which, through Christ, we now obtain. Consider, therefore-- I. the nature of the blessing promised,--peace.1. The peace, or sweet and delightful composure of mind, which arises from the sense of reconciliation with God. 2. The peace which arises from the practical influence and operation of religion upon the human passions. Let the unconverted confess the truth that these are the sources of most painful and distressing agitation. Do they not carry the elements of wild disturbance within them? Now the influence of religion is to subdue all these and thus exempt the people of God from the chief miseries which have yet been felt upon earth. Christians--is it not so? II. what are the considerations by which this blessing may be most fully exhibited in its surprising value? It is evidently intended, by the manner in which it is here spoken of, that we should consider it as of high and incomparable worth. It is the climax of the psalm. And this estimate of it is just, for--1. This peace greatly exalts and dignifies the nature of those who possess it. 2. It is a sure antidote and support amidst all possible visitations of sorrow. See Isaiah 32:1-20, at end; Hebrews 11:1-40., and see the history of the apostles, the martyrs and Christ’ s Church in all ages. And the sweetness of this peace is the beginning of the quiet of the skies, the Sabbath of our God. III. what are the impressions this subject should produce?1. Gratitude and devotedness. 2. Those who have it not should be filled with desire for it. You cannot know real peace until this is yours. (James Parsons.) The blessings of peace--they are the gift of God I. the blessings of peace. Man appears from the harmless make of his body, the tenderness of his affections, the sovereignty of his mind, and his dependence upon others’ help, as well as by the rules of life prescribed to him by express revelation, to be formed for a social inoffensive creature. Now the natural state of each being is the happy one. And the happiness of peace is like that of health, it spreads through the whole of the civil, as that doth of the animal, constitution. We do not perceive the value of either until we have lost them. Therefore, to discern the advantages of peace, we must recollect the miseries of war.1. The expense, which falls mainly on the poor. 2. The toil, hardship and suffering, and the loss by death. 3. The disaster done to commerce. 4. Its wickedness in its origin, in its progress, and in its effect. Nevertheless it is sometimes unavoidable. It was so in our own case. But we have made terms of agreement, and we rejoice that war is at an end. II. the blessing of peace is God’ s gift. He puts men’ s minds upon the seeking after it. He is the giver of all good. And such events as peace and war cannot but occupy a distinguished place in the scheme of Providence. III. To entitle us to the blessings of peace we must be his people. What is our case? Are we God’ s people? Do we live as set forth in Titus 2:11-14? Do we know ourselves by this picture? Is it not rather as told in Jeremiah 4:22? How can we hope for the favour of Providence if we continue ungodly and regardless of religion and virtue as our nation too much is? What must follow? Read Jeremiah 23:14; Jeremiah 23:17; Jeremiah 23:19; Jeremiah 23:22. Remember, too, what Azariah said to Asa (2 Chronicles 15:1-2). A tottering state cannot be supported or a sinking one raised without national reformation (Jeremiah 6:9; Jeremiah 6:14; Isaiah 57:21). And in this each individual must bear his own share. The fewer that’ will amend, the more need we add to their number. Therefore we speak as bidden (2 Timothy 4:1-2; 2 Corinthians 5:20). (T. Seeker.) Peace Peace is interior repose of spirit: and this repose of spirit, as we know, is the result of the satisfaction of spiritual needs. In the degree in which we are possessed by any conscious need, and know that that need is not met, in that condition, of necessity, we are in a position of restlessness. But when this need is met, then immediately our inner being passes into a state of peace, and then we say that, the Christian life is a life of peace. This, then, is the life to which God calls us--a life of interior spiritual satisfaction in which we rest in the satisfaction of possession, and in the satisfaction of well-based hope. What we are craving for as the condition of peace is this--that we should be living in right union with our God, for in that union is the satisfaction of our every need. When, then, we are told that the Lord shall give His people the blessing of peace, what we are taught is this--that God, and especially now in the days of the Christian economy, is bringing His people into that right relation with Himself in which they find their peace in Him, What is the first essential condition of our being in right union with God? It is, is it not?--the fruit of that great primal religious need, the need of the conscience. We are perfectly aware that we have passed into wrong relations with God, that the cause of that wrong relation is sin, and that of necessity sin involves this separation from God, this passing into wrong relations with Him. Forgiveness means always, the restitution of relations of peace between him who forgives and he who is forgiven. It carries with it much more, but it does mean this--if there is variance between one who is wronged and the wrong-doer, that variance can only be changed into right relations and ensuing peace by the forgiveness of him who is wronged. This is the first thing God does. He reveals Himself to us in Christ Jesus our Lord, who is the great High Priest of humanity, in the power of His passion, who has passed into right-hand relationship with Himself, to reinstate them in right relationship by His forgiveness. And this is not all. You see forgiveness is never really effected unless the one to whom that forgiveness is extended is in a position in which he will receive that forgiveness. And God by His Holy Spirit works upon the heart’ s of sinners, makes them penitents, speaks to them as penitents, speaks to them His forgiveness, and that forgiveness is effectual in reinstating in union with Himself the one who has been alienated from Him by sin. This is the first condition, but there is peace even greater than the peace of reconciliation; peace deeper than that of the conscience rejoicing in the Divine forgiveness--I mean the peace of fruition. I am in union with God, and the effect of that is this--His light illuminates my mind; He reveals Himself to me; I know Him not simply with the external knowledge in which a student attains to the knowledge of Him, but I know by a direct interior revelation of Himself unto my mind. He speaks to me and I know; I see with the eyes of my understanding the fair beauty of my God. And when 1 know God, and in the measure in which I know God, I know mental rest. What is the only rational position of the creature in the presence of the Creator? What is the only true exercise of that moral freedom wherewith I am endowed, and consciously through the mysterious possession of my will? It is a mystery. “ Our wills are ours we know not how,” but the meaning of this mysterious gift is clear. “ Our wills are ours to make them Thine.” “ Thy service is perfect freedom,” and my will yields to the attraction of that vision in which my heart delights, only it is drawn into conformity with the will of God; and the end of that conformity of will breathed out here in active obedience and in patient endurance is the very ascension of my spirit unto God. It is the realizing of the law of sacrifice. By it I return unto God, lie upon the altar of God’ s heart, and am consumed with the fire of God’ s communicated grace. And if rest of heart is in God’ s knowledge, if rest of heart is in God’ s love, rest of will is in conformity with God’ s will. But, yet again, He calls me to another rest, and that is the rest of activity. Filled with the knowledge and love of God, the will raised up into active conformity with the will of God, activity becomes necessary; and thus lifted up into union with God, I pass into His Sabbath. But what is the Sabbath of God? Is it a life of inactivity? Is the attitude even consistent with inactivity? “ My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.” Within the limits of His Divine Being the work ceaseth not. As the God of nature His work ceaseth not. Within the Church as the God of grace His work ceaseth not. And what is His work in Himself? What is His work in the universe? What is His work in the Church? What is His work in the individual soul but the work of peacemaker I Behold, maintaining the harmony of His own eternal life within Himself, maintaining the harmony of all these forces combined in such marvellous unity in creation, restoring broken harmony in man’ s interior being, restoring the true harmony of man with man because He has restored the true harmony between God and man; the Lord shall give His people the blessing of peace, and in this great work He associates Himself with us. And yet once more, still it is true our rest is partial as far as present experience. The peace of conscience is often troubled by our fight with renewed failures and sins. Our knowledge is partial, our love fluctuates, our wills tremble, our service here is maimed; but all this is transitory. Here in a measure our position is a position of a hunger and thirst; and yet in that hunger and thirst there is rest. “ Blessed are they that do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled.” In restlessness there is rest to-day. And the rest of hop"fountain of all that courage and boldness"e! Quickly the years are flying by, shorter and shorter is the way that lies before us in our earthly pilgrimage; clearer and clearer before our gaze as the years go by comes the vision of Jerusalem the Golden, the vision of peace. I dare not say that that is mine, for I may fail even yet; but as year by year goes by, and I know the constancy of His love and the mighty power of His grace, each flying year that finds me at its close, not by my fidelity but through His mercy, with God’ s hope in my heart and His peace in my conscience, strengthens within me the blessed hope of perseverance to the end of life--the blessed hope of perfected peace. (G. Body, D. D.) Peace considered as God’ s blessing I. How valuable a good peace is in itself, as it stands opposed to bloody and destructive wars.1. Consider war in its causes--the wickedness of men, and the just vengeance of God. 2. Consider war in itself--the destruction of creatures made after the image of God. 3. Consider war in its consequences and effects. II. what things are requisite to make this a real and complete blessing, capable of being appropriated unto god’ s own peculiar people.1. Conjunction with copious effusion of the Spirit of God (Ezekiel 29:23-29). 2. When the gospel of peace has its free course, and a large spread in the world (Micah 4:2-3). 3. When, according to Divine dictates, kings do reign and princes decree justice (Proverbs 7:15; Isaiah 1:26). 4. When God gives pastors after his own heart. 5. When hereupon the Divine government obtains, and takes place in the minds and consciences of men (Psalms 67:1-7). 6. When there is a manifest prevalency of Divine love among men that bear the same name of Christians. 7. When God appears to be reconciled to such a people. For in His favour is life. There is a spiritual sort of blessing that may be enclosed in the external blessing, and particularly in this of peace. Such an external blessing as that of peace is not a complete blessing. Because it is no argument of Gold’ s special favour. Men are not made by it the better men. They may by it become so much the worse men. “ The prosperity of fools destroys them.” The first Scipio opened the way to the Roman power, the second to their luxury. Their virtue languished, and they were conquered by their own vices, who before could conquer the world. Man, notwithstanding an external peace, may be as miserable in this, and in another world, as if they had never known it. III. see what cause of thanksgiving we have, with reference to peace as a general good; and also what cause of supplication, that we may have peace as the special blessing of God’ s people. Let us pray--1. That there may be a larger diffusion of vital religion, wherein stands, indeed, man’ s being at peace with God. 2. That there may be that spirit as a spirit of mutual love among Christians, to reconcile them to one another. (John Howe, M. A.) The peace of the devil, and the peace of God Peace and rest are two names for a flower which buds on earth, but is only found full-blown in heaven; yet even the faint perfume of the unopened blossom excites our strong desire. Every precious thing in this world is sure to be counterfeited. If the government mint issues gold and silver money, rogues will be found to make spurious coin. Satan is the cunning ape of God; and whatever God does, he tries to do the like with his enchantments. Hence, while there is a peace more precious than the gold of Ophir, there is another peace which is worse than worthless. When a soul is borne up upon the waters of false peace, its ease is hopeless till that peace is dried up, and the soul is stranded in self-despair. I. the devil’ s peace (Luke 11:21).1. This peace is often merely outward. The plough-boy, when he goes through the churchyard, is afraid of ghosts, and therefore whistles to keep his courage up; and so, many who are loaded with apprehension try to conceal it by those flippant songs in which they boast of “ driving dull care away.” In the secret of their soul that same dull care sits on the throne of their hearts, and is not to be driven away by the ballad, and the fiddle and the dance. 2. This peace is false. A sinner may say, “ I am at peace as to God” ; but if this comes of forgetting or ignoring Him, it is a sorry sham. If a man has to forget God before he has peace, that fact betrays a fatal secret. If the man, on remembering God, is troubled, then his peace is a mere writing on the sand. Better know that we are at war, if it be so, than dote upon a peace which is a fool’ s, paradise, and only exists in fancy. 3. To many this peace comes through ignorance. They know not that sin is a deadly viper, and therefore they toy with it as with a bird. 4. With many, however, it is not so much ignorance as thoughtlessness. This is one of the devil’ s great nets, in which he entangles many. If he can keep you from thinking; he will keep you from believing. 5. This peace, in many cases, is the result of carnal security. Will things always be as they have been? Can you be sure of it? Are you not warned that it will not be so? Your eye is not so clear as once it was; your limbs are not so vigorous as once they were. If there be no change in the world, there is a great change in you during the last few years. Before to-morrow’ s sun has risen you may lie upon the bed of death. 6. Some have a peace that comes of superstition. No outward performance can enable you to dispense with inward repentance and faith. 7. Unbelief brings false peace to thousands. Sin must be punished, and if your peace is built upon the supposition that it will not be so, your foundation is even less to be depended upon than the sand. Hazard not your soul upon a lie, 8. Many are kept in peace through companionship. Choose rather as friends those who roughly tell you solemn truths, than those who with excess of sweetness would flatter you to your everlasting undoing. 9. Peace caused by the devil is often the awful prelude of the last tremendous storm. Beware of insensibility! Your unfeeling state should warn you that you are given over to destruction. In the higher and colder latitudes, when men feel a sleepiness stealing over them, their companions stir them up, and rub them, and will not leg them slumber; for to sleep is to wake no more. II. the Lord’ s peace. A man of God lay dying, but he was very calm; yea, more--supremely happy. One said to him: “ Friend, how is it that you have such peace?” He answered, “ I can see no ground or cause for it save this: it is written, ‘ Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee, because he trusteth in Thee..’” Was not that, a satisfactory reply? There is a weight of argument in it. If your mind is stayed on God, He will keep you in perfect peace.1. The peace that we should desire to possess is a peace which is a blessing. False peace is a curse; but to be soundly at peace with God is an unalloyed blessing, and it bringeth no sorrow with it. To fail back upon the Father’ s bosom, and say, “ I know that He Himself loves me, and I know that I love Him” ; to look up to Jesus, and to say, “ He loved me, and gave Himself for me” ; to feel the movings of the Holy Spirit, and to yield ourselves up to His influences--this is peace unspeakable. Do you know it? It is not only a blessing in itself, but it is a blessing in its consequences. There is no man so humble as the man that is at perfect peace with God: he wonders at the blessing lie enjoys. There is no man so grateful; there is no man so courageous; there is no man so little affected by the world; there is no man who bears suffering so patiently; there is no man who is so ready for heaven as the man who is at perfect peace with God, and knows it. 2. This peace only comes from God. Here we have peace from lips that cannot lie, from a heart which cannot change, through the blood which has made a full atonement. 3. This peace comes only to His own people. If you have done with self, the world, and sin, as the main desire of your heart, you are among His people. 4. This is peace in the time of tempest, and peace after storm. Some of us enjoy our greatest peace when the Lord is abroad, and the thunders roll like drums in the march of the God of armies. We feel a rapture as we perceive that our Father is very near, and is speaking so that we hear His voice. In spiritual storms that voice is our comfort; and after the tempests are over, the Lord speaks a sweet hush to the hearts of His children. He allays our fears, while He whispers, “ It is I; be not afraid.” (C. H. Spurgeon.) A boundless promise of peace I should like an everlasting cheque from some millionaire, running thus: “ So often as this cheque is presented at the bank, pay the bearer what he asks.” Few persons possessed of such a document would fail to put in an appearance at the bank. We should be regular visitors. O ye children of God, you have such a promissory note in the text before you! The Lord hath endless, boundless peace within Himself, and when you have long enjoyed peace with Him you may go to Him again and say, “ Lord, renew my peace. I am troubled, but Thou art unmoved: bless me with Thy peace.” When you are rich, and find that riches bring cares, bring these to your God, who will bless His people with peace. When you are poor, do the same. When children are born to you, and with them come family cares, take the new burden to the Lord, for He giveth peace. And if the children die, and you weep as your young shoots are cut off, still turn to the Lord, and believe that He will bless you with peace. If you grow sick yourself, and the tokens of a deadly disease appear upon you, still be calm, for lie will bless you with peace. When you must go upstairs and lie down upon your last bed to rise no more, then, even then, the Lord will bless you with His ever-living peace; and when you wake up at the sound of the last trump the Lord will still keep you in perfect peace. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Peace You knew what peace is, do you? Few common terms are less understood. Silence is not peace; nor is indifference; nor is insensibility; nor is the quiescence which comes of selfish fear of consequences. There cannot be peace where there cannot be passion. It is only in a modified sense that we speak of a barn, or a pool sheltered on every side, being at peace; but when we speak of a peaceful sea we speak accurately, for the sea is exposed to forces which rouse it into terrible tempests. Peace must, then, be understood as a composite term,--as an affirmative, not as a negative condition. Some men have no sensibilities towards God; they see Him, hear Him, feel Him, nowhere; not in the light, not in the wind, not in the day’ s story of gift and love and mercy; they are in a state of moral torpor. Are they at peace with God? Most truly not, for peace is other than death. Where there is true peace there is of necessity a right relation of forces; nothing preponderant, nothing conflicting; everything has its due. In the case of the heart there must be life; that life must balance the entire nature, judgment, conscience, will, affection; towards God there must be intelligence, devotion, constancy; towards man there must be justice, modesty, honour. Finding all this, and we find peace; finding a tendency towards this, and we find a tendency towards peace; finding this in perfection, and we find a peace which passeth understanding. (J. Parker, D. D.) Peace, not indolence In calling us to peace, God has not called us to indolence; a deep sleep must not be mistaken for a deep peace. We must resemble in some degree the worlds which are at rest by reason of their velocity. The earth is at rest, yet no wing of flying bird can travel so fast; the light gives no sign of motion, yet no runner can give us the faintest idea of its speed. Rest is the ultimate expression of motion. God is at rest, yet energy is streaming out of Him constantly to vivify all the creations of His power. We refer to these things to save the text from abuse, lest the alien should claim the child’ s heritage, and lest the child himself should forget his duty to the alien. Such is peace, and such are they to whom the blessing is given. (J. Parker, D. D.) . Psalms 30:1-12 Psalms 30:1-12I will extol Thee, O Lord; for Thou hast lifted me up.A Psalm of deliverance The title of this psalm is apparently a composite, the usual “ Psalm of David” having been enlarged by the awkward insertion of “ A Song at the Dedication of the House,” which probably indicates its later liturgical use, and not its first destination. Its occasion was evidently a deliverance from grave peril; and, whilst its tone is strikingly inappropriate if it had been composed for the inauguration of temple, tabernacle, or palace, one can understand how the venerable words, which praised Jehovah for swift deliverance from impending destruction, would be felt to fit the circumstances and emotions of the time when the Temple, profaned by the mad acts of Antiochus Epiphanes, was purified and the ceremonial worship restored. Never had Israel seemed nearer going down to the pit; never had deliverance come more suddenly and completely. The intrusive title is best explained as dating from that time and indicating the use then found for the song. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) A Psalm and Song at the dedication of the house of David It was doubtless very different from the cottage he occupied when he was a shepherd. But there was no impropriety in this change. As a king he was obliged to do many things from a regard to his station rather than from personal choice. Yet he was godly there as in his former abode. Hence, entering his new house, he consecrates it to God. Let it be our concern that our dwelling may be the house of God while we live, and the gate of heaven when we die. David was a poet, and he here elaborates his deliverance from a dangerous disease. I. David’ s mind before his affliction--he had thought and said, “ 1 shall never be moved. Hence the need of affliction. II. under it. He cried to the Lord. III. after the affliction Renewed consecration to God. Hence his vow to build a house for the Lord. (W. Jay.) Mercies remembered St. James says, “ Is any merry? let him sing psalms” --that is, in everything acknowledge God. A true saint in prosperity gives God thanks for His mercies. Therefore when all are in prosperity, it is easy to distinguish the true from the false, because they take directions outwardly and manifestly different. The Church in her joy praises God, the world in its joy praises man. This psalm is a beautiful specimen of church music considered in its highest character, as aiming at the praise of God. It was sung in immediate connection with the dedication of the house of David. Such a dedication was, amongst Israel, deemed a thing of great solemnity and importance (Deuteronomy 12:1-32.). And now, entering in his new abode, David looks back upon the mercies of God. I. that his enemies had not been allowed to rejoice over him. He had many enemies, and there are few of us who are without them. If we are in good reputation and esteem, we have reason to thank God as David did. II. God’ s healing grace. “ Thou hast healed me.” Who has not such mercy to record? III. the many deliverances he had experienced. “ Thou hast brought up my soul from the grave.” And such deliverance, both of body and soul, we have known. And on such an occasion as entering a new home, how good it is, as did David, to remember God’ s mercies in the past. IV. and we should seek to associate others in our praise. “ Sing unto the Lord, O ye saints of His; and give thanks at the remembrance of His holiness.” It is His holiness which is the security of yours. And His anger, how momentary that compared with his life-long favour! V. the answer to his prayer. “ Thou hast turned,” etc. (H. M’ Neile, D. D.) Christian elevation Though believers in Christ may not be lifted up like the psalmist in a temporal point of view, yet they are all, like him, lifted up in a spiritual point of view.1. Above all danger from the wrath to come. 2. To the enjoyment and possession of spiritual life. 3. To a place in God’ s graciously adopted family. 4. Above all fatal evil from enemies, whether of a temporal or spiritual description. 5. To the hope of a safe death, a blessed resurrection, and a joyful eternity. (T. Adam.) The first and the final stage in true worship I. The first stage--gratitude.1. He points to God’ s mercy as having come to him in various ways. (1) As an extrication from difficulties.(2) As a protection from enemies.(3) As a restoration to health.(4) As preservation of life. 2. The gratitude from which true worship springs implies the beliefs (1) That the favours received are utterly undeserved.(2) That they were intended to serve us. II. The final stage--adoration.1. On account of the holiness of God’ s character. In heaven His character attracts all eyes, absorbs all thoughts, transports all souls, inspires all anthems. Let us aspire to this highest stage of worship. 2. On account of the eternal flow of His love. Suffering is always-- (1) Brief.(2) Preliminary. (Homilist) Psalms 30:4-5 Sing unto the Lord, O ye saints of His.Singing saints Singing has a curative effect upon many of the maladies of the soul; I am sure that it lightens the burdens of life, and I was about to say that it shortens the weary way of duty if we can but sing as we travel along it. This holy employment is pleasant and profitable, and it is preparatory for another world and a higher state. I. the peculiar fitness of the exhortation to our present engagement. You are to come to the table where you remember your Saviour’ s death, where you are to feed upon the memorials of His passion. Come thither with a heart prepared for song. “ Oh!” says one, “ I thought I had better come with tears.” Yes, come with tears; they will be very sweet to Christ if you let them fall upon His feet to wash them with your penitential streams. “ Oh, sir!” says another, “ I thought that surely I must come with deep solemnity.” So you must, woe be unto you if you come in any other way; but do you know of any divorce between solemnity and joy? I do not.1. We celebrate a work accomplished. Talk of the labours of Hercules? What are these compared with the toil of the Christ of God? Talk of the conquests of Caesar? What are these beside the victories of Christ, who hath led captivity captive, and received gifts for men? 2. We celebrate a result realized, at least in a measure. I know that the bread and the wine are symbols of the flesh and the blood, but I know also that they are something more; they are not only symbols of the things themselves, but also of that which comes out of those things. The very setting-up of the communion-table, and the gathering of men and women to it that they may spiritually feast upon their dying Lord, is a reason for thankfulness. 3. There is this reason why some of us should sing unto the Lord, for here is a blessing enjoyed. 4. This communion reminds us of a hope revived. “ Till He come.” Every hour brings Him nearer. II. the special suitability of the subject for our meditation. “ Give thanks at the remembrance of His holiness.”1. Think of Divine holiness vindicated. God is just, yet the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus. We are going to commune with a God who, even that He might commune with us, and indulge His love to His chosen, would not break His own law, or do that which, on the strictest judgment, could be regarded as unjust. I do rejoice in that unquestionable fact, and my heart is glad as I remind you of it. 2. Let us give thanks at the remembrance of Christ’ s holiness declared. It is a happy occupation to look upon the perfect character of our dear Redeemer. 3. I think also that it will be quite congruous with our present engagement if we think of God’ s holiness as the guarantee of our salvation. It is upon the righteousness of God that we rest our hope, after all. If God can lie, then not one promise of His is to be trusted. If God can do an unrighteous thing, then His covenant may be flung to the winds. But God is not unrighteous to forget the work of His dear Son, and “ God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love.” 4. At this table we may give thanks that the holiness of God is our mark, the object for us to aim at--aye, and that to which we shall one day attain. He does not begin to make a vessel unto honour, and then cease His work; but He perfects that which He begins. III. The text is very appropriate for the communion, because of the suitability of the people of whom it speaks, for they are the same people who ought to come to this table.1. Those who come to this table should be saints. A “ saint” is a holy person, one who aims at being holy, one who is set apart for the service and glory of God. These are the people who are to give thanks at the remembrance of God’ s holiness, because God has made them holy, too. They are partakers of the Divine nature, having escaped the corruption which is in the world through lust, and so they are saints, and they are the people who ought to come to the table of the Lord. 2. They are not only saints, but they are “ saints of His.” That is to say, they are God’ s saints; they are saints of His making, for they were great sinners till He made saints of them; and they are saints of His keeping, for they would soon be sinners again if He did not keep them. They are saints enlisted in His service, sworn to serve under His banner, to be faithful to Him unto death. They are “ saints of His,” that is, they are saints whom He purchased with His precious blood, and whom He means to have as His for ever because He has bought them with so great a price. They are saints who shall be with Him in that day when He shall appear with all His holy ones. 3. They are God’ s thankful saints. The communion is a eucharist, a giving of thanks from beginning to end. 4. They should be singing saints. People express their praise and delight spontaneously concerning far less things than the joys of God, and the privileges of His people; therefore, “ Sing unto the Lord, O ye saints of His, and give thanks at the remembrance of His holiness.” (C. H. Spurgeon.) The duty of gladness When people want to make things attractive in farming, they give exhibitions of their products. The women bring their very best butter; the men bring the noblest beets and vegetables of every kind; and from the orchard they bring the rarest fruits; and when you go into the room where all these things are displayed, they seem to you attractive and beautiful. It seems to me that this is the way a Christian Church ought to represent the Christian life. You ought to pile up your apples and pears and peaches and flowers and vegetables to show what is the positive fruit of religion. But many people in the Christian life do as farmers would do who would go to a show, and carry--one pigweed; another thistles; another dock; and another old, hard lumps of clay; and should arrange these worthless things along the sides of the room and mourn over them. Christians are too apt to represent the dark side of religion in their conversation and meetings. (H. W. Beecher.) At the remembrance of His holiness.--The holiness of God This sentence occurs again at the end of the ninety-seventh psalm, and is in reality one of the most elevated sentences Holy Scripture contains. Here is a sinful creature adoring the Lord not for His mercy but for His holiness, and calling on others to do the same. What cannot the grace of God do in a sinner’ s heart? I. the holiness of God. It affirms that in God all good is present and all evil absent. He calls His saints on earth holy, but they are so only by comparison with their fellow-men: and the holiness of the angels is not only limited, but, as all creature holiness, it is derived, it has its origin not in themselves, but in God. He alone is holy in Himself. And now consider-- II. the effect this wonderful holiness should have upon us. We are called upon “ to sing unto the Lord and to give thanks.” Now this implies--1. A happy confidence in the Lord’ s mercy. For none can ever thank the Lord for His holiness till he is able to take a firm stand in His mercy. His holiness looked at alone is appalling to us. We can scarcely bear to hear of it. But when we are in Christ, resting on Him, then we can look calmly upon His holiness. Embraced in His mercy, the soul feels as Noah, shut in the ark--safe, though destruction be all around. 2. A delightful admiration of God’ s holiness. God delights in it Himself. Nearly fifty times He calls Himself “ the Holy One.” And the angels and saints in heaven glory in it. See the trisagion, “ Holy, holy, holy,” etc. And we are called upon to share in this delight. The communion service bids us say, “ Therefore with angels and archangels,” etc. Happy are we if we can understand such language and really join in it. 3. A grateful sense of his obligations to the Divine holiness. What delight to turn from the dreary sinfulness of men, to the holiness of God. The thought of it is as an oasis in the wilderness. And it sheds a radiance on all His other attributes. What would any of them be apart from this? And what holiness we have is an emanation from His, and, because of His, will be perfected. Therefore let us live in remembrance of it. (C. Bradley, M. A.) Psalms 30:5 In His favour is life. Life in the favour of God The return of God’ s favour to an afflicted soul is like life from the dead,--nothing is so reviving. All our bliss is bound up in God’ s favour; and if we have that, we have an infinite treasure, whatever else we may want. I. illustrate the sentiment of the text.1. Our natural life is from God’ s favour. In Him we live, move, and have our being; He secures us from innumerable evils; He gives us bread, and water, and clothing, and health, and strength, and intellect. 2. Our spiritual life is from the favour of God. 3. Our eternal life is from the favour of God. By that favour we become entitled to heaven by the merits and righteousness of Christ; by that favour we are meetened for heaven through regeneration and sanctification; by that favour we are brought to heaven, through all the trying pilgrimage of life. O what views will the redeemed spirit have of the favour of God then! II. some practical reflections.1. How vain it is to expect happiness from worldly prosperity without the favour of God! What does it avail, if the whole universe smile on a man, if he be under the frown of God? 2. How fearful are the afflictions of life without the favour of God. How keen must be the strokes of the Divine rod to him who views them as the strokes of an enemy. 3. If the favour of God is life, then what vast multitudes are dead. They can find time for their games, sports, recreations, and worldly pursuits; but no time to seek the favour of God and the salvation of their souls! And how inexcusable are such persons. Beggars, when they might be the favourites of heaven; preferring sickness to health, blindness to sight, danger to safety, and the anger to the favour of God. 4. If in God’ s favour there is life, what a dreadful place hell must be. 5. If in God’ s favour there is life, what a blessed and glorious place must heaven be. (W. Gregory.) Where is life? There are many different opinions as to the place of true enjoyment. Some think it is in animal gratifications; others in material possessions; mental acquirements; personal refinements; social positions; and some even in present creature pleasures. The psalmist though it to be in the favour of God. And he was right. Until man is in friendship with God he will never be happy. I. what sort is it? Not the creative favour of God, which has made us men, not brutes; not His providential favour, which has supplied our various needs--but His saving favour (Ephesians 2:4-7). That the psalmist had this favour of God in view, is evident from Psalms 30:8. II. through what medium does God exercise his saving favour? Jesus Christ (John 17:2; Acts 4:12; Romans 3:25-26; 1 John 5:11). Jesus is to the regeneration of man what the atmosphere is to the fruitfulness of the earth--the medium through which the water of the ocean and the warmth of the sun act with generating power. III. where is this fact revealed? (Deuteronomy 18:15; Deuteronomy 18:18; Luke 24:27; John 5:39). This invests the Scriptures with indescribable grandeur, inestimable worth, exclusive authority, and final appeal in everything pertaining to human redemption. IV. To whom is it proclaimed? (John 3:16; Luke 2:10; Matthew 9:13; Titus 2:11-14). To limit Gospel invitations to a favoured few is unscriptural. V. what will be had by suitably regarding God’ s proclamation of His saving favour? “ Life.” That is, restoration to the moral likeness of God, reinstatement into right relations with God, and introduction into the real friendship of God. Viewed in regard to the law of God, it is called justification (Galatians 3:6-14); the character of God, sanctification (Ephesians 5:25-27); the person of God, fellowship (John 17:21; 1 John 1:3; 1 John 1:6-7). All living is death which is not in God, nor like Him, nor according to His will. VI. by what exercise of the mind do we obtain the blessed issues of God’ s saving favour? Believing. (W. J. Stuart.) Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.--Sorrow succeeded by joy Day and night constitute the sum of human existence; they are emblematical of joy and sorrow. In figurative language, hope and joy are invariably clad in a vesture of light, whilst fear and grief are robed in sable. The language of our text cannot be applied to the trials and afflictions of the ungodly, but we would notice some of those occasions of weeping which may reasonably be expected to terminate in joy. Of this nature are-- I. the tears that flow from conviction of sin and penitential sorrow. II. The grief that arises from conscious backsliding or from the upbraidings of a tender conscience. There is no feeling more oppressively painful than that of being a conscious traitor: and the anguish of the backslider is closely allied to this. Of whatever nature his sins may be, his profoundest grief will arise from their opposition to the Divine nature. “ Against Thee, Thee only,” etc. III. Those that arise from the sense of spiritual desertion. There are times when we “ walk in darkness and have no light,” and we receive no communications of grace to raise our drooping spirits. The light of God’ s countenance is withdrawn. But this loneliness of soul, this desolation of spirit, shall be removed, and the light shall again shine. IV. those caused by temporal afflictions, such as loss, bereavement, death. Conclusion.1. Let the sentiment of the text preserve you from a gloomy despondency. 2. Disarm death of its terrors. 3. Let each individual ask himself, if he be interested in the truth of my text? Will the source of your weeping become a spring of joy? Can you reasonably expect it should be so? It all depends on your being at peace with God. How is it with you? (J. Summers.) The two guests There is an obvious antithesis in the first part of this verse, between “ His anger” and “ His favour.” Probably there is a similar antithesis between “ a moment” and “ life.” For, although the word rendered “ life” does not usually mean a lifetime, it may have that signification, and the evident intention of contrast seems to require it here. So, then, the meaning of the first part of my text is, “ the anger lasts for a moment; the favour lasts for a lifetime.” The perpetuity of the one, and the brevity of the other, are the psalmist’ s thought. Then, if we pass to the second part of the text, you will observe that there is there also a double antithesis. “ Weeping” is set over against “ joy” ; the “ night” against the “ morning.” And the first of these two contrasts is the more striking if we observe that the word “ joy” means, literally, “ a joyful shout,” so that the voice which was lifted in weeping is conceived of as now being heard in exultant praise. Then, still further, the expression “ may endure” literally means “ come to lodge.” So that Weeping and Joy are personified. Two guests come; one, dark-robed and approaching at the fitting season for such, “ the night.” The other bright, coming with all things fresh and sunny, in the dewy morn. The guest of the night is Weeping; the guest that takes its place in the morning is Gladness. The two clauses, then, of my text suggest substantially the same thought, and that is the persistence of joy and the transitoriness of sorrow. The whole is a loaf out of the psalmist’ s own experience. I. the proportion of joy and sorrow is as ordinary life. Now is it true--is it not true?--that, if a man rightly regards the proportionate duration of these two diverse elements in his life, he must come to the conclusion that the one is continuous and the other is but transitory? A thunderstorm is very short when measured against the long summer day in which it crashes; and very few days have them. It must be a bad climate where half the days are rainy. But then, man looks before and after, and has the terrible gift that by anticipation and by memory he can prolong the sadness. The proportion of solid matter needed to colour the Irwell is very little in comparison with the whole of the stream. But the current carries it, and half an ounce will stain miles of the turbid stream. Memory and anticipation beat the metal thin, and make it cover an enormous space. And the misery is that, somehow, we have better memories for sad hours than for joyful ones. So it comes to be a piece of very homely, well-worn, and yet always needful, practical counsel to try not to magnify and prolong grief, nor to minimize and abbreviate gladness. We can make our lives, to our own thinking, very much what we will. Courage, cheerfulness, thankfulness, buoyancy, resolution, are all closely connected with a sane estimate of the relative proportions of the bright and the dark in a human life. II. the inclusion of the “ moment” in the “ life.” I do not know that the psalmist thought of that when he gave utterance to my text, but whether he did it or not, it is true that the “ moment” spent in “ anger” is a part of the “ life” that is spent in the “ favour.” Just as within the circle of a life lies each of its moments, the same principle of inclusion may be applied to the other contrast presented here. For as the “ moment” is a part of the “ life,” the “ anger” is a part of the love. The “ favour” holds the “ anger” within itself, for the true scriptural idea of that terrible expression and terrible fact, the “ wrath of God,” is that it is the necessary aversion of a perfectly pure and holy love from that which does not correspond to itself. So, though sometimes the two may be set against each other, yet at bottom, and in reality, they are one, and the “ anger” is but a mode in which the “ favour” manifests itself. Thus we come to the truth which breathes uniformity and simplicity through all the various methods of the Divine hand, that howsoever He changes and reverses His dealings with us they are one and the same. You may get two diametrically opposite motions out of the same machine. The same power will send one wheel revolving from right to left, and another from left to right, but they are co-operant to grind out at the far end the one product. It is the same revolution of the earth that brings blessed lengthening days and growing summer, and that cuts short the sun’ s course and brings declining days and increasing cold. It is the same motion which hurls a comet close to the burning sun, and sends it wandering away out into fields of astronomical space, beyond the ken of telescope, and almost beyond the reach of thought. And so one uniform Divine purpose, the favour which uses the anger, fills the life, and there are no interruptions, howsoever brief, to the steady continuous flow of His outpoured blessings. All is love and favour. Anger is masked love, and sorrow has the same source and mission as joy. It takes all sorts of weathers to make a year, and all tend to the same issue, of ripened harvests and full barns. III. the conversion of the sorrow into joy. A prince comes to a poor man’ s hovel, is hospitably received in the darkness, and, being received and welcomed, in the morning slips off the rags and appears as he is. Sorrow is Joy disguised. If it be accepted, if the will submit, if the heart let itself be untwined, that its tendrils may be coiled closer round the heart of God, then the transformation is sure to come, and joy will dawn on those who have done rightly--that is, submissively and thankfully--by their sorrows. It will not be a joy like what the world calls joy--loud-voiced, boisterous, ringing with idiot laughter; but it will be pure, and deep, and sacred, and permanent. A white lily is better than a flaunting peony, and the joy into which sorrow accepted turns is pure and refining and good. But you may say, “ Ah! there are two kinds of sorrows. There are those that can be cured, and there are those that cannot. What have you got to say to me who have to bleed from an immedicable wound till the end of my life?” Well, I have to say this--look beyond earth’ s dim dawns to that morning when the Sun of Righteousness shall arise. If we have to carry a load on an aching back till the end, be sure that when the night, which is far spent, is over, and the day, which is at hand, hath broken, every raindrop will be turned into a flashing rainbow when it is smitten by the level light, and every sorrow rightly borne be represented by a special and particular joy. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Weeping and joy The following are suggested by this passage.1. God is love. David inscribed over the portal of his house, “ His anger is but for a moment,” etc. Did he not thus in broken and imperfect symbols speak out this truth of all truths that has been revealed from Calvary and the Ascension Mount, and which has been given to us that we may herald it to the world? “ Herein is love, not that we loved God,” etc. It is in the light of that revelation of love, that we are to read the riddles of our existence. It is in the light of that revelation, and that alone, that the clouds of our forebodings and our despondencies can be put to flight. God’ s government of the world, His providential ordering of the whole of the human race and of each individual life is for our everlasting good, and it is in accordance with His own nature of love. In that government nothing is forgotten; in that loving plan no heart has been left desolate. There is no deviation in the path of His intended progress; there is no friction in the Divine workings; for all things work together for good unto them that love God. 2. Another thing suggested by this passage is, that not only is His Divine anger consistent with Divine love, but given the fact that this love of God is love to free beings, to beings who are sinning continually, we may say that anger is absolutely essential to righteous love. God is the eternal righteousness as well as the eternal love. Calvary is the transcendent revelation to the world of the Divine love, but it is also the transcendent revelation of Divine righteousness. Because God is righteous God is angry. He is angry with the wicked, with corruption, impurity, cruelty, selfishness, falsehood, injustice, oppression, envy, hatred, murder, strife. What parent that truly loves his child will let that child flagrantly and persistently sin and not punish him? The rod is often a fitter emblem of love than a kiss. 3. These two visitors, Weeping and Joy, come instrumentally in the hands of God to the homes of a world that is being governed and directed by a righteous love. I do not say that Weeping is the messenger of God’ s anger, and that Joy, on the other hand, is the messenger of His love. They are both messengers of His will; they both subserve His redemptive purposes; both of them alike may be messengers of His anger, as both of them alike may be messengers of His love. But although we should regard them as symbolic figures severally of anger and of love, the experiences of human life, when the house is hushed with grief, when the heart is low, followed--as, blessed be God! they are followed--by days of gladness, by giving “ the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness” --all this experience of life should remind us that in the lines along which God is working, the secret principles of His government by that which is good and by that which is painful, through Weeping and through Joy, through this strangely mingled experience of human life, He is slowly working out that great purpose and toward that great end, the eternal good of all His creatures. God’ s anger is special treatment for a critical hour; it is the probing of the wound; it is the changing, as it were, of the motive power in the secret nature of the soul; and it is only that we may remember that the Father of Spirits, in subjection to whom we live, is also the Ancient of Days and the Eternal Righteousness. But the Divine anger is transient. Anger will not keep; it is impossible that righteous anger can be kept; it is like the coal dropped hot from the furnace that cools every moment. Such is the anger of a righteous, loving being. It is not hatred and enmity and jealousy, but it is anger, a frown which, when the child sees, passes into a smile of paternal tenderness and love. (R. B. Brindley.) A lyric of deliverance I. the dirge of grief--“ Weeping . . . night.” See how sorrow and night are linked. Life is this night.1. A brief night.2. A wild night sometimes.3. A sorrowful night ofttimes.4. But a night fringed with light, on this side and on that; and so the dirge has its consoling strain. II. the lyric of deliverance. “ Joy . . . morning.” See how gladness and light are joined together.1. In the morning of clearer knowledge.2. In the morning of purer character.3. In the morning of eternity. (R. C. Cowel.) The joy of Easter The associations we have with Easter are very various, but, for most of us, it represents more than anything else a great revulsion of feeling. The change from Good Friday to Easter Day is much more abrupt than any in the Christian year. It is like the sharp descent from the clear cold air of the Upper Alps into the rich and sunny plains of Italy, and it reminds us of earthly vicissitudes like that of the sovereign, who being imprisoned and expecting immediate execution, is placed by a sudden revolution on the throne of his ancestors. David’ s words do not exaggerate the Easter feeling. The words describe the experience of David on more than one occasion. He had known one peril and then great deliverance. And such a morning as the text tells of was that first Resurrection morning for the disciples. We may say they ought not to have been in such heaviness because Jesus had so plainly and repeatedly told them of what would take place. Of His death and resurrection He had told them again and again. And yet, when they saw Him dead upon the Cross they were filled with an almost unimaginable disappointment. How is this to be explained? Human nature is naturally an optimist. Face to face with forecasts of trouble, it resists their reality and their force, it makes the best of them it can. They will not see what they do not wish to see. And so it was with our Lord and His disciples. Hence Peter’ s word, “ Be it far from Thee, Lord; this shall not be unto Thee,” --as though the prophecy of His Passion had been an utterance of morbid pessimism. And thus it was that when the last tragedy took place it found them unprepared. This was the heaviness which the first disciples had to endure. But what a joy came to them in the morning, as first on one and then on another there fell the rays of the rising Sun of Righteousness I And such a morning it will be when the Christian, having passed the gate of death, attains to a joyful resurrection. And ours will bear the pattern of our Lord’ s. True, for Him there was no such interval between death and resurrection as there must be for us: and for Him there was no corruption, whilst for us there will be. But at length soul and body shall be joined together again and for ever. That the soul survives the body might be inferred from the law of the conservation of force or energy in the physical universe. For is there no energy but that of the substances which are known to chemistry? Are not thought, will, love, truly energies: as much so as any that we can identify with chemical elements? But how and in what shape does this spiritual energy survive? It must be in some form strictly personal, or else our personality ceases to be, and the soul is virtually annihilated. Physical force exists independently of the subject to whose life it belongs. But not so with spiritual force. We have no knowledge of it apart from the person in whom it is found. Therefore if the soul exists at all it must retain its personality. And all this is not mere metaphysic, but it is a practical question for the heart. Who that has loved and lost some dear one does not know how intensely real this question is. And let none think that to be absorbed in the ocean of universal life is something more noble than to retain our personal life. It is not so. There can be no joy in the annihilation of personality. To suppress self is good, but that is quite another thing from the annihilation of personality. Hence the value of the truth of the resurrection of the body, since it asserts so emphatically our enduring personality. And thus all anxieties as to the recognition of friends are set at rest. Joy will come through such recognition, in the morning. Yes, but to whom? To those who have learned the moral and spiritual as well as the physical meaning of the resurrection. There are two nights which hang heavily in the life of men--that of sorrow and that of sin. But through Christ our Lord each of them may be followed by a morning of joy. (Canon Liddon.) The uninvited stranger and the welcome guest The picture is a very striking one. In the evening Weeping, like a darkly veiled stranger, enters our dwelling, making all sorrowful by his unwelcome presence, but he comes only to sojourn for a night. In the morning another guest appears--Joy--like a rescuing angel, before whom Weeping disappears. I. Is the case of the godly, the tearful night of affliction will be followed by the joyful morning of deliverance and God’ s returning favour. We have here a figurative allusion to the way in which God had dealt with the psalmist and often deals with His people. His favour had been withdrawn, His displeasure manifested, but it was only for a moment, which moment is contrasted with the whole life gladdened with His smile. How often in the history of the Church have we seen the dark night of affliction succeeded by the bright morning of a glorious and triumphant deliverance! The darkest hour immediately preceding the dawn! For a while God seems to forget His people, to be deaf to their cry: He is only waiting for the set time to deliver; and the moment the fittest, the only fit time arrives, we see the morning succeed the night, and Joy take the place of Weeping. We see precisely the same thing in God’ s dealings with individuals. The night of affliction falls upon them, the unwelcome stranger, Weeping, takes up his abode with them, their plans are traversed, their hopes are blighted, their house is rendered desolate. Well! it is their privilege to believe, not only that these painful circumstances will be overruled for good, but that the darkness of affliction’ s night shall be succeeded by the brightness of a joyful morning. It is so often here, but whether so here or not, it will be so by and by. II. the tearful night of life will be succeeded by the tearless and eternal day of heaven. We wait for the dawning of that day. We have the beginnings of heaven’ s light and joy, here and now; the promise and earnest of them. We have passed from darkness to light, the Day-spring from on high hath visited us; and though we dwell in the dimness of early dawn, we are the children of the light. We should seek to walk in the light, walk as children of the light. (T. M. Morris.) The two guests I. weeping. It is at even that she comes to all our homes. When she enters, we close the shutters, and very often put out the candle, and in the glow of the dying embers on the hearth talk to her a while.1. Weeping is sure to come to us when the shadow of death rests upon our home. She tells us that there seldom was a home so dark as ours, or a trial so great; that such a loss can never be fully made up; that now we are only just beginning to find out what life is. 2. Weeping comes in times of adversity and anxious care. With pensive countenance and in sad tones she says that Providence is full of mystery, and that in all ages she has known some of the best people who were thus sadly perplexed. She tells us that she well remembers how Asaph long ago used to say (Psalms 73:1-2; Psalms 73:5; Psalms 73:18). She reminds us how David, too, and other saints felt the same burden of mystery, and adds that no one has ever found the solution. She is not surprised that we are troubled; we well might be. 3. Weeping comes in those trying hours when friendships disappoint us and close and tender relationships become strained. She suggests that human nature is, notwithstanding all its professions, selfish and untrustworthy; that the exclamation of the psalmist is, sooner or later, the exclamation of all who have known much of the world and its ways: “ Put not your trust in princes,” etc. 4. Weeping is sure to come to us in the hour of our humiliation and shame. In the dim glimmer of the fire on the hearth she brings to our notice stains on our garment which, she assures us, would look a thousand times worse if we saw them in the proper light--saw them as others see them; and, above all, as God sees them. II. weeping vanishes out of sight in the grey light of dawn, and joy enters our dwelling. The blinds are drawn up again, the fire is rekindled upon the hearth; and then, in the growing light of day that streams through the window, Joy talks to us a while. We repeat to her what Weeping has told us, and Joy replies that Weeping is a true teacher, that it is her prerogative to utter many a truth which only she can teach, but that she overlooks others none the less important.1. For instance, that in speaking to us of our bereavement as a loss for which nothing can compensate, she forgot to tell us of the meeting again; of the memory of that dear one which will be to us a life-long inspiration; of the upward direction which such a bereavement should give to our thoughts and aspirations; and of how it may be one of God’ s ways of uniting us to Himself by associating His home with ours. 2. Again, Joy reminds us that when Weeping spoke of affliction as being the mystery which has perplexed God’ s saints in all the ages, and of how she had heard Asaph say, “ As for me, my feet were almost gone; my steps had well nigh slipped. For I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked,” etc. (Psalms 73:2-13), she forgot to tell us the rest that Asaph said: how that he began the psalm with, “ Truly God is good to Israel, even to such as are of a clean heart” ; and how that, further on, in speaking of the prosperity of the wicked, he exclaims (verses 16-20 and 25, 26). “ She forgot to tell you, too,” adds Joy, “ what another psalmist said (Psalms 119:67). “ Yes,” continues Joy, “ Weeping is a good teacher, but she has a poor memory for aught that is joyous; she only remembers the sad.” 3. Joy pauses, and then, with a still brighter glow upon her countenance, and a clearer ring in her voice, she continues, And when Weeping spoke to you of your sin, she gave you but half the truth. When she told you that you could never remove the stains of sin which God saw upon your garment, she forgot to say that “ the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth,” etc. (D. Davies.) Sorrow Among the things on view at the Stanley Exhibition, held in London a few years ago, was a small MS. volume which will always be associated with the memory of an Englishman who went to the Dark Continent not to indulge a love of sport, or travel, or adventure, nor yet in order to make a fortune, but to preach the religion of Jesus Christ. The book was Bishop Hannington’ s diary. The handwriting, you may remember, was small and closely written, after the manner of a traveller who must get as much as possible into a small compass. And this was the entry on the last page, the last that the Bishop ever made: “ I can hear no news, but was held up by Psalms 30:1-12., which came with great power. A hyena howled near me last night, smelling sick man, but I hope he is not to have me yet.” The date of that entry was October 29, 1885, and it shows how the psalms are full of religious power, fit for every-day use even in our own time. Time and knowledge would fail one to tell of all the saints of God who have been helped by the 30th Psalm. Even at the stake, when the faggots have been piled all about, and fetters have weighted every limb, martyrs for the faith have sung with unfaltering voices its promises of sure and certain hope, and have passed away joyfully with its words upon their lips. One such was John Herwin, who suffered during Alva’ s persecutions of the Nether-landish Protestants. “ At the place of execution,” writes the chronicler of the time, “ one gave him his hand and comforted him.” Then “ began he to sing the 30th Psalm” ; and the 30th Psalm, in spite of interruptions, he sang through from beginning to end. (E. H. Eland, M. A.) Weeping and Jog Lo! there comes hitherward, as though making for the door of our house, a dark form. She is slightly bent, but not with age. She has a pale face, her step is languid, like one who has travelled far and is weary; and her tears flow so fast that she cannot wipe them away. Our hearts begin to beat as we watch her coming. Will she pass, or will she stay? “ I am a pilgrim,” quoth she; “ will you lodge me for the night? I am sad, I am weary, for I go round all the world. There are few houses I do not enter, and in some I make a long stay. You ask me for nay name. I bear it in my countenance: my name is ‘ Weeping.’ You wish to see my credentials? It is sufficient that none have been able to keep me outside a door inside of which I wished to be; and I know that, notwithstanding your beating hearts, you will not be inhospitable; you will take me in.” “ Yes, for a little, to refresh you, to dry your tears if we can; and then to bid you farewell.” “ Nay, I can make no stipulation; I go where I am sent, I depart at the appointed time!” And now “ Weeping” has her chamber in the house. And the blinds are drawn down, and hearts are hushed, and feet tread lightly; and, listening all night through, we hear sighs, and sometimes almost sobs, from the chamber where “ Weeping” lies sleepless. And we, too, are sleepless and anxious, and one and another find the tears flowing down their own cheeks as the night goes on; and the house is all full of pain and fear, as the dark thought begins to take shape that she may have come to make a long stay. We are up betimes, for now we are amongst them “ that watch for the morning.” Some flush of it is in file eastern sky, “ and see,” we say to each other, “ it is beginning to gild yon mountain peaks, and to flow down into the valleys,” when, hearing some footsteps approaching--lo! there comes one whose step is elastic, whose form is graceful, who bears the dawn on his countenance, who sheds light around him as he walks. Again our hearts begin to beat, but this time it is with fear that he will not stay. “ I am a pilgrim,” quoth he; “ I have been long on the road; I can walk through the darkest night and not stumble; I have come to you this morning with the dawn, and I wish to stay.” Ah, welcome indeed I if we knew where to give thee room; we have but one guest-chamber, and it is occupied. There came to us last night a poor pilgrim named ‘ Weeping,’ who for the first hours of night sighed and wept so sorely that it seemed as if she were breathing her life away. For the last two hours she seems to have fallen on sleep, for her chamber is silent, and it would be cruel to awake her.” “ Weeping? ah, I know her well. My name is Joy. Weeping and Joy have bad the world between them since the world was made. But, now, look in your room. You will find it empty. I met her an hour ago on the other side of the hill. She told me she had slipped silently away, and that I would be just in time to smile good-morning to you from my bright face, while she went on her way towards the valley of Baca, and the deeper, darker valley of the shadow of death. Weeping will not come here again to-night, and I shall stay, or I shall leave some of the light of my presence to fill the house. We often meet, and always part. But there is a time coming, in the Land of Light, from which I come, when even she will not know how to weep. “ For the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces.” (A. Raleigh, D. D.) Psalms 30:6-12 In my prosperity I said, I shall never be moved. The conditions and acts of life, the springs of solemn issues These verses may be taken as indicating the tendencies of certain conditions and actions in human life. I. Here is human prosperity leading to presumption. The writer’ s experience agrees with that of Job (Job 29:18). Also with the experience of the rich man in the Gospel, who said, “ Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.”1. This tendency implies moral per-versify. Our religious feelings should get purer and stronger as our mercies abound. Sad it is, therefore, to see prosperity leading to presumption and impiety. 2. This tendency should modify our desire for wealth. Worldly wealth, at best, is only a temporary good, and often an evil in disguise. II. Here is affliction leading to prayer.1. The description of affliction. It is the hiding of God’ s face. 2. The nature of his prayer. (1) Vehement (1 Chronicles 21:16-17).(2) Argumentative. He reasons with the Almighty (verse 9). He means that his destruction would be of no service to the Almighty, but that his preservation might be. III. Here is prayer leading to deliverance. In answer to earnest prayer, the Great Father has ever given to the suffering suppliant beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness.1. God removes suffering. “ Thou hast put off my sackcloth.” 2. God gives happiness. “ And girded me with gladness.” IV. Here is deliverance leading to praise.1. This was the purpose of his deliverance. “ To the end that my glory may sing praise to Thee.” He was delivered that he might praise. 2. This was the influence of his deliverance. “ O Lord my God, I will give thanks unto Thee for ever.” (Homilist.) The proper improvement of prosperity and adversity The subject of the psalmist’ s complaint in these words is a common weakness, incident to human nature; a too great confidence in the day of prosperity, and excessive dejection in a time of trouble. I. what it is that chiefly contributes to this extreme diversity of temper under the varying scenes of life.1. It is sometimes owing, in a good measure, to the native turn and temper of the mind. Some are of so soft and flexible a make, that they are soon impressed: almost everything affects them too much. 2. That which chiefly contributes to this great reverse of temper under the vicissitudes of life, I conceive to be an excessive fondness for earthly enjoyments. Did we not set our hearts upon these things, we should meet with fewer disappointments from them. 3. Our ignorance, or inconsideration of the true nature of present things, as (1) unsatisfying;(2) uncertain. 4. A want of faith, which would teach us to look beyond these things to the final issue of the great all-wise Disposer of them. II. what dangerous consequences attend such an inequality of mind.1. It lays us exposed to all the temptations of that state of life, into which Providence hath brought us. (1) A man that is secure, carnal and confident in prosperity, lies wholly exposed to all the snares and temptations incident to that state of life: which are such as these; pride, worldly-mindedness, self-indulgence, vanity, avarice, intemperance, contempt of others, self-sufficiency, oppression, irreligion, or, at least, a great indifference to sacred things. (2) A succumbency and dejection of mind in adversity lays us exposed to all the dangers and temptations of float condition. And the sins, to which men are most inclined in this state of life, are envy at the prosperity of others, murmuring, impatience, discontent, uncharitableness, passion, fearfulness and despair. 2. It deprives us of all the advantages we might derive from these states. (1) An elate and careless frame of mind in prosperity deprives us of the chief benefits that might accrue to us from thence: or, in other words, it prevents our blessings from being sanctified. For how can those blessings be sanctified to us which we are not thankful for? And how can we be thankful for those blessings for which we are forgetful of our dependence on Providence? (2) An excessive grief and despondency in tribulation is attended with effects no less detrimental; as it deprives us of all those advantages we might reap from our troubles. Afflictions are often sent as the greatest mercies; to make us more meek, resigned, patient, humble, holy and heavenly minded; to purify our hearts, wean us from the world, and mortify our sensual affections; and to revive and cultivate a spiritual, watchful and dependent frame of mind. But how can afflictions be sanctified to these happy purposes, when the mind is tossed with tempestuous sorrow, or faints under the stroke, incapable of forming one right), or regular reflection? III. what considerations are most proper to balance the passions, and give us a self-possession under all providential occurrences.1. Let us often think of the natural inconstancy of all earthly things. (1) Are there not a thousand secret and unforeseen ways, whereby the hand of God can suddenly take from us all cur earthly comforts, or our capacity to enjoy them? How vain, then, is a confident spirit in a day of prosperity. (2) Are our souls involved in darkness? and our minds disconsolate, and bowed down, under the pressure of some grievous affliction? let us remember, that the day succeeds the night (Psalms 30:5). Time cures all our earthly sorrows; and grace alleviates them. Let this sanctify, what that will entirely remove. 2. Let us look forward to the end of things, and endeavour to familiarize to ourselves the thoughts of futurity. 3. Let us ever keep our eye fixed on God, as the all-wise and sovereign Disposer of these things; and remember, that whatever befalls us, comes either by His permission or direction. 4. Leg us think how much we offend our Maker by indulging in that weak unguarded temper now described. 5. Let us consider how much we lose the relish of our mercies by being too secure and fond of them in prosperity; and how we increase our load by sinking under it in adversity. 6. Let us learn to be more cautious in prosperity, and more composed in adversity, and endeavour after more equanimity in both. (J. Mason, M. A.) The perils of prosperity For quaintly said of the elder Pitt that he “ fell up-stairs” when he was elevated to the peerage. Many a man cannot stand going up higher.. He becomes haughty, proud; he affects dignity, he lords it over God’ s heritage; he becomes too big with conscious superiority. Like Jeshurun, he waxes fat and kicks. He falls up-stairs; up, not down. (A. S. Pierson, D. D.) Psalms 30:7 Thou didst hide Thy face, and I was troubled. The withdrawal of the Divine presence Of all the sources of sorrow to which a good man is exposed here, there is none whose waters are so bitter, nor whose grief is so poignant, as the withdrawal of the Divine presence. But there is one practical benefit to be derived from it; it affords additional evidence of our real state before God. If we can endure the absence of God’ s favourable presence from our souls without sorrow, our love to Him cannot be genuine. I. the extent of this withdrawal. We speak not of His withdrawal from the unconverted--but from the real child of God.1. It does not include the withdrawal of His loving-kindness. Indeed, the very act of withdrawal is prompted by love. 2. It does not include the withdrawal of the real presence and indwelling of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit may not reflect the shining of God’ s love upon the believer’ s soul, and yet He may, at the same time, so work in his heart, as to make his faith lively; his desires strong; his conscience tender; and his life fruitful. 3. This withdrawal may be experienced indifferent degrees by different Christians, and by the same Christians at different times and under different circumstances. With some it is only a cloudy day; with others it is twilight, neither dark nor light; with some the Sun of Righteousness is overcast, with others He appears to be totally eclipsed. II. when God may be said to hide his face.1. When He does not interpose on their behalf, and though He sees them in trouble does not step forward to their relief. 2. When He removes from His people the symbols of His presence--the ordinances and sacraments of religion. 3. When His people do not prize the means of grace, and when their profiting does not appear. 4. When He denies His people access to Himself, and breaks off communion with them. III. the reasons of this hiding.1. When Christians commit gross sins, and bring a disgrace upon religion, then God hides His face from them, to show to them His displeasure, and to show to the world that the falls and sins of professors are not to be attributed to, neither to be charged upon, his religion. 2. When Christians become earthly-minded, and begin to prefer possessions, delights, and engagements of the world to Jesus and His great salvation, then God hides His face from them. 3. When Christians grow formal, cold, and lifeless in their religious duties, then God frequently hides His face from them. It is the lively, active, zealous, spiritual worshipper, with whom God has engaged to dwell. 4. When Christians neglect the great medium of access to God, the Lord Jesus Christ, then Jehovah resents the insult offered to His Son by hiding His face. IV. the spirit to be exercised in these seasons of desertion. “ I was troubled.” This implies: 1. That we are truly sensible of our loss, of our sin, and of the fearful consequences that must inevitably follow a continuance of this state of things. 2. That we recognize the presence of God as the only permanent source of comfort and happiness. 3. That we exert all the powers and faculties of our souls to recover the presence and favour of God. For this purpose we should use all the appointed means of grace. In all duties and ordinances our souls should follow hard after Him, and pursue Him closely from one ordinance to another till we find Him. V. why Christians are thus troubled at the hiding of his face,1. Because of the blessings they have lost. 2. Because of the positive evils that always attend this withdrawal of God’ s favourable presence from the soul. (1) Spiritual darkness.(2) Spiritual deadness and insensibility.(3) Failure in all spiritual duties.(4) Barrenness of soul.(5) Exposure to dangers and temptations.(6) A dread of God’ s displeasure.(7) The fear of final rejection.(8) Melancholy thought of death and judgment. VI. practical lessons and cautions.1. How few are true believers. 2. How awful is the condition of unconverted men. 3. How awful is the state of the backslider. 4. How happy are the people of God. (W. Gregory.) Psalms 30:11-12 Thou hast turned for me my mourning into dancing. Easter joy Here is described a change, complete, and more or less sudden, from sadness to joy. David has escaped a danger which had brought him very near to death; and now he is thankful and exultant. His words are in keeping with what Christians feel, as they pass from the last days of Holy Week into the first hours of Easter. If Easter is associated predominantly with any one emotion, it is with that of joy. And thus, ever since, the Church of Christ has laboured to make the Easter festival, beyond all others, the feast of Christian joy. All that nature and art could furnish has been summoned to express, so far as outward things may, this overmastering emotion of Christian souls worshipping at the tomb of their Risen Lord. All the deliverances of God’ s ancient people, from Egypt, from Assyria, from Babylon, are but rehearsals of the great deliverance of all on the Resurrection morning; and each prophet and psalmist that heralds any of them, sounds in Christian ears some separate note of the Resurrection hymn. And this, the joy which fills the soul of the believing Church on Easter Day, has some sort of echo in the world outside; so that those who sit loosely to our faith and hope, and who worship rarely, if ever, before our altars, yet feel that good spirits are somehow in order on Easter morning. For their sakes, as for our own, let us try to take the emotion to pieces, as we find it in a Christian soul; let us ask why it is so natural for Christians to say, this day, with David, “ Thou hast turned my heaviness into joy: Thou hast put off my sackcloth, and girded me with gladness.” I. The first reason, then, for this Easter joy is the triumph and satisfaction enjoyed by our Lord himself. We follow Him in the stages of His sufferings and death. We sympathize reverently with the awful sorrows of our Adorable Lord and Friend; and thus we enter, in some far-off way, into the sense of triumph, unspeakable and sublime, which follows beyond it. It is His triumph; that is the first consideration; His triumph, who was but now so cruelly insulted and tortured. It is all over now; by a single motion of His Majestic Will, He is risen. And we, as we kneel before Him, think, first of all, of Him. It is His joy which inspires ours; it turns our heaviness into joy, and puts off our sorrow and girds us with gladness. Do I say this is the case? Perhaps it were more prudent to say that it ought to be. For in truth the habit of getting out of and forgetting our miserable selves in the absorbing sense of the beauty and magnificence of God, belongs rather to ancient than to modern Christianity. To those old Christians God was all, man nothing, or well-nigh nothing. Theirs was a disinterested interest in God. With us, we are too prone to value God, not so much for His own sake as for ours. Be it yours to show that my misgiving is unwarranted. You know that pure sympathy with an earthly friend’ s happiness loaves altogether out of consideration the question whether it contributes anything to your own; and in like manner endeavour to say to-day to your Heavenly Friend: “ It is because Thou, Lord Jesus, hast vanquished Thine enemies, hast overcome death, and hast entered into Thy glory, that Thou hast turned my Lenten heaviness into joy, and put off my sackcloth and girded me with gladness.” II. because of the sense of confidence with which Christ’ s resurrection from the dead invigorates our grasp of Christian truth. The mind loves to rest truth on a secure basis. This is what the old Roman poet meant by saying that the man was really happy who had attained to know the causes of things. The chemist who has at last explained the known effect of a particular drug, by laying bare, upon analysis, an hitherto undiscovered property in it; the historian who has been enabled to show that the conjecture of years rests on the evidence of a trustworthy document; the mathematician on whom has flashed the formula which solves some problem that has long haunted and eluded him; the anatomist who has been able to refer what he had hitherto regarded as an abnormal occurrence to the operation of a recognized law;--these men know what joy is. Now, akin to the joy of students and workers is the satisfaction of a Christian when he steadily dwells on the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Christian Creed is like a tower which rears towards heaven its windows and pinnacles in successive stages of increasing gracefulness. We lavish our admiration first on this detail of it, and then on that; and, while we thus study and admire, we dwell continuously in its upper stories, till at last perhaps a grave question occurs or is suggested to us. What does it all rest upon? What is the foundation-fact on which this structure has been reared in all its august and fascinating beauty? What fact, if removed, would be fatal to it? And the answer is--our Lord’ s Resurrection is one such fact. He was declared to be the Son of God with power by the Resurrection from the dead. Yes; it is here, beside the empty tomb of the Risen Jesus, that Christian faith feels itself on the hard rock of fact; here we break through the tyranny of matter and sense, and rise with Christ into the immaterial world; here we put a term to the enervating alternation of guesses and doubts which prevails elsewhere, and we reach the frontier of the absolutely certain. And we can but answer, Truly, Lord Jesus, by Thy Resurrection Thou hast turned my heaviness into joy: Thou hast put off my sackcloth, and gilded me with gladness. III. And because of the assurance it gives of our own resurrection. Paganism could only guess and speculate as to the immortality of the soul. It is the Gospel which gives certainty; it has unveiled the immortality of man in his completeness, in body and in soul. Thus shall we recognize our friends in heaven, for they shall wear there the features and the expression which they wore on earth. “ All men shall rise with their bodies.” Joyfully, therefore, do we think of the blessed dead. (Canon Liddon.) Girded me with gladness.--Elevation of feeling For the expression and manifestation of the state in which we are, God has made a rich provision of power. The forehead, the eye, the mouth, the whole face, the hands, the arms, the gait, and especially the voice, are so many instruments and agents ‘ of expression; and we are not true to ourselves, we are false to our condition, we are disloyal to God, when we clothe ourselves with a uniform reticence and unexpressiveness of demeanour. The clouds drop their blackness and appear brilliantly coloured and gorgeously gilded when the sun shines on them. The sea casts off its leaden hue and is covered with crisped smiles when the storm is over. The battle-field absorbs the blood which, in the day of war, is spilt on its bosom, and exhibits lovely flowers, or verdant pasture, or golden corn. The earth casts off her winterly attire and puts on her summerly vestments when “ the time of the singing of birds has come.” In like manner there is in human life and experience the turning of mourning into dancing; the putting off of sackcloth and the girding with gladness. (S. Martin.) Praise continuous One summer day I watched a lark rise from a field, and I listened with almost rapture to its unequalled song. The bird rose in successive stages, singing while rising and singing while resting, and the last ascent it made caused it to appear like a speck on the blue sky, an almost imperceptible spring of sweet music in the heavens. Nothing appeared wanting to complete the scene but the opening of the heavenly gates to receive this minister of song, that its sacrifice of sweetest sounds might be laid on the altar of God. But while thinking of this consummation the bird began to descend, falling rapidly in successive stages until near the earth, and then flying horizontally until it was lost in its nest. Does not the ascent and descent of this favourite songster represent our praise to God? Our glory is not always silent. We do sometimes sing praise to our God, and we rise into glorious elevations of feeling and of thought. But if we rise high in the morning, we fall low before noon; if we ascend on the Lord’ s day, we sink low on other days. A day will come in which there shall be a final putting off of sackcloth, and a final girding with gladness; and in that day silence shall be broken for ever, and our eternal life shall be one eternal psalm and service of praise. (S. Martin.) . Psalms 31:1-24 Psalms 31:1-8 In Thee, O Lord, do I put my trust. Man trusting in Jehovah I. Here is man trusting in Jehovah Is great trials.1. It seems strange that God should allow a man who trusts in Him to become involved in trials. Love is the reason. He knows that oven the best of His children are so fractious and wayward that they need the chastening rod.2. It seems strange that a man should be able to trust God when in trial. Good men can, and have done so. Job: Paul. II. Here is man trusting in Jehovah and earnestly praying--1. For the vindication of his trust.2. For deliverance from trial.3. For an audience with the Almighty.4. For protection from danger.5. For guidance in perplexity.6. For extrication from the snares of enemies. III. Here is man trusting in Jehovah and surrendering himself.1. The language of dedication.2. The motive--gratitude. IV. Here is man trusting in Jehovah and abhorring sinners. A God-loving soul must ever recoil with profound disgust from the false, the dishonest, the mean, the profane, whenever or wherever they appear. The soul cannot love moral opposites. To hate characters, however, does not necessarily imply the hating of man. Man’ s bad character is of himself, he made it: but his nature is of God, He formed it. V. Here is man trusting in Jehovah, and rejoicing in deliverance. 1, When deliverance comes to a good man, it comes from mercy.2. The soul in deliverance rejoices in its freedom and security. (Homilist.) Psalms 31:2-8 Be Thou my strong rook,. . . for Thou art my rock, “ Be . . . for Thou art” It sounds strange logic, “ Be . . . for Thou art,” and yet it is the logic of prayer, and goes very deep, pointing out both its limits and its encouragements. If we were to read thus: “ Be Thou a strong Rock to me, for a house, a fortress, for Thou art my Rock and my Fortress,” we should get the whole force of the parallelism. Of course the main idea is that of the “ Rock,” and “ Fortress” is only an exposition of one phase of the meaning of that metaphor. I. what God is. “ A rock, a fortress-house.” What is the force of that metaphor?1. Stable being is the first thought in it, for there is nothing that is more absolutely the type of unchangeableness and steadfast continuance. God the Unchangeable rises, like some majestic cliff, round the foot of which rolls for ever the tide of human life, and round which is littered the successive layers of the leaves of many summers. 2. Then besides this stable being, and the consequences of it, is the other thought which is attached to the emblem in Scripture, and that is defence. “ His place of defence shall be the munitions of rocks.” When the floods are out, and all the plain is being dissolved into mud, the dwellers on it fly to the cliffs. “ Lead me to the rock that is higher than I.” 3. But the Rock is a defence in another way. If a hard-pressed fugitive is brought to a stand and can set his back against a rock, he can front his assailants, secure that no unseen foe shall creep up behind and deal a stealthy stab and that he will not be surrounded unawares. II. our plea with God, from what he is. “ Be Thou to me a Rock . . . for Thou art a Rock.” Is that not illogical? No, for notice that little word “ to me” --be Thou to me what Thou art in Thyself, and hast been to all generations.” That makes all the difference. It is not merely “ Be what Thou art,” although that would be much, but it is “ be it to me,” and let me have all which is meant in that great Name. But then, beyond that, let me point out to you how this prayer suggests to us that all true prayer will keep itself within God’ s Revelation of what He is. III. the plea with God drawn from what we have taken him to be to us. “ Be Thou to me a strong Rock, for Thou art my Rock and my Fortress.” What does that mean? It means that the suppliant has, by his own act of faith, taken God for his; that he has appropriated the great Divine revelation, and made it his own. Now a man by faith encloses a bit of the common for his very own. When God says that He “ so loved the world that He gave His . . . Son,” I should say, “ He loved me, and gave Himself for me.” When the great revelation is made that HE is the Rock of Ages, my faith says: “My Rock and my Fortress.” Having said that, and claimed Him for mine, I can then turn round to Him and say, “ Be to me what I have taken Thee to be.” (A. Maclaren, D. D.) For Thy name’ s sake lead me and guide me.--Divine guidance and leading What a helpless, hopeless thing would a ship be, launched forth upon the deep without a helm, and without a pilot; how it would be drifted about by every current, and tossed to and fro by every wind and wave; how speedily it must be driven amid the shoals, or dashed upon the rocks. No better is man, launched forth on the waves of this troublesome world. Without a Divine helmsman, how must he inevitably be drifted into danger, and betrayed into ruin, if he follows his own wit, and will, and wisdom! The very essence of all Christian life is to walk by faith and not by sight, and the very essence of Divine wisdom in heaven-taught man is to “ trust in the Lord” with all his might, and not to trust in himself, not to trust in his own understanding. How appropriate, then, is this prayer for us all. I. the petition. “ Lead me and guide me.” It implies--1. That a man feels that he cannot guide himself. 2. That he believes God does interpose in the affairs of men, and that He condescends to guide and lead all who trust in Him. 3. Expectation that God will direct us. Some pray but never wait for the answer. 4. And there must be leading as well as guiding. II. the plea. Some plead that they do their best: but they do not. This is the true plea--“ Thy name’ s sake,” God’ s gracious character. It is a believer’ s prayer. God’ s providence, word, and spirit will make plain to us our way. Let us each adopt this prayer. (Hugh Stowell.) Psalms 31:5 Into Thine hand I commit my spirit. The last words of Christ on the Cross (with Luke 23:46; Acts 7:59):-- I. I invite you first to consider our Saviour’ s words just before his death: “ Father, into Thy hands I commend my spirit.”1. Observe how Christ lives and passes away in the atmosphere of the Word of God. Christ was a grand original thinker, and He might always have given us words of His own. He never lacked suitable language, for “ never man spake like this Man.” Yet the great majority of His expressions may be traced to the Old Testament. Even where they are not exact quotations, His words drop into Scriptural shape and form. You can see that the Bible has been His one Book. It was food to Him, as it is to us; and if He thus lived upon the Word of God, should not you and I do the same? 2. Notice that our Lord, in the moment of His death, recognized a personal God. We have far too much fiction in religion, and a religion of fiction will bring only fictitious comfort in the dying hour. Come to solid facts. Is God as real to thee as thou art to thyself? Come now; dost thou speak with Him “ as a man speaketh unto his friend” ? Canst thou trust Him, and rely upon Him as thou dost trust and rely upon the partner of thy bosom? If thy God be unreal, thy religion is unreal. 3. Observe how Jesus Christ here brings out, the Fatherhood of God. The psalm from which He quoted did not say, “ Father.” David did not get as far as that in words, though in spirit he often did; but Jesus had the right to alter the psalmist’ s words. He can improve on Scripture, though you and I cannot. He did not say, “ O God, into Thine hand I commit My spirit” ; but He said, “ Father.” Oh, how sweet, in life and in death, to feel in our soul the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, “ Abba, Father!” 4. From this passage we learn that our Lord cheerfully rendered up His soul to His Father when the time had come for Him to die. “ No man taketh it from Me,” said He concerning His life; “ I lay it down of Myself;” and there is here a cheerful willingness to yield up His spirit into His Father’ s hands. It is rather remarkable that none of the evangelists describe our Lord as dying. He did die, but they all speak of Him as giving up the ghost,--surrendering to God His spirit. You and I passively die; but He actively yielded up His spirit to His Father. In His case, death was an act; and He performed that act from the glorious motive of redeeming us from death and hell; so, in this sense, Christ stands alone in His death. But, oh, if we cannot render up our spirit as He did, yet, let us be perfectly ready to give it up. When God calls us to die, it will be a sweet way of dying if we can, like our Lord, pass away with a text of Scripture upon our lips, with a personal God ready to receive us, with that God recognized distinctly as our Father, and so die joyously, resigning our will entirely to the sweet will of the ever-blessed One, and saying, “ It is the Lord,” “ My Father,” “ let Him do as seemeth Him good.” II. My second text (Psalms 31:5) is evidently the passage which our Saviour had in His mind just then: “ Into Thine hand I commit My spirit: Thou hast redeemed Me, O Lord God of truth.” It seems to me that these are words to be used in life, for this psalm is not so much concerning the believer’ s death as concerning his life.1. Let us cheerfully entrust our souls to God, and feel that they are quite safe in His hands. Are you always doing this? 2. Notice that our second text has these words at the end of it: “ Thou hast redeemed Me, O Lord God of truth.” Is not that a good reason for giving yourself up entirely to God? Christ has redeemed you, and therefore you belong to Him. So, every day, go to Him with this declaration, “ Into Thine hand I commit my spirit.” Nay, not only every day, but all through the day. Have you to go into a house where there is fever; I mean, is it your duty to go there? Then go saying, “ Father, into Thine hand I commit my spirit.” I would advise you to do this every time you walk down the street, or even while you sit in your own house. III. My third text (Acts 7:59) is intended to explain to us the use of our Saviour’ s dying words for ourselves.1. If we can die as Stephen did, we shall die with a certainty of immortality. An infidel once said to a Christian man, “ Some of you Christians have great fear in dying because you believe that there is another state to follow this one. I have not the slightest fear, for I believe that I shall be annihilated, and therefore all fear of death is gone from me.” “ Yes,” said the Christian man, “ and in that respect you seem to me to be on equal terms with that bullock grazing over there, which, like yourself, is free from any fear of death. Pray, sir, let me ask you a simple question, Have you any hope? . . . Hope, sir? No, I have no hope; of course, I have no hope, sir.” “ Ah, then!” replied the other, “ despite the fears that sometimes come over feeble believers, they have a hope which they would not and could not give up.” And that hope is, that our spirit--even that spirit which we commit into Jesus Christ’ s hands,--shall be “ for ever with the Lord.” 2. To a man who can die as Stephen did, there is a certainty that Christ is near,--so near that the man speaks to Him, and says, “ Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” 3. There is a certainty that we are quite safe in His hands. 4. There is the other certainty, that He is quite willing to take us into His hands. (C. H. Spurgeon.) “ Into, Thy hands” This psalm is the heart-cry of a man in great trouble, surrounded by all sorts of difficulties, with his very life threatened. He was down in the very depths of darkness, and ringed about by all sorts of enemies at that moment. “ Into Thine hands I commit my spirit,” as a man standing in the midst of enemies, and bearing some precious treasure in his hand might, with one strong cast of his arm, fling it into the open hand of some mighty helper, and so baulk the enemies of their prey. I. where to lodge a soul for safe keeping, “ Into Thine hands” --a banker has a strong room, and a wise man sends his securities and his valuables to the bank and takes an acknowledgment, and goes to bed at night, quite sure that no harm will come to them, and that he will get them when he wants them. And that is exactly what the psalmist does here. He deposits his most precious treasure in the safe custody of One who will take care of it. The great hand is stretched out, and the little soul is put into it.1. Trusting Him for the salvation of our souls. Take your stand on the fact, and with emancipated and buoyant hearts, and grateful ones, work from it, and because of it. 2. Trusting Him in reference to daily life, and all its difficulties and duties. The act of trust is to run through everything that we undertake and everything that we have to fight with. Self-will wrenches our souls out of God’ s hands. A man that sends his securities to the banker can get them back when he likes. And if we undertake to manage our own affairs, or fling ourselves into our work without recognition of our dependence upon Him, or if we choose our work without seeking to know what His will is, that is recalling our deposit. Then you will get it back again. 3. This must be accompanied with corresponding work. Peter tells us that it is vain for us to talk about committing the keeping of our soul to God unless we back up the committing with consistent, Christlike lives. 4. This committing of our souls into God’ s hands does not mean that we are absolved from taking care of them ourselves. II. the blessedness of thus living in an atmosphere of continual dependence on, and reference to, God, about great things and little things. Whenever a man is living by trust, even when the trust is mistaken, or when it is resting upon some mere human, fallible creature like himself, in the measure of his confidence is the measure of his tranquillity. III. the ground upon which this great venture of faith may be made. “ Thou hast redeemed me, Lord God of Truth.” (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Committing ourselves to God “ Thou hast redeemed me, O Lord God of truth.” Hence-- I. he testifies, by his committing himself to god, to the power of the Lord’ s redemption. He has felt it and acknowledges it. II. To God’ s faithfulness. God is the “ Lord God of truth.” To which class do we belong? (R. W. Evans, B. D.) The dying Christian come, rifting his soul to God I. with whom does the dying Christian wish to entrust his soul? There are only two beings who can have charge of it when it quits the body--the Lord or Satan. Into the hands of one of these our souls must go when they die, and with one of these we must spend eternity. But men generally are quite indifferent on this matter. They feel no real concern. They have a vague hope of heaven and fear of hell. But neither influences their conduct in any important degree. Christians, however, must desire that which David so desired--that the Lord God should receive his spirit. II. what is implied in committing his soul into his hands in a dying hour.1. A firm persuasion that the soul will outlive the body. Not by reason but by the Gospel only does he first learn really and habitually to regard himself as the heir of eternity. And this conviction deepens as he grows in grace. 2. A high value for the soul. The body is as nothing compared to it. The body is the casket, but the soul is the jewel, and that he would, indeed, have saved. 3. A lively sense of the serious, and awful nature of death, a conviction of our need of help in a dying hour. The soul in such an hour will cling more closely to its God. No man will think lightly of death who has ever thought himself near death. 4. A belief that God is willing to receive the soul. III. the warrant and encouragement thus to do.1. God is the Christian’ s Redeemer. 2. The faithfulness of God. He is the “ God of truth,” and He has promised to save them that trust in Him. IV. the lesson of this subject.1. The great value of Christian faith. 2. Here is a source of comfort under the loss of friends. 3. How confidently we may commit into the same hand all other things. 4. How important that now we should become the redeemed of the Lord. (C. Bradley.) A watchword /or life and death I. The true watchword of life.1. We approach the duties of life through a series of the most elevating considerations. (1) We are not our own.(2) We are parts of a great system.(3) We are servants, not masters.(4) The things that are round about us are beneath our serious notice, except for momentary convenience or instruction. 2. We accept the trials of life with the most hopeful patience. They are-- (1) Disciplinary.(2) Under control.(3) Needful. 3. We recognize the mercies of life with the most joyful thankfulness. The name of God is upon the smallest of them. II. the true watchword of death. This watchword, as spoken by Jesus and Stephen, shows--1. Their belief in a state of being at present invisible. They must at least be credited with speaking their deepest personal convictions. It is something to us in our ignorance and weakness to know who have believed this doctrine of a future state. 2. Their assurance of the limitations of human malice. The spirit was free! 3. Application. (1) Where the spirit is fit for the presence of God, there is no fear of death.(2) All who have died in the faith are present with the Lord.(3) Jesus Himself knows what it is to pass through the valley of the shadow of death.(4) The prayer for entrance amongst the blest may come too late. We have no authority for the encouragement of death-bed repentance. (J. Parker, D. D.) The saints’ dying prayer I. These words are full of the fact of our human immortality. Man has and is a spirit, which he can commit. II. A man must do somewhat with his spirit. Some commit their spirit to the dream of theosophy; spiritualism; a worldly carelessness about its destiny; an external morality; external rites; purging punishments. III. to whom it is most right and reasonable to commit one’ s spirit.1. To a personal God.2. To a redeeming God.3. To a God of truth. (W. Hoyt, D. D.) The redeemed soul in God’ s hand I. the believer has been redeemed by God. This Divine redemption--1. Is a deliverance from the greatest of all evils, the service of Satan--ignorance, disease, remorse, death, hell. 2. Was effected at an infinite cost--the death of Him who is one with the Father. 3. Is an eternal redemption of the entire nature. II. the believer is assured of his redemption.1. This assurance comes of faith. 2. Feeling thus assured of our redemption, God should constantly be the object of our love, and our lives be dedicated to His service. III. the believer, feeling assured of his redemption, trustfuly yields his spirit into the hand of his maker, when he departs this life. “ Be ye also ready.” “ Prepare to meet your God.” (Thos. Evans.) Redemption a ground of encouragement to commit the soul to God No question so important to us as this--how can we be just with God. Reason and philosophy cannot answer it, but the Bible does. I. take a brief view of God’ s plan of redemption. It includes--1. The free and full pardon of sin.2. Provision for our sanctification.3. Adoption into God’ s family. II. All this furnishes ample ground for the committal of our souls into the hands of God. What is it to do this? It implies--1. Conviction of guilt.2. Persuasion of His readiness to receive and keep what is committed to Him.3. Choosing to be ruled by Him. III. the encouragement there is in redemption to do this. You are assured--1. That all obstacles are put out of the way.2. That all you need is provided for you and freely offered to you3. No conditions are required but that you simply commit your soul to God.4. It is the only way of being saved. IV. conclusion.1. None may say, there is no hope for me.2. The work of redemption illustrates the goodness of God.3. Are we now trusting in Christ? if so, we have committed, etc.4. How great our obligations to live to the Divine glory. (J. Hawes, D. D.) The language of a dying saint I. what is implied in his committing his spirit to God.1. A deep conviction of the soul’ s immortality.2. A preferable concern for his soul.3. A firm persuasion that his spirit would be safe with God. The soul is as a precious jewel, hence a great trust. II. His encouragement herein. “ Thou hast redeemed me,” etc. For in this redemption the believer finds--1. Love, wonderful, matchless, divine (1 John 4:10; 1 Peter 1:18). Hence he is greatly encouraged.2. Property (Ezekiel 13:4; 1 Corinthians 6:19; Ezekiel 16:8; Isaiah 43:21). And then--3. Power. God “ is able to keep that,” etc.4. Faithfulness. III. improvement.1. Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord.2. Acquaint now thyself with God and be at peace.3. Rejoice in the prospect of the glorious resurrection day. (Samuel Lavington.) From the text learn I. dying in a saint’ s account is a difficult work.1. It is an untried work. 2. It is a final farewell to the present world. 3. It is to put off or lay down the body, no more to be re-assumed till the general resurrection at the end of the world. 4. Our probation is at an end. 5. To die is a great and difficult work, seeing thereupon the soul removes into a new state and world. To remove from one kingdom or country to another, is a great thing; but how much greater to remove into a new world! a world we have not seen, and are little acquainted with. 6. We have to meet God as our Judge, who will order our soul to its unchangeable state and place in the eternal world. For all these reasons to die is always difficult. And it is more so if death find us in the dark as to our title to the life to come. Conscience may be filled with terror under the sense of sin, and dread of deserved wrath. Sin, unpardoned sin, is the sting of death, as drawing after it an everlasting hell; and the very suspicion of this is enough to make the heart to tremble. God in our last moments may hide Himself, or withdraw the light of His countenance; and what distress follows upon this, none can tell but those that have felt it. It is no wonder that such circumstances make dying work peculiarly hard. II. the children of God considering themselves as dying, are chiefly concerned about their immortal souls. The psalmist here was so; he had prayed for temporal salvation in the words of this psalm before my text, but did not insist mainly upon it. However it was as to his body, his great care was with reference to his soul; O Lord, into Thy hand I commit my spirit: let that be safe, and I shall be satisfied. (Anon.) Psalms 31:6I have hated them that regard lying vanities, but I trust in the Lord.Trust the antidote of superstitious vanities Many think that superstition is but an exaggerated faith; that it will diminish with the growth of intelligence, and that it is necessary in appealing to ignorant and vulgar people. But some who have been alive to its mischiefs and horrors have been willing to risk the loss of faith in order to get rid of it; but when the reaction has come, and we have felt that the world could not go on safely without some faith, we have been ready to tolerate a considerable amount of superstition, lest faith, its companion, should perish with it. But the psalmist looks at it from quite a different point of view. He opposes “ superstitious vanities” to “ trust in the Lord.” One is the protest against, the deliverance from, the other. This is the very spirit of the Old Testament. Trust in God--invisible and righteous, is the principle which every lawgiver, prophet, priest, is to exhibit in his actions, to enforce upon his land. So far as his trust fails, he fails to do the work he is called to do. Losing trust, they are told that they will infallibly bow down to objects of Nature, to idols of wood and stone; they will listen to wizards who peep and mutter; they will fear where no fear is; they will make their cruel imaginations into gods and worship them. Such was the message of Elijah. The people to whom he was sent were busy with religious acts and exercises. But he goes to turn them from these acts that they may trust in the Lord. So Hezekiah. The general of Sennacherib accused him of taking away altars: what hope, therefore, could he have of deliverance? But those very acts proved that Hezekiah trusted in the Lord more than all the kings that were before him. And so it is in the New Testament. The apostles found men everywhere bowing down to visible gods, trembling at the future, seeking for diviners who could penetrate its secrets. Wherever they went, they found men fearing gods, trying to conciliate their favour or avert their wrath. To interfere with them was not ill their power: state force, and mob opinion, were leagued in support of them. All they could do was to proclaim a Being whom men might trust. They did proclaim such a Being, they did incite men to trust in Him. And by so doing they struck such a blow at superstitious vanities as no iconoclast ever struck. They testified a hatred of them which they could not have testified, if they had had power to lay low every heathen altar, to cast every idol into the fire. They earned the hatred of those who held to these superstitious vanities. Not a martyr fell under the axe, or was tied to the stake, or was fastened to a cross, but because he would not do sacrifice to the likeness of some emperor, or some god whom the emperor sanctioned with his divine fiat. Not one had courage to make that denial, but because he trusted in the Lord, who had given His Son to be the perfect sacrifice for the sins of the world. And so Trust, because the object of it was more fully revealed, was a mightier destroyer of superstition than it had ever been. And our own experience confirms all this. Each one has some superstitious vanity or other to which he is prone: some dark shadow which haunts him; some visible or invisible terror, which is always ready to make a coward of him. And we cannot rid ourselves of it by reason or arguments of science, These often fail when they are wanted most. There is no help but in trust in God. It alone answers our dark fears. God has spoken to us sinners, and bid us confide in Him. And as we trust, so we conquer our sin; as we fail to trust, so are we overcome. What greater proof could there be that Superstition and Faith are not of the same kin, but are deadly and everlasting foes? And the history of Christendom leads to the same conclusion. (F. D. Maurice, M. A.) Psalms 31:7I will be glad and rejoice in Thy mercy, for Thou hast considered my trouble.Divine chastisements I. That the souls of all God’ s people must have their day of adversity, This, indeed, follows from the universal methods by which God governs and upholds the world. The present life is not a state of retribution, or a place where God professes to discriminate visibly between the good and the evil. If God make His sun to shine both on the just and the unjust, what shall forbid His judgments from alighting also on both? II. whatever our troubles may be there is one to consider our calamities and to know how long we can bear them, “ Thou hast considered and known my soul in adversities.” Affliction often appears to move both God and man; it moves God to consider man’ s infirmities, and it moves man to consider his own soul. Behold, then, why we “ count them happy which endure” --because endurance has a tendency to bring God and the sinner together. Prosperity, health, and comfort too often form a great gulf betwixt us and God--a gulf which must either be crossed by a bridge of sighs, or else filled up with the fragments of those earthly idols which our hearts had worshipped instead of God. And when the poor sinner is thus brought unto God, the first petition he prefers is, “ Lord, consider my affliction; look upon my distress; let Thine eye fasten itself upon my misery and pain.” For his faith tells him all will be well, if God can be brought to take notice of his low estate. Our faith in the Divine promises warms and brightens by the very earnestness with which we plead them; we move God to pity, by moving ourselves to feel that we need pity, and are enabled to draw nigh to God, by the very act of asking God to “ draw nigh to us.” III. that our heavenly Father’ s consideration of the troubles of his people should supply us with matter for joy and praise. “ I will be glad and rejoice in Thy mercy.” We are all more forward to ask for blessings than we are to render God thanks when we have received them. Ten lepers would ask the Saviour for health, but one alone returned to thank Him for it. A day could be taken from our labours to humble ourselves under a scourge, but a day could not be afforded to return thanks for our deliverance. Brethren, this backwardness in thanksgiving ought not so to be. We are hastening to a world where praise is all we shall have to do, and it surely were but fitting that we should begin our rehearsal now. Here we can forbear, and hope, and believe, and pray; but what room will there be for such like works in heaven? (Daniel Moore, M. A.) Psalms 31:8 Thou hast set my feet in a large room.The “ large room” I. the Christian creed places us in a very extended realm. Suppose the case of one puzzled by the mysteries of existence, learning the creed of the Christian Church. Such a man contrasts the narrow material ideas that had become familiar to his thoughts, the insoluble riddle that the great universe presented to his mind as he tried to reduce all its wonder and glory to modifications of blind matter; he contrasts all this with the rest he feels as he repeats to himself the articles of Christian belief. And as he thinks of the old unsatisfying guesses and the present blessed and well-attested creed, tie has to join in the inspired song--“ Thou hast set my feet in a large room.” II. Contrast the sphere of interest Of one who lives for mere natural objects, with the widened horizon of one who has received “ the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father!” Gradually or suddenly you are made ashamed of your self-seeking life. The Spirit’ s holy strivings with your spirit are felt, and prevail; you are drawn as a penitent to the Cross of Christ. The knowledge of His pardon gladdens your heart. Longings for goodness, for purity, for holiness, for usefulness, swell within you. Then what a grand extension takes place in your mental horizon. How dull, petty, and narrow that world-centred life now seems I What a number of new interests, new objects for endeavour, hope and aspiration, rise before you! Little pleasures and innocent amusements and pleasant laughter are still enjoyed--enjoyed with a much fresher kind of enjoyment than before. But they have taken their place now as little things. Life has become to you a much broader, more varied, more intensely interesting drama than it used to be; for you are taken out of self. You are longing to please the Divine Friend. You are a member of a great community, a great company of dear brethren and sisters. Every one with whom you have intercourse is one for whom Christ died, and whom you want to help upwards. III. take one more mental step, and anticipate the time when there will be a still further enlargement. During its larva life the caterpillar seems to have all its powers busied in creeping from leaf to leaf, and gathering in its monotonous nourishment. But there are growing within it all the while organs foreign to its present environment--strange powers, prophecies of an entirely different sphere of existence for which they prepare. In due time the environment changes. The chrysalis shell is broken; the great coloured wings shake themselves free. The “ image,” the ideal being, rises up into the air, glittering and palpitating, a beautiful butterfly, gleaming in the sunshine, and winging its way from flower to flower. This is an old illustration of a fact ere long to be new in the experience of each of us. Here, as we try to do our duty, to bear our cross, to run our race, “ looking unto Jesus,” spiritual powers are developing within us; heavenly capacities are gradually growing. In God’ s good time the bodily organization will be broken up. A new departure in life will be taken. Then, when we come to be with Christ, when we join in the great company whom no man can number, when we serve in the holy temple of which God Himself and the Lamb are the Light, when we follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth, then in the freedom of that heavenly life, in the wide domains opened for our energies by that heavenly service, we shall know the full meaning of the song of thanksgiving, “ Thou hast set my feet in a large room.” (Canon Wynne.) The ample scope for human activities They are not shut up within narrow limits, or indeed within any boundary line; their sphere is immeasurable. I. Their sphere affords ample play for their intellectual faculties.1. Look at Nature. There is an ever-growing universe to study. There are volumes of truth in the smallest plant and the tiniest animalcule. 2. Look at the Bible. The Bible indeed is a “ large room,” its area of eternal principles transcends the limits of creation, and widens into the immensities. II. Their sphere affords ample play for their social sympathies. The human heart was made, like the sun, to encompass the world with its genial and beneficient influences. III. Their sphere affords ample play for their varied activities. Activity is essential to our well-being; inaction is death. In the “ large room” in which Providence has placed us all, there is work enough to engage all our activities in such a way as to yield us perfect satisfaction.1. This “ room” contains work adapted to draw out all our faculties. Our happiness,--nay, our very existence,--would be incomplete were one of our faculties undeveloped. (1) In this “ room” there is work for our intellectual natures. There is a universe to study. (2) In this “ room” there is work for our social natures. We are all members of a social system numbering thousands,--some to draw out our compassions, some to excite our esteem, some to inspire our admiration, some to fill us with delight and joy. (3) In this “ room” there is work for our religious natures. We are made be worship; and in this “ room” there is unfolded, in ten thousand aspects of loveliness, an infinitely perfect God to worship. 2. This “ room” contains work in which there is a perpetual freshness. We are so formed that monotony is not only distasteful to us, but distressing and saddening. But in this “ room” there is fresh work for every fresh day. 3. This “ room” contains work to which there is a perpetual promise. Man is an anticipating being. Work that does not terminate at death, because its grand purpose, the glory of God, runs into eternity. (Homilist.) Psalms 31:9-18 Have mercy upon me, O Lord, for I am in trouble. The complaints of a sufferer, and the entreaties of a suppliant I. the complaints of a sufferer.1. His sufferings were mental and severe.2. His sufferings told most injuriously on his health.3. His sufferings arose from a consciousness of his own guilt, and from the conduct of others.4. Notwithstanding the severity of his sufferings, they utterly failed to destroy his confidence in God. II. the entreaties of a suppliant.1. Deliverance from enemies.2. Divine approval.3. Freedom from disappointment.4. The ruin of his foes. This we are bound to condemn.5. The subjugation of falsehood. (Homilist.) The exhausting ministry of sin There is nothing drains away the strength like sin. At the time when sin is committed we may be unconscious of its demands; indeed, we may sometimes feel as though our strength had been increased. It is part of the subtlety of the Evil One that he often adds a little exuberance to our rebellion, and fills our life with a sense of freedom and delight. But the drain is not the less real because it is concealed. I have seen a village slaughter-house covered with ivy and climbing roses. And the destruction wrought by sin proceeds behind our apparent gains. The real exhaustion is frequently discovered in the time of storm. We are flung into some exacting circle of circumstances, and we find we do not possess the necessary resource. Now all sin is attended by this destructive ministry. It is not only the sensual excess, but the sin of the daintier kind. It is not only the presumptuous uncleanness, emerging from the life like some foul eruption, but it is the secret fault nibbling away in the inward parts. And it is not only that all sin is destructive, but all sin works with a ministry of general destruction. It is not only that a single power is impaired; the taint infects the entire life. Sin is an evil contagion, and its evil is not confined to a power; it pervades a personality. In the destructive influence of sin the most delicate powers are the first impaired. The whole being immediately suffers deterioration, created by the presence of an enervating atmosphere, but the finest powers are those which soonest reveal the insidious consumption. The coronal powers first begin to sicken, and the sickness creeps down into the basement. When a man sins, the blight first strikes the spiritual apprehension. There is no clearer indication of this than when we turn to prayer after we have committed sin. We feel as though we had no delicate hand by which to apprehend the things divine; we have been coarsened, and these delicate presences are not revealed to our touch. But it is not only that our powers are benumbed, they are also emasculated; their secret strength is drained away. But with the impoverishment of the feeling for God there goes the dulling of the moral sense. We lose our powers of refinement, our capacity for discerning between the holy and the profane. We have no cute apprehension of moral values. The very criterion of social health is found in the accuracy of this moral standard, and it is the most pathetic commonplace to watch its deterioration. When a man tells a lie his moral sense is stunned as though he had received a blow in the forehead. And with the consumption of these highest powers our emotional endowment is impaired. I do not mean that we lose our readiness to tears. Weeping may be an art or an artifice, and there are many people whose emotions have been subsidized by the devil. But a fine emotional susceptibility gives weight and pressure to sacred purpose. We can do little or nothing without it. Logical convictions may abound, but they may be inactive and inert. They may be like tramcars waiting for electrical power. We can do little without emotion in political life, and perhaps the greatest need of our time is a baptism of profound and genuine emotion. But the strength of affection is drained away by sin, and what is left is polluted. A common sin diminishes the strength of the affections; they are no longer so refined and sympathetic; affection, through the ministry of sin, can become blind and deaf and dumb. “ My strength faileth because of mine iniquity.” Now if this destructive ministry is at work, what can we do with it? Antagonistic ministries are suggested in the way of powerful antidotes. We are recommended to rearrange and refurnish men’ s environments. But what sort of an environment shall we create? Do we not too frequently argue as if the iniquity were all found in the Seven Dials and not in Belgravia? And yet in one the environment appears to be propitious, while in the other it seems to be adverse. Men say, “ Let us make our towns more like Bournville, and as far as we can, let us restore the original Paradise.” But the devil is in Bournville as the serpent was in Eden. Other men accentuate the ministry of education. Yes, and who would say otherwise? And yet many an educated man is a beast. A secret canker is the companion of many a well-stored mind. We can hear the educated men and women everywhere employing the words of the psalmist: “ My strength faileth because of mine iniquity.” How does the man of the text face his need? He surrenders his unmade soul to its Maker. “ Unto Thee, O God, I commit my spirit.” He commits his spirit to God as an invalid commits himself to a competent physician. And this with completeness of trust. “ I trusted in Thee, O Lord. I said, Thou art my God!” I think there is a most tender pathos in these words. “Thou . . . My!” This sin-haunted, sin-persecuted man lifts his eyes to the Maker, and addresses himself to a personal God. He quietly but confidently claims that Maker for himself. “ Thou art my God.” And then with a sense of his own complete helplessness, and of the utter confusion which his own handiwork has wrought, he places the corrupted life into other and better hands. “ Take it off my hands, good Lord! I have spoiled Thy work, and the beauty and the strength of it are gone! I bring it back to Thee! Into Thy hands I commit my spirit!” But with this completeness of trust there goes an audacity of obedience. There is no real trust without it. There is no faith without faithfulness, and no trust without obedience. The man puts his life into the hands of the Maker, and then stands to do the Maker’ s bidding. And what are the issues of the faithful committal? We find them described in Psalms 31:19. “ O, how great is Thy goodness which Thou hast laid up for them that fear Thee; which Thou hast wrought for them that trust in Thee before the sons of men!” The immediate issue is a state of convalescence, the gradual recovery of lost health. (J. H. Jowett, M. A.) Psalms 31:10 My strength faileth because of mine iniquity.--(Nehemiah 8:10). Moral weakness and strength These two passages tell of the source of both. The psalmist tells us that his iniquity was the cause of his strength failing. Nehemiah, that an excess even of penitential feeling will be injurious. One would have thought that there would have been no danger of such a feeling being in excess, yet, though their sorrow was the holy and healing sorrow of penitence, the prophet urges them to check it, and instead of looking at their transgressions, to look rather to the merciful and bountiful grace of God. It is morbid and conceited to magnify our sin against God’ s mercy; to brood over it and refuse to be comforted; while it is a generous and pious thing to magnify God’ s mercy against our sin; to say, “ Although my sin be great, yet God’ s forgiving grace is greater still.” We are all prone to think and say we have not repented enough. But we forget that sorrow for sin is not the end but only a means, leading us to forsake sin. As soon, therefore, as our sorrow produces this effect, it has accomplished its end, and should no longer be dwelt upon. There is manifestly a point beyond which sorrow, even for sin, is neither a practical nor a beneficial thing. That cannot be a godly sorrow which rises up as a thick black cloud before God’ s pardoning mercy. That only is a godly sorrow which leads us to God. If a man So cherish sorrow for sin as to engender in his heart the feeling that his sin cannot be forgiven, then his very sorrow for sin itself becomes a sinful thing; for it misrepresents and mistrusts God. It might be a heathen man’ s sorrow, who had never heard of Christ’ s salvation, but it should never be the sorrow of the Christian hearer, before whom that salvation is set every day. And then, in a parenthesis, and with a glimpse of profound spiritual philosophy, the prophet adds as a reason for this urgency--“ For the joy of the Lord is your strength.” There is no strength save in a joyous heart. Sorrow may lead to strength, just as dislocation may lead to order. A wrong state of things may have painfully to be set right. Old things may have to be swept away, before new and better things can come; but dislocation itself is not strength, but weakness. So sorrow for sin is in itself weakness; it is the heart emptying itself, and bemoaning itself, it is a looseness of the joints, a melting of the marrow. It is not a building up, but a pulling down. Only a joyous, confident, satisfied heart can be a strong one--a heart assured of itself, and assured of God’ s favour and helping. This is the essential means and condition of spiritual strength. God gives us strength, but not by doing things for us which we can do for ourselves. He helps us as a physician helps a patient--not by proffering us an arm to lean upon, but by infusing new life and strength into our souls--by making His strength perfect in our weakness. Iniquity makes a man’ s strength fail, he is strong just in proportion as he is holy. The strenuous urgencies of Scripture that we should rejoice in the Lord always; the solicitous provision for our rejoicing that God has made; nay, the very character of Christian salvation and privilege make it imperative upon every one of us to cultivate to the utmost that joy of the Lord which is our strength. Only sin and unspiritualness hinder joy, and so disparage religion, and keep the young and joyous from embracing it. The redemption of the world lingers, and the millennium is kept back because the church is too austere. Its energies are weak, because it has not a rejoicing impulse. Did we walk closely with God, and realize the blessedness of communion with Him, our joy would be full. (R. Allen.) Psalms 31:12I am forgotten as a dead man out of mind. Buried alive This title would suggest to many, terrible ideas of an awful physical calamity, such as has taken place in mines, or in actual burials ere life was extinct. But there are other senses in which men are buried alive. I. in an unfortunate sense.1. For want of opportunities of mental development. The human mind is like seed in the vegetable kingdom. It contains life and unbounded possibilities of increase, but unless it finds suitable soil, shower and warmth, the vital principle is buried alive, buried in the shell. And so it is too often with thousands of men. There are multitudes possessing brilliant natural capacities--mute Miltons and Shakespeares--but buried for lack of opportunity. Hence, let us rejoice at the growing determination that our children shall be educated, however poor they may be, and thus shall possess the means of stimulating life and growth. 2. Through the infirmities of age. Their day is past. They once were prominent and well known, but now are “ forgotten as dead men out of mind.” 3. Through the envy of their contemporaries. This, perhaps, is the meaning of the psalmist’ s words. Malice bespreads a thick cloud over a name which once has shone brightly. Now many are thus kept in the background. II. in a criminal sense. “ To be carnally minded is death.” III. in a virtuous sense. “ We are buried with Him by baptism into death.” Not the baptism of water, of course, but the baptism of that holy fire that burns up all carnalities. What is buried here? Not the mind, but the old man with its lusts. “ Nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ,” etc. This is a virtuous burying alive. It means being dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto righteousness. IV. conclusion. In which of these senses are you buried alive? Some of you may say that it is in the first sense. It may be so; ask God to guide you into a fit sphere. Or it may be by the infirmities of age. You cannot do what you once did and what you wish to do. But God accepts the will for the deed. He values service by its motive. But some of you are buried alive in the criminal sense. You are dead in the grave of depravity. “ Arise from the dead and Christ,” etc. And others of you are so in the virtuous sense--dead to sin. You can say, God forbid that I should glory save . . . the world is crucified to me and I to the world. (D. Thomas, D. D.) Psalms 31:13 Fear was on every side.The length and the breadth are equal (with Psalms 71:21):--Life is circumvented by peril; yet on every side we are promised assurance and safety. I. the hinder side.1. The world of the past clings to us, and in many ways alarms and embarrasses. We cannot rub out the blood stains. We can plead no “ Statute of Limitations.” 2. But our God comforts us on this side, with pardoning and renewing grace. II. The farther side.1. How much of a deeply distressing order may happen to us in this new year. Changes, trials, disappointments, bereavements. We feel that we are like Nansen in the Arctic region--the ice is all around us holding us firmly in its threatening grip. We go up to the crow’ s-nest and survey the scene, but there is no open sea, no inviting shore, only one iceberg jamming another until the last is lost in the dark horizon. We need not wonder that men look into the strange, uncertain, threatening future with deep seriousness. 2. Yet is there comfort on this side also. God goes before us, preparing us for the future, preparing the future for us. The trees on this winter’ s day are being secretly prepared for the summer days of sunshine, so are the bulbs in the soil, so are the flies and butterflies, and the summer is on its way getting up its fires and showers; the two will meet at the right moment exactly ready for each other; in six months’ time again all these things will secretly undergo another great change, and although there is not a morsel of ice or flake of snow to be seen, they will be preparing for the winter, God is secretly equipping us for the trial that is to try us; He is quietly getting us ready for old age; He is establishing harmony between us and the circumstances He must introduce; He is already making it easy for us to die. Let us be of good heart. Many bright things and scenes are ahead for most of us; if our goodness is like the morning cloud and the early dew God’ s goodness is not. And as to the evil things, God’ s government shall soften them one by one and lead us out of them. III. The outside.1. Like the apostle (2 Corinthians 7:5), we all have our Macedonia, and sustain desperate fightings. It is vain to speak as some do of the smoothness and pleasantness of modern life as compared with life in the ancient days. The well-dressed congregation of to-day is fighting ‘ a battle as difficult and bitter as those noble saints fought in sheep-skins and goat-skins. We, too, bear in our bodies the marks of the Lord Jesus. 2. Yet here also we are comforted. “ Our flesh had no rest,” says the apostle, but their spirit had. God shelters and strengthens us amid dilemmas and tribulations, making them to work out our salvation and glory. IV. the inside. The apostle continues in the passage just quoted: “ Within were fears.” We have, perhaps, most to fear here. The garrison itself is unsatisfactory, weak. We know the force within to be ten thousand, the investing army to be thousands of thousands. It is a sceptical garrison. It has little faith in itself--little faith in victory--it is fainthearted to begin with. It is a treacherous garrison--so much that is within us perfidiously allies itself with the alien army. But here also we are comforted. He Himself enters into our life; He makes us heroic and conquering by virtue of His presence manifested in our heart. The peace of God keeps our heart--“ garrisons” our heart. Here is the victory of Mansoul--the great white flag of the Prince waves over it, and, weak as we are in ourselves, we are invincible in the power of purity and faith. This is the “ garrison” on which we rely, and which shall keep us in the hour and power of darkness. (W. L. Watkinson.) Psalms 31:15 My times are in Thy hand. Affiance There is nothing which more distinguishes the Christian from the ungodly man than the temper with which the experiences and possibilities of life are regarded. The Christian sees in all the hand of God, and submits; the other feels the stroke hardly knowing whence it comes. The one looks up with intelligent hope, the other looks down as it falls with a blind despair. How terrible are the calamities which the psalm portrays; but how beautiful the trust which, in the midst of them all, the psalmist displays. I. what lies at its basis--belief in the truth of a particular providence. Now, providence is the Divine reason of all things. Deny it, and you take away the ground of my trust and resignation. And why should any suppose that the control or agency of the Infinite should terminate with the first creating act? That He should create and then leave that which He has created to go on its way without further control or care? Yet many think this. They believe that God has formed a number of self-acting machines. He wound up the mighty herologe, and stood aside to see it go. They think it derogatory to His dignity to be constantly interfering with His works. But where is there less dignity in administering laws than in appointing them? And how do we know what is or is not worthy of His care? Apart from the plans and purposes of God, the entire universe is insignificant: in relation to them every atom is important, for upon any one atom the entire sequence may depend. It is told of Mahomet, how, when hard pressed by his pursuers, he took refuge in a cave, which they were about to enter, when they observed a spider’ s web spun over the mouth of it, and, therefore, turned away convinced that it could not have been lately entered. That spider’ s web changed the destiny of the world, inasmuch as it preserved the life of the man who exercised such immense influence over it. And how perpetually we are finding that vast results turn upon the most trivial and insignificant circumstances. Without providence, history would be an absurdity, the universe an enigma, and the Deity undeified. The Christian assigns to this doctrine a place among the primary truths of his religious faith. He devoutly and joyfully recognizes it. In the text the psalmist declares that his “ times” --all the vicissitudes and changes of his life--are in God’ s hand; all under God’ s appointment, and under His control. It is so. Our times of prosperity, of adversity, and the time of our death. II. the Christian man’ s recognition of this truth. It is by faith. The proof of the doctrine is sufficient but not overpowering. Our admission of it depends largely upon our moral condition as, indeed, all faith does. There is no faith in believing the demonstration of a mathematical problem. A man, therefore, may recognize no providence, and to those who do, its difficulties are often very great. Nevertheless, the Christian believes. For he believes in the justice, the wisdom and the goodness, as well as the power of God. And because he is reconciled to God in Christ he believes that providence will bring good to him. He calls upon God as “ Our Father, which art in Heaven.” Well, then, let us be content, be our lot what it may. Trust for all the future. Let me never dare to doubt. (Henry Allen.) “ My times are in Thy hand” Whatever is to come out of our life, is in our heavenly Father’ s hand. He guards the vine of life, and He also protects the clusters which shall be produced thereby. If life be as a field, the field is under the hand of the great Husbandman, and the harvest of that field is with Him also. The ultimate results of His work of grace upon us, and of His education of us in this life, are in the highest hand. The close of life is not decided by the sharp knife of the fates; but by the hand of love. We shall not die before our time, neither shall we be forgotten and left upon the stage too long. Not only are we ourselves in the hand of the Lord, but all that surrounds us. We are comforted to have it so. I. A clear conviction that our times are in the hand of God will create within us a sense of the nearness of God. If the hand of God is laid upon all our surroundings, God Himself is near us. The tendency of this age is to get further and further from God.1. “ My times are in Thy hand.” Then there is nothing left to chance. Events happen not to men by a fortune which has no order or purpose in it. “ The lot is cast into the lap; but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord.” We dare not leave out the least event. The creeping of an aphis upon a rosebud is as surely arranged by the decree of Providence as the march of a pestilence through a nation. 2. “ My times are in Thy hand” is an assurance which also puts an end to the grim idea of an iron fate compelling all things. Have you the notion that fate grinds on like an enormous wheel, ruthlessly crushing everything that lies in its way, not pausing for pity, nor turning aside for mercy? Remember that, if you liken Providence to a wheel, it must be a wheel which is full of eyes. Its every revolution is in wisdom and goodness. 3. “ My times are in Thy hand” reveals the condescension of the Lord. Wonder of wonders, that God should not only think of me, but should make my concerns His concerns, and take my matters into His hand! 4. What a bliss this is! How near it brings God to us, and us to God. II. this truth is a complete answer to many a temptation. Satan says, “ Now you have a large family, and your chief duty is to provide for them. Your position brings with it many wants. Here is a plan of making money; others follow it. It may not be quite straight, but you must not be particular in such a world as this, for nobody else is.” How will you meet this? Say to Satan, “ It is not my business to provide for myself or for my family: my times are in God’ s hand; and his name is Jehovah-Jireh, ‘ the Lord will provide’ ; and I will not do a questionable thing, though it would fill my house with silver and gold. I shall not meddle with my Lord’ s business. It is His to provide for me: it is mine to walk uprightly, and obey His Word.” But supposing he says, “ Well, but you are already in difficulties, and you cannot extricate yourself if you are too precise. A poor man cannot afford to keep a conscience: it is an expensive luxury in these days. Give your conscience a holiday, and you can soon get out of your trouble.” Let your reply be, “ O prince of darkness, it is no business of mine to extricate myself! My times are in God’ s hand. I have taken my case to Him, and He will work for me in this matter better than I can do for myself! He does not wish me to do a wrong thing, that I may do for myself what He has promised to do for me.” III. this conviction is a sufficient support against the fear of men. How often we meet with people who are staggered by slander. If my times are in God’ s hand, no man can do me harm unless God permit. Though my soul is among lions, yet no lion can bite me while Jehovah’ s angel is my guard. IV. A full belief in the statement of our text is A cure for present worry. O Lord, if my times are in Thy hand, I have cast my care on Thee, and I trust and am not afraid! To leave our times with God is to live as free from care as the birds upon the bough. If we fret, we shall not glorify God; and we shall not constrain others to see what true religion can do for us in the hour of tribulation. Fret and worry put it out of our power to act wisely; but if we can leave everything with God because everything is really in His hand, we shall be peaceful, and our action will be deliberate; and for that very reason it will be more likely to be wise. He that rolls his burden upon the Lord will be strong to do or to suffer; and his days shall be as the days of heaven upon the earth. V. A firm conviction as to this truth is a quietus as to future dread. The very word “ times” supposes change for you; but as there are no changes with God, all is well. Things will happen which you cannot foresee; but your Lord has foreseen all, and provided for all. VI. A full conviction that our times are in his hand will be a reason for consecrated service. If God has undertaken my business for me, then I may most fitly undertake such business for Him as He may appoint. Queen Elizabeth wished one of the leading merchants of London to go to Holland to watch her interests there. The honest man told her Majesty that he would obey her commands; but he begged her to remember that it would involve the ruin of his own trade for him to be absent. To this the Queen replied, “ If you will see to my business, I will see to your business.” With such a royal promise he might willingly let his own business go; for a queen should have it in her power to do more for a subject than he can do for himself. The Lord, in effect, says to the believer, “ I will take your affairs in hand, and see them through for you.” Will you not at once feel that now it is your joy, your delight, to live to glorify your gracious Lord? VII. If our times are in God’ s hand, here is a grand argument for future blessedness. He that takes care of our times, will take care of our eternity. He that has brought us so far, and wrought so graciously for us, will see us safely over the rest of the road. (C. H. Spurgeon.) On our lives being in the hand of God The sun that rolls over our heads, the food that we receive, the rest that we enjoy, daily admonish us of a superior power, on whom the inhabitants of the earth depend for light, life, and subsistence. But as long as all things proceed in their ordinary course; when day returns after day with perfect similarity; when our life seems stationary, and nothing occurs to warn us of any approaching change, the religious sentiments of dependence are apt to be forgotten. I. That our times are not in our own hand.1. Of this we may behold many a proof, when we look back on the transactions of the year which is finished. Recollection will readily present to us a busy period, filled up with a mixture of business and amusement, of anxieties and cares, of joys and sorrows. We have formed many a plan; in public or in private life, we have been engaged in a variety of pursuits. Let me now ask, how small a proportion of all that has happened could have been foreseen, or foretold by us? How many things have occurred, of which we had no expectation; some, perhaps, that have succeeded beyond our hopes; many, also, that have befallen us contrary to our wish? 2. That scene is now closed. We look forward to another year; and what do we behold there? all is a blank to our view. Life and death, prosperity and adversity, health and sickness, joy and trouble, lie in one undistinguishable mass, where our eye can descry nothing through the obscurity that wraps them up. II. That our times are in the hand of God.1. As a supreme, irresistible Ruler. He has foreknown and arranged everything. He sees from the beginning to the end; and brings forward everything that happens in its due time and place. 2. As a merciful Guardian and Father. To Him we may safely commit ourselves, and all our concerns, as to One who is best qualified, both to direct the incidents proper to happen to us in this world, and to judge of the time when it is fit for us to be removed from it. Even that ignorance of our future destiny in life, of which we sometimes complain, is a signal proof of His goodness. He hides from us the view of futurity, because the view would be dangerous and overpowering. It would either dispirit us with visions of terror, or intoxicate us by the disclosure of success. Conclusion.1. Seeing our times are not in our own hand, seeing futurity is unknown to us, let us check the vain curiosity of penetrating into what is to come. Our wisdom is, to be prepared for whatever the year is to bring; prepared to receive comforts with thankfulness, troubles with fortitude; and to improve both for the great purposes of virtue and eternal life. 2. Another important instruction which naturally arises from our times not being in our own hands is, that we ought no longer to trifle with what it is not in our power to prolong: but; that we should make haste to live as wise men; not delaying till to-morrow what may be done to-day; doing now with all our might whatever our hand findeth to do, before that night cometh wherein no man can work. 3. When we consider that our times are in the hand of God as a sovereign Disposer, it is an obvious inference from this truth, that we should prepare ourselves to submit patiently to His pleasure, both as to the events which are to fill up our days, and as to the time of our continuing in this world. 4. To God as a wise Ruler, calm submission is due; but it is more than submission that belongs to Him as a merciful Father; it is the spirit of cordial and affectionate consent to His will. Unknown to us as the times to come are, it should be sufficient to our full repose that they are known to God. (H. Blair, D. D.) Safe times I. The fact expressed in the text.1. In a general sense, every man’ s “ times” are in God’ s “ hand.” It is a happy thing, and it certifies the stability of the wide realm of being, that the great Ruler will not suffer one thread of His government to pass for a moment out of His grasp. 2. In a special sense, which renders it worthy of grateful mention, the good man’ s “ times” are in God’ s “ hand.” You are helpless: will that slacken God’ s care that all shall be best with you? You are dependent, and you try to be trustful: will that set to sleep the vigilance of Him who has all the ordering of your way? You are ignorant and erring: will that give occasion to infinite pity to mislead you or neglect you, and you right upon your march towards the opportunity of scanning all His dealings with you, and of scanning them in the light of a knowledge which it is His purpose shall eternally increase? Nay: your “ times,” every one of every shade and shape, are at home in the centre of all safety. II. The temper in which this fact is expressed in the text.1. The psalmist gives to the fact his cordial personal consent. It is not a statement merely; it is a self-gratulation also, with something of a thanksgiving besides. 2. When the responsibility would be the heaviest if he did have his “ times” in his own hand, he remembers they are in God’ s, and breathes freely because the weight of them is not at all upon himself, but altogether upon Him who bears the burdens of eternity and doth not weary. Our part is patience, obedience, brave submission. 3. It allays all his anxiety about his “ times.” Fears about ourselves, fears about friends whom we love better than ourselves, apprehensions about life, apprehensions about death--about death perhaps most of all, with its when and where and how,--every one of them would be gone from these hearts of ours, if only they held within them the plain fact of our text as firmly as they hold many a fact that has a thousand times less of deep personal interest for us. (J. A. Kerr Bain, M. A.) Our times, living and dying, in God’ s hand I. our times are not naturally our own, to employ as we please, to be accountable to ourselves only for the use of them.1. Certainly not the times which are gone by; for we cannot recall them: they are not in our power. As little control can we exercise over the hours that are present: we cannot command sickness or health, youth or age. The times will never come when we shall begin to be at our own disposal, and cease to depend on God’ s sovereign will. It is not possible, neither is it desirable. Rejoice that your times are in God’ s hand. 2. It is not less so in regard to His dispensations towards us, as we are His redeemed people, children of grace. In this respect, especially, “ none of us liveth to himself,” etc. II. This arrangement is for our advantage.1. The happiness of feeling assured, when we come to die, that our time of dying is in the Lord’ s hand, must be inconceivably great. 2. The way to have this happiness when we die is to make it our aim while we live, to seek God’ s mercy in Christ, to submit to His disposal, and to follow His steps, led by His hand, in a holy, serious, humble, uncorrupt way; and, as all our times are in the Lord’ s hand, to bless the Lord at all times. (W. Firth, B. D.) Our times are in God’ s hand “ My times are in Thy hand” --the seasons, the stages, and eras of my life, with all their casualties, and opportunities, incidents, and events, are all in Thy hand, under Thy control, and at Thy disposal. I. My prosperous times are in thy hand.1. My times of worldly prosperity. This is as clear as it is certain. For though every one may do much to preserve his health, that does not depend entirely on himself, any more than that of his family and friends; his good name is not in his own keeping; his credit is not in his own power; business does not come at his bidding. 2. Times of spiritual prosperity. Without this, the prosperous man is like a vessel in full sail before the wind without ballast, in danger of being dashed to pieces. II. My trying times are in thy hand.1. Times trying to my principles. Times of change of situation, condition, and calling in life; of removal from one place of residence to another; of losses, disappointments, and failures in business; of fraud, injustice, and oppression from men; of adversity, poverty and privations;--are especially trying to men’ s principles. 2. Times trying to my patience, Times of personal and relative affliction and distress. III. My working times are in thy hand.1. Times when I am able to work. Every one should have a lawful calling in the world, should abide in his calling, mind the business of his calling, should “ study to be quiet, and do his own business, and work with his own hands,” as he is commanded. 2. Times when I am specially called to work. Times of abounding iniquity, etc. IV. My waiting times are in thy hand.1. Times of waiting on the Lord. In the sanctuary, the family, the closet. 2. Times of waiting for the Lord--for His own time of giving what is good, and for His own way of doing us good. V. my dying time is in thy hand. We must all die alone. And while we live, we are dying. Are not times of weakening my strength in the way, of exanimating sickness, of excruciating pain, of wasting lungs, of struggling breath, of loss of appetite, of bodily and mental prostration, so many dying times to every one that is subject to them? Lessons:1. To acknowledge Thy hand at all times. 2. To commit my spirit into Thy hand. 3. To make my prayer unto the God of my life. (G. Robson.) Minute oversight Some men practically regard only some of their times as in the hand of God.1. We not infrequently regard as providential only that which we deem calamitous. A bridge falls, and scores of souls are hurried into eternity, and we cry--“ Providence!” But a bridge stands for years, and hundreds pass across in safety, and so far as concerns that bridge, we “ turn God out of court.” 2. Sometimes we recognize God only when what we call large takes place. One man is killed, and nobody says anything about Providence; but a dreadful catastrophe occurs, and two or three hundred lives are lost; and we say, Providence! Judgment! We should remember that “ large” and “ little” are words expressive of our finite knowledge. 3. Sometimes we regard as providential only that which comes unexpectedly. When we put our money to usury and get a good percentage, we take our income as a matter of course; we say nothing about Providence. But unexpectedly we have a “ windfall” ;--reaping where and what we have never sown--and we call the windfall “ a providence.” What comes in the ordinary course of things is no providence; so we poor, morally illogical creatures say; but whatever takes place that we cannot account for, we call a providential dispensation. This is nothing short of saying that God begins to work only at the point where human intellectual vision ceases; that the sphere of providence touches only the horizon of our mental view. “ My times are in Thy hand.” What then? This: expect comfort for all seasons. Be courageous at all times; and adore amidst all changes, an unchanging God. (J. S. Swan.) The particularity of Divine Providence I. the doctrine of the text. We shall be told, perhaps, that the doctrine of a particular Providence represents the Most High, as attentive to insignificant affairs,--gives to the Divine administration the aspect of overwhelming complexity,--and, is inconsistent with the majesty of the Supreme Being.1. By no means do we deny, that the doctrine of a particular Providence does give to the Divine administration an aspect of overwhelming complexity. But then we are speaking, not of what the human mind can grasp, but of what the Supreme intelligence effects. Whoever admits the Being of a God, must connect with it the idea of infinity. No degree of attention, or variety of objects, can bewilder Him, whose understanding is infinite. 2. To oppose the consideration of Jehovah’ s infinite majesty to the doctrine of His providential administration is unscriptural, and absurd. The universe is a great and glorious whole;--but this great and glorious whole cannot be rightly preserved and governed, without the right preservation and government of all its parts. II. the way in which the beneficial influence of this doctrine is to be experienced. The doctrine of His providence as revealed in Scripture, gives us a glorious idea of His character. It leads us to conceive of His presence as filling immensity, and of His goodness as commanding universal confidence. It leads us to worship Him, and to confide in Him as the Lord of the universe, in whom all majesty is for ever centred, and from whom all blessings flow. But this doctrine appears to the greatest advantage, viewed in the “ light of the glory of God, in the face of Jesus Christ” ;--and it is the knowledge of His glory, as a covenant Jehovah in the Son of His love, that gives to the faith of this doctrine its most beneficial effect. And well may the believer joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, knowing that all the perfections of the adorable I Am are engaged to promote his welfare and to effect his salvation. It shall only be added, that to derive benefit from the doctrine we have stated, it is necessary for us to avail ourselves of it by faith, especially when such benefit is most needed. When did David say in the prayer, and confidence of faith, “ My times are in thy hand?” --it was when fear was on every side, and in so doing, he took an extended view of the providence of God, and honoured Him. The times of man are numerous and diversified;--he has times of sorrow, of trial, of affliction. As “ there is a time to be born,--so there is a time to die.” David takes the range of the whole,--and instead of planning for God, or deeming himself at the mercy of his enemies, he said, “ My times are in Thy hand.” Thus he met the storm which tried his faith, and the recollection of his so doing was grateful to his feelings, and subservient to communion with his everlasting friend when fresh trials occurred. (W. Hutchings.) The measure of human life There are three main causes which go to determine the length of time of every human life.1. The first is physical. Every man has a constitution given him by God which has a certain amount of vital power and no more, which can bear a certain amount of strain and exertion and no more. When this stock is exhausted first one and then another organ gives up, and the end comes. How soon it will come is partly determined by circumstances. In one set of circumstances it is delayed; in another it is hastened; but no circumstances, no precautions, however incessant, can preserve it for ever. Not that strength of constitution is always allowed to be the measure of life. Its course is not seldom arrested by a violent death; it is cut short in battle, or by the executioner, or by lightning, or by railway accident, or by drowning, or by the murderer’ s knife, or by poison taken unwitting!y, or by the bite of an animal, or by pestilence that walketh in darkness; and yet such events might suggest to those who believe in the providence of God that there are other and more influential, although less patent, causes that affect the length of human life, causes which we now proceed to consider. 2. Every man has a certain work assigned him to do, and when it is done, or ought to have been done, then he has to make room for others. What that work exactly is He knows who has placed us here. But most of us can only infer generally, and not always quite distinctly, why we were placed here, while none of us can dare to say certainly at the close of life that the work which our Maker meant us to do has been completed. Too many of us--alas!--never think of this solemn truth. The outward form of the work matters less than the presence or absence of the ennobling motive. The highest work may be even irretrievably degraded by the absence of that purpose. But, however this may be, with each of us a day comes when the work we had to do has been done or ought to have been done, and can be no longer done, and then the end comes. 3. Closely related to this cause, and yet distinct from it, there is a third. Every man is here on his probation or trial; he has a certain number of difficulties to encounter, a certain number of opportunities of which he may avail himself, measured unto him by a perfect justice which will deal with him accordingly. When these difficulties have been passed, in whatever manner, with whatever difficulty, the end comes. Who can say when the last difficulty has been surmounted, or when the last opportunity has been rejected or missed? We do not know. But our ignorance does not disprove the fact he knows who has made us, who has placed us here on our trial, who removes us when we have passed it or have failed. (Canon Liddon.) The Divine superintendency of human affairs . Second only to the interest of that view of God as the Author of salvation through Christ, is this which ascribes to Him the presidency over all human affairs. I. in what sense this is true.1. It is true of the times of men’ s entrance into the world, and their departure out of it. Hence the regular succession and perpetuity of the generations of men; and the appearance of men in the world with capacities and powers, exactly united to the age in which they live. If subtle adversaries against the truth appear, among their contemporaries, its most acute and intelligent defenders are found. And so of men’ s departure from this world: they not only come, but go at God’ s bidding. Till He give the command, nothing can force open the door of eternity for us; and when He does, nothing can keep us from entering it. It is said that the devil hath “ the power of death.” But this cannot mean natural death, for had he power over that, he would never suffer a bad man to live till he was converted, nor a good man afterwards. But it refers to the future death of torment which Satan as the executioner of Divine justice is commissioned to inflict. 2. It is true of the times of their worldly prosperity and adversity. We see this in the case of nations and empires, but it is true also of all the individuals comprising any nation. God fixes the bounds of every one’ s habitation and determines his lot. He does not interfere with the natural liberty of men, nor fail to allow, in a general way, for diligence and prudence to work out their own reward, and vice and idleness to bring their own punishment. Yet, the final issues of things depend entirely on His will. It is good to recognize this for, so, by a conviction of the Divine wisdom and goodness, we are the more ready to acquiesce in all providential arrangements. 3. It is true of the times of men’ s gracious visitation and instruction. These periods form our day of grace, Thus we read of the Church of Thyatira, that Christ gave her “ space to repent,” and we read of “ a time when Thou mayest be found,” and of the “ time of visitation.” In addition to these there are sermons of refreshment for the Church at large. We read of “ set times to favour Zion.” Such times are the cordials of life, catches of sunlight upon our spiritual prospect, the wells of water and the palms at which we arrive as we journey through the wilderness. II. what are the uses of this doctrine.1. Men should learn to value the times of gracious visitation and use them well, lest God take them away. This He may do, by taking away our lives, or our sensibility, or the means of grace themselves. 2. Good people should be comforted, since their times are in God’ s hands. What have we to fear? 3. This truth should reconcile us to the stroke of death when it comes to ourselves or others. (J. Leifchild.) The Christian’ s lot in the Divine hand The way of the Christian is often very difficult, and it would often be appalling, and life itself would be mournful were it not for the many consolations to which the pious mind may resort. To such consolations under difficulty the psalmist is clearly referring in our text. I. Briefly illustrate the fact which the statement of the text comprehends. And--1. Consider those seasons which are to be especially regarded as under the Divine management. No doubt, all the events of life are under God’ s control. Some deny this, and men limit the interference of God to the great and momentous affairs of men. But reason and Scripture alike teach (see Psalms 104:1-35.) the universal superintendence of God. Our Lord Jesus Christ says, “ Are not two sparrows sold?” thereby teaching this same truth. The time of prosperity is in God’ s hand, though men sadly forget this. And the time of affliction, and the time of death. Next-- 2. Observe the principles according to which this Divine arrangement is regulated. And (1) Sovereignty. God conducts all His dealings towards men as a Sovereign (see Jeremiah 18:1-23.)--the potter and the clay. But-- (2) There is also Justice. God can do nothing that is not right. Sovereignty and justice in God are never to be opposed to each other: they are ever associated. (3) Mercy. “ It is of the Lord’ s mercies that we are not consumed.” But for this where would man be? (4) Wisdom. All our events are under God’ s hand, and these are the principles on which they are regulated and controlled. II. the results which this recognition should produce.1. Contentment. How could our affairs be better ordered? Let the poor and the afflicted remember this. 2. Trust, entire and unwavering confidence in God. How can we believe what has been said and not trust? 3. Gratitude. What abundant cause we have, when we look back on our lives, for this feeling towards God. Many an Ebenezer we can inscribe upon our pathway, and if so, should we not praise Him? 4. Anticipation. How calmly and confidently may we look on to the future. Foreboding and fear should be far from us. But to enter into all this we must be reconciled to God in the Lord Jesus Christ. (James Parsons.) David’ s confidence in God’ s providence If Caesar could say to the fearful ferryman in a terrible storm, “ Be of good cheer, thou carriest Caesar, and therefore canst not miscarry,” how much more may he presume to be safe that hath God in his company. A child in the dark feels nothing while he has his father by the hand. (John Trapp.) Psalms 31:18 Let the lying lips be put to silence, which cruelly, disdainfully, and, maliciously, speak against the righteous.On scepticism To neglect those popular calumnies which are in circulation against any system either moral, religious, or political, is rather magnanimous than wise, and savours more of a generous contempt for danger than of prudent precaution against it. Bold assertions, and specious invectives often repeated, begin at last to be credited. There is too, besides, a fashion in thinking as in everything else, and the giddy part of mankind must ever appear in the newest philosophy. It is important, therefore, to mark the modes of thinking of the time, and especially those which are aimed against the Christian faith. It is a leading object with sceptics to bring this into disrepute. And they seek so to do by charging Christians with intolerance, bigotry, and narrowness of mind. The opposite virtues, candour, liberality, and freedom from prejudice, they claim for themselves. And the young are much attracted by such professions, as it is natural they should be. Their vanity, also,--desire of notoriety, and their impatience, help the evil; soon they parade their disbelief, and sink into a state of complete scepticism. All this is very sad. A young man standing on the threshold of life, and just going into all the business of the world, with a heart in which every principle of right and wrong is thoroughly shaken and impaired! If not destined for great offices in public life, yet he is a brother, a son, a friend; he is to be a husband, and a father of children; some must trust him, and some must love him. Call it bigotry, and cover these notions with mockery and derision; but I say it would be better for this young man that the work of death were going on within him, that the strength and the roses of his youth were fading away, and that he were wasting down to the tombs of his ancestors, wept by his friends, and pitied by the world. Therefore let us examine the foundations of such scepticism. I speak not of all who disbelieve in Christianity, but of those who presume to look down upon Christians with anger and contempt. The fact is, disbelief not only in Christianity but in Providence is becoming general, and men are giving up all the wholesome restraints of religion. These are the dangers which now threaten us. We need not fear that we shall be manacled again by superstition, but that the golden chain which reaches from heaven to earth should be broken asunder, and not one link of it again be found. The infidel clings as tenaciously to what he denies, as the religionist does to what he affirms;--arm him with power, will he be more tolerant?--will he suffer you to build temples? to pray openly to your God, and to insult his doubts with the profession of a faith, which, in the deep wickedness of his heart, lie judges to be the consummation of all absurdity?--Toleration is the creature of benevolence and of wisdom; what have the shallow sneers and scoffings of infidelity to do with this Heavenly forbearance? do not be mocked by such idle pretensions; if atheism ever rears its head among men, piety will mourn and bleed. Let us be thankful, therefore, for that small but invaluable class of men who, sincerely loving truth, and pursuing it with exquisite tact and skill, will even resist the wild unbelief of the day. Against ignorant and evil men they will steadily strive, and they will exert all their authority” to put to silence the lips which cruelly, disdainfully, and despitefully, speak against the righteous. (Sydney Smith, M. A.) Psalms 31:19O how great is Thy goodness which Thou hast laid up for them that fear Thee; which Thou hast wrought for them that trust in Thee before the sons of men.Of hearing God and trusting in Him I. explain these duties.1. The fear of God. This sometimes comprehends the whole duty of man, but is more properly taken for a religious reverence of the Divine being and government. It is not dread of God that destroys the foundation of religion, because it looks upon God as arbitrary and cruel. But the fear Of God ever consists in an habitual sense of His glory and perfections. None can be said to fear God who do not obey Him, and submit to His providential will. Such are the genuine effects of a godly fear. 2. Trusting in God. This implies dependence upon Him for all we need and a believing expectation that we shall not be disappointed. II. recommend their practice.1. SO we shall secure to ourselves the Divine presence in all conditions of life. 2. This will support and compose our spirits under affliction. 3. It is the way to have our afflictions sanctified. 4. The practice of these duties will support and comfort us in a dying hour. 5. We shall secure to ourselves an undoubted title to eternal life. III. conclusion. Learn--1. The excellency of the Christian institution which has so revealed God to us. 2. How miserable the state of those who fear not God. 3. Because of trusting too much to the creature. 4. Practice these duties. (Daniel Neal.) Goodness wrought and goodness laid up There are, as it were, two great masses of what the psalmist calls “ goodness” ; one of them which has been plainly manifested “ before the sons of men,” the other which is “ laid up” in store. There are a great many notes in circulation, but there is far more bullion in the strong-room. Much “ goodness” has been exhibited; far more lies concealed. If we take that antithesis, then, I think we may turn it in two or three directions. I. the goodness already disposed--“ wrought before the sons of men” ; and that “ laid up,” yet to be manifested. That distinction just points to the old familiar thought of the inexhaustibleness of the Divine nature. God’ s riches are not like the world’ s wealth. You very soon get to the bottom of its purse. Its “ goodness” is very soon run dry. II. The contrast here suggests the goodness that is publicly given and that which is experienced in secret. God does not put His best gifts, so to speak, in the shop-windows; He keeps these in the inner chambers. He does not arrange His gifts as dishonest traders do their wares, putting the finest outside or on the top, and the less good beneath. It is they who inhabit “ the secret place of the Most High,” and whose lives are filled with the communion of Him, who taste the selected dainties from God’ s gracious hands. III. the goodness wrought of death, and the goodness laid up in heaven. Here we see, sometimes, the messengers coming with the one cluster of grapes on the polo. There we shall live in the vineyard. Here we drink from the river as it flows; there we shall be at the fountain-head. Heaven’ s least goodness is more than earth’ s greatest blessedness. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) David’ s holy wonder at the Lord’ s great goodness I. the subject of holy wonder. “ Thy goodness.”1. David is astonished at the great goodness of God which is laid up; the goodness of God which David had not as yet tasted, had not actually received, but which his faith realized, and looked upon as its fixed and settled heritage. (1) Think of how much He laid up in His eternal purpose, when He chose His people, and laid up for them the grand intention (Malachi 3:17). (2) How great is the goodness of God, which He laid up in the covenant of grace. (3) Think of what He has laid up in the person of His Son--the same treasure, only now more clearly revealed to us, and brought forth in the person of the Well Beloved, so that we may the more readily partake of it. Pardon for all your sins; justification through faith in His sacrifice; life through His death; sanctifying power is in the blood of Jesus. All that you can want, for the whole journey from the place where you now are right up to the right hand of the Most High--all this is laid up for you. “ Ye are complete in Him.” (4) Think of what is laid up for you in the work, office, and mission of the Holy Spirit. Do not imagine that the standard of your attainment is the maximum of a Christian. Do not consider that you have obtained all that God is willing to bestow. The laid-up treasures in the Holy Spirit are probably vastly greater than any of us have ever been enabled to conceive. (5) The greatest goodness of all, we sometimes think, but perhaps improperly, is that goodness which is to be revealed when this life is over, which God has laid up for them that fear Him. The night lasts not for ever: the morning cometh. 2. There are some treasures which we enjoy now. (1) Think of that which Christ wrought out before the sons of men in Gethsemane’ s sweat and blood, in Gabbatha’ s scourging, in Golgotha’ s death. (2) Think of what God has wrought out for you in your own experience in the work of the Holy Spirit upon your soul. Blessed be God, with a thousand imperfections and faults, still I find in my soul some kindlings of love towards His name. (3) We have also another instance of what God has wrought out for us in the shape of providential mercies. We have all some providences to remember which seem very special to us. II. the favoured persons who enjoy the Lord’ s great goodness. Why is it put so--“ Laid up for them that fear Thee; wrought for them that trust in Thee;” unless it be true that he who trusts God fears God? The whole compass of the fear of God is gathered up into a centre in that point of trust. Why so?1. Because trust is the root of true fear. To trust God is the root of all genuine religion. “ Without faith, it is impossible to please God.” Faith is the foundation of all the other graces. 2. Faith or trust is the test of the genuineness of religion. 3. Trust is the flower of the fear of God. The highest morality is to trust Christ. III. some things that make us see that greatness.1. Observe the multitude of these people. The goodness of God to any one of them is quite unsearchable, but what must be the great goodness which He has laid up for all His people! 2. Think of the undeservingness of each one of these. Many of them the chief of sinners. 3. Remember the need they were in. 4. Think of the great goodness of God to His saints in contrast to the great evil of man to them. Some of these saints have died cruel deaths. The most of them have had to pass through obloquy and scorn; but oh! bow great is Thy goodness which Thou hast wrought in them, sustaining them all, and making them more than conquerors through Him that loved them! IV. what should this teach us?1. Should it not make us grateful to God for such wondrous kindness? Can you not afford a song? 2. Let it inspire us with confidence. All that you can want is provided in Christ. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The treasury of God’ s goodness Many years ago the ambassador of Spain, then the wealthiest country in Europe, once visited the court of Venice to arrange a treaty. One of the chief men of the palace led the Spanish ambassador to seethe sights, and amongst others took him to the treasury--huge coffers filled with heaps of gold and precious stones. The Spaniard asked for a staff; and thrust it down amongst the coins. The Venetian prince said, “ Why are you doing that?” The ambassador replied, “ I want to see if there be any bottom here! Ah, there is a bottom! But, O prince, there is no bottom to the treasures of my king!” --alluding to the gold and silver mines which then belonged to Spain. So, we say, there is an everlasting fulness in the treasury of God’ s goodness. His promises are always sure; His words are ever reliable; His goodness reaches to all. I. Notice the overflowing goodness of God in his favour towards men. Some will only show favour to their friends. But God has no line of exclusion. Standing before all men, He says, “ I am the Friend of all.” I think it is Mr. Goldwin Smith that says, “ Society is formed of many circles. In the outermost ring, a man hangs on to the coat tails of the other above him, while he holds on to somebody else’ s coat tails higher still, until in the most exclusive circle sits the king.” But with God and angels and perfect men there is world-wide friendship. God communes with every soul; and though we are the poorest outcast, we are within the circle of the loved ones for whom Jesus died. With God, there is no special favouritism. II. remember the greatness of his forgiveness. See the miracle on the sick of the palsy, and the words Christ spoke to him. If men knew the infinite compassion and love of God, they would starve to death or be burned alive rather than grieve Him by sin. III. comfort yourselves with the goodness of his power. To the most enslaved of Satan’ s captives, the fallen, the drunkard, He will give power to resist sin. There was said--not falsely--to be a reserve in the City of Glasgow bank. It only existed on paper. But there is a reserve, inexhaustible, in God’ s goodness. When you were born lie gave to you the fortune of everlasting love; and that fortune is “ laid up” for you. The prodigal thought he had spent all in the “ far country,” but he found an ocean of love still flowing in his father’ s heart. (W. Birch.) God’ s resettle of goodness The Divine goodness is not emptied out in heaps at our feet, when we first start in faith’ s pathway. Rather, it is kept in reserve for us until we need it, and then disbursed.1. He laid up goodness in the creation and preparation of the earth. Think, for example, of the vast beds of coal laid up among earth’ s strata, ages and ages since, in loving forethought, that our homes may be warmed and brightened in these late centuries. Think of the minerals that were piled away in the rocks and hills, before there was a human footprint on the sand. Think of the laws of nature, as we call them, all arranged to minister to man’ s pleasure and benefit. Think of all the latent forces and properties that were lodged in matter, to be brought out from time to time, at the call of human need. Look at the medicinal and healing virtues, stored away in leaf, in root, in fruit, in bark, in mineral. 2. God laid up goodness for His people in His eternal covenant. It is a wonderful thought that before the world was made the plan of redemption was arranged, and blessings were laid up in the covenant of love for God’ s children. 3. The goodness of God was laid up for us by Jesus Christ, in His incarnation, obedience, sufferings and death. There is not a hope or joy of our Christian faith that does not come to us out of the treasures laid up by the obedience and the sorrows of our blessed Lord. 4. God has “ laid up” His goodness. The word means hidden or reserved. The treasuries were not all opened at the beginning. The world is many centuries old, but every new century has seen new storehouses unlocked; and still we have not received all that God has to give. (1) This is true of the world of nature. Originally the wants of men were few and simple; but as the race multiplied and civilization advanced, new needs continually arose; and to meet these new needs, new supplies have been brought forth from God’ s treasuries. To illustrate: when primitive materials for light were about to be exhausted, the great reservoirs of oil in the bowels of the earth were disclosed; they were not then new made--they had been gathering there for ages--but the hidden stores were now first unlocked. And, further back, when the forests were being fast cut down and there seemed danger of a scarcity of fuel, the vast coal beds were found. In like manner, in these recent days, men are just discovering the powers of electricity--not a new creation, but an energy which has flowed silent and unseen through all space from the beginning, only to become known in these late days. (2) The same is true of the supply of the needs of individuals. No devout person can look back over the years of his own life and not see, how, always, just at the right moment, a treasure-house of goodness has been opened to meet his want. (3) The same is true of spiritual goodness. Take the Bible for illustration. It is a great treasury of hidden and reserved blessing. There has not been a chapter, not a line, added to the Bible, since the pen of inspiration wrote the last words; yet we know that every generation finds new things in the blessed Book. A young Christian cannot understand the deeper truths of spiritual life until he advances further in personal experience. There are many things that can be learned only when the heart has been prepared to receive them. 5. It follows, then, that the storehouses of goodness are not opened until we come to where they are. They are placed, so to speak, at different points along our path; the right supply always at the right place. At every river there is a bridge. In every desert there are oases, with their springs of water and their palm trees. For those who fear God and walk in His ways there is not a real need of any kind along the entire path to heaven’ s gate, without its goodness laid up in reserve. But we shall not get the goodness until we reach the point of need, where the supply is laid up. 6. God’ s goodness is laid up in heaven. The Rabbins say that when Joseph had gathered much corn in Egypt, and the famine came on, he threw the chaff into the Nile, that when the people who lived in the cities below saw it on the water they would know there was corn laid up for them. So, what we have in this world of Divine goodness is little more than the husks of the heavenly fruits, which God sends down upon the river of Grace as intimations to us and assurances of glorious supplies laid up for us beyond the grave. Life is full of unfulfilled hopes. But if we are God’ s children we shall find in heaven the blessed substance of every empty shadow we have chased in this world in vain, and the full fruition of every fair hope that on earth seemed to fade. The best is yet on before, and to the Christian, death, instead of being a loss, or a going away from goodness, is a glorious gain and a going to the richest, fullest, most soul-satisfying good. (J. R. Miller, D. D.) The goodness of the Lord I. As A spectacle of surpassing beauty. Creation, providence, redemption, call forth wonder, love, praise. II. As A treasury of inexhaustible wealth. What is seen, may, as it were, be measured; but what is unseen, is boundless. What is a river to the ocean! What is the landscape, that the eye can reach, to the vast unseen realms of the earth! What are the thousand stars that crowd the winter sky, to the millions upon millions that are hid in the depths of space! So with the goodness of God. III. As A work of infinite beneficence. (W. Forsyth, M. A.) Goodness laid up We can all understand what is meant by goodness bestowed, for it comes within the range of our own experience. And we could form an idea, though vague and indefinite, perhaps, of goodness promised. But goodness “ laid up” is evidently that which we have not yet experienced and which is beyond all our expectations. Note, then, some of its marks and characteristics. I. it cannot be known until experienced. We fret ourselves to know what the future shall bring, but we cannot know, only that there is goodness laid up for us. And this for special as well as ordinary wants. II. it is inexhaustible; it is always laid up. It is there for us through all time and eternity. There is no experience through which we may be called to pass, whether in life or death, against which God has not provided. III. see what this teaches us of God.1. His graciousness. Even for the holiest of men it is all of grace.2. His wisdom--how He knows and understands us and all our ways.3. The fulness of His love. IV. and as to our own duty. Seek for a full experience of the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. “ Taste and see that the Lord is good.” All our past experience confirms the truth of our text. Then seek to know the Lord yet more and more. (W. Cadman, M. A.) God’ s goodness How much there is in God to excite our admiration. His power, but yet more His goodness. Let us, then, contemplate it. In the past, the present, the future. And think to how many God is good. And how long He has been so. Goodness is one of His essential, eternal attributes. And how uninterrupted. He never tires. And its abundance. He filleth His creatures with good. Its condescension. “ What is man,” etc. Its facility--He but opens His hand and the desire of every living thing is satisfied. To whom He shows this goodness--to those who were “ dead in sin.” And this notwithstanding their habitual ingratitude. “ The ox knoweth his owner,” etc. And then think of His reserved goodness--“ laid up for them that fear Thee.” What is earth to heaven, grace to glory! But though offered to all, it will be enjoyed only by those who fear and trust Him, and who do this openly “ before the sons of men.” Then how sinful is all sin, considering the goodness of Him against whom we sin. How evil our hearts must be that we do not repent. How reasonable that His laws should be obeyed. What an appeal the Bible makes to our hopes! Let US not only admire but imitate the goodness of God. (W. Nevins, D. D.) Hidden treasure If “ our lives are hid with Christ in God” then we shall get our share of far better things than any outward prosperity or external deliverance or visible answers to petitions. The front rooms of the house which lie visible to the passers-by on the pavement may be richly enough furnished to indicate that well-to-do people dwell there. But away at the back, in rooms that no strange eye ever looks into, there are far rarer and more wonderful things. We must go deep into God, if we are to get all that God is able to give us. “ I will give to him the treasures of darkness, and the hidden riches of secret places.” Hide in God, that you may find the treasure that He has laid up for them that fear Him. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Psalms 31:20 Thou shalt hide them in the secret of Thy presence.Hid in light The word rendered “ presence” is literally “ face,” and the force of this very remarkable expression of confidence is considerably marred unless that rendering be retained. I. the hiding-place. “ The light of Thy face” is “ secret.” What a paradox! Can light conceal? Look at the daily heavens--filled with blazing stars, all invisible till the night falls. The effulgence of the face is such that they that stand in it are lost and hid, like the lark in the blue sky. “ A glorious privacy of, light is Thine.” Light conceals when the light is so bright as to dazzle. They who are surrounded by God are lost in the glory, and safe in that seclusion, “ the secret of Thy face.” The old Greek mythologies tell us that the radiant arrows of Apollo, shot forth from his far-reaching bow, wounded to death the monsters of the slime and unclean creatures that crawled and revelled in darkness. And the myth has a great truth in it. The light of God’ s face slays evil, of whatsoever kind it is. Thus “ the secret of His countenance is the shelter of all that is good.” Nor need I remind you how, in another aspect of the phrase, the “ light of His face” is the expression for His favour and loving regard, and how true it is that in that favour and loving regard is the impregnable fortress into which, entering, any man is safe. Only let us remember that for us “ the face of God” is Jesus Christ. He is the “ arm” of the Lord; He is the “ name” of the Lord; He is the “ face.” All that we know of God we know through and in Him; all that we see of God we see by the shining upon us of Him who is “ the eradiation of His glory and the express image of His person.” So the open secret of the “ face” of God is Jesus, the hiding-place of our souls. II. God’ s hidden ones. “ Thou shalt hide them in the secret of Thy face.” Whom? Those that flee for refuge to Thee. The act of simple faith is set forth there, by which a poor man, with all his imperfections, may yet venture to put his foot across the boundary line that separates the outer darkness from the beam of light that comes from God’ s face. Remember that Jesus Christ is the hiding-place, and that to flee to Him for refuge is the condition of security, and all those who thus, from the snares of life, from its miseries, disappointments, and burdens; from the agitations of their own hearts, from the ebullition of their own passions; from the stings of their own conscience, or from other of the ills that flesh is heir to, make their hiding-place--by the simple act of faith in Jesus Christ--in the light of God’ s face, are thereby safe for evermore. But the initial act of fleeing to the refuge must be continued by abiding in the refuge. But not only by communion, but, also by conduct, must we keep in the light. An eclipse of the sun is not caused by any change in the sun, but by an opaque body, the offspring and satellite of the earth, coming between the earth and sun. And so, when Christian men lose the light of God’ s face, it is not because there is any variableness or shadow of turning in Him, but because between Him and them has come the blackness--their own offspring--of their own sin. You are not safe if you are outside the light of the countenance. These are the conditions of security. III. what the hidden ones find in the light. This burst of confidence in my text comes from the psalmist immediately after plaintively pouring out his soul under the pressure of afflictions. His experience may teach us the interpretation of his glad assurance. God will keep all real evil from us if we keep near Him; but He will not keep the externals that men call evil from us. Though it may leave the external form of evil it takes all the poison out of it and turns it into harmless ministers for our good. Again, we shall find if we live in continual communion with the revealed face of God, that we are elevated high above all the strife of tongues and the noise of earth. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) The soul’ s refuge in God These are great words surely. They are an expression of David’ s confidence in God’ s power and will to hide His people in Himself. He is to be hid from “ the pride of men,” and from “ the strife of tongues.” I suppose that by these phrases we may understand the whole of that cruel and disturbing interference of one man’ s life with another’ s, which may take such an endless variety of forms. The abuse and fault-finding and frivolousness, the foolish quarrellings, strifes of social ambition, of business rivalry, from these we need a refuge as strong as David needed from his enemies. It is good to see how God comes and offers Himself, just here, to the human soul. “ In the secret of My presence I will hide you.”1. Try first to understand how the soul finds refuge in communion with God. Of all the deep phrases in the Bible, where can we find one deeper than this of David, “ Thou wilt keep him in the secret of Thy presence” ? They mean that when a man is spiritually conscious of the presence of God it secludes and separates him from every other presence. Can we understand that? You go into a room full of people, and the tumult of tongues is all about you. You are bewildered and distracted, in the ordinary language of society, which sometimes hits the truth of its own condition rightly, you “ feel lost.” You lose yourself in the presence of so many people. You are merely part of the tumult. But by and by you meet your best friend there; somebody whose life is your life; somebody whom you sincerely love and trust; somebody who thoroughly satisfies you, and, by the contact of his nature, makes your taste and brain and heart and conscience work at their very best. As you draw near to him it seems as if you drew away from all the other people. As he takes hold of you, he seems to claim you, and they let you go. The worry and vexation of the Crowd sink away as he begins to talk with you, and you understand one another. By and by you have forgotten that all those other men are talking around you. You have escaped from the strife of tongues. You are absorbed in him. He has hid you in the secret of his presence. And now it is possible, instead of your best friend, for God Himself to be with you, so that His presence is real, so that lie lets you understand His thoughts and lets you know that He understands yours, so that there is a true sympathy between you and Him, if mere vision and hearing are not necessary go the Divine company, and as close to you--nay, infinitely closer--than the men who crowd you round, and whose voices are in your ears, the unseen God is truly with you, what then? Can any tumult of those men distress you? They parade their foolish vanities before you, and you hardly see them. This gives the very simplest notion of the meaning. Now we suppose that this becomes habitual, the constant temper and condition of a life. We suppose this friendly meeting with one who interests you thoroughly to pass into a friendship, pure, continual, devoted. If not in bodily presence, still in thought and sympathy, our friend is always with us. We always judge ourselves by his standard. We think what he would like or what he would condemn; we appeal even in his absence to his approbation. Is not the protection which we saw given to a man by his friend’ s company for an hour while they talked together extended now over all his life? 2. A true Christian faith starts with the truth of a personal redemption and leads the man up to personal duties. It takes this poor indistinguishable atom and says to him: “ God knows you. To Him you are not only one of the race; He knows you separately; He made you separately, His Son died for you, and there is in you that which, in some way which belongs to you alone, can glorify Him. What are you doing in this feeble, unconscientious life? Have you never heard of such a thing as responsibility? Get up; repent. Come to God. Get the pattern of your life from Him, and then go about your work and be yourself.” If the man is really a Christian he hears that summons, and it is the birth of a true personality, of the real sense of himself in him. It is a revelation. 3. As we look over Christ’ s career, how can we describe its serenity and composure except in these words: “ God hid Him in the secret of His presence from the pride of man, and kept Him secretly in a pavilion from the strife of tongues.” How the strife of tongues raged about Him all His life I From the time when Herod and the scribes debated where He was to be born, that they might murder Him, till the day when the people cried, “ Crucify Him,” and mocked Him as He hung upon the Cross. But, close to His Father always, clear in His own duty always, and always trying to help men so earnestly that He was not capable of being provoked by them, He was completely apart from all the strife. He was hid in the secret of His Father’ s presence. (Bp. Phillips Brooks.) Our refuge in God All temples in ancient times were asylums. Whosoever could flee to grasp the horns of the altar, or to sit, veiled and suppliant, before the image of the god, was secure from his foes, who could not pass within the limits of the temple grounds, in which strife and murder were not permissible. We too often flee to other gods and other temples for our refuges. Aye! and when we get there we find that the deity whom we have invoked is only a marble image that sits deaf, dumb, motionless whilst we cling to its unconscious skirts. As one of the saddest of our modern cynics once said, looking up at that lovely impersonation of Greek beauty, the Venus de Mile, “ Ah! she is fair; but she has no arms.” So we may say of all false refuges to which men betake themselves. The goddess is powerless to help, however beautiful the presentiment of her may have seemed to our eyes. There is only one shrine where there is a sanctuary, and that is the shrine above which shines the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ; into the brightness of which poor men may pass and therein may hide themselves. God hides us, and His hiding is effectual, in the secret of the light and splendour of His face. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) The refuge from talk The author of this psalm had evidently suffered much from the talk of society. The strife of tongues had raged, and its armies had wounded him. And his experience is that of not a few. A large share of good men’ s troubles come out of the talk of others. Every man has his own little public, and that public talks, and their talk worries, so that the subject of it cries out for the wings of a dove that he may fly away and be at rest. I. the strife of tongues. What an expressive phrase that is. How the element of contention asserts itself in the great mass of the world’ s talk. I remember being once at a fair in a foreign city, and before each booth stood a crier, sometimes aided by musical instruments; each crier endeavouring to raise his voice above the others in advertising the attractions of his show. It was a good picture of the world at large, where so many people have something to say, something which they are determined the world shall hear, no matter who else goes unheard. Then, how much debate--often useless--there is. And how selfish, carried on not for others, but the man’ s own advantage. And, then, there is the hiss of slanderous tongues striving against the innocent, and of gossiping tongues striving which can tell most news--bad or good, false or true, it matters not. Now, men get weary of this. We grow blinded and stunned by this excess of talk. We want leisure to think, and to weigh, and to adjust things. If perchance a great seed-thought has floated to us on these winds of oratory and debate, we would fain give it time to strike its roots deep down into our hearts and minds. And we grow ashamed of ourselves, because we are so often drawn into this current of talk about our neighbours. We hear the gossip, and we happen to know a fact or to have heard a piece of news, and almost ere we know it, in it goes into the common stock: and, if we are not very careful, we find ourselves falling into censorious talk, flinging out sharp arrows of sarcasm or pulling a neighbour’ s defects a little farther out into the light; and when we come to sit down and think over what we have said, unless we are very much hardened, we feel ashamed. II. the refuge.1. Now, it will not do for us to defy public talk, and to do, wantonly, what shocks social sentiment and multiplies talk. For the talk of society is by no means an unmixed evil. It hurts a good many men, and that unjustly; but it also keeps not a few men steady. It begets a wholesome fear. It is good to have a manly respect for public opinion, and a manly desire for society’ s esteem. Defiance of society, then, is not our refuge from the strife of tongues. 2. The world does not afford it. To get out of the reach of talk is to quit the world altogether, which is no man’ s duty but his sin if he attempts it. God provides better for men than by withdrawing them from the world where their work lies. 3. Man is delivered from temptation, not by being taken out of it, but by being helped to conquer it. In putting a man in right relations with Himself, God puts him in right relation to the world’ s talk. III. Let us look at some illustrations of this, growing out of what has been already said.1. There is the matter of slander and abuse. God does not always exempt good men from these. The man of science delights to show you how he can handle fire, and even go into the fire unhurt. That is a greater achievement than keeping away from the fire. A good man is given to thinking that, if his good name in the world is gone, if the world’ s talk casts up nothing hut mire and dirt, it is all over with him. God shows him that he can live, and live quietly and cheerfully, on the simple fact of his conscious integrity before God. 2. Sometimes God saves one from the strife of tongues by putting him where he cannot talk and where others cannot talk to him. He sends a calamity so overwhelming that his friends do not know what to say to him, and the man himself cannot reason about it, cannot argue, cannot explain, is simply reduced to silence. All that he can say is, “ I am dumb; I open not my mouth because Thou didst it.” He must find his only explanation in that simple fact, God did it. God seems to say to him, “ Be still! There is only one thing you can know about this matter. Be still and know that I am God.” 3. Again, God shields good men from the world’ s talk by hardening them against it. Exposure is often the best remedy for certain bodily ailments, and that is a kind of cure God often employs for the soul. Archbishop Whately, of Dublin, who died in 1863, was among the sturdiest men of his time, a man of undaunted courage, and withal of that genuine originality which awakens comment and opposition. Much of his official life was passed under a fire of censure, lie once said of himself, “ My stumbling-block most to be guarded against was the dread of censure. Few would conjecture this from seeing how I have braved it all my life, and how I have perpetually been in hot water, when, in truth, I had a natural aversion to it. So I set myself resolutely to act as though I cared nothing for either the sweet or the bitter, and in time I got hardened. But no earthly object could ever pay me for the labour and the anguish of modelling my nature in these respects. I have succeeded so far that I have even found myself standing firm where some men of constitutional intrepidity have given way. And this will always be the case more or less, through God’ s help, if we will but persevere from a right motive.” 4. Again, God hides His servant from the strife of tongues by filling his hands with work for others. Tim more one is interested in the welfare of men, the less he will care for their talk; for a good deal of sensitiveness is merely selfishness, after all. That, is a kind of sensitiveness which may be cured; and the best way of curing it is to get the life filled with Christ’ s spirit of ministry. Then what the world is saying of you will go by you like the idle wind. I remember how I went with the Christian commission during the war to help in nursing the sick and wounded. I was peculiarly sensitive to the sight of physical suffering, and my friends laughed at me and said, “ You will faint at the sight of blood.” And I quite feared I should. But it was not so. From the moment that I sat down beside the first man that met my eye, a poor fellow with a muskeg-bullet through his jaw, and tried, while I applied the cooling water, to drop a word or two about Christ and His rest for the weary--all my shrinking vanished. I thought only of those wounded men. I had little or no self-consciousness left. I saw only that colossal misery. That experience was worth a great deal to me, and that is the reason I tell it to you, for it illustrates a universal truth. Get yourself thoroughly interested in other people’ s bodies and souls; get the question, “ What can I do for them?” uppermost in your thought, and the world’ s gossip about you will attract as little notice as the drifting sea-weed. 5. And I need scarcely add that this is the best way to keep ourselves from being sharers in the world’ s gossip. He who dwells in the secret of God’ s presence learns to take God’ s attitude toward infirmity and error--the attitude of One who remembers that His children are dust, and pities them accordingly. The tongue of such an one will not be a weapon of strife. These are some of the methods in which God hides His people from the strife of tongues; and all these methods are embraced in this one comprehensive fact--that He hides them in the hiding-place of His presence. Then, “ your life is hid with Christ in God.” If we are really Christ’ s, then back into the very bosom of His Father where Christ is hid, there lie will carry us. We, too, shall look out and be as calm and as independent as He is. The needs of men shall touch us just as keenly as they touch Him, but the sneers and strifes of men shall pass us by as they pass by Him and leave no mark on His unruffled life. This, then, is the conclusion of the whole matter. In this world we must be exposed to the strife of tongues. Let God hide thee in the secret of His pavilion and thou needest not fear. (M. R. Vincent, D. D.) Psalms 31:22 For I said in my haste, I am cut off from before Thine eyes: nevertheless Thou heartiest the voice of my supplications when I cried unto Thee.Consolation for the despairing I am as a watcher on the sea beach, telescope in hand, keeping guard for an appointed time. The watcher looks through his glass again and again, but a glance contents him so far as most of yonder gallant vessels are concerned, which are now in the offing; but by and by, his glass remains steadily ate his eye; his gaze is fixed, and in a few moments he gives a signal to his fellows, and they launch their boat. The explanation is, that he has noted signals of distress in one of the craft and, therefore, he has bestirred himself for her help. And so, too, the preacher is on the look-out for distress signals, and would render help where souls bound for eternity are foundering in doubt, ready to despair. I. deep inward sorrow. The man who wrote it was pained at his heart, and there are many in like ease now. How came they so? Some are constitutionally depressed and desponding. Others are so, through great trial. Some, through secret sin unconfessed, which has festered into misery. Hurtful teaching, unwise ministry, often adds sorrow to the heart. And when the spirit sinks, the depression of men takes its own form according to what they are. In religious men it will take a religious form. It did so in the author of this psalm. What more dreadful apprehension could there be than this--“ I am cut off from before Thine eyes.” Many good men have felt like that. But God brings good out of it for the man himself and for others through him. II. the rash expression of this sorrow. “ I said in my haste.” David, more than once, spoke hastily. He had better have bitten his tongue. Better count a dozen before we speak when our minds are agitated. But such speech rests on altogether insufficient grounds.1. Sad and distressful circumstances. But these do not prove that God has cast you away. If so, then God cast away His own Son. “ The foxes had holes and,” etc. 2. Feelings. But what more fluctuating and unstable than they? The wind does not veer more fitfully than does the current of our emotions. And yet despairing people are obstinate in their convictions. You cannot persuade them. For the declaration that God has forsaken us, or any man who seeks Him, is diametrically opposed to Scripture. There is not one text which advises any man to despair of the mercy of God. It is dishonouring God to think so. Jesus says, “ I can save.” The sinner says, “ You cannot,” and thus makes Christ a liar. III. A pleading cry. When David feared that he was cut off from God, he was wise enough to take to crying. It is a significant word. It tells of pain. Red eyes often relieve breaking hearts, and to cry unto God is a real relief. Prayer is the surest and most blessed vent for the soul. And then there came-- IV. A cheerful result. “ Thou heartiest,” etc. This blessing went beyond the promise. The promise is to believing prayer. But even when He meets with unbelieving ones, He gives faith, and so saves them. We are like lost children and cry, and God will not leave us to die in the dark. God heard David, then He will hear you and me. (C. H. Spurgeon.) A hasty expression penitently retracted “ I said in my haste,” etc. That is a bit of genuine experience honestly told. How glad we ought to be that David never fell into the hand of an ordinary biographer, for then we had never been told what here we read. But it is comforting to find that even great men act at times as we often do. The experience of such a man as David cannot but be very instructive. Now in this text listen-- I. To an utterance of unbelief. “ I said in my haste, I am cut off from before Thine eyes.” Note here--1. That unbelief is generally talkative. “ I said.” He had better not even have thought it, but if he did think of it he had far best not say it. I have heard it said, “ If it is in the mind it may as well come out,” but this is not true. If I had a rattlesnake in a box on this platform, I think you would none of you vote for the creature being let loose. Poison in a phial is deadly, but it will hurt no one until the cork is drawn, and then we cannot tell how far the mischief will go. If thou hast an ill thought, repent of it, but do not repeat it. Do as David did in another case, when he had a very ugly thought; he said, “ If I should speak thus I shall offend against the generation of thy children.” So he would not put his thought into words lest he should do harm. Alas, unbelief does not understand holding its tongue. It will prattle. 2. Its utterances are generally hasty. There was no reason for saying such a thing at all, and certainly not for being in a hurry to say it; for he said unto God, “ I am cut off from before Thine eyes.” But was it true? See if it be founded on fact; see whether after all you have not made a mistake. John Bunyan says of the pilgrim that he was much tumbled up and down in his thoughts. It means that he was in much confusion of mind. But why in such haste to write your blunders down. What a man says in his haste he generally has to repent at his leisure. Hasty deeds and hasty words make up the most horrible parts of human history. 3. They are often the result of quick temper. I fear we professing Christians are often out of temper with God. Too often such blasphemy enters into the human heart. 4. And are frequently exaggerated. See what David says here, “ I am cut off,” etc. No, David, no. It is not so. You are cut off from much you love, but not from God. Some people always talk big about everything. There must be a very narrow line, fine as a razor’ s edge, between a lie and the unguarded expressions of exaggeration. Some people talk about their trials on a scale of a mile to the inch. Their afflictions are awful, they are dreadful, they are without parallel. They are altogether quite equal to Job and Jeremiah rolled into one. If you try to comfort them they will tell you at once that you do not know anything about the great deeps whereon they are doing business; you are only knee deep in the waters of trouble. Such is the way of unbelief. Let us leave it off. 5. They dishonour God. David does, as it were, blame God. “ Before Thy very eyes I have suffered this.” There never was a godly man cut off from God yet, and there never will be. If any of us have uttered words of unbelief let us call them back and drown them in our tears. But we have here also-- II. an effort of struggling faith.1. He prayed to God. He says, “ Thou heardest the voice of my supplications,” etc. Oh, child of God, cry to a smiting God. Cry to God even when He seems to cast thee off. Sink or swim, live or die, do not doubt thy God, but still pray. 2. He prayed in downright earnest. His was a crying prayer. That is the prayer which is neither said nor sung, but cried; it drops from the eyes in tears. The words of a child the mother may not listen to, but let it cry and see if she will act come. And-- 3. God heard his prayer. God dealt with David not according to his unbelief, but his faith. His faith was small, but it was true. Thou who art in trouble, whoever thou mayest be, listen not to the voice of Satan who tempts thee to cease prayer. Do not say, “ God will not hear me” ; remember the words, “ Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O Lord.” III. A testimony of gratitude. “ Nevertheless Thou heardest the voice of my supplications.” God acted in the reverse way to David.1. He spoke, but God did not speak. He was a listener. “ Thou heartiest.” Not a word came from God: there had been too many words in the business already. 2. And there was no haste in God. God was quietly hearing while His petulant servant was fiercely complaining. It is a great thing for a minister who visits his people to be a good listener. The afflicted value this quality above gold. Such hearing has tender and precious sympathy in it. Hence the Scriptures say of God, “ O Thou that hearest prayer.” David does not cease to wonder that in his unhappy condition he had yet been regarded of the Lord: “ Thou heartiest the voice of my supplication.” How beautiful that is! Further-- 3. There was no exaggeration with God. Unbelief exaggerates, but God does not. On the contrary, He diminishes the evil of His servants, till it comes to nothing. 4. And He did not dishonour His servant’ s prayer. He might have done so, but did not. He might have said, “ If he thinks I have forsaken him, let it be so.” But God did not do so. Look at the word “ never-the-less,” what it tells of the graciousness of God. Conclusion.1. Repent heartily of every hard thought we have had of God. 2. Earnestly pray that if we think so wrongly we may keep our mouth as with a bridle. 3. Pray without ceasing, always pray let come what will. 4. Let us always speak well of the Lord’ s mercy. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Faith shaken 1. The faith of the godly may be shaken, and the strongest faith may sometimes show its infirmity. 2. Though faith be shaken, yet it is fixed in the root, as a tree beaten by the wind, keeping strong grips of good ground; though faith seem to yield, yet it faileth not, and even when it is at the weakest, it is uttering itself in some act, as a wrestler; for here the expression of David’ s infirmity in faith is directed to God, and his earnest prayer joined with it. 3. Praying faith, how weak soever, shall not be misregarded of God. 4. There may be in a soul at one time both grief oppressing, and hope upholding: both darkness of trouble, and the light of faith; both desperately doubting, and strong gripping of God’ s truth and goodness; both a fainting and a fighting; a seeming yielding in the fight, and yet a striving of faith against all opposition; both a foolish haste, and a settled staidness of faith; as here, “ I said in my haste,” etc. (D. Dickson.) The eloquence of a cry If you were walking the streets and heard or saw a poor child crying, you would be far more affected by it than by the oration of the pretended mechanic who is eloquently stating his wants to the dwellers on both sides of the way. A poor child crying in the dark, under your window, in mid-winter, in the snow, would move your pity and obtain your help. Even if it were a foreigner, and knew not a single word of English, you would fully feel its pleading. The eloquence of a cry is overwhelming, pity owns its power, and lends her aid. There is a chord in human nature which responds to a child’ s cry, and there is something in the Divine nature which is equally touched by prayer. The Lord will not suffer a young raven to cry in vain, and much less will He suffer men who are made in His own image to cry to Him in the bitterness of their hearts, and find Him deaf to their entreaties. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Psalms 31:23O love the Lord, all ye His saints. Constraining love Love Jehovah--so the text runs. God the Father demands your love and deserves it, yea, the warmest affection of your hearts. And so also does the Son who redeemed you; and the Holy Spirit, by whom we are born again unto eternal life. But we speak, now, only of the Lord Jesus Christ, and of Him we say, “ O love the Lord, all,” etc. I. This sentiment should animate every mind.1. Love the Lord because His Father loves Him. It must always be right for us to love whom God loves. 2. The angels love Him. But shall they love Him who never redeemed them, and shall we, whom He hath redeemed with His precious blood, not love Him? 3. The saints in heaven love Him. We have many friends, very dear to us, there, and they all love Him. And with what intense love. We are cold creatures; like icebergs are our hearts, but theirs are like flames of fire. Shall we not love Him when we think how they love Him? 4. Everything that could possibly enamour our souls and constrain our love is found in Him. Does beauty attract? But what beauty can be compared to His? Wisdom--but whose like His? Perfect character--but where such as His? It were impossible to know Christ and yet not to have the heart affected by Him. 5. And chief of all, “ because He first loved us.” Think of His Incarnation, His agony, His cross. Think how He loved you when you were going on in sin. How, after having received you, He has loved you ever since, and what ill return you have made. II. The excellencies of loving Jesus.1. It will make you bear suffering for Him with joyousness. 2. And your” service joyous also. 3. And obedience sweet. 4. And communion. 5. Love to Christ will make trust easy. Look at the child’ s love for its mother, and because of it, even in the midst of danger, it has no fear. But you who have never loved Him, you must trust Him first, give up your soul into His hands. Believe and live. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Psalms 31:24 Be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the Lord.The believer’ s source of strength Many are almost despairing because of their trials and their temptations. But be our circumstances what they may, here is an antidote to them all. I. the promise--“ He shall strengthen your heart.” We have duties, many, varied, arduous. Often they are very trying; but this promise is for us. And so in our temptations. These are continually occurring, and we know not how to overcome them. Again this promise is given. But you ask, “ How am I to attain this strength? Must I always go on sinning?” No, for--1. Faith is one grand means of victory over sin. “ Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh.” 2. Watchfulness is another help; taking care to keep away from the occasions and inducements to sin: occupation in what is good and right, storing the mind with God’ s truth. 3. Prayer. This must by no means be neglected, the more we pray the stronger we are. 4. In mortifying sin be careful to leave no part remaining. Cut down the tree, but not this only, pull up the roots. 5. Guard your thoughts and desires. 6. If sin has gained power over you, at once--delay not a day--in seeking to subdue it. The longer it is left the greater will be the difficulty. “ Today, if ye will hear His voice,” etc. But in our own strength no one is sufficient for these things; but the grace of God will help us. II. To whom this promise is made. “ All ye that hope in the Lord.” Not the sinless, the perfect, but, etc. They are such as put all their trust and confidence in Christ. (J. Marshall, M. A.) Courage The word comes from the Latin words, “ cor” and “ ago,” meaning, the heart, and to put in motion. Courage, therefore, means the active heart, or the spirit of the heart. For it is that spirit which enables us to encounter danger without fear, and bear adversity with calmness. I. WE admire physical courage; but, after all, it is chiefly a constitutional endowment. If a man be full of animal courage, no credit to him; for he has to thank his father and mother for his vigorous body which inspires him to be brave. Physical, or animal courage is not a rare quality. Moral courage is the great thing, that which will inspire you to do right at all costs. It was that which Jesus had and which He helps us to acquire. II. true courage will never swerve from that which it knows is right. Margaret Wilson, in the days of Charles II., was tied to a post on the shore at the flow of the tide, but offered her life if she would obey the Church. Higher and higher the water rose, but she would not yield, and she died, crying out with her last breath, “ Christ only is my Master.” And many such martyrs there have been. That is moral courage. Dare to follow that which your conscience declares to be the truth; and be a Christian all out, though it may run you into risks of limb and life. It is the coward who is afraid to follow his convictions. Do not be a religious or political “ turn-coat” against the secret conviction of your mind. “ Toe the mark “ in every sense in matters of truth and morals, and be brave enough to die rather than do wrong. III. have you courage to show yourself a Christian? And how many there are who cannot do this. But wily should you fear. Oh, be brave, not cowards. No doubt it does need moral courage to stand against ridicule, but be not jeered from the right. IV. if you possess true courage, you will not be ashamed of your humble but honourable surroundings. Don’ t have any false shame. Your hat may be battered, your shawl may be shabby, your coat may be an everyday one, but come up bravely to the house of God, and fear nobody. If the coat is the best God has given you, thank Him for it, and for all He has done for you. V. let me urge you to have courage to decide for Jesus Christ. (W. Birch.) Strength for the courageous who hope in the Lord Note-- I. what is required in the exhortation--“ good courage.” How this is founded on hope. (Romans 8:24; 1 Thessalonians 5:8). How needful is it--1. When a man’ s sins press heavily upon him, and the cares and sorrows of earth weigh him down, how miserable is he if he have not hope. 2. Courage so founded is enduring. 3. And we are made more than conquerors over our spiritual enemies. II. the promise. “ He shall strengthen your heart.”1. We are ignorant of our own hearts, and-- 2. We are unwilling to know. 3. Hence we cannot strengthen our hearts; the Gospel only can do this. III. the persons to whom this promise is made,--those who “ hope in the Lord.” Those also distrusting themselves hope for all in Christ. (G. C. Tomlinson.) Consolation for the troubled I. believers may have great need of strength from God.1. David knew this, and from his own experience declares what God will do for His people. 2. There are many trials which the believer shares in common with the men of this world. 3. There are others peculiar to himself. He may be calumniated and despised; deprived of the fellowship of other Christians; cast down by reason of his departures from God, so that he walk in darkness and hath no light. 4. And there are sorrows which come to him through the sins of others. Those near and dear to him living in sin; the wickedness of the world; the divisions of the Church and her cold-heartedness. II. the hope which the Christian has in God. It does not make him neglect means. It is founded on the Lord Jesus Christ, His death and resurrection and intercession. It implies that his life is free from presumption and that he prays for the Divine blessing. III. conclusion.1. Expect trials. 2. Maintain faith. 3. Remember the promises 4. Tell others of Christ. (B. W. Noel.) The cure for a weak heart I. an approved company. The text is addressed to--1. Men of hope. They have not yet entered into possession of their full inheritance; they have a hope which is looking out for something better on before; they have a living hope which peers into the future beyond even the dark river of death, a hope with eyes so bright that it seeth things invisible to others, and gazes upon glories which the unaided human eye has never beheld. Have you this good hope? 2. They hope for good things, for this is implied when the psalmist speaks of those that hope in the Lord, for no man hopes for evil things whose hope is in the Lord. 3. If you are the persons spoken of in the text, this hope of yours is rooted, and grounded, and stablished in the Lord: “ all ye that hope in the Lord.” You have not a hope apart from the ever-blessed Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. 4. Some of them do not get much beyond hope, “ All ye that hope in the Lord.” This passage picks up the hindermost, it seems to come, like the men with the ambulance, to look after the wounded, and carry them on at the same pace as those who march in the fulness of their strength. II. There is An occasional weakness apparent in many of those that hope in the Lord.1. It is a dangerous weakness, for it is a weakness of the heart. They lose their courage, their joy departs from them, and they become timorous and fearful. 2. This weakness occurs on many occasions. (1) In the battle of life.(2) In times of temptation.(3) In the midst of great labour for the Lord. The best of men are but men at the best; and, therefore, who wonders if their heart sometimes faileth them in the day of suffering, in the hour of battle, or under the broiling sun, when they are labouring for their Lord?3. If this weakness of the heart should continue, it will be very injurious. (1) At the present time, I believe that it restricts enterprise.(2) It endangers the success of the best workers.(3) It pleads many excuses. III. A seasonable exhortation. I like the way this is put. It is not alone, “ Be of good courage” ; there is an “ and” with it: “ and he shall strengthen your heart.” At the same time, the exhortation is not omitted. It does not say, “ He shall comfort your heart, therefore you need do nothing.” They err from the Scriptures who make the grace of God a reason for doing nothing; it is the reason for doing everything.1. If you want to get out of diffidence, and timidity, and despondency, you must rouse yourselves up. Do not sit still, and rub your eyes, and say, “ I cannot help it, I must always be dull like this.” You must not be so; in the name of God, you are commanded in the text to “ be of good courage.” 2. Do you not think that your God deserves to be trusted? What has He ever done that you should doubt Him? 3. If thou art not of good courage, what will happen to thee? I would not have you deserve the coward’ s doom, and speak of it as “ retiring.” No, get not into that class; be thou rather like that soldier of Alexander, who was always to the front, and the reason was that he bore about with him what was thought to be an incurable disease, and he suffered so much pain that he did not care whether he lived or died. Alexander took great pains to have him healed, and when he was quite well, he never exposed his precious life to any risk again. Oh, I would rather that you should be stung into courage by excessive pain than that you should be healed into cowardice! Christ ought not to be served by feather-bed soldiers. IV. A cheering promise. “ He shall strengthen your heart.” God alone can do this.1. Sometimes by gracious providences. 2. By the kindly fellowship of friends. 3. By a precious promise. 4. Beside all that, God the Holy Spirit has a secret way of strengthening the courage of God’ s people, which none of us can explain. Have you never felt it? You may have gone to your bed, sick at heart, “ weary, and worn, and sad,” and you wake in the morning ready for anything. Perhaps, in the middle of the night, you awake, and the visitations of God are manifested to you, and you feel as happy as if everything went the way you would like it to go. Nay, you shall be more happy that everything should cross you than that everything should please you, if it be God’ s sweet will. You feel a sudden strengthening of your spirit, so that you are perfectly resigned, satisfied, prepared, and ready. (C. H. Spurgeon.) . Psalms 32:1-11 Psalms 32:1-7 Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.The penitential psalms Since the time of Origen, seven of the psalms have borne the name of Penitential; namely, Psalms 6:1-10; Psalms 32:1-11; Psalms 38:1-22; Psalms 51:1-19; Psalms 102:1-28; Psalms 130:1-8; Psalms 143:1-12. They were used in the special additional services appointed for Lent, and were selected with reference to the sprinkling of the leper seven times, and to the command to Naaman to wash himself seven times in the Jordan; or, as others say, as corresponding to the seven deadly sins. These psalms are not all expressions of contrition for personal sin; nevertheless, they all recognize sin as the source of corruption and trouble. We may find in them every element of a true repentance according to the Gospel standard. They reveal-- I. A recognition of the radical nature of sin. This is especially marked in the 51st. There we find the confession of a sinful nature as well as of sinful acts; the ever-living consciousness that God looks at the heart and not merely at the deed. II. the feeling of the burden and sorrow of sin (Psalms 6:2-3; Psalms 32:3-4; Psalms 38:2-10; Psalms 102:9-10; Psalms 51:3). III. confession of sin. This involves our viewing the sin in the same way in which God views it. IV. repentance further involves conduct. The prayer for pardoning grace is accompanied with the petitions, “ Cause me to know the way wherein I should walk, Teach me to do Thy will” (Psalms 143:8-10). Sinful associations are renounced, and the workers of iniquity are bidden to depart (Psalms 6:8). V. repentance issues in instruction. David, having been forgiven, says, “ I will instruct thee and teach thee” (Psalms 32:8-9). When God’ s face shall be hidden from my sins, and a clean heart shall be given me, “ then will I teach transgressors thy ways” (Psalms 51:13-15). VI. repentance issues in joy. It is the joy of forgiveness. The man is not blessed who can forget his sins; who can divert his mind from them; who can temporarily escape their consequences. “ Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven.” “ Thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin.” From this point, the psalm is all joy. “ Thy hand was heavy upon me,” but now I lean upon it, and it leads me into green pastures and folds me to a Father’ s heart. I fear not the “ floods of great waters” now. “ Thou art my hiding-place,” Thou from whom I strove of late to hide. Thy word, sharper than any two-edged sword, pierced me with a thousand pangs; but now “ I hope in Thy word.” I remembered Thee and was troubled; but now “ Thou shalt preserve me from trouble.” Thou, from whose voice I fled, Thou, whose heavy hand dried up the springs of song in me, Thou shalt fence me about with songs. VII. Repentance issues in warning. This is powerfully brought out in Psalms 32:9. The bridle which restrains the beast is often its ornament. The fact is familiar that animals have a kind of pride in the gaudy trappings which are the signs of their degradation, the proofs that they cannot be appealed to on the grounds of reason and conscience. So it is often true that a sinful man is proud of his rebellion against God, and boasts of it. If he but knew it, this is his humiliation. It stamps him as a creature which does not realize its relations to God and eternity. God would gladly deal with him as a free man, on generous terms; but if he refuses the guidance of the eye, he must take up with bit and bridle. If men will not come nigh unto God, and fall in with His gracious economy, they must be sternly restrained from interfering with it. (M. R. Vincent, D. D.) The gate to the confessional If the world forgives, it generally vouchsafes a kind of stinging forgiveness which perpetuates the smart of the crime. It is at no pains to “ cover” the sin. We can say of one thus forgiven, “ He is tolerated: tie has a new chance given him,” but scarcely--“ he is blessed.” This psalm, on the contrary, while it is one of the saddest, is at the same time one of the most joyful of the inspired lyrics. It is no less the record of a bitter, penitential sorrow, than the expression of a heart full of praise. It comes to us to-day to tell us that the worst sinner, forgiven by God, is a happy man. I. the blessedness of forgiveness. When a shipwrecked sailor has been rescued from death, and is sitting warm and dry by the fire, his first thought, his first utterance is one of congratulation. “ How fortunate I am to have escaped. How thankful I am to those who saved my life.” After this feeling has found vent, he will go on to tell the story of his shipwreck and of his rescue. Hence nothing could be more natural than the ordering of this psalm. David is a rescued man; and thanksgiving, and congratulation on his present security come to his lips, before he tells the story of his moral shipwreck.1. His sin is taken away. 2. His sins are covered or hidden, and that from God; not from men. However men may comment or rail, it matters little while God says “ I have blotted out as a thick cloud thy transgressions, and as a cloud thy sins.” 3. He is treated as innocent. The Lord does not impute nor lay the iniquity to his charge. II. the result of his attempts to cover his sin. Perhaps he sought to still that secret voice which was urging him to lay bare his sin, by plunging into the business of state, or into the pleasures of his court; but all in vain. “ When I kept silence my bones waxed old.” The very seat of strength was invaded. His body suffered from the terrors of remorse. What an image is this that follows--the pressure of a strong hand, hampering all free activity. No joy in work or in study any more. The healthy competitions of business, the free play of social converse, the sweet interchanges of the household, all repressed and devitalized by this painful consciousness of guilt. What ails the man who was but lately so sparkling, so magnetic, so enthusiastic? “ Day and night Thy hand was heavy upon me,” etc. III. the remedy which he found. Confession. “ Well,” you say, “ if God knows all about my sin, why should I confess it?” God knows what you want in prayer before you ask Him, and yet you will not get it if you do not ask Him. He has conditioned forgiveness upon confession, just as He has conditioned finding upon seeking. Confession implies--1. Viewing your sin in the same light in which God views it.2. Renunciation. IV. the result of its application. He first sums up the result in a single sentence: “ Thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin.” He has a whole catalogue of joyful consequences of his confession to present to us; but he is careful to make it perfectly clear at the outset that all these consequences are linked with forgiveness. And now what a sudden change reveals itself. The tone of the last few verses has been like the sigh of the wind through the dry valleys. Now we begin to hear the running of streams. The abject penitent, moaning day and night under God’ s heavy band, is transformed into a joyful singer of praises; a prophet, with a fresh lesson of God’ s goodness kindling on his lips. V. A practical lesson for our instruction. Christ bade Peter make use of his own terrible sifting to strengthen his brethren. David anticipates the lesson; and these words of his have been the text-book of penitent souls from his time to the present. “ I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shall go;” this way of repentance and confession in which I have walked. Be not obstinate in refusing to walk therein. Heed my experience, ye who feel the pressure of God’ s hand, whose moisture is turned into the drought of summer. (M. R. Vincent, D. D.) The blessedness of forgiveness I. reasons why such must needs be blessed whose transgressions are forgiven.1. Because God doth pronounce them blessed. 2. Because they are delivered from the greatest evil, and that which exposes them to the greatest misery, and which alone can deprive them of eternal happiness. 3. Because they are taken into covenant with God. (1) They are taken into God’ s favour. (2) They are taken into God’ s family. (3) They are under God’ s providence. (4) They have free access unto God in prayer. (5) They have communion with God in all His ordinances: and thus it is with all pardoned persons, and therefore they are blessed. 4. Because they are in a better state than Adam was in his first creation. (1) In respect of innocence. (2) In regard of the image of God, that is repaired in all those that are pardoned. When God forgiveth their sin, He changeth their nature; and that faith which justifieth the person doth also “ purify the heart” (Acts 15:9). 5. Because they shall be blessed. (1) Show what the future blessedness is, which pardoned persons shall have. They shall live and take up their eternal abode in a most blessed and glorious place (Hebrews 13:14; Hebrews 11:10). They shall have most blessed and glorious company to converse with: saints, angels, the Holy Spirit, the Lord Jesus Christ in His glory, etc. They shall attain a blessed and glorious state of perfect peace and tranquillity, wealth and plenty, honour and dignity, holiness and purity, perfect happiness and glory in soul and body. (2) Prove that pardoned sinners shall assuredly attain this future blessedness. God’ s decree of predestination and election. God’ s covenant and promise. The union of all pardoned persons unto Christ and His undertaking for them to bring them to eternal blessedness. The right which they have to eternal blessedness: justification; adoption; the certainty of all pardoned persons’ perseverance in grace unto the end. (3) Show how this future eternal blessedness of heaven renders pardoned persons blessed here upon earth. (1) They have a sight of their future blessedness, and the excellence of it.(2) Their hopes of it, that they shall one day have possession of so great felicity.(3) They have the beginnings of future blessedness here, in this life, in the work of grace, and sometimes foretastes and first-fruits of it, through the witness, seal, and earnest of the Spirit; and this renders them blessed in this life. II. How this blessedness may be attained.1. Some things must be believed. (1) The doctrine of Christ’ s satisfaction for sin.(2) The doctrine of justification by the righteousness of Christ. 2. Some things must be done. (1) They must get conviction of sin.(2) They must make confession of sin.(3) They must by faith make application of Jesus Christ.(4) They must forsake sin.(5) They must make supplication and earnest prayer unto God for pardoning mercy.(6) They must forgive others. (T. Vincent, M. A.) Sin and forgiveness I. the solemn picture of various phases of sin.1. The word translated “ transgression” seems literally to signify separation, or rending apart, or departure; and hence comes to express the notion of apostasy and rebellion. So, then, here is this thought, all sin is a going away. From what? Rather the question should be--from whom? All sin is a departure from God. And that is its deepest and darkest characteristic. And it is the one that needs to be most urged, for it is the one that we are most apt to forget. The great type of all wrongdoers is in that figure of the Prodigal Son, and the essence of his fault was, first, that he selfishly demanded for his own his father’ s goods; and, second, that he went away into a far country. Your sins have separated between you and God. 2. Then another aspect of the same foul thing rises before the psalmist’ s mind. This evil which he has done, which I suppose was the sin in the matter of Bath-sheba, was not only rebellion against God, but it was, according to our version, in the second clause, “ a sin,” by which is meant literally missing an aim. (1) “ Man’ s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him for ever;” and whosoever in all his successes fails to realize that end is a failure through and through, in whatever smaller matters he may seem to himself and to others to succeed. He only strikes the target in the bull’ s-eye who lets his arrows be deflected by no gusts of passion, nor aimed wrong by any obliquity of vision, but with firm hand and clear eye seeks and secures the absolute conformity of his will to the Father’ s will, and makes God his aim and end in all things. (2) But there is another aspect of this same thought, and that is that every piece of evil misses its own shabby mark. “ A rogue is a round-about fool.” No man ever gets, in doing wrong, the thing that he did the wrong for, or, if he gets it, he gets something else along with it that takes all the sweet taste out of it. All sin, big or little, is a blunder, and missing of the mark. 3. Yet another aspect of the ugly thing rises before the psalmist’ s eye. In reference to God evil is separation and rebellion; in reference to myself, it is an error and missing of my true goal; and in reference to the straight standard and law of duty, it is, according to the last of the three words for sin in the text, “ iniquity,” or, literally, something twisted or distorted. It is thus brought into contrast with the right line of the plain straight path in which we ought to walk. The path to God is a right line, the shortest road from earth to heaven is absolutely straight. The Czar of Russia, when railways were introduced into that country, was asked to determine the line between St. Petersburg and Moscow. He took a ruler, and drew a straight line across the map, and said, “ There!” Our autocrat has drawn a line as straight, as the road from earth to heaven; and by the side of it are the crooked wandering ways in which we live. II. the blessed picture of the removal of the sin. It is “ forgiven,” “ covered,” “ not imputed.” The accumulation of synonyms not only sets forth various aspects of pardon, but triumphantly celebrates the completeness and certainty of the gift. As to the first, it means literally to lift and bear away a load or burden. As to the second, it means plainly enough to cover over, as one might do some foul thing, that it may no longer offend She eye or smell rank to heaven. And so a man’ s sin is covered over and ceases to be in evidence, as it were, before the Divine Eye that sees all things. He Himself casts a merciful veil over it and hides it from Himself. A similar idea, though with a modification in metaphor, is included in that last word, the sin is not reckoned. God does not write it down in His great book on the debit side of the man’ s account. And these three things, the lifting up and carrying away of the load, the covering over of the obscene and ugly thing, the non-reckoning in the account of the evil deed; these three things, taken together, do set forth before us the great and blessed truth that a man’ s transgressions may become, in so far as the Divine heart and the Divine dealings with him are concerned, as if non-existent. III. the blessedness of this removal of sin.1. The blessedness of deliverance from sullen remorse and the dreadful pangs of an accusing conscience. 2. The blessedness of a close clinging to God in peaceful trust, which will ensure security in the midst of all trials and a hiding-place against every storm. Only through forgiveness do we come into that close communion with God which ensures safety in all disasters. 3. The blessedness of a gentle guidance and of a loving obedience. “ Thou shalt guide me with Thine eye.” No need for force, no need for bit and bridle, no need for anything but the glance of the Father, which the child delights to obey. 4. The blessedness of exuberant gladness; the joy that comes from the sorrow according to God is a joy that will last. All other delights, in their nature., are perishable. The deeper the penitence the surer the rebound into gladness. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Sin forgiven I. the burden.1. He uses three words, and each word reveals a different aspect of his comprehensive conception. (1) He calls it his “ transgression.” The word is significant of a “ breaking-loose.” The figure is almost that of a horse that has broken the traces, and is bolting. The cords have been snapped. The yoke has been thrown aside. The man conceives himself as in revolt. He is a rebel, a deserter. He has broken the bands; he has discarded all discipline, and has roamed in ways of unconsidered licence. (2) He also calls it his “ sin.” He has deflected from the prescribed line of life. He has chosen his own end. He has missed the mark. His life “ has not arrived.” It is characterized by failure. (3) He also calls it his “ iniquity” His life is marred by crookedness and deformity. Guilt has sunk into his faculties, and all of them have been twisted in a certain perversity. Such is the man’ s vivid consciousness of his own estate. He is a rebel of perverse inclinations, and wrenched by self-will into spiritual deformity. 2. Now, concerning this burning consciousness of personal sin, we are told the man “ kept silence.” He invited no fellowship, either on the part of man or of God. How did such secret, silent burden affect the man’ s life? (1) “ When I kept silence my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long.” There is a wonderful intimacy between the flesh and the spirit. To sap the forces of the one drains the energy of the other. This man, with the secret, unspoken consciousness of sin, dragged along a weary body. He was continually tired. (2) “ Day and night Thy hand was heavy upon me.” He moved in a condition of constant depression. He felt that “ the hand of the Lord” was weighing upon him! That is a pathetic word. “ The hand’ of the Lord” is usually a minister of succour, of lifting, of resurrection! But here the “ hand of the Lord” is regarded as the minister of depression, and the man is held down in mental flatness and imprisonment. (3) “ My moisture is turned into drought of summer.” He was the victim of a dry, fierce heart No cool, cooling influences breathed through his soul. He was “ heated hot with burning fears.” II. the confession. The psalmist had a threefold description of sin, now he has a threefold description of its confession. “ I acknowledged my sin.” “ Mine iniquity have I not hid.” “ I confessed my transgressions.” The marrow of all these pregnant phrases is that the psalmist made a clean breast of it. He hid nothing from the Lord. There was no unclean thing concealed within his tent. He opened out every secret room. He gave God all the keys. Everything was brought out and penitently acknowledged. He confessed in particulars, and not in generals. He “ poured out his heart before God.” He emptied it as though he was emptying a vessel in which no single unclean drop was allowed to remain. His confession was made in perfect frankness and sincerity. III. the Lord’ s response.1. His transgression was “ forgiven” --lifted and carried away out of sight. 2. His sin was “ covered.” “ Where sin abounds, grace doth much more abound.” Grace rolls over like an immeasurable flood, and our sins are submerged beneath its mighty depths. 3. His iniquity was “ net imputed.” Forgiven sins are never to be counted; they will not enter into the reckoning. They will not influence the Lord’ s regard for us. In His love for us, forgiven sins are as though they had never been. Here, then, is the completeness of the freedom of the children of God. Sin forgiven! Sin covered! Sin no longer reckoned! It is not wonderful that this once tried, depressed, feverish soul, tasting now the delights of a gracious freedom, should cry out, “ Blessed is the man!” (J. H. Jowett, M. A.) The blessedness of pardon In the words you have an emphatical setting forth of a great and blessed privilege and a description of the persons who shall enjoy it. We notice the three expressions, “ forgiven,” “ covered,” “ imputeth not,” and the earnestness and vehemency which this repetition implies. As to the meaning, the transgressions forgiven tells of the relief from a heavy burden (Matthew 11:28). The “ sin covered,” alludes to the covering up of or removing that which is offensive out of sight (Deuteronomy 23:14). The “ imputeth not iniquities” tells of God’ s not putting them down to our account (Matthew 6:12). The object of pardon is described under the various terms of iniquity, transgressions, sin. And the earnestness of the psalmist is because he himself has known the blessedness of God’ s forgiveness. The doctrine of the text is, therefore--That a great degree of our blessedness lies in our obtaining the pardon of our sins by Jesus Christ. I. the necessity that lies upon us to seek this pardon.1. We all have a reasonable nature, and this implies a conscience, for a man can reflect upon his own actions. 2. But conscience implies a law by which good and evil are distinguished. 3. Law implies a sanction or confirmation by penalties and rewards (Deuteronomy 30:15; Psalms 7:11-13). 4. Such sanction implies a judge who will take cognizance of our conduct in regard to the law. The heathen knew this (Romans 1:32). Providence showed it (Romans 1:18). And we are to expect the coming of such judge (Acts 10:42-43; Acts 3:19-21). 5. A judge implies a judgment day, or some time when his justice must have solemn trial, when he will reckon with the guilty (Hebrews 9:27; Acts 24:25; Acts 17:31). 6. This implies the condemnation of the guilty, unless God set up another court for their relief. For man is utterly unable to fulfil the law (Romans 8:1). “ The law is weak through the flesh.” 7. This God hath done in Christ and the Gospel. It is not a ease of forgiveness as between man and man, but there must be satisfaction to Divine justice. Therefore Christ hath died (Galatians 4:5; Romans 3:25-26). 8. This being done conveniently to God’ s honour, we must sue out our pardon with respect to both covenants--that of nature, and that in Christ. We must bring a true repentance (1 John 1:9; 1 Corinthians 11:31). And we must thankfully accept the Lord’ s grace that offers pardon to us. II. our misery without this pardon.1. We must bear the heavy burden of our sin (Psalms 38:4; Genesis 4:13; Proverbs 18:14). 2. Sin renders us odious in the sight of God (Proverbs 13:5). “ Sin is loathsome.” And the sinner is so, to God, to the righteous, to the indifferent, to other wicked men, and to himself (Psalms 32:3). 3. Sin is a debt that binds the soul to everlasting punishment (Luke 12:59). How blessed, then, must be he unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity. III. the consequent benefits of this pardon.1. It restores us to God (Psalms 130:4). 2. It lays a foundation for solid peace and comfort in our own souls. 3. We are now capable of eternal life. IV. the application.1. Let us bless God for the Gospel. Think of the darkness of the heathen world on this matter (Micah 6:7). And the Jews also (Hebrews 9:9). 2. Let us put in for a share of this blessedness. Pray day by day for it. Christians as well as others. (T. Manton.) Persuasions to seek after the blessedness of pardon I. till you are pardoned you are never blessed. IS he happy who is condemned to die, although he hath plentiful allowance till the day of his execution? So neither can earthly good make the sinner blessed. II. nothing else but pardon will serve our turn, Forbearance on God’ s part will not, for forbearance from punishment does not dissolve the obligation to punish. Respite is not pardon. Nor, either, forgetfulness on our part. They are not happy that have the least trouble, but they that have the least cause. A benumbed conscience cannot challenge this blessedness. God hath neither forgiven nor covered their sin. III. the evils which forgiveness frees us from and the good which depends upon it.1. The evils. Guilt, and therefore punishment. 2. The good. You cannot enjoy God till you are forgiven. IV. what must be done that we may be capable of this blessed privilege.1. For our first entrance into it. (1) We must have repentance and faith (Acts 10:43; Acts 11:33; Luke 24:47). Repentance respects God, to whom we return: faith, Christ, by whom we return. And these are necessary for the glory of God. It is not fitting that pardon and life should be bad without any conditions. And they are necessary, too, for our comfort. 2. For our continuance in it. The first truths are gone over again and again; and there is a new obedience (1 John 1:7). And there is daily prayer. 3. For the recovery out of grievous lapses and falls. In them there is required a particular and express repentance; and repentance and faith must be carried with respect to those four things that are in sin: culpa, the fault, reatus, the guilt, maeula, the stain and blot, and poena, the punishment.1. For the fault in the transgression of the law, or the criminal action. See that the fault be not continued; relapses are very dangerous. A bone often broken in the same place is hardly set again. God’ s children are in danger of this before the breach be well made up, or the orifice of the wound be soundly closed; as Lot doubled his incest, and Samson goes in again and again to Delilah. 2. The guilt continues till serious and solemn repentance, and humiliation before God, and suing out our pardon in Christ’ s name. There must be a solemn humbling for the sin, and then God will forgive us. Suppose a man forbear the act, and never commit it more (as Judah forbore the act, after he had committed incest with Tamar, but it seems he repented not till she showed him the bracelets and the staff); yet with serious remorse we must beg our peace humbly upon the account of our Mediator. Therefore something must be done to take away the guilt. 3. There is the blot or evil inclination to sin again. A brand that hath been in the fire is more apt to take fire again; the evil influences of the sin continue. Now the root of sin must be mortified, it is not enough to forbear or confess a sin, but we must pull out the core of the distemper before all will be well. 4. There is the punishment. It will not be eternal. We are delivered from that. But there may be temporary evils (Psalms 89:32-33). What, then, is our business? Humbly to deprecate these judgments. “ Lord, correct me not in Thine anger,” etc. (T. Manton.) True blessedness There is a history of India, which was written by a man who never left his native land, nor set eye or foot on that distant shore; and yet, strange as it may appear, it is said to be the best work on the subject, presenting the most graphic pictures of its oriental scenery, the most satisfactory history of its conquests and its conquerors, the best account of the manners, and customs, and habits of its people, with their variety of races, and tongues, and castes, and religions. In some such way the beauties of Christianity have been portrayed; the pictures being not so much, or rather not at all, a transcript of the artist’ s feelings--what his own eyes have seen and his own heart has felt--not the expression of a Christian’ s experience, but the triumphs of a poet’ s fancy. And so the preacher may, after all, be but a painter, and saving others, he may be himself a castaway. A man who can go to the pulpit, or a man who can stand on the level of other men, and say, “ Arise, for I have seen the land, and behold it is very good,” can speak with a point and a power which no fancy or genius can bestow. Such was the position of the man who expressed the sentiment of my text. The world has seen few poets like the royal psalmist; yet here is not a flight of the poet’ s fancy, but the expression of a good man’ s experience. The blessedness of my text is not a thing that David fancied; it is a thing that David felt. And he gained this blessedness by going to God for it, confessing his sin and finding forgiveness. He went as the prodigal, saying, “ I have sinned,” and he gratefully acknowledges, “ Thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin.” I. this blessedness is attainable by us now. Sin is a terrible thing, for it incurs the wrath of God. Man’ s wrath can do but little in his favour either. A few feet of earth above our heads, and what is the world’ s smile or frown then? But God’ s wrath and favour are very different things. They stretch on into and throughout eternity. How blessed, then, must be His favour, how terrible His wrath! But, with His favour, what need we fear? II. the extent of this blessedness. Transgression forgiven, sin covered, iniquity not imputed. How is all this accomplished? Not in the way of the unjust steward, by making a composition, as merchants do. God demands all. ,And yet we are saved. Christ paid the penalty, and thus man is saved the punishment. This is the very palladium and pillar of the believer’ s peace. All is forgiven, all covered. III. blessedness is what we all seek after, and it is found here. This alone is true blessedness. Nothing else is worthy of the name of happiness. I know as well as you do, that there is a kind of happiness in sin; I know as well as you do, that without a sense of forgiveness there is a kind of pleasure a man or woman may enjoy; but do you call that happiness? I do not. Do you call that insect happy, that in ever-lessening circles goes round and round the candle, till it plunge and perish in the flame? I have read of children that with merry glee, add light feet, and buoyant laughter, chased each other upon the sinking deck, when brave men had stripped to swim, and cowards lay down to die. Call ye them happy? Happy! “ I said of laughter, It is madness; and of mirth, What doeth it?” But the blessedness told of in our text, that never fades. (S. Guthrie, D. D.) A song of a saved soul I. here is a man painting a picture of the evil which had been his curse. When a man has been rescued from hell, he speaks in no mincing fashion of its horrors.1. “ Transgression” signifies departure, the dissolving of a union, apostasy. 2. “ Sin” means literally an error, missing an aim. Not only had he rebelled against God, but he had fatally missed the mark to which his whole effort and energy should have been directed. “ A man never gets what he hoped for by doing wrong; or, if he seems to do so, he gets something more that spoils it all. He pursues after the fleeing form that seems so fair, and, when he reaches her side and lifts her veil, eager to embrace the temptress, a hideous skeleton grins and gibbers at him.” 3. “ Iniquity,” literally, is something twisted or distorted--warped from the straight line of right. All sin is a turning aside, a going out of the way, an entrance on by-paths which can never be safe. II. here is a man pointing out the wretchedness which his sin and silence concerning it had entailed upon him (Psalms 32:3-4). A. weird picture, a realistic illustration of the misery of unrepentant remorse. “ Be sure your sin will find you out;” and what a finding out it is! The sinner expected to conjure up flowers: he has conjured up serpents; he expected thrills of pleasure: he has felt shocks of pain; he expected to find peace: he has let slip the dogs of war; he hoped to find liberty: he has drawn a heavy chain about his life.1. Sin always means misery. It is like the poison-tree in travellers’ stories: tempting weary men to rest beneath its thick foliage, and insinuating death into the limbs that relax in the fatal coolness of its shade. It is like the apples of Sodom: fair to look upon, but turning to acrid ashes on the unwary lips. 2. Sin of itself is bad enough, but sin unconfessed is hell on earth. Better confess the deed than allow it to darken your soul’ s windows, harden your heart, and spread its contagion throughout your being. III. here is a man revealing the path which led to the throne of divine forgiveness (Psalms 32:5). Thank Heaven that there is such a path, and that it is accessible to every sin-damaged life. That path has been provided by a loving God; it is the path of repentance, the King’ s highway. Have we trodden that path? Have we responded to the summons of God’ s Nathan, as he has poured the light divine upon our eyes? IV. here is a man proclaiming the mastery and removal of his sin by God’ s great grace (Psalms 32:1-2). The three words he employs are delightfully expressive.1. “ Forgiveness” means literally the bearing away of a load. Sin is like the burden on the pilgrim’ s back in the Immortal Allegory. It crushes the soul, weakens the life, pampers the spirit. But the grace of God causes the burden to fall from the soul, emancipates it from the crushing load. 2. “ Covered” means the interment of the evil thing. It is a nuisance, an annoyance, an eyesore, a foul, disgusting thing. So God digs a grave for it, and buries it out of sight. 3. “ Not to impute” means that our wickedness is no longer chargeable to us. God will be silent concerning it. The account is settled V. here is a man exulting in the blessedness which his forgiveness had secured to him. “ O the blessedness of the saved one,” he shouts. The words are a burst of thankful rapture. His very soul dances for joy; and no wonder: the change in himself was so very real, the transition so marvellous. It was a passage from death unto life, from winter to summer, from darkness to light, from hell to heaven; the gnawings of conscience exchanged for the peace of God, his sullen silence giving place to spontaneous, irrepressible and hearty song, his very self becoming rejuvenated. Surely, such a change must mean blessedness! (Joseph Pearce.) The pardon of sin I. the nature of pardon.1. The being and inherency of sin is not taken away. Though not imputed, yet it is inherent in us. Remission and sanctification are distinct acts, and wrought in a distinct manner. 2. The nature of sin is not taken away. It is not a change of the native malice of the sin, but a non-imputation of it to the offender. 3. The demerit of sin is not taken away. Pardon frees us from actual condemnation, but not, as considered in our own persons, from the desert of condemnation. 4. The guilt of sin, or obligation to punishment, is taken away by pardon. II. the author of pardon--God.1. It is His act. ‘ Tis an offended God who is a forgiving God; that God whose name thou hast profaned, whose patience thou hast abused, whose laws thou hast violated, whose mercy thou hast slighted, whose justice thou hast dared, and whose glory thou hast stained. 2. He only can do it. Forgiveness belongs to God as-- (1) Proprietor. He has a greater right to us than we have to ourselves.(2) Sovereign, He is Lord over us, as we are His creatures.(3) Governor of us, as we are parts of the world. 3. It is an act of His mercy. Not our merit. Though there be a conditional connection between pardon and repentance and faith, yet there is no meritorious connection ariseth from the nature of those graces, but remission flows from the gracious indulgence of the promise. 4. It is the act of His justice. There is a composition of Judge and Father in this act: free grace on God’ s part, but justice upon the account of Christ. 5. It is the act of His power. It is a greater work to forgive, than to prevent the commission of sin; as it is a greater work to raise a dead man than to cure a sick man: one is a work of art, the other belongs only to Omnipotence. III. the manner of it.1. On God’ s part, by Christ. (1) By His death.(2) By His resurrection. 2. On our part, by faith. This is as necessary in an instrumental way, as Christ in a meritorious way (Acts 26:18). 3. This forgiveness shows-- (1) God’ s willingness to pardon.(2) The certainty of forgiveness.(3) The extent of It (John 1:29).(4) The continuance of it.(5) The worth of it (Acts 20:28). IV. extensiveness, fulness, or perfectness of pardon.1. Perfect in respect of state. God retains no hatred against a pardoned person. He never imputes sin formally, because he no more remembers it, though virtually he may, to aggravate the offence a believer hath fallen into after his justification. So Job possessed the sins of his youth. And Christ tacitly put Peter in remembrance of iris denial of Him. The grant is complete here, though all the fruits of remission are not enjoyed till the day of judgment, and therefore in Scripture sin is said then to be forgiven. ‘ Tis a question whether believers’ sins will be mentioned at the day of judgment. 2. In respect of the objects. Sinful nature, sinful habits, sinful dispositions, pardoned at once, though never so heinous for quality or quantity. 3. In respect of duration (Colossians 2:14-15). V. the effect of pardon.1. The greatest evil is taken away, and the dreadful consequences of it. 2. The greatest blessings are conferred. (1) The favour of God.(2) Access to God.(3) Peace of conscience.(4) It sweetens all mercies.(5) It sweetens all afflictions. Uses-- 1. An unpardoned man is a miserable man. (1) There must either be pardon or punishment.(2) You can call nothing an act of God’ s love towards you, while you remain unpardoned.(3) All the time thou livest unpardoned, thy debts mount the higher.(4) It is that God who would have pardoned thee if thou wouldst have accepted of it, who will condemn thee if thou dost utterly refuse it. 2. Pardon of sin may make thee hope for all other blessings. (1) If once pardoned, thou wilt be always pardoned.(2) Thou art above the reach of all accusations.(3) There will be a solemn justification of thee at the last day.(4) Faith doth interest us in this, though it be weak. 3. Consider whether your sins are pardoned. The true signs are-- (1) Sincerity in our walk.(2) Mourning for sin.(3) Fearfulness of sin.(4) Sanctification.(5) Forgiving others.(6) Affectionate love to God and Christ. (S. Charnock, B. D.) The blessedness of forgiveness I. it drives away all misery.1. The wrath of God.2. The curse of the law.3. An accusing conscience.4. The fear of death.5. The awfulness of eternity. II. it brings is all joys.1. Filial contemplation of God.2. Happy communion with God.3. Bright views of Providence.4. Alleviation in sickness.5. Comfort in death.6. Acquittal at the judgment bar.7. Glory throughout eternity. (H. Law, M. A.) Pardon of sin the only true means to happiness We must every one herein place our happiness, even in God’ s pardoning sin, and accordingly set our hearts and affections upon it, longing after this assurance above all things in the world. If a malefactor were condemned, and at the place of execution, what is it that would make him happy? What wisheth he above the world? only a pardon from his Prince: gold and silver, hinds and honours, can do him no good; only a pardon is the most welcome thing in the world. This is every man’ s case--we are traitors and rebels to God, our sins have proclaimed us rebels through heaven and earth, the law hath condemned us, we are going on to execution, and every day nearer than other, wherein then ought we to place our happiness, if we well weighed our estate, but in a gracious and free pardon? We would strive for pardon as for life and death. Miserable men they be, that place their felicity in anything else. For consider, that notwithstanding--1. The greatest part of men place their happiness in wealth, pleasure, honour; and these carry all their hearts: yet-- (1) This is an earthly and sensual, and far from Christian happiness, which cannot leave a man unhappy in the end, as all these do. (2) The most wicked ones that the world hath had have enjoyed the greatest outward prosperity. (3) The most dear servants of God have been strangers in the world, and met with the strangest entertainment. (4) Those whose portion hath been outwardly most prosperous, yet never thought themselves happy out of God’ s mercy pardoning sin. An example in David: lie had riches, honour, pleasure, a crown, kingdom, subjects, treasures, but did he place his felicity in these things? No, but in the forgiveness and covering of sins; in whose steps we must tread. (5) He that would build a firm house, must lay a sure foundation, and wilt thou lay the foundation of thy happiness in the dust? Lay it in wealth, they have wings; and when they fly away, so doth thy happiness: why dost thou trust a fugitive servant? Lay it in pleasures, it will end in sorrow; and the apostle faith, it makes a man as corpse living, dead while he liveth. Lay it in honour, what a vanishing thing is that, like the footsteps of a ship in the sea, carried with a strong gale? Yea, lay it anywhere but in God and His assured mercies, it will prove a tottering happiness, and the fall of such a happy man shall be great. 2. Others think themselves most happy in the committing of sin, and practice of their iniquity; and these are most miserable captives to the devil, so far from thinking their happiness to stand in the pardon of sin, as that they place it in the practice of it. Hence it is that monsters of men, devils incarnate, profess to swear, quarrel, drink, riot, and take them the greatest enemies to their happiness, that would help to pull them out of the snares of the devil. I would know what other happiness the devil hath, than incessantly to sin against God, and draw so many as he can into his own damnation; which express image he hath stamped on numbers, marked to destruction. (T. Taylor, D,D.) The not imputing of sin The Lord imputes not, that is, the Spirit of the Lord, the Lord the Spirit, the Holy Ghost, suffers not me to impute to myself those sins, which I have truly repented. The over-tenderness of a bruised and a faint conscience may impute sin to itself when it is discharged, and a seared and obdurate conscience may impute none when it abounds; if the Holy Ghost work, he rectifies both; and if God do inflict punishments after our repentance and the seals of our reconciliation, yet He suffers us not to impute those sins to ourselves, or to repute those corrections, punishments, as though He had not forgiven them, or as though He came to an execution after a pardon, but that they are laid upon us medicinally, and by way of prevention, and precaution against his future displeasure. This is that peace of conscience, when there is not one sword drawn: this is that meridional brightness of the conscience, when there is not one cloud in our sky. I shall not hope that original sin shall not be imputed, but fear that actual sin may; not hope that my dumb sins shall not, but my crying sins may; not hope that my apparent sins, which have therefore induced in me a particular sense of them, shall not, but my secret sins, sins that I am not able to return and represent to mine own memory, may: for this “non imputabit” hath no limitation; God shall suffer the conscience thus rectified to terrify itself with nothing. (John Donne, D. D.) Psalms 32:2 In whose spirit there is no guile. Signs of a sincere and guileless heart 1. Observe thy actions. (1) In their nature. If they be single and pure, so is thy heart. As is the fountain and the root, such are the streams and the fruit. (2) In their end. An honest heart ever aims at God’ s glory directly, whereas a guileful heart ever propounds bad ends of good actions. 2. Observe whether thou makest conscience secretly of all sins; yea, most seriously of those to which thou art most inclined. 3. Consider whether thou daily renewest thy purpose of not sinning against God, as thou renewest thy days, and whether thou watchest over thine own heart with an holy suspicion, and wilt for God’ s will break thine own. 4. Mark whether thou lovest God in His image, ordinances, and children, even then when the world scorns and hates all these. (T. Taylor, D. D.) Motives to guilelessness 1. God’ s commandment (Genesis 17:1; Psalms 51:6). Conformity of manners must go with reformation of the heart. 2. It is a part of God’ s image, who is most single and true; and the beauty of the Church is to be all glorious within: herein she is conformable to her Head, in whose mouth was found no guile. Every son of the Church must be a Nathaniel, in whom is no guile (John 1:47), and a true Israelite, even pure of heart (Psalms 73:1). 3. Our text affords a sound reason, in that sincerity of heart is joined with forgiveness of sins, and is a forerunner to blessedness. Sincerity is a veil to cover all sin; because of this, God covers and cures all our iniquities (1 Kings 15:14). 4. If we would be distinguished from hypocrites, we must labour for sincerity; wicked ones may outwardly strain beyond us, make fair shows, and have a kind of faith and joy, etc., but we must outstrip them all in sincerity of heart. 5. If we would have our duties comfortable to ourselves and profitable, when men object them unto us, and we meet with but small comfort in the world because of them, let us labour to become true Israelites (2 Samuel 6:20-22). 6. God hath appointed a day to try thy heart and the soundness thereof, to turn out all the windings of it; and He abhors the double heart, that turns itself upon deceitfulness as a door upon hinges; therefore look to the singleness of it beforehand. 7. Only they that walk uprightly are citizens of heaven (Psalms 15:2). Guile forsaken when guilt is forgiven I. many men play tricks with god and their consciences.1. The guile of the human heart shows itself in a refusal to come to serious consideration. The most frivolous amusements, the most carking cares, and even the most weary ceremonials of fashions, are adopted as a happy release from the labour of reflection. Death, judgment, eternity, heaven, and hell--they dare not think of these: and why? Because they know that all is wrong with them, and so they practise a crafty carelessness and a cunning indifference. 2. Others who do think a little are partial in their judgments of themselves. They present accounts, but these are cooked and made to appear other than they should by a sort of spiritual financing. 3. Many are evidently tricking themselves wilfully because they rest on such frivolous grounds of confidence. Could any man depend on his own good works unless he had juggled with his judgment? 4. Others avoid all home truths, and keep clear of searching doctrines. The preacher is too censorious, and that is your excuse for remaining in spiritual apathy. Even books come in for like censures. The plain-speaking volume is not “ conceived in a gentle spirit,” or is too narrow, bigoted, and one-sided. 5. Many are clever at parrying home thrusts by introducing other themes. You know how the lapwing pretends to have a broken wing, and flies as if it must be taken and all with the view of leading the passenger from her nest, so do our hearers try to lead us away from the main matter. 6. Another very cunning trick which is often practised by sinners who are full of guile is this, they pass on to other people anything which is uncomfortably applicable to themselves. It seemed as if the preacher had made a cap specially to fit that head, but the result was that the person who watched the making exclaimed, “ Dear me! How well he has taken my neighbour’ s measure.” 7. One sorry piece of craft which Satan teaches to many is to make them doubt, or pretend to doubt, anything in Scripture which frowns upon them. 8. While yet far from God, many calm and quiet themselves with outward religion. 9. There are others who conceal in the secret of their hearts a blasphemous notion which they hardly dare to put into words, but it amounts to this that the reason why they are not saved is not by any means due to themselves. 10. Perhaps the most numerous victims of this guile are those who flatter themselves that they will come right some day. If you resolve that you will repent in a year’ s time, what is that but a daring defiance of God by declaring that you will continue in sin for twelve months at least? Have you ever looked at it in that light? II. the pardoned man gives evidence of ceasing from this guile.1. He makes an open confession of his sin to God. 2. He has done with all sorts of excuses and palliations. 3. Sincerity has entered into his belief in the terrible things of God’ s Word. He now sees their certainty and their justice. 4. He now wishes to be dealt with personally and impartially whenever he reads a book or hears a sermon. 5. He desires in everything that he does to be true. 6. He also desires to be rid of all sin. 7. He seeks after perfect purity of life, and he has heartily ceased from guile, for now as an heir of heaven he lives in the presence of God, and delights to remember the all-seeing eye. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Psalms 32:3-4 When I kept silence, my bones waxed old. Unconfessed sin On several grounds we may set forth the urgency of the duty of making immediate and penitent confession of our sins unto God. I. every sin is manifest unto God whether we confess it or not. His scrutiny penetrates every disguise, and analyzes every motive. Every sin is not only naked unto God’ s eye, but it is clearer unto Him than any confession of ours could make it. He sees its growth. “ He understandeth the thought afar off.” All the aggravations of every sin are clearer unto the eye of God than any confession of ours could state them. Those that are brought to a sense of their sins are often filled with amazement when they think of the forbearance of God towards them in their state of guilt. Should not they that are God’ s children, and have been enlightened in their understanding, chasten themselves before God because of their transgressions that they may walk in the light of His countenance? If it be true that unacknowledged sin separates the soul from God, that the regarding of iniquity in the heart makes prayer useless, and sacrifices an abomination, that the look of lust and the motion of causeless anger against a brother provoke God’ s anger, an immediate and humble confession of sin from the heart unto God is both necessary and safe. Unto them who keep silence God gives sorrow. He maketh their bones to rot. II. no sin is diminished by deferring the confession of it. If murder or malice or falsehood or any transgression be a crime because it is a violation of God’ s holy raw, the mere lapse of time does not alter the fact that the law was violated. If one day is with the word as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day, God’ s view of sin will not be otherwise a thousand years hence than it is on the day that the sin is committed. God judges according to the principles from which an action springs, and His judgment cannot be nullified by lapse of time. Is sin represented as a burden on the conscience? The bearing of a burden is not alleviated by lapse of time, but rather becomes more oppressive. Some hearts seem callous, but even they get no actual relief from their burden of guilt by deferring confession of their sins unto God. They are treasuring up wrath unto themselves against the day of wrath. Is sin represented as pollution which makes us hateful unto God? Pollution does not liquify and evaporate, but extends and deepens. “ Evil men and seducers wax worse and worse deceiving and being deceived.” The canker of corruption increases to more ungodliness. Is sin represented as a debt? Deferring to pay never diminishes the extent of the indebtedness. In the natural world those substances that cannot resist destroying agents become weaker and weaker. Wood rots; iron rusts; and stones crumble. Lapse of time never makes good that loss of substance, nor does it even arrest the loss. III. sin unconfessed corrodes the heart. There is an inner unrest. One who suppresses confession unto God nevertheless roars all the day long. Whoso will not pour out his corruptions before God tortures his own soul, wears himself out, and makes himself old before his time. “ My moisture is turned into the drought of summer.” The corroding effect of unconfessed sin arises from the necessity which is laid on the heart to reconcile itself to its condition. The sin must be explained in some way that will quiet the conscience. Not a few screen themselves behind those that act for them. Because an agent procures and pays a dividend, the investor thinks himself exonerated from all blame that may attach to the methods and means, by which a Limited Liability Company gets prosperity for its shareholders. David gave his command to Joab, and Joab doubtless acted through not a few subordinate officers, before Uriah could be set in “ the forefront of the hottest battle,” and deserted at the critical moment, and it was really the sword of Ammon that shed the brave man’ s blood; but God joined David immediately with Uriah’ s death. It was David who was made to cry, “ Deliver me from blood-guiltiness, O God.” “ Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation.” Sometimes men extract a balm from the general course of God’ s providence. ‘ Twas a soothing sophism unto David, “ The sword devoureth one as well as another.” By many such shifts do men remove themselves from the actual sin which has gratified or profited them. But their heart suffers. Tolerating sin, it soon becomes insensible to the heinousness of sin and foregoes its own brotherhood. In many other ways also unconfessed sin corrodes the heart. It betrays us to other forms of sin, even as one virtue leads to another. Craft uses deceit. Violence seeks justification or concealment in lies. Sensuality loosens every fibre of virtue, and paves the way to every relative vice. Were the sin confessed, the heart would be renewed. Unconfessed sin indisposes us for duty. “ Sinful heart makes feeble hand.” Duty is enforced by conscience, but when the conscience itself lies in a comatose state, because of the diffused poison of an unconfessed sin, its authority is paralyzed. Through confession of sin, a sinner is purged from an evil conscience to serve the Living God. Unconfessed sin makes all our services unacceptable unto God. “ If thou bring thy gift to the altar,” etc. If service be unacceptable when a brother hath ought against us, much more must it seem vile when God Himself hath something against us! Unconfessed sin exerts an exasperating influence on the heart. There is a state of mind in which a man regards all things as out of joint. It sets him at variance with himself and his surroundings, and fills him with idle longings for change of scene. God’ s hand lies heavy on him day and night, and makes duty burdensome. The want of inward peace deprives him of that element which sweetens life’ s sorrows and smooths its roughness. Instead of the well-spring of joy, with which a good conscience cheers the mind, there is gloom and unrest and a dread of ill. How can a man with an evil conscience put his trust in the living God, and if he trust not in the living God, how can he be happy, or feel secure? “ The light that is in him is darkness.” (H. Drysdale.) Why men are unwilling to confess their sin 1. Because the devil stupefies and benumbs the soul, that it has little or no feeling of its sin; and then it lies, as it were, concealed in the soul; which makes it either thoughtless about it, or careless to acknowledge it. 2. Because the custom of sin takes away the sense of it; for, the longer any poisonous liquor stands in a vessel, so much the harder will it be to get it cleansed, and the poisonous quality eradicated. 3. Sometimes the soul has so great a sense of his sins, and is so apprehensive of the number and deformity of them, that it becomes thereby either ashamed or afraid to confess them to the Lord. 4. Satan sometimes prevails so far upon the soul as to persuade it that it can hide its sins by an act of oblivion of its own making; that is, he makes men foolishly flatter themselves that God will never remember those sins which they forget; and that what they themselves bury in silence shall be concealed from His all-seeing eyes. But see what God says to such as these (Psalms 50:20-21). (J. Hayward, D. D.) Confession and pardon “ Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven;” not, Blessed is that man who lives in a four-storey house; not, Blessed is that man who has a hundred thousand dollars to his credit in bank; not, Blessed is the man that owns the most railroad stock and government bonds. If you want to be happy, you must obtain the favour of God. And the way to obtain it is to seek God’ s pardon. David declares that happy is the man who is pardoned, and “ unto whom the Lord umputeth not iniquity.” My relations to God are determined by my loyalty to Him. In the sight of God you are a transparent man. He can see through you. I have a contempt for a man who has anything in him to hide. I believe in having no wrong side and no right side to a character. It should be all right. I like that. But poor old human nature is so made up that no man knows everything. Some will say in their hearts, “ If our pastor knew these things about me, what would he say?” Oh, listen; God hath already found it out. Be what you are through and through. Some pieces of humanity are put up like some bales of cotton down South. They put The nice, white cotton outside, and in the centre they put the dog-tail cotton--the worst cotton there is. And some humanity is put up on the same principle exactly. Dealers have got a method of finding out what a bale of cotton is right through. And some of these days God will show you what you are through and through. David tells us that he sinned against God, and kept silence, and would not confess; and that by reason of his refusal to confess his sins, “ day and night the hand of God was heavy upon him, and his moisture was turned into the drought of summer.” Oh, what striking figures he uses here! Listen to me now, you who have not had peace of mind for months. Days seem years when your mind is on yourself, because you are miserable. David told what his trouble was, what your trouble is; and he said because of it, “ My moisture was turned into the drought of summer.” I have learned how a person feels by seeing how the fields are in a droughty season. Our garden is dried up, and every green thing droops, and the best land produces only about ten per cent of a crop. A drought of this kind may only last for weeks, but a drought in the human heart may be one that will last for ever. “ My moisture is turned into the drought of summer.” Oh, to see the drought of summer upon the hearts and lives of professing Christians, and upon those out of the Church, and to see their spiritual nature droop, and wither, and die under a drought that is brought upon them by their own voluntary conduct and action! Where is there a man that won’ t confess? We come to him to-night asking him to seek the Lord, and he says, “ I don’ t want to come up.” What he means is, “ I don’ t want to confess” ; that is the trouble. When a fellow gets willing to confess he will go and do it before anything else. The Lord says, “ He that confesseth shall find mercy.” “ If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Sin is a debt: “ Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.” Now, as sin is a debt, the best thing to do in the world is--don’ t sin at all. That is best, and thank God it is possible. “ Yes,” you say, “ but I can’ t help sinning.” You can help it just as well as you can keep from getting into debt? Am I obliged to get into debt to-day or to-morrow? Which sin am I obliged to commit to-day or to-morrow? “ You are not like me,” you hear people say; “ I cannot live without sin.” Whenever you hear a person say that, you may know he is falling into sin more deeply, and that he has made provision for it. Well, I say, the best thing in the world is, don’ t do wrong. But if you do happen to slip and do wrong the best thing is to fall down and repent. Don’ t let it get cold before you have repented of it. A man ought to be able to repent and to pray anywhere that he can afford to sin. Sin is a debt you have to meet at the mercy-seat of God with an honest, open confession, or you will have to meet it in the judgment with eternal bankruptcy of your soul. Now, which will you do? If you have sinned, the best time for you to repent is now. You cannot afford to put it off any longer. (S. P. Jones.) Repentance the way to happiness I. the silence which he kept. Its criminality is clear from the circumstances by which it has been occasioned, and from the perseverance with which it has been maintained against the mercy and the power of God. Your silence has been occasioned by--1. Thoughtlessness and indifference.2. Pride and enmity of heart against God.3. Procrastination; notwithstanding the variety of His appeals. II. the misery which he endured. What misery is occasioned by sin when--1. It has to contend with keen and deep convictions.2. It is accompanied by the dread of discovery.3. The hatred to God which it produces in the heart is connected with a dread of His almighty power.4. All these internal feelings are accompanied with eternal adversity and tribulation. 5. The sinner looks forward to the future and anticipates that eternity to which every moment brings him nearer. III. the confession which he made.1. It was minute and unreserved. 2. He confessed that his sin was ever present to his mind. 3. He confessed that his sin admitted of no apology or extenuation.4. He confessed that his sins exposed him to the Divine rejection.5. He confessed that his sin was a source of deep distress to his mind.6. His confession was accompanied with prayer. IV. the pardon which he received.1. The source whence it was derived.2. The promptness with which it was bestowed.3. The gratuitousness with which it was granted.4. The encouragement which it is calculated to afford to those who, like himself, have broken their impenitent silence, and begun to confess their transgressions to the Lord (Psalms 32:6).5. The blessedness of which it was productive. (1) Pardon blessed his condition, saving from depravity as well as from condemnation. (2) Pardon blessed his feelings, making him happy as well as safe and holy. Happy in his affections. Happy in the privilege of communion with God. Happy in the performance of holy duties. Happy in anticipation of the future. (J. Alexander.) Terrible convictions and gentle drawings David here describes a very common experience amongst convinced sinners. He was subjected to extreme terrors and pangs of conscience. The terrors he experienced were indescribable, filling his soul with horror and dismay. We would speak-- I. To the subjects of God’ s rebuke and the terrors of God’ s law. What are the causes of your terror? I shall borrow my divisions from quaint old Thomas Fuller, and, as I cannot say better things than he said, I shall borrow much.1. Those wounds must be deep which are given by so strong a hand as that of God. Remember it is God that is dealing with you, the almighty God. Do you wonder, then, that when He smites, His blows fell you to the ground. Be not astonished at your terrors. 2. Then think of the place where God has wounded you. Not in hand, head, or foot, but in your heart, your inmost soul. 3. Satan is busy with you. “ Now,” saith he, “ God is driving him to madness, I will drive him to despair.” 4. The terrible nature of the weapon with which God has wounded you. The sword of the Spirit, so that it cannot be a little wound. 5. The foolishness of the patient. Some are much more quickly healed than others; serenity of mind and quietude of spirit help much, but fretfulness and anxiety hinder. It is even so with you: you are a foolish patient; you will not do that which would cure you, but you do that which aggravates your woe: you know that if you would cast yourselves upon Jesus you would have peace of conscience at once; but instead of that you are meddling with doctrines too high for you, trying to pry into mysteries which the angels have not known, and so you turn your dizzy brain, and thus help to make your heart yet more singularly sad. You seek to file your fetters, and you rivet them; you seek to unbind them yourself, and you thrust them the deeper into your flesh. 6. Yours is a disease in which nothing can ever help you but that one remedy. All the joys of nature will never give you relief. When Adam had sinned he became suddenly plunged in misery; he had unparadised paradise. And so it will be with you. If you could be put in paradise you would not be happier. There is only one cure for you. 7. Now why does God let you suffer so? He does not deal so with all His people. Why, then, with you? We cannot tell all the reasons, but it may be because you were such a stony-hearted sinner. You were so desperately set on mischief, so stolid, so indifferent, that, if saved, God must save you in such a way, or else not at all. 8. And there is that in your heart which would take you back to your old sins, and so He is making them bitter to you. He is burning you that you may be like the burnt child which dreads the fire. 9. And He would make you the more happy afterwards. The black days of dreary winter make the summer days all the fairer and the sweeter. 10. And, maybe, God means to make great use of you. The Lord gets his best soldiers out of the highlands of affliction. These are His highlanders that carry everything before them. They know the rivers of sin, the glens of grief, and, now their sins are washed away, they know the heights of self-consecration, and of pure devotion. They can do all things through and for the Christ who has forgiven them. II. To those who have never felt these terrors but strangely wish they had, It is not true that all who are saved suffer these terrors. The most, and they amongst the best, do not. And God has brought you in quieter ways to Himself--then be grateful to Him. You might not have been able to bear other means. And perhaps if you had much experience you would have grown self-righteous. There is a brother who has never known, to the extent some of us have to know, the plague of his own heart, lie has never gone through fire and through water, but, on the contrary, is a loving-hearted spirit: a man who spends and is spent in his Master’ s service; he knows more of the heights of communion than some of us. Do not, then, desire to be troubled, but trust to Christ. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The exercises of a soul seeking pardon These verses give us the experience of a soul convinced of sin, and aware of the value and blessedness of pardon, without as yet possessing the power to assume that pardon as its own. I. the individual is first exhibited to us in silent meditation or self-examination.1. This is a most necessary but painful duty (Psalms 4:4; 2 Corinthians 13:5; Psalms 77:6). 2. It has for its subject the nature and amount of sin. The rule by which that sin is measured is readily supplied by the Holy Spirit, from all the works and dispensations of God. II. This self-examination was supposed to be carried on in silence; but the sentence closes with a seeming contradiction, saying that his bones waxed old with his continual roaring. The work of self-examination may go on in silence and in secrecy; men without hear nothing of the sorrow, see nothing of the distress and agony within--“ The heart knoweth his own bitterness, and a stranger doth not intermeddle with his joy.” But God looks upon the sorrow within; God beholds the workings of this troubled conscience, its throes of grief, and hears its moans. III. conscious impotence arrived at last. “ My bones waxed old,” etc. Here it is not requisite to bring in the machinery of outward trial and experiment to convince the believer of his weakness; let him alone; let him lie there, while varied forms of evil pass over the thoroughfare of his memory or imagination, and while he detects the tendency of his affections to these forms, and battles hard, too, to turn it to good, and fails, the experiment is repeated, till he sinks under the shameful conviction, the sickening one, that he can do no good thing; hold his heart right, no, not one moment, with God; think no one good thought alone. And then he is in utter weakness cast on Divine compassion. And then impotent for ever? No, not for ever; impotent in self, but mighty through Christ (2 Corinthians 12:9). IV. the stubbornness of the nature dealt with. “ Day and night Thy hand was heavy upon me.” Converted men, without a failure, may be passed or hurried on from trial to trial externally, in order to bring out and mature that faith which eventuates in holiness. Thus with Joseph; what a series, what a sea of calamities had he to wade through, after the treachery of his brethren; what repeated trials and temptations had he to encounter, without an instant’ s breathing time, till he is placed in full peace upon the government of Egypt. This was heavy work upon the soul. Not temptation, merely, but distresses likewise; these, under a Divine Providence, sift and humble the soul, fix and form the faith, ere they flee before the sunshine of spiritual prosperity. V. the soul now in its distress mourns over departed prosperity. “ Moisture” --the word is figurative, but most significant. He was as a tree planted by the rivers of water, his fruit rich and ripe, his leaf fresh and verdant; all are now withered, and blasted, and scorched; what misery! VI. can all this escape the cognizance of the fallen believer? No; he must hear it, and see it, and heed it, and repent. Aye, repent, not perish. God is still gracious, and though this subsequent repentance may be doubly bitter, yet through it he shall pass once more to peace. (C. M. Fleury, M. A.) The danger of unconfessed sin Grief kept within grows more and more intense. A festering wound is dangerous. Let thy soul flow forth in words as to thy common griefs, it is well for thee. And as to such as are spiritual the same rule applies. What a mercy that we have the Book of Psalms and the life of such a man as David. Biographies of most people are like the portraits of a past generation, when the art of flattery in oils was at its height. There is no greater cheat than a modern biography. We have no biographers now-a-days. David’ s psalms are his best memorial. There you have not the man’ s exterior, but his inward soul. You see the man’ s heart. There is no man who has known the Lord in any age since David but has seen himself in David’ s psalms as in a looking-glass, and has said to himself, “ This man knows all about me.” David is one who “ seems to be, not one, but all mankind’ s epitome.” Be thankful that David was permitted to try the experiment of silence after his great sin, for he will now tell us what came of it--“ When I kept silence,” etc. I. let us think of the child of God thus acting. Children of God sin, for they are still in the body. But when he sins the proper thing for him to do is at once to go and confess it to God. Sin will not come to any great head in any man’ s heart who does this continually. But sometimes they will not do this, especially when they have done very wrong. When confession is most needed it is often least forthcoming. It was so in David’ s ease. How fully had he fallen! It is no good to try and excuse David’ s sin he himself would protest against our attempting it. But why did he not confess it?1. The sin prevented the confession--blinded the eye, stultified the conscience, and stupefied his entire spiritual nature. What wretched prayers and praises were those he offered while the foul sin was hidden in his bosom. Why was he silent when he knew he was wrong? Why did he not go to God at once? He was stupefied by his sin, fascinated, captivated, held in bondage by it. Beware of the basilisk eye of sin. It is dangerous even to look at, for looking leads to longing. No man ever thinks of sin without damage. I saw a magnificent photograph in Rome, one of the finest I had ever seen, and right across the middle there was the spectre mark of a cart and ten oxen, repeated many times. The artist had tried to get it out, but the trace remained. While his plate was exposed to take the view, the cart and the oxen had gone across the scene, and they were indelible. Upon our soul every sinful thought leaves a mark and a stain that calls for us to weep it out--nay, needs Christ’ s blood to wash it out. We begin with thinking of sin, and then we somewhat desire the sin: next we enter into communion with the sin, and then we get into the sin, and the sin gets into us, and we lie asoak in it. So David did. He did not feel it at first, but then he was plunged into the evil deeps. A man with a pail of water on his head feels it to be heavy, but if he dives he does not feel the weight of water above him because he is actually in it and surrounded by it. So when a man plunges into sin he does not feel its weight. When he is out of the dreadful element, then he is burdened by it. Thus at first David did not feel his sin. 2. Next, there was much pride in his heart. A child who has done wrong, and knows it, often will not own it. You cannot bring him to say, “ I have done wrong.” 3. Others have been silent because of fear. They could not believe that God would forgive them. They thought He would overwhelm them with His wrath. Do not think thus. Do not think that the Lord’ s mercy is clean gone for ever. Did He not love thee when thou weft dead in trespasses and sins, and will He not love us more if we turn to Him again? But now let us use this subject in reference-- II. To the awakened sinner. There are such. But they are slow to make confession. They feel the burden, and will feel it more, but as yet they keep it to themselves. Remember John Bunyan’ s picture of the man in the iron cage. There is not in his whole book an incident more terrible. And many full from despair into utter hardness of heart. They say “ there is no hope,” and they may as well be hanged for a sheep as a lamb. Oh, when God makes your heart soft as wax, mind who puts the seal upon it. If the Spirit of God do not, there is another that will put the seal of despair, and perhaps of atheism and of defiant sin upon it, and then woe is that day that you were born. Refusal to confess is a perilous thing for the soul. If a man is awakened to a sense of sin, if he tarries long in that condition Satan is sure to entangle him. He cares little for careless sinners. He has them safe enough: and hypocrites, he knows, are going his way certainly; but the moment that souls are aroused he is in fear lest he lose them, so he plies all his craft to keep them. So that now is the time for the soul to close in with Christ. There is no comfort else to a bruised heart. If you are willing to confess everything He will help you, and there is good reason for doing it at once. For there is a mine of sin in every little sin. Like a spider’ s nest. Open it, and you will find thousands. So in every sin there is a host of sins. Go before God as the citizens of Calais came before the English king, with ropes about their necks. Then make your appeal, and assuredly God will forgive. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Silent grief injurious A dry sorrow is a terrible one, but clear sunshine often follows the rain of tears. Tears are hopeful things; they are the dewdrops of the morning foretelling the coming day There is something in telling your sorrow and letting it out, otherwise it is like a mountain turn which has no outlet, into which the rains descend and the torrents rush, and at last the banks are broken and a flood is caused. A festering wound is dangerous. Many have lost their reason because they had good reason to tell their sorrows, but had not reason enough to do so. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Psalms 32:4 Day and night Thy hand was heavy upon me. Premens gravissima “Premes gravissima. Sublevans suavissima et potentissima.” So wrote one of our shrewdest commentators about the hand of which the psalmist speaks, in words which may be freely translated, “ The hand of God, whilst pressing very hard, supports with utmost tenderness and almighty power.” I. creation. How beautifully are the two sides illustrated here. Tim schoolboy can tell us how the atmosphere is weighing upon the slenderest object on the earth’ s surface with a constant pressure of many pounds to each square inch. The hand seen as “ premeds gravissima.” Yet the dewdrop is not shattered, nor the harebell bruised, since the same hand is also “ sublevans suavissima et potentissima.” Again, whilst with irresistible force all things are being dragged towards the earth’ s centre, the insect with its gauzy wings poises itself in the liquid air, and the tiny child is unhindered in his play. II. providence. Whatever page of history we study the same facts meet us,--on the one hand discipline and chastisement, disappointment, sorrow, pain, loss--the hand in ten thousand ways “ premens gravissima” ; on the other, the reaping of a compensating harvest of happy results, the hand “ sublevans susvissima et potentissima.” Hers tribulation and anguish, there prosperity and peace; nations and individuals groaning beneath the weight of calamity, then led out into a wealthy place. III. redemption. By redemption we mean the great process in all its parts by which the Father of Spirits is recovering man from spiritual ruin. Go back to the Fall. In the stern sentence passed on the first sinners, what do we see but the hand “ premens” ? in the primal promise what but the same hand “ sublevans” ? And in all that wonderful training, covering so many centuries and conducted in ways so surprising, by which the conscience of man was made alive to the guilt of sin--in all the work done by law--are we not looking at the hand of God as it descends upon the sinner, and makes him groan beneath the intolerable burden, as the psalmist did when “ his bones waxed old through his roaring all the day long,” and “ his moisture was turned into the drought of summer” ? And does not that hand become more and more visible as “ sublevans suavissima et poten-tissima,” as mercy streams across the midnight sky in an ever-brightening track of blessed light, prophetic of the full glory of the dawn? (T. G. Rose.) God’ s hand I. all afflictions are God’ s hand.1. They are from God’ s hand purposing and ordaining them (Romans 8:29; 1 Thessalonians 3:3). 2. They are from God’ s hand executing them (Isaiah 45:7; Genesis 45:8; Job 1:21; 2 Samuel 16:11; Hosea 6:1). 3. They are from God’ s hand ordering and disposing them. (1) In their causes, circumstances, kinds, manner, measure, and time of their beginning and ending. (2) In their ends and issues, His own glory, in manifesting His mercy, justice, wisdom, power, etc. The everlasting salvation of His children. He stops them in their course of sin, as with a hedge of thorns (Hosea 2:6), that they should not break over into the pleasant pastures of sin, therein to be fatted to the slaughter. He brings them to a true hatred of sin, when they taste the bitter fruit of it. To the exercise of mortification, and desire of heaven and heavenly things: and thus they are judged of the Lord, that they may not be condemned with the world. II. God lays his hand heavily often upon his own dear children.1. There is deep corruption lurking in the best, who not seldom are cast upon so deep a sleep of security that they cannot be wakened with a little shaking, till by most grievous afflictions the Lord break their bones, consume their strength, and bring them into such grief and pain as sets them roaring. 2. Smaller troubles have often a smaller work. Small things cannot make great hearts stoop; a small fire will not purge away dross from gold, but it must be quick and piercing; a small wind doth not fan away the chaff of vanity, a small correction or smart makes the child more froward, till sounder correction subdue him; small trials do not so exercise faith, nor send men out of themselves to God: for as none for the scratch of a pin, or a little headache, will seek to the physician or surgeon; so a sinner in smaller grievances of the soul will scarce think he needs go to God (Job 33:14). 3. The greater the affliction is, the more odious doth sin appear to be unto God; a strong poison must have a strong antidote: the more the godly are stricken down for sin, the more are they stirred up to godly sorrow, to hatred of it, to zeal against it, the better and more watchful do they prevent sin to come, and look better to themselves: as a good physician oftentimes letteth blood, not to make a man sick, but to prevent sickness. 4. The greater the trial is, the better experience have they of themselves. 5. God’ s children have great afflictions, and are pressed with an heavy hand, that God Himself may be clearly seen to be their deliverer, when in the eyes of all flesh they are lost. 6. As great afflictions make way for abundant mercy from God to us, so also for abundant thanks from us to God. If one cure a trifling matter, it neither so binds the patient, nor yet commends the physician: but if any be cured of some deadly, and almost incurable disease, then we profess we could never have met with such a physician in all the world again, and we are accordingly thankful. 7. Were it not for great afflictions, we could never know the power of God’ s Word in quickening us, cheering and comforting us in them, that it is the Word of Life, is most evidently seen in Death itself. III. God lays his heavy hand upon his children a long time, and with much continuance.1. Sometimes God’ s children in their falls harden their hearts, and grow stiff in their sin, which was David’ s case here, and then the Lord hardeneth Himself to grow stiff in displeasure. Oftentimes God’ s children would sit silent, if the Lord would be as silent as they: but whom He loves, He will bring back the way that they are gone, and great hearts will not stoop for a little. 2. Christ hath not taken away the lingering of trials, but the malignity and poison of them; yea, Himself through all His life was a man full of sorrows; and we must not look to be better; He deserved them not, we have. 3. God would have us in the continuance of our trouble, to see the continuance of our sin; were our correction always short, we would not be persuaded of the greatness of our sins: plasters use to continue, and not fall off till the wound be cured.; and if a right use of afflictions were attained once, a joyful issue would soon follow: but some lust is not denied, and that adds a sting unto them. 4. God by the continuance of His hand would hold us in a continual exercise of grace, as of humility, faith, patience, prayer, repentance, etc., it being with a godly man, as one that hath a precious jewel, which he is careful to keep in his hand, so long as he watcheth, none can get it from him; but when he sleeps or slumbers, his hand opens, and it falls out, any man may have it. By continual blowing, the fire is kept in, but it dies by discontinuance. (T. Taylor, D. D.) Psalms 32:5I said I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord; and Thou for-gavest the iniquity of my sin. Confession It is hard to look things in the face; yet we must do so; we must own our sins honestly. I. To our own hearts--and then, down comes our pride. We thought ourselves tolerably good, and that we could pass muster as well as most; but beginning to look, we detect, here first, and then there, a blemish, an infirmity, a gross sin. It is best to be frank, and rather to make the most than the least of our faults. The iron-founder examines the huge mass of some iron girder, on which he has spent much labour; he sees one tiny crack, but passes it by, hoping, though with strong misgiving, that the real strength of the metal will not be affected; and ere long he hears that the bridge has fallen, and men have been killed by it, and that the disaster is traced to a flaw in the metal. He had better have faced the disappointment, and have had the piece re-cast, than have been responsible for the accident. II. To others. When a man knows his own fault, he does not like others to know it: He would prefer to remain in their eyes the spotless man he once was in his own. It is a degrading thought that others should know that you have been guilty of a meanness, of intemperance, of passion, of untruthfulness; and yet by trying to conceal it from them, you may be adding deception to your former error. Not that we are bound to blaze abroad our faults; that might do more harm than good: but to cover them, or palliate them, so as to retain the good opinion of others, is fruitless and insincere. Bitter though it be to lose the good opinion of friends, still even that is better than disingenuousness. III. To God. It is God whom we have offended: to God must our confession be made. With abject sorrow, and unfeigned shame that we should in any, the least, point have outraged the majesty, the purity, the honour of God; with body, soul, and spirit all bowed down; with reason silent, with no excuses, no special pleading, no attempt to set off against our faults any good things which we have done; but simply engrossed in our hatred of the evil thing we have done, and unreservedly acknowledging its wickedness. IV. If you cannot quiet your conscience by secret confession to God, use the ministry of reconciliation. Something human the man craves, some human voice to tell him to his face that he is forgiven, to assure him, and to dispel doubts. (G. F. Prescott, M. A.) Sin confesssd and unconfessed I. sin unconfessed, working misery in the soul.1. This misery was corporeally emaciating.2. This misery lasted as long as the silence.3. This misery was felt to be from God. II. sin confessed, divinely removed from the soul.1. The removal of sin from man is a possible act.2. A blessed act.3. An encouraging act.4. A saving act, (1) It makes safe in the greatest dangers.(2) It secures the protection of God Himself.(3) It encircles the life with Divine music. (Homilist.) Relief afforded by confession I. the psalmist had kept silence. In this he was wrong. Sin had been committed, and the fruits were fermenting and fomenting in his bosom, gendering turmoil and breeding corruption. So sin will dwell in our souls, and we fondle and turn it into a means of enjoyment. We have not the courage to look at these sins as sins, and to cast them out from what ought to be the temple of the Lord. We try as far as possible not even to notice them. We prefer thinking of our supposed excellences, of the good deeds we have done, of our talents, courage, prowess, generosity, and roll these as a sweet morsel under our tongue. We decline thinking on the abuse made of the gifts bestowed on us,--on our ingratitude, ungodliness, our lusts cherished, our envy, our evil temper, our selfishness. There will be times, indeed, when these iniquities are forced upon our attention by the accusations of conscience or the reproaches of our fellow men, or by the troubles into which they bring us. But on these occasions we put ourselves on the defensive and parry off the attack; and when these weapons of defence are wrested from us, then we bring excuses and urge palliations referring to extenuating circumstances, or pleading seductions, or pointing to the fairer side of the offence, to the pleasure it gave, or the kindness or frankness which characterized it. Under such pretexts as these we keep silence when we should speak out, when we should confess the sin and acknowledge the transgression, cast them out from our hearts and slay them before the Lord. II. when he kept silence he was troubled. God speaks. He speaks in the conscience, saying, this deed, this thought was evil. He speaks in the Word, saying, “ The wages of sin is death.” He speaks to us by His Spirit, striving to subdue the resistance. But the ear is stopped, that it may not hear; or when the voice is so loud that it cannot but be heard, no attention is paid to it, or it is openly disobeyed. There is now a terrible conflict. There is a voice commanding, but there is a determined effort to drown it, as loud and dismal as the sound of the gong which was used in Mexico to drown the cry of the tortured and bleeding human victims on the altar. What earnestness in the voice demanding, the voice entreating! but there is equal earnestness in the struggles resisting, and the hatred resenting. No wonder that “ the moisture is turned into the drought of summer.” The terrible heat, exceeding that of a tropical sun, burns up every living thing. The soul is left as an arid waste, without a scrap of vegetation. III. the psalmist confesses his sins. IV. the psalmist had his sins forgiven. We are not to understand that the confession can merit the forgiveness. The confession can no more merit the forgiveness than the forgiveness can merit the confession. Both are gifts of God, and so bound together that you cannot have the one without the other. An old author represents Christ as coming to us with a gift in each hand. In the one hand He holds out forgiveness, free forgiveness; in the other hand He holds out repentance and confession. If we begin to say, “ We are very willing to take the one of these; we know we have sinned, and are most anxious to have the forgiveness; but as to this wringing repentance and its proper fruit, a humbling confession, we wish to avoid them,” then Christ will give us neither. But if in simple faith we will only take both, we shall receive both “ without money and without price.” At the same instant that we break silence and cry in faith for mercy, Heaven also breaks the awful silence, and the mercy is bestowed and received. And now the crowded bosom finds relief; the confined soul experiences enlargement; the fettered spirit is free; the prison doors are thrown open, and the soul walks at liberty and expatiates abroad, on before untrodden ground, and gazes on new and lovely scenes. New affections are called forth, and new-born feelings spring up. The evil burnouts have been let out, and the body feels health returning, and, with health, motive and activity. (J. McCosh.) The forgiveness of sins If you blot out of David’ s psalms his profound sense of moral evil in all its bare, black iniquity, as the great reality of man’ s experience and life, you blot out those psalms at the same time from the literature of the world: their work is done, their power is dead. But it is the firmness with which he grasps the hand which redeems from this evil, which gives him such a wonderful hold on the heartstrings of humanity. Slave, beggar, soldier, scholar, statesman, priest, all feel equally that he belongs to them, because his experience is so profoundly human; because man the sinner, God the Saviour, are the great themes of his meditation, and of his vivid, burning utterance to the world. Sin and salvation must be the main burden of every gospel which lays masterful hold on human hearts. There are two aspects of sin which need sometimes to be separately considered, that we may see the true method of its Divine treatment, and trace the principles on which it rests.I. its essential iniquity. The revelation of Scripture is that sin is a personal act against a person. It runs directly counter to our modern philosophizing on the subject. Man knows that he has sinned, himself has done it. “ I have sinned, I have perverted that which is right.” That “ I” means something which, whatever it may be, distinctly is not Nature and is not God (Psalms 51:4). The heart may be broken at beholding the ruin and anguish sin has wrought, but the core of the matter is not reached until its iniquity, the wrong before God, is seen to be the essence of it. Only when the sin is comprehended in all its evil, can God the Redeemer begin its cure. II. its disastrous fruits. Here is a second gauge of the evil of sin--the utter misery which it works (Genesis 3:24; Genesis 4:1-15). Let a man be selfish, envious, lustful, grasping, in the most hidden imaginations of his heart, he can no more help being the author of sorrow to every one who has intimate relations with him, than a dunghill can help breeding fever. It is a terrible subject, this inevitable fruit of sin. This is God’ s ordinance about sin--its fruit shall be misery. It is the grand hold which He keeps on sinners. Sin is in their power; misery is in His; and it is the hand by which He withholds them from swift perdition (1 Timothy 1:15; Romans 7:1-25.; 1 John 1:6-10). The text casts a valuable light on the essential nature of forgiveness. God forgives the iniquity of the sin, while the mischief which it has wrought He sets Himself to repair. This is and must be slow and toilsome work. It is the work of God in the government of the world, to repair the evil which sin has wrought. But the forgiveness is prompt, absolute and final. III. the forgiveness of sin by God--1. In its nature. It does not touch the accidents of the sin, but its very essence. The accidents will be cured in time. There are two elements to be dealt with--the Divine anger and the sense of alienation and wretchedness in the child. Now as to the first, God when He forgives declares that it is gone. The sinner is slow to believe this, but it is true, and God has His own ways of lodging the sense of it in penitent hearts. 2. Its conditions. How can God forgive sin? Not by ignoring it. The answer of the Gospel is that by man’ s righteousness, man’ s iniquity has been put away. Christ stands for man before God, and His righteousness has become a stronger part in humanity than Adam’ s sin. One has undertaken for us, stands for us, who can make and will make God’ s righteousness the dominant thing, the conquering thing, the characteristic thing, in humanity; and in Christ God justifies man. But what then has confession to do with it? It is the vital link between the soul and Christ. It is the plea of the soul to the Father, Behold me, sinner as I am, in Christ. My will goes with Him; in His obedience, His hatred of sin, I desire to share; make me partaker of His victorious life. Confession, as the fruit of penitence, transmutes the relation of the soul to Christ. From formal it becomes vital. The name becomes a power. It makes, by the stirring of the thought and will of a free being, the oneness with Christ a spiritual reality. It declares that through Christ there is born in the soul that which is not sinful, which is of the essence of holiness, and ever struggling upwards towards God. Confession rests on Christ, and connects us vitally with His righteousness. 3. Its fruits. Perfect, absolute, and eternal peace, if the sinner but keep firm hold on the fact, “ Thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin.” Man will forgive himself when God forgives him. The fruits of his sin may be there; a broken body, a stained name, poverty, struggle, and sad, sad memories. But all the anguish has gone out of the soul, all the dread, if God forgives. “ All things,” even the bitter fruits of transgression, “ must work together for good to God’ s justified children. (J. B. Brown, B. A.) The penitent’ s progress David describes three states of mind through which he passed. I. A state of guilt. “ When I kept silence,” etc. It was his own bitter experience. He darkly and sullenly turned away from God. Though a voice within him bade him turn, he would not. He hung back and shunned the presence of his God, like Adam in the garden. It is an unspeakably wretched state of mind. There are two cases in which a man may feel what David felt.1. An awakened sinner may feel it--a sinner for the first time brought to a sense of his transgression. 2. The other case in which a man may experience what David did, is that of one who, after he has known somewhat of God and the comfort of religion, has unhappily in some degree departed from God again, and fallen into sin, and does not at once return to Him with earnest prayer for forgiveness, with full confession of his sin, with renewed applications to the blood of sprinkling. This was David’ s case; and this, too, was Jonah’ s. It is easy even for a good man, through negligence and unwatchfulness, to fall into sin and consequent misery; it is not so easy for him to arise and regain the paths of righteousness; it is not so easy to betake himself indeed to the Saviour, and, through the penitent and believing application of His atoning blood, to recover peace of conscience, and with it renewed liberty in the service of God. But there is help for the penitent, help in the abundant mercy of God our Saviour for them that unfeignedly seek it. II. For mark the next stage of David’ s experience, as it is described in the text:--“ I acknowledged my sin unto Thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid: I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord.” A great change was here. David no longer kept silence. O happy is it, when the guilty mind comes to this resolution! III. A state of holy joy at being reconciled to God. “ Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose,” etc. Then he represents himself as secure and happy under the guidance and protection of God. And then, once more, he has communion with God in prayer. Are any conscious of sin committed? Dissemble it not. Cloke it not. Go to God your Saviour; confess your sin; and ask forgiveness through the blood of Jesus Christ. Thus, and thus only, can you find peace. (E. Blencowe, M. A.) Penitential confession of sin I. David’ s conduct.1. It was deliberate. “ I said, I will,” etc. He was not dull or unfeeling in his sense of sin; but, like one infirm in body, yet strong in courage, he resolved manfully to go through the operation, however painful, having respect to the recompense of the expected cure. 2. It was humble: “ I will confess.” By this is signified his intention of owning, without any excuses, and specifying, his fault--as was required of the Israelite seeking pardon (Leviticus 5:5), of the high-priest making atonement (Leviticus 16:21); and as was practised by the people (1 Samuel 12:19), and by the prophet Daniel (Daniel 9:3). With this would be connected submission to his trouble, as designed for punishment of his sin, and acknowledgment of its justice; to which course a particular promise was made under the law (Leviticus 26:40-42). 3. It was personal. “ My sin.” Many, anxious to pass hastily and lightly over their own failings, try to effect their purpose by making stepping-stones of their neighbours’ faults. With the general confession, “ I am a grievous sinner,” they couple the truth, “ and so are we all” ; and to the admission, “ I have done wickedly,” they add the hackneyed saying, “ this is a wicked world we live in.” Thus they seem to derive a false comfort from the number of their fellow-offenders, as though the crowd of criminals could screen them from the piercing eye, or the daring band of rebels protect them from the avenging hand of a long-suffering, but all-seeing and almighty Judge. 4. It was intelligent, i.e. with understanding: “ I will confess my transgressions.” The word “ transgression” implies a boundary-line to be passed, a fence to be broken; and, without knowing where this is fixed, a man will not be able to see and acknowledge his fault. 5. It was private: “ I will confess unto the Lord.” David could abase himself before the prophet (2 Samuel 12:13) and his household (verses 16, 17); but on this occasion he carried his burden to the Lord. It may be asked, Where is the need of confessing to that Lord who “ trieth the hearts and reins and understandeth our thoughts afar off” ? We answer, The need is ours, and the benefit is ours. The exercise of mentioning our sins leads the mind to dwell longer upon them, discovering their guilt more fully; and helps to mortify our pride, though no mortal ear listens to the recital. It may be further remarked, that David’ s confession “ to the Lord” was an appeal to his judgment, as to his sincerity; and pledged the penitent to a forsaking the sins which he professed to lament. 6. The happy consequences: “ Thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin.” Here is a benefit, beyond the mere ease obtained by giving vent to the feelings; here is the entire removal of the guilt of acknowledged transgression. II. application to ourselves.1. In dwelling on David’ s confession “ to the Lord,” I would by no means neglect or undervalue the exhortation of the apostle (James 5:16) to well-chosen confidence and sympathy. 2. I would suggest to parents, sponsors, and teachers, as concerned in the training of the young, the importance of insisting on the duty of confession before they pardon their offences. (G. Newnham, M. A.) A conscious sense of sin I. A conscious sense of sin is accompanied with--1. Self-abasement (Jeremiah 2:26; Ezra 9:6; Jeremiah 6:15). 2, Self-condemnation (Psalms 51:3-7). 3. Such self-abhorrence must reduce the sinner, who is not altogether abandoned, to self-denial, and abstinence from his former course of wickedness. The trembling penitent adopts the language of Ephraim (Jeremiah 31:18-20); and, prodigal-like (Luke 15:12-32), returns to his compassionate Father II. The prodigal finding a kind reception, contrary to expectation, must be overwhelmed with gratitude and thankfulness. (J, Kidd, D. D.) Repentance 1. Notice the elements of this repentance as they come out in this psalm: (1) Clear consciousness of sin--“ I acknowledged my sin.”(2) Loathing sorrow for sin--“ Mine iniquity have I not hid.”(3) Confession of sin--“ I acknowledged my sin.”(4) Forsaking of sin (Psalms 32:9). 2. Ask these questions: (1) Having sinned, is not this the noblest possible way in which a sinner can treat his sin--to repent of it?(2) Is it not far better and nobler thus to repent of it than heedlessly and blindly to go on in sin?(3) Do you think that, going on in sin carelessly and blindly, it is possible to go on thus toward God?(4) Therefore can you not see the necessity of repentance? (W. Hoyt, D. D.) Selah. Selah The word signifies a vehement, a pathetic, a hyperbolical asseveration, and attestation, and ratification of something said before. Such, in a proportion, as our Saviour’ s “ Amen, amen” is, “ Verily, verily I say unto you” ; such as St. Paul’ s “ fidelis sermo,” with which he seals so many truths, is, “ This is a faithful saying” ; such as that apostle’ s “ Coram domino” is, with which he ratifies many things, “ Before the Lord I speak it” ; and such as Moses, “ As I live, saith the Lord,” and “ As the Lord liveth.” And therefore, though God be in all His words, Yea, and Amen, no word of His can perish in itself, nor should perish in us, that is, pass without observation, yet, in setting this seal of “ Selah” to this doctrine, He hath testified His will that He would have all these things the better understood, and the deeper imprinted, that “ if a man conceal and smother his sins, “ Selah,” assuredly, God will open that man’ s mouth, and it shall not show forth His praise, but God will bring him to fearful exclamations out of the sense of the affliction, if not of the sin; “ Selah,” assuredly, God will shiver his bones, shake his best actions, and discover their impurity; “ Selah,” assuredly, God will suffer to be dried up all his moisture, all possibility of repentant tears, and all interest in the blood of Christ Jesus. (J. Donne, D. D.) Psalms 32:6 For this shall every one that is godly pray unto Thee, in a time when Thou mayest be found.The duty of prayer I. the nature of this duty. We may say prayers, even the most beautiful of prayers, such as we have in our liturgy, but all this may be and yet we may never pray. If our religion does not teach us to pray, it is a religion good for nothing. The faithful pastor will urge his people to pray, and, if they will not hearken, he will pray God by afflictions to compel them to pray. II. the time when we should pray--“ when Thou mayest be found.” For there is a time when God may not be found. Reprobates on death-beds have tried to find God, but could not (Proverbs 1:24). Oh, do not trifle with the gospel of the grace of God. III. thy encouragement to pray. “ For this cause shall,” etc. God heard the poor, contrite penitent when he confessed his sin, and freely forgave him all. Therefore, do none of you think, it is all in vain now for you to pray. Once, you think, you might have been heard, but not now. Oh, it is not so. The day of grace is not over, but, if you trifle now, it may be to-morrow. Therefore seek the Lord now, at once. (T. Mortimer, B. D.) The experimental pardon of sin sought by prayer I. the thing spoken of--“ For this.” II. the character--“ Every one that is godly.” III. prayer--“ For this shall every one that is godly pray.” And then-- IV. prayer at a particular time--“ In a time when Thou mayest be found.” (T. T. West, M. A.) On seeking God We want not encouragement of seeking God, nor need doubt of finding Him, if we take these grounds with us:1. If we seek Him in His own house: for where should a man be found but in his own house? God hath one standing house in the Old Testament, not where His infinite essence, which the Heaven of heavens was not able to contain, but where His name and memorial dwelt: but in the New He hath a number of houses, and being omnipresent, He will be found in them all. (1) The church-assemblies. Therefore in these houses of prayer seek Him by faithful prayer, and thou shall not miss Him. (2) Every Christian family is a house of God: whore two or three consent in any one thing in His name, Christ is in the midst of them. The apostle saluteth private Christians with the Church in their houses. Therefore make thy house God’ s house, by setting up His worship therein, and Thou shall have Him near thee with all sweet fellowship and fulness of blessedness. (3) Every Christian soul is a temple of God (2 Corinthians 6:16). Then make thy heart His temple, and, if thou wouldst find Him, seek Him there, thou shall find Him nowhere else, or sooner than there. 2. As we must seek Him in His own house, so by His own light and means, and this is twofold. (1) The Word of God in precepts and promises; this is a lanthorn to our feet, and a light to our paths, by which God may be discerned, whom the darkness of the world cannot comprehend. (2) Such signs of His presence as He hath made choice of to reveal His grace in. In the Old Testament believers must seek Him in sacrifices and ceremonies, and therein He gave them gracious answers: the ceremonies were all typical, and pointed at Christ and the good things to come in Him. So in the New Testament God’ hath appointed visible signs annexed to His Word, as the public service of Him in spirit and truth, the offering up of our sacrifices of prayer and praise, and frequenting of the holy Sacraments or Ceremonies; in all which He will be sought. God cannot be seen or found but by His own light, and therefore he that would seek Him, must have the light of understanding (Psalms 14:2). 3. We shall find God, if we seek Him, not by the eyes of sense and nature, but of faith and obedience. 4. We shall seek aright, if we seek God in God’ s manner, and that is in four things. (1) If we seek Him in sincerity of spirit (Ephesians 6:18), praying in the Spirit, as knowing that we are to deal with God who is a Spirit: and in sincerity, because He is a God that loveth truth in the inward parts: this condemns hypocritical seeking, which is but deceitful (Jeremiah 29:13). (2) In fervency: men are commanded to seek for wisdom as for gold and treasures; how eagerly and instantly do men seek after gold and earthly things! Why, no labour can beat them from their desires: how much more carefully ought they to seek after spiritual graces, and most of all after God Himself! (3) In season, timely (Psalms 63:2). (4) In His Son: seek Him in Christ the only Mediator; for none can come to the Father but by the Son. 5. We shall seek aright and with comfort, if we seek Him in the right ends, namely, for Himself; not as the Jews who followed Christ for bread; not to gain the world by Him, but to gain Himself and His favour, which is better than life; yea, to obtain this, be content to seek Him with the loss of all, as the disciples and martyrs did. (T. Taylor, D. D.) Prayer the proof of godliness I. the universal mark of godliness.1. In its infancy.2. In all stages of its growth.3. True prayer is an infallible mark of godliness.4. Prayer is natural to the godly man.5. To such a man, prayer is a very happy and consoling exercise.6. The prayers of the godly may be presented in a great many forms. II. A potent motive for praying.1. Because God heard such a great sinner as David was.2. Because we all need pardon daily.3. Every one who is godly will pray unto God, because he has received the pardon of sin.4. Because troubles come.5. Because God does hear prayer. Prayer does move the arm that moves the world, though nothing is put out of gear by our praying. III. THE special occasion when prayer is most useful.1. The time of this mortal life.2. Under the Gospel dispensation.3. The time of the finding out of sin. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Psalms 32:7 Thou art my hiding place.Our hiding place A man who is pursued as if he were a wild beast can appreciate the value of a safe hiding place. I. we need a hiding place for the soul.1. For there is an enemy to our souls ever seeking their destruction. Is it true that there is a wicked devil? Some think not, but Jesus tells us that there is. He tells us also that there is a hiding place from Satan’ s power, and it is the Lord Himself. 2. From our own inclinations. Some years ago I was walking with one of my children over a canal on a very narrow bridge. The child was frightened, and begged me to hold her tight, as she felt as if something were pulling her down into the canal. And so, like that child, we all of us have an inclination to fall from purity, and we shall fall unless the Lord hold us fast. And He will, if we ask Him. He will no more let you fall into sin, if you call on Him with all your heart, than I would have let that child fall into the canal. Though we have an inclination to sin, there is at all times a hiding place in which our souls may shelter until the danger be past. II. there are special times when we need a hiding place.1. One of those times is, when the fear of death comes upon us. Who can help us when we die? 2. Allow me to say a word about the hiding place we need when the sorrows of poverty afflict us. Ah, don’ t you think that such people need a hiding place? How blessed is the Gospel to them! They suffer, but they know, they feel, that our Heavenly Father cares for them. (W. Birch.) The believer’ s refuge I. the refuge which he needs. Refer to David in the stronghold; man-slayer in city of refuge; Noah in the ark. The sinner needs a refuge under the guilt of sin, under the demands of the law, under the dangers of life. II. the confidence he indulges. “ Thou shalt preserve me from trouble” --not that actual exemption from trial is promised, but so preserved as that we shall not sink under it. The argument is that past deliverances are a ground of future hope. If He delivered me as a rebellious sinner, shall He not deliver me as a praying believer? It rests on the promise and faithfulness of God--“ For the mountains shall depart,” etc. The Christian, after one trial, should prepare for another. It is supported by the experience of the Church. III. the joy he anticipates. “ Songs of deliverance.” (Study.) God our hiding place There is no statement more true, and no truth more important, than that maxim of Martin Luther--“ Nolo Deum absolutum.” Who, indeed, can meet an absolute God? God absolute is a consuming fire. His holiness is irreconcilably hostile to sin; His justice sternly demands the sinner’ s punishment; and His truth obliges Him to execute the penalty of His violated law. In an absolute God there is no hope for a sinful creature. But now, through the incarnate Word, my atoning Sacrifice and interceding High-Priest, the devouring Fire becomes my protection, the almighty Adversary assumes the character of a friend, and with full assurance of faith I take up the song of the royal saint--“ Thou art my hiding place, thou wilt preserve me from trouble; thou wilt compass me about with songs of deliverance.” Concerning the ungodly it is said--“ The hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.” But “ their rock is not as our rock, even our enemies themselves being judges.” I have seen the name of Benvenuto Cellini scratched with a nail upon the rugged stone wall of his cell in the Castello Sant’ Angelo; and have handled the sad mementos of Torquato Tasso in the convent of Sant’ Onofrio--his last refuge, the gate by which he entered paradise--midway between his cradle at Sorrento and his dungeon at Ferrara. But my sacred asylum can show many a worthier record and many a holier relic, for it has been the dwelling-place of the saints in all generations. Here Paul and Silas sang their midnight hymn, and the heroic exile of Patmos heard the chanting of immortal tongues. Here Ignatius challenged the lions with his “ Gloria in Exeelsis,” and brave old Sanctus as long as he had power to speak confessed--“ I am a Christian.” And cheering it is to know that these, and such as these--a fire-crowned host of priests and kings--have been here before me. The cities of refuge were six, and were so distributed that one of them was always within half-a-day’ s flight of the man-slayer: and the gates were ever open to admit him. And yet, from one cause or another, he might not reach it. But our defence is ever accessible. Nay, I carry my refuge constantly with me: and not as the Arab carries his tent, or the soldier his shield, or the turtle its shell; for Christ is not only immanent in His word and movements, but dwells--a living Spirit--in every living heart. And the provision is as vast as human want and as various as human woe. And there is perfect safety there. The psalmist is certain of it. “ Thou wilt preserve me from trouble.” Not, indeed, from earthly ills--the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to; but with Thee always present I can endure these. But from sin, the source of all trouble, and itself the only real trouble, I know Thy grace is sufficient to save me. My faith, like the eagle’ s wings, bears me above the hurtling thunder into the eternal sunshine. Like the skylark, I sing as I soar, and pour music out of the cloud. Like the nightingale, I lift a cheerful lay in the twilight, and charm the night with melodies of love and hope. Thus will the Lord, my hiding place, compass me about with songs of deliverance. (J. Cross, D. D.) God a hiding place Adam hid from God; David hides in God.1. From the penalties of a broken law.2. From the enmity of man.3. From the trials and sorrows of life.4. From the fear of death. (C. D. Bell, D. D.) Thou shalt preserve me from trouble.--Saints preserved from trouble If we content ourselves with that word which our translators have chosen here, “ trouble,” we must rest in one of these two senses; either that God shall arm, and endue those that are His, with such a constancy, as those things that trouble others, shall not trouble them, but, “ As the sufferings of Christ abound in them, so their consolation also aboundeth by Christ, as unknown, and yet well known, as dying, and behold we live, as sorrowful yet always rejoicing, as poor yet making many rich, as having nothing, and yet possessing all things” ; for God uses both these ways in the behalf of His servants; sometimes to suspend the working of that that should work their torment, as He suspended the rage of the lions for Daniel, and the heat of the fire in the furnace for the others; sometimes by imprinting a holy stupefaction, and insensibleness in the person that suffers, so St. Laurence was not only patient, but merry and facetious when he lay broiling upon the fire; and so we read of many other martyrs, that they have been less moved, less affected with their torments, than their executioners or their persecutors have been. That which troubled others never troubled them; or else the phrase must have this sense, that though they be troubled with their troubles, though God submit them so far, to the common condition of men, that they be sensible of them, yet He shall preserve them from that trouble so as that it shall never overthrow them, never sink them into a dejection of spirit, or diffidence in His mercy. They shall find storms, but a stout and strong ship under foot. They shall feel thunder and lightning, but garlands of triumphant bays shall preserve them. They shall be trodden into the earth with scorns and contempts, but yet as seed is buried, to multiply to more. Thou shalt make me insensible of it, or Thou shalt make me victorious in it. (J. Donne, D. D.) Preserved in Christ Jesus There used to be an old battered safe standing in the Broadway, New York, on which was the notice, “ It stood the test; the contents were all saved.” It had been in one of the hottest fires New York ever saw, but the old safe had carried its treasures safely through it all. No life so safe as that which is guided and controlled by Christ. (J. Ellis.) Thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance. Songs of deliverance Song is the natural language of the feelings. The heart in song seeks relief, as the swollen lake flows over in rills that make music as they flow. Songs of deliverance, therefore, are above all others songs of joy. And joy is far more vivid when it is a recoil from grief or terror, than when it is a continuance or higher degree of the same joy. And such songs strike, also, most powerfully the chords of feeling in other hearts and call forth an echo: for all can sympathize in such joy. And they are peculiar to men. Angels have no dangers, devils no deliverance. They are characteristically human songs: they stamp the singer a native of earth. See the song at the Red Sea (Exodus 15:1-27.; and that in Judges 5:1-31.). And we, too, have songs of deliverance. Let us speak of some of them. I. that sung on our deliverance from the most appalling danger. The Christian’ s most thankful praise is praise for deliverance. The joy that breathes in his song is the joy of recovered safety. His whole happiness is a treasure rescued from utter wreck; he is a delivered man. In whatever scene, with whatever fellowship he mingles in his eternal career, he shall be marked as one that has been delivered. All the greatness that may yet come to him, all the blessedness that eternity shall put to his lips, all the glory to which his nature may ascend, cry out of deliverance. His is not the joy of the happy child who has never passed beyond the home of love and purity, but the joy of the reformed prodigal, who, despite a wasted heritage, blighted hopes, and a dishonoured name, has, after weary wanderings, again found a home of peace and love. II. the believer’ s song of deliverance from earthly sorrows and troubles. As the Christian has many a sorrow, so he has many a song. He has songs of deliverance when the judgments which threatened to overwhelm him have not been permitted to come nigh; songs of deliverance when they have come, and all God’ s waves and billows have gone over him, and he has passed through the cloud and the sea unharmed. Even the dread chastisements of God which came upon David in consequence of his sin lost their terribleness and all that should make them dreaded. They were henceforth to work together for good; and therefore he lifts the song of deliverance, though the troubles were still with him. Evil in its outward aspect is not changed, but to the soul its spiritual relation is reversed. In the life of the true penitent the fruits of past wickedness, severed from the tree that nourished them, lose their noxious quality, and fatten the soil for future harvests of good. And therefore the pardoned sinner counts it all joy when he falls into tribulation. Hear again David’ s song: “ Many sorrows shall be to the wicked; but he that trusteth in the Lord, mercy shall compass him about.” III. the song of final and eternal deliverance. It is not till the Church has reached her heavenly home, and every member of the great body of Christ is finally redeemed from the power of the world,--and death, the last enemy, destroyed, that the glorified Church shall stand on the shores of the glassy sea, and swell high the anthem of triumph that began in the deliverance of Israel under Moses, and is consummated in the triumph of the Lamb, over the world, and sin, and death, and the grave. Then her joy shall be full, in the sense of her own safety assured for ever against all enemies. Nothing shall remain but joy add song. (J. Riddell.) Compassed about with songs of deliverance That is, not to have one or two, or a few occasions or deliverances to sing praises to God for, but abundant, yea innumerable causes to praise and magnify God, so as a man can look no way round about him, but he shall see many and infinite mercies, and so many songs and praises, every new mercy being a new matter of a new song of deliverance. For look as when a man hath endured an heavy, dark, and uncomfortable night, the morning approacheth, and light begins to appear, not in any one side of the heavens, but on every side, that, let a man look where he will, the light compasseth him, and it groweth lighter and lighter until perfect day: so, although God’ s children seem to be in darkness and in the night of affliction, yet God affords some deliverance, and brings the joyful morning, and then they see the light of comfort on all sides, and can say, Now they are compassed with light and salvation. So as the thing which our prophet here professeth, is; first, that the Lord would afford him matter enough to frame and compile holy songs of joyful praise and thanks. Secondly, that this matter should be so plentiful and abundant, that nothing should on any side be about him, but that whence he ought to provoke himself to return joyful thanks, he should be begirt with blessings and mercy. (T. Taylor, D. D.) Many deliverances, many songs What need is there of plurality of songs: may not one song serve; and if one may, what need many? One song perhaps may serve for one deliverance; but if there be many deliverances, must there not be many songs? And must there not be many deliverances when there are many bondages? And are there not many bondages when I incur a new bondage as often as I commit a new sin? And yet another reason as great as this: for say that God’ s deliverance be but one, will that one deliverance require but one song? O my soul, it deserves, and therefore requires, I say not a plurality, but an infinity of songs; for there must be some songs to express it, and others to extol it; some songs of “ miserere” and others of “ magnificat” ; some “ de profundis,” and others “ in excelsis” ; some songs of praise, and others of thanksgiving; and though there will be a time when all these songs shall be collected into one, and so collected make the great “ Cantieum Canticorum,” yet till that time come there will be need of many songs; and seeing I shall need many, I hope, O God, Thou wilt not see me want, and tie me to one song, but wilt compass me about with songs of deliverance. (Sir Richard Baker.) Psalms 32:8-9I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go.A teachable disposition A teachable disposition is implied by the notable words, “ I will guide thee with Mine eye.” We lay great stress on these words. It is manifest that the eye of God can guide none but those who are diligently observing the lightest indications of His will. And the following verse contains a warning to them who are of an opposite disposition, who will yield only to harsh measures and severe discipline. A contrast is intended between those who would be guided by the eye, and those who required the bit and bridle. It is as much as to say--you have heard of those who are so blessed as to be led by God, even such as by watching His countenance catch from it the least signs of His will. Be not ye, then, careless and stubborn, resembling those beasts who need the rein and the muzzle, and whom nothing but force will keep in the right path. But let us consider the first of these expressions, “ I will guide thee with Mine eye.” Now this supposes great attentiveness on the part of those who are led, great desire to know the will of their Guide. See an affectionate child; he will gather his father’ s will not merely from his actual words, but from looks, tones, gestures; and when he cannot do much more than guess what that will is, he will act on what is likely, rather than excuse himself by the want of more distinct information. Now this is the disposition which God here approves. The party whom He would guide with His eye must be one who will search out the slightest hints, the briefest intimations, and will not demand in every case express categorical instructions. The Bible seems to be largely constructed on the principle that God would guide His Church with His eye, truths being often intimated rather than alarmed, left to be discerned by the attention, and not exposed to every cursory observer. Now apply this-- I. To some subjects on which we admit that full directions, plain commands, are not given in scripture. To infant baptism, for example. From Christ’ s receiving of little children surely we may gather that it is the Lord’ s will that we should receive them thus into His kingdom. And to the observance of Sunday, the Christian Sabbath. And to Episcopacy as a form of Church government. Are there not hints, and indirect evidences on all these points which, while not sufficient for the hard, dogmatical temper--the worst in which we can read the Bible--are yet to him who desires above all things to do his Lord’ s will, sufficient to determine his judgment and to guide his conduct? Those who will yield to nothing but mathematical demonstrations may be likened to animals who must be ruled by bridle and bit. There is in Scripture much that is adapted for the management of the restive and stubborn; but its general character is that of a document designed for the docile and meek. Hence we shall miss much of its instruction if we yield only to the hand and will not follow the eye. II. To the truth of a particular providence. Some deny, some ridicule, such a doctrine. It is easy to pour contempt upon it, and some of its advocates have, by their extravagance, almost justified such ridicule. But what is God’ s guiding us with His eye, but His indicating to us His will by means of the providential events, and these often the most common and ordinary, of our daily lives? There are times in almost every man’ s history at which he owns the workings of God, but if we believe in an universal Providence, and will be on the look-out for God’ s hand and will, we shall find in the events of everyday life as convincing proofs of the Divine working as though life were a series of miracles. He who is always noting the Divine providence will grow so used to its workings, as to be able, in a measure, to prepare for the future from what he has marked in the past and in the present. But this promise supposes us to be looking at the eye which is to guide us. It is not enough that that eye be fixed on us; our own eye must also be fixed on God: and it is only, so to speak, when the two eyes meet that we can gather instruction as to the way we should take. If God promised to guide us with His voice, we might not need to be so watchful. But we must be so if He is to guide us with His eye. We must be ever on the watch for the intimations of His will. If we are not we oblige Him to use harsh measures, and to compel our attention by something startling and severe. Much has been said about the language of the eye. Think for a moment of the look which our Lord cast upon Peter, and how much that said to him, and what an effect it had upon him. There are striking and startling events of God’ s providence, and they are His voice, but there are noiseless and more common ones and these are the glances of His eye. The former are as the shoutings of a foe to drive us from the wrong path, the latter as the leadings of a friend. And God desires to direct us by these rather than by the others. If He have recourse to stern methods it is only because gentler ones have failed. God doth not afflict willingly, but, alas! men are “ born like the wild ass’ s colt,” and a mere look will not tame them. Let us refuse to be guided by the eye, and it will be needful to be curbed by the hand. But even the glance of the eye may be terrible. The wicked at last will pray that the rocks and hills may fall upon them and hide them from its glance. Let us not so live that at the last it shall be lit up with anger, when now it seeks to guide us by its love. (M. Melvill, B. D.) I will guide thee with Mine eye:--Guidance by the eye Life is often called a journey; and with good reason. We set out with the freshness of youth; we pass the seasons like milestones on the road; and we are generally weary enough when we reach our journey’ s end. Every morning we enter as completely on the unknown as any traveller in an unexplored region; and, moreover, we are hastening to another country. We cannot wonder, therefore, at the universal longing for guidance. If we had merely to conduct the affairs of the present life, so as to make the best of it, and bring ourselves safely to the end of it, we should still desire a wisdom above our own to direct us. How much more, then, when another life comes in question, one for which this is merely a preparation! Every thought we think, every act we perform, should, with us, be determined not by the laws of this world, or only so far determined by the laws of this world as these are in accordance with those of that kingdom to which we belong. It is clear, then, that we, of all men, need guidance from our Leader above. And this guidance, so earnestly desired by us, so greatly needed by us, is promised. “ I will guide thee with Mine eye.” The idea conveyed would be one most familiar to David, as an Eastern monarch. As he sat in state, he was surrounded by a number of servants eager to do his bidding. Their eyes were constantly fixed on him; and when he wanted this or the other service done, there was scarcely need for him to speak. Each knew his post; the eye of each servant was dutifully fixed on his lord; and at a nod, or a sign, a turn of the eye, he flew to do the required service. I. what this guidance by the eye implies on God’ s part.1. That His eye will always be upon us. This fact has, naturally, two sides to it: fear and dread for those whose lives are an act of rebellion against God, peace and comfort for those who love God, and whose wish it is to keep near His side through the dangers and perplexities of this troubled life. 2. That He will never expect a service on our part without a bidding on His part. II. what this guiding by the eye of God implies on our part.1. That our eyes, our minds, our hearts, should be constantly fixed on God. We are perplexed as to the right way, but why? Have our eyes never wandered from God? May not He have been plainly telling us the way when our eyes were earthward instead of heavenward? and so, may we not, by our forgetfulness of Him, have missed the one sign, the one clue which would have made all our way plain? 2. But after all, you will say, we are but dealing in figures still. What, then, apart from figures, does this guidance by the eye of God practically mean? (1) Guidance from a distance. Tim time was, as you know, when God led His people by the hand. They saw the pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire, and they heard His voice in dreams and visions. But those times are passed. We are no longer led by the hand, in that sense; but guided, as from a distance, by the eye. (2) Guidance by the slightest signs and indications. Signs were all that the servant had to act upon who was guided by the eye of his lord; and since God has told us that He will guide us by His eye, by signs, which will require intelligence and thought on our part to interpret. God now treats us as men: we are no longer to be led by the hand, but guided by the eye. But when we pray for guidance, and wait in vain for an answer to our prayers, have we always remembered this? We pray that the way may be made quite plain, hedged up, as it were, so that there can be no room for doubt for us. We mean, in other words, that without the care and responsibility of choice, we should like the road to be made as clear to us as it is to the horse by the man who is riding him; and because this is not done for us, we say that God does not hear our prayers. 3. What are the signs by which God chooses to guide us His people now? They are, for the most part, undoubtedly, to be gathered from the study of His Word, and, above all, from imbibing His Spirit. I believe that a sincere Christian may take the events of life as signs from the eye of God; but he must do so with great care. Before a man is justified in taking any event or occurrence as a sign from God, he must be sure of three things:-- (1) That he has asked for guidance. (2) That he has used his own intelligence and common-sense as far as it will go. (3) That he still needs guidance, i.e. that he is not merely looking for what he may persuade his conscience is a sign, in order that he may escape from some clear command of duty. III. the guidance mentioned in our text is, in a sense, optional on our part, though there is, of course, also a sense in which guidance by God is inevitable for all men. God offers us His love. He is anxious that we should look to Him as our Father. His will is that in every event of our life we should see a token of His love and care, a sign from His eye; but, if we will not do this, if we will have none of His reproof, if, instead of trusting Him, we rebel and murmur, then those very events which might have been signs to us of Fatherly care, will become as galling bits in our mouths, forcing us against our will. They will be as bridles over our heads, not guiding us where we would gladly go, but dragging us along the paths of just retribution. Can we hesitate which guidance we will accept, the guidance of law or of love, the guidance of brute or of children? (W. F. Herbert.) Guidance by God’ s eye Human life is a most hazardous journey. It lies through difficult regions. Youth travels in “ slippery places.” Maturity is beset with snares. Age has its peculiar dangers. Our steps are dogged by enemies and surrounded with perils. This being so, the text is rich with encouragement and consolation. God guides us with the eye of-- I. divine foreknowledge. The future is as plain to Him as the past to us, and He has ordained all in love. II. constant watchfulness.1. Direct. He never: loses sight of any one. No individual is missed in the crowd. No need, no trouble, and no sin can escape His eye. 2. Unceasing. He is never weary of looking down upon His people. Though He has seen frequent failure, the riches Of His long-suffering are not exhausted. Though He may have seen in us a sinful heart, an unwilling spirit, an unrestrained temper, a dissatisfied mind, a wandering path, a miserable service--a faithless discipleship, yet He watches over us still. III. loving sympathy. The master when he parts with a trusty apprentice does not forget him. He follows him with interest and affection all through his after life. His eye is upon him. The young man knows this, and it is one of the incentives to uprightness, and of his restraints from vice. In some sense the master guides him by his eye. In some feeble measure this represents our relation to our heavenly Father. He promises to guide us by His eye. We are to live, saying in our hearts, “ Thou God seest me.” We are to “ endure as seeing Him who is invisible.” (F. W. Goadby, M. A.) The guiding glance This seems rather a strange kind of promise to make, as we read it first; but when we begin to think over it, it does not seem quite so strange, for I am sure you know very well how to be guided with the eye. When you are doing something you are not quite sure about, and you look up at father, you can tell in a minute, can you not, by the look in his eye, whether he thinks you are doing right or not? So, you see, there are a thousand ways in which one can guide another by a glance of the eye, for the eye can speak as well as the tongue; it can speak of joy or fear, of pleasure or pain; it can encourage and it can threaten; it can whisper love or flash anger. The eye is a wonderful guide. But can we see God’ s eye? No; not just as I can see yours and you mine: but the text means that God will guide us by little things and in gentle ways, if we are willing to be guided and won’ t be stubborn like the mule. Thus by little things, and gently, would He guide us. Shouldn’ t we try, then, to understand these glances of God’ s eye, and what they mean, better and better, every day? How can we do that? There is but one way--by praying often; for when we pray, we are very near to God, and you know, the nearer you get to a person, and the oftener you get close to him, the better you begin to understand him--you can tell better and better what he means by every look. It is the same with God. If you would understand Him when He wants to guide you with His eye, you must often draw very near to Him by prayer. (J. Reid Howatt.) Men under the Divine government I. The way in which all men should be controlled by God. “ I will instruct thee and guide thee with Mine eye.” This implies that men should be controlled--1. Intelligently. For His “ eye” to guide us we must have the power to watch and interpret it. God guides planets by His arm, brutes by blind impulse, intelligences by His look. How much meaning there often is in the human eye!--more than the richest vocabulary can express! How significant the look of God! 2. Readily. The mere look of God should be enough. We should not wait for words, not for whispers, still less for thunders. The attitude of the soul should be, “ Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do? . . . :Here am I; send me.” 3. Constantly. The eye of God is everywhere. II. The way in which SOME men ARE controlled by God. “ Be not as the horse,” etc. These words imply that some men under the control of God act--1. Irrationally. “ Like the horse and the mule they have no understanding” --that is, no understanding as to the right way of life. 2. Fractiously. “ Whose mouth must be held in,” etc. Thus it is with wicked men; they oppose God; they are determined to have their own way, But God holds them in by force. 3. Dangerously. “ Lest they come near unto thee.” Wicked men are dangerous; they would ruin the world if God did not rein them in. (Homilist.) The guiding eye I. this assurance of divine counsel and guidance rests on the conviction of God’ s nearness to us. So near is He that He can guide us with His eye. This truth is constantly asserted, but it is impossible for us to conceive how the eye of God is upon each individual amongst the millions of mankind. The conception is too great and high for us, for in and all around us are of but limited powers. Science comes to aid our faith here. The microscope shows us the myriad animalculae in each drop of water, but all perfect. To God, therefore, nothing is small. He is absolutely unlimited in faculty. And when we add on the idea that the nature of God is love, then we are led to think of each one being reflected in Him, not as on an impassive and unfeeling mirror, but as on the heart of God, who is love Say not, it is too good to be true. You need never be afraid of your conceptions of God outreaching the reality. They are more likely to fall short. And the thought of God’ s omniscience is not terrible to us except when we sin. And when we sin, the knowledge of the love we have grieved is the mightiest power to reclaim and restore us. For no earthly sorrow equals in intensity the sorrow of God over our sin. II. this divine knowledge leads to counsel, to guidance of our life. Where love is knowledge cannot be passive: it must serve its object. And so the parents’ love and knowledge finds expression in the training of the home, or in the letters of loving counsel sent to the child. And it is so with God. (W. G. Horder.) The guidance of the eye We have many organs, but none so expressive as the eye; many languages, but none so eloquent as that of looks. But what they say can only be interpreted by affection. We guide strangers by the directing finger or the spoken word, and servants by commands, but friends by the eye. And these understand. Therefore this promise assures us that we are not servants, but friends. Of old God spake by Urim and Thummim; but now by His eye. And it is our fault, our wayward will, that hinders our being thus guided. But as rational and as redeemed men, the guiding invitation of the eye should suffice to rule us. And how gracious of our God to adopt this method with us. The Gospel is a guiding of us with the eye; our whole spiritual life is ruled and shaped by love. But, remember, if any will not be thus guided, God will hold them in with bit and bridle. “ If you will be as beasts before Him, He will deal with you as with beasts:” the cold, sharp bit will be thrust between your teeth, and the lash not spared. (S. Cox, D. D.) I will guide thee with Mine eye “ A whip for the horse, a bridle for the ass, and a rod for the fool’ s back,” is the pithy sentence of the Book of Proverbs. It describes the method by which God distinctly seeks not to rule us, if He can help it, but which we are constantly compelling Him to employ by wilful and determined sin. It is a deep pain to a wise and generous man to govern children or guide the State by fear. “ I will have no state of siege. Any one can rule in a state of siege,” said Cavour. How earnestly great teachers--men with the lofty faculty of head-masters like Dr. Arnold--strive to establish a nobler chain of influences than terror can generate, and to bring warm, generous young hearts into such vivid sympathy with their own natures that they can guide them with the eye. It is the principle of our Lord’ s words. “ Henceforth I call you not servants, but friends.” I. God is the instructor and guide of men. He is no Epicurean God, careless of the interests and concerns of men, but the God whose care for the world brought Him to live in it that He might share its burden and its pain. It is essential that we should understand that God cannot leave men unruled. He cannot surrender the powers of life to be wielded at will by sensual and malignant hearts. A fool’ s paradise, a knave’ s, a demon’ s--what sort of a world were that for any man to dwell in? Suicide then would be the queen of the arts, as it was once in the Roman Paradise, of which Virgil and Horace dreamed. No, God the Ruler, responsible for the universe He has made to suffer or to be blessed, appoints and holds the limits beyond which freedom shall not pass in defiance. His hand is on the most daring rebel, compelling him to range within bounds. II. the moral condition of various men and classes with regard to the rule of God.1. There are the utterly godless; men who care for no restraint, who ask, “ Who is the Lord, that?” etc. Often they seem to escape the eye and hand of God. But it is not so. A hard bar meets them at every turn, a check at every breath. God rules them with a rod of iron. Blind to the glance of His eye, they must writhe under the pressure of His hand. 2. The indolent among His own children--hearts sluggish and lazy, that will not rise up to the sympathy of friends. They will not reject God. They know already that there is no blessing which is really worth anything but God’ s. They would weep bitterly, and feel that life was utterly impoverished, if God’ s presence were gone from it, and they were just left to make the best of a world that they love too well. But they will not risk too much in seeking the kingdom of God and His righteousness. One eye is always on the world, if the other is on God. But they have to be driven in the way which they say they love, and this at a cost of pain to them and patience to Him, which God only knows. And what are the instruments? There is--1. Adversity. See how He dealt with Jacob. God kept him always in sorrow as a means of keeping him near to Himself. “ I have lost my health,” cried one to a minister--one who knew well that her health had not been nobly used. “ Take care that you do not lose your sickness too,” was the answer. It went home, and led her to turn to God. 2. The prison of circumstance. Many are bound as with iron bands to irksome, wearisome duties; but wrestle as they may, the bonds hold. They must work on or starve. And they do work on, but loveless, joyless; because they must, not because they would. It is God’ s school of compulsory discipline. 3. Inward terrors. God can speak to the soul when none hears. Out of the deep silence a voice may break to daunt and humble us, to make all mere possession worthless, and set us face to face with God. 4. Death. Many a child of God lives in almost slavish fear of dying. And God keeps the terror before them, that He may hold them by its chain, as they will not be held by the bands of His love. Multitudes are sobered and restrained by this fear, servile though it be. III. those is whom the Lord finds full sympathy, and sees the end of His culture fulfilled. “ I will guide thee with Mine eye.” The eye indicates the desire, the lips the command, the band compels. Those who know the language of the eye have mastered the language of the soul.1. It implies sympathy. 2. Vigilant duty. 3. Perfect delight. To be guided by the eye we must love supremely Him who guides. And as the fruit of this the light of God’ s countenance shines oil us evermore. (J. B. Brown, B. A.) Divine guidance I. the place of guidance.1. The place of forgiveness. 2. The place of confession. 3. The place of prayer and of communion. 4. The place of personal appropriation of the presence of Jesus. II. the process of divine guidance.1. The exterior process. (1) Conscience.(2) The Word of God.(3) The Holy Spirit.(4) The outward providences of God. 2. The interior process. (1) Map out the whole circumstances in the presence of God simply, as far as you know them. (2) Bring your will while it is yet in a fluid condition, if I may so speak, and place it before God, that He may mould it and direct it before it is solidified. (3) There must be a deep detaching of your affections in the matter, by the power of the Holy Spirit; your affections must be untwined, ready to twine round whatever God tells you is His will. (4) Then bring all the materials naturally found for forming a judgment, and spread them out in the presence of God. (5) After thus yielding your will, after detaching your affections, after preparing an altar of sacrifice by bringing all the materials for forming f judgment, and after laying yourselves upon it, what next? Wait. Scarcely a Christian dare do it. And I venture to say this is why so few hear the voice of God. We all have the written Word, but He speaks behind it, as well as through it. (C. A. Fox.) The wonderful guide Now, if we start in the journey of life without a guide, we shall be sure to go astray and wander from the right path. We shall find many guides offering their services, but who will only lead us on to ruin. We are better without them. The only safe guide, on whom we may always rely with confidence, is Jesus our Saviour. It is He who says so tenderly in our text, “ I will guide thee with Mine eye.” What wonderful power there is in the eye. How much it can say. Jesus has three things that He makes use of in guiding His people-- I. he has a wonderful eye. The eye is the emblem of knowledge, and the Bible tells us that “ the eye of the Lord is in every place, beholding,” etc. This wonderful eye that takes all things in shows the perfect knowledge of Jesus. It is important for a guide to have a clear and proper knowledge of everything the persons he is guiding will need in their journey. Suppose you start on a journey. At night it becomes very cold; but your guide has provided no warm clothing, and made no preparations for a fire, then how much suffering there will be! Or suppose there is a river to be crossed, and you have no means of crossing it, what trouble that will cause! But if we take Jesus for our Guide in the journey of life which is before us, we need fear none of these things. “ He seeth the end from the beginning.” He knows everything that we can need through the whole course of our journey; His wonderful eye takes in at a glance the guidance which His people need; and He leads them in the right way. II. Jesus has a wonderful hand. The hand represents power. He makes use of His eye and His hand, His knowledge and His power, to guide and help His people. III. he has a wonderful book. In foreign travel a guide-book is indispensable. It tells us all the things we want to know on our journey. So is the Bible to us poor lost sinners; and chief of all, because it guides us to Jesus. (R. Newton, D. D.) The leading of God What a frail thread of guidance for a human soul! A glance of God’ s eye--it seems a trivial thing. Why not a pressure of God’ s hand, a support of God’ s arm, a binding of God’ s golden chain? Does not He guide other things much more imperatively? Has he not bound the stars with an iron belt of law? They cannot, if they would, transgress. But my soul has no belt around it. It can break away if it will; it has broken away many times. It has only the glance of God’ s eye, not the driving of His hand; only His direction, not His force, to guide. Wherefore is it so? Is not my soul of more value than many stars? Is it not a deeper note in the music of existence than all the harmony of the orbs of light? Why has it merely the guidance of the eye? Just because it is meant to be a deeper harmony. What is it that makes thy life an intenser note than the music of the stars? Is it not just the fact that thou art free, just the circumstance that there is no iron belt around thee? What is this marvellous thing thou callest thy will? Wherein does its glory differ from the glory which the heavens declare? Is it not just in this, that thou art not compelled to come in? There is a guidance for thee, but it is not a star’ s guidance; it is a guidance of the eye. It is the only guiding which a will can get without dying. The rivers of Paradise run in their courses because they cannot get away. Not thus would He make thy paradise, oh my soul! He would surround Himself with rivals in thy heart. He would give thy steps room to stray. He would suffer thee to be led into temptation. He would show thee the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them. He would be loved after experience; He would be, not the inevitable, but the chosen, one. (G. Matheson, D. D.) Psalms 32:9 Be ye not as the horse, or as the mule, which have no understanding.Bit and bridle: how to escape them I. A privilege to be sought.1. This guidance is very full in its nature. (1) God is prepared to give you an inward understanding of spiritual things; for His instruction is intensely effectual upon the mind. (2) God adds the precept to the doctrine, and instructs us in both. (3) Here is fellowship as well as instruction; for the guide goes with the traveller, and thus will God, in the process of our instruction, give us fellowship with Himself. 2. This teaching is divine in its source. Our Lord may instruct us by men who are taught of Himself; but, after all, the best of His servants cannot teach us anything profitably except the Lord Himself teaches by them and through them. What a wonderful condescension it is that the Lord should become a teacher! 3. Observe how wonderfully personal is this promised guidance. The Infinite focusses Himself upon the insignificant! 4. This teaching is delightfully tender. 5. This teaching is constant. II. A character to be avoided.1. We are not to imitate creatures of which we are the superiors. One said, in my hearing, as an excuse for a passionate speech, “ I could not help it. If you tread on a worm it will turn.” Is a worm to be the example for a saint? 2. We must mind that we do not imitate creatures to whom we are so near akin. A large part of us is animal, and its tendency is to drag down that part which is more than angelic. How abject, and yet how august is man! Brother go the worm, and yet akin to Deity. Immortal and yea a child of dust. Be ye not the prey of your lower natures. 3. We are not to imitate creatures devoid of reason. Be sensitive to the Spirit of God. “ Give me understanding and I shall keep Thy law.” III. As infliction to be escaped. DO not drive your Saviour to be stern with you. Do not choose the way of hardness--the brutish way. “ Be ye not as the horse, or as the mule, which have no understanding,” for then you will become sad, gloomy, dull, stupid, and full of disquietude. IV. A freedom to be attained. There are children of God who wear no bit or bridle: the Lord has loosed their bonds. To them obedience is delight: they keep His commands with their whole heart. The Son has made them free, and they are free indeed.1. They are free, because they are in touch with God. God’ s will is their will. They answer to the Lord as the echo to the voice. 2. Because tutored. 3. Because always trusting. 4. Because tender. (C. H. Spurgeon.) That reason is an insufficient guide That the will of man stands in need of restraint and control is an acknowledged truth: but it has been of late discovered that reason is all-sufficient in itself; that it wants no spur to stimulate, or curb to check it; but that, if left to take its own course, it is liable to no error--it never fails--it never injures others, or itself. Before this new doctrine be admitted, it must be subjected to the test of time and trial;--it must, like all other theories, be reduced to practice. What is religion, but the guide of reason and the controller of the will? What is law, but the restraint of individual will for the good of all? What is education, but the art of forming the will to obedience, of correcting its errors, and training it to virtue? I. religion cheeks the vices, follies, and passions of mankind, by inculcating a belief that there is a Superior Power which created us, such as we are;--that set good and evil before us, for our free will to choose; but promised a reward for the one, and a punishment for the other. All religion, therefore, stands upon the supposition that reason left to itself is insufficient to direct us;--for if we should all choose the good of our own accord, reward and punishment must be superfluous: even false religion supposes this; nay, even a religion in the hands of the magistrate,--a political religion,--the avowed invention of man,--the product of reason itself, imputes error to reason, and preaches up the necessity of control. II. The very existence of LAW in the world is a testimony of the universal suffrage of mankind against the power of reason. If all men acted right of their own accord there would be no need of law to restrain them. III. education, though applied first to the individual, is the last resource of society. Men form themselves into society, from their mutual fears, for mutual protection. Their notions of a Deity may be derived from tradition or revelation. But, in the ordinary course of things, both religion and law exist before education. It is from reflection that men begin to perceive that the rising generation may be trained to habits suitable to the society of which they are to become members; and if education could act in proportion to its design, it would prevent the commission of those crimes which the law must punish. IV. but do we really hope to stem the torrent by religion, law, and education? Yes--if they have not lost their effect upon the mind of man. (M. R. Vincent, D. D.) Psalms 32:10 Many sorrows shall be to the wicked: but he that trusteth in the Lord, mercy shall compass him about. The portion of the righteous and the wicked contrasted Note the contrast in these words. The wicked, and those who trust in the Lord. And the “ many sorrows” of the one, with the encompassing mercy of the other. The psalmist, therefore, defines wickedness as a not trusting in the Lord. This certainly is not the description that would be generally given of a wicked person. You think it too mild to give of a wicked person, simply to affirm in respect of such an one, that he is a man who places no trust in God; and yet more attentive examination will serve to illustrate that scarcely could there be a more emphatic or a more melancholy description to give of a wicked man, than to declare of him that he is the exact opposite of one who puts trust in God. Why, only consider how want of trust in God leads necessarily to all that is depraved and vicious in practice. The man who is devoid of such trust has no defence left to keep him from any one species of wickedness. What is it but trust in God--trust in His character--trust in His promises--trust in His threatenings, which lies at the foundation of all that is morally excellent? Do away with this trust, and there seems to be no safeguard left to hinder from wickedness, or allure to piety. Let this trust be wanting, and where is the motive remaining, whether to animate for duty, or to warn from iniquity? And so if we were set to delineate the moral character of the righteous, we should be tempted to say far more than that he is simply one who puts his trust in God. But because this is the real essence of his character, the root from which springs all else that is good, therefore it is after all the best description that could be given. And whilst the text tells of “ many sorrows” that shall be to the wicked, it does not put “ joys” as the distinguishing lot of the righteous in opposition to those sorrows. But it tells of “ mercy:” not of joy. Let us now seek to vindicate the assertions of the text. I. As to the wicked. Is it true that many sorrows shall be to them? It often does not seem so, but the very reverse. But wherever a man reposes his main confidence, there he rests the foundation of his peace. But as the wicked does not trust in the Lord, he must be dependent on some created source, and all such are transient and perishable. No man can satisfy the desires of the soul with anything short of God. You cannot centre your affections on any created thing. Sorrow, then, must at length be inherited by the wicked. And they accompany him now; follow him into the recesses of his soul, where conscience will speak and will be heard, and what the soul has perpetually to hear is its condemning voice. There we see how it is that many sorrows shall be to the wicked. II. As to the righteous. Mercy shall compass him about. Mercy, that is, pity and love. He needs both, for he is a transgressor, and prone to err. Therefore he needs not only love, but pity. And they are his. They are the mercy which environ him round. Who, then, would not rather choose his portion? (R. Bickersteth, B. A.) The sorrows of the wicked I. Was are the wicked? Describe the character of the ungodly--1. By their dislike to God, and contempt of His authority.2. By their practical violation of the Divine law.3. By their hatred of the righteous.4. By their unregenerate nature. II. what are the sorrows of the wicked?1. Disappointment (Ecclesiastes 2:4; Ecclesiastes 2:11; Ecclesiastes 2:26).2. Remorse (Matthew 27:4-5; Psalms 7:16).3. Anticipation.4. The sorrows of hell. (R. Scott.) Mercy for those who trust in the Lord This is most encouraging and consolatory. It refers to--1. The supplies with which God will favour us. What is it but mercy that feeds, clothes, and provides for us according to our several necessities? We have no claim to any of these blessings on the ground of human merit. God does not feed us because we deserve this grace: it is His mercy compassing us about. 2. The compassionate regard which God exercises toward us. When we consider our manifest defects, our imperfections, our infirmities, what reason have we to fear that God should enter into judgment with us! 3. The defence with which God will surround His people. Our enemies may beset us on every side, but mercy shall compass us about: Job; Daniel. (R. Scott.) The righteous encompassed by mercy God’ s mercies are always more numerous than we see them. We choose to call one tiring or another a benefit and a blessing because it happens to fit our desires, or, at least, our ideas of what a blessing ought to be. But we are too insensible, too short-sighted, to see all the stars of God’ s goodness in the sky. Only here and there do we perceive a point of light, a larger or a lesser sun or planet. But had we finer spiritual vision, we should perceive the innumerable points of light in what are now to us but the dark interstellar spaces. The highly-sensitized plate of the astronomical photographer reveals a countless multitude of stars where a field-glass, or even a telescope, fails to discover aught but blank space. We have not gone so far yet in our spiritual perceptions--we are not yet so spiritually sensitized--as to see our sky a blaze of light. But each new revelation, each new star or group of stars, as it appears above our horizon, ought to be an evidence that the dark is not darkness, but light unperceived. The sky of life is not merely studded with mercies. It is itself mercy. (P. Du Bois.) Psalms 32:11 Shout for joy, all ye that are upright of heart. How we rejoice in the Lord 1. When our joy is a fruit of the Spirit of the Lord (Galatians 5:22). 2. When it looketh to God and acknowledgeth Him the true God, and in His Son whom He hath sent, His God reconciled, appeased, and well pleased (Romans 5:1). Our prophet here calls the righteous to rejoice upon this ground. When a man rejoiceth in God’ s favour, forgiving sin, and in fellowship with God and Jesus Christ, then he rejoiceth in the Lord. 3. When it respecteth the special pledges of God’ s favour, as the works of regeneration, the happy change we find in ourselves, the shining and beautiful graces of God’ s Holy Spirit, with the daily increase of them: thus to rejoice in the Lord’ s image renewed, is to rejoice in the Lord Himself. 4. When our joy is set upon God’ s ordinances and Word, in which the Lord revealeth Himself, and communicateth Himself more freely unto us, when in them we get a faster hold of God, and grow up into further fellowship with Him, especially when His gracious promises feed our hearts, and we rejoice in His truth and faithfulness, making them good not only to others, but also to our own selves. 5. When we rejoice in the hope of eternal glory, both in soul and body (Romans 5:3). Hoping and expecting and rejoicing that we shall fully enjoy Him as He is, and drink freely of that water of life, which we have already tasted. (T. Taylor, D. D.) All ye that are upright in heart.--Upright in heart If you carry a line from the circumference, to the circumference again, as a diameter, it passes the centre, it flows from the centre, it looks to the centre both ways. God is the centre; the lines above and the lines below still respect and regard the centre; whether I do any action honest in the sight of men, or any action acceptable to God, whether I do things belonging to this life or to the next, still I must pass all through the centre, and direct all to the glory of God, and keep my heart right, without variation towards Him. For as I do no good action here, merely for the interpretation of good men, though that be one good and justifiable reason of my good actions: so I must do nothing for my salvation hereafter, merely for the love I bear to mine own soul, though that also be one good and justifiable reason of that action; but the primary reason in both, as well the actions that establish a good name, as the actions that establish eternal life, must be the glory of God. (J. Donne, D. D.) Notes of uprightness 1. That is right which is tried so to be by a right line, and stands in correspondence unto it: the right line is God’ s Word, the precepts of the Lord are right (Psalms 19:8), and then the heart is upright, when it is made straight by the Word, and is squared in all things by it. Every man boasts of the rightness and goodness of his heart, that cares but a little for God’ s Word. 2. A right line doth ever discover that which is crooked; a good sign of a right heart is to discover, but not without true sorrow, the crookedness and hypocrisy of it, and to labour to correct and reform it (Psalms 119:80). Let my heart be upright in Thy statutes, that I be not ashamed: a right line shames a crooked; crooked legs are ashamed to be seen: when a man fears, and is ashamed of his hypocrisy and crookedness, and ever tendeth to straightness, it is a good note of some rightness of heart. 3. Consider the things which flow from the heart: if they be single and pure, warrantable and right, then a man may know his heart is upright; for such as the fruit is, such is the tree; if thou feedest on forbidden fruit, thou art a bad tree, and thy heart far from uprightness; an upright heart suffereth not rotten speeches in the mouth, idleness in the hand, injustice in the life, drunkenness in the brain, and disorder in the course. 4. Consider the ends and aims of our actions; the upright heart aimeth directly at God’ s glory in all things, but the crooked heart pro-poundeth ever some crooked end and sinister respect unto good actions; as many come to church, get knowledge, and profess religion for vain glory and vain ends; some thrust among godly persons, and into good company, not because they are good or would be good, but because they would be thought so. 5. Consider if thy heart be the same in private as it would be thought in public. Abraham walked in uprightness before God according to the commandment (Genesis 17:1), how did he reform his house, teach his family, instruct his servants, and take God with him in providing a wife for Isaac, and in all things (Genesis 24:63). Isaac was the same in the field as he was in the house; he went out into the field to pray. Daniel was the same after the dangerous law that he was before, he opened his windows thrice a day as he was accustomed. So upright was Paul in his whole course, as he knew nothing by himself’ (1 Corinthians 4:4). (T. Taylor, D. D.) . Psalms 33:1-22 Rejoice in the Lord, O ye righteous.The spirit of rejoicing: life adjusted to the will of God “ Rejoice in the Lord, O ye righteous.” It is the vital condition of all spiritual rejoicing that we are right with God. Our life must be adjusted to His will, and the adjustment must be made on every side. If our communion with the Lord is only partial, we shall not reach the condition in which joy becomes inevitable. I remember that some time ago an electric bell apparatus in my home got out of order and the bell ceased to ring. I made a careful examination, and I found that two or three of the strands, which together formed the one wire, had been broken, and along the remaining strands sufficient electrical energy could not travel to ring the bell. I rectified the severed members, and so adjusted them that they were every one in communion with the battery, and in the completed adjustment there was power enough to ring the bell. It appears to me to symbolize the condition of many a life which is partially in communion with the King. If is not that there is complete alienation; it is that there are severed strands. There are departments in the life which are not connected with the Almighty, and along the imperfect communion sufficient power does not travel to ring the joy-bells. It may be that the strand between the Lord and our pleasures is broken, or between the Lord and our business, or between the Lord and some secret realm in our life which is not known to others. This severance will have to be put right, and every side of the life adjusted to the Divine will before we can become possessed by that fulness of power which will create bell-melody in the soul. And so I am not surprised that the psalmist is making his confident appeal to the “ righteous,” the rectified, those who are right on every side with God. (J. H. Jowett, M. A.) Praise to the God of creation, providence, and grace I. the call to praise, and its reasons (Psalms 33:1-11). The first word of Psa 33:1 means not simply to “ rejoice” (as A.V.), but to express the emotions aloud. The subjects of the invitation are addressed as “ righteous” and “ upright,” because this was their ideal character of what they ought to be as the true Israel of God, and to them as such it was every way suitable to show forth Jehovah’ s praise. It was quite otherwise with the wicked (Psalms 50:16; Mark 1:25; Mark 3:12; Acts 17:18). In Psalms 33:2 the call is to use harp and lyre with the song, the first mention of musical instruments in the Psalter. The Hebrews used wind and stringed and percussive instruments, but their precise nature cannot well be determined. II. God’ s special favour to his people (Verses 12-22). They were His heritage; not simply a temporary possession, but one enduring by hereditary succession through a long course of ages. Their security and happiness in having Jehovah for their God is enforced anew by the assertion of His omniscience. Men can be surprised or overtaken: not so the all-seeing One. He fully understands all their doings, their origin, their motive, their purpose. All is evident at a glance. Hence His will is supreme, and all persons and things are comprehended in His control of the world. What material strength cannot do for those who rely upon it, is secured to believers by the eye of Jehovah. That eye is directed toward those who wait for His loving-kindness. The three concluding couplets finely express the attitude of the Church in all ages--waiting, hoping, trusting. “ The whole history of Israel may be summed up in Jacob’ s dying words, ‘ I have waited for Thy salvation, O Jehovah.’” (T. W. Chambers, D. D.) A call to true worship I. True worship is happiness to the godly. “ Rejoice,” etc.1. It is the highest happiness of intelligent existences. Only by worship can the profoundest cravings of their natures be satisfied, or their powers be fully and harmoniously developed. 2. The godly alone can offer true worship. II. True worship is becoming to the godly. “ Comely.”1. It agrees with his character. 2. It is congenial with his spirit. 3. It is in keeping with his obligations. III. True worship is music to the godly. “ Praise the Lord with harp,” etc. Note some of the features of true psalmody.1. Variety. Both instrumental and vocal music are here mentioned. 2. Freshness. “ A new song.” Whilst our religion should be as settled as the trunk of the oak--the forms and spirit of our devotion should be as changing as the foliage, now green with spring, now tinted with summer, now tinged with the brown hue of autumn. 3. Accuracy. “ Play skilfully.” True music is sound ruled by science. 4. Hearty. “ With a loud noise.” (Homilist.) The toy which the righteous haw in God I. the duty. “ Rejoice in the Lord.” Look upon religion in its actions and employment: and what are they? “ Rejoice and give thanks.” Are not these actions that are grateful and delightful? What doth transcend Divine joy, and ingenuous acknowledgments? II. the reason. It is “ comely.” Whatsoever is the true product of religion is grateful, beautiful, and lovely. There is nothing in religion that is dishonourable or selfish. Then we are to rejoice in the Lord.1. For Himself, God is the most excellent object in the world. But whosoever are pleased with God, God is pleased with them: but to the wicked and unregenerate, God Himself (as good as He is) He is a burden. Let men pretend love to the things of God never so much, they will not relish them, unless they be born of God. ‘ Tis they that are naturalized to heaven, that relish and favour Divine things. That which is born of the world is enmity against God. Our rejoicing must be with some respect to God; and though it be in other things, yet it must be in the Lord. And this is done when we acknowledge God as the Fountain of all good, and better than all other enjoyments whatsoever; and count our enjoyments as all from Him and so endearing Him to us and obliging us to Him. Now, to enforce this joy in God, we note that joy is necessary to the life of man. The apostle hath told us that worldly sorrow causeth death. Sorrow and sadness, melancholy and discontent spoils the temper of a man’ s mind; it vitiates the humours of the body; it prevents the Divine, and hinders the Physician. For the Divine deals by reason; but this being obliterated, he can do nothing. And it also hinders the Physician; for if the mind be discomposed by melancholy, it doth not afford due benevolence to the body. The sour and melancholy are unthankful to God, and cruel to themselves, and peevish in their converse: so that joy and rejoicing are necessary in respect to ourselves. But also, joy is so safe for us: it will hold us back from sin, it will never be in excess, will always be sincere, and will offend none: it will keep company with gratitude and humility, and will always leave us in a good temper, which worldly joy will not do. If our triumph be in the Lord, it separates from sensual things, and from the spiritual sins of pride and arrogancy. Therefore let there be always something that is spiritual in the ground, reason, or occasion, or motive of your joy. Praise is comely It is nature’ s sense, ‘ tis the import of any man’ s reason. Now because God doth infinitely transcend all the benefactors in the world, if any man doth not acknowledge His goodness, and praise Him for His benefits; he is sunk down into baseness, and fallen beneath his creation and nature. God loves us, and therefore He doth us good: we love God because we are partakers of His benefits. All disingenuity and baseness are concentred in the bowels of ingratitude. He that will not be engaged by kindness, no cords of man will hold him. Then let us obey the counsel of the text.1. Because nothing is more due to God than our gratitude; for He loadeth us with His benefits, and is pleased to please us, and doth many things to gratify us. 2. By this we give testimony of our minds to God. For we have nothing at all to sacrifice to God, but the consent of our minds; an ingenious acknowledgment. (B. Whichcote, D. D.) Praise is comely for the upright.--Praise comely Distinguish between gratitude and praise. Gratitude is an inward, loving sense of obligation for benefits received; praise the expression or outward manifestation of that inward feeling. Gratitude is of the heart; praise of the lip. Gratitude is a something felt; praise a something expressed. I. Praise is comely for existence. The good man recognizes God as the Dispenser of every blessing. He holds all blessings as a loan or trust, and as a faithful steward, employs them for God, not for selfish purposes. As all the rivers return to the sea whence they came, so the upright man sends all God’ s gifts back again in grateful homage and loving service to the Divine source of all good. II. Praise is comely for redemption. III. Praise is comely for the gift of immortality. The righteous man has something great and noble to live for, a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory to anticipate. In prospect, he has that which will fill the immensity of his being, satisfy to the full and for ever, the yearning of his great nature, so that the very thought of his immortality fills his soul with ecstasy, and his song with harmony (1 Peter 1:3). It is said that when Mendelssohn went to see the great Freiburg organ, and asked permission of the old custodian to be allowed to play upon it, he was refused. After a little kind persuasion, however, consent was reluctantly given. Mendelssohn instantly took his seat, and made the organ discourse sublimest music. The custodian, spellbound, drew near and ventured to ask for the name of the stranger. When it was announced, ashamed, and self-condemned, the custodian exclaimed, “ What a fool am I to refuse you permission to play!” There is One standing by you who can bring forth the most heavenly strains of music from your heart. Place it in His hand and Christ will make every chord send forth celestial harmonies that would make all the angels cease to sing and be mute, that they might the better listen to the nobler music of Christ’ s redeemed ones. (R. Roberts.) The duty of praise I. Good and righteous men are most obliged to the duty of praise, and most fit to perform it.1. There are many of God’ s blessings that are universal, in regard to these the duty of thanksgiving should be of as large extent. But since some men partake more particularly of His favour, they are in a more particular manner obliged to gratitude and thanksgiving. 2. The righteous are also most fit to perform this duty. (1) Because such men are always humble, and ready to acknowledge their unworthiness of God’ s goodness. (2) Because they have a quick and lively sense of it, and are apt to be tenderly and passionately affected with it. (3) Because they have always a solid foundation of true joy in a good conscience. (4) Because of that fitness and congruity which there is between praise and other virtues. As the beauty of the body consists in the exact dimensions of every part, and the symmetry and proportion of the whole: so does the beauty of the soul consist in the exercise of all Christian virtues, and in the mutual relation which they have to each other: and if any one be wanting it is a plain deformity, and will be perceived immediately. II. God is the proper object of praise. The psalmist does not tie himself up strictly to the contemplation of the Divine nature, as to its essential excellencies only, but considers them as they relate to His works, and are beneficial to His creatures.1. Rejoice in the Lord in regard of His goodness. Whatever is pleasing to us below, is so, because we take it to be good; that is, suppose it to partake of this fountain of ever-flowing goodness. How, then, should we be transported with joy if we lifted up our thought to Him who is Goodness itself, and through His vast abundance pours it upon every creature! But yet this would not be sufficient for His universal praise, unless we consider His goodness in His works. 2. Rejoice in Him because of His wisdom; it is by this He governs and disposes of all things as in wisdom He made them all. 3. Rejoice in the Lord in regard of His power. That very power which is so dreadful to His enemies, at which the whole creation trembles, at which the everlasting mountains are scattered, the perpetual hills do bow; when He marches through a land in indignation and threshes the heathen in His anger. Power can do as much for the righteous. So that this attribute cannot be dreadful to good men, but on the contrary, must be most delightful to them. (J. Adams, M. A.) The gratitude of the upright 1. The gratitude of upright men is wise. The praise of the Lord becomes them well, because, while they bless God for all their mercies, they arrange them in their proper order; they prize each according to its real worth, and that most of all which is of the greatest value. 2. The gratitude of upright men is real. The praise of the Lord becomes them, because, while they praise God for His benefits, they live to the glory of their benefactor. Every gift of God furnisheth us with both a motive and a means of obedience to Him. 3. Gratitude to God well becomes an upright man, because it is humble. By publishing the gifts of God’ s grace, he divests himself of himself, and attributes them wholly to the goodness of Him from whom they came. 4. The gratitude of an upright man is noble and magnanimous. He takes the love of God to him for a pattern of his behaviour to his fellow-creatures. (J. Saurin.) Psalms 33:2 Sing unto Him with the psaltery and an instrument of ten strings.A harp of ten strings Most of us, if we praise the Lord at all, play upon one string, or two, or three, when we ought to take a harp full chorded and with glad fingers sweep all the strings. Instead of being grateful for here and there a blessing we happen to think of, we ought to rehearse all our blessings so far as we can recall them, and obey the injunction of my text to sing unto Him with an instrument of ten strings.1. Have you appreciated the fact that on most of your tables are luxuries that do not come to all? Have you realized what varieties of flavour often touch your tongue, and how the saccharine and the acid have been afforded your palate? For the fine flavours and the luxurious viands you have enjoyed for a lifetime, perhaps you have never expressed to God a word of thanksgiving. That is one of the ten strings that you ought to have thrummed in praise to God, but you have never yet put it in vibration. 2. Have you thanked God for eyesight? Haw you realized the privation those suffer to whom the day is as black as the night, and who never see the face of father or mother or wife or child or friend? Through what painful surgery many have gone to get one glimpse of the light. The eyes--so delicate, and beautiful, and useful--that one of them is invaluable! 3. Notice how many pass through life in silence because the ear refuses to do its office. Have we devoutly thanked God for these two wonders of our hearing, with which we can now put ourselves under the charm of sweet sound, and also carry in our memories the infantile song with which our mothers put us to sleep? 4. There are many who never recognize how much God gives them when He gives them sleep. Oh, the felicities of slumber! Let all who have this real benefaction celebrate it. That is one of the sweetest strings in all the instrument of ten strings. 5. Acknowledge the power of physical locomotion. To be able to go where we wish, and all unaided--what a kindness! What multitudes have to call in the aid of crutch and invalid’ s chair, and their whole life is a hinderment. How hard to get about with lack of strong and healthy and supple limbs. 6. Celebrate on the instrument of ten strings our illumined nights. They spread their tents over us, and some of us hardly go out to look at them. During the nights other worlds come in sight. Thank God for lunar and stellar illumination. 7. Celebrate the possession of our reason. Amid the increasing dementia of the world, let us appreciate the goodness of God to us if our mental faculties are in equipoise. Voyaging from New Zealand to Australia, a storm swooped upon us, and we saw all around us fragments of ships that had been caught in the same tempest; and how thankful we were, sailing into Sydney harbour, that we had escaped! So that man and that woman, whose intellect goes safely through the storms of this life, in which so many have foundered, ought every day and every night to employ one of the ten strings in gratitude for that particular mercy. 8. Another string of this instrument I now touch--friendships, deep and abiding. With one such friend you can defy the world. 9. Gospel advantages. That Gospel rocked our cradle, and it will epitaph our grave. It soothes our sorrows, brightens our hopes, inspires our courage, forgives our sins, and saves our souls. It takes a man who is all wrong and makes him all right. What that Gospel has done for you and me is a story that we can never fully tell. (T. De Witt Talmage.) Psalms 33:5. The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord. Thanksgiving day I. His goodness to the irrational creation. Although nature is out of joint, yet even in its disruption I am surprised to find the almost universal happiness of the animal creation. On a summer day, when the air and the grass are most populous with life, you will not hear a sound of distress unless, perchance, a heartless school-boy has robbed a bird’ s nest, or a hunter has broken a bird’ s wing, or a pasture has been robbed of a lamb, and there goes up a bleating from the flocks. The whole earth is filled with animal delights--joy feathered, and scaled, and horned, and hoofed. The bee hums it; the frog croaks it; the squirrel chatters it; the quail whistles it; the lark carols it; the whale spouts it. The snail, the rhinoceros, the grizzly bear, the toad, the wasp, the spider, the shellfish, have their homely delights--joy as great to them as our joy is to us. Goat climbing the rocks; anaconda crawling through the jungle; buffalo plunging across the prairie; crocodile basking in tropical sun; seal puffing on the ice; ostrich striding across the desert, are so many bundles of joy; they do not go moping or melancholy; they are not only half supplied. God says they are filled with good. Take up a drop of water under the microscope, and you will find that within it there are millions of creatures that swim in a hallelujah of gladness. The sounds in Nature that are repulsive to our ears are often only utterances of joy--the growl, the croak, the bark, the howl. God’ s hand feeds all these broods, and shepherds all these flocks, and tends all these herds. He sweetens the clover-top for the oxen’ s taste; and pours out crystalling waters, in mossed cups of rock, for the hind to drink out of on his way down the crags; and pours nectar into the cup of the honeysuckle to refresh the humming-bird; and spreads a banquet of a hundred fields of buck-wheat, and lets the honey-bee put his mouth to any cup in all the banquet; and tells the grasshopper to go anywhere he likes, and gives the flocks of heaven the choice of all grain fields. Why did God make all these, and why make them so happy? How account for all this singing and dancing, and frisking amid the irrational creation? Why this heaven for the animalcule in a dew drop? Why for the condor a throne on Chimborazo? Why the glitter of the phosphorus in the ship’ s wake on the sea, which is said to be only the frolic of millions of insects? Why the perpetual chanting of so many voices from the irrational creation in earth, and air? There is only one solution, one answer--God is good. “ The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord.” II. notice the adaptation of the world to the comfort and happiness of man. He was to be king in it. Heaven and earth are represented in his nature, his body from the earth, his soul from heaven. He is a strange commingling of dust and glory. The earth for his floor; heaven for his roof; God for his Father; eternity for his lifetime. Think of his body--“ fearfully and wonderfully made.” No embroidery so delicate or elaborate, no colour so exquisite, no mechanism so graceful, no handiwork so divine. And all working so quietly and mysteriously. Volumes have been written of the hand. Wondrous instrument! With it we give friendly recognition, and grasp the sword, and climb the rock, and write, and carve and build. It constructed the Pyramids, and hoisted’ the Parthenon. It made the harp, and then struck out of it all the world’ s minstrelsy. Four fingers and a thumb. A hundred million dollars would not purchase for you a machine as exquisite and wonderful as your own hand. Mighty hand! In all its bones, and muscles, and joints, I learn that God is good. Behold one eye, which, in its Daguerrean gallery, in an instant catches the mountain and the sea. This perpetual telegraphing of the nerves; these joints, that are the only hinges that do not wear out; these bones and muscles of the body, with fourteen thousand different adaptations. If we could realize the wonders of our physical organization, we would be hypochondriacs, fearing every moment there must be a break down somewhere. But from birth to old age all goes on without failure. Take a step higher and look at man’ s mental constitution. The powers of perception whereby we transport the outer world into our own mind; the law of association, one thought starting up a hundred and enabling us to draw a long train of thought through the mind with incredible velocity; memory, the sheaf binder that goes forth to gather in the harvest of the past. In reason and understanding man is alone. The ox surpasses him in strength, the antelope in speed, the hound in keenness of nostril, the eagle in far-reaching sight, the rabbit in quickness of hearing, the honey-bee in delicacy of tongue, the spider in fineness of touch. Man’ s power, therefore, consisteth not in what he can lift, or how fast he can run, or how strong a wrestler he can throw--for in these respects the ox, the ostrich, and the hyena are his superior--but by his reason he comes forth to rule all: through his ingenious contrivance to outrun, outlift, outwrestle, outsee, out-hear, outdo. I take a step higher, and look at man’ s moral nature. Made in the image of God. Vast capacity for enjoyment; capable at first of eternal joy, and though now disordered, still, through the recuperative force of heavenly grace, able to mount up to more than its original felicity. Thus has God adapted everything to our comfort and advantage. But for the soul still higher adaptation; a fountain in which it may wash; a ladder by which it may climb; a song of endless triumph that it may sing; a crown of unfading light that it may wear. Christ came to save it--came with a cross on His back; came when no one else would come, to do a work which no one else would do. See how suited to man’ s condition is what God has done for him! Man is a sinner; here is pardon. He has lost God’ s image; Christ retraces it. Jesus, I sing Thy grace! Cure of worst disease! Hammer to smite off heaviest chain! Light for thickest darkness! Grace Divine! Devils scoff at it, and men reject it, but heaven celebrates it! Then let us, as well we may, celebrate the mercies of the past year, and reviewing them all, confess, yea, “ the earth is full of the goodness of the Lord. (T. De Witt Talmage.) Earth’ s brighter side “ The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord.” When we learn from astronomy something about the grand scale upon which the universe is made, and when, by looking into the mind and heart of man, we behold what powers are hidden there, we ought at once to suspect that the career of man is projected upon a grand scale, and that the “ goodness of the Lord” is ready to reveal itself in the phenomenon of human life. The fact that there is “ goodness of God” in this world does not warrant us in expecting to find it everywhere. AEneas and his companions roamed through a large forest many a mile before they saw the tree that bore the limb of solid gold. They had become discouraged. Their eyes were weary of the long looking, but at last they saw the yellow among the green, and soon held in their hand the bough before which the gates of heaven were to fly open. The “ goodness of God” does not lie easily found; it may not lie on every hand like mere dust or lifeless stone, but all reason and all revelation assure us that somewhere in the great forest the golden bough is growing, and before the patient wanderer through the deep shade suddenly will flash up the magic branch that will open to him all the best gates of earth and sky. Making the assumed character of God our measuring line, the “ happy life” of man must be only a kind of high life. There may be tears at last in such a career. All the earth will at least expire in grief, even if it does not live in it. But the life that shall come nearest to happiness, and whose tears shall burn least, and shall mingle ecstasy with sadness, shall always be the “ high life” of education and morality. In the arts, those who are entitled to speak in that domain make constant use of the terms “ high” and “ low art.” They seem to mean that the art is “ high” when it presents pure and large thoughts, and when the execution by the hand is worthy of the thought. In walking through a gallery not long since, a great critic remarked, “ There is fine work, but no subject. The execution is wonderful, the subject contemptible.” When we walk along the great scenes of earth, and behold a man absorbed in mere money-getting, or office-seeking, or in vice, we may say there is fine work, but no subject; a fine cutting of good marble to produce a figure of no possible significance. If ever we shall get any good out of these threescore years, it will be by the formula of the artists, and there is a “ high life,” a doing of good work to bring out good ideas. Indeed, the fine arts are nothing else than a corner of man’ s continent. They are the soul expressing a part of itself in marble, or painting, or music, or architecture. What sublimity there is in the great architecture of the world, and in the heights and depths of its music! But do these arts consume all that is noble in man? Has he no greatness left? Oh, what narrow, frail creatures we are! A high life is as possible as a high art. Moral beauty is as possible as material beauty; and in his “ Dialogue” Plato said, “ Great is the destiny of the soul that passes from the beauty of the world to the beauty of God.” Let us, however, turn from the theory of earth’ s goodness to some survey of the fact. Wherever a heart is turned aside from mere sensuality, from the life of a mere brute, this earth has responded to the better aspiration and has shown its willingness to lead onward and upward each nobly ambitious soul. When Socrates, and Plato, and Care, and Seneca appealed to earth for something better than the vices of the sensualist, or the bloody fame of a conqueror, our little star heard their petition and covered them with gifts of mind and soul that will always surpass estimate. When Antonine the Pious asked our world if it had no power except that of wickedness, and no pleasure but vice, it answered him by bestowing upon him the crown of piety, and by filling him with the rapture of prayer. Pliny found this world large and beautiful. It was only too full of sublimity. All its truths lay before him as coloured shells upon the beach. In those days there was an illustrious company of mortals to whom earth was by no means small or unworthy. Looking back upon their lives, seeing their greatness of mind and of spirit, and recalling in what homes and in what libraries, and amid what poetry and eloquence and art they passed their days, we cannot but feel that the “ goodness of God” lay all around them like a robe of joy and light. They may not have perceived nor felt deeply enough this infinite kindness, but if so that was not the first nor last time wherein the human heart has been happy without knowing from what fountain its joys have come. From these reflections may we not infer that there is in this world, so denounced and so mistrusted, a form of higher life--a life of honour, of education, of love, of Christianity--which may answer all who complain and who distrust, and may make our earth seem all full of the goodness of God? There may be gems hero for us all, only we are seeking for them upon the wrong shore. The past forms of human excellence indicate the fact that happiness cannot be found in things external to the soul. None of the glory of man to which we have alluded has come from property, or from fame, or from transient passions, but from the furniture of the mind and from the impulses and powers of the heart. From a survey of history, from an hour spent over the memory of all the illustrious ones in science and benevolence and religion, from a communion (even the briefest) with such a human-Divine being as Christ, the inference comes irresistibly that when earth is made the theatre of a conscientious and enlightened soul, struggling not toward riches but toward the useful and the good, then it suddenly beams out a star of the first magnitude. It no longer seems a burnt-up world, forsaken and forgotten of its Maker, but seems a chariot, with Christ standing beside the traveller, and with the wheels rolling across the open plain between time and eternity. (D. Swing, D. D.) The goodness of God Goodness is a very comprehensive quality. It is love, kindness, benevolence, that which leads you to wish well and to do good to those around you; and the earth is full of the goodness of the Lord because it is so full of His works and Ways, which are the fruits and manifestations of His goodness. I. the formation of the earth snows the goodness of God. It is like a book, it contains geological leaves which proclaim its history. We read what it has been and what it might have been, as well as what it is. The various forms of life which have appeared upon it have just been introduced at those stages which were adapted to the structure of their being. We are created amid conditions that are just suited to our life, and fitted to make us happy. The light is just suited to the eye, the ear to the atmosphere. II. The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord, when we consider how full it is of various forms of life. Objects that we despise and trample beneath our feet, and forms of life that cannot be seen with the naked eye are all fearfully and wonderfully made. The microscope, which reveals to you the coarseness and the defects of man’ s finest works, only reveals to you more clearly and strikingly the wonderful delicacy, and harmony, and beauty of the works of God. And how many forms of life only come into existence during the sunny months or hours that are fitted to make life a luxury, and then depart when it would be a pain. III. the ample provision which he is constantly making for all our wants, He daily spreads a feast before every living thing (Psalms 104:21; Psalms 145:15-16). What goodness the seasons annually reveal to us. Food might have been provided to sustain the life of the body without imparting anything like pleasure in the use of it. But at every stage of its preparation and use it ministers to our enjoyment. There is the blade, the ear, and the waving corn, the leaves, the flowers, the pendent fruit, which harbinger its approach, and which are a beauty and a joy. Then there is the scent which greets the sense of Smell, and the pleasant taste which gives a relish to food; visions of beauty for the eye, and music for the ear. IV. the social relationships which he has instituted, such as family and friendly ties. The instincts and passions, the love and moral emotions which crave these relationships, are of God. Human happiness chiefly springs from these relationships. Who can estimate the amount of happiness there is to-day, not only in the homes of the Christian and the civilized portion of the world, but also in the kraal of the Caffre, the wigwam of the Hottentot, and the hole of the Esquimaux? Even the savage and the wild boast are charmed and tamed and pleased by love for each other and family ties and social intercourse, oven though the home in which they are gathered is only a lair or a den. V. the way in which this life is made a school and a state of discipline for the life that is to come. This is not our permanent home; it is only a place in which we are being prepared for a future state. School is good for a child, though the task is often a galling yoke; and so the discipline of suffering is good for man, though at the time it be net joyous hut grievous. There is much from which we shrink in all the trials and adversities and bereavements of life; but Job may be a much better man when he comes out of this furnace than he was when he entered into it. VI. the ample provision which he has made to take away our sins. Mercy is one of the sublimest forms of goodness. The earth is full of this goodness, because there is no nation, tribe, or individual excluded from it. Conclusion.1. The goodness of God ought to be one of the strongest barriers that can be raised up against sin. 2. The goodness of God should lead us to repentance (Romans 2:4). 3. The goodness of God to us should lead us to be good to others. 4. The goodness of God to us in this world ought to inspire us with confidence in His goodness to us in the world to come. The nearer you are to God here the greater is your bliss. Then why should you not say and sing, even as you are passing through the dark valley to the land that is beyond: “ In Thy presence is fulness of joy; at Thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” ? (A. Clark.) The earth “ a sphere of Divine goodness I. follow out some thoughts which this statement suggests.1. Think of the general arrangements of the natural system around us. We may well be impressed by that beauty which God has spread as a mantle over the face of Nature; the loveliness of fields, and trees, and flowers; the dark blue of the sky, as contrasted with the soft greenness of the objects more immediately around us, and which it solaces the eye to gaze upon. But there is also utility. Everything has its use, and is in subserviency to the ends of the system to which it belongs. Then, the productiveness of the earth. What a storehouse it is for all the necessities of the creatures. And the more we come to know in detail of the manner in which the provision is made, the more wondrous do creating wisdom, and providential goodness appear. 2. All this especially appears in what respects the human family. Each land and each district has its resources for sustenance in the different products of the earth, and the various tribes of animals created for the food of man. The vast diversity is a marvellous display of the wisdom and goodness of God. Fuel also is provided; and provided, in part, by processes which have been going on for ages and ages, apparently before man dwelt upon the earth. Mighty convulsions were all overruled as the means of furnishing us with the coal that warms us, and which maintains those schemes of manufacturing industry on which the prosperity of many lands, and emphatically of our own, so much depends. And where this is deficient, or altogether wanting, great accumulations of wood subserve the same end, the trees of the forest furnishing a perpetually renewed and probably inexhaustible supply. Where again this is too scarce or too costly, the mountaineer on the lofty hill-side, or on the upland moor, may be seen gathering in the peat or turf which warms his cottage home during winter’ s cold. Thus is provision made for the sustenance and, to a great extent, the comfort of men wherever their lot is cast. Over the face of the earth you see men loving their native land. Yet what a blessing, on the other hand, is the law of change! What vast benefit springs from it! When mind and body are wearied, what unspeakable refreshment comes from new scenes and associations, and the invigorating air of the hills or of the seal Thus the body rests, nervous energy is repaired, and the mind is re-invigorated for new effort or toil. Then, in God’ s institutions respecting domestic life, with the beautiful charities which arise out of them and adorn them, how Divine goodness further appears! Doubtless there is much of sorrow in the earth. It entered in the train of sin. Thorns and briars, storms and tempests, disease, bereavement etc. But the triumphs of Divine goodness are seen amidst these sources of sadness. It regulates and apportions them as to the measure in which they appear. It mitigates them, too, by compensating arrangements such as the compassion which it has implanted in the human bosom, and which teaches us to sympathize with and help one another, and markedly that law by whose operation time exerts a healing influence. Above all, it does so by making pain and grief subservient to moral improvement, so that “ by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better.” II. how anxious we should be that the world, which is so full of God’ s goodness, should also be the region of his praise! We see the material creation everywhere teeming with the manifestations of His care for us. What displays of this, too, have all had in their own personal history. If, then, God has made the world, which is the scene of our probation, so bright and beautiful, and if His interpositions in delivering from danger and from death have been so many and so gracious, shall not all our hearts be responsive to such goodness? All reason surely is with the psalmist (Psalms 119:64). And whilst this applies to the individual, how it applies also to the world generally, and to universal man! Away in many of the most beautiful parts of that earth which is “ full of the goodness of the Lord,” men wander in ignorance, superstition and sin. What a sphere for our sympathies and prayers! (E. T. Prust.) The goodness of God in little things I. the inanimate part of God’ s creation.1. The light. How kind in the Creator to make it pleasant. Dwellers in polar regions, as their six months’ night draws to an end, often put on their richest apparel and climb to the highest mountains, and salute with acclamations of joy the first rays of returning day. Let us be thankful for the sweet light. 2. The atmosphere which envelops us. How wise and how good that it should surround us on all sides, and yet not obstruct our sight; that it should press upon us with a weight of fifteen pounds to the square inch, and yet we be not crushed or burdened by it; that though softer than the finest down, it should yet waft the fleets of nations; that it both warms and cools the earth; that it both draws up the vapours and throws them down; that it breathes both in the north wind’ s blasts and in the gales of the sunny south; and that it” both receives the noxious exhalations everywhere emitted, and yet affords for our lungs the pure air which vivifies and warms our frames. Let us be thankful for this daily benefit. 3. Water. In the form of the ocean, it is at once the proud highway of nations, and the play-ground of leviathan: the storehouse of man’ s nourishment, and the great cooler and purifier of the dusty earth. And how good in God that He hath set its bounds so that it cannot pass. In the form of clouds it tempers the force of the fiery sun, and fills the reservoirs of the skies, and drapes the heavens with curtains of gorgeous hues. And how good in God to let it down gently, as from a watering-pot, instead of pouring it down all at once, to overwhelm and destroy. 4. Flowers. A little child, bounding forth one early spring morning, from a country cottage, cried out, “ Look, pa, God has sent us three dandelions!” Was not that a beautiful and becoming thought? 5. The grasses of the hills and meadows. How different if the ground were everywhere dark and naked! The spires of grass are little things, and yet but for them we had not the blessed fields, with their walks in silent, scented paths, and the joy of herds and flocks, and the downy banks and knolls, and the emerald slopes that fringe the lakes and rivers, and the peaceful lawns where fall the sounds of loving voices. 6. The changes of the seasons. How monotonous if we had the same climate the year round! What diversity comes from these changes! Each season is lovely, and illustrative of the beneficence of the Preserver of man. 7. The succession of day and night. Each day we behold the rising of the sun. Aurora has never once failed, during so many ages, to announce his approach; and he knoweth his going down. Thus does he enlighten both sides of the globe, and shed his rays on all. Thus have we the day for toil--long enough to exhaust the physical energies, and call for repose; and then night comes, of sufficient length H recruit those energies. George Herbert sings of “ dear night” as “ the stop to busy fools,” and as “ care’ s check and curb.” Think of the accelerating swiftness of care, and pleasure, and wickedness, going on without interruption. What would the mad and anxious world come to, if night did not put on the brake, and fetch things to a standstill? 8. The endless forms of beauty which we meet. It is said of Linnaeus, the great Swedish botanist, that on first seeing a certain plant, he fell on his knees and thanked God for thus beautifying the earth. How much beauty do we see around us every day, and yet for this how seldom are our hearts lifted in gratitude to Him who hath made all things lovely to behold. II. the animate but unintelligent part of creation. What object could God have had in creating these innumerable ranks of sensitive existence, except that they might taste His bounty, and enjoy a happiness peculiar to their state? Because dead matter was incapable of delight, and because the eternal Sovereign would exercise His superabundant goodness, therefore hath lie stocked the world, and worlds upon worlds, with ten thousand times ten thousands of living creatures, that His table might be filled with millions of guests, whose mouths and whose hearts He might every hour and every moment fill with food and gladness. Moreover, how kind in God to care for every one of the millions upon millions of this great needy family of His; expending upon each one an equal care, so that the least insect, living but one brief hour, does not fail of his portion. And how kind to provide for all without their labour--for it is a just remark of Pierre, that there exists not a single animal but what is lodged, clothed, and fed by the hand of Providence--without care, and almost without labour. And yet, again, how kind and wise to cause each one to subserve some useful purpose to man; making even the little flies and all the winged insects to act as scavengers, by taking up and carrying off the surplus effete matter in the vegetable creation; and all the little ground-mice and earth-worms to act as Nature’ s ploughmen, or as sappers and miners boring in all directions into the stubborn soil, thus rendering it pervious to air and rain and the roots of plants! III. the intelligent world--ourselves.1. Our outfit, our endowments. A body, fearfully and wonderfully made; heart, muscles, ears, etc. The mind, with its subtle powers of consciousness, and reflection, and reasoning; and memory, and imagination--each faculty displaying the Divine goodness. And the same of the several senses--of sight, hearing, taste, touch, smell. And what an endowment is the gift of speech, by which we may reciprocate thought and feeling, and become acquainted one with another! 2. How every thing is contrived and adjusted to secure our comfort and good. What a mercy that many functions of the body, such as breathing, digestion, the circulation of the blood, etc., are performed involuntarily; so that they go forward without our bidding or attention! And how merciful the provisions for gratifying the senses--eye, ear, etc. Another merciful provision is the social relations. 3. Think also of God’ s hourly deliverances. A man, riding down a steep hill, and reaching the bottom, said to one whom he met there, “ I have had a wonderful deliverance.” “ What is it?” he asked. “ Why, my horse stumbled on that hill, and I was thrown over his head and not harmed.” “ Indeed,” said the man, “ I have had many a greater deliverance on that hill than that.” “ And how? . . . Why, I have ridden down that hill hundreds of times, and my horse has never so much as stumbled one!” The moral is plain--but how do we forget it! (H. C. Fish, D. D.) The earth full of God’ s goodness 1. The goodness of God is seen in the productiveness of Nature. It is so natural to see the bread on the table, that we do not think of the subtle agencies at work in the production of the corn; how light and heat, rain and dew, and the fruitful qualities of the soil, all helped on the final result. The hard rock has been pulverized, and mixed with the dead matter of former living things, to make a fruitful soil. The sea has given of its moisture, and the sun has drawn the vapour into the upper air. The atmosphere has balanced the pregnant clouds, winds have wafted them to thirsty lands, mountains and hills have condensed them into rain. The sun also has poured down a daily stream of warmth and light, and the evening has witnessed the gentle distilling of the dew. 2. Man himself is not more wonderfully made than is the earth adapted to be his dwelling-place. He can live almost anywhere, for go where he will, he nearly always finds Nature producing the wherewithal to supply his wants. And in this abundant provision God’ s goodness is shown, just as a parent’ s goodness is shown towards his child in his anxiety to meet his child’ s wants. It shows how provident and thoughtful, on our behalf, God has been. 3. God’ s goodness is manifest, also, in the beauty of natural things. He has made the world fair enough to be the dwelling-place of angels. 4. We see God’ s goodness manifested in the structure of human society. Man is compelled by the necessities of his nature to associate with his fellows. God has ordained it because in this way only could the highest joy possible to man be reached. He has made the law which governs His own life, to be the law which governs ours. Love is the law of God’ s life--to live for others that He may bless them--and it is when this law is well and cheerfully observed that man’ s life is most peaceful, most blessed, most akin to the life of God. 5. We behold the goodness of the Lord again in the sanctities of religion. He made our hearts capable of fellowship with His Spirit and has drawn near, so that we might receive helpful inspirations from His love. He has revealed Himself in Jesus Christ, that men may feel His tenderness and be won by His grace; and, by the Incarnation of the Son of God, He has lifted our nature immeasurably nearer His own. (Joseph Bainton.) The beneficence and benevolence of God Our sources of knowledge of the beneficence and benevolence of God, are-- 1. The earth, its inhabitants; the atmosphere, and the ruling orbs of day and night; the construction of man and of all animals, and the provisions for their sustenance and safety. 2. The fixed laws by which they are all governed; the freedom of mind with which man was created and is still endowed; as entering essentially into the explanation of apparent difficulties in the Divine providence by which he is ruled. 3. The discoveries of men, scientific, moral, and philosophical, in the remotest ages, and the revelation of God and of His works which we have in the writers of the Old Testament; and especially the authoritative teaching of Jesus Christ. The testimony of our own consciences, and the trusty evidence of intelligent, thoughtful, and religious minds, competent to give information and opinion upon the subject. (R. Ainslie.) All goodness comes from God Did it never strike you, asks Kingsley, that all the goodness in the world must, in some way or other, come from God? When we see the million raindrops of the shower, we say, with reason, there must be one great sea, from which all these drops have come. When we see the countless rays of light, we say, with reason, there must be one great central sun, from which all these are shed forth. And when we see countless drops and countless rays of goodness scattered about in the world, a little good in this man, and a little good in that, shall we not say, there must be one great sea, one central sun of goodness, from whence all human goodness comes? Psalms 33:6-8 By the word of the Lord were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth.The Biblical conception of Nature For this, see the first chapter of Genesis. There are two opposite extremes into which our conceptions may fall.1. We may immerse God in Nature, if we treat Nature as possessed of properties strictly personal. A very great deal of common language is vitiated by this blunder. But will is an attribute of personality, and Nature has not will. 2. We may unduly isolate Nature as God’ s workmanship from God the worker. We do this if we regard the universe as teaching us’ nothing of God, being only a whirl of material change without spiritual meaning; or as if having only a given amount of force which will run down, like a watch. But against both of these note-- I. the world is God’ s creation--a separate thing, therefore, and inferior to Himself. “ By the word of the Lord were the heavens made.” Now a word serves two functions.1. It is the organ of command, conveying an act of will. 2. It is the reflection of the speaker’ s self, revealing his nature. The great fact of the whole ancient world was this, that its multiform religions started from a nature basis. The sun and stars, the reproductive forces of animal and vegetable life, the decay and revival of the year, was the common fact which very early riveted the attention of primitive man, till out of it there grew up in many lands, under many shapes, a system of religious observance everywhere the same in principle. Plainly this system of religion started from the Bible truth that Nature is a revelation of God. By degrees, no doubt, the Divine idea became obscured. The sense of Nature’ s unity grew feeble. Men came to see not so much one God speaking through all His creatures, as rather a separate morsel of divinity inherent in each separate creature. From using the sun, or the dawn, or the sky, or the spring, as a symbol only for that Invisible Being whose thoughts these objects revealed, men began to adore the symbol, and to forget the Invisible Person behind it. Easy and rapid was the downward plane to idolatry and polytheism and gross fetish-worship. Yet what is worth noting is, that such Nature-religions would have been impossible had not Nature really spoken to unsophisticated men a Divine message. This, be it remembered, was a very different thing from that cold logical argument of the modern theist, who infers a Designer from the observed facts of science. Not to the reason, so much as to the intuition, of early man did Nature address itself. It spoke poetry, not logic. We are far enough removed now from that early stage of human experience. The world is grown, and its work is not to worship Nature, but to master it. But we can only do this by observing the laws by which its Creator governs it. Thus both ancient nature worship, and modern nature study, both depend upon the fact that Nature, being God’ s Word, speaks to us His thoughts. II. Now compare the moral revelation with this of nature.1. It starts from and builds upon the revelation of Nature. 2. It can only be understood if God be above Nature and yet present, self-revealed in Nature. 3. It agrees with the old. In absolute unity of plan. In orderly plan and obedience to fixed law. In the slowness and even laboriousness of the processes of its growth. In the stern maintenance of law, avenging all transgression. 4. But the Gospel goes on beyond and tells of redemption through our Lord Jesus Christ. (J. Oswald Dykes, D. D.) He gathereth the waters . . . as an heap.--The old versions and interpreters read ‘ as in a bottle” for “ as an heap,” vocalizing the text differently from the present pointing; but there seems to be an allusion to the wall of waters at the passage of the Red Sea, the same word being used in Miriam’ s song; with “ depths” in the next clause, there as here (Exodus 15:8). What is meant, however, here, is the separation of land and water at first, and possibly the continuance of the same power keeping them still apart, since the verbs in verse 7 are participles, which imply continued action. The image of “ an heap” is probably due to the same optical delusion which has coined the expression “ the high seas,” since, to an eye looking seawards from the beach, the level waters seem to rise as they recede; or it may merely express the gathering together in a mass. Away out there, in that ocean of which the Hebrews knew so little, were unplumbed depths in which, as in vast storehouses, the abundance of the sea was shut up, and the ever-present Word which made them at first was to them instead of bolts and bars. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Psalms 33:8 Let all the earth fear the Lord.The nature and influence of the fear of God I. what is the proper awe and fear which is due from man to God? Distinguish between a servile or superstitious, and a filial or religious fear. The former we are to avoid as a dishonour to God; the latter we are obliged to as an indispensable duty, the true spring and motive of our Christian obedience. II. some considerations which ought to possess our souls with this affection towards the deity. Can we reflect on the infinite knowledge and omnipresence of God, and not stand in awe of that Being from whom even the most secret thoughts and intentions of the heart are not concealed? Or, can we remember that He is infinitely just, without a religious concern for the event of that day, when we must appear before His impartial tribunal? But the attribute which especially demands this affection from us is His power. None can resist or interrupt the execution of His will; He has power to save, and power to destroy; nor is He accountable to any for His dominion over us. But these arguments arising from the perfections of the Deity will yet more effectually possess us with this reverence, if at the same time we reflect with a just humility on ourselves. That we are indigent, defenceless beings; the dependants of His providence; so far as we know, the lowest of all intelligent beings, whose strength is weakness, and whose wisdom is folly. And, what is yet a more mortifying consideration, we have provoked this Almighty Power by our sins; have affronted His goodness, despised His counsel, and rebelled against His authority. III. the influence this affection will have on the conduct of our lives. In general, the effect of this fear will be a sincere, universal obedience to the commands of God. The awe of His majesty will keep us from presumption, and the promises of His mercy from despair: for, as is His majesty, so is His mercy. If this principle were thoroughly fixed in the minds of men, we should be ashamed of hypocrisy, and tremble at profaneness; neither hope our treachery could escape the notice, nor our blasphemies the vengeance of God. This affection will give warmth to our zeal, and spirit to our devotion; will animate our faith, enliven our hope, and extend our charity; will deter us from sin, and encourage us in our duty. (J. Rogers, D. D.) Psalms 33:10-12 The Lord bringeth the counsel of the heathen to nought; He maketh the devices of the people of none effect.Providential deliverances from slavery This psalm is a psalm of praise and thanksgiving upon the subject of God’ s works of creation and providence; and the author seems in his enumeration of the works of God to equal the wonders of Providence with those of Creation (Psalms 33:6). Now the psalmist thus joins them together because of the deliverances that he and his people had experienced. And we as a nation have known like deliverances.1. The providence of God presides over and governs all things, and has a peculiar influence upon all the great events that happen unto men. 2. This, as it is observable in all the great periods of every particular man’ s life, so it is more especially and remarkably true, in respect of such events, wherein the fates of whole nations and kingdoms are concerned. (J. Clarke, D. D.) Divine and human purpose The wicked meet with a large measure of success in this world. Their success, however, does little for them after all. It does not put them in possession of solid and lasting happiness, and this may be said to be their highest aim. Their power, moreover, IS very limited at the best, and in all directions, and they are not longer lived than others. God has absolute power over them. He has so arranged, and so administers affairs, that we may describe them as circum-hedged. Neither singly nor collectively can creatures carry anything against the Divine will or power. “ Counsel” or purpose may be defined--a decision or determination of the will; and purposes may be divided into good, bad, and indifferent. Practically, they may be so divided; and it is almost unnecessary to remark that good purposes never conflict with the purposes of God. He approves of them, and is on the side of all good purposes. It is bad purposes of which God disapproves, and in proportion to their inherent badness; but the badness of a purpose, let it be distinctly noted, is no proof that it clashes with the purposes of God. If it were, it would follow that not one bad purpose formed by man had ever been or could be executed; but what is the fact? Countless millions of bad purposes have been successfully carried out, and are being carried out every day all over the world. Baffled they frequently are, but by no means always. Indeed, if we had our way, they would be baffled a great deal oftener; but God’ s thoughts and ways are not as our thoughts and ways. They are high above ours as heaven is above the earth. A young man, let us suppose, makes up his mind to rob his employer, and it is not long till the sinful purpose is put into execution. Query--What was God’ s relation to the purpose? With the utmost ease God could have deprived him of the opportunity and the power to rob his employer. What God purposed was that, while disapproving of the purpose to rob, He would per[nit the execution of it, or not interfere by the exercise of His omnipotence to hinder its execution. Whenever the purpose of God crosses the line of human purposes, be they the purposes of one person, or any number of persons in combination, it presents an insuperable barrier--a barrier which can neither be swept away nor overleapt. As well may we essay to pluck a star from the firmament or dry up the bed of the sea, as essay to frustrate or modify or delay the fulfilment of the Divine purposes, for they are the purposes of a Being whose knowledge and power are absolute, and who can take these words into His mouth, “ I am the Lord, I change not.” (G. Cron.) Psalms 33:11 The counsel of the Lord standeth for ever.The immutability of God’ s counsels Let us make some remarks.I. upon the divine counsels generally. There are such, and they show--1. That God concerns Himself with our world. 2. They are of deliberation and wise purpose. Of the works of God in the material world we may indeed say, “ In wisdom hast Thou made them all.” How vast and orderly is the frame of the world! But in Nature, wonderful as are these operations, there is nothing to resist, to repel, to dispute. All are His servants, and every thing fulfils His word. He saith to one, Go, and it goeth; to another, Come, and it cometh. But in His moral kingdom we see a world in rebellion. There is not a principle naturally in our hearts, but it is a rebel principle also. Every affection, every will, is ready to start up in defiance, wrestling with His authority, and pursuing a course contrary to His commands. If His government were one of rigid justice only, there would be no difficulty here. But judgment is “ His strange work,” and mercy the delight of His administration. The counsel, in this case, is to make good triumph over evil, and evil itself the occasion of good. How adorable is that wisdom which, influenced by goodness, wins back a rebellious heart to love and obedience without violence to its freedom! which makes our very “ wickedness to correct us, and our backslidings to reprove us!” and which, finally, although by the mysterious permission of evil, sin hath abounded, yet makes grace much more abound; so that, “ as sin hath reigned unto death, even so doth grace reign, through righteousness, unto eternal life, by Jesus Christ our Lord!” Well may we say, with St. Paul, when one branch of this great subject was before him, “ O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out!” 3. They are supreme and uncontrollable. This it is which gives to good men so entire and joyful a confidence: “ There is no wisdom, nor understanding, nor counsel against the Lord.” II. But our text calls us to consider the stability of the divine counsels. “ They shall stand for ever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations.” We may illustrate this--1. By ancient instances of the fulfilment of delayed purposes. See the birth of Isaac, long promised, given at last. The promised seed of the woman--how long before that appeared. 2. The steadfastness of His holy law. He never swerves from it. Go to the right hand or to the left, and you fall not only into a sin, but into a peril or a misery. Other maxims deceive: His never. 3. The constant connection of painful fear and misery with sin. 4. The established order of human salvation. I see man in all ages a sinner and miserable. But there is hope for him. He was forgiven, and assured, and became both a justified and a holy man. Ages have since elapsed, but every pardoned and accepted sinner has been saved in the same way. (R. Watson.) The counsel of the Lord I. How blessed is it to have a personal revelation of God in the character of his son. His majesty and mercy are revealed in Christ, tested in honour and ignominy, in power and in pain. There is uniformity and radiance, a joy and rest to man in this revelation of God’ s character and counsel. II. No knowledge is so important and so practical as that of God’ s plan. None so personally, universally and eternally affects us. In this plan happiness is made to correspond with piety, sorrow with sin, and the plan works with certainty; inexorable, yet simple. The force that binds the moon to the earth and the earth to Sirius is simple but sure. So in the sweep of the ages, God’ s truth standeth for ever and the thoughts of His heart to all generations. Eternity itself shall emphasize and illustrate it. III. in the development of this plan we may expect surprises to us. The plan is eternal. We are of yesterday. You admire mosaic painting for the beauty of its tint, the free, flowing majesty and grace, the delicacy and beauty of its delineations. But should a child in the artist’ s studio take up a bit of ruby, turquoise, agate or pearl, and ask you what its relation was to the scene depicted--the Crucifixion or Resurrection perhaps--it might not be easy for you to explain its use, or mark its place till the master’ s work was complete. When Jerusalem was razed, the early Christians were surprised and alarmed. But that event led to the spread of the Gospel, just as the Jewish act of homicide end decide instrumentally led to man’ s salvation. So each event in God’ s plan has its place as each capital and gargoyle has its fitting location in the cathedral. (R. H. Storrs.) The thoughts of His heart to all generations.--Divine thoughts God thinks of us, and He intends that we in return should think of Him. And for us to do this rightly is true religion. What condescension and kindness are shown in God’ s thinking of us. “ I know the thoughts that I have toward you that they are good and not evil.” I. the nature of God’ s thoughts. All existence is the embodiment of God’ s thought, but it is only as He reveals His thoughts to us that we can form any conception of them. And He has done this. The Bible is the unfolding of God’ s thoughts to us as they bear on our recovery from bondage and sin. And every one desires to know what are God’ s thoughts upon our sin. The sense of guilt is universal. Now God tells us that His thoughts are set on our salvation. None but He could have introduced a plan of restoration like that which the Gospel brings. And His thought includes our regeneration and renewal as well as our forgiveness. For they include the promise of the Holy Ghost. How precious, then, are God’ s thoughts unto us. II. the permanence of God’ s covenant. It “ standeth for ever.” (John Glanville.) God’ s thoughts I. God has thoughts.1. Independent--in their origin, character, manifestation. 2. Complete: they grasp the whole of a thing, and the whole of all things. 3. Unsuccessive: one thought does not start another, as in our ease. 4. Harmonious. II. God has thoughts for humanity. Three things are necessary before humanity can get any benefit from his thoughts--1. God must reveal them. Unless He express them we shall never know them. 2. There must be a capacity to appreciate them. Without this capacity the revelation is useless. 3. There must be meditation. We cannot reach the great thoughts of a great man without study; how, then, can we expect to attain the thoughts of God without it? III. God’ s thoughts for humanity are permanent.1. Because they embody absolute truths. They will always be what they are; they never can change. 2. Because they will ever be congruous with the moral nature. They are to the moral nature what air and water are to the body, fitted for it, and necessary to it, Without them it will die. (Homilist.) Psalms 33:12-14 Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord. National uplifting This text holds in its grasp the secret of our own national prosperity and superiority among the nations of the world--if we have such--and its teaching, if departed from by this nation, will cause our present glory to depart like the glory of ancient Rome, or Sidon, or Tyre. I. When the text states that the nation is blessed whose God is the Lord, and when we say to you that religion is the promoter of peace and prosperity, and the only foundation for our national permanence, the infidelity of our times and your knowledge of things suggest, that there have been nations that have been destroyed, and that are now oppressed because of their religion, Then let us carefully distinguish. There are many religions, but only one Christianity, and therefore we use the word religion; we use it because by general acceptation it has come to represent in our land and to our thoughts Christianity or the religion of Christ, and when we have drawn this distinction we must not forget that much that has come to the world in the name of Christianity is not of Christianity. You think of the cruelties, of the superstitions, and of the fanaticisms that are abroad in the world and doing their work in the name of religion, and you say, “ These are not a blessing to the nation, these are a curse.” Very true. “ Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord.” While this is but another announcement that religion is the power that elevates and blesses a nation, we will not forget that men in the past have gone forth armed with the civil sword, destroying all who doubted the truth of their systems; they have placed violence before demonstration, and have sought to establish the truth of religion as a Mohammed would establish the doctrine of the Koran. Spain and France and Italy, and Scotland and England, have each and all felt the power of the sword, the axe, and the torch in the name of religion. No, this is not the religion that blesses a nation. The religion that blesses the nation is forbearing to error and heresy; it is kind and patient and gentle; its grand characteristic is benevolence and fraternal love. II. In discussing the blessings that come to a nation by the acceptance of religion, blessings that can come through no other medium, I do not mean to say that there are no instances of the great advancement of nations that hare not been regulated by religion, Infidelity is ever ready to point us to Egypt, to Persia, to Assyria, and to Old Greece and Rome, and say, “ These were all great nations, prosperous nations, without your religion.” This I readily acknowledge, but a careful study of the history of these nations will show that their false religions contained some principles of rectitude in common with our holy religion, and in the practice of these principles great prosperity came to them and continued with them until they departed from those principles; then did their power and their glory depart from them. Would you know the secret of Egypt’ s glory for ages and ages? “ The father of history” tolls us that such was the spirit of benevolence in Egypt that he who refused to assist the suffering when he had it in his power to do so was punished with death. When an Egyptian died a session was called to inquire how he had spent his life, so that true merit should have its full mead of public praise, and that all due respect might be paid to his memory. Her amusements were ordered for the strengthening of the bodies and the improvement of the minds of her subjects. Her proverbs called life a vanity, the homes of her people inns, in which they served to lodge for a night, and their sepulchres habitations in which they were to abide for ages. DO you wonder that Egypt became great? In Persia a falsehood--even a political falsehood--was considered in the most horrid light, and a liar was looked upon as the meanest and most disgraceful of men. Persia conferred favours on the nations she conquered, and left them to enjoy all the emblems of their former grandeur. She educated her children so wisely that they were taught virtue even as other children were taught letters, and grief was prohibited for such youths as were of sufficient strength and had reached proper years and yet died uneducated. Do you wonder that Persia became great? Rome in her best days bent all her energies for the general good, so that the best of everything was reserved for the public--temples, baths, highways, aqueducts--all looked toward the nation’ s good and the nation’ s glory, and were the most magnificent, while all things for the use of the individual citizen were plain and unpretentious. “ A citizen, of Rome who would present any product of the soil for sale that proved inferior to what he commended it to be, said citizen would lose his credit in all the marts in Rome and would lay himself liable to be whipped in the marketplace.” And this law that applied to the products of the soil applied equally to all branches of trade. The motto was, “ No citizen of Rome must in any way wrong his brother citizen.” Do you wonder that Rome became great? It will be seen that those nations, though they did not make the Lord their God, and though they were nations with false religions, yet those false religions did contain some principles of righteousness in common with our holy religion, and these principles were the fountains of their success. III. there are supposed blessings, and there is a shrine of desired prosperity that is better promoted without than with the religion my text commends. There are instances in which state crimes have been successful, and have been made the steps to worldly glory. There have been times when virtue was considered an obstacle to grandeur, when worldly heroes were exalted and tyrants were elevated; instances when wanton and arbitrary power marched with burning torch across the world and demanded of the peoples submission to a yoke of slavery that made them inferior to the beasts of the field. If such nations, such peoples, such rulers may be called blessed and prospered, they were obliged to ride over every principle of our holy religion to clasp that prosperity. IV. the reasons why that nation is blessed whose God is the Lord will readily appear when we consider the principles on which the peace and prosperity of society is builded. IS it necessary that the good of the many should be prepared before the interests of the few, and where private interests clash with the public good, the public good should prevail? Is it necessary for the peace and prosperity of society that all the members of that society shall consider themselves naturally equal before the law, and that, without regard to country or colour, each shall receive the succour and protection that the law affords? Is it necessary that there should be sincerity between man and man lest deceit should serve for a veil to conceal the evil doings of the wicked from the eyes of the just? Is it necessary for the highest and best good of society that each member cultivate to the utmost his own talents and then seek to use those talents for the general good of the whole society? Then what shall so inculcate these principles as the religion my text commends? V. If we consider the various forms of government we shall find that each nation will be happy or miserable in its own mode of governing according as it shall have accepted or rejected the principles of religion. It requires more than a form of government; more than extensive territories; more than millions of population to make a strong, blessed and a happy nation. Some nations have committed the supreme power to one whom they call a monarch. Other nations have committed the supreme power to a few magistrates, senators or nobles. Other nations have committed or distributed the supreme power among all the members of society, and they talk of a “ government of the people, by the people, and for the people.” Each of these forms of government have their excellencies and their weaknesses; but each of them are a blessing or a curse in proportion as they accept or reject the principles of our holy religion. VI. whatever enters into and constitutes the blessing and prosperity of a nation is cultivated by our holy religion. Commerce will flourish, because the principles of religion hold back the man of business from rash speculations, which ruin families and destroy whole communities, and, in a wider application, bring to a whole nation what is known as “ hard times.” The men of business will possess such characters for truth-speaking and truth-dealing that general credit and confidence will be established, without which such a thing as commercial prosperity is Dot known. The mechanical arts will flourish, forasmuch as those who are prompted by religion will seek to improve all inventive genius for the welfare of the general public. All agricultural interests will flourish, and all mechanical appliances will lend arms of strength and hands of skill to the tillers of the soil, and the products of the soil will be all the richer, and the harvests all the more plenteous among that people who acknowledge that “ the earth is the Lord’ s and the fulness thereof.” All the liberal arts and sciences will flourish, and all their blessings will be poured out upon the nation whose God is the Lord. Rhetoric will find its inspiration in the burning Words and thoughts of prophet and psalmist. Painting will find inspiration in Moses’ mountain view, in angelic visitors, in the judgment day, when assembled worlds will be gathered at the call of the King Eternal; and on the Mount of Transfiguration, where heavenly visitors talk with Jesus, and enraptured disciples desire to tarry. Sculpture will find inspiration in Moses, and it will breathe such life into the marble that Angelo’ s “ Dead Christ” will make all beholders weep. Music will find inspiration in the subject of Creation, and of Elijah and of the Messiah. Haydn so sings to us of Creation that we are startled by the marching forth of worlds “ when God says let there be worlds and there were worlds.” Mendelssohn so sings to us of Elijah that we hear the rumble of the chariot of fire, and the clatter of the hoofs of the horses of fire, as up the way of light the deathless prophet is borne to the city of God. Handel so sings to us of the Messiah, of His sufferings and of His death, that the heart feels indeed that “ He was bruised for cur iniquities,” etc. If success in commerce, in the mechanical arts, in agriculture, and in the liberal arts and sciences constitute a nation blessed, then are the nations blessed whose God is the Lord. (W. Fawcett, D. D.) Religion a nation’ s true strength Human society reposes on religion. Civilization without it would be like the lights that play in the northern sky--a momentary flash on the face of darkness ere it again settled into eternal night. Wit and wisdom, sublime poetry and lofty philosophy cannot save a nation, else ancient Greece had never perished. Valour, law, ambition, cannot preserve a people, else Rome had still been mistress of the world. The nation that loses faith in God and man loses not only its most precious jewel, but its most unifying and conserving force. (A. M. Fairbairn.) Psalms 33:15 He fashioneth their hearts alike. The moral identity of human hearts “ He fashioneth their hearts alike.” All have certain instincts, passions, emotions with which conventional differences have nothing to do. “ One touch of Nature makes the whole world kin.” I. God hath fashioned our hearts alike in respect of this, that we are all self-conscious, I can think of myself as myself and no other--as one individual unit. I am myself a world, into which the great world cannot penetrate; and, in the light of my own consciousness, i am as effectually hidden as though I did not exist at all. And this does not break up the race. It unifies it. For it is the same with all. II. In close connection with this we must take the moral sense, that is, the conviction that some things are right and some wrong. Take the rudest savage, one whose ideas as to what is right and what is wrong are all jumbled together; still he feels that there is a difference. In this also “ God fashioneth our hearts alike.” Its universality makes it the foundation of law, the approver of right, and the avenger of wrong, even when human law fails to detect the criminal. III. God has made us all for friendship, affection, mutual dependence and mutual help. God “ setteth us in families.” None of us, king or subject, prince or peasant, is sufficient for himself. The whole civilization and beneficence of the world have sprung from this objective character of man. Give a man nothing to do, and he is miserable. Give a man nothing to love, and he is miserable. IV. this outward seeking can never be fully satisfied with anything created. In order to full satisfaction it must go forward and upward to God. It calls for the infinite. In this sense, too, God “ hath fashioned our hearts alike.” He has so made us that He Himself is necessary to us. “ The eye is not satisfied with seeing,” and not all the resources of this manifold world can fill the void in the human heart, and lead it to say--“ It is enough.” There is something unanswered still, and there ever will be till we rest in God. (A. L. Simpson, D. D) Psalms 33:18-20 Behold! the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear Him, upon them that hope in His mercy.The eye of the Lord “ Behold!” It is a marked word in Scripture! Isaiah typifying the Christ that was to come, opens the glorious secret thus--“ Behold My servant, whom I uphold; Mine Elect, in whom My soul delighteth: I will put My spirit upon Him; He shall bring forth judgment unto the Gentiles.” And, when that despicable creature Pilate brought forth the glorious, the insulted, and the suffering Jesus, his word was--“ Behold! the man.” And so the Holy Ghost adopts this striking, telling word--“ Behold[“ to captivate the heart with that which follows; giving a faithful description of She church in her chequered state of exercise and trial in all ages. I. the character spoken of in the text--“ them that fear Him.” Do you fear God? Another character is, “them that hope in his mercy.” Observe that word--“ them that hope in His mercy.” That is enough! That is Christianity! But hope set up in a broken heart! II. Upon all such is “the eye of the Lord.” Is that eye on you? III. why the eye of the Lord is upon them--“ to deliver their soul from death and to keep,” etc. IV. the personal experience of the text. (J. J. West, M. A.) Special pleading with the specially feeble See the opposite in the text--fear and hope. They seem to be contradictions, but yet here they are together. That is a blessed state in which fear keeps the door and hope spreads the table; fear the watch-dog without and hope the lamp within. Then that hope in the Lord’ s mercy may be the very least of His people, but they are His people, for His eye is upon them. Now, to those whose sole hope is hope in God’ s mercy, we would say-- I. this hope is one, and only one. Let me ask--1. Have you any hope in your own character? At once he replies, “ None at all.” Now this is well, humbling as the admission is. O, self-truster, you are a living insult to the Cross of Christ. 2. Have you any hope in external ordinances? 3. Have you any trust in the priesthood of man? 4. In scientific discoveries? Now, to all these questions the answer is clear and explicit. He has no trust in them at all, but in Christ only. Then-- II. that this hope in Christ has good foundations. I rejoice in your sense of sin, but I lament your doubts of pardon; for consider--1. The merciful character of God. His very name is love. And-- 2. There is a gospel. There is forgiveness for the greatest sin. The very word “ gospel” is full of the greatest hope for man. 3. Think of the life of the Lord Jesus hero on earth. Did He ever reject any who came to Him? 4. And of the Holy Spirit. He is provided to meet all your difficulties. And-- 5. We may pray. It would be a wicked hoax if a man invited poor people to his house to receive charity, and then, when they came there, denied them relief, God does not deal with us so. 6. And how many have come to Christ and been moved by Him? I am one of them. I do not think that you are any worse than I was. III. this hope may be yours. Let me try to chase away objections. “ Oh,” say you, “ I have been guilty of the worst of sins.” In the case of’ certain of you I do not believe it. You have enough to answer for without blackening yourself needlessly. But worse sinners than you have come to Christ. And may there not be a spice of rebellion against God in your humility, a little sullenness in it? Don’ t put away Christ from you out of a proud despair. Accept His mercy as a commonplace sinner. And what good do you think your death, if He leaves you to perish, as you think He will, will do Him? And suppose, after all, you are one of His chosen, and that He has loved you all along, is it not sad that you should not love and trust him. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Psalms 33:20-22 Our soul waiteth for the Lord: He is our help and our shield.Waiting for the Lord I. the subject of the exercise--“ our soul.” Not our souls, but “ our soul.” Believers are said to be “ of one soul.” Drops of water brought into contact will run into one. So with the souls of God’ s people. II. the exercise itself--waiting for the Lord. It includes conviction, desire, hope, patience. III. the encouragement given--“ He is our help and our shield.”1. Their help. They need aid, and know their need. 2. Their shield, to defend from all the power of the adversary both from without and within. (W. Jay.) A description of true worship I. waiting on the Lord for a good reason (Psalms 33:20).1. Waiting upon Him implies faith--faith in His existence; desire, a craving after some good; patience, biding His own good time. But how are you to wait on Him? (1) Wholly. He must be waited upon in every event, purpose, action, and place. True worship is an all-pervading spirit, not an occasional feeling or service. (2) Lovingly. It cannot be done perfunctorily or formally. (3) Constantly. It is spirit running through the life, giving unity, meaning, and worth to existence. 2. Such is the waiting but what is the good reason? “ He is our help and our shield.” A “ shield.” If He be for us, who can be against us? God is our refuge and strength. A “ help.” Life’ s labours are arduous, life’ s trials are heavy: He is the only effective helper in both. We will wait, therefore, on Him. II. rejoicing in the lord for a good reason (Psalms 33:21).1. True worship is joy--the only satisfactory and lasting joy of a moral intelligence. It is a rejoicing in His-- (1) Works.(2) Government.(3) Character.(4) Fatherhood.(5) Promises. What is the good reason for rejoicing? “ Because we have trusted in His holy name.” All joy is the fruit of that tree that is rooted in an unbounded confidence in God. All the streams that “ make glad the city of our God” rise out of a settled faith in Him. III. praying to the Lord for a good reason (Psalms 33:22).1. Were we innocent sufferers, we should pray for justice, not mercy; but we are sinful, and mercy is what we require: mercy to pardon, to cleanse, and to qualify us for the high service and fellowship of the Holy One. 2. What is the good reason for this prayer? “ According as we hope in Thee.” We pray because our confidence is in Thee, and our expectation is from Thee. Men would never pray without this hope in God, and the compass of the prayer is measured by the expanse of this hope. We ask for little because our faith and hope are feeble. (Homilist.) . Psalms 34:1-22 Psalms 34:1-22I will bless the Lord at all times: His praise shall continually be in my mouth.A devout hymn I. an exemplification of true praise.1. It is thorough. (1) There is no praise without concentration of soul.(2) Distracting forces are rife. 2. It is constant. (1) In every department of action--intellectual, artistic, commercial, political.(2) In every circumstance of life--sorrow, joy, adversity, prosperity, bereavement, friendship. 3. It is exultant. God is the sum total of all excellence, the primal fount of all joy; therefore let us boast in Him. 4. It is social. The true worshipper becomes magnetic; he draws others to the shrine before which he falls. II. A reason for true praise. 1. Past deliverance (Psalms 34:4). (1) He had been “ delivered out of all his troubles.” His troubles were great in their variety, number, but he was delivered.(2) He had been delivered out of all his troubles by prayer. “ I sought the Lord,” etc. 2. Constant protection (Psalms 34:7). (Homilist.) Blessing the Lord I. A resolution to bless the Lord, or to thank the Lord.1. The things for which we ought to bless or thank the Lord: temporal; spiritual; personal; family; national; and Christian. 2. Whom we are to bless: “ the Lord,” the Giver of all; no mercy, except from Him; gives freely; bounteously, always. 3. When we are to bless the Lord:--“ at all times.” II. A resolution to praise the Lord.1. This is a resolution which Nature even approves. “ All Thy works praise Thee, O Lord.” 2. A resolution which reason sustains. 3. A resolution which Scripture examples encourage. 4. A resolution which is in analogy with the customs of social life. 5. A resolution which accords with our obligation. 6. A resolution which harmonizes with the employment of the heavenly inhabitants. 7. A resolution which, if carried out, will contribute much to life’ s happiness, and promote the glory of God in our spheres of action. (J. Bate.) Psalms 34:2 My soul shall make her boast in the Lord; the humble shall hear thereof and be glad. Rightful boasting We all are prone to boast, and often on very slender grounds. The worst are they who boast of their own goodness. We are to glory only in the Lord. Now such rightful boasting includes the elevation of joyous feeling, and the breaking forth of gratitude and praise. And the humble shall hear thereof. Others would tell them, or, if not, the psalmist himself would. Spiritual sadness seeks seclusion, but not so spiritual freedom and joy. Like the return of health and of day, it says to the prisoners, “ Go forth” ; to them that are in darkness, “ Show yourselves.” And the effect of this knowledge would be to make them glad. The Lord’ s followers are supposed to be mopish and melancholy; but they have a thousand sources of joy which others know not of. (W. Jay.) On glorying in God alone What can better become us, who are the creatures of God, than to bless Him, and depend on Him? What can better become us, as Christians, than to be always praising add magnifying that God, to whose grace we owe our salvation and happiness? I. the examples of excellent persons (Jeremiah 9:23-24; 1 Corinthians 1:29-31). St. Paul himself was an eminent example of his own doctrine; for when, to vindicate himself, he found himself obliged to recount what he had done and suffered in the cause of Christianity, together with his endowments, graces and privileges, he begs pardon for it, calls it the foolishness of boasting, and as nothing less could excuse it, he pleads necessity for it (2 Corinthians 11:20). But this apostle, who was thus shy of glorying in his excellencies and advantages, lest he should seem too tender of his own honour, how forward he is to record his infirmities, that he might advance God’ s (2 Corinthians 12:9). We cannot be Christians unless God be all in all to us; unless we look upon Him as the source and spring of all good, the object of our joy and glory, and the ultimate end of our desires and hopes. II. we have received all from him. Whether natural endowments, or worldly possessions, all that we are born to, and all that we acquire, judgment, courage, wit, eloquence, wealth, power, favour, and the like, we certainly owe to God. And if we derive all from God, acknowledgment and praise is the least sacrifice we can make Him. III. We depend so entirely upon God, that we can reap little benefit, nay, we may suffer much prejudice by the most excellent endowments and possessions, unless they be sanctified by his grace, and befriended by his providence (Ecclesiastes 9:11). How naturally do riches breed luxury! power tyranny! honour insolence! favour and applause vanity! IV. To boast in anything but God is a symptom of extreme profaneness and irreligion; for whence can this proceed, but from an understanding darkened by ignorance or infidelity, or from a heart alienated from God, and possessed by some vile idol? V. The heathen thought that there was an envious daemon, whose peculiar province it was to cast down the vainglorious and insolent; but we Christians are taught that to humble “ the proud is a work that god delights in (Isaiah 2:12; James 4:6). And why does God take pleasure in this? To assert His sovereignty and dominion, to imprint an awe of His power upon the minds of mankind, and to extort from the proudest and vainest of mortals a confession of their meanness and His majesty. VI. marks by which we may examine ourselves in reference to this matter.1. If we have grateful hearts towards God, we shall let slip no occasion which invites us to praise and honour Him. Not only those things that are new and surprising, that are unusual or extraordinary, but also the common and ordinary works of God, and His constant and daily benefits, will affect our hearts with a devout and thankful remembrance of Him. 2. If we truly glory in the Lord, and in nothing else, our admiration and reverence, our love and gratitude will discover themselves, not only in our words, but in our actions. The principle which causes us to be humble and thankful towards God, will keep us from being disrespectful and insolent towards man; and, in general, we shall think it our duty, not only to glorify God by praise and thanksgiving, but also and especially by a right use and employment of His benefits and mercies. 3. The practice of this duty does by degrees advance us to a settled state of pleasure. What can be more delightful than the exercise of love, when the object of it is most perfect? (Psalms 63:4-6). (R. Lucas, D. D.) Psalms 34:3-7O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt His name together.A testimony meeting “ God’ s praises sound best in concert.” The praise that lifts its voice in solitude is beautiful, but it is far more beautiful when heard in communion with the praise of one’ s fellows. Each instrument in the orchestra is enriched by the co-operation of the others. Each member in a chorus has his discernment sharpened, and his zeal intensified by the remaining members. So in the orchestra of praise. My own thanksgiving is quickened and enriched when I join it to the praises of others. The text appears to suggest that a number of thankful souls gathered together, and, each contributing his own testimony of the exceeding graciousness of God, they joined in an outburst of united and jubilant praise. Here is one of the testimonies: “ I sought the Lord,” etc. And here is the gladsome confession of quite a numerous company. “ They looked unto Him and were lightened,” etc. And here, again, is the witness of an inspired and grateful soul: “ This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him,” etc.1. He was burdened with “ fears.” What did he make his resource? “ I sought the Lord.” The seeking was a real business. Into the inquisition he put his whole soul. And what was the issue of the search? “ He heard me.” The term implies heeding and responding. Man’ s “ seeking” was responded to by a sympathetic movement on the part of God. “ And delivered me,” etc. That is a full-coloured word, abounding in strength and vitality. It suggests the act of rescuing something out of a beast’ s mouth. It is from spiritual havoc of this kind that our Lord delivers us. The rescue is not partial. The relief is by no means incomplete. The freedom is absolute. “ He delivered me from all my fears.” “ God sweeps the field, slays the enemies, and even buries their bones.” 2. Let us listen to the second of these grateful testimonies. “ They looked unto Him and were lightened, and their faces were not ashamed.” The gracious answer of God brought a benediction of light. They “ were lightened.” Then before they must have been darkened. They were cheerless and depressed. They were “ losing heart.” “ Thy looked unto Him.” They gazed intently upon God. No snatch look, no hurried glances, no passing nod of recognition. A fixed and eager gaze. And what was the outcome of their gaze? They “ were lightened.” They were brightened up, lit up, made cheerful. “ Now are ye light in the Lord.” Depression gave way to buoyancy. Melancholy yielded to cheerfulness. 3. Let us now turn to the third of these witnesses, and hear his thankful confession. “ This poor man cried,” etc. What had been this man’ s peculiar burden? “ Troubles.” He had been in a “ tight corner,” a “ tight place.” In his straits he “ cried unto the Lord.” It was a short, sharp, urgent prayer. “ Fervour is a heavenly ingredient in prayer; an arrow drawn with full strength hath a speedier issue; therefore the prayers of saints are expressed by crying in Scripture.” Again we have the confession made by an earlier witness. “ The Lord heard him,” paid heed to him, and began the ministry of gracious response. “ He saved him out of all his troubles.” He opened a way out of the tight place. He led him out of straits into freedom. He gave him a sense of space. “ Thou hast brought my feet into a large place.” (J. H. Jowett, M. A.) A thanksgiving sermon I. what it is to magnify the Lord, and exalt his name. Let us not mistake in arrogating to ourselves that which is quite out of our reach, as if we, diminutive bits of God’ s creation, could enrich the exchequer of heaven. No, ‘ tis not at all in Himself, but only in our own minds, and others’ esteem, that we are capable of greatening and advancing the most glorious and ever-blessed God. When we conceive in ourselves any worthy sentiments, becoming the Divine majesty and goodness; are filled with an admiring sense of His transcendent excellencies, and a grateful sense of His loving-kindness” and endeavour, all we can, to propagate the same magnificent and fair idea to others: this is the utmost whereof we are capable, to glorify God in such aggrandizing representations, as show Him somewhat like Himself. And thus we do magnify the God infinitely good, when we stand in admiration of such benignity, that we should have any comfort with our lives, when we have done so much to spoil all with our sins! Yea, that not a minute should pass but brings us a new favour from above; and gives us more assurance still that He desires our felicity, and cannot design our ruin. Thinking thus well of God, we do magnify the Lord, and exalt His name. II. the properties of this eucharistical sacrifice, and how we are to offer it.1. It must be with the soul, from the altar of a sensible heart. To glory in Him is one way of giving glory to Him. 2. Though it must not be only a lip-service, we must not refrain our lips either. When our bodies are His temple, and our tongues the living bells articulately to sound His praise; how can we better employ the speaking faculty, than in celebrating His goodness that gave it? What we are transported with, we can hardly forbear to speak of, if we are full of it, ‘ tis apt to float on our tongues: and if the mercies of God affect our hearts, ‘ tis fit we should express the same, both to discharge a due debt ourselves, and also to kindle the like flame in others. 3. We must bless the Lord at all times (Psalms 34:1); not only by fits, as it pleases us, or when extorted from us upon some occasions extraordinary, but with such a heart whose pulse may be His praise. Our holy living is the most effectual thanksgiving. When we justify the Divine laws by our obedience, and thus stand up to attest their high reasonableness and goodness, instead of repining at them as hard sayings and heavy burdens; showing that really we do admire and applaud them for the blessed products of an infinite wisdom and love, to contrive and effect our everlasting happiness: then do we give them the best commendation, to make all enamoured with those sacred institutions, which they not only hear set off in hollow encomiums, but see produce such happy effects (John 15:8; Philippians 1:11). III. the reason we have thus to magnify the Lord, and exalt his name.1. It is the very end of our being. Man, as the priest of this inferior creation, is to offer up a general sacrifice in the name and behalf of all the rest; who in their several ways give a tacit consent, and (as it were) say Amen to the oblation: and when dumb and negligent to praise the Lord, we not only wrong ourselves, but rob multitudes that would do it, had they but our faculties and abilities to reason and express it. We not only stand for cyphers, but carry as an exorbitant rout, breaking our ranks and disordering the world, if we celebrate not His praise who has so set us up. 2. We have not only capacity, but all manner of obligations to it; even common justice hinds us to render to all their dues. Well may we extol Him, when He has done so for us (Psalms 30:1). How many great luminaries else soever there be, all disappear at the rising sun; and all other benefactors must be even nullified to omnify the Supreme. 3. As we are obliged, so by the goodness of it encouraged to it (Psalms 147:1). “ It is pleasant, and praise is comely.” It gives the pious soul a sweet satisfaction, like the pleasure which an honest man takes in paying his debts. The most delicious viands are not more grateful to a healthy body, than the praises of God are to a well-affected soul. This raises us even into heaven a forehand, to anticipate the anthems of the celestial choir. And how great is that honour, to be taken up in the work of angels! How much for our own praise to praise Him, that has given us both matter and hearts for it! (B. Jenks.) Psalms 34:4I sought the Lord, and He heard me. The reasonableness of prayer I. what the head, left to itself, thinks about prayer. The head, discerning only the externality of it, sees man, the creature, venturing to go into the presence of Jehovah the Creator, and ask to have just what he may wish for. That is “ prayer” as many seem to apprehend it. And the apprehension is so limited, and so imperfect, we cannot wonder it should occasion difficulty. Half the trouble is gone when we have worthily stated what prayer is. It is the act of acknowledged dependence. To connect every thought with the thought of God. To look on everything as His work and appointment. To submit every wish, thought, and resolve, to Him. That is prayer. And if that be the essence and life of prayer, and we can lay firm hold of it, then we are lifted into a serene region of calm, above the tempest that rages over such things as the possibilities of answer, and the relation of prayer to law. What does the head say about prayer? It says--1. Prayer is not unreasonable. Admit that there is a God on whom we are all dependent, and every one will be found willing to acknowledge that no act is more proper and reasonable than that in which we seek Divine favour and blessing. The Theist, who prides himself on the guidance of reason, speaks eloquently of prayer. 2. The head is fully willing to recognize the fact that, in all ages, and in all climes, men have been moved by the impulse to prayer. Everywhere man has felt the presence of One higher than himself, and has turned yearning eyes toward Him. 3. The head finds no serious objection to urge against the abstract statement that God can hear and answer prayer. If He be God indeed, and if He did create us, reason can find no ground for denying that, in His Divine arrangements, God may consider the feelings and wishes of His creatures, as well as their positive needs. The matter of prayer may be presented so that our minds cannot but find serious objections and difficulties. Sometimes it seems to be expected that by prayer we may change the order of the outward universe. We have even seen statements which assume that prayer is the means by which “ our wish determines God’ s will.” Against either of these representations the head properly stumbles. II. what the head, guided by the heart, thinks about prayer. The text is a heart-inspired utterance. The heart-guided head says--1. If God be a Father He must be a prayer-hearer. If He does not, He cannot be true to His name. Fatherhood pledges fatherly interest. If is the most simple and necessary thing that we, as children, should pray. It is the essential of His relation to us that God our Father should hear. 2. If God has promised, He surely knows how to perform. 3. The heart--guided head learns to set prayer in its proper limitations. 4. And, listening to all the objections urged against prayer, it quietly but firmly replies, “ You cannot argue me out of the facts and experiences of my life. This I know, ‘ I sought the Lord, and He heard me’ ; and I shall go on praying, for I have proved the power of prayer.” It is enough. We believe in the power of prayer. We see the glory of a praying life. (R. Tuck, B. A.) Psalms 34:5 They looked unto Him and were lightened; and their faces were not ashamed. Good authority for a good hope How low, oftentimes, has been the condition of the people of God! See the lamentations of Jeremiah. But he and all God’ s saints have looked unto God and were lightened. Consider-- I. their expectation. “ They looked unto Him.” They did so under--1. The deluge of sin. This universal; none ever escaped it. “ We are all under sin.” 2. The deluge of death. 3. Jehovah’ s eternal wrath. None, by and of themselves, can escape either. But Jesus said, “ Lo, I come,” and He hath rolled back the waters of each, for all them that look to Him. 4. Bondage. Israel was in bondage, and so are God’ s people now. But the Lord has promised to deliver them. “ The sighing of the prisoners “ comes before Him, and He preserves those that “ are appointed to die.” The sins of our nature are hard task-masters. II. confirmation. They “ were lightened” in mind and in soul. Let us then rejoice in our religion, and we shall never be ashamed. (James Wells.) Looking unto Jesus From the connection we are to understand the pronoun “ Him” as referring to the word “ Lord” in the preceding verse. “ They looked unto the Lord Jehovah, and were lightened.” But no man ever yet looked to Jehovah God, as He is in Himself, and found any comfort in Him, for “ our God is a consuming fire.” The only way in which we can see God is through the Mediator Jesus Christ. I. First, look to the Lord Jesus Christ in his life. Here the troubled saint will find the most to enlighten him. In the example, in the patience, in the sufferings of Jesus Christ, there are stars of glory to cheer the midnight darkness of the sky of your tribulation. One glimpse at Him may well suffice for all our toils while on the road. Cheered by His voice, nerved by His strength, we are prepared to do and suffer, even as He did, to the death. We trust that those of you who are weary Christians will not forget to “ look unto Him, and be lightened.” II. Come, then, poor, doubting, trembling sinners and saints--come ye now to Calvary’ s cross. Certain I am, that if we lived more with Jesus, were more like Jesus, and trusted more to Jesus, doubts and fears would be very scarce. “ They looked unto Him, and were lightened.” III. And now I invite you to a glorious scene--Christ’ s resurrection. You have lost, some of you, the dearest of your earthly relatives. There are others under the constant fear of death. Come, come, behold Jesus Christ risen! For remember, this is a great truth--“ Now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first-fruits of them that slept.” IV. look at Jesus Christ ascending into heaven. You are wrestling with spiritual enemies; you are at war to-day, and mayhap the enemy has thrust sore at you, and you have been ready to fall; it is a marvel to you that you have not turned like a coward from the field. But tremble not, your Master was more than conqueror, and so shall you be. V. “look unto him, and be lightened.” See there He sits in heaven, He has led captivity captive, and now sits at the right hand of God for ever making intercession for us. Like a great high priest of old, He stands with outstretched arms: there is majesty in His mien, for He is no mean, cringing suppliant. If thou dost not succeed, He will; if thy intercession be unnoticed, His cannot be passed away. Oh! be of good cheer, continue still thy supplication. “ Look unto Him, and be lightened.” (C. H. Spurgeon.) Psalms 34:6-7 This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him.Supernatural factor in prayer The most dangerous doctrine concerning prayer is that current philosophy of the matter which presents a half-truth only; allowing the subjective value, but denying all objective efficacy to prayer--i.e. admitting a benefit, as attached to a devout habit, but limiting the benefit to the working of natural results entirely within the suppliant. The text affirms a positive advantage in prayer. Jehovah is represented as hearing prayer and interposing to save the suppliant. And the idea is further expanded by a reference to the deliverances wrought by the “ Lord’ s angel.” To a Jew, the angel of the Lord was a historic reality, working supernatural signs and wonders all through that wonderful career of the chosen people of God. When such events as these can be explained by natural Causes, by self-scrutiny, self-conquest and self-culture, then prayer may be brought down to the level of natural philosophy and moral philosophy. But, until then, there must remain in this mystery a supernatural factor. The Waldenses are the Israel of the Alps, who, in their mountain fastnesses, for centuries guarded the ark of primitive faith and worship, while the terrors of the Vatican confronted them--that summit of terror which was “ an Olympus for its false gods, a Sinai for its thunders, and a Calvary for its blood.” Read the story of the siege of La Balsille, their mountain fortress. Hemmed in by the French and Sardinian army through the summer, gaunt famine stared them in the face; the foe guarded every outlet of the valley, and their ungathered crops lay in the fields. In midwinter, driven by gnawings of hunger to visit the abandoned harvest fields, beneath the deep snows they found God had kept the grain unhurt, and part of it was gathered in good condition, a year and a half after it was sown! In the following spring a merciless cannonade broke down the breastworks behind which they hid, and the helpless band cried to the Lord. At once He who holds the winds in His fist, and rides in the clouds as a chariot, rolled over them a cloak of fog so dense that in the midst of their foes they escaped unseen! The power of prayer is the perpetual sign of the supernatural. Jonathan Edwards may be taken as an example of thousands. From the age of ten years, his prayers were astonishing both for the faith they exhibited and the results they secured. With the intellect of a cherub and the heart of a seraph, we can neither distrust his self-knowledge nor his absolute candour. His communion with God was so rapturous, that the extraordinary view of the glory of the Son of God, His pure, sweet love and grace, would overcome him so that for an hour he would be flooded with tears, weeping aloud. Prayer brought him such power as Peter at Pentecost scarcely illustrates more wonderfully. For instance, his sermon at Enfield, on “ Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” which, delivered without a gesture, nevertheless produced such effect that the audience leaped to their feet and clasped the pillars of the meeting-house lest they should slide into perdition. Taste and see that the Lord is good. Put Him to the test of experimental prayer and you shall need no testimony from another to establish your faith in the supernatural answers to prayer. His providence will guide your doubting steps like that glorious pillar of cloud and fire, and in that last great crisis when heart and flesh fail, and the valley and shadow of death is before you, the everlasting Arms shall be beneath you, and your refuge the Eternal God! (A. T. Pierson, D. D.) The poor man’ s poverty, prayer, and preservation I. the poor man’ s poverty. “ This poor man.”1. It was not the poverty of social dependence. David, the writer of this Psalm, was a king; governed a great nation; ruled a people of noble history; had vast resources; had numerous friends--therefore the designation of the text cannot refer to his temporal position. The fact is that our social position is no index to our real wealth or poverty. A man financially rich, may be morally poor. A man morally rich, may be financially poor. 2. It was not the poverty of intellectual weakness. David was not poor in mind. Not merely was he a king in position, but also in the empire of thought. His mind contained great ideas of God, of the soul, of life as a probation, of the future as a destiny. The lack of mental thought and energy is no aid to prayer. Converse with God requires great ideas. The language of want is simple; but it is full of meaning. Hence David was not poor in this respect. 3. It was not the poverty of spiritual indolence. David was not a moral pauper. He had not only a great soul, but it was well peopled with all that was noble and true. Faith in God was the governing influence of his soul. He loved the house of God. He delighted in the works of God. He was attached to the people of God. His religious experience was rich. His devotion was poetic. His soul was ever occupied with eternal realities. He was not poor in this respect. 4. It was the poverty of deep and true humility. He says, “ My soul shall make her boast in the Lord” (Psalms 34:2). The humble soul is always poor in faith, in spiritual aspiration, in moral service, in benevolent dispositions, in its own estimation. Herein consists His benediction--“ Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the Kingdom of God.” The poverty of humility is not assumed, it is not canting, it is not self-depreciative; but it is silent, it is reverent. II. the poor man’ s prayer. “ This poor man cried.” Humiliation is a good preparation for prayer. It most feels the need of devotion. It is the most easily taught the meaning of worship. It is the most persevering in its exercise.1. The poor man’ s prayer was emphatic. It was a cry. David knew what he wanted. He was decided and vigorous in the articulation of his soul-wants. God allows in prayer the required emphasis of a needy but penitent spirit. It is not presumption. 2. The poor man’ s prayer was earnest. It was a cry. Not a cold request. Not a calm inquiry. The more a man feels his need, the more deeply does He express it. 3. The poor man’ s prayer was continuous. It was the habit of his soul rather than a transient act. Prayer should not be a momentary effort of the Christian life, but the natural communion of the soul with God, as speech is the easy and constant medium of communication with men. 4. The poor man’ s prayer was thoughtful and reasonable. It was presented to the rightful object of devotion, in a thoughtful spirit. David did not doubt the fitness of prayer to save from trouble-- (1) Personal.(2) Domestic.(3) Commercial.(4) National. Are the sceptics of our day wiser, better, happier than he? 5. The poor man’ s prayer was successful. III. the poor man’ s preservation. “ And the Lord heard him, and saved him out of all his trouble.”1. His preservation was associated with prayer. “ And the Lord heard him.” 2. His preservation was secured by Divine agency. 3. His preservation was comprehensive and effectual. “ And saved him out of all his trouble.” Learn:1. Humility is the best qualification for prayer, and the most likely guarantee of favourable response.2. That God is the helper of troubled souls.3. That men in the highest stations of life need prayer. (J. S. Exell, M. A.) A poor man’ s cry, and what came of it I. the nature and the excellence of prayer.1. It is a dealing with the Lord. The best prayer is that which comes to closest grips with the God of mercy. 2. Prayer takes various shapes. (1) Seeking is prayer (Psalms 34:4).(2) Looking unto God is prayer (Psalms 34:5). If you cannot find words, it is often a very blessed thing to sit still, and look towards the hills whence cometh our help.(3) Tasting is a high kind of prayer (Psalms 34:8), for it ventures to take what it asks for.(4) Frequently, according to our text, prayer is best described as a cry. 3. Prayer is heard in heaven. 4. It wins answers from God. More than forty years I have tried my Master’ s promise at the mercy-seat, and I have never yet met with a repulse from Him. In the name of Jesus I have asked and received; save only when I have asked amiss. It is true I have had to wait, because my time was ill-judged, and God’ s time was far better; but delays are not denials. Never has the Lord said to me, or to any of the seed of Jacob, “ Seek ye My face” in vain. II. the richness and freeness of divine grace.1. You will see the richness and the freeness of grace, when you consider the character of the man who prayed: “ this poor man cried.” Who was he? (1) He was a poor man; how terribly poor I cannot tell you. There are plenty of poor men about. If you advertised for a poor man in London, you might soon find more than you could count in twelve months: the supply is unlimited, although the distinction is by no means highly coveted. No man chooses to be poor. (2) He was also a troubled man, for the text speaks of “ all his troubles” --a great “ all” I warrant you. (3) He was a mournful man; altogether broken down. (4) He was a changed man. (5) He was a hopeful man. Despair is dumb; where there is a cry of prayer, there is a crumb of comfort. 2. If you desire further to see the richness and freeness of grace, I beg you to remember the character of the God to whom this poor man cried. He who prayed was poor, and his prayer was poor; but he did not pray to a poor God. This poor man was powerless; but he did not cry to a feeble God. This poor man was empty; but he went to God’ s fulness. He was unworthy; but he appealed to God’ s mercy. Our God delighteth in mercy; He waiteth to be gracious; He takes pleasure in blessing the weary sons of men. 3. While we are thinking of the freeness and richness of this grace in the text, I would have you notice the character of the blessing. “ The Lord heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles.” His sins were his great troubles; the Lord saved him out of them all through the atoning sacrifice. The effects of sin were another set of grievous troubles to him; the Lord saved him out of them all by the renewal of the Holy Ghost. He had troubles without and within, troubles in the family and in the world, and he felt ready to perish because of them; but the Lord delivered him out of them all. III. the need and the usefulness of personal testimony. Testimony is a weighty thing for the persuasion and winning of men; but it must be of the right kind. It should be personal, concerning things which you yourself know: “ This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him.” Never mind if you should be charged with being egotistical. That is a blessed egoism which dares to stand out and bear bold witness for God in its own person. “ This poor man cried” ; not somebody over the water--“ and the Lord heard him,” not a man down the next street. The more definite and specific your testimony, the better and the more convincing. I do not say that we can all tell the date of our conversion: many of us cannot. But if we can throw in such details, let us do so; for they help to make our testimony striking. Our witness should be an assured one. We must believe, and therefore speak. Do not say, “ I hope that I prayed; and I--I--trust that the Lord heard me.” Say, “ I prayed, and the Lord heard me.” Give your testimony cheerfully. “ This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him.” Do not say it as if it were a line from “ the agony column” ; but write it as a verse of a psalm. Your testimony must have for its sole aim the glory of God. Do not wish to show yourself off as an interesting person, a man of vast experience. We cannot allow the grace of God to be buried in ungrateful silence. When He made the world the angels sang for joy, and when He saves a soul we will not be indifferent. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The language of a cry This poor man did not make a grand oration; he took to crying.1. He was short: it was only a cry. In great pain a man will cry out; he cannot help it, even if he would. A cry is short, but it is not sweet. It is intense, and painful, and it cannot be silenced. We cry because we must cry. This poor man cried, “ God be merciful to me a sinner.” That is not a long collect, but it collects a great deal of meaning into a few words. That was a short cry, “ Lord save, or I perish” ; and that other, “ Lord, help me.” “ Save, Lord,” is a notable cry, and so is “ Lord, remember me.” Many prevailing prayers are like cries because they are brief, sharp, and uncontrollable. 2. A cry is not only brief, but bitter. A cry is a sorrowful thing; it is the language of pain. It would be hard for me to stand here and imitate a cry. No; a cry is not artificial, but a natural production: it is not from the lips, but from the soul, that a man cries. A cry, attended with a flood of tears, a bitter wail, a deep-fetched sigh--these are prayers that enter into the ears of the Most High. O penitent, the more thou sorrowest in thy prayer, the more wings thy prayer has towards God! A cry is a brief thing, and a bitter thing. 3. A cry has in it much meaning, and no music. You cannot set a cry to music. The sound grates on the ear, it rasps the heart, it startles, and it grieves the minds of those who hear it. Cries are not for musicians, but for mourners. Can you expound a child’ s cry? It is pain felt, a desire for relief naturally expressed, a longing forcing itself into sound; it is a plea, a prayer, a complaint, a demand. It cannot wait, it brooks no delay, it never puts off its request till to-morrow. A cry seems to say, “ Help me now I I cannot bear it any longer. Come, O come, to my relief!” When a man cries, he never thinks of the pitch of his voice; but he cries out as he can, out of the depths of his soul. Oh, for more of such praying! 4. A cry is a simple thing. The first thing a new-born child does is to cry; and he usually does plenty of it for years after. You do not need to teach children to cry: it is the cry of Nature in distress. All children can cry; even those who are without their reasoning faculties can cry. Yea, even the beast and the bird can cry. If prayer be a cry, it is clear that it is one of the simplest acts of the mind. God loves natural expressions when we come before Him. Not that which is fine, but that which is on fire, He loves. Not that Which is dressed up, but that which leaps out of the soul just as it is born in the heart, He delights to receive. This poor man did not do anything grand, but from his soul he cried. 5. A cry is as sincere as it is simple. Prayer is not the mimicry of a cry, but the real thing. You need not ask a man or woman, when crying, “ Do you mean it?” Could they cry else? A true cry is the product of a real pain, and the expression of a real want; and therefore it is a real thing. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Testimony to the power of prayer One person says, “ I cried to the Lord, and He heard me.” “ But,” says an objector, “ that is a special ease.” Up rises a second witness, and says, “ This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him.” “ Well, that is only two; and two instances may not prove a rule.” Then, up rises a third, a fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, and in each ease it is the same story--“ This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him.” Surely he must be hardened in unbelief who refuses to believe so many witnesses. I remember the story of a lawyer, a sceptic, who attended a class-meeting where the subject was similar to our theme of this morning. He heard about a dozen tell what the Lord had done for them; and he said, as he sat there, “ If I had a case in court, I should like to have these good people for witnesses. I know them all, they are my neighbours, they are simple-minded people, straightforward and honest, and I know I could carry any ease if I had them on my side.” Then he very candidly argued that what they all agreed upon was true. He believed them in other matters, and he could not doubt them in this, which was to them the most important of all. He tried religion for himself, and the Lord heard him; and very soon he was at the class-meeting, adding his witness to theirs. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The angel Of the Lord encampeth . . . and delivereth.--Portrait of a good Man - I. As Divinely affected. “ They that fear him.” The good man is one that fears God. II. As Divinely guarded.1. Individually. God regards individuals, as well as nations, worlds, and systems. 2. Completely Guards the whole man, body, soul, and spirit. 3. Eternally. Through time, in death, for ever, “ He encampeth round about him.” III. As Divinely delivered. “ And delivereth them.”1. From physical evils. Infirmities, diseases, death. 2. From intellectual evils. Errors, prejudices, ignorance. 3. From social evils. The bereavements of death, the disappointments of hypo-critic friendships. 4. From spiritual evils. Impurity of heart, remorse of conscience, conflict of soul. (Homilist.) The encamping angel If we accept the statement in, the superscription of this psalm, it dates from one of the darkest hours in David’ s life. His fortunes were never lower than when he fled from Gath, the city of Goliath, to Adullam. He never appears in a less noble light than when he feigned madness to avert the dangers which he might well dread there. How unlike the terror and self-degradation of the man who “ scrabbled on the doors,” and let “ the spittle run down his beard,” is the heroic and saintly constancy of this noble psalm! The “ Angel of the Lord” here is to be taken collectively, and the meaning is that “ the bright harnessed hosts” of these Divine messengers are, as an army of protectors, around them that fear God. But Scripture speaks also of One, who is in an eminent sense “ the Angel of the Lord,” in whom, as in none other, God sets His “ Name.” He is the leader of the heavenly hosts. He appeared when Abraham “ took the knife to slay his son,” and restrained him. He speaks to Jacob at Bethel, and says, “ I am the God of Bethel” ; and many other instances there are. It is this lofty and mysterious messenger that David sees standing ready to help, as He once stood, sword-bearing by the side of Joshua. To the warrior leader, to the warrior psalmist, He appears, as their needs required, armoured and militant. The vision of the Divine presence ever takes the form which our circumstances most require. David’ s then need was safety and protection. Therefore he saw the Encamping Angel; even as to Joshua the leader He appeared as the Captain of the Lord’ s host; and as to Isaiah, in the year that the throne of Judah was emptied by the death of the earthly king, was given the vision of the Lord sitting on a throne, the King Eternal and Immortal. So to us all His grace shapes its expression according to our wants, and the same gift is Protean in its power of transformation; being to one man wisdom, to another strength, to the solitary companionship, to the sorrowful consolation, to the glad sobering, to the thinker truth, to the worker practical force,--to each his heart’ s desire. Learn, too, from this image, in which the psalmist appropriates to himself the experience of a past generation, how we ought to feed our confidence and enlarge our hopes by all God’ s past dealings with men. David looks back to Jacob, and believes that the old fact is repeated in his own day. So every old story is true for us; though outward form may alter, inward substance remains the same. Mahanaim is still the name of every place where a man who loves God pitches his tent. Our feeble encampment may lie open to assault, and we be all unfit to guard it, but the other camp is there too, and our enemies must force their way through it before they get at us. “ The Lord of Hosts is with us.” Only, remember, that the eye of faith alone can see that guard, and that therefore we must labour to keep our consciousness of its reality fresh and vivid. Notice, too, that final word of deliverance. This psalm is continually recurring to that idea. The word occurs four times in it, and the thought still oftener. He is quite sure that such deliverance must follow if the Angel presence be there. But he knows, too, that the encampment of the Angel of the Lord will not keep away sorrows, and trial, and sharp need. So his highest hope is not of immunity from these, but of rescue out of them. And his ground of hope is that his heavenly ally cannot let him be overcome. That He will not let him be troubled and put in peril he has found; that He will not let him be crushed he believes. Shaded and modest hopes are the brightest we can venture to cherish. But it is the least we are entitled to expect. And so the apostle, when within sight of the headsman’ s axe, broke into the rapture of his last words, “ The Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me to His everlasting kingdom.” (A. Maclaren, D. D.) The ministry of angels Such ministry taught throughout the Bible. We know not the nature and constitution of worlds and beings unseen. We are taught (Daniel 12:1) that there are guardian angels, and that there are evil angels (Ephesians 6:12). Their name derived from the circumstance of their being sent on various errands. The Lord frequently appeared in the form of an angel. To-day the angels take deep interest in the welfare of God’ s people. Their form of ministry is changed, but not its reality (Luke 15:1-32.; Matthew 18:10; Hebrews 1:14). And why should we not believe that God aids and defends us by means of angels, as our text declares? But it is only they who fear the Lord that enjoy this guardianship. The holy angels can have no fellowship with unholy minds. Let us not question the truth of this ministry, but gratefully accept it. (J. Slade, M. A.) Psalms 34:8-14O taste and see that the Lord is good. Important exhortation I. A call to the enjoyment of divine goodness (Psalms 34:8). Two things are necessary to the enjoyment of this goodness:1. Freedom from a sense of guilt.2. A sense of true gratitude. (1) Enjoying God’ s goodness involves trust in Him.(2) Trust in Him ensures true blessedness. II. A call to higher religious experience (Psalms 34:9-10). We are to follow on to know the Lord, to forget “ the things that are behind, and press on to the things that are before.” “ There is no want to them that fear Him.”1. Want is a calamity.2. The higher the religious experience the less liability to want. III. A call to the instructions of experience. (Psalms 34:11).1. The highest teaching is the teaching of the Lord.2. Youth is the best season for this teaching.3. Teaching children religion is worthy the dignity of the greatest men. IV. A call to obey the conditions of longevity (Psalms 34:12-14).1. Men desire long life.2. Moral excellence is conducive to long life. (Homilist) Taste and see This is the language of experience, and that of no common character. The psalmist desires that all who might be partakers of his trial might be sharers in his deliverance. He tells us-- I. of his experience. Paul, as David, speaks of having “ tasted of the heavenly gift.” The word is most emphatic, for the sense of taste includes most of the others--sight and smell and touch. And certainly it is so in spiritual things. There are among those who are called Christians three distinct classes. There are, first, those who hear without seeing; there are those who both hear and see, without tasting; and there are those in whom all three combine--to whom “ faith cometh by hearing,” in whom faith groweth by seeing, in whom faith is perfected and consummated by tasting. II. the invitation. Those who have had the experience of the psalmist cannot but desire it for others. III. the blessing. Such a man is blessed, even in the trust itself; and the blessing is one which not even the errors of his own weak judgment shall destroy, which not even the infirmity of his own frail purpose shall impair. (Thomas Dale, M. A.) The invitation of the psalmist The psalms are placed in the centre of the Bible, like the heart in the centre of the body. The heart is the seat of life. The psalms are the life of religion. Other parts of the Bible describe religion, but the psalms are religion itself. He who reads them sincerely cannot but be religious; and he who appropriates them to himself will find life, health and energy imparted to his whole spiritual being. I. As invitation. “ O taste and see,” etc. It is not see and taste. Before we taste a substance we generally look at it. But here, we must taste before we can see. There must be a relish for Divine things before we can see and enjoy God. That which we are to see is--“ that the Lord is good.” The Christian knows and feels this. He sees it in Nature, in his own frame, the structure of the body, its union with the soul. And in that soul itself, and, especially, its redemption by Christ. II. the character referred to--the man that “ trusteth” in God. It is not knowledge, intellect, eloquence, believing, or even power to work miracles, or to show a martyr’ s zeal, but trust is that which is here spoken of. Confidence in God is meant. Even amongst men this has great power. What will even man do for another in whom he trusts? What will not that woman do for the man in whom she confides? III. the blessing promised. It is more the statement of a fact than a promise, for the man is blessed who trusts in God. By the very action upon his own mind and heart of the trust he places in God. It gives the soul a holy boldness, a sure peace. And not only is he blessed in himself, but he becomes a blessing to others. His light shines before men so that they, too, glorify God. (W. Blood, M. A.) Recreating the palate This confident and jubilant appeal comes at the end of a series of splendid testimonies such as might be heard at many a fervent experience meeting. One man confesses that he had once been enmeshed in multitudinous fears which had crippled his walk towards Zion: “ I sought the Lord, and He heard me, and delivered me from all my fears!” A group of cheery witnesses testified that in past days their faces had been clouded with sorrow, because the sunshine had gone out of their souls: “ They looked unto Him, and were lightened!” One man confessed that he had been in many a tight place, closely beset by powerful temptations: “ And this poor man cried, and the Lord heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles.” And then it seems as though the individual testimonies merge into one strain of triumphant assurance--“ The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear Him.” Now, out of these testimonies, and as their consequence, there issues a mighty appeal, “ O taste and see that the Lord is good.” Do not trust to hearsay! Do not be contented with the testimonies of others, with merely theoretical knowledge! Become experimental, and judge for yourselves! “ Taste and see!” But can everybody’ s palate be trusted to give an accurate judgment? We know that there are serious differences in the powers of discernment in the material palates of men. One man appreciates a flavour which to another is repugnant. One palate can discern an exquisite flavour where another discovers nothing but insipidity. And may the differences not be equally manifest in moral and spiritual spheres? Jonathan Edwards described the moral sense by the figure of a palate, and he regarded it as a faculty by which we are to appreciate the differences between the evil and the good. But can a palate always be trusted? Let us lay down one or two principles which are operative in other realms than the conscience. It is perfectly true that a neglected power becomes atrophied. In art we can impair the artistic palate by communion with bad work. Ruskin is for ever emphasizing the peril of holding communion with bad artistic work. Such communion vitiates the aesthetic conceptions, and their power of fine discernment is impaired. The principle holds true of literature. If we want to keep a delicate literary palate we must maintain our fellowship with the rarest literary products. If, however, we leave the masterpieces, and take up our abode with the unrefined and commonplace, our very power will lose something of its fine perception, and may eventually cease to register any dependable judgment. Is it otherwise with the religious palate? Take what we call the moral sense. Surely our experience justifies the assertion that this particular power can be so neglected and abused by evil communion that its judgments are rendered perfectly untrue. The Bible declares that some men’ s moral perceptions are so perverted that they call good evil, and evil good. Sweet they call bitter, and bitter they call sweet. They declare that “ revenge is sweet,” and the mood of forgiveness is stale and flavourless. And surely we may say that even in higher regions still, in the distinctively spiritual, our powers can be so used that we cease to readily apprehend and appreciate God. It is possible for men to “ refuse to have God in their thought,” and the consequence is that by their own refusal they are “ given up” to “ a reprobate mind,” which may at length leave them in an insensible mood which can only be described as “ past feeling.” How, then, can we say to these people, “ Taste, see that the Lord is good” ? What would be the value of their judgment? Can their palate be depended upon? They may taste, and then turn away in sheer indifference. Now a man perfectly well knows when he is destitute of taste for these things. But has he any desire to be different? The appeal of my text is to men and women who have no taste for the highest, but who desire to acquire it. Bring thy neglected or perverted palate, and see what can be done with it! Let me reverse the order of the text, for the key of our difficulty is to be found in the second clause, “ Blessed is the man who trusteth in Him.” Now, a man can begin with trust in God who has yet no taste for the things of God. Now the text affirms that the assured result of such trust is a condition of blessedness, “ Blessed is the man who trusteth in Him.” In what does this blessedness consist? Let us redeem it for a moment from all suggestions of futurity, and the maturing of desire in some transfigured and glorified life. The future has vast treasures hid in its secret chambers, and he who trusts in the Lord is heir to them all! “ I will restore health unto thee.” When we surrender the life to God, the wondrous energies of the Spirit commence the blessed ministry of re-creation, the renewal of tone, and faculty, and function. And in this restoration there is involved the cleansing and refinement of the palate. When we are sickly and diseased we have a distaste for the good, but when the sickliness begins to pass the natural appetite is restored and good food becomes toothsome, blow this is what the Lord accomplishes for those who put their trust in Him. He makes new men of them! We become new men and new women in Christ Jesus, and in that transfigured spiritual life is to be found our eternal blessedness. And so this is my plea to you. At present your higher taste may be a positive distaste; your palate may be perverted and untrue. When you pray you have no delight in the communion. When you sing it provides you no joy. Well now, commit yourself unto the Lord, even though in the committal there be no present delight. Offer Him all the powers of your personality, all the activities in your life, and let them be impressed and governed by His all-controlling will. Trust in Him, and the sickness shall be driven out of your soul, and your restored powers shall begin to be exercised in fine and discerning freedom. And in the general restoration your palate shall share, and you shall acquire a relish for the things that are excellent! You shall have joy in His communion. (J. H. Jowett, M. A.) The invitation to enjoy the goodness of God I. we are reminded that the Lord is good. He is originally, essentially, unchangeably, supremely good. I feel at a loss to express how good He is. What immense families does God continually provide for in air and earth and seal And chiefly is His goodness seen in the gift of the Lord Jesus Christ. To Him let all the contrite, the troubled, the tempted come and find help. And all this for sinners. II. the best way of knowing this goodness is by tasting it. That is--apply it, make trial of it and prove it for yourselves. There is such a thing as experimental religion. Many have full knowledge of the theory of religion, but no experience of it. They have long known its truths, but never felt their power. Oh, the miseries of preaching to such persons, who need no information--these, who feel no emotion. Oh, what a perpetual contradiction is there between your creed and your conduct! You are not happy; and yet, somehow or other, you contrive not to be miserable! But this is not the case with all: there are some who have “ tasted that the Lord is gracious.” You know that the Lord is good by your own experience. Now, you will observe, that we, at first, seek for the blessings of salvation, only from a sense of our sin and guilt; for we have not enjoyed them before. But after we have possessed, then we desire them, not only from a sense of want, but also from a sense of relish and remembrance. Yes; then we call to mind what we have been favoured with, and long for more. Then, secondly, it produces a fuller conviction of the truth of these things. Now, I think, I can trust any poor unlettered man in the presence of the most subtle philosopher, who would endeavour to persuade him that honey was sour, and that gall was sweet. Why, he would say to the tempter,--“ would you argue me out of my very senses? You may reason--you may ridicule; but you can never convince me.” III. the invitation to induce others to acquire this knowledge for themselves. “ O taste and see that the Lord is good; . . . Blessed is the man that trusteth in Him.” Now, this “ tasting” has several things connected with it.1. This is very distinguishable from party zeal. There are some individuals who are never satisfied without bringing others over to their own peculiar views and feelings. It is not enough for them that persons should follow Christ, they must walk with them. 2. This invitation is distinguishable from mere relative affection, for it must reach others; it must extend to strangers. To care for our own is most praiseworthy, but our care must not stop there. 3. We must expect reproach in giving this invitation. There is something very singular in this. Who are censured for their attempts to relieve others by charity? They are not considered as interferers, if they venture to heal the sick, or feed the hungry. If persons do not approve of the manner, they give them credit for the deed. And yet when you endeavour to save others you are considered as busybodies. Oh, they will say, “ You go to heaven your own way, let us go our way. We do not interfere with you: be as religious as you please, but keep your religion to yourselves.” A man cannot keep his religion to himself. If he has any, it will manifest itself. “ We cannot but speak the things we have seen and heard.” (W. Jay.) The goodness of God 1. Consideration of this subject has a tendency to fix our minds in a state of tranquillity and satisfaction. Perfect goodness is at the head of the world; and, therefore, all may be expected to take place in it that the most benevolent mind can desire. 2. The goodness of God is the proper object of our warmest praises. We must be lost in insensibility if we can contemplate it without feeling ourselves prompted to adoration and thanksgiving. 3. The goodness of God shows us the folly and baseness of sin. All moral evil is an abuse of the love, and disobedience to the authority, of that Being who is always doing us good, and whose character comprehends in it every excellence which can be a reason for affection and veneration. 4. The goodness of God ought to be imitated by us. No being can have a higher or nobler ambition. Thus shall we be His genuine offspring, and secure His particular favour and protection. 5. The goodness of God should engage us to put our trust in Him. How should the reflection that He reigns revive our hearts, and dissipate our anxieties I What may we not hope for from His boundless goodness! How safe are all our interests under His management! (R. Price, D. D.) The saint’ s experience of the Divine goodness Though God be infinitely good in Himself, and in the dispensation of the fruits of tits goodness unto all His creatures; yet tits distinguishing goodness and blessings are extended only to whom He manifests Himself in another way than He doth unto the world, and who believe on His Son according to the Gospel. I. these behold and experience the goodness of his nature. “ God is love. In this was manifested,” etc. Would you have just views of it, endeavour to share in its blessed effects. We may say of God’ s goodness, what Christ said to the woman of Samaria: “ If thou knewest the gift of God,” etc. How refreshing and satisfying must be the experience of the Divine goodness and love; concerning which the prophet Jeremiah foretells, “ they shall come and flow together” (Jeremiah 31:12-14). II. taste and see the goodness of God in his attributes. His condescending grace was manifested toward you, when you were altogether unworthy of His favour. His clemency appears in the moderating the necessary chastisements which He sees needful to inflict. III. taste and see that the Lord is good in his dispensations, both of providence and grace. “ All the ways of the Lord are mercy and truth.”1. Every blessing, every change, every bereavement shall be sanctified to you, and work together for your good. 2. You may also behold and experience that the Lord is good in the dispensations of His grace. IV. taste and see the goodness of the Lord in his ordinances. Every Divine institution is a conduit through which He conveys His best blessings; a market place wherein they get spiritual provisions; a sanctuary where they behold His power and glory. V. taste and see that the Lord is good in his covenant. What admirable goodness hath God displayed in entering anew into covenant with us, after we had broken the first covenant. It is the covenant of peace, of love and of life; the covenant of hope, and of the promises confirmed by the death of Christ and sealed with His blood. All good and nothing but good, grace and glory, with every good is to be found here. (W. McCulloch.) An invitation to participate in the goodness of the Lord I. something assumed. That “ the Lord is good.”1. God is infinitely good.2. Independently good.3. Absolutely good.4. Unchangeably good.5. Universally good.6. Eternally good. II. something implied. That the goodness of the Lord may be seen and tasted.1. In the creation.2. In the provision made for all creatures.3. In the redemption of the world by Jesus Christ.4. In the means of grace.5. In the rewards of heaven. III. something enjoined. “ O taste and see,” etc. This invitation, request, or admonition is--1. Divine in its origin.2. Reasonable in its nature.3. Pleasurable in its exercise.4. Profitable in its result. Inferences:--1. There is something more in religion than the mere profession, or outward form; there is the exercise of mental powers; a tasting and seeing the Lord is good. This is personal, and known only to ourselves. 2. How wretched those are who forego these pleasures--who know nothing but animal gratification and sensual pleasure. 3. Those who enjoy personal piety are anxious for others to realize the same enjoyment. 4. If the Lord is good, let us learn the design of that goodness (Romans 2:4). (Sketches of Four Hundred Sermons.) Experimental evidence of God’ s goodness I. the fact alluded to in the text. We minify the atonement when we consider it merely as one, perhaps the best, of several possible plans of salvation. There is no other way, no other name by which God can save, even if the nature and character of the sinner admitted of others. This plan and this name are rooted and grounded in the nature of God. “ Mercy and Truth,” or Justice, “ have met together” ; “ Righteousness,” or Justice, and “ Peace,” or Pardon, “ have kissed each other.” II. the doctrine of the text. “ Taste and see.” Religion is a blessed, blissful, glorious experience. It casts out fear, drives away doubt, and sweetens the whole of human life. Religion is love, and love is an experience of the mind, heart, and soul. We love a father, husband, wife, parent, and a child, and we know it. We know it by experience--by the witness of the human spirit. Love to God is lodged in human experience, in human consciousness, just where all other loves are lodged, and we may know that we love God just as readily as we know that we love our parents. We have but one witness to the fact of all human loves; but to the fact of Divine love we have two witnesses--our own spirit and the Spirit of God. This makes assurance doubly sure. Our spirit says we love God, and God’ s Spirit in ours says we love Him. III. the exhortation which is implied in the interjection “ O!” Ye hungry, poor, here is bounty and richness, without money and without price. Here is a sight that is satisfying, and a taste that fills the soul with infinite fulness. It is the only goodness worthy of the name; the perfection of goodness. Ye who are trying to find God in Nature, O come here, and learn Him as He is seen in grace, and then Nature will not be so intricate as it now seems to be. O, ye doubting Christianity, whose lives are full of sorrow and darkness, come out into the light and enjoy the fulness of blessing; even the direct witness of the Holy Ghost. (R. G. Porter.) Value of experience The appeal to experiment is--1. Very simple. Simple in the two senses: as opposed to what is complex, or complicated and requires an acute and trained mind. The glory of the Gospel is that it is for the common mind, the average man. He who knows enough to commit sin knows enough to be saved. (1) It is simple as opposed to what is subtle. The snare of argument is sophistry, which can array argument so as to appear to prove what is not true. Macaulay can so write even history as to sway the reader to either side of a controversy. (2) Very certain. Experiment may be trusted where argument is unreliable and misleading. It is safe to distrust any reasoning that contradicts known experience. Froude says prussic acid and gum arabic are essentially, elementally, the same. It is not so; but, if they are, one kills, the other is harmless. Many a logician distrusts the very argument he uses to convince others. But no sane man ever disputed the testimony of his senses. 2. In matters of religion we may not experiment by our senses, but may by our reason and conscience, which are the senses of the soul. Communion with God is the most convincing of all arguments for the Being of God, and the practical demonstration of the efficacy of prayer. No experiment is more simple in nature, more certain in results, more sublime in conclusiveness. The oratory is also the observatory whence we get the clearest views of God and celestial things. (Homiletic Monthly.) Religion pleasant to the religious This excellence and desirableness of God’ s gifts is a subject again and again set before us in Scripture (Isaiah 25:6; Isaiah 61:1-3; Hosea 14:5-7; Psalms 81:13-16). Other passages in the Psalms speak of this blessedness, besides the text (Psalms 4:7; Psalms 16:6; Psalms 19:10; Psalms 28:7; Psalms 65:4). The pleasures of sin are not to be compared in fulness and intensity to the pleasures of holy living. The pleasures of holiness are far more pleasant to the holy than the pleasures of sin to the sinner. None can know, however, the joys of being holy and pure but the holy. Let no persons, then, be surprised that religious obedience should really be so pleasant in itself, when it seems to them so distasteful. Let them not be surprised that what the pleasure is cannot be explained to them. It is a secret till they try to be religious. None other than God the Holy Spirit can help us in this matter, by enlightening and changing our hearts. So it is; and yet I will say one thing, by way of suggesting to you how great the joys of religion are. Is there any one who does not know how very painful the feeling of a bad conscience is? Persons accustom themselves and lose this feeling; but, till we blunt our conscience, it is very painful. And why? It is the feeling of God’ s displeasure, and therefore it is so painful. Consider then: if God’ s displeasure is so distressing to us, must not God’ s favour be just the reverse? And this is what it is to be holy and religious. It is to have God’ s favour. I hope there are some of you who take a pleasure in thinking of God, in blessing Him for the mercies of the Gospel, and in celebrating Christ’ s death and resurrection. These persons have “ tasted” and tried. I trust they find the taste so heavenly, that they will not need any proof that religion is a pleasant thing. Let such persons, then, think of this, that if a religious life is pleasant hero, in spite of the old Adam interrupting the pleasure and defiling them, what a glorious day it will be if we are blessed hereafter with an entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven! (J. H. Newman, D. D.) The appeal to experiment Knowledge comes to us in three main channels: first, argument addressed to the reason; second, testimony addressed to faith; and third, experiment, which appeals to consciousness. Here the appeal is to experiment. The language is drawn from the sphere of the senses. We are told to taste and see, as though each sense were an eye, and the result was vision. There are five senses, and taste is perhaps the simplest, earliest exercised, and most satisfactory of them all. Our eyes and ears may deceive us, but seldom our taste. Experiment is here set before us as something open to all, a short, simple, safe way of testing the reality of God and His goodness. Argument is not simple nor certain, but often very subtle and unsafe. Testimony is generally safe, but may be mistaken. But experiment impresses us all as to be depended on. We none of us distrust the evidence of our own senses. The text affirms the possibility of making an experiment upon God which shall be conclusive. The agnostic says that God cannot be known, because He is outside of the sphere of sense. We answer, Of course He cannot be known by sense, but must be tested by faculties intended for such experiments, namely, our reason, conscience, love, sensibilities, and faith. (A. T. Pierson, D. D.) Psalms 34:9O fear the Lord, ye His saints.A noble cowardice This means that the fear of God does not indicate a defect of the nature. Blindness is a defect; deafness, lameness--these involve privation. But the fear of God does not involve privation; it implies possession. When I go into a picture gallery, and gaze on a work of some master, and say, “ I fear I shall never come up to that,” does that indicate want on my part? Nay, it is participation. It is the testimony that I am already an artist. My fear is the shadow of my love; the cloud into which I enter is born of my transfigured glory. I would not part with my cloud--not for sunbeams, not for worlds. It tells me that I have seen regions beyond. It is by the artist’ s soul that I know my own inartisticness. My night has come from day; it is not want that makes me fear. Oh, Thou Divinely Beautiful, create within me the artist’ s fear. Give me the sense that I cannot come near Thee, that I am following afar off. Let me feel that Thou art in heaven and I on the earth. Let me tremble before Thy beauty--tremble with the impossibility of ever being worthy of Thee. My trembling is my triumph; my crouching is my crown; my day of judgment is my year of jubilee, for my cry has come from the taste of Thy glory, there is no want in them that fear Thee. (G. Matheson, D. D.) Psalms 34:10 The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger; but they that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing.Lions lacking, but the children satisfied I. A short but beautiful description of a true Christian. He is one that seeks the Lord. This description of a Christian is invariably correct. It the promise set forth by way of contrast. “ They shall not want any good thing.” “ The young lions do lack and suffer hunger;” that is the foil to set off the jewel and make it shine more brightly. “ They shall not want any good thing.” We have heard of the celebrated cheque for a million pounds which has been preserved; here is one for millions of millions. Here is a promise wide as our wants, large as our necessities, deep as our distresses. But here is a contrast. “ The young lions do lack,” etc. There are certain men in the world who, like the lions, are kings over others. They are great and mighty men; they have no need of a Saviour, or of the Holy Spirit! You may think, perhaps, like David, that “ they are not plagued like other men.” But you don’ t know that. They are very often plagued when they do not tell you. “ The young lions do lack and suffer hunger; but they that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing.” Poor and helpless though they are, having no works of righteousness of their own, confessing their sin and depravity, they shall want no good thing. Is it not amazing? (C. H. Spurgeon.) The advantage of seeking the Lord I. the character here specified.1. They have been given to see and feel the necessity of seeking the Lord.2. They have sought the Lord in the appointed way.3. Seeking the Lord is a constant duty.4. They seek Him with earnestness and diligence. II. the advantage of seeking the Lord. They shall not want any good thing--1. Connected with their salvation or acceptance with God.2. Connected with Divine providence.3. Necessary for their protection and guidance through the wilderness of this world.4. To comfort them in darkness and trouble.5. In reference to communion with God.6. As respects support in death.7. To secure their safe arrival in heaven. III. application.1. Learn to trace all this goodness to its proper source. God has given you His choicest gift, even Christ, therefore the inferior ones will not be withheld (Romans 8:32). 2. As nothing human can ever become a substitute for the Divine care, constantly live in its enjoyment. 3. How great must be the poverty and wretchedness of the sinner. He is destitute of all these good things. (Helps for the Pulpit.) Struggling and seeking I. the struggle that always fails. “ The young lions do lack and suffer hunger.” The suggestion is, that the men whose lives are one long fight to appropriate to themselves more and more of outward good, are living a kind of life that is fitter for beasts than for men. What is the true character of the lives of the majority of people but a fight, a desire to have, and a failure to obtain? Beasts of prey, naturalists tell us, are always lean. It is the graminivorous order that meekly and peacefully crop the pastures that are well fed and in good condition--“ which things are an allegory.” “ The young lions do lack and suffer hunger.” There is no satisfaction or success ever to be won by this way of fighting and scheming and springing at the prey. For if we do not utterly fail, which is the lot of so many of us, still partial success has little power of bringing perfect satisfaction to a human spirit. You remember the old story of the Arabian Nights, about the wonderful palace that was built by magic, and all whose windows were set in precious stones, but there was one window that remained unadorned, and that spoiled all for the owner. His palace was full of treasures, but an enemy looked on all the wealth and suggested a previously unnoticed defect by saying, “ You have not a toe’ s egg.” He had never thought about getting a roc’ s egg, and did not know what it was. But the consciousness of something lacking bad been roused, and it marred his enjoyment of what he had and drove him to set out on his travels to secure the missing thing. There is always something lacking, for our desires grow far faster than their satisfactions, and the more we have the wider our longing reaches out, so that as the wise old Book has it, “ He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver, nor he that loveth abundance with increase.” You cannot fill a soul with the whole universe, if you do not put God in it. II. the seeking which always finds. Now, how do we “ seek the Lord” ? We do not seek Him as if He had not sought us, or was hiding from us. But our search of Him is search after one who is near every one of us, and who delights in nothing so much as in pouring Himself into every heart. It is a short search that the child by her mother’ s skirts, or her father’ s side, has to make for mother or father. It is a shorter search that we have to make for God. We seek Him by desire, by communion, by obedience. And they who thus seek Him find Him in the act of seeking Him, just as certainly as if I open my eye I see the sun, as if I dilate my lungs the atmosphere rushes into them. For He is always seeking us. “ The leather seeketh such to worship Him.” So that if we do seek Him, we shall surely find. We each of us have, accurately and precisely, as much of God as we desire to have. If there is only a very little of the Water of Life in our vessels, it is because we do not care to possess any more. “ Seek, and ye shall find.” (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Psalms 34:11-14 Come, ye children, hearken unto me: I will teach you the fear of the Lord.The roots of the blessed life What man is he that desireth a life that will extract the real “ good” out of things, that will gather the honey in the hidden places, that will discover the essences in experiences, and get the marrow out of trifling and apparently inconsiderable events’ ? That is the modern statement of the problem. In what can we find the life of blessedness, full, spacious and refined? I. the fear of the Lord. We must put aside all ideas of terror, of trembling servitude, of cringing servility. If the content included any element of terror, the spiritual life would be a doleful bondage; but there are strange conjunctions in the Word of God which make this interpretation impossible. What an amazing companionship is to be found in these words:--“ Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice! . . . The fear of the Lord” is sensitiveness towards the Lord. It is the opposite of hardness, unfeelingness, benumbment. The soul that fears God is like a sensitive plate exposed to the light, and it records the faintest ray. “ The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” Sensitiveness towards God is the beginning of wisdom. Sensitiveness in music is the beginning of musical ability; sensitiveness in art is the beginning of artistic competence. Sensitiveness towards God is the beginning of expertness in the knowledge and doings of God. This sensitiveness towards God is one of the roots of the blessed life. To thrill to His faintest breathings, to hear the still small voice, to catch the first dim light of new revelations, to be exquisitely responsive to the movements of the Father, this is the great primary rootage of a full and blessed life. This sensitiveness towards God is a gift of God. “ I will put My fear in their hearts.” By waiting upon the Lord, His refining ministry begins to restore the hardened surfaces of our life, and fills us again with a spirit of rare and exquisite discernment. II. keep thy tongue from evil and thy lips from speaking guile. It is stupendously significant that in disclosing the secrets of the blessed life, the psalmist should immediately turn to the government of the tongue. Every word we speak recoils upon the speaker’ s heart, and leaves its influence, either in grace or disfigurement. Therefore “ keep thy tongue from evil.” Hold it in severe restriction. Venom, that passes out, also steeps in. “ And thy lips from speaking guile.” Where the lips are treacherous, the heart is ill at ease. Where the lips are untrue, the heart abounds in suspicion. Where the lips have spoken the lie, the heart is afraid of exposure. How, then, can there be blessedness where there is dread? How can there be a quiet and fruitful happiness where poison is impairing the higher powers? III. depart from evil. Turn from it. Don’ t play with uncleanness. Don’ t touch it with thy finger. Don’ t hold conversation concerning it, for there are some things of which it is a “ shame even to speak.” “ Depart from evil and do good.” The best way to effect a permanent divorce from evil is to exercise oneself in active good. Where there is no positive ministry in goodness, we soon relapse into sin. A positive goodness will make the life invincible. IV. seek peace, and pursue it. Not the peace of quietness, not, at any rate, the quietness of still machinery, but perhaps the smoothness of machinery at work. We have to live together in families, in societies, in nations, as a race. To seek peace is to seek the smooth workings of this complicated fellowship. We are to labour for right adjustments, equitable fellowships. We are to labour that the companionships of God’ s children may run smoothly without a wasting and painful friction. “ Seek peace, and pursue it.” We are not to give up the search because we are not immediately successful. We are not to say that society is hopeless because we make such little headway in the work of readjustment. We are to “ pursue” the great aim, go chase it with all the eagerness of a keen hunter, determined not to relax the search until the mighty end is gained. (J. H. Jowett, M. A.) The duty of teaching children the fear of the Lord I. explain. In order to fear the Lord we must have a real sense of His being and presence. But God can only effectually teach this. But, relying on Him, we should early wish to teach our children their dependence upon God, their responsibility to Him, the duty of prayer, the preciousness of the Scriptures, the sanctity of the Lord’ s Day. II. reasons for thus teaching then.1. To educate them without teaching them, this is a most defective education. 2. They are not qualified even for this life if they be not taught “ godliness.” For it enables them to become happier and better members of society, and to more extensively benefit their fellow-creatures. 3. If the teaching of the fear of the Lord be omitted, there had better be no teaching at all. To improve the intellectual capacities without improving the heart and principles will be doing no kindness to those taught or to society at large. Therefore the importance of Sunday Schools. (E. Cooper.) Children urged to hearken to instruction and to fear the Lord I. why children should pay great attention to sermons.1. Because if you do not, you cannot learn.2. Because you cannot be made good but by learning.3. Because ministers love you.4. Because God Himself speaks. II. why we ought to fear God.1. Because He is so great.2. Because He is so holy.3. Because He is able to do what He will with you, both in this life and the next. (E. N. Kirk, M. A.) Psalms 34:12 What man is he that desireth life, and loveth many days, that he may see good?The happiness of life Why is it we see man on all sides wearying himself in the effort to obtain this and that? It can only be because they imagine that these things will make them happy. But will they? Not so. Most men are hewing out cisterns, broken cisterns, which will field no water. The sad thing is, that men never seem to realize the accumulated experience of others. How many a man has made a lifelong trouble for himself by taking true for false, and false for true! There are small ambitions, remember, as well as large ones. A clerk or a labourer may be as ambitious, everybody may be as ambitious in his sphere, as a statesman or an author in his. I say nothing of meannesses to which men must often submit if they engage in that struggle; I say nothing of the free conscience sold, of the noble independence sacrificed, of the voice of protest silenced; nothing of the fact that fame, if it be anything like fame, will raise many a pang of envy in the breasts of others; I say nothing of the inevitable disappointment, of the disenchantments of fruition; nothing of the cup of success dashed away by death or by change at the very moment that our lips seem to touch it; the very best, and even the very best circumstances, the end gained, can give no real, no deep, no lasting satisfaction. But perhaps you belong to that much larger number of sensible, practical persons who do not think much of the empty bubbles of rank and fame; they want wealth, and what wealth brings. Now if the love of money were not a disease, if it were not the fruitful mother of vices, if it were not difficult for the rich man to be humble and heavenly, if the desire to gain were not a scourge, would Christ have said, “ It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle,” etc.? There is a tribe of North-American Indians who are said to eat clay: I declare to you they seem to me to do no more for the body than the slaves of wealth in Britain do for the hungry soul, If there is no danger in wealth, or rather in the love of wealth, and the exaltation of wealth, would St. Paul have said, “ They that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition” ? There is only one kind of wealth which has or can have true happiness. It is a wealth far less plentiful than gold; it is the treasure, not of earth, but laid up in heaven,--the wealth which is spent in works of mercy and forethought, and the wealth which is increased by the limitation of reigning desires. And, lastly, are there none of you, especially among young men and young women, who fancy that happiness is to be found neither in rank, nor in wealth, but in the thing they call pleasure? What voices of the dead shall I invoke to describe the emptiness of selfish desire? Shall it be his, the glass of fashion and the mould of form of the last century, Lord Chesterfield? He says, “ I have enjoyed all the pleasures of the world, and consequently know their value; but I by no means desire to repeat that nauseous potion for the sake of a fugitive dream.” Or shall it be his, the great lyric poet, Heinrich Heine, who in the last eight years of his lingering life, “ I am,” he writes, “ no longer brave, smiling, cheerful; I am only a poor death-sick and shadowy image of trouble--an unhappy man” ? Enough: there is and can be no happiness in these things--ambition, money, unlawful pleasure. They are vanity; not only, alas, a mere vacuum, but a plenum of misery and wrong; not waterless clouds, but clouds that rain mildew; not empty cisterns, but cisterns full of poison and bitterness. If we want happiness at all, we must seek it everywhere, and everywhere it is of the heart. (Dean Farrar.) Life I. life is a serious thing. Many do not take it seriously. Their great object is to get through it pleasurably. They glide along the stream of time into the ocean of eternity without ever having realized that “ life is real, life is earnest.” It is a serious thing because-- 1. It is the preparation-time for eternity. The time to seek and find in Christ the salvation of our souls. 2. It is the believer’ s working-time for God. 3. It is a time of conflict with evil. II. life is also a source of joy. Seriousness and joy are not incompatible, It is a serious thing to have the charge of a young life. Is it any the less a source of joy to have that precious charge committed to one? Life is a source of joy because--1. God gives us innumerable blessings. 2. If we live it well it is a time of success. Even in this world God ever rewards His toilers with a sense of His presence and favour, and He often grants them true success. 3. Even here we may be conquerors in the conflict with evil through Him who loved us. (H. P. Wright, B. A.) The way to a happy life I. To bridle the tongue. Innumerable evils grow from this root of bitterness.1. Perjury. 2. Slander and calumny; the inventing evil things of men, and falsely imputing them to them; this injurious practice to others is apt to provoke the like usage from them again. II. To depart from evil, and do good.1. The practice of virtue and religion is the natural cause of happiness. What can more highly conduce to the health of a man’ s body, to the vigour and activity of his mind, to the improving of his estate, to the flourishing of his reputation, to the honour and safeguard of his whole life, than this, his departing from evil and doing good? Virtue seldom fails of its reward in this world. 2. The practice of virtue and religion never fails to obtain the patronage and protection of Divine providence. Righteousness is the image of God; true goodness, wheresoever it is, is a beam derived from that fountain of light, which God cannot choose, if He loves Himself, but cherish and bless with a peculiar favour. III. To seek peace, and pursue it.1. What is to be done by us in order to peace? (1) A quiet and peaceable subjection to that government we live under. (2) That every man keep in that place and station Divine providence hath set him, and not venture to act out of his own sphere. Did every under-mariner in a storm leave the pump and his own particular charge to instruct the pilot, or every common soldier in time of battle quit his post to instruct his captain, what tumults and confusions would this breed! (3) A constant and conscientious adhering to the Church. (4) That laying aside all pride and passion and self-interest, we pursue after truth with purity and simplicity of intention. (5) That we bear with one another’ s weaknesses and infirmities (Colossians 3:13). Human nature is indispensably subject to blindness, impatience and levity, mightily prone to mistake and mis-behaviour; the nature of a man’ s soul is as far from infallibility as the constitution of his body is from immortality, and we can no more hope in all cases to be free from error and mistake, than we can at all times to be exempted from sickness and death. Now how reasonable is it that they should forgive, who so often themselves stand in need of forgiveness! (6) That we pray for peace. The lusts and passions of men are by the psalmist compared to the raging waves of the sea, and the same almighty Power that sets bounds to the one, must also quiet and restrain the other. 2. How great a blessing peace is, and how highly it tends to make our days many and good. (1) As it whets and excites diligence and industry in men’ s several callings, by giving them hopes of success in them. (2) As it gives men security in the enjoyment of their estates and possessions; in times of popular tumults the fears of losing what a man has creates him more trouble than the enjoyment gives him content. (3) As it affords the fittest opportunity for the practice of religion and virtue, and so conduces to the happiness of the future state as well as of this. (S. Freeman, M. A.) The elixir of life Rosenmuller, the celebrated sacred critic, quotes the following instructive anecdote from the book of Mussar:--“ A certain person, travelling through the city, continually called out, ‘ Who wants the elixir of life?’ The daughter of Rabbi Joda heard him, and told her father, who bade her call the man in. When the man entered, the Rabbi asked, ‘ What is the elixir of life which thou sellest?’ He answered, ‘ Is it not written, “ What man is he that loveth life, and desireth to see good days? let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips from speaking guile.” This is the elixir of life, and is found in the mouth of man.’” The hero of this anecdote wisely says, “ This is the elixir of life.” The government of the tongue--consisting, of course, in a proper regulation of the passions--will do more both to sweeten life and to lengthen it, than all the medicines in the world. “ The tongue is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison; it setteth on fire the course of nature, and it is set on fire of hell.” Most of the wars which desolate the earth, most of the tumults which afflict society, and many of the excitements which produce anxiety, sleeplessness, fever, and multitudinous disease, arise from rash, false, or malicious speaking. None but a Christian has this elixir,--no soul, but such as has been “ created anew in Christ Jesus,” can enchain the malignant passions, making them captive under a reign of holy love, and pour a balm of honeyed words into the wounds of his own or his neighbour’ s miseries. “ The tongue can no man tame.” God alone can achieve the deed. Whoever would find “ the elixir of life,” must seek it in that Heavenly Physician’ s laboratory, who “ healeth all our diseases,” who “ satisfieth our mouth with good things,” and who “ reneweth our youth like the eagle’ s.” Keep thy tongue from evil.-- Keeping the tongue from evil 1. There are different ways of sinning with the tongue. Our words may be-- (1) Exaggerated. It is easy to make light of the common expressions, “ terrible, awful,” and the like; but they are on the road to sin, and betray a tendency to make more of things than they deserve, which is at bottom self-conceit. (2) Insincere. Saying pleasant things without meaning them--the wrong and sinful side of politeness. (3) Malicious. Speaking falsely about a person so as to hurt him. (4) Profane. The use of vulgar and blasphemous words which young people adopt as a sign of manly independence. And that often goes further, and becomes filthy and immoral. 2. The tongue may be kept: (1) By keeping the heart right. (2) By persistent effort to break a bad habit. (3) By the choice of good friends. (4) By prayer. (G. M. Mackie, M. A.) Keeping guard over one’ s words The Chinese have a proverb we shall do well to remember: “ A word rashly spoken cannot be brought back by a chariot and four horses.” The Hindoos have a similar one: “ Of thy unspoken word thou art master, thy spoken word is master of thee;” and many a heartache is caused in this world of ours by the passionate utterance of the hasty and the unkind word. Let us remember the adage trite and true: “ Speech is silvern, silence is golden;” and, if we cannot speak gently, let us try not to speak at all. Seek peace, and pursue it.--The pursuit of peace The more a man advances in piety the more his inward tranquillity ought to increase. The day grows calmer as the sun draws near its setting. (J. W. Alexander.) Psalms 34:15-16 The eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and His ears are open unto their prayers.The countenance of the Lord is against them that do evil. The eye of God We all know well how much and often the Holy Scriptures speak of the blessed God, attributing to Him, under a figure, various human things, such as bodily members and organs, and mental feelings. It is an obvious caution, to warn people against understanding all these expressions literally; but it is a caution, one would think, not very necessary in these days. The opposite one, however, is needed, for in our excessive fears of corporeal conceptions of God, the thought of Him is becoming altogether vague and unreal. Our simplicity is our best wisdom, and we should think of God as He is vividly and simply and, as far as our powers can conceive of Him, truly set forth to us in Holy Scripture. The eye of God is, then, over the righteous to protect and comfort them, and His ear open to their prayers, to hear and answer them; while His countenance, not less all-seeing, is turned in displeasure and wrath upon those who do evil, so as to punish them with destruction. His eye is turned upon the good in love, and upon the bad in anger. Consider, then, ye who know well what it is to feel and love the sight of a parent’ s eye turned on you in approving affection, how God desires, by speaking so, to be regarded by you as looking upon you. Think how, when you have been trying to please your earthly parents, how, perhaps, when you have been trying to overcome some unkind or unworthy temper, some angry or sullen feeling, you have felt their eye turned upon you in tender and loving approbation, and have been encouraged to conquer the evil spirit who was assailing you. And God thus represents Himself to you, and bids you remember that His eye is over the righteous. But His countenance is against them that do evil. He seeth not less the sinners. His eyes are in every place, beholding the evil and the good. Let none suppose that he shuns, or can shun, the eye of God by disregarding it. It is the folly of the foolish bird which shuts its own eyes, and then thinks itself unseen. I would I might, by God’ s grace, waken up in the hearts of some of you the thought of the eye of God; the thought of the ever-present, ever-wakeful, heart-searching, tender, paternal eye of God, which is over you His own redeemed children! (G. Moberly, D. C. L.) An encouraging theology I. that God is specially interested in the existence of man on this earth (Psalms 34:15-16).1. Man is His offspring. 2. Man is His suffering offspring. II. that God is mainly concerned with the moral distinctions of men on this earth.1. Two classes of moral character are represented in the verses, and they are spoken of-- (1) As “ wicked,” and “ righteous.”(2) As those that “ trust in Him” and those that “ hate the righteous.”(3) As those that “ do evil,” and those that are “ His servants.” His servants are represented as broken in heart and contrite in spirit. 2. He sees all the other distinctions amongst men, physical, intellectual, social, political, religious. But these moral distinctions interest Him most, they are more affecting to His heart, more vital to the happiness of His creatures, more fundamental to the weal of His universe. III. that God evermore treats men according to the moral character which they sustain on this earth.1. Look at His conduct towards the righteous. (1) He superintends them; His “ eyes” and His “ ears” are towards them. He keeps a vigilant watch over them.(2) He hears them. No mother’ s ears are half so quick to catch the cries of a suffering child as His ears to catch the cries of His afflicted people.(3) He is nigh them. Not in a mere local or physical sense, but in the sense of tenderest sympathy and regard.(4) He saves them. Deep, tender, and constant is His interest in them. 2. Look at His conduct towards the wicked. (1) He is against them for their ruin (Psalms 34:16).(2) He allows their sin to destroy them (Psalms 34:21). (Homilist.) The face of the Lord Our eye is dimmer than the eye of the men of old time for the vision of the face of God. We have greater thoughts, no doubt, about His name, His nature, His purposes, His methods. But His countenance, flashing with intelligence, clouding with sorrow, beaming with love, as it looks out on us through the Creation, seems to escape us. Nature is very beautiful, very glorious, very terrible; but there is no speculation in the eye wherewith she beholds us. Less cultivated peoples seem to discern a presence, to hear a voice, to feel a touch of some living being in all the play and movement of the Creation. To our wise ones it is but the manifestation of vital force, the constant, pitiless swing of the wheels of a vast vital mechanism. But the face of the Lord, to those whose eye is open to behold it, is not veiled; it looks out on them still through its organs of expression in Nature and in man. I. the lofty and patient method of god in guiding and ruling mankind. The face of the Lord is against them that do evil; not the weight of His hand as yet. God gives to man a large liberty to do evil. In truth, we hardly realize how large and high is His method. We constantly expect that His hand of force will close upon us in some self-willed, sinful course which we are bent on pursuing; and if He fails to meet us, if the path seems open, if the sun shines, if the birds sing, and the fruits of pleasure hang pendent from the boughs, we are tempted to instruct our own consciences, and to say, God cannot be so sternly set against our self-willed course after all. It is truly fearful to realize the rude limits of our power to corrupt, to torment, to madden His children; to make the world a place of wailing, and life a bitter protest against the goodness and righteousness of His reign. How much are you adding daily to the pain and sorrow of the Creation? Do you never wonder that the iron hand of God’ s power does not close firmly round you, and make you feel that there are limits beyond which you shall not use your fearful prerogative of freedom--beyond which you shall not fill God’ s seed-field with the seeds of misery and death? But the hand is still open; still dropping, broadcast, blessings on your life. II. let us study the forms in which the face of God is against man’ s evil, and how it bears upon his life.1. There is the face of God in the daylight of Creation (Genesis 3:8-13). Shame, fear, and a great rout of base and slavish passions enter with sin, and drive out that child’ s frank joy and trust with which man was made and meant to look up to God. Nature is, in one sense, impassive. But the evil-doer finds an expression on her countenance, a frown on her brow, which startles and appals him. The flash of the lightning across the murderer’ s path reveals to him something more than the splendour of electric fire. The splendour departs--a dull, sad shadow settles over the world. The evil-doer loses all sense of a living presence in Nature. Life gets drained of its interest, the world of its beauty, the future of its hope. The face of God ceases to affright. It ceases even to appear behind the veil of the invisible. What does this mean? Is it that all barriers are withdrawn, and that the evil-doer has the universe and eternity before him in which to work out his malignant will? Nay, it means that the sinner has passed out of the light of God’ s countenance, out of the sphere of his freedom, into the grasp of God’ s terrible hand. This is what is meant by falling “ into the hands of the living God.” 2. The face of the Lord is against them that do evil, in the moral instincts, the moral judgments, of their fellows, and in the whole order of the human world. A man, let us say, walks about burdened with a great, guilty secret. What is it which makes him feel as if every man whom he meets was acquainted with it, and was trying to shame him? What but the face of God looking out on him through the face of man, His image? 3. The face of the Lord looks out on men through the various forms of the discipline of life. There is a striking instance of what I mean in 1 Kings 17:9-18. Day by day you are brought into contact with a mind and a will outside you, not only by what you see, but also by what you endure. 4. The face of the Lord looks out against them that do evil, through the gathering glooms of death. A man hardened in sin may walk at ease through nil the pathways of the world, crying, Where is the Lord? in impious defiance or presumptuous scorn. But to every man in death the face reappears--never to vanish again through eternity. Men who have been recovered from apparent death, and have gone through all the experience of dying, tell strange tales of how in one burning moment the buried past reappears. The whole scroll of life unrolled, clear and orderly, before them; every thought, passion, incident, experience, standing out with startling vividness before the mind’ s eyed and all in the clear daylight. No mist or confusion upon them; all risen again before the face of God. And that vision is for over. The “ vain show” vanishes; the illusion is for ever ended. (J. B. Brown, B. A.) Psalms 34:18 The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken ,heart: and sayeth such as be of a contrite spirit. The broken heart and its Divine Restorer The Lord is nigh. Now to be nigh to one object is to be more or less distant from others. So is it with men, and human language is employed to represent what is here told us of God. He cannot really be far from any heart. But, in a very deep sense, He is nigh the broken heart--to help, to comfort, to save. I. Look at the broken heart and contrite spirit. “ A broken heart,” a “ crushed spirit,” what is it? The heart before us may be Considered to be like a piece of fine mechanism disordered, or some work of art fractured--some work of art made of exquisitely delicate material, and of very fine workmanship; or like flesh when worn and bruised. We selfish men like to look on things that are pleasant, and we frequently turn our faces away from that which is unpleasant. You always find God’ s face turned towards objects like unto these broken hearts and crushed spirits. II. now to such a heart God is nigh, and such a spirit God seeks to save.1. He “ is nigh” in knowledge, He knows all its history. 2. In ministration. “ He saveth such,” etc. When God heals the broken heart, it is none the worse for having been broken. An angel could not do this; God can, and does. III. learn the lessons of this truth.1. DO not morbidly crave for creature help and fellowship. You can do without them, for God Himself is nigh. 2. Do not think, feel, or act as if He were far off. He has all along known how you would be placed, and He is nigh. 3. Remember that the resources of God are available in the hour of greatest need. 4. Do not despond or despair. You may be broken in heart, or crushed in spirit, without despondency, or despair, being elements of your sorrow; you may either cherish these feelings or fight against them. Now the feeblest fighting against them is victorious, if this struggle be carried on in the name of the Redeemer of men. If you find yourself sinking into some horrible pit of despondency and despair, it is your most sacred duty to cry importunately unto Him. 5. Look a little further by the light of this text, and observe that a broken heart and a crushed Spirit are named not as uncommon things. These are not uncommon things in human life; and you who are accustomed to look beyond surface, and beyond curtains, and draperies, and shams, and masks, know this as well as I. 6. But look once more at the text, and mark, that God being nigh is mentioned as something ordinary. A broken heart is common--God’ s saving is a common thing. Some of you need this text. You need it as a word of warning. You seem to have set yourselves in a kind of morbid obstinacy to cherish a broken heart and a crushed spirit. You seem to have determined to perpetuate your misery. Now this text tells you where to turn for help. You cannot find it apart from God. No man ever yet healed his own crushed spirit, never will. “ He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds.” Your fellow-Christians, religious books, consolatory hymns--all these are good so long as they lead you to God, but if they come between you and the Great Helper, you are better without them. These books cannot do the work you require to be done for you. (Samuel Martin.) A broken heart I. This heart feels that it deserves to be broken, deeply humbled, yea, crushed with anguish. The source of its sorrow is conscious delinquency, undeniable guilt, the abuse of many a mercy, and a heedless indulgence in many an evil passion. The sorrow thus produced is oftentimes unspeakably severe. Poverty may depress, persecution may harass, disease may prostrate, and bereavement produce painful blanks in the domestic circle; but a sorrow, more intense than is felt in all these has a place in the broken heart. II. A broken heart is thankful that it has been broken. It feels that a power has been put forth upon it altogether foreign to itself, and apart from any means for this purpose that it could employ; and hence its adoring gratitude for the change effected. III. A broken heart desires to be more and more broken. Washington Irving is represented to have said that “ sorrow for the dead is the only sorrow from which we refuse to be divorced. Every other wound we seek to heal, every other affliction to forget; but this wound we consider it a duty to keep open; this affliction we cherish, and brood over in solitude.” Such language is, no doubt, very beautiful, and touchingly expressed. But how did this amiable student of the common sympathies of humanity forget that broken heart, of deepest interest, which refuses to be divorced from its sorrow on account of sin? IV. A broken heart surveys with amazement the innumerable mercies with which it is encompassed. These mercies are like the stars of heaven for multitude; and there stands in the midst of them the gift of God’ s Son, like the king of day amid the lesser luminaries of the sky. What a mercy is the Word of God! It testifies of Christ, and brings life and immortality to light. What a mercy is a throne of grace! I have sins, and I can go there for pardon; I have a polluted nature, and can go there for purity; I have enemies, and can go there for help; for weakness I can go there for strength; and for sickness, I can go there for health. V. A broken heart is a tender heart--affectionate, forgiving, forbearing. VI. A broken heart is an acquiescing heart. VII. A broken heart triumphs in the assurance that all its sorrows shall issue in rivers of pleasure and a fulness of joy. Upon what does this assurance rest? It rests upon the fact of its own existence. Why has God broken this heart? That it may never be healed? No, no. Let us not, then, invest it with gloom, and sullenness, and sorrow. Let us invest it with joy. (Thomas Adam.) A broken heart A gentleman, having broken his watch glass, entered a jeweller’ s to have a new one fixed. When the watch was returned, he inquired how much they would allow for the broken pieces. On being told that broken things were of no value, he said, “ I have a book at home that says something is no good till it is broken.” “ That must be a strange kind of book,” said the jeweller. “ Yes,” said the other, “‘ A broken and a contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise.’” “ I see you are talking religion,” was the reply. (Newton Jones.) The obdurate heart softened Go into a cast-iron foundry and witness the extraordinary process by which fire conquers the solid metal, until it consents to be cast or stamped or rolled into the form which the artificer requires. This is a type of God’ s moral foundry, when an obdurate heart is first so softened as to feel the truth, then to weep over sin, then to be ductile, then so flexible as to be formed into a shape that pleases the Lord Jesus Christ. Psalms 34:19-20 Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the Lord delivereth them out of them all. The trial of the righteous The sum of this verse is as if he should say, Let the righteous look for more troubles than others, and likewise let them hope for greater comforts than others; for when they are well, they shall be eclipsed again, to show that their light was but borrowed; and when they are eclipsed, their light shall return, to show their difference from them whom God hateth, which fall from plague to plague, as they run from sin to sin. I. what makes our troubles so hard to bear is our lack of patience, how great is our need of this grace! “ A sound spirit,” saith Solomon, “ will bear his infirmity, but a wounded spirit what can sustain?” (Proverbs 18:14). Therefore as the lid is made to open and shut, to save the eye, so patience is set to keep the soul, and save the heart; whole, to cheer the body again. Therefore if you mark, when you can go by an offence, and take a little wrong and suffer trouble quietly, you have a kind of peace and joy in your heart, as if you have gotten a victory, and the more your patience is, still the less your pain is. For as a light burden, borne at the arm’ s end, weigheth heavier by much, than a burden of treble weight, if it be borne upon the shoulders, which are made to bear; so if a man set impatience to bear his cross, which is not fit to bear, it will grumble, and murmur, and let the burden fall upon his head, like a broken staff, which promiseth to help him over the water, and leaveth him in the ditch. But if you pug it to patience, and set her to bear it, which is appointed to bear, she is like the hearty spies that came from Canaan, and said, “ It is nothing to overcome them” (Joshua 2:1-24.). Among the strange cures of patience, David may report of his experience what this plaster hath done for him; for, being a figure of Christ, he was always hedged about with the Cross, which proved his patience like a touchstone every day. As Christ was contemned of his countrymen, so David was contemned of his brethren (1 Samuel 26:2); as Christ fled to Egypt, so David fled unto Gath; as Christ received food of women, so David received food of Abigail (Luke 8:2); as Herod persecuted Christ, so Saul persecuted David. Thus, by his own foot, David measured the condition of the righteous, and saith, “ Many are the troubles of the righteous” ; and then, by his own cure, he showeth how they should be healed, saying, “ The Lord will deliver him out of all.” If ye mark, the Spirit hath directed David to those two things which make us take our troubles grievously: one, because we do not look for them before they come. Therefore, as Christ told Peter before he suffered, to strengthen him when he suffered (John 21:18); so the Holy Ghost doth run upon the cross to keep us in expectation of troubles, that we might prepare faith, and patience, and constancy for them, as Noah prepared an ark for the flood. II. The second thing which makes us to start so at the cross is, because we are like the prophet’ s servant, which did see his foes, but not his friends (2 Kings 6:1-33.); so we see our sore, but not our salve, Comfort seems afar off, like Abraham in the heavens (Luke 16:1-31.), as though it would never come so low. Therefore we go about to deliver ourselves, as it is said, Psalms 2:1-12., “ Let us break his bands,” as though we could deliver ourselves. But “ hold your peace,” saith Moses, “ the Lord shall fight for you” (Exodus 14:14). So David comes in like a pacifier, and saith, “ Vex not yourselves, for the Lord will deliver you.” Bear both these sentences in mind, that you must go through a sea of troubles, and that then you shall come to the haven of rest, and no affliction shall take you before you be armed for it, or you be without your remedy: “ Many are the troubles of the righteous, but the Lord delivereth him out of all.” Here be the two hands of God, like a wound and a plaster, one casteth down, and the other raiseth up. It is good for a man to know his troubles before they come, because afflictions are lightened in the expectation (Acts 9:16; Matthew 16:24; John 2:10). This is the manner of God’ s proceedings to send good after evil, as He made light after darkness (Genesis 1:3). The knife of correction must prune and lop off men’ s rotten twigs before they can bring forth fruit. III. yet our troubles are but troubles. When God doth visit the wicked, His punishments are called plagues and destructions; the plagues of Egypt, the curse of Cain, the destruction of Sodom. But when He doth visit the righteous, His punishments are called corrections, and chastisements, and rods, which proceed from a Father, not to destroy us, but to try us, and purge us, and instruct us. And as Jacob was blessed and halted both at one time, so a man may be blessed and afflicted both together. Afflictions do not hinder our happiness, but our happiness cometh by affliction, as Jacob’ s blessing came with halting (Genesis 32:1-32.), and as peace is procured by war. (Henry Smith.) The good man under afflictions I. afflictions often befall the best of men; some, that are common to them with the rest of mankind, and others, that are peculiar to persons of this character. The righteous man, as well as others, may be deserted by his friend, and abused by his enemies. Death may deprive him of those dear to him, and swell his heart with sorrow. His virtue will not secure him from infamy and contempt, from losses and disappointments in his worldly affairs; from poverty, and the thousand hardships that attend it, from bad health and painful distempers. Then, besides his own private afflictions, the good man, through the tenderness of his heart, feels the calamities of his fellow-creatures, and shares in the manifold evils he sees them suffer. Righteousness or virtue sometimes draws upon itself the hatred of bad men, with all the evils they are able to inflict. Eminent worth, which outshines others, and makes them appear despicable and mean, provokes their envy, the most bitter and deadly of human passions. Besides, integrity may lead a man to oppose the wicked in their unjust and mischievous designs; wherefore these will join themselves to such as envy him, and increase the number of his enemies. II. why the righteous are afflicted. If God lays affliction upon the righteous, it is not because He has no distinguishing regard for them; but because their sufferings may answer many valuable purposes both to others and themselves.1. I say, others may reap various advantages by observing the sufferings of good men. By such events God may intend to admonish us, that prosperity is not the best of blessings, nor adversity the worst of evils; since He frequently dispenses the one, and denies the other to His own children. The suffering of the righteous may also be of service to the world; as by this means their virtues are more clearly displayed, and recommended with greater force to the imitation of mankind. 2. Their afflictions often produce great advantages to the sufferers themselves. Among these, I am not afraid to mention the glory they derive from hence. Suffering virtue at least may surely be allowed to comfort itself with the foresight of that veneration, which is wrongfully withheld from it when living; but which posterity will pay with interest to its surviving memory. ,Nor is it a small advantage, that by means of their sufferings the righteous may attain a comfortable assurance of their own constancy. Sometimes also adversity is profitable to good men, as it helps to cure them of their remaining imperfections. III. the righteous man’ s supports under afflictions.1. The native strength of his virtue, which enables him to break their forte by opposing to them a firm and constant mind. 2. Religion also lends him a powerful aid. (John Holland.) Psalms 34:21 Evil shall slay the wicked.Sin the slayer “ Evil shall slay the wicked.” When? Now. The judgment is in process of execution to-day. Evil slays men to-day. Righteousness delivers men to-day. I. evil shall slay the wicked. Have you ever known that to happen? Have you ever known evil to slay a man--I don’ t mean the man’ s body, but the man? It is a daily commonplace. When we see a man who is the victim of some sin, we do not speak of him as dying or as being slain. We speak of him as one “ taking the bad way,” “ going down the hill,” “ going to ruin,” as one who is “ becoming a wreck.” The victims of evil are dying, dying from the effects of evil, and eventually they are slain. Now, there is no form of evil which does not make for destruction, for moral and spiritual death. “ The soul that sinneth shall die.” The soul begins to die at once. The poison begins to act immediately. My text does not specialize any particular evil--drunkenness, or sensualism, or gambling, or falsehood, or deceit. It speaks of them all as one, generalizes them, heaps them together and says, “ Evil shall slay the wicked!” Anything that is destroying a woman’ s womanhood is slaying the woman. Anything that is destroying a man’ s manhood is slaying the man.1. What makes a man? What are the supreme and characteristic glories of a true man? A good conscience, a sound heart; and a vigorous will. A healthy man has a conscience by which he knows the right. He has a heart by which he loves the right. He has a will by which he does the right. Take away any of those three from a man and the man is maimed. You do not use the title “ man” of one who has no conscience. You do not use it to describe one who has no heart. You do not use it of manhood which is destitute of will. Instinctively you feel that manhood which lacks these attributes is not; worthy of the name. When these three are destroyed, the man is slain. Now, how does evil affect these primary glories of manhood? (1) How does evil affect the will? Will, in the relationship in which I speak of it, is moral muscle. Will-power is resolution of purpose, power of determination, power of aggression or resistance. How, then, does evil affect the will? Poison weakens the body; moral poison weakens the will. Every time we give way to deceit, to temper, to passion, to lust, we make it harder to walk in the path of rectitude and truth. Every time we have dealings with evil we impair and diminish our moral resources. Evil slays the wicked man, and it begins by slaying his will. (2) How does evil affect the heart? Have you marked what often happens when some dark evil has stolen into a Christian man’ s life? Prayer is forgotten. Work is neglected. The Sanctuary is forsaken. His ardour cools, and he no longer loves the truth. His love has become perverted. How is it? When men love darkness it is because evil has injured their hearts. The heart is given us to love the truth, but evil injures the heart, abuses the heart, destroys its pure affection, and makes it the instrument of darkness. If we take evil into our life we shall lose the power to love the right; we shall be unmanned, evil which slays the wicked will destroy the heart. (3) How does evil affect the conscience? Here is my lamp. My lamp says, “ I will give light conditionally. I will give light if you will give oil.” My conscience, the lamp of my soul, says, “ I will give light conditionally. I will give light if you will give oil.” If a man refuses to obey his conscience, he refuses to give it oil, and it will burn dimmer and dimmer until at last it will become a confusion of smoke. It is possible for a conscience to lose its brightness, its clear, decisive indication; nay, it is not only possible, it is inevitable if we pursue towards it a course of disobedience. 2. Well, now, here is what evil can do. It weakens my power to do the right. It destroys my love of right. It obscures my knowledge of right. It paralyzes my will. It clouds my conscience. It perverts my heart. If evil can do all these things, does it not slay? Does it not destroy the strength and beauty of human life? It takes our manhood and womanhood and by cutting down all their glories reduces them to be a mere collection of attributes of the flesh. II. But there is another side to all this: if evil slays the wicked, righteousness delivers from death. If evil degrades our life by taking away the crown of manhood, and the beauty of womanhood, righteousness enlarges the life by nourishing it from glory to glory. Evil throws about us an atmosphere which induces death. Righteousness throws about it an atmosphere which ministers to life. What is the fruit of righteousness? Not only some heaven that is to be. Not only some great reward awaiting us in remote futurity. The fruit of righteousness is to be “ a tree of life.” The righteous man, here and now, is to be like a grand, roomy, living tree, full of healthy sap, and exulting in the fulness of its strength. Every part of him is to be alive. That is the tendency of righteousness, of right living, of right doing and being; it makes for life, abundant life. (J. H. Jowett, M. A.) Psalms 34:22 None of them that trust in Him shall be desolate.No condemnation The R.V. accurately renders the words: “ None of them that trust in Him shall be condemned.” When we read in the New Testament that “ we are justified by faith,” the meaning is precisely the same as that of our text. Thus, however it came about, here is this psalmist, standing away back amidst the shadows and symbols and ritualisms of that Old Covenant, and rising at once, above all the mists, right up into the sunshine, and seeing, as clearly as we see it, that the way to escape condemnation is simple faith. I. the people that are spoken of here. “ None of them that trust in Him.” The word that is here translated, rightly, “ trust,” means literally to fly to a refuge, or to betake oneself to some defence in order to get shelter there. There is a trace of both meanings, literal and metaphorical, in another psalm, where we read, amidst the psalmist’ s rapturous heaping together of great names for God: “ My Rock, in whom I will trust.” Now keep to the literal meaning there, and you see how it flashes up the whole into beauty: “ My Rock, to whom I will flee for refuge,” and put my back against it, and stand as impregnable as it; or get myself well into the clefts of it, and then nothing can touch me. Then we find the same words, with the picture of flight and the reality of faith, used with another set of associations in another psalm, which says: “ He shall cover thee with His feathers, and under His wings shelf thou trust.” That grates, one gets away from the metaphor too quickly; but if we preserve the literal meaning, and read, “ under His wings shalt thou flee for refuge,” we have the picture of the chicken flying to the mother-bird when kites are in the sky, and huddling close to the warm breast and the soft, downy feathers, and so with the spread of the great wing being sheltered from all possibility of harm. There is one thing more that I would notice, and that is that this designation of the persons as “ them that trust in Him” follows last of all in a somewhat lengthened series of designations for good people. They are these: “ the righteous” --“ them that are of a broken heart” --“ such as be of a contrite spirit” --“ His servants,” and then, lastly, comes, as basis of all, as, so to speak, the keynote of all, “ none of them that trust in Him.” That is to say--righteousness, true and blessed consciousness of sin, joyful surrender of self to loving and grateful submission to God’ s will, are all connected with or flow from that act of trust in Him. And if you are really trusting in Him, your trust will produce all these various fruits of righteousness, and lowliness, and joyful service. II. the blessing here promised. “ None of them that trust in Him shall be condemned.” The word includes the following varying shades of meaning, which, although they are various, are all closely connected, as you will see--to incur guilt, to feel guilty, to be condemned, to be punished. All these four are inextricably blended together. And the fact that the one word in the Old Testament covers all that ground suggests some very solemn thoughts.1. Guilt, or sin, and condemnation and punishment, are, if not absolutely identical, inseparable. To be guilty is to be condemned. 2. This judgment, this condemnation, is not only present, according to our Lord’ s own great words, which perhaps are an allusion to these: “ He that believeth not is condemned already” ; but it also suggests the universality of that condemnation. Our psalmist says that only through trusting Him can a man be taken and lifted away, as it were, from the descent of the thundercloud, and its bolt that lies above his head. “ They that trust Him are not condemned,” every one else is; not “ shall be,” but is, to-day, here and now. III. the sole deliverance from this universal pressure of the condemnatory influence of universal sin lies in that fleeing for refuge to God. And then comes in the Christian addition, “ to God, as manifested in Jesus Christ.” You and I know more than this singer did, for we can listen to the Master, who says, “ He that believeth on Him is not condemned” ; and to the servant who echoes, “ There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.” (A. Maclaren, D. D.) The Gospel before the Gospel I. what trust is. We do not need to bewilder ourselves with metaphysical and theological subtleties. We know what it is to run to a refuge from storm or danger. So, then, “ none of them that flee to Him for refuge shall be condemned.” II. the accompaniments in the devout soul of true trust in God. Has it by its side a real penitence? Does there walk behind it a consistent and steadfast righteousness? Are we not only trusting the Lord, but serving Him? If our faith has drawn after it these things, it is true. If it has not, it is no real flight to the one Refuge. Righteousness in heart and in character and in conduct is the child of trust. True contrition accompanies it in its birth, but is nourished and nurtured by it thereafter. III. the great reward and blessing of quiet trust. “ None of them that flee to Him for refuge shall be condemned.” The word in its original and literal meaning, signifies “ desolate.” And I would have you to think of the profound truth that is covered by the fact that such a word should afterwards take on the meaning of “ guilt.” It teaches that guilt is desolation. Again, note the profound truth that lies in the other fact that the self-same word means “ guilty” and “ punishment.” For that says to us that criminality and retribution always go together, and that the same thing, in one aspect, is our sin, and, in another aspect, is our hell and punishment. Then, further, note that broad, unconditional, blessed assurance, cast into negative form, but involving a great deal more than a negation, “ None of them that trust in Him shall be condemned.” The reason why they that trust in Him are not condemned is because they that trust in Him, stand in the full sunshine of His love, and are saturated and soaked through and through, if they will, with the warmth and the light and the felicity of its beams. “ They shall not be condemned,” and “ whom He justifies them He also glorifies.” (A. Maclaren, D. D.) A message to the desolate To be desolate is to be devastated and destroyed. The ruin, whether of temple or of colosseum, is a picture of desolation. It is also loneliness. We have seen the solitary cottage among the Alps. There was no other cottage in sight, only the unbroken mountain range. We have seen the lone cabin on the plains, or the ship on the sea with nothing but the waters beneath and the sky above. These are pictures of desolation and loneliness which, I am inclined to think, find their duplicate in the life of men and women. I. what are some of the causes?1. To be misunderstood. The misunderstandings of life are nails to the hands or flames to the body. They cut one off from fellowship; they hurt and hinder and add to the solitude of life. Our Lord was misunderstood, lie was isolated by the very fact that lie was not understood. Therefore, upon at least three different occasions the Father encouraged Him. When He was baptized the voice of approval broke through the skies. When He was transfigured God spoke to Him and encouraged Him with the revelation of His presence, and in the Garden of Gethsemane the angel ministered unto Him. The satisfaction of His heart was found in the consciousness that while men did not understand Him God did. That saved Him from utter desolation. That saves us all from despair. To know that God knows us and understands us is to enjoy the highest spiritual companionship. 2. In proportion as we go far below or far above the common experiences of men do we experience isolation. The cathedral spire and the mountain peak are lonely. They are solitary. They enjoy no companionship. They are exceptions. So the shaft sunk deep in the earth is exceptional. A great emotion whether of joy or grief projects the life out of the ordinary; as an inlet of the sea. There is a loneliness and isolation in great thinking. Thomas Carlyle led a comparatively lonely life, a life of intellectual desolation, partly because he threaded his way up the dizzy heights of thought. 3. When you have a great sorrow it must be met and borne alone. Every soul goes through the valley of the shadow of death essentially alone so far as human help is concerned, which is to say, every heart knows its own sorrow and must bear its own burden. In the greatest griefs there is room only for the soul and God. 4. Sin leads to desolation. There is no real companionship in sin. Sin is destructive of brotherhood and fellowship. It narrows the life. The source of sin is selfishness, and the more selfish a life is the more narrow and lonely and desolate it is. Sin is desolation. It is a desert without a spring. Desolation is hell. We do not know much about the hell of the future, but we do know something of the hell of the present. II. what, then, shall we do to escape the life of desolation? How shall we people our little world with companions and brighten it with brotherhood and blessings?1. By a right use of the mind. We do not know precisely what or where the mind is, but we do know that it is the measure of the man. It is the eternal within us. Whatever may happen to the body, if the mind’ s sky is clear, what matters it? If our minds master us, rules and lead us, we will derive an immense amount of good from life, and each one, like St. Catherine of old, will have a secret oratory within which we may retreat. 2. Trust; trust in God. This is an old and well-worn injunction. For centuries men have been urged to trust in God. Why should they? Does it put bread in the pantry and money in the bank? Does it keep disease from the children or sorrows from the home? Why should we trust in God? We should believe that God is with us always. We do or do not believe this. If we do not we are desolate. If we do we are not desolate. (W. Rader.) . Psalms 35:1-28 Psalms 35:8 Say unto my soul, I am thy salvation. Saved or unsaved I. the earnest entreaty of a troubled soul. It was said of the great Sir Isaac Newton that he had a white soul, so pure was it. But this can be said of very few. They do not feel their need of salvation. When you become awakened it is a crisis of your life. You begin to ask concerning things whether they be right or wrong. Your conscience is tender and sensitive. And you must hear for yourself. “ Say unto my soul” --so reads the text. But whose soul? Why, the soul of every man who desires salvation. II. the boon desired. It is salvation. Our Lord Jesus is willing to save all men. More willing than the men in the lifeboat to save the people from the wreck. Sometimes the lifeboat dare not venture out to sea; but there is never a time when the Lord Jesus will refuse to save shipwrecked souls. I was much touched to hear a lifeboat man say, that at a certain wreck off the Orme’ s Head, near Llandudno, when the lifeboat put off to save the passengers and sailors of the vessel in distress, it was impossible to take all of them into the boat, and many were left. The men would have gladly saved all, but their boat was not large enough. Now, our Lord can save all mankind. And He will save us from our faults as well as from our sins. And you need this, for faults will grow up into sins if not rooted out. III. the certainty of God doing this. He says “ I am thy salvation.” What God says, can and will be done. It is not “ I may,” or “ I could” do this; but I am thy salvation.” If God can make a world so beautiful as this, can He not purify our souls? If He can tint the flower and make it lovely, cannot He redeem us from all iniquity? IV. there is a personal assurance of salvation. “ Say unto my soul, I am thy salvation.” Hannah More once said that if we preach about a privilege and do not mention the person who should have the privilege, it is like putting a letter into the post-office without any direction upon it. If you want this salvation, it is ready; but for whom is it intended? For every creature, and it is particularly addressed to you. Jesus did not say, “ Go into all the world and save nations,” but “ Go into all the world and preach the good news to every creature.” So, this salvation is meant for you. Then, when you are saved, your example shall bless the world. But until you are saved, your example is worth very little. (W. Birch.) Full assurance Many enemies were round David, but he feels there is only one thing God needs to do to make him strong. Let but God say unto his soul, “ I am thy salvation,” and he will defy them all. I. objections to the doctrine of full assurance.1. Some say it is better a man should stand in jeopardy, better for him to have doubts and fears. 2. Others say full assurance cannot be had. But it is possible, and has been enjoyed by many. If it were impossible, would we, as here, be told to pray for it? Romanists and formalists object; the former because it would do away with Purgatory, and the latter because they want no one to be better than themselves. 3. Others because some have pretended to it who have never been saved. 4. Or because they think the doctrine makes men careless. But confidence of success stimulates exertion, and realizing assurance overcomes all difficulties. 5. Others who trust in their good feelings would have us groan in the Lord always. Of all the Diabolians, Mr. Live-by-feeling was one of the worst. II. the text itself. It seems to say--1. That David had his doubts, or he would not have thus prayed. 2. But he was not content to remain in doubt. 3. And he knew where to obtain full assurance. Then take each word of the text and note its force. It is by His word, and by His ministers, and by His Holy Spirit, God says this to the soul. III. hear the preacher. He would speak to those who neither know nor care to know that they are saved; beware of your condition, for it is full of peril. And what folly on your part, for you have soon to die. And though you may not now feel it, you are most miserable. But do you wish to be saved? Then Christ is for thee. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Heaven made sure, or the certainty of salvation The words contain a petition for a benediction. The supplicant is a king, and his humble suit is to the King of kings: the king of Israel prays to the King of heaven and earth. He doth beg two things:--1. That God would save him. 2. That God would certify him of it. So that the text may be distributed accordingly into salvation, and the assurance of it. The matter is assurance; the manner, how assured: “ Say unto my soul.” I. from the matter, or assurance, observe--1. That salvation may be made sure to a man. David would never pray for that which could not be. Nor would St. Peter charge us with a duty which stood not in possibility to be performed (2 Peter 1:10). “ Make your election sure.” Paul directly proves it (2 Corinthians 13:5), “ Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?” We may then know that Christ is in us. 2. That the best saints have desired to make their salvation sure. David that knew it, yet entreats to know it more (Psalms 41:11). “ I know thou favourest me;” yet here still, “ Say unto my soul, I am thy salvation.” A man can never be too sure of his going to heaven. If we purchase an estate here, we make it as sure, and our tenure as strong, as the brawn of the law or the brains of the lawyer can devise. Now from this desire of David we draw matter-- (1) Of consolation. Even he desired better assurance. Sometimes a dear saint may want feeling of the spirit of comfort. But God doth sometimes hide from men this comfort--to extend their desires, to enlarge their joys when they shall again find the consolation they thought lost. To try whether we will serve God gratis, though we get nothing for it (Job 1:9). To make us more careful of this comfort when we have it. (2) Of reprehension to others who are thinking all is well when it is not so. (3) Of instruction, teaching us to keep the even way of comfort; eschewing both the rock of presumption on the right hand, and the gulf of desperation on the left. Let us neither be over-bold nor over-fainting, but endeavour by faith to assure ourselves of Jesus Christ, and by repentance to assure ourselves of faith, and by an amended life to assure ourselves of repentance. For they must here live to God’ s glory that would hereafter live in God’ s glory. 3. In the next place, observe the means how we may come by this assurance. This is discovered in the text, “ Say unto my soul.” 4. Such assurance is the sweetest comfort that can come to a man in this life. There is no potion of misery so embittered with gall but this can sweeten it with a comfortable relish. When enemies assault us, get us under, triumph over us, imagining that salvation itself cannot save us, what is our comfort? “ I know whom I have believed;” I am sure the Lord will not forsake me. What state can there be wherein the stay of this heavenly assurance gives us not peace and joy? II. the manner. “ Say unto my soul.” God bath spoken--1. By His own voice (Genesis 3:8; Deuteronomy 4:15; John 12:28; 2 Peter 1:17). 2. By His works (Psalms 19:1). 3. By His Son (Hebrews 1:1). 4. By the Scriptures (Romans 15:4). Oh that we had hearts to bless God for His mercy, that the Scriptures are among us, and that not sealed up under an unknown tongue! 5. God speaks by His ministers, expounding and opening to us those Scriptures. These are dispensers of the mysteries of heaven. This voice is continually sounding in our churches, beating upon our ears; I would it could pierce our consciences, and that our lives would echo to it in an answerable obedience. How great should be our thankfulness! Let us not say of this blessing, as Lot of Zoar, “ Is it not a little one?” nor be weary of manna with Israel, lest God’ s voice grow dumb unto us, and, to our woe, we hear it speak no more. No, rather let our hearts answer with Samuel (1 Samuel 3:10), “ Speak, Lord, for thy servants hear.” If we will not hear Him say to our souls, “ I am your salvation,” we shall hear Him say, “ Depart from Me, I know you not.” 6. God speaks by His Spirit: this “ Spirit beareth witness with our spirit,” etc. Perhaps this is that “ voice behind us” (Isaiah 30:21), as it were, whispering to our thoughts, “ This is the way, walk in it.” It is the Church’ s prayer (Son 1:2). The Holy Ghost is the kiss of God the Father. Whom God kisseth, He loveth. Now by all these ways doth God speak peace to our consciences, and say to our souls that He is our salvation: “ I am thy salvation.” --The petition is ended. I will but look into the benediction, wherein I should consider these four circumstances: Who, What, To whom, When. Who?--The Lord. He alone can (Hosea 13:9). What?--Salvation. A special good thing: every man’ s desire, though he be running hellward. Man would be blessed, though he takes the course to be cursed. I will give thee a lordship, saith God to Esau. I will give thee a kingdom, said God to Saul. I will give thee an apostleship, saith God to Judas. But, I will be thy salvation, He says to David, and to none but saints. To Whom?--My soul. Not others’ only, but mine. When?--In time present. “ I am.” To conclude: it is salvation our prophet desires. Not riches. He that prefers riches before his soul doth but sell the horse to buy the saddle, or kill a good horse to catch a hare. He begs not honour: many have leapt from the high throne to the low pit. The greatest commander on earth hath not a foot of ground in heaven, except he can get it by entitling himself to Christ. He desires not pleasures; he knows there are as great miseries beyond prosperity as on this side it. And that all vanity is but the indulgence of the present time; a minute begins, continues, ends it: for it endures but the acting, and leaves no solace in the memory. In the fairest garden of delights there is somewhat that stings in the midst of all vain contents. The Christian seeks “ that better part which shall never be taken from him.” (T. Adams.) Soul salvation Our text brings to our view the soul of man, and, whilst preaching therefrom, I also will try to show some of the causes of the apparent failure of Christianity. It is not Christianity which is at fault, but Christians who are not Christlike. I. why is it that men do so neglect religion?1. A large portion of the community is deceived by riches. They think all their happiness lies in what riches can give. Hence they toil early and late; they think about nothing else. But when they get rich they are never satisfied. I do not ask for an equal distribution of wealth, but I call upon the rich to be trustees for the world, and to say, “ Lord, all that I have is Thine; how shall I use it for Thy glory, and for the good of my fellow-men?” Another cause of the apparent failure of Christianity is-- 2. The errors of many teachers and ministers. 3. A third cause is the unreasonableness of scepticism. Christianity has blessed the lives of all who believed in it. It has made the drunkard sober, the thief honest, and has delivered men from the power of darkness into God’ s marvellous light. The path of Christ’ s truth will Carry the world to peace and happiness, if they will but walk therein. 4. The last cause which I shall mention is that people hold false notions about God. Many men think if they pay a large sum to a church, or to some good cause, God will smile upon them. And the unfortunate one who, time after time, relapses into sin believes God cannot forgive one who falls so often. “ He may forgive and bless those who live righteously, but can He bless me?” He can: He is waiting to bless thee. II. We have now to notice as earnest desire. David, remembering the past, and fearing for the future, earnestly desires soul salvation. “ Oh God! say unto my soul, ‘ I am thy salvation.’”1. He desires salvation from the burden of sin. Even as a man working in a coal-pit, upon whom the earth has fallen, earnestly cries for help, so the Christian is in agony to be saved from the burden with which his sins have fallen upon his memory and his conscience. 2. We also have here an earnest desire for salvation from the power of sin. In the sad days of American slavery, I have read of a maiden being bought by a very wicked man for purposes of sin and shame, and she, weeping, as she was dragged along the road to his estate, shrieked piteously for a deliverer. Poor thing! the law gave the monster the power over her. But how different when we in the bondage of sin, cry out to God for help. Christ comes and delivers his people from the power of sin. III. the delightful expectation of the text. It is to have God’ s voice to be heard in the soul. “ Say unto my soul, ‘ I am thy salvation.’” There may be some here who cannot find peace and holiness, and who now cry for salvation. Losing your way whilst wandering in an underground cavern and your light burning out, it is delightful to hear the guide in the distance cry, “ All right, my friend, I know where you are, and will lead you safely out.” Likewise the promise is, “ The Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly return to His temple.” Pray on, hope on, believe on. You shall hear His voice, for He hath promised. (W. Birch.) Psalms 35:9-10 My soul shall he joyful in the Lord.Life’ s joy It is not often that we meet with a truly joyous face. We see many a brow curved with humour, and lips with their wreath of mirth, but the eyes seldom beam the glory of that quiet delight which is named in our text. Everybody has some joy; but in many cases it is spurious like a bad shilling, and unreliable like the grass which grows over the marsh on a moor. But real joy is wholesome, beneficent and abiding; and it is for all. It is seldom or never found in external things; it is an inward state of the soul. Joy may be likened to a seat under the shade of a tree to which you can go at once for rest, and it is as free as a street fountain with the cup hanging ready for the thirsty traveller to drink; anybody may take the cup and drink. True joy is not a fiction; to be expressed, it must be felt. As you cannot have a river without a spring or source, neither can you have true joy without its fountain which flows from the heart of God. I. the secret cause of joy in the Christian is--1. That he possesses all things. The great cry of the human heart is--“ I want this; O that I could have that!” Our failing is discontentedness; the glory of Christianity is contentment, not empty and fleeting, but full, overflowing, and everlasting. Under the Atlantic ocean is a cable through which passes a wire connecting the coast of England with that of America, and though there are great storms and crashing icebergs on the ocean, the cable under the sea is undisturbed; the lightning message passes along the three thousand miles of wire silently and in the twinkling of an eye. Likewise, the soul of the Christian, no matter whether he may be in a dungeon, awaiting a martyr’ s death, or upon a throne, the object of the people’ s praise, is serene because it is in communion with God. 2. That our sins are all forgiven. 3. The sense of salvation also inspires one’ s soul to be joyful in the Lord. 4. The promise of heaven. Some of you may say, “ What you have said is of no use to me, for I am not a Christian; I am not good; there is no chance for me.” You think God must draw the line somewhere, that He cannot take you in; that He may receive other people, but He cannot admit you. Now the Bible says, “ Whosoever will.” You cannot be too wicked for God to save; for He is able to save to the very uttermost all that pray unto Him. Therefore, come. (W. Birch:) Psalms 35:13I humbled my soul with fasting.The duty of fasting So said David. All God’ s faithful children, under every dispensation, have observed the same rule. So must each one now say, who hopes for the highest degree of blessedness hereafter. “ Can none, then, be saved without fasting?” I have heard people sometimes ask. This question might be answered by another: “ Can any be saved without praying?” The same authority has commanded the observance of both. But fasting is an unpleasant duty; and those who wish to escape from it, while they readily grant that it was practised by the Jews, deny that it is binding upon Christians. Did not our Lord fast forty days and forty nights, thus setting us an example of subduing the flesh to the Spirit, that in this way His “ godly monitions” may be more perfectly obeyed? Do not the apostles tell us that they were “ in fastings often” ? Do they not enjoin it upon Christians to “ give themselves to fasting and prayer” ? “ This may all be true,” answers an objector, “ but why not leave it to each one to discharge this duty when he feels disposed, and why celebrate the fast of Lent, which sprung Up, perhaps, during the dark ages of the world?” In reply to the first question, I would merely say that if we wait until we feel in a humour to fast, we shall never fast at all. Hence the wisdom of the Church in appointing stated seasons (or it, when we are bound to attend to it, or prove ourselves unworthy and disobedient children. Our Saviour said to His disciples (Matthew 9:15). And from the earliest ages of the Church directions concerning this observance are found. But while it is expected of all to keep the fasts of the Church, all cannot observe them alike. The sick, or such as are just recovering their health, may not be able, perhaps, to abstain from food; and they who are obliged to toil hard for their daily bread, require more to sustain their strength than those whose lives are less active. But all should deny themselves in some way. (John H. Norton.) My prayer returned into mine own bosom.-- The benefits of prayer The ancient garments were loose and flowing, and fell in a hollow fold upon the bosom; into which fold were often put articles of use, or value, for the convenience of carriage; and especially when presents were made, they were frequently deposited there. By his prayer returning into his own bosom, therefore, David meant, that though it failed to bring the desired benefit to those for whom it was delivered, it should turn to his own recompense and advantage. Such is the case, more or less, with all the acts of kindness rendered to our neighbour; they conduce not only to his benefit but our own. Ye who take delight in the well-being of others, and make it a business in your life to minister thereto, know well the value of this grace to your own hearts; it is a perpetual source of consolation and satisfaction. And even if you fail in pleasing those whom you seek to please, or in benefiting those whom you seek to benefit; still the good to yourself is not lost; there is joy in the endeavour, independent of the result. The pious act to which the text alludes was the fruit of love, of the most disinterested and holy affection. David was surrounded with bitter and violent enemies, who daily sought his life; and the manner in which he expresses himself respecting them reminds us strongly of David’ s Lord. He lifted up his heart in supplication to the mercy-seat; he did all that in him lay. But his prayer was not granted, as neither was the prayer of Jesus for the reckless Jew. From this remarkable instance before us, I am led to speak of the value of intercessory prayer, of prayer for our brethren, and for all our fellow-creatures. God has ordained it (1 Timothy 2:1). We know not what may be dependent upon our prayers. What good they may bring to them for whom we pray. And assuredly they bring much good to us. I. The prayer for superiors of every kind begets in us that spirit of obedience, which God has commanded, and which God will bless. II. Children pray for parents. Who can tell the benefits which they themselves derive from this duty? On the other hand, the parent prays for the child. The child is wayward and wanton: the parent prays for correction and amendment; but they do not always come. But the supplication is not without its fruit, in blessed peace of mind from knowing that he has done his best: that his child was not ruined by his neglect to pray for him. And so-- III. for all relatives. The principle of mutual love is kept alive thereby. IV. But perhaps the most observable instance of all is that wherewith the text is connected, the supplication for enemies. This is a peculiar exercise of faith: this requires a greater struggle in the inner man, to obtain the mastery over our own self-love; and to make us desire with godly sincerity the good of those who have injured us, and to entreat the Lord for it, as for our own favour and blessing. This is indeed a victory of the Spirit of grace; and the Lord honours it with a signal reward, and makes it productive of vast benefit to our souls. Such was the Lord’ s own example. Let us also herein follow our Lord. (J. Slade, M. A.) The remunerative power of charity The psalmist is speaking of the ungrateful returns which he received from his enemies for many acts of kindness. When they were in trouble and sickness, he did not fail to intercede with God on their behalf: he prayed for them, and put on sackcloth, and fasted; “ whereas,” he goes on to say, “ in mine adversity they rejoiced,” etc. Were, then, his prayers all thrown away? Not so; he was persuaded that they would return into his own bosom; that the prayers, that is, which should be fruitless in regard to those for whom they were presented, should certainly produce good to him by whom they had been offered. Now, we do not think that sufficient attention is paid to the various modes in which what is done for others, returns, as it were, to the doer, gust as though God regarded it as a loan, and would not permit it to remain long in his hands--for we hardly know the philanthropic deed in regard of which we may not prove the high probability, if not the certainty, that he who performs it gains an abundant requital, even if you suppose him not moved by the purest motive, or not bringing into account the recompenses of eternity. The interests of the several classes in a community, nay, of the various members of the vast human family, are so bound up one with the other, that it is scarcely possible for an individual benefit to fail to be a general; and if the good which is wrought in an isolated quarter cannot remain there, but must propagate itself over wide districts, we may easily believe that God, who orders and appoints all things so that they work His own ends, causes much of this reflected good to fall on the party with whom it originated; and thus he who fasted and humbled himself in sackcloth finds that his prayer hath returned into his own bosom. If I support infirmaries for children, I take the best means of preventing our being hereafter burdened with sickly and dependent families; disease is corrected, and the injuries are repaired in childhood which entail on us, if neglected, a crowd of miserable objects; and what I give to the pining infant I more than receive back from the vigorous man. If I support hospitals for the reception of those who must otherwise perish unregarded, what do I but take measures to continue to his family the industrious father, on whom it hangs for subsistence, and whose death would make it a pensioner on benevolence? Then surely what I give will, in all probability, “ return into mine own bosom,” if it prove instrumental in preserving a useful “ member to the community, and prevent fresh demands upon charity. Neither does this take into account what ought not to be omitted--that there is a direct tendency in hospitals and infirmaries to the nourishing in the poor kindly feelings towards the rich; and he can know little of the mutual dependence of the several ranks in society, who does not know that money employed on the procuring this result is money at interest, and not money sunk. But let us now consider more particularly the ease in which the motive to benevolence is such as God approves--man acting from a principle of love to the Saviour, who has declared that He counts as done to Himself what is done for His sake to the least of His brethren. We believe that even in the present life the remunerating power will have a greater sphere of exercise in this case than in any other. It is to be observed, that though a Christian will be ready, with St. Paul, to “ do good unto all men,” he will study with the same apostle to do good, “ especially to those that are of the household of faith;” and if his charities bring him mostly into association with those who are serving the same Lord, and if, though he neglect not the temporal, he is chiefly instrumental in supplying the spiritual wants of the destitute, it is very evident that there will be that returned to him in the prayers and blessings of those whom he succours, which there would not be if the objects of his benevolence were all at enmity with God. But if we may contend that what we have called the remunerating power of charity is already in operation, who can doubt that hereafter, when we reach the time and scene, which are specially appointed for the Divine retributions, it will be proved to the letter that our gifts and our deeds have returned into our own bosoms. When we read that even a cup of cold water given in the name of a disciple shell not lose its reward, we are taught that God takes account of the minutest acts of Christian benevolence, and designs them a recompense, so that as not even the least can escape His observation, not even the least shall be without retribution. He annexes rewards to our actions to show His graciousness, and to animate to obedience; and, with this as the base, He may justly be expected to leave no service unrequited, and yet at the same time to requite in proportion to the action. But with all the reasons there may be for expecting the most exact retributions, who can doubt that the righteous will hereafter be amazed and overcome, as the strict connection is shown them between what they did and what they enjoy? (H. Melvill, B. D.) Psalms 35:14I bowed down heavily as one that mourneth for his mother.The duty of surviving children to the memory of pious and departed mothers I. some general observations on the text.1. It displays a beautiful combination of apparently opposite virtues in the same character. Undaunted courage and yet loving tenderness. 2. A gradation in the claims of relative attachment. The mother has stronger claims than any friend, though he be one “ who sticketh closer than a brother.” 3. The loss of an excellent and pious mother is a most afflictive calamity, especially at some periods of her children’ s life--as infancy and youth. II. the regard which a bereaved family should show to the memory of a good mother.1. Retrace with gratitude her loving care. 2. Recall to remembrance the efforts she made to promote your best welfare. 3. Imitate her. 4. Cultivate all those principles, and that character, which were in her, and which shall prepare you to meet her in heaven. (John Clayton, A. M.) The death of a mother I. what is there in the death of a mother that excites peculiar sorrow?1. The want of the expressions of a mother’ s affection makes the heart bow down heavily for her loss. 2. The loss of a mother’ s care, and of its ministrations, excites this regret. 3. The loss of a mother’ s sympathy and its soothing expressions excites this sorrow. 4. The heart mourns for the loss of the counsels of a mother’ s wisdom. 5. The affectionate heart mourns for the loss of the lessons of a mother’ s piety. II. where consolation is to be sought and obtained under such a calamity.1. There is consolation in the thought that it comes to you by the appointment of God. 2. There is consolation in the thought that all the benefits which you derived from so dear a relative, are to be found in God. In Him every blessing which the creature can yield us is to be found in richer abundance, and in a nobler form. 3. Consolation will be obtained by you in the fulfilment of their wishes and purposes. 4. Consolation will be found in the imitation of their virtues. 5. There is comfort in the belief that a departed mother is happy, and in the hope of a reunion. (H. Belfrage.) On the death of a mother The death of a true mother is a great event in the life of any one. It can occur but once in a lifetime. When it takes place in childhood, it is a sore calamity. A father can never supply a mother’ s place; seldom can any one else but very imperfectly. I. A mother’ s death reminds us most strongly of the peculiar blessings conferred by God through the maternal relation. A mother’ s influence is the first felt: it acts at the very fountain-head of life, it is gentle, tender, winning. Her smile greets the first dawn of intelligence: her voice is the first guide and encouragement to infant speech; her hand invites and sustains the first infant steps. From the pious mother’ s lips her children first learn the name of Jesus, and the words of prayer; from her example and instruction they receive the elements of virtue. II. the death of a mother occasions bitter recollections of filial disobedience and neglect. III. the death of a mother breaks up the home of our early days, and makes us feel that we are only sojourners here. IV. the death of a mother, especially of an aged mother, is adapted to make us sensible of our nearness to another world. Conclusion.1. I appeal to fathers. Remember what you owe your mothers, and teach your children, especially your sons, the deepest reverence for their mothers. 2. I appeal to mothers. Cherish a deep and constant sense of your own importance to your children, especially to your sons. 3. I appeal to those who have mothers living, especially to sons in early life. I entreat you, each of you, as you value your well-being for time and eternity, study well the will of God concerning your duty to your mothers, and strive to fulfil it. (J. M. Johnson.) Psalms 35:17 Lord, how long wilt Thou look on? How long This was David’ s cry in his distress. I. A trying experience. David did not doubt that the Lord saw his trouble. He did not say, “ My way is hid from the Lord;” but he felt as if the Lord was only looking on and not delivering him. As a soldier hard pressed by the foe might look for the expected relief; but it did not come, David wanted to hear the shout, “ To the rescue,” but he could not hear it. And he feels sure that it must be all over with him in a few moments. Now--1. This is often the experience of the saint in his struggle with sin.2. In relation to his troubles.3. To his prayers. How long they seem to be unanswered.4. It is often the minister’ s experience. He longs to see conversions, but does not see them. II. the cry of anguish. Now this cry may be right or wrong: it depends on its spirit. It is wrong when it is--1. Bitter; when the soul has become soured instead of sanctified by affliction.2. When it is deeply despondent. But it is a right cry when it is--3. The language of intense desire. Now-- III. comforting answers to this cry. How long, Lord? He replys--1. “ Long enough to try your faith.” He loves to strengthen the faith of His people. Hence He often tries them by delaying the answers to their prayer.2. “ Long enough to teach you your own weakness.”3. To make you value the deliverance. That which is easily obtained is little valued. “ Lord, how long wilt Thou look on?”4. “ Until the right moment.” Not a moment too soon for His own glory: not a moment too late for your good. Our clock is always too fast; we call upon the Lord and say, “ Lord, now is the time, the hour to deliver has struck;” but no answer comes, because He keeps not His time by ours; and His clock still wants some minutes to the hour; but when that has struck, swift as the lightning flash He is at our side. Trust Him, then, believe. Though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come. (A. G. Brown.) Psalms 35:20 They devise deceitful matters against them that are quiet in the land. Sin approaching the unsuspecting “ There is no temptation,” said John of Wesel, one of the greatest of the pre-Lutheran reformers, “ so great as not to be tempted at all.” We have a vivid illustration of this in a picture given us by a late writer on natural history. When the wild horses of Mexico, he tells us, are grazing unconsciously in a prairie, there may sometimes be seen gathering in the distance a troop of wolves, whom hunger has driven out after food. At first the horses snuff up the scent and become alarmed, and as long as they continue so all is safe; for their fleetness puts a barrier between themselves and their assailants, which the latter are wholly unable to surmount. But so grave and innocent do the wolves look--so solely graminivorous and gentle--that their intended victims soon become relieved from all fear, and begin again quietly to graze upon the same spot. Presently, two of the older and more wary of the wolves stroll forth, as it were listlessly, and apparently for the mere purpose of pastime, sometimes advancing, sometimes retreating, and every now and then stopping to gambol with each other, as if to show their disengaged simplicity and buoyancy of heart. Again the horses become alarmed; but again, observing how very innocent and friendly their visitors appear, they fall once more to grazing secure on the fields. But the fatal moment has now come; and with an unerring spring, the nearest of the victims finds the fangs of one of his gaunt and wily pursuers fastened in his haunches, and those of another in his neck, and in a moment he is covered by the whole of the greedy pack that has been thus waiting till this moment to dash upon his prostrate frame. So it is that sin presents itself to the incautious soul. First it lounges listlessly in the distance, as if to show its harmlessness and disengagedness of purpose. Then, when suspicion is disarmed, it comes nearer still, gambolling about as if it was mere pastime. It is not till the soul feels its fangs that it discovers that it is now the victim and slave of a master whose bitter and cruel yoke must be borne, not only through time, but through eternity. (The Preacher’ s Lantern.) Psalms 35:27-28 Let them shout for joy, and be glad, that favour my righteous cause.Sympathy with the godly 1. It is one mark of godliness amongst many others, to befriend the cause of Christ, and to further it in the person of His saints suffering for righteousness, with their best affection, for here they are described by being “ the favourers of their righteous cause.” 2. In the persecution of the godly for the cause of God’ s truth and true religion, all the godly are concerned; and as they partake of the sufferings with others under Christ the Head, so shall they partake of the joy of the victory, and outgate which shall be exceeding joyful at last. 3. The troubles of the godly are not so many, but room is left for sometimes prosperity, “ for God loveth the prosperity of His servants,” to wit, as it may conduce to His purpose and their good. 4. When any of the godly are delivered from their persecutors, all the rest of the godly are bound as they understand of it, to set forth the power of God, and His love and bounty manifested and forthcoming to His people. 6. Whatsoever opposition the enemies of Christ and of the godly shall make, Christ shall keep up the open profession of true Doctrine, which manifesteth the righteousness of God; leading men to eternal life, and bringing glory to God; for this is the undertaking of the type and of Christ represented by him, after the hottest contest between him and the wicked enemies. (D. Dickson.) Let the Lord be magnified.--Magnifying God I. here is God’ s feeling towards man’ s welfare. He has pleasure in his prosperity. This proves to us--1. God’ s interest in our existence. 2. God’ s goodwill towards our state. 3. God’ s evident willingness to help. II. here is man’ s true well-being--“ Prosperity.” The true prosperity of a soul is its spiritual vitality, and this manifests itself--1. By an ever-growing love towards religious exercises. 2. By a deepening apprehension of Divine realities. That which was dark becomes light; that which was obscure stands out in living reality. 3. By an increasing delight in Christian work. A prosperous soul is active in the performance of acts of charity and kindness. 4. By an increasing development of a Christlike character. The prosperous Christian grows, and becomes daily more like Christ in thought, word, and action. 5. By a constant accession of peace, contentment, and joy. III. here is man’ s manifest duty--“ Let the Lord be magnified.” It is a blessed privilege to have a God who is well disposed to His people. The imaginary gods of the heathen were always ill-disposed. They were gods of cruelty, malevolence, and evil, who needed to be propitiated by many a cruel rite. What a glorious idea we have of God! One who has pleasure in the prosperity of His people. He delights to see them happy and growing in grace, and all good gifts. He will not that any should be lost. Surely, then, we ought to magnify Him--in our words and songs of praise; in our lives and example; in our characters and sacrifice. We should give our whole time and energy and strength to His work. (Homilist.) . Psalms 36:1-12 Psalms 36:1-12 The transgression of the wicked saith within my heart, that there is no fear of God before hill eyes.A sharp contrast of sin and holiness I. the character of the wicked (Verses 1-4). Depravity is the sinner’ s oracle. Its impulses come to him like those responses from superhuman sources which command the reverence and obedience of mankind. He yields to the seductive influence, and presses forward in the delusion that he will Hover be found out. And so, the fear of punishment being dispelled, he becomes thoroughly bad in heart, speech, and behaviour. II. the divine excellence (Psalms 36:5-9). The psalmist begins with Jehovah’ s loving-kindness and His faithfulness, His fulfilment of promises, even to the undeserving. These fill the earth and reach up to heaven. They transcend all human thought and desire (Ephesians 3:18). Jehovah’ s righteousness. His rectitude in general is compared to the mountains of God, mountains which, being produced by Almighty power, are a natural emblem of immensity. Judgments, on the other hand--that is, particular acts of righteousness--are likened to the great deep in its vastness and mystery. “ How unsearchable are His judgments!” (Romans 11:33). The next clause shows one of the most touching characteristics of Hebrew poetry in the instantaneous transition from the consideration of God’ s unapproachable excellence to that of His providential care, which extends to every living thing, rational or irrational (Psalms 104:1-35; Psalms 145:13-16). The thought of these things makes the singer burst forth in devout rapture: “ How precious is Thy loving-kindness!” It is valuable beyond all treasures, since it affords such a sure and ample protection for all who take refuge beneath Jehovah’ s outstretched wings (Rth 2:12). God is represented as a gracious Host who provides for all who come to His house and His table (Psalms 23:5; Psalms 34:9). They are sated with the richest food, and drink of the stream of God’ s pleasures or “ Edens” (Genesis 2:10). To believers, if they enjoy God’ s presence and favour, a crust of bread and a glass of water are incomparably better than a royal banquet without such enjoyment. For with Him is the fountain of all life, animal and spiritual. What matters it that all the streams are cut off when one stands near the fountain-head, and has direct access to it? But just as God is the fountain of life, so is He also the fountain of light (Daniel 2:22), and apart from Him all is darkness. The believing soul lives in an element of light which at once quickens and satisfies the spiritual faculty, by which heaven and heavenly things are apprehended. III. The concluding prayer (Psalms 36:10-12). To his glowing description of the blessedness resident in God and flowing forth to the objects of His favour, the psalmist appends a prayer that it may be extended or prolonged to the class to which he claims to belong. This class is described, first, as those who know God, “ and, as a necessary consequence, love Him, since genuine knowledge of the true God is inseparable from right affections toward Him;” secondly, as the upright, not merely in appearance or outward demeanour, but in heart. Great as God’ s loving-kindness is, it is not indiscriminate, nor lavished upon those who neither appreciate nor desire it. The last verse is a mighty triumph of faith. It is as if David said, “ There! they have fallen already.” The wicked may be swollen with insolence, and the world applaud them, but he descries their destruction from afar as if from a watch-tower, and pronounces it as confidently as if it were an accomplished fact. The defeat is final and irretrievable. “ What is the carpenter’ s son doing now?” was the scoffing question of a heathen in the days of Julian, when the apostate emperor was off upon an expedition which seemed likely to end in triumph. “ He is making a coffin for the emperor,” was the calm reply. Faith that is anchored upon the perfections of the Most High cannot waver, cannot be disappointed. (T. W. Chambers, D. D.) A diagnosis of sin The earlier verses of the psalm are concerned with an analysis of the method and destructiveness of sin. The first four verses describe the successful ravages which sin makes in human life. They give us a diagnosis of evil, from its earliest appearance in the germ to its complete and final triumph. Now how does sin begin? I must take some little liberty with the wording of the psalm before me. I suppose it is one of the most difficult of all the psalms to translate. You will find, if you will look at the marginal rendering in the R.V., that for almost every clause the translators have given us an alternative reading which greatly differs from the reading placed in the text. I choose the marginal reading of the first clause, which, I think, gives us the germ, the first appearances, the beginnings of sin in human life. “ Transgression uttereth its oracle,” speaks within himself in tones of imperious authority, lays down certain assurances, interpolates certain suggestions, and clothes them with imperial authority. The devil begins his ministry by oracular suggestions, by mysterious whispers, subtle enticements to sin. That is the germinal work of the devil; a mystic, secret oracle seeking to entice the life into ways of sin. The secret enticement is followed by equally subtle stratagem. “ He” (that is, the oracle) “ flattereth him in his eyes that his iniquity shall not be found out and be hated.” Two things the oracle says, and he says them with imperial authority. First, that sin shall not be found out, and secondly, that therefore there is no fear of reprobation. It is only a repetition of a word with which we are very familiar in the earlier portion of the old Book. “ Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die? . . . Ye shall not surely die!” Now pass to the third step in the great degeneracy. The man has been listening to the secret oracle. He has been flattered by its suggestiveness. He is now persuaded by the enticement, and the moral degradation begins apace. “ The words” --the first things to be smitten--“ The words of his mouth are iniquity and deceit.” The first thing that happens as soon as a man listens to the devil is that the bloom goes off the truthfulness of his life. He now enters the realm of equivocation and deceit, his seduction begins to show its fruit at the lips. “ He hath left off to be wise” ; then he loseth sense; he does not now exercise common sense; he shuts one eye! His intelligence is narrowed, contracted and curtailed. But still further: “ He hath left off to do good.” The loss of brotherhood! He may continue to give money; but he has ceased to give self. The claims of philanthropic service no longer appeal to his spirit, they pass by unheeded and ignored. Arid now see what further happens in the stages of moral decay. “ He deviseth iniquity” ; his imagination becomes defiled. “ He setteth himself in a way that is not good. His will becomes enslaved. “ He adhorreth not evil.” He has now reached the plain of moral benumbment; his moral palate has been defiled; the distinction between sweet and bitter is no longer apparent, sweet and bitter taste alike. He has no abhorrence of evil, and he has no sweet pleasure in the good. He has lost his power of moral discernment; he is morally indifferent, and almost morally dead. Such is the diagnosis of sin, beginning in the whispered oracle and proceeding to absolute enslavement, passing through the intermediate stages of deception and delight. That is the moral condition of thousands. It is all round about us, and when we are confronted with its widespread devastation, what can we do? The earlier verses of this psalm, which give what I have called “ a diagnosis” of sin, were never more confirmed than they are in the literature of our own Lime. The literature of our time abounds in analysis of sin. If you turn to “ Tess of the D’ Urbervilles,” or “ Jude the Obscure,” you will find that Thomas Hardy is just carefully elaborating the first four verses of this psalm. But, then, my trouble is this: that when his mournful psalm comes to an end I close his book in limp and rayless bewilderment. That is where so much of our modern literature leaves me. It gives me a fine diagnosis, but no remedial power. But here is the psalmist contemplating a similar spectacle--the ravages of sin, and he himself is temporarily bewildered; he himself is bowed low in helpless and hopeless mood. What does he do? I am very glad that our Revised Version helps by the very manner in which the psalm is printed. After verse four there is a great space, as though the psalm must be almost cut in two, as though the psalmist had gone away from the contemplation of that spectacle, as indeed he has. And where has he gone? He has gone that he might quietly inquire whether the evil things he has seen are the biggest things he can find. When the psalm opens again after the pause, the psalmist is joyfully proclaiming the bigger things he has found. What are they?” Thy loving-kindness, O Lord, is in the heavens.” Mark the vastness of the figures in which he seeks to enshrine the vastness of his thought. “ Thy loving-kindness, O Lord, is in the heavens,” bending like a mother’ s arms, the shining, cloudless sky! Most uncertain of all uncertainties, and yet “ Thy faithfulness reacheth even unto the clouds!’ Those apparent children of caprice, coming and going no one knows how, are in God’ s loving control, and obey the behests of His most sovereign will. “ Thy righteousness is like the great mountains.” How majestic the figure! The mountains, the symbols of the Eternal, abiding through the generations; looking down upon the habitations of men, undisturbed, unchanged, unmoved. Thy righteousness is like the great mountains! Not that everything becomes clear when a man talks like that; the mystery remains! “ Thy judgments,” Thy ways of doing things, “ Thy judgments are a great deep,” as immense and unfathomable as the incalculable sea. But then one may endure the mystery of the deep when one is sure about the mountain. When you know that His faithfulness even ruleth the clouds, you can trust the fickle sea, Where had he been to discover these wonderful things? He is not recounting a bald catalogue of Divine attributes; he is announcing a testimony born of a deep and real experience. Where has he been? He has been the guest of God. “ Under the shadow of Thy wings.” The security of it! The absolute perfectness of the shelter! The warmth of it! The untroubled peace of it! He has been in God’ s house, sheltering there as a chick under its mother’ s wings. And then he tells us what he received in the house, what he had when he was a guest, when he was hiding under the wings: “ They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of Thy house.” “ Fatness is the top, it is the cream of all spiritual delicacies.” It is the first, the prime thing! “ They shall be abundantly satisfied” with the delicacies of Thy table! “ Thou shalt make them drink of the river of Thy pleasures.” It is not only what there is upon the table; it is the conversation and the fellowship at the board. Thy speech, Thy fellowship, Thy whispers, Thy promises, they just flow out into their souls like a river, and their joy shall be full. “ With Thee is the fountain of life!” He was beginning to feel alive again; he was beginning to feel vitalized and renewed. “ I am getting inspired again.” And then he added: “ In Thy light,” my living God, “ in Thy light shall we see light” to do our work away yonder in the fields of sin I The very two things he wanted: life and light I Inspiration and counsel! Encouragement and hope! As the psalmist turned from the Presence Chamber to confront again the spectacle of depravity, he offered a prayer, and this was his prayer: “ O continue Thy loving-kindness unto them that know Thee, and Thy righteousness to the upright in heart!” And then, as though he was afraid that when he got back to the waste again, and to the sin again, he himself might be overcome, caught up in the terrible drift and carried along, he added this prayer: “ Let not the foot of pride come against me.” Do not let me get into the general tendency of things, and by the general tendency be carried away! He offered a prayer that these cardinal things, the greatest things, might abide with him, and that when he went away into the world’ s waste field he might be able to stand. And so this man came out of the secret chamber a knight of God! He goes back, like all men ought to go hack to their work when they have been in the presence chamber of God. We ought to turn to our work singing, always singing, and the songs ought to be, not songs of strife and warfare, but songs of victory. (J. H. Jowett, M.A.) The character of the wicked and the prayer of the good I. The character of the wicked.1. Practical atheism. 2. Self-flattery. 3. Perverse speech. 4. Mischievous devices. II. The glory of God. Here the Eternal is adored--1. For what He is in Himself. (1) His mercy is not a mere sentiment or passion, subject to change, but a principle settled as truth itself.(2) His rectitude is as settled as the everlasting hills, and the dispensations of His providence are as a trackless, boundless ocean. 2. For what He is to His creatures. (1) The Preserver of all.(2) Their loving Guardian.(3) Their Soul-satisfier. Man’ s happiness is participation in God’ s own happiness. III. The prayer of the good.1. The subject of the prayer. (1) The continuance of Divine favour.(2) Protection from evil. 2. The answer (Psalms 36:12). (Homilist) The remedy for the world’ s wickedness Consider the estimate here made of man’ s character and its cause. The language of the text is not that of David only, but of Christ, concerning the world around us. Man’ s transgression possessed a language which spoke to his heart, and what it said was this, “ There is no fear of God before their eyes.” Christ knew what the fear of God was, for “ He was heard in that he feared” ; not, indeed, with the selfish, slavish fear of punishment, which is incompatible with love, and impotent to secure obedience; but that holy, filial fear which is inseparable from love, and which is a comprehensive term for all that constitutes real religion in man. We know the power of this in man’ s character, its practical power in giving man victory over the world, and therefore when he saw the transgressions of men he knew that the cause was--“ There is no fear of God.” Then he goes to the root of the disease; he puts forward none of the plausible excuses which men make for themselves on the ground of temperament, circumstances, and the like: but he goes to the root, for he knows also the real and only remedy. All others are vain: whether they be secular attempts to improve man’ s condition or to enlarge his knowledge, or to improve the institutions of civil government. Men believe in these things, and despise that vital religion which can alone help. What man calls wisdom, and wealth, and science, can do but little good, for they all terminate with creatures; they do not rise up to God. There is nothing in them to alter the real character of man. The reason is, that man, practically considered, is under the dominion, not of his intellect, but of his affections. There is no truth, connected with our composition, that requires and demands from wise men a more accurate and painstaking examination than this; because there is a theory of right in men’ s minds, and they deceive themselves into self-complacency by the admiration of the theory, at the moment that practically they are transgressing it. However strengthened the intellect by natural learning, it is still too weak for the conflict. The attracting object, soliciting the affections, gains the man; and he exhibits another specimen of the acknowledgment of the celebrated heathen, who “ Knew the best, and yet the worst pursued.” What is to be done for him? “ His transgression saith within my heart, that there is no fear of God before his eyes.” There is fear of man; there is a desire to obtain the good opinion of man; but all these are too weak for the conflict. He is still a transgressor, because he is devoid of “ the fear of God.” The next verses of the psalm give a remarkable description of his transgression, and show that it is mainly characterized by self-deception. “ He flattereth himself in his own eyes until his iniquity be found to be hateful.” It is not perceived to be hateful now, because he does as the world does. There are transgressions in which no man can flatter himself that he is right, but there are others for which he does not condemn himself, because society does not. It is concerning these, particularly, that he goes on flattering himself. And where is the remedy? The language of the psalmist, immediately after this, points out the remedy. “ Thy mercy, O Lord, is in the heavens; and Thy faithfulness reacheth unto the clouds. Thy righteousness is like the great mountains; Thy judgments are a great deep; O Lord, Thou preservest man and beast. How excellent is Thy loving-kindness, O God! therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of Thy wings.” Observe the transition. From this contemplation of man’ s wickedness, he does not pass to a better class of men, because he was not contemplating that peculiar character of wickedness, in which man differs from man, but he was contemplating the root of man’ s malady, in which “ there is no difference, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” In immediate contrast, therefore, he refers to the character of God. Here is the only remedy--the character of God as manifested in Jesus Christ. “ Mercy, . . . faithfulness,” “ righteousness,” “ judgment, . . . loving-kindness” --how are these glorious perfections harmonized, but in the Cross of Christ? Here, then, we find the urgency for preaching the Gospel among men. Here we find our stronghold of demand for every effort to promulgate the Gospel amongst our fellow-creatures. They who know the human character best, who have watched most minutely the turning point of man’ s feelings and his consequent conduct, know full well that it is the manifestation of God’ s love that wins the alienated heart and changes the alienated conduct. (Hugh M’ Neils, M. A.) For he flattereth himself in his own eyes, until his iniquity he found to he hateful.-- The deceitfulness of sin The deceits by which the sinner thus imposes on himself may be very different and various, according to the circumstances and the dispositions of the persons by whom they are admitted, and it is not very easy to discover every one of them. There are, however, some capital and leading ones, pointed out in Scripture, or suggested by history and experience. I. A studied infidelity, and an affected endeavour to despise the evidence on which the belief of the great and fundamental doctrines of religion stands; such as the existence and perfections of Almighty God, His moral government of this world, and a future judgment.1. It is the height of folly, either to reject these doctrines of religion, or to treat them with contempt, until we can say we have examined the evidence on which they have been received, with the utmost exactness and candour in our power. 2. Without determining the degree of evidence, which is offered in support of the doctrines of religion, we may venture, nevertheless, to affirm, with strong assurance, that it is at least equal to the evidence upon which men constantly proceed, without the smallest hesitation, in all their other interests. II. A fond imagination of their own innocence, even in the course of an irregular and sinful life. They artfully persuade themselves that there cannot be such malignity or guilt in what they do as that it should expose them to the displeasure of their Maker, or draw after it any great or lasting punishment: they presume, therefore, God will overlook the irregularities and errors of their lives, or find out some merciful expedient whereby they may escape with safety and success.1. Notwithstanding the ignorance and corruption of our present state, so much of our original rectitude remains, that without any laboured cultivation, the consciences of men do still perceive a very odious deformity in some instances of wickedness; and lead, not only to a strong indignation against the criminal, but to a strong persuasion that Providence will some time or other interpose, and exert its justice, in his punishment. 2. The marks which God has already given, in the administration of His providence, of His displeasure with the sins of men. What extreme distress have some brought upon themselves by their intemperance; some by their dishonesty, and others by their immoderate ambition. It adds greatly to the weight of this consideration, that these expressions of Divine displeasure are made against such iniquities as are usually disguised in the thoughts of men, under the appearance of innocence, or weakness; as being only a compliance with the appetites implanted in our nature, and with the custom of the world, in which a man has no deliberate impiety and malice in his heart, no intention either to affront his Maker, or to hurt his fellow-men. III. A groundless and presumptuous dependence on the mercy of almighty God.1. Although the mercy of Almighty God be infinite, as all His other perfections are, yet it can extend only to those persons who are the proper objects of compassion, and to those cases to which it would be worthy of Him to extend mercy. 2. Let it be observed, that abstracting from the displeasure of Almighty God, and supposing that there was to be no positive exertion of His justice in the case, yet the future punishment of sinners will very probably proceed from the nature and influence of wickedness itself (Galatians 6:7; Proverbs 1:31; Isaiah 3:10). IV. The sinner’ s hoping, at the end of a guilty life, to be saved, by the merit of the Son of God, and the virtue of that great atonement which he made for the sins of men. If the sinner is not able to convince himself that the mercy of his Maker is sufficient, by itself, to ensure his future safety, he trusts, at least, to the all-sufficient sacrifice and merit of his well-beloved Son. But, according to Scripture, they only can be saved by the sacrifice and intercession of the Son of God, who are persuaded by Him to repent of their iniquities, to believe and obey the Gospel (Acts 5:31; Acts 3:19; Hebrews 5:9; Romans 2:6). Were the matter otherwise, were sinners, continuing in their wickedness, permitted to expect salvation through the merits of our Saviour, Jesus would become the minister of sin, an establisher rather than a destroyer of the works of Satan; than which, a more blasphemous reproach could not be thrown upon His character. V. A precipitant contempt of religion, on account of the weak and wrong representations which have been made of it by some of its mistaken friends. This instance of deceit unhappily prevails, even among those who pretend to superior discernment. But the weakness of it may appear upon a very small attention. Does a wise man conduct himself in this manner in any corer action of his life? Does he despise the truth and usefulness of real science, because of the impertinence and pedantry of mere pretenders to it? Does he despise the useful schemes of commerce, accompanied with the solidest effects, because of the chimerical and idle schemes of mere projectors. VI. Their hoping and resolving to repent, and turn to God, at some future and more convenient opportunity; at the farthest, in the last period of their lives, or at the approach of death. It is not proposed, at present, to show the extreme absurdity and folly of this conduct, by arguments drawn from the shortness and uncertainty of human life; the hardening influence of a sinful course, which gradually destroys the sensibility of the human conscience. I would only desire ,your attention to the prodigious presumption of the sinner who defers his repentance and return to God to the last period of his life, hoping then to obtain forgiveness from God by his penitence and prayers. What the Creator can do, or what He may have done, independent of the established laws of providence, no man reckons it of importance to inquire; and any person would be deemed a madman or a fool, who directed the measures of his conduct by a regard to such unusual departures from these laws, as the history of the world may possibly furnish some few examples of. That man seems equally foolish and absurd who seeks admission to eternal life otherwise than according to the measures of His mercy, declared and established by the Gospel. (W. Craig, D.D.) On the deceitfulness of the heart, with regard to the commission of sin I. Preliminary observations.1. That all the proofs of the deceitfulness of the heart, which we mean to offer with regard to sin, may not be found in every person, especially in those who are under its power. 2. Many of those things, which are evidences of the deceitfulness of the heart, may be used as temptations by Satan. The wind of Satan’ s temptation commonly blows along with the tide of corruption within, whether by deceit, or by violence. Were not this the case, Satan would be divided against himself, and opposing the interests of his own kingdom. II. How the deceitfulness of the heart appears.1. In raising doubts in the mind, with respect to what One is inclined to, whether it really be sin. 2. In trying to persuade him that it is a little sin. If the understanding will not be betrayed into a belief that the matter proposed is no sin at all, the heart will strenuously plead that it scarcely deserves the name. 3. By representing the mortification of sin as affording far less pleasure than the gratification of it. Nay, it will presume to urge, not only the difficulty, but the unreasonableness, the cruelty of attempting totally to subdue sin. 4. Sin is exhibited as far more pleasant than it is really found in the commission. The enjoyments of sin are like the apples of Sodom, which, how fair soever they appear to the eye, when grasped by the hand are said to fall to ashes (Proverbs 22:8; Romans 6:21). 5. It represents a renewed opportunity of sin, as promising far greater satisfaction than was ever found before. 6. It pleads that one may indulge sin a little, without altogether yielding to the sin particularly in view. 7. It throws a veil of forgetfulness over the whole soul, with respect to all the painful consequences of sin, formerly felt. That loathsomeness of sin, hatred of self on account of it, or fear of Wrath, which the person experienced after a former indulgence, are entirely vanished; and he now appears to himself as one who feared where no fear was. 8. It entices the imagination into its service. This is not only Satan’ s workhouse in the soul; but it may be viewed as a purveyor, which the heart engages in making provision for its lusts. 9. It engages the senses on its side. These are volunteers to the corrupt heart, which it arms in its service, and by which it accomplishes its wicked purposes, when enticing to outward acts of sin. For the voice of the senses will always overpower that of the understanding; if they be not brought into subjection, or presently restrained by grace. 10. In representing sin as properly one’ s own, as something belonging to one’ s self. 11. By insinuating that committing such a sin once more cannot greatly increase our guilt. 12. By urging the vanity of attempting to resist the temptation. It will plead for yielding to the present assault, from former instances of insufficiency In opposing one of the came nature. 13. It may sometimes endeavour to persuade a man that the present commission of sin will be an antidote for the future, because he will see more of its hatefulness. 14. The heart sometimes urges the commission of sin, as immediately clearing the way to the performance of some necessary duty (Romans 3:8; Genesis 20:11; Genesis 27:19; 1 Samuel 13:11; 1 Samuel 15:22). 15. By persuading a person to lay the commission of sin to the charge of the flesh, and solacing him with the idea that, although he fall into it, he does not really love it. 16. It dissuades him from prayer. Perhaps it reminds him that he has often tried this exercise before, in like circumstances, when he found an inclination to sin, or was assaulted by a temptation; and that it was attended with no success. Or, it may reason that if God hath determined to permit his fall at this time, prayer will not prevent it. 17. It strives to banish a sense of the presence and omniscience of God. 18. The deceitfulness of the heart about sin eminently appears in its self-hardening influence. Sin is the instrument which it uses in this work (Hebrews 13:8). The strength of every lust is commensurate with the power of deceit. 19. The heart will even urge God’ s readiness to pardon as an excitement to the commission of sin. This is indeed a dreadful abuse of pardoning mercy. 20. By endeavouring to drive one to despair, after the commission of sin, as being beyond the reach of mercy. III. Means for obtaining victory over the deceits of the heart with respect to sin.1. In a dependence on the Spirit, resist the first motions of sin within you. 2. Beware of entertaining doubts with regard to what Scripture and conscience declare to be sin. To doubt is to begin to fall, for it implies unbelief of God’ s testimony. 3. Carefully avoid light notions of any sin. To think lightly of sin is to think lightly of God. 4. Guard against the solicitations of your hearts. If these promise you honour, profit, or pleasure in the service of sin, believe them not. 5. Beware of tampering or dallying with sin. Temptation is, to the corrupt heart, sharper than a two-edged sword, and if the point once enter, you may be pierced through with many sorrows. 6. Try to get all your senses armed against sin, or rather barred against it; for this is the best mode of defence. Like Job, make a covenant with your eyes. Endeavour to stop your ears against it. Strive for the mastery over your taste. Put a knife to thy throat, lest thou be given to appetite. 7. Seek a constant sense of the Majesty and Omniscience of God. 8. Pray without ceasing against the deceitfulness of the heart. 9. Improve the strength of Christ, and the grace of His Spirit, for the mortification of sin. (John Jamieson, D. D.) Psalms 36:4 He deviseth mischief upon his bed; he setteth himself in a way that is not good. The state and condition of an habitual sinner I. The character of an habitual sinner. He is one who “ deviseth mischief upon his bed,” his hours of leisure are employed upon it. 1. The time of retirement is the fittest and most likely season for religious influences to take place, and to have a due effect (Psalms 119:55). If ever our reason re-asserts its authority, it should be when there is nothing from without to interrupt its pretensions, or to oppose its claim. If ever religion can raise up our souls to God, it should be when our souls are free from all external impediments. 2. When this time of solitude and leisure is misapplied to contrivances for vice, it must needs improve those ill dispositions which it finds in the mind, and overspread it more and more with the contagion of sin. II. To give some accounts, and to show some cause of his thus proceeding; of the abuse he puts upon his hours of leisure. “ He setteth himself in a way that is not good.”1. The abuse of a trust reposed in us all by a gracious Providence. We have a work to do, and a time assigned us for it. The work is improving our souls, and disposing all our faculties to a ripeness and capacity for eternal bliss. But how great will be the guilt which is contracted when the time allotted us to do the work of Him who sent us into this world for His glory, is employed to His dishonour, and in disobedience to His laws! To somewhat to forget, but more to betray a trust. 2. He who makes no advances forwards will certainly go backwards; he who has not laid in a fit provision for a good use of his time will certainly put it to a bad one. The ground we might gain in virtue will be gained to vice. III. A further aggravation, and indeed a further reason of his sin. “ He abhorreth not evil.” His affections are all wrong turned; and, being so, it is no great wonder that they should run riot upon wickedness.1. That he abhorreth not evil is an aggravation of his sin, for it implies that his reason is subdued to it, and grace extinguished. It is a common progress to defend upon principle what had its rise from frailty; to proceed from infirmity to wilful guilt; and, from sinning against conviction, to sin away all conviction. 2. If a man loves and likes it, he will, at one time or other, be gained upon to embrace it. For a state of neutrality between vice and virtue is impracticable, and impossible to human nature. He who “ abhorreth not evil “ will soon abhor that which is good. (N. Marshall, D. D.) Psalms 36:5-7 Thy mercy, O Lord, Is in the heavens; and Thy faithfulness reacheth unto the clouds.Sky, earth and sea; a parable of God This wonderful description of the manifold brightness of the Divine nature is introduced in this psalm with singular abruptness. It is set side by side with a vivid picture of an evildoer, a man who mutters in his own heart his godlessness, and with obstinate determination plans and plots in forgetfulness of God. We should go mad when we think of man’ s wickedness Unless we could look up and see, with one quick turn of the eye, the heaven opened and the throned love that sits up there gazing on the chaos, and working to soothe sorrow, and to purify evil. I. We have God in the boundlessness of his loving nature, His mercy, faithfulness and righteousness are set before us. Now, the mercy spoken of is the same as the “ love” told of in the New Testament, or, more nearly still, the “ grace.” Mercy is love in its exercise to persons who might expect something else, being guilty. As a general coming to a body of mutineers with pardon and favour upon his lips, instead of with condemnation and death; so God comes to us forgiving and blessing. All His goodness is forbearance, and His love is mercy, because of the weakness, the lowliness, and the ill desert of us on whom the love falls. And this same “ quality of mercy” stands here at the beginning and the end. All the attributes of God are within the circle of His mercy, like diamonds set in a golden ring. But next to mercy comes faithfulness. “ Thy faithfulness,” etc. This implies a verbal revelation, and definite words from Him pledging Him to a certain line of action. “ He hath said, and shall He not do it.” “ He will not alter the thing that is gone out of His lips.” It is only a God who has spoken to men who can be a faithful God. He will not palter with a double sense, keeping His word of promise to the ear, and breaking it to the hope. The next beam of the Divine brightness is Righteousness. “ Thy righteousness is,” etc. The idea is just this, to put it into other words, that God has a law for His being to which He conforms; and that whatsoever things are fair, and lovely, and good, and pure down here, those things are fair, and lovely, and good, and pure up there. All these characteristics of the Divine nature are boundless. “ Thy mercy is in the heavens,” towering up above the stars and dwelling there like some Divine ether filling all space. The heavens are the home of light, the source of every blessing, arching over every head, rimming every horizon, holding all the stars, opening into abysses as we gaze, with us by night and by day, undimmed by the mist and smoke of earth, unchanged by the lapse of centuries; ever seen, never reached, bending over us always, always far above us. For even they, however they may dissolve and break, are yet subject to His unalterable law, and fulfil His gracious purpose. Then “ Thy righteousness is like the great mountains.” Like them, its roots are fast and stable; its summits touch the clouds of fleeting human circumstance: it is a shelter and a refuge, inaccessible in its steepest peaks, but affording many a cleft in its rocks where a man may hide and be safe. But, unlike them, it knew no beginning and shall know no end. Then, with wonderful poetical beauty and vividness of contrast, there follows upon the emblems of the great mountains of God’ s righteousness the emblem of the “ mighty deep” of His judgments. Here towers Vesuvius; there at its feet lie the waters of the bay. The mountains and the sea are the two grandest things in nature, and in their combination sublime; the one the home of calm and silence, the other in perpetual motion. But the mountain’ s roots are deeper than the depths of the sea, and though the judgments are a mighty deep, the righteousness is deeper, and is the bed of the ocean. There is obscurity, doubtless, in these judgments, but it is that of the sea: not in itself, but in the dimness of the eye that looks upon it. The sea is clear, but our sight is limited. We cannot see to the bottom. A man on the cliff can look much deeper into the ocean than a man on the level beach. Let us remember that it is a hazardous thing to judge of a picture before it is finished; of a building before the scaffolding is pulled down, and it is a hazardous thing for us to say about any deed or any revealed truth that it is inconsistent with the Divine character. Wait a bit. II. So much, then, for the great picture here of these boundless characteristics of the Divine nature. Now let us look for a moment at the picture of man sheltering beneath God’ s wings. “ How excellent is Thy loving-kindness, O God! therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of Thy wings.” God’ s loving-kindness, or mercy, is precious, for that is the true meaning of the word translated “ excellent.” We are rich when we have that for ours; we are poor without it. That man is wealthy who has God on his side; that man is a pauper who has not God for his. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Voices of a summer landscape That from which the psalmist has borrowed his lessons in all probability lay before him as he mused. We imagine him at the time a fugitive from Saul. From the wickedness and craft of men, he turns to the goodness and faithfulness of God. I. God’ s mercy. He declares that it is throned in the heavens. These suggest--1. Its height. Climb the loftiest mountain, and yet they look down upon you. And so with the mercy of our God. It is the one all-enfolding, all-transcending fact in God’ s moral universe. It is high; we cannot attain unto it. 2. Its age and changelessness. The earth which the sky overshadows has seen many mutations. Beneath there is nothing but flux, restlessness, change. But the sky has looked down on it all, serene and unvarying, amidst all the overturning and mutations of the countless years. Time writes no wrinkles on its stedfast blue. 3. Akin to this is another thought--the heavens are all-embracing, ever-present, and ever-free. “ The noblest scenes of earth,” it has been said, “ can be seen and known but by few. The sky is for all,” Be your dwelling-place on the bleakest and dreariest swamp, without a tree or a hill to diversify its surface, you have still overhead a picture of loveliness and of mystery as often as you choose to look up. Thread the narrowest thoroughfare of a crowded town, and far above the filth and squalor, between the eaves of the tall and tottering tenements that enclose you, there are strips of clear blue sky, reminding you that, whatsoever be the restlessness, the sorrow, and the vice below, there is nothing above but beauty, purity, and peace. So again with the mercy of our God; it is exceeding broad. It is the attribute of all attributes that is ever engirdling the world. Mercy is the very sphere in which we live and move. II. God’ s faithfulness. Faithfulness has its close connection with mercy. Mercy is that which gives the promise, faithfulness is that which keeps it. Mercy determines the character of God’ s dealing with a helpless and sin-stricken world, faithfulness secures their continuance. Mercy defines the nature and the terms of the covenant of grace, faithfulness provides for its stedfastness, and carries it out to its final completion. Faithfulness is mercy bonded and pledged. III. God’ s righteousness. The element is one that cannot be spared from the picture. A God may be merciful, He may be faithful, too, but what avails it if both attributes do not rest upon justice? Yonder vault of God’ s house, curtained with clouds and fretted with innumerable fires, is raised on its pillars. The everlasting hills bear it up, and their columns support the overarching dome. So with God’ s righteousness. It lies at the base of His other attributes. It is as the mountains.1. Stable. Nothing--storm or tempest--can move them. 2. Conspicuous. Long after the city’ s spires have disappeared, and wood and river, field and vineyard have been lost in the distant blue, the outline of the sentinel hills may remain, massive and majestic as ever--every summit and jag cut clear against the sky. So again with the Divine righteousness. There is much that will pass away, but this, never. 3. The mountains are the sources of many blessings. To them we owe the moisture that laves and that gladdens the thirsty earth. If the waters go “ down by the valleys,” they “ go up by the mountains” first, and the rivers that fertilize our fields, turn our mills, and give drink to man and to beast, have their springs in green nooks and cool stony caverns on their distant slopes. Thus with the righteousness of God. So do “ the mountains bring peace to the people, and the little hills by righteousness.” IV. God’ s judgments. From the sky, the clouds and the mountains, the psalmist now turned to the floods. Those, perhaps, of “ the great and wide sea.” What are all God’ s attributes that we have considered without wisdom to direct the whole? “ O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom,” etc. We can see but little, but that is enough. Let us thank God. (W. A. Gray.) Earthly emblems of heavenly things The three grandest objects in the kingdom of nature are the heavens, the hills, and the sea: the heavens for their clearness, their height, and their all-embracing circuit; the hills for their strength, their security, and their shade; and the sea for its boundless immensity, its unfathomable profundity, and its inexplicable mystery. I. God’ s mercy. This means His loving-kindness to a sinner, His gracious disposition to receive again into favour those who were aforetime the objects of His wrath. Now, this mercy, says the psalmist, is in the heavens, which indicates--1. The conspicuous and prominent position which it occupies in the kingdom of grace. 2. Since God has set His mercy in the heavens, it must overtop the highest mountain of man’ s transgression. 3. If God’ s mercy be in the heavens, we shall never be able to get beyond it. (1) This is true in a very important sense of the entire family of man. For we live in a world of mercy. (2) What is true of the human family as a whole, is likewise true and pre-eminently true of the individual saint. God’ s mercy surrounds him like the blue vault of heaven. II. God’ s righteousness. No doubt the psalmist refers to the particular character of rectitude which God maintains in all His dealings with His sinful creatures. At the same time, we cannot greatly err in attaching to the term its New Testament Signification of God’ s gracious provision for saving men through the obedience unto death of His Son.1. The great mountains, “ the mountains of God,” as David calls them, suggest the idea of stability, or strength. Hence they are fit emblems of the righteous character of God, which nothing that may happen can ever prevent from ruling in all His dealings with His creatures; and of the righteous work of Christ through which grace reigns unto eternal life. It is everlasting as the high hills of God (Isaiah 51:6). 2. The great mountains speak of security or protection. Yet the security and protection of the hills are only emblems, beautiful and significant, but still faint, of that impregnable defence which is enjoyed by him who is arrayed in Christ’ s robe of righteousness, and who puts his trust in the righteous character of God. 3. The great mountains afford a shade to exhausted travellers as they pass along beneath a burning sky; and the like refreshment does a saint enjoy when in spirit he reposes in the finished righteousness of Christ. III. God’ s judgments. These are His ways, acts, providential dispensations. Rightly called judgment is, as not being haphazard operations, but the solemn decisions of His infinite mind. Every step of the Divine procedure is deliberately weighed. God’ s judgments are like the sea in respect of--1. Mystery.2. Profundity.3. Immensity. They relate indeed to the little speck of time in which we live, and the little spot of ground on which we stand, but they stretch away out as well beyond the confines of the tomb, away out into the unnumbered ages of that illimitable eternity into which we are fast going, as the sea spreads itself out beyond the gaze of men. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) Two comparisons I. Thy mercy, o Lord, is in the heavens.1. Visible.2. Lofty.3. Encompassing the whole human family. II. Thy faithfulness reacheth unto the clouds.1. The clouds are changeful. The small one becoming large. The dark one becoming clear. One joining another till the entire face of the heavens is covered with them. All these mutations required and produced by the Lord. He proclaimed, through Jonah, the destruction of Nineveh in forty days. The citizens repented, and the threatening was not executed. This shows that He did change His proposed course of action. All God’ s threatenings and promises are conditional. 2. The clouds at times move slowly. Creep along so tardily, as if they were unwilling to move. Seem to stop altogether for hours. Like the promises and threatenings of the Lord. Prayers not answered for ten, twenty, and thirty years. Wait on the Lord patiently, lie shall bring it to pass. 3. The clouds sometimes move rapidly. Resemble war-horses rushing over the battle-field, or horses sweeping along the race-course. Koran, Dathan and Abiram, Achan, Ananias and Sapphira. Many sudden deaths. The sword of Divine justice is suspended over the sinner’ s head. It may not fall for a long time, it may fall in a moment. “ Be ye also ready, for in such an hour as you think not, the Son of Man cometh.” (A. McAuslane, D. D.) Thy righteousness is like the great mountains.--Mountain meditations I. That the righteousness of Jehovah was fixed and unchangeable. Nothing in the world so impresses the mind with the idea of unchangeableness as the great mountains. All things on, beneath and around them change, but they remain the same. And so it is with God’ s righteousness. II. It is only as you come near the great mountains that their real greatness appears. So also is it with God’ s righteousness. The man who has climbed highest in the way of righteousness knows best how great is the distance he has yet to climb. III. Only as the sun lifts the clouds are the high summits clearly revealed. And so in regard to God, clouds and darkness are round about Him; and it is only as the Sun of Righteousness arises, that we can look upon God. You cannot see the mountains without the sun--the moon is only reflected sunlight--and so all true vision of God is by means of Christ. (W. O. Horder.) The mountains of God I am not specially careful to inquire in detail as to what the psalmist refers to when he speaks of the righteousness of the Lord. He is righteous altogether. Now, just as every continent, and almost every country, has a chain of mountains running across it, or along its length, which is, as it were, the backbone of the country, giving it character, and fixing certain hounds, and providing the water-sheds, so the righteousness of God, the essential holiness of the King of kings, the inflexible justice of the great Lawgiver is as a mighty range of hills which runs the whole length of God’ s dealings with His people. I. Their sublimity. Come up into the hill of the Lord, climb these mountains of God, contemplate the righteousness of the Most High, who can by no means clear the guilty and will not wink at sin. View the vast expanses of His righteousness, and the towering masses of His holiness, and wonder, with a great amazement, that they have not crushed you long ago. Instead of that catastrophe you are permitted to climb among these highlands, and to sun yourself upon their summits. But oh, with all our familiarity of approach to God, let us not forget how great and good God is. II. Their purity. How clear the air on those sunlit summits! How bright the sky above the traveller’ s head! I would fain enter, as far as it is possible, into a comprehension of the absolute holiness of God. “ Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” III. Their stability. A process of disintegration is perhaps always going on; sun, and wind, and rain, and snow, all these things affect our mountains somewhat, but despite that fact they remain, their roots fixed in the heart of the earth, and their peaks piercing the passing clouds. So is it with the righteousness of God. You cannot bribe God; neither threatenings nor persuadings will turn Him from His course. He keeps His promises to the letter, every one of them, and the covenant which He has signed, and which Christ has sealed with His own most precious blood, can never be set aside. IV. Their mystery. One cannot climb even one of our own little hills without risk of becoming enveloped in the driving mist and in the falling cloud. Have you ever wondered that God is not found out by man and understood by finite comprehension? The wonder would be if He were. His righteousness is like the great mountains. V. Their utility. They are ornamental, it is true, but they are even more useful than they are ornamental. God’ s righteousness is not merely to be looked at from a distance, wondered at, and admired; it is to be rejoiced in, and trusted in. It serves a purpose that nothing else can serve.1. Think, for instance, of the shelter that is provided by the great mountains. 2. Although we can hardly say that the mountains provide pasturage, yet the fact remains that some of the best of land is found among the hills. 3. There is light upon the mountains, too. “ In Thy light we shall see light.” I have heard of those who have ascended the mountain over-night, that they might see the sun rise on the morrow. Things that were dark and inscrutable before will become comparatively plain when the light that is to be viewed from the peaks of God’ s righteousness shines forth. 4. The mountains of every country have a very distinct influence upon the peoples of those countries, just as the plains have. You will find a different race down there, where all is level, from those who dwell among the hills. There are the hardy and stalwart men, the men of brawn and brain. If we could only acclimatize ourselves to dwell as it were among the high doctrines of God’ s Word, and the noble thoughts that are in the Bible concerning our blessed God, how it would alter us; our very complexion would be different, our manhood would be increased, our spiritual strength would be intensified. (T. Spurgeon.) God’ s righteousness like the mountains God’ s works in nature seem to be intended by God to be to us pictures of His works in the moral and spiritual world. I. As we wander through the world from land to land they strike upon our view by their prominence. From afar we see them, conspicuous above tower and battlement, temple and dome. Such in its prominence is the righteousness of God (Psalms 145:17). His dealings with His creatures illustrate the character of righteousness, the principle of rendering to every one his due. II. God’ s righteousness is like the great mountains in its permanence. The “ cloud-capped towers” are dismantled and destroyed, “ the gorgeous palaces” of kings fade and perish, “ the solemn temples” are deserted and crumble into dust, but the great mountains remain. The revolutions of governments, the shocks of nations in deadly strife, the scourge of pestilence and the slaughter of war disturb not their repose, and even Time, the great innovator, in his destroying course passes them by So God’ s righteousness is an everlasting righteousness. His righteous wrath “ is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men” (Romans 1:18). But, on the other hand, His righteous grace is revealed in our blessed Saviour, and all the pride and rebellion, the selfishness and hypocrisy, and sinful unbelief of the world shall not change His purposes of grace to them that trust in Jesus. III. God’ s righteousness is like the great mountains in the protection it affords us. What cause men have to bless God for mountains! They form a barrier and defence against the hostile elements of nature and the cruel oppression of men. How refreshing are the mountainous parts of India compared with the hot and unhealthy plains! Behold the range of mountains that separate Morocco from the great Sahara, and see in them the only barrier against the encroachments of the desert. Morocco is not a wilderness because of her mountains. Or, again, turning to the political map of Europe, why is it that while Poland is divided and despoiled, Hungary in subjection, and Denmark crippled and reduced, Switzerland still flourishes in her ancient vigour? Surely it is because of her mountains. Within those wild fastnesses Freedom has trained up, age after age, a generation to call her blessed. Their mountains, rising in noble defence all around them, have bidden defiance to the invader and the oppressor, and the hardy race to-day rejoices in the freedom it so dearly loves. And “ as the mountains are round about that land, so is the Lord round about His people” (Psalms 125:2). The prophecy spoken of old has been fulfilled (Isaiah 32:2). We need protection--1. From the punishment of sin.2. From the accusations of Satan.3. From the ills of this mortal state. (J. Silvester, M. A.) God’ s righteousness like the mountains I. Great mountains are unchangeable. All round the Alps revolution has been the normal state for centuries. Thrones have tottered, governments have changed, monarchs have been deposed; but Mont Blanc has stood unmoved amid it all. Everywhere the great mountains “ mock the eternities of history,” and the permanence of human institutions. It is even so with God’ s righteousness; nay, infinitely more so. Infatuation has even attempted to alter it, infidelity has tried to impair its foundations, and subvert it; human philosophy has called it in question; arrogant caprice would carve it after its own designs; but such attempts are as futile as a man trying to move the Alps. God’ s righteousness, like Himself, is “ without variableness or shadow of turning.” II. Great mountains are conspicuous. Travellers tell us the Himalayas may be seen two hundred and fifty miles off. And how conspicuous is God’ s righteousness. In the history of the world there is nothing more prominent; in all the great episodes of the past it is first to arrest our attention. III. Great mountains are obscurable now, all is bright and sunny; anon, all is dark and gloomy. The intelligent traveller knows these obscurations are from beneath; indeed, he sees the vapour rising rapidly from the valley to thicken the canopy over his head. So the Divine righteousness is obscurable, but the obscurations are from beneath. The mists of distrust will hide it; the fogs of unbelief will shut it out; the vapour of doubt will shroud it; the dark, thick, murky atmosphere of scepticism, bordering on the very darkness of despair, will conceal it altogether: But, though you see it not, it is there. The traveller may put his hand through the mist, and feel the palpable rock. IV. Great mountains are dangerous to explore without a guide. Some have foolishly attempted it, and valuable lives have been sacrificed in the attempt. And, alas, what a perilous position, and what a painful end have men come to, by essaying the exploration of God’ s righteousness without a guide! The Bible is the only unerring directory. Let us pray the Divine Spirit to guide us into all truth. V. GREAT ARE . It is pleasing to see many towns and villages in Switzerland and Savoy nestling in happy, peaceful security in fruitful valleys at the foot of the great mountains. Not only are they protected in some instances from easterly winds, and northern blasts, but these advantages have enabled the inhabitants to win and maintain an honourable independence amid the great military and aggressive powers of Europe. I was shown in the early part of the valley of the Rhone, two lines of hills which almost met, and there I was informed a comparative handful of brave Swiss defeated an invading army. And the spot is considered a sort of Thermopylae in the annals of the country to this day! God’ s righteousness is protective and defensive. It graduates the present salvation and future security of His people. All His other attributes, pledged in their behalf, have their foundation in this. VI. Great mountains command the most glorious views! Views your imagination cannot picture. The varied tints of the sunlight upon the pinnacles of snow. The distant ranges, so illusively near. The spreading valleys and calm blue lakes. The harmony of the landscape, light and shade blending marvellously together. So from the mount of God’ s righteousness most wonderful views are obtained. Aspects of the Divine character, which cannot possibly be seen from the flats of reason and science. From the height of this attribute the agreement of all the Divine attributes is beheld, and the glorious harmony between the dispensations of nature, providence, and grace, is discovered. From this elevation may be seen “ Mercy and Truth meeting together, Righteousness and Peace kissing each other.” (T. J. Guest.) Righteousness and great mountains The Bible full of similitudes. Sometimes intermingled, sometimes in clusters. No book in the world is so rich in illustrations, and from it uninspired poesy has enriched itself with its greatest beauties. God has by these similitudes married earth and heaven, time and eternity, the visible and the invisible. I. That God’ s righteousness is like the great mountains because it is durable. Sometimes God compares, sometimes contrasts Himself with the mountains. “ As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so,” etc. “ Mountains may depart, yet His kindness shall not depart,” etc. They are after all only relatively durable. The mountain is not the same as it was a thousand years ago. But God’ s righteousness is unchangeable, from the necessity of His nature: because not exposed to accident or peril. II. In mysteriousness. There is a mystery about all mountains, but the greater the one is the greater the other. There is mystery about God’ s righteousness; about His person. Would it not be strange if we could see the full extent of God’ s righteousness? The eye of the soul, like that of the body, is restricted in its power of vision. III. Has heights dangerous to climb. And even when men do scale the heights of Monte Rosa and the Matterhorn, they could not live there. And men can no more live on the mountains of theology than on these others. IV. Are a bulwark and a defence. And because Christ’ s is a righteous atonement, therefore its defence is sure. (Enoch Mellor, D. D.) God’ s righteousness like the great mountains The great mountains are planted in the earth for signs, and they are instinct with spiritual truth. They are the outward and visible manifestations of Jehovah’ s righteousness.1. For like the great mountains, the righteousness of God produces a deep and awful feeling in the mind when first beheld in all its greatness and transcendent glory. Before the righteousness of God, the human spirit, filled with a deep and abiding sense of impurity and transgression, bows and worships. One hand alone--that of the Great Architect who planned and built the world--formed the soft ethereal substance into the solid earth, smoothed out the valleys, and lifted up the great mountains until they kissed the skies. And as no human hand could create, so no human power can destroy those great mountains. It is so with respect to the righteousness of God. It was God who planned it, wrought it out, and embodied it, and fully manifested it in the person and work of Christ. And no human power can remove or destroy the righteousness of God. The hand that planted can alone uproot. The power that establishes and supports can alone remove. Like the great mountains, that are girded with a strength which is invincible, and rooted with a firmness which is immovable, is the righteousness of God. “ Thy righteousness is like the great mountains.” 2. But the righteousness of God is like the great mountains in another respect, namely, that of spotless purity. There the snow lies white and pure upon the crown and bosom of the great mountains, pure and white as it fell from the hand of the holy God. It is only where the great mountains strike their massive roots into the earth, that moraines or detached masses of rock and loose earth or sand are to be seen casting their dark shadows, and leaving their stains upon the pure whiteness of the glacier and the virgin snow. And it is thus with the righteousness of God. It is only at that point where it comes into contact with the righteousness of man, which is a filthy righteousness, that you see elements of impurity appearing, and appearing there, because the human spirit at its best is so imperfect, that stains and shadows lie upon it, and the very purity of God seems marred by the human soul that reposes on its bosom. But beyond the region where human imperfection touches the perfection of God, there is a vast and lofty range of spotless purity and Divine righteousness, where no shadows fall, where no stain can be detected. 3. Again, the striking comparison of our text proclaims with great power and beauty, that in order to attain the true vision of God we need to be lifted up. By our sinfulness we have left the “ heights,” and have come into “ low places,” where we raise to a bad eminence our lower passions and propensities. But, in the hour of our trouble, we instinctively look up to the mountains, feeling, like true hillsmen, the attraction of the Fatherland, and knowing that there is help for us there. And that our observations may be true, we must not only take but keep the heights. Only when standing on the hill of God, when surveying all things from the great mountain of God’ s righteousness, do we arrive at the knowledge of the eternal truth. 4. God’ s righteousness is like the great mountains, inasmuch as it is the throne, the source of our help. The great mountains are said to prolong, and do prolong, the world’ s day, to do battle with its storms, to bring peace, to purify and lighten the corrupt and heavy atmosphere; they enlarge, defend, and bless the whole sphere of human life, and keep open the windows of heaven for the pouring down of its righteousness--its bountiful liberalities. The mountains are as the throne of help. The mountains defend and bless the valleys and the plains, as the heavens defend and bless the earth. The mountains stand for the calm and majestic home of goodness and truth and eternal might. The mountains are above the changes they control. The mountains gather and disperse the clouds; they attract and revivify the air; they condense the atmosphere, and distil its living waters, and send them forth to refresh and fertilize the plains. The mountains are as the earth’ s lungs to restore to the atmosphere its used-up virtues. They brace the air, and keep the mildew from the growing corn. By the powerful influence of the mountains the valleys are always green, and food is abundantly provided for man and beast! And the mountains represent the help of other heights--the righteousness of God. For our help cometh from the hill of the Lord. (Christian Weekly.) Thy judgments are a great deep.-- A great deep I. The mystery of the divine dealings. That wondrous ocean that occupies two-thirds of all the space upon this globe--how little is known of it! How true this is of the ways of God! They, then, are fools who pretend to criticize and carp and complain at that which He does. II. Their ceaseless activity. More than anything in all creation besides, the ocean, I think, is the type of tireless and perpetual activity. And it is well for us, if we can believe in the same thing as regards the rule and government--the beneficent providence of Almighty God. It is the pulse of creation, and is always beating, even when creation sleeps. It is the engineer whose hand is on the handle, and whose eye is on the steam gauge, however the passengers may read or sleep, or deport themselves in the ship or train. God is, God works, God wills, God governs, and that as the sea is never at rest, so God walketh always, III. Their healthful and beneficent power. The storms of ocean have sent many a mariner to an untimely grave; but we know that the wild commotion of storm and billow, when the salt waters are churned into a seething cauldron of yeasty foam, means the charging the winds with the liberated ozone, iodine, and other health-giving elements of life; these raging tempests mean the keeping fresh and pure and salutary the waters that roll to every coast, the billows that lave and lap on every shore. A quiet ocean, a stagnant sea, an inactive deep, would mean ultimate pestilence, and death to the wide world of man and beast. No, the storm and tempests have their mission of good, their errand of mercy for man, and in this the judgments of God are a great deep, for its storms and tempests, its pains and disappointments, its wild waves of trouble as well as its sparkling ripples of peace, are healthful, useful, salutary and beneficent, both to body and soul. “ He doeth all things well.” IV. Their unchanging change. The ocean’ s sudden, various, unaccountable, and seemingly lawless changes have, nevertheless, in and through them all, fixity and certainty. All are subject to ascertained laws than which nothing is more exact and sure. And so of all that happens to us here, nothing, however apparently so, is really of chance. “ The Lord knoweth the way that I take, and when I am tried I,” etc. V. Their sustaining power. The sea is very deep--very mysterious, and at times very stormy, but what a splendid water-way it is! How grand a well-captained vessel, floating proudly over its surface to seek some far-off shore, and gain the precious things of far-off land! England is the England she is, rich and great, and powerful and prosperous, because she has learned to trust the sea. Yes, the great deep is a grand thing to sail on; but not so grand as is the providence and gracious government of God. Trust to that; put out on that sea; spread wide the sails of prayer to catch the breezes of heaven; steer your course by God’ s own sun and star; and be you sure of this, whatever of head-winds you may meet, whatever of chopping seas you may contend with, whatever storm and gale may menace your safety or toss your craft about--that great deep will bear you up; that Divine ocean will bear you on; that unfathomable sea will ensure you a safe voyage. Faith never suffers shipwreck. VI. Their precious treasures. Precious things are hidden in mysterious recesses. Ocean contains innumerable buried treasures. Gold, silver, and precious stones are laid up there. But “ how great is Thy goodness which Thou hast laid up for them that fear Thee.” Treasures both of grace and glory, for the life that now is and for that which is to come. (J. Jackson Wray.) Preparation for dark providences In saying “ Thy righteousness is like the great mountains,” he asserts God’ s justice and equity to be fixed and immovable; too deeply based, and too lofty, ever to be overthrown or even shaken. In saying, “ Thy judgments are a great deep,” he is to be understood as declaring, that, notwithstanding the confessed justice and equity of God, there is much which is inscrutable in His dealings, much which is not to be fathomed by us in our present state of being. And when he proceeds to the simple, but touching exclamation, “ O Lord, Thou preservest man and beast!” --we may regard him as taking refuge from what is perplexing and mysterious in what is plain and unquestionable; dispersing doubts which might arise from obscurities in providence, by reference to that general and gracious guardianship which proves God the protector of every living thing. Now it is not needful to insist on the truths of the text. They are sufficiently self-evident. We all know that there is much that is mysterious in God’ s dealings with men, and that consequently His judgments may fitly be called “ a great deep.” And we all know that it is God who preserveth both man and beast. But whilst the truth of the several propositions is readily confessed, and therefore does not need to be proved, there may be something in the order in which they are arranged by the psalmist, to suggest matter for important reflection. Besides the second of the two propositions may well obtain earnest consideration from us, for men are so often disconcerted and dissatisfied because of the fact it declares. I. Consider the reasons for expecting that God’ s judgments would be “ a great deep.” Even now amongst men the dealings of the wise are often founded on maxims not understood or appreciated by the great mass of their fellows; so that conduct appears unaccountable, which, nevertheless, proceeds from a very high sagacity. Is it, then, to be wondered at, that God, whose wisdom is as far above that of the wisest of the earth as the heaven is above this lower creation, should be inexplicable in His actings, often doing that which we utterly fail to understand. And there may be other reasons for the inscrutableness of which we now speak. Why may it not be supposed, that God often of set purpose veils Himself in clouds, working in a mode which transcends our understandings, in order to conciliate our reverence, and keep faith in exercise? If we were always able to discern the reasons of the Divine dealings, who does not see that our own wisdom would soon come to be considered as well nigh equal to that of God? And then, again, what place would there be for faith, if there were no depths in the Divine judgments; if every reason was so plain, every design so palpable, that no one could do otherwise than acquiesce in the fitness and goodness of all God’ s appointments? It is very easy, if you cast but a cursory glance over the dealings of the Divine Being, observe the jostling and confusion which seem almost universal, and mark the unexpected turn which things take, to endeavour to assign the reason of this appointment, or to assign the possible use of that; it is very hard to feel assured that all is ordered for the best, that there is not a spring in motion which God does not regulate, and not a force in action which He does not control. Yet when we come to search into what was to have been expected, we do not find that we could reasonably have looked for any other state of things. Ought we not to feel that it is the very darkness in which the Almighty doth dwell which obtains for Him the reverence of such creatures as ourselves, excites their faith, and perpetually reminds them of a judgment to come? II. The position in which these words are placed. They are inserted between two other propositions, from which they derive and on which they throw no inconsiderable light. Consider, then--1. The connection between the first two clauses of the text. Now, there is no better way of preparing the mind to contemplate the unsearchableness of God than the settling it in its persuasion of the righteousness of God. For we cannot be thoroughly persuaded of the righteousness of God, and not be thoroughly persuaded that, even when His dealings are the darkest, they have only to be seen in the light of His wisdom, and they will commend themselves as the best that could have been devised. And this is the reason why good men are, practically, so little perplexed by the intricacies of the Divine providence. They are certain of God’ s righteousness. In this manner the psalmist may be said to fortify himself for considering the inscrutableness of the Divine dealings by assuring himself of the Divine righteousness. And so, possessed of that which must keep him from sinking, he throws himself into the vast profound, and exclaims, “ Thy judgments are a great deep.” Aye, it is in this way that we should all endeavour to equip ourselves for trial. We launch into the great deep of God’ s judgments with but dim apprehensions of God’ s righteousness; and no marvel, then, if we are presently as mariners without a compass, and cry out as though God had forgotten to be gracious. But if we are busied, whilst not yet driven upon that vast ocean, with certifying ourselves that God cannot swerve from His purpose, that God cannot cease to overrule evil, we could not fail, when we found ourselves in the dark waters, to have our eye on the star which is to teach us how to steer. The imagery employed in this psalm is very beautiful. The psalmist combines the mountains and the deep. The mountains are to be considered as rising out of the waters, and girding them round on every side. We know, from the parts of the mountains which are visible, that there are lower parts concealed from us by the waters, and just as confident that the lower parts make the basin from which the waters flow. And thus we should learn from seeing, when we look towards the heavens, that there is righteousness all around this lower obscurity which we are unable to penetrate, that the foundations which are beneath the waves are of the same materials as the summits which are above, and which often glow in the sunlight, though they may sometimes be hidden in the mist. This, we say, is the idea figuratively conveyed by the expression of the psalmist. Once give the character of “ mountains” to the righteousness, regard that righteousness as immovable, and as girding round the whole economy of Providence, and it can hardly come to pass that you should be overwhelmed by the Divine dealings, however little you may be able to fathom them. And thus is the transition from the “ righteousness” to the “ judgments” of God in our text exactly indicative of the process which should take place in our minds. And now consider-- 2. The connection between the two last propositions of the text. There seems to be something very abrupt in this second transition, to pass from the great deep of God’ s judgments to the preserving man and beast; from so great mysteries to the everyday mercies which are showered upon the world. But even a believer in God’ s righteousness may, as he looks out upon the great deep of Providence, desire some distinct, some visible evidence of that goodness of God which seems so opposed to all this darkness and confusion. And this is what the last clause of our text gives him. For from all creation witnesses are summoned to attest the goodness of God. Man and every beast of the field, every fowl of the air, yea, all that passes through the paths of the sea, are to furnish proof of the watchful care and love of God. Will you say that all the animation which is kept up in the universe, and all the sustenance which is so liberally provided for every tribe, must be referred to the workings of certain laws and properties irrespective of the immediate agency of an ever-present, ever-actuating Divinity? This is nothing better than idolatry of second causes, and denial of the First; this is substituting nature--an ideal--for Him who is the Creator and Preserver of all. How comes it to pass that morning after morning the sun wakens huge cities into life, and causes the silent forests to echo with the warbling of birds, and calls into activity thousands of creatures in every mountain and in every valley, and yet, that out of all the interminable hordes thus revivified at every dawn, there is not the solitary being for whom there is no provision in the granaries of nature? Can it be that God is unmindful of the world, that He is not studying in what He arranges and appoints, the good of His creatures, when He shows Himself attentive to the wants and comforts of the meanest living thing? It seems to us that there is thus a beautiful, though tacit, reasoning in the text, and that the second proposition is most admirably placed between the first and the last. It is as though David had said, “ Come, let us muse on the righteousness of God. He would not be God if He were not righteous in all His ways; and therefore we may be sure that whatsoever He does is the best that could be done, whether or not we can perceive its excellence. This being settled, having determined that His “ righteousness is like the great mountains,” let us look upon His “ judgments.” Ah! what an abyss of dark waters is here! How unsearchable, how unfathomable, are these judgments! Yes, but being previously convinced of God’ s righteousness, we ought not to be staggered by what is dark in His dispensations. True; yet the mind does not seem satisfied by this reasoning. It may be more convincing to the intellect, but it does not address itself to the feelings. Well then, pass from what is dark in God’ s dealings to what is clear. “ He is about your path, and about your bed.” “ The eyes of all wait upon Him; He openeth His hand, He satisfieth the desire of every living thing.” Is this a God of whom to be suspicious? Is this a God to mistrust? No, surely. If you be able to say, “ Thy righteousness is like the great mountains,” did it not quite prepare you for the fact, “ Thy judgments are a great deep,” every remaining suspicion will be scattered when you can join in the confession, “ O Lord, Thou preservest man and beast.” (H. Melvill, B. D.) Fathomless I. The dealings of God with his people are often unfathomable. But why does the Lord send us an affliction which we cannot understand?1. Because He is the Lord. He is God, and therefore it becometh us ofttimes to sit in silence, and feel it must be right, though we equally know we cannot see how it is so. 2. God sendeth us trials of this sort for the exercise of our graces. Now is there room for faith. When thou canst trace Him thou canst not trust Him. Here is room, too, for humility. The feeling that everything is beyond our knowledge brings to us humility, and we sit down at the foot of Jehovah’ s throne. I think there is hardly a grace which is not much helped by the deeps of God’ s judgments. Certainly love has frequently been developed to a high degree in this way, for the soul at last comes to say, “ No, I will not desire the reason; I do so love Him; let His will stand for a reason; that shall he enough for me; it is the Lord; let Him do what seemeth Him good.” 3. We have sins which we cannot fathom, and it is little marvel, therefore, if we have also chastisements which we cannot fathom. II. God’ s judgments are a great deep: then they are safe sailing. Ships never strike on rocks in the great deeps. When the sailor begins to come up the Thames, then it is that there is first one sandbank and then another, and he is in danger; but out in the deep water, where he finds no bottom, he is but little afraid. So in the judgments of God. When He is dealing out affliction to us, it is the safest possible sailing that a Christian can have. For then he need fear no fall; when he is low, he need fear no pride; when he is humbled under God’ s hand, then he is less likely to be carried away with every wind of temptation. God’ s judgments are a great deep, but they are safe sailing, and under the guidance and presence of the Holy Spirit they are not only safe, but they are advantageous. I greatly question whether we ever do grow in grace much except when we are in the furnace. III. God’ s judgments are a great deep, but they conceal great treasure. Down in those great depths who knows what there may be? Pearls lie deep there. And so with the deep judgments of God. What wisdom is concealed there, and what treasures of love and faithfulness, and what David calls “ very tenderness,” “ for in very tenderness,” saith he, “ hast Thou afflicted me.” We do not, perhaps, as yet, receive, or even perceive the present and immediate benefit of some of our afflictions. There may be no immediate benefit; the benefit may be for hence and to come. The chastening of our youth may be intended for the ripening of our age. I do not know that that blade required the rain on such a day, but God was looking not to February as such, but to February in its relation to July, when the harvest should be reaped. He considered the blade not merely as a blade, and in its present necessity, but as it would be in the full corn in the ear. IV. God’ s judgments are a great deep: then they work much good. The great deep, though ignorance thinks it to be all waste, a salt and barren wilderness, is one of the greatest blessings to this round world. If, to-morrow, there should be “ no more sea,” it would be the greatest of all curses. It is from the sea that there arises the perpetual mist which, floating by and by in mid-air, at last descends in plenteous showers on hill and vale to fertilize the land. The sea is the great heart of the world--I might say the circulating blood of the world. There is no waste in the sea; it is all wanted. It must be there; there is not a drop of it too much. So with our afflictions which are Thy judgments, O God! They are necessary to our life, to our soul’ s health, to our spiritual vigour. “ It is good for me that I have been afflicted,” said David. V. If God’ s judgments are a great deep, then they become a highway of communion with himself. We thought at one time that the deep separated different peoples; that nations were kept asunder by the sea; but lo! the sea is to-day the great highway of the world. The rapid ships cross it with their white sails, or with their palpitating engines they soon flash across the waves. And so our afflictions--which we thought in our ignorance would separate us from our God--are the highway by which we may come nearer to God than we otherwise could. They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business on the great waters, these see the works of the Lord, and His wonders in the deep. You that keep close in shore and have but small trials, you are not likely to know much of His wonders in the deep. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Psalms 36:6O Lord, Thou preservest man and beast. The providence of God in the preservation of His living creatures As He made all living creatures, they are the objects of His continual care. As He made the world with astonishing magnificence; he presides over and governs it for the purposes for which it was made: His hand supports the fabric His power hath raised. As the production of the meanest living creatures is the work of Divine power and wisdom, so their preservation in life is the effect of His providence: and it results from the perfection of the Divine nature and providence, that notwithstanding the immense grandeur and multiplicity of His works, and the superior dignity and importance of some creatures in comparison of others, no part, though ever so minute, is overlooked. Vulgar minds are most apt to be affected with a sense of Divine providence, when they see something extraordinary and wonderful, and, as they imagine, beyond, or contrary to, the usual course of nature. But this is the effect of their weakness and ignorance. The constant operations and uniform course of nature are to be considered as the great proof and effect of a Divine providence, much more than any seeming deviations. Every one who reflects will be sensible of his own insufficiency to uphold his own being, or supply his own wants. We feel our dependence upon something above us, and are as it wore conscious of a superior power which sustains and preserves us. From the whole we may observe--1. God’ s right of dominion over His creatures; which is founded not only on His creative power, but on His governing wisdom and preserving providence. 2. Entertain admiring and grateful thoughts of the Divine care and goodness in our preservation. 3. Imitate, according to our capacity, the Divine providence and goodness, by extending our care and contributing our part to the support and welfare of our fellow-creatures. 4. Rely upon the Divine protection for the future. Timid and anxious cares about our own preservation are inconsistent with true piety or a just confidence in the Divine care and goodness. (S. Bourn.) Psalms 36:7-8 How excellent is Thy loving-kindness, O God.The excellence of God’ s loving-kindness I. The subject of the text. “ Thy loving-kindness, O God.”1. Manifested-- (1) In creation.(2) In providence.(3) In grace. 2. Felt or experienced-- (1) In conversion.(2) In reconciliation and adoption.(3) In Christian fellowship and communion with God.(4) In ordinances and promises.(5) In heaven. II. Its excellence. This appears--1. In being manifested to the most unworthy. 2. In the multitude of blessings of which it is the source. 3. It gives security in all dangers, and produces confidence. 4. It is infinitely satisfying. 5. It is constant. 6. It is pregnant with prospective blessedness and ineffable glory. Application.1. Does your experience lead you to admire this loving-kindness?2. If not, it is a proof of slothfulness, and barrenness, and calls for repentance.3. However much of this loving-kindness you enjoy now, it is but a foretaste. (Helps for the Pulpit.) The guests of the Lord “ How excellent is Thy loving-kindness, O Lord!” Here is a burst of doxology born out of a great contemplation. This man sings but as the linnet sings; he sings because he must; his song is the spontaneous outbreaking of a jubilant soul. So many of our doxologies are forced and artificial; they are not natural and inevitable. This man’ s song is the sure and certain issue of prepared and definite conditions. He has been surveying the wondrous power of God. And where has the meditation taken place? In the open air. He is a great lover of nature, and as he fixes his wondering eye upon its glories, Nature becomes to him a literature, and he discerns the character of God. It is a long and leisurely meditation. Moment by moment he seems to peer into ever-deepening depths in the immeasurable sky. “ Thy mercy, O Lord, is in the heavens!” Thy mercy is just like what I am gazing at! Depth beyond depth, and a comprehension that encircles everybody! And then he turns to the gathering clouds, brewing away in the south-west, and coming with their ladened treasures to moisten the slopes of Carmel, and to drench the dried plains with their fertilizing wealth. And again his heart reads the spiritual evangel brought by this material messenger. “ Thy faithfulness reacheth out of the clouds!” The looming storm, the gathering darkness, are not chaotic forces raging at will without command; they are all in the charge of the Almighty God! “ The clouds drop fatness!” Then his eyes wander away to the uplifted mountains, to Hermon and to distant Lebanon, or across to the hills of Moab. These are the emphases in the landscape, the abiding realities amid all its shifting moods. The river comes and goes; there is time of drought and time of plenty! Generations arise and pass away, but in each succeeding day the harvester looks up from the feverish plains and sees the cool and towering heights of the unchanging Lebanon. “ Thy righteousness is like the great mountains!” Whatever happens, that endures! And so his contemplative eye wanders about in this great field of spiritual symbolism, till the heart glows and burns in the accumulated glory. “ How excellent is Thy loving-kindness, O God!” Surely we might imitate the psalmist in this fruitful method of devotion. Now this loving-kindness, so precious and so excellent, represents itself to the psalmist as a home for the soul, a home in which all the children of men can be the guests of God. The loving-kindness of our Lord is just the guest-house of the soul! For what does the psalmist assure us we may find in this gracious home? First., it offers us shelter. “ Therefore the children of men take refuge under the shadow of Thy wings.” I think there is something very pathetic in the conjunction. After the towering mountains, and the far-stretched heavens, and the battalions of storm-clouds, and the mysterious sea, he mentions “ the children of men.” He appears to be half-terrified and half-confident in the association. Man seems so pitiably small by the side of the colossal phenomena of the material world. And yet, although the psalmist trembles for a moment in the sense of his own insignificance, he soon recovers the confidence of his soul. “ Therefore the children of men fake refuge under the shadow of Thy wings.” That is the privilege of the sons of God. We can hide in the immediate presence of the Creator of all things, We can turn into the loving-kindness of God as little chicks cuddle under their mother’ s wings. There is room for everybody, always and everywhere. The peril or the crisis never finds us far away from home. But in the guest-house we not only find shelter and security, we find gracious and perfect sustenance. “ They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of Thy house.” The Lord always gives His guest the best. The word “ fatness” literally means the top of a thing. The top of milk is the cream, and it is always the cream of things with which our Lord entertains His children. “ Thou feedest them with the finest of the wheat.” He provides fat visions for the mind, delivering us from poor and thin conceptions of God, of man, of life and duty. He provides fat promises for the heart, saving us from thin and poor affections, from emotions in which there is no strength and no sacrificial ministry. And He provides fat energies for the will, nourishing us into powers of resoluteness which make us invulnerable in the pilgrim way. And with this fatness we are to be “ abundantly satisfied.” There are so many unsatisfied people in our streets, possessed of comforts, but no comfort, having found ease but not having gained peace. But the food of the Lord is to abundantly satisfy, and the heart is to be at rest. “ He satisfieth thy mouth with good things.” But more than shelter and sustenance are to be given to us. Our great Host entertains His guests with rare delights. “ Thou shelf make them drink of the river of Thy pleasures.” This may mean the pleasures that God provides us, Or it may mean God’ s own pleasures, or it may probably mean both. The things that give pleasure to the Lord are to give joy to us, In what does our Lord find His delight? “ He delighteth in mercy!” And I am to drink of this river, and to relish the taste of it, and to find it a gracious delight. “ There is joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth!” And of this river I am to drink, and my heart is to be glad at the prodigal’ s return. When I see another rejoicing I am to rejoice, and in my delight I shall share the joy of the Lord. And all these pleasures are to come my way like a river. They are not to be like a pool, exposed to the immediate drought, dried up in the critical day. And the psalmist, before closing his doxology, gives us the great secret of this all-sufficient hospitality. “ With Thee is the fountain of life.” All good is to be found in God. “ All our springs are in Him,” the springs of impulse, and desire, and will, and of all vitality. (J. H. Jowett, M.A.) The excellence of God’ s loving-kindness I. Take the words directly and absolutely, as they lie in themselves.1. God’ s loving-kindness is most excellent, that is, His favour and good-will (Psalms 30:5; Psalms 63:3; Psalms 106:4). (1) In regard of the subject of it, by considering whose it is. (2) In regard of the fulness of it. He that hath but God’ s favour, what can he be said to want? There’ s nothing here in the world, but when a man has as much of it as his heart can wish, yet he will still want somewhat with it, and that sometimes which he can least be without; but he that hath an interest in God’ s loving-kindness, he hath all good things made over to him, so far forth as he hath use and need of them. (3) In regard of the efficacy of it, it is such as is of sweet influence wheresoever it is; it makes comforts to be so much the more comfortable, and it makes crosses to be so much the more tolerable and beneficial. (4) For its freeness and impartiality. (5) For its continuance and duration. Whom He loves, He loves to the end (Isaiah 54:8). 2. The psalmist blesses God for His activity of goodness to His church, for that loving-kindness which does put itself forth in His proceedings and dispensations to them. Now this also as well as the former is very excellent, and that in these regards. (1) In regard of the substance of it, and the materials whereof it consists, which are various. God has shown His loving-kindness to His church in divers expressions. In giving them His Son for their redemption, and reconciliation to Himself; how excellent is His loving-kindness here (Romans 8:32). In the ordinances and means of grace. In His Spirit, and the workings thereof, whereby His ordinances and ministry are made effectual to those who enjoy them. In His care of it, and providence towards it. (2) In regard of the extent of it, enlarging and diffusing itself. (3) In regard of the peculiarity and appropriation of it. II. Consider the words reflexively, as coming from the psalmist.1. Here is a sound judgment. 2. A special favour. David does not only speak here out of judgment, and the strength of his understanding; but out of sense and the certainty of his experience, who had found and felt the workings of this special favour, and accordingly speaks triumphantly about it. The frequent thoughts upon this point are such as may be very beneficial to us; and may have a very great influence upon our lives. (1) To quicken us to duty, and to make us so much the more diligent in our business. (2) To restrain us from sin, and to make us so much the more shy of our miscarriages. (3) To satisfy us in our afflictions, and to make us more contented with our condition. 3. Here is a thankful acknowledgment. 4. Here is a joyful publication (Psalms 92:2) calls for showing forth the loving-kindness of the Lord (Psalms 63:8). (T. Herren, D. D.) Therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of Thy wings.-- The character and privileges of God’ s people I. Their character. They highly esteem the loving-kindness of God. II. Their privileges.1. “ They shall be abundantly satisfied,” etc.2. They drink of the river of His pleasures. All joy is theirs. (D. Rees.) Psalms 36:8-9 They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of Thy house, and Thou shalt make them drink of the river of Thy pleasures. What men find beneath the wings of God I. Satisfaction. Allusion is made, no doubt, to the festal meal of priests and worshippers in the temple, on occasion of the peace-offering. And there is also the simpler metaphor of God as the host at His table, at which we are guests. In either case the plain teaching of the text is, that by the might of a calm trust in God the whole mass of a man’ s desires are filled and satisfied. Heart, mind, will, appetites, tastes, inclinations, weaknesses, bodily wants--the whole crowd of these are crying for their meat. Now, where shall be found supply for all these? The one answer is, God; God alone is the food of the heart. Jesus said, “ I am the Bread of Life, he that cometh unto Me shall never hunger.” II. Joy. “ Thou makest them drink,” etc. Perhaps “ the rivers” point back to the rivers of the Garden of Eden, for “ Eden” is the singular of the word here rendered “ pleasures.” Paradise is restored for them who trust in the Lord. The whole conception of religion in the Bible is gladsome. There is no puritanical gloom about it. True, a Christian man has sources of sadness which other men have not. Life will seem to be graver and sadder than the lives “ that ring with idiot laughter solely,” and have no music because they have no melancholy in them. That cannot be helped. But what does it matter though two or three surface streams be stopped up, if the pure river of the water of life is turned into your hearts? We hear a great deal about other Christian duties. We do not hear so much as we ought about the Christian duty of gladness. It takes a very robust faith to say, “ Though the fig-tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit he in the vine, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation.” What a blessing it is for us to have, as we may have, a source of joy, frozen by no winter, dried up by no summer. We have but to lap a hasty mouthful of earthly joys as we run, but we cannot drink too full draughts of this pure river of water which makes glad the city of God. III. Life. “ With Thee is the fountain of life.” The words are true in regard of the lowest meaning of “ life” --physical existence,--and they give a wonderful idea of the connection between God and all living creatures. Wherever there is life there is God. But it is of higher than the physical life that our text tells--the life of the spirit in communion with God. There is such a thing as death in life: living men may be “ dead in trespasses and sins.” IV. Light. “ In Thy light shall we see light.” God is “ the Father of lights.” The sun and all the stars are only lights kindled by Him. It is the very crown of revelation that God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all. All joyous things come with it. It brings warmth and fruit, fulness and life. Purity, and gladness, and knowledge have been symbolized by it in all tongues. This great word here seems to point chiefly to light as knowledge. This saying is true, as the former clause was, in relation to all the light which men have. The inspiration of the Almighty giveth him understanding. Now the sum of the whole matter is, that all this four-fold blessing of satisfaction, joy, life, light, is given to you, if you will take Christ. And if you will not have Him, you will starve, and your lips will be cracked with thirst; and you will live a life which is death, and you will sink at last into outer darkness. Is that the fate which you are going to choose? (A. Maclaren, D. D.) The fatness of God’ s house I. The child of God is provided with what is necessary.1. The food is strengthening; he is fed with the grace of God. What Satan gives enfeebles; what God gives strengthens. 2. It is rich--rich as befits the house of a monarch, the table of a king. It is the love of God. Life without love is death. “ Greater love hath no man than this, that,” etc. And this is the assurance of God’ s love to us. 3. And it is plentiful. A dole would be more than our right, but God gives us all. Open then your hearts to receive His mercy. So shall we be content and at rest. II. With what is pleasant. “ The rivers of God’ s pleasures.” There shall be the sense of safety: elevation of thought and high communion with God and with the saints: foretastes of heaven. (P. B. Power, M. A.) True human happiness divine I. Divinity supplies the source of our happiness. It is “ the river of thy pleasure.” God is happy, the ever blessed God. His happiness is a “ river” --pure, boundless, overflowing. What is this river? It involves--1. An approving conscience.2. A consciousness of security.3. A loving nature.4. A beneficent activity. God Himself could not be happy without them. Man is happy as he participates in the happiness of God. II. Divinity leads to its source. “ Thou shalt make them drink,” etc. The human soul has gone so far away from this river that none but God can bring it back. This He has done, is doing, and will continue to do, through Christ. “ He, every one that thirsteth, come,” etc. (D. Thomas, D. D.) The fatness of God’ s house A hydrant has no water in its composition. It is made of wood, iron and brass. But when it is finished, and the proper authorities have put it in its place, it is then that water may come from it. A burning-glass has no fire in it. It has only the silex and alkali, with its metal band and handle. But when it is properly made and holden, it will kindle a fire, because it brings the heat-rays of the great sun to a focus. But you would not expect to find any one so foolish as to keep away from the hydrant and die from thirst, because it has no water in its composition. You would expect people to go to the hydrant whenever they needed water, and to prize it because it is one of the constituted outlets for the water’ s of the lake. And you would expect them to use the burning-glass, and prize it, as the means of getting fire from the sun, to comfort them and supply their wants. Now, this house of God has nothing of grace, or righteousness, or glory in these beams, and boards, and nails. There are none of the waters of healing in these pews, and aisles, and this pulpit. None of the fires of heaven in their paint, and wall, and ceiling. But God has ordained this house to be the place out of which the waters of His salvation shall flow; to be the point in which the melting beams of His love shall gather as time rolls by. I. Admire the fatness of God’ s house. This includes all the blessings God bestows through His house.1. Life (Psalms 36:9). It is the life bought for us by the death of Christ, and brought to us by the ministrations of the Holy Spirit; the life which will go unscathed through the death that guards the close of this world, and pass on untouched by the blasting fires of the second death; the life which will grow on and glow on amid the beauties and glories of the New Jerusalem as long as God Himself shall last. 2. Love (Psalms 36:7). The love of God Himself--infinite, undeserved. 3. Protection (Psalms 36:7). Against world, flesh, devil. 4. Refreshing (Psalms 36:8). This refreshing will remove discomfort, weariness, pain, weakness, sorrow and distress from the hearts of all who wait on God. It will make the soul joyful, singing through life, singing in death, and singing through the joys of eternity. 5. Cleansing (Psalms 36:8). 6. Light (Psalms 36:9.) This is the light that “ shineth in darkness,” of which John came to bear witness. It is the true light. It shines on the darkness of our ignorance, and rolls away the deep shadows of error and prejudice, lighting up the pathway of truth so plainly “ that he may run that readeth.” 7. Warmth (verse 9). Light brings warmth. II. Be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of God’ s house.1. Life is the necessity of your soul. Not the life of the body, for that you have; nor the immortality of the soul, for that you cannot lose. But you need something within you that will live when the light of this life has gone out. This life God can give you in His sanctuary. Put your soul in connection with Jesus Christ the God-man now, by a penitent and believing application for His favour, and you will feel the start, and thrill, and glow of this new life stirring in your soul. 2. Love is desired by your soul. The tendrils of your affection go out to find something to which they may cling, and on which they may climb. But you have learned that many of the objects of your trust prove unworthy; more of them insufficient, and all that are earthly, liable to wither and die. When you are tired of the disappointments, deceitfulness and failures of earthly love, you can come to the house of God, and here find the offers of Divine tenderness and infinite affection ready to encircle you in their blessed embrace. 3. Protection is needed by your soul. And here in this house of God you may experience the blessedness of possessing it. How weak you are to resist evil, your own experience has thoroughly taught you. You need protection against the swelling waves of this world’ s troubles, the mighty billows of the judgment day. 4. Refreshing is sought by your soul. Here you may have blessed foretastes of the glorious companionship and blissful employments of heaven. 5. Your soul needs cleansing, and you can obtain it here. The filthy covering of your soul will be replaced by the spotless robe of Christ’ s righteousness. 6. Your soul needs light. And coming to this house of God it will shine on you. It is a certain remedy for all darkness and blindness. It shines on the future, showing you how to avoid the pit of despair, and how to reach the glories of the celestial world. 7. Your soul needs warmth. And you can get it in this house of God. This warmth is the kindling of the spirit; the glow that comes from the pulsations of life, from the embrace of love, from the consciousness of protection, from the cup of refreshing, from the waters of cleansing, and from the beamings of light. (H. D. Williamson) The river of Thy pleasures How much we can learn from a man’ s pleasures! I think it would be almost true to say that a man’ s pleasures constitute his measures. We may surely sample a man’ s character by analyzing the ministry in which he takes his delight. And how greatly our enjoyments vary. “ One man’ s meat is another man’ s poison.” That which gratifies one man is resented by another. One man seeks and finds enjoyment in the channels of the senses, in the outer halls and passages of the life, and never retires to the interior living-rooms of the soul. Another man feasts upon the spiritual essences of all things, and finds that the way of life is provided with rare delights. My text lifts our minds to the superlative plain of pleasure, even the pleasures of our God. And we are told that there are men and women who have been brought to the same refined appreciation, and who are able to enter into the joy of the Lord. Their kinship is so intimate that their delights are one. What God loves they love. “ He delighteth in mercy.” Here is one of the pleasures of our God. He does not turn to mercy reluctantly, as it were with a resentful palate; He turns to it eagerly, as a hungry man would turn to welcome food. Mercy is pleasant unto the Lord, and He rejoices in its exercise. How different are many of the palates of God’ s children! We cannot drink of that river with deep and delightful satisfaction. Our diseased palate craves sensations of quite another kind. To many of us “ revenge is sweet,” and so foul an enjoyment testifies to the depravity of our souls. But we can have our natures changed, and in the renewal of our being our palates will be transformed. We shall delight in mercy. It is needless to analyze the ingredients of a merciful disposition. It is perhaps sufficient to say that the behaviour of a merciful man has always two characteristics. First of all, he is ever seeking for favourable explanations of apparently unfavourable deeds. He does not jump at the first obtrusive explanation of things, and sit upon a throne of summary judgment. He is “ slow to anger, and of great mercy.” He exhausts all possible alternatives before accepting the worst. And, secondly, even when all alternatives have been tried, and the worst is still obtrusive, the merciful disposition is ready to forgive that which cannot be favourably explained. The merciful man finds his delight in mercy, and in being merciful he leans to his own inclinations. “ Rejoice with Me, for I have found My sheep which was lost.” Here is another of the Lord’ s pleasures. Do I share it with Him? Do I drink of this river, and find delight and satisfaction in the draught? Ah! but there is a preparatory condition before such joy can be oars. No man can really take part in a victory unless he has borne some share in the fight. We can never really sing the song of the harvest-home until we have borne something of the labours of the field, “ The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear Him.” He not only finds delight in the homecoming of the prodigal; the delight is continued in the intimate fellowship of the subsequent life. The Lord loves to be near such people, loves to see them, and hear them, and to accompany them in their goings. Do we drink of the river of this pleasure? Do we find any delight in such people? I am further told, in the words that immediately precede my text, that the satisfactions of these pleasures are not to be partial and transient, but complete and abiding. “ They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of Thy house.” We cannot say that of many of our enjoyments. We drink of the pleasures of the world, and they neither leave a sweet taste nor a contented rest. It is “ as when a hungry man sleepeth, and behold! he eateth; he waketh, and findeth himself hungry.” God has set the eternal longing in our spirits, and nothing that is merely temporal can appease the craving. But the pleasures of God bring abundant satisfaction. “ Satisfy” is a great biblical word. The Bible uses it very plentifully, because everywhere it proclaims its abiding secret. How can we acquire the Divine appreciation, in order that we may thus drink of the Lord’ s pleasures, and find our delight in them? Shall we say that the taste is acquired? Let us better say that the taste is communicated. “ Thou shalt make them drink of the river of Thy pleasures.” He will so re-make our lives that the palate shall be renewed. (J. H. Jowett, M. A.) Psalms 36:9 For with Thee is the fountain of life; in Thy light shall we see light.Life and light We think of Easter as the festival of the defeat of death: it is no less the festival of the glory of life. It is one of the many proofs that God desires and loves our health and not our sickness, our happiness and not our misery. From many causes, chief of all, the sin of the age, we habitually take too unfavourable and too unthankful a view of our mortal life. The cynic, the worldling, the noted profligate, the unreal Christian, seem to assume as an axiom that life is an unmitigated evil, and that it is only to be got through because we must, and as best we can. And even good men complain of life. But God hears and bears with it all, even as the mother forgives the fretfulness of her child. Christians should never cherish dark views. If we have them, remember they are not Christian, and they are mainly due to our own faults. I do not wish to indulge a weak optimism. I know the outward lives of many are dull and humble, and mush be so, but what I would fain show you is that the externals of life are not life, and that aa far as all the glorious essentials of life are concerned, you may still be blessed above all that this world can give. I do not shut my eyes to the reality of evil, but I still say that the sentiment of the bitter, worldly poet, “ Know that whatever thou hast been, ‘ tis something bitter not to be,” is a false and un-Christian sentiment. Almost all of us make too much of the few great woes of life, and too little of the multitude of its innocent pleasures. See these mortal bodies--how adapted to our needs. Think of how much of good attends each period of life from infancy to old age. Pessimists commiserate the lot of old age. So does not Scripture. It says that a “ hoary head is a crown of glory if found in the way of righteousness.” “ Would you be young again? So would not I.” A beautiful and peaceful ago in its calm and wisdom may be as the sunset to the day. And here God overrules our trials for good so that trials really become mercies. Look, then, hopefully, thankfully at life. It is not life which ruins man: it is man which ruins life. And too many do this, so that their life has not been as God meant it to be, but as a mirage of the deceitful wilderness, a ruin lost in mud and sand. The man has been a martyr of Satan, and not of God. But Christ would fain glorify our life. The secret of life, the secret of felicity is with Him or nowhere. But it is with Him, and it is for them that fear Him. It transfigures the world of Nature, making it the very autograph of His love. And God has given to us art, literature, science, appealing not to the senses but to the soul. How great are the pleasures of the mind: and yet more those of the moral nature, and the spirit of man is capable of joys more transcendent still; unattainable, indeed, apart from Christ, but in Him, open to us all. Think of but two of them, Hope and Love. How love transfigures life. Do we not know it, all of us, and many by blessed experience? And what is Easter for if it be not to teach us life? It is thus, then, that Christ gives us light, and that in His light we see light. (Dean Farrar.) The fountain of life I. Illustrate the doctrine of the text. As waters in a fountain are continually rising up and flowing forth, so life in God is naturally springing up, and ceaselessly overflowing. Life natural, intellectual, spiritual. Life in its simplest and life in its sublimest forms. Thought carries us back to the infinite past when nought but God was. So it might have remained and the happiness of God none the less. But it pleased Him to manifest His glory by creation. First the heavens, then the earth, then the tribes of-animated nature, all that roam in the forest, or swim the sea. Then man was created, as completing the chain of natural life, and at the same time connecting this world with others, that may be the sphere of intellectual and spiritual existence. Thus has the Fount of living waters filled this lower world with streams of life--and ever since the memorable days of creation--from Him have those streams flowed on, supplying all that is necessary for the unbroken succession, and whatever the form of life, however glorious, however beneficent, to God man is indebted for them all. But the highest life is the spiritual, the life of God in the soul. Now, man had this at the first, but lost it by sin, yet receives it back again through Christ. II. Improve it,1. Let the Fountain of all life have the glory due to His name. 2. Let the powers of natural and intellectual life, which we have received, be dedicated to the Author of them. Let all we have be devoted to the Lord who gave them. But the subject comes home to us also with all the force of Gospel obligation. The Redeemer of our life says also, “ Ye are not your own.” 3. Especially let spiritual life be sought from God, the “ fountain of life.” 4. Let believers rejoice in hope of the time when spiritual life shall be perfected. (I. Jacob.) The fountain of life I. The natural life. This is a noble gift, bestowed for noble purposes; our bodies are material, composed of matter, that is, of earthly substance; evidently made from the dust, as to the dust returning. Whence comes it, then, that one portion of matter should be gifted with life, and be endued with faculties which have a living power, whilst another portion lies dull and heavy and incapable, as it was originally created? The Church calls us to thank God for our creation: let us see that it be indeed a blessing. II. From God is our providential life, the preservation of our existence; and when we consider the numberless casualties to which we are exposed, this preservation is one continued marvel, nothing less than the constant exercise of God’ s almightiness on our behalf, by day and by night. III. Our spiritual life can be derived only from the Father of spirits, from “ the God of the spirits of all flesh” : our blessed Lord has placed this upon the clearest possible footing, “ that which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” IV. There is another life which we profess to be seeking, another world to which we are on our journey; the very purpose and end of our present spiritual being. So says our blessed Lord, “ Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.” V. Then “ In his light shall we see light.” All the shadows of earthly imperfection will fly away before the sun of righteousness, which is the sun Of glory. And as He led Israel through the wilderness, by the pillar of a cloud and the pillar of fire, so will He, by the light of His Spirit and His Word, lead every humble obedient servant through the world’ s wilderness, and bring them safely to the heavenly shore. (J. Slade, M.A.) The fountain of life We feel what life is better than we can define it. It is much more than existence. Life means unwearying vigour, full enjoyment, constant growth, abundant fruitfulness.1. Alas, some have no life--no spiritual life; the physical, the intellectual, the social are there, vigorous enough; but there is death towards God. “ Lay hold of the life which is life indeed,” writes Paul, and many a one has come to feel that even the best of life without God is not “ life indeed.” “ A man’ s life consiteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.” Life cut off from God is but another name for death. 2. Some have deteriorated life. They have gone back. They are not what they were in their feelings towards Christ and His service. It is as when after months of severe physical strain we have no heart for anything; are tired of everything, and most of all of ourselves, and need to get away to some bracing mountain side to drink in new strength. As sudden torrents from the newly melted snows course down the half-empty channels of the plain, and sweep away the foul things gathered there, and waken into fragrance and vigour the drooping verdure on their banks, so the inrush to the soul of more life from the everlasting hills would sweep away our bad moods, and the fruits of holiness would once more deck our character. 3. And some have insufficient life. They thirst for more. Desire for more life is characteristic of the higher piety rather than of the lower. The more we have the more we want. The further we get in Divine things the more we have of dissatisfaction with present attainment, and of longing for higher. We read promises of a heritage we have not possessed. Would that all this--this larger, better, richer life were mine! And, intensifying that desire, we see that we are confronted by temptation, or work, or perhaps by sorrows, which need more life on our part than we have. The old life is not enough for these; we shall fall in the conflict, or fail in the task, or be crushed by the burden without more life. But more life!--we should override our difficulties then, and smite down our adversaries, our character and speech would be charged with a resistless inspiration, and we ourselves from walking, or even climbing, should mount up as on wings to those high places which are bathed in the full sunlight of God’ s face. (Charles New.) Being and well-being Life and light are the greatest blessings of which we have any conception. All feel life to be valuable. What would life be without light? A world without light would be cold, dark and monotonous. God is the source of both. I. He is the source of being. “ Fountain of life.” The word fountain suggests--1. Causation.2. Plenitude.3. Activity. II. He is the source of well-being. He is the light--the blessedness of being. His revealed character is the light of the soul. Two things are necessary to make light a blessing--1. A healthy visual faculty. If the eye of the soul is not sound, light may be a pain, a curse. 2. Beautiful objects of vision. If the eye is made to look upon the monstrous, and the horrific, light will be a bane. (Homilist.) In Thy light shall we see light.--God alone can reveal a God Light has this property, that it is at once the vehicle and that which is borne by the vehicle: it is the revelation and its channel, and this twofold property of light remains the same whether we regard it as an actual emanation of particles, or only an undulation or vibration of some invisible ether itself at rest. And so with the revelation of God. No doubt He has revealed Himself by means of prophets, etc. (Hebrews 1:1-14.). But all such revelation was partial and incomplete; what the prophet saw or heard was only a glimpse of the real truth. Hence Christ was needed as the Revealer of God. And in like manner the Holy Spirit is the Revealer of Christ. (J. B. Heard, M. A.) Light in God’ s light I. In the light of divine scripture we see light on human nature and on human life. Scripture contains God’ s solution of man’ s pro-roundest mysteries. The light which earth could not supply has been revealed from above. The Scriptures are not only a revelation of God to man, they are a revelation of man to himself. In the light of Divine truth our mysteries are solved, or souls are quieted, we emerge out of the darkness to follow Him who is the Light of the world. We feel that we are not left to our own fancies, to the mere phantoms of our own imagination; but that over all, guiding all, and allowing us to note His ways, is the Divine care and guidance of the living God. II. In the light of divine atonement we see the light of human salvation. Here is heaven’ s cure of earth’ s deep sorrows, God’ s solution of earth’ s blackest mystery. III. In the light of divine promises we see light on human adversity and care. They assure us that every care is under Divine control, that every trial has its purpose, and that no burden too great shall ever rest upon our hearts. IV. In the light of divine revelation we see light on human destiny. To unassisted man there is no darkness so dense as that which rests on the future. We cannot anticipate the conclusion of a single hour. But on this darkness there is light. If a man die we know he will live again; if a man die in Christ he shall live for ever with Christ. (W. H. King.) In thy light of God The picture in the mind of him who wrote this psalm is very clear. Men are looking for light. With that insatiable passion which belongs to their humanity, they are running hither and thither seeking to know. And he who writes is in true sympathy with their search. To him too light seems the most precious thing on earth. Knowledge appears to him the treasure which is most worth possessing. But it seems to him that there is something which needs to be suggested to these searchers after light. They appear to him to be questioning this thing and that thing, as if the secret of its being, its power to be understood and comprehended, the light with which it ought to shins, were something which it carried in itself. He sees things differently. To him everything is comprehensible and capable of being understood only as it exists within the great enfolding presence of God. The first thing for any man to do who wanted knowledge was to put himself under God, to make himself God’ s man; because both he who wanted to know and that which he wanted to know had God for their true element, and were their best and did their best only as they lived in Him. I. Four facts concerning human knowledge which confirm the doctrine of the psalm.1. The constant sense of the essential unity of knowledge. Men study many things. Each man finds for a time contentment in his special science in the mastery of his peculiar facts; but as each man goes deeper into the knowledge of the chosen subject of his study, he becomes aware of how impossible it is for him to know that subject well, unless he knows far more than that. All truth makes one great whole; and no student of truth rightly masters his own special study unless he at least constantly remembers that it is only one part of the vast unity of knowledge, one strain in the universal music, one ray in the complete and perfect light. 2. A second fact with regard to human knowledge is its need of inspiration and elevation from some pure and spiritual purpose. It is a fact which is assured by all the testimony of man’ s experience of study, that, not upon the lower grounds of economy and the usefulness of knowledge to man’ s physical and social wants, but by some sense of a preciousness inherent in itself, of a fitness between it and the nature of man, of a glory in seeking it and a delight in finding it for its own pure sake, that only so have all the great revelations of truth come to mankind. 3. Another characteristic of the best search after wisdom is the way in which it awakens the sense of obedience. In other words, all of man’ s loftiest search for knowledge has always seemed to be aware, not merely of two parties to the great transaction, but also of a third--not merely of a knowledge to be sought and of a man to win it, but also of a knowledge-giver, who was to stand between the treasure and the needy human life, and give to the obedient humanity the boon it sought. 4. Closely allied to this fact is the other one which yet remains to be mentioned with regard to the search of man after knowledge, which is the constant tendency which it has always shown to connect itself with moral character. All the old initiations to the mysteries of knowledge bore knowledge to this instinct. The man to whom the deepest known secrets of things were to be opened to-morrow must be purified to-night by lustrations that should signify his inner baptism. II. Is there no one conception in which these four convictions all unite, and in whose embrace they become not scattered discoveries or results of various experience, but parts of one complete idea which needs and which harmonizes them all? If it be true that in the thought of God most simply and broadly apprehended--in the thought, that is, of a great, strong, loving Father, who knows all truth, and loves all men, and feeds men with truth as a father feeds his children with bread, making them with each new food fit for a richer food which He has still to give them--these four conceptions find their meeting-place; if as the young light-seeker goes with these four convictions working together in his soul they almost necessarily seek one another and unite into what is at first the dream, and by and by becomes the faith of a personal presence, lofty, divine, loving and wise; if this is true, have we not reached as the result of all this long analysis something like that which David puts with such majestic simplicity in his glowing verse. The combination of these consciousnesses makes, almost of necessity, the consciousness of God. As they are necessary to the search for light, so is the God in whom they meet the true inspirer and helper of the eternal search. Look at the life of Jesus Christ. He knew the streets of Jerusalem and the lanes of Galilee and the history of His mysterious Hebrew people, and the hearts of the lilies and the souls of men; but He knew them all differently from the way in which the Hebrew scribes and scholars knew them. To Him they were all full of light. There is no other description of His knowledge that can tell its special and peculiar character like that. It was all full of light. It was full also of God. He knew everything as God’ s child in God’ s house. It was God’ s light in which He saw the deeper light in everything. Picture Jesus of Nazareth set down in Rome with all the flashing splendour of imperial power all around him! or in Athens, with the wisdom of the philosophers on every side. Would the young Jew have cast his faith away? Too real for him the visions that had come to him in Nazareth! Too real for him the glory of His Father, which had filled His Father’ s house! He would have laid fresh hold upon that truth and love which he had never so needed until now. He would have stood undazzled in the Roman glory, unpuzzled in the Grecian wisdom, because He would have known that in His heart He carried the light by which they should give light to Him. The knowledge of God lies behind everything, behind all knowledge, all skill, all life. That is the sum of the whole matter. The knowledge of God! And then there comes the great truth, which all religions have dimly felt, but which Christianity has made the very watchword of its life, the truth that it is only by the soul that God is really known; only by the experiences of the soul, only by penitence for sin, only by patient struggle after holiness, only by trust, by hope, by love does God make Himself known to man. So may He give us all the grace to know Him more and more. (Bp. Phillips Brook,.) Psalms 36:10-12O continue Thy loving-kindness unto them that know Thee.1. The true mark of a godly man standeth in the conjunction of faith in God with sincere study of obedience to him, for “ he is the man that knoweth God, and is upright in heart.” 2. Albeit, what the believer hath found in God by experience, he may expect it shall be continued to him, both for his entertainment by God, and defence and deliverance in his righteous cause from his enemies; yet must he follow his confidence with prayer, “ O continue Thy lovingkindness.” 3. As we have no right to any benefit, but in so far as we are of the number of upright-hearted believers, so should we seek every benefit we would have, as being of this number, and as seeking that others may be sharers with us, as David doth before. 4. It is the Lord only who can divert proud persecutors, that they hurt not His children, and it is the Lord only who can keep His children in the course of faith and obedience, when the wicked employ their power against them. 5. The ruin of the enemies of the godly is as certain as if it were already past; yea, faith may look upon it through the prospect of the Word of God, as if it were to be seen and pointed out to others to behold with their eyes. There are the workers of iniquity fallen. 6. The fall of the wicked is not like the fall of the godly, for though the godly fall sundry times, yet they recover their feet again; but a fall is prepared for the wicked, after which they shall not recover themselves, “ They are cast down, and shall not be able to rise.” (D. Dickson.) . Psalms 37:1-40 Psalms 37:1-12 Fret not thyself because of evil-doers.Fret not There are many who suppose that it is well-nigh impossible to pass the time of our sojourning here without some degree of anxiety and depression of spirit. I grant you these feelings will come to us, but we are not obliged to welcome them. Luther quaintly said that, whereas we cannot prevent the birds from hovering over and flying round about our heads, we can prevent them from building their nests in our hair. The Lord will net hold us accountable for the suggestions that the devil makes, or our own evil hearts produce, but He does hold us responsible for yielding to those suggestions, and nourishing them. I. A description of the complaint. Worrying, murmuring, or fretting, is certainly a malady. It must not be regarded as a mere circumstance that afflicts us from without. It is a deep-seated complaint that reigns within. One of the old Puritans says, of one who was always complaining, that he was “ sick of the frets.” He recognized that it was an inward ailment, affecting both soul and body. The root of the mischief was in the rebellious heart.1. What is the nature of this complaint? It is of the nature of a fever. “ Fret not thyself,” or as it might be read, “ Do not grow hot, inflame net thyself, because of evil-doers.” Leave to the sea to fret, and fume, and rage, and roar. Leave to the wicked, of whom the troubled sea is so apt an emblem, to toss to and fro, and cast up mire and dirt. Leave to the caged bird, that has no wisdom, to beat itself against the bars and make its incarceration still more unendurable; but for you who are already God’ s, who have such a Father and Friend, and such a home, to which you are each moment coming nearer, for you to fret is clean contrary to the spirit of the Gospel; and to the grace which is in Christ Jesus. 2. What are the causes of this complaint? (1) The prosperity of the wicked. I do not know of anything more likely to contribute to envy--which is nearly always an accompaniment of fretting--than a view of the prosperity of the wicked, that is if that view is a one-sided and short-sided one, as it generally is. The wicked spreads himself like a green bay tree, everything seems to go well with him. But he is a stranger to the one thing needful. He is altogether unacquainted with the joys we know, and what shall his end be? Have you ever found it in your heart to envy the apparent riches of the stage king, who struts his little hour behind the footlights with crown, and robes, and sceptre, and I know not what? (2) The care that seems inseparable from daily life. So long as we dwell in the land there must be the question of being fed and clothed. I had almost said that religion is a farce and a fraud unless it stoops with me to such matters as these. It does so. (3) There is another matter that mightily troubles some people, viz. the safeguarding of their reputation. Well, but let not this give rise to fretting and to distrust of God (Psalms 37:5-6). What reputation we have is due to God’ s grace. If He has made it, He will keep it. Your reputation is not of half so much account as are God’ s cause, etc. 3. What are the symptoms of this disease. (1) It is generally accompanied by envy--“ neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity.” Be on the look-out against that green-eyed monster jealousy, for it works havoc in the heart, and havoc everywhere. (2) It is accompanied also by loss of appetite that is, for the things of God. If we give way to repining, we shall not care for God’ s Word, prayer will become almost impossible, the Gospel itself will lose its zest. (3) Accompanying this fever there is, of course, a very high temperature. It is very easy, when you are in this state of mind, to get angry, and very difficult to cease from wrath. (4) There is a consuming thirst with this fretting fever, a longing for something one has not got, a parching of the tongue and a drying of the lip, almost unbearable. (5) The vision is impaired; we do not see things clearly. (6) There is loss of memory, for we forget the mercies which have gone before, a recollection of which would help us to bear the troubles of the present. II. The prescription.1. The first item is trust in the Lord. Faith cures fretting. I believe in the “ faith cure” --not as some administer it, but as God administers it. It is the only cure for worrying. If thou trustest all shall be well. 2. Do good. This is the second ingredient in the prescription. Do not give up, do not yield to fear. Do good; get to some practical work for God; continue in the path of daily duty, take spiritual exercise. 8. Diet is a very important matter in fever cases. It reads in the original, “ Thou shelf be fed with truth.” Oh, the patient begins to get better at once, if he is fed on faithfulness. If you eat God’ s truth and live on His Word, and drink in His promises, recovery is sure. 4. “ Delight thyself also in the Lord.” Joy is one of the fruits of the Spirit. “ God writes straight on crooked lines;” delight in Him if you cannot delight in anybody else; delight in Him if you find no joy in yourself. 5. “ Commit thy way unto the Lord.” Not merely petition the King and then go on worrying, but roll the burden upon the Lord. Then the matter becomes His rather than yours; He accepts the responsibility which is too heavy for you. Too often we shoulder the load again. 6. “ Rest in the Lord.” Any doctor will prescribe rest in a case of fever; without it the patient is not likely to pull through. You must have rest; be still and see the salvation of the Lord, sit silent before God. Rubbing the eye is not likely to bring the mote out. Even if it does it will only inflame the optic more, and fretting is something like rubbing the eyes--it only increases the inflammation. Do not strive and struggle. 7. “ Wait patiently for Him.” The buds of His purposes must not be torn rudely open. They will unfold of themselves if you will let them. If you try to expedite matters you will spoil the whole business. God’ s time is the best time. 8. “ Cease from anger and forsake wrath.” Ah, I have heard of some people down with the fever who have been foolish enough to do things and to take things which are only calculated to add fuel to the fire. You cannot give up fretting until you begin to forgive. (T. Spurgeon.) Fretting 1. Fretting in many cases supposes envy. “ Fret not thyself because of evil-doers, neither be thou envious,” etc. Asaph did this, and ha forcibly describes this painful and injurious process in the seventy-third psalm. It became too painful for him. He questioned the rectitude of Providence and the wisdom of God. Just then he was stopped; like Job, he said, “ Once have I spoken, but I will proceed no further” ; he fell on his face, confessing, “ I am foolish,” “ I was envious!” and soon the scene changed from darkness to light, from complaining to communion, from fretting to rest in God. 2. While the fretting mood lasts, while we are troubled because God withholds certain things from us which He gives so abundantly to others, expectation from God is excluded. Hope pines when the heart frets, and peace flutters outside that soul which care corrodes, and which complainings fill with discord. 3. Yet many excuses are often made for this line of conduct; and the more it is indulged in, the more it is justified. “ Wherefore should a living man complain? If a sinner, he has no right to do so; if a saint, no reason:” for a sinner deserves hell at any moment, and a saint, though most unworthy, is on his way to a glorious heaven; and his very trials and deprivations are a means of preparing and training him for that better world. (John Cox.) Fretting I. The sin. Fretfulness is a sin against,--1. Ourselves. Destroys peace of mind; the mother of bitterness, harshness, fault-finding. 2. Others. Robs homes of their happiness. 3. God. John Wesley once said, “ I dare no more fret than curse and swear.” To have persons at my ears murmuring and fretting at everything, is like tearing the flesh from my bones. By the grace of God I am discontented at nothing. I see God sitting on His throne, and ruling all things.” II. The causes.1. Envy. 2. Covetousness. 3. Want of faith in God. I have read that one of Cromwell’ s friends was a fretting Christian, to whom everything went wrong. On a certain occasion, when unusually fretful, his sensible servant said, “ Master, don’ t you think that God governed the world very well before you came into it? Yes; but why do you ask? Master, don’ t you think God will govern the world very well after you go out of it?” “ Of course I do.” “ Well, then, can’ t you trust Him to govern it for the little time you are in it?” III. The cure.1. Look on the bright side of things. 2. Look not merely at the present, but think of the future. 3. Have faith in God. Then you will welcome whatever comes, knowing that He can help, even by adverse circumstances. (J. Scilley.) The cure for care 1. “ Fret not thyself.” Do not get into a perilous heat about things. Keep cool! Even in a good cause fretfulness is not a wise helpmeet. Fretting only heats the bearings, it does not generate the steam. It is no help to a train for the axles to get hot; their heat is only a hindrance; the best contributions which the axles can make to the progress of the train is to keep cool. 2. How, then, is fretfulness to be cured? The psalmist brings in the heavenly to correct the earthly. “ The Lord” is the refrain of almost every verse, as though it were only in the power of the heavenly that this dangerous fire could be subdued. (1) “ Trust in the Lord.” “ Trust!” It is, perhaps, helpful to remember that the word which is here translated “ trust” is elsewhere in the Old Testament translated “ careless.” “ Be careless in the Lord!” Instead of carrying a load of care let care be absent t It is the carelessness of little children running about the house in the assurance of their father’ s providence and love. (2) “ Delight thyself in the Lord.” How beautiful the phrase! The literal significance is this, “ Seek for delicacies in the Lord.” Yes, and if we only set about with ardent purpose to discover the delicacies of the Lord’ s table, we should have no time and no inclination to fret. But this is just what the majority of us do not do. The delicacies of music are not found in the first half-dozen lessons; it is only in the later stages that we come to the exquisite. And so it is in art, and so it is in literature, and so it is with the “ things of the Lord.” “ Eye hath not seen nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him.” Let us be ambitious for the excellent! God has not yet given to us of His best. He always keeps the best wine until the last. When we sit at the table of the Lord, tasting of His delicacies, fretfulness will be unable to breathe. (3) “ Commit thy way unto the Lord.” “ Thy way!” What is that? Any pure purpose, any worthy ambition, any duty, anything we have got to do, any road we have got to tread, all our outgoings. “ Commit thy way unto the Lord.” Let us commit our beginnings unto Him, before we have gone wrong., let us have His companionship from the very outset of the journey. If I am going out alone, fretfulness will encounter me before I have gone many steps in the way; if I go out in the company of Jesus I shall have the peace that passeth understanding, and the heat of my life will be the ardour of an intense devotion: (4) “ Rest in the Lord.” Having done all this, and doing it all, trusting in the Lord, delighting in the Lord, committing my way unto the Lord, let me now just “ rest.” Don’ t worry. Whatever happens, just refer it to the Lord! If it be anything injurious he will suppress it. If it be anything containing helpful ministry He will adapt it to our need. This is the cure for care. (J. H. Jowett, M. A.) Discontent David was peculiarly qualified to admonish the righteous as to their demeanour in relation to the ungodly. Never, perhaps, had man hotter conflicts with “ evil-doers” and “ workers of iniquity,” and never were more signal triumphs gained over malignant hosts. We need words of soothing such as are breathed in the text. There is enough in society, both profane and professedly religious, to vex the spirit and trouble it with bitterest grief. I. That there has ever been a generation of evil-doers. All ages have been blackened with the shadow of evil-doers. Not a single century has been permitted to complete its revolution without being marred by their deadly presence! I ask you to mark the terrible energy implied in the designation “ workers of iniquity.” Reference is not made to men who make a pastime of iniquity, or who occasionally commit themselves to its service, but to those who toil at it as a business. As the merchantman is industrious in commerce, as the philosopher is assiduous in study, as the artist is indefatigable in elaboration, so those slaves of iniquity toil in their diabolic pursuits with an ardour which the most powerful remonstrance seldom abates! They are always ready to serve their master. II. That the servants of God are not to be moved from their course by the generation of the unrighteous. “ Fret not thyself because of evil-doers,” etc. This language does not sanction carelessness as to the moral condition and destiny of the parties indicated. We need to mourn over it. But we are not to “ fret” over evil-doers, though it be natural to do so, when we think of the terrible harm they do. You punish such men more severely by taking no notice of their malignity--they would rejoice in provoking retaliation. And these “ evil-doers” are often prosperous in their way, whilst the good are often exposed to social hardships. Imagine not that secular prosperity is a pledge of Divine favour. III. That a terrible doom awaits the generation of evildoers. “ For they shall soon be cut down,” etc. Know ye of any such miserable spectacle as that of a human being “ cut down” ? As travellers have wandered over the ruins of classic temples, they have mourned their departed glory, but what are such ruins compared to the ruins of manhood? The heart that might have expanded with holiest emotion--wasted! The image of God an irrecoverable wreck! Imagination can paint no horrors so appalling. Though God uses not our chronometers in the measurement of time, yet the wicked themselves will have occasion to exclaim, “ We are soon cut down!” You wrong your own souls in reasoning that “ to-morrow shall be as this day and more abundant.” The hour of your fullest joy is the hour of highest danger. (J. Parker, D. D.) Neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity.--Fretful envy I. A painful passion. There may be fretfulness where there is no envy. One may fret because of the tardy advancement of a cause dear to his heart, or because of the troubles of those in whom he is interested. There is a great deal of fretfulness that is almost constitutional, and therefore innocent and free from all “ envy” ; but there can be no envy where there is not fretfulness. What is envy? It is not merely a desire to possess that good which another has: that is emulation. To crave after that which gives power, and worth, and happiness is a laudable ambition. We are commanded to “ covet earnestly the best gifts.” But “ envy” is a malicious desire to possess what others have: it means their deprivation. Jealousy is a dread lest another shall possess what we wish for ourselves; envy is a dislike for another because he actually possesses the good desired; and because it is so impregnated with the malign it is always fretful. It is a grudging, growling passion; it is never at rest. II. It is a foolish passion. It is directed against the most unenviable of characters. “ The workers of iniquity will be cut down like the grass.” III. Envying the wicked. Shall the imperial eagle, whose undazzled eye drinks in the splendours of a cloudless sun, envy the worm that never rose an inch beyond its native dust? Shall the sun itself envy the flickering rush-light which the feeblest breeze can extinguish? Shall the heaving ocean, bearing on its bosom the richest merchandise, and reflecting from its deep blue eye the glories of the firmament, envy the little summer pool, which a passing cloud has poured into a foot-print? Sooner shall such envy be called into existence than the true child of God envy the “ workers of iniquity.” (Homilist.) Psalms 37:3-8 Trust in the Lord and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed. The Remedy for Hard Times That is good, sound advice; no metaphysics in that: it is good common sense, even if it be three thousand years old. To-day is a time of a good deal of trouble in the world and all over the world. The troubles are political, commercial, social. Everywhere is distress and misery, and chiefly upon the heads of men that least can bear it. Now, what has our religion to say to us under these circumstances? Much. Our text itself is a whole sermon, and I could add nothing to it. It is only for me to rub it in; for it is all there: “ Trust in the Lord and do good; so . . . thou shalt be fed.” Dwelling in the land was promised to those who were not unused to see whole populations carried off to Assyria or Babylon, or to Rome, according to the will of their conquerors. And in a land liable to famines as Palestine was, “ verily thou shall be fed” was a very precious promise. And the New Testament echoes the Old, only carrying the thought higher, “ Seek ye first the Kingdom of God . . . and all . . . shall be added unto you.” Two capital elements for consideration are given us in our text. I. Trust. That is, have faith in God and in His care for you. And how wrong and foolish it is not to trust--for what father or mother ever loved their children as God loves us? But we trust God when things go well; when they do not, we fully doubt. We do not live by faith, but by sight--more’ s the pity. But we are bidden trust, and-- II. Note the conditions are “ do good.” Trust inspires activity. Do not sit down in despair. You may be old, or verging toward it, and suddenly ruin comes. You say, “ It is foe late to build again,” and you are filled with despair. Nay! While age brings with it less energy and hopefulness, it brings with it, also, experience. You may not go on in the same scale and way as before, but accept the altered position, make the most of it, and be of good courage and trust in God. There is no disgrace in your having ceased to be the possessor of large wealth. I think some of the noblest examples of womanhood that I have ever met anywhere have been those noble souls who, cast out into poverty, never appeared so wise, so noble, so reverend, as in their poverty. The light of a candle does not depend on the candlestick in which it burns. How lovely is a beautiful flower amid barren surroundings! When fortune lowers on you in the form of loss of means of living, circumscribe your wants. A man can live on wondrously little when he sets about it. And retrench at the right end--the end where luxuries come in, not that of your church gifts and charities. Many reverse this order, and pamper the body whilst they starve the soul. And do not give up moral activity in the church, the schools, or elsewhere. The real man comes out in times of trial and loss, when he has nothing but his manhood to depend upon. Try when troubles come to you to lighten the troubles of others. That is a golden remedy. Why should you complain or faint? Stand in your place and smile. Remember the eternal is yours. (H. Ward Beecher.) Christian waiting When you have nothing to do, and there is nothing to produce anxiety, it is easy to wait--for it is laziness; and all men are apt by nature to be lazy. But when there is anything that you have set your heart upon, it is very hard to wait, especially if the thing does not come as soon as you expect it to. Waiting is easy when it is sinful, and hard when it is a duty. You tell your child that this pine-tree out here in the sandy field is one day going to be as large as that great sonorous pine that sings to every wind in the wood. The child, incredulous, determines to watch and see whether the field pine really does grow and become as large as you say it will. So, the next morning, he goes out and takes a look at it, and comes back and says, “ It has not grown a particle.” At night he goes and looks at it again, and comes back and says, “ It has not grown a bit.” The next week he goes out, and looks at it again, and comes back and says, “ It has not grown any yet. Father said it would be as large as the pine-tree in the wood, but I do not see any likelihood of its becoming so.” How long did it take that pine-free in the wood to grow? Two hundred years. And do you suppose that God’ s kingdom is going to grow so that you can look at it and see that it has grown during any particular day? You cannot see it grow. It has been rising all the time, only you could not see it rise.” When, therefore, God says, “ Wait patiently,” there is good reason in it. Now, apply these general truths.1. To the men who laugh and jeer at the whole idea. They believe only in the selfishness of men, and that nothing good can be made out of them. But they are shallow men, and have no faith in the overruling providence of God. Because progress is so slow, and many professed Christians are traitors, and because God works in plans too vast for them to understand, they say, “ It is folly to be talking about advancing the world. It is a poor, mean world, and we must make the best of it. Eat, drink, and be merry, O soul, for to-morrow you shall die.” Yes, and perish! For God sits in judgment, and though the day of His coming seems to be long delayed, yet we, with strong assurance of faith, resting on the pledged word of God, do look for the “ new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness.” 2. Consider the folly of the discouragement which many feel because men are so imperfect, particularly those who go from a higher to a lower state of society. In the army the soldier learns to put up with things that are worse than those which he has been accustomed to. No soldier, when he is on a raid, thinks of having a parlour like his mother’ s, or sitting down in a kitchen before a fire when he is wet and cold, as he has often done in his father’ s house. He is contented if he can find a dry spot under a tree to lie down on. He makes up his mind that he must adapt himself to his circumstances. But many men go down into states of society very different from those to which they have been used, and because they are not men enough to do the work; because some men are clumsy and rude; because some are deceitful and dishonest; because men are just what they always have been, they are disgusted. They cannot wait for a better condition of things to come about through the processes of time and Divine power. To such men the word is, “ Wait on the Lord; wait patiently; and by and by He shall give you the desire of your heart.” 3. Consider the folly of envying wicked men when they are in power, and thinking that perhaps it is worth while to be as wicked as they are. This is the very thing that the psalmist says you must not do. “ Fret not thyself in anywise to do evil, neither be thou envious against workers of iniquity.” Their prosperity, says the psalm, in effect, is at the beginning, and not at the end. When men eat opium, they at first experience feelings of ecstasy, and they see visions, and dream dreams, and have a glorious hour or two; but when they have gone through these pleasant experiences, then what have they? Purgatory on earth! The after part is hideous to them in the proportion in which the fore part was agreeable. Pray on, then. Trust in God! Do not listen to any one who would make you discontented. I beseech of you, have faith, not in man, but in Him that loved you, that redeemed you with His precious blood, that sitteth on high, and that hath decreed that every yoke shall be broken, and that the oppressed shall go free. (H. Ward Beecher.) Genuine piety the antidote to envy I. The development of genuine piety. Here it is represented as operating-1. In a practical trust in the Lord. Not a passive, but an active state of mind. True philanthropy is piety in daily life.2. In a personal delight in the Lord. Thin is infinitely more than to delight in our theology or our church. 3. In a settled reliance upon the Lord. This is a righteous, a necessary and a blessed work. 4. In a patient waiting upon the Lord. Be silent, and devoutly active. II. Its blessedness.1. Settledness. Piety makes a man feel at home in the world wherever he is, everywhere he feels that he is in his father’ s house, and though legally he cannot claim a foot of land, morally he inherits all. 2. Sustenance. “ Verily thou shalt be fed,” --fed not merely by bodily provisions, but by the higher provisions of soul--fed on truth. Nothing but truth can satisfy the cravings of the soul; nothing but truth can invigorate its powers. Man’ s spiritual nature grows in the atmosphere of genuine piety, but in all other climates it sickens and decays. 3. Realization. “ He shall give thee the desires of thine heart,” and “ He shall bring it to pass.” What do these expressions mean but this: Thou shalt realize both the cravings of thine heart and the objects of thine hope, the ideals thou art struggling after shall become grand realities in thy life? 4. Vindication. “ He shall bring forth thy righteousness,” etc. Whilst good men are unknown to most, and misunderstood by many, they are misrepresented by not a few. But one day they shall be revealed to all, they shall blaze as orbs on the vision of mankind. (Homilist.) A simple Gospel This little, familiar text covers everything essential; it expresses the sum and substance of religion, and the great secret of right living. The God with whom we have to do is not an austere taskmaster, seeking to reap where He has not sown; He gives us grounds and reasons for trust before lie solicits trust. In the world of nature and man, in the best thoughts of our own minds, in the best affections of our own hearts, in the best experiences of our own lives, in the witness of saintly and prophetic souls, in the life and work of Jesus Christ--God has revealed enough of His character and will to quicken and sustain trust in His righteousness and love, when clouds and darkness are round about Him, and mystery besets us behind and before, and we cannot walk any more by sight. I. We may trust the universe. The confidence that the universe is essentially beneficent in all its operations, though it transcends actual knowledge, is yet based upon it. The more we study the relation of each part to the whole, and of the whole to each, the more do we see that what we call evil is but good in the making. Everywhere we see wisdom and goodness--one purpose, one law, one power, one God, throughout the universe. At the root of all the seeming severity of nature, there is the everlasting faithfulness and love of God. II. We may trust life. We cannot hide from ourselves the dark side of human life, and we do not want a faith which does not fully recognize it; but when we study the tendency of things God becomes His own interpreter. God and good are perceived to be one, and our human world is seen to be moving through such processes as moral growth requires toward harmony with good. The week of creation is a long week. Wait! The end will explain and vindicate both the length and severity of the process. A careful study of the past affords sufficient justification for our largest expectations as to the coming years. The movement is ever towards good. The centuries grow juster, more merciful, more peaceful. III. We may trust God as our father and Saviour. What Christ was finitely, God is infinitely. IV. We may trust God for all the future. Not alone for these brief and troubled mortal years is He our Father and Saviour, but for ever. His laws will never play false with us; His mercy will never fail us. In all and through all the Father is redeeming and educating His children. From His love no soul is ever outcast; to His love no soul is ever lost. V. Trust in the Lord and do good.1. Trust in the Lord--there is our attitude toward the unknown and the unknowable. The unknown and the unknowable may be, and ought to be, trusted. With one of our modern seers we surely can say: “ All I have seen bids me trust the Creator for all I have not seen.” 2. Do good--there is our duty in the region of the known, in the realm of human relation and circumstance, in the realm of daily life. We cannot choose our life, but we can choose the way we shall live it. We can resolve and strive, whatever betides, to be good and to do good; ever to be loyal to the truest and best we know, and thus to compel the rapidly vanishing days to leave a blessing behind. (John Hunter, D. D.) Trust in the Lord and do good This psalm is a vivid expression of the belief that God is very plainly on the side of the righteous, and will make the wrong-doers understand it in a very decisive way. Surely a fundamental belief of man, without which religion is impossible. I. The order of the thought in our text. The trust comes before the doing good. Trust is the living root out of which all living goodness springs. But nothing can be more false than the idea that there is no goodness possible as the fruit of the natural action of the human powers. Augustine’ s principle, The virtues of the heathen are splendid vices, is false to the heart’ s core. There is natural goodness; man is so made that the freest and happiest play of his powers is in speaking truth and doing good. So far the heathen and deistical moralists are right. But man is made for a higher, a diviner goodness than the mere self-sustained play of his faculties can realize, a goodness whose life is the inspiration of God. Rob a plant of the air and sunlight, if there is some moisture about its roots, the sap within will produce some dim likeness of the flower, which under benigner conditions would flaunt its splendour and breathe its fragrance in the sun. So man, cut off from God, can produce some dim, dry image of the goodness which, when the life of God flows through it, will rise to godlike beauty and proportion. Good deeds will be fully and really such when their root is the grace and love of God. II. But what is good? What are good deeds? “ What shall we do that we may work the works of God?” How many would be thankful for a list of good deeds with the countersign of Heaven. And God gives no catalogue of good deeds in His Word. The Churches are ready enough with their Do this and thou shalt live. But it is not the method of God. He goes at once to the root of the matter. Be good, if you would do good. Good, beautiful, Christ-like deeds are the affluence of a good, beautiful, Christ-like life. And there is but one way to be good. Begin at the beginning. Enter the training school of duty. Do the good thing which now lies nearest to your hand. Master your besetting sins. Look out daily for means to help and bless others. III. The promise. So shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed. The psalmist has no ideal meanings here: he means home and bread. And this would be the normal condition of things if the world were not so terribly jarred and jangled. Men and things would be in their right places. The wisest the teachers, the most prudent the managers, the ablest the rulers, the most liberal the almoners, the bravest the captains, the noblest the kings. But all is dislocated and confused. Yet through the whole there runs the law which finds expression in the text. “ Trust in the Lord, and do good,” and your home among your brethren is sure. They know the well-doers, they love them, they make room for them. “ Come in and abide with us, O thou blessed of the Lord.” (J. Baldwin Brown, B. A.) On trust in God I. The nature and grounds of trust in God. To trust in the Lord signifies, in general, to be free from anxiety concerning any events, present or future, under a firm persuasion that God careth for us, and will direct all events for our real happiness. Many persons are ingenious in tormenting themselves, and possess the unfortunate art of destroying their own happiness. If they have no real causes of affliction, they will imagine some. Their ill-boding foresight discerns, in what is future, a multitude of evils. But trust in God is directly opposed to this. He speaks not of rash, presumptuous confidence, but of that which rests on solid grounds; trust that is joined with practical piety. “ And do good,” says our text: and that employs all lawful means. As an illustration, see the conduct of Nehemiah. II. The necessity and advantage of such trust.1. It is right.2. It is blessed.3. Demands an obedient life. (S. Partridge, M. A.) Work and wages Real as the causes of our anxieties may be, there is too much of what is called “ Crossing the bridge, before we come to it!” The true secret of being useful, and free from needless fears, is to cultivate sunshine. The text is one of those comforting promises, on which the desponding would be wise to meditate. The conditions on which our Heavenly Father agrees to protect and provide for His people, are distinctly stated in this verse. I. That we trust in him. God’ s power to bless is not more boundless than His willingness to do so. Aye, He “ is able to do exceedingly abundantly,” etc. (Ephesians 3:20). There must be confidence in the heart towards God; indeed, the beginning and the end of true religion is confidence. II. Doing good. How much more we might do to make others happy than we ever try to do. One made happy each day, what a contribution to the general stock of joy that would be I And poor people can do this as well as rich. One is enabled to set an example of thankfulness and trust in God, which will be an encouragement to others who are careful and troubled about many things. Another exerts an influence for good, by showing a forgiving spirit. (John W. Norton.) So shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed.--Temporal prosperity Most thoughtful Christians will admit that as intelligent and believing Christianity tends to prosperity and success. The Christian nations, and the Christian communities among the nations, are the only thriving portions of the world. Where heathenism or infidelity prevail, there are poverty, squalor and vice. So invariably united are the two things that we cannot but see that the connection is that of cause and effect. But what about individuals? All the virtues necessary for success in life are inculcated by the Gospel, and not only inculcated, but imparted in that measure in which the man-yields himself to Christ. Diligence, uprightness, sobriety, and such like, are, or ought to be, qualities of the Christian; and these are the virtues which lead to success. But we have other reasons. God is with them (Genesis 39:2; 1 Samuel 18:14; 1 Samuel 18:28; Deuteronomy 20:1; Deuteronomy 31:6-8; 1 Chronicles 5:20; Jeremiah 39:18; Psalms 37:40). President Garfield’ s mother was left a widow when he was a little boy, but she taught him this lesson in his very early years, and it became the principle upon which all his life-work was carried on. Whether as a boy he proposed to “ run” a farm, or as a man to “ run” the State, it was always in this fellowship with God that he prosecuted his tasks. And how marvellous the successes he achieved! Here, then, is plainly the one great secret of success. “ Godliness is profitable unto all things, having the promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.” “ Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.” These promises do not certainly mean that God will make all His children rich, in the sense of being possessors of thousands. They mean only that each in his measure shall have enough. They promise the suitable and natural rewards of honest industry and well-doing. That is all we need, and all any wise man will desire. (Evangelical Advocate.) Delight thyself also in the Lord; and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart.--Delight in God the origin and perfection of human pleasure Pleasure, or the enjoyment of our heart’ s desire, being the chief spring of action in man, the due regulation of our pursuits of it must always be of great moment; and whoever addresseth us with an offer of this kind can scarce fail of engaging our attention. Consider, then, how all our pleasures point out to us, and are improved by, a delight in God. I. Those of the senses. How wrong are they who take their daily food without thankfulness or desire for God’ s blessing. See our Lord’ s example of thanksgiving, and that of St. Paul. But because the example of Confucius may weigh more with some men than that of St. Paul, let me add what is observed of him: that he never ate anything but he first prostrated himself, and offered it to the supreme Lord of heaven. In like manner, Whether we cat or drink, let us do all to the glory of God. This will ennoble and improve our carnal gratifications, and exalt them into religious acts of gratitude and love. II. Those of the imagination. These are chiefly--1. Beauty. Think of the beauty of the world and who has poured it out upon the creation, Himself, infinitely more beautiful. When we see the sun shine forth in its lustre, and nature appearing in its most advantageous dress, how can we avoid turning our thoughts upwards toward that Being, whose handiwork that sun shows, every field, every flower, contains the most edifying rhetoric to excite in us the love of that Being, who hath clothed the lilies of the field with that elegant simplicity, which was superior to Solomon’ s pomp, when arrayed in all his glory. But the Christian man must think of Him who has enriched the world with such a profusion of good; has beautified it with such order and harmony, and has ennobled it with such astonishing magnificence. 2. Greatness. We love to behold that which is great, solemn and majestic, and this desire was stamped upon our nature for this very purpose, that we might take delight in contemplating Him, of whose greatness there is no end. Everybody knows we hate nothing more than confinement in a prospect: the soul loves to have a free and unlimited range. 3. Novelty. This excites pleasure. How comes it that we are generally in pursuit of something new; and yet, when we are possessed of it, and the object becomes familiar to us, we cease to care for it. Does not the unsatisfactoriness of things here below admonish us to fix our rest upon Him, who alone can satisfy, and even exceed our wishes? Whom the more we know, the more amiable we shall find Him, and find no end of His perfections. III. Those of a moral and intellectual nature. No doubt, our highest affection, in the reason of the thing, is a tribute due to God considered as the highest good. Yet it must also be granted, that dry and abstracted reasons of love operate very faintly, unless we take into the account those affecting considerations of His being our Creator, Redeemer, Preserver, and universal Benefactor. For this cause the Scripture tells us, we love God because He first loved us. IV. Those of hope and expectation. Now, present hope is present good; and a certain expectation of future blessings is in some measure a blessing in hand. Hope is the great cordial that must sweeten life, and make the nauseous draught go down. Recreations and pastimes, properly so called (for they serve for no other end but to pass away our time), may soothe the mind into a pleasing forgetfulness of its misery. But nothing can give us an exquisite relish and enjoyment of this life but the hopes of a better through the merits of Jesus Christ. (J. Seed, M. A.) Sunshine in the heart 1. We have here, first, the life of a believer described as a delight in God; and thus we are certified of the great truth that true religion overflows with happiness and joy. Ask ye the worldlings what they think of religion,--and even when they practise its outward rites they snuff at it as a dull and dreary thing. They who love God with all their hearts, find that His ways are ways of pleasantness, and all His paths are peace. Delight and true religion are as allied as root and flower, as indivisible as truth and certainty. But there is another wonder in our text to worldly men, though it is a Tender well understood by Christians. 2. The text says, “ He shall give thee the desires of thine heart.” “ Why,” the worldly man says, “ I thought religion was all self-denial; I never imagined that in loving God we could have our desires.” Christian men have two selves; there is the old self, and therein they do deny the flesh with its affections and lusts; but there is a new self; the new man in Christ Jesus; and our religion does not consist in any self-denial of that. No, let it have the full swing of its desires; for all that it can long to enjoy, it may most safely obtain. So it is with the believer; his religion is a matter of delight; and that which he avoids is very little self-denial to him.:His tastes are changed, his wishes are altered. He delights himself in his God, and joyously receives the desire of his heart. I. A precept written upon sparkling jewels.1. What is this delight? A delightful word--I cannot use anything but its own self to describe it. If you look at it--it is flashing with light, it sparkles like a star, nay, like a bright constellation, radiant with sweet influences like the Pleiades. Delight! it is mirth without its froth. Delight I it is peace, yet it is more than that: it is peace celebrated with festivity, with all the streamers hanging in the streets and all the music playing in the soul. Matthew Henry says, “ desire is love in action, like a bird on the wing; delight is love in rest, like a bird on its nest.” 2. Whence comes this delight? “ Delight thyself in the Lord.” (1) Delight thyself in Jehovah, in His very existence. This alone is enough to be a well-spring of joy for ever and ever to all true believers. (2) Delight also in His dominion. “ The Lord reigneth, let the earth rejoice.” Jehovah is King! Come what may of it, He sits upon the throne and ruleth all things well. (3) Every attribute of God should become a fresh ray in this sunlight of delight. That He is wise should make us glad who know our folly. That He is mighty should cause us to rejoice who tremble at our own weakness. That He is everlasting should always be a theme for our music, when we know that we are grass and wither as the green herb. That He is unchanging should always give us a song, since we change every hour and are never long the same. That tie is full of grace, and that this grace in the covenant He has given to us, that it is ours to cleanse us, ours to keep us, ours to sanctify us, ours to perfect us, ours to bring us to glory--all this should tend to make us delight ourselves in Him. 3. When is this delight to be practised? My text does not say, “ Delight thyself in the Lord occasionally, and now and then,” but at all times. (1) It is hard to delight in God when everything goes well with us. “ Oh,” I hear you say, “ I cannot understand that; that is the time when I do delight in God most.” I am afraid it is the time when you delight in God least. Is it not likely that often you are delighting in His mercies rather than in Him? delighting in the creature rather than in the Creator? (2) Another time when it is hard to delight in God is when everything goes in with us. Then we are apt to say with Jacob, “ All these things are against us.” 4. Why is this delighting in God so rare? Because there is so little on the one hand of genuine religion, and so little on the other of deep-toned religion where the little that there is is genuine. II. A promise priceless beyond rubies. Those who delight in God are qualified to have the promise fulfilled. When a man’ s delight is in God, then His desires are of such a sort that God may be glorified in the granting of them, and the man himself profited by the receiving of them. Again, delighting in God qualifies the believer not only for desiring aright, but for spending aright: for some men, if they had their heart’ s desire, and it were a good desire, would nevertheless make a wrong use of it; but he that delights in God, whatever he gets, knows how to use it well. “ Still,” says one, “ what are those desires which we are sure to receive?” Now, we must single out those who delight themselves in God, and I believe the range of their desires will be found in a very short compass. But if the Apostle Paul were here, who had nothing, who was often naked and poor and miserable, I am persuaded if he had his wish, he would say, “ I have nothing to wish for, nothing upon earth, for I have learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content.” But if I must have a wish, I know what I would wish for. I would wish to be perfect, to be free from every sin, from all self, from all temptation, from all love of the world, from all care for everything or anything that is contrary to God’ s Word. “ Well,” says another, “ if I might have my desire I would have all these things, but I would desire to be useful always.” Ah, to be useful! Delight thyself in the Lord, thou shalt have thy desire. Perhaps not exactly as you would like to word it. You may not be useful in the sphere you aspire to, but you shall be useful as God would have you useful in His own way and in His own measure. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Delighting in the Lord I. Every man delights in something We possess affections, and they must have an object. II. Every man desires that which he delights in.1. The object of our delight is a loadstone which draws us toward itself. Wealth, honour, virtue. 2. In proportion to the intensity of our delight is the strength of our desire. 3. Our desire will control our thoughts, and aims, and actions. What the spring is to the watch, and the sun is to the solar system, desire is to the life. How important is it, then, that the objects we desire should be worthy of our aspirations. III. The godly man delights in God, and consequently does not desire anything which is opposed to his will.1. But his desire is not only negative; it is strongly and intelligently positive. (1) He delights in God’ s Word, and studies it, that He may know God’ s will. (2) He delights in God’ s purposes, and is anxious to further them. (3) He delights in God’ s character, and lives to reflect it. 2. Such a desire is more than a desire. It is a determination--a determination to be as God is, and to do His will as it is done in heaven. IV. God is always ready to give what he approves, and what we delight in and desire. He cannot refuse anything which He has promised; He must and will give Himself to those who delight in and desire Him. V. He who makes God his chief good, desires god, and receives God, has in himself the secret of real satisfaction. What more can we have than God? Possessing Him, we possess all things. (J. Baker Norton.) A sacred duty and a gracious reward I. The sacred duty. “ Delight thyself in the Lord.” The sacred satisfaction here recommended is to be realized--1. By contemplating God in the glories of His nature, both in their unmingled and combined beauties. 2. By studying the discoveries of His infinite mind: the exhibition of these in redemption is the study and highest joy of heaven, and should be the source of rapturous joy to the Christian on earth. 3. By meditating the manifestations of His mercy, and tracing up to this source all our welfare, temporal and eternal. 4. By reflecting on His moral empire over the souls of men, and especially the hearts of His people. 5. By confiding in the wisdom and goodness of His providence. 6. By rejoicing in God’ s special relation to His people--“ This God is our God for ever and ever, and will be our guide even unto death.” II. The gracious promise. The desires of the righteous will always correspond with the objects of their delight. The Christian will desire--1. To comprehend more of the eternal mind: thus David, when he said, “ None upon earth I desire beside Thee.” 2. To feel a deeper impression of interest in His mercy, and this to realize is his highest felicity. 3. To enjoy more communion with God, and be filled with all His communicable fulness. 4. To live more to God in the world and be completely prepared for future glory. (T. Yockney.) Delight in the Lord It would be most calamitous for the world did God give to all men the desires of their hearts: that human wishes should thus become the measure of the Divine mercies. God’ s great laws could not be modified to our desires without deranging the harmony of the universe. Thus, for example, the ignorance of a traveller might desire the quenching of a volcano, or the arrest of some torrent of lava; but the fulfilment of such a desire might cause a terrible earthquake in some crowded city, and substitute the misery of thousands for the inconvenience and alarm of one individual. The stormy wind hushed here, might breed and then dispense the dire breath of pestilence on every side; and even the war and bloodshed which the strivings of philanthropic desire would righteously avert, may in God’ s grace bring untold blessings on successive generations. But mere ignorance of the mysterious and inscrutable reasons which guide the Divine government would be the least of the evils at work, for human desires are so deplorably selfish in their operation, that the moment of their gratification would be that which should give the signal for the outbreak of fearful passion and widespread misery. If it were allowed to us to choose for ourselves what we would have, there are perhaps few moments when the most sanguine of us would dare to make the choice. He must be a bold man, or a fool, who would dare to take his lot into his own government, and be the master of his own destiny. But is there no paradox in this, that though “ The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord,” “ The prayer of the upright is His delight” ? Is there no delusion in the command, “ Ask, and ye shall receive” ? or in the assurance of the apostle, “ Ye have not, because ye ask not” ? If we still hear these words with delight, it is because we have been forced back on the other mode of explaining this blessed fact; namely, that God hears the prayers which He has Himself prompted, that He hears certain prayers, and grants to certain men the desires of their hearts, because He has inspired those desires. He gives to certain long-ings of the heart the fullest satisfaction, because He has by Ills Spirit suggested those longings. The question now arises, How are we to know whether the desires of our hearts are divinely implanted, and are such as God will hear? The child may cry for a knife, for fire, for food, which it would be cruel to grant. It is better that the child should be unhappy, vexed, angry because its request is denied, than that the gift should be bestowed and instantly abused. When Paul was pierced by the “ thorn in the flesh,” he thrice besought the Lord to remove it from him; but God had a greater blessing in store, and gave him instead of such deliverance, the assurance, “ My grace is sufficient for thee.” Does the Holy Scripture, and will the Holy Spirit, help us to solve this great problem, or guide us to the class of desires which will foreshadow the Divine purpose? Have we any magnet that will point out to us the eternal pole of the will of God? The text gives us abundant help here; “ Delight thyself also in the Lord, and He shall give thee the desires of thy heart;” or, as it might be paraphrased, “ Delight in the Lord, and then thou mayest trust thy desires; they will be the forerunner of blessings, the beginning of their own realization.” “ Blessed are riley that hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled.” Delight thyself in the Lord, and thou wilt desire strongly only what is in harmony with His will, and best for thyself. All thy wishes will be brought into subjection to His will, and thou wilt crave only those things which He is ready and anxious to bestow upon thee. (H. Reynolds, D. D.) Delighting in God I. The duty required.1. What is necessary in order to the performance of it? (1) The first thing required is evidently an acquaintance with God. We must, to some extent, be acquainted with His character, His works, and His disposition and intentions towards ourselves. (2) We must be possessed of conformity to Him, and have some degree of likeness to Him ourselves; otherwise, we may know the truth about Him, but it will afford us no delight whatever. From Ephesians 4:22-24, and Colossians 3:9-10, we learn that the likeness must consist in two things--holiness and knowledge. Holiness includes two things--justice and goodness. We cannot conceive of a holy being in the character of a malignant one, or suppose any, with a deep love for what is right, to be filled with malevolence. We must have a love for justice, then, before we can delight ourselves in God. And the only way by which we can come to have it, is by faith in Christ. Then, in conjunction with this, our character itself is changed; we have no longer the love of sin, but a true regard for everything in which there is any “ virtue or any praise” --and therefore a supreme admiration of Him who is the “ Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty.” If we would be able to delight ourselves in God, we must likewise be conformed to Him in His knowledge. God knows what is the chief end of man’ s life, what is right and what is wrong. The Christian, by believing God’ s revelation, knows this too, and is conformed to Jehovah in respect to knowledge. 2. The way in which we should show our delight in Him. (1) By meditating upon Him. (2) By taking an interest in creation and created things as His work, and by observing the course of events as His providence working out the great end of His own glory and blessing His creatures. (3) By reading His Word, attending on His ordinances, and observing His sacraments. II. The blessing promised to those who perform the duty. This would be a dangerous promise to make to those who were to retain their corrupt heart; for were the wicked man to obtain “ the desires of his heart,” he would destroy at one stroke all whom he thought his enemies, annihilate hell, make heaven a place of sensual enjoyment, and dethrone the Lord of all Himself. Happily, however, all who “ delight themselves in God” will have very different wishes from these.1. Those who delight in Him will desire to have a greater acquaintance with Him; and they will not fail to be gratified. 2. If we delight in God we shall desire a greater love to Him, and shall obtain it. 3. If we delight in God we shall wish to have closer communion with Him, and shall obtain our desire while we remain on earth. 4. Those who delight themselves in God will desire and obtain a greater degree of likeness to God; and what a noble thing it must be to resemble in the slightest extent the Lord of all! Their likeness will perhaps be best seen in regard to “ God manifest in the flesh.” “ Because he lives, we shall live also.” We shall partake of His glory, resemble His character, and sit down upon His throne. (W. Dickson.) Rest to the aching heart When we look out upon the world, what an amount of suffering do we see! Desires which never meet with accomplishment, hopes entertained which are blighted. I have seen little creepers in my garden throwing out tendrils in search of a support, and finding none; at last the life of the poor plants seems exhausted by their efforts, they give up straining, and lie numb on their bed of earth and die away. O what clusters of beautiful bells would they have put forth, what a burden of fruit would they have borne, had they grasped their support, and climbed and lifted themselves into the air! Now they produce but a few cankered blossoms, and ripen no seed. Is not this the picture of many a human life? Is there a human heart that has not suffered? Human hearts are human hearts, and they must have their struggles and sufferings. We ignore them too much, we have not sympathy enough for them. How varied, also, are the sorrows of heart and mind.1. I suppose there are many now past the middle age to whom the fact that the chapter of life is closing, the romance of life is concluding, causes many an ache. The primroses and bluebells of youth have died away, and now the leaves are falling round them. What faculties there were in the young mind never developed, because circumstances were adverse, how its joyousness was blighted by incessant toil, how its energies were marred by some fatal mistake, or some irretrievable choice. Without resurrection of the dead, now heavens and a new earth, God and Christ, and eternity, we are of all men most miserable; there is nothing more hopeless than a declining life, nothing more calculated to fill with despair than the ebbing away of life’ s forces. But the joyousness of the new birth[ childhood’ s innocence and mirth restored t faculties of receiving pleasure from sight and sound refreshed and enlarged f To this we must stretch, for this pray, and in this yearning and in thus praying we shall find-comfort as our day declines. 2. Passionate love is felt by some hearts which will, which can never be known by the object of affection, or which, if known, is never returned. Is there a more painful wound? Yet is there no balm in Gilead? Has He, the healer of every human misery, no touch for the heart stricken with such an arrow? Surely yes. The bruised and bleeding soul will find its only solace in prayer, in prayer for the object of affection. It may be that there is a separation on earth, but there will be a reunion in heaven. (S. Baring Gould, M. A.) A sure method of obtaining our desires I. The psalmist’ s advice.1. Delight thyself in the favour, approbation, friendship of the Lord. (1) Prize it.(2) Seek it.(3) Keep it. 2. Delight thyself in the service of the Lord. (1) It is excellent in itself.(2) It brings an excellent reward. 3. Delight thyself in the doctrine of the Lord. II. The psalmist’ s encouragement. He must be understood to speak of--1. Innocent desires.2. Spiritual desires.3. Scriptural desires.4. Earnest desires.5. Expressed desires (Luke 11:9; Philippians 4:6). (Sketches of Four Hundred Sermons.) Delight in the Lord Boundless resources, it is manifest, could not be safely at the disposal of less than boundless wisdom. Only on one condition would it be a certain benefit to be assured of getting everything that we desired--the condition, namely, that we should always desire that which is best. Well, that and nothing else is what God undertakes to do for us if only we will let Him. The great aim and object of all His dealings with us--specially of the mission of His Son and the mission of the Holy Ghost--is twofold: first, to get us to desire what is best and then to give it to us. There is one desire that ought to be central in every human heart--the desire for God, the love of our Father in heaven. In a large family there may be great diversities of taste and disposition, without their interfering at all with the love which each of the children bears to the father and mother; and it certainly would be no excuse for an ungrateful son when charged with his unfilial spirit if he were to say, “ Our family are not all alike; we are quite different from one another in our tastes. One is fond of reading, another of music, another of painting, and a fourth of athletic sports; and if there be some of my sisters who are fend of their father and mother, I have no objection. Every one to his taste, but I do not care anything about them.” Would any one allow that to be a reasonable and proper way of getting rid of the filial obligation to love and honour our father and mother? Certainly not. Why, then, should it ever be thought a sufficient excuse for not caring for the Father of our spirits? God has created us with a great variety of lower desires, but there is one desire which ought to be in every human heart as its dominant ruling desire--the desire for God. If any one has not that desire as a controlling desire his whole nature is in chaos, and unless that is rectified his end must be destruction. But is it indeed true that when this condition is fulfilled the other always follows? Who is there, even among the best people, who gets everything that his heart is set on? But here we must, in all fairness, bear in mind that it is not said, either here or anywhere else, that every desire of the child of God shall be immediately gratified. On the contrary, it is very clearly intimated that faith and patience will be needed (Psalms 37:5; Psalms 37:7). This, of course, modifies the promise, but it does not diminish its value. Rather it increases its value. We may be sure that if God keeps us waiting it is for some very good purpose. We may be sure that the blessing, when it comes, will be richer than if it had come at the same moment that we first desired it. Making all allowance for this, let us now look at the immense advantages which those enjoy who delight themselves in the Lord.1. In the first place, their chief desire is one which can be always gratified. Now, is not that a great thing? But not only is the chief desire of those who delight themselves in the Lord one that can be always gratified; but all the desires that spring up around it are of the same nature. When a man delights himself in the Lord the merely selfish desires die out of his heart, and far better things take their place. Oh, do not think that the heart is left empty when the old desires go out. It is stocked with far better and nobler ones. Then the will becomes parallel to God’ s, and hence it does not need to be checked or thwarted as before. 2. Then, again, whatever is denied now is denied only for a time. We have already acknowledged that there are some of our desires that we must be content to wait for, but the time is certainly coming when they shall all be fulfilled. If only we give our hearts unreservedly to the Lord, we may rest assured that He will not allow any desire to remain in them which He does not intend to gratify to the full. (J. Monro Gibson, D. D.) The secret of tranquillity “ I have been young, and now am old,” says the writer of this psalm. Its whole tone speaks the ripened wisdom and autumnal calm of age. The dim eyes have seen and survived so much, that it seems scarcely worth while to be agitated by what ceases so soon. Life with its changes has not soured but quieted him. The secret of tranquillity is seen-- I. In freedom from eager, earthly desires. “ Delight thyself in the Lord,” etc. The great reason why life is troubled lies not without but within. It is not our changing circumstances, but our unregulated desires, that rob us of peace. We are feverish, not because of the external temperature, but because of the state of our own blood. One desire unfulfilled is enough to banish tranquillity; but how can it survive a dozen dragging different ways? And, still further, they destroy tranquillity by putting us at the mercy of externals. Do not venture the rich freightage of your happiness in crazy vessels. If your life twines round any prop but God your strength, be sure that, some time or other, the stay to which its tendrils cling will be plucked up, and the poor vine will be lacerated, its clusters crushed, and its sap bleeding out of it. “ Delight thyself in the Lord” --that is the cure for all the feverish unrest of desires. Rest must come from delighting in God, for it is no longer distracted by many desires, but has come under the one master-attraction. Such a soul is still as the great river above the falls, when all the side currents and dimpling eddies and backwaters are effaced by the attraction that draws every drop in the one direction. Let the current of your being set towards God, then your life will be filled and calmed by one master-passion which unites and stills the soul. And for another reason there will be peace: because in such a case desire and fruition go together. “ He shall give thee the desires of thine heart.” Only do not vulgarize that great promise by making it out to mean that, if we will be good, He will give us the earthly blessings which we wish. Sometimes we shall get them, and sometimes not; but the real desire of the man who delights in God will be God Himself, and this desire is ever fulfilled. And again, desire after God brings peace by putting all other wishes in their right place. The counsel in the text does not enjoin the extinction, but the subordination of all other desires. The presence of the king awes the crowd into silence. II. In freedom from the perplexity of choosing our path. This is a word for all life, not only for its great occasions. Twice or thrice, perhaps, in a man’ s life his road leads him up to a high dividing point, a watershed, as it were, whence the rain runs from, the one side of the ridge to the Pacific, and from the other to the Atlantic. His whole future may depend on his bearing the least bit to the right hand or to the left, and all the slopes below, on either side, are wreathed in mist. Powerless as he is to see before him, he has yet to choose, and his choice determines the rest of his days. Certainly he needs some guidance then. But he needs it not less in the small decisions of every hour. Our histories are made up of a series of trifles, in each of which a separate act of will and choice is involved. Depend upon it that, if we have not learned the habit of committing the daily-recurring monotonous steps to Him, we shall find it very, very hard to seek His help when we come to a fork in the road. So this is a command for all life, not only for its turning-points. Thus, these two keys--joy in God, and trust in His guidance--open for us the double doors of the secret place of the Most High; where all the roar of the busy world dies upon the ear, and the still small voice of the present God deepens the silence, and hushes the heart. Be quiet, and you will hear Him speak-delight in Him, that you may be quiet. III. The secret of tranquillity is found, thirdly, in freedom from the anxiety of an unknown future. “ Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him.” Such an addition to these previous counsels is needful, if all the sources of our disquiet are to be dealt with. The future is dim, after all our straining to see into its depths. Confidence that the future will but evolve God’ s purposes, and that all these are enlisted on our side, will give peace and power. Rut remember that the peaceful confidence of this final counsel is legitimate only when we have obeyed the other two. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Delighting in the Lord (with Psalms 37:7):--What desires of the heart are there which we may be quite sure that God will grant if we rest on Him and wait patiently for Him? I think the first of the two verses which I took for my text enables us to see the right answer. “ Delight thyself in the Lord, and He shall give thee thy heart’ s desire.” Delighting in the Lord opens out an entirely new field for the desires of the heart. In plain and brief words, it is to desire to be and to do instead of desiring to have. Delighting in the Lord does not mean the ceasing to be human, ceasing to have wants and natural lawful desires for success and happiness, but it means that all these native and lawful wishes become subordinate to a higher desire still, so that for its sake we are willing to forego all the rest. We may be hungry and thirsty, yet our meat and drink will be to do the will of Him who sent us here and to finish His work. We may be poor and needy, but we shall esteem the words of God and obedience to His law better than thousands of gold and silver. We may be hungering for a love which is out of our reach, or sorrowing for the loss of a love that can never be ours and yet find in God a love passing the love of women. We may be toiling all day, and our very sleep may be broken by festering care and by even a holy anxiety to bring our work to completion, and yet shall find something better and higher than success in the knowledge that we are working for God and doing our best and earning His approval. If the greatest and supreme of all our delights is in being and in doing what God wills, nothing can frustrate His purpose to give us our heart’ s desire. Extinction of desire is impossible. To gain happiness by its means, one must simply change its direction, fixing it upon that which cannot be denied, and which when obtained cannot perish or fade. Thus it is we learn, in theory at least, that to secure happiness we must seek it in those paths only which our Creator has ordained for us; in longing after Himself who is eternal, unchangeable and infinite in attractiveness and loveliness, in longing to be all that He desires us to be and to do all that He bids us do. At least, to make these wishes uppermost and foremost beyond all other wishes--not to extinguish those or to mortify them wantonly--but to prevent them effectually from ever reaching the highest place in our hearts or supplanting the supreme desire to love and to please our God. (C. Voysey, B. A.) Delight in God Delight is a general idea, and all the various powers of the mind, and feelings of the heart minister to its production in different ways. Think of any of these, and say whether you do not find that it can meet nowhere with such rich and abundant supplies, as in the attributes of the Almighty.1. One of those powers of the mind, in which man finds a very copious spring of delight, is the capacity of looking onward into futurity, and indulging in the fair visions of hope. Anticipation has been called the better-half of pleasure. If this be so, where could you look for such full and safe indulgence of this faculty, as in the contemplation of what the Giver of all good can and will do for those who look to Him as the source of their happiness (Psalms 36:8). 2. The memory is another faculty of the mind, which is highly conducive to its happiness. Many sources of delight are richer even in the recollection than in the immediate enjoyment; as the tints that appear in the western heaven are frequently most beautiful, some time after the bright orb, from which they are reflected, has itself vanished from our sight. Now, if we were more addicted to marking the ways of God, and His gracious dealings towards us, we should find this to be eminently the case in respect to them. It is in the calmer moments of recollection, in the retrospect which the soul, at all habituated to self-examination, takes of the mercies for which it is indebted to God, that the instances of His loving-kindness and fatherly care break out upon it in their full proportions, and almost melt and overcome it with sensations of gratitude and delight. In this respect, how little will any earthly joy bear a comparison with delight in the Lord! 3. Another distinguished source of human delight is the growth of the intellectual powers, the acquisition of knowledge. And what knowledge can bear a comparison with the knowledge of the Lord? If it be a delightful sensation to perceive that our mind has made some progress; that it knows that of which it was formerly ignorant; that it can form clear and distinct ideas about that which seemed to it formerly clouded and obscure; how must that delight be increased when the object of our newly acquired information is the highest on which the mind of man can dwell; and when the things which we learn are things which accompany salvation! 4. But the excitement of the affections is a much commoner source of delight than the acquisition of knowledge, and here we may boldly challenge any one to find an object that has so many and so powerful claims on the heart of man, as belong to God. If the most astonishing mercy, the most inestimable benefits, the tenderest care, the largest and most liberal bounty, are calculated to excite feelings of complacency and attachment in the human breast, then may we well delight in God, as an object of affection, and feel our hearts expand with indescribable pleasure, and with the most solid satisfaction, in meditating on His character and attributes. (J. Marriott, M. A.) Delight in prayer Without cheerful prayer we cannot have gracious answers. Note-- I. What this delight is. Delight properly is an affection of the mind that springs from the possession of a good which hath been ardently desired. Delight properly is a silencing of desire, and the banquet of the soul on the presence of its desired object. But there is a delight of a lower stamp.1. In desires. There is a delight in desire as well as in fruition. 2. In hopes (Romans 5:2). 3. In contemplation. The consideration and serious thoughts of heaven do affect a gracious heart and fill it with pleasure, though itself be as if in a wilderness. As the union with the object is nearer, so the delight is stronger. Now, this delight the soul hath in duty is not a delight of fruition, but of desire, hope or contemplation. Now, delight is active or passive, as Isaiah 64:5. When we delightfully clasp the throne of grace God doth often cast His arms about our necks. II. Whence this delight springs.1. From the Spirit of God. Not a spark of fire upon our own hearth that is able to kindle this spiritual delight. It is the Holy Ghost (Psalms 138:8; Isaiah 56:7). 2. From grace. Dead men cannot perform a duty (Psalms 115:17). 3. From a good conscience (Proverbs 15:15). He that hath a good conscience must needs be cheerful in his religious and civil duties. Guilt will come trembling, and with a sad countenance, into the presence of God’ s majesty. A guilty child cannot with cheerfulness come into a displeased father’ s presence. 4. From a holy familiarity with God. Hence there is delight in one another’ s company. 5. From hopes of speeding (Romans 12:12). 6. From a sense of former mercies and acceptation. These quicken our desire for and expectation of more (Psalms 116:2). III. The reasons of this doctrine, that without cheerful seeking, we cannot have a gracious answer. For--1. A fiat and dumpish temper is not for His honour; and prayers in such temper do not reach Him, and they speak an unwillingness that God should hear us. 2. And without delight we are not fit to receive a mercy. Delight in a mercy wanted makes room for desire, and large desires make room for mercy. If no delight in begging, there will be no delight in enjoying; if there be no cheerfulness to quicken our prayers when we need a blessing, there will be little joy to quicken our praise when we receive a blessing. Had not Zaccheus had a great joy at the news of Christ’ s coming by his door, he had not so readily entertained and welcomed Him. IV. Uses. 1. Of information. (1) There is a great pleasure in the ways of God, if rightly understood. Prayer, which is a duty wherein we express our wants, is delightful. There is more sweetness in a Christian’ s asking, than in a wicked man’ s enjoying, blessings. (2) What delight will there be in heaven! If there be such sweetness in desire, what will there he in full fruition! There is joy in seeking; what is there then in finding! Duty hath its sweets, its thousands, but glory its ten thousands. (3) The miserable condition of those that can delight in anything but prayer. It is an aggravation of our enmity to God, when we can sin cheerfully and pray dully, when duty is more loathsome than iniquity. 2. Of examination. We pray, but how are our hearts? (S. Charnock.) Delight in God I. In what way are we to comply with the condition Delight thyself in the Lord” ? What does this mean? The idea of delighting in God is just one of those great, inclusive religious ideas, that by their very vastness almost disable remark. When a man has attained to this, that he supremely delights in the blessed God, his religious life is well nigh perfect. To delight in God is the possibility only of a spiritual, a religious being. The distinction is clearly made between God and His gifts. We might delight in any of the things that God has given, in any of the material and intellectual blessings of life, the manifold provisions and gifts of God’ s providence, but this would not be to delight in God Himself. We have to do here with the highest religious elements of our nature, and with the highest exercise of them. The emotion expressed is both a high and a rare one. Even among pious men there is, I fear, very little genuine joy in God. They feel there ought to be, and they pray for it; but their actual feeling is rarely that of passion; it is calm, measured, almost cold. Sometimes they can say, “ As the hart panteth after,” etc.; but not often. And there may be much satisfaction in prayer, and yet no delight. For prayer may be a relief, a vent to feeling long suppressed; or it may be a cry of urgent necessity, or disguised self-flattery, like that of the Pharisee. But all this is not delight. II. True delight in god will have respect, first, to what God is, as a spiritual being of supreme excellency and glory--the Author of all other beings and of all things. We are capable of so contemplating God. The Bible is full of this feeling: how eloquent, how rapturous are its recognitions of God. How David delighted in this. And so was it in the early Church. See the Te Deum, etc.1. Now, 1 do not ask whether you delight in other things rather than in God; in your business or books, in science or social festivities, in amusements or sensual gratifications. In such a ease, your delight is dearly irreligious. But I ask you to distinguish between your religious delights--between the religious feelings that have your own soul for their object, and the religious feelings that have God for their object. The one is simply religious selfishness; the other is religious worship and sacrifice. I need not add, that our supreme delight in God is when God is manifested in Jesus Christ; when, in the Incarnate, redeeming Son, He expresses all the wondrous riches of His great wisdom and love--when we see the Eternal light in the Eternal love. No man can delight in God until he attains the perfect love which casteth out fear. 2. A religious soul will also delight in what God does; in all the movements of His providence; in all the arrangements of His grace. Our religious life is largely affected by the way in which we look at God’ s doings--by the feelings which we cherish towards them. It is easy, of course, to delight in God’ s doings when His providential ways are pleasant to us and His gifts affluent. And this is really the chief experience of most lives. Privation and sorrow are more exceptional than we think. A great sorrow fills a large space in our thoughts, but a small one in our lives. We think more of the one black cloud than of the blue sky across which it is driven. We cannot, of course, delight in pain, but we may delight in God who inflicts pain, delight in Him although He inflicts pain; have such strong assurance of His wise love, that we cling to Him in the stedfast love of our troubled hearts. III. Is what sense will the Lord give the man who delights in him the desires of his heart? It is a daring phrase, for even good men may desire hurtful and wrong things. Our desires are no safe law no measure of blessing. But if God cannot change at our caprice, may not our caprice itself change? And is not this the way in which this daring assurance is really fulfilled? This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/bi/ Psalms 37:5 Commit thy way unto the Lord. Commit thy way What more appropriate motto can we select for a new year? Counsel such as this is in itself a kind of revelation. It reveals us to ourselves! Is our way such that we can commit it to the Lord? Now, such committing of our way to God means-- I. Meditation before prayer. “ Meditation,” says St. Ambrose, “ is the eye wherewith we see God, and prayer is the wing wherewith we flee to Him.” Prayer is not an accidental expression that comes suddenly to the mind; it is the soul’ s recognition of its need. And to pray aright we must have been alone with ourselves before we are alone with God. Bunyan said, “ In prayer it is better to have a heart without words, than words without a heart.” II. Consciousness of ignorance. We say to God, “ Thou and Thou only knowest the true path of life.” Our ignorance is at times very humbling to us. We want to know all, and in reality we know so little. How terrible it would be if we could not commit our way unto God. How glad, then, should we be that God invites us at all times to come to Him. As Quarles says, “ Heaven’ s never deaf but when man’ s heart is dark.” III. Conscious obedience and cheerful acquiescence in his will. Dependence must end in obedience. Owen says, “ He who prays as he ought will endeavour to live as he prays.” Can there be a more miserable man on earth than he who knows the hypocrisy of his prayers, who is inwardly conscious of his wrong state, who knows that he is living without God, and yet feels tremulous and sad about it all? He has not really returned to God. He has not realized again the value of the Saviour’ s friendship; he cannot forsake the indulgence of some secret sin; he cannot quite quit fellowships that are risking his immortal weal. The reverences of religion still touch him with awe, the piety of the early child-home is still a memory in his manhood; he despises men who have no religion. But his will is not obedient: it cannot be said of him that he is a follower of the Lamb. Let us not slight this aspect of the subject--committing our way means conscious obedience unto God. And not merely endurance, nor passive submission, but cheerful acquiescence. This lights the smile on the sufferer’ s face; this gives sunlight to the gloomy Catacombs. When the soul comes away from communion with God in this spirit, the ravens of anxiety and care forsake the heart. The world may know how to provoke mirth; it may amuse with sallies of wit; it may excite with sensuous joys; but all through the ages cheerfulness has been the child of faith, and has seldom forsaken the sufferer even in life’ s last hours. IV. Committing the end to God. When and where belong to Him. Life has been quite other than most of us thought it, and so probably will death be. It would be a mean thing to wish to commit the end to God and not all that leads to it,-to rely on some mere death-bed repentance. So to live as to feel sure that when the evening comes we shall have nothing to do but to die, this is the Christian’ s heritage. And then let the curtains be rent suddenly, or taken down gently; let the light go out in a sharp gust, or burn down in the socket slowly; this surely is what we all wish to be able to say, “ Father, not as I will, but as Thou wilt.” (W. M. Statham.) Confidence in God I. The case supposed. This psalm represents the case, to wit, the flourishing condition of the wicked to the great prejudice and hazard of God’ s people. He persuades us, in such instances, to confidence in God and patience in well-doing; and discovers the estate of pious and ungodly men to be as different, not only in the world to come, but through God’ s just judgment many times even in this life, as their principles and practices have been. II. The direction, or counsel.1. Committing our way unto the Lord, though it may be taken to signify the same as casting our burden upon Him (Psalms 55:22), and casting our care upon Him (1 Peter 5:7), yet, as “ way “ doth in Scripture use denote the course of life, the method and order of our conversation, I take it to comprehend these three things. (1) An entire obedience to the Word of God, as the rule of our actions. (2) A meek submission to the will of God, which governs human affairs. (3) A regular walking in the duties of our particular calling; leaving the rest, as things which we are not immediately concerned in, to God Almighty’ s disposal. 2. Trusting in God imports-- (1) A fiducial reliance upon His wisdom and goodness in the care and conduct of our persons, and of all our concerns. (2) A declaration of that our dependence upon Him in earnest and frequent prayer. (3) And withal honest endeavours of our own for our preservation, in the use of all lawful means; holding ourselves still in that station wherein God hath placed us, and leaving the event to Him. (A. Littleton, D. D.) The believer’ s present and future I. The believer’ s present state. It is one of--1. Acceptance in the Beloved (Psalms 89:33). He may distress, but He will not disown. 2. Imperfection. He is, indeed, under the Holy Spirit’ s transforming hand. While justification is complete, sanctification is progressive, and therefore at every stage but the last, imperfect. 3. Sorrow (Romans 7:21; Galatians 5:17). The time for unmingled joy is not yet. Besides this, the refinement of the feelings which the Gospel produces frequently prepares the heart to feel, more acutely than many others, the usual crosses, losses, trials or bereavements which are the common lot of all. 4. Obscurity. The same unbelief which rejected the Saviour, with all the evidence He produced of His divine mission, serves the disciples as it served their Lord. Besides, the Christian is a mixture of opposites, and therefore we wonder not that he should appear in a doubtful light even to himself and his fellow-believers. 5. Eager expectancy (Hebrews 9:28; 2 Peter 3:12; Luke 21:28; Philippians 4:5; 2 Corinthians 5:2-4; Romans 8:28). II. The expectation of the church of Christ. We live between the two advents of our Lord, and the Bible teaches us to look back to the first to know how salvation was wrought, and forward to the second to know what salvation is. The first gives the title to it, the second will give possession of it. Faith looks back to the one, hope looks forward to the other. The Church of Christ will appear in its--1. Unity. 2. Holiness. 3. Resurrection glory. (R. J. Rowton, M. A.) Quiet trust After the fearful defeat of Jena in 1806, when Prussia went down before the cruel and reckless ambition of Napoleon, on no one did the throe of a nation’ s fall come with a more agonizing sense of ruin than on the young and beautiful Queen Louise. When she heard the news of the battle of Jena, and that she must leave her beloved home, she burst into uncontrollable weeping. How did she calm her anguish? It was the pious custom in Germany, when a pupil left school, to accompany the boy singing the thirty-seventh Psalm, of which the fifth verse is, “ Fret not thyself because of evil-doers. Commit thy way unto the Lord, and He will bring it to pass.” The young queen sat down to her piano and softly sang the psalm. When she rose her eye was clear, her spirit was tranquil. That same verse was also the comfort of David Livingstone during all his perils and fevers and lastings in scorching Africa and its desert wastes. (Dean Farrar.) Psalms 37:7-11 Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him: fret not thyself.The good man in trouble Note the man contemplated. He is a man of real piety, and he is contrasted with the wicked. The wicked are spoken of, but he is spoken to. He is understood to be of a different class altogether. But he is at present in circumstances of trial, and the battle is rather going against him. He sees that which he knows not how to reconcile with the idea that “ there is a God who judgeth in the earth.” A great cloud is upon his spirits. I. The advice given to him.1. As to that which he is not to do. He is not to fret himself because of the prosperity of the wicked. It does not mean merely that he is not to be envious, not to indulge in that dark, malignant spirit. I think you must regard him as looking upon some of the great perplexing events of God’ s providence. There are a set of wicked men, whose diabolical skill and device are crowned with success. They are bound, perhaps, in a vigorous crusade against God, and against God’ s Church, and apparently are successful in their wicked endeavours. You are not to let such thoughts get down into your soul to weaken and destroy your faith in God. “ Fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in the way.” Then there is a second piece of advice, which I should say goes farther because things are getting worse--“ Cease from anger, and forsake wrath: fret not thyself in any wise to do evil.” It is not merely now a man looking upon that which is objective, and being rather disturbed by it; but things are coming near and touching him personally; the successful device has entangled him, and now passion is rising; he is getting excited; he has began to imagine an opposite device, and thinks to overcome strength by strength. Now, he must guard against that, for if affliction have this effect the devil will have the victory then, and not God, in regard to his soul. After these two pieces of advice, which may both be considered negative, though they are put in positive forms--we come to that which is positive. “ Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him.” Do this by a filial trust, with an entire faith. Believe that the Lord lives, acts, governs. Simple advice, but easier to understand than to practise: for our tendency is, under such circumstances, to let go our hold on God. A man has an idea that he can do things better for himself, faith fails, and corruption gets the advantage. II. Why a man should rest in the Lord. The first thing suggested is, that in spite of all appearances a man must hold to the great fact that there is a great, Divine, presiding personality, an observer, governor, judge--he must keep to that, and hold to that great truth. You, a religious man, having a religious faith in you! but what is your religion and faith good for, if it will not hold you to the primary truths of religion? The second thing suggested is, that the good man should understand that the laws and constitution of things are upon his side, that in the long run they will turn up to be on the side of righteousness, goodness, and virtue, that the working out of things will ultimately be against the bad. Whatever may be the primary prospect of the success of wickedness--evil-doers shall be cut off. Why, some of you have seen that fifty times over. “ Dear me, I wonder what has become of so and so! I remember twenty years ago he was the most-talked-of man in London; but there was something very dark and suspicious about him. I wonder what has become of him. I have lost sight of him for many years.” Another says, “ I can tell you. All gone to nothing. He sunk, and sunk; all his splendour disappeared, and he gradually came down to poverty and his children too, and the very house in which he lived is in ruins.” It is thus that things work out. Sometimes you do not observe the process, but presently, unexpectedly, you see the result of the working out of the law, “ Yet a little while and the wicked shall not be.” And sometimes it is done otherwise, in a more palpable manner. “ Into smoke shall they consume away.” III. God’ s providence and care shall watch over his own. The little that a righteous man hath,” etc. A religious life is favourable to life. This is the natural law. Those that wait upon the Lord may have sorrow for a night, but light is sown in the darkness, and joy will spring up with the day. “ Yet a little time and the wicked shall not be. Thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not be;” yes, even though he should call his lands after his own name. I remember the circumstance of a man cutting his name into the stone upon his house, eight inches deep, because he was determined to go down to a remote posterity, upon the house which he had built for himself. I have seen the house, with the letters cut into the stone, almost a foot deep; and it is let now for a school, This may seem a simple matter. Aye, but simple matters illustrate great principles. It is in simple matters that God is most seen. Conclusion.1. These principles apply to the milder afflictions which we at times are called on to suffer. 2. Whilst remembering the judgment that is coming upon the wicked if they do not repent, we are to pray for them that they may. 3. Lay to heart the truth that God, as surely as He lives, is oil the side of right. You are not in the devil’ s world, He neither made nor governs it. Therefore keep to the right and the true to religious faith and the side of God. (T. Binnecy.) Rest for the troubled I. The confident repose. Best in the Lord. Let us do so--1. In his all-sufficiency for reasonable and sufficient supplies.2. In His wisdom for counsel and guidance.3. In His power for protection.4. In His truth and faithfulness for the fulfilment of Ills promises.5. In His gracious love for all. II. The prayerful endurance and expectation.1. “ Wait patiently for” the Lord, for this is the only way of keeping our minds calm.2. For His arrangements concerning our afflictions. (M. Wilcox.) Christian resting and uniting One of our hardest lessons is to find out the wisdom of our hindrances; how we are to be put forward and upward by being put back and put down. When the company in the “ Pilgrim’ s Progress” had to sit up watching all night at, the house of Gains, Greatheart kept them awake with this riddle, “ He that would kill must first be overcome.” And the truth in it has been practically dug out by trials that broke sleep through many a hard fortune in every Christian experience since. Yes, defeats help progress; a compulsory standing still helps us on. The Cross of Christ solves the riddle, and, gradually, to believing eyes the fact comes out. The precept, “ Best in the Lord,” etc., seems at first too tame for a spiritual ambition. We ask for some positive doctrine, for a task worthy of our energies. “ Sound a bugle note that calls to close contests and we will follow; but this is a poor, spiritless tiling, this resting and waiting!” We must see, if we can, what force there is in this answer. Possibly, if we search deep enough, we shall flied that where some of us fancy our religion ends, it is only feebly begun. I. Goodness is not so much specific deeds as a faithful heart: it is being, rather than doing, though sure to lead to right doing. If the principle is true, what is often called passive goodness is the necessary condition, nay, the interior fountain of active goodness. A man, that is, must, be a silent believer in his heart before he can be a powerful Christian worker with his arms, or speaker with his lips. He must pray in his closet before he can honour his Maker in the multitude or shop, in pulpit or street. II. Compare active and passive virtues, and see what each requires to restrain it.1. Submission--if there be any distinction between these virtues--would fall on the side of the passive graces. But in all the compass of human achievements there is not one that more tasks the stoutest energies of the soul, not one that demands a more resolute gathering up of all the resolution left. And yet men speak of it, of this resting in the Lord, as one of your passive, secondary, ignoble virtues. 2. So, too, with gentleness of temper and of speech. There is natural amiability, but that has cost no struggle. But do we not know some persons that need all the weapons in the Christian armoury, and all the watchfulness of the camp, to reach that plain achievement, the “ soft answer” that “ turneth away wrath” ? So, then, the passive virtues, as they are called, are those that require the greatest effort, and, according to Christ, are therefore of the greatest worth. All the nine beatitudes, with, perhaps, one exception, pronounce their blessing on what the world would call tame and passive traits. So does Christianity turn upside down the vulgar vanity of our ambition, and empty our worldliness of blessedness. But the subject reaches on to wider applications yet. “ Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him,” is-- III. A counsel addressed to the habit and tendency of these times; and no time perhaps ever needed to listen to it more; a time more eager to conquer the world by putting girdles of intelligence and bonds of travel about it, than to feel its dependence on Heaven; readier to run, to work, to build, to ask questions, to yoke the elements, than to kneel, to believe, to have patience and to pray. But the strength of a community is not in its enterprising, self-confident, profane or prayer-less great men, but in the men, be they few or many, who while they are “ diligent in business,” and faithful in public spirit, “ rest” secretly “ in the Lord,” and “ wait patiently” every day “ for Him.” IV. See again, what besides righteous labour such a stillness supposes. To wait patiently for God is to hold the heart open for what God gives. Subjection, then, it implies. It is to expect His love; and so it implies file penitence that goes before pardon. It is to believe He will give and guide; and so it implies faith. And it implies, too, self-restraint, self-renunciation, prayer, thanksgiving; and these are not the elements of man’ s infirmity. We must not be surprised that men are so slow to learn this lesson. When it is learnt, then will Christ’ s kingdom have come. Let us help it forward as we best can. Meanwhile, we must rest and wait. So, too, in regard to the manifold sins and sorrows of human life: the slowness of our own growth in goodness; the secret sorrows of our homes--in regard to all them, and every other like to them, take the precept of our text. Let one subject regulate our judgments of one another: save us from morbid discontents, and cause to abide ever “ in the Lord,” that we may rest in Him. (S. T. Huntingdon, D. D.) Resting in the Lord Rest and security are sought universally, but seldom found. The want of interior quiet is felt by every one; it is the deepest desire of our being, but it is pursued wisely only by a few. That the Lord intended man to enjoy rest may be known by these three considerations; first, He has made it the inmost affection of every human being; secondly, restlessness is destructive to the health of both mind and body; thirdly, God has assured us in His Word, and provided in His works, that we may come into a state of rest.1. It may not appear at first sight evident that the demand for rest is an interior feeling in every one. Yet very little reflection will make it plain. (1) Under the restless garb of the busiest of mankind abides the constant desire to procure a sufficiency. Look at the energetic tradesman; he seems incessantly active; he labours early and late; nothing seems so foreign to him as rest. Yet let him unbosom himself, and you will find all this activity arises from a wish to secure the means of attain ins a secure rest in his declining years. He believes he can only be satisfied in the gratification of his desires, and when he has won all that his wishes require, he will recline in peace and enjoy rest. (2) The rest, which is the inward aim of the soul, and to which every man may attain, is foreshadowed by the contentment of little children, though theirs is the peace of ignorance, not the peace of wisdom. They find their wants supplied, and they have no cares. They have full confidence in the love of their parents, and no doubt as to their power. 2. We may be assured that rest is intended to be enjoyed by us in this world from the circumstance that restlessness disturbs and destroys the health of both mind and body, and is therefore in contrariety to the laws which build up both. Opposites cannot come from God. 3. We are invited, by frequent calls in the Word, to rest on the Divine love and wisdom. (J. Bailey, Ph. D.) Waiting upon God “ Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him” (Psalms 37:7). This is not a call to indolence, but to action enveloped in repose. In all probability the writer was one of the leading men of action of his age. Our deeds should have their origin and their completion in patient waiting.(1) Restfulness is the preparation for service; it is the interior fountain of active goodness. The man that would give must first receive. (2) Restfulness should be the spirit in which action is concluded. The fretful anxiety which looks back upon faithful work is a denial of God and a weakening of the soul. This is a call to service with the fret taken away. There is no true rest for man save in the thought of God. Aubrey de Vere relates a conversation he had with Wordsworth in Lakeland. The poet remarked that travellers boasted much of Swiss mountains because they were two or three times as high as the English, but he added, “ I reply that the clouds gather so low on them that half of them remain commonly out of sight.” His visitor did not wish to contradict him, and so the poet went on declaiming. “ You cannot see those boasted Swiss mountains when the clouds hang low.” “ Certainly not,” replied the prudent visitor. Then, after a pause, his veracity prevailed, and he added, “ But I must admit you know that they are there.” “ I will lift up mine eyes to the hills, from whence cometh my strength.” Sometimes the clouds gather, but it makes all the difference to life to know that “ the hills” are there. “ We rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him.” I. This spirit of patient waiting is in itself a high achievement of the christian Character. In religion all means are ends, and all ends only means to some larger end. Repentance is not only a condition of salvation, but also a part of the work; it is an indication of a deep change which God works within the heart. To wait patiently upon the Lord is a means of grace, but it is also a feature of a lofty spirit. Our God is the “ God of patience.” How patiently He waits as Creator--not at once, but slowly have order and beauty emerged from chaos; how patiently He stands as the World Redeemer, while men scourge and revile and spit at Him, and crown Him with thorns, and smite Him with their hands! He waits patiently “ to see of the travail of His soul,” and is able to breathe the spirit of calm, fearless, hopeful endurance into all His people. II. This spirit of milder afflictions which we at times are called on to suffer.2. Whilst remembering the judgment that is coming upon the wicked if they do not repent, we are to pray for them that they may. 3. Lay to heart the truth that God, as surely as lie lives, is on the side of right. You are not in the devil’ s world. He neither made nor governs it. Therefore keep to the right and the true, to religious faith and the side of God. (T. Binney.) Rest for the troubled I. The confident repose. Rest in the Lord. Let us do so--1. In His all-sufficiency for reasonable and sufficient supplies.2. In His wisdom for counsel and guidance.3. In His power for protection.4. In His truth and faithfulness for the fulfilment of His promises.5. In His gracious love for all. II. The prayerful endurance and expectation.1. “ Wait patiently for” the Lord, for this is the only way of keeping our minds calm.2. For His arrangements concerning our afflictions. (R. M. Wilcox.) Christian resting and uniting One of our hardest lessons is to find out the wisdom of our hindrances; how we are to be put forward and upward by being put back and put down. When the company in the “ Pilgrim’ s Progress” had to sit up watching all night at the house of Gains, Greatheart kept them awake with this riddle, “ He that would kill must first be overcome.” And the truth in it has been practically dug out by trials that broke sleep through many a hard fortune in every Christian experience since. Yes, defeats help progress; a compulsory standing still helps us on. The Cross of Christ solves the riddle, and, gradually, to believing eyes the fact comes out. The precept, “ Rest in the Lord,” etc., seems at first too tame for a spiritual ambition. We ask for some positive doctrine, for a task worthy of our energies. “ Sound a bugle note that calls to close contests and we will follow; but this is a poor, spiritless thing, this resting and waiting!” We must see, if we can, what force there is in this answer. Possibly, if we search deep enough, we shall find that where some of us fancy our religion ends, it is only feebly begun. I. Goodness is not so much specific deeds as a faithful heart: it is being, rather than doing, though sure to lead to right doing. If the principle is true, what is often called passive goodness is the necessary condition, nay, the interior fountain of active goodness. A man, that is, must be a silent believer in his heart before he call be a powerful Christian worker with his arms, or speaker with his lips. He, must pray in his closet before he can honour his Maker in the multitude or shop, in pulpit or street, II. Compare active and passive virtues, and see what each requires to restrain it.1. Submission--if there be any distinction between these virtues--would fall on the side of the passive graces. But in all the compass of human achievements there is not one that more tasks the stoutest energies of the soul, not one that demands a more resolute gathering up of all the resolution left. And yet men speak of it, of this resting in the Lord, as one of your passive, secondary, ignoble virtues. 2. So, too, with gentleness of temper and of speech. There is natural amiability, but that has cost no struggle. But do we not know some persons that need all the weapons in the Christian armoury, and all the watchfulness of the camp, to reach that plain achievement, the “ soft answer” that “ turneth away wrath” ? So, then, the passive virtues, as they are called, are those that require the greatest effort, and, according to Christ, are therefore of the greatest worth. All the nine beatitudes, with, perhaps, one exception, pronounce their blessing on what the world would call tame and passive traits. So does Christianity turn upside down the vulgar vanity of our ambition, and empty our worldliness of blessedness. But the subject reaches on to wider applications yet. “ Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him,” is-- III. A counsel addressed to the habit and tendency of these times; and no time perhaps ever needed to listen to it more; a time more eager to conquer the world by putting girdles of intelligence and bonds of travel about it, than to feel its dependence on Heaven; readier to run, to work, to build, to ask questions, to yoke the elements, than to kneel, to believe, to have patience and to pray. But the strength of a community is not in its enterprising, self-confident, profane or prayer-less great men, but in the men, be they few or many, who while they are “ diligent in business,” and faithful in public spirit, “ rest” secretly “ in the Lord,” and “ wait patiently” every day “ for Him.” IV. See again, what besides righteous labour such a stillness supposes. To wait patiently for God is to hold the heart open for what God gives. Subjection, then, it implies. It is to expect His love; and so it implies the penitence that goes before pardon. It is to believe He will give and guide; and so it implies faith. Let one subject regulate our judgments of one another: save us from morbid discontents, and cause to abide ever “ in the Lord,” that we may rest in Him. (S. T. Huntingdon, D. D.) Resting in the Lord Rest and security are sought universally, but seldom found. The want of interior quiet is felt by every one; it is the deepest desire of our being, but it is pursued wisely only by a few. That the Lord intended man to enjoy rest may be known by these three considerations; first, He has made it the inmost affection of every human being; secondly, restlessness is destructive to the health of both mind and body; thirdly, God has assured us in His Word, and provided in His works, that we may come into a state of rest.1. It may not appear at first sight evident that the demand for rest is an interior feeling in every one. Yet very little reflection will make it plain. (1) Under the restless garb of the busiest of mankind abides the constant desire to procure a sufficiency. Look at the energetic tradesman; he seems incessantly active; he labours early and late; nothing seems so foreign to him as rest. Yet let him unbosom himself, and you will find all this activity arises from a wish to secure the means of attaining a secure rest’ in his declining years. He believes he can only be satisfied in the gratification of his desires, and when he has won all that his wishes require, he will recline in peace and enjoy rest. (2) The rest, which is the inward aim of the soul, and to which every man may attain, is foreshadowed by the contentment of little children, though theirs is the peace of ignorance, not the peace of wisdom. They find their wants supplied, and they have no cares. They have full confidence in the love of their parents, and no doubt as to their power. 2. We may be assured that rest is intended to be enjoyed by us in this world from the circumstance that restlessness disturbs and destroys the health of both mind and body, and is therefore in contrariety to the laws which build up both. Opposites cannot come from God. 3. We are invited, by frequent calls in the Word, to rest on the Divine love and wisdom. (J. Bailey, Ph. D.) Waiting upon God “ Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him” (Psalms 37:7). This is not a call to indolence, but to action enveloped in repose. In all probability the writer was one of the leading men of action of his age. Our deeds should have their origin and their completion in patient waiting.(1) Restfulness is the preparation for service; it is the interior fountain of active goodness. The man that would give must first receive. (2) Restfulness should be the spirit in which action is concluded. The fretful anxiety which looks back upon faithful work is a denial of God and a weakening of the soul. This is a call to service with the fret taken away. There is no true rest for man save in the thought of God. Aubrey de Vere relates a conversation he had with Wordsworth in Lakeland. The poet remarked that travellers boasted much of Swiss mountains because they wore two or three times as high as the English, but he added, “ I reply that the clouds gather so low on them that half of them remain commonly out of sight.” His visitor did not wish to contradict him, and so the poet went on declaiming. “ You cannot see those boasted Swiss mountains when the clouds hang low.” “ Certainly not,” replied the prudent visitor. Then, after a pause, his veracity prevailed, and he added,” :But I must admit you know that they are there.” “ I will lift up mine eyes to the hills, from whence cometh my strength.” Sometimes the clouds gather, but it makes all the difference to life to know that “ the hills” are there. “ We rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him.” I. This spirit of patient waiting is in itself a high achievement of the Christian character. In religion all means are ends, and all ends only means to some larger end. Repentance is not only a condition of salvation, but also a part of the work; it is an indication of a deep change which God works within the heart. To wait patiently upon the Lord is a means of grace, but it is also a feature of a lofty spirit. Our God is the “ God of patience.” How patiently He waits as Creator--not at once, but slowly have order and beauty emerged from chaos; how patiently He stands as the World Redeemer, while men scourge and revile and spit at Him, and crown Him with thorns, and smite Him with their hands! He waits patiently “ to see of the travail of His soul,” and is able to breathe the spirit of calm, fearless, hopeful endurance into all His people. II. This spirit of patient waiting is necessary for the highest and most permanent service. In Mr. Winston Churchill’ s Life of his father we have the story of one who had it in him to be one of the most influential workers of his age, but who failed because he was all impulse, impatience, restlessness, and left little behind save the memory of a most pathetic career. After his conspicuous blunder he wrote to his wife from Mafeking: “ Well, I have had quite enough of it all. I have waited with patience for the tide to turn, but it has not turned, and will not now turn in time. All confirms me in my decision to have done with politics and try to make a little money for the boys and ourselves.” That is the secret of impermanent service--“ the tide has not turned, and will not turn now in time.” In whose time? Man has no right to fix the time. Of the hour knoweth no man, but only the Father. Our times are in His hand. How patiently Christ waited; for thirty years He waited in obscurity for the ministry to begin. He remained hopeful in the presence of the cross, the symbol, it would seem, to others, of everlasting defeat and shame. III. This should be a message of comfort to us amid life’ s painful perplexities, One night Henry Drummond sat up with a young man who had lost himself in philosophical speculations. “ I seem to be walking round and round and arriving nowhere,” he said sadly, “ and I am thoroughly tired of it all.” “ True,” said Drummond, “ but you are not too tired to lie down.” The psalmist had been wandering in the same bewildering way. He had fretted himself because of the prosperity of evildoers; all his theological ideas had been disturbed by the “ little that the righteous hath and the abundance of many wicked.” But he was not too tired to lie down, and to the weary in every age he proclaims the glad restfulness of the soul in God. There are times when reason fails us. (Trevor H. Davies.) Rest in the Lord It was more difficult for David to do this, than for us to do it. He had more at stake, and less to help him; he bad all the mysteries which beset us, and many more peculiar to his age and to the dispensation under which he lived. He found it harder than we do, to sever temporal disasters from Divine inflictions; and yet he could use this inspiring language, and summon his brothers to rest in Jehovah, and wait patiently for Him. But men now seem only too disposed not to trouble themselves: fatalism, and indifference to unseen things, are so common that advice very different from David’ s is often imperatively needed. But the world’ s rest and quietness is only an apparent one, not real. I. Thy rest of weariness. The body rests; it is this rest which “ knits up the ravelled sleeve of care,” which is “ sore labour’ s bath,” “ balm of hurt minds,” “ great nature’ s second course,” “ chief nourisher in life’ s feast.” All life is submitted to this law. The leafless winter, the hushed songsters of the forest, the infant slumbering on its mother’ s breast, the sealed eyes of the shipboy cradled on the surge, and all the “ magic of night as she moves from land to land and touches all with her opiate wand,” tell the same story. Work demands rest, and rest is the stimulus of work. The intellect itself must have its quiet places and still retreats, where holy calm, and unconscious growth, and secret renovation, repairs its losses. Further, weariness comes at times even to the relief of the spiritual faculty, and gives the half-awakened spirit its first lessons in the mighty art of faith,. Perhaps we have been eagerly seeking to reconcile God’ s truth to our own standards; to adjust Jehovah’ s attributes for Him; to enter the kingdom of heaven like a man, with violence, and not as “ a little child.” Perhaps we have been striving to fill up the bottomless abyss of need in our hearts with our own merits, and we find the undertaking impossible. Now, at length, beaten with the struggle, and ceasing our efforts, we may be taking an enforced rest; we may just lie quiet for a time, and this may seem to be “ a rest in God” ; while, on the contrary, it is only an inevitable pause in our fruitless endeavour, a hall of energy by which the mind recovers its power of self-infliction. But if, on the other hand, we will go simply, humbly, trustingly to God as our Father, then rest may be found. Better far to learn the lesson of faith, and so be filled with peace, resting in the Lord. II. The rest of strength. This is a far higher thing than that we have now considered. It is a voluntary rest, which is to some extent within our own power; it is a sign of vigour rather than weakness, of strong will rather than of over-taxed effort. This rest of conscious strength is closely associated with every Christian grace, and is as necessary to our success in the conflicts of the divine life, as it is to the culture of our higher nature. Neither faith, nor hope, nor love can be maintained within us without the rest of faith, the rest of hope, and the rest of love. Faith fights a good fight, which requires, however, that it rest in God. And hope, too, needs to rest in the fruition of that which God has given. And love is quickened by quiet hours of patient waiting for the Lord. Prayer, also, and work depend on resting in the Lord. It often requires all our strength “ to sit still” and believe in the love of God, and even to augment our confidence in that love, when what we think to be our proper interests are disregarded, and apparently trifled with, and perhaps in our view utterly sacrificed. The philosopher maunders to us about “ general laws,” and “ the good of the whole” ; the unafflicted Christian does what is little better, he suggests a few of the commonplaces of consolation. “ Blessed is the man that maketh the Lord his trust!” III. I have now briefly to allude to a third form of this great duty and privilege--the rest of victory which flows out of deep faith; that peace with God which Jesus gives, which passes all understanding. Here patience has her perfect work, and is entire, wanting nothing. “ The Lord is my Shepherd,” says the holy psalmist, “ I shall want nothing.” (H. Reynolds, D. D.) Stillness in God The trial for which this precept is intended to strengthen us is the irritation to which all are tempted by the sight of successful wickedness. But there shall be a setting right of all such seeming injustice. But the precept has a wider application than this. I. What is implied in holding ourselves still in God. The word “ still” means “ hold thee in stillness upon God.” It is the quality of mind which is the opposite of restlessness. And we are to “ hold still in God” in reference both to things temporal and things spiritual. Restlessness has a twofold sort of bitterness which trust in God must extirpate.1. It springs from dissatisfaction with the present, or from anxiety about the future. There is a deep melancholy in the heart of every man, bound up in the very bundle of his life, which, like the breath of myrrh, is ever ready to spread itself over all his being; and in spirits of the deepest tone there is most of this: it is the yearning after our true portion, but it will make all life restless unless we learn to lean upon God, believing that He is Truth and Love, and is ours through Christ Jesus. In common life this must be our rest; and in great sorrow too. Then we must learn to be at rest, not indeed by striving unnaturally not to feel sorrow, but by our taking the sorrow from God. It is not being sanguine, but being trustful, that is required of us. 2. And in things spiritual the precept is just the same. Stillness the very opposite of self-trust, which is the common root of these two false schemes--seemingly so opposite--of the spiritual life--the life of the mere formalist, and that of him who is engaged in a heart-eating searching into his own frame and feelings. For both are building on self, not on God. It is not that silence of spirit, that meditation and stillness, that uniting upon God which are so closely connected with true religion. And this stillness is, perhaps, that feature of religion which is most seldom to be met with in our day. It is a busy age, and we love activity. We need to be silent before God in order to realize our personal reconciliation with Him through the blood of Atonement, to walk in His Spirit, to spend our lives as His obedient, trusting children. Now, this is the essence of Christianity. II. It is most blessed, both in regard to our temporal life and that which is spiritual. For in it we become transformed and bear God’ s impress. All growth is silent. It is not in the lordly storm, or in the over-mastering hurricane that Nature puts forth her powers of growth and increase. It is amidst the drenching dews, in the still dawning of the spring-time, that the leaf unfolds itself, and the tender shoot steals upwards. And these works of nature are all symbols of the inner growth. In times of quietness the heart unfolds itself before God. If you would grow in grace, enter into thy closet and shut to thy door upon the world; shut it most of all upon thy busy unresting self, and then God shall speak to thee. How silent, surely, is an angel’ s heart when God is nigh; how is self hushed there; how, as some earthly vapour by the sun, is every power of His mighty being drawn up into adoration! And this truly is to know Him. III. How are we to grow in this great grace? And, first, need I say, that such growth must be the work of His grace. That it is not natural to us; that nothing is, indeed, less natural. Only the Spirit brooding over our hearts can secure this. He renews, calms, cools, purifies them. He who said to the waves, “ Peace, be still,” must create this great calm. Therefore must we draw near to God if we would win so great a blessing. This must be our rule. Draw near to Him in the covenant of His Son’ s blood: to Him as the Loving, the True, the Great: as Love, as Truth, as Holiness, as Power, gathered into one adorable Person; one real Being; and that Being your portion, your friend, your rest: for “ this is life eternal, to know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent.” (Bishop S. Wilberforce.) Rest in the Lord Our text being where it is in this psalm is an instance of the great rule that the Lord does nothing by halves. In Psalms 37:1 the Lord found His servant liable to fretfulness and envy, and exhorted him to cease from fretting; and He did not stay the operation of His grace till He had perfected that which concerned him, and brought him up to the elevated point of our text, “ Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him.” Rest is a blessing which properly belongs to the people of God, although they do not enjoy one tithe so much of it as they might. So let us consider-- I. The steps to this royal chamber of repose. They are shown in this psalm--1. “ Fret not thyself.” You are not in the fields among the wild beasts; cease to hunt them: Come within doors into your Father’ s house. Come away from contact with worldlings. The griefs which make the ungodly pine are not for you. Then-- 2. When you have thus come out of the field into the palace of love, the first staircase is described as “ trust and do.” “ Trust in the Lord and do good.” Not a dead faith which will not serve you at all, but one which will “ do” as well as receive. It is through the exercise of faith that comfort comes to the heart. When thou hast learned this lesson, thou wilt have ascended a noble staircase of the royal palace, and it will land thee in the King’ s dining-room, where it is written, “ Verily thou shalt be fed.” If thou hast a living, active faith, thou shalt be provided for. Leave the fields, and thy brethren sowing there, who are complaining that their Father never gave them a kid to make merry with their friends--leave them and come up this first staircase of active faith, and sit down where a feast is spread. Then-- 3. Ascend higher, and climb the next staircase, which is marked “ Delight and desire.” “ Delight thyself also in the Lord, and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart.” Think what a good God thou hast; yea, what a blessed God He is. We have mounted now to the royal treasury, the King’ s almonry. Here He bids you open all your heart, and pour forth your desires, for He will satisfy them. But you are not up to the royal rest-chamber yet. 4. Climb another stair, marked, “ Commit thy way and trust.” All the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord. What hast thou to do in ordering thine own way? Now, this brings us into the undressing-room, which stands side by side with the royal bedchamber. Take off the dusty garments of thy cares and commit them to the Lord. Strip thyself of all thy anxieties, and leave thy worn and travel-stained raiment. Then enter the quiet chamber and take your rest; “ Rest in the Lord.” II. The rest.1. It is a rest of mind, a sense of security and fixedness;2. Contentment.3. Immovable confidence.4. Submission to all God’ s will. The Hebrew is, “ Be silent to God.” One of the old versions reads it, “ Hold thou still before God.”5. Patient waiting. Feel that you can waive your desires, and tarry the Lord’ s leisure.6. Peace, unmixed calm.7. Expectation, especially in regard to the Kingdom of God. Do not fret about that. III. The royal chamber. “ Rest in the Lord,” in Himself.1. As your covenant God.2. As your Father.3. In His attributes.4. His word. 5. His will. So that, we can say, “ Not as I will, but as Thou wilt.” (C. H. Spurgeon.) Resting and waiting I. The meaning of the words. There are many passages which breathe a similar spirit.1. The meaning here is implied by contrast--see the beginning of the psalm, as to fretting; anxious, worldly care; the unrest of the wicked, of which sin is the great cause. 2. Then think of the Lord Himself, and we see that to rest in Him is to trust in Him, and to be still and silent in our trust: resting, we wait in patient hope and in the assurance of love. II. Their application. This fitting when--1. We are troubled about the slow progress of the Gospel. Or, 2, about the general dispensations of God’ s providence. The wicked prosper. Our own personal trials, temporal and spiritual. But resting in the Lord is the secret of the highest life, the truest strength and the richest blessedness. (G. L. Jarman.) Rest in the Lord 1. It may need to be a quiet waiting. The word “ rest” literally means that--“ Be silent to the Lord.” The best thing may be, at times, to wait quietly. There once was an alarm of fire in a crowded hall, and a general rush was made to the door. The alarm proved to be a false one, and by and by the people got back to their seats. It was noticed, however, that one little girl had not moved, and on being asked why, it turned out that her father was a member of the fire brigade, and that he had often impressed upon her that if ever she found herself in a situation of that kind, she was to sit still. That is what God often told His servants of old, and what He tells us yet through His Word, with regard to trying experiences; but how hard to learn the lesson, and obey! “ Their strength is to sit still.” 2. But, assuredly, it should be a hopeful waiting. Let not the stillness be mere torpor. Let not the dumbness be numbness. “ Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him,” says the psalmist; and that word “ yet” is the keynote of the whole psalm. Perhaps the highest and most difficult thing of all, however, is that it be a patient waiting. Hope may be deferred, the dawn may seem never to be coming, and yet be patient--patient. “ All will come right,” are the words put on the tombstone of President Brand, a late President of the Orange Free State. It was a remark he was in the habit of making in his lifetime. If our trust be in God, may we not take them up too? (J. S. Maver, M. A.) The believer’ s rest I. Rest from wandering. O my heart, how thou didst wander, like a weary pilgrim, through the Egypt of thy bondage! Thou didst wander to Sinai, where thou didst hear the law that made thee tremble. Thou didst wander across the wilderness of Sin, where thy good works vexed and tired thee, and thine evil works, like fiery serpents, bit thee; but that is all over now. My soul, thou hast crossed the Jordan, and having found Christ thou hast no inclination to wander more. II. Rest from all our foes. III. Rest in the sense of confidence. In this meaning of the word we do really “ rest in the Lord.” We are not Christians if we do not, for the very first mark of a believer is that he rests in Christ for everything. Whatever need thou hast, rest thou on the bare arm of God to supply it. IV. Rest in the sense of safety. V. Perfect rest from weariness. We read in Isaiah’ s prophecy, “ This is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest;” and I know there are some weary ones here. You are not weary of God’ s work, but you are weary of bearing Christ’ s cross, you have had so much shame and so much sorrow; well, “ rest in the Lord.” VI. The rest of accomplishment. Either Christ completed all that was necessary for your salvation, or He did not. If He did finish it, then rest in Him, and be glad. VII. The rest of complete satisfaction. Having Christ, we want nothing more. If we go up or down, to the right or to the left, we can find nothing beyond our Lord. VIII. The rest of conscious enjoyment. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Silent and patient waiting for the Lord I. Rest in the lord.1. This implies that we are the Lord’ s people. (1) By the enlightenment of our minds, the forgiveness of our sins, the regeneration of our nature, and adoption into the family of God.(2) By separation from the unclean, by self-dedication to God, and by solemn covenant engagements. 2. Being the Lord’ s, we should rest in Him. 3. To rest in the Lord is to be silent in the Lord. Be still; and think not hard thoughts of God, because He permits thee to suffer. Be still; and murmur not against the Lord, because He does not deliver thee at once out of thy distresses. II. Wait patiently for him.1. “ Wait” signifies to be strong, firm, stable; to wait, stay, delay: to wait for, to await, from the notion of enduring, holding out, which is kindred with that of strength. It signifies to wait upon God in prayer, with faith and patience. 2. “ Wait patiently” --however long. 3. “ For Him.” To wait for the Lord is to wait for His promised help, and to hope in Him for deliverance out of all our troubles. Hope in God maketh not ashamed. His help will come, if we wait; His help will be sufficient when it does come. (H. O. Crofts, D. D.) The gate to the waiting-place When a man has once come into right relations with God, has begun to live for others rather than for self, when his desires are summed up in the prayer--“ Thy kingdom come,” he is apt to grow uneasy as he sees how slow the Divine kingdom is in coming, and how many indications there are of the presence and tremendous power of another and hostile kingdom in society. This psalm is addressed to a soul which is confused and alarmed by this aspect of the world. Over against it all it sets the great truth--“ God reigns,” and the consequent precept--“ Trust in Him.” “ Yes,” is the reply, “ but He is so long in bringing it to pass: He makes me wait so long.” So He does, and probably will; and it is this side of the lesson of faith in God which I want to bring out of this psalm--the lesson of waiting.1. We are to wait unwaveringly (verse 84). God brings men to His consummations only by His own road. And this is often a severe trial of faith. It is as when one has been travelling for long hours over a rough road, amid storm and mist, with night drawing on, looking, as he gains the top of every successive hill, for the spires of the city to which he is going, and seeing instead only a new stretch of dreary road, and a new hill to be climbed--he is tempted to think his guide has lost the way, and to take matters into his own hands. To the man who waits on God it is indispensable that he trust his guide. 2. To wait on the Lord rightly is to wait cheerfully. “ Fret not thyself,” says the psalmist (Psalms 37:1), “ because of evil-doers;” and again (verse8), “ fret not thyself in any wise to do evil.” You have seen two children bidden by their parent to wait in a certain place for an hour, until he should return, or until some promised pleasure should be prepared: and you have seen the one cheerfully occupy himself with a book or with some object at hand, while the other, though he obeyed the command to remain, fretted, and watched the clock, and wondered when father would return, and was angry because he did not come sooner, and began to fear that he would not come at all, and so made himself generally miserable until the hour had expired. Thus, obedience is not always cheerful; and just in proportion to its lack of this element, it is defective. For obedience is of the very nature of faith. 3. We may wait confidently. The psalm backs its exhortations by numerous promises (Psalms 37:8; Psalms 37:4; Psalms 37:6; Psalms 37:29). Look especially at Psalms 37:23. We have been watching the course of a man in God’ s way--a traveller who is long in coming to the end--on whom God’ s providence imposes various and trying delays. To the eye of reason it seems as though the man were walking aimlessly; as though his life, with its continual interruption, and confusion, and stumbling, and baffling, were an utter, irredeemable failure. And so it seems not only to reason, but to weak faith. There have come times to most of us when we have lost out of our lives all sense of plan or order, and have just gone on from day to day, doing and taking what the day brought with it. We have thought, I say, that those were disordered periods. They were not. Did you ever study the waves of the ocean? If so, you have noticed that each wave was full of little, irregular swirlings and eddies, moving in all possible directions. And if you could fasten your eyes upon a square foot of that water and shut out all the rest, you might say that it was a mere watery chaos; but when your eye takes in the whole wave, you see that a common movement propels its whole mass, and takes up into itself all these minor movements, and bears them on with the regularity of a marching host. So these spaces of apparent confusion in our lives are not out of order. They are carried on in the larger order of God’ s plan. Perhaps we cannot see the whole movement, but it bears steadily and continuously onward, every incident, every crossing and confusion of incidents swept on at God’ s own rate, and in nice adjustment with God’ s own plan. Mark, too, that the “ steps” are ordered. The whole way is ordered, it is true, but ordered through the steps. Just as gravitation acts upon each separate particle of the stone which rolls down the mountain-side, so God’ s general providence reaches its result through the special providences. The philosopher sneers at the marking of the sparrow’ s fall; but it is in the ordering of just such details that God fulfils Himself in history. So our lives are what their details are. The only thing we are to be careful about is that we step each time in God’ s track. (March: R. Vincent, D. D.) Patient waiting upon God There are many who may wait, but they do not wait patiently upon God. They soon lose heart and lose expectation. They think that everything is against them, because in the little space that they can cover, and the little vision that they possess, they cannot discern that for which they wait. This is especially the case with Christian men in their Christian work. They want the reaper to tread upon the very heels of him that sows the seed. They wish to gather in the harvest almost as scan as they have ploughed the soil or cast in the grain. They forget that they are fellow-workers with God, and that God’ s working-day is all time and all eternity. They lose heart and lose faith, and then very speedily they cease to work altogether. It is still more difficult to bear suffering patiently than to serve and to do duty patiently. It is much more easy to bear a heavy affliction, if it be short, than to bear a long affliction, though it be light. In the one case the stroke may stun us, but we may speedily recover and gain new strength and fresh hope. In the other case, the long, weary, exhausting affliction seems to wear out all elasticity, all strength, and all hope in the soul. “ Hope deferred makes the heart sick,” and when that hope is long deferred it often breaks the heart altogether. Hope is the grace of the young; patience is the grace of the mature. Hope is the flush of the morning-dawn, bright and gladsome, indeed; patience is the seeing sun in its golden softness and beauty, gilding and crowning the last hours of the day. Hope enters into the battle full of expectation, and confidence, and strength; patience is the virtue of the veteran who has gained it in many a struggle, in many a march, and in many a triumph. It is much more easy to work energetically if the day of service be short, than to work patiently, faithfully unto the long day’ s end; and it is much more easy to bear the shower that drenches you than to bear the drizzling mist that comes down and wraps you in coldness and chili, (J. Jenkyn Brown.) Fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way.-- The prosperity of the wicked considered I. With regard to God. Though prejudice is too apt to whisper that God’ s ways are not equal, yet a very little serious reflection on His wisdom and justice, and the ends of His various dispensations, together with our own undeservings, would effectually calm all anxious concern or repining on this account. And to any one that shall be so impertinent as to require satisfaction as to God’ s distributions, our Saviour’ s answer to St. Peter may be a sufficient reply: “ If I will” that it be thus or thus, “ what is that to thee?” II. With regard to the persons said to be thus prosperous. Would we allow ourselves leisure to view the precipice which the most exalted sinner stands upon, how unsure his footing, how liable to be shaken by opposition from below, or the hand of vengeance from above, and how much more fatal a fall may be from so dangerous an height; we should find nothing so tempting in it as to raise our discontent, or provoke one wish to change an innocent inglorious safety for so hazardous an eminence. III. With regard to ourselves. We come all into the world alike naked and defenceless; and it is to the same bountiful hand, which clothes the lilies of the field, we owe our food and raiment. Now, if these are sufficient for our support and even well-being, and all beyond what is requisite for our comfort and convenience, be allowed to be more than what is strictly necessary; why should we quarrel with Providence for not loading us with what, by our own confession, is superfluous, and therefore insignificant to any useful purpose? Do we do well to be angry, if, having a proper competency, we want only what would be a clog and incumbrance? Nay, even though the Almighty should reduce, instead of exalting us, and assign us trouble and disgrace, where perhaps we might hope for a better lot; yet will it not be difficult to find a lenitive for this grievance. Add to this, that a contented deportment, under adversity or distress, is the most probable means of engaging the Almighty to withdraw His scourge. (J. Roe, M. A.) The folly of fretful envy of the wicked I. The passion rankling in the heart has an evil tendency.1. It inflicts an injury on the soul of its possessor. Malign passions are to the soul what the legions of locusts are to the vegetation of the East--they eat up the life. Aye, worse than locusts, they are fiends, kindling fires that burn down to the very centre of being, and reduce to ashes the better parts of human nature. 2. It stimulates to the infliction of injury upon others. “ Anger stirreth up strife.” Men, under the influence of anger, are ever disposed to mischief; their tongues deal out slander, their hands are lifted in battle, and their feet are “ swift to shed blood.” II. The connection of the wicked with the earth is not enviable.1. It is exposed to a violent termination. “ Evil-doers shall be cut off.” It is said the “ wicked shall be driven away in his wickedness.” He does not leave the world with a free will. All his sympathies, interests, hopes, are rooted in the earth, and he will hold on to the last with the energy of desperation; still he must go. 2. It is utterly unsatisfying, III. Their opposition brings on them terrible misery.1. The seed of the serpent has from the beginning had a venomous animosity to the good. This animosity is here represented (1) As cunning, it “ plotteth against the just” ; it is fertile in schemes of ruin. (2) As raging. It “ gnasheth upon him.” Like the hidden fire of the volcano, it reveals itself by terrible vibrations. (3) As practical. Plan and passion will not satisfy it, it must work, and work with more implements than one--“ sword and bow.” In how many ways the wicked labour to beat down the ideas, thwart the plans, and wound the feelings of the righteous! 2. But all this opposition only brings ruin on themselves. The ruin involves (1) The contempt of Jehovah. Can the boldest imagination create a figure to give a more terrible representation of misery than this--the “ laugh” of the Infinite? Sooner let Him hurl His thunders at me, and rain down His fires on my spirit than laugh at me. (2) The recoil of their own purposes. “ Their sword shall enter their own heart, and their bows shall be broken.” A remarkable instance of the kind may be found in Esther (chaps. 5-7.) in the case of Haman. A straightforward course is easy, and men are safe in it; but it requires more skill than most men are endowed with to manage a crooked and crafty policy safely, or so as to be safe themselves in pursuing such a course. (Homilist.) Psalms 37:8 Fret not thyself in any wise to do evil. Fretfulness I. It is a sin against God. Caesar having prepared a sumptuous feast for his nobles and friends, the day appointed for it proved so inclement, that all went wrong. He was so much out of temper on this account, that he commanded all who had bows to shoot their arrows upward toward Jupiter, their chief god, as being the cause of their disappointment. The silly order was obeyed, but the arrows, instead of striking the mark aimed at, fell back with violence on their own heads. Thus, also, the inconsiderate complaints of the fretful are, in fact, arrows shot in defiance against the majesty of God, but certain to hurt none but those who send them. II. It is sure to destroy affection, and is the bane of domestic happiness. Husbands, wives, children, relatives, or servants have little real love for the fretful and the fault-finding. III. It oftentimes encourages and cultivates a spirit of hypocrisy in those who are brought under its baneful influence. Everybody is afraid of arousing the unhappy disposition and calling down the tempest on their own heads. Hence children and servants get into the habit of concealing all they possibly can from those who are so little disposed to make allowance and go forgive. They cannot get up their courage to be frank and open-hearted, and deceit and falsehood are the consequence. Fretfulness is always foolish; always a thing to be sorry for and ashamed of. Bitterness, harshness, and fault-finding are the offspring of it--and these are no agreeable inmates of the soul. However uncomfortable and hard our lot may be, it certainly will not make matters better to be sour with the world, and crusty and crabbed to those about us. (John W. Norton.) Psalms 37:10-11 For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be: yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not be.But the meek shall inherit the earth. The character and blessedness of the meek I. The nature of christian meekness. It stands opposed to--1. Hastiness and violence of temper.2. That of the haughty and vindictive.3. That which is positive, dogmatical and unteachable. II. What is declared concerning such characters. Whatever opinion the world may form of them, they are highly privileged and blessed. They “ shall possess the earth, and be refreshed,” nay, even “ delight themselves in the multitude or abundance, of peace.” They may not have the largest share of earthly good things; but they are the men who will ever have the purest and most proper enjoyment of what God has allotted them. In this view, “ better is a little that the righteous hath, than great riches of the ungodly.” But the meek-spirited are here represented as not only possessing tranquillity or peace, but the multitude, the abundance thereof; and as being not only refreshed, but delighted therein. Gracious tempers, the fruits of the Spirit, are conducive to present felicity as well as preparatives for future glory: there is both peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. (S. Knight, M. A.) Christian meekness Is it to the future only, or also to the present, that such a promise as this may be said to have respect? We believe assuredly that it relates to both. There is a large and beautiful sense in which the meek do already inherit the earth. But there is something too expansive in the words to allow of our supposing the present to be their perfect fulfilment. From the very character which they hear, the meek for the most part are trampled on and oppressed; so that in place of being given over to their sway, the earth is most commonly wrenched from their possession. But if the promise mark out to us a season when the rebellious shall have been swept from the globe, when the saints of every generation shall assemble from the sepulchres, and shall reign with their Lord over a renovated world, then indeed, we may literally maintain--“ Blessed are the meek; for they shall inherit the earth.” First of all, who are the “ meek” ? We go to Christ for a description of meekness, and we gather that we should be forbearing, forgiving, patient under injuries and contradiction. But distinguish between that meekness which may be only the effect of constitution, and another which is the clear produce of grace. Natural virtues belong only to man’ s animal soul, and must not be confounded with the properties and virtues over which death has no power. With many men there is so much amiableness of temper that though strangers altogether to religion, they deserve to be called “ meek” in the common acceptation of the term. In many cases, this constitutional meekness, if rigidly examined, will be found to spring from a love of ease; at all events, it is a mere quality of the animal soul, and ought not to be substituted for that holy meekness which Jesus exhibited. Christian meekness is in the largest sense compatible with Christian boldness, so that he who will submit to taunts and injuries, and give only prayers in return for revilings and wrongs, may yet in the hour of a nation’ s danger, or the Church’ s peril, rise up as a hero with the fire in his eye, and nerve in his arm, to stand against a host for his country and his God. Christian meekness must chiefly result, first from a deep sense of our own unworthiness; and, secondly, an earnest love of our fellow-men. He who is humble in the meek consciousness of his own vileness as a sinner, will invariably be averse from all overbearing; and he who is zealous for the well-being of others will forbear and forgive, and keep down resentment, however injurious the conduct of others. Thus, without asserting that meekness is composed of no other ingredients, we think humility and love are amongst its chief. Imagine the case of a man who is all alive to the conviction that he is wholly unworthy the favour of his Maker; and that the blessing cannot be mentioned which he is entitled to claim. Not indeed that every believer is fraught as he ought to be with a conviction like this. But the feeling ought to be paramount, so far as meekness is made up of a sense of unworthiness; and he alone is a meek man to whom every day mercies wear the character of wonders. And inasmuch as the meek man possesses this consciousness, he may justly be said to inherit the earth. He traces a Father’ s hand; he reads a Father’ s tenderness in the daily allotments of food and clothing and habitation. The earth sends not up the blade of corn which seems not a wonder in his eye, because given to transgressors. The drop of water leaps not from the fountain which sparkles not with prodigy, because intended for the refreshment of those who have sinned against God. A ray of light falls on no human habitation which does not appear as a miracle, because illuminating the dwelling-place of the friendless and the prodigal. Thus the earth will be to the Christian a very different scene from what it is to others. Others possess the earth--the meek inherit the earth. Others move upon its provinces, gather in its productions, and delight in its riches, but they cannot survey it with the feelings of an heir. Glance at the second characteristic or ingredient into which we resolved the meekness of the Christian--earnest love for his fellow-men. And surely in proportion as a man acquires this love he may clearly be said to inherit the earth. In place of being broken into tribes and kindreds, each separated from the rest by its own interests and concerns, the millions of our race become as one vast household, every individual of which is a brother. What then? The spot cannot be found where the meek man being placed shall be quite a stranger. I say you cannot place him where there is no object of his love, none in whose welfare he has no interest. Wherever he journeys he may still be said to be at home. Thus the meek man possesses the earth; nay, rather, inherits the earth. He possesses it by family compact--by the claims and the rights of relationship; and the possession thus obtained is possession by heirship. Only then allow that the meek man must be animated with the love of all men, and you also allow that he turns the whole human population into one household, and that household his own. And if we have thus a home in the earth in its length and breadth, we contend it is fairly and literally made out that the meek man inherits the earth. And assuredly that must be a blessed thing; so that the promise of our text should animate us to the cultivation of Christian meekness. (H. Melvill, B. D.) Psalms 37:12-15 The wicked plotteth against the just, and gnasheth upon him with his teeth.The plottings of the wicked against the good That the wicked plot against the just is matter of history, and of everyday experience. They envy the moral character of the good, with the respect it wins and the influence it wields. They are also rebuked by the quiet dignity of the Christian character, and hence, through sheer hatred, seek to persecute and remove it out of their sight. I. The plottings of the wicked against the good are wrathful. “ And gnasheth upon him,” etc. The wicked show by their gestures the rage they indulge against, and injury they would inflict upon, the good if it were in their power. II. The plottings of the wicked against the good are cruel. “ The wicked have drawn out the sword.” They have drawn the weapon out of the sheath and await the time to use it. III. The plottings of the wicked against the good are determined. “ And have bent their bow.” They take steady aim that they may wound a vital part. And thus the wicked, in their plottings against the just, make use of all the instrumentalities they can command, exercise all the talents they possess, and are strong in their determination to achieve the end they contemplate. IV. The plottings of the wicked against the good are cowardly. They attack the feeble who are too meek in spirit to suspect their mischief, or to defend themselves from it; they attack the poor who have not wherewith to protect themselves from the assaults of their imperious enemies. Wicked men are generally cowardly. They have not the courage of their rage, or the valour of their determination. V. The plottings of the wicked against the good are self-destructive. The very weapon intended for the destruction of the good, under the mysterious but retributive arrangements of Divine providence, shall be employed in the defeat of the wicked. The wicked are often hung upon gallows built by themselves. Lessons:--1. It is foolish for the wicked to plot against the good. 2. Such plottings are intelligible to the good, being explained by the enmity of the world to Christ. 3. Such plottings are not to be feared, but are to be outlived by trust in God. (Joseph S. Exell, M. A.) Psalms 37:16-20A little that a righteous man hath is better than the riches of many wicked.The folly of fretful envy I. The good in comparative poverty are better off than the wicked with plenty, “ A little that a righteous man hath is better than the riches of many wicked.” Better for two reasons.1. His condition would be a more enjoyable one. He would have higher happiness, tits happiness would spring from within, that of the other from without. The happiness of the one selfish, the other generous; the one decreasing, the other heightening. 2. His condition would be a more honourable one. The one is honoured for what he has, the other for what he is. The one is honoured only here by the depraved, the other is honoured yonder by angels and by God. II. The good are divinely supported, but the wicked shall lose their power, “ The arms of the wicked shall be broken; but the Lord upholdeth the righteous.”1. The power of the wicked to execute their purpose is to be destroyed. They have often a great deal of power, the arm of literature, commerce, law, war, and with these they work out their iniquitous plans; but the “ arms” are not imperishable. 2. The power of the good to prosecute their mission will he Divinely sustained. (1) The power to do good is Divine.(2) Divine power is indestructible. “ If God be for us, who can be against us?” III. The good shall have a permanent inheritance, but ruin is the doom of the wicked. “ The Lord knoweth the days of the upright, and their inheritance shall be for ever.” What is the “ inheritance” of the righteous? The Lord Himself. “ The Lord is my portion.”1. This “ inheritance” will preclude all disappointment. “ They shall not be ashamed in the evil time.” Whatever comes, whatever the wrecks of life, and the riot of confusion, with this “ inheritance” there will he calm courage. “ I am persuaded that neither life nor death,” etc. 2. This “ inheritance” will yield satisfaction under the most unfavourable circumstances. (Homilist.) The righteous and his little, better than the wicked with his much The little may be better than the much This is Heaven’ s arithmetic. Why is the little better? I. Because it is honestly gained. Either the product of healthy labour, of commendable skill, or of lawful inheritance. II. Because it may be safely retained. Prayer and benevolence are a great preservative to wealth. III. Because it may be truly enjoyed. IV. Because it will be carefully spent. V. Because it will be benevolently used. The righteous gain by giving. A running stream inherits the most territory. VI. Because it will be divinely blessed. Lessons:--1. To be satisfied with little.2. To make little sufficient.3. To use little well. (Joseph Exell, M. A.) The advantages of the virtuous for the enjoyment of external good I. A good man has greater enjoyment, purer and more solid satisfaction, from a little, than the wicked can have from the largest fortune.1. Vice produces a temper which is very unfavourable to our enjoyment. It destroys the constitution, and breaks the vigour of the soul. It subjects it to the most uneasy feelings and the most painful passions (Isaiah 1:5-6). The fiercest shocks of thunder, winds, and rains cannot produce more dreadful convulsions in the frame of nature, than those into which tumultuous, exorbitant, and jarring passions throw the soul: they ravage all its enjoyments. 2. On the other hand, virtue establishes a temper in the soul, which fits us for taking pleasure in whatever we possess. It dispels the black clouds which overcast the vicious heart, and intercept the comfort which might arise from outward things: they are scattered by its brightness; they fly away before it as the shadows of the night before the rising sun. A virtuous temper lays the mind open to every satisfaction that comes in its way, prepares it for embracing and enjoying it; and it renders the man so well disposed, so happy in himself, that almost every object throws some satisfaction in his way. II. His enjoyment is more durable.1. As bodily distemper, from small beginnings, increases till it prove mortal, as one disease neglected is the cause of many others; so the vices of the depraved heart daily acquire new strength by indulgence; they propagate many more; they infect the temper and disorder the constitution with a growing multitude of tormenting passions; they root guilt, remorse, and terror deeper in the soul. Whatever good qualities he once possessed, they will be gradually choked by his spreading vices; they will wither and decay; his capacity of enjoyment will be blasted in the same proportion. The man who never thinks of rectifying the depravities of his temper, but goes on to indulge them without control, must at last become abandoned, and insusceptible of genuine satisfaction. 2. The enjoyment of the good man is in every respect the reverse. Like his practice, it is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day. His virtue does not merely secure the continuance of that relish which he has for true pleasure; it improves his relish in proportion as itself is, by careful practice, strengthened and refined. By daily progress in holiness, he will be more and more possessed of that heavenly serenity of soul, which, by giving him the full enjoyment of himself, prepares him for deriving high and solid satisfaction from every agreeable circumstance in his worldly condition. III. But a strong objection seems to arise from experience: the wicked, it may be urged, have actually a greater, and the righteous a less degree of enjoyment than we have asserted. We admit the fact; if the wicked were so totally destitute of enjoyment as we have represented them to be, their life would be insupportable: but we maintain that, when this fact is examined, instead of weakening our argument, it will confirm it. We have hitherto supposed the character to be purely virtuous, or purely vicious, that by viewing virtue and vice separately, we might the better discover the genuine tendency of both: but every human character is mixed, composed of some virtues and some vices; and the actual enjoyment of every human creature is affected by each of the ingredients which enter into the composition. Every abatement to which the good man’ s enjoyment is liable in this mixed state, is to be placed to the account of vice and whatever degree of enjoyment the world can convey to the wicked, is to be ascribed to their imperfect virtues.1. If these things be so, need we be surprised that so few are really happy? Is it not rather surprising that so many find life tolerable? 2. Need we be concerned that outward things are distributed so promiscuously, or so unequally? It is in the power of every man, by the assistance of God’ s grace, to cultivate a virtuous and holy temper: and this is infinitely more important to his enjoyment than the gaudiest distinctions of external state. 3. Would we be truly happy? Let us be virtuous. It is not more our duty than it is our interest. (A. Gerard, D. D.) How to make much of a little 1. See, in any poor cottage, where true devotion and honest industry abide, how far even very scant wages will go towards providing the real comforts of life. It is not only that Christian patience makes them content with a little, but somehow Christian prudence teaches them to make the most of that little, so that it seems to grow in their hands, and to reach further in the way of making them comfortable than any one would have thought possible. 2. Nor is it less surprising, on the other hand, to see how irreligion wears out and destroys, if not the riches themselves of worldly men, at least all the enjoyment and pleasure that might be looked for in them. How often do we hear of great fortunes dissipated unexpectedly, and nothing, people say, to show for it all I 3. This becomes still plainer when we come down to more particulars--to the things wherein people are supposed particularly to enjoy their wealth. “ Better is a dinner of herbs, where love is, than a stalled ox, and barred therewith.” Who would not rather be St. John in the wilderness, with the leathern girdle about his loins, and his meat locusts and wild honey, than such a wealthy king as Herod, “ making a feast to his lords, high captains, and chief estates of Galilee” ? 4. It is the same in the matter of health and strength. A saint on a sick-bed--Hezekiah turning his face to the wall and praying--shall do more, shall really exert more power to change the face of the world, than a mighty conqueror, such as Sennacherib, at the head of his army. 5. One chief supposed advantage of wealth is, that it enables men to choose their company, and to abound in all social enjoyment; but one sure friend that the righteous hath is worth all the companions of the ungodly. Elijah in the wilderness, with now and then a visit from an angel: did he not find that the remembrance of those rare moments cast a light over all his long, solitary hours, which quite prevented them from being tedious? Did he ever wish himself, think you, in Ahab’ s place, with his many friends and allies, and his seventy children? 6. Nay, and the same rule holds, not only in respect of outward things, but of knowledge also, and scholarship, and acquaintance even with divine matters. Thus a little drop of knowledge, touched by Divine grace, may swell into a sea: as the wise son of Sirach describes God’ s dealings with himself: “ I came out,” he says, “ as a brook from a river, and as a conduit into a garden: I said, I will water my best garden, and will water abundantly my garden bed; and lo, my brook became a river, and my river became a sea.” Because he applied himself to his immediate and nearest duty with all [ is heart, God blessed him with large and high knowledge, beyond all the ungodly wisdom of the world. 7. Such is God’ s mercy on the one hand, and the perverseness of men on the other, that, even in respect of spiritual blessings also, the psalmist’ s saying holds true. A little measure of grace well employed, and received into a heart willing to be made righteous, is better--far better--than the highest spiritual privileges, when God, in His unsearchable judgments, has vouchsafed them to unworthy persons. Here is comfort for those who seem to be placed in less favourable circumstances than others; less within reach of the means of grace; farther from churches, or with rarer opportunities of receiving the Sacraments. I do not deny that their loss is great: yet our Lord not doubtfully gives us to understand that it may be made up, though they themselves know not how, by increased and most earnest prayers and endeavours on their part. They may be like the woman of Canaan, who, although she was in the place of the dogs, yet was allowed a portion of the children’ s bread, because of her great faith, her persevering and humble prayer. (Plain Sermons by Contributors to the “ Tracts for the Times. ”) Gladness under constrained conditions As I was writing these words there broke upon my ears the song of a canary bird hanging in the room overhead. Its thrilling notes were not a whir less joyous than those which I have often heard rained down from the infinite expanse of heaven by the little skylark of my native land. In spite of its cage that tiny warbler sings, and when its young mistress goes to speak to it, there is a flutter of joy in its wings as with ruffled neck and chattering gladness it leaps to bid her welcome. So let us accept our bonds, whether of poverty, or weakness, or duty, as the bird accepts its cage. You may cage the bird, but you cannot cage its song. No more can you confine or restrain the joy of the heart which, accepting its condition, sees God in it and greets Him from it. (W. M. Taylor.) Psalms 37:18 The Lord knoweth the days of the upright: and their inheritance shall be for ever. The portion of the upright I. The persons spoken of--the upright, a character equally rare and excellent. II. The period--their days. These are known of God. He knows them kindly and graciously, and will make them all work together for good. How varied are their days: days of affliction, of danger, etc. But He knows them all. III. The portion--their inheritance shall be for ever. So was not the inheritance of many of the angels in heaven; nor of Adam in Paradise; nor of the Jews in Canaan; nor of the man of this world. But the Christian inheritance is for ever. In the world we may have many losses, but they cannot affect our state. (W. Jay.) Psalms 37:21-26 The wicked borroweth, and payeth not again: but the righteous showeth mercy, and giveth.The superiority of the righteous to the wicked I. In relation to society.1. The righteous man here is put in social contrast to the wicked, which “ borroweth” and doth not pay. David means to say that the wicked are often in society needy and dishonest. 2. In contrast with this, look at the righteous, “ The righteous showeth mercy and giveth.” (1) He has the means of helping. Moral goodness is favourable to secular prosperity. As a rule the genuinely religious are not too indigent to render some help to their fellow-men. (2) He has always the disposition to help. “ The righteous showeth mercy and giveth.” The instinct of generous communication is the law of his life. Why should such a man, then, envy the wicked? II. In relation to God.1. He blesses the righteous, but not the wicked. “ Such as be blessed of Him.” 2. He establishes the righteous, but not the wicked. “ The steps of a good man,” etc. As God has put every planet into its separate orbit, and each to move around the sun, so He has put every good man in his particular course of life, and on that course he pursues his way with a vigour and a wisdom derived from heaven. 3. He is pleased with the righteous, but not with the wicked. “ He delighteth in his way.” III. In relation to the world.1. They will be kept from utter destitution. “ Though he fall he shall not be utterly cast down.” Moral goodness, though highly favourable to secular prosperity, is not an infallible guarantee against reverses in fortune and adversity. Albeit, they are not “ utterly cast down.” “ The Lord upholdeth him with His hand.” They may be persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed. 2. Neither they nor their children shall be utterly neglected. “ I have been young,” etc. (Homilist.) Psalms 37:23 The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord: and He deligteth in his way.The ordered steps That first step of your little child--what an event it is! Never again will single steps have such interest for you. And yet why not? In manhood, no less than in infancy, single steps are significant. You find it out sometimes in disagreeable ways. One step in the dark carries you off firm footing into an open trap, or down a bank. The first step down a wrong road is the beginning of troublesome, and possibly dangerous, wanderings. The first step to honour or fortune-how much meaning! I. God orders and establishes the details of his children’ s lives. Details are of immense importance everywhere. Step by step is the law of all progress. God moves masses through details. A man is what the details of his life are. In the Bible we see God busied not alone with great things, but He is constantly dealing with details. He is explaining a servant’ s dream; He is providing for a little castaway babe in a bulrush basket. And so it was in the life of Christ. His work was full of detail, of small incidents of little duties daily done. The same thing appears in Christ’ s preaching. He tells men how to live; but He says nothing about great, far-reaching plans of life. His talk is rather of living by the day, and letting the morrow take thought for the things of itself. He comes to reveal God to us: but His speech is not about the God of vast designs and transcendent power; rather of one who paints each lily of the fields, and feeds the birds, and marks the sparrow’ s fall, and numbers the hairs of our head. Thus you see one law--the law of the steps--running through physical and moral nature alike. Gravitation and Providence observe the same principle. God regulates the mass through the particles; society, through the individual; the individual, through the details of his life. II. And there is design and plan in all though we often fail to perceive this. Our little daily duties appear to have so slight relation to each other. But as one illustration that the truth is other than it seems, look at the familiar history of the life of Joseph. The steps of a good man, then, are ordered. He does not walk at random. And really you and I, in our measure, are familiar with the same fact, and act it out. You see in a son of yours promise of intellectual and moral power; and you set yourself to shape that boy’ s career, and you do shape it, and that by attending to its successive steps. Is there, then, anything strange in our heavenly Father’ s ordering the steps of His children? For a free will may choose to obey another will. If God has prepared tracks for my life, surely my very freedom of choice empowers me to keep to those tracks: and, to the obedient, loving soul, it is an immense comfort and relief to know that his life moves on prepared lines. I sat one evening in a window looking out on Charing Cross railway-station, with its trains arriving, and departing every few minutes, and its cross-tides of thronging people. A train stood on the track, and the bell rang for starting. In front, through the great archways, I looked out into the misty night. A few stray gleams of light revealed a labyrinth of rails, curving and crossing: above was a signal-stand--a great hieroglyph of green, red, and white lights, shifting every moment; and into this darkness and confusion the engine moved. What was it that made that engineer so quiet and confident? Why was he not disturbed and anxious at the chaos of rails and lights and the thick night beyond? Simply because everything was laid down for him. He had only to obey the signals, and drive his engine: the track was laid. Other minds had the care and responsibility of the switches and signal-lights: he had only to go forward, and to stop when bidden. “ I do not like the picture,” some one will perhaps say. “ It leaves me little to say about my life.” Well, change the picture if you will. Let the engineer go forth from the station on an engine not fitted to a track. Let him move out into the night, in the consciousness of independence and free choice, to avoid collision and wreck as he can. Have you bettered the matter any? Our own way means ruin; God’ s way is, and alone is, salvation. III. God is pleased with him who lets his steps be ordered. Literally the words read, “ From Jehovah is it that a man’ s steps are established, so that He hath pleasure in his way. We do God a great wrong when we picture Him as a creditor whose interest in his debtors begins and ends with their paying their debts. God merges the relation of debtor and creditor in that of father and child. It is a very small part of your interest in your child, that he should repay you for your care of him. In fact, payment is impossible. On the contrary, everything the child does or says is interesting to you because he is your child. Now, possibly, we find it hard to transfer just that feeling to God; and yet that is the true view of his feeling towards His children. But we find it difficult to believe, though we would like to, that we are God’ s children. We are so faulty and wrong: it seems a cruel satire to tell me that the Lord delighteth in my way. Here, then, the third truth of the text comes in. IV. Infirmity is recognized as an element of the good man’ s walk. “ Though he fall” --then it is looked upon as more than possible that he may fall. We may go back to the picture of the babe’ s first walk. There is none which better suits the case. You do not despise that baby’ s attempts at walking, because he falls over now and then. You would rather have him fall a hundred times--yes, and hurt himself too--than not have him walk at all. Let us face the fact squarely. There is falling along the path by which God orders a man’ s steps. It is not that God ordains sin. He does not. But the path which God ordains for a good man lies through this world: and sin is in the world, no matter why or how; and a good man’ s walk with God consists very largely in a fight with sin. What God pledges is not that he shall walk to heaved a perfect, sinless man all the way. The psalmist prays, “ Order my steps in Thy Word: and let not any iniquity have dominion over me” ; and, when we turn from the psalmist to Paul, we find the answer to that prayer: “ Sin shall not have dominion over you, for ye are not under the law, but under grace.” The promise is for victory in the fight, but not for escape from the fight. Establishment does not exclude conflict or fall. One has said of David after his moral fall, “ He is not what he was before, but he is far nobler and greater than many a just man who never fell and never repented. Let us beware of thinking repentance a sentiment of a lower grade, or degrading to the man who drops its bitter tears. There is something heroic in the man who looks up to God’ s ideal of manhood far, far above him, and at himself, lamed and wounded by his fall, and says, “ By God’ s grace I will mount to it.” Learn then--1. If God has ordained a way for men to walk in, it is the height of folly to walk in any other way. 2. If God, as we have seen, orders our ways step by step, it becomes us to take heed to the details of our lives. 3. And ought we not to get great comfort out of this Divine ordering of each step? When a traveller in the Alps is ascending an ice-slope where he has to cut steps as he mounts, he thinks of little besides the step he is at that moment cutting. He has a point to reach, a space to traverse; but all that is lost sight of in the danger and difficulty which wait on every step he knows he will escape destruction only as each step shall be rightly cut, and his foot firmly planted each time. It is a good deal so in this life. It is not a safe journey by any means; but there is this assurance for a child of God who walks it, that each step shall be sure if he only commits his way unto the Lord. The separate steps! Sometimes each one seems to sink into a quagmire, or to strike a stone. It is hard to walk on in strong faith that they are ordered by the Lord. But they are so. Remember this, and that if He be for me, who can be against me? (Marvin R. Vincent, D. D.) The Lord’ s ordering of a good man’ s steps I. The life of a good man is divinely planned.1. If you will examine this psalm, you will have no difficulty in ascertaining what the writer means by a good man. “ He trusts in the Lord and does good; he delights himself also in the Lord; commits his way unto the Lord; trusts also in Him; rests in the Lord; and waits patiently for Him.” 2. “ The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord.” Many persons never think of this; some deny it altogether; and perhaps most of us often forget it, and thus lose the comfort of it (Proverbs 16:9; Proverbs 20:24). (1) This plan is individual. There is not an item in our daily life which is not comprehended. Our joys, our sorrows, our associates, our connections, our wanderings, our acts, our thoughts; my life, your life, is Divinely ordered. (2) It is special as it is comprehensive, The good man is Divinely directed in his everyday procedure, in his going out and coming in, his lying down and rising up, his successes and failures, his joys and sorrows, his trials and triumphs, his birth and death. (3) It is benevolent. God overrules all agents and all events for the well-being of His people. God’ s plan is great in its conception, great in the Divine skill by which it is shaped and worked out; above all, great in the momentous issues it prepares. But remember it is good as it is great. What a thought is this for us to cherish! What instigations does it add to send us onward in everything that constitutes our excellence! II. The life of a good man is divinely approved. “ He delighteth in his way.” This is understood by some to mean that the good man delights in the way of the Lord. I think the words mean that the Lord delights in the way of the good man. The good man delights himself in the Lord, and the Lord delights in him.1. He delighteth in his way, because it is formed and fashioned according to the will of God, and is directed by His own Spirit. 2. He delighteth in his way, because it manifests His glory. “ The heavens declare the glory of God.” But more of God and His glory may be seen in the life of a good mail than can be seen in the material universe. You see in him all that can be seen in the material creation, but you see in him what cannot be soon in it; and, moreover, you see more clearly what can. III. The life of a good man is divinely protected.1. The possibility implied. “ Though he fall.” A good man, in this world of changes and reverse, may get prostrated by misfortune and distress; he may sink very low as to worldly circumstances; he may, like Job, be stripped of everything, or, like Joseph, put in prison. In this life disasters are to be expected, and it forms no part of God’ s plan to prevent them. They are intended for the benefit of the good man; they are the refiner’ s fire. 2. The truth expressed. “ He shall not be utterly cast down.” He may fall; he may be cast down; but he shall not be prostrated wholly, not be thrown down for ever. The good man must expect to suffer, but not perish (verses 9, 10, 13, 15, 17, 20). 3. The reason. “ The Lord upholdeth his hand,” or, “ is holding him up by his hand,” or, “ upholdeth him with His hand.” “ Thou hast holden me by my right hand.” God not only sustains the good man in particular emergencies, but He is his constant and habitual upholder (verses 12, 18, 21). He has always a hold on his hand. He never lets it go. (P. Griffiths.) Human evolution: from the involution of the Divine Spirit A man’ s way is strictly the original Divine-human life more and more rooting and opening itself in him: the glory of God shed abroad in the inner world of his soul, as the solar glory is shed abroad in the earth, developing, transfiguring, and preparing him for his ascension, “ God delighteth in the way;” because it is love’ s way, and unspeakably delightful. It is life’ s way to man’ s completeness and complete blessedness; and grander than any man can think or imagine. It is evolution and evolution, not from non-intelligent matter, but from the living incorruptible substance in which God is involved as the working power. The steps which the Infinite Father has ordered for His sons and daughters are a series of surprises. Love delights to surpass expectation, and to have greater and greater surprises in reserve.1. The whole round of nature is a ceaseless wonder, and ceaselessly changing its aspect. It feasts our affections, gratifies our love of the beautiful, exhilarates and enlarges the mind, cultivates the imagination, and is an endless source of poetic symbolism and illustration. It lives and breathes; and therefore demonstrates the nearness of God. It is never old, for it renews itself, and grows before our eyes. There ere always untrodden districts, and unvisited worlds awaiting our opportunity. Then God’ s sons and daughters are themselves all that nature is, and much more. They are the crown of nature: they are nature, plus divinity. 2. Another beautiful surprise comes within the scope of our earthly existence: the home and family-surprise. New spirits from God actually arrive: they come secretly into our very blood, and clothe themselves with our nature; they come to stay with us and grow up in our homes. Their vivacity and novelty add a wonderful charm and enlargement to our life. 3. The stealing on of nature’ s great eclipse and midnight is the dawn of God’ s new life--full morning for the inner man. Death is new birth; when the sweetest surprise of all breaks into view. Nature’ s children die; but God’ s never. His children live, and breathe, and hold their being in the bosom of His Almighty Livingness. The way of God is from the first a “ living way.” “ Thou wilt show me the path of life;” and His path of life becomes more and more living; and most living, in, and through nature’ s death. “ The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.” The ascent from the cold gloom of the valley is swift, for the guardian angels meet us there, and God is in them. (John Pulsford, D. D.) Special providence God exercises a special control over His chosen people. I. God has a special design in their preservation and government.1. He has a plan for the life of each one (Isaiah 30:21).2. He knows the temperament peculiar to each one (Psalms 139:3).3. He suits His providence to the temperament of each one so as to accomplish His design (Matthew 12:20; Ephesians 1:5-6). II. God employs means to work out his designs. Sin is to be mortified and expelled, whilst character is to be refined and perfected. For this purpose trials and temptations, persecutions and afflictions, calamities and bereavements, are apportioned to each.1. These are permissive (Job 1:12).2. They are decretive (Genesis 22:2; 1 Peter 1:3-9).3. They are afflictive and corrective (Psalms 119:67; Psalms 119:71; Jeremiah 31:18-19; Hebrews 12:6-11). III. The nature of these providences.1. They are minute and exact (Matthew 10:30).2. They relate to food and raiment (Psalms 37:25; Matthew 6:25-34).3. They extend to the whole of life (Job 14:5; Psalms 37:23; Psalms 139:14-16). IV. Application.1. Let us trust God more implicitly in all the events of life.2. Let us take comfort from this doctrine. “ All things work together for good” (Romans 8:28); they do so now. Whatever else may fail us, God will not (Psalms 97:1). (L. O. Thompson.) Psalms 37:24 The Lord upholdeth him with His hand. Hand in hand with God The force of this passage is somewhat lost by the rendering of it here. What David says literally is this, Jehovah is holding his hand. “ His hand” is the man’ s hand--not God’ s hand. Read it thus, “ Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down: for Jehovah is holding his hand” --that is what David means. The mental image in this text is just this. A child has to tread a certain path. That child is weak and timid--he may be reduced by sickness--yet he has to tread a certain path. His father knows that he is weak and timid--he goes with him, and takes his hand. That is the image. The reality is this. Life is that path--the distance between our cradle and our tomb--between the hour of our birth and the hour of our death. The man of God is that child. How real God was to David. One looks sometimes for the reason of this--and I think while it is impossible entirely to account for it, that we must attach some importance to such circumstances as these. Mark David’ s early piety. He began to trust that God while he was yet in his teens. The advantage of beginning early no words can express. Hence David had acquired the habit of trust in God. I think, also, we must attach some importance to David’ s early sorrows. There is one lesson which can be only learnt by affliction--and that is, to use the things of earth without abusing them. Sorrow throws the man upon God, and obliges him, if he have but a germ of religious life in his nature, to get his rest, and his peace, and his blessedness from God. Then his great sensitiveness was, moreover, brought completely under the power of his religious ideas and his religious principles. That comes out marvellously in the 22nd Psalm: “ My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me? why art Thou so far from helping me?” Now, the man who could write that must have lived very near to God. But who is he that lives in such a habit of fellowship with God, that if that fellowship be interrupted--if God in the course of a day say less to the man than He has been accustomed to say, would feel such anguish and grief about it as this cry--“ My God, my God, why,” etc., indicate? And who would do it on a throne? God was a reality to David’ s soul: hence he could write such things as these. He could say with reference to every man trusting in God, and delighting in God, “ Jehovah is holding his hand.” David saw it: it was a matter of constant observation to him. Many others did not see it. But he did. Yes, the great Jehovah condescends thus towards us. Thus it is with God. There is real contact. “ Jehovah is holding his hand.” And there is real help--not merely contact. Not the displacement of our effort, or substitution for it, but help. The child walks, is not carried, but its hand is held. So is it with God. He will not do for us what we can do for ourselves. And yet we have deep sense all the while of our own personal weakness. We know that our strength is from God. Now, Jesus Christ has come to us fallen creatures, whose hands have parted from God’ s hand, to put our hand again into the grasp of the Almighty Father. (S. Martin.) The Divine hand I. It is a strong hand. It balances all worlds, steadies the swinging universe, ordains the march of law, and the succession of events. II. It is a redeeming hand. It alone wrought salvation. III. It is a tender hand. It can crush. But when did it ever break the reed? (The Study.) Psalms 37:25I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken. The voice of age to youth Between youth and age, in one sense, there is a great gulf fixed. It is impossible that there should be an entire intelligence on the one side; it is rare to find an entire sympathy on the other. And yet surely the old ought to have something to say to the young. Curiosity alone would bid them to find out what they can about that undiscovered country from which a voice comes to them, saying, “ When you reach it, you will find” this and this--its feeling, its experience, its memory, its regrets, and its aspirations. If, in addition to this, anything could be said as to the best way of making the journey--anything as to the secret of “ a good old age,” what has to be done, and what has to be avoided in the start; what companions would be congenial, and what insufferable, as the long future unfolds itself and the terminus is at last discernible in the distance--there would be no lack of listeners to such discourse. If in one sense there is a wide and deep chasm between youth and age, in another there is no break and no disruption at all between the two. We are all very ready to suppose that we shall have some notice, that we shall not pass quite unconsciously from young men into old. The very putting of the thought into words shows its futility. It is not so; one age of life shades off into another. Each particular day is of the same piece and colour with its yesterday and its to-morrow. The only notice given comes too late. The continuity is never snapped in twain; the tenor of the life is one and but one. “ The child is father of the man,” and the man of the old man, and the old man of the everlasting being who lifts up the eyes for bliss or woe in Hades. No sin dies a natural death; it cannot be conquered without a battle. It can be a battle in which, in some sense, Satan casts out Satan, that is when pride, or ambition, or fear of the world, or dread of consequences, prevails against some particular evil tendency, and so to say, the body of sin cuts off from itself one member. Such is the history of many reforms and many amendments. Heaven keeps no register of them. They are neither here nor there as to the everlasting life of the man. This is one battle. Many men never fight even this battle. Many go on in their sins weakly, helplessly, till they are found out far on, or till they die in them, late or early, and go hence to be no more seen. But there is another battle with sin quite different in history and character, in course and end from this. This is when a man knowing that there is no gulf fixed by age or the lapse of time between him and sinning, knowing that no man sleeps off, or sleeping loses or outlives his sin, and knowing that he must not risk eternity in the chance of truth, whether taught by experience or taught by revelation, turning out after all a lie, tries upon himself the Gospel remedy, watches and prays, prays and watches, on the faith of God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, and with many failures and many defeats, yet withstands and is found standing, conquering, one by one, the sins of youth and the sins of age, till he may cast his crown before the Throne, and ascribe his salvation to God and the Lamb. To recommend this course, to press its reasonableness, its necessity, its urgency upon such as have ears to hear, this is why age speaks to youth, and this is what it is saying: “ Keep innocency, and take heed unto the thing that is right,” etc. (Dean Vaughan.) Testimony from an aged saint The aged Christian is able, from his own experience, to testify to the protecting care of a Divine Father’ s love. The difference between the testimony of an old man and a very young man is the difference between knowledge and supposition, between fact and surmise; it is the difference between the words of a veteran who carries the scars, the sword-cuts, and the bullet-wounds of many battlefields, and the words of the ruddy-faced youth who has not yet won his shoulder-straps. Psalms 37:27 Depart from evil, and do good; and dwell for evermore. Man’ s grand concern I. Eschewing evil and doing good. “ Depart from evil and do good.” Evil and good are correlative and coextensive terms. They are antagonistic principles, they are both in the world, and both incessantly working. Both are incarnate. Good in its perfect form is in Christ. “ Depart from evil.” You are in it, as in a poisonous atmosphere, as in a foul disease, as in a miserable captivity; struggle to get out of it, leave the moral district, and strive after a more salubrious air. “ Do good.” Good is a practical thing, not a thing for mere poetry or discussion, but a thing for practice. What is it to do good? Not the performance of any particular thing, for we have a thousand things to accomplish, but to do everything from a good motive--supreme love to God. II. Speaking wisdom and judgment. “ The mouth of the righteous speaketh wisdom, and his tongue talketh of judgment.” It is the characteristic of a righteous man that his speech is wise and just. He allows “ no corrupt communication to proceed out of his mouth.” Man’ s speech has always a moral quality, it is always wise or foolish, just or unjust, good or bad. III. Rectitude in heart and life. “ The law of his God is in his heart, none of his steps shall slide.” It is one thing to have the law of his God in the book or the brain, and another thing to have it in the heart; to have it in the heart implies that it is cherished with love and obeyed with loyalty. It is in the heart as the moral monarch, holding empire over all the faculties of being and activities of life. Being in the heart, it directs the life. “ None of his steps” “ shall slide.” There will be an unswerving adherence to the path of right. IV. Waiting on the lord and keeping his commandments. “ Wait on the Lord and keep His way.”1. Waiting on the Lord implies (1) Realization of His presence;(2) Expectation of His commands, and(3) Readiness to obey. V. The special favour of heaven.1. The special guardianship of God. “ The Lord loveth judgment and forsaketh not His saints, they are preserved for ever.” 2. Deliverance from the power of the wicked. “ The Lord will not leave him in his hand, nor condemn him when he is judged.” The truth of this is realized in the experience of all good men after death. 3. Exaltation and long life. (Homilist.) Psalms 37:28 The Lord forsaketh not His saints: they are preserved for ever.Secure property A religion of contingencies and uncertainties deserve not the name of Christianity, and it is perfectly a misnomer to call it Christianity. I. The property of jehovah is his saints. Not the angels, the heavens, or the earth, but His saints. I mean real, not hypocritical saints. Let me describe them a little.1. They were once vile and full of sin: but they are transformed and they know it. They are created anew in Christ. 2. Moreover, they are consecrated, or they could not be saints, and God claims such as His own. 3. They have been eternally set apart as such: and for God Himself, as His sons, His servants, and His especial treasure. You must be a son before you can be a servant of God. 4. And they are manifestly God’ s saints both in creed and in conduct. II. The Lord’ s unchanging love for them. “ He forsaketh not His saints.” III. The triumphs of his grace in them. “ They are preserved for ever.” (Joseph Irons.) Psalms 37:31 The law of his God is in his heart; none of his steps shall slide.-- The law of God in the heart I. The inward principle which actuates a good man.1. An acquaintance with the law, considered as the standard of holiness, as the rule of action. 2. An habitual reference to God’ s mind and will. 3. A deep sense of the obligation of the law of God, accompanied with a sincere resolution of implicit and unreserved obedience. 4. A love to the law of God after “ the inner man.” 5. In a good man this attachment to the law of God, and to the rules of duty, is progressive, and, with every accession of religious experience, becomes more vigorous and confirmed. II. Its effects on the character and conduct. “ None of his steps shall slide.” His steps shall not fatally slide; he shall maintain a uniform and consistent deportment.1. The violence of temptation shall not overpower him. 2. The suddenness of it shall not surprise him. 3. The deceitfulness of it shall not seduce him. 4. The example of the multitude shall not prevail. (Robert Hall, M. A.) The Divine law in the heart I. There is a divine law for the regulation of mankind.1. Its source is love. 2. Its requirement is love. II. This divine law should become the ruling power within men.1. The law of peace. 2. The law of life. 3. The law of liberty. III. This divine law, as a ruling power within men, is a guarantee against errors “ None of his steps shall slide.”1. This law of love will guard him from theological errors. A God-loving heart is the best interpreter of Scripture. 2. This law of love will guard him from moral errors. He who loves God supremely will delight in doing His will. (Homilist.) The Divine law in the heart 1. One marked characteristic of this is that it inspires him with the power of an unlimited ideal. A high ideal is the spring of social progress and public enterprise. Who can calculate the soul’ s capabilities, and the mighty sweep of its orbit? It sees in Christ the highest example of excellence, and it goes on becoming more and more like Him, without ever arriving at a point beyond which it cannot pass. The man under the influence of this ideal is the truly practical man, his course of conduct being according to the laws of his being and adapted to the desired end. Christ is formed in him the hope of glory. 2. This develops the individuality of a man. Sensualism destroys individuality. The drunkard, in more senses than one, throws himself away, he unmans himself. But the man described in the text acts under a constant sense of responsibility. He feels that he must act himself and must stand or fall for himself. He knows that an act can only be performed by an individual, and that he must obey the law himself, or there will be no obedience so far as he is concerned. 3. The life of such a man is positive. He does not try to see how near he can go to the edge of the precipice of wrong without falling over. But he goes on. He has a filial love that inclines him in a positive way to his heavenly Father. 4. Harmony of thought and word. The words are the direct expressions of the thoughts, because these are vivified by the heart’ s warm emotion. The law in the life is not a mere matter of memory. Paul truly says: “ The law of the spirit of life hath saved me from the law of sin and death.” The heart in an important sense in the man--it is the mainspring of action, and gives nob only efficiency, but harmony. (E. H. Chapin, D. D.) Slippery places (with Psalms 73:18; Psalms 94:18):--The slipping or sliding of the foot is used in the Bible as an emblem, chiefly, of three dangers. I. The danger of falling into sin through temptation. If once you fall into the sin, you may, doubtless, rise again; but ah! you may rise sadly bruised, and perchance you may carry the mark of the bruise all your days! Even though we slip, it is well for us if we do not fall. But it is better still not even to slip, if we can help it. The spirit and the habits of godliness will lessen for us the dangers of temptation. II. The danger of falling into ruin through sin (Psalms 73:18). God has many methods of dealing with sinners. Sometimes He appeals to them by His “ goodness” ; at other times by His “ severity.” But if the sinner will not listen, then God lets the man have his own way--for a time! Oh, terrible punishment! III. The danger of falling into unbelief through adversity (Psalms 94:18). There are those who, when they come into these dark and troublous experiences, and their foot is slipping into unbelief, will not lay hold of the supporting arm of God; they nurse a morbid gloom. Is it not enough to lose earthly wealth, without losing also, through our unbelief, the heavenly treasure? Is it not enough to lose by death the conscious companionship of some dear friend, without losing also, through our unbelief, the conscious friendship of Him who is the best of all friends? Let us, then, whenever we come into the slippery places of adversity, seek to grasp by faith the Cross of Calvary, that the mercy of God, revealed in Jesus Christ, may “ hold us up.” (T. C. Finlayson.) Psalms 37:32-33 The wicked watcheth the righteous, and waiteth to slay him.The Lord will not leave him in his hand, nor condemn him when he is judged. The foes of the righteous and how to escape them We have seen a dog run after a bird when it was upon the ground, and nearly catch it; but, as soon as it mounted into its native element, all the dog could do was to look and bark. Christian, bird of Paradise, if thou settle upon earthly things, the great hell dog will stand some chance of injuring thee; but if thou keep in the heavenlies thou art safe. (W. Luff.) Psalms 37:34 Wait on the Lord and keep His way, and He shall exalt thee to inherit the land: when the wicked are cut off, thou shalt see it.A twofold admonition and promise. I. The admonition.1. Wait on the Lord. Do you thus wait? Now, in the present time, and at all times? 2. Keep His way. This is beautifully connected with the former. Wait--and work. Wait--and walk. Get grace--and exercise it. II. The promise.1. “ He shall exalt thee to inherit the land.” God is the source of all elevation and honour. 2. “ When the wicked are cut off, thou,” etc. And they will be cut off from all they enjoy here, and from all hope hereafter. And as the saint will see the destruction of the sinner, so the sinner will see the salvation of the righteous, and not partake of it. This must be a source to him of the keenest anguish, for it might have been his own. (W. Jay.) Obedience the remedy for religious perplexity To some persons it may sound strange to speak of difficulties in religion, for they find none at all. But this arises, in many cases, from ignorance of religion itself. They observe forms, but their heart is not in the work. But when they are awakened, and earnestly seek the right way, then, from time to time, they are troubled with doubts and misgivings, and oppressed with gloom. To all those who are perplexed, one precept must be given--obey. It is obedience which brings a man into the right path; it is obedience keeps him there and strengthens him in it. Under all circumstances, whatever be the cause of his distress--obey. Apply this exhortation to those who have but lately taken up the subject of religion at all. Every science has its difficulties at first; why, then, should the science of living well be without them? And others are impatient with themselves, forgetting that a Christian spirit is the growth of time, and that we cannot force it upon our minds, however desirable and necessary it may be to possess it; that by giving utterance to religious sentiments we do not become religious--rather the reverse; whereas if we strove to obey God’ s will in all things, we actually should be gradually training our hearts into the fulness of a Christian spirit. But, not understanding this, men are led to speak much upon sacred subjects, in the hope of its making them better: and they measure their advance in faith and holiness, not by their power of obeying God in practice, but by the warmth and energy of their religious feelings. And then, when these fail, and when, as sometimes is the case, their old sins revive, they are discouraged, and tempted to despair. But let them “ wait on the Lord,” this is the rule; “ keep His way,” this is the manner of waiting. Go about your duty; mind little things as well as great. Do not pause, and say, “ I am as I was; day after day passes, and still no light” ; go on. (J. H. Newman.) Psalms 37:35-37I have seen the wicked in great power, and spreading himself like a green bay-tree.Yet he passed away, and lo, he was not. The two characters The word “ perfect” in the Old Testament is generally used in the same sense as the word “ godly” in the New. This “ perfect” man is he “ He feareth God and escheweth evil.” His perfection is that of an earthly saint, not that of a heavenly saint. The “ wicked” of the text are the same as the “ evildoers,” “ the workers of iniquity,” and the “ ungodly” of the preceding verses. There is no need to trace out the character of these people, for do they not work it out in the sight of all in their ungodly conversation and conduct? And yet, forsooth, they dream of heaven. But what sort of a heaven? I. The wicked as set forth in the text.1. He is strong in health--“ like a green bay-tree.” 2. In riches. His fields have cropped heavily; he has much goods laid up for many years. Pharaoh-like, he defies all authority, and contemptuously asks, “ Who is the Lord?” 3. In pride and selfishness. Haman is a correct representation of this class; and Nebuchadnezzar. 4. “ Spreading himself out” --ostentatious, pompous, showy. What a contrast with the life of Christ, or with the idea of the Bible concerning the celestial state. 5. “ Till he pass away.” He disappears in darkness. “ The name of the wicked shall rot.” II. The perfect, the upright man:1. Mark him in the virtuousness of his life. 2. In his patience under trials. 3. In the secret comfort he enjoys. He has strong consolations. Where? The natural man cannot understand it. 4. In his departure from this life. Oh yes, mark him, behold him, follow him with the eye; he is drawing towards the close, it is true, but he will not be lost; it is growing light--lighter the deeper he goes. “ Christ shall give thee light.” “ The end of that man is peace.” 5. “ Mark the perfect, behold the upright” once more--to see him entering on his eternal state. If the religion of the Bible lead to and produce such an end, is it not worth our while to seek it? (Anon.) The wicked in three aspects I. As favoured with great secular prosperity.1. Material nature, from which man draws all his secular good, pays no regard to moral character. 2. Greed for gain is one of the strongest passions in the heart of the wicked. 3. The efforts of the wicked are not restricted by moral considerations. II. As swept unexpectedly from the earth.1. Though he appeared, the last time he was seen, strong, he is gone. 2. Though he appeared the most important object in the scene, he is gone. III. As standing in striking contrast to the righteous (Psalms 37:37-40).1. In relation to character. The good are in these verses called “ perfect,” “ upright,” “ righteous.” All these terms stand for the same thing--moral excellence. The wicked are spoken of as “ transgressors” : they outrage the everlasting principles of virtue, truth, and happiness; they are violators of the moral laws of the universe. 2. In relation to their end. Tholuck renders this sentence, “ It shall go well with such a man.” Peace is evermore the end of a good man--peace of conscience, peace with God, peace that passeth all understanding. What said Luther in dying? “ God is the Lord by whom we escape death.” What said Baxter? “ I have pain, there is no arguing against sense; but I have peace, peace.” 3. In relation to God. He is the destroyer of the wicked. (Homilist.) Why wicked men are spared I. That the long-suffering and goodness of god may lead them to repentance. The avenues to the heart are accessible in different persons by different ways. While some are naturally led to thought and reflection, by the fear of danger, or the sufferings of distress, others are more sensibly affected by instances of kindness and benevolence. Where there is a strong sensibility, and a sufficient generosity of natural disposition, the blessings of prosperity will be even more effectual than the arrows of adversity to awaken men to the consideration of their ways, to lead them by the pleasing ties of gratitude, to the most affectionate love of God, to the most sincere respect for religion and virtue. II. For the sake of those with whom they are connected in society.1. Perhaps this wicked man is the head of a numerous family, and you cannot inflict on him the penalty he deserves, without at the same time entailing misery on his wife, his children, and, probably, a great number of dependants, all of whom may be entirely innocent of the crimes he has committed. 2. Suppose a wicked man to be placed in a public station, a station for which, perhaps, you will imagine he is very unfit, as his bad example, when his influence is thus extended, may be still more contagious in corrupting the morals of others; yet, notwithstanding of this circumstance, which is in itself of great weight, he may still be possessed of several good qualities, which enable him, with superior advantage, to discharge the duties of the distinguished office; he may, perhaps, be possessed of great talents, or great industry, which render him more useful upon the whole, in that particular situation, than another man of more virtue, but of less ability. III. That they may be the means of administering rebuke and chastisement to others, who, perhaps, are not so wicked as themselves, but who probably are not sufficiently sensible of the advantages they enjoy, or who do not improve these advantages in all respects as they ought. (W. Shiels.) Psalms 37:37. Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright, for the end of that man is peace.The perfect man I. The description given.1. It cannot imply positive perfection--that is impossible. True, there is the seed of all grace in the heart of every child of God, and it is an incorruptible seed, but it has to grow, and this takes long time, and, meanwhile, imperfection is often and sadly manifest. The cases, referred to in parallel passages, of Noah and Job, prove this. See also Asa, 2 Chronicles 15:2. The child of God is perfect (1) In Christ. “ By one offering He hath perfected for ever them,” etc. And (2) Because he is sincere. He is “ upright,” sincere in all his dealings, and sincerity is the reality of all other graces. II. The end of such a man--“ peace.” His present condition is blessed, and the end--however chequered the way--is peace. III. The call given. “ Mark the perfect man,” behold him. He is well worth looking at. You will not have many to mark. They are a blessing wherever they are. He is a trophy of the Redeemer’ s blood, a monument of God’ s sovereign grace and mercy. (J. H. Evans, M. A.) The peaceful death of the righteous man If we were about to enter upon a journey to a remote part of the earth, we should consider what was necessary for an undertaking of such importance, as to clothing and other commodities, and make provision accordingly. It were well for us to act upon the same principle, and in the same manner, with respect to the matters which concern the soul, and our journey to an eternal world. “ What do I need for this journey? what do I need for that eternal state, to which I am advancing with rapidity? I need an interest in Divine love; to have God reconciled to me, and myself reconciled to God. Our text tells of one who had these things. I. His character. He is described as “ perfect.” This word must be taken in a limited sense, as no man on earth is “ perfect.” Neither in body, nor in soul. II. His end--peace. He dies in peace: with God; in his mind and animated with bright hope. III. The duty--we are to “ mark,” etc.1. Observe him.2. Lament over his departure.3. Imitate him. (A. Fletcher, M. A.) Providence This psalm has been called a sermon on this theme. I. The character placed before. Us--the perfect, upright man. But are we not all sinful? Yes, but grace creates us anew. The infant is a perfect child, though far removed from the strength, stature and intelligence of a man. But the beginning of the perfect life is then. And so in regard to the life of grace.1. It is a perfection of sincerity, as opposed to all dissimulation and hypocrisy. 2. Of completeness in reference to the whole will of God. 3. It denotes a firmness in which temptations make no impression. For God will not leave him to himself. 4. It is descriptive of those who have made great proficiency and eminent attainments in religion. So the word “ perfect” is often used. Let us strive after this. II. The end of such a man--peace. But he has not to wait till the end ere he experiences peace. He has it now, when he heartily believes on the Lord Jesus Christ. “ There is no peace to the wicked,” but to him who has dropped his rebellion, and submitted himself to God, there is given peace. His is the peace of forgiveness and of sanctification. Sometimes disease and pain and weakness deprive the believer at the last of the comfort of the promises of God. But though, from these causes, their minds may be darkened, yet do they as certainly die in the Lord as if they had departed amidst the greatest triumphs of faith. And very often it is amid such triumphs that they are permitted to depart. III. The improvement we are to make of this subject. We are to “ mark the perfect,” etc.1. He may be easily singled out and separated from the crowd. We are at a loss to know to what class some persons belong; but a Christian of eminent piety is a living epistle of Christ, to be seen and read of all men. Behold his “ patient continuance in well doing,” his humility, his piety. 2. Mark him, that you may know how to be like him. 3. How to obtain the same happy end of life. (T. Craig.) Peace at the last Like boats or other objects borne down on a mighty river, unable to stop in their course, unable to return upon it,--we, too, are gliding on with the race of a stream, and will in a short period arrive at the point of its disemboguement into the vast ocean of eternity, Not only is death inevitable, but it is usually a most appalling event. One element of good there is, with which we may mitigate the cup we have to drink; and that element is--peace of mind. I. One leading and essential element of peace is an acceptance of the terms of the new covenant, by faith in the atoning blood of Christ, We are all too far gone from original righteousness, as well by nature as by practice, to expect salvation, or to rely upon a peace, whether in life or in death, which is independent of the merits of the Redeemer. Yet, though this be the foundation of the Christian’ s hope, though peace be preached through Jesus Christ, it is by no means derogatory to that eternal truth to affirm, that the faith which on, braces his atonement must evince by holiness its genuineness and its life. II. Among these ingredients of peace in the latter end of life, a man ought to be supported by A consciousness of his having made some provision for those who are to come after him, and who would otherwise suffer, in a temporal sense, by his departure (1 Timothy 5:8). III. Another material ingredient in that mental peace to which we look forward in our latter end, must consist in the satisfactory reflection on our having lived to some purpose is the world. The fig-tree, luxuriating in the pride of leaves, was denounced, not because it distilled poison, but because it produced no fruit; and it was not the positively criminal, but the merely unprofitable servant, in the Gospel, who was cast into outer darkness. IV. A sense of reconciliation with mankind wilt furnish a contribution to the peace with which the disciple of Jesus may expect to cheer his last moments. V. A fifth particular contributory towards a latter end of peace is an early and sincere repentance. (J. Grant, M. A.) The good man and his end I. His character.1. “ Perfect.” His holiness is so perfect as to prevail over wilful and habitual sin; his love to God so perfect, as to be the reigning disposition of his soul; his choice so perfect, that he considers and takes God as his chief good; his obedience, that he yields unto God his soul and body to glorify Him, and by the grace of God is able to escape the corruption that is in the world through lust. 2. “ Upright.” He does not deceive his own heart, but examines himself; is no hypocrite, but serves God in spirit and in truth; and as he would that others should do unto him, so he does unto them. II. His conduct.1. In the world. Single and uncorrupted. 2. In the family. He walks before his house with a perfect heart; instructs them in the knowledge of God and divine things; travails in birth for their salvation; sets them an example of piety and devotedness to God. 3. In the church. He loves the brethren with a pure heart fervently--he helps to bear their burdens--sympathizes with them in their sorrows--joins them in their labours--assembles with them for pious fellowship, and the public worship of their God and Saviour. 4. In private. He seeks and enjoys retirement for meditation and prayer. 5. In the different states of life. In prosperity his heart is not lifted up within him, but he remembers the God of all his mercies, and acknowledges his indebtedness to Him. In adversity he considers, reflects, seeks to gather the lessons intended to be taught, submits to the rod, and Him who appointed it. III. His end. “ Peace.”1. Mark him as an example to be followed. 2. Mark him as having his end assuredly peace. 3. Mark him as an encouragement to Christians in all times of their affliction and sufferings. (J. Walker, D. D.) Mark the perfect man I. The terms in which the psalmist speaks of him. “ Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright;” the man whose perfection, though conspicuous enough to be observed with admiration, is no deceitful cover, or mere superficial gilding, but an inward reality; and the genuine, consistent effect of a principle which dictates an habitual respect unto all God’ s commandments. Behold him living from Him, living upon Him, living to Him, a life of faith in an invisible God and Redeemer; and a life of love slid devotedness to Him both in public and in private; invariably faithful in his adherence to His revealed will; zealous in his attachment to His cause; contending earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints; but with a spirit of meekness, and a constant disposition to hold the truth in love; affectionate in his good wishes and prayers, and active in his services to promote the temporal and eternal welfare of all around him. II. His end. A final period, at least here, to every interview of friendship, to every exercise of social devotion, and to every service for God and his fellow-creatures. His instructions, cautions, counsels, consolations, prayers, all ended. The place that once knew him, that knew him often and intimately, now knows him no more. All he was doing or thinking to do in the house of God, or in his own, for the Redeemer’ s interest, and to extend his happiness and usefulness in his several connections here, at an end. III. Peace. This may be intended as a representation both of his state on this side, and beyond the grave.1. Peace is valuable at all times, and in every connection: peace in nations and neighbourhoods, in churches and in families: above all, “ the peace of God which passeth all understanding, keeping the heart and mind through Christ Jesus.” 2. Peace with God, as his God and Father in Christ. 3. Peace in a review of past engagements with the Lord, and for Him (2 Timothy 4:6-8). 4. Peace in the expectation of a removal. 5. Peace in prospect of an hereafter. IV. The attention which we ought to pay to the important character, and to the delightful end which the text specifies.1. Mark it, in order to form a right judgment of yourselves. 2. Mark it, sinners and hypocrites, for admonition and caution. 3. Mark it for imitation, all of you that desire his end. (S. Addington.) Psalms 37:38 The end of the wicked shall be cut off. The end of the wicked The condition of the sinner is an awful one notwithstanding things may seem lovely and fair to him now. He resembles the man who lives in a magnificent mansion on the brow of a volcano, the situation is beautiful, the scenery is beautiful, the sky is beautiful, the air is beautiful, but there are fires that work beneath. These will one day rive the mountain, blacken the sky, and engulf the mansion and its proprietor. (R. Venting.) Psalms 37:39-40 The salvation of the righteous is of the Lord.A testimony to free and Sovereign grace “ The salvation of the righteous “ in the broadest sense of the word” is of the Lord” ; and the more breadth of meaning we give to it, the more completely we shall see that it must be divine. At the same time, our life is made up of a series of salvations, and each of these is of the Lord. We are constantly being saved, saved from this and that form of danger and evil. As each daily trouble threatens to engulf us, we are saved from it. As each temptation, like a dragon, threatens to swallow us up, we are saved from it. Our God is the God of salvations. I. This is the essence of sound doctrine. The salvation of the righteous is of the Lord, even of the Triune Jehovah, Father, Son and Holy Ghost, in--1. The planning. 2. The providing. 3. The beginning. 4. The carrying on. 5. The completion. II. This is a necessary fact. The saints recognize it; for--1. Their inward conflicts make them know that God alone must work salvation. They are too fickle and feeble to save themselves. 2. Their outward temptations drive them to the same conclusion. They are well kept whom God keeps, but none else. 3. The world’ s hate drives them away from all hope in that quarter. God is greater than a world in arms. 4. Their daily trials and afflictions would crush them if Omnipotence did not sustain them. Only God’ s grace can be all-sufficient. 5. The perishing of hypocrites is a sad proof of how little man can do. Temporary believers perish like blossoms which never knit to fruit, and therefore fail from the tree. III. This is a sweet consolation. This truth, that unto God the Lord belongeth the salvation of His saints, acts graciously--1. Leading them to solid trust. 2. Exciting them to believing prayer. 3. Urging them to look out of self. 4. Inspiring them with great thoughts of God, and-- 5. Leading them to offer adoring praise unto their Redeemer. IV. This is a reason for humility.1. It strips the righteous of all pride in the fact of their being saved. 2. Of all exaltation of self because they continue in their integrity. 3. Of all undue censure of the fallen; for they, themselves, would have failed had not the Lord upheld them. 4. Of all self-confidence as to the future, since their weakness is inherent and abiding. 5. Of all self-glorying, even in heaven, since in all things they are debtors to sovereign grace. V. This is a fruitful ground of hope.1. In reference to our own difficulties: God can give us deliverance. 2. In reference to our tried brethren: the Lord can sustain, sanctify, and deliver them. 3. In reference to seeking souls: we may leave their cases in the Saviour’ s hands. He is able to save to the uttermost. 4. In reference to sinners: they cannot be too degraded, obstinate, ignorant, or false; God can work salvation even in the worst. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Psalms 38:1-22 Psalms 38:1-22O Lord, rebuke me not in Thy wrath: neither chasten me in Thy hot displeasure. Great personal affliction I. Elements of aggravation.1. A dread of Divine displeasure (Psalms 38:1).2. A crushing sense of sin (Psalms 38:4).3. The desertion of professed friends (Psalms 38:11).4. The assaults of enemies (Psalms 38:19-20). II. Means of relief.1. Remembrance of God’ s cognizance of his sufferings (Psalms 38:9).2. Power of self-control (Psalms 38:13).3. Unbounded confidence in God (Psalms 38:15).4. Penitential confession of sin (Psalms 38:18).5. Importunate appeals to heaven. (Homilist.) Things to be remembered The title to this psalm is: “ A psalm of David, to bring to remembrance.” This seems to teach us that good things need to be kept alive in our memories, that we should often sit down, look back, retrace, and turn over in our meditation things that are past, lest at any time we should let any good thing sink into oblivion. I. Among the things that David brought to his own remembrance were his past trials and his past deliverances.1. Such a remembrance will prevent your imagining that you have come into the land of ease and perfect rest. 2. They will refresh your memories with regard to the mercy of God, and so will stir you up to gratitude. 3. Such a remembrance will be of great service to you, if you are at this time enduring the like exercises. What God was, that He is. Having begun to deliver you, He will not afterwards forsake you. II. The great point, however, in David’ s psalm is to bring to remembrance the depravity of our nature. There perhaps is no psalm which more fully than this describes human nature as seen in the light which God the Holy Ghost casts upon it in the time when tie convinces us of sin. It is a spiritual leprosy, it is an inward disease which is here described, and David paints it to the very life, and he would have us recollect this. Child of God, let me bring to your remembrance the fact that you are by nature no better than the vilest of the vile. “ Children of wrath even as others,” are you. Remember old John Bradford’ s remark; whenever he saw a man go by his window to Tyburn to be hanged--and he lived at that time where he saw them all--“ Ah!” said he, “ there goes John Bradford if the grace of God had not prevented.” III. third thing the psalm brings to our remembrance is our many enemies. David says that his enemies laid snares for him, and sought his hurt, and spoke mischievous things, and devised deceits all day long. “ Well,” says one, “ how was it that David had so many enemies? Must lie not have been imprudent and rash, or perhaps morose?” It does not appear so in ills life. He rather made enemies by his being scrupulously holy, because he loved the thing which is good. Now you must not suppose that because you seek to live in all peaceableness and righteousness, that therefore everybody will be peaceable towards you. “ I come not to send peace upon earth, but a sword.” The ultimate result of the religion of Christ is to make peace everywhere, but the first result is to cause strife. When the light comes, it must contend with the darkness; when the truth comes, it must first combat error; and when the Gospel comes, it must meet with enemies; and the man who receives the Gospel will find that his foes shall be they of his own household. IV. The psalm reminds us of our gracious God. Praise the grace that has held you till now. Keep in remembrance the patience of God in enduring with you, the power of God in restraining you, the love of God in instructing you, and the goodness of God in keeping you to this day. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Psalms 38:2 For Thine arrows stick fast in me, and Thy hand presseth me sore.God’ s arrows Those arrows commonly are either wicked men or devils, whom God sendeth forth to afflict His own children, sharp as arrows, light and swift as arrows, and ready to do harm to God’ s saints; or else sickness, poverty, infamy, and such other afflictions, whereby our most gracious Father thinketh most fit to subdue our vile corruption: all which, albeit in their own nature they are evil, yet God can convert and turn them to the utility and profit of His own children. As a physician can use the most poisionable and venomous herbs to cure the most desperate diseases; yea, the flesh of the dead serpent, to cure the wound gotten by the living serpent: so God can convert and turn the mischievous machinations of our enemies to our salvation. (A. Symson.) Psalms 38:3 There is no soundness in my flesh because of Thine anger.--He proceedeth to exaggerate and amplify the greatness of his grief from the universality thereof; that his sickness was not laid on any one part of his body, but upon his whole flesh, and upon all his bones. His flesh is his exterior part, his bones his interior. Albeit the ulcers and wounds of his flesh were very sensible to him, and more horrible in the eyes of men who beheld them (as that of Job and Lazarus), which he might have apprehended deeply when as by them he was made contemptible in the eyes of men: yet his inward pain, which was more felt than seen, maketh him thus pitifully to cry. Wherein we have these things to consider.1. That as all members agreed together to the performance of his filthy lust, so every one of them receiveth a deserved punishment. And it is good for man that he should be thus chastised in this world for a little time, rather than that he should be reserved for everlasting darkness, where every member shall receive eternal pain for their sin. For as sin pleaseth nature, so doth it destroy and consume nature. 2. He setteth forth the cause of those punishments, even God’ s wrath, because of his sin. For when those two meet together, they are as fire and flax; God’ s wrath as fire, will soon devour the stubble of our sins. 3. Observe that David maketh not God’ s wrath the only cause of his miseries and heavy sickness; for that were to charge God of unrighteousness; but he justifieth God, when he acknowledgeth that his own sin was the cause of all his evils. And surely we can never give sufficient honour to God, except we free Him of all imputations of unjust dealing, and acknowledge ourselves to be the cause of our own miseries. (A. Symson.) Psalms 38:4 Mine iniquities are gone over my head. Sins compared to deepening waters He compareth his sins to waters which, albeit, at the first entrance they seem so shallow, that scarce they touch our ankles; yet the further we go into them, they prove the deeper, and soon pass from our knees to our shoulders, and over our head, and drown us, except God provide a remedy; as if a plank or board be cast unto one in danger of drowning, whereupon, taking hold, he may easily escape the danger; even so we go from sin to sin, and from less to greater, until that many sins meeting and concurring together overgo us: and we, filling the cup of our iniquity, be poisoned with the dregs thereof. Therefore, let us take heed, and turn back in time, lest going forward, contemning such warnings, we become self-murderers, murderers of our own selves. We have better waters, through which we may go in safety, the waters of Siloah, which run softly, by which we may refresh our own souls; the blessed blood of Jesus Christ; and the waters of Ezekiel (Ezekiel 47:12) which flow in the sanctuary, that we may grow from grace to grace, till we come to glory. (A. Symson.) Psalms 38:5 My wounds stink and are corrupt because of my foolishness. Suffering for sin I. David’ s unhappy situation.1. The pain and anguish he felt on account of sin (Job 20:12-14; Psalms 88:15). 2. Shame and self-abhorrence (Proverbs 13:5; Job 42:6). 3. Danger. Though the principle of spiritual life be not totally extinguished in a true believer, yet by the prevalence of particular corruptions it may be brought into a very languishing state, and sometimes it seems as if it were giving up the ghost (Revelation 3:2). II. The cause to which his unhappy situation is attributed. “ My foolishness.”1. In sinning against God, he committed folly in Israel (1 Samuel 13:8; 2 Samuel 24:10). Sin must needs be folly, not only because it is contrary to the most sacred obligations, but because it is opposite to our best interests. Whatever injury we may thereby do to others, the greatest injury will be to ourselves. It is following after lying vanities, and forsaking our own mercies. 2. It was folly in David to persist in sin, after it was once committed. 3. His folly appeared in not confessing his sin, as the only means of obtaining effectual relief (Proverbs 28:13; 1 John 1:9; Jeremiah 3:18; Psalms 32:5). 4. The principal part of David’ s folly, and that for which he took blame to himself was, that he had so long neglected the remedy, after sin had been committed, and that he had not applied to that mercy which blots out all our transgressions. (B. Beddome, M. A.) Psalms 38:6I am troubled; I am bowed down greatly: I go mourning all the day long.On religious despondency Those who have lived without Christ and only unto themselves, whether in greater or less degree, are apt, when brought to serious spiritual concern, to fall into despondency. I. To describe this despondency. They are under a delusion, they imagine all things are against them; they become restless, nervous, averse to all exertion; agitated in mind, neglect all duty; they sink into listless melancholy. And all this makes them worse. The worldly prescribe dissipation and amusement for them. They themselves attempt by austerities, or religious reading, to get relief. The Bible does not help them. They think themselves to be becoming more and more odious in the sight of God. Some try to turn them from all religious thought; others censure them severely. But all the while the soul only becomes confirmed in its distress, II. Consider how a cure is to be wrought.1. By seeing to it that repentance is real. 2. By assurance that God will have mercy upon him. III. Hindrances to the reception of these truths.1. Some urge that they have sinned beyond all hope of mercy. 2. Others think that they have committed the sin against the Holy Ghost. But the very fact of their repentance disproves that, for repentance is the gift of the Holy Ghost. He, therefore, cannot have forsaken them. 3. Others despair because they have led others into sin. But so did Aaron, Manasseh, Paul, and in short all great sinners; but yet they found forgiveness. 4. Others conclude that as they have been so long time without comfort and peace, though sincere in seeking it, therefore it cannot be designed for them. 5. Yet others are darkened still more by erroneous doctrine. They deem themselves predestined to wrath. IV. Practical suggestions to the desponding. Read the Bible as a whole. Regard your sins as reasons for humility and watchfulness, not as preventing forgiveness. If despondency recur, regard it as your trial and temptation, and resist it (Psalms 57:7-10). Take care of your bodily health. Keep calm and quiet. Be actively and usefully employed. (Thomas Gisborne, M. A.) Psalms 38:9 Lord, all my desire is before Thee; and my groaning is not hid from Thee.God’ s knowledge of our desires I. We have here A fact that is without exception. The Lord knows all our desires. How great, then, must God be, and how near such knowledge brings us to God. II. The performance of as important duty. David was in the habit of prayer. He does not speak of his prayer as an unusual thing, or that should make men talk of him as eminently religious. Now, such habitual prayer is our duty. Do not restrain prayer, and remember, the groaning that is directed to God is very often effectual fervent prayer. III. A state of hallowed privilege. If the text be true of us, then there is no need for anxiety. God will surely do what is best for me. IV. A large provision of rest for the soul. How quiet a man may be, and ought to be, who can speak thus to God. It is the childlike converse of a man with his God. V. A comfortable thought for seasons of weakness and discouragement. What a comfort it is to feel that God knows all, that He will accept as real prayer the utterance of a mere groan. VI. It is also A plea is prayer. “ I have told Thee all, now do as Thou hast said.” (Samuel Martin.) Desires towards God We would not pamper weakness till we seem to offer a premium to unbelief; but yet we would feed the feeble in the king’ s meadows till they become strong in the Lord. If great efforts are put forth to build or endow a hospital, you do not say, “ Sickness is a desirable thing, for all this money is spent upon comforting and helping those who feel it.” Your feelings are quite the contrary: though these sick folk become the object of care, it is not as a reward to them, but as an act of compassion towards them. Let none, therefore, say that the preacher encourages a low state of grace: he encourages it no more than the physician encourages disease when he tries by his care and skill to heal the sick. I. Desires towards God should be made known to him.1. Because our whole life ought to be transparent before God. What secrets can there be between a soul convinced of sin and a pardoning God.? Tell Him your fears for the past, your anxieties for the present, and your dreads for the future; tell Him your suspicions of yourself, and your trembling lest you should be deceived. Make all your heart known unto God, and keep back nothing, for much benefit will come to you from being honest with your best Friend. 2. Because it is commanded of God that, we should make our desires known to him. He says that “ men ought always to pray and not to faint” ; and again, “ in everything by prayer and supplication let your requests be made known unto God.” Jesus said, “ Watch and pray,” and His apostle said, “ I will that men pray everywhere.” And what is this but to make your desires known to God? 3. It is a great benefit to a man to be able to express his desires, and this is an argument for making them known to God. A glance at some desires would seal their doom, for we should feel them to be unworthy to be presented before the Lord. ]Jut when it is a holy and pure desire, tell it, for it will relieve your heart, it will heighten your estimate of the blessing sought, it will bring you to think over the promises made to such desires, it will thereby strengthen your hope that your desire will be fulfilled, and enable you by faith to obtain it. The prayerful expression of one desire will often quicken further desires, and make a thousand of them where there was but one. 4. A gracious expression of desire before God will often be to you a proof that those desires are right. Thy desire must be a good thing, or thou wouldst not dare to make it known to God; and seeing that it is a good thing, take care thou nurture it well, and cause it to grow by expressing it with thy whole heart before God. II. Desires towards God are gracious things. Intense groaning desires towards God are in themselves works of grace.1. For certainly they are associated with other graces. When a man can say, “ All my desire is towards God, and my heart groans after Him, and yet I find little in myself but these desires,” I think we can point to some other good things which are in his heart. Surely humility is apparent enough. Thou takes, a right view of thyself, O man of desires! A lowly esteem hast thou of thyself, and this is well. Aye, and there is faith in thee, for no man heartily desires to believe unless he doth in some measure already believe. There is a measure of believing in every true desire after believing. And thou hast love, too; I am sure of it. Did ever a man desire to love that which he did not love already? Thou hast already some drawings of thy heart Christwards, or else thou wouldst not cry to be more filled with it. He who loves most is the very man who most passionately desires to love more. I am sure, also, that thou hast some hope; for a man does not continue to groan out before his God, and to make his desire known, unless he has some hope that his desire will be satisfied, and that his grief will be assuaged. David lets out the secret of his own hope, for he says in the fifteenth verse, “ In Thee, O Lord, do I hope.” You do not hope anywhere else, do you? 2. Another proof that they are gracious is that they come from God. Now, as God can say of all that He creates, “ It is very good,” I come to the conclusion that these groaning desires after God are very good. They are not great, nor strong, but they are gracious. There is water in a drop as well as in the sea, there is life in a gnat as well as in an elephant, there is light in a beam as well as in the sun, and so is there grace in a desire as truly as in complete sanctification. 3. Holy desires are a great test of character: a test of eminent value. You inquire, “ Can you judge a man’ s character by his desires?” 1 answer, yes. I will give you the other side of the question that you may see our own side all the more clearly. You may certainly judge a bad man by his desires. Here is a man who desires to be a thief. Well, he is a thief in heart and spirit. Who would trust him in his house now that he knows that he groans to rob and steal? Let us, then, measure out justice in our own case by the rule which we allow towards others. If you have an earnest, agonizing desire towards that which is right, even though through the infirmity of the flesh and the corruption of your nature you do not reach to the height of your desire, yet that desire is a test of your character. The main set of the current determines its direction: the main bent of the desire is the test of the life. III. Desires towards God are carefully observed by him. God has a quick eye to spy out anything that is good in His people; if there is but one speck of soundness, if there is a single mark of grace, if there is any remaining token of spiritual life, though it be only a faint desire, though it be only a dolorous groan, the Father sees it, and records it, casting the evil behind His back, and refusing to behold it. IV. Earnest desires towards, God will be fulfilled.1. These desires are of God’ s creation, and you cannot imagine that God would create desires in us which He will not satisfy. Why, look even in nature, if He gives the beast hunger and thirst He provides for it the grass upon the mountains and the streams that flow among the valleys. If, then, He Himself has put in you a desire after Himself, He will give you Himself. If He has made you long after pardon, purity, eternal salvation, He means to give you these. 2. Remember, O desiring man, that already you have a blessing. When our Divine Master was on the mountain-side the benedictions which He pronounced were no word blessings, but they were full of weight and meaning, and among the rest of them is this--“ Blessed are they that do hunger and thirst after righteousness.” Blessed while they hunger, blessed while they thirst. Yes, they are already blessed, and there is this at the back of it, “ for they shall be filled.” 3. And we may be sure that God will hear the desires which He has Himself created, because He loves to gratify right desires. It is said of Him in nature, “ Thou openest Thine hand and satisfiest the desire of every living thing.” Doth God care for sparrows in the bush, for minnows in the brook, for midges in the air, for tiny things in a drop of stagnant water, and will He fail to satisfy the longings of His own children? (C. H. Spurgeon.) Our groaning not hid from God The wistful look of a dumb creature, or a moan of pain, is a prayer to a merciful man. Man deals tenderly with those who are robbed of the organs of expression. He watches with sedulous earnestness each faint indication of pain or need, that he may be ready with his ministry. Is the ear of God more dull, think you, than man’ s, to these unutterable groanings; or is this human pity and sympathy the faint and finite image of an infinite pity and sympathy which are waiting to respond to us there? Pity which, great as may be the power of prayer which words can frame, finds in the longing that is too deep for words, the groaning that is too sad for tears, an appeal which is irresistible, and would even endure the sharpness of death rather than that such a suppliant should be sent empty away. I. The efficacy of prayer.1. It cleans and purifies the desires. The effort to utter them before God in prayer is a purification. Many a mixed desire which lies confusedly in the mind, filling it with distress, gets purified by the effort. The bringing it into God’ s presence is like bringing a mass of rank vegetation into the sunlight. Leave it there awhile. The pure fire of God’ s presence kills all that is noxious in the desire, all that is born of worldliness and lust. II. The second clause opens a yet deeper depth. There are groanings which cannot become prayers, and “my groaning is not hid from they.” Would that I could pray! is the language, in moments of deep religious feeling, of many a vain, selfish, worldly, or lustful heart; I should feel then that the battle was really gained. There are times when the effort to pray seems almost impious. A kind of dull despair weighs on the spirit, and crushes down all its energies. “ When I would do good, evil is present with me,” “ O miserable man that I am.” What help can there be, what hope, for such an one as I? “ Brethren, the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” But there is a mightier thing still; something that lodges a more resistless appeal in the very heart of the Divine compassion: it is the pain that cannot tell its misery in a prayer. It is a blessed thing for me that God heareth and answereth prayer; more blessed still, that “ My groaning is not hid from Thee.” (J. Baldwin Brown, B. A.) Psalms 38:12 They also that seek after my life lay snares for me. When friends are slow in helping, foes are most busy Our friends should blush, that the wicked are more instant against us, than they are to maintain us. But it is no wonder, since by nature men are more bent and prone to evil than to do good things. By constraint they do good, but willingly they commit evil.1. Their profit and pastime was to undo me. The order is here inverted; for meditating properly precedeth speaking, and speaking doing; but in the words of the text it is otherways; their malice extendeth to the highest degree, they will not be contented to banish him, prison him, and revile him, nothing can satisfy their thirst but his blood. This is the envy of the serpent against the seed of the woman. The devil is a murderer, and so are his children. 2. The means which they used against him: their purposes, their words, and their actions. They meditated, they consulted; for wrongs done rashly are less dangerous, and more excusable, out of a spleen and choler; but advised evils are more fearful, and more hardly to be eschewed, laying the grounds and pillars of their proceedings upon some sure hold. But we have one advantage, that God is present in all their counsels, and cannot only reveal them, but also disappoint them. 3. Finally, those their meditations and communications, which proceeded from cruel hearts, burst forth in actions which were mixed with craft, and so much the more perilous, for they are said to lay snares for him: taking the metaphor from hunters, fowlers or fishers, whose trade is only to catch birds, beasts and fishes by their engines and policy, seeing hardly they can be taken otherways. (A. Symson.) Psalms 38:15 For in Thee, O Lord, do I hope. Hope’ s lever You have heard, no doubt, of the great Grecian mechanician who once said, “ If I had a lever long and strong enough, and a fulcrum on which to rest it, I could move the earth.” Such was the philosopher’ s confidence in the power of the mechanical lever. There is in the world of mind and spirit a corresponding power which we call Hope. What can be stronger than this sacred, invisible influence? See that man yonder, going along with his head bent; when he speaks, there is no music in his voice, and no light in his eye. What is the cause? You reply, “ Ah, that man has lost all his hope.” Remove this divine influence from us, and existence, to the poor, and sick, and disappointed, would be like an eternal night without a star. Hope is a Divinely-given grace to bear us heavenward, like the wings of a bird. And as a bird puts forth efforts to fly, so we should continually aspire to be better men and women than we are. I. Hope inspires us to act as if we in reality could see and hear god speaking to us. When we read in the Gospel that God forgives sin, hope inspires us to believe that our Father has really forgiven us. The men on yonder ship which has sprung a leak, hoist a flag of distress, and while that steamer passes by they hope her captain will see their message and deliver them from peril and distress. So, with the same feeling, a man when in sorrow, or when he feels that without some great change taking place he will sink utterly in sin--that man goes into his room, shuts the door, kneels down, and lifts his flag of distress to God in the cry, “ Lord, save me; I perish!” And as no humane sailor would pass by a ship which carries a flag of distress, neither will God pass by the cry of any man, or woman, or child, who calls upon Him in trouble. II. God has given us the faculty of hope in order that it may prompt us to great actions. The prodigal of whom we read in the fifteenth chapter of Luke, was a very feeble creature. The parable is not told us to exalt the prodigal, but to show God’ s love and forgiveness. But hope in his father’ s love prompted him to arise and go to his father: it lifted him from hell to heaven. So, do not be afraid of the self-denial of becoming a Christian. You will suffer; it is not for me to deceive you. The man who will live a true Christian life does suffer. Ah, but there is a divine sweetness in it, such as never comes from sin. Let hope come into your breast. You can be sober; you can be self-denying; you can be truthful; you can be honest and manly in the highest sense of these words. Let hope in God’ s Word encourage you to believe that you can do great and good actions. III. There is hope in death. Have you this hope? If so, and your life is right with God and with man, you will be ready for death. (W. Birch.) Psalms 38:17 For I am ready to halt. Resolution almost exhausted We reach the “ I will” by “ I must” and “ I ought.” Now, this struggle with self-will is like a man with narrow chest and feeble lungs walking in the teeth of a biting north-east wind; it is like a bare-footed girl treading a road made with rough stones and sharp flints; it is like a feeble man climbing a mountain by a rocky path beneath a noon-day sun; and under the exhaustion of resolution and courage and patience there be many that say, “ I am ready to halt.” (Samuel Martin.) Psalms 38:18I will declare mine iniquity; I will be sorry for my sin.Of confession of sin I. What confession of sin is. It is a declaration of acknowledgment of some moral evil or fault to another. II. How far confession of our sins is necessary.1. It is a necessary part of repentance, that we should confess our sins to God, with a due sense of the evil of them (Proverbs 28:18; 1 John 1:9). 2. As for our confessing our sins to men, both Scripture and reason do, in some cases, recommend and enjoin it. (1) In order to the obtaining of the prayers of good men for us (James 5:16). (2) In order to the ease and satisfaction of our minds, and our being directed in our duty for the future. (3) In case our sins have been public and scandalous, both reason and the practice of the Christian Church do require, that, when men have publicly offended, they should give public satisfaction and open testimony of their repentance. (J. Tillotson.) Sorrow for sin I. The nature of this passion. Sorrow is a trouble or disturbance of mind, occasioned by something that is evil, done or suffered by us, or which we are in danger of suffering, that tends greatly to our damage or mischief: so that to be sorry for a thing is nothing else but to be sensibly affected with the consideration of the evil of it, and of the mischief and inconvenience which is like to redound to us from it; which, if it be a moral evil, such as sin is, to be sorry for it, is to be troubled that we have done it, and to wish with all our hearts that we had been wiser, and had done otherwise; and if this sorrow be true and real, if it abide and stay upon us, it will produce a firm purpose and resolution in us, not to do the like for the future. II. The reason and grounds of our sorrow for sin.1. The great mischief that sin is like to bring upon us. 2. Another and better principle of sorrow for sin is ingenuity; because we are sensible that we have carried ourselves very unworthily towards God, and have been injurious to Him, who hath laid all possible obligations upon us. III. The measure and degree of our sorrow for sin.1. Sin being so great an evil in itself, and of so pernicious a consequence to us, it cannot be too much lamented and grieved for by us; and the more and greater our sins have been, and the longer we have continued and lived in them, they call for so much the greater sorrow, and deeper humiliation from us; for the reasoning of our Saviour, “ She loved much, because much was forgiven her,” is proportionably true in this case--those who have sinned much, should sorrow the more. 2. If we would judge aright of the truth of our sorrow for sin, we must not measure it so much by the degrees of sensible trouble and affliction, as by the rational effects of it, which are hatred of sin, and a fixed purpose and resolution against it for the future. IV. How far the outward expression of our inward grief by tears is necessary to a true repentance. The usual sign and outward expression of sorrow is tears; but these being not the substance of our duty, but an external testimony of it, which some tempers are more unapt to than others; we are much less to judge of the truth of our sorrow for sin by these, than by our inward sensible trouble and affliction of spirit. He that cannot weep like a child may resolve like a man, and that undoubtedly will find acceptance with God. Two persons walking together espy a serpent; the one shrieks and cries out at the sight of it, the other kills it: so it is in sorrow for sin; some express it by great lamentation and tears, and vehement transports of passions; others by greater and more real effects of hatred and detestation, by forsaking their sins, and by mortifying and subduing their lusts: but he that kills it does certainly best express his inward displeasure and enmity against it. The application shall be in two particulars--1. By way of caution, and that against a double mistake about sorrow for sin. (1) Some look upon trouble and sorrow for sin as the whole of repentance. If this were so, there would be store of penitents in hell; for there is the deepest and most intense sorrow, “ weeping, and wailing and gnashing of teeth.” (2) Another mistake which men ought to be cautioned against in this matter is, of those who exact from themselves such a degree of sorrow for sin as ends in deep melancholy, as renders them unfit both for the duties of religion, and of their particular callings. The end of sorrow for sin is the forsaking of it and returning to our duty; but he that sorrows for sin, so as to unfit him for his duty, defeats his own design, and destroys the end he aims at. 2. The other part of the application of this discourse should be to stir up this affection of sorrow in us. If the holy men in Scripture, David, and Jeremiah, and St. Paul, were so deeply affected with the sins of others as to shed rivers of tears at the remembrance of them, how ought we to be touched with the sense of our own sins, who are equally concerned in the dishonour brought to God by them, and infinitely more in the danger they expose us to! Can we weep for our dead friends; and have we no sense of that heavy load of guilt, of that body of death which we carry about with us? Can we be sad and melancholy for temporal losses and sufferings, and “ refuse to be comforted;” and is it no trouble to us to have lost heaven and happiness, and to be in continual danger of the intolerable sufferings and endless torments of another world? I shall only offer to your consideration the great benefit and advantage which will redound us from this godly sorrow; “ it worketh repentance to salvation, not to be repented of.” If we would thus “ sow in tears,” we should “ reap in joy.” (Samuel Martin.) Hindrances to repentance I. There are various ways, and there are many ways, in which men try to hide themselves from themselves; to escape their own detection; wilfully to evade their own nominal search.(1) One of these is the sorcery of words. Men call sins, which they see others commit, by their true names; they call their own sins by false and glozing names. What is pride in others is in themselves proper spirit; what is slander in others is in themselves moral indignation; what is cheating in others is in themselves legitimate profit; what is in others an immoral acquiescence is in themselves a practical common sense; what is in others licence is in themselves Christian liberty. (2) Men will hardly ever look at their own actual deeds in connection with their own true motives. They live two lives. One is their common, habitual round of conduct, which is often base, and mean, and unworthy. The other is their traditional and imaginative homage to righteousness, which is upright and respectable. Their lives are a stately temple front; its frieze is sculptured with heroic imagery; its entablature, like that of our Royal Exchange, is enriched with a pious inscription. Alas! alas I Enter beyond the vestibule, and in some inmost shrine, noiseless and far away, approached, it may be, only by secret stairs and half-hidden entrances--there, in little, mean, dark closets, so completely behind their ostensible lives and their expressed opinions, that they almost succeed in hiding it from themselves, all the bad, the impure, the dishonourable work of their lives is done! (3) They freely condemn every other sin but the one to which they are themselves addicted. (4) They find the sweet, soft pleadings of egotism and of self-love so irresistible, that anything seems to be at least excusable which results from yielding to such temptations. Religion appeals to the reason and to the spirit; it nerves and braces; it puts iron into our resolutions; it infuses the soul with manliness, and the will with strength. And, on the other hand, sins--the sins of the world, the flesh and the devil--degrade us into the animal: they unnerve, they effeminate, they debase, they paralyze; they bid us listen to the base pleadings of a “ miserable, hungry, shivering self,” which is, like a crawling serpent, ever rustling amid the dead leaves of our weakened purposes, and ever hissing in our own ears: “ Only this once.” “ There is no harm in it.” “ Thou shalt not surely die.” This is the explanation, and the only possible one, of the insane infatuation which so often marks either the whole lives or the sudden actions of many men. 2. What should be our protection against these specious thoughts of our own heart and our own counsel? God has not left you unshielded. He has assigned the soul of man to the special, immediate guardianship of two pure and strong holy spirits. The name of one of those great archangels of our being is Duty--Duty, that angel so stern and yet so beautiful! And the name of the other great archangel is Conscience--Conscience, “ that aboriginal vicar of Christ, a prophet in its informations, a monarch in its peremptoriness, a priest in its blessings and anathemas,” with a voice now like the blast of a trumpet, now thrilling, and still, and small. (Dean Ferret.) Psalms 39:1-13 Psalms 39:1-13I said, I will take heed to my ways, that I offend not in my tongue; I will keep my mouth as it were with a bridle.Thought and prayer under trial I. Thought under trial.1. Its utterance repressed. “ I said, I will take heed to my ways.” (1) This effort as repression was pious. Why did he essay to “ muzzle” his tongue? “ That I sin not.” He felt in all probability that the circumstances which brought on his sufferings had awakened within him such sceptical ideas concerning the rectitude or benevolence of the Divine procedure, the utterance of which, in the ears of the wicked, while they were “ before him,” would be highly sinful. (2) This effort at repression was painful. Imprisoned thoughts, like pent-up floods, increase in turbulent force; the more they are suppressed, the more they heave, swell, and battle. (3) This effort at repression was temporary. His thoughts became at last irrepressible. “ I spake with my tongue.” To whom? Not to ungodly men--this he resolved not to do because it was sinful--but to the great Jehovah. 2. Its attention arrested. The character of life. Its terminableness. Its frailty. Its brevity. Its vanity. Its emptiness. Its disquietudes. Its worthless labours. (Homilist.) The unspoken judgment of mankind Scripture speaks in two different ways about judging others. On the one hand, it says, “ Judge nothing before the time, till the day of the Lord come;” on the other hand, it says, “ He that is spiritual judgeth all things;” and we are told to regard the Holy Spirit, of which we partake, as a spirit of discernment. Nor, if this discernment exists in Christians, can we confine it to distinguishing only flagrant sinners from well-conducted men? No; it extends much farther than that; it goes much deeper. Christians who are endowed with the spirit of holiness, and who have with that gift the spirit also of wisdom and knowledge, can see where the heart is right in others, and where it is not. This is part of that very unconscious power which lies in goodness as such; for goodness finds not goodness in others. On the other hand, disguise it how they will, the contrary character is detected, and repels. So that goodness, as such, has a true wisdom in it. But, perhaps, the great law with respect to judging which is laid down in our texts refers to the delivery of the judgment, it is not to be allowed full expression and manifestation. The judgment will be an outspoken one, ours may not be so. Scripture holds before us the terror of a dreadful exposure when “ the secrets of all hearts shall be made known” (Luke 8:1-56; Luke 12:3). But the tongue of intermediate judgment is tied. There is an embargo laid upon the delivery of it. This, then, is the meaning of “ the bridle while the ungodly is in my sight.” A judgment of some kind is implied, but it is to be a mute judgment. In this temper of the psalmist, then, we observe first, a greater strength than belongs to the other temper of impetuous and premature expression--strength not only of self-control, but of actual feeling and passion. Such a state of mind must needs be stronger, since it does not require the proof which immediate, impetuous expression affords. It is because they feel they want this support of outward expression that therefore men make this outward demonstration. The force of our language reacts upon ourselves, and our minds are encouraged by it, so that their own inward conviction does not give way. They want their verdict sustained. Hence this mute form of judgment must needs be strong. The circumstances of the world are such, that this greater strength of feeling, this silent form of judgment, is positively needed to meet them. For consider what the perpetual expression of judgment, what the constant reply to the challenge of the other side would entail. This challenge is always going on. It is impossible to live in the world without constantly hearing admiration and praise lavished on that which we know in our hearts to be hollow and inferior in character.. The world generally accepts success as a test; indeed, popular judgment is almost obliged to be exceedingly rough. It must take men as they stand, and accept the mechanical praise which flows from a law of public opinion. And, indeed, the exposure of the bad in this world is all but impossible. But if no judgment, however true in the sanctuary of the heart, can declare itself, by the very conditions of society, this is a clear revelation of the will of God that such a manifestation must not be attempted, and that to attempt it would be to forestall His divine purpose. And then we have nothing to fall back upon but the rule of the psalmist--the rule of a mute and silent judgment. “ I will keep my mouth, as it were,” etc. But such men do not escape judgment altogether. The good judge them, and make up their minds about them, though it be unuttered. Is there not an unspoken sentence upon him, a silent verdict in the consciences of the righteous and holy which goes deeper than “ explanations” ? And is not this mute verdict an anticipation of that judgment which will not be silent but outspoken--the disclosure and manifestation of the human heart which will take place at the last day? Nay, and is there not even a judgment in Iris own heart which he does not pass altogether comfortably? Is there not a voice within him which would speak if he would let it, and did not suppress it; and which, if it did speak, would scatter to the winds all his refuges of lies. Let us fear that. (J. B. Mozley, D. D.) Evil speaking, and the proper means to prevent it I. The reasonableness of this resolution, and particularly with respect to us, as Christians, not to offend with the tongue.1. Evil speaking brings a great scandal upon our holy religion, as it is so directly opposite to the genius and spirit of it, to the many express precepts which occur in it, and that goodness and candour of temper which so remarkably discovered itself in our blessed Saviour. 2. The injustice of this crime with respect to others. (1) It is a very evident truth, that according to the worth of anything, wherein we invade another man’ s right, the wrong we do him is proportionably heightened. It is no less certain that of all the external advantages and comforts of human life, there are none of greater importance to a man than a good name. (2) Besides defrauding a man of reputation and honour, this crime is for the most part highly injurious and prejudicial to him with respect to his other interests, and very often proves an injury to the public. For, as Plutarch well observes, the reputation of honour and worth affords one a thousand opportunities of doing good in the world, by opening to him an easy passage to the hearts and affections of men; whereas, says he, if a man lie under any calumnies or suspicions, he cannot exert his virtues, be he never so well qualified, to the benefit of others, without committing a kind of violence upon them. (3) That which heightens the injustice of this crime the more, is, that it is so difficult to make the injured party any reparation. A scandal, when it is once gone abroad, is not easily recalled; but as a poisonous vapour sometimes infects a whole city or region, so a calumny, once set forward, and meeting with so general an inclination to provoke it, is not only apt to spread itself wide, but the further it spreads, the more it usually increases its malignity. 3. The impudence of those who are guilty of this crime. (1) There are few persons who give their tongues a general liberty of scandal and defamation that do not irritate others to take the same freedom with them. (2) The folly and imprudence of this vice of evil speaking appears further from hence, that it seldom if ever answers one great end we propose to ourselves by it. We are apt to imagine that by lessening or throwing dirt upon other people, we set ourselves off to greater advantage, and appear in a better light; but we ought to consider the world has, at that very moment, an eye upon our conduct, and the same right to make a judgment of it, as we have to sit upon the actions of other people. And that it will judge of us, not from our declaiming against their vices or defects, and the elevation we would thereby give ourselves above them; but from our personal qualifications or behaviour. (3) Persons who give themselves the liberty to reflect upon the criminal actions and behaviour of other people, or to charge them perhaps with crimes they never thought of, are frequently observed to speak their own inclinations, and to give some visible and plain hints what they themselves would have been disposed to do under the same circumstances of temptation. II. The proper method of making this resolution good.1. To take heed to our ways implies in general that we keep a strict and watchful eye upon all our actions, that we frequently examine and call them over, and impartially state accounts between God and our own consciences. 2. But I shall consider this expression in its more restrained sense, as it imports the great duty of self-reflection or examination. A duty which, if we discharge with that care and frequency we ought, we shall have less time and less inclination to concern ourselves about the failings or disorders of other people. (1) We shall have less time for this criminal amusement; because, by calling our own ways frequently to remembrance, we shall discover how many opportunities of religious improvement we have trifled away already, or perhaps abused to very wicked and irreligious purposes; and that it concerns us therefore, by a more strict and constant application to the duties of religion for the future, to use our utmost endeavours towards redeeming the time. (2) By frequently examining into the state of our own souls, we shall also have less inclination to censure the conduct of others. By considering how apt we ourselves are to be tempted, and how easily we have been overcome by temptation, we shall be disposed to make a more favourable judgment of the failings of other people; we shall think it unreasonable to expect that they should be perfect, while we are conscious to ourselves of so many personal defects; we shall be ashamed to condemn men of like passions for taking those liberties which we think excusable in ourselves. III. Improvement.1. If evil speaking be in general so heinous a sin, and on so many accounts injurious to the party spoken against, the guilt of it must still be increased, when such particular persons are defamed who bear any extraordinary character, or whose reputation is of greater influence; such as princes and civil magistrates that are put in authority under them, whose honour it is the common interest of society itself to support and maintain, because in proportion to any contempt or indignity offered to their persons, their authority itself will grow cheap and precarious. 2. From what has been said, we may observe the general decay of Christian piety. 3. If evil speaking be so heinous a crime, let us take care not only to avoid it ourselves, but to discountenance it in others. I must own there is some courage and resolution required to stem a torrent which runs so strong, and wherewith such multitudes are carried away; but the more general any sinful practice is, it is an argument of the greater bravery and generosity of mind to oppose it. But if we have not power enough over ourselves to do that, let us take care, at least, that we be not thought by any seeming complacency in it, to encourage so unchristian a conversation. (R. Fiddes.) Psalms 39:2I was dumb with silence. Silence: sinful and sacred Was David right in keeping silence “ even from good” ? Matthew Henry remarks, “ Was it his wisdom that he refrained from good discourse when the wicked were before him, because he would not cast pearls before swine? I rather think it was his weakness. The same law which forbids all corrupt communications requires that which is good to the use of edifying.” Commendable virtues may be practised so eagerly as to degenerate into vices. Silence may indicate the greatest strength of character, or the greatest weakness. I. To be dumb with silence may be a great sin. It often involves--1. Neglect of duty. Our tongues and voices were given us quite as much for the purpose of making vocal the praises of God, as to hold converse with one another. Shall we be so indebted to God for all His mercies and never render to Him our praise? Nature is ever vocal with adorations to our King. His praise finds expression on every hand, The birds warble it, in deep bass the seas roar it, the stars shine it, the flowers with sweet perfume breathe it, mighty winds and gentle zephyrs chant it, spring, summer, autumn, winter, are four choristers from which ascend but four parts of one glad anthem. And yet how often man remains dumb with guilty silence amid the myriad harmonious voices around him. We are often silent, also, when we should speak for God. We fear to confess Him though He calls upon us to be His witnesses. Oh, that you could feel the sin of your reticence; the criminality of sealed lips! A silent religion, or a speaking religion, Christian professor, which shall it be? 2. The permission afforded us of speaking for Christ should be looked upon in the light of a high privilege as well as a solemn duty. “ We cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard. 3. Our sinful silence often involves a loss of personal blessing. II. But silence is often a virtue. When David was overwhelmed with a sense of God’ s mercy as expressed in Nathan’ s message (2 Samuel 7:18), his sense of obligation to God was so great, that he felt his soul big with emotions to which he could scarce give expression, so he “ sat before the Lord,” overpowered with the weight of blessing. Have not we often felt our souls tremulous with an adoration our lips could not express? When we have sought fellowship with our Lord in His sufferings and mused upon His “ unknown agonies.” The silent growth and secret development of character is most acceptable to God. Many Christians are yielding Him greater praise by the silent yet mighty influence of a sanctified character, than others who are loud in talk yet less circumspect in life. All growth is silent. The tree rises year by year without any noise. Contrast the building of the tower of Babel and that of the temple, which, “ Like some tall palm the noiseless fabric sprung.” Think, too, of silent prayer; and of sweet and gracious submission. How exalted is that Christian’ s attainment who can be silent while man persecutes. To me no portion of the story of our Saviour’ s life on earth is more convincing in its proof of His Deity than His submission to His cruel persecutors--“ When reviled, He reviled not again; when buffeted, He threatened not.” Here is Divinity indeed. Omnipotence restrains omnipotence. Let us seek grace to imitate Him. (W. Williams.) Psalms 39:4 My heart was but within me; while I was musing, the fire burned: then spake I with my tongue, Lord, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is, that I may know how frail I am.A sense of our frailty a subject for prayer Bishop Horsley says that David, moved by a godly contrition, pours forth this prayer, that he might know his end and the measure of his days. I. Why should contrition lead to such a prayer? David speaks not of forgiveness, though that is what the contrite heart first asks for. But he does not here pray even for this. Apparently he does not, but really he does. For the prayer to be taught how frail we are, is virtually a prayer that we may be made holier, more averse from sin, and more devoted to the great end of our being. That it is this is shown--1. By the fact that the interval between the evil work and the execution of the sentence against it causes the hearts of men to be steadfastly set in them to do evil. If penalty followed immediately on crime, men would not dare to sin as now they fearlessly do. They trust themselves to the hope that delay in punishment ever inspires. There is a sort of unacknowledged idea that what is protracted and indefinite will never take effect. A thousand things may intervene to prevent execution. 2. Or there is at work another, and not wholly different feeling. It is confessed that sin must be repented and forsaken, seeing that otherwise there will come a fearful retribution hereafter; but it is imagined that life will yet afford many opportunities, so that it is safe, or at least not imminently dangerous, to persist a while longer in criminal indulgence, which keeps up the sinner in this his procrastination. If you could practically overthrow this his theory, and substitute for it the persuasion, that “ in the midst of life he is in death,” he would be almost compelled, by his felt exposure to danger, to make provision for the coming eternity, on the threshold of which he may be at any moment standing, and which may be upon him, in its awfulness and unchangeableness, ere he draw another breath. How many still believe the ancient lie with which the tempter deceived Eve, “ Ye shall not surely die.” How few live “ as strangers and pilgrims” here on earth. Instead of that there is a great settling themselves down, as if earth were their home; a slackness in religious duties, as if there were no great cause for diligence; a deferring of many sacrifices and performances, as though the case were not urgent; and this, too, where the parties not only avouch themselves careful for the soul, but are clearly to be distinguished from the great mass around them, by a general endeavour to do the will of their God. And what should we say is needed, in order to the correcting these errors and inconsistencies? What, at least, would be a mighty engine in producing greater steadfastness in the righteous, greater abstraction from earth, greater devotedness to religion? We reply without hesitation--a deep conviction of the uncertainty of life. Had men such conviction they could not live, as now they do, so entangled in the world, so eager in its service. It would warn him back from the inordinate pursuit of earthly things. II. But note the petition itself. What a curious fact it is that such a petition should be offered unto God. Its terms are explicit enough, at least there can be little doubt as to its drift. He does not mean that God should show him the exact measure of his days and the precise number of them tie had yet to live. Such a petition would be unlawful, for it would be an intrusion into those “ secret things” which “ belong only unto God.” But that which the psalmist seeks to know is, the frailty of his life. This is the drift and scope of the petition, that he may have an abiding sense of the shortness and uncertainty of life. Now, is it not strange that such a prayer should be offered? I do not ask God to make me know that such and such substances are poisonous when all example testifies that they are; or that the weather is variable, when I have such continual proof of it. I do not pray to know anything, which I know indubitably from books, or testimony, or observation. Why, then, pray to be made to know how frail I am? It seems like praying to be made to know that the sun rises and sets; that storms may suddenly overcast the sky, or that any other thing may happen which we already know is wont to happen. And yet David, who was as little likely as we are to shut his eyes to well-known truths--he offers up this prayer, “ Lord, make me to know mine end,” etc. I cannot but draw a lesson from this for one’ s own ministerial guidance in the discharge of the ministerial office. If there is one thing more than another I would desire to have impressed on all classes of my hearers, it is the simple, self-evident, universally confessed truth, that they are frail beings liable at any moment to death, and certain at no very distant time to be removed to another, even to an invisible world. I have already shown you that there is little needed, beyond the abiding consciousness of this truth, to produce in those who have hitherto neglected religion, an earnest heedfulness to the things of eternity; and in others, who have devoted themselves to God, an increased and increasing diligence in the culture of personal holiness. So that it will naturally be one great aim of the minister to gain power for the truth of the uncertainty of life; to withdraw it from the mass of facts, which are acknowledged rather than felt, and to place it amongst those which influence the conduct. How is tie to proceed in the accomplishment of this aim? You know very well what is ordinarily tried; and if reason sit in judgment on the matter, it might possibly pronounce it best fitted to succeed. There are arrayed all the affecting evidences that can be gathered together of human frailty. But, however fair and admirable in theory, is this course practically effective when the fact of which we desire to produce conviction is the uncertainty of life? Alas! no. The universal testimony from ministerial experience, is that a well wrought sermon on the frailty of life is commonly ineffectual to the making men on the watch for the approaches of death. Here it is that our text comes in with a great lesson. It does but echo this result of ministerial experience. The psalmist prays to be made to know his frailty; as though quite aware that meditation and observation would never bring it home to him, notwithstanding that it seemed impossible for him to shut his eyes to the fact. And if it be a thing for prayer, it is evident enough that all meditations amongst the tombs, and all musings over the dead, will be practically of no avail, except as they bring men to their knees. Here, then, is the great lesson which, as a minister, [ gather from the text. I wish to impress on you your frailty, and entreat you to let this be part of your daily prayer to the Almighty--“ Make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is; that I may know how frail I am.” (Henry Melvill, B. D.) Reflections for the New Year I. That human life must terminate. The knowledge and belief that our times are in God’ s hand have a powerful influence in making us humble, self-denied, watchful and holy. The return of day and night, the revolution of the heavenly bodies, the beating of our hearts, the circulation of the blood, every clock in our chamber, and every watch we carry, all proclaim the affecting truth, that our days are hastening to an end. II. That the measure of our days is determined by God. The sovereignty of the Most High is eminently discovered in the various admeasurements of human life. III. That the knowledge of our end, and of the measure, of our days is of great practical utility in the Christian life. “ That I may know how frail I am.” IV. That God alone can teach us the end, the measure, and the value of the present life. “ Lord, make me to know mine end,” etc. This is a lesson which the wisdom of men cannot teach. We bear, we confess the general truth that all must die; but we act as if it were not true, as if it never were to be interpreted of ourselves I But when God teaches us our end, He inspires us with other views. No person can be indifferent to death and mortality when God is his teacher. (Christian Magazine.) “ Make me to know mine end” From this prayer it would appear that men are prone to forget their end. Why do men forget their last end? I. Negatively.1. Not because there can be any doubt as to its importance. What a momentous event is death! The termination of our earthly connection, and our introduction into a state, mysterious, retributive, probably unalterable. 2. Not because men have no reminders of it. If you see a painting, the artist is in his grave--a book, the author is no more--a portrait, the subject is gone to dust. 3. Not because there is the slightest hope of avoiding it. “ It is appointed unto all men once to die.” II. Positively.1. An instinctive repugnance to it. All men dread 2:2. The difficulty of realizing it. We cannot possibly know what it is to die. It is a knowledge that can only be got by experience. 3. The commonness of the occurrence. If only a few in a whole country died in the course of a year, and one or two in our neighbourhood, the strangeness might affect us. 4. The general hope of longevity. 5. The soul engrossing power of worldly things. “ What shall we eat, what shall we drink, wherewithal shall we be clothed?” This is the all absorbing question. But why should men consider their latter end? (1) To moderate their attachment to earthly things.(2) To stimulate preparation for a higher state.(3) To enable us to welcome it when it comes. (Homilist.) Brief life is here our portion Some see a kind of pettishness in this verse, the fruit of impatience under the chastening hand of God. But it is not for us to upbraid the psalmist, for what is his impatience compared to ours? David prays, “ Make me to know mine end.” But was his frailty a secret that he could not discover? We may be sure that he knew it in part, but he wanted to know it after a more perfect way; with that spiritual enlightenment which God alone could communicate. Thus he would know-- I. His end. Do we know this?1. Its certainty. I must die. There is no discharge in that war. Is that fact realized by us? 2. It will be our end. Not a halt, but a finale. Mine end for all things beneath the sun--sin, sorrow, service, opportunity for doing and getting good. Think of the accompaniments of our end, the last scenes here in which we shall take part. Picture it all to your minds so far as you can. Rehearse it so far as you may. And think of its results. Then it is that though we end here, we enter on the most solemn part of our existence. Whither wilt thou go? To be with Christ, or amongst the lost--which? We need to be made to know our end, made to believe in it firmly, realize it vividly, so as to be prepared for it whenever it comes. II. The measure of his days. It is only the days of God that cannot be counted. Ours can, “ as poor men count their sheep,” because they are so few. But the fact that man is sinful makes it blessed that his days should be few. Would we have a Voltaire for ever stalking about this world, or such as he? Let us measure our days so as not to waste them. III. His frailty. We are like travellers on a road across which there is a deep gulf. Some know it, but most forget it. Those in the front ranks fall into it, and the others will, but as yet they think not of it. So we all go on until we come to that fatal step which will plunge us into eternity. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Psalms 39:5 Behold, Thou hast made my days as an handbreadth: and mine age is as nothing before Thee: verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity.The brevity and vanity of human life These simple words have an energy in them which none but a dying man can fully understand. We may, indeed, have felt something of their meaning, as we have heard them read over the corpse of a beloved friend, but then this feeling has been neither deep nor lasting. The cares or pleasures of the world have again called for and had our whole attention. The psalmist’ s words lead us to consider-- I. Why he calls the days of life our days. Strictly speaking, they are not so, not one of them, but--1. They bring to us innumerable mercies as they hurry on.2. And they are allowed to us that in them we may work for eternity.3. We have to account for them hereafter. They are recorded in the Book of God. II. Their shortness. They are so by comparison.1. With the period once allotted to the life of man.2. With the duration of many objects around us.3. With the eternity of God.4. With the work we have to do. How diligent, then, should we be. And how silently our years pass away. There is also another painful thought connected with the silent rapidity of time--the longer we stay in the world, the swifter does its flight appear. A year to a man is not more than a few months to a child. Our days seem to rush on with a more silent and rapid motion the nearer they draw to the goal of death, as though they were eager to bear us away unawares to our destined eternity. The fact is, that time, correctly speaking, is nothing more than a succession of ideas; these ideas are less numerous, and the impressions they make less deep and permanent in old age than they are in youth; and consequently the road of life has fewer marks to remind us of our progress. III. Their vanity. But here, perhaps, it may be said, “ What if the period of life is thus transitory? Man is a great and noble being, and has powers that enable him to crowd into this short existence a consequence and dignity suited to his greatness.” The words before us however speak no such language. There is another truth declared in them, which pours contempt on all human greatness. They tell us, not only of the shortness of life, but of the vanity, the utter nothingness, of man. This is the testimony they give, “ Verily, every man, at his best state, is altogether vanity.” Therefore--1. How precarious and how little worth are all our earthly blessings. Death soon carries them away. 2. And so of all our schemes and prospects. How forcibly, then, are we reminded of the great duty of consideration, of serious thoughts on our life and responsibility; how great an evil is sin, and how great a necessity is our trust in God. (C. Bradley, M. A.) The vanity of man at his best state I. Thy subject of the psalmist’ s meditation. “ Every man in his best state.” How glorious was the condition in which man was created. But from that he fell. Still, through God’ s mercy in Christ, his condition is one of many blessings. He may have the Divine favour, and he may dwell in the Divine presence here. But the psalmist was thinking of man in the state in which he possesses the greatest share of worldly advantages, and in which other men are wont to call him most happy. Picture such a man--thee citizen, the philosopher, the monarch. II. Hear what is said of such an one, the humiliating fact that he is “ altogether vanity.” For death at any moment may come and strike down the sturdiest frame, the possessor of the greatest prosperity. Remember this, and prepare for the eternal life. III. The emphatical manner is which it is urged on our attention. “ Verily,” every man at, etc., etc. And we need that the truth should be enforced, manifest and common as it is. (W. Curling, M. A.) The vanity of man I. Man’ s existence without immortality is vanity.1. It is vain in the sense of hollowness. It is an empty fiction, an inflated bubble. (1) It lacks inner satisfaction.(2) It lacks endurance. 2. It is vain in the sense of worthlessness. On the assumption that there is no immortality, what useful purpose is answered by our existence? I appreciate the literary productions of genius, but the best of them I feel are unworthy of our creation. II. Man’ s existence with a godless immortality is vanity.1. It is an existence eternally pursuing a phantom. 2. It is an existence eternally producing injury. Learn-- (1) The infinite worth of the Gospel.(2) The infinite folly of the Gospel-rejector. (Homilist.) The brief duration of human life I. Life is short, in respect of the great work which it is given us to perform. Man in his best estate here below is still an improvable condition. There is no perfection on this side the grave.1. The man of the loftiest attainments in virtue is but elevated to a position whence he has a more enlarged discovery than others of the miserableness and defects of his present standing. The attainments of man in virtue and in piety affect him in a manner similar to what is produced by the other acquirements of life--the more that there is gained, the more is there that presents itself to be desired. The Christian, in his best estate, ever feels clogged in his career, and is ever laying aside those weights which retard him in his motion. 2. As it is with the attainments of piety, so is it with those of knowledge. The longest life is found too short to compass the knowledge of what God has revealed to us in His Word. To some, the duration of mortal existence has proved too short for the attainment of any substantial good. They were cut off in the midst of resolutions of amendment. For this, life was amply sufficient; but, as Seneca has it, “ We complain of its shortness, because of the waste of it which is made.” II. Life is short in a comparative point of view; and it is in reference to the consideration of the subject in this light, that the comparison in our text of life to an hand-breadth is peculiarly appropriate.1. To the child in the dawn of life, when reason begins to expand, and thought to measure out the prospect of happy days spread before it, through all the stages of its earthly career, the anticipated term of years appear so vast as to fill its imagination with wonder, and rack its powers of comprehension. But, with the progress of years, the allotted term of human life ever appears to shorten. 2. But when the psalmist skid, “ Thou hast made my days as an handbreadth,” he must have thought of the Eternal of ages, whom he addressed, with whom “ a thousand years are as one day,” and compared with whose immeasurable duration our existence here may well be likened to an hand-breadth. “ Our days “ is a phrase employed in Scripture to denote the term of our existence here, which is measured by the revolution of days, contrasted with our future being, when time shall be no longer. The psalmist thought of the great, the boundless eternity which lay before him; of that never-ending succession of ages through which we should live, increasing in knowledge and in happiness; and turning his eye to the comparatively puny, limited, and circumscribed being which he now enjoyed, yet considering the vast result that hung upon it, he exclaimed, “ Thou hast made my days as an handbreadth.” Such language is appropriate to human life. We have received a place among the things which have foundation. Our immortal souls exist in God, who has imparted to them, in reference to futurity, an attribute to Himself--Eternity. (John Watson.) The vanity of human life and nature I. The force and emphasis of the text.1. The psalmist gives us here a very emphatic description of the measure of his days, (1) “ A handbreadth,” or the breadth of four fingers was one of the least geometrical measures among the Jews; which we may fitly call an inch or two of Time. But alas! the thread of life is as slender as it is short; and often breaks before this inch or two is run off. (2) The psalmist speaks of it in yet more diminishing terms when he adds, “ My age is as nothing before Thee.” 2. The psalmist gives us a much more diminishing description of the frailty of our nature than he does of the measure of our days. For, “ verily, every man at his best state is altogether vanity.” (1) He is so in himself, both in body and mind. His body is but a living lump of earth, making haste to deformity and dust. How feeble, contracted and low, are the very best powers of his mind; how weak his reason, how cramped his understanding! (2) His pursuits and desires are vain. (3) His enjoyments are vain--riches, pleasures, honours. (4) His life is vain--transient, short, uncertain. II. Why our common sentiments of human life are so very different from these of the psalmist.1. Men do not steadily attend to the nature, consequence, and final issue of things; but confine their views to present objects and appearances, which are sure to deceive them. 2. Sense and appetite too often corrupt the judgment. It is a hard thing for men to believe what they would not have to be true. The truth is, their affections are engaged, and they cannot help thinking well of what they love; they do not care to hear those things disparaged which they exceedingly value; nor can they be easily persuaded to think that what they have fondly set their hearts upon is so altogether vain. III. We shall soon be convinced of the justness of this description if we but duly consider two things.1. What man is in comparison of what he shall be. Do we not look upon one single moment of time as a mere point, when compared with the many years we have a]ready lived? But one single moment of time bears an infinitely greater proportion to the period of human life than the whole period of human life does to eternity. How concerned, then, should we be by a course of steady piety and virtue to add a value to this nothing, by improving our transient years to the purposes of eternal bliss I Because on this moment of time depends eternity. 2. We shall be more sensible of the justness of this description which the psalmist gives us of the vanity of mankind, if we consider in what manner they generally act in comparison of what they should do. (1) In what manner they ought to live as reasonable creatures in a state of trial and preparation for an eternal world. Impressed with this thought, would they not be very careful to watch their heart and behaviour, and daily examine their temper and conduct by that rule of righteousness which God hath given them for their direction and guide; lest they should be unawares seduced into sin, to the danger and detriment of their immortal interest? (2) Do we find that they really do live in this manner? Is not the general course and conduct of their lives often just the reverse of this? How rarely are they disposed to think of another world! How unattentive to the government of their lives and passions! IV. Improvement.1. Seeing we know these things, let us beware lest we also be led away with the error of the wicked. 2. The text, if well considered, must surely be a sovereign cure for envy; unless vanity, folly, and wretchedness be the proper objects of it. 3. Is man in his best state altogether vanity? what is he, then, in his worst state? 4. Let us learn hence to rectify our sentiments of human life and all its vanities. (1) What do We think of them under a grievous fit of pain or sickness? When all of them together cannot purchase for us so much as one moment’ s ease. (2) What should we think of them at death? It is then that men always form the truest thoughts of human life. (3) Suppose we were to judge of them by the general character of those who possess the most of them; and see the pernicious effects they generally have upon the minds of men; what shall we think of them then? 5. Are these things really vain; it is time, then, that we seek out for some more substantial good. (J. Mason, M. A.) Of vanity Take man in all the variety of his behaviour and humours, in his best and most settled estate (for so much the original imports); nay, in the best managements of his affairs, in the subtilty and strength of all his designs and projectings; even in the pre-eminence of his reason and pretended excellency of his wisdom; when he designs to look and speak wisest, and put off the face of vanity; when he thinks he is most in the right, and his achievements are most successful; take him with all his advantages, and dress him up above nature, with all the improvements of art and sciences, and he is still the veriest fop in the creation, and the merest antic that appears upon the stage of the world. I. Consider man in his civil and secular capacity. The greatest confidence that men usually have in the things of the world arises from a great estate of wealth and treasure. But what is the foundation of this confidence, but a greater portion of the earth we tread on, or some refined part of it, some rubbish taken out of its bowels, burnished and made shining (to please the fool), and stamped with some image and superscription. But observe the vanity; are we children when we play with trifles, and wise men when we please ourselves with these greater toys? Or rather to confirm our vanity, are we not like them, given to change, and throw away one foolery to take up another? The difference can be no more than that the one is the pleasure and divertisement of children, and the other of men; but both the same vanity. II. Examine him as to his moral and divine estate, as he is the son and disciple of virtue, and wisdom, and religion; as he is guided by reason, and pretendedly governed by conscience; there, too, he is vanity.1. The original dignity of man above other creatures is that tie is endowed with a rational soul, a pure immaterial substance that cannot die or be extinguished; by this tie claims kindred with the angels, nay, a certain affinity to God Himself, being created after His image, and cannot but think immortality essential to his very being; but, alas I to invert the words of the apostle, this immortal may put on mortality, and this incorruptible may put on corruption. 2. If we venture a strain higher, even to the best effects of reason; to the high-flown pretences of wisdom and learning, we shall make much the same discoveries. The wisdom of men is not only foolishness with God, but really in itself; and knowledge is as truly but science falsely so called. III. To fix upon a state and condition of life really the best and the only one not subject to vanity is easy, and in few words to be discovered, in contemplation at least, though experience hath proved the practice to be very rare and difficult. If we should meet and confer together, and discourse this great point one with another in the next world, some little space before our trial comes on at that great tribunal of God, what, I pray, would you call wisdom? What would you call exemption from vanity and folly? Be sure not that by which in the preceding world we got a great estate; for, alas! that is quite gone and lost to us and our posterity, nothing of that nature can escape the general conflagration. No! nor that by which we once got fame and renown, for that is vanished too, and perhaps is really inglorious and base in the esteem of all at that day; for then be sure our judgments will be more discerning, and we shall have other thoughts and apprehensions of things. No I nor that by which we attained to arts and sciences, were statesmen or politicians; for we shall have no manner of use of them, neither in heaven nor in hell. Our knowledge must, then, be of another nature, of much greater perfection, or we cannot be happy; and sinner, too, the more sagacious and discerning they then become, the more fitted and qualified (as we may say) will they be for their due punishment; their remorse and torments will be the sorer and more pungent. We shall infallibly then pronounce upon the debate, That we were altogether vain in She other world, and that that was the truest wisdom which exerted itself in all the previsionary means for this great and terrible day of judgment, to secure the grand interest of everlasting life. (John Cooke, M. A.) Psalms 39:6 Surely every man walketh in a vain show. The bitterness and blessedness of the brevity of life (with Psalms 39:12):--These two sayings are two different ways of putting the same thing. There is a common thought underlying both, but the associations with which that common thought is connected in these two verses are distinctly different. The one is bitter and sad--a gloomy half truth. The other, out of the very same fact, draws blessedness and hope. The one may come from no higher point of view than the level of worldly experience, the other is a truth of faith. The former is at best partial, and without the other may be harmful; the latter completes, explains, and hallows it. And this progress and variety is the key to the whole psalm. The writer, in consequence of some personal calamity--we know not what,--was struck dumb with silence. His thoughts were sad and miserable. At last he speaks out, and complains more than prays concerning the deep sadness of life. He dilates on this, but the thought of it alpine is too dreadful: the blackness of his view was making him reel; therefore he turns to God, “ And now, Lord, what wait I for? my hope is in Thee.” The psalm changes from this point; there is the same sadness contemplated, but with what a difference. He sees the bright light of tope which streams up from the most lurid masses of opaque cloud till their gloom begins to glow with an inward lustre, and softens into solemn purples and reds. He had said, “ I was dumb with silence--even from good.” But when his hope is in God, the silence changes its character and becomes resignation and submission. He is a stranger, but “ with Thee” --that makes all the difference. He is God’ s guest in his transient life. That life is short, like the stay of a foreigner in a strange land, but he is under the care of the King of the land; therefore be need not fear nor sorrow. Three points are brought before us. I. The thought of life common to both verses of the text. “ Every man walketh in a vain show,” and “ in an image” or “ shadow” --he walks as a shadow. That is to say, the whole outward life and activity of every man is represented as fleeting and unsubstantial, like the reflection of a cloud which darkens leagues of the mountain’ s side in a moment, and “ ere a man can say, behold,” is gone again for ever. Then look at the other image employed in the other clause of our text, to express the same idea, “ I am a stranger and a sojourner as all my fathers.” The phrase has a history. In that most pathetic narrative of an old-world sorrow long since calmed and consoled, when “ Abraham stood up from before his dead” and craved a burying-place for Sarah from the sons of Heth, he pleaded, “ I am a stranger and a sojourner with you.” He was so. And such is man’ s relation to this world. II. The gloomy hollowness which that thought apart from God infuses into life, Because life is fleeting, therefore in part, it is so hollow and unsatisfying. Why should we fret and break our hearts, “ and scorn delights, and live laborious days “ for purposes which will last so short a time, and things which we shall so soon have to leave?” Were it not better to lie still?” Such thoughts have at least a partial truth in them, and are difficult to meet as long as we think only of the facts and results of man’ s life that we can see with our eyes. Yes I if we have said all, when we have said--men pass as a fleeting shadow, if my life has no roots in the eternal, nor any consciousness of a life that does not fade, when it is all flat and unprofitable, an illusion, a folly, a dream. For all the while I yearn for something higher, “ My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God.” God “ hath put eternity in man’ s heart,” as Ecclesiastes says. And all these longings and aspirations witness that such limited life as was can never fill our souls or give us rest. Can you fill up the swamps of the Mississippi with any cartloads of faggots that you can fling in? Can you fill your souls with anything which belongs to this fleeting life? Has a flying shadow an appreciable thickness, or will a million of them pressed together occupy a space in your empty hungry heart? But note how our other text in its significant words gives us-- III. The blessedness which springs from this same thought of life when it is looked at in connection with God. The mere conviction of the brevity and hollowness of life is not in itself a religious or helpful thought. It all depends upon what you associate with it. The words, “ I am a stranger and a sojourner with Thee,” point back to the law of the jubilee, when all lands returned to their original owners. But its religious aim was to keep alive in the minds of Israel their sense of dependence upon God. “ The land shall not be sold for ever, for the laud is mine, for ye are strangers and sojourners with me. Of course, there was a special sense in which that was true with regard to Israel, but David thought that the words were as true in regard to his whole relation of God, as in regard to Israel’ s possession of its national inheritance. If we grasp these words as completing all that we have already said, how different this transient and unsubstantial life looks. You must have the light from both sides to stereoscope and make solid the flat surface picture. Transient! yes--but it is passed in the presence of God. Now, if we will hold to this truth, what calm blessedness will flow into our hearts. For if “ a stranger with Thee,” then we are the guests of the King, the Lord of the land. We have a constant companion and an abiding presence. He is with us, will walk with us, will sit with us and make our hearts glow. Strangers we are, indeed, here--but not solitary, for we are “ strangers with Thee.” As in some ancestral home in which a family has lived for centuries--son after father has rested in these great chambers, and been safe behind the strong walls--so age after age, they who love Him abide in God. “ Thou has been our dwelling-place in all generations.” “ Strangers with Thee” --then we may carry our thoughts forward to the time when we shall go to our true home, nor wander any longer in the land that is not ours. If even here He is with us, what will it be there? And why should we fear death? Is the sentry sad as the hour for relieving guard comes nigh? Is the wanderer in far-off lands sad as he turns his face homewards? And why should not we rejoice at the thought that we, strangers and foreigners here, shall soon depart to the true metropolis, the mother-country of our souls? I do not know why. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Earth’ s vanities and heaven’ s verities I. David records his view of human life.1. He speaks of life as a walk. He seems to have had in his mind the idea of a great procession: “ Surely every man walketh in a vain show.” Such things were more common in Oriental countries than they are with us; but whether it is the Lord Mayor’ s show or any other, it is a picture of what this mortal life is. Among some classes of society, show is everything; they must “ keep up appearances.” Just so; and, all the world over, that is about all there is--“ appearances” --a vain show. I wish we could get a hold of that idea as a practical thing, that everything we can see is shadow, but what we cannot see is the real substance. 2. He speaks of life as a worry. “ Surely they are disquieted.” So they are. How few people are so free from the spirit of the things of this world as to pass through this life quietly. See how they begin life, eager for its joys, its honours, its wealth. Note how they plod, and toil, and labour. How much of brain-work is done by the light of the midnight oil! Many a man agitates his mind, and wearies his spirit, till his life is lost in finding a livelihood. They are trying to live, and lo! life is gone; and they wake up, and wonder how it is that they have let it go, and have not really lived at all. 3. David passes on to speak of life as a success; and he mentions those who were supposed to have been successful in life; though, mark you, it is not success in life, after all, to accumulate riches. “ He heapeth up riches.” That is all he does not partake of them, he does not use them, he merely heaps them up. He accumulates without enjoyment. “He heapeth up riches, and knoweth not who shall gather them.” He leaves his wealth without pleasure. I am sure that there is many a man who would turn in his grave if he knew what was being done with his hard-earned wealth. II. David expresses his own emotions in contemplation of these things.1. He has come to a decision. “ And now, Lord.” I like that mode of speech; it is a great thing to come to God with a “ now.” Every moment is solemn if we would but make it so; but there are certain turning-points in life, when a man has had his eyes opened to see the fallacy of his former pursuits, when, stopping where the roads meet, he looks up to the signpost, and says, “ And now, Lord, guide me; help me to take the right turn, to eschew the shadow, and to seek after that which is substantial. Now, Lord.” 2. I also like this expression of David’ s emotions, because he consults with God: “ Every man walketh in a vain show; but,” saith he, “ and now, Lord, there is no vanity with Thee, no deception, no delusion with Thee, behold, I turn away from this mirage, which just now deluded me, to Thee, my God, the Rock of my salvation, and I look to Thee. And now, Lord.” 3. He is a man whose hope is in God. III. David offers an appropriate and needful prayer, “ Deliver me,” etc. 1. From sins committed.2. From the assaults of sin.3. From peculiarly dangerous sins.4. From deserved dishonour.5. From undeserved defamation.6. From spiritual disappointment.7. From dreadful taunts at the last. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Surely they are disquieted in vain.--Vain disquietudes I. Because they are utterly useless. Most, if not all, the things that occasion them are inevitable.1. The approach of age.2. The advance of reformations.3. The separation from property.4. The advent of death. II. Because they are removable. Since Christianity has come, all the disquietudes of the soul may be hushed. They are kept in “ perfect peace” whose minds are stayed upon God. (Homilist.) Psalms 39:7-8 And now, Lord, what wait I for?my hope is in Thee. Deliver me from all my transgressions: make me not the reproach of the foolish. The appeal and prayer of a waiting soul I. His waiting.1. What he did not wait for--not for any earthly good.2. What he did wait for--manifestation of love of God. Removal of affliction. The subdual of his sins. A smile from God. God’ s will to be done in him. II. His hope--God. III. His prayer--“ Deliver me from all,” etc. 1. From the guilt;2. The filth;3. The love;4. The power;5. The commission-of sin. IV. The reproach which he feared--that of “ the foolish.” He knew he was liable to it, and he feared it much. (J. C. Philpot.) Faith and culture The latter of these two verses is the language of a man who had seen much of life. And yet we must own that the life of man is a fuller, a more intense, a more many-sided thing to-day than ever before. How many interests it touches; amid what wide-reaching complications it lives and moves; under what enormous pressure it rushes on. The age which we call our own is mainly an inventing and contriving one. In a word, for that is the question to which our text directly lead us, Is the world really happier because of what civilization has done for it, or no? No one will say that civilization has done nothing for the race, and that there has been no progress apart from that of the Cross. To affirm that would be to affirm what is untrue. For civilization may be without Christian faith. Enlightened selfishness has long found out that the individual is better off and happier when the community is honest, healthy and mutually self-respecting. Hence, it is not certain that society, as you and I know it, would lapse into barbarism without the knowledge of the faith of the Crucified. But the question is, also, Would human happiness remain? or rather, Is it to civilization that the world owes its happiness, and are we of to-day, with our higher and finer civilization, happier than our forefathers? They were without a multitude of advantages that we have, and the range and the pace of their life were almost infinitely narrower and slower. But in widening the range and in quickening the pace, have we deepened the current and enriched the quality of our lives? “ Thou hast multiplied the nation,” says the prophet, “ and not increased the joy.” And yet there is a Book which tells you of a life which he who lives it is “ not afraid of any evil tidings, for his heart standeth fast and believeth in the Lord.” There is a faith which has learned how to ask and to answer the deepest of all questions in the word, “ And now, Lord, what is my hope? Truly my hope is even in Thee.” There is a life--you know at least one or two who here and there are living it--in which the world is neither a charnel-house, nor its pleasures dust and ashes. It is for this widening of the horizon of its life, that human society wants that message of faith which civilization does not and cannot bring it. Man is going to school here, and the things that he touches, and sees, and requires here, all these are simply toys with which he is building block-houses in the nursery, until he is fit for the life and employments of the future. It is to recall you to this higher range of thought and aspiration that this holy house exists. What do we come to church for if we do not need to be reminded, by what we see and hear and do here, of a world and life outside the boundaries of the widest civilization and unrevealed by the investigations of the most painstaking culture? We have hopes that are not met by any visible attainment. We have fears that are not silenced by any earthly voice. And there are some times when we have another and a more bitter consciousness--the consciousness of personal sin. We want to be forgiven. We want to be renewed. We want to be emancipated. In one word, we want that element in our lives which never enters it until the Cross has entered it, and has at once conquered us by its love and transformed us by its infinite and Divine compassion. We want all this, I say. Has it ever occurred to us to think of those other lives who want it no less, and who vet may so easily be left without it? (H. G. Potter.) The believer hoping in God I. His appeal. It implies--1. An experimental persuasion of insufficiency. This is engraven in characters too deep to be erased by the hand of time, and too legible to be obliterated by passing vanities. 2. A strong sense of danger. He feels that the claims of the Almighty are as imperative as they are reasonable; and he is convinced that while the affections are enslaved by earthly objects, the soul is in danger of perishing everlastingly. 3. The shallowness of those hopes which have respect to creature merit as the procuring cause of salvation. II. His affirmation.1. His hope of pardon, acceptance, and eternal salvation centred in God. 2. His hope of support, consolation and happiness was reposed in God. From the world we can often derive neither help nor sympathy; in God we have both: He relieves and He compassionates. (W. Knight, M. A.) Waiting and hoping I. Here is a question. A man doesn’ t go head foremost toward God, he goes heart foremost. The great trouble with sinners is that they put the head before the heart. “ What wait I for?”1. There is one man who says, “ I am waiting for the Lord’ s good time, the Lord’ s own time.” Well, then, that good time has come at last. These revival services are to get men willing to be saved, and not to get God willing to save them. It is God’ s accepted time. Every moment that you are a sinner that is the moment God is ready to save you. Thus much I tell you, You will never see the gates wider open than they are now. 2. Another says, “ I am not waiting for God’ s time, I am waiting for better terms.” Let me tell you about that terms business. There are plenty of people that want to go to heaven on their own schedule. They want to drink a little, lie a little, and gamble occasionally. Why will a man ask any better terms than that he quit those things that damage him on earth and prevent him going to heaven? 3. “ I am not waiting for any better terms,” says the sinner; “ I know that right is right and wrong is wrong. I am waiting for the Church to get right.” Waiting for the Church to get right! Let the Church be, and do as it will, I am going to serve the Lord. Don’ t stay out because of the hypocrites, but come in and help crowd them out. 4. “ I am waiting for feeling,” says some fellow. You look at me. What do you mean by feeling? Do you mean serious thought? If you don’ t mean that, you don’ t mean anything. If serious thought is not feeling, there is no serious thought in repentance. When a man sees he ought to do right and quit the wrong, that is the only feeling there is on the subject. Do you think that you ought to be a Christian, and ought to start to-night? If you do, you have got feeling enough to sweep you right under the Cross, if you will start now. 5. Another fellow says, “ I am not waiting for feeling; I am waiting ‘ until I am fit.” Here is a fellow starving to death; there is a richly-loaded table. “ Are you hungry? . . . Yes, I am just as hungry as I can be; but I can’ t go, my hands ain’ t fit.” “ Here are soap and water and towels.” He says, “ I ain’ t fit to wash.” Don’ t hang back because “ I am not fit.” Come up here and get fit. Did Jesus Christ come into the world to save good people? Oh no; but to save sinners. 6. “ I know Christ died to save me, but I am waiting to try myself awhile.” Many resolve to be good men, and they try. The devil laughs to see them. 7. “ I am waiting for faith.” Yes; you have been waiting forty years for faith. How much have you saved up? Like the fellow who had ten bushels of wheat, and was waiting till more grew before he would sow what he had[ Sow it, and you will have a hundred-fold. “ I want to be a blacksmith as soon as I get muscle.” Why don’ t you go at it? There he stands, until at last he has not muscle enough to lift the hammer. He is getting it with a vengeance. How did you get faith? by using what you had. But now let us look at the other side. We have been looking at man, let us-- II. Turn now to God. “ my hope is in God.” Now you have struck the keynote for eternal life. My hope is not in riches, pastor, friends, father and mother, children, Church; but my hope is in God. Will you start to-night? You may say, “ I am mighty weak.” I know it; but your hope is in God. “ Yes; but I am a poor sinner.” My hope is in God; it is not in myself. I know I am a sinner. Yes; but you are very, very weak; you are as frail as a bruised reed. Yes; but my hope is in God. If I commit myself to God, I will never go down: I will stay up as long as God stays up. I put my hand in the hand of God, and commit it all to Him to-night. Won’ t you do it? Let me take your hand, and help you to start to heaven. (S. P. Jones.) The vanity of earthly things leading to hope in God The text is a conclusion drawn from the preceding verse which tells of the “ vain show” in which “ every man” walks. Each expression goes to demonstrate this vanity. But we are not to be discontented with earth or to despise those temporal blessings which Providence places within our reach. Far be the thought. It is the resting on such things, and not the use of them, against which men need to be warned. And even Christians need this warning, Hence it is needful that we should deeply feel the vanity of all earthly things in order that we may the more earnestly adopt the language of the text. Never shall we fly to the Creator, as the source of all true happiness, till we utterly despair of finding it in the creature. And now let me rejoice with you who have found your hope in the Lord. We have become so through Jesus Christ, who gave Himself as the ransom for a ruined world, and redeemed us to God by His blood. Happy are the people in such a case, and who can say with David, “ Whom have I in heaven but Thee, and,” etc. (J. Slade, M. A.) Psalms 39:8 While I was musing the fire burned. The place of feeling in religion David was one who felt, thought and acted strongly. There were no neutral tints about him. And he felt that he needed to restrain himself, lest his strong feeling should hurry him into sin. Hence he said, “ I will take heed to nay ways that I sin not with my tongue,” etc. But feeling is a thing to be desired. As with David, thinking often prompts it: the two should ever be in just proportion. But it is better to have too much than too little feeling. We cannot love an unfeeling man. Tim feeling heart is the most human as well as the most humane part of our humanity. But we admire it only when it leans upon a clear judgment, and is thereby controlled. But it is difficult to say which is the stronger force. Both should be found in religion. But we are to remember that some natures have small capacity for emotion, and we do wrong in that account to doubt their Christianity. It is a sad misconception to look upon emotion as salvation. Salvation rests upon our willing Lord. God forgives, although a man may never weep. (J. B. Aitken.) Quiet musing I. Let us say something in praise of musing. We do not do much of this in these days. We prefer what is amusing to musing, by a great deal. But--1. It is well to muse on the things of God because thus we get the nutriment out of them. Mere hearing or reading without this will not serve. 2. It fixes the truth in the memory. If we would have truth photographed upon our hearts, we must keep it long before the spiritual lens. 3. It lends us into the secrets of truth. 4. It ministers joy. “ My meditation of him shall be sweet.” 5. And it becomes easier by practice. A man has never a slack hand or a cold heart who is much in meditation. It is a blessed art. II. Put some fuel on the fire of meditation, How many are the topics which might be suggested. Eternal love. Dying love. Salvation. Heaven. Hell. And to you who are unregenerate I would urge your musing on your present state. What your end must be if you continue as you are. Of the Lord Jesus Christ. Beware lest the day come when thou wilt have to muse without hope. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Man musing, burning, speaking I. The dignity of human nature.1. Thought. “ While I was musing.” What a wonderful power is the power of thought! (1) By thought man can turn the universe to his service. (2) By thought man can rise to the Creator, rise to some knowledge of Him, resemblance to Him, fellowship with Him. (3) By thought he can regulate his own destiny. By it he can change his character. Thought is the helmsman of the soul. 2. Moral emotion. “ The fire burned.” It was the fire of moral feeling. All the sentient existences we know of have some kind of feeling, but man alone has moral feeling--feeling in relation to sin, to duty, and to God. This feeling is kindled by thought. 3. Speech. “ I spake.” What a wonderful power is the power of speech. By it we reveal ourselves, we achieve conquests over souls, and win them to our wishes and our ways. How great is man! II. The process of repentance. But how is this fire to be kindled? Here is the method. By musing. Upon the inconvenience of sin, its consequences, or its punishment? Thought must dwell upon God’ s mercy, not merely in nature and providence, but in the mission, sufferings, and death of God’ s only begotten Son. III. The philosophy of true eloquence. “ While I was musing the fire burned, then spake I with my tongue.” When is the tongue eloquent?1. When it is used as a relief to the soul. 2. When it is used as a vehicle of strongest moral emotions. Moral emotions are electric. (Homilist.) Motives When we witness the performance of a noble deed, when we become acquainted with a noble character, when we read the life of a great and good man, we are tempted to ascribe his superiority, in great measure at least, to a difference of circumstances. “ He has had facilities, incentives, motives,” we are apt to say, “ such as have not fallen to the lot of most men. Give us the same facilities, give us the same incentives and motives to virtue, and we should be glad to do as he has done.” Undoubtedly there is a sense in which this is true. He has felt motives which we have not. But why has he felt them? To answer this question, we must begin by answering several others on which it depends. What are motives? The motive, externally considered, is the reason for acting or not acting, in a particular way; which, of course, will be attended to very differently by different persons, and so affect them very differently. Let us next consider what gives efficacy to one motive over another in particular cases? It is not enough that the quality exists; the individual must feel, must perceive that it exists, or else to him it does not exist. And now we are prepared to take up the third question, Why is it, that while one man is alive to the higher motives of human conduct, another is alive only to the lower motives? Something doubtless is attributable to difference of organization and temperament, but not the whole. If it were, how should we be able to account for material and essential changes in moral and religious sensibility, which the same individual often undergoes? In the case of repentance, involving a real change of heart, it will hardly be pretended that this alters a man’ s organization or temperament; and yet how entirely it alters his sensibility to moral and religious motives. These motives were always before him; but he did not see them, or at least he did not feel them, as he does now. In this respect he differs from his former self, just as all good men differ from all bad men; nevertheless, organically considered, he is the same man he always has been. So likewise of acquired habits, considered as predisposing men to be affected by certain motives. Why is it that motives have more influence over the mind in proportion as it is in any way predisposed to be affected by them? The chief, if not the sole reason, is, that such a mind gives them more attention and thought, enters into them more fully and entirely as realities, returns to them more frequently, and dwells upon them to the exclusion of other things. Hence it follows, that earnest attention to the highest motives of human conduct awakens the best affections of the soul; and again, it is only by renewing this attention from day to day that these affections are kept alive and rendered more and more intense. In the words of the text: “ While I was musing the fire burned.” For this reason the Scriptures everywhere lay great stress on meditation and holy contemplation, on communing with God and our own souls, and having our conversation in heaven, as the conditions of “ newness of life.” Taking this principle along with us, we shall not find much difficulty in explaining some of the greatest perplexities of the Christian life. In the first place, it will help us to define, with sufficient distinctness at least for all practical purposes, the office of free will. Whatever may be true in theory, there can be no doubt that, in practice, we are generally disappointed, when we expect a great deal from man’ s self-determining power. The reason is, not that this power does not exist, but that it is not applied at the right time, and in the right place. Again, the same principle will help to explain why it is, that when men become decidedly religious it is often in consequence of some startling or impressive event--the death of a friend, a remarkable escape, a pungent discourse, a striking remark, a dream, a thought. It may be said that such an occurrence does not add one iota to the number or the strength of the motives to a Christian life which these persons had, and which they knew they had, before. And this is true; but it calls attention to those motives; and this, as we have seen, is all that was wanted. Once more, the view here taken of the manner in which men become alive to the highest motives will also account satisfactorily for local and temporary excitements in morals and religion. These are sometimes referred to sympathy and imitation, and even to causes less pure. Much of what is transient in them, and many of the attendant circumstances, are doubtless to be explained in this way; but not the whole. What is real and lasting in these movements has its origin in the general attention to the subject which, somehow or other, has been awakened. It is not pretended that any new motives are discovered or invented. Let me, then, revert once more to the plea so often set up by the undevout, the indifferent, the worldly-minded: to wit, that they do not feel the motives to virtue and piety which good men do. The fact is admitted; but when we come to analyze it, we find that, in most cases at least, it turns out to be, not an excuse, but a part of the wrong. As we have seen, they do not distinguish, they do not believe, they do not feel because they do not attend. But attention is pre-eminently a voluntary act, and one, therefore, in respect to which all are pre-eminently free and responsible. (J. Walker, D. D.) The uses of solitude The subject of solitude has been a favourite theme for romantic declamation and sentimental insipidity; and, on this account, many sensible people are inclined to avoid it. It will but be doing justice to its real importance and dignity, to state its connection with some of our highest duties, and its influence over our most spiritual affections; to speak of it in seriousness and simplicity, as a necessary discipline of the mental faculties, as a valuable monitor of our real situation and destiny, as a choice opportunity for impartial self-examination, profitable reflection, and heavenly communion. I. As a preparative for society and for action,1. It is so, in one respect, simply as it furnishes repose to weariness. We return to our work with more vigour when our flagging forces have had time to recover their spring, and our ebbing spirits have received a new supply of sustenance and force. The attractions of deserted things are renewed; a fresh impulse is given to the race, and a fresh beauty to the prize. 2. But our capacity of duty is not merely animated by an addition of power; it is enlarged by the acquisition of knowledge. We see the world at an advantage, as it were, when we see it as spectators, and not as actors. We can observe with more exactness the passions which agitate the bosoms of men when we ourselves are without the reach of their influence. We can trace with more precision their actions to their motives, when we are standing aloof, and can take in, as from an eminence, both the fountain and the stream. 3. Yet in another way are we fitted by solitude to go back again into society, better qualified than before for its duties and demands. We are made more kind, more gentle, more forbearing. 4. We are taught, also, in the seasons of occasional solitude, a more correct knowledge of ourselves than we should otherwise possess. We are thus in the way of exercising more candour in the scrutiny of our neighbour’ s opinions, feelings and actions, and more diffidence in the defence Of our own. II. As favourable to the most exalted feelings of devotion.1. Man holds the most intimate communion with his Maker when no being but his Maker is near him. The most fervent aspirations of his heart rise up from the temple of solitude; for they rise up without witness, without restraint, and without contamination. 2. Solitude is favourable to devotion because its tendency is to render devotion consistent, rational and ennobling. When we are alone with God, we see Him with a clearer vision, and seem to be endowed with a more intimate perception of His character. We draw nearer to His presence, and drink more directly and copiously of His Spirit. III. Its tendency to inspire serious reflections on the great concerns of existence--life, death, eternity.1. There is something in the essential vigour, and the regenerated freshness, and the long duration natural objects, which often impresses us most forcibly with a feeling of the shortness and uncertainty of our own earthly existence. No sentiment offers itself more naturally to him who meditates alone among the silent works of God, than that they are renewing their strength while he is wearing away, and that they will remain when he is gone. The sun seems to say to him, I shall rise in splendour, and set in glory; and the moon, I shall walk on in my brightness; and the hills, We shall abide in our majesty; and the streams, We shall flow in all our fulness--when thou shalt be no longer known to us, nor numbered with us. The intimation is melancholy, hut it is not unkind, nor is it received unkindly--for the voice of Nature is not as the voice of men. It is always a sound of soothing and sympathy, and never of contempt or indifference. 2. It remains to point out a connection between thoughts of this nature, and a source still higher. When we are engaged in secret communion with that eternal Being in whose hands our life and breath are, and whose are all our ways, we are necessarily reminded of our own frailty and dependence, of the brevity of our mortal term, and of our deep responsibility. (F. W. P. Greenwood.) Psalms 39:9I was dumb, I opened not my mouth, because Thou didst it.Silent before God This psalm is the utterance of a man in trouble. It thrills with a strong but repressed feeling. In a thoughtful man, trouble always doubles itself. Added to the smart of the immediate affliction is the moral problem which it raises, of the reason and the justice of God’ s administration in the world, of the permission of evil, of the tendency and destiny of this vain show called life. Every special sorrow or disaster is a stream, setting towards this unfathomable ocean of thought, with a swift and resistless current. The psalm represents a familiar experience. So many feel, if they do not think, deeply. But there is strong repression here as well as strong feeling. The writer is on his guard against hasty speech. “ I said, I will take heed,” etc. But in our text we get down to a deeper reason for silence. The man is so overcome by the grandeur and the mystery of God’ s dealing with him that he is forced to be silent. There are some mysteries that we can--so we think--solve, but there are others concerning which we can only say, “ Thou didst it” --that is all. We stand like a belated traveller before the closed gate of an Egyptian temple, rising, low-brewed and grim, under the stars, and no sound answers our knock. This, then, is the simple, stern picture of our text--a man in silence before the truth, God did it! The text assumes God to be a fact, and further assumes faith in God. God and His providence are both taken for granted. What, then? Well it is something to have got firm hold of a fact. A great deal is gained when the sorrow, however severe, or the mystery, however dark, has been traced up to God. When we can say, not something, but some one, did it, the matter is greatly simplified. We have no longer to count chances. Whatever we may think of the dispensation we know its source. God did it. A teacher sets for a boy a hard problem in algebra. The boy goes resolutely to work. The day passes, and he cannot solve it. He takes it home with him, and works at it there. He comes back next day to the teacher, and says, “ I cannot do it;” and then he begins to talk passionately, to tell what methods he has tried, to hint that the teacher may have made a mistake in his statement, to complain that this or that in his algebra is not clearly defined. The teacher sees the difficulty; and, as the first step toward clearing it up, he quietly says, “ Be still! Do not talk any morel I set the problem, and I know it is right.” And if he says no more, and the boy goes back to his seat, he has gained something in that interview. There is power in the thought which the lad turns over in his mind, “ This problem was set by somebody that knows. My teacher, whom [ have always found wise and truthful, did it.” The thought that there may have been a mistake in the statement of the sum goes out of his mind, and the matter is thus far relieved, at any rate; and, under the impulse of that relief, he may attack the question again, and successfully; or, if not, he will gain by silence, by restraint. The teacher wisely silences him, not to check his inquiry, but to bring his mind into the right condition to receive explanation. And this is just how God often deals with us. “ Well,” it may be said, “ all that may do very well for a child; but a reasoning man cannot be disposed of in that way.” All I can say is, many a reasoning man has to accept that or nothing. And after all, it may be that the child’ s satisfaction has something rational at bottom, Reason cannot compel God to answer; and suppose it could, would man be the better? Take a simple illustration. There are certain reasons connected with your child’ s education or inheritance which constrain you to live for some years in an uncongenial and unpleasant place. Neither climate, scenery, nor society is what you could desire. The child asks, “ We are not poor, are we, father?” --“ No.” --“ Could we not live somewhere else?” --“ Yes.” --“ Then, why do we stay here when there are so many pleasant places elsewhere?” You cannot tell him; he could not understand the reasons; but, for all that, the lesson that child learns through your silence, through being obliged to be content with the simple fact, father does it, is more valuable than the knowledge of the reasons. Even if he should make a shrewd guess at your reasons, that would not please you half so much as his cheerful, unquestioning acceptance of the truth that you love him, and will do what is best for him. Now, in such dependence upon God lies the very foundation of all true character, and this is why God lays so much stress on this lesson, and so often brings us face to face with His “ I did it.” That kind of teaching may not make philosophers--when it does, it makes them of large mould--but it makes Pauls and Luthers. But as we look at this, “ Thou didst it,” we find it has some treasures of knowledge for us. Faith is not ignorance. We begin to make discoveries--this one, that if God did it, then infinite wisdom did it, and infinite power did it. “ Ah!” you say, “ we know that but too well. The stroke is on our hearts and homes. It is written on fresh graves, and in the scar of dreary partings.” All true. But has power no other aspect than this terrible one? Shall we symbolize it only by a hand hurling thunderbolts? or may we not picture a hand, strong indeed, but open, and pouring forth blessings? “ All power is given unto me,” says Jesus. Yet He laid His hand on blind eyes, and they saw; on the paralytic, and he leaped and ran. God did it, and therefore I know that infinite love did it. That is a piece of knowledge worth having indeed. Surely, when we reach that, we find the rock yielding water. Ah! we have to creep back for rest into the shadow of love after all. And how this truth gathers power when we go to this text, taking Christ with us! How it kindles under His touch! God did it; and I look up into that face of unspeakable love, with its thorn-marked brow, and say, “ Thou didst it. He that hath seen Thee hath seen the Father. I am in sorrow; the sorrow is driven home by a pierced hand: Thou didst it. The pierced hand tells me of the loving heart behind the hand; and, if love hath done it, let me be silent and content.” (M. R. Vincent, D. D.) Silent submission to the Divine will I. What we out not to do.1. We ought not to divert our attention from a higher object, by too anxiously inquiring into second causes; much less aggravate our distress, by vainly lamenting the circumstances of a case, of which the event sufficiently proves its entire consonance with the will of God; whilst these circumstances are to be regarded only as the sword or the staff, which served to inflict a necessary wound. 2. Neither let us be tempted too deeply to speculate upon the secret intentions of our heavenly Father in such a visitation; or too solicitously to ask whether it be an infliction in mercy or in wrath. 3. Much less should we adopt the language, or harbour a sentiment of impatience or discontent. 4. Neither ought we to despair. What though the stream be dried up, which once flowed down with blessings on our lot, the Fountain whence it was supplied still remains; and though the friend be gone, Omnipotence is left. II. What we ought to do.1. Let us begin with acknowledging the imperfection of our own blind and fallible judgment, which had led us to build our hopes so high upon a passing shadow. 2. Painful, however, as we doubtless feel this severe act of the Divine sovereignty, let us next consider that as our sins have most clearly deserved all there is of chastisement in it, so our repentance alone, and deep contrition for sin, can avert its worst consequences as a national curse. 3. A duty most unquestionably it is, even in the utmost extremity, and in the absence of every human resource, still to assure ourselves that “ the Lord reigneth;” and that in His supreme dominion are involved the operations and the results of infinite power, and wisdom, and goodness, and mercy. To Christians the same assurance beams with a superior brightness through the medium of that purer revelation made known to us by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and sealed to us by His blood. (C. J. Hoare, M. A.) Submission under Divine chastisements I. What it is not.1. It is not a silence arising from an unfeeling disregard to affliction. We are not told to do violence to our nature. 2. It is not a sullen silence, like the sulky humour of an ill-managed child, who stubbornly refuses to speak when any of his wishes are not gratified. 3. Neither is it a silence which springs from natural constitution, or from good sense, as it is called, either natural or acquired. Such silence, such submission cannot be acceptable to God, inasmuch as God is not at all regarded in it. 4. Again, men may be silent under their afflictions, lest by murmurings they should bring down upon themselves yet worse. Such submission however has respect to self rather than to God. 5. It is not a despairing silence. II. What it is. “ Because Thou didst it.”1. The Christian in his afflictions considers who God is. He sees in them the hand of one who is Almighty, the High and Mighty One, perfectly holy, and just, and good. And looking at himself, who is but sinful dust and ashes, he says, “ How shall I dare to murmur against God?” 2. But while the Christian silently submits himself to God, from a deep sense of His power and majesty, his fear is mixed with love, for he views God not only as an almighty Sovereign, but as a kind parent. 3. The Christian calls to mind the gracious and valuable purposes for which God afflicts His children, and in them he finds fresh motives for silent resignation. 4. The pious sufferer quiets himself under affliction with the reflection that God will not always be chiding; weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning. 5. The Christian, when he is under God’ s afflicting hand, gives himself up entirely to His disposal; in firm confidence that he suffers according to the will of God, infinite power did it. “ Ah!” you say, “ we know that but too well. The stroke is on our hearts and homes. It is written on fresh graves, and in the scar of dreary partings.” All true. But has power no other aspect than this terrible one? Shall we symbolize it only by a hand hurling thunderbolts? or may we not picture a band, strong indeed, but open, and pouring forth blessings? “ All power is given unto me,” says Jesus. Vincent, D. D.) Silent submission to the Divine will I. What we ought not to do.1. We ought not to divert our attention from a higher object, by too anxiously inquiring into second causes; much less aggravate our distress, by vainly lamenting the circumstances of a case, of which the event sufficiently proves its entire consonance with the will of God; whilst these circumstances are to be regarded only as the sword or the staff, which served to inflict a necessary wound. 2. Neither let us be tempted too deeply to speculate upon the secret intentions of our heavenly Father in such a visitation; or too solicitously to ask whether it be an infliction in mercy or in wrath. 3. Much less should we adopt the language, or harbour a sentiment of impatience or discontent. 4. Neither ought we to despair. What though the stream be dried up, which once flowed down with blessings on our lot, the Fountain whence it was supplied still remains; and though the friend be gone, Omnipotence is left. II. What we ought to do.1. Let us begin with acknowledging the imperfection of our own blind and fallible judgment, which had led us to build our hopes so high upon a passing shadow. 2. Painful, however, as we doubtless feel this severe act of the Divine sovereignty, let us next consider that as our sins have most clearly deserved all there is of chastisement in it, so our repentance alone, and deep contrition for sin, can avert its worst consequences as a national curse. 3. A duty most unquestionably it is, even in the utmost extremity, and in the absence of every human resource, still to assure ourselves that “ the Lord reigneth;” and that in His supreme dominion are involved the operations and the results of infinite power, and wisdom, and goodness, and mercy. To Christians the same assurance beams with a superior brightness through the medium of that purer revelation made known to us by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and sealed to us by His blood. (C. J. Hoare, M. A.) Submission under Divine chastisements I. What it is not.1. It is not a silence arising from an unfeeling disregard to affliction. We are not told to do violence to our nature. 2. It is not a sullen silence, like the sulky humour of an ill-managed child, who stubbornly refuses to speak when any of his wishes are not gratified. 3. Neither is it a silence which springs from natural constitution, or from good sense, as it is called, either natural or acquired. Such silence, such submission cannot be acceptable to God, inasmuch as God is not at all regarded in it. 4. Again, men may be silent under their afflictions, lest by murmurings they should bring down upon themselves yet worse. Such submission however has respect to self rather than to God. 5. It is not a despairing silence. II. What it is. “ Because Thou didst it.”1. The Christian in his afflictions considers who God is. He sees in them the hand of one who is Almighty, the High and Mighty One, perfectly holy, and just, and good. And looking at himself, who is but sinful dust and ashes, he says, “ How shall I dare to murmur against God?” 2. But while the Christian silently submits himself to God, from a deep sense of His power and majesty, his fear is mixed with love, for he views God not only as an almighty Sovereign, but as a kind parent. 3. The Christian calls to mind the gracious and valuable purposes for which God afflicts His children, and in them he finds fresh motives for silent resignation. 4. The pious sufferer quiets himself under affliction with the reflection that God will not always be chiding; weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning. 5. The Christian, when he is under God’ s afflicting hand, gives himself up entirely to His disposal; in firm confidence that he suffers according to the will of God, who is infinite in mercy and goodness, and who of very faithfulness causeth His people to be troubled. 6. A view of the God-man Christ Jesus suffering for the sins of the whole world affords another most powerful motive to the Christian to bear his sufferings with silence and submission. 7. It is not, however, inconsistent with that submission to express a sense of pain and distress; to desire and pray for deliverance; or to use any lawful means by which we may be delivered. (J. T. Sangar, M. A.) The duty of resignation Faith, obedience and patience are the three duties incumbent upon a Christian. Faith being a submission of our understanding; obedience, of our will; and patience, of the whole man to the will of God. The consideration of such a duty as patience is ever seasonable, to those in adversity, as a cordial to support them; to those in prosperity, as an amulet to guard them. We have in the text David’ s submissive deportment, and the reason for it. I. The nature and measure of submission.1. Negatively. It is not insensibility to suffering. Nor abstaining from prayer for relief of it; nor from endeavour to remove it. 2. Positively, it is the submission of the understanding so that it shall approve God’ s procedure. Of the will, our chief faculty. Of the passions and affections, commonly so turbulent, and of the tongue, so as to refrain from hard and bitter speech, and of the Spirit, so that we abstain from all rage and revenge against the instruments of our affliction (2 Samuel 16:10). We are not called upon to account enemies as friends, but we are not to take revenge. 3. All this is very difficult. Therefore, consider the worth of such submissive spirit, how excellent it is (Romans 1:10). See it in Moses and especially in Christ. It was suffering which redeemed the world. But it is difficult, because of the opposition to it which we find in ourselves, and from the mean though mistaken opinion of it which the generality of men entertain. Therefore, there is needed an early and long endeavour after such an excellent frame of mind. II. The reasons and arguments for it because of our relation to God. Think--1. Of God’ s irresistible power. How useless resistance is (1 Corinthians 10:22; Psalms 135:6). Then-- 2. Of God’ s absolute sovereignty and dominion over all things, founded, as it is, upon the greatest and most undeniable title, which is that of creation and providence (Job 9:12; Revelation 4:11). 3. His infinite and unfailing wisdom, which is never at fault (Job 4:18). Would it be better for us to have our own way? Passengers in a ship always submit to their pilot’ s discretion. 4. His great goodness, benignity and mercy which is “ over all His works.” God does not willingly afflict (Lamentations 3:38; Isaiah 28:21). Consider also-- 5. God’ s exact and inviolable justice. He could not do us wrong. 6. And how He rewards the submissive soul. “ Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord.” Could we but trust God to do our business for us, to assert our cause and vindicate our innocence, we should find that He would not only answer, but outdo our hopes. III. Conclusion. Learn--1. The necessity of submission. 2. Its prudence. There are few things in the world so entirely bad but some advantage may be had of them by dexterous management. Like Isaac let us take the wood upon our shoulders, though we be designed for sacrifice, and who knows but that, as in his case, deliverance may come? (2 Corinthians 4:17). Inward if not outward relief will come to us if we submit. 3. Think also of the decency and comeliness of such submission (Daniel 5:28; Luke 21:19). Thus may we make ourselves happy in the most afflicted, abject and forlorn condition of life. Therefore, let us “ take up our cross,” “ looking unto Jesus” as our great example and who, because He endured, “ is now set down at the right hand of God.” (R. South, D. D.) Christian resignation Such resignation is all too rare. The words of resignation may be on the lips, but impatience may be in the heart. To provide against, such evil we must study to be real disciples of Christ; and we must have our minds turned to those doctrines and habituated to those exercises of religion, which help us to submit amid the calamities of life. Without such aid we are overcome when calamity falls upon us. Let us consider some of these aids to resignation. I. The remembering that when god visits us with bereavements, he only takes away what is his own. Now, if we will take this view, if we not only speculatively assent to it as an abstract truth, but have it as a part of our practical creed, it will lead us to surrender any comfort whatever, and to make the surrender with patience and readiness into the hands of God, from whom we at first received it. II. That God accompanies our bereavements with consolation and support. How much is still left to us of good. All is not lost. Has it not often happened in the case of the afflicted that “ their latter end,” like that of Job, has been “ much more than their beginning” ? In all this there is something that is well fitted to inspire us with patience and contentment. Whatever we suffer is much less, and whatever we enjoy is much more, than we deserve. But He gives us consolation and support of a spiritual kind, far more precious and far more efficacious still. The Bible, prayer, ere. III. In the third place, we should be resigned to the will of God when He afflicts us, because affliction is for our good. To mere worldly persons there is nothing good but that which gives them much pleasure. But to true Christians that, and that alone, is good, whatever it may be, which promotes their spiritual and immortal interests; which tends to make them wiser and better. There is still another consideration by which we ought to be influenced when involved in affliction. IV. God who sends it is entitled to our patient acquiescence, our cheerful submission, because at the very time that we are suffering under his hand, he has in reserve, and is preparing for us, the happiness of heaven and immortality. (A. Thompson, D. D.) Psalms 39:11 When Thou with rebukes dost correct man for iniquity, Thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth; surely every man is vanity.The secret blasting of men These words give an account of two things which are the matter of the greatest wonder.1. How it comes to pass there are so many and so great evils in the world. 2. How so many persons come to wither and fall away, and come to nothing in the world. As to the first we are told what is the cause of their evils--“ iniquity;” and as to the second, it is God’ s rebukes which do blast men. Therefore we learn-- I. That God doth punish sinners. The word “ punish” is used when not strictly correct, for we say a man is punished when any evil befalls him, though he hath done nothing that may procure it. Therefore, in such punishment as the text speaks of, we must except--1. The effects of God’ s absolute sovereignty and power. Therefore, we are not to say that God punishes a man because of the lot in life that He has appointed him. These differences lie within the lot of God’ s sovereignty, and speak nothing of either love or hatred. 2. Trials, such as Job’ s and many other good men. 3. Disciplines to teach us not to over-value the world. 4. Those sufferings that come upon us through the evil of others. But, these exceptions being made, it is yet true that sin is the cause of punishment. For many sins are the natural cause of the evils that follow them. Punishments are required to maintain God’ s honour in the world (Ecclesiastes 8:11), and the variety of things and changeable conditions are as requisite to maintain virtue and holiness among mankind as the winds, which occasion storms and tempests, which put the air and sea into motion, and so keep them from stench and putrefaction. This I observe, a great many scriptures impute creatures’ degeneracy to their living at ease (Zechariah 1:1-21.; Amos 6:1; Luke 12:19; Jeremiah 48:11). II. These rebukes of God do blast men. God can immediately, by His influence, fortify and encourage a man’ s mind, or else throw him down into discontent and frowardness. For the minds and spirits of men lie open to God as much as ought of the creation. When God will, the hearts of men will serve them, and be more than themselves; and if God withdraws, they come to nothing. How contented are some men in a condition that the world doth despise? and how much discontent in others, that live in worldly splendour? Therefore, note--1. How doth God bring about the ruin of men? Sometimes by taking away their understanding; as Ahithophel and Judas. Making a man discontented and unhappy with his lot in life (Ecclesiastes 1:24). All good becomes insipid (Job 6:6). By suspending the forces of nature so that they render not the service they are wont (Deuteronomy 28:23). By withdrawing His blessing from men’ s endeavours, so that they become unprosperous (Ecclesiastes 2:26; Proverbs 10:22). By awakening the guilt of the sinner upon his conscience, making that to sting and gall him, and then all the world is nothing. Or, when men, through their own fear, suspicion and jealousy, have certain foretastes of God’ s refusal and displeasure. 2. Where there is imminent danger of such judgments. Where a man sins against light. Where there is hypocrisy, apostacy, worldliness, exemption from outward punishment as these may be. Whensoever God is pleased out of respect to His worshippers, or out of His compassion towards innocent infants and harmless creatures, to keep off judgments, then is it to be thought that, those persons that are wilful sinners, etc., shall hear from God in private; to abate their confidence, and to show how exorbitant they are in their ways. This God can do by letting them sink down into mental distraction, etc. For God can dispossess a man of all his comforts by not giving him power of self-enjoyment and taking content. For this of the two is a far greater mercy of God, for a man to have less and a contented mind, than to have much more and not have satisfaction :For power of self-enjoyment is a far greater thing than right and title. In the last place the case of high spiritual advantages. That was the aggravation of the sin of Capernaum, Coraizin and Bethsaida, that they were lifted up to heaven; and they are threatened to be thrown down into hell. There is no wonder that men cannot hold up their heads, when they are neither at peace with God, nor at peace with their own consciences; and all these things that are without a man will make no more recompense for the want of the peace of conscience than it will make a recompense for the pain of the gout to lie upon a bed of down. Men have no peace, neither with God, because not reconciled to the nature, mind nor will of God; nor have they peace in their own consciences, because under guilt. Therefore, no wonder that friends and revenues, etc., will not relieve them; they have an internal wound. In this respect I may truly say that men’ s sin go before them lute judgment. It was something in secret between Cain and his conscience that his countenance fell; for he had sacrificed as well as his brother Abel; but it was something within him. In Nabal, his heart died within him upon his wife’ s words only; which is strange, for a covetous miserable wretch will most commonly endure words hard enough; for words break no bones, but the text tells us God struck him. Other instances are Ahithophel (2 Samuel 17:14-23); Judas (Matthew 27:3-5); Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5:9). Another lesson from the subject is, the world and the devil cannot hurt men if men do not themselves consent. If we are guilty before God, and repent not, and do not seek pardon, then are we in fear and damager every moment, for at God’ s sentence our souls live or die. (B. Whichcote, D. D.) Psalms 39:12 Hold not Thy peace at my tears. Earthly tears and heavenly songs This is a beautiful world, but there are tears in it. All eyes have them, and they fall fast and often. Their causes are varied.1. God’ s rebukes for sins. Therefore repent. 2. The reign of temptation. Seek God’ s strength. 3. The difficulties in our work for Christ. 4. The condition of society.:But the worst may be reclaimed Blessed is it to make the endeavour. 5. Bereavement. In the Royal Academy there was a small but pathetic picture. It is a coastguardsman’ s cottage. His beloved wife is dead. There is the table spread for his meal; the young daughter in a black dress is cutting a loaf of bread; his little boy--boy like--is eating away at his dinner; the heart-broken man eats not, but stretches out his hand to touch a little child in a cradle beside him. Here is sorrow, hers is sadness. And there are thousands of such homes. But there are no tears in heaven. (G. W. McCree.) I am a stranger with Thee, and a sojourner, as all my fathers were.-- The Christian a stranger and sojourner I. The psalmist’ s experience includes a deep and habitual sense of the transitory and unsatisfying nature of all earthly things. II. To be a stranger with god, and a sojourner, includes realizing anticipations of another and enduring world. III. The psalmist’ s experience comprehends an earnest and assiduous cultivation of all christian graces and virtues. The character of a stranger and a sojourner is made up of many bright lineaments of excellence, harmoniously blended as are rays of different hues in the solar orb. Certain features of his experience may, at first view, appear to be hardly consistent with others; as, for example, undaunted firmness with a meek and lowly spirit; the wisdom of the serpent with the harmlessness of the dove; inflexible opposition to all sin, with profound compassion towards all sinners. IV. To be a stranger with God, and a sojourner, includes a faithful improvement of the ordinances of grace and the dispensations of providence. (J, Smyth, D. D.) Believers considered as strangers and sojourners I. Whence is it that good men consider themselves as strangers and sojourners on earth?1. Every man is a stranger who is not a native of the place where he resides; but a sojourner is one who makes only a passing visit to the place, with a resolution to leave it again and proceed on his journey. This last is a distinguishing character of the saints (2 Corinthians 5:1-2). They are strangers in affection as well as condition; their hearts are elsewhere. 2. The saints justly count themselves strangers because they are regenerated, born from above, distant from their native country. II. What manner of behaviour is most expressive of this temper, and best suited to the condition of strangers?1. If we look on this earth as a strange country, through which we are only passing to our native home, it certainly ought to be our care that we receive as little hurt as possible in our passage. The greatest hurt the world can do us is to make us forget the place of our destination, and loiter in the way. Its smiles more to be dreaded than its frowns. 2. It is not enough that we receive no hurt; be careful to make all the provision we can for our better country (1 John 3:3; 2 Peter 1:11). 3. It becomes strangers to endure with patience and fortitude any hardships and inconveniences (2 Corinthians 4:8-9.) 4. If we view heaven as our everlasting abode, we ought to be solicitous to be thoroughly acquainted with the way (Psalms 119:19; Psalms 119:54; Psalms 19:7-11). 5. If we consider ourselves as strangers, we ought to behave like those who belong to a better country. They who love their country will be jealous of its credit. 6. If we have turned our back on the world, let us help one another on in our way, and take as many as possible with us; do all we can to strengthen the weak, advise the doubtful, animate the discouraged. (R. Walker.) Psalms 39:13O spare me, that I may recover strength, before I go hence and be no more! A prayer in the prospect of death I. A departure anticipated. Death is clearly referred to, not annihilation. The text suggests the idea of departure--“ going hence.” A traveller departs from an inn at which he has been refreshed; he pursues his journey, and reaches home. A mariner departs from the port at which he has touched; he completes his voyage, and arrives at the desired haven, Also, death is a going hence from present employments, and from present connections, trials, privileges, enjoyments, prospects. II. The prayer presented. Here is implied a state of weakness--probably of the body. Or it may refer to political weakness.:But yet, more probably it refers to the state of the mind, its depression and declension. Hence he prays that his spiritual strength may be revived. No health is comparable to this in importance. Many are the motives which should lead us thus to pray.1. Our safety. 2. Our comfort. 3. Activity. 4. Usefulness. Take notice of a man who has lost the power and spirit of religion; of what use is he in his family? He may have natural affection, and may be attentive to the temporal welfare of his connections; but in what does he benefit their souls? Of what use is this man in the church? He calls himself a member; his name is entered among those who have given themselves to the Lord and to one another, according to his will; but where is his zeal for the interest of the church? Would you be useful, as well as active and happy? You must feel the power of genuine religion; you must experience its vigour and its growth. “ O spare me, that I may,” etc. 5. Your dying well pleads for this prayer. Many professors of religion die in a very doubtful way; others give real cause to fear that all is not well; but “ mark the perfect man, and behold the upright; for the end of this man is peace.” It may not be triumph, though in some instances this is the case; but it is tranquil and happy. III. Conclusion.1. Death is certain--then prepare for it. 2. Live to some good purpose. What is life unless lived to some good purpose? Remember we are Christ’ s, “ bought with a price.” Therefore, let us in life and death seek to glorify Him. (T. Kidd.) David’ s view of the grave The true mask of the Christian is in his solitary prayer. What men are before others does not say much, but it is when alone that their true character is revealed. But godly men vary much in their experiences, and here in this psalm we find many mingled feelings. I. An affecting illustration of death. It is a “ going hence.” This true of all. It is not a lonely path, but a highway open to all passengers, and along which all must go. And the traffic is continuous, uninterrupted. And the pace is swift. “ Swifter than a weaver’ s shuttle,” said Job. “ The wind passeth over it and it is gone.” And our going this way is certain and unavoidable. The king of terrors hath no heart nor ears! From his arrest no state of eminence can screen us; and his summons no greatness can control. The added term, “ going hence,” gives the idea that it is no short journey, or a near remove; but that he is going distantly, and beyond all ordinary space! And this going hence is for ever--“ no more seen.” Not that David believed that the soul perished. He knew the contrary. He spake of this world only. And at death we do “ go hence,” and are “ no more seen” in the world!--whether the senator, the statesman, the teacher, the orator, the poet, the merchant. In his family, and in the church. And more especially is the text true of sinners (Psalms 37:36-37.) II. The avowed desire in consequence--“ O spare me,” etc. Now, our “ strength” consists in--1. Clear evidence of our state.2. Habitual readiness.3. A recovery of strength. III. Wherefore he thus prays--1. From natural desire.2. Nervous feeling.3. Spiritual decay.4. For greater good and better service. Now, let the sinner use this prayer. The backslider. The spiritual, for themselves and others. (W. B. Williams, A. M.) Death The consideration that at death we are to go from hence, so as to be here no more, is that which makes life upon earth of the greatest moment, and what even good men may sometimes pray to have continued a while longer, that they may be better prepared for their everlasting remove. This the psalmist here does, from the consideration mentioned; having but one life wherein to prepare for an endless state, how earnest was he that it might not conclude till his work was finished, as it was to be done now or never. I. The notion under, which death is represented, a going hence. II. How, when once gone, we are to be no more. III. Wherein our strength lies for going hence. IV. How much we are concerned to pray that god would spare us, to get or recover strength preparatory to our final remove. V. That this is the great thing good men have in their eye in desiring life, VI. When they may be led to pray that God would spare them. VII. The use of the whole. (D. Wilcox.) Prayer for prolongation of life The believer is not at all times blessed with a spiritual and happy frame of mind, at least not in an equal degree; for there are times when sin lies heavy upon his heart. No wonder, then, if he cries out, when death knocks at the door, “ Oh, spare me,” etc. I. Illustrate the passage.1. Death is represented as a “ going hence,” or departing from this world--out of time into eternity. 2. When persons go hence, they are said to be “ no more.” 3. Death is often, even to good men, an object of fear and dread. Those who are tired of the wilderness, and long to see the goodly mountain and Lebanon, would nevertheless wish, if possible, to avoid the Jordan that lies between. 4. Where this fear becomes immoderate, it is criminal, and highly unbecoming the Christian character. Are we not willing to be at rest, to be at home in our Father’ s house? 5. Yet this is not all he prays for, but that he may “ recover strength” before he goes hence, and be no more. This may include the recovery of natural strength, or that he might be raised from his present infirm and languishing state; and such a prayer was offered by Job. But however desirable a revival of bodily strength may be, spiritual strength is still more so; and the prayer of a good man must be supposed to include both. This recovery of strength may embrace-- (1) A more eminent degree of spirituality and devotedness to God.(2) Assurance of an interest in the Divine favour. II. Apply the subject to ourselves.1. If death be so dreadful to the righteous, what must it be to the wicked and ungodly. Their roots are so fastened in the earth, and their affections so firmly fixed on sensible objects, that it is no wonder they should start, back at the thoughts of dying. 2. Let Christians feel humbled and ashamed that their inordinate love of life should render death so formidable. Have you not forsaken all for Christ; and will you not forsake life itself for him? (B. Beddome, M. A.) Death deprecated 1. Death is an event of dread significance. I. It puts an end to our present mode of being. How the change is to be brought about; and what your experiences will be at the awful moment of transition, and afterwards, no mortal man can tell. No wonder, therefore, if in thought of these things your courage sinks, and you cry, “ O spare me.”2. It, separates us from all we hold dear on earth. “ Go hence.” After all, this world is very dear to us. Here we were born. Here our minds have been formed, and our characters developed. Here we have tasted all the delights of knowledge, of friendship, and of personal achievement. 3. It settles for ever our spiritual destiny. II. Good men sometimes shrink from death under a sense of weakness and unpreparedness. There are instances of good men who were prepared and ready to die. But such a state of mind is rare and inconstant. The best of men have their times of misgiving, as well as their moments of exulting faith. Doubting Castle and the Valley of the Shadow of Death lie in the pilgrim’ s path, as well as the Delectable Mountains.1. Strength is needed to face death with fortitude. 2. Strength is lost through sin (Psalms 31:10; Isaiah 59:1-2). 3. Strength may be recovered if sought in due time. III. Is the soul’ s darkest hour God is a sufficient refuge.1. He is the Lord of life (1 Samuel 2:6; Job 12:10; Job 14:5-6; Revelation 1:18). 2. He is very pitiful, and of tender mercy (Psalms 103:8; Psalms 103:13; Ezekiel 33:11). 3. He is mighty to save. (W. Forsyth, M. A.) Prayer for recovery When we thank God for our creation and preservation, we are true to an instinct which is rarely overpowered. We shrink from death just as the psalmist shrank from it, who, if he did net regard it as the end of all things, only dimly conjectured of a life to come. We shrink from death, and therefore from that which is wont to herald its approach, the loss of health, the decline of strength. True, there are those for whom the strain of incurable sorrow or hopeless disease has turned life into a living death; these cannot take into their lips the psalmist’ s entreaty and ask to be spared ere they go hence. We have heard men and women pray for death, and press for the assurance that their hour was come; but for most men life is sweet, and strength a precious boon. And what is it that makes it so? Is there something higher than animal instinct, something worthier than even the strong ties of human love to bind us to this frail existence and prompt the prayer for its continuance? Why prolong the “ vain show” in which man “ walketh and disquieteth himself in vain” ? Surely that which makes recovery of strength so welcome a thing if once we know what issues upon our use of it, is the prospect of a new probation, a new chance of employing aright God’ s wondrous endowment of life. “ The living, the living, he shall praise Thee,” cried the king, who hung between life and death; and we, who, whatever we may reverently hope, are told of no opportunities save those given to us here--we who know how much we have done amiss and left undone, may still cry for respite when the close of all is upon us. There is, indeed, no passage in human experience so solemn as the rescue from mortal sickness. Never does God seem to deal so directly with the soul as when He makes life over again to a man by a fresh grant, and even when its shades have begun to fall, adjourns for him the night in which no man can work. What depth of meaning there is in the return to life from the gates of the grave, if only we have eyes open to God’ s dealing. Friends rejoice and congratulate, but there is something mere precious than the fondest welcome back to the world we were quitting; and that, I repeat, is the renewal of opportunity, the summons to “ redeem the time,” to repair the mistakes and omissions of the past. Yes, now we see how the years, freighted with golden possibilities, have been buried one by one in the bosom of an eternity which never gives up its dead. Well may we fear, when all looked so faulty and disordered, to face the account we have to give. We have trifled with a high trust, and we would fain retrieve our shame. We have numbered our days now in the glare of the immediate future, and would “ apply our hearts unto wisdom,” and therefore we cry, “ Oh, spare me, that I may recover my strength before I go hence, and be no more seen.” This, far more than the renewal of earthly opportunities, far more than the averting of sorrow from those to whom we are dear, is what gives value to convalescence. The Christian prays to be spared above all that he may learn and unlearn; that he may do more for God, for his fellow-men. He knows that lengthened days, unless it serves these ends, can be no boon at all. (Canon Duckworth.) Psalms 40:1-17 Psalms 40:1-17I waited patiently for the Lord; and He inclined unto me, and heard my cry.Waiting for the Lord There is a Divine law of waiting which has an essential connection with the larger law of giving. I. In waiting for god we discover our distance from him. God may be near us, and we far off from Him. II. Waiting fosters the sense of a need which God alone can satisfy. The sense of the depth of guilt must be gained by sounding. III. Waiting reveals the goodness of God. If the sinner reviews his life, the sense of the Divine mercies is blended by his sense of guilt. He sees the golden roll of the providences of his life. The goodness of God leads him to repentance. IV. Waiting leads to a discrimination between the form and the spirit of religion (Psalms 40:5-8). Every one who has come into covenant with God in his heart, and is now living in covenant with Him, has a book in his hand. It describes his duties and his rights in relation to God; and he promises to make it the guide of his life. As Christ engaged to fulfil the volume of the book as it applied to Him, so we engage to fulfil it as it applies to us. V. Waiting shows us the importance of an open confession of God. The selfishness of sin is now revealed to us as the inner depth of its guilt. Will you, if God comes now and lifts you out of this pit, confess Him; will you try to live as a secret disciple, or will you publish what He has done for your soul; will you take a public position, and let your light shine? (Monday Club Sermons.) The Christian’ s patience Patience, as it is not apathy, is not sluggishness, or indolence. There are circumstances which justify haste. For example, we do not walk, but rush out of a house on fire, or falling, a sudden ruin. Patient waiting for the Lord is quite consistent with boldness in design, and energy and promptitude in action; and only inconsistent with those unbelieving, impetuous, ungovernable, headstrong passions which breed impatience, and lead people be run before Providence instead of waiting on it. Of this let me give you two examples. I. By contrast illustrate what it is to wait on the Lord.1. Look at the conduct of Abraham. On his leaving Ur of the Chaldeans to wander a pilgrim in the land of Canaan, God had promised that he should become the father of a great nation. But though the father of the faithful, he formed an unhallowed alliance with an Egyptian; then, with terrible consequences following, he failed to wait patiently for the Lord. 2. Look at the conduct of Rebekah. The Lord had promised that to her younger son Jacob the covenant blessing should be given. But she could not see how this was to be, and so, becoming impatient, she takes steps to anticipate God’ s time, and lays her hand on the wheel of Providence. Rash woman! she will hurry on the event, and so contrives that lie and deception on Isaac which blasted for ever their domestic peace. Rebekah and he ran before Providence; they did not wait patiently on the Lord. II. Look at David’ s own example of waiting on the Lord. A merchant in times of bad trade, or other trying circumstances, instead of trusting in God to bring him through his difficulties, or sustain him under them, has recourse to fraud; or a poor man, instead of trusting Providence with the supply of his wants, and committing his children to the care of Him who hears the young ravens cry, hard-pinched and pressed, puts out his hand to steal. But how often David was tempted to impatience. How long he had to wait ere the promise made to him was fulfilled. How faint his hope of ever reaching the throne appeared; yet David hoped in the Lord, and patiently waited God’ s way to put him in possession of the kingdom. III. Consider how we are patiently to wait on God.1. We are to wait patiently on Providence in the common affairs of life. To the neglect of this may be attributed not a few of the failures that happen in business. People are impatient to get on in life; to acquire a competency; to be rich. 2. We are to wait patiently on God under the trials of life. He who went forth so magnanimously against Goliath turns pale with fear before those who neither had the giant’ s stature nor the giant’ s strength. Where is now the man, whose faith rising with the trial, once said, He that delivered me from the paw of the lion and the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine! But he feigns madness, letting his spittle fall on his beard, playing himself off for a fool. What a contrast to the heroic trust of Daniel, who, after the night spent with the lions, into whose den he had been cast, was able to reply to the anxious king, My God hath sent His angel, and shut the lions’ mouths that they have not hurt me. And who wait on God piously, prayerfully, patiently in their trials, shall have the same tale to tell; the same experience--He will shut the lions’ mouths, that they shall not hurt them. 3. We are to wait patiently upon God to complete our sanctification. We cannot be too earnest, too diligent, but we may be too impatient. Take comfort! “ The kingdom of God cometh not with observation!” The river may appear flowing away from the sea, when, but turning round the base of some opposing hill, it is pursuing an onward course. The ship may appear to be standing away from the harbour, when, beating up in the face of adverse winds, she is only stretching off on the other tack, and at every tack making progress shoreward, though to others than seamen she seems to lose it. It is star by star that the hosts of night march out; it is minute by minute that we grow in other things. Here also, then, let us wait patiently for the Lord. (T. Guthrie, D. D.) Waiting for the Lord Some may remember the feeling of disappointment with which in their youth they read the last line of Longfellow’ s “ Psalm of Life.” “ Learn to labour and to--wait.” Any one could understand the difficulty of labour, but how easy if one had only to wait t But experience has taught us a great lesson, that all labour is light compared with the labour, the stress, the suspense and weariness of waiting. The word “ patiently” is not in the Hebrew, but it is implied. Such waiting is full of heroic elements--fortitude, resignation, faith, expectation, perseverance. As long as anything can be gained by effort it will be active, for it is too earnest to sit and rest when it should stand and work; but when the desired good is something beyond its reach, when personal exertion proves unavailing and help from others is impossible, then its agitation will be calmed and its hope invigorated by its determination to wait patiently for the Lord. There are exigencies in life when comfort can come from no other source. The providences of God are often so dark and full of seeming menace that the soul perturbed by them is like the ship in which Paul sailed when no small tempest lay on it, and when for many days neither sun nor star appeared. A drifting soul is in more jeopardy than a drifting ship. Again, patient waiting for the Lord gives solace and strength to the Christian when disheartened by the slow growth of his own spiritual life. Such dissatisfaction with self, when accompanied by longing for a more entire conformity to the Divine image, is the sure evidence of a gracious state, though it be not recognized by the subject of it. To eradicate all that is dark and defiling from the soul, and to cultivate the plants of righteousness until they are laden with their mellow clusters, require not only diligence but time. “ Be patient, therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth,” etc. So, too, wait patiently for the Lord when discouraged because you see so little fruit of your labour (Psalms 126:6). (M. D. Hoge, D. D.) Reminiscences of a godly life I. He recollects his personal devotion.1. The nature of his religious exercise. He “ waited patiently for the Lord” ; it was the habit of his soul. (1) Belief in the Divine existence.(2) Sense of dependency upon God.(3) An expectation of good from the Almighty. 2. The result of his religious exercise. “ He inclined unto me and heard my cry. He came near to me.” It is the prayer of the whole life that the Almighty hears and answers. It is not a spasmodic shriek, it is a settled, sacred state of being (Isaiah 57:15). II. He recollects divine interpositions. “ He brought me up also out of an horrible pit.” The spiritual state of truly good men.1. It is a Divinely restored state. From what a wretched state has the sinner been delivered. (1) State of darkness--a pit. The sun that bathes the world in its brightness breaks not the dense gloom of the pit.(2) Misery--horrible pit--cold, black, dense, tumultuous.(3) Helplessness. “ Miry clay” --ever sinking into mud of moral corruption, all the faculties of being submerged and held fast. 2. It is a Divinely established state. Hast “ set my feet upon a rock.” (1) His intellect is established in truth.(2) His heart is established in love.(3) His purpose is established in conduct. 3. It is a Divinely progressive state. “ He has established my goings.” Onward! is the watchword of the godly man. The point reached to-day is the starting-point for to-morrow. 4. It is a Divinely happy state. “ He hath put a new song in my mouth.” Godliness is happiness. 5. It is a Divinely influential state. “ Many shall see it and fear.” (1) Godliness is conspicuous. You cannot conceal the true light.(2) Godliness is reverenced. “ And fear.”(3) Godliness is blest. He who lives a godly life becomes unconsciously the influence of bringing others to God. III. He recollects the happiness of religion (Psalms 40:4).1. True religion is trusting in the Lord, not in man. 2. True religion, because of this, is ever connected with blessedness. (1) Reason shows this.(2) History shows this.(3) Consciousness shows this. IV. He recollects general interventions of mercy. “ Many, O Lord my God, are Thy wonderful works,” etc.1. They are wonderful. Wonderful in their variety, condescension, forbearing and compassionate love. 2. They are intelligent--not accidental, capricious or impulsive. They are the results and embodiment of thought. All God’ s works are thoughts in action. 3. They are innumerable. Can you count the sands on the sea-shore, or the drops that make up the ocean? Then you may sum up the mercies of God to you. (Homilist.) Patient waiting It would be far easier, I apprehend, for nine men out of ten to join a storming party trying to take the citadel of the enemy than to lie on a rack or hang on a cross without repining. Yes, patience is a strength; and patience means not merely strength, but wisdom in exercising it. We, the creatures of a day, make one of the nearest approaches that is possible for us to the life of God. St. Augustine has finely said of God, “ Patiens quia aeternus” . The greatest heroes among men are they who “ wait patiently.” (Canon Liddon.) Psalms 40:2 He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay.Out of the pit I. His condition.1. He was sunk in deep and dark depression. He was what we describe as “ down,” brought very low, plunged into great despondency and despair. We very well know what brings men into the pit. Grief can do it, and failure, and a multiplicity of tasks. But, above all, sin takes the “ lift” and buoyancy out of life, and makes it the victim of an appalling gravitation which sucks it into abysmal depths of helplessness and darkness and despair. This is the horrible pit in which we have all been sunk. 2. A second element in the condition of the psalmist is interpreted by the descriptive word “ horrible,” “ the horrible pit,” or, as the margin gives it, “ the pit of noise.” And is not this the modern experience? When a man is in the pit he is addressed by confused and confusing voices. One man calls to us and tells us that our depression is purely imaginary, we are the victims of our own thoughts and dreams. Another declares that we are a little “ out of sorts,” and that the doctor will put us right in a week. A third avers that “ more need we the Divine than the physician.” It is a “ pit of noise” and confusion. 3. A third element in the suppliant’ s depression is described in the phrase, “ the miry clay.” Surely we know the experience in our own life! The ground slips from under our feet. We have no foothold. There is nothing solid, nothing dependable. II. His resources. “ I waited patiently.” His being was collected, and all fixed in intense expectancy on God.1. “ He inclined unto me.” The figure is exquisitely helpful. “ He stretched right out and down to me.” His arm was long enough to reach me, even when I was in the deepest pit. 2. “ And beard my cry.” Just as the mother, when the house is filled with company, hears the cry of her babe in the chamber above. Or just as a shepherd hears the faint lone cry of the lost lamb in some ravine on the open moor. III. His deliverance. “ He brought me out.” That is to say, He lifts me out of my captivity. We cannot struggle out. Struggling will only aggravate our bondage. When we are in the Slough of Despond One comes to us called “ Help.” “ He set my feet upon a rock.” Hitherto I have been in the miry clay, the victim of uncertainties, despondencies and doubts. But now He has “ enlarged my steps under me,” and I find myself upon the highway of the Lord. “ And He hath established my goings.” Thus He not only lifts and confirms me, but He vitalizes my soul. We all know the ease that comes to the feet when we have been trudging through heavy mire and we find ourselves upon a well-made turnpike road. As soon as we come to the good road we say to one another, “ Now we shall be able to step out.” That is the suggestion in the psalmist’ s phrase, “ and hath established my goings.” We are able to step out, nay, to go as those who are “ marching to Zion” ! (J. H. Jowett, M. A.) The supreme change I. What the grace of God delivers from.1. A position of degradation--“ A pit.”2. A position of misery--“ A horrible pit.”3. A position of danger--“ The miry clay.” (1) Insecurity.(2) Helplessness.(3) Death (Jeremiah 38:9). II. What the grace of God brings men to.1. A condition of spiritual elevation--“ up.”2. A condition of spiritual stability--“ And set my feet upon a rock.”3. A condition of spiritual advancement--“ And established my goings.”4. A condition of religious happiness--“ And He hath put a new song,” etc. III. In effecting this change the divine being and the sinner have their distinct provinces to occupy.1. The sinner prays--evidencing-- (1) Deep sense of need.(2) Deep consciousness of helplessness.(3) Trust in “ the mercy and power of God. 2. The sinner waits-- (1) In earnest expectation.(2) In the assurance of help being granted. 3. The Lord inclines His ear and hears the cry. 4. The Lord puts forth His saving power--“ He brought me up.” IV. Lessons.1. To believers. (1) Spiritual elevation no cause for boasting.(2) Spiritual stability no cause for self-confidence.(3) Spiritual advancement to be carefully maintained.(4) Religious happiness to be continued and increased. 2. To unbelievers. (1) Yours a position of degradation, misery and danger.(2) This position gradually becoming worse.(3) Escape is possible by penitential application to God (Hosea 13:9). What a future sinners must have if they remain in the pit! What a future sinners may have if they turn to Christi (Julius Brigg.) Brought up from the horrible pit This passage has been very frequently, and rightly, used as telling the experience of God’ s people. Yet I am not certain that the first verse could be rightly uttered by all of us. Could we say, “ I waited patiently for the Lord” ? Might it not be more truthfully said of us, “ I waited impatiently for the Lord” ? Alas, patience is still a scarce virtue upon the earth. Therefore, though we may regard the psalm as in a secondary sense belonging to David, in the first instance a greater than David is here. For the first person who uttered these words was the Messiah. Our text, therefore, belongs primarily to Him. Note, then-- I. Our Lord’ s behaviour as here set forth.1. He waited upon the Lord. He did so all His life, but this waiting became more conspicuous in His passion and death. 2. And patiently. His atonement had not been complete had it been otherwise. No expiation could have been made by an impatient Saviour. 3. And prayerfully. Let Gethsemane tell. Jabbok is outdone by Kidron. See, then, our pattern. Have we waited, and waited thus? II. Our Lord’ s deliverance.1. It is represented as a bringing up out of a horrible pit. I have been in the dungeon at Rome in which, according to tradition, Peter and Paul were confined. It was, indeed, a horrible pit, for originally it had no entrance but a round hole in the rock above; and when that was blocked neither light nor fresh air could enter. No being has ever been so cruel to man as man. Man is the worst of monsters to his kind, and his cruel inventions are many. Now, our Lord was like a man put into a pit. Hence he was quite alone. Thus it happened to our Saviour. All His disciples forsook Him and fled. And in total darkness. Midnight brooded over His spirit. And full of distress. The grief and sorrow which He felt can never be described. He felt care upon care, night blackening night. But He was brought up out of all this; at that moment when He said, “ It is finished” ; and at the resurrection and by His ascension to the right hand of God. Now His sorrow is ended. 2. A second figure is used to tell of His grief. “ Out of the miry clay.” In such horrible pits the imprisoned wretch often found himself sinking in the mire. And our blessed Lord found when He was suffering for us that everything appeared to give way beneath Him. But He was brought up like Jonah was from the deeps. And He was set “ on a rock.” He stands on a firm foundation in all that He does for us. Judgment and truth confirm His ways. When He saves He has a right to save. And His goings are established for continuance, certainty, victory. Best of all, there is a new song in His mouth, “ In the midst of the church will I sing praise unto Thee.” The song of heaven is “ the song of Moses and the Lamb.” III. The Lord’ s reward. “ Many” --not all, but many--“ shall see it and fear,” etc. They shall, for He hath the key of all hearts. They shall see; see Him as their Saviour, and shall fear. It makes men fear to see a bleeding Christ. And best of all, they “ shall trust in the Lord.” IV. The Lord’ s likeness in his people. All this may be repeated in them. Like sorrow, but let there be like waiting, and there shall be like deliverance. Sinner sinking in guilt, He can deliver you. (C. H. Spurgeon.) History of the soul’ s salvation I. The believer’ s safety.1. The author of it. “ The Lord” (Psalms 25:5). 2. The nature of it. “ On a rock” (Psalms 27:5). 3. The individual realization of it. “ My feet” (Psalms 31:8; 2 Timothy 1:12). II. The believer’ s walk.1. A firm footing. Feet on a rock. “ Wherein we stand” (Romans 5:2). 2. Steady progress (Psalms 37:23; Psalms 16:11). “ Established my goings.” 3. Safe keeping (1 Samuel 2:9; Jude 1:24). III. The believer’ s sons.1. The song of reconciliation (Isaiah 12:1). 2. The song of deliverance (Exodus 15:1-19). 3. The song of victory (2 Chronicles 20:17-26). IV. The believer’ s influence.1. “ Many shall see it” (Matthew 5:16). 2. “ Many shall fear” (Acts 2:37; Acts 2:43). 3. “ Many shall trust in the Lord” (Acts 2:41). (E. H. Hopkins) The pit of destruction It is possible that the reference may be to a mode of hunting, anciently practised in the East, and still practised in some parts of the East, in the interior of Africa, and in some of the Polynesian Islands. When a dangerous wild animal was to be captured, a largo hole was dug in the ground. At the bottom of the pit thus dug a goat was placed as bait, and the opening of the pit was covered with light branches and foliage. The wild animal, attracted by the bleating of the goat, made a spring in the dark for the goat, fell through the branches, and was securely trapped. From this point of view David had fallen, or been tempted into, a pit of sin; and had been plucked by the mercy of God from the clinging mire of its bottom and the slippery clay of its sides, and placed upon the sure foothold of a rock. And set my feet upon a rock and established my goings.-- Fixity and progress What a strange contradiction--rest and movement, fixedness and pliability, stedfastness and variation. How can a man be made to run by his fixedness? How can his power of motion be increased by that which is supposed to rivet him to the spot? In all things of the spirit, is it not ever so? Is not the rapidity of my movement always in proportion to the rootedness of my conviction? The firmer is my rock, the more established are my goings. It is the resting soul which flies. I have no wings until I have a fixed heart. The dove that descends upon the Jordan must first light upon the Son of Man. Is it not written (Isaiah 40:31)? What is that but to say that the rock makes the outgoing? I never do such work as when I am at rest. It is the calm within makes the power without. The soul whose works have followed it is the spirit of the man who has rested from his labours. (G. Matheson, D. D.) Psalms 40:3 And He hath put a new song in my mouth.The new song on earth I. We have here A man wondering to find himself singing. God had put a new song into his mouth, and it was a marvel even to himself. What makes you wonder so? Other people sing: why is it at all a wonder that you should? He answers, “ It is a wonder that I should sing, because I have been so used to sighing. I had my evening moans and groans, for sin was heavy upon me, and an angry God seemed to make the darkness about me a darkness that might be felt. Had you seen me then, you would not think it strange that I should be a wonder to myself that now I sing.” Well, I can see why you are astonished at your singing; is there any other reason? “ Yes,” he answers, “ if you had known me a little farther back, before I came under the hand of God, and was awakened to a sense of sin, you would have known a fellow that could sing; but the wonder now is that I can sing ‘ a new song.’ I am glad, sir, that you did not hear me sing in those days, for my songs would have done you no good. It is not only called a new song because it is new to us, but because it is so uncommon. Rich and rare things are often called in the Bible new. There is a new covenant, a new commandment, etc. And, oh, the praises of God are indeed rich and rare! And, truth to tell, there is a wonder about our new song because it is always new. Do you ever tire--you who love your Lord--do you ever tire of Him? You who praise Him, do you ever weary of singing His praises? II. We have here A man who is resolved to keep on singing, for, you notice, he says, “ He hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see, and fear, add shall trust in the Lord” ; so that this man means to keep on singing. I must have you back again, old friend, and ask you why it is that you mean to keep on singing. He answers, first, “ Because I cannot help it.” When God sets a man singing, he must sing. Good Rowland Hill once had sitting on the pulpit-stairs a person who sang with such a cracked, squeaking voice that it put the dear man out of heart; and this person with the cracked voice of course sang more loudly than anybody else. So Mr. Hill said to him, while the hymn was being sung, “ Be quiet, my good man, you make such a dreadful noise that you put us all out.” “ Oh!” said the man, “ I am singing from my heart, Mr. Hill.” “ I beg your pardon, my friend,” said the preacher, “ go on, go on, go on with your singing if it comes from your heart.” So we would not stop any man, whatever his voice is, if he sings from his heart. But do not sing before everybody; perhaps it would be casting pearls before swine. “ Oh!” says he, “ but I must; I mean to sing before many.” Why? “ Well, I used to sing before many in my evil days. I was not ashamed to sing for the devil. When I ought to have been ashamed I was not; and now that I ought not to be ashamed, I will not be ashamed, and I will sing. Besides, why should I be so tender and considerate of their nerves? They are not thoughtful about mine.” Still, do you think that it is worth while to sing at this rate? “ Yes,” says he, “ I do, for I believe that it is good for them to hear it.” Do you? What good can it do them? And he answers me thus. “ Look at your text, sir, and you will not need to ask me that question; what does your text say? . . . Many shall see, and fear, and shall trust in the Lord.” (C. H. Spurgeon.) The saved man’ s new song When Charles Wesley was impressed with the thought that he ought to live a different life to that which he was living, a more distinctly Christian life--he was anxious from this very point to get a satisfactory answer to the question, “ Is it necessary to acknowledge Christ openly, to tell to people that I am a Christian?” And, walking in the streets one day, he met a holy, saintly Moravian minister, and he asked him, in the course of conversation, “ Is it really necessary that I should openly confess Christ?” That good, blessed man said to him, “ If you had a thousand tongues, use them all in telling of your Saviour.” Well, he sought and found the great blessing of peace through Jesus Christ; and then you know what followed, and what always comes in Christian experience. He did not need to ask men whether he should tell others that he had found the pearl of great price; he sat down, and he wrote that hymn-- Oh, for a thousand tongues to sing My great Redeemer’ s praise, The glories of my God and King, The riches of His grace! Many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the Lord,--The power of a good life We are not alone in anything we do. We are connected from the cradle to the grave with many others. We have our family, and our kindred, our social friends, our business connections, our neighbours and fellow-citizens. Upon all these we exercise influence, both consciously and unconsciously. By our uprightness they are strengthened, by our courage they are cheered, by our perseverance they are confirmed in the love of right. Every person is thus a preacher to his neighbour; and the most powerful of all eloquence is the eloquence of a virtuous life. It is a testimony to the whole world that religion is not utopian. It can be practised and realized; for here it is done. When a parent adds to the gentle precepts of true religion delivered to his children, the practice of a just, a patient, loving life, he preaches to his household in golden words. When a Christian tradesman shows a spirit of honour and rectitude in his dealings, a desire to afford full justice to his customer, as well as to himself, he preaches with the utmost force the sermon, “ Go thou and do likewise.” The best sermon any one can preach on patience is actual calmness under provocation. The preaching of truly good lives is what the world now most needs. It is the one sweet note having the power to reduce to harmony all the discords of mankind. (J. Bailey, Ph. D.) Psalms 40:4 Blessed is the man who maketh the Lord his trust.The blessedness of making the Lord our trust I. What is implied by our trust.1. That it rests in the Lord Himself. 2. It sets aside all self-confidence. II. Some reasons why the man who makes the Lord his trust is blessed.1. He acts in accordance with the Divine will. 2. There is stability in his trust; you may always depend upon it. 3. It bestows true manly dignity and freedom from all servile fears. 4. It gives quiet composure to the mind. (W. H. Horwood.) The Lord our trust The psalmist here expresses-- I. A peculiar habit of mind. What is implied in trusting in God?1. A knowledge of His character. 2. It implies the consciousness of reconciliation. 3. Obedience. 4. Piety or devotion. II. The happiness connected with this trust in the Lord.1. See it by way of contrast. For how insufficient and unstable are the objects in which the world trusts. Riches, skill, virtue and the like. 2. In the perfections of the God in whom we trust. Think of all His attributes and each will minister to this happiness. 3. In what is prepared for such, both here and hereafter. (W. Wright.) Faith commended I. Faith has the divine approval. Wherever there is faith God is pleased with it. He has made it the main requirement of His gospel. It is the one thing needful in prayer. It is the mode and manner of the spiritual life, for “ the just shall live by faith.” II. This is highly reasonable. We love to be trusted, and are much troubled when we are not. It is our proper position towards God, and it supplies the link between us and Himself. The complete confidence of the heart is the essence of obedience and the fountain of it. And it is no objection that faith, trust, seems such a small matter. But within the compass of it there lies a force whose power would be difficult to measure. It is a virtue which contains within it seed enough to sow all the acreage of life with holiness. III. And faith is blessedness. For in trouble it assures us that “ all things work together for good.” And it releases from trouble. Read this psalm. It creates within him a deep peace and a holy elevation of character. We put down our foot on what seems thin as air and, behold, it is firm as a rock beneath us. But some one says, “ I could not live with nothing to depend upon.” Is God nothing? The believer has nothing more, and what does he want more? And faith makes blessed in death. For the believer knows he cannot truly die. If ye will believe, ye shall have both heaven on earth and heaven in heaven. God uplift us from the miry clay of unbelief to the rock of confidence in Him.” (C. H. Spurgeon.) Trust in the Lord--the only way to happiness “ As happy as a king” is a common phrase; but history almost seems to say, “ As miserable as a king.” In his last will Henry IV. spoke most sadly of his life, which he had “ misspended.” The last words of Henry VIII. were, “ All is lost.” “ I, Eleanor, by the wrath of God, Queen of England,” so wrote Eleanor of Aquitaine, Queen of Henry II. Queen Mary begged that, when she died, not even the semblance of a crown might be put upon her brow. “ I am aweary of my life,” said Queen Elizabeth to the French ambassador. And in the present time we have all seen how much there is in the lot of the Czar of all the Russias that none of us would like. True happiness can never be realized, either by king or peasant, apart from God, and the wise king said very truly, “ Whoso trusteth in the Lord, happy is he.” Psalms 40:5 Many, O Lord my God, are Thy wonderful works which Thou hast done, and Thy thoughts which are to us-ward: they cannot be reckoned up in order unto Thee. God’ s wonderful works and thoughts to us-ward I. Let us recall some of the wondrous works and thoughts of God to usward during the year.1. The first wondrous mercy is life itself, How wonderful is life! We lavish upon it our choicest and fondest expressions. With what jealous care we guard it. What are all our daily toil and efforts but a battle for life! When the last stroke seems about to fall, how, do we quiver and weep! When that stroke is suspended, what joy thrills through our frame! Life with its five mysterious senses--life, with its powers of knowing--life, with its susceptibilities of loving and aspiring--life, with its sublime sense of duty, and with its affections and hopes that soar towards God and heaven--is a treasure that makes the weakest man the possessor of boundless wealth. But life is not more sweet and precious than it is frail. At any moment the small dust of the balance may turn the scale against us. A slight pressure of the brain, a pause of the breath, and all is over. Life is a frail ship that ploughs the great ocean amidst hurricanes and lightnings, by quicksands and rocks. How wonderful is it that this frail ship should sail for twenty, forty, seventy years--that this breath should flow on--this flower bloom, not for one, but for many years! 2. We have another illustration of the wonderful works and thoughts of God to us-ward, in the means of life and the comforts of life. Life hangs on the power of God, and no means can give life one moment longer beyond God’ s will; but life cannot be maintained without means, and those means of life are truly wonderful. The head of a family knows best how much work and thought must go to the getting of food and raiment and other needful things for the children. But what are his work and thought to the work and thought of the great Father of all for each of His children? Think of what is needed for each harvest; what exact adjustment of natural laws so as to suit the different stages of the plant. And these wondrous works of God are not mere works without soul in them. They are His thoughts also. We do not praise the earth, or the clouds, or the sun, but we thank God. But I would notice as the crowning example of God’ s many and wonderful works and thoughts to us-ward. 3. His works and thoughts in regard to the supreme purpose and aim of life. Life and the means of life are not the end, they are only the means of a greater end. They only give us a basis. We still want a structure to be built upon them. And our Father in heaven knows that the gift of health and life and all temporal blessings Will be no blessing, but only a curse to us, unless we rear upon these the structure of right principles, and holy affections, and Christian usefulness--in a word, all the work of faith, and hope, and charity. He has destined us for these as our chief end. II. The good effects which should follow such a review of God’ s works.1. There should be grateful acknowledgment of His mercies. Gratitude ploughs up the field which is to others only a barren waste, and plants it, and keeps it fresh and green with its tears of joy. The whole past life is the field which it ploughs up, and out of which it makes to spring all that can refresh and strengthen us. 2. The grateful review of the Divine works of mercy will inspire us likewise to be workers of good--to be good, like Him, that we may be His children--to be merciful as our Father is merciful. 3. Lastly, let the grateful review of the wondrous works of God to us-ward produce in us, not only the works of mercy, but the thoughts also of mercy, the spirit of mercy and charity. (J. Riddell.) Two innumerable things (with Psalms 40:12):--So, then, there are two series of things which cannot be numbered. God’ s mercies; man’ s sin. We always should begin with grateful remembrance of God’ s mercy. His wondrous dealings seem to the psalmist’ s thankful heart as numberless as the blades of grass which carpet the fields. They come pouring out continuously, like the innumerable undulations of the ether which make upon the eyeballs the single sensation of light. He thinks not only of God’ s wonderful works, His realized purposes of mercy, but of “ His thoughts which are to us-ward,” the purposes, still more wonderful, of a yet greater mercy which wait to be realized. As he thinks of all this “ multitude of His tender mercies,” his lips break into this rapturous exclamation of my text. But there is a wonderful change in tone in the two halves of the psalm. The deliverance that seems so complete in the earlier part is but partial. The psalmist sees himself ringed about by numberless evils, as a man tied to a stake might be by a circle of fire. “ Innumerable evils have compassed me about.” His conscience tells him that the evils are deserved; they are his iniquities transformed, which have come back to him in another shape, and have laid their hands upon him as a constable does upon a thief. “ Mine iniquities have taken hold upon me.” They hem him in so that his vision is interrupted, the smoke from the circle of flame blinds his eyes. “ I cannot see.” His roused conscience and his quivering heart conceive of them as “ more than the hairs of his head.” And so courage and confidence have ebbed away from him. “ My heart faileth me,” and there is nothing left for him but to fling himself in his misery out of himself and on to God. Draw some of the lessons from the very remarkable juxtaposition of these two innumerable things--God’ s tender mercies, and man’ s iniquity and evil. I. To begin with, if we keep these two things both together in our contemplations, they suggest for us very forcibly the greatest mystery in the universe, and throw a little light upon it. The difficulty of difficulties, the one insoluble problem is, given a good and perfect God, where does sorrow come from? And why is there any paid? And men have fumbled at that knot for all the years that there have been men in the world, and they have not untied it yet. Is it true that “ God’ s mercies are innumerable” ? If it be, what is the meaning of all this that makes me writhe and weep? Well, when such moments come to us, do not let the black mass hide the light one from you, but copy this psalmist, and in the energy of your faith, even though it be the extremity of your pain, grasp and grip them both; and though you have to say and to wail, “ Innumerable evils have compassed me about,” be sure that you do not let that prevent you from saying, “ Many, O Lord my God, are Thy wonderful works,” etc. Remember, the one does not contradict the other; and let us ask ourselves if the one does not explain the other. If it be that these mercies are so innumerable as my first text says, may it not be that they go deep down beneath, and include in their number the thing that seems most opposite to them, even the sorrow that afflicts our lives? “ Whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth,” makes a bridge across the gulf which seems to part the opposing cliffs these two sets effect, and turn the darker into a form in which the brighter reveals itself. God’ s innumerable mercies include the whole sum total of my sorrows. II. The blending of these two thoughts together heightens the impression of each. All artists, and all other people know the power of contrast. White never looks so white as when it is relieved against black; black never so intense as when it is relieved against white. Only observe that, whilst the psalmist starts from the “ innumerable evils” that have compassed him about, he passes from these to the earlier evils which he had done. It is pains that says, “ Innumerable evils have compassed me about.” It is conscience that says, “ Mine iniquities have taken hold upon me.” His wrongdoing has come back to him like the boomerang that the Australian savage throws, which may strike its aim but returns to the hand that flung it. It has come back in the shape of a sorrow. And so “ Mine iniquities have taken hold upon me” is the deepening of the earliest word of my text. God’ s mercies never seem so fair, so wonderful, as when they are looked at in conjunction with man’ s sin. Man’ s sin never seems so foul and hideous as when it is looked at close against God’ s mercies. You cannot estimate the conduct of one or two parties to a transaction unless you have the conduct of the other before you. You cannot understand a father’ s love unless you take into account the prodigal son’ s sullen unthankfulness, or his unthankfulness without remembering his father’ s love. So we do not see the radiant brightness of God’ s lovingkindness to us until we look at it from the depth of the darkness of our own sin. The stars are seen from the bottom of the well. Man’ s sin has heightened God’ s love to this climax and consummation of all tenderness, that He has sent us His Son. Man’ s darkest sin is the rejection of Christ. The clearest light makes the blackest shadow; the tenderer the love, the more criminal the apathy and selfishness which opposes it. III. The keeping of these two thoughts together should lead us all to conscious penitence. The psalmist’ s words are not the mere complaint of a soul in affliction, but they are also the acknowledgment of a conscience repenting. In like manner the contemplation of these two numberless series should affect us all. It is a very defective kind of religion that says, “ Many, O Lord my God, are Thy thoughts which are to us-ward” ; but has never been down on its knees with the confession, “ Mine iniquities have taken hold upon me.” But defective as it is, it is all the religion which many people have. I would press on you all this truth, that there is no deep personal religion without a deep consciousness of personal transgression. Have you ever known what, it is so to look at God’ s love that it smites you into tears of repentance when you think of the way you have requited Him? I, therefore, urge this upon you that, for the vigour of your own personal religion, you must keep these two things well together. IV. Looking at these two numberless series together will bring into the deepest penitence a joyful confidence. There are regions of experience the very opposite of that error of which I have just been speaking. There are some of us, perhaps, who have so profound a sense of their own shortcomings and sins that the mists rising from these have blurred the sky to them and shut out the sun. Some of you, perhaps, may be saying to yourselves that you cannot get hold of God’ s love because your sin seems to you to be so great, or may be saying to yourselves that it is impossible that you should ever get the victory over this evil of yours because it has laid hold upon you with so tight a grasp. If there be any inclination to doubt the infinite love of God, or the infinite possibility of cleansing from all sin, bind these two texts together, and never so look at your own evil as to lose sight of the infinite mercy of God. It is safe to say--aye! it is blessed to say” Mine iniquities are more than the hairs of mine head,” when we can also say, “ Thy thoughts to me are more than can be numbered.” There are not two innumerable series, there is only one. There is a limit and a number to my sins and to yours, but God’ s mercies are properly numberless. My sins may be as the sand which is by the sea-shore, innumerable, the love of God in Jesus Christ is like the great sea which rolls over the sands and buries them. My sins may rise mountains high, but:His mercies are a great deep which will cover the mountains to their very summit. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) The marvel of God’ s thoughts Phillips Brooks thus seizes and emphasizes the message of the spring. “ When the spring comes, the oak-tree with its thousands upon thousands of leaves blossoms all over. The great heart of the oak-tree remembers every remotest tip of every farthest branch, and sends to each the message and the power of new life. And yet we do not think of the heart of the oak-tree as if it were burdened with such multitudinous remembrance, or as if it were any harder work for it to make a million leaves than it would be to make one. It is simply the thrill of the common life translated into these million forms. The great heart beats, and wherever the channels of a common life are standing open the rich blood flows, and out on every tip the green leaf springs. Somewhat in that way it seems to me that we may think of God’ s remembrance of His million children.” Psalms 40:6-7 Sacrifice and offering Thou didst not desire; mine ears hast Thou opened: burnt-offering and sin-offering hast Thou not required.Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me. Christ the only sufficient sacrifice Among the many irrefragable proofs that we belong to a fallen race, is the misconstruction which men have put upon the clearest revelations of the Divine will. The Lord had appointed that, in their approaches to Him, the Israelites should offer sacrifices as an acknowledgment that their sins could not be remitted without the shedding of blood. The sacrifices both made clear expression of the fearful guilt of sin, and foreshadowed the atonement Christ should make for the transgressions of His people. But the Jews, as a nation, were not impressed with horror of sin, neither were their thoughts led forward to the promised Redeemer. In their shameful misconceptions of the Divine character, they often impiously imagined that, if any of them committed a trespass, he had no more to do than to kill a bullock or a sheep, in sacrifice, and his guilt would be forgiven him. I. What kind of atonement is required. It must be costly, for man’ s guilt is great. Hence--1. It must be equivalent in value to the souls of the redeemed. Such is the stern doom of justice: else man cannot be saved. 2. There must be a connection between those for whom the atonement is offered and the party who suffers. 3. He who was to die for man must be innocent. No halt or maimed victim could be accepted in the ancient sacrifices: it must be perfect. But how could man furnish a perfect sacrifice for sin? 4. The victim must be willing. An involuntary, forced sacrifice would be cruel tyranny. II. How all the qualities requisite for a perfect atonement have met in Christ.1. There was sufficiency in value, for Christ was the Son of God. 2. He had connection with these for whom He died; for He was man as well as God. 3. He was perfectly innocent--“ He did no sin.” 4. He was a willing victim. (George Innes.) Jesus the true Messiah I. It is intimated that, whenever the Messiah should come, the sacrifices and ceremonies of the mosaic law were to be superseded by him. Jewish writers contend for the perpetuity of the ceremonial as well as of the moral law; but in this they are opposed, both by Scripture and by fact.1. As to Scripture (1 Samuel 15:22; Psalms 50:7-15; Psalms 51:16-17; Isaiah 1:11-12; Jeremiah 7:21-23; Daniel 9:27; Jeremiah 31:31-34; Hebrews 8:13; Hebrews 10:17-18). 2. Whether Messiah the Prince be come or not, sacrifice and oblation have ceased. We believed they virtually ceased when Jesus offered Himself a sacrifice, and in a few years after they actually ceased. II. It is suggested that, whenever Messiah should come, the great body of scripture prophecy should be accomplished in him. “ In the volume,” etc.1. The time when Messiah should come is clearly marked out in prophecy (Genesis 49:10; Haggai 2:6-9; Daniel 9:24-27). 2. The place where Messiah should be born, and where He should principally impart His doctrine, is determined (Micah 5:2; Isaiah 9:2). 3. The house or family from whom Messiah should descend is clearly ascertained. 4. The kind of miracles that Messiah should perform is specified (Isaiah 35:5-6). 5. It was predicted of Messiah that He should, as a King, be distinguished by His lowliness, entering into Jerusalem, not in a chariot of state, but in a much humbler style (Zechariah 9:9). 6. It is predicted of Messiah that He should suffer and die by the hands of wicked men (Isaiah 49:7; Isaiah 53:9; Daniel 9:26). 7. It was foretold that the Messiah, after being cut off out of the land of the living and laid in the grave, should rise from the dead. 8. It was foretold that the great body of the Jewish nation would not believe in Him; and that He would set up His kingdom among the Gentiles (Isaiah 53:1; Isaiah 49:4-6). III. It is declared, that when the Messiah should come, the will of God would be perfectly fulfilled by him. “ I delight to do Thy will.” The will of God sometimes denotes what He approves, and sometimes what He appoints. The first is the rule of our conduct, the last of His own; and both we affirm to have been fulfilled by Jesus. (A. Fuller.) “ Lo, I come” I. The sweeping away of the shadow.1. When the Son of God is born into the world, there is an end of all types by which He was formerly prefigured. When the heart is gone out of the externals of worship, they are as shells without the kernel. Habitations without living tenants soon become desolations, and so do forms and ceremonies without their spiritual meaning. Toward the time of our Lord’ s coming, the outward worship of Judaism became more and more dead: it was time that it was buried. 2. As these outward things vanish, they go away with God’ s mark of non-esteem upon them: they are such things as He did not desire. The spiritual, the infinite, the almighty Jehovah could not desire merely outward ritual, however it might appear glorious to men. The sweetest music is not for His ear, nor the most splendid robes of priests for His eye. He desired something infinitely more precious than these, and He puts them away with this note of dissatisfaction. 3. They were so put away as never to be followed by the same kind of things. Shadows are not replaced by other shadows. II. The revelation of thy Substance.1. The Lord Himself comes, even He who is all that these things foreshadowed. (1) When He comes He has a prepared ear. The margin hath it, “ Mine ears hast Thou digged.” Our ears often need digging; for they are blocked up by sin. The passage to the heart seems to be sealed in the case of fallen man. But when the Saviour came, His ear was not as ours, but was attentive to the Divine voice. (2) He came also with a prepared body (Hebrews 10:5). 2. He who assumed that body was existent before that body was prepared. He says, “ A body hast Thou prepared me. Lo, I come.” He from old eternity dwelt with God: the Word was in the beginning with God, and the Word was God. He was before all worlds, and was before He came into the world to dwell in His prepared body. 3. The human nature of Christ was taken on Him in order that He might be able to do for us that which God desired and required. An absolutely perfect righteousness He renders unto God; as the second Adam, He presents it for all whom He represents. III. The declaration of the Christ made in the text. “ Lo, I come.”1. Observe when He says this. It is in the time of failure. 2. When our Lord comes, it is with the view of filling up the vacuum which had now been sorrowfully seen. He gives to man in reality what he had lost in the shadow. 3. When He appears, it is as the personal Lord--the Infinite Ego. Everything is stored up in His blessed person, and we are complete in Him. 4. Observe the joyful avowal that He makes. This is no dirge; I think I hear a silver trumpet ring out, “ Lo, I come.” 5. He comes with a word calling attention to it; for He is not ashamed to be made partaker of our flesh. Others have cried to you, “ Lo, here! and Lo, there” ; but Jesus looks on you, and cries, “ Lo, I come.” Look hither; turn all your thoughts this way, and behold your God in your nature ready to save you. 6. I hear in this declaration of the coming One a note of finality. He is the fulfilment of all the requirements of the human race, as well as the full amount of what God requires. IV. The reference to preceding writings. He says, “ to, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me.” If I preached from the passage in the Epistle to the Hebrews, I might fairly declare that in the whole volume of Holy Scripture much is written of our Lord and prescribed for Him as Messiah. Preaching as I am from the Psalms, I cannot take so long a range. I must look back and find what was written in David’ s day, and within the Pentateuch certainly; and whore do I find it written concerning His coming? The Pentateuch drips with prophecies of Christ as a honeycomb overflowing with its honey. V. The delight of him that cometh.1. He came in complete subserviency to His Father. Though high as the highest, tie stooped low as the lowest. 2. He had a prospective delight as to His work (Proverbs 8:31). 3. He had an actual delight in His coming among men. To Him it was joy to be in sorrow, and honour to be put to shame. Do you think that lightens our estimate of His self-denial and disinterestedness? Nay, it adds weight to it. Some people fancy that there is no credit in doing a thing unless you are miserable in doing it. Nay, that is the very reverse. Obedience which is unwillingly offered and causes no joy in the soul, is not acceptable. We must serve God with our heart, or we do not serve Him. 4. Need I tell you what must be the delight, the heavenly joy of our Lord, now that the work is finished? He is now the focus, the centre, the source of bliss. What must be His own delight! We often say of the angels that they rejoice over one sinner that repenteth. What means the presence of the angels? Why, that the angels see the joy of Christ when sinners repent. (C. H. Spurgeon.) “ Lo, I come” The times when our Lord says, “ Lo, I come,” have all a family likeness. There are certain crystals which assume a regular shape, and if you break them, each fragment will show the same conformation; if you were to dash them to shivers, every particle of the crystal would be still of the same form. Now, the goings forth of Christ which were of old, and His craning at Calvary, and that great advent when He shall come a second time to judge the earth in righteousness, all these have a likeness the one to the other. But there is a coming of what I may call a lesser sort, when Jesus cries, “ Lo, I come “ to each individual sinner, and brings a revelation of pardon and salvation; and this has about it much which is similar to the great ones. I. The Lord Christ has times of his first comings to men; “ Then said I, Lo, I come.” What are these times? Mayhap some here have reached this season, and this very day is the time of blessing when the text shall be fulfilled: “ Then said I, Lo, I come.” Go with me to the first record in the volume of the Book, when it was said that He should come. You will find it in the early chapter of Genesis.1. Jesus said, “ Lo, I come,” when man’ s probation was a failure. “ Adam being in honour continued not.” At that point we read in the volume of the Book that the Seed of the woman should bruise the serpent’ s head. Then our Redeemer said, “ Lo, I come.” Hearken to me; you also have had your probation, as you have thought it to be. 2. When man’ s clever dealings with the devil had turned out a great failure. 3. When man’ s covering was a failure. 4. When all man’ s pleas were failures. 5. When man’ s religion had proved a failure. II. Christ comes to sinners in the glory of his person. “ Lo, I come.” What does He mean?1. He means the setting of all else on one side. 2. Before Him there is a setting of self aside. Lo, he comes to clothe you from head to foot with His own seamless robe of righteousness. He annihilates self that He may fill all things. 3. Here is a glorious setting of Himself at our side and in our place. Jesus is now the one pillar on which to lean, the one foundation on which to build, the one and only rest of our weary souls. 4. He sets Himself where we can see Him; for he cries, “ Lo, I come” ; that is to say, “ See Me come.” He comes openly, that we may see Him clearly. 5. Our Lord sets Himself to be permanently our all in all. When He came on earth, He did not leave His work till He had finished it. Even when He rose to glory, He continued His service for His chosen, living to intercede for them. Jesus will be a Saviour until all the chosen race shall have been gathered home. III. Christ, in his coming, is his own introduction.1. Here our Lord is His own herald. “ Lo, I come.” He bids you look on Him when you beseech Him to look on you. 2. He comes when quite unsought or sought for in a wrong way. “ Lo, I come,” is the announcement of majestic grace which waiteth not for man, neither tarrieth for the sons of men. 3. Our Lord Jesus is the way to Himself. 4. He is the blessing which He brings. 5. He is His own spokesman. IV. Christ, to cheer us reveals his reasons for coming.1. It is His Father’ s will. 2. His own heart is set on you. 3. You have need, and He has love, and so He comes. V. Christ’ s coming is the best plea for our receiving him, and receiving him now. Receive Him! If you are in yourself sadly unready, yet He Himself will make everything ready for Himself. Shut not out your own mercy. A pastor in Edinburgh, in going round his district, knocked at the door of a poor woman, for whom he had brought some needed help; but he received no answer. When next he met her, he said to her, “ I called on Tuesday at your house.” She asked, “ At what time? . . . About eleven o’ clock; I knocked, and you did not answer. I was disappointed, for I called to give you help.” “ Ah, sir!” said she, “ I am very sorry. I thought it was the man coming for the rent, and I could not pay it, and therefore I did not dare to go to the door.” Many a troubled soul thinks that Jesus is one who comes to ask of us what we cannot give; but indeed He comes to give us all things. His errand is not to condemn, but to forgive. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Delight to do the will of God I. Some cases in which the christian delights to do the will of God.1. In the acts and offices of religious worship. 2. In the faithful discharge of those duties which he owes to his fellow-creatures. 3. In the good government of himself, and the practice of temperance and self-denial. II. Some of the chief fruits or effects of it.1. Cheerfulness, an habitual vivacity and gladness of heart in the exercise of our moral and religious duties, both in the time of our wealth and in the time of suffering and tribulation. 2. A firm confidence in God’ s protection and goodness, a cheerful apprehension of His perpetual presence and overruling providence, and a deep-rooted persuasion of His merciful disposition towards us, and of the truth and excellence of His promises. 3. A humble but stedfast hope of everlasting happiness, grounded on His promises in Christ, and brought home to the mind of the believer in the way of just inference and reasonable collection. (Bishop Bethell.) Christ’ s delight in the work of redemption I. Why it ought to be a pleasant and grateful thing to Christ to take a body of flesh and lay it down by death again for the redemption of sinners.1. It became Christ to go about this work with cheerfulness and delight, that thereby He might give His death the nature and formality of a sacrifice. 2. It ought to be so in regard of the unity of Christ’ s will with the Father’ s. The work of our redemption is called “ the pleasure of the Lord” (Isaiah 53:10), and what was the Father’ s pleasure could not be displeasing to Him who is one with the Father. 3. This was necessary to magnify and commend the love of Jesus Christ to us, for whom He gave Himself. That He came into the world to die for us is a mercy of the first magnitude, but that He came in love to our souls, and underwent all His sufferings with such willingness for our sakes, this heightens it above all apprehension. 4. It was necessary to be so for the regulating of all our obedience to God according to this pattern, that seeing and setting this great example of obedience before us, we might never grudge nor grumble at any duty or suffering that God should call us to. II. Whence it came to re so pleasant and acceptable to Jesus Christ to come into the world and die for poor sinners.1. That in His sufferings there would be made a glorious display and manifestation of the Divine attributes; yea, such a glorious display of them as was never made before to angels or to men, nor ever shall be any more in this world. (1) For though the wisdom of God had made itself visible to men in the creation of the world, yet there it shone, but in a faint and languishing beam compared with this. (2) The love of God had appeared before in our creation, protection and provision, yet nothing to what it doth in our redemption by the death of Christ. (3) God had given several sad marks of His justice before, both upon the angels that fell, and in the overthrow of Sodom, etc.; yet never was the exactness and severity of justice so manifested before, nor ever shall be any more, as it was at the death of Christ. 2. Another delightful prospect Christ had of the fruit of His sufferings was the recovery and salvation of all the elect by His death; and though His sufferings were exceeding bitter, yet such fruit of them as this was exceeding sweet; upon this account He assumed his name Jesus (Matthew 1:21), yea, and His human nature also (Galatians 4:4-5). 3. The glory which would redound to Him from His redeemed ones to all eternity; for it will be the everlasting pleasant employment of the saints in heaven to be ascribing glory, praise and honour to the Redeemer. (John Flavel.) Psalms 40:8I delight to do Thy will, O my God. Duty a delight “ I delight to do Thy will, O my God.” In other words, God’ s pleasure is his pleasure. “ Yea, Thy law is within my heart,” the object of choice and love. I. We instinctively recognize here an expression of the highest type of piety, This marks the psalm as Messianic, since it was fulfilled only in Christ. The piety here breathed is not to be thought of as beyond the imitation of every disciple. Jesus stands as the Divine model and pattern of a believer’ s life. When we look at the believer’ s experience we find it in three stages. First, a sense of danger, when fear rouses him to flee from the wrath to come; then a sense of duty, when conscience urges him to do that which he feels to be right; and last, a sense of delight, when choice impels him to do and bear God’ s will. Duty has become delight. This last stage of experience is the highest, and heaven only is higher. II. To delight in God’ s will supplies the noblest motive, The roads of duty and delight never cross each other. Piety is not so much any conformity of outward life, as it is a disposition toward the divine, which, in a growing Christian will become more and more habitual as a law of life, and in a sense unconscious. A young disciple is like the musical pupil, who, in playing his exercises, keeps thinking how he is sitting, holding his hands, and managing his fingers. The mature disciple is more like the master in whom practice and habit have made it possible to lose sight of what is merely mechanical in what is spiritual about music, till he forgets the instrument in the inspiration of musical enthusiasm, and becomes no longer merely a practiser of scales or an imitator of others, but a creator and composer of musical harmonies. He who makes it his habit to aim after true holiness will find more and more that it ceases to be an effort to be good and to do good, as he rises to real and almost unconscious sympathy with goodness. III. The text expresses also the highest spiritual liberty. In civil government, the nearer we get to a true idea or ideal of liberty, the less does government seem to exist at all, for the highest freedom involves unconsciousness of restraint or constraint. The Christian is the Lord’ s freeman; it is the sinner who is wearing a yoke of bondage; and he who has escaped the obedience of fear and learned the subjection of love enjoys the highest liberty of the sons of God. And we misrepresent Christianity before others whenever we lead them to suppose that it rules by the iron sceptre of duty. He who will surrender himself completely to its sway shall find the Christian experience such a blending of God’ s life with man’ s life as maketh His will our will, and His service perfect freedom! IV. The text expresses the truest preparation for a life of service to Christ. When duty becomes delight we are fitted for our highest usefulness, for that is inseparable from the highest piety, the noblest motive, and the truest liberty. Those who most win souls are those who delight to do God’ s will. If others see that it makes us happy to be disciples of Christ, that we are under no constraint, galled by no fetters of conscience, confined by no severe restrictions; that we are simply walking at liberty because we love to do God’ s will, we become to them living epistles. Men may feel little interest in hearing another say what he is forced to utter because he feels that he ought; but no man will lack attentive audience who speaks from a full heart, which would burst if denied expression. Ordinarily a sculptor does not himself work the marble: he fashions the clay model, leaving to the mechanical workman to work out in stone what he has not the imagination to invent, or think out in mind. What a wide difference between them! The workman, for a certain sum, undertakes the task of giving to the creation of the artist’ s genius simply a more enduring form. He feels, perhaps, but little interest in his wearisome work. His aim at most is to be rigidly accurate and correct in copying the model. Everything is done by rule. How different the experience of the sculptor! He finds in his work a rest, a relief. An image is stamped upon his mind, his brain burns, his heart throbs! The Greeks called such a state of mind “ enthusiasm” --an inspiration from God. We are too often only the mechanical workmen when we ought to be sculptors of life. V. Helps to attaining delight is duty.1. We must habituate ourselves to think of God’ s law in its true light. We do great injustice to Him when we construe the rule of duty as an arbitrary regulation. The more we learn to interpret His commands by His benevolence the more shall we delight to do His will. 2. There must be holy fellowship with God. No unregenerate man can know such experience of delight in duty, for it is born only of the Spirit. 3. There must be a full surrender to God. No man delights to do God’ s will whose whole will is not given up to God. 4. Duty will become delight in proportion to our faithful discharge of duty itself. The more complete your obedience, the more positive your happiness. We are reminded of the beautiful myth about the “ wingless birds,” who first took up their wings as burdens to be borne, but found them changing to pinions, which, in the end, bore them. We are the birds without wings. God puts our duties before us to be patiently assumed for His sake. But, though at first they are loads, we shall be able afterwards to say, with Rutherford, “ The cross is the sweetest burden that ever I bore: such a burden as wings are to the bird,” that help it to soar; “ or, as sails are to the ship,” that help it to catch the breeze that wafts it to the desired haven. (A. T. Pierson, D. D.) The will--before, in, and after conversion The Word of God presents to us the action of the will during three phases of experience: first, during that period in which man asserts his independence, and refuses to submit to the claims and authority of God; secondly, during the period of transition, in which he is abandoning his claims to independence, and is learning to submit to the yoke of Christ; thirdly, during the subsequent period of self-surrender and self-consecration. I. The will before conversion. “ God is not in all his thoughts.” “ The mind of the flesh is enmity against God.” Man may be unconscious of the enmity, but it surely exists; and there needs only an authoritative assertion of the Divine will to provoke the human will and call it into action. II. The will in conversion. Hew does a man pass from a state of active or passive antagonism to the will of God into one of holy and willing conformity to that will? It is difficult to answer this question in few words. Whilst every true conversion is one in its essential features, as involving the active turning to God in repentance end faith, conversions vary greatly in the causes which lead to them and in the phases through which they pass. Thus, it is difficult to define with any accuracy the precise action of the will in conversion. It is important, however, to recognize in the process the existence and activity of two forces: that of Divine grace, and that of human effort. It is the magnet of the Cross which draws men’ s hearts to God; “ I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me.” It is the supreme love of Jesus Christ living, labouring, suffering, dying for sinful men, which touches the heart, attracts the affections and expels the old love of the world by introducing a higher and more absorbing love in its place. The heart thus won, the will resumes its rightful authority.1. The choice now made is free, for it is the choice of the will acting without compulsion, choosing that which it approves as the noblest and the best. 2. The choice is decided, for it recognizes the righteousness of God’ s claim upon the unconditional submission and allegiance of man. 3. The choice is lasting, for being made after full consideration and without reserve, it knows no regrets, and has in it all the elements of permanency. III. The will after conversion. Scripture teaches and experience proves that by reason of the law of sin yet abiding in our members we cannot always do the things that we would; still “ to will is present” ; “ we delight in the law of God after the inward man.” The will after conversion, therefore, is no stranger to conflict, for sin yet dwells within; but throughout the struggle with evil it is at one with the will of God; its language is “ not my will but Thine be done.” (Sir Emilius Bayley.) Psalms 40:9-10I have preached righteousness in the great congregation: lo, I have not refrained my lips, O Lord, Thou knowest. Christian conversation There is a recluse and sequestered piety in the world which shuns expression. It preserves decorum and propriety; but it rarely speaks out for Christ. We are all acquainted with praying, pious, upright people, strict observers of the moral law, who yet have never been heard, at any time, to give utterance to their religious convictions, or to stand forth in defence of the faith against its assailants, or in the way of exhortation to holiness.1. In this matter our age stands in strong contrast to some former notable periods. In the days of Whitefield and Wesley men everywhere and in all conditions made religion a matter of common converse. Then great reforms took place. The traffic in slaves was stopped; the condition of prisoners improved; Church missions and Sunday schools were established. Then society was almost universally stirred and excited by the most glorious themes of the Gospel. 2. Observe how desirable in every way is the practice of converse upon the things of God. Christianity is no private monopoly, no exclusive, personal possession. It is a social religion, because it is made to be talked of, and talked into every sphere of life, and to rule and govern them all. 3. It is, then, very clearly our duty to use the faculty of speech for God’ s glory, for the health and strengthening of human souls. All the processes of building and uprearing in this world are prized by men. But by just so much as souls are nobler, grander structure than houses or palaces, or bodies, so the vital energy of pure and holy speech, dropped into the outward and inner ears of men, startling, quickening, sobering, prompting, guiding, elevating, sanctifying them, to good resolves, to noble acts, to self-devotion to God and man, to purity, to excellence and heavenly-mindedness; so the work and power of holy speech towers immeasurably above all the constructive work of architects and builders in this outward, visible world. 4. You tell me it is bard to talk about religion. Many people are reluctant and unwilling to speak concerning this most sacred of all themes, lest they should be betrayed into a habit of cant; which is the simulation of feeling when one has no feeling. Others are afraid of becoming flippant about holy things. And, first let me say there can be no general rule given concerning religious conversation. Perhaps the nearest approach one can make to a precept are the words of St. Paul (Colossians 4:6). That is, our conversation should be saturated with pious and religious prudence flowing from the Holy Spirit. In ordinary conversation we should talk with such a sense of sacred propriety, with such Christian cheerfulness, with such generous courtesy for the opinions and feelings of others, that although the name of Christ be never mentioned, people may gather that we have been with Him, and that His Holy Spirit is the prompter of our life and thought. On the other hand, there are times when our discourse should be most direct and distinct. When we are dealing with the sick, with people who are anxious and inquiring, with indifferent and careless people, then circumlocution or indirection is a great fault. Be faithful to souls, in your conversation as well as in your walk and bearing. But bear in mind two things. (1) That no stilted, formal, unmeaning words on religion will reach any man’ s soul. If you are not impelled by duty and interest in men to talk with them concerning religious matters, hold your tongue. (2) Join to this the duty of avoiding all debate and wrangling upon religion. The work of Christians is to persuade and invite the careless; not to dispute with them. (A. Crummell.) The Master’ s profession the disciple’ s pursuit These are the words of the Lord Jesus Christ spoken by Him through the spirit of prophecy in the Old Testament. And-- I. Our Lord did undoubtedly fulfil them. He concentrated every faculty and power to this work; He testified frequently to the greatest crowd. His preaching was never heartless. As if He had said, “ Thy righteousness is in my heart, but I have never concealed it there.” And He always kept to vital matters--to God and His attributes. “ Thy righteousness, Thy faithfulness,” etc. II. Let us strive to be able to say the same. It is certain that many will never be able to, for in all our churches there is a very large proportion of idle people. I hope they are saved; the Lord knows whether they are or not, but whatever else they are saved from, certainly they are not saved from laziness. They must imagine that they are ornaments, for certainly they are of no use, so far as any good offices are concerned. Nor will cowardly people be able to make this protest. The retiring disposition of many Christians is seen in somewhat the same way as that of the soldier who, when a charge was ordered, felt himself unworthy to be in the front ranks. Nor again will spasmodic people--people who begin things with much zeal, and then drop them. But many men of one talent will. I have known many such--good, earnest, humble, patient, praying toilers, hidden in obscure villages, with an extremely narrow sphere. And some, too, to whom larger talents have been entrusted. Let all such resolve to be able to lay claim to its praise. III. If we can, much comfort on many solemn subjects will be gained. The death of so many unsaved men; their hereafter, so awful; the doom of the heathen, the uprisings of error--for the blame of this wilt not lie at our door. Now, are not some of you ready to undertake this work of going forth as God’ s missionaries? In the sight of God ask yourselves--is it not your duty? (C. H. Spurgeon.) I have not hid Thy righteousness within my heart; I have declared Thy faithfulness and Thy salvation.--Those who know God will confess Him The psalmist here tells not only of what was an actual fact, but what is more, that he could not help thus testifying of God’ s salvation. What I propose, accordingly, at the present time, is to speak of the necessary openness of a holy experience; or, in other words, of the impossibility that the inward revelation of God in the soul should be shut up in it, and remain hid or unacknowledged. I shall have in view especially two classes of hearers that are widely distinguished one from the other; first, the class who lude the grace of God in their heart undesignedly, or by reason of some undue modesty; and secondly, the class who, pretending to have it, or consciously having it not, take a pleasure in throwing discredit on all the appropriate expressions of it, such as are made by the open testimony and formal profession of Christ before men. The former class are certainly blameable in no such sense or degree as the others. They are naturally timorous and self-distrustful persons, it may be, and do not see that they are distrusting God rather than themselves. They seem to themselves to have been truly renewed in the love of God, but they have some doubts, and they make it appear to be wiser that they should not, just now, testify their supposed new experience. In opposition to both these claims we would affirm the necessary openness of a holy experience. For--1. Such experience is even an impulse to self-manifestation, as all love and gratitude are. It wants to speak and declare itself as naturally as a child will utter its first cry. Thus, if one of you had been rescued, in a shipwreck on a foreign shore, by some common sailor who had risked his life to save you, and you should discover him across the street in some great city, you would rush to his side, seize his hand, and begin at once, with a choking utterance, to testify your gratitude to him for so great a deliverance. Or, if you should pass restrainedly on, making no sign, pretending to yourself that you might be wanting in delicacy or modesty to publish your private feelings by any such eager acknowledgment of your deliverer, or that you ought first to be more sure of the genuineness of your gratitude, what opinion must we have, in such a case, of your heartlessness and falseness to nature? In the same way how can the young convert keep from saying, “ Come and hear, all ye that fear God, and I will declare,” etc. etc. 2. Such an inward change is in its very nature the soul and root of a corresponding outward change. It is the righteousness of God revealed within, to be henceforth the actuating spring and power of a righteous and devoted life. It will inform the whole man. It will glow in the countenance. It will irradiate the eye. It will speak from the tongue. It will modulate the very gait. The good tree will show the good fruit. It cannot go on to bear the old, bad fruit out of modesty, or a pretended shrinking from ostentation; it must reveal the righteousness of God within, by the fruits of righteousness without, else it is only a mockery. 3. If any one proposes beforehand in his religious endeavours, or in seeking after God, to come into a secret experience and keep it a secret, his endeavour is plainly one that falsifies the very notion of Christian piety, and if he succeeds or seems to succeed, he only practises a fraud in which he imposes on himself. 4. It is not less clear, as I have already said incidentally, and now say only more directly, that the grace of God in the heart, unmanifested or kept secret, as many propose that it shall be, even for their whole life, will be certainly stifled and extinguished. The thought itself is a mockery of the Holy Spirit. The heart might as well be required to live and not beat as the new heart of love to hush itself and keep still in the bosom. Nothing can live that is not permitted to show the signs of life. 5. This is the express teaching of the Gospel, which everywhere and in every possible way calls out the souls renewed in Christ to live an open life of sacrifice and duty. He calls upon them to endure hardness, to make a loss of all things for His sake, to be His witnesses before men; leading always the way by their own bold, faithful testimony. The nearest approach to such encouragement anywhere given, is that which is afforded by the ease of the two senators, Joseph and Nicodemus. One of them, we are told, was a disciple secretly, for fear of the Sews. And the other came to Jesus by night, to inquire of Him, that he might not be counted a disciple. Both of them appear to have kept silence on His trial before the council, letting the decision go against Him there, and taking no responsibility on His account. But after He was crucified, they came to ask the body, and brought spices to embalm it. They were good, as disciples, to bury Jesus, but not to save His life, or serve Him while living. The truth is, that there is a very heavy shade over these two delicate and courtly friends of Jesus. They were men of society, and therefore saw the dignity of Jesus; but if you would like to be reasonably confident of your salvation, it certainly becomes you to do something a great deal more positive than to let your Master die, making no stand for Him oven in the council where His death is voted, and then come in with spices to bury Him. The most fragrant spices are those that honour one’ s life, and not the posthumous odours that embalm His body. How singular is it, too, that not even the Pentecost calls out these disciples of the tomb. It is as if they had been buried with their Master and had not risen. In that wondrous scene of fellowship, where so many from all parts of the world are surprised to find themselves confessing and embracing, in open brotherhood, strangers of all climes and orders, and selling even their goods to relieve the common wants, it does not appear that any spices of the heavenly charity are brought in by these two. The real truth is, in respect to almost all these pretenders to a secret religion, that they are persons who know nothing of it. They are moralists, it may be, practising at what they call a virtue by themselves, but they do nothing that brings them into any relationship with God. It is not the righteousness of God which they have hidden so carefully, but it is their own--which, after all, is not hid. What value there may be in discoveries of Christian experience. Some of the best and holiest impulses ever given to the cause of God in men’ s hearts are given by testimonies of Christian experience. They may be abused, but that is no reason against their proper use. Besides, there is a higher view of these personal testimonies and confessions. All these experiences, or life-histories of the faithful, will be among the grandest studies and most glorious revelations of the future. Exactly as an apostle intimates in those most hopeful, inspiring words of his, “ When lie shall come to be glorified in His saints, and to be admired in all them that believe.” May He not be glorified in them here, and, in some feebler measure, admired for the testimonies yielded by their experience as their warfare goes on. How many are there in our Christian communities that are living afar off and apparently quite inaccessible, who, if, at a certain time in their life, they had gone forward and taken the places to which they were called, would now be among the shining members of the great body of saints. Then testify freely, act but naturally, live openly the grace that is in you. (Horace Bushnell, D. D.) Psalms 40:12-15 Innumerable evils have compassed me about.Out of the depths I. A soul beset.1. He is made to see the countless number of his sins. It is wonderful what a ray of light will do; the sun suddenly shines into a room, and the whole air seems full of innumerable specks of dust, dancing up and down in the sunbeam. The light does not make the room full of dust; it only shows you what was always there, but which you did not see until the sun shone in; and if a beam of God’ s true light were to shine into some of your hearts, you would think very differently of yourselves from what you have ever done. I question whether any one among us could bear to see himself as God sees him. 2. He is greatly perplexed by a sort of omnipresence of sin. When conscience wakes up the whole hive of our sins, we find ourselves compassed about with innumerable evils; sins at the board and sins on the bed, sins at the task and sins in the pew, sins in the street and sins in the shop, sins on land and sins at sea, sins of body, soul, and spirit, sins of eye, of lip, of hand, of foot, sins everywhere, every way sins. 3. He is so beset with sin that it seems to hold him in a terrible grip. If you have a number of sins which have once taken hold on you, you will be something like a stag when the whole pack of hounds has seized him, and his neck and his flanks and every bone in him seem to feel the hounds’ teeth gnawing at them. II. A soul bewildered.1. He did not dare to look his sins in the face. 2. He is unable to excuse himself. 3. He dare not look up to read God’ s promises. III. A soul fainting. “ Free grace and dying love” --I delight to ring those charming bells; oil, that every ear would welcome their blessed music! Poor fainting heart, do thou specially hear the gladsome tidings of free grace and dying love, and catch at the message, and rejoice in Christ to-night! The Lord grant that it may be so! IV. A soul pleading.1. It is a prayer distinctly to God. 2. It is an appeal to the good pleasure of God. Divine sovereignty is not to be denied. No man has any right to God’ s grace; if it be given to any one, it is given by the free favour of God, as He pleases, and to whom He pleases. But do thou, as a suppliant, take this lowly ground: “ Be pleased, O Jehovah, to deliver me, for Thy mercy’ s sake, for Thy goodness’ sake! Universal Ruler as Thou art, and able to save whom Thou wilt, for the rights of life and death are in the hands of the King of kings, be pleased, O Lord, to deliver reel” That is the way to plead with God. And then you may, if you like, use that last sentence: “ Make haste, O Jehovah, to deliver me!” You may plead urgency; you may say, “ Lord, if Thou dost not help me soon, I shall die. I am driven to such distress by my sin that, if thou dost not hear me soon, it will be too late. O Lord, help me now!” (C. H. Spurgeon.) Psalms 40:16 Let such as love Thy salvation say continually, The Lord be magnified. Loving God’ s salvation All who are saved unto eternal life not only accept God’ s salvation from a sense of their absolute and urgent need of it as the alone method that meets their case, but they fall in love with it, give it their best affections. Experiencing its benign, restorative influences, they delight themselves in its Divine Author--“ the God of their salvation” ; but they do not, cannot overlook the salvation itself. And the word of this salvation has been sent to us. One should have thought that all would have welcomed it. But the case is far otherwise. However, there are those who love God’ s salvation and their number continually increases. But with these it was not always so. They, too, for a long while did not desire it, and “ they hid as it were their faces from it, despised it and esteemed it not.” But now it is all their desire, for a great change has been wrought in them. And the reasons that rule both those who hate and those who love God’ s salvation are the same. This may seem a paradox, but it is sober truth. For the reason why this salvation is loved is because it engages to deliver wholly from sin, in our love of it and in our living in it. No doubt others love salvation in the sense of deliverance from sin’ s direful consequences hereafter. There is no need that a man should be born again in order to his loving God’ s salvation in this vague, outward, selfish sense. Every man is deeply averse to pain and perdition, and cannot endure the thought of them. Self-love in the form of self-defence is a universal law relating to life of every sort, even the lowest in the vegetable creation, and particularly in sentient existences, both on land and in the sea. This is so well established that it has passed into a proverb that “ self-preservation is the first law of life.” The sensitive plant is an instance in point. The sponge also may be adduced as another. Naturalists tell us that, in its native home in the deep, it will draw itself together of its own accord in order to escape destruction. Being often devoured by the fish for food, it quickly discovers their approach, and to protect itself against their marauding designs it contracts itself voluntarily into a much smaller space than it can be squeezed into forcibly; but the danger over, if it be fortunate enough to escape, it again expands itself into its usual size. It will not yield itself up to be devoured so long as it can help it. There is scarcely need to add that no creature will willingly suffer, especially what threatens life, without a hard struggle and a persistent resistance to the last. Hence we find mankind generally coveting earnestly to be saved in the sense o! escaping from misery and enjoying bliss. At least they choose heaven rather than hell, though they will not accept it in the only way in which it may be had, and the only way in which it is worth having. They are deeply in love with forgiveness of sins and immunity from suffering their penal consequences, but they utterly regret the way in which all this may be secured. Pardon and safety they will accept, and if they can be assured that they have nothing to fear, it will be a great relief to them; but when you speak about conversion, contrition, resisting sin, and mortifying and renouncing it, and doing the will of God, they will not listen, but prefer not to be saved titan to part with their sins. But those who love God’ s salvation love it for these very reasons, that it parts them for ever from their sins, slaying them within them, and leading them on to purity of heart and life. For salvation is not merely deliverance from danger and distress. However indispensable this experience may be to the spiritual life, it ought by degrees to be comparatively lost; at least that another greater--yes, I advisedly say greater--should supersede it and occupy its place, namely, what to do to be healed, to be spiritually well. Strange to say, here men quarrel with the salvation of God instead of allowing it to do its proper work upon them by eradicating sin from their nature. But for this selfsame reason it is ardently loved by those whose hearts are in the right. Again, what has been sought to be proved will be seen still further by adverting to the freeness of the salvation. This will further illustrate and establish the truth of my statement, for it is a well-known fact that God’ s salvation, by reason of its entire and absolute freeness, is at a discount on the one hand, and at a premium on the other. Next to the entire moral recovery it effects, its freeness alike stirs up hatred and produces love; and men fall out and fall in with it for the selfsame reason. Salvation by grace gives hope to the poor, needy and lost sinner, who is conscious of his great misery, unworthiness and ill-desert. How highly he prizes this graciousness! If its gratuitous freeness spoils it to blind, conceited unbelief, the selfsame peculiarity makes it doubly precious to the believer, and evolves his devoutest affection. And, blessed be God, it is a most convenient as well as a most profitable transaction for us. If we bring to this salvation our darkness, we shall have its light; our poverty, we shall have its riches: our guilt, we shall haw its pardon; our misery, we shall have its happiness. (Thomas Rees.) Psalms 40:17I am poor and needy, yet the Lord thinketh upon me.God thinks upon His people I. A humble condition. “ I am poor and needy.” Now, a man may be thus--1. Spiritually--sin has brought them thus low. 2. Experimentally-for they feel it. 3. Comparatively--that is, with the treasures of grace he denies and wants, and which are for him in Christ. 4. Temporally--by reason of earthly affliction and loss. When this comes, remember your Elder Brother, Christ, who had “ not where to lay His head.” II. Examine the glorious assurance. “ Yet the Lord thinketh upon me.” This is--1. The language of confidence, and that it is well ground is proved by the relations which God holds towards us. He calls Himself deliverer, friend, husband, Father: by His promises and by His works. See how much he has done to justify your hope. Had he a mind to kill you he would not have shown you such mercies as are yours. And how many things there are worthy of particular review in your own history. Think of them. 2. It is the language of wonder. For think of the conduct of men; the greatness of God; our unworthiness. 3. And of consolation, “ Yet the Lord,” etc. This is enough, and will more than counterbalance all my distresses. This is how it is the believer stands while others sink. Can we say this of ourselves? Is this your portion? How anxious are men to gain the notice of their fellow-creatures, especially if they are a little raised above themselves in condition! “ Many will entreat the favour of the prince, and every one is a friend to him that giveth gifts.” But in this case you are never sure you shall succeed; and you have gained nothing if you do. Whereas here the success is sure, and the success is everything. Pray, therefore, with Nehemiah, “ Think upon me, O my God, for good. Seek the Lord, and ye shall live.” O believer! If God thinks upon you, ought you not to think upon Him? David did. If He minds your affairs, be not you forgetful of His. Ever ask, “ Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?” Ever cry, “ Speak, Lord, for Thy servant heareth.” (W. Jay.) God’ s thoughts of us I. A description of human nature under ordinary conditions.1. Some are poor and needy through ignorance. We cannot understand-- (1)Ourselves.(2) Others.(3) God. His providences are an unceasing mystery. 2. Some are poor and needy through guilt. Human sinfulness is like a cheque on the bank; it may go far and remain in circulation long; but it will come eventually and be presented for immediate payment. Duke Albert of Polanda, so runs the old story, bore on his armour the emblem of entire trust: just the hull of a ship, having only the main-mast and its top-piece, without any tackling or canvas whatever. But there was this motto underneath: Deus dabit vela: “God will furnish the sails.” Thus he claimed that heavenly forces would be supplied with Divine instrumentality when need should arrive. II. The comforting assurance of divine aid.1. God thinks about us. Simpler minds than ours are often more truly devotional: the Savoyards have the beautiful name for one of their finest mountain flowers, “ pain du bon Dieu,” the bread of the good God; for they say that by its white and delicate blossoms it reminds them of the manna, feeding Israel in the wilderness. 2. God thinks a great deal about us. His thoughts are so many, that they “ cannot be reckoned up in order” (Psalms 139:17-18). 3. God thinks about us always very kindly. Promises are just God’ s thoughts stored up for men. III. A legitimate ground for full assurance of aid.1. Some say that God is too far away to think of us here. Once, when a sailor had come in, saved from shipwreck, he said to those, who asked him about his days and nights out on the waters of the lonely ocean, that his greatest alarm was that God could not be made to hear up so high in the sky, beyond even the stars. Now, it is of no use to reason about this. We must just let the Lord tell us the truth in the matter; He knows, and He says that “ the Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon Him,” etc. 2. Some say that God is too great to think of us here on His footstool. It might do, perhaps, in the case of a kingdom going to pieces, or a ship driving on the rocks, or a dynasty breaking; but not in our vexations and daily disquiets. This is no way to argue. God is great; indeed, He is so great that He can look placidly down upon each one of us, as we keep coming to Him, ever kindly bidding us a morning or evening welcome; no more forgetful, no more impatient, no more worried than we are when our own boys approach us with their difficulties. 3. Some say that God is too holy to think of us here. When we think of Him as residing in the shadowless purity of heaven itself, we are hardly willing to believe He cherishes any thought for rebels like men. But then we certainly know that He hates sin; that is one point gained, at all events; for if we are sinners, God cannot possibly be indifferent to us. He cannot bear to have one speck of moral defilement anywhere within the borders of His realm. So He is gently and tenderly on the side of every man who wishes to be pure. 4. Some say that God is too happy to think of us here. He does not need us. Why should He bestir Himself or disturb Himself in any way in our behalf? Such a question shows how poorly we reason. It is true that God is happy; but something makes Him happy. His enjoyment has an intelligent basis; it has a society of companions to share it, and contribute to it. And because He desires it to continue and to increase, He is always beneficent and active, making Himself happy, everywhere sowing sunlight that He may harvest gladness from each field of the wide universe. IV. A prayer for a faith of appropriation in ourselves. If God really wishes to help us, and we wish to be helped, why should there be any delay on either side?1. Why should God tarry in taking away our daily harassments? He has told us that we are to have “ no thought for the morrow,” because He has all the “ thoughts” that belong to it in our behalf. We have only to ask Him, and then trust Him. 2. Why should God tarry in banishing our unnecessary apprehensions? What has rendered the world more unhappy than anything else has always been some great worry anticipated, which never happened after all. 3. Why should God tarry in relieving our doubts? It is said that Shakespeare once thought himself no poet, and Paphael’ s heart grew silent and discouraged, so that he was overheard to say he should never be a successful painter. He who has an all-powerful helper needs only to look to Him to keep His promises. 4. Why should God tarry in removing our disciplines? One day, when the young lad Goethe came from church, where he had listened to a sermon in which an attempt was made to justify the Divine goodness, his father asked him what he thought of the explanation. “ Why,” said this extraordinary youth, “ the matter may be much simpler than the clergyman thinks; God knows very well that an immortal soul can never receive any injury from a mortal accident.” Why not trust Him with our whole souls, then? (C. S. Robinson, D. D.) The uncommon faith The two parts of the text form an antithesis of the most divergent contrast. The order in which they stand invests them with considerable attractiveness; at least the interest with which we may now take them up is not a little enhanced on this account. I. The humble confessions.1. It is a very becoming confession. From a moral or spiritual point of view, we are, indeed, as poor as poverty itself. 2. This confession should therefore be unaffectedly veracious and sincere. Can it be either desirable or reasonable that we should do anything by way of making ourselves out to be poor and needy, except as we really are so? 3. It is only as the effect of a gracious operation of the Spirit that the confession of the text is ever candidly or cordially made. Hence it is easy to understand how this humble confession should be accompanied, as here it is, by so confident a persuasion. If the Spirit is at work within you, showing you what you really are, discovering your exigencies to the discernment of your individual consciousness, He at the same time discovers the means of supplying these exigencies, and the absolute infinitude of resource to provide the whole of that supply. II. The confident persuasion. 1. That it is a warrantable persuasion may be easily enough proved. For, if the Lord makes any poor and needy, He is certainly thinking of them, the dispensation itself shows that He is doing so. Besides, is it nothing to the shepherd of a flock that one of his sheep has wandered, though it be even the least and the weakest of a hundred in a fold, will he not leave the ninety and nine, and search after it alone? 2. It must also be very readily admitted that this persuasion is one which is fraught with unspeakable comfort and consolation. “ Yet the Lord thinketh upon me.” It takes us back to the Divine constitution of the covenant of the rainbow (Genesis 9:16). Oh, the sweetness, the perfect deliciousness, to taste of faith in this, “ And I will look upon it.” “ Yet the Lord thinketh upon me.” 3. Hence, in every way this is also a most satisfying persuasion. To say, “ Yet the Lord thinketh upon me,” may not appear to be saying much. In a sense it may be saying very little. The utterance occurs in another psalm--“ I hate vain thoughts,” that is, thoughts which do not go beyond themselves, which dissipate themselves in waste, never embodying themselves in living form, in substantial action--thoughts which are inoperative, unprofitable. But the Lord’ s thoughts are never “ vain,” unproductive, empty; they are invariably sovereign, invincible, almighty. (E. A Thomson.) The greatness and frailty of human nature Human life, in its frailty, exposure, brevity, could not be more aptly described than it is here--“ poor and needy.” And yet, if man occupies a place in the Divine Mind, if God, who made him, thinks of and cares for him, he is great, and he may be rich and strong. I. Man’ s feeling of poverty and need. Had we been less rich, we had not been so poor; less richly endowed, we had been more at ease. It is because man has reason, conscience and affections that he feels thus. The brute may groan; the man weeps. II. The particular providence of god.1. There is much in the events of life which makes it hard for a man to believe in this assurance. We read of explosions, cyclones, hurricanes, and our faith staggers. One man makes a mistake in his calculations, and hundreds of brave, unoffending men sink like a stone in the depths of the sea. Where is the evidence, we are tempted to ask, of the Divine regard for individuals? But when we express the conviction that God thinks of us, we are not therefore bound to vindicate His ways, or fathom the designs of His inscrutable providence. The declaration of the text is a flashing avowal of faith in the midst of much that is mysterious. 2. I think it is harder to grasp this great truth because of the massing together of great multitudes of people in our modern towns and cities. Every person in that enormous crowd has his own little world of interests, duties, affections, associations. Is it possible, can it be, that He from His throne “ beholds all these dwellers upon earth” ? Truly the Lord has much to see to, and there are many beds in the wards of the world. And yet to reason so is to attach the ignorance and the limitations of the finite mind to a mind which is infinite. 3. The deeper insight which man has to-day into the vastness of the universe makes it harder for us to realize the great truth of the text. In view of the wonders of astronomy what a pigmy is man! And yet, if myriads of ages have been required in which to make this earth a suitable residence for man, it may be that God has some regard for him. True, he is a reed, but, as Pascal said, he is a thinking reed, and the God who made him to think may think of him, 4. Besides, the wonderfulness of the infinitely little is even greater than that of the infinitely great. God, who elaborates the planet, polishes the atom. If “ He telleth the number of the stars, and calleth them by their names,” why may not He think of man? 5. But does God think of man? We will go at once to the highest, the all-conclusive evidence. It is in Jesus Christ that we are sure of God. He is the embodied thought of God--the Word made flesh. He cared for individuals. Look at the teaching of Jesus Christ. “ Ye are of more value than many sparrows.” “ The very hairs of your head are all numbered.” “ The Father Himself loveth you.” Look at the Cross of Jesus Christ. If a man does that, if he yields to the love that has its eternal sign there, the last vestige of doubt will vanish, and he will cry, “ He loved me, and gave Himself for me.” (J. Lewis.) Contrast I. A true estimate.1. Our general condition--“ poor.” 2. A pressing want--“ needy.” The one thing needful with David was the smile of Heaven. Christ in the heart is our pressing need. Distressingly poor is that life which has no God in it. II. A marvellous fact. “ The Lord thinketh upon me.”1. Grasp the greatness of the fact. To make man, to support man, to save man, and to commune with man are the collateral thoughts. 2. Grasp the directness of the fact. In moments of loneliness remember that though some are dead that were wont to have you in remembrance, and others have forgotten you, God is thinking of you now, and we know what He thinks, for we have the mind of Christ. III. A blessed assurance--“ Thou art my help and my deliverer.”1. God is our “ help” for work. 2. God is our “ deliverer” from trouble. IV. An earnest longing--“ Make no tarrying, O my God.” This is almost the language of impatience, at least it is the language of a burning desire. (T. Davies, D. D.) The good man’ s refuge in affliction I. Afflictions befall god’ s dearest children.1. If Christ had not suffered, who had been saved? If He had not been pierced through with many sorrows, not one of the sons of Adam had possessed any true comfort or sound solace. 2. And His members must be like the bush in the fire, for several reasons. (1) Are they not the Lord’ s garden-plots? Will He not plant and sow them with the sweetest seeds and most fragrant flowers? Shall He not then dig them up and break every little clod to pieces? (2) The faithful are likened to trees, and must not they be pruned and lopped? (3) God’ s children are compared to good corn, not cockle; we must expect then to be shaken with the windy and blustering storms of the wicked. The rooks of our times will be pecking out the ripest grain; and every ravening fowl fly over us and defile us; go through us and bruise us; or fall upon us and rob us; yea, our God Himself will cut us down, thresh us and grind us; for it’ s corn that must be put on the mill, not chaff: wheat that must be winnowed, when cockle is to be abandoned, burned. (4) How often are the godly compared to a temple I and may not every particular person resemble a stone in divers things? We must be cut out of the rock of our natural estate; and it’ s no easy matter to be endured, afterwards squared and hewn, that we may be fitted to lie close and comely in the building; and this will be felt a painful polishing; yet this must be done, or we are undone. Rough stones are cast into the foundation, but they that be appointed for the pinnacles and principal places must have the more picks, the greater polishing, else they should not be of (or at the best but deface) this holy temple, this stately building. II. The Lord doth not separate his affection from his children in affliction.1. The Lord is not subject to forgetfulness. He knoweth who are His; and His eye is always over them. 2. Nor is He subject to change. Whom He loveth once He loveth ever. 3. Let us examine and see what is the cause of separating affection; and shall we not find it either in the agent or object? In the lover, God, we see no cause can be found: surely, nor in the thing beloved. It is plain that no trouble destroyeth the image of God or maketh his the more prone to sin; but rather it hath been a means to move them to leave it and amend. For in trouble they will pray more fervently; pity others more compassionately; make vows, and resolve to serve God the more strictly than ever in the days of prosperity. Why, then, should the Lord withdraw His affection from them? for love leaves hold but when the object grows worse and worse. 4. This reason may also confirm the doctrine. He should be more unnatural than mere natural men (who take the most pity of their own being in the greatest distress), if He should forsake His children in their affliction. Nature itself, in these straits, will not be wanting; and shall the Author of all graces be found failing? III. THE favour of God in affliction only giveth the faithful satisfaction.1. The Lord is the only object of their love, and He in whom their soul principally delighteth: wherefore, enjoying Him, they have all they would. 2. Because they believe and know that all shall work together for good at their latter end. IV. The Lord will deliver the faithful from all dangers; free them in a convenient season from all afflictions.1. He hath so promised and purposed; and shall not His counsel stand, and His word abide for ever? 2. And this He will do for love of His children. This, then, being thus, be of good comfort for the present, fear not any future dangers; but pluck up your hearts, and gird up the loins of your minds; go on through good report and evil report; be resolute soldiers of Jesus Christ; march on valiantly, and fear not their fear. For manger their malice, David shall serve his days; Paul finish his work, and John’ s life be prolonged until his task be ended. And every upright and honest heart shall have all tears wiped from his eyes, fetters from his feet, manacles from his fingers; run to and fro in the new Jerusalem that is above. (John Barlow.) The gardener’ s care extends to all “ Oh!” you say, “ I am such a little plant; I do not grow well; I do not put forth as much leafage, nor are there so many flowers on me as many round about me.” It is quite right that you should think little of yourself; perhaps to drop your head is part of your beauty. Many flowers had not been half so lovely if they had not practised the art of hanging their heads. But “ supposing Him to be the gardener,” then He is as much a gardener to you as He is to the most lordly palm in the whole domain. In the Mentone garden grow the orange and the aloe, and others of the finer and more noticeable plants, but on the wall to my left grow common wall flowers and saxifrages and tiny herbs such as we find on our own rocky places. Now, the gardener has cared for all of them, little as well as great. In fact, there were hundreds of specimens of the most insignificant growths all duly labelled and described. The smallest saxifrage will say: “ He is my gardener just as surely as he is the gardener of the Gloire de Dijon or the Marechal Niel.” The Divine regard for the needy When the shepherd comes in the early morning to his flock, does not his eye single out the sick, and does he need forgiveness if for a while he devotes all his skill and his care to those sheep which need it? He does not reason with himself that the largeness of the flock, and his anxious care that all should be fed renders it impossible for him to bind up that which is broken, and heal that which is diseased, but, on the contrary, his attention to all is proved by his special interest in the particular cases which most require his tenderness. Or take another parable; the watcher on the sea beach, with his telescope in his hand, paces to and fro, and keeps guard for his appointed time. He looks through the glass again and again, but a glance contents him so far as most of yonder gallant vessels are concerned, which are now in the offing; but by and by his glass remains steadily at his eye; his gaze is fixed, and in a few moments he gives a signal to his fellows, and they haul the boat to the sea and launch her. What has there been so peculiar about this craft that it has gained the watcher’ s attention and stirred him to action? He saw signals of distress, or by some other token he knew the ship’ s need, and therefore he bestirred himself, and engaged every willing hand to lead her help. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Psalms 41:1-13 Psalms 41:1-13 Blessed is he that considereth the poor: the Lord will deliver him in time of trouble.The Psalmist’ s affliction The central mass of this psalm describes the singer as suffering from two evils: sickness and treacherous friends. This situation naturally leads up to the prayer and confidence of the closing strophe (Psalms 41:10-12). But its connection with the introductory verses (1-3) is less plain. A statement of the blessings ensured to the compassionate seems a singular introduction to the psalmist’ s pathetic exhibition of his sorrows. It is to be observed, however, that the two points of the psalmist’ s affliction are the two from which escape is assured to the compassionate, who shall not be “ delivered to the desire of his enemies,” and shall be supported and healed in sickness. Probably, therefore, the general promises of Psa 41:1-3 are silently applied by the psalmist to himself; and he is comforting his own sorrow with the assurance which in his humility he casts into impersonal form. He has been merciful, and believes, though things look dark, that he will obtain mercy. There is probably also an intentional contrast with the cruel exacerbation of his sufferings by uncompassionate companions, which has rubbed salt into his wounds. He has a double consciousness in these opening verses, inasmuch as he partly thinks of himself as the compassionate man and partly as the “ weak” one who is compassionated. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) The right and wrong treatment of the afflicted I. The right treatment of the afflicted.1. Its nature. To consider the poor, in a scriptural and true sense, is-- (1) To honour their nature as men.(2) To promote their rights as citizens.(3) To alleviate their woes as sufferers.(4) To appreciate their work as servants. Poor though they be, they are children of the same great Father, and endowed with the high attribute of moral intelligence. Poor though they be, they have their rights as citizens of the same state, and they have done more to help on the world than any other class of men. They work our mines, construct our fleets, build our cities, fight our battles, write some of our best books, and invent many of the most useful and ornamental arts.2. The happiness of the right treatment. (1) “ Blessed is he that considereth the poor.” Such a man is blessed in the service he renders. The exercise of benevolence is the source of our chiefest joy. “ It is more blessed to give than to receive.” (2) But the writer specifies certain advantages which are bestowed in addition to this (Psalms 41:1-3). II. The wrong treatment of the afflicted (Psalms 41:4-13). Under this ill-treatment--1. He had a consciousness of his own sins (Psalms 41:4). (1) Great afflictions often awakes a sense of sin.(2) Under a consciousness of his own sins he appeals for mercy. “ Lord, be merciful unto me.” 2. He deeply felt the wicked conduct of his enemies (Psalms 41:5-9). (1) They desired his death.(2) They plot his ruin. 3. He directs his heart to the great God (Psalms 41:10-13). (1) He prays.(2) He confesses.(3) He worships. It is well when all our trials and varied experiences end thus. (Homilist.) The blessedness of considering the case of the poor There is an evident want of congeniality between the wisdom of this world and the wisdom of the Christian. Now, so long as this wisdom has for its object some secular advantage, I yield it an unqualified reverence. If in private life a man be wise in the management of his farm, or his fortune, or his family; or if in public life he have wisdom to steer an empire through all its difficulties, and to carry it to aggrandizement and renown--the respect which I feel for such wisdom as this is most cordial and entire, and supported by the universal acknowledgment of all whom I call to attend to it. Let me now suppose that this wisdom has changed its object--that the man whom I am representing go exemplify this respectable attribute, instead of being wise for time, is wise for eternity--that he labours by the faith and sanctification of the Gospel for unperishable honours--what becomes of your respect for him now? Are there not some of you who are quite sensible that this respect is greatly impaired, since the wisdom of the man has taken so unaccountable a change in its object and in its direction? Men do not respect a wisdom which they-do not comprehend. They may love the innocence of a decidedly religious character, but they do not much, if at all, venerate its wisdom. The things of the Spirit of God are foolishness to the natural man. And all that has now been said of wisdom is applicable, with almost no variation, to another attribute of the human character, and which I would call “ lovely.” I mean--benevolence. But that which the world admires, and that which is truly Christian, are vastly different. The benevolence of the world--with its poetical sentiment--the Christian may not understand; that of the Christian, with its self-denial and enduring of “ hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ,” the world does not understand. It is positively nauseated by the poetical amateur. And the contrast does not stop here. The benevolence of the Gospel is not only at antipodes with that of the visionary sons and daughters of poetry, but it even varies in some of its most distinguishing features from the experimental benevolence of real and familiar life. The fantastic benevolence of poetry is now indeed pretty well exploded; and in the more popular works of the age there is a benevolence of a far truer and more substantial kind substituted in its place--the benevolence which you meet with among men of business and observation--the benevolence which bustles and finds employment among the most public and ordinary scenes; and which seeks for objects, not where the flower blows loveliest, and the stream, with its gentle murmurs, falls sweetest on the ear; but finds them in its every-day walks, goes in quest of them through the heart of the great city, and is not afraid to meet them in its most putrid lanes and loathsome receptacles. Now, it must be acknowledged that this benevolence is of a far more respectable kind than poetic sensibility, which is of no use because it admits of no application. Yet I am not afraid to say, that, respectable as it is, it does not come up to the benevolence of the Christian; and is at variance, in some of its most capital ingredients, with the morality of the Gospel. For time, and the accommodations of time, form all its subject, and all its exercise, lit labours, and often with success, to provide for its object a warm and a well-sheltered tenement; but it looks not beyond the few little years when the earthly house of this tabernacle shall be dissolved, when the soul shall be driven from its perishable tenement, and the only benevolence it will need will be that of those who have directed it heavenwards. The one minds earthly things, the other has its conversation in heaven. That which is the chief motive in the heart of the worldly philanthropist are but mere accessories in the heart of the Christian. All will applaud the benevolence of a Howard, but only the Christian will feel enthusiasm for the apostleship of Paul, who in the sublimer sense accomplished the liberty of the captive and brought them that sat in darkness out of the prison house. And hence it is that notwithstanding missionary zeal has ever been the pioneer for civilization, yet because the missionary labours for the eternal salvation of the heathen, the cry of fanaticism is raised against them, and they are regarded by men of the world with prejudice and disgust. Therefore we are to note the way in which the Bible enjoins us to consider the poor. Our text does not say, Commiserate the poor, for if it said only this it would leave them to the precarious provision of mere impulsive sympathy. Feeling is but a faint and fluctuating security. Fancy may mislead it. The sober realities of life may disgust it. Disappointment may extinguish it. Ingratitude may embitter it. Deceit, with its counterfeit representations, may allure it to the wrong object. The Bible, then, instead of leaving the relief of the poor to the mere instinct of sympathy, makes it a subject for consideration--Blessed is he that considereth the poor--a grave and prosaic exercise I do allow, and which makes no figure in those high-wrought descriptions, where the exquisite tale of benevolence is made up of all the sensibilities of tenderness on the one hand, and of all the ecstasies of gratitude on the other. But the poor have souls and need to be saved, and all benevolence, however necessary and praiseworthy, that ignores this deepest need, is but partial and incomplete. (T. Chalmers, D. D.) The duty of considering the poor It requires wisdom to understand the constitution of things, but the more a man understands the more he will approve. The inequalities of mankind, and the consequent state and condition of the poor, is one of those subjects which most of all perplex the mind. Such inequality is an undoubted fact, and has ever and everywhere been so. But when a good man beholds this, and sees his own affluence and the other’ s indigence, he will reason that the Divine intent was that he should supply his brother’ s need. The inequality of nature should be rectified by religion. Now, let the rich think that what they give to the poor is thrown away, or given to them who can make no return. For to the poor, under God, the rich owe all their wealth. They are the workers and producers of the wealth which the rich only consume. Is society composed only of the noble and opulent? Did you ever hear, or read, of one that was so composed? It could not subsist for a week. As the members of it would not work, they could not eat. Of what value were your estates in the country, if the poor did not cultivate them? Of what account the riches of the nobleman, or the gentleman, if they must want the comforts, the conveniences, and even the necessaries of life? “ The king himself is served by the field;” and, without the labours of the husbandman, must starve in his palace, surrounded by his courtiers and guards. The world depends, for subsistence, on the plough, the sickle, and the flail! Mankind, in short, constitute one vast body, to the support of which every member contributes his share; and by all of them together, as by so many greater and lesser wheels in a machine, the business of the public is carried on, its necessities are served, and its very existence is upholden. From hence it appears that the inequality of mankind is not the effect of chance, but the ordinance of Heaven, by whose appointment, as manifested in the constitution of the universe, some must command, while others obey; some must labour, while others direct their labours; some must be rich, while others are poor. The Scripture inculcates the same important truth, and the inference to be deduced from it--“ The poor shall never cease,” etc. (Deuteronomy 15:11). Such is the method directed by Heaven of balancing the account between the different orders of men. What, then, will be the first consideration of a rich man when he sees a poor man? If he have a clear head, and a good heart, will he not reason in some such manner as this?” God has given the earth for the support of all. While I abound, why does this man want? Plainly, that we may bear one another’ s burdens; that my abundance may supply his need, may alleviate his distress, may help to sustain the affliction under which he groans: that I may take off his load of woe, and he take off the superfluity of my wealth; that so the stream, now broken and turbid, may again find its level, and flow pure and tranquil. If I do not act thus, may not the poor justly complain, and would not the fault be mine?” And if the rich man refuse to help the poor, it is but natural to ask whence came this inequality? It was not from the rich man’ s merit or the poet’ s demerit. It has been permitted that the poor may learn resignation, and the rich be taught charity, and the right employment of the good things vouchsafed to them. “ It is more blessed to give than to receive;” let the rich remember this, and the end of their being made rich is answered. And let the rich man remember, too, that had it pleased God, he would have been poor, and it may please Him that he shall he so. He then will need that which now he is recommended to give. Such changes do occur. But whether in your case they do or not, if your riches do not leave you, yet in a little while you must leave them. Death waits to strip you of them all. They wilt only avail you then as you have employed them well now. In the Gospel we must seek full information as to this duty. Our blessed Lord became poor to make us rich, and has thus for ever obliged us to consider the poor. But how are we to obey these precepts? Let charity rule in the heart, and it will not need to be told how much it should give. But for rules take these:--1. Let each lay aside a due proportion of his income for charities. 2. Practise economy with a view to charity; retrench expenditure on luxury and indulgence for this end. 3. Then, in giving, give work rather than money where the poor would work if they could. Where they would not, let them be made to work. Such is true kindness to them. (G. Horns.) Considering the poor When God commends us, or encourages us to consider the poor and needy, He commands and encourages us to do that for our fellow-creatures which we, as poor and needy dependants on His bounty, ask Him to do for us. He was not satisfied with death and the cross only, but He took up with becoming poor also, and a stranger, and a beggar, and naked, and with being thrown into prison, and undergoing sickness, that so, at least, He might call thee off [from covetousness]. If thou wilt not requite Me (He says) as having suffered for thee, show mercy on Me for My poverty; and if thou art not minded to pity Me for My poverty, do for My disease be moved, and for My imprisonment be softened. And if even these things make thee not charitable, for the easiness of the request comply with Me; for it is no costly gift I ask, but bread and lodging, and words of comfort. But if even after this thou still continuest unsubdued, still, for the kingdom’ s sake, be improved for the rewards which I have promised. Hast thou, then, no regard even for these? Yet still, for very nature’ s sake, be softened at seeing Me naked; and remember that nakedness wherewith I was naked on the cross for thee; or if not this, yet that wherewith I am now naked through the poor . . . I fasted for thee; again I am hungry for thee . . . of thee, that owest Me the requital of benefits without number, I make not request as of one that oweth, but crown thee as one that favoureth Me, and a kingdom do I give thee for these small things . . . I delivered thee from most galling bonds; but for me it is quite enough if thou wilt but visit me when in prison. (Chrysostom.) They, then, who even in out poor, low way, are conformed, or beginning to be conformed, to God’ s mind in considering--that is, in searching out, compassionating, and relieving--distress have that in them which must be the source of blessedness, because they have that in them which is the source of happiness (I speak, of course, after the manner of men) to the Divine Mind; for God rejoices over His works. He rejoices in diffusing life and happiness; and when one province of His fair creation became marred and ruined by sin, and He extended mercy to it, then He delighted in that mercy. We then when, notwithstanding miserable deficiencies and shortcomings, we compassionate those in distress, and relieve their wants, even here enter somewhat into the very joy of God. And there is no Christian grace to the exercise of which God has in His Word so frequently or so emphatically promised a reward in the world to come. (M. F. Sadler, M. A.) On Christian care for the poor Judaism stood alone among ancient religions, Christianity stands alone among modern, in the inculcation of earnest, solemn, anxious consideration for the poor. And for the same reason. They both try to look on the world as the God who made it looks on it, and to share the burden of its want and its woe which is pressing on His heart. In nothing is the unity of Scripture more beautiful, more conspicuous, than in this great thought about the poor. Perhaps it is the grandest evidence of its inspiration. Christ deemed it the crowning glory of His kingdom (Matthew 11:5). I. The motive to consideration of the poor. I do not mean the reasons--they are abundant, but the motive. For the reasons and the motive power are, alas! widely different. The reasons are abundant for upright, godly conduct. A man is tempted to selfish, sensual, knavish action. There are ten thousand reasons why he should forbear, not one why he should yield. Every drop of his blood, every beat of his heart, every fibre of his nerve, could it speak, would cry out against it. His whole being, body, soul, and spirit, is against it. The whole structure of the universe is against it. God’ s face, God’ s hand, are against it. But he does it and faces it all. So here the reason is one thing; the power which makes the reason effective, which touches, moves, compels the conduct, is from a yet deeper spring. The fundamental element in the motive to care for the poor, is the revelation that the poor are the care of God. However man came to it, he has come to a god-like nature. The strongest influence which you can bring to bear on him is the revelation of the mind of God. There is something in him which moves him to imitation. The child’ s nature and passion, the cry of his spirit, Father, Father, tends to take shape in acts sympathetic with God. II. The kind of consideration demanded.1. Set plainly before the mind’ s eye the terrible inequalities of gifts, possessions, culture, advantages, and all that makes the outward joy of life. We like to escape from it. The blessing is for the man who faces it; who in his comfortable home, with art, music, dress, amusement, luxurious appliances, carriages, and food, will set before his face the life of the millions to whom all this is as far off as the stars. Who will think of the laundress shut up in a hot, fetid room, standing over a tub or an ironing-board, four or five young children clinging round her, and one ill up-stairs; but who dares not stop, who must work on lest they starve. Or poor parents watching a fair child dear to them as yours to you, and pining daily for the nourishing food and sea air, but which they are utterly unable to give. The man who considers the poor will keep this in sight while he enjoys God’ s blessings. 2. He will not believe that God meant life to be anything like this. The heathen says that this is God’ s ordinance, and it is impious to interfere. But the Christian is quite sure God meant nothing like this. 3. He will say, It is a solemn part of my duty to mend it. God leaves it with us, not because He does not care, but because He cares so intensely. He will have us see to it. It is society’ s most pressing, most sacred, most blessed work, to consider the poor; to be always meditating, planning, and working at what aims at the extinction of the bitterness of poverty from the world. It is not mere giving. Some do most who give nothing, who have nothing to give. It is the mind and the heart to think and to care which first need to be cultivated; the feeling that it is base and selfish to enjoy our advantages, comforts, and luxuries, while we abstain from systematic thoughtful effort to bridge over the chasm which separates the classes, and to make less bitter the lot of the poor. III. The blessing in which it fruits. “ He that giveth to the poor lendeth to the Lord.” Many may feel that this is a far-away matter--The Lord will repay. They see nothing tangible here; brave words, no more. To me it seems the reality of realities. I see something very intangible in the best of worldly securities; who is to secure them? While this is real, solid, enduring, as the order of the world.1. The blessing lies hid in the order of the world. God has made man and the world so that this mind shall be blessed. All men honour, love, and cherish it. It draws forth the best elements of every nature, the sunny side of every heart. 2. The blessing lies deeper and closer, in a warm glow of living joy in his own heart. It is the soul’ s health, this care for need. There is the glow of health in the soul of the man who cherishes it, which is incomparable with any other sensation; it is the pure joy of life. 3. Deeper still, it lies in the heart and the hand of God. God loves that man, and counts him His friend. God watches that man, and assures his life. In moments of crisis and strain it is as if a Hand came out of the invisible to clasp and upbear him--the Hand which will one day lift him out of the shades of death to that world where he shall hear the welcome, “ Come, thou blessed of my Father,” etc. (J. Baldwin Brown, B. A.) Benevolence This the most prominent characteristic of our religion. I. The duty of considering the poor. It must be performed on Christian principles. Not as did the Pharisees, “ to be seen of men.” There are several kinds of poor. Inquire, therefore, what it is to consider the poor. It implies sympathy with them; that we should, if possible, visit them; that we should relieve them; that we should seek to do good to their souls. II. The privilege of considering the poor. All duty is privilege, for all God requires us to do is for our advantage. God’ s blessing attends the considering of the poor. “ The Lord will preserve him in the day of trouble.” See this in the history of Job. (Joseph Entwistle.) Considering the poor Poverty is a large word, and requires a large definition. Sickness, weakness, fear, sense of helplessness, sense of desolation--all these may be brought under the definition of poverty. Some men are poor mentally, needing continual suggestion, direction, and recruital of mind. Want of money is the most superficial kind of poverty. It is by no means to be neglected either by the individual or by the state, because through want of money men often perish through lack of other things. When money is taken thus typically, then pennilessness becomes a manifold disorder and weakness. The word rendered “ considereth” implies a kindliness of consideration. It is not only a statistical or economical view of social circumstances, it is also a direct and earnest exercise of the heart. The word may also be rendered “ he that understands.” We cannot understand the poor simply as an intellectual study. No man understands hunger who has not been hungry. There are dictionary interpretations of words which help us but a short way towards their true comprehension. Think of turning to the dictionary to find the meaning of poverty, hunger, sorrow, death! All the words may be neatly and clearly defined in terms, but to understand any one of them we must pass through the experience which it indicates. The blessings of the Bible are always poured upon good-doing. (J. Parker.) The sick and needy (for Hospital Sunday) 1. It is urged that free hospitals for the sick poor are not an unmixed good. The same may be said of every existing human institution. Were we to wait for perfection before we would give our support to any philanthropic scheme, philanthropy would die out entirely from the hearts of men from lack of worthy objects. While occasional and substantial help is a great blessing, and one which neither the receiver nor the giver can well spare without loss of pure emotion and without poverty of soul, too much help, or help too readily obtainable, is a great injury, inasmuch as it undermines manliness and self-reliance, destroys that vigour of independence which all toilers in every rank ought to cultivate, and often creates the poverty and misery it is intended to cure. The change cannot be wrought in a day or a year, or in hardly less than a score of years. It must be gradual. Many of the present generation are incurable, their inveterate pauperism cannot be shaken off. It is to the next generation that we must look for a better state of things. The sick and needy will still be at our doors, for many a year to come; men, women and children will still be helpless and perish if we withhold our pity and relief. While poverty lasts we must keep our manhood, our brotherly sympathy, our tender compassion, and by the agency of our splendid hospitals earn the cheap honour of helping to provide for the sick and needy. 2. The second objection is that the money raised is not distributed as equitably as it should be. Still, assuming this, I ask on what reasonable, just, or humane, grounds will you withhold your help from the fund because some of it is misappropriated? Is it reasonable to cripple the healing resources of ten persons who need your help, simply because one person has received help which he did not so much need? Is it just to punish the deserving hospitals for the undeserving? 3. The third objection is that persons avail themselves of hospital relief who have no right to the benefit. Of this deplorable fact there can be no doubt. The out-patients’ room at the hospital is crowded by persons who can well afford to pay for medical and surgical attendance. Is this abuse of the hospitals a valid objection to our giving them all our support? I venture to say it is not. To destroy a precious and useful thing because some one puts it to a wrong use, or because it has fallen into illegitimate hands, is a manifest folly. If the liberal subscribers to the Hospital Fund were to hand in along with their subscriptions a vigorous protest against the indiscriminate reception of applicants for relief, the abuse would soon be abated, and in time altogether disappear. But not to give is to forfeit your right to be heard; not to support the hospitals is to put yourself out of court and disqualify you from giving evidence. (C. Voysey.) Practical sympathy: pity shown more by deeds than words A respectable merchant of London having become embarrassed in his circumstances, and his misfortunes being one day the subject of conversation in the Royal Exchange, several persons expressed the great sympathy they felt for him; whereupon a Quaker who was present said, “ I feel five hundred pounds for him, what do you feel?” The blessedness of the benevolent “ Where is heaven?” asked a wealthy Christian of his minister. “ I will tell you where it is,” was the quick reply: “ if you will go to the store, and buy £10 worth of provisions and necessaries, and take them to that poor widow on the hillside, who has three of her children sick. She is poor, and a member of the Church. Take a nurse and some one to cook the food. When you get there, read the twenty-third Psalm, and kneel by her side and pray. Then you will find out where heaven is.” A despiser of the poor reproved An eminent surgeon was one day sent for by the Cardinal du Bois, Prime Minister of France, to perform a very serious operation upon him. The Cardinal, on seeing him enter the room, said to him, “ You must not expect to treat me in the same rough manner that you treat the more miserable wretches at your hospital.” “ My lord,” replied the surgeon, with great dignity, “ every one of those miserable wretches, as your eminence is pleased to call them, is a Prime Minister in my eyes, for each is one of God’ s poor.” Psalms 41:3 The Lord will strengthen him upon the bed of languishing: Thou wilt make all his bed in his sickness. Sickness No one who has not felt the pains of sickness can fully appreciate the blessing of health. The lassitude and sufferings of sickness are hard to bear; and yet it is a wholesome discipline, which all of us greatly need. The design of sickness may be threefold. Sometimes it is sent to punish the wicked (1 Samuel 5:6). Or to try the patience and constancy of the righteous. Or to show forth God’ s glory (John 9:3; John 11:4). I. Our duty toward the sick, who may need assistance, Those who are well off in life, can have things arranged to suit themselves. The large and well-ventilated room, the comfortable bed with its clean and wholesome linen, the varied delicacies to suit the morbid appetite, the gentle and unwearied attentions of kindred and friends--all this, and more, money may readily command. But there are many who can have no such alleviation to their suffering. The kind physician comes--may God reward at the last day the many visits of mercy which he makes to the afflicted poor. But he leaves directions that the sick man should be kept quiet. Quiet indeed! He may as well command the mill dam to stop its ceaseless roar, or the hard hailstones not to rattle upon the roof. The minister of God arrives he asks of the welfare of the sick. He prays for his recovery. His petition in such a case is nothing more nor less than asking God to work a miracle in the sufferer’ s behalf, because he must be left in “ a condition much more likely to make a well man sick, than a sick man well.” II. Think seriously of the time when all will be called to lie down upon the bed of languishing. There will be some morning of your lives, when business will be going on in the shops, and on the streets, but you will be far otherwise engaged. And suppose you that the bed of sickness is a convenient or suitable place to arrange your long-neglected account with God? (A. M. Sadleir.) The sick man healed The precise meaning of this verse is questioned, some regarding both clauses as descriptive of tender nursing, which sustains the drooping head and smooths the crumpled bedding, while others, noting that the word rendered “ bed” in the second clause means properly “ lying down,” take that clause as descriptive of turning sickness into convalescence. The latter meaning gives it a more appropriate ending to the strophe, as it leaves the sick man healed, not tossing on a disordered bed, as the other explanation does. Jehovah does not half cure. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Psalms 41:4I said, Lord be merciful to me: heal my soul, for I have sinned against thee.An excellent prayer I. He confesses that he is a sinner. The law brings the conviction of sin, but the greatest sin of all is unbelief. II. He counts sin the disease of the soul--“ heal my soul.” Sin affects the soul as disease the body. III. He views God as the only physician--Lord, heal my soul We cannot heal our own soul; nor can any creatures. The sooner we see and feel this the better. But the Lord heals: “ by His stripes we are healed.” IV. He is also persuaded that nothing but mercy in God will induce him to heal his soul. Here is the only source of our hope. (W. Jay.) A singular plea in prayer I. A prayer.1. “ Lord, be merciful unto me.” (1) It may--I dare say did--mean, at least in part, “ Mitigate my pains.” When grieved with sore physical pain, you will find that the quiet resignation, holy patience, and childlike submissiveness which enable you just to pray, “ Lord, be merciful unto me,” will often bring a better relief to you than anything that the most skilled physician can prescribe. (2) He must have meant also, “ Forgive my sins.” It is a blessed prayer, and I charge you never to cease from using it in the sense that our Lord taught it to His disciples,!” Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us.” (3) I think that David also meant, “ Fulfil thy promises.” “ Thou hast said of the man who considers the poor, ‘ The Lord will deliver him in time of trouble.’ Lord, be merciful unto me, and deliver me in the time of my trouble, Thou hast said, ‘ The Lord will preserve him, and keep him alive.’ Lord, be merciful unto me, preserve me, and keep me alive. Thou hast said that Thou wilt not deliver him unto the will of his enemies; Lord, be merciful unto me, and guard me from my foes. Thou wilt strengthen him upon the bed of languishing; Lord, be merciful unto me, and strengthen me. Thou wilt make all his bed in his sickness; Lord, make my bed.” 2. “ Heal my soul.” David does not pray, “ Heal my eye; heal my foot; heal my heart; heal me, whatever my disease may be” ; but he goes at once to the root of the whole matter, and prays, “ Heal my soul.” (1) “ Heal me, Lord, of the distress of my soul.” (2) “ Lord, heal my soul of the effect of sin.” (3) “ Heal me of my tendency to sin.” II. A confession. “ I have sinned against Thee.”1. It is a confession without an excuse. 2. It is a confession without any qualification. He does not say, “ Lord, I have sinned to a certain extent; but, still, I have partly balanced my sins by my virtues, and I hope to wipe out my faults with my tears.” No; he says, “ I have sinned against Thee,” as if that were a full description of his whole life. 3. It is without affectation. I like a man, when he makes a confession of sin, not to be carried away into the use of proud expressions without meaning, but to speak with judgment, and to acknowledge and confess only what is true. This is the excellence of David’ s confession, that he owns to what no sinner will ever admit till the grace of God makes him do it: “ I have sinned against Thee.” III. A plea. “ I said, Lord, be merciful unto me: heal my soul.” Why? “ For I have sinned against Thee.” That is a very remarkable way of pleading, but it is the only right one.1. It is such a plea as no self-righteous man would urge. The Pharisee keeps to this strain, “ Lord, be merciful unto me, for I have been obedient, I have kept thy law.” O foolish, self-righteous man, do you not see that you are shutting the door in your own face? You say, in effect, “ Be merciful unto me, for I do not need any mercy.” 2. This is such a plea as a carnal reasoner could not urge, for he could not spy out any reason or argument in it. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Sin’ s disease I. Sin is a soul disease.1. Of the understanding.2. Of the affections.3. Of the conscience.4. Of the will. II. God alone can heal it.1. We must feel our malady, and--2. Our impotence.3. We must recognize His power, and--4. Trust His mercy. (W. W. Whyte.) The inveterateness of sin Sin, we are told, is a survival; and that reverses and explodes all the traditional Christian theology. It is, they say, the effort of some past condition to assert itself when its day is over. It may be even a belated virtue which was once a true formula, under which we succeeded in securing our existence. For it has become a vice, in that it would hold us down at a lower level than that which lies open to us. It haunts us with strange and awful memories, it imprisons us with instinctive hopes which we should have forgotten and overgrown; it strikes against its own institution. It has old refuges in the blood and tissue, from out of which it refuses to be wrung. It has a dim, end-of-the-world impulse to appeal to. No wonder it is hard to beat it under. It carries on its subterranean war like the pagan deities of old, beneath the surface triumphant still. That is sin, according to this interpretation. Sin is the shadow cast out of the past; it reveals the law, out of which we have climbed to the new day. Still it sucks us down, and menaces, and defiles; but its death is sure; the future is against it; its sentence has gone out. There may be many a disloyal recrudescence of its ancient mischief; there will be strange moments when a sort of atavism will enable it to occupy lost ground; there may be even partial degradations, in which the higher will succumb to the lower. But the whole trend of life is upward, and under this sin will sink and disappear, for life is not a fail, but a rise, sin is that which is for ever being left behind. Now, of course, if this is the true account of sin, we had better wipe out the entire Bible story. Let us consider what that would mean. It would not be merely an abandonment of some obsolete dogma, nor would it be to realize all real living facts over against some blind authority. Rather it would mean the surrender of the widest, and deepest and most prolonged accumulation of human experience in the things of the living spirit that the world has ever known. Is there any statement more completely falsified by every scrap that we know of our own inward life than the one which pronounces that sin is the merest survival? That is just the sort of illusion with which we all begin, and which all further experience explodes. We fancy at first that sin is a misfortune, an accident, a weak surrender, to some invading and hostile attack. We never lived it, we are not of that sort, we know our own rightness of intention, our innate goodness in our best self. We will face and wipe off this wrong which has besmirched us. It is so unworthy of us and so unlike us. And now we have confessed and repented and we are ourselves again. We shall be stronger when next assailed. These will die away of themselves. How futile! how ignorant! how wrong! The old, old story repeats itself; the relapse recurs with strange regularity; the moral strength just breaks at the crisis when it ought to stand. Always the thing, somehow, is too much for it; always we do again that very thing that we had forsworn for ever. Why the strange persistent failure? Why this tremor at the heart? Why is the hand still put out to pluck that which we know to be forbidden? Why do the feet turn again down the paths which lead to death? Again it is the old cause--the thing that I ought to do I do not; the thing that I would not, that I do. And does this mean that we have not got at the root of the matter, that it is not the outside accident which we hope, that it is a monotonous revelation of a wrong that works by a regular law? It is I and not something that is upon me that is responsible for this disorder. Why cannot I do what I want? I, who seem to myself so inherently good, so thoroughly well-meaning, so far above these degradations, so resolute in my determination? I am somehow guilty. O miserable man that I am! O my God, it is I that have sinned against Thee and done this evil in Thy sight. Your sin will not disappear of itself. You will never grow out of it; it is too deep, too intimate, too personal for that. It will reappear within when you have expelled it from without. You are powerless. But you have the witness in yourself that sin and you can never agree. Sin is not your true life, but your death, and in the strength of that inner weakness you have force and right to appeal to; that invincible love that only waits for your appeal to find its entry. “ Have mercy upon me, O God, heal my soul, for I have sinned against Thee.” Lift that cry, and the answer is in your ears in the Person of Jesus Christ our Saviour: “ I will, be thou clean.” (Canon Scott Holland.) Psalms 41:6 And if he come to see me, he speaketh vanity: his heart gathereth iniquity to itself; when he goeth abroad, he telleth it. An unsympathetic visitor The picture drawn by the poet is a very common one. He has unfortunately sent for a man who does not understand his ease. The man is full of words; he can dilate upon the events of the time; he can ask many questions; he can be ostentatiously officious and meddlesome; but all is vanity, a veering wind, a mere noise in the air. The person sent for was destitute of the quality of sympathy. He did not know the ministry of silence. He did not understand that by a mere look, tender, lingering, and sympathetic, he could heal a human heart. Being a newsmonger he brought in the news of the day, which is a sure proof that he would carry the news of the day away with him. “ When he goeth abroad, he telleth it:” there is nothing sacred to the mere talker; there is a disease of words, a gossip which could pry and prattle about the most mysterious and tragical experiences of the heart. The text teaches us how important it is to entrust ourselves in trying moments only to those who are rich in Christian wisdom and sympathy. Few men know how to visit the sick. Those who are in Christ Jesus ought to be able to take rich Christian sympathy to sick-chambers, and to make houses beautiful with instances of Divine revelation and promise and comfort. It should not be beneath the greatest to visit the humblest. The temptation is to over-ride the poor; to make a false use of strength in the presence of the poor; to bear down upon and discourage the poor; such persons should never be sent to minister to souls that are in distress. The piety of Christ’ s Church is not to be roughshod. The saints are to study the gentlest courtesy and grace of manner. They are to act “ as becometh saints.” (J. Parker, D. D.) Psalms 41:9 Yea, mine own familiar friend in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath lifted up his heel against me.The evil of Christ’ s friends lifting up their heel against Him The psalmist doth in the text show the cope-stone laid on the maltreatment with which he met in the world by his particular friends turning abusive to him. They who did this were his intimates, his confidants, in whom he trusted; and his dependents, also, for they did eat of his bread. He describes their treatment under the metaphor of a horse that kicks against the man that lays meat before him. “ Confidence in an unfaithful man in the time of trouble is like a broken tooth, and a foot out of joint.” Now, it is evident that what the text speaks of was a typical event. Hence, consider it as it relates to the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, all bread that we eat is the Lord’ s bread: it is He who supplies us with all the necessaries and conveniences of life. But there is a sacred and sacramental bread which we eat at the Lord’ s table for the nourishment of our souls. This is peculiarly His bread. I. It is a grievous thing that they who eat of the Lord’ s common dread should lift up their heel against him.1. But they thus lift up their heel when-- (1) They do not serve Him by whom they are maintained. If we live by Him we should surely live for Him. (2) When their lusts are fed and fattened by God’ s good benefits bestowed on them, so that instead of being led to repentance thereby, they are led farther away from God (“ Jeshurun” and Ezekiel 16:49-50). And (3) when the good things God gives are wasted on our lusts to satisfy their cravings. (4) When in any manner of way they live to the dishonour of God (Romans 2:3-6). 2. Now, the causes of such evil conduct are-- (1) The corruption of man’ s nature, which tends to make an ill use of everything. (2) Our forgetting our dependence upon God. 3. The evil of this practice. (1) It is monstrous ingratitude. Of. Isaiah. (2) It has dismal effects, provoking God to take away His bread from men. Therefore let us be humbled on account of this sin, and resolve to reform and amend our ways. II. It is a very grievous thing that they who eat of the Lord’ s sacramental bread should lift up their heel against him. Note--1. How His professed friends may do this. (1) By unsteadiness in their walk. We are bidden “ walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise.” (2) By returning to their openly profane courses (2 Peter 2:20-22). (3) By carnality and worldliness in the ordinary frame of their hearts. (4) By formality and listlessness in the duties of religion. (5) By secret dalliance with some bosom idol, to the slighting of Christ. (6) By neglecting opportunities of communion with God, as Sabbaths and public ordinances. (7) By the heart losing the esteem it once had for Christ. (8) By wearying of converse with God. (9) By habitual neglect of the duties of practical godliness (Galatians 2:20). As the life of faith; the acknowledging of God in all our ways; self-examination; mourning for our own sins, and the sins of the land; commending Christ and religion to others who are strangers to Him. (T. Boston, D. D.) The treachery of Ahithophel at once occurs to mind. No doubt many treacherous friends have wounded many trustful hearts, but the correspondence of David’ s history with this detail is not to be got rid of by the observation that treachery is common. Still less is it sufficient to quote Obadiah 1:7, where substantially the same language is employed in reference to the enemies of Edom, as supporting the national reference of the present passage. No one denies that false allies may be described by such a figure, or that nations may be personified; but is there any event in the post-exilic history which shows Israel deceived and spurned by trusted allies? The Davidic authorship and the personal reference of the psalm are separable. But if the latter is adopted, it will be hard to find any circumstances answering so fully to the details of the psalm as the Absalomic rebellion and Abithophel’ s treason. Our Lord’ s quotation of part of verse 9, with the significant omission of “ in whom I trusted,” does not imply the Messianic character of the psalm, but is an instance of an event, and a saying which were not meant as prophetic, finding fuller realization in the life of the perfect type of suffering godliness than in the original sufferer. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Faithless friendship Sophocles says that, a faithless friend is the sorest bile that can be touched. Methinks as Jonathan laid aside his bow and arrows approaching to embrace David, so the name of friend should disarm the heart of man, that no instrument of malice should be left to give offence. It is like God’ s rainbow in the clouds, a sure token of reconcilement, and preservation: it is the uniting of more souls in one, like the rod of Moses, and the rod of the Egyptians, which were united into one rod (Exodus 7:1-25.); that as Joseph said of Pharaoh’ s dreams, the dreams are two, hut the interpretation is but one; so among friends the hearts are two, yet there is but one joy, one desire, and but one affection between them both. O what an accursed crime it is to cancel such a bond, much more to falsify and corrupt it! more unnatural than to divide one living child into two dead parts like the uncompassionate harlot. St. Basil did so cleave to the familiarity of holy Nazianzen, whom he called his necessary friend, that he thought not his knowledge solid, or his study profitable, or the daylight to be clear without him. Xenophon was so inflamed with the love of Proxenus, dear to him as his own soul, that he changed his bookish life, and entered into a dangerous war, as he confesseth, that he might follow him as the shadow did the body. Perfect lawgivers, says Aristotle, have had more careful regard to settle friendship in their polities, than to settle justice; for there is a recompense and satisfaction for any fault that infringeth justice, but it is past our value and exceeds all estimation how to salve up an injury which abuseth friendship: besides, there is prevention in all points of justice that an innocent may sustain no hurt, but the wounds of a false friend, how is it possible to avoid them? such an Ahithophel is like hot iron taken out of the fire which neither glows nor shines, but burns more violently than the flame that threatens. We have a test to try gold, says Euripides, a touchstone to betray deceit in counterfeit metals; but to know the mischief of a dissembler’ s heart, there’ s no mark or character to discern it. Moreover, every man hath a share in his whole friend, in all his estate and faculties, but every single man hath but his part in that commonwealth whereof he is a citizen: then reason within yourselves, can he that wrongs a friend, who is all and every whit his own, be true to that kingdom wherein he hath but a share and moiety? As the poet warned the sparrow not to build a nest in Medaea’ s statue, for she spared not to kill her own young ones, and could the little birds, who were but inmates, expect succour from her? So believe him not that he will be just to others, who was unjust to his other self: let him be rooted out, let him be cut off like unprofitable ivy that undermines the building upon which it creeps. (Bishop Hacker.) Psalms 41:11-13 By this I know that Thou favourest me, because mine enemy doth not triumph over me. Present favour and boundless hope The last words of the psalm are sunny with the assurance of present favour and with boundless hope. The man is still lying on his sick-bed, ringed by whispering foes. There is no change without, but this change has passed: that he has tightened his hold of God, and therefore can feel that his enemies’ whispers will never rise or swell into a shout of victory over him. He can speak of the future deliverance as if present; and lie can look ahead over an indefinite stretch of sunlit country, scarcely knowing whether the furthest point is earth or no. His integrity is not sinless, nor does lie plead it as a reason for Jehovah’ s upholding, but hopes for it as the consequence of His sustaining hand. He knows that he will have close approach to Jehovah; and though, no doubt, “ for ever” on his lips meant less than it does on ours, his assurance of continuous communion with God reached, if not to actual, clear consciousness of immortality, at all events to assurance of a future so indefinitely extended, and so brightened by the sunlight of God’ s face, that it wanted but little additional extension or brightening to be the full assurance of life immortal. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Psalms 42:1-11 Psalms 42:1-11 As the heart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after Thee, O God.The Korachite psalms The second book of the Psalter, characterized by the use of the Divine name “ Elohim” instead of “ Jehovah,” begins with a cluster of seven psalms (reckoning Psalms 43:1-5, as one), of which the superscription is most probably regarded as ascribing their authorship to “ the sons of Korach.” These were Levites, and (1 Chronicles 9:19, etc.) the office of keepers of the door of the sanctuary had been hereditary in their family from the time of Moses. Some of them were among the faithful adherents of David at Ziklag (1 Chronicles 12:6), and in the new model of worship inaugurated by him the Korachites were doorkeepers and musicians. They retained the former office in the second Temple (Nell. 11:19). The ascription of authorship to a group is remarkable, and has led to the suggestion that the superscription does not specify the authors, but the persons for whose use the psalms in question were composed. The Hebrew would bear either meaning; but if the later is adopted, all these psalms are anonymous. The same construction is found in Book I. in Psalms 25:1-22; Psalms 26:1-12; Psalms 27:1-14; Psalms 28:1-9; Psalms 35:1-28; Psalms 37:1-40., where it is obviously the designation of authorship, and it is naturally taken to have the same force in these Korachite psahns. It has been conjectured by Delitzsch that the Korachite Psalms originally formed a separate collection entitled “ Songs of the Sons of Korach,” and that this title afterwards passed over into the superscriptions when they were incorporated in the Psalter. The supposition is unnecessary. It was not literary fame which psalmists hungered for. The actual author, as one of a band of kinsmen who worked and sang together, would, not unnaturally, be content to sink his individuality and let his songs go forth as that of the band. Clearly the superscriptions rested upon some tradition or knowledge, else defective information would not have been acknowledged as it is in this one; but some name would have been coined to fill the gap. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Over the aqueducts of water The Hebrew term is apheek; and in the original the clause reads, al apheekaiyrnayim, which may be translated, “ over the aqueducts of water.” “ Aqueducts are, and always must have been, very common in Palestine, not only for bringing water to waterless towns, but also for the purpose of irrigating gardens. Ruined remains of these structures are to be found everywhere throughout the country. It seems certain that there must have been a familiar technical term for them in Hebrew, and that the writers of the Bible, who draw their imagery so largely from the features of garden culture, must have referred to these precious water-channels. One word in Hebrew, the sense of which seems to have been entirely overlooked, must plainly have borne this meaning, the word “apheek,” which occurs eighteen times in the Old Testament, and also in some names of places, as Aphaik, near Beth-boron. The translators of our Authorized Version have been able to make but little of it, rendering it by seven different words, most frequently by “ river,” which it cannot possibly mean. The word comes from “Aphak, restrained,” or “ forced,” and this is the main idea of an aqueduct, which is a structure formed for the purpose of constraining or forcing a stream of water to flow in a desired direction. So strongly were the Palestine aqueducts made, that their ruins, probably in some places two thousand years old, remain to this day. In rare instances (there is one at Jerusalem) they are fashioned of bored stones. Sometimes for a short distance they are cut as open grooves in the hard limestone of the hills, or as small channels bored through their sides. When the level required it, they are built up stone structures above ground. But the aqueducts of Palestine mostly consist of earthenware pipes, laid on or underground in a casing of strong cement. “ Apheek,” I contend, in its technical sense stands for an ordinary covered Palestine aqueduct, but it is also poetically applied to the natural underground channels, which supply springs and to the gorge-like, rocky beds of some mountain streams which appear like huge, open aqueducts . . . The psalmist thirsts for God, and longs to taste again the joy of His house, like the parched and weary hind who comes to a covered channel conveying the living waters of some far-off spring across the intervening desert. She scents the precious current in its bed of adamantine cement, or hears its rippling flow close beneath her feet, or, perchance, sees it deep down through one of the narrow air holes; and as she agonises for the inaccessible draught, she “ pants over the aqueducts of water.” (James Nell, M. A.) The soul compared to a hind The “ soul” is feminine in Hebrew, and is here compared to the female deer, for “ pants” is the feminine form of the verb, though its noun is masculine. It is better, therefore, to translate “ hind” than “ hart.” The “ soul” is the seat of emotions and desires. It “ pants” and “ thirsts,” is “ cast down” and disquieted; it is “ poured out” ; it can be bidden to “ hope.” Thus tremulous, timid, mobile, it is beautifully compared to a hind. The true object of its longings is always God, however little it knows for what it is thirsting. But they are happy in their very yearnings who are conscious of the true direction of these, and can say that it is God for whom they are athirst. The correspondence between man’ s needs and their true object is involved in that name “ the living God” ; for a heart can rest only in one all-sufficient Person, and must have a heart to throb against. But no finite being can still them; and after all sweetnesses of human loves and helps of human strengths, the soul’ s thirst remains unslaked, and the Person who is enough must be the living God. The difference between the devout and the worldly man is just that the one can only say, “ My soul pants and thirsts,” and the other can add “ after Thee, O God.” (A. Maclaren, D. D.) The religious aspects of a soul in earnest I. Intensely thirsting after God. This craving for “ the living God” --1. Renders all logical arguments for a Supreme Being unnecessary.2. Indicates the only method for elevating the race. II. Greatly distressed on account of the wicked.1. Taunted on account of his religion.2. Deprived of the public privileges of his religion. III. Anxiously expostulating with self on account of despondency. 1. He inquired into the reason.2. He resolved upon the remedy. (Homilist.) Religious depression I. The causes of David’ s despondency.1. The thirst for God.2. The temporary loss of the sense of God’ s personality. Let us search our own experience. What we want is, we shall find, not infinitude, but a boundless One; not to feel that love is the law of this universe, but to feel One whose name is Love. For else, if in this world of order there be no One in whose bosom that order is centred, and of whose Being it is the expression: in this world of manifold contrivance, no Personal Affection which gave to the skies their trembling tenderness, and to the snow its purity: then order, affection, contrivance, wisdom, are only horrible abstractions, and we are in the dreary universe alone. Foremost in the declaration of this truth was the Jewish religion. It proclaimed--not “ Let us meditate on the Adorable light, it shall guide our intellects” --which is the most sacred verse of the Hindoo sacred books: but “ Thus saith the Lord, I am, that I am.” In that word “ I am,” is declared Personality; and it contains, too, in the expression, “ Thus saith,” the real idea of a revelation, viz., the voluntary approach of the Creator to the creature. Accordingly, these Jewish psalms are remarkable for that personal tenderness towards God--those outbursts of passionate individual attachment which are in every page. How different this from the God of the theologian--a God that was, but scarcely is: and from the God of the philosopher--a mere abstraction, a law into which all other laws are resolved. Quite differently speaks the Bible of God. Not as a Law: but as the Life of all that is--the Being who feels and is felt--is loved and loves again--counts the hairs of my head: feeds the ravens, and clothes the lilies: hears my prayers, and interprets them through a Spirit which has affinity with my spirit. It is a dark moment when the sense of that personality is lost: more terrible than the doubt of immortality. For of the two--eternity without a personal God, or God for seventy years without immortality no one after David’ s heart would hesitate, “ Give me God for life, to know and be known by Him.” No thought is more hideous than that of an eternity without Him. “ My soul is athirst for God.” The desire for immortality is second to the desire for God.3. The taunts of scoffers. “ Where is now thy God?” (Psalms 42:3). This is ever the way in religious perplexity: the unsympathizing world taunts or misunderstands. In spiritual grief they ask, why is he not like others? In bereavement they call your deep sorrow unbelief. In misfortune they comfort you, like Job’ s friends, by calling it a visitation. Or like the barbarians at Melita, when the viper fastened on Paul’ s hand: no doubt they call you an infidel, though your soul be crying after God. Specially in that dark and awful hour, when He called on God, “ Eloi, Eloi:” they said, “ Let be: let us see whether Elias will come to save Him.” II. David’ s consolation.1. And first, in hope (verse 5): distinguish between the feelings of faith that God is present, and the hope of faith that He will be so. There are hours in which physical derangement darkens the windows of the soul; days in which shattered nerves make life simply endurance; months and years in which intellectual difficulties, pressing for solution, shut out God. Then faith must be replaced by hope. “ What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know hereafter.” Clouds and darkness are round about Him: but righteousness and truth are the habitation of His throne. 2. This hope was in God. The mistake we make is to look for a source of comfort in ourselves: self-contemplation instead of gazing upon God. In other words, we look for comfort precisely where comfort never can be. For first, it is impossible to derive consolation from our own feelings, because of their mutability. Nor can we gain comfort from our own acts, because in a low state we cannot justly judge them. And we lose time in remorse. In God alone is our hope. (F. W. Robertson, M. A.) Living thirst This language is that of the true Christian believer. The strength that he feels is not the strength of a transient passion of the heart, but the thirst of an enlightened, sanctified, and believing soul. The object of that thirst is God. Its object indicates its origin; for a thirst that stretches upwards to God originates with the inspiration of God, and, like true religion, must have had its origin in God. This thirst is caused by admiration of God; by love of God; by desire after His holiness and His presence, and His promised restoration of all things. But how does the Christian reach the element that will satisfy this the thirst of his soul?1. First, by thinking upon Him. A Christian in solitude and in silence can think of God. The literary man can think of literature, and hold communion with the spirits of departed “ literati” through the medium of the writings they have left behind them. The statesman can think of great political questions, and his mind can be absorbed with them. Now, communion with God, thinking of Him, what He is, what He has done what He has promised to do, what He will give, and what He has given, is really letting the water pot descend into that better than Jacob’ s well, to bring from its cool depths that which will satisfy our thirst for God, for the living God. 2. A Christian will try to satisfy his thirst for God by reading His holy Word. What is the Bible? Just a description of what God is. It is poetry, and oratory, and history, and all the resources of human thought, of human genius, inspired by the Spirit of God, designed to stimulate your thirst for Him, and to bring you into closer contact with the inexhaustible Fountain out of which you may drink freely. 3. In the next place, you gratify this thirst, and you deepen it also while you do so, in the exercises of public prayer and praise, and public worship. 4. And we gratify this thirst, as well as excite it, by appearing from time to time at the table of our blessed Lord. (J. Cumming, D. D.) Thirsting for God I. The causes of this spiritual thirst.1. Admiration of the Divine attributes.2. Love for the Divine Being,3. A lively sense of Divine goodness in the dispensation of both temporal and spiritual benefits.4. A deep sense of his wants as a sinner.5. A conviction of the inadequacy of his inward sources of happiness, and of the unsatisfying nature of all sublunary enjoyments.6. The afflictions which he is called to endure. II. The means by which the Christian seeks to gratify this spiritual thirst.1. The studious reading of God’ s Word.2. The exercise of devout and holy contemplation.3. Prayer and praise.4. Avoidance of sin.5. Eye fixed on heaven. (G. Thacker.) Panting after God Genuine piety is the tendency of the soul towards God; the aspiration of the immortal spirit after the great Father of spirits, in a desire to know Him and to be like Him. I. How Is A desire to know God and to be like him implanted and cherished in the heart of man? All true piety, all genuine devotion in fallen man, has a near and intimate connection with the Lord Jesus, and is dependent on Him. It is by His mediation that the devout soul aspires towards the blessed God; it thirsts for fuller and clearer discoveries of His glories, as they shine with a mild effulgence in the person of His incarnate Son; it longs to attain that conformity to Him of which it sees in Jesus Christ the perfect model. II. The excellence of this panting of the soul after God, this vital principle of all genuine piety.1. It is a most ennobling principle; it elevates and purifies the soul, and produces in the character all that is lovely and of good report. 2. It is a most active principle. From a world groaning under the ruins of the apostasy, where darkness, and pollution, and misery prevail, and death reigns, the child of God looks up to that glorious Being whose essence pervades the universe, and whose perfections and blessedness are immense, unchanging, and eternal, and he longs to know and resemble Him. 3. It is a permanent and unfailing principle. Each changing scene of his earthly pilgrimage affords the devout man opportunity of growing in the knowledge and the likeness of God, and the touch of death at which his material frame returns to its native dust, does but release his spirit from every clog, that she may rise unencumbered to see Him as He is and know even as she is known. (Bishop Armstrong.) The panting hart In this state of mind there is something sad. But something commendable also. For the next best thing to having close communion with God is to be wretched until we find Him. I. The object of the desire which is here described. It was for God. Probably this psalm belongs to the time of the revolt of Absalom. But David’ s desire is not for lost royalties, wealth, palaces, children: no, nor the temple, nor his country, but God. He longed to appear again before God, so that--1. He might unite in the worship of the people. 2. Gain restored confidence as to his interest in the love of God, and to have it shed abroad in his heart. May such desires be ours. II. The characteristics of this desire.1. Directness. The hart panteth, there can be no doubt what for. So with David, he goes straight to the point. He knew what he needed. 2. Unity. As the hart longs for nothing but the water brooks, so David for God only. Have you ever seen a little child that has lost its way crying in the streets for “ mother” ? Now, you shall give that child what you will, but it will not stay crying for “ mother.” I know it is thus with all the family of God in regard to an absent God. 3. The intensity of this desire. How awful is thirst. In a long and weary march soldiers have been able to endure much want of solid food, but--as in the marches of Alexander--they have died by hundreds from thirst. 4. Its vitality. Thirst is connected with the very springs of life. Men must drink or die. 5. And it is an expressive desire. The Scotch version reads--“ Like as the hart for water brooks, In thirst doth pant and bray.” And in the margin of our Bibles it reads, “ As the hart brayeth,” etc. The hart, usually so silent, now begins to bray in its agony. So the believer hath a desire which forceth itself into expression. It may be inarticulate, “ groanings which cannot be uttered,” but they are all the more sincere and deep. In all ways will he express before God his great desire. III. Its exciting causes.1. Something inward, the secret life within. A camel does not pant after water brooks, because it carries its own supplies of water within it; but the hart does because it has no such resources. 2. But also something outward. The hart because of the heat, the distance, the dogs. So the believer. The source of David’ s longings lay partly in the past. We remember delightful seasons gone by. Also from the present, lie was at that moment in eminent distress. And the future. “ Hope thou in God,” saith he, “ for I shall yet praise Him.” IV. Comfortable encouragements. There is no thirst like the thirst of the man who has once known what the sweetness of the wine of heaven is. A poor king must be poor indeed. Yet out of our strong desires after God there come these comforts.1. The thought--whence come they? This desire is a gift from God. 2. If He has given it me, will He not fulfil it? 3. And if I have wandered from my God, tie is willing to forgive. Let us return to Him, then, and let us recollect that when we return we shall soon be uplifted into the light. It does not take long for the Lord to make summer-time in the wintry heart. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Thirsting for God I. The object of the psalmist’ s desire--God. By which he means--1. A sense of God’ s favour. 2. A sight of God’ s glory, so that he might not merely know that God was glorious, but that he might feel it. 3. The enjoyment of God’ s presence. Hence it was that he longed after God’ s house, for it was there that so often God had met him and had satisfied this thirst of his soul. II. The strength of his desire. “ My soul panteth, yea,” etc. This was his soul’ s deep yearning. Hence we learn--1. That a soul really desiring God can be satisfied with nothing else. Nor-- 2. With but a little of Him. It is not a drop or a taste of the water brook that quiets the panting deer. He plunges into it and drinks eagerly of it. And so with our souls. The more these blessed waters are drunk the more they are relished and desired. 3. The cause which made David thus earnestly desire God. It was his affliction, and his inward distress and darkness. And this is God’ s gracious purpose in letting such things come upon us. Do not be dismayed if you can only say, “ I wish I did thus thirst.” We are saved not for our thirst, but for Christ’ s sake. (C. Bradley, M. A.) The longing for God I. What this longing of David was. It was not, observe, his lost crown that he most longed for; nor the broken peace of his kingdom; nor even Absalom his son; he had deeper longings than these; he had a deeper need than they could supply. What he did long for was God Himself; for God, he knew, was the strength of his heart, and the only portion which could satisfy him for ever. II. This longing is common to God’ s saints (2 Corinthians 5:4; 2 Timothy 4:8; Titus 2:13; 2 Peter 3:12; Revelation 22:20). A great part of our nature is made for feeling; a great portion of our life is made up of it; every moment is full of love, and hope, and desire, and fear; and Christ who claims the whole man will not pass over these levers of action, these moving powers of the whole man, as of no importance. Let us give them their proper place; and if David, and Paul, and Peter, and John, mark out a longing after God as the healthy state of the soul, let us not be satisfied if we are strangers to such a longing. III. How the presence of this longing is an earnest of complete blessedness. God’ s Holy Spirit is Himself the water brook for man’ s consolation; and He comes, as the Nile when it overflows its banks, and wherever there is a channel, or an aperture, or even a crack in the dry and thirsty soil, there He pours in the life-giving streams of comfort and of love, as one who knows not how to give and to bless enough. Your mourning heart is opened by its very grief, and He is come to bless it. Doubt Him not. Doubt not but that the same Spirit will restore you to peace and joy; will fill you with the assurance of fresh hope; will strengthen you to bear meekly the yoke which He shall lay upon you; will make you to overflow with love, and give you even upon earth a foretaste of heaven. (Canon Morse.) Desire after God I. Divine in its source. Desires are the pulses of the soul. We are that in the sight of God which we habitually desire and aim to be. Archbishop Leighton said, “ I should utterly despair of my own religion, were it not for that text, ‘ Blessed are they that do hunger and thirst after righteousness.’” II. Intense in its degree. Thirst is the strongest feeling we know. It is the established order of nature, and an original law in the constitution of the mind, that love should create love; and if this obtain in the measures and intercourse of human kindness, much more might we expect it to prevail in the sacred converse which is held between earth and heaven--“ spirits are not thus finely touched, but to fine issues.” III. Practical in its tendency, and ennobling in its influence. A pure affection towards an earthly object exalts the soul in which it dwells, by associating another’ s happiness with our own; according to Wordsworth’ s fine line--“ Love betters that is best,” by strengthening those fine ties which ally us to the side of virtue. How much more must this be the case with our religious emotions, where the object is infinite and the benefactor is Divine. IV. Prophetic of its own fulfilment. Panting after God I. The believing pant after the favour of God. The most luxurious pasture, or the securest shade and retreat of the forest has no attraction for the hart panting in the agony of thirst for the water brook; and what were honour, power, or wealth to trembling sinners, if that which alone can meet their necessities be withheld? II. The believing pant after resemblance to God. This is a part of salvation as well as the former, and the two are inseparably connected. No man has the favour of God that does not aspire to be like Him, and no man who is like God is without His favour and complacential regard. III. The believing pant after spiritual intercourse and communion with God. IV. The believing pant after the presence and enjoyment of God in heaven. This is the final and glorious issue to which their hopes and desires are habitually directed; all that they pant after in God on earth shall in that better country be possessed fully and for ever. (J. Kirkwood.) The soul’ s thirst for God Such psalms as this and the sixty-third are as important items in the history of man as the hieroglyphics of Egypt, or the cuneiform inscriptions of Assyria, or the stone implements of prehistoric times: if you are to have a complete system of anthropology, to investigate and know what man really is, it is manifest that you must take account of the aspirations of his soul, as well as of the power of his intellect or the skill of his hands. Conceive an investigation as to the nature of man being made by some one quite fresh to the subject--say an inhabitant of Jupiter or Saturn: conceive such an investigator to have examined our ships and our steam engines and our agriculture, our books of science, our treatises on law and medicine and what not: and suppose that when all this was done, and our distant visitor was forming his opinion about man, he suddenly stumbled upon a book containing such words as these. “ My soul is athirst for God,” etc.; suppose this, and what would be the result? “ Certainly this at least,” our investigator would say, “ this is quite a new view of man: ‘ thirst for the living God’ And that is something very different in kind from agriculture and commerce and steam engines and law and medicine--all these things might exist, and be the things upon which the mind of man fully occupied itself--but a soul thirsting for the living God--that is something totally different in kind from what I had hitherto imagined man to be: I must begin my examination of man all over again.” And surely, if we consider the manner in which the different parts of this wonderful universe fit one into another, and exhibit consistency and order and unity, the thirst of the human soul for God is a good argument that there is a God to be thirsted for. When the hart seeks the water brooks, it is no speculative voyage of discovery upon which the poor creature goes. The living creature and the water are close akin to each other: if you analyze the animal’ s substance you will find that water constitutes a large proportion of it: and though this does not prove that every hart that is thirsty will at once be fortunate enough to find a water brook, it is a good proof that water is what the animal must find if it is not to die, and it gives a strong reason to believe that the water brooks will somehow be found. And this gives us a rough suggestion of the argument for the Being of God, arising from the thirst for God which the human soul is undoubtedly capable of feeling: men would not thirst for that with which their own nature has no affinity: it is the unseen presence of the Spirit of God--that Spirit which was breathed into man when he became a living soul it is this presence which makes him thirst for God Himself, and which assures him that there is a God without whom he cannot live, “ in whose presence there is fulness of joy, and at whose right hand there is pleasure for evermore.” One might have fancied or even hoped that the truth of God’ s being, which was evidently the support of human souls three thousand years ago, would not have been questioned now, but as there were persons in those days who were ready at once to turn upon a believer in trouble and ask him scornfully, Where is thy God now? and as there were others who were prepared to assert dogmatically, There is no God, so it has been true ever since that the being of God has been liable to be denied. Of course that which you cannot see it is always easy to deny. Who can contradict you? Is not one man’ s No as good as another man’ s Aye? (Bishop Harvey Goodwin.) Man’ s craving for God Both these psalms are by “ the Sons of Koraeh,” a family of Levites whose inheritance lay on the eastern side of Jordan. They were appointed doorkeepers of the Tabernacle. They possessed the Hebrew faculty for music in a high degree; and some of them possessed the closely allied faculty of poetical conception and utterance, and became “ singers” in both senses of that word, composing the psalms which they afterwards set to music and chanted in the Temple. Dwelling on the other side of Jordan, it was often impossible for them to reach Jerusalem. Many of the Korachite psalms were composed when they were thus kept from their loved work. They abound in expressions of intense passionate desire to appear before the Lord. If we ask, Why this intense craving for the Temple and its services, the sons of Koraeh reply: “ It is because we want Him, the Living God.” Do these words express one of the primitive intuitions, one of the profoundest yearnings and desires of every human heart, a yearning which no words can adequately utter, much more over-state? Is this the secret of the restlessness which underlies all our rest--that we want God, and cannot be at peace until He lift up upon us the light of His countenance? We are denizens of two worlds, the natural and the spiritual, and these two, opposed as they may seem, are really one, since the natural world is but the “ body,” the complex phenomenon and organ of the spiritual. So manifold are the ways in which the sense of a Divine Presence is quickened within us, and our need of that Presence, that it is hard to select those which are most suggestive and impressive Only as we trust, love and reverence God, can the cry of our heart be stilled, and the infinite hunger of the soul be satisfied. (Samuel Cox, D. D.) Religious affections attended with increase of spiritual longing The higher the gracious affections are raised, observes Edwards, the more is a spiritual appetite after spiritual attainments increased; but the false affections rest satisfied in themselves. I. Marks of the true affection.1. The more a true Christian loves God, the more he desires to love Him.2. The greatest eminency has no tendency to satiety.3. Spiritual enjoyments are soul-satisfying. II. Marks of the false affections.1. As the false affections arise, the desire for more grace is abated.2. As soon as the soul is convinced that its title to heaven is sure, all its desires are satisfied. III. If hypocrites profess to have the true affections, all their desires are for by-ends.1. They long after clearer discoveries, but it is that they may be the better satisfied with themselves.2. Or their longings are forced, because they think they must have them. IV. Good signs of grace.1. A longing after a more holy heart.2. A longing after a more holy life. (Lewis O. Thompson.) Thirsting for God I. Man needs God.1. Think how helpless we are in the presence of all the mysteries of life without God. 2. Think of the far greater mysteries of a moral and spiritual kind by which we are surrounded; how the wicked appear to triumph over the righteous, how the kingdom of darkness seems likely to gain the victory over the kingdom of light; and then ask what rest we can find, unless we believe and know that God ruleth over all, and that He will yet bring all things into subjection unto Him. 3. Think of the awful power of sin, how it enslaves the soul and oppresses the heart and troubles the conscience; how it spreads like fire and like pestilence, carrying death and desolation wherever it goes; and then ask how we are to be delivered from this terrible destroyer, except by the power of the living God. 4. Think how we need God in all the temptations and trials, the perplexities and cares, the business and toil and responsibility. II. God gives himself to man. Just as He gives light and beauty for the eye, sound and music for the ear, bread for the hunger and water for the thirst of the body, so He gives Himself, for the satisfaction of the soul. It remains for us to abide in fellowship with Him, to walk all the day in the light of His countenance, and to make our life on earth a pledge and earnest of the nobler and diviner life of heaven. (G. Hunsworth, M. A.) God I. As A personality.1. That He is as distinct from the universe as the architect from the building, the author from his book, admits of no rational doubt. 2. We believe in His personality (1) Because we have it. Could He give what He has not?(2) Because we instinctively believe it, and(3)Because the Bible declares it. II. As a living personality. “ The living God.” The world abounds with dead gods, but the God is living, consciously, independently, actively, ubiquitously. The God of modern Christendom is rather the God that was living in Old Testament times, and in the days of Christ, than the God that is living here, and with every man. III. As a living personality craved after by the human soul. “ My soul thirsteth for the living God.”1. The soul is constitutionally theistic. It believes in God. 2. The soul is immensely great. Nothing but God can satisfy it. It will not be satisfied with His works, however vast and lovely, it must have Him Himself. (Homilist.) Thirsting for God As the hunted hart; as the hart flying from the enemy, more dead than living; as the overrun, overborne, imperilled hart pants and cries for the water brooks, so . . . then we fill in our human experience; for if we are living any life at all we are hunted, persecuted, threatened. Until we are sensible of being hunted we cannot pray much. “ As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so . . . ” The “ so” is balanced by the “ as.” These words of manner must be equal the one to the other; the hart will be ashamed of them if it should ever come to know that so quiet, tame speech addressed to heaven is supposed to represent its earnestness when it is hunted by furious hounds. “ As the hart . . . ” Then this soul-panting after God is natural. Whatever is natural admits of legitimate satisfaction; whatever is acquired grows by what it feeds on until it works out the ruin of its devotee. No hart ever panted after wine; no bird in the air ever fluttered because of a desire to be intoxicated. When we lose or leave the line of nature we become weak, infatuated, lost. Tertullian says the natural response of the human heart is Christian. “ So panteth my soul after Thee, O God.” Yea, for nothing less. Man needs all God. Every sinner needs the whole Cross. Every flower needs the whole solar system. Herein is the mystery of Divine passion and love, that we can all have a whole--a mystery, mayhap a contradiction in words, but a sweet reality in experience. “ For Thee, O God.” Then for nothing strange. As the water brooks were made for the chased or panting hart, so God lives to satisfy the soul of man. Herein see the greatness of the soul of man. What does that soul need to fill it and satisfy it, and quiet it, and give it all it’ s possible consciousness of glory? It needs the living God. Atheists themselves are intermittently religious. Even God-deniers are in some degree in an unconscious sense God-seekers. (J. Parker, D. D.) The feelings and sentiments of a renewed soul I. From whence does this vehement breathing after God arise? It evidently arises from a deep sense of our own insufficiency, and the insufficiency of any creature, however accomplished or perfect, to render the soul happy. The soul, brought to feel its own indigence, is encouraged to look forward with hope, and made to thirst after God, the living God, II. What is implied in this thirsting for God?1. An experimental feeling of the love of God. 2. Delight in every means, in every duty, in every ordinance of Divine appointment, where He hath promised to meet with His humble worshippers, and to bless them. 3. A heart disposed to wrestle with every difficulty that obstructs our access to God, and stands in the way of the full enjoyment of Him, as reconciled to us, and at peace with us. 4. This thirsting for God never fails to be accompanied with longing desires to be with the Lord, and to behold His glory. Sooner may iron cease to be attracted by the lodestone, or the sparks cease to fly upwards, or the rivers to roll towards the ocean, than a soul thirsting for God should sit down satisfied with any attainments at which it can arrive in this mixed and imperfect state. (T. Gordon.) The soul of man has no resource independent of God A camel does not pant after water brooks, because it carries its own water within it; but the hart does, because it has no inward resources. After being hunted on a hot day, it has no inward supplies; it is drained of its moisture. So are we. We do not carry a store of grace within of our own upon which we can rely; we need to come again, and again, and again, to the Divine fountain, and drink again from the eternal spring. Hence it is because we have a new life, and that life is dependent upon God, and has all its fresh springs in Him, that therefore we pant and thirst after Him. O Christian, if you had a sacred life which could be maintained by its own energies within, you might do without your God, but since you are naked, and poor, and miserable, apart from Him, you must come and drink day by day of the living springs, or else you faint and die. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Psalms 42:2 My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God? Thirst satisfied Let us, that we may realize this thirst of the soul, dwell upon the contrast. There are at least four forms of attraction presented to the soul. I. That of natural beauty. You find a delight as you gaze upon nature. But you are not satisfied. II. Nor are you, either, with all the forms of men’ s ceaseless activity, in which art, genius, or political achievement have expressed themselves--none of these things will ever, can ever, satisfy the soul. III. Pure intellect, also, notwithstanding the power of delight there is in it, has its limits in this respect. It does not satisfy. Then there is-- IV. The region of the affections, where suns are always glorious, and sunsets only speak of brighter dawn. We have all known it in friend, sweetheart, wife, child, which have called forth the dear expressions of that strong heart that beats in Englishmen. But these dear ones pass away, and we find, as life goes on, that after all in the world of the affections, that old, strange law that pervades one branch of the contrast prevails: affection can stimulate, it can support, it can console, it can delight, it can lead to delirium at moments, but it does not satisfy. And because we are born for eternity, not for a moment, therefore, never, only by the satisfaction of the moral instincts, can this thirst be assuaged. The Ten Commandments, and especially the Gospel, are for this end. Accept a personal Christ, God in Christ, and so may you quench your otherwise unquenchable thirst. (Canon Knox Little.) God the object of religion There is scarcely in the Psalter a more touching psalm than this. The writer is probably an exile of the early Assyrian period. He thinks of the blessed past when he worshipped in the Temple, and had his share in “ the voice of joy and praise.” But now the cruel heathen taunt him with the insulting question, “ Where is thy God?” Hence, he yearns for the presence of God. He is like the thirsty stag panting after the distant water brooks; his inmost being is “ athirst for God; yea, even for the living God.” What a strange phrase, the living God. It points to deities who are not alive. The Hebrews thus distinguish the true God from the false gods of the heathen (Psalms 96:5). Heathenism, according to Scripture, is a lie, and the psalmist’ s soul thirsted for the living God. And still the soul of man is restless for God. Again and again the human heart has protested against all endeavours to crush the noblest of its aspirations. It wants net pleasures which may degrade, nor philosophies which may disappoint, but “ the living God.” And now let us see how this thirst has been dealt with by the great speculative systems which more particularly challenge attention in the present day. And-- I. Materialism. This stands high in the world of thought. It bids us believe only what we can see and smell and taste and touch. It does not concern itself with the origin of the universe, “ if it ever had one,” or with what happens to living beings after death. Chemistry can account for all things. Man’ s intelligence is as the mass of his brain: this thought is “ but the expression of molecular changes in the physical matter of his life, and is impossible without phosphorus; his consciousness is only a property of matter: his virtue, the result of a current of electricity, and it and vice are “ products in the same sense as are sugar and vitriol.” Science, it is said, does not need such an hypothesis as God, who does not exist apart from the mind and imagination of man.2. But where is there anything in all this to satisfy the thirst for God of which in his highest moments man is so conscious? How can that which is purely physical touch the sense which appreciates a moral world? It is a merit of Auguste Comte to have recognized the necessity of some answer; and he tells us that it is our privilege and our business to love, reverence, and worship “ a Being, immense and eternal--Humanity.” Not, mark you, a sinless and Divine representative of the race, such as we Christians adore Jesus. Not even an idealized abstraction, which, in the pure realms of thought, might conceivably be separated from the weaknesses inseparable from humanity. But men know man too well to worship him. All history shows that materialism cannot silence the religious yearnings of the soul of man. Robespierre tried, but failed, as all such endeavours must. A nation of Atheists is yet to be discovered. Man is ever feeling after God. II. Deism: this likewise fails because it reduces God to a mere force: and-- III. Pantheism also, because if God be in everything He is in human crimes as well as in human virtues. To assert God’ s presence in His works is one thing; to identify Him with them is another. His omnipresence is a necessary attribute of His Deity; while if He could be identified with nature He would cease to be. If the mystery of life, which attests God’ s presence in the natural world, was ever felt in all its awe and its beauty by any human soul, it was felt by the great Augustine. Witness the often quoted passage of the Confessions in which he tells us why nature was in his eyes so beautiful, by telling us how nature had led him up to God. “ I asked the earth, and it said: ‘ I am not He’ ; and all that is upon it made the same confession. I asked the sea and the depths, and the creeping things that have life, and they answered: ‘ We are not thy God; look thou above us.’ I asked the breezes and the gales; and the whole air, with its inhabitants, said to me: ‘ Anaximenes is in error, I am not God.’ I asked the heaven, the sun, the moon, the stars: ‘ We too,’ said they, ‘ are not the God whom thou seekest.’ And I said to all the creatures that surrounded the doors of my fleshly senses, ‘ Ye have said to me of my God that ye are not He; tell me somewhat of Him.’ And with a great voice, they exclaimed, ‘ He made us.’ . . . God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.” What could He do more in order to convince us that He is not merely a Force or an Intelligence, but a Heart? At the feet of Him who could say, “ He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father,” we understand, and rest upon the certainty, that God is moral as well as intellectual “ light, and that in Him is no darkness at all.” When a man’ s hold upon this creed is gone, his thoughts fall back, at best, upon the more rudimentary and less adequate ideas of the Godhead; the darker mysteries of the world’ s history present themselves with more painful force; and the mind tends inevitably, in the last resort, either to Deism or to Pantheism; to a Deism which just permits God to create, and then dismisses Him from His creation; or to a Pantheism which identifies Him with all the moral evil in the universe, and ends by propagating the worship of new Baals and Ashteroths. But God being really alive, His existence is a fact with which no other fact that the human mind can come to recognize will possibly compare. For nothing that can occupy our thoughts can really compare with it in point of absorbing and momentous-import. Beyond everything else, it must have imperious claims upon the time and thought and working power of every human being who has ever felt, in any serious degree, the unspeakable solemnity of life and death. (Canon Liddon.) The thirst after God It has been often said that the Psalms are out of place in our common daily service. Numbers come to church, at least on Sundays, whose minds cannot be especially devout. Yet language is provided for their use which expressed the most fervent longings of the most devout men. Such language may meet, now and then, the aspirations of the private suppliant. Even he must often find the Psalms far above the measure of his thoughts, so high that he cannot attain to them. How, then, can we offer them month after month to an ordinary English congregation, as if they could possibly speak what it was feeling? Complaints of this kind are never to be lightly dismissed. They indicate a sense of the sacredness of words, which we should honour in others and Cry by all means to cultivate in ourselves. Others will say that only believers should use such words: they are false of all others. The unbeliever will only thirst for some portion that will make him forget God. But do not those who call themselves believers know that that estrangement from God, which they know so well how to describe, was once their own experience, and they are liable to its repetition? The feeling, the thirst after God, may then co-exist with another feeling of the very opposite kind. Then deadly enemies dwell very near to each other, and carry on their conflict within him. Do they give themselves credit for anything but being aware of the strife, and knowing where the strength is which may make the better side victorious? If they are calling themselves believers upon some other ground, in some other sense than this, I should wholly dispute the claim which they put forward to be in sympathy with those who trusted in God and thirsted for Him in other days. But if this is the nature and character of their belief, then I do not see how they can possibly exclude any from participation in these prayers and hymns; how they can find fault with the Church for adopting them Into her worship, and giving them, with the most utter indiscrimination, to all her children. In so far as we are occupied with our own special interests, in so far the psalm is alien to us. But where the minister is in union with his congregation, and the members feel that they have relations with each other; it is then that David’ s harp gives out its music, and we in this distant land and age can accompany it. It has been the solace of many on sick-beds, because they are longing for fellowship with the Church of God. I. When he says, as here, “ My soul is athirst,” he describes no rare or peculiar state of feeling. It is as common as the thirst of the body. All men have it because they are men. For all seek happiness, though they know not what they mean. II. The psalmist said, “ My soul is athirst for God.” He knew that all men in the nations round him were pursuing gods. Pleasure was a god, wealth was a god, fame was a god. Just what the Jew had been taught was that the Lord his God was one Lord. He was not to pursue a god of pleasure or wealth or fame, nor any work of his own hands or conception of his own mind. For he was made in the image of the God, who was not far from him. Often it seemed as if there were no such God, and the Israelite was met with the taunt, “ Where is thy God?” He does not pretend that he is not disturbed by these taunts. All he can do is to ask that if He is, He will reveal Himself. And that he does ask courageously. “ I will say unto the God of my strength, Why hast Thou forgotten me? Why go I thus heavily, while the enemy oppresseth me?” And then he was able to say to his vexed soul, “ O put thy trust in ,God, for I will yet thank Him, which is the help of my countenance and my God.” What a baptism of fire was this! What a loss of all the privileges of an Israelite, that he might find the ground upon which Israel was standing! For thus he learnt that the thirst for God is the thirst of man. The thirst for happiness means this, ends in this. The thirst of his soul could not be satisfied with anything but Him who both kindles and satisfies the thirst of all human souls. III. “even for the living God” --so the psalmist goes on. It is no idle addition to the former words. The gods of the heathen were dead gods. They were unable to perform any of the acts of men; could neither see nor feel nor walk. There is a thirst of the soul to create something in its likeness; but the first and deepest thirst is to find in what likeness it is itself created: whence all its living powers are derived. Here, too, the psalmist is, in the strictest sense, the man. The heart and flesh of all human beings, whether they know it or not, are crying out for the living God. And they do give a thousand indications everywhere, that they cannot be contented with dead gods, or with any religious notions and forms which try to put themselves in the place of a living God. IV. “ when shall I come and appear before God?” --so the psalmist ends. It is a bold petition. Should it not rather have been, “ O God, prepare me for the day when I must appear before Thee” ? So we modify such words. But they uttered them in their plain and simple meaning. It meant, not that they thought there was less need than we think there is, of preparation for meeting God, but that they felt they could not prepare themselves, and that God Himself was preparing them. They held that He prepared them for His appearing by teaching them to hope for it. Oh! why not say to the cities of England, as the prophets of old said to the cities of Judah, “ Behold your God” ? Why not answer the calumny that we worship a tyrant on the throne of heaven by saying: “ This Jesus, the deliverer of captives, the opener of sight to the blind, the friend of the poor, is He in whom we see the Father. For such a Being we know that there is an infinite thirst in your souls, because we have it in our own, and we are even such as you are. (F. D. Maurice, M. A.) The religious faculty I. Its reality. “ My soul thirsteth for God.” Do human beings desire God in that intense way? We are all acquainted with some physical sensations of that intensity. We have all felt thirst, or at least we can imagine thirst, which is almost delirious in its desire for water. But is there anything in the human mind in connection with God that is as intense as that? I dare say most of us have had feelings to some fellow-creature that this would hardly be too strong to describe. The absence or the loss of somebody has made us sick with desire, almost sick unto death, whereas the return or the presence of the same person has made us indescribably happy. But are there any feelings in the human heart towards God comparable to these? Is there in human nature a thirst for God to be compared with the thirst for knowledge or the thirst for beauty? Open a book like St. Augustine’ s “ Confessions,” or “ The Imitation of Christ,” and on every page you will find it. II. Its universality. Wherever men are found they are religious beings. Religion is an element of human life everywhere, and everywhere it is an ideal and a refining element. In fact it is now generally acknowledged that the blossom and flower of every civilization is its religion, and even the most sceptical of men will now sometimes allow that the rational satisfaction of man’ s religious nature is, and always will be, the greatest desideratum of the human race. III. Its manifestations.1. It is often an intellectual thirst, a thirst for an explanation of the tangle and mystery of existence. You have a classical illustration of that in the Book of Job, where the hero, blinded with the whirl and confusion of things, cries out for a sight of Him who rides upon the storm. 2. Still oftener, perhaps, the thirst for God is a thirst of the heart. All men, especially all women, know in some degree what it is to wish to be loved, to be thought about and cared for. These sentiments, as a rule, find their satisfaction in the domestic affections, and sometimes these are so satisfying as to fill up the whole desire. But this satisfaction is not conceded to all; and from some who have had it, it is taken away; and I rather think that all sometimes feel that they require love larger, more sympathetic, more intelligent and enduring than any human love. In fact it is only the love of God that can thoroughly satisfy the heart. 3. The thirst for God is still oftener, and more conspicuously, a thirst of the conscience. The conscience, although generally a very quiet element in our nature, may become a very clamorous one. It cries out for deliverance from guilt. It cries out for deliverance from temptation and sin. And the reason why Christianity has been such a consolation to mankind is because it has so thoroughly answered. “ The blood of Jesus Christ, God’ s Son, cleanseth us from all sin.” Under the lashes of conscience, man cries out, “ O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” But Christianity answers, “ Thanks be to God, through Jesus Christ our Lord.” IV. Its culture. The religions faculty requires constant exercise, if there is to be any comprehensiveness and certainty of religious experience. Are you cultivating your religious faculty, or are you neglecting it, and allowing it to atrophy?1. The first thing that is needed for the culture of the religious faculty is the careful observance of the Sabbath. The cessation from toil, the preaching of the Gospel, the atmosphere of peace, the influence of united worship, tend to call the religious nature out, encouraging it to revel in its native element. 2. The other opportunity for this kind of culture is prayer. That brings the religious nature nearer to its object than anything else. I remember, when a boy, hearing some one say, “ backsliding always begins at the closet door.” (J. Stalker, D. D.) Wanting God This psalm is one of those said to be composed for, or by, the Sons of Korach. They are known to have been a family of Levites, whose inheritance lay in the wild country, on the eastern side of Jordan. I. What did this Levite find that he wanted? Man is a composite being, body, mind, and soul. Presently we discover that body and mind are but the agents of the soul, which is the real self; and the soul’ s cry is for God, the living God. This Levite thought that he wanted Jerusalem, and the Temple, and the sacrifices, and the feasts, and the music. But a self-revealing time came, and he found that his soul was really craving for God. His love was athirst for God. Its natural dependence was athirst for God. But the point of the self-discovery is put into the expression, “ for the living God.” It was no mere rain-pool, still and stagnant, round which he saw those gazelles gathering. It was the fresh, living stream. As they drank, it flowed fast, cool and refreshing. They were living waters. He found he could satisfy his cravings with no mere knowledge of God, no mere teachings about God. He craved for personal contact. He wanted personal relations. To be sure that God lived, in the sense of being active, interested, really concerned in his concerns. II. When did this Levite find out that he wanted God? It was not brought home to him while engaged in the Temple services. In some sense God’ s service stood in front of God. It came to him when he was away from his usual scones, and when he was placed in unusual circumstances. Everything around him was suggestive of peaceful, religious meditation. It was all so wild, so free, so open. It was all so quiet. The routine of life prevents our troubling about the thirsting of the soul, but the routine of life never allays the thirst. III. How this Levite responded to the awakened thirst for God. That thirst drove him to the hill-top. It always urges a man to seek loneliness, privacy, the silences of nature. The quenchings of the thirst come in the soul-communion with God, in openness to God, in conscious kindness with God, in holy joy in Him. And then awakens a new and intenser interest in all the means of peace. God waits to meet our thirst. “ He satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with good.” (Robert Tuck, B. A.) Thirsting for God Taken in its original sense, the words of our text apply only to that strange phenomenon which we call religious depression. But I venture to take them in a wider sense than that. It is not only Christian men who are east down, whoso souls “ thirst for God.” It is not only men upon earth whose souls thirst for God. All men, everywhere, may take this text for theirs. I. There is in every man an unconscious and unsatisfied longing after God, and that is the state of nature. Experience is the test of that principle. And the most superficial examination of the facts of daily life, as well as the questioning of our own souls, will tell us that this is the leading feature of them--a state of unrest. II. There is A conscious longing, imperfect, but answered; and that is the state of grace--the beginning of religion in a man’ s soul. If it be true that there are, as part of the universal human experience, however overlaid and stifled, these necessities, the very existence of the necessities affords a presumption, before all evidence, that, somehow and somewhere, they shall be supplied. If I, made by God who knew what He was doing when He made me, am formed with these deep necessities, with these passionate longings,--then it cannot but be that it is intended that they should be to me a means of leading me to Him, and that there they should be satisfied. III. There is a perfect longing perfectly satisfied; and that is heaven. We shall not there be independent, of course, of constant supplies from the great central Fulness, any more than we are here. Thirst, as longing, is eternal; thirst, as aspiration after God, is the glory of heaven; thirst, as desire for more of Him, is the very condition of the celestial world, and the element of all its blessedness. Let me put two sayings of Scripture side by side, “ My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God” --“ Father Abraham, send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue.” There be two thirsts, one, the longing for God, which, satisfied, is heaven; one, the longing for cessation of the self-lit fires, and for one drop of the lost delights of earth to cool the thirsty throat, which, unsatisfied, is hell. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) The soul’ s need and God’ s nature Men like Homer and Dante in secular literature, men like the psalmists in the Bible, take a single image, choose a forcible metaphor, and by their use of these, teach some bold scheme of human life and character, or unveil some hidden fact of human destiny. Now such a scheme of human character, involving at least a hint of human destiny, with abundant and fruitful consequences, is to be found in the text. I. A characteristic need of the soul. We all sufficiently know what is meant by “ the soul.” What, then, are its necessities?1. The desire to know. See the curiosity of the child, so keen, so active, so simple, that you and I, in the enervating languor of later life, might well wish we had it back again. What is that desire to know concerned about? Surely the enigma of our being, of the world, of that which is around us, in us, so beautiful, so strange, so startling, yet so real; surely the meaning of this extraordinary, this self-contradictory life--the explanation of this changing scene. It is a clamorous cry which comes from, which proclaims abroad, a need of man. 2. But close upon the heels of curiosity there treads an eager thrilling sense of aspiration, not unmixed with awe. Who has not stood upon the hills at sunset and longed with a vague, wild, passionate longing to pass beyond the bounding clouds. 3. And how, as years go on, we are conscious of the passion of regret which rises as we gaze behind, athwart the receding years? Why is it that, in spite of all our reasoning, we still persist in clothing those early days of earliest childhood with a life which is not all their own? That field, that flower, that corner of the street, that dear old house, that well-known room--how much gladder, sweeter, better, as we say, than such things, such places howl Why is it, this sweet, this sad regret? You will agree with me, whatever else it may be, at least it is a clamorous cry. And all these cries of the creature--this curiosity, so strong, so keen--this awful aspiration, soaring beyond the stars--and this regret so deep, so passionate--they gather up in one wild wail of need. Oh, cynic though you be, careless though you be--nay, indifferent or hostile though you be to serious thought--tell me what need finds utterance in their voices? Is it not the same, the world-wide, world-old thought of the poor Judaean exile on the wild Abarim hills?--“ My soul is athirst for God, for the living God.” Ah! this eager, unsatisfied humanity, what cries it for but Him! II. Can that cry be answered? IS it heard? does any answer come? I am told in Revelation that there is a God, supreme in power, of essential spotless holiness, the Absolute of Perfection, the Changeless in Beauty, comprehending thus in Himself, it would seem, all imagined or imaginable objects of the desiring mind. Is not that enough? Strange creatures that we are, it is not. You and I want to know, nearer, more precisely His nature and His character. For you and I are each possessors of a mysterious gift. We want to know, and till we know we cannot rest. That gift is the mystery of life, and it makes the little lad whom you and I met wandering half-clothed and ill-fed and uncared-for an object of more arresting interest than the savage mystery of the wild Atlantic. “ Is there a further cry?” I think there is. If there be one thing with which you surely must be, with which I certainly am impressed, it is our own, our astonishing individuality. To each, every truth of the Christian creed has its own abiding import thence. “ What matters it to me” --so every one of you may say--“ if though all in this congregation each find the satisfaction of his wants, I yet miss mine?” Whatever be the special facts of your life and mine, we are all met, the paths of all are traversed, by one ghastly spectre, and that spectre is our individual sin. Sin! You have your own, not mine, not another’ s. Does one sin hold me down? Then the longing of my better self is to be delivered. Who can do it? Who? I ask who? I open the pages of the Gospel story, and straight I come across Jesus Christ. A startling figure! An unrivalled picture! None other like that in history. Julius Caesar? They wrote a powerful monograph about him the other day, and at the close drew a parallel between him and Christ. It is difficult surely for any one to avoid disliking in it the bad taste, even should he not shrink from it as a kind of blasphemy. The conqueror of Gaul was indeed a striking figure. But how unlike that other! “ Athirst for God.” If so, thank God the Father for His love, for indeed He loves you; honour the bleeding wounds whence flowed the precious blood; praise the eternal Spirit, through whom the sacrifice was offered, and by whom you are sanctified. Yes, glory be to the God who was, and is, and is to come, who hath loved us with eternal love, who gives us--the way-worn, the weary--peace in believing. (Canon Knox Little.) From man to God Contrast this with a passage in Miss Martineau’ s autobiography, where she tells us that, having got rid of the last remnants of her old beliefs, she felt as if a weight were removed: to use her own figure, as the faded rose recovers its freshness when relieved of the pressure of the atmosphere by being placed under the bell glass of an air-pump, so did her spirits open out when no longer oppressed by the overshadowing presence of a higher Power. With all thought of God gone, she could breathe freely, and find herself at home in the vast universe. The contrast is striking, suggestive, affecting. In the one case, yearning for God; in the other, relief through being able to say, “ There is no God.” Can it be, then, that the modern Atheists are shaking off a nightmare, and that the psalmist’ s thirst for God was simply a disease incidental to the childhood of the human race? Our answer is that whatever difficulties may lie on the Theistic side, those on the Atheistic are immeasurably greater. Let us begin with a definition. We mean by God, no misty abstraction, no attenuated personality, but the Will which purposes and performs, the Fountain and Administrator of law; also the Love within which all life is embraced. He is the God with whom Enoch walked, of whom David sang, before whom Elijah stood. Now we remark-- I. Moments of atheism are known by most men. Who has not neared that bottomless gulf and breathed the malaria which hangs over it? But this was temporary, a passing phase, which we met and mastered. The clouds broke, the light of morning dawned. Now, which condition was the state of health? That of Atheism or Faith? In the one did we feel as she did whose sad words we have quoted; or was it in the other that we felt that soundness and sanity were come to us again? Can, then, that which acts thus healthfully be nothing but a baneful poison? The Truth which seems so essential to the soul’ s health, has it no basis in reality? Is it a lie? And, if so, are lies so medicable? Who can believe it? II. Moments of moral weakness--these, too, we all have known. But experience says that, in the very greatest emergency, let the thought of God come in, and virtue in her utmost peril is secure. Can that thought, then, be false? Or it may be duty distresses us. Failure takes the heart out of us. But the assurance, “ My grace is sufficient for thee,” heartens us again. But if there be no God, this belief is a falsehood. True, we are greatly blessed by this belief in mind, in heart, in spirit, and yet, on the Atheistic creed, we owe all to a cheat. And we may ask, What is virtue when it is not fed from this root? How apt it is to degenerate into a cold calculation of profit and loss, and to have for soul Pride instead of Self-surrender. Only belief in the living God can give to it its real beauty and charm. Whence, without such belief, could come the light and warmth under whose quickening influence its blossoms open, and its fruit grows mellow? Does virtue, indeed, owe all her choicest comeliness to the arctic darkness of a lie? And what would become of duty to our fellows were faith in the living God gone? What would become of charity and all her tender ministries? who will promise her continuance in well-doing in spite of ingratitude, and scorn and persecution? Is, then, that which does preserve her and make her such a blessing due to some strange delusion only? III. Moments of inspiration. For there are times when we are uplifted beyond ourselves, and reverence and trust and love kindle into a consuming fire. Would that such moments were oftener and more abiding. But whenever they come they are always associated with God. Are we, then, duped during these seasons of exalted enjoyment? Are we believing a lie? A harmonious life, also, such as those live “ with whom abide the melodies of the everlasting chimes,” seems impossible without vigorous belief in God. The just live by faith. But what if that be false? IV. There are moments of trial and calamity. At such times have we not been saved by trust in Him who is “ a very present help in trouble” ? Is this, too, a dream? Was there no heart to respond, no hand to bind up?” Nothing” --so says one” but the infinite Pity is sufficient for the infinite Pathos of human life.” But is there no such Pity? It is the age of Pessimism, and men are asking, “ Is life worth living?” But who are they who ask? Not the poor, decent, hard-working, God-fearing man, but lounging cynics at West End Clubs. No, we believe in God the Father. If that be dream, let me dream. (Thomas G. Rose.) When shall I come and appear before God?--Appearing before God. Appearance before God here and hereafter These words express-- I. Firm belief in the especial presence of god in the ordinances of public worship. We are always in God’ s sight, but He is especially near in the sanctuary. These ordinances have this for their great end, to bring us near God. And Christians have found it so. Therefore--1. Guard against hypocrisy in worship. God is there. We are careful how we appear there to our fellow-men. Be so in regard to God. 2. Our hope of good in worship must have the presence of God with us. Of. 2 Samuel 14:32. 3. What thanks are due to the Lord Jesus Christ who hath made way for our appearance before God. 4. What a blessing to have many houses of God in one nation. II. An earnest longing after divine ordinances.1. How little of this there is amongst man. 2. How well it is to have such desire. 3. What unhappy clogs these fleshly, sinful bodies are to the mind. But there is a blessed assembly of better worshippers above. Awake our faith and desire to join them. (Isaac Watts, D. D.) Appearance before God hereafter There are two such appearances. I. At the judgment. At the moment of death our souls appear before God for judgment.1. Let the sinner therefore consider that, though he may be willing to come to the sanctuary now, then it is under terrible constraint. 2. Here they appear in disguise, as saints; there openly as sinners. 3. They must take notice of God then, though they do not now. 4. There God will be on the throne of judgment; here He is on the throne of grace. 5. Here is frequent appearance, there but once, and is for ever driven from His presence. Let the sinner then examine himself as to his state now. II. In glory in heaven. What a difference for the Christian between then and now.1. Now he is one of a mixed assembly, then all will be holy. 2. Now he is among a few who worship God, but then amongst millions. 3. Now we worship for preparation, there for enjoyment. 4. Now, imperfectly; there, with complete worship. 5. Now, with many discouragements; then, with everlasting consolations. May we never be missing there. (Isaac Watte, D. D.) Psalms 42:3 My tears have been my meat day and night, while they continually say unto me, Where is thy God?. Where is thy God? Surely a searching, solemn query. Not a question, notice, of having, or not having, a god; not a question as to what, but where? Every man has some kind of god, for the religious instinct is an important part of every man’ s constitutional make-up. Every child is born with the germ of conscience. It must be so, else why do we find in our children a chord that vibrates at the touch of religious story or appeal? Upon our idea of God centres our ideas of religion, of sin, of prayer, of consecration, and of service. I. Your religion will be whatever your idea of God is. Religion has two acts--to know what is true of God, and to express that knowledge in life. It is personal experience that gives life to one’ s creed, not cold type. A blind man’ s world can be measured with a cane. But to be able to say, “ Now I see,” speedily leads on to “ I believe that Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Experience is the soil out of which the best creeds grow. Conduct must tally with conviction. II. Your idea of sin will be shaped by your idea of God. They stand or fall together. The exceeding sinfulness of sin will never fill you with shrinking abhorrence until you see God as a God of holiness and purity and righteousness. If your idea of God be that of the Pantheist, or that of the philosopher, or that of the materialist, your standard of holiness will rise no higher than your idea of God. What greater reason can we have for hating sin than to know that it drove the nails into the hands of our blessed Lord? III. Your idea of the value of prayer will hinge upon your idea of God. Look at David’ s prayer: “ My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God.” How could David utter a prayer like that if he believed God to be an impersonal force at work in the universe? The value and power of true prayer lies in its reflex action of the man who prays. You cannot say “ our Father” to an impersonal force; nor hold sweet communion with a law, nor pour out your soul’ s need to a sacred cow. The Pharisee prayed with himself. The Publican talked with God. Penitence is heaven’ s latch-key. So, too, prayer becomes a good test of character. To prove it, note the objects for which many people pray; the temper in which they pray; the regularity with which they pray, and the period during which they pray. IV. Your conception of consecration will rest upon your idea of God. To say, “ I do now consecrate myself to the service of Christ,” is the most solemn thing you can say. You remember what “ consecration” meant to the high priest of old. That it must mean to you and me; for anything less noble, less sacred, is unworthy the professed follower of the Master. V. Your idea of christian service will depend upon your idea of God. If every man of us is to be judged according to the light he has, how can any one afford to spend his time picking out flaws in his neighbour’ s conduct, instead of improving the little span of life that God has given him by whole-hearted devotion to the service of God. If you believe in the Church as a Divinely-ordained institution, and in the preaching of the Gospel as the Divinely-ordained means of bringing this world back to God; and if you believe that God is able and willing to forgive your sins and to cleanse you from your iniquity, then I call heaven and earth to witness against you that, so long as you hold back your whole-hearted allegiance from Him, you are trifling, you are trifling with God! (C. H. Jones.) Where is thy God? This is a question which, in every age, the doubting heart has propounded to itself; and every time it recurs it bespeaks a deeper agony of soul, and demands a profounder answer. The contradictions of our life can neither be ignored nor annihilated. But all depends on how we view the whole--whether in the gloom of despondency, or the shining light of hope. If God is with us anywhere and ever, then everywhere and always. Not only in the height of our exultation, but in the depth of grief and woe. Not only in the glad communion of our sweetest fellowship, but in the chilly isolation of our sheer bereavement. In all the evils of existence--in shame and crime and want--we must believe he is no further from us than in plenty and peace and virtuous delight. There are periods of depression incidental to all flesh, when all around is gloomy, and the outlook drear and blank; when the joys of life appear so few, so fleeting, and so faded: when sin and suffering seem so vast and sure, our lot so hard and burdensome, our whole existence so beset with toil, that the pulse of the spirit beats feeble, faint and low, and the dead weight of sombre misgiving clips the pinions which we spread, and drags us downward to despondency. At such times we learn the value of example. We call to mind the stories we have heard of peaceful death-beds and triumphant departures. We think of Socrates, with the cup of hemlock in his hand, discoursing sweetly--like the dying swan, his noblest strain his last--concerning the immortality of the soul. We think of Christian martyrs and the saints of old. We see them dying for divergent creeds, yet all alike serene. They walked by faith, not by sight; and therefore they were strong. And anon, as we review that noble host, there rises one above the rest, who is the chief among ten thousand, and the leader of an army by Himself. Who was a man of sorrows, who was acquainted with grief, like this our elder brother, the despised and rejected of men? Are our discouragements to be compared to His? If in the midst of a priest-ridden world, a corrupt and worn-out society, even out of the unpromising materials which were all that lay ready to His hand, He never relinquished His sublime idea of building up the kingdom of God, shall we not also rise above our griefs, and lift the drooping head--we in whose cup is mingled that more even measure that God metes out to ordinary men? There is nothing so bad but it may be well, if we wait to see the end. But oh, the good which we discern already! what shall explain that away? The mere refusal of our hearts to acquiesce in despondency--whence comes it, if not from a God in whose embrace we lie secure? The desire which springs spontaneous, like the fountain in the desert, to help and befriend the distressed; the anodyne of sympathy, and the balm of compassion, which gushes in most abundance where sorest need prevails; the love which many waters cannot quench; the devotion of a mother; the attachment of a child; all that makes suffering tender, and sheds beauty upon grief--are these no signs of God? Signs! They are more. They are the beating of a universal pulse, the breathing of a universal soul; they constitute the Godhead of the World. And when we have once discovered the great Father in our hearts, we may go forth courageously to find Him everywhere. (E. M. Geldart, M. A.) Psalms 42:4 When I remember these things, I pour out my soul in me: for I had gone with the multitude, I went with them to the house of God.Remembrance of bygone happiness I. The happiness of David’ s former condition.1. The store of company and society which he had with him. Good company is a very blessed and comfortable accommodation in sundry respects. (1) An exercise of men’ s faculties and the powers and abilities of the mind. (2) A fence against danger and a preservative from sadness and various temptations (Ecclesiastes 4:10; Proverbs 11:14). (3) An opportunity of doing more good. 2. The place of his resort--the house of God. (1) David’ s practice. He went himself. He tool( others along with him. Where others went before him, he followed them, and went with the multitude; where others stayed behind, he drew them on and carried the multitude along with him; and so he did two duties at once, which are both of them observable of ourselves. (2) His privilege. He speaks of it as a mercy which then he enjoyed, but now was deprived of; and so would hereby signify unto us what a great mercy this indeed is. (3) The nature and equality of their employment when there. (1) The proper work of such assemblies--holy and spiritual performances.(2) We are taught also from hence how to employ ourselves when we come to these assemblies; namely, in such duties and performances as are proper and agreeable hereunto. As David went to the house of God in regard of the place, so he was employed in icy and praise in regard of the performances: so should we be likewise; we should not come hither to sleep, to gaze, to talk, to disturb both ourselves and others; but we should come as applying ourselves to the work and business of the time and place, with the voice of joy and praise; as the multitude of those that keep holy-day, as it is here expressed. II. The impression which the recalling hereof had upon him. His grief was increased. There are none who more bewail the want of the ordinances and means of salvation than those who have formerly enjoyed them, and have been made partakers of them.1. Because these know what they are. That which makes men to be indifferent in their desires to these matters is because they know not the sweetness which is in them; but now those who have formerly enjoyed them are made sensible in this particular. 2. Their desire is inured and habituated to them; use it is a second nature: now they are accustomed to such holy employments, and therefore they cannot tell how to be without them; it is grievous to them. 3. Satan, and sometimes other enemies, they do also take occasion from hence to enlarge and increase their grief to them, as here in the text, “ Where is now thy God?” (Thomas Horton, D. D.) Psalms 42:5 Why art thou cast down, O my soul?and why art thou disquieted in me? hope thou in God. A prescription for a downcast soul I. Inquiry. “ Why art thou cast down?” Many a man is in great spiritual darkness, without knowing, or being able to discover the reason. He has been trying to live rightly, so far as he knows. He has not neglected prayer nor the house of God, and yet God seems to have hidden His face; his peace is gone; his soul is full of harrowing doubts. Christians sometimes forget that they have bodies; and that the condition of their bodies has a good deal to do with the brightness or darkness of their spiritual moods; and now and then a man, through sheer ignorance, persists in some habit of eating or drinking which, by keeping his body in an unhealthful state, correspondingly lowers the tone of his spiritual life. Often the devil which torments him is one that goeth not out but by fasting.2. Or the cause may lie deeper, in some mental disease--possibly inherited. Cowper. 3. On the other hand, the distress may arise from estrangement between man and God. Peter, when he went out and wept bitterly, was cast down and disquieted as he deserved to be. 4. If you cannot, on inquiry, discover that sin is at the bottom of your disquietude, it may occur to you that God has sent it. Thou art satisfied that the source of thy trouble is Divine; is that something to be disquieted about? Or dost thou fear it will be more than thou canst bear? O reflect that the Father is the husbandman. He is pruning thee that thou mightest bring forth more fruit. Dost thou forget Him who was made perfect through suffering, and who was in all points tempted and tried like as thou arty Why art thou disquieted? Is it because thou canst not see the end thy God has in view in thy trial, or wilt thou forget that this “ light affliction which is but for a moment, worketh out for thee a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory” ? II. Remembrance.1. The psalmist remembers his own experience. Ah, how often we need the psalmist’ s admonition to his own soul not to forget all God’ s benefits. They will crowd, at the summons of memory, thickly down to the very edge of to-day’ s trouble, like the cloud which followed the Israelites down to the merge of the Red Sea; and like that cloud will send light over the troubled waters through which lies the line of march. To-day’ s trouble will be lighter, and to-day’ s outlook more hopeful through the remembrance of the blessed past. 2. But this remembrance of the psalmist also takes in God’ s dealings with His people. No one has such a range of history at his command as the believer who is in trouble; since the history of God’ s children is largely made up of trouble, and as largely of God’ s deliverances out of trouble. Sometimes a man is so engrossed with the pleasure and business of the present, that memory has no chance to do her work, and he is in danger of forgetting God’ s benefits altogether; and so God leads him away alone, whither he does not like to go, but where, cut off from the occupations of the present, he has opportunity to survey the rich and fruitful past, and to grow grateful amid his sorrow. Yea, often the very land of exile is the land of precious memories. Men of old have had their faith, their courage, their patience tried sorely in the very places where our faith and courage and patience are tried; and their experience of God’ s saving goodness and power calls on us to remember that the God of salvation is the same, yesterday, to-day, and for ever. III. Hope. 1. This hope is in God. Trouble opens a man’ s eyes to the need of a personal God. True hope, the psalmist’ s hope, would say, “ This loss is God’ s work; I am God’ s child; this is God’ s discipline; through this He may be working out for me something far better than worldly prosperity. The best thing I have left, the thing to which I anchor my present and my future is--God is mine. This matter is all in God’ s hands, and whatever he may do with me or with my fortune, whether He give me back my prosperity or not, I shall yet praise Him who is the health of my countenance and my God.” 2. This hope is a different thing from faith, while the operations of the two are nevertheless closely allied. When a physician gives to a sick man a remedy which for the time increases his distress, he does not realize nor feel that the work of restoration is going on; and in the dark places of Christian experience through which God causes a man to pass in the course of His discipline, the man does not always realize that God is doing a beneficent work upon him, or how He is doing it. Then hope comes in. “ If we hope for what we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.” (M. R. Vincent, D. D.) Despondency I. The unreasonableness and virtual impiety of the over-anxious, foreboding spirit manifested by so many.1. This spirit is rebuked by your whole experience. The vast preponderance with you has always been on the side of happiness. If you have been long of this foreboding habit, not one in a hundred of the sorrows that you have apprehended has reached you. Those, also, that have overtaken you have been lighter than you feared. 2. What can your anxiety do for you? Can it avert what you dread? No. But it may hasten it. In many respects, our health, our outward well-being, and that of our household, are committed to our own keeping, and can be safely kept only by a self-collected mind and a quiet heart. 3. Sorrow in prospect is much more bitter and grievous than it is in actual experience. Every trial comes with its alleviating circumstances, its mild preparatives, and abounding consolations. Sickness summons sympathy and patience for its ministers. Unmerited disesteem fortifies itself by the testimony of a good conscience. Poverty moves on under the guidance of health and hope. Bereaved affection meets the risen Saviour at the grave-side. 4. Why do you dread aught that can befall you, when none of these things can take place without your Father? Under Him, all things will work together for your good. Lean, then, as children upon His arm, and commit yourselves as children to His keeping. II. Inculcate the lesson of implicit trust in a wise and paternal providence.1. An unexplored future is before us. But, as Christians, we have every possible ground for trust and hope; for that unexplored future is in the hands of our Father. 2. We have under God one object of hope continually in view, namely, the growth of our characters; and this is the great end for which, were we wise, we should desire to live. Does He send outward favours and mercies? It is that gratitude may engrave His image on our hearts, and write His law on our lives. Does He remove from us cherished blessings? He takes gifts which we were in danger of loving more than the Giver. He takes wealth that bound our souls to the sordid pathway which He bids us leave. 3. Heaven and eternity, brought to light by Jesus, re-echo the exhortation--“ Hope thou in God.” Have we the testimony of His love within? Are we living by the law and in the spirit of Christ? Have we the consciousness of pardoned sin and of souls at peace with God? If so, however heavy our outward burdens or sorrows, we may well ask, in self-rebuke, “ Why art thou cast down?” etc. (A. P. Peabody.) Disquietude and hope I. David’ s disquietude.1. God’ s forgetfulness.2. His own mourning.3. Enemy’ s oppression. II. David’ s hopefulness.1. God is.2. God is mine.3. God will yet be praised by me. (Homiletic Review.) Psalms 42:6O my God, my soul is cast down within me: therefore will I remember thee from the land of Jordan.Soul sorrows and soul reliefs I. Soul sorrows.1. Oppressive. “ O my God, my soul is cast down within me.” They seemed to rest upon his heart as lead. Beneath their weight he sank down into darkness and despair. How often the soul falls prostrate beneath its load of grief and trials. 2. Tumultuous. “ Deep calleth unto deep.” “ Trials,” says our dramatist, “ come in battalions.” In the hour of deep conviction for sin, there comes a moral inundation. 3. Excruciating. “ As with a sword,” etc. As the physical nerves quiver with agony at the entrance of the sword, so his soul writhed at the reproaches of ungodly men. II. Soul reliefs.1. Memory. 2. Hope. 3. Prayer. 4. Self-fellowship. “ David,” says Calvin, “ represents himself here as divided into two parts. In so far as he rests through faith in God’ s promises, he raises himself, equipped with the spirit of an invincible valour against the feelings of the flesh, and at the same time blames his weakness.” David here-- (1) inquires of his own soul the cause of his own sorrows; and(2) exhorts it to trust in God. “ Hope thou in God.” God is the “ health of my countenance.” He will clear away all the gloom, and make it bright with the sunshine of His love. (Homilist.) My soul is cast down within me There are times when the soul is cast down within us like David’ s. Strength, courage, hope, are dead. We lose the very sense of freedom, and are as a wreck, borne to and fro helpless on the currents, to be dashed at last on some inhospitable shore. There are inward movements of the spirit, known only to God, which bring us to the same prostration. However it may have been reached, no man of deep human experience is ignorant of David’ s meaning in our text. I. Forgetting God is man’ s natural instinct when his soul is cast down within him. Despair is reckless, and deep misery tends strongly to despair. Job’ s state of mind, as described in Job 3:1-26., was anything but gracious. He was so unutterably wretched that he cursed his very existence. And this is the peril of souls when east down. They think no one cares for them. I am but a waif on the great moaning ocean; it may drift me as it pleases, and cast me when it has done with me to rot forgotten on the shore. This is the language of many a natural heart in its hour of anguish; and on a broader scale, times of great social or national misery are constantly found to be times of wild, fierce recklessness of truth, honour, dignity, charity, and God. II. Consider the reason, nature, and fruit of David’ s remembrance of God when his “ soul was cast down within him.”1. The reason. I will remember Thee, for I am not my own, but Thine. I am bound to measure myself by the measure of Thy love. What does the Incarnation mean, but that God claims us by a right, and holds us by a bond of infinite strength? Nothing worth in ourselves, in Christ we are precious in His sight. 2. The nature of the remembrance. That the Lord was his portion, of which neither earth nor hell could rob him. God was left if all else was lost. And God was his “ rock,” enduring, unchangeable. And God was the health of his countenance, the spring of his everlasting joy. 3. The fruit of his remembrance of God in the depths--perfect peace. (J. Baldwin Brown, B. A.) Help in God I. As appropriation. “ O my God.” In proportion as you feel your need of anything, and value it, you are anxious to make it your own. II. The confession. “ O my God, my soul is cast down within me.” “ Man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward.” Observe, here, the speaker himself. David, a great man who had even reached the throne, is the man who says, “ My soul is cast down.” Do you imagine that the head never aches that wears a crown? Or that you are more likely to escape the winds and storms by building your house high on the side of the hill? A Christian merchant, some years ago, who had retired from business, and employed his substance in the cause of God, lately said to me, “ I have found my troubles increase in life precisely in proportion to the number of my servants, and the growth of my property.” Paul says, “ We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed.” This is well. It is not the water without a vessel, if it were as large as the Atlantic, that would sink it; but the water that gets in. While the mind is calm, peaceful, and heavenly, outward distresses are of little importance. But when all is dark without, and gloomy within too, then is he tried. “ A man’ s spirit may sustain his infirmities, but a wounded spirit who can bear?” --and we may add, who can cure? III. His resolution. “ Therefore I will remember Thee.” At, this is not a natural resolution: we are naturally alienated from the life of God. He destroys every drop of water in our vessels, in order that we may be compelled either to perish of thirst, or to inquire after Him, the fountain of living water. And it is well if we remember Him, and ask, “ Where is God my maker, who giveth songs in the night?” Thus it was with Manasseh: in his affliction he sought the Lord God of his fathers, and He was found of him. It was thus with the prodigal, in the parable; when he began to be in want, he said, “ I will arise and go to my father.” How many have done this since! IV. A specification. “ I will remember thee from the land of Jordan,” etc. Are there not spots toward which you can look, where God perhaps freed your mind from a grievous snare and temptation, and made you free indeed--where perhaps God commanded a wonderful deliverance for you--where He turned the valley of death into the morning--where at evening-tide it was made light. These Mizars, these little hills, are worth their weight in gold. (W. Jay.) The remembrance of God the result of mental depression I. Devout confidence. “ O my God.”1. Mine by natural right (Job 10:8; Psalms 119:73; Psalms 139:13; Zechariah 12:1; Hebrews 12:9). 2. Mine by personal preference (Psalms 63:1-8; Psalms 72:25). 3. Mine by adopting love (Jeremiah 3:19; Romans 8:15; Galatians 4:6). 4. Mine by Divine appropriation. 5. Mine by public avowal (Isaiah 44:5). II. Mental depression. This may result--1. From bodily infirmities (Isaiah 38:14-15). 2. From backsliding of heart. Defects in love, zeal, diligence. 3. From inward conflicts. 4. From afflictive bereavements. 5. From the state of mankind (Psalms 119:58; Psalms 119:136; Psalms 119:158; Philippians 3:18). III. A Pious remembrance of God.1. Wherever we go, God should be in our recollection. His actual presence; His continual agency; what He is in Himself and to His people. 2. The remembrance of God is the most effectual antidote against mental depression (2 Corinthians 4:17; Hebrews 12:11). The text may serve to remind us, by way of inference--1. That man is born to trouble. The best of men may be disquieted and depressed: “ without are fightings, and within are fears.” 2. That pious people are accustomed to pour out their complaints to God. 3. That men who have no interest in God have no refuge in the hour of trouble; for vain is the help of man. (Sketches of Four Hundred Sermons.) Religious melancholy 1. The first case is of those who are apt to think that the reformation of their lives hath not proceeded from a sincere love of God, and an unwillingness to displease Him; but from a mere dread of those punishments which He hath threatened. (1) Fear is one of the passions God has planted in our souls, as well as love; they are both the creatures of His wisdom and power; and whatever He did put in us was for some end, and may have a good use. Wherefore, when the passion of fear doth serve the end for which God grafted it in our minds, there can be no doubt but He will approve the good effects which it doth produce. (2) God hath enforced all the laws He hath given to the children of men by threatenings as well as by promises; but as promises are to work upon our love, so threats are to excite our fears; God having made the motives to our obedience to answer the different passions with which He hath endued our souls. (3) Our Saviour and His disciples address themselves not only to the passion of love, but also to that of fear: which they never would have done had they been conscious that the sacrifices of fear would not have ascended up to heaven with a grateful savour. 2. Some serious Christians complain of a want of inclination to holy things, and a coldness in their devotions. They do not come to God’ s house, nor address themselves to their prayers, with such an appetite as they do to the business of the world; but want earliest and fervent desires for the success of the petitions. Now, in abatement of their trouble, give me leave to lay the following observations before them. (1) The difference of degrees of affections with which men serve God often depends upon the difference of their tempers and constitutions. God will measure their obedience by the sincerity of their minds, that lies in their own power; and not by the difference of their constitutions, which was not made by themselves. (2) They who are not carried by their passions into the service of God, but render worship to Him upon rational motives, because He is the giver of all good things, seem to act upon a higher and more sublime principle: for notwithstanding they are destitute of that pleasing warmth in their passions which provokes others to pray unto God, and to be thankful unto Him, yet they do not cease to celebrate His praise, because it is their duty to do it, and because reason suggests that they ought to make grateful acknowledgments of His infinite mercies. (3) The most zealous are not always the best men. (4) The most holy servants of God cannot maintain an equal warmth in their devotions at all times. (5) What hitherto hath been said about coldness and damps in the minds of men while they are engaged in religious duty has been to comfort those who are exceedingly grieved at it. Now, notwithstanding it is not to be expected, nor necessary, that these innocent persons should meet with a complete cure of their grief, yet I must tell them that nothing will more enliven their spirits in the service of God than deliberate meditations of Him and of themselves before they enter upon any part of Divine worship. 3. I come to the case of those unhappy persons who have naughty and sometimes blasphemous thoughts start in their minds while they are exercised in the worship of God, and to fear that God hath utterly cast them off. That their case is not so dangerous as they apprehend it, I shall endeavour to show by the following considerations. (1) Because these frightful thoughts do for the most part proceed from the disorder and indisposition of the body. (2) Because they are mostly good people who are exercised with them. (3) Because it is not in the power of those disconsolate Christians, whom these bad thoughts so vex and torment, with all their endeavours to stifle and suppress them. (4) They who labour under the burden of such dismal thoughts are seldom betrayed into any great or deliberate sin. For they, having a very low opinion of the condition of their souls, are jealous of the least temptations. Which is the cause they commonly set a strict guard over their words and actions. Advice for behaviour under these perplexing disorders of mind, and for recovery from them.(1) Frequently observe how your thoughts are employed. Men cannot think foolishly and act wisely. Besides, idle thoughts are neighbours to bad ones, and there is a straight and short passage from one to the other. (2) Endeavour to keep all your passions within due bounds, since storms of passion confound the soul, and make way for evil thoughts. (3) Do not leave your calling, nor forsake the post wherein Providence has placed you. There is always more melancholy to be found in a cloister than in the market-place. (4) When you find these thoughts creeping upon you, be not mightily dejected, as if they were certain tokens of your reprobation. For so far as they depend upon the indisposition of the body, which for the most part they chiefly do, I take them no more to be marks of the Divine displeasure than sickness, or losses, or any other calamity you may meet with in the world. When these troublesome thoughts begin to stir, do not fall into any violent passion, which will abate the courage and shatter the resolutions of your soul; but having first commended your miserable case to the tender care and compassions of your Heavenly Father, who will not let you be afflicted above measure, endeavour with a meek and sedate temper quietly to bear them. (5) Do not think the worse of God for them, or accuse His providence of want of care of you. For He might have permitted such thoughts to have continued perpetually, or at least to have visited you much oftener, and in a more frightful manner, and all this without the least diminution of His justice. (6) Let not these afflicting thoughts discourage you from the exercise of your devotions; nor tempt you to omit, or negligently discharge any one Christian office or duty. (Bishop Moore.) Depression of spirits in Christians I. The causes.1. In many cases melancholy proceeds from bodily weakness. 2. Another cause is a habit which some have of judging themselves, not from the Word of God, but from the words of men. 3. They who seek God and endeavour to serve Him, in some instances, form too high expectations of assurance and of comfort. They expect clearer revelations of Divine things; brighter evidence of their justification, and greater joy in the Holy Ghost, than is promised them in this present world. 4. Another cause of discouragement, or deep concern in Christians who have been for some time disciples, is the advancement they have made in spiritual knowledge. Every succeeding year they appear to themselves more sinful and less worthy than in years past. They think more, also, of what is at stake, and what it is to lose their souls. 5. There is also a plain distinction between the doubting of unbelief and the doubting which is through infirmity; as there is also between the sins of infidels and of weak believers. II. Them use. They are profitable--1. For the trial of your faith. “ The Lord would have those who walk in the light never forget what it is to sit in darkness and the shadow of death. A grieved spirit is the best foundation of a faithful heart.” 2. These desponding apprehensions are a powerful remedy for self-righteousness and spiritual pride. 3. By this depression of spirits, to which good men are subject, you are taught how little confidence can be placed in your religious feelings, or the mere state of your passions. In a spiritual sense it is sometimes “ better to go to the house of mourning than to the house of feasting.” III. What is the remedy for this dejection? Do as the psalmist did; put your trust in God. How far religious sorrow may be profitable for you, how far necessary, He only knows. It seems to us more desirable to rejoice in the Lord than to mourn His absence. (Bishop Griswold.) Sweet stimulants for the fainting soul I. The complaint.1. The causes of our being cast down are very numerous. Sometimes it is pain of body; peradventure a wearying pain, which tries the nerves, prevents sleep, distracts our attention, drives away comfort, and hides contentment from our eyes. Often, too, has it been debility of body; some secret disease has been sapping and undermining the very strength of our life. 2. Let us pass now from the most obvious to the more subtle causes of soul-dejection. This complaint is very common among God’ s people. When the young believer has first to suffer from it, he thinks that he cannot be a child of God; “ for,” saith he, “ if I were a child of God, should I be thus?” What fine dreams some of us have when we are just converted! We know not what we are born to in our second birth, and when trouble comes upon us it surprises us. 3. Let me go a step further, and say that the disease mentioned in our text, although it is exceedingly painful, is not at all dangerous. When a man has the toothache it is often very distressing, but it does not kill him. In like manner, God’ s children are much vexed with their doubts and fears, but they are never killed by them. 4. I would remark, yet further, that a man may actually be growing in grace while he is cast down; aye, and he may really be standing higher when he is cast down than he did when he stood upright. When we sink the lowest in our own esteem, we rise the highest in fellowship with Christ, and in knowledge of Him. To be cast down is often the best thing that could happen to us. Do you ask, “ Why?” Because, when we are cast down, it checks our pride. Were it not for this thorn in the flesh, we should be exalted beyond measure. Besides, when this downcasting comes, it sets us to work at self-examination. Another benefit that we derive from being cast down is that it qualifies us to sympathize with others. II. The two remedies here mentioned.1. A reference of ourselves to God. If thou hast a trouble to bear, the best thing for thee to do is not to try to bear it at all, but to cast it upon the shoulders of the Eternal. Often, when I call to see a troubled Christian, do you know what he is almost sure to say? “ Oh, sir, I do not feel this--and I do fear that--and I cannot help thinking the other!” That great I is the root of all our sorrows, what I feel, or what I do not feel; that is enough to make any one miserable. It is a wise plan to say to such an one, “ Oh yes! I know that all you say about yourself is only too true; but, now, let me hear what you have to say about Christ.” What a change would come over our spirits if we were all to act thus! 2. The grateful remembrance of the past. You have known the sweetness of Jesus’ s love, yet you are cast down! Shame upon you! Pluck off those robes of mourning, lay aside that sackcloth and those ashes, down from the willows snatch your harps, and let us together sing praises unto Him whose love and power and faithfulness and goodness shall ever be the same. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Religious depression and its remedy I. The sigh of religious depression. What has caused it?1. The faithlessness of friends and kindred. Bitter as it may be to feel the want of respect, of reverence, of obedience, of love from the children that are dear to us, that bitterness is intensified when memory testifies that we ourselves caused the evil by our unwisdom, neglect, or excess of tenderness. 2. The sneer of enemies. To many sensitive natures this is the most painful form of persecution. 3. The hiding of God’ s face. II. The remedy. 1. Faith remembering. 2. Faith hoping. If you turn your back to the sun your shadow will be before you, but if you turn your face to the sun your shadow will be behind you, and you see it not. If you turn your back on God dark shadows will cross your path, thick darkness will be before you; but with your face towards God you will see light in His light, the darkness is past and the true light shineth. 3. Faith triumphing. On the Welsh coast there is a small rocky island with a lighthouse, and in the lighthouse a bell, which on stormy nights rings out its solemn warning to the approaching mariner. When all is calm the bell is not heard, it hangs mute; but when the winds become fierce, and the waves dash high, the bell is set going. It was the storm of trouble that awoke the full harmony of David’ s harp. (R. Roberts.) Disappointment The path of life is strewed with the fallen blossoms of hope. I. God often disappoints us to teach us submission to his will. Many and painful experiences are necessary before the natural self-will and self-sufficiency are expelled from the heart. II. Disappointments are sent us because God means to cite us something better than what we have chosen for ourselves. This is a most familiar experience. We have set our heart upon the attainment of some particular good. God knew better than we did, and in His love He refused to give us what would have been unsuitable to us. III. God disappoints us at present, to give us what we seek at some better time. Illustrate by Joseph’ s disappointment when forgotten by the butler. But, when his hopes were at last realized, how much richer the inheritance! God’ s choice of time, as well as God’ s choice of gift, will always be found to he the wisest and best. IV. Our sense of disappointment is unreasonable and foolish. We are ready to forget that there is a law of orderly development by which God works out His plans. Would the husbandman have a right to be disappointed when he discovered that the seed he sowed yesterday had not yet even appeared above the soil? And many of our disappointments are as unreasonable. (Evangelical Advocate.) Psalms 42:7 Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy waterspouts: all Thy waves and Thy billows are gone over me.The call of the universe I have long wanted some one whose soul hears to write a poem on this subject, the call of the sea. It has for years been a fancy of mine that the great mysterious, multitudinous voice of the sea is just a composite of all the sounds of the world which have been brought down to it by all the rivers in their courses through the lands. You will hear the tinkle and drip of pellucid springs hidden deep in remote hill countries; the rattling laughter of summer streams that have caught up on their way the rustling of leaves and sedges, the piping of birds, the lowing of cattle, the shouts and merry-making of children, the great commingled murmur of manifold labour. All these the vast world-embracing sea has taken in and blended, and harmonized into its own eternal call. It is deep calling unto deep, the soul of the sea to the soul of the man. How wonderful is this interchange, this give and take, in God’ s world which binds all things into one common life! We are often tempted to forget that we belong to the universe, that we are part and parcel of its great interchanges, its system of give and take, that the little pulse of our life is quite as essential as the heart-beat of the world or the circulation of the stars. The sea has its countless veins and arteries through all the lands; it is no less true that even our little hidden spring in the lonely old pasture times its small pulse by the heart of the sea. When we leave all these pictures and suggestions of the physical universe and push back into the depths of the unseen and spiritual universe, we may be sure that the same law holds. We will see, first of all, that the spiritual universe is just as vast and complicated in magnitude and structure as is the physical universe. Every smallest, most hidden soul is one with the great central life. It gives and takes with that eternal source. The call of the spiritual universe finds its way into all remotest solitudes. I. Consider how the soul is called and lured by the universe of thought. I remember well the shock with which I entered the nursery, strewn with toys, and for the first time found its little inmate curled up in the window-seat, lost, absorbed in a book. The same thought came to me as at the spring. What I has this little soul started for the sea? I felt a momentary pang of jealousy that the great invisible powers of thought had sent their irresistible call to the heart of my little child. Then I thought, this young soul is one with that unseen universe. It is only claiming its own. It is simply the deep calling to the deep. After that first call, how we hurry outward, away from things to thoughts. How swiftly are we borne onward into realm after realm in our-unseen universe of thought--poetry, prophecy, vision, religion, science, philosophy, art, government. In our universe of thought we have already entered into life eternal, when “ time shall be no more” and where “ death is swallowed up in victory.” II. The same deep, irresistible call draws us into the universe of love. We begin life not only immersed in things, but in self-interest. The little child, like the young bird in the nest, is wholly self-centred, expecting, demanding that all things shall be brought to it. But the kingdom of love lives round about the young child as surely as the kingdom of the air lies round about the young bird in the nest. The one utters as sure a call to the soul as the other to the wing, “ Come, come, here is your destiny, your kingdom!” The soul without love in this world is as crippled and helpless as the bird with broken wing. How the kingdom of love opens to us, realm after realm, luring us on! I We say it easily, “ love is the greatest thing in the world” ; then in the next breath we declare that selfishness is the mainspring of all the practical affairs of life. No, no. The greatest does not so easily give up its kingdom. Gravitation does not let go its hold upon the planet because the thistledown floats in summer heavens. The self-regarding life is self-centred. Its motion is centripetal, inward upon itself, to loneliness, bitterness, despair. The unselfish life, the love-life, is ever centrifugal, outward, outward into constantly widening circles. The activities of the world are under the vital impulsions and inspirations of good-will, good-fellowship, truth, love. You can no more reverse this Divine order of brotherhood among men than you can reverse the movement of the stars. How old is love? Old as the human heart, old as God; “ for God is love, and he who loveth is born of God and knoweth God.” How common is love? Common as breathing and heart-beat. “ His kingdom ruleth over all.” Consider likewise with what consuming passion men have loved liberty, throwing their lives a willing sacrifice upon her recking altars. How have men loved truth and justice and righteousness! Out of the depths of the human soul has gone a true answer to the deep call of the invisible universe, its destiny and its home. III. Another call from the spiritual universe is to the realm of sorrow, We are not good for much until our hearts are broken. Sorrow cleanses our vision of misty humours, restores our spiritual myopia, so that we get a clear long-range outlook upon the verities, the imperishable substances of the inner life. He has lived poorly who has come to mature years and has not been touched by world-pain. No debonair, smug, optimistic Christ need come to this world. Unless the deep cry of humanity has found the deeps in His soul, let Him stay in His comfortable heaven. IV. At last, the voice that sounds the final depth of our being is the call of death. Out of the unseen and eternal the secret message arrives, “ Come! Come! Away from all things visible.” Your hour is at hand. You must be away to your destiny and home. Then you will know what it is to be alone with death; alone, yet not alone, for out of the depths of the spirit goes up the cry, “ Whom have I in heaven but Thee?” and out of t,he eternal depths falls the answer, swift and true, “ Because I live, ye shall live also.” It is not the answer of the universe. For you, in that hour, there is no universe. It is the answer of the eternal Father-heart to the cry of the child-heart, deep to deep, soul to soul. Oh, friends, believe me, we are not the children of houses and streets and shops and markets and offices. We are the children of our Father’ s universe. (J. H. Ecob, D. D.) Deep calling unto deep “ Deep calleth unto deep.” It is the profound responsiveness of life which those words utter--the responsiveness of the world and the human nature which inhabits it to one another. How clear they are, and how they call and answer to each other--the world and man! It may be in the region of thought or in the region of action; it may be a great problem awakening the profoundest intelligence, and saying, “ Come, find my solution,” or it may be a great task summoning the active powers, and saying, “ Come, do me” ; it may be in an excitement and a tumult which shakes the nature through and through, or it may be in a serene and open calmness which means more than any tumult. The form is nothing; the substance of the experience is everything. “ Deep calleth unto deep.” It is a great inspiring spectacle when this is seen taking place in a young man’ s life. There is a beautiful exhilaration in it. The mysterious world lifts up its voice and asks its old unanswered questions problems which have puzzled all the generations which have come and gone, lo! they are not dead. They are still alive. All that is most serious and earnest in him tells him that their answers must be somewhere. Perhaps he can find what all who have gone before have failed to find. So the best which the young man is leaps to wrestle with the hardest which the world can show; so deep answereth to deep. At the other end of life the same thing comes, only in another way. When the great shadow of the earth lies on the old man’ s soul, and the light of the life beyond is gathering in the western sky--how often then a patience and a faith, a love and trust and spiritual certainty come forth which all the life has been preparing unconsciously; and in the silent days which wait the end, the soul hears the eternity, and “ Deep calleth unto deep.” This, then, is what we mean by deep calling unto deep. You see what kind of life it makes. There is another kind of life by contrast with which this kind may perhaps best be understood. There is a life to which the world seems easy, and so in which the strongest powers of the human nature are not stirred. I call that the life in which shallow calleth unto shallow. Like little pools lying in the rock, none of them more than an inch deep, all of them rippling and twinkling in the sunshine and the breeze--so lie the small interests of the world and the small powers of man; and they talk with one another, and one perfectly answers the demand which the other makes. Do you not know all that? The world simply as a place of enjoyment summons man simply as a being capable of enjoyment. It is the invitation of the surface to the surface--of the surface of the world to the surface of the man. What shall we say of this? It is real. It is legitimate. In its degree and its proportion it is good; but made the whole of life and cut off from connection with the deeper converse between the world and the soul, it is dreadful, The world does say to us, “ Enjoy” ; and it is good for us to hear her invitation. But for the world to say, and for us to hear, nothing better or deeper than “ Enjoy” is to turn the relation between the world and man into something hardly better than which exists between the corn-field and the crows. Only when the deeper communion, rich and full and strong, is going on below, between the depths of life and the depths of man--only then is the surface communion healthy and natural and good. I have spoken of deep calling upon deep, which is great and noble; and of shallow calling upon shallow, which is unsatisfactory and weak. The words of David suggest to me also that there is such a thing as deep calling unto shallow--by which I mean, of course, the profound and sacred interests of life crying out and finding nothing but the slight and foolish and selfish parts of a man ready to reply. There are a host of men who will not leave great themes and tasks alone and be content to live trivially among trivial things. They are too enterprising, too alive for that. They have perception enough to hear the great questions and see the great tasks; but they have not earnestness and self-control enough to answer them with serious thought and strong endeavour; so they sing their answer to the thunder, which is not satisfied or answered. Now let us turn and, with another ear, listen to the shallow calling to the deep. When the mere superficial things of life, which are all legitimate enough in their true places and enlisting their own kind of interest, aspire to lay hold of man’ s serious anxiety and to enlist his earnest thought, then there is born a sense of disproportion just the opposite of that of which I have been speaking--a disproportion which seems to be rightly described as the shallow calling to the deep. If we are offended when eternity calls to men, and men chatter about it as if it were a trifle, so we also ought to be offended when some trifle speaks to them and they look solemn and burdened and anxious over it, and discuss it as if it were a thing of everlasting import. Have you never stood in the midst of the world of fashion and marvelled how it was possible that men and women should care, as those around you seem to care, about the little conventionalities which made the scenery and problems of its life? There is a noble economy of the deepest life. There is a watchful reserve which keeps guard over the powers of profound anxiety and devoted work, and refuses to give them away to any first applicant who comes and asks. Wealth rolls up to the door and says, “ Give me your great anxiety” ; and you look up and answer, “ No, not for you; here is a little half-indifferent desire which is all that you deserve.” Popularity comes and says, “ Work with all your might for me” ; and you reply, “ No; you are not of consequence enough for that. Here is a small fragment of energy which you may have, if you want it; but that is all.” Even knowledge comes and says, “ Give your whole soul to me” ; and you must answer once more, “ No; great, good, beautiful as you are, you are not worthy of a man’ s whole soul.” But then at last comes One far more majestic than them all--God comes with His supreme demand for goodness and for character, and then you open the doors of your whole nature and bid your holiest and profoundest devotion to come trooping forth. Oh, at least do this. If you are not ready to give your deepest affections, your most utter loyalty to God and Christ, at least refuse to give them to any other master. None but God is worthy of the total offering of man! (Bishop Phillips Brooks.) Deep calleth unto deep In the grandeur of nature there are awful harmonies. When the storm agitates the ocean below, the heavens above hear the tumult and answer to the clamour. Among the Alps, in the day of tempest, the solemnly silent peaks break through their sacred quiet and speak to each other. The psalmist’ s meaning, no doubt, was that the wild ocean of troubles without him when he wrote were answered to by the depth of trouble in his soul. Everything around was like an ocean tossed with tempest: his griefs came wave upon wave. And conscience, as with a lightning flash, lit up the abyss of his own inward evil, made him see the darkness of the sins into which he had fallen, and filled him with despondence and foreboding. But, now, note the truth, that where there is one deep it calls to another, and this everywhere. See this in connection with-- I. The eternal purposes of God and their fulfilment in fact. What a deep these purposes are: that they should have allowed the intrusion of sin; that there should be a Divine decree of election. But all these are answered to by fact. Sin does exist in the world and sorrow also. And all men are not saved. Why is this, when God is good and omnipotent? Are not both the facts and the decrees mysteries, equal mysteries? All that God has ordained has been done; and this not in virtue of His omnipotence, but consistently with man’ s free will. The deep of predestination answers to the deep of providence, and both glorify God. II. Deep affliction. All are not tried alike. Some have little, others much of trial. You that have much, remember the depth of the Divine faithfulness. In proportion to your tribulations shall be your consolations. Shallow sorrows receive but shallow graces; but if you have deep afflictions, you shall obtain deeper proofs of the faithfulness of God. And great deeps of trial bring with them great deeps of promises. When the Lord sets His servants to do extraordinary work He always gives them extraordinary strength. III. Human wretchedness paralleled by divine grace. Never for a moment attempt to make out the abyss of the fall to be less deep than it is--it is bottomless. The miseries of mankind cannot be exaggerated. But there is a deep which answers to the deep of human ruin, and it is the deep of Divine grace. IV. The depth of divine love to the saints calls for a deep of consecration in their hearts. He loved you from the beginning. Think what you have thence received. The love of God which has been manifested in you is a very heaven of love. Deeps of the Saviour’ s grief, ye call to deeps of spiritual repentance. The agonies of Christ call us to the slaughter of our sins. As for poor sinners, if God saved me, how I ought to lay out my life to try and save them. V. A depth of divine forbearance answers to another deep, a deep of immeasurable and never-ending wrath in the world to come. The Divine forbearance is certainly very wonderful. Here is a reeking Sodom in the heart of a Christian city. It is a very great mystery that God permits the ungodly to go on as they do. What insults blasphemers perpetrate upon God. But if that forbearance be despised, then as surely as He has shown so great deep thereof, so will He show an equal deep of justice. The deeps of sin are already challenging the deeps of that justice. “ Turn ye, turn ye, why will ye die?” VI. The blessed deep of holy happiness for the saints in heaven--this calls for our deep joy and thankfulness now. (C. H. Spurgeon.) De prefundis clamavi I. The force of the image which is here employed. In Jonah we have almost the same words (chap. 11.). There is nothing that moves with such mighty, majestic sweep as the ocean. But the sea is pitiless. The waves succeed each other with a certain measured, harmonious mot, ion. It is the music of destruction. Unhasting, unresting, they surge on. The strongest things that man can build are tossed as waifs on their crests or flung as wrecks on the strand. Again, the ocean is profoundly melancholy and restless, yet it aims at and accomplishes nothing, thus adding to the aptness of this image of calamity of which David tells. II. Let us try to estimate the experience which the image portrays.1. There are two spheres of pain. The one comprehends the common experience of mankind. God loves not monotonies, and there is none so sad as a monotony, because a satiety, of joy. And hence God has ordained that every life should be chequered. The play of the sunlight and the shadows makes on the whole, for most, a tolerably happy experience of life. Indeed joy and sorrow are very relative terms. “ Make up your mind,” says Mr. Carlyle, “ that you deserve to be hanged, and it will be a happiness only to be shot.” Very small pleasures to some are intense joys to others. 2. We mean something quite different from this when we speak of calamity, the anguish through which a soul may be called to pass, and the despair in which it may be lost. Few pass far along the path of life without learning how sorrows differ from calamities; without having to breast a shock which threatens the whole framework of their fortunes. But there are those whose sadder lot it is, like young David, to know little else. Storm after storm, rising and raging with brief intervals of sunlight, till the strength is exhausted, and hope even is ready to expire. It is this “ wave upon wave” which is so exhausting. One shock we can breast and master, and if it leave us drenched and shivering, no matter; the sunlight comes, and in the haven the sense of dangers faced and conquered makes the heart throb, and the eyes flash with a proud and joyful fire. You say--Never was man so tried! Well, be it so. You are here, the living, to pray and to praise; here with life, God, and an eternal future. “ Why should a living man complain,” when he has God, and a future which transcends an archangel’ s destiny, and out-soars the most daring dreams? David was not so faithless. Hardly had the moan crossed his lips, when it was drowned in a burst of glorious joy. “ Watchman, what of the night?” The night is far spent, the day is at hand; the golden flush is already stealing up in the eastern sky. Cease thy moan, faint heart; tune thy lips to praise. See beyond the sullen tempest and the moaning sea a band of golden light in the far distance. A sure pilot steers thy storm-tossed vessel, and He will not leave the helm till He has landed thee on that blessed shore. (J. Baldwin Brown, B. A.) Psalms 42:8 Yet the Lord will command His lovingkindness in the daytime, and in the night His song shall be with me. The changes of life and their comforts in God Psalms 43:1-5, have so close a connection that they must be regarded as one. From external and internal evidence, they belong to David, and to that part of his life when he was fleeing from the face of Absalom his son. It was the Gethsemane of David, and in and up through his heart was throbbing the spiritual life of the Lord Jesus. It is wonderful when we open these ancient books to find the identity of human life. We feel the beatings of the same heart and see the tears which are common to us all. I. There must be changes in every true life. There is day and there is night, the most opposed conditions. See this especially in the life of our Lord. And these changes are according to a fixed law. II. To suit these changes in life there are divine provisions. In the day God commands His lovingkindness--His manifold kind providences and grace, and in the night “ His song” --the deep, inward realization of His love. III. There is a constant duty on our part amid all--to pray--“ My prayer unto the God of my life. (John Key, D. D.) God’ s carriage unto David, and David’ s carriage again unto God I. The carriage of God to David.1. The nature of it. (1) Lovingkindness. There is a common end ordinary kindness which God shows to all sorts of men, upon whom He causes His sun to shine and His rain to fall: but He is peculiar in His favours towards His people, and bears special lovingkindness to them of all others besides (Psalms 25:10). Now, this peculiar lovingkindness is that which David here speaks of (Ephesians 1:4-5). This is the kindness and love of God our Saviour, which does in time appear unto us, as it is (Titus 3:4). And all other kindnesses besides flow from this first kindness to us, whether spiritual or temporal; this is the common and general spring and fountain and source of all the rest. David in his present condition of distress was now in the depths; “ deep calleth unto deep,” etc. But yet he does promise to himself an experience of God’ s favour: “ Yet the Lord will command His lovingkindness,” etc.; that is, He will do somewhat which may help me in this my affliction, as a fruit of His lovingkindness towards me. We should be careful to have good thoughts of God in the worst conditions that can happen unto us, and be well persuaded of His favour towards us, as well as we can; not to say, when any evil befalls us, it will always be thus, it will never be otherwise. No, but there will a change come, when God sees fitting and most expedient for us. God hath a spring of lovingkindness in Him, and this it will stream itself forth in answerable expressions from:Him, and that suitable to our occasions, and the conditions in which we are. If we be such as belong to Him, we may assure ourselves of so much from Him, and He will not be wanting to us in it; He never fails those that wait upon Him. (2) By “ His song” we may understand those comfortable expressions of God’ s lovingkindness to David’ s soul which caused him even to sing for joy (Psalms 32:7; Acts 16:25). It is a thing which cannot be expressed, the great comfort which the people of God find and feel oftentimes from Him at such times as the world looks upon them as in a miserable condition, while He does secretly whisper to their souls many sweet and gracious intimations. (a) His acceptance of their persons, and of that favour in which they are with Him (Daniel 9:23). (b) His observations of their condition and the affliction under which they are; He does hint, also, that unto them (Exodus 3:7). (c) Hope of freedom and deliverance. 2. The conveyance of it. (1) While it is said here that God will command:His lovingkindness, there are divers things which are implied in this expression; but that which seems principally to be intended is, the efficacy of it; He will command it, therefore it shall take effect. (2) The second is, “ Shall be with me” ; which does denote the promptness and readiness of it at hand: When trouble is near to afflict, comfort shall then be near to support, and to uphold against trouble (Psalms 46:1). Because God Himself is with us, therefore His songs shall be with us also, as coming from Him. 3. The time and season. “ In the daytime, and in the night.” These two divide our whole time, day and night, and they do both of them still tender us somewhat of God’ s goodness; His lovingkindness in the daytime; His song in the night; the one as the time for the performance, the other as the time for considering and meditating upon it. (1) The businesses of the day are commonly of two sorts, our employments and our refreshments, and in either of these do we partake of the lovingkindness of the Lord. (a) First, in our employments, by way of assistance, as He does enable us to the performance of them; and by way of success, as He does give a blessing and efficacy to them. (b) So likewise as to our refreshments, it is He which puts a comfort into them, without which they could not be so refreshing and comfortable unto us. (2) The night is a time of horror and dreadfulness and fear; yea, but then have the servants of God His songs with them; and He refreshes them with gracious intimations when they lie awake in the night. Look, as that is the time wherein conscience is most stirring, so then, also, are there sweetest impartments and communications of the comforts of God to those also who have communion with Him. II. The carriage of David to God. “ My prayer unto the God of my life.”1. A duty. David knows that God will do thus and thus for him, that “ He will command His lovingkindness,” etc., but yet he will not neglect prayer notwithstanding, but makes use of that as a means which God hath sanctified for the obtaining of favour from Him. God (says he) will do this and this for me, but I will pray to Him for the accomplishment of it. 2. A privilege. David speaks of it here triumphantly, as he did of all the rest, and mentions it as a great relief to him in his present distress. There are two ways in respect whereof prayer is very comfortable, and a very great advantage to God’ s servants, which make conscience of it: first, in the act and performance; and, secondly, in the issue and effect. (Thomas Herren, D. D.) Blessings by day, songs in the night I. Large anticipations.1. Night and day should exhibit nothing but seasons for songs. In the best condition there is something over which we may murmur; in the worst something over which we may be thankful. Religion always ministers to hope. 2. Amid outward trials the Christian may calculate on inward peace. (1) Because of the “ lovingkindness” of God. God commands this to rest on the faithful. There is no authority to countermand His decree. (2) Because He is the “ God of our life.” (3) Because God has promised to bless. (4) Because personal experience proves that in the past there have been marvellous interventions of God. The remembrance of God’ s mercies strengthens faith. “ I will remember thee from the land of Jordan.” II. Determined dedication.1. To the duty of praise. This is great part of the employ-meet of heaven. It should begin here. 2. To renewed prayer. If we are to have true happiness it must be from God, our God, who shall “ command” it. (Homiletic Magazine.) The song and the prayer Here this great pleader is in deep distress, both in body and soul. He feels overwhelmed and broken down; and he pathetically explains, in jerky sentences, as though he really were in trouble, he explains to God what is the matter. And then all at once there comes a gleam of hope, and he begins instantly, just as if by the invisible touch of another hand and another power outside himself. As that gleam of hope comes, he begins to blend prayer and praise together, and says, “ I will sing, sing in the night, in the quiet and silent darkness I will sing.” Some time ago, during a monsoon, when we were steaming down the Indian Ocean on our way to Australia, the clouds and atmosphere were thick. Sometimes it rained in torrents, and sometimes there was a kind of indescribable mist that wetted the ship and everything and everybody there. And then all at once, as by the strange magic of nature, there would come an aperture in the cloud; and just on one spot, and not so long as the area of this chapel, it seemed to me, just on one spot the sun would shine on the troubled and turbid waters. And everybody rushed on deck the moment that the sun thus glistened, and they got to the spot where they could see it best. And we all of us, with a kind of strange joy, hailed that gleam, that flash of sunlight on the sea. And it seemed to have taken us at once into a new world. And here in this psalm, amid all the storm, did you hear it pelt, as I read it? Here is David talking to God, and David’ s soul is disquieted. And then all at once there is a gleam, yea, despite it all, and in the teeth of it all, “ And the Lord will command His lovingkindness in the daytime, and in the night His song shall be with me, and my prayer unto the God of my life.” I. And, first of all, let me say that every soul has its own prayer--“ My prayer unto the God of my life.” Whoever we are, whatever we may be; it must be, specially, exclusively, intensely my own prayer. No man can ever take the place of my soul, and feel its sins, and its sorrows, and its wants. And so he can never breathe my prayer. It must be “ My prayer unto the God of my life.” And if we think a minute, we see that it must be so. For prayer springs from different causes; it is uttered in different circumstances and conditions; it is expressed in different words--and must be! The learned and refined man will express his prayer to God in refined and beautiful language. But the unlearned, as Paul calls them, and the unrefined men will express their prayers in quite another way. But we have one common centre; we are every one of us on the main road that leads unto Him who is, and will be for ever, the Light, the Truth, the Way. All along the line that is it: the sinner must pray for himself. Every soul has its own prayer. II. And now, the next thing that I think there is in the text is this: every true prayer is to “ the God of my life.” Brethren, I am deeply thankful for that beautiful definition of God, “ The God of my life.” When I went to Mr. Spurgeon’ s College, the first theological book put in my hand was Hodge’ s Outlines of Theology. There are very many definitions of God there also, but I have forgotten them all. I have not, however, forgotten this, in any change in my life and circumstances: “ God of my life.” Yes, every step of the way, all along the dark roads, and all along the sunny days, “ the God of my life.” He is the God of all the mysteries, as well as of all the things that are palpable. The things that you and I cannot explain, for which we find no reason, lie is still “ the God of my life.” Why that father, who is the bread-winner for a wife and several children, at the most critical time in the family’ s life, why should he be smitten down to death? Why is all this? He is “ the God of my life” and of yours also. And I am sure, in the face of every enigma, He is “ the God of my life.” When Jacob was dying, he wanted to bless the two boys of Joseph. And in doing so he said a most beautiful thing, which is a beautiful description of God. Did you ever dwell on it? “ The God which fed me.” Now, I like that. “ The God which fed me all my life long unto this day, the angel that redeemed me, bless the lads.” The poetry of that is to me exquisite. But the description of God comes home to my very heart. “ The God who has fed me all my life long unto this day,” you show you have a God of Providence as well as a God of grace. Do let me say to you, it is to that God, “ the God of my life,” that the prayer is directed every morning, and at noonday, and at night. He is the God of my life, the God of my joys, the God of my sorrows, the God of my hopes, the God of all my burdens and forgivenesses, the God of the lovingkindness that crystallizes and shines and glitters round the cross. He is the God of an infinite love, of an infinite salvation. (W. Buff.) Psalms 42:9I will say unto God my Rock, Why hast Thou forgotten me?why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy? David’ s expostulation with God I. The preface or introduction. “ I will say unto God,” etc.1. The terms upon which David addresses himself to God. “ My Rock.” This was an expression suitable to the condition which David was now in, and the metaphor which he had it set forth by, to wit, of being in the “ deep” ; he had said, the waves and billows went over him, and now, therefore, does he repair to the Rock. The Lord is pleased still in Scripture to represent Himself to us as most agreeable to our present necessities. If we be sick, He is our health; if we be dead, He is our life; if we be pursued, He is our castle; if we be assaulted, He is our shield; if we be ready to sink under dangers and calamities, He is then our Rock (Psalms 18:2; Psalms 89:26; Psalms 94:22). It is a small booty to us, for God to be a rock, except He be ours, and therefore David adds this to the other. Not only the rock which I have right to, but also the rock which I have proof and trial of in former proceedings. I have made Him my rock by faith, He has made Himself my rock by love. Thus the servants of God, as they go confidently where they have interest, so they go more confidently still there where they have experience (Psalms 57:2). 2. His preparation of himself to this address. “ I will say.” (1) A word of premeditation and advice. David being now to come before God, and to address himself unto Him, does not come to Him hand over head, he cares not how; but he thinks first with himself what he will utter and speak before Him when he shall come into His presence. (2) A word of resolution. David had tried other ways, he had spoken to his own soul already, and that would not do the deed; and now he resolves to go to God Himself, and to fasten his complaints upon Him, or at least to spread them before Him, and to desire His relief of Him in them. And this is what all Christians should resolve on; it is the best course which can be taken. II. The expostulation itself. “ Why hast Thou,” etc.1. Look upon this complaint as it refers to God. “ Why hast Thou forgotten me?” This may be understood either as such which there was causes and ground for indeed, or else as such which was so only according to David’ s apprehension. (1) God does sometimes so carry Himself towards His servants as if He had forgotten them, while He suffers them to continue and abide under sundry evils which they fall into. God forgets them that so they may remember themselves. The servants of God in prosperity, and in the enjoyment of all things to their minds, are apt very often to wander and go astray, and to go out of the way; now desertion it brings them in again and reduces them, and recovers them to themselves (Luke 15:17; 1 Kings 8:47; Psalms 119:67). As God forgets His people that so they may remember themselves, so also sometimes that they may remember Him (Isaiah 17:10). That they may remember others (Amos 6:6). (2) As we may look upon this forgetting as so indeed, so we may look upon it as being so only in David’ s apprehension, and so signifying thus much unto us, that God’ s servants are apt to think God forgets them, even then when He is yet mindful of them. From want of due understanding and consideration of the manner of God’ s dealings. From impatience and too much haste. 2. As it refers to himself. (1) He expostulates about the occasion. “ Why go I mourning?” The occasions hereof to God’ s people are sundry and various: as (a) their own sins, and the corruptions which do cleave unto them. (b) The sins of others. God’ s children go mourning for these also. (c) For their own and others’ afflictions. (2) He expostulates as to the affection. Why go I mourning?” that is, Why do I mourn in this excess, as I now perceive myself to do? This is that which the servants of God are oftentimes troubled withal, even the inordinacy and distemper of their affections, when they go beyond their due measure and bounds; not only as it is painful, but as it is sinful. (3) This expostulation hath reference to the adversaries and opposites of David, “ Because of the oppression of the enemy.” (Thomas Herren, D. D.) Psalms 42:10 As with a sword in my bones, mine enemies reproach me: while they say daily unto me, Where is thy God?The sword of the wicked I. The carriage, disposition and expression of others to David.1. They were his enemies. God’ s children will never want such. 2. They reproached him. Their tongues were tipped from hell, and they did but utter that which was in their hearts. But such reproach is grievous. See Galatians 4:1-31., how Ishmael persecuted Isaac. 3. The specialty of their reproach was, “ They say unto me, Where is thy God?” They touch him in his religion. They did not deny that there was any God, but they upbraid him with his singularity, “ Where is thy God?” And this is an ordinary reproach to be east at a good man in trouble. They seek to shake his faith. So did Satan try our Lord (Matthew 4:3). 4. And they say out their reproach to his face. They are that impudent. Malice is so, and will always be so. 5. And they say it “ daily.” They are unwearied: their malice is fed with a spring; it never wants for words. 6. And that which they say is--Where is now thy God? God does at times hide Himself (Isaiah 45:15; Matthew 27:46). God was never nearer Christ in all His life than then, and yet He thus cries out. But our life is hid with Christ in God (Colossians 3:3). As in winter the life of a tree is hid in its roots. But God was not gone from David. God was never nearer Moses than when he was sprawling upon the water in that ark they had made for him (Exodus 2:8). David might have said to them, Where are your eyes? For God was not only in heaven, but in his soul. II. How did this reproach affect David? “ As with a sword in my bones.” Now, this was so 1. Because it tended to the reproach of God. It disparaged God, and so touched David, who loved God. 2. And it touched upon religion itself. As if it were vain to serve God. It was a base thought to think that God would do no good to them that serve Him. Even the devil does that. 3. This reproach was for the damping of the spirits of all good men. Words affect strangely; they have a strange force with men, especially in such as are weak (Numbers 13:32). III. Conclusion. To make some use of all this--how does hearing God reproached affect us? Is it as a sword in our bones? It should be. That which hath no grief when there is cause of grief is to be accounted but as dead flesh. When God’ s enemies persecute His people we ought to be stirred. Paul (Acts 13:10). And we may learn here how to enlarge the commandments. The swords spoken of here were but words. He is a murderer in God’ s esteem that wounds another with his tongue (Romans 3:13; Proverbs 12:18). (R. Sibbes.) “ Where is thy God?” How God is known During the prevalence of the disease known as the “ Black Death,” in the fourteenth century, the people in some of the European cities, attributing the disorder to poison secretly disseminated by Jews, furiously murdered these Israelites, it is said, by thousands, and then built Christian churches and church belfries out of the houses and estates of the slaughtered victims. See, too, the atrocities of the Inquisition, who tormented mankind in the name of God. Also the malignity of the Jews in John 9:1-41. toward the blind man cured by our Lord. These and other such facts move two questions--What is our knowledge of God? and, What has such knowledge to do with personal character? We speak of God as if there were a common understanding about Him, which is far from being the case. There are as many impressions of God as there are persons, and no uniformity will be attained by any attempts at definitions, for all these will be modified by our own individuality. Still we are told in Scripture that we ought to know God, and that the people that know Him shall be strong. But our apprehensions of God’ s character depends, and was meant to depend, very largely on conditions for which we are ourselves responsible. The text implies this. The mere idea of God--however derived--may be said to be natural, but the conception of the Divine character is compounded of many elements. Christians deem the grand essentials of that character to be wisdom, power, goodness. Find these three in perfect degree and balance in a living person, and He will be the Christian’ s God--All-wise, Almighty, All-good. But we can only realize these as we possess them in ourselves. If we have no goodness in us we cannot understand goodness. In the measure that we receive God’ s Spirit shall we know God, and so only. Slavish peoples crouch before a despotic deity. Given the character of the people, and you may know what their gods will be. As to character, God is what we look to as the best goodness embodied in an unseen person. Even Revelation, in all its many and varied forms, its combined voices and cross lights, will not produce uniformity of conception, for that must depend upon what our minds are. We must long to be better men would we know how good God is. (Bishop Huntington.) Psalms 42:11 Why art thou cast down, O my soul?and why art thou disquieted within me? Hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise Him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God. David’ s malady and David’ s medicine The psalm has a beauty all its own--the beauty of an April morning--full of contrasts and surprises. Extremes meet in a single verse, and are repeated over and over again, brief though the psalm is. The “ Kyrie” and the “ Gloria” follow each other in quick succession, whilst often there is the “ harmony of discord” worthy of a Mendelssohn. I. Let us examine the patient. That he is far from well there can be no doubt. The whole tenor of his language implies disease, and so distinctly are the symptoms described that we need be at no loss to discover his malady. It is depression. Now, this is--1. An internal disease--it has to do with his soul. Of all diseases, internal ones are the worst, especially when they are spiritual. Outward trouble will not hurt a man much so long as it keeps to the outward. The sailor cares not because the green waves with crested heads curl over and dash against the vessel, shaking it from stem to stern; or because they, rising in their wrath, leap upon the deck, and with wild glee pour off again through the port holes. But his trouble is that of the sailor when from one to another the whisper passes through the ship, “ We have sprung a leak.” The water in the hold is more dreaded than all the ocean without. Such was the case with David. He could say, “ The waters have come into my soul.” 2. But notice next that although inward in its nature its effects are to be seen in the countenance. In our text we read that God is the health of our countenance: if, then, His presence be wanting the countenance suffers. It is so with the body: inward disease will show itself on the countenance. And so it is with inward care. The only doctor that some Christians need is their God, and the only medicine they require is hope. Great prostration is one of the signs of this disease. 3. Another sign is that of burning thirst. You get that in the first and second verses. This disease may arise from many different causes. Then there is conformity to the world, that condition so rampant in the Church of our day. II. Let us now carefully analyze the medicine prescribed. (A. G. Brown.) The good man’ s peace I. There is such a peace. God’ s people ordinarily possess it. Hence, David asks, “ Why art thou cast down?” etc. It was not usual for him to be thus disquieted. For--1. The Father is engaged to give peace unto them.2. The Son also.3. The Holy Ghost likewise. For this is He sent as the Comforter. And He is this both in heaven above and in our own bosoms (1 John 1:2; John 14:16). II. But experience seems to contradict all this, for many of God’ s people have not peace, but disquietude. But, remember, general rules have always some exceptions, and in this matter note--1. There is a fundamental peace which God’ s people have, and there is an additional peace: the first arises from their justification, the second from their sense of it. 2. And there is a great difference between peace, comfort and joy. A man may have peace that hath no comfort, and comfort but no joy. One is beyond the other. 3. There is a peace which lies in opposition to what one hath been, and a peace that is in opposition to what one would be. I may be grateful that I am not that sinner I was, but I may be disquieted that I yet am not what I would be. 4. There may be a secret, dormant peace, where there is not an awakened and apparent peace. This latter may be a while absent, but the former is not. III. Conclusion.1. Then behold what a blessed condition God’ s saints are in. This truth appeals to the ungodly. It did so once to a great man in Germany, that it was the beginning of his conversion he was a papist, a profane person; and coming occasionally to hear Peter Martyr preach, he heard him say, “ When ye see men at a distance skipping, leaping and dancing, ye think the men are mad; but when ye draw near to them, hear what music they have, then ye do not wonder; but ye rather wonder at yourselves that ye should wonder at them. So, when you look upon the godly at a distance, and see them running after ordinances, and frequenting the means and rejoicing in the ways of God, you think, and ye say, they are mad; but if you draw near to a godly course, and perceive what music these people have within, you say not they are mad, but you rather wonder at yourselves, that you should wonder at them.” This saying struck the nobleman and led him to look to his condition and to turn to God. Yes, the saints have music within, peace and quiet within, as a rule, though here and there there may be exceptions. 2. But some are in doubt whether their peace be counterfeit. There is such a false peace (Deuteronomy 24:19). 3. But there is a true peace given of the Holy Spirit. “ The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace,” etc. And thus it may be known. 4. But one says, “ I never had this blessed peace and have it not now. What am I to do?” Meditate much upon the fulness of satisfaction made by the death of Christ. Then go to Christ Himself, seeking peace not merely for the comfort of it, but as a help to your grace: and take His promise along with you. (W. Bridge, M. A.) True peace may be interrupted See in text the words, “ cast down,” “ disquieted” ; three times are they repeated. And such is the frequent experience of good men. In considering this note-- I. How far the discouragements of saints may reach. They may reach--1. To the refusing of the word of consolation brought to you--“ My soul refuseth to be comforted.” 2. To the consequent affliction and distress of the body (Psalms 102:4-6; Psalms 102:9; Jeremiah 20:7-9). II. Why does God permit this? It is always for His people’ s good.1. So only will men come to God. So long as they find fulness in creatures they will not come (1 Timothy 4:5; 1 Samuel 30:6). 2. To make us value peace and quietness of soul. 3. God, as a tender Father, would have all the love of His children, and so removes what intercepts that love, as our earthly comforts often do. 4. Our comforts are sent to bind us to God and to wean us from the world, but sometimes we need to be weaned from these weaners that we may grow up unto more perfection. 5. To prevent over-confidence: the soul grows wanton and secure under its comforts, and then these need to be withdrawn. 6. As a wise and honest chirurgion, though he desire his patient to be soon cured, yet if he see the plaister doth not lie right, he takes it off again: so doth Christ do if He see that the comforts of His people are not laid rightly. Hence a poor soul may ere long be much discouraged, though for the present full of comfort. He will, if he lay his comfort upon internal blessings and measure God’ s love by them. III. But how can all these discouragements stand with grace? Can a man be thus to and fro in his comfort in Christ and yet be holy? Yes, for though there be evil in this, yet there is grace withal. Though they be much cast down, they still mourn after God. They long for His presence. But let such cast-down ones take heed--1. Not to forget God. 2. Not so to seek comfort that you lose it yet more: there is such a thing as more haste and worse speed. Some seek comfort in a use of reason, and try to argue themselves into comfort. Others give up their common duty and neglect their proper callings, thinking that in their distress here is nothing to be done but prayer. But thus they lay themselves open to yet more temptations. 3. Not so to strain after some outward comfort that you lose that which is inward. I read of Francis Spira that, having denied the truth in order to get a good estate for his wife and children, he could no longer bear the sight of them, his conscience being in such horror of what he had done. They had been his comforts before, but now to see them was to be filled with misery. What comfort had Judas in his thirty pieces of silver? God forbid that we should drink the blood of our own peace and comfort. IV. Remedies for our discouragements.1. DO now what you would if now you were to be justified. 2. Find out why God has left you: if for some sin, be humbled for if. 3. Read much in God’ s Word, and so fill your mind with thoughts of Christ and with the blessed promises of God. 4. When God restores comforts to you, take care to understand them: if you would be rid of Satan coming into your quarters, fall you upon his. Attack him and do him all the mischief you can: put your comforts into Christ’ s hand and use them for His. (W. Bridge, M. A.) The soul’ s conflict with itself I. General observations.1. Grief gathered to a head will not be quieted at the first. What bustling there is here before David can get the victory over his own heart. 2. A gracious and living soul is most sensible of the want of spiritual means. 3. A godly soul, by reason of the grace given it, knows when it is well with it and when it is ill, when a good day and when a bad. Now, our text tells us of David’ s state wherein he was, and of his carriage in that state. He was much cast down, but he bids himself trust in God. Now, God’ s people are often cast down. II. The discouragements which come to God’ s people from without.1. God Himself. He sometimes hides His face from them (Matthew 27:46). It is with the godly in this case as with vapours drawn up by the sun, which, when the extracting force of the sun leaves them, fall down again to the earth. So when the soul raised up by the beams of God’ s countenance is left of God, it presently begins to sink. 2. By Satan. He is all for this; being disquieted himself, he would disquiet others. 3. By Satan’ s instruments and servants. Hear them (Psalms 137:7). 4. By ourselves. There is a seminary of causes of discouragement within us. Our flesh is one of them. III. Those that are from within. There is cause oft in the body of those in whom a melancholy temper prevaileth. But in the soul, too, there are causes of discouragement.1. Want of knowledge in the understanding. 2. Forgetfulness (Hebrews 12:5). 3. Underrating our comforts (Job 15:11). 4. A childish kind of peevishness. Abraham (Genesis 15:2; Jonah 4:9; Jeremiah 31:15). 5. False reasoning and error in our discourse. Many imagine their failings to be failings, and their fallings to be fallings away. 6. Proceeding by a false method and order in judging of their estate. They will begin with election, which is not the first, but the highest step of the ladder. God descends down unto us from election to calling, and so to sanctification: we must ascend to Him, beginning where He ends. 7. Seeking for their comfort too much in sanctification, neglecting justification, relying too much upon their own performances. This is a natural kind of popery in men. St. Paul was of another mind (Philippians 3:8-9). Still, though the main pillar of our comfort be in the free forgiveness of our sins, yet, if there be a neglect in growing in holiness, the soul will never be soundly quiet. Sin ever raises doubts and fears. 8. The neglect of keeping a clear conscience. 9. Ignorance of Christian liberty, by unnecessary scruples and doubts. 10. Want of employment. An unemployed life is a burden to itself. 11. Omission of duties and offices of love to them to whom they are due. 12. Want of firm resolution in good things. Halting is a deformed and troublesome gesture, and halting in religion is full of disquiet (1 Kings 18:21). God will not speak peace to a staggering spirit that hath always its religion and its way to choose. IV. But there are positive causes as well as negative ones.1. When men lay up their comfort too much on outward things. These are ever changing, and to build our hopes upon them is to build castles in the air. Micah is right (Micah 2:10). 2. When we depend too much upon the opinions of other men. Men that seek themselves too much abroad find themselves disquieted at home. 3. When we look too much and too long upon the ill in ourselves and abroad. Now, learn from all this not to be too hasty in censuring others when they are cast down, for there are so many things which cast men down; and to prepare our hearts for trouble, so that when it comes we be not cast down. V. Casting down ourselves causes many evils.1. It indisposes a man to all good duties. 2. It is a great wrong to God Himself. 3. It makes a man forgetful of all his former blessings, and-- 4. Unfit to receive mercies. Till the Spirit of God meekens the soul, say what you will, it minds nothing. 5. It keeps off beginners from coming in. Hence, we should all labour after a calmed spirit. VI. Remedies.1. To do, as here, cite the soul before itself, and, as it were, to reason the case. God hath set up a court in man’ s heart, the court of conscience, and its prejudging will prevent future judging. But evil men love not this court; they are afraid of it (1 Kings 22:16; Acts 24:25). Self-love, indolence, pride, are all against it. 2. And we must not merely cite the soul before itself; but it must be pressed to give an account, and if that will not help, then speak to Jesus Christ by prayer, that as He stilled the waves, so He would quiet our hearts. 3. A godly man can cast a restraint upon himself, as David here does. There is an art in bearing troubles as in bearing burdens, and we should seek to learn it. 4. We see here again that a godly man can make good use of privacy. When be is forced to be alone he can talk with his God and himself. The wicked dread being alone. Illustration--Charles IX. of France after the massacre of St. Bartholomew’ s day. 5. God hath made every man a governor over himself. (R. Sibbes.) Unfitting dejection Now, dejection is so--1. When the soul is troubled for that it should not be vexed for. As Ahab (1 Kings 21:1-2). II. When it springs prom self-love. III. When we trouble ourselves, though not without cause, yet without bounds. We may know when our dejection is excessive.1. When it hinders us from holy duties. It was not thus with our Lord (John 19:26-27; Luke 23:42). 2. When we forget the grounds of comfort that are given us. 3. When it inclines the soul to evil. Therefore inquire-- IV. What is the sweet and holy temper of soul that we should seek for?1. The soul must be raised to a right but yet a bounded grief. And to this end we should look at the state of the soul in itself and on what terms it is with God (Leviticus 16:29). And we should look outside of ourselves to note the causes of grief that are there (Jeremiah 9:1). 2. But our grief must be kept within bounds, and it is so, when it is ready to meet God at every turn in obedience and communion; and when reason approves our grief, and when our grief moves us to all duties of love towards others. Our concern for God’ s house cannot be excessive (Psalms 69:9; Psalms 119:39; Isaiah 59:19; Exodus 32:19). See, then, the life of a poor Christian in this world. He is in great danger if he be not troubled at all, and, when troubled, lest he be over-troubled. Let him ask the Holy Spirit’ s help (John 11:13). (R. Sibbes.) Means not to be overcharged with sorrow 1. Take heed of building on unfounded confidence of happiness, which makes us when changes come unacquainted with them and unexpectant and unprepared. We gain help by thinking beforehand of what may come (John 16:33). Still, we are not to imagine troubles. 2. Love not overmuch anything in this world lest when we have to give it up we be brokenhearted. The way to prevent this is given in Colossians 3:1; Colossians 5:3. Take care when trouble comes not to mingle our passions with it. Our hearts are deceitful. Who would have thought that Moses would have murmured, David murdered (2 Samuel 12:9), Peter denied our Lord (Matthew 26:72)? But trouble and temptation draw forth hidden evils. Therefore let us watch over our own souls and examine them continually. Let us not yield to passion; do we not belong to God? Our passions are to serve, not rule us. Man’ s curse was to be a servant of servants (Genesis 9:25). Exercise strong self-denial. The gate, the entrance of religion is narrow, and we must strip ourselves of self before we can enter. (R. Sibbes.) A sick soul I. The disease.1. He is depressed. Aspiration has grown faint. We all know these heavier moments, when the spring seems to go out of our being, and we feel as though the tripping step will never return. We feel prematurely old. 2. He is not merely burdened, he is possessed by a feverish uncertainty. He can no longer look at things calmly and therefore truly, and everything appears to him in monstrous and distorted guise. There is no more fatal minister in human life than the disquieted eye. So long as the eye can gaze at things with cool and quiet vision we see things in their true perspective and proportion. But when the eye is shaken into restlessness its focus is perverted, and everything is seen awry. But the disquieted soul is not only possessed of a restless eye, it is the possessor of a nerveless hand. II. The remedy.1. The first step in the removal of this spiritual sickness is a realization of the personal relationship of the soul to God. Once postulate God, and all things come within the plane of the credible. 2. The second essential secret of recovery is to believe in the possibility of God’ s health being transmitted to us. There is a striking difference between verse five and verse eleven. In the former verse the psalmist speaks of praising God “ for the health of His countenance,” and in verse eleven he speaks of praising God, “ who is the health of my countenance.” The health of the one can be transmitted to the other. We more frequently speak of the contagion of disease. Perhaps when we know a little more we shall speak with equal assurance of the contagion of health. If evil communications corrupt good man-hers, holy communications refine them. One of the secrets of obtaining a healthy spiritual life is to obtain the fellowship of saintly people. But the transcendently important clue is to obtain the friendship of God. God’ s holiness is contagious; to commune with Him is to become a partaker of the Divine nature. (J. H. Jowett, M. A.) Religious depression I. Causes.1. Physical weakness. 2. A constitutional tendency to look on the darker side of things. 3. The misapprehension of certain main spiritual truths, such as the character of God, conversion, etc. II. Treatment of the disease.1. If physical weakness be the secret of our spiritual depression, then the only effectual cure is to aim at strengthening that which is really weak, namely, the bodily health; and not to weaken the body still more by fretting over a lowness of spirits which results from our feeble physical condition almost as inevitably as loss of light follows from the setting of the sun. 2. If, again, it is a constitutional tendency to look on the dark side of things generally, that has to answer for the gloomy hue of our religion, the obvious remedy is to look on the brighter aspect. 3. Or if, by unhappy training, or through the bias of temperament, we have come to entertain such views of God, and of spiritual things, as are directly causative of religious despondency, then we must do our best to remedy the evil by acquiring right views. Above all, we must sedulously and prayerfully cherish right views of God, whom we dishonour by regarding as a captious taskmaster--Him whose nature, and whose name, is Love! (T. F. Lockyer, B. A.) Causes and cure of melancholy I. The causes of religious melancholy.1. Sometimes our compassionate Father, who in mercy visits us so often with external afflictions, is pleased, for the same benevolent reasons, to make us suffer internal sorrows. As when the sun is eclipsed, all nature appears to mourn, so everything is gloomy to the believer when anything interposes between his soul and the gracious countenance of his God. 2. Sometimes Satan is permitted to disquiet and distress the children of God. 3. With Satan, wicked men often concur to depress and cast down the pious. 4. But the great causes of our dejections and melancholy are to be found in ourselves. (1) From the temperament of the body(2) From ignorance and error.(3) From sin. II. Why, like the psalmist, we should endeavour to rise from this state. Your duty to God, as wail as your own happiness, requires this. How imperfectly are all the Christian duties performed by you, when you are thus “ swallowed up with overmuch sorrow” : how unfitly do you worship Him who loves a cheerful and a thankful giver? III. The means whereby we may again obtain peace, comfort, and a calm trust in God.1. Imitate the psalmist here: instead of yielding to a vague grief, cite your soul; inquire of it the particular cause of your sorrow: different remedies will be requisite, according to the different sources of your distress: and be careful that you trifle not with God, and your comfort, and your salvation, while you inquire of your soul, “ why art thou cast down?” 2. Be careful to understand the Gospel-scheme of salvation; especially the nature, the terms, the intent of the covenant of grace. 3. Study also the promises of God; view them in their variety, their extent, their application to you. 4. In your devotions, be much employed in praise and thanksgiving, instead of principally occupying yourselves with lamentations. If you cannot do this with all the joy that you would, do it as well as you can. 5. Be not unacquainted with your own hearts; examine them, to see the marks of conversion, and to “ make your calling sure” to yourselves. 6. But do not confine yourselves to this self-examination; be also engaged in active duties. The growing and fruitful Christian will be a comfortable one; a degree of peace and satisfaction will follow every good action; and your graces, acquiring maturity, will shine by their own light. (H. Kollock, D. D.) The causes and cure of spiritual distress I. The psalmist’ s present condition or state of mind.1. Good men are often east down; their souls are often disquieted in them, from want, as they imagine, of actual communion with God in duty, or a sense of His gracious presence with them; and if this complaint were as well founded as it is a common and heavy complaint, it would be a just cause, no doubt, of great disquiet. But how are we to judge of our communion with God in duty? (1) We are to judge by an habitual sense of the Divinity upon our minds, and the devout reverential impressions we feel from His presence with us, and our accountableness to Him. (2) We are to judge of communion with God in duty, from the sense we have of our need of daily supplies and communications from His fulness and all-sufficiency. (3) It will be found no unsatisfying evidence of God’ s gracious presence with us in duty if we are enabled to deal fairly with our own hearts. 2. The suggestions of Satan assail the minds of good men. But how are we to distinguish such suggestions as may be properly ascribed to the grand enemy, and those that arise from the unsubdued corruption and lusts of our own minds? We are to distinguish by the welcome they meet with, and the free quarters we allow them, on the one hand; or by the pain and distress they give us, on the other, and by our opposition to them, and our endeavours to dismiss them. It is the consent of the will alone that constitutes the moral turpitude of every emotion or action; and while it is our daily struggle to withhold this, and we are, upon the whole, through Divine grace, enabled to withhold it, we have nothing to fear from all the efforts of Satanical machinations to taint and corrupt our affections. And here the disquieted soul may rest. 3. Not a few have been disquieted and cast down from false representations and wrong conceptions of the Divine decrees; as if thereby a certain number were under a sentence of reprobation, and for ever excluded from the Divine mercy. But this ground of disquiet is most unreasonable, and most dishonourable to God. 4. Another cause of much disquietude arises from imperfect or dark views of the ground of our acceptance with God. A cause of disquietude to which bad men are entire strangers, unless under the immediate horror of momentary convictions. II. The psalmist’ s expostulation with himself. “ Why art thou cast down?” etc. God doth not leave His people to lie under their spiritual distresses, to pore over them, and sink under them. He leads them home to prove their hearts; he leads them to their hope.1. He leads them to prove their spirit, and to observe what is amiss about them: to mark this passion as too violent; that affection as wrong directed; that here they have lost the guard over themselves, and spoke unadvisedly with their tongue, and have been led into indiscretions, into excesses; that there their attachment to the world, or worldly connections, have been too strong, and occupied their time and attention too much. 2. He leads them to their hope--to “ Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling.” It is from this Sun of Righteousness that the first dawn of hope opens upon the trembling, awakened sinner, and, ready to sink under a load of guilt, supports him. And when believers themselves fall, and thereby wound their peace and lose sight of all their evidences, they have no other refuge. III. The psalmist’ s support amidst all his distress. “ Still hope in God,” etc. (T. Gordon.) Downheartedness I. Nothing is so bad as a continued and allowed downheartedness,1. It magnifies troubles. 2. It drags at and prevents work. 3. It shadows blessings, making the hard things in life prominent rather than the ameliorating things. 4. It bereaves of God and shadows the promises. II. There are many causes for downheartedness in this strange and disciplinary world,1. Exile. 2. Overstrain of work. 3. Hard environment. III. How can one defeat downheartedness and lift into and keep himself in cheer?1. By recognition of the fact that downheartedness is worst for us. A man ought to esteem it as bad for the soul as some corrupting contagion is for the body. 2. By service for others. That is one trouble with downheartedness--it emphasizes self. And a good, and frequently quick, cure for it is the determined emphasizing on our part of other Selves, thus causing, somewhat at least, a forgetfulness of the morbid self. 3. I pray you also, when you are downhearted, make your work a sacrament. By strong and prayerful volition put yourself at the daily duty; do it even more painstakingly than ever, even though you feel so little like it. A high reactive feeling of victory will have large share in scattering your darkness. 4. Last and chiefest, turn to God. Follow the example of the psalmist here. (W. Hoyt, D. D) Unfailing hope I. The state of mind in which the psalmist was and Christians sometimes are. II. The desirableness of the investigation which the psalmist instituted.1. It is very often for a want of asking the question that you are in that state at all. Many men allow partly imaginary trials to creep into their souls, that scarcely have a palpable existence if they were only inquired into, and yet when once they are seen they are watched over, and they grow until they expand to such an extent that they seem to fill the man’ s whole spirit and all around him; whereas if they were just looked at in the face in the light of Divine presence and in the glory that beams from another world, they would vanish in a moment like mists before the rising sun; the man’ s trouble would be turned into triumph, and his saddest sorrows into sweetest song. Let the inquiry be made, for it is for lack of the inquiry very often that the soul is cast down within us, and is disquieted in all it has to pass through. 2. The inquiry should be made because generally, if not entirely, it would be found that in the Divine dealings there really was no cause whatever for the soul to be cast down at all. The very form of the question implies that. “ Why art thou cast down?” Really, the psalmist does not know of any reason why it should be, and he speaks to his soul like another man, of whom he was surprised and almost ashamed. 3. Another reason why the question should be asked is because very often the answer to it will be found in the soul itself. “ You ask me why I am cast down within you. Remember all the accumulation of worldliness and care and greed and sinful indulgence that you have heaped up upon me till I have been buried under it and could not move.” III. The counsel the psalmist addresses to his soul. “ Hope thou in God.” Look at Martin Luther when his enemies are like raging lions gathered round him, and he is cast into prison and all things look dark and threatening, and a common soul might be disquieted and cast down. “ No,” he says, “ let us sing the 46th psalm, ‘ God is our refuge and strength, a very present help; therefore will not we fear though the mountains be removed.’” His soul is not cast down. He hopes in God. What say you--the stream is dried up? Well, in all probability it is in mercy it has, for if that had continued you had never gone to the fountain. Hope thou in God, for if you can say, “ God is my salvation,” with joy shall you draw water out of the wells of salvation. What do you say--your strength is exhausted and you are feeble and have no power left? Then hope thou in God, for they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. (J. P. Chown.) Trust in God our best support in all our troubles and afflictions I. We have firm grounds for our trust in God from those attributes of God which enable and dispose him to help us. When we place our trust in God we run no risks, because there is nothing which infinite power cannot accomplish; nothing fit and expedient for us which infinite goodness is not disposed to grant; no promises of help can have been made us by a God of truth and holiness which will not be exactly and punctually fulfilled. II. Have an eye to the examples of those who have thus placed their trust in God, and have found help in the time of need. Wonderful is that instance of an unshaken confidence in God, which is displayed for our instruction, and recorded for our imitation, in the history of the sufferings and of the patience of Job. III. Endeavour to strengthen our reliance on God from the experience we ourselves have had of his former lovingkindness towards us. To God we owe our being, and those blessings which we either now do, or ever did, enjoy. There are many calamities incident to men which we have, through the goodness of God, escaped. He who hath delivered us from so great dangers, and doth deliver, in Him we may safely trust, that He will yet deliver us. Is the Lord’ s hand, that has been so often stretched forth for our help, since shortened, that it can no longer save? Or is His ear, that has been so often opened to our prayers, grown heavy, that it can no more hear? (Bishop Smalridge.) “ My God” Whatever God may be, it is no advantage to me if He is not my God. Another man’ s health will not make me well. Another man’ s wealth will not make me rich. Another man’ s knowledge will not make me wise. Another man’ s station will not make me dignified. The leaving out of one word from the will may ruin a man’ s hopes and blast all his expectations. The want of this one word “ My” is the sinner’ s loss of heaven, and the dagger that smites him into the second death. That pronoun my is just worth as much to the soul as God and heaven; because without it you can’ t have them. That little word is the private cabinet in which all our comfort for time and for eternity is locked up. It is the one string upon which all our joys are hung. (R. Berry.) Psalms 43:1-5 Psalms 43:1-5 Judge me, O God, and plead my cause.The soul’ s double appeal I. An appeal to God.1. For Divine vindication. 2. For Divine deliverance.3. For Divine information. 4. For Divine guidance. II. An appeal to self. He was conscious of--1. The personality of his soul.2. The sorrow of his soul.3. The interests of his son! (Homilist.) In exile I. The exile’ s prayer. 1. For judgment against the accusations of an ungodly nation. Nothing uncommon for the Christian to be the target of wrong charges.2. For deliverance from the deceitful and unjust man.3. For light and truth to lead him back to Zion. II. The exile’ s promise.1. To go to the altar, i.e. for sacrifice, consecration, worship.2. To seize the harp for thanksgiving and praise. Religious services should be gladsome; those in the home as well as those in the sanctuary. Our hearts too often like “ muffled drums beating funeral marches,” rather than like well-tuned harps sending forth strains of sweetest harmony and gladdest adoration, etc. III. The exile’ s soliloquy.1. A question.2. A response. “ Cast down!” --“ Hope.” “ Disquieted!” --“ Praise.” “ Praise Him who is the health,” the beauty, the ruddy glow, the youth, “ of thy countenance, and thy God.” (J. O. Keen, D. D.) Psalms 43:2 Why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?The secret of sadness I. Is it because I am not really fighting against him? Am I doing my best, or only allowing religion to be a sentiment, a dream, and not a real stern battle? II. Is it because I am only fighting a part of the enemy? Prince Rupert, at the battles of Edgehill and Marston Moor, was utterly defeated because he concentrated all his strength on one wing of the enemy, heedless of the other. So is it often with Christians. III. Is it because I am fighting too exclusively my own battle? When cholera threatens, men look to the sanitary conditions, not of their own house merely, but of the neighbourhood round. Christians, too, often think only of their own souls and not of others. IV. Is it because I am fighting too much in my own strength? The late Isaac Taylor, the engraver, was a very holy but a very poor man, and had much to try him; it was his wont to retire for an hour each day for communion with God. So he won, and so must we win, spiritual victory. (Joseph Ogle.) Psalms 43:3O send out Thy light and Thy truth: let them lead me; let them bring me unto Thy holy hill and to Thy tabernacles.The sending out of light and truth I. The feelings here expressed.1. A deep sense of darkness. 2. Belief in God as the source of spiritual life. 3. Earnest desire after Him. His soul wanted light-God’ s light; he knew that it must be sent out; also he desired God’ s truth. II. The purpose of his desire--“ Let them lead me;” he knew his own helplessness. III. The place to which he desired to be led. God’ s tabernacles, God’ s holy hill. He would be led to holiness and to the knowledge of God in Christ which the tabernacle set forth. This alone would satisfy his soul. (J. C. Philpot) The obscurities of Divine revelation (with Psalms 36:9):Perhaps no one ever studied the Bible as a professed revelation from God who has not had such questions cross his mind as the following:--Why is there so much in this book that is obscure and unintelligible? Why is not more information given on great and important questions about which the human mind has always been perplexed? Why are so many subjects left in total darkness in a professed revelation, and others left with only such a feeble glimmering of light as almost to make us wish that there had been none? And this perplexity is increased when we reflect--1. That it would have been so easy for God to have given us the light we crave for. 2. It seems so needful to vindicate His own character. 3. And mere benevolence on His part seems to demand it in order to relieve our distress of mind. And-- 4. There is so much in the Bible--histories, names, genealogies, etc.--which have lost all interest for us now, and instead of which we should be glad, indeed, to have some explanations of the dark mysteries which oppress us. To obtain a rational view of this matter there are two inquiries. I. What is the measure of light actually imparted in the Bible? Note the principles which seem to have guided the Divine mind in giving a revelation to man. The question of giving light on the matters referred to must have occurred. But God seems to have determined--1. To leave many subjects perfectly in the dark. It was clearly the design of God to fix an outer limit to human knowledge so far as this world is concerned. Far on the hither side of what we would like to know, the line is drawn, and the whole hook is closed at what may, without irreverence, be called--or which, whether irreverent or not, expresses our natural feelings--a provoking point, just at the point where we would be glad to ask questions, and where we by no means feel our minds satisfied with what we possess. I am, for one, willing to concede that among these points are the questions why moral evil was admitted into the system; why misery ever found its way into the empire of an infinitely benevolent and Almighty Creator and moral Governor; and why the period will never arrive when sin and woe shall everywhere come to an end. On these, and on many kindred topics of great interest to man, I confess I have never seen a ray of light cast by any human speculation; and that though I have been silenced, I have not been convinced. Other men think they see light here: I see none. I admit, therefore, that the whole subject of the introduction and existence of evil is all dark to my mind, and that I struggle in vain for the light. 2. A second principle on which revelation seems to have been given, similar to the one just mentioned, is, to state nothing merely to gratify curiosity. The Bible is for practical purposes only, to tell us what we shall do in our relations to God and our fellow-men. 3. Its vital principle was to furnish knowledge enough to be a safe guide to heaven. This was its essential purpose, and if that were secured it was enough. It is like the lighthouse that gleams on a dark and stormy coast, to reveal the haven to the storm-tossed mariner. “ It shines over the stormy ocean, only penetrating a darkness which it was never intended to expel.” So it is in respect to the Gospel. Man, too, is on a stormy ocean--the ocean of life, and the night is very dark. There are tempests that beat around us; undercurrents that would drift us into unknown seas; rocks that make our voyage perilous. The Gospel is a light “ standing on the dark shore of eternity, just simply guiding us there.” It reveals to us almost nothing of the land to which we go, but only the way to reach it. It does nothing to answer the thousand questions which we would ask about that world, but it tells how we may see it with our own eyes. II. Our second inquiry is, why was there no more light gives? Now, all we can do is to show that our duty is not to object to the Bible because it gives no more light, but to be grateful for that which it has given. As the appropriate feeling of our mariner would be gratitude that that bright and clear, though little light, is kept burning on that stormy coast to guide every vessel that may chance to come into those waters, not of complaint that it does not reveal the hills, and vales, and cities, and hamlets of that land.1. First, our essential condition on earth is one of discipline and probation. Now, if we would search our own minds, we should probably find that the questions in reference to which we are most disposed to complain because they are not solved, are not those which really embarrass us in the matter of salvation, or which, being solved, would aid us, but those in reference to which our salvation may be equally safe and easy whether they are solved or not. When a man finds himself struggling in a stream, it does nothing to facilitate his escape to know how he came there; nor would it aid the matter if he could determine beyond a doubt why God made streams that men could ever fall into them, and did not make every bank so that it would not crumble beneath the feet. In the condition of man, therefore, regarded as in a state of discipline, all that is needed is that a man’ s safety shall not be endangered by his lack of light, and that the darkness shall be such as to furnish a healthful exercise of his powers. It is good for man to be stimulated to inquiry, to feel, not as Alexander did, that there were no more worlds to be conquered, but that a boundless field of inquiry is ever open before him. God would not stop the career of noble thought and the path of discovery by pouring down a flood of light on all those regions so that no more was left for the efforts of honourable ambition. The explorer of unknown lands is cheered because a vast and inviting field is before him, which the foot of man has never trod It was this which animated Columbus when his prow first crossed the line beyond which a ship had ever sailed, and plunged into unknown seas. Every wave that was thrown up had a new interest and beauty, from the fact that its repose had never been disturbed before by the keel of a vessel; and when his eyes first saw the land, and he prostrated himself and kissed the earth, his glory was at the highest, for he saw what in old ages was unknown before. And let all inquirers on these great questions remember, however perplexed they may now be, that in a few years, as the result of calm examination and of maturer reflection and observation, most of these difficulties will disappear. Why may I not hope, then, as to the difficulties that remain? 2. It is not absolutely certain, it is not even probable, that we could comprehend any statements which could be made on those points which now perplex us (John 3:12). Remember that it depends on the measure of our faculties and attainments how far we can grasp ideas that are set before us. Much may be said, yet but little be understood. Apply all this to those mysteries of the moral government of God. Are you certain that you could comprehend the high principles of the Divine administration even if they were stated to you? 3. We are in the infancy of our being; we have but just opened our eyes upon this wonderful universe, which in its structure demanded all the wisdom, and goodness, and power of an infinite God! Very few of us have lived through the period of seventy revolving suns; a majority of us not fifty; many not twenty. We have but just learned to speak, to handle things, to talk, to walk. But yesterday we were at our mother’ s breasts. We knew not anything. And now, forsooth, we wonder that we do not know all about God, and these worlds, and the moral government of the Most High. We sit in judgment on what our Maker has told us. We are sullen and silent; we repress our gratitude; we throw back His Bible in His face; we have no songs and no thanksgivings, because we are not told all about this earth, and these skies, about heaven and about hell, and about the God that made, and that rules over all! (A. Battles, D. D.) The confidence and joy of faith in approaching to God In these verses we may observe--1. The genuine disposition and desire of a gracious soul, when privileged with an opportunity of attending upon the ordinances of divine appointment. Ordinances themselves will not satisfy, but it will be the desire of that soul to be brought near to God, so as to have real communion with Him in them. 2. How, or in what manner, a believer is enabled to approach unto God in His ordinances, so as to have communion with Him in them. Can he find the way to God himself? No, he must be led; directed by a light from above. 3. In what manner believers are helped to approach unto God when He is pleased to send out His light and truth to lead them, and bring them to His holy hill and to His tabernacles, or to direct them in their approaches to him in duties and ordinances. Then they are enabled to go unto God as “ their God,” and “ the exceeding joy” ; or to appear before Him with becoming confidence and holy joy. From the words we may observe the following doctrine. When the people of God have an opportunity of approaching to Rim in the ordinances of His grace, particularly in solemn ordinances, they ought to draw near to Him with holy confidence and holy joy. I. Offer a few general remarks for illustrating the subject.1. Communion with God is sometimes the privilege of His people even while they are here on earth. Nor is this the privilege of a few eminent saints only, but is common to believers. 2. The ordinances of God’ s own appointment are the ordinary means of communion and fellowship with Him. When these are despised or neglected, all pretensions to communion with God are vain. 3. Real communion with God in ordinances is a rare attainment. Many read and hear the Word, regularly attend upon the ordinances of God, and even go to a communion table who are utterly unacquainted with it. 4. Sinful men can have no communion with God but by sacrifice. They ask, they expect, they desire no blessing from God, but for the sake of Christ who gave Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour (Ephesians 5:2). 5. Believers themselves who have formerly been brought near to God, and enjoyed His gracious presence cannot have access to Him anew, or any comfortable communion with Him in ordinances, but under the gracious influence of His Holy Spirit. 6. As communion with God in ordinances is a rare attainment, it is also a precious and valuable attainment. It relieves the believer under all his burdens, and comforts him amidst all his griefs and sorrows. It is a pledge and earnest of future glory; yea, it is, as it were, heaven begun. II. Speak somewhat concerning that holy confidence and joy with which the people of God ought to approach unto him in the ordinances and duties of his worship, and particularly in the ordinance of the Lord’ s Supper, which is a feast He has made for His friends, in partaking of which they are called to rejoice before Him, as Israel were commanded to do when they kept the feasts of the Lord, during the Mosaic economy.1. The confidence with which believers are warranted to draw near unto God, when they have an opportunity of waiting upon Him in His ordinances, is not inconsistent with a humbling and self-abasing sense of their own unworthiness and sinfulness, but rather supposes it. 2. The confidence of faith, with which the people of God ought to draw near to Him in the ordinances and duties of His worship, differs greatly from that presumptuous confidence which is to be found with hypocrites and self-righteous persons in their approaches to Him. 3. That holy joy with which believers, imitating David’ s example, ought to approach unto God in His ordinances, and particularly in solemn ordinances, is very consistent with deep and great sorrow for sin. Indeed, the one cannot be without the other. 4. The joy of the godly, when brought near unto God in His ordinances, is not a carnal, but a spiritual joy; and therefore no outward troubles or afflictions can hinder the exercise of it under the influence of the Holy Spirit as a Spirit of faith. 5. The confidence and joy with which believers ought to nor make any suitable improvement of His ordinances. 6. Because by approach-various degrees. A strong faith begets strong confidence and great joy; a weak faith is accompanied with little confidence and little joy. A strong faith glorifies God, yet He will accept of a weak faith. III. Show why the people of God ought to approach unto him in his ordinances with becoming confidence and holy joy.1. Because He is a God reconciled in Christ. 2. Because the way of access to God, which Christ the glorious Mediator has opened by His blood, was opened just for the benefit of sinners who deserve no favour, but, on the other hand, are obnoxious to the justice and wrath of God. 3. A sure foundation is laid for this confidence and icy in our approaches to God. 4. Because without some degree of this holy confidence and joy persons can have no communion with God, nor make any suitable improvement of His ordinances. 5. Because by approaching unto God with humble confidence and holy joy, they do in an especial manner glorify Him. 6. Confidence and holy joy in our approaches to God are not only warranted, but required in the word of God (Deuteronomy 16:10-11; Psalms 62:8; Psalms 96:2). IV. Application. Is it SO that the people of God are warranted to approach unto Him in His ordinances with confidence and joy? then hence we may see--1. The great love of God to sinners of mankind. 2. How much believers are indebted to the Lord Jesus Christ. It is through Him that they have access unto the Father. 3. This text and doctrine serves to inform us of the nature and excellency of true faith. Relying upon the testimony of God in the Gospel concerning the method of reconciliation and ground of acceptance with Him, it inspires the soul with holy confidence, and fills the heart with holy joy in approaching to God. 4. We must not always judge of the privileges of believers by their exercise or the actings of their faith. Though now through the prevalence of unbelief, they frequently cannot take the comfort of these, they shall not lose their interest in them. 5. We may see who will be worthy communicants at the table of the Lord, viz. those who have a real desire to be brought near to God Himself, and whose hope and confidence, in their approaches to Him, are wholly bottomed upon the gracious revelation that He has made of His name as a God in Christ, and upon what Christ has done and suffered, to procure access to God for guilty sinners. 6. Hence see matter of trial and examination. If you are true believers who desire to enjoy communion with God in His ordinances, and none else are warranted to partake of the Gospel-feast in view, David’ s petition will be yours, “ O send out Thy light.” (1) You esteem and set a high value upon the ordinances of God. His tabernacles are amiable to you. (2) Absence and distance from God will be very painful and distressing to you. (3) Ordinances will not content you. It is a meeting with God Himself that you desire. When this is wanting, ordinances, however excellent in themselves, are to the believer like dry breasts and empty pits, that afford no satisfaction, no comfort, no refreshment. (4) You dare not approach to God but by a Mediator. (5) You have seen the need of drawing power in order to your being brought near to God in any ordinance or duty. This you were not only convinced of at first conversion, but you are sensible of it still. (6) When at any time you are brought near to God in ordinances, no degrees of communion with Him that you attain to will fully satisfy you; but you will desire still to be brought nearer and nearer to Him. 7. Hence we see the duty of all who have an opportunity of approaching to God in His ordinances, and particularly of believers who design to partake of the Gospel-feast in view, but perhaps are labouring under various discouragements. They are called to draw near to God with humble confidence and holy joy. (1) Consider what a God He is whom you are called to approach unto. Not an absolute, angry God, but a God in Christ, a sin-pardoning, a reconciled God; a God with whom there is mercy and plenteous redemption. (2) Consider that however unworthy, guilty and vile you are in yourselves, there is a sufficiency of merit in Christ to procure your access to God and acceptance with Him. (D. Wilson.) Desiring communion with God I. The psalmist’ s earnest petition.1. The subject of his request. (1) “ Light” is that glorious creature “ which maketh manifest” to the sense of sight surrounding objects; and thus enables a person to perceive himself and his situation with its advantages or disadvantages, so as to avail himself of what is favourable and to avoid what is otherwise. Metaphorically, it signifies mental illumination, or the means or instruments of such illumination (John 3:19). Thus the epithet is applied to “ believers” (Ephesians 5:8), who are “ children of the light,” because illuminated. And to God, word (Psalms 119:105; Hosea 6:5); and to His ministers and people (Matthew 5:14; John 5:35) as the means of illumination. Light is also a cheerful subject, and therefore it is used to denote prosperity, comfort, felicity (Psalms 97:11; Isaiah 58:8, etc.). (2) The “ truth” here requested may mean religious truth in general, as in John 17:17; and, if so, then the prayer is that of every missionary, and of every friend of missions. But it more properly intends the fulfilment of God’ s promises to the petitioner; a verifying of those promises in his experience, that he might prove and rejoice in their truth. 2. The intention of his request--a participation in religious enjoyments. (1) An acknowledgment of need. (2) Not only a willingness, but anxiety to be led and taught. (3) A resolution to walk in the light, and to submit to the truth of God. (4) A humble anticipation of being so instructed as to be enabled to correct past errors, and of coming to worship God in the beauty of holiness (Psalms 42:4; Psalms 122:1). II. The psalmist’ s pious purpose.1. The object of his devotions” God,” as opposed to the creatures. Not domestic, social or public pleasures or achievements; but God, who is the source of light and truth (James 1:17). “ My God,” as opposed to every other, and peculiarly mine. The object of my affection; the object of my trust (Psalms 73:24-28). 2. The fervour of his devotion--“ Unto God my exceeding joy,” or, “ the gladness of my joy.” How inferior the joy of the sensualist, the worldling, etc. (Psalms 4:7; Isaiah 9:3). 3. The manner of his devotion--“ T will go unto the altar,” etc. (1) He would sacrifice. Is a sin-offering necessary? It shall be offered. Is a thank-offering due? It shall be rendered. (2) He would praise--“ upon the harp,” etc. “ We have an altar,” etc. “ By him therefore let us offer,” etc. (Hebrews 13:10; Hebrews 13:15). (3) This was public worship; an open avowal of God’ s goodness, and His servant’ s obligation. The psalmist was a man of personal piety, which he evinced by practical piety. Are we such? (4) This was a public dedication: an engagement of himself in God’ s service in any post that might be assigned to him. Are you imitating this conduct, thus praying, thus purposing? (Sketches of Four Hundred Sermons.) The ascent of man 1. There are five stages in the light of God. The first is simple leading--the guiding of a child. Then comes the height of ecstasy--the holy hill; I stand above the world and laugh at the cares of time. By and by comes a third stage; I descend from the hill to the tabernacles. Ecstasy subsides into peace; the height sinks into the home; love on the wing becomes love in the nest. After this comes the light of sacrifice--“ Then shall I go unto the altar of God.” “ Then,” not before. Peace alone can sacrifice for others. I cannot sacrifice when I am being led; I am thinking too much about my own steps. I cannot sacrifice when I am in ecstasy; I am too intent on my own joy. But when I get peace, I go out from myself altogether; I go to the altar. At last the climax comes. The altar itself becomes “ my exceeding joy” --the rapture of forgetting self in the care of another. 2. It is a spiral stair, but it is golden. Sometimes it seems to make no progress. There are moments when my feet grow weary with their climbing, and the end is not yet. Shine from the topmost height, Thou Divine Joy! Often I am led by a Way which by myself I would not go; I see not the Christ, but only the manger. Shine out, Thou Christ, and the manger shall be luminous. Shine out, and the altar shall glow with the light of coming fires. (G. Matheson, D. D.) God’ s light and truth our only guides I. What the psalmist here asks of God.1. Something that he wished to enjoy. (1) Some think he means but one thing: as if he had said, “ Send out the light of Thy truth.” (2) Others understand it of the Word and Providence of God. (3) Others, of God’ s favour and faithfulness. (4) Others, of the Word of God and His Holy Spirit; or, of the Spirit working by the Word. 2. The manner in which David desired and expected to have the blessing communicated to him for which he prayed. “ Send out.” (1) This imports that God’ s light and His truth were, for the present, withdrawn, in a great measure, from David’ s view; and from the view of such as were witnesses of his condition. They were like a person who retires from view, and hides himself in a secret place; so that, if David had been to consult with flesh and blood, he might have doubted of their existence. (2) It imports that David still believed in God as a God of light and truth, even when these perfections ceased to be manifested in his behalf. He was assured that God knew all that befell him; and, notwithstanding all, he was persuaded that God would fully accomplish all His promises to him, and to his house. (3) It imports that when God should interpose for His servant’ s deliverance, as he confidently expected He would, then he firmly hoped to see the Divine wisdom and faithfulness vindicated from all those aspersions that had been cast upon them. 3. David’ s earnestness a fervency in this petition. II. David’ s end in asking that for which he prays so fervently.1. The more general end. “ Let them lead me.” He wanted to be guided and conducted by the wisdom and faithfulness of God, not only in his present difficulty, but in every other step of his journey through the wilderness. (1) Indirectly, this may be said to take place when the providence of God, under the influence of His infinite wisdom and faithfulness, manages all that concerns the person in such a manner as may tend to his spiritual good, and to the accomplishment of the promises of God to him. (2) But God’ s light and truth may be said to lead His people more directly and sensibly, when, in His infinite wisdom and faithfulness, He gives them such counsel, instruction and direction as enables them to keep the way of duty, and prevents their turning aside after any crooked ways (Psalms 25:8-9; Isaiah 55:4). 2. The more particular end for which David begs a manifestation of God’ s light and truth. (1) A removal of all those obstructions and hindrances that stood in the way of an attendance upon the solemn worship and ordinances of God. (2) A being directed and enabled to the acceptable performance of all those preparatory duties that are necessary in order to a regular attendance upon God in solemn ordinances. (3) A being strengthened by the grace of God, and enabled to attend upon God’ s ordinances “ in a regular and acceptable manner.” (4) A being admitted to enjoy that spiritual advantage of which ordinances are the means. (5) A being brought home, at length, to the full and immediate enjoyment of God in heaven. III. Improvement.1. For information. (1) It informs us of the necessary connection between an attendance upon God in His ordinances here, and the full enjoyment of Him in the most holy place hereafter. (2) How vain and fruitless it is to pay such an attendance upon ordinances as may be attained without any Divine assistance. (3) How vain and useless all that light is in religious matters which proceeds not from God Himself. (4) They who would live as Christians ought to have their dependence upon God for leading in every step of their journey through the wilderness as well as in their attendance upon Divine ordinances. 2. For trial. (1) Are you sensible that it is a duty, indispensably binding upon you, to ascend the hill of God and to enter His tabernacles as you have an opportunity? (2) Is it real matter of joy and rejoicing to you that God has given you so near a prospect of another opportunity to ascend His hill, and wait upon Him in solemn ordinances? (3) Do you see the necessity of being brought by God Himself to His holy hill and to His tabernacles? That it is impossible for you to attend upon any ordinance acceptably without supernatural assistance? (4) Is it your present exercise; and are you resolved that it shall always be your endeavour to set forward in every act of worship, praying to God, as does the royal psalmist in the text, for the conduct and assistance of His light and truth? 3. For humiliation and mourning. (1) How many are there among us who are altogether careless about being present on God’ s holy hill or in His tabernacles! A sad evidence that they know little about solid happiness, or about where it is to be found. (2) How many satisfy themselves with such an attendance upon ordinances as may be attained without any supernatural assistance; and how often are we all chargeable with this sin. (3) How many are left to follow false lights in attempting to ascend God’ s hill, and to go into His tabernacle! To what else can it be owing, that “ altars are set up against altars” in every corner; and there are so many distinct and opposite societies, all pretending to worship God, and that in His own tabernacles? (John Young, D. D.) Thy light Jesus brought light to the world, and they who follow Him need walk no longer in darkness, for He is the light of life. For-- I. He lights every man to the heart of God. You need to be spiritually minded to perceive this. As a blind man cannot understand colour, so an unspiritual man cannot understand God. But Jesus Christ came to reveal God. II. He reveals to us the everlasting love of God. We often think that because we are bad the Lord has turned His back upon us; but Jesus, the light of the world, testified by His life and death that instead of turning from you, the Lord, like a good physician, seeks after poor sin-sick souls to heal them and save them. Jesus Christ is the Divine light showing us how much higher and holier than we can conceive is the character of God, that His love is infinite, and that He will seek His lost sheep until He finds them. III. Jesus Christ is also the light of God and the light of the world in illuminating the grandest of all truths, that God’ s charity is universal. Like the blessed sunlight, God’ s love is diffused with equal and bounteous hand over the cottage and the palace. God’ s great heart is not partial. He loves my poor friend quite as much as the richest man in the land. His charity beams upon all men alike. IV. Jesus Christ is also a cheering and a transforming light. When the sun’ s rays fall upon a diamond, it glistens with intense beauty; but when the light is gone, the diamond can be no more seen in the dark than a stone. So Christ lights up the Christian. And Christ makes him also a light giver as well as a light receiver. V. Christ brings immortality to light. (W. Birch.) Psalms 43:4 Then will I go unto the altar of God, unto God my exceeding joy.The altar of joy This is the expression of a twofold desire, a desire for communion with God, and for communion with God through public worship. There is a great wail of sorrow in the psalm, but it is not a sorrow without hope; faith struggles with despondence, and gets the victory. The authorship of the psalm we cannot be certain of. Nor of the occasion, whether some event in David’ s reign, or in Ahaz’ s, or in the captivity, or yet some other. Augustine held that the psalm is the proper expression of the Church while she is an exile in this world. They are unquestionably words for all individual souls who feel that something intervenes between them and God--whether it be exile of the body or of the heart only. Often we are separated from the house of God, from the worship that we love, and which has been so precious because so helpful to us, and we yearn for restoration to our privileges. Or it may be the yearning of the heart for spiritual joy, for delight in worship, for the kindling inspiration, the answering voice, the holy rapture which once we knew but now do not, though all the outward service is still ours. Or it may be the longing of the holy soul for God’ s heaven, that presence of God in which there is fulness of joy and of which sometimes in our holiest hours we have visions and foretastes. Thus in different experiences and moods we make these precious words our own. But to the psalmist they told-- I. Of his strong desire for restoration to the public worship of God. It is of the very essence of the religious heart that it should yearn for God. Let a man’ s religious life be full and fervent, and the use of what are termed “ the means of grace” may be safely left to the instincts of his own soul. But does not every pious heart sympathize with David’ s delight in the house of the Lord? Who of us has not realized there a fuller and more fervent feeling of His presence than anywhere else? Who of us neglects or disparages God’ s house without coldness and dulness creeping over our whole devotional life? Its services are the festivals of our piety, it is the place where His honour dwelleth. But the psalmist speaks of worship before God’ s altar. Why the altar rather than the mercy-seat? It is not enough to say that he spake the language of his dispensation, which was one in which sacrifice was prominent. Why was it so? There is but one satisfactory answer--that it was an institution prophetical and preparatory to the great sacrifice of Christ. By no satisfactory process, at least to minds like my own, can it be explained away or reduced to a mere symbol of self-sacrifice. The facts and instincts of our moral consciousness all agree to the doctrine of sacrifice as it is set forth in the Bible. II. The psalmist’ s superlative joy in such worship. Why have we not more joy? It is absent almost everywhere. In all churches and services, in hymns and prayers. It is because we fail of the personal character essential to it, and because we think hard and false thoughts of God. (H. Allen, D. D.) The altar of God The devotional spirit is the life of religion; and there never was a man of piety who was not a man of prayer. The text opens to us two important views. I. The peculiar nature of that worship which God has authorized. It is going to the altar of God. We ought all to be aware that there is a peculiarity in the worship which God authorizes. There is--1. The recognition of our sin. When man was innocent he needed no atonement. There was no altar in Paradise. But now we need one. 2. Our first liability to punishment is acknowledged. 3. And that God is propitious through the atonement He has appointed. A mere sacrifice is not sufficient, for it might have been a human invention merely. But this God has appointed. Atonement is for the penitent (cf. 2 Chronicles 6:29-31). II. The emphatic description which is given of the joy of it. “ God, my exceeding joy.” This joy arises from--1. Our being placed in the presence of a Being of infinite glory and perfection. It supposes reconciliation with God. 2. Because this worship enables us to appropriate this display of glory to ourselves. David speaks of “ My God.” 3. It is the joy of confidence. 4. And in going to the altar of God we have the renewed assurances of His favour. 5. And there is the joy of life. (R. Watson.) The believer going to God as his exceeding joy Especially does he thus come to God in the holy ordinance of the Lord’ s Supper, which was called by the ancients the Eucharist or Sacrifice of Praise. Now-- I. In this ordinance there are to the sincere Christian many sources of joy.1. The fullest assurance and the clearest evidence of the forgiveness of sins. 2. The strongest and most illustrious proof of Divine love. 3. The fullest assurance of receiving from God all that is necessary for comfort and happiness while in this world, and that both for spiritual and temporal life. 4. A pledge and earnest of heaven. II. Practical improvement of this subject. See--1. How great is God’ s goodness in providing for us now so rich entertainment. 2. What joy and consolation there are here be the fearful and doubting Christian. 3. And, indeed, to all without exception, because here we see that God is in Christ “ reconciling the world unto Himself.” (J. Witherspoon.) God, my exceeding joy I. Cheerfulness is health and duty (Proverbs 17:22; Nehemiah 8:10; Isaiah 64:5). It is our duty as Christians to rise to “ What nothing earthly gives, nor can destroy The soul’ s calm sunshine and her heartfelt joy.” II. God alone is “ exceeding joy.” He alone lasts, He only overflows. And all this but natural to Him who is the Lord of the universe. And this exceeding joy is undisturbed by any fear of coming to an end. The bridal pair are very happy, but the thought often comes, One of us must survive the other; which, alas? But the joy of God cannot be disturbed by any calamity. And how elevated it is. For “ none of them that trust in Him shall be desolate.” III. There is a great difference between thinking about God and enjoying him. It is one thing to apprehend God, and another to appropriate Him. The God of experience is the God we need. (E. Paxton Hood.) The good man’ s duty and blessedness “ And then I shall be happy: heaven only can make me happier. Oh, if I can but get near to God and procure a smile from Him, all the world will be as nothing to me.” A happy frame of mind this, to meet trouble in. Consider-- I. The good man’ s duty--going to God. This implies--1. Submission as to his Sovereign. 2. Friendship so as to commune with God as to his troubles, joys, sins, fears, hopes, needs. II. The good man’ s blessedness--exceeding joy in God. It exceeds all other joy.1. In its nature. It is not earthly but spiritual and divine. 2. As to its degree. Creature joy is but little--a drop--at most, but in God’ s presence is fulness of joy. 3. As to duration. It is as the house on the rock compared with that on the sand. Let us ask, What is our joy? III. Improvement.1. How wrong not to go to God. We are either still children of wrath, or if not there has been some sad declension from God. 2. How great our obligation to Christ. 3. Let us long for heaven. (Samuel Lavington.) Communion with God, the Christian’ s aim in attending Divine ordinances I. In what manner we should attend upon God’ s ordinances; in imitation of David’ s example.1. He resolved to deal with God only by the intervention of an atonement. 2. He intended not to continue an idle spectator, nor to consider himself as such, during his attendance in God’ s tabernacles. Here is the market-place, where all that is truly valuable is exposed to sale by God’ s authority, and may be bought without money and without price. 3. He resolved to bring somewhat with him into God’ s tabernacles which he might offer upon His altar. And every Gospel worshipper, when he “ comes into God’ s courts, ought to bring an offering with him.” If you are duly affected with what He has done for you, nothing less will satisfy you than to offer yourself, and all your services, and all your talents, and all your possessions as a sacrifice of thanksgiving upon the Gospel altar. 4. tie would present his gift upon the altar, and expect the acceptance of it only in that way. When you present your supplications to God, remember that you can receive no gracious answer, whatever it is that you pray for, unless through Christ. And when you make an offering of yourself and your services to God, consider always that it is only for the sake of Christ and His atoning sacrifice that any of your offerings can be accepted. II. What it is to go to God himself at his altar or in his ordinances.1. A cheerful and ready forsaking of all sin. Our degree of intimacy with God in ordinances will always bear a proportion to our diligence and success in cleansing ourselves from sin. 2. A turning of our back upon the world and leaving it behind us. We must go to heaven, not by any local motion, but by an elevation of our hearts, affections and desires above the vanities of a present world; and setting them upon “ the things that are above,” “ where Christ is at the right hand of God.” 3. A believing acceptance of God Himself as the person’ s everlasting and all-satisfying portion upon the footing of His own gracious grant and promise. In that wonderful declaration, “ I am the Lord thy God,” so often repeated, God makes over Himself to us; as a portion, in the enjoyment of which we may be supremely blessed, even through an endless eternity. 4. An offering up to God all our desires in a way of fervent supplication. 5. A diligent searching after God, and after communion with Him in His ordinances. 6. An attendance upon God in ordinances with a view of being so much nearer to the full enjoyment of Him in the holy of holies above. III. In what respect it is, on what grounds, that God may de called his people’ s exceeding joy.1. Why is God called His people’ s “ joy” ? (1) God is the author and the efficient cause of all the believer’ s joy. It is one of the fruits of His Spirit dwelling in His people. (2) God is the object of the believer’ s joy. 2. Why the believer’ s joy in God has the epithet “ exceeding.” (1) It exceeds all the joy that arises from the possession of any other, or of all other objects. All other objects are but the works of His hands. Therefore, that joy of which He is the object exceeds all that arises from other things, as far as the Creator is superior to the creature. (2) It exceeds all the grief, heaviness and sorrow incident to the child of God through the manifold trials and miseries of all this life. IV. Inferences.1. All attendance upon Divine ordinances must be fruitless and unprofitable when persons are not concerned to come to Christ in ordinances. 2. No person comes really and acceptably to Christ who comes not, at the same time, unto God through Him. 3. In vain will any person attempt to come unto God, any otherwise than through Jesus Christ. 4. In this text we may see who among us shall be acceptable worshippers in God’ s tabernacles; and particularly who will be welcome guests at His holy table to-day. God our exceeding joy God is the exceeding joy of the godly man.1. As the immutable source of his supreme satisfaction. Let a man possess the favour of Him in whose presence there is fulness of joy, and he needs no more. Our lesser sources of satisfaction may be destroyed, but our greatest can neither perish nor change by the influence of evil. 2. As a perpetual supply of good which he may always appropriate. As the objects which constitute the materials of earthly happiness are all external, consequently they, as well as the happiness they create, are alike subject to change and decay. But they who rejoice in God have that redundant spring whose waters fail not. External sources of comfort may be dried up, like the prophet’ s book, but the inward solacements of piety remain. 3. As the wise controller of all worldly events. It is on this ground that the believer can maintain his serenity of mind amidst outward causes of perturbation. Amidst all his trials he is well assured that God has attached an ultimate design of mercy to every sorrow. He can generally perceive that design, even if he cannot understand its full extent of good. In some cases it comes to prove and exhibit the excellency of his principles, the beauty of confiding faith, and the power of quiet meekness. In other instances it is to correct the evils of his heart, wean him from earth, and stimulate him to seek all his joys at God’ s right hand. 4. As that Being who will eventually recompense the trials and sorrows of His people with eternal joy. Here the Christian is but a pilgrim through the wilderness preceding that promised good land, of which he gets but few and scanty gleams. Here, he has the flower of hope; there, God will give him the fruit of perfect joy. The largest desires of the soul shall hereafter be amply satisfied. The spirit, freed from all the sorrows, sins, and imperfections of this world, shall find perfect purity its element, and shall reflect the happiness of God for ever, as jewels the rays of sparkling light. (James Foster.) God--the saint’ s exceeding joy. It is observable that, in the courts of kings, children and common people are much taken with pictures and rich shows, and feed their fancies with the sight of rich hangings and fine things; but the grave statesman passeth by such things as not worthy taking notice of--his business is with the king. Thus it is that in this world most men stay in the outer rooms and admire the low things of the world, and look upon them as pieces of much excellence; but the spiritually minded man looketh over all these things that are here below--his business is with God. (J. Spencer.) Psalms 43:5 Why art thou cast down, O my soul?and why art thou disquieted within me? hope in God: for I shall yet praise Him, who is the health of my countenance and my God. Discouragement’ s recovery This psalm was penned by David, which shows the passions of his soul; for God’ s children know the estate of their own souls for the strengthening of their trust and bettering their obedience. Now, this is the difference between psalms and other places of Scripture. Other scriptures speak mostly from God to us; but in the Psalms this holy man doth speak mostly to God and his own soul; so that this psalm is an expostulation of David with his own soul in a troubled estate; when being banished from the house of God, he expostulates the matter with his soul: “ Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me?” The words tell of-- I. David’ s perplexed estate. “ Why art thou cast down,” etc.1. How did he come to be thus perplexed? He was in great trouble and affliction. A soul that is lively in grace cannot endure to live under small means of salvation. 2. The second thing that troubled this holy man was the blasphemous words of wicked men. Therefore if we would try our state to be good, see how we take to heart everything that is done against religion. Can a child be patient when he sees his father abused? God’ s children are sensible of such things. But observe-- 1. A child of God must not be too much discouraged and cast down in afflictions. There must be measure both in sorrow and in joy. Not as Nabal (1 Samuel 25:36-37). And we may know when this measure is exceeded if our mourning and sorrow do not bring us to God, but drives us from God. Grief, sorrow and humility are good; but discouragement is evil (Exodus 6:9; 1 Peter 3:7). Christians must not exceed in anything; when they do they are overcome of their passions. And to be cast down and disquieted is sin, because it doth turn to the reproach of religion and God Himself; and because their so sinking under afflictions never yield any good fruit, and it hinders us both from and in holy duties; for either we do not perform them at all, or otherwise they are done but weakly; for as the troubled eye cannot see well, so the troubled soul cannot do good, nor receive good. Observe-- II. His expostulation with himself. “ Why art thou cast down?” etc. The word in the original shows that it is the nature of sorrow to bring the soul downwards. Sorrow and sin agree both in this, for as they come from below, so they bring the soul down to the earth.1. What is meant by casting down, and why doth he find fault with himself for it? Because it breeds disquieting. Hence it is said in Psalms 37:1, “ Fret not thyself,” etc. Here is no true humiliation but abundance of corruption. But note-- III. The remedy to which the psalmist turns: he first reflects upon and expostulates with his soul, and then bids it. “ trust in God.” And so we learn that. God’ s children in their greatest troubles recover themselves, that the prerogative of a Christian in these disquietings, and in all estates, is, he hath God and himself to speak unto, whereby he can remove solitariness. Put him into a dungeon, yet he may speak unto God there, and speak unto himself. Let all the tyrants in the world do their worst to a Christian; if God be with him he is cheerful still. (R. Sibbes) The psalmist’ s dialogue with his soul These words occur thrice, at short, intervals, in this and the preceding psalm. They appear there twice, and here once. Quite obviously the division into two psalms has been a mistake, for the whole constitutes one composition. The first part of each of the little sections, into which the one original psalm is divided by the repetition of this refrain, is a weary monotone of complaint. I. The dreary monotony of complaint. We all know the temptation of being overmastered by some calamity or some sad thought. We keep chewing some bitter morsel and rolling it under our tongues so as to suck all the bitterness out of it that we can. You sometimes see upon the stage of a theatre a funeral procession represented, and the supernumeraries pass across the stage and go round at the back and come in again at the other end, and so keep up an appearance of numbers far beyond the reality. That is like what you and I do with our sorrows. A bee has an eye, with I do not know how many facets, which multiply the one thing it looks at into an enormous number; and some of us have eyes made on that fashion, or rather we manufacture for our eyes spectacles on that plan, by which we look at our griefs or our depressing circumstances, and see them multiplied and nothing but them. “ That way madness lies.” II. Wise self-questioning. There are a great many of our griefs, and moods, and sorrows that will not stand that question. Like ghosts, if you speak to them, they vanish. It is enough, in not a few of the lighter and more gnat-like troubles that beset us, for us to say to ourselves, “ What are we putting ourselves into such a fuss about? Why art thou cast down?” We cannot control our thoughts nor our moods directly, but we can do a great deal to regulate, modify and diminish those of them that need diminishing, and increase those of them that need to be increased, by looking at the reasons for them. And if a man will do that more habitually and conscientiously than most of us are accustomed to do it, in regard both to passing thoughts and overpowering moods that threaten to become unwholesomely permanent, he will regain a firmer control of himself--and that is the best wealth that a man can have. Very many men who makes failures, morally, religiously, or even socially and commercially, do so because they have no command over themselves, and because they have not asked this question of each sly temptation that comes wheedling up to the gate of the soul with whispering breath and secret suggestions--“ What do you want here? What reason have you for wishing to come in? Why art thou cast down, O my soul?” --question yourselves about your moods, and especially about your sad moods, and you will have gone a long way to make yourselves bigger and happier people than you have ever been before. III. An effort twice foiled and at last successful. In the cathedral of St. Mark’ s, Venice, there is a mosaic that represents Christ in Gethsemane. You remember that, like the psalmist, He prayed three times there, and twice came back, not having received His desire, and the third time He did receive it. The devout artist has presented Him thus: the first time prone on the ground, and the sky all black; the second time raised a little, and a strip of blue in one corner; and the third time kneeling erect, and a beam from heaven, brighter than the radiance of the Paschal moon, striking right down upon Him, and the strengthening angel standing beside Him. That was the experience of the Lord, and it may be the experience of the servant. Do not give up the effort, at self-control and victory over circumstances that tempt to despondency or to sadness. Even if you fail this time, still the failure has left some increased capacity for the next attempt, and God helping, the next time will be successful. IV. The conquering hope. The psalmist’ s question to his soul is not answered. It needed no answer. To put it was the first struggle to strip off the poisoned sackcloth in which he had wrapped himself. But his next word, his command to his soul to hope in God, completes the process of putting off the robe of mourning and girding himself with gladness. He makes one great leap, as it were, across the black flood that has been ringing him round, and bids his soul: “ Hope thou in God.” The one medicine for a disquieted, cast-down soul is hope in God. People say a great deal about the buoyant energy of hope bearing a man up over his troubles. Yes! so it does in some measure, but there is only one case in which there is a real bearing up over the troubles, and that is where the hope is in God. But the hope that is in God must be a hope that is based upon a present possession of Him. It is only if a man has a present experience of the blessings of strong and all-sufficient help that come to him now, when he can say, “ My God, the health of my countenance,” t, hat he has the right, or that he has the inclination or the power to paint the future with brightness. And we shall not attain either to that experience of God as ours, or to the hope that, springing from it, will triumph over all disquieting circumstances without a dead lift of effort. There is a great lack amongst all Christian people of realizing that it is as much their duty to cultivate the hope of the Christian as it is their duty to cultivate any other characteristic of the Christian life. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Despondency: its cause and cure I. Why the soul is bowed down and disquieted.1. The soul may be bowed down for lack of the old help and strength got from the means of grace. As our hearts are framed we need help from habit, from outward expression, from worship, from voice and ear, from sympathy and exhortation, from words and sacraments. 2. The soul may he cast down from thoughts and doubts springing at once out of the man’ s own mind, growing at once out of the evil of his very spiritual nature. 3. The soul may be bowed down by the burden of wilful sin, neglected duty, or worldly indulgence. No amount of religious fervour, or doctrinal knowledge will keep the heart glad in which is the consciousness of wrong. 4. But all this sore trouble is deepened, if it happens to come upon us in times of worldly woe, when we can least afford to miss God’ s peace, when we are in greatest need of comfort. “ Why, was it not just this we had counted on, that when all earthly fountains would be dried up, then the river of God would still flow on? II. why the soul need not be bowed down.1. God would have us to learn and know that He Himself is an all-sufficient comforter, apart from any outward helps or earthly sympathy. Thus we enter further into the secret of God’ s covenant. 2. All progress in religion seems to be from dark to dark. The plant at first strikes its roots in the dark; and it would appear as if the spirit needed fresh times of sorrow before it will be moved to larger growth. 3. We must learn the insufficiency of present attainments before we will seek more. How vague and dim are the hopes and expectations of many! In worldly prosperity such meagre experience does well enough; but, oh! it is not well for the soul to rest there. “ Come unto Me,” He cries, now loudly, now whisperingly; and it is to move and bend us He has to send darkness and trouble. How natural it is we should be disquieted; and is it not the case that so soon as we see this good wise reason for our dejection, immediately we are delivered? And though it was good for us to be dejected, yet we say, why should we be so? “ Why art thou cast down,” why dost thou still continue to be cast down, O my soul? (R. MacEllar.) The psalmist’ s remonstrance with his soul There is a kind of dialogue between the psalmist and his soul. He, as it were, cuts himself into two halves, and reasons and remonstrates with himself, and coerces himself, and encourages himself; and finally settles down in a peace which unites in one the two discordant elements. I. The psalmist’ s question to his soul, “ Why art thou cast down? why art thou disquieted?” There are two things here, apparently, opposite to each other, and yet both of them present in the fluctuating and stormy emotions of the poet. On the one hand is deep dejection. The word employed describes the attitude of a man lying prone and prostrate, grovelling on the ground. “ Why art thou cast down?” And yet, side by side with that torpid dejection, there is a noisy restlessness. “ `why dost thou mourn and mutter” --as the words might be rendered--“ within me?” And these two moods are, if not co-existent, at least so quickly alternating within his consciousness that he has to reason with himself about both. He has fits of deep depression, followed by, and sometimes even accompanied with, fits of restless complaining and murmuring. And he puts to himself the question, “ What is it all about?” Now, if we translate this question into a general expression it just comes to this--A man is worth very little unless there is a tribunal in him to which he brings up his feelings and makes them justify their existence, and tell him what they mean by their noise and their complaining. “ He that has no rule over his own spirit is like a city broken down and without walls.” The affections, the emotions, the feelings of sorrow or of gladness, of dissatisfaction with my lot, or of enjoyment and complacency in it, are excited by the mere presence of a set of external circumstances; but the fact that they are excited is no warrant for their existence. And the first thing to be done in regard to them is to see to it that the nobler man, the man within, the real self should cross-question that other self, and say, “ Tell me, have you reason for your being? If not, take yourselves away.” “ Why art thou cast down, O my soul, and why art thou disquieted within me?” II. The psalmist’ s charge to his soul. “ Hope thou in God.” Ah! it is no use to say to a soul, “ What is all your agitation about?” unless you can go on to say, “ Be quiet in God.” Sweep away the things seen and temporal, and put the thing, or rather the Person, Unseen and Eternal, in the front of them. And then comes quiet; and then there comes aspiration. Then energy comes hack to the languid and relaxed limbs, and the man that was lying on his face in the dust starts to his feet, ready for strenuous effort and for noble service. The soul that is to be quickened from its torpor, and to be quieted from its restlessness, must be led to God, and, grasping Him, then it is able to coerce these other feelings, which, apart from Him, have, and ought to have, the field to themselves. Nor must we forget another thought, that this charge of the psalmist to his soul teaches us. The deep-seated and central faith in God which marks a religious man ought to permeate all his nature to the very outskirts and circumference of his being. Even amidst the perturbations of the sensitive nature of the poet-psalmist, his inmost self was resting upon God. III. The psalmist’ s confident assurance, which is his reason for exhorting his lower self to quiet faith and hope.” :For I shall yet praise Him,” etc. The “ I” here is the whole united and harmonized self, in which the emotions, affections, passions and lower desires obey the reins and whip of the higher nature. When God governs the spirit, the spirit governs the “ soul,” and the man who has yielded himself to God, first of all in the surrender, possesses himself, and can truly say “ I.” Only when the heart is “ united to fear God’ s name” is there true concord within. Oh to live more continually under the influence of that glorious light of the assured future, when our lips shall be loosed to give forth His praise, and when we shall have learned that every sorrow, disappointment, loss, painful effort, all that here seemed kindred with darkness, was really but a modification of light, and was a thing to be thankful for. If only we chose to walk in the light of the future, then the poor present would be small and powerless to harm us. “ I shall yet praise Him” is the language that befits us all. And there is not only the assurance of a future that shall explain all, and make it all material for praise, when all the discords of the great conflicting piece of music are resolved into harmony, but there is here also the deep sense of present blessing. “ I shall yet praise Him who is the health” (or salvation) “ of my countenance and my God.” “ Who is,” not who will be; “ who is” in the moment of difficulty and sorrow; “ who is,” even whilst as the other part of the psalm tells us, the enemy are saying “ Where is thy God? who is,” even whilst the sense and flesh and the lower self have lost sight of Him. “ And my God.” Ah! there we touch the bottom and get our feet upon the rock. He that can say “ He is my God” has a right to be sure that he will yet praise Him. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) The psalmist’ s remonstrance with his soul I. Moods and emotions should be examined and governed by a higher self. There are plenty of people who, making profession of being Christians, do not habitually put the break on their moods and tempers, and who seem to think that it is a sufficient vindication of gloom and sadness to say that things are going badly with them in the outer world, and who act as if they supposed that no joy can be too exuberant and no elation too lofty if, on the other hand, things are going rightly. It is a miserable travesty of the Christian faith to suppose that its prime purpose is anything else than to put into our hands the power of ruling ourselves because we let Christ rule us. If the wheelhouse, and the stearing gear, and the rudder of the ship proclaim their purpose of guidance and direction, as eloquently and unmistakably does She make of our inward selves tell us that emotions and moods and tempers are meant to be governed, often to be crushed, always to be moderated by sovereign will and reason. In the psalmist’ s language, “ my soul” has to give account of its tremors and flutterings to “ Me,” the ruling Self, who should be Lord of temperament and control the fluctuations of feeling. II. There are two ways of looking at causes of dejection and disquiet. There is a court of appeal in each man which tests and tries his reasons for his moods; and these, which look very sufficient to the flesh, turn out to be very insufficient when investigated and tested by the higher spirit or self. We should “ appeal from Philip drunk to Philip sober.” If men would only bring the causes or occasions of the tempers and feelings which they allow to direct them, to the bar of common sense, to say nothing of religious faith, half the furious boilings in their hearts would stop their ebullition. It would be like pouring cold water into a kettle on the fire. It would end its bubbling. Everything has two handles. The aspect of any event depends largely on the beholder’ s point of view. “ There’ s nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.” III. No reasons for being cast down are so strong as those for elation and calm hope. Try to realize what God is to yourselves--“ My God” and “ the health of my countenance.” That will stimulate sluggish feeling; that will calm disturbed emotion. He that can say, “ My God!” and in that possession can repose, will not be easily moved by the trivialities and transitorinesses of this life, to excessive disquiet, whether of the exuberant or of the woeful sort. There is a wonderful calming power in realizing our possession of God as our portion--not stagnating, but quieting. IV. The effort to lay hold on the truth which calms is to be repeated in spite of failures. No effort at tranquillizing our hearts is wholly lost; and no attempt to lay hold upon God is wholly in vain. Men build a dam to keep out the sea, and the winter storms make a breach in it, but it is not washed sway altogether. And next season they will not need to begin to build from quite so low down, but there will be a bit of the former left to put the new structure upon. And so by degrees it will rise above the tide, and at last will keep it out. Did you ever see a child upon a swing, or a gymnast upon a trapeze? Each oscillation goes a little higher; each starts from the same lowest point, but the elevation on either side increases with each renewed effort, until at last the destined height is reached and the daring athlete leaps on to a solid platform. So we may, if I might so say, by degrees, by reiterated efforts, swing ourselves up to that stedfast floor on which we may stand high above all that breeds agitation and gloom. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Hope, the antidote to despondency I. The state alluded to. Dejection and despair. Many things conduce to it. 1. There are not only the difficulties of the Christian course--its dangers, trials, sorrows, disappointments, etc., but-- 2. There are the frailties and the circumstances of material life. (1) Some are cast down owing to constitutional physical temperament. This tendency might and ought to be checked and overcome by cherishing an opposite state of mind. (2) Others are cast down by the reflections on human existence, the failure of the right, and triumph of wrong--the utter abandonment of the world, the almost imperceptible progress of the Gospel in the world. (3) Others, again, are dispirited by failure of health and the crushing hand of affliction, by domestic trials, ill-assorted marriages, and invincible sorrow. II. The investigation suggested. It is very advisable and useful to act as the psalmist did, and institute the inquiry as to the reason of our despondence. Most of the troubles of life and religion come in an unreasoning manner, inasmuch as they appeal to our feelings, not to our logic--our hearts and not our heads. But when we bring a little logic into our feelings and sentiments, it acts as a whole, some regulation and useful restraint. We should generally find that in the dealings of Providence there is no cause whatever for the soul to be east down. Not one moment of trial but what is necessary for the soul’ s discipline, and shall minister to the soul’ s best condition. III. The antidote supplied--“ Hope thou in God.” Yes, it is the want of faith that is at the root of all fearful despair, and faith, trust and hope are the remedy, the cure of the soul’ s disease and spirit’ s gloom. Just think what it is to hope in God! There is everything to make us do so! He has all the resources of the universe at His control. But the keynote of hope is love. If we realize that He loves us, we shall know that He will use all these resources for our good. Perfect love casteth out fear. (Homilist.) The defeat of Despair Mr. Greatheart, old Honest and the four young men went up to Doubting Castle to look for Giant Despair. When they came at the castle gate, they knocked for entrance with an unusual noise. At that the old giant comes to the gate; and Diffidence his wife follows Then these six men made up to him, and beset him behind and before; also, when Diffidence the giantess came up to help him, old Mr. Honest cut her down at one blow. Then they fought for their lives, and Giant Despair was brought down to the ground, but was very loath to die. He struggled hard, and had, as they say, as many lives as a cat; but Great-heart was his death, for he left him not till he had severed his head from his shoulders. (J. Bunyan.) Psalms 44:1-26 Psalms 44:1-26 We have heard with our ears, O God; our fathers have told us what work Thou didst. Aspects of national piety There is such a thing as national piety. I mean the aggregation of genuine godly thought, sympathy and aspiration, whether found in the breast of paupers or princes. Here we have it represented-- I. As acknowledging God’ s providential kindness to the nation in the past (Verses 1-8).1. The certain assurance of it. We have heard it as an historical fact--heard it from our own fathers, who would not deceive us, and who told it to us in love. God’ s merciful interpositions on behalf of the Hebrew people are recorded, not only in the annals of the chosen people, but in the progress of the human race, not only in documents and monuments, but through an institution as divine as nature, as old as the race, viz. parental teaching. 2. The striking manifestations of it. “ How Thou didst drive out the heathen,” etc. It is not our armies and navies that have saved us and made us what we are, but God. 3. The practical influence of it. (1) Loyalty towards God.(2) Confidence in God. II. As deploring God’ s present apparent displeasure toward the nation (Psalms 44:9-16). He saw his country--1. Defeated. “ But Thou hast cast off,” etc. We struggle, but succeed not; there is no victory for us; we are foiled in all our efforts. 2. Victimized. “ They which hate us,” etc. We are made use of by our enemies. 3. Enslaved. “ Thou sellest Thy people for nought,” etc. 4. Confounded. “ My confusion is continually before me,” etc. I am ashamed and bewildered. We have lost our dignity and self-command. 5. Scorned. “ Thou makest us a reproach to our neighbours,” etc. III. As avowing fidelity to God notwithstanding the calamities of the country. I. A consciousness of fidelity to Heaven. “ All this is come upon us; yet have we not forgotten Thee,” etc.2. Persecution on account of their fidelity. “ For Thy sake are we killed,” etc. (1) Genuine piety may co-exist with great suffering. Abraham, David, Job, Paul.(2) Genuine piety may be stimulated by great suffering.(3) Genuine piety enables one to bear great suffering. IV. As invoking God’ s interposition in order to restore past privileges.1. A humanification of Deity. “ Awake, why sleepest Thou, O Lord?” No creature can have a complete conception of the Absolute. 2. Utter prostration of being. “ Our soul is bowed down to the dust,” etc. What stronger expression could there be of depression and degradation than this? In a moral sense all men are thus debased and crushed by sin. 3. Entire dependence on sovereign mercy. “ Arise for our help,” etc. We cannot redeem ourselves, nor can we plead our own merits or excellences as a reason for Thy interposition. (Homilist.) God’ s doings of old I. Dwelling on the history of the past throws light on the doings of the present.1. We learn the principle of development. Men are taught that all our present privileges in knowledge, science, civilization and religion came from very small sources. We know that God performed wonders of old, but we also know that those wonders have been continuously progressive. 2. We learn the principle of equalization. If God has done great things for us, He did great things for those of old. They may not have had the full revelation of religion, but they had to exercise faith in the same way as we do. 3. We learn the lesson of common depravity. The people of old did not notice God’ s works at the time they were wrought. And so we all allow mercies to come to us unheeded and unpraised, and not till they are taken away do we appreciate their worth. II. Dwelling on the history of the past throws light upon the faithfulness of God. He is a God who changes not and who never deserts His people. III. Dwelling on the history of the past throws light upon our expectations for the future. What God has been He will always be. (Homilist.) Early Israel, the Lord’ s host The spirit evinced in these words is very different from that which is regarded by some as the special excellency of modern times. It is supposed to be the height of wisdom now to laugh at what our father said, and to show what utter fools they were in comparison with their supremely wise and enlightened sons. Instead of our fathers “ being the men, and wisdom dying with them,” we are the men, and wisdom was non-existent until we appeared. Now, I venture to say that our fathers never did or said anything more silly than the modern extravagance I have now described. We blame the Jews for thinking that God’ s love stopped with them, and then we coolly declare that God’ s wisdom began with us. Of the two, the Jew had the greater excuse for his onesidedness. Our text clearly introduces us to the time of Joshua, when Israel invaded the land of the Canaanites avowedly by a Divine commission, and destroyed its inhabitants in the name of the Lord. I. Now they really had a divine commission to do this, or they had not. The very plausible objection is based upon a comparison of tribal histories in primitive times. There is no need to deny the presence of important analogies between the history of Israel and that of other tribes, for the special mission of Israel did not make it cease to be human in its history. But its subsequent history is sufficient to show that it occupied a position of pre-eminence from the beginning as the “ chosen of God.” However rudely it may have conceived its mission, to deny its special mission at the commencement of that history is to make its subsequent development unintelligible, and to declare that its life was false at its very foundation. Next, it is objected that Israel could not have received such a mandate from God, seeing that it was immoral to engage in such aggressive wars. But such an objection as this is pure assumption, and fails to take account of different moral conditions and necessities. It is further urged that the cruelties sometimes practised by Israel upon the conquered are morally indefensible. This may be perfectly true, but it is not relevant as an objection. The abuse of a commission does not prove the denial of its reality. II. The continuity of their mission is seen further in the power in which they trusted. Israel very significantly distinguished at the very first between the might of its army and the might of its God. This was very important, for it contained the germ of all further development. This distinction between God and physical force makes God definitely ethical. It was this God that gave Israel a mission. No doubt there were many crudenesses in it. It was but as the grey dawn, and was separated by many a stage from the perfect day. But whatever the form of the mission, it was such as was necessary for the time, and was distinctly ethical in spirit. The God they served and in whom they trusted is the eternal God, that liveth and abideth for ever. III. In perfect harmony with these characteristics was their belief in their divine election. “ Because Thou hadst a favour unto them.” It is important to note that this election, though insisted upon with great emphasis, was ethically conceived. Everything in the religious thought of Israel was necessarily related to its essential conception of God as an ethical Being. Hence the true faith of Israel affords no prototype of later conceptions of arbitrary and non-ethical election and rejection. The true prototype of these is found in corruptions and perversions of Israel’ s true faith. We must point out further that Israel’ s election, as truly conceived, simply imposed upon Israel a special task and mission, and issued no decree of exclusion upon the rest of the world. Putting it generally and tersely we may say that God’ s elections do not involve exclusions. The man of God’ s choice, who is called to make known in his life the thought and life of God is so far exclusive that he makes war against sin in such a form as is suitable to the age in which he lives, but the final object of his mission is to lead others to share his life and spirit, and to enter into his heritage. This the prophets clearly perceived to be the true purpose of Israel’ s election (Isaiah 60:3). (John Thomas, M. A.) Lessons from the past This verse, slightly altered in form though not in sense, occupies a prominent place in the Church Litany. It is not a prayer at all: it does not form one of that long series of supplications of which the Litany consists. The origin of the Litany is very interesting. It is a most perfect and beautiful sample of a large class of devotions which in earlier ages abounded in the Church, and which seem to have taken their rise in those dark and anxious days which accompanied and followed upon the break-up of the Roman Empire. There, “ battle, murder and sudden death” ; “ plague, pestilence and famine,” and all the calamities attendant on what seemed to be the entire collapse of social order, were common things. Hence, when the misery of the people seemed likely to bring in its train the withdrawal of such small blessings as they had, and even, in some cases, the fierce ungodliness of despair; then it was that, in their agony, holy souls turned towards God and sought to enkindle the souls around them by the sharp, prominate ejaculations, such as men might spontaneously utter amid the ruins of a falling world. Our Litany was drafted at the time of the Reformation from earlier compositions of this kind, and it maintains its supplicatory character throughout with a simple and emphatic exception. Between the two solemn adjurations to God to “ arise and help,” there comes in the verse of the psalm, “ O God, we have heard with our ears, and our fathers,” etc. It is an appeal, if we may reverently say so, to the historic consistency of God. It is an act of acknowledgment and praise, and we find the reason for its occurrence in the Litany in the drift and history of the psalm from which it is taken. This psalm was written, probably, at a time and under circumstances not unlike those which some centuries later created the Litanies of the Christian Church. It probably belongs to those dark times which immediately preceded the great and final catastrophe of the Babylonish Captivity. We live over those times, as nowhere else in Holy Scripture, in the pages of Jeremiah. Everything was pointing to some coming disaster: there was failure abroad, there was misery at home. At such times the hearts of thoughtful and religious men turned back upon the past of Israel and upon all that God had done for Israel. Was He not the same God? Was not Israel the same people? Would He be, could He be, inconsistent with Himself? Surely it was enough to remind Him of His mercies in the past to be certain that the future would in some way not be unprovided for. “ O God, we have heard with our ears,” etc. Now, since human history is a record of the way and will of God, we may explain why it is that so large a portion of the Bible is made up of history. It has a distinctly religious use as showing how God works and what He is. There are two main reasons which practically make history so precious at all times, and especially in times of public or private anxiety, and the first is, that it takes us out of the present, takes us out of ourselves. We are taken out of the clouded and fluctuating present, and how can we better learn than from experience, if the judgment be undisturbed? It is also a record of the unalterable character of human nature, and it places us face to face with the infinite and eternal God. “ I am Jehovah, and change not.” Now, to apply this, there are three departments of human life in which this recurrence to the past is of great religious value. I. The family. Every family has its traditions as well as its hopes. We see it in the families of the wealthy and powerful, amid nobles and princes. To be the descendant from great and illustrious families is to inherit a past of which every educated man feels the magnificence and the power. And it is not less true of the humble and undistinguished lives which belong to most of us. When a boy is told that some generations ago one of his ancestors did something noble and generous; when he is told that, but for the misconduct of such and such a member of the family, he and his would be in a very different position now; and when he is bidden imitate that which was noble, and shun that which was bad in them who went before him, he is brought in this way under the play of very powerful motives, and which cannot but have much influence over him. They are part of the predestined discipline, depend upon it, to which God subjects him, and a very valuable part too. II. There is our country. And here we have to remember that God shapes the destiny of every nation as surely as He did that of Judah and Israel. It should be part of every young Englishman’ s education to trace God’ s hand in the annals of his country until he can with sincerity and fervour exclaim, “ O God, we have heard with our ears,” etc. And then there is-- III. The great and sacred home of souls--the church of Jesus Christ. And all this has to do with personal religion, for it is the religious use of history which enables us better to do our duty in home, in nation and in the Church, and it makes history itself full of interest and encouragement. (Canon Liddon.) The story of God’ s mighty acts No stories stick by us so long as those that we hear in our childhood, notwithstanding that so many of them are idle, vain and fabulous. But amongst the early Christians and the old believers in the far-off times, nursery tales were far different from what they are now. Abraham would, no doubt, talk to young children about the flood, and the Israelites who had been in bondage in Egypt would tell their children about that, and how the Lord delivered them. In primitive Christianity it was the custom of parents to tell their children the story of Jesus, and so it was among our Puritanic ancestors. The old Dutch tiles were the lesson-books in Bible history of many beside Doddridge. The writer of this psalm seems to have had told him by his father the story of the wondrous things God had done in the days of old. Let us now recall such things, and speak-- I. Of the wonderful stories we have heard of the lord’ s ancient doings. God has, at times, done very mighty acts at which men have been exceedingly amazed. See the history of Israel in Egypt, in the wilderness, in Canaan; of Sennacherib and many more. And in the New Testament, of Pentecost and of all the triumphs of the Gospel told of there. And since those days in the history of the Church, of Chrysostom, Luther, Calvin and others not a few. And nearer to our own times, of Wesley, Whitfield and the Methodists. Now, in all these works of old there were these features--1. They were sudden. The old stagers in our churches think that things must grow gently, by degrees. But all God’ s works have been sudden. At Pentecost. At the Reformation. In Whitfield’ s day. And so in all revivals. 2. God’ s instruments have been insignificant. See little David when he slew Goliath; a woman slew Sisera. And also were Luther, Whitfield and the rest. 3. And all these works were attended with much prayer. II. The disadvantages under which these old stories frequently labour. People say, “ Oh, times are different now.” But has God changed? Cannot He do vow what He did of old? III. The proper inferences that are to be drawn from the old stories of God’ s mighty deeds.1. There should be gratitude and praise. 2. Prayer. For how many are still unsaved. Preaching will not alone save them. God has done much in answer to prayer. 3. Entire dependence upon God. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The days of old A frivolous and shallow person once inquired of an old Carthusian monk how he had contrived to get through his life. He replied in the words of another psalm, “ I have considered the days of old, the years of ancient times.” That man had found one great secret of hope, and cheerfulness, and moral strength. It is unquestionably an immense gain to be able to get beyond our own little life and the little circle which is round it, and to allow our thoughts and sympathies to work in the wider and freer region of the world’ s past and present and future. Is it not profoundly melancholy in this world whose history is of such solemn, and indeed painful, interest, to listen to the thing called “ conversation” by vast numbers? Education has done so little for vast numbers that if they do not converse about their neighbours, they cannot converse at all. They are simply without topics. It is pre-eminently the result of mental training that we have the power to get away from our own concerns and surroundings, to feel ourselves one with all mankind, to know that they and we are moving forward to the fulfilment of a glorious hope. Here, however, it is that the influence of religion enters in. Reading and writing and arithmetic, essential as they are, have no tendency to enlarge the mind or to widen the mental horizon. But put the Bible into the hands of a child, and at once that child becomes aware of the fact that its little world is but a corner of the great wide world, that its little existence is but a segment of the life of the race. And at once an idea is set before it under an immense variety of aspects which inevitably expands its mind, and by doing this achieves one of the greatest aims of education. The child learns that it is in a very large world, a member of the great human family; it is taught to look back to a past in which God has been wise and good, to look forward to a future in which that wisdom and goodness will be more perfectly justified and unfolded. This habit of considering “ the days of old and the years of ancient times” will have two happy results; it will teach humility, and it will calm down anxiety. While we thank God for the light He has vouchsafed in these last days, while we will not lend an ear to the suggestion that knowledge, progress, science, civilization are bad things, we must also disallow the monstrous notion that there was no wisdom in the world until this century. “ There were giants in the earth in those days.” And as we thus learn modesty, so may we, by considering “ the days of old and the veers of ancient times” be delivered from unreasoning panic and unbelieving timidity. The faith is attacked; And was it never attacked before? Surely the intellectual shock which men experienced at the Reformation was far more violent than any which is felt now. A hundred years ago there was a more widespread and pestilent scepticism than any we have to lament; yet religion grappled with it, did not simply stand on the defensive, but attacked, and attacked successfully. It seems to me that the robust trust of these old psalms cries shame upon us, who live in a brighter and happier day. For the individual as for the community the ultimate trust must be in the character of God, in His faithfulness most of all. (J. A. Jacob, M. A.) The eternal providence of God I. Providence is not of yesterday. Men love what is ancient. Now, this antiquity of Providence is not a myth. The Psalms are historical. They were written some thousands of years ago, and yet the writers speak of former times of old. II. The man is very bold who disputes this providence. He must be either a very great or a very little man; there can be nothing common about him. But he ought to be sworn before he gives evidence. We have a right to know who he is. We cannot have any chatter upon this great question. III. Providence is a revelation: there is a Gospel of Providence. It is a Gospel to be assured that the foundation of your haven is strong; that all things are under the hand of God. IV. And there is a providence of facts. The men of old abused these, and from a long succession of such observations they drew their conclusions. History seems to make it more difficult to deny than to admit Providence. V. Whatever objection any may have against the doctrine, its effect on life is good. We ask, what kind of man does this belief in Providence produce; what fruit does it bear? The creed which says God is, God rules, God will judge--what manner of man will this creed make? It will give courage. See Moses before Pharaoh. And what blessed peace it imparts. But surely this is a great presumption in favour of its truth. And thus should all theology be tested. What are its effects; how does the theology come out in the life? VI. The miraculous element is no difficulty. For what miracle can exceed the miracle of your own spiritual development? The story of the Red Sea has been true of ourselves, such seas have been before us, and they have opened for us, and we have gone through them as on dry land. And the story of the manna; do we not know all about that? We must read the Bible as having to do with our own life. VII. Providence leads up to redemption. He who takes care of this present life must care for our eternal life. Does God care for oxen; then how much more for man? But if for man’ s temporal welfare, so that He has provided everything for it, can He have made no provision for the needs of the soul? Impossible I Now, such is our faith to-day. We have come to it not by inheritance but by personal reception of it. We are one of a great band of witnesses that “ the Lord reigneth,” that all that occurs, whatever it be, is by His ordering and under His control. (J. Parker, D. D.) Psalms 44:3 For they got not the land in possession by their own sword, neither did their own arm save them; but Thy right hand and Thine arm and the light of Thy countenance, because Thou hadst a favour unto them.God the source of all success The subject of this verse is the conquest of Canaan by Israel. It teaches that-- I. The co-operation of God is essential to the success of all right work. See this in husbandry; in the spread of the Gospel. II. The spirit of true godliness will ever be ready to own this. III. Such recognition helps our own success. Praise, like prayer, helps us as it honours God. Our success in all good work depends partly on using our own sword, upon using our arm and making it bare; but it equally depends on our trusting in neither. “ Trust ye in the Lord for ever, for in,” etc. Apply the text retrospectively to all success we have had; prospectively to all we hope for, and let us rely upon God’ s love, for without that we have no strong confidence. (S. Martin, M. A.) Psalms 44:5-8 Through Thee will we push down our enemies; through Thy name will we tread them under that rise up against us.God’ s gift of victory 1. The believer may promise to himself whatsoever God hath promised unto him; hath God promised to give His own people the victory over their enemies? then the believer may promise to himself he shall overcome his persecutors, and through God’ s strength be more than a conqueror over them; “ Through Thee will we push down our enemies.” If the enemy make head against them after a defeat, the believer may say, “ Through Thy name will we tread them under that rise up against us.” 2. The less confidence we have in ourselves or in anything beside God, the more evidence have we of the sincerity of our faith in God: “ For I will not trust in my bow,” etc. 3. It is a proof of sincerity of faith to give God as much credit for time to come, as He hath gained to Himself, by the evidencing of His truth in time bygone. 4. Whosoever doth hate the Lord’ s people shall be forced to think shame of their enmity one day; “ Thou hast put them to shame that hated us.” 5. The glory which we give to God in prosperity we should give Him the same in our adversity; change of times and dispensations should not change His glory, nor our confidence in Him. Though the Church be under foot of men, the Church’ s God is above all. “ In God will we boast,” etc. (D. Dickson.) The better confidence George III. was one day looking at the plate which had been recently brought from Hanover, and observing one of the articles with engraved arms upon it, he said to the domestic who attended him, “ This belonged to King George II.; I know it by the Latin inscription--‘ I trust in my sword.’ This,” said he, “ I always disliked; for had I nothing to trust in but my sword, I well know what would be the result; therefore, when I came to the crown, I altered it. My motto is, ‘ I trust in the truth of the Christian religion.’” He then, with his usual condescension, said, “ Which of the two inscriptions do you like best?” The attendant replied, “ Your Majesty’ s is infinitely preferable to the other.” He said, “ I have ever thought so, and ever shall think so, for therein is my trust and confidence.” Psalms 45:1-17 Psalms 45:1-17 My heart is inditing a good matter; I speak of the things which I have made touching the king.The song of the heavenly nuptials In accordance with unbroken tradition of the Church from the beginning, we interpret this as a spiritual epithalamium or nuptial-song, in honour of the wondrous espousals whereby Christ the Son of God takes into most real, intimate, blissful and everlasting union and fellowship with Himself the Church of ransomed, regenerate, believing souls. I. The bridegroom (Psalms 45:1-9).1. In His present qualities. (1) Comeliness of countenance (Son 5:10-16). (2) Gracefulness of speech. He was, indeed, in highest sense, “ master of sentences” --possessor of noble and powerful gift of eloquence, which He employed in commending the true, the holy, the blissful, impressing on their attention and reception what was for health and joy to them now and for ever. 2. In His warlike preparations and achievements. Peace and goodwill, benign, never-ending fellowship for all who choose to be loyal subjects of the King of kings, and faithful followers of “ truth and meekness and righteousness,” but war to the death, wounds unto death in which there is no dying, unto all who persist in wicked hostility and revolt. 3. In His kingly administration. He is God, and He became man; and it is properly in respect of His manhood--His Mediatorship especially on the side of His manhood, that we are to think of the sovereignty here spoken of as exercised. From the beginning and all through there were glimmerings, recognized and confessed, of the hidden majesty. (1) The duration of His sovereignty. “ For ever and ever;” what contrast ,to earthly kings and human dynasties! (2) Its character. “ A right sceptre. Thou lovest righteousness,” etc. (3) The personal reward which was to crown and consummate His administration. “ Anointed Thee with the oil of gladness,” etc. 4. In His nuptial splendour (Psalms 45:8-9). Ivory palaces, resounding with strains of grandest music, and filled with fragrance of choicest perfumes; a queenly bride in gold embroideries, with retinue of princely virgins; and, centre of all, the Bridegroom--Immanuel, showing perfection of beauty, renown of heroism, splendour of royalty, yea, of Divine majesty, associated with all gaiety and gladness of nuptial festivity. And where and when becomes it realized? Up yonder on the other side of the resurrection. II. The bride (Psalms 45:10-15).1. The present summons (Psalms 45:10-12). And what have we here in the pure spiritual reality--stripped of allegorical drapery, but the substance of all genuine evangelical teaching? What is to be the central scope and aim of all pastoral labour and pulpit ministration and sanctuary ordinance and more private Christian effort but to win souls, one by one, and in collective multitude as well, from other and alien relationship unto Christ, ever more truly and nearly unto Christ? 2. The call itself. The manner of the utterance breathes the spirit of urgent solicitation, with undertone, as our ear catches it, of authoritative command; blending of majesty and grace such as is reflected in the entire range of Gospel overture and offer. And what, then, means the summons in its plain and direct application to us? It means “ conversion” --the turning round of the soul, in respect of bent and aim, from course original and natural into channel that is new--transference of affection and aspiration from the sphere of the carnal into that of the holy, the heavenly, the divine. 3. The reasons which go to support the summons. He by whom or for whom it is given has-- (1) The authority to command compliance. “ He is thy Lord, and worship thou Him.” (2) The bounty--the resources and the readiness--to reward compliance. There is reward of affection direct from Himself; and there are droppings of bounty, tokens of regard, through creature instrumentalities. (3) The excellence to deserve compliance. 4. What is spoken of the Bride (Psalms 45:13-15). III. Messiah’ s offspring and renown (Psalms 45:16-17).1. Declaration concerning offspring to Messiah--fruit of the espousals (Psalms 45:16). In ordinary earthly households you look to find a family likeness. So it is in the spiritual household. Resemblance, first of all, to remoter ancestry--to the “ fathers,” the fleshly ancestry of Immanuel, the prime and chief of these: on just such principle has an apostle hung before us a grand gallery of these in the eleventh of Hebrews. But likeness especially to the immediate common parent; and so that fine old picture-gallery takes us an to this for last halting-place and life-pattern--“ Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.” The more that there can be seen in you, not an affected imitation, but a genuine embodiment of all that Christ was; the more that His humility, and gentleness, and purity, and integrity, and devoutness, and whatever else went to constitute His perfection of excellence, become radiant in your character, grow to be a very fragrance cleaving to you and diffusing itself from you around, the more claim have you to rank among the “ children” whom He is to “ set for princes in the earth.” 2. Prediction to Himself of eternal renown (verse 17). (1) Purpose of spreading and perpetuating the renown. Can you be too prompt, too eager, too constant, in the showing forth of His praise? (2) Assured prospect of responding praise. (D. McLean.) A unique king Although it cannot be proved that such a king as represented in this psalm ever existed in fact, it is obvious that he existed in the conception of the poetic author. I. His ideal conception of his king stirred his soul.1. An idea that appears good to a man carries with it a power to move the affections. “ My heart bubbleth up.” What the mind sees clearly the heart must ever feel more or less deeply. There is a King--Jesus of Nazareth--true ideas concerning whom are “ a good matter” that will break up the fountains of the heart, and make all the affections like a well of water spring up to everlasting life. 2. When the affections are properly moved there will be a free-ness and aptness of utterance. “ My tongue is the pen of a ready writer.” Charge a man’ s soul with true emotions and he will grow eloquent. II. His conception of his king corresponds with no known historic character. Not in Egypt, Judaea, Persia, Rome or Europe has a king appeared answering to our poet’ s conception. Man has the power of conceiving better things than he has ever seen, better characters than have ever appeared. A glorious power this!1. It is a proof of the Divine within us.2. It is an incentive to moral progress. III. His conception of his king approaches the divine type.1. His appearance was beautiful.2. His campaign was moral.3. His rule was righteous.4. His character was true.5. His patron was God.6. His influences were delightful.7. His associations were magnificent.8. His fame was enduring. IV. His conception of his king was not equal to the character of kind Jesus, (Homilist.) The things concerning Zion’ s King, good matters to all His true subjects I. The king.1. Jesus Christ is a King. (1) He is expressly so called by the Father (Psalms 2:6; Micah 5:2). (2) Jesus affirms this concerning Himself (John 18:37). (3) All true believers own and acknowledge Him to be a King, and their King in particular (Isaiah 33:22; John 1:49). (4) He was set forth to the Church by the prophets as a King (Genesis 49:10). Also by type--David, Solomon, Melchisedec, etc. (5) Kingly titles and epithets are given Him in Scripture. Prince of peace; blessed and only Potentate; King of kings and Lord of lords (Philippians 2:11). (6) Kingly prerogatives and badges of royalty are ascribed to Him (Psalms 89:20; Son 3:11; Psalms 65:1; Ephesians 3:8). 2. Jesus Christ is the King by way of eminence and excellency. (1) He is so in respect of His person (Isaiah 9:6. (2) He is a most ancient King (Micah 5:2). (3):He is most singularly qualified for the management of His Kingdom (Colossians 2:3; Matthew 28:18). (4) He is a most righteous King; He governs both His essential and mediatorial kingdoms with the strictest justice and equity (Isaiah 32:1; Psalms 45:7; Isaiah 11:5). (5) He is a most rich and opulent King (John 1:8; Colossians 1:16; Matthew 11:27; Ephesians 3:8). (6) He is a singularly blessed and happy King (1 Timothy 6:15; Psalms 21:6). (7) Zion’ s King is immortal, and therefore eternal (1 Timothy 1:17; Revelation 1:18). (8) He is a most gracious, loving and affectionate King (Exodus 34:6-7). (9) He is a most glorious King, yea, “ the King of glory.” Heaven and eternal glory is a purchased possession (Ephesians 1:14), and He is the purchaser. He is the preparer of glory for all His true subjects (John 14:2). He is the bestower of glory upon all the heirs of promise (Luke 22:29). II. Some things which concern the King, and are good matters in the esteem of his people.1. The glory and excellency of the King’ s person is a matter much set by in the esteem of all His true subjects (1 Corinthians 2:2; Philippians 3:10; John 1:14; Psalms 73:25). 2. The love of Christ; the love of a three-one God in Him, is truly a good matter to believers. Their life lies in His favour, and His lovingkindness is better than life. 3. The righteousness of our Lord Jesus is a good matter to believers. 4. The fulness of Christ is a good matter to believers (Colossians 1:9; John 1:14; 1 Corinthians 1:30; John 17:2; Colossians 2:10). 5. The prosperity and success of His kingdom is a good matter to all His true subjects. 6. All His commandments are good matters to His people (Psalms 119:32). 7. The very cross of Christ; all the tribulations and calamities which they are at any time called to endure for His name’ s sake are accounted good matters by His true followers (Acts 5:41; Hebrews 11:26). 8. What the King Himself is to His people, what He has done for them, what He has wrought in them, and what they yet expect from Him, are all good matters in their esteem. His true subjects have already received abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness (Romans 5:17). And shall reign in life by Jesus Christ. III. Whence it is that the things concerning the king are viewed, as matters truly good, by all who believe in him.1. Because of the great love and regard believers have for the King Himself. 2. Because there is a real worth and excellency in all the things which concern this glorious King. They are suited to give satisfaction to the soul (Son 2:8; Psalms 36:7). 3. Because believers have eyes to discern the value and excellency of divine things (Matthew 13:16; Matthew 16:17). 4. Because the King Himself is theirs, and they are His (Son 2:16). IV. Use. 1. Of information. (1) See from this subject the amazing condescension of the great God our Saviour, in submitting to exercise a variety of offices for the spiritual good and advantage of perishing sinners. (2) See one special difference between the true believer and the hypocrite. Hypocrites may assent to the truth of many things taught in the Word concerning Christ; but they have no love to His person, nor can they have any heart-affection to things touching Him. (3) See suitable exercise for the children and people of God. It is to meditate much upon Christ His person, offices, grace and fulness; particularly they should give themselves much to meditation upon His kingly office; the glory of His kingdom, with the justice and equity of His government. (4) See when it is persons can speak suitably concerning Christ and the things of Christ. When their hearts are in some measure filled with His grace. (5) See matter of terror to all the enemies of Zion’ s King. Who are Christ’ s enemies? All in a natural state and condition are His enemies; yea, the carnal mind is enmity against Him in the very abstract (Romans 8:7). 2. Of trial and examination. (1) What views have you got of your natural state and condition? Have you seen it to be a state of sin, captivity and bondage? (2) Did ever this glorious King reveal His powerful arm to you, thereby making you heartily willing to renounce your own, and submit to His righteousness? (Isaiah 45:24). And are you willing to be indebted to Him, not only for righteousness as the ground of your justification and acceptance before God, but likewise to deny yourselves, take up the cross, and follow Him? (3) Do you love Christ? Can you say to Himself, Thou knowest that I love Thee? (4) Do you love your fellow-subjects? (1 John 3:14). (5) Have you a prevailing desire and concern for the success and prosperity of God’ s work in the Church? (Isaiah 62:6-7). (6) Is the opposition that still remains in your own hearts to this glorious King, with the many dis-honours done Him in the world about you, matter of grief and sorrow to you? (Psalms 139:21-22). 3. Of exhortation. (1) To the true subjects of Christ. (2) Bless God for sending His Son into the world to be your King, and determining your hearts to accept of Him by faith as made of God to you wisdom, righteousness, etc. Trust in your glorious King; this is your duty at all times, and in every circumstance (Psalms 62:8). (3) Be glad and rejoice in your King--in His love, wisdom, power, faithfulness, all-sufficiency and immutability. (4) Be concerned to grow in acquaintance with your King (2 Peter 3:18). (5) Seek to have the declarative glory of your King advanced in your day and generation. We exhort all the enemies of this glorious King to relinquish the camp of Satan and come over to Christ’ s standard. While you refuse to submit to His righteousness, you are in a state of the vilest slavery and bondage (Ephesians 2:3). Our Lord Jesus, the King, is your rightful Lord and Sovereign. There is no possible way for you to escape from the curse of the broken law and the wrath to come but your uniting with Christ by faith. However long you have slighted the offers of His grace, He is still waiting that He may be gracious to you. His sceptre of grace is stretched out, and He invites you to take hold of it. (T. Bennet.) The conquests of Messiah I. His matchless beauty (Psalms 45:2).1. A description of His person. We have, indeed, no direct and positive information in regard to His personal appearance. But it is certainly no extravagant supposition that His human form would be rendered as fit as it could be for the indwelling of the celestial inhabitant. And it is no unwarrantable supposition that perfect, truth, benevolence and purity should depict themselves on the countenance of the Redeemer--as they will be manifested in the aspect wherever they exist--and render Him the most beautiful of men; for the expression of these principles and feelings in the countenance constitutes beauty. And it is no improbable supposition that this beauty was marred by His long-continued and inexpressibly deep sorrows, and that He was so worn down and crushed by the sufferings which He endured as scarcely to have retained the aspect of a man. 2. The qualifications with which He was endowed. (1) The gracefulness of His speech.(2) The sweetness and excellence of the truths He declared. 3. The Divine favour with which He was regarded. Our Lord is now in heaven on the ground of His own worthiness. II. His glorious exploits. “ Gird thy sword upon thy thigh,” etc. The propagation of the Gospel is here referred to.1. The appellation employed. He is mighty to destroy, as those will be brought to feel against whom His wrath will be kindled; but judgment is His strange work, while it is with unbounded joy that He exclaims, “ I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save.” 2. The petition presented. The sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, is evidently intended. And as David said of the sword of Goliath, “ There is none like that,” ; so can we say with the fullest confidence concerning this heavenly instrument. “ For the word of God is quick and powerful,” etc. 3. The reasons adduced. (1) The character of the Conqueror. One who is truth itself, who is meek and lowly in heart, and who never has acted, and never will, but in strictest accordance with the principles of perfect rectitude. Blessed Jesus! ride on. (2) The results of His victories. Not merely is He distinguished by truth, and meekness, and righteousness, but He diffuses these blessings wherever He goes. 4. The confidence displayed. “ And in Thy majesty ride prosperously,” etc. That this confidence was well founded, the early history of the Christian cause abundantly demonstrates. Transformations of the most amazing kind took place; the Church beheld her converts flocking to her from all quarters, and her bitterest enemies became her most devoted friends. (Anon.) A missionary discourse I. A preface or introduction to what follows.1. The subject. “ A good matter; things touching the King.” Christ is the king. The things that concern Christ as a King are, the dignity of His person, the wisdom and equity of His government, the extent of His dominions, the happiness of His subjects, and the perpetuity of His reign. This is “ good matter.” It is illustrative of the character of Him who is essential goodness. The nearer we approximate towards a perfection of goodness, the more this “ good matter” will occupy our attention. 2. A source whence it proceeded. “ My heart is inditing,” boiling or bubbling up, in allusion to water put in motion by the action of fire, or bubbling up from a spring. How the love of Christ will constrain us to speak of Him. 3. A manner of expression. “ My tongue is the pen,” etc. Many imitate the psalmist in the fluency of their speech; they talk rapidly, but alas! they talk wickedly. Others converse freely and piously; but incoherently, enthusiastically, and erroneously. Let us always think before we speak; and let our words be seasoned with grace that we may minister grace to the hearers. II. A description of character. “ Thou art fairer,” etc.1. In His person. There is moral as well as physical beauty. How holy was Christ’ s soul! What wisdom, love, patience, humility did He possess. 2. In His address. He not only possessed a plenitude of grace for His own support in the arduous work in which He was engaged, but that He might instruct add console others. 3. By the commendation of Jehovah. God hath “ blessed,” i.e. extolled His Son in the ascriptions of Divine titles, honours and perfections to Him. III. A petition addressed to the messiah.1. The cause He maintains. Not to dethrone monarchs, but to subdue vices. (1) Truth in opposition to error, shadow, prophecy. Christ accomplished and fulfilled all righteousness. (2) Meekness. Worldly warfare is the child of wrath; and fury and malevolence are its inseparable companions. But nothing could surpass the meekness and gentleness of Christ; and His disciples were to be formed on the same plan: “ Learn of me” (Matthew 11:29). (3) Righteousness. He Himself is the Lord of righteousness; and His laws, requirements, people and kingdom are all righteous. 2. The manner how the psalmist expected the Messiah to achieve His victories. “ Gird thy sword,” etc. This is the sword of the Spirit, the word of God, the Gospel of our salvation (Hebrews 4:12; Revelation 1:16). The power of the Gospel surpasses all description (Romans 1:16; 2 Corinthians 4:7; 1 Thessalonians 1:5). 3. The interest which the psalmist took in the extension of the Redeemer’ s kingdom. He prays, “ Gird thy sword,” etc. (Psalms 90:16-17; Psalms 118:25; 2 Thessalonians 3:1). The same spirit pervades all Christians. (Sketches of Four Hundred Sermons.) The excellency of Christ The special matter of the psalm is, “ A song of loves.” This may be so called--1. Because the psalm tells of the love of Christ to His Church, and of her love to Him. Or-- 2. It may be put in the plural, as is frequent in Hebrew, by way of eminency; so that what is meant is that the love told of is most excellent and incomparable. 3. It may be so called because of the manifold fruits of that one love. But probably the second sense is the one intended here--the mystical spiritual love that is between Christ and the Church is the most excellent love. Therefore, note-- I. This love of Christ and the church in their espousals is matter of great joy and rejoicing.1. To God Himself (Zephaniah 3:17). 2. To Jesus Christ (Son 3:11). 3. To believers themselves (1 Peter 1:8). And the reason of all this joy is-- (1) On the part of God, because He saw the design and purpose of His grace accomplished (Ephesians 1:6). (2) It is joy to Christ because He saw of the travail of His soul, and is satisfied. This is that He laboured for. As Rachel was to Jacob (Hosea 12:12). (3) And it is joy to all believers because it instates them in such new relations and conditions as they never could have looked for (Isaiah 54:5). Let us learn, then, God’ s infinite wisdom, condescension and goodness in disposing the way of saving poor sinners, so as that it shall be matter of joy and rejoicing to Him, to Jesus Christ and to believers themselves. We were poor, desolate, forlorn, lost creatures; and that God should bring us into a way of saving us, so as that the heart of God and Christ and our own hearts should rejoice in it; this calls for our admiration. Do we find this joy in our own hearts? Shall God rejoice, and Christ rejoice, and not we? II. There is no love like to the love between Christ and believers--no, not the flaming love in some to their hearts, and in others to the world that even devour them. But who can tell adequately of the love of Christ? Consider it--1. In its condescension (Philippians 2:6-8). 2. In His suffering. 3. The care and tenderness which the Lord Jesus continues to manifest towards us now He is in heaven (Hebrews 5:2; Hebrews 4:15). Then, on the other side, I say the love of believers to Christ is beyond all other love whatsoever.1. In a way of value (Matthew 13:45). They will part with all that they have to obtain Christ. They part with their sin, lust and corruption (Galatians 5:24). Now that love which will carry a man out to deny all ungodliness and to renounce all his own righteousness, to lose all he hath wrought in his own strength, to deny himself upon every instance wherein Christ requires him; this is a transcendent love, above all other love whatsoever. 2. The love of believers manifests itself also in suffering for Christ; and oh, who can tell what the martyrs endured from love to the Lord Jesus? So that this psalm which treats of the espousals of Christ and believers may well have this title, “ A song of loves” ; it being the most excellent love. Two things from hence are incumbent upon us. (1) To labour to get a sense of this love of Christ upon our hearts. (2) Let us examine ourselves whether we have this transcendent love to Jesus Christ in our hearts. If we have, it will continually keep us up to the mortification of all our sin; and it will make us continually ready for all the service and suffering Christ shall call us unto. (J. Owen, D. D.) The excellency of Christ The preface of this psalm is in verse six. The song itself from verse two to the end. First, from the preface we learn that he that lays a good foundation makes a good beginning of what he hath to say. It is from his heart.. “ My heart,” saith he, “ is inditing.” A sacrifice without a heart, a silly dove that hath no heart, are things that God abhors (Hosea 7:11). I. The subject treated of.1. In general, that it is a good matter. It is not about vain and empty, much less about wicked things, as the songs of the world are. Nor is it only about true things, for true things may have no goodness in them. 2. What this good matter is. The subject of this song is the King. And it is limited to things concerning Him; as if He had said, it is not for me, it is not for any mortal man to conceive or express all the glories and excellencies of the great King, Jesus Christ; but, saith He, something touching, something concerning Him. The best we can reach or attain unto in this world is only something touching Christ. We cannot yet behold the King in His glory, we cannot see His uncreated excellencies or beauties, nor those unspeakable glories of His person, natures, and works, as we shall one day contemplate and behold. “ I speak,” saith he, “ of the things I have made” ; that is, which I have prepared; I will mention only the things which I have composed concerning Christ. II. There is the manner of their delivery, both as to their conception and as to outward expression; their conception it was in his heart; as to the outward delivery, it was by his tongue. And there is a peculiarity in both. It is not an ordinary conception of the heart, it is not a common expression of the tongue. The word refers to the bubbling up of water in a fountain or spring. The heart of the psalmist was so full of these things of Christ, things touching the King, that they did naturally overflow, as water rising out of a spring naturally flows into the stream without any labour or difficulty. It is promised that it shall be thus with them who believe (John 4:14). “ A ready writer” is one able with speed and steadiness to set down any thought or conception whatsoever. And now from the words thus explained let us observe--1. That the things which concern Jesus Christ are a good matter to believers. And their being thus good to them distinguishes the sincere believer from the mere hypocrite. These latter assent to the Gospel as true, but never embrace its teachings as good; they do not cleave unto them as finding a rest, sweetness, excellency and suitableness in them for their own need. But to believers the things of Christ are good. (1) In themselves (Colossians 1:18). Whatever is good in any kind, it all centres in Christ. The good things of Christ are God’ s best things. How, then, can they be otherwise than a good matter? (2) And they are so because believers have received the Spirit whereby they discern the excellency of them. Other men do not see such excellency (Isaiah 53:2). But believers can (1 Corinthians 2:7-10). Let us, for application, inquire, Do we esteem them good things; are they so to us? Can we say as did Paul (Philippians 3:8)? Is our satisfaction with them so high that we can be satisfied without other things? This I can say, that the nearer some have been to the loving of all things, even life itself, the better Christ hath been unto them. Examine, therefore, yourselves, whether you do not only give a naked assent to the Gospel and the things of Christ; or whether you find a goodness in them, a suitableness and satisfaction in them; that it is a good matter unto you. And let us observe-- 2. Also, from the words, that it is the duty of believers to be making things concerning Jesus Christ. “ Things that I have made touching the King.” Now, this is to meditate upon them and upon Christ; this it is which is here called, “ The things I have made,” composed, framed in my mind. He did not make pictures of Christ, or frame such and such images of Him; but he meditated upon Christ. It is called “ beholding the glory of the Lord in a glass” (2 Corinthians 3:18). What is our work and business? Why, it is to behold this glory, that is, to contemplate upon it by faith, to meditate upon it. If I have observed any thing by experience, it is this, a man may take the measure of his growth and decay in grace, according to his thoughts and meditations upon the person of Christ, and the glory of Christ’ s kingdom, and of His love. A heart that is inclined to converse with Christ as He is represented in the Gospel is a thriving heart. And especially should we meditate upon Him in His Kingly offices (Isaiah 63:1). When a heart is full of love to Christ it will run over (2 Corinthians 4:13; Acts 4:20). But what sad evidence there is in men’ s silence about Him, of their lack of love for Him. Lastly, that profession alone is acceptable to God and useful in the Church, which proceeds from the fulness of the heart. It is no use to be able to speak much if the heart be not full. (J. Owen, D. D.) “ A good matter” “ I speak of the things which I have made touching the King.” It is not hearsay that I am descanting upon; I am not dealing in second-hand experience. It bubbles up from within me. I am not so much a reservoir or cistern that contains supplies from other sources, but God has caused me through His grace to be as a spring of living water. An ounce of experience is worth a ton of hearsay. Well, now, what is this goodly matter? I. First, it is concerning Christ, the king himself--His glorious person, His matchless charms, His ineffable grace.1. Notice that as soon as we begin to speak of Jesus He appears amongst us. The first verse declares the intention of the psalmist, and he has no sooner declared his purpose than, straightway, faith perceives the subject of the song in the very midst, and love adores. “ Thou art fairer than the children of men” Every other man, however good and noble, has, it must be owned, even by his most ardent admirers, some lack, some fault or blemish; but I challenge Christ’ s friends or foes to find in Him any fault at all. No one was exposed to such severe tests as He; yet all men confessed that He was the Holy One of God. 2. Next, He is gloriously worthy because of His gracious words. “ Grace is poured into thy lips.” The people all hung upon Him listening; He riveted their attention when He was here among men. The words that He has left to us, they are spirit, and they are life. They are the words of a King, and where the word of a king is there is power. II. I see Him further on in the chapter ascending His throne and acting as A judge rather than as a King. “ Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: the sceptre,” etc. The idea, if I mistake not, is that this King, though He does not set aside His regal rights, or lay His sceptre by, is virtually on the seat of justice. There He sits, dispensing justice, determining the laws, meting out evenhandedly the justice that is in His heart. Oh think of it, rejoice because of it! That throne is not a mere sham and delusion; it is a throne of justice; He reigns in equity. III. Further on in the chapter I recognize this same King as the husband (Psalms 45:9). There is in Jesus what I may call the domestic side of His character. This should touch us very closely. He is our Husband, our Lover, our fellow-Friend. He is our glorious Head, not merely as a mighty:Emperor, but as the pledged and espoused Lover of our souls. Come near to Him till your garments catch the perfume of His, and you, too, made glad by the ivory palaces, become redolent of myrrh, and aloes, and cassia. You need not flee away from Him. He has not come to crush, and condemn, and doom you; He fights your cause, lie loves to save and serve you. Bow at His feet by all means, but you may climb His chariot too, and go forth to fight beneath His shield. (Thomas Spurgeon) Concerning the King The real meaning is, “ I am saying to myself, my works (or my compositions) are about the King.” He keeps repeating this to himself, like some one continually reminding himself of good news which he can scarce believe for joy. The privilege he has obtained, the task he is performing, is a glory not to be missed and not to be diminished; so, lest he should flag or fail, or do his work unworthily, he keeps his enthusiasm on fire by constantly repeating, “ My works are concerning the King.” I. Choose the highest ideal for your life. Remember that the value of your work depends entirely upon the choice of your ideal. To live your life without an aim is to fling it away. The man of pressure is dead while he lives. Choose a definite ideal in life, and see to it that you choose an ideal worthy of our human estate. Though you scorn the aimlessness of a drifting life, and though energy and resolution and diligence strongly mark your character, yet you may bend all these upon an ideal that will nullify their power and lay their glory in the dust. The ideal you choose for your life is of primary importance; therefore, I pray you, consider it well. The perfect ideal for the lives of all men is found in Christ. His kingship over human character is twofold. He presents the sovereign ideal for character, and tie makes the realization of that ideal possible. Follow the vision of His glory until you find it fulfilled in your own life. The greatest moral heroes of history have been Christ’ s men. II. Having chosen your ideal, fill your heart to the brim with it. You will have what the psalmist calls “ goodly matter” to deal with; therefore make your heart “ well up” with it, let the springs gush forth abundantly, fill the fountains to the brim. When an evil thought comes, look straightway for a counteracting thought of good, and let that drive the other out. If another evil thought come, it shows that you have still some vacant space left, so get another holy thought to chase away the new evil. This “ welling up” of goodly things in the heart will become increasingly spontaneous. Gradually the “ goodly matter” which is stored in the heart will begin to spring up unbidden. The spirit will spontaneously produce celestial forms, and send forth angels even through the gates of dreams. Blessed is the life which has been thus built up into a temple of God and goodness! III. Having chosen your ideal, and having brimmed the heart with it, flush the life to the lips with it. The royal theme of the psalmist passed from the overflowing of the heart to the outpouring of the lips. “ My tongue,” he said, “ is the pen of a ready writer.” You will find it a great joy to let the lips express what the heart feels. Is it not an hour of delights for the seer when he illuminates the world with the new light that has flashed on his soul? Who can tell the rapture of the poet when his heart pours forth its siren music along the shores of Lime? Aye, and if you will let your lips and lives tell out without restraint the glory of the King that reigns within you, you shall know a joy as deep as the joy of Heaven. (J. Thomas, M. A.) “ A gude word” for the King There is a sweet story in the “ Bonny Brier Bush” about a young Scotch minister who, called upon to preach his first sermon, thrust the clever discourse he had prepared into the fire-grate when he remembered the dying words of his mother, “ Oh, laddie, be sure ye say a gude word for Jesus Christ.” The “ gude word” from his heart brought the critical old Scotch folk to tenderness and tears, and made the kirk a very sanctuary that morning. Let us, wherever we are, and whoever we are, be ready with “ a gude word for Jesus Christ.” The glory of Christ partially described The Alps, as a whole, are too extensive and of too varied beauty for any one artist to take into his perspective and paint upon his canvas. The best thing he can do is to portray just one or two of the main features of the scene which are visible from his point of view. It is equally the case respecting the infinite perfections and majestic character of Christ. Christ Himself in His infinite fulness has never yet been preached by mortal tongue. Man’ s gifts, though surpassing those of the highest order, cannot compass such a theme. It is, however, given unto him out of a full heart to speak of the things which he has made touching the King. Psalms 45:2 Thou art fairer than the children of men: grace is poured into Thy lips; therefore God hath blessed Thee for ever.The King in His beauty I. The person of the king. The old world valued in a king, personal beauty, and graciousness of speech. Both are ascribed here to the King spoken of. We have to think, not of the outward form, howsoever lovely with the loveliness of meekness and transfigured with the refining patience of suffering it may have been, but of the beauty of a soul that was all radiant with a lustre of loveliness that shames the fragmentary and marred virtues of the rest of us, and stands before the world for ever as the supreme type and high-water mark of the glory that is possible to a human spirit. II. His warfare. He is to put on all His panoply. Thus arrayed, with the weapon by His side and the glittering armour on His limbs, He is called upon to mount His chariot or His warhorse and ride forth. But for what? “ On behalf of truth, meekness, righteousness.” If He be a warrior these are the purposes for which the true King of men must draw His sword, and these only. No vulgar ambition nor cruel lust of conquest, earth-hunger or “ glory” actuates Him. Nothing but the spread through the world of the gracious beauties which are His own can be the end of the King’ s warfare. In two or three swift touches the psalmist next paints the tumult and hurry of the fight. “ Thy right hand shall teach Thee terrible things.” There are no armies or allies, none to stand beside Him. The one mighty figure of the kingly warrior stands forth, as in the Assyrian sculptures of conquerors, erect and alone in His chariot, crashing through the ranks of the enemy, and owing victory to His own strong arm alone. Put side by side with this the picture of our Lord’ s entry into Jerusalem. And yet that lowly procession of the Christ, with tears upon His cheeks, is part fulfilment of this glorious prediction. But it is only part. The psalm waits for its completion still, and shall be filled on that day of the true marriage supper of the Lamb. III. The royalty of the king. “ Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever.” In the great mosque of Damascus, which was a Christian church once, there may still be read, deeply cut in the stone, high above the pavement where the Mohammedans bow, these words, “ Thy kingdom, O Christ, is an everlasting kingdom.” It is true, and yet it shall be known that He is for ever and ever the Monarch of the world. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) The King of kings We can be at no loss to understand what King is here meant (Hebrews 1:8-9). I. His personal excellences.1. They are of a moral and mental character. We must bear in mind that this whole psalm contemplates not only a king, but a Teacher-King, a Royal Prophet. He must, consequently, be, in His own person, the perfect exemplification of the Divine wisdom that He taught. Solomon, therefore, does not represent Christ by His outward splendour, of which our Lord had none, but by His spiritual perfections. 2. They are not derived; they are His own, native, meritorious perfections, for the sake of which He is worthy to reign. Now, this cannot be said of any man. If Christ had been any other than a sinless character, it must have been seen and noticed; for He passed His life in public, He was constantly surrounded by a crowd of vigilant and malicious witnesses. The same argument might be drawn from the absolute and unquestioned authority which lie always maintained over them, and which would have been weakened and destroyed if they had ever detected Him in a sin. Nor let it be imagined that all these things are said for the purpose of exhibiting our blessed Lord as a perfect model for admiration merely. The application of the doctrine lies here; that, if He had not been absolutely sinless, He could neither have been an acceptable sacrifice for sin, nor have been the great High Priest of our profession, II. His peculiar official qualifications. “ Grace is poured into Thy lips.”1. Think of the manner in which this great Teacher-King communicated the knowledge of Himself, and His Father’ s will. It is not possible for human language to express the kindness, the clearness, the tenderness that accompanied every word which proceeded from His lips. 2. Note the plenitude told of--grace is poured, not sparingly but abundantly. Now, is Christ to us altogether lovely? Did you never feel that you could part with all the world for just one beam, one spark of His infinite love; for just one drop of that heavenly joy which is the foretaste of its full fruition? I tell you plainly, I do not believe in that man’ s religion at all who has strong affections for all other objects, and nothing but a cold assent, an icy, philosophic calmness to lay at the feet of Jesus. I do not believe in it, because it is not the religion of the psalmist. You have just so much religion as you have love to Christ, and not an atom more! III. The blessing pronounced upon him. “ God hath blessed Thee for ever.” This could not be said of Solomon but of Christ only. And this blessing--1. Descends through Him upon all who are His. 2. It comprehends perpetual increase. True, the progress seems to us slow, but no important promises in the past have ever been fulfilled without similar delays. 3. Its chief fulfilment will be seen in the latter-day glory. Christ is King; submit to Him, so gracious and gentle in His rule. (D. Katterns.) Jesus Christ compared with men “ Thou art fairer,” etc. I. Christ is so as the son of God. All others have only a creature nature. He has the nature of God, and all the angels of God are bidden worship Him. Then should not we? And more than they, for He died for us, not for them. II. As the son of man. The children of men are born of sinful fathers; “ He was conceived by the power of the Holy Ghost.” They are born with a sinful taint, but He was born without sin. III. In work, suffering and temptation, which He shared with the children of men.1. In work. He knew what it was. Some men never know their work; they spend their whole lives without finding it out, and consequently never do any work worth doing. But Christ knew His work. He made it His meat and His drink. 2. In suffering, too, Christ endured completely all that He was appointed to suffer. There was no putting away from Him that which He ought to bear; no hiding His face from that which He ought to see and confront. “ The cup which My Father hath given me, shall I not drink?” 3. In temptation. It could not defile Him as it too often defiles us. Thoughts of wrong-doing were thrown into His mind like firebrands thrown into a house, but they never even proceeded towards the production of a wrong purpose. IV. In his official characters of prophet, King and priest. Contrast the ordinary prophets and Christ. He was ever speaking by the Holy Spirit, ever faithful, ever possessing unlimited knowledge. And as King and priest he was perfect. V. In four things in which men notably fail.1. In the harmony and variety of His excellencies. 2. In the unbroken consistency of His actions. 3. In the perfection of His manifold works. 4. His influence was in all respects superior. We need nobody to tell us that Jesus Christ is better than man. Do you act the things you know best? Do you work out now the things with which you are most familiar? Certainly not. For example, you think of the children of men more than of Him who is “ fairer than,” etc. And you love them more; and prize them more. They seem to give you more pleasure. You perhaps also trust “ the children of men” more than you trust Him who is “ fairer than the children of men.” They have often deceived you. Therefore we remind you of the truth of the text, that we may get more thought, more love, more confidence, more service, more honest speech for Him, mark, who is “ fairer than the children of men.” Let us take care lest any of us, after having professed to account the Lord Jesus Christ “ fairer than the children of men” should be condemned for having preferred men to our Saviour. (Samuel Martin.) The beauty of Christ The whole psalm tells of “ the spiritual marriage and unity that is betwixt Christ and His Church.” I. The excellence of the beauty of Christ. “ Thou art fairer than,” etc.1. It is not the beauty of His person in which the psalmist dwells with such admiration. Scripture is silent on the outward appearance of Christ. What hints there are now to show, that what, ever beauty of this kind there may have been, His sorrow, poverty and hardship had greatly destroyed. 2. But it is the beauty of His character that is told of here. He was unstained by sin, glorious in holiness. To do the will of God was His “ meat” --necessary to His very existence. II. The grace of his communications. He dwelt among us: people wondered at His gracious words. The text may refer--1. To the gracefulness of His address. 2. To the graciousness of His words. III. The glory of his reward. “ Therefore God hath blessed Thee for ever” (Philippians 2:9-11). In conclusion, What think ye of Him? What will you ask of Him? (J. Jowett, M. A.) Fairer than the children of men The writer of this psalm sees his King in the light of his own adoration, and as he gazes, his subject is transfigured before him, form and raiment change, and at last he is gazing upon a glorified Being of his own vivid imagination. Take the text, then, as a description of Jesus our Lord in His superhuman excellence, wisdom and benign position. It presents to us-- I. His appearance. “ Thou art fairer,” etc. There He stands, in disposition upright, pure, magnanimous, and the very embodiment of love. The clear light is produced by combination of every possible shade of colour. It is beautiful as broken up in rose, sunflower, and rainbow, but perfect in its whiteness. Christ’ s soul is the pure white light resulting from the union of all possible excellencies. Every shade of worth and virtue which appears broken up and imperfect in the very best of mortals, glows in fullest splendour in His matchless character.1. Gentleness. 2. Sympathy. 3. Self-forgetfulness. 4. Constancy. II. His speech. “ Grace is poured,” etc.1. His voice must have been wondrously sweet, rich and musical; His accents more entrancing than those tones of fable which calmed the mad passions of men, quieted the ferocity of wild beasts, and charmed the very stocks and stones to listen. 2. We know His manner of speech; as pure literature the utterances of Jesus are beyond praise, and will remain a joy for ever. Nowhere will you find anything which in arrangement of words and sentences seems so exquisitely a work of nature--like the unfolding of the flower, the flow of the river, and the song of the birds. 3. The matter of His teaching was the message and prophecy of grace. He brings God home to men’ s hearts. II. His beatific state. “ Therefore God hath blessed Thee for ever.” We cannot judge of Divine blessing and curse from a superficial survey of present appearances. The thorny path which the Redeemer trod was His only way to the honour He sought. God has now placed Him in a position of supreme honour; He has gained the reverence and warm love of myriads, and is continually attracting more to Himself. Concentrate irate one sublime ideal all imagination can conceive of beauty of form, comprehensiveness of mind, depth and purity of soul; imagine a perfect state where the King reigns in righteousness, midst abounding peace and plenty, and all the good that God has destined human souls to realize in Christ; and you catch a glimpse of the ideal of the text. (Thomas Pitt.) Christ Jesus, the Bridegroom of the Church, fairer than the children of men I. Some general observations.1. In all our inquiries after the knowledge of Christ, the first thing we ought to know and consider is His person. 2. There is an ineffable glory and beauty in the person of Jesus Christ (Zechariah 9:17). 3. There are some seasons wherein our Lord Jesus is pleased to favour believers with more than ordinary clear and distinct views of His glory and beauty (John 2:11). He ordinarily does so in the day of conversion; the pleasant month of renewed manifestations, after a long and dark night of desertions; when they are called to suffer for His sake; when deeply engaged in secret prayer, meditation, self-examination, etc. And sometimes He gives believers very clear views of His glory about the time of their departure from the present world (2 Samuel 23:5); Simeon, Anna, etc. 4. A believing view of Christ in the beauty and glory of His person throws a veil over all created excellency. 5. Those to whom the Lord Jesus has been pleased to manifest His beauty in a saving manner, may go and tell Him, as the psalmist does, “ Thou art fairer than the children of men.” Yea, they should do it. They should tell Him in the way of holy gratitude and thankfulness for His amazing condescension in showing them His glory. II. In what respects our Lord Jesus is fairer than the children of men.1. In the glory and dignity of His person. 2. In respect of that fulness of grace that is poured into His lips. 3. In respect of His work as the Head and Surety of the New Covenant (Isaiah 12:5; Daniel 9:24; Hebrews 2:14; Isaiah 25:8). 4. In respect of the revelation of God’ s mind and will which He has made to men (John 1:18; Psalms 40:10; John 17:8). 5. In a relative capacity. There are many endearing relations in which He stands to His people; and in every one of them He infinitely excels all the children of men. Among fathers, He is the everlasting Father (Isaiah 9:6). Among husbands the most loving and affectionate; for He gave His life for His spouse (Ephesians 5:2). Among brethren He is the first-born. Among friends the Friend that sticketh closer than a brother. Is He prophet? then He is the Interpreter, one among a thousand (Job 33:23). Is He a Priest? then He is the High Priest of our profession (Hebrews 3:1). Is He a King? He is the King of kings and Lord of Lords (Numbers 24:7). Among shepherds He is the Chief (Hebrews 13:20). Is He a Physician? then He is the Physician both of the soul and the body. He heals all manner of soul diseases among the people (Psalms 103:8). And our temporal as well as eternal life is in His hand. He gives the physician his skill, and causes the medicinal herb to spring. 6. There is an incomparable beauty and excellency in His Name. Hence says the spouse (Son 1:8). There is safety and protection in His Name; it is a strong tower unto which the righteous run and are safe. III. Use. 1. For information. (1) We may see and be informed why believers are so much in love with Him. They have seen the King in His beauty (Isaiah 33:17); and when He is seen by the eye of faith, it is impossible not to love Him (1 Peter 2:7). (2) We may see they have great cause and reason to rejoice unto whom God hath revealed Christ (Luke 10:2; John 17:3). (3) We may see one special means of taking our hearts and affections off from the vain, transitory and fading things of a present world; and that is, to be much in the contemplation of the glory and excellency of the person of Christ; the fulness of grace that is in Him, the suitableness of His saving offices to the case of our souls, with the power and authority He has to put them in execution for the good of His Church and people. (4) Is Christ incomparably fair and excellent, and every way suited to fill the hand and heart of faith? Then we may see matter of lamentation, that, though He is set before men in the dispensation of the Gospel, in the glory of His person and riches of His grace, there are but few disposed to put honour upon Him by believing. (5) We may see that we should not content ourselves with a general consideration of the beauty and excellency of Christ; but should enter particularly into the consideration of these things in Him wherein He is fairer than the children of men. 2. For trial. Can you join with the psalmist in saying from the heart, Thou art fairer than the children of men? Is our Lord Jesus a covering of your eyes from every other Lord and lover? Do you confide in Christ, and solely rely upon His most perfect righteousness as the ground of your access to and acceptance with God? 3. For exhortation. (1) We exhort you who have been admitted to behold the matchless beauty and excellency of our glorious Immanuel, to bless and praise a God of infinite love and grace for giving you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Christ. (2) As for you who never saw any beauty nor comeliness in Christ, why you should desire Him. Satan, the god of this world, has blinded your eyes that the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ hath not yet shined unto you. (T. Bennet.) Grace is poured into Thy lips.-- Grace poured into Christ’ s lips I. The grace which is poured into Christ’ s lips.1. The Spirit of the Lord rested upon Him as a spirit of wisdom, counsel and understanding (Isaiah 11:2-3). Wisdom and knowledge discovered themselves in Him, to the astonishment of His greatest enemies (Mark 6:2). 2. The Spirit of the Lord rested upon Him as the spirit of faith and trust in God (Matthew 27:46). 3. The grace of holy gratitude and thankfulness to God, His heavenly Father, evidenced itself in Him in the highest degree of perfection (Psalms 22:9-10; John 11:41). 4. Our Lord Jesus evidenced the most cheerful and ready compliance with the will of God in every part of His work (John 4:34; Matthew 26:39). 5. The graces of humility and self-denial appear conspicuously in all the sayings and actings of Christ (Philippians 2:7; 2 Corinthians 7:9; Matthew 11:29; Romans 12:2-3). 6. The graces of meekness and patience were most perfectly exercised by Him (Hebrews 12:3; 1 Peter 2:24). 7. Our Lord Jesus is full of love; love to God, and love to the souls of men was the golden weight which engaged and carried Him forward in every part of the work Jehovah gave Him to do; so we find Him entering upon the crowning piece of the work of our redemption as to purchase, in the highest exercise of love to His, and our heavenly Father (John 14:31). 8. He was full of zeal for God and the advancement of His declarative glory (John 2:13-18). II. In what capacity our Lord Jesus has this grace poured into his lips.1. As the second Adam, the Surety of the New Covenant, the Head and Representative of His mystical body the Church. 2. As the Trustee of the New Covenant. 3. As the Administrator of the Covenant of grace (Acts 5:31; John 14:13-14). 4. As sustaining the character of our Head and Husband, our Father, our elder Brother, our best Friend, and the Steward set over the family of God, to give every one his portion in due season. III. Whence it is that the grace that is poured into the lips of our glorious redeemer is condescended on as such a leading part of his glory and beauty.1. Grace is here considered as the glory of Christ, “ because in this internal grace the reparation of the image of God doth consist.” 2. This grace is the glory of Christ, “ because it is that which inclines the heart of Jesus Christ unto all that goodness and kindness that He hath showed unto us.” 3. Grace is the glory of Christ, “ as He is, in respect of it, the great example and pattern whereunto we ought to labour after conformity.” 4. Because grace being poured into His lips, and poured into His lips for our special benefit, it renders Him in every respect a fit match for us. 5. Because Jesus Christ is made an everlasting blessing to the sons of men in virtue of this grace that is poured into His lips; God having poured grace into His lips, hath set Him to be blessings for ever (Psalms 21:6). Men shall be blessed in Him. IV. Improvement.1. Inferences. (1) If it be so as has been said, that grace and holiness is that which renders our Lord Jesus so very fair and beautiful; then we may see how much grace Should be prized by us. Grace is the ornament that adorns the soul. (2) We may see what reason we have to admire the wisdom and goodness of God, which are so richly manifested towards fallen men, in His providing such a suitable help for them. (3) We may see matter of comfort to believers amidst all their wants. (4) We may see grounds of encouragement to those who are yet destitute of grace to come to Christ for it. 2. Use of trial. Do you believe in God as your God through our Lord Jesus Christ? And do you endeavour to maintain the claim of faith to Him as your God and Father, even when clouds and darkness are round about Him? Do you study, through grace, to yield a cheerful and ready obedience to all God’ s commandments from love to Him and a tender regard to His authority? Are you humble and self-denied? 3. Exhortation. (1) As to you who have been admitted to behold the beauty and glory of Christ by the eye of faith, and have been made partakers of His grace. (a) We exhort you to be much taken up in the believing contemplation of the person and glory of Christ. (b) We exhort you to use and improve the grace that is in Christ. Remember that it is poured into His lips for your behoof; that you may daily come to His fulness in the exercise of faith, and receive out of it grace for grace. (c) We exhort you to be humble and thankful to God for the grace you have already received. (2) As for you who are yet strangers to Christ and so destitute of saving grace. We exhort you to believe the misery of your present condition. To believe that you stand in absolute need of Christ and the grace that is poured into His lips. To believe there is grace in Christ answering to all your wants, and that He makes you heartily welcome to come to Him, and be enriched out of His fulness for time and eternity. To consider that the day of grace will not always last with you. It is a limited day, and may be shorter than you are aware of. (T. Bonnet.) The worth of Jesus seen Some Cornish fishermen found a belt containing diamonds. They considered it worth £20, and sold it for £20. “ Ah,” said the buyer, “ I expect this is worth money--I think it is worth £1,000,” and he sold it for I do not know how much. “ Ah,” said the man who bought it, “ this is worth money--it is worth £3,000,” and he sold it for £3,000. I believe eventually it passed into the hands of those who gave £10,000 for it. If you could only have put something at the back of the eyes of those fishermen which would have shown them the truth! That is what the Spirit of God has come for--to show us the worth of Jesus. Oh, it is such a sad thing that He should be to us so little when He wants to be so much; that we should be poor when He wants to enrich us with the treasures of His grace. (M. G. Pearse.) Psalms 45:3-5 Gird Thy sword upon Thy thigh, O most mighty.Christ a mighty conqueror I. The warrior. The fact that He is no less than a Divine being, although for a specific purpose He assumed our nature, distinctly intimates that He should be known as the mighty God; while the power that has been given to Him as the Mediator, and the wonders He has accomplished in magnifying the law, bringing in an everlasting righteousness, spoiling principalities and powers, and destroying him that had the power of death demonstrates that, with the greatest propriety, He may be styled “ the most Mighty One.” “ War is the garb in which He often arrays Himself when He goes forth to scourge the guilty nations of the earth.” In this respect He is styled “ the Captain of the Lord’ s host” ; and described as “ a man of war,” and then it is emphatically added “ the Lord is His name.” He is Jehovah; Jehovah Zabaoth, “ The Lord of Hosts,” to show that the armies of earth and the hosts of heaven are under His control. He is the King of kings and Lord of lords; the King of glory; the Lord strong and mighty; the Lord mighty in battle. In the contest to which He is called, He never can be mistaken, for “ the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hid in Him” ; and it is just as impossible that He can ever be defeated, for He is “ the power of God,” as well as “ the wisdom of God.” II. His enemies.1. Those apostate spirits who are described as “ principalities and powers, the rulers of the darkness of this world, and spiritual wickedness in high places.” Having fallen from their first estate, their minds are filled with implacable hostility to the Redeemer. 2. Those who persecute the followers of Christ. 3. Those who uphold any system of religious faith opposed to the spirit and design of Christianity. 4. All who have not yet experienced the renewing influences of the Spirit of God, and who demonstrate by their conduct that they are of the world lying in iniquity. 5. All who despise the institutions of grace. III. His armour. As His kingdom is spiritual in its nature, the weapons by which its interests are to be maintained are also spiritual. The sword which Messiah girds upon his thigh signifies the Holy Scriptures, elsewhere styled “ the sword of the Spirit.” But the sword is not the only instrument with which the Saviour goes forth against His enemies. Like an ancient warrior He bears a bow and a quiver replenished with arrows, calculated to do terrible execution against the enemy. By these “ arrows,” we understand the announcements of the Gospel. IV. His expedition against his enemies, V. His victory.1. Behold the conquest of the powers of darkness upon Calvary, when, according to ancient prophecy, the Saviour bruised the head of Satan and weakened the whole energies of his kingdom (Colossians 2:14). 2. Then, again, how terribly did the Saviour act towards the Jewish nation. The cup of their iniquity at length became full, and then their capital, in which they had maltreated the Lord of Glory, was consigned to destruction; they were driven forth as homeless wanderers throughout the world. 3. Notice the victory which Christ has gained in establishing His kingdom upon earth. VI. Conclusion.1. See the dignity and glory of the Captain of salvation. 2. Consider the danger of opposing Christ. 3. Contemplate the gracious character of the conquests of Christ. 4. Rejoice in the perfection and glory to which the Church shall be brought through the omnipotence and grace of Christ. (Robert Cairns.) The triumph of Christ’ s mediatorial kingdom I. Confidence in the power of Christ to vanquish the souls of men.1. The first direct and decided foe over which He triumphed was the Jewish Church. That corrupt Church murdered the Son of God. But He was silent only a little more than forty-eight hours, and then rose to speak to men, and lives to speak through men, till all nations shall hear His voice, understand and believe. 2. The political power of Rome. The Jews condemned Jesus according to their law because He was a blasphemer; but as they had lost the power of capital punishment they appealed to Rome, saying, Help us to put this man to death. Pilate became a tool in their hands, and condemned the “ Just One,” but He triumphed over both. 3. The ungodly world. The spirit, theories, institutions, habits and pursuits of unregenerated humanity are in deadly opposition to Christ. But He will conquer, “ He must reign.” II. Sympathy with the cause in which he was embarked. What is the cause?1. Truth; less party zeal, and more zeal for truth. 2. Righteousness; an unjust man is not a soldier of Christ. 3. Meekness; fidelity. Soldiers of the Cross, the Redeemer must triumph. III. A devout appeal to heaven. “ Gird thy sword.”1. A living faith in the present life of Christ. “ We are justified by His death, we are saved by His life.” 2. A renunciation of all instruments, except those that are His. Carnal weapons have been foolishly and wickedly used in the cause of Christ--cannons, soldiers; and what an insult! what falsehood! (Caleb Morris.) Messiah’ s victory predicted and desired I. The appellation by which he addresses Christ. “ Most Mighty.”1. With respect to His Divine nature, Christ is the Mighty God; the Lord Jehovah, in whose arm dwells everlasting strength, Nor is it less applicable to Him considered as mediator. In this character He is Immanuel, God with us. He is mighty to conquer; for He has led captivity captive; He has conquered sin, and death, and hell--the three most formidable enemies that ever assailed the happiness of men, or the throne of God. Nor is He less mighty to save; for He has saved millions from the most awful fate, in the most desperate circumstances. He says of Himself, “ I am He that speaketh in righteousness, mighty to save.” 2. The import of the petition is, in brief, that He would exert His might, or the power of His grace, for the conversion and salvation of sinners. (1) That He would arm Himself with the necessary weapons. “ Gird on Thy sword.” Christ has a sword of justice, to cut off incorrigible offenders; and a sword of grace, to subdue His chosen people, and make them willing in the day of His power. (2) The psalmist petitions Christ to go arrayed in His glory and majesty; that glory and majesty with which he then saw Him to be clothed. But in what do the glory and majesty of Christ consist? I answer, glory is the display or manifestation of excellency. His glory, as God, consists in a display of the infinite perfections and excellencies of His nature. His glory, as man, consists in the perfect holiness of His heart and life. His glory, as God and man united in one person, the mediator, consists in His perfect fitness to perform all those works which the office of mediator requires of Him. He possesses everything necessary to satisfy the justice and secure the honour of God. He also possesses everything necessary to excite, encourage, and justify the highest love, admiration, and confidence of sinful men; for in Him all fulness dwell, even all the fulness of the Godhead. There is in him a fulness of truth to enlighten sinners and lead them to believe in Him. He has also a fulness of grace to pardon, sanctify and save them. Now, the display or manifestation of this infinite fulness of grace and truth constitutes the glory in which the psalmist wished Christ to appear. He wished Him also to appear in His majesty. The difference between majesty and glory consists in this: glory is something which belongs either to the person or the character of a being; but majesty is more properly an attribute of office, especially of the regal office. This office Christ sustains. He is exalted to be a Prince as well as a Saviour; He is King of kings and Lord of lords; and it is principally in His character of a king that He subdues His enemies and dispenses pardon. (3) Next, the psalmist prays, that being thus armed with His powerful sword, and arrayed in His glory and majesty, Christ would ride forth through the world, conquering and to conquer. II. The reasons why the psalmist wished the Saviour to go forth prosperously and the cause in which he wished him to engage. DO this “ because of truth, and meekness and righteousness.”1. He might, perhaps, intend the truth, meekness and righteousness of Christ Himself; for all these qualities belong to Him in the highest degrees. 2. By meekness, truth and righteousness the psalmist might mean these qualities in the abstract; and if this be His meaning, we must understand Him as specifying the cause in which he wished Immanuel to engage. III. To enforce his petition the psalmist predicts the certain success which would attend Messiah if he thus rode forth to battle. “ Thy right hand shall teach Thee terrible things;” that is, Thou shalt know experimentally what terrible things Thy power can perform.1. The destruction with which He shall overwhelm His incorrigible enemies. 2. There are also many terrible things which attend, or rather precede, the conquest of those whom He makes willing to be His people in the day of His power. He sends His spirit to convince them of sin, of righteousness and judgment; sets His terrors in dreadful array round about them, and often brings them to the very verge of despair before they submit, and cry for mercy. That these are terrible things, indeed, to the awakened sinner, none who have suffered thus need be told; and such are the terrible things which the right hand or power of Christ performs when He rides forth to battle as the Captain of salvation. (E. Payson, D. D.) The spiritual war I. The offensive weapons. These have as their symbols the sword and arrows.1. The sword, a heavy, massive weapon for close engagement, and inflicting terrible wounds. 2. The arrow, a light missile used to annoy the enemy at a distance. It comes whizzing through the air unseen, causes but a small wound, and is scarcely felt till its sharp point reaches the heart. 3. Now, both are emblems of one and the same thing--the Word of God. For the Word has this twofold power of wounding, sometimes as the sword, sometimes as the arrow. The first, the Word of terror, is the sword girt upon Messiah’ s thigh; the second, the Word of persuasion, is the arrow shot from His bow. And thus, by the joint action of these two weapons, “ peoples,” that is, whole kingdoms and nations in a mass, “ shall fall under Thee,” shall submit themselves to Christ. II. The defensive armour is to be noted (Psalms 45:8), the “ refulgent, dazzling armour.” This tells of whatever is admirable and amiable in the external form and appearance of the Christian religion.1. The character of Jesus Himself. 2. The light of good works shining in the lives of His disciples. 3. Whatever is decent and seemly in the government, the discipline and the rites of the Church, III. “The wonders” which his own right hand was to show him are to be explained. Not “ terrible things,” as the Authorized Version has it, for there is no notion of terror in the Word as here used; but of things extraordinary in their kind--grand, amazing, awful. In some of the oldest English Bibles we have here the better chosen word, “ wonderful.” Now, the “ wonders” which Messiah’ s “ own right hand” showed Him were the overthrow of Paganism and the Roman empire, and that by such seemingly inadequate means. It was, indeed, a wonderful thing, wrought by Christ’ s single arm, when his religion prevailed over the whole system of idolatry, supported as it was by the authority of sovereigns, by the learning of philosophers, and most of all, by the inveterate prejudices of the vulgar, attached to their false gods by the gratification which their very worship afforded to the sensual passions, and by the natural partiality of mankind in favour of any system, however absurd and corrupt, sanctioned by a long antiquity. It was a wonderful thing when the devil’ s kingdom, with much of its invisible power, lost at once the whole of its external pomp and splendour. It was a wonderful thing when the minds of all men took a sudden turn; kings became the nursing fathers of the Church, statesmen courted her alliance, philosophy embraced her faith, and even the sword was justly drawn in her defence. These were the wonderful things effected by Christ’ s right hand. And in the later ages there will be terrible things also achieved by Him, when Antichrist and his armies shall be overthrown. Then in Psalms 45:6; Psalms 7:1-17 we have-- IV. The king seated on the throne of his mediatorial kingdom, ruling in perfect justice. The sceptre was an emblem of the perfect integrity of the monarch in the exercise of his power. Well, therefore, is it said, Psalms 45:6, “ A straight sceptre is the sceptre of Thy royalty.” Earthly kings can never be perfectly just, for they are all liable to error and deception. But in the kingdom of Messiah there shall be no imperfection in His rule, and therefore He is anointed by God with the oil of gladness above all others. This declaration is, with the greatest propriety, applied to Christ in the Epistle to the Hebrews and made an argument of His Divinity. Thus ends this section of this psalm. (Bishop Horsley.) The Captain of salvation, with His sword girt on His thigh, defending the Church from the rage of her enemies I. Whence it is our Lord Jesus is designed “ most mighty.”1. He is so from the omnipotent power of His Divine nature, which is the principal of His mighty operations in the union of His person (Isaiah 9:6.) 2. He is mighty from the authority and power that was communicated and given unto Him by the Father, as Mediator, for the accomplishing of His whole work. Christ had strength and power as “ the mighty God” ; and He hath authority too, as all power is communicated to Him by God the Father (Matthew 28:18). And concerning the power given Him by the Father, the apostle tells us (Ephesians 2:22-23). 3. He may justly be designed “ most mighty” from what He has done, not only in giving being and existence to all things, as God equal with the Father; but also considered as Mediator. II. In what respects the word of Christ may be compared to a sword.1. For defence of His people. (1) Our Lord Jesus defends His subjects from their persecutors by His Word and Spirit. Whatever persecutors may be permitted to do with the bodies of any of God’ s saints, their souls, against which the shot of their enemies is chiefly aimed, are still in safeguard. (2) By His Word and Spirit He defends His people from the deceit and cunning craftiness of those who lie in wait to deceive them. (3) Our Lord Jesus defends His people from all their inward enemies by His Word and Spirit. (4) It is by means of the Word our Lord Jesus supports, comforts and bears up His people under all the tribulations in their house of pilgrimage. 2. For the downbringing of His and their enemies (Isaiah 11:4; Revelation 3:16). III. Some things implied in his girding on his sword.1. His appointing ordinances in the Church. 2. His calling, fitting and qualifying a Gospel ministry to bear His name before sinners. Faithful ministers are the gift of Christ to the Church (Ephesians 4:10-12). 3. His accompanying the dispensation of all His ordinances with the power and efficacy of His Spirit. IV. Why the sword of Christ, which is his word, is called his glory and majesty.1. Because of the purity and holiness that shines forth in every part of it (Psalms 19:8-9; Romans 7:12). 2. Because the scope and tendency of it is to declare His glory and majesty (John 5:39; 1 John 5:20). 3. Because He therein manifests His glory unto us. 4. Because of the glorious and majestic effects it has upon the hearts and consciences of men. V. Improvement.1. Inferences. (1) We may see and he informed when it is that our Lord Jesus has gone through with the arduous work of men’ s redemption and salvation to the glory of God and eternal consolation of all the spiritual Israel (Romans 9:5). (2) We may see what a safe and happy people they are who have fled unto Christ by faith for refuge. (3) We may see the egregious folly of all who endeavour to stand in the way of the advancement of the kingdom and interests of Christ. (4) We may see with what reverence and attention men should both read the Word of God and hear it read and preached unto them (Hebrews 12:25). (5) We may see matter of reproof to those who do not only slight and neglect the Word of Christ, but profane and abuse it. 2. Of trial and examination. What experience have you got of the powerful effects of the Word of Christ upon your hearts? 3. Of exhortation. (1) We exhort you, who are the true subjects of the mighty Captain of our salvation, who have been subdued to the obedience of faith by the powerful efficacy of His Word and Spirit, to be faithful to Him; “ endure hardness as good soldiers of Jesus Christ.” (2) We exhort all who are yet at war with this mighty One to take a believing view of the glory of His person, the greatness of His love, the riches of His grace and suitableness of His offices to the condition of your souls; and drop the weapons of your rebellion at His feet. (T. Bennet.) Psalms 45:4 And in Thy majesty ride prosperously. The Captain of salvation riding prosperously in the Gospel-chariot and bringing terrible things to pass I. Open and explain the various designations given to the gospel in the text.1. It is called “ the word of truth.” (1) As opposed to error and false doctrine, whereby Satan endeavours to blind and ruin souls. (2) As opposed to the dispensation of grace which the Church enjoyed under the Mosaic economy (John 1:17). (3) By way of eminency in regard it is the most excellent, sweet and desirable truth (Psalms 19:10). (4) In regard of its effects upon the hearts of those who believe it. The solid belief of the Gospel is not only accompanied with an inward change upon the understanding will and affections, but also with newness of life and conversation. 2. “ The word of meekness.” (1) In regard of Him whose word it is (Matthew 11:29; Zechariah 9:9). (2) From the manner in which it was delivered to us by Christ and His apostles. (3) In respect of its design and the end which through the Divine blessing it reaches among men. 3. “ The word of righteousness.” (1) On account of its purity and holiness. (2) Because it contains a revelation of the righteousness of God our Saviour, which is the alone ground of a sinner’ s access to, and acceptance in the sight of an holy and just God; yea, the leading design of the Gospel, in subordination to the glory of its Author, is to proclaim that righteousness to sinners; to set it before them as the sure foundation of all their hope and confidence (Isaiah 46:12-13). (3) In respect of its effect. It is by looking into the glass of the Gospel by faith that the good work of likeness and conformity to Christ is begun in regeneration, and is carried on to perfection (2 Corinthians 3:18). II. Some of the terrible things that our Lord Jesus brings to pass by means of the gospel.1. The unhinging and removing the whole fabric of ceremonial institutions. 2. Our Lord has made terrible work upon the kingdom and interests of Satan by means of the Gospel. 3. The preaching of the Gospel by our Lord and His apostles was followed with terrible consequences to His ancient people, to whom it was first published, because of their unbelief in rejecting the compassionate counsel of God against themselves. 4. Another of the terrible things our Lord Jesus has performed by means of the Gospel is the inroads He has made upon the kingdom and power of Antichrist. 5. Our Lord Jesus performs terrible things upon the hearts and consciences of obstinate sinners by means of a dispensation of the Gospel. III. Inferences.1. We may infer that the Gospel is a subject very glorious and excellent. 2. We may infer how much the Gospel ought to be esteemed by all who enjoy it in purity; and the great sin of despising and neglecting it. 3. We may see the great need all who enjoy a dispensation of the Gospel have to exercise a constant dependence upon the power and grace of Christ, in order to their profiting by it. 4. We may see from this subject that our Lord Jesus is not only succeeding in the management of the affairs of His kingdom of grace, but hastening to finish the mystery of God in the Church; He is riding in the Gospel-chariot with great celerity. 5. We may see with what holy diligence it concerns all the hearers of the Gospel, to improve their day of grace and merciful visitation. 6. We may see matter of trial and examination. Try what acquaintance you have with the designations given to the Gospel in the text, in your experience. 7. We may see matter of comfort to believers. It may comfort the heart of every child of God to consider that the Captain of salvation is making way for His second coming and the accomplishment of the promise, which will crown His felicity (John 14:2-3). 8. We may see matter of reproof and terror to all the scoffers of the last times. 9. We may infer matter of exhortation. (1) We exhort all who have experienced the power of Divine grace upon their hearts, and known the joyful sound of the Gospel in truth, to bless a God of infinite love and grace for sending the Gospel to them, and that not only in word, but in the demonstration of the Holy Spirit. (2) As for you, who, though you are enjoying a dispensation of the Gospel, have never yet experienced the salutary effects of it upon your hearts, we exhort you to consider the great misery of your present condition. (T. Bonnet.) Because of truth and meekness and righteousness.-- The conquest of the world by meekness Poetry is the language of the soul; for the soul is the seat of all deeper, purer, diviner feeling. Till the spirit is touched and stirred to her very depth and inmost self there can be no poetry. A man may be set down in the very midst of Nature’ s life and loveliness, amid her fields, and flowers, and streams, and mountains, and even her wildest grandeur, but if he has no communion with the soul of Nature, he can have nothing to say. He may imitate her language, but he has no real voice. Now, the poetry of the Bible is the Bible of poetry. You may find the language of feeling in other books, but this is the book of feeling. It is the utterance of the soul in its deepest moods. It lets you into the very heart of humanity. An inspired apostle has applied a certain portion of this psalm to the Redeemer of man. I. That the conquest of our world by Christ implies rather its redemption than its subjugation, Man has been so brought under the yoke by the power of evil that his nature is comparatively enslaved. The spirit is enthralled by the flesh. The higher nature by the lower. Bondage is mistaken for freedom. The will of God is to reverse all this, to bring back man to his original condition. And to accomplish this Christ came. His life must be sacrificed to effect our deliverance, and He gave it up willingly and without reserve. Though we are taken from under the yoke of an enslaving bondage, our redemption does not place us above law, or take us from the sphere of its influence. We are under law to Him who hath redeemed us. As His freemen we owe Him our allegiance and submission. II. That he who is to effect this conquest is revealed to us as invested with attributes corresponding to the grandeur of his enterprise. He is clothed with might, majesty and glory. Of these perfections, as they are united in the Godhead, we have many striking manifestations. See the giving of the law on Mount Sinai. Or the prophet describing the calamities which God was about to inflict on the enemies of His Church and people, represents His brightness as the light, and burning coals going forth at His feet, and at whose descent the everlasting mountains were scattered, and the perpetual hills did bow, while His glory covered the heavens, and the earth was full of His praise! How different from all this outward and gorgeous splendour is the calm and silent majesty of the same august Being, when He is represented as saying” Let there be light, and light was!” Or when you hear him reveal His ineffable name to Moses--“ I am that I am!” So in reference to the Saviour. It is in the quiet word of His power, as when He stilled the tempest, yet more in the deep tranquillity of His own soul, that we see His glory. His might lay in ‘ His purity, His majesty in His meekness, His glory in His benevolence. There is no power equal to that of goodness, and there is nothing which goodness may not achieve. III. That nothing could be more simple or appropriate than the means or instrumentality by which this conquest is to be achieved. Just as the purpose of the Redeemer corresponds with the benevolence and the righteousness of His character, so the means by which that purpose is to be carried into effect beautifully correspond with the calm and dignified composure of his own soul. Having, like a true hero, girt His sword upon His thigh, He is seen riding forth prosperously and in triumph. Victory waits upon His every step. And this not as the effect of force, but as the result of truth. The Conqueror of the world is the world’ s Great Teacher. Full of grace and truth, He came to reveal the love of God, and the way of life. He asks for no blind, unmeaning homage, and therefore He floods the mind with light. He wants no unwilling surrender, and therefore He fills the heart with love. We see, then, how it is that in the Conqueror of the world meekness is combined with truth. The dove at His baptism told what manner of reign His was to be. It was the gentleness of Christ as a teacher of truth that made Him great. It is a striking fact that Christianity makes no provision for those cases in which it fails in its professed results. Other systems reserve to themselves the freedom of changing their ground and of adapting their expedients to the ever-varying conditions of society; but the Christian system disdains any such policy. Whether it be introduced into countries where civilization sits high-throned and regnant, or into regions where we meet with only uncultured and barbarous tribes, it is the same thing. While it possesses all the elements of universal adaptation, it knows nothing of expediency. It refuses to be thrown into any Procrustean bed, and have its dimensions determined by the caprice of men. It is through all time the same and immutable. The reason is obvious. Its failures are not due to itself but in those to whom it is addressed, or in the agency through which we seek to diffuse it. IV. That the progress of this conquest will arrest the attention and awaken the joy of the whole moral creation of God. Heaven is interested in earth. But what ate we doing to help forward the reign of Christ? Have we submitted ourselves to Him? Only so can we really help or share in its final joy. (R. Ferguson, LL. D.) Psalms 45:5 Thine arms are sharp in the heart of the King’ s enemies: whereby the people fall under Thee. Enemies turned into friends I. The arrow of conviction. It is “ sharp in the heart,” and is sure to kill the man. Where there is real conviction of sin the man is sure to become dead to what he was. If he were a profligate he now becomes a praying man; if a Pharisee, a self-loathing, self-despairing man; he will be humbled in the dust before God. This may explain the words, “ Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted,” as he is exalted when picked up from the dunghill of profligacy. And the Pharisee may rejoice that he is brought low. The two, meeting, may rejoice together for what God has done for them. There is a great variety of things the Lord turns into arrows. Dissatisfaction with self; the man gets into a pensive, moody state of mind, confesses himself unhappy, and begins to think the Christian the happiest man after all. The Lord may use this. Or the loss of a child may lead the mother to think about her own future state. What if it had been she who was taken. Or the loss of a friend, or husband, or wife, teaches the solemnity of death and the uncertainty of all human hopes. I have known men’ s own bad conduct sometimes turned into an arrow of conviction; I have known instances; two young men engaged to go out one Sunday and swear all the oaths they could think of. These oaths were turned, the awfulness of it, into an arrow of conviction to the one; he was stopped, paralyzed, and could no longer go on. Then again men may see that, though much despised and spoken against, Christians are best off after all, There is no sudden conviction here, no terror; the arrow may enter the heart almost imperceptibly, so gently, that they can hardly tell the time when they were converted. It does not matter if you are really Christ’ s now. Or affliction, loss of property--this oftentimes--has been used of God. And, very often, usually by the Word itself. So, then, whatever the means were, if we are but brought,, if the arrow of conviction has but entered the heart, whether suddenly from the bow of God’ s truth, whether from your own thoughts, whether from loss of friends, or property, or affliction, or whatever may be the means, if the conviction be but there, then thou art saved, for my text says, “ Whereby the people fall’ under Thee.” This is sure to be the effect, only there must be this personal wounding more or less, this personal conviction, so as to bring you down to pray for yourself. For note-- II. The sure effect. “ The people fall under Thee.” Under the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the very Son of God. (James Wells.) The arrows of Zion’ s King, sharp in the hearts of His enemies, and the people falling in subjection under Him I. Inquire who may be said to be Christ’ s enemies. In general we may observe that He has as many enemies as there are devils in hell and irregenerate men upon earth. Should it then be inquired, What way do men evidence their enmity at Christ? We answer--1. By setting up their own wisdom and carnal reasoning in opposition to the revelation He has made of His Father’ s will to us in the Gospel. 2. By refusing to submit to His righteousness revealed in the Gospel (Romans 10:3). 3. By declining His yoke, and refusing to take on His burden. 4. By neglecting and despising His ordinances. 5. By persecuting His servants and people, both by tongue and hand. 6. By unbelief. 7. By raising, propagating and defending error. 8. By apostatizing from Christ after professing subjection to Him and kindness for Him. 9. By affecting to be neither His friends nor His foes; they do not choose to oppose religion, and as little can they think to be seen taking part with it. There are many other ways whereby the natural enmity of the heart exerts itself against Christ, which we cannot insist upon; such as resting on a form of godliness without seeking acquaintance with the power of it; living in the neglect of known duty when the Lord gives them an opportunity to perform it. Taking up with the hope of the hypocrite, and retaining a heart enmity to Christ under the cloak of pretended friendship. This is, indeed, a way of exerting the enmity of the heart against Christ, that eludes the eye of man; but He sees it, who will in a little make all the Churches know that “ He searches the hearts and tries the reins of the children of men.” II. Speak of that work of Christ which consists in his making his enemies become his friends by means of the gospel.1. When our Lord Jesus is about to bring a person into u state of friendship with Himself, He convinces the man of the sinfulness of his condition, persuading him both of the reality of his enmity against Him, and the danger to which he is exposed on account of it. 2. Our Lord having thus convinced the sinner of his sin, He also shows him the danger to which it exposes him, letting him see that they who do the things with which He stands chargeable are worthy of death. 3. As our Lord Jesus convinces the man of his danger on account of his sin, He also causes him to see the vanity and fruitlessness of every attempt he is ready to make in order to recommend himself to the Divine favour by his own works of righteousness. 4. The Spirit of God enlightens the mind of the convinced and awakened sinner in the knowledge of Christ; He destroys the veil of ignorance: wherewith the man’ s understanding was covered, and shines into his heart, giving him the light of the knowledge of the glory of God as it is displayed in the person of our glorious Immanuel. 5. Christ having made Himself known to the sinner, the Spirit apprehends the man for Christ, works faith in his heart, with all the other saving graces which are inseparably connected with it; and having implanted faith in the soul by means of the promise, He draws it forth into exercise SO as that the soul is brought actually to embrace the Saviour and close with Him. III. Offer some thoughts upon the effect of that work which consists in Christ’ s making his enemies become his friends.1. A real sense of the person’ s error and mistake in taking up the weapons of rebellion against God. 2. Falling in subjection under Christ includes in it faith’ s views of forgiveness, notwithstanding all the provocations the man sees himself chargeable with. 3. A sinner’ s falling under Christ by kindly subjecting the heart and soul to Him, has in it a holy blushing and confusion of face on account of sin the man has done. 4. This falling under Christ includes in it a cordial renouncing and giving up with every other lord and lover lisa. 26:13). 5. It includes a hearty embracing of, and closing with, Christ as our Saviour, Head and Husband. 6. It has in it a solemn giving up of the Whole man unto Christ, to be saved by Him, and also to serve Him. IV. The application.1. Of information. (1) We may see from this subject the woeful condition which all men are in by nature; they are enemies to God in their minds, and daily discovering they are so in their life and conversation (Colossians 1:21). (2) We may see that men are not only enemies to God, but obstinately so; they are disposed to continue in that unhappy condition until Divine power is exerted in their behalf. (3) We may see the kindness and love of God toward sinners of mankind in devising means to have them brought back into a state of favour and friendship with Himself. (4) We may see the power and efficacy of the Word of Christ when accompanied by the Spirit. (5) We may see that there is no standing it out against the Captain of salvation; His arrows are sharp and piercing. All must either bow to Him, and yield Him the subjection of faith, or be broken by the iron rod of His irresistible power. (6) We may from this subject infer the safety and preservation of the Church and every particular believer. Zion’ s’ King is a man of war; He fights for Mount Zion and the hill thereof. He is never at a loss to strike a blow with success upon His adversaries; for strong is His hand, and high is His right hand. 2. Of examination. Have you really seen the contrariety of your nature and practice to the image, will, and holy law of God? Has the Holy Spirit convinced you of sin, because ye believed not on the only begotten Son of God? Have you really received Christ Jesus the Lord in all His offices? 3. Of exhortation. (1) We exhort such of you as are brought over to Christ, by the all-conquering power of His Spirit and grace, to bless the Lord, that ever He was pleased to make a saving revelation of His powerful arm to you, determining you to give up with the service of sin and Satan, and take on the yoke of Christ. (2) We exhort you, who have had, it may be, some experience of what is affirmed concerning the arrows of Christ in the text, but have not as yet been brought to fall under Him, in a kindly manner, taking Him as the Captain of your salvation; we intreat you to beware of stifling your convictions and quenching the motions of the Holy Spirit. (3) We exhort all who may be labouring under convictions to be on their guard against giving way to despondency or despair, though for the present you may not see anything but blackness, darkness and tempest, attended with the trumpet sounding loudly from Mount Sinai; yet you know not how soon the day may break and the shadows flee away. (4) It may, perhaps, be the case with some that they cannot say but they have had some convictions; yet they have not had experience of so many strong and lasting convictions as they have heard and read of in the case of others, and so labour under doubts and fears whether or not they are yet brought over to Christ. If Christ be precious to you, if your souls cleave to the covenant of promise in faith and love; and if sin be the object of your real hatred, you have reason to conclude you are passed from death to life and shall never come into condemnation. (5) We exhort you who are yet in the camp of Satan, and so acting the part of enemies to Zion’ s King to consider the sinfulness of your conduct. You are engaged in a most unrighteous, dangerous and soul-ruining war. (T. Bennet.) The Saviour’ s conquests in the hearts of His enemies I. Who are the enemies with whom the Saviour carries on a strife of mercy in seeking to subdue them unto Himself? They are mankind at large, all men by nature. And every believer was once His enemy and the bond-servant of sin. To this point our view can never be too stedfastly or too intensely directed. For until we see the guilt, the shame, the destitution, the ingratitude, the misery, and (if God interfere not to save), the hopelessness of every natural man’ s rebellion against his Maker, and the suicidal hand with which, in this dreadful treason, he is striking at every interest of his own soul as the soldier of Satan, and the slave of sin, he can have no saving view of a Redeemer; he cannot know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge; he cannot be filled with all the fulness of God. II. Against these enemies what are the weapons employed, and with what success? They are the arrows of God in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, sharp in the heart of the King’ s enemies, whereby the people fall under Him. They are so called from the suddenness, the secrecy and the swiftness of their motion. And every one of the arrows of Christ, piercing and penetrating as they all are, is taken from the same exhaustless quiver, brought by the victorious Lamb from heaven, wherewith to subdue His enemies. And whereof are they made? Feather, shaft and point, they are wholly and entirely love, pure, unimaginable, undeserved, unconditional, everlasting love. These arrows probe the wound that hath been slightly healed by the deceitfulness of sin, and probe it to the quick. They force the humbled transgressor toffee from himself and take refuge in the righteousness of Christ. Oh, it is a wonderful process, and as sure as it is wonderful, whereby that arrow of the Word, when it reaches a sinner, alters the whole mass of the mind’ s affections, that he can no more stay himself up in the chariot of his guilty battle against God, but is carried forth that he may be “ dead indeed unto sin.” If I should strike a rock of marble or adamant with an arrow, and see it cleft, and gushing out with water, I must needs imagine some wonderful and secret virtue to have wrought an effect so strange. Now, our hearts are of themselves harder than the nether millstone. When, therefore, the arrows of the love of Christ strike them so mightily, yet so tenderly, and transforms the soul into His nature, who can question whence it comes and where the glory ought to be? But, while there are these arrows of love, there are also arrows of wrath in a quiver of judgment for obdurate sinners. What these are may we never know. (J. P. Buddieom, M. A.) Effective soul archery (Psalms 45:5):--There was something very fascinating about the archery of olden times. Perhaps you do not know what they could do with the bow and arrow. Why, the chief battles fought by the English Plantagenets were with the longbow. They would take the arrow of polished wood and feather it with the plume of a bird, and then it would fly from the bowstring of plaited silk. The broad fields of Agincourt and Solway Moss and Neville’ s Cross heard the loud thrum of the archer’ s bowstring. Now, we have a mightier weapon than that. It is the arrow of the Gospel; it is a sharp arrow; it is a straight arrow; it is feathered from the wing of the dove of God’ s Spirit; it flies from a bow made out of the wood of the Cross. As far as I can estimate or calculate, it has brought down four hundred million souls. Paul knew how to bring the notch of that arrow on to that bowstring, and its whirr was heard through the Corinthian theatres, and through the courtroom, until the knees of Felix knocked together. It was the arrow that stuck in Luther’ s heart when he cried out, “ Oh, my sins! Oh my sins!” If it strike a man in the head it kills his scepticism; if it strike him in the heel it will turn his step; if it strike him in the heart, he throws up his hands as did one of old when wounded in the battle, crying, “ O Galilean, Thou hast conquered!” (T. De Witt Talmage.) Psalms 45:6-7 Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever. The kingdom of Christ, an everlasting kingdom, and ruled with perfect justice and equity I. Show that Zion’ s king is God.1. He is expressly called God in Scripture (Isaiah 9:6; Romans 9:5). 2. Such attributes are ascribed to Him in Scripture as are competent to God only. (1) Eternity (Micah 5:2).(2) Immutability (Hebrews 1:10).(3) Omniscience (John 21:15; John 2:24-25).(4) Omnipresence (John 3:13). 3. Divine worship, which is due to God only, is to be performed unto Him (Hebrews 1:6; Psalms 2:12; Psalms 45:11; John 5:22-23). 4. Works are done by Him which none but an infinitely powerful agent can perform (Colossians 1:16; John 11:25). II. The lasting and permanent nature of the kingdom of Christ.1. General observations. (1) Our Lord Jesus has an essential kingdom, which is that absolute supreme power and authority which He exercises over all creatures in heaven, earth and hell (Psalms 103:19).(2) He has a kingdom and throne of grace (Ephesians 1:22).(3) The kingdom of grace or the Church of Christ may be considered either as set up and administered in the world, or as set up in the hearts of men.(4) He has a throne and kingdom of glory. 2. This kingdom is to endure for ever. (1) Observe some things more generally concerning the perpetuity of the Church. The kingdom of our Lord Jesus was from everlasting in design; the King Himself is from everlasting, an eternal and mutable King; yea, He was chosen King of Zion from everlasting (Psalms 89:19). It will continue through all succeeding ages and generations. Though the kingdom of Christ, considered as to its present form of administration in the world, consisting in the preaching of the Word, the dispensation of the sacraments, will come to an end; these ordinances being no further necessary, once that the saints are perfected; yet, substantially considered, it shall be for ever and ever (Psalms 89:35; Psalms 89:37). (2) Show in some particulars that the Church is for ever and ever. As the King is for ever and ever, so are the subjects of His kingdom (Romans 5:17). They are all united to Him, and death cannot dissolve that union. When they have served their generations in this world according to His will, He will make them fixed pillars in His Father’ s house above (Revelation 3:12). The laws of the kingdom are for ever and ever. The treasures of the kingdom are for ever and ever. These are the unsearchable riches of Christ (Ephesians 3:8). The revenue of the kingdom is for ever and ever. The united praises of the saints is the revenue of the kingdom (Psalms 146:2). The charter of the kingdom is for ever and ever (Isaiah 54:10; Titus 1:2; Revelation 4:3). III. Show that the kingdom of our Lord Jesus is ruled in the most just and equitable manner.1. There is a righteous Prince upon the throne. He came to the throne in a just and righteous manner; it was by the appointment of God the Father (Psalms 2:6). 2. The laws of the kingdom are right. 3. Our Lord Jesus effectually promotes and advances the spiritual welfare and advantage of His true subjects by all His dispensations toward the Church. 4. The sceptre of the kingdom must be right; for the King “ loves righteousness, and hates iniquity with a most perfect hatred” ; and elsewhere the psalmist saith, “ The righteous Lord loveth righteousness.” 5. The sceptre of Immanuel’ s kingdom will appear to be a right sceptre when it is considered that the King not only loves righteousness, but is perfectly in case to act according to the desire of His heart. IV. USE-- 1. Of information. (1) We may see what a weighty and important work it was to redeem the Church, gather her from among the world lying in wickedness, wrest her out of the hand of Satan, rule and defend her from all her enemies, when none but an infinite Person was equal to the undertaking. (2) We may see the dignity, safety and happiness of all the true subjects of Christ. It is their highest dignity to have Him for their King. Their life and safety lies in their union with, and relation to Him. (3) See how absurd and impious it is to oppose the kingdom and interests of Christ, and molest His true subjects. “ The sceptre of His kingdom is a right sceptre,” and therefore to oppose His rule and government is in the highest degree both sinful and dangerous. (4) Is the sceptre of Christ a sceptre that is right? then we may see how unbecoming His subjects it is to quarrel with, fret and repine at any of His dispensations, either toward the Church in general, or themselves in particular. (5) We may see that those who are determined by grace to give up themselves to Christ, to be saved by Him, and serve Him, are not such fools as the world takes them to be. He is managing all things in His kingdom for the advancement of His own glory, and the real good of His subjects, whether for the time they see him to be doing so or not. (6) Hence, see the need we have of faith to believe that Zion’ s King is doing all things well, even when His way is in the sea and His paths in the deep waters. (7) Is the sceptre of Immanuel’ s kingdom a right sceptre? then see how much it concerns all the subjects of His kingdom, to endeavour to imitate their King in acting a faithful, just and righteous part in their places and stations toward Him, one another, and all with whom they have occasion to be conversant. (8) We should be constantly upon our guard against judging rashly about any part of Christ’ s management in His kingdom that may for the time appear unaccountable to us (Acts 1:7). 2. Of trial and examination. It concerns you, therefore, to try whether you be among the true subjects of Christ or not; and if you are really so, Zion’ s King has the throne of your hearts; He possesses the highest room there, and Satan is dethroned (Luke 11:21). You are in some measure acquainted with spiritual light and liberty. 3. Of exhortation. (1) We exhort you who are the true subjects of Zion’ s King to be thankful to God for erecting a kingdom of grace in the world, and particularly that He has set it up in the Gentile world (Isaiah 24:16). (2) We exhort all who are yet enemies to Zion’ s King, young and old, poor and rich, to consider the sinfulness and danger of continuing in that condition. (T. Bennet.) Psalms 45:7 Thy God hath anointed Thee with the oil of gladness above Thy fellows.The gladness of Jesus This is our exceeding joy--the gladness of Him who loved us and gave Himself for us. Yet it is not a matter of which we often think. The Man of Sorrows is much more familiar to us than the Saviour anointed with the oil of gladness. He was the saddest of men, but He was also the gladdest. This is not contradictory. The capacity for grief is the measure of the capacity for gladness. The depth is the height. He who never sinks never soars. The keen sensitiveness to sorrow is also and necessarily the keen sensitiveness, in every healthy soul, to joy. The perfect human nature of our Lord, having every faculty developed perfectly, had this in its completeness--the faculty of gladness.1. In the character of Jesus Christ there was nothing that marred or lessened in any wise His gladness. We are rent and torn by a score of distractions. It is as if the strings of the soul were some of them broken, and some were all unstrung; and on the others a dozen diverse players to contend for mastery. What a strife and horrid discord is life with many. 2. Think, too, of the sources of gladness in Himself. All the beatitudes were His and His perfectly. And all the fruits of the Spirit--love, joy, peace and all the rest, all of them the elements of a perfect gladness. 3. Then think of His gladness arising from His relationship alike to heaven and earth. “ The Child grew and waxed strong in spirit; filled with wisdom; and the grace of God was upon Him.” And yet again, says St. Luke, “ the Child increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.” The perfect love of heaven and earth meet in Jesus. Count up all sources of gladness; there is none that can compare with the consciousness of God’ s favour. To walk hand in hand with Him is Paradise restored. (1) And He grew in favour with man. Never was any so gladdened with the love of earth as was our blessed Lord and Master. Whilst it is true that the world hated Him, and the Pharisees and Scribes took counsel against Him; yet it is also true that the inner circle of His acquaintance yielded Him a devotion such as none else ever knew. Men and women, and little children gladdened the heart of Jesus. And we can help to make Him glad. We do so when we bring to Him our gratitude, and love and trust. Think of the gladness of His youth. He was no melancholy boy of whom we read that He grew in favour with men; no mysterious dreamer whom none could understand. Never, surely, was there upon the earth a sunnier boyhood than that of the holy Child of Nazareth. Take the story of the wedding at Cane of Galilee. Take another instance--“ In that hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit and said, I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes.” The word means literally that He “ danced for joy.” It is an instance of a joy which could not either be restrained or uttered. And the source of it may well suggest the thought that it was not a single or exceptional event in His life. Then, think of the gladness of Jesus in His work--its purpose, its objects, the poor; His fitness for it, His power in it; see His miracles. See the parables of Luk 15:1-32. as showing His joy. (Mark Guy Pearse.) The gladness of the Man of Sorrows Consider-- I. That part of our Saviour’ s joy which is given him by his father. He possessed much of this anointing with the oil of gladness even while He was here on earth. He grew in favour both with God and man. Then, His was the joy of doing good. To do as He did must give joy to a benevolent mind. And of being good. And in the consideration that He was doing His Father’ s will. And in the glorious prospect. And after He had “ endured the cross, despising the shame.” And what joy was His as the risen Mediator. That He had now accomplished a work which He had meditated upon from all eternity. Consider, too, His joy must have been commensurate with the pains which He endured, and how great they were. His joy would arise from the enemies He had overcome, from His having loved righteousness. See His life; the effect of His work. The text adds, “ Thou hatest wickedness.” A man’ s character is not complete without a perfect hatred of sin. And Christ’ s joy is greater than that of all others. Thus did God anoint Him. II. The gladness afforded by the church. The merits, graces, their love, their praise, their prayers, their faith, are like the myrrh, etc., that when He rides in His triumphal chariot He scatters odour all around. He rejoices over the saints as the objects of His choice; and because they have cost Him so much; and they are His workmanship. Let us think how we can make Him glad. III. Let us be glad in him. God has made the King glad, and His saints make Him glad; let us be glad too. But let us mind that our gladness is of the right sort. “ We will rejoice and be glad in Thee.” (C. H. Spurgeon.) The oil of gladness The anointing received by our Lord was the resting upon Him of the Spirit of God without measure (Isaiah 61:1-11.). Therefore by the “ oil of gladness” is meant the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of joy. The whole Trinity is engaged in our salvation. The Father sends the Son, the Son comes, the Holy Spirit anoints Him. I. The Saviour’ s anointing with gladness. We think more often of our Saviour as the “ Man of Sorrows” rather than in connection with gladness. To those who only saw Him outwardly He was the Man of Sorrows, but those who knew His heart knew well that a deep joy abode there. Is there not seen to be happiness in the heart when the noblest motives are paramount and the sweetest graces bear sway?1. Our Lord’ s gladness which He had in His work, Psalms 40:1-17. tells of Him as saying, “ I delight to do Thy will, O my God.” At the well of Samaria His joy in the conversion of the woman He met there made Him quite forget all about His need of food. “ I have meat to eat that ye know not of” --so He tells His disciples. Once, indeed, His joy flowed over, so that others could see it, when He said, “ I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because,” etc. And it is added, “ At that hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit.” And so, in their measure, is it with those who are His followers. They also are in like manner anointed with the oil of gladness. “ With gladness and rejoicing shall they be brought;” they work for the King with a willing heart. 2. Note, further, that our Lord had this oil of gladness from His work. He did reap in joy as well as sow in tears. The good shepherd rejoiced when he had found his sheep that was lost. The Saviour looks upon the redeemed with an unspeakable delight. And we may be partakers in this joy of being instrumentally the saviour of others; then you, also, partake of His gladness. 3. And our Lord has this gladness in this sense too--that His person and His work are the cause of ineffable gladness in others. It fills us with delight only to think of Him. “ The very thought of Thee with sweetness fills my heart.” What gladness He created when He was here below. And if the Lord Jesus be with us, we can give joy to others. There are some whose very presence comforts others, their words are so full of consolation and help. II. The reason for the bestowal of this anointing upon him. “ Thou lovest righteousness and . . . therefore God,” etc. There must be perfect holiness before there can be perfect happiness. Sin is the enemy of joy. Let the sinner say what he likes, sin can no more dwell with real joy than the lion will lie down with the lamb. Now, every way Jesus loved righteousness intensely. He died that He might establish it. And those who are in fellowship with Him are anointed also. The holy oil was forbidden to be placed upon a stranger to God’ s holy house; and upon man’ s flesh it could not be poured, because man’ s flesh is a corrupt and polluted thing. So, then, because He is righteous Himself, and because He makes others righteous, Christ has received this anointing. III. The manner of the operation of this, this oil of gladness upon us. Now, does the Holy Spirit give us gladness?1. Because we are anointed “ kings and priests with God, and we shall reign for ever.” 2. We are consecrated to the Lord. We are not our own, we are bought with a price. 3. By this oil we are qualified for our office (1 John 2:20). 4. The Spirit of God heals our diseases. The Eastern mode of medicine was generally the application of oil, and certainly the Holy Spirit is a healer to us. What wounds and bruises have been healed with this oil. 5. Thus, also, we are supplied and softened. So was it with the body when oil was applied to it, and softness and tenderness of heart are the work of the Holy Spirit. 6. By the oil of the Holy Spirit we are strengthened. 7. Beautified. 8. Perfumed. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Jesus Christ anointed with the oil of gladness above His fellows I. The fellowship that is between Christ and all true believers.1. General observations. (1) All the fellowship which any of the sons of men have with Christ is founded in union to His person and reconciliation to God through Him. (2) The fellowship that is betwixt Christ and believers does not constitute an equality between Him and them. (3) As our Lord Jesus was alone in the work of redemption, having no hand either of man or angel to help Him, as lie tells us (Isaiah 63:3), so He has no partners in the glory resulting therefrom. II. Our Lord’ s exaltation, here called his being, anointed with the oil of gladness.1. Preliminary remarks. (1) Our Lord’ s humiliation made no change with respect to His person. (2) As His humiliation made no change in respect of His person, so neither has His exaltation. Wherefore, when we speak of His being exalted, He is to be considered not as God absolutely, but as God-man Mediator. It is only as sustaining this character that He could either be humbled or exalted. 2. Some particulars wherein our Lord’ s exaltation doth consist. (1) It consists in “ a manifestation of the glory of His Deity in and through His humanity. As it had been obscured in the humanity while He was humbled, so it breaks out in the humanity when that nature is glorified, as a candle in a dark lantern doth through the transparent crystal, when the obscuring plate is drawn aside.” This is the glory which He prayed for (John 17:5). (2) It consists in the raising of the human nature of Christ to an inconceivable height of glory; such a height of glory as the human nature united to a Divine Person is capable of, which must be by many degrees superior to what either mere men or angels are capable to enjoy. (3) View His exaltation as set over against His humiliation (Philippians 2:8-11). In His resurrection He was exalted above the grave; in His ascension He was exalted above the earth; and in His session at the Father’ s right hand He was made higher than the heavens, “ exalted far above all heavens” (Ephesians 4:10). (4) The exaltation of Christ consists in His being furnished in His human nature with all these gifts and endowments of the Spirit which are suitable and necessary to the glorious condition unto which He is now raised at the Father’ s right hand (Acts 2:33; Ephesians 4:8). 3. Inquire why our Lord’ s exaltation is called His being anointed with the oil of gladness; or show whence it is that His exaltation did afford Him so much gladness. (1) His exaltation afforded Him the greatest joy and gladness, being a most infallible proof that God the Father is well pleased with what He has done. (2) Because then the eternal salvation of an innumerable company of fallen men, for whom He had an everlasting love, was effectually secured. And lie was now to sit with the most consummate delight and satisfaction at the Father’ s right hand, and see the travel of His soul entering into the joy of their Lord from every quarter under heaven according to the promise (Isaiah 53:11). (3) Because by His exaltation lie was freed from all that labour, toil and sorrow to which lie bad been so eminently exposed in His humbled estate. III. Show in what respects our Lord Jesus may be said to be anointed with the oil of gladness, or exalted above his fellows.1. Jesus Christ is anointed above His fellows, in regard lie is deservedly exalted to all that glory which He now possesses as Mediator, and that, whether we consider His exaltation as the proper reward of His humiliation or not. 2. He is exalted above His fellows, in regard His exaltation was effected by His own power, lie arose from the dead by His own power (John 2:19). “ It was not possible for Him to be holden of death.” 3. He is exalted above His fellows, in regard His human nature, in virtue of its union with His Divine Person, is capable of possessing an inconceivably greater degree of glory than any of His fellows. 4. He is exalted above His fellows, in regard His exaltation effectually secures theirs, lie has meritoriously procured the exaltation of all His fellows by His humiliation. And when He ascended on high, the everlasting doors were cast wide open, never to be shut again till all His fellows be brought where He is (Psalms 24:7). 5. Jesus Christ is exalted above His fellows, inasmuch as He is to be the eternal object of their worship and adoration. IV. Improvement.1. Of information. (1) We may see that the work of redemption as to purchase is a finished work (Hebrews 4:10). (2) We may see that the work of redemption is highly pleasing and delightful to God. It is called “ the pleasure of the Lord” (Isaiah 53:10). And He has given undoubted evidence that it is so in the glorious advancement of Christ to “ His own right hand,” and His appointing him “ the Heir of all things.” (3) We may see that the reproach and ignominy of the cross is entirely wiped away, and the human nature greatly dignified. (4) We may see with what holy boldness and confidence we may draw near to God. (5) See what ample security all true believers have for their being exalted in duo time. Christ is exalted, and they are already exalted in Him as their Head and Representative (Ephesians 2:6), and they shall be exalted with Him in their own persons; He is now “ lifted up from the earth,” and “ will draw them” after Him. His demand shall be fully answered (John 17:24). (6) Is Jesus Christ exalted? Then see how vain all the attempts of hell and earth against His work and interest must prove in the issue. (7) See noble encouragement to all who hear the Gospel to come to Christ for all spiritual blessings. (8) See the dreadful sin and danger that there must be in despising Christ now that He is highly exalted. When the sin of despising Him in His humbled estate, when He appeared but as a tender plant, and a root sprung out of a dry ground, was so very great, it must still be more highly aggravated now, because the Son of Man is now glorified. 2. Of trial. (1) What experience have you of being “ planted in the likeness of Christ’ s death” ? (2) All who shall be exalted to a state of glory with Christ are first planted in the likeness of His resurrection (Romans 6:5). (3) If you really expect, yea, if you in earnest desire to be where Christ is, you are much concerned about being “ made meet” for the glory that is to be revealed. (4) Does the prospect of your being anointed with the oil of gladness in due time support and comfort your hearts under present discouragements? (5) All Christ’ s fellow, all true believers dearly love Him. They admire His person, and his beauty is incomparable in their esteem. They admire His love, and put the highest value on His righteousness. 3. Of exhortation. (1) As to you who are believers. We exhort you to bless God for Christ, who was “ delivered for your offences,” etc. Rejoice that Christ is now “ anointed with the oil of gladness.” His exaltation is matter of great joy to all His fellows (John 14:28), both on His own account, because all His sorrows are now swallowed up of joy; and on their account, Because He is gone to heaven on their business, and as their Forerunner. He is gone to prepare a place for them, and to prepare them for the enjoyment of it, by His Spirit. We exhort you, while you are at home in the body, and so absent from the Lord, carefully to keep up the correspondence which He settled betwixt Him and all His fellows before He left this world, in respect of His bodily presence (John 14:13). Be exhorted to act faithfully for Christ in your day and generation, place and station in the world. We exhort you to look forward, and press on through all opposing difficulties “ toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” Lift up your heads, and look out for the day of your complete redemption (Isaiah 35:10; John 14:3). (2) We exhort you, who are yet in a natural state and condition, to lay to heart the sin you stand chargeable with, the misery you are under, and the wrath to which you are exposed. (T. Bennet.) Psalms 45:8 All Thy garments smell of myrrh, and aloes, and cassia, out of the ivory palaces.Out of the ivory palaces I look upon the kingly robes of Christ; and as I lift them, flashing with eternal jewels, the whole house is filled with the aroma of these garments, which “ smell of myrrh, and aloes, and cassia, out of the ivory palaces.” I. Why the robes of Christ are odorous with myrrh. The first present that was ever given to Christ was a sprig of myrrh, thrown on His infantile bed in Bethlehem; and the last gift that Christ ever had was myrrh pressed into the cup of His crucifixion. The natives would take a stone and bruise the tree, and then there would exude a gum that would saturate all the ground beneath. This gum was used for purposes of merchandise. One piece of it, no longer than a chestnut, would whelm a whole room with odours. It was put in closets, in chests, in drawers, in rooms, and its perfume adhered almost interminably to anything that was anywhere near it. So, when I read that Christ’ s garments smell of myrrh, I immediately conclude the exquisite sweetness of Jesus. I know that to many He is only like any historical person. But to those who know Him in all His grace He is music, and light, and warmth, and thrill, and eternal fragrance. Oh that you all knew His sweetness! How soon you would turn from your revels. II. Why the robes of Jesus are odorous with aloes. There is some difference of opinion about where these aloes grew, what is the colour of the flower, what is the particular appearance of the herb. Suffice it to know that aloes mean bitterness all the world over; and when Christ comes with garments bearing that particular odour, they suggest to me the bitterness of a Saviour’ s suffering. Were there ever such nights as Jesus lived through--nights on the mountain, nights on the sea, nights in the desert? John leaned his head on Christ; but who did Christ lean on? Five thousand men fed by the Saviour; who fed Jesus? Oh, was it not all aloes; nothing else? And this not to win fame as a martyr, but because He wanted to pluck you and me from hell, and to raise us to heaven. Ye whose lot is bright and fair, ye who have had bright and sparkling beverages, how do you feel towards Him who for you took the bitter aloes? III. Why these garments are odorous with cassia. Cassia was regarded as having great healing and curative power. But had not our Lord Jesus this? All the leaves of this Bible are only so many prescriptions from the Divine Physician, written, not in Latin, like the prescriptions of earthly physicians, but written in plain English, so that a man, though a fool, need not err therein. Thank God that the Saviour’ s garments smell of cassia. Christ made every house where he stopped a dispensary. I do not believe that in the nineteen centuries that have gone by since then His heart has got hard. I feel that we can come tonight, with all our wounds of soul, and get His benediction. He comes “ out of the ivory palaces.” Some of the palaces of the olden time were adorned with ivory. Ahab and Solomon had their houses furnished with it. These palaces are types of heaven. What a place heaven must be. Not so many castles on either side of the Rhine as are ivory palaces on either side of the river of God. We need to be washed, we need to be rehabilitated before we go into the ivory palaces. Eternal God, let the surges of Thy pardoning mercy roll over us! (T. De Witt Talmage.) The garments of Christ, our New Testament High Priest, sending forth a sweet savour from His ivory palaces I. Mention some things implied.1. That it is most pleasant and delightful exercise and employment for the people of God to contemplate the glory and excellency of Christ; the glory of His person, and the unsearchable riches of grace, and gracious influences of the Spirit which are treasured up in Him. 2. That the more closely and particularly that we consider Christ, the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, the more will we find in Him to draw out our affections to Him, and heighten our esteem and commendations of Him, and of everything belonging to Him, even as to His garments. 3. That as believers have spiritual senses, whereby they savour the things that be of God, so it is their privilege at some seasons to be admitted to such special nearness to Christ as that they can smell His garments. 4. That faith sees not only a fulness in Christ that is inexhaustible, but also a pleasant variety of spiritual blessings every way suited to the various wants and necessities of the soul. 5. That Christ is not only suited to the case of believers, but also to their very wish and desire. He perfectly fills the hand and heart of faith, and no other object can do it (Psalms 73:25). II. Give some account of the garments of our exalted high priest, which are here commended for their savoury smell.1. The embroidered coat of the high priest (Exodus 28:39) seems evidently to have signified the righteousness of Christ, consisting in the holiness of His human nature, the perfect conformity of His life to the law-precept, and His satisfactory sufferings and death. 2. We may consider the girdle of the High Priest as shadowing forth the truth and faithfulness of Christ; concerning Him it is said (Isaiah 11:5). It might also denote His strength (Proverbs 31:17), and His readiness for service (1 Kings 18:46). 3. The sacred bells, which hung upon the hem of the high priest’ s robe, were a lively representation of Christ’ s voice in the Gospel, and of His intercession at the Father’ s right hand. 4. The high priest’ s bearing the names of the children of Israel in the shoulder-pieces of the ephod, represented our great Gospel High Priest supporting His Church and people, bearing them and all their burdens, as it were, upon His shoulders (Isaiah 9:6). 5. There was much of the Gospel represented by the breastplate of the high priest and the things belonging thereto. The precious stones, with the names of the twelve tribes of Israel, did signify all the saints; the whole “ Church of the first-born whose names are written in heaven” ; and these stones being set in the breastplate, intimates that our New Testament High Priest has all the spiritual Israel near His heart; they rest on the bosom of His warmest love and affection, being set as “ a seal upon His heart, and as a seal upon His arm,” as the Spouse speaks (Son 8:6). And whereas the breastplate was fastened to the shoulder-pieces of the ephod, it was to intimate that the love and power of Christ are inseparably engaged in the business of our salvation; they go hand in hand therein. The use of the Urim and Thummim was for consultation in dark and difficult cases (Numbers 27:21; 1 Kings 23:9). They were evidently intended as a shadow of that fulness of Divine light and perfection that dwells in Jesus Christ, in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. He is the Messenger of the Covenant, and the unerring Interpreter of its secrets. 6. The high priest had a fair mitre for his head made of fine linen (Exodus 28:39). This mitre, or crown, points us to the princely dignity and kingly power of our Lord (Zechariah 6:13). 7. The high priest had a golden plate above the mitre with this inscription upon it, “ Holiness to the Lord,” or, “ the holiness of the Lord.” Hence the Lord saith to Moses (Exodus 28:36). When we consult the two following verses, we see this piece of priestly attire directing us to behold the absolute perfection and spotless holiness of our Gospel High Priest, and His bearing away the iniquity of our holy things, and procuring our access to, and acceptance with God, notwithstanding our daily failings and shortcomings. 8. Our Lord Jesus is set forth in Scripture as clothed in a suitableness to the various branches of the work He is employed in, whether of mercy to His people, or of judgment towards His enemies. Accordingly, being about to reform His Church, comfort His people, and chastise His enemies (Isaiah 59:17). He is said to have “ put on righteousness as a breastplate,” etc. He appeared to the prophet Isaiah “ red in His apparel” (Isaiah 63:2). And to John in the vision he had of Him, spreading death and destruction among the enemies of His Church and people (Revelation 19:15), He appeared in a vesture dipt in blood as being expressive of the nature of the work He was engaged in. III. Our now exalted saviour is incomparably sweet and savoury to all spiritual discerners.1. He is sweet and savoury to God the Father; He is His “ well beloved Son,” His “ elect, in whom His soul delighteth” (Isaiah 42:1). 2. He is savoury to all true believers (1 Peter 2:7). There is an unspeakable sweetness to them in all His saving offices, and in all His names, characters and relations. IV. Use. 1. Of information. (1) Hence, see that our Lord Jesus Christ is a lovely object, in Himself considered, however few should be taken up with His person and righteousness and the saving blessings of His purchase. (2) Hence see, that believers are men of another taste and smell than the rest of the world. The natural man sees no beauty and excellency in Christ why he should desire Him (Isaiah 53:2). But the believer has the spiritual faculty, whereby he savours the things that be of God. (3) We may see whence it is that the garments of believers are said to smell as Lebanon (Son 4:11). The reason is, they have been brought to smell Christ’ s garments, and the smell of them has gone about their hearts. They are savingly united to His person, and the precious anointing oil that was poured upon His head has been made to drop upon them. (4) Is Christ so sweet and savoury? Is there everything in Him to attract and draw sinners to believe in Him, love and esteem Him above all other persons and things? then we may see matter of lamentation that so few are disposed to adopt the language of the text. 2. Of trial and examination. (1) Have you experienced the truth contained in the text? If so, you have been endowed with the spiritual smell. (2) Have you seen our glorious High Priest in His person, righteousness, offices and fulness, as suited, not only to your case, but also to your wish and desire? If so, sin has a bad savour in your nostrils. 3. Of exhortation. (1) We exhort you who have been brought by grace to adopt the language of the text, to bless the Lord that He has been graciously pleased to give you the spiritual faculty to discern and take up the sweetness and excellency of Christ. Be concerned to have your spiritual senses more and more exercised to savour the things of Christ; and to this end meditate much upon the glory of His person and His amazing love to you, which had no cause without Himself; His savoury life, which was never stained with the smallest blot; the sacrifice He offered to God in your stead for a sweet-smelling savour; and His prevalent intercession within the vail for you. Do not fail, as you have occasion, to commend Christ and His savoury garments to all about you, both with your mouth, and in your walk and conversation; tell them, as Providence gives you an opportunity, that your Beloved is more than another beloved. (2) As for you who are yet strangers to Christ, and to whom all that soul-satisfying, heart-cheering and beautifying sweetness that is in Him is but a hearsay, and will continue to be so until the Spirit be poured out upon you from on high: we exhort you to believe the misery, sinfulness and danger of your present condition, and to betake yourselves by faith to our exalted High Priest, who sits at God’ s right hand. Come and see Him as set forth in the word of grace and promise as God’ s prepared goodness for the poor, and for you among the rest (1 Timothy 1:15). One glance at Him by the eye of faith will remove all the prejudices you have of Him, constrain you be love Him, and lay you under the pleasant necessity of adopting the language of the text. (T. Bennet.) Psalms 45:9 Kings’ daughters were among Thy honourable women.Upon Thy right hand did stand the queen in gold of Ophir. The consummation of Messiah’ s glory and the Church’ s happiness I. The general propriety and significance of the image of a marriage as it is here employed. Familiar emblems are needful for the better understanding of the Gospel by the mass of the people. Now, the relation between Christ and His Church, it is evident, must be of a nature not to be adequately typified by anything in the material world; and nothing could be found in human life which might so aptly represent it as the relation of husband and wife in the holy state of wedlock; and in this the analogy is so perfect that the notion” of the ancient Jews has received the express sanction of St. Paul, that the relation of the Saviour and the Church was typified in the union of our first parents, and in the particular manner of Eve’ s formation out of the substance of Adam. II. The circumstances of this marriage. The magnificence of the court of the king as it appeared on the wedding-day, the splendour of the royal robes, the profusion of rich perfumes, are dwelt on. Of these last such quantities were used that the whole person was not merely sprinkled, but “ ran down” with them to the very skirts of the garment. The psalmist describes the fragrance of Messiah’ s garments to be such as if the robes had been made of the very substance of aromatic woods. “ Thy garments are all myrrh, aloes and cassia.” No palace adorned with ivory--a favourite ornament of palaces--could furnish such fragrance, no, nor even the incense that was burnt upon the golden altar as a grateful odour to the Lord. Now, all these perfumed garments were typical; first, of the graces and virtues of the Redeemer Himself in His human character; secondly, of whatever is refreshing, encouraging, consoling, and cheering in the external ministration of the word; and, thirdly, of the internal comforts of the Holy Spirit. We proceed to other particulars in the magnificent appearance of His court on the wedding-day, figurative of the glory of the Church in its final condition of purity and peace, and of the rank and order of particular churches. “ Kings’ daughters are among Thy honourable women.” But the primary meaning of the word rendered “ honourable” is “ bright, sparkling,” and the imagery of the original would be better preserved if rendered thus, “ Kings’ daughters are among the bright beauties of Thy court.” The beauty certainly is mystic--the beauty of evangelical sanctity and innocence. But who are these kings’ daughters? They are the kingdoms and peoples, perhaps the various national churches, fostered for many ages by the piety of Christian princes, and now brought to the perfection of beauty by their being cleansed from all wrong--they may welt be called “ kings’ daughters,” of whom kings and queens are called in prophetic language the fathers and mothers. Then, the consort, “ the queen,” who is she? Some expositors have imagined that the consort is an emblem of the Church catholic in her totality; the kings’ daughters, typical of the several particular churches of which that one universal is composed. But the queen consort here is unquestionably the Hebrew Church; the Church of the natural Israel, reunited, by her conversion, to her husband, and advanced to the high prerogative of the mother Church of Christendom; and the kings’ daughters are the churches which had been gathered out of the Gentiles in the interval between the expulsion of his wife and the taking of her home again, that is, between the dispersion of the Jews by the Romans and their restoration. The restoration of the Hebrew Church to the rights of a wife, to the situation of the queen consort in Messiah’ s kingdom upon earth, is the constant strain of prophecy. The prophet, I said, describes the Gentile converts as becoming, upon the reunion, children of the pardoned wife. And so St. Paul (Romans 11:1-36.). The standard gold upon the queen’ s robe denotes the treasures of which the Church is the depositary--the Word and Sacraments, and the dispensation of grace and forgiveness by their due administration. Then follows-- III. The counsel to the bride (Verses10, 11). If a princess from a distant land, taken in marriage by a great king, were admonished to forget her own people and her father’ s house, the purport of the advice would easily be understood to be, that she should divest herself of all attachment to the customs of her native country, and to the style of her father’ s court, and learn to speak the language and assume the dress, the manners and the taste of her husband’ s people. The “ father’ s house,” and “ own people,” which the psalmist advises the queen consort to forget, is the ancient Jewish religion in its external form, the ceremonies of the temple service, the sacrifices and the typical purgations of the Levitical priesthood. Not that she is to forget God’ s gracious promises to Abraham, nor the covenant with her forefathers, nor any of the wonderful things God did for them. But only, so as to desire no more, the ancient Levitical rites and worship. They have served their purpose, and are now to be laid aside. Christ, her husband, is her paramount authority now, and is entitled to her unreserved obedience. There is given-- IV. The description of the queen (verse 13). “ The king’ s daughter.” Who is this? Not some new personage, the Christian Church in general composed of both Jews and Gentiles, as Luther thought, but, as Bishop Hume observes, “ that the connection between Christ and His spouse unites in itself every relation and every affection.” She is, therefore, daughter, wife and sister all in one. The same seems to have been the notion of a learned Dominican of the seventeenth century, who remarks that the Empress Julia, in the legends of some ancient coins, is called the daughter of Augustus, whose wife she was. But, with much general reverence for the opinions of these learned commentators, I am persuaded that the stops have been misplaced in the Hebrew manuscripts by the Jewish critics upon the last revision of the text--that translators have been misled by their false division of the text, and expositors misled by translators. The stops being rightly placed, the Hebrew words give this sense: “ She is all glorious” --she, the consort of whom we have been speaking, is glorious in every respect--“ Daughter of a king!” That is, she is a princess born; she is glorious, therefore, for her high birth. She is, indeed, of high and heavenly extraction! Accordingly, in the Apocalypse, the bride, the Lamb’ s wife, is “ the holy Jerusalem descending out of heaven from God.” The psalmist adds: “ She is conducted in procession to the king” --in all the pomp of a public procession. This may point to some remarkable assistance which the Jews will receive from the Christian Gentiles in their re-settlement in the Holy Land (Isaiah 18:1-7, at end, and Zephaniah 3:10). And then follow the prediction as to the Church’ s children and the distinguished character they shall hold, and he closes with setting forth the design and predicting the effect of this Divine song. (Bishop Horsley.) Psalms 45:10-11 Hearken, O daughter, and consider, and incline thine ear.; forget also thine own people, and thy father’ s house. The Bridegroom’ s call to the bride Christ and His Church are the subject of this noble psalm. I. The call to higher holiness, to higher attainments in faith, love and purity. And the figure employed suggests what is needed--the entire renunciation of the world which lieth in the wicked one, as in marriage the bride is well content to leave her old home, and all its intimacies, for the higher love that awaits her. See the call of Abraham, and what is written of the tribe of Levi. “ Who said unto his father and to his mother, I have not seen him,” etc.; and our Lord’ s words, “ He that loveth father or mother more than Me, is,” etc. II. The enforcement of this exhortation. “ So shall the king greatly desire thy beauty.” That beauty is a spiritual one--the beauty of holiness, the spiritual lovelines of a soul on which the King has begun to stamp the impress of His own beauty. Many will mournfully say that no such beauty is theirs. But remember that word of the Lord, “ I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus.” “ I have surely heard;” it means that it is as sweetest music in my ears. The lowly self-estimate, the deep humility of heart which such sorrow reveals is part of the very beauty which made the Lord answer to the bride who had just said, “ Look not upon me, for I am black,” “ Behold, thou art all fair, my love; there is not a spot in thee.” For the mantle of Christ’ s perfect righteousness is cast over every believer, and in that they are “ all fair.” III. The further enforcement and exhortation. “ For He is thy Lord, and worship thou Him.” We are never to forget His Divine dignity and the unutterable disparity of rank between the parties in this marriage. “ Thy Maker is thy husband.” Our love, therefore, must be worship, adoration. (C. J. Brown, D. D.) The portrait of the Bride The transference of the historical features of this wedding-song to a spiritual purpose is not so easy or satisfactory as in the case of the Bride’ s consort. There is a thicker rind of prose fact to cut through, and certain of the features cannot be applied without undue violence. But in its main broad outlines this portraiture of the Bride tells of the Church of Christ as did that of the King tell of Christ Himself. I. The all-surrendering love that must mark the bride. In all real wedded life, as those who have tasted it know, there comes, by sweet necessity, the subordination, in the presence of a purer and more absorbing affection, of all lower, howsoever sweet, loves that once filled the whole heart. The same thing is true in regard to the union of the soul with Christ. The description of the Bride’ s abandonment of former duties and ties may be transferred, without the change of a word, to our relations to Him. If love to Him has really come into our hearts, it will master all our yearnings and tendencies and affections, and we shall feel that we cannot but yield up everything besides by reason of the sovereign power of this new affection. It will deal with the old loves just as the new buds upon the beech-trees in the spring deal with the old leaves that still hang withered on some of the branches--push them from their hold. Love will sweep the heart clean of its antagonists. Christ demands complete surrender. Ah! I fear me that it is no uncharitable judgment to say that the bulk of so-called Christians are playing at being Christians, and have never penetrated into the depths either of the sweet all-sufficiency of the love that they say they possess, or the constraining necessity which is in it for the surrender of all besides. II. The king’ s love and the bride’ s reverence (Psalms 45:11). Here are two thoughts that go, as I take it, very deep into the realities of the Christian life. The first is that, in simple literal fact, Jesus Christ is affected, in His relation to us, by the completeness of our dependence upon Him, and surrender of all else for Him. We do not believe that half vividly enough. Again, in the measure in” which we live out our Christianity, in whole-hearted and thorough surrender, in that measure shall we be conscious of His nearness and feel His love. There are many Christian people that have only got religion enough to make them uncomfortable. They must not do this because it is forbidden; they ought to do that because it is commanded. They would much rather do the forbidden thing, and they have no wish to do the commanded thing. And so they live in twilight. And they cannot understand the blessed experience of the man who really walks in the light of Christ’ s face, and they miss the blessing that is waiting for them because they have not really given up themselves. III. The reflected honour and influence of the bride. The Bride, thus beloved by the King, thus standing by His side, those around recognize her dignity and honour, and draw near to secure her intercession. Translate that out of the emblem into plain words, and it comes to this--if Christian people, and communities of such, are to have influence in the world, they must be thoroughgoing Christians. IV. The fair adornment of the bride. “ The King’ s daughter is all glorious within.” The Book of the Revelation dresses her in the fine linen clean and white, which symbolizes the lustrous radiance and snowy purity of righteousness. The psalm describes her dress as partly consisting in garments gleaming with gold, which suggests splendour and glory, and partly in robes of careful and many-coloured embroidery, which suggests the patience with which the slow needle has been worked through the stuff, and the variegated and manifold graces and beauties with which she is adorned. V. The homecoming of the bride. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) The Bride We have here the marriage of a great King, of Him who is “ King of kings.” Christ and the Church are the parties concerned. I. The party addressed. Who is it? “ Hearken, O daughter.” Who is the “ daughter” ? The “ daughter” here, without doubt, is the Church. Who else is there that can be the “ daughter” of God? And how exceedingly beautiful and appropriate is the appellation bestowed upon her! She is the “ daughter.” And why so? Because she is the wife of the Son. It is precisely as it is recognized in our own case. The wife of the son becomes the daughter of the father of the son, and still more remarkably, she becomes the daughter-in-law. That is literally the position occupied by the Church and the light in which she is regarded by the very law of God. Hence, “ hearken, O daughter.” This is more than “ adoption,” for there, there may be no kind of connection, but here it is of the closest kind. And there follows from it the transference to the bride of the glory, riches and happiness of the husband, while all the obligations, debts, delinquencies and deficiencies belonging to the wife are taken by him. You have no enemies that are not his; he no friends that are not yours. What a wonderful union it is. II. The charge to the bride. “ Hearken and consider,” etc. Now, the charge to “ forget thine own people,” etc., may seem difficult. But there must be unreserved and undivided affection. There must be nothing allowed in the feelings and affections as comparable to Him. We must be ready to put all on one side for Christ. There must be no compromise. He gave up all for us. III. The promise. “ So shall the King,” etc. The beauty is that of holiness. Let it be ours. (J. Capel Molyneux, B. A.) The espousal of souls to Christ I. An exhortation. “ Hearken, O daughter,” etc. This day, if your covenant is not to be an empty mocking, your heart must be opened to hear the declaration of His love, in redeeming your soul from destruction, and offering to espouse you to Himself. II. An instruction “ Forget also,” etc. III. A promise. “ So shall the King greatly desire thy beauty.” The believer is not called to forsake the objects of his natural corrupt taste, without a much higher and more precious object being set forth for his acceptance, even the love of the King. He delights in the first efforts after righteousness, as in the green figs and tender grapes, which, though of no value in themselves, yet promise well. By all comparisons, by every means which can strengthen faith, Christ gives pledge to the soul forgetting her own people and her father’ s house, that His love will not be withheld, but that He will greatly desire her beauty. Thy beauty shall be perfect through His comeliness put upon thee. IV. A command. “ He is thy Lord,” etc. However great or perfect the beauty of the spouse may be, or however high the privileges or honours the king may vouchsafe to her, yet let her remember that all is of Christ, and through Christ, and to Christ; and let her keep her own place of subordination to Him. Let the soul making covenant with Christ beware of spiritual pride, of thinking that she has attained safety from sin, or that she is now so regenerated that she cannot fall. Be not high-minded, but fear. (G. Innes.) Christ the best husband; or, an earnest invitation to young women to come and see Christ I. How Christ doth espouse himself unto the children, but more especially unto the daughters of men. The marriage knot is tied here, in which are included four things.1. A mutual choice. Christ, when He first comes to you, finds you full of sin and pollution; and He maketh choice of you, not because of your holiness, nor of your beauty; you are drawn to make choice of this Lord Jesus Christ, because He first chose you. 2. A mutual affection accompanies the choice. The more acquaintance you have of this Lord Jesus, the more pleased you are with your choice, and the more your affections are drawn towards Him. And where can you place your affections better than upon that Jesus, who shed His blood for your sakes? 3. There is likewise mutual union; and here doth the marriage lie chiefly in this union. 4. There is a mutual obligation between Christ and His spouse. II. Christ doth invite all of you to be his spouse. He regardeth not the rich more than the poor. He chose a mean virgin, espoused to a carpenter, to be His mother; and He chooseth and calleth all such to be His spouse. III. Those who would re espoused unto Christ must hearken, consider, and incline to his invitation, and forget even their father’ s house. You are not here to cast off all affections unto natural relations; but you must forget all relations, so as to be ready to forego all their favour, when it standeth in competition with that of the Lord Jesus Christ; and do not let your carnal friends and relations hinder you from closing with, and espousing, the Lord Jesus. (G. Whitefield, M. A.) The privileges and duties of Christ’ s spouse. These words are the Father’ s advice to the newly espoused Bride, how she may please her husband, His Son.1. Consider the appellation given to the soul espoused to Christ--“ Daughter.” Here is the name which believers receive. The person that naturally was a child of the devil, on the espousal with the Son of God, becomes a child of God. Though He brings home a spouse out of an ill house, and has nothing with her, yet His Father welcomes her into His family, and gives her no worse word than daughter. 2. The advice. She must be very obsequious to her husband, and in all things to follow Him as His own shadow. Search the meaning of the words, “ hearken and consider.” This is what a dutiful wife owes to her husband. Her husband’ s will must be hers. Her ear to him and her eye upon him. She must renounce all others for her husband. The more she minds them the less pleasing will she be. Consider-- I. The duty of the espoused to Christ, carefully to hear His will, and observe His motions, so as they may suit themselves to His pleasure in all things. This I take to be the meaning of this first clause. For explaining this doctrine, I shall show what is imported in it. It imports--1. That Christ’ s spouse is not left to walk at random. She is to notice every step of her carriage. 2. That those that are espoused to Christ must renounce their own will, and not seek to please themselves. “ If any man,” saith Jesus, “ will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up,” etc. 3. That our great aim in all things must be to please our Lord and husband, this is the law of marriage. 4. That we must trample upon our own inclinations when contrary to His, as Abraham did when offering up Isaac. 5. That when Christ’ s will and our own go together, our main end must be to please Him. 6. We must not think to please Him with our own desires: only with what He commands. 7. That we must ever be with eye and ear attent that we may know and do His will (Psalms 123:2). II. What it is to hear his will. He speaks through His works by our own consciences; by His Word, and by His Spirit. And all these we must hear and obey, and that without disputing. III. How we are to eye and observe him so as to please him. As our Lord and master; as our teacher; as our guide and leader; as our last and chief end; as our witness in all things; as our judge; as our husband. We should also diligently observe His countenance towards us; and His dispensations and way of dealing with us. IV. Reasons of this doctrine. Because of all that He is to us. Because of His love to us which so demands it. He died for us. The angels obey Him, shall not we? His pleasure is that which is best for us. His bidding is ever for our good. There are three things I would have you to believe.1. That you are not fit to be your own choosers. The event has proved it often, in that people getting their own will has been their ruin (Psalms 78:29), and the best of the saints, getting the reins in their own hand, have set all on fire. 2. All our wilfulness proceeds on a mistake. We think sinful liberty best for us, ease, plenty, and the like. God knows it is otherwise, and therefore He will have us hear Him for our good. 3. Consider your experience. Have you not seen many times how God has done you good against your wills, good which you would never have got had He given you your will. (T. Boston, D. D) Christ’ s spouse The second advice given to the spouse is this, “ Forget also thine own people and thy father’ s house” (Genesis 2:24). It is equivalent to that, “ That ye put off concerning the former conversation” (Ephesians 4:22; 1 Peter 1:14). Now, in these words, “ Forget also,” etc., there is--1. The natural relations of Christ’ s spouse pointed at in contradistinction to those of her husband. She wants not relations, indeed, but they are such as she can have no credit nor good from them, but will be the worse of them, and therefore her husband has taken her out from among them, and would have her to forget them. She has some that are her natural country people, her own people. Who are these but the world that lieth in wickedness; and before she was espoused to Christ, she was one of their own, but He hath chosen her out of the world. Every country hath its own fashions, and in former times she followed the fashions of the country as well as the rest. She has also a father’ s house in that country. Who is her father naturally but the devil? (John 8:44), and though she has left the house, yet he keeps house there still with his children and servants (Luke 15:15). 2. There is the duty of Christ’ s spouse with respect to these. She must forget both of them. And here there is something supposed, that is, that Christ’ s spouse is apt to have a hankering after her own people and father’ s house, even after she has left them, as Laban alleged that Jacob sore longed after his father’ s house. There may be eager looks back again, while the soul minds them, and that with too much affection, not sufficiently weaned from them. There is something also expressed that Christ’ s spouse ought to forget them. Not absolutely, for she not only may, but ought to mind them for her own humiliation and thankfulness. But in respect of affection, her heart must be weaned from them, she must not desire to return to them; and in respect of practice, she must no more conform herself to them. But the hearts of Christians are often found much unweaned from their father’ s house. As it is with a childish, new-married woman, they have a foolish hankering after the house from which they came. I. Is what this unweariedness apears.1. In the cooling of our zeal against our father’ s house. 2. In kindly reflections on its entertainments and pleasures. Israel lusting after the flesh-pots of Egypt. 3. In uneasiness under the restraints of our husband’ s house. 4. In hankering after the Egypt we have left. Remember Lot’ s wife. 5. In kindly entertaining any sent from thence (2 Samuel 12:4). 6. In serving our husband after the fashion of our father’ s house; like a new-married woman, who, though she has changed the house, yet she keeps the fashions of that from which she came. So, though the man will not neglect prayer, hearing, and ether duties, yet he is so far unweaned, that he performs these often only as they do who are still in his father’ s house. “ When thou prayest,” says He, “ thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are.” He will have his own work done after the fashion of His own house. 7. In our stealing visits to our father’ s house, and secret tampering with former lusts. Stealing it must be, for our Lord and Husband will never give His consent to the meeting again (Ezekiel 6:9). But alas! how often is Christ’ s spouse missed out of her husband’ s house. 8. Many that have been espoused to Christ before the world, but not from the heart, quite forsake their husband, and go back, for altogether, to their father’ s house by their apostasy. Like the Levite’ s wife--for wife she was, though in a secondary degree (Judges 19:1-30.). II. What is the cause of all this? There are some who have been joined to Christ only by the hand, but never by the heart. But even those who are joined to Him by both may yet be chargeable with being unweaned from their father’ s house, as the others certainly are. For--1. The consent of many to Christ is an involuntary consent (Psalms 78:34; Psalms 78:36-37). The stone thrown up in the air will fall again when the force ceaseth. 2. The heart has not been freely loosed from some one sin or another. They “ go not very far away” from Egypt (Mark 10:20-21). 3. Sin has never been made bitter enough to them. The soul that never tasted the bitterness of sin will break over purposes, vows and resolutions, to get to it again. 4. Because by reason of their not living by faith on Christ, they find not that soul satisfaction in Him which they expected. No wonder she longs to be back at her father’ s house who is disappointed of comfort in her husband’ s. 5. Because there is a principle of corruption in the best, which still inclines the wrong way. We are unstable souls. A good frame is hard to get, and easily lost. It is like letters written in the sand, that a blast of wind doth obliterate. Hence the soul often turns aside very quickly, and on very slender occasions, as Peter at the voice of a maid, and that even soon after some remarkable manifestations from the Lord. Lastly, because those of our father’ s house are ever seeking to seduce us, and make us as they are. How humble should all this make us, and how careful not to look back and hanker after our old sins. Think how such desires grieve the Spirit of Christ; how they will move your communion with Christ; how unfixed and unstable in religion they will make you; how they dishonour Christ; how they are the fountain of apostasy. They that are often looking away will break away at length. (T. Boston, D. D.) Christ’ s spouse The bride is to forget her own people and her father’ s house, i.e. the wicked world, “ the children of disobedience among whom we,” etc. When the soul comes to Christ, it must say, as Ruth to Naomi, “ Thy people shall be my people,” etc. I. The forgetting of her people by the bride.1. In what respects. We must forsake their company; we must not conform ourselves to them; we must forget them in affection. 2. Why we must do this. Because they are not going our way. In coming to Christ we give up with them. He says to us, If you take me, let them go their way. And the world’ s friendship is enmity with God (James 4:8); and at last there will be a total separation (Matthew 20:1). Grace begins it here. Evil company, too, is an affecting plague. “ Evil communications corrupt,” etc. Remember, if you do not separate from them, you will share with them. II. The forgetting of the father’ s house. This father is our father, the devil.1. You must part with the master of the house, Satan, and renounce your relation to the house. Though you have no express compact with him, you have need to do this. 2. And you must quit the work of the house. We must cast off the work of darkness. They weary themselves to commit iniquity. This is work, hard, toilsome, dark, soul-ruining work. Now, you must quit the work of the house, of whatever sort it be. You must not be like those that will give over their master, engage with another, and yet come back and fall to their work again. 3. You must part with the provision and entertainments of the house. People use to get their meat where they work, and Satan’ s slaves get their meat also in their father’ s house. 4. And you must quit the fashions of the house. Every house hath its own fashions, and so has your father’ s; but you must not keep them up. In civil things the fashion is to mind the world first, and even to give conscience a el, retch, if a person can gain any profit or ease by it. If you quit not these fashions, you will never see the house of heaven (Luke 10:41-42; 1 Corinthians 6:8-9; 1 Thessalonians 4:6). If ever men get more religion, they will get more moral honesty. 5. You must quit the garb of the house. Under the Old Testament, when people were to make any solemn appearance before God, they were called to change their garments (Genesis 34:2). You must part with the inner garment of the house, “ that is the old man with his deeds” (Ephesians 4:22; Colossians 3:9). The old man is the corrupt evil nature. You must also part with the upper garment of the house, that is, the filthy rags of our own righteousness (Isaiah 64:6; Zechariah 3:4). And lastly, you must quit the interest of the house. People are readily concerned for the interest of their own house, and none more than the members of your father’ s house. Now, if you mind for heaven you must quit this interest and pursue that of heaven, which is directly opposite (Genesis 3:15). III. Why must christians forget their father’ s house. Because--1. Our father’ s and our husband’ s house are quite contrary the one to the other. There is no reconciling them (2 Corinthians 6:14-15). 2. As our husband’ s house is most honourable, so our father’ s is most base. 3. Because we will never apply ourselves to the way of our husband’ s house if we forget not our father’ s house. While the hearts of the Israelites were set on the flesh-pots of Egypt, they could make no progress in their journey to Canaan. 4. Because it is the worst of houses. No wonder, for the devil, the worst of masters, is the master of the house. It is soul slavery. The fashions of the house are the very reverse of all that is good. The interests of the house are the dishonour of God, the ruin of mankind. The garb of the house is filthy rags, and the shame of their nakedness will at length appear before the world. IV. Those are to be reproved that will not forget their father’ s house. And who are these?1. They are those that in the midst of Gospel light continue in the darkness of the house; their father has put out their eyes (2 Corinthians 4:4). 2. Those that retain the language of the house. When Peter spoke the damsel knew what countryman he was. And what shall we say of thee who art a cursor, swearer, liar, filthy speaker, but that thou art a Hellilean? I appeal to your own consciences what sort of language:/ours is. 3. Those that wear the badge of the house on their breasts, the master of the house’ s mark on their forehead. Profane people. You who will not pray. “ The wicked through the pride of his countenance will not seek after God.” 4. Those that give up themselves to the trade of the house, minding nothing but the world, earthly things. They know not communion with God. 5. Those that are the hidden servants of the house. It has been said of some that they have stolen away to heaven without being observed; but there are others that steal away to hell, and the world never hears the sound of their feet: even deep-veiled hypocrites, whited sepulchres. (T. Boston, D. D.) The youthful Christian exposed to the hostility of ungodly relatives and the world The words of our text apply specially to Christ and His redeemed Church. But I take the words in a large general sense, as applicable to all who would be interested in the Redeemer. And the force of them in that sense is this, that no earthly relation, however near and however beloved--no earthly interest, however valuable and however important--must come between you and God. A strange method this (it may not unnaturally occur to your minds) of recommending religion! to tell you that it may perhaps expose you to the sorest crucifixion of natural feelings and to the most painful sacrifices. And-- I. There ever has been, and there ever will be, an inconsiderable opposition between the world and the godly. True, you may escape this opposition by dispensing with the seriousness of mind which religion produces. Keep only to the form of religion and the world will not complain. But its subjects are so momentous, so overwhelming, and its joy so tempered with solemnity, that they who know the power of religion will have the least relish for the frivolous pleasures of this world. Religion hangs so loosely on many that it gives no offence. It stands in no one’ s way. They can be all things to all men. Such persons are safe from the world. But if you will not be such as these, there is no alternative but to reckon on the opposition of the world and its friends. II. Some of the situations in which christian sincerity will be tried.1. In the first place, they may be deserted by friends and relatives. Even those on whom they depend for support may turn against them and cast them off. 2. They may be tempted to sin. They may be sorely plagued by the ungodly. “ Righteous Lot” of old “ was vexed with the filthy conversation” of the wicked in Sodom; and there are innumerable ways in which the men of the world may tempt and injure the godly. 3. They may be despised. To be religious is thought mean and low. Now, some particular duty which shall mark them out as Christians may have to be performed. It is performed, and so draws the gaze and the contempt of all around. This is hard to bear. But it must be borne. Have you repented of your choice? (John Young, M. A.) Psalms 45:11 So shall the King greatly desire thy beauty.The beauty of the Church desired by Christ I. The believer’ s beauty.1. It is all derived, and not natural. Our Lord Jesus first makes men beautiful through His comeliness put upon them, and then He commends and takes pleasure in the works of His own hands (Ezekiel 16:14). (1) The believer is covered with the rich and ornamenting robe of the righteousness of His glorious surety. He is “ clothed with the garments of salvation” (Isaiah 61:10). (2) The believer is also “ all glorious within,” by the working of the Holy Spirit. His heart and affections ascend heavenward. (3) The believer is fair and beautiful in respect of his outward conversation. The truly godly do not talk and walk at random: “ Honey and milk are under their tongue,” and they endeavour through grace to set the Lord always before them, and to regulate every part of their conduct according to the rule of His Word. 2. What are some of the qualities of the believer’ s beauty? (1) It is a derived beauty. (2) It is real (Son 4:1). The judgment of Christ concerning His children, and the world’ s opinion of them, are very different. (3) It is of a spiritual nature, His adorning is the hidden man of the heart (1 Peter 3:4). (4) It is of a growing and increasing nature (Proverbs 4:18; Romans 8:18). Every new discovery that the believer gets of the King in His beauty by the eye of faith, in the glass of his own word, adds to his spiritual beauty, and carries him forward to a further degree of likeness and conformity to Christ (2 Corinthians 3:18). (5) The Lord Jesus will perfect the beauty of His Bride and Spouse in due time. The beauty of a believer is perfect as to parts in the day of regeneration (2 Corinthians 5:17); and he that hath once begun the good work of beautifying a soul with salvation will finish it (Philippians 1:6). II. The delight which the Lord Jesus is pleased to take in the believer’ s beauty.1. He does so by looking upon it with pleasure and delight. He beholds the upright with a pleasant countenance (Psalms 11:17). We see with what pleasure he beheld the integrity of Nathaniel (John 1:47). And as He looks upon the beauty of His people with delight, so He is never more taken with it than when they are entertaining the lowest thoughts of themselves. 2. He does so by commending it (Job 1:8; Son 2:14). 3. Christ evidences great delight in the beauty of His people by keeping company with them, and admitting them to the enjoyment of sweet fellowship and communion with Himself (Revelation 3:20) 4. He evidences the pleasure and delight which He takes in the beauty of His people, by letting them into the knowledge of these things which are hid from the men of the world (Psalms 25:14). 5. He evidences His delight and complacency in the beauty of His people by the many endearing characters and designations which He gives them; such as, His Sister, His Spouse, His Love, His Dove, His Undefiled, etc. 6. He does so by the honourable services He employeth His people in. He, as it were, ornaments Himself with them (Isaiah 62:3). 7. Christ evidences His desire of, and delight in, the beauty of His people by intimating His will to the Father, that they may be admitted to be where He is after they have served their generation according to His will in the present world (John 17:24). III. USE. 1. For information. (1) We may infer that man is by nature vile and loathsome in the sight of an holy God, and so liable to the Divine displeasure; he has lost the glorious and beautiful image of God that was instamped upon him in his first creation by his fall in the first Adam. (2) Hence, see what it is that can render a man truly beautiful and comely in the sight of God; it is his being clothed with the righteousness of His Son, and His being made a partaker of the grace of His Spirit. (3) Hence, see how it is that any come actually to partake of the beauty of holiness, and that is in their being espoused to Christ. (4) Is our Lord Jesus pleased to take complacency and delight in the beauty of His people? Then we may see how careful and diligent they should be to become still more desirable in His eye by growing in likeness and conformity to Him. (5) Hence, see that believers in Christ need not be much moved on account of the disrespect and contempt which a carnal world is disposed to cast upon them. (6) We may see matter of reproof to all such as are instrumental in marring the beauty of the Church, whether by persecution, error in doctrine, neglect of discipline, or by perverting the exercise of it, or by the introduction of human inventions into the worship of God. 2. For trial and examination. Are you possessed of that beauty that is amiable in the sight of Christ? If so, we think that you have seen your natural blackness and deformity; if ever you saw yourselves in the glass of the holy law set before you by the Spirit, this must have been the case with you. You have seen and felt an utter inability in yourselves to acquire that beauty that is pleasing to Christ. But again, if you are partakers of this beauty that is so desirable to Christ, then your remaining sin and deformity is your burden. In a word, if you are blessed with the begun participation of spiritual beauty, it is your real concern to have it increased and perfected. You are sensible there is much lacking in it (Philippians 3:13). 3. For exhortation. (1) As to you who are the children and people of God, and whom He has begun to beautify with His salvation, we exhort you to bless the Lord for His goodness to you; for His works of wonder done, both for you and in you; though you were once lying among the pots, yet mercy has lifted you up. To be upon your guard against everything that tends to stain your beauty. Watch and pray that ye enter not into temptation. “ Be not conformed to this world.” (T. Bennet) For He is thy Lord; and worship thou Him.--Religious worship I. Its nature.1. Its internal principles. There must be reverence, and this in the highest degree, because of its object. Not terror, but sacred awe and delight. And there must be also deep humiliation, for we are sinful creatures. Anything like self-satisfaction and complacency must be offensive to God. See parable of Pharisee and Publican. And such humility has ever characterized God’ s true worshippers. Another principle of worship for fallen man must be trust in atonement. No acceptable worship ever was presented but through sacrifice. The history of Cain and Abel illustrates this. And thus is it now. All access to God is by the sacrifice of Christ. Then there must be submission, See the attendant seraphim whom Isaiah saw in his vision of “ the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up.” They were engaged in reverential worship. Another principle is love. Not gratitude alone, but supreme affection delighting in God. 2. Its external manifestations. And here we have-- (1) Acts, such as prayer, thanksgiving, commemoration, sitting before the Lord to hear His word, which is a real act of worship, and not as some thoughtlessly say, to be distinguished from it. (2) Places--the closet, the family, the church and the great assembly. II. The ground and reason of worship. “ For He is thy Lord.” This declares--1. The Divine greatness, for the Lord of the Church is Lord of all. 2. His absolute dominion over us. That dominion extends to our being, and to all by which our being can be supported. All the blessings of life are by Him distributed, withheld, restricted, or multiplied, or withdrawn. Our felicity is from the light of His countenance; our pain from the pressure of His hand. 3. He is our Lord legislatively. He has given us a law to obey, a law holy, just and good. And He has sanctioned it by the penalty of eternal death. But as we have broken the law, all the more reason wherefore we should worship. 4. But to the Church especially it may be said, “ He is thy Lord.” For the Church is a society of such as are actually reconciled to God by Jesus Christ; it is the separated company of pardoned believers. And to this company He stands in the special relation of a gracious Sovereign. III. The importance of worship. We speak now only of public worship. For the proclamation of the great fundamental truths of religion. This, therefore, has ever been felt to be a duty. Good men have struggled, not for mere freedom of opinion, but of worship. Let us uphold the worship of God. Beware of a careless formal service. Seek in it to be increasingly spiritual. (R. Watson.) The duty of all to pay divine worship and homage to Christ I. The designation the father here gives to Christ. “ He is thy Lord.”1. This designation implies that there is a mutual relation between Christ and the Church: He is her Lord, and she His servant; He her King, she His subject; He her Head, she His member; He her Husband, she His spouse. 2. It implies His eminency in the Church. Whatever persons come into it He alone is Lord and Sovereign there. 3. It implies His sovereign power and authority in and over the Church. He is the sole Lawgiver to the Church (Isaiah 33:22). He is the great Speaker in the Church, to whom alone she owes the hearing of faith (Matthew 17:5). Yea, so large and extensive is His dominion, that it reaches to heaven, earth and hell (Revelation 1:18). 4. It implies that it is the indispensable duty of the Church, and every particular member thereof, to yield cheerful and ready obedience to the will of Christ in whatever He is pleased to command. 5. It implies that our Lord Jesus has the burden and care of the Church lying wholly upon Him. 6. It implies that He is God equal with the Father and Holy Spirit. “ He is thy Lord,” faith the Father to, the Church, “ and worship thou Him.” II. Is what respects Jesus Christ may be called lord of the church.1. He is so by the designation and appointment, of God the Father, who saith concerning Him (Psalms 2:6). 2. He is so in virtue of His own actual compliance with the Father’ s designation of Him to that charge (Psalms 40:6-7; Isaiah 50:5). 3. Jesus Christ is the Church’ s Lord by purchase and conquest; He is her Lord-Redeemer, both by price and by power. He has purchased the Church at the costly price of His own precious blood (1 Peter 1:18). 4. He is Lord in and over the Church, as He is her Husband and she His spouse. 5. He is Lord in and over the Church by her own consent. 6. He is Lord of the Church, inasmuch as it is from Him that she expects, and is to enjoy the reward, when her service in this world is accomplished (2 Thessalonians 4:7-8). III. The worship and homage which the church owes to Christ as her lord. IV. Use. 1. For information. (1) Hence, see that the Church is a highly dignified society. (2) Is Jesus Christ Lord in and over the Church? Then we may see the sin and danger of usurping any of the prerogatives which belong to Him by adding to, or taking from, His institutions. (3) Hence, see with what care and diligence the Church and every particular member thereof should, in their places and stations, strive together for the faith of the Gospel. 2. For trial and examination. (1) What acquaintance have you got with Christ as your Lord and Redeemer? (2) How are you pleased with the laws of Christ by which He rules His subjects? (3) What think ye of Christ--of His person, of His love, His righteousness, offices and fulness; in all these He is truly precious to them who believe. (4) Of what quality is your obedience to the royal law of Christ? Is it of an evangelical nature? Does it spring from faith in:Him, love to Him, and a tender regard to His authority displayed therein? 3. For exhortation. (1) We exhort you who have been brought, by the power of grace to take Christ for your Lord, “ to grow in grace, and in the knowledge of your Lord.” (2) We exhort you who are strangers to Christ, and so in a state of rebellion against Him, to consider the woeful condition you are in. (T. Bennet.) Worship Praise and thanksgiving are the two necessary elements in all worship. We praise God for what He is--love, mercy, patience, justice, power, these are but some of the attributes of the Deity, and the more we realize their extent the more unfeignedly shall we praise Him. We offer up our thanksgivings for all that He has given and is giving us; material and spiritual blessings have been given to us so abundantly that we must be amazingly blind or monstrously ungrateful if our thanksgivings do not daily ascend to our loving Father. Worship is of immeasurable value to ourselves; it has a transforming power, in that it ever directs our thoughts away from ourselves outwards to our God. Besides this, the more our thoughts are uplifted in worship the more we shall grow like the God we worship. A Greek writer has told us of a temple at the entrance of which hung a magic mirror; every worshipper on entering the temple glanced into the mirror, and there saw himself in the very likeness of the God he worshipped. The legend but dimly veils “ a great truth; why do we love to see our children true hero-worshippers? Is it not because we believe they will become more and more like the hero they respect so intensely? We ourselves delight in the companionship of a noble, heroic character. Or it may be we look back with thankfulness to the time we spent in such an one’ s company; and why is the memory so sweet? We found a new strength through that friendship; in some degree we became like our friend. So, with humble, adoring love, we worship the God who condescends to be our friend, in the glorious expectation of gradually attaining to His likeness. So worship is to transform the various chequered experiences of our daily life, and even while it does so it shall transform our whole characters, till we “ come unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.” In our worship do we praise God because we daily prove what He is? Is our worship the outward expression of the faith and loyalty we show every day of our lives, or is it but the expression of virtues which should exist in us, but are never manifest? What does God see? Our worship should inspire us, should brighten the dark hours of our lives, nay, should even transform our lives by the “ renewing of our minds.” Have we to confess that our worship is not a power in our lives, doesn’ t cheer us when in sorrow, perplexity or temptation, doesn’ t draw us closer to our God? What does God see? (A. Aitken.) Psalms 45:12 The daughter of Tyre shall be there with a gift, Gentile sinners coming into the Church and presenting themselves a free-will offering to the Lord upon the Gospel altar I. Some things implied in the words.1. That whatever be the outward lot and condition of a person or people, before the Lord is pleased to visit them with a dispensation of the Gospel, their case is truly melancholy, and affecting. When it is said, “ the daughter of Tyre shall be there with a gift,” it supposes that her then present state was a state of distance from God and the ordinary means of gracious intercourse with Him. 2. That it is by the special providence of God that persons or nations are brought into the fellowship of the Gospel. 3. That it is a very great privilege to have a place in God’ s house. Those who are within the Church enjoy all the ordinary means of salvation. II. The gift which persons present to the Lord in the day of their effectual calling.1. Men give themselves to the Lord in the day of their regeneration and effectual vocation. This is the principal gift, and that without which nothing which they can present to Him can possibly be accepted. What is it for persons to give themselves unto the Lord? We answer-- (1) It is to give up the soul in all its powers and faculties to the Lord, to be employed in His service. (2) They likewise give up their bodies to the Lord. The eye to behold His works, and look into His Word, so as to affect the heart. The ear to hear and listen to His voice; the hand to work with an eye to His glory; the feet to run His errands; and the tongue to speak to, and for, God, and confess Him before the world. (3) All that the man is, and hath, is contained in this gift. III. Speak of persons presenting that gift unto the Lord.1. Mention some things imported in a person or people, their giving themselves to the Lord. (1) This exercise of a person or people, their giving themselves to the Lord, imports their discerning, and taking up the ground and warrant that they have to do so, and that is, the Lord’ s giving and making over Himself to them in the word of grace and promise as their God in Christ. (2) A person or people, their giving themselves to the Lord, imports an humble and hearty acknowledgment that they have formerly been under the power and dominion of other lords and lovers (Isaiah 36:13). (3) It imports a real persuasion of His having an undoubted right to them and their services. (4) It has in it the person’ s withdrawing his allegiance from his former lords and lovers; his revoking and calling back the gift which he lind made of himself and his service to Satan, the god of this world. (5),It imports a cordial embracing and receiving a God in Christ as their God and portion, Their taking the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ as their God and Father, according to His promise (Jeremiah 3:19). (6) It imports an unshaken purpose and resolution, through grace, to keep by the Lord and cleave to Him for better and worse. 2. Inquire for what ends and purposes persons give themselves to the Lord in the day of their effectual calling. (1) Sinners give themselves to the Lord in the day of their effectual calling, their hearts being touched by grace, in compliance with the end and design of the glorious Gospel, which is to bring sinners that are ready to perish in the far country of a natural state home to God, as their God and Father in Christ. (2) With an eye to their own safety. (3) That they may be henceforth employed in His service (Acts 9:6; Psalms 116:16). (4) To be led and guided through an ensnaring world by the good skill of His hand. (5) That He may keep them by His almighty power, through faith unto salvation (1 Peter 1:5). IV. Illustrate the truth of the doctrine,1. Though there were none who set themselves in greater opposition to the Lord Jesus and the grace of God manifested in Him than the Jews, yet three thousand of them were added to the Church in one day (Acts 2:37-42). 2. The success which the Gospel has already had among the Gentile nations. V. Use. 1. For trial and examination. (1) If you have really given yourselves to the Lord, “ you have accepted of God in Christ for Himself, and that without making any conditions about peace and prosperity and freedom from trouble in this world” ; but you gave yourself to Him without any reserve. (2) If you have really given yourselves to the Lord, it was with much affection you did so (Jeremiah 2:2). If you have given yourselves to the Lord, it was in a marriage-covenant. (3) If you have given yourselves to the Lord, you cannot fail to admire His love and condescension to you in His giving Himself to you, in the word of grace and promise, and determining you to give yourselves to Him. (4) If you have given yourselves to the Lord, you will be frequently recognizing that deed; yea, it will be habitually in your minds, and often upon the imagination of the thoughts of your hearts. (5) If you have given yourselves to the Lord, you have a high esteem and valuation of Himself, and of everything that stands connected with Him. 2. For consolation to all who have been determined to give themselves to the Lord. They are in a state of happy condition; they have made the Most High their habitation; and therefore no real evil can befall them, neither any plague come near their dwelling. 3. For exhortation. (1) As for you, then, who have been determined, by grace, to give yourselves to the Lord, we exhort you to bless the great and glorious name of the Lord your God, that He hath been graciously pleased so to shine into your hearts as to give you the saving knowledge of Himself, and bowed your rebellious wills unto a cordial yielding of yourselves unto the Lord, and so hath caused you to enter into His sanctuary which He hath sanctified for ever. We exhort you to be ever mindful whose you are, and to whom you have devoted yourselves and your services. When Satan, the world and the remaining corruptions of your flesh would seek to entice and draw you aside from the service of God, be exhorted to tell them that you have opened your mouths to the Lord, and that you cannot, and, through grace, will not, go back. We exhort you who have really given yourselves to the Lord to use your best endeavours to excite and influence others to go and do likewise. (T. Bennet.) Psalms 45:13 The King’ s daughter is all glorious within.The King’ s daughter glorious within and clothed with a garment of wrought gold I. The believer’ s inward glory.1. All true believers have a glorious life. They live a life of justification, a life of holiness, and of sweet fellowship with God. 2. Believers have a glorious understanding and knowledge of God and Divine things. They have all received a heart to know God as their God in Christ; and that knowledge is eternal life begun. 3. Believers have a glorious conformity to and compliance with the will of God, wrought in their hearts by the Holy Spirit. 4. All true believers have a precious faith in, and a glorious love to, God in Christ implanted in their hearts by the Holy Spirit. 5. Believers have a glorious inward peace (Romans 5:1), a peace that “ passeth knowledge,” a peace that the world knows not of, and which it can neither give nor take away. 6. Believers are possessed of a glorious joy and spiritual gladness. They stand by faith upon the sure foundation which God hath laid in Zion, and “ rejoice in the hope of the glory of God” (Romans 5:2). 7. Believers are possessed of a meek and humble frame of heart and spirit, which is a great ornament to the soul in the sight of God; and is accordingly said to be of great price in His esteem (1 Peter 3:4). II. The apparel wherewith the believer is clothed. “ Wrought gold.”1. What we are to understand by it. All true believers are daughters of the King; they are chaste virgins, being espoused to His Son. They are a peculiar people; they dwell alone, and are not reckoned among the nations. 2. Its excellence. (1) It is of an infinite value and worth, being “ the righteousness of God” (Romans 1:17). It is a righteousness of God’ s providing. The glorious Person who wrought out this righteousness is God (Romans 9:5); and the applier of it is God the Holy Ghost. (2) It is of a durable and lasting nature. (3) It is a garment for glory and for beauty. (4) It is perfect and unsullied. III. Use. 1. For information. (1) Hence, see what a great and wonderful change, union to the person of Christ makes in the case of a poor, guilty, polluted sinner. (2) Hence, see that imputed righteousness and inherent holiness go hand in hand together; where the one is, there is also the other. (3) Hence, see what a precious thing the Gospel is; and how highly it ought to be had in estimation by all who enjoy it in purity. It reveals and brings the clothing of wrought gold near to the naked and starving soul (Isaiah 46:11-12). (4) Hence, see that when one grace is implanted in the heart, there all grace is to be found. (5) We may hence see the difference between the true believer and the hypocrite. The latter may have as fair an outside as the former; but he has no inward glory. (6) Hence see who they are that are truly the excellent ones of the earth. They are not those whom the world generally takes to be so; nor those who are most disposed to account themselves so; but the truly excellent and honourable persons are those who are clothed in the robe of wrought gold, the embroidered garment of Immanuel’ s righteousness, and made glorious within. These are the men whom the King hath highly advanced, and whom He delights to honour. (T. Bennet.) The internal glory of the King’ s daughter The spiritual union that exists between Christ and His Church is here beautifully described. Within her pale were to be found in future ages the noble, the learned and the great. Kings’ daughters were to tread her courts and defend her bulwarks. Her territory was to be enlarged, for the “ daughter of Tyre” was to be there as pro-figurative of that vast and large accession of heathen nations to the profession Of the Christian faith. I. God’ s glory is displayed in her as his residence and place of habitation. Transcendent on this account are the glory and beauty of the Church, which is called “ the city of God” (Psalms 46:4). In this city God dwells--“ God is in the midst of her” (Psalms 46:5); and she cannot but be glorious, because God delights in her for man’ s good: He is represented as “ loving the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob” (Psalms 48:2). The Church is described as “ beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth” (Psalms 48:2). Yea, “ glorious things are spoken of thee, thou city of God” (Psalms 87:3). Christ has secured to His Church the perpetuity of His presence by His own unalterable words (Matthew 28:20). The Church is the depositary of God’ s Word (1 Timothy 3:15). “ The Church is a witness and a keeper of holy writ” (Art. 20); and by her is manifested “ all the glory of the Godhead in the face of Jesus Christ.” Angels above and men below consider His salvation of His people glorious (Luke 15:7). “ The unsearchable riches of Christ “ are preached, “ to the intent that now unto the principalities,” etc. (Ephesians 3:10). God does not now answer His people in a visible way, by Urim and Thummim, but yet in a real and effectual way, “ drawing nigh to them that draw nigh to Him” ; and, though God be neglected and forgotten and despised, yet “ He is known in her palaces for a refuge” (Psalms 48:3)--“ God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble” (Psalms 46:1). II. The King’ s daughter is all glorious within because God’ s children are born is her, The figure of being “ all glorious within” is, no doubt, taken from the splendour of Eastern palaces. The Asiatic queens, sultanas and begums scarcely ever appeared in public. They remained, as they do to the present day, in their harems, amidst splendid and gorgeous decorations. In the former part of the psalm are described the excellencies of God--in the latter part the excellencies of God’ s Church. Now, whether we speak of the Church collectively, or of individual believers, their graces, their gifts, and their holiness, are the fruits of Christ’ s passion and the work of the Holy Ghost, who renews the heart and rectifies the will. “ Of Zion it shall be said, this and that man was born in her” (Psalms 87:6). When a man is born again from above, he is accepted of God in the Beloved; Christ’ s righteousness covers his past sins, and gives him a title to heaven. But the work does not stop here. Along with the title to heaven given to the believer in justification, there is also wrought in his heart, a meetness for heaven by sanctification. And what a privilege is this! Satan is trodden down under foot; the old man is supplanted by the new man; a depraved nature gives way to a divine nature; the image of Christ is imprinted on the heart; the believer is made like his Lord and Master--is changed from glory to glory. Now, whence is the source of all these blessings? They proceed from the King of the Church--from Him who has adopted the Church to be His daughter. With this agrees the language of the apostle (1 Corinthians 1:30). God is the Church’ s glory; her honour, her wisdom and her grace proceed from Him who is, and shall be, the praise of the redeemed for ever. III. The king’ s daughter is all glorious, because she is emblematic of heaven itself. Surely, when we are robed in Christ’ s righteousness and blessed with His salvation, we shall go to the Church triumphant, of which the Church militant is a type, and has a rich foretaste. When the Church of Christ is fully prepared, she will at last be presented to God without spot. The union begun on earth will be satisfied and avowed in the King’ s palace in heaven. Then will it be shouted through the universe (Revelation 19:7). Then will there be a jubilee on earth; and then will the angels tune their golden harps to joyous hallelujahs in the heavens. The Church of God will then be complete; “ she shall be brought unto the King in raiment of needlework,” etc. Then will angels rejoice; then will prophets, apostles, and martyrs, and saints in glory sing (Revelation 5:13). Surely the Church is an emblem of heaven; for all who are born in her “ are come unto Mount Zion, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem” (Hebrews 12:22). The temple of God on earth and His temple in heaven are two parts of one glorious whole. They enjoy distinctions far above any earthly temple. Of our earthly Zion it is said (Isaiah 60:19). And thus it is also in the heavenly Zion (Revelation 21:23). It is but one family inhabiting both the one city and the other, even the family of our Lord Jesus Christ; and their employments are altogether the same; for whilst the one “ are rejoicing in the Lord always” here below, the other are incessantly engaged in singing praises to Him above--even to “ Him who loved them,” etc. (Revelation 1:5-6). (E. Striokland, M. A.) The beauty of the King’ s Daughter It has happened sometimes that persons of royal birth have not known their high rank. It was so with the founders of the great empire of Rome. Through jealousy two young princes were exposed on the banks of a river. After going through a strange experience they were found by a shepherd, whose simple, homely wife brought them up in her cottage as her own sons. Not till they were grown up did they discover their royal origin, and then together they founded Rome. Like them, some of us have never dreamt that we were king’ s daughters. Some smile incredulously at the very idea. But it is a fact that every one of us may be a king’ s daughter (2 Corinthians 6:18; Romans 8:29; Matthew 12:50). Then what a comfort to remember that since we are the King’ s daughters His wealth is ours. The King, our Father, has wonderful resources. There is one word of warning I would like to say. Many folk, when they are in trouble, say, “ Oh yes, if I trust in God, it will be all right. I must trust Him; there’ s no one else to trust to.” But they forget that if they want to claim God’ s fatherly provision they must live as His daughters. Then, the King’ s daughter is “ all glorious within.” She is not a sham. Mere outside goodness is not enough. The mind must be cleansed from all evil imaginations, the affections withdrawn from all wrong objects. If we nurse and foster any heart sin we are dead to our high privilege as the King’ s daughters, for they are all glorious within. You notice the clothing is of “ wrought gold.” Trouble has been taken with it, it has been worked or wrought. And it is made of gold, it is durable, it will stand the testing fires. Let us take more trouble to make our garment of lifework durable and beautiful. And then the King’ s daughter is to be brought “ in raiment of needlework.” Day by day we are putting in the stitches. Every word, every act is a stitch making or marring the beauty of the whole. Those mistaken stitches can never be drawn out. Then take the marred work to the King now, by faith place it in His hands, tell Him just how you feel about it; and you will find that for the truly contrite soul filled with sorrow and regret for past failures the King has a marvellous fashion of beautifying spoilt work, and covering the ugly stitches with His own embroidery of love. And let us remember that beauty comes from “ within.” Paint and powder do not make beauty. Health and goodness do. Made beautiful “within,” we shall be enabled to express the inner life in a consistent and beautiful outward life which may well be compared to wrought gold and embroidered work. (Anon.) The King’ s daughters 1. The bridegroom is Jesus Himself; Solomon is but His type. The Church that is without wrinkle or spot, or any such thing is the beautiful bride. She is possessed of all those graces of heart and mind as well as of person which would incline the king to rejoice in her beauty. 2. Not unsuited to this occasion are allusions to this beautiful psalm. Before us we see the virgins that should be the attendants of the bride of Christ, the king’ s daughters who should be her honourable women. It is their vocation to do her honour, to lend additional though reflected lustre to her court. Whatever of beauty is theirs; whatever of grace and winning ways; whatever gives them influence or power in the Church or in the world--they are all the attributes that better qualify them for the duties of their high station. There may well be, there should be, gifts of gold, the fragrance of myrrh, aloes and cassia, beautiful forms and features, shining eyes, and ivory palaces at the marriage of the king’ s son. They are, however, the accidents and not the essential attributes of the virgins who are worthy to wait upon the spouse of Christ; like her, they must be all glorious within. No age ever excelled that of Pericles in all the arts that give softness and refinement to life. Painting, sculpture, the genius of Phidias and Praxiteles, the pencil of Zeuxis; the temple of the virgin goddess, with its elegant proportions and its carved facade, even in ruins one of the wonders of the world; poetry, oratory--all illustrated it and adorned it. The splendour of its court has passed into a proverb. Aspasia presided over it, wonderful for her wit, and beauty, and grace, yea, for her wisdom and learning, the confidante and counsellor of statesmen and kings. Her intellect, as her person, had been cultivated to its utmost limit; in that respect she was the paragon of her sex. But what ago was more corrupt than that of Pericles? Aspasia herself, the education of her moral nature and of her heart neglected, was a wreck; as the poet says, “ one of those shameless women who are the worst of men.” She was a splendid monument of what the unsanctified can be and do. Her clothing was of wrought gold, but she was not worthy to be a daughter of the King, for she was not all glorious within. No regard was paid to her complex being; her nature was distorted, and in the absence of virtue and religion she was not an unmeet prototype of many of the discrowned women of our own age. When you increase the capacity of the intellect and dwarf the moral nature, you produce not symmetry and grace, but spiritual deformity. There is in all true education a law of proportion; the mind, the heart, the body, must all be cultured if we would have a truly cultured man. 3. Therefore it is, O daughters of the Church! that we rejoice with you on this anniversary; therefore do we feel in the deep of our heart the munificence which has provided for you this sequestered and beautiful retreat, where learning is to be for over the handmaid of religion. Religion has made woman what she is. It has lifted her out of the slough of slavery and placed her upon a pedestal where she commands the admiration and love of the world; it has given her a potent influence in moulding its destiny. Deprive her of it, and she would fall back into the starless night whence she was so long emerging. Her clothing may be of wrought gold, she may be all covered with barbaric pearl; but only as she is a daughter of the King can she be all glorious within. (G. F. Cushman.) The king’ s daughter Here are two aspects of the king’ s daughter--the internal and the external; within all glorious, without covered with wrought gold--a magnificent congruity, a spiritual miracle of consistency. “ Glorious,” not commonplace; separated from every other institution or mode of life by a dazzling, gleaming brightness above the shining of the sun. “ All glorious” --not one shadow, not one indication of love of darkness. “ All glorious” in doctrine, in conduct, in speech, in thought, in the innermost recesses of the heart--“ all glorious within.” Why? Because of a conscious realization of the Divine presence. Have we made our preparation for the Chief of Guests? Has the housewife made no arrangement to receive her visitor with becoming care and distinction? Mystery of mysteries is this, that the mortal can talk with the Eternal; that the creature can commune with the Creator; that a life so low that presently it will be cut down and burned like grass in the oven can go right up to eternal Kingliness and say, Let us commune together concerning the mystery of being and the mystery of destiny, the mystery of conduct and the mystery of service; O Eternal King, let poor me talk with Thee a tong time! Out of this must come a growing solicitude to be transformed into the Divine likeness. What is the king’ s daughter without? Look at her clothing; that will answer the inquiry--“ Her clothing is of wrought gold.” The internal glory is proved by the external beauty. There is a clothing which we are called upon to admire--the clothing of the king’ s daughter is of wrought gold: no dress can be too beautiful if it express a beautiful character. We are not to be too literal in our construction of these sentences--there is a transfiguring process of soul upon cloth, if you will have it so; there is a possibility that a carpenter’ s raiment may become white and glistering. The internal light illumines the external robe. Here is a man who has been a long time in prayer; he comes down the hill as morning might come down the quickly illuminated mountain; speak to the man, and he wists not that his face doth shine. This is the beauty of heaven; this is not formal beauty; this is the light that springeth from within, which will be as beauteous in the morning as it is at night, in the winter as in the summer; how trying soever the circumstances through which the man may pass, he will throw a sacred radiance upon his whole condition, and make a space for himself by the power of wisdom. Sometimes we have seen a man surrounded by estates, and have felt that the man was greater than the property; we have said, What a soul” this man has! Listen to his thoughts, hear his conversation; presently he will rise into prayer, or utter himself in sacred song, or speak lovingly and redeemingly about the poor and those who have no helper; and then the environment falls away into its right perspective, and we say, Would God this man owned the whole world I for then the poor would be made to rejoice, and the sad of heart would know what a friend they had. If there is any disparity it should be on the spiritual side, so that we shall say concerning a man, however much he has, he ought to have more; he is a faithful steward, a generous administrator; appoint him the guardian of society. In the costume as described by the poet we have no contradiction, no irony, no sense of incongruity; we have a massive, simple, beautiful, beneficent consistency. What is the miracle that Jesus Christ wants to work? It is the miracle of congruity, the miracle of harmony, the miracle of music; it is to make us internally right that He may make us externally beautiful and noble. (J. Parker, D. D.) Psalms 45:16 Instead of thy fathers shall be thy children. Christian succession An intelligent grasp of this truth is fatal to pessimists, who go about the country crying failure in the Church and the final defeat of Israel. King Jesus and His bride are the objects of the prophecy. Unto them were born apostles whose successors are filling the whole earth with princes who have power with God and men. I. Removals are implied--a thought too painful for publicity if treated in the absence of Christian promise. Did death end all, it would be sad indeed; but under the light of the Gospel death is translated into the realm of departure. By these removals we lose the friendships of time and staled alone waiting for new and untried friends. We lose the benefit of tried friendship so that life is a scene of unending and unanswered questioning. And yet we are confronted by this law in every department of fruit-bearing life. If we walk in nature’ s garden we find the same law dismissing all that is beautiful and fruitful; when once the work is done the fruits appear and are crowded off to give place to others. The Christian removal is always enlargement of influence. Paul ministered to a few hundred while in the flesh, but on taking his departure, ministered to the nations of the earth with increasing influence age after age. But there is blessing to us who succeed them. It is necessary to the highest order of life that there be discipline in care and thought, not that a few think for the race, and work for all, but that all work, think, and feel responsible for results. Thank God, then, though Abraham died, his faith lives for others to exercise--if Elijah goes up, Elisha can part the Jordan. And when the fathers go, God is calling children to take their place. II. Privilege of the children. Wave on wave roils in from the ocean world and breaks on the same rocks ignorant of their successor’ s power. The baptism of summer glory finds the bare poles where last spring found them. It cannot retain the summer glory and meadow’ s beauty. But it is our privilege to begin where the fathers retire, and from the outlook of centuries look out over the field before entering the fight. Ours to take the battle where the warfare of centuries has carried it and then on to victory, entering into the conquests of our fathers with the advantage of their experience. History records the wonders of the three hundred cavalrymen in the Theban army, who were always successful. They fought under a vow of eternal loyalty. They were known as “ The Sacred Battalion,” the “ Band of Lovers.” Has not the Church greater claims upon us as legatees? III. Possibilities. “ Princes in all the earth.” The gift of a child or convert is the gift of possibilities. “ Mayest” implies attention, interest in, a work for the new-comer. If princes, we must study the child, his disposition, methods of thought, adaptations to different kinds of work. You can recall readily business firms, where the death of the head would close the house; not because there are no sons, but the sons have no knowledge of the father’ s business. Do you not call to mind churches where ten deaths would close the church? For these ten have given all the money; another ten have done all the praying, all because no part is assigned the children, and they are ill-fitted to take up the work. Socrates once said, “ Could I climb to the highest place in Athens, I would lift my voice and proclaim--Fellow citizens, why do ye turn and scrape every stone to gather wealth and take so little care of your children to whom one day you must relinquish it all?” If our children are to be princes they must have some part in the work, some responsibilities. Let all pray, give, do and plan, then all will have an interest and grow therein. (H. W. Bolton, D. D.) Fathers and children In our fathers we live in the past; in our children we live in the future. For what we are and for what we have we are indebted to the past; the future as it springs from us will take its shape from the mould of doctrine and life into which we deliver it. It will reflect our image as we reproduce the lineaments of our ancestry. It is true in life as it is true in science that progress starts from record. There are two lights that shine upon our path; there is the steady light of experience shining from behind, and there is the fitful splendour of genius flashing upon the prospect before us. Both kinds of irradiation are equally necessary; the one to assure us of the ground we have won, the other to beckon us on to new conquests; and while we eagerly welcome any revelation of what is to come, we must not treat with neglect or even irreverence the genius of the past. We have here a responsibility equally divided between those who bequeath an estate and those who inherit it. The character and value of the estate will depend on the fathers; the improvement of it will rest with the children. The wisdom of parents may make their offspring princes; the neglect or folly of parents may make them slaves. On the other hand, the disobedience and wickedness of children may prevent them from coming to honour, and pervert rank to infamy and wealth to penury. Between the estate and the heir lies the great problem of education. Shall we make what we possess meet for the inheritance of our children? We have principles, doctrines, facts, and institutions. These are a vast patrimony. We received them from our fathers; we are about to transmit them to our children. They are not strictly the same as when they first came into our possession; the minds of a generation have been engaged upon them; they have been tested by the new exigencies of current life--some of them not surviving the test have perished, others live on in new forms of application; others have received additions which have expanded their use; a few are absolutely unchangeable, the revelation of God in Christ, the supremacy of truth, the principle of righteousness extending from the person to the community, the responsibility of conduct, these and such-like verities are the regulating forces of progress; they preserve the generations of men from drift; they are unalterable and indestructible. To make these treasures meet for the inheritance of our children let us bring them into view; they are invested and surrounded by semblances, they are hidden beneath prejudices, their just value is traversed by the false estimates of custom and traditions: let us separate the false from the true, and make our children see them as they are. There are men who seek to guide the thought of the age who would separate righteousness from God and divide life from Christ. There is a doctrine in circulation that would degrade the mind of man to the animal limits; there is a conspiracy of licence against the purity of family life. There is a greed that makes no other reckoning than its own dividends; the happiness of families., the fruits of industry, the morality of trade, the simplicity and the rights of defenceless races--all must go to feed the rapacious lust of gain; and the nature of these monstrous errors, and the scandal and the hideousness of these crimes are concealed beneath the engaging raiment of fiction; they come into our homes dressed in the costume of civilization, and claiming even the sanctions of religion. It is a momentous question, How shall we guard our children from enemies which walk in darkness? We cannot organize a crusade against the literature we are now condemning. We must neutralize the poison of books by creating a new class of readers. We have power over the young. What an enormous responsibility is ours, as a nation, as Churches, as heads of families! We have in our hands the public opinion of the future. We have institutions in which the youth of these islands are taught to think, to choose the principles upon which the business of life should be carried on, and the faith which should be the rule of their conduct and the hope of their aspirations. A profounder saying never came from the lips of man than the dictum of Solomon, “ the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” The lessons of wisdom, however attractively set and earnestly delivered, will be of small avail to the child unless they come to his mind with the authority of the great Power who is above us all. A child’ s mind is in intimate sympathy with God. There is uppermost a religious nature during the years of childhood; the faith is without question, the fear without torments, the love without guile, and the imagination is quick to shape to itself the Father who is in heaven. Our Lord makes these qualities the cardinal conditions and signs of discipleship (Mark 10:15). And to take a child and induct him into the knowledge of life, of its duties and responsibilities, its dangers and its guards, its fellowships and the secrets of its success, without bringing God into it, without making Him the foundation of it all, anything more fatal to the morality, the greatness, nay to the existence of this nation I cannot conceive! Thank God for the conversion of a father or a child in a family circle, but we want to revolutionize the basis of family life. Enter the house of that working man; he will tell you that he joined a Band of Hope when he was a boy; that he grew up faithful to his pledge; that on the principles of that association he married, and is bringing up a family; that under his father’ s roof there was no home; there never had been a home within his recollection, for his father was the victim of drink. Instead of the father, here is the son, himself a father, building up a family, and not dragging it down; ruling his children and training them in the fear of the Lord; a citizen, and not a pauper, contributing to the wealth of his country, and not a burden upon her rates. Imagine the influences radiating from a home like this; imagine many such homes in the same street, in the same town, in the same country; every home a centre of order, a pattern of sobriety, a model of industry, and an ornament of religion. (E. E. Jenkins, LL. D.) Young men--the nation and the Church of the future The strength of a chain is the strength of each link, and the character of society is taken from the character of the individuals that compose it; therefore, on you, as constituent elements of the Church and the nation of the future, there does lie a solemn responsibility. I. If you would properly prepare yourselves for your future position, you must give yourselves now to the cultivation of personal piety. I place this at the foundation, because it is of supreme and permanent importance. II. You must cultivate intelligence. Even now there are symptoms of the most unmistakable kind that a crisis in the history of divine truth is approaching, and we would have our young men gird themselves to meet it. We find them for the most part trifling their time away in pursuits which, at the best, are but an excuse for idleness; and among too many, everything that would lead to reflection, and stimulate to thought, is accounted dull and stupid. I want you to be thinkers as well as readers; nay, thinkers rather than readers; for the mental disease of the age is just literary indigestion. Thus conducting your studies, you will thoroughly furnish yourselves as men of God, and will be enabled to stand undaunted before all comers. III. A third thing indispensably required, if you would meet the claims of the future on you, is courage. By this I mean moral courage; the heroism, not of the warrior, but of the man who has learned to run the gauntlet of ridicule and scorn, and to follow the leadings of duty in the face of every obstacle. The large proportion of the rising race are growing up in moral weakness. How few of them can meet temptation with a direct negative! Be strong then, and quit you like men. Never mind though you may seem to stand alone; he who has God on his side is always in a majority; and he is never alone who can say, the Father is with me. (W. M. Taylor, D. D.) The generations old and new I. The connectedness of the generations. What we do for our children in respect of training, example and teaching is not wholly subject to their caprice. Through the strange bond which unites the generations they cannot altogether reject what is imparted any more than the ground can reject the seed cast into it. The thought that our labour and influence in rich effect may flow in the veins of the generation that comes after us removes the sadness of reflection upon the brevity of life. We may accept with cheerfulness the saying of Goethe: “ A consciousness that our labour tends in some way to the lasting benefit of others makes the rolling years endurable.” II. The relation of the young to the old. As the sun in his setting behind the western horizon ofttimes casts a wondrous purple glow over the east whence he arose, making the glory of the evening of richer beauty than the brilliance of the noon, so does the generation whose life declines behind the everlasting hills shed its glow upon the generation just arising, suffusing it with a glory not from itself. Our glory lies in the achievements of our fathers. What, then, ought to be the attitude of the young toward the old?1. Reverence. This spirit lies at the root of all nobility, purity, and strength of character. The glory of the past is summed up in our elders. There is that in the old which calls for reverence. (1) An old man is a book of life--an epitome of life’ s experience. If one should come to us from the weird mystery of the Arctic regions, or from the dim twilight of the dense and tropical forest, with what awe we should regard him t He is a man who has seen strange sights which we have not seen, and partaken of experiences beyond our imagination. Such is the old man to the young one. He has heard life’ s many voices, tasted its sweets and bitters, wrestled with its temptations, bowed under its sorrows, and discovered its illusions. He is a book of life, in which we ought to read with reverence. (2) He is a book of God. The record of human life is also a Divine record. This is true of the life that is evil; it is much more true of the life of pure goodness. As the star catches the light from some other world, and sends it down to illumine other spheres, so the good man has caught in his life the light of God, and flings it forth to enlighten younger minds around him. As such a revealer of God the old man commands our reverence. 2. Patience. You touch the heirloom with very gentle hand. It stands for you as the treasury of many sacred traditions of family history. So should the old forms of religious teaching. We may not be able to subscribe to every form of teaching we received; but let us remember that what was handed down to us made a noble woman of our mother and a monument of integrity of our father. It may not have been wholly true; it, certainly was net wholly false, and therefore Cannot be dismissed with a smile. We ought to be careful in the transfer of truth from old forms into new. You cannot empty the ointment from one vase into another without risk of losing some drops of the precious liquid. So there is always risk in adapting truth to its newer shapes lest we should lose some of its spirit. The old forms change and decay; but the spirit of truth is eternal, and for its sake, lest it should flee from careless and unhallowed touch, we should be patient with its dying body. 3. Humility. Our fathers were great; they Who come after us will be greater. The revelation of God is a progressive unveiling. The pilgrim father with exultant insight said, “ God has much more light to break from His holy Word.” The world will not always grow with such painful slowness. Moral and spiritual forces will doubtless gain impetus, and will bear our world more quickly to her divine end. Meantime it is for those who are young to toil humbly, recognizing the labours of their fathers, and thankful if they may, in their generation, but add a share to the work which shall fulfil the Divine will. III. The relation of the old to the young. “ Every grave is also a cradle, every death is also a birth. He who puts a bud beside every withered leaf places a child beside the old man and a young man in the sepulchre of his father.” In this way does God renew the life of the world. The attitude of the passing generation to the one succeeding it may be expressed under the same terms as the relationship we have already considered.1. Reverence. It is most solemn to think of the germs of possibility that lie in the child: awful powers of good or evil lie enfolded within the little soul sent to dwell in our home for a while. Old men, having tasted the bitter disappointments of life, grow pessimistic, cold, cynical, and lose the clearness of their early visions. This can hardly be escaped; but let us be slow to impose these unhealthy influences on the fresh hopes of the young. The Church which checks the ardour of its young members by the half-cynical reminder of its illusions and failures, will thus put the frosty finger on the tender spring buds, and will doom them to die in an unnatural and wintry decay. For the hope of the world and of the Church, when the ancient blood is chilled and the pulse enfeebled, we must look to the strong pulse, the warm impulse, and the high hopes of youth. “ Your young men shall see visions.” 2. Humility. Every generation passes away in disappointment. It has “ not realized its hopes, nor done the work it desired to do. Yet it is hard to confess this, and before death to see the work pass into younger hands and younger shoulders assume the responsibilities that have been ours. Our wisdom ties in humility. (Anon.) Children instead of fathers We can understand, by taking up the attitude of the Jewish mind, how very much there was in such a promise to occasion delight; but to our modern ears there is not the same sort of delight in the benediction which speaks of posterity. We might almost be disposed to challenge the value of the promise. From the standpoint of home we go back, and our hearts are touched with tender memories. We remember that once venerable figure. We remember how, when we wore but children, he, forgetting the pressures and the anxieties of life, stooped to play with us in our infant hours. We recall how it was that wisdom allied with sympathy came to our aid, and how we found in him who bare the name of “ father” a most venerable and trusted friend. And then we are told that we shall find in this cradle an adequate substitute for all that he was. Where is the benediction of such a change? And yet it is a blessing. We live under laws which are inevitable, invariable. The hour must come when we are obliged to accept the responsibility which the death of those who were dear has thrust upon us. Necessity, kindly nurse, stern mother, that cultivates human wit, that develops human character, forces us into situations where we are bound to become men. But it is not only in the order of the home that this prevails. It suggests to us that it is true in the order of the nation, of the community, and of the Church. There were fathers in Israel as well as fathers of our flesh--men who, in the days when we were young, and the first flush of our youthful enthusiasm was upon us, were hailed, as young life only knows how to hail, with an enthusiastic devotion and admiration. Can the cries of the cradle be an adequate substitute for the eloquent words which caused our hearts to burn? or shall we find in the unfurnished brain of the child anything like an adequate substitute and compensation for the well-furnished mind and the large sources of knowledge and learning which were ever consecrated to the welfare of the Church? And yet the very law of necessity which makes us see a benediction in the compulsion of work and gain in the responsibilities which are thrust upon, us, may well also remind us that the ways of God are always beneficent. Larger, stronger, more tender because more stern is that love which says, “ Instead of thy fathers thou shalt have children.” Instead of waiting and watching for the words of leaders, you must be prepared to become leaders yourselves. And it is well for Churches as it is well for men, it is well for nations as it is well for individuals that these things should be; for in the order of God, as He works His great work, He changes His implements. He lays aside the stonemason when the stone is set, that the sculptor may begin to adorn the temple of God. Elisha must follow Elijah; Joshua must take the place of Moses; and if we are wise, we shall understand that men reared in a younger generation, acclimatized, so to speak, for the efforts and difficulties of war by the new surroundings of fresh and progressive education, are fitted to take the place of trust if only they will be faithful to their God. They have opportunities of discharging before God and His Church that service which is called for, and of achieving in their day and in their generation the deliverance of the Lord’ s people. And thus from the standpoint, then, of the communities as well as from the standpoint of home this benediction is realized, “ Instead of thy fathers thou shelf have children.” There is this principle, then, underlying. There is a benediction in responsibility; but responsibility may fail to bring us its blessing unless we are ready for it. As the blessing of peace only rested in the homes where the Son of Peace was found, so the benediction of responsibility only abides where the fit spirit awakes to meet it. And what spirit should this be? The answer is, that we must have the spirit of courage, the spirit of trust, the spirit of love. Mr.:Ruskin has said that that land is base where the children are always trying to be men, and the men are always trying to keep them children, and that land is noble in which the children are ready to remain children, and the men are helping them to become men. If the land is base in which the children desire to become men, and the men seek to keep them ever as children, is not that land, that Church, that community base in which the men fail in the reverence with which they should accept and in the courage with which they should meet responsibilities as they drop from the hand of Providence into theirs? What else should be our readiness? Faith. The bride who went forth, went forth with that leal courage which became her decision, went forth also with the faith that there was work for her to do. Her trust was to be seen in absolute forgetfulness of the father’ s house--“ Forget thy father’ s house:” put it aside; your trust now must be, as your work must be, in the work of the home to which you are called. There must be faith--ah! who can measure it? “ The past to be forgotten!” we say. This is just our difficulty. Does it mean that we are so to set aside what has gone as to gather from it no lessons, and receive from it no impulse, and to carry forward from it no authority? Oh, not so. There is a way in which the past must be remembered, because you are men of the past. In your blood there flows the blood of preceding generations. You cannot falsify your” heritage. With Churches and communities it is the same. You are born with a certain function and a certain destiny. In the Church it is the same. All the great heritage of the past, the noble traditions, the splendid freedom, and the venerable antiquity, the wondrous catholicity, and the strong loyalty to her Master’ s words which has belonged to that Church in all ages, is part of our heritage, and we cannot refuse it. Accept it and live by the spirit of it. Translate its spirit into the action of to-day. The third spirit that we want for bearing this responsibility is love. “ Forget also thine own people and thy father’ s house.” Another’ s name is signed upon you, and to the work of that other your life must be consecrated. What is wanted here for us--for all, by whatever name they may be called, in Church or State--first and most, and last and best of all, is that the spirit with which we undertake the responsibilities which fall upon us shall be the spirit of those whose lives are merged in His, so that it is no longer “ I, but Christ that liveth in me.” (Bishop Boyd Carpenter.) The perpetuity of the Church One generation shall come and go after another, but still, like an evergreen tree, which in spite of the constant decay of some of its leaves always preserves its verdant hue, so the Church shall exist till the latest ages, ever growing older, and yet never losing its youth; its members constantly dying, itself perpetually alive. Or, to vary the figure, as when upon the battlefield the brave soldier falls, another stands forward to fill his place, and the line closes in and rushes on anew to conflict; so the battle of the Church with the world ever goes on, “ bequeathed from bleeding sire to son,” and it shall never cease, until the knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. Men may slay its members, but they cannot kill the Church; death may take them individually away, but he cannot destroy it, for it is like the Lord who found it, immortal and indestructible. (W. M. Taylor, D. D.) The responsibility of the young It is in the power of the young of the land thus either to put back the shadow on the dial of the nation and of the Church by more than ten degrees, or to advance it in a like proportion. If they rise to their true and holy labour, if they meet worthily the claims of the age upon them, they will most assuredly do the latter; but if they lose sight of the solemn trust which is committed to their keeping, and waste their energies on trifles, they will as surely do the former. Men laughed at old Trebonius doing honour to his scholars when he entered school; but when at length Martin Luther rose up from among them to emancipate Europe from the bondage of the Papacy, the laugh was all upon his side; and it were well if the young men of our own day would do practical homage to their own future career, by preparing themselves for the honour which may be theirs if they will only worthily discharge the duties to which they are called. I am anxious that they should realize that they have the character of the Church and of the State to keep; and that each man of them should act as if the whole thing depended upon him. I desire that they should feel that they are to receive as a legacy the reputation and the labour of their fathers; and that they should educate themselves so that both shall be safe in their hands. Yea, I would charge it upon them as their guilt and crime, if in any degree the wheels of progress shall be retarded, or the labour of their fathers undone, in their day. If Britain’ s glory wane, if the Church’ s triumphs cease, young men of these days, the greater share of the blame must be yours. This responsibility is fixed upon you, and you cannot shake it off. (W. M. Taylor, D. D.) Whom thou mayest make princes in all the earth.--How children become princes I. The perpetuation of religious life. “ Instead of thy fathers shall be thy children.” It is in a succession of godly families we see the channel along which the water of life flows in unfailing fulness and beauty. The children of parents who love the truth and honour God are likely to take and keep the features which distinguish the character of the parents. Godliness is not nearly so difficult to those who come into the world with blood and brain favourable to righteousness as it is to those who come into the world with blood and brain favourable to unrighteousness. But in addition to all that is gained by birth there is the influence of precept and example. II. The dignity of religious life. “ Whom thou mayest make princes.” The grandest man is he who has most of the spirit of Christ. When we bring together those who most faithfully reflect His character we have all that is choicest in the race. Nor is it in resemblance to Christ only that princely dignity is manifested. The graces and virtues of religion are often as stepping-stones to high positions in the Church and the world. How many there are, tradesmen, manufacturers, merchants, officers of government, who began life in hardship and poverty, and confess that it is the grace of God which has made them what they are. “ He raiseth the poor out of the dust, that He may set him with princes.” III. The diffusion of religious life. “ Whom thou mayest make princes.” We have an almost literal fulfilment of these words in the history of our foreign possessions. The men who have laid the foundation of great Anglo-Saxon nationalities in different parts of the world have many of them been good men. When we think of the Pilgrim Fathers who sought in America the freedom to worship God which was denied in England; of the religious forces which have done so much to shape and enrich the grandly developing life of Canada and Australia; of the godly soldiers and civilians who have laboured for the enlightenment of India, we recognize the providence of God in sending to those wide tracts of earth “ men with empires in their brains,” and who by their heroism, industry, and religion have caused the wilderness to become like the garden of the Lord. How pleasing also it is to think of those who have preached, and of those who are preaching, Christ in heathen lands, “ Princes in all the earth.” Has not Coke still a princely power in Antigua and all its neighbouring isles; and John Hunt in Fiji; Carey in India and Moffatt in Africa? (Jabez Marrat.) Christ’ s princes What sort of princes are those of Christ’ s making? I. They are princes born. “ Born of water and of the Spirit.” There are two things, you see. Both are included in what is called “ born again,” or “ born from above.” John’ s baptism and Christ’ s baptism bring the two together in figure. Don’ t separate the two parts; get rid of your sins, and begin new heavenly lives, and you are born again. Breathe the air, then, as princely creatures; Christ makes you “ princes in the earth.” II. They are princes by getting a royal education. It is a good thing in education to get a good school-book to learn from. It is better still to get a good teacher to teach from the good text-book. Now, Christ provides both things in the princely education which He gives to His own. This Book of God is in all Christ’ s schools, and there are none of Christ’ s princes made to do princely work here without it. The Holy Spirit is the teacher, and He is the most excellent teacher. What is the first quality in a teacher--I mean moral quality? Now, teachers are qualified for their work as they have a mother’ s patience, a mother’ s gentleness, a mother’ s love. There is no teacher so gentle as the Holy. Spirit, none so patient, so full of love, as He. III. They are princes by training in royal work. The proper end for which princes are being educated is to rule, to take care of others, and manage them; to order and guide subjects for their good. But the first subject that any Christian prince gets to rule is his own spirit. A person who cannot rule his spirit is compared to a city the walls of which are broken down, so that the wild beasts can run in at the breaches where they like. We are to rule ourselves by letting Christ rule us. Being His subjects, we are also His princes. Apart from the general idea of ruling, there are three kinds of work that princes made by Christ get to do. The first is prayer, the second is patience, the third is peace-making. IV. They have a crown in prospect. All princes don’ t come actually to be crowned with earthly crowns; but this is one of the fine things about Christ’ s princes, they will all be crowned, and all wear their crowns in heaven. Some crowns are made of leaves, fading leaves, but this crown never withers. Some crowns are made of gold, and glitter and shine for a time, yet must perish at last; but this will shine for ever. (John Edmund, D. D.) The unbroken line of true nobles Our text begins with “ Instead.” It is a sad word; it means we must lose some if others are to come in their stead. Would it not be pleasanter to keep the old workers? What a grand Old Guard the veterans would make. But no, they must go, and others must come instead. We are apt to think them very slow in coming, and too frequent is the fear that they who come will be but very poor substitutes for those who are gone. As Rehoboam for Solomon, etc. But the word “ instead” has a note of gladness in it also. It means, that if we fall there is another to fill up the gap. And sometimes the change is for the better. As Samuel instead of Eli. Courage, our sons may be superior to ourselves. There is room for it, and let us hope they will be. Note in the text-- I. Its gracious recompense. Compare the psalm from which it is taken. The bride was commanded to forget her own people and her father’ s house. But her loss shall be made up to her. And the law of our text holds good in reference to the separations caused by death in the midst of the Church. If good men are taken, the like will be given, perhaps better. II. Its eminent fulfilment. All along, there have been changes, but in God’ s garden, as in ours, plants of this year have been succeeded by those of the next. III. Its happy encouragement. It says, “ shall be.” “ Lean on the Divine “ shall.” Do not give way to distrust about the future, for Jesus lives and walks among the golden candlesticks, trimming all the lamps, and shining through them. We are not taking a leap into the dark; we are not “ shooting Niagara” ; we are marching into light. IV. Its practical requirements.1. If we stand instead of our fathers, what manner of persons ought we to be? See what noble men have been before us. Look back to your spiritual ancestry, your fathers after the spirit, your predecessors in the faith of the Lord Jesus. But shall we be craven sons of heroic sires? 2. If others are to come instead of us what are we doing for them? The Church ought to look to the tuition, the training and the culture of her children. It is said that Alexander gathered together his valiant army principally through training children from their very birth to the pursuits of war. These born soldiers grew up knowing of nothing, and caring for nothing but for Alexander, Macedon, and battle. Thus would we, by God’ s grace, train our sons to live alone for Christ, His truth, and the souls whom He hath redeemed. Now, looking to my young friends, I would ask of them, Are you prepared to take your father’ s place? Let none of you suppose that because you come of pious parents you will be saved. I stand amongst you like an officer in the midst of his troop, and as one and another falls, I bid you close up your ranks. May the text be true for us. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Psalms 45:17I will make Thy name to be remembered in all generations; therefore shall the people praise Thee. Christ’ s unending praise Man knows himself to be a flower, which cometh forth and is cut down; yet he wishes the fragrance of his memory, like a costly perfume, to be perpetuated when he himself shall be crumbled into dust. The celebrated painter of antiquity exclaimed, “ I paint for eternity.” Human ambition always desires to do so. The father hopes to be remembered in his child, the author in his works, the hero in his triumphs, the statesman in his institutions, the legislator in his laws, the patriot in the benefits he has conferred upon his country. We should all love to have the prophecy of the text transferred to ourselves: “ I will make Thy name to be remembered in all generations.” But what is the exceeding brief and transitory remembrance which man seeks from man on earth compared with the unfading honours which Christ attains as the Author and Finisher of faith, or compared with the permanence of those regards which Christ secures to Himself in the hearts of His redeemed people? I. The import of the Saviour’ s name. “ His name.” In the Old Testament the name of God is employed as a comprehensive formula to express the manifested glory of His entire character and perfections; and the New Testament attributes the same importance and dignity to the name of Christ which the current style of the Old Testament does to the name of Jehovah. We are said to be baptized in His name, to believe in His name; in His name the remission of sins is to be preached among all nations. And He is said to have a name written which no man knew but Himself. The name of Christ comprehends, therefore, all He is, and all He is to us. And in reference to His mediatorial character and triumphs, He is said to have a name which is above every name. The names of majesty and greatness enumerated by Isaiah--the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, Wonderful Counsellor, Prince of Peace--were names which our Lord possessed by right of nature as an equal sharer with the Eternal Father in the glories of Godhead; but His name Jesus He acquired by purchase, by conquest, by death. It cost Him life. As, therefore, Jacob preferred his name Israel before his former name of Jacob, because he acquired it as a memorial of victory, so our Lord may be considered as valuing the name of Jesus, the Saviour, from the suffering it commemorates, the triumph it records, and the love it implies, Certain it is, that by this designation He emphatically makes Himself known from the highest heaven. Thus He addressed Himself to Saul the persecutor on his way to Damascus, and to John in the Apocalypse. II. Some of those grounds on which we are encouraged to anticipate the permanent and enduring influence of the name and religion of Christ.1. From the fact that the dominion of Christ possesses all the elements of perpetuity, being founded on essential truth, and rectitude, and goodness. This is strongly intimated in the connection of the text: “ Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever.” Why? “ The sceptre of Thy kingdom is a right sceptre. Thou Lovest righteousness,” etc. The Jewish writers have a proverb that “ falsehood has no feet,” and it is certain that in the great cycle of human affair’ s nothing is durable but truth. In the character and grace of Christ you have the pledge of the permanence of His religion and the perpetuity of His name. For power, He has all power in heaven and on earth. For wisdom in Him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and of knowledge. For love, His love passeth knowledge. For truth and faithfulness, heaven and earth shall pass away; but not one jot nor tittle of His Word shall fail. He awes monarchs on their thrones, and yet welcomes childhood to His embrace, and says, “ Suffer little children to come unto Me.” 2. From the fact that no substitute can be found in the entire universe for the Saviour’ s grace and salvation. 3. From the history and progress of this religion in ages past, which, though it has always been opposed, has always surmounted opposition, and nerved its friends with energy to uphold its interests. The past is in this respect the pledge of the future. The same principles which rendered Christianity triumphant at first can, and will, make it triumphant to the end; since we can scarcely conceive of tests more severe than those to which it has been subjected, of enemies more powerful than those it has overcome, or of conflicts more appalling than those which it has already surmounted. (Homiletic Magazine.) Christ’ s renown everlasting By the “ name” of the Son we may understand everything whereby He is made known; especially, however, those amiable and gracious designations which are given to Him in the Bible. This name is “ remembered” when it is known, believed in, and kept in mind as important and interesting. Now, according to the promise, it shall be thus respected, not merely for a short time, but in every age, “ to all generations.” Men shall be raised up, and that means shall be employed to perpetuate his fame; and that, in spite of every attempt to bury Christ’ s honour, God, by His Almighty power, will actually and eternally make His praise glorious. I. The name of God’ s son.1. Immanuel--“ God with us.” But He is not only God, but God “ with us.” From eternity the Son of God appeared on our side. When the fulness of the time had come, He was manifested in our nature. 2. Jesus--“ He shall save His people from their sins.” II. The import of Christ’ s name being remembered to all generations. This implies--1. That in all ages men shall know His name. “ The Son of God hath come, and hath given them an understanding that they may know Him that is true.” What is the consequence? They discern Christ to be singularly excellent in His person, and every way suitable in His offices. “ We believe, and are sure,” is their language, “ that Thou art Christ, the Son of the living God.” 2. That in all ages men shall trust in His name. Is His gracious character revealed in the Gospel? He that remembers it perceives in Him ability and willingness to help. Hence, in the exercise itself of remembering, he appropriates the son of God to himself. Viewing Him as Immanuel, he exclaims, “ My Lord and my God.” Regarding Him as Jesus, he cries, “ The Lord is my strength and my song; he also is become my salvation.” 3. That in all ages men shall meditate on Christ’ s name. III. The means by which God makes Christ’ s name to be remembered.1. God preserves the Scriptures in which the name of Christ is recorded. 2. God raises up ministers by whom the name of Christ is published. 3. He continues the sacraments by which the name of Jesus is exhibited. In each of these Christ crucified is evidently set before us. 4. He sends the Spirit by which the name of Christ is impressed upon human hearts. All other means may, and often do, prove ineffectual in securing the remembrance of Christ’ s name. But here is a means which is, and must always be, successful. IV. The certainty of this matter.1. The condition of men renders such remembrance of the name of Christ desirable. “ There is none other name,” etc. 2. The perfections of God make the continued remembrance of Christ’ s name possible. What are all difficulties, all opposition before Him? 3. The experience of past ages renders it probable that Christ shall still be remembered. 4. The covenant of promise makes it certain that Christ’ s name shall be remembered. (E. Brown.) The spiritual seed of Christ praising their heavenly Father I. Christ’ s name.1. We find Him called “ the mighty God” (Isaiah 9:6). 2. His name is “ Immanuel,” that is, “ God with us” (Matthew 1:23). God in our nature, God on our side. 3. We find Him called “ the Messiah.” 4. Another name whereby He is called is “ Jesus,” a Saviour. 5. Another name whereby our glorious surety is designed is, “ the Lord our righteousness” (Jeremiah 23:6). II. Some things imported in the promise.1. That it is no easy matter to keep up the remembrance of Christ’ s name in a sinful world. To do it is a work that God hath taken into His own hand in an eminent manner. 2. That Christ’ s name is very dear and precious to God the Father. 3. The maintenance and preservation of all the means of Divine appointment for keeping up the remembrance of Christ’ s name. (1) That God will have a professing and confessing Church, in one place or other of the world, in all generations. (2) Thai the Scriptures shall be preserved in all generations. (3) That the glorious Gospel shall be preached in all generations. (4) That the sacraments of Baptism and the Lord’ s Supper shall be administered in all generations. III. As Christ’ s name shall be remembered in all generations, so there shall be a people praising him for ever and ever.1. Mention a few things whirls we take to be supposed in a person or people their praising Christ. (1). We think this exercise of praising Christ supposes saving acquaintance with Him. Those only are in case to praise Christ to whom He hath manifested forth His glory and given the spiritual eye to behold it. (2) The promise that Christ shall be praised in all generations supposes that there shall be some inspired with true love to Him in every generation. (3) The exercise of giving praise and thanks to Christ supposes a humble and thankful frame of spirit. 2. That there shall lie a people praising Christ for ever and over. This truth will appear-- (1) When it is considered that Jehovah the Father hath engaged Himself, by promise to Christ, theft He shall still be praised (Isaiah 53:11; Psalms 22:30-31). (2) When we consider that the great and leading design of Christ in the whole work of redemption and salvation is to bring in a revenue of praise to the crown of heaven. IV. The grounds and reasons for which there shall be a people praising Christ for ever and ever.1. On account of His own personal dignity, worth and excellency. 2. On account of what He has done for them (Revelation 5:9). 3. For what He is and ever will continue to be unto them. V. Use. 1. Inferences. (1) Hence, see the sinfulness, folly and vanity of every endeavour to blot out the remembrance of Christ’ s name. (2) We may see what is the duty of all who would evidence themselves to be really the friends of Christ. Do you then ask, after what manner shall we, who are in a private station, contribute our share to the keeping up of the remembrance of Christ’ s name? You are to contribute to the keeping up the remembrance of Christ’ s name by making an open and explicit acknowledgment of all His truths before the world when you have a call in providence to do it. You are to make conscience of observing the worship of God in your families. You are to contribute your share to the keeping up of the remembrance of Christ’ s name in the world by a holy and circumspect walk and conversation. 2. Exhortation. (T. Bennet.) Psalms 46:1-11 Psalms 46:1-11 God is our refuge and strength.A psalm of war and peace The psalm is divided into three parts, as the Selahs at the end of the third and seventh verses indicate. The first is shorter by one verse, but, were the refrain added to it--it has been said that it was once there--then the psalm stands with a symmetry almost unique. As it is, it has not many rivals. This treasure-house of sacred emotions is built of polished stones, and they are fitly set.1. The first part teaches us to test and try our faith. The singer anticipates a wider storm, and in imagination launches forth in troubled seas. He imagines a break-up, the sea prevailing on the shore, mountains shaken with the swelling thereof; yet through all his faith remains, and he calmly trusts in God. By anticipation he makes preparation for such a crisis, and disciplines his soul to face such an emergency. Our faith is not for an hour or a day: it is to be our mainstay through life and in the hour of death: it is meant to steady and strengthen us in every calamity, however sad, and in every crisis, however sudden. Let us do with it as men do with the anchor chain--try it in fair weather, subject it to a strain greater even than it will likely be called on to bear. Many a faith, once strong, is allowed to rust into weakness, just through sheer neglect. 2. The second part teaches us wisely to remember and profit by the past. Jerusalem had been besieged by the mighty Sennacherib, and delivered miraculously; and the remembrance of the experience strengthened their faith. That night, when the foe surged around her and beleaguered her gates, was a night of omen and portent; but the watchers, in the stillness of the night, still heard the sound of Siloa’ s brook as it rippled and tinkled through the silence; and they knew that God was with them. We, whose national life is seldom perilled either when the heathen rage or kingdoms are moved, must never forget that there are mercies as great surrounding us as if our path was more troubled. When the summer sun shines and the moon walks forth, we have in them as great tokens of His goodness as was displayed in the deliverance of Jerusalem. Pity the man whose life has gone well with him and who cannot say, The Lord is good: He has been with me. 3. We learn from the third part rightly to act with regard to the present. The time of war is over, its fierce flame has spent itself in desolation. We walk over the battlefield, and feel the silence which has fallen. Then the Divine command comes: “ Be still, and know that I am God.” All the peace there is on earth has risen out of the storm of war. Its hills were shaped into beauty amid the storms of nature: the grass grows from the detritus and wreck of storms: our liberties have all been purchased in war: Jesus Christ Himself comes from Bozra with dyed garments. 4. Such was the song of war the Hebrew singer sang; now it is the song of the gospel of peace and of victory; for “ peace hath her victories no less renowned than war.” By the heading, “ A Song upon Alamoth,” you will see this was a song for the dance, a song for the women to sing. It could be given to those with the gentlest hearts and silentest lives, as well as to those who had brave deeds to do. It was eminently Luther’ s psalm, on which he founded his own hymn, and is plainly fitted to be a song of the Church. (J. A. Black, M. A.) The moral mirror of the good I. The earthly scene of the good is that of tumult and opposition.1. To remind us of the constant presence of moral evil. 2. To heighten our aspirations for a peaceful future. II. The present resources of the good are adequate to every emergency.1. Their resources are in God. 2. Their resources, being in God, are ample. (1) They are ever present, lie is ever present: “ God is in the midst of her” ; we have no distance to go. (2) They are ever certain. “ God shall help her, and that right early,” or at the breaking of the morning. Deliverance is often delayed till the last moment, but it will come. Abraham in offering Isaac; Israel at the Red Sea, etc. III. The spirit of the good may, even now, be calm and triumphant. “ We will not fear.” We will “ be still, and know that He is God” ; and more, we will sing in the fiercest tumult, “ The Lord of Hosts is with us,” etc. (Homilist.) God our refuge There is an allusion to the cities of refuge. I. What God is to the Christian.1. A refuge, which greatly excels those cities of Israel which were appointed for refuge to the man-slayer. It is in Jesus: is very near to the guilty; believing brings him into it at once: it is not temporary, but eternal: those refuges were only for the innocent, but this for the sinful: those were only for protection, not for liberty; only the death of the high priest made the refugees free, but this, how different: those were of no avail to the feeble and weak, they were not helped in any way to escape. 2. Strength: through His Spirit promises means of grace. 3. A very present help in trouble: such as the day of contrition, of temptation, of trial, of death. II. The confidence the believer has in God.1. He says he “ will not fear.” Inside the city of refuge the refugee was safe: so the soul in Christ (Romans 8:1). 2. God, being his help and strength, the want and loss of everything is supplied. 3. This absence of fear is not temerity. They have abundant reason for saying, “ Therefore will not we fear.” (Pulpit Analyst.) Man’ s refuge, strength and help The author of this psalm is unknown, but the occasion, it is almost unanimously agreed, was the deliverance of Jerusalem from the army of Sennacherib. Christians in all ages have drawn encouragement and strength from its promises and triumphant declarations. Luther, in trouble, was accustomed to say to his friend Melanchthon, “ Come, Philip,. let us sing the forty-sixth psalm” : when his face would brighten like the sky after a summer shower. Even the profligate Byron, infidel, yet true poet, breaks forth in lofty strains as he tells us how “ The Assyrian came down like a wolf on the fold.” I. God as a refuge. God’ s children often need such refuge. A bird pursued by a hawk took shelter in the bosom of a man, who said to it, “ I will not kill thee nor betray thee to thine enemy, seeing thou hast fled to me for sanctuary.” Christ came into this world that the soul hunted by the fierce hawks of temptation and sin might have a safe refuge. II. God as the strength of the believer. Many would be Christians if they could only be assured that they would be eminent Christians. God never promises that, but only strength and grace. We are entirely dependent on Him for this. It has enabled men to--1. Endure great trials. 2. To conquer. As the old crusaders put upon their bannered cross, “ In hoc signo vinces,” so many a believer to-day faces and conquers his enemies in the strength that God gives. III. God is also a very present help in trouble. This world, beautiful as it is, has its dark and gloomy side. No one is exempt from trial. A motherless little girl was asked, “ What do you do without a mother to whom to tell your troubles?” She replied, “ My mother told me before she died to go to the Lord Jesus. She said that He had always been her friend, and that if I would go to Him He Would always be my friend.” “ But,” said the questioner, “ He is a great way off, and has so much to do; He cannot attend to you.” “ I don’ t know how much He has to do,” said the child, “ but He has said He would take care of me, and I believe He will.” Would that we all had the faith of this orphan child. (Robert Bruce Hull.) The safe shelter There are many who make their wealth their refuge. Others trust in their health and strength. They say, “ Look at this strong arm, this robust chest, and this firm body! Talk of death: ah! ah! see my strength!” I. The character of our God offers to us a sure refuge, for there is no deception in Him. You have had fathers and mothers whose noble testimony to the character of God has been before you. They trusted in Him; and were their lives a failure? II. Our father God is a refuge from all the attacks of satan. Our Father will not allow the devil to battle with His children above their tiny strength. III. Our Father is a refuge from the wicked desires of our hearts. IV. Our heavenly Father is our refuge from the allurements of the sinful world. Keep as far as ever you can from the paths that lead so many to a ruined life and an agonized death. V. In Jesus we see that god is our shelter from the smitings of a convicted conscience. (W. Birch.) A very present help in trouble.-- Sure help Since the days of King David the forty-sixth psalm has been a song of comfort for God’ s people. It was the song of the Christian martyrs of Europe, and of the persecuted Quakers of this country; and when our English dragoons pursued God’ s people in Scotland as if they were wild beasts. We cannot all bear trouble alike. Some men pass through deep waters without apparently feeling it very much, while others appear old almost before they are young men in years. Trouble comes in different ways. Sometimes through trade or business. When you lose your money, why should you also lose your peace? If your joy rests on your money, I would not give twopence for it. God is never so near as when we are in trouble. If this be so, let us march bravely under our burden, like Christian soldiers. Others may have trouble because they are vexed by a few enemies. If you are successful in any great and good work, men of feeble and envious mind will seek opportunities of showing their spite; but it ought not to vex and annoy you. And others may be in some trouble because of bereavement. (W. Birch.) Our present help Some years ago on fine Saturday afternoons it was my custom to scamper in the fields with some of our fatherless children. Once we went round by Salford to Weaste Lane, returning by the river bank and the adjoining fields. We were very weary and hungry when we reached Throstle Nest, and much disappointed to see no ferry-boat there to carry us across the river. After shouting to the opposite side until we were hoarse, we gave it up in despair, and I said to the children, “ What shall we do?” Little Annie, a tiny girl with golden hair, replied, “ I don’ t care, while you are here!” Does our God ever forget to attend to the requests of His people? When He has been very busy with revivals in ten thousand worlds, does He say to His angels, “ Ah, angels, I am sorry I forgot to attend to that poor man in his trouble” ? No, no! Our God never forgets. He is always a present help in time of trouble. I. The Lord is our present help when we are tried by temptation. When Joseph was being tempted every day, the wife of his master may have said, “ Nobody shall know” ; but God was Joseph’ s present help in that continual temptation. “ How can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?” The fact of God’ s presence is the most powerful remedy against every temptation. II. The Lord is a present help when we are enduring trouble. All God’ s people are tried. If we were not tried we should not be worth much in the battlefield of faith. Only tried veterans can be relied on in a difficult enterprise. “ These are they who came out of great tribulation.” If you are tried, be not disheartened; remember that God will be a present help to enable you to bear up in every trouble. It is God’ s will to try us, because it is the only way to make us meet for the grandeur of heaven. III. Our God is a present help when we are striving to attain a noble life. Notice the student working hard, long after the midnight hour has struck. See, be binds a wet cloth round his head to calm the fever of his brain; and the world says it is all right; yet when they see a man struggling to overcome bad passions and acquire virtue, they have but little sympathy; but God beholds all your weary battles, and encourages you with His presence. IV. Our God is our present help when he assures us of salvation. You may have heard of a ship which sailed off from a sinking vessel and left the crew and passengers to perish; but our God, in Christ, shall leave no sinner to perish in the ocean of iniquity, without making an effort to rescue him. Whosoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. You may reply, “ Ah, but, sir, Christ would refuse me, because my soul is diseased.” Some insurance societies might refuse your body, but Christ will never refuse any man’ s soul. A man who is in very bad health, and in despair about his life, goes to a physician and tells him all about his case. Having listened to all lie has to say, the doctor comes up to him with a cheerful face, saying, “ Well, I can guarantee to cure you.” Why, the man goes away almost better! Now, Christ says to every soul that is diseased with sin, “ I can cure you.” And He has cured myriads of such souls. (W. Birch.) Psalms 46:2 Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed. Deliverance from fear Charles Wesley preached from this text, I think, in City Road, in the year of the London earthquake. People fled terror-stricken from their homes and crowded City Road Chapel, feeling that if disaster were overtaking the world safety might be found in the company of godly people. The great preacher thundered forth, “ Therefore will we not fear,” etc. It was a great moment, and yet some of you doubtless will remember that the founder of Methodism himself at a certain crisis in his life passed through an antithetic experience to this. John Wesley records in his Journal that when he was crossing the Atlantic a storm came up which threatened to overwhelm the vessel in which lie was borne, and he cried out for fear. He felt ashamed of his terrors when he came to think of them afterwards. “ I, a Christian man, afraid in the presence of death.” What brought his shame home to him was the spectacle of a group of people--Moravians they were--men, women and little children--singing, some of them kneeling, some of them standing, in a tiny circle on the deck of the ship--singing as fearlessly as though they were on their own hearthstone; and he thought to himself, “ These possess something that I do not possess.” And the time came when John Wesley was as remarkable for his absolute fearlessness in the face of overwhelming odds compared with which most religious workers of the present day have a very easy time indeed. The time came when he could not only say but help other people to say, “ Therefore will we not fear,” etc.; and He was able to make that Old Testament experience his just because he had come into a closer relationship with Him who says, “ It is I; be not afraid.” Though the Christian may have much to do with pain, there should be in his experience no place for fear. Take three examples--three orders of experience shall I call them?--and describe them. Take one who has a business worry. Alongside of him suppose one who brings a home sorrow; and we ought not to omit the man who knows himself to be guilty of moral transgression. To begin with, then, there may be here a small tradesman who has been overtaken, like many other people, by bad times. Your assets are good enough, but you cannot realize them, add yet you are being pressed to meet claims, perfectly just, but which, If they are pressed to the full, will ruin you. You are working so hard, yet you never have an hour free from worry. Now, what is really the matter with you? Is it not fear of something? It is not just what you passed through yesterday. If you knew every day was to be no worse than yesterday--hard though it was, and extensive as your efforts were, and difficult some of the problems undoubtedly are--if you could be sure that things would be no worse, it would not look so very sad. What is the reason? Those who are near and dear to you are part of your problem. If you could only get rid of all fear concerning their future and your own as bound up with theirs, would it not make a difference? Now, not far from such a person there is another whose heart is full of pain, caused not by one thing merely but by fifty. Perhaps within recent days sickness has invaded your home, and misfortunes never come singly, That sickness means more than the suffering of the loved one whom it has attacked. It means disaster in some other form. It means there is less money coming in; it means perhaps that you are called upon to make sacrifices that you can only make up to a certain point. Then in the train of this there comes, perhaps, the loss of friends, the loss of reputation, or you have to suffer from being misjudged. Somebody is saying something about you. You do not like it--none of us cares about false accusations. Now, you cannot but feel, and imagination helps you a little, that these things one on top of another constitute an immense problem and make life more dark for you. Supposing, now, that I could stretch forth my hand and sweep all the fear out of your experience, you have got none left; supposing things were just as bad as they were yesterday, supposing they were worse to-morrow, but no fear--what a difference that would make to the strength with which you would meet the problems of your life--yes, and to the fashion in which you would overcome the adversary that besets you to-day. Now we come to the third. Years ago you contracted a bad habit.. You thought very lightly about it then, you fancied you could do wrong with impunity, and you knew that while it was wrong you went on till you found you were growing a devil out of your own substance, and he will not leave you now that you want him to go. He has got his steel talons fixed upon your throat and is tearing the manhood out of you. Your friends are beginning to whisper about you, and your own heart is filled with foreboding, and it will only be a matter of time before you are wrecked--wrecked not by what any man has done to you, but by what you have done to yourself. You have trifled with moral questions in the past. You have been a strong man and could afford to give range to your passions, but now you feel a very weak one indeed, and far weaker than you would care to own. Now, how do you feel about your experience? What is most wrong is that you have very little hope of getting free. If you could only see a way out of the moral entanglement, if you could only be perfectly sure that a battle for righteousness, however late it was taken, would be a successful battle. It would lighten your load, and you would go home feeling a far different man. Now, there are more ways than one of getting rid of this enemy, of which we are all sooner or later conscious--fear. Some people take the wrong way. I want you to take the right way. For some natures the way of escape has been to fling oneself into the arms of a greater enemy. That is the reason why so many unlikely men, for instance, take to the wine-cup. Morbid excitement, or some anaesthetic that will dull thinking are the way in which some people try to get rid of the fear that blights and blackens their life. The philosophy of “ Let us eat and drink and be merry, for to-morrow we die” has its adherents still, and certain it is that it is a miserable cheeriness, a wretched, cynical sort of happiness which comes by that means. Deliverance from fear under such circumstances is never complete. Observe the hunted looks in the eyes of the man who is trying to forget himself, who leads the laughter in a company, but should not be laughing at all. You know that fear is not gone, it is only waiting outside the door. Very different is the man who cultivates a habit of mind or an order of character which meets hardness with hardness. Sometimes we are almost compelled to admire the dauntlessness of a bad man. He knows he has made the world black. His heart may be very sore, but he does not give way. Sometimes the people upon whom we are hardest in our censures deserve our pity more than our censures. We think them unscrupulous and unrepentant, whereas remorse, which is just next door to repentance, has gripped them. Well, that is one way. I believe it is possible for a man to gradually, as it were, harden his feeling until pain does not make the same inroad upon him as it did at first, and it is possible to expel fear by defying it and keeping on in the old, bad way. But there is a better way than that; that way is a poor sort at the best, and oftentimes it breaks down completely in the stress of life, and you will see a man become as a little babe, weak as water, when fate has tried him beyond a certain point, and his philosophy all goes for nothing. “ Therefore will we not fear,” he says, as long as he can, then one day comes the dread spectre before him and overshadows him, and he sinks before it in the darkness of despair. The real way is not to destroy fear, but to expel fear by faith. Watch your own little child, and he can teach you something. The child is troubled with a real trouble. Look upon him with love, and the sunshine breaks over his little soul. He will enjoy life even when it is dark to you; if only you are there. He somehow feels that his father is good for anything. And that trust of his is justified. The more he trusts you the better you like it; the more complete and beautiful the innocent loyalty that he offers to you, and his confidence in your strength, the more willing you are to rise to fulfil his expectation. I wish we could do as our Master taught us to do, and learn that the fatherhood that we see is just that--a corner of the reality. It is the pale glimmer of the light from which it came. “ If ye, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more your Heavenly Father “ Now, that is the simple duty, but expanded it means a great deal. Trust what? Well, I say this--trust in the essential rightness of things; trust that, though life seems to be organized so that hardness is part of your lot; trust, too, that there is such a thing as the peace passing understanding which comes to the soul of the man who is willing to place himself upon the altar for righteousness’ sake. Believe this also, that when you trust God it is not yours to dictate, but God. God is master of the issues of your life; what have you got to be afraid of? (H. J. Campbell, M. A.) Earthquake but not heartquake All who are truly the chosen of God should exhibit a fearless courage. I. The confidence of the saints. It is altogether beyond themselves. There is nothing about what is their own, but their confidence is all in God. This confidence is gained by an appropriating faith. “ This God is our God.” And is greatly sustained by a clear knowledge of God. Pope said, “ The proper study of mankind is man.” It is a deplorably barren subject. Say, rather, “ The proper study of mankind is God.” “ They that know Thy name will put their trust in Thee.” All this will be certified to us by our experience. You that know the Lord, can you not say by experience, “ God is our refuge” ? Look at the little chicks yonder under the hen. See how they bury their little heads in the feathers of her warm bosom! Hear their little chirp of perfect happiness as they nestle beneath the mother’ s wing! “ He shall cover thee with His feathers,” etc. We can also say that God has been “ our strength,” and “ a very present help in trouble.” We feel something of the mind of Sir Francis Drake who, after he had sailed round the world, was buffeted with a storm in the Thames. “ What,” said he, “ have we sailed round the world safely, and shall we be drowned in a ditch?” So do we say at this day. Helped so long and helped so often! But in order to realize this fearlessness we need an immediate enjoyment of the Divine help. “ God is my refuge and strength.” II. The courage which grows out of it. This courage is very full and complete. “ Therefore will not we fear.” It does not say, “ Therefore will not we run away, or even faint, or swoon in dread,” but “ we will not fear.” And this courage is logically justifiable. The believer’ s fearlessness is founded upon argument. Hence it says, “ Therefore we will not fear.” For nothing that happens affects God, the ground of his confidence. Now, this fearlessness is exceedingly profitable. Serenity of spirit, such as was ever in Jesus; no temptation to do wrong. And it brings great glory to God. I knew a youth, near forty years ago, who was staying with relations when a thunderstorm of unusual violence came on at nightfall. A stack was struck by lightning and set on fire within sight of the door. The grown-up people in the house, both men and women, were utterly overcome with fright, the men even more than the women; all sat huddled together: there was a little child up-stairs, and, though anxious about it, the mother had not courage enough to pass the staircase windows to bring the child down. But this youth was quietly happy. The babe cried, and he went up and fetched it down and gave it to its mother. He needed no candle, for the lightning was so continuous that he could clearly see his way. He sat down and read a psalm aloud to his trembling relatives, who looked on the lad with loving wonder. That night he was master of the situation, and all felt there was something in the religion which he had lately professed. III. The conflicts to which this fearlessness will be exposed. It will be tried in ways novel and unusual. “ Though the earth be removed.” Sometimes mysterious and threatening: “ the mountains carried into the midst of the sea.” If we saw that we should be at our wits’ end to account for it. Some trials also appear to he utterly ungovernable. “ Though the waters thereof roar,” etc. And sometimes the fear of others affects us. “ The mountains shake with,” etc. Conclusion. If war should come, as it may; or anarchy and a break-up of social order; or trade fail, or persecution come back; or heresy prevail. Fear not. I remember years ago meeting with that blessed servant of God, the late Earl of Shaftesbury. He was at Mentone with a dying daughter, and he happened that day to be very downcast, as, indeed, I have frequently seen him, and as, I am sorry to confess, he has also frequently seen me. That day he was particularly cast down about the general state of society. He thought that the powers of darkness in this country were having it all their own way, and that, before long, the worst elements of society would gain power and trample out all virtue. Looking up into his face, I said to him, “ And is God dead? Do you believe that while God lives the devil will conquer Him?” He smiled, and we walked along by the sea, communing together in a far more hopeful tone. In the Book of Revelation tremendous events are foretold, and they will come, but we need not fear. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Fearless fronting of the future I. There may be great tempests in the future, The annals of the past are filled with records of social earthquakes and raging tempests. “ The mountains,” the largest things in human life, thrones, governments, fortunes, have been carried into the midst of revolutionary seas, which have roared and heaved, and with their dashing floods made things stable as the “ mountains shake.” What has been may come again. Into whatever domain we step there is commotion: in the realms of politics party is contending with party and kingdom with kingdom; in the realms of commerce what fierce competitions--every little spirit is striving for the mastery; in the realms of literature opinions battle with opinions and systems with systems; in the realms of religion, in the very heart of the holy city, “ the waters roar with the swelling” of acrimonious controversies and sectarian feuds. Of all revolutions, none is greater to the individual man than death, involving the utter disorganizing of the body, the disruption of all material ties, and the launching of the soul into the awful mysteries of retribution. And then, in the future not only of ourselves but of all departed and coming men, there are revolutions more terrible than any that has yet happened. II. There need be no dread for our future. “ God is our refuge,” etc.1. His protective sufficiency. Infinite in its amplitude, impregnable in its resistance, interminable in its duration. We can be involved in no difficulty from which He cannot extricate, exposed to no danger from which He cannot shelter, assailed by no enemies from which He cannot deliver. 2. His perennial grace. “ There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God,” etc. What is the true “ city of God” ? Not architecture, not an assemblage of buildings, not a place of habitation; but the community of godly spirits. This is the city of Elohim. A city pure, harmonious, ever-growing. As the stream that issued from Eden to water the whole garden, so the gracious influences of Heaven, like a river, roll through all the parts of this blessed community. This river of grace has never failed, and never will, hence let us trust in Him. 3. His providential interposition. “ What desolations He hath made on the earth.” Mark them well. Not the desolation of virtue, order, or peace, or aught that ennobles or beautifies human nature. But desolations amongst the desolators of human rights, of human happiness and progress. He destroys the works of the devil. With confidence in such a God as this, we need not fear. (Homilist.) Psalms 46:4-7 There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the Most High.The city and river of God There are two remarkable events in the history of Israel, one or the other of which most probably supplied the historical basis upon which this psalm rests. One is that singular deliverance of the armies of Jehoshaphat from the attacking forces of the bordering nations, but I think rather that the more ordinary reference is the correct one, which sees JCr/ this psalm and in the two succeeding, the echoes of that supernatural deliverance of Israel in the time of Hezekiah, when “ The Assyrian came down like a wolf on the fold,” and Sennacherib and all his army were, by the blast from the breath of His nostrils, swept into swift destruction. Now, these verses are the cardinal central portion of the song. We may call them The Hymn of the defence and the deliverance of the city of God. The main turning points in them are-- I. The gladdening river--an emblem of many great and joyous truths. This river is God Himself in the outflow and self-communication of His own grace to the soul. The stream is the fountain in flow. Concerning this communication note--1. The manner of it. In the previous verses you can hear the wild waves of the sea dashing round the base of the firm hills, sapping their strength, and toppling their crests down in the bubbling, yeasty foam. Remember how, not only in Scripture but in all poetry, the sea has been the emblem of endless unrest. Its waters, those barren, wandering fields of foam, going moaning round the world with unprofitable labour, how they have been the emblem of unbridled power; of tumult and strife, and anarchy and rebellion! Then mark how our text brings into sharpest contrast with all that hurly-burly of the tempest, and the dash and roar of the troubled waters, the gentle, quiet flow of the river, “ the streams whereof make glad the city of God,” the translucent little ripples purling along beds of golden pebbles, and the enamelled meadows drinking the pure stream as it steals by them. Thus, says our psalm, not with noise, not with tumult, not with conspicuous and destructive energy, but in silent, secret, underground communications--God’ s grace, God’ s love, His peace, His power, His Almighty and gentle Self flow into men’ s souls. The extremest power is silent. 2. Their number and variety. “ The streams whereof,” that is to say, “ the divisions whereof.” As Eastern rivers are broken up into canals that are led off to each man’ s plot of ground. Listen to words that are a commentary upon this verse, “ All these worketh that one and the self-same Spirit, dividing unto every man severally as he will.” 3. The effects of this communicated God. “ The streams make glad.” They to whom this stream pours shall know no thirst; they who possess it from them it shall come. Out of him “ shall flow rivers of living water.” “ The least flower with a brimming cup may stand, And share its dewdrop with another near.” The city thus supplied may laugh at besieging hosts. With the deep reservoir in its central fortress, the foe may do as they list to all surface streams; its water shall be sure, and no raging thirst shall ever drive it to surrender. II. Then notice secondly, substantially the same general thought, but modified and put in plain words--the indwelling helper. “ God is in the midst of her, she shall not be moved: “ God shall help her, and that right early.” Or, as the latter clause had better be translated, as it is given in the margin of some of our Bibles, “ God shall help her at the appearance of the morning.” There are two things then. First of all, the constant presence; and second, help at the right time. “ The Lord is in the midst of her” --that is the perennial fact. “ The Lord shall help her, and that right early” --that is the “ grace for seasonable help.” III. The psalm having set forth these broad grounds of confidence, goes on to tell the story of the actual deliverance which confirms them, That deliverance comes from the Conquering Voice. “ He uttered His voice--the earth melted.” With what vigour these hurried sentences describe, first the wild wrath and formidable movements of the foe, and then the one sovereign word which quells them all, as well as the instantaneous weakness that dissolves the seeming solid substance when the breath of His lips smites it! How grand and lofty the thought I the simple word conquers all opposition. He speaks and it is done. “ The depths are congealed in the breast of the sea!” As if you were to lay hold upon Niagara in its wildest plunge, and then with a word to freeze all its descending waters, and stiffen them into immoveableness in fetters of eternal ice. So, He utters His voice, and all meaner noises are hushed. “ His voice the earth melted.” How grandly, too, these last words give the impression of immediate and utter dissolution of all opposition! All the Titanic brute forces are, at His voice, disintegrated, and lose their organization and solidity. “ The hills melted like wax; The mountains flowed down at Thy presence.” The psalmist is generalizing the historical fact of the sudden and utter destruction of Sennacherib’ s host into a universal law. And it is a universal law--true for us as for Hezekiah and the sons of Korah, true for all generations. IV. The act by which we enter the city of God. “ The Lord of Hosts is with us, the God of Jacob is our refuge.” There must be personal appropriation. We must make these truths our own, grasping them by faith, and unite ourselves with the great multitude who are joined together in Him. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) The security and happiness of the Church I. What is here meant by the city of God. Two descriptive pictures are laid before us. One is a scene of wild commotion. The earth is removed from its place; the mountains are carried into the midst of the sea. The other scene stands out in marked contrast to this. A placid river runs through a sheltered valley; utterly unaffected by the elemental disturbances which surround it, and sending to every part of the city, through which it flows, its calm fertilizing streams of health and peace. The scene of tempest and commotion is the world. The scene of silent usefulness, and sheltered repose, and enjoyed and diffused blessing--the city watered by a river--is the Church of God. And how true is the picture as seen in the respective destinies of secular communities and the one spiritual community of God’ s Church I The spiritual Zion has always been able to hold her own. It has been God’ s stronghold, having “ salvation for its walls and bulwarks,” and girt round on every side by the everlasting hills. II. The spiritual happiness of the true church of God.1. It is implied that, in this city of God, there is much of inward tranquillity and peacefulness. A contrast is presented between the calm which reigns in the city, and the tempest which is raging outside. It is the calm of the Divine presence. “ God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved” --neither by weapons turned against her, nor dangers threatening her, nor calamities and fears casting her down. But let us not lose ourselves in generalities. The tranquillity of the Church is the tranquillity of every individual member of that Church. It is the calm repose of sonship--the sense of deliverance from a bondage state; the pleasant consciousness of pardon and acceptance--all the tumult of inward guilt subsiding into a great calm. Again, it is the tranquillity of men under absolute control and guidance in relation to everything that concerns them. They are not their own, being bought with a price. But they are bought only to be under a happier service--“ being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ.” Yet is this law not their yoke, but their relief. They are relieved from the embarrassment and tyranny of their own erring and mistaken choices. 2. Observe, as another feature of the spiritual happiness of the Church, the rich provision made for all her members, a provision both of grace and glory. A river is an emblem of copiousness and depth and vitality and continuance. But not by the parent river only is the city of God gladdened. It receives blessing through a multitude of tributary streams. “ There is a river, the streams whereof make glad the city of God.” Thus there is the stream of revealed truth and knowledge; the pure deep living waters of inspiration; that word of the Gospel which, beginning with Moses and the prophets, and widening as time flowed on, at length emptied all its treasures of grace and truth into that crystal sea of light, which contains the full and perfect revelation of the mind of God. And then there is the stream of holy ordinances--the Sabbath with its tranquil devotions. 3. “ Make glad,” observe it is said; the expression intimating that among the inhabitants of this city of God there is true gladness and rejoicing. It is true gladness, the gladness of rational and responsible beings, the calm gladness of a relieved conscience, of an interest made sure in the great propitiation, of a conscious abiding under that light of God’ s countenance which makes over to us Heaven’ s best, and earth’ s best too--“ Thou hast put gladness in my heart more than in the time that their corn and their wine increased.” (D. Moore, M. A.) The city of God I. The city.1. God is its founder. 2. God is its lawgiver. 3. It is a defenced city (Zechariah 2:5). 4. It is an exalted city. The character of the King raises her in the scale of importance. The Lord Jehovah has His palace within her; there He, at times, manifests the glories of His character and the splendour of His majesty. This city is also exalted by the numerous and valuable privileges she enjoys; every subject has free access to a throne of grace, there to present his suit, to make known his grievance, and to supplicate every needful favour. There is also perfect freedom in this city; no galling shackles, no dreaded fetters, are employed to enslave, but every subject of Christ enjoys the sweetest liberty in walking according to the given law of heaven. Here it is freedom to obey and liberty to serve. II. The supply of this city.1. The good providence of God is a stream which continually follows the Church. A thorough conviction of the superintendence of an all-wise Providence is productive of the greatest joy and satisfaction to the Christian. He rests satisfied, depending on the word of truth that “ all things shall work together for good.” 2. The Holy Scriptures are a stream from the Deity, inasmuch as they are emphatically the revelation of God, and they contain matter of joy to the Christian in many respects. In this volume he finds information for the mind, the strongest motives to Christian obedience, a sacred impulse to his zeal, an increasing ardour to his affections, and new encouragement for hope. 3. The influences of the Spirit. He who hath begun a good work will carry it on. 4. Its joy “ shall make glad the city of God.” The gladness of the Church comes from God, a pure spring, so that it must be pure in its nature. Indeed, He alone is the source of all the believer’ s comforts, however numerous and various they may be. (D. Jones.) The security and happiness of the Church Note the contrasted scenes. One, of wild commotion--the sea is roaring and troubled: the other of quiet peace. A placid river runs through its sheltered valley, undisturbed and undisturbable.” The scene of tempest and change is the world: of quiet peace, the Church. I. The security of the church. Trace its history from first to last and see how it has been preserved. II. Its tranquillity. For therein are to be found men who are--1. At peace with God. 2. Under the holy government of their Lord, which restrains all passion and temper. 3. In communion with God. 4. In the use of religious ordinances. III. The supply of the church. “ A river.” Think of the source, the continuance, the fulness, of this stream of heavenly truth, bright and pure. IV. The gladness of the church.1. It is noble and worthy of rational beings. 2. It is satisfying. 3. It is sanctifying. 4. It is benevolent. 5. It fits us for scenes where gladness is eternal. (R. Watson.) The river of God The fourth chapter of St. John and Psalm sixty-three show that by the river spoken of, the Holy Spirit of God is meant. Under the figure of a river the properties and excellencies of the Spirit of God, hero described as flowing through the Scriptures and the Church, are set forth. I. A river flows from a fountain, and this river “ proceeded out of the throne of God and the Lamb,” the infinite bosom of our Father and our God. II. It is exhaustless as the fountain from whence it flows. III. It is in places shallow, whilst in others its depths cannot be fathomed. IV. It is accessible to all. V. Fertility follows it. VI. Its channel is the lord Jesus Christ. VII. It is a highway by which great treasures are conveyed to us; and it is a great means of communication between us and heaven. VIII. It rises to the height of its source. IX. It rears all down before it by its force and pressure. X. It is a defence to the city which it surrounds. XI. It rears off all impurities. XII. It is a gladdening spectacle. Then let us value the work of the Holy Spirit. (J. Cummins, D. D.) The river of mercy I. The river. This I take to be the mercy of God; His kindness to the miserable. Just, He must needs be, for He would not be merciful if He were not just. But there are manifestations of His justice in which He takes no joy. “ He taketh no pleasure in the death of the sinner;” but “ He delighteth in mercy.” And sometimes its exhibitions are very tender--“ it droppeth as the gentle dew from heaven upon the place beneath.” And how copious its store! it is a river, not a rill that can be turned aside by any pebble in its bed; but a river that sweeps triumphantly over and through every obstacle. II. The streams Some rivers are fed by streams; not so this one” it gives out streams but receives none, like the river of Damascus, whose branches surround the city. These streams are--1. Pardoning mercy. 2. Purifying mercy: for it would be of little use if purity were not given as well as pardon. 3. Pacifying mercy--to keep me quiet in the midst of this unquiet world. III. The fruit. The river is to make glad the city of God. That is, God’ s Church and people; and the great purpose of the river and all its streams is--to make them glad: to bring up a smiling landscape around them, to fill their lips and hearts with praise. IV. Its source. It is far above out of your sight. So is it, even, with earthly rivers: they do not at once reveal their source. You must travel up and up the stream, and leave plain for hillside, and still press on ere you come to the fountain head. And for this river you must ascend to the boundless lake of Divine love. V. The channel--the Lord Jesus Christ. Through Him it flows down to man. VI. The power that brings the streams close home to us, so that we may have the blessing, is the power of the Holy Spirit. See what He has already done in the Scriptures and in the Church. (F. Tucker, B. A,) The river through the city I. An illustration of the gladness given by God to his church. The mercies of God, to the Jews, were like a river constantly flowing, making glad the city. The figure is suggestive. A river is a great boon to any city through which it passes so long as it keeps within its accustomed channels. It gives brightness to a city. It lends interest, makes picturesque by its bends or its tree- and reed-fringed banks. It is a means of intercourse with other places. Imagine Paris without the many-bridged Seine, or London without its ship-burdened Thames. A river may be a constant bearer of material blessings. By its ebb and flow it blesses a city in various ways. It bears away refuse, and brings back vitalizing influences. A river can make glad in that it bears the necessaries of life to a beleaguered city, which but for the roadway of water could not be reached. At the relief of Londonderry, what joy when the ships pressed past the intercepting booms and came right up to the wharves, and rolled to a famishing people and cattle the barrels of flour and bundles of fodder. Jerusalem had no such rivers as those we have been speaking of. It had a torrent sweeping by in Kedron at times. Soon it dropped down to a trickling stream which might make melody and gladness as it flowed. Suppose it had been always full and steadily flowing, it would have brought gladness. If Jerusalem had no such actual river she had another stream that blessed her, that of Divine mercy. The psalmist is speaking of spiritual things, for he refers to the Holy place of the Tabernacle of the Most High. All God was to the Jewish nation He is to His Church this day. II. The constituents of this gladness.1. The special relationship established.2. The revelations vouchsafed.3. In the intercourse main-rained.4. In the blessings bestowed.5. In the holy effort called forth.6. In the praise evoked. If God has given us reasons for joy, we ought to do all we can to increase the volume and force of the stream of joy rippling or rolling by to others. (Homiletic Magazine.) The river of Divine grace I. The grace of god compared to a river.1. However large in its volume as it gets nearer the sea, every river is small in its beginnings. Thus, also, it is with the grace of God in the soul of man. The most experienced believer will testify that if he would trace back the work of grace, which has grown so steadily, to its first beginnings, the contrast is most marvellous. If he can at all identify its first commencement, he will tell you that it was some apparently trifling incident in his life--a word in season--an earnest sermon--an unaccountable thought--a sleepless night--a witty, but godly rebuke--a mother’ s parting charge--a loved one’ s consistent Christian influence and conduct--or a sudden check in a career of cruelty and sin. 2. It is possible for a river to be much contaminated by what is thrown into it, as it passes through populous towns; but it is impossible to change the nature of the water which is thus contaminated. Give the careful chemist a sufficient quantity of the most polluted river-water, and he can obtain from it, by filtration, distillation, and re-distillation, the pure and wholesome fluid which God has provided for us, and which He has guarded from defilement by decreeing that it shall everywhere and always have one fixed and unaltered composition, and that its constituent gases shall be so closely united that they can only be separated by a difficult and expensive process. Take the water of any river, fresh from its source, and you will readily perceive that it is pure in its nature. Need I say that it is so with the grace of God? 3. The grace of God, like a river, is perpetual in its movements. The lake may be stagnant, unless some river runs through it; the canal must be kept as free from any current as possible; but the river is always on the move. So it is with the grace of God in the soul of man. However hidden it may be, it is ever living and ever moving. Geographers tell us that the river Guadiana, in Spain, conceals itself in the earth for some fifteen miles of its course. But it is still there. In like manner, however concealed, the grace of God is at work in the heart of every believer. 4. It is peaceable in its course. “ Still waters run deep.” There may not be the stillness of the stagnant lake; but there is the quiet, or even the silence of the flowing river. But we must not take this characteristic of God’ s grace as a recommendation to us to shut up our cares or joys into our own souls, and never share them with others. God’ s people should not be silent when there is opportunity to declare what He hath done for their souls. 5. The grace of God, like a river, is powerful in its current. It is said that the Rio de la Plata, a South American river, which is two hundred miles broad where it enters the Atlantic Ocean, is so powerful in its current, that fresh water may be taken up by vessels sailing near it for many a league from land. But what is this physical force, compared with the irresistible power of the grace of God?” Thy people shall be willing in the day of Thy power.” 6. It is plentiful in its supply. The river runs through meadow, and garden, and country, and city, serving some useful purpose wherever it goes. Here it nourishes the cornland upon which the precious crops are springing up; and there it affords a ready means of watering the carefully-tended garden. In one place it turns a mill, to afford maintenance to an honest family and grind corn for hundreds of other families; in another place it supplies water for a canal, to convey these products of industry to the populous town or the factor’ s store. Ever increasing, as it nears its destination, boats and even ships are borne upon its plentiful waters, until at last it joins the great and wide sea. Is it not so with the grace of God? Does not the figure fall far short of the fact? II. The church of God compared to a city. A city affords security for life and property. It furnishes facilities for the transaction of business. It ensures liberty to every honest and faithful citizen: and it provides society for all who reside in it. This is precisely what the Church of God affords to its individual members--the most complete security for the believing soul, through the blood of the everlasting covenant; the only thorough liberty which the soul can experience, for “ if the Son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed” ; and the highest form of human society upon earth; for the apostle says (Ephesians 2:19-20). The Church of God may be called a city, because it is a community in which law and order find their highest developments. “ The love of Christ constraineth us” (2 Corinthians 5:14), is its unfailing spring of Christian obedience and activity. The Republic of France used to stamp upon its coins “ Liberty, Egalite, Fraternite” ; but never did any government in this world succeed in realizing such an ideal of human happiness. True liberty, true equality, true friendship and brotherhood, are to be found only in the Church of God. It is a city set on an hill that cannot be hid. It may be called “ the city of God,” because it abounds with houses of God--it is “ the holy place of, the tabernacles of the Most High.” Its walls are Salvation, and its gates Praise. III. The means of grace compared to streams. Just as the faithful Israelites drank of the spiritual Rock which followed them, and “ that rock was Christ” (1 Corinthians 10:4), so with us to-day. There is the Word of God, ever ready to furnish us with some refreshing stream of Divine comfort and strength. There is the throne of grace, ever open to our supplications in time of need. There is the public worship of God, where we may taste afresh the calm which comes from the assurance of sins forgiven. There is the preaching of the Gospel, which should be to us “ as cold waters to a thirsty soul,” and as “ good news from a far country.” There are the occasional services of the Church, by which we are studiously and solemnly reminded of the immense privileges which belong to those who are truly servants of God. And there are, particularly, two copious and important streams, which deserve to be far more reverently and extensively used and appreciated--the Sacraments of the grace of God, Holy Baptism and the Holy Communion. (J. Mitchell.) Gihon and the river of life The allusion in the text is probably to Gihon, a copious fountain, whose streams were so abundant that they were like a river. It made the hearts of the people glad; and if we lived under the same climate as they, and had as great a scarcity of water as Jerusalem naturally had, we should have been glad too. But oh! how does it lead us up to something higher than this! How does it lead us up to the “ River of life,” “ the Gospel of the grace of God,” which has gladdened the Church of God in all ages, which gladdens it now, and which will gladden it to all eternity! I. The contrast.1. In the certainty of supplies. Gihon might have been dried up; in times of great heat, the most abundant fountains in that country are often dried up; even Jordan, their greatest river--their only great river--is sometimes brought so low as to be reduced almost to a small stream. But when does the river of grace ever become dry? 2. Gihon’ s waters were but shallow. But who can fathom the depth of this river, the love from which it springs? 3. The course of Gihon might have been diverted, might have been turned into a new channel. When Jerusalem was besieged, it is not told us whether Titus turned the current of Gihon; yet it-might have been so. But who can turn the current of God’ s grace? Who can dam up that stream? 4. There is a contrast in the quality of the waters. No doubt the inhabitants of Jerusalem drank of this river, and were glad. They drank and were refreshed, and thanked God. Yet it only slaked their thirst; it did not go above that. But what is there not in the pardon of my sin? what is there not in the acceptance of my person? what is there not in the clear witness of the Spirit with my spirit that I am a child of God? If you enjoy that it shall be something more than slaking the thirst of the body. II. The resemblance.1. The waters of this Gihon were brought to Jerusalem by an aqueduct, and carried by conduits through the streets into the temple. It went through one of the high hills of Jerusalem. Hezekiah, therefore, must have had great difficulty. And the whole current of the Gospel must run through difficulties--what to the natural sense would appear impossibilities. 2. There is another strong line of resemblance, which is, that the Lord employs human agency. God was at no loss about Gihon; had He a mind, it would have bubbled up in the midst of Jerusalem; He wanted not the hands of men; it might have sprung forth at the base of that hill on which the temple was built. But Hezekiah’ s zeal must be called forth--his loss of money, his loss of time, his patience in the midst of disappointments. The water was brought into Jerusalem, and it was brought by human agency. God delights in human agency. When that agency is laid in the dust, laid low at the foot of the Cross, He delights to make use of it. It is His glory to work by human instrumentality. (J. H. Evans, M. A.) God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved.--The security of the Church I. In what sense God may re said to be in the midst of the church.1. By His Word.2. By His ministers.3. By His Spirit. II. The happy consequences of his presence in reference to her final safety and her timely deliverance from present troubles.1. How great are the privileges of true believers.2. How necessary it is to ascertain our individual interest in these blessings.3. How great is our encouragement to prayer. (W. Mayors, M. A.) God shall help her and that right early.--God our helper I. Israel needed the divine help and trusted in God for deliverance. The Church of to-day in its growth in grace needs like deliverance, but is at times slow to confess this. II. God makes his people sensible of their need when they forget it. He did so by Israel. He said, “ I will go and return to My place till they acknowledge their offence and seek My face; in their affliction they will seek Me early” (1 Kings 8:38-39). III. Such sense of need requisite to make men seek his assistance in prayer. (J. Foot, D. D.) Psalms 46:8-11 Come, behold the works of the Lord, what desolations He hath made in the earth, The desolations of the Lord, the consolations of His saints I. a declaration of what has happened. “ Come, behold the works . . . desolations He hath made.” See them--1. In the effects of wars, plagues, famines, revolutions, etc. But these are but the rough physic wherewith God will purge the diseased body of this earth from its innumerable ills. 2. In the overthrow of false worships. Idolatry, Rome, etc. 3. And false philosophies. 4. In the putting an end to war. II. A prophecy to be fulfilled. It will be one day. Men ask, “ Wherefore the delay?” and many say, “ This is Divine sovereignty.” Take care we do not make Divine sovereignty a sepulchre for our sins. Now, in reference to the delay in missionary success, it is owing, in part, to want of unanimity; to false ideas about God doing His own work; to want of real love to missions. I do not think Edward Irving right, who in his great sermon on missions maintained that we ought to send out our missionaries without purse or scrip, penniless. We do not believe that. Therefore we must have help. But we need most a real revival at home. (C. H. Spurgeon.) God alone exalted I. The active agency of God.1. In the multiplied disasters which abound. The various elements of nature, the raging hurricane, the thunders rolling along the sky, the lightnings flashing from cloud to cloud, the volcano vomiting rivers of fire, and the earthquake shaking kingdoms and levelling cities with the ground--all are His servants. 2. In the removal of the calamities by which we may be surrounded. II. The exclusive sovereignty of God.1. The duty urged. “ Be still.” 2. The reason adduced. “ Know” -- (1) That God’ s supremacy is absolute.(2) That His justice is unimpeachable.(3) That His wisdom is unerring.(4) That His goodness is unbounded. 3. The assurance given. “ I will be exalted,” etc. III. The gracious protection of God. “ The Lord of hosts is with us,” etc.1. The condition on which it is enjoyed. We must submit ourselves to the Lord and acknowledge His righteous claims before we can have Him on our side. 2. The blessedness it involves. “ Happy is he,” etc. 3. The effects. It should banish every painful apprehension, and fill us with transporting joy. (Expository Outlines.) Psalms 46:9 He maketh wars to cease unto the ends of the earth; He breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear in sunder; He burneth the chariot in the fire.War I. As it affects the happiness of mankind. Think of--1. Its rapid extinction of innumerable lives without concern. 2. Think of the manner of their death. Far from their native home, no tender assiduities of friendship, no well-known voice, no wife, or mother, or sister, is near to soothe their sorrows, relieve their thirst, or close their eyes in death. Unhappy man! and must you be swept into the grave unnoticed and unnumbered, and no friendly tear be shed for your sufferings, or mingled with your dust? 3. But think, also, of the condition of those countries which are the scene of hostilities. How dreadful to hold everything at the mercy of an enemy. II. The influence of war upon the morals of mankind. It is both the offspring and the parent of injustice. The injury which the morals of a people sustain from an invading army is prodigious. The agitation and suspense universally prevalent are incompatible with everything which requires calm thought or serious reflection. In such a situation is it any wonder the duties of piety fall into neglect, the sanctuary of God is forsaken, and the gates of Zion mourn and are desolate? Familiarized to the sight of rapine and slaughter, the people must acquire a hard and unfeeling character. Let us now turn to the pleasing part of our subject, which invites us to contemplate the reasons for gratitude and joy suggested by the restoration of peace. Permit me to express my hope, that along with peace the spirit of peace will return. How can we better imitate our Heavenly Father, than, when tie is pleased to compose the animosities of nations, to open our hearts to every milder influence? Let us hope, more mutual forbearance, a more candid construction of each other’ s views and sentiments will prevail. No end can now be answered by the revival of party disputes. Our public and private affections are no longer at variance. That benevolence which embraces the world is now in perfect harmony with the tenderness that endears our country. Burying in oblivion, therefore, all national antipathies, together with those cruel jealousies and suspicions which have too much marred the pleasures of mutual intercourse, let our hearts correspond to the blessings we celebrate, and keep pace, as far as possible, with the movements of Divine beneficence. (Robert Hall, M. A.) Methods for abolishing war There are three methods at least adapted to crush this monster of war, and to banish it from the habitations of men. One is political, another is educational, and the other is Christian. The one pertains to the science of government, the other to the science of teaching, and the other to the science of remedial mercy. The first is good, the second is better, the third is best of all--it is infallible. I. Thy, political method. There is, I think, a form of human government adapted not only to arrest the progress of this demon, but to bind him in indissoluble chains. What is it? A cosmopolitan administration, a great federal government for the world, a government which shall bear, with some modification, the same relation to all the present kingdoms of the earth, as the Government of America to all the States with which it is united, or as the various counties and boroughs of England to the British rule. But how would such a world-wide government “ cause wars to cease from the ends of the earth” ?1. It would promote free mercantile intercourse. Mutual temporal interests, if not strong enough to bind hearts in harmony, are strong enough to yoke limbs and brains together in a common work. 2. It would lead to the destruction of nationalities. Nationality is a “ middle wall of partition” that keeps men asunder, and makes those on each side feel jealous and suspicious of the other. It is a false glass through which we look at other nations. A glass which magnifies their vices and minifies their virtues. Nationality is an insolent, swaggering, greedy, heartless monster on the earth. 3. It would lead to the abolition of the despotic power. Who are the men that create wars? Not the people--not the farmer, the manufacturer, not the mechanic, and the labourer; but the arrogant and ruthless despots who by villainy or fortune have gained their way to power. Such men would have but little power in a thoroughly cosmopolitan government. II. The educational method. What is this method? The indoctrinating of men with a true knowledge of their duty, their rights, and their interest. Whence is the knowledge of duty to be obtained? We have the revelation of an infallible ethical Teacher--One who was sent into the world by God to teach man his duty both to himself and his fellow-man.1. Work into the people of the earth the conviction that all men are equal in the sight of God, that one man has rights as well as another, that each holds his being and his powers in trust from the Almighty, and must render to Him an account at last. And what then? Why then every man would respect his own individuality, employ his own individual talents, and work out his own individual beliefs, and despots would have to fight their own battles; men would no longer consent to be engines worked by tyrants. 2. Were men permeated with this true idea of their obligation to their fellow-men, could war exist a day? No. Men would feel that war was not only a curse to the community, destroying the Jives of men and the means of human support, creating misery in all directions, and entailing poverty on posterity, but also a huge crime before Almighty God. 3. War is a tremendous mistake, not only in morals, but in policy. In what does the interest of a nation consist? In the means of support, comfort, and education. On what do these depend? On the amount of a nation’ s skilled industry. Anything that checks productive industry is a national curse. War is the greatest adversary to the prosperity of a community; war is destruction, both of the produce and of the producing power. III. The Christian method. What is this method? The conquering of evil by good. This is something higher than ethics, Diviner than all mere human teaching. This is the essence of Christianity. Christianity is essentially pacific. This may be argued from the teachings of the New Testament, from the biography of Christ, which is Christianity, and from the fact that its universal triumph will issue in universal peace. (Homilist.) Psalms 46:10 Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth. Stillness and the knowledge of God There is a class of persons who are designated by divines and Church historians as Quietists. They have not formed a community, but they have been found in all communities. They are not distinguishable by their doctrines so much as by a certain temper or habit of mind. They are to be traced among the Religious Orders of the fourteenth century, amidst the tumults of the Protestant sects in the sixteenth, in our Civil Wars, in the splendour and corruption of the French capital under Louis XIV., in the bustle and restlessness of those days. Now, it is not fair to judge of these men from the representations of their opponents, or even from their own accounts, unless we know their surrounding circumstances; but in so far as they showed dislike to energetic qualities, to conflicts, and to mixture with their fellow-men, so far their spirit seems alien from that which we discern in the holy men whom the Bible tells of. For they seem to be living always in contention and strife, and they confess that they are meant to live in it. How can a Quietist accept the Psalms? must it not be to him a very uncongenial book? How could the man after God’ s own heart have been a warrior and yet have given thoughts and prayer and music to the Church in all periods? For there is a Sabbatical character in these psalms. They have a quiet of their own; all feel that. It has been their charm to the weary and tempest-tossed pilgrims; they have taught man how to commune with his own heart, how to be still, how to rest in the Lord and to wait patiently for Him. And through man knowing thus the secret of being still, he has been able to toil manfully. And this is the quietism of the psalms, quietism in the midst of action, which only one who hears the call to act, and obeys it, can understand or prize. The ground of such quiet is given in our text. Only the belief of a Presence near us, with us, can inspire habitual awe, can keep us steady when all things are rocking around us, can take away the eagerness to move, or the cowardice which paralyzes movement. “ Be still and know.” You cannot know this deep and eternal truth unless you are still. If you keep the waters of your spirit in continual stir, you will see nothing in them, or only the reflection of your own perturbed self. “ Be still and know that I am God.” You may wonder to observe how often this form of speech is adopted in Scripture. He says, “ I am God,” not a conception of your minds, not One whom you make what He is by your mode of thinking of Him, but a living Person. And He is not a mere Being, not a mere Ruler, but the perfectly good Being, the perfectly righteous Ruler. And He alone can show you what the perfect goodness is. Israel had been trained in a school of suffering to feel the emptiness and falsehood of all visible creature worship, and that God alone was the Unseen King and Deliverer; they must seek in stillness to know Him, and must confess Him to be the Lord of their once revolted spirits, which in their efforts to be independent had become abject slaves. But the lesson would have been imperfect without the words that follow: “ I will be exalted among,” etc. Israel was not to despise the nations round about, or to think them of no value in God’ s sight. To do that was to despise God. Even as a comfort in any disaster, individual or national, the belief in God’ s presence, in His personality, in His goodness, would have been unsatisfactory, if it had not been accompanied with this belief in His power, with this assurance that it would one day make itself manifest over the universe, and would crush all that opposed it. It is a great question for us to ask ourselves, whether both these dangers are not assailing us at this time, and from the same cause? The words, “ Be still and know that I am God,” sound like strange words in the ears of most of us. “ How can we be still,” we ask, “ while all things are in movement, while all things are unsettled? How can we be still while every one is hasting to be rich, hasting to get beyond his neighbour? How can we be still when all the political world is full of slumbering fires, ready to break forth? How can we be still while all the religious world is full of controversies, tumults, hatreds?” The answer surely should be, “ Because there is all this mutation, restlessness, insecurity, therefore this is the very time to obey the command, Be still. For assuredly if we do not, we never shall know that the Lord He is God; we shall not believe, however we may pretend it, that He abides, and that He is with us, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the depths of the sea.” And if we have not that belief, what other can we have? What other will be worth anything to us? (F. D. Maurice, M. A.) God’ s working in the world The words, “ Be still, and know that I am God,” have usually been taken as an invitation to believing hearts to trust and not be afraid. It is very natural that this should be so, especially as that interpretation harmonizes with the prevailing message of the psalm. As a matter of fact, however, they seem to have been addressed to the enemies of God’ s people, those who were making war upon them oppressively. The words are not a message of soothing but an utterance of prohibition: Do still. Desist from making war upon My people, and know that I am God, God whose will it is that all nations should own His sovereign sway.1. Let us consider the words first from this point of view, which is that of the psalmist. Then we can go on to think of them in the sense in which faith has loved to interpret them. “ Be still from war, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted in the earth.” Admittedly, when God is exalted among the nations in the earth, there will be no more war. Where selfishness and tyranny have given place to obedience to God and consequent love to man war cannot possibly be. It is quite true that God has made desolations in the earth by means of war. From the history of Israel to the history of England the Spirit of the Lord has come upon God-fearing men, and bidden them make war either in self-defence or in defence of the weak against some tyrant. On the other hand, it is equally true that God maketh wars to cease unto the ends of the earth. The more God-fearing a nation becomes, the more reluctant it is to make war. The knowledge of God involves forbearance towards enemies, the desire to use every persuasion rather than come to an open rupture. Above all, it involves regard for human life and for the sentiment of goodwill amongst men, which is more precious even than life. God says that men are not to learn war any more, but to learn to know Him. Let be, and know that I am God; and let all the nations know. Go ye into all the world, not carrying weapons of war, but the Gospel of peace. 2. In the second place, let us take the words of our text in the more generally accepted sense. It is almost a commonplace that men in the midst of trial do not think of the love of God except to conclude that tie has forgotten to be gracious. And yet all the time He is keeping watch, as much is the time of darkness as in the light. I sometimes think that life is like a voyage regarded from the point of view of a passenger. Some travellers are good sailors, others are not. Some make their voyage easily, others not; but the captain of the vessel is equally concerned for the lives and safety of all. While you are lying in your berth ill during the storm you don’ t blame the captain because the sea is rough. You do not see the man at his post on the bridge while you are below, but you are quite sure he is there. You saw him there during the fair weather when you were on deck. You noticed his vigilant care even when the sea was calm. You do not imagine for a moment that his vigilance is relaxed during the storm. God is watching over your soul in all its voyage through life. No storm can endanger your safety if you are trusting Him. But you will make shipwreck of your life if you take the control of it out of His hands in time of storm. I do not wish to pretend for a moment that faith is always easy, that it is easy to put a restraint upon impatience. But the effort must be made. It is calamitous if in the storms of life we lose our faith in the Captain. If we obey His order, “ Be still, and know that I am God,” our confidence and peace will be maintained. Trouble does not always become easier to bear with time: sometimes it becomes harder; and there is nothing left but a choice between faith and despair. George Eliot well expresses this when she says: “ The first shock of trouble may produce an excitement which is transient strength. It is in the slow changed life that follows--in the time when sorrow has become stale--in the time when day follows day in dull unexpectant sameness, and trial is a dreary routine--it is then that despair threatens; it is then that the peremptory hunger of the soul is felt, and eye and car are strained after some unlearned secret of our exist once, which shall give to endurance the nature of satisfaction.” Whether we recognize it or not, glumness is the result of shutting the door of our heart against the Holy Spirit, and putting our foot against it. No sufferer is ever glum who says, “ I cannot close my heart to Thee who seekst me through pain.” They sometimes call it” temperament; it is selfishness pure and simple, the refusal to cultivate a heart at leisure from itself to soothe and sympathize, the refusal to cultivate the sympathetic spirit which rejoices with those that rejoice and weeps with those that weep. 3. We are not all sufferers, by any means, and many of us are active workers for God. There is a message for us also in this verse, “ Be still, and know that I am God.” We sometimes leave too small a part for God in our work. We think that our carefully prepared sermon or lesson will do its own work, and forget to pray that the Holy Spirit may carry it home. We can teach truth. God alone can make that truth life-giving. Recall the legend of Pygmalion and Galatea. The sculptor Pygmalion had made a perfect statue of a beautiful woman. She was so beautiful that he fell in love with her. But one thing he could not do, and that was to give her life. So he prayed to the goddess of love and she granted his petition and touched the statue into life. Burne-Jones has painted the incident in four scenes, which he calls--“ The Heart Desires; . . . The Hand Refrains; . . . The Godhead Fires; . . . The Soul Attains.” Every Christian worker must pass his work through these four stages if he is to be successful. (R. M. Moffat, M. A.) The realm of silence The realm of silence--do we know anything about it? In these days of push and rush and roar, is it possible to got any appreciation for the calm and unruffled and retired spaces of existence? When one begins to speak of stillness some are afraid. “ Everything was so still, I was frightened,” said a lady friend to me of her experience in a retired part of Wordsworth’ s Lake District. Be still--and know. There are some forms of knowledge which necessitate stillness. Self-knowledge, God-knowledge--these can never be had until we have learned to be still. “ Stand still and see the salvation of God.” “ Their strength is to sit still.” If God had not divided our life into days, and compelled us to sleep, we should run out our energy in a very few years of perpetual dissipation. In some countries it would not be necessary to insist, on stillness as a condition of knowledge. Where people are temperamentally cairn and reflective we might leave the parts of the Bible which insist on a wise passiveness in life. There is a difference--an immense difference--between the spirit of the old Bible times as represented in the Psalms and our own as represented in the newspapers. “ The times explain everything:” fuss, and excursion, and noise, and rattle, and panic, and dissolution, and bank-failure, and bankruptcy, and political crises. It is very significant how all the greatly inspired men were trained in the school of silence. Moses, hidden away forty years in the loneliness of sheep pastures, and again forty days in the depths of Sinai, and when he came down his face shone. That told the story. Ezekiel, sauntering by the way of the river alone. Isaiah saw the King in His beauty when no one was with him. Daniel was accustomed (it was an old habit of his) to go into the quiet of his chamber three times a day. Paul must spend three lonely years in Arabia. John must go to Patmos before he could write the Book of the Revelation and see earth and its history from the height of heaven. Without large spaces of stillness there can be no deep thoughtfulness--Sabbath. And an age which is all rattle, and roar and noise, and self-advertisement, and theatricality needs, if any age ever needed it, to be called back to the fact that there is a kind of knowledge which can never be had except in stillness. But to-day there is no silence, no privacy, and men seldom hear the voice of God speaking in the depths of their own spirit, as did Elijah in his cave. We are full of opinions. They have floated our way and got lodgment, like thistledown in the hair, but they are not ours. They belong to the general community. Nothing is really ours which is not a conviction, something in which we are rooted and grounded. The point I want to make emphatic is this: that every man has his own personal relation to God, positive or negative, as every flower has its own personal relation to the sun; that there are forms of knowledge which are external and common--like bought furniture in a house, these belong to us in communities--but there is a knowledge which is to be had only in the stillness of devout meditation--the soul’ s personal knowledge of God. “ Be still, and know that I am--that I am God.” It does not come from effort. It comes from reposefulness. Often it is true of men, “ Their strength is to sit still” ; to sit still as the painter before a great master, simply receiving, as a child reposing in its mother’ s arms. The more active, busy and forceful our external life is, the greater the necessity for Sabbath spaces of stillness in the unrevealed centres of our human life. The storm-swept lake reflects no stars, and the perpetually busy, energetic and unquiet life, like “ the troubled sea which cannot rest,” makes no response to the overarching heavens, gemmed with those Divine promises of immortality which have purified and ennobled the souls of God’ s elect saints. Let us remember that all depths are silent, depths of space as well as depths of thought. The o’ erbrooding heavens are silent, speechless to all but the most meditative souls. Extreme emotions of all kinds are silent. (R. Thomas.) Quietness There is not a heart assailed by trouble, and trembling at the prospect of further ills to come, to which the voice of encouragement and heavenly assurance is not at this moment saying, “ Be still, and know that I am God.” I. It is addressed, above all others, to the careful, who knowing not what a day may bring forth, out of that ignorance draw fear and anxiety that knows no rest. Is there One who feeds the young lion and clothes the grass of the field, and shall He not much more feed and clothe thee, O thou of little faith? If God be for thee who can be against thee? II. He who is earnestly looking for the truth, with serious search and humble inquiry and importunate prayer seeking to be taught more of the love of Christ and the will of God, and who makes it part of his daily joy and duty to search the Scriptures that so he may grow in the knowledge his soul desires, that man finds his task a healthy exercise; no feverish excitement waits upon his inquiry, but more and more of peace is shed over his heart and life as he advances in this heavenly knowledge. III. Impulsive hearts that rise with every hope and sink with every discouragement in the work of life, full of purposes and aims for good, seizing upon every instrument to help them, and finding the insufficiency of each, and with every successive failure adding to that store of disappointment which may one day overlay the springs of hope within them; or minds of steadier energy ever active and not easily east down, who have thrown their strength into labours of love and usefulness, but are struggling to do the Lord’ s work without the arm of the Lord, who are ever ready to charge their failures upon secondary causes, and to impute their successes to the instruments used in effecting them, these perhaps are taught at length that “ the race is not to the swift nor the battle to the strong,” IV. When ambition is fretting the mind and distracting it with worldly hopes and jealousies, when the flattery of man on the one hand and the selfishness of man on the other are stirring up delusive expectations and creating bitter disappointments, when all the influences of earthly desire and the fascinations of wealth and honour and ease are leading a man on to trust the shadows of strength which many have fatally trusted before, to believe in idle promises, to exaggerate unmeaning professions, to sacrifice an honest independence, to let meanness creep into his spirit and the fever of self-seeking into his veins, the Word of the Lord says to that foolish heart, “ Cease ye from man whose breath is in his nostrils, for wherein is he to be accounted of? Be still, and know that I am God.” V. When we are called upon to work out our own salvation it is with fear and trembling indeed, but with the calm assurance nevertheless that it is God which worketh in us to will and to do of His good pleasure. Be still then and put your trust in the blood of the everlasting covenant; work, but work in peace and the spirit of an unofficious service; seek your God, not as the prophets of Baal did, with extravagant zeal and obtrusive crying and impatient torturing of their flesh, but as Elijah the prophet of the Lord, who in calmness and confidence “ at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice came near and said, Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel, let it be known this day that Thou art God in Israel and that I am Thy servant,” VI. “ To strive about words to no profit but to the subverting of the hearers,” to make religion the work of a babbling tongue and a contentious spirit, to think that the victory of truth is to be won as nations win their victories in the field, by planting army against army, meeting rage with rage, and stratagem with stratagem, and clamour with clamour; this is not pleasing to the Lord, who says--(2 Timothy 2:24). VII. And ye, the Children of habitual sadness, who live among the memories of the past and carry sorrow with you as your heart’ s raiment, and would not part with that familiar companion which lives with hope and faith in your breast, and is sanctified with that holy communion, forget not that human grief carries with it and will always retain the seeds of mortal rebellion; the impulses of natural affection and the longings of human passion will break out from time to time; and many a heart whose burthen has long been cast upon the Lord, which has long been familiar with the love of Christ, which has long felt the consolation of prayer and the strength of the Word of God, has moments when it would seem as if the whole lesson of trust must be learnt again, moments of unrest and craving in which it longs for the voice that shall gently call it back to the Cross and whisper, “ Be still, and know that I am God!” (A. D. Macleane, M. A.) “ Be still” The command is assuring. Fear not for the ark, for the kingdom, for yourself. God will not fail. I. Why we need this injunction, “ Be still!”1. On account of our ignorance and presumption, we see but a fragment of God’ s design and work. If we saw the whole campaign and consummation! 2. Haste and rashness of our judgment. 3. Conclusions without taking God into account. II. The stillness enjoined not that of indolence, indifference, stoicism or despair, but of humility, observation, expectation. III. Thus see God in all, riding the whirlwind, bringing forth judgment unto victory. (Homiletic Review.) Be still and believer It is not easy to be still in this rough and restless world. Yet God says, “ Be still” ; and He says also (Isaiah 30:15). I. Be still, and thou shalt know i can put all enemies to shame. II. Be still, and thou shalt know that i can uphold my own truth in a day of error. IS not My truth precious to Me? And My Book of truth, is it not above all books in Mine eyes? I am God. III. Be still, and thou shalt know that i car say to the nations, peace, be still. The waves rise, but I am mightier than all. These tumults do not touch My throne. Take no alarm because of this world-wide resistance to My authority and law. I am still God. IV. Be still, and thou shalt see the glorious issue of all these confusions. This world is My world, and thou shalt see it to be such; this earth shall yet be the abode of the righteous. (H. Bonar, D. D.) The use of religion in a time of affliction I. Our duty. “ Be still.”1. A negative kind of submission; I mean the restraints we ought to lay upon our angry and tumultuous passions. This is the first thing to be attempted, when perhaps we can proceed no farther. 2. To be still is to preserve a calm and composed temper of mind under affliction. 3. A higher degree of patience and submission than even this is required of us; and that is, to justify, approve and commend the Divine proceedings. II. Our obligations to the practice of these great and difficult duties.1. There is a God. Set Him before you, in all His adorable perfections. Apprehend Him present--immediately present with you, closely watching and accurately observing all your thoughts, reasonings, dispositions and affections. 2. God, who is thus a witness of what passes in our breasts, is the great Governor of the world, and hath a concern in bringing about those events which occasion all this tumult of our passions. 3. The God who does it has an unquestionable right to do 2:4. While God thus proclaims Himself a Sovereign, He would have us consider Him as most just and wise in all His proceedings. 5. The goodness of God, and the covenant-relation which subsists between Him and us. 6. All that God does is in reference to some future design. III. The regard we are required to pay to these interesting truths. It is our duty to--1. Well weigh and consider them. 2. Believe them. 3. Apply them to ourselves, and to our own immediate circumstances. 4. Use fervent prayer. Conclusion.1. As to such who make light of their afflictions, or, to use the words of Scripture, despise the chastening of the Lord. That insensibility which you account your happiness is not the stillness and composure which the text recommends. Know the rod and who hath appointed it. Inquire wherefore it is he contends with you. Implore the forgiveness of what is amiss. And rest not satisfied without feeling the salutary effect of your affliction, to embitter sin to you, to wean your hearts from the world, and to raise your affections to heaven. 2. As to those who are apt to faint under the rebukes of Providence--a temper to which Christians are usually more prone than to that just described. With you I most tenderly sympathize. Let me, however, entreat you to turn your attention for a while from your affliction; think with yourselves how much worse your condition would have been if God had treated you according to your deserts; consider the mercies you still enjoy; above all, take sanctuary at the throne of grace, and there pour out your tears of sorrow to Him who hath an ear to hear, and a heart to pity, the afflicted. 3. As to those who are enabled to practise the great duties I have been describing, how great is your mercy! You may well glory in your infirmities, since the power of Christ thus rests upon you. An end, an important end, is already attained by your having been afflicted. Oh, let patience have its perfect work! (J. Stennet, D. D.) Stillness I. The general principle conveyed in the words. The spirit of man must be taught by the Spirit of God, or it cannot know Him; and being taught implies receiving impressions; it implies a gradual advance in knowledge, the pupil imbibing the mind of the Teacher, and becoming more and more like Him till it knows even as it is known. Now it is beyond question that this education of the spirit for God is the highest work of man; and must it not then require the shutting out of all other sights and sounds that the heart may be alone with God? Why you think it needful to sit alone hour after hour, day after day, to unravel the intricacies and overcome the difficulties of business! You think it a matter of course that if you are to master a book, or a subject, or a science, you must have leisure from distracting occupations, and give yourself for a time to that one thing I If then to learn man’ s business requires stillness from other work; if to understand any of God’ s works demands stillness from other thoughts, shall we not, to know God Himself, need stillness of spirit, stillness alike from the bustle of active life, and the engrossment of thinking upon earthly things, and the distraction of fear, add the uneasiness of anxiety? II. Its particular application of the text to ourselves.1. Let it speak to the man who is engrossed in work, trade, business, or profession. The week is gone. Sunday and working day are past. And when was the spirit still and alone with its God? When did it read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest His holy, Word? When did it examine itself, and confess its sins, and dwell on God’ s promises, and listen for the whispers of His Spirit, and as a docile pupil receive and reflect His mind? 2. Let the text speak to those who are distracted by sorrow, fear, or anxiety. The heart broken by sorrow chafes and frets, and is often too unsettled for a season calmly to receive the lesson which God is come to teach. The spirit trembling in fear looks to the right hand and to the left, and despairing of human help is too agitated quietly to wait for God. “ In quietness and in confidence shall be your strength.” “ Be still, and know that I am God.” 3. This text will speak to those who resist God’ s Spirit and oppose His will. (Canon Morse.) Quietude necessary for a fuller knowledge of God I. A word of warning addressed to nations when inflamed with the passion for conquest and aggrandizement. War is a time when the worst passions of men are roused, the purest motives of the most patriotic are misunderstood, political life is embittered with the acrimony of party strife and ambition, the unscrupulous are tempted to make capital out of the public troubles, and the mind is too disturbed and demoralized to rise to the calm sublimities of Divine things. Not in the wild commotion and brazen clangour of the battlefield, not in the whizzing hurricane of national strife and uproar, not in the rush and fret of excessive worldly care, is the knowledge of God best acquired; but in the solitude of retirement, in the hush and stillness of some meditative retreat, where the tocsin of war is never heard, and the roar of cannon and clash of arms never penetrate--“ Be still, and know that I am God.” II. A word addressed to the sincere inquirer after the knowledge of God, by purely intellectual means. Not in the strain and tussle of intellectual strife, not in the fret and ferment of the proud and restive mind, can God be known; but when the baffled inquirer acknowledges his weakness and defeat, when he looks with humble wistfulness into the darkness that has deepened around him, when he surrenders and stakes his all on the mercy of the Unseen--then, in that solemn moment of pause and conscious self-helplessness, God draws near, and there glows before the soul a sublime vision of the greatness and goodness of the only living and true God--“ Be still, and know that i am God!” III. A word addressed to the man who is tempted to murmur at the hardships of a suffering lot. Life has its sombre side to all, more or less; and bravely as we may strive to look at the bright side, and to make the best of things, there are moments when our way is dark. Can it be wondered that from the pierced heart of suffering humanity a cry of anguish should rise that now and then overpowers the meekest submission and the most heroic patience, and find a plaintive voice in the trembling remonstrance--“ O Lord, how long? Why these repeated strokes? O my God, I cry in the daytime, but Thou hearest not, and in the night season, and am not silent!” It is then that God draws near and speaks--“ Be still, and know that I am God. Cease thy sad complaining. Be hushed, my child. Know that I am here. I have not forgotten thee. I am ruling still. It is thus I am leading thee to teach thee. Know that i am God, even thy God!” There! thou art blessed. (G. Barlow.) The repose of faith In all the more delicate cases of surgery the success of the operation is hardly more dependent upon the skill of the practitioner than it is upon the quietness and self-control of the patient. To suppress all irritability and nervous alarms;: to submit, in entire reliance, to the course of discipline recommended; to endure pain without flinching, and to encourage, as far as possible, every hopeful impression; all these conduce directly to a happy issue; while they render the task of ministering to the relief of the sufferer himself a labour of love, and afford an edifying and comfortable and blessed example to all around him. Now, this is just the temper recommended in the text, as one of the truest characteristics of God’ s servants. I. What it does not mean. We are not here recommended to sit down in a state of utter indifference and inaction, waiting with folded hands until God shall marvellously interfere for our deliverance. II. What it does mean. “ Be still;” cease from all vain opposition, from all ineffectual struggles; restrain all petulant curiosity; subdue all unruly desires; submit meekly and thankfully to His irresistible authority, and be convinced, whatever may befall you, that the Judge of all the earth shall assuredly do right. III. Apply the commandment to particular cases.1. With regard to worldly successes and worldly reverses, what continual cause we find for mistrusting our first impressions respecting them! That which seems most adverse to our happiness often proves the very means of establishing it upon a right foundation; while the realization of our most ardent desires entails countless evils and disappointments which far outweigh all the joy of success. In the Lord’ s Prayer there is but one direct petition for earthly good, and that couched in the most moderate terms, “ Give us this day our daily bread.” Every other need is embraced in that humble expression, “ Thy will be done!” 2. Look now to God’ s dealings in things spiritual. No doubt there is such a thing as a wholesome and righteous uprousing of the powers and desires which God has bestowed, lest they sink into mere lethargy and insensibility; but there is danger, on the other hand, of our mistaking an active state of the soul for a fruitful one. Our Lord speaks of the good seed which is received in an honest and good heart as bringing forth fruit “ with patience.” It is no forced and hasty growth, shooting out in the showy but unproductive luxuriance of leaves, and bearing little, if any, perfect grain; there is a solidity and strength in the stem, and a gradual development of power, which gives certain promise of a plentiful harvest in the end. (T. Ainger, M. A.) Lessens from the tomb The old proverb says, “ Speech is silvery, but silence is golden,” and there are times when its truth becomes apparent. And where can silence be so fitting as when God has spoken in one of those sudden and mysterious dispensations of His providence, asserting His own sovereignty and instructing His erring creatures? The presence of death, the immediate contact with the unknown realities of the world of spirits, are surely, at any time, enough to sober the most reckless, arouse the most indifferent, awe the most trifling, and still the most giddy spirit. But when there are circumstances throwing around the event more than its ordinary awfulness--when a few brief hours or days have sufficed to change the bloom and vigour of health into the cold unbroken silence of the tomb, then, surely, must the effect be yet deeper, and the soul, filled with an overwhelming awe, may well say with David, “ I was dumb with silence--I opened not my mouth, because Thou didst it.” I. The mode in which the angel of death does his work is fitted ever to impress on us this lesson. It might have been that a generation should have had its allotted time and its peculiar work--that side by side the companions of childhood and youth should have pursued their path, till for all it terminated at the same moment in the grave. The term fixed for human life might have been uniform add invariable. Every element of uncertainty might have been removed, and a man have been able from the very dawning of intelligence to calculate and anticipate the hour of his death. Need I say how great a change would thus have been introduced, or indicate how evil the effects that would have been produced on the majority of men? The thought of death would have been put away until the dreaded hour approached God has mercifully not left us thus. He has encircled us with monitors to remind us of our mortality, to silence every thought of self-confidence, to make us feel how frail we are. We are told of the great Sultan Saladin, that in the midst of the magnificence by which he was surrounded, he had a slave whose business it was daily to remind him that he was mortal. Wise, indeed, to perceive that the consciousness of his power, the pride of majesty, the adulations of those round him were fitted to banish this thought from the mind, and that the fact, thus liable to be forgotten, was that which ought to be ever present to the mind. Yet, surely, there were voices distinct enough to render such a monitor needless. Death doing his work around us is ever speaking to us. Sudden death, especially, should produce this impression. Now, God by such deaths rebukes our carelessness and pleads with us on our own behalf. Yours may be the next door at which Death shall knock. II. Let us learn a lesson of resignation, A more wretched feeling cannot come across the soul in moments like these, than the agonizing doubt of the reality of God’ s providence. A calamity, sudden, terrible and overwhelming, has come upon us--the reason staggers and the heart sinks beneath the blow. The whole appears so contrary to every principle of God’ s government, and every conception of His love, that we begin to ask, “ Is there a God that judgeth on the earth? Is there a Judge of the whole earth who will do right? Are we the children of a loving Father who makes all things work together for good?” If so, how can these things bey “ Surely Thou hast made all men in vain.” Happy for the spirit that in such dread hour can hear and obey the voice, “ Be still, and know that I am God.” III. Let us cherish patient but confident hope. There is deep significance in the apostle’ s words, “ We sorrow not as those who have no hope.” We must sorrow. These partings rend oar hearts within us, and we cannot but sorrow. But we must not so discredit our profession and misrepresent the Gospel as to sorrow with that wild despair which may not unnaturally be associated with unbelief. Our burden may be very heavy, but hope relieves its pressure, and as it whispers in our ears tales of the “ far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory,” not only helps us to toil on, hut teaches us some of the songs of Zion to which we haste, with which to beguile the way. That hope, which rests on the promises of a faithful God, and therefore cannot make ashamed, is your strength and consolation. (J. G. Rogers, B. A.) Submit I. An implication of resistance. For when it is said, “ Be still,” resistance, turbulence, commotion are implied. And there is in all men a disposition to resist, to murmur and to rebel. Sometimes--1. Against the dispensations of Providence, when there are afflictions. And sometimes-- 2. Against those of Divine grace. Now-- 3. Why is this? It is owing to human ignorance and human sin. II. An assertion of supremacy. “ Know that I am God.” Note--1. The fact--“ I am God.” He is here asserting His superiority to the idols of the heathen. But the recollection of His supremacy will help us to cease from rebelling against Him. We think of His absolute and unimpeachable sovereignty: His pure and equitable justice. 2. Let us apply this fact. Let it be understood, admitted, and let it have all the influence which its importance demands. III. A claim of submission. “ Be still” --be silent and submissive. As Eli, say, “ It is the Lord.” (James Parsons.) Be still, and know God Every period and every place have their peculiar obstructions to the Christian life. The mistake committed by theologians is in making the Devil but one, when his name is Legion. The great inductive philosopher assigned four kinds of prejudices to man. The devils might have a similar classification, and there is one of those which come from the market, or from intercourse and association with mankind, that might without slander be called the Devil of Haste. We live in an age of hurry. Life, that was formerly likened to a journey, a voyage, or a pilgrimage, has become a race, a chase, in which not bit and bridle, but spurs and whip, are deemed the rider’ s best equipment. A late writer has said that “ a railway train should be the emblem on our shield, with the motto, Hurrah!” In short, the devil of Haste has entered in and possessed us. He hurries us so fast that we have no time to “ be still and know God,” no place quiet enough to read our Bibles and say our prayers. Or, if he should put his hand upon religion, he wishes, to use the vulgar phrase, to “ put it through quick,” and he has therefore a high estimation of camp-meetings and revivals, and the whole enginery of fear and excitement, as speedy labour-saving machines to accomplish a work which, in the slower times of prophets, apostles, martyrs and saints, it was thought could only he effected by a lifetime of prayer and charity and self-denial. This style of Christianity will be perishable, we apprehend, as it is rapid. Character is not a blow struck once, but a growth. And we see this same forcing method employed in education: everything must be done rapidly. We have short, twelve-lesson modes of learning, forcing processes of prizes, and embittering emulation to stuff the youthful memory with the largest amount of studies, whether understood and digested or not. Hence tender plants are watered so much that they are drowned. The fuel is heaped so abundantly on the fire that every spark goes out. But this hot and impatient mode of life leaves a host of duties not done, a multitude of truths not meditated, a world of pleasures not enjoyed, and a constellation of graces and virtues not cultivated and assimilated. Who indeed can doubt that, if men would oftener stop in their hurried life and recur to the First Great Cause, and cast a look to heaven while toiling and worrying themselves among their earthly cares, they would be far better armed against temptation, and that fountains of unfading happiness would be opened to the thirsting soul? Who is weak when the thought of God is in his mind? Who is wretched when he consciously rests on an Almighty arm? Alas! how much of the time we call life is really the death, the deadness, of the living part! We vacate the ample palace of the soul, to take up mean and miserable quarters in the hut of coarse and brutish worldliness. How much we need to do what we were told when children to do in reading, mind our stops! Did a day never pass when close and absorbing business so steeped your senses in forgetfulness, that even the thought of God, much less a calm and conscious leaning upon Him, a felt uplifting and grateful opening of the heart to Him, as the Fountain of light and love, never for one blessed instant visited you from twilight to twilight? The prisoner of worldliness is sunk in a subterranean dungeon, whose solid darkness is not pierced by a solitary ray. Let us know that quicksilver is not the only metal, nor lightning the only clement. Instead of this feverish and eager rushing across the stage of life, as of the horse plunging into the battle, we will lift up serene brows to the calm heavens, and we will repeat in a low tone that beautiful strain, which has been chanted for two thousand years, to quiet the restless bosom of humanity, never more restless than here and now--“ Be still, and know that I am God.” (A. A. Livermore.) Submission to God I. A submission to whatever God commands. II. A submission to whatever God does. III. A submission to the various ways in which he is pleased to carry on his work, either in our own souls or in the souls of others. IV. A submission to God, in reference to whatever he has promised. (N. Bangs, D. D.) Confidence in missions Our knowledge of the vastness of the heathen world has a distressing influence, our knowledge of the strength of its superstitions, of its false religions. There is the tardiness of the purposes of God, the slowness of His procedure. It may be said that this is characteristic of tits ways and works. Dwell on this thought, that in God we may have the stillness of confidence in regard to the future of His gracious rule among the heathen. I. The heathen belong to God. He makes the claim, “ All souls are Mine!” But “ other sheep I have.” He is the God of the valleys as well as of the hills. The Asiatic is as nearly related to God as the European, and the African is as dear to Him as an Englishman. II. In the lowest and the most ignorant of the heathen there is a capacity for God. When we speak of “ the heathen world” we know that we are to distinguish between some races and others. Among some we find old civilizations, philosophies and religions; China and Japan are different from Africa; India and Ceylon are different from some of the islands of the seas. But the people who have the greatest knowledge and civilization are as much in need of the Gospel as those most deeply sunk in the abyss of barbarism and ignorance. “ Leave them alone to work out their own salvation if they need it, by and by they will evolve into something better.” Yes, we are thankful for the conviction that they will evolve into a higher state, but there are means essential for this purpose. The same Gospel is needed by the most advanced as by the most degraded, by the barbarians of Melita, and the philosophers of Athens, by the painted savage and the proud Brahmin. There is a capacity in the very lowest for God. When you deal with the dullest, the most stolid, the most ignorant, only get beneath the crust of habit, formed by years of sensuality, indifference, and prejudice, and you will find a home for the truth--a something within responding to the Word without. “ I will be exalted in the earth.” We are warranted in saying that the victories already achieved are such as to encourage and strengthen confidence; but our firmest ground of trust is this, we know that He is God. (James Owen.) Knowledge and silence The message of my text, broadly stated, seems to be this: that the soul must make for itself a great silence from all other voices ere it can hear aright the Divine messages which give it the fullest and deepest knowledge of its God. And so all knowledge more or less needs silence, that it may sink into the soul and become part of its own inner and essential life. And it is in silence, too, that there grows that power that is the first-born child of knowledge. Silently the mightiest and most enduring forces act; silently the silver moon drags along the trailing skirts of her glory the ocean’ s heaving tides; silently the frost binds in icy fetters the great lakes and flowing streams; silently the vernal sun breaks again those wintry chains and sends forth the rivers to leap in recovered freedom on their course to the far-off sea: silently the trees put forth their branches and gain the strength that shall enable them to hurl back defeated the fury of a hundred storms; silently the harvests ripen under glowing sun and silver moon and quiet stars; silently the great planets perform their measured march across the infinite fields of night. And as in nature, so in mind; it is silently that thought is added to thought, and there is erected the stately palace of intellectual truth or artistic beauty; it is not in the noise or din of the street, not amid the clamorous calls of the market or the forum or the banquet-hall, but in the silence of the chemist’ s laboratory or the astronomer’ s watch-tower or the philosopher’ s study; it is there, it is thus, that the great triumphs of human intellect, the most splendid achievements of human genius, have had their birth. What wonder, then, that God should demand silence as one of the needed conditions for the attainment of that supremest knowledge, that most transcendent power of which our poor humanity is capable--the knowledge that He is God? (Canon O’ Meara.) Knowledge through silence “ Be still and know.” How can God give us visions when life is hurrying at a precipitate rate? I have stood in the National Gallery and seen people gallop round the chamber and glance at twelve of Turner’ s pictures in the space of five minutes. Surely we might say to such trippers, “ Be still, and know Turner!” Gaze quietly at one little bit of cloud or at one branch, or at one wave of the sea, or at one ray of the drifting moon. “ Be still, and know Turner.” But God has difficulty in getting us still. This is perhaps why He has sometimes employed the ministry of dreams. Men have had “ visions in the night.” In the daytime I have a diviner visitor in the shape of some worthy thought, or nobler impulse, or hallowed suggestion, but I am in such feverish haste that I do not heed it, and pass along. I do not “ turn aside to see this great thing,” and so I lose the heavenly vision. If I would know more of God I must relax the strain and moderate the pace. I must “ be still.” (J. H. Jowett.) I will be exalted among the heathen.--The exaltation of Christ among the nations There is nothing more remarkable in the history of the Hebrew people than their connection with surrounding nations. That connection is strikingly predicted in the covenant which Jehovah made with the founder of their race: “ In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.” This promise began to take effect immediately upon its announcement. “ Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it, and was glad.” And the Spirit of Christ pervaded and conducted the history of Israel. There can be no doubt that that measure of truth which is now found in the ancient writings of other faiths was for the most part derived from the connection of Israel with Egypt, with Babylon, with Syria, Persia, and India. The advent of Christ brings us to the perfect fulfilment of the Abrahamic promise. The wonderful declaration of Christ--“ And I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto Myself” --was explained; first, by the lifting up of the Crucifixion; secondly, by the resurrection of the Crucified; and thirdly, by the command of the Risen Redeemer. “ All power hath been given unto Me in heaven and on earth. Go ye, therefore,” etc. In this command the mission of exalting God among the nations was directly entrusted to His apostles and followers by the Head of the Church. The Church has no other business on earth but to exalt God among the nations. Her gifts, her ministries, her sacraments, her literature, her spiritual authority have neither divinity nor meaning except in so far as they bear upon the conversion of the world to Christ. For the exaltation of God among the nations is the ascendency of Christ, to whom God hath given “ the name which is above every name.” (Philippians 2:9-11). If it be true that in spite of freedom of inquiry, and that licence of speculation which has accompanied the advancement of science, there never was a time when the Church exercised so wide a beneficence as she does to-day, when her followers were so many, so courageous, and so united; when her influence upon the politics and literature of the nations was so commanding, we must ascribe it to the revival of foreign missions. That spirit of enterprise and unselfish love which is the direct inspiration of missions must be the animating genius of all Church work. The ascended Christ pervades by His Spirit everything that touches the mind of nations--the tides of public opinion, their ebb and flow, the changing bases of the religious sentiment, the circulation of literature, the strife and the issue of the battlefield, the revolutions of commerce, and the fate of governments. Christ is in all these movements. He appropriates every force, and uses it for the exaltation of God among the nations. The ultimate fate of the Christian religion is a subject of intense interest even to those who do not believe in its divinity. I refer to the thoughtful men who study the forces that are moving the world. These intellectual observers see in Christianity a tremendous power with a history behind it, and a prospect before it, which not only places it above the frvalship of other faiths, but leaves it absolutely alone as the one religion which educates the highest principles of humanity, and commands the civilization of the world. They assail its dogmas, they predict its fall; and yet are compelled to acknowledge that, in spite of the disunion which distracts its labours and weakens its federations, its march upon the convictions of mankind was never so swift, never so triumphant as it is to-day. The becoming attitude of those within the Church in their observation is stillness. Not the stillness of inactivity, nor the stillness of a sullen disappointment, and still less the quiet of a settled despair. When God says, “ Be still,” He enforces the stillness of waiting--of watching the unfolding of ways and the development of thoughts which are as much higher than ours as the heavens are higher than the earth. But why should we be still? Because we know in part, and, therefore, prophesy--that is, utter Divine things--in part. We are ignorant of God’ s plan and God’ s method. But there are two things on which our ignorance may rest itself. First, the immutable declaration, “ I will be exalted among the nations” ; secondly, the proofs that this declaration is in process of fulfilment. Let us leave God to work out the realization of His designs in His own way. If the light of His operations is not clear to our understanding, if surrounding events appear to contradict our impression of His mind and character, can we expect any other result when passing finite beings are watching the steps of the Infinite? (E. E. Jenkins, LL. D.) Psalms 46:11 The Lord of Hosts is with us. God with us The Lord of Hosts--that means the God of power; the God who has all hosts of all sorts at His beck and under His control; the great King whom all created powers, whether marshalled in heaven or ranked on earth, somehow must obey. The Lord of Hosts is the God of Providence, therefore--the circle of whose wise government embraces the least and greatest persons, forces, things. The God of Jacob--that means the God of covenant-keeping; the God who promises, and never breaks His promises. And our Scripture asserts that He is with us, that He is our refuge. “ We are thus reminded of the double prop on which our faith rests; the infinite power, whereby He can subdue the universe unto Himself; and the fatherly love, which He has revealed in His Word. When these two are joined together, our faith may trample on all enemies.” I. This God is with Us as an inward invigoration. “ There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God.” No city was supplied with water as was Jerusalem within itself. For there was within Jerusalem a living spring beneath the temple vaults. It was this spring whence the water welled to fill the two Siloam pools. In this way this God of power and of promise will be with us, if we will have it so. Even as Jesus spoke of the Holy Spirit as the fountain of living water within the believing man. God shall be, for such a man, internal supply and strength, making the man the master of difficulties, not the slave of them. Right here is the mightiest need for all of us--that we have God thus with us, in the meaning of within us, by the Holy Spirit.1. It is the cure for cold and laggard hearts.2. It is the inspiration of delightful and loving service.3. It is the power and defence against bad habits.4. It is the sweet expeller of all unbrotherliness. II. This God of power and of promise will be with us also as a helping presence. “ God is in the midst of her,” etc. III. This God of power and of promise shall be with us as a masterful deliverance (Psalms 46:6). (W. Hoyt, D. D.) Psalms 47:1-9 Psalms 47:1-9O clap your hands, all ye people. Messianic triumph predicted The psalmist looked far ahead. His immediate experience was as “ a little window through which he saw great matters.” The prophecy of the universal spread of God’ s kingdom and the inclusion in it of the Gentiles is Messianic; and whether the singer knew that he spoke of a fair hope which should not be a fact for weary centuries, or anticipated wider and permanent results from that triumph which inspired his song, he spake of the Christ, and his strains are true prophecies of His dominion. There is no intentional reference in the psalm to the Ascension; but the thoughts underlying its picture of God’ s going up with a shout are the same which that Ascension sets forth as facts--the merciful coming down into humanity of the Divine Helper; the completeness of His victory as attested by His return thither where He was before; His session in heaven, not as idle nor wearied, but as having done what He meant to do; His continuous working as King in the world; and the widening recognition of His authority by loving hearts. The psalmist summons us all to swell with our voices that great chorus of praise which, like a sea, rolls and breaks in music round His royal seat. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) The praiseworthy and the faultworthy in worship Man is a worshipper. The deepest craving of his soul is for worship, and in true worship alone he can find the healthy excitement and the full and felicitous development and exercise of all his powers. I. The praise-Worthy in worship.1. Exultancy. “ O clap your hands,” etc.; “ shout unto God.” “ Sing praises to God,” etc. Among the reasons indicated in the psalm for this exultancy is His supremacy over all the earth. (1) His government of the world is founded upon the reason of things. (2) His government of the world is founded upon laws suited to the nature of His subjects. (3) His government of the world is exercised for purely benevolent ends. (4) His government of the world affords opportunities for rebels to be restored. 2. Enthusiasm. In worship all the faculties and susceptibilities of the soul are interested, and into it conscience pours its whole force. 3. Monotheism. There is one God, and one only, to be worshipped. The supremely good is to be loved supremely, the supremely great to be adored supremely, the supremely just to be obeyed supremely. 4. Intelligence. “ Sing ye praises with understanding.” Worship is not an unmeaning act, not a burst of blind passion; it is founded in the profoundest philosophy, it implies the grandest truths. II. The fault-Worthy in worship.1. There is something like selfishness here. Worship may begin in gratitude, may spring from a sense of God’ s personal kindness; but it only becomes virtuous and noble as it rises into self-oblivious adoration. 2. There is something like revenge here. “ He shall subdue the people under us, and the nations under our feet.” “ God reigneth over the heathen.” “ The shields of the earth belong unto God” ; i.e. the rulers of the earth are in His hand. (Homilist.) Psalms 47:4 He shall choose our inheritance for us: the excellency of Jacob whom He loved.He shall choose our inheritance for us How fond our children are, and the younger they are the more so, of saying, “ I mean to be.” And then each one tells what his or her choice is. A soldier, a farmer, a cottage girl, and so on. And we let them talk on. “ We know the world is hard and rough, But time will teach that soon enough.” Nevertheless, our path in life is chosen for us. We do not have our own way. There is sweet music in the words of our text. Livingstone, in his fever, far away from any tender hand or kindly care, in poison-haunted jungles of the African wilderness, borne in from day to day, his end seemingly very near, and left by his servants unconscious in his tent while they went to seek other aid; they found him when they came back on his knees by his bedside, but dead--so had he passed away and died in sight of his promised land. He had not received the promise, but he was satisfied, and crowned his life with a consecration of prayer. That was his way of saying, “ He shall choose our inheritance for us.” It is, if a funeral, not the less a triumphant song. Every life must be a triumph that passes out in prayer. Life’ s present discords will constitute its great harmony by and by. For-- I. The joy of life is to feel that it is not a scheme of fatalism, a mere reign of law. “ He shall choose our inheritance for us.” This is a strange word to come from an Eastern psalmist, for such men were mainly fatalists, as they are to this day. But the Bible proclaims the freedom of man, and that the universe is governed, not by infinite chance, but by infinite choice. II. The divine choice proves itself by divine love. “ The excellency of Jacob whom He loved.” Huxley tells us that man is justified by verification. But it is not only true that man is justified by faith, but God is also. Choice is another word for love. Love runs along the line of our lives, so that in the end God is justified by verification after all. Jacob was the proof of that love of His. God chooses for us, and His choice is love. Once upon a time in a family I know of there were four children, sons; their names were Little Faith, Don’ t-care, Honest Doubt, and Great-heart. One day their father called them to him and said, “ Children, our family has a house called Beautiful, a great way off. I am going there now: you will attend to my estates down here, and you will follow me by and by; and to find your way take this map, study it--it shows you the way, follow its directions and follow me, and you shall safely arrive at the house Beautiful.” Now, when the father was gone, the brothers began to talk over and to dispute about the father’ s will. Don’ t care said he was comfortable where he was; should take and stock a farm and lead a merry life; let them go after the house Beautiful who chose, he should not. Little Faith said he did not know however he should find the way. He could not understand maps. Honest Doubt said that, like Little Faith, he too was a bad hand at maps, and, though he knew father loved them, and his will was just, like him, yet he had so much doubt about the whole matter that, until he had more certainty, he could not believe. But Great-heart said, “ Brothers, I mean to go; and, Little Faith and Honest Doubt, if you will go with me, any little help I can give you shall have. As to you, Don’ t-care, you always were a bad one. But, brothers, if the way seems doubtful, you know we can look on the map together, and you, Honest Doubt, will perhaps keep us from being deceived; and you, Little Faith, shall help to keep us prayerful and humble, so let us start and cheer each other.” And they did so, and the last I heard of them was that on their way they were singing, “ He shall choose our inheritance for us.” And without fail those three brothers will reach the Beautiful Home. Then-- III. There is divine consolation in these words. They are personal. For each one of us, be we who we may. (E. Paxton Hood.) Submission to Divine appointment I. God has the right of supreme control. He is our Creator, Benefactor, Lawgiver, Preserver, Redeemer and Judge. II. His choice is the result of eternal wisdom. We cannot descry the future, but God sees the end from the beginning. We are fallible, but God never errs. Things with us are often bounded by time; God always includes eternity. III. He loves all his sincere followers. IV. It preserves us from taking an improper course. Quietness and confidence in God is our best preservative in the path of integrity. When Israel lost their confidence, they swerved. V. It is the happiest state of mind on earth. Take a few cases--Bereavement (Genesis 43:14); Affliction (Job 1:21); Uncertainty (Acts 21:13-14); Death (2 Peter 1:14). VI. He works all things for his own glory. Improvements--1. Let the sinful wanderer adopt the sentiment, and from that day he will be blessed. 2. Let the Lord’ s own children learn to say, “ Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.” “ Thou shalt choose our inheritance for us.” (Evangelical Preacher.) The providence of God I. What the text expresses.1. A belief of the providence of God. This belief is supported by the strongest arguments: by what we daily see of the instincts and appetites of living creatures; by the gravitation of matter, or the tendency of all heavy bodies to the earth; by many wonderful events, that happen contrary to what might be expected from the appearances of things; the discovery of secret wickedness, etc. 2. Providence has a peculiar concern for good men, and is exercised towards them with special care, tenderness and love. 3. Hearty consent to God’ s determinations. Not only a belief that He will choose for His people, but an entire, cheerful acquiescence in His choice. This temper includes the important virtues of humility, patience and contentment. It includes a frame of spirit suited to a persuasion of an over-ruling providence. This persuasion is expressed and strengthened by daily, fervent prayer; and there is to be nothing in the actions or words contrary to it or inconsistent with it: no impatience, fretfulness, or discontent allowed; no unlawful methods used to mend our circumstances, or extricate us out of any difficulty. And if the rebel heart is disposed to murmur, it must be checked and restrained by resolution, watchfulness and prayer. II. A recommendation to cultivate this temper.1. We are not able to choose for ourselves. Our knowledge is limited to a few objects, and we see those imperfectly. We cannot look into futurity, and have many false biases upon our judgment. We have often found ourselves mistaken, and been forced to acknowledge, that we have made a bad choice. “ If God would study a close, quick and certain way of being revenged upon a man, He needs but open His stores and bid him choose for himself.” 2. God is most fit to choose for us. For His understanding is infinite, His wisdom perfect, His judgment unerring. No case can possibly arise which will puzzle Him; nor can He have any bias upon His mind to act wrong. 3. God hath chosen well for us already, and therefore we should trust Him. This appears from the many favours He hath bestowed upon us, and the goodness and mercy that have followed us all our days. 4. Our minds can never be easy till we leave it to God to choose for us. God will have His choice, whether we leave it to Him or no (Isaiah 46:10). III. Concluding reflections.1. Let us own God’ s choice in every agreeable circumstance of life. 2. Let us humbly acquiesce in whatever is disagreeable. 3. Let us never allow ourselves to be anxious about future events. In order to support a patient, composed, cheerful spirit, let us live near to God by the daily exercise of fervent prayer; and especially pray that He would “ fulfil in us the good pleasure of His goodness and the work of faith with power” ; and help and cure the remainder of unbelief, which is the foundation of all our sorrows, fears and anxiety. (Job Orion, D. D.) Christian resignation Nothing so destroys all the comfort of life as the spirit of discontent with the dispensations of Divine providence. It is as a curse at the root of every earthly good, and it is, at the same time, a barrier in the way of all improvement in religion. Therefore it is our duty to fortify our minds by these considerations, which will help to maintain within us the opposite disposition of a perpetual and unreserved submission to the will of God. We would speak, accordingly-- I. Of the nature of the grace of resignation.1. Our text is a profession of it, but its words are not to be applied to our state in the world to come. That inheritance is left to our own choice. God will help us, but it is not necessary that He should choose for us.:For there are but two conditions in the future--not a multitude, which might distract: and they are of the most contrasted character. On the one side is all evil, and on the other all good, so that the decision is easy. The choice, therefore, is left to ourselves. 2. Nor can the text be applied to aught that essentially affects the decision of that state, but only to those things in which men may innocently differ from each other. It is only to these diversities which are strictly non-essential as to the decision of our everlasting destiny that any man is capable of being properly resigned. Such are the distinctions (1) of rank and property.(2) Of prosperity and adversity.(3) Personal affliction and sorrow.(4) Endowments of mind, means of improvement, opportunities of usefulness--with regard to all such things the Christian will say, The Lord “ shall choose,” etc. 3. But great virtues are often found to border on dangerous extremes: therefore we need to guard the definition of such virtues very carefully. (1) Therefore this grace of resignation is not to be confused with Stoicism. The effect of pure religion is not to convert flesh hire stone, but stone into flesh. Its object is not to stupefy or destroy, but rather to refine and exalt the feelings of our nature. Job felt deeply his sorrows, but it is expressly said, “ In all this he sinned not.” And so with our Lord. (2) Nor does resignation prohibit our praying against any evil that is feared, or for good that may be desired. See Paul and his thorn in the flesh. (3) Nor does it necessitate that we are to sit still and do nothing to help ourselves. The text refers to Israel’ s possession of Canaan, but still they had to do much ere it became theirs. II. The propriety and advantages of this grace. (J. Crouther.) God’ s conduct of our affairs Allusion seems to be here made to the division of the earth among Noah’ s sons after the deluge (Deuteronomy 32:7-9). And like division by lot was observed in regard to the land of Canaan. Though the lot was cast into the lap, the whole disposing thereof was of the Lord. And still God graciously interferes in our affairs. I. The manner of God’ s control.1. The constant interference on the part of God regards everything relative to our condition in this finite state of being. All form parts of the Divine choosing, however hard it may be to reconcile superior deter-ruination with the free and unrestrained choice which every individual makes for himself. This superintendence is as extensive as it is minute. He telleth the number of the stars, and He counteth the hairs of our head. In its operation it touches the springs of human determination, without at all infringing on individual liberty; and directs man to the choice, while man chooses for himself. 2. It includes the special regards which God pays to tits own people. “ This people have I formed for Myself,” etc. 3. The Divine Spirit chooses our lot, by leading, directing, and regulating the choice we make for ourselves; not by a powerful and immediate control of the will, but by implanting those principles in the mind which, in their voluntary exercise, will form a choice agreeably to the Divine mind. “ It is God that worketh in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure.” II. The propriety and advantage of leaving the choice of our inheritance to God. This is indeed nothing more than cheerfully recognizing the just exercise of His own prerogative: He will eventually do it, whether we will or not. But it is best voluntarily to leave it with God, because--1. It is infinitely wise and fit that He should choose our inheritance for us. To show the propriety of such a disposition, Jeremiah drew his followers to the potter’ s field (Jeremiah 18:2-6). 2. This arrangement is infinitely best for ourselves. The task of first forming a human soul for glory, and then bringing that soul to its possession, is what none but God Himself could accomplish. (Robert Hall, A. M.) A wise desire I. The glorious fact. As for the worldling, God gives him anything, but for the Christian, God selects the best portion. He gives the worldling husks; but He stops to find out the sweet fruits for His people. I. And, first, let ms ask, must we not all of us admit an over-ruling Providence, and the appointment of Jehovah’ s hands, as to the means whereby we came into this world? What circumstances were those in our power which led us to elect a certain person to be our parent? Had we anything to do with it? Did not God of Himself appoint our parents, native place and friends? And that we were born with healthy body and sound mind. If you have full possession of all your faculties and limbs, you must acknowledge and confess that there was the decree of God in it. And, still further, how much of the finger of God must we discern in our temper and constitution? I suppose no one will be foolish enough to say that we are all born with the same natural temperament and constitution.2. I will ask any sensible man--above all, any serious Christian--whether there have not been certain times in his life when he could most distinctly see that indeed God did “ choose his inheritance for him.” Look back and see how the hand of God was in your affairs, and by varied and often strange means allotting you your place and work. I can see a thousand chances, as men call them, all working together, like wheels in a great piece of machinery, to fix ms just where I am. Verily, it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.” Then look at the lives of the great saints told of in the Bible and see this truth plainly shown. Joseph; Moses; Daniel. And how many are the Bible declarations in the matter (Isaiah 45:6-7; Job 14:5; Proverbs 16:33; Jeremiah 21:25). II. A prayer. “ He shall choose our inheritance for us.” Dry doctrine is of little use. It is not the doctrine which helps us; it is our assent to the doctrine. But there are some of you who, if it were not the truth, would say you wish to have it so, for you would say in your prayer, “ Thou shalt choose my inheritance for me.”1. First, “ Thou shalt choose my mercies for me.” And others would choose their employments; but it is far best to leave the choosing to God. “ If there were two angels in heaven,” said a good man, “ supposing there were two works to be done, and one work was to rule a city, and the other to sweep a street crossing--the angels would not stop a moment to say which they would do. They would do whichever God told them to do. Gabriel would shoulder his broom and sweep the crossing cheerfully; and Michael would not be a bit prouder in taking the sceptre to govern the city.” So with a Christian. But there is nothing that we oftener want to choose than our crosses. None of us like crosses at all; but all of us think everybody else’ s trials lighter than our own. Crosses we must have, but we often want to be choosing them. “ Oh!” says one, “ my trouble is in my family. It is the worst cross in the world--my business is successful; but if I might have a cross in my business, and get rid of this cross in my family, I should not mind.” (C. H. Spurgeon.) Psalms 47:5 God is gone up with a shout.The solemnity of Christ’ s Ascension to the throne of glory I. Prove the truth of this doctrine--that Christ is gone up, or ascended.1. This was typified under the Old Testament by the ark, which continued in a wandering, uncertain condition, as to the place of its abode, till it was taken up to Mount Zion and fixed in the holy of holies. 2. This was foretold by the prophet (Psalms 110:1). 3. This is evident from the testimony of famous witnesses (Acts 1:11; Acts 7:55-56). 4. This is confirmed from many texts of Scripture (Hebrews 1:3; Hebrews 4:14; Hebrews 8:1; Hebrews 12:2). 5. This appears from the glorious fruits and consequences of His actual accession to the throne of glory, which have appeared in the open view of all mankind. II. Show what is imported in this expression of his going up.1. His voluntary humiliation (John 3:13). 2. His incarnation, or assumption of man’ s nature. 3. That He had ended or finished the work or service for which He came down into this lower world. 4. His resurrection from the dead, whereby He was justified as the Head and Surety of an elect world, and declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness. 5. That the gates of glory, which had been shut, were again opened by the death and satisfaction of Christ. 6. That God the Father is perfectly well pleased with the person and undertaking of our glorious Redeemer; for, if He had not been well pleased, how could He give Him such a solemn reception after His work was done? 7. That when Christ ascended, after finishing our redemption, He was received into heaven with the universal applause and admiration of the triumphant company. III. Speak of the solemnity of Christ’ s ascension.1. The place from whence He went up. This world, where He had met with such bad entertainment. 2. Whither He is gone up. He is gone up into the third heavens, where no unclean thing can enter; and the heavens are to contain Him till the time of the restitution of all things. 3. To whom He is gone up (John 20:17). Oh! what an infinite satisfaction would it be to Him to return to His Father, to be possessed of that glory that He had with Him before the world was! 4. Through what region, and through whose territories he went up. 5. His levee or retinue that attended Him when He went up. This seems to be pointed at (Psalms 68:17). 6. The spoils and trophies He carried along with Him when He went up. (1) The head of the old serpent.(2) The keys of the grave (Revelation 1:18).(3) The debt bond that we were owing to justice, retired and cancelled (Colossians 2:14).(4) The broken law repaired, yea, magnified and made honourable by His obedience unto death.(5) The keys of the house of David, i.e. an absolute dominion, sovereignty and headship over His Church, and over all creatures for the Church’ s sake (Isaiah 22:22). 7. With respect to the solemnity of Christ’ s ascension, we may consider that He went up with a shout. Who were they that gave the shout? We read of nothing but a deep and silent gazing after Him as He went up from this lower world (Acts 1:9-11); where, then, was the shouting? In the Church triumphant, among an innumerable company of angels, and the spirits of just man made perfect: these sons of God shouted for joy when they saw their glorious Head of redemption and confirmation coming in personally among them. What kind of shouts were among that triumphant company when the Lord Jesus went up to His throne and kingdom? (1) A shout of approbation.(2) A shout of joy and gladness (Revelation 19:7).(3) A shout of praise and gratitude (Revelation 5:9).(4) A shout of admiration and adoration among the triumphant company.(5) A shout of victory and triumph among the heavenly crowd. IV. Show what there is in the ascension of Christ that affords such ground of triumph.1. God is gone up with a shout, as our forerunner, to open the way to glory, and to make a report of what was done in the days of His humiliation upon this earth (Hebrews 6:20). 2. He has gone up as a victorious general to receive a triumph after the battle. 3. He is gone up as a bridegroom to prepare a lodging for His bride, and to make suitable provision for her against the day of the consummation of the marriage (John 14:2-3). 4. God is gone up with a shout in our nature, as “ the great high priest of our profession” (Hebrews 4:14; Hebrews 9:12; Hebrews 10:21-22). 5. God is gone up in our nature as “ our Advocate with the Father” (1 John 2:1). 6. God is gone up as our exalted King. 7. He is gone up to Mount Zion above, as the great Shepherd, to look after His sheep that are wandering in the wilderness. 8. He is gone up as our glorious Representative to take possession of the inheritance of eternal life, until his fellow-heirs, all believers whom He represents, follow Him. V. Uses.1. Of information. (1) See hence that the ignominy of the Cross of Christ is fully wiped away. (2) See hence that none need to think themselves dishonoured by suffering the hardest things for His sake. (3) See hence how little reason believers have to be disquieted because of the confusions of this lower world; even though heaven and earth were mingling, and seas roaring. Why, God is gone up with a shout: He governs the world for the Church’ s sake, and therefore nothing can go wrong, “ no weapon formed against Zion shall prosper.” (4) See hence the parallel or similitude between Christ’ s ascension and His coming to judgment. 2. Of trials. (1) Have you received His Spirit? He is a holy Spirit, a praying Spirit, a Spirit of life and liberty, a public Spirit in a time of defection; when the house of Christ is turned into a den of thieves, the zeal of His house will eat you up. (2) Your hearts will be frequently mounting up on high after Him, as upon eagle’ s wings. 3. Of consolation. (1) Thou shall follow Him ere long. (2) Thou shall not want the gifts, graces and influences of the Spirit to bear you up, and to carry you through in the work and service that He has for you upon earth. (3) Here is comfort under all the glooms and frowns of men in the world for owning Christ, His cause, His kingdom, His truths, His ways and people. (4) Here is comfort against the fear of the “ roaring lion, who goes about seeking whom he may devour.” (5):Here is comfort; all the angels in heaven are upon thy side, believer, all the armies of heaven are ready to fight the quarrel of His Church. (6) Here is comfort; death is disarmed of its sting, and can do no hurt. Why, Christ carried the sting of death, and the armour of this king of terrors with Him when He went up with a shout. “ I have the keys of hell and of death.” (7) Here is comfort; thy life is well secured, believer. Why, it is hid in Him who is gone up with a shout (Colossians 3:3). (8) Here is comfort, that all providential dispensations in the world are working together for thy good. 4. Of exhortation. (1) Behold Him with the eye of faith upon the throne. (2) Lift up the everlasting doors of your hearts, that this King of glory may come in. (3) Come with boldness unto the throne of grace. (4) Let all the world, angels, men and devils, reverence Him and do Him homage. (5) See that you have a due regard to the laws and liberties of His house, and the interests of His glory and kingdom. (6) Is He gone up with a shout? Then let us never be ashamed of Him before men, for He is our credit and ornament; He is not ashamed to confess us before His Father, and before His angels. (7) Let us join in the solemnity of His exaltation, for it is not yet ended. They that shouted when He went first up to heaven from Mount Olivet are shouting for joy to this day, and therefore let us join in the concert. (E. Erskine.) Psalms 47:7 God is the King of all the earth: sing ye praises with understanding.Worship-song Hymns help to nobler worship of God and clearer visions of His face. I. Because they embody the holy thoughts and feelings of inspiring and seeing men and women. Many of the greatest hymns are the lyric expression of great experiences produced by some exceptional circumstances of the life. Cowper, by his coachman missing the way, was hindered from carrying out a plan of self-destruction which, in a season of great depression, he had formed. On his recovery he wrote the well-known hymn, “ God moves in a mysterious way” ; and many more such illustrations might be given. II. They express great thoughts and feelings. The most deeply religious parts of the Old Testament are its poetic books. Hymns are more moving than devotional manuals, and their rhythm makes them cling to the memory. III. They have new power through the music to which they are wedded, and-- IV. They are the noblest vehicle for united worship. (T. Garrett Horder.) Psalms 47:9 The shields of the earth belong unto God: God’ s shields “ The shields of the earth,” all veritable protectives, are the property of God, and are of His creation. But why do I require a shield? What are my perils and foes? The fire of passion. The sharp gnawing tooth of care. The dull, heavy pressure of monotony. The burden of apparently unrequited toil. The slug of sloth. The moth of indifference. The rust of contempt. The awful weight of accumulating years. If I am to be protected against these perils I require varieties of shields, and “ the shields of the earth belong unto God.” He has shields for every type of peril; there is no unprotected corner which has been overlooked by our Lord. Our perils change their guise with our changing seasons, and the gradient of our age. In youth we frequently find our antagonism in “ the lust of the flesh.” Against this all-consuming passion we require a shield I In our prime “ the lust of the flesh” changes into “ the lust of the eyes,” and perhaps matures into “ the pride of life.” Passion is converted into acquisitiveness, and acquisitiveness refines itself into vanity. If we are to resist these fatal fascinations we require a shield. In age we are imperilled by our disillusions. The unaccomplished purpose becomes a snare. The radiant ideal seems no nearer achievement, and our poor attainments look upon us with confounding mockery. Then are we prone to become sour and crabbed, and life may pass into an impoverishing loneliness. If we are to be guarded against these perils we need a shield! And right through our life, from early youth to extreme old age, our course lies through perils of over-changing variety. With these environments of continuous danger, what shall we do? We must seek for an adequate shield, and “ the shields of the earth belong unto God.” Let us leek at two or three of them. I. The shield of good spirits. We often say of a man, “ His good spirits were his salvation.” There was a certain cheery radiancy of spirit about his life. He was possessed by unfailing cheer and geniality, lie saw everything through his own warmth. His warmth was his shield, and by it he was delivered from a thousand snares. Where did he get his warmth? “ The shields of the earth belong unto God.” I have often known men who have been passing through a November season of life in which other people have found nothing but coldness and gloom, but their life has been so possessed by the spirit of geniality, that the bird-song had never seemed to be silent, and the atmosphere was always redolent of the spring. Charles Kingsley passed through many a November season; trials and persecutions were not absent from his day, and yet his good spirits were always abounding, and by his good spirits the gloom was always illumined. Where do these people get their good spirits? They get them from the Lord. Just outside Buda Pesth there is now a spring of continuous hot water, which is practically supplying the needs of an entire population. Boring has been continued to the depth of five thousand feet, and the genial spring has been unloosed. Is not this parabolic? If we want the genial springs, we must go to the requisite depths; we must not be surface characters, or our waters will be chilled in the first day of a cold November. We must bore deep. We must reach as far as God, and when we come into communion with Him, tits water shall be in us a “ well of water springing up into everlasting life.” II. The shield of holiness. The pure allures the pure and resists the impure. But the life must be scrupulously pure! It must be healthy. Our imperfect consecrations are our perils; they are like ridged and wrinkled surfaces in which uncleanness easily hides. Holiness will not take stains. Lay your unclean finger upon soft and unfinished porcelain, and it will take the impress of your defiling touch. But lay your finger upon the shining, finished, perfected ware, and the substance will not take the stain. The virus which is inoculated for the prevention of small-pox frequently “ does not take” ; the body is so healthy that it affords no foothold for the invader! And surely that is what we need in the spirit! We require a spirit so healthy that evil suggestions will not “ take.” “ Let integrity and uprightness preserve me.” That is the shield we require! How can we get it? We shall have to get away unto the Lord, and in deep humility of spirit pray that He will communicate unto us His own saving health. III. The shield of faith. “ The shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the evil one.” What are the perils? “ Darts” --sharp, sudden, fierce experiences; “ fiery darts” --sharp experiences that come to us in heat; “ fiery darts of the evil one” --sharp experiences in the nature of sinful temptations that come to us in the feverish moments of our life. They are provocatives to temper, impatience, rashness, and sinful pique. What do we need as our protective? “ The shield of faith.” Faith gives quietness. “ Let not your heart be troubled, believe!” Where belief is settled, the heart is delivered from distraction, and remains in fruitful peace. Faith gives collectedness. Our powers are no longer a turbulent mob, but a deliberative assembly. A man is not “ all sixes and sevens,” he is a living unit, all his powers co-operating in gracious harmony. This is the shield we require. Where can we get it? We must go to the Lord our Saviour, and in simplicity of spirit we must urge upon Him the prayer of the disciples of old, “ Lord, increase our faith.” (J. H. Jowett, M. A.) The law of protection The text has a special appropriateness for troublous times, and in troublous times the Church has often remembered and verified it. When threatened and terrified, hunted and harried, made the victim of earthly tyranny, the object of earthly assaults, the Church has discovered that just where the earthly danger was, there also was the earthly shield--raised up, brought near, and made available by Him who is the Sovereign of the earth, for the assistance of His cause and the safe-keeping of His people. I. The shield political is in the hand of God. We refer to the protecting influence of good government. What an unspeakable, yet often forgotten, blessing is the blessing of a civilized and enlightened constitution, considered simply as a shield! It is the principle and the pride of good government like our own that it aims at the throwing of its protecting screen over strong and weak, rich and poor alike, seeking to deal open and even-handed justice to all, without favour and without fear. Well, the shield political is in the hand of God. It is He who appoints it, maintains it, and directs it as need arises or danger demands. What is the practical lesson? For one thing, let there be recognition of God’ s power and gratitude for God’ s goodness in extending such a shield, so near, so ample, so strong; thus setting our lines in pleasant places, and appointing us a goodly heritage. Let there be prayer for God’ s blessing, that those who compose that shield, the living minds that plan, the living hands that execute, may lend themselves more and more to the influence of a Christian spirit and the accomplishment of Christian ends. II. The shield domestic is in the hand of God. We refer to the protective influence of a pious home. Home is home, indeed, only when it surrounds the growing boy or girl with a whole investiture of pure and affectionate influences--kind deeds, kind words, kind thoughts--and thus forms a quiet pavilion, where the young life can feel itself safe. Let parents grudge no pains, spare no expedients, that tend to the maintenance of this feeling, and the drawing and the keeping of their children together under the shadow of that safeguard which we call home. And let all, whether parents or children, remember that, like other shields, the shield of a happy Christian home is in the hand of God. It is God who erects it. It is God who keeps it together. Therefore, in all that pertains to our home, let God have the guidance, and let God have the glory. III. Shields social are in the hands of God. Here we pass to another protective influence of life, and note the preserving power of helpful and beneficent institutions. We live in an age of organizations. They are with us upon every hand--organizations philanthropic, moral, religious. We have our societies for the promotion of health, the diffusion of literature, the increase of temperance, the preservation of purity. And all these are shields, or are meant to be shields, for the young, the innocent, the feeble, the tempted, and the penitent. The point we should always notice is this, that they are shields in the hand of God. The fact is suggestive of two things we do well to keep constantly in mind.1. Such safeguards owe their origin to Divine revelation. Philanthropy springs from the plains of Galilee, where the Saviour fed the hungry and healed the ailments of the multitude. 2. They owe their efficiency to Divine grace. A white cross will not keep a man pure; again, it is only a symbol and expression: what will save and preserve him is the same grace of God. IV. Shields physical are in the hands of God. Among the protecting influences of life there is the influence of the powers and processes of natural law. Think of these influences in their broadest and most general sense as a protection and a benefit to the race at large. How wonderfully force balances force, and principle supplements or cheeks principle!--the great and grand resultant being the safety and stability of the natural order we belong to, and the safety and stability of ourselves in the midst of it. Let us believe in a Providence that keeps the feet of the saints, and, if necessary for the keeping of them, can make nature itself a minister of grace. A friend writes thus in a letter: “ Did I tell you of my escape from drowning last year in Derwentwater, after my return from Brittany? My canoe upset. But angels that remove some stones out of the way can place other stones in it when needful. So was I preserved!” V. Shields spiritual are in the hands of God. Let us select, as our last illustration, the protection afforded by the prayers and the presence of the saints. It is a fruitful and inspiring thought! For as the supplications of the saints go up, from the public assembly, from the household hearth, from the solitude and secrecy of private chambers and private hearts, for a race beset by sorrow and defiled by sin, they interpose a real and a solid barrier between those interceded for and the dangers that surround. Tim world owes more to them than it knows. Why is anger restrained? Why is chastisement delayed? Often for the saints’ sake. May He in whose hand are the shields of the earth continue this shield, the shield of earnest and faithful intercession, till those that are sheltered beneath its shadow make their peace with Himself, and become intercessors in their turn! (W. A. Gray.) Psalms 48:1-14 Psalms 48:1-14 Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised.A song of deliverance The psalm has manifestly some historical basis. What is it? The psalm gives these points--a formidable muster before Jerusalem of hostile people under confederate kings with the purpose of laying siege to the city--some mysterious cheek which arrests them before a sword is drawn, as if some panic fear had shot from its towers and shaken their hearts--and a flight in wild confusion from the impregnable dwelling-place of the Lord of hosts. Now, there is only one event in Jewish history which corresponds, point for point, to these details--the crushing destruction of the Assyrian army under Sennacherib. The psalm falls into three portions. I. There is the glory of Zion (Psalms 48:1-2). Those words are something more than merely patriotic feeling. The Jew’ s glory in Jerusalem was a different thing altogether from the Roman’ s pride in Rome. For, to the devout Jew, there was one thing, and one thing only, that made Zion glorious--that in it God abode. The name even of that earthly Zion was “ Jehovah-Shammah, the Lord is there.” They celebrate concerning it that it is His city, the mountain of His holiness. This is its glory. And it is no spiritualizing or forcing a New Testament meaning into these words when we see in them the eternal truth, that the living God abides, and energizes by His Spirit and by His Son in the souls of them that believe upon Him. It is that presence which makes His Church fair as it is, that presence which keeps her safe. It is God in her, not anything of her own, that constitutes her “ the joy of the whole earth.” II. The deliverance of Zion. The psalm recounts with wonderful power and vigour the process of this deliverance (Psalms 48:4-8). Mark the dramatic vigour of the description of the deliverance. There is, first, the mustering of the armies. “ The kings were assembled” --we see them gathering their far-reaching and motley army, mustered from all corners of that gigantic empire. They advance together against the rocky fortress that towers above its girdling valleys. “ They saw it, they marvelled” --in wonder, perhaps, at its beauty, as they first catch sight of its glittering whiteness from some hill crest on their march--or, perhaps, stricken by some strange amazement, as if, basilisk-like, its beauty were deadly, and a beam from the Shechinah had shot a nameless awe into their souls--“ they were troubled, they hasted away.” The abruptness of the language in this powerful description reminds us of the well-known words, “ I came, I saw, I conquered,” only that here we have to do with swift defeat--they came, they saw, they were conquered. In their scornful emphasis of triumph they are like Isaiah’ s description of the end of Sennacherib’ s invasion, “ So Sennacherib, King of Assyria, departed, and went and returned, and dwelt at Nineveh.” “ The trumpet spake not the armed throng, But kings sat still, with awful eye, As if they surely knew their sovereign Lord was by.” One image is all that is given to explain the whole process of the deliverance, “ Thou breakest the ships of Tarshish with an east wind.” The metaphor is that of a ship like a great unwieldy galleon caught in a tempest--compare the destruction of the Spanish Armada. However strong for fight, it is not fit for sailing. And so this huge assailant of Israel, this great “ galley with oars,” washing about there in the trough of the sea, as it were--God broke it in two with the tempest which is His breath. You remember how on the medal that commemorated the destruction of the Spanish Armada--our English deliverance--there were written the words of Scripture: “ God blew upon them and they were scattered.” What was there true, literally, is here true in figure. And then mark how from this drastic description there rises a loftier thought still. The deliverance thus described links the present with the past. “ As we have heard, so have we seen in the city of the Lord of hosts, in the city of our God.” And with all the future--“ God will establish it for ever.” God will establish Zion; or, as the word might be translated, God will hold it erect, as if with a strong hand grasping some pole or banner-staff that else would totter and fall--He will keep it up, standing there firm and stedfast. If it had been possible to destroy the Church of the living God it had been gone long, long ago. Its own weakness and sin, the ever-new corruptions of its belief and paring of its creed, the imperfections of its life and the worldliness of its heart, the abounding evils that lie around it and the actual hostility of many that look upon it and say, Raze it, even to the ground, would have smitten it to the dust long since. It lives, it has lived in spite of all, and therefore it shall live. “ God will establish it for ever.” In almost every land there is some fortress or other which the pride of the inhabitants calls “ the maiden fortress,” and whereof the legend is that it has never been taken, and is inexpugnable by any foe. It is true about the tower of the flock, the stronghold of the daughter of Zion. The grand words of Isaiah about this very Assyrian invader are our answer to all fears within and foes without, “ Say unto him, the virgin, the daughter of Zion, hath despised thee, and laughed thee to scorn.” III. Zion’ s consequent grateful praise and glad trust. The deliverance deepens their glad meditation on God’ s favour and defence. “ We have thought of Thy lovingkindness in the midst of Thy temple.” And it spreads God’ s fame throughout the world (verse 10). (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Psalms 48:2-3 Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth is Mount Zion.Spiritual nationality I. A rehearsal of Jewish history. This is necessary in order to understand the inner meaning of this psalm. Israel’ s history begins with Abraham. His life nomadic, wandering, a wilderness life. And so with Israel for centuries it was a forced desert experience. II. The divine philosophy of it. It was to make up the longing for rest, for a settled habitation and a national life. They had learned enough to know that cities enable men to unite, to concentrate for great material purposes. Cities not only symbolized but secured possession, fixity, safety, growth, nationality. Hence their joy in Jerusalem of which this psalm is an utterance. III. And to all this the christian life correspends. God’ s call separates, but ultimately unites. Let us anticipate our future in “ the city of habitation.” (J. McDougall.) The charm of Zion (with Psalms 12:1-8):--There is comfort for us in the thought that Zion’ s beauty was spiritual; there is also warning. Wanting spiritual power, certain churches would have something left, a remaining charm. Their architectural monuments, their imposing ceremonies would still command a measure of deference and support, But wanting spiritual power, we are destitute indeed. Our Churches consist of persons who have made deliberate profession of faith in Christ; faith whereby they enter into spiritual union with Him. He is their Head, they are His members. I. Charm in our church life must therefore ever be dependent, first, upon the actualizing of this relation, by real communion with Christ. The unreal has no charm for God, and He purposes that it should have none for man. The Bible makes this clear, and experience echoes Bible teaching. Real communion with Christ is not sentiment. It is the surrender and reinforcement of the will. It is obedience, love, self-sacrifice supernaturally sustained. It is sharing the spirit and life of Jesus. II. Another essential to charm in the Church is sympathy. The New Testament incites to brotherly love, bearing one another’ s burdens, looking on the things of others, and such like. In the first age, before the art of sublimating precepts into metaphors was discovered, these incitements found response; love was patent, sympathy flowed freely. The stream of sympathy flows still, but its course is often blocked by boulder-like conventionalities; and, where communion with Christ is defective, it fails at the spring. The social meeting, not unknown among us, merits study and development: the meeting in which our members get to know one another, discover that Christian fellowship is compatible with social friendship, and find opportunity for quiet natural speech upon the things of God. III. This brings me to another matter which must contribute charm to our Church life, namely, the disclosure of joy in God. Our recoil from cant has silenced the sincere. Yet, doubtless, every Christian should reveal, in look and word, the wealth of joy he has discovered in the Gospel. Of course, it is “ bad form” to be demonstrative; to advertise one’ s emotions. It may be. But the stony immobility that never calls attention with enthusiasm to marvels of nature or miracles of grace is insulting to God; a fraudulent witholding of His due praise. IV. Something should be added about aggressive activity. If the Church is to maintain and increase her charm she must make it clear that she holds no truce with the giant wrongs under which men suffer. In warring against these the Church has done, and is doing, nobly. We claim, too, that she has supplied inspiration for’ humanitarian enterprise effected under other auspices. When our best men take their seats in Town Council, the Church is present in their persons, and is a good councillor. Yet her watchword must be “ Forward.” The dullest scorner must be left without excuse for echoing the stupid libel that our churches are Pullman cars for heaven, the passengers caring only for their travelling comforts and safe arrival. (G. Hawker.) The beauty of Christ’ s Church The situation (of Mount Zion) is, indeed, eminently adapted to be the platform of a magnificent citadel. Rising high above the deep Valley of Gihon and Hinnom on the West and South, and the scarcely less deep one of the Cheesemongers on the East, it could only be assailed from the Northwest; and then “ on the side of the North” it was magnificently beautiful, and fortified by walls, towers and bulwarks, the wonder and terror of the nations. Alas her towers have long since fallen to the ground, her bulwarks have been overthrown, her palaces have crumbled to the dust, and we who now walk about Zion can tell no other story than this to the generation following. There is another Zion, however, whose towers are still more glorious and shall never be overthrown. (W. M. Thomson, D. D.) Psalms 48:3 God is known in her palaces for a refuge.The secret of national greatness It is not the nation makes the people, but the people make the nation. On the rulers depends the nation’ s prosperity. When God is honoured in the palace He will be worshipped in the cottage. When Atheists make laws, sedition will be the offspring. I. Influence always descends. It is like the rain and dew. The less follow the great. Great power, great wealthy, great minds always lead. II. The great affect the great. The kings of the earth saw and were troubled. Palace religion is more displayed than that of the cottage. God has His own work for the insignificant, but the great have also their higher sphere. III. National religion is national preservation. The kings hasted away. Their hostility was vain in the presence of Him who was the Refuge of the palace. (Homilist.) God known as a refuge Even false worship argues a constitutional capacity for the true. I. The conception of God is the greatest thing in man. In proportion as it is lost or distorted, human dignity decays, and the race sinks nearer the level of inferior creatures. The mould on which he was made is the cause of man’ s original greatness; but when he ceases to lay himself habitually back upon his origin, his being shrinks down again into the dimensions of a lower species. II. God is. This is the first proposition in the inspired confession of faith (Hebrews 11:6). An atheist may reason against the existence of God, and a worldly man may keep God out of all his thoughts, but neither the one nor the other can blot God out of being. Although we practically banish God out of our little spot of time, He will meet us when we enter His great eternity. III. God is known. Observe Paul’ s method in reasoning with the Athenians regarding the altar which they had dedicated to the unknown God, and the cognate argument which he addressed to the idolaters at Lystra (Acts 14:15-17; Acts 17:22-29). This is an inspired recognition of natural religion. The revelation which has been imprinted on earth and sky does not go far enough for the necessities of the fallen; but it is true as far as it goes. Men ought both to perceive its meaning and trust in its truth. IV. God is known in her. “ God is known,” may be taken as the motto of natural, “ God is known in her,” as the motto of revealed religion. Wherever Christ is admitted King into a believing heart, there are the thrones of the house of David, there the temple stands, and thence sweet incense rises morning and evening to Heaven. Wherever many such believers are congregated, there is the city of the great King; wherever there are believing men and women, there is a peopled Jerusalem; and of that city it is the distinction still that God is known in her. V. God is known in her palaces. The psalm commemorates a revival in high places (2 Chronicles 17:1-19; 2 Chronicles 18:1-34; 2 Chronicles 19:1-11; 2 Chronicles 20:1-37.). When grace was poured into the heart of the king, all ranks felt the benefit. The human skull, where the material organ of thought resides, has been called the palace of the soul. The princely spirit that dwells beneath that stately dome counts and keeps the whole world its tributary. In a princely way this king of the creatures has caught and tamed the powers of nature, and yoked them to his chariot. At the door of that regal residence a Stranger stands and knocks. Hear His voice, “ If any man open, I will come in.” This is God our Saviour. When He is admitted, God will be known in that palace; for, “ He that hath seen Me, hath seen the Father.” Not Christ in heaven, but Christ in you, is the hope of glory. VI. God is known in her palaces for a refuge. The idea, the existence, the knowledge of God, whether among rich or poor, become for us all or nothing, according as we recognize Him as our refuge, or fear Him as our foe. For poor, blind, guilty, dying creatures, such as we are, there are only two ways open--we must either flee from God, or flee to Him. To those no good can happen, to these no evil. One thing is needful; and this is the meaning of a Gospel ministry, “ Be ye reconciled to God.” Make Him your refuge, and you will find the way is open, the welcome prepared; all things will work together for your good. (W. Arnot.) Psalms 48:8-14 As we have heard, so have we seen in the city of the Lord of Hosts, in the city of our God.“ As we have heard, so have we seen” This is seldom true. In many places we see what we have not heard, and what we have heard we do not see. But when you come into “ the city of the Lord of hosts,” the reports about it are true, and the truth exceeds the report. I. It is most important that we listen to true witnesses; for, else, we shall not be able to say, “ As we have heard, so have we seen.” It is of the first importance to you all that you should hear the Word of God, and receive the truth as it is in Jesus; so that, both in the throng of life, and when you stand upon the borders of death, and in the changeless state of eternity, you may be able to say, “ We thank God for the Gospel which we heard; for what we heard with our ears has been verified in our lives.” II. Good hearing leads on to seeing--“ As we have heard, so have we seen.” Some of you have heard, and heard, but have never yet seen. The man who is content with one inlet to his mind, namely, his ears, but never uses his eyes, must imagine that God has made a mistake, and has given him more senses than he needs. Surely this argues a want of sense. “ O taste and see that the Lord is good.” You will ask how can a hearer of the Gospel become a seer of it? 1. He can do this by examining the facts which lie hears stated, and judging whether they are really so. The Scripture tells you that your heart is deceitful--see whether it be net so. It tells you that there is a natural inclination in man towards evil--study yourself, and see whether this is not the case. 2. We further see what we hear when we obey the commands and receive the blessings promised upon obedience. “ if we confess our sins,” etc. “ Come unto Me,” etc. 3. We also turn hearing into sight when, receiving the blessings which are promised to faith, we enter into a new life. III. Seeing wonderfully confirms the truth of what we hear. I am sure I can appeal to those of you who have seen the Lord in His glory, so as to abhor yourselves in dust and ashes, and to those of you who have seen yourselves, so that you have been ashamed and confounded at your own ways. I say, I can appeal to you to confirm the most solemn statements of Holy Scripture. However much its denunciations may make you shudder, your inmost soul consents to the truth of them. Brighter things, however, have we heard and seen. We heard that there is a calling of God, whereby He separates His chosen from the rest of mankind. We heard, too, that if we came to Jesus as we were, He would receive us; and He did receive us. Then we heard that there was such a thing as regeneration. “ Ye must be born again.” Many of you know the great and radical change, because you have experienced it. Further, to show you how experience supports the Word of God, we were told many times over that God hears prayer. We were reminded of the Saviour’ s words, “ Ask, and it shall be given you,” etc. Have you not prayed yourselves out of the dark into the sunlight; prayed yourselves out of the depths of despair up to the throne of God? IV. When hearing turns to seeing, and is confirmed by it, then it leads to witnessing. So many are decrying the truth, that, if in your heart and conscience you have proved it true, you are bound to give to the Lord the testimony of even a stammerer. Your mouth is as God made it: use it as best you can, and speak up for His name and cause. Oh, for more of the missionary spirit, more telling out to the ends of the earth of what the Lord has done I What were the stars, if they did not shine? What were the sun, if He did not make our day? What were the rivers, if they did not water the lands? What were the sea itself, if it did not act as the pulsing heart of the world? What are Christians, if they do not shine as lights? Piety bottled up is dead. Religion put into a tin and hermetically sealed is useless. V. Hearing, seeing, witnessing, god will give you a yet fuller assurance than you have as yet. “ God will establish it for ever.” That is the conclusion which the saint comes to, when he has tried the truth for himself, and borne witness to the result of his trial. God will never leave His Church. God will never forfeit His word. God will never desert His Gospel. His honour is bound up in the whole enterprise that Christ undertook, He must go through with it, and He must arrive at a glorious conclusion. (C. H. Spurgeon.) “ As we have heard, so have we seen” The psalmist not only rejoices because of deliverance, but because that deliverance has proved that the commonplace present is as full of God as was the miraculous past, and has turned tradition into experience. The miracles of the Exodus have been repeated before the eyes of the psalmist’ s generation. “ As we have heard, so have we seen,” etc. And because the present has been the repetition of the past, the future shall be the continuation of the present. “ God will establish it for ever.” I. The pledge of security in the name of the city. “ The city of the Lord of hosts” --what does that great name for God mean? It means, I take it, very much the same thing as Jesus Christ praised the Roman-centurion for having groped his way to discover; that all the universe is like an embattled legion, subject to the command of one authoritative Imperator, or Emperor, the Lord of hosts. Well, then, if the city is His, who is going to take it? What about Sennacherib? He may muster his hosts as he likes, but “ in the morning they were all dead corpses,” and Sennacherib went away back to Assyria to pray to his god. Much he made of that; for whilst he was praying his sons cut his throat; and that was the end of the worship that is given to “ the hosts,” and not to the Lord of “ the hosts.” But that is not all. The city is “ the city of our God.” He is Lord of the hosts, but there is a relation more tender and blessed between us and Him than there is between them and Him, for he is “ Our God.” And how does He come to be our God? By what He has done, and by what we have done. The relation is reciprocal; His side of it is His taking us for His and telling us that He has done so; our side of it is our taking Him for ours by faith, love and obedience, and by our hearts’ speech saying to Him, “ Thou art my God.” Then we may rest secure, if “ the Lord of hosts is with us,” etc. II. How all the wonders of the past are repeated today. That sounds paradoxical. “ The age of miracles is past,” say many sad hearts. We do not “ see” as “ we have heard,” and we sometimes begin to doubt whether we have heard aright, just because we do not see what has been told us. Well, for all that, the triumphant word of my text is true to-day, as true as it was in regard to those who saw the miracle of the dead Assyrian hosts. My life is as full of God, if I like to make it so, as ever was the life of any patriarch or prophet or apostle of them all. Earth is as much crammed with God as it used to be. Not only is the reality of this working the same, but I venture to say the manner in which He now does His great things for us is an advance on the manner in which He did them of old. It is better to have a Christ in the heart than a Christ working miracles beside us; better to be guided by the Divine Spirit that dwells in us than by the pillar of fire and cloud. It is better to be committed to the responsibility of our own judgments, and our own purified hearts, than it is to hear a voice from heaven saying to us in articulate syllables what we ought to do. And they who are, or, if they will, may be, “ strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man,” do not need to envy those of old to whose palsied limbs the hands of the Saviour gave power, or to whose blind eyes he gave sight. III. The confidence for the future which springs from experience. It is always safe to reckon on God’ s future, and to infer what it will be, from God’ s past. You cannot do that with men, you can do it with Him; because He is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever. We get tired of helping people, and say, “ I have done it so often that I really cannot do it any more.” God says, “ I have done it so often that I will not cease doing it.” Men’ s purposes change; His do not. Men’ s resources get exhausted; His never. If we are trusting to Him we can boldly say, “ Tomorrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant.” It is always safe to reckon on God’ s future being of a piece with God’ s past. Therefore, the city and the citizens, each one of whom has a personal relation to God, must live for ever, in order that they may possess all that God can give them. That is a plain way of putting what can be put in more graceful language, by saying that the experience of communion with God here is the best proof, to any of us, of immortal life hereafter. Because God has given us what He has given, and been to us what He has been, and done for us what He has done, it is impossible to believe that there can come an end to the relation between Him and us, and that the man who has clasped God’ s hand can ever die.” He shall establish it for ever.” (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Testimony confirmed by experience 1. The Church, like a parent of a family, gives a volume into the hands of those who join her communion, bidding them receive it as Divine, and study it as the word which can alone guide them to glory. And her members, like the children of the household, have no better reason, at first, for receiving the Bible as inspired, than because they have heard so in the city of the Lord. They yield so much of respect to the directions of their authorized teachers, or to the impressions which have been graven on them from infancy, as to give their homage to a volume which is presumed to bear so lofty a character. But then, though it may thus be on hearsay that they first receive the Bible as inspired, it is not on hearsay that they continue to receive it. We speak of those in whom the Word has “ wrought effectually” ; and we confidently affirm of them, that, though at one time they believed in the inspiration of the canonical Scriptures, because their parents taught it, or their ministers maintained it, yet now are they in possession of a personal experimental evidence, which is thoroughly conclusive on this fundamental point. 2. But there is yet a more obvious application of the words of our text. It is said of God by Solomon that He “ requireth that which is past.” He seeks again that which is past, recalling, as it were, the proceedings, whether in judgment or mercy, of departed ages, and repeating them to the present generation. And it is on this account that there is such value in the registered experience of the believers of other days, so that the biography of the righteous is among the best treasures possessed by a church. It is, in one sense at least, a vast advantage to us that we live late in the world. We have all the benefit of the spiritual experience of many centuries, which has been bequeathed to us as a legacy of more worth than large wealth or far-spreading empire. We have not, therefore, to tread a path in which we have had but few precursors. Far as the eye can reach, the road we have to traverse is crowded with beckoning forms, as though the sepulchres gave up their host of worthies that we might be animated by the view of the victorious throng. And this is an advantage which it is hardly possible to overrate. You have only to add to this an acquaintance with the unchangeableness of God, and there seems all that can be needed to the encouragement and confidence of the righteous. 3. If there be one passage of Scripture which we venture to put into the lips of redeemed men in glory, it is our text; in tiffs instance we may be confident that the change from earth to heaven will not have made the language of the one unsuited to the other. Oh, as the shining company take the circuit of the celestial city; as they “ walk about Zion, and go round about her,” telling the towers thereof, marking well her bulwarks, and considering her palaces; who can doubt that they say one to another, “ as we have heard, so have we seen in the city of our God” ? We heard that here “ the wicked cease from troubling,” and now we behold the deep rich calm. We heard that here we should be with the Lord, and now we see Him face to face. We heard that here we should know, and now the ample page of universal truth is open to our inspection. We heard that here, with the crown on the head, and the harp in the hand, we should execute the will and hymn the praises of our God, and now we wear the diadem, and wake the melody. (H. Melvill, B. D.) Psalms 48:9 We have thought of Thy lovingkindness, O God, in the midst of Thy temple. Thought--its highest theme and material aid Three points stand out distinctly in the text, all of which are closely connected. I. The mental art is thought. “ We have thought.” It is you that think, not your body. But all mental acts are not thought. Memory, consciousness, sensations, emotions, are not thought, though they may be productive of it. Thought is judgment. We think when we analyze, compare, classify. Now, this faculty has certain properties, as--1. Power; for it is the mightiest of all forces. The entire universe is the outcome of the thought of God. 2. Pleasantness, which rises at times to ecstasy. Pleasure is connected with the use of all our faculties, and not least with this of thought. 3. Universality. All can think. This is a thinking age, but it can never get beyond Jesus Christ, for He is the wisdom of God and the light of the world. II. The theme of thought--God’ s lovingkindness. Yes, perhaps, some of you say, a noble and inspiring subject of thought, truly. But is there not a prior question? Is it a fact that God exists and that He loves? We live in a perplexing world, and strange and bold theories are afloat. How shall we know that God is, and that He loves? Begin with the fact nearest you, and which you do not and cannot question--your own personal existence. Each of you can say, “ I am.” Equally certain is it you did not make yourself. You come from a source adequate to such a result, and that source we call God, by which word we mean one equal to such a workmanship as you are. And now, admitting you had a Creator, what is there in you that indicates His heart towards you? What is there that shows love? Look at yourself fairly, beginning with your body, and take part after part. Your eye; what would you have lost if born blind, and what have you gained by seeing? Your ear; what do you owe for that? Your hands; what have they done for you? Is speech worth having? Any benevolent meaning in putting your palate at the entrance of food into your body?--in protecting the drum of the ear?--in giving you a curtain for the eye?--in covering the brain with a helmet of bone? Work without sleep would bring on madness, and at night the curtain is drawn, and you get your needed rest. What as to yourself, viewed as distinct from this wonderful framework? You have consciousness, sensation, memory, judgment. Can any calculation adequately convey to you the value of these endowments? You have, moreover, a moral sense, a heart, a will. And for these moral capabilities and cravings there is an abundant response in the hearts around you, and the proofs of a supreme moral Ruler--proofs which remain such, whatever your disposition towards them, and your ignoring of their voice. Having studied this personal Bible--yourself, extend the same thoughts to your nearest of kin, your household, your neighbourhood, your nation, your race--think of mankind in all generations. Add to these data all other living beings that do and have existed from the beginning as far as your imagination can give them room, and then ask, Did all the good and enjoyment embraced within this whole come out of indifference, malevolence or love? III. Material aid. We do not need the particular help which the ancient Jews had; but we can no more dispense with material appliances in our religious services than we can cease here to be clothed with flesh and be denizens of a material globe. We have God’ s own original temple--the house in which Adam, Noah, Abraham, David, Christ worshipped, a house the marvellous Divine teachings of which science is every day unconsciously unfolding to the eye of faith--a house big enough and free enough to hold all men at all hours, without money and without price, a house in which we “ all live, and move, and have our being.” Here we can all think on the Divine love, and pray. Nor, whatever you may specifically and religiously do in things material, would we ever have you despise or neglect this really Divine temple with all its marvellous aids to religious thought. But, while doing that, you can and ought to do the other thing also. You ought, out of the stones and clay of this inexhaustible storehouse, go and make other buildings specially adapted to the purpose of religious thought and worship, and not only build them, but use them, and induce all you can to avail themselves of their help. (J. C. Gallaway, M. A.) A worthy theme for thought Who were these people who declared to the Lord that they had thought of His lovingkindness in the midst of His temple? According to the title of the psalm, they were the sons of Korah--the singers in the house of the Lord. I think it is suggestive that they did not say, “ We have sung of Thy lovingkindness.” They had done that; but they said, “ We have thought” ; and there are some singers who have not done that, for they have sung solemn words thoughtlessly, caring only for the music, and not for the meaning. I. Their occupation was gracious. “ We have thought of Thy lovingkindness, O God.”1. Thought is a noble faculty; the power to exercise it distinguishes men from the brute beasts. We grovel when we are under necessity to perform the acts that relate only to the body; we rise as we are able to perform the functions of the mind and heart. 2. God’ s lovingkindness is a theme that is specially worthy of thought. It is an amazing thing that He should ever have so highly favoured such unworthy persons as we are, and favoured us so long, tenderly, and perseveringly. 3. Such thought as our text describes is essential to all true worship. It is very much in proportion to our thought that we do really worship. Suppose we sing the praises of God without thinking; is that praising Him? Nay, no more than if we could have taught a parrot, or constructed an automaton to make the same set of sounds. 4. This task of thinking of God’ s lovingkindness ought to be a very easy one, for there is abundance of material to think of in God’ s lovingkindness. I beg you to consider the various acts of Divine grace, all of which are full of the lovingkindness of the Lord--the everlasting covenant, personal election, redemption, effectual calling, adoption, sanctification, final perseverance. II. The place was appropriate. “ In the midst of Thy temple.”1. If we are in the midst of God’ s spiritual temple, His true Church, we may well think of His lovingkindness in permitting us to be there. Some of your old companions are not here; perhaps they even ridicule the idea of coming to such a place as this. Possibly some of your former associates are now where hope and mercy can never reach them. 2. Standing in the midst of that temple, which is the true Church of God, we cannot help thinking of the lovingkindness of the Lord, for every stone in that temple testifies to His lovingkindness. These are the living stones that are “ built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner stone; in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto a holy temple in the Lord.” 3. We may also think of the lovingkindness of the Lord in the midst of His temple, because everything in that temple reminds us of His lovingkindness. There was, for instance, the altar of burnt offering; and we can say, “ Thank God for the lovingkindness which has provided for us the one great atoning sacrifice by which our sin is for ever put away.” There stood, too, the golden altar of incense; and every thoughtful believer says, “ Thank God for the lovingkindness which has given us Christ to be our Intercessor before the throne of God on high, where His prevailing prayers are continually ascending on our behalf.” There also stood the shew-bread upon the sacred table; and we say, “ Thank God for Him who, as the Bread of life, is the ever-present and ever-satisfying food for His people.” There, too, was the golden candlestick or lamp-stand; and we can say, “ Thank God for His lovingkindness in having provided all-sufficient light for His people.” III. The result was beneficial.1. They were made joyous (Psalms 48:11). So, think of the lovingkindness of the Lord to you, and see if that does not make melody in your heart unto Him, and cause the big bells in your soul to ring carillons of praise so full of jubilant gladness that your very body shall seem as if it could hardly bear the joy. I have sometimes seen an old church steeple rock and reel when a marriage peal has been run out from the ancient belfry; and, in like manner, at times, one has felt so happy that the poor physical frame seemed as if it could scarcely endure such excess of bliss as the soul was delighting in the lovingkindness of the Lord. 2. Thinking upon the lovingkindness of the Lord would unloose our tongues (Psalms 48:12-13). If you have really tasted of God’ s lovingkindness, you must tell others about it. You cannot keep as a secret the love of God to you. The first instinct of a new-born soul is to tell its joy to somebody else. 3. As we think of God’ s lovingkindness, we shall be confirmed in our loyalty to Him (Psalms 48:14). “ This God is our God;” He was our father’ s God, and our mother’ s God, and the God of the dear ones whom He took from us to be with Him in heaven; and “ this is our God.” He is the God to whom we looked in the day of our soul’ s distress, when we saw Him in Christ Jesus, reconciled unto us through the death of His Son; “ this God is our God for ever and ever.” He is the God who has heard our prayers, the God who has been with us in our direst extremity; He is the God on whom we have cast our unworthy selves, trusting Him with our souls, and our all, for this world and the world to come, “ this God is our God for ever and ever.” (C. H. Spurgeon.) Psalms 48:10 Thy right hand is full of righteousness. Righteousness In the classic pictures of the gods, some held in the right hand an olive branch, some a sceptre, Neptune a trident, Apollo arrows, Mercury a wand, Minerva a scroll, Venus a golden apple. It is a proof of superiority in this picture from the psalmist that his Deity seemed to reach forth a right hand full of righteousness. The word “ right” comes through all the civilized languages, without much change, from an old classic radical, signifying straight or true to a rule. When the old mason found his work answering to the plumb-line, he said rectus; or answering to his level, or to his model, he said rectus. Hence righteousness signifies abounding in, conformity to a moral ideal, full of correspondence to some perfect rule of action or being. Religion has a less clear significance. When we have said that it is a spiritual binding of man to God, we have said all we know about the world’ s primitive significance. The relation between man and man is called society; between man and country, patriotism; between man and God, religion. Religion aspires to an ideal--that which it sees in God. Righteousness and religion must, therefore, be closely related. And to see this more clearly think of man’ s unrighteous conduct--what a history that is. No ancient sword was ever stayed while it had power to kill, or victim to be killed. Julius Caesar is said to have slain one million, two hundred thousand human beings; and the conquerors of Jerusalem put to death three million. Man has been a worse foe to man than have all the beasts of the forest, and all the storms or plagues of nature. Unrighteousness is the great foe of the human race. If one will sit down with this black history open before him, how beautiful upon its background will all deeds of righteousness appear, deeds that conformed to infinite right of neighbour. Whether you recall all the tenderness there has been in the world between parents and children, between friends, between rulers and subjects, and the justice of law and of the courts, each fact will reveal at once the divineness of righteousness, its whiteness, its sweetness. In estimating the worth of right, it is a great mistake if you limit this righteousness to the obedience of statute or common laws. Such limitation gives an honest man or a law-abiding citizen, but not a righteous man; for righteous means abounding in right, in fitting, in appropriate action. When you watch by the bedside of the sick, or teach the ignorant, or comfort the sorrowful, or give to the helpless poor, you are acting righteously, because there are unwritten laws of humanity; there is an ideal law out of the statute, and above the statute, to which the deed conforms, and from which secures its title of righteousness. Whether there could be high and correct action without religion I am unable to say. I know of no data from which to draw a conclusion. The world has never made the experiment, for religion has always rushed to the field so early in all national life, that man has never been able to know what he might have done without that element. Blair, long ago, said, “ You may discover tribes of men without policy, or laws, or cities, or arts, but not without religion.” Plutarch had said the same. Hence it seems that the nature of man is such that it will never give science an opportunity to learn how perfect a righteousness there might be without the influence of a God. But how is it to be explained that a sense of righteousness and a belief in God appears simultaneously and invariably in higher forms of society? It is no accident any more than the simultaneity of the harvest field and the warm sunshine. God’ s right hand is full of righteousness, and the right hand of righteousness is full of God. As a fact, all those who have been the students or servants of right have been believers in God. It is the man of science that generally moves away from the idea of God. Atheism has always been a camp-follower of the naturalist. From Lucretius to Huxley it has been so. But all the toilers in the domain of right, from Justinian to Webster, from Plato to Grotius, from Solomon to Franklin, have been near and firm in their friendship for the Divine idea. “ True religion is the foundation of society.” This is not from Huxley, but from Edmund Burke. “ Religion is a necessary element in any great human character.” This is not from Darwin, but from Webster. We mean no insult to the students of science, but mean that, as a fact, the study of law has always led the mind toward the Deity, and has thus revealed the casual connection between right and God. The inferences from this dependence of human purity upon God must be these-- (1) Christ, in unfolding the character of God, in tearing down all idols, and in filling the universe with one spirit, infinite and blessed, has done a work that should bind Him upon the forehead and heart of man. (2) If God is the ideal of justice, it becomes the Christian world to see to it that His character is so painted that the human mind can look up to Him and feel the grandeur of the ideal, not to be repelled, but charmed and conquered. The blessed name must be freed from the whole terrific associations of ages of cruelty and brute force, and so set before mankind in the spotless robes of justice, that the human heart may ever gladly and securely rest therein. (David Swing.) Psalms 48:12-14 Walk about Zion, and go round about her: tell the towers thereof.The love of Zion So they revered the city on the hill. Their affections clustered round about its sacred courts. They loved the very tracks which led to it. “ Blessed is the man in whose heart are the highways to Zion.” The beaten roads were trodden deep in their affections. The stones of the building were clothed in rich and mystic meaning. “ Thy servants take pleasure in her stones.” A radiant history made worship eager, grateful and assured. “ We have heard with our ear, O God; our fathers have told us what work Thou didst in their days, in the times of old.” The hoary pile was beautified with the association of the spiritual splendours of other days. They gloried in their heritage. Such was the sentiment of the olden days. The nation found its unity in its common love of Zion. There are now many Zions. The exaltation of one particular mountain has ceased. Spiritual affections no longer find their points of convergence in a lonely and isolated temple. To-day religion has many homes, but because of the many abiding-places the strength of the general fellowship need not be impoverished. The zealous reverence for particular faiths creates the religious atmosphere of a people. Here, then, is our own Zion. What is the significance of this building to the family which gathers within its walls? To an uncounted host the plain old pile is a dear and honoured home. The very stones are revered. They are the shrine of a sacred sentiment. Here our fathers met and prayed. Hero they had such visions of the Master as made them bold to confront the world. But it is not only that these stones are the shrine of a sacred sentiment; they are to many of you the house of a sacred experience. It was here you first saw the face of your Lord. It was here you were born again. I do not wonder that you love the old Zion. Every other place is a strange and unsuggesgive lodging: this house is your birthplace and your home. “ Tell the towers thereof!” What are the towers of our faith? Here is the primary stronghold: Christ is the alone-exalted head of the Christian Church. No one shares His headship or pre-eminence. No one can claim a deputed sovereignty. There is only one throne, and to that throne we may all come boldly, and find grace and mercy in every time of need. Christ is the alone-exalted head of the Christian Church. That is one of the strong towers of our faith. “ Tell the towers thereof.” Here is another of our strongholds: The Christian Church is constituted of Christian believers. The confines of a country do not mark the boundaries of a Church. Geographical measurements cannot delimit the magnitude of a Church. The Christian Church begins where Christian believers begin; it ends where they end. “ Tell the towers thereof.” Here is a third of our strongholds: Every body of Christian believers enjoys the guiding presence of the Holy Ghost. He has called Himself the Spirit of “ Counsel and of Might,” and as such will He stand revealed. “ Mark ye well her bulwarks!” Yes, what are the bulwarks of our faith? What is the character of its walls? What is the nature of its defence? The defences of our faith are the resistance of its own redemptive grace. Spirituality is to be safeguarded by the spiritual. The bulwarks of a saving grace are to be found in the powers of its own salvation. “ Consider her palaces!” Yes, we are not afraid to consider the home-life created and sustained by the forces of our faith. “ Consider her palaces,” her dwellings, the family life which is nourished behind the ramparts of our faith. Can you conceive of any surer and firmer cement for the solidarity of a home than the immediate fellowship of each member with the Christ, in the common bond of the Holy Ghost? The palaces created by our faith, its family and its social life, are the abiding-places of the Eternal God. “ Walk about Zion, go round about her: tell the towers thereof, mark ye well her bulwarks: consider her palaces, that ye may tell it to the generations following.” Is it worth the telling? Or shall we close the book and shelve the story? Can the twentieth century do without our faith? Is there no need for our towers, and our bulwarks, and our palaces? Have we a gospel which will redeem the coming man? Have we a faith which will sanctify the coming home? Have we a hope which will be directive and preservative of the purest elements in the State? Then let us proclaim it, and let us make provision for its proclamation. (J. H. Jowett, M. A.) The unity of the Church The walk about Zion is an examination of her position and extent; going round about her implies a complete view of the entire circumference of the holy city. Filling her towers is an examination of her resources; marking the strength of her bulwarks is to admire her stability; considering her palaces is to exalt and glorify the majesty of her internal state. The study of the external and internal condition of the Church fills the heart with rapture and the lips with praise. In figurative martial terms the psalmist celebrates the position, strength, glory and perpetuity of the Church. Based upon the eternal rock, it will stand until the long-groaning creation awakes to hear the Easter hymn that is to be sung in the Jubilee of the final Sabbath. The uppermost questions that now challenge the attention of the chief nations of the world are of and concerning the Church. Much is being said about organic unity, which is another thing than ecclesiastical unity. A forest may be a unit--that is, one forest, all its parts nursed on the same soil and under the same conditions of climate, but it is not an organic unit, for it contains twenty species of trees, all trees, indeed, but not the same in trunk, fibre or branches. They grow together, but they have each their own special development. When, therefore, we talk of organic unity among Protestants, let us remember that the unity of a common life does not imply the necessity of ecclesiastical consolidation. Still, various branches of the Evangelical Catholic Church are every day coming nearer toward one another. And they are coming in virtue of the assimilating force that is deeper than creeds, and deeper far than preferences for mere forms, whether of worship or of government. That force is defined in Holy Scripture as “ the Unity of the Spirit.” And this is the only unity for which we need to pray or labour. To understand this unity, consider the meaning of three words. I. Christianity. The Rationalist regards it as a system more or less divine which must needs be measured by human reason before it can bind the consciences of men. This low and inadequate view may be Protestant as against the superstitions of the Papacy, but it is not evangelical, inasmuch as it denies the infallibility of Scripture, the vicarious atonement of our Lord and its related doctrines. But Christianity is the complete revelation of the Divine will in the Scriptures. It is Christ revealing Himself to the human consciousness. II. The church is one in historical transmission; and it is catholic, including all who fear God. Ecclesiastical arrangements are not of its essence, and do not interfere with its real unity, which is that of the Spirit. Rome has been fighting on a thousand battlefields to compel an external unity, but human nature will never submit to it. Such unity is but a dream, an ecclesiastical device. III. Religion. This is to some--1. An intellectual conception only. To others--2. Feeling, rapture. To others--3. A devout performance on the Lord’ s day. But--4. To the evangelist it is faith and holiness. (Elbert S. Porter, D. D.) The beauty and strength of Zion A diligent search into, and consideration of, the means and causes of the preservation and protection of the Church in the greatest dangers and difficulties, is a duty incumbent on us for our own support against sinful fears, and to enable us to that testimony which is required for future generations, to encourage them to trust in the Lord.1. What is to be understood by the preservation and protection of the Church, so as we may look neither for less nor more than what we are like to meet with? 2. What is meant by searching into, and considering of, these causes and means of the Church’ s preservation? “ Walk about Zion, tell her towers, set your heart to her bulwarks, consider her palaces,” etc. 3. What are those causes and means of the Church’ s preservation, those towers and bulwarks which will not fail, whenever Zerah or Sennacherib comes, or whatever attempts are made upon Zion? 4. What reason is there why we should thus search into and consider these causes of the Church’ s preservation and protection? 5. What is the testimony which we have to give concerning this matter to the ensuing generation? “ That ye may declare it to the generation to come.” (J. Owen, D. D.) A view of national felicity, the cause of gratitude to God I. The natural advantages of our situation.1. Our soil is fertile, liberally rewarding the husbandman with “ grass for cattle, and herb for the use of man” ; with all the necessaries and many of the luxuries of life. 2. No country in the world is more sufficient for itself, or more independent of every other; while from innumerable ports we disperse our superfluities and the fruits of our industry to every nation under heaven. 3. Our climate is mild, temperate and salubrious. We are neither scorched by excess of heat, nor made torpid by intense cold. 4. Our people are hardy and vigorous; patient of toil; docile, generous and open; attached to their country; intrepid in war, industrious at home. II. The excellence of our government.1. Ye have personal liberty, which, as it cannot be taken from you without a crime, so neither can ye alienate it of yourselves but for a time, and upon such terms as still keep you under the protection of the laws, to guard you from abuse, and to secure your hire. 2. Ye have political liberty. Every man is allowed to declare his sentiments concerning the measures of government, and to animadvert on them in the most public manner. 3. Ye have religious liberty in a very eminent degree. Every man is allowed to hold his own creed, and to worship God in his own way. III. The favour of providence. (J. Adamson, D. D.) The Church of God I. The church of God is our birthplace. Angels said, “ This man was born there.” II. The centre of our chief social attractions. Are not our grandest associations connected with the house of God? These are the men that are to stand by us in times of trouble. These are they who are to counsel us when we go astray. These are the men who are to carry us out to our last slumber when we have done with our earthly toil. Oh! I want to be surrounded by church friends, some to counsel me, some to encourage me, some to cheer me and strengthen me. I want to sit with them, and sing with them, and pray with them, and die with them. III. The home of our children. IV. A refuge. Seafaring men do not always expect smooth sailing. Neither ought we on the sea of life always expect to have smooth sailing. You have not always had it the way you wanted it in the past. You will not always have it the way you want it in the future. But when trouble came you went into the house of God and found it a refuge. You had your troubles explained to you. V. Our monument. It seems a very silly thing to expend one or two or three thousand dollars on a tombstone. But that which you do for the Church of God is your eternal monument. It is a living memento. VI. The gate of heaven. (T. De Witt Talmage.) The threefold glory of the Chureh I. Her towers. These naturally represent the great truths that are lifted into prominence. There are some ten great truths curiously related and parts of one system. Five of them are like corner towers--the Being of God is central to all--then the doctrine of the Son, the Spirit, Man, and the Word of God. The intermediate connecting truths are the Mediation of Christ in Atonement, the Mediation of the Spirit in Regeneration, Justification by Faith, the Inspiration of the sacred writers, and the right of private study of Scripture. No one of these truths can be sacrificed without weakening the whole structure. II. Her bulwarks. These as naturally represent the great barriers or defences of the Church, which act as restraints against wickedness and worldliness, serving both to keep in disciples and keep out evildoers. The Church has certain separating barriers which define her province and life, and restraining barriers which repel and restrain evil. No small part of the service of the Church in the world is found in the resistance to evil. What the dykes are to Holland the Church is to the community: it keeps out the flood of evil. III. Her palaces. These suggest beauty, honour, delight, privilege, and may stand for all the privileges of the children of God.1. Worship, with all the ordinances, sacraments, prayer, praise, etc. 2. Fellowship, both with God and saints. 3. Holy living and growing both in knowledge and grace. 4. Service to God and man. (Homiletic Review.) The great city Cities are prominent waymarks in human history. With them began the distribution of rights from the few to the many. Cincinnatus at his plough had his patriotism fed by voices from the city. Cities show us the most of man; they exhibit what life can be made; they fortify genius so that its power runs not to waste; and out of the struggles of commerce, the breadth of view concerning human relations to which commerce leads, has sprung the best thought of what is duo from man to man. When Henry the First--called “ The City Builder,” gave to cities peculiar privileges to induce his people to congregate, unwittingly he laid the grand basis of opposition to the Feudal system, and the legal foundation of popular rights. The people united to ward off the attacks of the lords or barons; union gave strength; the limit of locality made them develop their resources; commerce, art and wealth increased within their walls; energy grew and multiplied; the people became wealthy, respectable, educated and refined; better laws and institutions were desired; and thus the principle of human rights, leading to political equality, was gradually developed. Towers and bulwarks, high walls and fortified castles, were the defences of old; to walk about an ancient city was to mark these things; and the great story that was carried down from one generation to another was of hugs walls and mighty gates--stories which we can hardly believe as we see the variety of these defences in the presence of modern arts of destruction. Then cities had to be set upon a hill, that no mountain might give the archers of the enemy a position of assault; or they must be reared, like Babylon and Palmyra, in the midst of a vast plain. But not so now. He who now walks about a great city to note its strength, its defences, its promises of superior greatness, does not mark down upon his map of survey walls, towers, bulwarks, palaces; for he looks into the character of homes, the intelligence and virtue of families, and he counts up schools and institutions of learning, benevolence, religion. Undazzled by all the glitter and show of wealth, unimpressed by the stately palaces, unmoved by the boasts of trade and commerce, and disregarding the growth of material prosperity that makes the grand exhibition of thronged streets and crowded marts--the river dotted with the white sails, amid which the floating vapour from the steam craft rises as incense, sending the thoughts out to sea and to the infinite, unimpressed, in his deepest nature, by all this, his great question is, How true is it that God and the Lamb have their thrones and servants here? How much is God the light of this city? How much of all this glory is as the costume of this oriental bride adorned for her husband, as we think of the city wedded to Christ? No interest of the city can be secured by deserting the Church or profaning the Sabbath. Religion is the patron of all good. She consecrates the child to God, that daily duty towards it may be more and better felt. She invokes a blessing in the school, and sanctifies education as the process of unfolding the mind, as the sun opens the flower, ripens the fruit, gives the seasons of the year. She comes to the workshop and to the lad at his apprenticeship everywhere, telling him labour is a great ordinance of God, and bids him aim to do well his task as a part of religious duty, assuring him that all effort or improvement has its relation to the moral culture and condition and prospects of the soul. Join the elements of duty thus presented, and we may be able to speak in Scripture language, with more than its original meaning, of “ the crowning City, whose merchants are princes, and whose traffickers are the honourable of the earth.” The city will be great. To walk round about her will be to walk about Zion, and to find something worthy of telling to the generations springing up around us. God will be known in her palaces for a refuge. (H. Bacon.) A walk about Zion As the Jews were very proud of their temple, and greatly inclined to magnify themselves on account of it, we feel as if we could sympathize with them in their joy and admiration when we picture them walking about Zion literally, and marking the towers thereof; but it may not occur to us, when under this feeling, that we ourselves, as a nation, have a far more magnificent temple than even the Jews had, for we have part and portion in the great Christian temple of which Solomon’ s was after all but the appointed type or symbol. The foundation of our Zion is not concealed. It is all before us in explict revelation, and the great master builder Himself thus brings it fully into view, “ Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation, a stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation.” And, alluding to it still further, in telling believers on whom they rest, it is said of them that they “ are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner stone.” So close is the spiritual connection between Christ and believers. But we wish to show now that it is for the sake of the Church the world itself exists. I. The importance to be attached to the towers and bulwarks of Zion, and the duty of all to help in maintaining them. The world is spared for the sake of the Church to be redeemed out of it, and the Church is to aid in gathering together the souls that shall be saved. How much, then, does the world owe to the Church, for it is only for her sake that it is preserved. As the Canaanites were for Israel, who should inherit their land. II. All people in a Christian land, whatever their position, are under strict obligation to aid in tee building of Zion, Now, this duty is binding, not on private individuals only, but on men in their official capacities as kings, rulers and having authority. It would be strange if those who, by their position, could do most for this work, were free from obligation to do anything. All past history, as given in Scripture, contradicts those who would have no connection between the Church and the State. For kings and governments have helped the Church, have been commanded to do so, and been blessed for that which they have done. Then, “ my soul, come not thou into their secret.” Who would separate what God has joined? (J. Allen.) Mark well her bulwarks; consider ye her palaces. Bulwarks and palaces The psalm speaks of Jerusalem, the pride of the Jewish heart, and the boast of the Jewish glory. It is described from two points: from that of admiring friendship, and from continuous enmity. In this symbolical poem the kings are represented as enemies. I. Bulwarks symbolize power and strength. I fail to discern any of the marks of decay and weakness with which the Church of God in our day is charged. Her towers are growing stronger, her glory more resplendent, her foes decrease, and her friends become more numerous. Some of the manifest emblems of power are--1. Christian civilization. The very air men breathe is charged through and through with Christian thought. 2. The Bible, for it is a great source of power. One of the surest proofs of its power is the virulence of its enemies. Men would not attack a book which is a dead letter. 3. The vast accumulation of wealth, and the number of churches. These are signs of power. The value of Church property in our land is unparalleled, and increases greatly every year. There is not a single heathen temple in process of erection in the world. The Church gives hundreds of thousands a year for mission world. Her light flashes away up in frozen Greenland, in Central Africa and in Polynesia. Christ will be universal King. II. Riches and glory are indicated by the palaces of Zion.1. There is the palace of assurance--the doctrine of the witness of the Spirit. These need no witness of guilt--of that men are conscious. When pardon comes we have the witness of the Spirit that we are taken into the family of God. 2. The palace of Christian fellowship. 3. That of Divine communion. Zion with her towers, her bulwarks, her palaces, is the joy of the whole earth. Now she is the Church militant, but shall be soon the Church triumphant. (J. H. Bayliss, D. D.) Psalms 48:14 This God is our God for ever and ever.Our God He is so. Nothing else is so as He is. Our time, wealth, children, bodies, souls are not, strictly speaking, our own. But God is. And we may know and claim this. David was ever making such claim. Oh Lord, he says, my strength, my rock, my fortress, etc. And this relationship is not of our making but of His. We choose and give ourselves to Him, but it is by His grace. And the relationship is permanent--for ever and ever. Every other relation breaks up; but this, never. And the soul exults in this relationship. (W. Jay.) God with all His perfections, the Christian’ s God It is the unspeakable privilege of believers that God in Christ is their own God, and will be so for ever. In the Old Testament it was the joy of the devout Jew that God was his God. And the believer in Christ has the like joy. But only through Christ, who is called Immanuel, that is, “ God with us.” Eminent believers are represented as having a special interest in God. The patriarchs; Moses; the psalmists; David. And we may well rejoice in our relation to God, for He is almighty, wise, holy, just, omnipresent, patient, sovereign, good, merciful, love, faithful. Then, can we say, “ This God is our God” ? (G. Burder.) Trinity Sunday Great and awful is the subject which this Sunday brings before us--the greatest and most awful of any. It is not a simple historical fact, like those which we commemorate on other great days of our Church; like the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ on Christmas Day, or His death on Good Friday, or His resurrection on Easter Day, or the descent of the Holy Ghost on Whit-Sunday, that we have to do with now. It is the revealed truth respecting God Himself; the unfolding to us, as far as we can receive it, of the name and nature of the Almighty. But this mystery has its practical side. Take-- I. The name of father. What word could more truly convey the love of God to us? II. The name of the son. What a revelation this is; how it brings heaven very near to us and clears the way for sinners to draw nigh to the holy God. III. The name of the Holy Ghost. He it is who makes us holy, raises us from the death of sin to the life of righteousness and so fits us for the eternal inheritance. He is our Instructor; the Spirit of counsel, of knowledge and true godliness; the Spirit of God’ s holy fear. (R. D. B. Rawnsley, M. A.) Bold yet unanswerable There are three ideas in the text.1. In the words “ This God,” we have a bold and unanswerable assertion. 2. In the statement that “ This God is our God” we have a personal possession. 3. As He is our God for ever and ever we have an eternal joy. (W. Birch.) Our God The English word God is an Anglo-Saxon word, which gave not only the name, but told the character of God. For it means also “ good.” God did not show the glory of His face to Moses, but He blessed him with a revelation of His name. In the name Jehovah there are eleven different meanings, each of which describes the character of our God. Let me mention them in their order. The ever-existing Being whose nature and disposition are eternally the same; the strong God who can do all things; the merciful Being who is full of tenderness and compassion; the gracious One whose heart is goodness, humility and love; the long-suffering Friend who is never irritated with His people, and who suffers long and is kind even unto the unthankful and the evil; the bountiful Provider who overflows with beneficence; the true One who never deceives nor can be deceived, and who is the fountain of truth ever pouring wisdom and knowledge unto men; the Keeper of compassion for the suffering, the erring, and the penitent to all generations; the unselfish Being who himself bears the pain of iniquity, and who pardons transgression and washes away sin; the impartial Ruler who acts rightly to every creature; and the faithful Judge whose wise laws pour blessings on the righteous and inflict punishment on the wicked, and from whose just sentence the impenitent sinner cannot escape. Let this God be our God for ever and ever. I. Our God is a consuming fire. I was taught as a child to dread God. He was said to love me only when I was obedient, and to make a place for me in hell when I was not a good child. Feeling conscious that I was more bad than good, I dreaded God; and had a great fear of going to sleep lest I should die and see Him before morning. It was teaching as unwise as it was untrue. What a revelation when I read in the New Testament that Jesus was God! And when I felt He loved me, and listened to my prayer, and smiled upon me, I went forth to tell a little playmate who, like me, had lost his mother, that Jesus would be a gentle mother to him. II. Our God is also a practical God. He teaches men the science of self-government. His intention is that His people shall be conformed to His likeness; and in order that they may copy Him, He gives the Divine nature to all who ask. God would have us run willingly in the path of His commandments. Some parents never let their children out of their sight, and so protect them from evil; but it would be better to teach them the fear of the Lord, so that they may be able to resist temptation and practise goodness. It is good to be saved from sin by any means, but it is best when our own principle holds us back from it. And so God does not hold us from temptation by outward force, but by the inbreathing of His Spirit; He would have us obedient children who love to do His will. God also deals practically with nations as with individuals. He is teaching nations the art of self-government, and is training men to see that war is not only a blunder, but a crime. III. I should like to have shown that our God is a personal God. He knows you, He loves you, and He is now present with you! Speak to Him in prayer; He hears you. Seek His Holy Spirit; He gives it to you. Trust Him. (W. Birch.) This God is our God The revelation of the Deity to mankind may be represented as a twofold revelation. It has pleased God to disclose Himself to us in His works; that is, in the facts and the phenomena of the material and the intellectual universe. And it has pleased God furthermore to disclose Himself in His Word; that is, in the writings of holy men of old, who spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. To each of these communications it becomes us to give reverent and earnest heed. We have, then, two sources of information concerning God. We have--let us call it so, according to the ordinary phraseology--natural religion; and we have revealed religion. Not contradictory, remember, at any point; not contradictory in any measure whatever, No, they are not at variance with each other; they are not independent of each other; they are not indifferent to each other. Truth cannot be opposed to truth. I have been led to say this in consequence of the particular cast and the phraseology of my text--“ This God is our God.” The question comes immediately, what God? what God is your God? All nature comes and proffers its answer, and all Scripture comes and proffers its answer. They do not contradict one another, but they beautifully combine to give us an answer in which we may all rejoice. Who is your God? you may say to the good man in the hour of his rejoicing, who is your God? He that treated the heavens and the earth, and who loved the world so as to “ give His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” “ This God is our God for ever and ever, and He will be our guide even unto death.” Now, my business is to speak of the blessedness of the man who is able to appreciate this great truth, and my hope is that I may prevail upon many of you to ask whether that privilege may not become your own. It may, if you will. Do you, as I go on from point to point affirming that “ this God is our God,” do you say, “ May He be mine too” ? “ This God.” What God? Think-- I. Of his infinite power. In creation, by a word; the earth and man, his body and soul. What power is here. This is my God, this God that has done all things that can be conceived of, whether “ in heaven above, in the earth beneath, or in the waters under the earth.” “ Comes there before you now dangers, jeopardy, adversaries? Comes there before you now something that you are anticipating, of which you stand in dread? and you feel, would to God I had defence and protection for ever? Say to Him, “ Who is our God? Thou art my portion saith my soul.” Before you say it, He will answer. Who is our God? He it is who created the heavens and the earth by His mere commandment, and who could unmake them all to-morrow by a similar commandment, again upholding all things by the word of His power. He is our Father, and we are His sons and daughters, according to His promise. II. The infinite wisdom of God. Do you not know what marks of consummate sagacity are meeting us at every step? There is that great and wide sea of which I spoke; possessed of an ingredient that maintains it in its purity, and yet getting discharged of that ingredient naturally and advantageously day after day! The great wide seal The source of the fertilizing shower, the great receptacle to which those fertilizing showers return! Mark the wisdom there! There is the sun placed just in the position necessary for the beautiful diffusion of its light and heat; and here is our earth in its relation to the sun, so revolving as to obtain the benefit of its sunshine and of its warmth, and so related to it as to give us all the seasons in their turn. Wisdom again! III. The unspeakable mercy of God. For this see how righteousness and love, justice and mercy were harmonized. IV. His unchangeableness. And He waits to be yours. To reject Him is to perish. (W. Brock.) The right God It is all important that we should worship the right God now, in our text the psalmist made-- I. A blessed selection. “ This God,” amongst all other gods, shall be our God. For there were many gods of different name and nature. Some for one country and others for another. But in our day all Christian nations profess, whatever be their sect or denomination, to worship the same God. There are many Churches. Roman Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Mormon and others. Now, which is the true Church, and what God is the right God? And we must each one make our choice. It is a responsibility that we cannot transfer. It is said that every man makes his own god. And it is true that a man will of necessity ascribe to God those faculties and attributes which he himself possesses and values most highly. “ To the merciful thou wilt show thyself merciful.” Every rightly educated man in a Christian country must, after studying the teachings of our Lord Jesus Christ, believe in God our Father. If he be a man of balanced judgment, that is, if his mind be formed mentally “ on the square,” in my opinion, he must admit that the highest ideal, the noblest character, the most beautiful disposition that can possibly be described in human language is that of the Divine Being, our heavenly Father, as revealed by Jesus Christ. What a beautiful name is that of Father! And He is the Father of our spirits which, though the body may perish, are indestructible. And God is revealed as a pardoning God, freely forgiving our sins. II. The blessed decision. “ This God is our God.” Believe in God’ s power and willingness to save us. Trust Him utterly, and through Jesus Christ He will save us. (W. Birch.) The eternal Guide It was an old Athenian custom to celebrate at the public expense the funeral of those citizens who had honourably fallen in war. At the close of the first year of the war between Athens and Sparta, Pericles was chosen to deliver the funeral oration. His eloquent words have been preserved for us in the pages of a Greek historian. He calls upon his fellow-citizens to fix their eyes on the present greatness of their city, and he continues, “ When you are impressed by the spectacle of her glory, reflect that this Empire has been acquired by men who knew their duty, and had the courage to do it. The sacrifice which they made was repaid to them; for they received, each one for himself, a praise which grows not old, and the noblest of all sepulchres. Make them your examples. Congratulate yourselves that you have been happy during the greater part of your days; remember that your life of sorrow will net last long, and be comforted by the glory of those who are gone; for the love of honour alone is ever young, and not riches but honour is the delight of men when they are old and useless.” How striking is the contrast of this utterance with our psalm. This, too, has a national character. It records the defeat of the enemy, and, like the speech of the Athenian, points to the unimpaired glory of the national centre. Zion stands unharmed. No hostile army lies at her gates. Behold her in her beauty! Thy lovingkindness, O God, is in the midst of Thy temple. Our future is in Thy hands. “ This God is our God for ever and ever. He will be our Guide even unto death.” The contrast is instructive. There can be no question as to which member of it appeals to us--it is the Hebrew net the Greek standpoint that is ours. Not great statesmen, generals or scholars do we regard as the ground of our hope, whether national or individual, but God. If we have cause for congratulation, the cause is the Lord. I. The psalmist makes the past throw light on the future. He notes how God has interposed for His people, and upon such facts he bases his assurances for the future. Such is God--so mighty and so careful for His people. Our God, who has made our cause His own; for ever, for He is always the same. And as He has been, so He will be even unto death. And certainly, if the psalmist had been the most learned of historians, if he could have anticipated the large and minute knowledge and the elaborate philosophies of history which mark the present, he could not have reached a wiser conclusion. For if, in our studies, we leave God out of history or of personal experience, these give us no ground of hope for successful guidance in the future. If any one is satisfied to believe that he has reached his present success, or that the world has attained its present point of progress through human wisdom alone, I wish him joy of his conclusion, and should be interested to know how he reconciles it with the facts. The administration of the world has clearly proved itself to be altogether too large a thing for either the individual or the collective wisdom of mankind. II. And God is our God. He is not merely an abstract fact, but a personal possession. “ This God is our God.” This permission to appropriate God is one of the most precious revelations of Scripture. God gives Himself to us. God’ s giving Himself in Christ is no new gift. He had done that long before Christ came. The psalmist had said, “ Thou art my God, O God.” That little word “ my” represents the eternal relation of God to His people. And if God is ours, then, whatever is in God is available for us, is ours. A good many of you do not practically believe that. If you did, you would not worry and fret as you do. You will not accept God’ s large meaning. If a rich and wise man in whom you have perfect trust should come to you this morning and say, “ For the rest of your life you shall absolutely command my purse, ray knowledge, my experience,” you would appreciate that, and would believe it, and would get substantial help and comfort from it. And yet God says to you nothing less than this. I am your God. All that you can receive as a man I put at your disposal. That is your new-year’ s gift if you will believe it. Some things God will net give you because they would hurt you. Other things He will not give you because you could not use them if you had them. In giving you Himself God gives you more than all His gifts combined. III. This possession is for ever and ever. More than this year’ s future is assured. No king, no capitalist can say what you can. They cannot say of their crown, their gold, “ This is mine for ever.” The head that wears the crown must be laid low, and the rich man’ s gold pass into other hands. But God is ours for ever and ever. IV. The thought is made specific--God is our God as our guide. This idea of guidance is frequent in the Scriptures. See Israel in the wilderness. And our Lord, in the beautiful figure of the good shepherd--“ He goeth before them.” And in heaven, “ the Lamb shall lead them to fountains of living waters.” Such is God, our God, our Guide, an approved Guide. The history of His guidance, the map of the tracks by which He has led His people, is before us. The first instance has yet to be shown of one who has fared other than well by following God as a guide. Do you cite me the great army of the sorrowing, the persecuted, the martyrs? They have not fared ill if their own testimony is worth anything. They have had their choice. They could have forsaken God if they would, but they chose to follow Him through suffering to death. On their own testimony they fared better with God and with tribulation than with the world and without God. And our Guide has unerring wisdom (Psalms 73:1-28.). “ Thou shelf guide me with Thy counsel.” Is it not worth trying? Suppose that for this year you literally accept it as the law of your life, to let God take care of you. Keep your hand in God’ s, your eye upon His face; do what He tells you; do your best, and believe with all your heart that God will do the best for you. I care not how many troubles and disappointments you shall meet--if you do not say at the close of the year that it has been the happiest, or rather the most blessed, year of your life, come to me and tell me I have misread God’ s promises. And what is this blessed promise but that which we find in Christ’ s words, “ Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.” (M. R. Vincent, D. D.) He will be our guide even unto death,-- Our Guide How perfectly qualified God is for this office. In a journey it is unnecessary for the traveller to know the road; but the guide ought to know it; and when he is well acquainted with it and we have full confidence in him, we shall feel satisfaction notwithstanding our ignorance. Abraham went out not knowing whither he went; but he knew with whom. And so Job, amid all his perplexities, comforts himself with the thought, “ He knoweth the way that I take.” And our Guide indulges us with constant intercourse, and is equal to all our exigencies. He defends us, and is patient under all our provocations. And He continues with us all the way, even unto death, yea, and through it, “ through the valley of the shadow of death.” (W. Jay.) God our Guide 1. If we were going to ascend Mont Blanc, we should seek for a guide in whom we could feel confidence; he must be a man of experience, one who had travelled that way many times, who knew every danger and how to avoid them; he must be a strong man, and one who would be able to render aid in case of accident, one who would not desert us in the hour of need, but stand by us even unto death; and many a guide has lost his life in these perilous ascents in the effort to save the traveller in his care. The guide would expect us to follow him, and to obey him, and no one would neglect to do this. So in our journey through life, One has offered to be our Guide and lead us safely to the heavenly Jerusalem. There are many dangers by the way, many pitfalls for the unwary and ignorant, and those who insist on going alone are sure to get lost; let us choose this Guide, for He has experience, He has travelled this way before, and He knows every step. He is a guide we can have such confidence in, we need never doubt Him for a moment, but He must be obeyed, we must follow Him just as He tells us. 2. Into what paths will He guide us? He led the children of Israel through the desert, but into a land flowing with milk and honey. And sometimes He leads His people through darkness, but the way leads up to light, through sorrow up to joy, through tears up to happiness; separations will end in reunions, weakness in strength, sickness in health. He will lead us into that land where shall be no more hunger nor thirst, where the sun shall not light on us, nor any heat. For He shall lead us unto fountains of living water, and God shall wipe away all tears from our eyes; and there shall be no night there. What a glorious Guide and Leader! (L. Shorey.) Psalms 49:1-20 Psalms 49:1-20 Hear this, all ye people; give ear, all ye inhabitants of the world: both low and high, rich and poor, together. The inequalities of society Impressive and instructive that scene in the wood of Senart, when a luxurious Louis, royally caparisoned for hunting, met a wretched peasant with a coffin. “ For whom? . . . For a poor brother slave, whom your majesty has sometimes noticed slaving in those quarters.” “ What did he die of? . . . Of hunger.” The king gave his steed the spur. Sad is it that such a contrast was ever possible on earth, and sadder still that it may yet be witnessed even in this enlightened and philanthropic land. There are other inequalities. I read, not long since, that a Glasgow bank director, convicted of having appropriated half a million sterling, was sentenced to eight months’ imprisonment; and that on the same day a little half-starved boy, charged with stealing cake worth a halfpenny, was sentenced to fourteen days’ hard labour and four years in a reformatory. “ One law for the rich, and another for the poor.” These social inequalities have led to much disturbance. Christian divines have abandoned the subject to philosophers, agitators, and would-be reformers. It always has seemed to me that Christianity must have something to say that the world has a right to know; and unless this is done, there never will be a complete mastery of the problem. Social inequality must have arisen from some other kind of inequality. Social inequalities sprang out of the irregularities of human nature. No two men are made alike. Social inequalities are not without relief and compensation in some other kind of inequality. “ Uneasy is the head that wears a crown,” and uneasy the heart of him who owns millions of dollars. The Saviour did not devote His attention to surface measures of reform, but to a new heart, confident that the regeneration of man means the regeneration of society. (G. C. Lorimer, D. D.) Psalms 49:4I will open my dark saying upon the harp. Dark sayings Some minds are darker than a dark saying. Doubt is cloudland; and cloudland presupposes the existence of some degree of light. In complete darkness no cloud is perceived. The time at which a man begins to doubt is the critical point of life. Doubt in a young and inexperienced mind may develop into a demon of free thought. Much depends upon the way in which doubt is treated by the doubter himself, and by his advisers. Doubt is not a thing to be injudiciously dealt with. Take care how you open a dark saying. The dark saying is any question difficult to answer or hard to solve. Notice that David does not say, I will close up my dark saying--I will fold the serpent up in my bosom, and let it sting me. He says, “ I will open my dark saying.” Often enough a man’ s peace of mind depends upon the way in which he opens his dark saying. Too often he has to open it himself, without sympathy or help from any one. It may save us some disappointment if we settle it as a general rule that a providential thing does not mean a pleasant thing. Tim ultimate end of Providence is the sanctification of the human heart, and it is not probable that God will sanctify us by letting us have our own way. We frequently apply the term Providence loosely. When we reap worldly advantage we say, It is quite providential. When trouble comes we omit the word. The opposite of this is true as a rule. Prosperity will never wean us from this world, but adversity may. When dark sayings trouble us, let us pray to the Father of lights that He may guide us into all truth. We are vexed and mystified by second causes, because we forget that He is the Great First Cause of all. His providence to us is like a piece of tapestry reversed. We see that a hand has been at work, but the threads are massed in confusion. In the day of account we shall see the other side. David further says “ upon the harp.” Musical instruments are called instruments of God. It is to the Psalms, not to the Proverbs, that the heavy heart turns for consolation. Even when the harp hangs upon the willows, the spirit of song awakes in sympathy with the loved and lost. It was to the Psalms that the suffering Saviour turned in the hour and power of darkness. The introduction of the Gospel into Europe was marked by the strength of song. “ At midnight Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises to God.” Who shall say what resolutions, what ardent longings after purity, and peace, and truth, have been breathed into the souls of men by sacred song? “ In days when liberty of thought was choked by tyranny, when bigotry warped the understanding and suppressed the truth, what was there left to the people but the emotion of a song?” The clark saying was opened upon the harp, and stray seeds of sanctity were germinated by the atmosphere of music, though sometimes it was but the music of some distant chime. By the power of song we are transported into a sphere where selfishness and worldliness have no part; a world where nothing defileth or maketh a lie. Man is the only creature who abuses the gift of sound. From him only comes the jarring note. He can only sing the new song in the world to come. (Henry J. Swallow.) Dark sayings on a harp My text points to two principles; first, there is the bowing before, and hearkening to, the mystery of things--the universal, parabolic utterances; and, second, the turning the mystery and the parable into a cheerful song--the dark saying becoming, like the bird’ s song in the covert of the night, a clear stream, without sorrow and without care. Find the cheerful aspect of solemn things. See how sorrow is rounded by cheerfulness; hearken, and you will be able to give a cheerful response to the most solemn views of life. The greatest mystery of all art, perhaps, is music; the soul that leaps from the mere material chords and pipes, and, whilst it emanates from, plays upon the spirit of man. There is a mystery and a meaning in music we can never either expound or explore; and it is felt that those natures, which are the greatest burden and mystery to themselves, find most the solace of song in the combinations of all great sounds; we have known this, it is not always that in joyfulness of heart we sing. The girl oppressed by some great trial and loss, as she bends over her needle, or goes about her house-work, will sing, and, while she sings, finds unconsciously that her song has been her medicine, and has given to her relief. And something like this is a very general experience. Hence we have poetry for all cultured people, and hymns for holy people; and do we not know what it is to become happy while we sing? Good it is sometimes to utter the dark saying to the harp rather than to others; it composes, allays, and tranquillizes the mind while we utter it. Therefore, says David, “ I will open my dark saying upon the harp.” David was a master of the harp, and we see, plainly enough, that to him life was full of dark sayings, uttered with more or less of clearness, coming upon him with more or less of gloom. His dark sayings are abundant. We have often thought together of that wonderful summary of holy genius, the Book of Psalms. He would seem to have given everything to his harp; everywhere, as in the words of the text before us, “ he was inclining his ear to a parable.” To him, it would seem, nature was a great harp, framed, touched and moved by the finger of God, and every object became jubilant, and even prophetic. I. All scripture itself is a dark saying on a harp. However you regard it, you must be amazed by its mysterious unity, not less by its mysterious murmurs--murmurs as of a distant, infinite sea, or as in a forest we listen to the tones as of strange bells among the far-off boughs. There is a Divine reticence in the Bible; there is aa awful secretiveness. Oh! it is all parable; it is all dark saying! Vainly do I ever think I have exhausted any single word or meaning; it is inspiration and revelation throughout. It is a “ dark saying,” for it is inspiration; it is “ uttered,” for it is a revelation. II. Man himself is a dark saying on a harp. He is himself a universe of being in which life, and nature and grace seek to combine in music. Consider thy nature: how strange that we should be made thus, strange the opposition between sin and conscience, even in the best of men; strange the contradiction between what man effects and what man is. Has not his history through all time been a dark saying? What is this creature we call man? Is he angel, or is he beast, or is he fiend? for there are things he has done which warrant all these translations, read simply from the sensual eye. And what a mistake the life of man seems! And sometimes, how his failures and his inner conflicts seem to boast of him as of a being built out of the pieces of the wreck of the fall. III. And providence is a dark saying on a harp. The mysteries of Providence were as startling to David as they are to us, and the very psalm whence I take this text recites and records them; it did not seem to be a world of highways to the psalmist; and this is one of the great causes of grief and of the dark sayings--the world and its sorrows. It is the cry, the incessant cry, “ Why hast thou made all men in vain?” The world is full of dark sayings; it is hieroglyphic all, you feel the incongruity and the contradiction, but you have never felt it so clearly as the Bible has stated it, and especially the psalmists; they perpetually--Asaph, David and others--saw and uttered their sense of the solemn discords of this life. There is a picture I have often turned to look at in the chapel in one of the old palaces of France, and I have sometimes looked, as the dear dreamer said, till the water has found its way to my eyes; it is suspended over the altar--it is the cloud of eternity, and the Ancient of Days is there, and the Lamb is there, and round the circle the harpers harping with their harps--every one robed in white, and every brow bound with the crown--“ kings and priests unto God and to the Lamb for ever” ; every eye fixed on “ the Lamb, as it had been slain,” and every crowned form bearing a harp, and striking it “ to Him that hath loved.” “ To them were given harps.” Why, what does it mean? Oh, it tells how the lost life will regain and be restored to its unity. This is that harp, all the chords of the being one, and for ever one. Then, indeed, may we say, “ I will praise thee on the harp, O God, my God.” (E. Paxton Hood.) Mysteries set to music I. The mystery of nature. John Stuart Mill’ s arraignment of created things is too well known to be repeated. A more recent writer is Mr. Laing, who says in his Modern Science and Modern Thought, “Is it true that love is creation’ s finest law, when we find this enormous and apparently prodigal waste of life going on; these cruel internecine battles between individuals and species in the struggle for existence; this cynical indifference of nature to suffering? There are approximately 3,600 millions of deaths of human beings in every century, of whom at least 20 per cent., or 720 millions, die before they have attained to clear self-consciousness and conscience. What becomes of them? Why were they born? Axe they nature’ s failures and cast as rubbish to the void? To such questions there is no answer.” Perhaps it is wrong to say there is no answer, for considerations exist in plenty which tone down the harsher aspects of nature’ s work. But when this is admitted there remains much that is enigmatical. Now, the effect of this mystery upon some minds is to drive them into pessimism; it is a mystery whose discord is for ever jarring on their ears. Not so with the man who walks by faith. He says, “ I believe in God,” and instantly there is harmony. Nature has mysteries still, but they are set to music. II. The mystery of suffering. Huxley says, “ If there is one thing plainer than another, it is that neither the pleasure nor the pains of life, in the merely animal world, are distributed according to desert, for it is admittedly impossible for the lower order of sentient beings to deserve either the one or the other. If there is a generalization from the facts of human life which has the assent of thoughtful men in every age and country it is that the violator of ethical rules constantly escapes the punishment he deserves; that the wicked flourishes like a green bay tree while the righteous begs his bread; that the sins of their fathers are visited upon the children; that in the realm of nature ignorance is punished just as severely as wilful wrong; and that thousands upon thousands of innocent beings suffer for the crime or unintentional trespass of one.” (Evolution and Ethics, p. 12.) The professor’ s statements are not cast in such a form as to be above challenge, but they may be taken as indicative of the attitude of many towards the problem of suffering. Broken law will explain much of the world’ s woe, perhaps more than we are apt to imagine; and the educative influence of suffering is not far to seek. “ Thou hast enlarged me when I was in distress.” But after all there remains much that is mysterious; very often moral sequences seem to fail entirely, and the good man dies in his struggles to do right, whilst the prosperous sinner lives to satirize every sound principle of commercial morality. Hence we have the cynic in our midst, and the pessimist is always within shouting distance. But the man who discerns spiritual things after a spiritual manner can feel something more than hard and unexplainable facts in the problem of suffering. God is behind it, he says, and therefore all is well. The mystery has lost its bitterness; it is still a dark saying, but it is a dark saying upon the harp. III. The mystery of death. Mr. Goldwin Smith looking at death and destruction in all grades of creation says, “ Our satellite, so far as we can see, is either a miscarriage or a wreck,” and “ if omnipotence and benevolence are to meet it must apparently be at a point at present beyond our ken.” Mr. Smith answers himself when he says, “ so far as we can see.” Without God and immortality, the despair of the present generation is the most natural product of mental inquiry; the picture of blighted prospects and incompleted lives stricken down by the hand of death is enough to appal the stoutest heart. But in Christ all mysteries are set to music. It was the superior music of Orpheus which saved him from shipwreck on the siren’ s shore, and since hope springs eternal in the human breast, Christianity, as a gospel of glad tidings, will always play other tunes than the note of wailing and despair; in the future, as in the past, her better music will be the world’ s salvation. (T. S. Knowlson.) Mysteries set to music In seeking to get instruction from the text, we may regard it broadly as inculcating the principle, that the dark problems of the world may be so understood, that instead of leading us to despair they become a source of light and hope and joy. I. The problem of the divine existence. This is the first of all problems--the earliest, the most necessary, the most irresistible. Primeval man long ago had to face it as we have to face it to-day. For the savage dwelling in the rude cave, or in the log-hut, reared on piles driven into the ground in the centre of a lonely lake, this was the principal theme of speculation, even as it is still the question which by its vastness wearies the strongest thought, and baffles the keenest insight. The first of all questions is, at the same time, the darkest. Interrogate Nature, and what is it that it tells you? It tells of a first cause, powerful, mighty and omnipotent. It points to a force that is infinite, a wisdom that is transcendent, and a will that is all-dominant. But it speaks of more than this. It speaks of a law that is invariable, relentless and cruel. It has its tale of pain, and suffering, and sorrow, and death. If it glories in the sunshine and the rain, it recounts with grief the story of the plague and the earthquake, and the unceasing strife of man, and beast, and earth, and sea, and sky. Over all there is the one necessity, for all there is the same struggle. II. The problem of the world. How did the world come into being? Is it the result of chance, of fate, of a blind force working how and as it may? No millions of years, no unimaginable stretches of time, can bring the existent out of the non-existent, the intelligent out of the non-intelligent, the cosmos out of the chaos. How, then, can we open this dark saying of the world’ s history on the harp? How can we set it to harmony and rhythm and music? There is one way only that I know. Behind the world there is a Divine Person; in the movements and the laws of the world there is a Divine will. All comes from God; all is under His care and governance. III. The problem of man’ s life. Taken as he is, and apart from his relation to God, man’ s life is inexplicable. It is a contradiction, without meaning or purpose. There is in it the high and the low, the pure and the impure, the spiritual and the material. It is divided in interest; it is driven this way and that; and oftentimes it becomes the sport of a power and a fate that are too much for it. But, in the light of the Divine love, and the mediation of Jesus, this enigma of the human life becomes plain. IV. The progress of humanity. Nation follows nation, kingdoms and dynasties rise and fall, and there seems to be no real progress. Civilizations are more or less relative. We in these last times, notwithstanding our marvellous modern science and discovery, are, in some respects, behind the ancient Egyptians and Greeks, and Romans, or even the Celts and the Scandinavians. Is there any progress then at all as the result of the conflict of the ages? Is life in the main stationary, or does it like a mighty wheel go round and round for ever? The key to this question can alone be found in Christianity. It has already infused new life into the nations, it has re.created their moral standards, and it has given them a pre-eminence which the old Pagan peoples never knew. It has done all this because it has set before men not only an infinite hope, but because it has supplied them with the motive and the power to realize it. It has given them a new ideal, it has also provided them with a new dynamic, or force, by which they can attain the ideal. We need have no fear for the future. Humanity, instead of having become effete and lived its day, is only setting out on the line of infinite progress that stretches before it. Much it has done in the past, much it has achieved in these modern times; but infinitely more will it yet achieve before its course is run. Physically, intellectually, morally, the race has still before it a boundless destiny. (R. Munro, B. D.) The harp of the godly I. Why are the words of godly life in scripture called “ dark sayings” ?1. Because they are so far to seek. From the Creator, not the creature; from eternity, not from time. 2. Because they are so little known. The world disregards them. 3. Because they meet with so much repugnance. All the impulses of our depraved nature are averse and hostile to the wisdom that sanetifieth. Oh, how difficult to understand what opposes our heart’ s propensities! II. Why are the details of providence in scripture called “ dark savings” ?1. Because the specific designs of Providence are concealed. A man knows not whether in any enterprise, though he has scrutinized his motive and implored Divine direction, he is to fail or succeed. Through his failures may come his truest successes. 2. Because the aim of Providence is overlooked (Ephesians 3:1-21.; John 2:1-25.). We fix our eyes on outward things, and call prosperity and adversity after them. That is a bright Providence wherein these abound, and a dark one whereby these are smitten. Now God looks at our souls;--their liberty from earthly fetters; their confidence in Divine support; their formation and sustenance of holy purpose; their culture and maturity of moral character. 3. Because the dispensations of Providence inflict pain and distress. What a dark passage leads to conversion! III. Why may a Christian open these upon the harp?1. Because God has put a harp into your hands. It would be ungrateful not to use this. Do you ask what this is? I reply, The Gospel in all its plenitude of mercy, remedy, promise, prospect. 2. Because your dark sayings are thus opened, i.e. they become clear and plain. Devotion illuminates the mind. While you are musing the fire kindles and burns. 3. Because every true prayer is a prophecy. The evils it deprecates will assuredly pass away. (W. Wheeler.) Psalms 49:8 For the redemption of their soul is precious, and it ceaseth for ever.Redemption I. Its subject--the soul of man. Think--1. Of its powers. 2. Of its affections. 3. Of its duration. II. Its price--the precious blood of Christ. III. The period of its accomplishment. It is limited; “ it ceaseth for ever.” How precious is time! what eternal results binge upon its right employment or neglect! (D. M’ Allum, M. D.) The preciousness of redemption I. The subject of redeeming love--the soul. We cannot question its existence. Reflect upon--1. Its origin. 2. Its prodigious faculties. 3. Its duration. The soul is a flower that always blooms, a fountain which ever flows, a seed which never dies, a plant which never withers; that mysterious flame which, once kindled, nought can ever quench. 4. Its last and rescued state. II. The value of this redemption. It is “ precious.” For consider--1. From what the soul of man is redeemed. 2. To what the soul is redeemed. Some of you have already tasted something of the pleasure which arises to the soul that has been sensibly freed from the trammels of sin and of Satan, and which anticipates the blessedness reserved in heaven for those who love God. 3. By what the soul is redeemed--the precious blood of Christ. III. The limits within which alone the benefits of this redemption are to be obtained. “ It ceaseth for ever.” Consider, then--1. The uncertainty of life. 2. How this world deceives us. 3. And Satan also deceives. 4. The positive evil which springs from delay. (John Gasken, M. A.) The preciousness of the human soul I. The soul of man is precious. For--1. How high was the origin of the soul. See the history of its creation. 2. How vast its capacities. Small is the power of the human body, but the soul of man gives him a might and mastery all his own. 3. How eternal its duration. II. Its redemption is precious.1. See the greatness of the Author of Redemption. 2. The price that was paid to redeem us. 3. The stupendous nature of its results. These may affect the whole intelligent universe, and not this world alone. We are brought into a new relationship with God. Eternal woe is escaped and eternal blessedness gained. All this will be seen fully when the whole work of redemption is accomplished. How precious, then, must this work be. How important not to neglect it. (Hugh Stowell, M. A.) The redemption of the soul precious I. The worth of the soul. The soul is precious to God, for it is His own workmanship--the end of creation, for which all earthly things were made, which received His blessing and obtained dominion over everything below. It is precious to the angels, for “ there is joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth.” It is precious to all Christians upon earth. How fervently and with what an undying flame did the love of it burn in the hearts of the apostles; and in how many forms did it show itself--in preaching, in writing, in continual prayer. And are not our souls precious to ourselves? If we find the soul to be precious, let us act as if it were so: if we discover that it is valueless, let us snatch the pleasures of life while they last. But the soul is precious. It must be so-- 1. From the statements of God’ s Word; 2. From its nature; 3. From the value of that which has been given for it; 4. From the means used to save it. II. The impossibility of recovering the soul when it is lost. Our conduct in this world will determine our fate in the next.1. The soul may be lost. 2. The soul must be lost, unless it be redeemed. 3. When once lost, the soul can never be regained. 4. The soul may be soon lost. It well becomes us, then, to improve our brief existence by endeavouring to secure the salvation of our souls; for in the future all is uncertainty but this one thing, that “ the wicked are driven away in their wickedness, but the righteous hath hope in his death.” (W. Dickson.) The value of a soul When Sir John Franklin was lost, the most extraordinary measures were set on foot to recover him and his party. The British and American governments combined together to save him if he should be yet living. Nearly a million pounds were spent in the search. Besides money, good and fearless men were ready to expose their life in the distant hope of finding, and relieving their missing brothers. The exceeding value of man’ s soul is seen in what Jesus has done for it. Men often put forth great efforts for very insignificant objects; but when we think of Christ leaving His bright throne in the heavens, and becoming a homeless wanderer upon the earth, that He might save lost souls, we are able to form some estimate of the soul’ s value. This was the life, the spiritual being, the deathless power breathed into man by the breath of God when he was made. It is our greatest gift, and that over which we should exercise the most sacred care, Psalms 49:12 Nevertheless man being in honour abideth not: he is like the beasts that perish. The worldling’ s downfall I. A carnal man may possibly thrive and prosper, and grow great here on earth (Psalms 73:3; Jeremiah 12:1; Job 21:7-10). The Scripture also giveth more light to this doctrine by examples, proving thus much unto us, that even the children of God, such as fear Him, and make conscience of their ways, come often far behind the wicked in outward prosperity. Jacob, the loved, is put forth to keep sheep, and Esau, the hated, goes on hunting. If you look for Joseph, you shall find him in prison; for Daniel, you shall see him in the den. II. The prosperity of the wicked is not perpetual. He shall not continue in honour; the words are properly, He shall not tarry all night in honour. We are wont to describe a short abode, by lodging in an inn, where a man seldom stayeth in his travel above a night. Now, the continuance of the carnal man in his honour and prosperity shall be far less; the time shall be, as it were, a degree shorter. The truth hereof is fulfilled by two means. For, first, either his prosperity continueth not to him, or else, secondly, he not to his prosperity. III. The worldly man’ s death like a beast’ s. In four things especially.1. The first is, that he dieth unwillingly. So it is with the beasts. It is in the nature of everything to desire the preservation of itself, and to abhor the contrary. Hereupon in the unreasonable creature there is a kind of struggling and wrestling with death, so that it doth not but by violence yield thereunto. Even so it is with the ungodly, which mindeth only earthly things. His death may be peaceable in show (the natural strength being wasted and abated by some long sickness), and in speech, he may pretend a willingness to depart; but it is impossible that it should be with fulness of inward consent. 2. The second particular wherein this earthly man is like to the dying beasts is this: the carcase of the beast so dying cannot choose but be noisome and unsavoury; the smell is offensive unto every one that passeth by, and the sight unpleasing. So is the dying worldling in God’ s sight. 3. The third degree of likeness betwixt the dying beast and the dying worldling is this: the body of a beast, whom such a disease hath quelled, becometh a prey to the fowls of the air, and is torn in pieces by other beasts; Where the carcase is, thither the eagles resort, saith our Saviour. It fareth so with the worldling: for as his goods ill-gotten come many times, through the just judgment of God, to be a prey to others, and to be the spoil of strangers, so his soul is seized upon by the damned spirits, and is presently arraigned before the judgment seat of God. 4. The fourth point of likeness is this: there is no regard had of the death of a brute beast, the remembrance is soon gone. The owner may haply bewail that loss, it being some diminution of iris substance; but otherwise it is a matter which the world passeth by and taketh no notice of. So is the death of the carnal worldling. There may be some sorrow among his own people, who received some outward benefit by his means, and with them his memory may continue. But else there is no miss. (S. Hieron.) Psalms 49:13 This their way is their folly.The folly of sin There can be no greater evidence of the degeneracy of mankind than their fond pursuits after the things which are light and momentary, and their wilful neglect of those which are of the greatest value and concern.1. It is egregious folly to rely upon false principles, to build upon tottering and deceitful foundations; and yet so doth every vicious person. He discards all principles of right reason and understanding, and steers himself only by those which are apparently false, and have no other bottom than his own deluded fancy. 2. Then it is a high piece of folly to take up and content ourselves with small things, when we may be more welcome to greater, to strive for petty matters, and in the meantime to neglect those of moment, to aim only at base and unworthy ends, when we have high and noble ones to busy ourselves about; and yet this every sinner is apparently guilty of, and thereby betrays his folly. Children and fools pick straws, and tie knots on bulrushes, entertain themselves with trifles and inpertinences, and we may gravely smile at these their follies, and think we can do no less when we take notice of them. But, alas! their sport is our earnest, and their childish toys and rattles are but emblems of men’ s serious employments and businesses. 3. He in the accounts of all intelligent persons is no other than a fool, who being left to his liberty and choice, chooses sensual and earthly delights before those that are spiritual and intellectual; and this is the guise of all sinners. Thus the intemperate and luxurious person most vainly esteems the pleasures of the taste and the delights of the palate above the more noble relishes of Divine and heavenly joys, which are the repast of the blessed, and the food of angels. The lascivious person unreasonably values the transitory emotions of his lust and lewd desires before the greater and more cherishing flames of Divine love. The covetous hugs his gold and silver, and broods over his bags with a mighty pleasure, preferring this before that other more generous and noble one of doing good with his wealth, of relieving some poor and comfortless widow, of succouring some fatherless child, of cheering the heart of some good man who is fallen into poverty, and is ready to perish. I appeal to any wise man, whether this be not a greater and more substantial pleasure than the other, whether this will not create a more lasting comfort in a man’ s mind. And the same is to be said of all the pleasures which accompany the performance of good and holy actions: they are solid and durable, they are real and substantial, because indeed they are spiritual and Divine. But silly birds will fly to painted grapes; deluded sinners prosecute those delights which are false and counterfeit: they hunt after mere shadows, than which there cannot be a greater evidence of their folly. 4. Is it not folly to mind those things only which are present, and to have no eye at all to futurity? Do not sinners merit for this strange improvidence and stupidity to be reckoned among idiots? Nay, do they not deserve for this to be ranged among brute beasts, who mind only what is directly before them, but have no sense of that which is to come? Opposite unto which is the posture of the prudent man, who, Janus-like, is double-faced; he not only entertains his eyes with things that are past and present, but he looks forward to what is future, and dwells on the thoughts of those great things which are to be hereafter. By faith, which is founded on infallible revelation, he expects future treasures, riches, honours and delights; and on this persuasion and hope he despises this vain world, and is resolved never to dote on its gaudy and glittering follies. Not that he bids adieu to society, and turns religion into melancholy and solitude, but he lets not this world gain any great portion of his affections, or divert him from thinking of and preparing for that future state in the other life. 5. Can it be deemed any other than folly and madness to take great pains to purchase the eternal torments of hell, and to fit oneself for the devil? It was complained of at Rome in the days of Nero, and other bloody emperors, that death itself was grown costly, and criminals could not be executed without large fees; but hardened sinners buy their death and damnation at a very dear rate, and yet are never heard to complain of it, which argues their prodigious madness and stupidity. 6. What title but that of “ fool” ought to be fastened upon him who, pretending to eternal happiness hereafter, never uses those means which are proportioned to that great end? If the intemperate man knew where a club of the debauched were met together to fill themselves with wine and empty themselves of their reasons and understandings, and knew withal that their reckoning at last must be every man’ s blood, and the shot must be paid with their lives, would he not, think you, refrain from that meeting, and be persuaded not to be their comrade for that time? And this very person knows right well that luxury and drunkenness are awarded with no less than everlasting burnings, if the writings of the holy apostles be authentic, as certainly they are. What greater frenzy, then, can men labour under than to be guilty of the commission of sin in such circumstances, when they are convinced that they do amiss, and know that they take the wrong way to happiness, and see beforehand the unavoidable penalty of their misdoings? 7. Is not he to be esteemed a fool or a madman who glories in his shame, and boasts of that which is a real disgrace and reproach to him? Boasting at best is a loud indication of folly, but this is the grossest sort of folly to brag of that which really debaseth us to be proud of that which renders us vile and abominable. He is a fool indeed that makes a mock of sin. 8. It is the utmost degree of folly and frenzy to be confident and secure in the midst of the greatest dangers, and to be wholly unconcerned in that condition which is like to prove most perilous and destructive. This is the case of refractory sinners, and is as great a testimony of folly as can be produced. (J. Edwards, D. D.) Yet their posterity approve their sayings.--Disregarded signals The question is sometimes discussed as to whether it were better to have lived in the first ages of the world, or in these later times. For some reasons, perhaps, it would have been better to have lived in the earlier ages, but we who live in the ends of the world have opportunity to profit by the experience of those who have gone before us. They tried a variety of experiments, and we may be guided by the results which often cost them so much. I. Let us note and illustrate the fact affirmed by our text. Mr. Romanes, who has specially studied the minds of animals, says that we may infer intelligence in an animal whenever we see it able to profit by its own experience. But is it not the sign of a higher intelligence, the sign of human intelligence, that we are able to profit by the experience of others? Just as when a ship is lost, if it be possible some signal is placed on the fatal spot to apprise other vessels of the danger and to direct them into safe channels, so the merchant, the general, the statesman, consult the signals held forth by history that they may not make shipwreck of fortune, fame, or greatness. And yet our text accusing men of disregarding the lessons of history is painfully true. Whilst as a general rule men are anxious to profit by the experience of their ancestors on questions touching social or material interests, they are not nearly so scrupulous to profit by the moral page of history. Baxter tells how he once saw a man driving a flock of lambs, and something meeting and hindering them, one of the lambs leaped on the wall of a bridge and fell over into the river; whereupon the rest of the flock one by one leaped after it and were nearly all drowned. Thus we men often act blindly, madly. II. We inquire into the reasons of this strange conduct. How is it men allow themselves in courses which have manifestly proved fatal to their predecessors?1. Men blind themselves to the lessons of history by persuading themselves that variations of time and circumstance will prevent in their case the disastrous consequences which happened to others. No error could be greater than this, none more disastrous. What are circumstances to us? Absolutely nothing in comparison to the principle involved in the act, and whatever may be the surface variations the underlying principle will not fail to assert itself; and lust, pride, greed, vanity, materialism, ambition, thoughtlessness, will produce the fruit of misery and shame and ruin in any body, in any age, and in any place. 2. Men blind themselves to the lessons of history by presuming on their cleverness. It is manifest that specific sinful courses have proved the ruin of myriads, but we to-day meditating the same courses expect to come safely through by virtue of our acuteness. We form the fatal fancy that men perish not because they are wicked, but because they are weak; not because they are sinners, but because they are simpletons. In some parts of the Tyrol where the shooting has been severe, the birds of passage are said to deflect from their usual line of flight so that they may avoid the dangerous districts; but we persist in crossing dangerous places although we know countless numbers have fallen victims to the fowler, and this we do from one generation to another. Darwin tells us that animals learn from experience, imitating each other’ s caution, and no animal can be caught long in the same kind of trap. But man is far less cautious. The devil keeps on using a few old traps smelling of the blood of ruined generations, and he has little need either to hide his traps or to change them; the same old baits--thirty pieces of silver, a wedge of gold, a rag of purple, a pretty face, a bottle, are abundantly and sorrowfully successful one age after another. If there is any acuteness about us, let us show it by letting evil things alone. 3. Men blind themselves to the lessons of history by presuming on their strength. “ I know where to draw the line, where to pull up, where to put my foot down; they will find no weakness in me.” Men forget that once committed to a downward course they soon acquire a momentum not to be broken, not to be controlled. Some time ago the papers told us about a Californian stage-driver who was dying, and who in his delirium kept on exclaiming, “ I am on the down-grade, and I can’ t reach the brake.” Many a soul to-day is swinging down the dizzy steep and cannot stop. History teems with warnings. And you need not go to remote days for awakening, convincing examples. “ This their way is their folly, yet their posterity fellow in their steps.” Oh I do not join them. Join the noble procession that moves upward, and with them shine as the stars for ever and ever. (W. L. Watkinson.) Refusing to learn by experience The power of learning by experience is the special prerogative of man.1. Birds are endowed with that wondrous thing which we call instinct, about which we know as much when we have so labelled it as we did before; but with all their instinct they have but little power of learning from their own experience. There is no historian amongst them--Done to tell them of the past. So they travel round the same circle, and the last nest of a bird in the millennium shall be the same as the first in Paradise. The lark has never learnt to add one single bar to his carol. As the first did sing when he first broke the stillness of morning, so the last shall warble to the silent night. This power of taking other men’ s failures and making them the lamp to guide our feet is reserved for man. 2. It is only when men use this power that it is profitable. The inhabitants of this island began with mud hovels, and they ended with marble palaces! There is Stonehenge, and there is also Westminster Abbey, and what is the cause of the difference?--each generation learning from the other. The wonderful implements for conquering the earth which are now used by agriculturalists are the result of past experience; and the marvellous skill of the medical profession is owing to its members bringing into practice their own knowledge, enriched with that of past ages in respect to medical science. Look at the power which is now possessed of navigating the seas, by means of steam and the mariner’ s compass, to that which the ancients possessed. From the rock where one ship is split to pieces is plucked “ the flower safety” for others who have to pass that dangerous way. 3. Multitudes fail to use this power of learning from experience in regard to the best, or spiritual things. They ignore past history, and despise the teachings of experience. Though it be proved that a certain way was a foolish one, yet they pursue it. When a young man goes on the path of pleasure you may show him a massive volume filled with the names of young men who have ruined their health by pursuing this path; another volume containing the names of those who have blasted the hope of thousands; and yet another, of those whom this path brought to despondency and they went on the sea of life, no one knows where; but despite of this they will pursue the same road. When the silly moth comes about the flame, how you would like to tell it how many thousands of moths have been killed in the same way; and if it had ears and speech how you would be surprised if it replied to your warning by saying, “ Ah! but I am going to try an experiment as to whether I possess fire-proof wings.” (C. Vince.) Psalms 49:14 Like sheep they are laid in the grave; death shall feed on them! Two shepherds and two flocks (with Revelation 7:17):--These two verses have a much closer parallelism in expression than appears in A.. The R.V. renders the former of my texts, “ Death shall be their shepherd,” and the latter, “ The Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall be their Shepherd.” The Old Testament psalmist and the blew Testament seer have fallen upon the same image to describe death and the future, but with how different a use! The one paints a grim picture, all sunless and full of shadow; the other dips his pencil in brilliant colours, and suffuses his canvas with a glow as of molten sunlight. The one is speaking of men whose portion is in this life, the other of men who have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. I. The grim picture drawn by the psalmist.1. Death a shepherd! What a grim and bold inversion of a familiar metaphor! “ Death is their shepherd.” Yes, but what kind of a shepherd? Not one that gently leads his flock, but one that stalks behind the huddled sheep, and drives them fiercely, club in hand, on a path on which they would not willingly go. The unwelcome necessity, by which men that have their portion in this world are hounded and herded out of all their sunny pastures and abundant feeding, is the thought that underlies the image. Ask yourself the question, Is the course of my life such as that the end of it shall be like that?--a grim necessity which I would do anything to avoid. 2. This first text suggests not only a shepherd, but a fold. “ Like sheep they are thrust down to the grave.” He does not mean either the place where the body is deposited, or a place where there is punitive retribution for the wicked, but he means a dim region, or, if I might so say, a localized condition, in which all that have passed through life are gathered, where personality and consciousness continue, but where life is faint, stripped of all that characterizes it here; shadowy, unsubstantial, and where, according to the metaphor, there is inactivity, absolute cessation of all the occupations to which men were accustomed. But there may be restlessness along with inactivity; may there not? And there is no such restlessness as the restlessness of compulsory idleness. That is the main idea that is in the psalmist’ s mind. 3. The kind of men whom the grim shepherd drives into that grim fold. The psalmist is speaking of men who have their portion in this life. Of every such man he says, “ when he dieth he shall carry nothing away” --none of the possessions, none of the forms of activity which were familiar to him here on earth. He will go into a state where he finds nothing which interests him, and nothing for him to do. Surely there can be no more tragic folly than the folly of letting myself be so absorbed and entangled by this present world as that when the transient has passed I shall feel homeless and desolate, and have nothing that I can do or care about amidst the activities of eternity. II. The sunny landscape drawn by the seer. To begin with, note the contrast of the other shepherd. “ Death shall be their shepherd.” “ The Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall be their shepherd.” All Christ’ s shepherding on earth and in heaven depends, as do all our hopes for heaven and earth, upon the fact of His sacrificial death. It is only because He is the “ Lamb that was slain” that He is either the “ Lamb in the midst of the Throne,” or the Shepherd of the flock. He is the Lamb, and He is Shepherd--that suggests not only that the sacrificial work of Jesus Christ is the basis of all His work for us on earth and in heaven, but the very incongruity of the metaphor making one who bears the same nature as the flock to be the Shepherd of the flock, is part of the beauty of the metaphor. They follow Him because He is one of themselves, and He could not be the Shepherd unless He were the Lamb. But then this other Shepherd is not only gracious, sympathetic, kind to us by common participation in a common nature, and fit to be our Guide because He has been our Sacrifice and the propitiation of our sins, but He is the Lamb “ in the midst of the throne,” wielding therefore all Divine power, and standing in the middle point between it and the ring of worshippers, and so the Communicator to the outer circumference of all the blessings that dwell in the Divine centre. He shall be their Shepherd, not coercing, not driving by violence, but leading to the fountains of the waters of life, gently and graciously. And it is not compulsory energy which He exercises upon us, either on earth or in heaven, but it is the drawing of a Divine attraction, sweet to put forth and sweet to yield to. There is still another contrast. Death huddled and herded his reluctant sheep into a fold, where they lie inactive but struggling and restless. Christ leads His flock into a pasture. He shall guide them “ to the fountains of waters of life.” (A. Maclaren, D. D.) The sheep of death The whole psalm pours contempt on wealth, pursues it with the most incisive and biting irony. Its pictures of the man who devotes his whole life to amassing a treasure of which, when he takes the inevitable journey of death, he cannot carry so much as a single shekel with him; of the man who calls his lands after his own name, as if to cheat death itself, and to secure a bastard immortality, perpetuating his name on earth while he himself perishes in Hades; and of the man who thinks it possible to bribe death, and buy the power “ to live on for ever,” are quick with a scorn beyond that of satire. They tremble with a fervid moral indignation and contempt for the folly which can mistake wealth for man’ s chief good. Wealth is not man’ s chief good; it is wrong, it is wicked, it is a profound and fatal violation of the Divine law and order, to make it the governing and supreme aim of life. For all who do that, even though they violate no human law, end even though they acquire but little of the wealth they seek, the psalmist cherishes a pure, unutterable scorn. To him they are losing the very form and status of men. They are sinking to the level of “ beasts that perish” ; i.e. they are living as though they had no life but this, as if death were not, as if there were no light beyond the grave. But there is one picture of them, still hidden from us by a thin veil of words, in which his scorn for these brutish people culminates in a figure as terrible, perhaps, as any in the whole range of Scripture. In Psalms 49:14 he depicts them as the “ sheep of death.” The opening clauses of the verses, rightly translated, run, “ Like sheep they are gathered to Hades; death is their Shepherd” (He who feeds or finds pasture for them; not he who feeds on them). What the psalmist means is that men who make wealth their ruling aim are not simply like the beasts that perish, but are in very deed the sheep of death; that it is death whom they have chosen for their shepherd, instead of God, the Author and Source of life; that it is Death who finds pasture for them while they live, and who, when they die, drives them to his fold in the unseen world. Think of it! The sheep of death--men following that grim shadow to the darkness in which it dwells! And these the men who “ bless their souls” (verse18), whom the world praises because they have done good to themselves, whose “ sayings” the world quotes and approves after they have gone to their long, dark home! Was there ever a more grisly and dreadful metaphor? And yet is it one whir too dreadful? Is it not true that every man who trusts in riches, or longs for them as his chief good, is pursuing death, not life; has taken for his shepherd “ the dark Shadow feared of man,” although he knows it not? Can we not see in that very trust or longing the very brand of death, the private and distinctive mark of that grim Shepherd? (The Expositor.) Psalms 49:15-20 Be not thou afraid when one is made rich, when the glory of his house is increased. Empty-handed we depart I remember an Eastern legend which I have always thought furnished a remarkable commentary on these words of the psalmist. Alexander the Great, we are told, being upon his death-bed, commanded that when he was carried forth to his grave his hands should not be wrapped, as was usual, in the cerecloth, but should be left outside, so that all might see them, and might see that they were empty; that he, the possessor while he lived of two worlds--of the East and the West,--and of the treasures of both, yet now, when he was dead, could retain no smallest portion of these treasures. (Archbishop Trench.) A sand sorrow A story is told of a child crying by the seashore, and when mamma asked nurse the reason, her reply was, “ Please, ma’ am, it’ s because he can’ t bring home the holes he has made in the sand.” “ How many weep because they cannot take To their last home the many holes they make.” The deepest mines of wealth will have to be left behind. Wells of earthly joy cannot be taken with us. Hast thou buried thy talent? Thou wilt have to leave it. Psalms 50:1-23 Psalms 50:1-23 The mighty God, even the Lord, hath spoken, and called the earth, from the rising of the sun unto the going down thereof.The first of the Asaph psalms This, the first of the Asaph psalms, is separated from the other eleven (Psalms 73:1-28; Psalms 74:1-23; Psalms 75:1-10; Psalms 76:1-12; Psalms 77:1-20; Psalms 78:1-72; Psalms 79:1-13; Psalms 80:1-19; Psalms 81:1-16; Psalms 82:1-8; Psalms 83:1-18.) for reasons that do not appear. Probably they are no more recondite than the verbal resemblance between the summons to all the earth at the beginning of Psa 49:1-20., and the similar proclamation in the first verses of Psalm1. The arrangement of the Psalter is often obviously determined by such slight links. The group has certain features in common, of which some appear here: e.g. the fondness for descriptions of theophanies; the prominence given to God’ s judicial action; the preference for the Divine names of El, Adonai (the Lord), Elyon (Most High). Other peculiarities of the class--e.g. the love for the designation “ Joseph” for the nation, and delight in the image of the Divine Shepherd--are not found in this psalm. It contains no historical allusions which aid in dating it. The leading idea of it--viz, the depreciation of outward sacrifice--is unhesitatingly declared by many to have been impossible in the days of the Levite Asaph, who was one of David’ s musical staff. But is it so certain that such thoughts were foreign to the period in which Samuel declared that obedience was better than sacrifice? Certainly the tone of the psalm is that of later prophets, and there is much probability in the view that Asaph is the name of the family or guild of singers from whom these psalms came rather than that of an individual. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) The religion of man I. A solemn judgment awaits the religion of man.1. Its Author. “ The mighty God,” etc. (1) Omniscient.(2) Absolutely righteous. 2. Its witnesses. “ He hath called the earth,” etc. 3. Its grandeur. “ Our God shall come,” etc. The Eternal seems now silent; souls deafened by sin hear not His voice, but He will speak in thunder to them in the coming day. 4. Its officers (Psalms 50:5). Who are the officers? (Matthew 24:31; Psalms 104:4). “ Gather My saints;” what a gathering! From whence? To whom? What for? 5. Its rectitude (Psalms 50:6). We may deceive ourselves, as well as others now; but the undeceiving period draweth near, and a period of inexpressible solemnity it will be to us all. II. The worthlessness of mere ceremony in the religion of man.1. You can give God nothing in your offerings. All belongs to Him. 2. He requires nothing. He is absolutely independent (Psalms 50:14-15). III. The value of right-heartedness in the religion of man.1. The nature of spiritual religion. (1) Hearty gratitude. “ Offer unto God thanksgiving.” Not because our thanksgiving is of any service to Him; but because it is right that His moral creatures should appreciate the favours He bestows upon them. Because it is necessary to their own virtue and happiness. Genuine thankfulness of heart to God is the paradise of spirits. Heaven is praise. (2) Hearty vows. “ Pay thy vows unto the Most High.” Resolve to love, worship, and obey the great God; and in genuine earnestness carry out the vows in daily life. (3) Hearty prayer. “ Call upon Me in the day of trouble” --with thine own voice, in thine own language, from thy own heart (Philippians 4:6). 2. The advantages of spiritual religion. (1) Divine deliverance. “ I will deliver thee.” (2) Divine approbation. “ Thou shall glorify Me.” That is, thou shall honour Me. What a reward! (Homilist.) Preparation to meet God The whole business which we have in the world is this, to prepare to meet God. This is the meaning of the whole Bible, to warn us that we must meet God, and to afford us every assistance and encouragement in this preparation. It is this in which mankind differs from all other creatures of God which we know of. Angels have not this call made to them. Brute creatures have not to appear before Him. Every mall that is born must at last come into His presence. “ Who may abide the day of His coming?” Our Lord’ s warning is, “ Be ye ready.” What it will be to “ meet our God,” no heart of man can conceive; for what thought of man can ever understand what God is? But we may come to know Him even in this world far more than we think we can, as He is revealed to us in Jesus Christ. The thought of meeting God is of itself so awful that we might have been disposed to sit down in despair at the contemplation of it, were it not for this access to the Father which we have in Jesus Christ. It is of infinite consequence that we should be prepared, “ lest that day should overtake us unawares.” And we know in what way we are to be prepared, what the things are which will be required of us. We cannot undo the past, which must all come before the all-seeing eye of the Judge; but, during the little time that remains to us, we can earnestly ask forgiveness, with lastings, and prayers, and tears, for the sake of Christ; and thus we may, with God’ s mercy, gain some hope and comfort before we die. (Plain Sermons by authors of “ Tracts for the Times.”) Psalms 50:2 Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God hath shined. Zion the abode of God I. That God dwells in the church.1. In the congregation of the righteous. 2. In the hearts of His people. II. That the church is “ the perfection of beauty” only when God dwells in it. Otherwise the Church is as the world without the sun; an army in battle without its general; a ship in distress without the pilot. III. That the church is God’ s most beautiful dwelling-place.1. Here His love is most of all shown, and-- 2. His praises most celebrated. (W. Nicholson.) The beauty and lustre of the Church I. Justify and illustrate this designation of Zion.1. Its nature, not alone natural, but yet more spiritual. And so in regard to any Church to-day. Its beauty is not in that which worldly men admire--riches, rank, etc., but in the deep spirituality of its members. 2. Its source--Divine grace. 3. Its medium--Christ. 4. How wrought--by the Holy Spirit. 5. Its contrast to the deformity all around. II. In what sense God hath shined out of Zion.1. There His nature and character are revealed. 2. Thence the blessings of salvation flow down to men. 3. In her midst Christ will judge the world. III. Conclusion.1. Value spiritual beauty beyond all else. 2. Such beauty is the glory of every Church. 3. Be concerned that God may shine out of the midst of the Church with which we are connected. 4. You unsaved ones, if God shines in the midst of the Church, what is to become of you who will not come to Him? (Joseph Davis.) The perfection and beauty of Zion I. The internal perfection and beauty of Zion.1. It is because of the indwelling of the Divine presence that we have a Church. 2. Only as God dwells in us individually is it possible for Him to dwell in His Church as a body. 3. The Church of Christ is the aggregate of holy living; the aggregate of simple faith; the aggregate of personal consecration; the aggregate of personal devotion to God and to our fellow-men. II. The external beauty and perfection of Zion, the Church of the redeemed, depends upon the shining forth or manifestation of this indwelling presence of God. Christ’ s Church is not a dark lantern, but a chandelier with its lights trimmed and burning--a lighthouse. And what a responsibility this wonderful bequest to believers, this marvellous endowment of the Church, carries with it! (F. M. Ellis, D. D.) Psalms 50:3 Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence.Our God shall come I. The coming of our God. The expression is very striking: “ Our God shall come!” Christ is God as well as man. His first coming was in His birth at Bethlehem. Here the psalmist contemplates His second coming. The cry may soon be heard, “ Behold, the Bridegroom cometh,” etc. It is of the utmost importance that we should be ready. II. The manner of his coming. “ A fire shall devour,” etc. It is impossible to describe the terror of that day! III. The object of his coming. “ He shall call,” etc. (R. Horsfall.) The silence of God I. Consider the marvellous, and, as some may think, mysterious silence of god during the present economy.1. Rise in the morning, and go forth to look upon the world as the light reveals it to the eye. You see the sun mounting to his throne of glory, dispensing, as he goes, life and warmth and beauty over all the habitable globe. All nature awakes at his approach. But though there is a very orchestra of subtile sounds--the song of birds, the hum of insect life, the sough of the swaying pines, the rustle of the dewy leaves--yet nowhere in field or forest, on the green earth or in the deep blue sky, do you hear the voice of the Deity. God keeps silence! 2. Go climb some lofty mountain, until you have the clouds beneath your feet, and the world spread out in grand panorama before you, river and plain, hill and valley, city and hamlet. You seem to breathe the pure air of heaven, and to stand under its cloudless dome. But neither in that blue arch above you, nor among those vast ranges of billowy mountains which encompass you, nor from those yet loftier snow-clad peaks which tower up to heaven, arrayed in their white robes for ever as the high priests of nature, do you hear any whisper or echo of the voice of the invisible God. The cataract thunders in the gorge, the mountain-brook babbles in the valley, the sad sea-waves chant their dirge along the shore, the hoarse thunder reverberates from peak to peak, but God keeps silence. 3. Picture some of the scenes of shameful revelry nightly enacted in such a city as this, when the licence and impiety of Belshazzar’ s feast are reproduced; when lips that were taught in infancy to lisp the name of God in prayer are made the instruments of ribaldry and blasphemy. Yet no handwriting on the wall rebukes the shameless revellers. God keeps silence! 4. Or, think of the deeds of wickedness daily wrought among men--“ man’ s inhumanity to man,” the heartless cruelty with which the strong prey upon the weak, “ the oppressor’ s wrongs, the proud man’ s contumely,” deceit and falsehood, trickery and hypocrisy, wrong and robbery. God keeps silence! II. Why does god keep silence?1. A spiritual being cannot be apprehended by the senses. The eye of flesh, the ear of flesh cannot perceive the invisible God. It is the soul which perceives, hears, apprehends Him. Faith in God must remain a moral act; it must be the result of moral considerations, not of the formulas of logic. The stream cannot rise above its source; and belief in God, which should be the result of a logical demonstration, would remain an act of the logical faculties, and would have no moral value. Moreover, if the being and attributes of God were so plainly exhibited in the visible universe as to preclude the possibility of a doubt, a necessary element of man’ s probation would be wanting. 2. The probationary character of human life. If God’ s presence and power and retributive justice were forced upon the attention of men, so that they could not escape the consciousness of it; if God’ s voice were ever sounding in their ears in warning; and if punishment followed swiftly upon transgression--men in that case would act as truly under compulsion as if bound hand and foot, and driven by the whip of the taskmaster. There might be obedience to the Divine law; but it would be enforced obedience, and hence its moral value would be gone. (R. H. McKim, D. D.) Psalms 50:4-6 He shall call to the heavens from above, and to the earth, that He may judge His people. Nature, a witness against the sinner But she seems, oftentimes, utterly insensible. The most bounteous gifts are bestowed on saint and sinner alike. No matter what outrages on all righteousness and goodness men may be guilty of, she takes no notice. No lightning-bolt leaps forth on the impious head, and the solid earth does not yawn to engulf the perpetrator of iniquity. But, nevertheless, Scripture speaks of Nature as if it were a conscious witness of the moral history of man, as here in our text (cf. also Isaiah 1:1; Micah 6:1; Deuteronomy 31:28). What is the import of this appeal, in which heaven and earth are called upon to bear record? I. The material world may be thus summoned to witness, as containing the scenes of man’ s crimes. Nature keeps a silent record of them in the associations of the places where they were committed. Bring the sinner to the scene of his past misdeeds, and he will sometimes feel as if all the objects around were endowed with a voice of reproachful reminiscence. How great is the power of local association, whether the deeds done there have boon noble or the reverse. There are places on which we wish never to look again because of that of which they remind us. Thus the whole earth may become full of such reminders, and so may be a faithful record to the eye that can read them. II. By its fulfilling, in contrast with man, the end of its existence. All things are judged as they answer to the ends for which they were made. How, then, does the material world witness against us. III. As affording proof of the unerring certainty and strictness of the divine laws. Their operation is invisible and uniform; slow, oftentimes, but sure. Only the interposition of a higher law, as in the Redemption of Christ, can save the sinful man. (John Caird, D. D.) Psalms 50:5 Gather My saints together unto Me.The doctrine of a general judgment and of a final retribution is a doctrine of pure revelation, and is found both in the Old Testament and in the New. But before this judgment shall be issued the command given in our text. I. The characters here described--“ My saints.” How we become saints.1. By Divine choice.2. By a Divine change which is the necessary consequence of this choice.3. Their character is evidenced by their Divine conduct, and--4. By Divine consecration. II. The command issued. “ Gather,” etc. Now, God does this--1. In their conversion.2. In public worship.3. “ In times of danger.4. In the service of His Church, and--5. In death and at the Resurrection. (J. Sibree.) “ Gather My saints together unto Me” 1. What an expressive word--“ My saints!” How the Lord appropriates them as His own! (Malachi 3:17). 2. “ Gather My saints.” “ He shall gather the lambs in His arms.” He shall “ gather” them as a shepherd his sheep in the hour of weakness and danger. They shall not be weak or nervous then. The frail body shall be dropped for ever. 3. “ Gather My saints together.” It is the family meeting; it is the grand reunion; it is the glad assembly. We shall not rise to meet the Lord individually--in isolation; we shall be gathered together. What heart does not bound at the thought! 4. “ Unto Me.” What would that meeting be without Jesus? What is any meeting without Him? (F. Whitfield, M. A.) The gathering of Christ’ s saints It is the Son of God who is the speaker in this psalm, which tells of His first advent at Jerusalem, and then of His second coming to take vengeance on the disobedient. In that second coming we all shall be deeply interested. Let us think how it will fare with us on that day. Our text refers to it. Consider-- I. The characters described.1. They are Christ’ s saints. We are to be a holy people, “ without blame before Him in love.” How is it with us? 2. They have entered into covenant with God. Abraham (Genesis 15:9, etc.; Jeremiah 34:18). See also Noah’ s sacrifice. And so God’ s saints now covenant with God through the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ. II. The command respecting them.1. They will be gathered together. They are not so now. 2. They will be gathered unto Christ. “ Gather . . . unto Me.” How blessed this prospect. III. Inferences.1. The duty of Christ’ s ministers--to gather together saints, from sin and the world, by the preaching of the Gospel. Nothing compensates if this be left undone. 2. The privileges of Christ’ s people. Eternal life in heaven is yours. (C. Clayton, M. A.) Christ’ s order for the gathering of His saints This psalm certainly relates to the coming of Christ for judgment (Psalms 50:8). “ Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence; a fire shall devour before Him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about Him.” But whether to His first coming, to abolish the ceremonial law, set up the simple Gospel-worship, and to judge, condemn, and take vengeance on the formal, superstitious Jews, destroying their temple, and ruining their kingdom; or to His second coming to judge the world, is a question. I think it is plain it relates to both, the former as an emblem, pledge and type of the other; and thus we find them stated by our Saviour Himself (Matthew 24:1-51.).1. We have the party in whose name the court is called and held. It is in the name of the Holy Trinity, Hebrews “ God! God! Jehovah; He hath spoken,” etc. God will judge the world by the man Christ. 2. The issuing out of the summons to the whole world, called the earth from the rising of the sun, unto the going down thereof; from east to west, from the one end to the other. 3. From whence the Judge sets forth, making His glorious appearance. At the giving of the law He came from Sinai with terrible majesty (Deuteronomy 33:2). At this His appearance He will come from Zion, the city of the living God, namely, from heaven, the Church being so called as a heaven on earth. 4. His awful coming to the judgment. He is God, as well as man. Devouring fire shall be his harbinger (2 Thessalonians 1:8). But will any then bid Him welcome? Yes, His people will. 5. Whither the summons shall be directed. To the heavens, where the souls of the blessed are that are dead; to the earth, where the living are, good and bad, and where the bodies of the dead are (Revelation 20:13). 6. A special gracious order in favour of His people. See text. Now comes the time of setting all to rights with them. And they are further characterized as “ those that have made a covenant,” etc. From all which we gather these doctrines--1. When Christ comes again to put an end to this world, and complete the state of the other world, He will publicly own the saints as His own, and they shall be honourably gathered to Him by His order. 2. When Christ comes again, this earth will be very throng, and a wonderful mixture will be in it more than ever at any time before; He having called to heaven, and the other receptacle of departed souls, and brought them all back to their bodies which are in the earth. 3. When Christ comes again He will put an end to this world ere He go. His very first appearance will put an end to the business of it. All trades, employments, and diversions in this world will end for ever. And, ere He leave it, He will put an end to itself by setting it on fire; so that it shall no more be capable of affording a habitation to man or beast; while withal the heavens that cover it shall pass away (2 Peter 3:10). 4. Saintship will be the only mark of distinction among men then. (T. Boston, D. D.) The final saintly gathering I. Here is the character of good men.1. They are saints. By this expression, “ My saints,” God claims a property in them, and expresseth His care of them and love to them. 2. They have made a covenant with Him by sacrifice. They have taken Him to be their God, their ruler and portion; and given up all dependence upon other objects. II. The command. “ Let it be thy care, O my soul! I have the honour and happiness to be gathered with His people; and to have fellowship with the Father and His Son Jesus Christ. This is the main thing; the source of my chief joy. I bless God that I am gathered with His saints, and united to His Church; and that I do not live in the total or general neglect of this sacred institution. I am willing and thankful to be laid under the most solemn engagements to be the Lord’ s, and often to recollect and renew them. I know that my treacherous heart needs every tie, to bind it more closely to God and its duty. I would come, deeply humbled for past violations of my engagements, and with the renewed exercises of repentance and faith. Lord, I come, to join myself to Thee in a perpetual covenant, never to be forgotten; with a believing regard to Jesus Christ, the great sacrifice, here set forth, as crucified before my eyes.” Let us remember what is said of this gathering. They shall all be gathered from all places, the most obscure and the most remote; and brought to the presence of their covenant-God and Father, who will applaud and reward their fidelity. (Job Orton, D. D.) A covenant with God The psalmist’ s idea of God, as herein expressed, is broad and spiritual, and indicates high spiritual development. It is an ennobling one for man. To have a covenant with God, to be partner with Him in a bond, is to make us, to a certain extent, equal with Him. Covenant-making is one of the earliest instincts in man, and intrinsically one of the noblest. The bargain-making spirit is not necessarily a low one, nor a selfish one, nor a worldly one. We have degraded it by our use of it, by our desire to over-reach, to get the better of our neighbours in our bargains. The first condition of existence is the establishing of relationship between self, and that which is outside self. During the early years of our life we are largely dependent on others for the fulfilling of that condition for us. When we grow older we realize that for a rich and full and strong life we still are dependent on others, but as they in their turn are also dependent on us, we make covenants with them to fix and regulate the mutual help which we are prepared to render and receive. This covenant-making denotes the recognition, conscious or unconscious, of the incapacity of our own resources to satisfy our own needs and desires. But it indicates also that the true nature of man is not that little portion which he has within himself, but is that great nature, of which each one of us has in himself but a little share. And such is the nature of man, that with all his own resources, and all he can draw from others, he is left still unsatisfied. He craves for a yet fuller life, to be filled out of the infinite nature. This leads us to think of the nature of the covenant between God and man, involving the duty of man. Our part of the agreement is that we sacrifice to God. The only true sacrifice is the one which is prompted by love. Love and sacrifice are a twin growth, and each loses its purity when severed from the other. The act of sacrifice is contemplated oftentimes when we are still in the enjoyment of comfort and peace and light, but the sacrifice itself is carried out when all our comfort has declined, when our peace has been turned into maddest strife, and when the light by which we entered the narrow path of self-surrender has been turned into a darkness deep as death. If we love God, we shall delight in every sacrifice which is a manifestation of love, and we shall rejoice to offer our dearest and best gifts to Him. In poverty and weakness we may now make such offering, but it will continue to complete itself. “ And, at last, as the righteous will of man gains the final victory, as it unites itself in entire acquiescence with the all-righteous will of God, sacrifice will at once be perfected and abolished, immersed in one infinite ocean of joy and love.” What we are vitally concerned to know about God is that He is perfectly just, and true, and loving. And this we can never learn from any revelation to our outward senses, but by quick prophetic insight, by the intuition of the Spirit. When we realize that God and man are one in a covenant of eternal life, we shall have incentive sufficient and worthy for all noble effort; for we ourselves shall have then become “ sons of God.” (A. H. Moncur Syme.) The necessity of sacrifice The history of sacrifice is as old as the history of sin; the idea of sacrifice much older. It is part of the inmost counsels of God. It finds its corresponding utterance, with differing degrees of clearness and truth, through all that is holiest, noblest, and most personal of all God’ s creation. Time, study, thought, enter into every work of art that earns any real fame and perhaps it is not too much to say that no painter’ s creation, no sculptor’ s reproduction of all but life, no burning words of eloquence, no minstrel’ s strain, no poet’ s dream, no work of art, ever really touches the heart, kindles deep feeling, directs motives, or influences conduct, if it does not bear on or below its surface the evidence of labour, of travail, of self-devotion, of self-dedication, self-absorption in the object of beauty or of power. And only in proportion as those who look, or admire, or criticize, or are captivated, know the real principles of what they gaze upon, or estimate the suffering they cost, does the popular opinion approximate the true. And hence it is that God’ s judgment, and God’ s opinion of people and acts, differ so often and so terribly from ours. He knows on what grounds His professing servants claim to have a covenant with Him: in what manner they act up to their claim. But God is gathering together those with whom He has made a covenant by sacrifice. And why? For judgment. “ God is judge Himself.” He has a heavy charge against them. They are His. They have made a covenant with Him. But herein is their sin. The first awful charge against them is opened thus: “ I am God, even thy God.” The only sacrifice they had made had cost them nothing. And this day again God speaks. Again “ out of Zion bath God appeared in perfect beauty” ; but it is not the beauty of the world; it is “ in the beauty of holiness” expressed in sacrifice. He gathers His saints together unto Him; “ lifted up” from the earth upon the Cross, He “ draws all men unto Him.” Standing before the Cross, gathered before God, can we compare our lives with that life of sacrifice? Can we say that we have really rendered to Him that which He knows it is a sacrifice to us to give? (G. C. Harris, M. A.) Psalms 50:8-13I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices or thy burnt offerings.Lessons “ I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices;” i.e. for thy neglect of them, but for thy resting in them, sticking in the bark, bringing Me the bare shell without the kernel, not referring to the right end and use, but satisfying thyself in the work done. (John Trapp.) Lifeless duties Go out into the woods, where the white oak is, and where the beech is. Their leaves died last November, but they all hang on the trees yet. The trees have not strength to slough them. They always make me think of a great many people. Sap does not run in them any more, but their duties hang on them like dead leaves all over. They would not like to drop their duties: they are not quite in that state yet; but those duties are dry, sapless and enforced. (E. P. Thwing.) Psalms 50:12 If I were hungry, I would not tell thee: for the world is Mine, and the fulness thereof.The owner of the world I. There must be a growing knowledge of God amongst men. Men once thought that God could be hungry, and that offerings of wheat, goats, etc., would appease His appetite: but when this psalm was written they had advanced far beyond this in their knowledge of God. And we now have no such idea. Science, learning, and the study of the life of Jesus, have classified and enlarged our ideas of God and God’ s workings. Then we ought not to be afraid to say, “ The teachings of our fathers, the associations of the old theology of creeds must be modified. We must not allow our spiritual life to be controlled by leading strings held in dead hands.” We must be ready to stand in the light of the revealed character of God, and accept our impulses and conclusions from that. II. A statement of the rights of God over the world promotes that knowledge, How many of those who read inscribed on the portico of the Royal Exchange, “ The earth is the Lord’ s and the fulness thereof,” ever ponder the large meaning of these words. All natural things are His. How we prize that which is ours--from our first children’ s toys to our possessions now that we are come to mature age. And because this feeling of ownership is in us we know that it is in God. And not only the things, but the energies in them, are His. And all things that men produce, for they come out of the fulness of God’ s world. What, then, can He wish for from us but that we come to know Him and to love and honour Him as we should? Therefore remember--(1) All property is held from God. We are but His stewards.(2) Everything in the world is a witness to God.(3) God is the sustainer of all things. (D. O. Watt, M. A.) Psalms 50:14 Offer unto God thanksgiving and pay thy vows.A thanksgiving mode of glorifying God 1. “ Offer unto God thanksgiving.” For what? “ In everything give thanks.” The propriety of this is seen at once when we consider that we owe everything to God. It is impossible, without a due acknowledgment of this, to appreciate our dependence upon and obligation to Him, “ in whom we live, and move, and have our being.” 2. But our text enjoins us “ to pay our vows unto the Most High.” 3. “ And call upon God in the day of trouble.” Our fathers had their troubles, and we shall have ours. They may arise from sources anticipated or unanticipated; for the former we may to some degree prepare, or even, perhaps, by prudent forethought and action in some cases prevent; for the latter, we can only patiently wait upon God who sees and knows all things, and with whom is all wisdom and power. No intelligent observer can be unaware of serious dangers that threaten our God-given heritage. “ The price of liberty is eternal vigilance.” We think our cherished institutions well guarded in citadels of truth and righteousness, and if all who man the citadels are reliable and faithful, it is certain that no foes without can harm, for the God in whom we trust will never suffer the righteous to be confounded or finally overcome. And we must trust in Him for the protection and defence of all that is right; and we must, if we would be safe and secure, look to Him for wisdom to devise and strength to execute all our purposes in His fear. 4. “ And thou shalt glorify Me.” Not “ make Him glorious,” as if to imply that we can add anything to His glory that ever was, is, and ever shall be complete in itself beyond any comparison; but “ show forth His glory,” by acknowledging it in our hearts, pro claiming it with our lips, exhibiting our regard for it in our lives, and diffusing it all abroad by the exertion of all our ransomed powers and possible energies in His service for the good of all within the range of our influence. For this we were created, for this we are preserved, and when we are told that we are redeemed by the precious blood of Christ, we are exhorted “ therefore” to “ glorify God in our bodies and our spirits, which are His.” (J. T. Ward, D. D.) On thanksgiving Gratitude is a natural principle of the human heart. In every age thanksgiving has been offered. The songs of Zion have been often sung; the altar has blazed before the Creator of the universe, and the temple been filled with the odours of incense. I. Creation is a proper subject of thanksgiving. With the beauties of nature you are surrounded on every side. The morning sun and the melody of the groves; the beautiful landscape and the blue sky; the roaring cataract and the spacious ocean; these are free. Untouched with gratitude can mortals behold them? II. The benefits of providence demand your thanksgiving. Often has health been restored after sickness, and the mind solaced after the depression of sorrow. In some eases, misfortunes have been removed. Yes, calamities have been alleviated. Now, the return of tranquillity to the troubled mind is a blessing unspeakable; and the wounded spirit, which God hath healed, ought surely to praise Him. III. The blessings of his grace claim your warmest gratitude. And, wherever such gratitude exists, it becomes a powerful principle of obedience, leading a pious man to combat every species of corruption, to cultivate every virtue, to maintain rectitude of conduct in every case, and preserve, in short, on all occasions, a careful and conscientious adherence to the commandments of his God. (T. Laurie.) The duty of praise and thanksgiving “ Offer unto God thanksgiving.” Which that we may do, let us inquire first how we are to understand this command of offering praise and thanksgiving unto God; and then how reasonable it is that we should comply with it. Our inquiry into what is meant here will be very short: for who is there that understands anything of religion hut knows that the offering praise and thanks to God implies our having a lively and devout sense of His excellencies and of His benefits; our recollecting them with humility and thankfulness of heart; and our expressing these inward affections by suitable outward signs; by reverent and lowly postures of body, by songs, and hymns, and spiritual ejaculations; either privately or publicly. Our praise properly terminates in God, on the account of His natural excellencies and perfections; and is that act of devotion by which we confess and admire His several attributes: but thanksgiving is a narrower duty, and imports only a grateful sense and acknowledgment of past mercies. Now, the great reasonableness and obligation of this duty of praise or thanksgiving will appear if we consider it absolutely in itself as the debt of our natures: or compare it with other duties, and then the rank it bears among them; or set out, in the last place, some of its peculiar properties and advantages, which recommend it to the devout performer.1. It is the most pleasing part of our devotions. It proceeds always from a lively, cheerful temper of mind; and it cherishes and improves what it proceeds from. 2. It is another distinguishing property of Divine praise, that it enlargeth the powers and capacities of our souls; turning them from little and low things, upon their greatest and noblest objects, the Divine nature; and employing them in the discovery and admiration of those several perfections that adorn it. 3. It farther promotes in us an exquisite sense of God’ s honour, and an high indignation of mind at everything that openly profanes it. 4. It will work in us a deep humility and consciousness of our own imperfections. 5. A conscientious praise of God will keep us back from all false and mean praises, all fulsome and servile flatteries, such as are in use among men. (Bishop Atterbury.) Thanksgiving due to God alone A lady applied to an eminent philanthropist of Bristol, Richard Reynolds, on behalf of a little orphan boy. After he had given liberally, she said, “ When he is old enough I will teach him to name and thank his benefactor.” “ Stop,” said the good man; “ thou art mistaken. We do not thank the clouds for rain. Teach him to look higher, and thank Him who giveth both the clouds and the rain.” Psalms 50:15 Call upon Me in the day of trouble, I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify Me.The true deliverance Many an one, in the day of trouble, has called on God even with an exceeding bitter cry, and yet has found no deliverance. The “ cloudy and dark day” has continued full of a gloom, which no light from heaven has broken through to relieve. The blow which we dreaded, and which we prayed might not fall, has fallen. But need our faith fail, so that we shall refuse any more to rely on God’ s promise again? Can there be any real ground for that? It would be awful if there were; if we had to think of God, as we too often have to think of men, as not to be depended on, not to be trusted to make good His word. It would be almost better to be Atheists than to think that. But the solution of the difficulty is in the fact that what God means by “ deliverance” is other than what we mean. We are asking for one thing when He means another. And perhaps, also, we misunderstand God when He says, “ Call upon Me.” Do we not too often take it to mean that when we see no other help, then we should call on God for there is nothing else to be done? Is not this too much our idea; and is it a just idea? Have we any right to treat God in that way? to neglect Him and forget Him till we are in trouble, and then to call aloud on Him, simply to remove the trouble? I do not think we can interpret God’ s Word as meaning that He will answer such a call by such a deliverance. He means that the trouble is to do the work which He desires it should; to lead us to Him, to break in upon our worldliness, self-sufficiency, and forgetfulness of our dependence on Him, and to help us to receive the blessing it is meant to bestow, so that through it we may be delivered, not necessarily from it, but from the evils which it was intended to correct, from the dangers against which it was the warning. A man, for instance, who had wilfully committed a crime and been visited with the punishment of his crime, might feel so touched in heart and so distressed in mind, as to be led to the thought of God, and to cry to God for deliverance; but could be expect God to open his prison door and let him go free, or to pay his fine and let him off without a penalty? Would that be indeed a “ deliverance” to him? Would not the only real deliverance be a deliverance from the evil heart and unrighteous spirit which led him to commit the crime; and would not the outward trouble, from which God did not deliver him, be doing its proper work, if through God’ s grace it was the means of delivering him from that evil heart and that unrighteous spirit? If it did that, could he say God had not heard his cry or wrought deliverance for him? (R. H. Story, D. D.) Encouragement for the pious in the day of trial I. The speaker. “ The mighty God;” possessing--1. Boundless knowledge (Hebrews 4:13; Acts 10:5-6; Matthew 10:30).2. Infinite goodness (Psalms 145:9; Psalms 103:13; Psalms 147:11).3. Omnipotent power (Psalms 148:6). II. The persons addressed.1. Those who fear and love God (1 Corinthians 3:21-23).2. Those who are subjects of trial (Hebrews 12:6; Hebrews 12:10). III. The duty suggested. “ Call upon Me.”1. Humility.2. Sincerity.3. Confidence.4. Consistency.5. Importunity. IV. The declaration made. “ I will deliver thee.”1. At what time He sees best.2. In what way He sees best.3. By what means He sees best. V. The grateful returns required. “ And thou shalt glorify Me.”1. By a devout acknowledgment of the Divine goodness (Psalms 34:1-4). Be careful not to ascribe that to human agency which is immediately the work of God.2. By unreserved devotedness to Him (Romans 12:1; 1 Corinthians 6:20).3. By promoting His interests--your time, talents, influence employed for God. Present them through the merits of Christ. VI. Improvement.1. To those who love and fear God. How blessed is your state I The Lord is your God, call upon Him.2. To those who are humbly seeking God (Matthew 11:28).3. To those who are living without God. How awful your state! (Romans 2:5). (Sketches of Four Hundred Sermons.) For the day of trouble I. The day. “ Day of trouble.”1. All know more or less of this “ day” --morning, noon, or eventide of it, or the whole “ day.” 2. Trouble various: (1) Business trouble--competition--dishonest traders--bad times, etc. (2) Domestic trouble--family cares--sick child--wayward son or daughter--poverty. (3) Soul-trouble--sins realized--con-science accusing--unworthiness and imperfections--doubts and fears, etc. 3. Only a “ day” ! not a week--month--year, etc. II. The request. “ Call upon Me.” Friends generally plentiful in prosperity, scarce in trouble. God wants us to come particularly then. Take your prayer-cheques and faith-orders to His Bank, and so ask and receive that your joy may be full. This the Divine cure for trouble. Don’ t worry--chafe--fret--despair; simply give Him a “ call” --He is always at home, etc. III. The promise. “ I will deliver thee.” Infinite ability and willinghood--power and love--are at the back of this promise. None ever called aright and were refused. Noah, David, Daniel, etc., cried and were delivered. IV. The result. “ Thou shalt glorify Me.”1. By presenting praise (verse 23). 2. By publishing His fame--gratitude will constrain to this. 3. By trusting implicitly at all times. (J. O. Keen, D. D.) Robinson Crusoe’ s text One book charmed us all in the days of our youth. Is there a boy alive who has not read it? I am not ashamed to confess that I can read it even now with ever fresh delight. You remember how Robinson Crusoe was wrecked. He is left in the desert island all alone. He is smitten with fever. He is ready to perish. Now he begins to think, and opens a Bible which he finds in his chest, and he lights upon this passage. That night he prayed for the first time in his life. It is a text which I would have written in stars across the sky, or sounded forth with trumpet at noon from the top of every tower. Observe-- I. Realism is preferred to ritualism. Note the content. How this is so.1. Because there is meaning in it. There is none in ritualism when grace is absent. But when you call upon God in the day of trouble there is meaning, and God understands, and cares for it when all the pomp and show, and the gorgeousness of ritual are to Him as nothing. 2. There is spirituality in it, and worship in spirit and in truth is what God would have. 3. It recognizes God as the living God. 4. It is sincere. In prosperity we are apt to forget our prayers. Too many of us are like boys’ tops, that cease to spin except they are whipped. Certainly trouble gives intensity to prayer. 5. It is humble. Too often we are over-satisfied with our own performances in the way of worship, but when in deep trouble the soul bows down then. 6. And there is a measure of faith in such prayers. When faith does, as it were, only cross over the field of the camera, so that across the photograph there is a dim trace of its having been there, God can spy it out, and He can and will accept prayer for the sake of that little faith. Next we have-- II. Adversity turned to advantage. God cannot deliver a man who is not in trouble: even Jesus Christ cannot heal a man who is not sick. Now, if you be in trouble, you have--1. A plea from the time. This is the day of trouble. Your case is urgent. 2. From the trouble itself. It is so great. 3. From the command. God bids you pray. 4. From His own character--so great, so good. III. Free grace laid under bonds. “ I will deliver thee:” thus God pledges Himself. The text is unconditional as to the persons. And God’ s “ I will” includes all needful power which may be needed for deliverance. But we are not told exactly when God wilt do this. You are in a great hurry, but the Lord is not. When the gold is cast into the fining-pot, there it must stay till the dross is purged away. But promptitude is implied. He will deliver you in the best possible time. IV. God and the praying man taking shares. Here is your share, “ Call upon Me” ; here is God’ s share, “ I will deliver.” Again, here is yours, You shall be delivered; and then, again, it is the Lord’ s turn, “ Thou shalt glorify Me.” Here is a delightful partnership. Who would demur to these terms? If God will pardon and justify us, adopt and sanctify us, and bring us home to heaven at last, shall He not have the glory of it? Even some divines will give man a little of the glory. Oh, that Dagon of a free will! How men will worship it! Go out henceforth, you saved ones, and tell what the Lord has done for you. An aged woman once said that if the Lord Jesus Christ really did save her, He should never hear the last of it. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Prayer to God in trouble an acceptable sacrifice God here reproves Israel not for keeping back from Him abundant ceremonial service--they were not at fault there--but for not rendering Him the worship of the heart. That was what He desired more than all burnt offering and sacrifice. And the reasons of God’ s preference are evident. For-- I. It brings glory to him in itself.1. It shows that God is a reality to the man. 2. There is spiritual intercourse in it. How easy it is to say a prayer without coming into contact with God! Year after year the tongue repeats pious language, as a barrel organ grinds out the old tunes, and there may be no more converse with the Lord than if the man had muttered to the ghosts of the slain. Many prayers might as well be said backward as forwards, for there would be as much in them one way as the other. The abracadabra of the magician has quite as much virtue in it as any other set of mere words. 3. It is filled with a manifest hope in God. 4. It exhibits a clinging affection to Him, and-- 5. A most stedfast confidence. Therefore is it that such prayer brings glory to God. II. Also, through the answer which it wins. The answer is personal, positive, practical, permanent. III. And the Lord will be glorified in your conduct afterwards. Adoration, gratitude, trust, patience, a consecrated life. It is by the sharp needle of sorrow that we are embroidered with the praises of the Lord. The brightest of the saints owe much of their clearness to the fire and the file. We must be tried that the Lord may be glorified. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Our only deliverance I. The duty enjoined. “ Call upon Me,” etc. This bears fully upon our present circumstances (2 Chronicles 7:13-14). The word “ call” implies--1. Earnestness of heart. 2. Faith, which realizes both God’ s truth and God’ s grace. 3. Expectation. II. The promise given--“ I will deliver thee.” Who else can? Medical science seems of but little avail. But God can (Revelation 7:1-17.). The command to the angel of penitence; and 2 Samuel, last chapter. All show that the Lord can limit the powers of evil. Let us remember the love of God--His presenting, forbearing, redeeming, sanctifying love. III. Practical lessons.1. Acknowledge God’ s hand in this affliction. 2. Do not exaggerate it. 3. Do not neglect it. Humble yourselves and help the poor. (H. Montagu Villiers, M. A.) The Christian’ s duty in the day of trouble What an encouraging character does this psalm give us of the religion He would see in us. He represents it as consisting chiefly in thanksgiving and prayer. I. A command for God’ s people. They are represented as in trouble. There is “ a day of trouble,” it is intimated, either come on them or coming. And it is a touching circumstance, that whoever else may overlook our troubles, the Lord does not. Call upon Me in the day of trouble. Afflicted souls should pray more and oftener, and to bring us to this is the design of trouble, and when we are brought thus to pray, it is one of the very best evidences that our trouble has been blessed to us. One thing more we must add--the Lord will assuredly bring all His troubled people to this, this calling upon Him. He will knock away their props from under them, or He will wither their strength, or He will add more and more to their burden; in some way He will make them feel that they cannot possibly stand without Him (Psalms 107:1-43.). II. A gracious promise the lord gives to his people. “ I will deliver thee.” This means--1. Deliverance in trouble; or-- 2. From trouble. III. The happy effect which is to follow--“ Thou shalt glorify Me.” And this will be both in and after our trouble. The believer ever recognizes God’ s hand in such deliverance, and therefore glorifies Him. Let us all turn to God now, so that we may be able to turn to Him when trouble comes. (C. Bradley, M. A.) The day of trouble Why not “ deliver” without calling? He knows the sorrow and need of His people, and if it be in His heart to “ deliver,” why wait to be “ called upon” ? When a man is in “ trouble,” and his neighbours help him out, he is not in much danger of confounding his benefactor with himself, or of questioning, after all, if the deliverance did not come in some other way. But if God delivered men without being “ called upon,” they would soon become rationalistic, in their way of looking at things, and not only account for “ the day of trouble,” but also for their “ deliverance,” upon the mere principles of reason or natural law. It is the calling spirit which He seeks to evoke--the spirit which recognizes Him as the only “ deliverer” of His people. I. The time. “ The day of trouble “ does not appear to be governed, as is our natural day, by planetary revolutions, or the swing of the pendulum. It may come at any hour, and may stay long after the natural day is done. II. The request. “ Call upon Me.”1. Humbly.2. Believingly, etc. III. The promise. “ I will deliver thee.” God can always repeat Himself; He can always “ deliver” more gloriously the next time you “ call upon Him,” if you only honour Him by asking, and believing that He will. IV. The result. “ Thou shalt glorify Me.”1. By our faith.2. By gratitude.3. By obedience.4. By testifying of His goodness.5. By devotion to His cause.6. By praising Him. (T. Kelly.) Psalms 50:16-23 But unto the wicked God saith, What hast thou to do to declare My statutes?The mere formalist and the spiritualist in religion I. The mere formalists in religion.1. They are religiously active--often very busy in preaching and praying. The less heart in religion, generally the more hand; the less vitality, the more voice. 2. They are morally wicked. (1) No desire for knowledge. (2) No reverence for God’ s Word. (3) No practical regard for the rights of society. Religious formality crucified the Son of God Himself. Religious form without the genuine spirit is law without justice--a tyranny; language without truth--a deception; an atmosphere without oxygen--a poison. 3. They are God-degrading. The God of the formalist is fashioned after his own character. 4. They are Divinely threatened. (1) With a terrible conviction of their own guilt (Psalms 50:21). What calamity can be greater, than for a sinner to have all his sins, in all their awful enormity, brought before the eye of his conscience; brought into contact with all the tenderest and profoundest sensibilities of his moral being? (2) With an irremediable destruction (Psalms 50:22). The language here is derived from a ravenous beast, tearing its victim limb from limb. “ None to deliver.” “ I called, and ye refused,” etc. II. The true spiritualist in religion (Psalms 50:23, etc.).1. He worships God acceptably. The sentiments of gratitude, reverence, adoration, that rise out of his regenerated heart are the praise that is well-pleasing to God. 2. He lives an upright life. He walks in all the commandments of the Lord, blameless. 3. He secures the true salvation--from all ignorance, error, selfishness, sin, and sorrow. (Homilist.) The inconsistency, absurdity, and sin of professing religion without a corresponding conduct By their talking of the statutes of Jehovah, and having His covenant in their mouths, the psalmist must have intended to denote their religious profession and hopes as Jews. They are men of an unteachable disposition and an untractable temper, rendered, by their vices, averse to religious and moral instruction. So far from attending to the Mosaic revelation, and consulting it as containing the proper rules for the regulation of their conduct, they, in fact, entirely neglected it; they treated it as persons do any worthless thing, which they throw from them with disdain. I. The expectations and hopes of those, whose characters have been described, and who are here represented as wicked, must be vain and delusive. For the rewards annexed to any law are, certainly, intended to enforce its precepts, and to induce men, from the additional motive of interest, to practise their duty. To consider them in a different light is absurdly supposing the law to be constructed in such a manner as to counteract itself, and to destroy its own authority and influence. If it argued the highest presumption and folly to hope for the benefits and blessings of the Mosaic covenant, although the condition of “ observing all the commandment of the law to do them” were not complied with, then, to retain these hopes, even while the prohibitions and threatenings of the law stood in full force against them, was certainly, of all others, the most unaccountable instance of infatuation. II. How far the address in the text may, with equal propriety and justice, be applicable to any, who live in the present times, who acknowledge the truth of the Christian religion, and who profess to be the followers of Christ. If we entertain hopes of enjoying the blessings which the Gospel proposes to mankind, while, at the same time, our characters correspond with those described in the text, our profession, when compared with theirs, will be found equally insincere, inconsistent, and contradictory: our hopes, too, will prove to be equally presumptuous and vain. We, indeed, shall be more inexcusably foolish and absurd; because a subsequent revelation, wherever it agrees with the former, should certainly be considered as an additional confirmation of it. Every renewal of its prohibitions reminds us, in a stronger manner, of the offensive nature and dangerous consequences of the particular vices already forbidden. But, alas I how many are there who profess to receive the Gospel that are very impatient of religious and moral discipline I How many are there who sanguinely hope for the salvation which the Gospel offers, and yet knowingly live in direct opposition to its most sacred and important commands, with which alone this salvation stands connected! (A. R. Beard.) Psalms 50:21 These things hast thou done, and I kept silence. The silence of God I. Divine silence maintained. He does indeed speak to you by the eloquence of creation; by the kind lips of providence; by His own inspired Word, warning, inviting, entreating and persuading you to seek Christ. But he does not speak to you in the same startling way now as He will speak to you in the world to come. His present silence is a proof of His long-suffering. He is not willing that any of us should perish, tie is anxious that we should all come to repentance. How wrong, therefore, is it for any to abuse this silence! II. Divine silence broken. The forbearance of God only encouraged the Jews in their rebellious conduct. At length the Lord made the Roman armies the instruments of His correction. He then indeed “ reproved” them, and “ showed them the things they had done,” in rejecting and crucifying the Lord of glory. And what God then did towards the impenitent Jews He will hereafter do to all who lived and died in sin. III. Application.1. The duty of mutual forbearance. 2. The blessedness of cheerful resignation. (C. Clayton, M. A.) God’ s silence In this psalm we have a graphic representation of a court of justice: the judge, the court-house, the guards, the criminals. The accusations are of two kinds. Some are arraigned for formalism; others for grievous crimes. It is in connection with these that God says, “ I kept silence.” Concerning the silences of God, there is that which is-- I. The effect of his patience. He is slow to anger, but this silence will not be for ever. Our duty is told in (Romans 2:4). II. A judicial infliction. See Saul, whom God “ answered no more.” Ephraim was “ let alone.” Christ silent before Herod. And so with hardened sinners now. Let us pray, “ Be not silent unto me, O God, but,” etc. III. The appointment of his wisdom. “ Secret things belong unto the Lord our God.” We are to trust when we cannot understand. IV. A temporary discipline. His children wander, and God hides His face to lead them to repent. The power of silence is very great. “ Be still, and know that I am God.” “ Aaron held his peace.” (W. G. Lewis.) The Creator and the Son of Man I. God fully observes the development of human sin, This evident--1. From His nature (Psalms 139:1-24.). 2. From the declaration of the Bible (Psalms 94:9-11). 3. From the universal consciousness of sinners: they feel that God knows their sins. 4. From the retribution that has overtaken sinners even in this world. II. For a time he forbears with the enormity of human sin. “ I kept silence.”1. The spiritual improvement of humanity requires this, and-- 2. The mediation of Christ explains it. III. He thoroughly understands the reason of human sin. “ Thou thoughtest,” etc.1. Sinners act as if they could conceal their sins from God as from man. 2. As if God thinks lightly of sin, or that time will make him, as it makes men, forget sin. IV. He will assuredly award punishment for human sin. cf. Ecclesiastes 8:11-13. In that day God will set man’ s sins in order.1. As to their real character. 2. Their terrible influence. 3. Their true desert. Sin, therefore, must either be punished or pardoned, as it can be in Christ. (David Thomas, D. D.) The forbearance of God It is true God keeps silence. We might expect as soon as the sin is committed, as soon as the lie has passed the lips, or while it is trembling on the tongue, the lightning flash of God would strike him down dead, or when the false oath is uttered, that God would make His thunderbolt strike the wretch to the dust! “ He is not a man,” and therefore His are not the ways of man. Oh: the power of the silence of the omnipotent and infinite God, who could in a moment smite to ruin, to atoms, to annihilation the universe He has called into being, and yet poor, wicked, foolish worms dare to dash themselves “ upon the thick bosses of His buckler,” and to rush on in sin and iniquity as a war-horse rushes into battle. But the day is coming--“ God has appointed a day in the which He will judge the world;” and that day, that hour no one knoweth; and yet there is the day, there is the hour, therefore God says--and this is the issue of such sad misconstruction, if persevered in--“ I will reprove thee, and set them in order before thine eyes.” Some He sets them before in darkness and despair. I have seen a few such cases, and they are terrible to witness, when a man awakes up to see the catalogue of his sins and he has no hope, but is given up to despair, and is abandoned by God; then a man has a foretaste of “ the worm that never dieth.” What must it be to have them set before us when it is too late? Oh! what a dark panorama of eternity passes before the mind, when, in the lurid light of eternity, a man reads the dread catalogue! Then turn to the Lord, now. (Hugh Stowell, M. A.) God keeping and breaking silence I. God’ s keeping silence. Now, our God is Jesus Christ. And, therefore, if we judge of what He will do by what He has done, this silence was to be expected from. Him. It is all of a piece with His conduct while upon earth. After the Divine intelligence which our Lord showed when He was twelve years of age, we read nothing more about Him until He was thirty. Many things must have gone on around Him which pained Him, and stirred within Him His zeal for His Father’ s honour; but the time was not yet come for Him to take notice of them. Now, what does such keeping silence mean?1. That He seems to take no notice of the wickedness of men. It does often seem so. How many persons daily bring themselves by drunkenness and other shameful vices to a level lower than that of the beasts that perish! How are the poor ground down by their employers, as if those employers had a property in their flesh and sinews; nay, in their very life! How are God’ s Sabbaths broken continually, the Sunday being spent by many thousands among us, at best in perfect idleness, and at worst in a state of sottishness and stupidity! “ Shall not I visit for these things? saith the Lord.” And yet He holds His hand for the present, and merely stands by, looking on. 2. Another meaning of God’ s keeping silence is, that He does not now-a-days interfere with the order of nature. He lets things take their course, in heaven and earth. This was not so in the olden time, of which the Bible tells us. We read of miracles, that is, of changes of the order of nature, both in the New Testament and in the Old. But miracles are only for a season; and it is not in reason that they should be otherwise. When God had some new tidings to tell to the world, which they could not have found out by their own sense and wit, He gave to the men whom He sent with the message the power of working miracles. The miracles were a sort of bell which they rung in the ears of their generation, that people might listen to what they had to say, and believe that it came from heaven. 3. But since we know God to be grievously displeased with sin, there is something awful in His keeping silence while it is committed under His eye. If a child comes home conscious of having offended a parent, and the parent says nothing all that night, but merely looks very grave, the child is more frightened than he would be by a sharp rebuke or severe punishment; for if such rebuke or punishment were inflicted, he would, at least, know the worst; but when the parent is silent he knows not what may be hanging over him. In countries where earthquakes happen, a dead silence always goes before the earthquake. Nature seems hushed into an awful stillness, as if she were holding her breath at the thought of the coming disaster. So it is with God’ s silencer It will be followed, when it seems deepest, by the earthquake of His judgments. And so the holy apostle writes to the Thessalonians: “ When they shall say Peace and safety” (from the fact of God’ s being so still and so dumb), “ then sudden destruction cometh upon them as travail upon a woman with child, and they shall not escape.” II. God’ s breaking silence. “ Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence.” We have seen that there was a great blaze of miracles when the Jewish dispensation was first set up, when Israel was called out of Egypt, and settled in the Holy Land. After they were fairly settled, God, for a long time, kept silence. And the silence waxed deeper and deeper, when the people were restored to their own lands after the Babylonish captivity, until at length His judgment came in the overthrow of Jerusalem, and the break-up of Israel’ s national life. Josephus has some wonderful statements about that awful time. Now, so will it be with the Christian Church. At the first there was a blaze of miracles, as with Israel, but ever since God has been keeping silence: God never interferes, so men think and say. Now, one day, when these men are crying, “ Peace and safety,” God will confound them by breaking silence. When our Lord comes the second time to earth, a far brighter blaze of miracles will shine around Him than that which ushered in His first appearance. The whole frame of nature will be rent in twain, as the veil of the temple formerly was, and we shall get a glimpse through the great cleft into the world of spirits; we shall see those things which here we have been called upon to believe without seeing--an innumerable company of angels, and a great white throne prepared for judgment, and Him who sitteth thereon. Examine your hearts as to whether you are among those who, when the Lord is thus manifested, will love His appearing? Is there no cherished sin, no darling lust, which you would dread above all things to have dragged into the light of His countenance, and laid naked and open under his eye? (Dean Goulburn.) Abuse of the long-suffering of God I. How the long-suffering or “ silence” of God ought to be interpreted. Its perversion and abuse are most unnatural. This will be seen when we consider the principles on which God bases this administration. They are--1. The appointment of a state of moral exercise and probation. Sudden punishment would render this impossible.2. That we may see the evil of sin in itself as well as in its punishment. This also requires time.3. That He may honour the sacrifice and intercession of His Son.4. That He may manifest His love in seeking our recovery. II. The corrupt perversion of this doctrine by sinful man. They think that God is like themselves.1. Most men live in a state of almost total indifference to their actions; they are in almost entire ignorance both of God and of themselves.2. Others are unbelievers, infidels.3. Others take partial views of sin, and, so long as external morality and the ordinary law be not violated, they see no reason for penalty.4. Religious formalists, who think that God is pleased with mere ceremonies and outward things. III. The fatal result of all this. “ I will reprove thee, and,” etc. Our sins shall be arrayed--1. In their number.2. In full light (Psalms 90:8).3. As connected with their root, in the heart.4. In their relations, for sins are related to each other. (R. Watson.) Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such as one as thyself. Ideas of God I. The natural tendency of the human mind is to think of God’ s nature as corresponding in some way with that of man. The anthropomorphic representations of God in the Bible appeal to this natural disposition of the human mind. Made originally in the image of God, we naturally think Him the image of ourselves. II. The exercise of this tendency plunges the human mind into egregious errors.1. The savage’ s ideal of his God is like himself--revengeful, cruel, destructive. As nations get civilized and refined, they associate corresponding passions to their own with their representations of the deities they worship--e, g. Greece and Rome. A theologian with an arbitrary and iron disposition will speak and write of God as Sovereign--arbitrary and inexorable. A theologian with a tender and benevolent disposition will write and speak of God as a gracious Father, full of pity and love. 2. We need to be on our guard; we have elements and materials for our conception of God (1) in our own consciousness,(2) in the works of nature, and(3) in the written Word; but all will be an apocrypha and not an apocalypse, without the light that comes along the pathway of intelligent obedience and unwavering faith. III. This tendency is the shadow of a glorious fact that has occurred in the history of our world. In the Incarnation God took upon Himself the likeness of man, but He did not become altogether like unto ourselves. Christ was superior to the highest and best of men--unique, incomparable in purity and power. (F. W. Brown.) Man’ s conception of God 1. The state of a man makes his thought, and this thought has its influence on the present life and its prospects. Idolatry has its fictions of God, which are frauds upon men, who sink Him into grosser and more bestial forms. Superstition knows the same perversity, ascribing to God thoughts and practices that are unworthy His nature, concocted in a morbid imagination; ,as unreal as a system of belief would be which recorded your conceptions of men or your Maker formed in sleep while suffering from the nightmare. There is a tendency and habit of weakness to form God weak-minded; of cruelty to conceive of Him as cruel. To the pure He is pure, and to the froward, froward. To the prurient all is impure, and to the fraudulent all is deceit. The mummeries of worship, the follies of priestcraft, futile prevarications, cunning compromises and the stratagems of love and of war show this same fact in human life. Now transfer this lesson to the facts of another world. 2. Dire retribution may arise by simple reproduction: Keep the Word closed and every line and letter of your creed hidden, and look out over the face of the earth. You see various forms of animal life below, but none above, man. Before a closed Bible and a silenced Gospel what precludes the prospect that human life is to go to lower and yet lower grades according to its bent and bias? You see the loftiest summit rise from the plain and from among the uplands; and you see it steadily crumble and fall lower. What is there more congruous than the notion of transmigration? If there be evolution, there surely is devolution, a degradation of species. Nature teaches it. The spirit of man goeth--where? That of the brute--where? With the Bible closed we cannot answer. If there be no Gospel, no Heaven, no hell, no resurrection, no redemption, still there is no proof that there is no future. If you do not go upward, you do not prove that there is no downward. What is your hope? Where is your God? Is He a deceiver and the world full of illusions, with no relief, no redress, no rescue, no resurrection and nothing of us to be? Is your God fate? If so, hell, as men have printed it, is but a trifle to what is now already; just as when the merciless breakers dash the drowning man in their seething, swirling eddies, the glare of the volcano in the distance or a raging conflagration is nothing; just as the news of the burning of all his property is nothing to one about to swing from the gibbet. What is your God? Will He be what you make Him now? He is not what unbelief represents Him to be, but He is in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself. Open now the Bible, build your altar, bind the sacrifice! Acquaint thyself with Him and be at peace, for this is life eternal to know Him! (H. S. Carpenter, D. D.) We see as we are--in God Some one has said, In the beginning of Scripture we read that God said, “ Let us make man in our image, after our likeness” ; and, all through history, man has been saying, “ Let us make God in our image, after our likeness.” How apt the observation is, let the gods many of paganism, and the gods many of Christianity, testify. Men see as they are, and not otherwise.1. What does the suspicious, distrustful person make God to be? He projects upon the Divine character his own character; and suspicion must therefore be a leading feature in the character of his deity. His God is a suspicious being, never trusting His creatures, but always distrusting them, and the suspicious deity has no friends. 2. What is the God of the selfish man like? His religion must be simply a branch of his selfishness--a thing of “ all take” and “ no give.” Can his God be the God who “ so loved the world,” etc., and whose better blessedness it is to give rather than to receive? 3. What is the God of the hard, unforgiving man? A stern Shylock, for ever unbending as adamant, in his clamour for “ the pound of flesh.” Without a moment’ s hesitation, and without a thrill of pity, he can consign his best friend to a hopeless future, and think he glorifies the Divine justice thereby. Pity the man who can be content with such a conception of God. 4. What about the God of the superstitious? His God is perpetually his foe, and never his friend. He cannot help being a slave, in the service of such a deity. His one ambition is to appease His wrath, or court His favour. He must keep on good terms with a God so vengeful, that he may escape the punishment and receive the reward. 5. A grand, gentlemanly deity is the God of the mammon-worshipper. Majesty and dignity are in His every step. Almightiness encompasses His way. Marvellous display, imposing grandeur impresses His devotees. His robe--the rainbow; His crown--a circlet of stars; His chariot--the wind; His horses--the fiery coursers of the sun. What more magnificent and effective than such a God! But nothing attractive, nothing loveable about Him. 6. Contrast with these the God of the Gospels--the God of the simple, true and pure heart. His God is the good shepherd following the lost sheep out into the wilderness, the wise husbandman refusing to rush in wildly to pluck up the tares which an enemy hath sown in his wheat field, the yearning parent going out eagerly to meet the returning prodigal and anticipating his penitence and his pleading in the glorious glow of his merciful joy. These are the very highest attributes, of the highest and fairest earth has ever seen. These are some of the lights of the Exalted One in whom all fulness dwells. So the simple Christian clothes his God in that garment of salvation, and he walks side by side with Him on the earth, in the spirit of Him who said, “ I and the Father are One.” (J. E. Hill, B. D.) I will reprove thee, and set them in order before thine eyes.--Conviction of sin It is possible to misinterpret the moral government of God, and many do so. It seems to some as if the world were so arranged as to offer facilities for sin. For sin is rampant everywhere, and yet God seems to take no notice, He does not interfere to prevent or to chastise. Now, if we let crime and wrong pass unreproved, our moral sensibilities become deadened, and we become culpably indifferent to the just principles of righteousness. On the other hand, if a man’ s sense of right is strong, and his moral sensibilities properly quick, he will not be able to control the expression of his resentment against what is an outrage on common decency or justice. But since God sees far worse things and more of them than any man can see, and yet does not intervene, we are apt practically to form some very false conclusions about His character, though few would have the temerity to state them. We feel as if God could not think so very seriously of sin when He contemplates it with such composure. Surely if sin were so very terrible an evil its consequences would be more apparent; it does not seem such a very appalling or abhorrent thing to us, and apparently neither does it seem so to God. And this is because men misunderstand and misinterpret the majestic silence of God. “ I kept silence” --this has been God’ s rule, and upon it men presume. To guard against this let us seek to have a true view of this characteristic of the Divine government. Why does God keep silence, and show Himself patient as well as strong, although He be provoked every day? Not because He is indifferent to sin, and not because He does not intend to punish it, but because He has ordained certain conditions for our probation here, and He is not so inconsistent as to reverse them. Man was created by God in His own image, in this respect above all others, that he possessed from the first a power of independent volition, a capacity of free-will, by the right and dutiful exercise of which he was to be raised to his proper destiny, and fitted to share the glories of the Divine Being. Man, therefore, must not be forced to act rightly. If a highwayman demands your money with a pistol at your ear, you may exercise your will in handing him your purse, but it is hardly a free will. If an officer of justice catches you when you were just preparing to appropriate your neighbour’ s property, your will may decide in this instance to be honest, but it is hardly a free will. And so God keeps silence, lets men do as they like, not coercing them by prompt penalty every time they transgress. How solemn and impressive is this silence of God. Slight natures may easily be stirred and goaded into frenzy, but it takes much more to awaken those of a grave and resolute character. But when such are moved, then their indignation is terrible. A silent God is not to be despised and trifled with. And lest His silence should mislead us, He does on rare occasions break His rule of silence. And because this is so unusual it is all the more impressive. A gentleman came up to me in the streets of Liverpool a few years ago, and told me of an incident in my dear father’ s ministry, of which he was an eye-witness, many years before. “ Your father,” said he, “ was preaching on a then vacant spot of ground near where St: George’ s Hall now stands. Directly opposite the place where he was standing an ungodly publican, finding his business interfered with, came out, and endeavoured to interrupt the proceedings, mimicking the preacher’ s manner and gestures, and using very horrible language. I remember,” said the gentleman, “ how solemnly your dear father turned round upon him and said, ‘ Take care, my friend, it is not me, but my Master that you are mocking, and remember you cannot mock God with impunity; take care lest you draw down upon your head His just vengeance.’ He afterwards announced that he would preach in the same spot the next Sunday afternoon, which he did; and as he gave out his text, you may imagine the feeling of awe that settled down upon the crowd as they saw a hearse draw up to the door of the public-house to carry away the corpse of that very man who one short week before had been defying God and insulting His messenger.” Why are such things allowed from time to time to happen? Because God has made a mistake in keeping silence? Nay, verily; but because He sees it necessary from time to time to remind us that, though silent, He is not blind, and though self-controlled, He is not unconcerned. Now, the curse which came on the world when Adam sinned, and afterwards the flood, and chief of all the death of our Lord Jesus Christ--these are three stupendous facts in human history in which we may say, God has broken silence. The cross of Calvary is God’ s reproof to a world, and from that cross there sounds forth through all time the admonition, “ Now consider this, ye that forget God.” And God has sent His Holy Spirit especially to carry on this work of reproof, and when He lays hold upon us it soon comes to pass that there is nothing left in our past life that we can bear to look upon. We begin to see ourselves as God sees us, and therefore we abhor ourselves and repent in dust and ashes. In one way or other these solemn words of God will be fulfilled, “ I will reprove thee, and set before thee in order the things that thou hast done.” Ere yet that terrible reproof “ break your heart,” and the thunder of God’ s voice shake the ground from under your feet, and leave you sinking in despair, yield to the gentler tones of His convicting mercy. Confess yourself a guilty, ruined sinner, and claim that pardon which shall cancel the record that is against you, and “ purge your mortal archives.” (W. H. M. H. Aitken, M. A.) The sinner’ s mistakes exposed and reproved I. The manner in which God treats impenitent sinners during the present life. He is continually speaking to them in His Word, inviting, counselling and warning them to repent and flee from the wrath to come; nor does he fail often to speak to them in the same manner, by the voice of conscience. But, as a Judge, he usually observes the most profound silence. If it be asked, why God thus keeps silence; I answer, because this life is a season of trial and probation. Men are placed in this world, that they may show what is in their hearts, and thus discover their true characters. He sets before them in the works of creation sufficient evidence of His existence and perfections; He lays them under obligations to love and thank Him by the blessings of His providence; He clearly prescribes their duty, and gives them directions for its performance, in His Word; He places conscience in their breasts, as an overseer and monitor; and then, wrapped up in His own invisibility, sits silent and unseen, to notice and record their conduct. II. The opinions which sinners form of God, in consequence of his thus keeping silence. “ Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself.” It is their opinions of His moral character, of His views and feelings with respect to themselves and their conduct, to which the assertion refers. In this respect every unawakened sinner supposes, or at least acts as if he supposed, that God is altogether such an one as himself. Feeling no immediate tokens of God’ s displeasure, he flatters himself that God is not displeased. Finding it easy to justify himself, and satisfy his own conscience, he fancies that it will be equally easy to satisfy God, and justify his conduct at His bar. III. The measures which God will employ to convince sinners that he is not such an one as themselves. “ I will reprove thee, and set them in order before thine eyes.” This He will do at the judgment-day.1. It implies giving the sinner a clear and full view of all the sins of his life, in thought, word and deed, in the order in which they were committed. Such a view no sinner has of himself in the present life. He is guilty of ten thousand thousand sins, which he does not even suspect to be sins. 2. It implies giving him a view of all their aggravations. All the mercies he received, all the afflictions which were sent to rouse him, all the opportunities, privileges, warnings and means of grace with which he was favoured; all the sermons which he heard, and all the secret checks which he experienced from his own conscience, and from the strivings of God’ s Spirit, will then be set before him, to show that he sinned wilfully and knowingly, against light and against love, and that he is, therefore, without excuse. 3. It implies giving him a full view of their dreadful malignity and criminality. Of this sinners see nothing in this world. They do not see what an infinitely great and glorious Being that God is against whom sin is committed. They do not see what an infinitely precious, lovely, and all-sufficient Saviour they are rejecting. They do not see what a heaven they are forfeiting, nor into what a hell they are plunging themselves by sin. They do not realize how short is time in comparison with eternity, nor how worthless the body when compared with the soul. But at the judgment-day they will behold every object in its true light. IV. What improvement careless sinners ought to make of these awfully alarming truths. They should be led by them to consideration. It is owing to forgetfulness of God, and to the neglect of considering these important truths, that sinners live as they do. They consider not in their hearts, says Jehovah, that I remember all their wickedness. Is not this the case with respect to some of you? (E. Payson, D. D.) Psalms 50:22 Now consider this, ye that forget God. Forgetfulness of God: It’ s Evil Forget God!--is this possible? What! when we see His “ eternal power and Godhead” in all things above us and about us? If we look up to the heavens, “ the heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth His handy-work.” If we look around us here, “ the earth is full of His goodness.” But men, notwithstanding, do forget God. Forgetfulness of God is the source of their wickedness, and should this sinful conduct be persisted in, it will induce a sorer punishment than all created power could remedy. I. An evil. II. Its punishment. III. A means whereby to correct the evil and to avoid the punishment. (W. Mudge, B. A.) Psalms 50:23 Whoso offereth praise glorifieth Me. Songs of the Bible I. The song of the new birth. Every believer has learned some of the notes of this song, for we enter the kingdom singing it. When in the world, the world’ s songs--songs of merriment and glee--were in our esteem the richest and best; but when we saw Jesus, and heard the music of His grace, then the world’ s songs could no longer express our joy. In all the miracles of Christ the first act of the healed one was to begin to praise. The leper, the paralytic, Bartimaeus, and all the others. And so with those whom Christ has saved. II. The song of thanksgiving. How many of them we have in these psalms, but from some men you never hear them--they are always discontented and complaining. But think of our temporal mercies--our faculties of mind and body are daily mercies. Some never see them because they keep their eyes so fastened on the dark specks of disappointment and trial, and, seeing these only, they fancy these cover the whole of the sky. But it is not so. If God take from us one mercy, think how many we have left. Oliver Wendell Holmes has beautifully said, “ If one should give me a dish of sand, and tell me that there were particles of iron in it, I might search for them with my clumsy fingers and be unable to detect them; but take a magnet and swing through it, and the magnet will draw to it the particles of iron immediately. So let the thankful heart sweep through the day, and, as the magnet finds the iron, it will find in every hour some heavenly blessings: only the iron in God’ s sand is always gold.” III. The song of victory. Listen to that song as it rises from Israel’ s redeemed hosts on the bank of the Red Sea. No wonder that they felt like singing, for all the fears of yesterday had been buried in that sea. They did not sing thus in Egypt, for there they were slaves. And in the captivity, when a song was required of them by their captors, they said, “ We cannot sing the Lord’ s song in a strange land.” There are many psalms of David which are like a full orchestra of praise; but the majority of them are penitential cries, a singing as by the waters of Marah. And so it was with Israel of old, and it is so with the Church of to-day: the lamentations outnumber the praises; the defeats are more than the victories. And yet, though here they cannot be complete, we have our victories, and we ought even now to render praise for them. IV. Songs in the night. See Paul and Silas in the prison at Philippi. But when we are free from the bondage of the world, we shall be as they, who at midnight sang praises. Let us also sing, so that the prisoners around may hear us. V. The song before the throne--the heavenly song. What an immense company join in it. And it is a song without tears. Ours here are never that, But there they are tearless and eternal. (A. E. Kittridge, D. D.) Glorifying God I. We should re concerned to glorify God. This is the great end of our existence. Even inanimate beings do this (Psalms 19:1-14.). And even wicked men may glorify God, for “ the wrath of man shall praise Him.” But especially does He look for this from His own people. Now, one of the ways in which we do this is by offering praise. For in true praise exalted sentiments concerning Him fill the mind: there is a lively sense of His presence, and they speak well of His name. See the twelve exhortations to praise in the last of the psalms. II. Our offering of praise will not be accepted unless it be accompanied with a conversation ordered aright. “ Praise-giving is good, but praise-living is better.” But for this the grace of God is necessary. III. Such conduct as this attracts God’ s notice and regard. See text. To such persons God will show His salvation--temporal, spiritual, eternal. Have we interest in this salvation? (W. Jay.) Praise A subject, the importance of which it is not possible to overestimate, is here presented for our consideration--the offering of praise, connected more especially with the public service of the Church. Self-seeking in religion is far from being uncommon. It is chargeable upon numbers who may not be selfish in the grosser and more glaring forms of the commission of that sin. The almost exclusive consideration with such as are self-seekers in religion, is personal spiritual comfort. An essayist who wrote years ago, upon various forms of selfishness manifested in the conduct of professors of religion, has left on record this forcible description of those who make personal comfort in their religion not a means but an end. “ Epicures in religious comfort, they grow impatient if the cup of consolation be, for a moment, removed from their own lips.” “ The amplitude of the Divine love seeks to comprehend the universe in its large and life-giving embrace and calls on our affections to arise and follow it in its vast diffusion, but this selfishness stays at home, builds itself in, and sees no glory in that love, but as it embraces a single point, and that point itself.” To protect the spiritual system from so deleterious an influence, to prevent devotional exercises, whether public or private, from contracting the taint of selfishness, and to impart to them a healthy tone, it is expedient that there should be blended with them not only intercessory prayer but the homage of praise. As a faithful remembrancer, the Church ever puts us in mind of the fact that we are bound to praise Him for what He is in Himself, for the glory of His perfections, independent of what He is to us. Without the “ right ordering of the conversation” --without practical evidence of sincere endeavour to “ walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing,” no praise whatever can be offered to Him. The ever-living Intercessor, who has been exalted to the “ right hand of the Majesty in the heavens,” imparts to praise as well as to supplication and giving of thanks and all other offerings the requisite value. “ By Him let us offer the sacrifice of praise continually,” etc. Consolatory as sublime is the contemplation of the power and willingness of the ascended Christ to constitute our imperfect offerings worthy of presentation because of the infinite merit of His precious death and passion. There never rises within the breast of the sincere worshipper an aspiration of which He is unmindful, never is there formed a purpose of amendment of life, never is there heaved a sigh of the “ sorrow that worketh repentance,” which is not observed by Him amidst the glories of that exalted estate in which He reigns as “ Head over all things to the Church.” it is through Him that the adoration of the militant Church is united with that of those “ powers and principalities in heavenly places “ upon the purity of whose nature there never did, never shall pass a shadow of blemish. (C. E. Tisdall, D. D.) To him that ordereth his conversation aright will I show the salvation of God. Ordering the conversation aright I. A man cannot order his conversation aright who does not seek and wait for the salvation of God. By the salvation of God we understand man’ s deliverance from sin and death and condemnation, through the great work of the atonement wrought by the Lord Jesus Christ. II. The man does not seek the salvation of God aright who does not seek it in ordering his conversation aright (Psalms 25:14; Hosea 6:3). A man who sets about it earnestly, doing the will of God as far as he sees it, does not rest in that; he still looks to Christ, he still looks for God’ s quickening Spirit to give life to his obedience, and that man is ordering his conversation aright. The Word of God warrants us, and the experience of God’ s children in all ages warrants us, in saying that as He has not said “ Seek ye his” in vain, so no man that seeks honestly to order his conversation aright shall fail to have shown to him, sooner or later, the salvation of God. (Hugh Stowell, M. A.) The necessity of revelation, and a holy life I. It is most worthy of the salvation of God, that it be understood of the general redemption of mankind by Jesus Christ. Both in the Old and New Testament everlasting life is offered to mankind by Christ, who is the only Mediator between God and man. And there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we may be saved, neither is there salvation in any other. This knowledge was confined to very narrow limits; to a nation exceedingly small in proportion to the inhabitants of all the earth. The Revelation, besides, was dark, even where it was best known; particularly as to the resurrection of the dead, which is the anchor of our hope after this life, as also by reason of the ambiguity of the law under types and shadows of things to come; which represented a salvation to be given many ages after by this general Redeemer, who was not commonly believed in by the Jews before His coming, nor known by them when He appeared. II. The knowledge of this salvation is above the reach of natural reason, and not to be attained but by revelation from God. In this assurance we stand unmoved against all vain suggestions of the impossibility of there being any such mysteries in the Christian religion, and of our own incapacity to believe things which our understanding cannot comprehend. Which assertions proceed from a bold but mistaken philosophy; ignorant of the great power of God; and not rightly distinguishing between the measure of knowledge, sufficient for faith and for demonstration; nor knowing that where the veracity of the affirmer, and the power of the author of any miracle are unquestionable, there we have a good authority to believe His relation of anything, though it shall be wonderful, and far above our capacity to comprehend. III. It is a holy life which will render us the most capable of receiving this knowledge. IV. Concluding observations.1. If we are firmly secure of our true knowledge of the salvation of God, in the faith of that Church which we do profess, let us then keep this faith in purity of heart and true holiness of life, without which no man shall ever see the Lord. 2. If any man is serious in his inquiries after that knowledge which is to lead him to eternal life, let him then in the sincerity of his heart make this trial; and, from a good life, begin his searches after the knowledge of the salvation of God. 3. Wickedness of life is the most fatal step to infidelity, and sets us at the greatest distance from this knowledge of the salvation of God. (W. Whitfeld.) The first step towards salvation If these words mean anything, they must mean that the man who wishes to save his soul ought to endeavour, at least, to cast out directly whatever may be wrong in his practice. The text may be read also thus, “ Him who disposes or regulates his conduct, I will cause to enjoy the salvation of God.” Then the words prescribe something preparatory, something to be done by any one and every one who honestly desires the being converted and saved. He is not to sit still, as one who waits for irresistible grace: let him forthwith observe what is wrong in his “ conversation” --that is, in his manner of living and conduct--and let him at once set about correcting it. Now, thus did Christ’ s forerunner, John the Baptist, in his preparatory ministry. He bade men cease from dishonest and evil conduct. Men asked him what they were to do, and he plainly told them. You must see at once, that nothing could be further removed than this proceeding of the Baptist from what is mystical and unintelligible; neither publicans nor soldiers could plead that there was nothing definite in the answers which they received--nothing on which they were unable to take hold, and forthwith to act. By going straightway into the business of everyday life, giving men something to do, and something, moreover, which it were idle to dispute that they had power to do, St. John impressed on his exhortations a practical and a tangible character. All that we have to ask you, at this stage of our inquiry, is, whether you do not perceive how exactly the exhortation of the Baptist bears out the promise of the psalmist in our text--how the one is based on the other; for in prescribing as preparatory to repentance, that the publican should cease from his extortion, and the soldier from his violence, was not St. John proceeding altogether upon the principle, that “ to him that ordereth his conversation aright shall be shown the salvation of God” ? Now, then, suppose we pass from the days of the Baptist to our own, and see whether, in our dealings with unconverted men, we ought not similarly to insist on a right ordering of the conversation, as preparatory to genuine religion. In place of contenting ourselves with a general exhortation to repentance, ought we not to descend into particulars--or rather, urge men to the correction of open faults, if they have any wish to be brought to genuine repentance? It is not on repentance, strictly speaking, that we should settle, but on something preliminary to repentance, and the passing over which, so as always to begin with repentance, is what (as we believe) makes our sermons go beyond the mass of unconverted hearers. It is God’ s rule to give more to him who improves what he has. He therefore who strives to obey conscience may humbly hope for the higher aid of the Spirit of God. And if all of you who have yet the great work of repentance to effect will thus immediately commence the reforming what is guilty and prominently wrong in your conduct, indeed we dare promise that you shall see “ the salvation of God” --see it here in the sacrifice of Christ--see it hereafter in the glories of heaven. Thus “ ordering your conversation aright” --going, like the publican to the receipt of custom, and banishing thence extortion, or like the soldier to the ranks, and there extinguishing violence, ye will stand ready, by God’ s help, to the being made truly contrite. In real contrition ye will hasten to Christ, as alone able to deliver; and through Christ ye shall take possession of the kingdom of heaven. (Henry Melvill, B. D.) Asaph’ s theology For Asaph, see 1 Chronicles 6:39. He was a prophet, a musician, a poet. The main function of the prophet was to teach, illustrate and enforce the great moral and spiritual truths which lie at the foundation of all true religion. The main office of the Hebrew prophets was to preserve and enlarge that Gospel which, Paul says, was “ before the law.” It is because this prophetic, this spiritual element pervades most of the psalms that the Psalter has become the hymn-book of the Church in all ages and in all lands. This is specially noticeable in Asaph’ s three psalms, which treat of the spirituality of all true worship, and of the mystery of the Divine providence--themes which have always had a singular attraction for all deeply religious and prophetic souls.1. The fiftieth psalm has for its theme the spirituality of all true worship. Asaph suffers his imagination to play round this great theme. Asaph reaches his fine catholic conclusion, that none but those who sacrifice thanksgiving, and dispose their ways aright, can truly serve and please the Lord. This prophetic truth is the common property of the human race. 2. In Psalms 77:1-20. Asaph, from slightly “ different points of view, deals with a problem interesting to all thoughtful minds. The root of his sorrow is, that “ the hand of the Most High doth change,” that it moves uncertainly, inexplicably, as if it had no set purpose, and were working for no definite end. Apparently, the blessings promised to the righteous fell to the wicked, while the threatenings addressed to the wicked were fulfilled on the righteous. Asaph offers us one or two calming and helpful thoughts which any of us to whom this problem is alive and pressing will acknowledge to be of unspeakable value.1. He holds fast his faith, let facts say what they will, in the law of retribution. He is sure that “ punishment is the other half of sin,” that the two cannot be divorced for long. 2. Then he discovers that as sin is its own punishment, so also piety is its own reward, but a reward in a far higher sense than that in which sin is its own punishment. For here ha does not dwell on and apply the law of retribution. No; God Himself is to be his reward. 3. He looks, and bids us look, for an everlasting reward, an immortality of service and joy. “ Afterwards receive me to glory.” Asaph’ s two main contributions to the theology of his time, and of all time, were this doctrine of worship and this vindication of the ways of God with men. Neither of them was new. But they came with special force from the lips of one who was a minister of the altar, and who had himself passed through the agonies of doubt. They were not new then; they are not obsolete now. (Samuel Cox, D. D.) Psalms 51:1-19` Psalms 51:1-19 Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Thy lovingkindness. The fifty-first psalm A darker guilt you will scarcely find--kingly power abused--worst passions yielded to. Yet this psalm breathes from a spirit touched with the finest sensibilities of spiritual feeling. Two sides of our mysterious twofold being here. Something in us near to hell; something strangely near to God. It is good to observe this, that we rightly estimate: generously of fallen humanity; moderately of highest saintship. The germs of the worst crimes are in us all. In our deepest degradation there remains something sacred, undefiled, the pledge and gift of our better nature. I. Scripture estimate of sin.1. Personal accountability. “ My sin.” It is hard to believe the sins we do are our own. We lay the blame anywhere but on ourselves. But here David owns it as his. 2. Estimated as hateful to God. The simple judgment of the conscience. But another estimate, born of the intellect, comes in collision with this religion and bewilders it. Look over life, and you will find it hard to believe that sin is against God: that it is not rather for Him. No doubt, out of evil comes good; evil is the resistance in battle, out of which good is created and becomes possible; it is the parent of all human industry. Even moral evil is generative of good. Thoughts such as these, I doubt not, haunt and perplex us all. Conscience is overborne by the intellect. “ Perhaps evil is not so bad after all--perhaps good--who knows?” Remember, therefore, in matters practical, conscience, not intellect, is our guide. Unsophisticated conscience ever speaks this language of the Bible. 3. Sin estimated as separation from God. It is not that suffering and pain follow it, but that it is a contradiction of our own nature and God’ s will. This is the feeling of this psalm. Do you fancy that men like David, shuddering in sight of evil, dreaded a material hell? Into true penitence the idea of punishment never enters. If it did it would be almost a relief; but oh! those moments in which a selfish act has appeared more hideous than any pain which the fancy of a Dante could devise I when the idea of the strife of self-will in battle with the loving will of God prolonged for ever, has painted itself to the imagination as the real infinite Hell! when self-concentration and the extinction of love in the soul has been felt as the real damnation of the devil-nature! II. Restoration.1. Sacrifice of a broken spirit. Observe the accurate and even Christian perception of the real meaning of sacrifice by the ancient spiritually-minded Jews. It has its origin in two feelings: one human, one divine. The feeling that there must be something surrendered to God, and that our best, is true; but men have mixed up with it the false thought that this sacrifice pleases God because of the loss or pain which it inflicts. Hence, the heathen idea of appeasement, to buy off his wrath, to glut his fury. See story of Iphigenia, Zaleucus, etc. These notions were mixed with Judaism, and are even now found in common views of Christ’ s sacrifice. But men like David felt that what lay beneath all sacrifice as its ground and meaning was surrender to God’ s will: that a man’ s best is himself; and to sacrifice this is the true sacrifice. Learn, then, God does not wish pain, but goodness; not suffering, but you--yourself--your heart. Even in the sacrifice of Christ, God wished only this. It was precious not because it was pain, but because the pain, the blood, the death, were the last and highest evidence of entire surrender. 2. Spirit of liberty. “ Thy free spirit” --literally, princely. A princely is a free spirit, unconstrained--“ the royal law of liberty.” (F. W. Robertson, M. A.) The exceeding sinfulness of sin I. The nature of sin in the eyes of one who sees God. Just as one crime against the State can set all the machinery of our civilization against us, on which our existence now runs so smoothly; and the network of law, which secured us freedom of motion in the right path, serves only to trip us up when we have left it; so, one great act of sin against God has the power to pervert all the spiritual relationships of our life. In an ethical study by a popular writer, in the form of a story; at a critical moment the heroine is vouchsafed a vision of a successful sin in all its hideous nature, and shrinks back appalled. David sees it here, but, alas I too late to save his life from the shadow which never again left it. II. Where iniquity did abound, grace did much more abound. The penitent, having laid bare his sin, now asks for God’ s grace. First he asks for mercy. When the foe lay vanquished in the power of the conqueror, to cry, “ Mercy!” meant “ Ransom!” --“ Spare my life and take a ransom! What a meaning it may have to us if, when we cry, “ Mercy!” we feel that we are asking God to take a ransom! “ The soul that sinneth it shall die;” but He in His pity allows me to plead those precious merits, and so obtain pardon and peace. But he goes on to ask God to do away his offences; to “ blot them out,” as we read elsewhere. Sin remains as a witness against us, and only God can blot it out. This is what we mean by Absolution. But David goes even further. It is a bold prayer, an awful prayer: “ Wash me throughly” --more and more. Have we courage to pray thus? Alas! we soon cry out. III. The grounds on which he asks for pardon.1. There is the multitude of God’ s mercies. Each day we live is an argument in our favour. God sent me here; God has rescued me so often; God is always helping me; though I fall, I shall not be cast away. Hope is a great power. We seem like people forced to climb higher and higher up the face of the cliff by the sea driven in before the gale. It seems impossible to climb any further, and the spray is dashing in their faces, and the rock quivers to its base as the waves are shivered upon it. And then they find, it may be, at their feet, grass and flowers in the cleft of the rock, which could only grow above the highest water-mark, and at once they feel there is hope, and with hope comes an access of strength. So there are flowers in the lives of all of us here, which could only grow at a height above the devouring level of mortal sin. Let us hope. 2. He has told God everything; he has concealed nothing. 3. He acknowledges the true relation of sin to God. It is not the injury done to Uriah or to society; it is the insult done to God. God knows how weak we are. “ Behold, I was shapen in wickedness;” and therefore “ the truth in the inward parts” can only be reached when the plenitude of mercy touches the magnitude of sin. (Canon Newbolt.) David’ s repentance I. The cry of contrition. Like a perfect master of medicine, unfolding in his clinical teaching, feature after feature Of the special ease under treatment till the very hereditary taint is manifest, David searches out this worst sickness; like the stern, skilful prosecutor summing up the damning evidence against a criminal, David lays bare fact after fact of his unmitigated guilt; like a faithful, solemn judge according just recompense to the evildoer, David pronounces on himself the penalty of God’ s righteous law. II. The cry for cleansing. This cry for cleansing is twofold--cleanse the record, cleanse myself. Two faces are bent over the proofs of his sin--God’ s and David’ s. From each gazer these sins must be hidden--from the one that there may be no condemnation, from the other that there may be full consolation. Cleanse me, wash me, make me whiter than snow. What orderliness, what Spirit-taught wisdom in this prayer! A polluted stream may be run off, but a poisoned spring must be cured. The wells of Marsh and the springs of Jericho call for their Maker’ s hand. So does my heart. What a terrible but fruitful view of sin! III. The cry of consecration. These new powers shall not be wasted. The new heart and the new spirit long for work. This fresh and unstinted grace to David fills his soul with thankfulness, and thankfulness embodies itself in toil for God and man. Praise is not wanting. But works surpass words. Grace from God always produces giving to God. Labour is as love, and love is as forgiveness. Where there is no condemnation there should be full consecration. (J. S. Macintosh, D. D.) The prayer of the penitent I. The prayer. It was both general and specific. He desired mercy, and he desired it to be specifically manifested in several ways, which he enumerates.1. The general petition. “ Have mercy upon me.” He did not plead right or merit; he did not plead a mitigation Of the righteous law of God. He knew exactly what he needed; and so, like the publican, he sent the arrow of his prayer straight go the mark of his need; 2. The specific petition. (1) “ Blot out my transgressions.” All of them; the covetousness, the adultery, the murder. To blot out carries with it the idea primarily of forgiveness (Isaiah 43:25; Isaiah 44:22). 42) “ Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity.” This is a prayer for justification, as the former petition was for forgiveness. Forgiveness is an act of the gracious and sovereign will of God; but to justify a man from his iniquity is to do so on the ground of some expiation. Hence David’ s allusion to the ceremonial law (Psalms 51:7). (Compare Leviticus 14:4; Leviticus 14:9; Numbers 19:18; Hebrews 9:22.) The allusion may be illuminated if we remember the word of Isaiah to sinful Israel (Isaiah 1:18), and the ascription of praise to the Lord Jesus (Revelation 1:5). (3) “ Cleanse me from my sin.” This is a prayer for sanctification. Sin is an offence against God, against the law, and it leaves a stain deep and dark on our souls. God’ s mercy provides for this also, and we are assured of such Cleansing (Ephesians 5:25-27). II. The confession.1. Frank acknowledgment. No excuses; no justification. “ I have sinned” --that is the long and the short of it. He did not lay the blame on Bathsheba, as Adam on Eve. 2. A standing offence. Unforgiven sin is before us and before God; but forgiven sin is cast behind God’ s back, and is among the things upon which we also may turn our backs. 3. An offence against God. God was more wronged even than man, and while no doubt he sorrowed that he had wronged his friend and his friend’ s wife, he most bitterly grieved that he had wronged God in them. 4. Deep conviction. “ Behold I was shapes in iniquity,” etc. David is convinced that an inherent depravity of nature is the evil root from which all sin springs. So herein he confesses his sinful nature as well as his sinful deeds. It is out of the heart that all evil proceeds. Hence his further prayer, “ Behold Thou desirest truth in the inward parts,” etc. In this we have a strong hint of regeneration. The nature that is spoiled by sin must be renewed inwardly. III. Renewed petition. He repeats his prayer for purging and washing, just as oftentimes, even after we are forgiven, the memory of the bitter sins still remains, and we are in some doubt whether it is all gone. It is like the burning of a wound that is healed. It is the sign of returning health; the desire of the soul for an after bath in the cleansing tide.1. Joy and gladness. 2. He prays for a new heart. 3. He prays for the restoration of salvation’ s joy. 4. A vow of consecration. (G. F. Pentecost, D. D.) A petition and an argument I. The petition “ Have mercy upon me,” etc.1. Forgiveness of sin is mainly desirable of every sinner. (1) It frees us from the greatest evil--sin.(2) It entitles us to the greatest good-forgiveness.(3) It comforts in the greatest-afflictions incident to us.(4) It sweetens all other comforts. 2. This serves to stir up our affections and desires in this particular. 3. And the sooner we do this, the better. It is not good or safe for any to suffer sin to be festering in their souls, but to be rid of it as soon as may be, and of the guilt adherent to it; by humiliation of themselves before God, and seeking to Him. (1) Confession and acknowledgment of miscarriages.(2) Prayer and seeking to God.(3) Forsaking it and turning from it.(4) Forgiveness of others. By these, and the like means, we see how we may attain to this mercy of pardon and forgiveness of our sins. II. The argument. “ According to thy lovingkindness,” etc.1. Here is something supposed; viz. that there is in God lovingkindness and a multitude of tender mercies. (1) Lovingkindness, i.e. grace (Psalms 116:5; Psalms 86:15; Psalms 145:9). Here is matter of praise and acknowledgment. We may take notice of it also in a way of information, that we may be able rightly to discern of God’ s love and affection to us; we cannot judge of it by His kindness, for that is general and common to all; and there are none (though never so bad) but they do in a degree partake of it, thereby to stop their mouths against Him, and to leave them without excuse. God’ s kindness is a lesson to us, to teach us go follow His example. (2) Mercy or compassion. (a) The tenderness of God’ s mercy is seen in-- (i.) His prudent consideration of the state and condition of the person who sins against Him (Psalms 103:13). (ii.) His deferring and forbearing to punish and correct, where, notwithstanding, there is ground for it (Psalms 86:15; Joe 2:13; Jonah 4:2; Nahum 1:3). (iii.) The moderating of His corrections (Jeremiah 30:11). Severity knows no limits when once it begins; but tenderness puts a restraint upon itself; and this also is in God (Psalms 103:10; Ezra 9:13). (iv.) The seasonable removal; there’ s tenderness in that also (Psalms 103:9). (b) The greatness of it (Psalms 57:10; Psalms 119:156). (i.) In regard of the object of it. It extends to the pardoning and forgiving of great sins (Isaiah 1:18; 1 Timothy 1:13). (ii.) For the freeness of it (Romans 9:17; Isaiah 43:25). (iii.) For the duration (Isaiah 54:7-8; Psalms 103:17; Lamentations 3:22). (c) The number and plurality. He has mercy for: (i.) Many persons. (ii.) Many offences. (iii.) Many times of offending (Isaiah 55:7; James 2:13; Romans 5:20; Hosea 14:4; Psalms 103:3).2. The inference. (1) Our knowledge of God is then right, and as it should be, when it is improved and drawn down to practice and our own spiritual comfort and advantage. (2) The best of us stand in need of mercy in their approaches to God. (3) Great sinners require great mercies for the pardoning and forgiving of them (Thomas Horton, D. D.) The psalmist’ s prayer for mercy I. To whom the prayer is addressed. He does not address himself to God under the name Jehovah; but makes use of the plural title, which is commonly employed in Scripture when the gracious intercourse of Deity with fallen creatures is spoken of. The title implies the covenant relation to sinful man which God has been pleased to reveal through Jesus Christ our Lord. In our Litany mercy is implored by the use of this title from each of the three Persons in the adorable Trinity separately; and from the Trinity, as three in One. II. The object which a penitent sinner proposes to himself in drawing near to God; and the spirit or frame of mind in which he addresses Him. A recovery of Divine favour is the grand object of desire to those who are made conscious of its value and of its forfeiture. “ In Thy favour is life.” Guilt, natural and acquired, constitutes the impenetrable veil which separates between God and the contrite sinner; and the mediation of Christ, the light of life, is regarded as the only agency by which the dense veil can be swept away. III. The measure or rule, according to which a penitent sinner desires to be dealt with in the expected answer to his prayer, “ According to Thy lovingkindness.” How delightful is this co-operation of the persons of the Godhead in effecting the salvation of sinners! The grace of the Father provided and has accepted the needful atonement; the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ accomplished the work of propitiation; and the grace of the Holy Ghost enables us to pray for an interest in that atonement, and then reveals it, in all its freeness and sufficiency, to the afflicted heart. Thus is the life that is restored to a sinner, in every point of view, “ the life of God in the soul of man.” The term “ lovingkindness” seems literally to import a confluence of streams to form one vast river. And is not this the view which faith takes of Divine grace--a river deep and wide which is formed by a confluence of all the perfections of the Godhead? Omnipotence, omniscience, infinite justice and holiness all flow into this “ river of the water of life.” (T. Biddulph, M. A.) The greatness of sin to a true penitent 1. The true penitent sees sin as against God. 2. The penitent sees in his sin a corruption of nature. “ Behold, I was shapen in iniquity.” 3. The penitent acknowledges that all his religous acts are a mockery of God. “ Thou desirest not sacrifice . . . Thou delightest not in burnt offering.” If religious acts, offerings, prayers, labours, penances, could cover sin, how gladly would he bring them! We have made clean the outside. God desireth truth in the inward parts. 4. The penitent sees that sin deprives him of joy, and thus of spiritual power. 5. The penitent sees his sin as destructive to the Church. To the opened eyes of David his sin had, as it were, thrown down the walls of Zion. “ Build thou,” he prays, “ the walls of Jerusalem!” Every backslider’ s sin has this destroying power. 6. The true penitent offers no extenuation for sin. Beware of palliations. They may exist. Let others find them. Let God allow for them if He will. But in the penitent they always indicate that the work in him has not been thorough. 7. The penitent sees that the evil of sin is its sinfulness. He felt himself, by his sin, separated from God. 8. The penitent sees that public sin demands a full and public confession. Perhaps there are sins in our lives, which in our confessions we have slighted. They were known to others; they had publicity. And men who knew us said, “ If he ever repents he will confess that sin. That shall be the test with us of the genuineness of his repentance.” But we did not confess. We tried. Often it troubles us. 9. The true penitent justifies God in His judgment upon sin. 10. The penitent acknowledges that sin requires a great remedy. He needed inward cleansing. “ Purge me with hyssop “ refers to the Levitical sacrifice which prefigured the atonement. Only when we make sin great do we give the sacrifice of Christ its due honour. (Monday Club Sermons.) The prayer of the Penitent I. The guilt of sin. Titles of lighter meaning have been substituted in its place--“ vice” as though it were merely an evil against self alone; “ crime “ or an offence against society. All such subterfuges are simply a glossing over of what is a moral evil in its relations to God. You cannot touch man without touching God; cannot wrong him without wronging God. II. The Divine forgiveness, Between blinding one’ s eyes against the guilt of sin and seeking infinite mercy to overcome such guilt, there is almost an infinite remove. It exalts the Divine character to know His readiness to forgive sin, while at the same time God can be justified when he speaks, and be clear when He judges. III. The new heart. There must be more than the outward cleansing of the cup to make it clean. All things must become new in the new creature in Christ Jesus. IV. The fruits of the new life.1. He seeks first the personal rest freed from the goadings of his sin. He longs for the joy he once had, but which is now lost. He seeks a strength other than his own. 2. He recognizes the connection between the character of the leaders and the followers in the service of God. “ Then will I teach transgressors,” etc. (David O. Mears.) The moan of a king The prayers of the Bible are among its sublimest treasures. Prayer does not set forth merely what I am, but what I would be; it is my ideal life; it is a glimpse and a struggling after a higher mode of being. “ Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.” Mark the thoroughness of this desire. Not only must sin be blotted out, but the sinner himself must be washed and cleansed. There must not be merely a change of state, but a change of nature. Not only must the debt be forgiven, but all disposition to contract further debt must be eradicated. David at the outset of the psalm appeals for mercy. No penitent asks for justice. The Pharisee may, not the publican. But for sin we should never have known the merciful side of the Divine government. We should have known nothing but law. As we are indebted to the storm for the rainbow, so we are indebted to sin for the better boon of earth-encircling mercy. “ I acknowledge my transgressions.” Confession is a necessary basis for forgiveness, and is a convergence of right judgment, right feeling, right action. But there are many kinds of expression which are wholly unavailing. As the selfish confession of the criminal who turns king’ s evidence. The defiant confession of the man who glories in his crime. The careless confession made with an air of indifference and is insensible of the turpitude of his crime. But David’ s is far other than these. “ My sin is ever before me.” The point to be noted here is the distinct personal relation which every man sustains to his own sin. Try for a moment to embody sin. Personify iniquities! Let each transgression assume material manifestation. Covetousness--a lean, gaunt, spectral image; with outstretched bony fingers; with eager eyes, in which is written the expression of an insatiable hunger. Look at that and call it your sin. Unholy anger, with swollen lips and fire-lit eyes, and heaving breast; oaths and blasphemies might well burn on such lips and glare out of such eyes. That unholy anger is yours (verse 4). “ Against Thee, Thee only have I sinned.” Some sins exclusively against God, others against man also; but none are exclusively against man. But whosoever sins against man sins against God. Let all oppressors heed this. While it is true, therefore, that you can sin against God without directly sinning against man, yet it is equally true that you cannot sin against God without diminishing your power to promote the highest interests of man; so that sin is an enemy in every respect--hateful to God, hurtful to man, darkening the heavens, burdening the earth! What shall be our prayer in relation to it? “ Wash me throughly,” etc. (J. Parker, D. D.) The penitent sinner I. The penitent’ s prayer.1. A prayer of pity. Three ways of treating sin: indifference, severity, mercy. God’ s way, as revealed specially by Christ, unites both justice and mercy. 2. A prayer for pardon. Sin must be blotted out before peace can be restored. 3. A prayer for purification. There is here a recognition-- (1) Of his perilous position; and(2) Of his personal accountability: “ nay sin.” II. The penitent’ s plea. He does not plead past purity, pious parentage, public position, princely prowess; but the plenitude of God’ s mercy. A “ multitude” of tender mercies! (Homilist.) Lessons 1. To fly to God is the only true way to find comfort in the time of spiritual distress. (1) There is a commandment for it (Psalms 50:15). (2) There is a promise of success (Isaiah 65:24). (3) There is ability in God to give a gracious issue to all our distresses (Proverbs 18:8; Ephesians 3:20). (4) He is ready both to be found and to afford that which is desired (Psalms 46:1; Micah 7:18; Psalms 145:18). (5) Because He would have all His diligent in this course, He hath furnished them with the Spirit of prayer (Galatians 4:6; Romans 8:26). 2. The mercy of God in the pardon of sin is a blessing of exceeding worth. It is the hungry soul that can best judge of the worth of good. It is he which lieth sick upon his couch, and not able to stir for weakness, that can tell the worth of health. When thy soul is pained with the horror of sin, then thou wilt be fit to apprehend the truth of this doctrine, and then thou wilt need but little quickening to this kind of suit. 3. In forgiving of sin, there is an utter abolishment on God’ s part of the guilt of sin (Psalms 32:1-2; Isaiah 44:22; Micah 7:18-19; Jeremiah 31:34; Jeremiah 50:20). 4. Man hath no plea but the freedom of God’ s grace in making suit for the pardon of his sins (Psalms 130:4; Ezra 9:6; Ezra 9:10; Ezra 9:15). (S. Hieron.) The prayer for mercy 1. The true suppliant believes that there is mercy with God. This is the greatest wonder of the Divine being. The omniscience of God is a wonder. The omnipotence of God is a wonder. God’ s spotless holiness is a wonder. None of these things can we understand. But the greatest wonder of all is the mercy of God. In heaven men are humbled at the thought of it, and never cease to adore and thank God for His mercy. For there God is known as the Holy One. 2. The suppliant also feels that he has need of mercy; that nothing but free grace alone can be his hope. 3. He desires also that mercy may be shown to him. That God is merciful, he cries, that I know there is great mercy with God, that there is mercy for all son still bring me no rest. What I need to make the anxious heart peaceful is, that I should know God is merciful to me, Be merciful to me, yes, to me, O God of mercy. 4. This longing is in full harmony with what God’ s Word teaches us on these points. The Word speaks always of finding mercy, obtaining mercy, receiving mercy, partaking of mercy, having mercy; and looked at from the side of God as an action, it is called giving mercy, showing mercy. (Andrew Murray.) God’ s lovingkindness God’ s kindness is more than ordinary, and more than extraordinary; it must be called “ loving.” The kindness is loving, and the love is kind. There is no love like His, no kindness like His. All kindness but this, if you use it often, wears out. However great the kindness of a neighbour be, if you keep daily drawing upon it you will soon exhaust it. The kindness of a friend has limits which are soon reached and passed, The kindness of a father or a mother--for that is the kindest that this world possesses--that, even that, has its limits. God’ s kindness is loving. It is the strong band of love that makes it so long and so lasting. You cannot break that cord, it is so fine and yet so strong. (T. Alexander, M. A.) According unto the multitude of Thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions. God’ s mercy The greatest comfort that Christians have in their trouble is, that they have to do with a merciful God, and not rigorous, nor one who will chide with us continually, but, one who is slow to anger, ready to forgive, whose name is mercy, whose nature is merciful, who hath promised to be merciful, who is the Father of mercies. The earth is full of His mercies, they are above the heavens and the clouds; His mercy is above all His works, extending to a thousand generations, whose mercy endureth for ever. (A. Symson.) God’ s-tender mercies They are unbounded, and they are “ tender.” Our mercy is not tender. What little mercy you find in man is often harsh and hard. It is a common saying among us, “ I forgive, but I do not forget.” There is often harshness, hardness, unkindness in the way in which our mercy is bestowed. And even when that is not so, but when man bestows his kindness and vouchsafes his mercy in his blandest way, you could never think of calling it “ tender.” But God forgives; and when He forgives He does it tenderly. There is no upbraiding. He blots out the trangression, and there is no more remembrance of it at all. He forgets as soon as He forgives. It is done in a gentle way. “ Be of good cheer; thy sins are forgiven thee.” The sin is swept away; it is cast behind His, back into the depths of the sea. God’ s mercies are very tender. And then they are a multitude. Tender in their nature, they are a multitude in their number. They are numberless, measureless, endless. Like the stars, man cannot count them. Like the grains of sand that cushion yonder wave-beaten shore, no man knows how many they be. God’ s mercies, beginning with our birth, are heaped up around and upon us all day long, and all through our life journey. (T. Alexander, D. D.) God’ s former dealings a plea for mercy These words, “ According to Thy lovingkindness and tender mercies,” may be taken not only absolutely but respectively in reference to his own former experiences of the goodness of God towards him. David had found and felt how gracious God had been to him in former time, in divers mercies which He had bestowed upon him in several kinds and ways; and more particularly in the pardoning and forgiving of sin unto him, and in the assuring of him also of this pardon; and now he deals with God upon terms of His wonted goodness, which he desires still may be continued to him. This shows us the advantage of God’ s children in this particular, that they can deal with God upon the account of former goodness; that having justified their persons in general, He should remit their special transgression to them; and having forgiven them the sins of their nature, He should therefore consequently forgive to them likewise the sins of their lives. The reason of it is this, because He is still like Himself, and changes not, so that he that hath done the one, will not stick to do the other with it; God’ s mercies are so linked and chained together that we may reason in this manner from them. (Thomas Horton, D. D.) “ Blot out my trangressions” The general prayer for mercy is not enough. The Lord desires that we should know and say what we would have mercy to do for us. And the first thing is this, “ According to the multitude of Thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.” The law of God takes reckoning of every transgression that we commit. In the great account-book of heaven they stand against us as a record of our guilt. David knew that there could be no intercourse with the holy and righteous God so long as this old guilt was not abolished, was not blotted out. He knew that mercy could not convert or change the sinner, or bring him to heaven, unless his guilt was first blotted out. The wrath of God must first be appeased. The old guilt of the past must first be taken out of the way. The sinner must have acquittal and the forgiveness of his sins. This is the first work of Divine grace. Without this, God the Holy Judge cannot receive the sinner into His friendship; and therefore he prays, “ Have mercy upon me. Blot out my transgressions.” (Andrew Murray.) Sin blotted out A boy ran in to his mother one day after he had read that promise, “ I will blot out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions.” And he said: “ Mother, what does God mean when He says He will blot out my sins? What is He going to do with them? I can’ t see how God can really blot them out and put them away. What does it mean--blot out?” The mother, who is always the best theologian for a child, said to the boy, “ Didn’ t I see, you yesterday writing on your slate?” “ Yes,” he said. “ Well, show it to me. He brought his slate to his mother, who, holding it out in front of him, said, “ Where is what you wrote? Oh,” he said, “ I rubbed it out.” “ Well, where is it?” “ Why, mother, I don’ t know.” “ But how could you put it away if it was really there?” “ Oh, mother, I don’ t know. I know it was there, and it is gone.” “ Well,” she said, “ that is what God meant when He said, ‘ I will blot out thy transgressions.’” (Campbell Morgan, D. D.) Psalms 51:2 Wash me throughly from mine iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.David’ s cry for pardon I. How David thought of his sin. The repetition of these petitions show his earnestness of soul. In like manner he asks for the gifts of God’ s Spirit.1. He speaks of transgressions, the individual acts of sin; and then-- 2. Of the iniquity which is the centre and root of them all. Further, in all the petitions we see that the idea of his own single responsibility for the whole thing is uppermost in David’ s mind. It is my transgression, it is mine iniquity and my sin. He has not learned to say with Adam of old, and with some so-called wise thinkers to-day, “ I was tempted, and I could not help it.” He does not talk about “ circumstances,” and say that they share the blame with him. He takes it all to himself. The three words which the psalmist employs for sin give prominence to different aspects of it. Transgression is not the same as iniquity, and iniquity is not the same as sin. “ Transgression” literally means rebellion, a breaking away from and setting oneself against lawful authority. “ Iniquity” literally means that which is twisted, bent. “ Sin” literally means missing a mark, an aim. Think how profound and living is the consciousness of sin which lies in calling it rebellion. It is not merely, then, that we go against some abstract propriety, or break some impersonal law of nature when we do wrong, but that we rebel against a rightful Sovereign. Not less profound and suggestive is that other name for sin, that which is twisted, or bent, mine “ iniquity.” It is the same metaphor which lies in our own word “ wrong,” that which is wrung or warped from the straight line of right. David had the pattern before him, and by its side his unsteady purpose, his passionate lust had traced this wretched scrawl. Another very solemn and terrible thought of what sin is lies in that final word for it, which means “ missing an aim.” How strikingly that puts a truth which we are for ever tempted to deny. Every sin is a blunder as well as a crime. Sin ever misses its aim. It is a temptress that seems so fair, and when he reaches her side, and lifts her veil, eager to embrace the tempter, a hideous skeleton grins and gibbers at him. Yes! every sin is a mistake, and the epitaph for the sinner is “ Thou fool.” II. How he thinks of forgiveness. As the words for sin expressed a threefold view of the burden from which the psalmist seeks deliverance, so the triple prayer, in like manner, shows that it is not merely pardon for which he asks. Forgiveness and cleansing run into each other in his prayer as they do in our own experience, for they are inseparable one from the other. The first petition regards the Divine dealing with sin as being the erasure of a writing, perhaps of an indictment. Our past is a blurred manuscript, full of false things and bad things. And we want God to blot them out. Ah! some people tell us that the past is irrevocable, that the thing once dens can never be undone, that the life’ s diary written by our own hands can never be cancelled. Thank God, we know better than that. We know who blots out the handwriting “ that is against us, nailing it to His cross.” We know that of God’ s great mercy our future may “ copy fair our past,” and the past may be all obliterated and removed. Then there is another idea in the second of these prayers for forgiveness, “ Wash me throughly from mine iniquity.” The word expresses the antique way of cleansing garments by treading and beating. He is not praying for a mere declaration of pardon, he is not asking only for the one complete, instantaneous act of forgiveness, but he is asking for a process of purifying which will be long and hard. “ I am ready,” says he in effect, “ to submit to any sort of discipline, if only I may be clean. Wash me, beat me, tread me down, hammer me with mallets, dash me against stones, rub me with smarting soap and caustic nitre--do anything, anything with me, if only those foul spots melt away from the texture of my soul.” A solemn prayer, if we pray it aright, which will be answered by many a sharp application of God’ s Spirit, by many a sorrow, by much very painful work, both within our own souls and in our outward lives, but which will be fulfilled at last in our being clothed like our Lord in garments which shine as the light. The deliverance from sin is still further expressed by that third supplication, “ Cleanse me from my sin.” He thinks of it as if it were a leprosy, incurable, fatal, and capable of being cleansed only by the great High Priest, and by His finger being laid upon it. III. Whence comes the confidence for such a prayer. His whole hope rests upon God’ s character as revealed in the multitude of His tender mercies. This is the blessedness of all true penitence, that the more profoundly it feels our own sore need and great sinfulness, in that very proportion does it recognize the yet greater mercy and all-sufficient grace of Our loving God, and from the lowest depths beholds the stars in the sky, which they who dwell amid the surface-brightness of the noonday cannot discern. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) The repentance of David I. The means which won him to it. It was the preacher’ s voice. How wretched, how fearful, how nigh unto reprobation was his state ere Nathan came to him. And now he breaks down like the snow wreath when the sun looks full upon it. II. The signs which mark his sincerity. They are--1. That the one thought which fills his soul is, “ I have sinned against the Lord.” True, he had sinned against man as well as God, yet, because the aspect of his sin as committed against God was so much more terrible and awful to him that it filled up the whole field of his view, and he could see nothing else. 2. And he sees his sin in all its hugeness and vileness. There is no diminishing or excusing it, no paring it down. 3. He takes willingly the disgrace of his sin; and-- 4. Its punishment. But whilst he asks not deliverance frets these, there is a cry-- 5. The cry for cleansing. “ Create in me a clean heart,” etc. 6. He turns straight to God, clinging to Him, even in this hour of shame. 7. His one terror is test he be cast away from God’ s presence. 8. There is the devotion of all his after life to God’ s service. III. Conclusion.1. Have you ever trembled under the word of God? 2. Are these marks of true repentance visible in you? Go over them one by one. 3. Seek the blessing of true repentance by prayer to God for it; it is His gift. It is the work at that “ tree Spirit” which is Christ’ s special gift. Until that heavenly dew falls upon thy soul, it will be, must be, dry and cold, and bare. Thou cannot work thyself into penitence. But when that gracious shower is poured upon the heart, all is done. Then the voice of the turtle is heard. Then the heart mourns apart, It is like the breaking up of some mighty northern frost, which has bound the so, ailing sea fast beneath its iron band, when the western gale has breathed upon it, and the hard, thick-ribbed ice-crest has broken up as a cobweb under the grasp of a giant. And then all is changed; on the ocean’ s breast the mighty currents wake again into life, bearing on and on to the frozen north the life-giving streams of southern waters; and as the warm gales breathe on the snowy plains of the neighbouring shore, the long-banished verdure flashes again into colour and beauty, and the sweet spring comes on apace, the birds begin their songs, the fountains awake; and every blade and leaf, with all the tribes of life around them, rejoice before God in the blessed sunlight. And yet, what is all this to the breaking up of the ice-crest which has bound down a living soul for which Christ died? And 2. Remember thy sins. 3. Revenge thy fault (2 Corinthians 7:11). 4. As thou gazest upon thy sin, gaze more earnestly upon the face of thy Lord who, by His cross, delivers thee from thy sin. (Bishop S. Wilberforoe.) A specific plea for pardon I. The kinds of sin are laid down in a variety of expressions: transgression, iniquity, sin. All of them together, for the nature of them, are here exhibited as polluting and defiling. This point sets a price upon the blood of Christ, which “ cleanseth us from all sin.” II. The desire and endeavour of a gracious heart; and that is, to be freed and delivered from this defilement.1. The object specified. “ Mine iniquity and my sin.” 2. The act propounded, “ Wash me,” etc. This washing it may be conceived of two sorts. Either first, in reference to justification, “ Wash me,” that is, free me from the guilt of it; or else secondly, in reference to sanctification, “ Wash me” from the defilement. 3. The intention of the act. “ Throughly.” It was not any slight kind of sprinkling which would serve David’ s turn; no, but he would be washed to purpose; he would have this work complete in him. And here we have still a further property in the true servants of God, which is considerable in them; and that is, to have the work both of forgiveness, and likewise of holiness perfected to them. A good Christian would have nothing left impure or unsanctified in him, but would be sanctified throughout; in his understanding, will, affections, outward man, and where he is any way failing; he would have all corruption cleansed from him, he would be generally and universally good as much as may be; and he sets upon reformation of particulars by reforming in general. The reason of it is this-- (1) Because one sin draws on another, in the nature of the thing itself; sins seldom go alone, but have more at the heels of them. (2) Because the heart of man, being polluted and defiled with sin, is now ready and prone to more; so long as there’ s any corruption left at the bottom in us, we are never secure from the actings of it at one time or other; and if it chance not to break out now, yet at another time we are sure to hear of it. 4. The vehemency of the affection. “ Wash me . . . and cleanse me.” We should be importunate with God in such petitions, and not easily be put off from them. III. The manner and practice of God as to forgiveness and holiness. And that is, to go through with them.1. Forgiveness is an utter abolition of all kinds of guilt (Psalms 32:1-2; Isaiah 44:22; Isaiah 38:17; Jeremiah 31:34; Micah 7:18-19). 2. So as to sanctification; God is also complete in this work, He works throughly. (1) He works in His Servants a thorough fight of that evil which is in their hearts, the general corruption of their whole nature. (2) He works in them also a thorough hatred and detestation of all sin, so as to allow of no evil at all in themselves. (3) He gives sin its mortal wound and death-blow in them; from whence, though it be not absolutely dead, yet it is dying still in them. (4) He will also one day, and at the last, wholly and absolutely free them from sin. (Thomas Horton, D. D.) Deliverance from iniquity and sin sought I. The evils from which a true penitent implores deliverance. Sin is imputed, it is communicated, and it is committed. II. The nature of the deliverance which the penitent implores. The blessing of purification from the love and power of sin always accompanies deliverance from its guilt; and as these blessings are never separated, the one from the other, in a communication of grace, so are desires after them always united in the experience and prayers of penitent sinners. Is it not wisdom to submit to the means which are necessary for restoration to health, though those means may be, for a time, painful and distressing? (T. Biddulph, M. A.) Psalms 51:4 Against Thee, Thee only have I sinned, and done this evil in Thy sight: that Thou mightest be justified when Thou speakest, and be clear when Thou judgest.Unimpeachable justice Our subject will be, that both in the condemnation and in the punishment of every sinner God will be justified. Now, concerning such condemned ones, we will speak-- I. Of the Christian whose conscience condemns him. He will make the words of our text his own, and will say, “ Thou art justified when Thou speakest, and,” etc. For--1. He makes a confession. He owns God’ s sentence just. And his confession is sincere; abundantly sufficient, without any attempt at extenuation, or promise that he will, of himself, do better. And not only does his confession justify God in condemning him, hub-- 2. There is the fact that God Himself witnessed his crime; “ In Thy sight,” he owns that it was done. And the witness of his conscience he owns to be true and abundant. 3. The Christian has no doubt about the justice of the punishment, however severe. For he remembers not only what he himself has done, but how he has made others sin. II. The condemnation of the ungodly. This is far more terrible. But in it God will be clear.1. Because of the sinner’ s own confession. 2. The witnesses that will be against him. 3. And in the sinner’ s heart there will be no doubt at last as to the righteousness of his punishment. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Actual sin When speaking of Original sin we had to prove its existence; but there is no need of that here. No one denies actual sin. But the readiness of this admission is our great difficulty in dealing with this subject. Its familiarity has bred indifference. But in spite of this, let us come to its consideration, and we speak-- I. Of its guilt. Take the very smallest sin and see its guilt in the fact that it has been committed against God. Thus David viewed his sin. “ Against Thee, Thee only,” etc. This swallows up all other considerations. We are ever saying that we have net been a great sinner, never injured any man. As if the guilt was great only when man was wronged: the wrong to God being of little moment. But that a sin is against God--is that in which consists the greatness of its guilt; for, even among men, we measure the guilt of crimes not by the actual injury resulting from them, but by their injurious tendencies. The traitor who has attempted the life of his sovereign--the rebel who has tried to overthrow his authority--are rightly held as guilty when they fail as if they had succeeded. They are punished, not for the harm that their rebellion or their treason has done, but for the harm which rebellion and treason must do if not repressed. Now, what is a sinner but a rebel? He who sins has defied the sovereign authority of his God--he has set the will of the creature against the will of the Creator. But in this, your one small sin against God, you are guilty not only of rebellion, but of ingratitude. You have sinned against a Father who has made you, and preserved you, and blessed you with blessings innumerable. But more than this, there is in your sin against God not only rebellion and ingratitude, but insult. He who sins against God has been guilty of first making to himself an idol god whom he may offend with impunity, one who has eyes that see not, ears that hear not, and hands that smite not him that goeth on still in his wicked way. But you will say you never thought there could have been any harm in such a trifle. But has it ever occurred to you that this very thing that you allege in your excuse is an aggravation of your guilt? For ignorance, such as you plead, is an excuse for sin only where there is no law; where there is a law, there ignorance of that law is a sin, and a great one; it is the sin of refusing to hear God when He speaks. And if it were not so, if sins of ignorance were always guiltless, then there would be a direct bounty upon ignorance; this would be to give a revelation, and, at the same time, to give men the strongest inducement not to read it. But you will plead the force of habit, that you did it unconsciously. But this shows you have gone on in sin, and the plea is rather an aggravation of your guilt. II. Their number--how incalculable. There are three kinds of sin,--sins, namely, of thought, word and deed; and each of these may be committed in two ways--by omission or by commission; and, further, that every sin of commission involves one of omission--that we can never do what we ought not to have done without having left undone what we ought to have done. And now, remembering the searching and comprehensive character of that law of which every transgression is a sin, try and form some remote idea of the number of your offences. And we ask you to compare sin as it appears in God’ s sight, with sin as it appears in the sight, and as it is pictured in the language of men. How do men generally speak and think of sin? There are some who boast of it. But these are the exceptions, these are open profligates, whom moral and respectable society excommunicates. How, then, do morality and respectability think and speak of sin? Why--provided it offends not against the decencies and the proprieties of life--gently, indulgently, almost respectfully; there is no lack of polite phrases by which society can cloak sins, which, in their native and undisguised grossness it professes to repudiate. Adultery is gallantry; and profligacy is wildness; and profanity is a light way of speaking; infidelity is unsettled ideas about religion; and revenge is high spirit; and drunkenness is conviviality; and heartless and frivolous dissipation is innocent gaiety. And then morality and respectability have favourite vices which they will introduce to you as virtues--avarice is carefulness; and selfishness is prudence; and deceit is politeness; and wasteful luxury is hospitality; and pride is becoming self-respect--until, if you would believe them, you would be persuaded that sin was almost banished from good society, and that certainly there was no such thing to be found there as a “ miserable sinner.” (Archbishop Magee.) Repentance There are two kinds of this--the sorrow of the world, and that of God. This latter regards sin as against God. It is the object of sin rather than its consequences that affect Him. For all sin is against God, more than it is against any other being. However it may despise human authority, it involves a greater contempt of His. It is a great error to say of a man that he is nobody’ s enemy but his own. For “ the carnal mind is enmity against God.” And this is sin’ s greatest aggravation, for see how glorious, how holy, how gracious God is. Failure to see this aggravation in our sin is the cause why conviction of sin is often so slight. True repentance equally regards all sin, for every sin is against God. And the reformation that follows such repentance is thorough. No sin can be a trifle, since it is against God. (W. Nevins, D. D.) David’ s accusating of himself and acquittal of God I. The censure or accusation which he passes upon himself.1. The simple acknowledgment or confession. “ Against Thee, Thee only have I sinned.” (1) His sin in the direct notion of it. The sins which are committed against our brethren and neighbours are committed against God Himself-- (a) As Lawgiver. (b) As Creator. (c) As Redeemer. (2) The reduplication. “ Thee, Thee only.” “ Only” is here to be taken for chiefly; and that not only in regard of the sin itself, but likewise in regard of his affection and apprehension about it. This is that which should principally affect us in all our miscarriages, that they are trespasses upon God Himself. (a) Thee, an only God; a God of pure eyes, and that cannot endure to behold iniquity. (b) Thee, a just God, who wilt punish sin wheresoever Thou findest it. (c) Thee, an Almighty God, a God of power and strength. 2. The additional ingemination of it. “ And done this evil in Thy sight.” (1) He acknowledges that his sin was not unknown to God, who saw and discerned all the windings and turnings of it. (a) The thought and intention. (b) The execution of it. (c) All the excuses and pretences made for it. This may serve to awaken and affright men in this respect; and especially as to secret miscarriages. There are abundance of people in the world who carry it fairly as to outward appearance, who yet have their private excursions into ways of wickedness, and their secret haunts of sin; and these please themselves oftentimes in the thought of their concealment from the world. Yea, but there is an all-seeing eye that beholds them in their greatest retiredness, an eye that neither slumbers nor sleeps.(2) The enlargement and aggravation. (a) His non-attendaney. He did not consider that God beheld him. (b) He did not regard the presence of God. For a thief to steal in the very sight of the judge is the highest piece of impudence that may be; and thus it is for any man to offend in the sight of God and not to be moved with it. Therefore, let us look to this, and consider what influence it has had upon us; the observing eye of God, and what it has not; what a shame is it for any to tremble at the presence of frail man, yea, it may be some little child, and beholding them in the commission of sin, and not regard the presence of the holy and pure God. II. The acquitting of God.1. A gracious heart gives testimony to the Word of God; it acknowledges the truth of God in that which comes from Him (John 3:33). This may be drawn forth according to all the words which are spoken by God. In His word of threatening, it justifies Him here by fearing and trembling at His word; as good Josiah, when he rent his clothes, and his heart was melted, etc. In his word of reproof, it justifies him here by acknowledging of the fall; “ Good is the word of the Lord which thou hast spoken,” says Hezekiah, when he was told of his sin. In His word of promise, it justifies Him here by believing it, and expecting its accomplishment, as (Psalms 119:49). In His word of command, it justifies Him hero by yielding obedience to it, and putting it into practice. 2. A submitting to the judgment of God. This is another temper and disposition of a gracious soul to clear God in His judiciary proceedings (Psalms 119:75; Jeremiah 12:1; Micah 7:9; Romans 3:2; Romans 3:19). And this is another thing which we should therefore in a sweet manner bring ourselves to; to submit with meekness and patience to God’ s correction, acknowledging the justice of them, and that our punishment is still less than our iniquities have deserved. (Thomas Horton, D. D.) David’ s acknowledgment, of God’ s justice David is in thorough earnest with every confession. Here he presents the reasons why he thus avows his sin. He desires to approve the sentence of God, and to acknowledge that His verdict concerning Him could not be other than the righteous judgment which he had deserved. He could adduce nothing on which he could plead for any other sentence. If he were still to be received, it must only be upon the footing of free, undeserved grace. O, what a different experience is this from the superficial confession of sin with which most men rest content. They confess, indeed, that they are sinners; but the sin is a weakness, an infirmity, a misfortune. They have to sympathize with the sinner, but of the honour of God they think but little. The poor sinner must be comforted; but whether the honour of God’ s law is maintained concerns them not. O my fellow-man, that is not repentance as the Spirit of God works it in the heart. No; he that is truly convinced of sin by the Spirit of God does not merely think of himself and what concerns him; but his great sorrow is that he has dared to commit transgression against such a God, with such a perfect law; and his great concern is how he can possibly restore that which he has destroyed; and since he can do nothing else, he lays himself down at the feet of God to yield to Him the only honour that he now can give, namely, to acknowledge that He is righteous in His judgment. (Andrew Murray.) Psalms 51:5-7 Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me. Original depravity Men may come upon this doctrine one of two different ways. 1. As a dogma in theology. The first thing that some theologians do is to assail human nature, to describe it as covered with wounds, bruises and putrefying sores, and as deserving nothing but eternal burning. And human nature denies this. It says, “ No, I have good impulses, upward desires, generous emotions; I resent your calumnies.” 2. The second way is totally unlike this. Here is a true believer in Jesus Christ, one who loves Him with passionate devotion, and grows daily more like Him. From this attitude he looks back upon his former self, compares the human nature he started with, with that which he has attained, and involuntarily, by the sheer necessity of the contrast, he says, “ I was born in sin.” What he never could have understood as an opinion he realizes as a fact. Let a tree be conscious. Tell it in April how bare and barren it is. It will defend itself stoutly. Go to it after it has had a summer’ s experience, and it will confess, “ I am not what I was; I was as you said, but now I feel as if I had been born again.” (J. Parker, D. D.) Of original sin The end of the Gospel is to bring sinners unto Christ; for this they must feel their misery without Christ. And this misery consists in our sin, original and actual. I. Natural corruption is a sin (Romans 7:1-25.), where you may find near twenty aggravations of this sin. And it is not a valid objection that this sin is not voluntary, for what is involuntary may be sin. But original sin is voluntary both in respect of Adam who represented us all, and in respect of us by our after consent. II. We are tainted with it from our birth (Isaiah 48:8). Stay not to inquire how sin is conveyed to us in the womb, but consider how to be set free from it. III. It should be the ground of our humiliation.1. It is a privation of all good (Romans 7:18). 2. There is an antipathy to God and the things of God (Romans 8:7). The carnal mind is not only an enemy, but “ enmity.” Naturalists write of a beast that will tear and rend the picture of a man if it come in his way; whence they argue his great antipathy to man. And so we may argue antipathy to God when men will tear and despise His image. What cause, then, for humiliation. IV. Press home this doctrine. Consider, therefore--1. The unnaturalness of this sin. We hate vermin that are naturally poisonous more than any other. 2. The sinfulness of it; for it violates not one of, but all, God’ s commands, and that always without interruption; there is no cessation from it. 3. The causality of it. All actual sin springs from it. 4. Its habitualness both in respect of permanency--see leprosy (Lviticus 14:41, 42)--and facility in acting (Romans 7:21; Jeremiah 8:6). 5. Its pregnancy; it is all sin virtually, for all sin is wrapped up in it. 6. Its extent. It has overspread the whole man (Isaiah 1:6). 7. Its monstrousness; see the deformity it has brought upon the soul by defect, impotency, dislocation. 8. Its irresistibleness and strength. 9. Its devilishness, brutishness and incorrigibleness. (D. Clarkson.) Original sin We purpose considering the subject of original sin--what it is that David means, when he says, “ I was shapen in iniquity.” This implies two things--guilt and corruption, that every man is “ born in sin and a child of wrath” --there is guilt imputed to him. This guilt which is imputed to him is the guilt of Adam, his representative, and this sin which is derived by him is that of Adam, his progenitor. This is our twofold inheritance from our first parent--original sin. Let us take each of these in its order. Our first proposition is, that we inherit from Adam guilt; that he stood before God the representative of all humanity--their federal head, in whom they entered into covenant with their Maker. In him we all once stood upright, in him we were tried, fell, were judged and condemned. Is it true? Turn, then, to Romans 5:19; 1 Corinthians 15:45; Romans 5:12; “ Death has passed upon all men,” because “ all have sinned.” But the only sin they could have suffered for was the sin of Adam. Stern and strange as this doctrine may seem, it is not more stern or more strange than the undeniable fact which proves it. We take the man who denies it to the bedside, where lies the corpse of a newborn babe that has just breathed out its few short hours of painful life. Why is this? Pain has been here, and death--what brought them? What had that little sufferer done, that the dread penalty of death should be extracted from it, and its young life untimely snatched away? It “ was shapen in iniquity and conceived in sin.” But this fact, that death has passed upon all alike, not only proves the doctrine of original sin, but supplies, to a certain extent, an answer to the objection made on the score of justice; for the injustice of imparting to us Adam’ s guilt is certainly no greater than that of inflicting upon us Adam’ s punishment. In this world the innocent do suffer for the guilty, and the sins of the parents are visited upon the children. Ask the offspring of the drunkard, the libertine, the criminal, the spendthrift. And the sins of one age are visited upon the next. A godless statesman suffers a nation to grow up in ignorance, and the next generation reap the bitter fruits of his neglect in misery and crime. A faithless ministry leave their flocks unguarded and unfed, and they who come after them toil painfully, and almost hopelessly, to recall those sheep to the fold from which the carelessness of others had suffered them to stray. Wherever we turn, then, we see men suffering for the sins and smarting for the follies of others. Why, then, should it startle you when we ask you to admit a fact which is not one whir more opposed to justice, nay, which throws the only gleam of light along this dark chain of sinful cause and sorrowful effect--namely, that we not only suffer the consequences, but also share the guilt, of our first parent’ s first offence? If you object to the doctrine of original sin as revealed in the word of God, you must object against the fact of vicarious suffering as ordained in the providence of God. There is no stoppingplace between Atheism and the faith of the Christian who believes, in spite of all mystery, that God is just and good. But you say it is unjust that I should be held to have sinned in Adam--what, then, is it you would demand? A trial in your own person--that you should be placed as Adam was, in a state of probation, made upright, with the option of so continuing, if you could; this, you will say, would have been just. But if you were so placed, do you imagine that you would have fared better than he did? Was he not the very perfection of humanity? Was there any weakness in him there would not have been in you? Is there any strength you could have that He had not? What could you have been at best but another Adam, sure to yield to the very same temptation to which he yielded? What difference, then, is there, in point of justice, between this trial having been made for you or by you, if the result would be the same in either case, and if you are only held guilty of a sin which you would assuredly commit, had you the opportunity of committing it? But the vindication is more complete and triumphant when we remember that over against the sin of the first Adam is placed the grace of the second, so that “ where sin did abound, grace,” etc. (Archbishop Magee.) Original sin I. Man by nature is sinful.1. Prove this by Bible testimony (Genesis 6:5; Genesis 8:21). 2. Every page of human history tells the sad story of man’ s natural corruption. 3. What we observe in others we have to confess to be even more true of ourselves. We know not only the fact of this tendency to sin, but its strength; for we have had to struggle against it in order to do good, and to abstain from evil. Any righteousness in man is the result of an effort to work up-stream against his own nature. 4. This has been the testimony of the best men in all ages (Job 42:6; Isaiah 6:5; 1 Timothy 1:15; Romans 7:23). 5. The same is testified to by highest reason. If you try apple after apple from every part of the tree, and all alike sour, you cannot but conclude the tree itself is bad. If you drink from a stream and find it brackish, day after day you conclude that the fountain itself is bitter. Now, when you observe man after man sinning day after day, in all ages, under every form of government and society, you must conclude that the troubles lie in the very nature of man. II. This corruption is universal as to the whole race, and total as to each man. Like leprosy, it may not be visible in the whole face or body, but being in the blood it is only a question of time as to when it will claim every part. Do not deceive yourselves. However you may manage to hold your inward corruption in check, it will sooner or later work out your total corruption, if not in this world, in the world to come. Death will remove all restraining motives and you will in eternity be left to the unrestrained operations of your sinful nature. III. We are responsible for our sinful nature. I do not believe that God’ s Word teaches that we were guilty of original sin in Adam. But the Word of God is clear that you are guilty and responsible for original sin by your own act. We have inherited sin; God does not condemn us for having inherited it, but for choosing to stand by the sin we have inherited, and refusing to give it up and turn from it when He calls upon us to forsake it and accept His abundant mercy in forgiveness, together with a new nature in Christ Jesus. (G. F. Pentecost, D. D.) The natural state of mankind in regard of sin I. The original of it. “ I was shapen,” etc. Original sin, wherewith the nature of man is so infected, consists in two things. First, in Adam’ s voluntary transgression in eating of the forbidden fruit, imputed to all his posterity. Secondly, in the hereditary corruption of nature, propagated and derived to his posterity. II. The manner of it, how it is conveyed. There are divers opinions about it, and each have their arguments for them. It is enough for us to know this, that man produces his like not only in nature, but also in corruption; and the one is consequent upon the other; so that it is impossible for a sinner to produce any other than a sinner (Job 14:4; John 3:6). The consideration of this point is thus far useful unto us.1. As it teaches parents how to carry themselves towards their children; which, although it be not to indulge them, yet to pity corruption in them, as considering how themselves have been the occasions of conveying it to them. And further, it will hence concern parents to be so much the more careful and industrious of freeing their children from sin, so far forth as lies in their power. As they have been the occasion of corrupting them, so they should be likewise instruments of reforming them; and as they have been the conveyers of sin, so they should be also of grace. Now, this is especially done three manner of ways. (1) By hearty and earnest prayers to God for them. (2) By good and careful education. (3) By godly example. I might add as an appurtenance hereunto the bringing of them to the Sacrament of Baptism, the laver of regeneration (Titus 3:5), as that which seals to all true believers their new birth in opposition to their corruption of nature. 2. Here is an item also to children from hence, not to glory too much in their pedigree and natural birth into the world. Thy father was an Amorite, and thy mother an Hittite; thou wast shapen in iniquity, and in sin did thy mother conceive thee. III. The notoriousness of it. “ Behold.” David sets a mark upon this sin as being most grievous. And so it is.1. In respect of the largeness of it; for it comprehends in it all other sins and evils. 2. in regard of the strength and power of it. (1) As it hinders us from good (Romans 7:18; Galatians 5:17; Romans 8:7; Jeremiah 13:23).(2) As it Carries forcibly to evil (Jeremiah 8:6; Genesis 11:6; Ephesians 4:19). 3. The inherence and permanency of it (Romans 7:17). As for many actual sins, they may be wholly suppressed in us so as we may never return to them again. But this corruption of nature will always more or less continue; and we shall never be freed absolutely from the actings and stirrings of it so long as we live. Now, the application of this point thus explained may be drawn forth into this improvement, namely, as matter of just abasement and humiliation to us, and that which may lay us low both in our own eyes and the eyes of God. And it may do so to two sorts of persons. First, those who are yet in their natural condition; here’ s a word of astonishment and advertisement also to them. By how much the more grievous original sin is in its own nature, by so much the more sad and lamentable is their estate, and they have cause to be affected with it. Now, further, there may be an improvement of it likewise to the regenerate, and that to sundry intents. First, in a way of thankfulness to God for their freedom and deliverances. The worse that original sin is, the greater mercy to be freed from such an evil. Secondly, in an endeavour to make others partakers of this birth so far forth as we are able; it is that which Paul professes of himself in the behalf of the Galatians (Galatians 4:19). Thus should ministers for their people, parents for their children, Christian friends one for another, seeing a natural condition is so grievous, therefore being renewed themselves, to endeavour likewise the conversion of others. Thirdly, in a way of caution and wariness for themselves. They should hence ha persuaded to keep a watch over their own hearts, and to remember that they have flesh in them as well as spirit, from whence they may not make too bold with the occasions and temptations to sin, but may suppress and subdue them in them betimes. And further, to have sober thoughts in themselves when they behold the enormities of others; not to be high-minded, but to fear. (T. Horton, D. D.) Total depravity Total depravity is the entire alienation of the will and affections from God; and that carries all the good qualities as well aa the bad ones away from God and enlists them against Him. A daughter, tenderly reared and carefully educated, in an evil hour yields to temptation and loses her virtue, and subsequently chooses to lead a life of sin and shame. So far as her standing in society and among virtuous people is concerned she is totally depraved; and yet in her sin and shame she retains her accomplishments, and if not all her former graces and kindliness of heart and disposition, at least very much that is good. But who will deny that, for all this, she is in every sense a bad and totally lost woman, so far as virtuous society is concerned? I have recently wandered over some of the splendid ruins of Europe--through many an ancient abbey and cathedral. In some, if not all, there were the remains of their ancient and exquisite beauty. Here was a window with its exquisite tracery in stone as complete as when it was built; there an arch as entire and strong as of yore; and here again a cloister-room as entire as when it was occupied by one of the priests of the chapter. But for all this, the cathedral as such was a total ruin. Who has not admired with a constantly increasing admiration that grandest of European ruins, the old castle at Heidelberg! Much of it is still intact; its splendid and elaborately carved and sculptured facades are still there and the chapel scarcely decayed; and so of many other parts. And yet it is a mournful ruin, entirely and utterly destroyed so far as the purpose for which it was originally built is concerned. Out here in our own beautiful harbour a few months ago there was a collision between two ships, and one of them went to the bottom. The divers went down to examine her hull and see if it would pay to attempt to raise her, and coming up they pronounced her a “ total wreck.” Now, some one objects to that report and says, “ while the ship is wrecked, to be sure, there are many parts about her that are as good as ever; keel and bow, and one entire side, boiler and engines scarcely damaged--why should she be called a total wreck?” Why? Because she is beyond repair. The materials out of which she was built may be recovered and sold for old iron, but the ship as a ship is wholly ruined. In this sense man, with his many remainders of original beauty and perfections, is a totally depraved being. Man, originally upright, and to serve and enjoy God, he has “ sought out many inventions” ; he has become entirely alienated from God; and what of his powers have not become the prey of low and disgusting sins have boon preserved for selfish uses and wholly withdrawn from the service of God. Could a man be found who was a model of intellectual and moral perfection who yet withdrew from the fellowship and service of God and used those unimpaired and beautiful faculties against Him, he would be a totally depraved man. (G. F. Pentecost, D. D.) Nothing but sin So the knowledge of this one sin bringeth him to the examination of his whole life, till he find nothing in himself but sin. For if the fountain be poisoned, what will the streams be that flow from it? If we would look back to our original sin, we might have cause the more to lament our actual sins as poisoned streams flowing from such a fountain. So soon, therefore, as our conscience accuseth us of any one sin, we should call to remembrance the whole course of our life, that it hath been nothing else but a continual sinning against God; that thus the last putting us in mind of the first, we may not he content to repent and ask pardon for one, but for all. A sick man having obtained health, doth remember how long he was sick, whereby for the present he both considereth his own frailty and God’ s mercy in delivering him, as also encourageth and animateth himself against the time to come, by remembrance of former mercies obtained. Happy were we if we would begin to remember our miseries and God’ s mercies. (A. Symson.) The fact of original sin indisputable Sin must be within us naturally, since the best training does not prevent it. Children secluded from the sight or hearing of evil, kept as it were within a glass case, yet run to it when the restraint is removed. As the young duck which has been reared in a dry place, yet takes to the water as soon as it sees a pond, so do many hasten to evil at the first opportunity. How often it happens that those young persons who have been most shut out from the world have become the readiest victims of temptation when the time has come for them to quit the parental roof! It must be in them, or it could not thus come out of them. In many cases evil cannot be the result of mistaken education nor of ill example, and yet there it is; the seed is in the soil, and needs no sowing. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Psalms 51:6 Behold Thou desirest truth in the inward parts.Truth in the inward parts Some of us may remember the interesting story with which the apocryphal Book of Esdras commences. The inquiry is started, “ What is strongest?” and this is submitted to the judgment of three young men of the king’ s guard. Wine, and the king, and women, are severally mentioned; but the last, who is said to have been Zerubbabel, maintained that of all things “ truth is the strongest, and liveth and conquereth for evermore.” And having concluded his speech upon this subject, it is said that all who heard him broke forth with the shout, “ Great is truth, and mighty above all things.” Now, whether the narrative be fact or not, it would be well for us if we believed more fully in the power of truth, and realized how invincible it must be. Truth in Scripture often means objective truth, “ the agreement of thought with thing,” and we have the truth when what we believe is really what it is. But the word, also, and often, means truthfulness, moral honesty and sincerity. But it is this second sense of the term that our subject invites us to consider. God desires “ truth in the inward parts” --truth, evidently, not in the sense of mental illumination, but rather in the sense of moral honesty and sincerity of purpose. As it is this that God desires, so it is the presence of this that gives the greatest icy to the spiritual Father who watches with tender solicitude the progress of the souls to whom His ministry has been made a blessing. Now let me point out the importance of this subject. We need to have our attention emphatically called to it, because, in the first place, we have hearts which the prophet describes as “ deceitful above all things,” and we each of us possess the strange and terrible faculty of deceiving ourselves. God we cannot deceive. Our neighbours in the long run are sure to find us out. But ourselves it is only too possible to deceive; and when we allow ourselves to fall into the habit of self-deception, the most dangerous feature of this habit is that it becomes almost unconscious. We scarcely know when we are true and when we are false. Or the importance of this subject may be argued from its position. For truthfulness lies at the root of everything else in Christian experience. Having this, we are in fair way to possess all; but without this, all must be lost. See the parable of the Sower. The seed yields good fruit only when sown in “ an honest and good heart.” In one sense we may say no heart is such, but in another and practical one we know that there are such, for they do truly desire to be other and better than they are. And this truthfulness is needed not only at the beginning, but all the way along in our spiritual career. The life of faith depends on it. I would bear witness that I thank God with a full heart that recently so much attention has been given to the importance of the groat truth that, as we are justified, not by our own works, but by faith in the Son of God, so we are to be sanctified, not by the struggling efforts of our own will, but equally by our acceptance through faith of all that the power and love of God have brought within our reach. This truth required to be prominently brought forward and emphatically stated; and to how many believers has the message been one of liberation from bondage, from fruitless toil, from inward tumult! But in order that this sort of teaching may be of the service to us that it should, it is most important that we should bear in mind the relation of faith to moral truthfulness and honesty of purpose. In a word, we cannot trust the Lord Jesus to deliver us from that which we know He hates, while all the time we are secretly clinging to it, or endeavouring to discover some cunningly devised compromise between our allegiance to Him and our indulgence in that which we know to be opposed to His will. Let me now point out some of the different ways in which this subtle form of evil may creep into our experience, and the different forms of truthfulness which we require sedulously to cultivate. Let us consider, first, truthfulness in the aim and purpose of life. This from first to last was the characteristic of our blessed Lord and Master. For contrast, see the history of Balaam. His ruin was due to latent dishonesty of heart, for in spite of all his religiousness he “ loved the wages of unrighteousness.” Solomon, also, and many more. “ A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.” And this is the besetment of us all. There is something also that we put side by side with the “ one thing needful.” We desire to be good Christians, and to make our fortunes. We must learn to seek first the Kingdom of God, and to live as those who have heard the Master’ s call, “ Deny thyself: take up thy cross and follow me.” Next let me point out to you the necessity of truthfulness in the adoption of means towards the end. It is possible for us to have a strong, clear perception of the fact that we are called to live for a definite purpose, and we may be preserved from any conscious acceptance of a lower end, and yet we may fail in our lives because we shrink from employing those means towards the attainment of the end which God has placed within our reach, and which we know to be of the utmost importance to us. It is thoroughly dishonest to offer such a prayer as we do every day--“ Lead us not into temptation” --while we place ourselves in a position where we know that our special weakness will be needlessly exposed to the foe. Or again, vainly do we pray for purity of heart and thought, and cry to be delivered from our lower appetites, if we still allow our senses to be exposed to sights and sounds which may act as incentives to the very appetite which we profess our desire to curb. Take the sad example of Eli. He did desire to curb the iniquities of his sons; but he would not take the necessary means. He spoke strongly enough, but he did nothing. Though he might have inflicted death, he did not punish them at all. Once again let me speak of the necessity of truthfulness in our judgment upon ourselves. How little disposed we are to pass a severe sentence upon our own conduct! Saul had already returned a verdict in his own favour before the prophet Samuel met him. “ Blessed be thou of the Lord,” he exclaims, even before the prophet had made any accusation against him; “ I have fulfilled the commandment of the Lord.” Had he really fulfilled it? His conscience was uneasy. There had already been mock trial, so to speak, within Saul’ s own heart, and the verdict was one of acquittal passed by a too favourable jury. Oh, self-extenuation is dangerous work. You are in the hands of a loving God who knows whereof we are made. If extenuations can justly be made, He is certain to make them. But who of us is there that has not plenty to confess even where actual sins are not upon the conscience? “ Cleanse thou me from secret faults.” (W. H. M. H. Aitken, M. A.) The importance of forming true Christian character Character is not reputation, but that which makes the man what he is. Our text was David’ s utterance after his eyes had been opened to his own nature. How often is it that things pass unnoticed until some great event fixes attention upon them. Inadequate provision for egress in public buildings remains unnoticed until some terrible fire and vast loss of life turn all eyes to it. So with tendencies of character, our own inward evil--some terrible sin makes us awake to it as we had never been before. Let us note from the text-- I. The Divine ideal for the Lord’ s people. “ Thou desirest truth,” etc. By truth is meant genuineness, reality, sincerity. Long ago Thomas Carlyle awoke a great deal of interest by his vigorous denunciation of shams. He but echoed the Scriptures. For such sincerity a new birth is essential. Yet this is a voluntary exercise (Acts 3:19). Again, it is said “ Make you a new heart.” It is the turning of your spirit to Him. And we must be thorough in this. God requires truth in the “ inward parts.” Christ is the model of such sincerity and truth. But He is not the full model, for He never knew what the qualms of conscience were; never experienced the conflict of the law of His members and the law of His Spirit. Hence, servants of Christ such as Paul are given to us to supplement this ideal. Paul says, “ Be ye followers of me.” II. The Divine work in God’ s people. “ In the hidden parts shalt,” etc. Note--1. What the teacher is to do. He is to make us know wisdom. This He does through His Word; His providence; His disciples, trials and disappointments. 2. What has the scholar to do? Submit to the Word of God. Walk circumspectly. Try to realize what is the true ideal of character. The Greek word is one which signifies “ to engrave.” An engraved plate will leave an impression according to what itself is. Character is cut out by circumstances, by the man’ s own actions. (John Hall, D. D.) Truth in the inward parts I. A description of the nature of God in general. “ Thou desirest truth in the inward parts,” i.e. a general uprightness and integrity of spirit.1. God takes a special delight in such a frame of soul as this, from whence men became real and sincere towards Him. (1) God is truth Himself, and so loves it and delights in it, as His own reflection. (2) God desires truth as most suitable to those ends which He propounds to Himself in us. There’ s no man loves to be deceived, because thereby he is frustrated and disappointed; which although God cannot be said to be directly, yet He may be in regard of our carriage and behaviour of ourselves towards Him, which He would not be. (3) It is that which gives a being to all grace and goodness in us: goodness and truth are convertible and reciprocal, that is, they are one and the same, so that what is not the one is not the other, not only in metaphysics, but in morals. Truth is not a distinct and particular grace in itself, but it is general, and runs through the veins and bowels of all. It is true faith, and true love, and true hope, and true repentance, and so of the rest. 2. Wherein this truth or sincerity consists. (1) In the aim and bias of the soul, whereby and whereunto it is carried. A sincere-hearted Christian looks at God in all (1 Peter 4:11; 1 Corinthians 10:31). (2) In universality. Where this truth is in the inward parts, there will be a respect had to all God’ s commandments; and that whether as to the practice of duty or to avoiding of sin. In matter of duty, to do all that God requires, though never so contrary and repugnant to our natural inclinations; in matter of sin, to avoid all that God forbids, though never so pleasing and delightful to flesh and blood. (3) In its intimacy and secret goodness. It is called “ truth in the inward parts” because it reaches even to them, and is observable there. (4) In its constancy and continuance to the end. Sincerity is accompanied with perseverance. Where there is grace in truth, there will be grace also in continuance: though there may be ebbings and flowings as to the degrees, yet for the substance it will be still the same; yea, and after some accidental intermissions it will in time again return to its former vigour. II. An intimation of his carriage to David in particular. “ And in the hidden part,” etc.1. Take it in its proposition. (1) The nature of grace. It is wisdom (James 3:17). It is called so, and may very well he so, as having indeed the properties of wisdom most agreeable to it. Wisdom is provident for the future, and does not only look at the present; and so it is with grace: wisdom, it takes things altogether, not only singly and alone by themselves, but in their conjunction; and so grace: wisdom, it looks after the main chance, and that which is chiefly to be looked after in the neglect of impertinencies and superfluities; so likewise does grace. (2) The author of grace is God Himself. “ Thou.” This seems to be added in opposition to that which he had premised and set down in the foregoing verse: there he had told us that he was born in iniquity, and in sin did his mother conceive him. Corruption it was conveyed to him by nature; yea, but grace it had another conveyance and derivation of it: thus it came not to him from his parents, but from God Himself; flesh and blood had not taught it him, but his Father which was in heaven (Matthew 16:17), and so he acknowledges Him in it. (3) The seat or subject of this wisdom, which it resides in, and that is here expressed to be the hidden part; that is, the soul and inward man: though it may also signify the object and matter which this spiritual wisdom is conversant about. And if ye will, we will take notice of both; or further, thirdly, the manner also of conveyance, as if he had said secretly, and after an hidden manner, as some interpreters render the words, which we may likewise add to the former. So, then, here is the sum and substance of what the psalmist does out of these words exhibit unto us: first, that the excellency of religion lies in the inward man: secondly, that a good Christian is acquainted with the mysteries of religion: thirdly, that the conveyance of His grace and spiritual wisdom are oftentimes secret and undiscernible. 2. We may also look upon it in its scope and reflection, and with that force and emphasis in which it comes from the prophet David, who expresses as much to us about himself, that God had indeed wrought this work in his heart, that He had in the hidden part made him to know wisdom. (1) He discerns it, it carries in it an emphasis of discovery; as David had grace wrought in his heart, so he knew it to be there wrought; he saw it, and perceived it to be so. This is that which every one does not do, but yet which may be done. (2) He acknowledges it. David, when he speaks here of God’ s grace wrought in himself, he does not simply speak of it, but with some kind of affection and enlargement of soul, and as blessing God for it. He speaks of it as a special favour and mercy vouchsafed unto him, as indeed it was; and so should all others do likewise, which are in like manner made partakers of it. (3) He improves it, he makes use of it for his present purpose, and that to a double intent; first, as an aggravation of sin, as it respects himself: and secondly, as a motive and an argument for future mercy, as it relates to God. That God who had given him grace at first, would now bestow further grace upon him; that He who had given him the grace of conversion, would now help him in the exercise of repentance, as a fruit of conversion in him; that He that had sanctified him would pardon him; and that He that killed sin in him in the root would now vouchsafe to kill it further in the branches and effects of it. (Thomas Horton, D. D.) God desires truth in the inward parts 1. This thought summons us to earnestness and godly fear in our sense of sin. (1) Whenever, in consequence of their upbringing or favourable circumstances, the outward life is religious and unblameable, many flatter themselves with the thought that it is also well with the heart: at least, that although they have still many sins, the heart is not quite so bad as has been said. They regard themselves at least not as ungodly, and enemies of God. Oh, did they but know how the Lord proves and searches the heart, they would think otherwise. The Holy One sees the indwelling corruption of the heart. (2) How should this thought keep many a one from the superficial conversion with which men so often suffer themselves to be deceived. Whenever, upon a sick-bed, for example, there is a little anxiety about sin and questions about grace, the soul is at once comforted. Men are not aware that these feelings can easily be awakened, and also very lightly laid to sleep again. 2. This thought gives hope and comfort in the way of conversion. Nothing less will God have from the awakened soul: nothing more will the grace of God require from the penitent. 3. This thought strengthens faith for glorious expectations (Isaiah 61:8). (Andrew Murray.) Marks of truth in the inward affections 1. It is a testimony of truth in the inward affections when one carrieth an universal hatred of all sin, that is, of secret sins as well as of open sins, of lesser sins as well as of greater evils, of such sins as have some special enticement, by some particularity of content or profit, as well as of those which afford neither. A sincere heart is as tender as the eye, which is troubled, and made to smart and water with the smallest mote, or as a straight shoe, which cannot endure the least stone within it, but makes him shrink and tread respectively, and with a kind of favour to his foot, until it be removed. This is one mark. 2. A second, which is in a manner a limb of the former, is a taking heed to that sin to which a man finds himself most apt; or wherewith he hath at any time been overtaken. Is it rash anger, is it pride; is it wantonness, is it worldliness, is it vain pleasure, etc.? If thou be especially wary and watchful touching that, to prevent the occasions, to stop the beginnings of it, to beware of the inducements to it, this is a notable testimony of sincerity. 3. A third is a willingness to lay open every sin as soon as it is known to be a sin, and to that end a gladness to have the conscience ransacked and ripped up, that that which is sin may be found out. David spake it out of experience when he pronounced the man blessed in whose spirit there is no guile. 4. A fourth mark, when a man makes conscience to be one and the same manner of man at home and in private that he is abroad and in public. This is also a branch of David’ s sincerity, and of his resolution to walk in a perfect way: “ I will walk uprightly in the midst of mine house” : his meaning is, he will be the same among his household people, where few behold him, that he is abroad where many see him: he will be as godly in his chamber as in the Temple. (S. Hieron.) Truth in the inward parts I. As opposed to ignorance. It is the character of men in an unregenerated state, that they have the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them. The character, in point of understanding, of men in whom God takes pleasure, is no vague or doubtful matter. Seeing God hath given in the Gospel the fullest and most satisfactory information concerning Himself, and the character and work of the Lord Jesus Christ, the one Mediator, they who have believed the word of the truth of the Gospel--“ who have received with meekness” this “ engrafted word” --have in one important respect the truth which God desires in the inward parts.” There are different degrees, indeed, in which this change actually exists; but all are alike in kind; and they all differ in kind from other men, who are in darkness, and walk in darkness, and know not where they go, because that darkness hath blinded their eyes. II. As opposed to insincerity. The spirit of the people of God, in whom the Lord takes pleasure, is that spirit in which there is no guile. Sanctification of the spirit is associated in them with belief of the truth. Sincerity, arising from, and connected with, a spiritual understanding of the truth of the Gospel, forms the temper of their inward man. The truth with respect to God and the Lord Jesus Christ, that informs their minds, enters into their hearts. III. As opposed to false and temporary affections of mind. That practical godliness includes the exercise of the affections of the mind is not to be disputed. “ Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart” is the first and great commandment. There are lively emotions in every truly pious heart. Men who receive the truth of the Gospel “ in the love of it,” and who have their souls purified in obeying it, delight themselves in the Lord, and love one another with a pure heart, fervently. The principles of vital godliness are like “ seed cast into good ground, that springeth up and beareth fruit” ; there is first the blade; then the ear; and afterwards the full corn in the ear. (D. Dickson, D. D.) Interior truth (with John 8:32):--The same word, “ truth,” stands in both texts and yet represents in each its own particular matter. “ Thou desirest truth in the inward parts;” which means that God looks to find in us a kernel of personal truthfulness, a sound core, a fragment of the aboriginal veracity of God, an oaken knot of probity that can take a blow without flinching, sterling metal that will sound with a long, clear, ringing tone of reverberation. The other is a little apart from this, “ The truth shall make you free.” This denotes the truth outside of us coming to us, telling upon us, working its emancipation in us. The other was the sterling metal; this is the hammer that sets the wire ringing, the plectrum that sets the metal quivering and humming. The two answer back to each other; they understand each other--the truth that is structural within us, and the truth that comes to talk to us. They are correlates, like the eye and the light that saturates it; the ear and the melody that sings into it. We are never quite discouraged about a man, so long as there remains still in him one single solid atom that retains the old crystalline lines and angles; a rigid basis upon which presented truth can be laid, and into which it can be mortised; a truth-sense to which we can address and press our appeal. It is like dealing with an old and withered building; the window-lights may be shattered, and the paint discoloured, and the casings awry; the flooring seamed, and the joints warped; but, though you may have to tear down a good deal, and replace and pretty thoroughly renovate it, yet there is great vantage secured, if decay and disintegration have not eaten into the foundation, and the masonry lies intact in its bottom courses. It is this which justifies the confidence we always have in a boy that is truthful; he may be full of roguery and tease his sister and torment his parents; he may easily get angry, and pound the boy that lives across the way; and show himself precocious In nothing so much as in his genius for resisting knowledge and palsying the efforts of his instructors; but, if he is truthful, if truth is in his inward parts, the pith of the matter is in him, a sound core, the spinal marrow; and there is something to address yourself to with assurance, when the time comes for appeals that are more strenuous and exacting. Bye-laws have no grip that is not guaranteed them by the vigour of the constitution. “ God desireth truth in the inward parts.” An impure heart issues in impure thoughts. Yes; but also impure thoughts issue in impure hearts. Intellect creates thought, but thought turns round and creates intellect. The interior and the exterior are parents and children of each other. Deed expends power, but deed also makes power. To that degree and in that sense we are all of us daily climbing up and down the ladder-rounds of our own actions, feelings, thoughts. So it is with this precious, unspeakably precious, nucleus of personal truthfulness, “ truth in the inward parts.” We make it more by speaking the truth, doing, thinking, and feeling the truth; we make it less by speaking, doing, thinking, and feeling that which is false. We are confessedly making a good deal of this matter of rectitude, straight-linedness; but it is the plumb-line dropped into us from above, and so must shape and direct all our aspirations towards God; and it is in the plumb-line from which we have to calculate the horizontal that shall determine our dealings with men. Truth is thus the core of piety, and it is the pith of charity. A promise is a promise, whether made in a matter of groceries or Gospel. I cannot go to a man and promise to help him in an enterprise, and then do as I like about keeping my promise. A promise is as holy a thing as Mount Sinai, and as holy as the law that was given on it, and the Lord that came down in thunder and lightning upon it. There are not even so many professed Christians as we might suppose who can be relied on to do as they say they will do, when it is not quite to their taste or convenience to do as they say they will do. Their word is not as good as their bond; and they proceed on principles which, if they were to apply them on the street, would cost them their seat in the Stock Exchange every day. (C. H. Parkhurst, D. D.) Better to be, than to be thought, religious In every action of religion, let us remember to keep sincerity. Who would desire to be called rich, if he want riches; esteemed valiant, if he have not strength? and shall we think it sufficient to be called religious, and not to be so? Better to be rich, than to be called rich; better to be religious, than to be thought or called religious. God loveth truth as He hateth all falsehood; for He is truth. He loveth truth in our profession, truth in our civil life: truth in our profession, is that which He hath commanded in His Word; truth in our civil life, is that which agreeth with the duty of civil conversation, without fraud, deceit or guile, which is different from God’ s nature, and resembleth the devil, who is a deceiver. (A. Symson.) In the hidden part Thou shalt make me to know wisdom.--Religion the only true wisdom I. The knowledge of heavenly things, appertaining to the right way of pleasing God, and of saving our own souls, is the true wisdom. How shall he be held for wise who wanteth judgment and understanding in the principle? And what is the principle, if not this, to know how to serve God so here as that we may be saved with Him, and by Him, hereafter? What were a man but a fool in case he otherwise knew all secrets, and could speak and discourse in matters of the world, as if one spake from an oracle, or did equal Solomon in discovering the natures of trees and herbs, from the cedar in Lebanon even unto the hyssop that springeth out of the wall, if yet he were to seek in the matters that concern eternity? All this is but like that wisdom which we tax in a man when we say, He is penny wise, but pound foolish: he will be miserable to save a penny, and yet be prodigal in pounds upon a humour. This is poor wisdom: so, on the other side, how can he be taxed for a fool justly who, whatsoever his reach and depth be in the things of this life (haply he hath not so many politic fetches, nor cannot plod and multiply projects as ethers do), yet he knoweth the way of salvation; he knoweth Christ crucified? II. The Lord Himself is the proper teacher of that spiritual and heavenly wisdom which is accompanied with salvation.1. The Holy Scripture is the Book of Wisdom, out of which God will give unto the simple sharpness of wit: but, teaching by man, is the pipe by which this sacred wisdom is to be conveyed unto us from the Fountain: therefore God honoureth His ministers with the title of teachers, and hath ordained a deputation of faithful men, which should be able to teach others also. 2. In waiting upon the appointed means to get this wisdom, we must be furnished with two especial qualities: first, humility; secondly, earnestness. (1) The former I ground upon that often-remembered saying, “ He will teach the humble His way.” Now, he is humble in this case who hath’ learned to renounce that wisdom, that sharpness, that sufficiency which he hath in his own opinion in himself. This is that denial of a man’ s self which Christ requireth in His followers: Paul, “ a being a fool, to the end one may be wise.” A man must disclaim all possibility of guiding himself, and resign and yield up himself wholly to the Lord’ s conduct. They which have this disposition are the babes to which God revealeth the mysteries of His kingdom, when He passeth over those which feed themselves with self-conceits. (2) The second quality required is earnestness. Thus the Kingdom of Heaven must suffer violence, and we must go about to take it as it were by force. In this business there must be labouring, striving, giving all diligence, a seeking early. 3. How shall we know that we are taught? The text answereth: Where God teacheth, the heart is taught. Look, then, what is in thy heart. There be some that have gotten some smack of this wisdom into their brains; they have a kind of lip-wisdom, and can talk somewhat plausibly of religion, but it is not yet come to their hearts. Their hearts be not humbled; they have not that which the apostle commended in the Romans--“ obedience from the heart.” Is thy heart reformed? Is the natural corruption thereof in some good measure subdued and abated? Is obedience sweet unto thy heart, and that which thy soul delighteth in? This is a sign thou art taught of God. III. When God bestows on any man spiritual wisdom and religious knowledge, He gives such a blessing as deserves acknowledgment. Hath the Lord been gracious to thee in scattering the mist of thy natural blindness, and in enabling thee to see the things which are given to us of God? Are thy eyes anointed with eye-salve, so that thou beginnest to savour the things of the Spirit, better than in times past? Oh, thank His Majesty for this mercy--this, a kindness of greater value than at first, perhaps, thou art aware; labour to increase in this knowledge, strive to have yet a larger and a fuller measure of this spiritual understanding. (S. Hieron.) True knowledge to be sought from God The true knowledge of the way of grace must be sought from God Himself. He alone can make you know the hidden wisdom. The human knowledge Of the way of grace which we obtain by the use of our understanding is not sufficient. Mark well: we do not say that this knowledge is not necessary. But this knowledge is not enough. It is possible that one may have a well-nigh perfect knowledge of God’ s Word and yet be lost. And when we have clear insight into the way of the truth of God, we run just as much risk of resting content with it. Perhaps some one thinks that such a representation is sufficient to make one altogether dispirited. It would indeed be so were it not that we can say in this prayer, “ In the hidden parts Thou shalt make me to know wisdom.” God gives the wisdom. This is our only security, and that is the only answer that we can give to the question: How do we know if we have a right spiritual knowledge of grace? The Lord can and will make you assured of this. Conversion, faith, is not a work that you must do, and on which you can look back and say, “ That is well done.” ,No: the innermost essence of conversion and faith consists in coming to God in surrender to God, in receiving from God the living God, grace to be worked out by Him, in being washed and purified from sin by Him. And just at this point is there in the religion of many so much defect. They do not know that in grace the principal element is that we must come into contact with the living God, and must experience the power of the Almighty. (Andrew Murray.) Psalms 51:7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean.Prayer an index of the heart Men’ s prayers are this. And they show, also, how far men agree with one another, for if we sincerely unite in the prayers of other men, whether living or dead, this shows that we feel as they did and believe what they believed. But it is better to follow the prayers of the Bible, for they are free from the infirmity and error to which merely human prayers are liable. And to provide us with such true patterns of prayer is one reason why the Bible contains so many prayers. If we adopt them we cannot err. And this is especially true of this fifty-first psalm: it teaches the penitent sinner how to pray. Let us take the one petition contained in the text as showing this. I. It implies conscious defilement. There is the consciousness of sin. II. An intense desire for cleansing. This does not always co-exist with thee sense of defilement, Many men love their sin too well to give it up, and hence could not pray this prayer. III. The consciousness that cleansing must come from other hands than his own. It is a confession of inability on the sinner’ s part to cleanse himself. Else he would not come thus to God. IV. Belief that God can cleanse him. “ Purge me and I shall be clean, wash me,” etc. And he believes that the cleansing will be complete. Many men are willing to be partially cleansed, but not wholly. But this man not only desires perfect cleansing, but believes that God can thus cleanse him. He says, “ I shall be whiter than snow.” V. This prayer implies faith in the atonement of our Lord Jesus Christ. Some amongst the heathen, and yet others, have desired entire deliverance from sin, but have not known how it is to be accomplished. But this prayer points to that which was the type of Christ’ s Atonement--the blood sprinkled with hyssop. Now, unless we accept these teachings, which are all plainly implied in this prayer, we can never make it our own: but if we do, then be sure our prayer shall not long be left unanswered. (J. Addison Alexander, D. D.) David’ s prayer for cleansing I. The request, or petition, which he makes to God in behalf of himself. “ Purge me with hyssop . . . wash me.”1. He makes use of hyssop, and so has a regard to the outward observation; which shows us what is to be done also in the analogy and proportion by us which are Christians. We are to honour the ordinance of God, and those moans which now under the Gospel God hath appointed as helps of our faith; though in themselves, and in outward appearance, never so mean. There is the same general reason, which holds now, that held then, though the things themselves be abolished; and those which are good Christians will accordingly have respect hereunto, even to be as careful of those performances which now lie upon us, as they were of what lay before them. The baptismal water is in its own nature but common and ordinary, but the use and improvement of it supernatural; the Eucharistical bread and wine in themselves the same with others, but resemblances of higher things. The preaching of the Word in appearance but as other kind of speaking, yet according to Divine appointment and institution, even the power of God to salvation to them that believe. Thus those things which simply considered are but mean and contemptible, yet God’ s ordinance sets a high price and reckoning upon them, for which cause they should be esteemed so by us. 2. The second is his improvement of it, while he rests not in the outward ceremony, but is carried further to the inward grace, which is signified by it. In every ordinance which is used by us there are two things considerable, somewhat which is done on our part, and somewhat which is done on God’ s; ours is the external performance, His is the inward blessing, and gives power and virtue to the performance; now, this latter is that which David begs here of God, and so should also be done by us. II. The special good and benefit which he promises to himself from this purging; and that is in two expressions more: first, in the positive, “ I shall be clean” ; and, secondly, in the comparative, “ I shall be whiter than snow.” First, we see here in general how David was rightly opinionated of the means of grace; he was sound in this article of justification and reconcilement by Christ. And we see further of what use it was to him in the condition in which he now was, as thereby to hold up his spirit, and keep him from despair, which otherwise he might have fallen into. These words here are not a motive or argument which he uses to God for which He should purge him; but only a comfort and encouragement to himself, when he considers with himself what effect would follow hereupon of His purging of him. As a sick and diseased person, who is repairing to some skilful physician, and, while he goes to him, thinks of that health and recovery which he should obtain by him, so does David here in this place. But then for the particular words themselves:” “ I shall be clean, and I shall be whiter than snow.” It is doubled for the certainty of the thing, and also to show the largeness of David’ s affection to it. But we must know what is meant by them, and what they refer unto. Now, for this there is a double whiteness or purity of the saints; the one is in point of justification from righteousness imputed, and the other is in point of sanctification from righteousness inherent. Now, it is not the latter, but the former, which is hero intended: our sanctification in this life is imperfect, and the whiteness which we have from that is not so transcendent. But David in this text speaks of his whiteness from being washed in the blood of the Lamb, and having this blood sprinkled upon him in justification and remission of his sins for Christ’ s sake; and so there is in it, That that person which is justified by Christ, and hath His blood sprinkled upon him, he is perfectly free from all guilt in the sight of God, and is in God’ s account as if no sin had been committed by him. When we say that a justified person is thus perfectly clean and white, as to the pardon and forgiveness of his sins, we mean it in these two respects especially: first, as to the discharge of him from punishment and condemnation; God will not exact any penalty of him for them: He may chastise His servants (as He did David) after pardon, in a way of discipline; but He does not punish them in a way of satisfaction. Secondly, in regard of God’ s love and affection. He is now as perfectly friends with him as He was before, though perhaps He may not express Himself so lovingly towards him; as it is thought also He did not now to David, who lost much of his former sweetness in God. The ground and reason of all is, the sufficiency of Christ’ s satisfaction and obedience which he hath exhibited to God’ s law for ourselves, both passive and active (Ezekiel 16:14). Now therefore because the righteousness of Christ is such as is whiter than the snow, therefore are we so upon His account. (Thomas Horton, D. D.) The complete acceptance of the penitent The imagery of the acceptance, the details, so to speak, of the pardon, are taken from the ceremonies employed in purifying the sufferer from that most loathsome, most deadly disease, leprosy, whose lingering corruption has been called a very sacrament of sin. God is treating us for leprosy. I. The cleansing of the leper, which David here refers to, is full of significance. The two birds to be taken speak of Him who is of two natures, human and Divine. The cedar-wood speaks of the fragrant wood of the cross. The hyssop, the lowly plant used for purifying, sets forth the personal application of Christ’ s pardon to the soul. The scarlet is the royal robe of Him who “ reigns from the tree.” And these are all bound to the living bird, typical of the Divine nature in Christ, from whom all ordinances derive their significance. Arid then there is the sprinkling of the blood and water on the penitent, and the living bird carries away the taint, as it were, with him, in his escape to the open field. Truly as we gaze upon the Cross, shining more and more clearly through the symbols’ , we see His figure bending towards us; we hear Him saying, “ This is He that came by water and blood.” II. “thou shalt purge me with hyssop.” Do we quite believe it? That the hyssop is bound to the scarlet robe of the King, and tied to the cedar of the cross, and dipped in the blood and water, and bound up with the living bird--the Divine nature of Jesus Christ? Do we quite believe it, that we can have something more to help us, beyond the strong resolution, so often broken; more than the effort of our own will--the grace of the blood of Jesus Christ Himself, to help us to overcome the old sin. III. “whiter than snow.” More than cleansed: white--whiter than snow; that is, something to be afraid of defiling; something to fear falling away from; not a mere pall of whiteness, hiding corruption beneath, to be trodden down by the busy traffic of life, but in itself white and pure, attracting the rays of heavenly love. In the days of the martyrdoms, it is said that a Christian the night before his sufferings fell asleep in his prison, and dreamed a dream of Paradise. He was walking in a garden of delight, where all was made of the purest transparent glass, clear as crystal. The trees glanced and flashed as they waved their boughs, the ground sparkled and shone; and the people themselves, who moved up and down there, they were of glass too; but as he went along his way, he noticed that hands were pointed at him in amazement. Men shrank from him in horror, and he looked. He was of glass as well; and on his breast was a dark spot, a shadow amidst all this light. In an agony of shame he clasped his hands over the place. In vain! they also were of glass, and the defilement shone through them. And he remembered that he was not in charity with a fellow-Christian; some trifling difference he had thought it, but it was a dark spot in Paradise, and a strange spectacle among the blessed, lie sent for him, he asked his pardon; he was called to Paradise. If a Christian could feel thus of an act or thought simply wanting in charity, what of our whiteness; what of our hearts? IV. “That the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice.” The broken bones of our life may yet be sources of icy. Selfishness may be so completely crushed out as to leave us the real virtue of self-respect. Cowardice, which shrunk from danger, may lead us, still feeling the danger, to be the first to meet it. Faults of temper, want of self-control, undisciplined life, indolence--in all these points, where we sink back beaten, we may yet rejoice. Is not this something for us to do this Lent? (Canon Newbolt.) Forgiveness of sins I. The meaning of the Psalmist’ s prayer.1. A deep sense of sin. (1) Sin is a disease odious in its nature. It is contrary to the nature of God, and defiling to the soul of man. (2) Sin, like leprosy, is contagious in its influence. All ranks and orders of men are pervaded with it. (3) Sin, like leprosy, is fatal in its effects. If it be not speedily cured, it will issue in death, an everlasting separation of soul and body from God. (4) Sin, like leprosy, is incurable by any remedy of our own prescription. It bids defiance to every hand but God’ s. 2. A believing discovery of the only effectual way of deliverance from sin. (1) The blood of Christ is of value sufficient to cleanse from all sin. (2) In order to enjoy its virtue, it must be applied. (3) Wherever it is thus applied, its transcendent efficacy will be made apparent. II. Improvement.(1) The encouragement which the Gospel affords to awakened sinners, and to drooping saints. 2. The character of those who will be welcome guests at the table of the Lord. (T. Chalmers, D. D.) Human sin and Divine cleansing I. The deep conviction of sin in an awakened sinner. II. The power of God to cleanse from sin. “ Purge me with hyssop,” etc.1. Sin and its stains may be removed from the soul. “ The blood of Jesus Christ” is but another word for the love of God, which found its supreme expression in Christ’ s death for us. 2. The cleansing power of the Word of Christ is more than sufficient for the removal of the stains of sin, “ whiter than snow.” III. The way by which the exercise of this power is secured. Some men are cleansed from sin, yet not all men. What is the reason?1. To be personally effective, this cleansing power must be personally realized. Water is abundant, but only those who apply it to their bodies are cleansed by it. 2. To be personally realized, it must be personally solicited. Asking is the condition of receiving. (William Jones.) Hyssop an emblem of Christ The hyssop hath many things wherein it representeth Christ very nigh.1. It is obscure, humble and abject; so that Solomon is said to have written of all trees, from the cedar the highest tree, opposed to the hyssop springing out of the wall, that is to the basest and most common: growing amongst stones, not through man’ s industry planted, as other trees are. So Christ in whom we believe was contemptible, in Him was no beauty, with Him no riches or earthly honours, which make men come in credit and account. 2. Hyssop is bitter and sour, not pleasant to the drinkers: so the cross of Christ, by which our affections are mortified, is very odious to the flesh, and agreeth not with its taste. His cross is therefore a stumbling-block to the Jews, and folly to the Gentiles. 3. Albeit it be sour, yet it is most wholesome: so albeit the doctrine of repentance (wherein we are taught to run out of ourselves and to take hold on Christ) be irksome and unsavoury to the flesh, yet it is wholesome to the soul. Natural men esteem this doctrine to be an enemy to them, which would slay their corruptions and lusts. Medicine, which at first seemeth bitter, afterwards becometh more comfortable: so the doctrine which is salted with salt and hyssop, is fitter for us than that which is sweetened with honey; for honey was never appointed to be used in the Lord’ s sacrifices, but salt. (A. Symson.) Whiter than snow I. Here is a prayer which is universal, and yet personal. Like some great battle-plain at nightfall, where the wild hosts have contended, leaving the shade to cover the dying and the dead, the whole world is vocal with wailings and desperation and pain and hopeless agony. Pierced and bleeding, souls suffer and cry, and each one says “ me” and “ my” with a dreadful sense of ownership, and yet all seem to say the same. II. This prayer is intensely special, and yet thoroughly inclusive. III. This is a prayer which is characterized by utter desperation, coupled with a supremely confident hope. When the guilt-burdened penitent prays, “ Wash me,” he is certain that he has reached a point at which he cannot wash himself. He lets go of all dependences he had previously tried to lean upon, precisely as Naaman did when he gave up his pleading for the rivers of Damascus, and started for the Jordan, commanded to bathe there and be clean. He accepts help on the helper’ s terms. IV. This prayer is unusually extravagant in utterance, and yet entirely legitimate in its meaning. (C. S. Robinson, D. D.) Whiter than snow “ Whiter than snow!” What can be whiter than newly fallen snow? You have seen it in the first early light of the morning, before it has been stained by the world, and it has been so dazzlingly pure that it has made your weak eyes smart with the brilliance. It stretches out before you clean and white as an angel’ s wing. Then the city awakes. Its fires are lighted. Its chimneys pour out continuous streams of smoke. The atmosphere becomes thick and heavy, and dirty. A thousand impurities pass over the white snow-robes, and leave the black impressions of their unclean feet. It loses all its radiance. It becomes more and more impure, until at last it becomes the uncleanest of all things, dirty snow. Now, the whiteness of the snow is our type and symbol of innocence. We speak and think of the little ones as innocent, and when we wish to express their purity, we use the figure of nature’ s purity, and declare them “ white as snow.” But the snow is soon soiled. Innocence is soon lost. The foul air of worldliness is breathed upon it, and its white lustre is gone. Well, now, placed in that atmosphere, what does the Lord expect of us? Does He expect us to retain our whiteness? Yea, we have to keep our garments undefiled. His purpose is that we should pass through temptation, and yet stand before Him at last “ not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing.” The demand of our religion is that we keep ourselves “ unspotted from the world.” Our Master prayed that we might be in the world, and yet not of it; in the world but not worldly; not merely walking in innocence, but in the more perfect whiteness of holiness. Now, can that be realized? Take the life of a business man in these days when there is such a terrible strain in the procuring of daily bread. There is, in business circles to-day, an immense quantity of defiling pitch. Can any man keep himself white and unspotted? Again and again I have heard the answer, “ No, it is impracticable and impossible. A man must be spotted; he cannot keep himself white, and if he is wise he will go into the world with garments that will show spots as little as possible, garments as near the world’ s colour as he is able to procure.” So much for the business man’ s life. Now, take a minister’ s life. A minister can sell his honour to gain the bread of applause. He can be besmirched by flattery. He can be lured by a false ambition. He is beset by innumerable temptations to worldliness. Can the Master’ s ideal be realized? Can he keep his garments white? Can we appeal to experience both for the minister and the business man? I do not believe in that sweeping condemnation of business men, which proclaims them all to be a spotted flock. There are men who in their business life keep their hands as clean and their hearts as tender as when they pray, or as when they talk to their little child. Social life with all its uncleanness is illumined by souls who walk in spotless white. The ministry is adorned by many men whose hands and hearts are undefiled. There are souls who wear the white flower of a blameless life. But even if we had no such examples of.pure and spotless lives, to which we could make appeal, we have still before us the Word of God, with its clear demand for spotless purity. The Bible never makes a compromise. It never lowers its standard. Jesus of Nazareth passed through our world unspotted, with garments whiter than snow. He lived our common life. He experienced our infirmities. He was beset with temptations, hedged about by worldliness. He felt the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them. I ask, how was it accomplished, that in a corrupt and sinful world He kept Himself unspotted from the world? I turn to the simple record of His life, and there is one outstanding feature which impresses me deeply from beginning to end. I am impressed with Jesus’ overwhelming sense of the reality of God’ s immediate and continual presence. He carried about His own atmosphere. So did Paul. So do all true followers of Christ. We must carry about with us the atmosphere of heaven if we are to escape defilement from the atmosphere of earth. (J. H. Jowett, M. A.) Whiter than snow What could be blacker than this man as he lay in his sins? His soul was stained with the most horrid and revulsive sins. Yet he seeks to be washed, and knows that, when washed, he will we clean, whiter than the driven snow. Ah, that virgin flake is very white, as it spreads its delicate network on the withered leaf: but there is one thing whiter still. Who are these in white robes, and whence came they? These are they that came out of great tribulation; out of dark pits of sin and death. Some were thieves, and some were murderers: and some were adulterers and murderers combined, as David was. Manasseh is there, who filled the streets of Jerusalem with innocent blood; and Mary Magdalene, out of whom Christ cast seven devils; and thousands more, once vile as they: but now there is not a stain on their garments; they have all been washed in the blood of the Lamb, and they are all whiter than snow, without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing. (T. Alexander.) Whiter than snow The Prince of Wales (now King Edward) once heard an unexpected sermon from a little girl, and it came about in this way. A nobleman, a widower, had a little daughter under ten years of age. He was very fond of his daughter, though his engagements prevented him seeing very much of her. The child was, therefore, mostly in the society of her governess, or in the nursery. Now, her nurse was an earnest Christian woman. She felt for her motherless little charge, and early stored the child’ s mind with Scriptural truths. The father used sometimes to amuse his little daughter by asking riddles; and one night, when she came in after dinner for dessert, she said to her father, who was not a Christian, “ Father, do you know what is whiter than snow? No,” said he, somewhat puzzled; “ I do not.” “ Well,” replied the child, “ a soul washed in the blood of Jesus is whiter than snow.” The nobleman was surprised, and asked, “ Who told you that?” “ Nurse,” was the reply. The father did not discuss the point, and conversation changed to other topics; but he afterwards privately requested the nurse, whose opinions he respected, not to mention these matters to his daughter, as at her tender age he feared she might take too “ gloomy” a view of life. The incident was accordingly forgotten; but not long after the Prince of Wales was visiting the house, and the little girl was allowed to be present. The Prince, with his usual affability, noticed the child, and, thus encouraged, she said, “ Sir do you know what is whiter than snow?” The Prince, not seeing the drift of the question, smiled as he answered, “ No.” “ Well,” she answered, “ a soul washed in the blood of Jesus Christ is whiter than snow.” The remark was overheard by the father; his little girl’ s words, heard by him a second time, were used to carry conviction to his heart; he became an earnest and devoted Christian, and thousands will hereafter rise up and call him blessed. God Almighty’ s White The Rev. F. B. Meyer, in the course of his visitation, saw a woman hanging out clothes which impressed him as being unusually white, for which he commended her. After spending a short time with her in the house, and coming to the door, he found a flurry of snow had whitened the ground. “ Ah,” said Mr. Meyer, “ the clothes do not look so white as they did.” “ Oh, sir,” cried the woman, “ the clothes are right; but what can stand against God Almighty’ s white?” Psalms 51:8-10 Make me to hear of joy and gladness, that the bones which Thou hast broken may rejoice.The depression of believers This is the language of David at a period of trouble. His soul was depressed. He was fully conscious of his sins, but he was not conscious of forgiveness. He pleads with God for pardon, and, sensible of indwelling sin, he pleads for deliverance from its dreadful power. We can readily perceive some reasons why such depressions of mind should sometimes exist.1. There are many instances of great unfaithfulness in the love and service of God. In such instances, doubts and difficulties of mind arise on both gracious and natural principles. It is a principle of grace, in God’ s dispensation of it, to withdraw His Spirit from those who forsake Him. He puts out their light. He leaves them to wander in the darkness of a spiritual abandonment, as an act of discipline, sometimes as intolerable to the soul as it is deserved. And such depressions arise-- 2. From the difficulties of determining character. Almost anything else is more easily determined than the question of character in the sight of God. But we lay down this principle: We affirm that there is a difference between the religious doubting, darkness and depression of mind which sometimes assail a true believer, and the doubting, darkness and depression which would belong to him if he were not a true believer; we affirm that there are peculiarities of grief and fear and anxiety in the dark soul-troubles of a child of God. We aid him as far as we can. We name some of the peculiarities accompanying a true believer’ s depression of mind.1. In his depression of mind, when he doubts sometimes of his piety and fears final ruin, or mourns because he has no more evidence of his adoption; a true believer finds his soul uneasy and troubled more constantly than it would be if he were not a true believer, but were only a Christian in mere name. 2. Christian depression has a kind of supremacy about it. It swallows up all other things and regards them in comparison as trifles.. A believer in his trouble is not tempted by the world. An unbeliever may be. He would renounce anything to attain that for which his soul longeth. It is supreme with him. 3. There is a deeper sensibility and a greater degree of anguish with a believer in his spiritual abandonment than an unbeliever knows anything about. He does not feel like the orphan that never knew a father; he feels like a disowned and outcast child. He has no more a father, no more a home or a hope. There is nothing for him to turn to, and no friend for him to hope in. 4. In the seasons of his sadness a true Christian will be looking very much to God for relief. The psalm before us is an example. 5. Notice the resort to this means of grace will always mark the course of a troubled Christian. Pray he will. He will pray when, from his dark and unsoothed experiences of anguish, he finds and knows that prayer does him no good. 6. Amid the dark glooms of a believer’ s trouble there will be occasional flashes of light. The cloud will sometimes break away. The sun will appear, if not in its glory, at least in its glimpses. And, accordingly, you find in the prayers of depression and doubt recorded in the Bible such a mingling together of complaint and complacency--of gloom and gladness--of trial and triumph, as makes them appear to an unwise mind like inconsistencies and absurdities. Job was compelled to make one of the bitterest of all possible lamentations. But there came flashes of light. “ He knoweth the way that I take.” 7. In all the depression and gloom of a believer, there are very few ideas of darkness and trouble which have their origin in any uncertainty of mind in respect to the realities of religion in respect to God or any of the truths of Christianity. He knows the reality of religion. He knows the security of it. He knows the blessedness of its experience, His trouble is that he cannot get at such blessed realities for himself. He would be less troubled if he had any, doubt about the good he longs for, and if he did not set upon it such an indescribable value. (T. S. Spencer, D. D.) David’ s prayer for joy and gladness I. The request itself.1. The thing petitioned for. “ Joy and gladness.” (1) As there is a spiritual life, so there is also a spiritual joy, and the one follows from the other: every kind of life has its joy, Which is attendant upon it: not only the rational life, which is the highest of the life of nature; but also the sensitive, as the life of beasts; and the vegetative, which is the life of plants. These have their proportionable cheerfulness, and comfortableness, and joyfulness, which is belonging unto them; and therefore the life of grace in a more especial manner. And as in this there is joy for the principle, there is a spirit and affection of joy; so there is also joy for the object, there is matter and occasion of joy for that principle to close withal. There is joyful tidings and occurrences; there are such things as do provoke joy in those persons which are capable of it, and are fit subjects for it, as pardon of sin, and assurance of this pardon, and communion with God, and hopes of heaven: these are things which put gladness into the hearts by way of object and occasion to it. (2) The properties and effects of it. (a) This inward spiritual joy, this joy which is peculiar to religion, is an enlivening and strengthening joy. The joy of the Lord is your strength; it enables a man in some measure for those duties which God requires at his hands. It is compared to oil (Psalms 45:7). Now, we know the property of oil is to supple and qualify the parts and members of the body, and make them fit for service: so does this joy of the spirit. Sadness, and melancholy, and discontent, it is a lumpish business, it takes men off from doing their work; but joy it puts life into them, it expedites them, and makes them ready to every good work. (b) As it makes men active in doing good, so also patient in suffering evil. It carries a man through crosses and tribulations with a great deal.of support above other men (Romans 5:2-3). (e) It is durable and lasting, a joy which no man can take away (John 16:22). This is the difference betwixt a Christian’ s joy and a worldling’ s; betwixt a believer’ s and an hypocrite’ s. As for the latter, it quickly withers and comes to an end; it is but for a moment, as Job speaks (Job 20:25). It is like the crackling of thorns under a pot, as Solomon (Ecclesiastes 7:8). But the former it lasts and continues, though not always in the same measure and degree for the vigour and liveliness of it, yet for the substance of it still it does; and especially for the true ground, and matter and occasion of it. (d) It is a transcendent joy, it does transport and raise the soul after an eminent manner (1 Peter 1:8). It is such a joy as the greatness whereof is unable to be expressed unto us, especially when it is in that measure and degree as sometimes it is; as some of the blessed martyrs have sometimes had experience, when they have been so filled with joy as that they have despised their greatest torments themselves. 2. The manner and conveyance of this joy and gladness to the soul. “ Make me to hear,” etc. When we speak of the hearing of joy, we may conceive of it two manner of ways; either, first, by the hearing of the ear in the ministry of the Word; or, secondly, by the hearing of the heart in the application of the Spirit to the conscience: both these ways did David pray that he might hear joy and gladness. 3. The author and worker of all this in us, the spring and fountain from whence it proceeds, and that is God Himself, “ Do thou make me to hear.” This it may be carried respectively to all which hath been said before; and we may take notice of it in a threefold reference. (1) To the occasion. “ Make me to hear joy and gladness:” that is, send me such a preacher as may speak seasonably and comfortably to me. It is God who hath a hand in this (Psalms 68:11). (2) To the performance. Make me to observe what I hear. (3) To the success. As the Word itself is comfortable, so let it have a comfortable effect upon my heart to fill it with comfort. II. The enlargement or amplification of this request, from the end or drift in propounding it. “ That the bones,” etc. The meaning of it is this; that I may receive comfort after so much terror and trouble and distraction as I have been exercised withal. These broken bones are a metaphor taken from the body applied to the soul, to express unto us the anguish and vexation of it. There are two things considerable in this clause; first, here is somewhat implied; and, secondly, here is somewhat expressed: that which is implied is David’ s condition, and that is to have broken bones, that which is expressed is David’ s desire, that these broken bones might rejoice.1. We see here that a condition of humiliation is not always a condition of despair. Broken bones are recoverable: a soul may be brought very low through the hand of God, which it is exercised withal, and yet not in a forlorn estate; thus David here, and so other of the saints elsewhere, as Job, and Heman, and Hezekiah, and such as these, they had all a share in these broken bones, and vet for all that recovered and got them up again. 2. Observe somewhat from the order; that great rejoicing it hath oftentimes great trouble preceding and going before it: the broken bones usher in the exultation. This is God’ s usual method, to bring to heaven by the gates of hell; and to make great dejections proper always to great enlargements. This He does, that so He may hereby set a price upon His own comforts, and have them had in greater esteem, and so much the better relished by us, which otherwise they would not be. 3. Observe somewhat also from the opposition of state to state, a state of sadness to a state of rejoicing, and the one promoted by the other; and so there is this in it; that those who have felt most of God’ s terrors are most affected with His comforts: such as these leap for joy, as coming from one extreme to another, from a dark and dismal dungeon into a glorious sunshine. 4. In this transcendent expression, that the bones which Thou hast broken may rejoice; we have this observation likewise intimated to us; how that the servants of God (occasionally and accidentally) gain by their very falls. This is that which David supposes as possible in this petition. As an arm or leg which is broken, when it is once set, is the stronger afterwards; so it falls out to be sometimes in this case with the servants of God. (Thomas Horton, D. D.) That the bones which Thou hast broken may rejoice.--Broken bones Backsliding is a most common evil, far more common than some of us suppose. We may ourselves be guilty of it and not know it. The cunning hunter makes the passage into his pits most easy and attractive, but out of them the way is difficult indeed. So Satan makes the way of apostasy to be very seductive to our natures, but the way of return, were it not for God’ s grace, no human soul would find possible. I. The plight in which David was. His bones had been broken. People speak flippantly of David’ s sin, making out of it an accusation against godliness and an excuse for their own sin. But they should look also at David’ s repentance, for if his sin was shameful, his sorrow for it was of the bitterest kind; and if the crime was glaring, certainly the afflictions which chastised him were remarkable. Children of God cannot sin cheaply. Certainly, David did not. His word here tells that his plight was--1. Very painful. His bones were broken. A flesh wound is painful, but here was a more serious injury. No punishment was probably more cruel than that of breaking poor creatures alive upon the wheel. To such pain David likens his. 2. Very serious. 3. And complicated. It was not one bone, but many. How can they be all set again? And so with David, the greater powers of the soul were grieved and afflicted, in our spirits there are certain graces which are, so to speak, the bones of the spiritual man. Faith, hope, love are amongst them. But how they suffer when a soul is in such plight as David was! 4. Very dangerous, for where several bones are broken, every surgeon perceives how likely it is that the case will end fatally. It is a dreadful thing to be spiritually in such case--faith broken, hope broken, love broken, and the entire man) as it were, reduced to a palpitating mass of pain. It is a dreadfully dangerous condition to be in; for, alas! when men have sinned and suffered on account of it, they may yet turn again to their sins with greater hardness of heart than ever. Read Isaiah 1:1-31. And, again, the case of David was-- 5. Most damaging. For even when God in His mercy heals the broken bones, it is a sad detriment to a man to have had them broken at all. But-- 6. His case was still hopeful. The saving clause lies here, “ The bones which Thou hast broken.” For He who wounds can bind up. II. The remedy to which he resorted. He did not lie down sullenly in despondency, but he turns to God in prayer. And--1. He believed that there was joy and gladness even for such as he. And-- 2. That it must come to him by hearing. The gate of mercy is the ear. “ Incline your ear, and come unto Me, hear and,” etc. Some despise preaching, and say that prayers are everything, especially the public saying of them. But it is to be noted that nowhere in the New Testament did Jesus commission men to celebrate public prayer, but He did say to His disciples, “ Go and preach.” Very little is said about public worship, but the Book teems with references to preaching. The fact is, the sermon reverently heard, and earnestly delivered, is the highest act of worship. And it is the main instrumentality for the salvation of men. May the Lord “ make” us to hear. III. The hope which he entertained. Not that his bones might merely 1.e quiet and at rest, but “ rejoice.” He had been a mass of misery, mercy shall make him a mass of music. The music is generally soft and gentle, and has much of God in it, and goes on unceasingly. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The torment of a roused conscience When David’ s conscience was roused by Nathan’ s ministry, and sot upon the rack, so that he now was sensible of the terror of the Lord, and of the heinousness of his sin, the ease was altered, and that which before pleased him at the heart was now a pain to his heart, the vexation far exceeded all the former pleasures that he found. The pleasingness of sin was gone, the torment following it stuck by him, and it was no easy matter to remove it. (S. Hieron.) David’ s reiteration of requests He had made it already in Psalms 51:1; Psalms 7:1-17, and now again he repeats it. Yea, we may observe how he does it in some respects confusedly, without observing any method or order at all; there is no method in a broken heart: while he is praying for one thing, he does by the bye thrust in another; and while he is praying for assurance, he does preposterously pray for forgiveness, for pardon after joy, which is a thing antecedent thereunto.1. Here is the necessity of this request of all other besides, to desire that God would pardon us our sins; it is that which we have need to put in the front of all other desires; nay, not only in the front, but in the rear; yea, and further, in the whole body of all. Whenever we draw near to God, make any suit or petition to Him, this had need to come in still, as we may say, for the burthen of the song, “ Hide Thy face from my sins.” The reason of it is this, because this is the groundwork and foundation of all other comforts besides: all the good which we receive from God is laid in our reconciliation with Him; and all our boldness and freedom, as to the asking of any good at His hands, so long as there is any guilt charged upon us, we cannot so easily do this; this puts an obstruction to those mercies which we expect from Him. 2. The second is the difficulty of it. Great sins make great impressions and wounds upon the conscience, which are not easily healed and made up. And this God will have to be in His infinite wisdom upon a double account: first, to put a weight upon sin; and, secondly, to put a price upon pardon; that the one may not be too easily ventured on, and that the other may not be too lightly esteemed and slighted, and made nothing of, as it would be ready to be. (Thomas Horton, D. D.) The reparation of sin’ s ravages David’ s prayer here is for more than forgiveness, more than remission of punishment, more than abolition of sin; it is for restoration to what he was before. I. He asks God to forget it all; to forget the home left, the squandered property, the being driven in to God, unwilling and degraded. And all this to be as if it had never been! Is this possible? In one sense, yes; in another sense, no. Think only how we have altered our lives. It is said to have been the constant prayer of a very holy man, “ O my God, make me what I might have been if it never had sinned!” Some of the Jews every Friday go to a place in Jerusalem, known as the Jews’ wailing-place, where there are just a few foundation-stones of the old temple, and there lament their fallen greatness. There are wailing-places, it may be, and always will be, in our own lives. But a new city has risen up, and new duties and new hopes, and God has promised to forget. II. He asks for restoration to strength, as shown in the clean heart and right spirit. The clean heart being a desire for right things in the seat of the affections; the right spirit being a susceptibility to heavenly influence in the seat of the conscience, the inner man. III. He asks for the comforts of religion. “ The comfort of Thy help.” How much there is in these words! (Canon Newbolt.) Psalms 51:9-10 Hide Thy face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.God’ s pardoning grace This psalm is made up partly of confessions and acknowledgments of his great crimes, partly of petitions and supplications, wherein he intercedes for pardon, and prays for forgiveness. And this was but necessary to complete the duty of confession, which without this additional act of devotion might have looked rather like a daring defiance of Divine justice; God having nowhere promised us His pardon, or indeed any other blessing without our asking; nor that He will open the gates of His mercy to penitent sinners, and grant them readmission into His favour again, but upon their earnest applications and importunate knocking. I. The sense and meaning of the words.1. By “ sins” we may understand offences of a high nature, wilful and deliberate transgressions, such as are mightily provoking in the sight of God, from which, therefore, he prays God to “ hide His face.” 2. By “ iniquities” may be understood the common frailties and ordinary miscarriages of our lives, those which with the greatest care we can use, cannot well be avoided; such as we daily run on score with God, which, therefore, he desires may be “ blotted out.” 3. God’ s “ hiding His face “ from anything is His passing it by, and His not regarding it (Psalms 55:1; Ezekiel 39:29). Proportionably to “ hide His face from our sins “ is to overlook them; particularly to suspend sentence, not to proceed to judgment against us, but to forbear us. And this is properly that act of forgiveness the Latins call Igno-scentia, to seem not to know, not to resent injuries, and to put up affronts which are done to His Heavenly Majesty. And, oh blessed God, may every one of us, sinners as we are, say, how do we all of us stand obliged to Thy goodness, that Thou hast not dealt with us according to our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities; but hast lengthened out our time and Thy patience, and given us space of repentance, and left us still in a possibility of salvation, and hast from time to time hid Thy face from our provoking sins, oven when we have boldly and deliberately dared Thy justice to Thy face! Oh, praised be that unspeakable mercy of Thine. 4. To “ blot out all our iniquities” is so to forgive them as that they shall never be remembered more (Ezekiel 33:16). This is a metaphor taken from the usual discharge of debts and release of suits and actions we may have against any man, when we wipe out the score, and cancel all bills and obligations whatever, and give him a free general pardon and quit-claim of all duos or demands. And this is that act of forgiveness which in Latin is called condonatio, an absolute and full discharge. And this is the very term and tenor of evangelical pardon, as Himself hath declared it by His prophet (Isaiah 43:25). Gracious God, be always pleased to hide Thy face from our sins, but never hide it from our persons or from our prayers; which is the severest token of Thy heaviest displeasure. II. The nature of God’ s pardoning grace. Consider the wonderful goodness of God’ s nature in Himself and of His will towards us, that He doth as it were lay aside all His glorious attributes almost, to serve us; and shows us mercy, even in disparagement to His infinite knowledge and holiness and justice; that, though He cannot but see and know our sins, because He knows all things, yet He takes no notice of them: and because they cannot be hid from His face, He hides His face from them; though He cannot but abominate sin, and hate it with a perfect hatred, yet He loves and bears with the sinner; and though He stand obliged as a righteous judge to punish sin, wherever He finds it, yet He delays the punishment in expectation of our repentance. And this is the first act of pardon, or, at least, step towards it, that God doth not rebuke us in His anger, nor chasten us in His hot displeasure; that there is a suspension at least of punishment, a reprieve in order to a full pardon; which follows in the next place, the blotting out of all our iniquities, so as never to be remembered more; and this is the removal of guilt, a total and final discharge for the future, as that is a forbearance of vengeance at present. That in a manner is but present impunity; this is an absolute discharge for ever; and that--1. Total: all mine iniquities; and-- 2. Final: by being blotted out. III. How this forgiveness and full pardon may be attained.1. Contrition. Labour to be thoroughly convinced of thy sins; consider and lay to heart thy dangerous estate; spread thy sins before thy own conscience first, before thou lay them before God in thy confession. Fruit is first bruised and squeezed before it yields its precious liquor; stones, and the hardest metals themselves, when they are melted down, will run. Then, when thou art thus contrite, when thou hast broken thy heart, and melted it with the coals of Divine love, thy soul will pour out itself. 2. Supplication. Get thee to thy Lord right humbly; beseech His mercy to accept thy repentance, and His grace to improve it. Let Him not alone till thou hast obtained a gracious answer. 3. Lay hold on Christ; plead His passion and merits. In His name and mediation thy supplications must hope to speed, and have their designed effect. Lot thy prayers be perfumed in the censer of thy High Priest, and be mingled with His intercessions. 4. Amendment of life; or else all that thou hast done hitherto falls short and comes to nothing, IV. The blessed effects and consequence of this pardoning grace.1. The favour of God as now reconciled in Christ. If thou hast this pardon, thou hast the light of God’ s countenance shining upon thy inner man, and art in the same condition as a child restored to his father’ s love. And this thou mayest know by thy own dutiful behaviour and ingenuous affections, as well as by His kind reception; if thou givest Him cause by thy filial diligence to rejoice in thy return, as thou thyself rejoicest in His reconcilement. 2. This favour procures the peace and quiet of conscience. 3. The gracious assurance of thy present acceptance, both of thy person and performances. 4. The ascertaining of thy future hopes. Present acceptation goes a great way with a faithful servant; but to have, beside and beyond this, an ascertainment of what expectations and future rewards such a servant may look for at the hands of a kind master; this cannot but raise, as well as quiet, his spirit. This will not only fix, but elevate him in his loyalty. V. Marks whereby a sinner may know whether he hath attained this pardon. (Adam Littleton, D. D.) Psalms 51:10 Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.A clean heart I. The blessing asked for. It may refer to two distinct graces, conversion or entire sanctification. For when a man is converted there is still in him an inclination to evil, the struggle between the flesh and the spirit: his soul is not altogether pure. He has need of a more complete sanctification, of deliverance from all sin. And to this our text may be referred. A clean heart is one purified by the Holy Spirit from everything that is contrary to holiness. And it is also a constant heart. “ Renew within me a constant spirit” --so may the words be translated. There is, then, the idea of constancy and establishment (2 Corinthians 13:9; 2 Corinthians 13:11; 1 Peter 5:10). And there is no entire sanctification without it. The Spirit who inspired David with the prayer of our text is the same who dictated to the apostles the pictures of Christian virtues united together, which compose sanctification. David is persuaded that sanctification implies perfect sincerity: “ Behold, Thou desirest truth within” ; he knows that it comprises the wisdom which is the fruit of the instruction of the Holy Spirit: “ Thou didst teach me,” or “ make me to know wisdom in the secret of my heart” (Psalms 51:6). II. The dispositions from which the prayer of David proceeded. It is evidently a fervent prayer, which causes his whole being to rise towards God. But by what way he had been brought to make this request is not the essential thing for us to know. What is clear is that David had fallen very grievously; that his repentance was deep and painful; and that serious reflections on the inward cause of evil occupied his mind. It was his outward sin which obliged him to look within, and attentively examine the state of his heart and tendency to evil. It is as if he had said, “ What Thou ditestes is not only sin manifested without, but its inward principle; the sin which is hidden in the heart, and which is the cause of outward evil.” The Christian cannot, indeed, have at first a perfect view of his inward pollutions. When conversion has been prompt and marked, when the sorrow for past sins has been deep, the agreeable feelings which succeed that sorrow as a consequence of our faith in Christ, the lively joy, the fervent love, check for a time the manifestations of evil. Sin is struck down and bruised; its power is broken. Perhaps God also, in His Fatherly wisdom and tenderness, does not permit His feeble child to see all his corruption from the beginning of his new life. That painful revelation might discourage him if it were made before his faith was strengthened. But if the evil is not yet evident, it is real; the light of the Holy Spirit will manifest it at the right time. And oh, what discoveries he speedily makes! What a mixture in his best actions, and in his whole life! What pride! What envy! What evil thoughts! What avarice! What a legion of other guilty feelings! III. The most powerful encouragements to faith.1. The fact that the Holy Spirit inspires that request is to you a sufficient proof that it is agreeable to God, and that He will hear it. Can you suppose that God would reveal to you the existence of a malady of which you could not be healed? Would He take pleasure in tormenting you by the view of impurity which He would not remove? Such a supposition would dishonour God. Courage, then, ye afflicted ones who heartily take part in the prayer of David, and say, “ O God, create in me a clean heart!” That prayer itself is the pledge of your deliverance. 2. A further encouragement is found in the fact of God Himself delivering His Son to death for you. When it is well understood and felt, is it not a powerful motive to sanctification? Does it not make an irresistible appeal to our love? 3. But, further, the commandments of God enjoin upon us sanctification. “ Be ye holy; for I am holy.” Does not every commandment imply a promise of grace to accomplish what it requires? I bind you, then, not to limit the Holy One of Israel. Wait to receive now the blessing of a pure heart. Begin to ask for it as you have never yet done. Seek it in tim spirit of Jacob when he wrestled with the Lord. (J. Hogart.) David’ s cry for purity I. A remarkable outline of a holy character. He possessed the Holy Spirit, or he could not have prayed that that Spirit might not be taken from him. God had departed from Saul, because Saul had refused His counsel and departed from Him; and Saul’ s successor, trembling as he remembers the fate of the founder of the monarchy, and of his vanished dynasty, prays with peculiar emphasis of meaning, “ Take not Thy Holy Spirit from me.” “ A right spirit” --“ a constant or firm spirit” is the meaning. Then consider the third element in the character which David longs to possess--a “ free” spirit. He who is holy because full of God’ s Spirit, and constant in his holiness, will likewise be free. That is the same word which is in other places translated “ willing” --and the scope of the psalmist’ s desire is, “ Let my spirit be emancipated from sin by willing obedience.” This goes very deep into the heart of all true godliness. And so the psalmist prays, “ Let my obedience be so willing that I had rather do what Thou wilt than anything besides.” II. Desires for holiness should become prayers. David does not merely long for certain spiritual excellences; he goes to God for them. There are some of you that are wasting your lives in paroxysms of fierce struggle with the evil that you have partially discovered in yourselves, alternating with long languor fits of collapse and apathy, and who make no solid advance, just because you will not lay to heart these two convictions--your sin has to do with God, and your sins come from a sinful nature. Because of the one fact, you must go to God for pardon; because of the other, you must go to God for cleansing. There, in your heart, like some black well-head in a dismal bog, is the source of all the swampy corruption that fills your life. You cannot stanch it, drain it, sweeten it. Ask Him, who is above your nature and without it, to change it by His own new life infused into your spirit. He will heal the bitter waters. He alone can. III. Prayers for perfect cleansing are permitted to the lips of the greatest sinners. Such longings as these might seem audacious, when the atrocity of the crime is remembered, and by man’ s standard they are so. Let the criminal be thankful for escape, and go hide himself, say men’ s pardons. But here is a man, with the evil savour of his debauchery still tainting him, daring to ask for no mere impunity, but for God’ s choicest gifts. Does not a prayer like this seem as if it were but adding to his sin? But, thank God, it is not so. Let no sin, however dark, however repeated, drive us to despair of ourselves, because it hides from us our loving Saviour. Though beaten back again and again by the surge of our passions and sins, like some poor shipwrecked sailor sucked back with every retreating wave and tossed about in the angry surf, yet keep your face towards the beach where there is safety, and you will struggle through it all, and, though it were but on some floating boards and broken pieces of the ship, will come safe to land. He will uphold you with His Spirit, and take away the weight of sin that would sink you, by His forgiving mercy, and bring you out of all the weltering waste of waters to the solid shore. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Purity I. Inquire into the meaning of a clean heart, or the proper ingredients and expressions of such a temper of soul.1. A fixed habitual abhorrence of all forbidden indulgences of the flesh. This is that which principally constitutes a clean heart; and from this all the other fruits and expressions of such a temper will proceed. 2. All past impurities, either of heart or life, will be reflected on with shame and sorrow (Jeremiah 31:19; Ezekiel 16:63; Ezekiel 20:42-43). 3. A clean heart imports that the heart is actually freed in a good measure from impure thoughts and irregular desires; or at least that they are not entertained with pleasure and delight. He cannot be at rest till they are dispossessed and gone. 4. A clean heart discovers itself by a cautious fear of the least degrees of impurity. He dares not allow himself to go to the utmost bounds of things lawful, because he reckons himself to be then upon a precipice. 5. A clean heart necessarily implies a careful and habitual guard against everything which tends to pollute the mind (Proverbs 4:23). All loose and vicious company will be avoided as much as may be by those who have a clean heart. Intemperance will be carefully avoided by those who have an earnest concern to maintain their purity. II. Represent the obligations that lie upon us to seek after such a purity of heart.1. A ruling inclination to sensuality is directly contrary to the purity and holiness of the Divine nature. 2. Sensuality has a special tendency to extinguish the light of reason, and to unfit for anything spiritual and sacred. 3. Sensuality is most contrary to the design and engagements of Christianity. Our Lord inculcated the strictest purity upon all His disciples; not only an abstinence from gross outward acts, but from polluting thoughts and desires (Matthew 5:27-30). 4. The blessed hope with which Christianity inspires us, lays us under a forcible engagement to present purity. (1) Those of the contrary temper are absolutely excluded, by the express declarations of the Gospel, from the kingdom of God (1 Corinthians 6:9-10). (2) On the contrary, the promise of the future blessedness is most plainly made to the pure in heart (Matthew 5:8). (J. Evans, D. D.) The uncleanness of the heart, and how it is cleansed I. If the heart must be created anew before it can be a clean heart, certainly, before it is thus new-formed, it is an impure and unclean heart. And this that is here implied is frequently in the Scriptures directly affirmed (Genesis 7:5; Jeremiah 17:19; Mark 7:21). All the evils that are in the world are but evidences of the impurity of the heart, that unclean fountain and original of them. II. wherein the uncleanness of the heart consists. A clean heart is such a heart as hath clean desires and affections; an unclean heart is that which hath unclean and impure desires, a heart full of evil concupiscence. III. The causes of this uncleanness of the heart.1. The impetuousness and continual solicitations of the sensual appetite, which continually sends up its foul exhalations and steams into the heart, and thereby taints and infects it. 2. The weakness and the defect of the imperial part of the soul, the reason and understanding. IV. How it comes to pass that a heart thus naturally unclean is cleansed, which in general is by a restitution of the soul to its proper and native sovereignty and dominion over the sensual appetite; and those lusts that arise from the constitution of the body, and the connection of the soul to it. (Sir M. Hale.) Reformation of heart the main thing needed This is the main thing desirable, even purity and cleanness of heart, that God would bestow this blessing upon us. This is that which the Scriptures does abundantly commend unto us in sundry places (Psalms 73:1; Psalms 24:3-4; Matthew 5:8). This cleanness and purity of heart is commended as the principal thing to be pursued by us, upon a double account.1. As of the greatest eminence, considered in itself: The heart is the best part of a man; therefore there is cause for desiring of the cleanness of that above all the rest. As we see in an house, one would have all the rooms clean in it; but if there be any, better than another, some choice and peculiar chamber that we desire should be so especially. This now is the condition of the heart, it is the best room in all the house: it is best for the constitution of it; and therefore it should be best likewise for the qualification: it is best for its use and employment, and therefore it should be best likewise for its ordering and disposition: that which is the best of us, should be the best in us. We value rooms according to the guests which we entertain into them; and this is the pre-eminence of the heart, wherein God Himself takes special delight to dwell, and to reside; and therefore we should take special care for the cleaning of it, not to put such a worthy guest and friend as He is into a foul and impure lodging: the heart should be clean for its eminence. 2. It should be so also for its influence; and according to this sense especially are we to take it here in this place, in this desire of David. He was now upon the business of repentance, and amendment of life, to set upon a new course of life over what he had of late taken up; and now see here where he lays the groundwork and foundation of such a business as this, namely, in the cleansing of his heart--Create in me a clean heart, O God; he begins with that; this is the spring and fountain of all amendment and reformation whatsoever. They that desire to reform their lives, they must endeavour to reform their hearts; they must labour to have right spirits in them, or else all will be in vain unto them, whatsoever they apply themselves to as concerning this matter. The reason of it is clear, because the heart is the original and spring of all evil, as our Saviour Himself hath told us (Mark 7:21). (Thomas Horton, D. D.) A clean heart “ Heart” comprehends not only feeling, but intellect and will. It suggests the impulsive; the sphere of the emotions and sympathy, of hatred and of love. It suggests the directive; the realm of plans and of judgment, the sphere and home of thought. It suggests the executive; the power which prosecutes purpose, the forces of persistence and resistance; the offensive and defensive energies of the life. The dominion of the heart is inclusive of the threefold sovereignty of emotion, intellect and will. A clean heart is, therefore, very much more than refined and sensitive feeling. It is also inclusive of illumined and clarified discernment; of healthy and wholesome will. “ Create within me a clean heart” is a very wealthy and comprehensive prayer; make my feelings like clean fire, make my thought like a sea of glass. Make my will like a loyal soldier, incapable of mutiny. How is this splendid aim to be gained? By an act of creation. “ Create in me a pure heart, O God.” There is something in creation that is revolutionary: it is the gift of a seed. John Stuart Mill said that a revolutionary force entered into his life on the day he came to know the lady who was afterwards to be his wife. The experience is a commonplace in ordinary life. Intimacies mark the beginnings of revolutions. A father says, “ It was a bad day when my lad became intimate with such a one,” and he mentions the name with bitterness and shame. But why a bad day? A revolutionary force got hold of him, bad principle possessed him. The seed of devilry was implanted, which worked itself out in all manner of unworthiness and sin. The first step in the creation of devilry is to become related to one. On the good side and on the bad the revolutionary in life is occasioned by the establishment of a new relationship. The first requisite in the creation of the Godlike life is relationship with God. Life is revolutionized when man comes into conscious communion with his Maker. Let me illustrate. Here is a reservoir supplying the needs of a great town. The waters become poisoned and defiled. The vast mains become the agents of destruction, the vehicles and purveyors of disease. Epidemics break out. Pestilence abounds. Let me assume that on pure and unpolluted heights there are discovered unmeasured resources of water, clean and undefiled. Let us assume that we could connect the corrupted mains with the clean and wholesome flood. The linking of the two would be the beginning of a revolution. The epidemic would not be obliterated in a day, even with the opening of the crystal flood. But in the revolution would be the potency of health. And here am I, a member of a race, down whose waterways flow currents of diluted and defiled life. That truth is not only proclaimed in the Scripture, it is the doctrine of modern science. One calls it the legacy of Adam, the other the bequest of heredity. “ In Adam all die;” the elements of corruption are transmitted; the reservoir from which I drink has been defiled. Now let us assume that I could become related to some reservoir in the heights, some pure river of water of life. How then? What I bespeak as an assumption has been proclaimed as a gospel. I can change the reservoirs; “ as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.” The heredity can be changed; “ heirs of Adam,” we can become “ heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ.” The first element in the new creation is a new relation. We become “ new creatures” when we become “ one with Christ.” The revolution is succeeded by evolution. Becoming the “ heir of God, and joint-heir with Christ,” I am subjected to a discipline which is intended to develop all the wealth of my inner life. The discipline is intended to discharge the twofold ministry of instruction and chastening. (J. H. Jowett, M. A.) Reformation must begin at the heart A reformation which beginneth at the members and external actions is neither true nor constant. As if a man intending to dress his garden, and purge it from thistles and such-like weeds, would cut off the upper part and leave the roots, which would spring up again: so if thou wouldest chastise thy body and let thine heart remain luxurious, it is nothing. The heart is the fountain, wherefrom springeth all evil, the root from which all sin groweth. He speaketh not of the substance but of the affections and qualities of the heart. No honest man will lodge in a filthy house, or drink or eat except the vessel be made clean; and God cannot abide in a foul, swinish heart. “ Keep thine heart diligently,” saith the Spirit. As a vessel of gold or silver being through long use wasted and broken, is sent to the goldsmith’ s to be renewed, so our hearts worn by sin must be sent to God, that He may put them in the fire, end east them in a new mould, and make them up again. Alas, that we are careful to renew everything, clothes, vessels and all, only careless to renew our hearts. (A. Symson.) Renew a right spirit within me. Gracious renewal I. There is absolutely necessity for God’ s renewal of us if we would persevere.1. Nothing that God has made is self-existent. Not the angels even. The very mountains crumble, and the great rivers have to be perpetually refilled from the mountain snows. 2. This is especially true of all wherein life is. Job’ s war-horse, whose neck is clothed with thunder, must humble himself to his stall and to his provender. Samson himself must have a cleft opened in the rock that he may drink, for though he has slain the Philistines, yet will he perish if his thirst be not quenched. 3. Your own inner consciousness says the same. What downward tendencies there are in us all. We could travel down-hill to hell easily, but upwards to heaven how hardly! 4. And if we will not see this we may be made to, and that terribly, by some surprising sin. See the occasion of this psalm. 5. Unconscious backsliding from God will certainly be upon us unless we experience the renewals of God’ s Spirit. The Church has rest now-a-days, and is where Pilgrim was when he went through the enchanted ground, and the air was heavy, and he had much ado to keep himself from sleeping. Perhaps it is a truthless legend that the holidays of Capua ruined the veterans of Hannibal, but if it be a legend in his case, it is a fact in ours. Therefore we do need to pray, “ Renew a right spirit within me.” And because of-- II. Our own powerlessness to do this. “ Without me,” said our Lord, “ we can do nothing” ; but we do not fully know all that means. When a ship is in sailing order and in good condition, yet she cannot speed on her voyage of herself: even though the sails be spread, there is no hope of her making her port unless the wind shall blow. For to renew a soul is as when Christ called forth Lazarus from the grave: it is to go directly opposite to nature. Who can make water run up-hill, or suspend the cataract in mid-air? Every grace is wanted that was needed in our first conversion. Then pray this prayer, but pray it not falsely, as you will if you use not the means through which God works. He is a hypocrite who asks the Lord to visit him and then nails up his door. III. The blessed results of such renewal--this another argument for our praying this prayer. What joy, what activity, how useful you will be: how light will be the load of this world’ s trials. IV. Remember gospel obligations to renew our covenant with God.1. It was well for you at the first to make this covenant. 2. Jesus often renews it with us, and-- 3. All He has done for us binds us to it. You that have gone astray, pray this prayer. If the Church for thy backslidings has had to cast thee out, if there be still a desire in thy soul to return, Christ waits for thee. And whoever we be, young or old, men or women struggling amid the world’ s cares, or young men and maidens, or young children, come now and renew your vows unto God. (C. H. Spurgeon.) A right spirit 1. By “ spirit” we are to understand either the rational part distinct from the animal, or (which I rather incline to) the rational part in the refinings of it; the more eminent and divine ray of understanding and will; the mind of the mind and the soul of the soul. If there be any part better than other, to be still better in that; not only in the body, but so much the more in the soul; and not only in the soul and mind, but so much the rather in the spirit of it, which is the bent and bias of the mind, the vigour and activity of it, he would be best in that. Now, accordingly, we should ourselves endeavour hereunto likewise. There are none which are so wicked as those which are spiritually wicked; nor none which are so good as those which are spiritually good. Look by how much grace and holiness does at any time take hold on our spirits, so much the better still we are. 2. The second is what is meant by “ right.” (1) In this expression David desires an even carriage of heart, that is, a right spirit, neither turning to the right hand nor to the left, but equally poised and ballasted in him: and so he does hereby show us what is likewise desirable of ourselves, even integrity and uprightness of spirit. (2) A firmness of purpose; our heart settled and resolved. This is very requisite and necessary for us in these regards. (a) In regard of the excellency of the things themselves which are here commended to us: the better anything is, the more cause have we to be resolved upon it, and constant to it. (b) In regard of the natural inconstancy of our own hearts: the more uncertain we are of ourselves, the greater need have we to make ourselves sure by a fixedness and constancy of resolution, and thereby as it were to bind ourselves up. (e) In regard of the manifold temptations and attempts which are upon us to take us off. There are so many baits laid to unsettle us, that unless we peremptorily determine ourselves, we shall never be sure; we have many ‘ assaults upon us to shake us, and to make us let go our hold, for which cause we have need to endeavour after this constant spirit. (Thomas Horton, D. D.) Psalms 51:11 Cast me not away from Thy presence; and take not Thy Holy Spirit from me.A most needful prayer concerning the Holy Spirit This psalm is, beyond all others, a photograph of penitent David. You may have seen that interesting slab of stone which bears on its surface indications of the fall of raindrops in a primeval shower; this psalm preserves the mark of David’ s tear-drops, for the inspection and instruction of succeeding generations. Take our text-- I. As the cry of a penitent child of God. This is its largest, widest and most primitive sense. It is certainly fit language for any child of God who has fallen into gross sin. Backslider, you may yet return; there are pardons for sins of deepest dye. But more, probably, will equally need this prayer on account of gradual backsliding. One great sin startles the soul into repentance, but a continuation of sin will be found to be oven more dangerous. White ants will devour a carcase as surely and as speedily as a lion. Many threads of silk twisted together may hold a man as fast as one band of iron. But the soul that can thus pray has still true spiritual life struggling within. An ungodly man would not care at all, but here is life which sighs after God. How many are the reasons for such a prayer as this! God’ s presence is our comfort amid affliction. It was the Holy Spirit who regenerated us, and into His name we were baptized. And He is the Spirit of adoption. Let anything come between us and our distinct recognition of our sonship towards God, and we are undone. Further, it is by the Holy Spirit that we have access to God. Praying in the Holy Spirit is the only true praying. And He is our great instructor; He leads us into all truth. And we need His aid as our Comforter and Sanctifier, and as our power for practical service. And remember, too, that when a man has sinned as David had, he cannot always pray in language which would be precisely suitable for a well-assured saint. When assurance is gone, and faith is weak, it is a great comfort that we may pray a sinner’ s prayer. II. As the voice of an anxious Church. Remember, there have been Churches from which God has removed His Spirit. The Churches of Asia, and many more recent instances. Therefore remember that the power of a Church does not consist in her organizations; nor her gifts; nor her wealth; nor her doctrines. I know not that Laodicea held false doctrines, yet she was nauseous to the Lord. Nor is a Church’ s strength her numbers. What is a large Church without the Lord’ s presence, but a mass of chaff to be scattered by the wind! And the fall of such Church may be sudden. Therefore how needful for all Churches is this prayer. Take it-- III. As the cry of an awakened sinner. Not accurately, but still instinctively we may thus use it. Oh, unconverted man! if thou art anxious about thy soul, pray this prayer. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Deprecation of God’ s judgments The people of God they understand the nature of spiritual judgments, that they are the greatest and saddest of any; which they are in a twofold respect; first, as considered in themselves, and that mischief which is contained in them; and, secondly, in regard of their influence and extent. First, as for themselves, they are the greatest, as depriving of the greatest good, and carrying the greatest smart with them. Every one prizes any loss according as he is any way sensible of the gain which is lost by it. What is the reason that worldly men make so much of worldly losses, of friends, and honours, and estates, and such things as these? It is because they understand what they mean. Why now thus it is also in spirituals: God’ s children, because they know what it is to enjoy God’ s presence, therefore they are so afraid of being deprived of it. And then in regard of their influence; they know that such judgments as these have other judgments attending upon them; and so they have: first, as to temporal judgments, they are oftentimes forerunners of them: as the Gospel comes not alone, so it goes not alone, nor the comforts which belong unto it. When God afflicts men with spiritual judgments, which it may be they do not regard, He has other judgments for them, following Of them, which they are more sensible of; when David was cast out of God’ s presence, he was in danger of somewhat else with it; and so are others with him. And then especially as to judgment to come. Spiritual judgments, where they are not prevented, end in eternal judgments, and in their own nature tend unto them. Temporary casting out of God’ s presence tends to final and absolute rejection: and the loss of God’ s Spirit for a time tends to the loss of it for ever: this it does in its own nature, however through the goodness of God it does not always take effect; as the firing but of one room in a house speaks the firing of the whole building; and the firing of but one house in particular the destruction of the whole city, though God does graciously come between.:Now the children of God they consider things in themselves, and the nature and tendency of them, as it becomes wise men to do, and accordingly judge of them; and hence are so much afraid of spiritual judgments. (Thomas Horton, D. D.) And take not Thy Holy Spirit from me.--The withdrawal of God’ s Spirit deprecated as the worst of evils 1. The best of saints may fall into the worst of sins. 2. As the best of saints cannot keep themselves from falling, so neither can they raise themselves up again when they are fallen (Psalms 23:3). 3. Where repentance is sincere, a believer matters not what shame he takes, provided by his confession glory may redound to God. I. What it is for God to take away His Holy Spirit. For God to take away His Holy Spirit is for Him to withdraw His sensible gracious influences from the soul. II. For what reasons, or on what accounts it is, that God acts thus towards His own people.1. Pride and self-confidence in the performance of any duty. The apostle seems to be most afraid of that little boasting pronoun I (1 Corinthians 15:1). Grace prepared him for service, grace assisted him in it, grace gave success to it, grace therefore has all the praise. 2. Another reason why God withdraws His Spirit is negligence and sloth in the discharge of duty (Son 5:2). Oh! those formal, lukewarm frames of spirit, our beloved loathes them. Give Christ your whole heart, or give Him nothing. 3. Unimproved mercies is another cause of the removal of God’ s Spirit (1 Kings 11:9). 4. Present sins are another cause of God’ s withdrawing of His Spirit: Samson and David both failed here. III. Why gracious souls cannot bear the loss of God’ s spirit without putting in their plea against it.1. Because He is the Spirit of truth, and without His gracious teachings all the knowledge that we have of God and of Christ will do us no real good. Light in the head will be of little efficacy if there be not life and heat in the heart. 2. He is the Spirit of grace and of supplication, and without His aid we shall be indifferent to duty, and lifeless in it (Zechariah 12:10). 3. The Spirit is a Spirit of holiness, and without His presence all our endeavours after sanctification in heart and life are fruitless, and in vain. 4. The Spirit is the author of all consolation and joy, and without His gracious influences the believer will be ever sorrowing and cast down (John 16:7). Uses.1. If the loss of God’ s presence here be so dreadful, how sad is it ever to be separated from it in the other world? (Psalms 90:11). 2. God has other ways to punish His own people for sin, than casting them into hell for it (Psalms 99:8). 3. Have a care how you grieve the Spirit (Ephesians 4:30). Do not that which is contrary to His nature and will. Embrace His counsels; submit to His government; walk in all the ways of His appointment. (J. Hill.) Withdrawal of the Holy Spirit from the soul There came upon David’ s soul, like a veritable horror, the consciousness that it was possible to go from bad to worse; that, unless God interposed, this might last for ever--this momentary withdrawal of the spiritual power might be permanent. So he seems to say with an awful pathos in his voice, “ Take not Thy Holy Spirit from me.” As I thought of this I wondered whether there rose before the eyes of David the memory of what he himself had seen in the years that were gone. There was his predecessor on the throne--Saul--a man on whom the Spirit of God rested for a while, but who was bereft of the Spirit. When the Spirit had left him, what an awful condition he got into 1 David seems to say within himself, “ O God, have mercy upon me. Do not let me become a Saul, lest I forget Thy judgments and disobey Thy statutes; lest in my hot anger I raise my hand against a just man, and seek to pin him to the wall with my javelin, as Saul did even unto me.” (Thomas Spurgeon.) Psalms 51:12 Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation.The fallen Christian praying for spiritual joy He asks that God would clear away his sorrows as well as his sins, make once again a happy man of him; so that he may not only rise up from the ground on which he has fallen and go on his heavenly way, but, like the Ethiopian convert in the desert, go “ on his way rejoicing.” “ Make me to hear joy and gladness,” he says in Psalms 51:8, and here he prays, “ Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation.” “ Pardon,” we should have said to David at this time, “ is all that you must now dare to ask, pardon and renewed sanctification.” “ No,” says David, “ there is healing in my God for sinners such as I am, as well as pardon; there is comfort in Him for even men like me. I see them in Him, and I will ask them of Him. Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation.” I. The joy of God’ s salvation. “ I do not care how I am made happy,” a man of the world would say, “ so that I am happy.” He has no definite idea of happiness. “ Who will show me any good?” is his language; “ any good” --he cares not what, “ But I can be made happy only in one way,” the really Christian man says; “ I must be happy in my God, and I can be happy in him only as God my Saviour, the God of my salvation.” And if anything can make a sinful creature happy, it is this joy of which we speak. It is the “ joy unspeakable and full of glory,” the only joy that can be truly called Christian joy, or that can meet the desires of the regenerated soul. II. The possession or experience of this joy. Though now without it, David once partook of it. “ Do all the people of God, then,” you may ask, “ experience this joy?” You might as well inquire whether all who dwell on the face of the earth behold the sun’ s light. That sun always exists and is always pouring forth its beams, but men may be shut up within walls, or be turned on the revolving earth away from the sun, or have their organs of vision impaired or closed, and thus have the sun as to them shining in vain. So with the salvation or gospel of God--joy and gladness it is ever capable of giving, and is ever actually giving to multitudes of happy souls who understand and believe it, but not at all times to all who understand and believe it, for the spiritual perceptions of some of them are weak. But let this pass. The point I am now aiming to establish is this--that as there is a spiritual sorrow in the Christian’ s inward experience, begotten in him by the Gospel of God, so there is commonly a joy in his experience, begotten in him also by the salvation of God. III. The loss of this joy. This is a mournful loss. There are varied causes for the instability and changeableness of our minds, but the grand destroyer of our spiritual happiness, the one great extinguisher and demolisher of our joy, is sin--sin indulged; not sin struggled with and kept at bay, but sin yielded to, mentally if not practically committed; sin let into our imaginations and hearts, if not into our houses and lives, and fostered and cherished and fed on there. In David’ s case it was heinous, enormous, complicated sin which laid his joy low; but common, decent sins will do the work as effectually though not as suddenly. IV. The restoration of spiritual joy, its recovery when lost. This the text describes as both desirable and attainable.1. Desirable it was to David’ s soul, or he would not have repeatedly and so earnestly prayed for it. And of this we may be sure, that a man who has once tasted of this joy, who has really felt within his own soul its power and sweetness, will never be content to live long without it. 2. But is this desirable thing attainable? We may safely infer from this text that it is. David is not praying here for an impossibility. He is evidently praying under the Spirit’ s teaching. Such a recovery, however, is not in any case, to say nothing of a case like David’ s, that easy thing which some of us think it. We imagine that when our souls, through some long-continued worldly-mindedness or some sinful indulgence, are comfortless, it is only to hear some cheering sermon, or turn again to God a little more earnestly than usual, and our former peace will revive; but not so. It is not easy to get indulged worldly-mindedness or indulged sin of any kind subdued in the soul and cast out of it; it is still less easy to get rid of the withering and depressing effects of worldliness and sin. The Lord does not hastily heal the wounds that sin makes in the souls of His people, for He wishes them for their good to feel the smart of those wounds; but He has in His covenant health and a cure for them. But the Lord works by means. There is no restoration of joy through those things which the Lord has ordained shall precede joy and, by His Spirit, produce it. And these things are deep humiliation and sorrow on account of sin, and a turning again to God through Christ precisely as we came to Him years ago, to he washed, cleansed, comforted, saved entirely by Him, by His Spirit, righteousness and blood. I know of no other way to the recovery of spiritual peace than this, nor do you. If sin has overtaken and ensnared you, and is at this moment holding you captive, robbing you of every spiritual consolation you once enjoyed, and filling your souls with gloom and wretchedness, be thankful for that gloom and wretchedness while it lasts. God works it in you or causes sin to work it in you, to lead you to a real repentance and so to a real salvation. (C. Bradley, M. A.) Difficulty of recovering joy after sin Those which have ventured upon presumptuous courses, as they do not easily procure sin to be pardoned and forgiven unto them, nor they do not easily procure sin to be mortified and subdued in them, so they do not easily neither recover their former joy. Nay, this latter is more difficult than all the rest; sin may sometimes be pardoned, and also in some manner subdued, when yet the joy which has been driven away by it is not so easily restored again, at least to that degree and measure which it was in before sin was committed and ventured upon by them. These sins of David cost him very dear. But yet we still add that there is a possibility of restoring it, at least in some competent measure, that Satan may not herein prevail against God’ s servants by temptations to despair from trusting in God. Well, but how may it be so? and what is the readiest way hereunto? First, this course which David here takes by solemn and serious humiliation of the soul before God; that’ s the way to get into favour again. Godly sorrow is the only way to spiritual joy. When we bewail our sins before God, and acknowledge both the foulness of our iniquities and the justice and equity of our corrections, this procures both pardon and assurance. Secondly, lying at God’ s foot, and acknowledging His free grace in Christ; as Christ must procure us our pardon, so also our joy. God is always well pleased with Him, and so consequently with all His members in Him and for Him; the more, then, we cleave to Christ, and hang upon God’ s goodness in Him, the better it will be for us; urge God that it was His free grace that gave thee joy at first, and let the same free grace move him still. Thirdly, do thy first works; spiritual joy is recovered in the contrary way to that in which it is lost. Therefore, consider what it is whereby thou provokest God to remove it, and by the doing of that which is most opposite to it, thou mayest persuade Him again to restore it, by crucifying those lusts more especially Which before thou hadst prevailing in thee, and by performing of those duties more vigorously which before were omitted by thee. Fourthly, attend upon the ordinances, the word and sacraments, and the communion of saints; these are means to recover our joy. (Thomas Horton, D. D.) The joy of salvation. - I. The joy of salvation.1. Joy in the retrospect of the past, for salvation is a past blessing. It is something that has taken place already. 2. The joy of present possession, for salvation is a present blessing--the deliverance from pollution a present continuous thing. Perfection is not reached at one stride. 3. The joy of future prospect--for salvation is a future blessing, a something we expect, long for. Views from the sunny heights of Pisgah. II. The joy of salvation lost.1. Through the practice of sin. David, Peter. Many have grievously fallen. Their history are beacon lights to warn us. 2. Through presumption and carelessness. How we watch our outward actions which men see, and neglect to watch our inmost desires which God sees. 3. Through indolence. The laziest man is the most miserable and the most easily tempted. Work is healthy. The most faithful Christians are the most joyful. Work imparts joy, and joy gives strength for work. “ The joy of the Lord is your strength.” III. The joy of salvation restored. This implies--1. Entire dependence upon God. He alone can rekindle the flame. 2. Deep and sincere penitence. Our sins the clouds between us and God 3. Belief in the power of prayer. God will hear. In heaven the joy will be uninterrupted and eternal. (E. Owen, M. A.) Joy in God’ s salvation I. There is a joy in God’ s salvation. Salvation itself, so far as it consists in a state of safety and acceptance, is equal in all believers; the joyful persuasion of it is not equal in all, being dealt out in various degrees by the free Spirit of God, and, on some occasions, even entirely taken away for a time. It is specially His work, who applies unto men this salvation, to produce in them also an assurance of it; and this He does by “ taking of the things of Christ, and showing them unto them” so vividly, that they can see in His work a sufficient satisfaction to the Father’ s justice for their sins, and can exercise on it consequently such a degree of reliance as brings their souls repose and peace; by “ shedding abroad the love of God in their hearts,” the sure pledge of reconciliation; and by leading them to delight in His service and fellowship. II. This joy may be lost.1. It is not every degree of sin remaining in a believer that will have this effect. The joy of God’ s salvation is compatible, in some good measure, with those remaining sins which still cleave to the flesh, though these do unquestionably impair it, and that they who walk, on the whole, humbly with God, and in reliance on His grace, ought not to shut themselves out from the comfort of the Gospel; for it is just to such humbled, convinced, believing souls who mourn for sin, and conflict with it, that all the promises of pardon, perseverance and eternal life are made. 2. We may lose the joy of God’ s salvation without sinning so deeply as David did. It would be extremely dangerous in one to calculate how far he may go in sin without forfeiting his peace. The truth is, he cannot go far. The peace of the Gospel is easily lost, but not easily regained; and even when not entirely lost, it may be more or less diminished, and, in fact, will ever be in proportion to one’ s spirituality of mind. It may be diminishing even when the person is not aware of it. For the most part, the first deviations from holiness may be so gradual as to be scarcely perceptible, and the peace of mind, consequently, little disturbed; yet these inroads on his spirituality and comfort may, and will proceed, unless checked by Divine grace, till they utterly strip him of both. III. The joy of God’ s salvation may be restored. God has an end in view in removing it. It is to punish His people, and when they are punished in such measure as is necessary for bringing them to a just sense and acknowledgment of their sin, it will be restored. He, therefore, in furtherance of His gracious designs toward His people, by a new communication of reviving grace, brings them to a sense of their sin--for sin deadens the soul, so that the first motions of repentance must be from God. Their affections, after this temporary estrangement, return with greater force to Him, whose lovingkindness they have, in their bitter experience, found to be better than life; and He, who knows the heart, and who has Himself wrought all this in them, satisfied with the depth of their repentance, forgets and forgives their ingratitude, and restores unto them the joy of His salvation. With a compassion truly astonishing and generous, He observes, He cherishes the first motion of the heart towards Himself. He sees His once prodigal but now returning child a “ great way off,” and has compassion, and runs and embraces him. (A. L. R. Foote, D. D.) The joy of salvation I. David’ s prayer. It implies--1. That David had lost the joy of salvation--no uncommon experience. May be caused by-- (1) Open sin.(2) Worldliness.(3) Neglect of duty. 2. The desire to have the joy of salvation restored. 3. The desire to maintain a Worthy character. David prayed that he might be kept in a state of mind in which he would willingly, spontaneously, promptly obey God. II. David’ s promise.1. To teach others. Saved sinners are best fitted to tell of the Saviour of sinners. 2. He promises to teach even the worst men--“ transgressors,” those who are rebels against God and apostates from truth. “ The worst men need the best teachers,” the worst diseases the most experienced physicians. 3. David promises to teach the worst people the best truths--“ Thy ways.” This is a marvellous subject, it includes all history and experience. It includes all time and space, all science and art, all truth wherever found. Wonderful theme! It may well fill the mouth of preachers the world over. It will be our song and glory in eternity. “ When thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.” Tell of the ways of God. III. David’ s persuasion.1. He was persuaded that his teaching would reach sinners. They would see the evil of transgression; they would be convinced that mercy could be found. The Gospel is mighty; an uplifted Christ is the mightiest magnet the world has ever known. Believe this truth; preach it. 2. He was persuaded that they would be moved to action. This is not a passive verb, “ shall be converted.” It is an active verb. They shall turn or return. This is its meaning. This is the end to be sought. Men have wandered from God; they must return, 3. David was persuaded that their return would be complete. They would return “ unto Thee.” Not converted to certain church rites, but to Jesus Christ. Christ first; other things will follow. (R. S. MacArthur, D. D.) Salvation I. The theme--salvation. Deliverance, restoration, preservation. II. A salvation imparting joy. III. A sad experience. He had lost this salvation; and felt like Tamar--“ And I, whither shall I hide my shame?” It was a manifold loss--the salvation of his God and the serenity of his soul, the fealty of his heart and the favour of his God--contamination entered, communion fled, sin tasted, joy gone. It was the result of his settled, yet stupid, choice; the perfect liberty he coveted he finds galling vassalage. IV. The way to regain it. V. The way to retain it. Cry to God for strength. “ Uphold me with Thy free Spirit.” The Spirit must not only attest our acceptance, but keep us by guiding our feet into the way of peace, by a complete transformation of the faculties of the soul, so that they can only delight in spiritual objects; by giving it such refined tastes that all sinful food will nauseate. VI. The way to rejoice in it. “ Then Will I trust,” etc. The best way to strengthen our graces is to exercise and utilize them. VII. The time. “ Then,” and not till then. Conversion is one of those things we must experience before we are qualified to speak about it. VIII. The effect. “ Sinners shall be converted unto Thee.” “ Herein is My Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit.” (W. Hassall.) The Christian’ s joys restored I. Salvation has joys--the Christian s duty and privilege to possess them.1. In so changing our relations as to put us in harmony with God. (1) Once rebels, now obedient subjects.(2) Once lost and condemned, now saved and pardoned.(3) Once strangers, now children. 2. In enlarging our field of usefulness. No man is prepared to live till he is born again. II. These joys may be lost. This accords with the sad experience of God’ s most faithful servants.1. One cause of the joyless life of many professed Christians is the want of salvation. How can they expect an effect without a cause? 2. Another source is the neglect of known duties. (1) Prayer.(2) Reading the Bible.(3) Assembling themselves together. 3. Retaining sin in the heart. 4. Being wise above what is revealed. 5. Giving more time and care to our secular interests than to the service of God and the cultivation of the heart. III. These lost joys may be restored. How indulgent, patient and kind is the backslider’ s God!1. They will be restored. (1) Entirely.(2) Willingly.(3) Immediately. 2. The Christian’ s happiness and usefulness are complete when he is in the full enjoyment of salvation. (E. A. Taylor.) A restoration to joy desired I. In the child of God there are all the seeds of departure from God. When he rises in the morning there is need to have this perpetually brought before him--“ This day, as yesterday, I possess the seeds of all departure from God; so that I have need to be held up; I have need to be kept in; I have need to be kept from presumptuous sins.” What departure there may be in a look; in a word; in a tone of voice; in a thought--actual departure from God! Oh! I believe there are periods in which the Lord takes off His check, and reproves sin by sin. And then what is the effect? Why, the outside goes on, but what becomes of internal religion? There are the prayers, but where is the secret dealing with God? There is no absolute neglect of outward duties, but how little of God is there in all! II. Wherever there is departure from God, in direct proportion as it prevails, there is a tendency to lessen the believer’ s joy. The Word is not what it once was to you; sermons are not what they once were to you; intercourse with the people of God is not what it once was to you. You have secret prayer, but it is not what it once was to you. There is a want of sweetness, there is a want of substance, there is a want of fruitfulness, there is a want of realization in your religion. Look well to it, for there must be a cause--some sin, some neglected duty, some worldly conformity. III. Power to restore is here attributed to God himself. (J. H. Evans, M. A.) Restoration to spiritual joy I. That which is lost--spiritual joy. It can be lost--1. By lack of cultivation. You may sow a seed or plant a tree, but unless these are watered and cultivated they will die. Christian joy must be cultivated by prayer, praise, and growth in grace. 2. By indulgence in sin. He will withdraw from the sinner, and then the” sunshine ceases. 3. By want of faith. We often blame circumstances, etc., as we fall into the slough, when it is our own doubts that are shutting out the light. No one can rejoice who does not trust. Confidence is the root of peace and doubt the handmaid of torment. II. That which is sought--a restoration of that which has been lost. Not anything new. And this desire is natural. For--1. The soul has experienced its preciousness. 2. The soul recognized that its loss involves the displeasure of God. Hence the petition so earnestly urged. It is the Divine anger that takes away the joy. This is a greater sorrow to the Christian than his own loss. No wonder that he seeks for restoration. (Homilist.) Joy in salvation I. Salvation, and the joy of salvation, are separable things. II. Salvation has a joy with which it may, and should, be connected.1. Joy is the natural fruit of salvation possessed and experienced.2. All the proper exercises of religion are in themselves joyous--love, faith, hope.3. The command of God is, “ Rejoice evermore.”4. The fruit of the Spirit is--“ joy.”5. The language of the Psalms is, to a great extent, the language of joy. III. The joy of salvation, after being obtained, is often lost.1. This was exemplified in the case of David--strikingly in that of Job.2. Joy depends on a conscience void of offence.3. Joy depends on having a heart right with God.4. Joy depends on seeing the evidences of our discipleship to Christ.5. Joy depends on the measure of our faith.6. Joy depends on realizing the presence, and seeing the excellency of God.7. Joy depends on God, in His sovereignty. IV. Spiritual joy is something to re greatly desired.1. David felt it to be so--he longed for it.2. Each believer feels it to be so--if he cannot; rejoice in God, he can rejoice in nothing.3. It is a foretaste of heaven (1 Peter 1:8).4. It is the spirit of praise (Isaiah 35:10).5. It is a support under affliction (Habakkuk 3:17-18).6. It fits for duty. “ Then will I teach,” etc. He who has not a sense of God’ s favour and presence is a coward.7. It is obedience to God’ s requirements. V. Joy is to be sought only as the fruit of salvation.1. David sought only for this kind of joy--he had earthly pleasures in abundance.2. The joys of salvation are the purest, and greatest, and most enduring.3. Without these, the others are not accessible to the believer.4. The great effort of man is to be happy independently of these joys. (1) He fails in time.(2) In eternity.(3) God the source of joy, and of pain. 5. You can reach these joys only through salvation. VI. A restoration to spiritual joy is to be sought for in prayer.1. God is its source.2. God is its Author. “ Thy salvation.”3. By prayer for it-- (1) His sovereignty must be acknowledged.(2) His commands must be obeyed.(3) The law by which He dispenses His blessings must be conformed to--“ Ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.” (J. Stewart.) The joy of salvation I. Describe it. I find that the gladdest moments of my life were not to be mentioned in the same breath with the bliss of believing in Jesus Christ. Yet are they the best comparisons that I can offer you of the greater joy which I trust we have all experienced.1. I compare it first to the finding of a long-lost treasure. Something like that, though infinitely beyond it, was the joy of finding God’ s salvation. Some of us searched long for it. 2. I compare this joy of salvation, next, to escape from a terrible predicament, and to deliverance from a threatened danger. Such, but infinitely more delightful, is the joy of God’ s salvation, when the storm of a troubled conscience is hushed to rest, when the thunders and lightnings of an outraged law cease to alarm. 3. I wonder if it has ever been your lot to know the joy that comes of the removal of the displeasure of some friend who has been grieved; in a word, the joy of reconciliation. When mistakes have been explained, or faults forgiven, the joy of the handclasp, as in the days of yore, and the heart warming as in the times that are gone--such is the joy of God’ s reconciled countenance, and of His smile and favour. 4. Entrance into a new and blissful state is an emblem, too, of the joy of God’ s salvation. You have been sick, sick almost unto death, and God has raised you up again. Can you forget how the pulse beat in your veins as it revealed to you the fact that you had turned the corner and were going to pull through? But oh, when you felt that the sickness of sin was at an end, when you knew that the healing touch had been given, when you felt the virtue come out of Jesus into you, what joy it was! 5. Further, there is the joy of finding a faithful friend. When loneliness is at an end, when love finds its affinity, when the hopes, perhaps of many years, are at last fulfilled, and the joy-bells ring, maybe in the marriage peal, what delight is in the heart. Such was your joy when you discovered that Jesus was your Fellow-friend, your Brother, your Lover, your Husband. 6. It is also like the joy of coming home after long absence. II. This joy can be lost.1. Sin grieves God, and causes Him to hide His face; it produces an eclipse of the sun. 2. Sin may well cause us to question our standing in Christ Jesus. 3. Sin blinds our eyes to the promises and to the power of God. He may well be miserable who has found out His sinfulness, for he has sinned against light and knowledge, against grace and love. 4. Moreover, it makes the conscience smart and throb. The unhappiest man beneath God’ s sun is surely he who, having known the joy of salvation, is now a backslider, with hardened heart and tearless eye. How can he rejoice as once he did? III. It may be recovered. “ Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation.”1. God only can restore it. It came from Him at first, and He must revive and quicken it; it will be through His mercy and His mercy only. Thus the psalmist pleads in forma-pauperis, praying only for God’ s lovingkindness and tender mercy. 2. There can be no restoration of the joy of God’ s salvation apart from cleansing. Think not to regain thy gladness till thou hast made a full confession, and more than that, till thou hast heard that heavenly whisper saying, “ Thy sins which are many, are all forgiven.” IV. This joy of salvation may be retained. “ Uphold me with Thy free Spirit.” You will retain the joy if the Holy Spirit maintains His hold of you, and if you retain your hold of Him. You will not cease to be happy unless you cease to be healthy, but so long as this prayer is in your lips you will not fail to be healthy. Forget not that upholding work is the work of the Holy Ghost. The best of us, the strongest, the most experienced, will fall unless the Spirit holds us up. “ Uphold me with Thy free Spirit.” I like that name for the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of liberty and truth, the Spirit which, like the wind, blows where it lists, and does its work mysteriously and mightily. The R.V. renders this, “ Uphold me with a free spirit” ; evidently under the impression that the reference is to the spirit or disposition which the upholding God produces in the heart of the man who is thus restored. He becomes possessed of a free spirit. “ Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty,” and the man who has fallen and has been thus restored, and is thus upheld, serves God with a willing mind. He has been in a hard school, but he has learned the lesson well, and now all he does is done from very love of Him who not only saved him as a sinner, but restored him as a backslider. (T. Spurgeon.) The joy of salvation The sentiment to which the psalmist was led to give utterance is weighty, and deserves to be pondered. A clean conscience and a lively enjoyment of religion are necessary to extensive usefulness and influence in the cause of God, and in winning souls to Him. This will appear from three reasons, embracing the elements on which a successful result depends--Experience, confidence and joy. I. Only an experimental acquaintance with religion can qualify any one to speak of it to edification.1. A blind man has been known to lecture on colours; but a blind man could not teach the art of painting. In like manner, religion is not a mere theory, but a practice also. Its vitality and excellence consist in action. It is a life and a power. Hence the apostle speaks of the power of godliness, and distinguishes between the power and the form. Without the former, the latter is but an empty shell. It is no better than sounding brass or tinkling cymbal. 2. People have a wonderful instinct and sagacity in determining who is likely to benefit them. As the Babylonians brought their sick to the market-place, and asked such of the passers-by as had had the same disease to tell the remedy that cured them, so the conscience-stricken will turn away from the learned and profound preacher, who is deficient in a wide experience, to hang with breathless eagerness upon the lips of him who can say, “ Come and hear, all ye that fear God, and I will declare what He hath done for my soul.” Men want those that have suffered and sorrowed like themselves to show the way of relief for their burdened hearts. II. Without confidence we cannot undertake to guide others. A guide must have the confidence of those who follow him; and, in order to command it, he must have confidence in himself. But how can a man have satisfaction in his own mind, and confidence in his own judgment, when he is disturbed by doubts and fears? Fear is the natural concomitant of a guilty conscience. Wretched, most wretched is the condition of the sinner labouring under poignant convictions. If his guilt has been detected and exposed to the world, the consciousness of that exposure, and the dread of scorn’ s slow-moving finger, weigh him down. And oven if he feels secure against detection, he knows that God is privy to it, and has “ set all his sins before him, his secret sins in the light of His countenance.” How cutting his self-upbraidings! how prompt his remorse! how bitter his loathing of himself! No position seems too humble for him to take, no penance too heavy to undergo. Can such a one, destitute of all satisfaction in his own soul; an utter stranger to the peace of God which passeth understanding; devoid of confidence in God, in himself, in the truth and efficacy of religion; can such a one invite sinners to Zion, or teach transgressors the ways of God? He may be a beacon to warn, but never a clarion to rouse to victory. III. In order to win souls to god, it is desirable that we have a lively enjoyment of religion. “ Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation; and uphold me with Thy free Spirit! Then,” adds the psalmist, “ then will I teach transgressors Thy ways, and,” through my zeal and fidelity, “ sinners shall he converted unto Thee.” The connection between these two things, the condition and the result, could not be more plainly pointed out. Enthusiasm begets enthusiasm. He who would make others feel, must feel himself. He who would unlock the fount of tears, must be the first to weep. He that would enkindle and carry away his auditors, must have his own soul on fire. IV. Practical reflections.1. How desirable and precious the joy of salvation! Thrice happy the soul which holds communion with Jesus, which has the freedom of the city of God, and feeds on the heavenly manna! 2. If we find torpor and inactivity benumbing us in the service of God, it is not difficult to conjecture the cause. “ Sin lieth at the door.” 3. The way of return is equally obvious. Retrace your steps. Begin at the beginning. Relay the foundation. 4. We may infer that ordinarily a deep experience is necessary to great usefulness. Paul was such an instance. He was arrested in the midst of his persecution and rancour, and “ obtained mercy, that in him first Jesus Christ might show forth all long-suffering,” etc. 5. We see the secret under God of revivals of religion. When religion is in a lively state in the heart, it is easy to talk about it. The heart is engaged. (R. Davidson.) The restoration of the fallen - I. David’ s restoration begins in the recollection of a by-gone blessedness. There is a looking back to something lost and departed. He sorrows over a vanished happiness. II. The restoration David desires is wholly religious and spiritual. His prayer is free from any admixture of selfish and worldly feeling. David does not cry, as Saul cried to Samuel, “ Honour me now, I pray thee, before the people,” but, “ Restore to me the joy of Thy salvation.” David, after his great sin, sin that had done its worst, asks for joy. Was this possible? Persons convicted of some great wrong, that brought shame and misery on others as well as on themselves, have been heard to say, humbly and penitently, “ I believe God has forgiven me. I am not afraid of the future, but I can never be happy again.” “ A true penitent never forgives himself.” It seems reasonable that David, after such crimes, should have rejected the idea of joy. Yet God gave him joy; the joy of not having become wholly vile and reprobate, the joy of not having been cut off with his guilt red upon him, the joy of God’ s forgiveness and salvation. Our refusal to admit the possibility of joy after our great sin and fall is a sort of solace to our wounded pride, a selfinflicted penance, a reparation, we think, for the wrong. III. The restoration David seeks is to be a permanent one; permanent through the abiding power of the Spirit of God. Men sometimes speak as though sin were to be the remedy for sin. Satan is to cast out Satan. They have fallen once, but are never to fall again. Past sin is to prevent sin in the future. “ It shall never occur again. It’ s a lesson to me for life.” The serpent’ s fangs once deeply felt will, it is thought, scare the man away in future. David, so far from feeling that his sin would work its own cure, is more fearful of himself and of future falls, and cries, “ Uphold me,” etc. The power David implores is inward power. He asks for a Spirit, deep as his own spirit, that shall act with healing, strengthening power at the core and centre of his life. “ Thy free Spirit.” He must know the joy of God’ s salvation; he must be able freely to renounce the evil, and to choose the good. “ Thy free Spirit,” who shall burst all the shackles of the soul, so that the man may “ walk at liberty and have respect unto all Thy commandments.” (A. Warrack, M. A.) David’ s repentance and restoration In these words we have-- I. An act: “ Restore.” II. An agent--God: “ Restore Thou.” III. The person suing--David: “ Unto me.” IV. The blessing sued for--the joy of God’ s salvation: “ Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation.” Come, Christian; look upon the tree. In the winter it is stripped of its fruit and leaves, nipped by the frost, covered with snow, so that it seems to be withered and dead, and fit only to be cast into the fire. Say, then; may not faith be where sin and the filth of the flesh hath oppressed it? (A. Farinden, B. D.) The joy of salvation It is connected inseparably with obedience, constant and prompt. David had failed, oh, how terribly I and so he had lost this joy. Let us think a while-- I. Of the joy of salvation. It consists--1. Of the joy of pardon. How blessed this, to know and feel that my sins are all forgiven. 2. The joy of rescue--from the power of one great enemy, and that when he seemed to have final possession of us. 3. The joy of power--to overcome the wicked one and temptation and sin. How glorious this. Would that it were more common. It is to have the world beneath your feet. II. The loss of this treasure. Some cannot lose it because they have never possessed it. But others can, and do, by backsliding, by the power of sudden temptation, as Peter. And especially by the power of besetring sin, as Demas. And by indolence. Men are not diligent in religious duties as they should be. See Samson. What a fall was his. III. Its restoration. The soul that has once known this joy can never be happy without it. No earthly prosperity can compensate for it. But the soul’ s anguish at its loss is God’ s call to it to return. And let none despair. This restoration is in Christ’ s hands. (Luke Wiseman.) The joys of salvation I. The joy of a sufficient and final answer to the self-upbraiding of a guilty soul. “ I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord,” etc. (Romans 7:25; Romans 8:1-4; Romans 8:33-39). The burden falls off; the darkness is chased by dawn. II. The joy of a portion which satisfies the heart’ s largest conceptions and desires. III. The joy of an answer to all the difficulties and perplexities which beset the spirit and the intellect in their progress. “ I know whom I have believed.” IV. The joy of having the key to all the mysterious ways of providence in the world. V. The joy of victory over death. VI. The joy of living union with God, with Christ, with all living and blessed beings, eternally. (J. B. Brown, B. A.) Pleasure in sin taketh away our joy in God Nothing spoileth us of this joy and pleasure that we have in God, but only sin. For once delighting in sin, we can have no pleasure in God’ s service; for these two can never stand together. Therefore we must loathe sin, that we may rejoice in God. (A. Symson.) Christians have joy and sorrow intermingled The estate of a Christian is not always one; joy and sorrow are intermingled; he hath a summer of joys and a winter of griefs. St. Paul had the messenger of Satan to buffet him, that he should not be exalted above measure with his great revelations. After a Christian hath mourned, he will rejoice. (A. Symson.) How the joy of God’ s salvation is lost The moon one day said to the sun, “ Oh, Sun, why hast thou ceased to shine on me? I used to speed along in thy light; why now this darkness?” And the sun answered, “ Oh, Moon, I have never ceased to shine; I am pouring out my light as full as ever.” The moon thought for a moment, and answered, “ Then, depend upon it, the earth has come between us.” Yes, she was suffering from an eclipse. This is equally true of our life. If we allow the world or sinful indulgence to come between the soul and the Sun of Righteousness, we plunge ourselves into deep darkness and lose all our spiritual comforts. The joy of restoration I have never told in public, scarce ever in private, of a great sorrow that afflicted me once when I was first in Australia. Whether it was the tongue of slander in the old land, or some misinformation or mistake, I do not know, but there came to my dear father’ s ears a story which did not reflect credit upon his absent son. It came in such a form that he was almost bound to believe it. I remember the grief that tore my heart when I received a letter from him kindly chiding me for this supposed wrong-doing. I knew before God that I was innocent; but, despite that conviction, there was some pain, of course, and there had to be a delay of many months ere my contradiction of the damaging tale could reach him. I left the matter with God, and He espoused my cause. In a few days’ time I received a cablegram--and telegraphing was expensive in those days--which read thus: “ Disregard my letter; was misinformed.” I cannot tell you the thrill of joy that filled my heart to feel that I was restored to my father’ s approbation and confidence; I will not say to his love for I had surely never fallen from that. It was many months ere I could come into possession of particulars, but to know that he had found out his mistake, and that confidence was restored--why, it was almost worth while having been in the sorrow to experience the delicious thrill. (Thomas Spurgeon.) Psalms 51:14 Deliver me from blood-guiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation; and my tongue shall sing aloud of Thy righteousness.Soul murder--who is guilty Some may question whether such a text as this should be chosen for an ordinary congregation, No one here is guilty of blood. But there are more ways than one of incurring this guilt. And one chief way is in the destroying of souls. I. A startling crime. We are all guilty of such crime in the death of our Lord; in anger without cause; by youthful transgressions which have led others into sin; by false teaching, insinuating doubts, and causing men to err from the truth and perish. It is a dastardly thing to poison the wells of a city, but what is it to poison the well of truth and make soul-thirst the medium of soul-ruin? Others actually trade in luring men to sin; by this craft they get their wealth. And these are those who delight to lead others astray. Ill example; neglect of religion at home; indifference as to saving souls general want of earnestness--all these bring us under the guilt here told of. II. Let us make earnest confession of our sin and pray for deliverance from it. III. A commendable vow. David says if God will deliver him he will sing aloud, etc. Oh, to be clear of others’ blood. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Blood-guiltiness I. Who is guilty of it?1. Those who neglect the atonement of Christ, and continue obstinately to persevere in sin until they lose their own souls. 2. Those who teach principles that lead others to trample upon the blood of Christ. 3. Those who set an example that leads others to disregard religion and die in their sins. 4. Those who neglect to do for others what might promote their salvation. 5. Those who hold their peace when they see prevailing any iniquities that are destroying the souls of men. II. What it involves.1. It stains deep. 2. It corrodes fearfully. 3. Oh, what a view this subject gives us of this world’ s guilty population I We walk the streets of our city with a multitude of murderers, who will have all this train of blood-guiltiness upon them in the last day. 4. Why, then, are we so surprised that so few are saved, and so many destroyed? (D. A. Clark.) Blood-guiltiness Like enough that David at first beguiled himself with this, that inasmuch as Uriah was slain in the field, therefore he was clear; but now he saw this was but a poor shift; God, who was greater than his heart, had now raised up his heart to be a witness against him, and to charge him not only with desiring Uriah’ s death, but with devising which way closely to bring him to his end. And thus he was guilty of blood who shed no blood; and so may this be found true in many others. A magistrate may be guilty of the sins of the people by not punishing, or by too slight and easy punishing; a man of rule and reckoning in the world may be chargeable with the evils of his inferiors, because his example hath enboldened them. A minister may make himself a party in the enormities of his parish by not preaching against them, or by being too sparing, or too covert, or too gentle in reproving them. It may be I persuade not my people to be ignorant, to be superstitious, to be profaners of the Sabbath; yet, inasmuch as I labour not against these evils in them, my silence, my slighting over of these things, strengtheneth their hands and their hearts to a continuance therein; by this I become guilty before God. Men of ability may be guilty of others perishing, albeit they do to them no kind of actual violence; as by not inquiring into the necessities of those that want, by not making them partakers of their plenty. (S. Hieron.) Thou God of my salvation.--God is the God of our salvation David now comes to God to free him from the guilt of a particular sin, which was his blood-guiltiness; and how, now, does he both persuade God and also satisfy and comfort himself in this particular? Namely, from this consideration, that he was the God of his salvation in the latitude and full extent of it. As if he bad said, Thou which wilt save me from all other sins besides, save me also from this. And Thou which hast been my help and Saviour in times past, be Thou now also so unto me. That which we may observe from it is this, that the way to have particular help from God is to have a general interest in Him; He must be our God and the God of our salvation before we can expect that He should actually and particularly save us. God does not do anything to His servant in this kind for a mere fit, but upon a more general principle. All God’ s goodness to His servants in the particular dispensation of mercy is founded in His relations to them, and theirs to Him, and the particular flows from the general. And so, if we would have any comfort from Him at any time to this purpose, we must first of all be sure to lay this for a ground and foundation of it. The consideration of this point shows the misery and unhappiness of such persons as are in a state of strangeness to God, and have not as yet made their peace with Him, why they can expect nothing comfortably from Him while they are in that condition, neither pardon of sin, nor power against it, nor at last eternal salvation itself. Why? Because God is not yet theirs, which relation is the ground of all comfort. What I do we think that God saves a man at the very first of His dealings with him? No such matter, but there is somewhat else which goes before it; God makes us sons before He gives us the inheritance; and He plucks us out of the state of nature before he brings us into the condition of glory; and he is the God of our salvation before He saves in such a particular. (Thomas Horton, D. D.) My tongue shall sing aloud of Thy righteousness.--David’ s promise to sing of God’ s righteousness I. Whoso receives or expects any mercy or favour from God must know himself bound to return somewhat back by way of thankfulness unto God. II. The exercise and act of singing is a duty well becoming God’ s people, for the declaration of their due acknowledgment of God’ s kindness. And that we might not conceive of this duty as of a service ceremonial, and so ceasing in Christ, who is the body of all ancient types; St. Paul commended it to the practice of Christians in the New Testament; persuading them to psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs; and it is St. James’ s rule, that if any man have a disposition to discover the inward rejoicing of his heart in the feeling of God’ s mercies, he should sing. It is an excellent means to quicken and enliven the dulness of man’ s spirits. It is very effectual both to discover and stir up joy. III. The tongue and voice of man ought to be used by him for the declaring of God’ s praise. It is called a man’ s glory, both because it is one of the excellencies and prerogatives of man over other creatures, that he is enabled to use his tongue to the expressing of his hand; and because it is the instrument ordained to the setting forth of God’ s glory, in the advancement whereof the glory of man as God’ s principal creature doth consist. The special matter of praising God is conveyed unto us by the tongue. The knowledge of salvation through Christ is the main ground of glorifying God. And is it not the tongue of man, which God hath consecrated to the begetting of it within us? Now, as God, by the tongues of those whom He hath appointed to be vessels of bearing His name to the world, conveyeth the matter of His praise into our hearts, so by our tongues He requires a testification thereof. By the tongue we receive good, by the tongue we ought to manifest that good we have received; neither can there be a more fitting means for us to be instruments of good to others, than the well-using of our tongues; those duties of admonition, exhortation, comfort, whereby one Christian is bound to further the salvation of another, how shall they be so well performed as by the tongue? That law of grace, which is in the tongue of God’ s children, is that which must minister grace unto those which hear us, according to the apostle’ s rule. There is a certain holy salt in the tongue of a godly man, by which others may be seasoned; whereupon it is said, that the lips of a righteous man do feed many; many do receive refreshing and comfort by his talk. Then again, whether it is not a matter of equity that the tongue should be employed for His honour, by whom it is endued with that faculty with which it is accomplished? (S. Hieron.) Psalms 51:15O Lord, open Thou my lips; and my mouth shall show forth Thy praise.The lips Divinely opened I. A humiliating fact implied. Sin seals the lips.1. In our approaches to God, sin is a barrier to all spiritual freedom. When overwhelmed with guilt and shame, the soul is ready to exclaim with David (Psalms 77:4; Psalms 88:8). 2. Sin prevents us speaking for God as well as to God. When our conduct is consistent we say with Paul (2 Corinthians 6:11), and with David (Psalms 66:16). But when our conduct gives a lie to our profession, our admonitions will be retorted upon us, “ Physician, heal thyself.” When a man sins thus he has but little to say for God. II. An important request made. “ O Lord, open Thou,” etc.1. To whom was this prayer offered? To God. He only can unloose our tongues. 2. By whom was this request made? A convinced sinner. His heart was humbled. 3. The request itself. “ Open,” etc. He knew the cause must be removed. Sins must be pardoned. Guilt cancelled. The Spirits must be imparted before there is an ability to praise God (Psalms 51:1; Psalms 51:4; Psalms 51:7; Psalms 51:15). III. Delightful service pledged. “ My lips shall praise Thee.”1. A deep conviction of God’ s mercy. 2. A sensibility of personal obligation. 3. A fixed determination. “ My lips shall,” etc. Here observe-- (1) Praise is the least return we can make for so great a blessing. When overwhelmed with guilt, we were ready to say (Micah 6:6-7), God does not require this (Psalms 51:16). Surely we ought to praise Him. (2) Praise is due to God alone. He has done the work, and the glory should be His (Psalms 34:1-4; 1 Peter 2:9). (3) More praise is due for pardoning mercy than for all the blessings of this life. This comprehends all (Romans 8:32). (4) A sense of forgiving love enlarges and fits the soul for acts of praise (Psalms 126:1-2; Isaiah 38:17-22). (5) Forgiveness of sins furnishes matter for praise (Psalms 40:1-3; Psalms 103:1-4). (H. Woodcock.) The right use of speech I. The faculty of speech, and the power of employing it to its right end, are the gifts of God. Is there anything among the abounding proofs of the fallen state of man more conclusive than the virtual declaration of practical infidelity everywhere to be heard--“ Our lips are our own, who is Lord over us” ? What is the general tenor of conversation among those who bear the Christian name, and who, in church, offer with their lips the psalmist’ s prayer--“ O Lord, open Thou my lips” ? “ Is it in unison with the prayer they use; or rather, does it not discover a state of the affections diametrically opposed to the spiritual desires and devout aspirations breathed in the Liturgy in which they orally join? II. The power of employing the faculty of speech to its right end, is lost to fallen creatures, and God only can renew it. The torpor, the pride, and the enmity of the human heart, in its unregenerated state, preclude the possibility of that devotion of the lips to the service of God, the restoration of which the penitent suppliant implored in the words of our text, But there is also a cause of sinful silence which continues to be operative after that the torpor of indifference has given place to spiritual sensibility. This cause is guilt--a consciousness of native and actual sin. The employment of the lips in praise must depend, therefore, on our apprehension of that atonement which alone can remove guilt from the conscience. “ The Ephphatha” of a revealed Saviour is essential to the utterance of praise. Conviction of sin, and conversion to God, are the work of His Spirit; and these are necessary to the production of a grateful heart and its utterance in the new song of praise. III. The renewal of this power ought to be the subject of earnest prayer to every fallen creature, and is so to every penitent sinner. Whatever may be the advancement made in knowledge and grace, all believers feel a remaining impediment in the spiritual faculty of speech, and long and wait for its removal. Our hearts are often dull and stupid, and never so grateful as we know they ought, and as we wish them to be. Sometimes a worldly spirit, and sometimes a sense of guilt, disqualifies us for the celebration of the praise which is due to our redeeming God. Our lips are too often closed again, after they have been once opened; and a repetition of the miracle of touching our tongue afresh with the finger of almighty love is as necessary as it was at first. The live coal, taken from the altar, must be continually laid on the mouth, in order that the lips may show forth the praise of Him who is the Lord of Hosts, the King of Glory. (T. Biddulph, M. A.) Praise dependent on God’ s assistance 1. When we say that without God’ s assistance none can be able to praise Him, we must take it with two qualifications. (1) Cannot do it commendably, in a holy and spiritual manner, as it becomes Christians to do it. (a) There is a general aversion in our natures to any good work in s spiritual manner to be performed; there is no work of grace whatsoever but of ourselves we are indisposed much unto it; and without Christ we can do nothing at all (John 15:5). (b) There is a more special averseness in our natures to this good works of thanksgiving in particular. Sometimes out of pride, because we will not acknowledge our dependence, which in thanksgiving is emphatically done; sometimes out of discontent and repining, as not thinking we have so much given us as we could expect or desire to have; and sometimes also out of a natural dulness, and sluggishness, and stupidity upon us; these things make the work averse unto us; and because they do so, they therefore convince us that without the help and assistance of God Himself, they cannot do it. Cannot do it, i.e. do it commendably, in an holy spiritual manner, as becometh Christians. (2) Cannot do it acceptably, so as God Himself may be well-pleased with us in the doing of it. Those whose lips God Himself does not open, they cannot utter His praise so as He may accept of it, and take it well at their hands. All kind of praising of God, and from all persons, is not acceptable to Him (Proverbs 15:8; Isaiah 1:11; Psalms 1:16). Therefore Scripture, when it speaks of giving thanks, and showing forth praise, it still makes Christ to be the only medium and conveyance of it (Ephesians 5:20; Colossians 3:17; Hebrews 13:15). Those that give thanks, and not in Christ, they cannot give thanks acceptably, which is consequently the condition of those whose lips God will not open for it; so as none partake of the Spirit of Christ, but those who are indeed the servants of Christ. 2. We see here, then, what great cause we have in all our undertakings of this service, to go to God Himself for it, and to desire Him to help us herein, and not to go about such a duty as this is in our own strength. 3. There is a double qualification considerable as to the performing of the work of praise among other good works. First, a general qualification of the person, sanctifying his lips and mouth for such a service at large. And, secondly, a particular qualification of the person, as enabling him to this particular performance and service which he is now undertaking; and this latter is that which David refers to in this particular place; God had opened his lips in general before, in his first conversion, when He had framed him according to His heart, and so fitted him for all the duties of religion to be performed by him, and this duty of praise amongst the rest. (Thomas Horton, D. D.) Man’ s inability to praise without God’ s help There is naturally a kind of pollutedness in the lips of man, whereof Esau complained, a certain uncircumcisedness which, until it is reformed and taken away, no such thing can come through them by which God may be glorified. “ We are not sufficient of ourselves, to think anything as of ourselves,” saith the apostle; and, “ Without Me ye can do nothing,” saith our Saviour. The apprehension of this native unableness made David to commend unto God this request; and then there was another, a more particular reason, which moved David to say thus; and that was the effect which he felt in himself of his great sin. We have had often occasion in this psalm to note the havoc of the graces of God in him made by this noisome trespass. He felt himself much disabled by it every way. Never, indeed, can a man praise God aright until he hath matter for it ministered to him out of his own experience; when his soul is satisfied with marrow and fatness, which proceedeth from the love of God shed abroad into the heart; then shall his mouth sound out praise with joyful lips. It is but a cold, barren and superficial service, whatsoever a man doth herein, if he be not furnished with matter for it, out of the store-house of his own heart. If one have not within that joy which David terms joy of heart, and Paul joy in the Holy Ghost, he can never show forth the praise of God to any purpose. It is the inward feeling which must give life and being to this business. Thus there is a double reason by which this point is proved, that no man can be an utterer of God’ s praise unless God enable him; the first reason is drawn from the consideration of the general insufficiency which is naturally in man for good performances; the second, from the nature of this act of praising God; which is such as can never be well discharged, unless a man’ s spirit within do rejoice in God, and have sweet peace sealed up unto it in the assurance of God’ s favour. Now, this is natural to no man, it is God’ s only free and gracious gift, and until the Lord be pleased to afford comfort to a man’ s soul, by some good testimony to him that his sins are pardoned, all his attempts and undertakings to be a praiser of God are utterly in vain. (S. Hieron.) Psalms 51:16 For Thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it; Thou delightest not in burnt-offering.The service which David would not render 1. He declines a superfluous and unnecessary service; he will not give that; this is one thing which he resolves on, and it is a good resolution in him. In the worship of God, whatever is more than needful, it may very well be spared; we cannot supererogate with Him; those that think to do so exceedingly deceive themselves, yea, and wrong themselves also, while they draw out the strength of their spirits upon that which might be better bestowed. 2. He declines an arbitrary service. He will not serve God in any other way than as Himself shall allow of and prescribe. Because God does not desire sacrifice, therefore he will not give sacrifice to Him; this is the rule which he holds to in God’ s worship, to do no more than Himself has commanded. And this is that which the Scripture does continually press upon us, the declining of all will-worship in the service of God as that which is abominable with Him. 3. He declines an unacceptable service; he will not do more in God’ s service than shall be well received. This is the main thing which God’ s people look after in their services which they present unto Him; to wit, His acceptance of them in those services; all without this, it is nothing worth. This is that which David says here; because he thinks that God delights not in burnt-offerings, therefore He shall not have them. God’ s complacency is all in all. (Thomas Horton, D. D.) What we bring to God must be such as God requires There are some soldiers here to-night. Now, suppose one of these received orders from the commanding officer to keep guard at such and such a door. All of a sudden he thinks to himself, “ I am very fond of our commander, and I should like to do something for him.” He puts his musket against the wall, and starts out to find a shop where he can buy a bunch of flowers. He is away from his post all the while, of course, and when he comes back he is discovered to have been away from his post of duty. He says, “ Here is the bunch of flowers I went to get.” But I hear his officer say, “ We cannot allow you--military discipline would not permit it--to run off at every whim and wish of yours and neglect your duty; for who knows what mischief must ensue.” It is a holier and better thing to do one’ s duty than to make duties for oneself. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Psalms 51:17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise.A broken and a contrite heart What is a broken heart? We use the expression to set forth the effects of heavy affliction and sorrow. And so here, the broken heart tells of deep sorrow on account of our Sin. Before, it had hope for itself; now it has none, and, thus broken, it is offered with shame and grief. Before, it could listen to the truths of the Gospel unmoved, but now it quivers with emotion. The same wind which moves violently the waters of the lake of Gennesaret is said to leave unruffled those of the Dead Sea. So the man may have been at one time insensible, but he is far from that now. I. Such broken and contrite heart is a sacrifice of God. Men think it is the price which they pay for forgiveness, and they do not see why it is necessary that Christ should die. But debts cannot be cancelled by mere regret, and the sacrifice of the broken heart always follows, never precedes, the application to the heart of the sacrifice of Christ’ s blood. Whenever Christ saves a sinner He invariably breaks his heart. The same cross which sets him free from the penalty of the law, sets him free also from the obduracy of his own nature; and these two deliverances always go together, and we can never be sure that we have the one unless we have the other. II. It is an offering which God does not despise. He might have done so, and it is a wonder that He does not. Text implies this, and thankfulness and confidence. III. But ungodly men despise it. Let them not think they will always feel as they do now. They would rather be detected in crime than in sorrow for it. But God can break their heart. At times He does so, by His word, mightily applied, or by terrible sorrow; and certainly by death. The only gift of God to a lost sinner is the gift of an insensibility unknown before. (J. A. Alexander, D. D.) Wherein the real sacrifice and service of God consists David and other Old Testament saints knew well that it was not in ceremonial observances, but in spiritual service. I. God’ s desire and search is after the heart, the soul of man. Our human parental heart teaches us this. Do we not desire our children’ s hearts? And so with God; He wants His children back, and hence He so values the first returning relenting thought. II. Wherefore this is so. All men are sinners, not in the same form, but in the possession of the heart of evil. But see the great change which is wrought when the soul is turned to God. God is revealed to the soul. Conviction of sin follows. We see our sin in the light of God’ s goodness, and the vision of that goodness now waiting to be gracious, still further subdues the heart. III. This new state of heart will be permanent, and will be seen in trust, in humility, in thankfulness, in consecration. (Watson Smith.) Brokenness of heart I. What it means.1. It consists in a quickness of sense and apprehensiveness. A broken spirit is a sensible spirit; it presently discerns what is amiss, either in it, or towards it. As a broken bone or joint, it presently feels the least annoyance that is; even so likewise does a broken heart. That heart which is truly contrite and broken, it is sensible of the least grievance that may be; and this whether in regard of sin, or in regard of punishment, (1) In regard of sin first, it is very quick and sensible here; those whose hearts are hardened and obdurate, they can commit one sin upon another, and yet never be affected with it, or lay it to heart; but those which are broken, and Be tender-spirited, the least miscarriage that troubles them, and goes to their souls, they are humbled, not only for greaser sins, but also for smaller infirmities; and not only for more notorious practices, but likewise for failings in duties themselves; and not only for outward and notorious miscarriages, which come into all men’ s view, but even also for the secretest obliquities and deflections of the inward man. (2) So in regard of punishment also. Broken hearts and contrite spirits tremble at the very shak-ings of the rod. A wise man, that is, one spiritually wise, which has true grace and godliness in him, and has a principle of spiritual life, such an one is very sensible of judgment. 2. It consists in a pliableness and fashionableness of heart and spirit; a hard heart is capable of no impression; ye cannot work it, or frame it to anything; but a broken heart ye may mould it in any way, and turn it whithersoever ye please. And this is another thing which is considerable in it: it is such a heart as yields to all God’ s dealings and workings with it, to His Word, and to His Providence, and that in the several dispensations of it, it is pliable to everything. II. The reason why the scripture does so much press this upon us as that sacrifice which is most acceptable to God.1. It signifies the person in whom it is to be subjected to God, and brought in obedience to Him. A man may offer bodily sacrifice, and perform outward duties to God, and yet stand aloof from Him, and have his heart still reserved to himself; but now, when it is once broken and contrite, it then stoops and gives itself up to God’ s disposing; and this is that which God does mainly look after in those that come to Him, He desires still to have the better of them, and to have their spirits brought in order to Him, which is all in all in them; this is that which God calls for (Providence 23:16). Now, this is never done by us till it be in some manner broken and bruised in us; because till then, we shall be apt to rest upon our own bottom, and to subsist wholly in ourselves, and some worth of our own. 2. It is that which makes the best amends for all the sins which are committed by us. The breaking of our hearts, it best satisfies for the breaking of God’ s laws; not as if thereby we did indeed make satisfaction to God’ s justice (which is only done by the blood of Christ), but it is that which does carry the best shadow of compensation with it. 3. A broken heart is most desired, as that which makes the best improvement of all God’ s providences and dispensations, etc. This makes us more thankful for mercies, and this makes us more corrigible under afflictions’. (Thomas Horton, D. D.) What does God require?--Consider the text I. As setting before us most important truth--that God delights not in sacrifice or burnt-offering, but in the principles and feelings of sincere and heartfelt piety.1. It is established by every correct view of the Divine character. (1) God is a Spirit. Nothing can be acceptable to Him, as such, but spiritual service, the worship of the soul. (2) God is Lord of all. He made, preserves, and governs all; and whatever we present is first His own. (3) He is a God of love. He delighteth not to impoverish but to enrich His creatures. 2. It is illustrated by the great facts of revelation, and reflects on them, in return, a correspondent illustration and beauty. (1) Sacrifices were designed not to relieve the offender from the compunction and penitence naturally arising from the remembrance of his faults, by the easy substitution of a trifling mulet instead of a deep and heartfelt contrition, but to render that compunction and penitence more solemn and more lively; to impress those feelings of contrition more awfully upon the soul by a most vivid and affecting exhibition of the just desert of sin. When he beheld the dying victim whom he had made his substitute, he was there to discern the fearful extent of that condemnation he had merited, and thus, humbled and sorrowful, was to acknowledge and bewail his misery, as exposed to the righteous indignation of a just and holy God. (2) If in the sacrifices under the law it was not the mere pangs or death of the victim, but the moral dispositions with which it was presented, that God delighted in; if it was not in the mere punishment of sin, but its effect upon the conscience and the heart, that God took pleasure; then, in the sacrifice of Christ, we conceive this grand principle more abundantly established. And, oh, how full of a humbling and holy joy is the doctrine we have now endeavoured to explain, when we behold the necessity of our punishment for sin thus awfully manifested, and yet the fear of its endurance done away for ever by the offering of the Lamb of God! II. As exhibiting the proper influence of this great truth upon the feelings of a humble and penitent mind.1. How forcibly does this language express that exalted estimate of the worth of pardon, which will ever be cherished by those who sincerely repent! 2. How strikingly it exhibits the penitent’ s humble sense of utter helplessness and incapacity for any service or offering of his own to procure the invaluable blessing! 3. How beautifully does the text describe a simple and grateful reliance upon the freeness of Divine mercy! Where is the man that weeps when no eye sees him, for the defilement of his degenerate nature? Let him not despair. Let him return unto the Lord. Let him lay his hand upon the great propitiation, and believe, and live for ever! (R. S. McAll, LL. D.) Repentance after conversion I. Let us consider what this sacrifice is. It is a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart.1. If you and I have a broken spirit, all idea of our own importance is gone. What is the use of a broken heart? Why, much the same as the use of a broken pot, or a broken jug, or a broken bottle! Men throw it on the dunghill. Hence David says, “ A broken and a contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise,” as if he felt that everybody else would despise it. Now, do you feel that you are of no importance? Admire the grace of God to you, and marvel at it in deep humiliation of spirit. That is a part of the sacrifice that God will not despise. 2. Next, if you and I have a broken and a contrite heart, it means that frivolity and trifling have gone from us. A broken spirit is serious, and solemn, and in earnest. 3. A broken spirit is one out of which hypocrisy has gone. Reveal yourselves unto yourselves, and so reveal yourselves unto your God. 4. A broken spirit signifies that now all the secrets and essences of the spirit have flowed out. There is much of religion, now-a-days, that is very superficial, it is all on the surface; a very small quantity of gospel paint, with just a little varnish of profession, will go a very long way, and look very bright. But broken hearts are not like that; with broken hearts the hymn is a real hymn, the prayer is a real prayer, the hearing of sermons is earnest work, and the preaching of them is the hardest work of all. Oh, what a mercy it would be if some of you were broken all to pieces! There are many flowers that will never yield their perfume till they are bruised. Even the generous grape lets not its juice flow forth till it is trodden under foot of men. II. Let us offer the sacrifice. Come, let us mourn a while on account of our past sin; we will do so from several points of view.1. First, let us deeply regret that we have sinned against so good a God. Shall we not feel within our hearts a burning indignation against sin, because it is committed against so holy, so good, so glorious a being as the infinitely-blessed God? 2. Let us mourn to think that we have offended against so excellent and admirable a law. 3. Let us grieve that we have sinned against a Saviour’ s love. Those hands, those feet, have saved me, yet I nailed them there. That opened side is the refuge of my guilty spirit, yet I made that fearful gash by my sin. 4. Think of our sins against the Holy Spirit. O my soul, how could]st thou ever grieve Him? How couldst thou ever have resisted that best and tenderest Friend? I do not ask you to torture yourselves, but I do invite you now to indulge the joyful grief of sweet heavenly penitence as you remember the love of the Spirit. 5. Let us set our sin in the light of God’ s countenance. 6. I want you to set sin in the light of your marvellous experiences. Wonders of grace have been ours! 7. Think of the injury you have done to others by your example. Whatever any of us do, we are sure to have some who will copy us; it cannot be avoided. This thought has a sharp sting in it for any who, by word or by example, have taught others to do that which is evil in the sight of the Lord. 8. Think of all the opportunities that we lose whenever we fall into sin. I do repent of sin unfeignedly because it has hindered my progress. What a preacher I might have been! Oh, what winners of souls you might have become by this time! (C. H. Spurgeon.) To the broken-hearted I. The broken heart.1. Renounces all idea of merit, and seeks alone for mercy (Psalms 51:1).2. Will always feel its sins to be peculiarly its own (Psalms 51:2).3. Will make full confession of sin (Psalms 51:3). (1) Without excuse.(2) In the plainest language possible. 4. Mourns most over the Godward aspect of sin (Psalms 51:4).5. Will never cavil with God about the deserved punishment (Psalms 51:4).6. Will mourn its general depravity (Psalms 51:5).7. Will always be as anxious for purity as for pardon (Psalms 51:7).8. Is not a despairing heart (Psalms 51:9).9. Is an agonized heart (Psalms 51:8). II. A broken heart is not despised by God. We have His royal word for it (Isaiah 66:2). I know that Christ will never despise it, and that for a very good reason. He has suffered from it Himself. You say, “ Ah, but mine is broken on account of sin: His was not.” Was it not? It was broken by the unutterable horror of having sin imputed to Him, and occupying the sinner’ s place. Thy pangs, thy sorrows, thy griefs, thine unutterable longings for the light of the Father’ s face--all these are known unto thy Saviour. He will not despise thee. I am sure He will not, because it was He who broke thy heart. It would be despising His own handiwork were He to reject a contrite spirit. It would be casting on one side that which He hath Himself made. (A. G. Brown.) The broken heart I. In what a broken heart consists. It is in itself a state where the mind is rendered susceptible of deep spiritual feeling--that feeling being mainly grief and sorrow. II. How a broken heart is produced.1. The Agent. You must remember that the state we are describing never can be supposed to originate in any human or finite power whatever. It is not, for example, produced by the force of instruction, whether administered in juvenile or in riper years. It is not produced by processes of personal reflection; and it is not produced by movements of the natural conscience. We do not deny that they do sometimes appear to possess influences very similar to the influences of religion; and we are aware how conscience, especially under particular circumstances, occasionally becomes lashed and roused into such a state of alarm and accusing energy, that its awakenings are not at all distinguishable from the impulses of veritable and substantial piety. But yet, after all, the appearances are deceitful, and the results are impotent. The “ heart of stone,” if we may use such a figure, is, as it were, only shifted in its position--that change of position rendering the moral frame uneasy and disturbed. The substance of the heart itself yet remains unpenetrated and untransmuted, and the truth remains, that were man left to himself, and to beings like himself, never would he know and feel what real contrition is. After this limitation of human agency, we are prepared to determine that the production of this state is to be ascribed exclusively to the supreme power of the Divine Spirit. 2. This, then, is the Agent in the production of the state we have noticed. We must also observe the instrumentality which the Agent employs. And the Divine Spirit always operates upon the mind of man by an instrumentality which is precisely adapted to its nature; we mean the Word of truth, as it reveals the character, the claims, and the procedure of God, along with the character, the duties, and the prospects and destinies of man. And especially as it sets forth the love of the Lord Jesus Christ on behalf of sinners. This prominency will be found distinctly ascribed to it by the manner in which it constituted the one grand topic of inspired and apostolic ministry in primitive times. III. Why a broken heart is commended. We are to commend as precious and valuable the “ broken heart.”1. Because it is the state by which alone man can be saved from everlasting ruin. 2. It introduces to the enjoyment of all spiritual blessings. (James Parsons.) The true oblation In the temple of Israel there were two altars: the first, the great “ altars of burnt-offering.” It was the altar of atonement, the only one in all the world on which God looked down with approval. At its base flowed the blood of every victim that was slain. On its broad bosom it received, and with its fiery breath it consumed, the holocausts and hecatombs of the thousands of Judah. But within the holy place was another altar; it was the altar of incense, fit representative of an order of sacrifices that were not expiatory, but oblations. They were not for the purpose of making atonement and seeking reconcilation, but for expressing the consecration to God of the redeemed soul. And the acceptableness of such oblation was expressed by the offering of the fragrant incense that was burnt upon that altar. Now, it is of this second class of sacrifices that the psalmist is speaking in our text. He is referring not to the sacrifices of expiation, but of oblation. The sinner is already pardoned, the atoning sacrifice has already been accepted, and he approaches the golden altar, not to deprecate worth or to plead for pardon, but as a forgiven sinner to offer on this altar the oblation of his gratitude and devotion, the love which wells up with overflowing fulness in a heart redeemed from sin. Now, looking at this sacrifice, we note-- I. The spirituality of the service which God requires. That which is to be laid upon His altar is not some material gift, however costly, but an offering of the spirit. II. In the sacrifices of God the heart constitutes its very essence. God’ s religion is pre-eminently one of love. Hence, the true oblation can only be of love, the only true sacrifice that of the heart. Contrast the sacrifices on the great brazen altar and those on the altar of incense. That holy place was the sanctuary of forgiven hearts, the retreat of those whose sins had been put away by the expiation offered on the altar without. Then are we taught that it is the heart which God demands as an oblation upon His altar. Only love will satisfy love. III. But the heart must be broken and contrite. This is one reason why the way to the altar of incense is by that of expiation, that men may learn the exceeding sinfulness of sin, and look upon Him whom they have pierced, and mourn for their sin. This it is which makes it so hard for man to lay upon this altar the acceptable sacrifice. If there were no demand for repentance and confession, no need for such self-humbling as in the dust, man would readily come. But only the broken and contrite heart will God accept, or ought He to accept. For such should be our posture before God. Not that of pride, but of deep humility. (T. D. Witherspoon, D. D.) Psalms 51:18 Do good in Thy good pleasure unto Zion.Prayer for Zion I. The place prayed for. Under the name “ Zion” David here prays for the whole Church, whose practice is herein considerable for our example.1. Considered as a godly man, he prays for it so; whereby he shows us the nature and disposition of every good Christian besides, as also the duty of every one that pretends to an interest in the Church. This may be made out unto us upon this ground and consideration; because, namely, of that near relation which they bear unto it, and benefit which they receive by it. There is not a greater nearness of the members of a natural body one to another, than there is in the members of the mystical. And yet, if we well consider it, how few are there which lay this to heart, which take care of the prosperity of Zion, and which are affected with good-will to it? Most men seek their own advantage, the enlarging and settling of themselves, but they are but few which do lay out their thoughts and endeavours for the good of the Church. Nay, it were well if some now and then were not employed in that which is contrary, which are haters and ill-willers to it (Psalms 129:5). 2. As a guilty man, David now reflected on the mischief he had done to the Church of God by his sin; and now, therefore, to make it some amends, he puts it into his prayer, that God would do good unto it, as that which was the only recompense and satisfaction which he was able to make it. We may hence judge of the work of repentance and conversion what is in us. He who truly repents of his sin, will endeavour to do good answerably to the evil which has been done by him. II. The thing prayed for about it; viz. that it have good done unto it. We must take it in the latitude, and full extent, which is of good in all kinds, but more especially of such good as is proper and peculiar to the Church, considered as such, within its own circle and compass, which is spiritual and eternal good. Where, for the ordering of our prayers aright upon such occasions, we may take notice of these particulars.1. The free enjoyment of the ordinances and means of grace. These make up a great part of the good of Zion, and we should be instant with God for His Church in this regard, that He would vouchsafe, and uphold, and maintain the ministry of it. 2. The extirpation of errors and heresies, and the promoters of them, this is likewise conducing to the good. It can never be well with the Church, any further than as God is pleased to convert it by His overruling power. Therefore, as ever we desire the welfare of it, we must bend our prayers to this particular. 3. The multiplication of converts, that’ s another thing pertinent hereunto. The welfare of Zion lies much in the number of those which belong unto it. 4. The concord and agreement of believers amongst themselves; this is another thing of the same nature with it; it was well with Zion in those days when they were all of one accord in one place (Acts 2:1). This is as much for the good of the Church as anything else, and does as much need and require our prayers and petitions for it. III. The modification of the request. “ In Thy good pleasure.”1. It is a word of special influence, and does denote unto us the rise and spring of all good to be expected to the Church, which is the love and good-will of God. David does not now come to God for his Church upon terms of merit or desert, but only upon terms of favour and free grace, “ Do good in Thy good pleasure.” And this is that which all must still do, even the best that are; they must thus make their addresses to God even in the behalf of the Church itself. And the reason of it is this, because we are all debtors to God, and stand obnoxious to Him; we deserve no good from Him; and that good which already we have, we have in a manner forfeited by our miscarriages; therefore it must be free grace and favour that must set us right, there’ s nothing else which will be helpful to us. 2. It is a word of limitation; a limitation not of God, but indeed of His own prayer and request. As if he had said, Lord, I do very earnestly beg of Thee that Thou wouldst do good to Thy Church; but I do not herein go about to limit Thee, or confine Thee, or prescribe Thee, but I leave it wholly to Thyself; “ Do good in Thy good pleasure,” that is, as shall seem good and best in Thine own eyes to do. 3. It is a word of insinuation, as it seems to carry the force of an argument in it, and thai thus, Lord, Thou bearest a special love and affection to Zion, which is Thy Church above all others besides. Now, therefore, according to this affection which is in Thee towards it, be pleased to do good to it; as the sister of Lazarus to Christ (John 11:3), whereby she would persuade Him to be active for his recovery. So does David here now to God in behalf of the Church, “ Do good of Thy good pleasure to Zion” ; that is, according to Thy wonted favour and lovingkindness towards her. It is a great encouragement in our addresses to God at any time for His poor Church to have the advantage of His own affections to it, which will prevail with Him so much the easier to goodness upon it. The reason of it is this, because God delights to be like Himself; He is good, and doeth good; and He is yesterday, and to-day, the same for ever. Therefore those bowels which persuade Him to do good to the Church at first, persuade Him still to the continuance of its. (Thomas Horton, D. D.) “ Do good unto Zion” Though a popular and prevalent, it is a false or at least very defective form of Christianity, which, if personal salvation is attained, or supposed to be attained, is indifferent to the interests of truth, the welfare of the Church, and the public cause of Christ. The more profoundly we are interested in, and the more sensibly we are assured of our own salvation, the better fitted are we for being, and the more likely are we to be “ valiant for the truth upon the earth.” We should seek that God would do good unto Zion-- I. In the way of increasing the number of her genuine converts. It is not in the number, or wealth, or worldly influence of her nominal members, but in the number of true believers, “ called and chosen and faithful,” loving the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity and truth, who are found within her pale, that her strength and stability and beauty consist. In proportion as she is destitute of these latter, may Ichabod--the glory is departed--be written on her brow. It is they alone, of all her members, who show forth the transforming power of Divine grace, and the condescension of Divine love, and who reflect the purity of her glorious Head. II. In the way of causing the graces of the spirit to flourish in her true members. It would be a token for good were believers generally constrained to long for the reviving influences of the Spirit, as the chased roe pants for the cooling stream, or as the parched ground thirsts for the refreshing shower--were they in the same frame of mind as the Spouse in Canticles when she cried, “ Awake, O north wind, and come thou south: blow upon my garden that the spices may flow out. Let my beloved come into his garden and eat his pleasant fruits.” III. In the way of enabling her to be faithful to her Lord. And this faithfulness we shall only notice here as it bears upon her testifying for His truths, preserving the purity of His ordinances, and enforcing the laws of His house. According as she fulfils or fails in fulfilling these functions, does she prove faithful or faithless to her high mission as “ the pillar and ground of the truth,” and as a witness for God in the world. IV. In the way of healing her divisions. These are her weakness, her shame, her sin. The armies of Israel are spending in intestine conflict that strength which is needed against, and which would powerfully tell upon, their common foes. V. By extending her boundaries. There are still many “ dark places of the earth,” which are “ full of the habitations of horrid cruelty.” There are hundreds of millions of our race sitting in the shadow of moral and spiritual darkness and death, athwart which a beam from the Sun of Righteousness has never shone. They are perishing for lack of knowledge. In darkness they live, in darkness they die, and to the blackness of darkness at death they descend. So long, however, as this is the case, the promise of the Divine Father to His Son shall not be fully performed, “ I will give Thee the heathen for Thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for Thy possession” --numerous predictions of Scripture shall remain unfulfilled--and the Church shall not have attained her destined and promised position of glory in our world. But all these events shall yet take place, however impossible they may now appear to the eye of sense. Every obstacle to this--physical, political, ecclesiastical, or moral--shall be removed. In asking these blessings from God for Zion, we should do so in a spirit of entire dependence upon Him for their bestowal; under a sense of personal unworthiness; in a spirit of resignation to the Divine will; from a supreme desire for the Divine glory; and under a deep sense of personal obligation to active exertion on our part, in order to their being obtained. (Original Secession Magazine.) A prayer for the welfare of Zion I. The matter of the prayer.1. The first petition hath an obvious reference to the tribes of Israel, considered in their spiritual state, as a religious community, or the true Church of God. 2. The other petition hath a reference to the civil state of the Jews as a commonwealth or kingdom, and is a prayer for their national safety and prosperity. II. The order in which the petitions are placed. He begins with praying for the good of Zion, and then offers his supplication in behalf of Jerusalem. Nor is this an accidental or arbitrary arrangement. The same subordination of temporal to spiritual blessings is uniformly observed through the whole of the sacred record, both in the promises of God, and in the accepted prayer of His people. III. The temper of mind with which they appear to have been accompanied.1. David had a just impression of his absolute dependence on God, and did not trust in the arm of flesh, but looked for help from God alone. 2. The form of his address likewise discovers the deep conviction he had of his own unworthiness. (R. Walker.) Intercession for Zion “ Zion,” in this verse, means the hill on which the temple stood, and is therefore taken for the temple itself; and the temple, again, means God’ s worshipping Church, with God Himself dwelling in the midst of it. He prays for good to this worshipping assembly of God’ s people, under the designation first of Zion, second of Jerusalem. In the second aspect the Church is figured by a city, a metropolitan city, a walled city. The Church is brought before us as a city, and her members as citizens. They are members of the heavenly polity. Jerusalem stands for the gathered assembly of God’ s people worshipping and dwelling secure in their quiet habitations (Hebrews 12:22). It is the rich grace of God, and His free love and unchangeable good-will to His people, that are the sole causes of the welfare of His Church God alone can do good unto Zion; He alone can build up the walls of Jerusalem. But to this work God has a good-will. Zion lies near His heart. When we are seeking this, when we are labouring for this, we are sure to find favour with God. God alone can do it; still our duty is to labour, to teach transgressors God’ s ways, that sinners may be converted unto Him. All that befalls the Church is according to the good pleasure of God’ s will. This is the ground of our calling, election, justification, glorification. Whatever we seek must ever be sought under this restriction, “ Thy good pleasure.” Build Thou; but do it in Thine own wise time, in Thine own good way. Build Thou the walls of separation, that divide the Church from the world; let them be in it, not of it: keep them from its evil. (T. Alexander, M. A.) Psalms 51:19 Then shalt Thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt-offering and whole burnt-offering. Sacrifices of righteousness They are called the sacrifices of righteousness, which are offered rightly, and according to the true intent and meaning, and order of God’ s law. The law of God is the rule of righteousness, they are the sacrifices of righteousness which are presented to God according to this rule. And this interpretation doth easily reconcile the difference, which may seem to be betwixt this verse and the sixteenth. There David said, God desired no sacrifice; here he saith, God shall accept burnt-offering and oblation; when these services may be truly called the sacrifices of righteousness, then God likes of them, and approves them; for that which is rightly performed according to His own prescript, He cannot but approve; but when this righteousness wants, and they are nothing but matters of form and compliment, He cannot endure them. I. It is a great blessing when the services which men present and tender unto God do find acceptance with Him, and are approved by Him.1. Touching the state of the person, he must be one who is himself in favour with God. A man’ s person must be first accepted before his gift can please. If there be any one thing which thou knowest to be an evil; nay, if there be any one particular in thy practice, which thou art not sure is lawful in God’ s sight, surely God loathes thy person, and He cannot but even abhor all the devotions. 2. Concerning the substance of that which is offered unto good, and what he requireth of thee. This rule may well put the greatest part out of all hope of acceptance with God. There are two branches of will-worship, of one of which the greatest part be guilty. First is, when that which is used in worshipping God is grounded only upon man’ s invention, and cannot at all be proved out of God’ s Word to be of his ordaining. Secondly, when though it may be that which is done, is in itself simply of God’ s appointing; yet that it is so is more than he knows, or cares to know, that useth it. 3. The third is for the manner of using. For that is as necessary as the two former. That which is in itself good may yet be spoiled and made distasteful to God by the usage thereof. There were of the Israelites many, who were baptized under Moses in the cloud and in the sea, did eat of the same spiritual meat, and drink of the same spiritual drink, yet with them God was not pleased. Now, the special matter in the manner of using God’ s ordinances is that spoken of by David, In Thy fear will I worship towards Thine holy temple. Let us have grace whereby we may serve God, pleasing Him with reverence and fear. Now, this fear moveth a man to two things. One in respect of his carriage before he cometh into the presence of God; the other in respect of his behaviour there. Before he comes, this fear causeth him to consider with himself into whose presence he is going, and who it is with whom he must have to do, and what a weighty business it is which he must discharge. Then, when a man is in, and now the action is begun, that fear which moved him to prepare, continueth still with him, and causeth him to do reverence before God; that is, to demean himself with a kind of diligent watchfulness over his own thoughts, that he may keep them together, and may prevent those roving and unfitting imaginations, which are wont to fall in most, when a man is best employed, and are like the fowls which fell on the sacrifices which Abraham offered to God, and were driven away by him, It is fit to this purpose that which we find (Malachi 3:16). II. It is a great mercy of God, when there is a general freedom and forwardness in the people, in respect of the public acts and exercises of devotion. We must thus, for the declaring of this doctrine, conceive of this place; that David reckoneth up here a twofold good, which shall follow that twofold blessing, for which he was a suitor in the former verse. If God should please to receive Zion into favour, and to forgive that sin by which the prosperity of the Church was now endangered, then it could not be, but the sacrifices which were offered by the children of Zion should find grace; and then, withal, if He should vouchsafe to continue and establish the peace of the state, then they, being encouraged by so many evidences of God’ s favour, and enjoying such sweet quiet, should be frequent in public duties, and keep the altar of the Lord in continual use by multitudes of sacrifices. This teacheth us, first at what a high rate we ought to value this freedom and liberty of serving God publicly in peace, which David here conceived as one of the blessings which would ensue his prayer, and therefore, no doubt, was a matter principally aimed at by him in his request. And in the second place let us learn, as of David, to be glad of his freedom, so of the people here touching whom he speaks, to make use of this freedom; while we have the light let us walk in the light; while the way lieth open to the Lord’ s altars, let us beat the path that leadeth to them. Remember ever the good use which the Churches of old made of their peace (Acts 9:31). (S. Hieron.) The sacrifice of righteousness The first impulse of a generous soul, when he sees the ruin, the desolation, the broken wall, and the gaps of sin, is to offer reparation, to make restitution, to restore, to do something to make good the desolating ravages of sin. Alas! this is not always possible. Mummius, the Roman general, to whose lot it fell to sack Corinth, with all its treasures of art and monuments of antiquity, is said to have told his rough soldiers that if they broke any of these works of art they would have to replace them. Perhaps his is not a less ludicrous conception who thinks to repair the ravages of sin. It is just here that David seems to look forward, not only to a more perfect contrition, a more prevailing confession, but also to a more acceptable satisfaction for sin. The sacrifice of Calvary, in the Zion of the Church, in the Jerusalem above,--in this, and by this alone will it be possible to repair, to restore, to make God again well-pleased, by virtue of the atonement of His dear Son. It has that wonderful power, as we have seen, of weaving all our life together. All the different failures, incongruities, half-beginnings, impulses, longings of our life, are brought together, in some marvellous way, by His master hand; our very sins have been seized upon, to strengthen or beautify, or even tone down, our life. “ In heaven I shall be myself.” Tenderness, gentleness, self-distrust, and many delicate virtues like them, have been brought into our lives, in places where once were ruinous gaps, Truly God is very merciful! Who but He could ever have made life righteous? The prayer of the generous heart in all ages is to be “ made conformable unto His death” ; to reproduce, however faintly, the pangs, the afflictions, the generous self-sacrifice, the agony of Gethsemane, the shame of Calvary; to offer in person to God a sacrifice of righteousness, righteous because in union with Him, righteous because sprinkled with His blood, righteous because it is the best which we can offer. And it is here described. I. The burnt-offering. You know what that means. It is that sacrifice where all is burned and consumed--a type of the complete exhaustion of wrath against sin. It must be taken from the herd and from the flock, things ready to hand, just round about the home, and be killed, flayed, cut into pieces, and burnt. Is not this the sacrifice which we fain would offer, the vengeance on ourselves, the sorrow after a godly sort, with its carefulness, its clearing of ourselves, etc.? (2 Corinthians 8:11). Are we dead to the old temptation, are we mortified? II. The oblation, the peace-offering--that offering which the soul can make when it is at peace with God. Ours is to be the life of oblation, the life in which there is the perpetual offering up of self. This, too, is a lesson to learn on Calvary, to offer ourselves to God, and to whatever work He may give us to do. III. But he goes higher still. Young bullocks will be offered on the altar. This means the best and the costliest offering. It is the sacrifice of a life which God demands from the priest. It is the sacrifice of a life which God asks us to contemplate on Calvary. “ Be ye therefore perfect.” Is this an idle dream? He was perfect. “ Which of you convinceth Me of sin?” He asks, without fear of the answer. Can we be perfect too? At least, we are bound to try. We can make a resolution never to put up with that which is imperfect, whether it be something which we shrink back from, beaten and hopeless, saying, “ I cannot attain unto it” ; whether it be some disposition or some habit, whose attainment ever eludes it; whether it be those little traits of Christianity, which more than anything else give the likeness to the ideal, which we are seeking to reproduce. (Canon Newbolt.) . Psalms 52:1-9 Psalms 52:1-9 Why boastest thou thyself in mischief, O mighty man?A social betrayer This psalm may be regarded as presenting to us a social betrayer in a variety of aspects. Doeg was an “ informer,” one whom Webster defines as “ a man who informs against others from base or unworthy motives.” I. The social betrayer depicted.1. Pride (Psalms 52:1). Proud of the secret he holds. He feels he has the reputation and destiny of some one entrusted to him. 2. Malice (Psalms 52:2). 3. Craft (Psalms 52:2). He is a moral assassin; moves in the dark, and carries his javelin under the costume of deception. Dishonesty (Psalms 52:3). He runs more readily with the false than with the true; with the wrong than with the right; with the cruel than with the kind. The base man, what careth he whom he betrays, how he betrays, or what sufferings he entails upon the innocent and even the holy, in order to advance his own personal and selfish ends? II. The social betrayer doomed (Psalms 52:5). What is his punishment? Destruction. Not annihilation; but--1. A removal: “ He shall take thee away.” Hengstenberg renders it, “ take thee away as a coal.” Fling thee away as an intolerable brand. He has been as fire in society, inflaming others with bad passions, devouring the true, the good, and the happy. God will fling him away as a hissing coal. “ Pluck thee out of thy dwelling-place” (or tent). His present dwelling-place is a scene of discipline, grace, redemption: hope is taken from him, he is taken from it for ever. 2. An uprootal. “ And root thee out of the land of the living.” The roots of a wicked man’ s life are in this world, they don’ t strike into the spiritual and the eternal; the present and the palpable are everything to him: their roots shall be destroyed. All these are figures, but they mean something terrible; and reason, analogy, conscience, and the Bible tell us that something terrible is before such a man as this’ . III. The social betrayer derided (Psalms 52:6-7). “ There is a twofold laughter,” says Arndt. “ One, when a man out of an evil spirit of revenge laughs at his enemy. This no Christian, virtuous mind does, but exercises compassion towards an enemy. But the other sort of laughing arises from a consideration of the wonderful judgment and righteousness of God, as when a man says; like Pharaoh, “ I ask nothing after the Lord, nor will I let Israel go,” and soon thereafter is made to sink in the Red Sea. This is for just derision. Is it not a matter of ridicule for a man to fight against God? IV. The social betrayer defeated. Doeg, by his betrayal, considered perhaps that he had ruined David; but instead of this, whilst he himself got destroyed, uprooted from the land of the living, his victim was like “ a green olive-tree.” David here indicates that his own life was--1. A growing life. “ A green olive-tree.” Well nourished and well protected. 2. A trusting life. “ I trust in the mercy of God for ever and ever.” God’ s goodness is a tide that must bear everything before it and will outlive the universe itself. Therefore it is wise to trust in it. 3. A thankful life: “ I will praise Thee for ever.” Divine praise is the heaven of the soul. It employs all its faculties harmoniously, and gratifies all its moral cravings fully and for ever. 4. An obedient life. “ I will wait on Thy name.” This is the highest attitude of an intelligent creature; it is the attitude of the greatest angel. (Homilist.) On the character of Doeg I. Doeg made not God his strength. To make God our strength implies that we regard the Almighty as the author of all our blessings; that we repose an implicit trust in Him in every situation; that we own our dependence on Him for everything which we enjoy; and that we live under the habitual influence of these convictions. The conduct of Doeg was the very reverse of this. II. He trusted in the abundance of his riches. The only true felicity of man is in God; but the love of the world seduces the heart from God, and leads it, like Doeg, to trust in the abundance of riches, instead of making God its strength. When the love of riches becomes thus predominant, how baneful must be its influence to the principles and affections of the soul! It darkens the understanding; it deadens the conscience; it chills and hardens the heart. But why should men trust to their wealth, when its influence is so baneful and destructive? The accumulated treasures of the world cannot arrest the arm of death, or purchase from him a moment’ s reprieve. Are riches necessary to the enjoyment of life? This depends on health of body and contentment of mind, and neither of these can wealth bestow. III. He strengthened himself in his wickedness. The first resource of an abandoned sinner is debauchery; and to it he betakes himself, not so much to gratify sensual appetite and licentious desire, as to drown thought, to bury reflection, to lull the cow, science. His only joys are intemperance, riot and dissipation. The best principles of his nature are entirely perverted, and his heart is hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. Having thus succeeded in corrupting or silencing the faithful guardians of innocence and virtue, he triumphs in the imaginary security with which he may now indulge in licentiousness and vice, and strengthens himself still farther in wickedness. IV. This character is recorded for our instruction. It is intended as a beacon to point out to us the dangerous consequences of sin. It is preserved as a memorial, to all ages of the world, of this important; and impressive truth, that sin and misery are most closely united. Would we avoid Doeg’ s fate, then let us avoid his conduct. With this view, let us guard most anxiously against the first deviations from piety and virtue. (G. Goldie.) A challenge to the mighty sinner This psalm is a bold and outspoken challenge to a big sinner--a proud personage who “ trusted in the abundance of his riches” ; and, as often happens to men--and to women, too--luxury had made him slanderous and foul-mouthed, and brutal and monstrous: “ he strengthened himself in his wickedness.” The psalm challenges the “ big man” : “ Why boastest thou thyself in mischief, O mighty man?” but it tries also to convert him: “ The goodness of God is from day to day.” What is the connection between these two clauses of verse 17 The big sinner, wicked and proud, is shut up, as it were, in a close and ill-smelling room--shut up with his ugly thoughts, shut up with his own evil, selfish self. Let him come out, says the psalmist, out into the sunshine of God’ s mercies, out into the open where the winds blow fresh o’ er the world; let him think of God’ s goodness, and may it lead him to repentance. Old Testament piety haunts the open air for its images (Psalms 52:8). We of to-day may not be big men, and have psalms written about us, but we need the same teaching. Let a man be ever-reached in business, let him come home and brood over it, and how soon will arise the thought and plan of revenge! Let another come to him with her prattling lips, and how easily does she convince him that he is a hero and a martyr I Why not the rather, reaching a hand for God’ s Book, remember His goodness, which is from day to day? Young men may not know amassed wealth, but they know how, in act or in fancy, they pass into the house of passion, where the blinds are drawn and the windows dimmed by heat, and the sounds are pleasing, and sweet desire arises. Young men, come forth--into the open, out from your narrow selves to God, out into His love’ s free atmosphere. You are not alone (Psalms 52:9). Here are the saints, the heroes, the men of faith; and above the helmets of salvation which they wear, see the Captain, Christ Himself, beckoning you onwards to glory and to God. (British Weekly.) The goodness of God endureth continually.-- The goodness of God infinite and everlasting There is not so much sin in man as there is goodness in God. There is a vaster proportion between sin and grace than between a spark and an ocean. Who would doubt whether a spark could be quenched in an ocean? Thy thoughts of disobedience towards God have been within the compass of time, but His goodness hath been bubbling up towards thee from all eternity. (W. Culverwell.) Psalms 52:2-4 Thy tongue deviseth mischiefs; like a sharp razor, working deceitfully.Sins of speech The prominence given to sins of speech is peculiar. We should have expected high-handed violence rather than these. But the psalmist is tracking the deeds to their source; and it is not so much the tyrant’ s words as his love of a certain kind of words which is adduced as proof of his wickedness. These words have two characteristics in addition to boastfulness. They are false and destructive. They are, according to the forcible literal meaning in Psalms 52:4, “ words of swallowing.” They are, according to the literal meaning of “ destructions” in Psalms 52:2, “ yawning gulfs.” Such words lead to acts which make a tyrant. They flow from perverted preference of evil to good. Thus the deeds of oppression are followed up to their den and birthplace. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Psalms 52:6-7 The righteous also shall see, and fear, and shall laugh at him.The righteous observe the teachings of life The fear which it produces in the “ righteous “ is reverential awe, not dread lest the same should happen to them. Whether or not history and experience teach evil men that “ verily there is a God that judgeth,” their lessons are not wasted on devout and righteous souls. But this is the tragedy of life, that its teachings are prized most by those who have already learned them, and that those who need them most consider them least. Other tyrants are glad when a rival is swept off the field, but are not arrested in their own course. It is left to “ the righteous” to draw the lesson which all men should have learned. Although they are pictured as laughing at the ruin, that is not the main effect of it. Rather it deepens conviction, and is a “ modern instance “ witnessing to the continual truth of “ an old saw.” There is one safe stronghold, and only one. He who conceits himself to be strong in his own evil, and, instead of relying on God, trusts in material resources, will sooner or later be levelled with the ground, dragged, resisting vainly the tremendous grasp, from his tent, and laid prostrate, as melancholy a spectacle as a great tree blown down by tempest, with its roots turned up to the sky and its arms with drooping leaves trailing on the ground. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Lo, this is the man that made not God his strength. The folly of not depending on God I. What is understood by making God our strength.1. A conviction of our own weakness and danger, and the insufficiency of all created good for our safety and happiness. 2. A strong and lively persuasion of Divine all-sufficiency. 3. A pleasing persuasion of God’ s gracious willingness to protect and save all those who make Him the object of their trust and dependence. 4. An unreserved surrender of himself, and all that he possesses, into the hands of God. The word we render ‘“ strength “ sometimes signifies a fort or castle; and, in this view and connection, imports the soul’ s betaking itself to God in scenes of danger, and reposing its dependence upon Him for protection from invading evil (Psalms 61:2; Psalms 61:8; Isaiah 33:16; Proverbs 18:10). II. View the man who makes not the lord his strength in some of the most interesting scenes and situations.1. We will suppose him in the enjoyment of health and prosperity, and in possession of as much of this world as heart can wish. But whatever distinction these circumstances may make in his favour, he is neither secure nor happy. There are desires which earthly objects were never designed to satisfy, and there is a chasm in the soul which all created nature cannot fill. Past disappointments will suggest the possibility of future; and the sad change which hath passed on others, once as prosperous as himself, will awaken some painful suspicion that his mountain stands not so strong as never to be moved. He vainly attempts to flee from conscience: but it attends him like his shadow; or, shall I say, like a barbed arrow. He may change the place indeed--but the arrow and the wound remain. “ There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.” 2. We will suppose him in scenes of temptation. His dignity and glory is lost:--the freedom in which he prides himself means nothing worthy of the man--in a country that boasts its liberty he is an abject slave, and in constant subjection to the worst of tyrants. 3. We will suppose him lying under the pressure of bodily affliction. The objects on which his trust and dependence were placed cannot prevent one painful sensation, or bring back to its proper state one single nerve. His body and soul are both afflicted: he hath a painful feeling that his dependence was improperly placed; and he is ashamed and afraid to ask of God that strength which he had refused to accept. 4. We will suppose him with death in immediate prospect. His strength is gone--his pulse beats feebly--a mortal paleness hangs upon his countenance. He would fain hope to live, but cannot: he sees death approaching, and trembles at the sight. What he hath most to dread is coming upon him like an armed man, and he hath no strength to resist. The very thing he wants--what alone could sustain him--he hath taken no pains to secure. 5. We will next suppose him in sight of the Judgment-day, and as standing before the bar of that God, whose favour and strength he never sought. Oh! how does he wish for rocks and mountains to fall upon him, to cover him from the face of the Judge, and from the wrath of the Lamb! And “ lo! this is the man who made not God his strength.” 6. Suppose this unhappy man, who made not God his strength, removed from the bar of Christ, and shut up in everlasting despair. III. Some thoughts deducible from this subject.1. They act a very unwise and dangerous part, whose dependence is not on God. 2. There are those who are no objects of envy, notwithstanding their prosperous circumstances and the great abundance they possess. 3. An interest in the favour and friendship of God, through Christ, in whom is everlasting strength, should be the object of our warmest wish and daily pursuit. (N. Hill.) But trusted in the abundance of his riches.--The folly of trusting in riches I. A great mistake.1. Because of the uncertainty of the tenure of riches. 2. Because of the limited power of riches. It can buy books, but not intellectual power; paintings, but not appreciative taste; service and sycophancy, but not esteem and affection, etc. It cannot buy pardon, peace, purity, etc. It cannot bribe death, etc. 3. Because of the utter inability of riches to satisfy their possessors. He who has much wealth would fain have more. II. A common mistake. The great race of the age is for the acquisition of wealth. Manhood is sacrificed for money. “ How mournfully ironical it is,” said Mr. Lance, “ and how sad it seems, that death, with all that is pathetic, and solemn, and tender, and sublime about it, should stand associated with that love of money that is the root of all evil! Died worth £50,000! Why, worth, as I understand it, is worthiness, and as I read Heaven’ s own imperial dictionary, a man is worth only just so much as, and no more than, the good, the true, the imperishable, that stands connected with his name, whether living or dying. I hope that the time may come when it will not seem strange to say that Shakespeare died worth Hamlet, and that Milton died worth the Paradise Lost, and that Bunyan died worth the Pilgrim’ s Progress.” But at present material wealth is the deity of thousands in Christian England. III. A ruinous mistake, if persisted in (Luke 12:15-21). (W. Jones.) Covetousness a misdirected worship The prevalence of error is often to be traced to the latent love of truth, and in sinful excess may not seldom be discerned the aberration of a nature originally designed for good. For just as forged money could never gain currency if men set no value on the genuine coin, and as spurious wares impose on the undiscerning only because of the desire for those things of which they are the worthless imitation, so falsehood and sin would have no attraction but for the deceitful resemblance they bear to the truth and goodness from which we have wandered. Let us, then, provide the true satisfaction for man’ s deep and universal desires, and he will turn with distaste from that which only pretends to please. I. Money is like, and by many is often unconsciously mistaken for, God. Man is made for God, but there are certain superficial similarities between it and God which secretly persuade the heart that that divinity of which it is in search it will find in wealth. If we try to think how money is like God, may it not be said to possess a certain shadowy resemblance of His omnipotence; a strange mimicry of His omnipresence, His boundless beneficence, His providence, His power over the future, His capacity, not only to procure for us an endless variety of blessings, to give us all that our hearts can desire, but also to become in and for Himself, apart from all that He can give us, an object of independent delight; so that it is happiness to know and feel that He is ours? Now, money seems able to do and be all this, and nothing but the true love of God can drive it out of our minds. II. But it is a pretence after all. For the soul cannot rest in the material and the outward; nor in the limited and perishable and that which abideth not. But all this is true of wealth, and therefore it can only be a false god at the best. God, and God alone, is sufficient for the happiness of the soul which, in His own image, He hath made. (John Caird, D. D.) More money than we can use An anonymous writer, generally supposed to be the Rev. Ward Beecher, after describing how, when a boy, he stole a cannon-ball from a navy-yard, and with much trepidation carried it away in his hat, winds up with the following reflections: “ When I reached home I had nothing to do with my shot; I did not dare show it in the house, or tell where I got it; and after one or two solitary rolls I gave it away on the same day. But, after all, that six-pounder rolled a good deal of sense into my skull. It gave me a notion of the folly of coveting more than you can enjoy, which has made my whole life happier. But I see men doing the same thing as I did, gathering up wealth which will, when got, roll around their heads like a ball. I have seen young men enrich themselves by pleasure in the same way, sparing no pains and sacrificing any principle for the sake of at last carrying a burden which no man can bear. All the world is busy in striving for things that give little pleasure and bring much care.” Psalms 52:8I am like a green olive-tree in the house of God.Life like a green olive-tree The olive-tree loves fat soil. It attains to finest fruitfulness when its bed is rich in nutriment. Starve its soil, the tree remains dwarfed and impoverished. A recent traveller, describing the olive-yards of Palestine, says that the soil in which the finest olives grow is “ rich as a bride-cake.” Now I think it is to this characteristic of a splendid olive-tree that the psalmist refers. He himself is like an olive-tree in the richness of his rootage. God is the soil of his life, and he exults in the wealth of his resources. Here is the possibility of every man: he may become rooted in God. But how little use we make of our resources! A little while ago I got a load of soil for the purposes of a small kitchen-garden, and the man who keeps my garden in order saw the soil and exclaimed, “ That’ s a splendid bit of earth, it’ s fit for potting work; you can get far more out of that than vegetables.” The phrase at once acquired spiritual suggestiveness. I thought how little I was getting out of God, and how much He wishes me to have. He wants us to be like olive-trees that are rooted in almost inexhaustible resources. It is the apostolic figure; the Apostle Paul speaks of being “ rooted in Him.” This, I think, is the first suggestion of the psalmist’ s thought; he is like an olive-tree in the wealth of his resources. But he is also like the olive-tree in the vigour of his life. Currents of strength rise out of his resourceful rootage and endow them with spiritual vim and vitality. It is the purpose of our God that every one of our powers should move with firmness and decision. It is His will that there should be nothing weak about our moral and spiritual equipment. He wants everything not only to be beautiful, but to be strong. When we are “ rooted” in Him every branch of the life is pervaded by rivers of sap, and every faculty is urged by Divine energy into manifold fruitfulness. The spiritual sap makes everything it pervades fruit for the King. When we are rooted in God everything is sappy. It may be a letter we are writing. It may be a wish we are expressing. It may be a bit of work we are doing. It may be our ordinary occupation, the drudgery of daily life. If we are rooted in God all the issues of the life are sappy with His Spirit, and we become like green olive-trees. Now let us look at the character in a little more detail. “ I trust in the mercy of God for ever and ever.” What a strong and exquisite word is this word translated “ mercy.” One element of its wealthy content is the suggestion of kindness, but it means more than this: Let me put it in this way: the word is descriptive in the first place of the attitude of bowing and coming quite near to the person, an immediate approach to a need. It is the act of the Good Samaritan stooping to the wounded, and pouring in oil and wine. It is pity in action, pity at work. But there is a second element in the word which greatly corroborates the first. Mercy is not only kindness, it is loyalty also. It is love that never says die. It remains full, flowing all through the changing seasons, even in the drought of a fierce indifference. It is the “ leal love “ of the Master Himself. “ Having loved His own lie loved them unto the end.” This is the mercy of God, and in this mercy the psalmist declares he trusts for ever. Trusts! And there again is a significant word. It means to his for refuge, to take up your home in a thing, to settle down. It is a comfortable nestling in the “ leal love” of the Lord. It is to be so sure of Him that worry and fretfulness pass away, and we are like little children, almost careless in our sense of gracious security. “ I will give thee thanks for ever.” Here is another characteristic of the life that is like an olive-tree; it is a praiseful, thankful life. There is a sentence in one of Jane Austen’ s novels which I think is very expressive. Describing one of her characters, she says, “ He was a very liberal thanker.” I think that is very finely descriptive of a rich and welcome character. To be “ liberal thankers” heavenward, as well as toward our fellows, is to receive continual spiritual enlargement. Gratitude makes room for more grace. And surely we have abundant opportunity for gratitude! We only need to open our eyes to have our praise awakened at every turn. Every time we express our thanks we make more room for God. I do not wonder, then, that this man, who was rooted in God like an olive-tree, should find himself instinctively and unceasingly bearing the fruit of gratitude and praise. “ And I will wait on Thy name, for it is good, in the presence of Thy saints.” What will he wait on? The Lord’ s name! And what names the Lord has given Himself, and every name a promise and a pledger He never goes back upon His name. Every name is honoured to the last extremity of its significance. And we can put in richer names than ever the psalmist could. We can insert the name “ Saviour,” “ Comforter,” “ Counsellor,” “ Friend.” On this name the psalmist says he will “ wait.” That does not mean that he will sit down and indolently tarry until something turns up. It literally means that he will hind himself around the name of God, that he will decline every other support, that he will be wrapped around the covenant of the Lord’ s own name. The man who does this will have reason for singing every day. He will find that the support holds, and day by day his experience of security will teach his lips a new song. And he says that he will do this waiting “ in the presence of Thy saints.” That is to say, he will mingle with other people who are doing the same, he will make a profession of his willing confidence in God, and he will listen to similar professions made by others. In their mutual confidences they will give one another mutual support. Ah! yes, this kind of communion is always “ good.” It nourishes the life like bread, it refreshes the life like water. “ Thou satisfiest my mouth with good things.” (J. H. Jowett, M. A.) I trust in the mercy of God for ever and ever.-- On trusting in the mercy of God I. What mercy is.1. Mercy, as an attribute of God, is not to be confounded with mere goodness. Goodness may demand the exercise of justice; indeed, it often does; but to say that mercy demands the exercise of justice is to use the word without meaning. Mercy asks that justice be set aside. 2. Mercy is a disposition to pardon the guilty. Desert is never the rule by which mercy-is guided; while it is precisely the rule of justice. 3. Mercy is exercised only where there is guilt. The penalty of the law must have been previously incurred, else there can be no scope for mercy. 4. Mercy can be exercised no further than one deserves punishment. If great punishment is deserved, great mercy can be shown; if endless punishment is due, there is then scope for infinite mercy to be shown, but not otherwise. II. What is implied in trusting in the mercy of God.1. A conviction of guilt. 2. That we have no hope on the score of justice. If we had anything to expect from justice, we should not look to mercy. 3. A just apprehension of what mercy is--pardon for the crimes of the guilty. 4. A belief that He is merciful. We could not trust Him if we had no such belief. 5. A conviction of deserving endless punishment. 6. A cessation from all excuses and excuse-making. III. The conditions upon which we may confidently and securely trust in the mercy of God for ever.1. Public justice must be appeased. Its demands must be satisfied. However much disposed God may be to pardon, yet He is too good to exercise mercy on any such conditions or under any such circumstances as will impair the dignity of His law, throw out a licence to sin, and open the very floodgates of iniquity. Jehovah never can do this. 2. We must repent. 3. We must confess our sins. 4. We must really make restitution, so far as lies in our power. 5. Another condition is that you really reform. 6. You must go the whole length in justifying the law and its penalty. 7. No sinner can be a proper object of mercy who is not entirely submissive to all those measures of the government that have brought him to conviction. 8. You must close in most cordially with the plan of salvation. IV. Some mistakes into which many fall.1. Many really trust in justice, and not in mercy. This is a fatal rock. The sinner who can do this calmly has never seen God’ s law and his own heart. 2. Many trust professedly in the mercy of God without fulfilling the conditions on which only mercy can be shown. They may hold on in such trusting till they die--but no longer. 3. Sinners do not consider that God cannot dispense with their fulfilling those conditions. He has no right to do so. They spring out of the very constitution of His government, from His very nature, and must therefore be strictly fulfilled. 4. Many are defeating their own salvation by self-justification. Pleas that excuse self and cavils that arraign God, stand alike and fatally in the way of a pardon. Since the world began it has not been known that a sinner has found mercy in this state. 5. Many pretend to trust in mercy who yet profess to be punished for their sins as they go along. They hope for salvation through mercy, and yet they are punished for all their sins in this life. Two more absurd and self-contradictory things were never put together. 6. Persons who in the letter plead for mercy, often rely really upon justice. The deep conviction of sin and ill-desert does not sink into their soul till they realize what mercy is, and feel that they can rely on nothing else. 7. Some are covering up their sins, yet dream of going to heaven. Do they think they can hide those sins from the Omniscient Eye? Do they think to cover their sins and yet “ prosper,” despite of God’ s awful Word? 8. We cannot reasonably ask for mercy beyond our acknowledged and felt guilt; and they mistake fatally who suppose that they can. (C. G. Finney.) Psalms 52:9I will praise Thee for ever, because Thou hast done it.He closeth the psalm comfortably, with resolution to praise God, and to depend upon Him. Whence learn 1. Victory over temptations obtained by faith is very glorious; for faith doth make a man as sure of what is to come as if it were perfected, and filleth him with praise for the certain hope of the performance of promises; “ I will praise Thee for ever, because Thou hast done it.” 2. Faith being solidly fixed, bringeth forth hope and quiet expectation of what is promised, “ I will wait on Thy name.” 3. As the Christian patience of one of the saints is a matter of good example and great encouragement unto all the rest that behold it: so the consideration of the good which may redound to others, who shall be witnesses of our patient attending upon God, should stir us up to this duty of patient hope in God, “ I will wait on Thee, for it is good before Thy saints.” (D. Dickson.) . Psalms 53:1-6 Psalms 53:1-3 The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. The folly of unbelief There were Atheists in David’ s days, practical Atheists at least, as there have been in all days, and probably ever will be, and the general bearing of this psalm teaches us pretty clearly the judgment which David formed of them. David at once goes off into a description of the abominably wicked lives of those who said so; the man who says there is no God is declared by David to be a fool, a man wanting in judgment, in clearness of head, in powers of reasoning; this is an imputation upon his mind, his intellect: but the matter does not rest there, for David does not proceed to deplore the weakness of the Atheist’ s faculties, but the rottenness of the Atheist’ s heart; he says they are corrupt, altogether become abominable. He clearly sees the cause of the man’ s infidelity in his wicked course of life. He would not leave off sinning, that were too great a sacrifice, but at length a light opens upon his mind, but it is a light such as in swampy places sometimes tempts a traveller from the right way--no light of the sun, no guiding star. And what is the light? It is this, that after all perhaps all this about God is a cunning fable, an invention of priests, a mere bugbear to frighten children. And to a man who is determined to sin this is right comfortable doctrine. It is easy to believe true what we wish to be true. And what could a man who has become corrupt and abominable wish to be truer than that there should be no God? This is evidently David’ s judgment upon the matter. But the man is a fool who says there is no God! His wickedness is lost in his folly. For what folly is his who says there is no God! There is the argument unanswerable, “ Who hath made all these things?. . . The heavens declare the glory of God,” etc. And equally unreasonable is the denial of God’ s moral government. A kind of denial this which is alluded to in the psalm, “ and yet they say, Tush, God shall not see it.” Yet this view also may, I think, without much difficulty, be convicted of folly; for let us consider, is it possible to think of God as being otherwise than perfect? Surely not--an imperfect God is no God at all; if perfect, then He must be perfect in goodness, in holiness and truth. Can He smile equally on the false and the true, the murderer and the saint? is it conceivable that St. John and Judas Iscariot should be equally pleasing to their Maker, differing from each other merely as two stones of different colour differ? Surely all this is monstrous; it is not merely contrary to the Bible, or to the inventions of priests, but it is utterly opposed to the plainest dictates of reason. Therefore I find no difficulty in agreeing with the expression of the text that he who in this way denies God by making Him only the Creator and Preserver, and not the righteous Ruler and Judge, gives evidence thereby of his folly. There is, however, one other manner in which a man may deny God. He may allow all that I have contended for hitherto, and may agree with me that it is contrary to sound reason to deny it; but he may still refuse homage to that God whom we worship as revealed to us in the Lord Jesus Christ. We know that there are such persons, that there always have been such; and we know that the leaders of such a party have accounted themselves as clearsighted beyond others, men of great freedom of thought, not slaves to vulgar prejudices, but rather men who have risen above all vulgar prejudices into an atmosphere of their own. Well, men may be wise in their own conceits without being really wise, and it seems very possible that these infidels may after all be of the class of David’ s fool. If this be so, it will not take long to show it. For--1. The holiest and wisest men have found in the revelation of God in Christ the satisfaction of all their spiritual wants. 2. Then in estimating the reality of the revelation which God has made to us in Jesus Christ, it is necessary to observe the wonderful power that the revelation has had; how it has broken up kingdoms and formed others, how it has reduced whole nations to its dominion and then civilized and informed them; how it has unquestionably been the mainspring, the chief mover of all the history of the world since the time that Christ came. Once more, it is to be noted that if Christ be not “ the way, the truth, and the life,” at least there is no other; either God has revealed Himself in Christ, or He has not revealed Himself at all; for there is no other religion in this world which any one will pretend to substitute. David, as I have already observed, passes abruptly from the speech of the fool’ s heart to the state of his heart” “ corrupt are they, and become abominable in their wickedness.” What are we to learn from this part of the text? Surely this most true and valuable lesson, that the denial of God generally proceeds from the heart more than from the intellect. I do not say that this is so in all cases; for when systematic attempts are made to destroy the faith of mankind, it is not to be wondered at if in some instances the belief of simple men should be disturbed; but depend upon it, the fear of a future judgment, and the wish to get free from the thought of it, is the root of much unbelief. And yet doubts and fears do sometimes trouble the mind; the best of men have sometimes felt them; it may be that to experience them is part of our appointed discipline in this world: if, then, any person should be so tempted and tried, I should remind him of our blessed Lord’ s promise, “ He that will do the will of God shall know of My doctrine, whether it be of God or whether I speak of Myself.” You see that our Lord gives an essentially practical rule for strengthening our faith; He does not say, shut yourself up in your study and go carefully through all the evidences and weigh them with an unbiased mind--but go and do God’ s will. And so when He heard the Pharisees disbelieving, He did not say, how can ye believe who will not look into evidences, but, “ how can ye believe which receive honour one of another, and seek not the honour which cometh of God only?” Here was the defect: the Pharisees were well read in the law, men of acute minds, cultivated intellects: if Christ were the Messiah, why could not they, who were actually looking for Him, recognize His true character? because they were seeking their own glory, seeking honour one of another, and not that which comes of God. What a strange reproof was this to those who piqued themselves upon their wisdom! Christian brethren, let us do God’ s will, and then we shall know of the doctrine that is of God. (Bishop Harvey Goodwin.) Cause of infidelity In Scripture the fool and the sinner often mean the same person, and infidelity is therefore usually found connected with great depravity. Its progress is gradual; it begins by opposing those doctrines that impose restraint upon a man’ s favorite vices, and from denying these it proceeds to deny others, and, finally, all the rest. This subject is very important to the age in which we live, Europe being deluged with impiety. What, then, are the causes of infidelity? And we name--1. Vice. It is not the difficulties of Scripture, but its forbidding of their sin that men dislike. All experience proves this. At first conscience remonstrates, but, unable to secure obedience, conscience is soon silenced, and the sinner seeks to justify those propensities which he declares himself unable to subdue. For it is necessary that men should reconcile their conduct to their opinions, or else there will be continual misery through self-reproach. And they soon succeed in the endeavour, for when a man studies to deceive himself he always can do so. His wishes, not his reason, decide upon the truth. The libertine hates the purity of religion; the dissolute, its temperance; the proud, its meekness; the gay worldling, its piety. But if they cannot get rid of the authority of religion, the thought of the future will make them tremble. Hence they labour to destroy that authority, so that conscience may have no more ground for her reproaches. They represent death as an eternal sleep, and, that men may indulge unrestrainedly the passions of brutes, they labour to show that his end is as theirs. Another proof that infidelity springs from vice is that it usually keeps pace with the passions. When these are strong it is strong. It flourishes in prosperity, but loses its confidence in adversity. Many instances might be adduced in proof that to the infidel the approach of death is terrible. Such is one chief source of infidelity. (S. Smith, D. D.) Theoretical Atheism We cannot converse with any human being without instinctively judging of his intellectual capacity. We cannot help assigning him a place either amongst those superior or inferior in intellect. But sometimes we meet with those who will believe what, to all others, is absurd; or disbelieve what, to all others, is evident. Such a man we designate as a fool. And they, also, deserve to be so regarded who, when convinced of the truth of a physical or moral law, yet act as if they knew that which they believe to be certainly false. They will learn wisdom neither from observation or experience. The profligate, the inebriate, the frivolous, are of these fools. The former class may be termed theoretical, the latter, practical fools. In proportion to our respect and reverence for a powerful understanding is our contempt for him who says “ there is no God.” Now, such denial of the existence of God may be either theoretical or practical. It is theoretical when we affirm that no such being exists, but practical when, admitting His existence, we act, in all respects, as though we believed that He did not exist. Let us speak, at present, of the first of these errors--the theoretical. It may show itself in either of two forms. I. That of absurd credulity. For surely it is such credulity to believe an assertion when no evidence is brought forward to sustain it, and especially when, from the necessity of the case, the evidence, if it did exist, is beyond the reach of the human understanding. Now the Atheist declares to us that there is no God. What is the proof of his assertion? There is none. It is no proof to say that nothing exists but what manifests itself either to the senses or to consciousness. How does he know but that, among the truths which have thus far escaped his notice, one may be the existence of God? See this argument drawn out at length in Foster’ s Essays. II. Absurd incredulity. Its unbelief is as unreasonable as its belief. For--1. The idea of power, of cause and effect, is the universal and spontaneous suggestion of the human intelligence. We cannot imagine an effect without a cause. And that the Creator, shown to be infinite in power and wisdom, is also a holy God. We have ample proof that He loves virtue and hates vice. Socrates, from an observation of the works of creation and Providence, arrived at very nearly this conception of the Divine character. Now, the Atheist, in the face of all this evidence, affirms that there is no God. But this is to deny the existence of the elementary principles of human intelligence. And this Atheistic belief is absurd because it wholly fails in the purpose for which it is intended. He would seek to get rid of the idea of immortality and of future moral retribution. But we do exist, whether there be a God or not: why, then, may we not continue to exist? And there is a moral government, with its penalties and rewards, now: why may it not continue to be? Even if there be no God, that government is; why, then, may it not be carried on through eternity? Such is the absurdity of Atheism. It asserts that which cannot be known by any finite intelligence, and it denies that which cannot be disbelieved without denying the essential laws of human thought, and this for a reason which would remain unaffected whether Atheism be true or false. (F. Nayland.) Practical Atheism We may not be theoretical Atheists, but yet we may be such in practice. Now, many are so. They admit the existence of God, bat they live as if they denied it, and thus they are guilty of practical Atheism. To show this, let us-- I. Unfold the conception we have formed of God. We all conceive of Him-- 1. As a person. We cannot have the idea of qualities as existing without a subject in which they exist. 2. And to God we ascribe self-existence. He must be the cause of causes, or else there must be an infinite succession of causes, which is absurd. 3. To this conception we add on the idea of eternity, both in the past and in the future. 4. And also infinite and absolute power. 5. Omniscient wisdom, as contrasted with the limited wisdom of even the greatest of men. 6. And every moral attribute in infinite perfection. “ He is a rock, His way is perfect: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is He.” 7. And He is not only the Judge, but the Father of us all. This shown not only in His providence, but yet more in our redemption. II. How important to us, then, must be the fact of His existence. No other fact is comparable to it. It is by far the most practical truth that we can conceive. And what must be the condition of the man who believes in the existence of such a God, and yet suffers not this belief to exert any practical influence upon his conduct? What folly can be compared with his? And yet, are not many of you chargeable with it? Some pass whole months without even thinking, in any devout way, of God. Others, under the influence of passion, or fear of being thought precise, will knowingly disobey God. The reason of all such practical Atheism is that they did not like to retain God in their knowledge. Hence are they given over to their evil ways. Think what must be the end of this. But God, in the Gospel of His Son, is offering to us reconciliation. “ I will,” saith He, “ take from you the heart of stone, and give you a heart of flesh.” Give Him now your hearts. (F. Nayland.) Unkindness of scepticism The Philadelphia Inquirer tells this story of the late Washington McLean: One terribly snowy, sleety day in Washington, he was sitting in the Riggs House reading-room, looking out upon the dreary scene on Pennsylvania Avenue. Presently, in came Colonel Bob Ingersoll, the great agnostic. As he entered the apartment he held out his hand, saying, “ Hello, Wash., how do you do?” Mr. McLean took his hand, and, as he did so, said, “ Bob, I wish you could have been here a little while ago. I saw a scene out there that made me wish I was twenty years younger. A poor, old, crippled soldier was limping across the Avenue, when a young, lusty fellow ran by him, and, as he did so, kicked the crutch from him, and tumbled him down into the slush.” “ The villain,” said Ingersoll, “ he should have been sent to the penitentiary.” “ Do you really think so?” said McLean. “ Why, certainly!” replied the colonel. “ What else could I think? And yet, Bob,” said McLean, “ that is what you are doing every week in the year. Here are poor, old, infirm Christians, with nothing to aid or support them but their belief in religion, nothing to keep them out of the mire of despair but faith, and yet you go about kicking the crutch from under them worse than even this fictitious fellow did to this fictitious soldier.” Very true, with the one exception that our faith is a living thing, and can never be knocked away. (Sword and Trowel.) Psalms 53:2-3 God looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, that did seek God.Universal corruption of mankind This is a description of human nature at all times (Romans 3:10-12). I. Seeking the Lord is here supposed to be the criterion of a good understanding. It includes--1. Our choosing the best good for our portion. God’ s service is its own reward. 2. Repentance for sin. 3. The sacrifice of every earthly good for His sake, and accounting His favour to be better than life. 4. Resting all our hopes of salvation upon the promises of His Word. There is no other door of hope, no other way of acceptance, but what is provided in the promises of the Gospel. II. All men by nature are corrupt, and utterly destitute of this understanding.1. The loss of the Divine favour is the greatest of all evils, and yet no one lays it to heart, or is careful to seek after it. To be contented in such a state, and indifferent about the favour of God, is truly dreadful: yet such is the case with all men by nature. 2. God visits men with such afflictions, and brings them into such circumstances, as are directly adapted to make them feel their need of Him: and yet God is not in all their thoughts (Job 33:15). 3. By nature we have no love to God, and therefore do not seek Him. 4. Men are full of pride and self-sufficiency, and hence they do not seek after God (Psalms 10:4). Religion is too mean for their notice, and fit only for the attention of the vulgar. Many say in their hearts with Pharaoh, Who is the Lord that I should obey His voice? III. The lord keeps a strict eye upon the conduct of men towards Him.1. Though “ every one of them is gone back, and they are altogether become filthy,” yet some are distinguished by grace, and there is a generation of them that seek Thy face, O God of Jacob (Psalms 24:6). His eye is upon all such, and He will be found of them in truth; they shall never seek His face in vain (Isaiah 45:9). 2. The Lord also notices those who do not seek Him, and His eye is upon all their ways. Awful thought, to be under His inspection while utterly regardless of His presence, and sinning against heaven and before Him. (Theological Sketch-book.) God inspecting man I. God’ s profound interest in humanity. He bows Himself forward; and with zeal and concern examines man’ s moral state. Why is He so interested?1. Because of the dignity of man’ s nature (Genesis 1:27). 2. Because of the peculiarity of man’ s moral condition. By disobedience man entered into the dread knowledge of evil. Unfallen angels are entirely holy. Fallen angels are utterly depraved. In human nature the battle between good and evil is being waged. 3. Because of the capabilities of man’ s being. Man is capable of rising to the highest, or sinking to the lowest, position in the universe of God. II. God’ s searching scrutiny of humanity. His is the scrutiny of--1. An all-seeing Being (Psalms 139:11-16; Ezekiel 11:5; Hebrews 4:13). 2. An infinitely holy Being. His dwelling, His ways, His works, His essential nature are all holy (Isaiah 57:15; Habakkuk 1:12-13; 1 John 1:5; Revelation 4:8). 3. An infinitely merciful Being. If there be in us any sincere efforts after truth and righteousness, He sees and approves them. III. The supreme concern of humanity. Why does God so earnestly examine man? “ To see if there were any that did understand, that did seek God.” We should seek--1. Moral intelligence. “ Understand,” or act prudently--the antithesis of “ the fool “ in Psalms 53:1. Not intellectual attainment, but practical wisdom. 2. Divine aspiration. Where there is any true wisdom, or any spiritual life, it will manifest itself in seeking fellowship and union with God. Only through the mediation of Jesus Christ can this union be obtained. Conclusion. 1. He who now scrutinizes will one day judge man.2. His judgment of man is infallible. He deliberately, patiently, and thoroughly examines into every case before pronouncing judgment.3. He is also the merciful Saviour of men.4. Our supreme interest is to seek to know Him as our Saviour. (W. Jones.) Psalms 53:5 Then were they in great fear where no fear was.Idle fears Every one must have heard of borrowing trouble. It is generally done by persons who have little real trouble of their own. Now, this habit of making oneself uneasy about little or nothing, of groping among dark and painful subjects, which might have been avoided, is, in part, constitutional; it may rise from the physical habit, or from temporary physical causes: and in that case the preacher has nothing to say about it in his official relation to the self-tormentor. But there are many instances in which the thing is not constitutional, or at least only so in part; cases in which it is clearly one’ s own fault that he vexes himself in the fashion which we have described, and must be held responsible, in great measure, for his own discomfort. Let us limit ourselves, now, to one special topic under the general head, and think of the case of those who borrow trouble by permitting themselves to be the victims of their fears. Of such persons the number is, unfortunately, great, and as for the causes of their alarm and anxiety, their name is Legion. What deserves special attention is this: that in a large number of cases there is really no ground at all for the anxieties into which they fall; and that many have found, after giving themselves no end of distress, that they had been afraid where no fear was; that the distress was the result of their imagination; that the evils they dreaded never came to pass; that, while they were shivering and shaking, all was going forward welt. This is the special case to which your attention is called; the very case described by the psalmist; and it may be useful to consider wherein lies the sinfulness of this thing, and by what means the fault may be cured. I spoke of this habit as a sin. There is a great difference in the quality and degree of sins; some are graver than others, some are positive and some negative. This is a sin of thoughtlessness and carelessness; the sin of one who overlooks what he might have observed, and ought, by all means, to have heeded, When there is real danger, a certain kind of fear is in order: not to have it would be foolhardiness; but as to the habit of being always nervously apprehensive, and never passing a day without dreading-one knows not exactly what, or dreading what we have no sound reason for judging to be imminent; this certainly shows a culpable forgetfulness of certain truths which form the basis of a peaceful life. Such an exhibition of weakness is what God’ s servants ought never to make: if they suffer in that fashion, they put themselves in the place of the unjust. From panic and foolish dismay, their faith, their love, their trust, should save them; and when it is not so, we infer that in faith, love, and trust they must be far below the mark. Let us proceed to point out a cure for the habit thus hastily analyzed. First, then, we say to the timid, Keep God in mind. What should you fear, if you know that He is overhead? And next turn your minds steadily away from dark views of things. As Charles Kingsley puts it, “ Never begin to look darkly at a subject, without checking yourself and saying, Is there net a bright side to this? Has not God promised the bright side to me? Is not my happiness in my own power? Do not I know that I am ruining my mind, and endangering the happiness of those dear to me by looking at the wrong side? There are two ways of looking at every occurrence--a bright and a dark side. Two modes of action--which is most worthy of a rational being, a Christian, and a friend? It is absurd as a rational being H torture oneself unnecessarily. It is inconsistent in a Christian to see God’ s wrath, rather than His mercy, in everything.” And, next, there is a remedy against unreal fears, which, with any intelligent man or woman, ought H have great force. It lies in considering how, in real trouble, real, positive, and terrible distress, God in His providence has brought good out of evil. Even real disasters end in blessing, and light comes gloriously out of darkness. What then of your fears? There may be no foundation for them whatever, and in that case you ought to be ashamed of them. But even grant the worst, and suppose that they may be realized: what then? Cannot the same power turn them to good? May clot what you dread become to you the very thing you need to complete your development? Either way, fear not. If your fears are vain, it is mere self-torment; if there be ground for them, trust the Lord in this thing, and you may yet rejoice that the evil did not fail to come. In conclusion: if any ask how to do what is necessary to render himself independent of idle fears, or how to learn to bear the real troubles of this world, our answer must be, that the way is--first, to pray; and, secondly, to practise. Ask for the grace that you need; ask it day by day; such prayers cannot be vain. And, again, practise, by forcing your mind off from morbid, gloomy thoughts, by denying it the luxury of sentimental revelry, by insisting that it shall think of God’ s love and goodness, by telling it that it shall look out of the windows into the sunlight, and not inside into the gloom and shadow. And as life passes on, you will find comfort and courage in your soul, where timidity and distress used to be, and, with the ending of this world, there shall come a large experience such as many of us must have had in our own little lives. (Morgan Dix, D. D.) Fear, without danger I may say to every believer in Jesus, that his condition is very like that of the landsman on board ship when the sea was rather rough, and he said, “ Captain, we are in great danger, are we not?” As an answer did not come, he said, “ Captain, don’ t you see great fear?” Then the old seaman gruffly replied, “ Yes, I see plenty of fear, but not a bit of danger.” It is often so with us; whoa the winds are out and the storms are raging there is plenty of fear, but there is no danger. We may be much tossed, but we are quite safe, for we have an anchor of the soul both sure and steadfast, which will not start. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Psalms 53:6 Oh that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion.The salvation of the Church, and the destruction of her enemies I. The destruction of the wicked (Psalms 53:5).1. Utter and irreversible. 2. Effected by God. 3. Overtaking them when they regarded themselves as quite secure. 4. Inflicted because of their hostility to the people of God. (1) He is in covenant relation with His people, and is pledged to help them. (2) He is profoundly and tenderly interested in His people (Isaiah 49:14-16; Matthew 18:5-6; Matthew 25:40; Matthew 25:45; Acts 9:4). An inspiring and strengthening consideration for the people of God. Motive and encouragement to those who would aid them. Warning to those who would injure them. II. The destruction of the wicked in former times as an encouragement to the good to expect salvation from present dangers. This we take to be the connecting link between Psalms 53:5; Psalms 6:1-10. 1. The poetic view of salvation. It is here represented as deliverance from captivity. 2. The grand source of salvation. “ Out of Zion.” 3. The earnest desire of salvation. 4. The encouragement to expect salvation. God is unchangeable. What He has done in the past He is able to do in the present. He is faithful. What He has promised that will He perform. (W. Jones.) . Psalms 54:1-7 Psalms 54:1-7 Save me, O God, by Thy name, and judge me by Thy strength.Phases of piety I. Piety praying. The prayer has respect to--1. The character of God (Psalms 54:1).2. The entreatability of God (Psalms 54:2).3. The necessity for God (Psalms 54:3). II. Piety trusting. He had confidence in God--1. As a Deliverer from his enemies.2. As the Chastiser of his enemies. III. Piety worshipping.1. Worship is voluntary sacrifice. The offering of self is essential to give virtue and worth to all other offerings.2. Worship is praise to God. (1) On account of what He is in Himself.(2) On account of what He is to us (Verse 7). (Homilist.) Psalms 54:4-7 Behold, God is mine helper; the Lord is with them that uphold my soul God our Helper I. When God is the helper of His people.1. In the great crisis of their conversion. He raiseth from the pit, delivers, saves, etc.2. In the troubles and afflictions of life. These are many, varied, sometimes severe, etc. Job, the apostles (2 Corinthians 1:8-10).3. In the perils and conflicts of their warfare (Psalms 37:14-15; Psalms 60:11-12).4. In their labours and toils in His kingdom (Psalms 121:1-2).5. In weakness, sickness and death (Psalms 23:4; Psalms 116:1-9). II. What kind of a helper is God.1. Always near at hand.2. Always efficient and sufficient.3. Perpetual and everlasting. III. The conclusions to which the subject should lead us.1. Personal knowledge and reliance on God.2. Unwavering faith and hope.3. Constant prayer and supplication. He will be sought and inquired of.4. Acknowledgment and praise. “ Bless the Lord at all times,” etc. (J. Burns, D. D.) Psalms 54:6-7I will freely sacrifice unto Thee: I will praise Thy name, O Lord, for it is good.Thank-offerings The closing verses of this simple little psalm touch very familiar notes. The faith which has prayed has grown so sure of answer that is already begins to think of the thank-offerings. This is not like the superstitious vow, “ I will give so-and-so if Jupiter” --or the Virgin--“ will hear me.” This praying man knows that he is heard, and is not so much vowing as joyfully anticipating his glad sacrifice. The same incipient personification of the name as in Psalms 54:1 is very prominent in the closing strains. Thank-offerings--not merely statutory and obligatory, but brought by free, uncommanded impulse--are to be offered to “ Thy name,” because that name is good. Verse 7 probably should be taken as going even further in the same direction of personification, for “ Thy name” is probably to be taken as the subject of “ hath delivered.” The Senses of the verbs in Psalms 54:7 are perfects. They contemplate the deliverance as already accomplished. Faith sees the future as present. This psalmist, surrounded by strangers seeking his life, can quietly stretch out a hand of faith, and bring near to himself the to-morrow when he will look back on scattered enemies and present, glad sacrifices! That power of drawing a brighter future into a dark present belongs not to those who build anticipations on wishes, but to those who found their forecasts on God’ s known purposes and character. The name is a firm foundation for hope. There is no other. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) . Psalms 55:1-23 Psalms 55:1-23 Give ear to my prayer, O God; and hide not Thyself from my supplication.The compassionable, the commendable, and the censurable in life I. The compassionable. David appears here an object for pity and compassion, as the victim of--1. Malignant oppression. 2. Overwhelming terror. 3. Foul treachery. II. The commendable.1. He lays all his troubles before Him who alone could help him. The fact that men in great trouble and danger, whatever be their theoretical beliefs, instinctively appeal to God for help, argues man’ s intuitive belief-- (1) In the existence of a personal God; (2) In the accessibility of a personal God; (3) In the compassion of a personal God. 2. Under all his troubles he strives to maintain his confidence in God. (1) Men have burdens. What anxieties press upon the human soul, making the very frame to stoop, and the heart to break. (2) Men’ s burdens may be transferred to God. “ Cast thy burden upon the Lord.” How? By an unbounded confidence in His character and procedure. (3) Those who transfer their burdens on the Lord will be sustained. “ He shall sustain thee.” God gives men power to bear their burden, and will ultimately remove their burden from them. III. The censurable--his imprecations. Revenge is a moral wrong; and what is morally wrong in the individual can never be right in any relationship or office that the individual may assume, or in any combination into which he may enter. (Homilist.) The outcry of a soul in distress I. The vivid complaint (Psalms 55:1-11). The singer’ s case is a sad one. His mind is restlessly tossed to and fro. Full of cares and anxieties he nowhere finds solid foothold, but continues distracted, and hence he must pour out his heart in groans and complaints. The reason is the voice of the enemy, that is, the reproaches and calumnies to which he is subjected. But word is accompanied by deed, for there is persecution as well as slander. Overwhelmed with horror, the one thought of the sufferer is escape. He longs for the pinions of a dove--itself the emblem of peace and quiet--that he may fly away and find repose. II. The treacherous friend (Psalms 55:12-15). The slanders of an avowed antagonist are seldom so mean and cutting as those of a false friend, and the absence of the elements of ingratitude and treachery renders them less hard to bear. “ We can bear from Shimei what we cannot endure from Ahithophel.” So, too, we can escape from open foes, but where can one find a hiding-place from treachery? Hence the faithlessness of a professed friend is a form of sin for which there is not even the pretence of excuse. No one defends it or apologizes for it. Yet it occurs, and sometimes, like the case in the psalm, under the sanctions of a religious profession, so that the very altar of God is defiled with hypocrisy. It is right, therefore, that such atrocious wickedness should receive its appropriate recompense. III. The anticipated result (Psalms 55:16-23). By a fine antithesis the speaker turns to describe his own course in opposition to that of others. They pursue wickedness and reach its fearful end. He, on the contrary, calls upon God, who is his one refuge in times of distress and anxiety. He lives in an atmosphere of prayer, which is expressed by his mention of the three principal divisions of the natural day. “ Complain” and “ moan” are the same words that occur in Psalms 55:2; only here they are accompanies by the assurance of being heard. God will assuredly redeem him from the heat of the conflict; and the interposition of His arm will be needed, for his adversaries are not few but many, too many for him to deal with alone. God therefore will hear and answer them just as He does to His own servant, but with a serious difference. His own He regards in mercy, others in judgment. God Himself so orders His providence that they are overtaken in their evil ways and plunged into the abyss. On the other hand, the sacred poet closes his lyric with a renewed asseveration of the only ground of his hope. As for me, whatever others may say or think, as for me, I trust in Thee. (T. W. Chambers, D. D.) Psalms 55:4 The terrors of death are fallen upon me.On the fear of death I. The nature of the fear of death. It appears to arise from an instinct of nature, which is increased and strengthened by observation, reflection, and conscience. A feeling which springs from such sources, however unpleasant or painful it may be, cannot have been implanted in vain in the human breast, and should be treated with seriousness and respect. II. The uses of the fear of death. When God first made known the doctrines and duties of religion, He urged and supported them by the fear of death (Genesis 2:15). In every successive dispensation of religion, its belief and practice have been enforced by the same principle (Deuteronomy 30:19; Ezekiel 18:31; Romans 8:13, etc.). Often has the fear of death led to religious inquiry, to repentance, to conversion, to faith unfeigned, to peace, to hope, to Christ and to God. Often has it awakened men out of spiritual sleep, to trim their lamps, to gird their loins, to be sober, and to hope to the end for the grace which is to be brought at the revelation of Jesus Christ. III. The abuses of the fear of death. It was intended, as we have seen, to stimulate and restrain men, as circumstances may require; but it never was intended to enslave them. The Scriptures, however, speak of some, “ who, through fear of death, were all their lifetime subject to bondage.” Such characters exist, and are examples of the corruption and abuse of this principle. Urged by this principle, some have doubted, and others have denied, the facts of religion; they have corrupted its doctrines, neglected its duties, misapplied its promises, and made of no effect its threatenings. IV. The means of removing the fear of death. That the fear of death is not at all times necessary for the purposes which have just been stated is evident from the doctrines of religion (John 10:14; Hebrews 8:6; Hebrews 2:14-15; Romans 8:2; Luke 10:17; 1 John 4:18). St. Paul affirms, that “ the sting of death is sin” ; that is, it is sin which gives death all its horrors; “ Death is the wages or punishment of sin.” Whatsoever, then, can remove the sense of guilt from the conscience, and the dread of punishment from the mind, will necessarily remove the fear of death; and if it can farther be made evident that death itself is beneficial, and that it is in reality the commencement of everything that is desirable, then its fear will not only be removed, but will be completely destroyed. All this may be effected by the knowledge and belief of the Gospel (2 Timothy 1:10; Matthew 18:11; Matthew 20:28; 1 Corinthians 3:18; 2 Corinthians 5:19; Hebrews 9:14; John 3:16; 2 Corinthians 5:8; 1 Corinthians 14:54; 1 Corinthians 14:57). V. Improvement.1. Remember that God, in His moral government of the world, can bring good out of evil. 2. Consider the caution which should be employed in removing the fear of death. The fear of death is employed as a means to support life, order, and religion; and, therefore, were it prematurely taken away, it might remove the barriers opposed to rashness, profligacy, and death itself. 3. Beware of the slavish fear of death. 4. Use diligently the means of rising superior to the fear of death. Study, then, the Gospel; yield to the conviction of its truth; live under its influence; cultivate its grace; and you will be enabled to say (Romans 8:38-39). (T. S. Jones, D. D.) The fear of death Who is it that doth not fear death? We begin it from our earliest years. From his very infancy the child begins to understand that there are other things besides more bodily pain--a strange, inexplicable feeling comes upon him, which, sooner or later, becomes the explicit fear of death. Whatever may be our position in life, whether we are religious persons, striving, as well as we can, to prepare ourselves for that awful moment, whether we are giddy end worldly, it is impossible to shake off that awful fooling when we think of the moment when the soul passes into the unseen. No man has ever returned from that unseen world, and therefore it is that we are filled with inexplicable dread which makes us shrink from it with a horror we cannot describe. It is true there are certain exceptions to the rule, but they are exceptions more in appearance than in reality, and they do not go any way to prove that the fear of death has not fallen upon all mankind. For instance, there is a peculiar dulness and deadness of feeling which comes upon many persons at the end of a very long illness. It is the same also with persons who live to a considerable old age. It occurs at different times with different persons--sometimes at sixty, seventy, or later. A certain deadness of feeling creeps over all the affections. As the body weakens so does the intelligence lose its power, and so do the feelings lose their exquisite sensibility. Then, again, there are those to whom life is one long, terrible misery. It drives, as we know, some few persons to suicide, for it drives them, as it were, mad. They cannot control themselves. Then there are violent excitements which make persons for the moment utterly disregard death, such as the excitement which many, indeed nearly all, feel on the field of battle. They are afraid in one sense; it is their courage which conquers their distress, and they live and they die like men. It is the same in any other great excitement. Take, for instance, the efforts which may be made for the rescuing of persons from great suffering, or from some horrible death. Imagine the feelings of the men who rush into the flames to save their fellow-creatures. Death is forgotten for the moment; they do not think of it; their earnestness, their passionate desire to save their follow-creatures from this same hideous death overpowers the dread which is in their own hearts. It is the same at sea. We continually read accounts of persons saving others in the midst of a shipwreck. Here, again, it is courage that conquers fear. They do not fear death for themselves, but they fear it for those whom they are going to save, and thus they give themselves to death without a single beat in their lowly hearts. When we consider what is the state of those persons who die quietly in their beds from some sort of sickness, who themselves are fully possessed with a belief in the truth of religion, who have long confided in God’ s providence, and entertain not the slightest doubt in their own minds that they are going to pass from a world of sin and misery to a life of holiness and blessedness--how is it with them? We find that even with them, notwithstanding all their faith, that death is nothing to be afraid of, still their courage wants keeping up to the point by incessant prayers and texts from the Bible, and all kinds of encouraging influences which may stimulate and help them. This shows that whatever may be our state, whatever our confidence in God, and our trust in the promises, still there is this dread of passing into the dark beyond. And it is not really difficult to understand the practical gain which comes to us all from the presence in our mind of this indescribable fear. First of all, where would the world be if we had not this terror? How many of us would bear to live through the troubles which encompass nearly all the creatures in this world? But, far more than this, the existence of this dread is absolutely necessary to implant in us that conviction of the vast importance of the moment of death, which we find it so difficult to realize. How shall it be to us, not only easy, but natural, to turn with our whole hearts to God at the last moment, when we seem, perhaps, insensible to those who are watching and weeping around us--how shall we, in those last moments, turn our thoughts to God and say, “ My Lord, Thou art my God” ? Surely it must be by cultivating that continual sense of His presence, and of His goodness, and of His power, which alone can conquer death and make us die in perfect peace. The remedy against death is God; He caused us to live; He implanted in our hearts this mysterious terror; but why did He? He did it that we might learn the more to trust Him as being ever present with us, as being around us, enshrining us, taking us, as it were, in His arms, in the arms of a loving Father. (J. M. Capes.) Psalms 55:5 Fearfulness sad trembling are come upon me, and horror hath overwhelmed me.The nervous temperament We are to meditate now on the nervous temperament, and to study especially the relation which the Gospel occupies in relation to it. There may be other anodynes of consolation, physical and mental; but my argument will be this--that the religion of Christ stands in special relationship of succour to those who feel with the psalmist, “ I am feeble and sore broken, because of the disquietness of my heart.” I. The true philosophy of life is life in Christ. We must go out of ourselves, and of our “ moods” and “ feelings,” that we may look unto Christ and be saved! Christ is a perfect Brother as well as a perfect Saviour. Redemption is His. Yes! and so is common home-life; so is the gift of daily bread. The great realm of providence is under His sceptre. All things are given into His hands, and He is Lord of all. Be wise. Act with prudence. Resolve with promptitude. Persevere with energy. Rise early with alacrity for the service of the day, but east all anxious thoughts of to-morrow on your Elder Brother. This will be your most perfect anodyne. Other things will help. The bracing air, the oxygen and ozone of the sea coast, may tone your nerves, but it cannot create new ones. The Gospel can do the most, but even that cannot reorganize the physical frame, so fearfully and wonderfully made; but its atmosphere is the best one for bracing the heart and soothing the fretted, irritated nerve. II. There are special advent-hours of trouble. Fearfulness and trembling are come upon me. We none of us know how frail we are till trial comes. Advent-hours of trouble do come. Even sin in its first consciousness overwhelms some with fear and trembling, A great horror overwhelms them. The old cry is heard. “ Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” How terrible, then, if such souls fall into the hands, not of wise physicians, but of unwise irritators of the evil. At once the anxious soul should be led to Him who says, “ Daughter, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee.” And there are seasons when unforeseen calamity comes. No fleecy cloud presages the coming storm, no floating seaweed tells how near the vessel is to the rocks, but is swift as the “ bore” that rushes up the waters of the Hooghly from the Ganges, sweeps in with a swell, and engulfs the precious freights of unanchored vessels in its broadening wave. There are seasons when the nerves are made intensively sensitive. The heart is pierced by the coldness and neglect of some familiar friend. The spirit droops. Ingratitude has wounded, neglect has chilled, cruelty has crushed, and enmity has tried to slay reputation and renown. Surely at such times it is heart rest to know the Brother born for adversity, the Friend that stieketh closer than a brother; then is the hour to feel the warm radiance of the love of Christ. III. There may be ministrations that are human as well as Divine. We can perform miracles of healing, not in the old sense, but wonders of restorative power are within our reach. Is it a child that is nervous and sensitive? See to it that you early discern the difference between that little trembling spirit and the stronger brother. Is it a life-companion? See that you do not treat this sensitiveness as a mere weakness to be cured by physical agencies alone--the best curative will be a cheerful mind within working outwards. We have to live and teach the Cross, in its spirit as well as in its doctrine; in its beautiful revelation that He, the Highest and Strongest of all, suffered for us; that He was despised and rejected of men for us; that He gave Himself for us. Remember, then, that you stand in Christian relationship to the timorous, the sensitive, and the nervous, and ever seek to manifest the spirit of Him who would not break the bruised reed. IV. There must be a study of the disease to understand the remedies. We are fearfully as well as wonderfully made; then let us remember how easily nervousness is promoted by self-indulgence and sloth, by morbid books, by strange tales told in childhood, by companionship with those who take foreboding view of life, and by the domination of “ fixed ideas “ so difficult to shake off. And all cannot afford change of scene and change of clime. It is not in medicine to cure all this. It may alleviate, but it cannot recreate. Earthly appliances are wise in their own way; but if I am right the Gospel of Christ is the relieving power--that alone brings out fully the blessed revelation of the Fatherhood of God. (W. M. Statham, M. A.) Psalms 55:6-8 And I said, Oh that I had wings like a dove! for then would I fly away, and be at rest.Dissatisfaction the law of life I. It impels to all earthly and moral progress. Arts, sciences, literature, commerce, civilization, are obviously the results of that dissatisfaction with things present and possessed, which urges the soul abroad to discover new fields of thought, new prizes of ambition. We call it disappointment; but it is only the loosing of the dry husk from the swelling germ of life; only the fading of the flower-leaf around the forming fruit-bud; only the breaking of the shell from the stir of glorious wings. Without it man might be sportive as the lamb amid the green fields of earth, but could not soar as the eagle through the firmament of heaven; and therefore everything elevating society above the lowest level of unaspiring savage life--these great cities on the land, those rich argosies on the sea, these homes of peace, these treasures of plenty, these libraries of literature, these galleries of art are all, all only the blossoms and fruit of the bitter root of discontent, the achievements of the restless soul going forth to the battle and keeping step to the music of this plaintive psalm of life, “ Oh that I had wings like a dove! for then would I fly away, and be at rest.” II. An intimation, an incitant in regard of the immortal. The beauties and glories for which man strives in the race and battle are delusions. The glittering rainbow which, to a child, seems a very out-cropping along a black mountain side of metalliferous veins of treasure, is at best but the false show of cold vapour exhaled from some stagnant marsh, and he reaches at it only to grasp chilling and mocking rain-drops. And thus is it with all the fair, bright objects of earth’ s love and labour. They do not only disappoint, they deceive us. Visions of ravishing beauty rise before our affections, and the heart presses on to them, and bows to them in adoration, delighting to break alabaster vases and scatter costliest incense; but presently all their charm, and beauty, and glory fade away, and we find that our lot on earth is ever “ only to make idols and to find them clay.” And thus every way and in every condition deceived, our outcry is in bitter anguish, “ Alas! poor, beguiled, cheated child of immortality, all your earthly flowers fade, all your heavenly rainbows vanish away.” And yet in all this, I say, we may see, if we will, a Divine meaning of love unto immortals. This very deception of our senses, our reason, our affections is a beneficent part of our discipline in their development for the higher life. (C. Wadsworth, D. D.) The sigh of David Let us consider this sigh of David, which is the sigh of many men--sighs natural indeed and excusable indeed, and like the sigh of Jesus, so far as they are innocently human; but which have in them, alas! but too often, little of the Divine. Turn to your Bibles, and reflect upon the varying moods of so many minds, and you will find there the record of a multitude of these sighs of weariness, of discouragement, of self-disgust, of pain. Most ignoble are they when they are prompted by restlessness and peevishness like that of Jonah, wishing himself dead because God had spared Nineveh, and because God’ s mercy had triumphed over his paltry personal opinion; or by a pessimism like that of the conceited Solomon, which sees nothing in life except a universal emptiness; or by a black, suicidal despair, like that of Judas Iscariot, walking under the intolerable glare of illumination flung upon conscience by accomplished crime. But even the nobler spirits sometimes succumb for a moment to this merely selfish weakness, and have sighed, not only with the pure pity of Jesus, but with the impatience and short-sightedness of simple men. Moses had as great and mighty a heart as ever beat in any human breast, yet he exclaims (Numbers 11:11-15). What a sigh is there! There never breathed a more dauntless prophet than Elijah, yet he sat under a juniper tree in the wilderness and requested that he might die (1 Kings 19:4). What a deep sigh is there! And Job was very patient, yet under the pitiless storm of sin and suffering even Sob broke down and cursed the day of his birth. And Jeremiah, although he had a natural diffidence of character, yet when Pashur smote him and put him in the stocks, he burst into a wild cry (Jeremiah 20:18). And do not we seem to hear the sigh of the mighty Baptist (Matthew 11:3). Nay, even Paul, though nothing could wring such sighs from his indomitable heart, yet knows that “ to depart and be with Christ is far better.” Here, then, you have the weariness and discouragement of the noblest of mankind. It is not generally because of some personal injury, but it is either because the world is very evil (Psalms 119:136); or else because life is very full of trials (Genesis 47:9); or, again, because the work is very dreary (Exodus 5:23). Yes; all good men have had to fight with almost impenetrable stupidity, with hard pharisaism, and with religious and irreligious self-conceit; and the Bible is full of sighs. Now, one of the elements in Scripture that makes it so inestimably valuable is that it is so essentially human, so profoundly true to nature, so inartificial, so simple, so passionate, as all true history and all true poetry ought to be. These kings and heroes and prophets were just such men as ourselves, their hearts beating like our hearts, their joys and sorrows, their hopes and fears, even such as ours; the same fights of weariness and discouragement to fight that we find in secular history. We find it in literature; we find it in our own hearts--it is a part of our life. We get tired of the daily sameness of life. The rivers flow to the sea, yet the sea is not full. We are tired of the unrelenting past, tired of the dreary present, tired of the uncertain future. We are tired of the weary struggle in our own heart; the to-and-fro conflicting witnesses of impulse and repression; broad, rejoicing, sunlit tides of spiritual emotion, leaving behind them the flat, cozy shores of ebbing enthusiasm. The old historian said thai no man had ever lived yet without coming to the day in his life when he cared nothing if he were to see no to-morrow. Again and again we feel inclined to cry at the end of another year, “ Eternal, be Thou my refuge!” Bad men feel it. Says one, “ I have dragged on to thirty-three. What have all those years left to me? Nothing except three and thirty.” A godless experience curdles at once into acrid pessimism. The condition of such is so utterly wretched that total annihilation would be preferable, and they hold that the creation and the existence of the world is a fundamental misfortune. But if this life were everything, many would say the same! We find this hopelessness and dissatisfaction in every rank of life. Now it is Diocletian, deciding that planting cabbages at Salons is better than ruling the world at Byzantium; now it is Severus, saying he has been everything in life, from a common position to that of an emperor, and nothing is of any good; now it is St. Augustine, saying that man’ s earthly happiness is by the streams of Babylon--let him sit down by them and weep; now it is good Richard Hooker, saying he had lived so long in the world, and found it such, that he had long been preparing to leave it; now it is Luther, crying, “ I am weary of life: if this can be called life, there is nothing much worse: I am utterly weary: I pray Thee, O Lord, come forth and carry me hence” ; now it is Whitefield, crying, “ O Lord! I am not weary of Thy work, but in Thy work; let me speak for Thee once more, then seal Thy truth and let me die.” When Montesquieu was on his death-bed a forward, uninvited clergyman thrust himself to his bedside when another clergyman had left him, and said to him in a conversant sort of way, “ Sir, are you truly conscious of the greatness of God? Yes,” said the dying philosopher, “ and of the littleness of man;” and so he died; and what a sigh was there! It always seems to me worth while to recognize facts, to bring them out into the full light of consciousness, and then to face them. And this being the fact respecting human life, where is the remedy? The great resource in every perplexity is to look to Christ. If we look to our great Example, we shall see what to do. He, too, though sinless, was forced to sigh for the sad world of sin and death; but notice, the sigh had been scarcely uttered when once more He was engaged in works of mercy and thoughtful care. To sigh is sometimes natural, but to waste time in sighing, to suffer ourselves to be absorbed in the dark side of life, to exclude ourselves from its many and estimable gladnesses, is unthoughtful and useless. However hard the struggle against ignorance, and against pharisaism, and against stupidity, and against malice, and against robbery, and against wrong, and against oppression, and against sill, no good and great life will ever suffer itself to be crippled by conquerable melancholy. If we sigh for our own weakness and sins, we cannot, indeed, fly to ourselves, but we can fly to the grace of God and amend ourselves. If we sigh for our surroundings, no wings of a dove, indeed, can bear us away from the dwellings of Meshach and the tents of Kedar; but, by God’ s grace, we may help to make them better and happier places. The lessons of Scripture, the lessons of the life of Christ, the lessons of human experience alike teach us “ to labour and to wait.” They combine to tell us, to every one of us alike, for sorrow and disaster, for weariness and discouragement, God has given four great and perfect remedies, on which I would say a very few last words. One remedy is action: God taught it to Moses. “ Why criest thou unto Me? Speak to the children of Israel that they go forward.” While there is anything to be done, the time spent in sorrow is worse than waste. “ The wings of a dove!” No, let us rather look for wings that we may fly in the path of God’ s commandment. Let us, with the ancient rabbi, pray that we may be bold as the leopard, bounding as the stag, brave as the lion, to do the will of our Father in heaven, that we may work on. Said Mendelssohn, “ For me, too, the hour of rest will come: do the next thing.” Oh! a grand motto was that. And that was a good motto, “ Work here, rest elsewhere, wipe thy tears, cease thy sighing, do thy work, the day is short, the work is abundant, the labourers are few, the reward is great.” Another remedy is patience. God is patient. He has borne with man’ s falsehood and littleness and disobedience, for no one knows how many thousand years. Cannot we, too, wait, if we do well and suffer for it? Cannot we take it patiently? Patient continuance in well-doing--there is a grand remedy for idle tears! (Psalms 37:7). The third remedy is faith. Jesus, as He sighed, looked up to heaven. Two things alone can finally cure the malady of occasional depression, and those two things are God and death; and faith looks forward fearlessly to death. Is our sigh for our own work? “ Oh, cast thy burden on the Lord,” etc. Is our sigh for the world? We did not make the world, and He who made it will guide. One day, when St. Francis was laying before God his troubles and disquietudes, the answer came to him, “ Poor little man, why dost thou trouble thyself? I, who made thee the shepherd of My order, knowest thou not that I am its Protector? If those I have called upon go, I will put others in their place, and if none existed, I would cause them to be born.” “ I cannot mend the world,” said Luther. “ If I thought I could, I would be the veriest ass living. Thou canst mend it, O my God!” I have mentioned action, patience, faith, and the last remedy is hope. It is a good thing that a man should both hope and patiently wait for the salvation of the Lord. Things are rarely as bad as they look to us. Elijah cries, “ I, even I, only am left,” and God tells him that he has “ seven thousand who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” A young man is terror-stricken in a besieged city, and Elijah shows him bow all round are the protecting chariots of horses and fire. He who cares for His little birds and pastures, His cattle and waters and His flowers, shall He not care for the souls of men? Man’ s grief is but his grandeur in disguise, and discontent his immortality. To us has been born a Saviour, Christ the Lord. (Dean Farrar.) Should heaven be sought as a distant, or enjoyed as a present good Denizens of the Christian world abound, who, with dissatisfied spirits, not only disregard, but almost despise, the profusion of good which Almighty Love has lavishly spread around and about them, and fix their anxious eyes upon a heaven that lies beyond the grave, and up in the starry regions of space. This state of mind is as objectionable in its nature, and as pernicious in its influence, as it is popular and abounding. The latter state of mind--that embodied in the prayer which Christ gave His disciples--is the more right and wholesome state of mind to be cherished in relation to heaven. I. The one is more reasonable than the other. The state of mind which seeks to get heaven out of our sphere, activities, and circumstances, here on this green and lovely earth, seems to us far more rational than the state of mind which is constantly looking away for it in the invisible and remote.1. Man has in an inexhaustible degree all the elements of heaven here. 2. These inexhaustible elements are here and now available. All depends upon the moral state of the heart. In privations, sufferings, persecutions, sainted men in all ages have felt the transports, and hymned the strains of the upper heavens. Which, then, is the more reasonable state of mind? The one that comparatively overlooks, and but very partially enjoys, the infinite sources of happiness available to us in this life, in sentimental aspirations for foreign and imaginary joys; or the one, that through faith in Christ, so enters into the blessed activities and joys of the present, as to indulge no restless longings for the future? II. The one is a more useful state of mind than the other.1. The one leads to a more cheerful life than the other. It gives sunshine to the man; his spirit is genial, and his conduct glows with a radiant life. Having a soul full of goodness, he sees good in everything; being harmonious within, he hears music all round him; his “ soul delights itself in fatness” ; he is “ blessed in his deed.” Like a man marching to music, he treads the path of life with a joyous step. 2. The one leads to a more practical life than the other. The man who finds his heaven here by having the true love, doing the right work, and living the Christ-like life, is bringing down heaven to the men and women around him. His life is a stream gushing from the fountain of infinite love, and it touches into heavenly life and beauty all within its sphere. His life is a mirror, which reflects on all around the glories of the upper world. III. The one is more scriptural than the other.1. Heaven consists in the inner state of the soul and not in external circumstances. “ Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” They are blessed. They see God now. 2. The grand Work of man in this world should be to promote this state of soul, both in himself and in his fellow-men. IV. The one is more certain of realization than the other. He who seeks happiness as an end, is like a man running to catch his shadow; the fleeter he runs, the fleeter runs his shadow. “ Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose his life shall find it.” (Homilist.) Mistaken longings There are times when the sicknesses and infirmities of the body oppress us, when we are disquieted by the cares of life, embittered by disappointment, until at last we wish that it were over and that we were well out of it. This mood ignores several great and precious truths. I. It is based on the mistake that rest is found in a place, whereas rest is found in a state. “ Fly away,” change the locality, and all will be well. Now, the teaching of revelation is altogether contradictory to this idea of finding peace in a locality. We are to expect peace in perfection of character and life; in purity of heart and conscience, in love, righteousness, and hope. What we cannot find in any place we find in Christ and in what He gives. In His love, power, and purity we realize profound repose, even in a universe of storm. It is perfectly calm at the centre of the whirlwind; Jesus is the centre of the whirlwind of life, and whilst philosophies, fortunes, thrones, stars, and suns are being driven as the chaff of the summer threshing-floor, in Christ at the centre is peace. We do not want the “ wings of a dove” to fly away, but rather the wings of faith and love to carry us closer to Christ; we want to be more like Him, and then we shall triumph in trouble as the sea-bird rides on the wave. II. It overlooks the fact that the discipline of the storm is essential to us. We long to nestle in some palm-grove and coo away our life in indolence and ease; but would this be well? We know it would not, for we are here to be made perfect, “ perfect through suffering.” Storms are necessary to set us right. These terrible buffetings feelingly persuade us what we are. They awaken us from vain dreams, and drive us to the true hiding-place. “ Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep Thy statutes.” And storms are necessary to keep us right. The best of men are endangered in a belt of calm. Some precious stones lose their sparkle if they are long exposed to the sun, and the Lord’ s jewels easily lose their lustre by long-continued sunshine. We like the sun--it is pleasant to scintillate--but the gloom is often necessary to the preservation and increase of our lustre. Out of these sorrows and crosses come “ the peaceable fruits of righteousness “ and the “ eternal weight of glory.” III. It breathes the spirit of mistrust and cowardice. “ Oh that I had wings.” This is the expression of faithlessness. He is ready to assume that God would not, or could not, sustain him, and therefore he wished to run away. But He can sustain us, and He will sustain us; let us therefore claim His help and salvation. Eagle’ s wings are what we need; mastery of difficulty, joy in difficulty, difficulty conducting to glory. Eagle’ s wings--it means that we can battle with the storm; it means joy in the storm, for the eagle exults in the very fury of the elements; it means power to rise above the storm; out of darkness into light. All this God can give, and will. IV. The expression in the text is lacking in right views of the future.1. It lacks a right view of the requirements of the future. It bespeaks discontent with earth, only we may be tired of earth long before we are fit for heaven; “ It is enough, let me die,” say short-sighted men; but God says it is enough only when He sees that we are fit and ripe for a better world. 2. It lacks a right view of the grandeur of the future. The “ wings of a dove.” We do not belong to the two-winged order, but to the six-winged (Isaiah 6:2). These are our kinsmen. God would not take infinite pains with us if we were not so great. (W. L. Watkinson.) The instinct of repose I. It is vain to hope for rest by seeking the impossible. How often is this done I How many cry for that they have not, and covet that which they cannot obtain! They vex themselves in vain.1. Thus it is sometimes with the doubter. He wants a sign. The evidence he has does not satisfy him. He cannot believe in “ Jesus and the Resurrection” without more infallible proofs (Luke 16:31). 2. Thus it is also with the convicted sinner. He is anxious. Doubts and fears torment him. Would that he could be sure that God indeed speaks to him. Would that he were called by his name, like Zaccheus; or that a vision of the risen Christ were vouchsafed to him, as to Saul of Tarsus. Thus he speaks to himself. But such wishes are vain (Romans 10:6-9). 3. So also, not seldom, with sincere Christians. What is truth? What is duty? What is the one and only right thing for me to do? These are hard questions. Often they cause much pain. Then, perhaps, the thought arises, would that I had a teacher that could be wholly trusted; would that I could place myself under the care of some infallible guide, whom it would be always safe to follow. Wordsworth speaks of this as “ the universal instinct of repose--the longing for confirmed tranquillity.” But this is not, God’ s way of rest. We cannot thus evade our duty, or cast our responsibilities upon others. It is only the truth that commends itself to our own consciences that is truth to us. It is only tim duty that we see in the light of the Cross, to be binding upon ourselves, that we can perform with freedom and delight (Galatians 6:5). II. It is vain to hope for rest by mere change of outward condition. We are prone to blame circumstances. We delude ourselves with the belief that if we could only get things ordered better, or obtain a more favourable position, that all would be well. The facts before us we cannot alter, but what might be, we have in our own power, and delight to paint in the brightest colours. The “ imagined otherwise” is the practical heaven of multitudes. The sick man racked with pain, craves for change. In the morning he says, “ Would God it were even!” and at oven, “ Would God it were morning” (Deuteronomy 28:67; Job 7:4). The man oppressed with poverty sighs for riches. He flatters himself with dreams of what lie would do if he were rich; how kind he would be to the poor, etc. So the man who is discontented with his lot, whether it be high or low, whether it be in regard to worldly or spiritual things, is always wishing for some outward change. If we only had better advantages, more light, more freedom, more sympathy, more power to carry out our plans; how different would it be. It is so easy to set things all right by an “ if.” We have a striking example of this spirit in Absalom (2 Samuel 15:4). Like him, we are too much the slaves of vanity. We have not our true place. We have been slighted. We have been denied the opportunities which others have had. Thus we excuse ourselves for inaction. And yet, all the time, we have abundant proof that what is wanted is not change of place, but change of mind; and the voice of God is over pealing in our ears, “ Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might.” III. It is vain to hope for rest by flight from the immediate causes of distress. There are times when flight is expedient (Matthew 10:23; 2 Timothy 2:22). But it can never be right nor good to flee from duty. What we are called to do or to bear may be painful, and almost too hard for flesh and blood. Still it is better to remain than to fly, as it is better to have a good conscience than an evil conscience, and to have God for us, than against us. Besides, flight may prove a vain resource (Amos 5:19). And yet there are many who try this device, contrary to all reason and experience. There are people who, like Herodias, endeavour to quiet their consciences by silencing the voice of the preacher (Mark 6:16; Mark 6:19). There are others who, when the Word of God troubles them, would put it out of the way, if possible, like Jehoiakim (Jeremiah 36:21-32). Vain. God’ s Word cannot be destroyed. If one roll is burnt there is another ready to be produced. (W. Forsyth, M. A.) Rest (Psalms 55:6. with Psalms 37:1-40, Psalms 37:7):--These verses utter man’ s cry for rest, and God’ s response to it. Man wants to fly away, but that would be of no use. Our rest is in God. The world hopes there will be rest in the grave. But there is rest now. I. What is rest?1. It is not mere quiescence and inactivity. The rest of the glorified is perpetual service, and our rest is in the fulfilling of the purposes for which we were created. 2. Nor is it freedom from responsibility, or conflict, or difficulty, or sorrow. 3. But it is rest in the midst of them all. II. And this is possible; for God is the home of the soul, The wicked it is who are like the troubled sea, though many Christians are often troubled enough. But if they have right to be so, then the Scriptures are not true. For they are full of promises of rest. And experience declares such rest possible. Wordsworth’ s lines, “ There are in this loud stunning tide,” etc. III. The sources of unrest. These are unbridled passions; unexplained mysteries; unlimited cares; unsatisfied affections. But there is not one of these in which we may not rest in the Lord. IV. This rest involves knowledge of God. Submission; trust. (Charles New.) Dove-wings Are these words such as we should appropriate? Our sympathy with the prayer depends much upon our mood of mind and what are our own experiences. Those of the psalmist were such as made his prayer readily comprehensible and excusable. But it is not always so. Therefore, try the prayer-- I. By the Master’ s spirit. He never, though so sore beset, prayed such prayer. II. By the relation we sustain to others. At almost any time, save in life’ s eventide, it would seem selfish. I know how beautiful it does appear at times, to talk of the quiet sleep. Presently we shall have done with weariness and weeping. The mill-wheel of duty will stop! We say to ourselves, as we think of death, When that comes, others will know what parents, lovers, brothers, we have tried to be! But immediately the last sleep loses its dream-like beauty when we turn round to think of these others, and of the relation we sustain to them; this no others can fill; none, with humility we think, could serve them so well. Heaven to us would mean not only the grief of absence for them, but the strain of endurance and the hard fight of life for others. It would cast upon them burdens they are ill able to bear, and our rest would be purchased at the cost of a too hard endeavour by those we love. Looked at by itself alone, the heaven-rest may at times be ardently longed for when work and worry go hand in hand--when routine is like a drill-sergeant--when the chariot of duty has to be pulled up-hill; but to the wise man, to the thoughtful woman, it is only a passing vision, and this prayer is unspoken because its fulfilment would be unkind to others. III. By the permanent tests of experience. I mean the long experience of life as a whole. Has not that been a gracious experience, a long history of mercy? If there have been times of sorrow, there have been other and more times of joy, and then our prayer was, “ O my God, take me not away in the midst of my days.” IV. By the light of that age. Some critics think “ there was no belief in immortality at all amongst the Hebrews.” Then why were such words as these spoken? A mind and a heart like David’ s could never have wished to lie down in full forgetfulness, to claim eternal brotherhood with the valley clods. Rest? Annihilation is no rest. Such rest wants no wings--the dagger of a Brutus could give it in the briefest moment of time. These psalms would lose their richest beauty and glory if we simply had to read immortality into them. Their charm would be weakened, and their holiest inspiration gone. True, if we had to do with one such expression alone, we might feel it improbable that David referred to the great immortal rest. But it is not so! (Psalms 17:15). In reply to the cry, “ O that I had wings!” we answer, You have! That is just what you have--wings! to fly up into the very heaven of God. This is the characteristic of the soul--that we can rise higher than mere intellectual argument--for what is denied to the calculating reason can be glimpsed by the despised imagination; for there are things of faith, whereby we rise to God. V. By the seasons in which it is befitting and beautiful, As in the “ Nunc Dimittis” of the aged Simeon. What more natural than that he should now close his eyes in the last sleep? So there are seasons coming when the prayer will have a fitting charm for the soul. As we near the evening of life’ s busy day we may offer it with lips of wisdom, as well as with a heart longing after home. (W. M. Statham.) The restlessness of human ambition Would we see an object to the greatest advantage, it must be some distance off from us. The poor man’ s but, ragged and full of squalor within, yet even from a due distance may appear a sweet and interesting cottage. The field grown over with thistles, at a distance charms the eye by its verdure. The marshy, stagnant and malarious lake seen at a distance is full of beauty. The country hamlet distance can transform into a paradise of beauty, in spite of the abominations that are at every door, and the angry brawlings of the men and women who occupy it. And this explains the feeling which some of us may have experienced; we fancy that if we were removed to some other distant place we should be happier than where we are. Instead of resting in the quiet enjoyment of what we have, our wishes wander abroad, and we are ready to say, “ O that I had wings like a dove, for then I would fly away and be at rest.” But it is important to be observed that when we have reached the wished for spot, rest is as far from us as ever. Now, all this is true of the region of the soul and the moral nature. We think that what we have not must be better than what we have. Am I unlearned? I sigh for the name and distinctions of philosophy. Am I rich? I would sooner be in a humble position. Poor? I envy the rich. Single? My fancy warms at the conception of a dear and domestic circle. Am I embroiled with family cares? I wish I were single again. The truth is, we never rest. We always want something more than we haw. And when we have exhausted every personal ambition we have friends and children to provide for, and here is a never-ending source of ambition and anxiety. This is not peculiar to any one class. You see it at court, but you see it in the cottage too. It is the universal property of our nature. In the whole circle of our experience, did we ever see a man sit down to the full enjoyment of the present without a hope or a wish unsatisfied? Look into the heart, which is the seat of feeling, and we find a perpetual tendency to enjoyment, but not enjoyment itself; the cheerfulness of hope, but not the happiness of actual possession. Man lives in futurity. It is not the reality of to-day which interests him. It is the vision of to-morrow. Where, then, is that resting-place which the psalmist aspired after, and that he might reach it he prayed for the wings of a dove? It is not to be found on this side of Death. How important, then, that not the littleness of time, but the greatness of eternity; not the restless and unsatisfying pleasures of the world, but the enjoyments of heaven so pure, substantial and unfading, should be the object on which our hearts should be set. (Thomas Chalmers, D. D.) The vagueness and endlessness of human aspirations These words prove the essential identity of human nature seen with human nature thousands of years since. They are very ancient, but their spirit is perfectly modern. The first of modern essayists has said that the great characteristic of modern life is worry; but it should seem from the text that it was the great characteristic of ancient life too; for if there ever was such a thing in this world, here we have the utterance of a thoroughly worried man. And see what he says. From the midst of countless cares, fears, and griefs, he wearily looks up; he plainly sees that where he is, the day will never come in which cares, griefs, and fears will not still surround him; and so he bursts out into a vague, hopeless, yet passionate cry--he cannot dearly say for what--but only that he might get away to some place--he does not know where--in which these should be done with for ever! I spoke of the essentially modern tone of that fancy as proving how like we are now to what King David was centuries ago--as proving that man is always essentially the same. Do you not remember that when the greatest living poet wishes to set before us a human being of this age, restlessly dissatisfied and disappointed, he puts upon his lips words which look almost like this vague aspiration of the psalmist? He represents him, too, as confusedly wishing that he could get anywhere away from where he was; that he could burst all links of civilized habit and leave all traces of civilized man behind him. And no doubt we can all at times sympathize with the fancy; for it is certain fact that the many advantages of civilization are to be obtained only at the price of countless and ceaseless worry. No doubt we must all sometimes sigh for the woods and the wigwam; but the feeling is as vain as that of the psalmist’ s aspiration in the text. But it is just this thing which makes the aspiration in the text one so practically profitable for us to think of; it is just because in its vagueness, its unreasonableness, its endlessness, it is so accurate a type of the endlessness and the vagueness of human aspirations. Oh, give the psalmist the swift wings; and whither could he fly? Give him all the universe to choose from; and where would he find the place where he could be at rest? Give men all this world could yield them; tell men that for the naming it, they shall have every wish gratified to the utmost, that begins and ends on this world and this life; and they will be as far from rest for their weary souls as ever. And, thank God, we know the reason why. It is because “ this is not our rest.” It was because God had unalterably fixed and appointed, that worldly things alone can never make the soul of man permanently happy. You think to make yourself content and happy without the good part in Christ, and the reconciled love of God in Him; you cannot, it is impossible. God says No to that; it cannot be done. If you think and try to find real rest for your soul away from God in Christ; if you think to be really happy away from Christ, you are thinking and trying to do what, by the make of your being, is impossible. You might as well think to quench the thirst of the parched throat with sand, as to satisfy man’ s thirst for happiness with anything merely worldly. You are on the wrong course altogether when you try to do that. Now, it would be our salvation could we only feel and realize the fact that this world is not our rest; that rest and peace are only in God as seen in Christ. The wings and the wilderness would not have made the psalmist happy; and no imaginable worldly blessings will ever suffice to make us so. The only real rest that the soul of man can ever know, is that which is given by Him who said, “ Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” And not even that rest, given by the Redeemer to His own, is perfect in this present life; the best believer’ s heart will be many a time disquieted and perplexed, so long as he abides here. “ There remaineth a rest for the people of God.” It remaineth; it is waiting for them, far away. This is not our rest; our rest is beyond the grave. (A. K. H. Boyd, D. D.) The soul’ s desire for rest I. The rest desired. We do not know when David wrote this psalm, nor does it matter. He often longed to rid himself of present entanglements, only get away from such men as Job, only escape from the sea of cares in which he was plunged, he might be happy. We all know the fooling. We all know what it is to have such a dissatisfied feeling with our present circumstances. We may, then, I think, find it interesting and profitable to inquire what really is the rest which the soul craves.1. There is the rest of reconciliation with God. We can never entirely forget our relation to God. 2. Deliverance from trouble. Trial, temptation, doubt--these are forms of trouble which extort this cry. The dying saint cries for this rest. II. The means by which this rest was to be attained. “ O that I had wings like a dove.” This suggests--1. The instinctive desire for home as the resting-place. Reference is made here, evidently, to the wonderful instinct of the carrier-pigeon. Hundreds of miles away it will with unerring instinct find its home, drawn as by an invisible cord. So the soul longs to return to God, its true home. In those better moments that sometimes come to men’ s hearts, you feel the desire to be reconciled to God, and thus obtain deliverance from the fear you entertain at the thought of meeting Him. You have felt like a child away from home, who fancies all would be well with him if he were again at home. The biographer of Michael Bruce tells us that, when he felt he was dying, “ the young heart yearned for home--for a mother’ s hand, a mother’ s face, a mother’ s kiss, a mother’ s love” --so have you felt the desire for home, wondering, it may be, how to get back to God, and how to make your peace with Him, but conscious that your heart will not be at rest until you have the light of His countenance lifted up upon you; and your cry is, with the psalmist, “ O that I had wings like a dove; for then would I fly away and be at rest.” And if I speak to any who are restless and dissatisfied with the life of sin, and whose consciences are speaking to them of God their Father, I would say to them, Listen to the voice of conscience--return to God, and you will find your sins forgiven, your fears removed, the past forgotten, and the future radiant with hope. Come home, poor prodigal, come home. 2. The second idea suggested by this figure is the directness of the dove’ s flight home. When instinct has taught the bird where home lies, it makes straight for it--you cannot hinder its flight, or turn it aside. Instinct will not allow it to rest until it has returned to the dove-cote. Would that souls took such direct course in their way back to God. How wearily did Luther toil in his round of ceremonies before he found his true way to God. 3. The swiftness of the dove’ s flight home. Give the carrier-pigeon the wing, and not only does it make direct for home, but with an easy speed that distances the fastest train. Its eagerness to return gives speed to its flight, as, with unwearied wing, it pursues its homeward journey. So will it be with the soul that has not only been awakened, but has discovered the direct way to return. It will hasten to be at rest. The flight of the dove is, after all, slow compared with the act which takes the soul to God in Christ. Swift, indeed, is the flight of the dove. And what are the wings that bear the soul to its rest? We can understand how the dove wings its way homeward. We can understand how the wanderer returns home--but how does the soul get back to God? or, in other words, how does the soul become reconciled to God? It is by faith. Faith furnishes the wings, and thus the soul returns to God. Thus it is that the penitent soul may mount, in a moment, from the pit of ruin to the rest of home, and the prodigal may return home on the wings of faith with swifter motion than dove ever knew, and so for ever be at rest. (James Jeffery, M. A.) The cry of humanity for rest I. The exclamation is perfectly natural. Who can think of the daily life of our merchants with all their ventures, investments and transactions, without feeling that without anything of indolence or the mere spirit of repining, thousands of men and women legitimately long to get out of the care and clamour of life; to get far away into the refreshing silence and solitudes of nature, where the wearied spirits and jaded faculties may find rest? II. The wish is not always creditable. Instead of crying out, “ O that I had wings like a dove” --O that I had the spirit of a man, both to discern clearly what the Lord has given me to do, and the spirit of activity and obedience to go and do it, and do it perseveringly, while life and health are given, so that when rest comes it may be enjoyed as a boon after honest toil, and not wear the aspect of a premature or dishonourable repose. III. Sometimes it turns out to be a mistaken wish. Under circumstances of trial and great pressure of duty the cry goes forth, “ O that I had wings.” You determine to cut the cable that ties you to local engagements and arduous duties, and you flee away as fast as the wings of steam can carry you to some secluded spot--“ to a lodge in a vast wilderness, some boundless contiguity of shade.” But lo! when arrived there, have you not sometimes found that your cares and anxieties, from which you would fain escape, have travelled with you by the same train or boat? You need not go out of this psalm for the answer--for the best of all antidotes to this complaint. David knew it. He not only repaired to the wilderness, he betook himself to God (Psalms 16:1-11; Psalms 17:1-15.). He prayed, and like Luther in later days, he prevailed. In Psalms 55:22, the fugitive, but devout king, from the depths of his own experience, gives this blessed piece of advice to all anxious souls, “ Cast thy burden upon the Lord,” etc. (D. Jones, B. A.) Seeking rest by flight This disposition to seek rest from our burdens by flight is as prevalent to-day as in the days of the psalmist. We still try to fly away from our difficulties instead of seeking the strength of God to sustain them, and I want to ask your attention to one or two ways in which this flight is sometimes made. Here, then, is a man whose business affairs are becoming involved. His resources are being more and more impoverished. He feels as though he is being gradually and relentlessly closed in as by an iron wall. Night comes into his day, and the iron feet of anxiety crush all the joy out of his life. His cares accumulate until they become a huge burden, which lies like a cold, heavy stone upon his heart. This goes on for weeks, perhaps months. The worry gnaws away at his heart without ceasing, and makes him depressed, and nervous, and irritable, unpleasant to his family, disagreeable to his friends, and obnoxious to himself. At length when the burden is intolerable, he cries in the bitterness of his soul, “ O that I had wings like a dove, for then would I fly away and be at rest.” Now, that is an evil moment, a moment fraught with infinite peril, when a man begins to think of flying away from his burden. For in these matters thought is so speedily followed by purpose, and purpose so speedily followed by action, that even thought itself must be regarded as pregnant with tremendous issues. When a man begins to think of flying away from his burden, depend upon it he will soon make an attempt to fly. And how is the attempt very frequently made? A vast number of men try to get away from the burden of their worries and cares by an excessive indulgence in drink. Again and again have I heard men say, “ I could bear it no longer; the burden was crushing me, and so I took to drink.” And so the man uses drink as a kind of opiate. He takes that mind of his, which is “ heated hot with burning fears,” and he plunges it in forgetfulness by means of drink. He takes to drink as a means of flight from care. Let me say, then, in the first place, that it is a most cowardly and selfish resource. It is cowardly if for no other reason than that it means a showing of the white feather; but it is cowardly for the additional reason that when a man takes to drink he deliberately sells his birthright, and throws away the prerogatives of a glorious manhood. He takes his pearls--the pearl of reason, the pearl of conscience, the pearl of will--and casts them before the swine of passion and lust. But it is more than cowardly, it is intensely selfish. It means that the man considers himself and himself alone. When a man flees to drink to gain rest from his burden, he does so at the expense of putting an extra burden upon somebody else. But it is more than cowardly and selfish; to fly to drink is useless. The man says, “ I will take to drink and be at rest.” Does he find rest? He says, “ I will bury my sorrow.” Where? “ In drink.” Is the grave deep enough? Drink is the poorest cemetery I know in which to bury one’ s care. Everything you bury in drink has a speedy resurrection. Drink cannot hold it. Bury sorrow in drink, and it will soon rise again from its grave. But more than that--the sorrow reappears, stronger and heavier; the grave of drink in which you thought to bury it has only nursed and fattened it, and there it is wilder than ever! You fled for rest, and behold fresh trouble! Is it not, as that old herdsman, Amos, said, nearly three thousand years ago, “ As if a man did flee from a lion, and a bear met him” ? Let me now take another example. Hero is a man whose burden does not arise from an involved business, or from the worry which comes from an impoverished purse. It is not the care of the world which weighs upon him, but the burden of an outraged conscience. He carries a load of guilt which weighs upon his heart like lead. His burden depresses him, and produces lowness and insipidity of life. And so, while some men carry a load of care, this man carries a load of remorse. And this remorse seems to sit between the shoulders, as Dante says it does in hell, and with its sharp teeth is ever gnawing at the guilty man’ s life. At length the burden of guilt becomes intolerable, and the man cries out in his heart, “ O for the wings of a dove, for then would I fly away and be at rest.” Here again is a perilous moment when a man begins to think of flying away from his burden. The thought will be followed by an attempt. The man who thinks of flying away from the gnawings of his conscience will soon be trying to fly away. And how is the attempt very frequently made? A vast number of people seek to get away from the burden of their conscience by an excessive indulgence in pleasure. They fly away on the wings of pleasure to be at rest! Now let us look at this. A man who has violated his conscience soon finds ordinary pleasures tame and tasteless. There is nothing like a sense of guilt for destroying the taste for the quieter pleasures of life. And so men seek refuge from guilt in sensational and distracting enjoyments. Revelry is sought as a means of gaining quietness and peace. When Macbeth had murdered Duncan, and Banquo had also been despatched, Lady Macbeth arranged a feast, that in company and revelry, and jest and song, the murderer might fly from the cries of his own conscience. And how did it succeed? In the very midst of the feast, when the merry-making was at its height, when jest and jollity freely flowed, Macbeth gave a great start, and cried, “ Never shake thy gory locks at me.” What did he see? The ghost of the one he had murdered! The deed of yesterday intruded into the feast, and even in the very heart of pleasure painted before him the ghost of the one he had slain. Oh, these ghosts! these ghosts of yesterday, these ghosts of past sins, how they will glide into our revelries and change them into bitterness and pain! If we only knew how to get away from the ghost of guilt! I tell thee, conscience-burdened man, if thou take the wings of pleasure and fly to the uttermost parts of the sea, even there the ghost shall meet thee, the burden will remain. “ Be sure your sin will find you out;” the ghost will rise before you in the very midst of the revelry and dance. Oh, men and women who feel the burden of guilt, don’ t seek to fly away from it. Bring it, and cast it upon the Lord. Tell Him that you have heard that with Him there is mercy and forgiveness and plenteousness of grace, and that you kneel at His feet if perchance there may be healing and strengthening for you. He will sustain you. Remember that He has, in untold number, relieved men and women whose consciences were as restless as yours, and whose guilt was as burdensome as yours, and He has imparted to them His own calm. He will likewise say to thee, “ Thy sins, which are many, are all forgiven thee.” That forgiveness of God loosens the guilt which holds a man in bonds, just as the sun breaks up an ice-blocked river and lets the boats go free. (J. H. Jowett, M. A.) Man’ s higher longings And the question arises, What causes this longing after rest?--why do these hopes and fears, these dreamings and aspirations, these mental struggles after what lies so far away from the natural man, so constantly find their place in the story of human lives? The answer is surely plain and simple. It is because, though we are only imperfect men, yet we are still men made in the image of God; it is because the soul, the very light which God has placed within, though often shaded and darkened, is never wholly extinguishable by earth and the things of earth. Because, though all too often the sounds are stilled by the crash of the world’ s unrest, there are times when in each heart the tones of the voice of God are heard calling to nobler and better things. Let us not drown that voice. Let us not grieve that Holy Spirit, lest He turn and leave us. Rather let us leave all to Him and, calmly confident in His power, rest in the certainty that as day succeeds to day, so shall each returning dawn see us further and further upon the track that leads to that goal for which we long; for “ there is a hand that guides.” Nor is there the least uncertainty as to how He will work upon us. The teaching of the Gospel solves the problem, for there we learn that in the power of that Holy Spirit we shall be enabled to follow the Master. Yes, His strength will enable us who would, to come after Him, to deny ourselves, and, taking up our cross daily, to follow Christ. Only so; holiness like Christ’ s, perfection like God’ s, may only be had through Christ. Our wills must be subordinated to His, our steps planted in His footprints, everything and everybody must be given up that comes between Him and ourselves, each thought must be brought into harmony with His mind, and this, mark you, in a world where temptations to an opposite course are neither few nor far between--this, too, by men whose natures run directly contrary to such a course. (W. C. Hawkesley, M. A.) Psalms 55:14 We took sweet counsel together, and walked unto the house of God in company.The union of religion with friendship recommended I. Religion will, in a very high degree, multiply and exalt the present pleasures of friendship. The pleasure of sympathy, we know, always hears a direct proportion to the magnitude and intrinsic interest of the subject by which it is excited. It will be readily granted, that when the subjects of our contemplation possess intrinsic dignity, when our thoughts themselves are high and employed upon high things, we feel greater pleasure in their interchange, and mark with warmer satisfaction the sympathy of those whom we esteem. But for grandeur of extent and depth of interest united, where is the subject that will bear a moment’ s comparison with religion? II. The pleasure which we take in the sympathy of our friends on any subject will be affected, not only by its inherent dignity and importance, but also by the relation which it bears to ourselves personally, by the individual interest, greater or less, which we have in it. Those circumstances and events in which we feel ourselves most immediately and deeply concerned; our prospects in life, for instance, our plans of usefulness or enjoyment, the fortunes and interests of our connections, the characters and conduct of our friends--these are the subjects which are reserved most carefully for the private ear of friendship, on which we look for corresponding emotions of sympathy with the greatest anxiety, and hail them with the most lively pleasure. “ To have the same desires and the same aversions,” has been said to constitute true friendship; to the perfection of which, therefore, it must be necessary, that these desires and aversions exist in corresponding strength, where the exciting causes are the same. The deeper the interest felt, and the more complete the sympathy, the greater will be the pleasure derived from it. But what is there of more essential importance to our happiness than religion? III. As the pleasures of religious sympathy are likely to be greater in proportion to the superior dignity and deeper interest of the exciting cause; so also will they be heightened by reflection on the purity and excellence of the source from which they spring. Combined pleasures heighten and improve each other. Do we receive gratification from a worthy object, from one which we know ought to excite it? The consideration of the worth of that object, and the moral approbation consequent thereon, increase the gratification. Sympathetic feelings of satisfaction and pleasure may be called forth very strongly by a trifling and unworthy cause; but when this is the case, such pleasure will unavoidably be diminished by reflection; it will not bear examination; it cannot stand the test of time. Not so the pleasures of religious sympathy; the sources of these are always high and exalted; the subjects of them ever worthy the contemplation of the immortal soul. (A. R. Beard.) Religion the assuager of the pains, and consoler of the sorrow, of friendship I. In the tedious hours of absence, how powerful is the influence of religion to calm the anxieties, and keep alive the sympathies, of friendship. Friends who have a lively faith, a firm confidence in an omnipresent God, need never consider themselves as separate or far distant from each other. Mountains may intervene, oceans may roll between them; one may dwell on the bosom of the boundless deep, the other far inland, in the valley amongst the hills; yet are they not apart; they have a bond of union of which the world thinks not; they are, and feel themselves, united in Him “ who is never far from any one of us,” but “ in whom,” at every instant of time, “ we live, and move, and have our being.” God is with them as their common father, benefactor, and friend, II. Religion will have power to console us when obliged to witness the temporal sufferings of those whom we love. Who is there that does not grieve to trace the expression of pain or sorrow in the countenance of a friend, especially when he feels himself unable to remove the source from which it springs? A friend is cast down in the world, and we possess not the means of raising him; he is tortured by disease, to which we can bring no relief; these, indeed, are severe trials, yet religion will teach us how to bear and to improve them. It is from her we learn that the Father of our race doth “ never willingly afflict or grieve His children “ --that “ He chastens them not for His own pleasure, but for their profit, that they may be made partakers of His holiness.” These, surely, are consolatory words to him who is called to witness the sufferings of a friend; words that may serve at once to console his own mind, and to suggest to him the best topics of consolation. III. Religion will bring consolation to us, when suffering under a painful sense of the moral imperfections of our friends. She will carry our view forward to that blessed country where sin and sorrow shall be no more, where the great enemy shall cease from troubling, and the good man, freed from the assaults of temptation, shall be at rest. Then shall the good qualities of the virtuous friend shine forth with unclouded lustre, and the attachment formed on earth be continued in heaven, unalloyed by sorrow and undisturbed by sin. IV. Even to him who mourns the utter moral degradation and consequent estrangement of a friend, religion will bring some comfort. She will soothe him with the consciousness of having done everything to prevent a catastrophe so mournful. She will provide him with a sure refuge in that Friend who cannot become unworthy of him, and will not desert him. (A. R. Beard.) Psalms 55:17 Evening, and morning, and at noon, will I pray, and cry aloud: and He shall hear my voice.Prayer I. The nature of our prayer. Prayer is the humble expression of our wants and of our desires to Almighty God; and it comprehends, at least, the following particulars.1. Prayer is an acknowledgment of the being and of the providence of God; “ He that cometh to God must believe that He is;” --an expression of our dependence upon God; and a profession of our belief in His omnipotence, goodness, grace, and bounty--“ that He is the rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.” 2. Prayer re-establishes communion between God and man. It opens and maintains intercourse with the skies. 3. Prayer is the grand means by which we obtain our spiritual blessings from the hands of God. 4. But nothing is real prayer except it arise sincerely from the heart, and is presented through Jesus Christ, the Mediator between God and man, accompanied at all times by a measure of faith (John 14:6; James 1:6-7). II. In the manner in which the author of our text performed this duty. This was distinguished by fervour, regularity, and frequency.1. Fervour in prayer is the earnest manner in which we breathe out our desires to God; not so much the strength of the voice, as the ardour of the soul (Romans 8:26). 2. Regularity was associated with the psalmist’ s performance of this duty. He had stated times for prayer. And do not creatures, circumstanced as we are, need every help? 3. Frequency is another thing signified. (Sketches of Four Hundred Sermons.) Psalms 55:19 Because they have no changes, therefore they fear not God.No changes Who can they be--where can they live, of whom it can be said that they have not changes! Can they be inhabitants of this world of which, if one thing can be said of it with greater certainty than another, it is that it is a scene of perpetual change! “ Change and decay in all around I see.” No changes! We must not take the expression in a hard and narrow literal sense, or it would be true of no man. Many changes Come alike to all, and one at the end of life of which Job speaks when he says, “ All the days of my appointed time will I wait until my change come.” The changes of which the psalmist speaks must mean changes that disturb, changes that unhinge all plans end arrangements, changes which frustrate hopes. These are the changes which some men have not, and because they have them not they fear not God. Our subject, therefore, is--the perils of an undisturbed life. I. How is this? Freedom from change was never intended to work such sad result, but quite the reverse. It is due not to absence of change, but to the man’ s own perverse and perverting heart. He turns the sweet into the bitter, the healthy into the poisonous. It is man’ s eye which is evil, because God is good. The fact that a man’ s life has not been wrecked by storms or rent by great upheaving sorrows should appeal to the man’ s gratitude. He should say, “ What shall I render to the Lord for all His benefits towards me? I will take the cup of salvation, and will call upon the name of the Lord.” But it is melancholy to see what a strange power the heart has to turn good into evil. It is like some plants which can elaborate and secrete out of bright sunshine and pure air and water the very elements of death. Such are the men who have no changes, and therefore--mark the word--“ therefore they fear not God.” They have no changes. They devise their plans, and they all succeed. Whatever they touch turns into gold, All the vessels they launch on the great sea of life have prosperous voyages, and return heavily laden with a rich cargo. Their neighbours have losses and misfortunes, but they, never. Now, this wonderful exemption from sudden and sharp vicissitudes tends to engender self-confidence. They are prone to imagine that their better fortune is due to better management. And no doubt not a little may be said in favour of their view of the case. For business, like every other thing, has its own laws, the observance of which will for the most part conduce to prosperity. But such prosperity has a melancholy tendency to produce forgetfulness of God. And when it has gone on for years in an unbroken stream, and a stream swelling and deepening with the years, then is this tendency seen, and this sore temptation felt in their most horrible forms. Because they have no change, therefore, etc. And the like may be said of unbroken, uninterrupted health. But others besides have frequently no changes. The circle of their social life seems wonderfully free from infraction, and that for a long period. It seems as if the ordinary calamities of life could not reach them. There has been no darkening of the windows, there has been no grave to purchase, there has been no hearse at the door. The deepest fountains of sorrow have been unopened, there has been no yearning, unavailing as it is keen, “ for the touch of a vanished hand, and the sound of a voice that is still.” And what is the result, what at least is too often the result? Therefore they fear not God. His blessings have been so constant and so great that they do not fear Him. They think that to-morrow will be as to-day, and still more abundant. The absence of change produces hardness of nature. As one of the greatest blessings is tenderness of heart, so one of the greatest perils in life is that the heart should become hardened. A healthy heart is one which is open to all Divine influences and to all just human appeals. A man becomes practically useless as his heart loses power of sympathy. Hence is change so needful for us would we succour the sorrow of others. But a man cannot do this if he has never known sorrow of his own, if he be one who has “ no changes.” Ah! if the world were made up of no other class of men than these, life would be a fearful thing. It is well that there are some hearts that cannot be thus steeled, hearts that can feel for others, and that can feel for others because frequently they have themselves known sorrow and trouble. No heart has had a thorough education which has not passed through the school of grief. Until it has sat in this class it is crude and narrow and hard. The tendency of continued prosperity, or exemption from calamity, is to create in the mind a sense of claim upon God, and a sense of wrong when the interruption comes. When the usual blessing does not make its appearance at the usual time, the man looks up under a sense of wrong, and upbraids the Providence which seems to have forgotten him. Why has it forgotten him? Why should he be deprived of his usual mercies? And instead of reckoning up all the years during which his table has been spread and his cup has run over, and bursting forth in a song of thanksgiving for all he has received, he complains of God for the removal, or even the diminution, of his comforts. The absence of change produces neglect of eternity. Nothing is more certain than this, and nothing is more natural. When men are settled in any condition which yields them satisfaction they long to remain in it. To live for the present life is as natural as to live in it; and it is the main temptation we have all to overcome to set our affection on things which are on the earth. It is wonderful how men get reconciled by habit even to a state which is by no means the happiest; but when it is one of comfort they have no desire to see it altered or disturbed. “ Soul, take thine ease,” is a very common feeling among those whose circumstances are on the whole fairly pleasant. They get settled in their lives. They have their portion in this life; and they do not think of another life, nor care to think of it. How many will have to thank God for ever for the blow which swept away in a night the wealth in which they trusted. It was then that for the first time they understood the meaning of the words, “ Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal.” How many, too, who have forgotten God in the days of their vigour, have found Him on their beds when the strength has gone from them like water from the summer brook. And some have needed a still greater change. But even these changes may fail. Some have borne them all, and still fear not God. Happy the man that has learnt to place his hope in God. (Enoch Mellor, D. D.) The discipline of change The natural heart of man longs for peace, and looks to repose as fit and proper. We feel ourselves in the midst of ceaseless change and decay, and are always seeking a centre of rest. We would hasten our escape from the windy storm and tempest. Yet, with all our longing for peace, we are played on by forces that make for change and unrest, swirled by the ceaseless flux and flow of the tide. Life is like the swift ships, says Job, like ships driven out in the darkness, tossed on the storm, battling on to a quiet harbour. It is like vapour of the hills, says St. James, like the fragile mist that can be withered by sun or torn by wind. There is no real rest in the world for body, or mind, or heart, of soul. This condition of unstable equilibrium is, of course, most evident in connection with outward things in our life, the trappings and the circumstances. But the same transiency is seen in inward things also. Even love suffers loss, as the objects of love pass off at the dread call of night. Even faith cannot remain fixed, but has new problems which demand new efforts at adjustment. We must admit also, if we are honest with ourselves, that we need the stimulus of constant change if life is to attain its best results. We settle down in slothful ease and sluggish indifference, with eyes blinded and hearts made fat by the prosperity that knows no fear. Changelessness would only lull the senses and the faculties to sleep. We are only kept alert by the unstable tenure with which we hold life and all it contains. If we knew we would only meet the expected and always at the expected turn or road, there could be no expectation at all, no wonder, no apprehension, no fear, no hope, no faith. Experience could bring no education, and all our powers would be atrophied. Most of all is this true in the moral sphere. It is in no lotus isle that men are bred. In the stress and strain of life character is formed. Through doubt and uncertainty and sore trial of faith is faith alone made perfect. As a matter of fact, degeneracy has always set in with both nations and men when prosperity has been unchecked and the sunshine of favour has been unalloyed. It is through the conquest of nature, and through the conquest of enemies, and through self-conquest that the conquering peoples have been built. The lesson is painted on a large canvas in universal history; and it is repeated to us in miniature in individual experience. Men live only by custom and convention when they are withdrawn from this discipline of change; and to live only by custom is to be drugged by an opiate. Everything that makes men great partakes of the discipline. There is no music in a monotone; there is no are in one universal drab colour. Thought is born of mystery. Science is the daughter of wonder, and wonder is the fruit of all the changes and movements of the world. Religion even has her secure empire in the hearts of men through the needs of men’ s hearts, the need for which they crave of a changeless centre in the midst of change. Every deep crisis of life, with its thrill of joy or its spasm of sorrow, with its message, of loss or of gain, is part of God’ s higher education. The discipline of change is meant to drive us out beyond the changing hour to the thought of eternity, out from the restless things of sense to find rest in God. He is the same yesterday, to-day, and to-morrow, the same in nature, in character, in love, even as Jesus revealed Him, the eternal Father who yearns over His children in deathless love. “ Because they have no changes, therefore they fear not God.” If that is failure, even though it means continual peace and prosperity, what shall we say of the failure of those who know the desolation and terror of change and yet have not learned; who still cling to the things of sense that have failed them before; who have suffered all the strokes of fortune, all the pangs Of heart, all the shocks that paralyze the soul, and yet have never submitted, never trusted, never feared, never loved God? What failure is like that of those who have been chastened and yet never softened, who have gone through the fire without learning the lesson, who have tasted the sorrow without the sympathy, who have borne the cross without the love? (Hugh Black, M. A.) Afflictions There are some who have no changes of fortune from prosperity to adversity. “ Therefore,” says the psalmist, “ they fear not God.” I. Different kinds.1. Disappointments.2. Financial ruin.3. Sickness. II. Uses. 1. Corrective. “ Before I was afflicted I went astray.”2. Instructive. Prosperity is apt to intoxicate the imagination; affliction teaches humility and dependence upon God.3. Sanctifying. They purify the heart, bring God nearer to the soul, and make the promises more precious. III. Improvement.1. Continued prosperity is not always best for man. If prosperity hardens the heart and keeps God out, then is affliction a blessing.2. Under severe affliction grace is needed to keep the soul from despair.3. If we are without affliction, are we sure that we do not spirtually need their discipline? (L. O. Thompson.) Life’ s vicissitudes You pick up two stones lying near the seashore and only a few yards apart. They not only belong to the same geological formation, but have been splintered from the same rock. One is rugged, made up of sharp, uneven angles, and irregular, broken surfaces. The other is smooth, rounded into an almost perfect sphere, has every delicate vein showing, and is polished as on a lapidary’ s wheel. What is the secret of this contrast? The one had fallen from the cliff and had been stranded above high-water mark. It had lain for centuries just where it dropped. It had undergone no changes and upheavals. The other had fallen within reach of the waves, and every ebbing and flowing tide had lashed it to and fro for year upon year. It had never been left still for long, but had been tossed, jostled, ground, and polished against the pebbly beach till it took that form of comeliness and beauty. So it is with many lives. The lives of some seem to have fallen to them in pleasant places. Life has brought few changes. And the Holy Book says of such, “ Because they have no changes, therefore they fear not God.” Other lives are “Still from one sorrow to another thrown.” They sometimes say, “ All Thy waves and Thy billows are gone over me.” But what spiritual beauty they have won from their tribulations! Psalms 55:22 Cast thy burden on the Lord, and He shall sustain thee.Grace to bear the burden laid on us I. See that your burdens are all of the Lord’ s appointment. How many are the burdens that we make for ourselves, which we need not and ought not to bear. They are sinful, and we ought to cast them away. II. Expect from God proportioned strength. Why do you anticipate long reaches of future possibilities? You are vainly trying to break the faggot at once, which can only be overcome stick by stick. Take life not by weeks or years, but by days. Truly Jesus is the great bearer away of burdens, for He has “ borne our sins in His own body on the tree,” and the guilt of sin is our heaviest burden. In all our sorrows we have His sympathy as “ a merciful and faithful High Priest,” who is “ touched with a feeling.” What, then, is left for us to carry is only the light end of the cross--an easy yoke and light burden. III. Rest on God for ultimate endurance. A spirit such as has been described, continually receiving its daily and proportioned replenishment from heaven, will not look much to the future. It will be too busy with present duties. As our great poet Tennyson has beautifully declared, true virtue will scarcely dream of a promised elysium, where she may leisurely bask in the sun, and repose from all effort amid crowns, and songs, and feasts. Nay, he nobly answers, “ Give her the glory of going on and not to die.” Anything else would be death and worse than death. Virtue cannot rest in material reward. She has acquired a noble habit of active benevolence, and she could not bear its cessation. She craves endless, immortal service. “ They shall serve Him day and night in His temple.” Verily, “ give her the glory of going on and not to die.” (Andrew Reed, B. A.) Our burden-bearer Whatever else these words mean, they mean that the Lord is to be used. Whatever presses upon me in any way and troubles me, I am to take it off my shoulder and let the Lord carry it for me. Now, we want that truth to go sinking down through the soul, that God is not only my Creator but my Father; my Father, who cannot help loving me and caring for me everywhere and in everything. But men don’ t believe this. The world is real enough to them, but all this about the Lord, how unreal it sounds. And it never will be otherwise until to all such words about Christ the Spirit giveth life. He must reveal Christ to us. Pray for His help. Now, our text teaches-- I. That the Lord is within my reach. He is near me, I am to cast my burden upon Him. Now, this is just what we don’ t do. We kneel, and sigh, and pray about our burden, that we may cast it on the Lord, but we don’ t do it. We look up and sigh, and resolve that we will, but nothing comes of it. Some years ago I was staying in a Swiss city, and from the windows of my hotel I looked out on the bridge that crossed the Rhine. At the middle of the bridge there was a tiny wayside chapel, and as the peasants went to market they set the heavy basket down on the steps while they turned in to pray. Then they came out and took up their burdens again. That is how many people do with their troubles--they pray about them, and then pick them up again. What folly it is to call that casting! On the other side of the parapet there swept the swift current of the Rhine. Now, if one should take up the load with both hands, and swing it with all his might over the side, and then let it go whirling through space until it splashed into the waters, and went, swept away for ever--that is casting. So, then, on the Lord’ s part and on ours here is something to be done. To hear of it only is nothing--less than nothing. Do not let us cheat ourselves with words. And note, further, that it is to be done thoroughly. There is a kind of casting our burden that does not get rid of it at all, but only doubles it. If a friend of mine has some anxiety of which I can relieve him, and I say, “ Now, I will see to that matter. Don’ t you trouble about it any more.” What should the man say? “ Thank you, I am sure; I will leave it with you, then.” And away he goes, saying, “ Well, that burden is gone, at any rate.” And he feels lighter, and walks more briskly. But what if, instead of that, he should keep worrying me perpetually, “ I hope you will not forget, will you? I do trust to you to remember. I really am very anxious about it--very.” I should say to him, “ Well, if you want to do it, sir, go and do it; but if I am to do it, fear not--I will.” Don’ t you see the man has doubled the burden? He has put it on my shoulders, and carries it on his own at the same time. Oh, this untrusting trust, this unbelieving faith! II. Cast upon the Lord the burden of beginning the Christian life. There are many of you who are feeling that burden, and a very heavy burden we may make of it. We have an idea that we want so many things besides Jesus, and that we cannot get Jesus until we get these other things. We want to feel our sins, and we want repentance, and we want earnestness, and we want faith. And then it may be that we are haunted by the fear of some past failure, or there is some besetment that grips us with a might that we cannot loosen. So the heart sinks under the burden. Now what are you going to do? Time does not lessen the weakness. Waiting is not likely in any way to mend matters. This burden of want, of weakness, of fear is exactly what you have to roll off upon the Lord. Boldly go to Him and say, “ Lord Jesus, Thou hast come into this world to save me. I am very needy and very foolish, but Thou knowest what I want; and Thou knowest all that I shall ever want. And now, Lord Jesus, I am just going to let Thee save me, now and always.” As this is the beginning of the blessed life, so it is the secret of it all along. Religion is ours just exactly in proportion as we avail ourselves of Jesus Christ. Victory is ours just exactly as we let Jesus Christ help us. (Mark Guy Pearse.) Burdens cast upon the Lord I. There is an endless variety of these burdens laid upon us in this world. Care, toil, affliction, trial, weakness, dejection, want, fear, duty, endurance; and for all there is only one relief, “ Cast thy burden” --“ thy” burden, for there the emphasis is to be laid--“ upon the Lord.” I will classify these burdens.1. Those of the flesh; such as, natural weakness, sickness, pain, sensual desires, corrupt affections, wasting toil, poverty. 2. Mental burdens: ignorance, mystery, knowledge; for “ he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow.” 3. Social burdens, or burdens of the heart. Their name is legion. 4. Spiritual burdens. That of sin, of spiritual desertion, of fear. II. The encouragements--We have to cast our burdens upon the Lord.1. We may do it. He “ will not break the bruised reed, nor,” etc. 2. Help in bearing our burdens is sure, if we seek aright. “ He shall sustain thee.” He does not promise to rid us of the burden but to sustain us under it, and that is better still. So was it with Paul. “ My grace is sufficient for thee.” (J. M. Sherwood, D. D.) What to do with our burdens I. The persons addressed.1. They are burdenbearers. Who are not included in these? They differ from one another in all variety of ways, but all are alike here. 2. These burdens are very various. No two are exactly alike. God appoints them to each of us according to His own loving wisdom (Psalms 31:7). God never makes a mistake. II. The duty enjoined. “ Cast thy burden upon the Lord.” There is One on whom we may cast our burdens, even the Lord. But men turn to other expedients. With what success let Isaiah tell (Isaiah 29:8). How are we to fulfil this duty?1. By telling God all about our burden. 2. Asking His help to bear it. 3. Submitting to His will in reference to it. III. The promise by which this duty is urged. “ He shall sustain thee.” God does this sometimes--1. By removing the burden. 2. By sustaining the burden-bearer; not removing the burden, but upholding those who have to bear it. (R. Newton, D. D.) Burdens cast upon God I. What we are to understand by burdens. By this metaphor, we are to understand all natural evils, whether of body or of mind. Wounds, bruises, diseases, and every species of sickness, may be properly called bodily evils; but bereavements, disappointments, and all the marks of Divine displeasure, may more properly be termed mental evils. These two kinds of natural evil are intimately connected, and very frequently enhance each other. Men are here born to trouble, as the sparks fly upward. How often are their bodies racked with pain! How often are their eyes filled with tears! II. What it is for the afflicted to cast their burdens upon the Lord.1. It implies a realizing sense that God has laid their burdens upon them. 2. They cannot do this without acknowledging that God has a right to lay their burdens upon them. 3. This implies entire submission to the conduct of God, or a willingness to endure the burdens which he pleases to lay upon them (Micah 7:7; Job 1:21; 2 Kings 4:26). 4. This farther implies casting themselves upon the Lord, which is the essence of the duty enjoined in the text. Men cannot lay the burdens which they feel, upon God; nor can God take to Himself the burdens which He lays upon them. But they can cast themselves upon the Lord, which will afford them immediate support and relief under their burdens. When the general of an army lays a heavy burden upon an obedient soldier, he may cast himself, and consequently his burden, upon the general, by saying, “ Sir, this appears a burden too heavy for me to carry. But you know what is proper to lay upon me. I am your soldier; my strength and my life are at your disposal. It is your concern to improve my strength and my life for the public good. And if it be best that my strength should be exhausted, or my life sacrificed, at this time, by bearing this burden, I have nothing to say; I cheerfully submit.” Just so the child of sorrow may go to his heavenly Father and say, “ My burden is great, and it seems I must sink under it. But Thou knowest what is best. I am in Thy hand as the clay is in the hand of the potter. Nob my will, but Thine, be done.” III. What evidence there is that God will sustain them.1. There is ground to believe that God will sustain those who cast their burdens upon Him, because He laid their burdens upon them to show their weakness, and make them take hold of His strength. 2. Those who cast their burdens upon the Lord are properly prepared to receive Divine support and consolation. 3. The glory of God requires Him to support those who look to Him for strength or relief under their burdens. 4. God has promised to afford all proper support and relief to those who come to Him with their cares and burdens, and place an unshaken confidence in His faithfulness. Improvement. If God will sustain those who cast their burdens upon Him, then--1. Burdens may become the means of great good. 2. The greatest burdens may become the most beneficial. 3. The afflicted never have any reason to murmur or complain under the burdens which are laid upon them. 4. The afflicted never ought to faint and sink under the weight of their burdens. 5. It highly concerns them to call upon His name. (N. Emmons, D. D.) The burden of the righteous I. The righteous man. Justified by faith. No condemnation. II. The trials of the righteous man.1. Those which he bears ill common with all men. Sickness, poverty, bereavement. 2. Those peculiar to the class to which he belongs. The prevalence of sin in the world, the difficulties attending the diffusion of Gospel truth, and the temptations which militate against a godly life, are burdens which all Christians are to bear in common. 3. Those which are restricted to him exclusively as an individual. He has his individual hopes and fears, his individual strength and weakness, and his individual pleasures and sufferings. III. The duty of the righteous man in view of his trials, “ Cast thy burden on the Lord.”1. The possibility of relief. The “ burden can be removed. This is true of all his burdens. 2. There is but one way of obtaining this relief. By casting it on the Lord. 3. This one way of relief requires a personal effort. “ Cast.” IV. The encouragement which is given to the righteous man to cast his burden on the Lord. “ He shall never,” etc.1. The Lord’ s ability to sustain. 2. His willingness to sustain. He is a God of mercy 3. He has made great arrangements to relieve man of his burden. In His providence, in His word, in His Church, and in the agency of His Holy Spirit. Then east thy burden upon Him, O my soul, and He will sustain thee. (P. L. Davies, M. A.) Man’ s burden and help I. The burden.1. Temporal burdens. (1) Affliction.(2) Disastrous providences.(3) Poverty.(4) Domestic troubles. 2. Spiritual burdens. II. The direction. “ Cast thy burden,” etc.1. In confident faith.2. By constant prayer.3. By cultivating a devotional frame of mind. III. The promise. “ He will sustain thee.” --1. By imparting increased strength.2. By the removal of our burdens. (T. Smith.) Life’ s burden and its relief I. Every human life has its burden. “ Thy burden.” There is a physical, social, moral, religious burden. Burden suggests three thoughts.1. Unnaturalness. We are not born with burdens. Have angels and innocent beings a heavy burden? I trow not. 2. Oppression. A burden presses one down. Life’ s burden often presses heavily on all the powers of one’ s nature, corporal, mental, and moral. Christ saw the race “ heavy laden.” 3. Obstruction. How a burden retards the traveller’ s progress. By reason of the load that presses on us we cannot move on in the path of life. II. Every human life may have its relief. “ Cast thy burden on the Lord.”1. The Lord will bear the burden. He will bear it, either by removing it altogether, or by imparting strength more than equal to its pressure. 2. There is a method of transferring the burden. The more the confidence the more the burden is transferred. God is more than a counsel for our legal embarrassments, more than a physician for our diseases, more than a father in whom to repose all our concerns. (Homilist.) The passing of the burdens We all know the critical moment when we are contemplating seeking relief by leaving our tasks. “ I will just leave the whole thing; I will get away from it!” Such flight is usually fruitless. We carry our burden with us. On the further shore it sits upon us still.1. There are some types of burden in which the refuge of flight will be found to be a rare and splendid defence. “ Flee youthful lusts.” In these matters flight is the only method of salvation. Get away from inflammatory books. Give up inflammatory companionships. “ Flee from idolatry.” Do not take part for a moment in the temple worship of an alien god. Do not sit in the temple of Mammon. Do not play with worldly maxims. Do not think there is security in partial worldliness, in a moderate compromise. 2. But the majority of burdens cannot be disposed of by the method of flight. We have no resources but to cast them on God. What becomes of them when we take them to the Lord? There are some burdens which pass away, even while they are being recounted. They evaporate in the telling! To talk about them to God is to lose them! If you take a dimmed, steamed mirror into a dry, sunny room, the obscuring veil passes away, and the mirror becomes clear. And there are some burdens which perplex the spirit, and hinder its outlook, which, when we take them to the Lord, pass away like mist in the sunny light of the morning. (1) There is the burden of fearfulness. What is this burden except the lack of assurance? The depression is born of uncertainty. The soul moves in fear, because it does not feel the presence of God. The lack of assurance breeds the restless offspring of anxiety, fretfulness and care. Now, this is one of the burdens which evaporate in the telling. Fearfulness is always the companion of little faith. If we have triumphant faith, fearfulness is abolished. “ Perfect love casteth out fear.” While we are talking to our Father, the sweet genius of assurance returns. Our faith awakes. Our love revives. The heart grows calm in spiritual fellowship. “ Cast thy burden upon the Lord,” and, even while thou art telling it, the burden will disappear. (2) There is the burden of perplexity. Here, again, is a burden which frequently disappears while we are describing it. If we take it into our Father’ s house, even if it does not pass entirely away, it will be so eased that it will not crush us like an iron garment. We shall have freedom of movement. It is a beautiful experience in the lives of the saints that, when they take their burden to God, they frequently find the clue even while they are bowed in prayer. “ In Thy light shall we see light.” (3) There is the burden of guilt. No man can reverently and penitently take this burden to the Lord without losing it. It goes in the telling of it. “ Father, I am no more worthy to be called Thy son, make . . . ” “ Bring forth the best robe.” “ So I saw in my dream, that just as Christian came up to the cross, his burden loosed from off his shoulder, and fell from off his back. “ Cast thy burden upon the Lord.” 3. There are some burdens which are not removed even when we take them to the Lord. They do not disappear in the telling. Is there some other gracious ministry of the loving Lord? Yes, if the burden remain, the bearer of it will be strengthened (2 Corinthians 12:7-9). Some burdens are permitted to remain. Perhaps the burden is an unwelcome and unpleasant duty. Perhaps it is some physical infirmity. Perhaps it is prolonged labour in a wageless and most exhausting sphere. What, then, will God do with us? “ He shall sustain thee.” The Lord will deal with the bearer of the burden. He will increase thy strength, and so in reality diminish thy load. This word “ sustain” is a fine, wealthy word of most comforting content. There is in it a suggestion of the ministry of a nurse. He will deal with us as though we were infants. He will be to us the great mother-God. And He will manifest towards us all the tenderness of a nursing ministry. There is also in the word the suggestion of food. He will feed us. He will give to us the bread of life. He will increase our vitality, He will make our powers more alive, more wakeful, more exuberant, And I find in the word the further gracious meaning of “ support.” He will carry me, if need be. The concluding word of the text is purposed to heighten the assurance of the psalmist into the peace of absolute certainty. “ He shall never suffer the righteous to be moved.” The life that is held by God, possessed and inspired by God, will be delivered from all trembling uncertainties. On the one hand, he will not be dismayed by a frown or a threat; nor, on the other hand, will he be enticed by some bewitching fascination. He will continue his way unmoved. The road will be straight; the walk will be firm; his footing will be sure. (J. H. Jowett, M. A.) The Lord our burden-bearer What wonderful condescension there is in this. Were we to see a royal prince taking upon his own back some heavy load out of pity for some poor man who was staggering beneath it, how we should admire and extol such gracious condescension. But what would that be compared to the grace of God as declared in our text. Consider-- I. The burden here referred to. It may be:--1. Of remorse and guilty agitation. Some do not feel this, for they have “ seared “ their consciences, and so a hard insensitive surface over them that will not feel when accusation is brought against it. But others do feel this. Now, our text is for them. 2. Of solicitude. It may be concerning temporal things, or spiritual, or both. 3. Of service. Moses felt this, and so do many now. All of us have some service to render. 4. Of grief. 5. Of fear. 6. Of temptation. Now, whatever it be, give heed to-- II. The direction as to what we are to do. There are many coun-sellors-philosophy, morality, the world; but inspired wisdom gives the counsel of our text. Now, such counsel implies--1. Some acquaintance with God. 2. Desire of His assistance and relief. 3. Faith. 4. Prayer. 5. That we are so to cast our burden upon the Lord as not to bear it ourselves, but to leave it with Him. See Hannah. III. The encouraging stimulus that is annexed to the declaration in the text.1. He can sustain thee. What is the amount of the burden that you have? Is it heavy as the Alps? Is it heavy as the globe? Roll it on Jesus Christ, roll it on His almighty strength; He is able to carry any load, to bear any and every weight; He can sustain thee. 2. He is mercifully disposed to sustain thee. One of the most miserable delusions of the philosophical infidelity conceived of God, was, that He is a great Being that cares nothing at all about little things--that He sits in the circle of eternity, not noticing the worms on this speck of matter called the globe, in this far-off region in the universe of space. That may be the notion that infidelity has of God, but that is not the notion the Bible gives of God. 3. He has solemnly bound Himself to do it. In the sixth chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews, you find two things mentioned by which the people of God have strong consolation--the promise and the oath of God; and by these two things you are assured that God will sustain you in the day of trouble. 4. He has sustained you. It will be very easy for you to put your eye on several memorials that you yourselves have reared to the honour, and the goodness, and the faithfulness of God. (T. E. Beaumont.) The burden of life A perfect being has no burden; nothing is too great, nothing too small; there is neither excess nor defect; there is no falling short of a given mark, no inconsistency, no incompetency, no pain, no disease, no slow declining and fading away. But we are not perfect; we are conceived and born in sin; the brand of sin is on us; our ]ire is brief, and the knowledge of that brevity haunts the fast-flying hours. We long to be better, wiser, purer than we are, to be safe from storm and clear of anxiety, to be strong and well, in body, mind, and spirit; that we are not what we would be, either towards our God or towards our poor, dear brethren in this world, where all alike have sorrow and demand help, is, in short, the burden of this mortal life. Will you, then, cast your burden on the gay world and hope to lose sight of it there? The world of pleasure is always ready to relieve us of our burdens; as we enter her wide and attractive halls, there are ministering spirits at the doors to take from the incomer what robe or garment of sorrow he may have, and put it away. The worst of this is, that the thing so put away is not lost, nor destroyed; it is carefully wrapped up; it is marked with your name; and it is there in its dark receptacle, waiting till the entertainment breaks up, and ready for you again. Within the great dance-hall, and up and clown through the illuminated gardens, where the music is playing and everything looks fair, they are laughing and singing, and going to and fro, and the sorrow is forgotten for the hour, and it seems to have been wise and right to dispose in that way of the burden of our sorrow and our sin. But what we brought in with us, we must take again as we go forth; and to the old load shall be added a hundredfold of weight of shame and remorse. Can we think of any other expedient to save us from the alternative of going straight to the Lord? Perchance you may cast your burden On some friend or fellow-sinner. It is natural for us to tell our griefs to each other; a sorrow shared is a sorrow lessened. But here also is danger. Friendship is an uncertain thing; it is often too frail to bear rude handling, A man to be a real helper ought to be wise and good, a true and faithful guide, calm, strong, learned, prudent. Every argument which leads us to cast ourselves on such a friend, is an argument in favour of One who is all that and more; to whom the wise man owes his wisdom, and the strong man his strength. And thus are we brought to God, as the best on whom to cast the burden, for the simple reason that none else but He can give us relief. Go to thy Lord; take to Him the trouble, whatever it be, and tell it out to Him. Open thy heart, though to Him it is always open; seek Him as thou wouldst a confidant, a bosom friend. Thou hast thy burden, of necessity or want, of hard work and dull hours bringing little or no good, of anxiety about Others or fears for thyself; of buried hope or affections wasted on unworthy objects; of spiritual dryness, or lack of earnest faith; of longing for the unattainable or regret for the irreparable; whatever it be, bring that sorrow straight to thy God, with the conviction that it is the only rational and sensible thing to do, that all other expedients are vain, that there is no help in the world, or in any child of man, or anywhere out of Him; and surely the crooked shall be made straight and the rough places plain. (Morgan Dix, D. D.) Burdens adapted to those who bear them Every man’ s “ burden” is just the one fitted to the individual man. It is suited for his present discipline--a selected, ordained, adjusted thing--“ thy burden,” “ your burden.” It is a celebrated thought of an old-world moralist (Socrates) that, if all the misfortunes of mankind were cast into a public stock, to be equally distributed among the whole species, those who now think themselves most unhappy, would prefer the share they are already-possessed of before that which would fall to them by such a division; and an old-world poet (Horace) carries the thought even further when he says, “ that the hardships or misfortunes which we lie under are more easy to us than those of any other person would be in case we could change conditions with him.” And this is the moral of the old-world fable, which tells us that Jupiter made a proclamation that every mortal should bring in his griefs and calamities and throw them into a heap. This was done in a plain appointed for the purpose, and the heap became a prodigious mountain that seemed to rise above the clouds. The heap was at last distributed among the two sexes, who made a most piteous sight as they wandered up and down under the pressure of their several burdens. The whole plain was filled with murmurs and complaints, groans and lamentations. Jupiter at length taking compassion on the poor mortals, ordered them a second time to lay down their loads, with a design to give every one his own again. They discharged themselves with a great deal of pleasure. But the phantom which had led them into error was replaced by a goddess of quite a different figure--her motions were steady and composed, and her aspect serious but cheerful. Every now and again she cast her eyes towards heaven, and fixed them upon Jupiter: her name was Patience. She took her stand by the mount of sorrows, which at once contracted to one-third of the size. She then returned every man his own proper calamity, and teaching him how to bear it in the most commodious manner, he marched off with it contentedly, being very Well pleased that he had not been left to his own choice as to the kind of evils which fell to his lot. Thus far the fable. What is all this but St. Paul’ s teaching (Galatians 6:5). It is what the psalmist says, “ thy burden.” It is what St. Peter means, “ All your care” (M. Fuller.) . Psalms 56:1-13 Psalms 56:1-13 Be merciful unto me, O God: for man would swallow me up.The deprecable and the desirable I. The deprecable in relation to man.1. Craven-heartedness. A man whose heart is morally sound is bold as a lion, invincible as the light of day. 2. Presumptuous revenge. II. The desirable in relation to God.1. A desire to trust Almighty God (Psalms 56:3). All souls should centre in Him, cling to Him as planets to the sun. This is the real antidote to cowardly fear. 2. A desire to praise Almighty God (Psalms 56:4; Psalms 56:10; Psalms 56:12). Praise consisteth in attuning our whole lives to His Spirit and law. The hymn of praise acceptable to Him is not a composition of words, but a composition of soul virtues and noble deeds. 3. A desire to be remembered by Almighty God (Psalms 56:8). No words can affect a true heart as tears can; God’ s infinite heart feels our tears as they fall. 4. A desire to walk before Almighty God (Psalms 56:13). To “ walk before God “ implies a constant consciousness of His presence and an enjoyment of His friendship. “ Walk” before Him with His light shining behind you and over you, lighting up all the path and scenery ahead. (Homilist.) Psalms 56:3-4 What time I am afraid, I will trust in Thee. Fear and faith It is not given to many men to add new words to the vocabulary of religious emotion. But so far as an examination of the Old Testament avails, I find that David was the first that ever employed the word that is here translated, “ I will trust,” with a religious meaning. And it is a favourite word of his. I find it occurs constantly in his psalms; twice as often, or nearly so, in the psalms attributed to David as in all the rest of the psalter put together; and it is in itself a most significant and poetic word. But, first of all, I ask you to notice how beautifully there comes out here the occasion of trust. “ What time I am afraid, I will put my trust in Thee.” This psalm is one of those belonging to the Sauline persecution. If we adopt the allocation in the superscription, it was written at one of the very lowest points of his fortunes. And there seem to be one or two of its phrases which acquire new force, if we regard the psalm as drawn forth by the perils of his wandering, hunted life. For instance--“ Thou tellest my wanderings,” is no mere expression of the feelings with which he regarded the changes of this earthly pilgrimage, but is the confidence of the fugitive that in the doublings and windings of his flight God’ s eye marked him. “ What time I am afraid,” I will trust. That is no trust which is only fair weather trust, nor the product of outward circumstances, but of his own fixed resolves. I will put my trust in Thee. True faith, by a mighty effort of the will, fixes its gaze on the Divine helper, and there finds it possible and wise to lose its fears. Then, still further, these words, or rather one portion of them, give us a bright light and a beautiful thought as to the essence and inmost centre of this faith or trust. Scholars tell us that the word here translated “ trust “ signifies literally to cling to or hold fast anything, expressing thus both the notion of a good tight grip and of intimate union. Now, is not that metaphor vivid and full of teaching as well as of impulse? “ I will trust in Thee.” “ And he exhorted them all that with purpose of heart they should cleave unto the Lord.” We may follow out the metaphor of the word in varied illustrations. For instance, here is a strong prop, and here is the trailing, lithe feebleness of the vine. Gather up the leaves that are creeping all along the ground, and coil them around that support, and up they go straight towards the heavens. Here is a limpet in some pond or other, left by the tide, and it has relaxed its grasp a little. Touch it with your finger and it grips fast to the rock, and you will want a hammer before you can dislodge it. Or, take that story in the Acts of the Apostles, about the lame man healed by Peter and John. All his life long he had been lame, and when at last healing comes, one can fancy with what a tight grasp “ the lame man held Peter and John.” That is faith, cleaving to Christ, twining round Him with all the tendrils of our heart, as the vine does round its pole; holding to Him by His hand, as a tottering man does by the strong hand that upholds. And then one word more. These two clauses that I have put together give us not only the occasion of faith in fear, and the essence of faith in this clinging, but they also give us very beautifully the victory of faith. You see with what poetic art--if we may use such words about the breathings of such a soul--he repeats the two main words of the former verse in the latter, only in inverted order--“ What time I am afraid, I will trust in Thee.” He is possessed by the lower emotion, and resolves to escape from its sway into the light and liberty of faith. And then the next words still keep up the contrast of faith and fear, only that now he is possessed by the more blessed mood, and determines that he will not fall back into the bondage and darkness of the baser. “ In God I have put my trust; I will not fear.” He has confidence, and in the strength of that he resolves that he will not yield to fear. There are plenty of reasons for dread in the dark possibilities and not less dark certainties of life. Disasters, losses, partings, disappointments, sicknesses, death, may any of them come at any moment, and some of them will certainly come sooner or later. Temptations lurk around us like serpents in the grass, they beset us in open ferocity like lions in our path. Is it not wise to fear unless our faith has hold of that great promise, “ Thou shall tread upon the lion and adder; there shall no evil befall thee” ? (A. Maclaren, D. D.) On public prayer in connection with natural national calamities There are two classes of calamities in connection with which men have felt themselves in all ages moved to public confession and supplication; those which come to them from the hand of Providence through the order of the system of Nature around them, and those which have their origin wholly or chiefly in the follies, vices and sins of mankind. But the two stand by no means on the same ground with regard to the question of national humiliation and prayer. In the case of calamities which a nation has brought upon itself by its follies and crimes, there can be no question of the duty of humiliation and prayer. But when we are asked to join in an act of national humiliation on account of a scanty harvest, we seem to be standing on quite different ground. Chastisement which seems to fail on us from the skies brings suffering, but with it much that modifies it, and which may make us see, if we have but the open eye, that it is blessing in disguise. If we were asked to recognize in a late and scanty harvest a signal part of the Divine chastisement, I should feel little disposed to respond. And this not on the ground of doubts about the power of prayer in its legitimate sphere; but rather from a deepening sense of the reality and grandeur Of this power of prayer. We are only just emerging from Jewish levels of thought and belief in the Christian Church. Through all the Christian ages we have been prone to return on the tracks of Judaism, and to conceive of God, in His ways in the providential government of the world, as the ruler, after all, of a little realm, at the centre of which are the interests of our little lives.1. The principle on which we are less ready than of old to rush to confession under natural national calamities of an ordinary type, is a just and noble one, and is a sign of vital progress in our theological conceptions, and our view of our relation to the world and to God. 2. This progress in the Christian thought of our times runs parallel to the progress in our conceptions of the true nature and the subject-matter of prayer, which is the fruit of growing knowledge and experience in the individual believing soul. As experience widens and deepens prayer becomes, or ought to become, less a cry of pain, and more an act of communion; intercourse with the Father in heaven, whereby His strength, His serenity, His hope flow into and abide in our hearts I should think but little of a Christian experience in which there is not a constant lifting up into the higher regions the subject-matter of prayer. 3. I by no means say, that even in an advanced state of Christian intelligence, there may not be natural national calamities, under which it would be wise and right for a nation to humble itself in confession and supplication before God. We must hot regard our prayer as a sure means of securing the removal of such calamities. Always, behind the prayer, if it is to be worth anything, is the thought, “ It is the Lord, let Him do what seemeth to Him good.” There is in man, deep down in his nature, a sense, not only that the relation between his nature and the world around him, and the God who rules it, have become jangled and out of tune, but also that the responsibility for the discord lies at his door. Everywhere, in all countries, in all ages, at the bottom of man’ s deepest thoughts is the sense of sin. It is natural for men to rush to humble confession and importunate supplication when they think that the hand of God is upon them in judgment; and it is good and right for them at such seasons to approach Him, if they will but remember that the message of the Gospel is that God is reconciled in Christ to His children, that all His dealings with them, His sharpest and sternest discipline, are moved and ruled by the hand of that love which gave the well-beloved Son to Gethsemane and Calvary, that men might know its measure. (J. Baldwin Brown, B. A.) Faith conquering fear Our nature is strangely compounded. Trembling and trust often co-exist in us. It was so in David, whose heart is laid bare to us in these psalms. Now, fearfulness, although it has some ill effects which are sure to appear unless it is kept under the control of faith, nevertheless it has its own appointed good results in the formation of Christian character. Some have no fear, they are utterly unconcerned as to God and His claims. They need that the alarm bell of fear should be rung in their hearts. And many Christians need more of it: their flippant talk about sacred things; their indifference as to the condition of the ungodly: their heedlessness of talk would cease and give place to a holy fear. Fear, then, is not to be indiscriminately condemned. But it is when fear paralyzes trust that it becomes a sin, and as such is condemned. I. Occasions of undue fear are--1. The Christian worker’ s sense of responsibility.2. Experiences of affliction.3. Constitutional nervous disorder.4. Anxiety as to the future. II. Its disadvantages: it hinders all success and misrepresents God. III. Its cure. Get more light and exercise more trust. (Alfred Rowland, B. A.) Fear and trust “ What time I am afraid.” Alas! those times are many. Let me speak of three causes of fear and unrest, and the trust which should remove them. I. Fear for the morrow. There is the fear which arises from a contemplation of possible exigencies and contingencies in the future of our life’ s temporal economy. Where one can sing-- “ . . . I do not ask to see The distant scene: one step enough for me,” a hundred are bowed down with anxiety, worry, care, and the restlessness of doubt. I am perfectly sure that underneath the placid face and the serene smile that sits on many a brow there is much fear and alarm as to the future. What is the remedy for this? What is there that will give a man peace? My answer is--Trust! Trust in God, His wisdom, His love, His Fatherly care, His plans and His purposes! If there is one phase of the teachings of the Bible that has been more attested by human experience than another, it is the assurance that trust in God is the secret of strength, serenity, and peace. He is behind all events, and before all contingencies. He is above the cloud and below the waters. Say, then, O ye timid ones, ye sorrowing ones, ye foreboding ones, ye anxious ones, “ What time I am afraid, I will trust in Thee.” II. Another great cause of fear is the fact of death. God has so constituted us that the very elements of life stand in battle array against the elements that produce death. It is natural, and in perfect harmony with God’ s purpose in us, that we should cling to life; and by so much as we cling to life, by that much do we fear death. And perhaps the two feelings in regard to death that most contribute to this fear are the loneliness and uncertainty that inevitably belongs to it. “ I shall die alone,” said the great Pascal. Nothing is so distressing to the human spirit as solitude, and when sell, rude is overhung ,with darkness it is then full of awfulness. And it is the awfulness that comes from the solitude and darkness of death that makes us shrink from it. What is the panacea for this fear? Trust in God--God’ s presence, God’ s sustaining hand. If there be a Providence watching over us in life, is it not reasonable to suppose that some provision for our need in the hour and conflict of death is made for us? that His providence will open the gate of death for us and guide us through? that His care for us will be as manifest then as now? Does a mother watch over her child all day--fondle it, nestle it in her bosom, teach it, protect it, uphold it--and then leave it alone when the darkness conies? III. Fear in regard of the destinies of the future life. They ask, Where will my destiny be? Shall I be numbered with the blest, or rejected with the lost? Momentous questions! Tremendous thoughts! I cannot wonder that they make men anxious. The wonder is that, living as we do on the threshold of eternity, we are not more concerned. Whither, at such times of foreboding, shall we flee for succour? To God, the Father of our spirits. Every soul that turns to Him with the cry, “ Father, I have sinned” ; every heart that yearns for His forgiveness, shall have refuge and peace on earth, shall have a welcome home in heaven (W. J. Hocking, B. A.) The saints’ great resource in times of fear I. There are many times and circumstances calculated to awaken our fears.1. Our state of sin should awaken great fear in our hearts. 2. Well may we fear when conscience convicts and condemns. 3. In times of temptation we ought to fear. 4. A backsliding state may well make us afraid. 5. To be in affliction and nigh to death in a state of impenitence, is a state which should excite the greatest fears. II. There is an adequate resource under every kind and degree of fear.1. God has revealed the doctrine of His providence as an antidote to all those fears which relate to this life. 2. He has revealed the doctrine of His grace as an antidote to all these fears which result from sin and guilt. 3. He has revealed the doctrine of immortal glory and blessedness to remove the fear of death and our anxiety concerning another world. III. There is a great blessedness in knowing this resource before our fears come.1. In some cases the knowledge of this Divine resource has delivered the mind from all fear. Fear concerning the body or the soul--life or death, the grave or eternity (Job 13:15; Proverbs 28:1). 2. Where it does not do this, it may prevent the worse effects of fear. Two ships in a storm, the one with a good anchor and anchorage, and the ether without either, meet that storm under widely different circumstances (2 Corinthians 7:10). 3. Sometimes in the most fearful circumstances it enables us not only in patience to possess our souls, but to glorify God. IV. The greatest of all fears will seize upon those who know not this only true antidote to fear.1. The absence of that salutary fear, which leads to provision against danger, proves the extremity of that danger in which we are involved. 2. That fear which is accompanied with utter despair must be the portion of those who have not found the true refuge. 3. They will realize infinitely more than they ever feared in the very deepest seasons of their despair in this life. For it is very certain no man ever formed a sufficiently awful idea of the worm that dieth not, and of eternity. Let all these considerations induce sinners to prize that refuge of mercy and grace which the Gospel presents, and let us be allowed to turn them all into an occasion for urging upon them the immediate and indispensable necessity of trust in God. (Evangelist.) Psalms 56:4 In God will I praise His word.The moral impulse imparted to individuals and communities by the study of the Bible My object is not merely to demonstrate the inspiration of the Bible, but to win you to the study of it. It may possibly be alleged by many persons, especially of the more busy classes of society, that they have no time for the attention to the Bible which is recommended.1. The plea is dangerous as well as monstrous and criminal. If a son or a friend were to aver that he had become too busy, that he was too much engaged, for days and weeks and months together, to read an epistle from a distant land, dictated by parental love or by friendship, to what conclusion should we come as to the nature of the pretence or the character of the mind that could dictate it? Could we, even in this ordinary ease, admit for an instant the validity of the excuse, or suppose that any business of life could be so urgent? 2. The plea is untrue. A few verses, snatched from the hurry of life (if life must indeed be so hurried) may suffice. In a few minutes you may read enough to furnish materials for reflection and inquiry. You may walk or work--and think. And we claim such study for the Bible because-- I. The influence which it exerts is distinctly moral. It deals with man as a moral being, responsible for his actions, and to be influenced by motives. II. And this impulse which it communicates is holy. Notwithstanding passages in it which infidels have urged have an unholy tendency, the overwhelming effect of the book is towards holiness. Not so other sacred books--the Koran, and the like. III. And this impulse is mighty. IV. Progressive. V. But simply instrumental. The truth contained in the sacred volume exerts an influence analogous, both in its force and its secrecy, to that of some of the most wonder-working agencies of nature. It resembles the unseen presence of magnetism or electricity, which move as by a touch the elements and masses around us--disposing them to order or clothing them with beauty; or it is like the vegetative power, that in the darkness and concealment of the earth and the clods of the valley impels the seed to shoot and rise and spread fertility upon the smiling surface. In the secret recesses of the soul, and in the dark and hidden depths of a heart, no human eye can penetrate and no human philosophy unravel--it subdues and sanctifies, works repentance and humiliation, and the settled purposes of a renewed mind, till on the surface appears the penitential tear, the bended knee, the contrite sigh, the believing and imploring reception of Christ, the moral and spiritual renewal of character, the outward, fearless, and heaven-sealing profession of a true religion; and every right-minded observer attests the truth of the Divine declaration, “ Behold I make all things new.” (F. A. Cox, D. D.) Psalms 56:8 Thou tellest my wanderings: put Thou my tears into Thy bottle; are they not in Thy book? Life on the human side and the Divine There is a description of life given in the Bible which has been objected to as depressing and unreal. Life is represented, it is said, as a scene of unending struggle and sorrow; and men are made to walk under a constant shadow. There is some apparent truth in this. But the question to be first asked is, Has the Bible view of life truth in it? If so, is it not better to take it fairly into account? And it may be a further question, Has the Bible no compensation for the saddening view of life which it sometimes presents? I. The human side of life. It is described under the form of wandering and tears: its activities as “ wanderings,” its passive side as “ tears.” Still it may be said, What reason can there be in taking David’ s life, and making it a copy of all human lives? Has not God given us in the world sunshine as well as cloud, has He not scattered manifold pleasures through it, and should we not thankfully acknowledge this? It is very true, and we must beware of taking any part of the Bible, and pressing it so far as to make it contradict both itself and our experience. Now, there are two things which God in His kindness has sent to the relief of men in the journey of life. There are the natural blessings that are, in a measure, close to all, visiting them often whether they will or not; and there are the helps and hopes which come from a felt relation to Himself. The first may be called the blessings of His hand, the second of His heart. The cloud would be too dark for poor humanity unless God had given it a silver lining, and it is neither good for us, nor grateful to Him, to overlook this. We may begin with the strange, mysterious pleasure God has put into life itself--to live, to breathe, to look on things and have an interest in them, to move, to walk among them--these are roots that go down into the world and hold men on to it by an indescribable attachment. It is one of the kind things in the world that God has given man a liking to life itself. How much there is that is pleasant. Nature, in her varied beauty; the benediction of work, of honest, earnest work, whether it be of hand or head; the kindly affections of the human heart, the love of home and kindred, the solace of friendship, the happiness of doing any good. We seem far enough away now from wandering and tears, and yet they return upon us. It was a saying of the ancients that “ for every joy granted to man, there are two sorrows, one before and one behind.” Have you not felt this description of life true in its changefulness? How few of us are in the homes of our youth! Or, if near them, how far have we wandered in associations! Changes have taken place around and within which make us almost forget what we were. “ Our fathers, where are they?” Or think of life in its constant struggle, perfection never gained, rest never reached. But come-- II. To the divine side of life. What does the view of God secure for the man who looks to Him? Well--1. A Divine measure. “ Thou tellest my wanderings.” This means not merely that God speaks of them, but takes the tale and number of them. Plato has said that in making the world “ God mathematizes.” All is fixed and sure as is the science of numbers. It does not seem so, but it is. 2. This view of God secures a Divine sympathy in life: “ Put thou my tears into Thy bottle.” However skilful the guide might be, he would not meet our ease unless he had a heart. There are rough defiles and thorny brakes through which the road leads--there is no help for it: these things make it the road; but what concerns us most is the manner of the Guide--that He should take our frailty into account and provide resting-places and refreshment for us as they are needed. 3. This view of God secures a Divine meaning in life--“ Are they not in Thy book?” It is natural to understand this of both the wandering and the tears. They are written down, and therefore have an intelligent and consistent meaning. And by and by we shall see this. (J. Ker, D. D.) Tears of Jesus In the cabinets of antiquaries is often to be seen a small bottle found in ancient tombs. It is called a lachrymatory, or tear-bottle, and is supposed to have contained the tears of some bereaved relative of the departed one who was laid in the tomb. The heathen believed that the gods loved to see a good man struggling with adversity, for then the greatness of the human soul comes out. And our God loves to see the faith and patience of His sorrowing servants. But we desire to speak of Jesus, whose language the psalmist, by prophetic anticipation, speaks. The tears of Jesus, then, are our subject. His life was characterized by sorrow. But He did not weep at His crucifixion--there was never moral weakness in His tears. Ha was full of sympathy, and He was full of tenderness, but He was never moved to tears by the cruelty of men. But He wept in the Garden of Gethsemane. The Epistle to the Hebrews tells us of “ His strong crying and tears.” There are tears which we cannot fully understand; but they were tears for the sins of the world, the weight of which in that most mysterious agony He was then bearing. Shall we, then, continue in sin? And He wept at the grave of Lazarus (John 11:1-57.). Then it is not inconsistent with spiritual-mindedness--as some say it is--to feel very keenly the sorrows and distress of life. “ Jesus wept.” And thus He assures us of His sympathy. And He wept on His way to Jerusalem, when He beheld the city and wept ever it. It was the day of His triumphal entry, and yet He wept. But it was not for Himself, but for others--for the people of Jerusalem. They were tears of patriotism. He wept for His country’ s sorrows. But observe it was not so much the national disasters as the national sins, that He wept. It is the reverse with the tears of ordinary patriotism. And patriotic pride and boasting, how often it is because of prosperity rather than of righteousness. But let our patriotism be sanctified by prayer. Prayer was in the heart of Jesus for His country. Let it be so for ours. (Dean Goulburn.) Man’ s tears in God’ s bottle Tears are here employed as exponents of sorrows and troubles. But it is not all tears that are treasured up by God. I. Tears of repentance. When the early years have been marked by transgression, the coming of the days of grace can never be without tears. Take as illustrations the woman who was a sinner; the Philippian jailor; Peter when he went out and wept bitterly on that day which we may regard as the day of his abiding conversion to God. II. Tears which are wept in the spiritual conflicts of life. III. Tears wept over the wickedness of men and the apparent slowness with which the kingdom of God makes its way. The greatest and the best men the world has ever known have been the men who have experienced the deepest sorrow. The man who can smile from the cradle to the grave knows neither himself, nor the world, nor God. Ezekiel tells of those on whom the Lord bid him put a mark for that they “ sigh and cry for all the abominations that be done in the city.” Their tears were put into God’ s bottle. Never was the truth contained in our text more wonderfully illustrated than in the history of our Blessed Lord and Saviour. Not a tear He shed was lost. “ He shall see of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied.” “ He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hands.” (Enoch Mellor, D. D.) Treasured tears The so-called lachrymatories, or tear-bottles, found in museums of art, were applied to no such use as their name implies. They probably contained unguents that were used in preparing the dead for burial; which accounts for their presence in tombs. The psalmist rather had in mind the skin bottle of his day, in which, by a bold figure of speech, he conceives of God as treasuring our tears with that same Divine carefulness which numbers the hairs of our heads or notes the falling sparrow. But why should God treasure our tears in His bottle?1. As a token of prayers to be answered. Tears and prayers are closely connected. “ Strong crying and tears” accompanied the “ prayers and supplications” of Christ in the days of His flesh. The woman that was a sinner said nothing as she bathed the travel-stained feet of her Lord with her tears. Such tears are the guarantee of sincerity, the evidence of moral earnestness, and the token of prevailing prayer. The tears in God’ s bottle represent petitions filed away for answer in His own good time. 2. In token of wrongs to be avenged. The tears of martyrs thus treasured up plead like the blood of Abel. It is a perilous thing to make a little child to weep by our cruelty or by injustice to smite the fountain of tears in the widow’ s heart. Every such tear of the poor and needy is gathered into God’ s bottle, and will be a swift witness against us, till the wrong is atoned for or avenged. (J. F. Elder, D. D.) The tenderness of God towards His afflicted people I. An assurance. “ Thou tellest my wanderings.” They Were numerous and various. But what do these wanderings take in?1. Moral infirmities, or deviations from duty, What is the whole course of a state of nature but a series of wanderings? It is well if God sees that you feel them to be your afflictions and that you repent of them. 2. These wanderings take in local changes. See Abraham, Israel, David--what wanderings were theirs? Some of the most eminent servants of God were wanderers (Hebrews 11:1-40.). “ They wandered about,” etc. And it is so still. For conscience’ sake many have had to wander about seeking how to live. But they are not purposeless; God has taken count of them all. “ Thou tellest my wanderings.” Therefore we are not to think that God disregards all individualities. II. The prayer. “ Put Thou my tears into Thy bottle.” There are some persons who despise tears as weak and womanly. Do they remember who He was who wept at the grave of Lazarus? Do they remember who He was, who, “ when He came nigh unto Jerusalem, wept over it,” etc.? “ True greatness,” says Lavater, “ is always simple” ; and true courage, I am persuaded, is always combined with tenderness. Homer--that matchless painter of men and manners--makes no scruple to represent his bravest of men, Ajax, and his wisest of men, Ulysses, as weeping; and the latter as weeping no less than three times in the course of a few lines. The Easterns wept more readily, and were less ashamed of indulging their tears, than we. David was a man of tears. Of these tears, let us now, if we can, trace out the sources. One source of these tears was affliction. He had many trials and troubles, which his greatness could not prevent, or even alleviate; yea, which his greatness rather increased. Another source of his tears was sin; and a much more plentiful one than his sufferings. “ My sin,” says he, “ is ever before me.” Not only his great sin in his fall, but his daily and hourly failures. “ Who,” says he, “ can understand his errors? cleanse thou me from secret faults.” And David wept for the sins of others, as well as his own. “ I beheld the transgressors,” says he, “ and was grieved, Rivers of waters run down mine eyes, because men keep not Thy law.” III. The question. “ Are they not in Thy book?” --that is, Are they nob written and recorded there? What book? The book of His providence? Yes, they are all there; their number is there; their quality is there; their degree is there; their duration is there and all their sad memorial is there. The book of His remembrance (Malachi 3:16). Now, let us conclude--1. By admiring the condescension of God. 2. Let us, as Young says, “ not stop at wonder,” but “ imitate and live.” 3. Ye wanderers, ye weepers, repair here. God is able to comfort in all our tribulation. (W. Jay.) Tear-bottles There are some very good people who always have their tear-bottle by them, and who always treasure up every little grief and every little disappointment. Whenever you meet them, the first thing you see is the tear-bottle; and you soon see there is more in it than there was last time. Now, of course I am not speaking of those who have indeed great trials, but of those who make a great deal of little ones. I do not want you to get into that gloomy way of living. (D. Davies.) Psalms 56:9-11 When I cry unto Thee, then shall mine enemies turn back.Prayer vanquishing enemies I. This prayer implies the existence of conflict. David was pursued from place to place by: his adversaries. The Christian, too, has many enemies. Within him and around him. II. This prayer supposes helplessness. The enemies which the Christian has to fight are numerous, potent and subtle; and he is perfect weakness. III. A conviction that there is all needful help in God. IV. Application to God for help. “ I cry unto Thee.” Make me a conqueror, etc. This cry we must consider as secret, earnest and constant, and connected with confidence. V. This prayer was successful. “ Then shall mine enemies turn back.” This is expected from immutable promises (Isaiah 54:17; 2 Peter 3:9). God will cause our pursuing enemies to turn back, for can they fight with omnipotence? Or He will give unto us grace, Divine armour, to enable us to stand and conquer in the evil day. Application.1. How great the privilege of having an interest in the Divine favour.2. How exposed and wretched is the sinner. (Helps for the Pulpit.) Psalms 56:12-13 Thy vows are upon me, O God: I will render praises unto Thee.The Christian’ s vows and praises I. A solemn obligation acknowledged. “ Thy vows are upon me, O God.”1. Vows made in public. (1) Entered into in baptism.(2) Ratified in confirmation.(3) Renewed in the Lord’ s Supper. 2. Vows made in private. II. A holy determination made. “ I will render praises unto Thee.”1. In the public acknowledgment of mercy (Hebrews 13:15; 1 Peter 2:5; Hosea 14:2). 2. In the eloquent language of the life (Romans 12:1; Hebrews 11:5). In conclusion, let each ask-- 1. How have I hitherto fulfilled my vows?2. How may I henceforth do so? (J. D. Lane, M. A,) Christian vows A vow may be defined as a promise made more solemn by a special appeal to God. It is as respects purpose, what an oath is as regards fact. And the appeal may be of different kinds. It may be expressed in the form of a prayer to God to punish or be propitious ha the maker of the promise, according as he breaks or keeps his word. It may be again in the form of a prayer for some present blessing, for which some specified return of gratitude is promised. Or lastly, it may be merely an appeal implied in the solemnity of the occasion, or of the expression of the promise, by which it is understood that the maker of it sets himself consciously in the Divine presence, and calls upon God to witness that promise. We have instances of all these three kinds in the Old Testament. The expression “ So do God to me and more also,” so often accompanying an intimation of purpose, constitutes a vow of the first kind. Jacob’ s vow in Bethel is an example of the second kind. And of the third, we have a noble instance at the end of the Book of Joshua, where at a solemn concourse of the tribes at Shechem, the people expressly took Jehovah for their God, and devoted themselves to Him. It is manifest, however, that this is a matter in which Old Testament practice is no rule for Christians. God’ s people of old were kept shut up under a system of special ordinances, whose obligation has now ceased, Now, of the three kinds of vows which have been mentioned, the two former must by their very terms be generally excluded from a Christian man’ s practice. We have left, then, for our consideration our third class, consisting of promises made with more than ordinary solemnity, accompanied by an expressed or implied appeal to God. Of these vows, as a class, we cannot but admit the legitimacy. They are by implication recognized in the New Testament, in those passages where St. Paul reminds Timothy of the good confession which he had made before many witnesses; as also in the very fact of baptism following upon a profession of faith, in which we have the virtual promise necessarily involved, and the solemnity clearly combined with it. But here everything depends upon the nature of the promise made. And it is this part of our inquiry which carries with it for us the things which are lawful. But such are not vows of celibacy, nor of total abstinence from alcoholic drinks, nor the vows of the monastic orders. Our ordination vows are net such, because they bind us not so much to the office as in the office. We are not by them tied down to any rule of life other than the requirements of our duty as Christian ministers primarily necessitate. And thus it seems to me that, while speaking on a particular case, we have in reality met with that description of a lawful Christian vow, of which we were in search. And the description will be this: Such vow must not bind a man to a course of conduct first marked out by its terms, and devised for it, but must constitute an additional obligation to a course of conduct already, for other reasons, incumbent upon him. The vow must be made for the duty, not the duty for the vow. We have, I think, now prepared the way to speak of the great lifelong promise and vow which the Church requires of her members. The points contained in it are every one of them plain Christian duties for every man. They remain the same, be the vow taken or not. They are no artificial narrowing of the limits of blameless and godly life--to which we have no right to bind any man; but describe it in its fullest extension. Beyond their limits, there is no allowable latitude; short of their prescription, no safe walking before God. The whole operation, then, of our vow is on the subject, not on the object of it. The object, a godly life, remaining one and the same for all, we strive to ensure the accomplishment of this object by intensifying the apprehension of it in the minds of the subjects on whom we have to work. “ Thy vows are upon me, O God.” How blessed a thing, could we be anchored safe by this assurance, while so many are making shipwreck of their faith! “ I am not my own, but devoted to Thee and Thy work; all I am and have, to be used not for myself, but for Thee.” How would such a persuasion simplify for us the difficulties of life; cut off the occasion of half our falls into worldliness and sin; brighten the light of our examples, and win souls for Christ! (Dean Alford.) Psalms 56:13 For Thou hast delivered my soul from death: wilt not Thou deliver my feet from falling, that I may walk before God in the light of the living?Mercies received I. Mercies received are in a special manner to be remembered. This has been the method of God’ s people. David entitles Psalms 38:1-22., “ A psalm to bring to remembrance His afflictions,” much more, then, His comforts (Psalms 77:10-11). Paul remembered a manifestation of God to him fourteen years before (2 Corinthians 12:1). If God treasures up our tears, much more should we treasure up His mercies; as lovers keep the love tokens of those they affect. God hath a file for our prayers, we should have the like for His answers. He hath a book of remembrance to record our afflictions, and believing discourses of Him (Malachi 3:16); why should not we, then, have a register for His gracious communications to us? Remembrance is the chief work of a Christian; remembrance of sin to cause a self-abhorrency (Ezekiel 20:43). The remembrance of God for a deep humility (Psalms 77:3). Remembrance of His name for keeping His law (Psalms 119:55). Remembrance of His judgments of old for comfort in afflictions (Psalms 119:52). And remembrance of mercy for the establishment of faith (Isaiah 57:11). Now, they are to be remembered because--1. They are the mercies of God.2. Purchased by Christ.3. Beneficial to us. And we are to remember them admiringly and thankfully (Psalms 77:11). Affectionately; obediently and fruitfully (Psalms 116:16). Humbly: in their varied circumstances and details. II. Mercies received are encouragements to ask and hope for more. 1. For: There is as great ability in God (Isaiah 59:2).2. As much tenderness as before (Lamentations 3:22),3. The same pleas to be urged in our prayers.4. One mercy in spirituals is to no purpose without further mercies. God would not lay a foundation and not build upon it (Romans 8:32). III. In conclusion.1. Take heed of forgetting mercies received (Jeremiah 2:2; Psalms 68:26). For if we do not remember them we shall be apt to distrust God and abate in our love (Psalms 78:19). And if we do not remember we cannot improve them, nor so easily resist temptation. 2. Make use of former mercies to encourage your trust for the future (Psalms 9:10; 1 Samuel 21:9). (S. Charnook, B. D.) Confidence in God This psalm seems to have been written when David, from the jealousy of the infuriated Saul, had taken refuge in the religion of Gath, and found himself an object of not unnatural suspicion, from which he escaped only by simulating madness. But his faith waxes stronger as the occasion of his trial comes. Just as there are sea-birds which sing amid the storm, whose earliest blast startles more timid wings, and sends them fluttering home, so in the season of his apparent hopelessness his heart trilled out some of his most rapturous doxologies, and some of the sublimest expressions of his confidence in God. So if our circumstances have been like to the psalmist’ s, if there be in our hearts memories of many sorrows and failures, of manifold enmity to the progress of the life of God within us, still let me ask you to take up the strain of these verses. If we have failed in the past, let us decide for God now. I. The motive which is to prompt us to decision. “ Thou hast delivered my soul from death.” Motive is the spring of all mental action. We are free, but we are not independent of motives, and hence Scripture continually appeals to them. And here in the great matter of personal consecration to God, what can urge us more mightily than this, that God has saved our “ soul from death” ? And-- II. There is the obligation. “ Thy vows are upon me, O Lord.” You are to feel that you are the Lord’ s; that you are not at liberty to swear any other allegiance or enter upon any other service. You are the Lord’ s bondsmen. Are you ready for this? It is the highest privilege. III. The legitimate expression in which this consecration embodies itself.1. In praise. The Christian’ s is a joyful, willing service. 2. In a desire to walk before God in the land of the living. Is this our ambition--to walk before God here and now? I trust it is, and may the ardour of your desire know no abatement or decay. (J. Morley Punshon, D. D.) Deliverance realized though unaccomplished I. The deliverance realized by faith before it is accomplished in fact (see translation in R.V.). He is still in the very thick of the trouble and the fight, and yet he says, “ It is as good as over. Thou hast delivered.” How does he come to that confidence? Simply because his future is God; and whoever has God for his future can turn else uncertain hopes into certain confidences, and make sure of this: that however Achish and his giant Philistines of Gath, wielding Goliath’ s arms, spears like a weaver’ s beam, and brazen armour, may compass him about, in the name of the Lord he will destroy them. They are all as good as dead, though they are alive and hostile at this moment. We to-day have the same reasons for the same confidence; and if we will go the right way about it, we, too, may bring June’ s sun into November’ s fogs, and bask in the warmth of certain deliverance even when the chill mists of trouble enfold us. But then note, too, here, the substance of this future intervention which, to the psalmist’ s quiet faith, is present. “ My soul from death.” and after that be says, “ My feet from falling,” which looks very like an anti-climax and bathos. But yet, just because to deliver the feet from falling is so much smaller a thing than delivering a life from death, it comes here to be a climax and something greater. The storm passes over the man. What then? After the storm has passed, he is not only alive, but he is standing upright. It has not killed him. No, it has not even shaken him. His feet are as firm as ever they were, and just because that is a smaller thing, it is a greater thing for the deliverance to have accomplished than the other. How did David get to this confidence? Why, he prayed himself into it. If you will read the psalm, you will see very clearly the process by which a man comes to that serene, triumphant trust that the battle is won even whilst it is raging around him. The true answer to David’ s prayer was the immediate access of confidence unshaken, though the outward answer was a long time in coming, and years lay between him and the cessation of his persecutions and troubles. So we may have brooks by the way, in quiet confidence of deliverance ere yet the deliverance comes. II. The impulse to service which deliverance brings. “ That I may walk before God in the light of the living;” that is God’ s purpose in all His deliverances, that we may thereby be impelled to trustful and grateful service. And David makes that purpose into a vow, for the words might almost as well be translated, “ I will walk before Him.” Let us see to it that God’ s purpose is our resolve, and that we do not lose the good of any of the troubles or discipline through which He passes us; for the worst of all sorrows is a wasted sorrow. “ Thou hast delivered my feet that I may walk.” What are feet for? Walking! Further, notice the precise force of that phrase, “ that I may walk before God.” It is not altogether the same as the cognate one which is used about Enoch, that “ he walked with God.” The one expresses communion as with a friend; the other, the ordering of one’ s life before His eye, and in the consciousness of His presence as Judge and as Taskmaster. Think of what a regiment of soldiers on parade does as each file passes in front of the saluting point where the commanding officer is standing. How each man dresses up, and they pull themselves together, keeping step, sloping their rifles slightly. We are not on parade, but about business a great deal more serious than that. We are doing our fighting with the Captain looking at us, and that should be a stimulus, a joy, and not a terror. Realize God’ s eye watching you, and sin, and meanness, and negligence, and selfishness, and sensuality, and lust, and passion, and all the other devils that are in us will vanish like ghosts at cockcrow. III. The region in which that observance of the divine eye is to be carried on. “ In the light of the living.” That seems to correspond to the first clause of his hope; just as the previous word that I have been commenting upon, “ walking before Him,” corresponds to the second, where he speaks about his feet. “ Thou hast delivered my soul from death . . . I will walk before Thee in the light of the living” --where Thou dost still permit my delivered soul to be. And the phrase seems to mean the sunshine of human life contrasted with the darkness of Sheol. Our brightest light is the radiance from the face of God whom we try to love and serve, and the psalmist’ s confidence is that a life of observance of His commandments in which gratitude for deliverance is the impelling motive to continual realization of His presence, and an accordant life, will be a bright and sunny career. You will live in the sunshine if you live before His face, and however wintry the world may be, it will be like clear, frosty day. There is no frost in the sky, it does not go above the atmosphere, and high above, in serene and wondrous blue, is the blaze of the sunshine. And such a life will be a guided life. There will still remain many occasions for doubt in the region of belief, and for perplexity as to duty. There will often be need for patient and earnest thought as to both, and there will be no lack of calls for strenuous effort of our best faculties in order to apprehend what our Guide means us to do, and where He would have us go, but through it all there will be the guiding hand. As the Master, with perhaps a glance backward to these words, said, “ He that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.” If He is in the light let us walk in the light, and to us it will be purity, and knowledge and joy. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) . Psalms 57:1-11 Psalms 57:1-11 Be merciful unto me, O God.Spiritual experimentalism I. A blessed religious exercise.1. Praying. “ Be merciful unto me,” etc. An epitome of all true prayer. Mercy is what we need; to remove our sense of guilt, to break our moral chains, to clear our spiritual vision, to quicken and harmoniously develop all the powers of our higher nature. 2. Trusting. “ My soul trusteth in Thee.” This implies-- (1) A knowledge of the trustworthiness of God.(2) A supreme love for the excellency of God. 3. Resolving. “ Yea, in the shadow,” etc. God is the natural Protector of souls. 4. Hoping (Psalms 57:3). All godly souls are in a waiting attitude. II. A wretched social condition. Among savage, crafty and deadly enemies (Psalms 57:4; Psalms 57:6). That men should feel thus to their fellow-men argues two things.1. That morally they are in an abnormal condition. 2. That sin is essentially malignant. Sin, when it enters the soul, scorches all benevolent sympathy. Sin never fails to make its subject a tormenting devil. III. A happy moral state. Moral fixation, or godly decision of soul, “ My heart is fixed.” In our unregenerate state the heart is unsettled, divided, distracted, and herein is its misery. This fixation originates--1. High happiness. “ I will sing and give praise. Awake, psaltery and harp,” etc. 2. High worship. “ I will praise Thee, O Lord,” etc. (Homilist.) Sorrowful, yet always rejoicing The writer begins in deep distress; but he prays himself out of the pit; and in the end he rises to a sunny height of security and faith, where he praises the God who has delivered him. I. The art of prayer (Psalms 57:1-6). Here he, first, clearly and fully describes his trouble. This is part of the art of prayer. It is often because we have nothing definite to pray about that our devotions are unsatisfactory. God is as interested in the trials of His people to-day as He was in those of David. Next, he argues his ease. And this also is part of the art of prayer. God likes us to put our intellect as well as our feeling into our prayers. His first argument is that he is trusting in God (Psalms 57:1): he is trusting, he says, as the fledgeling cowers beneath the wing of the mother bird. Can God leave in the lurch any one who is thus depending on Him? But in Psalms 57:2 he uses a still stronger argument: he appeals to God’ s character, calling Him “ God that performeth” --or rather perfecteth--“ all things for me.” God the Perfecter, who, when He has begun a good work, must finish it--how can He leave the career of His servant in its broken and incomplete condition? This is an argument we can all use, and it is one which cannot fail with God. He has now raised himself to complete confidence that God will deliver him; and to this he gives exquisite expression in the third verse, describing Mercy and Truth as two angels, whom God will send forth to rescue him from his necessities. In the same way in the 23rd psalm Goodness and Mercy are represented as attendants, following a good man all the days of his life, watching over his footsteps and always at his service. II. The art of praise (Psalms 57:7-11). First, praise begins with the fixing of the heart--“ My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed.” The flutter of excitement is over, and he is able to collect his powers in perfect repose. But, secondly, they are not to go to sleep, though they are in repose; for he says, “ Awake up, my glory; awake psaltery and harp; I myself will awake early.” “ My glory” is a name in Scripture for the soul, and surely a very fine one; the soul is the glory of man. But it needs to be awaked to engage in God’ s praise. There is music in it, as there is in a piano when it is shut; but the instrument must be opened and the keys touched. The music in our souls is allowed to slumber too much. The words, “ I myself will awake early,” ought rather to read, “ I will awake the dawn.” David was to be so early astir at his devotions that, instead of the dawn awaking him, he would awake it: he would summon it to arise out of the east and help him to praise his Maker. But it is not Nature alone he would inspire with his enthusiasm: so full is he of joy in God that he wishes to communicate his emotions to all his fellow-creatures (Psalms 57:9). How marelously has this wish been fulfilled! The Psalter has been translated into scores of languages, and wherever it has been known it has been loved. Finally he gives the reasons for praise (Psalms 57:10), “ For Thy mercy is great unto the heavens, and Thy truth unto the clouds.” These will always be the reasons for praise that is truly hearty--to know the mercy that is as far above our sins as the dome of heaven is above the earth, and to know the faithfulness which, having begun a good work in us, will complete it unto the day of Christ. (J. Stalker, D. D.) In the shadow of Thy wings will I make my refuge.--Christ our refuge What a beautiful illustration is the city of refuge of olden time of Christ as our Refuge! We have heard the solemn words, “ The soul that sinneth it shall die.” How can we escape from death? There is a Refuge, even Jesus; and we can hide in Him and be safe.1. The cities of refuge were so scattered over the country that one of them could be easily reached from any part. “ Kedesh” in the north, and “ Hebron” in the south, while “ Shechem” lay midway. “ Bezer” was situated in the flat country, while “ Ramoth” and “ Golan” were on elevated ground. So our Refuge is easily reached by any one, it is “ whosoever believeth in Him,” and “him that cometh unto Me I will in no wise cast out.” It is the simple coming to Him and the taking Him at His word. 2. The gates of the cities of refuge were open day and night, that the man-slayer might enter at any time. And we, too, may go to our Refuge at any time. He is ever ready to hear our cry and to rescue us, and to save us; but let us not delay. 3. Any one might flee thither, the stranger as well as the Israelite. So it is with Christ: all may come to Him, of whatever nationality (Galatians 3:28). 4. When the man-slayer reached the city of refuge, he had to plead his cause to the elders of that city, and then, if necessary, before the congregation of the children of Israel; and it was only when his innocence of the crime of murder had been proved that he was allowed to take refuge there; otherwise he was delivered up to the avenger of blood to be slain. But in Christ the murderer may take refuge, and find pardon and peace; the worst of sinners have found refuge there. 5. Then we read that the man-slayer who had fled for refuge should stay in that city, for if he went out of the gate at any time the avenger of blood might slay him, and his blood would be upon his own head. He should have remained in the city whither he had fled. So with us; if we are not in Christ the Refuge, we are out at our own risk. (L. Shorey.) Psalms 57:4 My soul is among lions.Among lions Some of you cannot say this, and you ought to be very thankful that you cannot. You live under very favourable circumstances. But there are many that are far less happily placed, and we are bound to remember them, and to sympathize with them. Now, when may a Christian man truly say, “ My soul is among lions” ? lie may say this when he is surrounded by those, whether in his home or place of business, who reproach and rebuke, jest and jeer at him, for Jesus Christ’ s sake. Many are so placed. Now, I would speak to such as are amongst these lions--dogs would be almost a better name for them. I. By way of comfort.1. You will have fellowship with your Lord and His Church. He and they had to bear what you have, and far worse. 2. You should thereby be driven nearer to God. Be sure that you live near to God. 3. Endeavour to be very calm and happy. Take as little notice of the scoff as ever you can. Very seldom defend yourselves. The hammer strikes hard upon the anvil, but the anvil wears out many hammers. 4. Remember that the lions are chained. See the history of Daniel. 5. If your soul is among lions, there is another lion there--the lion of the tribe of Judah. The Covenanters have said that they never had such Sabbaths in Scotland as when they were hunted amongst the crags and glens by Claverhouse’ s dragoons. Great power, then, attended the Word. 6. You will come out of the lions’ den unharmed. 7, And soon you shall be among the angels. II. By way of advice.1. If you dwell among lions do not irritate them. Some Christians do, and so have made matters bad for themselves. You cannot ram religion down people’ s throats, or scold people into it. 2. Do not roar yourself. Do not meet railing with railing, hard words with hard words. Do not get soured in spirits. Overcome evil with good. 3. But do not be cowardly. A lion is afraid of a man if he looks him steadily in the face. Courage is what is wanted. 4. Do not go out alone among them--take your Lord with you. 5. If you feel very weak about it you may pray the Lord in His providence to move you to quieter quarters. But, better still-- 6. Ask for grace to stop with the lions and tame them. Sometimes the Christian should say, “ God has made me strong, I will stop here and fight it out. My Master would have me go where I am most wanted, and so I will stay here.” Do not be afraid of sinners, but seek to save them. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Psalms 57:5 Be Thou exalted, O God, above the heavens; let Thy glory be above all the earth.The Lord alone exalted I. As the absolute decree of heaven. For--1. His own glory is the first principle with God. 2. The ordination of Christ to His official work put Him under responsibility to effect this. 3. The principle is essential to the nature and existence of God. II. The law of thy covenant of grace. All the leading truths of the Bible contribute to the glory of God--election, regeneration. The union between Christ and His Church. Redemption. III. The language of every believing heart. For it is his desire, purpose and endeavour that God may be exalted. (Joseph Irons.) Psalms 57:7-8 My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed.The heart fixed He summons his powers at once for the execution of his purpose No sooner is the resolve taken, than at once to the practice of the same. How striking and beautiful it is! Oh! it is well when the practice thus follows the principle, when the execution is contemporaneous with the purpose. “ I will awake early,” the psalmist says. The figure there is exceedingly beautiful. It is in the original, “ I will awake the early dawn” ; not “ I will awake when the morning breaks,” but “ I will awaken up the morning.” “ I will be beforehand with it; I will challenge the day.” Now, this purpose and determination results from a peculiar state of heart--My heart is fixed. Therefore let us consider-- I. This state of heart. “ O God, my heart is fixed” --all is suspended upon that. When that is the case, there is salvation; till then, nothing is done. When that is done, all is done. The angels rejoice in heaven, and God Almighty, the Father of our Lord, is glorified. The heart, as we all know, is the man; all else of the man is governed by the heart. The physical and intellectual powers, what are they? The whole complex machinery of our constitution, what is it? Simply the servant of the heart. “ Aye,” but some one will perhaps say, “ the question is, upon what is the heart fixed?” Now, really, that is not the question. It is a question according to man’ s mode of thinking, and according to man’ s mode of acting, perhaps. II. I grant you, there are ten thousand things that solicit the heart, and after which the heart of man runs; but there is but one thing in the universe upon which the heart can be “ fixed.” Why, unless the object is fixed itself, how is it possible for the heart to be fixed? It may be directed towards, but how can it be fixed? If the thing is not fixed, what is fixed? One thing--God is fixed, and it is a simple truth that man is never fixed until he is fixed upon God. Surely a house, as to its fixedness, depends upon the foundation. Build a house on the sand, and is it fixed? You may fix it there as you think, but is it fixed? The foundation shifts, and what becomes of the house? Oh! the heart can only be fixed according to the fixedness of that on which it rests. (Capel Molyneux.) Religious decision I. On what was David’ s heart fixed?1. On God and His service.2. On the diligent study of the lively oracles of God.3. On the duty of prayer.4. On the grand purpose of furthering the interests of Zion. II. Why should we do likewise?1. Because indecision degrades the character of man.2. There is no solid and substantial reason why the heart should not be fixed on God.3. The nature of spiritual religion as developed in the Gospel, requires and supposes this fixedness of heart.4. If we are not thus decided, we shall never accomplish anything truly good and great in the service of God. It is the man of settled views and fixed purposes before whom obstacles, that would be unconquerable to others, give way. (Evangelist.) Decision There are many temptations to a man to wander in doubt and uncertainty. He is driven hither and thither by doubts of self, of God, of revelation, of the past, and of the future. But there is no rest for that man until he is able to exclaim, “ My heart is fixed.” I. There is a possibility of positive religion.1. The word “ positive” is a species of cant phrase much used by doubters and Agnostics. But in this case we may strictly apply it to the state of a true believer. The inquirer has reached a state of satisfaction. He has found what he needed. There is for him now no further tossing about on the tempest of fear or anxiety. 2. There is something very blessed in this state of satisfaction. It is that of a mariner having arrived in port, of a student having attained the goal he coveted, the architect having seen the realization of his plans. 3. This state, too, is essentially a religious one. Nothing earthly can afford positiveness. There can be no certainty in any human act or any human hope; but in the search after God there can be, and is, perfect finality. II. This state of satisfaction is a state of praise.1. The key to open the door of heaven is praise. The solution of all doubts is praise. The end of all difficulties is praise. 2. The state, then, of our own miserable darkness and unrest rests upon the fact that we are always looking on ourselves, not on God. If we look on ourselves, we shall naturally see our own defects, sorrows. But if we look to His brightness we shall lose sight of all that is dark, and in His certainty we shall find an eternal stand and an unchanging hope. (Homilist.) The fixed heart I. The fixed heart. For a fixed heart I must have a fixed determination, and not a mere fluctuating and soon broken intention. I must have a steadfast affection, and not merely a fluttering love, that, like some butterfly, lights now on this, now on that, sweet flower, but which has a flight straight as a carrier-pigeon to its cot, which shall bear me direct to God. And I must have a continuous realization of my dependence upon God, and of God’ s sweet sufficiency, going with me all through the dusty day. Is our average Christianity fairly represented by such words as these of my text? Do they not rather make us burn with shame when we think that a man who lived in the twilight of God’ s revelation, and was weighed upon by distresses such as wrung this psalm out of him, should have poured out this resolve which we, who live in the sunlight and are flooded with blessings, find it hard to echo, with sincerity and truth? Fixed hearts are rare amongst the Christians of this day. II. The manifold hindrances that we meet to such a uniformity of our religious life. There is, for example, the tendency to fluctuation which besets all our feelings, and especially our religious emotions. What would happen to a steam-engine if the stoker now piled on coals and then fell asleep by the furnace door? One moment the boiler would be ready to burst; at another moment there would be no steam to drive anything. That is the sort of alternation that goes on amongst hosts of Christians to-day. Their springtime and summer are followed certainly by an autumn and a bitter winter. Every moment of elevation has a corresponding moment of depression. But is there any necessity for such alternations? Some degree of fluctuation there will always be. The very exercise of emotion tends to its extinction. Varying conditions of health and other externals will affect the buoyancy and clear-sightedness and vivacity of the spiritual life. Only a barometer that is out of order will always stand at set fair. The vane which never points but to south is rusty and means nothing. But while there cannot be absolute uniformity, there might and should be a far nearer approach to an equable temperature of a much higher range than the readings of most professing Christians give. There is, indeed, a dismally uniform arctic temperature in many of them. Their hearts are fixed, truly, but fixed on earth. Their frost, is broken by no thaw, their tepid formalism interrupted by no disturbing enthusiasm. We do not speak now of these, but of those who have moments of illumination, of communion, of submission of will, which fade all too soon. To such we would earnestly say that these moments may be prolonged and made more continuous. We need not be at the mercy of our own unregulated feelings. We can control our hearts, and keep them fixed, even if they should wish to wander. III. The means by which such a uniform character may be impressed upon our religious experience. A man climbing a hill, though he has to look to his feet, when in the slippery places, and all his energies are expended in hoisting himself upwards by every projection and crag, will do all the better if he lifts his eye to the summit that gleams above him. So we, in our upward course, shall make the best progress when we consciously and honestly try to look beyond the things seen and temporal, even whilst we are working in the midst, of them, and keep clear before us the summit to which our faith tends. If we lived in the endeavour to realize that great white throne, and Him that sits upon it, we should find it easier to say, “ My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed.” But be sure of this, there will be no such uniformity of religious experience throughout our lives unless there be frequent times in them in which we go into our chambers and shut our doors about us, and hold communion with our Father in secret. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) The fixed heart Speak to those who have decided, but, who may be loosening their hold on God under the strain of life. No better description can be given of the influence of life on the Christian than this--it tends to loosen the bonds. They need to be constantly refixed.1. Some disciples went back under the strain of Christ’ s higher teachings.2. Some forsook under the strain of Christ’ s sufferings.3. Some were hindered in running--“ Ye did run well, who hath hindered you?”4. Some were enticed by false doctrine.5. Some were borne away by the love of the world.6. Some are reproached for being neither cold nor hot. These old readings of Christian living suit us now. Then times of refixing ourselves are needed. What fixity should we try to reach? I. Fixity may concern the intellect. Show the importance of firm and ever-growing mental hold of truth and of God. Fixity for the intellect can only come with growth. II. Fixity may concern the will. A power of resolve may shape a life. Illustrate by familiar tale in John Foster’ s “ Essays,” showing the power of decision. III. Fixity should concern the heart. “ My heart is fixed, O God.” The true life-force is from the heart,. Heart things are the lasting things. To the heart God appeals. The heart God wants. Intellectual fixity may not be possible. Will-fixity may depend very much on disposition. Heart-fixity tuiumphs over all externality. It concerns the principle and spirit of the life. Fixed everywhere and in everything for ,God. How broad, comprehensive, practical! (Robert Tuck, B. A.) The prepared heart This psalm is very strangely compounded. It is described in the title as the utterance of David when he fled from Saul and hid himself in the cave. It is the cry of a man beset with trouble and danger; yet all through it, we are startled by sudden transitions from cries for help and stories of wrong to cheerful expressions of hope and outbursts of praise. This condition of hopefulness and of cheerful steadfastness in the midst of trouble is one of those things which always puzzle a mere man of the world, but which present no mystery to a soul which walks with God. But the fact goes much farther than cheerfulness in trouble. The word “ fixed” literally means “ prepared,” “ fit,” “ ready.” “ O God, my heart is prepared.” It is about this habitual preparation of heart that I wish to speak. The ideal perfect Christian life would be a life in contact with God along its whole line. It would be everywhere and always in communion with God. God’ s will and God’ s love would fill and move in every inlet and curve of the life, as the ocean in its gulfs and creeks and round its promontories; and upon this high plane the general tenor of the life would be more even. It hardly needs to be said that we do not live in this condition, and that we do need certain special influences to recall our minds to heavenly things, to lift them into the atmosphere of rest and of devotion, and to keep them from drifting away into worldliness and sensuality. God has recognized the need and has met it. He has given the Sabbath with its rest from labour, He has given the sanctuary with its quickening influences, He has commended the season of special prayer. We are led up to these Pisgahs and Hermons of spiritual vision, to the end that we may carry the power of these visions into life’ s common routine, to sanctify and to elevate that. These things are not an end unto themselves. The disciples were not permitted to stay on the Transfiguration Mount, but that glorious vision strengthened and kindled their hearts for the hard mission for which they were chosen. These exceptional experiences in our lives are intended to foster in us that constantly prepared, fixed heart of which David here sings: the heart that shall be prepared for praise, and for trust, and for worship, not only while sitting in heavenly places, but also among lions, among them that are set on fire, when the net has been prepared for the steps and the soul is bowed down, amid the fret and worry of life, and on the dead level of daily duty and care. (Marvin R. Vincent, D. D) A fixed heart There are many who doubt whether it is possible for a man to-day to say, “ My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed.” There are so many ideas that have changed in only a generation, there are so many views that have broadened, and there are so many beliefs that have been entirely given up, that it seems impossible any more for a man’ s heart to be fixed. It seems like deliberately shutting the eyes and stopping the ears to hope that the change is all over. A Christian’ s heart is fixed on that which is almost as old as the hills. The essence of your faith, the solid core of it, Abraham had almost four thousand years ago. Our faith in God is Abraham’ s faith, only fuller and lighted up with all the glory that shone from the face of Jesus Christ. It is stronger and surer for every heart that has been fixed by it since Abraham. Has it not worn well, this faith of ours? It has lived on through the downfall of five great universal kingdoms, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome. It went down to Egypt with Jacob; it went forth to Canaan with Moses. It battled with the heathen. It rose in triumph under David; it sank back under defeat and destruction. It rebuilt its Holy City. It waited for Christ; it founded the Church and charged the apostles. It worked in the mines; it died at the stake; it endured persecution and loss. It fought the barbarians and converted them. It saved Europe. It kept strong when men were ignorant and debased. It quickened with the Renaissance; it purified itself in the Reformation. It fainted during the eighteenth century; it rallied again and rode the storm of the French Revolution. It burst out again in the nineteenth century in splendid missionary zeal. It is to-day stronger, broader, surer than ever it was before. The greatest thing about a man is the fixedness of his heart. When men say they cannot be sure of believing to-morrow what they believe to-day, they do not know of what kind of eternal stuff a man’ s soul is made. The very essence of belief is that it is something never to be changed, fixed and eternal. If there is no eternal belief there is no belief at all. Belief means that, no matter what may happen, it will stand fast; belief is the insight of an eternal soul looking beyond time and chance. The man who has not come to believe in something that will last on to all eternity has not yet found out what there is down deep in his soul. The best thing there is about us men and women is our loyalty, our power of standing fast, of pledging our souls for time and eternity. Because we are eternal souls, we cannot help believing eternally. We want loyalty and the willingness to wait. When we meet with a doubt or a difficulty we ought to wait until Christ speaks. Shame on us if the reading of a single book, or a single argument of an unbeliever, can divert the stream of the faith of four thousand years from flowing through us and refreshing us. There are men and women to-day doubting God because of their misfortunes or their sufferings, although from the dawn of history men have transformed their lives and glorified humanity through their trust. Read all the bucks you like, but remember that Christian faith is not an argument, but it is an affair of loyalty. Your mind ought to receive new impressions, but your heart ought to be fixed. (John Tunis, B. A.) The advantages of a fixed heart A garden that is watered by sudden showers is more uncertain in its fruits than when it is refreshed by a constant stream; so when our thoughts are sometimes upon good things and then run off, when they do but take a glance, as it were, upon holy objects, and then run away, there is not such fruit brought into the soul as when our minds by meditation do dwell upon them. The rays of the sun may warm us, but they do not inflame unless they are contracted in a burning-glass; so some slight thoughts of heavenly things may warm us a little, but will never inflame the soul till they be fixed by close meditation. Therefore David tells us his “ heart was fixed,” and saith the same concerning the frame of a good man. (H. G. Salter.) I will sing and give praise.--The true source of spiritual song The text affirms a fact, and declares a resolution. “ My heart is fixed;” this is the fact; and hence, apparently, the resolution, “ I will sing and give praise. I. The meaning of the words. “ My heart is fixed.”1. On what the psalmist had fixed his heart. On God. Everywhere else there might be darkness and despair, but here there were light, consolation and security. As he recalls to remembrance all that God had already done for him, and all that he had promised yet farther to do, his spirit enters a serener world, and he refrains from his complaint against his inveterate enemies. And observe, that in fixing his heart on God, the psalmist more especially contemplates those gentler features of the Divine character, on which the regards of the guilty and dependent creature must ever most complacently rest (Psalms 57:2-3). 2. How, or with what sentiments, it was so fixed. The expressions of confiding regard which occur throughout the psalm indicate that the heart of the writer was fixed on God by faith. In faith it is that he exclaims, “ My soul trusteth in Thee,” etc.; and it is in the same faith, too, that he purposes to pray, when he says, “ I will cry unto God most high, unto God that performeth for me.” Nor could his heart have been otherwise fixed on God, than by the virtue of that all-important principle which lies at the very source of practical godliness, admitting the light by which Divine truth irradiates the soul, and constituting the assimilating power, by whose energy the things believed are converted into the bread of life. II. If the heart be thus fixed on God, praise and devout song will be the unfailing result; for fixedness of heart, or steadfastness of faith, is the only proper condition of the soul for these sacred exercises. We may use vain repetitions without a fixed heart. But if we would pour out our whole souls before God in those fervid and earnest supplications which, and which alone, we know to be acceptable; and if we would attain a humble assurance that we have been heard in heaven, we must go to the altar with fixed hearts. When, again, with the psalmist, we would “ sing and give praise,” the mercy of God will be brought home in clearest and most lively apprehensions to our hearts, and then, instead of finding it difficult to pour forth the melody of joy and salvation, that will become the only possible mode of giving form and voice to the sentiments that swell and glow within us. (W. Stevenson.) Psalms 57:8 Awake, psaltery and harp: I myself will awake early.Art and worship Art and Worship--these stand in our day like two rival spirits, contending for the mastery in the religious life of this country. In all our churches, alike in country parishes as in our great cities, where popular concerts and music for the million has done so much to raise the standard of taste, there is everywhere the same sense of unquiet. To some, music is the heavenly maid, and the more elaborate and artistic the more their soul is dissolved, as Milton describes his in ecstasies under Church music-- “ There let the pealing organ blow To the full-voiced choir below, In service high, and anthems clear, So may with sweetness through mine ear Dissolve me into ecstasies, And bring all heaven before mine eyes.” But all men have not this sensibility to sound. The inner spirit is not reached in this way by concord of sweet sounds. There are some to whom music is only the least disagreeable of noises. But putting aside the two extremes of the highly-trained ear, delicately strung to vibrate within at the least note of music, and the ear dull, if not deaf, to its sweet influences, the vast majority of mankind are in the middle state on the subject. They think of music very much as the lady who, when asked how she liked the art, made answer that music was good when it was good. Now, though that sounds very much like a truism, it conveys an important thought, which is this--that music only answers the end it was intended for when it stirs the soul by quickening the sensibilities. What I mean is, that through the sense of hearing a quiver of emotion is borne in on the soul, nameless and undefined, and that this taken up into the soul is there translated into thought and clothed in some intelligible form. I pity the car which is unable to be the channel through which impressions of this kind pass which enter the soul as sound, and are there transmuted into spiritual impressions. But I know that many are not impressionable enough to be set thinking in this way on high and heavenly themes. On the contrary, elaborate music acts on them almost as a disturbing element in devotion, and they are set thinking not so much of the words of the Te Deum, as of the execution of the choir. To the choir let me say that the higher the class of the music the more carefully it should be executed. It is an infliction to a trained ear to hear high symphonies and sonatas where tune is secondary, and the stress depends on time and tone, rendered amiss by a careless and half-trained choir. Now let me say a word to the congregation, and particularly to the least musical portion, as I assume the majority to be. Ought there not, in the first place, to be some give and take on your part? A service has three parts--the prayers, which are for all, without exception; the praise, which is also for all who can follow to take part in; and the sermon, in which the preacher alone speaks, and all listen with as much attention and interest as he can draw out. “ Awake up, lute and harp; I myself will awake right early.” The psalmist first calls up sounds of praise from wood and wire--the mere mechanical instruments of music. But does he stop there? If so, we should never rise above the mere externals of worship. Our churches would be no better than concert halls, and our services only oratorios. But not to end thus, he goes on to say, “ I myself will awake right early.” He means that the praise which began with mechanical effort, as of lute and harp, shall go on and rise into the higher region of spiritual service. I myself will awake, and that, too, right early--i.e. with all my soul and strength. If music does not go on to this it fails of its object, and does harm instead of good. Our aim, then, should be to spiritualize our services. The senses are to buoy up the spirit, as a Santa Philomela, borne aloft on a network of the expanded wings of swans. This may be a fancy, but it symbolizes a great thought of the relation of art to worship. We shall never fully reach it on this side of eternity. But in heaven the hallelujah of the long thanksgiving psalm will be the perfect marriage and union of art and worship. (J. B. Heard, M. A.) I myself will awake early. The Alarum The proper subject of such a text as this would be the excellence of early rising, especially when we would serve God. The dew of dawn should be consecrated to devotion. In the original it is, “ I will awaken the morning.” Early rising is an economy of time, an aid to health, and thus it doubly lengthens life. Our first hours are our best. But we wish to speak now rather of the awakening than to plead for the “ early.” It is bad to awake late, but what shall be said of those who never awake at all? Better late than never, but with some, it is to be feared, it will be never. Therefore I would ring the alarm-bell till the sluggard cries, with new-born determination, “ I myself will awake.” In the world people are, and must be, awake; let it be likewise in the Church. I. When we would praise God. Our text is connected with the duty of praise. Let us be awake in such praise, both in private and in public. How often do we hear half-awake singing! We shall not praise at all if our souls be not awake. Sleeping birds sing not. When the three holy children sung in the fire their song was sweet indeed; yet had they not been thoroughly in earnest, they had poured forth no holy hymn. II. Wakefulness is a great need in the entire spiritual life. It is a great want of the Church now. Slumber is so natural to us. Our talk about the things of God is very much like the talk of sleepers. “ Yet,” says one, “ I hope we act consistently.” I trust you do, but there are many people who walk in their sleep, and, alas! I know some Christian professors who appear to he trying very hazardous feats of sleep-walking just now. Some somnambulists have been able to walk in places where, had they been awake, they never would have been able to endure the dizzy height; and I see some Christians running awful risks, which I think they would never venture upon unless Shay had fallen into the deep sleep of carnal security. Dissenting Churches I know best about, and there are many where the minister preaches in his sleep, where prayer is offered in sleep, and even the communion is celebrated amid a profound spiritual slumber. Adam slept soundly when the taking away of his rib did not awaken him, but what shall we say of those who startle not though they are losing all the strength and glory of their souls? But we must wake up, for we are in an enemy’ s country. Did not the Master say, “ Watch” ? III. Certain ways of keeping yourselves awake. Make it a matter of prayer. Use means; set the alarum of a good conscience, and mind you never tamper with it: attend an earnest ministry; let in the sunlight upon your souls, the light of the Sun of Righteousness; take example from the activity of the world. “ I cannot sleep after such an hour,” says one, “ for I hear the tramp of those who are going into the city, and the grind of the street traffic.” Read the biographies of eminent servants of Christ who have been full of zeal for Him. They will shame us out of our sloth. Above all, hear the trumpet of the second coming, “ Behold, the bridegroom cometh, go ye out to meet him.” Let that awaken and keep us awake. IV. The great and urgent need that the unconverted sinner should awake. A deep and horrible sleep holds you fast. If it were not so, you would perceive your danger and be alarmed. God has many ways of waking His elect ones. See Paul. The garden at Philippi. Augustine. Have a care lest you awake too late. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Psalms 57:9-11I will praise Thee, O Lord, among the people.Exemplary praise I. Its theme. Mercy and truth.1. The blessings which flow from them reach to all men.2. They are worthy of the unreserved confidence of all men. II. The spirit of its offerer.1. Strong confidence in God.2. Fervent gratitude and reverent admiration towards God. III. Its enthusiasm. Seen in his resolution to praise God--1. With the noblest powers of his being.2. With choice instrumental accompaniment.3. With affectionate zeal. IV. Its sphere. Universal. V. Its imperfection (Psalms 57:5). Our most reverent and most enthusiastic praise is inadequate to so sublime and glorious a theme. (Anon.) . Psalms 58:1-11 Psalms 58:1-11 Do ye indeed speak righteousness, O congregation? Man in many aspects I. The character of depraved men portrayed.1. Unrighteous in judgment.2. Wrong in heart.3. Violent in the treatment of men.4. Early in apostasy.5. False in life.6. Malignant in spirit.7. Deceitful in heart. II. The destruction of wicked men invoked.1. Their entire destruction.2. Their quick destruction. III. The spirit of righteous men misrepresented. The psalmist utters a calumny in representing them as delighting in blood. If righteous Noah had delighted in the sufferings of his enemies, would he have built an ark? No; righteous men are not men of vengeance, they are not men of blood. IV. The verdict of all men anticipated. “ So that a man shall say, Verily, there is a reward for the righteous.”1. This is a testimony that often seems to be at variance with the providential government of the human race. 2. This is a testimony that every man sooner or later will be bound by his own conscience to render. Retribution is inevitable-- (1) From the law of causation. We are to-day the result of our conduct yesterday, and the cause of our conduct to-morrow; and thus ever must we reap the works of our own hands. (2) From the law of conscience. The past works of our hands are not lost. Memory gathers up the fragments of our life; and conscience stings or smiles, according to their character. (3) From the law of righteousness. There is justice in the universe; and justice will ever punish the wicked and reward the good (Galatians 6:7). (Homilist.) Faith in righteousness This is a difficult psalm. It is difficult even to read; the most advanced scholarship can make hardly anything of some of the verses. Besides, the situation which it describes is very foreign to us; and here and there when it expresses delight in the destruction of enemies, the sentiment jars on the Christian sense. Yet it is a psalm of high originality, the poetic imagery being both abundant and uncommon; and it gives such clear expression to the voice of eternal righteousness that it is worth while to make an effort to extend our sympathies widely enough to comprehend it. I. The throne of iniquity (Psalms 58:1-5). Perhaps the opening words ought to be as they are given in the margin of the Revised Version, “ Is the righteousness ye should speak dumb?” The psalmist is accusing the administrators of justice of bribery. In the second verse, he describes them as weighing out violence in the scales in which justice ought to be weighed. That is, they observed all the solemn forms of justice, but had no regard for the interests of those who could not pay for their verdicts. In the East this has always been, and is at the present day, one of the leading features of an evil time. Justice cannot be procured; the well-doing man is harassed by his wicked neighbours, and has no redress. The effect of this condition of things on the general community is given in Psalms 58:3-5. Society is poisoned in every department. Lying especially is everywhere rife, as it will always be where there is a corrupt administration of justice. Insensibility to the voices of reason and of the spirit is universal. Men are, he says, like the deaf adder, which stoppeth her ear and will not listen to the voice of the charmer, charm he ever so wisely. There have been epochs in history like this--when at the top of society there has been a corrupt court with a profligate aristocracy, and down through all ranks of the people the poison of falsehood and worldliness has been so diffused that there has been apparently no audience for any one speaking for God, and no career for any one wishing to be simple and true. On the small scale, such a situation often exists. The individual finds himself in a position where those above him are false, reckless and profligate; success seems to be obtainable only by lying and selfishness; and a tender conscience has no chance. II. The throne of God (Psalms 58:6-9). What is to be done in such a situation? The natural thing is to conform, and this is what the majority in all ages do: being at Rome they act as Rome does. Indeed, without religious conviction it is difficult to see how any one can act otherwise, where sin is strong and tyrannical, occupying all the high places, speaking through the organs of public opinion, and exhibiting to the young hundreds of examples. But it is here the Bible helps us. The writer of this psalm, though surrounded by prosperous wickedness, saw, over against the throne of iniquity, another throne lofty and eternal. It was the throne of the living and righteous God. He fixed his eyes on it till his soul was filled with faith and strength; and then, when he turned his eyes to look again on the images of the evil world’ s power, their glory and stability had disappeared, and they looked fleeting and paltry. In a series of striking figures of speech he expresses his disdain of them. They are like toothless lions and fangless serpents (Psalms 58:6); like a torrent which for a moment may seem to be a river, but immediately disappears in the sand (Psalms 58:7); like an abortion; for their plans will come to nothing (Psalms 58:8); they are cooking the flesh of their pleasure in a pot, but, before it is ready for eating, a whirlwind from the desert will carry the fire away (Psalms 58:9). III. The spectacle of justice (Psalms 58:10-11). Not only does the psalmist, inspired by the vision of the eternal throne, foresee that this must be the issue, but he earnestly pleads for it; and he does so on two grounds--that the righteous may obtain the reward of their righteousness, and that all men may see that there is a God that judgeth in the earth. The triumph of injustice can only be temporary. There is a day coming when all the unjust judgments both of corrupt tribunals and of unrighteous society will be reversed. Even now God asserts Himself and vindicates His own; and, when He does so, the instincts of every honest heart must rise up to welcome Him. (J. Stalker, D. D.) The perversion of justice Agesilaus, indeed, in other respects was strictly and inflexibly just; but where a man’ s friends are concerned, he thought a rigid regard to justice a mere pretence. There is still extant a short letter of his to Hydreius the Carian, which is a proof of what we have said: “ If Nicias is innocent, acquit him; if he is not innocent, acquit him on my account; however, be sure to acquit him.” (Plutarch.) Psalms 58:2 Yea, in heart ye work wickedness.Sin in the heart There once sailed from the city of Orleans a large and noble steamer, laden with cotton, and having a great number of passengers on board. While they were taking in the cargo, a portion of it became slightly moistened by a shower of rain that was falling. This circumstance, however, was not noticed; the cotton was stowed away in the hold, and the hatches fastened down. All went well at first, but one day an alarm of fire was made, and in a few moments the whole ship was enveloped in flames. The damp and closely packed bale of cotton had become heated, and it smouldered and got into a more dangerous state every day, until it burst forth into a large sheet of flame, and nothing could be done to “ quench” it. Now, that heated cotton, smouldering in the hull of the vessel, is like sin in the heart. Do not let us think lightly of sin, speaking of little sins and big sins, white lies and black lies. Sin is sin in God’ s sight, and God hates sin. (N. Jones.) Psalms 58:4 Their poison is like the poison of a serpent: like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear.A generation of serpents This verse spends itself on a double comparison; of persons and conditions. The persons compared are men and serpents; the conditions or qualities upon which the similitude stands are poison and deafness. The former whereof is indefinite: “ Their poison is as the poison of a serpent,” any serpent. The latter is restrictive: “ Their deafness is like the adder,” one kind of serpents. I. Poison--there is such a thing as poison; but where to be found? Wheresoever it is, in man who would look for it? God made man’ s body of the dust; he mingled no poison with it. He inspired his soul from heaven; he breathes no poison with it. He feeds him with bread; he conveys no poison with it. Whence is this poison? (Matthew 13:27). That great serpent, the red dragon, hath poured into wicked hearts this poison. In this poison there is a double pestilent effect. It is to themselves death; to others a contagious sickness.1. To themselves. It is an epidemical corruption, dispersing the venom over all parts of body and soul. It poisons the heart with falsehood, the head with lightness, the eyes with adultery, the tongue with blasphemy, the hands with oppression, the whole body with intemperance. It poisons beauty with wantonness, strength with violence, wit with wilfulness, learning with dissension, devotion with superstition. And in all this observe the effect of this poison in themselves. For it doth not only annoy others, but mostly destroy themselves. But the poison of the wicked, whilst it infects others, kills themselves. “ His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself” (Proverbs 5:22). Their own wickedness, like poison, hath in themselves these three direful effects. (1) It makes them swell with pride, and blows up the heart as a bladder with a quill. “ Who is David? and who is the son of Jesse?” (1 Samuel 25:10). “ Who is the Almighty, that we should serve Him?” (Job 21:15). Thus the spider, the poisonous vermin, “ climbs up to the roof of the king’ s palace” (Proverbs 30:28). (2) It makes them swill; the poison of sin is such a burning heat within them, that they must still be drinking. (3) It makes them burst (Acts 1:18). This is the catastrophe of a wicked life. “ Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin; and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death (James 1:15). 2. To others. You see how fatal the poison of the wicked is to themselves. The hurt it doth to others consists in outward harming, in inward defiling them. Outwardly. Their poison breaks forth in the injuries of all about them. They spare neither foreigner nor neighhour. There be little snakes in Babylon, that bite only foreigners, and not inhabitants. Pliny writes of scorpions in the hill Carla, that when they sting only wound the natural-born people of the country; but bite strangers gently or not at all. These, like fools, not only strike them that are nearest, but beteem their poison to the overthrow of all. Such a one cannot sleep except he have done mischief; nay, he dies, if others do not die by him. Inwardly.--Their poison doth most hurt by infection. Their poison is got by touching--he that toucheth pitch shall be defiled: by companying with them (Proverbs 1:14); by confederacy; by sight--the very beholding of their wickedness causes it in others. II. Their persons--We have spoken of their poison. They are said to be as serpents (Matthew 23:33; Ezekiel 2:6).1. There are mystical serpents. 2. There are the dart-like serpents (Acts 28:1-31.). He is the angry man, the hasty, furious one, who flies upon another with a sudden blow. 3. The great serpent of all, the devil (Revelation 12:3). Faith in Christ can alone put him to flight. For the remedy of this poison (see John 3:14), and further let there be repentance. (Thomas Adams.) The deafness of sinners We do not know what revelations have been made. We do not know but the air is full of messengers and messages. If a million bands were playing near a man and he was stone deaf, he would not hear the music. A blind man might stand amidst uncounted myriads of flowers on the Grand Prairie in Illinois, and not know that there was a flower there. And you may be utterly blind and deaf to the messengers and messages of the higher life, because you are not in that state of development by which you may perceive them. (Henry Ward Beecher.) Psalms 58:10 The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance; he shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked.Satisfaction in the destructive providences of God That is a terrible picture. It expresses not only the dreadful amen, dance of blood, but also the satisfaction of the “ righteous” at its being shed. There is an ignoble and there is a noble and Christian satisfaction in even the destructive providences of God. It is not only permissible but imperative on those who would live in sympathy with His righteous dealings and with Himself, that they should see in these the manifestation of eternal justice, and should consider that they roll away burdens from earth and bring hope and rest to the victims of oppression. It is no unworthy shout of personal vengeance, nor of unfeeling triumph, that is lifted up from a relieved world when Babylon falls. If it is right in God to destroy, it cannot be wrong in His servants to rejoice that He does. Only they have to take heed that their emotion is untarnished by selfish gratulation, and is not untinged with solemn pity for those who were indeed doers of evil, but were themselves the greatest sufferers from their evil. It is hard, but not impossible, to take all that is expressed in the psalm, and to soften it by some effluence from the spirit of Him who wept over Jerusalem, and yet pronounced its doom. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) The rejoicing of the righteous at thy overthrow of the wicked Hearing a whole quire of birds chirping merrily together, my curiosity was excited to inquire into the occasion of their convocation and merriment, when I quickly perceived a dead hawk in the bush, about which they made such a noise, seeming to triumph at the death of an enemy. I could not blame them for singing the knell of one who, like a cannibal, was wont to feed upon their living bodies, tearing them limb from limb, and scaring them with his frightful appearance. Over this bird, which was so formidable when alive, the most timid wren or titmouse did not now fear to chirp and hop. This occurrence brought to my mind the case of tyrants and oppressors. When living, they are the terror of mankind; but when dead, they are the objects of general contempt and scorn. “ When the wicked perish, there is shouting” (Proverbs 11:10). The death of Nero was celebrated by the Romans with bonfires and plays; birds ate the naked flesh of Pompey; Alexander lay unburied thirty days; but a useful and holy life is generally closed by an honourable and lamented death. Verily there is a reward for the righteous.-- The character of the righteous What are the personal attributes that go to make up, constitute, and distinguish a righteous character before God? I. It has Christ for its groundwork. Being “ over all God blessed for ever,” His life was not derived from, nor dependent on, any other. His life was not only innocent of every transgression, in thought, word, and deed; but He was “ Jesus Christ the Righteous.” He neglected no duty, personal, relative, or official. His life was a service; His death was a sacrifice--of propitiation for the sins of the world. II. It has faith for its principle, or instrument of appropriation. Is faith, then, in itself, a meritorious, or deserving act or exercise? No more than the outstretching of the arm, the opening of the hand to receive Christ, or of the opening of the eye to look to Him, or the moving of the feet to come to Him. It is simply the instrument, the graciously furnished, and Divinely appointed instrument, the only Divinely appointed instrument, or organ, by which the sinner receives, and becomes united to “ Christ the righteousness of God.” “ Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace.” III. It has the heart for its seat. Justification is a change of state, by which we are freed from condemnation; sanctification is a change of nature, by which we are brought into resemblance and communion with Him. The one indicates a relative change in relation to the law; the other, a real and personal change in God’ s sight. By the one, we receive a title to the promised recompense of reward; by the other, we are “ made meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light.” IV. It has the life for its evidence. A man is not certainly known by what he says, but he is known by what he does, and does habitually in every condition and relation of life. (G. Robson.) A reward for the righteous I. What are the discriminating features which distinguish the righteous.1. In describing the righteous, we must distinguish them-- (1) From the great mass of mankind, from the world that “ lieth in wickedness” (Romans 3:10). (2) From mere moralists, who trust in themselves that they are righteous, and despise others (Romans 10:3). 2. In describing the righteous, we characterize them. (1) By the genuineness and spirituality of their faith. Righteous men are men of faith (Hebrews 11:3-7). Righteousness is obtained by faith (Romans 4:3; Romans 4:5; Romans 4:18; Romans 4:20; Romans 4:22; Galatians 3:6). But faith must have an object; this is the Lord Jesus Christ, who became sin for us. (2) By the rectitude and purity of their principles. (3) By the consistency of their conduct. II. What is that reward to which the righteous are entitled?1. A gracious and voluntary reward (Romans 6:23; Revelation 2:7; Revelation 2:10; Revelation 2:17). 2. Distant and remote. 3. Suitable and proportionate. 4. Glorious and eternal, and therefore worthy of its Author. In the descriptions of this reward we remark two things; a complete freedom from all evil, both moral and natural, and from all possibility of evil; and the eternal enjoyment of all the good of which their natures are capable. III. What evidences have we for crediting the assertion in the text?1. The character of God. He is a being of infinite goodness, and His goodness will incline Him to reward the righteous. He is a being of infinite justice, and His justice prompts Him to render to every man according to his works. 2. The positive declarations of Scripture (Genesis 15:1; Matthew 19:28-29; Hebrews 11:6; Revelation 22:14). 3. The general consent of mankind. (Sketches of Four Hundred Sermons.) A full reward A military gentleman ones said to an excellent old minister in the north of Scotland, who was becoming infirm, “ Why, if I had power over the pension list, I would at once have you on a pension of half-pay for your long and faithful services.” He replied, “ Ah, my friend, your master may put you off with half-pay, but my Master will not serve me so meanly; He will give me full pay. Through His grace and favour I expect a full reward, and nothing less will content me.” (The Quiver.) Verily, there is a God that judgeth in the earth.--God’ s dealings with mankind I. The present appearances of things are apt to make wrong impressions on our minds, respecting God’ s dealings with mankind. Though we may see the wicked in prosperity and the righteous in affliction, we should ever keep in mind, that prosperity is no sign of God’ s favour, and that affliction is no necessary sign of His displeasure; and therefore, amidst the changes and vicissitudes of life, let us be on our guard against false and hasty reasonings, with regard to God’ s dealings with mankind. II. A day will come, when the truth will be seen and acknowledged by all, that “ verily there is a reward for the righteous; doubtless there is a God that judgeth the earth.” While we reflect upon these things, as certain and true, it is most important to inquire particularly into the nature of this judgment, and of this reward. The Bible gives us full instruction in this matter. It tells us, that “ the eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good” ; and that God “ will render to every one according to his works.” (J. S. Pratt.) The marks of a moral and judicial government I. The general laws and constitution of nature exhibit the justice, as well as the wisdom of God. As there is an evident subservience of the general frame of the world to the benefit of human life, and such various provisions in nature to answer the Divine intentions of producing knowledge, virtue, and happiness in mankind; as numberless proofs of wisdom and benevolence appear throughout the whole; here is the strongest presumption in favour of the Divine justice; and it is most irrational to imagine that injustice can find place in a plan or constitution of so much wisdom and goodness. II. In consequence of that constitution of things which His creative wisdom hath established, and which shows undeniably the goodness of His intentions, there are certain measures of Divine justice in continual execution, for the punishment of vice and the encouragement of virtue. Here begins the moral government of God; and the marks or proofs, by attending to which, we may be convinced that there is verily a God that judgeth in the earth. The subordinations of human society are appointed by the Author of nature for the purposes of His governing justice, civil and domestic government, etc. We may further trace the footsteps of Divine justice in the natural resentments of mankind against the perpetrators of wicked actions; who thereby expose themselves to a general indignation or contempt; for the passions and affections of men, even of vicious men, naturally rise in favour of virtue and detestation of vice in others. There is an order, also, in the constitution of the human body, for the punishment of some vices. As those crimes which are most injurious to society are generally punished, by the public resentments of that society which they injure; so those vices that are of a personal nature find their own punishment nearer home. Finally, there is the most certain and effectual provision of nature, far the punishment of wickedness and the reward of virtue, in the frame of the human mind. There is as it were a tribunal of justice erected in every man’ s own heart, where conscience sits as judge, to whose approving or condemning sentence men are continually exposed, and most of all in the seasons of retirement and reflection. III. These measures of Divine justice are more extensive than men generally apprehend or believe. The stings of conscience are often keen and piercing to the inmost soul; the passions of vice are corroding, and destroy mental quiet and repose; the resentments of society, the disaffection of friends and relatives, are galling to the heart; the terror of human laws is grievous and burdensome; and infamy, disease and death, the frequent effects of debauchery and villainy, cannot be thought slight punishments. Now, though wicked persons may avoid some of these punishments, yet it is hardly possible that any criminal in the world can escape them all. The internal peace and pleasure which arise from innocence and conscious virtue are little esteemed or considered; nor are the troubles and pains, which ensue from guilt, in the natural course of things, much regarded as proofs of Divine justice. IV. The particular instances which appear to the contrary are but exceptions to that general order established in nature. The tyranny and persecution which have raged in the world for a succession of ages, by which the best of men have been the most inhumanly treated, present the darkest scene that ever was beheld in the world, in respect to the providence and justice of the Supreme Governor. But these persecutions were the means of trying and exercising the probity and piety of numbers of men, and of producing the noblest harvest of genuine virtue. It may be reasonably thought that it was in order to this end Divine Providence permitted such an amazing tyranny to rise, prevail, and continue. In this view the Holy Scriptures teach us to look upon such scenes, and thus to reconcile them with the justice of an over-ruling Providence. V. To vindicate the perfect justice of the Divine government, to give proper consolation to the minds of good men, and to raise virtue to the highest excellence and stability, recourse must be had to the doctrine of a future life; and in this point the Gospel-revelation is abundantly sufficient to give entire satisfaction, and to support all good men under the severest trials. (S. Bourn.) The righteousness of God’ s government of men It was a saying of Solon, the Athenian law-giver, that a republic walks upon two feet; one being just punishment for the unworthy, the ether due reward for the worthy. If it fail in either of these, it necessarily goes lame. Psalms 59:1-17 Psalms 59:1-17 Deliver me from mine enemies, O my God. Revelations of the good and bad in human nature I. The enmity of man towards man.1. From the description that David here gives of his enemies, we learn that-- (1) They hated him with a deadly hate. They sought nothing less than his life; they were “ bloody men.” (2) They hated him without a cause. “ Without my fault.” (3) They hated him with furious rage. They are represented as furious beasts of prey, as ravenous dogs, as malignant slanderers, whose words are cutting as a “ sword,” from whose mouth belches the lava of abuse. (4) They hated him with persistent effort. They watch in the day, wait in ambush, return at night, and thus on until their fiendish purposes are attained. 2. The fact that men are thus enemies to men-- (1) Argues human apostasy. At some time or other there has happened in human life a moral earthquake which has riven the social body into pieces. (2) Reveals the need of Christ. He reconciles man to man by reconciling all men to God. II. The appeal of selfishness to heaven. What merit is there in such a prayer as this? Can it ever meet acceptance with that God who willeth not the death of a sinner, and who is not “ willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” ? III. The confidence of piety in God. Despite all the imperfections of David’ s character, the root of the matter was in him. “ I will sing aloud of thy mercy,” etc. Perfection of character is only gradually reached. “ The acorn,” it has been said, “ does not become an oak in a day; the ripened scholar was not made such by a single lesson; the well-trained soldier was not a raw recruit yesterday; it is not one touch of the artist’ s pencil that produces a finished painting; there are always months between seed-time and harvest; even so, the path of the just is like the ‘ shining light’ which shineth more and more unto the perfect day.” (Homilist.) God’ s defence of His persecuted people A lady was wakened up by a very strange noise of peeking against the window-pane, and she saw a butterfly flying backward and forward inside the window-pane in great fright, and outside a sparrow pecking and trying to get at it. The butterfly did not see the glass, and expected every moment to be caught; and the sparrow did not see the glass, and expected every moment to catch the butterfly; yet all the while the little creature was as safe as if it had been three miles away, because of the glass between it and the sparrow. So it is with the Christians who are abiding in Christ. His presence is between them and every danger. It really does seem that Satan does not understand about this mighty and invisible power that protects us, or else he would not waste his efforts--like the sparrow, he does not see. And Christians are often like the butterfly, and do not see their defence, and so are frightened, and flutter backwards and forwards in terror. But all the while Satan cannot touch the soul that has the Lord Jesus between itself and him. (Christian Age.) Psalms 59:9 Because of his strength, will I wait upon Thee.Waiting and singing (with Psalms 59:17):--“ My strength! I will wait upon Thee,” so says the psalmist in the midst of his troubles; and because he does so, he says at the end of the psalm, repeating his earlier vow, but with an alteration that means a great deal, “ My strength! I will sing unto Thee.” If you have waited, while in the middle of trouble, you will be sure to sing after it, and perhaps even during it. I. The thoughts of God that light up the darkness. “ My strength,” “ my tower,” “ the God of my mercy” --these are the thoughts which burn for this devout soul in the darkness of trouble. Notice, first, how that “ my” is the very strength and nerve of the psalmist’ s confidence. It is not so much what he thinks God to be--though that is all important--as that he thinks that, whatever God is, He is it to him. “ My defence, my strength; the God of my mercy” --who gives it to me, that is, the mercy that I need. And notice the happy reiteration indicative of assured possession, and blissful counting of one’ s wealth. With each repetition of the “ my” there is a fresh outgoing of the heart in confidence, in conscious weakness, and in believing appropriation of God’ s strength a tightening of the fingers on his treasure. If we are in sorrow, let us say, “ I will go unto God, my exceeding joy.” If we are exposed to the hurtling of a whole flight of arrows of disaster, let us say, “ I dwell in the pavilion where no calamity comes.” If we are conscious of weakness, let us cast ourselves into those strong arms, and be sure that from their clasp there will come tingling into our feebleness the electric thrill of His almightiness, and that we, too, shall be able to “ do all things through Christ which strengtheneth us.” My strength, because I am weak; “ my fortress,” because I am assailed; “ the God of my mercy,” because I need His mercy. II. What such views of God hearten a man to do. “ My strength, I will wait upon Thee,” says the first of our texts. “ I will look unto Him “ is, perhaps, nearer the meaning of the words than the “ wait” of our version. If these three blessed thoughts, “ my strength, my tower, the God of my mercy,” are uppermost in our heart, there will be the fixed attitude and eye of expectancy. Did you ever see a dog sitting and looking up into its master’ s face, waiting for a morsel to be cast, that it might snap at it and swallow it? That is a very homely illustration of the way in which Christian men should sit and look at God. If He is “ my strength,” and “ my tower,” and if “ my mercy” comes from Him, then no attitude befits me except that of such gazing expectancy and steadfast direction of mind and heart to Him, “ My strength, I will watch Thee.” And there should be, too, not only expectancy in the look, but patience, and not only expectancy and patience, but submission. Stand before Him, waiting to know what is to be done by you with the strength that He gives, and how the mercy that He inbreathes is to be expressed and manifested in your life. This waiting should be the fixed attitude and posture of our spirits. The psalmist had to make a definite resolution to look away to God, for there was a great deal that tempted him to look elsewhere. He says, “ I will wait,” and the original conveys very strongly the idea of his having to set his teeth, as it were, in the effort to keep himself quiet and waiting before God. If we look to Him we are kept up, and we are kept right; but it takes all our will-power, and it needs a very resolute effort if we are not to be forced out of the attitude of faith and to let our eyes turn to alarmed gazing at the stormy seas. Without such effort we shall be weakened by looking at the foes and not at the fortress, at the difficulties and inward weakness and not at our strength, but we shall find the means of making this effort after steadfastness of expectant gaze in faithful remembrance of the great Name of the Lord, our strength and our fortress. III. What comes of this waiting. He that began with saying, “ O my strength, I will wait upon Thee,” ends with saying, “ O my strength, I will sing praises unto Thee.” That is to say, away in the future there lies the certainty that all will end in thankfulness and rapture of praise-giving, and in the present, whilst the attitude of watchfulness has to be kept up, and evils and dangers are still round us, there may glow in our hearts a quiet assurance as to how they are all going to end, and how for the waiting in the present there will be substituted glad praise in the future. Into the midst of winter we can bring summer. We can live by hope, we can say, “ To-day I will watch, tomorrow I shall praise.” And because to-morrow we shall praise, there will be some praise mingling with the watchfulness of to-day. Let us do the one now, and at last we shall do the other. Do the one, and even in the doing of it the other will begin. The waiting and the praising are twins, the one a trifle older than the other. “ Unto Thee, my strength, will I look,” and even now the waiting soul may have a song, feeble perhaps and broken, like the twitter of birds when the east wind blows and the clouds are low in the early spring, but which will mellow and swell into fuller rapture when the dark, ungenial days are overpast. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Psalms 59:10 The God of my mercy shall prevent me.A singular title and a special favour Our trials and troubles, while they test and develop us, do also by Divine grace strengthen and improve us, and ever have we great cause to bless God for them when grace sanctifies them to our highest good. Had not David been a man of many afflictions he would never have penned such a verse as our text, a confident utterance of unstaggering faith, full of meaning, rich with consolation, the very cream of assured hope in God. I. David’ s looking to his God. “ The God of mercy,” saith he. Note that this psalm was composed by him upon the occasion of his being shut up in the house of Michal, Saul’ s daughter, and surrounded by his adversaries. The messengers of the bloodthirsty king watched the house all night long, to kill him, and when they had not effected their purpose, Saul demanded that he should be brought, on his bed, into his presence, that he might slay him. It was not easy for a man, when his enemies were watching the house, to escape out of their hands. David, however, does not appear to have been at all disturbed, but with perfect confidence in God he expected that a way of escape would be made for him.1. David looked to God on this occasion because he had before this habitually waited upon Him. His faith had realized the existence of God, and his soul had felt the power of that realized truth. This is a thing unknown to the unconverted, and unfelt to any high degree by large numbers of those who profess to know the Lord. 2. David was driven more closely to his God by the peculiar trouble with which he was environed. It is a blessed thing when the waves of affliction wash us upon the rock of confidence in God alone, when darkness below gives us an eye to the light above. The psalmist says in the verse preceding the text, “ Because of his strength” --that is, the strength of the foe--“ will I wait upon Thee, for God is my defence.” Because the enemy is too strong for me, therefore will I turn to my God, and invoke His omnipotence as my defence. To come to the end of yourself is to get to the beginning of your God. Blessed is that extremity which is God’ s opportunity. 3. As soon as David had looked alone to his God his trials grew small. In his own esteem they grew to be nothing, for he says, “ Thou, O Lord, shalt laugh at them, Thou shalt have all the heathen in derision” ; and methinks something of the laughter of God penetrated David’ s spirit; and in that house wherein he was enclosed as a prisoner he smiled in his heart at the disappointment which awaited his foes. Faith laughs at that which fear weeps over; it leaps over mountains at whose feet mere mortal strength lies down to die. II. David’ s appropriation of the Divine mercy. “ The God of my mercy.” Notice that the pith of the title lies in the appropriating word “ my.” Luther used to say that the very soul of divinity lay in the possessive pronouns; another divine said that all the stir there ever has been in the world has been caused by meum and tuum, mine and thine. “ It is mine,” says one man; “ It is mine,” cries another man, and then comes a conflict. “ It is mine,” says one king; “ Nay,” says another, “ it is not thine,” and then fierce war begins. Nothing influences a man so much as that which he calls his own. “ The God of my mercy.”1. David appropriated to himself a portion of Divine mercy as being peculiarly his; and we shall never advance in the divine life unless we do the same, for the mercy which is in common to all men, of what avail is it to any man? But the mercy which any one man by faith grasps for himself, this is the mercy which will bless him and which he will prize above all things. 2. I think he meant, too, that there was a portion of mercy which he had already received, which was, therefore, altogether his own. The “ God of my mercy” --he meant the God of the mercy he had already experienced. Well may it bring the tears into your eyes to think of it. The mercy which nursed you in your infancy; the mercy which watched over you in your youth and kept you when you were apt to stray; the mercy which restrained you from many a deadly sin, etc. 3. And, remember, that all the mercy you have had is little compared with the mercy you have yet to receive. As the rich father thinks, “ This will I give to my eldest son, and that to the second, and that to the third,” and so he puts by a portion for each of his children; so has God mapped out and allotted for each one of us some choice and special mercy fitted for our peculiar case, which no one can receive but ourselves, but which we must and shall obtain. 4. But I think David made a larger grasp than this, for when he said, “ The God of my mercy,” he felt as if all the mercy in the heart of God belonged to him. If any one saint should have all the wants of all the saints in the world put upon him, and if his necessities should be so great that nothing would supply them but the whole of the infinite mercy which fills the heart of God, that child of God should have all the mercy which the Lord Himself can dispense. III. David confining in God. “ The God of my mercy shall prevent me,” or anticipate me by His mercy. Now, it so happens that the Hebrew word may be read in all three tenses, and some have said it should be understood, “ The God of my mercy has prevented me” ; others, “ does prevent me” ; and a third party, like our translators, read it, “ shall prevent me.” Whichever tense you choose is true, and the whole three put together may be viewed as the full meaning of the passage.1. “ The Lord has prevented me.” This is one of the grand doctrines of the Gospel, the doctrine of eternal love, spontaneous, self-generated, having no cause but itself. God loved us before we loved Him--he prevented us with love. Before His people were born God had elected and redeemed them, and prepared the Gospel, by which in due time they are called. He is before us in all good things. O Lord, Thou hast the first hand with Thy people; they seek Thee early, but Thou art up before them, Thou hast distanced them in the race of affection; Alpha art Thou, indeed! 2. The Lord hast prevented us, but the meaning of the passage is that He does still prevent us. Is He not daily doing so? Before you can feel the pinch of want the mercy is given. God goes before you day by day, and His paths drop fatness. Even in the common acceptation of the word “ prevent” God has often so gone before us that He has prevented us from the commission of many sins, into which otherwise we should have fallen to our sorrow and damage. Again, how often has He prevented our prayers! Before we have asked, we have had; while we were yet calling, we have received. The desire of the righteous is granted oftentimes as soon as it takes shape, and before it is expressed. 3. It will always be so. God will prevent us. A good captain, when he is marching an army through a country, takes care to make provision for every emergency. It is time for the soldier, to camp, and they need tents. Bring up the baggage wagons, here are the tents which you ask for! The men must have their rations. Here they are! Serve them out! The meat needs cooking. See, there are the portable kitchens and the fuel! The army comes to a river by and by, how will they pass it? Why, the engineers are ready, and pontoons are very soon thrown across. It is wonderful how the well-skilled commander foresees every possible emergency, and has everything ready just at the nick of time. Much more is it so with our God. So let us close with these three practical reflections. If He prevents us with mercy, let us not hesitate to come to Him. Loiter not, O soul, if thou wouldst have the mercy of God. Is God so quick? Wilt thou be slow? Does He go first, and wilt thou not follow? 4. Is God so quick in mercy? Let us who are His be very quick in service. Say in your heart, “ My God, since Thou dost prevent me, I cannot hope to keep pace with Thy mercy, but at any rate I will not lag further behind Thee than I must. When I have done all I can for Thee, how little it is, but that little shall be done.” George Herbert once described the good man as resolved “ to build a spital, or mend common ways,” and in his day these were acts of charity which piety delighted in; other good deeds are more fitting for these days. Houses for worship are wanted in many a populous district, and orphan children need to be fed. He who can buy no sweet cane with money, can bring time and zeal and effort, and these are precious. What, then, will you do? 5. And now finally, believer, cast yourself into your Lord’ s arms. Have done with fretting; have done with anxiety and doubt. Mount like the lark to your God, and sing as you mount. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Psalms 59:16-17 But I will sing of Thy power; yea, I will sing aloud of Thy mercy in the morning.Meditation and praise I. The subject of the psalmist’ s meditation.1. He meditated upon the Divine mercy. All the perfections of the Divine nature are glorious, and furnish matter for delightful meditation. But it is from His mercy that we draw our chief consolation, encouragement, and hope. 2. He contemplated God as his refuge in trouble. “ Thou hast been my defence and refuge,” etc. We have every encouragement to put our trust in God. He is represented as a “ rock,” a “ fortress,” a “ high tower,” a “ shield,” and a “ buckler.” God as a refuge-- (1) Is near--always at hand. (2) Affords the greatest security. (3) Is suitable. Our troubles differ, but He is a suitable refuge in every trouble, (4) David proved God as his refuge. Saul had laid plots to destroy him, but the Lord had delivered him. We also have obtained support and relief by trusting in God. 3. He contemplated God as his strength and confided in His power. In what respects are we to consider God as the strength of His people? (1) He defends them from danger by His power. (2) He assists and strengthens them for duty by His grace. II. The influence of the psalmist’ s meditation. It led him to praise God.1. Praising God is most reasonable. 2. Is a pleasant and delightful exercise. 3. Should be a part of every day’ s employment. Divine goodness is daily manifested, and should be daily acknowledged. 4. Will tend to prepare us to meet the trials which may yet be before us. 5. Will tend to meeten us for the enjoyment of heaven. 6. Requires a suitable frame of mind. True praise springs from gratitude; and is promoted by a consideration of what God is, what He has (lone for us, and what he has promised to do for us. Conclusion.1. How great are the privileges of the people of God!2. How important seriously to consider whether we are interested in these privileges.3. Learn the importance of continuing to make God our refuge in trouble. (Anon.) In the morning.--Morning energy The morning is my time fixed for my meeting the Lord. What meaning there is in the word “ morning” ; it is a cluster of rich grapes. Let me crush them and drink the sacred wine. “ In the morning “ --then God meant me to be at my best in strength and hope; I have not to climb in my weariness; in the night I have buried yesterday’ s fatigue, and in the morning I take a new lease of energy. Give God thy strength--all thy strength He asks only what He first gave. In the morning--then He may mean to keep me long that He may make me rich. In the morning--then it is an endless road He bids me climb, else how could I reach it ere the sun be set? Sweet morning! there is hope in its music. (Joseph Parker.) The God of my mercy.--Personal appropriation of mercy If God show mercy to thousands, labour to know that this mercy is for you. “ He is the God of my mercy.” A man that was ready to drown saw a rainbow; saith he, “ What am I the better, though God will not drown the world, if I drown.” So, what are we the better--God is merciful--if we perish? Let us labour to know God’ s special mercy for us. (Watson.) . Psalms 60:1-12 Psalms 60:1-12O God, Thou hast cast us off; Thou hast scattered us.A psalm of defeat In our own language we possess many fine songs of patriotism. It would be impossible to overestimate the value of such a song as “ Scots wha hae” as a means of keeping alive patriotic sentiments in the breasts of the people. What a treasure it would be if we had a dozen other incidents from the great epochs of our history embalmed in equally immortal verse and sung at every fireside. The Hebrews had their history thus set to music; and the poetical commentary on their national fortunes reaches down to the very bottom of their meaning, for it reads them in the light of eternal truth. I. A patriot’ s depression (Psalms 60:1-5). The enemy had invaded the country, and there was sufficient force to withstand them. So great was the panic that the inhabitants were like drunken men, unable to comprehend the extent of their calamity and unable to stand up against it (Psalms 60:3). But the worst was that it was a triumph of the heathen over the people of the true God, to whom a banner had been given to display because of the truth (Psalms 60:4). The humblest Christian has received a banner to display because of the truth. We are working for a cause which is old as eternity and lofty as heaven. Our personal success or defeat is nothing; but the victory of the truth is everything. This great verse was given out by Ebenezer Erskine beneath the castle walls of Stirling when he and his congregation were turned out of the Church of Scotland; and it has been connected with other great historical scenes in the history of the Church. II. The promise recalled (Psalms 60:6-8). At this point a change comes over the spirit of the writer. Prayer has brought him to himself. We are either to suppose that, in reply to an inquiry addressed to God, perhaps through the Urim and Thummim, he receives an oracle on the situation, or that, his memory being quickened by a sudden inspiration, he recalls an ancient oracle, given in some similar crisis, in which God promises to His anointed king the complete possession of the Holy Land and also the subjection of the neighbouring peoples. The oracle is quoted after the psalmist has expressed his joy at recalling it. God promises to divide Shechem, as at the Conquest under Joshua He divided the different parts of the land to the various tribes, and to mete out the valley of Succoth. Why these two places are specially mentioned, it is impossible now to say. They may have been strongholds of the enemy. Then (verse 7) Gilead and Manasseh, which stand for the part of the country beyond the Jordan, are claimed by God as His. And of Ephraim and Judah, which represent the division west of the Jordan, it is said that the one shall be His helmet and the other His sceptre . As the Holy Land is represented by these well-known parts, the hostile nations, which are to be subjugated, are represented by Israel’ s three well-known foes--Moab, Edom, and Philistia. And, as the positions which Ephraim and Judah were to occupy are depicted by saying that they are to fulfil the honourable offices of helmet and sceptre to God, the fate of the hostile nations is similarly depicted by representing them as fulfilling to Him the basest offices (verse 8). Moab is to be the vessel in which He washes His feet when coming home from a journey, and Edom the slave to whom, in so doing, He flings the dusty sandals which He has taken off; while Philistia is to grace his triumph. In this way the psalmist rallied his spirit in an hour of disaster. And, in fighting the Lord’ s battles, we can similarly fall back on the promise recorded in the second psalm, that the heathen shall be given to Christ and the uttermost parts of the earth for His possession. The humblest Christian can fall back on the promise that none shall pluck him out of Christ’ s hand, and that the good work which God has begun shall be perfected. III. The return of hope (verses 9-12). At verse 9 he turns to face the crisis which in the first part of the psalm he had bewailed. He sees the difficulty of the situation. Edom is a strong enemy, and its capital, Petra, a “ strong city.” “ The entrance to it,” says a traveller, “ is by a narrow gorge lined by lofty precipices, nearly two miles in length. At some places the overhanging rocks approach so near to each other that only two horsemen can proceed abreast.” Who, asks the psalmist, is to bring me thither? And the answer is, None but God. For a time He had deserted them, perhaps because they had been trusting to themselves or to their past victories. They needed to be humbled and to learn the lesson that “ vain is the help of man” (verse 11). But defeat had taught them this lesson; and now they are trusting only in their God. When God’ s servants have reached this state of mind, nothing can stand before them. And so this psalm, which began in panic and tears, ends with the trumpet note of hope (verse 12). (J. Stalker.) Psalms 60:4 Thou hast given a banner to them that fear Thee, that it may be displayed because of the truth.Our banner In the Lord Jesus we find the clue to the history and the solution of the prophecy. He is the banner--He is the ensign that is lifted up before the people. He is the Jehovah Nissi, “ the Lord my banner,” whom it is our joy to follow, and around whom it is our delight to rally. I. Wherefore He is so called.1. As the point of union. In stress of war all gathered round the standard. And so all Christians around Christ. All followed its guidance. 2. And the banner, let it be remembered, is always the object of chief attack. The moment the adversary sees it, his object is to strike there. Did they not of old aim their shots at the flagstaff to cut down the banner? So has the Lord Jesus Christ been ever assailed. 3. And why should the banner be the object of attack but for this very reason, that it is the symbol of defiance As soon as ever the banner IS lifted up, it is, as it were, flapped in the face of the foe. It seems to say to him, “ Do your worst--come on! We are not afraid of you--we defy you!” Every time a sermon is preached in the power of the Spirit, it is as though the shrill clarion woke up the fiends of hell, for every sermon seems to say to them, “ Christ is come forth again to deliver His lawful captives out of your power; the King of kings has come to take away His subjects.” We have not quite exhausted the metaphor yet. 4. The banner was ever a source of consolation to the wounded. He sees the banner still waving, and with his last breath he cries, “ On! on! on!” and falls asleep content, because the banner is safe. It has not been cast down. Though he has fallen, yet the banner is secure. Even so every true soldier of the Cross rejoices in its triumph. 5. The banner is the emblem of victory. When the fight is done, and the soldier cometh home, what bringeth he? His blood-stained flag. And what is borne highest in the procession as it winds through the streets? It is the flag. They hang it in the minster; high up there in the roof, and where the incense smoketh, and where the song of praise ascendeth, there hangs the banner, honoured and esteemed, borne in conflict and in danger. Now, our Lord Jesus Christ shall be our banner in the last day, when all our foes shall be under our feet. II. Who gave us the banner? Soldiers often esteem the colours for the sake of the person who first bestowed them. You and I ought to esteem the Gospel of our precious Christ for the sake of God who gave Him to us. “ Thou hast given a banner.” God gave us the banner in old eternity. III. To whom is this banner given? Shall the banner be put in the drunkard’ s hands? Shall the great truth of Christ be left to those who live in sin? Now, inasmuch as this banner is given to those that fear God, if you fear God it is given to you. I do not know in what capacity you are to bear it, but I do know there is somewhere or other where you have to carry it. Mother, let the banner wave in your household. Merchant, let your banner be fixed upon your house of business. Let it be unfurled and fly at your masthead, O sailor. Bear your banner, O soldier, in your regiment. IV. Why was this banner given to us? To be “ displayed because of the truth.” There let it be displayed. Preach Christ Lift Him up with a clear voice as one that has something to say that He would have men hear. Speak of Him boldly as one who is not ashamed of his message. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The missionary banner We may regard the banner as telling of the Divine presence and power of our Lord Jesus Christ. And thus understood, notice-- I. The charge that is given to us. We are to carry this banner in the front of the advancing force, and we are never to neglect or lose it. This banner was so carried by the apostles and the believers of the Pentecostal Church. II. The obligation that is implied by its possession. God has given this banner to us, and it involves great responsibility. What the Gospel has done for us should urge us to make it known, should make us eager in the work, counting it our high privilege. And it comes associated with Divine promises. III. The motive by which the responsibility is urged--“ because of the truth.” For it is the only truth that can meet the wants of guilty souls and bring light and blessing to men. And this banner has been borne and with results full of blessing, for the results of mission work within the last ninety years are greater than those of the first century of apostolic labour with Pentecostal power. (J. P. Chown.) The Cross, the banner of the Church I. In what respects the Gospel is compared to a banner.1. For the mustering of the troops to battle.2. To guide the soldier to conflict.3. To animate the sinking hopes and courage of the soldier. Now, the Gospel does all this in the spiritual warfare. II. To whom the Lord gives this banner--“ to them that feared Thee.” III. TO whom the Lord gives this banner--“ to them that displayed.” IV. Wherefore it is to be thus displayed. Different motives may animate us herein: party spirit, and the like. But the right motive is “ because of the truth,” that it may be more known and welcomed. (J. W. Cunningham, M. A.) Christ a banner to His Church I. As a point of union. When Christ is preached, when the banner is raised, His people gather around it and follow it. All true Christians are an army gathered under the same banner, to fight against common enemies--the world, the flesh, and the devil. II. As a source of encouragement. We know the dismay and discouragement which often follow when a standard-bearer fainteth. Whereas the sight of their colours floating in the air gladdens and inspirits the troops. Hence we learn that the believer, in his Christian warfare, is to gather strength and courage, by continually “ looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith,” etc. In all his difficulties and trials, the believer is to “ consider Him that endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself,” etc. III. As a terror to the enemies of the Lord’ s people. This follows, by necessary consequence. For if He ensures victory to His people, He must overthrow their enemies. If He is to cover His people with the garments of salvation, He must also clothe their enemies with shame. (R. W. Dibdin, M. A.) The standard-bearer Here we have the believer presented as a standard-bearer. I. A banner. The republic of God has its flag. II. The bearer. Every one who “ fears” God. In an army every man is a soldier; in God’ s army every soldier is also a standard-bearer. He bears both weapons wherewith to fight, and the flag wherewith to witness; and the flag is as important as the sword or shield. God’ s army is made “ terrible” to the enemy by its banners. III. The duty. The banner is to “ be displayed.” God’ s believing people are to confess Him before men; display the flag, openly declare that He is their God and they are His disciples. IV. The object. “ Truth” here stands for everything in doctrine and duty which is Godlike and profitable. In two ways the display of the army’ s colours furthers the cause.1. In the impression made on the foe.2. In the incentive furnished to heroic endeavour and endurance on the part of fellow-soldiers. (A. T. Pierson, D. D.) Keep the flag flying At the relief of Kimberley the garrison could say that through all the siege, “ Her Majesty’ s flag had been kept flying.” And when Sir George White was relieved at Ladysmith, he exclaimed, “ Thank God, our flag has been upheld.” Paul, after the siege of a long life, felt the same triumphant boast about the banner entrusted to him. The royal flag supreme Let our party flags be seen by all means, but grouped around Jehovah Nissi, not planted in its place. It is narrated that during the times of the Crusade, when the Lion-hearted Richard I. of England, the Emperor of Austria, and the King of France were jointly waging war against the heroic heathen Saladin, a jealousy sprang up in the camp between England and Austria, and one morning the British banner was found lying in the dust on St. George’ s Mount, and the standard of Austria occupying its place. No sooner did impetuous Richard hear of the insult offered to the Royal ensign than he strode forth alone, and before the assembled hosts hurled Austria’ s ensign to the ground, and caused the British lion once more to take pre-eminence, remarking, “ Your banners may be planted around mine, but never take its place.” So let it he with us, beloved. Upon the St. George’ s Mount of our heart and life let the Lion of Judah, Jehovah Nissi, alone have the place of honour. (A. G. Brown.) Psalms 60:6-9 God hath spoken in His Holiness; I will rejoice, I will divide Shechem, and mete out the valley of Succoth.A war-song of Israel In this war-song we are given the key to the whole story of Jewish development as the interpretation of life--that interpretation which has, through Christ, received its verification as the universal method by which religion becomes a practical force in the world. Leek at it. First, how real, how practical, how concrete it all is. It is not selfish, personal trouble about which he is vehement. He is one with his people, and it is their distress which is his. And then, secondly, these disasters cannot be for him blind accidents. They are not the cruelties of some ruthless fate, or the mere victories of force, accident, fate. God’ s will is the sole, paramount interpretation of every incident, and there can be no other. “ Thou also hast been displeased.” That is the only reasonable account of the matter. And then, after that, in that thought lies his hope. If God has done it, and done it for correction, then God can also undo it, and undo it He surely will, He, by His own right hand. Who but He? The people--broken, shattered, bruised, and drunken--they cannot heal themselves. They cannot restore themselves to their old soundness and strength. Their sin has wrecked their power to be as they were. They can but recognize the hand of God that broke and scattered them. God can do the rest. Their renewal, their recovery, must be all His act, and He will be sure to do it, because He has smitten that He may heal. What other motive could He have? And then out of that thought the psalmist passes on to the martial outburst which is so charged with the spirit of Ascensiontide. Israel, if she is to recover, we say, must throw herself altogether on the prevenient help of God, “ God has spoken in His holiness.” That is what precedes. He and no other has taken the great step on which all depends. God has planned for Himself already an organized kingdom, and each spot, and each district, and each centre is selected and named. And this highland chief, this king, this servant of His, has been shown it all. He has been told exactly what is in God’ s mind. Now, surely we can feel the very touch of an Ascension flame in the old words. This poise of the soul--this spiritual situation in which the believing soul for ever finds itself wherever it would act in God’ s name--this mode and method of all religious faith wherever it be found--these have been caught for us here: these have been fixed. They are wholly and utterly the same to-day for us as they were for that border-chief in his warfare with Edom. Just to rehearse the succession of his thoughts and of his prayers with our mind. First, Ascensiontide summons us to look out, as he did, beyond the circuit of our own private affairs, and to take our place amid the rank of the people of God, and to identify ourselves with His historical kingdom. Look at Christ’ s Church as it fares in the world. That Church is the creation of His royalty. There He has set His name, and with her lies our lot. Her interest, her fortune, her fears, her distress, all are ours. We are committed to her, so that our very faiths are interwoven one with another. If she is in strength we are strong, and if she is burdened we are weak with her weakness. Look out on her. How goes it? Alas, far us as for him, the same spectacle. God has cast us out. God has scattered us abroad. God’ s hand is in it. And, if God’ s hand is in it, then God’ s mind is behind it. God acts for a purpose, and that means for a purpose unrelinquished and invincible, towards which He is ever pressing on; if it cannot be by victory, then by penalty, by discipline. What is that purpose? Ascensiontide is our answer. Then it was that God spoke out in His holiness. He revealed His whole intention. He clothed Himself in His righteousness. What was it to be? Oh, with the psalmist let us exult, for God in His exultation, lifting His Son to His throne on high, pronounced that in Him, the Beloved, He would claim the entire world for Himself. Every nation was to be a province of His kingdom, who was to be King of kings and Lord of lords. “ I will rejoice,” he cried, as he saw it himself. So our King, aware of all the purposes of God, cried aloud to His great apostle in the vision, saying, “ I am He who was alive and was dead, and behold I am alive for evermore. And I hold in My hand the keys of death and hell. I will rejoice, for I will divide Shechem, and mete out the valley of Succoth. Gilead is mine, and Manasseh is mine, and Ephraim is the strength of my head, and Judah is my law-giver.” So the cry of the ascended Lord rings out over the whole, asseverating its perpetual claim. “ Mine,” for instance, “ is the intellect in its exquisite skill, in its courage, in its profundity; mine is science in its patience and its truth; mine is art; mine is the whole world of feeling, emotion, passion; mine is marriage in all its inexhaustible magic; mine is the home in the honour of motherhood, the crown of children; mine is the heart with its sorrows and its joys; mine is the will with the force of its unresting efforts; mine is man. To everything in him I allot function and duty and service and liberty and gladness. Ephraim is the strength of my head, and Judah is my lawgiver.” Nor can He, the Victor, stop at the borders of His kingdom of grace. Still that kingdom must grow, must expel wrong, injustice, lust, misery, cruelty. These yet hold their own in the high rocks and fastnesses of the hills of Edom--in their castles and cities in the rich coasts of the Philistines. And these must yield; these must break. God has promised it. He has set the name of Jesus over everything that is named, and He must reign until He subdue all things unto Himself. (Canon Scott Holland.) Psalms 60:8-10 Moab is my washpot.Moab is my washpot “ Moab is my wash-pot,” nothing more--a thing contemptible and despicable as compared with the eternal realities of covenant blessings; yet, for all that, there was a use for Moab, a use to be rightly understood. My object will be to show that, contrary to the ordinary course of nature, but not contrary to faith, even this ungodly world may be made to assist our advance in holiness. Moab may become our washpot. The defiling world may be made helpful to us in the following ways. I. First of all, ungodly men, if we are in a gracious spirit, may be of solemn service to us, because we see in them what sin is. They are beacons upon the rocks to keep us from danger. They are our washpot in that respect, that they warn us of pollution, and so help to prevent our falling into it. We were “ heirs of wrath even as others.” “ All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” Our sins are different, but we were all without exception shapen in iniquity, and as in water, face answereth unto face, so the heart of man to man. When you see the wickedness of an ungodly man, make him your washpot, by remembering that you also, though you are regenerate, are encompassed with “ the body of this death.” By remembering what we are, and what we were, we may, by taking warning from the evil courses of others, avoid the like condemnation. There are certain sins which we readily detect in others, which should serve as loud calls to us to correct the same things in ourselves. For instance, as to the matter of bodily indulgence. The sinner is a man who puts his body before his soul, and his head where his feet should be; he is a monster in nature. When, therefore, you see a drunkard, or an unchaste person, say to yourself, “ I must mortify my members, and give my spiritual nature the predominance. For this I must cry mightily to God, the Eternal Spirit, lest the body of this death prevail over me. I must keep under my body and bring it into subjection, lest I, too, become a prey to the same animal passions, which lead sinners captives.” Warnings are neglected by the foolish. The young sluggard sees the huge thorns and thistles in the older sluggard’ s garden, and yet he follows the same lazy habits. One sheep follows another into the shambles. The Lord make us wise and prudent, and from the errors of others may we learn to steer our own course aright. II. We see in the ungodly the present evil results of sin.1. First, are you not very certain, those of you who watch unconverted and ungodly people, that they are not solidly happy? What roaring-boys they are sometimes I How hilarious their laughter! Their joy comes and goes with the hour. See them when the feast is over--“ Who hath woe? Who hath redness of the eyes? They that tarry long at the wine; the men of strength to mingle strong drink.” Mark them when alone: they are ready to die with dulness. Ungodly men at bottom are unhappy men. “ The way of transgressors is hard.” “ There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.” Their Marah is never dry, but flows with perennial waters of bitterness. 2. It is not merely that ungodly men are not happy; there are times when they are positively wretched through their sin. Sometimes fear cometh upon them as a whirlwind, and they have no refuge or way of escape. When we think of the despair of men, of blasted hopes, Moab may become our washpot, and may keep us from setting our affection upon their fleeting joys. If young men knew the price of sin, even in this life, they would not be so hot to purchase pleasurable moments at the price of painful years. Who would coin his life into iniquity to have it returned to him in this life, red-hot from the mint of torment! III. Men of this world are made useful to us since they discover in us our weak places. Their opposition, slander, and persecution, are a rough pumice-stone, to remove some of our spots. If we cannot bear a little shake from men, how shall we bear the shaking of heaven and earth at the last day? The world often tries us as with fire, and the things which we reckoned to be gold and silver perish in the ordeal if they are but counterfeit, but we are gainers by such a loss. In the world our temper is tried, and too often we become irritated. What then? Why, just this. If sanctification has regulated our emotions, patience will have her perfect work, and charity will suffer long; but if we are soon angry and find it hard to forgive, let us not so much find fault with those who try us as with ourselves, because we cannot bear the ordeal. Our pride must go down, we must become slow to wrath, we must be content to be as our Lord, the meek and lowly Saviour. IV. In reference to the world to come, the terrible doom of the ungodly is a most solemn warning to us. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Moab is my wash-pot Implying that Moab should be reduced to slavery, it being the business of a slave to present the wash-hand basin to his master. With the Greeks, πλύνειντινά, to wash down any one, was a slang term, signifying to ridicule, abuse, or beat; hence we have the word washpot applied to the subject of such treatment. “ You don’ t appear to be in your right sense, who make a washpot of me in the presence of many men.” --Aristophanes. (Thomas S. Millington.) Over Edom will I cast out my shoe.--Edom vanquished The person who is about to wash his feet casts his shoe to a slave. “ To Edom will I cast my shoe,” (Hengstenberg). Or else the idea of casting the shoe in contempt upon Edom expresses at once the taking possession victoriously of the Edomite land and the treading upon the pride of Edom, wherewith he had trodden the Israelite land as an invader. The casting of the shoe was also a symbol of transference of possession (Rth 4:7). (A. R. Fausset.) Psalms 60:9 Who will bring me into the strong city?The Christian warfare We are all familiar with the idea that the life of the Christian and the progressive advance of the kingdom of heaven involves a conflict, a never-ceasing warfare. We are, however, I think, sometimes unmindful that that warfare must assume very various phases according to the varying conditions and circumstances; and that much watchfulness, skill, determination and patience is needed for the frequent re-organization of forces, the re-adaptation of resources, and the revision of methods. Thus, with the individual, there are often constitutional tendencies which can only be counteracted by, it may be, a lifelong watchfulness and sustained assault; there are often strongholds of confirmed habit which have been allowed to entrench themselves within us, and which nothing short of a tedious system of siege operations can reduce. How true it is, we must all know, that spiritual growth and development of the Christian character are retarded because we have left such-like strongholds unreduced. Our forgetfulness of this aspect of our militant position may arise from a yielding to the temptation that these tedious siege operations can be dispensed with. We hope that if left alone these strongholds of evil tendency and habit will surrender while we make the easier conquests; or we hope that we may enter into possession of our promised land and leave these fortresses standing, content with a resolution to watch them; or we decide that, as we cannot hope to reduce them absolutely, we will make, as we think, safe terms with them, so that they shall not molest us or disturb our peace. Or it may be that we fail to gain permanent possession of them because we are tempted to evade the truth that no stronghold carried by assault is secured unless we are ready at once to occupy the position and to hold it. Evil habits are not eradicated until they are permanently replaced by good habits; it is only the gradual intrusion and establishment of good habits that ousts the evil and at last permanently excludes them. And this securing a permanent footing for habits of acting aright is an exceeding slow process. In order to form a habit, a series of individual actions must be persistently repeated for a considerable time, and before the habit has become irrevocably established we must expect to meet many reverses and engage in many desperate rallies. We live in impatient days; there is a tendency to resort to methods of spiritual warfare which seem to produce speedy results; adventurous raids are made here and there, while the strongholds stand unassailed, and ground gained is not held for want of those less showy operations which are needful if we would make each step secure. To my younger hearers especially I would say, Be not deceived; steady, persevering effort is needed if you would become real masters of yourselves. Depend upon it, as with Israel of old, you cannot advance far towards getting possession of your promised land, possession and control of your passions, your will, without finding a fortress to be subdued. What is true of the individual growth in grace, is true also with the extension of Christ’ s kingdom upon earth. There are occasions where the Church finds herself confronted by towering strongholds of formidable strength which have long held captive the minds and hearts of her fellow-men, strongholds which cannot be carried by simple assault, but which must be reduced by the slow and persistent advance of regular approaches. At such times there is a demand made upon the Church’ s faith, and the same temptation to shirk the trying duty presents itself. It is also true that in regard to the Church’ s advances, much unpretending monotonous labour has to be expended in securing the ground gained. We have need not only of men who will carry on the message, but also of men who will unobtrusively sacrifice themselves to the often unexciting and sometimes very trying, but most important work of slowly building up the new life in the new believers; helping them by slow degrees to assimilate the life, the character, the habits, personal, domestic, and social, of the new man which they have newly put on. “ Who will lead us into these strong cities?” We answer, “ Christ” ; and then, when we further ask, “ How can we best bring the power of Christ to bear upon them?” we reply, “ First endeavour to secure that the fountain shall be pure, that the stream of life going forth from your English shores shall be living, and strong, and clear; then let us have men devoted, who can explain the nature of the living stream, and direct inquiries to the source of its virtue as a healing power; thirdly, let the consecrated intellect of England help us to express Divine truth more truly and exhaustively; and then such a threefold cord may well be expected to be a mighty instrument for the pulling down of the strongholds.” (Bishop E. R. Johnson.) The inspiration of a great leader The inspiration of a leader’ s presence and courage has turned many a defeat into a victory. Marlborough, Henry of Navarre, and Napoleon are instances, with Garibaldi and our own Gordon. But the memory of a great leader is inspiring also. The last words of Hedley Vicars were, “ This way, 97th!” and although the captain fell, his men rushed forward and repulsed a force ten times their number. We are to arm ourselves with that panoply of perfect trust and perfect obedience which our Divine Leader put on, and in which He endured and conquered. Many a child has borne pain and contumely with fortitude and patience, upheld by the thought of the Saviour’ s sufferings. Christ the invincible warrior It has been said of Edward, the Black Prince, that he never fought a battle which he did not win, and of the great Duke of Marlborough, that he never besieged a city that he did not take. Shall that be said of men which we deny concerning the Most High God? Is He less successful than some human generals? Shall these invincibly prevail, and grade be liable to defeat? Impossible. Psalms 60:11 Give us help from trouble: for vain is the help of man.Help in God in all times of trouble If a man had a long and perilous journey to take, in which he would be exposed to many difficulties and great dangers, would he not most thankfully receive from any one the kind offer of direction and assistance, that he might perform it with success and security? The life of man is such a journey, during which he is exposed to many difficulties and dangers. I. In the world we must expect tribulation. As fallen creatures, we are constantly liable to infirmities, affliction, and disappointment. II. Vain is the help of man. Man may not have the ability nor the inclination to help us in our worldly troubles. Man may not feel for our misery, nor be disposed to aid us in our distress. He may promise us his assistance, and yes desert us “ in the very time of need.” “ Vain is the help of man.” Man may endeavour to help; but it is so feeble, as to be of no real service. God, and God alone, can remove the burden, or support us under it. III. How is this help to be obtained? By humble, fervent, and believing prayer. “ Give us help in trouble, for vain is the help of man.” It is freely bestowed in Christ Jesus to all that need it and seek it of God in humble and fervent prayer. (C. Davy.) The common in human life I. A common human condition. “ Trouble.” He has, almost from birth to death, to “ walk in the midst of trouble” --troubles personal and social, material and spiritual--troubles of body, troubles of intellect, troubles of conscience.1. Those that are spiritually pernicious--tending only to intensify the rebellion of the soul, harden the conscience, etc. 2. Those that are spiritually beneficent. To all regenerate and Christly men troubles are morally disciplinary (Hebrews 12:11). II. A common human instinct. “ Give us help from trouble.” Man in great trouble instinctively cries to the Supreme for help. Even irrational creatures seem to shriek for help in trouble. Tyndall says of the hare, when the greyhound is almost upon her, that she abandons hope through her own efforts, and screams convulsively into space for help. Man’ s instinct is of a higher kind. The space into which he cries in trial is not empty. He sees a God in it. This instinct is as deep as the soul and as wide as humanity. It is developed by saint, by savage, and by sage.1. This instinct implies a constitutional, an ineradicable belief in the existence, personality, accessibleness and entreatability of a God. 2. This instinct shows that prayer is not against the laws of nature, but one with it. As sure as the sun will rise, men will pray. III. A common human experience. “ Vain is the help of man.”1. He cannot give an effective deliverance from trouble. That which makes anguish is the state of the soul--disordered affections, guilt of conscience, moral regrets, and dark forebodings. Unless these are removed the troubles remain. 2. He cannot give a permanent deliverance from trouble. Whatever alleviation he may afford to the sufferer, it can be only temporary. Let our prayer therefore be, “ Give us help from trouble; for vain is the help of man.” (Homilist.) . Psalms 61:1-8 Psalms 61:1-8 Hear my cry, O God; attend unto my prayer.A meditation on the sixty-first psalm In the first verse it is not the Jew but the man that speaks. The same idea can be found in all languages. When David speaks thus, he speaks for the whole world! There is no doubt the most intense personality in the petition; it is “ my” cry, it is “ my” prayer. What then? Even when the man individualizes himself most carefully, he does but mingle most familiarly with all other men. This is the voice of an exile--a man far from the city which he loves most; yet even at the extremity of the land he says he will cry unto God. Why not? God can give the exile a home! Wherever God reveals himself in loving pity and all the riches of His grace, the soul may take its rest, knowing that no lion shall be there, neither shall any ravenous beast go up thereon. David cried from the end of the land! We have cried from the same extremity. By processes too subtle for us to comprehend, God has often caused our misfortunes to become our blessings, In the midst of the psalmist’ s trouble there rises an aspiration--“ lead me to the rock that is higher than I. “ The” self-helplessness expressed in this prayer moves our entire sympathy. “ Lead me” --what a blind man who had wandered from the accustomed path would say; “ lead me” --what a lame man would say who had fallen by reason of his great weakness; “ lead me” --what a terrified man would say who had to pass along the edge of a bottomless abyss. It is in such extremities that men best know themselves. David wished to be led to the rock; he wished to stand firmly, to stand above the flood-line, to have rest after so great disquietude. Then there is a rock higher than we? We have heard of Jesus Christ by this strange name; we have heard of Him as the Rock of ages; we have heard of Him as the Rock in the wilderness; we have heard of Him as the Stone rejected of the builders but elected of God to the chief place. The aspiration is succeeded by a recollection (Psalms 61:3). History is rightly used when it becomes the guide of hope. The days of a man’ s life seem to be cut off from each other by the nights which intervene; but they are continuous when viewed from the altitude of Divine providence. Yesterday enriches to-day. All the historic triumphs of the Divine arm stimulate us in the present battle. We may say of God--What Thou hast been, Thou wilt be; because Thou hast inclined Thine ear unto us, therefore will we call upon Thee as long as we live. “ I will abide in Thy tabernacle for ever, I will trust in the covert of Thy wings.” Here is a beautiful combination--worship and confidence! The relation is not only beautiful, but strictly sequential; for worship is confidence, and confidence is worship. Truly to kneel before God is to express trust in Him, and truly to express trust in Him is to bow down and worship at His footstool. This is the complete idea of worship: not prayer only, not hope only, not adoration only, not a blind dependence only; but all combined, all rounded into one great act of life. “ Under the covert of Thy wings” --how tender the figure! The bird spreads her wings over the nest where her young ones lie, and thus gives them warmth, and affords them all the little protection in her power. What a beautiful image of unity, defence, completeness, safety, is so frail a thing as the nest of a bird! Multiply that image by infinitude; carry it far above all the mischances which may befall the little home of the bird, and then see how full of comfort is the idea. We have heard of a “ shelter,” and a “ tower,” and a “ tabernacle,” --words which have much meaning for the heart when its distresses are not to be numbered, and which reach their full explanation only in that great Saving Man who was wounded for our transgressions. (J. Parker, D. D.) The pious experiences of an exile I. A deep sense of isolation. “ From the end of the earth will I cry unto Thee.” Few feelings are more saddening than the feeling of lonelihood. It hangs like a cold leaden cloud over the heart. In this lonelihood, and far away from the scenes of his home and populations of men, he prays. The Great Father is accessible in all seasons of the soul, and all points of space. II. A felt need for Divine helps. Many things would tend to overwhelm the heart of David with sorrow--the conduct of Absalom his son, the treachery of professed friends, the disorders of his country, and, above all, remorse on account of the many wrong things he had done and which had perhaps brought all these distresses upon him. Under such a load of sadness, he feels that his only hope is in God. The soul in its sorrow requires something outside of itself and greater, and there is a Rock for tempest-tossed souls. III. A yearning for lost privileges. “ I will abide in Thy tabernacle for ever.” He was far away from this tabernacle now,--a scene where he had often worshipped and experienced the raptures of religion. Profoundly does he feel the loss, and hence he resolves on his return to abide there, not only to visit it occasionally, but to continue as a resident, “ dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of his life.” When there, he had felt like the young bird under the wing of its parent, warm, safe, and happy; and this privilege he yearned for again. “ I will trust in the covert of Thy wings.” It is an old adage, that “ the well is not missed until it is dried up.” The loss of blessings is evermore the means of deepening our impressions as to their value. IV. As acknowledgment of Divine kindness (Psalms 61:5). The “ heritage” mentioned is participation in the honours and privileges of the chosen people, and such were indeed great (Romans 9:4-5). What a heritage! And this David acknowledges as being given to him by God. Whatever privileges we have, personal, social, political, or religious, our “ heritage” is the gift of God. V. An assurance of future prosperity. “ Thou wilt prolong the king’ s life.” He seems to have been assured of two things.1. The lengthening of his rule as a king. “ Thou wilt prolong the king’ s life” --add days to that reign which was nearly brought to an abrupt termination. 2. The continuation of his privileges as a saint. “ He shall abide before God for ever.” These two things he seems to have been assured of--that he should live for years, and for years to come enjoy the presence of his God. Blessed assurance this! VI. A cry for moral excellence. “ Mercy and truth.” These are the cardinal virtues. “ Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.” A soul full of benevolence and in harmony with eternal realities. In this all good is comprised. Herein Paradise blooms and blossoms. The profoundest hunger Of all souls should be for these two things, grace and truth. Having these, all else follows. VII. A resolution to worship for ever. Worship is the highest end of being. Religion, or worship, is not the means to an end, it is the grandest end of existence. (Homilist.) Psalms 61:2 From the end of the earth will I cry unto Thee, when my heart is overwhelmed: lead me to the Reek that is higher than I.David’ s refuge This psalm, like very many others, begins with tears and ends with praise. It is very often so, in coming to a throne of grace day by day. Many a believer has gone down upon his knees with a broken heart, and has risen with it healed and fully cured. I. David’ s resolution. “ I will cry unto Thee.” Now, the term “ cry” is of very frequent use in Scripture, and it is very expressive. It signifies earnestness--it signifies desire for relief; it is the expression of want. A child cries, a child cries long before it can speak: and how prevailing is that cry! How a mother’ s heart yearns at the cry of her infant! II. The circumstances. “ When my heart is overwhelmed.” You see the circumstances here are most serious. He might have taken up the language of Hezekiah and said, “ Lord, I am oppressed; undertake for me.” But still, although he was overwhelmed, he pursued the right course. For what is the remedy in affliction? “ Is any afflicted? Let him pray” --“ pray.” It is, perhaps, reasonable, and to a certain extent natural, that men under the pressure of affliction should go down upon their knees, Many a tear has been dried so; and the deeper the sorrow, the more reason there is to cry to God. III. But, you see, not only the circumstances, “ When my heart is overwhelmed,” but “ From the end of the earth” --is whatever place you may be. The psalmist mentions the end of the earth, however distant he might be from that which was the appointed place of prayer, the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem, where the saints were in the habit of assembling together. We know now under the Gospel dispensation, that wherever there is a place of prayer, the most obscure position cannot cut off the communication between a spiritual heart and Heaven. How blessed is this! For our encouragement, how very numerous are the instances recorded in the Word of God of definite prayers on the part of God’ s saints, and definite answers on the part of God! No fewer than eighty-eight distinct prayers of men of God, and eighty-eight distinct answers from the Lord, are recorded in the Old Testament; and no fewer than forty-eight instances of the same kind occur in the New Testament. And, doubtless, these are only just sprinkled in that we may be encouraged, whenever we find them, to see that there is a reality about it--that God’ s saints of old have endeavoured to cultivate this state and condition, and that God has marked it by His especial favour. IV. What the psalmist prayed for--“ Lead me to the Rock that is higher than I.” This gives us an idea of safety in the midst of trial, and support when one is almost ready to be swallowed up. Now, the rock that you and I must look to is the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and to Him the Holy Spirit must lead us. We need to be led, or we shall never come to Him. And observe in the next verse to the text the way in which the psalmist draws his encouragement. “ For Thou hast been a shelter to me, and a strong tower from the enemy.” You see, the experience of the past may confirm our hope for the future, for He is the “ same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever,” and “ they that know Thy name will put their trust in Thee.” (J. W. Reeve, M. A.) Faith and its aspirations I remark, first, that this is the expression of faith, as distinguished from science, and it justifies that faith. The present age is not, I think, to be characterized above all others as an age of intellect. It is an age of wonderful control over the forces and facts of nature. By this knowledge, certainly, man has great power, as he has by all intellectual acquisition. Intellectual strength is a wondrous faculty. In yonder closet there sits a pale thinker, in body puny almost as an infant, shrinking from the cold, and withering under the heat like a sensitive plant. And yet upon some occasion that man will stand up, and his words will run like an electric shock through the hearts of thousands, and they will be swayed by the sheer force of his mind like the leaves of the summer forest. He sets his pen to the vindication of some truth, and his documents flying abroad, alarm councils, change faiths, and alter polities. It is possible you may find a few rare instances of men who can make out what is called a scientific religion, and live by it; having a cause for every effect, and a law for every crisis; finding the source of their own suffering at -the end of the scalpel, and counting up their beating pulses by the tick of the watch. But there are few people who can stand on the level of the mere facts of nature and say it is enough to know that the earth turns on its axis, and that all things move in order. We want something higher than all this. These forces of nature have no particular sympathy with us. They are relentless, silent, stern. We crave something akin to ourselves--something near to our own souls, as nature is not--something that is higher than ourselves, to lift us up. It must be above the facts that prevail around us. Therefore, we say, what comes through science does not make up the complement and perfection of human nature. We need an element of faith--that kind of faith with which this grand old psalm was written. The soul wants something more than what the mere intellect gives; something that can reach the depths of its affections, and strengthen it in its moral weakness. So I come to observe, finally, that there are occasions in life when religion demonstrates itself to be a special need and prompting of the soul; when not only is this text found to be the language of religion, above all science and all mere morality, but above all mere logical arguments, above all debates, above all controversy; when there breaks out a demonstration of the truths of religion in just such language and experience as that which is contained in the words of the text--“ When my heart is overwhelmed, lead me to the rock that is higher than I.” (E. H. Chapin.) The believer’ s refuge in distress I. There is no speck in this earth, no place in the vast extent of God’ s boundless creation, where His power, wisdom and goodness do not extend. For whither will you flee, where the hand of God cannot reach you; or where the eye of God cannot see you, and witness your every thought, word and deed? “ Who by searching can find out God? Who can find out the Almighty unto perfection?” For what proportion can any series of finite numbers bear to Infinity? II. Contemplate the period when this urgent request is made, and when this earnest supplication is poured forth; namely, when the heart is overwhelmed, when the spirit is sorrowful, and when the soul is bowed down; when deep calleth unto deep, and when the waves and billows roll over the sinking and sorrowing soul. It would be easy to explain why the heart of the sincere Christian is often overwhelmed. Not only has he his troubles and trials in common with the rest of the world, but he has those which are peculiar to him as a member of the household of faith--as a traveller who is journeying to a foreign country--peculiar to him as a citizen of that city which hath foundations whose builder and maker is God--peculiar to him as a soldier who is marching through an enemy’ s country to take possession of the promised land. III. The gracious and merciful encouragement every tried, tempted and trembling sinner has to repair to this rock of defence. For every believer freely acknowledges, and from his inmost spirit feels, that he is a weak, defenceless creature, unable to contend in his own strength against the powers of sin and death leagued against him; he finds that he has not only to wrestle against “ flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” ; consequently he had need to take upon him the whole armour of God--he had need to fly for refuge to a stronger arm than his own for protection. (N. Meeres, B. D.) Man’ s need of the superhuman Unless the rock be beyond our height it cannot shield us from the sun-glare, nor from the arrows of the enemy. We need-- I. A faith that is beyond the range of earthly knowledge. Daniel Webster said he would not believe in a religion whose doctrines he could comprehend. II. A power to help us that is beyond our own power, in order to conquer ourselves. (Homiletic Monthly.) The higher life We all feel within us that there is something higher, purer, and more firm and endurable than the ignoble and unstable level on which we are living just now. We feel that a higher state is what we should aim at; and it is this instinct which always seems to draw us on. When a man reverently reads the life of Jesus and the writings of the apostles, he feels there is a higher, nobler and purer life to which he is drawn; and I think a prayer in harmony with our feelings is this, “ Lead me to the rock, or to the life, that is higher than I.” One feature of this higher life, and one step towards it is this--that in the midst of our crosses and worries and troubles we shall endeavour to be patient and cheerful. Cheerfulness is a great promoter of happiness in ourselves and others. If we have not naturally a cheerful disposition, we should try to cultivate it. “ Assume a virtue if you have it not.” We may learn many a lesson of the higher life from the book of Nature. Some one has advised us to go to the ant for a lesson in industry, to the dove to learn innocence, and to the serpent to see wisdom; but let us go to the robin redbreast for a picture of cheerfulness. What can be a finer lesson in patient cheerfulness than the warbling of the robin on your window-sill in a winter morning, when the whole earth is like one hard piece of ice? Tucking one leg under his wing to keep it warm, the robin chirps and warbles to us a lesson of unalloyed patience. There is a step which leads us still higher; it is to be gentle. Gentleness is very high up on the rock of the heavenly life, and therefore it is a step which is rather difficult to mount. Gentleness is the disposition of God. Twice in the Bible we have these remarkable words, “ Thy gentleness hath made me great.” Another characteristic of the higher life is willingness to voluntarily suffer for the good of another. I trust we all believe in this kind of religion. We may have it by prayer. “ Lead me,” says the psalmist; “ I cannot be self-denying for others unless Thou lead me to be so. Lead me therefore, O God, and it can be done.” (W. Birch.) The sheltering rock I. The season referred to--“ When my heart is overwhelmed.” There are such seasons in Christian experience.1. From a sense of the Divine claims we owe obedience (Deuteronomy 6:5; Matthew 22:37).2. From the pressure of heavy trials (Psalms 55:12-14).3. From the keenness of temptation to which the very best of men are subject. Moses, David, Daniel, Job, and even our Lord Himself, were all tempted.4. From the anticipations of future evils. II. Whither the psalmist desires to be led--“ To the Rock that is higher than I.” “ The rock” gives the idea--1. Of strength (Psalms 62:2; Psalms 62:6; Psalms 62:8).2. Durability: “ I am the Lord, I change not.” “ Jesus Christ, the same yesterday,” etc. III. The grounds of the psalmist’ s plea--“ from the ends of the earth.”1. This prayer is prompted by a consciousness of need.2. It is addressed to the true source of ability.3. It is encouraged by past experience (Psalms 61:3). (G. Stockdale.) God the saint’ s rock There are two things here--1. The state wherein the psalmist was--“ the end of the earth,” in loneliness and distant from the house of God. And his heart was overwhelmed, and he fainted under his distress. 2. The course he takes in this state. He cried unto the Lord. His faith made him do so, for faith makes the heart sensible of affliction, and complain of it unto God, and earnestly endeavour to come near to God. What it craves is, that God would lead him to the rock, that is, that God would give him access unto Himself by Christ, in whom God is our rock and refuge. I. Note some instances of this cry of faith (Jonah 2:2-3). David in many instances. II. The grounds of it.1. Faith does this, because it is able to distinguish between the covenant itself, which is firm, stable, invariable; and the administration of the covenant, which is various and changeable; I mean the outward administration of it. And this God teaches us (Psalms 89:30-34). 2. Faith will naturally thus act, as it is the principle of the new nature in us that came from God, and will tend unto Him, whatever difficulties lie in the way. III. What it is, that in such an overwhelming condition as I have described, faith regards in God, to give it a support and relief, that it be not utterly overwhelmed.1. The first thing faith considers in such a condition is the nature of God Himself, and His excellencies. There are three or four circumstances that may befall us in our distress, that faith itself can get no relief against them, but from the essential properties of the nature of God. 2. Believers may be brought into distress in all places of the world: in a lion’ s den with Daniel; in a dungeon with Jeremiah; they may be banished to the ends of the earth, as John to Patmos; or they may be driven into the wilderness, as the woman by the fury of the dragon, Now, what can give relief against this circumstance of distress which may befall the people of God? (Jeremiah 23:28). 3. God is ever the same. 4. There is relief to be found in God, and only in Himself, in the loss of all, when nothing remains. This was Habakkuk’ s comfort if all should fail him; yet, saith he, “ I will rejoice in the Lord, and joy in the God of my salvation.” 5. The last circumstance of distress is death, with the way and manner whereby it may approach us: and how soon this will be we know not. The soul’ s relief lies in God’ s immutability, that we shall find Him the same to us in death as He was in life, and much more. (J. Owen, D. D.) The strong sanctuary An ineradicable sense of dependence inheres in every finite being as he is brought into conscious life. A created nature must go out of itself and make its sanctuary in a greater and a holier nature before it can be rightly centred and rationally satisfied. This predisposition to lean, to nestle, to seek sanctuary, is the common birthmark of everything in which there is the breath of life. Rather than have no refuge at all, the troubled man will fly to one who is weaker and less discerning than himself. He will consult an authority he cannot trust rather than be shut up within the ring-fence of his own infirm and imperfect personality. The castaway on an unknown shore will make the savage he has tempted into his service a confidant, and will teach his own speech to the parrot, so that he may hear some other voice, rather than be abandoned to his own resources. The general who has lost a battle, and whose habit it has been to maintain a severe aloofness from every member of his staff, will take counsel in the days of his defeat and humiliation with a dependant, and discuss schemes of campaign with a cook or a campfollower, rather than be left to himself. The lost traveller in the desert will yield himself at last to the instincts of his horse or camel, for he has a maddening horror of the repeated misjudgments which are taking him farther and yet farther from wells of water and palm-trees and the tents and habitations of men. We must have some kind of refuge outside ourselves, if it be but the beggar’ s cave. It would be a poor look-out for us if there were nothing within our horizon measuring up to a loftier altitude than our own few paltry cubits of stature. What a wilderness of peril, torture, trepidation, this earthly life would be if there were no high tower, no strong fortress, no enduring refuge, open for us to run into! We need to lean on one towering aloft above this poor, decrepit nature of ours, to fly to the overshadowing power of the Most High, to penetrate the inmost secrets of His love. We demand that which transcends ourselves, and yet is at the same time gentle, gracious, sympathizing. “ Lead me to the rock that is higher than I.” Nothing which is on our own level can quiet our fear and appease our distress. Fleeing from ourselves and from all the terrors that pursue us, bidding farewell to the very sins that seem as inseparable from us as our shadows, we may make our dwelling-place and our abiding home in the brightness of His ever faithful presence. This strong and enduring sanctuary can only afford its peace and shelter to our troubled spirits when we are willing to accept terms of reconciliation with God. “ God is a refuge for us,” and we cannot hide in the refuge and at one and the same time be estranged from God. The melancholy perplexity of many around us consists in this, that they crave a hiding-place from the evils and terrors which infest human life, and yet they cannot or will not turn their faces Godward. The centrifugal tendency seen in Cain when he fled from the face of the Lord, and yet shuddered at the thought of the pain, execration, antagonism, which were everywhere confronting him in his flight, reappears in us. We want to leave both God and the terrors which beleaguer our steps behind; and the two things are absolutely incompatible. We must humble our pride, consent to be contrite, accept God’ s truce, if we are to come into the impregnable sanctuary of His gentleness and power. (T. G. Selby.) The rock higher than I Palestine was not only a land that flowed with milk and honey, but a land of rock and river, and of towering mountains, presenting to his eye a diversified scenery of valley and height, of hill and dale. To apply the term Rock to God, as the refuge and defence of His people in times of difficulty and danger, as the natural rocks were to the distressed Israelites, became as it were a proverbial form of speech, which almost ceased to partake of the nature of metaphor. The Lord is my rock and my fortress. Who is a rock, save our God? Then he forsook the God that made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation. So in the New Testament Christ is called the Rock that supplied the Israelites with means to quench their spiritual, as the rock of Horeb quenched their natural thirst. He was the Rock that followed them. The prayer, then, of David in the text, “ Lead me to the Rock that is higher than I,” is a prayer for all people and in all times. Adversity is a painful school, but it seems to be the order of God’ s providence that the majority of men, if saved at all, should be saved so as by fire. The weakness of humanity requires to be demonstrated, not only in the truth of Scripture, but in their own persons, in order to bring conviction to their minds and to impress their hearts. When merry, we find it easy to sing psalms; it is only when afflicted that we heed the injunction to seek relief in prayer. It is only when sick that we apply to the Great Physician, when lost that we seek to be saved. Not the mighty, the noble, the wise, but sinners are called to repentance; it is only in weakness that we are made strong. When we are victorious upon the plain we turn our backs to the fortress and the rock; it is the routed army that flees to it for shelter and support. But God is no less the needed Rock that is higher than we in prosperity; indeed, if possible, the more needed than in adversity. Of the two we think the history of the human heart will show that the former is the more dangerous and the more fraught with perils to the souls of men. There is no one of us but at some time has felt the need of the Rock that is higher than I. If we have had full garners, we have feared lest in gaining the world we might perchance lose our own souls; if we have been called to suffer and endure, we have wanted beneath us the everlasting arms to be our comfort and support. It is a necessity of our natures, it grows out of our relations to God. We are His creatures; He is the source of our spiritual and natural life, and it is only His sustaining power that can preserve that life in being. If left to ourselves, Scripture, reason, experience, all teach us that we grope as the blind, we totter and fall, and are made painfully conscious of our own weakness and infirmities. To give us confidence, to enable us to to forward without faltering or fear, we must have some other reliance than our own strength and efforts, some other trust than our own unaided resources in the fierce warfare with the world, the flesh, and the devil. Are we weak? there is the source of strength. Are we sorrowing? there is comfort. Are we penitent? there is pardon. Were it merely a Rock, the symbol of strength alone, of that power which can destroy as well as save, our faith might falter and our hopes might fail; but it is the Rock of Love as well, Jesus is a High Priest who can be touched with a feeling for man’ s infirmities, for He was tempted and tried in all points as are we, only without sin. (G. F. Cushman, D. D.) Christ our Rock I. The state described.1. Man is an emotional being; so delicate and subtle is the organization of the human heart, that a single sound will influence it. So highly wrought that it may be operated upon by the most refined instrument which creature skill ever constructed. So tenderly susceptible, that a word is often times enough to lift it into ecstasy, or depress it to despair--so sensitive, that the glance of an eye can fill it with joy, or transfix it with grief. 2. We may understand, therefore, how it is, that in some circumstances, under strong influences--a sudden influx of joy, or prosperity, or under a storm and inundation of woes--the heart becomes overwhelmed. The Christian is not exempt from the troubles and trials of life; and, in addition to them, how frequently is he overwhelmed with a sense of his own unworthiness--his imperfections; the smallness of his faith--and the coldness of his love. How often does he make the language of the psalmist his own, and say unto God, “ When my heart is overwhelmed within me, lead me,” etc. II. The import of the prayer. Here is the expression of conscious weakness, “ Lead me.” He feels the need of assisting grace, and Divine support--and with the self-diffidence and conscious weakness of a little child, he tries to grasp his Father’ s hand--“ Lead me.” “ Higher than I.” This implies confidence--faith in God--in the sufficiency of Christ. He acknowledges in Christ some one to look up to, superior to any human source; here is humility, (J. D. Carey.) The appeal of the human to the Divine No irreligious man, no liver of the lower life, no man sunk in the material, could pray this prayer. It is the cry of the spiritually awakened man, for only he knows there is anything higher than himself, and only he would ever cry out for its possession.1. This man’ s conception of Deity has two sides to it--a physical and supernatural. He conceives God in the form of a natural and poetical image; sees Him as a Rock. To others God might be Father, lover, friend, but to him He was the rock, that against which birds and armies and tempests dash themselves to pieces, but also that on which flowers bud out of the winds, and birds build their nests, and men hide from the march of tempests. But it is possible that in this other phrase “ higher than I” --we have another conception of the Divine. Change “ higher than I” into “ too high for me,” and you have the conception which held his mind. Too high! i.e. on a higher level, of another order, of a greatness I can never attain, nor match, nor rival! Too high, i.e. God is everything man is not. Man, frail, tainted, limited, weak, foolish. God, enduring, holy, omnipotent, unchangeable, all-wise. Too high! i.e. beyond human apprehension I “ Too high for me,” makes Him the unknowable, the unsearchable splendour, homed in unapproachable light, and worshipped from afar. 2. This discovery and conception of the Divine is not without its effect on the man. First it creates a thirst, a desire in the man. The vision breaks up his self-content, and fills him with a heavenward longing. “ O Rock, Thou the timeless, the restful, the immutable, let me hide myself in Thee.” Man is but the lichen that would root itself on the unshaken and unshakable. The other effect is of a different character. It is said that the revelation of God is the revelation of a man’ s self. When Job saw God, he cried, “ I abhor myself.” When Isaiah beheld Him, he exclaimed, “ I am a man of unclean lips.” Everywhere else man is the all--the king--only in the temple is he the little helpless child with no language but a cry. Man can see the good, dream it, idealize it; he can long for the good, love it, worship it, but it is his disappointment and his hell that he knows it is not in him to be it, to win it, nor possess it. 3. With this point the experience seems to terminate. When man reaches the point of inability, he reaches the end. There is nothing more for him to do than to sit down, fold his hands and wait for the inevitable. If he cannot, he cannot, and he can only acquiesce in his helplessness. But such a termination is impossible. The point where man breaks down is the point where the Divine enters and begins its miracles. The revelation is meant to set the human in action, to lift him to something higher. Instead, therefore, of the conception ending with inability, it ends with a sobbing prayer. It is an appeal for means--“ Cut steps in the cliff that I may climb it, let down the rope and draw me up.” It is an appeal for help--“ I stagger with fatigue and weakness, put an arm round me and help me up the stone-strewn steeps.” It is a cry for guidance--“ Take my hand and guide me, and put my foot on the first stair of the stairway that leads to Thee.” It is a cry for light--“ I am confused with fear and doubt, give me light that I may see the way that leads to Thee.” It is a cry for shelter--“ Suns smite me, and sanddrifts sweep over me, and the whole landscape reels and swims; lift me into the shadow of Thy wings.” It is a cry for salvation--“ I cling to Thee, but the storm beats and the waves drag and my hold is slipping, put out Thy hand and draw me from the hungry waters.” It is the prayer of the helpless, the appeal of the human to the Divine--man in his weakness casting himself on the benevolence and omnipotence of Deity, man in his despair abandoning himself to God. Lead me, let me reach Thee, dwell with Thee, and be one with Thee for ever. (C. E. Stone.) The high rock I. Prayer is always available. in every place, and in every condition of our spirit. I think David meant, by the expression, “ the end of the earth,” a place where he should be far away from his friends, far away from human help, and far away from God’ s sanctuary.1. God’ s people are sometimes brought into such a condition that they are far away from friends. Perhaps you know what it is to have a trouble which you are compelled to bear yourself, which you could not describe even to those in your own house, though your friends would have been ready to help you if they had known; yet it was such that, with all their readiness, they would not have had ability to assist you in it, the biggest words could not have told it, and the bitterest tears could not have spelled it out. You were far away from friends in reality, though they were all round you. Now, this is what David meant by “ the end of the earth,” --far away from friends,--yet even then, when friend and helper and lover failed, did he cry unto his God. 2. Again, he meant, by “ the end of the earth,” far away from human help. There are times when we are sighing after spiritual mercies, when we are groaning under the withdrawal of God’ s countenance, when our sins are hunting us like packs of wolves, when afflictions are rolling over us like huge billows--when faith is little, and fear is great, when hope is dim, and doubt becomes terrible and dark--then we are far away from human help; but, blessed be God, even then we may cry unto Him. 3. By “ the end of the earth,” I think, too, David means at a distance from the means of grace. Sometimes, by sickness, either personal or the sickness of our relatives, we are detained from the house of God; at other times, in journeying by land or upon the sea, we are unable to be in God’ s sanctuary, and to use the means of grace. II. There are times when even a believer cannot get to Christ as he desires. Sometimes God, in His sovereignty, is pleased to show a man his sin, and not to show him his Saviour, for a season; he strips the sinner, perhaps he leaves him to shiver in the cold before he clothes him, just to let him know what a boon that robe of Christ’ s righteousness is. He sometimes gives repentance and faith at the same time, just as the thunder sometimes follows the lightning at once; at other times, He gives repentance, and then He makes us tarry for many a day before He gives us full assurance of our interest in Christ; but they are sure to follow one another, sooner or later. “ Lead me to the rock that is higher than I. Oh, help me to believe! Lord, enable me to see the need of Thy Son, give me the power to look unto Him who was pierced, and, as Thou hast given me eyes to weep, so give me eyes to look on Him, and grace to rejoice in Him as mine.” III. We are now coming to that part of the text which most of all delights my soul, the thought of Jesus Christ, who is the Rock that is higher than we are. Here is a man who is a great sinner. “ Ah!” he says, “ I am indeed a great sinner; my iniquities reach so high that they have ascended above the very stars; they have gone before me to the judgment-seat of God, and they are clamouring for my destruction.” Well, sinner, come thou here, and measure this Rock. Thou art very high, it is true; but this Rock is higher than thou art. Here comes another forward; he is not a man full of doubts and fears, but he is a man of hopeful spirit. “ Oh!” says he, “ I have many sins, but I hope that the Lord Jesus Christ will take them all away. I have many wants, but I hope that He will supply them. I shall have many temptations, but I hope that He will ward them off. I shall have many difficulties, but I hope He will carry me through them.” Ah I man, I like to see thee have a good long measuring-rod, when it is made of hope. Hope is a tall companion; he wades right through the sea, and is not drowned; you cannot kill him, do what you may. Hope is one of the last blessings God gives us, and one that abides last with us. If a man is foodless, and without covering, still he hopes to see better days by and by. Now, sinner, thy hopes, I would have thee to see, are very tall, and very high; but remember, this Rock is higher than any of thy hopes. “ Well,” cries another, “ from what I have heard, and what I have read in God’ s Word, I am expecting very great things of Christ when I shall see Him as He is. Oh, sir, if He be better than the communion of His saints can make Him, if He be sweeter than all His most eloquent preachers can speak of Him, if He be so delightful that those who know Him best cannot tell His beauties, what a precious--what a glorious--what an inconceivable Christ He must be!” Ah, I am glad thou art measuring Christ by thine expectation I But let me tell thee, high as thy expectations are, He is higher than thou art. Expect what thou mayest; but when thou seest Him, thou wilt say with the Queen of Sheba, “ The half was not told me.” Now, as some of you will be exercised with troubles, remember that the Rock is higher than you are; and when your troubles reach you, if you are not high enough to escape them, climb up to the Rock Christ, for there is no trouble that can reach you when you get there. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The saint’ s asylum in distress I. The distress supposed. “ When my heart is overwhelmed.”1. By distressing temptations.2. By providential visitations.3. By inward fears and depressions. II. The asylum referred to. “ The rock higher than I.” III. The prayer presented. “ Lead me to the rock,” etc.1. Conscious insufficiency.2. Confidence in Christ’ s all-sufficiency.3. Earnest desire to feel our connection with Christ. (J. Burns, D. D.) Overwhelmed Imagine a vessel at sea, and you can get an idea of the meaning of our text. It has been labouring in a storm; sometimes lifted up to heaven, as though its masts would sweep the stars; then again descending until its keel seemed dragging on the ocean bed; first staggering this way, and then that way, reeling to and fro, now rushing forward and now starting back--like a drunken man, or like a madman who has lost his way. At last, a huge sea comes rolling on; its white crest of foam can be seen in the distance, and the sailors give up all for lost; on comes the wave, gathering up all its strength till it dashes against the ship, and--down the vessel goes, it is overwhelmed. The decks are swept, the masts are gone, the timbers are creaking, the ship descends, and is sucked down as in a whirlpool; all is lost. “ Now,” says David, “ that is the case with my heart; it is overwhelmed, drawn into a vortex of trouble, borne down by a tremendous sea of difficulty, crushed and broken; the ribs of my soul seem to have given way; every timber of my vessel is cracked and gone out of its place. My heart is overwhelmed within me.” Can you now get an idea of the extreme sorrow of the psalmist’ s spirit? “ Yet,” says he, “ even then will I cry unto Thee.” Oh, noble faith, that can cry amidst the shrieking of the tempest and the howling of the storm! Oh, glorious faith, that from the bottom of the sea can shoot its arrows to the heights of heaven! Oh, masterpiece of faith, that from a broken spirit can present prevailing prayer! Oh, glorious triumph, that from the end of the earth can send a prayer which can reach all the way to heaven! (C. H. Spurgeon.) The highest rock This Rock is higher than thou art. All thou hast enjoyed of Christ is but as the beginning of a topless mountain. When I have been in Scotland, I have gone up some of the hills there; and I have thought, “ This is a very high place indeed; what a fine view there is, what a height I have reached!” “ Ah!” some one has said, “ but if you were to see the Alps, this hill would only seem like the beginning, you would only have got to the foot when you had climbed as high as this;” and so it is with you. By your experience, your sweet enjoyment, you think you have reached the top of the mountain; but Christ comes and whispers to you, “ Look yonder, far above those clouds; you have only begun to go up; this hill of communion is only one step; as yet you have only taken a child’ s leap; you have farther to go, far higher than you could imagine or conceive.” Ah! this is indeed a Rock higher than thou art, the highest in communion, and the next to the throne of God. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Continuance in prayer--a test of sincerity “ Will the hypocrite pray always?” No, as the wheel wears with turning, till it breaks at last, so doth the hypocrite. He prays himself weary of praying; something or other will in time make him quarrel with that duty, which he never inwardly liked; whereas tim sincere believer hath that in him which makes it impossible he Should quite give over praying, except he should also cease believing. Prayer is the very breath of faith; stop a man’ s breath, and where is he then? ‘ Tis true the believer through his own negligence may find some more difficulty of fetching his praying breath at one time than at another, as a man in a cold doth in his natural breath. Alas, who is so careful of his soul’ s health that needs not bewail this. But faith to live and this breath of prayer to be quite cut off is impossible. The Christian’ s wants, sins and temptations continually return upon him, he cannot but continue also to pray against them. “ From the ends of the earth will I call unto Thee,” said David; “ wherever I am, I’ ll find Thee out; prison me, banish me, or do with me what Thou wilt, Thou shalt never be rid of me.” (W. Gurnall.) Psalms 61:3 For Thou hast been a shelter to me, and a strong tower from the enemy.Past mercies earnests of future ones The psalmist had good ground for the determination which he cordially expresses. It is manifest that, with David, to call to mind past mercies was to expect future. He was at the very ends of ‘ the earth; his heart was overwhelmed; but as soon as he remembered how God had delivered and shielded him before, he was at once confident that the wings of his protection were stretched over him still. Perhaps he recollected how he had been saved from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear--how wonderfully he had been enabled to smite down the uncircumcised Philistine; and then, remembering that God was still the same God, he took courage, and felt it impossible that he could now be deserted. Let us, then, show the soundness of David’ s argument. If it be not sound, and God, though He once loved us and sought to do us good, doth now no longer love us, then He, the unchangeable must have changed. But is the Lord’ s arm shortened that He cannot save? The mercies, therefore, that memory adduces cannot have exhausted Him; otherwise He were not Almighty; nay, they actually pledge Him to assist me, otherwise He were not unchangeable. And consider St. Paul’ s argument: “ He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” The apostle here makes the great fact of human redemption--a redemption of which all men, without exception, are the subjects--a reason why God should bestow upon us whatsoever is good; or rather, an evidence that He cannot be willing to withhold from us any real benefit. And, perhaps, there is hardly the use made which there might be of the grand fact of redemption, when men are to be urged to dependence on God, or to confidence in His mercy. It is generally to God as a God of providence, rather than of salvation, that reference is made. We speak of Him as the Being who has watched over us from infancy Upwards; and we argue that He who has bestowed so many blessings Will surely not forsake us if we will trust in His protection. The argument is quite correct so far as it goes. There is no fault to be found with it, except that it does not take the highest ground. For it is not every man, who, like David, has been wondrously delivered from the vicious, uncicumcised Philistine, and who can therefore say of his Maker, “ Thou hast been a shelter for me.” Still every man may say this, though he may be quite unable to trace any single interposition, or speak of special instances in which he has been secured by the shelter of the Almighty--every man may say it, because he has had a share in the general providence of God, having been fed by His bounty, and guarded by His power. Every man may say it, because on his behalf--as actually on his behalf as though he had been a solitary offender--did God’ s own Son take on Him human nature, undergo ignominy, and die as a propitiation. The mother who has lost a child, and yet has been enabled, when that child was carried forth to the burial, to exclaim, “ The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord” --what right has she to be confounded or dismayed when another child seems sickening, as though it were about to die? Why should she recoil from the new trial as certainly more than she can bear, when she has the memory of support given her in her former affliction? God comforted her then; why not now? And so with other mourners and other trials. It is in this way that we would have you live over again times and seasons of extraordinary mercies, in order that you may be nerved for extraordinary trials. Christians should study the history of eminent saints, in order that, through observing what deliverances have been wrought for others, they may be encouraged to expect deliverance for themselves. There is not a converted man who has not such a book--the book of his own experience, on whose pages are inscribed the unnumbered things that God has done for himself. Its title may be said to have been written on the day of conversion, and each following page on every succeeding day. It is the history of himself, and there is a reality about it to convince, which the history of another can scarcely ever have. And note, too, the striking expression of St. Paul, “ I know whom I have believed.” It was no mere report or hearsay with him, that God was a merciful Father, or Christ a powerful Saviour. He had had proof, and he knew and was “ persuaded that he was able to keep that,” etc. He had stored in his memory evidences both of the love and might of the Redeemer to which in the hour of trial he could appeal. And if we did the like, then we should not be, as we too often are, dismayed by the prospect of any new trial, or as much disheartened by the pressure of some new burden, as though we never had experienced the supports and consolations which the Almighty can bestow. Let mercies be remembered as well as enjoyed, and they must be as lights in our dark days, and as shields in our perilous. Strive to acquire the habit of noting and recording the blessings you receive; so that you may have, as it were, books to which to refer. We care not whether or not you do what many have done--accustom yourselves to the keeping a diary in which to register the incidents of life. We are not anxious about the method, but only as to the thing. In one way or another, keep the past before you, if you would look the future calmly in the face. Every fresh discovery of God’ s gracious care of us will increase our admiring love, and with our love our happiness. Thus will life be to eternity what the past is now to the future, the supplying motive to a yet heartier rejoicing in the Lord our God. (H. Melvill, B. D.) A strong tower Let us think of the Lord as a strong tower. I. Remember that the children wanted such a refuge just as much as the grown-up people did. It would never have done for the mother to have left her little child, or the father his boys and maidens. The enemy would have carried them away as slaves, or perhaps have killed them. Whenever temptation comes to you remember that none of us can fight this enemy by ourselves. We must run away at once and hide ourselves in Jesus. Nor is this the only enemy that makes us need the strong tower. We have often to run away from ourselves. Our tempers perhaps are passionate, and set us all on fire, like robbers used to do to the cottages and homes of the people. The feelings sometimes are full of anger and hatred, like those cruel men. Now for them too the Lord is a strong tower. He comes forth with His strong right hand to destroy this nest of robbers. II. Think what a safe refuge we have when the Lord is our strong tower. He is the Almighty. III. David not only speaks of the safety, but of the blessedness also. “ I will trust in the covert of Thy wings” (Psalms 61:4). When I was going over that great castle, I thought that it was a very good place to hide in, but not a very comfortable place to live in. But when I got up to the very safest place of all, there I found a most pleasant little cottage; the ivy grew on the thatch, the jessamine and rose hung about the porch, a bird was singing merrily over the door, and from within came the happy laugh of children. There was strength, and there was comfort too. There was safety, and loving care. And so is it in the Lord’ s strong tower. The Almighty power goes around us to defend us, and the arms that encircle us are the arms of Love, (Mark Guy Pearse.) Psalms 61:4-5I will abide in Thy tabernacle for ever; I will trust in the covert of Thy wings.Comfort in exile 1. The Lord can give such satisfaction to a sad heart in the time of its trouble, that the trouble may turn to be no trouble, even while it lieth on still, as here is to be seen in David’ s comfort, who speaketh as if he were restored, while he is yet in exile. 2. Spiritual consolations in temporal troubles do both give satisfaction to a soul for the present and for the time to come, for everlasting happiness; “ I will abide in Thy tabernacle for ever” : his hope is, that not only he shall be restored to the fellowship of the saints, at the tabernacle in Jerusalem, but also that he shall be in God’ s company in heaven, represented by the tabernacle, and that for ever. 3. True consolation standeth not in earthly things, but in things heavenly, and things having nearest relation thereto; for David’ s comfort was not so much that he should be brought to the kingdom, as that he should be brought to the tabernacle, and to heaven by that means. 4. Sincerity setteth no term-day to God’ s service, or to the seeking of communion with Him. 5. The ground of all spiritual consolations is in the mercy and grace of God offered to us in Christ, represented by the wings of the Cherubims stretched out over the mercy-seat; there faith findeth a rest and solid ground, able to furnish comfort abundantly: “ I will trust in the covert of Thy wings.” 6. Access to God in prayer, and approbation of the conscience, and the sincere pouring forth of the heart melting with present felt sense of God’ s love, do strengthen greatly the assurance of everlasting communion with God; “ For Thou, O God, hast heard my voice.” 7. As spiritual comfort in time of trouble granted to a believer is indeed the earnest of everlasting life, so should they to whomsoever the earnest is given make reckoning that by this earnest the inheritance is confirmed unto them by way of possession begun: “ Thou hast given me the heritage of those that fear Thy name.” 8. The inheritance of the chief of God’ s servants, and of the meanest and weakest of them, is one; the right of every believer is alike good, albeit the hold laid upon the right by all is not alike strong; and what the strongest of the godly do believe for their own consolation and salvation, the weakest may believe the same to belong to every believer that feareth God. (D. Dickson.) Selah.-- Selah The majority of Bible-readers Think the word of my text of no importance. They suppose it to be a superfluity, a mere filling-in, a meaningless interjection, a useless refrain, an indefinable echo. Selah! It is never a Scriptural accident. Seventy-four times does it appear in the Psalms, and three times in Habakkuk. You must not convict this book of seventy-seven trivialities. Selah! It is an enthroned word. If, according to an old author, there are words that are battles, this word is a Marathon, a Thermopylae, a Waterloo, a Sedan. It is a word decisive sometimes for solemnity, and sometimes for beauty, and sometimes for grandeur. Through it roll the thundering chariots of the omnipotent God. I. The Selah of poetic significance. When you find this word you are to rouse yourself to great stanzas. You are to open the door of your soul for analogies. You are to spread the wings of your imagination for flight. “ I answered thee in the secret place of thunder; I proved thee at the waters of Meribah. Selah! The earth and all the inhabitants thereof are dissolved. I bear up the pillars thereof. Selah!. . . Who is this King of Glory? The Lord of Hosts, He is the King of Glory. Selah! Thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance. Selah! Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. Selah!” The Lord of Hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah! Thou hast given a banner to them that fear Thee, that it may be displayed because of the truth. Selah! I will trust in the covert of Thy wings. Selah! O God, when Thou wentest forth before Thy people, when Thou didst march through the wilderness. Selah!” You see the text is a signal hung out to warn you off the track while the rushing train goes by with its imperial messengers. Poetic word, charged with resurrections and millenniums! II. The Selah of intermission. Gesenius, Tholuck and Hengstenberg agreed that this word often means a rest in the music. According to the Greeks it is a diapsalma, a pause, a halt in the solemn march of cantillation. God thrusts the Selah into His Bible and into our lives to make us stop and think, stop and consider, stop and admire, stop and repent, stop and pray, stop and be sick, stop and die. It is not the number of times that we read the Bible through that makes us intelligent in the Scriptures. We must pause. It may take us an hour to one word. It may take a day to one verse. It may take a year to one chapter. We must pause to measure the height, the depth, the length, the breadth, the universe, the eternity of one passage. Matthew Henry made a long pause after the verse, “ Open Thou my lips, and my mouth shall show forth Thy braise,” and it converted him. Cowper made a long pause after the verse, “ Being justified freely by His grace,” and it converted him. God tells us seventy-seven times meditatively to pause in reading two books in the Bible, leaving to our common sense to decide how often we ought to pause in reading the other sixtyfour Rooks of the Bible. Pause and pray for more light. Pause and weep for our sins. Pause and absorb the strength of one promise. It is not the number of times you go through the Bible, but the number of times the Bible goes through you. Pause! Reflect! Selah! So, in the scroll of your life and mine, we go rushing on in our song of prosperity from note of joy to note of joy, and it is smooth and long-drawn-out legato, and we become indifferent and unappreciative, when lo! we find a blank in the music; no notes between these two bars. A pause! The spaces will be filled up with a sick-bed, or a commercial disaster, or a grave. You and I have been halted by more than one Selah! But, thank God, it is not a ruinous break-down; it makes the past mercies the more valuable, and will make the future the more tender. Whether we understand now or not, it is best for us to pause. It is good to be afflicted. The Selah is not misplaced or wasted. Indeed, we shall all soon have to stop. Men of science are improving human longevity, but no one has proposed to make terrene life perpetual. Yet the GOspel makes death a Selah between two beatitudes, dying triumph standing on one side the grave, celestial escort standing on the other. III. The Selah of emphasis. Ewald, the German theologian, thinks this word is from the Hebrew word “ to ascend,” and that it means “ you are to lift up your voice and make distinct utterance.” Oh! how much we all need to correct our emphasis. We put too much emphasis on the things of this world and too little emphasis on the things of the next world. Behold wretchedness on a throne! Napoleon, while yet emperor, sat dejected, with his face buried in his hands, and a little page presented him a tray of food, saying, “ Eat, sir, it will do you good.” The emperor looked up and said to him, “ You are from the country?” “ Yes.” “ Where your parents have a cottage and some acres of land? Yes.” “ There is happiness,” cried Napoleon. Then behold happiness under worst worldly disadvantage. “ I never saw until I was blind,” cried a Christian blind man one day. “ I never knew contentment when I had my eyesight as I do now that I have lost it. I can truly affirm, though few know how to credit me, that I would on no account change my present situation and circumstances with any that I ever enjoyed before I was blind.” Oh, my hearers, change your emphasis. Put less weight on this world and more weight on God as a joy and an unfading portion. IV. The Selah of perpetuity. The Targum renders this word “ for ever.” Many writers agree in its meaning “ for ever.” In the very verse from which my text is taken, Selah means not only poetic significance and intermission and emphasis, but eternal reverberation. For ever! God’ s goodness for ever, God’ s government for ever, gladness of the righteous for ever. This Selah of perpetuity makes all earthly inequalities insignificant; the difference between sceptre and needle, between Alhambra and hut, between chariot and cart; between throne and kerbstone, between Axminster and bare floor, between satin and sackcloth, trivial. This is the Selah that makes getting ready so important. For such a prolongation of travel, are we provided with guide books and passes and escort? Are we putting out into wilderness sirocco-swept and ghoul-haunted, or into regions of sun-lighted and spray-sprinkled garden? Is it to be Elysium or Gehenna? As we start we must keep on. That current is so swift that once in it no oar can resist it, no helm steer out of it, no herculean or titanic arm baffle it. Hear the long-resounding echo--For ever! But there are two for evers. The one is as swift as the other, as long as the other, as mighty as the other, but the one empties into an ocean of gladness, opaline above and coraline beneath. The other goes down over a plunge of awful abysm of despair. On the one sail argosies of light, on the other the charred hulks of a fiery cyclone. Wake up to the value of your deathless spirit! Strike out for heaven! Arouse ye, the men and women for whom Christ died! Selah! (T. De Witt Talmage.) Psalms 61:5 Thou hast given me the heritage of those that fear Thy name.Our heritage So, then, they that fear God have an heritage. Not, perhaps, in this world, but even as to temporal good, they are often above others. And as to spiritual good--they have indeed “ a goodly heritage. The Lord is their portion and His promises, and the inheritance in heaven.” Now, this heritage is given. And we may know that we possess it. “ Thou hast given me,” etc. Can we read our title clear? “ Blessed are they that do hunger and thirst after righteousness.” (W. Jay.) Psalms 61:6-8 Thou wilt prolong the king’ s life: and his years as many generations.The perpetuity of Christ’ s kingdom He prophesieth not simply of the stability of the kingdom in his own person and posterity, but under the type; namely, he speaketh of the perpetuity of the kingdom of Christ, the true King of Israel, for which end he prayeth that mercy and truth may be forthcoming to subjects of Christ, that His kingdom may be prolonged; and so David in his time, and all the saints in their time, may joyfully praise God continually. Whence learn--1. It is not unusual with God, together with present consolation, and the light of future salvation in Christ, to reveal also and give assurance of great things concerning Christ’ s kingdom. 2. The glory of Christ and perpetuity of His kingdom is every subject’ s good and comfort, for this is comfort for David, that Christ shall live for ever, that He shall abide before God for ever. 3. The kingdom of Christ, and government of His subjects in His Church, shall be allowed of God, and be protected of God, and blessed of God for ever, however it be opposed by men in the world. 4. The perpetuity of Christ’ s kingdom and preservation of His subjects in this life, till they be possessed of heaven, is by the merciful remedying the misery, and removing of the sin which they are subject unto, and by performing of what He hath promised and prepared through Christ to bestow upon them. 5. The best retreat that can be made after wrestling and victory over troubles is prayer and praises; as here David after his exercise prayeth, “ O prepare mercy and truth” ; and then saith, “ unto thee will I sing.” 6. As the main matter of our vows is the moral duty of rejoicing in God, and hearty praising of Him, so renewed experience of God’ s mercy and truth towards His people in Christ is the main matter of our joy in Him and praise unto Him: “ O prepare mercy and truth,” etc. (D. Dickson.) . Psalms 62:1-12 Psalms 62:1-12 Truly my soul waiteth upon God: from Him cometh my salvation.A testimony and an exhortation I. A religious testimony.1. Concerning self (Psalms 62:1-2; Psalms 62:6-7). His confidence in God was-- (1) Supreme. “ He only is my Rock.”(2) Steadfast. “ I shall not be greatly moved.”(3) Pacific. “ Truly,” or, “ is silent my soul.” 2. Concerning contemporaries. (1) Malignant (Psalms 62:3).(2) False (Psalms 62:4). David’ s testimony concerning his contemporaries is applicable to the men of our age. Read the malignity of our times in the bloody wars, etc. Read the falsehood of our times in the schemings of politicians, the tricks of tradesmen, and the hollow shams in all departments of life.3. Concerning God (Psalms 62:11-12). (1) His power. All kinds of power belong to Him--physical power, intellectual power, moral power.(2) His mercy. God’ s kindness is even greater than His power, inasmuch as it inspires, directs, and controls. It is kindness that nerves and moves the Omnipotent Arm.(3) His justice. This testimony of God is sublime and meets our highest ideal. II. A religious exhortation.1. To self (Psalms 62:5). Man is a duality; in him there are two personalities in one. These often battle with each other, sometimes blame, and sometimes commend each other. Man is constantly exhorting himself, sometimes to be more industrious in business, more accurate in studies, more temperate in habits. Here is a man exhorting himself to wait only on God. This religious exhortation is-- (1) Most available. Every man has a preacher within.(2) Most efficient. All outward preachers are only available so far as they can rouse the inner preacher, and make him thunder in the great temple of conscience. 2. To others. (1) Concerning a right object of trust. “ Trust in Him at all times,” etc. Trust Him, not only when the weather of life is calm and sunny, but trust Him amidst the rush of tempest, the roar of thunder, and the convulsions of volcanoes. Trust Him fully; pour out your heart. As all the roots of the tree strike into the soil, so let all the sympathies of your nature strike into God. (2) Concerning a wrong object of trust. “ Trust not in oppression,” etc. Men do trust in oppression, not only tyrants, warriors, slaveholders, but unjust masters and mistresses that expect more service from employes than is just: hence the exhortation, “ Trust not in oppression;” “ If riches increase.”(1) Here is a circumstance which most desire. Some for wrong reasons, some for right reasons. (2) Here is a possibility which some may possess. “ If riches increase.” In some it is impossible; the poor men often get rich in one or two ways, either with or without their efforts. (3) Here is a duty which all should discharge. “ Set not your heart upon them.” Why? Because to love them is unworthy of your nature. Because to love them is to injure your nature. Because to love them is to exclude God from your nature. Because to love them is to bring ruin on your nature. (Homilist.) Faith triumphant The psalm falls naturally into three parts of four verses each; and in the original each of these begins with the same particle, which unfortunately is either not translated in our versions, or rendered by different words. It means Yes, Surely or Verily, and expresses a conviction freshly acquired. This is the character of the entire psalm: it is a series of maxims hewn straight from life. I. The silence of faith (verse 1-4). “ Truly my soul waiteth upon God,” literally, “ is silent unto God.” Silence is sometimes very eloquent. When one has suffered a great wrong or is accused of some outrageous baseness, there may be an impressiveness in dignified silence, which the loudest protestations could not equal. In the trial of Jesus there are three or four moments of silence which perhaps bring home to us the height of His moral grandeur as powerfully as anything in His life. So faith has its silence. It is not always silent. On the contrary, it sometimes cries aloud; it groans and complains; it argues and beseeches. Perhaps the faith of the psalmist had passed through these stages before reaching the silent stage, for he tells us (Psalms 62:3-4) that he had enemies, who bad pushed their attacks to the verge of murder. In such circumstances, faith may well have cried or groaned or argued; but these stages are past; and now it is silent before God. It lies before Him in perfect peace, confident that His will must overrule all. For (Psalms 62:2) He is a rock and a defence; and therefore, says the child of faith, “ I shall not be greatly moved.” II. Thy instruction of faith (Psalms 62:5-8). Having attained to such a height, he is seized with the spirit of a teacher.1. He begins with instructing himself. “ My soul, wait thou upon God.” When we get up to heights of experience, we ought to mark in the rock how high we have climbed, for we know-- “ How difficult it is to keep Heights which the soul is competent to gain.” When we are high up, there are outlooks which we are unable to see at ordinary times; and it is well to record them as is done here. The truths about God which we thus learn in moments of great experience are the most precious portion of all knowledge: they are better than we can learn from books or doctors or sages. Blessed is he who possesses convictions which he has not been taught by men, however wise, but has wrung out of his own experience.2. He also instructs others (Psalms 62:8). It is the natural way of experience to overflow into testimony; and when the soul has attained rest itself, it naturally seeks to assist the struggling. Thereby it not only proves that it has attained, but extends and strengthens its attainments; because we are never safer or healthier than when we have left off thinking of ourselves and are able to care for others. III. The alternatives to faith (Psalms 62:9-12). In this last section the psalmist contrasts faith in God with the other refuges in which he was tempted to put his trust. These were men (Psalms 62:9) and money (Psalms 62:10). To one in David’ s position, it would naturally seem a great thing to have men’ s alliance; but he had tried them and found them wanting. This is a word for all times: by any one who has a great cause--who is fighting for Christ’ s cause--democracy and aristocracy are alike to be distrusted; God alone is the watchword. The other substitute for God which David was tempted to trust was money, whether obtained by foul means or fair; and here he touches a still more universal chord. In thinking of the future and of the changes and chances of life, we are all tempted to look in this direction. How many are devoting themselves to the pursuit of money, caring little for scruples, but only feeling that, if they had enough of it, all would be well. Others, seeking wealth by honest means, have the same confidence. But the poorest man who has faith in God is safer. This is the testimony of Scripture, and it is the testimony of experience as well. So we come back to the wisdom of the man of God. Once, he says, he has heard, yea, twice--that is, it has been borne in on him again and again as a Divine truth--that “ power belongeth unto God.” This is the end of the whole matter; this is the resource that will avail in every difficulty, which will last through time and through eternity. (J. Stalker, D. D.) Silence to God (with Psalms 62:5):--“ My soul is silence unto God.” That forcible form of expression describes the completeness of the psalmist’ s unmurmuring submission and quiet faith. His whole being is one of great stillness, broken by no clamorous passions; by no loud-voiced desires; by no remonstrating reluctance. That silence is first a silence of the will. Bridle impatience till God speaks. Take care of running before you are sent. Keep your will in equipoise till God’ s hand gives the impulse and direction. We must keep our hearts silent too. The sweet voices of pleading affections, the loud cry of desires and instincts that roar for their food like beasts of prey, the querulous complaints of disappointed hopes, the groans and sobs of black-robed sorrows, the loud hubbub and Babel, like the noise of a great city, that every man carries within, must be stifled and coerced into silence. We have to take the animal in us by the throat, and sternly say, Lie down there and be quiet. We have to silence tastes and inclinations. There must be the silence of the mind, as well as of the heart and will. We must not have our thoughts ever occupied with other things, but must cultivate the habit of detaching them from earth, and keeping our minds still before God, that He may pour His light into them. Alas! how far from this is our daily life! Who among us dares to take these words as the expression of our own experience? Is not the troubled sea which cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt, a truer emblem of our restless, labouring souls than the calm lake? Put your own selves by the side of this psalmist, and honestly measure the contrast. It is like the difference between some crowded market-place all full of noisy traffickers, ringing with shouts, blazing in sunshine, and the interior of the quiet cathedral that looks down on it all, where are coolness and subdued light, and silence and solitude. This man’ s profession of utter resignation is perhaps too high for us; but we can make his self-exhortation our own. “ My soul! wait thou only upon God.” Perfect as he ventures to declare his silence towards God, he yet feels that he has to stir himself up to the effort which is needed to preserve it in its purity. Just because he can say, “ My soul waits,” therefore he bids his soul wait. That vigorous effort is expressed here by the very form of the phrase. The same word which began tim first clause begins the second also. As in the former it represented for us, with an emphatic “ Truly,” the struggle through which the psalmist had reached the height of his blessed experience, so here it represents in like manner the earnestness of the self-exhortation which he addresses to himself. He calls forth all his powers to the conflict, which is needed even by the man who has attained to that height of communion, if he would remain where he has climbed. And for us who shrink from taking these former words upon our lips, how much greater the need to use our most strenuous efforts to quiet our souls. If the summit reached can only be held by earnest endeavour, how much more is needed to struggle up from the valleys below. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Waiting upon God is the soul casting its anchor It was the speech of Taulerus, one that Luther prized above all. Says he--Though the mariners may make use of their oars in the time of calm, yet when a storm comes down the mariners leave all and fly to their anchor. So, though at other times we may make use of resolutions and vows, and the like, yet when the storm of temptation comes down, nothing then but fly to the anchor of faith, nothing then like to casting of anchor into the vail. (Bridge.) Psalms 62:2 He only is my rock and my salvation.God alone the salvation of His people “ My rock!” What a history the rock might give you of the storms to which it has been exposed; of the tempests which have raged in the ocean at its base, and of the thunders which have disturbed the skies above its head; while it, itself, has stood unscathed by tempests, and unmoved by the bufetings of storms. So with our God. The rock is immutable; nought hath been worn from it. Yon old granite peak hath gleamed in the sun, or worn the white veil of winter snow--it hath sometimes worshipped God with bare, uncovered head, and at other times the clouds furnished it with veiling wings, that, like a cherub, it might adore its Maker; but yet itself hath stood unchanged. The frosts of winter have not destroyed it, nor have the heats of summer melted it. It is the same with God. The ten thousand uses of the rock, moreover, are full of ideas as to what God is. You see the fortress standing on a high rock, up which the clouds themselves can scarcely climb, and up whose precipices the assault cannot be carried, and the armed cannot travel, for the besieged laugh at them from their eminence. So is our God a sure defence; and we shall not be moved if He hath “ set our feet upon a rock, and established our goings.” Many a giant rock is a source of admiration from its elevation; for on its summit we can see the world outspread below, like some small map; we mark the river or broadly spreading stream, as if it were a vein of silver inlaid in emerald. We discover the nations beneath our feet, “ like drops in a bucket,” and the islands are “ very little things “ in the distance, while the sea itself seems but a basin of water, held in the hand of a mighty giant. The mighty God is such a rock; we stand on Him, and look down on the world, counting it to be a mean thing. We shall notice-- I. The great doctrine, that God only is our salvation. II. The great experience, to know and to learn that “ He only is my rock and my salvation” ; and-- III. The great duty, which you may guess at, which is, to give all the glory and all the honour, and place all our faith on Him who “ only is our rock and our salvation.” I must tell you a singular story, which was related at our Church meeting, because there may be some very poor people here, who may understand the way of salvation by it. One of the friends had been to see a person who was about to join the Church; and he said to him, “ Can you tell me what you would say to a poor sinner who came to ask you the way of salvation?” “ Well,” said he, “ I do not know--I think I can hardly tell you; but it so happened that a case of this sort did occur yesterday. A poor woman came into my shop, and I told her the way; but it was in such a homely manner that I don’ t like to tell you.” “ Oh, yes, tell me; I should like to hear it.” “ Well, she is a poor woman, who is always pawning her things, and by and by she redeems them again. I did not know how to tell her better than this. I said to her, ‘ Look here; your soul is in pawn to the devil; Christ has paid the redemption money; you take faith for your ticket, and so you will get your soul out of pawn.’” Now, that was the most simple, but the most excellent way of imparting a knowledge of salvation to this woman. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The Rock confers immovability to the believer In the old classic story Hercules the giant challenged the whole world to produce a man who could wrestle with him and come off victor. There stepped forward a man of feeble build and almost dwarfish stature. Hercules disdainfully advanced and, lightly closing with this weak-looking fellow, put forth just a little of his strength, but the little man held his feet. Hercules, wondering at this, grappled with the unpromising wrestler, and put forth every atom of his strength to fling him. But, instead of being hurled to the ground, the stranger’ s feet are immovable, and he still stands. At last, strength gone, amid the laughter and jeers of the crowd over their broken idol, Hercules slunk away, completely beaten, utterly humiliated. That night a traitor friend of the dwarf’ s visited the tent of the discomfited giant and whispered, “ Gold! Gold, and I will tell you why you could not win to-day, but why you can to-morrow. The man you are wrestling with to-day is Antaeus, the son of Earth. While his feet touch the ground all the strength of his mother earth passes into him, and he cannot be thrown. But only sever his connection with the ground by a hair’ s breadth and you have him.” Next day the crowds gathered vaster than ever to witness Hercules’ defeat again. Antaeus is there, too little suspecting that his secret is betrayed. The giant advances to his opponent, and, before the dwarf is aware, with a sudden spring lifts him off the ground, and in a moment has his knee on his breast. Oh, take hold of the strength of God. Keep your feet on the Rock of ages. While you do so you are invincible. (J. Robertson.) Psalms 62:5-6 Truly my soul waiteth upon God . . . My soul, wait thou only upon God.Silence to God These clauses correspond: the “ truly” of the first is the same word as the “ only” of the second, and in each it stands at the beginning. Literally the words are, “ My soul is silence unto God.” His whole being was one great stillness before God. This silence is--1. Of the will. Resignation is its characteristic; is a silent will. Such will strong: it is no feeble passiveness. 2. Of the heart. 3. Of the mind. How we need to be still and let God speak. The second clause is an exhortation to the psalmist’ s own soul, and such self-exhortation, if not the affirmation of the first clause, we can make our own. There must be conscious effort and self-encouragement would we preserve the highest religious emotion. As the constant wash of the sea undermines the cliffs and wastes the coasts, so do the wear and tear of daily occupation act upon and wear away the higher emotions of our religious life. Therefore stir up your soul to wait only upon God. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) I shall not be greatly moved.-- The upgrade of faith (with Psalms 62:6):-- I. The psalmist has already attained to a good degree in the school of faith. “ I shall not be greatly moved.” And how did he attain to this degree?1. He began by waiting upon God. “ Only to God is my soul silenced” is the original, and it is expressive in that form, is it not? I have no one else in view, I am listening to God alone; my soul has ears, and they are open to hear what He will say unto me, for He will speak peace unto His people. This is the right attitude. 2. Having begun by waiting silently upon God, the psalmist soon enjoyed the realization of His power, His grace, His interest. “ He only is my rock.” That metaphor means more than we imagine. David knew what rocks were, the use and purpose and comfort of them. What the hills and the rocks were to the conies, that the caves and dens of the earth had been to the hunted king, and that God was to him in all his soul’ s perplexities. He further calls Him his salvation, adding this to the metaphor that he had already employed, as much as to say, “ It is not mere metaphor. This is song, but it is not mere song; it is poetry, but it is practical for all that. God has been to me as this rock of my salvation, a Rock of Ages, a cleft rock, in which I have been secure.” Further, he says, “ He is my defence,” a high tower, a lordly castle; something even better than the caves of the earth, though they served David’ s purpose well enough when occasion demanded. But God is to us the best of the best, the noblest of the noble; a tower, but a high tower as well as a strong tower, not merely a rock-hewn shelter, but a lordly castle, behind whose bulwarks we are not only safe but happy. 3. This produces firm confidence. “ I shall not be greatly moved.” The compass trembles and wavers and vacillates, but it trembles back to the pole; it is not greatly moved. I may fall, but I shall rise again. If I am perplexed I am not in despair. If I am cast down I am not, and shall not be, distressed. With such a rock--for who is a rock like unto our God?--may we not with confidence say, “ I shall not be greatly moved.” II. He has made immense progress (Psalms 62:6). “ I shall not be moved.” That is not so long a sentence as the other, but if it is not as long it is as strong, and stronger, and I prefer strength to length. The omission of that word greatly marks a growing faith, and makes a world of difference. “ I shall not be moved.” There is no qualifying adverb; it is absolute. “ I shall not be moved in the least degree, not an inch, not a hair’ s breadth. I shall not be moved at any time, while I live, nor when I come to die, nor when I stand before the judgment seat. I shall not be moved.” You see there is no qualification whatever. Do you wish you could get to this? Notice how swift the growth has been. I believe that the psalmist was just speaking his actual experience, and it could have taken only a minute or so to say the intervening words. Ah, but God’ s plants grow quickly. The lilies of the Lord spring up in an hour or so, when He shines upon the seed and waters it with His grace. But how can we account for this growth? First on the ground that real faith is vital. It is bound to grow. It has the life of God, it is the germ Divine, and just as in the hands of the mummy the wheat, and peas have lain three thousand years, but when brought forth to light and planted in the ground they spring to beauty, their life being in them all the time, so faith cannot be destroyed. It is God’ s own life; it is bound to live and conquer. Moreover, faith rises to occasion. It is like the stormy petrel that delights in the breeze, and is never so happy as when the storm is strongest. Moreover, it grows by exercise. The more faith is acted upon, the more active it is. Now let me say that nothing short of this should suffice any one of us. I know that half a loaf is better than no bread. I know that a feeble faith is infinitely to be preferred to none at all, but on that same line of argument you may well declare that such a faith as this we have been speaking of is greatly to be preferred to that we thought of at the first. Why should we be content with small measure when God will give it to us heaped up, pressed down, and running over? (Thomas Spurgeon.) Psalms 62:8 Trust in Him at all times.The duty of trusting in God I. As interesting fact asserted. “ God is a refuge for us.” This is a fact in which all mankind are deeply interested. If God be not our refuge, we are undone, and must finally perish in our sins. But, thank the Lord, He has not left us without help. He “ hath remembered us in our low estate, for His mercy endureth for ever.” II. An important duty enjoined. “ Trust in Him at all times.” This is both the imperious duty, and the highest interest of every human being. There is no season in the whole compass of human existence when it is not needful to trust in the Lord. III. An encouraging direction urged. “ Ye people, pour out your hearts before Him.” “ Thou, God,.seest me,” is a sentiment that should deeply impress our minds at all times; but especially in our addresses to the throne of grace. (Sketches of Four Hundred Sermons.) Confidence in God I. The object of our confidence--God. Trust in Him: in His perfections and prerogatives--His power, wisdom, goodness, love. Trust in Him at all times: prosperity, sorrow, etc. Trust in Him at all times. May I? You must. Is it not presumption? Nay; the presumption would be the other way. When your child trusts in your affection, and walks in obedience to your will, regarding your promise as truth, that child is not presumptuous. It is presumptuous when he disputes your authority or truthfulness, and is refractory. Filial affiance, humble love, lowly but perfect confidence, are not presumption, but obedience. II. This is our privilege, that we may pour out our hearts before God. Pour out your heart in personal prayer and supplication. God sees the heart; yet open it yourself to Him. Spread your case before Him. It will be your comfort and relief, your solace and your satisfaction. III. The safety which it assures to all who exercise that confidence, and avail themselves of that consolation. God is a refuge for us. There is our security. (J. Stratten.) How are we to live by faith on Divine providence? - I. Trusting in God is a believer’ s duty (Psalms 65:5; Proverbs 3:5; Isaiah 51:5; Psalms 52:8; Psalms 78:22). II. What it is to trust in God.1. Generally. To trust in God, is to cast our burden on the Lord, when it is too heavy for our own shoulder (Psalms 55:22); to dwell “ in the secret place of the Most High;” when we know not where to lay our heads on earth (Psalms 91:1); to “ look to our Maker,” and to “ have respect to the Holy One of Israel” (Isaiah 17:7); to stay ourselves, when sinking, on the Lord our God (Isaiah 26:8); in a word, trust in God is that high act or exercise of faith, whereby the soul, looking upon God, and casting of itself on His goodness, power, promises, faithfulness and providence, is lifted up above carnal fears and discouragements, above perplexing doubts and disquietments, either for the obtaining and continuance of that which is good, or for the preventing or removing of that which is evil. 2. More particularly. (1) The ingredients of trust in God are--A clear knowledge or right apprehension of God, as revealed in His Word and works (Psalms 9:10; Psalms 91:14). A full assent of the understanding, and consent of the will, to those Divine revelations, as true and good, wherein the Lord proposeth Himself as an adequate object for our trust. A firm and fixed reliance of the whole soul on God. (2) Its concomitants--An holy quietness, security and peaceableness of spirit, springing from a full persuasion of our safety. A steadfast, well-grounded hope, which includes-- (i.) A holy and confident expectation and looking out after God’ s gracious presence; (ii.) An humble and constant waiting on God’ s leisure. An humble, holy and undaunted confidence.(3) Its effects. Fervent, effectual, constant prayer. Sincere, universal, spiritual, cheerful, constant obedience. Soul-ravishing, heart-enlivening joy (Psalms 13:5; Isaiah 12:2; 1 Peter 1:8). III. What is, or ought to be, the grand and sole object of a believer’ s trust. The Lord Jehovah is, or at least should be--1. The grand object of a believer’ s trust. “ Put your trust in the Lord” (Psalms 4:5). In whom should a dying creature trust, but in a “ living God” ? (1 Timothy 4:10). In stormy and tempestuous times, though we may not run to the bramble, yet we must to this Rock, for refuge (Isaiah 26:4). When the sun burns hot, and scorches, a Jonah’ s gourd will prove insignificant: no shadow like that of a God’ s wings (Psalms 36:7). 2. The sole object of a believer’ s trust. Holy trust is an act of worship proper and peculiar to a holy God. No creature must share in it: whatever we trust in, unless it be in subordination unto God, we make it our God, or at least our idol. True trust in God takes us off the hinges of all other confidences: as we cannot serve, so we cannot trust, God and Mammon. There must be but one string to the bow of our trust; and that is the Lord. IV. What are those sure and stable grounds on which saints may firmly and securely build their trust on God--1. God’ s almighty arm and power. The Lord hath an arm, an outstretched arm (1 Kings 8:42); a hand, an omnipotent hand; a hand that spans the heavens (Isaiah 40:12), that strecheth them out as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in. On this Almighty arm may believers trust (Isaiah 51:5). 2. God’ s infinite and free goodness, mercy and bounty. His bowels are as tender as His arm is strong. 3. God’ s many, choice, exceeding great and precious promises.--These are the flagons that faith keeps by her, the apples [which] she hath hoarded up in store, to revive and quicken in a day of swooning. Who will not trust the word, the promise, the protest of the King of kings? (Hebrews 13:5; Isaiah 43:2; Isaiah 4:5; Isaiah 6:1). 4. God’ s inviolable, steadfast, never-failing faithfulness (1 Corinthians 10:13). God’ s goodness inclines Him to make good promises, and His faithfulness engages Him to make those promises good. 5. God’ s most holy, wise, powerful, gracious providence (Acts 17:25; Acts 17:28; Proverbs 15:3). Faith reflects on former experiences, its own and others; and by the holy skill it hath in the physiognomy of providence, clearly reads and collects what God will do, in what God hath done. It casts its eye on-- (1) The experiences of others.--And judges herself to have an interest in those very providences of grace which they enjoyed. (2) Its own experiences (1 Samuel 17:37; 2 Corinthians 1:10). 6. Those dear relations in which the Lord is pleased to stand and own towards His people cry aloud for their trust in Him. Hath He built the house, and will He not keep it up? He that made us will assuredly take care of us. We may safely give up ourselves, our trust our all, to Him, who hath given us ourselves and our all. This relation the apostle makes the ground of trust (1 Peter 4:19). V. What are those special and signal seasons which call aloud for the exerting of this Divine trust? The wise man tells us there is an appointed time for every purpose under heaven: a time to kill and to heal, to plant and to pluck up, to weep and to laugh, to get and to lose, to be born and to die (Ecclesiastes 3:1, etc.). In all these, trust in God is not, like snow in harvest, uncomely, but seasonable, yea, necessary. VI. How faith or trust exerts, puts forth, demeans, and bestirs itself in these signal seasons.1. In times of fulness and prosperity. When it goes well with us and ours; when the candle of the Lord shines on us and our tabernacle; whern our lines fall in pleasant places, and our God makes us to lie down in green and fat pastures: now, now is a fair opportunity for faith or trust to exert itself, yea, and to appear gloriously. And, indeed, it requires no less than the utmost of faith’ s skill to steer the soul handsomely in this serene and smooth-faced calm. And so-- (1) Faith or trust looks upward, and there fixeth its eye on God. And so holy faith delivers herself, in such expressions as these; namely-- (i.) How full soever my large cistern be, it is the Lord, and the Lord alone, that is the grand Fountain, or rather Ocean, of all my enjoyments. (ii.) Since all that I have is received of God, I may not, I must not boast, crack, glory, as if I received it not (Genesis 4:7). (iii.) Inasmuch as all that I have is from God’ s blessing and bounty, this whole all shall be for His praise and glory, (iv.) Because all my enjoyments proceed from God’ s free-gift, or rather his loan, therefore they must and shall be readily surrendered to God’ s call. (v.) Now I enjoy most from God, now, even now, it is necessary that I should trust mostly, yea, wholly and only, in God. (vi.) These outward enjoyments are indeed sweet; but my God, the author of them, is infinitely more sweet. On the things of God. Faith discovers a world beyond the moon, and trades thither; leaving the men of the earth to load themselves with clay and coals, faith pursues its staple commodity, and traffics for grace and glory.(2) Faith or trust looks downward, on its fullest and sweetest temporal enjoyments.--And so it accurately weighs these enjoyments in the balance of the sanctuary, and so makes a just estimate of them as to their worth and value. 2. In times of sadness, afflictions, wants, sufferings, miseries.--When the hand of the Lord is gone out against us, and He greatly multiplies our sorrows; now, now is a time for a saint’ s trust to bestir itself to purpose. (T. Lyre.) Trust in God You believe in God; that is to say, He has a place in your intellectual notions; you could not on any consideration allow His name to be blotted out of your creed; you are intellectually sure that He lives. Now, be true to your own creed, and trust in Him. You believe that the river runs to the sea, and that the sea is large enough to sustain your ship,--then act upon your faith and launch the vessel. If you keep your vessel on the stocks when she is finished, then all your praises of the ocean go for nothing; better never have built the ship than leave her unlaunched--a monument of your scientific belief, but also a testimony of your practical infidelity. This figure will serve us still further. This faith in God is truly as a sea-going ship. You have this great ship; she is well built; you know her preciousness--but there you are, hesitating on the river, running down to the harbour-bar and coming back again aghast as if you had seen a ghost: have faith; pass the bar; leave the headlands behind; make the stars your counsellors, and ride upon the great sea by the guidance of the greater sun. This is faith: not a mere nodding of the assenting head, but the reverent risking of the loving, clinging heart. To have a God in your belief is to sit in a ship which is chained upon the stocks; but to have a God in the heart, ruling the understanding, the conscience, and the will, is to sail down the river, enter upon the great ocean, and pass over the infinite waters into the haven of rest. Trust in Him at all times. Religion is not to be occasional but continuous. In the daytime our faith is to shine as the sun; in the nighttime it is to fill the darkness with stars; at the wedding-feast it is to turn the water into wine; in the hour of privation it is to surround the impoverished life with angels of hope and promise; in the day of death it is to take the sword from the destroyer and to give the victory to him who is apparently worsted in the fight. In exercising this trust there are two things to be remembered. First--We get some of the highest benefits of life through our most painful discipline. The very act of trust is a continual strain upon the understanding, the affections, and the will. The trust is not an act accomplished once for all, something that was written down in a book long ago and may be made matter of reference and verification; religious trust is the daily condition of the soul, the state in which the soul lives and moves and has its being, the source, so to say, from which it draws all its inspirations, the feast at which it sustains its confidence, and the whole condition which underlies and ennobles the best life. We must remember, too, that the time of full explanation is not until by and by. It is hardly to be questioned that our disappointments may one day come to be reckoned amongst our blessings. We need thus to be taught the lesson of patience, to be chastened, mellowed, and subdued, and to be taught how good a thing it is, not only to wait upon God, but to wait for Him, to wait through long days and weary nights, to stand outside heaven’ s door and to abide there in the confidence that at His own time and in His own way tim King will come, and do for us exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think. The exhortation takes another turn “ pour out your hearts before Him.” Though He knows all, yet He must be told all. Make God your confidant. Hannah said, “ I have poured out my soul before the Lord.” The figure represents the act of giving up the whole of the contents of the heart to God’ s keeping. It is not a word now and then that has to be spoken, or a hint that has to be given, or a signal that has to be held out; the action is a complete emptying of the heart, the outpouring of every secret thought, purpose, motive, desire, and affection, that thus the man may stand in a right attitude and relation towards his God. Our communion with heaven should be unreserved. The very first condition to true, profound, and edifying worship is that we should cleanse out our hearts of every secret and pour out the whole contents of our being in penitence and thanksgiving before God: then the vision of heaven will shine upon us, then the comforting angels will be seen with gospels from the throne of grace, then new heavens shall beam above us, and a new earth shall spread out all its flowers and fruits for our delight and our sustenance. Our communion should not only be unreserved, it should be long continued: “ pray without ceasing.” As our breathing is continual so ought our aspiration to be unceasing. The only true analogy about the soul’ s life in reference to communion with God is to be found in the continual breathing of the bodily life. We breathe without knowing it. When we are in health we are not aware that we have a physical nature at all; everything works harmoniously and smoothly, and without giving any reminder to the man that he is inhabiting a decaying or uncertain dwelling-place. It is even so with the soul. This is a sense in which we may enjoy an unconscious piety that has lived itself out of the region of statute and machinery, scaffolding and external upholding, and that poises itself as on strong wings at the very gate of the morning. This is not carelessness; it may be the very last expression of long-continued spiritual culture. There should be some difference of a most obvious and practical kind between those who believe in God and those who do not. Trust in God should express itself in calmness and beneficence of life. The Christian should live to give. Christianity is expenditure. We have nothing that we have not received, and because we have all things in Christ we are to give and labour with both hands earnestly, leaving God to provide for the future as the future may reveal itself. If we may so say it, we can give God no greater pleasure than to cast all our care upon Him, to entrust to Him every concern and every detail of life with absolute fearlessness and perfect consecration. The very hairs of our head are all numbered. Our down-sitting is of consequence to God, and our uprising is matter of note in heaven; yea, our going out and our coming in would seem to touch the solicitudes of our Father. All this will be romantic to the soul who has had no spiritual experience; but we must not consult the blind upon colours, or the deaf upon harmonies, or the dead upon the duties, the enjoyments, and the sacrifices of life. “ Blessed are the pure in heart; for they shall see God.” The natural man does not understand spiritual things; they can only be spiritually discerned. (J. Parker, D. D.) Continuous trust in God The emphasis must be put upon the continuousness of the trust. We are called upon to trust God where we cannot praise Him. It is in the Garden of Gethsemane that we can best show the reality and force of our trust in God. Even infidels may laugh at midday, and fools be glad in the time of abounding harvest; only he who lovingly trusts in God can be calm in the darkness, and sing songs of trust when the fig tree does not flourish. Trust of this kind amounts to an argument. It compels the attention of those who study the temper and action of our lives. Naturally they ask how it is that we are so sustained and comforted, and that when other men are complaining and repining we can repeat our prayer and sing the same song of trust, though sometimes, indeed, in a lower tone. We are watched when we stand by the graveside, and if there Christian faith can overcome human sorrow a tribute of praise is due to our principles. And many men may be prepared to render that tribute, and so bring themselves nearer to the kingdom of God. A beautiful refrain is this to our life-song, “ Trust in Him at all times” --in youth, in age, in sorrow, in joy, in poverty, in wealth; at all times, in good harvests and in bad harvests, in the wilderness and in the garden, on the firm earth and on the tumultuous sea; at all times, until time itself has mingled with eternity. (J. Parker, D. D.) God is a refuge for us.--God our refuge I. The representation here given of God. “ God is a refuge for us.”1. A secure refuge.2. An ever-present refuge.3. An accessible refuge.4. The only refuge. II. The exhortation grounded upon it.1. We are to maintain a continual reliance upon God.2. We are to make an unreserved disclosure of our wants to Him. “ Pour out your hearts before Him.” (R. Davies, M. A.) God the refuge of His people I. The necessity of a Divine refuge.1. As it respects man as a sinner, he needs a refuge. (1) He is guilty, having broken the righteous law of God.(2) He is condemned, and the object of pursuit (Galatians 3:10).(3) He is helpless. He cannot give satisfaction (Romans 3:19-20); he is weak (Romans 5:6); he can give no atonement for the past (Micah 6:6-7). 2. As it respects the believer, (1) With his own heart--Satan, his mighty adversary.(2) Tribulation. “ Man is born to trouble as the sparks,” etc.(3) In a dying hour, and at the last day.(4) The believer needs a refuge on account of his helplessness (2 Corinthians 12:10; John 15:5). II. The nature and properties of this refuge.1. God is a refuge for the guilty. Even as the cities of refuge were provided for the guilty manslayer. The most guilty--the vilest of the vile--find refuge and succour (Hebrews 6:18). 2. He is a refuge for His people in conflict. Such lie was to David (2 Samuel 22:1-3; Psalms 142:4-6). He will give grace sufficient to war a good warfare. 3. God is a refuge in tribulation (Psalms 9:9; Psalms 59:16; Jeremiah 16:19). 4. He is a refuge of strength for the weak and helpless. 5. lie will be a refuge in death, and at the judgment day. Then will He be recognized as a God in covenant, and He will save His people. (Helps for the Pulpit.) Psalms 62:10 If riches increase, set not your heart upon them.The increase of wealth I. Here is a circumstance which most desire. Who does not desire the increase of his secular possessions? This desire is virtuous, or otherwise, according to the grand reason that originates and governs it.1. There is a wrong reason. When wealth is desired either for its own sake, or for purposes of display, ease, voluptuousness, and self-indulgence, the desire for acquisition is vitiated and corrupt. These are the ends of mere worldly men in the aspiration. 2. There is a right reason. He who desires wealth in order properly to discipline his spiritual nature, alleviate the woes of humanity, and help forward the cause of truth, right and benevolence, is righteous in this acquisitive propensity. II. Here is a possibility which some may possess. The possibility is the increase of riches. This increase in the ease of many, perhaps, is all but impossible; still, in the case of others, it is not so. Poor men often get rich in one of two ways; either with, or without, their own efforts.1. With their own efforts. By inventive skill, well-directed industry, mercantile forecast, and systematic economy, very often we find poor men rising from great poverty to immense wealth. When such a result is reached apart from fallacious representations, fraudulent transactions and unrighteous speculations, it is at once gratifying and commend: able. 2. Without their own efforts, Not a few indolent and worthless men become rich. By birth they come into an inheritance, or by a kind of “ luck” they are endowed with handsome legacies. Seldom in such cases is wealth of any real worth to its possessors: and it often proves their moral ruin. III. Here is a duty which all should obey. What is that? “ Set not your heart upon them.” However in manner, or amount, they may increase, they should not occupy the heart. But why?1. Because to love them is unworthy of your nature. The soul was made to set its affections upon moral, not material, worth, upon the Divine attributes of imperishable mind, not upon the qualities of corruptible matter, The money-lover prostitutes his affections and degrades his nature. 2. Because to love them is to injure your nature. The man who loves wealth offers violence to the dictates of his conscience, fills his heart with harassing cares and anxieties, and materializes the Divine affections of his nature. We become like the objects we love; the man who loves his gold becomes like a miserable grub or a lump of clay. 3. Because to love them is to exclude God from your nature. The soul is so constituted that it cannot love two opposite things supremely at the same time. 4. Because to love them is to bring ruin on your nature. The greatest agony of the soul is bereavement--the separation from the object we love. Such a separation is inevitable where wealth is loved; here the lover and the loved must eternally part. (Homilist.) The heart in the wrong place In one of the art galleries of Italy there is a curious picture, by an early painter, which represents a sick man stretched on his bed, and his physicians come to visit him. They have examined their patient, and ascertained his malady to be that his heart is gone--it has altogether disappeared. From a pulpit near by, St. Anthony of Padua is preaching on the text, “ For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” He announces where the sick man’ s heart will be found; and the clue he furnishes is followed up in another compartment by a group of the sick man’ s friends, who open his strong box, and stand amazed at discovering the missing member reposing among the abundant gold pieces. It is as true as though it was a literal fact, that the heart may be enticed from its rightful place to lie among earthly treasures. Psalms 62:11 God hath spoken once: twice have I heard this, that power belongeth unto God.The omnipotence of God First allow me to remind you of the definition of power which is adopted by the most approved writers. They instruct us to consider power as divided into two kinds, active and passive power. By active power we are to understand the capacity possessed by any substance or being of effecting change or alteration upon any other substance or being; so that it is an instance of active power when we speak of fire as having the capacity of melting gold, for we mean that fire has the capacity of effecting on gold that alteration of its consistency which we denominate melting. So it is also an instance of passive power when we speak of the capacity of any substance to undergo changes; as when we say of gold that it possesses the power of becoming melted, or of having its consistency altered by the influence of fire. From this statement of the most approved definition of power we advance to an attempt to illustrate the power of the Deity as far as we are enabled to do so, first, from the appearances of nature. The first of these is the vastness of its extent. According to the modern doctrines of astronomy, the solar system, of which the globe on which we live forms a portion, consists of several worlds, most of them larger than our own, and many of them very much so; and that these severally are carried round the sun in different orbits at an equable but rapid speed. The agency, whether immediately exerted or resulting from the constitution of self-acting causes, which could effect such amazing alterations of the originally confused and undistributed matter of the universe, which could continue them in this state of action, overwhelms the imagination. Another characteristic of the power of the Deity, as illustrated in the works of nature, is that of the variety of modes by which it is displayed. The insatiable variety of nature has ever been considered one of the most wonderful of the qualities of the universe. This is exhibited in nothing more strikingly than in the ability exerted to secure the same ends by widely different means. Astronomers, for instance, tell us that the general provision ,made for giving light to a planet during the absence of the sun is by moons similar to our own, differing in number in proportion to the size of the planet round which they revolve. In the case, however, of the planet Saturn, this purpose is accomplished partly by numerous moons, and partly by a most singular deviation--namely, by a ring of such size as would reach from our earth to the moon, which is suspended at the distance of twenty thousand miles above the planet itself, and revolves and reflects the light of the absent sun upon its immense regions. Another characteristic of the power of the Deity, as illustrated in the works of nature, is that of complexity. Nothing, perhaps, more effectually demonstrates power than the arrangement and combination of numerous portions of machinery so as to produce, by their relative action, one result. The display of power will, of course, be in proportion to the extent of the complexity, and will he augmented according as the materials adopted are of a varying nature; in proportion, also, as they are difficult of management, and as the result is successful. It may be most safely asserted that all these qualities pre-eminently distinguish the works of the Creator, (J. F. Denham, M. A.) The reiterated message and the twofold hearing “ God hatch spoken once.” This is a description of sovereignty. The oriental despot speaks once, decisively, unequivocally, and only once. If the inferior does not instantly understand and obey, off with his head! But though ‘ the old divines laid all the stress on the sovereignty of God, this does not constitute His chief glory. There are other and diviner elements in Deity than this. According to the psalmist, God stretches a point in pity for human weakness and incapacity. He speaks more than once. If His first message is misunderstood, He repeats it. “ Twice have I heard this.” God spoke once as a Sovereign, the second time as a Father. And “ twice” stands as a figure of speech, not for one repetition, but for many. “ Once, twice.” Some people cannot wait for God’ s second word. They seize on a text for controversial purposes, tear it out of its connection and proper sequence, and imagine they have proved something by it. But wait! Is there not another text? Has not the truth another phase? IS there not a New Testament as well as an Old? Is there not s Church as well as a Bible? Is there not a Spirit as well as a Church? The true “ mind of the Spirit” lies in the consensus of all the texts, in the harmony of all the voices. Not only is there the reiterated message, but there is twice hearing for every message. “ Twice have I heard;” once with the ear, once with the heart. It is the sympathetic intelligence, the spiritual faculty alone that hears. When you knock at a door, it is not the door that hears, but the resident within. Much truth falls upon men’ s ears but as the tap of the knocker upon the unconscious door. Now observe the first element in that idea which had thus impressed itself upon his mind. “ Power belongeth unto God.” That was a natural impression. That is, as a rule, the first truth that the human mind lays hold of in its attempt to conceive a first cause. It deifies power. But While the Hebrew conception began here, it did not stop here. It included the idea of mercy as well. Now, as it cannot be said that we find this idea in nature, it is all the more remarkable that these Hebrew seers and poets should have had, not merely a glimpse, but so firm a grasp Of it. This was the thought of God in which they exulted, and to which they sometimes gave utterance in sublimest fashion. “ He telleth the number of the stars; He calleth them all by their names.” “ He bindeth up the broken in heart, He healeth all their wounds.” Isaiah 40:1-31. is a beautiful poem of reconciliations; of the reconciliation of the majesty and mercy, the power and tenderness of God. But now I ask your attention to the psalmist’ s enlightened conception of mercy as well as of God, “ for thou renderest to every man according to his work.” That is not at all the conventional idea. We rather think of mercy as “ letting off” the criminal, and shielding him from the deserts of his transgression. But that is really an altogether mistaken view. The truest mercy is to let him suffer, and let him learn by his suffering. Otherwise, mercy to him is wrong to the other members of the community. Further, the unkindest thing to any man himself is to leave the roots of evil in his nature, there to spring up and bring forth all their baleful harvest. This is what we do, however, when we only relieve him from the painful results of his wrong-doing. The sooner he perceives the real quality and tendency of his actions, and the more rigorously he therefore seeks to eradicate the last fibre of evil propension from his being, the sooner will he come to a healthy and happy moral condition. And all this arrives through the experience of that suffering which is the inevitable consequence of moral guilt, and the purpose of which is disciplinary and not vindictive. And so the psalmist mentions it as an essential element in the Divine mercy, that it “ renders to every man according to his work.” (J. Halsey.) The power of God I. What we are to understand by the power of God.1. As to the principle. It is an ability to do all things, the doing of which speaks power and perfection; that is, whatever is not repugnant either to the nature of things, or of God; whatever does not imply a contradiction in the thing, or an imperfection in the doer; an ability to do all things which are consistent with itself, and with the Divine nature and perfection. To help our conception-- (1) Let us imagine a principle from which all other power is derived, and upon which it depends, and to which it is perfectly subject and subordinate. (2) A perfect active principle, which can do, not only what any finite being or creature can do, but what all beings joined together can do; nay, more and greater things than they all can do. (3) A perfect active principle, to which nothing can make any considerable, much less effectual resistance, which can check and countermand at pleasure, and carry down before it, and annihilate all other powers that we can imagine besides this; because we cannot imagine any other power that is not derived from this, and does not depend upon it. (4) A perfect active principle, which can do all things in a most perfect manner, and can do all things at once, and in an instants, and that with ease. (5) The most perfect active principle we can imagine, the utmost bounds and limits of whose perfection we cannot imagine, that is, when we have imagined it to be as perfect, and to act in as perfect a manner as we can imagine, yet we have not reached the perfection of it; but after all this, that it can do many things more than we can imagine, and in such a manner much more perfect than we can imagine. 2. As to the exercise of it. The Divine will determines it to its exercise, the Divine wisdom directs and regulates the exercise of it; that is, God exerciseth His power willingly, and not by necessity, and in such manner, for the producing such effects, and in order to such ends and purposes, as seem best to His wisdom. Hence He is said to act all things according to His good pleasure, and according to the counsel of His will; that is, freely and wisely. II. This perfection belongs to God. This I shall show--1. From the dictates of natural light. This was one of the most usual titles which the heathens gave to their supreme deity, “ Optimus Maximus” ; next to his goodness they placed his greatness, which does chiefly appear in his power; and they did not only attribute a great power to him, but an omnipotence. Now their natural reason did convince them that this perfection did belong to God by these three arguments-- (1) From those two great instances and expressions of His power, creation and providence; for the heathens did generally acknowledge the making of the world, and the preservation and government of it, to be the effects of power, determined by goodness, and regulated by wisdom. (2) Because all other perfections, without this, would be insignificant and ineffectual, or else could not be at all. Without this, goodness would be an empty piece of good meaning, and not able to give any demonstration of itself; knowledge would be an idle speculation; and wisdom to contrive things, without power to effect them, would be an useless thing. (3) Without this there could be no religion. 2. From Scripture. (1) Texts which in general ascribe power, might, strength to God-- Psalms 24:8; Psalms 29:1; 1 Chronicles 29:11; Matthew 6:18. (2) Those which ascribe this to God in an eminent degree-- Job 9:4. (3) Those which ascribe such a power as transcends any human or created power. Such as those which express all the power which men have to be derived from God-- John 19:11. And those which advance the power of God above the power of men-- Luke 18:27; Ephesians 3:20; 2 Chronicles 20:6; Job 9:4. Those which declare all things to be equally easy to him, and nothing difficult-- Jeremiah 32:17; 2 Chronicles 14:11; 1 Samuel 14:6. (4) Those which ascribe all power to Him, by the titles of “ Almighty, All-sufficient” -- Genesis 17:1. Revelation 4:8; Revelation 4:11; Revelation 15:8; Revelation 16:7; Revelation 19:16. Job 42:2. “ Thou ernst do all things” -- Matthew 19:6; Mark 10:27; Luke 1:37. (J. Tillotson.) All power God’ s There are two theories, differing widely, with regard to the Divine power. According to the one view, the Almighty has lodged in the various agencies of the material world capacities and tendencies, by virtue of which they prolong the order and harmony of nature, perpetuate the races of organized and animated being, and work out a course of events, incidentally disastrous, yet in the main beneficial, and adapted to produce a vast and ever-increasing preponderance of happiness over misery, and of good over evil. According to the other view, God is actively present in the entire universe, upholding all things by the word of His power, guiding the course of events by His own perpetual fiat--preserving, indeed, a certain uniformity in sequences which we call cause and effect, so far as is needed to assist human calculation and to give definite aim to human endeavour, but behind the order of visible causes adjusting whatever takes place with immediate and constant reference to the needs, the deserts, and the ultimate well-being of His creatures; ordaining the seeming evil no less than the seeming good, making even wicked men His sword. I hardly need say that this last is the view directly sanctioned by the express language and the entire tenor of Scripture. Indeed, as much as this is admitted by the Christian advocates of the former theory, who regard the sacred writers as by a bold, yet legitimate figure ascribing to the direct action of the Almighty whatever takes place under a system initiated by His power and sanctioned by His wisdom. But there was, it seems to me, immeasurably more than figure in their minds. To them the curtain of general laws, which hangs in so dense drapery before the eyes of modern philosophy, was transparent, and they saw no intervening agency, no intermediate force, between the Creator and the development of His purposes in nature and in providence. Our view of the direct administration and perfect providence of God is confirmed by the results, or rather by the non-results, of science. Six thousand years of research have failed to reveal the latent forces, to lay bare the hidden springs, of nature. Gravitation, cohesion, crystallization, organization, decomposition,--these are but names for our ignorance,--fence-words set up at the extremest limits of our knowledge. That Nature pursues her course and events take place under such and such conditions is the utmost that we can say. We find it impossible to conceive of any innate or permanently inherent force in brute matter, but by the very laws of thought we are constrained to attribute all power to mind, intelligence, volition. But what shall we say of man’ s power over outward nature and events? We are conscious of free volition. Is it ours to execute our own volitions; or is it literally in God that we live, and move, and have our being? I cannot conceive of divided power, of concurrent sovereignty, in the same domain--of our ability to do what He would not have us do, That we can will what He wills not we know only too well; but must we not reach the conclusion that He executes our volitions for us whether they be good or evil--nay, that the execution of these volitions, whatever they are, is always good--that He literally makes “ the wrath of man” to praise Him, and “ the remainder of wrath” --that whose mission would be unavailing for the purposes of His righteous administration--He will so “ restrain” as to frustrate of its end? In thousands of ways His providence may and does make void the thought of evil, the counsel of violence--avert the blow which guilty man would aim at the peace of his fellow-men. Evil and death come to none for whom it is not the fit time and way in the counsels of retributive justice, or the best time and way in the counsels of paternal love. There are indeed mysteries in Providence--heights which we cannot scale, depths which we cannot fathom. We seek only to look between the leaves of the immeasurable volume, where Jesus has unloosed the seals. I have barely endeavoured to develop what we must believe, if we would receive our Saviour’ s lessons, and imbibe His spirit of implicit trust and self-surrender. Where Reason fails, let Faith usurp her place, and let us rest in the calm assurance that what we know not now we shall know hereafter. This we do know now--that our times are in our Father’ s hands, our path through life marked and guarded by His watchful providence, and that to the soul that stays itself on Him all things must work together for good. (A. P. Peabody.) Psalms 62:12 Also unto Thee, O Lord, belongeth mercy.The mercy of God to miserable sinners His distinguishing attribute I. Its properties.1. Free and sovereign.2. Rich and exceedingly abundant.3. Effectual.4. Comprehensive.5. Perpetual. II. The proper results of this truth upon ourselves.1. Let us take care to seek God’ s mercy in time.2. Be encouraged to pray.3. Let humble believers trust and not be afraid.4. Thank God for His mercy.5. Imitate it. (G. Burder, D. D.) The mercy of God One is at first sight tempted to amend the psalmist’ s saying, and for “ mercy” to substitute “ justice.” It seems characteristically just, rather than merciful, to render to men according to their works. But let us emphasize this word “ his.” Let us reflect that in what a man does there are elements which others have contributed, and for which others are responsible. It then begins to dawn upon us that some discrimination is possible, and that such discrimination is merciful. When we separate from a man’ s work that which is not strictly “ his,” but the work of his parents, or his teachers, or of the spirit of his times, even a bad man seems less culpable. Some, but less than all, of the wrong-doing that we see in him was really his. The savage who delights in torturing his prisoners, the persecutor who kindles the fagots for heretics, need the benefit of this discriminating word, “ his work.” Loss of sleep or dyspepsia may induce one to acts of peevishness or moroseness that are not wholly his work. The overworked pointsman who falls asleep causes a catastrophe not all his work. These discriminations society cannot always make and at the same time sufficiently safeguard public interests. But we may be assured that He who only is competent to unravel the complicated web does discriminate, and allots to each man retribution for no more than is strictly his. That there are such discriminations, however beyond our power to draw them truly, gives us a basis for charity in our estimate of those who excite our intensest reprobation. When we see a Nero or a Borgia, and are taxed to account for such an excess of wickedness, we may reasonably think it represents the accumulated contributions of more lives than one, and a responsibility in which more than one has share. Admitting all this, we must equally insist that no man can escape responsibility for the work which is strictly his. One may say, if he will, that man is nine-tenths environment, but one must not cancel the residual fraction for which the responsibility is his. No ship is started on the voyage of life with rudder lashed. In the most ill-starred, storm-crippled life, after all discrimination of the contributing forces which appear in the result, there is a certain remainder due to the free helm in the responsible hand--a work that is his, and a retribution due to that. What we have now to observe further is, that not only is the Divine discrimination merciful, but the retribution is also merciful. What should mercy seek first but to secure men against wreck and loss? And how can it secure them but by securing the moral order in its established lines of cause and consequence? We can do no more merciful thing for ourselves and our neighbours than to give the law of consequences full sweep, in rendering to each according to his work. To interfere, under however good a name, with the necessary trace of a growing character that is supplied by the law of consequences, is not mercy, but murder. For a man to imagine that he can lie, or steal, or scamp his work to his neighbour’ s damage or danger, and escape the evil consequence, or any part of it, is to think the most immoral and dangerous thought. And it is merely helping somebody to think such thoughts--taking down the guard-rail on the path along the edge of the precipice--when we allow a weak sympathy to interfere with the hand that is laying on some guilty back the scourge of just consequence. Is there, then, no place for leniency? May not one say with King Arthur in excusing Sir Bedivere-- “ A man may fail in duty twice, And the third time prosper” ? Unquestionably; and yet who will gainsay that, as things go, the danger is not of too little leniency, but too much? No doubt it sounds charitable to say, “ Let him off; he won’ t do it again.” But mercy demands security for that, not only for society, but for the wrong-doer himself. Nature takes this security of us by enforcing her rule, Pay as you go. Plato profoundly remarks, “ That it is better for a man to be punished than to escape. It saves him from a worse punishment in the degradation of his character.” So in Mrs. Ward’ s Marcella, Raeburn says of the homicide Hurd, “ I believe that if the murderer saw things as they really are, he would himself claim his own death as his best chance, his only chance, in this mysterious universe of self-recovery.” To maintain moral worth, to save manhood from degradation, true mercy prefers the sound way to the soft way, and renders to each according to his work. What, then, becomes of the forgiveness of sins? Certainly, no cancelling of the spiritual law, “ whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” Forgiveness works no cut-off of consequences. It merely shifts the train of consequences from a down-grade to an up-grade, from direction toward the outer darkness to the Father’ s house. It is the transformation of She consequences which issue from our indestructible past that forgiveness effects. The evil deeds which cannot be annihilated, and whose causative power must abide in our life either for evil or for good, cannot be cancelled by forgiveness, but only converted from a fatal to a vital issue. So the muck-heap, which above ground poisons the air, fertilizes the soil when put underground. The evil that is buried by forgiveness: becomes a source of fruitfulness to the new-sown seeds of better resolution. (J. M. Whiten, Ph. D.) For Thou renderest to every man according to his work. The mercy of God seen in judgment We have no difficulty in accepting the merciful character of God until we enter the realm of retribution and judgment. In the nature of the ease our conclusions must be imperfect, from our meagre knowledge. I. The general law. God administers in perfect equity the legitimate results of every man’ s efforts to himself. The term “ render” has the germinal sense of restoring, paying back, or making up the account of--“ rendering judgment.”1. This law--or method of God’ s procedure--is universal in His dominions. “ Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” Material, intellectual, moral. Yet we must not get the idea of law as above the Lawgiver or Executor. Unintelligent power is not a swaying sceptre: “ Power belongeth unto God.” 2. Nor must we think of God as held by any force, aside from His own wisdom, in the production of successive events in the universe: “ There is no power but of God; the powers that be are ordained of God.” II. There are two sides to the tremendous fact of law.1. The awful side. The side which thrills with its tremendous import--which threatens and yet invites. In its security of the reproduction of human actions. In nature. The fifth reproduction of a grain of wheat Isaiah 25,600,000,000 grains. Plant a cottonwood tree beside a stream in western prairies, and soon you will fringe the streams for ten thousand square miles. Memory is a reproductive spring of power as lasting as the soul. Panoramas, words, acts, buried for fifty years, spring from their graves with the bloom of youth upon them. How subtle, majestic and awful this power in moral realms! How large a sum of human life is fashioned by the subtle power of potent influence! 2. The other side of this awful fact of law is a glorious one. (1) Without it there would be no permanency in the domain of active matter or spirit. Permanency, and the sense of it, is essential to satisfaction in every field of pursuit. We struggle for it in our contest with nature, with the world, with life itself. This underlies our great hope of heaven: it will abide. (2) Without it there would be no incentive to effort. (3) Without it there would be no standing and universal warning against sin, or incentive to virtue. The Judgment Day is to test our whole being and doing. The mighty environment of law is to hold our destiny and establish our glory or seal our doom. Sin will generate an awful cyclone. Righteousness will sail into a quiet harbour of eternal placidity and safety. (4) There seem difficulties. It is hard for us to see and say, at all times, “ the Judge of the whole earth doeth right,” and “ His mercy is unto children’ s children.” In the chamber of death, specially of the young. In the wake of the cyclone. But think: it is after the war-cloud has cleared away that we see and feel the glory of results. When we are so infatuated with one department of life as to lose sight of the import of its outcome, it is difficult to see that mercy inspires justice and law. Yet so we teach our children by painful discipline, if necessary. Is it unkind to hold the boy to his books though he squirm and cry? No; the delights to come from acquired mental power lead us in kindness to hold him to toil now. When we judge of Divine administration from the narrow limitations of human judgment. How often, if we only knew, would our tears be turned into smiles! A mother prayed for her sick young son that “ his life might be spared whether it Was God’ s will or not,” and he grew up to curse her life and break her heart, Two lessons this life under law should teach us-- 1. Faith in God: as an Administrator--Governor--wise, powerful, merciful, good. A personal Friend.2. Obedience to His commands. How shortsighted the soldier who stops to question the orders from headquarters! (M. D. Collins, D. D.) . Psalms 63:1-11 Psalms 63:1-11O God, Thou art my God; early will I seek Thee.The greatest things of the soul I. The greatest hunger of the soul (Psalms 63:1). The soul wants God, as the thirsty land the refreshing showers, as the opening flower the sunbeam. II. The greatest faith of the soul (Psalms 63:3). Lovingkindness is indeed better than life; it is independent, it is the cause of life, the redemption of life: It is lovingkindness that supplies the wants, gratifies the desires, develops the powers of life. All the elements of soul-joy,--gratitude, admiration, moral esteem, benevolence,--are awakened by lovingkindness. Lovlngkindness is heaven. Faith in this lovingkindness is the greatest faith--greatest because it is the most soul-sustaining, soul-inspiring, soul-ennobling. III. The greatest exercise of the soul--praise. It is not a service, but a life. It is not that which merely “ goeth forth “ in sacred music and on sacred occasions; but, as a sap in the trunk of the tree runs through all its branches and leaves and blossoms, so true praise runs through all the activities of human life. IV. The greatest satisfaction of the soul, David’ s great desire was, “ To see Thy power and glory as I have seen Thee in the sanctuary.” The blessedness of such a soul is ever with it. “ The pleasure of the religous man,” says Dr. South, “ is an easy and portable pleasure, such a one as he carries about in his bosom, without alarming either the rage or the envy of the world. A man putting all his pleasures into this one is like a traveller putting all his goods into one jewel; the value is the same, and the convenience greater.” V. The greatest study of the soul (Psalms 63:6).1. Man can think upon God--not merely on what He has done, but on what He is, Himself. 2. Man, can think upon God on his bed. When all other objects are shut out from him, when the beautiful earth and the star-spangled heavens are excluded, God cart be brought into the soul as the subject of thought. No study so quickening. The thought of God vivifies the faculties and stirs the heart. None so humbling, With God before the eye of thought, all egotism wanes and dies. None so spiritualizing. With God before the mind’ s eye, fleets, armies, markets, governments, the solemn globe itself and all it contains, dwindle into insignificance. None so enlightening. The study of God lightens up all the fields truth. All the branches have their root in God. VI. The greatest trust of the soul (Psalms 63:7). (Homilist.) Ancient piety This psalm was composed in the wilderness of Judaea, where the privations he sustained lent language to devotion, and ardours to piety. It shows David as he really was, resting On the promises of God, and supported by earnests and pledges of his future hope. It is a more luminous display of ancient piety. I. Ancient piety is founded on filial confidence: “ O God, thou art my God; early will I seek Thee.” A culprit cannot have this confidence in his judge, because he comes clothed with power to punish his crimes. But here the psalmist says, “ Thou art my God” ; mine by covenant; mine by promises; mine by innumerable blessings and answers to prayer; yea, thou art mine by full consent of heart, and by daily acts of faith, and devotion to all Thy holy will. II. Piety is supreme in its aspirations and desires after God: “ My soul thirsteth for Thee, my flesh,” etc. A prince whose heart was less impressed with piety than David’ s might have said, “ These sands and deserts, which afford neither bread nor water, are not places for religion. Restore me to the throne, and then I will be religious; put the sceptre into my hand, and then I will defend the saint; give me the means, and then I will make all my people happy.” Ah! promises of future piety do not gain much credence in heaven. The bosom-sin which seduces the heart in the desert would seduce it on the throne. Not so David: he would bring burning coals to the altar, that its ardours might glow the more when allowed to tread the hallowed courts. He asks for God alone. III. There is a reality in the consolations of religion; and a reality which surpasses all terrestrial enjoyments (Psalms 63:8). IV. Piety: it abstracts the soul from the world; diverts it from the keen sensations of adversity; and so unites it to God, as to communicate a plenitude of Divine felicity (Psalms 63:5-6). Devotion elevates the soul to the true source of felicity, to drink of streams which are never dry. The mind, contemplating its God in the wide unfoldings of revelation, spontaneously kindles with the fire of the altar, and with grateful utterance of the heart. V. The enjoyments of piety are inseparably connected with the exercises of devotion (Psalms 63:5). While the psalmist was musing on all the ways of providence and grace, the fire kindled in his heart. VI. It was by these exercises, and by experience, that the ancient saints became decided in character, and attained the full assurance of faith and comfort (Psalms 63:7). Those who waver in the faith, and are inconstant in duty, and whose religion is only like a winter’ s sun, find a failure in bringing the plants of grace to perfection. VII. The brightest trait of piety is yet to come: she holds fast her assurance and joy in the times of affliction, and foresees deliverance before the arm of salvation can actually appear. In all her troubles, the voice of despair is never heard. She lays hold on the promises, and embraces the sure mercies of David. Hear the psalmist’ s words in the wilderness, when all his enemies account him as lost and undone (Psalms 63:9-10). You who may be tried in various ways, and with the long-continued strokes of affliction, take to yourselves the full cup of comfort from the Word of the Lord. David’ s God is your God, and He will deliver you in His own time, and in His own way, out of all your troubles. (James Sutcliffe, M. A.) David’ s owning of, and application to, God I. His owning of God. “ O God, thou art my God.” This was a good beginning, and a very fair preface to that which follows after. And it is that, indeed, which lays a foundation to all the rest. It is that which must be necessarily premised in all our addresses to God, and petitions for anything from Him.1. It is an expression of faith. David calls God his God, as having taken Him so to be to him. God is in a common and general sense the God of all men, as He is said to be the Saviour of all men (1 Timothy 4:10). Namely, in regard of common and general blessings which He bestows upon them, of Creation and Providence. But for believers, and those which are His children, as the prophet David here was, He is their God more especially, in a more peculiar manner, above any besides; He is to them a God in covenant, engaging Himself to them, to do them good, and to provide graciously for them. And they call Him their God thus, and with this emphasis upon it. (1) The benefit of it is very great; yea, in effect all things else. To say, God is ours, is to say, The whole world is ours, and a great deal more; it is to give us title to everything which may be requisite or convenient for us. Whatever we can desire or stand in need of, it is all wrapt up in this, “ Thou art my God.” (2) It is an hard thing, too, it is a matter of difficulty. There are two states and conditions in which it is very difficult to say, “ O God, thou art my God” ; the one is the state of nature and unregeneracy; and the other is the state of desertion, and the hiding of God’ s face from the soul. 2. It is an expression also of obedience and self-resignation. Those whom God is a God to, He does bestow special favours upon them; and those to whom God is a God, they do return special services to Him; which is here now considerable of us. And so we shall find it to be all along in Scripture (Psalms 118:28). II. His application to Him.1. His resolution, what he would do, “ Early will I seek Thee.” He promises to seek after God, and to do it betimes, which is an enlargement of it; where, while he signifies his own purpose, he does likewise signify our duty; while he tells us what shall be done by him, he tells us also what is to be done by us, namely, to seek the Lord early; not only to seek Him, but to be forward in our seeking of Him. (1) Early as to the time of the day. Early, that is, in the morning. We should give God the first of our thoughts every day. (2) Early, as to the time of our life, in the morning of our age. For men to defer their repentance and reformation to their old age, and when they have spent all their time before in the pursuit of their lusts, to think to seek God then, and that will be time enough;--that’ s but a vain conceit and imagination in them. (3) Early as to the time of God’ s judgments, and providential dispensations. We must seek Him early, that is, before He fetches us to Him, and compels us, as it were, to the seeking of Him. It is better in regard of piety, and it is better in regard of safety. It is more ingenuity in us in respect of God, and it is more wisdom in us in respect of ourselves. For hereby we save both Him and ourselves a great deal of labour, which otherwise He is put unto with us; and we may escape a great deal of smart which otherwise through our own wilful-nose and neglect happens unto us. 2. His intimation of the state and temper which he was now in, or the ground and reason of his resolution. (1) The object of his desire was God Himself. As he is in a state of darkness, so he longs for God in the clearer evidence and more comfortable assurance of His favour and good-will towards him. As he is in a state of weakness, so he thirsts for God in She impartment of more of His grace, and strength, and assistance to him. As he is in a state of strangeness, some kind of distance and alienation from God; so he does also long for Him in the intercourse of communion with Him. (2) The intention of his desire. His own necessities, and the sense and apprehension of them. This puts him upon this desire. A good Christian hath so much need of God, as that he cannot be well satisfied without Him. The amiableness of the object does provoke and excite the desire. God being so exceedingly lovely and admirable, as indeed He is in His own nature, it cannot but draw on those which do discern it, very much to desire it; and there’ s experience also in it which does promote it, and help it on. 3. The subject of the desire, which is here signified to be the soul and the flesh; hit soul properly, his flesh by way of sympathy with it; they are both of them in it. (1) In the midst of any outward and temporal deficiencies, we should consider and reflect upon our spiritual. (2) The best way to correct and qualify our desires as to temporals, is to fasten them upon spirituals. When we would restrain any inordinate longing for some outward or earthly accommodation, or suppress any grief, either of the like nature, we cannot better do it, than by provoking ourselves to the desire of spiritual comforts. This helps, first, by way of diversion, and turning the stream of the affections another way, and so breaking off the violence of it, that it prevails not upon us. And then further, there is that also in spirituals which does supply and make amends to us for any temporal deficiency. (T. Horton, D. D.) The saint claiming God as his God I. Concerning the Deity whom faith claims. There can be no claiming or believing till He be known. It is therefore proper to begin with a display of His glory.1. Every perfection in His glory. Had we the tongue and the voice of the seraphim, we could not declare it all. Paper broader than the earth, ink deeper than the sea, pens stronger than iron, and hands readier than the quickest scribe, could not write the thousandth part of it. 2. God is the Creator and Preserver of all (Isaiah 42:5). 3. God is the spring and fountain of our reconciliation by the death of His Son. 4. God is the promiser and the lawgiver. Without the promise, we could not observe the law, and without the law, we would abuse the promise. 5. Our blessedness is in God (Psalms 62:1-12). II. Concerning the claiming of property in God.1. The Word is the ground of our claiming property in God. 2. Believing in God through our Lord Jesus Christ is the exercise of our claim. Christ and God are not divided and separated, in our believing and claiming. God was, and is, and will be in Christ. Christ was, and is, and will be in God. 3. The promises of the covenant encourage our claiming interest and property in God through Christ Jesus the Lord. 4. The exercise of the heart which believes and claims interest and property in God is recommended by the example of Christ. In the anguish and bitterness of distress He cried, “ My Father,” and “ My God.” And no sooner was He delivered from the power of death by a glorious resurrection, than He said, “ I ascend to My Fatter and your Father, and to My God and your God.” Follow His example. 5. The Spirit of adoption constrains to this exercise of the heart. Without His presence and operation, no man believes and claims interest and property in God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 6. No law condemns this exercise of the heart. Believing and claiming interest and property in God through Jesus Christ is against no law. Is the law against the promises of God, or the promises against the law of God? God forbid. III. The manner in which interest and property in God should be claimed in believing.1. In Christ. Christ is the true, and living, and only way to God. “ No man,” said He, “ cometh to the Father but by Me.” In claiming interest and relation in one, we claim interest and relation and property in both. The guilty and polluted cannot approach the holiness of the Lord but through, and by, and in a Mediator, whom He hath made unto them wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption. 2. In humility. When we venture into the presence of the high and holy One, and say, “ O God, Thou art my God,” humility of mind is our adorning. Our unworthiness as creatures, and our pollution as sinners, should produce in us the deepest debasement before Him. 3. With reverence. “ Let all the earth fear the Lord; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him.” When the humble spirit is before Him, saying, “ O God, Thou art my God,” it doth not allow itself to forget and disregard these instructions. 4. With confidence (Psalms 48:14). IV. Concerning the seasons in our exercise of believing and claiming relation, interest, and property in God through Christ.1. The season of labouring. God is the glory of our strength; and believing and claiming Him in Christ, what service may we not undertake boldly, and what labour may we not endure joyfully. 2. The season of suffering. We need to abound in the believing exercises of the heart to God-ward through Christ, in order to draw in strength from the promises to endure it, and encourage and confirm hope of deliverance out of it. 3. The season of trouble and vexation of spirit. 4. The season of heaviness and grief. 5. The season of temptation. By steadfast believing, and continuance in well-doing, ye will, through the grace, and Spirit, and word of Christ, defeat every attempt to invalidate a claim, standing on His own My God and your God, My Father and your Father. 6. The season of dying. Steadfast believing in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have received the atonement, will make us smile in the face of an enemy at whose appearance our heart would otherwise be alarmed and dismayed. (A. Shanks.) God and the soul The text might form a motto for what is termed, in the modern phrase, “ personal religion.” No religion, of course, can deserve its name if it be not personal at bottom, if it do not recognize as its basis the case of the personal soul face to face with the personal God. But, even with a view to the perfection of the individual himself, religion may, nay, it must, embrace other interests besides his own. Each time that, in the earliest creed, we formally profess our belief in God, we also profess our belief in the Catholic Church and the Communion of Saints. But at least in David we have a notable example of a sensitive, tender, self-analyzing soul, living in sustained communion with God, while yet deeply sensible of the claims of the civil and religious polity of Israel. “ My God.” The word does not represent a human impression, or desire, or conceit, but an aspect, a truth, a necessity of the Divine Nature. Man can, indeed, give himself by halves; he can bestow a little of his thought, of his heart, of his endeavour, upon his brother man. In other words, man can be imperfect in his acts, as he is imperfect and finite in his nature. But when God, the Perfect Being, loves the creature of His Hand, He cannot thus divide His love. He must give Himself to the single soul with as absolute a completeness as if there were no other being besides the soul which He loves. And, on his side, man knows that this gift of Himself by God is thus entire; and in no narrow spirit of ambitious egotism, but as grasping and representing the literal fact, he cries, “ My God.” Therefore does this single word enter so largely into the composition of Hebrew names. Men loved to dwell upon that wondrous relation of She Creator to their personal life which it so vividly expressed. Therefore we find St. Paul writing to the Galatians as if his own soul, in its solitary anguish, had alone been redeemed by the sacrifice of Calvary: “ He loved me, and gave Himself for me.” But hero let us observe that there are two causes within the soul which might indispose us for looking more truly and closely at the truth before us. Of these causes, the first is moral: it is the state of unrepented wilful sin. It is hostile to the assertion no less of the love than of the rights of God. It is averse from Him. It has other ends in view which are so many denials of His supreme claims upon created life. It cowers with involuntary dread at the sound of His voice among the trees of the garden. If the depraved and sinful will, still clinging to its sin, could conceivably attain to a spiritual embrace of the All-Holy God, so intimate, so endearing as is that of the psalmist, such nearness would be to it nothing less than repulsive; it would be scarcely less than an agony. The other cause is intellectual. It may, without offence, be described as the subjective spirit, which is so characteristic and predominant an influence in the thought of our day. In plain English this spirit is an intellectual selfishness, which makes man, and not God, the monarch and centre of the world of thought. Man is again to be, as of old with the Greek sophist, the measure of all things. God is as but a point on the extreme circumference of His creature’ s thought. Nay, more, in its more developed form, this temper makes God Himself a pure creation of the thought of His creature; and, by doing so, it at length denies His real existence. An educated man of the present day who would look God really in the face has perhaps no greater intellectual difficulty to contend with than the trammels and false points of view which strictly subjective habits of thought have imposed upon his understanding. While these habits are dominant in a man, God may be a portion, nay, the most considerable portion, of his thought; but God will not be in any true sense the man’ s God, before whom his soul bows, Among the many truths which the Supreme Being has disclosed to us men about Himself, there are two which, beyond others, are peculiarly calculated to enable us to realize our real relation towards Him. The first, the truth that God is our Creator. The second, the truth that He has made us for Himself, and is Himself the end and the explanation of our existence. The most simple and obvious truths are, as a rule, the most profound; and no apology is needed for asking each one of you to reflect steadily on the answer to this question, Where was I one short century ago? The lowest and vilest creatures were more than we; in that to them a being had been given, while as yet we were without one. Rut at this moment we are in possession of that blessed and awful gift which we name “ life.” We find ourselves endowed with an understanding capable of knowledge, and with a heart formed for love. We cannot but ask how we came to be here, and we cannot worship God unless we believe that it was He who made us. Yet, though we witness around us the wreck of serious convictions, and the despair of true and noble hearts, and the triumph of false theories, and the additional difficulties of our daily struggle with unseen foes, and (it may be) with the results of our own past unfaithfulness to light and grace, we have but to look within ourselves to trace without doubt or misgiving the true law of that life which our God has given us. By gathering up the scattered fragments of the shattered statue, we can recover, if not the perfect work itself, at least the ideal which was before the Eye of the Artist. In this place we are sufficiently familiar with the presumption that there must be a correspondence and proportion between a faculty and its object. Why, then, does the human intellect crave perpetually for new fields of knowledge? It was made to apprehend an Infinite Being; it was made for God. Why does the human heart disclose, when we probe it, such inexhaustible capacities for love, and tenderness, and self-sacrifice? It was made to correspond to a love that had neither stint nor limit; it was made for God. Why does no employment, no success, no scene or field of thought, no culture of power or faculty, no love of friend or relative, arrest definitely and for all time the onward, craving, restless impulse of our inner being? No other explanation is so simple as that we were made for the Infinite and Unchangeable God, compared with whom all else is imperfect, fragile, transient, and unsatisfying. (Canon Liddon.) The saint resolving to seek his God I. Concerning seeking God. This includes--1. Our belief of His existence and attributes. 2. His relation to us in Christ, created by sovereign goodness, and set in an everlasting covenant. 3. Our blessedness in Him. In lively piety the belief of this is firm and operative. 4. Our duty to worship and glorify Him in the way appointed by Himself. Hearing the Word, receiving the sacraments, singing of psalms, with humiliation, thanksgiving, and prayer, are ordinances of worship; and observing them in their seasons is seeking God in convocations and assemblies. Reading, and prayer, and praise, and instruction, are duties of piety; and performing them is seeking Him in households and families. Reading, meditation, and prayer, are holy services; and doing them is seeking Him in closets and secret places. II. Concerning seeking God early.1. Early in respect of life. As soon as we awake into being, capable of exercising ourselves unto godliness, it should be distinguished by seeking the knowledge of Him who gave us our spirit and our breath. Before the world seize the heart and fill it with vanity and care, it will be your wisdom who are young to seek after God; for He is your life and the length of your days. 2. Early in respect of fervour. O that all our heart, and all our soul, and all our strength, and all our mind, were in the exercises of our piety toward the Lord our God! 3. Incessantly in respect of time or continuance in well-doing. Whatever hour it be in the day of life, it is early with the pious mind. Early in the morning of youth, early in the noon of manhood, early in the evening of old age. III. Concerning the resolution or determination of the pious man to seek God early.1. Inclination is in a resolution or determination of mind for the exercise of piety. 2. In the resolution of the heart there is complacency in the exercise of piety. 3. Ardour in the resolution for piety. Coldness in seeking God is an infirmity of which pious men are ashamed. It quenches and grieves the Holy Spirit, who is the principle of their life and ardour. 4. Contention with the enemies of piety in the heart and in the world. Resolution to seek God early is lifting up a standard of opposition in the presence of a deceitful enemy, which hath made a settlement for itself in our heart. (A. Shanks.) Seeking God I. How should we seek God?1. Intelligently.2. Earnestly.3. Constantly.4. Hopefully. II. Where should we seek Him? In the closet. In His Word. In the ordinances. III. When should we seek Him? Early in life. In advance of temporal things. IV. Why should we seek Him? He is the soul’ s life--“ God.” His nature is communicative--“ My God.” (W. W. Wythe.) My soul thirsteth for Thee.-- The soul’ s thirst and satisfaction (with Psalms 63:5; Psalms 63:8):--1. The soul thirsting for God. (Psalms 63:1). Now, the psalmist is a poet, and has a poet’ s sensitiveness to the external aspects of nature, and the imagination that delights in seeing in these the reflection of his own moods. So, very beautifully, he looks upon the dreary scene around, and sees in it symbols of the yet drearier experience within. He beholds the grey monotony of the waterless wilderness, where the earth is cracked with clefts that look like mouths gaping for the rain that does not come, and he recognizes the likeness of his own yearning spirit. He feels the pangs of bodily weariness and thirst, and these seem to him to be but feeble symbols of the deeper-seated pains of desire which touch his spirit. All men thirst after God. The unrest, the deep yearnings, the longings and desires of our natures--what are they all except cries for the living God, the tendrils which are put forth, seeking after the great prop which alone is fit to lift us from the mud of this lower world? But the misery is that we do not know what we want, that we misinterpret the meaning of our desires, that we go to the wrong sources for our need; that when our souls are crying out for God we fling them worldly good and say, “ There, satisfy yourselves on that!” At man that has a wild thing in a cage, and does not know what its food is, when he hears it yelping, will cast to it what he thinks may fit it, on which it eagerly springs, and then turns from it in disgust. So, men seek to feed their souls on the things of earth, and, all the while, what they are crying for is, not earth, but God. Shipwrecked sailors drink salt water in their wild thirst, and it makes them mad. Travellers in the desert are drawn by the mirage to seemingly shimmering lakes, fringed with palm trees; and it is nothing but sand. “ My soul thirsteth for Thee.” II. The seeking soul satisfied (Psalms 63:5). The imagery of a feast naturally follows upon the previous metaphor of the soul’ s thirst. Now, it is to be observed here with what beautiful and yet singular swiftness the whole mood of the psalmist changes. People may say that that is unnatural, but it is true to the deepest experiences, and it unveils for us one of the surest and most precious blessings of a true Christian life--vim that fruition is ever attendant upon desire. God’ s gifts are never delayed, in the highest Of all regions. In the lower there often are long delays--the lingerings of love for our good--but in the loftiest, fruition grows side by side with longing. The same moment witnesses the petition flashed to Heaven, as with the speed of lightning, and the answer coming back to the waiting heart; as in tropical lands when the rain comes, what was barren baked earth in a day or two is rich meadow, all ablaze with flowers, and the dry torrent beds, where the stones lay white and glistening ghastly in the hot sunshine, are foaming with rushing streams and fringed with budding oleanders. This verse also tells us that the soul thus answered will be satisfied. If it be true that God is the real object of all human desire, then the contact of the seeking soul with that perfect aim of all its seeking will bring rest to every appetite, its desired food to every wish, strength for every weakness, fulness for all emptiness. Like two of the notched sticks that used to be used as tallies, the seeking soul and the giving God fit into one another, and there is nothing that we need that we cannot get in Him. Further, as our psalm tells us, the satisfied soul breaks into music. For it goes on to say, “ My mouth shall praise Him with joyful lips.” Of course, the psalmist had still many occasions for sorrow, and doubt, and fear. Nothing had changed in his outward circumstances. The desert was still round him. The foe was still pursuing murderous in heart as before. But this had changed--God was felt to be as close as ever He had been in the sanctuary. And that consciousness altered everything, and turned all the psalmist’ s lamentations into jubilant anthems. It transposed his music from the minor key, and his lips broke into songs of gladness. Translate these particulars into general thoughts, and they are just this:--No sorrow, nor anxiety, nor care, nor need for vigilance against danger ought to check the praise that may come, and should come, from a heart in touch with God, and a soul satisfied in Him. It is a hard lesson for some of us to learn; but it is a lesson the learning of which will be full of blessedness. There is a bird common in our northern districts which people call the storm-cock, because his note always rings out cheeriest in tempestuous weather. That is the kind of music that the Christian’ s heart should make, responding, like an AEolian harp, to the tempest’ s breath by music, and filling the night with praise. It is possible for us, even before sorrow and sighing have fled away, to be pilgrims on the road, “ with songs and everlasting joy upon our heads.” III. The satisfied soul presses closer to God (Psalms 63:8). Literally translated, though, of course, much too clumsily for an English version, the words run--“ My soul cleaveth after Thee,” expressing, in one pregnant phrase, two attitudes usually felt to be incompatible, that of calm repose and that of eager pursuit. But these two, unlike each other as they are, may be, and should be, harmoniously blended in the experience of a Christian life. On the one hand there is the clinging of satisfaction, and, on the other hand, the ever-satisfied stimulus to a closer approach. The soul that is satisfied will, and ought to, adhere with tenacity to the source that satisfies it. The dove folds its pinions when it reaches the ark, and needs no more to wing its weary way over sullen waters, vainly searching for a resting-place. Nomad tribes, when they find themselves in some rich valley, unload their camels, and pitch their tents, and say, “ Here will we dwell, for the land is good.” And so we, if we have made experience, as we may, of God and His sweet sufficiency, and sufficient sweetness, should be delivered from temptation to go further and fare worse. And then this clinging, resulting from satisfaction, is accompanied with earnest seeking after still more of the infinite good. In other regions, and when directed to other objects, satisfaction is apt to pass into satiety, because the creature that satisfies us is limited. But when we turn ourselves to God, and seek for all that we need in Him, there can be no satiety in us, because there can be no exhaustion of that which is in Him. The blessedness of search that is sure of finding, and the blessedness of finding which is calm repose, are united in the Christian experience. And we may, at every moment, have all that we want given to us, and by the very gift our capacity, and therefore our longings, be increased. Thus, in wondrous alternation, satisfaction and thirst beget each other, and each possesses some of the other’ s sweetness. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) The saint thirsting for God I. Concerning the fountain of living waters.1. Where is the fountain of living waters? It is everywhere. 2. What is in the fountain of life? The incomprehensible Being with whom it is speaks of Himself in this sovereign exclusive style, “ I live.” 3. What comes out of the fountain of life? “ Every good and every perfect gift.” Particularly the Mediator and His fulness. The reconciliation of the world. The forgiveness of sins. The justification of the ungodly: The sanctification of the unholy. Grace and glory. 4. Which is the way of a thirsty man to get a drink of the fountain of life? “ I am the way, and the truth, and the life,” ere, II. Concerning thirsting and longing for God, with whom is the fountain of life. The rise, the tendency, the strength, the operation, and energies of these holy affections, may be observed in the following particulars--1. The thirst for God is the desire or longing of the new heart. 2. The thirsting and longing of the renewed mind for God are influenced by the knowledge and taste of His favour in Christ Jesus. Before we thirst for God, or long for him, we must know that He is, and taste that He is gracious. 3. The thirst or longing for God is attended with crying and tears. This mourning and crying among the sons of regeneration is not the noise and din of peevishness and discontent. It is the crying of the spirit of adoption in their heart, for the nourishing and strengthening of their life, with those pleasures and joys which they believe are in its fountain. 4. Thirsting for God, the fountain of living waters, increases with indulgence. The more freely and abundantly the thirsty soul is indulged in drinking at the fountain, the keener and more vehement is its thirst. 5. In thirsting and longing for God, there are strong mixtures of faith, and love, and hope, and joy, and the other graces of the Spirit. 6. Providential occurrences give the new heart a keener sensibility in thirsting and longing for God. III. How thirsting and longing for God, the fountain of living waters, contribute aid to the sustaining of the liveliness and vigour of piety, when cut off from the rivers and streams of the sanctuary.1. These energies of the new heart in a dry and thirsty land, keep its intercourse with the fountain lively night and day. 2. Assurances of favour through the offices of the Mediator are sent down from the fountain to the thirsting and longing soul. 3. In thirsting and longing for God in a dry and thirsty land, experience shoots up and rises be a great height. 4. In thirsting and longing for God in a dry and thirsty land, the fruit of righteousness sown in the new heart springs, and grows, and ripens, and comes to maturity. 5. In a dry and thirsty land, piety is removed from the fat places of the earth which are full of things unfavourable to its growth. In conclusion, observe--1. The difference between animal and spiritual thirsting. 2. Intercourse with the Deity through the Mediator is not confined to courts, altars, and tabernacles. The whole wilderness of Judah, dry and thirsty as it might be, was a chamber of audience, into which David had access to the Deity day and night, to complain, to petition, and consult; and all around was court, altar, tabernacle, and holy of holies. He longed notwithstanding to be restored, and no wonder. Institutions for the multitude that kept holyday in the city were more desirable than the chamber opened in the field to an individual, 3. The Lord is not harsh and unkind, in schooling His chosen in a wilderness, and trying them with hunger and thirst. Their education in the science and exercises of piety requires it, and His intention is to do them good at the latter end. (A. Shanks.) The Christian’ s longing All mankind are athirst. The human soul is made capacious; so capacious that nothing else can fill it, but that immortality for which man is created, and the favour and enjoyment of that God whoso creature he is. There is a relationship between the Capacity of the soul and Him who ought to fill it, such that its happiness depends on its union with Him, and is derived entirely from Him; and man, even when ignorant of God and alienated from Him, finds no real satisfaction from any other source. I. Acceptance. This is the first stage of the desire after God, for it is the desire of the heart-stricken sinner (Psalms 27:9; Psalms 31:16; Psalms 35:8). II. Acquaintance with God. The desire for this must be a feature of the advanding Christian. Love begets love, and hence--“ we love Him (God) because He first loved us,” Now, in proportion as we love any one, we desire better acquaintance, in order that we may appreciate his excellences. III. The believer longs for communion with God. The more we love and reverence any one, the more must we long to be admitted to the privilege of intimacy, and the more highly shall we value that privilege, and fear its loss if we possess it. IV. The Christian’ s earnest desire is for conformity to the will and to the image of God. The faculty of imitation is instinctive. Hence the contagion of evil example; hence the instinctive imitation by children of their parents. This faculty is not destroyed in the believer, but, through grace, receives a new bias, his love and reverence for God naturally creating the desire to imitate His perfections, and thus to attain a growing conformity to His likeness. (R. J. Rowton, M. A.) David’ s desire for God’ s presence I. The prayer. With David life would lose its light, its worth, its meaning, all its delight and all its joy without God. Ask him whether man could do without God, and he would toll you that without God this world is lodgings; but with Him it is Homo--Homo--a very different thing. He would tell you that without God there is no sunlight on the world, no meaning in history, no hope for humanity, no prospect. That without God there is nothing to enfranchise the soul, to emancipate it, to enlarge it. But with God’ s presence it has dignity, it develops its forces, and with Him it is secure. He would tell you that without Him the soul has no model on which to mould its life, no motive with which to animate itself in conflict, no quiet resting-place. David, above all things, wants God. He wants God--in the sense of wanting the Presence, Love, Protection, and Vindication of God. There are few people in the world that have not, in some direction or other, a conflict going on, a cause to be maintained; and one of life’ s keenest pains is, when doing one’ s best, to be left to think that after all God does not care, and will not espouse the right, but will leave it to sink or swim, and let the wrong come off defeated or victorious, as chance may have it. David desired otherwise, and believed it. He wanted God; he expected and desired that God would plead the causes of his soul, and wherein he was right, would take his part and give him his heart’ s desire. Thus, in the last place of all, there comes in the wish which would have been first, second, third, fourth, and everything probably in our ease. II. The lessons of this prayer.1. Do not tightly part with your belief in God. It is a very comforting thing that in the long run, all religions questions resolve themselves into the great question as to whether there is or is not a God to trust. Come with the believers, and live not in the God-forsaken world, without any light loft in it, and no Rock of Ages on which to rest. Don’ t live in such a world as that, but live in the world whose canopy is the wing of God, and whose centre is the pierced heart of Calvary. You will find your blessedness in such a life. Men don’ t gather blessedness off briars, and joys off thistles. 2. Pray more fervently. The fault of our prayers is their littleness, we ask and distress God by the smallness of our asking. Ask for Himself, His glory, His beauty, His love, to rest upon you, the shadow of His wing, the whisper of His love; not small mercies, but great ones. And in order to be able to pray, do as David tells you he did, “ follow hard after God.” (R. Glover.) The paramount need What thirst means in a tropical wilderness none but those who have passed through it can tell. It is an overpowering and a paralyzing need. All this the psalmist had felt. As in the long marches through the desert sands, in the awful blaze of an Eastern noon, he had sighed for the pasture lands and the springs, so life seemed but a dry and weary waste until his soul was satisfied with the sight of God. It is a parable of the life, not of the psalmist only, but of the world; it is a picture of God’ s education of our race. Just as He did not teach our forefathers the arts of life--the use of iron and of fire--by an immediate inspiration, but let them find them out by slow and gradual processes, as the need of them was felt; just as He has not put intellectual truths into our minds at our birth, but lets us work them out as the satisfaction of a felt desire, so it is with religion. He does not all at once satisfy our mouths with good things. He teaches us through the discipline of thirst and want. He lets each age tread its own path, work out its own problems, cope with its own difficulties, and be brought to Him at last by the constraining force of an unsatisfied desire. I might show that the parable is true of many ages, but I will take only two--the first ages of Christianity and our own. If we look at the first ages of our faith we see that it did not all at once convince men of its truth, as the sun that rose this morning told all who had eyes to see that a light was shining. Men came to it by many paths, and the greatest of all those paths led them through the splendid scenery of philosophy; for it was an age of culture; education was general in almost all the cities of the Roman Empire, and the basis of education was philosophy. Men were as familiar with some of the technical terms of metaphysics as they are now with some of the technical terms of chemistry or of physiology. To the better sort of men at the time, philosophy was a passion; it absorbed all the other interests of life. They not only lived for their beliefs, but were sometimes ready to die for them. And they were beliefs for which a man might be content to die. I should be the last to attempt to disparage the work which philosophy then actually accomplished; but it was no substitute for religion. It failed, and that on so large a scale, and among so many types of character, that the experiment need never be tried again; there was the demonstration for all time that the soul had a thirst which philosophy could not satisfy; it was the need of God, of a God whom men could love, of a God err whom they could lean, of a God to whom they could cry out in their despair, and their failure, and their sin: “ My soul longeth for Thee.” Side by side with philosophy was superstition. There were fantastic forms of worship, new divinities, and new modes of approaching them; but all these were various expressions of one overpowering thirst; and in the discipline of God the thirst was for a long time unsatisfied. It was not until all other waters had been found to be bitter that the masses of educated men came to drink of that living water which the Christian faith supplied--the water of the knowledge of God in Christ, which is, in the believer’ s soul, “ a well of water springing up unto ever-lashing life.” That was one fulfilment of the parable. It is being fulfilled again before our eyes in our own time; we, too, are passing through another kind of scenery, a scenery so new and vast that we must be ready, as I doubt not that God is ready, to forgive those who, in their wonder at the newness and vastness of it all, have come to think that this at last is a satisfaction for the soul, and that in this crown of all the ages we have found in nature a substitute for God. Alike from the mountain-tops and the ravines and the far-off stare and from the depths of the deep seas, there shine out splendours upon splendours of new knowledge, and new possibilities of knowledge, which seem to lift us into a higher sphere of living than that which to our forefathers was possible. It is splendid scenery--the world, has never seen its like--but, splendid as it is, there are needs, the deepest needs, of the soul which it does not, which it cannot, satisfy. In time there comes to all men the sense of thirst. There are few who rise at all times, there are none who rise uniformly at all times, to the heroic height of doing good for goodness’ sake, and of furthering justice for justice’ s sake. The baffled efforts of the struggle for righteousness, the defects of truth, the relapse from self-control, make men weary before the day is spent; and across the evening of life, if not across its morning, there rises the sharp and sudden cry, a thirst which God alone can satisfy. And, on the other hand, in the rebound from the superabundant talk about religion which characterizes our age, from the battles of the Churches and the unsubstantial theories which claim the place of Divine verities, there are those who substitute for the whole of religion that part of it which consists, in active philanthropy. For this, again, I have no word but that of praise. Without this religion can hardly be said to exist, but it is not religion; for though religion must move about the world with the busy feet of an angel of benevolence, benevolence does net of itself satisfy the soul’ s thirst for God. The soul comes back hungry from its errands of mercy--it needs a Diviner motive and a Diviner satisfaction. The beginning of it is neither the love of righteousness nor the practice of benevolence, but the thirst for God. Where that thirst exists there is religion; where that thirst is absent, there, in spite of all that a man may profess, religion is absent also. And that thirst is satisfied. I will speak for a moment of its satisfaction not in society at large, but in the individual soul. The satisfaction is as real as the need, and He has placed it within our own power. To the simpleminded psalmist, living as he did before the age of philosophy--I had almost said before the age of theology--the satisfaction was to appear before the visible symbol of God’ s presence at Jerusalem. That, too, brethren, is part of the parable. It is true for all time. The soul’ s satisfaction is to realize the presence of God. The other name for it is faith. It is the seeing of Him who is invisible. (Edwin Hatch, D. D.) Passionate devotion It is not every one who can sympathize with the intensity of devout feeling here expressed. One must have seen the power and the glory in bygone days, to thirst and long for God like this. All, however, can understand something about it; all, at least, can stand apart and admire the man with thoughts so elevated, affections so pure, a soul so predominant over sense, that his very sensuous nature longs, not for the objects of sense, but for God! In all ages we find instances of this passionate devotion, which appropriates to itself the language Of human affection, and applies it to the Infinite One. Now, what estimate are we to form of the devotion which assumes this character? Shall we condemn it as enthusiasm, or commend it as the pure and natural development of the affections towards God? Shall we cherish it in ourselves? or restrain such assimilations to human loves? I think we shall better be able to answer when we have examined a little into the conditions under which it arises. First, then, it is quite evident, those rising to this intensely passionate longing after God must have a great power of giving a reality to their ideas--I mean, of realizing their ideas as substantive, present existences. For God being known to us only in thought, must be represented by this realizing faculty of the mind as personally present with us, or no deep emotion can be awakened towards Him. You may contemplate His works, you may take the Bible and draw out a history of all He has done for man’ s salvation, you may reason most correctly upon the relations He sustains to your soul, you may ascribe to Him all goodness, truth, and holy beauty, all imaginable perfections; but unless you have the power of believing in the substantial reality of your ideas, no passionate love or desire (which can cling only to persons as known) can be excited within you. There may be trust, there may be reverence, there may be the deliberate surrender of the will to the great and glorious Being conceived in thought; but there can be for a merely logical, intellectual abstraction no passionate love. This, then, being undoubtedly the case, a second condition arises, namely, God, in order to be thus loved and desired, must be brought within the compass of human imagination, idealization--that is, being thought of and realized as personally present, the mind must form of Him some representation to itself, some conceivable and embraceable idea. Passionate love and desire cannot embrace the infinitely vague. Hence the fact that, within the Christian Church our Saviour and the Virgin have been made more frequently the objects of this passionate devotion than the Infinite Father. Well, then, if these be the conditions of this passionate love and desire for God, it already is evident there must be some element in it which needs toning down or modifying in some way or the other. For, whatever brings the glory and infinitude of the Creator down to the limitation and level of the creature must have an element of evil in it. We may take it as an axiom that, Whatever tends to exalt our notions of His perfections and glory, whatever tends to fill us with deep and humble reverence and awe, with adoration and lowly worship, that is leading us on the right road to a knowledge of God; and whatever limits, circumscribes, defines our image of Him, reduces Him within the narrow outlines of our delineations, that falsifies and corrupts our knowledge. False devotion pretends to know. It has come face to face with God, it says, and loves. Vain dream! It has rather created an image, out of its sanctified fancy, and for that burns with passionate desire. And yet, we must be just. There is a truth in this imaging of God in the mind. It is not altogether a false representation of Him which the mind creates for itself. The elements Out of which the representation is made are true, so far as they go. Have you ever seen the canvas intended for a great picture, after the artist has worked two or three days only upon it? That is like our sanctified imagings of God. All the right colours laid on, all the lines in the right direction, but what resemblance, nevertheless, is there to the perfected work? The sun is imaged in a clew-drop; but who could learn by looking in the dew-drop what are the majesty and glory of the sun? They are, then, divine properties which the soul loves in its image of God, but divine properties limited and reduced to created patterns. Those who know God and think of Him as the omnipresent Spirit, the all-efficient power whose operations extend through, and whose nature is manifested in, all creation, cannot but adore and love as they contemplate His nature in these created manifestations. To them He necessarily is the one, all-sufficing, all-efficient God, the one joy and blessedness of all creatures. And, knowing Him thus, they cannot but desire to know Him more fully, to share more largely in the communications of His nature, to come into closer union with Him. For, to put it in another form, this is nothing more than desiring to share in, and partake more and more of, whatever is true, beautiful, and good in the world, to enter more and more into the blessedness of all true, beautiful, and good thoughts and feelings, For, not in His inmost being is God known or can He be enjoyed; but in these manifestations of Him,--in all His glorious and beautiful works, in all the glorious and beautiful thoughts He creates within us. And it is in keeping with this that the psalmist tells us in the text that his soul and flesh long for God, to see His power and glory so as he had seen them in the sanctuary. He did not dream that he, the finite, could appropriate to himself all the glory and power of the Infinite One. There is, therefore, no extravagance of language, transferring the passionate feelings awakened by human love to the Creator; but, what he prays for, longs, thirsts for, is to see more of God in His manifestations--more of that power and glory which he had already discerned as he heard the Levites chant His holy praise, and had joined in the sacrifices, the prayers, the worship of the temple. Whatever brought to him truer and more beautiful thoughts, purer and more ennobling feelings, that would fulfil the desire and satisfy the longing of his soul. (J. Cranbrook.) Soul-thirst I need not remind you how true it is that a man is but a bundle of appetites, desires, often tyrannous, often painful, always active. But the misery of it--the reason why man’ s misery is great upon him--is mainly, I suppose, that he does not know what it is that he wants; that he thirsts, but does not understand what the thirst means, nor what it is that will slake it, His animal appetites make no mistakes; he and the beasts know that when they are thirsty they have to drink, and when they are hungry they have to eat, and when they are drowsy they have to sleep. But the poor instinct of the animal that teaches it what to choose and what to avoid fails us in the higher reaches; and we are conscious of a craving, and do not find that the craving reveals to us the source from whence its satisfaction can be derived. Therefore, “ broken cisterns that can hold no water” are at a premium, and “ the fountain of living waters” is turned away from, though it could slake so many thirsts. Like ignorant explorers in an enemy’ s country, we see a stream, and we do not stop to ask whether there is poison in it or not before we glue our thirsty lips to it. There is a great old promise in one of the prophets which puts this notion of the misinterpretation of our thirsts, and the mistakes as to the sources from which they can be slaked, into one beautiful metaphor which is obscured in our English version. The prophet Isaiah says, “ the mirage shall become a pool,” the romance shall turn into a reality, and the mistakes shall be rectified, and men shall know what it is that they want, and shall get it when they know. Brethren, unless we have listened to the teaching from above, unless we have consulted far more wisely and far more profoundly than many of us have ever done the meaning of our own hearts when they cry out, we, too, shall only be able to take for ours the plaintive cry of the half of this first utterance of the psalmist, and say, despairingly, “ My soul thirsteth.” Blessed are they who know where the fountain is, who know the meaning of the highest unrests in their own souls, and can go on with clear and true self-revelation, “ My soul thirsteth for God.” (A. Maclaren, D. D.) In a dry and thirsty land, where no water is.-- A wilderness cry Chrysostom tells us that amongst the primitive Christians it was ordained that this psalm should be sung every day. If we do not follow that Custom, it is not because it is unsuitable. The psalm may be said or sung all the year round. In all the seasons of the soul, its spring, summer, autumn and winter. By day and by night. But the psalm especially belongs to those who, through any cause, feel themselves to dwell in a desert land, The stages of Israel in all their history, in Egypt and out of it, and onwards, are gone over in our spiritual history. And even when we are in Canaan, we may, like David, be driven, out of our home, and find ourselves in the wilderness again. I. True saints are sometimes in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is. For--1. All things are changeable, and living things most of all. A man of stone changes not, but the living man must sorrow and suffer as well as laugh and rejoice. 2. And in some senses, to a Christian, this world must always be a dry and thirsty land, We are not carrion crows, or else might we float and feed upon the carcases which abound in the waters around our ark. We are doves, and when we leave the hand of our Noah we find nought to rest upon. Even when the world is at its best, it is but a dry land for saints. 3. And we carry an evil within us which would cause a drought in Paradise itself if it could come there (Romans 7:1-25.), We may have been so unwatchful as to have brought ourselves into this condition by actual faults of life and conduct. 5. Sometimes it is brought about by our being banished from the means of grace. Poor as our ministry may be, there are some Christians who would miss it more than their daily food if it were taken from them. It is a sore trial to such to be kept sway from sanctuary privileges. 6, And by denial of the sweets of Christian intercourse. David had poor company when he was in the wilderness, in the days of Saul; his friends were not much better than freebooters and runaways. And sometimes God’ s people are shut up to similar company. 6. Sometimes a man may be treated with gross injustice, and endure much hardship as the result. David did; so may we. 7. Domestic conditions, and health, and physical conditions, may grievously depress the soul. Thus, there are many reasons why the best of saints are sometimes in a dry and thirsty land. II. But God is their God still. “ O God, Thou art my God.” Yes, he is as much our God in the dry land as if we sat by Siloa’ s softly flowing brook. God is the God of the wilderness. Was He not with His people there? III. When we are in a dry and thirsty land, our wisest course is to cry to Him at once. When you feel least like praying, then pray to Him the more, for you need it the more. Do not, any of you, practise the sinner’ s folly: he declares that he will tarry till he is better, and then he never comes at all. Seek the Lord at once, Practise the Gospel principle of “ Just as I am.” Say, “ I must have a sense of His love, and I must have it now.” Make a dash for it, and you shall have it. Therefore, do not be afraid to cry out to God. Our heavenly Father loves to hear His children cry all the day long. Rutherford says, “ The bairn in Christ’ s house that is most troublesome is the most welcome. He that makes the most din for his meat is the best bairn that Christ has.” You may not quite agree with that as to your own children, but it is certainly so with our Lord. Desire, then, and let those desires be vehement. Jesus will joyfully hear you. Only be thou careful that thou be not content to be in a dry and thirsty land, away from God. Do not get into such a state, and certainly do not stay there. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Psalms 63:2 To see Thy power and Thy glory, so am I have seen Thee in the sanctuary.The power and glory of God, the believer’ s attraction to the sanctuary Desires are, in some respects, better evidences of real religion than actions themselves, You may be compelled to act,--you cannot be compelled to desire, Desires are free-born; they spring forth, spontaneously, from conviction and disposition. Good desires are proofs of something good, pledges of something betters and parts of something the best of all. Now, of the desires expressed in the text, let us note-- I. Their character. They are distinguished by--1. Their object: which is God. The natural man desires not God, but the regenerate must have the Lord. He seems to say, “ Lord, I must have Thee.” 2. Their intensity. See the terms by which they are expressed--“ early, thirsteth,” “ longeth.” All this expresses no ordinary desires; Herod would see our Lord perform miracles, but would not step abroad for the purpose. Pilate asked, “ What is truth?” but did not wait for an answer. Balaam said, “ Let me die the death of the righteous,” while he showed no concern to live their life, or to walk in their ways; for, as an old writer remarks, “ There are certain trees which produce double blossoms, but which, nevertheless, bring forth no fruit.” But as religion is the one thing needful--absolutely needful--needful on all occasions and in all circumstances, so its exercise and the feelings pertaining to it are all peculiar and supreme. It matters not what the feelings be, whether of self-abasement, of sorrow for sin, or of hope, or joy. It deeply affects the heart, it is not a mere subject of speculation, or a creed or a ceremony, but a life. Is it thus the Scripture speaks of religion? Does it not tell us that it is not a name to live, but life itself?--that it is not the form of godliness, but the power thereof? If religion be anything, it is everything; if it be important at all, it is all-important. What can equal the grandeur of the soul and eternity? II. Their enhancement, This arose from the fact that the psalmist was now an exile and a wanderer, shut out from the sanctuary and the sacred worship of God. Hence, he envied the very birds who could build and feed and lay their nest near the house of God. Absence sharpens affection; and want, desires. Indeed, we seldom know the worth of a thing till we are made to feel the want of it. Then take heed how you use God’ s grace now, for if you do not use and improve His gifts he will remove them from you, or you from them, as He can so easily do. By any one of many changes you may be plunged into spiritual barrenness, and have to cry, “ My soul thirsteth for Thee,” etc. III. Their aim. Observe--1. What David wishes to see--God’ s power and glory. He means not alone the manifold proofs of God’ s power, but the glory that belongs to the purposes for which this power is exercised. See this in the glory and power of our Lord Jesus Christ in all His works of grace so mighty and yet so merciful. 2. The place of its display: it is “ the sanctuary.” Not that it is seen there only. God is everywhere, and everywhere God. He was found visibly and sensibly in the temple of old; but He is now really in our Christian assemblies. Though He is not obviously there to the natural eye, faith can realize Him there; faith can reckon upon the undeniable fact; we perceive His agency there. And this glorious power is seen not only in conviction, but in conversion. And it is seen, too, in the consolation of believers. 3. David’ s actual experience of these displays--“ I have seen Thee,” says he, “ in the sanctuary.” He was certain of the reality of the thing. A believer can come to this conclusion, and is not to be ridiculed or reasoned out of it. He can, and does, say, “ I sat under His shadow with great delight, and His fruit was sweet to my taste.” 4. The usefulness of this experience. It stimulated him to seek after yet more of what he had already enjoyed. “ To see Thy power . . . so as I have,” etc. Now, such experience not only stimulates to seek more, but it tends to preserve the soul in the love of God, and also to recover him when he has been led astray. The unregenerate man knows nothing of all this. You will never hear to purpose till you so hear that your souls may live. You singers! if you do not sing with melody “ in your hearts to the Lord” here, you will not be found among the blissful number of those who shall celebrate His praises in the courts above. And you hearers, if you are only that, what will the Gospel be to you? But you believers, rejoice. (W. Jay.) The duty, object and results of a devout and diligent attendance upon sanctuary worship The desire of David was to see the power and glory of God; but he desired more than the manifestation thereof which the works of nature could afford; he would know God as revealed to his soul. We learn, therefore-- I. That the desire of every Christian is, or should be, to know more and more of the glory of God. II. The accomplishment of this design is to be sought by diligent attendance upon the worship of the sanctuary. III. The effects of such increased knowledge of the power and glory of God. 1. Deliverance from the power of the world.2. And from doubts caused by the aspect of providence.3. Strength renewed to go on our Christian course afresh.4. The crucifixion of our lusts and corruptions.5. Increase of humility.6. Courage for our conflict with our last enemy, death. (J. A. James.) The desire to see God’ s power and glory in thy sanctuary I. His desire itself.1. He desired the ordinances. That which carnal and worldly spirits count a burden and tediousness to them, the children of God look upon as a privilege, and do reckon it as their greatest advantage; and so should we, and rejoice in it, and much desire it, as David here does, who is herein a pattern unto us. 2. He desired the glory and power of the ordinances. There is a double power and glory in the ordinances. The one is as to the performance of them; and the other is as to the success and effect. (1) As to the performance, when there is a life and vigour and activity, which does put forth itself in them. It is not the mere opus operatum, so many duties performed as a task, and there’ s an end of it, which makes the ordinances glorious; but when there’ s a gracious and heavenly spirit, which runs along in them, which accordingly is that that every Christian should especially look after in the undertaking of them. This is obtained especially in this way. Namely, first, by preparation to them. We must be careful to remove all hindrances and impediments from us. Now, these they are of two sorts. First, all sinfulness and defilement. Secondly, all worldliness and earthly entanglement. (2) The like also as to the effect, when they do work effectually and powerfully afterwards. This is also to be looked after by us; and which David without all doubt did look after, that his heart might not only be warmed by the ordinances in the very time of performance, but even then also when he was gone from them; so as the strength and lustre of them might appear, and show itself forth in his life and conversation. II. The limitation or amplification of this desire. “ As I have seen Thee in the sanctuary.” Which words may admit of a double reference and interpretation in them. Either thus, That I may see Thy power and Thy glory in the sanctuary, so as I have seen Thee. Or else thus, That I may see Thy power and glory now in the wilderness, as I have seen Thee in the sanctuary. According to the former sense, it is an earnest desire of the restoring of him to the opportunities of the public ordinances which he had formerly enjoyed. According to the latter sense, it is the like desire for a supply of the public ordinances, by God’ s gracious presence with him in private, now that the public were denied and kept from him. Which way soever we take it, there is matter of observation in it.1. That I may see Thy power and glory in the sanctuary as I have seen Thee. And so he desires to be restored to the public ordinances, and to his former enjoyment of them. He would have communion with God in public; and he would have that communion which he had formerly with Him. 2. That I may see Thy power and Thy glory here in the wilderness as I have seen it sometimes in the sanctuary. And so it is a desire of a supply of the public ordinances, by God’ s gracious presence with him in private instead of it; where, supposing his desire (as it was) to be rational and regular in him, there is this exhibited to us in it, that God, in the necessary want and restraint of the public ordinances, is able to make it up to us another way; He can make a wilderness or prison, or sick-chamber, or bed to be a sanctuary, if He so please; yea, He pleases sometimes so to make it; upon which ground David here does desire it as otherwise he could not have done in faith and good assurance of obtaining it. Look, as the presence of a prince is that which makes the court, so the presence of God is that which makes the sanctuary, where God will express Himself after a more full and gracious manner, that is, indeed, His temple, and so to be accounted by us. Now, this He can do, and often does, even in deserts themselves-- (1) By the bringing to our remembrance those truths which we have formerly heard. As it is with some salve or medicine which we lay up and keep by us, we know not the virtue of it till such time as we come to use it, and to stand in need of it; even so it is likewise with many doctrines and truths in religion. This is, therefore, one work of the Holy Ghost, and that whereby he does supply the defect of the public dispensations, by bringing home to our consciences in private those truths which have heretofore in public been imparted and communicated to us. (2) By the giving of new experiences occasionally from the present condition, in which we are both of the temper of our own hearts, as also of His own grace, and strength, and assistance of us. In times of freedom we learn what we should be, but in times of restraint we learn what we are. (3) By working in us a greater longing and desire after the public ordinances. (4) By His own more immediate applications of Himself to us. The ordinances are nothing else but the conveyances and transmissions of Christ and His Spirit to us in an ordinary way. Now, God, if He please, can do it more immediately, and does in such cases, as He denies them. He expresses His own love, and good-will, and favour, and acceptance of us; stirs up good thoughts, and gracious and holy desires and inclinations in us; sheds abroad His love in your hearts, and becomes all in all unto us; and what He will be one day perfectly in heaven, He is now in part, and imperfectly already here. (T. Horton, D. D.) The saint longing to see God in the sanctuary I. Concerning the sanctuary.1. The place of presence. The Lord is there. 2. The place of friendship. Let us wonder and praise. God glorious in holiness, and people defiled with sin, meeting in friendship and love! 3. The place of converse. 4. The place of audience. The throne of grace, where the poor and needy in every nation are supplied according to his riches in glory. 5. The place of worship. The ordinances in our sanctuaries are not the inventions of priests, as the scorner calls them in his sport, but the institutions of wisdom and mercy. 6. The place of communion. II. Concerning the power and the glory of the Deity seen in the sanctuary. Power is the energy of the Deity, which worketh all things. Glory is the splendour, on the face of His energy, which renders it mighty, and effectual, and exceeding great. Both are recognized and praised in His sanctuary by the worshippers in spirit and in truth.1. By the worshippers the power or energy of the Deity, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, is recognized and praised in the sanctuary. 2. The splendour or glory on the face of the energy of the Deity is recognized and praised in His sanctuary. Every voice in it, every harp, every psaltery, sounds the high praises of His energizing word, who spake and it was done, who commanded and it stood fast. III. Concerning seeing the power and glory of the Deity in the sanctuary.1. The sensible administration in the sanctuaries attracts the eyes of worshippers. We behold our teachers and rulers, hear the sound of their voice, and unite ours with theirs in thanksgiving and praise. We behold a table sanctified with the Word of God and prayer, and covered with memorials of the body and blood of the Lord. In one ordinance we behold the sprinkling of water, and in another the breaking of bread, which are sensible actions appointed, and designed to aid our minds in commemorating, magnifying, and praising redeeming love. 2. The glorious beauty in the sanctuaries feeds and satisfies the understandings of worshippers. IV. Concerning longing to see the power and glory of the Deity in the sanctuary.1. Longing to see and enjoy the Lord our God in the sanctuary appears to be a reasonable inclination, from the glory in Him that is seen. 2. This strong and fervent inclination appears reasonable from the pleasure in seeing the power and the glory of God in the sanctuary. When the pleasures of imagination disperse; when the tree yields no fruit, the stalk no meal, the stall no herd; when mirth and humour blow every way, as the smoke of the chimney, and philosophy holds out its hand to the empty soul in vain, an eye-glance of the power and the glory in the sanctuary discovers a fund of pleasures, which satisfy, enrich, ennoble, and exalt the rational and renewed mind. 3. This longing of the new heart to see God in the sanctuary appears to be a reasonable inclination, from the gain to the new creation in seeing the beauty of His power and glory. Its gain is better to them than gold, yea, much fine gold. (A. Shanks.) The Christian longing to see God in His temple David’ s heart must have been in a happy state when he wrote this psalm. Note-- I. How he speaks of God. “ O God, Thou art my God.” It tells of his great joy in God. And this when he was in great distress. So did our Lord on the cross call upon God, as, “ My God, My God.” II. How he says he will act towards God. “ Early will I seek Thee.” There shall be practical results from his calling God, his Go.d. These, often wanting. But had he not found Him already? Yes, but the more we have of God the more we desire. And he will seek Him early--in the first morning hour; and first of all, without waiting to seek others first, as we too often do. III. How he desires God. “ My soul thirsteth,” etc. Only those who really know God can speak in this intense way. But they can and do. IV. Where he seeks God. “ In a dry and,” etc. There are places where we are tempted to sink down in wretchedness and despair. But not so David. God often sends His people to such dry places to quicken their thirst after Him. V. What he seeks from God. “ To see Thy power and,” etc. We should have thought that deliverance from his troubles would have been the object of his prayer; but no, only that he may see God. And God’ s people do, often, now, in the sanctuary, behold God’ s power and glory. The Gospel preached, the sacraments we observe, all help herein. Oh, what blessedness this Gospel can give. But we shall never know it until we intensely desire it; until we seek early and thirst and long after God we shall not see Him. The psalm tells us that we may be happy, for God will abundantly satisfy the soul, and you shall feel that His lovingkindness is better than life. (C. Bradley.) Sanctuary longings We may judge of ourselves by our desires, and if the stream does not rise so high as we could wish, let us observe the direction in which it flows, and if it be towards God let us be comforted. Natural men live without God in the world. But such as David long supremely after Him, and so after the revelations of His grace and power as seen in His sanctuary. David’ s desire was excited-- I. By his present condition. He was “ as in a dry and thirsty land, where,” etc. We never know the worth of blessings till we know the want of them. “ How mercies brighten as they take their flight.” Thus sickness endears health. Upon this principle the Lord acts, and it will account for many of His dispensations. II. His former experience. He had met with God in the sanctuary as His people yet do. Others know not such experience. And vet they come there led by all manner of motives. But such coming will not avail before God. May David’ s experience be ours. (W. Jay.) God sought in the sanctuary It is not enough to make use of ordinances, but we must seek if we can find God there. There are many that hover about the palace and yet do not speak with the prince; so possibly we may hover about ordinances and not meet with God there. To go away with the husk and shell of an ordinance and neglect the kernel, to please ourselves because we have been in the courts of God, though we have not met with the living God, that is very sad. A traveller and merchant differ thus: a traveller goes from place to place only that he may see; but a merchant goes from port to port that he may take in his lading and grow rich by traffic. So a formal person goes from ordinance to ordinance, and is satisfied with the work; a godly man looks to take in his lading, that he may go away from God with God. A man may make a visit only by constraint and not by friendship; it is all one to him whether the person be at home or no; but another would be glad to find his friend there; so, if we from principle of love come to God in the duties, our desire will be to find our living God. (T. Manton, D. D.) Psalms 63:3 Because Thy lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise Thee.The saint’ s estimate of God’ s lovingkindness This psalm is called “ A psalm of David when he was in the wilderness of Judah.” What prayers have been prayed by men in the wilderness,--by men in the darkness and mystery of life,--by men in their perplexity seeking for guidance,--by men whose “ souls were discouraged because of the way.” What prayers from men in dungeons,--from men in darkened homes,--from men who said “ that all God’ s waves and billows had gone over them.” Men pray better in darkness than in light, in adversity than in prosperity; they pray then with their whole heart--they mean what they say. If you had written your prayers, and had affixed the titles, you would find the heading of one, “ A prayer after I had fallen into some great sin.” It would contain the wail and lament of the heart, it would breathe the truest contrition and reveal the sorrow of a broken heart. It would be your penitential psalm. You would find another headed, “ A prayer after backsliding.” In it you would see the shame and humiliation which marked your return to God, and the fresh and earnest consecration of yourself to His service. There would be singular tenderness about it, for its words had been baptized with tears. Another prayer would have this title, “ A prayer after I had lost my child.” There are men who have a conscious thirst for God. “ O God, Thou art my God; early will I seek Thee: my soul thirsteth for Thee, my flesh longeth,” etc. Now, do you thirst for God? Can you say that the lovingkindness of God is better to you than life? Life stands to us for all that is valuable and precious, and if we wish to express our estimate of something that is all the world to us, we say--It is dear as life. “ What is a man profited, if he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” Life is valuable not only in its highest, but its lowest forms, without its accessories and its ministration. I do not speak of the life that is “ clothed in purple and fine linen, and that fares sumptuously every day,” but life in toil and penury. Let a man be stript of everything--like a tree on an eminence, which has been scathed by the lightning, which boars the marks of many a storm, and tosses its bare branches in the bleak wind--and he will cling to life as much as if full of strength, as if he were crowned with verdure and fruitfulness. Take life in its best estate, surround it with all that can meet its needs, and even its imaginings--life in a palace rather than a cottage--there is something better, grander--something without which life is not worth living. “ Thy lovingkindness is better than life.” Why is lovingkindness better than life? Because it meets all the needs of life. Man has a physical nature, and its needs are met in the outward world, or it could not live. Light is for the eye--music for the ear--a thousand influences minister to the senses. Man has a higher nature; he has mind, he has capacity for thought; he has an emotional nature, a heart with boundless wealth. What is mind without culture, education, converse, literature? What is the heart without friends, relatives, love? Without lovingkindness how little is known of life! God can come to man; lie can dwell in man; He can reveal His love to man. The mind has life only in receiving truth. The heart has life only in love. You have life only in God. There is a sense in which the lovingkindness of God is so much better than life that it even reconciles us to the loss of life. We are delivered from the fear of death. “ To die is gain.” So shall we, divesting ourselves of the mortal, become immortal. (H. J. Boris.) God’ s lovingkindness better than life I. The proposition.1. To take it literally; God’ s lovingkindness is better than life; that is, than life properly so called, namely, this temporal life which we lead here below. (1) It Is better than life, by taking life in the perfections and excellencies of it; if there be anything more than ordinarily desirable or commendable in this natural life, Shore is that in the favour of God which does transcend it and go exceedingly beyond it. (2) It is better than life, by taking life in the imperfections and defects of it; if there be anything wanting in this life, which does fail and come short of our desires, there is that again in the favour of God which does abundantly supply it, and make it up. Now, the improvement of this point by way of application comes to this-- (1) It seems to teach us what we should chiefly look after and pursue. Let us with Mary choose the better part, let us not forsake the better, and give ourselves wholly to the worse. (2) This gives us a hint of the excellency of a Christian’ s condition above all other men in the world. All the happiness of others is confined only to this life; it they be miserable here they are the miserablest creatures that are, they have nothing in the earth to sustain them, and uphold them. Yea, it is otherwise now with the children of God, if they should miss of these earthly comforts and their cheerings of this natural life here below; yet they have somewhat better to refresh them, and to keep up their hearts. If their hopes were only in this life, they were of all men most miserable, as the apostle speaks. But now this is their comfort, that they have hope of better than life, even of the favour and lovingkindness of God. God’ s favour is better than life, because it brings us to a better life. It is better than life temporal, because it brings us to life eternal (2 Corinthians 5:1). 2. We may also take it in the moral, according to that which it implies and holds forth to us; and that is this, That God’ s favour is better than all. The lovingkindness of the Lord is the greatest happiness and advantage of a Christian. And here again, for our further explication and enlargement of this truth in hand, we must know, that by God’ s lovingkindness we may understand two things especially: either first of all, the affection; or secondly, the expression of the affection, either as it is immanent in Himself, or else as it is transient upon us. You know that in parents and friends there are both of these considerable. There is the favour in the thing itself; and there is the breathings of this favour in regard of outward manifestation of it towards the person whom it is fastened upon. Now, both of these from God to a Christian are exceeding beneficial and comfortable; God’ s favour, as ye may take it for His love; and God’ s favour, as ye may take it for His embracements and love expressed. Now, the application of all to ourselves will run out in a fourfold question. How shall we know whether we have it? How shall we get it if we want it? How shall we keep it when we have it? How shall we recover it when we have lost it? 1. How shall we know whether we have it? This is known divers ways. (1) By His countenance. God looks otherwise upon us, as Jacob to his wives about Laban (Genesis 31:5).(2) By His presence and communion. Can two walk together and not be agreed? God converses with those which are His favourites (Genesis 17:22). Talked with Abraham. And so with Moses (Exodus 33:11).(3) By His love-tokens and sprinklings of favour. The hidden manna (Revelation 2:17). The earnest of the spirit (2 Corinthians 1:22), etc. 2. How shall we get it if we want it? (1) By labouring to be acquainted with those which are about Him. Thus men get to be acquainted with great ones.(2) Circumspect carriage and behaviour, walking exactly (Ephesians 5:15).(3) Industry and diligence in a man’ s place.(4) Study the temper and disposition of Him whom we seek to. 3. How shall we keep it when we have it? (1) By universal compliance; indulge no one lust whatsoever.(2) By sobriety and humility of enjoyment, not proud and lifted up.(3) By shunning of all occasions of offence. 4. How shall we recover it when we have lost it? (1) By an ingenious acknowledgment of our miscarriages past.(2) By doing our first works (Revelation 2:5).(3) By double diligence and zealousness for time to come. II. The inference. “ My lips shall praise Thee.” When it is said here his lips, we must not take it exclusively, his lips and nothing else; but effectively, his praise should break forth at his lips; this he promised. As where the inward man is rightly qualified, it will show itself in the outward. The connection seems to be double; either referring to the former verse, “ Early will I seek Thee, because Thy lovingkindness is better,” etc. And so here’ s an account of his importunity. Or else referring it to the latter, “ My lips shall praise Thee, because Thy lovingkindness is,” etc, And in this latter we now take it. David praises God for the excellency of His lovingkindness. First, what it was in itself, in its own nature, considered in God Himself; God is to be praised for that which He is (Psalms 92:12). Secondly, for what he was to David; because I do enjoy this lovingkindness of Thine, which is better than life. David did not bless God only for a notion, but for an experiment, and the sense of God’ s love to Himself. And here now comes in the second notion of God’ s lovingkindness in the expression of it. First, out of a principle of joy which is communicated and full of diffusion. Secondly, out of a principle of love, as desiring to make others which were his brethren sensible of the same favour. Thirdly, out of a principle of thankfulness and ingenuity. Here’ s the difference betwixt the saints and the world. The world thinks the favour of God not worth the observing; God’ s people do much rejoice in it, and bless Him for it. (T. Horton, D. D.) God’ s lovingkindness The wisdom of the human mind is manifested by the estimate which it forms of principles and of things. But, as it requires a good ear to be a judge of music, and a good eye to be a judge of colours, so it requires an enlightened and spiritual mind to form a just estimate of things eternal. We often estimate things by comparison; we draw our conclusions of their importance and value from their different natures, use, and duration. Thus we compare gold with silver, and jewels with gold; and we say gold is better than silver, rubies are better than gold; but “ skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath, will he give for his life.” Such is the estimate which men form of life, that they will give gold and silver, and all that they have for food, when they are likely to perish without it. But David rises still higher in his estimate, and says, ‘ Thy lovingkindness is better than life.” I. We have an interesting subject. The Iovingkindness of God.1. The excellence of the principle. Its want the cause of all misery; its presence, of all joy. 2. Its comprehensive import. It includes all the attributes of God. All are of His love. We sometimes speak of water as conveying to our minds an idea of that one element; but to vary it, we speak of the ocean; and for limitation, we speak of the Atlantic, the Pacific, the German Ocean; to limit ourselves still more, we speak of the sea; and then we name the Red Sea, the Mediterranean, the Baltic Sea; sometimes we speak of the shores it washes, as the Ganges, the Mississippi, the Thames, or we name some of its various forms, as rain, dew, snow, etc. But we are still speaking of water; it is still the same element we have in view. On the same principle we speak of the subject in the text. When God pities the miserable, we call it compassion--when He shows favour to the unworthy, we call it grace--when He exercises it in a way of pardon, we call it mercy--when He fulfils His promises, and accepts the penitent, and justifies him, we call it faithfulness: still it is only lovingkindness--it is so many various means of making us happy. “ Thy lovingkindness is better than life.” 3. Its powerful and beneficial influence. The power of love has often been evinced. “ God so loved the world,” etc. 4. Its duration. It is immutable, it is “ everlasting love.” Those who are delivered from guilt and depravity by it shall be preserved by it for ever. II. An important truth affirmed. “ Thy lovingkindness is better than life.1. It makes up all the deficiencies of life. 2. It alleviates life’ s sorrows. 3. It adds blessedness to the blessings of life. III. The resolution here formed. “ My lips shall praise Thee.” For the manifestation and the application of Thy love. My lips shall do this, by commending Thee to others. (J. Griffin.) Lovingkindness better than life This utterance is somewhat extraordinary, for--1. What is lovingkindness without life? Had we no existence, though lovingkindness flooded the universe, it would he nothing to us. Life is necessary to discern and appreciate lovingkindness. 2. What would life be without lovingkindness? A desert unrelieved by a single blade, a midnight without a ray. Certainly “ lovingkindness is better than life “ in such a state. In truth the language implies that life in itself, life even apart from lovingkindness, is a good thing. To be is better than not to be. In many respects the text has a meaning. I. Lovingkindness is independent of life. Had no creature existed, had the Eternal existed alone, without one solitary existence in any part of immensity, lovingkindness would have been as full and complete as now. It would have been the life and consciousness of the Infinite. “ God is love.” II. Lovingkindness is the cause of life. The universe is a tree rooted in the river of love, ever growing, ever green, ever fruitful. From love it sprang, by love it grows. As clouds to the ocean, so is all life to lovingkindness, they rise from its boundless billows and break into their fathomless depths again. III. Lovingkindness is the redemption of life. Lovingkindness expressed, embodied, and administered by Christ redeems the fallen race. What lovingkindness there is here, “ God so loved the world,” etc. “ He that spared not His only son,” etc. IV. Lovingkindness is the heaven of life. It is the beauty of every leaf, the fragrance of every flower, the brightness of every star, the life of every breeze, the music of every sound, the charm of every scene, the flavour of every fruit in Paradise. (Homilist.) Something better than life I. The text refers to something, that is good--“ Life.” Life is a mystery which no subject of it can understand, any more than a machine can understand the force that propels it. God understands it, because He is its Author. Life in man is threefold; animal, moral, intellectual. In these there are degrees. This trinity of life in man lifts him up to supremacy among all earthly living existences. Man, with his threefold life, has accomplished marvellous things for himself and for humanity, looked at only as an inhabitant of earth. But good as life may be, as a gift from God, and used by man in the spheres of his present being, there is something better. Hence-- II. Let us notice in the text what that something is: “ Thy lovingkindness is better than life.”1. The lovingkindness of God is better than life in its nature. What is life but a dream, a vapour, a shadow, a tale that is told, subject in its brevity to numberless vicissitudes? But the lovingkindness of God is a substantial reality. It comes to us in ten thousand ways of good things, both in providence and in the Gospel. 2. It is better in its promises. What are the promises of life but few and feeble? But the lovingkindness of God comes to us not only with promises of present good, but with “ exceeding great and precious “ promises of good things in the future. 3. It is better in its pleasures. The pleasures of life are carnal, fickle, superficial, unsatisfying. But the pleasures of God’ s lovingkindness are spiritual, real, enduring, satisfying. God’ s lovingkindness is a “ feast of fat things.” It is a river. It is the fulness of God. 4. It is better in its pursuits. The pursuits of life, how low, how little, how transitory! But the pursuits of God’ s lovingkindness, as it influences us, are prayer, praise, obedience, and heaven; spiritual, noble, eternal. 5. Better in its issues. The issues of life are often disappointment, mortification, loss, and inevitably death. But the issues of God’ s lovingkindness are the realization of our hopes, answers to our prayers, increase in every good thing, and at last everlasting life. III. The reason for praising God, as contained in the text.1. To praise God for His lovingkindness is good. It is pleasant. It is comely (Psalms 145:1). 2. It is in harmony with all His works: “ All Thy works praise Thee” ; with the angels; with the saints glorified. 3. It is a becoming return for God’ s lovingkindness. If a father does well for his child, does not the child praise him? If you give a charity to a beggar of an unusual kind, does he not praise you? Then, how much more ought we to praise our God for His unmerited, abundant, and unparalleled lovingkindness bestowed upon us! “ My lips shall praise Thee.” In the congregation of Thy people. In my family. In my private life. In all times and places. (J. Bate.) God’ s lovingkindness. I. How it is manifested.1. In the gift of Christ.2. In affliction.3. In providence.4. In the promise of the future life. II. Its value. “ It is better than life,” because--1. Not brief as is life.2. It fully satisfies. III. The effect it should have upon us. “ My lips shall praise Thee.” This should be--1. A life work.2. A heart work. IV. Conclusion.1. We all receive of God’ s lovingkindness.2. Do we all praise Him? (Frederic Bell.) Gratitude and devotion I. The favour recognized. “ Thy lovingkindness.”1. Its source. “ Thy.” The fountain of wisdom, love, and power.2. Its quality. “ Lovingkindness.” Not kind acts merely, but the kindness of love.3. Its constancy.4. Its comprehensiveness. II. The estimate formed. It “ is better than life.” The second death consists not in the destruction of being, but of well-being. Sin destroyed man’ s eternal well-being, but the “ lovingkindness” of God restores it.1. It harmonizes man with his surroundings.2. It extracts the sting of death.3. It sanctifies life’ s sorrows.4. It endears and sweetens life’ s comforts. III. The resolution made. “ My lips shall praise Thee.”1. Piety is intensely personal. “ My lips.” If “ my lips” have no praise, my heart has no love. Internal life must find external expression.2. Piety is joyous devotion. “ Shall praise.”3. Piety is personal, joyous devotion to a personal God. (Thomas Kelly.) The saint celebrating the lovingkindnees of God I. Concerning the lovingkindness of the Lord. It appears--1. In the constitution of the Mediator between God and man. 2. In the establishment of the covenant with His own Son in the office of mediation. 3. In the mission of His only-begotten Son to do the work of mediation in our nature; 4. In reconciling sinners to Himself by the death of His Son. 5. In drawing men to Christ. 6. In crowning men in Christ with all spiritual blessings. 7. In the work of providence. This work is long, and exceeding broad. Hold the glass to the right eye, and look through it on these pieces or dispensations which seem to have a dark ground, and praise the lovingkindness of the Lord, and magnify the work that is after the counsel of His own will. II. Concerning the comparative excellence of the lovingkindness, which is a glory in the face of God reconciling the world to Himself through the mediation of His beloved and only begotten Son in our nature. Comparing it with life, the psalmist pronounces it better.1. Lovingkindness appearing in the face of God toward us in Christ Jesus is earlier than life. 2. Longer than life. In its duration is neither beginning nor end of days. 3. Richer than life. Lovingkindness is the fountain of redemption, reconciliation, pardon, acceptance, holiness; of the earnest, the seal, the anointing of the Spirit; and of all the streams of grace, and mercy, and goodness, which enrich the valleys of Zion, and make her wastes to shout and sing. 4. Sweeter and more pleasant than life. 5. Gives seasonings and relishes to the blessings and comforts of life. III. Concerning our praising the lovingkindness of the Deity. This includes--1. The perception of His lovingkindness in Christ Jesus by the understanding. Christ dying for sinners is the commendation of loving-kindness. 2. The belief of His lovingkindness with the heart. If we believe, we will praise; and when we praise, we will believe. 3. The exercise of our affections toward the lovingkindness which is a glory of the face of God in Christ Jesus. The lovingkindness of God is transcendently amiable. When He lifts up the light of it upon the new creation, their affections are aloft, and mount up in joy and praise with wings as eagles. Their affections are fruits of His Spirit, dwelling and working by His Word in their heart. 4. A conversation becoming His lovingkindness. 5. Offering thanksgiving continually for the kindnesses of His love in Christ Jesus. Let the praises of it be founded with the voice of thanksgiving in His courts, and around His holy hill, in our chambers, and houses, and villages, and in all the forests and wastes where we sojourn. (A. Shanks.) Psalms 63:4-7 Thus will I bless Thee while I live; I will lift up mine hand in Thy Name.David blessing God and praying to Him In this verse we have David engaging himself to God in two particulars. First, to the blessing of God, “ Thus will I bless Thee while I live.” And secondly, to praying to Him, “ I will lift up my hands,” etc. I. David’ s engaging himself to blessing, “ Thus will I bless Thee,” etc.1. The thing itself promised is blessing; David promises to bless God. This at the first hearing may seem to carry some kind of difficulty in it. The apostle’ s rule (Hebrews 7:7) is, that without contradiction the less is blessed of the greater; if so, how can we be said to be blessers of God, who is so infinitely superior to us? For this we must, therefore, know that there is a double kind of blessing; the one imperative, or by way of authority; the other declarative, end by way of publication. According to the first sense, so God blesses man, namely by making him blessed. According to the second sense, so man blesses God, namely, by declaring Him blessed, and by acknowledging that blessedness which is in Him. This is that which ties upon us all as a duty to be performed by us, and accordingly we shall find often mention made of it in Scripture, in sundry places--as for instance Psalms 103:1, 2. It is exquisite upon a twofold ground. First, the goodness which is in Himself. And secondly, the overflowing and communications of this goodness to us; each of these call for this our blessing, and do engage us thereunto. There are two ways especially in which God is blest of His creatures. The one is objectively by way of representation; and the other is significatively by way of publication. According to the first sense, so all His creatures bless Him (Psalms 19:1; Psalms 147:3). But according to the second sense, so He is blest only by angels and men, who are, therefore, to do it with so much the greater intention. 2. What is it to bless God thus? We may take it in these explications. (1) Sincerely, in the uprightness and integrity of our hearts. (2) Affectionately, as having our hearts much enlarged in us. As God loves a cheerful giver, so He loves a cheerful thanksgiver; that is, such an one as is thoroughly apprehensive of the greatness of the mercy itself, and which accordingly has his spirit much advanced and enlarged about it. (3) Spiritually. This is another thing which belongs to this “ thus” ; when we bless God by the assistance of His Spirit, and in the name of His Son, that is, to bless Him as we should do for the mariner of it. 3. The extent, and that is in these words, “ While I live” ; whereby he signifies that it was not only a sudden fit or mood in him, but an habitual frame and disposition of spirit. This is thanksgiving in those which are God’ s servants, it is a constant and settled thing in them; that mercy which they receive but once, yet they are thankful for always, and they do more or less remember it all their lives long. This there is very good ground and reason for, if we examine it, and search into it. (1) God’ s dealing with us In regard of His mercies, which He does extend unto us all our lives long. His goodness runs through the whole course of our lives, and every moment of them we have some touch and sprinkling of it; therefore it is but requisite that our praises should be so likewise. (2) If we consider the nature of God’ s mercies in themselves, not only for the continuance, but the quality, they are such as nothing less than a life is sufficient for the celebrating of them; a few days, or years, are too little and scanty for such a performance; especially if we speak of the great mercies of all, which is the love of God in Christ, and those spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Him; they are such as call for a life indeed for the publishing of them. (3) Do but consider how much we provoke God by our sins. We offend Him while we live, and therefore while we live we should praise Him, that so we may in some measure make amends for those offences. So, then, every day will I praise Thee, because every day I sin against Thee. II. David’ s engaging himself to prayer. “ I will lift up my hands,” etc.1. The duty itself. (1) An expression of homage and obedience to God. They hereby signify that they are at His disposing, and stand in need of His owning of them. (2) An opportunity of converse and communion with Him. (3) A means for the diverting of evils from us, and the obtaining of blessings. 2. The manner or carriage of it. “ In Thy Name.” This does include divers things in it. (1) The Person to whom the prayer is made, and that is God, and He alone. (2) It shows the manner in which it is done, and that is according to the will of God, with His allowance and approbation of us; we must not ask anything of God loosely and carelessly, we do not care how, but with reverence and awfulness, and humility, and submission to His good pleasure. (3) By Thy assistance, by Thy Spirit helping of me (Jude 1:20; Romans 8:26-27). It must be the voice of God’ s Spirit in us, this is to pray in His Name. (T. Horton, D. D.) Praising God while we can I went one day with Billy Bray, says the Rev. F.W. Bourne, to see a dying saint whose character had been unblemished for many years, but whose natural disposition was modest and retiring almost to a fault. His face wore a look of ineffable dignity and repose, lit up with a strange unearthly radiance and glory. He was just on the verge of heaven. He could only speak in a whisper. He said, “ I wish I had a voice, so that I might praise the Lord.” “ You should have praised Him, my brother, when you had one,” was Billy’ s quiet but slightly satirical comment. Psalms 63:5-6 My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness; and my mouth shall praise Thee with joyful lips.A taste for devotion I. What we understand by the piety of taste and sentiment. Suppose two pupils of a philosopher, both emulous to make a proficiency in science; both attentive to the maxims of their master; both surmounting the greatest difficulties to retain a permanent impression of what they hear. But the one finds study a fatigue like the man tottering under a burden; to him study is a severe and arduous task; he hears because he is obliged to hear what is dictated. The other, on the contrary, enters into the spirit of study; its pains are compensated by its pleasures; he loves truth for the sake of truth; and not for the sake of the encomiums conferred on literary characters and the preceptors of science. So he who has a speculative piety, and he who has a piety of taste and sentiment, are both sincere in their efforts; both devoted to their duty; both pure in purpose; and both alike engaged in studying his precepts, and in reducing them to practice; but oh, how different is their state! The one prays because he is awed by his wants, and because prayer is the resource of the wretched. The other prays because the exercise of prayer transports him to another world; because it vanishes the objects which obstruct his divine reflections; and because it strengthens those ties which unite him to that God whose love constitutes all his consolation and all his treasure. II. What judgment we should pass upon ourselves when destitute of the heartfelt piety we have just described.1. When the privation is general; when a conviction of duty, and the motives of hope and fear are ever requisite to enforce the exercises of religion; when we have to force ourselves to read God’ s Word, to pray, to study His perfections, and to participate of the pledges of His love in the Holy Sacrament. It is not very likely that a regenerate soul should be always abandoned to the difficulties and duties imposed by religion, that it should never experience those comforts conferred by the Holy Spirit, which make them a delight. 2. The privation of divine comforts should induce us to pass severe strictures on ourselves, when we do not make the required efforts to be delivered from so sad a state. III. The causes which deprive us of the piety of taste and sentiment.1. With the exception of those called heroes in the world, mankind seldom sacrifice their ease, their sensuality, their effeminacy, to high notions, to ambition, and the love of glory. And how often have the heroes themselves sacrificed all their laurels, their reputation, and their trophies to the charm of some sensible pleasure? 2. The imagination captivates both the senses and the understanding. A good which is not sensible; a good even which has no existence, is contemplated as a reality, provided it have the decorations proper to strike the imagination. 3. A present, or at least, an approximate good, excites, for the most part, more vehement desires, than a good which is absent, or whose enjoyment is deferred to a remote period. 4. Recollection is a substitute for presence; I would say, that a good in the possession of which we have found delight, pro, duces in the heart, though absent, much the same desires, as that which is actually present. 5. A good, ascertained and fully known by experience, is much more capable of inflaming our desires, than a good of which we have but an imperfect notion, and which is known only by the report of others. 6. All things being equal, we prefer a good of easy acquisition, to one which requires care and fatigue. 7. A good beyond our reach, a good that we do not possess, and that we have no hope so to do, does not excite any desire. 8. Avocations fill the capacity of the soul. (Jas. Saurin.) The saint assuring himself of satisfaction in God I. General observations concerning satisfying the new creation.1. Their souls need to be satisfied.2. That which satisfies the soul comes from above,3. There is enough in God to satisfy the soul.4. The Lord hath satisfied the soul.5. The Lord promises to satisfy the soul (Psalms 132:15; Psalms 37:19; Psalms 22:26; Isaiah 58:11; Psalms 36:8). These, and all the promises of God, are faithful sayings, and pleadable at the foot of His throne. In believing and pleading them, the race of new creatures, who exercise themselves unto godliness, will be forward to confess, where it is proper to tell their experience, that their souls have been satisfied as with marrow and fatness. II. Show what is in the goodness and lovingkindness of God to satisfy the soul, as with marrow and fatness. “ Marrow” is an oily substance which is enclosed in some of the bones of certain animals. It strengthens them, and promotes their growth, and the health and vigour of the whole body. “ Fatness,” in the language of Scripture, is used to signify the best of anything. “ The fatness of the earth” is a soil which, under the influence of the heavens, bringeth forth abundantly. “ The fatness of the olive” is a tree that bears the best and greatest abundance of fruit. And “ the fatness of the house of God” is the abundance of grace, which enriches and satisfies the souls of His people.1. The glory of the attributes of God satisfies the soul.2. The soul is satisfied with the truth of the Word of God.3. The beauties in the works of God satisfy the soul.4. The richness of the gifts of God satisfies the soul. 5. The variety of blessings in the fulness of God is satisfying to the soul. III. Show on what grounds new creatures assure their hearts of the satisfying of their soul, as with marrow and fatness, in God everywhere.1. The excellence of His lovingkindness.2. The richness of His goodness--a treasury that is never shut, and never empty.3. The freeness of His mercy--an attribute which is satisfying to the souls of the poor and needy everywhere.4. The might of His power.5. The glory of His holiness.6. The truth of His faithfulness. The regular and uninterrupted succession of summer and winter, cold and heat, day and night, is a demonstration of the faithfulness of God in ruling the heavens according to His own establiShment; and ground to our faith to assure our hearts, that His establishment with Christ is firm and sure.7. The uncertainty of His unchangeableness.8. The prevalence of mediation. The promises of God in Christ the Mediator are all yea and amen, and pleadable in His name. On this ground we assure our hearts that His promises in Him shall be performed, and our souls satisfied in their performance as with marrow and fatness. (A. Shanks.) Satisfaction found in God We can have as much of God as we desire. There is a quest which finds its object with absolute certainty, and which finds its object simultaneously with the quest. And Chose two things, the certainty and the immediateness with which the thirst of the soul after God passes into a satisfied fruition of the soul in God, are what are taught us here in our text; and what you and I, if we comply with the conditions, may have as our own blessed experience. There is one search about which it is true that it never fails to find; the certainty that the soul thirsting after God shall be satisfied with God results at once from His nearness to us, and His infinite willingness to give Himself, which He is only prevented from carrying into act by our obstinate refusal to open our hearts by desire, It takes all a man’ s indifference to keep God out of his heart, “ For in Him we live, and move, and have our being,” and that Divine love, which Christianity teaches us to see on the throne of the universe, is but infinite longing for self-communication,. God’ s love is an infinite desire to give Himself. If only we open our hearts--and nothing opens them so wide as longing--He will pour in, as surely as the atmosphere streams in through every chink and cranny, as surely as if some great black rock that stands on the margin of the sea is blasted away, the waters will flood over the sands behind it. So, unless we keep God out, by not wishing Him in, in He will come. The certitude that we possess Him when we desire Him is as absolute. As swift as Marconi’ s wireless message across the Atlantic and its answer, so immediate is the response from Heaven to the desire from earth. What a contrast that is to all our experiences! Is there anything else about which we can say, “ I am quite sure that if I want it I shall have it. I am quite sure that when I want it I have it” ? Nothing! There may be wells to which a man has to go, as the Bedouin in the desert has to go, with empty water-skins, many a day’ s journey, and it comes to be a fight between the physical endurance of the man and the weary distance between him and the spring. Many a man’ s bones, and many a camel’ s, lie on the track to the wells, who lay down gasping and black-lipped, and died before they reached them. We all know what it is to have longing desires which have cost us many an effort, and efforts and desires have both been in vain. Is it not blessed to be sure that there is One whom to long for is immediately to possess? Then there is the other thought here, too, that when we have God we have enough. That is not true about anything else. There is always something lacking in all other satisfactions. They address themselves to sides, and angles, and faces of our complex nature; they leave all the others unsatisfied. The table that is spread in the world, at which various longings and capacities seat themselves as guests, always fails to provide for some of them, and whilst some, and those especially of the lower type, are feasting full, there sits by their side another guest, who finds nothing on the table to satisfy his hunger. But if my soul thirsts for God, my soul shall be satisfied when I get Him. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) The saint delighting in praise I. The theme of praise.1. The Lord Himself.2. His name.3. His power.4. His mercy.5. His lovingkindness.6. His holiness.7. His goodness.8. His faithfulness.9. His word.10. His wonders. II. The expression of praise.1. By words.2. By voices.3. By actions. III. The cheerfulness which enlivens the exercise of godly men in praising the Lord.1. Cheerfulness arises from God and the things of God, which are themes of our praise. 2. Cheerfulness in praise arises from the anointing and sealing of the Holy Spirit. 3. Cheerfulness in praise arises from the blessings with which it enriches experience. The Lord is good and kind to His people in their glorifying Him with praise, and shows them His salvation. 4. Cheerfulness in praise arises from hope of acceptance in the beloved. This hope is lively and joyful, founded in the mediation of the great High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus, and confirmed with promises sprinkled with His blood. In conclusion, observe--1. The mouth of the man of piety is his organ of praise. Regeneration renews the whole man after the image of God, but creates no faculties and members. By this grace the faculties and members are renewed, and fitted to the dignified uses for which they were originally created; and in these uses are, Or ought to be, employed by pious men, every day, and everywhere. 2. In using their mouth as their organ of praise, the lips of men of piety are anointed with oil of joy. 3. The exercise of pious men on earth is continued in heaven. (A. Shanks.) Praising God with joyful lips There are three things which do here open the mouths and lips of such as David was--1. Joy; that is a spreading affection, which does not keep within its bounds, but does dilate and expatiate itself, that others may joy with it; and so here, it is joyful lips. David did so please himself in the expectation of those gracious opportunities which he now prays for, as that he promises himself a great deal of joy and rejoicing from them. 2. Love, and that to others with whom he conversed. This, it made him to speak likewise, that having found this sweetness in his own soul, he might make others likewise in some degree partakers of it. Now, while he was in the wilderness, he was solitary, and all alone by himself, he wanted the opportunity; when he came into the sanctuary, he hoped to have the mutual benefit of the communion of saints; and so in this respect should come with his mouth to praise God with joyful lips. 3. Thankfulness likewise to God. This it does also vent itself here. “ My mouth shall praise Thee,” that is, celebrate Thy goodness towards me. It is the best recompense which we can make to God for all His favours and kindnesses to us, even to praise Him, and bless Him for them. (T. Horton, D. D.) Psalms 63:6 Have I not remembered Thee in my bed, and thought upon Thee when I was waking? The saint devout by night Night piety is--1. Commanded (Deuteronomy 6:7; Joshua 1:8; Lamentations 2:19).2. Exemplified (Psalms 119:55; Psalms 119:147-148; Luke 6:12).3. Profitable (Psalms 16:7; Psalms 77:6; Psalms 1:2). I. The object of night piety.1. Jehovah. 2. Our God. 3. One who is awake at every hour of the night. At any of the watches, there is access by Christ into the secret of His presence. 4. One who makes the night a season of visiting some of His chosen with the kindness of His love (Psalms 17:3; Psalms 42:8). II. The exercises of night piety mentioned in the text.1. Remembering the Lord upon our bed is first mentioned; remembering what He is, what He hath done, what He hath promised, what He hath commanded, what He hath given, and what way He hath led us through life by His providence. 2. The other exercise mentioned in our text is, meditating on the Lord in the night watches. This also includes several particulars; as thinking on Him, believing in Him, hoping in Him, praying to Him, and glorifying Him with praise. III. The profit of night piety. They minister--1. To the satisfying of the soul. 2. To the filling of the mouth with praise. 3. To the sanctifying of the lips to express the praises of the Lord with joy and gladness. 4. To the preventing of the intrusions of evil thoughts upon us, which often disturb and spoil the exercises of our night piety. (A. Shanks.) Remembrance of and meditation on God I. Remembrance of God.1. The thing itself. There are three sorts and several kinds of God’ s dispensations to us, in reference whereunto especially we are to remember Him. (1) As to His work of creation, His making and framing of us. Not to remember the Lord which is our Maker and Creator, is very gross and incongruous. This deserves our remembrance especially, it is very useful to us for several purposes. As first, to strengthen our faith; He that made us He will also preserve us. To commit our souls to Him as to a faithful Creator. He that created us will raise us again. And as to strengthen our faith, so likewise to quicken our obedience, and to teach us to give up our souls and bodies, as a living sacrifice to Him, it is very pertinent to remember God thus, namely, in reference to this His first work of creation. (2) In reference to His work of sanctification, as our Redeemer; His now making us, and framing us again, remember Him so; and that both as to the work of grace itself in us, as also in reference to all good means, for the strengthening of it. (3) In reference to His work of providence. God has many thoughts of us (Jeremiah 29:11; Psalms 136:23; Genesis 8:1; Genesis 19:20; Genesis 30:22; Malachi 3:16). Now, forasmuch as God does thus carefully remember us, there is all the reason that may be why we should also remember Him. To help and strengthen our memories in this particular, let us be careful of these directions. First, get into ourselves strong apprehensions of God, and of that goodness and excellency which is in Him. Apprehension is a great help to memory; that which is deeply fastened and settled, and rooted in us, it will not so easily be forgotten of us; it is so with things, and it is so with persons, they are all there easily remembered where they are well apprehended. Secondly, let us labour to have good affections toward Him. If we love God we shall not forget Him, but we shall often have thoughts of Him; He will come into our minds, even in some absence and remoteness from Him, wherein we do not, perhaps, enjoy Him in His ordinances as formerly we have done. Thirdly, let us view His tokens and pledges, and remembrances of Himself, which He has left with us, as the Word and Sacraments, and the like. These are remembrances of Him, and accordingly we should apply ourselves to them under this notion; we should make use of them to such a purpose as this is. 2. The circumstance of place, for the performing of it. “ On my bed.” The bed may be looked upon as a place for the remembrance of God in it according to a threefold notion. Either first of all, as a place of choice; in the bed to choose rather than anywhere else, where I am left to my liberty. Or, secondly, as a place of necessity; in the bed at least, where I cannot anywhere else, as having restraints upon me. Or thirdly, as a place of indifferency; in the bed as well as anywhere else besides, as it happens, and falls out unto me. And here again there are two things further considerable. First, a Christian’ s privilege. And secondly, a Christian’ s duty upon this privilege. The privilege of a Christian is this, that he may remember God in his bed where he can nowhere else. A Christian’ s duty is this, that he ought to remember God on his bed, where he hath nowhere else to remember Him; he is not to neglect such an opportunity as this is. Here is a third now which we may add to the rest, not only a Christian’ s privilege, and a Christian’ s duty, but likewise his practice in the example of the prophet David; he did it for his particular, and hereby shows us what is likewise the nature and disposition of many others besides in this respect, even to remember God in their beds; where they are restrained from the more public enjoyment, yet to think of Him even in those restraints (Psalms 42:4). II. Meditation on God.1. The thing itself. Meditation is beyond remembrance, for that may be only transitory and flitting, this is fixed and settled, and does signify a further fastening and continuing of our thoughts upon that which they are pitched upon. (1) The attributes of God; His goodness, and wisdom, and power, meditate on them; they are such as are very worthy of our choicest thoughts, and we cannot think too much of them, so far forth as they are revealed unto us. (2) His works which flow from His attributes, do much call for our meditation. (3) Also the Word of God (1 Timothy 4:15). It is meditation which makes us to profit and thrive by that which we hear, which without this is very much lost. As it is not the meat while in the stomach, but digested and thoroughly concocted, and altered and changed, and so dispersed into the several parts of the body, which causes nourishment and increase; even so is it also here in spirituals. 2. The amplification of it from the circumstance of time, “ in the night watches.” This was the time which David took for this performance. As for the place, on his bed; so for the time and season, in the night. He brake his sleep to think upon God (Psalms 77:4). But why then, of all other times? Why does David choose to meditate on God in the night? Or why should any other do so in imitation of him? Surely there is very good ground and reason for it, as will appear to us in sundry regards, which we may take notice of. (1) As freest from distraction, and the cumbrances and troubles of the world. (2) As it is most subject to temptation and assault from Satan. We have never more need to betake and apply ourselves to God, than then, when we are in greatest danger of the devil, who is our spiritual enemy. Now, this we are at such a time as this is. He is a spirit of darkness, and so watches for a time of darkness, especially for the laying of his snares, and making his onsets upon us, as robbers they wait for the night; so then does this spiritual robber of souls. Then he may here work upon the fancy as he hath opportunity for it. (3) As the time when conscience most works, and God Himself does usually draw near and apply Himself to us (Psalms 16:7; Psalms 17:3; Job 35:10). These things laid together, do make very much for such a performance as this is; and not only for meditation, but prayer, as the Hebrew word Hagah will bear it. We have herein the example not only here of David in the text, but also of some others in Scripture. Thus our Lord spent whole nights in prayer (Luke 6:12). Anna served God with fastings and prayer night and day. Paul had his labours, and lastings, and watchings (2 Corinthians 6:5; 2 Corinthians 11:27). And so for others. We know how in the primitive times they had their vigils and meetings in the night, which though at first had a good ground for them, in regard of the persecution by heathens; yet afterwards upon as good ground for their abuse were taken away. But, however, the moral and analogy holds good, and is in force still, which is this, To watch unto prayer, and not to omit such seasons as the night for ejaculation and lifting up our hearts to God in it, as David professes here of himself. (T. Horton, D. D.) Influential meditation I. It is directed to the most influential subject--Meditation on God--1. Serves to rouse the intellectual faculties to their highest effort. 2. Serves to prostrate the soul in humility. 3. Serves to spiritualize all the sympathies of our nature. 4. Serves to assimilate the character to the Perfect One. II. It is employed in a most influential season. “ In the night watches.” Night is pre-eminently the season for solemn thought.1. It gives the mind an inward direction. As all outside of him is thus entombed in silence and sable, his soul becomes solemnly conscious of itself and its responsibility. 2. It gives the mind a solemnity of mood. Night is the emblem and minister of seriousness. A thought which heaves the whole nature with solemn emotions in the night, has often but little influence over us in the day. (Homilist.) Meditating upon religion The life of God in the soul of man, the Christian life, is marked, amongst other things, by religion gradually gaining possession of the thoughts. It has been said that if we thought about religion as it deserves, we should never think about anything else. Nor can we, with strictness, deny this. For religious concerns do so outweigh all others in their importance and value. The wonder is not that men think so much but so little of it. The cast and turn of our infirm and fleshly nature lean all on the side of our thinking not enough of spiritual things. I. Our nature is affected chiefly by what we see; the unseen has, therefore, but little power. II. And we regard the things of religion not as near to us, but as distant. Like children we are affected only by what is present and near. But though this delusion be so general it has no foundation in reason. We do not so act in regard to our worldly affairs. III. The spirituality of religion also hinders our thinking of it. All religion which is effectual must be spiritual. But our nature cares not for that which is purely spiritual. Therefore we need to pray for the help of the Spirit of God. (Archdeacon Paley.) Psalms 63:7-8 Because Thou hast been my help, therefore in the shadow of Thy wings will I rejoice.The remembrance of past mercies an inducement to present confidence in God This psalm is not one of complaint or sorrow, nor of settled joy, but of the transition from the one to the other. David has just recovered his confidence in God, and feeling assured that his soul will soon find rest and confidence in Him. Believers, now, are often in this state of mind, in this transition state. Oh, let us see to it that we go forward, as David did, and not backward into deeper gloom; for this is possible: we may sink down as well as rise. That we may rise, note how David acted in such case. I. He states a fact--“ Thou hast been my help.” And surely we can say this; indeed, we must say it, for the Lord has been our help. When in our sin, He became our Saviour, and by His Holy Spirit turned us to Himself. We have had other helpers, but none such as He. And every true believer recognizes this. Others practically regard themselves as their own real helpers, not God. II. A resolution founded on the fact. “ Because . . . therefore in the shadow of,” etc. “ The shadow of Thy wings” signifies the parental protection of God, His watchfulness, love and tenderness. The whole sentence expresses--1. The most assured safety in God. As the chickens deem themselves safe while under the wing of the mother-bird, so are God’ s people safe under His protection. And not only safe from danger, but hidden from it: it cannot find them. 2. A determination in the psalmist to fly to God for safety. When he says he will rejoice in the shadow of God’ s wings, he plainly intimates that he will betake himself there (Psalms 57:1; Psalms 143:9). We are not to look for God’ s mercy without seeking it. “ The name of God is a strong tower,” but “ the righteous” will, must, “ run into it,” would he be “ safe.” The everlasting wings are spread out for us, we must run and keep beneath them would we be safe. 3. An anticipation of pleasure and joy in God’ s protection. “ I will rejoice,” not merely be safe, but be happy. He is not going to a shelter he is driven to, but to a home he loves. These two ideas of safety and comfort in God are ever kept together in David’ s mind (Psalms 23:4; Psalms 90:1-17 :l). And-- 4. This resolution is grounded on the fact the psalmist set out with. “ Because Thou hast been,” etc. It is a poor use to make of God’ s mercies to get only a present comfort from them; the memory of them ought to be treasured up for use in future trials. III. The earnestness with which the psalmist carries his resolution into effect. “ My soul followeth hard after Thee.” In affliction we are apt to be languid and wanting in all energy, It seems to say, “ If I am to have comfort, the Lord must come and bring it to me, I cannot turn to Him and seek it.” But how different David’ s thought. Oh, let us rouse ourselves, determine to use a holy violence with ourselves when we are in affliction. What we want is such an enjoyment of God as will leave us neither time nor inclination to dwell upon our troubles. Let all remember, there is rest and happiness in God, and especially for every penitent contrite soul. (C. Bradley, M. A.) The sheltering wing I. We have a grateful record. “ Thou hast been my help.”1. God awakened us from our folly and sin. 2. God helped us when we sought pardon and deliverance from the burden of sin. 3. And when we have been in despair God has been our help. 4. And when we were without strength, sick, or in peril of ruin. And to render us this help Christ died on the cross. II. It is a safe shelter. “ In the shadow of Thy wings will I rejoice.” Likewise the Christian, remembering that God has been his help up to the present time, shelters himself from temptation, trouble, and trial, knowing that He who has delivered him in the past will not leave him in the toils of the present or the hardships of the future. God shelters us from the allurements of this world. We need a shelter from the darkness and trouble of the present life. III. An expression of joy. “ I will rejoice.” O, ye Christians, rejoice, likewise, for God is your Keeper. (W. Birch.) The argument from experience The rejoicing told of here is-- I. Reasonable. “ Because” ; none can deny this basis of consolation. It is not founded on God’ s promise--though that could never be broken--but upon past experience. God has been our help. II. Personal--“ My help.” III. Real. It is far more than rest or quiescent peace. The psalms are full of the gladness of the Lord. Much joy is superficial. What depths of melancholy there are in hearts that know not God. IV. Restful. V. Prophetic. What can the future bring for which Christ cannot prepare us? This, then, is to be written on our banners, “ In the shadow of Thy wings will I rejoice.” (W. M. Statham.) Experience and assurance I. Experience.1. David had experienced Divine help. The Roman used to speak of Deus ex machina; God appearing in an unexpected manner in the midst of a history to rescue the hero, and change the scene. This is no figure of speech in the life of faith. Every now and then we have witnessed a distinct interposition, a stretching out of the Divine hand, an inroad of the supernatural. To us has it been true, “ He bowed the heavens also, and came down.” Others might think our experience fanatical, if we were to tell it as we see it; but this we cannot help. To us it has been a real manifestation of the Divine thoughtfulness on our behalf. Looking back upon our lives, we cannot help saying deliberately, and as cool statement of fact--The Lord has been our help. 2. David had often experienced this help. He does not make this statement in reference to one solitary incident in his life, or he would have said, “ Thou wast once my help” ; but he sees a continuity in the lovingkindness of the Lord his God. He means, “ Thou hast all along been my help.” In doing his duty as patriot and king, God was his help, and enabled him to walk uprightly in his government. In his sufferings the Lord was his help, and enabled him to be calm and brave. In the time of danger God was his help, and kept him from the hand of the enemy. And now, in this psalm, though David is in the wilderness of Judah, and probably hunted by his own son, yet he sings unto the Lord, “ Thou hast been my help.” I do not want you to stop with David any longer. I beg you, now, to come nearer home, and review your own lives. 3. These helps rendered to David had been very choice ones. He had often been helped in special ways. God had taken great care of him. He was the favourite of Providence, and the darling of Heaven. Has it not been so with some of you? Have you not enjoyed choice morsels of experience? Are there not incidents in your life which you could scarcely tell, lest the hearer should smile at your credulity? 4. God’ s help has also been continuous to us. In the time of our darkness we could not see the link; but, looking back, we can see it now. 5. Observe also that the Lord has granted us educative mercy. David says, “ Because Thou hast been my help.” He says not, that He has wrought everything for us, but He has set us working also. You see, if you do a thing for a man, it is well; but if you help him to do it, it may be better for him, for thus he learns the way. II. Expectation.1. What we have experienced of God’ s goodness is a revelation of Himself: God’ s actions are Himself in motion. If, then, we have experienced God’ s power, He is powerful; and we know that anything is possible to Him. If I have experienced His acts of faithfulness, I conclude that He is always faithful, and that He will keep His promise and His covenant, and will be true to all those who trust in Him. 2. This reasoning is good, since you have to do with an unchanging God. If you have changeable man to deal with, there will be no logic in your reasoning; but when you think of Jehovah who changeth not, then you may infer great things, and the severest logic will support you. He was my help, He is my help, and therefore He will be my help, even to the end. 3. This kind of argument is very sure to a man’ s own self, and he is the person most concerned. We know whom we have believed, and we are persuaded that He will not fail us. We know what we do know; and if we cannot tell it to others, we are none the less sure of it ourselves. 4. It is clear that this is an accumulating argument. The young man who has known the Lord twelve months, and experienced a great deliverance, is sure that the Lord is to be trusted. But when he has passed twenty, thirty, or forty years of the same experience, his assurance will be doubly sure. To a believer in Christ every day teems with providences and mercies. This tree beareth its fruit every month, and the fruit feeds faith wondrously. III. Assurance.1. Contented assurance. David, grateful for past help, holds himself still, and happily awaits the purpose of the Lord. He manifests no fear, no fret, no hurry, no worry. Neither does be cast his eyes towards man. “ Thou hast been my help,” saith he; and he looks that way. 2. Patient assurance. It is not ours to hasten the Divine vengeance, nor to wish for a personal triumph; but it is ours to feel the bliss of safety in nearness to God. 3. The assurance of faith. “ Because Thou hast been my help, therefore” --what? “ In the light of Thy countenance will I rejoice” ? No: he had then but little light; he was “ in the shadow.” The wilderness cut him off from beholding God in the sanctuary. If you cannot see the face of God, His shadow may give you peace. Lord, I will pray to Thee to lift up the light of Thy countenance upon me; but if Thou dost continue to hide Thyself, I will still trust Thee, and be sure that Thou art the same God of grace. Knowing that Thy shadow is full of defence for me, I will rejoice therein. 4. Continued assurance. We read not, in the shadow of Thy wings have I rejoiced, but, “ I will rejoice.” He is rejoicing, and means to go on rejoicing. His joy no man taketh from him. He will rejoice so long as he has a God to rejoice in. 5. The best of all is, this is rejoicing assurance. The text does not say “ Because Thou hast been my help, therefore in the shadow of Thy wings will I trust,” but, “ in the shadow of Thy wings will I rejoice.” That is going further than silent submission, or humble trust. David is in the dark; but, like the nightingale, he sings in it. (C. H. Spurgeon.) David’ s experience of God’ s help I. David’ s experience. “ Thou hast been my help.”1. This implies his necessity. First, as having much work. Secondly, as having many enemies. Thirdly, as having but little strength. Those which are in these circumstances have need of help to be administered unto them. And this is the case and condition of all Christians. (1) They have much work, a great deal of business to be despatched by them, which they are not able very well to run through of themselves. Take the meanest Christian that is, and in the lowest rank and order amongst men, yet he has work enough to do if it be but to save his own soul, to live soberly, and righteously, and godly in this present world. But if he be anything higher, then it is so much the more; in the family as a master, or in the church as a minister, or as a magistrate in the commonwealth. Here, now, the greater occasions and opportunities that there are of doing good, the greater is the work itself, and the more need of help in it. (2) They have many enemies. These two they do usually and commonly go together. Much work to be done, and many enemies to oppose themselves against it (1 Corinthians 16:9). (3) They have but little strength, or, indeed none at all. 2. He hath help afforded him by God Himself. (1) He is a strong helper. (2) He is a ready helper. He is a God at hand, and not a God afar off, aa the Scripture often expresses Him. When trouble is near, He is near too; which is a matter of very great comfort and encouragement to all those that depend upon Him. (3) He is the only help also. There’ s none can help without Him, nor, indeed, none besides Him. The improvement of this point to ourselves, in a way of application, comes to this purpose-- 1. As a word of comfort and consolation to the people of God in all those difficulties and distresses which they are surrounded and encompassed withal; that they have such an One as this to help them, and to relieve them, and to be assistant unto them. 2. We may make use of this point also in a way of excitement, and that to a threefold performance, which is very rationally consequent hereupon. (1) If God help us, let us then also help Him. (2) If God help us, let us then also help ourselves. (3) If God help us, let us then also help one another. II. The improvement of this experience.1. David’ s purpose or resolution, which he takes up to himself. (1) By the shadow of God’ s wings we are especially to understand His providence and fatherly protection; and we find mention of it often in Scripture (Psalms 17:13; Psalms 57:1; Psalms 36:7). It is an expression of safety. Look, as the chickens are safe while they are under the wings of the hen, even so are God’ s people safe while they are under His providence and protection; and there is nothing which is such a defence and safeguard and security to them as this indeed is. Those which are kept by Him, they are kept safely, neither shall they need anything to fear in the days of evil and trouble which are upon them. It is an expression of secrecy. The wing hides and conceals those which are kept under it; as it preserves them from danger, so it likewise keeps them from discovery. Thus does likewise this wing of God (Psalms 91:4; Psalms 17:8; Psalms 31:20; Jeremiah 36:28). It is an expression of tenderness and singular affection (Deuteronomy 32:11-12). (2) While he says that herein he will rejoice, there are these things implied in it, as considerable and pertinent unto it. Recourse unto them. Complacency and contentment in this condition. Thanksgiving and outward expression. 2. The occasion or ground of his resolution; and that is, the experience of God’ s former goodness to him. This is signified in the connection of these latter words with the former, because, therefore; because Thou hast been my help hitherto, therefore will I rejoice in Thy protection for time to come. Here’ s the force of David’ s reasoning; and the reason it holds good upon a twofold consideration. First, in a way of confidence. Secondly, in a way of acknowledgment. I will trust in Thee, and still wait upon Thee in a way of dependence. And again, “ Because Thou hast been my help, therefore in the shadow of Thy wings will I rejoice.” That is, I will publish this protection which I have from Thee in a way of thankfulness. According to the first notion so there is this in it, that good Christians do improve former experiences to future dependence. According to the second notion, so there is this in it, that good Christians, where they do receive mercies from God, will be there careful to acknowledge and to be thankful for them. (T. Horton, D. D.) A joyful syllogism I. The cause.1. A grateful memory. One glad necessity of the new life is, “ Thou shalt remember all the way,” etc. Unbelief, on the other hand, has a bad memory (Psalms 106:13). 2. A personal possession. “ My God.” The soul lifts its hand, not to grasp abstract truth, nor a doctrinal system, but a personal God. Mix in holier company, rise to higher employments, the Christian may and shall; but to rise to higher rank is impossible, for here and now we are children of God by faith in Jesus Christ. 3. A present joy. How precarious the present life of man! Riches fly, comforts die, friends fail, thrones reel, crowns fall, death levels; but those things which cannot be shaken remain (Hebrews 12:27). II. The effect.1. Refuge--ample, accessible, friendly. 2. Rest. The helpless leaning on the helper; the sinful on the sinless; the aching, guilty head, resting on the bosom of Christ. (Homilist.) The saint rejoicing in Divine help I. The help which the Lord hath given and experience recorded. II. The shadow of the wings in which those to whom the Lord has been their help, hope He will be their help in all times to come. Here is all that favour, and mercy, and kindness, and good-will toward men, which the cherubims with their wings covering the mercy-seat prefigured. III. The joy and gladness which hope of help in God raises in the shadow of His wings. This arises--1. From what pious men see in the shadow of His wings. In all events and occurrences, they see not instruments, but perfections; not men, but God, sanctifying Himself, and magnifying Himself in exercising lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth. This view of His administration, under covert of which they have sheltered themselves, raises and enlivens their joy, and creates and confirms their hopes of all things issuing in His glory and their good. 2. From what they hear (Psalms 62:11-12). 3. From what they believe. Under the wings of the overshadowing providence of God is an eminent seat where His people sit and rejoice in His salvation. 4. From what they receive. The Lord is kind to His people in the shadow of His wings, and lets them want for nothing (Psalms 84:11). (A. Shanks.) What the Lord is to His people 1. A place of refuge. “ The shadow of Thy wings.” 2. A fountain of joy. The mercy-seat shadowed with the wings of the cherubims brought to his remembrance God, whom he believed to be gracious and merciful, and filled him with joy in committing himself to the care and protection of His overshadowing providence. The same sacred symbol reminds us that “ God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself,” and should fill us with all joy and peace in sheltering ourselves under His care and love. 3. A very present help. In believing, in praying, in doing, in suffering, were ye not helped? and it is your duty and honour to acknowledge it to His praise. 4. A quiet and sure habitation. 5. A treasure which faileth not. (A. Shanks.) Ways in which God helps us This verse, like an old Roman deity, has two faces, one looking backward and the other forward--the backward look of testimony and the forward look of trust. To the Romans, Janus presided over all beginnings; he opened the year, and the first month is called “ January” after him. They represented him with two faces because every door looked two ways, and he was the opener. It would be well if we could in our soul-life put this text where the Romans saw Janus. I propose, therefore, to remind you of some of the common, usual ways in which we receive help for life, and to give these facts the religious interpretation, to regard such help as help from God. It is evident, is it not, that we could not start life without help, that we begin in utter dependence? And what is the fact, then? The fact, then, is that other lives are at our service, that when we can do nothing for ourselves everything is done for us. The mother did not make her own heart; the God who gave it her I will adore as One who plans to help me in the most wonderful of all ways. And when you come to do what men call “ helping yourself,” “ making your own way,” even then you are only using the various helps which are provided for you. Do you start life on the level on which a child started, say 100,000 years ago? If not, what makes the difference? That difference is made by the upward struggle of humanity from that time to this, and you are a debtor to every one who contributed to that progress. Every individual has a certain inheritance, a certain capital from the experience of the race. The gains which the ages have won are in some measure worked into the very constitution of your being. Primitive man could not, by any effort, have used his hand for purposes for which you can use yours without difficulty. You have an immense advantage there, and you got it how? Through the gradual growth of skilful manipulation during thousands of years. Natural evolution is the manifestation of mind in method; it is God’ s way of doing things; it is upward creation. And further. The victories which others have won, the achievements of the past, are not only in some measure worked into the very make of our being, but they also constitute the environment of our life. Do you ever think of the help you get to live through the great privileges of a free press, of free institutions, of freedom in religion? What are all these? Are they not the purchases of the martyr spirit in bygone times? Men went down to death in order to win freedom to worship God. Again. Think of the help you may get from the lessons of personal experience; from your contact with and observation of things and men. There is scarcely a limit to what we can learn in this world. Some lessons we learn in the sunshine and some in the shadow; some in the thousand glories of a summer morning, and the deep eternal peacefulness of a cloudless sky, and some from the scowl of a tempest amid the barren desolation of the wintry blast; some we learn over the cradle in laughter and song and prophecy, and some at the graveside, in mourning and with tears. Now, I want you to think again that in all the lessons you have learned from your joys and your sorrows, from your defeats and your victories, from your hard struggles as well as from your sojourn near the still waters and in the green pastures--in all these God is the one Helper. He gave you a mind to think, a heart to feel, a world to live in, and a spirit greater than the world, able to look out over its boundaries into another. But is there still no other way in which God helps us? I think there is. It is the way which made the old Hebrews speak so much about angels; which made Paul speak of the Lord appearing to him in the night; which makes some men believe in spirits, and others talk of “ being struck with an idea,” or “ having an impression.” The great fact behind all these is that man often finds help arising within his soul. He may be quite alone, away from friends; he may not be aware of having been helped by any word or counsel from any one, and yet there in solitude he rises to master his trouble. Could that have happened if that man had been really a mere unit, absolutely cut off from the Universal Life? The question itself is absurd. It is only by virtue of his relation to that Universal Life that the man is a man at all. And that power which rises in him, unmediated so far as he knows, wells up from the eternal fountain of Divine life. (F. R. Williams.) Psalms 63:8 My soul followeth hard after Thee, Thy right hand upholdeth me.Endeavour and support I. The effort which the Christian makes. “ My soul followeth hard after Thee.” This seen in his--1. Uniform obedience to God. This obedience spiritual, of the heart; and universal. 2. Lively faith in the promises. 3. Communion and fellowship with God. Hence he follows hard after God as his guide, his refuge and his portion. Are we doing this? II. The support which the Christian receives.1. God delivers their feet from falling, His right hand upholds them. 2. Their hearts from fainting. Learn, then, to love the ordinances of the sanctuary and to improve them; and to ascribe all our good to God. (W. Tonse.) The saint following hard after God I. Following after God is the motion of the soul--1. In knowledge (Hosea 6:3). The knowledge of the only true God, as God and our God, is the principle and root of piety (John 17:8). Lift up thy voice and cry for it. Follow hard after it. Search for it as for silver. Dig for it as for hid treasures. Read daily. Pray fervently. Think seriously. 2. In faith. “ Believe in God,” saith our Saviour, “ believe also in Me.” If we believe firmly, we will follow hard after Him. Following hard and believing firmly, is following and believing with vigour, and ardour, and constancy. 3. In love. The love of God shed abroad in the heart kindles in it love to Him; and the love which it kindles, impatient lest it lose sight of Him, follows Him with ardour. It cannot bear the thoughts of distance. It wishes to be near Him, and to enjoy the comfort of His presence. 4. In hope. Are we in prosperity? Let us follow Him in hope of its continuance. Are we in adversity? Let us follow after Him in hope of its removal. Are we in darkness? Let us follow after Him in hope of light. Are we in danger? Let us follow after Him in hope of salvation. 5. In desire. Desire is the stepping of the soul in the way toward God, the fountain of our blessedness and glory; and the stronger and more lively desire is, our motion in following after Him will be quicker and faster. 6. In obedience. New obedience is the motion of the soul after God in the way of His commandments. 7. In communion. God looks down on His chosen following hard after Him, and they look up to Him. In speaking and hearing. He speaks, and they hear. II. The ardour of the soul following after God which the text expresses by the word “ hard,” includes--1. Keenness in respect of desire. 2. Diligence in respect of means. 3. Vigour in respect of exertion. With all our heart, soul, strength, and mind. 4. Perseveringly in respect of continuance. 5. Affectionately in respect of complacency and delight. This is ardour in piety. What more concerning it can we say? Alas! it is above our experience. O that the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord were shed abroad more diffusively in our heart by the Holy Ghost! (John 7:37). III. The ends and purposes for which pious souls follow hard after God.1. That they may see Him in His beauty and glory. 2. That they may be near Him. 3. That they may hear Him. 4. That they may be helped. They have weights to carry which are too heavy for their weakness, and exertions to make in obedience and self-denial which are above their strength. Of themselves they are nothing, and can do nothing but as succoured from above. Believing and feeling their own insufficiency, they would be always near their help. 5. That they may be enriched. God is rich, rich in mercy, rich in goodness, rich in grace; and in following after Him His people are enriched and filled with His goodness. The riches of His glory is their treasury; and Christ having the key that opens it, and authority and power over all it contains, their wants are supplied, and their souls filled with all the fulness of God. 6. That they may be preserved. Their adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour. The world is a numerous and formidable party, devising their hurt. Yet are they in safety, because they follow hard after God their preserver. 7. That they may be brought to His kingdom and glory. He is the breaker up of their way before them, and that they might not err, or go wrong, and come short, He hath appointed the Captain of Salvation their leader and commander. (A. Shanks.) Holy ardour I. Describe this state of experience. It implies--1. A renunciation of the world. This results from a conviction of its vanity. 2. A deliberate choice of God, as the only adequate good of the soul. 3. A vehement and intense desire after Him. 4. The exercises of faith and hope. II. Investigate the reasons why it is so rare. It is obvious few Christians enjoy this experience. The principal causes of their languor are--1. Inattention to the state of their own hearts. They are not recollected; thy do not examine themselves closely. Hence they are ignorant of their real condition, and do not keenly feel their wants. 2. Permitting the objects of sense to make too deep impressions. These naturally tend to blunt the edge of holy desire, and to divide and weaken the soul. 3. Neglect of the instituted means. 4. The indulgence of wrong dispositions, etc. Unbelief, pride, vain curiosity, levity, censoriousness, uncharitable or useless conversation, etc.; all these, like cold water, tend to damp and weaken, if not wholly to extinguish, the desire for God. III. Represent it as the most desirable experience.1. It is the best security against the allurements and troubles of the world. A heart earnestly pursuing God has no leisure to gaze on the seductive charms of temporal good, and no disposition to pierce itself with the thorns of worldly solicitude. 2. It renders every duty delightful. In this state nothing is done through custom, formality, or any other inferior motive--but every duty is performed with the highest views. 3. It prepares us for the largest communication. We always receive from God what we earnestly and faithfully seek from Him (Luke 2:9-10). By this holy fervour the soul throws itself open to receive all the fulness of God--the shoreless, fathomless ocean of good. 4. It advances our sanctification, and consequently qualifies us for glory. (Sketches of Four Hundred Sermons.) The divinity of a true life I. God is the Supreme Object of a true life. “ My soul followeth hard after Thee.”1. As the centre of my affections. I want to fix, settle my heart, with all its varied sympathies and affections, in Thee. Thou art the original centre of my soul; but I have lost Thee, and now my intense desire is to come back to Thee. 2. As the guide of my life. I want a guide; I have lost my way; the path is intricate, perilous, and very dark. 3. As the companion of my heart. I want a friend, some one who understands me, can sympathize with me, calm my agitated nature. My sense of desolation sinks me like lead, saddens me as a thunder cloud. II. God is the sustaining power of a true life. “ Thy right hand upholdeth me.”1. “ Thy right hand” in the blessings of material nature. 2. “ Thy right hand” in the beneficent influence of Providence. 3. “ Thy right hand” in the moral forces of the Gospel. It is God’ s power alone that can sustain the soul in its strugglings after life. (Homilist.) The Christian’ s pursuit I. What is implied. Following hard after God supposes--1. A previous acquaintance with Him. Holy affections are not heat without light, but light and heat combined; the mind is both illuminated and sanctified. 2. Ardent and intense desires. 3. Laborious exertion. 4. Perseverance in seeking. His seeming slights shall only increase their importunity. II. Why David thus followed hard after God.1. Guilt and distress followed hard after him. 2. His enemies followed hard after him. 3. He had followed hard after other things to no purpose. 4. We may add, the powerful attractives of divine grace. The reason why David followed after God was, that goodness and mercy followed after him. (B. Beddome, M. A.) David following God, and upheld by Him I. David’ s carriage to God.1. The inclination of a Christian’ s heart to God, and his simple propensity towards Him. There are three notions in which we may took upon God, according to either of which the soul of a Christian is inclined and carried after Him. First, as the Author of nature. Secondly, as the Giver of grace. Thirdly, as the Bestower of glory and eternal life. All these three are considerable in God, and in reference to all of them are a Christian’ s desires after God, and his soul does propend towards him. 2. A Christian’ s importunity. A good Christian, if he be in some distance and separation from God for a time, yet cannot long be content to be so. This may be made good unto us according to a twofold explication; whether ye take it of a distance and separation in regard of spirit, a state of spiritual desertion; or whether ye take it of a distance and separation in regard of the means; a deprivation of the public ordinances and ministerial dispensations. A good Christian cannot long content himself in either of these estrangements from God; but while it is thus with him, his soul does follow hard after him. Let us therefore so carry ourselves that we may not provoke God to deal thus with as. It is a great deal better for us, and more kindly, and more to be wished for, that our desires should be carried after these things for the excellency which is in the things themselves, and our own closing with them, than from want and deprival of them. For which cause it concerns us to prevent God, that He may not be forced to deal so with us. 3. A Christian’ s adherence, “ My soul cleaveth to Thee” ; so some translations render it; and indeed it is most agreeable to the original text, which signifies to adhere (Genesis 2:24; Proverbs 18:24). This cleaving implies three things: union as the foundation of it; fastening as the progress of it; perseverance as the accomplishment. Now, to quicken us so much the more to the practice of this present duty, which is here in David’ s example commended to our imitation, let us further consider this with ourselves, that there is nothing else which is, indeed, fitting for our souls to cleave unto but God alone. II. God’ s carriage to him. “ Thy right hand,” etc.1. By the right hand of God, we are in one word to understand, His strengthening and confirming grace; which is called His right hand, in regard of the powerfulness of it, and dexterity for the preserving of His people. This is that which (as David here signifies) is extended and stretched forth to this purpose, as to himself, so to all other Christians, “ who are kept by the power of God, through faith unto salvation” (1 Peter 1:5). This upholding of God’ s right hand, thus explained, is often mentioned to us in Scripture (Psalms 138:7; Psalms 139:10; Son 2:6). And many such places as these, all coming to this purpose, to show unto us God’ s almighty power and grace in the supportment of His servants. This is seen, and does discover itself especially in two particulars. (1) As to matter of sin, upholds me that I fall not into that. (2) As to matter of affliction, upholds me that I sink not under that. 2. But why is the power of God in His stablishing and assisting grace expressed by the name of His “ right hand,” here and in other places? We may conceive for three reasons especially. (1) As it is a hand of strength, the right hand is such, it has more strength than the other hand has. And so is it with the grace of God. “ The right hand of the Lord hath the pre-eminence,” as we find it twice there repeated (Psalms 118:15-16); hence, also, called a right hand of power in others (Matthew 26:64; and Mark 14:62), etc. (2) As it is a hand of readiness, it is more expedite and ready to be used than the other is, and therefore we express all expediteness by a word taken from hence, which we call dexterity. So is God’ s grace where it puts forth itself, it is very ready and expediting, and He Himself is ready presently to use it upon any occasion, for the good of His servants. (3) As an hand of success. It is the right hand so, forasmuch as whatever it takes in hand prospers to it, and does infallibly obtain its effect. (T. Horton, D. D.) The saint upheld by God’ s right hand I. The course of piety. 1. Begins in reconciliation. 2. Goes along the way of God’ s commandments. 3. Ends in everlasting life, through Jesus Christ our Lord. II. The upholding of the soul in following hard after God in the course of piety.1. The dominion of grace in the soul is maintained. Upheld by almighty strength, it lives and reigns. 2. The dominion of grace in the soul is extended. Under this influence faith increases, hope expands, holiness brightens, and the cross becomes light and easy. 3. The purposes of the heart under the dominion of grace to follow hard after God in the course of piety are accomplished by His upholding the soul with His right hand. III. The right hand with which David believed himself to be upheld.1. His power. Upheld by this attribute which is omnipotent, no weight can crush, no calamity can overwhelm, and no enemy can break the purposes of the pious heart, and turn it off the way of God’ s commandments. What can He not do? what will He not do? what is He not ready to do for those who are upright before Him, and keep the way of His testimonies? 2. His mercy. In the upholding of power, mercy shines; and in the upholding of mercy, power exerts itself gloriously. What upheld you when your foot slipped? was it not mercy? What kept you out of the gulf of despondency? was it not mercy? What succoured you in the hour of temptation? was it not mercy? What strengthened you under burthens and vexations? was it not mercy? Conclusion.1. In the practice of unfeigned and lively piety there is reward. 2. Pious souls are upheld in their course. 3. Pious souls are sensible of their being upheld by the right hand of power and mercy. 4. Pious souls acknowledge their upholding by the right hand of the Lord to His praise (A. Shanks.) . Psalms 64:1-10 Psalms 64:1-10 Hear my voice, O God, in my prayer: preserve my life from fear of the enemy.Man’ s enmity towards man We see this enmity here in three aspects. I. Piously dreaded. David prays against it. He prays for his own protection. Self-preservation is a natural instinct, and it is right that it should have a religious expression. II. Characteristically working. How does enmity work generally?1. Clandestinely (Psalms 64:2). Enmity in the heart, like poison in the serpent, has within it the instinct of cunning. 2. Slanderously (Psalms 64:3-4). “ Slander, whose edge,” says Shakespeare, “ is sharper than a sword.” It strikes at the reputation of the foe, and reputation is as dear as life. 3. Plottingly (Psalms 64:5). It lays traps and snares for the foe everywhere--snares by which a man may lose his commercial credit, his domestic peace, his social reputation. 4. Diligently (Psalms 64:6). Enmity is not dormant or lazy, nor a spasmodic agent, it is systematically and persistently active: it pursues its victim, tracks him until it finds him out, however labyrinthian the course. III. Divinely thwarted. “ God shall shoot at them with an arrow.”1. Unawares (Psalms 64:7). Divine judgment will Strike at the malignant man when he least expects it. 2. By its own agency (Psalms 64:8). The malicious man must destroy himself. This is God’ s law (Job 5:12-13). 3. in such a way as shall make an impression upon all (Psalms 64:9-10). What David here predicates of his enemies applies to all malignant men. Divine retribution will overtake them; they shall be baffled, thwarted, confounded, ruined, (Homilist.) Psalms 64:5 They say, Who shall see them? Omniscience ignored I. It is a fact that this notion has great influence upon the conduct of man. They like to cherish such notion, finding it convenient. Because they sometimes escape the eye of man, they think it possible to escape the eye of God. The sinner persuades himself that he has gained his end, escaped observation and avoided the punishment. II. It is a fact that this notion is utterly untruthful and delusive. If God exist, this must be so. The spirituality of His nature makers possible His onmipresence and omniscience. III. God has often exposed this delusion, and the time is fixed for the complete demonstration.1. Character is often seen through by man. 2. Retribution often follows men’ s deeds here and now. 3. The future state will show that God saw all. (Homiletic Magazine.) Psalms 64:9-10 And all men shall fear, and shall declare the work of God; for they shall wisely consider of His doing.Preservation from enemies I. An act of God. His enemies were strong and powerful, but God was omnipotent, and in Him was his help and trust; they designed his utter ruin, but God turned their mischief upon their own heads.1. The suddenness of their destruction. 2. The manner of the discovery, and prevention of his danger. II. Its effect upon men in general.1. Fear, which naturally arises in men’ s minds upon the apprehensions of God’ s irresistible power and greatness; for whom has an arm like God? or who can thunder with a voice like Him? yea, who can hear His voice and not tremble? or see His hand stretched out and not be afraid? “ All men shall fear,” but fear alone will not profit us; for the devils tremble before the power they hate, and wicked men may dread God’ s vengeance, where they are unwilling to see His hand; and therefore here follows another effect, which such signal actions have upon men. 2. “ They shall declare the work of God.” And this is an effect as general and large as the other, though upon different accounts; for even they who are unwilling to own it shall be forced to acknowledge it, and they for whose sake it is done shall rejoice to publish it. 3. “ They shall wisely consider of His doing.” That is, they shall better understand the method of God’ s proceedings, and the reasons of His dealings in the world; for these things make it plain that God takes care of the affairs of His people, and that the enemies of His Church shall not be able to prevail against her. III. A duty resulting from all these considerations, and chiefly incumbent on good men.1. “ The righteous shall be glad in the Lord.” A duty no less easy than pleasant, and that which we all seem to covet most; that which we eagerly pursue as the best of this world’ s satisfaction, joy and rejoicing. 2. “ The righteous shall trust in Him.” And good reason indeed to trust in Him, of whose favour and lovingkindness we have had so large experience; well may we rely on that power which is so able to protect us; well may we depend on that providence which so remarkably takes care of us. 3. “ All the upright in heart shall glory.” They shall glory in His strength, and triumph in His favour. But that is not all; they shall glory in the confusion of the wicked, and rejoice in the continual disappointment of such treacherous designs. (H. Dove, D. D.) Providential deliverance I. The necessity there is of attention and consideration, to discover the hand of God, and the manner of its working, in those events of which we are informed either by history, or our own experience. “ They shall consider of His doing.” II. The wisdom of thus considering--“ They shall wisely consider of His doing.” III. Certain marks whereby we may at any time discern an especial providence, Diligently to mark, and carefully to treasure up in our minds, the special providences of the Almighty, is the way to preserve and nourish our faith and hope in Him; it furnishes the grounds of our thankfulness and praise; it stirs up our finest feelings and very best affections toward Him; holy joy, humble reverence, and hearty love; it supports us under all our sufferings; and affords us comfort in all our sorrows. (Bishop Horne.) All the upright in heart shall glory.-- “ All the upright in heart shall glory” 1. The dispositions of the persons. “ All the upright in heart,” and then, the retribution upon these persons, “ They shall glory,” or, they shall be celebrated, they shall be praised. In the first, the qualification of the persons, we shall pass by these steps; first, that God in His punishments and rewardings proposes to Himself persons. God does not begin at a retribution, nor begin at a condemnation, before He have persons, persons fit to be rewarded, persons fit to be condemned. God did not first make a heaven and a hell, and after think of making man, that He might have some persons to put in them; but, first for His glory He made man, and for those, who, by a good use of His grace preserved their state, heaven; and for those who, by their own fault fell, He made hell. And, in the qualifications of these persons, He proposes first a rectitude, a directness, an uprightness; declinations downward, deviations upon the wrong hand, squint-eyed men, left-handed men (in a spiritual sense), He meddles not withal. They must be direct, and upright; and then, “ upright in heart” ; for, to be good to ill ends (as, in many eases, a man may be), God accepts not, regards not. But, let him be a person thus qualified, “ upright,” upright because he loves uprightness, “ upright in heart” ; and then, he is infallibly embraced in that general rule, and proposition, that admits no exception. All the upright in heart shall be partakers of this retribution; and in these branches we shall determine our first part, first, that God proposes to Himself persons; persons thus and thus qualified; He begins at them. Secondly, that God had rather dwell Himself, and propose to us the considerations of good persons, than bad, of His mercies, than His judgments, for He mentions no other here, but persons capable of His retributions; and then, the goodness that God considers, is rectitude, and rectitude in the root, in the heart; and from that root grows that spreading universality, that infallibility. All such are sure of the reward. And then, in our second part, in the reward itself, though it be delivered here in the whole bar, in the ingot, in the wedge, in bullion, in one single word, Gloriabuntur, Laudabuntur, they shall glory, yet it admits this mintage, and coining, and issuing in lesser pieces, that first we consider the thing itself, the metal in which God rewards us, glory, praise; and then, since God’ s promise is fastened upon that (we shall be praised), as we may lawfully seek the praise of good men, so must we also willingly afford praise to good men, and to good actions. And then, since we find this retribution fixed in the future (we shall be praised, we shall be in glory), there arises this consolation, that though we have it not yet, yet we shall have it; though we be in dishonour, and contempt, and under a cloud, of which we see no end ourselves, yet there is a determined future in God, which shall be made present, we shall overcome this contempt, we shall glory, we shall be celebrated; in which future the consolation is thus much farther exalted, that it is an everlasting future; the glory, and praise, the approbation which we shall receive from good men here, shall flow out and continue to the hosannas in heaven, in the month of saints, and angels, and to the “ Well done, good and faithful servant,” in the mouth of God Himself. (John Donne, D. D.) Gladness in God It is only where there is much faith and consequent love that there is much joy. If there is but little heat about the bulb of the thermometer, no wonder that the mercury marks but a low degree. If there is but small faith, there will not be much gladness. The road into Giant Despair’ s castle is through doubt, which doubt comes from an absence--a sinful absence--in our own experience, of the felt presence of God, and the felt force of the verities of the Gospel. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) . Psalms 65:1-13 Psalms 65:1-13 Praise waiteth for Thee, O God, in Zion: and unto Thee shall the vow be performed.A harvest hymn This is a psalm of thanksgiving for plentiful rain, falling at the critical time in a year of drought and ensuring a plentiful harvest. To an agricultural people this was a memorable mercy. I. The attitude of the worshippers (Psalms 65:1-4). The opening words, “ Praise is silent for Thee, O God, in Zion,” describe the hush of a multitude just ready to burst forth in song. The air is full of an intention which has not yet expressed itself, but it will utter its thought immediately, because the nation has assembled to perform the vows made during the drought, when dearth was feared. The worshippers acknowledge their dependence on the Hearer of prayer: they are part of frail humanity , which can never be equal to its own requirements, but must ever be dependent on a higher Power. But there is a still deeper cause for humility, which ought always to be kept in mind when an approach is made to God: “ Iniquities,” says the psalmist, “ prevail against me.” What mortal has ever existed who did not require to say so? Iniquities press in from without and they press outwards from within; and man is not able to withstand their force. Yet the psalmist has discovered the secret: “ As for our transgressions, Thou shalt purge them away.” God can overcome this terrible force, by blotting out the guilt of past sin and breaking the power of present sin. And the next verse supplies a description of the blessedness of those who, thus liberated, have free access to the throne of the Divine grace and full enjoyment of its privileges. II. The object of worship (Psalms 65:5-8). He is not a God unknown, but in all the centuries of the history of Israel has shown Himself mighty on behalf of His people, by acts of salvation which have struck terror into their enemies. And not only in the events of history has His power from time to time been shown; it is exhibited continually in the great aspects of nature. III. A picture of plenty (Psalms 65:9-13). After weeks of rainless weather, when the hearts of the husbandmen were quaking with fear, the showers, earnestly prayed for, had come at last. In the clouds sweeping over the landscape the happy inhabitants saw the footsteps of the passing Deity dropping fatness as He went. Hill and dale and wilderness had all partaken of the benefit. The flocks were full of life on the mountain sides and the fields and the valleys stood in all the bravery of healthy and abundant crops; till it seemed to the poet as if a great shout of joy were going up from all the revived objects in the landscape to the heaven from which the blessing had come. (J. Stalker, D. D.) God as He appears in human history I. God as He appears in human history.1. As a prayer-answering God (Psalms 65:2). That this title belongs to Him as He appears in human life is-- (1) Suggested by universal consciousness.(2) Proved by the universal experience of the good.(3) Declared by the mouth of God Himself. “ Call upon Me,” etc. “ Ask, and ye shall receive,” etc. 2. As a man-needed God. Sooner shall the Mississippi keep away from the ocean or the earth from circling round the sun, than your soul keep away from your Maker. 3. As a sin-removing God (Psalms 65:8). 4. As a world-trusted God (Psalms 65:5). (1) All men require some object to trust in. They must lean on something.(2) Their condition, whether happy or otherwise, depends on the object they trust. The great misery of man is, that he rests on the unworthy, the changeable, and the insecure.(3) The only safe object of trust is God. II. God as He appears in human history, worshipped.1. The kind of worship. “ Praise waiteth for Thee, O God, in Zion.” Are we to understand “ waiteth,” in the sense of silence? Then the essence of worship is silent--it is in the profoundest thoughts, the deepest feelings, the strongest aspirations, which are independent of language or sound. The deepest things of the soul are unutterable. 2. The blessedness of worship (Psalms 65:4). The idea is, fellowship with God, going into His courts, dwelling in His temple. (1) The fellowship is chosen. “ Blessed is the man whom Thou choosest.” What a distinction is thus put on man! No other creature in the world can hold fellowship with the Infinite. (2) The fellowship is permanent. “ Dwell in Thy house.” Not a mere visitant for a terminable period. But a resident so long as existence endures. (3) The fellowship is satisfying. “ We shall be satisfied with the goodness of Thy house.” This is, and nothing else, the satisfaction of the soul. “ In Thy presence is fulness of joy.” (Homilist.) Praises and vows accepted in Zion Upon Zion there was erected an altar for the offering of sacrifices. Burnt offering was only to be offered there. In fulfilment of this type, “ we have an altar whereof they have no right to eat that serve the tabernacle.” There is but one altar, Jesus Christ our Lord. I. The holy offering of worship which we desire to present to God. There is--1. Praise. It is the chief part of the worship of heaven, and therefore should be much regarded upon earth. It is to be rendered only to God. “ For Thee, O God.” For Thee only, and for Thee all. Not to virgins, or saints. And our praise is not to be formal, of lips and sound, but of the soul. And let it be continual--“ waiteth for Thee.” And humble; let it wait as the servants wait in the king’ s palace. And let it be expectant: on the look-out for more of God’ s blessings. What abundant reason we have for praise. Mercies temporal and spiritual. 2. The vow. “ Unto Thee shall the vow be performed.” We are not given to vow-making in these days. But there have been some we have made. At our conversion, at our uniting ourselves to the Church of God; when we entered on our work as Christian ministers; and, perhaps, in times of affliction. Let us keep them. II. The blessed encouragement.1. God hears prayer. “ O Thou that hearest prayer.” 2. And all prayer, if it be true. “ Unto Thee shall all flesh come.” 3. Let none of us exclude ourselves. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Zion’ s praise ready for her Lord If not always soaring we may be as birds ready for an instant flight, always with wings, if not always on the wing. Our hearts should be like the beacons made ready to be fired. When invasion was expected in the days of Queen Elizabeth, piles of wood and combustible material were laid ready on the tops of certain hills, and watchmen stood prepared to kindle the piles should there be notice given that the ships of the enemy were in the offing. Everything was in waiting. The heap was not made of damp wood, neither had they to go and seek kindling; but the fuel waited for the match. The watch-fire was not always blazing, but it was always ready to shoot forth its flame. Have ye never read, “ Praise waiteth for Thee, O God, in Zion” ? So let our hearts be prepared to be fired with adoring praise by one glimpse of the Redeemer’ s eyes. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Psalms 65:2O Thou that hearest prayer, unto Thee shall all flesh come.God’ s hearing of prayer What avails prayer if it be not heard? But the text comforts us by the title it ascribes to God, and by the effect that the belief of it shall have upon all flesh. God in Christ is the hearer of prayer. I. Wherein God’ s hearing of prayer lies. This involves--1. His accepting of our prayer (Psalms 141:2). But some prayer God hates (Proverbs 28:9).2. His granting the request (Psalms 20:1; Psalms 20:4; Matthew 15:28).3. His answering of prayer (Psalms 102:2). Prayer heard in heaven comes back like the dove with the olive branch of peace in her mouth. II. The import of God’ s being the hearer of prayer. It imports--1. God in Christ is accessible to poor sinners (2 Corinthians 5:19).2. He is a sin-pardoning God (Exodus 34:6-7).3. He is an all-sufficient God.4. Bountiful and compassionate (Psalms 86:5).5. Omnipresent and omniscient, and--6. Of infinite power. III. What prayers they are that God hears.1. Those of His own children.2. Such as are agreeable to His will (1 John 5:14).3. Made by the aid of the Holy Spirit. None else are acceptable. And--4. Prayers offered to God through Christ. IV. Consider more particularly this doctrine.1. The instinct of prayer in all God’ s people shows that He will hear prayer.2. And so does the intercession of Christ (Romans 8:34).3. Promises (Matthew 7:7; Isaiah 65:24; Psalms 145:19).4. Invitations to prayer (Son 2:14; Hosea 5:1-15. ult.; Psalms 50:15; Isaiah 41:17).5. The gracious nature of God (Exodus 22:27).6. The experiences of the saints in all ages.7. The present ease and relief which prayer gives (Psalms 138:8; 1 Samuel 1:18; Micah 7:7). V. In what manner God hears prayer.1. A thing prayed for may be obtained and yet the prayer be not accepted (Psalms 78:29; Psalms 34:1-22; Psalms 35:1-28; Psalms 36:1-12; Psalms 37:1-40; Psalms 38:1-22). So that a thing prayed for may be given in downright wrath (Hosea 13:11). Or in uncovenanted condescension. As Ahab (1 Kings 21:29; also Hosea 11:3). 2. Whether answers come in the way of grace or not may be discerned. They do not when there is a wilfulness and unhumbledness of spirit in asking (1 Samuel 8:19). Or when men’ s lusts are strengthened and fed by them when received (Psalms 78:29-30). Or when men ask on the ground of their necessity more than on the intercession of Christ. The heart loves the gift more than the giver. But a prayer may be accepted and yet not granted. So was it with our Lord (Matthew 26:39). And David (2 Chronicles 6:8-9). And such prayers are ever submissive to God’ s will (Matthew 26:39); they contain in the denial of them an unseen greater mercy; and even aim at the glory of God. And though unanswered we may know they are accepted when the heart is brought to meek submission (Psalms 22:2-3); and we are supported under the denial, as our Lord was (Luke 22:42-43; Psalms 138:3). And helped to go back to God with new petitions in faith and hope of hearing (2 Samuel 12:20). Let us remember that delay is not denial. Abraham prayed for an heir, yet fifteen years passed before the answer came (Genesis 15:3-4; Genesis 17:25; Exodus 2:23-24; Daniel 9:23). There is a difference between the granting of a petition and our knowing that it is granted. They may come together, as in Matthew 15:28. But, as with Abraham, they may not. The hearing and granting of prayer is an object of faith; the answer, of sense and feeling (1 John 5:14-15; Matthew 15:28). But the two are generally at a distance from one another. And the reason of this is manifold. 1. To keep us at the throne of grace (Proverbs 15:8; Son 2:14). 2. To try our graces (James 1:12; Job 27:10; Luke 18:7). God delights in our faith. 3. To prepare and fit us for the answer (Psalms 10:17). 4. That we may have them at the fittest time, and when they will do us most good (John 11:14-15; John 2:4). (T. Boston, D. D.) Encouragements to prayer I. From its nature.1. It is a spiritual thing; not any mere outward form, but the soul seeing the invisible, grasping the intangible and linking itself by sacred affinities with things eternal. 2. Consider also its dignity, it holds correspondence with the court of heaven. 3. And how important. For how unspeakably great is our need, and we can only gain supply for them as we seek it from God. II. From the plighted faithfulness of the Divine character to hear and answer it. How, in face of all God’ s promises to hear us, can we doubt the success of our prayers? Objections against prayer lie equally against all human endeavour. God will give good things to them that ask Him, but only He can say what things are good. They may be such as we deem anything but good. Many have been laid on beds of languishing to save them from a bed of everlasting burnings. And when the time for the blessings we ask for may be, we cannot know, nor fix the rate of their progress towards us. III. The suggesting and controlling influence of the Holy Spirit in the act of devotion. IV. The co-operating intercessions of our ascended Saviour, and the security we have in the use of His all-prevailing name. Oh! could the recording angel give you back an exact copy even of this morning’ s prayers--a copy in which all the thoughts which passed through your mind while in the act of devotion should be translated into words,--how shocked would ye be at the intermixture of piety and profaneness, of reverent expressions and solemn trifling, with which ye insulted the majesty and provoked the patience of the holiest and best of beings. Wherefore was it, then, that ye were not consumed? Oh! it was that Jesus, “ touched with a feeling of our infirmities,” stood in the gap between us. V. The reflective benefit which, apart from direct answers to our prayers, comes to our souls. If a man do not move God he is sure to move himself. (Daniel Moore, M. A.) The answerableness and the inevitableness of prayer I. The answerableness of prayer. Hearing, here, means answering. He hears millions of prayers He never answers. The grand reason is, that the prayers are selfish.1. The mind in this state looks upon God’ s universe in new aspects. 2. Turns all events to new accounts. II. The inevitableness of prayer. “ Unto Thee shall all flesh come.” “ Flesh” here means mankind. As all waters must find their way into the ocean, so all souls must find their way to God, sooner or later. Two things necessitate this.1. Internal instincts. In all sentient existences there would seem at times to be something like an instinct of prayer. 2. External circumstances necessitate prayer. Men suppress the instinct, and sometimes make it well-nigh numb as death. But in the presence of a great danger, a great sorrow, a great grief, it bounds into earnest life. (Homilist.) On prayer 1. The nature of prayer supposes, in the first place, that we have a just sense of our own wants and miseries, and of our dependence on God for relief. We live in a world where everything around us is dark and uncertain. When we look back on the past, we must remember that there we have met with much disappointment and vanity. When we look forward to the future, all is unknown. We are liable there to many dangers which we cannot foresee; and to many which we foresee approaching, yet know not how to defend ourselves against them. We know that we are the subjects of a supreme righteous Governor, to whom we are accountable for our conduct. How soon the call for our removal may be given, none of us know. Who amongst us can say, that he is perfectly ready to appear before his Creator and Judge, and to give an account to Him for all the actions of his life? 2. Thus it appears that there is a just foundation for prayer, in all its parts, naturally laid in the present circumstances of man, and in the relation in which he stands to God. (1) With regard to temporal blessings, though men may lay a restraint upon themselves in the expressions which they utter in prayer, yet it is much to be suspected that the inward wishes of their hearts for such blessings are often the most fervent of any. To wish and pray for the advantages of life is not forbidden. Our Saviour hath so far countenanced it, as to command us to pray that God would give us our daily bread. (2) With regard to spiritual mercies, we are unquestionably allowed to be more fervent and explicit in our requests at the throne of grace. God can never be displeased in hearing us implore from Him those graces and endowments of the soul, that beautify us in His sight, that are good for all men, good at all times, indeed, the only certain and immutable goods. (3) Intercessions for the welfare of others form a material part of prayer. When we bow our knee to the common Father, let it be like affectionate members of His family, desiring the prosperity of all our brethren. 3. In order that prayer may produce its proper effect, there are certain qualifications necessarily belonging to it, which come next to be considered. (1) One of the first and chief of these is seriousness, or an attentive and solemn frame of mind, in opposition to thoughts that wander, and to words that drop forth unmeaning from the lips. (2) To seriousness, we must join affection in prayer; I mean that devotion of the heart which is inspired by gratitude and love, in distinction from forced prayer, or what is unwillingly preferred from servile fear, or mere regard to decency. (3) Faith is another qualification required. We acknowledge our guilt; we disclaim all trust in our own righteousness; and implore grace from God on account of what His Son has done and suffered for us. 4. Having thus pointed out the chief qualifications of prayer, it remains that I show the importance and advantages of it. (1) Prayer is one of the most powerful means of recalling our minds from the vanities of life to serious thoughts; to a proper sense of God and our duty; and to all the high objects with which we are intimately connected as rational and immortal beings. (2) Prayer is useful, not only as a corrective of our natural levity and forgetfulness of God, but as an actual exercise of the best affections of our nature, which are thereby confirmed and strengthened. It implies the highest sentiments of reverence and adoration, of love and gratitude to God, of trust in His mercy, and of faith in our blessed Redeemer, all animating the heart. (3) Prayer is important, “ not only as a means of high improvement in religion, but as an instrument of consolation and relief under the distresses of life. (H. Blair, D. D.) The prayer-hearing God God not only hears prayer, but glories in so doing. He derives His fame, His character from it. For, think how constantly, readily and certainly He hears prayer. Hence, the psalmist declares, “ Unto Thee shall all flesh come.” It speaks not of God on the judgment-but on the mercy-seat; all shall seek unto Him. Let us then make known God as the prayer-hearing God, and let us, more and more, come to Him ourselves. (W. Jay.) Psalms 65:3 Iniquities prevail against me: as for our transgressions, Thou shalt purge them away.Sin overcoming and overcome There is an intended contrast in these two clauses, between man’ s impotence and God’ s power in the face of the fact of sin. The first clause might be translated, “ iniquities are too strong for me” ; and the “ Thou” of the next clause is emphatically expressed in the original, “ as for our transgressions” (which we cannot touch), “ Thou shalt purge them away.” Despair of self is the mother of confidence in God; and no man has learned the blessedness and the sweetness of God’ s power to cleanse who has not learnt the impotence of his own feeble attempts to overcome his transgression. The very heart of Christianity is redemption. Only he who knows the cruel bondage of sin understands and appreciates the meaning and the brightness of the Gospel of Christ. He was called Jesus because He should “ save His people from their sins.” So here we have our own hopelessness and misery, but also our confidence in the Divine help. I. The cry of despair. “ Too strong for me,” and yet they are me. Me, and not me; mine, and yet, somehow or other, my enemies, although my children--too strong for me. The picture suggested by the words is that of some usurping power that has mastered a man, laid its grip upon him so that all efforts to get away from the grasp are hopeless. But some of you say, “ We were never in bondage to any man.” You do not know or feel that anything has got hold of you which is stronger than you. Well, let us see. Consider for a moment. You are powerless to master your evil, considered as habits. You do not know the tyranny of the usurper until a rebellion is got up against him. As long as you are gliding with the stream you have no notion of its force. Turn your boat and try to pull against it, and when the sweat-drops come on your brow, and you are sliding backwards, in spite of all your struggles, you will then know the force of the stream. Did you over try to cure some trivial bad habit, some trick of your fingers, for instance? You know what infinite pains and patience and time it took you to do that, and do you think that you would find it easier if you once set yourself to cure that lust, say, or that petulance, pride, passion, dishonesty? Any honest attempt at mending character drives a man to this--“ Iniquities are too strong for me.” And so also it is with sin regarded as guilt, you cannot rid yourself of it. What is done is done. “ What I have written I have written.” Nothing will ever wash that little lily hand white again, as the magnificent murderess in Shakespeare’ s great creation found out. You can forget your guilt; you can ignore it. You do not take away the rock because you blow out the lamps of the lighthouse. And you do not alter an ugly fact by ignoring it. I beseech you, as reasonable men and women, to open your eyes to these plain facts about yourselves, that you have an element of demerit and liability to consequent evil and suffering which you are perfectly powerless to touch or to lighten in the slightest degree. II. The ringing cry of confident hope. Jesus Christ, when trusted, will do for sin, as habit, what cannot be done without Him. He will give the motiye to resist, which is lacking in the majority of cases. He will give the power to resist, which is lacking in all cases. He will put a new life and spirit into our nature which shall strengthen and transform our feeble wills. The only way to conquer the world, the flesh, and the devil, is to let Christ clothe you with His armour. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Iniquities I. The language of complaint--“ Imquities prevail,” etc. They may do so-- 1. In the growing sense of our guilt. As light increases, we see them more and more. 2. In the power of their acting. This prevalence cannot be entire, for sin shall not have dominion over the believer in Christ. He may be bruised, but he is not enslaved. II. Of triumph. The Lord purges away our transgressions.1. By His pardoning mercy. 2. By His sanctifying grace. And that He will do this the Christian is confidently persuaded. (W. Jay.) Psalms 65:4 Blessed is the man whom Thou choosest, and causest to approach unto Thee, that he may dwell in Thy courts.Worship This psalm includes a thanksgiving for God’ s bounties in Providence, for the beauties of spring, and the natural supply of man’ s wants; but the privileges of the sanctuary are here made a special subject of grateful acknowledgment. I. The psalmist here commends public worship--1. As a peculiar privilege. “ Blessed is the man whom Thou choosest and causest to approach unto Thee.” The opportunity of enjoying such an approach is not given to all, but brings special responsibility to those to whom God grants it. 2. As an approach unto God. God is never far from us, but when we meet in His courts we are able more distinctly to realize His nearness to us. We often have a deep and glad sense of His presence. 3. As the finding a new home. “ That he may dwell in Thy courts.” There may be a reference here, as in other psalms, to the Levites who literally dwelt there that they might attend to the performances of the services; but the latter part of this verse implies that David claimed for himself a share in the privilege. The thought is--“ we, as dwellers in the courts of the Lord, shall be satisfied.” 4. As an abundant provision. Here the wants both of the mind and of the heart are met. 5. As a holy service. II. General remarks on public worship.1. It is valuable for testimony. Christians thus witness for Christ, and confess their faith. 2. For its associations. What memories cluster round the sanctuaries where we have worshipped I 3. For communion ‘ with one another. Thus we are helped by association one with the other in the various acts of worship. 4. For the worship itself in its various parts--prayer, instruction, praise. Then, let us not forsake the assembling of ourselves together, and let us seek to make the highest use of the ordinances of religion. (Anon.) The blessedness of approaching to God Who is the happiest man? The miser says, Blessed is the man whose corn and wine are increased, The sensualist says, Blessed is he who has no Lord over him, and who walks after the ways of his heart, and the sight of his eyes, without the least control from any laws, human or divine. The ambitious man says, Blessed is he who is highest in favour at court; who is admitted to the confidence of his prince. But, “ Blessed is the man,” says David (and so says every Christian), “ whom Thou choosest, and causest to approach unto Thee.” I. Explain the nature of this approach to God.1. Consider what it is not. It is not bowing the knee, and saying a prayer, and putting on an appearance of seriousness at particular times; it is not going often to the house of the Lord, and coming and sitting before Him as His people; the humble, self-condemned publican, that stood afar off, approached nearer to God than the Pharisee, though he confidently pushed forward to the holy of holies. To approach Him is an act of the mind, not of the body. God is a spirit, and they that worship Him acceptably, must do it not merely with a bended knee, and a loud voice, and an uplifted eye, or a head hanging down like a bulrush. These things are comparatively indifferent; if unaccompanied with sincerity, they are worse than indifferent; they are offensive and abominable to God, who will be worshipped in spirit and in truth. II. In what does the blessedness of approaching to God consist? In the honour, the pleasure, the profit we enjoy. III. The hindrances to such approach.1. Sin, this destroys our communion with God until we repent and return to Him.2. The world.3. Satan. (S. Lavington.) The happiness of saints The saints of God are blessed-- I. In feeling the joys of devotion. II. In obtaining the forgiveness of sin. III. In finding a retreat from affliction. IV. In the anticipation of a better world. As the mariner who has been long tossed on a troubled ocean, or detained in a foreign country, is desirous to revisit his native shore, and, when he first discovers the hoary rocks of the green isle rising with rugged grandeur above the waves, his eye beams with joy; so the saint who has been sojourning many a tedious year in a waste howling desert, pants to behold the beauty of paradise, and darts his eye radiant with rapture towards the delightful abode. (T. Laurie, D. D.) The blessedness of approaching to God I. What is meant by approaching to God. There was a time when the Lord came down and conversed with man, as one friend does with another, when no thunder, and lightning, and tempest accompanied him, and when no conscious guilt inspired the human breast with terror; and a time will come again, dark and disconsolate though our condition now be, when the veil shall be removed, and we shall so behold the glory of the Lord, as to be completely changed into the same image. Now, sin interposes a dark cloud betwixt us and our God, so that we can have but a very imperfect view of His glory and majesty. “ We see as through a glass darkly.” There are seasons, however, when the Christian is admitted, as it were, within the veil, when he sees the King in His beauty, and enjoys that delightful communion with Him, which is a foretaste of the heavenly bliss. II. Wherein the happiness of approaching to God consists.1. It is the highest honour; far superior to every dignity, an honour compared to which all the pomp and splendour of earthly greatness dwindle into insignificance. 2. It is a pleasure. God is the chief good. He is the source of life, and joy, and happiness. To go, therefore, to Him, and draw our enjoyments pure from the fountain from which they flow, must be peculiarly gratifying to every person who can properly distinguish between good and evil. 3. It is highly profitable. III. Obstacles that prevent our approaching to God.1. The corruption of our own heart. This may be regarded as the first and greatest of all, because while this continues unsubdued, we cannot advance a single step in our journey to heaven; whereas, if this be overcome, none of the rest will be able to obstruct our progress. 2. The world. (1) How many, oppressed with the cares of this life, are wholly unconcerned about the joys of the life that is to come! (2) How many are the slaves of unhallowed lusts! The world holds out to them the intoxicating cup of forbidden pleasures; they drink it, and the luscious draught diffuses its baneful influence over the soul. (3) How many are deterred from the service of God by the fear of suffering! They would willingly serve God if they could do it with safety; but they cannot think of submitting to difficulties and trials in His service. 3. Another obstacle in the way of our approaching to God, is Satan. He is the deceiver and the destroyer. Lessons--1. They who do not approach to God will perish.2. The value of the privilege we possess, of approaching to God in the ways of His appointment.3. It is only through the mediation of Jesus Christ that we can approach to God. (John Ramsay, M. A.) Delight in the presence of God A nervous clergyman, who could only compose to advantage when absolutely alone and undisturbed, left his door unlocked, and his little three-year-old child softly opened the door and came in. He was disturbed, and a little impatiently asked, “ My child, what do you want?” “ Nothing, papa.” “ Then what do you come in here for?” “ Just because I wanted to be with you,” was the reply. To come into God’ s presence and wait before Him, wanting nothing but to be with Him--how such an hour now and again would rest us. Psalms 65:5 By terrible things in righteousness wilt Thou answer us, O God of our salvation.God’ s terrible things Now, it is here we are to ponder such things, and to seek a solution of these mysteries. We have all had to do with them at one time or another. Holy men of old have known them (Isaiah 26:8-11; Psalms 45:4; Isaiah 64:1; Isaiah 64:3-4). I. God has here and now His terrible things, but they are also righteous things (Psalms 97:8; Proverbs 16:4). If God has terrible things, as the exhibition of His righteousness and His power, so also men become sometimes terrible things, objects of terror, and I knew of nothing so terrible as a hard, and impenitent, and proud heart. But God is love! I feel that, but few arguments have convinced me of it; it is in my own consciousness, it is affirmed to me; but nature is so cruel I know not how to hang much consolation upon the compensations and kindnesses of natural theology, and Paley’ s celebrated assurance that “ it is a happy world, after all!” But, alas, the world is one great calamity, and the contradictions to the assurance that God is love meet us in every age. It is thus I am often compelled to say, how perfect things are, how perplexing and cruel events are. What do you see? In one age a city ablaze beneath the calm and beautiful mountains and skies. I remember, years since, visiting, one bright mocking day, a village on the coast, near the scene of the horrible tragedy of Hartley; you come to it as you walk along that fine coast from Tynemouth; a quiet little village, called Cullercoats. I forget how many boats had been lost in the wild tempest, a night or two since; there was a sob of agony in every house. I did not think of Paley’ s selfish aphorism, “ It’ s a happy world, after all!” just then, although the sea was bright, and birds were sailing pensively overhead: rather should I have said, “ By terrible things dost Thou answer us, O God.” Natural theology has little to say in reply to such scenes as these. II. The terrible things of God are not only righteous things, but not less than these, may be an answer to prayer. “ I believe you are a child of God, and I believe you will never now be prosperous in your outer life again,” said an old patriarch to a new convert; and the prophecy was fulfilled. The old man spoke from some instinctive perception of spiritual means and ends; and, undoubtedly, shadowy and dark as the prophecy seems, it was far more prescient and wise than that which supposes that all pain, and adversity, and affliction, and disappointment retire from the circle in which the child of God moves. This is not invariable, but we must believe the plan and the order of our life require it. “ By terrible things in righteousness wilt Thou answer us.” And thus, at last, we learn that all the ends of God, in us and with us, have relation to our final coronation in the palace of His love. The terrible things, all of them, “ work out for us,” as Paul said (2 Corinthians 4:17). And the explanation is that-- III. God, in the midst of His terrible things, is not the less the God of salvation. “ Salvation belongeth to our God.” The Bible grapples with this practical difficulty of our existence and experience--this dark and perplexed state of human affairs; and by innumerable images it labours to reach the heart, and to teach the heart that life and time are a seething furnace through which souls are passing, and over which God watches till the trial is complete. (Paxton Hood.) God’ s employment of the terrible Plutarch affirms that the cruel wars which followed the march of Alexander introduced the civility, language and arts of Greece into the savage East; introduced marriage, built seventy cities, and united hostile nations under one government. The barbarians who broke up the Roman Empire did not arrive a day too soon. Schiller says, “ The Thirty Years’ War made Germany a nation.” Rough, selfish despots serve men immensely, as Henry VIII. in the contest with the popes; as the infatuation no less than the wisdom of Cromwell; as the ferocity of the Russian Czars; as the fanaticism of the French regicides of 1789. The frost which kills the harvest of a year saves the harvests of a century by destroying the weevil or the locust. Wars, fires, plagues, break up immovable routine, clear the ground of rotten races and dens of distemper, and open a fair field to new men. (R. W. Emerson.) Who art the confidence of all the ends of the earth. God I. Recognize the being and activity of God. This is a necessary call; for it is questionable how far in the average we have assimilated first principles, and in the rush of life we often slight the essentials that lie behind the activities of faith. We have yet to recognize how fully Christ’ s life, and teaching, and mission concentre in God, how natural was His own attitude of complete submission to God, how persistently He directed men through Himself to God, and the significance of these facts. Rather than weakening it, the revelation of Christ ought to intensify our sense of God; for He lived to give man the highest conception of God it was possible for him to receive, and to safeguard his thought from the many errors to which it had always been exposed. Christ conserves in its integrity the idea of a personal God and of a paternal God; of One who feels, and thinks, and wills; who is distinct from all the world as we are distinct from each other; and yet who is as essentially akin to us as we are to each other. II. Recognize that the world is God’ s world and man God’ s care. This also is a necessary call. There are dark facts in nature and in life that seem to belie the “ loving wisdom” of the Creator, and that have made men doubt the gracious providence of the Father. They press themselves in upon us with a pertinacity that wearies us and often forms a severe trial to our faith. Even Wordsworth finds that the “ aching joys” and “ dizzy raptures” that came to him from his delight in woods and hills, and all beautiful sights, pass, are left behind as the hours of thoughtless youth; and in their place the sounds of nature sob with a human cry; he is chastened and subdued because he hears in them the still, “ sad music of humanity.” Thomas Hardy finds a verdict of pessimism in nature confirming his verdict of pessimism on life. R.H. Hutton in an essay on Cardinal Newman, writes: “ Now, the more earnestly Newman embraced the doctrine that the universe is full of the types and instrumentality of spiritual things unseen, the more perplexing the external realities of human history and human conduct, barbarous or civilized, mediaeval or modern, seemed to him. His faith in the sacramental principle taught; him to look for a created universe from which the Creator should be reflected back at every point.” But Newman kept his faith in God and its corollary, faith in redemption. The light within him was not turned into darkness, and he saw that his faith in God demanded faith in redemption also. The human race was implicated in a “ great aboriginal calamity,” and that calamity he saw could only be rectified by “ some equally great supernatural interference.” We believe this; it is our only way; it is the faith of the psalmist, and it is the faith that has been at the root of all human progress. The outgoings of morning and evening, the surety of seed-time and harvest, are our pledges of Divine faithfulness. God is not defeated, nor has He forsaken either His creation or His children. He is the God of our salvation; His tokens are in the uttermost parts; and in Him is the confidence of all the ends of the earth. (J. J. Leedal.) And of them that are afar off upon the sea.-- A sermon to seamen I. What God is to us who are His people--“ God of our salvation.” Salvation is of the Lord in every point. Not a bit of it is of us. All of Him from first to last, and all the points between the first and the last. Have any of you got a salvation that you have manufactured of yourselves? Then lay it down and run away from it. It will be of no use to you. The only salvation that can redeem from hell is the salvation that comes from heaven. II. What God will do for us. He will answer us. This shows that we must all pray. There is not a believing man in the world but what must pray, and we shall never get into such a state of grace that we have not need to pray. III. What the Lord is to the ends of the earth. He is the confidence of all the ends of the earth. I am going to spiritualize that--Who are the ends of the earth?1. Well, the people that live in the frozen regions, or, taking the other end, the people that live in the equatorial regions, beneath the burning sun. All that live at the extremes of heat or cold, we may liken them to the ends of the earth. They are furthest off from us. Well, and God is worthy to be the confidence of those who are furthest off from His Church, from Himself, from the Gospel, from hope, from anything that is good. 2. The people least known. We know those round us, but not those far away. 3. Those least thought of. 4. Those most tried. 5. Those hardest to reach. IV. What God is to seafaring men. What should He be to them? He is “ the confidence of all them that are afar off upon the sea.” I have often likened the life of a seafaring man to what the life of a Christian should be. Hundreds of years ago, when man went to sea at all, the boats always kept within sight of shore. Your Tyrian or your Greek might be quite the master of his vessel, but he could not bear to lose sight of the headland. And it is a wonderful thing, common as it is now, that a ship should lose sight of land for a month together, seeing nothing that belongs to land. It is just like the life of a Christian, a life of faith. We ought not to see anything, we ought not to want to see anything. We walk by faith, not by sight. We take our bearings by the heavenly bodies. We are guided by the Word of God, which is our chart, by the movement of the blessed Spirit within, which is our compass. We have bidden farewell to things below’ , we seek a heaven that we have not seen, we are sailing across a life of which we know nothing. Trusting in Him, we shall come to our desired haven without fear of shipwreck. Sailors live on the sea--an unstable element, full of danger. Now, you and I are often brought into difficulties. We have not any strength left at all. We look up to God and cry, “ I am lost.” Oh, then, let God be your confidence. I exhort all believers here to have more confidence in God. The sailor is often brought where, if God does not keep him, he will be swallowed up. You and I ought not only to be brought there sometimes, but keep there, feeling that God is all, and we rest in Him without any other help. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Psalms 65:6-13 Which by His strength setteth fast the mountains: being girded with power.God as He appears in material nature I. God in material nature working.1. Settling (Psalms 65:6). He keeps all things in their place. There is a principle of dissolution in every part of nature. All things that are settled in nature are settled being “ girded” by His “ power.” 2. Tranquillizing (Psalms 65:7). (1) How tumultuous is the sea at times! When the stormy winds lash it into fury; then its billows rise high as the hills, roar like thunder. Who can quiet them? God, and He only. (2) The excited passions of men, of mobs or nations, are oven more furious and terrible than the ocean in a tempest. He “ stilleth” them also. This is a slow work, but a work possible to God, a work which He alone accomplishes. 3. Cheering (Psalms 65:8). He sets the whole day to music. At dawn the strains are jubilant with hope, and at eve they swell into the rich deep notes of thankful memories. 4. Fructifying (Psalms 65:9). The rich harvest is the coronation of heavenly goodness, and all the antecedent and preparatory mornings and evenings are so many sparkling jewels in the diadem. II. God in material nature worshipped.1. His presence is discoverable in nature. God is in nature in a higher sense than the engineer is in his machine, or the author in his book. The personalities of men are not in their works; but God is personally in nature. He is here--not merely His influence, His works, but Himself. It is because we are spiritually blind that we do not see Him. 2. His adorable character is discoverable in nature. You cannot worship the mere presence. Worship implies character, and the worshipful character must be benevolent. You cannot worship stolid indifference. Still less can you worship malice. In nature you see Divine goodness everywhere. (Homilist.) Psalms 65:7 Which stilleth the noise of the seas, the noise of their waves, and the tumult of the people.God’ s providence displayed in the suppression of popular tumults I. The body of the people, like the body of waters, is never absolutely at rest; and when it is most so, it is always disposed to become otherwise.1. Dissatisfactions with measures of government are most easily conceived; and, when they begin to operate, are extremely productive of those murmurs and rumours amongst the people, which are the forerunners of troubles, and sure signs of approaching tempests in the State. 2. They are further subject to be moved either by affluent, or by desperate, circumstances in their private fortunes. It should seem strange that two so directly opposite causes should concur in producing the same bad effect; but so it does happen, that the very prosperity of those who mistake the use of it, instead of begetting in their minds that content and thankfulness which one should expect as its most natural consequence, is apt to excite in them those turbulent and unruly passions, from whence wars arise. 3. It must be confessed with regret, since it cannot be denied with truth, that the sacred name of religion, which one might have hoped would have contributed to allay these troubles, has but too frequently conspired to foment them. 4. The discontents which arise from these different causes are excellent instruments in the hands of factious and ambitious men, who, under the profession of seeking public interest, are better able to promote, while they conceal, their own. 5. A very superficial view of human nature may serve to convince us, that any one passion adds wings to a man in the progress he makes towards accomplishing his end. It is natural, therefore, to suppose, that when all these different and even contradictory impulses to action, like so many boisterous and contrary winds, have raised the ferment in a people, it must be “ like the troubled sea when it cannot rest.” II. And this might have been, must inevitably have been, our case; if the almighty, who alone can govern “ the rage of the sea, and the madness of the people,” had not providentially prescribed the same rule to one, which he has, naturally, prescribed to the other. “ Thus far shalt thou go, and no farther; and here shall thy proud waves be stayed.”1. Let us learn to distinguish, as much as we can, between our own preservation and the destruction of our enemies; and though we cannot ever be sufficiently thankful for one, let us not show an unmanly triumph in rejoicing over the other. 2. Since, by the good providence of God, we are now entirely free from the danger, let us not be weak enough to imagine that we never were in any. 3. As we now commemorate a day which “ the Lord hath,” undoubtedly, “ made, we ought,” indisputably, “ to rejoice and be glad in it” ; but let not that gladness be shown in a giddy round of mirth and wantonness, in successive scenes of intemperance and excess and riot; but in a sober and modest complacency, in the consciousness of having had God for our protector; in contemplating His adorable power; in addressing our thanks to Him for His unmerited goodness, and in supplicating the continuance of His protection to us. 4. Let not our gratitude end with the day; let it live as long as we have hearts to conceive, and breath to express it. (T. Ashton, D. D.) Psalms 65:8 Thou makest the outgoings of the morning and evening to rejoice.God’ s favours The psalmist recognized a close relation between nature and nature’ s God. He saw all the beauty and blessedness of nature as divine. I. The incomparableness of God’ s favours. The matchless phenomena of the dawn and sunset are unique in nature. When God sows the “ earth with orient pearl,” and the fragrance of a thousand flowers exhales upon the morning air; or when eve, all clad in sober grey, comes forth, the “ firmament with living sapphire glowing.” We have a hint, too, of the kingdom of grace in our text. There is probably an allusion to the morning and evening sacrifice, a God-appointed ordinance, and therefore an allusion to Christ and His atonement. II. The freshness of God’ s favours. Each new morning and evening is as much a new thing as if just created. The beauty of dawn and sunset never pale. It is not only our lives that He crowns with lovingkindness and tender mercies, not only the year that He crowneth with goodness, but each morning and each evening He visiteth us. Day unto day uttereth speech. Night publisheth to night His mercies. III. The fitness of God’ s favours. “ Thou makest the outgoings of the morning and evening to rejoice.” Just the time when we most need a fresh supply. The issues of the day are taken at their fount and the results of the day are blessed at their fruition. Some of the outgoings of the morning are--1. Forebodings. Bright mornings often usher in sad thoughts, ‘ tis well to be met at the threshold of the day by God’ s benison and smile. 2. Duty lies before us every morning. The law of duty transformed to blessed personal service, if we meet Jesus at the door of the day, His statutes then shall be our “ songs in the house of our pilgrimage,” and “ the joy of the Lord shall be our strength.” 3. Uncertainty. We never know what a day may bring forth, but if God bless its outgoings we shall not be afraid of evil tidings nor of sudden fear, our heart is fixed. IV. The fulness of His favours. From outgoing to outgoing, He fills up the whole day with the light that comes ix the dawn, and the whole night with the sweet peace and protection that comes at eve. V. The universality of God’ s favours. Once in twenty-four hours each hemisphere of the world is alternately bathed in light, or rests in the peaceful shadow of night. This is true also of His grace and Gospel. VI. The immutability of God’ s favours. The covenant of day and night was made with Noah. Every dawn and sunset is a pledge of His unchangeable fidelity to His promise (Genesis 8:22; Jeremiah 33:20-21). The morning fails not by the thousandth part of a second, nor shall God’ s Word ever fail. (F. A. Trotter.) Blithe childhood, and blither old age I. Life both in prospect and retrospect is beautiful. To look on at the start, to look back at the close, are both a delight. Old age corroborates childhood, evening renews the morning; and whoever fails to enjoy life, both these succeed.1. First, the glorious days of childhood, the sweet hours of early life. We often speak of youth’ s power of prophecy, of the young soul’ s anticipation of the future, the expectation of what life is going to be; oh, enchanting first days! But that is not what I mean. I speak of a time that comes before even that--of youth’ s pure enjoyment of life. You believe in life; you open out your souls trustfully to it; you have not begun yet to be suspicious; you do not imagine every cup which life sets to your lips to be poisoned; you dare smell every fragrant flower; you believe in to-day as well as yesterday, and you are not afraid of to-morrow with any fresh truth which it may bring. You never feel inclined to suspect every new prophet to be a traitor, and every new book to have the inspiration of the evil one in it. You are willing to hear every new call that comes; the charm has not disappeared for you from the work of the Lord, and you could know no shame so great as to be dismissed from His service. No prophecy has ever failed to you--“ the Word of the Lord standeth sure” ; you discount nothing which God has promised, and the fulfilment will be richer than the promise itself. Welcome, life! Hail, blessed future! “ The outgoings of the morning . . . rejoice.” 2. The retrospect will be blither still. Believe me, the brightest season is yet to be. “ And the evening to rejoice.” The surging process through which your faith may be passing will be over, and your faith will be richer than ever. The scares which many of us have through criticism; through the testing fires into which the Word of God is cast; through the rapid succession of books that crime questioning the authority of the Bible, absolutely denying its right to the deference it has always received; through the breaking up of old forms of thought, the recasting of old theories, the new terms in which we have got to speak of the Atonement and future retribution;--this scare will have ceased. The confusion and uncertainty in which you feel as if everything were breaking up and you were losing every truth you had treasured most, will have passed into a firm hold of all absolute verities. II. The prospect and the retrospect are both made beautiful by God. Youth and old age--it is God touches both into beauty. Not one word of what I have said is true apart from God. Youth possesses no power of icy but in Him, old age is ugly severed from Him; the morning opens with the mutterings of a storm, evening closes in blackness and hopelessness God puts into both the lines that constitute their charm. You have climbed through a narrow mountain-pass. Morning was radiant when you started, and every foot you climbed the scene became more enchanting, and your spirits rose with every step. But presently the prospect narrows, the mountains close in upon you, the sun is hidden, and a cold wind sweeps through the defile; your spirits droop, and you can only doggedly plod along. But by and by the mountains open out again, the pass is over, and far away under your feet stretches a fairer scene than that which thrilled you in the early morning. Many of you, perhaps, are to-day in the pass. Youth is a memory which you find it hard to realize; you have left it far behind you. But you will be out of the pass soon. The prospect will open out again, and the sun will set upon a fairer world than you have ever seen. The best of life is yet to come. “ Thou makest the outgoings of the morning and evening to rejoice.” (J. Morlais Jones.) The song of morning and evening Nature is here conceived of as rejoicing before her God, and uttering her joy, in glad and grateful song, praising Him whose power sustains her, and whose wisdom guides. It is not strange, if the psalmist found song in nature at all, that he should have found it in the phenomena of the day’ s dawn and decline, “ The breezy call of incense-breathing morn,” and “ the balmy sigh which vernal zephyrs breathe in evening’ s ear” ; for of all that is impressive, inspiring and suggestive of high thought in nature’ s scenic effects, surely it is the phenomena of morn and even; and whatever else is such in itself the light of opening and closing day gives it most transcendent revelation. Thus should it be with man. Our best performance, our highest reaches of thought, and our noblest forms of expression should be divine worship, and the song of our life be evermore a psalm of praise to God. The text conveys a hint also as to the seasons for prayer. This song of dawning and declining day is nature’ s matin and vesper service of worship to her God. That which is a sentiment in nature’ s heart, all day and all the night, attains the tuneful gladness of a song at morn and even. Thus should it be with man. When morning calls him from the realm of slumber to the world of conscious life, and the activities of the day are about to begin, he should make his first business worship. Before he opens the door to the world and gives it audience he should open the window that looks heavenward, and himself seek audience with his God, nor let the world’ s cares and toils descend again upon him until he has refreshed himself by communion with the Father of lights. Each new dawn lights man to a new life, which should be hallowed in its inception by prayer and praise. And so when the daylight hours have sped, and the day’ s toils are over, in the still hour “ when hopes and memories meet and join, and in the light of suns gone down we wait the unveiling of the quiet stars, those suns which shine upon us from afar,” the human spirit should again uplift itself to God, and the day close, even as it began, with prayer and praise. But the text has yet deeper suggestiveness. Morning and evening may fitly represent the beginnings and ends of things, and in this construction what great truths the text brings to our thought. It is in the beginnings and ends of things that we see most of God. “ He is the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.” His presence pervades even as His power sustains all things. He fills all time as all space. But we recognize Him most in the inception and culmination of fact and event. In the intermediate stages we see more of law and less of God. We trace a development in which we note the play of finite agencies, and the factorship of finite force and will. But in the beginnings and ends of things the finite is less apparent, and the infinite absorbs the view. Thus “ He maketh the outgoings of the morning and evening to sing.” Creation as it sprang from the forming hand of God and stood in its unsullied beauty, unstained by human sin, was “ very good.” And not less so shall be that new creation, the new heavens and the new earth, which shall appear when the first heaven and the first earth are done away. At creation’ s dawn “ the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy.” Nor shall creation’ s evening song be wanting; for o’ er the final consummation ten thousand times ten thousand tongues, untuned when the creation was being celebrated, shall blend in song with those who raised the earlier strain. (J. W. Earnshaw.) Psalms 65:9 Thou visitest the earth, and waterest it.The Divine visitations I. God’ s visit to the earth in his providence. It is to this visit that our text immediately refers: “ Thou visitest the earth, and waterest it.” It was not to cast fire upon it that the Lord came. It would not have been strange had He done that; but there is enough of fire in the composition of the globe to burn it to a coal, only the Lord waters it from His chambers, and keeps down the flames by casting showers of water upon them.1. He visits the earth to soften its heart towards man. 2. He visits the earth to bring down the blessings upon it. 3 He visits the earth to assist it to serve man. The Lord blesseth the increase of the earth, so that one man can raise enough of corn to support scores of others, who in their turn serve him in some other way. The earth is full of His riches. II. God’ s visit to the earth in His salvation. This is the great visit to us. But for this visit it would have scarcely been worthy of the God of love to visit us in His providence.1. He comes on this visit without being invited. 2. The earth was armed against God when He came on this visit. 3. The earth is the only place that He visits in the character of a Saviour. 4. Of all God’ s visits, this is the one that cost Him most. 5. Of all the visits God has ever made, this is the one that will redound most to His glory. III. God’ s visit to the earth in judgment.1. Although there are many things concerning this visit which have not been revealed to us, we know that He will come with terrible majesty. He will not humble Himself, neither will He be humbled by any one else “ at that day.” He will be accompanied by a glorious throng. “ Ten thousands of His saints.” “ All the holy angels with Him.” 2. His object in coming will be to “ reckon” with His servants. We know not whether He will “ reckon” with the sun when giving it liberty; but I know that He will reckon with me, and that He will reckon with you. 3. The chief thing in view to be done then, will be to gather His subjects together, to glorify them openly, and to take them home with Him. He, too, will be for ever glorified in His saints. (D. Roberts, D. D.) Thou greatly enrichest it with the river of God. The river of God A stream whose sources are hidden in the bosom of the eternal hills, which is fed with the pure snows of heaven, a simple mountain rill first, then an impetuous torrent gathering volume as it descends foaming and eddying, and sweeping trees and rocks down in its course; then a broad river, rolling, now through wooded meadow land or sandy desert, now forced into a narrow and deep channel by jutting rocks, and leaping down in cataracts; holding its course now straight towards its goal, and now meandering and returning upon itself, seeming even to retrograde to the unobservant eye, receiving ever and again on the right hand and on the left fresh tributaries which drain the far-off hills on either side; fertilizing the pastures and corn lands, purifying and watering towns and villages, bearing on its bosom the precious merchandise of many peoples, giving life and vigour and joy to men; but with all this, whether flowing by crowded cities or desolate wastes, whether spreading into shallow marshes or imprisoned between barriers of rock, whether winding its flooded way over level plains, or rushing impetuously onward and forming a straight channel through all interposing obstacles, still pressing forward, ever forward with its growing volume of waters, with its increasing freight of treasures and of men, to the far-off distant, boundless ocean, there to lose itself and be absorbed into its kindred element. In this description I have not used a single word which might not apply to one of the great rivers of the earth, flowing from the Alps, or the Andes, or the Himalayas; yet throughout I have had before my mind, and perhaps I may have suggested to your minds, a heaven-descended river far mightier than this, rising from beneath the throne of God, flowing down, not without many vicissitudes, but still in triumphant progress and with ever-increasing volume, through the ages, till at length it shall lose itself in the ocean of eternity, when the knowledge of God shall cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. Such a stream is the Church of God, the Church of the Patriarchs, the Church in Egypt, the Church of the Wilderness, the Church of the Promised Land, the Church in Babylon, the Church of the Restoration, the Church of the Dispersion, and last of all, when the fulness of time has come, the Church of Christ. I. The continuity of the stream. The missionary spirit, like everything God-like in man, presses forward, acts for the future, hopes for the future, lives in the future, but it draws strength and refreshment from the experience, the examples, the accumulated power and wisdom of the past. Nay, just in proportion as we are animated by this reverence for the past, as we acknowledge our obligations to it, as we feel our connection with it; in short, as we realize this idea of continuity in the Church of Christ, in the same degree will the true missionary spirit--wise, zealous, humble, self-denying, enlightened, enterprising, innovating, in the best sense--because conservative in the best sense--prevail. The Church of Christ is a tree souring upward to heaven, spreading its branches far and wide, but its roots are buried far below the surface in a dark antiquity. Christian men, above all, Christian missionaries, are the heirs of all the ages. II. The course of the river in its vicissitudes. The present time is confessedly a crisis fraught with manifold anxieties. If there are many bright gleams--and are there not many?--it is no less true that dark clouds overhang the horizon, threatening at any moment to deluge the Church of Christ. At such a crisis, what lessons does the image of the river, interpreted by the history of the past, suggest? Do they tend to dismay or to encouragement, to despair or to hope? To this question there is one clear and decisive answer. The river has its eddies and its back currents; it has its retrograde movements and its meandering channels, when it seems to recede even from its goal; it buries itself perhaps underground, or it loses itself in marshy swamps; it is hemmed in amid rocky heights, intrusive boundaries, which threaten to close in upon it and obstruct its course for ever. If we saw only one reach of the river, we should prophesy its failure in reaching its ultimate destination; but we know that despite all obstruction, despite all treacherous appearances, it must flow onward and downward and empty itself into the ocean. Whatever partial aberrations there may be, its general course is the same. This is the law of its being, and so also with the Church of God. We ought to know, and we ought to feel, independent of history, that the truth cannot perish; that the Church of God cannot fail. This is a spiritual law as the other was a physical law. It must survive, it must flow ever onward and onward till it reaches the ocean of the eternal truth. III. How is this stream fed? What accessions does it receive? What are its tributaries? From all quarters of the heavens the streams fall into the main channels, fall direct from lofty mountain heights, draining here broad tablelands, there flowing amid barren rocks and rolling meadows and extensive plains; from the right hand and from the left they issue to swell the bulk of the rolling tide. But, as they joint the main stream, they betray their separate sources; they have their own colour, their own swiftness, and they seem almost to keep their own channel. At length the fusion is complete, they have mingled their waters in the main stream, they are lost in it; but meanwhile, and this is what I ask you specially to mark, they have communicated to it their own characteristics, their purifying or fertilizing qualities, and thus, strengthening and strengthened, giving something and receiving more, they roll down in one broad, irresistible, ever-flowing stream, bearing on their breast the natives of divers climes and the products of many soils, sweeping their rich argosies of men and treasure onwards towards the one far-off ocean which is their common goal. The tributaries of the mighty river--are we not reminded by these words of another image Under which the same truth is prefigured by psalmist and prophet, when the nations of the earth gather together from the four winds of heaven to the Holy City and pour in, each its special products, its choicest gifts as a tribute to the treasury of the God of Israel? One offers its finely woven fabrics, another its elaborately chased vessels and its rich carvings, another its costly perfume, another its ivory, its rare woods, its precious metals. Do we ask what is the counterpart to all this in the history of the Christian Church? Has not each Christian nation on its accession, as it was gathered into the fold of Christ, given some fresh cause of strength to the Church, emphasized some doctrinal truth, or developed some practical capacity, or fostered some religious sentiment, and thus contributed to the more complete understanding, or effective working, of the faith once delivered to the saints? And can we suppose that this mighty stream, this river of God, has no more great tributaries to receive, that all the literary streams which might swell and purify and fertilize its waters, have been dried up? Has the Hindoo, with his calm resignation and quiet endurance, with his quick, subtle intellect; has the Chinese, with his stubborn pertinacity and utter fearlessness of death--have these no rich offering, think you, to present at the altar, no new contribution to the fulness of the Gospel of Christ? (Bp. Lightfoot.) Thou preparest them corn, when Thou hut so provided for it.--Corn The harvest-time is the most delightful of all the seasons of the year. It is the time of fulfilled hopes and realized expectations. Of all the many beautiful sights of this season, the most beautiful and interesting are the cornfields rippling in light and shade, like the waves of a sunset sea, away over valley and upland to the purple shores of the distant hills. They are the characteristic features of the season--the illuminated initials on Nature’ s autumnal page, whose golden splendour is variegated here and there with wreaths of scarlet poppies, corn blue-bottles, and purple vetches. The landscape seems to exist solely for them, so prominent and important are they in it. Wherever they appear they are the pictures for which the rest of the scenery, however grand or beautiful, is but the mere frame. No one can gaze upon these golden cornfields without being influenced more or less by the pleasing associations with which they are connected. They strike their roots deep down into the soil of time; they are as old as the human race. They waved upon the earth long before the flood, under the husbandry of the “ world’ s grey fathers.” The sun in heaven has ripened more than six thousand of them. Progress is the law of nature, and everything else obeys it, but the harvest-field exhibits little or no change. It presents nearly the same picture in this Western clime and in these modern days as it did under the glowing skies of the East in the time of the patriarchs. We see the same old familiar scene now enacted under our eyes in every walk we take, which Ruth saw when she gleaned after her kinsman’ s reapers in one of the quiet valleys of Bethlehem, or which our blessed Saviour so frequently gazed upon when wandering with His disciples in the mellow afternoon around the verdant shores of Gennesaret. The harvest-fields are the golden links that connect the ages and the zones, and associate together the most distant times and the remotest nations in one common bond of sympathy and dependence. They make of the earth one great home. But the most delightful association which the harvest recalls is that of the great world-covenant which God made with Noah and symbolized by the bow in the cloud. And now, whenever we see that gorgeous blossom of light expanding its seven-coloured petals from the dark bosom of the cloud, we know that the storm, however long-continued and violent, will not always last; that the waters of Noah will no more go over the earth; that seed-time and harvest, cold and heat, day and night, summer and winter, will never cease. Our cornfields grow and ripen securely under that covenant-arch, whose key-stone is in the heavens, and whose foundations are upon the earth. They afford to us the most striking evidence, season after season, of the integrity and stability of the covenant-promise. There may have been no harvest in Canaan, but there was corn in Egypt, though the application of this compensation was sometimes rendered difficult by natural or moral obstructions. But whether the harvest be local or general, whether we be dependent upon the produce of our own fields or upon the surplus supplies of commerce, in either case it is to the covenant faithfulness of God that we are indebted for the blessing. Corn is the special gift of God to man. All the other plants we use as food are unfit for this purpose in their natural condition, and require to have their nutritious qualities developed, and their nature and forms to a certain extent changed by a gradual process of cultivation. But it is not so with corn. It has from the very beginning been an abnormal production. God gave it to Adam, we have every reason to believe, in the same perfect state of preparation for food in which we find it at the present day. We cannot regard it as an accidental, but, on the contrary, as a striking providential circumstance, that the corn-plants were utterly unknown throughout all the geological periods. Not the slightest trace of vestige of them occurs in any of the strata of the earth, until we come to the most recent formations, contemporaneous with man. They are exclusively and characteristically plants of the human epoch; their remains are found only in deposits near the surface, which belong to the age of man. There is another proof that corn was created expressly for man’ s use in the fact that it has never been found in a wild state. The primitive types from which all our other esculent plants were derived are still to be found in a state of nature in this or in other countries. The wild beet and cabbage still grow on our sea-shores; the crab-apple and the sloe, the savage parents of our luscious pippins and plums, are still found among the trees Of the wood; but where are the original types of our corn-plants? Corn has never been known as anything else than a cultivated plant. The oldest records speak of it exclusively as such. Wheat grains have been found wrapped up in the cerements of Egyptian mummies, which were old before history began, identical in every respect with the same variety which the farmer sows at the present day. Moreover, it is a universal plant. It is found everywhere. By striking adaptations of different varieties of grain, containing the same essential ingredients, to different soils and climates, Providence has furnished the indispensable food for the sustenance of the human race throughout the whole habitable globe; and all nations, and tribes, and tongues can rejoice together as one great family with the joy of harvest. Corn is the food most convenient and most suitable for man in a social state. It is only by the careful cultivation of it that a country becomes capable of permanently supporting a dense population. All other kinds of food are precarious, and cannot be stored up for any length of time; roots and fruits are soon exhausted, the produce of the chase is uncertain, and, if hard pressed, ceases to yield a supply. It is an annual plant. It cannot be propagated in any other way than by seed, and when it has yielded its harvest it dies down and rots in the ground; self-sown, it will gradually dwindle away, and at last disappear altogether. “ It can only be reared permanently by being sown by man’ s own hand, and in ground which man’ s own hand has tilled.” (H. Macmillan, D. D.) Psalms 65:10 Thou waterest the regions thereof abundantly: Thou settlest the furrows thereof: Thou makest it soft with showers: Thou blessest the springing thereof.Spring thoughts 1. Spring follows winter and ushers in summer according to an appointed order. This fact teaches the continuous control and government of God. The regular succession of the seasons seems to declare that “ the Lord reigneth.” In some respects, during winter, God seems like a man travelling into a far country. Darkness and barrenness and coldness suggest absence on the part of God. The spring looks like His return. 2. The spring season is a time of resurrection to life throughout the vegetable kingdom. This suggests the continued life-inspiring power of God. There is not only infinite life in God, there is also an immeasurable life-giving power in God. 3. The great and various changes which the spring season involves show forth the unchangeableness of God. 4. The loveliness of the spring season is a reflection of the beauty of God. Every living thing is a thought of God expressed. What a glorious nature that must be which could devise and originate all that is beauteous in the spring! 5. The joyousness of spring speaks to us of the happiness of God. Beauty and joy are not always combined, but they exist together in God. God is happy, and His happiness is of a Godly sort. 6. The combination and co-operation of influences in the spring season are illustrations of the wisdom and power of God. “ Thou visitest the earth, and waterest it,” --in the margin, “ after Thou hadst made it to desire rain.” The dryness of the early part of spring works together with moisture and with spring rains to promote the fruitfulness of the earth. 7. The provision made in spring for a present and future supply of food exhibits the benevolence of God: “ Thou providest them corn, when Thou hast so provided for it.” Sustenance of some kind or other would seem on some grounds to be the due of man. In this case, however, the quality, and abundance, and character of the provision may all afford scope for the display of goodness. The support of a prodigal child, however, is a matter not of debt, but of grace. God made man for himself, and when man began to live for his own self, he forfeited all claim upon God’ s bountifulness Conclusion--1. Praise God for the spring season. And let no scientific or philosophical view of the changes involved in the spring at all exclude God from your minds and hearts. Whatever may be the law of these changes, God makes them. 2. Let the spring teach you the folly of anxiety. See, at this season, how God clothes the grass of the field and the flowers of the field. The grass of the field chides and reproves us for our carefulness, and exhorts us, saying, “ Neither be ye of anxious mind.” 3. Let the spring encourage you in broad and unrestrained prayer. He who gives to us so bountifully in the spring season, is not likely to withhold any good thing. 4. Make all the sights and sounds of spring occasions of communion and intercourse with God. 5. God is renewing the face of the earth; let us seek the renewing of the Holy Ghost. We may be conscious of declension in the inward spiritual life. There is a power which can renew our spiritual life, and to that power let us turn with holy longing for its manifestation within us. 6. Let us learn from the spring season the firm foundation we have for hope. Time more or less is still before us. Cheered by the spring let us sing, “ Jehovah is my shepherd, I shall not want.” We may be forewarned of a passing through fire and water; aroused by the spring, let us listen to His voice who saith, “ When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee.” The religious state of mankind is most gloomy and depressing. Cheered by the spring, let us expect the day when the wilderness shall become a fruitful field, and when the desert shall rejoice and blossom as a rose. Let this spring season give to us all a lesson in hope, and let it teach us to hope in God. (S. Martin, D. D.) Spring in the heart I. Note the work previous to the springing.1. The ploughing, God’ s preparing the soul by conviction. The law with its ten black horses drags the ploughshare of conviction up and down the soul till it is all furrowed over. And then comes-- 2. The sowing of the good seed. 3. The harrowing, the praying over what has been sown; this must by no means be neglected. But-- 4. There is a work beyond our power. “ Thou visitest the earth and waterest it,” says the psalmist. In vain are all our efforts unless God shall bless us with the rain of His Holy Spirit’ s influence. Three effects are spoken of. First, we are told He waters the ridges. As the ridges of the field become well saturated through and through with the abundant rain, so God sends His Holy Spirit till the whole Heart of man is moved and influenced by His divine operations. Next, it is added, “ Thou settlest the furrows,” by which some think it is meant that the furrows are drenched with water. Others think there is an allusion here to the beating down of the earth by heavy rain till the ridges become flat, and by the soaking of the water are settled into a more compact mass. Certain it is that the influences of God’ s Spirit have a humbling and settling effect upon a man. He was unsettled once like the earth that is dry and crumbly, and blown about and carried away with every wind of doctrine; but as the earth when soaked with wet is compacted and knit together, so the heart becomes solid and serious under the power of the Spirit. Yet again, it is added, “ Thou makest it soft with showers.” Man’ s heart is naturally hardened against the Gospel; like the Eastern soil, it is hard as iron if there be no gracious rain. How sweetly and effectively does the Spirit of God soften the man through and through. II. Describe the springing thereof. It is gradual. Remember the Lord’ s words, “ First the blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear.” Some of our friends are greatly disturbed because they cannot see the full corn in the ear in themselves. They must learn to wait. What, then, is the springing up of piety in the heart? We think it is first seen in sincerely earnest desires after salvation. The man is not saved, in his own apprehension, but he longs to be. That which was once a matter of indifference is now a subject of intense concern. “ The springing thereof “ shows itself next in prayer. It is prayer now. Once it was the mocking of God with holy sounds unattended by the heart; but now, he really prays. There will also be manifest a hearty love for the means of grace, and the house of God. The Bible, long unread, which was thought to be of little more use than an old almanack, is now treated with great consideration. And then there comes faith in Jesus Christ; it may be small, but it is real. III. There is one who sees this springing. Thou, Lord--Thou blessest the springing thereof. I wish that some of us had quicker eyes to see the beginning of grace in the souls of men; for want of this we let slip many opportunities of helping the weaklings. IV. What a misery it would be, if it were possible, to have this springing without God’ s blessing! “ Thou blessest the springing thereof.” Think of how the springing would have been without the blessing. Suppose we were to see a revival amongst us without God’ s blessing. It is my conviction that there are revivals which are riot of God at all, but are produced by excitement merely. If there be no blessing from the Lord, it will be all a delusion, a bubble blown up into the air for a moment, and then gone to nothing. V. The comforting thought that God does bless “ the springing thereof.” Let me tell you what that blessedness is; you have probably now a greater horror of sin than professors who have known the Lord for years; they might wish that they felt your tenderness of conscience. You have now a graver sense of duty, and a more solemn fear of the neglect of it than some who are further advanced. You have also a greater zeal than many; you are now doing your first works for God, and burning with your first love; nothing is too hot or too heavy for you; I pray that you may never decline, but always advance. Lessons:1. Let older saints be very gentle and kind to young believers. God blesses the springing thereof--mind that you do the same. Do not throw cold water upon them. 2. Fulfil the duty of gratitude. If God blesses the springing thereof, we ought to be grateful for a little grace. 3. If God does so much for you now at “ the springing,” what will He not do in after days? Trust Him, then, always. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The season and the service 1. Spring is the season of renewal--such is the aim of the Church--to renew by God’ s grace spiritually, the face of the earth. And to do this, first, by a prior change within. No outward work without that can avail. II. Spring is the season of seed time, of preparation, of promise. But what is all our Church work but simply the casting in of seed. Now is not harvest. Are we wondering that after nearly two thousand years, the Church should be still almost at the beginning of her sacred enterprise, and that we still have to wait? Perhaps it is not wonderful if we think what the preparation means, and how it has had to be carried on. III. Spring is a season of delays and disappointments. And so it is in our spiritual work. But be of good cheer; the harvest will, must, come. (J. G. Rogers, B. A.) The springing of the corn Every season of the year utters a voice, and every succeeding day proclaims knowledge; yet, if any one of the revolutions of time speaks more clearly and distinctly than another, it is that which rapidly clothes and covers barren land with verdure and abundance. Then everything is vocal. I. An intelligent recognition of Divine interference. Let this fact, which is so readily admitted, produce the proper practical effects on your heart and conduct.1. Diligence will then result, under the powerful conviction that it is not the earth uncultured which God blesses, but that which has been furrowed by the plough, and sown with the valuable grain; this He smiles upon, there He “ causes the bud of the tender herb to spring forth.” 2. Faithful dependence. II. A claim on your gratitude. To whom are you indebted for the refreshing verdure of your fields, for the tender herb which appeareth? That which we hope to gather, God giveth. “ I beseech you, therefore, brethren,” etc. (Romans 12:1). And has God blessed those other fields which you have cultured with a solicitous and parental care? When you are permitted to see your sons growing up as plants in their youth, to witness the domestic regularity of your children; and at the same time observe some neighbouring households, like the field of the slothful, grown over with the thorns and thistles, the nettles and briars, of unholy tempers and conduct; when you notice these things, and consider the inadequacy of your talents and toils to effect these pleasing prospects, can you refrain from praising God even with a loud voice, in that He has been mindful of His promise that “ He would pour out His spirit from on high, so that the wilderness should become a fruitful field” ? III. An antidote to your apprehensions. When God begins any good work, the commencement is the best pledge of its completion. As farmers watch over their rising corn, but God alone preserves it from danger, and brings it to its destined maturity,--as fathers are solicitous about the health and support of their families, but find that it is vain to rise early, or sit up late, unless God giveth them the needful supply,--as mothers tenderly nourish their offspring, and dandle their little ones on their knees,--so will the Great Author be also the Finisher of their faith. He will watch with care the rising grain, He will support the life He has imparted, He will cherish the endeared resemblance of Himself; He will, in fine, bless the springing of the precious seed, will not let one grain be lost, but gather all into His garner. Conclusion--1. Although God is the great Agent, He works instrumentally. 2. Is it not a painful consideration, that the promised benediction of Heaven shall prove to some the heaviest calamity? 3. The springing of the corn is frequently employed as an emblem of the resurrection of the body; the subject may therefore profitably lead our thoughts to that great day of decision--delight or despair. (W. Clayton.) Spring a Divine visitation See how the characteristics of spring testify to the presence of God. And there is-- I. Change. This tells that God is here, visiting the earth, and that He is at work. II. Life. All really scientific experience tells us that life can be produced from a living antecedent only. All life is from God. III. Beauty. IV. Promise. (W. W. Sidney.) A May homily Nature in all her moods and phases is always ministerial, if we will have it. One may speak, for instance, of the opening of the spring, as a kind of annual Divine Sacrament, by attending upon which with wise and meek surrender, the better man in us may be awakened and stimulated. We speak of our Sundays, our religious services, our daily tasks and difficulties as means of grace; and the vernal advent and encompassment is no less really a means of grace, to be utilized to profit, or neglected to loss and condemnation. I. Who is there who has not felt and acknowledged the softening, expanding, genializing influence of the spring; its sweetening effect upon the mental mood and temper? It is a Divine means of grace. What you have to do is, just to seize the vernal feeling that has risen in you, and cherish and go forth with it: namely, by starting from the height of it, under the impulse of it, with new resolves and endeavours to cultivate the genial and generous temper; and by seeking to put it at once, before it fades, into some corresponding deed. II. Does not the present season tend to excite in us, at times, strange, vague, mysterious yearnings--yearnings amounting often to pain?. . . I recall vividly a sketch I once saw--a slight but very striking sketch--a lone evening shore, with the sun slowly sinking into the sea, and a woman sitting gazing at it from the beach, her hands clasped round her knees, a far-off, weary, wistful look in her eyes, her face as the face of one who listens for something that is unheard, and longs for more than is seen. It was as though the dying sun were drawing her to himself; as though presently she must arise and seek him through the waves, aching to find with him--she knew not what--but the larger, the brighter, the happier that seemed to be calling her. Now, that is an illustration of what I mean; when nature lays her hand upon us, and sees us dreamily yearning, as she is especially apt to do in her annual springing. Turn the feeling before it dies into a prayer--a prayer to be filled and satisfied from the Lord; a prayer to be made willing to seek and do in harmony with His will . . . It is an accepted time, a day of salvation; do not lose it. III. Has not the loveliness of spring, and the beautiful order which it expresses and reveals, brought home to us now and again, by the force of contrast, the ugliness and disorders that abound in man’ s world, and constrained us to ponder and bewail them afresh?. . . Whenever the spring leads you to lament thus, what is it but a fresh Divine call to you to philanthropic labour and effort; a fresh Divine impression upon you of humanity’ s sore needs and woes; that you may be awakened to increased sympathy with them, and urged to attempt more towards their relief? Seek, then, to waken and urge yourselves with it. Go, with the tears for the miseries and evils of man’ s world which the musical groves and the fine order of nature may have started in your eyes, to weep helpfully with them that weep, and to strive with renewed endeavour against the works of the devil. So shall the springing which the Lord blesses be blessed indeed. (S. A. Tipple.) Psalms 65:11 Thou crownest the year with Thy goodness: and Thy paths drop fatness.Thanksgiving and prayer Nothing can be more right than that Christian people should publicly render thanksgiving to the God of the harvest. And let there be thankofferings likewise. I. Crowning mercies calling for crowning gratitude. All the year round God is richly blessing us; both when we sleep and when we work, His mercy waits upon us.1. If we begin with the blessings of the nether springs, the joyous days of harvest are a special season of favour. The psalmist tells us that the harvest is the crowning of the year. What would it have been for us as a nat:on had there been a total failure of the crops? Or even a partial scarcity. We none of us can fully estimate the amount of happiness conferred by a luxuriant yield. How shall we give praise? By inward gratitude; by words of thanksgiving in psalms and hymns; and by our gifts. 2. And there have been heavenly harvests. In ancient days there was Pentecost. And we have had revivals where spiritual life has been awakened and quickened. How the Lord has blessed us in this respect. As for conversions, has not the Lord been pleased to give them to us as constantly as the sun rises in his place? Scarce a sermon without the benediction of the Most High. We must not forget this. And we are looking for greater things still--the conversion of the whole world to God. II. Paths of fatness should be ways of duty. The paths of war, how terrible are they, but the paths of God--they drop fatness. It is so in providence. Do but trust the Lord. Yet more in things spiritual. In the use of the means of grace. If you come to them desiring to meet with Jesus, you shall do so, and you shall find our text true. And so is it with the path of prayer, and of communion, and of faith. Let the Lord come into our congregations by His Spirit, then would His paths drop fatness. This is what we want: let us pray for it. III. Suggestions as to our duty. Yield yourselves to Christ. What a harvest for you that would be. Serve Him more. As Churches let us pray more. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The first Sabbath in the New Year Let us note that goodness of God-- I. As to our country. II. As to our families. III. As to our personal experience. IV. As to the universal Church. (R. Watson.) Crowning blessings ascribed to God I shall use our text not in reference to the outside world and to the husbandry of man, but we shall see how true it is within the Church, which is the husbandry of God. I. The Divine goodness ordered. “ Thou crownest the year,” etc. Now, praise must be for God alone: not for any man, however helpful to your souls he may have been. And in this spirit of praise every action of the Church ought to be performed. We shall be helped to praise by remembering how God has answered our prayers; and this in spite of our sins; and what sacred privileges He has admitted us to. II. The encircling blessing of the Divine goodness is to be conferred. “ Thou crownest the year,” etc. See it in the history of our own Church. III. And this, also, is of God. Again, we look back on the same history for these last twenty-five years, and we see the goodness of God everywhere. In conversions, in consistent character maintained, in triumphant departures to heaven. Let more come to Him now. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The crown of the year--A harvest sermon I. How the harvest, the crown of the year, displays the great goodness of our God. For think--1. Of the perils that beset the harvest. 2. How God demands man’ s co-operation, yet reserves to Himself the sole efficiency. 3. The manner of conducting the whole to a successful issue--so slow, still, imperceptible, and yet so all at once. 4. Its fulfilment of the ancient promise. 5. The universality of the blessing. II. What return is due from us to God? Praise, for--1. We celebrate the bestowment of forfeited blessings. 2. Harvest blessings serve purposes higher than themselves. They minister to life, and that may lead to salvation. 3. They are pledges of yet greater blessings which God will give. (Isaac Vaughan.) Thoughts on the harvest I. Lively gratitude. The ravages of famine have been averted, suspense has been relieved, anxious forebodings dissipated, and a rich recompense has crowned the husbandman’ s toil. Surely a world so full of God’ s goodness should be vocal with His praise. II. Adoring wonder. Instead of assuming a stolid indifference and unconcern, as many do, or taking the laws of nature and arrangements of Providence as things of course, in presence of processes whose operation, repeated from year to year, testifies to a Power before which all the achievements of human skill are utterly insignificant, let us go through life finding each day new cause for intelligent wonder and admiration, and fresh reason for declaring to all around “ the wondrous works of God.” Nor, while cherishing feelings of adoring wonder in contemplating the wonders of nature and of Providence, ought we to forget the more amazing things in God’ s character and in God’ s law, in the person and work of Him who is “ Wonderful,” in the operations of the Holy Spirit on the hearts and lives of men. III. Humble dependence. And, while cherishing feelings of humble dependence for the bounties of Providence, let us be daily constrained to acknowledge ourselves debtors to Divine grace. IV. Restful confidence. Men may alter their intentions or be defeated in their purposes; their promises are precarious, being dependent upon many contingencies; but the laws of nature reflect the immutability of their Author. As the seasons revolve fresh proof is afforded of God’ s faithfulness which anew should strengthen confidence and call forth praise. After we have done our part we can repose our faith in the constancy of nature and experience the satisfaction and comfort which proceed from committing the result to Him who giveth the increase. Besides, our confidence is based not only on the high attributes of a God whose nature is unchangeable, and on the covenant into which God was pleased to enter with Noah and his seed, but specially on the securities of that covenant which cannot be broken into which God has entered with Jesus as our representative and Saviour. We may well trust in the Lord. V. Enlarged benevolence. The world’ s harvests are for the world’ s inhabitants. We are all children of the common Father, members of the same great family, and if some perish from hunger or are stinted in their supply of bread, this is due, not to want of the precious commodity in the world, but to the thoughtlessness and improvidence of men. Let us imitate the Divine example by devoting of the gifts of His bounty as He may prosper us for the relief and help of those whose necessities are greater than our own, and who have, therefore, a claim on our sympathy and assistance. “ Freely ye have received, freely give.” (T. B. Johnstone, D. D.) God’ s crowning of the year God is from everlasting to everlasting, and there are no limits of days, or seasons, or years, in His boundless existence. The diurnal rotation of our earth on its axis never glooms Him in shadows; nor does its circuit round the sun affect Him by the successive alternations of spring, summer, autumn, and winter. And yet the guiding hand of God is ever present with all His works, moulding and fashioning them to sublimer ends. God has been working through all eternity, and God’ s labour is always being crowned with God’ s harvest. By all the slow processes of Divine growth, by all the convulsions of internal elements and external commotions, God has perfected, and beautified, and crowned our world with His goodness. We have reached the season when we should thank Him for the harvest crown that He has placed upon our year. We should realize our dependence on the harvest, and then we should feel more grateful for the exquisite harvest weather with which He has blessed our year. In former times, before the means of distributing were so greatly multiplied, each country had to subsist largely on its own harvest. Then drought was followed by famine, and multitudes perished of hunger, blow, we are so linked with other people in interdependence that we share in their harvests and they in the fruits of our labours, and the powers of carrying by land and sea are so complete that the world’ s harvests are for the world’ s inhabitants. To-day, then, we thank Almighty God for crowning the great world’ s industry with the great world’ s harvest. God is always crowning the year with His goodness. He crowns the ermined winter with a “ diadem of snow.” He decks the spring like a bride, clothed in emerald and wreathed with lilies. He floods the summer with light and heat, and fills it with sweet scents and sweeter songs. He poises the sun and smites the autumn into gold, and crowns it with yellow harvests and rosy fruit. But God not only crowns the harvest as a whole with His goodness. He crowns it in all its parts, and in all its stages, in early spring He silvers the fields with daisies, or makes them gleam like a cloth of gold with yellow buttercups. And the crowns that God bestows with such regal bounty are as lovely in form as they are exquisite in colour. As we study the tiniest flower that lifts to heaven its chalice of flame, we see with what marvellous wisdom and beauty God decks the little things which He has caused to grow. But when we lift our minds from the unit to the whole, we see God all the world round crowning the year. Not only every tree in its grace and beauty, but every forest in which it waves. Not only the little flowers in our gardens and in our fields, but every growth in garden, field, or prairies throughout the world. God’ s crowns are placed on the results of labour. God works and man works, and the Divine crown adorns the outcome of their efforts. The laws of nature and the processes of grace run so closely on parallel lines that they have been considered by some identical. And just as God has crowned with glory the prodigious work of redemption, so He crowns with salvation the faith that worketh by love. (W. Wright, D. D.) The goodness of God To teach man of God is Nature’ s greatest work. She tells of His attributes, the nightly panorama of the starry heavens speaks His power, the tiny floweret His skill. But if there is one chord in Nature’ s song sung sweeter than the rest it is the “ goodness of God.” I. God’ s goodness is manifested in the harvest. Certain seasons speak to us and teach us lessons; and it is necessary, in the hurry and scurry of modern civilization, that something should remind us of the hereafter, or we might think, with the secularist, that this life only demands our attention. And in contemplating the harvest we are led to think of the goodness of God. The harvest is, as it were, the crowning point of God’ s goodness. “ Thou crownest the year with Thy goodness.” As if the psalmist would say that the goodness of God in preparing the ground and in blessing the springing of the seed reached its highest manifestation in the ingathering of the earth’ s increase. God’ s promise to Noah still stands secure, although our friends the farmers, with their usual characteristic, have prophesied with lugubrious faces the failure of the harvest. The goodness of God is further exhibited in the bountiful provision which He has made for all His creatures. So ample is it that even birds know how to get their food. He provides for man physically, intellectually, and spiritually. In the physical world man’ s wants are supplied, both for food and clothing, from the lower order of animals and from plants. In the intellectual sphere man finds food for his intellect in the realms of agriculture, astronomy, physics and metaphysics, arts and sciences, and in the more humble, and yet, perhaps, more useful occupations of the home life. But does God’ s goodness stop here? Oh, no. God has provided in His Word for all man’ s requirements in the spiritual world. II. Note some characteristics of God’ s goodness. It is continuous. “ The goodness of the Lord endureth continually.” God’ s goodness is satisfying. “ We shall be satisfied with the goodness of Thy house.” Nothing short of God and His goodness can satisfy the soul’ s deep longings. “ None but Christ can satisfy.” We cannot understand the soul’ s yearnings, but we know they are there. But, says somebody, God’ s goodness does not satisfy me. Then be assured that you are out of harmony with goodness and with God. A man who has no soul for the beautiful will spend a miserable half-hour if taken to the Royal Academy. One with no soul for music can see no beauty in the production of the “ Elijah.” God’ s goodness is universal. “ The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord.” Why, then, so much misery and starvation in our streets? Because man has placed himself outside the pale of God’ s goodness by sin. If we could dig clown deep into the very cause of misery, we should find this true. III. God’ s goodness demands much of us. What are we going to give Him? An adequate return? We cannot. At best we can but pay a few shillings in the pound. Shall we give Him our intellect, to think for Him, and use the best means of building up His kingdom? Shall we give Him our possessions, our riches, our wealth, to be used in His service? Shall we give Him our hearts, that He may rule and reign as Lord of every motion there? Shall we give Him our life--aye, and before the best of it is gone? (H. M. Draper.) Great Britain’ s present joys and hopes I. Every year is crowned with God’ s goodness.1. The annual revolutions of the heavenly bodies, and the benefit we receive by their light and influences, in the several seasons of the year. 2. The annual fruits and products of the earth, grass for the cattle, and herbs for the service of men, with these the earth is every year enriched for use; as well as beautified and adorned for show. The harvest is the crown of every year, and the great influence of God’ s goodness to an evil and unthankful world. II. Some years are, in a special manner, crowned with the goodness of God more than other years.1. God and His providence must be owned in all the blessings of the year. Whatever has been or is our honour, our joy, our hope, comes from God’ s hand, and He must have the praise of it. 2. The goodness of God must in a particular manner be acknowledged, as that in which all our springs are, and from which all our streams flow. 3. These blessings which flow from the goodness of God have crowned this year; He in them has crowned it. That word shall lead us into the detail of those favours, which we are this day to take notice of, with thankfulness, to the glory of God. A crown signifies three things, and each will be of use to us. (1) It dignifies and adorns.(2) It surrounds and encloses. And--(3) It finishes and completes. And accordingly this year has been dignified, surrounded, and finished with the blessings of God’ s goodness. III. Application.1. Has God thus crowned the year? Let us cast all the crowns of it at His feet, by our humble, grateful acknowledgments of His infinite wisdom, power, and mercy. What we have the joy of, let God have the praise of. 2. Has God thus crowned the year? Let not us then profane our crown, nor lay our honour in the dust, by our unworthy walking. Let the goodness of God lead us to repentance, and engage us all to reform our lives and families, to be more watchful against sin, and to abound more in the service of God, and in everything that is virtuous and praiseworthy. 3. Let God’ s goodness to us engage, and increase, our goodness to one another: it is justly expected, that they who obtain mercy should show mercy, and so reflect the rays of the Divine goodness upon all about them; being herein followers of God as dear children; followers of Him that is good, in His goodness. (M. Henry.) . Psalms 66:1-20 Psalms 66:1-20 Make a joyful noise unto God, all ye lands.Providence The real theme of this psalm is in the last section: it is a psalm of thanksgiving for a special mercy experienced by an individual. But the account of this special providence is prefaced by two sections descriptive of the providence of God in general. This is in accordance with a law of the spiritual life. Those who enter into real experience of their own are thereby united with the entire religious experience of the race. There is no influence so broadening and refining as that of a living Christianity. I. The providence of power (Psalms 66:1-7). God is in the midst of His people like a watchman on the watch-tower, not only observing all that is taking place within the city of God, but keeping a keen outlook upon the enemies by whom the city is surrounded, lest the rebellious should exalt themselves (Psalms 66:7). Of this protecting care an instance never to be forgotten was the scene at the Red Sea, when the flood was turned into dry land, and His people, who had been in mortal terror, had their apprehensions turned into rejoicings. Another was the passage of the Jordan, when they entered Canaan. These may be called the stock examples of Hebrew poetry. We have better instances supplied by subsequent history; but the great lesson is that all history belongs to us, and we are selling our birthright if we do not know how to travel through the tracts of the past and discern in them the footsteps of our God. II. The providence of discipline (Psalms 66:8-12). When God is celebrated merely as the Champion of His people, who discomfits their enemies, there is danger of boasting. But the psalmist is well aware that God sustains a more delicate relation to His people. He does not always prosper them; He does not always spare them disappointments and defeat. On the contrary, adversity is one of the gifts of the covenant. And in this psalm the sufferings of God’ s people are described in a series of touching images (Psalms 66:10-12). They have been tried like silver; they have been brought into the net like a bird which is in the grasp of its captor and cannot escape; they have been yoked to oppression like the ass to its load, and the oppressor has lorded it over them like the driver riding above the head of the camel; they have been brought through fire and through water. Yet for these experiences the psalm calls for praise. The old poets used to say that the nightingale sang with its breast resting against a thorn; and it is certain that the mellowest notes of the religious voice are never heard till suffering has been experienced. The distinction of God’ s people is not that they have less to bear than others, but that they get the good of their affliction, and, when they trust God, He always at last brings them out, as is said here, into a wealthy place. III. The providence of grace (Psalms 66:13-20). There are those who have never had anything done for their souls. They can speak about their bodies, their properties and their fortunes, but their soul has no history. If a man’ s soul has a history in which God is concerned, and of which he himself is glad, we know a good deal about him. It is a great thing to be able to say, “ Come and hear” (Psalms 66:16), “ Come and see” (Psalms 66:5). Have you seen any sight and heard any message which you feel to be worth the attention of all the world? I should not like to live and die without having seen and heard the greatest and best that the world contains. Perhaps a further biographical feature is indicated in the saying that if he had regarded iniquity in his heart God would not have heard him. At all events, we have here one of the profoundest remarks on prayer to be found in the whole Bible. God will not hear the prayers of a man who is cherishing known sin. But the psalmist does not ascribe the glory of his answered prayer to his innocence. He finishes with a humble ascription to the God of Grace. (J. Stalker, D. D.) Worship I. It is exultingly delightful (Psalms 66:1-2). It is a cheery, jubilant exercise of the mind; the whole atmosphere of the soul breaking into sunshine, all its vocal powers going out in rapturous music. Worship is the soul losing itself in the infinitely kind, the supremely beautiful and good. Self-obliviousness is the highest happiness. II. It is binding on all. “ All ye lands.” It is more rational, more right, for men to neglect everything else than to neglect this--neglect their physical health, their social advancement, even their intellectual culture, than to neglect worship. It is the “ one thing needful.” It is that one thing which, if lacking in any character, damns the man. III. It has a direct relation to God. “ Say unto God, How terrible art Thou,” etc. It speaks not about Him, but to Him. It may be said that genuine worship has to do with everything--it mingles in all the services of the man, makes the whole life one unbroken psalm. True, but it only does so by the conscious contact of the soul with God. As the fields that are sown with grain must turn themselves to the sun before there will come germination, growth, maturation, so the soul must put itself into conscious contact with God, its Sun, before its spiritual powers can be brought out into true worship. IV. It will one day be universal. “ All the earth shall worship Thee.” (Homilist.) Psalms 66:4-7 All the earth shall worship Thee, and shall sing unto Thee.The world’ s conversion I. The glorious and auspicious prospect which is here opened to our view. All the earth shall worship Jehovah, and shall sing unto His name. II. All objections to the fulfilment of this declaration are triumphantly repelled. The politicians of this world tell you plainly that your object can never be accomplished. The world is against you. “ The carnal mind, which is enmity against God,” is against you. The glorious Gospel of the grace of God must come in contact with much that is contrary to its own nature. I am fully aware, too, that Satan, the god of this world, has long kept the minds of men in subjection to his vassalage, and held his captives in an almost universal submission. But with all these appalling circumstances put in array, and leaving you room to put in a thousand more, I see something in my text which excites you to go forward, in sure and certain hope of complete and glorious victory. “ Come,” and instead of looking on the works of men, till your hearts grow feeble, and your hands hang down, “ come and see the works of God.” Here are two grounds of encouragement--1. The consideration of what God has done for His ancient Church, in fulfilling His promises, and in overcoming her foes; and-- 2. What He will yet do for His Church, in fulfilling all for which He has encouraged you to hope. Consider these things; and declare if God has spoken anything which He has not fulfilled. (J. Stewart, D. D.) Worship It is a man’ s duty to worship God; therefore-- I. Man can attain a true knowledge of God. Not, indeed, if left unaided. The instinct which prompts the heart to bow down before an invisible Power is one of the last to disappear in the ruin of our nature. In the absence of everything else which gives dignity to human life it still survives. The first idea of God is awakened by the words and acts of our fellow-men, but when the idea is once ours, we can verify and ennoble it for ourselves. It has been maintained that man cannot have any real knowledge of what God is; that there are impregnable barriers to every attempt of the human soul to attain the real truth about the Divine attributes. But if “ I am informed that the world is ruled by a Being whose attributes are infinite, but what they are we cannot learn, nor what are the principles of His government, except that ‘ the highest human morality we are capable of conceiving ‘ does not sanction them; convince me of it, and I will bear my fate as I may. But when I am told that I must believe this, and at the same time call the Being by the names which express and affirm the highest human morality, I say in plain terms that I will not. Whatever power such a Being may have over me, He shall not compel me to worship Him.” As a Christian, as a Christian minister, I take my stand with those strong words of the philosopher against the theologian. Language has no meaning save the ordinary ones for the words, just, merciful, good; and if they do not mean this when applied to God, why do we use the words? Worship becomes impossible on such a theory. If the soul is to worship God, it must know what God is. II. God finds satisfaction and delight in human worship. If I speak to Him, it is because I believe He listens. His heart is moved in response to ours. As I sat a Sunday or two ago on the sea-shore, and thought of the thirty millions of people around whom the waters on which I looked were softly and gently rolling, I had present to my mind the twenty or thirty thousand assemblies which were met that morning in the depths of manufacturing towns, to which the Sunday had brought a brighter, clearer sky, and a welcome interruption of toil; in ancient cities, which have been famous through all the stormy years of our country’ s history; in scattered villages, where the life becomes more animated rather than more still on the weekly day of rest. I thought of venerable cathedrals, where vast and solemn spaces were filled with the music of ancient chants and exulting anthems, and the mighty harmonies of majestic organs, and of rude, unshapely buildings on the edge of lovely commons, and amongst the poorest and most wretched courts and streets of our populous districts, where, with loud cries and noisy hymns, poor labouring men whose hearts God had touched, were violently and passionately imploring His pardon, or thanking Him for deliverance from sin. I felt that at that moment the gates of heaven were thrown wide open as for some high festival, that before the day was over thousands of my countrymen would be regenerated by the Spirit of God, and receive from God’ s own lips absolution from all sin; and that tens of thousands would be baptized afresh with the Holy Ghost and with fire, and be gentler in their words, kinder in their deeds, purer in their thoughts all the week through as the result of that day’ s worship. I thought of all these, and I was thankful and glad. (R. W. Dale, D. D.) Psalms 66:5-12 Come and see the works of God.The Eternal Ruler of the universe I. As an object for human study. “ Come and see the works of God.”1. The highest study of man is God. All other studies, unless they lead up to Him, are worse than useless. (1) The study of God is the most quickening. It stirs the profoundest fountains of sympathy, and sets all the wheels of the mental machine to work. (2) It is the most humbling study. As the mind directs its attention to God, all egotism vanishes--the particular is lost in the universal, the temporary in the eternal. (3) It is the most elevating study. That on which a man centres his mind has a mystic power to draw him to it, either up or down, according to its nature. The study of God alone has the power to draw man up into the higher grades of being. 2. The writer here directs attention to two things in relation to God. (1) His special interpositions (Psalms 66:5). (2) His transcendent rulership (Psalms 66:7). II. As an object for human praise (Psalms 66:8-12). He suggests three reasons for praising God.1. Preservation (Psalms 66:9). 2. Chastisement (Psalms 66:10-12). “ Afflictions,” says Lord Bacon, “ plough the heart and make it fit for Wisdom to sow her seed in, and for Grace to bring forth her increase.” Could we see things as they really are, we should often see greater reason for praising God in our afflictions rather than for our health and prosperity. 3. Success. “ Thou broughtest us out into a wealthy place.” A place of refreshment. This was compensation for all the trials. What if our scorching and exhausting journey lead us to a delicious resting-place? What if our frail bark is beaten by the tempest to a golden shore? What if the loathsome medicine work off the disease, and establish health? In all such cases there should be praise for all the trials. (Homilist.) Psalms 66:7 He ruleth by His power for ever: His eyes behold the nations.The nature and design of moral government Everything around points us to a law or rule, by which creation is governed, and this implies a mind that cannot work in vain. But against this, “ the rebellious exalt themselves.” And they do this because they are rebellious; atheism is of the heart more than of the reason. I. Of the nature and design of moral government. And this government is--1. Sovereign. This essential to the prevention of confusion.2. Of irresistible power.3. Universal in its extent.4. Is, and must be, essentially benevolent. Many object to this, and deny it. But let them remember the vast scale of God’ s works, and how little we know. The next thing to be borne in mind is the tendency and purpose to bring all to a happy issue. This is an essential point in considering the moral government of God. All will end in the rectification of present disorders and in the bliss of creation. II. Inferences from the foregoing.1. Sin is the source of all misery.2. The greatest benevolence consists in making God known.3. We are unspeakably indebted to God for the revelation of His will, that in Christ all can have life eternal. (F. A. Cox, D. D. , LL. D.) The government of God I. The government of God is sustained by omnipotence. When revolutions rise, and changes take place in the empires of the world which affect the condition of millions now living, and which shape the destiny of coming generations, it is sheer folly to ascribe them solely or chiefly to the restlessness of the peoples, to the despotism of monarchs, or to the policy of statesmen. They are signs that the Divine power rules over, and that the Divine hand works out the destinies of men. He can curb the impetuous passions of men, or turn them into a channel in which they shall work out His great designs in complete, though unconscious, subservience to His will; He can put a hook in leviathan’ s jaw, and cast down Antichrist from his seat; He can control the whirlwind in its stormy path, and check the mad fury of a long-oppressed people; He can arrest the lightning in its rapid flight and hush to silence the deep-voiced thunder; and He can stop the deadlier bolts of war and bid the angry nations be at peace. II. The government of God is one of universal oversight. There is nothing, however great or trivial, which can transpire in His wide domain unobserved by Him. All events pass under His eye. All objects, the vast and the minute alike, are present to His view. “ He telleth the number of the stars.” “ The very hairs of our head are all numbered.” God is everywhere, omnipresence as well as omnipotence “ belongs” to Him. III. There are rebels against the divine government,1. The exaltation of the creature may be through pride, through ambition, through vain desire, through unholy presumption, but whatever may be the secret feeling that prompts it, or whatever the form which it takes, the eye of God sees it, and His power can crush it when He will. It is vain for any of us, even in our most secret soul, to set ourselves against Him, for He track- the rebellious thought to its remotest hiding-place within us, nay, He knows it in its first formation in the chambers of the heart. 2. Man’ s opposition to His Maker is as unreasonable as it is futile and hopeless. Why should we set ourselves against His law? Is He not our best Friend, our constant Benefactor, our loving Father? Is not His rule the rule of righteous love? Is not His throne the throne of grace? Is not His law a law of liberty, and in keeping of it is there not great reward? (F. Stephens.) God and the nations The God of individuals is the God also of nations; the law of righteousness which applies to individuals applies also to nations; and nations are accountable to God, and must be judged by Him just as surely as individuals. Men are slow to believe this truth. They seem to think that there is one law for the individual and another law for the nation, and that it is vain to expect that a nation should be ruled by the teaching of the New Testament and the Sermon on the Mount. Great statesmen are not ashamed, even in Christian England, to go in direct opposition to that teaching, to appeal to the lowest, the most brutal, the fighting instincts of the people; to urge them to cherish and practise the spirit of retaliation, and to encourage them to hurl defiance against all the nations of the world. But surely the teaching of our Lord should rule nations as well as individual men; and nations should seek to be guided not by the old law, which says, “ An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth,” but by the new and diviner law, which says that men should do unto others whatsoever they would that others should do to them. God sits on the throne of the universe. The sceptre of universal dominion is in the hands of righteousness. The eyes of the Lord keep watch on the nations, and nations must be judged by the righteous judgment of God. (G. Hunsworth, M. A.) Psalms 66:9 Which holdeth our soul in life, and suffereth not our feet to be moved.The safety of the saints Now, in these words we notice-- I. The life. “ He holdeth our soul in life.” This is--1. A life of purity in opposition to sin.2. Of plenty in opposition to a life of poverty.3. Of godly exercise, or exercise unto godliness.4. Of pleasing discovery. II. The preservation. “ He holdeth,” etc. This applies to all the four ideas adverted to. III. The fixation. “ He suffereth not our feet to be moved.” Now, how is it our feet cannot be moved finally? Why, because we have, in salvation matters, “ a covenant ordered in all things and sure.” (James Wells.) Psalms 66:10 For Thou, O God, hast proved us; Thou hast tried us, as silver is tried.The soul’ s purification by suffering A most natural question--one asked by tried hearts in every age since the world began--is, Why, if there be a God, a merciful God, does He permit all these repeated and accumulated sufferings to afflict us? What are the Divine uses and purposes of sorrow? For we are compelled to admit that, if there be no ultimate design in and issue from sorrow, there is a fearful waste of tears and agony in the world. Some men have asked the question and received no satisfactory reply, and consequently have hastily and foolishly concluded, “ There is no God; there can be no God, or this could not have been.” Even those who do believe in the existence of a merciful God, who do believe that He has the ordering and governance of all our lives, are yet confronted by the great mystery of suffering. They want an explanation; they want to know how it can all be reconciled with the existence and oversight of a merciful God. Thoughts like these are very old to most of us. How are they to be met? Well, I candidly confess that as yet the reason why God permits so much suffering in the world is wrapt in the same darkness as still surrounds that other mysterious question--Why has God permitted sin to enter into the world? There is no light; no effort of thought or imagination, no wide-reaching speculations have been able to solve the problem. But our text suggests several important thoughts. I. The place of God in our trials--they may be sent by God. I say, may be sent, and thereby I mean to imply that all trials are not the effect of the immediate interposition of God. There are evils and sorrows which befall men which none would dare to say are of God’ s sending, because it is evident that they are the fruit of wrong-doing. For instance, if a man has been extravagant and reckless, and has thus reduced himself to poverty, it would be a libel upon God if he were to declare that God had made him poor, since he only reaps the harvest of his own folly. There can, however, be no doubt, if we are to accept the testimony of Scripture, and to believe in the Fatherly providence of God, we must believe that He permits and sends affliction. We cannot, we dare not, forget that God has to do with us every day, and we cannot take any comfort in the cold conception that we have stern, unbending laws to deal with, and not the tender, compassionate heart of a loving Father. The human heart craves a personal and present God Then, further, if we can see God’ s hand in our troubles, does it not make our troubles easier to bear? II. The testing character of life’ s trials. Men in their ordinary connections are constantly applying tests to prove the character and the ability of those with whom they have to do; seeking to discover whether there is weakness or strength, falsehood or truth. Creditors test their debtors, masters test their servants, parents test their children, and friends often prove by ingenious stratagems the faithfulness of friends. So the world, by persecutions, and flatteries, and snares, is always testing the Christian Church; demonstrating to its own superficial satisfaction the honesty or hollowness of the profession its members make. Every man having the courage to avow himself on the side of Christ is immediately put on trial by Iris relations and his neigh-bouts, who will entangle him in positions of temptation, simply to ascertain what his Christianity is worth. Little is taken on trust in this world, and we are never entirely content with any object or any pretension until it has undergone some fierce heat of trouble. Adversity is the great test. A cobweb is as good as the mightiest chain cable when there is no strain upon it. It is trial that proves one thing weak and another strong. This is true of our spiritual life, our professed faith. III. The purifying power of life’ s trials. The words, “ Thou hast tried us, as silver is tried,” would express the thought here intended more clearly if read, “ Thou hast purified us, as silver is purified.” (W. Braden.) Tested for hardships When Scoresby was selecting his men to accompany him in Arctic explorations, he needed sailors that could stand the severest exposure, and had nerve to bear the worst trials. So every man who applied to accompany the expedition was made to stand barefooted on a great block of ice while the surgeon examined his body and Scoresby inquired into his past history. Scores were rejected at once, as they had not nerve to endure the test. The men who stood the trial made up a band of brave heroes. So sometimes God tries us when He has in store for us some great undertaking. Many faint and excuse themselves from the start; some endure, and make the heroes and leaders of the Church, Psalms 66:12 Thou hast caused men to ride over our heads.The rage of oppression God hath another intent than man hath, even in man’ s work. The Chaldeans steal Job’ s wealth to enrich themselves; the devil afflicts his body in his hatred to mankind; God suffers all this for the trial of his patience. Man for covetousness, the devil for malice, God for probation of the afflicted’ s constancy, and advancing His own glory. Here are cruel Nimrods riding over innocent heads, as they would over fallow lands; and dangerous passages through fire and water; but the storm is soon ended, or rather the passengers are landed: “ Thou broughtest us out into a wealthy place.” There is desolation and consolation in one verse: a deep dejection, as laid under the feet of beasts; a happy deliverance, “ brought out into a wealthy place.” In both these strains God hath His stroke; He is a principal in this concert. He is brought in for an actor and for an author; an actor in the persecution, an author in the deliverance. “ Thou causest,” etc.; “ Thou broughtest,” etc. In the one He is a causing worker, in the other a soleworking cause. In the one He is joined with company, in the other He works alone. He hath a finger in the former, His whole hand in the latter. Hereupon some wicked libertine may offer to rub his filthiness upon God’ s purity, and to plead an authentical derivation of all his villainy against the saints from the Lord’ s warrant: “ He caused it.” We answer, to the justification of truth itself, that God doth ordain and order every persecution that striketh His children, without any allowance to the instrument that gives the blow. God works in the same action with others, not after the same manner. And whom doth the world think to ride over but saints? (Psalms 44:22). Who should be appointed to the slaughter but sheep? The wolf will not prey on the fox, he is too crafty; nor on the elephant, he is too mighty; nor on a dog, he is too equal; but on the silly lamb, that can neither run to escape nor fight to conquer. Those whom nature or art, strength or sleight, have made inexposable to easy ruin, may pass unmolested. The wicked will not grapple upon equal terms; they must have either local or ceremonial advantage. But the godly are weak and poor, and it is not hard to prey upon prostrate fortunes. A low hedge is soon trodden down; and over a wretch dejected on the base earth an insulting enemy may easily stride. But what if they ride over our heads, and wound our flesh, let them not wound our patience (Hebrews 12:1). The agents are men: “ Thou hast caused men to ride,” etc. Man is a sociable-living creature, and should converse with man in love and tranquillity. Man should be a supporter of man; is he become an overthrower? He should help and keep him up; doth he ride over him and tread him under foot? O apostasy, not only from religion, but even from humanity! Lions fight not with lions; serpents spend not their venom on serpents; but man is the main suborner of mischief to his own kind. Our comfort is, that though all these, whether persecutors of our faith or oppressors of our life, ride over our particular heads, yet we have all one Head, whom they cannot touch. Indeed, this Head doth not only take their blows as meant at Him, but He even suffers with us (Acts 9:4). Saul strikes on earth; Christ Jesus suffers in heaven. Let but the toe ache, and the head manifests by the countenance a sensible grief. The body of the Church cannot suffer without the sense of our blessed Head. Temptations, persecutions, oppressions, crosses, infamies, bondage, death, are but the way wherein our blessed Saviour went before us; and many saints followed Him. Behold them with the eyes of faith, now mounted above the clouds, trampling all the vanities of this world under their glorified feet; standing on the battlements of heaven, and wafting us to them with the hands of encouragement. They bid us fight, and we shall conquer; suffer, and we shall reign. (T. Adams.) We went through fire and through water; but Thou broughtest us out into a wealthy place. The victory of patience First, “ We went.” They went, so conveniently as they might, and so conscionably as they durst, from the hands of their persecutors, Secondly, the hard exigents they were driven to, when to pass through fire and water was but a less evil compared with that they eschewed.1. From the former, observe, That it may be lawful in time of persecution to fly. This was granted, yea, in some respects, enjoined by Christ. But must be warily understood; and the rule, in a word, may be this: When our suffering may stand the Church of God in better stead than our flying, we must then lose our lives, to save God’ s honour and our own souls. So that suffering for Jesus is a thing to which He promised an ample reward. 2. Prayer. This was the apostles’ refuge in the time of affliction (Acts 2:24). Bernard, in a fiction, doth excellently express this necessity, enforce this duty. Whilst these two opposites, Fear and Hope, stand debating, the Christian soldier resolves to appeal to the direction of sacred Wisdom, who was chief councillor to the captain of the castle, Justice. Hear Wisdom speak: Dost thou know, saith she, that the God whom we serve is able to deliver us? Is he not the Lord of Hosts, even the Lord mighty in battle? We will despatch a messenger to Him with information of our necessity. Fear replies, What messenger? Darkness is on the face of the world; our walls are begirt with an armed troop, which are not only strong as lions, but also watchful as dragons. What messenger can either escape through such a host, or find the way into so remote a country? Wisdom calls for Hope, and chargeth her with all speed to despatch away her old messenger. Hope calls to Prayer, and says, Lo here a messenger speedy, ready, trusty, knowing the way. Ready, you cannot sooner call her than she comes; speedy, she flies faster than eagles, as fast as angels; trusty, what embassage soever you put in her tongue she delivers with faithful secrecy. She knows the way to the court of Mercy, and she will never faint till she come to the chamber of the royal presence. Prayer hath her message, away she flies, borne on the sure and swift wings of faith and zeal; Wisdom having given her a charge, and Hope a blessing. She knocks at the gate, Christ hears her knock, opens the gate, and promiseth her infallible comfort and redress. Back returns Prayer, laden with the news of consolation. She hath a promise, and she delivers it into the hand of Faith: that were our enemies more innumerable than the locusts in Egypt, and more strong than the giants, the sons of Anak, yet Power and Mercy shall fight for us, and we shall be delivered. Pass we, then, through fire and water, through all dangers and difficulties, yet we have a messenger, holy, happy, accessible, acceptable to God, that never comes back without comfort--Prayer. (T. Adams.) Psalms 66:13-15I will go into Thy house with burnt offerings; I will pay Thee my vows. Religious individualism Here is a deep conscious selfhood; the speaker is concerned with his own feelings and his own obligations to God. It is all “ I.” Men can never feel too deeply their religious selfhood, feel that they stand alone in relation to God, detached from all, occupying a position which no other can take. Here is a personal resolution to worship and to worship publicly, faithfully, and heartily. I. Publicly. “ I will go into Thy house.” Public worship is no arbitrary institution; it is founded in the reason of things, it grows out of the religious nature of man. There are two instincts that urge to it.1. That of self-satisfaction. We are so formed that strong emotions urge expression. The sublimest satisfaction of a man is to tell to his fellow-men what a glorious thing personal religion is. The other instinct that urges to public worship is-- 2. That of social love. The principle of social sympathy is implanted in every man; in some by nature it is stronger than others, in some by sin it is transmuted even into antipathy. Still the principle is there. Religion quickens it, strengthens and develops it. As sunbeams go forth to bless the world, the happiest sentiments in man yearn to pour themselves into other souls. II. Faithfully. “ I will pay Thee my vows,” etc.1. Great trouble has a tendency to excite men to make religious vows. 2. The godly man will ever be faithful to these vows. III. Heartily. “ I will offer unto Thee,” etc. Nothing is a better test of a person’ s love for you than the sacrifices he is prepared to make on your behalf. The love that cannot give the best things it has to its object, is of little worth. (Homilist.) Religious vows a help to godliness I. David’ s uttering with his lips religious vows. Where I observe that it is commendable in religion to make solemn vows unto God. By these I mean no other than this, a voluntary obliging ourselves, by promise made unto God, to do some good and holy thing for the future, as namely, to bid adieu to such and such vices, to enterprise such and such virtuous actions, to undertake and perform this or that pious work. This is the general account of a religious vow. And it is necessary that I superadd this, that it is a solemn promise made to God of such things as are in our power: for we must not promise that which we are not able, by the Divine assistance, to perform. Moreover, a religious vow is a more solemn thing than a bare purpose or promise, because there is a particular invoking of God. If you find in yourselves an averseness to your duty, bind yourselves to it by solemn vows. Make serious promises before God that you will not forget and slight His laws, as you have formerly done, but that for the future you will be very observant of them, and make conscience of walking in the ways of holiness and righteousness, and let the world see that you perform the vows you made. II. David’ s paying those vows which his lips had uttered. As vows are to be made, so they are no less religously to be performed. I doubt not but some of you have solemnly vowed and promised that if God would spare you from going down to the pit, when you laboured under such sickness as threatened death; if He would relieve your necessities, when you were in great straits and dangers; if He would dispel your fears as to this or that calamity which you were under; then you would for the time to come forsake your former sins, and devote yourselves to the service of God more entirely than ever. And in the discharging of these your promises, and paying your vows, observe these three plain rules.1. Do it willingly and cheerfully. We are taught by reason and philosophy that no act is moral, and consequently cannot have the tincture of virtue, unless it be free and voluntary. The Christian institution also hath no regard to forced performances, to actions that proceed from violence and compulsion. These cannot be genuine, and then they cannot be acceptable. 2. See that you speedily perform your vows and promises. And truly, if you do it cheerfully, you cannot but do it speedily. The direction given for performing of vows under the law must be applied to our evangelical vows (Deuteronomy 23:21). 3. Pay your vows fully and completely. Remember that Heaven will not be served by halves, God will not accept of lame and imperfect sacrifices. If thou hast at any time made vows and promises, see thou fulfillest them to the utmost. Erasmus tells us of a passenger at sea, who, being in no small danger by the fury of a great tempest, and now expecting every minute to be a sacrifice to the incensed ocean, after the fashion of that religion which he had adopted, he solemnly vowed to the Virgin Mary, that if she would be pleased to rescue him from his present danger, and make the sea calm, and set him safe on shore, he would offer to her, and burn out at her altar a great taper as thick as the mast of the ship wherein he was then in danger. But when this man was got safe to shore, and had escaped all danger, he was neglectful of his promise, and instead of a great massy taper he put her off with a farthing candle, and thought that that would serve her turn. This in some measure represents to us our dealings with the God of heaven. We promise great things, but perform very little ones. We profusely make vows, but very niggardly keep them. But this ought not to be so. You must be careful above all things to call to mind the past circumstances you were in, and f: reflect on your behaviour at that time; you must remember the promises and engagements which you then made, and the mercies which you have since received; and you must offer unto God thanksgiving, and pay your vows unto the Most High, as He hath expressly commanded. (J. Edwards.) Psalms 66:16-20 Come and hear, all ye that fear God, and I will declare what He hath done for my soul.Godliness I. In social talk. “ Come and hear,” etc.1. The subject of a good man’ s talk. What is it? The kindness of God to him. “ What He hath done for my soul.” He hath enlightened me, renovated my nature, removed my guilt, brightened my prospects, etc. 2. The desire of a good man to communicate. Why does he wish to inform others of the blessings which God has conferred upon him? That he may do them good, inspire them with the desire to seek similar blessings. 3. The audience that a good man seeks. “ All ye that fear God.” All ye that are reverent and religious, and that are in sympathy with me. Godliness is not ascetic. It does not shun, but craves for society. II. In earnest prayer. “ I cried unto Him with my mouth.” The expression “ cried” indicates earnestness. Prayer is not words, but burning desires, “ uttered or unexpressed.”1. This earnest prayer was unobstructed by iniquity. “ If I regard (in purpose) iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me.” Where the heart is full of worldly thoughts, corrupt desires, and iniquitous purposes, there can be no true prayer. True prayer can no more spring from such a heart than vegetation from marble just polished by the sculptor’ s hand. 2. This earnest prayer was answered by God. “ Verily God hath heard me,” etc. True prayer is always answered--answered in the increased buoyancy, vigour, and joyousness of the soul. Every pure desire of the heart brings with it satisfying good. Virtue is its own reward. III. In devout thanksgiving. “ Blessed be God,” etc. God has heard me, and therefore blessed be God. What we win by prayer we must wear with praise. Mercies in answer to prayer, do in a special manner oblige us to be thankful. (Homilist.) The experience of a godly man I. The godly man is anxious to impart his experience to others. “ Come and hear.” I. His confession is volunteered, not enforced.2. Spiritual experiences should be told at suitable times. “ Come and hear.” Many have brought religion into disrepute by preaching when they ought to have simply and unostentatiously practised its precepts. 3. Spiritual experience should be addressed to congenial hearers. “ All ye that fear God.” Some preachers err greatly by discoursing of the deep things of experimental religion to those who need to be taught the first principles of the Gospel. 4. Spiritual experience should be strictly personal. “ What He hath done for my soul.” Much that has obtained currency for “ experience,” has been either fiction, or religious scandal. II. The godly man’ s experience includes both penitence and praise.1. He has to tell of sin mourned over. “ I cried unto Him.” This is just the language that would describe the outburst of a penitent soul. 2. He has to tell of trouble endured. The trouble has been greater than he could bear; it has been more than he could fight against; hence he has cried to One higher than he. 3. He has to tell of mercies received. “ He was extolled with my tongue.” This He has done for my soul: I sinned, and He forgave me; I was in trouble, and He helped me. “ This poor man cried, and the Lord heard,” etc. III. The godly man’ s logic. “ If I regard,” etc. The Christian’ s argument is this: If I cherish sin in my heart, God will not hear my prayer. But God has heard me. Therefore it is clear that His grace has been effective in my heart in subduing the power of sin. The answered prayer is the proof that I have been enabled by grace to overcome sin. IV. The godly man’ s experience always culminates in a song of praise. Even when he has most plainly established his innocence, he ascribes the glory to God, whose mercy has not been withdrawn, and who still hears and answers prayer. This closing song implies three things--1. That God’ s mercy is continuous; else iniquity would prevail, and be cherished in the heart. 2. That God hears prayer unweariedly. 3. That the disposition to pray is also God’ s gift. (Homiletic Magazine.) The psalmist’ s invitation I. That God had done great things for his soul.1. God had done great things for him, in a temporal point of view--making a king of a shepherd. 2. He here speaks, however, not as the King of Israel, but as a citizen of Zion. The soul, and not the body, the subject. Worldly riches and spiritual poverty are often combined. 3. What God did for the soul of David, He does for the soul of every believer. (1) He decreed its salvation.(2) He gave it to Christ.(3) He sent it: His Spirit.(4) He renews and sanctifies it by His grace.(5) He has arranged in subserviency to it, the events of His providence.(6) He has made present grace, the earnest of future glory, already prepared. 4. Has God done any of these things for you? If so, He has done them all. II. That David noticed and recorded the things which God did for his soul.1. Unless David had marked and treasured up God’ s dealings with him, he could not have told them. 2. The whole of his psalms show that this was his practice. 3. David’ s example is worthy of imitation--if we keep not a journal, let us at least recollect. (1) Such is the only course, dictated by respect for God, in His procedure towards us.(2) Such is the way in which we may be enabled intelligently to co-operate with God.(3) Such is the only way in which the answer to prayer can be perceived.(4) Such is the only way in which a song of thanksgiving can be learned. 4. Is the past a blank to you? Then you are not prepared to imitate David. III. That he felt the obligation of declaring to others the dealings of God with his soul.1. The general tendency and practice is to conceal God’ s dealings--though silence on the subject of experience is often necessary from ignorance. 2. The motives which influenced David might be various. (1) He would have others to learn what he had been taught.(2) He would have others to unite with him in praising the Lord for His mercies.(3) He would, in a practical way, acknowledge the unity of the Church.(4) He yielded to present and strong feeling: out of the abundance of his heart his mouth spake. IV. This invitation is addressed only to those who “ fear God.”1. Had he been preaching salvation to the lost, he would have addressed all. 2. But he is to speak of the experience of a living soul in its intercourse with God. 3. In such a case, believers only are addressed. (1) Because they only will listen from actual interest in such a subject.(2) Because they only can understand such a subject--these things must be felt to be known.(3) Because they only will make a right use of such communications.(4) Because David was seeking for Christian fellowship. (J. Stewart.) The communization of Christian experience I. Such as fear God take an interest is His doings to the souls of men, and are those, therefore, to whom such communications will be made. They cannot but be interested therein. But the godless, or the formal, will feel no such interest; that which the believer has to tell will be an unknown and unwelcome truth to them. But those who sincerely fear God will welcome the experience of others, knowing that whatever stage of the Christian life be told of, the communication cannot but be profitable and helpful. II. Those to whose souls God has been gracious desire to tell of what God has done for them. Not for the sake of ostentation or pride, still less from hypocrisy, but from irrepressible gratitude to God. And with the view of honouring God, to whom they are so much indebted. Also that they may do good to those to whom they tell of what God has done. It does do them good, for practical and experimental statements are well suited to help others in the heavenward way. And the telling does good to his own soul likewise. He receives sympathy, awakens delight, so that he and they to whom he speaks are comforted, and rejoice together. III. And those who thus communicate their religious experience have much to tell. Not merely of God’ s general goodness to sinful men, but of what God has done specially for them--calling them, pleading with, converting, accepting, sustaining, helping them in every way. Let us then take this conduct of the psalmist as a model. Let no shyness or timidity hinder. But with seriousness, and sincerity, and simplicity do this. It is not essential to salvation, but it is greatly helpful thereto, for yourselves and for others. But what of those who have no such experience to tell? Should not this lead to serious thought? If you cannot talk of God’ s saving mercy here, how can you hope to enjoy it hereafter? (A. Thompson, D. D.) The good man grateful for deliverances I. Every deliverance of our life ought to be attributed to God. II. Every deliverance from temporal, still more from spiritual trouble and danger, will so affect the good man’ s mind as to excite his grateful acknowledgment of it. III. While the devout man was anxious to stir up the whole nation to acknowledge the deliverance God had given to it, he was most desirous to address himself to those who possessed the fear of God.1. What has God done for our souls?-anything? Oh yes! he has given us a distinguished mode of being, and has often put us, as it were, into a new life, after dreadful sicknesses, dangers, etc. He has also given to some of us a better, even a divine, life, and has often renewed it to us. Surely gratitude should actuate us. 2. But in what manner have these expressions of God’ s goodness affected us? Have we acknowledged them openly, ingenuously, and piously? or have we in an ungrateful and cowardly manner kept silent for fear of man? 3. So far as any of us have walked unworthy of the divine goodness of God, in not having published it to others; and so far as we have trampled on this goodness, in neither having sought nor suffered ourselves to be put in possession of the divine life: so far ought we to be ashamed and abased before God, to pray to Him, etc. 4. It is our mercy that a due improvement of the present opportunity may yet lead to the most glorious results, as Jehovah will not turn away the prayer of the penitent, nor yet hide His mercy from him. (Sketches of Four Hundred Sermons.) Christian experience I. What has God done for the soul of every Christian? The Christian’ s God has revealed Himself as Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Each of this Divine Three has done many things for his soul, and whatever is done by either of them is done by God. II. Why does the Christian wish to declare what God has done for his soul?1. If we have seen or met with anything wonderful, we naturally wish to speak of it. That God should do such things for a sinful soul is beyond measure wonderful. It is by far the most wonderful of all His works. He Himself represents it as such. Well, then, may every one for whom He has done such wonders of grace and mercy, wish to declare it. 2. Regard for God’ s glory prompts the Christian to speak. 3. Further, he wishes to declare what God has done for his soul, in order that others may assist him in praising the bountiful Benefactor. III. Why does he wish to make this declaration to those only who fear God?1. Because they alone can understand such a declaration. 2. Because they alone will really believe him. 3. Because they only will listen with interest, or join with him in praising his Benefactor. IV. Improvement. Permit me to ask you, in view of this subject--1. Whether the returns which God requires of you in the Gospel are not most reasonable? 2. Learn from this subject how inexcusable is your ingratitude, how much reason you have for sorrow, shame, and self-abasement. (E. Payson, D. D.) Gratitude and generosity Let each one put to himself the question, “ What hath God done for my soul?” and may God, as we proceed, enable us so to answer the question, that our gratitude to Him may be kindled to a greater warmth, and bear fruit abundantly in generosity to man.1. First of all, then, we declare with thankfulness what God hath done for our souls in the act of redeeming us. God sent His Son to bless us in turning every one of us from his iniquities. But salvation is not a mere momentary act, ending in itself. God’ s plan is so to lay hold of our mind and heart that there may be continual growth and improvement. His desire is that we should advance in all spiritual knowledge, “ understanding what the will of the Lord is,” and comprehending more and more with all saints what is the length, and breadth, and depth, and height of His love. 2. To this end He has given us the Holy Scriptures for our perpetual possession. Let us consider how great a blessing it is to have revealed knowledge laid up in store for us in a book. This gift to our souls is not a mere transient message, the impression of which may gradually fade away anal in time be totally forgotten, or the tradition of which may be corrupted and distorted without any power of correction; but God has so made His communication to us that we can keep it always fresh, can have it always ready at hand, can refer to it, can consult it again and again, can commit large portions of Divine truth to memory, can renew our impressions as they fade, can compare the different parts of the record together with care and deliberation, can study it more and more closely, and make it more and more our own every day that we live. But it is not merely as separate persons one by one that God has furnished us with blessings made ready to our souls. 3. We are members of a great society. The Holy Catholic Church is a part of the system of our religion. Not only does Christianity contain doctrines but likewise institutions. We are abundantly supplied with what may be called social ordinances in the Church. We have sacraments, and common prayer, and public instruction, and mutual help. 4. If, now, we are to single out a fourth thing which God hath done for our souls, I think it ought to be the blessing of providential care. How our life has been sheltered at dangerous times! What good directions have been given us by the word and example of others--what invitations to make ourselves well acquainted with Christ and His service, and with the peace which His faithful servants are permitted to possess! Whatever the result may have been, surely no thoughtful mind can hesitate to regard with thankfulness such providential care as one of the highest benefits which God bath conferred upon the soul. And especially let the mind dwell upon this providential care as intended for the discipline and training of the character for some real usefulness in life--as something intended to make us more thoughtful, more watchful, less frivolous, less selfish--something to give us the rare blessing of a right and well-balanced mind, so that we may be helpful to our friends, and that they may learn from us the lesson which we ourselves have been taught. But now we must advance one step further, and here we enter the inner circle of all. At this point especially the words of the psalm are addressed to those who fear God, and it is only they who can thoroughly enter into their meaning. “ O come hither and hearken, all ye that fear God; and I will tell you what He hath done for my soul.” This desire to help others is a certain mark of a true conversion. If, indeed, there has been experience like that which I have just described, its practical result will take this form. Gratitude to God will find its natural development in generosity to man. (Dean Howson.) What Christ has done for me I. Let us try and tell the tale. “ What He hath done for my soul.” What has He done?1. He has done that which no one else could have done. From first to last the work is of His own right hand, and infinitely beyond the power of any other. No angel, nor any number of angels, could have done for me what He has done. They may, indeed, “ excel in strength,” but the work required as far exceeded their strength as their might exceeds a gnat’ s. Angels have done great things--see Egypt and Sennacherib--but they could not do this. He has done that which no minister, nor any number of them could do; and what I could never have done fox myself. 2. He has done that which requires many words to describe. Saved! Ah, that is a grand word worthy of being written in letters of gold. A saved soul includes many things. A saved soul is a God-pardoned soul; a God-reconciled soul; a sin-delivered soul; a heaven-entitled soul. 3. He has done that which can never be more completely done. 4. And which can never be undone. 5. He has done that for my soul which brings more glory to His name than all His other works. See Paul. 6. He hath done that for my soul which I am able to know is done. If a man does not know what God has done for his soul, there is some reason to believe that nothing has yet been done. Is conversion so minute a matter, so small a change that it can only be detected by the most delicate tests, and then never to a certainty? Nonsense. That is a poor kind of conversion that only remains a trembling hope and never develops into a conscious fact. 7. He has done for my soul that which will bear the test of eternity. II. A few reasons that warrant telling the tale.1. Saints in all ages have done the same. See Paul. Throughout all his epistles the same thing shines. He never forgets his own salvation. Glistening like little gems in a setting of gold are those personal allusions. “ I obtained mercy.” “ Of whom I am chief.” “ By the grace of God I am what I am.” Too often we forget that we have been purged from our old sins; the day of our conversion grows dim in the distance, and our heart’ s love loses its fervour and intensity. The fire becomes caked over and gives out but little heat. Tell the tale, and in telling it, old memories spring into fresh life. The fire is stirred, its hardening crust is broken, and the flames leap out as bright as ever. Oh, it is a grand thing for one’ s own soul to live over again the day of conversion. Tell it, it is the best argument with sinners. The world can understand a fact far better than a theory. (Archibald O. Brown.) Christian experience I. Some of those things which the Lord has done for their souls, which call forth their feelings of gratitude and love to Him.1. What He has done for their souls in the gift of Christ (John 3:16), 2. In enabling them to appropriate to themselves by faith the blessings of that salvation. 3. In the privilege which He gives to them, of drawing near to Him in prayer through Christ, and in the communications from Himself which are imparted to them frequently in the exercise of that privilege. 4. In their preservation from falling into open sin to the dishonour of His name and their own everlasting ruin (1 Peter 1:5). II. It is God’ s will concerning His people that they should live in the lively apprehension of these benefits which have been thus conferred upon them. There are many who think lightly of Christian experience--who are ready to treat as enthusiastic, everything connected with it, and exclaim against it either as hypocrisy or delusion; but the operations of God’ s Spirit do not consist in mere notions, but in his lively actings within the soul; where there is no experience of what God has done for the soul, there can be no real work of God’ s Holy Spirit. Let none of us then be satisfied with mere notional religion, but see that we be able to rejoice in what our God, in His mercy and grace, has done for our souls. III. We have here represented to us one of those effects which will ever be produced by that true Christian experience which is the result of the operation of God’ s Holy Spirit in the soul. It is, that it will produce the humble acknowledgment of the mercies which have been received--and that from the simple and sincere desire to glorify God and to benefit the souls of others.1. To win the unconverted people of the world to the consideration of those subjects from which their hearts are alienated and with which they only associate ideas of gloom and melancholy. 2. For the consolation and encouragement and edification of the people of God. (Denis Browne, M. A.) Tell others of Jesus Dr. Valpy, the author of a great many class-books, wrote the following simple lines as his confession of faith:-- “ In peace let me resign my breath, And Thy salvation see; My sins deserve eternal death, But Jesus died for me.” Valpy is dead and gone; but he gave those lines to dear old Dr. Marsh, the Rector of Beckenham, who put them over his study mantel-shelf. The Earl of Roden came in and read them. “ Will you give me a copy of those lines?” said the good earl. “ I shall be glad,” said Dr. Marsh, and copied them. Lord Roden took them home and put them over his mantel-shelf. General Taylor, a Waterloo hero, came into the room and noticed them. He read them over and over again, while staying with Earl Roden, till his lordship remarked, “ I say, friend Taylor, I should think you know those lines by heart.” He answered, “ I do know them by heart; indeed, my very heart has grasped their meaning.” He was brought to Christ by the humble rhyme. General Taylor handed those lines to an officer in the army, who was going out to the Crimean War. He came home to die; and when Dr. Marsh went to see him, the poor soul, in his weakness, said: “ Good sir, do you know this verse that General Taylor gave to me? It brought me to my Saviour, and I die in peace” To Dr. Marsh’ s surprise, he repeated the lines:-- “ In peace let me resign my breath,” etc. Only think of the good which four simple lines may do! Oh, tell the good news! Never mind how simple the language. Tell it out. Psalms 66:18 If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me.The petitions of the insincere unavailing I. Consider what is implied in regarding iniquity in the heart. The words do not point to open, profane and scandalous sinners. But there are many who maintain a fair character before men, who, before God, shall be found wanting indeed. They are deceiving themselves, and say they have peace when they have none really. But--1. These regard iniquity in their hearts who secretly practise it, fearing the world, but not God. They forget Jeremiah 23:24. 2. Who indulge the desire of sin though they may be restrained from the actual commission of it. Many do this in regard to impurity, sensuality and malice. But see the words of our Lord (Matthew 5:27-28; Matthew 5:21-22). And-- 3. They who reflect upon past sins with delight, or without sincere humiliation of mind. Perhaps our real disposition, both towards sin and duty, may be as certainly discovered by the state of our minds after, as in the trine of action. For sudden temptation may sweep a man away; but the question which determines what the man is, is what are his thoughts and feelings in regard to his sin afterwards (Job 13:26; Psalms 25:7). 4. Those who look upon the sins of others with approbation or without grief. Not as in Psalms 119:136; Psalms 119:158; Jeremiah 13:17; 2 Peter 2:7-8. Some there are who find mirth in other’ s sins (Proverbs 14:9). And-- 5. They are to be suspected who are loth to bring themselves to real searching of heart, or that God should try them (Psalms 19:12). Now, all such do more or less regard iniquity in their hearts. But-- II. God will not hear them. This means--1. When they cry for deliverance from affliction. God does hear the cry of His children (Psalms 91:15; Psalms 50:15). There are three different objects of desire to a good man while in affliction--the Divine presence to support him under it; the sanctified use of it for the improvement of the spiritual life; and, in due time, complete deliverance from it. The two first, he that regards iniquity in his heart will hardly ask; and the last he shall not be able to obtain (Hosea 7:14). 2. He will not hear them when they intercede for others (John 9:31). It is the prayer of the believing righteous man that availeth (James 5:15-16). How terrible not to be able to intercede for others because we are of those whom God will not hear. How diligent we should be, who have to pray for others, to see to it that we walk with God. 3. When they draw near to Him in worship (Isaiah 1:14-15; Proverbs 15:8). Nor-- 4. When they cry for mercy at the last (Galatians 6:7; Matthew 7:22-23; Proverbs 1:24; Proverbs 1:28). Conclusion.1. Let the ungodly be alarmed: it only regarding iniquity in the heart cause men to be rejected of God, how shall you appear who are living in open and gross sin? 2. Let us each and all examine ourselves whether we be of those spoken of here. Do we mourn over secret sins, and grieve because of the sin of others? Ask God to search and try your ways. Guard against your besetting sins and live continually as in the presence of God. (J. Witherspoon.) The evil of regarding iniquity in the heart I. A supposition stated. When may it be said that iniquity is regarded in the heart?1. When it is permitted to reign in the life. 2. When we offer apologies for its existence. 3. When we evince no solicitude for its destruction. 4. When we make provision for its desires. II. A consequence deduced. “ The Lord will not hear me” (Psalms 66:19-20). This supposes--1. That prayer may be offered to God, even when iniquity is regarded in the heart.. Sinners pray when they are in trouble; Pharaoh confessed his sin (Exodus 9:27-28); the Pharisee stood and prayed in the temple, but his language evinced the pride and haughtiness of his heart. 2. That where iniquity is regarded in the heart, the prayer is unacceptable to God. 3. That the man whose prayer God will not hear is in a most pitiable state. Inferences.1. How utterly impossible it is to deceive God (2 Chronicles 16:9). 2. That there may be a fair show of religious profession, even where iniquity is regarded in the heart. 3. That the most effectual way to secure success in our prayers, is to hate iniquity and put away our sin, and beseech God to prove us, etc. 4. That if God has not answered our prayers, we should be solicitous to know the cause, and find out the hindrance. (Sketches of Four Hundred Sermons.) When God will be found There is a great deal of praying that is merely a form, and of the lips only. And a great deal that is “ abomination to the Lord,” because the heart is not right. God wile not hear prayer that does not fulfil the conditions of prayer. They are-- I. Obedience. So long as I knowingly refuse obedience, no amount or vehemence of prayer will avail. I must lift up “ clean” hands, or He will turn away in righteous anger. II. Wholeheartedness. They that seek Him with “ the whole heart “ will find Him. None other. God is a jealous God. Therefore halfheartedness will find no favour with Him. How often does God find it necessary to try His people and keep them waiting, till their hearts wax warm and in dead earnest, and their whole being goes out to Him in prayer. III. A cleansed heart. See the text. An evil heart--of unbelief, of cherished sin, of impure desire, of malice, envy, worldliness--may spoil all our prayers and make them a very snare and a cursing. Oh, it is a fearful thing to come before God in prayer By our very prayers we shall be judged, both now and at the day of judgment. What wonder, then, that so many prayers are unanswered? (J. M. Sherwood, D. D.) Prayer answered only when offered in sincerity I. What it is for a man to regard sin in his heart.1. It is to have a constant and habitual love of it. This true of all the unregenerate. It is born with him and he loves it (Ephesians 5:29). 2. An unmortified habit or course of sin. Even a child of God may have this: David had (Psalms 38:5). 3. An actual retention of the mind upon sin. II. What it is to have our prayers accepted with God. It is to prevail with God for the obtaining of what we desire. III. How it is that such regard of sin hinders our prayers.1. Because in such case we cannot pray by the Spirit, and no other prayers find answer. 2. We cannot pray in faith. 3. Nor with fervour IV. Application. Let all seek when they pray to have sincere hearts, free from hypocrisy and the love of sin. For otherwise our prayers cannot prosper, and, moreover, we incur the danger of a heavy curse (Genesis 27:12). Therefore, before prayer, let us examine ourselves. This, if anything, will clear the coast. Sift yourselves by examining as Satan does by tempting. (R. South, D.D.) The hindrances to acceptable prayer I. The blessing designed--that the Lord will hear us. This supposes--1. That our prayer be rightly endorsed and presented, which can only be through the atonement of Christ. True, when men, like Balaam, are set on their iniquity, God will at times let them have their way. But the text speaks of a right answer to a right prayer. 2. That our prayers are for permitted things. II. The declared hindrance to prayer--“ If I regard iniquity in my heart.” Now--1. This is not sin in the life so much as in the heart which is contemplated. The blind man’ s reasoning was right (John 9:31). And yet men will keep up the form of prayer though purposing to sin. 2. And it need not be some definite sin that is designed, but if the desires of the mind be turned to sin, then prayer is hindered. III. The reason of this declared connection between sin and disregarded prayer. Because in such state of heart we cannot pray. We may recite words, but we cannot pray. Let us deal honestly with God in our prayers. (Daniel Moore, M. A.) Prayer with iniquity in the heart If iniquity is regarded in the heart-- I. Prayer must be insincere.1. For the most part, when men engage in prayer, they ask those things for which they are taught to pray.2. If they regard iniquity in their heart, they cannot be sincere.3. For they cannot really desire such blessings. II. Prayer must be faithless.1. Without faith, there is no prayer.2. Faith, if it exists, is one of many graces, and itself purifies.3. If we regard iniquity in our hearts, we cannot have faith, and, therefore, God cannot hear us. III. Prayer cannot be in accordance with the Divine will.1. Supposing that the man who regards iniquity in his heart be sincere, his prayer must be for what, etc.2. He must be rejected. IV. God will show His displeasure by refusing to hear.1. Supposing that the man, etc., is offering a prayer for promised blessings, and--2. That he is sincere, yet--3. God has a controversy with him. V. The ends of which we seek the accomplishment, through the blessings asked, must be discountenanced by God.1. The man asks what is right.2. He asks sincerely. But--3. He asks right things for an improper end. We plead the glory of God--the name of Christ. (J. Stewart.) When may iniquity be said to be in the heart? - I. There would be iniquity in the heart, in professing to be penitentially humbled on account of any course of action, with which we have had nothing to do, or that is right in itself. II. There would be iniquity in the heart, if we committed ourselves to any enterprise, without consulting God’ s will at the outset. III. There would be iniquity in the heart, in imploring the Almighty to bless means essentially inadapted to the end. IV. There would be iniquity in the heart, in supplicating the almighty to enable one class of his sinful creatures to inflict injuries upon another. V. There would be iniquity in the heart, in entreating Him to bless any instrumentality which He has prohibited. If Christianity expresses the will of God, and if Christianity is embodied in the life of Christ, then war is prohibited. And to ask Him to bless it, is to ask Him to promote rebellion against Himself. (Homilist.) Iniquity in the heart a hindrance to prayer Is there any difficulty in seeing why the utterances of one that cherisheth sin can never be wafted thus on high? How comes it that we weak men can ever engage in a work so lofty, so hard, as prayer, a work requiring the putting forth of all the powers of mind and soul? Is it not because there is a Spirit who helpeth our infirmities? Shall His voice be heard from the chamber of a heart in which the love of sin reigns? Will He, the Spirit of purity, work with a heart which is the willing slave of corruption? Again. As the man who regards iniquity in his heart cannot pray in the strength of God the Holy Ghost, so he cannot pray in faith. It is only when our heart, honestly questioned, carefully examined by the rule of God’ s commandment, does not condemn us, that we can have confidence towards God. As the Spirit will not inspire, nor faith give wings to the prayer of the lover of sin, so neither can the prayer of such have any glow of life. In such prayers there can be none of that “ violence” to which-alone the kingdom of heaven will yield; none of that seeking, knocking, striving, without which we can never find, never have heaven open to us, never enter by the strait gate. A great teacher of the Early Church, one who by God’ s grace was rescued from a sinful life, and was enabled when he was converted to strengthen his brethren, confessed that at one time he had been in the habit of praying against a foul sin, nursing all the while a secret hope that his prayer might not be granted. Let those whose first thought on hearing this is one of incredulous horror diligently ask themselves whether, were they as honest as he in the task of learning to know themselves, they would not have to fall under the same condemnation. “ I dread to sacrifice to the gods with unwashed hands,” said a grand old heathen warrior, “ nor is it comely to present my supplication besmeared with blood and strife.” Besmeared with blood and strife we surely are as often as we come into God’ s presence by our bedside or in His House of Prayer with thoughts and deeds of cruelty, of pride, of selfishness, of meanness and unkindness unrepented of; unwashed our hands surely are when our spirits are defiled with the stains of sin which we do not loathe, and in which we acquiesce, instead of being unwilling to rest until they be blotted out. Forgiving, tranquil, pure must his breast be who would worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness; he that would take upon him the name of Christ must see to it that his steps depart from iniquity; he that would pray aright must sift his heart ere he kneel, lest he offer the sacrifice of fools; he that would rise from addressing God and joyfully cry with the psalmist, “ Blessed be God which hath not cast out my prayer, nor turned His mercy from me,” must first approach God’ s awful presence with fear and trembling and a reverent heed that the hands which he lifts up be holy hands, that the heart whose desires his lips are to declare be one that regardeth not iniquity. (G. H. Whitaker, M. A.) . Psalms 67:1-7 Psalms 67:1-7 God be merciful unto us, and bless us; and cause His face to shine upon us.Illumining the life Let us mark the two extremes of the psalm. It begins with “ God be merciful unto us,” and it ends with “ Then shall the earth yield her increase.” There is some mysterious but very real connection between the fertility of nature and the character of man. Nature is not to reach her consummation until man himself is at his best. “ God be merciful unto us.” That is where human possibility begins, in the mercy of God. But this word “ mercy” has grown very thin by common usage, and in ordinary currency it has lost much of its essential worth. We too often interpret it from the standpoint of the magisterial bondage, and it becomes significant of the summary dismissal of an action, and the release of the prisoner. We shall never really understand the inner content of the Scriptural word until we get far away from the court of law. It is infinitely more than a cold acquittal. The innermost element of the word is suggestive of “ stooping,” the stronger bending toward the weak. “ And bless us.” And what shall we say of this great word? There is no commoner word to be found in the speech of prayer. Now, perhaps I can best suggest the inconceivable wealth of the word if I say that it includes all the many significances of the English words beginning with “ bone.” Let my hearers take these words, and apply every one of them to the ministry of the Almighty, and they will obtain a glimpse and a hint of the manifold meaning of the blessing of God. Take the word “ benevolence,” and the word “ benediction,” and the word “ benefaction,” and then let the single colours mingle, and the result will give us some faint conception of the benefits of the Lord. “ Cause Thy face to shine upon us.” It is a plea for the light of God’ s presence. It is a prayer that He would “ countenance” our goings out and our comings in. It is “ to walk all day beneath Thy smile.” It is more than that. When the light of the Lord’ s countenance falls upon us we, too, become illumined. “ They looked unto Him and were lightened.” That is to say, they were lit up! Their faces caught the glory of the Lord, as I have seen a cottage window shining with the reflected radiance of the sun. These, then, are the three great preliminaries in the making of a noble life, which shall witness to the power of the King. We are to receive the mercy of God, and the blessing of God, and the shining presence of God. And what is the purpose of it all when these gifts have been received? “ That Thy way may be known upon earth.” That is the purpose of it. All these earlier phrases have described the making of the Lord’ s witness, and now we are told what is to be the ministry of the witness. We are lit up in order that we may reveal the Lord. We are to be illumined in order that men may see our God. “ That Thy way may be known upon earth.” We are to make known the Lord’ s beaten tracks, His manners, His modes of action, His course of life. Men are to see our beauty, and through it discern the Lord’ s habits. “ And Thy saving health among all nations.” Our healed life is to be the witness of the Great Physician’ s power of healing. If I may reverently say it, the radiance of our character is to advertise the glory of the Lord. What are the signs that the witness is effective, and that the saving health is become pervasive? “ Let the people praise Thee, O God.” That would be the first token of an effective ministry. Thy people will begin to praise. They will fall into the attitude of reverent worship. “ Let the nations be glad.” That is to be the next step in the noble sequence. The people are to be brightened, cheered up, made merry I They are to become optimistic in their hopes, and full of encouragement in their speech. “ Then shall the earth yield her increase.” I do not wonder at it. As I have already said, in the opening of this meditation, we shall have finer gardens when we are finer men. The field will put on richer garments when we are clothed in white robes. (J. H. Jowett, M. A.) The greatest need of foreign missions The psalm was intended, commentators tell us, for some great temple festival, possibly the Feast of Tabernacles, in a year of exceptional increase. But what strikes me as I read it is its universal note. There is nothing local, particular, or Jewish about it. The psalm is as much at home in the Christian Church as in the Jewish Temple, as much at home centuries after Christ as it was centuries before He came. I. The first remark I wish to make is that this psalm, in the scope and sweep of its petitions, supplies us with a pattern and example for our prayers. “ God be merciful unto us, and bless us; and cause His face to shine upon us.” That is how the psalm begins. The psalmist’ s first thought is for his own people, for his own kindred, according to the flesh. But that is not where the psalm ends. In the very next verse the horizon recedes, the outlook broadens, the national need gives Way to the universal need. He has scarcely offered up his prayer for his nation before his compassions are running out to the countries beyond, and in the very next breath he is interceding for all nations and for the wide earth. There is nothing local, there is nothing exclusive about this prayer. The psalmist overleaps all national boundaries, and brings the wide world before God. He has all Christ’ s passion for those other sheep which are not of the Jewish fold. He has all Paul’ s desire that the Gospel may be preached to those who have not heard it. True prayer is always world-wide and universal. It is right to begin where this prayer begins--at home; it is not right to finish there. You must enlarge the scope of your petitions, and you must not rest till you have brought the “ ends of the earth” before God. I pity the man who in his prayers never gets beyond “ God be merciful unto us, and bless us, and cause His face to shine upon us” ; for he has simply not learned the elements of prayer. For that is a marred prayer, a narrow prayer, and a selfish prayer. And whatever Christianity is or is not, it is the very antithesis of selfishness. “ Let this mind be in you,” said the apostle, “ which was also in Christ Jesus.” What was the mind that was in Christ Jesus? It was an unselfish mind. Our Lord was always thinking about other people. His thought travelled far beyond His own kindred to those peoples lying in ignorance and sin; to all the millions who lived without God and without hope. Am I wrong in thinking that, speaking generally, Christian people do not possess our Lord’ s wide-world outlook, that our affections are cramped by national and racial differences, that we do not realize that men everywhere are the loved of God, the redeemed of Christ, and that we do not pant and yearn for their enlightenment and salvation as our Lord did? Some do, I know. David Brainerd--his enthusiastic spirit had no rest in his passion for prayer for his Indians. This lack of concern for the salvation of the world results in parochial and narrow and selfish prayers. “ God be merciful unto us, and bless us” --we begin there, and there oftentimes we finish. None of Christ’ s melting passion for the “ other sheep” creeps into our prayers. The psalmist’ s prayer, while beginning with himself, expands till he embraces the whole earth. II. But notice even in his personal prayer he has got the universal good before his eyes. “ God be merciful unto us, and bless us” --what for? “ That Thy name may be known upon earth, Thy saving health among all nations.” He does not ask for personal blessing for merely selfish ends. He asks for it that it may serve the universal good. He asks God to bless Israel in order that through Israel, so blessed, God’ s way may be known upon earth, His saving health amongst all nations. The psalmist has grasped this truth, that Divine favours and blessings are never bestowed upon men or nations for merely selfish enjoyment, but they are always bestowed upon them for service. Our Lord appointed twelve, “ that they should be with Him, and that He might send them forth to preach.” He chose these twelve men that they might be with Him to be His friends and associates, to accompany Him in all His journeys, to share His intimate fellowship. He conferred upon these twelve the highest privilege ever bestowed upon mortal men. The high privilege conferred upon the twelve was meant for the enriching of the world. “ He appointed twelve that they should be with Him, and that He might send them forth.” That illustrates a law. God’ s blessings are never for selfish ends, they are always meant for the benefit of the wide world. For instance, God reveals to a doctor, let us say, some secret that makes for the health and wellbeing of mankind. He reveals it to him, not that he may hug it to himself, but that he may share it so that the whole world may be the better for it. The manifold religious privileges that this land of ours enjoys were never meant for England’ s sake only. They have been conferred upon England in order that through England they may become the possession of the wide world. The light of the knowledge of the glory of God which you and I enjoy is not for our own personal gratification merely. It has been given to us that we may share it and diffuse it. You have the light. Have you shared it, diffused it, spread it abroad? Or have we, like some stagnant pool, tried to keep that Which we have received? My brethren, the Christian ought never to be represented by the pool; he ought always to be represented by the stream. The pool takes all it can get and gives nothing; receives everything, parts with nothing; and reaps the penalty of its own selfishness in putridity and stagnation. The stream is always giving itself away. It runs down the hills, and as it runs down it gives greenness to the fields, cleansing and refreshing to the dwellers in the towns. Starting in the mountain, where all is at its sweetest and loveliest, it does not linger in its mountain home. It says, “ There are thirsting people crying out for me; there are parched lands crying out for me,” and so it hurries down the mountain slope, past the village, into the valley, through the town, on and on, so long as there is a single yard of land to be blessed by it; on and on until the great sea is reached. III. And now, just for a moment or two further, let me ask you to notice the words with which the psalmist describes the blessings thus given to the world through the agency of Israel. It is really the blessing of salvation, but he uses two figures that describe it. He first speaks of it as “ God’ s way,” and in the second place as “ God’ s saving health.” Just look at these two figures for a moment. First, he asks that Israel may be blessed in order that “ God’ s way” may be known upon earth. Now, you see that the psalmist uses a figure which is familiar to all Old Testament writers--the figure of a man as a traveller, a wayfarer, a pilgrim; a traveller, as John Bunyan has put it, from the City of Destruction to the City Celestial. Or, if you like to put the same truth in a rather different form, let us say man is a traveller whose goal is happiness and peace, and there is a certain way along which he must travel if he is ever to reach that goal, if life is to be ever happy and peaceful in its course and triumphant at its end. Enoch walked with God--that is the way. He is the only successful traveller who walks with God. When the psalmist looks around him he sees multitudes of people out of the way. Like sheep they have gone astray, they have turned every one to his own way. That means misery, wretchedness, despair. God’ s way is the only right way. There has been no other way discovered. But as I look out upon the world to-day I see millions of people out of the way, turning every one to his own way and reaping misery and unrest as the result. Now, did you never feel any desire to bring these wandering people back? He has blessed us just in order that His way may be known upon earth. And the second figure the psalmist uses is this--“ God’ s saving health.” “ Thy saving health among all nations.” And if the first figure of “ the way” suggests a lost and wandering world, this figure of “ saving health” suggests a sick world. Here is the world from the Bible standpoint--“ The whole head is sick, the whole heart is faint; from the sole of the foot to the crown of the head there is no soundness in it, but wounds and bruises and festering sores.” And it is not the Bible only that says it. Modern literature says it in equally plain and emphatic terms. Listen to this from Thomas Hardy: “ Did you say that the stars were worlds, Tess?. . . Yes.” “ All like ours?” “ I don’ t know, but I think so. They sometimes seem to me like apples on our tree, most of them splendid and sound, but a few blighted.” “ Which do we live on, Tess?. . . A blighted one.” A sick world, that is what the Bible says, that is what literature says, that is what experience says. And this is how God’ s salvation comes to us--it comes as “ saving health.” God’ s purpose is wholeness for every man. God’ s end for you and me is to make us morally sound. God’ s salvation restores unto perfect soundness and complete health. Life becomes absolutely normal. It is “ saving health.” The evangelist Matthew emphasizes the healing work of Christ again and again. “ He healed all manner of diseases and all manner of sicknesses.” But it was not bodily sickness alone that Christ healed. He healed the broken and the sick soul. To the sick of the palsy He said, “ Thy sins are forgiven thee.” It is for the Christian Church still to make God’ s “ saving health” known among all nations. Wherever the missionary goes you find a hospital. Jesus can give what no doctor can give--He can give healing to the soul. There are people who preach in these days a religion of healthy-mindedness. They tell us to ignore sin and evil and death. But sin and evil and death are here. They will not be ignored. An ostrich policy of that kind does not get rid of these things. “ The blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin.” “ He that believeth on Me shall never die.” Well, ought we not to get the good news about God’ s “ saving health” known amongst all nailers? The world to-day is full of sick souls. India, China, Africa, are full of men and women burdened and troubled and oppressed with sin, haunted by the fear of death. Ought we not to tell them to come to Jesus Christ? Pass on the good news. Do you not think that we ought to tell every stricken soul about Him who is able to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease? Now, I lay the case of these sick souls upon your consciences--blighted by sin, and you and I know about the blood that can cleanse from it; all their lifetime in bondage through fear of death, and you and I know who can give them the victory over it. I lay the ease upon your consciences. God has blessed us and caused His face to shine upon us and been gracious unto us simply in order that His way might be known upon earth and His saving health among all nations. May He help us to spread the news, that we may share thus in the icy of the Cross that makes Christ’ s kingdom come. (J. D. Jones, M. A.) A universal new year’ s prayer I. That fresh supplies of Divine goodness are constantly needed by man. “ God be merciful unto us,” etc. The benediction which the Almighty Himself put of old into the mouth of the high priest, to be pronounced on Israel, is the spirit and model of these words (Numbers 6:24-26). Hence our text is Divine, and may be used with reverent and unbounded confidence. It invokes fresh communications of His love. “ Bless us.” Has not God always blessed us, through the whole of our life? Verily. Still we need a continuation. A rest in the flow of His beneficence would be our ruin, would terminate our being in black extinction. The words invoke also a fresh assurance of His love. “ Cause His face to shine upon us.” The face is the symbol of the soul and the expression of its deepest things. Hence the meaning of the prayer is, Assure us of Thy love. This conscious dependence of the soul upon God is the very essence of religion. II. That the universal diffusion of Divine knowledge is of paramount importance to man. “ That Thy way may be known,” etc. What are the things relating to God, a knowledge of which is so devoutly sought for the race?1. His general method of action. “ Thy way.” God has a method by which He gives His harvests: the farmer must practically recognize and follow it, if he would have his labour rewarded by abundant crops. God has a method by which He restores exhausted energies and impaired health; the physician must follow that method, if he would succeed in his profession. God has a method by which He imparts knowledge to mankind; the inquirer must follow it, if he would obtain intelligence and wisdom. And He has a method by which fallen souls may be redeemed; and this method must be followed before salvation can be reached. 2. His special method of salvation. “ Thy saving health among all nations.” God has a method of moral restoration. He has salvation, He has health for the diseased, liberty for the captive, knowledge for the ignorant, pardon for the guilty, and immortality for the dying. And He has a method for imparting this salvation. What is that? (John 6:40). III. That God’ s connection with the world is the great hope of man (Psalms 67:4).1. God judges the nations righteously. 2. God leads the nations on. “ And govern the nations upon earth.” Margin, “ lead.” God does not drive men, but leads them. He leads them, as a commander does his army, against the mighty hosts of evil principles, institutions, and habits. IV. That spiritual excellence is conducive to the temporal interests of man. “ Then shall the earth yield her increase.” The language implies that it is when “ all the people praise God,” that all the people shall have temporal plenty, that “ the earth shall yield her increase.” It is not difficult to see how spiritual excellence is conducive to temporal prosperity. Let the people be industrious, then they will put forth those efforts by which worldly good is generally obtained. Let them be temperate and economical, then self-indulgence and extravagance, which are the prolific sources of poverty, will cease. V. That true worship comprehends the supreme good of man. The whole psalm implies this. (Homilist.) That Thy way may be known upon earth, Thy saving health among all nations. The missionary prayer I. The right moral condition of the Church is of supreme importance. II. The Church being morally right, She is to be the medium of making known the supreme knowledge to others. The vital possession of this knowledge gives existence to the supreme joy.1. The joy of Divine satisfaction.2. The joy of a Hew experience.3. The joy of melody and praise. What a change this knowledge produces! It turns night into morning, sadness into songs. Being the supreme knowledge, it creates the supreme joy. IV. The prevalence of this knowledge, and the presentation of this praise, will ensure a golden harvest of prosperity. (J. O. Keen, D. D.) Our duties in regard to missions I. Think of the great things that God has done for us, and survey our present condition.1. The duty of a Christian congregation to aid in sending the Gospel to Jews and heathen is not a matter of indifference or choice; it is essentially and inseparably, as it were, a part of our existence. 2. The graces of the Spirit cannot remain inactive within us. If we have love, it shows itself in the Saviour’ s cause. 3. It is by His Church that His Church will be completed. 4. As the Lord has appointed His Church as the channel to supply the waters of grace, so He has honoured those churches and congregations especially who have been the most forward to fulfil their office; for the congregation that scattereth is that which increaseth; and they that water shall be watered also themselves. II. The best method of fulfilling our duty in this matter.1. Let us endeavour to have it wrought into our minds as a Christian principle, as a part of our Christianity, as a matter of course, to be concerned and interested in promoting the Redeemer’ s glory by the extension of His Kingdom. 2. That this missionary spirit may be maintained and duly directed among us, I would counsel you to make yourselves acquainted with the progress of the Gospel in the world. 3. Seek to feel more deeply the conviction that that which lies nearest to the Saviour’ s heart is, that the Father may be glorified in the conversion of sinners, and the building up of His Church. 4. Watch for opportunities of serving in His cause. (John Tucker, B. D.) The extension of the Word of God abroad, intimately connected with its revival at home I. That God’ s way is not at present known in all the earth, nor His saving health among all nations. II. That it is God’ s will that His way should be known in all the earth, and His saving health among all nations. This is demonstrable--1. From all those passages of Scripture which teach that all nations are to be blest in Christ.2. From our Lord’ s commission to His apostles.3. From our Lord’ s parables of the mustard seed and the leaven. III. That this will be accomplished by human instrumentality. IV. that the direct instruments to be employed in making God’ s way known in all the earth are His own people. Other instruments are frequently employed as their harbingers. Such are war and commerce. These remove obstructions, level mountains, fill valleys, drain marshes, and build bridges. They have been the precursors of the Gospel in many places, particularly in the East. But the direct instruments of making the way of the Lord known, are His own people.1. By an enlightened, pious, and zealous ministry.2. By the consistent piety of Christ’ s people.3. By their individual and united exertions to promote the cause of Christ. Conclusion.1. If piety be necessary to usefulness, let us pray for an increase of it in ourselves and others. 2. If many of our own countrymen are yet strangers to God’ s way, let us labour to instruct them. 3. If hundreds of millions in other lands are perishing for lack of knowledge, let us cheerfully contribute our mite to the support of pious missionaries, and pray the Lord of the harvest to send forth more labourers into the harvest. (Outlines of Four Hundred Sermons.) The Church’ s missionary psalm Whatever other thoughts there may be in this comprehensive prayer, we cannot be mistaken in regarding the following as standing prominent among the blessings which it implores--the continued enjoyment of God’ s forgiveness and friendship, and especially the increased experience of His love in quickened graces and enlarged spiritual strength; that the spring of His Church might ripen into summer; that the dawn might brighten into the perfect day; that, having life already, His people might have it more abundantly; and all this the effect of mercy, free and unforced, far-reaching-as the firmament, and fathomless as the sea. I. There is a prayer for the revival of the Church. II. There is a prayer for the increase of the Church. III. The connection between the revived life of the Church and its beneficent influence upon the world is indicated in the words, “ That Thy way may be known upon earth, Thy saving health among all nations.”1. Such Church will be most secure against error and unbelief.2. Will be most chosen of God to extend His Kingdom.3. In such Church there will be a spirit of dependence leading to abounding prayer; great moral power; much brotherly love, and a spirit of unreserved consecration. Seek, then, above all else the Spirit of God. (Andrew Thomson, D. D.) A plea for missions I. We may regard these words as the prayer of British churches in reference to themselves. The text involves--1. The avowal of conscious unworthiness. It is the prayer of the publican, God be merciful unto us, sinners. 2. The acknowledgment of dependence on God for His blessing. 3. The desire of unusual and extraordinary manifestations of Divine grace and favour. II. The avowed faith of British churches in reference to the world. “ That Thy way may be known upon earth, Thy saving health among all nations.” We may regard this part of our text in a threefold light: as the language of prayer; as the subject of prophetic anticipation; and as the recognition of a system of legitimate means.1. True revival will remove many obstacles which now impede the way. By the augmentation of Christian principles it will prove the death-blow of party zeal, in all its subtle or more revealed forms. 2. It will purify all the passions of our nature. It will be the destruction of everything worldly in principle, of everything unholy in affection. 3. And will multiply agents also for the conversion of the world. (J. Morison, D. D.) Conditions of spiritual growth One of the most striking characteristics of the religion of the Bible is its universality. It is designed to, and does, meet the wants of all. I. True religion is expansive both in its nature and effects. The highest form of life is exhibited in the most complex organization. In lower types we find that comparative simplicity of structure is sufficient to maintain and manifest vitality. But when we come to man, and examine the human organism, we see the highest type of life on earth. And so in the history of civilization. In the rude ages of the past little organization was needed. But how different now. The human life of man only reaches its perfect type when men are bound together with strong ties of mutual interest and dependence, sympathy and love. And so the true spiritual life of the soul seeks its growth by spreading its life-inspiring influence in every direction; by working in every possible way for the good of others, and by striving to bring the whole race into the brotherhood of the Kingdom of God. II. In seeking God’ s grace and blessing for ourselves, we shall have regard to the influence to be exerted for the glory of God and the welfare of men. We are mindful of these high motives when we are seeking to stimulate others and ourselves in preaching and teaching the Gospel, but we are not so when we pray for blessings upon ourselves. III. All effective work for God must be the development of spiritual life and progress in our own souls. Christian life, like the light, radiates from a centre, and the brighter the light the farther its rays extend in every direction. Have, then, life in your souls. (Harvey Phillips, B. A.) The conversion of the world I. The principles that pervade this beautiful prayer.1. Humility-here is no claim for justice, no word of merit, but a cry for mercy. 2. Patriotism. It is a prayer by Jews for Jews. And we may take the words for ourselves. 3. Mercy, regard for others. 4. Piety. II. The object of this prayer--the conversion of the world. The world for Christ. This is what we are bidden seek, and for which provision has been made. There must be room for the world in your hearts, your prayers, your purses. Sink not down into a littleness which belongs not to the missionary enterprise. But for the unfaithfulness of the Church the world would have been converted ere now. III. The means by which this object is to be accomplished. This country must be blessed in order that it may bless the world; our Churches must be blessed, in order that they may bless the country; we ministers must be blessed, in order that we may be a blessing to the Churches (J. A. James.) Saving health 1. Our Lord graciously purposes for each of His children perfect health. He would have every power and faculty in our being working in holy vigour. Our health is our only safety. (1) To be in any way sickly or weak is to offer welcome hospitality to the evil one. He seeks out our weak points, and at the undefended place he makes his entrance. Fulness of health is fulness of resistance. The healthy soul by its very vigour is fortified against the invasions of evil and night. Indifferent spiritual health is exposed to incessant peril. The city of Corinth abounded in evil. Epidemics of worldliness and vice pervaded every grade of social life. The Christian needed to be in perfect health if he were not to be smitten by the ill contagion. Men of weakly wills and indifferent consciences and lukewarm affections fell before the invader, and became the victims of the prevalent vanity or lust. And you will remember that the Apostle Paul, looking at the little Corinthian Church, was filled with anxiety concerning some of its members. “ Some are sickly!” He felt that their silliness was a friendly condition to the worldliness that besieged the gates of the Church. Their weakness exposed them to its attacks. Now, the Lord purposes that we should be in perfect health. He yearns to destroy our easy susceptibility to sin, and to place the whole bias of our life in the direction of holiness. When all our powers are perfectly healthy, our very health will be our resistance to the encroachments of the devil. (2) But spiritual health is more than self-protective; it is contagious. Common thought and common speech have made us familiar with the contagion of vice. I wish that we were equally familiar with the conception of the contagion of virtue. An evil effluence proceeds from the life of the sin-possessed; an invigorating and purifying effluence proceeds from the life of the sanctified. “ Out of Him shall flow rivers of living water.” We impress and influence one another not only by what we say and what we do, but even more deeply still by what we are. Our presence itself is vitalizing if we are possessed by vigorous moral and spiritual health. In the home, in the workshop, in society, in the place of worship, our presence counts for something, counts for much, and “ virtue” is going out of us as a river of operative energy in all the many relationships of our varied life. Our health is not only self-protective, it acts as a saving ministry in the lives of others. (3) But spiritual health is not only self-protective and contagious, it is actively aggressive. “ Saul was afraid of David, because the Lord was with him.” The God-possessed exercise a repressive influence over the vices and passions of men. Everybody knows that we can create conditions that incite another man’ s temper and lust, and we can create conditions by which these fires and cravings can be suppressed and destroyed. Our medical men sometimes provide medicated atmospheres to help to heal the ailments of their patients. They can soften and moisten the air, and so give comfort to the struggling and help to regain them to health. The Christian man supplies a medicated atmosphere to his brother. His very presence helps in the creation of conditions which are unfavourable to vice and friendly to virtue. 2. As for the secret of this “ saving health,” it is to be found in the first verse of this psalm. The psalmist is a suppliant; he is kneeling in the presence chamber of the King. “ God be merciful unto us, and bless us!” He is pleading with the good Lord to stoop in pity, and to lay upon him the forgiving and liberating hand. “ Cause Thy face to shine upon us!” But that means that the suppliant’ s face is turned towards the face of the Maker! We are renewed into the same image. Our countenances catch the light and life that we contemplate. He is the “ health of my countenance.” We become possessed of the saving health of God. (J. H. Jowett, M. A.) Psalms 67:6 Then shall the earth yield her increase.The influence of Christianity on the temporal future of mankind The universal knowledge and service of God are connected with more abundant material prosperity. The earth is to yield her increase; the grapes are to hang in heavier clusters; the oil is to flow tit richer streams; the corn is to yield a more golden harvest; the pastures are to be covered with more numerous flocks; man’ s temporal life is to be happier, nobler, more beautiful, when the whole race is brought back to the love and worship of the Creator. For this psalm, apt as the Jews were to forget it, and think only of themselves, foretells God’ s bounty to the whole race, and not to any one part of it. There is a golden age for men in this world, in which the dreams of reformers, philanthropists and fools shall be more than fulfilled. Christianity, conversant as it is with the realities of the unseen, the spiritual and eternal, is not, as some say, without interest for the wealth, the learning, the refinement, the beauty, belonging to this transitory life. Human life, though brief, is worth our care and culture. Christ eared for this life and blessed it. He healed the sick and fed the hungry, and looked at the lilies of the field, and observed that their beauty was richer and fairer than the robe of a king. They are perverted conceptions of the Christian life which have led many good men to shrink from the touch of every secular interest and to devote themselves to a life of solitude and meditation. They forget that we are put in this world to prepare for eternity, not to be always thinking about it. True, great saints have been indifferent to the common occupations of life, but in them--the few elect souls--the Divine fire burned with such intensity as to consume their interest in all inferior things. But Christianity is not, therefore, to be censured as hostile to man’ s temporal welfare. Though John Howard cared for nothing but the sorrows and injuries of the outcasts of society, philanthropy is not, therefore, charged with indifference to commerce, art and the various occupations and pursuits of men. We believe, then, that the triumph of the Christian faith will be marked by a vast uplifting of the material, intellectual, and social condition of our race. (R. W. Dale, D. D.) Harvest sermon Apply these words-- I. To the material or physical increase of the earth. How varied and great is this increase. But at present it is only partial. Hereafter it shall be full and complete. II. To the earth’ s spiritual increase. There will be--1. Reverent acknowledgment of God’ s majesty (Psalms 67:7).2. The reverence of praise which is God’ s due (Psalms 67:5).3. The prevalence of God’ s kingdom upon earth (Psalms 67:4).4. The joy and gladness of the people (Psalms 67:4).5. The harvest of redeemed souls (Psalms 67:2). (J. Bennett.) God, even our own God, shall bless us. God’ s blessing I. Contemplate Him who blesses His people. “ God, even,” etc. God. Our God. Our own God, for He has chosen us, and we have chosen Him. II. The nature of the blessing. Forgiveness, grace, joy, hope. III. The manner in which God blesses His people. Seasonably, bountifully, through Jesus Christ, eternally. IV. Reasons why God does this. Because He loves them, would further the cause of Christ and His own glory. (T. Lewis.) The minstrelsy of hope “ God, even our own God.” What an exceedingly sweet title! What a loveliness and liveliness of heart must have been in the man who first applied that name to God. That word “ own,” or “ our own,” seems always to throw an atmosphere of delicious fragrance about anything with which it is connected. If it be our country, “ Lives there a man with soul so dead, Who never to himself hath said ‘ This is my own, my native land’ ?” Whether it be a land of barren heath, or shaggy wood, or a far extended plain--all men love their own fatherland. And so with regard to our homes, our friends, our books, etc. But what shall we say of “ our own God” ? Words fail to express the depth of joy and delight which this name contains. They seem to be used here as a kind of argument and assurance of the blessing which is foretold “ God shall bless us.” But we propose simply to keep to the words, “ God shall bless us, God shall bless us.” They have been sounding in my ears like far-off bells, singing their way with a march of music into the deeps of my soul. Three personified passions will now speak to us, and we with them. I. Fear. Fear lodges with some as an abiding guest, and is entertained as though she were a dear, familiar friend. She is ever inquiring, “ Will God bless us?” and she is full of misgivings and forebodings. But our text makes answer, “ God shall bless us, God shall bless us.” II. Desire. Quick of step, bright of eye, warm of heart, Desire saith, “ Ah, God shall bless us, but oh, that we had the blessing! We hunger and thirst after it.” The reply to her is, that it will come through the revival of the Church. Then the longed-for conversion of sinners will be seen. God will give us His blessing in measure correspondent to our faith. And it will come when the Church is filled with intense desire for it, and sets herself to pray for it. To the more spiritual there are certain signs which assure them that the blessing is coming. As to Elijah, the signs of abundance of rain were evident; and to Columbus, of land not far off by the sight of land birds and floating pieces of sea-weed, and broken pieces of wood. So to the spiritually minded there are sure signs of coming blessing. III. Hope. Behold her--the sweet, bright-eyed maiden, Hope. Have you never heard the story of her matchless song? She learned in her youth a song which she sings evermore to the accompaniment of a well-tuned harp. Here are the words of her enchanting lay, “ God will bless us, God will bless us.” She has been known to sing this in the midst of tempests, and calms have followed the soothing song. She has been often heard singing this in the night, and lo! stars have suddenly shone out of the black sky. Once on a time, certain strong labourers were sent forth by the great King to level a primeval forest, to plough it, to sow it, and to bring Him the harvest. They were stouthearted and strong, and willing enough for labour, and well they needed all their strength, and more. One stalwart brother was named Industry--consecrated work was his. His brother, Patience, with thews of steel, went with him, and tired not in the longest days, under the heaviest labours. To help them they had Zeal, clothed with ardent and indomitable energy. Side by side, there stood his kinsman Self-denial, and his friend Importunity. These went forth to their labour, and they took with them, to cheer their toils, their well-beloved sister, Hope; and well it was they did, for the forest trees were huge, and needed many sturdy blows of the axe ere they would fall prone upon the ground. One by one they yielded, but the labour was immense and incessant. At night when they went to their rest, the day’ s work always Seemed so light, for as they crossed the threshold, Patience, wiping the sweat from his brow, would be encouraged, and Self-denial would be strengthened, for they heard a sweet voice within sing, “ God will bless us, God, even our own God, will bless us.” They felled the giant trees to the music of that strain; they cleared the acres one by one; they tore from their sockets the huge roots; they delved the soil, they sowed the corn, and waited for the harvest, often much discouraged, but still in silver chains and golden fetters by the sweet sound of the voice which chanted so constantly, “ God, even our own God, shall bless us.” They never could refrain from service, for she never could refrain from song. They were ashamed to be discouraged, they were shocked to be despairing, for still the voice sang out clearly at morn and eventide, “ God will bless us; God, even our own God, will bless us.” You know the parable, you recognize the voice; may you hear it in your souls always. (C. H. Spurgeon.) . Psalms 68:1-35 Psalms 68:1-6 Let God arise, let His enemies be scattered: let them alone that hate Him flee before Him.A good prayer This was what was always said by Moses, when the ark set forward afresh in the wilderness. Enemies were in the path of its progress, and if the ark was to advance, God must scatter them Advance of all kinds is accompanied with the scattering of enemies. The reformer, the teacher, the pioneer emigrant have all to fight. The very sun, as he scatters the darkness, seems to rise in a sea of blood. And God’ s cause in the world and the hearts of men must fight its way through enemies. I. This prayer is to be urged in reference to the enemies of the progress of the Gospel in the world. Selfishness in all its forms, tyranny, hate, worldliness, and unbelief, must be scattered by God’ s power. II. This prayer is to be urged in reference to the enemies of the peace and sanctification of God’ s people, and of the sinner’ s salvation. The Old Testament speaks much about enemies; the New far more about enmity. God’ s avenging sword of old cut off His enemies; the Sword of the Spirit slays enmity. The reason of the difference is found in the different stages of God’ s work in the world. God in the old dispensation had to carve out a little space for His garden and vineyard on the earth; now the whole earth is His garden, and He must root out every plant that He has not planted. It is not human beings that are God’ s enemies; it is sin in man that is the enemy against which God fights. God’ s enemies and man’ s real enemies are the same. We do not conquer our enemies, because we do not sufficiently feel that they are God’ s too. (Homiletic Magazine.) God’ s interposition invoked, worship enforced, and character portrayed I. The interposition of God invoked (Psalms 67:1-2).1. An impression of God somewhat general. “ Let God arise.” The suppliant seemed to regard the Almighty as quiescent, as either unconscious or indifferent to what was occurring in the affairs of mankind. This view of God is unphilosophic, pernicious. God is all consciousness and all motion. He sees all, and is never at rest. 2. A conception of sinners always true. “ His enemies.” They “ hate Him.” What is sin? Practical antagonism to what God is. 3. A feeling towards man that is wrong. “ Let His enemies be scattered,” etc. II. The worship of God enforced (verses 8, 4).1. Worship is the prerogative of the righteous--i.e. those whose spirit is ruled in everything by the only righteous law, supreme love to God. Such only can worship. Their hearts alone overflow with those sentiments of gratitude, filial reverence, and adoration which enter into the essence of all worship. 2. It is the outflow of the highest happiness. “ Let them rejoice before God: yea, let them exceedingly rejoice,” etc. Worship is not a task, it is a gratification; it is not an effort, it is an effluence; it is not a service, it is a spirit; and it is a spirit radiant and jubilant in the conscious presence of the all-loving One. It is the spirit pouring itself out to Him as freely and naturally as the healthy tree pours out its fruit and its blossoms to the sun, or as the overflowing fountain pours forth its waters to the ocean. III. The character of God portrayed.1. His majesty. “ Him that rideth upon the heavens,” etc. 2. His mercy. “ A father of the fatherless,” etc. (Homilist.) Psalms 68:4 Sing unto God.The service of song The spirit of holy song is not confined to any denomination. It is given as a precious boon to kings and shepherds, rich and poor, bond and free, men and women, Catholic and Protestant, Moravian, Quaker and Baptist. We are growing in the charity of Christ. There was a time when our hymnology was intensely sectarian. We put our creeds into song, and we would sing only our own poets. We actually argued on disputed doctrines in our sacred songs. Controversy made discord in the songs of Zion. But we see happier days. So then if we have the gift of song consecrate it to the service of God. And let all sing, and sing heartily, in the public assembly. Every heart for God, every life for God, every song for God! This is the sublime sight we long to see, and for which the watching angels wait. (G. W. McCree.) Joyfulness a Christian duty It is necessary for some people to remember that cheerfulness, good spirits, lightheartedness, merriment, are not unchristian or unsaintly. We do not please God more by eating bitter aloes than by eating honey. A cloudy, foggy, rainy day is not more heavenly than a day of sunshine. A funeral march is not so much like the music of angels as the songs of birds on a May morning. There is no more religion in the gaunt, naked forest in winter than in the laughing blossoms of the spring and the rich, ripe fruits of autumn. It was not the pleasant things in the world that came from the devil and the dreary things from God; it was “ sin brought death into the world and all its woe” ; as the sin vanishes the woe will vanish too. God Himself is the ever blessed God. He dwells in the light of joy as well as of purity, and instead of becoming more like Him as we become more miserable, and as all the brightness and glory of life are extinguished, we become more like God as our blessedness becomes more complete. (R. W. Dale, D. D.) Psalms 68:6 God setteth the solitary in families.The manifold mercies of God--the family There is a strong disposition on the part of many now to deny the goodness of God as seen in Creation. A great philosopher, recently deceased, assures us, in his last deliverance about Nature, that on the whole this is a very clumsily conducted world. No doubt this pessimistic state of mind has been partly caused by the foolish and excessive optimism of the writers on Christian evidences. These quietly ignored the deeper difficulties and perplexities of the subject, and the philosophers have taken revenge by parading them and deepening their complexion. True, Dr. Watts, for reasons connected with man’ s depravity, preferred to find this world of ours “ not a proper habitation for an upright being: its form is rude, irregular, abrupt, and horrid.” It is curious to find Dr. Watts and Mr. Mill in such entire harmony about Nature. Dr. Watts sees a fallen and corrupted in what the other sees an originally ill-constructed and ill-compacted world. But the world has working in it the principle of progress, and this is continually refining, elevating, and developing both man and his world. Nature, like man, is saved by hope. The depreciation which has fallen upon the Order of Creation falls more heavily on the order of the human world. And, no doubt, the signs of strife, struggle, confusion, of waste and wreck manifest in Creation, are yet more so in the human sphere. The signs of dire disorder affront us everywhere. The skeleton stalks abroad; it saddens with its ghastly presence the sunlight of life. It is a great mystery. It is inevitable that these things should perplex us when we consider the large and far-reaching plan on which God has made the world. The key to it is the culture of a free being: his education for a free and noble eternity. No key but this will fit all the wards of Nature and of life. Much of the complaint that is heard is really against man’ s freedom, and because he is not more of a machine. If men were machines, and all filings were the result of a mechanical arrangement; if what looks like freedom were only reflex action, then one would be driven to the conclusion that the machine is extremely clumsy and ill-arranged. We could, in that case, readily conceive that a much more simple one might have been constructed, which would work much more smoothly, and with far less fret and friction. But, judging by the lights of Reason and Revelation, God has chosen to construct the world upon quite another scheme, in which the education of free, moral beings for an immortal life is the deep thought that underlies it. Everything must be judged absolutely by its fitness for this purpose. And if this be the purpose, then it is worth while to study profoundly this great scheme, and to search out all its depths. Contemplate, then, the Divine goodness in the order of human society, which grows out of the social instincts and aptitudes which are the special endowments of man. And at the root of them all lies the institution of the family. Out of that human society grows. We may understand the text as telling both of God’ s loving care for the solitary, or as indicating the loving provision for man’ s happiness, solace and development, which the institution of the family secures. Now, the immediate purposes of this order seem to be--1. The drawing forth and the culture of the several faculties of the individual, and-- 2. The continual elevation and purification of the life of society: its constant progress towards an ideal, the vision of which God has set before mankind. In the family you have, in little, the picture of society. It is there in miniature. It is under your eye and hand; you can study it readily and see how it works. And the pessimist philosophers would tell you that they find in the family constitution just the mischievous blundering of which they complain elsewhere. As the world, so the family is, they say, “ capriciously governed.” And some speak of it more harshly still. It hands over, they complain, the character and career of each successive generation to individual caprice and will, concerning which you can take and hold no security: it is all blind chance what the parents may he. Plato sought, and communistic ideals seek, to rectify this supposed flaw in the arrangement of society, which is the result of family life. It is said, “ What sort of blundering is it which places young children in their formative years, on which everything depends, under the control of those who are tolerably certain to be capricious and foolish? Would it not be better to take possession of the children from the first and place them under the rule of those who will be certain to train them in wisdom and virtue?” And there does seem something to be said for this. For what awful consequences come from bad parental influences! How many myriads of children are ruined by it! Now, it is not a complete answer to say that man has gone aside from God’ s intention, because it allows that God made man capable of thus falling. But we must remember that all this is for our ,education, and is a mighty instrument in it, and we must take eternity into view. Then and there, if not here and now, we shall see God’ s ways justified. (J. Baldwin Brown, B. A.) The Divine origin and unity of the family The family has been best defined as “ the institute of the affections.” In its ideal state it is the home of love. It is the place of all others in which the affectionate side of human nature receives its strongest impulse, its freest, fullest development. While the family is first in order of time, having in embryo all the after fruits of civilization, being at the beginning of things, it held also within its limits both Church and State in their primitive condition. “ The home is the first Church, and the home is the first State.” Historically and germinally there has sprung from the family all that is best in human history, all that we most admire in human life.1. Every one who takes the Bible as his guide must believe that the family is Divine in its origin. It was instituted in Eden by God Himself for the preservation of the race, for the welfare and happiness of His creatures. It has stood the test of time. Sin has corrupted, but could not destroy it. Christ came to a sinning world to redeem and regenerate it. Sin had polluted all the relations of man and those institutions which God had established for man’ s happiness and glory, so pure in their first inception. The family had not been exempt from this downward drag of sin. Christ would touch this centre of influence and bring the family back to its original place. He re-emphasized its sacredness. He put Himself in direct opposition to the theories of His age. Nowhere in the literature that preceded Him can you find such exalted views of marriage and the home as were presented by Him. That which by the perversion of sin had become such a power for evil He aimed to transform into a ministry of light and love. Through it He sought to propagate His faith and to establish the kingdom of heaven on earth. 2. Consider next the unity of the family--its oneness of life. The family is treated as a unit in the Bible. The members of it are not so many isolated beings, each one independent and thoughtless of the other. They have a common interest and a common life; what affects one affects the other. This is true not only of every living generation, but of all subsequent generations. Every family has a history distinct from all others. It is a link binding the past and the future. Receiving from its fathers the heritage of their virtues, it is expected to transmit them to those who follow. Just as surely as every Church and nation has its unmistakable tone and spirit, so, surely, is there a common family life. Every household has its marked characteristics, natural aptitudes, its distinctive views, tastes, and ideas: Too much has been made of heredity in certain quarters, but the basis of truth in connection with it we must all recognize. (1) It is interesting to note, even from a physiological point of view, the physical traits which reappear in the same family in successive generations. You take the child of to-day and trace a very close resemblance between him and the pictures of ancestors who lived one hundred or two hundred years ago. You detect the same features, the same colour of the hair and expression of the eye. (2) Mental traits also descend from parents to children. The prominent and remarkable men of the world have, as a rule, had a remarkable mother. Distinguished women have borne the impress of a distinguished father. Say what we will, blood has much to do in deciding what we are to be and do in this short life. (3) If it be generally admitted that physical and mental traits are transmitted, it will not be difficult to show that the spiritual nature of the child takes its direction very largely from the spiritual nature of the parent. Given parents who are gluttonous, intemperate, licentious, who are the slaves of their sensual appetites, what may we expect of the children who partake of their natures, who breathe the air and imbibe the teachings of their home. Who can measure the power of this family spirit? How often it is the very opposite to what it should be! Here it is money, money written on every face; here it is good living; here it is show; here scandal and detraction. Sometimes the sense of religion and of spiritual things will seem to be nearly lost or obliterated. Not that God permits this evil spirit of the household to have full and undisputed sway. He has established remedies and counter forces to resist it. Wicked homes are often broken up. Children whose natural parents will not care for them are gathered into public institutions or private homes by Christian workers. Families, too, are constantly intermingling. Better influences from without may overcome the wicked spirit at home. But that does not disprove the unity of the family, that oneness of spirit and character which manifests itself in successive generations. It is something more than influence, direct or indirect. “ Every child is born into the peculiar life of its own family, partakes of its nature, and feels its power. (S. W. Dana, D. D.) The family I. The family is a Divine institution. In the case of other relationships, such, for example, as those of neighbourhood and partnership, each man has been left, always, of course, under the presiding providence of God, to follow his own inclinations. It is a matter of choice with any one as to whether he shall live in town or country, but unless where God’ s law has been contravened, every man belongs of necessity to some family. God has instituted the home on earth. What says our Lord on this matter? (Matthew 19:4). The fitness of the family constitution as God established it at first for securing the end which I have stated will be most convincingly seen by contrasting it with other systems which men have attempted to put in its place. Take, for example, that of polygamy, as seen either in the harem of an Eastern Mussulman or in that of a Western Mormon, and you will at once perceive that the very unity of which I have spoken is destroyed, and that there are few facilities for the training of children into highest nobleness of character. II. The family is intimately connected with our earthly happiness. It is not in the magnificence of your dwelling, or the gorgeousness of your furniture, or the luxuries of your table, or the costliness of your attire that your home happiness depends, for you may have all these and be miserable still. Neither is it the absence of these things that causes discord and division in a house, for you may meet the highest felicity in the humblest abode. The question is, Do you honour God or not? III. The family intercourse has the most powerful influence on human character. The law of the physical world is that action and reaction are equal, and there is something like that in the moral. We are assimilated to those with whom we come into most frequent and intimate contact. There is a family likeness, in spiritual character, as well as in outward form and feature, between the members of the same household. The husband moulds the wife and the wife the husband, until, as it has been often remarked, they come to resemble each other even in the expression of the countenance, and the one will often anticipate the very expressions which the other was about to utter. John Randolph said to an intimate friend, “ I should have been a French atheist if it had not been for one recollection, and that was the memory of the time when my departed mother used to take my little hand in hers and cause me on my knees to say, ‘ Our Father, who art in heaven.’ “ The mother of John Newton died when he was but six years old, but during these six years she had stored his mind with Divine truth, and those early lessons, as he himself records, he never could get rid of, even during the wildest part of his career. Oh, mothers, what a power is yours[ See to it that you remember your trust, and seek by faith, and prayer, and perseverance to be faithful to it. IV. The earthly family is not a permanent and abiding thing. (W. M. Taylor, D. D.) God’ s love of companionship You will observe that in the margins these words are rendered, “ God setteth the solitary in a house.” The Hebrew word means literally a house, or a dwelling-place, and figuratively, a family or a race. Now, we find in all parts of Scripture, but especially in the Psalms, short but emphatic descriptions of what God does, which open to us with no common clearness what God is. From brief notices of the conduct, we derive some of the best apprehensions of the character of our Maker. Thus, the sentence which we have brought before you as our subject of discourse discloses what we may cull a love of companionship in God. When the garden of Eden had been enamelled with beauty, and Adam placed there as its tenant, the Lord God said, “ It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make a helpmeet for him.” It was thus at the very outset of the creature dispensation that God showed His purpose of associating beings, or bringing them into companionship, in place of allowing the solitary to continue the solitary. And whatever the period at which this spirit of companionship began to be developed, it is unquestionably one which may be traced in the whole course of God’ s dealings with mankind. We are not at liberty to doubt that it is by Divine appointment that men have been clustered into those various groups which constitute what we designate human society. This human society is nothing more than a system of mutual dependencies, which will net tolerate, for the most part, anything of solitariness. You see that the whole machinery of a kingdom would quickly come to a stand; yea, that an arrest would be put on all the business of life, and therefore very speedily on life itself, if there were a determination on the part of each individual to keep himself to himself, and to have nothing whatever to do with the surrounding mass of his fellows. There must be the interchange of benefits between man and man. Paul says to the Romans--“ As we have many members in one body, and all the members have not the same office: so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another.” And if once you admit this doctrine of the “ communion of saints,” you are ready for the full understanding of “ God setting the solitary in families.” It proves that the very instant a man becomes converted and renewed, there is a bond of the very mightiest union established between himself and countless individuals in different sections of the earth. He is not shut out from the sweetness of domestic worship by the mountain and the forest which surround him, but, participating still in the relationships of brothers and sisters, fathers and mothers, what shall be said of him, but that, in his loneliness and desertion, he vindicates the truth that “ God setteth the solitary in families” ? (H. Melvill, B. D.) Psalms 68:7-18O God, when Thou wentest forth before Thy people, when Thou didst march through the wilderness.The progress of humanity I. It commences with the Divinely terrible (Psalms 68:7-8). As a rule, if not always, the very first step of the soul on its moral march is preceded by visions of God that startle and alarm. God seems to enwrap the soul in “ blackness” and “ darkness” and “ tempests,” to roll thunders and flash lightnings on the conscience, as on Sinai of old; so that the soul cries out, “ Lord, what shall I do to be saved?” (Isaiah; St. Paul; people on day of Pentecost.) II. It proceeds under the leadership of God Himself.1. He supplied Israel’ s needs (Psalms 68:9). 2. He conquered their enemies (Psalms 68:11-12). And this is what God is always doing for His people. No moral progress can we make unless He leads us on, supplying our needs and striking down our foes. III. Every stage conducts to higher privileges. Three stages in the march of the Hebrews are indicated here. From Egypt they advanced to the wilderness, and the wilderness, with all its trials and inconveniences, was better than the land of despotism. From the wilderness they entered Canaan. Every stage that a man reaches in moral progress is better than the preceding. He moves on “ from strength to strength,” from “ glory to glory.” The glories reached are nothing to be compared to the glories yet to be enjoyed. (Homilist.) Psalms 68:9 Thou, O God, didst send a plentiful rain, whereby Thou didst confirm Thine inheritance when it was weary.Refreshing showers The language is figurative. There is no mention of any rain in Israel’ s history. It was a rain of gifts. “ He rained down manna upon them,” etc. “ I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods,” etc. Now, the resemblance to the rain holds good-- I. In their abundance. It is a plentiful rain. So is it with God’ s grace II. In their refreshing, reviving nature. See it in the fields; so is it in human hearts. III. In their seasonableness--when God’ s inheritance “ was weary.” They have been weary times which have preceded the outpouring of the grace of God. See this in history; in homes and Churches; in individual hearts. (E. W. Shalders, B. A.) Blessing for a weary heritage I. God has a possession in this world which may be pre-eminently called His own. “ Thine inheritance.” The Church is His--1. By special choice.2. By right of conquest.3. By voluntary self-surrender of His believing people. II. This heritage upon earth is often exposed to the exhausting influence of trial and discouragement.1. The length of the way.2. Open enemies.3. False friends.4. Delay of harvest, and fear of final loss. III. God is at no loss for means and instruments to refresh and replenish His church in critical seasons.1. These promised influences are timely and seasonable.2. They are copious and abundant3. They are fertilizing and vitally influential. (Homiletic Magazine.) A gracious rain refreshes God’ s inheritance when weary I. The people of God are His inheritance. This implies that He peculiarly loves, delights in, and cultivates His inheritance; and receives from them, in return, those fruits of righteousness, of worship, and of praise, in which the revenue of His glory consists. II. This inheritance, from a variety of causes, is sometimes weary, By too much intercourse with the world; by too close an attention to business; by too free an indulgence in the enjoyments of life; the people of God become barren and unfruitful. And when they are brought to a sense of their condition, no land parched with drought ever thirsted more for the refreshing rain of heaven than they long for the renewing grace of God. III. When it is weary, God, in great compassion, sends a gracious rain upon his inheritance, and refreshes it. There is not a more perceptible effect produced upon the face of nature, by the rain which descends from heaven, than in the soul of man, by the rain of heavenly grace. What a verdure; what a freshness, in the one case; and in the other, what a serenity of soul; what a kindness of temper; what a humbleness of mind; what a sanctity of heart; what a blessed hope; what an unspeakable peace; what a reviving like the corn; what a growing like the lily; what a casting forth of roots as Lebanon; what a spreading of the branches of the tree of life; what an olive-like beauty--are the fruits of this gracious rain, this heavenly refreshing! The refreshing of which we speak does not produce feelings and affections merely grateful. The beauty which is imparted is the beauty of holiness. It is a beautifying of the meek with salvation. Ask yourselves, then, this question: Am I refreshed by the Word of God? Does it come to me not in word only, but in power, in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance? (M. Jackson.) Refreshing influences Trace the analogy between the effects of rain on the earth and the influence of the Holy Spirit on the Church. I. Cleansing. No rain in March, no rain in April, and no rain till the middle of May; the grass, the flower, the shrub, the bush, and the tree were covered with malarial excrescences, parasites, blight and dust. How long would it take the women of England, with brush and duster in hand, to dust the hedges, the gardens, the forests and the fields? They sadly needed it--months without a wash, their beauty was gone. But the rain came, washed away the dust, drowned the parasites, and removed all hindrances to growth. This is the present need of the Church of God: “ showers of blessings” ; the washing of regeneration. Conformity to the habits of society, worldliness, talebearing, scandalizing, pride, selfishness, envy, strife, hypocrisy, uncharitableness, assumption of holiness--these are the dust, the excrescences, the parasites, which mar the beauty and retard the growth of the Church of Christ in our day. We need a downpour of the Holy Ghost to wash all away. II. Fertilizing (Psalms 72:6). The mown field suggests the condition of those who are exhausting themselves in the service of Christ, or, at least, those who are throwing off crop after crop of work and experience for the benefit of others. These Christians are the pillars of the truth; towards them our hearts go forth. They are so busy at work that they cannot find fault with others; and so sensible are they of their own unworthiness that they never sit in judgment upon their fellow-Christians. Their motto is, To spend and be spent for Christ. But human energy is inexhaustible, and it needs replenishing--“ rain upon the mown grass.” The rain fills the fibres of the tree, and penetrates the ground to water the roots, so does the influence of prayer water the soul. III. Ripening. You see the husbandman looking at the cornfield when about ripe. A good shower ripens and fills the grain. The ripeness of the soul is like a shock of corn. God is looking out, and pours His Spirit upon it. (T. Davies, D. D.) Psalms 68:10 Thou, O God, hast prepared of Thy goodness for the poor.God’ s provision for the poor We hold it as altogether one of the most forcible sayings of Holy Writ, that “ the poor shall never cease out of the land.” The words may be regarded in the nature of a prophecy; and we think their fulfilment has been every way most surprising. But our great business lies with the fact that poverty is the appointment of God. “ The rich and the poor meet together: the Lord is the maker of them all.” When we have fastened on the truth that God troth appointed poverty, we must set ourselves to show that God hath not overlooked the poor. The Gospel of Christ makes no distinction, whether preached in a palace or in a cottage--whether it addresses itself to ignorant men or to learned men. There is no variation in the message: it speaks to all as being born in sin and shapen in iniquity; and announces to all the same free and glorious tidings--namely, that “ God hath made Him sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.” But not only has God thus introduced a kind of natural counterpoise to the evil of poverty; in the appointment of the method of redemption He may be said to have especially provided for the meanest and the most destitute. There is nothing in the prescribed duties of religion which, in the smallest degree, requires that the man be a man of learning and leisure. The Gospel message is one of such exquisite simplicity--the sum and substance of truth may be gathered into such brief sentences--that all which is necessary to know may be told in a minute, and borne about by the labourer in the field, or the soldier on the battle-plain. Nay, we shall not overstep the boundaries of truth if we carry this statement further. We hold unreservedly that the Bible is even more the poor man’ s book than the rich man’ s. There is a vast deal of the Bible which seems to have been written for the very purpose of making good our text: “ Thou, O God, preparest,” etc. But there is yet another point on which we think it well to turn your attention; for it is one which is not a little misunderstood. We know that what are termed the evidences o! Christianity are of a costly and intricate description, scarcely accessible except to the studious. It is hard to suppose that the unlettered man can be master of the arguments which go to the proof of the Divine origin of our faith. We think assuredly that, if you take the experience of the generality of Christians, you will find that they do not believe without proof, and that, therefore, they are not unfurnished with weapons with which to repel infidelity. They do not believe without proof; but the proof lies, as Horsley says, in the surprising manner in which the Bible commends itself to their souls--in the inexhaustible stores which they find in Jesus--in the agreement of the doctrines and precepts of religion--in that exemplar of good, and in that fear, which a devout heart carries about with itself. “ He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself.” And we think there can he nothing far-fetched in the assertion that there is no evidence of the divinity of the Scripture half so strong as that which a man knocks out for himself with the simple apparatus of a Bible and a conscience. So that we think that God hath so ordered His Word that it carries its own witness to the poor man’ s intellect and to his heart. (H. Melvill, B. D.) Harvest The reference is to God’ s care of Israel in the wilderness. But God still cares for men. I. The nature of His goodness. It is seen in the produce of the ground. The brute creation as wall as man share in this, but the corn is especially for man. Judea was famous for its corn. By a bold metaphor, Moses speaks of “ the kidneys of the wheat.” And as there, so here “ the barns shall be full of wheat.” We are hindered in seeing the goodness of God herein by its constant repetition and by the moans--second causes--which He employs. But if some things hinder our seeing, others may help. Think how easily he could have destroyed all our hopes; and how dreadful if He had; and yet how righteously, for our sins, He might have done this. II. The subjects of His goodness--“ the poor.” It is not for them exclusively, but they are spoken of as being the mass of mankind: they would be most affected by deficiency: God would encourage them to trust in Him; and He would have the rich care for the poor, for He does. (W. Jay.) God’ s provision, for the poor What is God’ s provision for the poor?1. He has provided them with a very honourable name. That name has been tarnished and sullied in the course of years. But the name as originally found in the Hebrew contained no idea of shame, guilt, or disgrace. To the poor and weak, not to the rich and self-helping, God’ s richest promises are made. 2. God has provided the poor with necessary succour. There is ample provision in the world for the entire human family. The provision is God’ s part, the just distribution is the duty of man. If we could only properly distribute the things which we have at our command every one would be provided for. If any man does not get his share it is the fault of his fellow-man; not God’ s omission. In one department of individual economics especially there is a special call for the work of the Christian Church. And that is in the region of those numberless casual changes which fall to the lot of man, and, for the time, make him poor. Here is the opportunity for the Christian to go to him and to give him the personal word of cheer. Then again, the Christian, in his dealings with his fellow-man, must adapt the Jewish law concerning not shaking the olive-tree twice, or too nicely gleaning the cornfield. He is ever in his business transactions to set an example of high-souled generosity. He should take a personal interest in those who are dependent upon him. When we turn to the New Testament we naturally expect to find evidence that God has made provision for the poor. Nor are we disappointed. From the time of the founding of the Church the greatest care of the poor was enjoined. An experiment of the Communist system was tried. It early passed, either because there was not sufficient religion to sustain it, or because it was not the method of God’ s idea. Its place has been taken by the law of Fraternity. Every one is responsible for the welfare of his fellow-believer. (J. Lorimer.) Psalms 68:11 The Lord gave the Word: great was the company of those that published it.The proclamation of the Gospel The occasion of this psalm--the carrying up of the ark to Jerusalem: the joyful procession is described. But it has a prophetic import as well as a literal one. It points on to the Ascension of Christ and to the gifts He has bestowed upon His Church. Our text is a glorious promise concerning the proclamation of the Gospel. I. It is and ever has been the will of God that by man the message of mercy should be proclaimed. This so ordained in mercy to man and for the glory of God. II. This word will never be proclaimed, except the Lord send us. God has ever sent forth the men who preached His Word, and He is sending them forth now. III. There shall be great success. See context. IV. She that tarried at home divided the spoil. Allusion is to Numbers 31:25; and for illustration see 1 Samuel 30:22. Some must stay at home, though there are many who ought to go forth to labour. But they who rightly stay at home, they shall be blessed through the missionary enterprise. Conclusion: Have we ourselves believed the Word which the Lord hath given? Let us give Him all the glory. What motives are here for fresh exertion! (F. Close, M. A.) The place of preaching, in the past and in the present On the old Glasgow coat-of-arms were the words--“ Let Glasgow flourish by the preaching of the Word and the praising of His name.” That has been shortened now into “ Let Glasgow flourish” --but the original was as I have said. The fact that that could be taken as the motto of one of the prominent cities of Scotland is a sign of the deep and far-reaching influence which preaching exerted in past days. I. What preaching has done in the past. Both in our own and in other lands some of the mightiest triumphs that have ever been achieved were brought about by the preaching of the Word. Since the days of Elijah downward, it has played an important part in moulding the destinies of the world. Jonah, an old preacher of righteousness, turned a mighty city unto God by means of his summons to repentance. In the Christian Church we can mark the influence of preaching making itself directly felt in the early ages. We have the preaching of Jesus, so original, so full of beauty, so touched with deep love and mercy that it thrilled the heart of multitudes, and paved the way for the future acceptance of His cause. We have the beaming enthusiasm of John; the direct home-thrusts of Peter; the logical grasp and gathering impetus of Paul--all of which have left an indelible mark, not only upon the Christian Church, but upon the whole history of the world. Almost all the great movements of the Middle Ages have been identified with great preaching. One of the greatest and most daring attempts on the part of a preacher to achieve great things is identified with the name of Savonarola. That simple monk threw out the most powerful factions that ever ruled in Florence. For a time he blossomed out as a great leader, and sought to establish a City of God upon earth. He failed ultimately, and partly by his own error, but the extraordinary success that he for a time achieved over prince and people is one of the red-letter days in the history of preaching. In our own country it has achieved great triumphs, and has been reckoned one of the distinctive features of Scottish life. Since the days of Knox the pulpit has been the foremost institution in the country--most powerful for good or evil. The preacher has been listened to as the veritable servant of God, and his message taken as if it came from highest Heaven. II. The place that preaching holds amongst us to-day. There is no question that the pulpit to-day does not occupy the same place of undisturbed authority that it did during the first two centuries after the Reformation, or even that it has done within the last fifty years. It is no longer the social, religious, and intellectual leader of the people. Other influences have sprung up and taken their place amongst us and exercised their authority. A very different set of conditions exists amongst us to-day. Never did cheaper and better books exist. Another great obstacle to the unquestioned authority of the pulpit is the change that has taken place in the public temper. At the days of the Reformation the principle of the right of individual judgment was established. But in these days we have carried that principle to a length that was never dreamt of then. Now every man reckons himself just as good a judge of right and wrong as any other man. III. What work has still to be done by the pulpit. There are many who seem to have so completely despaired of the power of preaching in the future, that they advise us to resort to all sorts of expedients in order to fill the churches. All this shows a genuine distrust of the power of preaching to impress the public. That is not preaching which does not come straight from the Word of God. Lastly, the pulpit has a great work to perform in helping to solve, in a Christian manner, the social and political problems of the age. (D. Woodside, B. D.) Psalms 68:13 Though ye have lien among the pots, yet shall ye be as the wings of a dove.Among the pots The text has been a sealed passage for ages. Bishop Lowth declared it “ unintelligible.” Mr. Spurgeon calls it “ a hard passage, a difficult nut to crack.” But new light is constantly breaking out of the Scriptures. Miss Whately, travelling in the East, observed a fact which gives us the lost key to this text, and unlocks its beautiful imagery. In her work entitled Ragged Life in Egypt, she thus speaks concerning the flat roofs of the houses: “ They are usually in a state--of great litter; were it not that an occasional clearance is made, they would assuredly give way under the accumulation of rubbish. One thing seems never cleared away, however, and that is the heap of old broken pitchers, sherds and pots that are piled up in some corner. A little before sunset, numberless pigeons (or doves) suddenly emerge from behind the pitchers and pots and other rubbish where they have been sleeping in the heat of the day, or pecking about to find food. They dart upward and career through the air in large circles--their outspread wings catching the glow of the sun’ s slanting rays, so that they really resemble ‘ yellow gold’ ; then, as they wheel round and are seen against the light, they appear as if turned into molten silver, most of them being pure white or else very light-coloured. This may seem fanciful, but the effect of light in these regions can scarcely be described to those who have not seen it. Evening after evening we watched the circling flight of doves, and always observed the same appearance.” The doctrine unfolded is the promise of God, that a holy character may be maintained in this sinful world, despite unfavourable surroundings. The Christian may be-- I. Clean as a dove in business. Your character is not cheapened because your work is in the kitchen or at the forge, nor is it ennobled because you handle diamonds, write poems, thrill breathless auditors, or sit behind mahogany office desks. There are men in coal mines with souls like the wings of a dove; and there are men in decorated mansions with souls sooty and black with sin as the miner’ s face with coal-dust. One has the soot on his face, the other on his soul. How beautiful a sight to see a man who has spent the day amid the pots of business, environed by the dust and grime of greed, of selfishness, of fraud and falsehood, fly home at sunset unsoiled and clean as the wings of a dove covered with silver! II. Clean as a dove in social life. Man has needs which only social life can meet. In this there is a great good, and great evils lie close beside it. “ Society “ is not loyal to Christ, but is obedient to the spirit of “ the world.” Its ethical code is not the morals of the New Testament. Here are the pots dusty and grimy. We may mingle in social life only on the plane of our Christian birthright: “ Brethren, ye are called unto holiness.” To mingle in society and not touch its wines, not patronize its demoralizing amusements, not bow down to its false maxims, customs and conventionalities, not lose the zest and fervour of a holy life, is proof of the constraining love of Christ. III. Clean as a dove in religious life. The things impossible with men are possible with God. The things impossible to the unregenerate are possible to the regenerate man. Born again by the Spirit of God, and filled with Divine grace, he can do all things through Christ that strengtheneth him. If the lines fall to him among the pots, still he may emerge “ as the wings of a dove covered with silver, and her feathers with yellow gold.” This does not cover presumption and reckless precipitation of oneself into moral dangers. Had Daniel been recklessly roaming around that lions’ den, and fallen in, God would not have sent an angel to shut their mouths. We must use all prudence to avoid evil influences: then, if our path of duty lies through a fiery furnace, God will keep us from all harm. (J. O. Peck, D. D.) A contrast between the spiritual state of the sinner and the saint I. From a state of meanness to a state of dignity. The mention of wings, by means of which the feathered tribes soar aloft, so as to reach an elevation, and occupy a field of movement to which the other animals do not, and cannot, attain, naturally suggests the raising of the redeemed from the degradation which they were accustomed to share with their fellow-sinners, and their being placed on high, and in heaven; while the silver and gold represent the splendour and magnificence of their altered circumstances. II. From a state of poverty to a state of affluence. Silver and gold are the emblems of wealth. “ Ye shall be as the wings of a dove, covered with silver and with yellow gold.” Whatever else these words may mean, they certainly must mean a state with which poverty has nothing to do. Doubtless they are expressive of those spiritual graces and endowments with which believers are invested, and of that imputed righteousness in which they shine; and which together constitute the ornaments and the robes that they wear as kings and priests unto God. Much has been done to enrich the Church. III. From a state of wretchedness to a state of felicity. Joy in the room of sorrow; gladness instead of sighing; shouts of rapture for shrieks of pain; life for death! No longer tossed on the sea of adversity and trouble, they shall find themselves safe in the haven of rest, and peace, and external happiness; and, delivered from every vexation and every fear, ages of never-ending sunshine and serenity shall glide over their heads! IV. From a state of defilement to a state of purity. “ Clean water” is sprinkled on them, and they are made clean; from all their filthiness, and from all their idols, does God cleanse them. V. From a state of grovelling sensuality, to a state in which the flesh, with its affections and lusts, shall be crucified. Sinners, in their natural state, are governed by some one or other of the unhallowed impulses of a depraved heart. But the desires of sinners that are renewed flow not downwards to the earth,--they ascend upwards to heaven. VI. From a state of servitude to a state of freedom. (Andrew Gray.) Rescued Item the brick-kilns Before our conversion Satan is our task-master, and he is worse than Pharaoh. It is drudge, drudge, drudge. But after a while Christ appears, and says, “ Let my people go,” and then we come out into the largest blessing. We wash off the dust of sin’ s brick-kilns, and God makes us fairer than doves’ wings covered with silver. Now, we maintain-- I. That the grandest adornment that any young man can have is the Christian religion. But many would say, when they heard of some young man being converted, “ Oh, what a pity! he was the merriest of all of us and the most gladsome. What a pity!” And here is a young woman, the pride of her home circle. She becomes a Christian, and people talk of the pity of such a bright light being extinguished. But we maintain that the peace, the comfort, the adornment of such a young person just then begins. The religion of Jesus Christ beautifies the heart, and instead of depressing it lifts up to a higher platform of cheerfulness. Oh the joys and comforts of Christ’ s religion! What a poor, shallow stream is worldly enjoyment compared with that! It is not the people who seem to be the merriest that really are so. See that roystering, drinking, scoffing young man; how loud he laughs. But is he really happy? Follow him home. See him when he is alone and conscience speaks. He is wretched, as the Christian young man never is and never can be. “ I have been trying these three years to serve God,” said a man at a great meeting at which I was present, “ and I am here to-night to tell you that in these three years I have had more delight than in all the years of my abomination.” And that is the universal experience. II. Religion frequently adorns a man by placing him in spheres of usefulness. Look at the fashionable fop--how fine he thinks himself! he never thinks of anybody but himself. Here is another young man who has set himself to try and do good to others. He loves Christ and wants others to love Him. He will try to uplift the fallen, to cheer the sad, to do all the good he can. Which is the most beautiful to look upon? Compare Napoleon and Voltaire with Paul. It is a grand thing to be a Christian hero. And what will it be in heaven? If I have persuaded any of you to start on the road to heaven I would like to stand beside him there. Many there are waiting for such to join them. (T. De Witt Talmage.) Psalms 68:17 The chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thousands of angels.The chariots of God We read much in Scripture about the holy angels, how high and glorious their condition is. And we are told often how these holy angels do their work that we may learn how we should do ours. All God’ s works teach some lesson concerning Him, and His greatest works are especially rich therein. But in the lives of men we do not always see lessons and examples of what we ought to do and be. Oftener far do we see what we ought not to do and be. Therefore ought we to be glad and to prize it highly and thankfully, when God sets before us the examples of holy beings, such as the angels, who do so unchangeably His will. Now, the angels do what they do, not blindly and helplessly as the earth rolls round and bears her fruits, but knowingly and willingly. In this they are like to mankind. But see how the angels serve God. Take the story of Hagar: what an example for all servants of God in the conduct of the angel told of there--calling back those who have strayed from the path of duty, and helping those who are in need. Then, in the story of the angel who appeared to Manoah: he would not tell his name and would allow no honour to be paid to him for what he had done. So will the Christian disclaim all merit of his own, all honour to himself. And as the angels’ messages, so are ours to men to be, the announcing of the coming of Christ. So did the angel who called to Abraham on Mount Moriah, and thus enabled him to see Christ’ s day. At times, too, they bring tidings of earthly blessing, as to Abraham: and so we are to assure men that God will reward His servants who give up all for Him. But in order to bear the message of God’ s glad tidings we must have it graven lovingly in our own hearts. We must have our hearts full of it; and then it will overflow from our lips. The angels are called the chariots of God: they bear His will about to every part of the universe; and then they return to the presence of God. Again, an example for us. And they are part of a great multitude, as we should seek to have part in the Church of God. And they are soldiers of God carrying on the holy war. Let us share with them herein. (J. G. Hare.) Twenty thousand chariots I have seen in this multitude of chariots an emblem of the Divine promises. Some may judge this a fanciful comparison, but it has greatly cheered my heart, and I, therefore, feel disposed to pass it on. I. Let us, then, in the first place, see in these chariots an emblem of God’ s promises. Some one who has taken the trouble to count the promises in God’ s Word declares that there are about twenty thousand, and I suppose it was this fact that led my mind to connect the promises of God with the chariots of Jehovah. So suppose we paraphrase this sentence thus: “ The promises of God are twenty thousand, even thousands upon thousands.” We will not limit the number, for almost every verse of Scripture is in a sense a promise. The histories are promises, for what God has done God can do, and even the precepts, from some points of view, bear promises within their bosoms, for God never gives an order without providing the power with which to obey it. The prophecies and the parables are but various forms of promises. All the promises of God bear brightly marked upon them the royal arms; the Divine mark is plainly stamped on every good word of God. Seine of them have attached to them, “ Thus saith the Lord,” lest there should be any manner of doubt as to whom the equipage belongs. Oh, that we had the trust in them that Dr. Isaac Watts possessed when he said, “ I believe them enough to venture an eternity upon them.” It is related of him that when one spoke of the promises as “ plain” promises, he said, “ I rejoice in their plainness, for now that I am old I can do little but turn to God’ s Word, and look out and rest upon the plain promises of God.” The best of all is that “ the Lord is among them.” The Commander-in-chief is in the midst of His host. We stand side by side with the Promiser, when we trust His promises. Dr. Hamilton has said that “ one single promise of Christ Jesus accredited in the heart, unites the soul to God.” II. Let me volunteer some advice concerning these chariot-promises. If the promises of God are so numerous, if they are so like to chariots, how is it that you sit waiting by the roadside, wondering that you make so little progress in the heavenward way? These chariots are for you; if Christ is yours, His Word is yours, and every syllable that He has spoken speeds forth on your behalf. God’ s words are “ words upon wheels.” Mount the chariot, and you also will have free course. (T. Spurgeon.) Psalms 68:18 Thou hast ascended on high, Thou hast led captivity captive.Ascension Day This is the “ Carmen seculare” of the old Hebrew Church, answering to the “ Te Deum” of the Christian Church, and far surpassing it. In martial fervour, and in impassioned intensity of expression, the Hebrew songs excel all other compositions. This song bursts upon us at once. Every note is a nerve, every sentence is sensitive, every verse is a picture full of life, and strength, and victory. The inspired bard watches with enraptured gaze the onward march of the Most High. Mighty kings are scattered by a storm of hail, and the hill of Salmon, in the tribe of Ephraim, is white with sheets of ice. The Lord brings His own again from Bashan; His people from the depths of the sea. There comes a pause in this grand hymn of triumph, as though the singers, still gazing on God’ s glory in the clouds, were altogether test in admiration, and too happy to sing any more. And so the hymn dies away with an exclamation of astonished rapture--“ O God, wonderful art Thou in Thy holy places, even the God of Israel, who giveth strength and power unto His people; blessed be God.” The counterpart of all this is related by St. Luke. The evening sun is shining on the marble palaces of Zion. The disciples are standing on the hill of Olivet. They gaze upon the clouds beyond which their Master has disappeared, until the spirit of the old Hebrew song comes upon them, “ Thou art gone up on high; Thou hast led captivity captive.” Let us try to catch the spirit of this wondrous hymn. God, the God-Man, has gone up. We are His children. We must go up too. Wherever you are, ascension is your plain duty. Until you get thoroughly, and heartily, and altogether dissatisfied with the dead level of your life, there is no chance of your doing any good, here or hereafter. If you do not care about following Him, you are not His disciple. Nay, less than that, you are not a man at all, if you will not ascend. To get higher, to get more power, more honour, more authority, more wisdom,--to feel more, to enjoy more--all this is the legitimate instinct of your nature as a man. But there is a false ascension, a wrong way of going up. There may be an elevation of a certain part without any ascension whatever. A man may ascend in this world by meanness, selfishness, and fraud. Even in religion there is often a false ascension. The exaltation is purely imaginary. The man goes up too quickly, and with too much noise. The sham saint goes up, but the Saviour goes not with him. All this is very sad, and makes sad work altogether. The sham saint does so much harm. When you ascend, go carefully, and remember that before you can really go up you must go down. You will enjoy heaven when you get there, not before. You have to carry the cross to the crown. You cannot ascend unless you are humble, and the cross will make you humble. Are we so ascending? (Henry J. Swallow.) The ascension of Christ I. His glorious exaltation. The exaltation of our Redeemer is indeed a sufficient ground of thankfulness and praise; for it is an illustrious proof to the universe that God is reconciled; that there is forgiveness with Him and plenteous redemption for all sinners who will implore His mercy. II. His triumphant victory. He has vanquished all our enemies--sin, Satan, death. III. His mediatorial grace. He had purchased blessings for us; and He went to receive them at His Father’ s hands, that He might impart them to us. But what are these blessings so dearly bought and so freely bestowed?1. The privilege of prevailing intercession.2. The gift of universal dominion.3. The Holy Spirit. Conclusion:--1. Let our affections be where He is. 2. Let us cast away every desponding thought. 3. Let us inquire--Are the designs of His mediation, with respect to ourselves, likely to be answered? Are we maintaining continual regard to Him in all His offices, and so persevering in faith and holiness that we may say with humble confidence, “ When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall we also appear with Him in glory.” (R. Davies, M. A.) The exaltation of the Saviour I. His ascension. It would seem, then, that the two radiant messengers who appeared to the disciples, as they were gazing after their Master with ardent eyes, formed only a small part of His celestial retinue. It would seem that in His train there were thousands and myriads of the chariots or cavalry of God. And may we not presume, further, that His reception in heaven, imperfect as our ideas of it unavoidably are, would yet be such as was befitting the Divine dignity of His person and the unparalleled glory of His achievements? II. His victory and triumph. It often happens that the fruits of a victory are very imperfectly perceived at the moment; and that they are more fully manifested in the triumph which commemorates it. Now, what a triumph is to a victory, that the ascension of the Saviour was, to the victory which He achieved at His death over our spiritual foes. The one is the completion or commemoration of the other--the manifestation of its reality, and the proof of its unparalleled magnitude and importance. To the inhabitants of heaven the ascension of Jesus Christ proved conclusively His victory; for when He entered heaven He was seated at the right, hand of the Father, invested with unlimited dominion as Mediator and Saviour, “ angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto Him.” Still further, when He entered into heaven, He entered it in a public capacity, as the forerunner and representative of His people, to take possession of it in their name, and to prepare it for their accommodation. III. His reception of gifts, and the object for which He received them.1. What are the gifts here referred to? (1) Among those gifts may be mentioned first, the extraordinary or miraculous gifts of the Spirit. (2) At His ascension, the Saviour was empowered to dispense the Holy Spirit not only in His miraculous but in His sanctifying gifts and operations. These latter influences, though less splendid and striking in their nature and effects, are far more valuable than those miraculous gifts. The renewing and purifying influences of the Spirit are inseparably connected with a state of grace and acceptance, and they seal the soul to the day of redemption; for they produce that conformity to the moral image of God which prepares for heaven, and which is the sure presage of admission to it. (3) At His ascension, the Lord Jesus was empowered to dispense not only the gifts and influences of the Spirit, but all the blessings of salvation. “ Him hath God exalted with His right hand, to be a Prince and a Saviour,” etc. 2. How did He obtain these gifts? (1) As a donation from the Father. (2) As a reward due to His previous labours and sufferings. (3) While this arrangement is most wise and equitable in reference to Him, it is fraught with infinite kindness to us. To whom can we go for whatever we need with such freedom as to Him? And if there be any friend on whose kindness we may calculate with confidence, it must surely be that Friend who died for us on the accursed tree. 3. For whom He received those gifts. It is a custom which has prevailed among almost all nations, that princes when ascending their thrones, and conquerors when celebrating their victories, have sent presents to their friends, and distributed largesses among the multitude. But how poor and worthless are the presents and largesses bestowed by earthly princes and conquerors,--such as gold and silver, and costly apparel, and other spoils taken in war,--compared with the gifts conferred by the Captain of our salvation, when He celebrated His victory, and ascended to His resplendent throne at the right hand of the Majesty on high. 4. What the object is for which the Saviour received gifts for men. “ That God the Lord might dwell among them.” (1) What is implied in God’ s dwelling among men? Dwelling among them as their God and father and friend, maintaining a gracious and hallowed intercourse with them, by imparting to them the influences of His Spirit, honouring them with the tokens of His love, and accepting of the worship and obedience which they render Him. (2) How did the communication of the gifts committed to the Saviour contribute to the production of the intended result, that is, to God’ s dwelling among men? The miraculous gifts conferred on the apostles not only enabled them to proclaim the tidings of reconciliation to heathen tribes and nations, but served farther to attest the Divine authority of their message, and to recommend it to the consideration and belief of those to whom it was proclaimed. The other influences of the Spirit, accompanying the Word, were still more effective: for they aroused the stupid and the ignorant as well as the learned and refined, dispelled their prejudices, opened their understandings, and prevailed on them to admit the truth into their hearts, and to submit their stubborn wills to its humbling proposals and its holy requirements. (R. Balmer, D. D.) Our Lord’ s triumphant ascension I. Our Lord’ s triumph was set forth by His ascension. Dwell on the fact that He, the Son of David, who for our sakes came down on earth and lay in the manger, and hung upon a woman’ s breast, has gone up on high, into the glory infinite. He that trod the weary ways of Palestine now reigns as a King in His palace. He that sighed, and hungered, and wept, and bled, and died, is now above all heavens. He that was earth’ s scorn is now heaven’ s wonder. II. Our Lord’ s triumphal ascent demonstrated the defeat of all our foes. Easily may the sheep follow where the Shepherd breaks the way. We have but to follow those heavenly feet, which once were pierced, and none of our steps shall slide. Move on, O soldiers of Jesus, for your Captain cries, “ Follow me!” III. Our Lord’ s triumphant ascension was celebrated by gifts.1. What are these great ascension gifts? I answer that the sum of them is the Holy Spirit. I invite your adoring attention to the sacred Trinity herein manifested to us. “ Thou hast ascended on high:” there is Christ Jesus. “ Thou hast received gifts for men:” there is the Father, bestowing those gifts. The gift itself is the Holy Spirit. This is the great largess of Christ’ s ascension, which He bestowed on His Church at Pentecost. Thus you have Father, Son, and Holy Spirit blessedly co-working for the benediction of men, the conquest of evil, the establishment of righteousness. O my soul, delight thyself in Father, Son, add Holy Spirit. 2. But observe, according to Paul, these gifts which our Lord gave are embodied in men; for the Holy Spirit comes upon men whom He has chosen, and works through them according to His good pleasure. Hence he gave some, apostles, some, evangelists, and some, pastors and teachers. No one may be judged to be given of God to the Church in any of these offices unless as the Spirit dwells upon him. IV. Our Lord’ s triumph has a very special bearing for the unconverted. “ Thou hast received gifts for men,” not for angels, not for devils, but for men--poor fallen men. Does the text particularly mention “ saints,” or those that have not defiled their garments? No, I do not read of them here. What a strange sovereignty there is about the grace of God! Truly He will have mercy on whom He will have mercy; for in this instance He selects for special mention those that you and I would have passed over without a word. “ Yea, for the rebellious also.” V. Our Lord’ s triumphant ascension secures the consummation of His whole work. “ That the Lord God might dwell among them.” When our Lord Christ came here at the first He was willing enough to “ dwell” among us; but it could not be. “ The Word was made flesh and tabernacled among us,” like a Bedouin in his tent, but not as a dweller at he, me. He could not “ dwell” here on that occasion. He was but a visitor, and badly treated at that. After He had risen again, He went home, that from this throne He might direct a work by which earth should become s place where God could abide. Again is the temple of God to be with men, and He shall dwell among them. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Thou hast received gifts for men. Gifts received and gifts ministered If giving was the one work of the earthly life of Christ, so is it also of the heavenly. Reflect upon the vastness of the work which our Saviour is now carrying on in heaven. Well might He say, “ My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.” If we believe the word in the Bible, we must feel that what Christ does in any one believing soul would be enough to occupy all the care, as it would far indeed exceed the capacity, of the wisest and the best of men. The cleansing of one heart, the keeping of one life, the adaptation of a Providence, as minute as it is powerful, to the good of one soul, must be a work of thought, of exertion, of time, of patience, far beyond the reach of our very imagination to conceive. But multiply this work by a thousand times ten thousand, spread it through the length and breadth of the earth, protract it through a thousand generations, vary it by the infinite modifications of care and of circumstance, of disposition, race and age,--reflect on all this, and you will understand as never before how the ascended Christ gave gifts unto men. (Dean Vaughan.) New Testament donations I. The Holy Spirit.1. Before Christ’ s victory and exaltation the influences of the Spirit had been confined, for the most part, to the seed of Abraham; but now He is to he a “ free Spirit” in relation to the whole world. 2. Before Christ’ s ascension the influences of grace were given in mere drops; but now in New Testament times God “ pours out His Spirit “ in streams and floods. Now that Jesus has really purchased the Spirit, His influences are given copiously and abundantly, as they never were before. 3. Before Christ’ s ascension the truth which the Spirit found available as the basis of His operations was comparatively scanty, and only dimly apprehended, even by good men; but now the Spirit has all the testimony of the historical Christ to work with. Now, His definite work is to “ glorify Christ,” and represent Him in the world and in the Church. II. A finished redemption. The Gospel of salvation is a finished thing. Its Architect has seen it realized in the complete and glorious pile of the palace of saving truth. “ Wisdom hath builded her house;” she hath also “ furnished her table.” And the magnificent structure and the rich provision is a “ gift for men.” III. A completed Bible. That man surely wants the seeing eye who looks upon the Bible as a “ thing of shreds and patches” --a mixture of fact and legend--an amalgam of truth and myth. He who is taught by the Spirit recognizes it on its Divine side and in its Divine plan to be the most strictly scientific of all books; and he knows that it is strong enough to bear the shock of criticism on its human side. The Lord Jesus has given us the Bible. His work on earth is the nucleus round which all the books of Scripture crystallize; and He had no sooner “ ascended on high” than He caused the canon to be completed, and gave the Hebrew Scriptures and the Christian Scriptures to all the ends of the earth--a “ gift for men.” IV. The gospel ministry. The Apostolate was a “ gift for men.” New Testament prophecy was a “ gift for men.” The missionary commission is a “ gift for men.” The pastorate is a “ gift for men.” The ordinance of discipline is a “ gift for men.” V. All the Christian graces (Ephesians 4:7). In conclusion, let us ask ourselves, What do we think of these “ gifts” ? Do we admire them? Have we made up our minds that they are “ the best gifts,” and do we “ covet” them “ earnestly” ? Do we recognize that it is a nail-pierced hand from which they come? Are we holding out our empty hands to receive them? (C. Jordan, M. A.) Psalms 68:19-28 Blessed be the Lord, who daily loadeth us with benefits, even the God of our salvation.God as the Deliverer of His people I. A liberal dispenser of daily blessings (Psalms 68:19). “ Daily beareth our burden” (R.V.). Amongst the many ways in which He helps men to bear their burdens is by kindling within them and keeping burning the lamp of hope. The soul-vessel that is most heavily freighted, and most severely tossed by the tempest is buoyed up by hope. “ Day by day.” When the day comes that God ceases to impart His strength, the man falls under his weight, and is crushed. II. As the exclusive possessor of means for escaping death (Psalms 68:20).1. God alone has ways by which physical death can be escaped. Enoch; Elijah. 2. God alone has ways by which spiritual death can be escaped. Spiritual death is a thousand times the worst death, it is not the extinction of existence, but the extinction of all that makes existence worth having, and renders it an intolerable curse. III. As the effectual subduer of persistent enemies (Psalms 68:21). He could annihilate His universe by a volition. But the destruction of their enmity is a far more glorious work--a work that requires more time, and that, through Christ, He is prosecuting every day amongst men. Here He literally strikes at “ the head of His enemies,” the spirit of antagonism to Himself. The ruling spirit of a man is the head of his being. It is at this that God strikes in the Gospel. Of the seed of the woman--viz. Christ--it was said, “ He shall bruise thy head.” Christianity aims at the head of the evil, which is the governing disposition. IV. As the willing repeater of needed interpositions (Psalms 68:22; Psalms 68:28). Truly, it is an encouraging thought that the great things that God has done for His people He is willing to do again, should they require it. He will take them through seas of trial and sorrow that threaten to swallow them up, put to flight the armies of their enemies, and make the land red with their blood. (Homilist.) The burden-bearing God The great objection to the rendering which has become familiar to us all, “ Who daily loadeth us with benefits,” is that these essential words are not in the original, and need to be supplied in order to make out the sense. Whereas, on the other hand, if we adopt the suggested emendation, “ Who daily beareth our burdens,” we get a still more beautiful meaning, which requires no force or addition in order to bring it out. I. The remarkable and eloquent blending of majesty and condescension. What a thought that is--a God that carries men’ s loads! People talk much rubbish about the “ stern Old Testament Deity” : is there anything sweeter, greater, more heart-compelling and heart-softening, than such a thought as this? How all the majesty bows itself and declares itself to be enlisted on our side when we think that “ He that sitteth on the circle of the heavens, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers,” is the God that “ daily beareth our burdens” ! II. The deep insight into the heart and ways of God here. “ He daily beareth our burdens.” If there is any meaning in this word at all, it means that He so knits Himself with us as that all which touches us touches Him, that He takes a share in all our pressing duties, and feels the reflection from all our sorrows and pains. We have no impassive God in the heavens, careless of mankind, nor is His settled and changeless and unshaded blessedness of such a sort as that there cannot pass across it--if I may not say a shadow, I may at least say--a ripple from men’ s pangs and troubles and cares. God, in all our afflictions, is afflicted; and, in simple though profound verity, has that which is most truly represented to men, by calling it a fellow feeling with our infirmities and our sorrows. III. The remarkable anticipation of the very heart of the Gospel. Ah! it were of small avail to know a God that bore the burden of our sorrows and the load of our duties, if we did not know a God who bore the weight of our sins. For that is the real crushing weight that breaks men’ s hearts and bows them to the earth. So the New Testament, with its message of a Christ on whom is laid the whole pressure of the world’ s sin, is the deepest fulfilment of the great words of my text. IV. What we should therefore do with our burdens. First, we should cast them on God, and let Him carry them. He cannot unless we do. One sometimes sees a petulant and self-confident little child staggering along with some heavy burden by the parent’ s side, but pushing away the hand that is put out to help it to carry its load. And that is what too many of us do when God says to us, “ Here, My child, let Me help you, I will take the heavy end of it, and do you take the light one.” And, last of all, let us see to it that we render Him praise. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) The God of our salvation daily loadeth us with benefits I. What God is: “ The God of our salvation.” Man is a sinner, and sin exposes him to danger; for “ the wages of sin is death,” and “ the soul that sinneth it shall die.” But there is deliverance from this danger; this is attributed to God.1. The scheme of salvation originated in God (John 3:17). 2. The means of salvation are afforded us by God. God sends us His Gospel, containing good news of salvation; His ministers to declare the way of salvation; He affords us Christian sabbaths, religious ordinances, and various means of grace, in order to promote our salvation. 3. The work of salvation is accomplished in the human soul by God’ s immediate agency. 4. The sole glory of our final salvation will endlessly redound to God. In heaven we shall have clearer discoveries of the greatness, extent, and freeness of our salvation (Revelation 7:10). II. What God does for us: He “ daily loadeth us with benefits.”1. The nature of God’ s gift. “ Benefits,” not deserts. 2. Their number. “ Loadeth.” 3. The frequency of their communication. “ Daily.” And these benefits flow to us freely, unsolicited, unimplored, unsought. Seasonably, exactly as we need them. Critics state that it should be read “ who bears our burdens, or supports us, every day.” In the wilderness God bare Israel as a man doth bear his son (Deuteronomy 1:31). Or as an eagle bears her young on her wings (Deuteronomy 32:11). The promise is (Isaiah 46:4). We have our cares, and burdens, and anxieties, but God invites us to cast them upon Him (Psalms 55:22). III. What we should do in return. “ Blessed be the Lord.” To bless signifies to extol, exalt, or speak well of a person; and to bless the Lord is to speak good of His name.1. We should bless the Lord sincerely. Hypocrisy is hateful to God. 2. We should bless the Lord affectionately. Our gratitude should be the effusion of love. 3. We should bless the Lord constantly. “ I will bless the Lord at all times.” 4. We should bless the Lord practically. To say, “ We praise Thee, O God, we acknowledge Thee to be the’ Lord,” while we practically violate His laws, must be abominable in His sight. Let us “ praise Him not only with our lips but by our lives,” etc. (Sketches of Four Hundred Sermons.) Unto God the Lord belong the issues from death. The royal prerogative Whatever may be said of the Old Testament dispensation, one thing is clear; in it the Lord God of Israel is ever most conspicuous. God is in all and over all. Here in our text, universal action and power over us are ascribed to the Lord--the mercies of life and the issues of death. I. The sovereign prerogative of God. “ Unto God . . . the issues of death.” Kings have been wont to keep the power of life and death in their own hands. The great King of kings does so. “ He can create and He destroy.” This prerogative of life and death is His in a wide sense. It is true of our natural life, and of our spiritual. For we are under the condemnation of the law. But God determines whether the sentence shall be carried out. And in those “ deaths oft” with which Christian experience is familiar, those dyings down of the heart and spirit which are the result of our old nature which still cleaveth to the dust, God’ s Spirit can revive us again. And when we come actually to die, not to death but to God shall the issue belong. “ I am the Resurrection and the Life,” saith the Lord: “ He that liveth and believeth in Me shall never die.” And the resurrection day will make His words good.2. He has the right to exercise this prerogative. 3. And He has exercised this prerogative in abundant instances. 4. Then let Him have all the glory of it. II. The character of the sovereign in whom it is vested. “ He that is our God is the God of salvation.” This name means--1. That salvation is the most glorious of all His designs. 2. That His most delightful works have been works of salvation. 3. That we live at this moment under the dispensation of mercy. The sword is sheathed, the scales of justice put by. 4. That to those who can call Him “ our God” He is especially and emphatically the God of salvation. We owe it all to Him. ‘ Twas He passed by and bid us “ live.” III. The solemn warning of the Sovereign Lord. A new God has lately been set up, all leniency, gentleness, mildness and indifference in the matter of sin. This God is made of honey or sugar of lead. Justice is not in him, nor the punishment of sin. But it is not so. Our text tells the awful truth to wicked men. God can smite, and ere long He will. The proud may vaunt themselves of their beauty and glory in their strength; their heavy scalp, like that of Absalom, may be their boast, but, as in his case, it may be their ruin. No man is out of the reach of God, and no nation either. Turn ye then, ye that know not God. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Psalms 68:21 But God shall wound the head of His enemies, and the hairy scalp of such an one as goeth on still in his trespasses.God’ s threatenings against incorrigible sinners I. The persons threatened.1. In general, God’ s enemies; in particular, those who go on still in their trespasses (Leviticus 26:18; Deuteronomy 29:19-20; Proverbs 29:1). In these and other passages of Scripture, God threatens the pertinacious sinner. 2. There is very good ground for it, which may appear in these following considerations. (1) Because he multiplies sin. (2) Because he aggravates it.(3) Because he confirms it. He makes his sins more numerous. He makes his sins more heinous. He makes his sins more settled, and hardened and difficult to be removed; therefore draws on the punishment of them. II. The evil threatened. “ Wound.”1. A mollified expression. Not kill, but “ wound.” Counts it enough for Him to lay His enemies flat. He does not so much care to insult, and to triumph over them, or to do the worst that He can against them. 2. As it is a mollified expression, so it is a peremptory. He shall or will do it, does it not yet it may be, but yet means to do it hereafter, if He be not the better prevented, that He would have understood. III. The part wherein they are threatened. “ The head.”1. This is not exclusive but specificative; it is not the head so, as if nowhere else besides but the head as therein especially. As for obstinate sinners, they have many wounds inflicted upon them in other respects. (1) In their good names they have a wound oftentimes in them (Proverbs 6:33).(2) In estate.(3) In conscience. 2. But it is especially in the head. (1) In their intellectuals, takes away their brains from them.(2) In their vitals, takes away their life from them.(3) In their principalities, and eminencies, takes away their glory from them. 3. And we cannot wonder at it, if we do but consider how they use their heads oftentimes against Himself; which they do by a double practice. (1) In the contriving of sin.(2) In the defending of it. Wicked men use their heads against God to each of these purposes, and therefore does He wound them in them. 4. There are two principles which do engage Him, and move Him hereunto. (1) His own glory.(2) His Church’ s good. 5. If we shall ask when He will do it, because He does it not always, nor presently--I answer in these two cases. (1) When the sins of the enemies are thoroughly ripened.(2) When the hearts of the Christians are thoroughly humbled. In these two conditions does God wound the head of His enemies, and not before. 6. But how shall we be kept and preserved from it? what helps are there against persistency in sin? (1) Mortify the principle of corruption in us. The way to be kept from the acts of sin, is to have the habit of it subdued in us. There must be the killing of this viper in the egg, a slaying it in the root; till this be done there is no security at all for us.(2) Stop the beginnings, as we desire not to go on in trespasses, let us not at first venture upon them, for it is like the letting out of waters, as Solomon speaks of strife, which a man knows not where it will end.(3) Have daily, and continual, and fresh, and actual apprehensions in us of the filthiness and dangerousness of it. (T. Horton, D. D.) Psalms 68:24-27 They have seen Thy goings, O God; even the goings of my God, my King, in the sanctuary.The progress of Divine truth in the world I. Some men merely witness the progress of Divine truth (Psalms 68:24). What a large class of men there is in Christendom who act thus in relation to the progress of Christianity! They see new churches erected and new adherents gained all around them. They read of the multiplication of copies of Holy Scripture, and the increase of the triumphs of missionaries in heathen lands. They see its literature extending. But in all this they feel no vital interest. Whilst many of these care for “ none of these things,” some ridicule and others denounce. They laugh at what they consider fanaticism; they thunder at that which they believe is imposture. “ They have seen Thy goings, O God,” etc. Yes, they have “ seen,” and that is all. II. Good men are always exultant in the progress of Divine truth (Psalms 68:25-26). Why should we rejoice in the progress of Divine truth?1. Because, as Divine truth advances, all the evils that curse humanity will disappear. 2. Because, as Divine truth advances, all the virtues that bless humanity will multiply and grow. He is no true philanthropist who exults not in the progress of Christianity. III. All men should be interested in the progress of Divine truth (Psalms 68:27). Here are different tribes brought together from opposite parts of the country, thus to express their common interest in the services of the day. All men should be interested in the cause of Divine truth. Why?1. Because all men have a common relation to its Author. He is the Father of them all. 2. Because all men have a common need of its blessings. It offers liberty to the captive--and all are captives; knowledge to the ignorant--and all are ignorant; pardon to the guilty--and all are guilty; life to the dying--and all are dying; heaven to the lost--and all are lost. (Homilist.) The royal procession This verse may be read thus: “ They have seen thy marches in procession, O God; even the marches of my God, my King, in the sanctuary.” We have brought before us the jubilant songs of praise arising from the royal procession of Jehovah before the assembled hosts of Israel. Now, there has been a royal procession in London this week, and it has suggested this subject. For to-day there is an assembled host of people crowding our sanctuaries: their main desire is to see their King. I. The people viewing the procession. The vast majority came to see our Queen herself. And their motives were various. 1. Many of them had never seen her before. And in our sanctuaries there are many who as yet have never seen their King, and they greatly desire to. 2. Others long ago had seen the Queen, but wanted to see her again: so with us and our King. 3. Others went simply to see the pageant; as much to be seen as to see. And how many come to our sanctuaries out of mere curiosity! 4. And all grades of society were represented there. 5. Some obtained much better views than others. So is it with those in our sanctuaries. Care and distractions of all kinds hinder many souls. II. The procession itself.1. It passed along an appointed way. It is all marked out. Through the sanctuary a main part of its route lies. But in the abodes of sickness, sorrow, death, Christ often comes. III. The purpose of the procession. It was to open a new thoroughfare. And so our King has come to open a new road to heaven. The old road by Innocency has been blocked ever since the fall of Adam. And the road of Jewish ceremonies, and the law, is no longer available. But Christ has opened a new and living way. (A. G. Brown.) Psalms 68:26-28 Bless ye God in the congregations, oven the Lord, from the fountain of Israel, etc.Public worship I. Expound the passage.1. Israel had ordinary congregations every Sabbath and national ones three times a year, and their business was to “ bless God.”2. All Israel was to unite in this.3. All the tribes are supposed to be present.4. Those tribes which are named had each some speciality belonging to it.5. Princes and people were together, etc. II. Apply the subject. Two things are here exemplified--diligence and brotherly union. Three things are recommended--united praise, acknowledgment of mercies, and prayer. (Andrew Fuller.) Psalms 68:28-35 Thy God hath commanded thy strength: strengthen, O God, that which Thou hast wrought for us.The moral force of God I. Subjugating men.1. Commanding kings (Psalms 68:29). 2. Subjugating enemies (Psalms 68:30). What wonderful changes in man God’ s moral force in Christ has wrought! Witness the changes in the Corinthians. “ Such were some of you,” etc. What were our forefathers but beasts? The changes in the South Sea Islanders, etc. Those changes will become universal one day (Isaiah 11:6). II. Attracting heathens (Psalms 68:31). God’ s moral force is magnetic. It is in the transcendent excellence of His character. When men come to see Him as He is in Christ, they shall “ stretch out” their “ hands” to Him. Such a God they want, a God whose character more than realizes their highest ideal, in whom they can centre their love and repose their utmost confidence. III. Commanding universal worship.1. His moral majesty is to be recognized (Psalms 68:33). The real heart of humanity can bow to nothing else. 2. His moral strength is to be recognized (Psalms 68:34), Why is not God’ s moral strength more universally felt? His physical might is felt everywhere; but not His moral, and why? Because it is moral. Because it has to do with mind, which is free, irresponsible, and which is endowed with the faculty to resist, if it wills, all outward appeals. Oh that minds everywhere would open themselves to the influence of God’ s character as revealed in Christi This is its “ power unto salvation.” (Homilist.) The strength of a saint I. What is the strength of a saint?1. It is that of a regenerated man. Not that of the body, for that is far inferior to what is found in many brutes. But “ there is a spirit in man,” etc. (Job 32:8). 2. It consists in his likeness to God, in his being first made and then renewed in the image of God. II. God has commanded this strength.1. By what He is and by what He reveals Himself to be. 2. By the relation which God has established between every man and Himself (Job 9:19). We are all His offspring. 3. By a law of loyalty which He has written in the heart. 4. By verbal law, given in the Scriptures. 5. By the claims of the new kingdom of His grace (2 Corinthians 5:19; 1 Corinthians 6:19-20). III. Let us consecrate it to Him. Say not that you have no strength. Christ gives that which is asked. It is treason to withhold it. A full blessing will attend the consecration. There is no valid excuse for refusing it. Then yield it in the worship you render and in all your service. (S. Martin, D. D.) Some marks of God’ s people Many are seeking the Lord. We are glad, but let them make sure work of it. Now, our text describes the people of God, and thus we may discover whether we are of that number. I. The Lord is their God. “ Thy God” --so we read. They have got a God: they are not atheists. And they believe in God. Now, do we believe in Him and trust in Him? How does He become my God? I trust Him and receive pardon at His hands and He tells me of it, and then my love goes out to Him in return. The true child of God loves God. And we get to be as conscious of His presence as of the air we breathe: we hold converse with Him and we feel within our spirit that He is listening to us. II. All their strength is at God’ s disposal.1. They heartily obey His commands,2. They pray to Him fervently.3. They praise Him energetically.4. They labour for Him earnestly.5. They live wholly to Him. III. They ascribe to Him all that is good in them, and in their fellow-men. It is all of grace, from the first even to the last; and they are the true people of God who feel and know this. IV. They pray to Him for their stability: “ Strengthen, O God, that which Thou hast wrought for us.” Never trust in yourselves, even though your strength seems more than adequate for the occasion. When you are full of knowledge, and full of wisdom, and full of grace, yet still be nothing, and let the Lord your God be your All-in-all. “ Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto Thy name give glory, for Thy mercy, and for Thy truth’ s sake.” Let us begin to learn that song now, and let us sing it in life, and in death, and for ever, for our Lord Jesus Christ’ s sake. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The strength of life God has His own wise and good purposes, which will never vary in themselves; but the fulfilment of these purposes in our behalf is conditional. That is to say, our own desire and will must meet God’ s will, if we are to be truly blessed. For example, generally speaking, God wills our health; but only as we ourselves obey the laws of health shall we be healthy. Again, God would have us undertake successful work; but the success is conditional on our diligence. So, too, while God desires that we should conquer temptation, and that our nature should be regenerate and pure, on our part there must be the earnest resistance of sin, and an intense, a ceaseless craving for the righteousness of God. I. Strength--this word has had very various meanings; indeed, we might almost say that the different ideals of strength that have been cherished among the nations have determined the complexion of the world’ s history.1. Sheer, naked force has been with some the familiar and favourite type of strength. The tremendous energy of tempest, earthquake, and fire has impressed men’ s minds with awe. 2. Later in the world’ s history, a higher type of strength was developed, and chiefly, at first, among the Greeks, who, with their handful of disciplined troops, could put to rout the myriads of the vast horde of Xerxes. For they had learned that it is net sheer force that of itself accomplishes the greatest things, but rather force adapted and adjusted, with nice exactitude, to the required result. Thus discipline and strategy, to say nothing of courage, counted for far more than numbers; and as in war, so in ether things, mere force was not of so much account as means and methods which made for the wise direction, and therefore for the economy, of force. 3. Meanwhile the very highest type of strength was preparing in the world (Proverbs 24:5; Ecclesiastes 9:16; Ecclesiastes 9:18; Psalms 37:31; Psalms 81:13-14). The strength is the strength of righteousness, and the righteousness is the righteousness of God. In the Gospel of Christ we have this Old Testament teaching fulfilled and perfected. To be holy is to be truly strong; and this strength is to be, not for our own sakes alone, but for others--we are to be strong to serve, and save, and bless. And a new inspiration is now in the world for the effectuation of the true strength of life (1 Corinthians 1:22-24). II. Our strength is commanded. This may be understood twofoldly.1. It means, in part, that the invincible power of God’ s will is on our side. In His ordainment of things, our victory is prepared. All the arrangements of His providence, and all the richer ministrations of His grace, are to be contributory to this results--that we shall conquer. If we remember this when the world is adverse, and when our own heart is weak; if we think of it when the forces of evil gather round our soul: that it is God’ s irrefragable will that we shall conquer--oh, what mighty enthusiasm will be born of this very assurance, and how impotent will seem every opposition that sets itself against the purpose of the Most High! (1 John 5:4). 2. The words are also a stimulus to our endeavour and devotion. God commands that all things shall subserve our strength, and contribute to our victory, if we are faithful; but He likewise commands our fidelity itself, anti the putting forth of our utmost effort, without which, indeed, His purpose in our behalf cannot be fulfilled. Some fourteen years ago our colony of Natal was threatened with great disaster. The Zulus had surprised and cut to pieces one of our regiments at Isandula, and, flushed with their victory, were about to pour into Natal, to devastate and destroy; when a handful of English soldiers, hastily fortifying themselves in their position at Rorke’ s Drift, set themselves to withstand the whole horde of savage, eager warriors. It was indeed a forlorn hope; but they felt that it was as though the eyes of all the world were upon them, watching whether they would do their duty, and be strong. If over men were “ commanded” to be strong, by all the most sacred claims of country, kindred, and home, it was then; and right nobly did they respond to the call. And, while “ all the world wondered,” these few dozens of men beat back at last the invading host. So it is with us, in our seasons of sore temptation; for-- Isaiah 59:19. And in like manner, when we are discouraged by the overwhelming difficulties of our work, asking in our dismay, “ Who is sufficient for these things?” then it is that this same “ command “ of God stirs the soul like the sound of a trumpet. (T. F. Lockyer, B. A.) Psalms 68:30 Scatter Thou the people that delight in war.A prayer for peace God sometimes does that in which He has no delight. “ Surely Thou wilt slay the wicked, O God.” But God saith, “ As I live, I have no pleasure in . . . wicked.” And yet He slays them. God can look at your state of ruin, and say, as the God of truth, “ I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth.” Now, we may not delight in that in which God does not delight. God has sanctioned and ordained war. The Bible is full of proof of this. But that does not justify war on our part, unless He commands it, as at times He does. He does not delight in it. This is clear from the miseries which follow from it, and from the promise that in the Kingdom of God war shall be no more. Still, now and here He uses it; but that does not involve our right, whenever we think we have just cause, to declare war. God uses pestilence. Shall man therefore breed and propagate it? Some engage in war who do not delight in it, whilst some who delight in it take care to keep aloof from the field of battle. Men who think war to be right under special circumstances are far from delighting in it. David was one such, for he prays, “ Scatter them . . . delight in war.” Who are the characters delighting in war?1. Quarrelsome men, fond of the strife and conflict of war, and of the excitement which that strife and conflict brings. 2. Restless men, weary, strange to say, of the very quietness and repose of peace. 3. Officious men, delighting to meddle with strife belonging not to them, and ready to forward their opinions by war. 4. Ambitious men, who see a path to honour and to fame--a path to their own honour and fame, or to the honour and reputation of some of their kindred--by means of war. 5. Covetous men, who hope to get gain by war. 6. Mistaken patriots, who aim at the extension of empire and increase of national honour by war. 7. Cruel men, who, setting no value upon life, delight to shed blood in war. 8. Envious men, who aim to desolate every land fairer than their own by the ravages of war. 9. Proud and revengeful men, ever ready to take offence, and who see no means of settling differences except by war. 10. Thoughtless men, infected by sympathy with the delight of others in war. 11. All who do not look upon mankind as the children of one Father in heaven, and adopt the law of love as their rule. Intelligence and benevolence (religious intelligence and Christian benevolence--light from the God who is light, and love from the God who is love) will check delight in war; and godliness and Christianity, when perfected and consummated in the human heart, in our homes, and in the high places of authority in the country, most inevitably root up all pleasure in war. Nations cannot make war except by a combination of men. In a despotic govern-meat, if one ruler delight in war, this suffices to produce it; but where the power is distributed combination is necessary. And our text is a prayer against those who delight in war. It amounts to a petition against all war, that it may cease for ever. Many are the reasons why we should deprecate it. In order to produce a thorough soldier you must, to a considerable extent, blunt and destroy the ordinary susceptibilities of human nature. Now, just look for a moment at this--just think of taking away from a man that which makes the man nearest to God, and most like God. Then look at the actual struggle--how horrible! and reflect upon all that is involved in it. For those in whose land the war rages: what untold misery is theirs. Think of the arrest of all that is useful and benevolent and religious in a country, and remember that in every case of war bitter animosity remains, and is transmitted hereafter to future generations. Observe further, that the issues of war, if they decide the might, can never, taken alone, determine the right. So that there is no lawful ground upon which we can delight in war; but on every ground we are bound, as Christians, to pray, “ Scatter Thou the people that have pleasure in war.” Of course we know that sceptics deride the so-called power of prayer--let none of us be of their number. Struggle against the contagion of contempt for what is religious: it is easily caught, and may lie dormant within you, to show itself only when you really need to pray. But why should we pray this prayer? I. Because God alone can prevent war. Men used to say that civilization would bring peace. But it has not done so. It is one of our false gods which our true God casts down by showing us how powerless it is to prevent this great evil of war. Nor will international intercourse prevent it. Only the love of God and of one another. Now, God represents Himself as able to do this. “ He disappointeth the devices of the crafty, so that their hands cannot perform their enterprises.” “ He taketh the wise in their own craftiness, and the counsel of the froward is carried headlong.” And there are many more such words. Guided by these testimonies, oh, pray this prayer, day by day, without ceasing, until peace be restored, and peace reign over the wide earth. Cry to the Lord God of Hosts, “ Scatter Thou the people that delight in war.” But is there nothing else to be done--to be done, I mean, with this object? Submit yourselves to the Prince of Peace, for the ejection of the war spirit from the heart. And seek to love all men for the sake of God and our Saviour. (Samuel Martin.) War to be deprecated 1. Because it has a tendency to corrupt the dispositions and morals of a people. 2. Because it oppresses a people, and renders them more unable to bear the burdens which they are obliged to sustain. 3. Because it occasions great grief and lamentation to a people. 4. Because it spreads ruin and destruction wherever it is. 5. Because it disturbs and interrupts the worship of God. 6. Because it is diametrically opposed to the mild genius of our holy religion. (John Ralston, M. A.) Psalms 68:31 Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hands unto God.Ethiopia’ s appeal Ethiopia is a woman who, after the manner of the poets, represents the whole race of the Ethiopians, just as Britannia, in our songs, represents all the Britons. By Ethiopia the Jews usually meant the country next to Egypt, Ethiopia proper, the cradle of the African race. Even to this day the Africans bury their dead with their faces towards the north-east, their first home. Fix now your pitying eye upon Ethiopia. She is-- I. Helpless. Hands outstretched are signals of distress, which the weak always use. The other year hundreds were burnt or suffocated in a church at Santiago, and all the dead were found standing with hands outstretched. The veil has just been lifted from the Dark Continent, and lo! there stands before us a woman with the slave-stick around her neck. And like a child in fear, like a weakling imploring help, her hands are heavenwards. Let Livingstone and other African travellers tell the horrors of the slave trade. Africa is dark indeed, and as such is full of the habitations of cruelty. It has been for two thousand years the slave-hunting ground of the world. And white men have had a great share in it. Bleeding Ethiopia, helpless before the cruelty of man, feels equally helpless in presence of the unseen. Through fear they are all their lifetime subject to bondage. To their fear of wild beasts and wilder men is added their great fear of evil spirits. For the Africans are religious in their own poor way; but their whole religion is a weary effort to ward off the spirits of the departed, who, as they think, are full of vengeance, and able to haunt and destroy them. They believe the air to be filled with millions of spirits, all cruel and bent on mischief. Hence they give themselves up to devil-worship. Then their idols are fearful to look upon, and their religion is only a religion of fear. How touching to read of their longings, their lonely helplessness, “ their dread of the strange land beyond the dark mountains.” The boldest hunter when dying will cry for his mother, though she has been dead for many years. He knows no one else who would be minded to help him in the dark valley. One who knew them well says, “ There is nothing more heartrending than their death-wails. When they turn their eyes to the future world, they have a view cheerless enough of their own utter helplessness and hopelessness.” Their thoughts often wander through the future. “ Do people die with you?” two young cannibals asked Livingstone. “ Have you no charm against death?” He spoke to them of the Great Father who hears the cry of His children: and they thought this to be natural. But-- II. Ethiopia is seeking help. The salt mines in Austria lately illustrated this subject to me. The abundance of salt God has stored there is beyond belief. The miners dig a narrow drain into the rock and let in fresh water. The water sucks the salt out of the rock, which then falls in, and soon the whole rock is melted down. Commerce and exploration are digging their channels through the rocky barriers of heathendom, and letting in civilized ideas, which are quietly penetrating and melting down every heathen system, and creating a vacancy which we should fill with the blessed Gospel. We talk of an open door among the heathen; in many places it is all door together. Even heathens are advertising for a better religion than their own. Hardly one educated young Indian has now any heart-faith in Hinduism. Mrs. Brassey advises all who wish to see Japan to go at once, else they will never see it, ms European customs are spreading everywhere. III. Ethiopia is hopeful. Our text prophesies that she shall soon stretch out her hands unto God, soon after the Gospel is brought to her, in the morning of the day of her opportunity. No spiritual sluggard, she shall early and eagerly make her hands run unto God, as the word means. Her hands, turned from idols, shall be opened to receive God’ s gifts, or, as some believe, shall be filled with offerings of homage and service. “ When he came here there were no Christians; when he went away there were no heathen” --these words describe the life-work of a missionary who was only twenty-four years on the island of Ancityum. Some say our text means that Ethiopia’ s hands will be filled with splendid offerings of gratitude to God. We may expect this. Robert Moffat, famishing and wearied, was once ordered not to enter a heathen village. Under shadow of night a woman brought him a bundle of wood, a bowl of milk, and a leg of mutton, kindled a fire and cooked the meat in silence. As he pressed her to tell the reason of her kindness, the tears stole down her sable cheek as she said, “ I love Him whose servant you are, and surely it is my duty to give you a cup of cold water in His name. My heart is full, and therefore I cannot speak the joy I feel to see you in this out-of-the-way place.” All was explained by a New Testament which she drew from her bosom, and showed to the delighted missionary. Let your heart go out to Ethiopia, and let your helping hands meet her outstretched hands. Cherish a generous grief over Ethiopia’ s woes, and believe that God calls you to help the weak He has taught you to pity. Have a full faith in the promise, apparently never so near fulfilment as now, “ Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hands unto God.” (James Wells, M. A.) The heathen brought to the saving knowledge of God I. The present mournful condition of the heathen world without God.1. Enveloped in gross darkness. 2. Groping in vain and painfully to find happiness. 3. In a state of rebellion against God. 4. Hopeless and helpless in their state of darkness. II. The glorious prospect which these words hold out of their conversion to God.1. The Word of God shall yet be sent, and the Gospel shall be preached unto them. 2. The power of the Holy Spirit accompanying the Word will render it effectual for their salvation. 3. The ultimate success of the Gospel among the heathen is most certain. 4. The present time affords great encouragement to earnest, energetic and prayerful efforts for the salvation of the heathen. (John Ritchie.) The missionary call 1. We appeal to you to scorn any man who is fattening upon the vices of weaker nations. Scorn any man who is amassing wealth, by importing guns and ammunition, or fire-water, into these poor, degraded nations of the world. 2. We ask you to consecrate the great wealth of this great city--which comes from all quarters of the earth--we ask you to consecrate some of this wealth in giving back to these various quarters of the world the Gospel which we rejoice in here. 3. We ask you to give some of your sons and some of your daughters to carry this Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. If there is a grand opening in a mercantile house at Zanzibar, you immediately find numbers taking advantage of it. If there is an opening for a young man on the river Niger, many are willing to go. We ask that there shall be the same readiness to take hold of opportunities in the mission field that there is now to take hold of openings in mercantile enterprise. And so we shall joy to see the kingdom of our blessed Lord and Master extended throughout the world. The last of the triumphs shall be this, when these heathen nations have bowed the knee to Jesus. (E. A. Stuart, M. A.) . Psalms 69:1-36 Psalms 69:1-12 Save me, O God; for the waters are come in unto my soul. Human suffering I. Man’ s sufferings are sometimes overwhelmingly great. This shows--1. The abnormal state of man. Was man made to suffer thus? No; man suffers because he has transgressed. 2. The blessedness of Christ’ s mission. He came to “ heal the broken-hearted,” and to “ wipe away all tears from off all faces.” II. Man’ s sufferings are often inflicted by his fellow-creatures. The sufferer here ascribes his sufferings, not to God, or accident, or fate, but to men.1. To the malice, the multitude, and the might of his enemies. These enemies, he says-- (1) Compelled him to restore what he “ took not away.” They extorted from him by violence that which was his, not theirs. He does not say what it was, whether it was his time, his labour, or his property. Men are often doing this, taking from others that to which they have no right. (2) Persecuted him on account of his religion. “ For Thy sake I have borne reproach,” etc. How often in the history of the world do we find men inflicting sufferings upon their fellows in consequence of their religious convictions! 2. To the alienation of his most intimate relations and friends. 3. To the contempt he received from all on account of his religious zeal. III. Man’ s sufferings often reveal the moral weakness of his character. If, as here, you find a man parading his sufferings, moaning and groaning about his afflictions, he is not a man of strong moral character. Christ, instead of parading His sufferings, seldom even mentioned them. IV. Man’ s sufferings occasionally lead him to God. They did so now in the case of David. (Homilist.) The good man’ s foes I. The good man has foes.1. The devil. 2. Wicked men readily learn the craft of their master. II. The good man’ s foes are pertinacious.1. They act in concert--take counsel how they may best succeed in their designs; encourage one another, to make their plans most effective. 2. They are never satisfied. Satan, not content to rob Job of his property, must needs seek to destroy his children. The trouble of the Christian, so far from moving his enemies to compassion, do but instigate to fresh deeds of iniquity. III. The good man’ s enemies are cowardly.1. Slander is one of the commonest weapons by which they seek to destroy. It is referred to several times by David. It is the sharp “ sword,” the poisoned “ arrow,” the “ bitter words.” 2. Misrepresentation is another very common mode of attacking the godly. “ They Search out iniquities.” This seems to suggest that when faults cannot readily be found, they are sought diligently, until some trivial defect is discovered that may be magnified into a deadly sin. Instead of setting a watch upon themselves, they watch others, and looking for faults they will invent them rather than be disappointed. IV. The good man’ s enemies are laborious. They are “ workers of iniquity.” Men who are too idle to do any good thing will toil at an evil one. Many men work far harder to go to hell than would suffice, humanly speaking, to carry them to heaven. If half the diligence devoted to works of evil were but given to the service of God, how greatly would the aspect of the world be changed. (Joseph S. Exell, M. A.) Psalms 69:4I restored that which I took not away.Christ restoring what He took not away I. What it is which was taken away, and from whom.1. Glory was taken from God. (1) The glory of God shining forth in the holy government of His reasonable creatures, was taken away by sin. (2) That glory which we are tied to give to God, was withheld by sin. 2. There was righteousness, holiness, and happiness taken from man. II. Wherein it appears that Christ did not take these things from either.1. It is plain, as to God, that He never took any glory from Him; for He never did anything dishonourable or offensive to God (John 8:29). 2. It is also clear, as to man, that He took not away any righteousness, holiness, or happiness from him (Isaiah 53:9; Acts 10:33; Luke 9:56). 3. The Scripture therefore speaks of Christ’ s being cut off, but not for Himself (Daniel 9:26). Though He suffered in His own Person, He did not suffer on His own account (1 Peter 3:18). 4. The innocency of Christ was conspicuous in His very sufferings (Acts 13:28). III. How did Christ restore those things which He took not away? In general, by His active and passive obedience; for both are concerned in this matter, and contribute their joint influence towards the great and blessed work of which I am now speaking. IV. Why did Christ make it His work to restore what He took not away?1. It was a necessary work, a work which must be done, in order to His being a Saviour. 2. It was a work impossible for any mere creature to do; so that if Christ did not, it could not have been done by any person besides Him. 3. Christ was ordained of God to this work, and in that respect there was a necessity of His accomplishing it (John 9:4). 4. The infinite love of Christ to sinners did sweetly incline Him to this work. (T. Cruse.) A robbery committed, and restitution made, both to God and man I. Premise two or three things for clearing of the way.1. When God made man, He bestowed all manner of goods upon him, that were necessary to make him live comfortably here, and to make him eternally happy hereafter. 2. Satan, by this time, having fallen, like a star, from heaven to earth, filled with envy, enters into a resolution, if it were possible, to commit a robbery upon man, and to strike at God’ s sovereignty through man’ s side; and accordingly-- 3. Satan prevailed upon our first parents, and beguiled them; and thereby the covenant of works was broken. 4. The covenant of works being broken, and man having entered into a rebellion against God with the devil, he justly forfeited all the spiritual and temporal goods that God bestowed upon him, and likewise lost his title to a happy eternity, and became the enemy’ s vassal; and thus the enemy robbed him of all the goods that God bestowed upon him. 5. The eternal Son of God having a delight in the sons of men, and beholding them in this miserable plight, enters upon a resolution that He will take on man’ s nature, and that He will in man’ s nature be avenged upon that serpent that hath beguiled our first parents, and spoiled them of their patrimony. And accordingly, in the fulness of time, He comes, and is manifested to destroy the works of the devil, and to recover all the stolen goods. II. Inquire into the robbery that was committed by sin and Satan, both upon God and upon man.1. To begin with the robbery that was committed upon God. It was the devil’ s great drift, by tempting man to sin against God, to rob God of His glory. 2. Inquire into the goods that wore stolen from man by sin and Satan. Hero we may see a melancholy scene. The glory of the human nature was quite marred by sin. Sin hath robbed us of heaven, and made us heirs of hell and wrath. In short, sin hath disordered and disjointed the whole creation. III. Make it appear that our glorious Immanuel makes a restitution of what was taken away both from God and from man. He restores unto God His due, and restores unto man his loss. IV. Inquire into the time when Christ did all this: when did He restore that which He took not away? (Galatians 4:4-5). V. Inquire into the reasons of the doctrine. Why was it that our Lord restored what He took not away? Why did He restore these goods that sin and Satan took away both from God and man?1. Because it was His Father’ s pleasure.2. Because it contributed very much to enhance His mediatorial glory.3. Because of His regard to the holy law of God.4. Because His delights were with the sons of men.5. That He might “ still the enemy and the avenger,” that is, the devil. VI. Application.1. Is it so that Christ restores what He took not away? Then, hence see, what a generous Kinsman we have of Him; He never took away anything from us, and yet He restores all to the spoiling of His own soul, and pouring it out unto death. 2. This doctrine serves to let us see into the meaning of (Romans 8:3). “ He condemned sin.” Why, or how did He it? Why, sin is a robber, and is it not just that a robber should be condemned to die? Well, Christ condemns sin, and yet He saves the sinner. 3. Hence see what a criminal correspondence it is that the generality of the children of men have with sin. It is dangerous to haunt and harbour robbers; and yet will you keep a robber in your bosom. 4. If sin be such a robber of God and man, then see how reasonable the command is, to crucify sin, and to mortify the deeds of the body. 5. From this doctrine see what way Christ takes in order to carry on His mediatory work of making peace betwixt God and man. 6. From the doctrine we may likewise see, that the believer in Christ is the wisest man in the world, however the world may look upon him as a fool. Why? because he comes to Christ, and gets restitution of all the losses he suffered either by the sin of the first Adam or his own. 7. See the folly and madness of the sin of unbelief (John 5:40). 8. See the folly of the legalist, that goes about to make restitution to God, and to himself, of what was taken away by sin. But consider, that “ by the works of the law no flesh living can be justified” ; you will never repair your own losses, nor the dishonour you have done to God, but only by coming to Christ, who is “ the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.” (E. Erskine.) Psalms 69:5O God, Thou knowest my foolishness; and my sins are not hid from Thee.God’ s knowledge of sin I. God must have knowledge of man’ s sin. Because--1. He is infinite in knowledge.2. He is everywhere present.3. He is everywhere perceiving.4. He is ever reading the heart.5. He knows what is yet to be. You are all books, and every page is open to the eye of the great Reader, who reads you from the first letter to the last. There is nothing which any man here can possibly conceal from God. It is so, it must be so; if God be God, He knows my foolishness, and my sins are not hid from Him. II. Now, let us just turn the current of our thought while I ask, concerning God’ s knowledge of man’ s sin, after what fashion is it? If God knows, in what particular way does He know?1. It is complete knowledge; the Lord knows us altogether. I must confess that I cower down beneath that thought. That the Lord should know my public service is sufficiently awe-striking; but that He should know my private thoughts, ah! this sinks me into the very dust!2. It is the knowledge of a holy being.3. It is an abiding knowledge.4. It is an eternal knowledge. III. What then?1. How frivolous must those be who never think about it t2. What care this ought to work in us!3. What holy trembling this ought to put in us! (C. H. Spurgeon.) Psalms 69:6 Let not them that wait on Thee, O Lord, be ashamed for my sake.Esprit de corps This poet is afraid that if he misbehaves himself people will exalt themselves against God, and say with mocking laughter, These are Thy saints! Even whilst he is sinking he would wish to do it with some grace. Extinction itself may be crowned with a species of honour. Death need not be humiliation. There are men who have so died as to have lived a thousand lives in their last combat. Have we lost esprit de corps? Do you not remember that we are involved in the way in which you bear your troubles? If you do not play the man now the enemy will laugh at the whole Church; he will gladly take you up as a specimen of God’ s sustaining grace, and say, This is the man who prayed: how chopfallen now I see how that once proud chin hangs on the collapsing breast: this is prayer! If I do not bear myself heroically in the storm, the enemy will have a right to laugh at this pulpit, and to put his foot of contempt upon this whole ministry. If I play the atheist in the darkness, then may men justly meek what I endeavour to say in the light. The mockery will be directed against God, not against men. Moses felt this; he said, If they go back, they will say Thou thyself wert not able to take us forward; and if saints do not play the hero in the time of real combat and desperate difficulty, when everything is going down, when business is dull, when enemies are strong, when health is quaking, people will blame not them only but God, and say, This is the doing of the Lord; why, what advantage is it that we pray to Him? or what profit have we in waiting upon God? the saint and the dog die in the same agony. Thus we recover ourselves, under the blessing of God, by thinking of others. (J. Parker, D. D.) Psalms 69:7-8 For Thy sake I have borne reproach.Suffering torture for Christ’ s sake An echo of the Boxer risings in China was heard in the address of Dr. Whitfield Guinness. In July, 1900, the little party with which he was connected was shut up in Honan, and as the speaker detailed those days of anxiety until deliverance came, many were deeply impressed. After leaving the city, thirteen days were spent hiding in the cabin of a boat. Time after time the boat was examined by the customs officials, who, in the order of God’ s providence, failed to detect the presence of Englishmen. To indicate the genuineness of the Honanese converts, the speaker told a pathetic story. In a few weeks after one of the converts had been baptized, the Boxers pillaged his home, and securing the man’ s hands behind him, drew him up by a rope to the roof. While thus suspended the man was asked to recant. On refusing, the poor fellow was subjected to horrible tortures and suffering. Some time afterwards Dr. Guinness put to him the question, “ Was it worth while to suffer like that for Jesus’ sake?” The man replied, “ Worth while! I would go through it all again to-morrow for His sake.” Psalms 69:9 For the zeal of Thine house hath eaten me up, and the reproaches of them that reproached Thee are fallen upon me.A suffering Saviour Nearly all the prophecies of Scripture admit of and require a threefold interpretation.1. They tell of some event or experience in the life Of the writer. 2. Then of like experience in the people of God. 3. And chiefly of what in yet higher degree our Lord Himself should suffer or accomplish. And these remarks apply to this prophecy. Twice in the New Testament it is applied to our Lord, and we may take the words as those of the Lord Himself. Now, it is good for us oftentimes to stand by our Saviour’ s cross and to contemplate His sufferings. And this is what the text leads us to do. For it shows us-- I. The motive by which He was sustained. “ The zeal of Thine house,” etc. We must not limit these words to His expulsion of the traders from the temple at Jerusalem, but they tell of the spirit which ever animated Him. And God’ s “ house” does not mean merely a building such as the temple, but the world at large, the race of mankind whom Christ came to save. His “ zeal,” therefore, means that consuming desire to preserve and save them. For this He became incarnate, and lived, suffered and died. His zeal devoured Him, wore away His vigour so that “ His visage was marred more,” etc. Hence, also, He became “ a stranger to His brethren and an alien,” etc. II. The sufferings themselves. “ The reproaches of them that,” etc. We must not limit our idea of these sufferings to that which was outward, such as is represented in the well-known picture, “ Ecce Homo.” But it was the soul of our Lord that suffered, Could not but suffer. For He was that “ holy one,” and to such the ever present sight of sin, the infinite dishonour done to God, and the ruin wrought upon men, could not but have been far more terrible than any outward pain. Hence He was consumed with desire to vindicate the honour of God and to save men. (H. Melvill, B. D.) Service here and hereafter (with Revelation 7:15):--These passages of God’ s Word, significant in the several truths they contain when standing apart, but still more significant in their contrast when placed side by side, express and interpret the two most prominent phases of the highest form of Christian life and activity. It is not every servant of God who could use them with propriety, but only that man who has not only lived but died for the Master, whose spirits have been burdened, and whose life has been cut off prematurely by unwonted zeal and unvarying labours for the Saviour. The service which has been in the midst of much imperfection and weariness, death may and must end; but the service which shall be without imperfection and without change, it may not and cannot touch. The words, used in such a light, are eloquent with the simplicity of truth, and full of the hope of immortality. I. First, look at the deep underlying agreement amid the differences these words suggest. Both speak of service, yes, and of zealous service, and both speak of service for God.1. There is a consecration unto God amid the sin and the impurity of earth, even as there is a consecration amid the holiness and beatific blessedness of heaven. It may seem to the angels of God, looking down in wonder, a toil amid darkness, as in some murky mine, in which men grope while there is daylight above; none the less does it yield precious jewels and gold and silver to the crown of the Messiah and to the kingdom of God. And He, the Lord of all, counts it as His work. He has put especial honour upon it. He has taken upon Himself this service of toil, when He became a Man of Sorrows, knowing what weariness was in the midst of labour. And it was when the disciples saw His zeal for God, they remembered it was written, “ The zeal of Thine house hath eaten me up.” 2. But again, our text carries us on to glance at the occupation of heaven. That also is a service, and a ceaseless service. Not rest, as some would interpret that word, but work--the work which is rest, the balanced activity which brings its own enjoyment and blessedness. To live, “ more life and fuller,” that is what we want. Heaven would be no heaven unless it gave room to develop, to expand like flowers in the sunshine, in one word, to live. We have had enough of lethargy, enough of sloth, of unused powers in this world; we long to do something in the next. And that conception of heaven is highest which sees it a sphere of loyal service unto God, a realm of ceaseless activities, where they labour amid their rest, and rest in their labours, and find His presence to be, in all, an infinite and everlasting joy. II. Consider the contrast suggested in the text. The second phrase found here is taken from that gathering around the throne of the Lamb which included the sealed of the twelve tribes of Israel, and a great multitude out of every nation and kindred, and peoples, and tongues. David’ s tribe was there, for twelve thousand were sealed of the tribe of Judah, and doubtless David was there. The man who had said, “ The zeal of Thine house hath eaten me up,” who had borne reproach for God until it had eaten, like a canker, into his very soul, stands with that multitude before the throne, serving day and night. Wondrous change! It is the same service, yet how different in all its results. The idea is that it is not merely the persecutions and dangers of Christian life which tire out these faithful ones; the very enthusiasm and zeal for Christ’ s service may do this. We have the treasure, says Paul, in earthen vessels, and the heavenly often wears out the earthly. There are not only martyrs for Christ, whose bones bleach upon a foreign shore, unsuccessful and unknown, but yonder in the great city you may find those whose ministry, it may be, has been crowned abundantly, and yet who can say with equal truthfulness, “ The zeal of Thine house hath eaten me up.” But to all these comes the same consolation of the future. Heaven stands out to give meaning to earth. The Christian who has realized this twofold aspect of Christian service has climbed to some Pisgah height from which he can see both past and future. It is said that when Cortez led his sailors across the vast continent of South America, after months of toil and sickness, they climbed one of the peaks of the Andes, and saw out there in the distance, far away, the glimmering of the sea. And the men wept for joy at the sight. It was their own native element, the love of their life, their home. Toil there was a pleasure in comparison with this journeying through endless forests and wildernesses, and they wept for joy. So it is with God’ s children when they catch sight of that sea of glass mingled with fire, which is before the throne. There is the desire of their hearts, the hope of their life, their treasure and their home. There is the shout of triumph and the song of victory, the rest that shall never end and the service which cannot weary. But, again, we have a further contrast here. In the former text you have the idea of conflict, the evidence of that struggle which is ever going on in the heart of man; the spirit against the flesh, the flesh against the spirit, the soul cramped and hindered in its progress, as in some prison-house struggling to be free, the body worn out and enfeebled by the restless energy of that which is within. It is a state of intense unrest in which that which is best in the man, his zeal for God, is the disturbing element. And against this, in strong contrast, the text places the calm and composure, the serenity of heaven and heavenly service. On the one hand, it is a sea torn and tossed by every wind and wave, boiling and seething as from some internal convulsion; on the other, it is an ocean quiet and peaceful, in whose every movement there is majesty and grandeur. Or, to change the imagery, here it is a morbid spasmodic activity, a life producing death by its very violence, like some untimely plant which springs up too soon and fast, and is withered ere strength and beauty can be developed; yonder it is a maturity which knows neither change nor decay, but is ever green and fair as the seasons roll round, return, and come again. Here the day of labour needs the night of rest, and even then there is left perchance a weariness which slumber may not remove. In heaven they serve Him day and night in His temple without rest. Lastly, I but emphasize one thought, and that by way of making a practical use of all this. It is the important thought which stands connected with the continuity of the Divine life. For the service here, we must never forget, is the beginning of the service which is yonder. They are essentially one and indivisible, and this is necessary to that. Life is the apprenticeship, the school for heaven, necessary not so much, indeed, in this aspect for the work which is done, and the service which is rendered, as that we may learn how to work and how to serve. (W. Baxendale.) Unquenchable zeal for Christian work When Stanley found Livingstone in the heart of Africa, he begged the old hero to go home. There seemed to be every reason why he should go back to England. His wife was dead, his children lived in England, the weight of years was pressing upon him, the shortest march wearied him, he was often compelled to halt many days to recover strength after his frequent attacks of prostrating illness. Moreover, he was destitute of men and means to enable him to make practical progress. But, like Paul, none of these things moved him; nor counted he his life dear to himself. “ No, no,” he said to Stanley; “ to be knighted, as you say, by the Queen, welcomed by thousands of admirers, yes--but impossible. It must not, cannot, will not be. I must finish my task.” Psalms 69:13-29 But as for me, my prayer is unto Thee, O Lord, in an acceptable time.The compassionable, commendable, and censurable I. The compassionable. The representation which the author here gives of his sufferings, appeals strongly to our pity. Those sufferings are--1. Great. “ Deep waters,” “ mine,” “ pit.” 2. Varied. Involving reproach, torture, depression. II. The commendable. What does this suffering man do in his suffering?1. He goes to God in his distress (Psalms 69:18). Who can deliver us but He? What hand but His can lift us from the “ mire” into which we are sinking, can arrest the floods that are rushing on us? Science may mitigate some of our sufferings for a brief period; but it cannot remove any of them, and some it cannot touch. Saintly counsel and sympathy may yield us some succour and support, but God alone can deliver us out of all our sufferings. 2. He pleads His goodness for relief (Psalms 69:16). III. The censurable. His imprecations (Psalms 69:22-28). “ Be bravely revenged,” says old Quarles; “ he is below himself who is not above an injury.” (Homilist.) O God, in the multitude of Thy mercy hear me, in the truth of Thy salvation. The truth of God’ s salvation I. God’ s salvation is a great reality. “ The truth of Thy salvation.” There is a substance in it; it is not a shadow, it is not a myth, it is not a mere type or figure of speech, it is a substantial thing, there is a truth in it: “ The truth of Thy salvation.”1. View it in reference to the Lord himself. To God, His salvation is in the highest sense full of grace and truth. If I may venture to speak concerning Him of whom we can know nothing except as He reveals Himself, I may say that the truest and deepest thought of God is for the salvation of His people. This lies in the very centre of His heart; and the drift of His other thoughts and acts is all towards this point. 2. God’ s salvation is a great reality to ourselves, as well as to Him. That day when I saw Christ as my soul’ s salvation, the great sacrifice for sin was to my soul the most real thing I had ever seen. II. We have proved it to be so--1. By our experience of a new life. 2. By our sense of sonship. 3. By our ecstatic joy. 4. We have had Divine support in trouble. 5. God has wrought great deliverances for us. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Psalms 69:14 Deliver me out of the mire, and let me not sink.The believer sinking in the mire Many rivers, and especially the Nile, have on their banks deep deposits of black mud, and it is most perilous for any who have the misfortune to fall into it. The more they struggle to get out the deeper they sink. Travellers tell of such incidents. Had David really witnessed such a scene, that speaking of his spiritual sorrows, he said, “ I sink in deep mire where there is no standing” ? Now, the prayer of our text suggests-- I. That the true believer may be. In the mire and very near sinking.1. In the mire of unbelief. Even the firmest in faith lose their foothold at times. All manner of doubts crowd into the mind. They are compelled to pray this prayer. 2. Through lack of full assurance of his own interest in Christ. 3. The mire of temporal trouble. 4. Of inward corruption. 5. Of Satanic temptations. 6. Various are the causes of this sad condition. Sometimes it is through our own sin. It is a chastisement upon us. Sometimes to try our faith; or that we may the better glorify God, or to show the natural weakness of the creature, that no flesh may glory in man; or to make heaven sweeter when we enter its pearly gates. But all the while, these sinking ones are really God’ s people, for if they were not, they would have no such trouble. The sinner whose element is sin laughs at the weight by which the believer is borne down. The best of God’ s saints have known such trouble. Luther did, and John Knox, and many more. II. But when in such a state they know that their only help is in God. The Bible cannot help, for unbelief bars you off from all its precious promises. Other believers cannot aid you. God alone can. III. Prayer is the Christian’ s never-failing resort. When you cannot use your sword, you may take the weapon of “ all-prayer.” That is never forbidden. And it is never futile, it ever has true power. Oh, never let us cease to pray. In asthma you say, “ I cannot breathe” ; but you must breathe if you would live. And so in the condition told of here you must, though you think you cannot, pray. But let us walk carefully, lest we fall into the mire. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Psalms 69:20 Reproach hath broken my heart, and I am full of heaviness: and I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none.My broken-hearted Lord Did it ever occur to you that there is a vivid contrast between Jesus in His death and that of the noble army of martyrs who died for Him? Jesus shrank from death, was perturbed, agitated and dismayed, as the martyrs were not. Their fortitude was such that they extorted from the lips of dark pagans the exclamation, “ See how these Christians die.” And their bodily agonies were quite as excruciating as were those of our Lord. Rome sharpened all her devices for cruelty in the tortures she inflicted on the Christian confessors. Now, wherefore this difference between the attitude of Jesus and the martyrs, He so distressed, they so dauntless? Compare Paul’ s exultant word when in near prospect of the bloody axe which was soon to smite his life down to the ground, “ I am ready, henceforth there is laid up for me a crown” ; compare that with the agonized cry of Jesus in Gethsemane, “ Oh, My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me.” The grass was bedewed with His tears; and flecked with His bloody sweat. The history of man had not witnessed such a dismay. But all this shows that there was some deep mental struggle, some mysterious foreboding, unusual with suffering man. Evidently His sufferings held their seat in, the mysterious pavilion of His nature. His death was to be the equivalent for the sins of guilty millions, so that the real tragedy of Calvary was impervious to human scrutiny, and was chiefly enacted in the internal agitations of the incarnated God. Hence this startling passage, “ Reproach hath broken my heart.” It opens a field of wonders in explanation of the physical cause of our Redeemer’ s death. He died on the cross but not by the cross. He died of a broken heart. In proof see-- I. Our Lord’ s own testimony respecting His death. He said that it was purely voluntary. How could that have been if He had died as the result of His crucifixion? II. There was not time for death by crucifixion. No vital organ of the body was touched by the tortures of the cross. Hence death came with terrible slowness. But our Lord suffered on the cross for fewer hours than others have for days. III. The soldier’ s spear proves that Jesus did not die the ordinary death of the crucified. The highest medical authorities tell us that no other mode of death but rupture of the heart can account for the separation into its primitive parts of the blood which flowed from our Lord’ s pierced side, while that blood yet continues in the body. Nor could He have died from mental fainting and exhaustion. Our Lord was, evidently, physically strong, and He was in perfect health. IV. What was it broke His heart? The text says it was “ reproach.” No praise is more poignant than that of reproach. To a mind such as that of Jesus it becomes the sorrow of sorrows. But when God inflicts it, in vindication of justice and law, as He did upon Jesus, then what sorrow could be like that? Hence the bitter cry, “ My God, My God,” etc. Oh, how should we hate the sin which thus broke the heart of our Lord. (Thomas Armitage, D. D.) Self-reproach 1. If we are not on our guard, seasons of leisure may easily degenerate into seasons of unwholesome brooding and unprofitable unhappiness. The wakeful hours of the night are specially liable to this peril; the soul then almost involuntarily becomes the prey of introspection and self-scorn. Every foolish thing that we ever did, every foolish word that we ever spoke, comes to light again to mock and threaten us. It is all deeply distressing. It is the hour and the power of darkness; the sins and follies of years flash upon us in a judgment night. 2. Much may be done to check the morbid element of our reflective and introspective hours. It is a wise thing to keep the soul interested in large thoughts and causes, to preserve a general intellectual and spiritual sanity by entering heartily into the facts and interests of practical life. But when these dark moods threaten to prevail, is not the grand specific a profound faith in the reality of the Divine grace and forgiveness? “ I believe in the forgiveness of sins.” Surely the doleful hours of self-reproach are signs of our defective trust in the Divine promise and faithfulness! If our sins are cast into the depths of the sea, to be remembered against us no more for ever, why are we dredging in the depths, bringing up mire, and dirt, and obscure, slimy things far better left in the land of darkness and forgetfulness? (W. L. Watkinson.) Psalms 69:27-28 Add iniquity unto their iniquity: and let them not come into Thy righteousness.Imprecations in the Psalms There are tones in the Psalter which seem to jar upon our feelings, which do not naturally or readily adapt themselves to our Christian sentiment. There is an outburst of vindictive joy and exultation in the punishment of the wicked; there is an almost savage delight in the destruction of oppressors, as in Psalms 137:9. There are withering imprecations, so fierce and so elaborately wrought, that it makes one’ s blood run cold to see them. How are we to account for these, and to take them on our lips and read them in our services? There are some who would persuade us that they are capable of an application to our spiritual struggles, that the enemies which we have to face are not persecutors and tyrants such as the oppressors of Israel of old, that “ we wrestle net with flesh and blood,” etc. Accordingly, the language of the Psalms may be turned, they say, from its original sense into a spiritual channel. But how is it possible to carry out such a principle of interpretation consistently? How in our spiritual warfare may we adopt with definite meaning such words as these: “ Set Thou an ungodly man to be ruler over him, and let Satan stand at his right hand” : “ Let him be blotted out of the book of the living” ? The unnatural strain which must be put upon the words to make them fit into such a system of interpretation ought to have compelled expositors long ago to abandon it. But let us try to look more carefully at the exact position of the psalmists of old, and then, I think, we may arrive at a more natural and truer explanation. The truth is, these words are a striking proof of that intense reality of which I have been speaking. The Jewish psalmists, remember, are the mouthpiece of injured innocence. These are the natural accents of the martyr Church; the afflicted people of God are, almost in every psalm, crushed, borne down because of the oppression of the enemy. Whether the enemies be foreign oppressors or ungodly men who have risen to high office, in any case they have power, and exercise it unscrupulously against those who love God, and it is this which rouses the indignation of the psalmist, and it is an intolerable thing to see high-handed wickedness triumph. It does seem like an arraignment of the very justice of the Most High when the ungodly ravish the poor, and say, as in defiance of the Eternal Majesty, “ There is no God,” or “ He hideth His face.” The true heart rises up against this: the true heart on the side of God longs to see His righteousness vindicated, and so, even in the calmest moments of their lives, when their hearts are full of God’ s goodness, or” when they are lost in the contemplation of nature, they still recur to the same theme, and the 104th psalm, which has won the admiration of so many high intellects for its matchless description of the beauty and splendour of creation, ends with the devout and ardent conviction that sinners will be “ consumed out of the earth, and the ungodly shall come to an end.” Still, we must ask ourselves, Are we justified in taking these burning anathemas on our lips? Is such language in harmony with our Christian consciousness? Is there no difference in this respect between the Old Testament and the New? I believe there is. Our Lord Himself tells us there is, and warns us against the excess of a fiery zeal. The spirit of Elijah is not the spirit of Christ. Even the spirits of David and of St. Paul are not the same. And this must be so, because the revelations of God in the Old Testament and in the New are not the same. The law given on Sinai was stern and inexorable in its punishment, and the soldiers of God were sent to execute His judgments with a two-edged sword in their hands, and the prayers and praises of God in their mouths. It was their mission to exterminate all ungodliness and idolatry; but Jesus Christ, the incarnate revelation of God, came in lowliness and meekness, teaching and practising forbearance and forgiveness, enduring contradiction of sinners against Himself, giving His back to the smiter, and His cheek to them that plucked off the hair, not hiding His face from shame and spitting, and as He dies on the cross, interceding for His murderers--“ Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” Unquestionably there is a progress in Divine revelation, and we ought to bear it in mind. What is it that we really learn in the New Testament from passages like those of which I have been speaking? Is it indifference? Is it calm acquiescence in injustice? Is it tolerance of iniquity? Is it coldness towards God and His truth? Most certainly not. It is stern repression, not of our natural sense of justice, but of hatred of individuals; it is to forego personal revenge; it is to bear with personal injuries and wrongs. That is the temper which the Gospel cultivates. I am sure we cannot love God with all our heart unless we hate sin with all our heart; but it is sin we are to hate, not the sinner. Hero we are to draw the distinction which the psalmists of old did not draw and could not draw. But it is wickedness that is to arouse our indignation, not differences of religious opinion. It is the grossest perversion of the psalms when these burning words are turned into a justification of theological hatred and strife. Oh, how sad it is to think that Christian men, knowing that there is all this awful wickedness seething in their midst and around them, can turn aside from the real battle, can so far misunderstand and mistake who their real foes are, that they can give their time and thoughts to angry quarrellings about matters of the most trivial and insignificant importance, about petty questions of ritual and ceremonial and forms of worship, instead of girding up all their energies to go forth into that great battle which is going on in this world between God Himself and all the powers of evil that are arrayed against Him, God give us more of the charity of Jesus Christ our Lord, more of His love in our hearts, a more yearning desire to go forth into the world in order that we may win the world to its true Lord and Master. That is the true charity; that is the true love; that is the true hatred of evil. (Bp. Perowne.) David’ s imprecations A renowned professor who, as Germany thinks, has done more for New England theology than any man since Jonathan Edwards, was once walking with a clergyman of a radical faith, who objected to the doctrine that the Bible is inspired, and did so on the ground of the imprecatory psalms. The replies of the usual kind were made, and it was presumed that David expressed the Divine purpose in praying that his enemies might be destroyed, and that he gave utterance only to the natural righteous indignation of conscience against unspeakable iniquity. But the doubter would not be satisfied. The two came at last to a newspaper bulletin, on which the words were written: “ Baltimore to be shelled at twelve o’ clock.” “ I am glad of it,” said the Radical preacher. “ I am glad of it.” “ And so am I,” said his companion; “ but I hardly dare say so, for fear you should say that I am uttering an imprecatory psalm.” (Joseph Cook.) Psalms 69:30-36I will praise the name of God with a song, and will magnify Him with thanksgiving.Moral states of mind worthy of cultivation I. A noble resolution (Psalms 69:30). There are many ways of praising God: in our writings, conversations, actions. II. A sound doctrine (Psalms 69:31). “ To obey is better than sacrifice;” so is praise, which is the essence of obedience. Better--1. Because it is good in itself. Sacrifice is not a virtue, praise is; it is essentially valuable, valuable in all worlds; sacrifice is not. Better-- 2. Because it is more universal. Praise is everywhere. It is the music of the universe; sacrifice is not. There are no sacrifices amongst the angels; but praise throbs in every pulse of thought and emotion. Better-- 3. Because it is more enduring. Praise will chime through the ages. III. An encouraging assurance (Psalms 69:32). The man who lives a joyous life of gratitude towards God cannot fail to exert a morally beneficent influence over those with whom he is brought into connection. The accents and actions of a devout life fall on the heart of society as sunbeams and showers. No man can be good without doing good. No man can be happy in the highest sense without brightening the lives of others. The spiritually joyous man wakes his social circle into music. IV. An exultant devotion (Psalms 69:34). He would have all join him in the great song of praise. True devotion destroys the isolation of the soul. V. A patriotic hope (Psalms 69:35). (Homilist.) Psalms 69:33 For the Lord heareth the poor, and despiseth not His prisoners.Poor prisoners “ The Lord heareth the poor,” spiritually poor. Let us notice first what this does not mean, in order to get clearly at what it does mean. I make no hesitation in saying that this consciousness of spiritual poverty is one of the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, and none can understand it but those who, are experimentally led into the secret. First, it does not mean literal, mental nor moral poverty, but it consists in our sense of our natural, internal, spiritual worthlessness of character. You may be as moral as an angel, and still be destitute of spiritual life in the soul. Therefore the soul not united to Christ is not united to that that can give it access to God; it is not united to that that can bring upon it the approbation of God; it is not united to that that can save it. “ He died, the just for the unjust, to bring us to God.” Therefore, while we prize good works, yet none of these things are of any use in the salvation of the soul; salvation is altogether a secret and another thing. Now, we go on to the literal prisoner. Some good people have been cast into prison through what other people have said about them;--they have been slandered and reproached, and it has been believed, and they have been cast into prison; but the Lord “ despiseth not His prisoners.” Joseph was slandered--he was reproached, cast into prison; but the Lord did not despise him; the Lord was with him. And so the Lord turned, in one sense, the dungeon into a paradise; and by and by, when Joseph interpreted the dreams, he was exalted, and realized all that his visions predicted. But there is another class of prisoners, and that is those that get into prison by their own fault. Why, you are never going to say a word in favour of them, are you? Well, if not in favour of them, I can say a word in favour of the Lord; and if He is pleased to say a word in favour of them, I shall not differ from Him. Well, Jonah, you are got into prison, do you think you will ever get out again? You have got there by your own fault. But the Lord watched over him and took care of him, and the sea could not kill him, and the weeds could not kill him. He cried unto the Lord, and the Lord heard him, answered and delivered him, and make him accomplish his mission. So the Lord despiseth not His prisoners, even when they get into prison through their own fault. This is a God worth loving, worth worshipping, worth cleaving to. Samson got into prision by his own fault. You are not going to say a word in favour of him, are you? I would rather die Samson’ s death than I would die the death of the most sleek, the most polished Pharisee under the heavens, because they die, in enmity against God; but Samson died in sweet reconciliation to God, and obtained the victory God intended he should. He got into prison by his own fault: did the Lord leave him and despise him? No. When they were making sport of Samson he cried to God, for He heareth the poor; He despised not His prisoner. “ Let me be avenged of the Philistines for my two eyes.” He bowed with all his might; the victory was wrought, his soul saved, God glorified; and if we are ashamed of these testimonies of God’ s mercy, then I believe God will be ashamed of us. They are His prisoners because they are His people. Let us, then, not boast one over the other, but rather bear one another’ s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ. (James Wells.) Joy for prisoners With what gratitude and joy should these intimations of hope be received by those who are naturally in so miserable a condition! It is a celebrated story that, when Titus Flaminius, at the public games, proclaimed the liberty of Greece, after it had been conquered by the Romans, the auditors were at first lost in a silent amazement, and then burst out into one continued shout for two hours together, “ Liberty! Liberty I” Me-thinks such joy, and greater than this, should appear amongst miserable sinners when these proclamations for liberty are made. (T. Doddridge.) Psalms 69:34 Let the heaven and earth praise Him, the seas, and everything that moveth therein.The creation praising God I. On account of what He is in Himself. God is good; intrinsically excellent. His nature is composed of all possible perfections. “ God is love,” wisdom, intelligence, goodness, truth, righteousness, mercy. II. On account of what He is in His relations.1. To all, He stands in the relation of Creator, Sustainer, and Benefactor. 2. To us, whom He has redeemed, by the sacrificial “ death of His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ,” He stands in the relation of a Father and Saviour. III. On account of what He has accomplished. The works of God excel the works of all others. They are, Creation--“ He made all things” ; Providence--He cares for and governs all things; Redemption--it was God that raised apostate humanity from the ruins of the fall. No works can compete with these. And on their account God will be praised throughout eternity, by an intelligent and redeemed universe. IV. On account of His wonderful gifts. Life, reason, mind, subjects for thought, Jesus Christ, the Holy Bible, the ministry of reconciliation, the Holy Spirit, the comforts and consolations of religion, and a hope--resting firmly and securely upon the atonement of Calvary--of heaven, when this temporary introductory life shall have passed away. V. On account of His grand discoveries. Man builds a rightful claim to the admiration, praise, and gratitude of mankind, by the discoveries he makes, and the facts he brings to light. What has God made known? That there is an eternal world; that men are immortal; that noble and abundant provisions have been made for our happiness during the ever-revolving cycles of an eternity to come; the way in which we, and all mankind, may be prepared for the full and unending fruition of the bliss He has prepared for us. (Isaac Evans.) . Psalms 70:1-5 Psalms 70:1-5 Make haste, O God, to deliver me; make haste to help me, O Lord.A pattern suppliant It is the “ fervent” prayer that is effectual, and “ effectual” prayer that “ availeth much.” Importunity prevails where indifference fails. This prayer not only expresses fervour, but likewise expectation; faith’ s vision was strong, and confidence was unwaveringly vigorous; so that no sooner had the request gone up from David’ s soul to the “ Court of Heaven,” than he expected to see the Lord hasting to his assistance. We have here a pattern suppliant-- I. Oppressed with need (Psalms 70:5). Prayer is the utterance of want; the cry of distress; the pleading of contrite dependence and weakness; more acceptable to God than the vaunting Pharisee’ s boast, “ I thank Thee that I am not as other men.” The Christian is pre-eminently a man of prayer. It is the atmosphere in which his soul breathes, moves, and keeps its being. II. Earnestly seeking help (Psalms 70:1-3).1. Help, in deliverance for himself. 2. Help, in confusion and overthrow of his enemies. The more vivid the realization of need, the more fervent the entreaty for help. God, a refuge in time of trouble, and fervent prayer the swift feet to bring us into it. III. Mindfulness of others (Psalms 70:4). A beautiful petition from a beautiful spirit. Though in deep distress himself, yet!m remembers others, and seeks for them gladness of heart and usefulness of life. Selfishness is very narrow in its supplications. Piety is magnificently catholic and comprehensive in its appeals. (J. O. Keen, D. D.) Psalms 70:4 Let such as love Thy salvation say continually, Let God be magnified.Our watchword These words occur at least three times in the Psalms, and therefore we may regard them as especially important. I. Discriminate the character. The individuals here spoken of are those who love God’ s salvation. Then it is implied that they are persons who are saved, because it is not according to nature to love a salvation in which we have no part. We may admire the salvation which is preached, but we shall only love the salvation which is experienced. But, more than this, to sustain and bring to perfection in the renewed heart an ardent affection towards the Divine salvation of a sort that will continue, and become practically fruitful, there must be an intelligent consideration, and an instructed apprehension as to the character of this salvation. Now, let me show you what it is in salvation that the thoughtful believer loves; and I may begin by saying that he loves, best of all, the Saviour Himself. Often our Lord is called Salvation, because He is the great worker of it, the author and finisher, the Alpha and the Omega of it. He who has Christ has salvation; and, as He is the essence of salvation, He is the centre of the saved ones’ affection. But you love not only the Saviour’ s person, for I am sure you delight in the plan of salvation. What is that plan? It is summed up in a single word--substitution. Oh, then let us always say, “ Let God be magnified,” since He devised, arranged, and carried out this Godlike method of blending justice with mercy. But we also love God’ s salvation when we consider what was the object of it. The object of it towards us was to redeem unto Christ a people who should be zealous for good works. The sinner loves a salvation from hell; the saint loves a salvation from sin. II. Meditate on the saying. Every nation has its idiom, every language has its shibboleth, almost every district has its proverb. Behold the idiom of gracious souls, listen to their household word, their common proverb--it is this, “ Let God be magnified! Let God be magnified!” Observe that this is a saying which is founded upon truth and justice. “ Let God be magnified,” for it is He that saved us, and not we ourselves. None can divide the honours of grace, for the Lord alone hath turned our captivity. From beginning to end salvation is of the Lord, therefore, let God be magnified. This saying is naturally suggested by love. It is because we love His salvation that we say, “ The Lord be magnified.” You cannot love God without desiring to magnify Him, and I am sure that you cannot know that you are saved without loving Him. Moreover, this saying of our text is, deeply sincere and practical. I am sure David did not wish to see hypocrites multiplied; but such would be the case if men merely said, “ Let God be magnified,” and did not mean it. Moreover, it must not only be sincere, but it must be paramount. I take it that there is nothing which a Christian man should say continually, except this, “ Let God be magnified.” That which a man may say continually is assuredly the master-thought of his mind. Listen to the cherubim and seraphim; they continually do cry, “ Holy! Holy! Holy! Lord God of Hosts!” And the text tells us this must be continual. How earnest you feel about the cause of Christ when you have heard an inspiriting sermon, but how long does it last? III. The wish. “ Let God be magnified.” This wish is promoted by an anxiety for God’ s glory; it is a most holy wish, and it ought to be fulfilled. I shall ask your attention to the reasons of the wish. Why should it be wished?1. First, because it always ought to be said, “ Let God be magnified.” It is only right, and according to the fitness of things, that God should be magnified in the world which Ha Himself created. Such a handiwork deserves admiration from all who behold it. But when He new-made the world, and especially when He laid the foundation of His new palace in the fair colours of Jesus’ blood, and adorned it with the sapphires of grace and truth; He had a double claim upon our praise. 2. But, we wish it next, because it always needs saying. The word is dull and sleepy, and utterly indifferent to the glory of God in the work of redemption. We need to tell it over and over and over again, that God is great in the salvation of His people. 3. And, again, we desire this, because the saying of this continually does good to the sayers. He who blesses God blesses himself. We cannot serve God with the heart without serving ourselves most practically. Nothing, brethren, is more for your benefit than to spend and be spent for the promotion of the Divine honour. 4. Then, again, this promotes the welfare of God’ s creatures. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Psalms 70:5 But I am poor and needy; make haste unto me, O God: Thou art my help and my deliverer; O Lord, make no tarrying, Pleading Young painters were anxious, in the olden times, to study under the great masters. They concluded that they should more easily attain to excellence if they entered the schools of eminent men. At this present time, men will pay large premiums that their sons may be apprenticed or articled to those who best understand their trades or professions; now, if any of us would learn the sacred art and mystery of prayer, it is well for Us to study the productions of the greatest masters of that science. I am unable to point out one who understood it better than did the psalmist. I. A soul confessing. The wrestler strips before he enters upon the contest, and confession does the like for the man who is about to plead with God. A racer on the plains of prayer cannot hope to win, unless, by confession, repentance, and faith, he lays aside every weight of sin. Now, let it be ever remembered that confession is absolutely needful to the sinner when he first seeks a Saviour. It is not possible for thee, O seeker, to obtain peace for thy troubled heart, till thou shalt have acknowledged thy transgression and thine iniquity before the Lord. If thou wilt condemn thyself, God will acquit thee. But never expect that the King of heaven will pardon a traitor, if he will not confess and forsake his treason. Even the tenderest father expects that the child should humble himself when he has offended, and he will not withdraw his frown from him till with tears he has said, “ Father, I have sinned.” Darest thou expect God to humble Himself to thee, and would it not be so if He did not constrain thee to humble thyself to Him? Wouldst thou have Him connive at thy faults and wink at thy transgressions? He will have mercy, but He must, be holy. He is ready to forgive, but not to tolerate sin. The same principle applies to the Church of God. We must own that we are powerless in this business. The Spirit of God is treasured up in Christ, and we must seek Him of the great head of the Church. We cannot command the Spirit, and yet we can do nothing without him. He bloweth where he listeth. We must deeply feel and honestly acknowledge this. II. A soul pleading. “ I am poor and needy, make haste unto me, O God. Thou art my help and my deliverer; O Lord, make no tarrying.” The careful reader will perceive four pleas in this single verse. Upon this topic I would remark that it is the habit of faith, when she is praying, to use pleas. Mere prayer sayers, who do not pray at all, forget to argue with God; but those who would prevail bring forth their reasons and their strong arguments, and they debate the question with the Lord. Faith’ s art of wrestling is to plead with God, and say with holy boldness, “ Let it be thus and thus, for these reasons.” Faith’ s pleas are plentiful, and this is welt, for faith is placed in divers positions, and needs them all. Faith will plead all the attributes of God. “ Thou art just, therefore spare Thou the soul for whom the Saviour died. Thou art merciful, blot out my transgressions. Thou art good, reveal Thy bounty to Thy servant. Thou art immutable--Thou hast done thus and thus to others of Thy servants, do thus unto me. Thou art faithful, caner Thou break Thy promise, caner Thou turn away from Thy covenant?” Sometimes, however, faith’ s pleas are very singular. As in this text, it is by no means according to the proud rule of human nature to plead--“ I am poor and needy, make haste unto me, O God.” It is like another prayer of David: “ Have mercy upon my iniquity, for it is great.” It is not the manner of men to plead so, they say, “ Lord, have mercy on me, for I am not so bad a sinner as some.” But faith reads things in a truer light, and bases her pleas on truth. “ Lord, because my sin is great, and Thou art a great God, let Thy great mercy be magnified in me.” Faith’ s pleas are singular, but, let me add, faith’ s pleas are always sound; for after all, it is a very telling plea to urge that we are poor and needy. Is not the main argument with mercy? Necessity is the very best plea with benevolence, either human or divine. Is not our need the best reason we can urge? If we would have a physician come quickly to a sick man, “ Sir,” we say, “ it is no common case, he is on the point of death, come to him, come quickly!” If we wanted our city firemen to rush to a fire, we should not say to them, “ Make haste, for it is only a small fire” ; but, on the contrary, we urge that it is an old house, full of combustible materials, and there are rumours of petroleum and gunpowder on the premises; besides, it is near a timber yard, hosts of wooden cottages are close by, and before long we shall have half the city in a blaze. We put the case as badly as we can. Oh for wisdom to be equally wise in pleading with God, to find arguments everywhere, but especially to find them in our necessities. III. A soul urgent. “ Make haste unto me,” etc. Jesus has said, “ men ought always to pray and not to faint.” You land on the shores of a foreign country with the greatest confidence when you carry a passport with you, and God has issued passports to His children, by which they come boldly to His mercy-seat; He has invited you, He has encouraged you, He has bidden you come to Him, and has promised that whatsoever ye ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive. Come, then, come urgently, come importunately, come with this plea, “ I am poor and needy; make no tarrying, O my God,” and a blessing shall surely come; it will not tarry. God grant we may see it, and give Him the glory of it. IV. Here is another part of the art and mystery of prayer--the soul grasping God. She has pleaded, and she has been urgent, but now she comes to close quarters; she grasps the covenant angel with one hand, “ Thou art my help,” and with the other, “ Thou art my deliverer.” Oh, those blessed “ my’ s,” those potent “ my’ s.” The sweetness of the Bible lies in the possessive pronouns, and he who is taught to use them as the psalmist did, shall come off a conqueror with the eternal God. Oh, you that are saved and, therefore, love Christ, I want you, as the saints of God, to practise this last part of my subject; and be sure to lay hold upon God in prayer. “ Thou art my help and my deliverer.” (C. H. Spurgeon.) . Psalms 71:1-24 Psalms 71:1-24 In Thee, O Lord, do I put my trust: let me never be put to confusion.A picture of a pious old man I. The entreaties of a pious old man.1. Against evil. (1) Moral failure (Psalms 70:1). (2) General danger (Psalms 70:2; Psalms 70:4). (3) Divine desertion (verse 9). 2. For good. (1) Divine protection (Psalms 70:3). I want a “ strong” refuge, a “ habitation,” where I shall feel sheltered from all storms. I want a habitation where I may “ continually resort,” one close at hand, always open to me. O God, be such a “ habitation” to me, shivering on the margin of the awful future, the storms of retribution gathering around me. (2) The spirit of worship (verse 8). II. The blessed memories of a pious old man. It is natural for age to turn to the past. What did this aged man remember in the past?1. His youthful confidence (Psalms 70:5). In the opening years of my life, I rested my soul on Thy love and Thy truth. My young heart went out to Thee, and on Thee it has settled. What a blessed memory is this! What a contrast to the memory of the old profligate who remembers his rebellions, his blasphemies, etc. 2. God’ s goodness to him from his earliest days (verse 6). Thou didst take care of me in helpless infancy, and all through life. Thy very love has been marvellous. “ I am as a wonder unto many.” “ O God, Thou hast taught me from my youth.” Taught me the true theory both of duty and of happiness. III. The exalted contemplations of a pious old man (verse 19). IV. The unfailing confidence of a pious old man (verses 20, 21). Though he had been subjected to great and sore troubles--and what aged man has not met with such troubles?--his trust was unabated, and he says, “ Thou shalt quicken me again,” etc. However feeble I become, though I sink into the depths of the earth, Thou wilt revive me; nay, more, “ Thou shalt increase my greatness,” etc. I infer from the character of Thy past conduct to me that I shall not be allowed to sink into extinction, dishonour, or misery. Thou wilt raise me, dignify me, and “ comfort me on every side.” God grant us all this unfailing confidence in old age! “ Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him.” V. A noble resolution of a pious old man (verses 22-24). (Homilist.) The vow of faith I. The life of faith is a constant realization of the presence of God. The mountain was as full of the chariots of fire when the prophet’ s servant did not perceive them as when he did. Christ was just as much present with the disciples when their eyes were holden as when they were open. God speaks with men as truly to-day as in the time of Abraham. It is because our minds are preoccupied with other matters that we fail to perceive God. II. The life of faith is entered upon by a definite vow. If such be the life of faith, how few of us have entered upon it! This may be due to some obstacle, such as an unfulfilled duty, or a disregarded command, or a permitted practice opposed to God’ s will. But if it be none of these, then most likely it is because the attitude of faith has net been consciously and definitely assumed. We must take our all and lay it at the feet of Christ. This is the wicket-gate by which we enter upon the blessed life of faith. Brainerd Taylor, feeling that he needed something which he did not possess, lifted up his heart in prayer, and became conscious of giving up all to God, and then he cried, “ Here, Lord, take me, take my whole soul, and seal me Thine now, and Thine for ever.” III. Some considerations on the taxing of such a vow. Let it be taken with all seriousness, and let it be a very definite one. Doddridge gives this advice, “ Set your hand and seal to it that on such a day and year, and at such a place, on full consideration and serious reflection, you come to this happy resolution, that whatever others might do, you would serve the Lord.” Doddridge’ s own vow was a very elaborate and detailed one. It may not be necessary to draw up a document setting forth one’ s vow, but in some definite way it should be taken. (R. C. Ford, M. A.) Psalms 71:5 Thou art my hope, O Lord God: Thou art my trust from my youth.God our hope in youth It was a man well advanced in life who uttered these words. Aye, the snows of age are falling on his head; his back bends under the weight of years; but,--is the frail old man dejected and forlorn? No, nothing of the kind: the faith of his youth proves the comfort of his age; and, as he leans his hand upon his staff, he lifts up his eyes to, heaven, and says, “ Thou art my hope,” etc. What I wish to bring out and illustrate is this, that a pious trust in God at the outset of life guarantees a blessed hope in God at the end of it. Archbishop Leighton beautifully observes: “ The world dare say no more for its device, than Dum spire, spore, ‘ While I breathe, I hope’ ; but the children of God can go further and say, Dum exspiro, spero, ‘ Even when I die, I hope’ ; for that very event which drowns all the worldling’ s prospects throws open to the Christian the gates of a glorious eternity!” I. It is well for you in your youth to contemplate and prepare for age. As I was wandering one day through the old cathedral at Elgin, my eye lighted upon a quaint epitaph, carved on a slab in the wall:-- “ This world is a city full of streets; And death is the market that all men meets; If life were a thing that money could buy, The poor could not live and the rich would not die.” The grammar may be at fault, but the sentiment is true. Oh, how many squander in early life those energies they would afterwards give a fortune to recall! How many are practically saying, Let youth have its carnival of pleasure, and let ago look out for itself! It is your duty to contemplate living long and growing old. But will you? Where do you spend your evenings? Answer me that, and I shall have some notion where you will spend eternity. Are you in the habit of taking stimulants? If you are, that lessens your chance of seeing old age by some fifty per cent. Oh, do not tamper with the drink-fiend that every year digs a grave for hundreds of the flower of London. If some of you will act upon the advice I am now to give you, you will thank me for it some day. It is meanly selfish for a man, dying in the prime of life and professing a Christian hope, to be perfectly happy whilst he knows that as he steps into heaven his wife and children will step into the workhouse. I say it is abominable! If you have the faintest prospect of having any dependent upon you, you have no business to spend on gratification all your weekly wage or your yearly salary. It is not yours to spend. The first few shillings, or the first few pounds, belong to them, and should go to pay the premium on a policy that at least will keep them from beggary. II. The only guarantee of a blessed hope in age is a pious trust in youth. I was once summoned to the military barracks, to visit a soldier who was lying in the sick ward. I saw at once the stamp of death upon his countenance. It was evident he had but a few moment to live. I stooped over him, held his hand and softly asked him, “ Have you a hope in Christ?” His answer made me tremble, and though twenty years have gone, it rings in my ear to-day--the last words of a dying unbeliever, “ I have no hope!” Will any of you, dear lads, risk such an exit from the world? Can your life be genuinely happy, with a drawn sword hanging daily over you? Would you not wish, then, to be prepared? Would it not be a glorious thing if everybody could say with Dr. Watts: “ I lay my head upon my pillow to-night, not caring whether I awake in this world or the next” ? Oh, won’ t you all take the decisive step at once, the step that will make your whole life luminous, your death triumphant, and your eternity infinitely happy? (J. Thain Davidson, D.D.) Psalms 71:6 By Thee have I been holden up from the womb.God the Creator, Preserver, and Governor of the world I. Our birth and being are owing to God, as the original cause of them. II. It is His providence which sustains, preserves, and holds up our goings in life. Even if the materials of our being had, in themselves, a self-subsisting power, yet the form of them by which we are men, by which we are creatures of such a species, this, we know, is liable to various contingencies, and obnoxious to many fatal alterations. Wherefore, as we derive our birth and being from the wisdom and power of our great Creator, so, if we were not nursed up by the care and goodness of His paternal providence, the brittle and tender threads of life had probably long since been broken in us, and we had consequently returned to the dust from whence we were taken. III. There is a providential direction and disposal of such events as concern us. If we would attend to God’ s dealings with us, every man, I doubt not, might find his own experience attesting the truth and fact of this directing, overruling, superintending providence. Conclusion.1. If God be our Creator, Preserver, and Governor, then we can nowhere fix our dependence so properly, nowhere with such security and safety, as upon His infinite goodness, wisdom, and power. 2. To render this persuasion of our dependence on God more practical, we are not only to recognize His majesty and power in thought and in word, but in deed and in truth. 3. If we owe our life and being to God, as the original cause and donor of them, let His demands upon us to resign them find us in the posture of a ready obedience. (N. Marshall, D. D.) Psalms 71:7I am as a wonder unto many; but Thou art my strong refuge.A wonder unto many Consider the text, with reference to David, to Christ, and to the Christian. (John Cawood, M. A.) Psalms 71:8 Be Thou my strong habitation, whereunto I may continually resort.God, our continual resort David knew what it was to hide himself away in the great caverns and rocks of his native land. He had done so in the cave of Adullam. And such residences are never forgotten. You may live for an age in such a town as this, and forget it all. What is there to remember in this labyrinth of bricks and mortar? But when you get into the clear bracing atmosphere of the hills, amid these crags and glens, and you spend a night in some mountain cave, you will never forget that. And David never did. And in his loftiest songs he speaks of God in language culled from the cave. And what a gracious heart he must have had to be able to speak like this. He desired not merely to dwell with, but in, God. He would have the Lord to be his house, his home, whereunto he might continually resort. The text suggests-- I. The delightful repose that David found in God. Be Thou my strong habitation: that is, be my house and home.1. What wonderful condescension he had experienced from God. That he should be allowed to think of the great and glorious God as his home. And he did so, for-- 2. He had realized in God peculiar love. In a man’ s own home he expects to find love. Pity the poor wretch who is disappointed therein. In the world we do not expect it, we reckon on rough treatment; but within our own doors we enter the sanctuary of love. And David had dwelt in God as in the abode of love. 3. And home is the place of special rest. We lay aside our working dress. The advocate takes off his gown, and says, “ Lie there, Mr. Barrister, and let the father come to the front.” The tradesman takes off his apron, the warrior his harness, the bearer his yoke, for he is at home. And so we have rest in God. 4. And of joyful freedom. Religious people sometimes start back from the prayers of a true saint, and say, “ He is too familiar.” Of course a child is too familiar for the imitation of a stranger; but have you ever blamed a child for clambering on his father’ s knee? And yet you would not think of copying him. “ Boy, dost thou know what thou art at? Thou art playing with a learned judge, before whom prisoners tremble, and courts are hushed. Even wise counsellors speak to him as “ my lord.” But that urchin does not say, “ My lord.” Look, he is plucking him by the beard; he is kissing his cheek. What presumption! No! he is the judge’ s child; he who is to judge others is “ father” to him. So the saints of God say, “ Our Father, which art in heaven,” ever reverentially, but yet with sweet familiarity. They are at home with Him. 5. And of intimate knowledge. David knew the Lord even as he knew the eaves in which he had sheltered. David could have served as a guide to the great hollow of Adullam. 6. Of tender care. We may get more skill elsewhere, perhaps, but what can make up for the tenderness of home? One would like to die there when our time comes. II. David had realized in God powerful security. He felt then, and so does the child of God, perfectly safe. III. God was to him a place of continual resort. The gate of communion with God is never locked. There is joy in such resort itself, and as an outlook for the unknown future; and it is a joy which answers so many blessed purposes. Let us continually resort unto God as we ever may. Let us come now. (C. H. Spurgeon.) God the habitation of souls I. A sense of the soul’ s need. The soul needs a “ habitation.” It is a homeless wanderer.1. It wants a home for protection. How exposed is a guilty soul? 2. It wants a home for comfort. Home is the scene of comfort. But the guilty soul is comfortless. 3. It wants a home for settledness. It is a restless wanderer. II. A faith in God’ s sufficiency. God is just the “ habitation” which the soul wants, affording security, comfort, and permanent residence.1. God is an accessible habitation. The doors of infinite love are ever open to welcome all who come. This habitation is ever near to us. 2. God is a secure habitation. Those who are in Him are safe from all dangers and all foes. “ God is our refuge and strength.” 3. God is a blessed habitation. In Him is found infinitely more than all we want to perfect us in everlasting bliss. 4. God is an enduring habitation. “ The eternal God is our refuge,” etc. Return, O prodigal, to thy Father’ s house. (Homilist.) The best home (to children):--I am going to talk to you about the best home you could ever think of. God is a home; that’ s what our text says. I. Home is a place of shelter and security. Every boy and girl feels safe at home. Now, there are a great many dangers and troubles in the world that grasp us, and threaten us, and frighten us; but if we only get into this home of which I am speaking, they can’ t harm us. God is a sure refuge for His children. Long ago, rich people lived in castles built of strong stone walls, and frequently surrounded by a deep broad ditch, so that robbers and enemies would not be able to enter and despoil them of their property. They used to fight with each other, and when the battle began to turn against them, they would flee into their castles, and there they were safe. New, God is a great castle; He is a “ strong habitation.” If you once get inside of it, no enemy can harm you. II. Home is a place of supply. I know that there are homes where children do not have many nice things, where they have at times to suffer hunger. But such is not the case with this home of which I am speaking. This home has everything to make those who live in it satisfied and happy. III. Home is a place of love. Mother, father, wife, children, are but faint, faint images of God. He is the fountain of all their affection. There is no place in the universe so safe and so delightful. (B. D. Thomas.) Psalms 71:9 Cast me not off in the time of old age: forsake me not when my strength faileth.The cry of the aged This is the cry of trembling, tottering age to man as well as God. Among the very saddest of human experiences is the decay which is the harbinger of death. If death were always a swift, sudden translation, like that of Enoch or Elijah, we could understand it better. The long act of dying is the darkest part of death. I. The phenomenon of human decay. At both ends of life man is the weakest and most helpless of creatures. The noblest of created beings and the most Godlike is cast more utterly, in birth and death, on the care of his fellows, than the weakest of the creatures which God made to be his satellites. Alas for the old and weary among the great mass of mankind; how utterly sad their lot, not only the body but the mind failing also. II. Why is this? Partly--1. To drive home the lessons God is ever teaching us about sin. 2. To develop the noblest qualities of the human spirit by the ministries which sickness, suffering and decay call forth. 3. That He may strengthen faith and hope in immortality. Death is terrible that life may be beautiful. By faith and hope in Christ we can transmute death into blessing and the germ of everlasting joy. III. The duties which spring out of these facts.1. The tender care of the aged. 2. The pressing on them with double earnestness the Gospel which brings to light life and immortality. (J. Baldwin Brown, B. A.) To the aged Old men do not always put up this petition. If the desires of many were put into words, they would be for money, power, and many other things. Covetousness is peculiarly the sin of old age. But the favour and presence of God should be our supreme desire. For-- I. There are some peculiar circumstances of old age which render this blessing necessary.1. There is little natural enjoyment (2 Samuel 19:35). 2. The troubles of life often increase. Poverty. Misery of our children, or their evil courses. Loss of friends. Results of the evil training of our children. See David’ s sorrow. 3. And as troubles increase we are less able to bear them. Jacob could bear the Padan-Aram hardships--he was young; but not the loss of Rachel when he was old. 4. Old age is not always treated with due respect, but often with neglect. 5. Death and eternity are near. II. When may we hope for this blessing? Not all old men enjoy it. Oh, the misery of a wicked old age! But if we have been God’ s servants from our youth, or have become so since we were old, or if now we cast ourselves upon the Lord, then this prayer shall be fulfilled. (Andrew Fuller.) The time of old age The time of old age is-- I. Specially the time for prayer.1. On account of personal need. The text is an appeal to the Divine compassion. This the heavenly Father always welcomes and honours. It is in the supreme distinction of His nature. How He proclaims it! “ The Lord God merciful and gracious.” It is a frequent title in the Psalms, “ full of compassion.” To what else can weakness turn so hopefully, so trustfully, so joyfully? Human life is compared to a journey. Men grow tired after long walking. All pilgrims find it so. But to come in then with timely help is altogether Divine. “ Man’ s extremity is God’ s opportunity.” 2. By reason of past memories. The psalmist calls to mind what God had done for him: “ Thou hast taught me from my youth.” Well, he makes that a ground of expectation that God would carry on and complete what He had begun. That is the logic of the heart. A child can understand it. II. The time of harvest. If youth is passed in listless frivolity, old age will be childish or idiotic; but if it be passed in careful research and thoughtful study, it will be ripe in knowledge and understanding. If youth is passed in storing the false, the foul, the malicious, old age will be like the land of Egypt, hideous and loathsome, with its frogs and gadfly; but if it be passed in fellowship with the true, the pure, the loving, old age will be like Eden, with warbling songs and fragrant flowers, and ruddy and pulpy fruits. If in youth the passions are unbridled and burning, they will grow into tormenting fiends. If ruled and hallowed by the life of Christ, they will grow into bright angels with heavenly music. III. The time of fixedness. In earlier days men prepare the facilities and the forces of later days. How absurd it would be to send people to apprenticeship at seventy years of age! They could not learn. So in every event of life the same rule will be found to apply. When men get old their passions cool; but their affections grow firmer, and their will grows stubborn. That sapling may be easily trained. That grown tree must be cut down. The old man will often see a better way, and sigh to enter it; but Nature cries: “ Too late! too late!” In everything the law is imperative and irrevocable. If Wisdom speak, it is by this rule: “ They that seek me early shall find me.” In Grace, as in Nature, “ now is the accepted time; now is the day of salvation.” The Lord meets every one at the threshold and says: “ My son, my daughter, give Me thy heart.” IV. The time of testimony. Those to whom we refer have had discipline and experience. They ought to have knowledge and conviction, and they ought to bear testimony of this for the honour of the Most High, and for the advantage of those with whom they have to do. It was so with the psalmist. He acted on this rule as every one ought to act. In his day the trial of faith was this--it was a dispensation of temporal rewards and punishments; yet they saw sometimes the wicked man prospering and the godly man seeming to suffer. Still he bore his testimony and said: “ I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.” The trial of faith in these days would rather seem to be in the pride and prevalence of unbelief. I own that it does not move me. You ask me why. Well, the work of the Good Spirit in every man’ s own heart must for that man be the most personal and perfect and abiding ground of confidence. Yet, apart from that, this fixes and satisfies me--that the Gospel in itself, in its teaching, and in its effects is only goodness. “ There is none good but one, that is God;” and goodness can come from Him and from Him alone. V. The time of farewell and welcome, giving up and getting. I say it is the time of farewell. There is one expression used by the Apostle Paul: “ Though our outward man perish.” Then it does perish: all biography tells us that. “ The inward man is renewed day by day.” Yes--the flesh decays; the spirit lives. The senses grow dull; but thought grows clearer and convictions grow stronger. Dreary memories lose their bitterness; holy ones get lighted up with a heavenly gladness. The simplest things in Nature shine with a heavenly light. The bloom and freshness and vigour seem an image of the untainted land. Earth Ceases to distract and to dazzle. Strength declines but ambitions die, and the soul is even as a weaned child. The hectic has gone from the cheek, but the fever has gone from the heart. The day’ s work is well nigh done, but then home is near, and home’ s rest and safety and gladness and love. (J. Aldis.) Remorseful reflection on growing old John Foster, he who sprang into celebrity from one essay, “ Popular Ignorance,” had a diseased feeling against growing old, which seems to us to be very prevalent. He was sorry to lose every parting hour. “ I have seen a fearful sight to-day,” he would say--“ I have seen a buttercup.” To others the sight would only give visions of the coming spring and future summer; to him it told of the past year, the last Christmas, the days which would never come again--the so many days nearer the grave. Thackeray continually expressed the same feeling. He reverts to the merry old time when George III. was king. He looks back with a regretful mind to his own youth. The black care constantly rides behind his chariot. “ Ah, my friends,” he says, “ how beautiful was youth! We are growing old. Springtime and summer are past. We near the winter of our days. We shall never feel as we have felt. We approach the inevitable grave.” Few men, indeed, know how to grow old gracefully, as Mme. de Stael very truly observed. Psalms 71:12O God, be not far from me.God always near A busy woman entered her room hastily as twilight shades were falling--went directly to her desk, turned on the gas, and began to write. Page after page she wrote. The solitude became oppressive: She wheeled her chair around, and with a shock of joyful surprise looked squarely into the face of her dearest friend, lying on the lounge at her side. “ Why, I didn’ t know you were here!” she cried. “ Why didn’ t you speak to me?” “ Because you were so busy. You didn’ t speak to me.” So with Jesus--here all the time. The room is full of Him, always ready to greet us with a smile--but we are so busy. But when the solitude grows oppressive we suddenly turn, and lo, He is at our side. We speak to Him and He speaks to us, and the soul’ s deepest yearnings are satisfied. (Christian Age.) Psalms 71:14 But I. . . will yet praise Thee more and more.More and more When sin conquered the realm of manhood, it slew all the minstrels except those of the race of Hope. For humanity, amid all its sorrows and sins, hope sings on. To believers in Jesus there remains a royal race of bards, for we have a hope of glory, a lively hope, a hope eternal and divine. I. Our first business shall be, to urge ourselves to this resolution.1. It is humbling to remember that we may very well praise God more than we have done, for we have praised Him very little as yet. What we have done, as believers, in glorifying God falls far, far short of His due. 2. Another argument which presses upon my mind is this: that wherein we have praised God up till now, we have not found the service to be a weariness to ourselves, but it has ever been to us both a profit and a delight. I would not speak falsely even for God, but I bear my testimony that the happiest moments I have ever spent have been occupied with the worship of God. I have never been so near heaven as when adoring before the eternal throne. I think every Christian will bear like witness. 3. We ought surely to praise God more to-day than at any other previous day, because we have received more mercies. Even of temporal favours we have been large partakers. Begin with these, and then rise higher. 4. We have been proving through a series of years the faithfulness, immutability, and veracity of our God--proving these attributes by our sinning against God, and their bearing the strain of our misbehaviour--proving them by the innumerable benefits which the Lord has bestowed upon us. Shall all this experience end in no result? Shall there be no advance in gratitude where there is such an increase of obligation? God is so good that every moment of His love demands a life of praise. 5. It should never be forgotten that every Christian as he grows in grace should have a loftier idea of God. Our highest conception of God falls infinitely short of His glory, but an advanced Christian enjoys a far clearer view of what God is than he had at the first, Now, the greatness of God is ever a claim for praise. “ Great is the Lord, and” --what follows?--“ greatly to be praised.” If, then, God is greater to me than He was, let my praise be greater. 6. It is a good reason for praising God more that we are getting nearer to the place where we hope to praise Him, world without end, after a perfect sort. II. Let us in the Spirit’ s strength drive away that which hinders us from praising God more and more.1. One of the deadliest things is dreaminess, sleepiness. A Christian readily falls into this state. I notice it even in the public congregation. Very often the whole service is gone through mechanically. A sleepy seraph before the throne of Jehovah, or a cherub nodding during sacred song, it were ridiculous to imagine. And shall such an insult to the majesty of heaven be seen on earthy No! Let us say to all that is within us, “ Awake! awake!” 2. The next hindrance would be divided objects. We cannot, however we may resolve, praise God more and more, if, as we grow older, we allow this world to take up our thoughts. If I say, “ I will praise God more and more,” and yet I am striking out right and left with projects of amassing wealth, or I am plunging myself into greater business cares unnecessarily, my actions belie my resolutions. 3. To rest on the past is another danger as to this matter. III. Let us apply ourselves to the practical carrying out of this resolution. How shall I begin to praise God more and mercy Earnestness says: “ I shall undertake some fresh duty this afternoon.” Stop just a minute. If you want to praise God, would not it be as well first to begin with yourself? The musician said: “ I will praise God better” ; but the pipes of his instrument were foul; he had better look to them first. If the strings have slipped from their proper tension, it will be well to correct them before beginning the tune. No; prepare yourself; make your heart ready. Thou needest the Spirit’ s aid to make thy soul fit for praising God. Go then to thy chamber, confess the sins of the past, and ask the Lord to give thee much more grace that thou mayest begin to praise Him. These inner matters being considered, let us go on to increase our actual and direct service of God. Let us quicken our speed. Or suppose we are already doing so much that all the time we can possibly spare is fully occupied, let us do what we do better. We should praise God much more if we threw more of His praise into our common conversation--if we spoke more of Him when we are by the way or when we sit in the house. We should praise Him more and more if we fulfilled our consecration, and obeyed the precept, “ Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.” (C. H. Spurgeon.) Psalms 71:15 My mouth shall show forth Thy righteousness and Thy salvation all the day; for I know not the numbers thereof.An inexhaustible subject This psalmist’ s words may well be a pattern for old men, who need fear no failure of buoyancy, nor any collapse of gladness, if they will fix their thoughts where this singer did his. Other subjects of thought and speech will pall and run dry; but he whose theme is God’ s righteousness and the salvation that flows from it will never lack materials for animating meditation and grateful praise. “ I know not the numbers thereof.” It is something to have fast hold of an inexhaustible subject. It will keep an old man young. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Witnessing of God’ s grace and salvation We may wrongly hide our religion so that it evaporates. Too many professing Christians put away their religion as careless housewives might do some precious perfume, Had when they go to take it out, they find nothing but a rotten cork, a faint odour and an empty flask. Take care of burying your religion so deep as dogs do bones, that you cannot find it again, or, if you do, discover when you open the coffin that it holds only a handful of dry dust. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Psalms 71:16I will go in the strength of the Lord God: I will make mention of Thy righteousness, even of Thine only.God the source of the minister’ s strength I. What is the help the minister requires?--“ the strength of the Lord God.”1. Not human strength, that is but weakness. What was Isaiah’ s comfort but this, “ Surely shall we say, In the Lord have I righteousness and strength” ? And so with Paul. And he bids Timothy, “ Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.” 2. What is this strength? Not mere physical ability, nor mental might. For many who have no splendour of intellect are greatly used of God. When some one complained to his bishop of good and holy Mr. Rogers of Frome that his style of preaching was so at random, the bishop replied, “ Ah, complain not about his style; Mr. Rogers charms more souls to Christ with his wild notes, than we do with all our set music.” No; the strength which ministers require is that of the Spirit of God (John 15:26-27). And though we may not have His miraculous influence, yet we may and must have His instructing, His Christ-glorifying, His witnessing, His comforting, His holy, influence. This is the minister’ s strength, and none can withstand it. 3. But how do ministers go in this strength? By realizing it as secured to them by the covenant of grace, the blood of Christ and His intercession. And by depending upon it. The minister must not depend upon any one else, whether upon great men or small, and least of all upon himself. 4. Where will he go? In the path of communion with God. In the fields of conflict with spiritual wickedness. In the privacy of domestic life. “ I will walk within my house with a perfect heart.” In the path of active duty. II. The subject of the minister’ s boasting. “ I will make mention of,” etc. It is the righteousness of Christ that he is to make mention of--1. To God as the ground of his confidence. 2. To himself as the spring of his comforts. This supplies all his needs. As guilty, lost, empty, condemned, weak, dying. 3. To others as the hope of salvation. “ I am determined to know nothing among you save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.” 4. With the multitude of the redeemed, as the matter of his joy. Conclusion.1. Aim to adopt this resolution as your own. 2. Assist your minister in his endeavour to carry it out. Come and pray unitedly and help me in all works of mercy. Lot there be no drones here, but all at work for Christ. (James Sherman.) Faith’ s firm resolve I. His resolve. “ I will go.”1. He will not sit still.2. He will go to warfare.3. He will go forward and make progress in Divine things.4. He will go to suffering with holy resignation. II. His reliance. “ In the strength of the Lord God.” --1. He will go glorying in strength already received.2. Relying upon a strength which did not alter.3. In a power which sanctified his going.4. He is confident as to the sufficiency and adaptation of God’ s strength to every trial or work to which he may be called; for the Hebrew, being plural, hints at this. “ I will go in the strengths of the Lord God.” If I shall require mental vigour, God can give it me. If I shall want physical strength, He can give it me. If I shall need spiritual power, He can give it me. If the particular demand is a clear sight, that I may detect and baffle the cunning of the enemy, He can give it me. If I require courage and quick resolve, He can give them me. If my special need be firmness of mind in the day of temptation, He can give it me. If it be a patient temper, He can give it me. Nothing is wanted by a believer, but that which the strength of God supplies when it is needed. As our days our strength shall be. We shall find the supply always equal to the demand. III. His message. “ I will make mention,” etc. Bear your testimony to the righteousness of God in providence. Stand to it that the Lord never does wrong. He is never mistaken; but whatever He ordains is, and must be, unquestionably right. Bear witness, next, to His righteousness in salvation; that He does not save without an atonement; that He does not put away sin without being strictly just; that He does by no means spare the guilty, but has laid on Christ that which was due to human sin, that He might be “ just and the justifier of him that believeth.” Declare the righteousness of God as to a future state. Declare that whatever Scripture speaks of the ungodly is true, and that God is righteous in it. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The Christian’ s duty and dependence I. His purpose of holy walking, of going forward, and persevering in the way of his duty.1. A serious and deliberate choice of the ways of God. 2. A constant jealousy over his heart. 3. “ I will go,” though a cloud should hang over my head the whole way. 4. “ I will go,” let the duties I am called to perform be ever so arduous, or the difficulties ever so discouraging that lie in my way; I must look for them from without and from within, that will put all my resolution to the trial. 5. “ I will go,” if I should go singly and alone. There is no co-partnership here; every man must trade upon his own bottom. 6. “ I will go,” therefore, directed in every step by the infallible standard--“ The scriptures of the inspiration of God.” 7. “ I will go” --I will go instantly, without admit-ring one excuse, were it but for a moment, for postponing my present purpose to a “ more convenient season.” 8. “ I will go” --endeavouring to make daily progress. “ Counting not myself to have attained,” etc. II. His ground and dependence.1. Almighty strength was the psalmist’ s sole reliance; and it must be mine, or in vain are all my best efforts. Amidst all my attainments, no less than all my weaknesses, and all my fears, I will eye a superior power. In the one ease, I will review and acknowledge the Divine bounty with the warmest sentiments of gratitude and dependence; in the other, I will pour forth my plaint, and offer my humble but fervent suit, expecting no relief nor aid from any other quarter. 2. I will make mention of Thy righteousness, as including in it the holiness and purity of Thy nature, It is the invariable measure of Thy moral administration; it is the centre of union, and gives, as it were, stability to all Thy other perfections. (Thomas Gordon.) Psalms 71:17-18O God, Thou hast taught me from my youth: and hitherto have I declared Thy wondrous works.The old man’ s sermon His scholarship. “ O God, Thou hast taught me from my youth.”1. The psalmist was an instructed believer. He had not merely been saved, but taught: conversion had led to instruction. I call the attention of all young Christians to this. How desirable it is not merely that you should be forgiven your sins, and that your hearts should be renewed by the operations of the Holy Ghost, but that you should go to school to Jesus, and take His yoke upon you, and learn of Him. 2. All his instruction the psalmist traced to his God. “ O God, Thou hast taught me.” He had entered Christ’ s college as a scholar. Most wisely had he chosen to learn of Him who was infinite wisdom to impart, and divine skill in communicating it. What a school have some of us passed through, a school of trial and a school of love. We have sat on the hard form of discipline. 3. David also had the privilege of beginning early. “ O God, Thou hast taught me from my youth.” If you would be a good scholar you must be a young scholar. 4. Further, notice David tells us he kept to his studies. He says, “ O God, Thou hast taught me from my youth,” which implies that God had continued to teach him: and so, indeed, He had. The learner had not sought another school, nor had the Master turned off His pupil. Some make slight progress because they seem to begin well, but afterwards turn aside to folly. II. His occupation. “ Hitherto have I declared Thy wondrous works.”1. A Divine subject. Did you notice the fifteenth verse, “ My mouth shall show forth Thy righteousness and Thy salvation all the day” ? That is the great Christian doctrine--the very pith and marrow of theology--the atonement in which grace and justice unite in the sacrifice of Jesus. 2. The style which David used was very commendable. “ Declared.” David’ s teaching about his God had not been with an “ if,” and a “ but,” and a “ may be,” but it had been, “ Thus and thus, saith the Lord.” III. His prayer.1. He was not ashamed of his former reliance. He knew the secret springs from which all his blessings had flowed, and he pleads with the Lord never to stop the Divine fountain of self-sufficiency, or he must faint and die. 2. This proves that David did not imagine that past grace could suffice for the present. David acknowledged his present dependence, and it was wise to do so, Men always stumble when they try to walk with their eyes turned behind them. 3. He confessed his undeservingness. He felt that for his sins God might well leave him. But he humbly resolved not to be deserted, he could not bear it, he held his God with eagerness, and cried in agony, “ O God, forsake me not.” His heart was desperately set upon holding to his one hope and consolation, and so he pleaded as one who pleads for life itself. IV. His wish (Psalms 71:18). He had spent a lifetime in declaring God’ s Gospel, but he wanted to do it once more. Aged saints are loth to cease from active service. Many of them are like old John Newton, who, when he was too feeble to walk up the pulpit stairs of St. Mary Woolnoth parish church, was carried up to his place and preached on still. His friends said, “ Really, Mr, Newton, you are so feeble, you ought to give over,” and he said, “ What? Shall the old African blasphemer ever leave off preaching the grace of his Master as long as there is breath in his body? No, never.” It is harder work to leave off than to go on, for the love o! Christ constrains us still, and burns with young flame in an aged heart. So here the good man pines to show forth once more God’ s strength. And, do you notice the congregation he wished to address? He would testify to the generation that was growing up around him. He wished to make known God’ s power to his immediate neighbours, and to their children, so that the light might be handed on to other generations. This should be on the mind of all who are going off the stage of action: they should think of those who are to come after them, and pray for them, and help them. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The training of a nation This psalm tells the experience of an old man, some grey-haired saint of the Old Testament. He speaks in accents now sad, now joyful, but always trustful. He invokes God’ s judgment against his enemies, in the spirit of the Old Testament rather than of the New. But the chief truth and the eternal teaching is, that behind all life’ s disciplines and trials he recognizes God as the Guido, the Friend, the Teacher, from whom they have come. And he is sure that God will be with him still, and he will be yet a witness of His righteousness. Jeremiah may have been the writer, or some other saint of his age. For it is said that the exiles were familiar with it. And some say the unknown author is tolling not of himself but of his nation; if so, the true meaning of the text would be, “ Thou, Lord, hast taught, trained and disciplined this nation from its birth,” and, if we follow a more correct rendering of the rest of the verses, “ and up to this day it has proclaimed and acknowledged, without reserve, the wondrous doings which have marked that history.” Such application of the language gives new force and colour to it, whether right or wrong. I. Hear the voice of our own nation in these words. Trace her history from pro-Roman times, on through the beginnings of Christianity in her midst, by the days of our rude Saxon forefathers who had entered into the fair heritage which Rome had abandoned; how they in their turn bowed before the cross of Christ, and in their turn strove against ruthless Dane and Norseman. And once again foreign rule forced itself on the nation, how on this very spot the Conqueror, first of a long line of kings, was crowned by the tomb of the gentle, unwarlike monarch whose bones still rest amongst us, And we see the gradual fusing of the varied elements into that one hardy race, toiling, fighting, conquering, and being conquered, the memorials of all which are around us. But in and through all these vicissitudes has not God been training this land; might it not take our text for itself? II. And we may do so, again, in regard to the reign of our sovereign, whose jubilee we have so recently and joyfully celebrated. During these fifty years God has still been teaching this nation by ways and agencies manifold. What material prosperity has been given; for the amelioration of the lot of the poor, what were once the privileges of the few being now the common patrimony of the many; for all just and wise legislation; for the strides with which human knowledge has advanced, for fresh light thrown on history; for the good men and great whom God has raised up for us; for those who are gone and those who are left. And let us, above all, thank Him for those who have died in His faith and fear; and for all who have striven to extend the knowledge of our Father-God and of our Lord Jesus Christ. And let us ask Him not to forsake us now that He has led us so far on in our career. We may not shut our eyes to the perils of the future--the weakness as well as the strength of a world-wide empire; the decay of faith and the turning away from Christ. All the more, therefore, let us pray this prayer, “ O God, forsake me not.” (Dean Bradley.) The discipline of life Trace this in the life of David. I. It begins early. II. Is conducted through various agencies. 1. Prosperity is one of them. Darwin says in one of his books, speaking of change of instinct in the lower creation, that when bees were carried to Barbadoes and the Western Islands, they ceased to lay up honey after the first year. They found the weather so fine, and the material for honey so plentiful, that they ate up their store, and neglected to provide for the future any longer. Their character degenerated under the influence of their prosperity. Too often it is so among men; and the greater their prosperity, the greater is their deterioration of character. It is said of one of the popes that when he was a poor priest he was regarded as a good man; when promoted to be a cardinal he doubted of his salvation; and when he was raised to the papal chair he despaired of it. Now, that ought not to be the result’ of prosperity. But it too often is so. 2. Adversity is another. Adversity, says one, is of use to kill those sinners which the summer of prosperity is apt to produce and nourish. I have seen a Christian man accumulate money, and in the process of accumulation begin to love it; and I have observed the wisdom and fatherly kindness of God, in making all his investments profitless, and scattering his little board to the winds like dust, and in the end drawing out his soul in deeper love and desire for the true riches. Affliction is beneficial in perfecting patience, fortitude, and acquiescence in the Divine will. No other form of discipline can so promote growth. III. Is often very mysterious. See this in history of Joseph. And observation and experience teach the same. IV. Is perpetual. And-- V. Is regulated by infinite wisdom and love. (William Walters.) God’ s pupil, God’ s preacher; an autobiography I. Think of David as a pupil, God was his Teacher. “ O God, Thou hast taught me from my youth.” This shows that David had a teachable spirit; and if you had asked him where it came from, he would have said that God gave him a teachable spirit. God is not only the Teacher of our spirit, but He gives us a teachable spirit, Have we all received that precious gift? A teachable spirit, although it is despised by many, is a happy spirit; it is a growing spirit; it is a restful spirit; it is a heavenly spirit; and whoever has it, must ascribe the possession of it to the Spirit of God, who leads us into all truth, and makes us willing to be led therein. Oh, that we may have such a spirit, that we shall count it an honour to say, “ O God, Thou hast taught me” ! In David’ s acknowledgment we learn that God took him very early into His school. “ Thou hast taught me from my youth.” What a mercy it is to begin to know God before we begin to know anything else! Happy shalt thou be if thy first intelligible thoughts shall be of thy Maker, thy Benefactor, thy Friend. There are many aged men who can say with David, “ O God, Thou hast taught me from my youth.” They find themselves learners yet, for they are “ Unstable, weak, and apt to slide.” II. But now I want you to notice David as a pupil-teacher. While he was a pupil, he was also teaching. He says, “ Hitherto have I declared Thy wondrous works.” Observe, then, that David taught people what he saw. He saw God’ s works all around him. Ah! me, that is a great sight. We do not see God as we should, and we shall never teach aright for God, until we have a kind of instinctive feeling of the presence of God, till we are conscious that God is in us, and round about us, and at work for us. God’ s work that David saw was very much work in himself, and work for himself, and work in other men’ s hearts. Being taken into the school of God, he was made to observe things; he had object lessons put before him, and he learned to read God’ s work; and as he saw it, he wondered. “ Hitherto,” said he, “ have I declared Thy wondrous works.” He who is a stranger to wonder is a stranger to God, for God is wonderful everyway, and everywhere, and everyhow. We find that David took opportunity to declare God’ s wondrous work; sometimes with his pen, writing his psalms; sometimes with his voice, singing those psalms; sometimes talking to a few, sometimes speaking to many. Now, dear friends, what I want you all to do is, if you have seen God’ s work, and have been struck with it, you should declare it, tell it to others. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Psalms 71:20 Thou who hast showed me great and sore troubles shalt quicken me again, and shalt bring me up again from the depths of the earth.Divine help in times of trouble This is a psalm of experience: it begins with trusting and ends with praise, which is the usual ending for such beginning. I. The fact recognized, that troubles are often sent by God. If David were the author, then he might have remembered the troubles which arose--1. From Saul’ s jealousy. See the history, and learn, that advancement in social life is no security against trouble; and that the more we may do for another’ s good, the greater, oftentimes, shall be the ingratitude we shall receive. 2. From the accusings of conscience. The conscience of a man who is not an habitual sinner! a great source of trouble. 3. From the rebellion of his son. 4. The being forsaken by his friend. 5. The jeers of the ungodly (Psalms 71:10-11). 6. But the greatest trouble of all was when he thought God had left him. 7. We, today, may know some of all those things. II. These troubles are always sent for a good purpose. To admonish, to purify, etc. III. Rightly received they shall issue in joy. (A. F. Barfield.) From winter to spring “ What a lamentable change has taken place in my condition,” said the frozen brook. “ Only a short time ago I ran along, a lively stream, glistening in the sunshine, dancing in the shade, and doing my work with joyous pleasure; but now, alas! I am cold and motionless--what a melancholy change has come over me, and oh, what if I should never recover from this torpor--never flow again.” A sturdy oak that had outlived a hundred winters, and now also stood bare and comparatively leafless, overhearing, tried to comfort it. “ Don’ t despair,” said the oak; “ these changes are common, and affect you now so powerfully because you are so shallow. As long as streams have been exposed to climates of this nature, they have endured what you now suffer. But the glorious sun retains his power in the heavens; and depend upon it that by and by we shall both again feel his quickening influence--myself to put on a new dress of foliage, and you to flow with freedom and freshness.” The old oak was not mistaken. In due time the sun poured forth bright beams from the sky, the air became soft and balmy, and the little rivulet burst its icy bonds and coursed again through the meadows. The Christian has his wintry season, when cold and lifeless, as it were, and lamenting the absence of former spiritual enjoyments, he cries, “ Quicken me in Thy way. Thou who hast showed me great and sore troubles shalt quicken me again.” (W. Bowden.) Psalms 71:21 Thou shalt increase my greatness, and comfort me on every side.Christian dignity The world has its great men; so has the Bible. Alongside the monarch, the Bible puts the man who rules his own spirit well; the warrior, one who fights the fight of faith; the artist, one who by loving deeds paints his own portrait on the canvas of the soul of the suffering. I. This greatness is Real. Consider what God calls the good man--a saint, a son, a joint heir with Christ. II. This greatness is conscious. God has spoken; I have heard. He has given; I have received. He visited the land I lived in, and did not pass my door. In His mighty lifeboat He touched at the shore where I stood, gave me a hail, and welcomed me on board! III. This greatness is Derived. Once I had it not. The remembrance of this shall ever keep me humble. “ Not unto us,” etc. But though I once possessed them not, now I do. IV. This greatness is Increasing, David was an old man, yet he could say soberly and acceptably, “ Thou shalt increase my greatness.”1. In my personal enjoyment. Religion is not a surface thing. Infirmities shall lessen, virtues shall increase, Thy love shall be more precious, Thy presence more valued. “ Thou wilt not forsake the work of Thine own hands.” 2. In the experience of the saints. David’ s name is great to-day! And in every well-worn Bible may be seen the signs of his sympathy and power. 3. In the admiration of angels. What sympathizing, appreciating, ministering spectators are these! (Homilist.) Psalms 71:22-24I will also praise Thee with the psaltery, even Thy truth, O my God: unto Thee will I sing with the harp, O Thou Holy One of Israel.The praises of a Hebrew saint Dr. Sanday has remarked that, “ on the great world-stage different races have different functions,” and that “ for the Hebrew it was reserved beyond all other peoples to teach the world what it knew of religion.” I. Three features of the Divine character.1. Holiness. “ O Thou Holy One of Israel.” The root idea is separation. The Most High forbids the people to follow certain practices then in vogue among the surrounding heathen, and the reason given is because He is holy, and they, His people, are to be like Him (Leviticus 19:2). In every case where such prohibitions occur, we find that the practices condemned are morally alike, that they are mischievous and vile; and therefore by such teaching the Hebrew rose to the conception of a God altogether different from the gods of the heathen--of a Being who had no pleasure in selfishness or cruelty or hatred. Further, it is clear that such a doctrine put honour upon men as well as upon God. When the command was understood, “ Ye shall be holy: for I am holy,” the Jews must have seen that they were created for better things than hatred, malice, or lust. They were fulfilling the end of their creation when they conquered such passions, when they were ruled by kindness, honour, and purity. 2. Truth. “ I will praise Thee with the psaltery, even Thy truth, O my God.” The want of this virtue has often made the world a pandemonium. We can scarcely conceive a worse condition of things than when men are unable to trust their fellows--when men’ s word is not their bond, and their most solemn pledges are no guarantee whatever that they will act accordingly. Sir Richard Burton once said that “ to the Oriental lying was meat and drink and the roof that covered him.” Strong words, and yet a statement confirmed by multitudes of others who have lived in the midst of them. Such a condition of things undoubtedly existed among the neighbours of the Jews; they were false in word and deed, cunning, deceitful, treacherous. Here again the Hebrew stood alone in splendid isolation from his neighbours. His God was the “ Strength of Israel, who will not lie,” the “ God of truth, and without iniquity.” His promises held good; His threats were fulfilled. No wonder, then, when men believed thus, that their conduct should differ from that of others; and hence we find, among the characteristics of the perfect man of the Scriptures, truthfulness both without and within: “ he that sweareth to his own hurt, and changeth not” ; “ he that speaketh the truth in his heart.” 3. Love. Notice the boldness of the psalmist’ s claim--“ my God” ; and his grateful acknowledgment of the redemption of his soul--“ my soul, which Thou hast redeemed.” To the writer of this psalm, God was the Father of His creatures, One who had lovingly watched over the psalmist himself from his birth, and to whom in distress he could turn with the certain assurance of help. II. The characteristics of the praise which the psalmist resolved to offer.1. Sincere. “ My lips shall greatly rejoice,” etc. Let us see that we do not grieve our heavenly Father by insincere praise; however successful song may be as an artistic performance, it is abhorrent to God if words which mean so much are uttered with lips which do not greatly rejoice--lips which would be as readily used in the service of him who is the great Father’ s adversary and ours. 2. Hearty. Not merely should the psalmist’ s lips be made to rejoice, but all the powers of his redeemed soul; and, that he might present a worthy offering to God, both psaltery and harp should be called into service Evidently he believed that music might be the handmaid of worship, and that the skill of man in the production of sweet sounds ought to be consecrated to the service of God. (W. Scott Page.) . Psalms 72:1-20 Psalms 72:1-20 Give the king Thy judgments, O God, and Thy righteousness unto the king’ s son.The world-wanted king Society cannot exist without laws: these laws require to be expressed and enforced, and whoever does this is ruler. Again, whilst the millions have the instinct of obedience, and lack the faculty to rule, there are always some, on the other hand, in whom there is the tendency and the power to govern. Let us look at the reign of this ideal king as here sketched. I. It is characterized by righteousness and compassion (Psalms 72:1-4). This compassion, this tender, practical sympathy for the woes of the indigent and oppressed, is not something opposed to righteousness. It is but a modification of righteousness, or rather, another phase of righteousness. Justice is but love sternly opposing all that is injurious to the universe, and benevolently encouraging all that is promotive of happiness. Justice is like some Alpine hill, when the sun is descending in the West” on one side it is dark, frowning, terrific, on the other side it glows in brightness, disports in beauty. This compassion, this mercy, “ becomes the throned monarch better than his crown.” II. It is characterized by the highest national blessings (Psalms 72:3; Psalms 72:7).1. General peace. The prevalence of universal good-will is essential to universal peace. Men not seeking their own as the grand end, but seeking the good of each other. 2. Spiritual vitality. 3. The prosperity of the righteous. Men will be considered great, useful, and honourable in proportion to the amount of rectitude that lives in their hearts and comes out in their daily life. III. It is characterized by its moral command over all peoples (Psalms 72:9-11). Moral worth is always mighty; like the sun, no man can ignore it, no man can disregard its influence, or deny its value. But moral worth in a king is especially mighty, it is seen, and wherever seen is felt. Moral worth is moral sovereignty. IV. It is characterized by its expansibility and duration (Psalms 72:8; Psalms 72:16-17). The language does not mean that the king himself is to live and reign for ever, but that his name, his moral character, will be held in everlasting remembrance and will work on the earth for good as long as the sun and moon shall last. V. It is characterized by its Divine establishment (Psalms 72:18-19). For such a king as this the mighty Sovereign of the universe deserves the devoutest praises of men. He alone can form the character of such a king. (Homilist.) Messiah’ s reign I. Characteristics.1. Righteousness (Psalms 72:2). (Isaiah 11:1-5; Isaiah 32:1; Isaiah 32:17). Not till He comes whose right it is to reign will there be on earth a king whose judgments shall be based on an absolute knowledge of men, independent of the sensual judgment of sight and hearing. Then, and then only, will the people have righteousness meted out to them; then only will the poor be perfectly defended from the oppression of the rich. 2. Strength (Revelation 12:10). In the day of Christ’ s reign oppression shall not only come to an end, but the saints shall inherit the kingdom and the oppressor shall be cast out of power. 3. Gentleness (Psalms 72:6). Not with the sword does Christ win His kingdom, nor by such means will He execute righteousness in the deliverance of His poor and in the breaking of the tyrant’ s power, but by the almighty strength of truth itself. 4. Peace and prosperity (Psalms 72:8; Psalms 72:10; Psalms 72:16). This can only indicate an abundance of every supply, both for the people in country and city, and for all purposes of state and kingdom. II. Extent.1. Duration. An everlasting reign (Psalms 72:15; Psalms 72:17). His Kingship, as well as His Priesthood, is in the power of an endless life (Psalms 21:4; Psalms 61:6-7). 2. Subjects. Not only of all nations, but of every class of men in all nations. 3. Territory (Psalms 72:8). What a heaven this earth will be with the curse removed, all wickedness and evil taken out of the hearts and lives of all people; waters shall break out in the desert, and the very beasts of the field and the forest shall rest at peace each side with the others. III. Universal adoration.1. Prayer. “ Prayer shall be made to Him continually.” Every want shall be presented to Him, in the spirit of constant and humble, yet confident supplication, and no good thing will be witheld from those who pray. 2. Praise. “ And daily shall He be praised.” Eternity will not be too long wherein to praise Him who shall have delivered our souls from death, from the deceit and oppression of the wicked, especially from the power of our great enemy, the devil; to praise Him for the unspeakable blessings of forgiveness, justification, regeneration, sanctification. 3. Gifts. “ To Him shall be given the gold of Sheba.” The people will themselves be a free-will offering to their Lord and King; all that they are and have shall be laid at His feet as being worth nothing apart from Him and His blessing. Who shall say that in the age of glory there shall not be vast fields and unknown opportunities for the employment of all the redeemed and sanctified powers of man? (G. F. Pentecost, D. D.) Jesus both King and King’ s Son “ The king--the king’ s son.” We see that our Lord is here termed both “ king” and “ the king’ s son” ; both as respect to His human nature and also as to His Divine origin; for the Father of the universe may, of course, be properly denominated King. Agreeably to this designation we find on Turkish coins the inscription, “ Sultan, son of Sultan.” (George Phillips.) Psalms 72:3 The mountains shall bring peace to the people, and the little hills, by righteousness.Mountain peace Sympathy between the moral and physical worlds pervades the whole of Scripture and especially this seventy-second psalm. The beauty of the redeemed soul will be reflected, as it was at the first, in the beauty of a regenerated earth. Man will be then like another Adam in another Eden. Through the righteous rule of the new King of Israel, the physical features of the land of promise are pictured as contributing to the tranquillity and happiness of its people. Mountains in olden times were associated with gloom and terror. Imagination saw in them shapes of evil, and they seemed to belong to an alien, accursed land. Scenes of grandeur which the traveller will traverse half the globe to gaze upon with rapture were of old avoided altogether, or passed quickly through with shuddering dread. But we do not feel so now. The causes of this are varied. Increase of population, facility for travel, the pressure of crowded city life making us long for the quiet and grandeur of nature, increase of knowledge, etc. Now, in our text the security which mountains give is mainly referred to. Hence we learn-- I. The peace which they give is the peace of safety. In the plains man is exposed to attack on all sides, but amongst the mountains nature is his defence. See the Waldenses, Covenanters, Jews. For Palestine is an alpine land; hence in Babylon the exiles thought of their mountains as they sang, “ I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.” II. And of elevation. It is in the heights of the soul that we can get true and lasting peace. On the low levels of sense life we are as was he who went down to Jericho--stripped and wounded by the evils of life. Man’ s moral career has run parallel with his physical. He descended from the mountain ranges of Asia to her level plains, and to Egypt; and so has it been spiritually. But we cannot be satisfied there. We must ascend again, cost what it will. Then we regain peace to our souls. If the strain of the ascent be great, so is the peace likewise. For on the height we are above the changes of this world. The soul that dwells ever on high has perpetual sunshine. III. And it is the peace of compensation. The heavens come near and expand as the earth recedes and lessens. The men who saw most of heaven were they who possessed the least of earth. See Moses. IV. Unification. From the mountain top we see the whole landscape, not merely isolated portions. And so to ascend into the hill of the Lord is to see our life as a whole, and how parts of it that have distressed us belong to the goodly whole. V. Isolation. Mountains are as retreats from the fevered conventional life of cities. We can be alone with God, as in the secret chamber. So has it been wit, h all God’ s great saints, they ascended often where the noisy echoes of the world did not penetrate, and where only the still small voices of the sanctuary were heard. As we rise in spiritual life, the more lonely do we become. Our citizenship is in heaven. (Hugh Macmillan, D. D.) The use of great men The king is as a mountain. It is the meaning and the vindication of all greatness--of position, intellect, or character--that the great should live for the humble. I. The use of great men. Consider the uses of mountains. Besides their value as the bulwarks of a country, their services in kindling patriotism and educating feeling, they have very homely uses. They catch for us the sunshine, at once radiating and tempering the light and heat; the dews of heaven rest on them; underneath their mosses the rain lingers, filling the springs, trickling in runlets that supply the rivers; they bear the snows that all through the early summer refresh the heated land, and when autumn comes they precipitate the thunder showers and draw the passing wealth of storms; they bear the fury of the tempest, and shield the valleys from hurricane and hail; the lightning smites them harmless, which else might shiver homesteads and destroy the beasts; their waste supplies the lack of the lowlands; rich vegetable soil is washed from them over the hungry fields; the sands which descend from them bank in the rivers; of their stones the husbandman makes his fences, and from their forests he makes his tools. Mighty mountains--useful as mighty, benignant as strong; useful because so mighty, peaceful because so strong. I am not going to draw out these analogies at length, though every one of them is capable of copious exposition; t would simply say we need great men. There are many things the world wants done which only a few can do. We rest under the shadow of a truly great man as shepherds underneath a friendly mountain. If great men will only help the lowly, they may be sure of trusting friends. The strong is sure to be followed by the weaker. We want the tender to soothe troubled hearts; the saint to help us with his prayers. Both in their privileges and their trials great men are not inaptly symbolized by mountains. It is not that God does not care for the lowly; it is not that, like the blossoms on a fruit tree, only a few are reserved for ripening, and it matters not what becomes of the rest. God has not given the many to the few. He has given the few to and for the many. And if a great man does not care to learn the lesson, he is great no longer. There is no enduring greatness save in righteousness. But if it is idle to deny the advantages of greatness, it is unthankful to forget its trials. Freedom from meaner cares means exposure to strong temptations. The wind sweeps round the mountain top when the valley below is still; and humbler souls know nothing of the struggles that shake the lofty. Two distinct elements of character must meet in every one who shall be great with this protecting, helping greatness--courage of Soul enough to bear the tribulation--graciousness of character enough to count their anguish light, and remember it no more in readiness to be made helpful. Many a sour man is a great man marred in the making; the truly great must have not only ready courage and triumphant patience, they must have also unfaltering faith, unchanging love. II. The sources of greatness in a man. They are two--righteousness and tenderness. The office of a judge is here set before us as the noblest human office; protective justice is the thing which makes a man like the great mountains (A. Mackennal, D. D.) Peace by power This an unusual view of the conditions of peace. We expect impressions of tranquillity in the lowlier, not the loftier places of a landscape. The doctrine of the text is, that the quiet of the human soul is to be found not in descending to its lower and feebler states, but in the freedom of its highest qualities, and through its stronger exercises; or, that Christian peace is an attainment of the spiritual energies, and not a mere acquiescence in inferiority. See the Saviour’ s promise, “ My peace I give unto you.” But how did He obtain this peace? Was it not by way of the Cross? Power of character is before happiness. We are to be suspicious of effeminate contentments. Look again at the image of our text. The three obvious attributes of mountains are elevation, magnitude, permanency. Now, in just such attributes of human character are we to find real peace. Spiritual serenity is spiritual strength. The most intrepid are the most pacific. Magnanimity makes no quarrels. (F. D. Huntington, D. D.) Peace on the mountain The reason for choosing the mountain for prayer is poetic, but it is more than poetic, it is also practical. There one can be alone and quite still; the sights and sounds of earth are far down below in the valley. And as one is quite still one gets closer to God. Instinctively we think of our heavenly Father as in the sky above us; and so far as we may we approach His kingdom more closely by getting up into the mountain. This you may say is simply poetic, imaginative, but it has a spiritual aspect too, inasmuch as the lifting up of the nature in spirit to heavenly things disposes it to pray with greater realization of the Divine presence, and less of distraction from earthly anxieties. It suggests a beautiful thought that our Lord should thus choose the most retired and ideal spots for His prayers. Because He needed no accessories of this kind. He could without difficulty withdraw Himself from the sights and sounds of earth which would be distracting to others. His devotions could not really be hindered by these things; yet inasmuch as He had taken upon Him the form of a servant, He willed to use all the helps to spiritual living which the Father has provided for His servants. It is the mountain considered as the place of prayer, which is to bring us peace in this world. The outer life is not likely to be peaceful, so far as temporal conditions are concerned. The sphere of human existence is almost invariably a troubled one. The peace is to be found within. And how can one secure it for himself? I know of no way except that of prayer. The thought of the mountains may suggest to us characteristics of genuine prayer, too little accented by us generally. The heart must be still to speak with God, all alone with Him, and pervaded with a sense of the nearness and the solemnity of His presence. When we pray after this sort the peace of God steals gradually over one’ s whole nature. The tribulations of life do not vanish, the anxieties are still there, but in the transfiguring light of the sense of the Divine nearness they no longer seem unbearable, no longer hopeless. If one really can feel that God cares, and is watching over him, he cannot be greatly disturbed by anything which happens in this present world. No evil spirit or wicked man, no blow of fate can take God from him or him from God, and one needs no more than that. Prayer rightly used throws all about this common weary life of ours a heavenly atmosphere, a halo of the eternal love and goodness. Everything in that celestial haze assumes its true relation to the immortal creature; the temporal things become the dreams, the illusions of a moment; the eternal things are the verities, and in them nought dwells but peace. (Arthur Ritchie.) Psalms 72:4 He shall judge the poor of the people, He shall save the children of the needy, and shall break in pieces the oppressor.On the education of the children of the poor I. Look to the present situation of the children of the needy, and compassion will urge you to befriend them. Look especially to the moral disadvantages and trials to which it subjects them; and you will think it little to relieve their bodily wants, while you leave the mind and the soul in bondage. II. Consider the destiny which awaits these children of the needy;--and the relief which before was prompted by compassion, will be felt as the dictate of imperious duty.1. Let not the prosperous man despise the children of the needy. They in many ways minister towards the supply of his wants. Their labour furnishes the indulgence of his luxury. Their courage defends the interests of his country. They reside, perhaps, under his own roof. His property must be under their charge. His reputation must be in their keeping. 2. The children of the needy are destined for immortality. As surely as the lineaments of the human countenance are found in them, so surely may be found in them also the traces of a mind which thinks, not only for time but for eternity;--the traces of a soul which feels, not only for time but for eternity. (A. Brunton, D. D.) God’ s care for the poor God represents Himself to us as having a peculiar and tender care of the poor. It is not the robust, but delicate, child of the family around whom a father’ s and mother’ s affections cluster thickest. The boy or girl whom feebleness of body or mind makes least fit to bear the world’ s rough usage, and most dependent on others’ kindness, is like those tendrils that, winding themselves around the tree they spangle with flowers, bind it more closely in their embraces, and bury their pliant arms deep in its bark. And what a blessed and beautiful arrangement of Providence it is that they who cost most care and lie with greatest weight on parents’ arms and hearts are commonly most loved. (J. Guthrie, D. D.) Psalms 72:5 They shall fear Thee as long as the sun and moon endure, throughout all generations.The perpetuity and imperishable nature of the religion of Christ The grand doctrine brought before us in these words is the perpetuity of the Church of Christ upon the earth; or the imperishable and indestructible character of His religion. We conceive that the same doctrine that is taught in this text is taught in such passages of Scripture as the following: “ The gates of hell shall not prevail against the Church--one generation shall praise thy works to another, and shall declare thy mighty acts--of the increase of the government of the Messiah there shall be no end; my salvation shall be from generation to generation.” And notwithstanding all the vicissitudes of the Church of Christ, that Church has been preserved through them all. In the reign of Solomon the Church in Israel seemed likely that men would always fear the Lord. But we know what apostasy began in his reign, and went on with scarcely an interruption till the days of the captivity. And then from the time of our Lord there have been seasons of decay, but revival has ever followed. All attempts to efface Christianity have failed, numerous, varied, and severe though they have been. We conclude, therefore, that the Church can never perish so long as time shall endure. (James Smith, M. A.) The perpetuity and beneficence of Christ’ s reign Like the treacherous signal-boats that are sometimes stationed by the wreckers off an iron-bound coast, the shifting systems of false religion are continually changing their places. Like them, they attract only to bewilder, and allure only to destroy. The unwary mariner follows them with a trembling uncertainty, and only finds out where he is when he feels his ill-fated vessel crashing into a thousand fragments on the beach. But how different to these floating and delusive systems is that unchanging Gospel of Christ, which stands forth like the towering lighthouse of Eddystone, with its beacon blaze streaming far out over the midnight sea. It moves not, it trembles not, for it is founded upon a rock. Year by year the storm-stricken mariner looks out for its star-like light as he sweeps in through the British Channel. It is the first object that meets his eye as he returns on his homeward voyage; it is the last he beholds long after his native land has sunk beneath the evening wave. So is it with the unchanging Gospel of Christ. While other systems rise and fall, and pass into nothingness, this Gospel, like its immutable Author, is the same “ yesterday, to-day, and for ever.” While other false and flashing lights are extinguished, this, the true light, ever shineth. (T. L. Cuyler, D. D.) Christ’ s perpetuity Leslie Stephen says, “ It takes a very powerful voice and a very clear utterance to make a man audible to the fourth generation.” That is very true, yet there is quite a galaxy of men who have spoken the clear utterance with a powerful voice, and have been heard through many centuries; but there is but one man, the man Christ Jesus, concerning whom it could be said, “ They shall fear Thee as long as the sun and moon endure, throughout all generations.” Psalms 72:6 He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass; as showers that water the earth.Rain upon the mown grass Some men say that Christianity is not genial, that the Christian scheme exhibits God in a most unlovely aspect, that the doctrines of Christ are dark with awful mysteries, that the promises of the Christian dispensation offer but little of present benefit, that its precepts demand conduct which is too high and self-sacrificing, that its ordinances are depressing rather than elevating, and that, as a whole, Christianity promotes narrow minds and feeble judgment, morbid and morose feelings, an enslaved will, a too sensitive conscience, an unmanly bearing, and a character which is intellectually low, and unsocial, and melancholy. This charge against the religion of Jesus Christ is most unjust, and cannot be maintained; it rests not upon truth, but upon prejudice. The Gospel is a device to seek and save the lost: not to judge but to justify, not to scathe and waste, but to sanctify and save. And it is a Divine device, planned and carried out by God our Father. We see love going after the lost. Now, if this be the Christian scheme; if it be a plan of redemption designed by the grace of God, and if it be executed, so far as its general provisions are concerned, by the Son of God, and if it be revealed and applied by the Holy Ghost the Comforter; if its morality be based upon love, and if it be spread by moral and spiritual forces; if it is received by faith, if it give not the spirit of fear, but of power and love and a sound mind; if it bring good out of evil, and be consummated in the restoration of God’ s image to man, and of all saved men to the paradise regained; if it bring knowledge, and wisdom, and pardon, and purity, and patience, and love, and victory, and life; then we ask, Can this scheme be other than genial, and ought not its effect upon its disciples to be the nourishing within them of all goodness, and the production of genuine and habitual cheerfulness? Not genial? Then there is nothing genial. Soft morning light is not genial. Balmy evening air is not genial. Gentle and warm rain is not genial. Spring sunshine is not genial. The mother’ s bosom is not genial. There is nothing genial on this earth. I had almost said, there can be nothing genial in heaven. (S. Martin, D. D.) Rain upon the mown grass The psalm tells of One greater than Solomon--Christ. These words teach that God will see to it that, by some means, Christ shall be made known to all mankind. I. Christ is of unspeakable value to men. Language is inadequate to set this preciousness forth. Our present estimate is low and feeble, even in our holiest moments. But it is a happy thing when an author illustrates his own book. Now, God has done this. Nature illustrates Grace: that is, God illustrates God; for in nature we have the best resemblances to God’ s dealings in the kingdom of His Son. As the sleeping, frozen earth needs, in order to make up to beauty and fruitfulness, the sun and the rain, so the soul of man needs Christ. For what is the human spirit without the Saviour? A clod of earth hardened into stone. See the condition of those peoples who know not Christ. And remember, Christ does not merely prevent our dying: He comes with a blessed quickening upon the human spirit. The simile of the text fails, for the rain does not give life, but only quickens seeds already in the earth. But Christ acts upon the latent powers of the mind, wakes up all its faculties, makes the man worthy to be called a child of God. When Christ comes to us we become conscious of a new life. II. And as the rain comes so does Christ come. When God gave Christ to man it was a question how He should bring Him home to human hearts. And it is a problem which ought to stir all Christian people, how to make Christ known to men. But here again nature helps us. What a beautiful paradise God has constructed, “ watering the hills from His chambers.” There is the great ocean I more than three-fourths of the world’ s surface is water. But in vain would that water lie all round the land and lave its shores. All vegetation would die if the water lay there; and so the great God has set in operation a wonderful mechanism. The sun daily, hourly, every moment, draws that water up into the air by evaporation; currents created by the sun float that vapour thousands of miles inland; and then the alternating strata of warm and cold air effects its condensation, and all over the earth it falls wherever it is needed, and waters the earth. The icy mountain peaks amongst the Alps are continual cloud factories. The invisible vapour rising one side of the mountain is condensed by the cold air of the summit, and formed into a cloud. It is ever producing clouds and sending them away over the land. And how seasonably the rain comes, and silently and freely. So Christ comes to men. (L. Hebditch.) Rain upon the mown grass No more tender and beautiful image than this can be found in the whole range of sacred poetry. It is full of precious significance The memories and associations which it suggests are very sweet. We all know the summer harvest of the hay-makers, whose pleasant toils seem to anticipate those of the autumn harvest of the corn. How different is the aspect of the hay-field before the grass is cut, and after it is mown and the hay removed! A meadow covered from end to end with tall ripe grass crowned with rich dark-purple heads of blossom and seed, and rippling in light and shadow like the waves of the sea, as the sun and the wind chase each other over them, is one of the most beautiful of rural sights. Myriads of wild flowers add the glory of their colour and the fragrance of their perfume to the blades of grass among which they grow. The eye is never weary of gazing upon the bright and living mosaic. But how different the aspect when the scythe has done its work. All the beauty has vanished; the fragrance that loaded the air is gone, and nothing remains but the stubble, a short, pale, sickly-yellow sward, without grace of form, beauty or colour. And this desolation of aspect is greatly aggravated during a season of drought, when the sky is as brass, and, the earth is as iron, and the pitiless sun scorches the field. But how striking the change when a shower of rain comes; if it continues, what a healing process goes on, until at last an aftermath is formed which may be even more luxuriant than was the field in its first fresh strong growth. The rain upon the mown grass is thus the harbinger of new beauties and of a richer fragrance and fulness of life. And this is especially so in the arid soil and climate of Bible lands. The grass there, when cut, seems to dry up completely, and a brown naked waste remains. But when the rain comes it seems to spring up as if by magic, and renews with wonderful rapidity its former freshness and fairness (Deuteronomy 32:2; 2 Samuel 23:4). Now, notwithstanding the title, the internal evidence of the psalm points to a far later date, when the Jewish kingdom was reduced to the lowest straits; when the nation was like the mown grass, shorn of their power and glory, blighted, withered and trampled under foot. But in this condition they looked for the advent of a new King who should restore them, and be to them like “ rain upon the mown grass.” Thus, against the dark background of Jewish calamities arose the bright vision of the Messiah. But the Jews were the representatives of the human race, and therefore the image has a wider application. Through the fall all flesh became grass and his glory as the flower of the field. Everything became adverse to him who was afflicted with the great adversity of sin. But to man thus ruined the Lord Jesus Christ came to save him from his sin. How tender was the dealing of God with man. Like as He came to Adam and Eve after they had sinned, “ in the cool of the day” --not suddenly, hastily, or angrily. And though His voice was stern there was a tone of tenderness and pity in it. And a higher life for man, a richer glory for God, is to be the aftermath which shall spring up in the wilderness through the rain of God’ s grace to sinners. And throughout the whole course of our Lord’ s life on earth, how wonderfully does He manifest the gentleness and tenderness of God. His works were these of healing and restoration, and are so still. And let the sufferer take the comfort of the text. How bare, scorched, shorn, many a life appears; all beauty, fragrance gone. But though He has mown down so much that we rejoiced in, His purpose is the aftermath which shall be more precious still. The rain of His grace comes down upon the poor, bruised, broken life, and the affliction that is not joyous but grievous afterwards yieldeth the peaceable fruits of righteousness. (Hugh Macmillan, D. D.) Rain on the mown grass The text presents to us-- I. A scene where only genial and quiet influences are at work. The gentle showers water the earth. God does not rend the heavens and come down. Nor does He come in the storm; but in all gentleness. II. A scene of transformation. See the changes of spring. So in the Church God gives revivals. III. A scene of fertility. Life is seen in its gentleness, strength, beauty and fragrance. IV. Of revival. V. Renovation. Life with some of you seems bare and desolate, shorn of its glory; still its autumn may be green, and the rain may weave new garlands for the brow of age. Your circumstances are changed. Your health is gone; or your property is lost. The fleece of life has been removed, so that it is stripped and bare of its covering; but, He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass. You have had bereavements. The widow says, I have lost my husband, and am desolate and alone in the world. The mother says, I have lost my child, and “ my heart is smitten and withered like grass.” The friend says, I have lost my companion, and henceforth my life is divested of interest. But He will come down like rain upon the mown grass. You think your heart is bare and burnt up as the field. The mower has come into your enclosure, and life has fallen before him; but God can pour out on you all quiet and blessed influences, and put new beauty upon life. (H. Bevis.) The blessings of Christ’ s reign The Holy Spirit has chosen to set forth these by an instructive and beautiful simile. Divine grace resembles the rain. I. As to the source whence it proceeds. Rain is the gift of God: a promised blessing, and its needed and seasonable showers may be sought by prayer. II. As to the manner in which it descends.1. Sometimes violently, it falls in torrents.2. Sometimes gently.3. Frequently.4. Unexpectedly. III. As to the benefits which it confers.1. It presents great evils.2. It makes the labour of the husbandman easy and successful.3. Causes plentifulness, and--4. Beauty. IV. Conclusion.1. Acknowledge with deep humility our great need of the Spirit.2. Honour and study the Word of God as the instrument by which the Spirit delights to work out our salvation. (Anon.) On the Nativity I. Consider the incarnation of the Son of God as a descent or coming down. II. The manner of this descent. It was “ sweet and peaceable, without trouble, without noise, scarcely to be perceived” ; not in the strong wind, to rend us to pieces; not in the earthquake, to shake us; not in the fire, to consume us; but in “ a still and small voice” (1 Kings 19:11-12): not as thunder, to make a noise; not as hail, to rattle on the housetops; not as the blast and mildew, to wither us; but as the “ rain “ falling “ sweetly on the grass,” or “ on a fleece of wool,” and “ as the showers which water the earth,” and make it fruitful. III. Observe the effect which this descent produceth, or the fruit which springs up upon the fall of this gracious rain.1. Righteousness springs up, and spreads herself: Justus florebit; so some render it: “ The righteous shall flourish.” 2. After righteousness peace shows itself, even “ abundance of peace.” 3. Thirdly, both these are not “ herbs which spring up and wither in one day,” but which will be green and flourish “ so long as the moon endureth,” which is everlastingly. IV. Observe--1. The relation which is between these two, righteousness and peace. Where there is righteousness, there is peace; and where there is peace, there is righteousness. 2. The order: righteousness first, and then “ abundance of peace.” Take them all three, and you shall find a kind of subordination betwixt them; for no peace without righteousness, no righteousness without this rain; but if the Son of God “ come down like rain,” straight righteousness appears on the earth; and upon the same watering, and from the same root, shoots forth “ abundance of peace,” and both “ so long as the moon endureth.” (A. Farindon, B. D.) The geniality and beneficence of Christianity We descendants of the Puritans are in great danger of exhibiting Christianity in an ungenial aspect. We are children of witnesses who prophesied in sackcloth, and there is special danger of our making the sackcloth an essential part of the testimony. In days of persecution, Christ calls His followers to wear sackcloth, but their common raiment is to be a robe rich in its fabric, and pleasant in its colour, and beautiful in form. To be really genial we must maintain personal intercourse with Christ by the aid of the Holy Ghost. We must often speak to Him, and more often listen to Him. We must constantly be looking unto Him. Then shall we receive and reflect the bright beams of His grace, and by our whole demeanour win souls to our Saviour. To be right and true and strong is our first duty; to be attractive and cheerful and genial is our next duty; and “ I can do all things through Christ who strengtheneth me.” (Samuel Martin.) Psalms 72:9 His enemies shall lick the dust.The enemies of Christ subdued I. Who are the enemies of Christ?1. Those who maintain sentiments contrary to the Gospel of Christ.2. Those who endeavour to subvert His influence over His people’ s hearts.3. Those who refuse submission to His Gospel. II. What will be the result of the conflict?1. Over some He will triumph by His grace.2. But those who reject all His overtures of mercy “ He will break in pieces like a potter’ s vessel.” III. What assurance we have that such shall be the issue of the conflict.1. His own resistless power.2. His unimpeachable veracity. (Evangelical Preacher.) Psalms 72:12 For He shall deliver the needy when he crieth; the poor also and him that hath no helper.The poor man’ s friend I. The special objects of grace.1. They are needy. This we all are, all our life long, for body and for soul. But God’ s peculiar people feel their spiritual need as others do not. They are full of needs. Once they thought they had need of nothing, but they do not think so now. 2. They are poor: “ the poor also.” A man might be needy, and yet be able to supply his own need, so far as temporal things are concerned. But in things spiritual we are not only needy, but poor also. 3. They have no helper. Now, until God enlightens us, we seem to have a great many helpers. Priests, ministers, parents, preachers and many earthly things. But we have done with all such help now; we have found them all broken reeds. We felt this at our conversion, and we feel it now when we would advance in grace; and we feel it also when Satan tempts us, and in our trials and sorrows. But the Lord has not cast us off, for “ He shall deliver the needy,” etc. Now, why does God select these for His favour? Partly because He is a Sovereign, and chooseth whom He will; then, they are the most willing to accept it; and they will never set themselves up in rivalry with Christ; they are glad to be saved in God’ s way; the Lord finds in them warm friends. If the Lord were to save the Pharisees, they would hardly say, “ Thank you,” they are so good themselves. But these poor and needy ones, they feel like that good old woman who said, that if ever the Lord saved her, He should never hear the last of it. They will praise and bless God with their whole soul. II. The special blessing which the Great King has stored up for these people.1. They shall be judged with judgment--they are often judged now with harshness. The Lord will right them. 2. Saved from oppression. 3. Deliverance shall be theirs, and-- 4. He shall redeem their souls. III. The special season when all this shall be true. “ When he crieth,” when the needy cry unto Him. A cry is more than an ordinary prayer. We cry unto God when it gets so with us that we must have His grace, and our heart breaks for it when we will not let Him go unless He blesses, then deliverance is not far off. Oh, to feel our need, to know our utter poverty and helplessness, then shall we cry unto God, and He will save us. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The cry of the needy heard and answered A French tourist relates that some time ago he set out to cross St. Bernard’ s Pass by himself, and got caught in the fog near the top. He sat on a rock and waited for one of the dogs to come and attend to him, but in vain, and when the fog cleared away he managed to reach the Hospice. On arrival he observed that he thought the dog a rather overrated animal. “ There I was,” he said, “ for at least six hours, and not one came near me.” “ But why,” exclaimed one of the monks, “ did you not ring us up on the telephone?” To the astonished tourist it was explained that the whole of the pass is provided with shelters at short distances from each other, all in direct telephonic communication with the Hospice. When the bell rings the monks send off a hound loaded with bread and wine and other comforts. The dog on duty is told what number has rung, and he goes straight to that shelter. This system saves the hounds their old duty of patrolling the pass on the chance of a stray traveller being found, and as the pass is for about eight months of the year under snow, this entailed very hard and often fruitless labour. There are many people in need of spiritual help who have not yet realized that there is One who will hear and answer directly the troubled soul cries to Him for aid. Psalms 72:15 And He shall live, and to Him shall be given of the gold of Sheba.The greatness of the Redeemer’ s life I. The greatness of His life is seen in the magnitude of its influence.1. It is co-extensive with creation. Christ is to be the centre of universal attraction. Analogy, the greatness of the agencies employed, and the Word of God warrant the conclusion. 2. It is an abiding influence. “ His name shall endure,” etc. Men, emperors, come and go like baubles upon the stream; but Christ lives for ever! Time destroys not His power, but unfolds it. “ He reigneth king for ever.” 3. It is a blissful influence. “ And men shall be blessed in Him.” A worm may make many miserable; but it requires a God-like nature to enhance the happiness of one soul. The life of Christ fills creation with blessedness. This great Benefactor does this by destroying the sources of misery, and by calling into exercise every fountain of bliss in the soul. 4. It is reflectively glorious. “ Daily shall He be praised.” He is the grand object of universal admiration and love. II. The greatness of His life is developed through means. What are the means?1. Truth. The Gospel contains the great biography of Jesus, and this is the mighty instrumentality. “ I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ,” etc. 2. Wealth. “ To Him shall be given of the gold of Sheba.” Ye men of wealth, remember that every piece of gold and silver ought to appear to you as if stamped with the image of the Son of God. 3. Prayer. III. The greatness of His life is experienced in the heavenward direction it gives mankind. He makes men pray to and praise Him. “ And daily shall He be praised.”1. Such persons owe their existence to Christ. “ We are His workmanship.” 2. Such persons are the finest specimens of human excellence. The highest types of character have always been found in men of earnest prayer. Abraham, Noah, Job, Daniel, Paul, and Christ all prayed. 3. Such men alone fully give scope to their faculties to honour Him. IV. The greatness of His life is seen in the realization through eternity of His work on earth.1. He will live in all that relates to man on earth; in such things as institutions, literature, etc. His name will be emblazoned upon the page of every new work, and His life will be the standard of all institutions. 2. He will live in the affectionate remembrance of a redeemed people. 3. He will live as the expression of all excellence--love, benevolence, truth, justice, authority. 4. He will live as the centre of all attraction to the glorified Church. (J. H. Hill.) Messiah’ s predicted life We may view the text in a threefold aspect.1. As a prophecy of the endless life to which our Saviour would be raised. “ He shall live.” As “ the high priest of our profession,” He was to die. This was the grand purpose of His mission; for it was by dying that He was to “ finish the work given Him to do.” But having died, and thereby “ put away sin,” and “ abolished death,” He would live again, Himself the most satisfying evidence, and the most glorious example, of “ the life and immortality He has brought to light by the Gospel.” 2. As a prophecy of the blessedness to which our Saviour would be exalted. “ He shall live.” To live in the more common acceptation of it in Scripture, is to enjoy existence, to partake of true felicity, to be blessed. “ Your heart shall live for ever” (Psalms 22:26); that is, shall be eternally happy. So, “ your heart shall live that seek God” (Psalms 69:32); and, “ we live, if ye stand fast in the Lord” (1 Thessalonians 3:8). In this sense the text is to be understood. Messiah “ shall live” : as He would be raised from the dead to die no more, so He would be exalted to boundless and endless blessedness. 3. As a prophecy of the prosperity and the perpetuity of our Saviour’ s reign. “ He shall live;” and in what character? As Zion’ s King. He would not only be raised to an endless life, and exalted to the highest blessedness; but as the King of the Church, His reign would be prosperous and perpetual. The same idea is expressed in parallel prophecies (Isaiah 9:6-7; Jeremiah 23:5-6). (D. Young, D. D.) Prayer also shall be made for Him continually; and daily shall He be praised. Prayer for Christ I. The text is a prediction; reminding us, in the first place, that the Bible is distinguished from every other book, professedly Divine, by the grandeur and the authoritative tone of its promises, and by the multitude and splendour of its predictions. Human philosophy may be said to have had three creeds; which might not improperly be distinguished as the creed of the past, of the present, and of the future. The books of Pagan antiquity sang only of the golden-aged pasta--of scenes of pastoral simplicity and happiness never to return; while, for the future, they could say nothing--their burden was despair. Then came the creed of the present. As early antiquity faded from view, man became prepared for the philosophy of Epicurus--for the optimism which professes to be satisfied with things as they are; and which, instead of aiming at human improvement, acts on the animal maxim, “ Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die.” But to this has now generally succeeded the creed of the future--a philosophical belief in the perfectibility of the species--a persuasion that man is, at length, on the high road to perfection. Now, all these voices are but perversions of the great truths of the Bible as to the past, the present, and the glorious future. The Bible is the true prophet of hope. II. The means by which this prediction is to be fulfilled. It is by prayer. Philosophy may object, but we rely on it as indispensable in the order of means. For prayer is the condition on which God puts forth His power. For with even more clearness than the law of the Divine unchangeableness is revealed, the law that prayer prevails with God is revealed likewise. III. But not only does the text predict a change, and represent prayer as a means of realizing that change; it describes that prayer as partaking of a specific character--as prayer for Christ; “ prayer also shall be made for him continually.” IV. The wisdom and grace of this arrangement. For--1. It keeps us in our proper place, at the feet of God. 2. It gives us opportunity of afresh avowing our adoration of the scheme of redemption by Christ. 3. It affords the strongest assurance of success in prayer. 4. It enables all to show their love to Christ by aiding in the advancement of His Kingdom. V. But let us regard the especial object of our prayer in the behalf of Christ: what are we to pray for? Our prayers cannot be necessary for Him, in the same sense in which they are necessary for ourselves, and for each other. He knows no want, for all things are given into His hands. The prayer, then, that is to be made for Him is not to be made for Him personally, but relatively--on account of His relation to other beings--His relation to us. But not only is prayer to be made for the reign of Christ--the text predicts its continuity, or uninterruptedness; “ prayer also shall be made for Him continually.” Under the former dispensation, the fire which burnt upon the golden altar was never allowed to go out--and the ardent desire of the pious Israelites for the coming of Christ glowed continually on the altar of their hearts--it never went out. Observe, again, that prayer for Christ is to be offered conjointly with other things--“ prayer also.” In all conquered lands, the subjection of the people was marked by two things--their money was stamped with the name of the conqueror, and they were obliged to pray for him in their public worship. In allusion to this fact, it is here said of the conquering Saviour--“ To Him shall be given of the gold of Sheba, prayer also shall be made for Him continually.” The gold of Sheba--a portion of our worldly substance is to be devoted to Him, in connection with our prayers. For to pray in His behalf, without accompanying the act with this proof of our sincerity, would be as profane as to use all other kind of means except prayer would be impious. How many and how powerful the motives, then, which should induce us to pray for the reign of Christ! A sense of consistency demands it. A principle of benevolence to man requires it. A principle of gratitude requires it. He has prayed for us with strong crying and tears, or we should not, at this moment, be in a condition to pray for ourselves. He gave Himself for us. His priestly robes are never laid aside. And shall we intermit our prayers for Him? Let a sense of our obligation induce us to pray for Him. (J. Harris, D. D.) Prayer for Christ Is prayer, then, necessary for Him? Is He not above the reach of danger, pain, want? Has He not all power? Therefore, our prayer is not to be for Him personally but relatively, and we pray for Him when we pray for His ministers, His ordinances, His Gospel. What should we pray for on His behalf? We are to remember these four things. I. The degree of the Church’ s resources: that there may be sufficiency of fit instruments raised up. II. The freedom of its administration--that all hindrances may be put out of the way. III. The diffusion of its principles--that they may spread everywhere. IV. The increase of its glory--that it may abound in all spiritual excellence. What reasons there are for such prayer: how certain it is to be heard if we be sincere in asking. Let our conduct prove this. (W. Jay.) Praying for Jesus We are, thank God, accustomed to praying to Jesus; we approach His footstool gladly, and believingly, and we are never sent empty away. We also pray through Jesus, appending His precious name to each petition presented to the Father. This it is that gives them worth. We cannot fail to recollect that He is now engaged in praying for us. It is perhaps somewhat of a novelty to call to mind the fact that we are privileged, nay, virtually enjoined, to pray for Him. It is a reversal of the accepted order of things, a delightful change of programme. It behoves us to be as continual in our prayer for Jesus as is our Mediator upon the throne in His pleading on our behalf. I. What should be the burden of our prayer? We do not want in any case to utter vain words when our knees are bent before the throne, but when we are praying for Jesus we must exercise very special care. We must endeavour to discover what Christ desires. We must pray intelligently, reverently, lovingly, and to purpose. How may this be done? The best way to plead intelligently for Christ is to remember the promises that are given concerning Him. Get hold of a promise and wrap our prayers about it; let the Word of God be the nucleus of your petition, and then frame your own loving supplications round the Spirit-breathed predictions. I have found, also, that in this matter of praying for Jesus a consideration of the character of His work is of considerable assistance. If you are wishing to do a friend a good turn, or to give a relation a present, you will naturally consider the bent of that friend’ s mind, the purpose of his life, the task that he may happen to have in hand, that you may give an appropriate present, or offer acceptable service. Act after the same manner with regard to Jesus. Contemplate Him, meditate upon His character, reflect on His tastes and predilections. Try to discover what would please Him most. Why was He hero on earth? He said Himself, “ The Son of Man is come to seek and to Save that which was lost.” Then pray that the lost may be saved; that will please Him well. He was here to make disciples; to gather round Him and behind Him a fitting retinue, as became the Prince of Life, albeit He was in disguise. Pray that the number of the disciples may be increased, that those who profess to follow Him may follow, not afar off. He was here to sanctify the saints, to wash them with the washing of water by the Word; He was here to make them clean away every whir, head, and hands, and heart, and feet. Well, pray that the saints may be made holy and kept holy, for this will please Jesus; it will mean the completion of the work that He came to earth to start, II. How to pray.1. It must be continually, for so says the text, “ Prayer also should be made for Him continually.” Our interest in Christ should never subside; it should not even know the changes that affect our prayers for others. I am not sure that they should be so changeful, but certainly in our desire for Jesus there should be no sort of variation. 2. Then pray loyally. “ Vivat Rex!” “ Long live the King!” “ Hosanna!” 3. Then pray generously and practically, for the text says that the gold of Sheba shall be given to Him. Praying and giving go well together. Let there be self-denial with all your supplications. Give to Him gold if you have it, or silver if you have nothing better. Give Him the best you possess. 4. Then pray praisefully, for those who pray continually are to praise daily. “ Daily shall He-be praised.” Adore Him while you pray for Him. And with all your praying let there be much of faith. Our prayers are wasted sometimes. Why? Because they are not prayers of faith. (T. Spurgeon.) Prayer a vital force I. Prayer is a vital force in the kingdom of Christ. II. The sort of prayer spoken of in the text explains, illustrates, and justifies these statements. It is quite certain that Christ is to live and to prevail: it is equally certain that prayer is to be made for Him. Prayer is to be the great means of bringing in the kingdom: because Christ lives, prayer will be made: because prayer is made, His kingdom will continue to grow. He Himself has taught us thus to pray: when we say to the Father, “ Thy kingdom come,” we are truly praying for Christ, and the prayer is necessary to the coming of the kingdom. III. Prayer for Christ is the highest form of prayer, It is much more important that He shall prosper than I or you. He is greater. He lives, I die. He lives not for Himself but for others; His prosperity will mean that abundant grace shall come to others; and my prayer for Him will help to hasten the day of His glory. So in praying for Him I am actually praying for all His people. Surely such prayer is the highest. (W. Y. Fullerton.) Pray for Jesus Many people misunderstand such expression. If He were still on earth we might pray for Him, but surely not now. But His cause is here, His work needs prospering, and if we pray for this we pray for Him. I. Such prayer elevates the tone of our prayers. We can be selfish in prayer, and narrow, and sectarian, and even bitter; but praying for Christ will lift us above all this. II. Suggests many themes of prayer--for fitting witnesses for the truth; for those labouring in the field; for doors of utterance to be opened; for conversion of many souls; for those who are saved; for the coming of Christ’ s kingdom. III. Inspires us with peculiar earnestness. Consistency with my profession; gratitude, love to Him--all prompt such prayer. IV. Gives special encouragement in our prayers. For the worthiness of Christ and the promise of God encourage us. V. Demands consistent action. It will hold us back from sin; make us thoughtful; diligent in service, etc. But let His great love constrain us. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Psalms 72:16 There shall be an handful of corn in the earth upon the top of the mountains; the fruit thereof shall shake like Lebanon.The life and power of the Gospel I. Offer some expository remarks.1. The handful of corn. This tells of the few disciples who at the first preached the Gospel. As Isaac was offered on Mount Moriah, so our Lord on the summit of the same mount was offered up. He was the seed corn. 2. The fruit. This all the result of our Lord’ s death. And it shall be abundant like the forests of Lebanon. 3. They of the city. The apostles went forth from Jerusalem after they were endued with power. II. The expressiveness of the simile--the corn of wheat.1. It possesses a kind of immortality. 2. Life springs from its death. 3. Propagates its own likeness. 4. Has unlimited power of multiplication. III. The import of the shaking here told of (Hebrews 12:25-29). The religious systems of the earth are doomed, and the political likewise. (J. A. Macdonald.) Diffusion of the Gospel I. The insignificance of the Gospel in its origin.1. In its introduction into the world.2. In its structure as a religious system.3. In its operation in the heart. II. The improbability of its success.1. The agency was feeble.2. The opposition Was powerful. III. Its stupendous results.1. The number of its followers.2. Their influence on the world. (W. W. Wythe.) The handful of corn or, the top of the mountains In the kingdom of nature it is not seldom seen that the greatest results proceed from apparently the most insignificant beginnings. The oak, the pride and glory of the forest, grows from a small acorn. The mighty river, which gradually expands its bosom towards the sea, and incessantly pours into it the tribute of its many waters, springs from an insignificant rivulet. The philosopher, the orator, the hero, each enters life at first as a “ naked, helpless, weeping child.” Now, concerning the Gospel, note-- I. Its insignificant commencement. A handful of corn, and that sown, of all places, on the top of the mountains. How this sets forth the unlikelihood of success according to all human judgment. II. The glorious consummation the Gospel is destined to attain. This metaphorical representation conveys to us the idea of fertility; a fertility so great, that from a handful of corn, and that sown on the most barren spot, the top of a mountain, should issue a crop so strong and thick that it would shake and wave in the wind like the woods of Lebanon, while in the City of Zion the inhabitants would become numerous as the blades of grass in a field which the Lord hath blessed. It is thus beautifully intimated that in proportion to the smallness of its beginning shall be the greatness of the final increase of the Gospel. In various parts of Holy Writ we have abundant testimony to this fact. The metaphorical representation of the psalmist suggests also that the diffusion of the Gospel in the latter day will be characterized by great and extraordinary rapidity “ They of the city shall flourish like grass of the earth.” Grass is, in Eastern countries, remarkably speedy in its growth; so will it be with the triumphs which the Gospel is destined universally to accomplish. This metaphorical announcement intimates further that the propagation of the Gospel shall be productive of happiness and joy to the world. “ The fruit thereof shall shake like Lebanon.” Just such a change as, in the physical world, is made when the sterile mountain top is converted into the garden of the Lord, will be that which shall be made in the moral world by the agency of the Gospel, when it shall be felt in its legitimate power. III. The manner in which it has already been fulfilled is fitted to strengthen our faith in the Divine origin of the Gospel. IV. This prophecy furnishes us also with an encouragement to persevere in our exertions for the universal propagation of the Gospel. Although it may be with us a “ day of small things” --although the means we employ may be feeble and small, and the obstacles we have to encounter be numerous and formidable, yet let us not give way to unbelieving doubts or fears. (Peter Grant.) The blessed effects of sewing the Gospel seed How precious is the Bible to men; it is the source of all our hope, the inspiration of all our work. In that we have-- I. A happy description of the gospel. It is a handful of corn.1. For its excellency.2. For its insignificance, in appearance, extent, instrumentality. II. The places where it is to be sown: “ on the top of the mountains,” the most barren and inaccessible places. There are many hearts like this, but there we are to sow the seed. And in the most populous places--“ the city.” So did our Lord, and so should we. How great the need. III. The blessed results which will follow.1. Abundant fruitfulness.2. Rapid growth--like grass.3. A beauteous scene.4. Ample recompense. Conclusion.1. Bless God if the seed of the Gospel has taken root in your heart.2. How deeply guilty are they in whom no fruit is found.3. Pity those who are without the Gospel seed. (J. Sherman.) The handful of corn on the top of the mountains 1. Let us think of where the corn comes from. It does not come like anything else in the world. In the woods you may sometimes find a tree growing with a little round black fruit, hard and sour. It does not seem to be worth much by the side of the luscious plum from the garden. But that sloe, as it is called, is the plum in its wild state. The gardener takes it and cultivates it until it comes to be a larger and finer tree. So it is with the crab-tree and its little bitter fruit--that is, the wild apple. And so with the strawberry, and all the fruits and plants in our garden. They were found in a wild state, and they had to be cultivated before they were worth anything. But nobody ever found corn growing wild. Unlike everything else, corn is the special and peculiar gift of God, which He put into man’ s hand just as it is. And how like Jesus it is in this! 2. Corn will grow all over the world. And is not that like our blessed Jesus? No home but may have Him in it; no heart but Jesus will dwell there; no land under heaven but there men may find the Bread of Life. 3. Think again of what the corn is worth. A very little thing to talk about, this--“ a handful of corn!” Corn is worth more than gold. Everybody wants bread. And so, all need Jesus. 4. Corn has life in it--yielding abundant increase. And so Jesus is like the handful of corn upon the top of the mountains: the prophet tells us that we “ esteemed Him not,” and “ hid as it were our faces from Him” ; there was no appearance of greatness in Him, or of power. But in Him is life. He comes into our hearts, and we are made like Him, and from us others catch a grain of the good seed, and the life spreads from heart to heart and from soul to soul, until “ the whole earth shall be filled with His glory.” 5. And yet though there is all this that is wonderful about the corn, let us remember that it is of no good except it be sown. A handful of corn is indeed a poor thing without that. They have found some mummies in Egypt thousands of years old, and in their hands they have found some tiny grains of corn. If they had been sown, by this time they would have grown into enough to feed the world. And so the glory of Jesus grows only when we have Jesus in our heart. 6. Before the corn does us any good, it dies. Think how much this is like Jesus. He lays down His life for us. He dies that we may live. He is beaten, and scourged, and broken, that we may have strength and everlasting life. (Mark Guy Pearse.) Psalms 72:17 His name shall endure for ever: His name shall be continued as long as the sun.The name of Christ I. The Saviour’ s renown. For by “ His name” we understand His renown.1. The source from whence this renown is derived. It is from His proper and essential divinity; from His condescending and efficacious sufferings; from His exaltation and mediatorial glory. What is all other renown compared to His? 2. The permanence with which it is invested. We have seen much of the essential perpetuity of our Saviour’ s renown, from what has already transpired in the history and annals of the world. It has endured the attack of heathenism when made under the elements of classic Greece or the power of inferior Rome. It has endured the attack of modern infidelity, which uttered its hell-cry from philosopher to king, and back again from king to philosopher, “ Crush the wretch, crush the wretch!” --by that wretch meaning the Redeemer, whose Cause and whose glory we plead. II. The redeemer’ s influence.1. Its method. It is secured through His Spirit, His Word, His Church. 2. Its character--it is one of blessing and grace. The religion of Christ alone is the source alike of national, of domestic, and of individual felicity. 3. Its extent--“ All nations shall call Him blessed.” (James Parsons.) The imperishable name We apply these words to Christ, although their literal reference may point to another. What reason have we to believe that Christ’ s name will endure for ever? I. He is the author of an immortal book. Men’ s names come down through the centuries by reason of the books they have written, although the time comes when the most enduring of these become obsolete and pass away. Now, the Bible is Christ’ s book. He is at once its Author and its substance. But, unlike other books, it has imperishable elements.1. Its doctrines are true to the immortal intellect.2. Its precepts are true to the undying conscience.3. Its provisions are true to the unquenchable aspirations. II. He is the Founder of enduring institutions. Men’ s names come down in institutions they have founded. Christ has instituted the Lord’ s Supper. And the Sunday commemorates Him. III. He is the living Head of an undying family. Conclusion. Trust this name. (Homilist.) The eternal name It is the name of Jesus Christ. Text true of-- I. The religion sanctioned by His name.1. There was never a time when it did not exist here on earth.2. If it were destroyed no other religion would take its place.3. If another could, by what means would you crush this?4. And if it could be crushed, what would become of the world then: would life be worth living? II. The honour of His name. As long as a redeemed sinner is to be found, so long will the honour of Christ’ s name endure. And so of-- III. The power of His name. For it alone gives peace, purity, triumph in death. Let all other names perish, as they will: but this never. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The honour of the name of Christ The language of this psalm cannot be confined to Solomon: it speaks of him only as he was in office or character the type of Christ. The full meaning of the psalm belongs to Christ alone. By the name of Christ, His chief greatness or excellency, His peculiar honour and glory, is meant. Now, such glory has been given to Christ-- I. By God the Father.1. In the eternal counsels.2. At His baptism.3. On the Mount Of Transfiguration.4. By the Resurrection. II. From the angels of God. Their knowledge, their security, have been furthered by Christ in His redeeming work. III. From the redeemed among men. Through their justification and sanctification they become witnesses to the glory and greatness of the Redeemer. (J. Bannerman, D. D.) Christ’ s renown By the name of Christ is signified His renown. Now, this prediction was uttered more than a thousand years before the birth of Christ, and when deep obscurity rested upon all that pertained to Him. And when He was born and had entered on His ministry, there was scarcely anything in His condition or circumstances to justify the anticipation of His endless renown. He died ignominiously forsaken of all His friends. But after His death their love revived, and they went forth to preach His name. But still there seemed little probability that the name of their Master should endure for ever. Yet so it has been. The triumphs of Christianity are all known. Time rolled on, and the fame of Christ widened and spread. And His fame and renown are entirely different from that which belongs to all others. For-- I. Where once Christ’ s name has been known it has never been entirely rooted out. Even in the place where the seven Churches of Asia withered under the curse of heaven, His name is not lost. But other names, however great, are. II. The knowledge which men have of Him is more intimate and particular than that which they have of any of the great men of the past. How little we know of these ” how much we know of Him. III. And the knowledge of Him is possessed by all classes. Not the rich and educated alone, but the poor and the common people know Him. IV. And how different the feelings which we associate with Him from those which we have for others. It is not mere admiration or respect, but we give Him our hearts. Every mention of His name touches our deepest affections. What wonder that He should receive the homage of a world! But what is He to us? That is the all-important question. Has such a friend, such a Saviour, no beauty in our eyes? God forbid that we should refuse Him that love which He asks for, and so richly merits from us. (J. W. Adams, D. D.) His name shall endure I. Why may the influence of Christ’ s name be expected to endure for ever?1. Because He is the greatest benefactor the world has ever seen. 2. Because He is a mighty conqueror. He achieved victory, notwithstanding fearful odds. Look at two periods in the history of the Church. Look at the first three centuries. Emperors and rulers combined to exterminate this new sect. The most determined means were adopted. Religious teachers were put to death or cast into prison. Bibles were gathered together in response to several edicts and burned in different squares and market places. Did these succeed? The very means adopted to destroy the new faith were the means blessed of God for perpetuating it. Religious teachers were scattered over the then known world. To their amazement, I can well believe, they found that God had been preparing the world for their coming. Magnificent roads had been made, so that they could pass easily from town to town. The Greek language was spoken so that they could address the people in their own tongue. Verily it was only in the “ fulness of time” that God “ sent forth His Son.” If you wish to see triumph in connection with the preaching of the Gospel, study the first three centuries of the Gospel history. Look at the last century of the history of the Church. In that century you see the history and the triumph of missions. II. How is Christ’ s name to be perpetuated?1. In the hearts of His people. Take Christ and His teaching out of song. Take Christ and His Cross out of poetry, and you take away their very heart and soul and life. No teacher has ever received such tribute as Christ has done. The fact that you have the best geniuses in song, and poetry, and painting, laying their offerings at His feet is one of the most convincing arguments in favour of my text--“ His name shall endure for ever.” 2. By the character of His people. This is one thing that scepticism can never explain away. The maxims and the example of the world can never produce a holy life. It takes Christianity to do that. A holy life is therefore one of the best means by which the influence of Christ’ s name can be perpetuated in this world. 3. By the ordinances of the Church. (W. S. Goodall, M. A.) Christ--His enduring name I. The name of Jesus Our Saviour is fitted to endure.1. By virtue of the law which connects memory with greatness. The great are remembered--great kings, great heroes, great sages, great saints--while the crowd must be forgotten. Jesus does not refuse to be commemorated according to this standard. He does not struggle indeed for fame, but for usefulness; but when He says, “ Come unto Me,” “ Follow Me,” He presupposes transcendent greatness. Even on the human side the greatness of Jesus is unexampled, the greatness of knowledge, of wisdom, of purity, of benevolence, of devotion--such greatness as amounts to absolute perfection. 2. By virtue of the law which connects memory with service. 3. By virtue of the law which connects memory with suffering. Even destroyers and conquerors are better remembered by disaster than by victory--as Alexander by his premature death, Caesar by his assassination, and Napoleon by his exile. How much more have the great benefactors of our race had their memories embalmed by suffering; so that they are cherished as their works and endurances have cost them dear. But how imperfect is every such image of the connection between the Saviour’ s sufferings and the enduring of His name! All others were born to suffer, if not in that form in some other; they were sinners, and could not escape even by labour and service to mankind. But Jesus was above this doom, and stooped to meet it--stooped from a height beyond all parallel. “ Though He was rich,” etc. “ The Son of Man came not to be ministered unto,.” etc. II. It is destined to endure.1. The name of Jesus is identified with the existence of the Church. Take it away, and the Church falls. Christianity is obliterated, or sinks in fragmental Take it away, and there is no pardon, no sanctification, no fellowship with God, according to His own word, “ No man cometh unto the Father but by Me.” 2. The name of Jesus Christ is hound up with the history and prospects of mankind. This name is a key to the history of the world. It is not without reason that history is divided into two great periods, before Christ and after Christ. 3. The Saviour’ s name is destined to endure, because it is committed to the watchful care of the Godhead. God the Father sees here the brightest manifestation of Himself, for He thus reveals the fulness of power, the depth of wisdom, the beauty of holiness, the tender radiance of mercy, all shining in the face of Jesus Christ. The continued display of this glory to men and angels is the last end of redemption, the fulfilment by the Father of the prayer of the Son, “ Glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son also may glorify Thee.” Shall this last prayer, then, be defeated? Shall these supreme manifestations of God, which, pent up from everlasting days, have at last broken forth upon the universe, be recalled? And shall the word of promise that has gone out of His mouth be made void” I will make Thy name to be remembered in all generations” ? (John Cairns, D. D.) The universality and perpetuity of Christ’ s reign Buddha is reported to have said that he did not expect his religion to last more than 5,000 years. (W. J. Dawson.) Voltaire said he lived in the twilight of Christianity. He meant a lie; he spoke the truth. He did live in its twilight; but it was the twilight before the morning; not the twilight of the evening, as he meant to say; for the morning comes, when the light of the sun shall break upon us in its truest glory. The scorners have said that we should soon forget to honour Christ, and that one day no man should acknowledge Him. “ His name shall endure for ever.” (Footsteps of Truth.) And men shall be blessed in Him: all nations shall call Him blessed. What history owes to Jesus Christ I. The moral and social benefit. We need to take the simplest, plainest facts that lie upon the surface of history, to see what a revelation was implied in the entrance of Christian ideas into such a world as this. It brought, for one thing, a totally new idea of man himself, as a being of infinite dignity and immortal worth; it taught that every man’ s soul, even the humblest, poorest, and the most defiled, was made in God’ s image, is capable of eternal life, and has an infinite value--a value that made worth while God’ s own Son’ s dying to redeem it. It brought back to men’ s minds the sense of responsibility to God--an idea that had never been possessed, or had been altogether or almost altogether lost. It brought into the world a new spirit of love and charity, something wonderful in the eyes of those heathen as they saw institutions spring up round about them that they had never thought or heard of in heathenism before. It flashed into men’ s souls a new moral ideal, and set up a standard of truth, and integrity, and purity, which has acted as an elevating force on moral conception in the world till this hour. It restored woman to her rightful place by man’ s side as his spiritual helpmate and equal, and created that best of God’ s blessings on earth, the Christian home, where children are reared in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. It taught the slave his spiritual freedom as a member of the Kingdom of God, gave him a place there in Christ’ s kingdom as an equal with his own master, and struck at the foundations of slavery by its doctrine of the natural brotherhood and the dignity of man. It created self-respect, a sense of duty in the use of one’ s powers for self-support and for the benefit of others. It urged to honest labour. “ Let him that stole steal no more,” etc. And in a myriad ways, by direct teaching, by the protest of holy lives, by its gentle spirit, it struck at the evils and the corruptions and the malpractices and the cruelties of the time. II. The religious debt to Jesus. It was Christianity that overthrew the reign of those gods and goddesses of Greece and Rome, and swept them so completely from the path of history that no one, even in his wildest imagination, now dreams of the possibility of their revival. It was Christianity that, still maintaining something of its youthful energy, laid hold of these rough barbarian people in the Middle Ages and trained them to some kind of civilization and moral life. It was Christianity that in England and Scotland lighted the light that by and by spread its radiance through every part of the country. It is Christianity that to-day is teaching the nations to burn their idols, to cease their horrid practices, to take on them the obligations of moral and civilized existence. Whatever blessings or hopes we trace to our religion, whatever light it imparts to our minds or cheer to cur hearts, whatever power there is in it to sustain holiness or conquer sin, all that we owe to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. III. The eternal benefits. “ Jesus hath abolished death,” we read, “ and hath brought life and immortality to light through His Gospel.” And what was better, He not only taught men the way of life, but stood there Himself, the great medium of return to God. He stood there not only teaching men what the way of life was, but He Himself was there to place their feet in its paths. He not only taught us about God, but showed us how to be at peace with Him--brought us back to God, from whom we had wandered, and reconciled us with God. He not only warned us of the dangers and the evils of the life of sin, of the ruin, the destruction which sin brought with it, of the alienation, the estrangement from the life of God that was in sin; but He united Himself there with us, with His infinite mercy in our lone, and lost, and condemned condition, took upon Himself there, on His own soul, that burden we could not for ourselves bear, and through His cross and passion opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers. (James Orr, D. D.) The benefits of Christianity I. The benefits which Christianity conveys to the communities among whom it is preached.1. It has diffused among all classes of men the knowledge of God. “ Nothing,” says the son of Sirach, “ is so much worth as a mind well instructed” ; but there is no knowledge like that which respects the character of God, our obligations to Him, and expectations from Him. It is the only effectual source of right conduct, and of true comfort, in every state and condition of human life. 2. Christianity has greatly purified and reformed the manners of men. Some of those vices which marked and disgraced the character of heathen nations are scarcely known but by their name; and others, which were openly practised in the face of day, are now hid in obscurity and darkness. On the other hand, some virtues, of the obligation of which the heathens had no apprehension, are not only to be found in the character of real Christians, but have risen into such general credit and esteem as to influence the conduct of many who, in other respects, feel but little of the power of religion. 3. Christianity has promoted among men a spirit of humanity and benevolence, unknown to the heathen world. 4. Christianity has contributed essentially to the safety and prosperity of society. II. The benefits which it conveys to the individuals who believe and embrace it.1. It effectuates their conversion to God, and to the obedience of His will. 2. The effects of Christianity upon the Christian’ s state of mind are not less important and happy than its influence upon his character; it restores him to peace with God, and to hope in Him. (A. Duncan.) Blessed in Him I. A singular condition.1. By nature, men are not blessed. The trail of the old serpent is everywhere. 2. The text promises that men shall be delivered from the curse, that they shall be uplifted from their natural unhappiness, that they shall be rescued from their doubtful or their hopeful questioning, and shall even come to be blessed. God shall pronounce them blessed. He shall set upon them the bread seal of Divine approbation; and with that seal there shall come streaming into their hearts the sweetness of intense delight, which shall give them experimentally a blessing to their own conscious enjoyment. 3. Let me tell you what Christ does for a man who is really in Him, and then you will see how He is blessed. (1) The man who comes to Christ by faith, and truly trusts Christ, has all the past rectified.(2) He has present favour.(3) His future is guaranteed. II. A wide statement.1. To make this wide statement true requires breadth of number. The text says, “ Men shall be blessed in Him,” that is to say, the most of men, innumerable myriads of men shall get the blessing that Jesus purchased by His death on the cross. 2. It implies great width of variety. “ Men” --not merely kings or noblemen, but “ Men shall be blessed in Him.” Men--not working men, or thinking men, or fighting men, or this sort of men, or the other sort of men, but men of all sorts--“ Men shall be blessed in Him.” It is a delightful thought that Christ is as much fitted to one rank and one class of persons as to another. 3. Our text indicates length of period: “ Men shall be blessed in Him.” Men have been blessed in Him; these many centuries, Christ has shone with all the radiance of omnipotent love upon this poor fallen world, but His light is as full as ever; and, however long this dispensation shall last, “ Men shall be blessed in Him.” 4. The text suggests fulness of sufficiency concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. There is a wonderful depth of meaning in this passage when it says, “ Men shall be blessed in Him.” “ Oh!” says one, “ Men shall be blessed by philosophy, or by Christ and philosophy.” Not at all; it is, “ Men shall be blessed in Him.” “ But they shall be blessed in Him through trade and commerce and the like.” Not so; “ Men shall be blessed in Him.” Have not we, who are half a century old, heard a great number of theories about how the millennium is to be brought about? I remember that, at one time, free trade was to bring it, but it did not; and nothing will over make men blessed unless they get into Christ: “ Men shall be blessed in Him.” III. The full assurance expressed in the text. It is a grand thing to get a sentence like this with a “ shall” in it: “ Men shall be blessed in Him.” It is not “ perhaps they may be,” but, “ Men shall be blessed in Him.” Not, “ perchance they may be blessed under certain conditions” ; but, “ Men shall be blessed in Him.”1. They shall not try Him and fail. 2. They shall not desire Him and be denied. 3. They shall come to Christ and get the blessing. IV. Now, with all your hearts, think of my text with a personal appropriation: “ Men shall be blessed in Him.” Are you blessed in Christ? Will you personally answer the question? Do not pass it round, and say to yourself, “ No doubt there are many who think that they are blessed, and who are not.” Never mind about them; for the present moment, ask this question of yourself, “ Am I blessed in Christ?” (C. H. Spurgeon.) Jesus: all blessing and all blest I. We ourselves are living witnesses that men are blessed in Christ. You and I do not pretend to be great sages, famous philosophers, or learned divines; but we feel when a pin pricks us, or when a dog bites us. We have sense enough to know when a thing tastes well or ill in the eating. We know chalk from cheese, as the proverb hath it. We know somewhat about our own wants; and we also know when we get those wants supplied. We bear witness that we have been blessed in Him. How much, how deeply, how long, and in how many ways we have been blessed in Him, I will not undertake to say; but this I will say most emphatically, for many of you now present, we have in verity, beyond all question, been blessed in Jesus to the highest degree, and of this we are sure. We believe--and faith grasps the first blessing--that we have received a great blessing in Christ by the removal of a curse which otherwise must have rested upon us. If He had accomplished nothing but the bearing away of our sin into the wilderness--as the scapegoat of old bore away the iniquity of Israel--He would have done enough to set our tongues for ever praising Him. He has lifted from the world the weight of the eternal curses; therefore, let all the bells of our cities ring out His honour, and all the voices of the village sing forth His praise. The negative being removed, we have had a positive actual experience of blessing, for God has blessed us in Christ Jesus, and we know that none are more blest than we are. We are now not at all the men that we used to be as to our inward feelings. II. We have seen other men blessed in Christ.1. What social changes we have seen in those who have believed in Him! He has blessed some men and some women at such a rate that the devil himself would not have the impudence to say it was not a blessing. Liar as Satan is, he could not deny that godliness has brought sunshine where there was none: the blessing has been too distinct and manifest for any to deny it. 2. What a moral change have we seen in some! They could not speak without an oath, but the habit of profane swearing ended in a minute, and they have never been tempted to it since. Rash, bad-tempered men, who would break up the furniture of the house in their passion, have become as gentle as lambs. Such furies usually become quiet, peaceable, and long-suffering: grace has a marvellous influence upon the temper. 3. Then, as to mental blessing. What have we seen? This have I seen: here is one case out of many. A young man, who had fallen into sin, came to me in deep despair of mind. He was so desponding that his very face bore witness to his misery. I had tried to set the Gospel clearly before him on the previous Sabbath, but he told me that he could not grasp it, for that by his sin he had reduced his mind to such a state that he felt himself to be little better than an idiot. He was not speaking nonsense either, for there are vices which destroy the intellect. I told him that Jesus Christ could save idiots--that even if his mind was in measure impaired as the result of sin, yet there was quite enough mind left to be made glad with a sense of pardon, seeing there was more than enough to make him heavy with a sense of guilt. I cheered that brother as best I could, but I could effect nothing by my own efforts. Soon the Lord Jesus Christ came to him, and he is now a happy, earnest, joyful Christian. III. This whole matter is to extend till the entire world shall be blessed in Christ. Even at this moment the whom world is the better for Christ. But where He is best known and loved, there is He the greatest blessing. What snatched many an island of the southern sea from barbarism and cannibalism? What but Jesus Christ preached among them? Men have been blessed in Him in Europe, America, Asia, and everywhere. Africa, and other lands still plunged in barbarism, shall receive light from no other source but that from which our fathers received it centuries ago--from the great Sun of Righteousness. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Christ’ s Kingdom: its progress and prospects I. The perpetuity of Christ’ s kingdom extending from age to age throughout all generations; for it is in connection with it that “ His name shall endure for ever, and be continued as long as the sun.” Where are the mighty monarchies of the ancient world--the Assyrian, Babylonian, Persian--that seemed to have taken deep root in the earth, and, matured by ages of vigour, to bid fair for perpetuity? Even the more modern States of Greece and Rome have undergone a complete change, and their ancient characters are sought in vain in the regions they once emblazoned with glory. Nor has the higher and less vulgar authority of wisdom and legislation been more stable. The schools of ancient philosophy have passed away, and the tenets of their sages have solved for us none of the hard questions suggested by reason and conscience: one great name after another dies from the memory of fleeting generations, as the stars fade with the rising morn. II. The felicity of this kingdom: “ Men shall be blessed in Him.” Whatever blessings have descended on the human race since the fall, have been communicated through the mediation of Christ; for thus only, we are taught, can a holy God have friendly intercourse with man. But the blessings that specially mark His kingdom are of a spiritual nature, and can be rightly estimated only by a spiritual mind. III. The destined universal extension of the Kingdom of Christ: “ all nations shall call Him blessed.” And why, asks the infidel, was not this kingdom, and the revelation that makes it known, universal from the beginning? Why did the God of the whole earth confine His favour for many ages to the descendants of Abraham, and, leaving other nations in darkness, restrict the light of heaven to the little province of Judaea? Is it to be believed that, overlooking and despising the great, populous, enlightened empires of the ancient world, He expended all His treasures on a people remarkable only for a bigoted and exclusive superstition? Is this system of favouritism worthy the Sovereign of the universe, the Father of mankind? But not to insist on arguments which, it may be said, are fitted to silence rather than satisfy, it is an important fact, never to be forgotten, that Divine revelation was originally universal, without limitation or selection, commensurate with the necessity that called it forth; none of the progeny of Adam being exempted from the promise of a Redeemer who should bruise the serpent’ s head, given to our first parents as a sacred trust for the benefit of mankind. The truths embodied in these facts were designed to regulate the faith, worship, and hopes of all mankind; and, had they been faithfully preserved, the blessings of the true religion would have been in every man’ s possession. It was the careless forgetfulness of these things, and the wilful preference of darkness to light, that introduced idolatry and wickedness into the world. If Divine revelation was not universal in ancient times, those who incurred the loss must bear the blame. For though the promise declared that “ all nations should be blessed in Him,” though the Saviour’ s parting command enjoined that His “ Gospel should be preached to all the world and to every creature,” have His disciples as yet acquitted themselves of the charge assigned to them in the realization of this purpose? If the Gospel be not universal, who, we ask, are answerable for this loss? where falls the blame of this delinquency? The commission given to them is continued with us--the promises that supported them are those we rest upon--the purposes of God wait on us still for their accomplishment; and those to whom He commits the fulfilment of His will, are no other than the reclaimed sinners who, like us, have passed from death into life, who stand obedient to His call, who are ready to start to any service in which His interests demand their activity. (H. Grey, D. D.) Psalms 72:18-19 Blessed be the Lord God, the God of Israel, who only doeth wondrous things.The law of suggestion in religious life The law of memory recalls the same things; of association, different things. Certain sounds or sights awaken in our minds ideas which have been associated by the eye and by the ear. The name of, say, a horse calls up the picture of the horse, because of this law of association. Now, this law solves some remarkable phenomena. There are views of doctrine in whose presence devout souls are stirred with strong emotions, and these emotions are taken as evidences of the truth of the doctrines. For, say these people, “ How could a false doctrine fill me with such holy thought and feeling?” But this reasoning will not hold. The emotions are the result not of the truth of the doctrine, but because men have been trained to experience such emotion in the presence of the doctrine: as men will in the presence of a picture, an image, an idol. A doctrine all unbeautiful and false may be so associated with things of beauty that it appears beautiful to those by whom it is so associated. Hard doctrines are like hard logs, which, if you let them lie long enough in the open air, under the softening influence of God’ s rain and dew, become overgrown with lichens and mosses until they are beautiful. It is not the beauty of the log, but of that which is associated with and sticks to it. And so it is of places and actions, of religious observances and reasons. It is this law of association that determines our conduct in regard to them. If they have been linked on to what is beautiful and good in our experience, we love them, and keep to them. And vice versa. What responsibility, then, does this involve for those who have the training of children. What associations will they have with the Bible, the Sabbath, with the idea of God? Our text shows that David had gained such associations with the thought of God, that this outburst of praise is the natural utterance of his heart. (H. Ward Beecher.) The general extension of Christ’ s kingdom fervently implored I. As a prophetic oracle. It assures us--1. That the whole earth will be filled with God’ s glory (Isaiah 11:9; Habakkuk 2:14). The glory of the Lord implies-- (1) A display of His perfections in the salvation of mankind. (2) The pious acknowledgment of God’ s saving goodness. 2. That the earth will be filled with God’ s glory, by means of Christ’ s administration in His mediatorial kingdom. II. As a source of sacred instruction. Thus considered, it teaches us--1. That Christ is a Divine person. 2. That His regal acts are wondrous. (1) He did wondrous things as the God of Israel, in behalf of His Hebrew subjects, by delivering them from grievous bondage, by preserving them amidst a dangerous wilderness, and by blessing them with a desirable inheritance (Psalms 136:10-23). (2) He still doeth wondrous things as the King of saints, in behalf of His Christian subjects, by delivering them from a worse than Egyptian bondage (Matthew 11:28; John 8:36); by preserving them amidst most alarming dangers (Psalms 17:7; John 10:27-28); and by blessing them with a better country than that of the earthly Canaan (Hebrews 13:14; Hebrews 11:16; 1 Peter 1:3-5). III. As an example of acceptable devotion. Thus considered, we are led to regard it as containing--1. Grateful adoration. “ Blessed be the Lord God,” etc. (1) To praise God for His goodness is our duty, for He requires it by express injunctions (Psalms 50:14, and Psalms 107:1; Psalms 107:8 etc.). (2) To praise God is our honour, for this is the most disinterested part of devotion; more so than that of deprecation and petition, in which we refer to our own interests. At the same time, praise renders our worship most like the worship of heaven (Revelation 15:8). (3) To praise God is our wisdom. This duty is attended with pleasure (Psalms 147:1-20.), and is the means of obtaining renewed favours (Psalms 50:23). 2. Humble acknowledgment. “ Who only doeth wondrous things.” This should be the language of all Christ’ s gracious subjects, for they are saved, not by their own merit, but through God’ s mercy (Titus 3:6-7). This should also be the language of all God’ s honoured instruments, for God’ s work is effected by His own agency. It is He who removes all hindrances that would impede the labours of His servants (Zechariah 4:6-7); and it is He alone who crowns their labours with success (1 Corinthians 3:6-7). 3. Fervent desire. “ Let the whole earth be filled,” etc. It is desirable that the whole earth may be filled with God’ s glory-- (1) On principles of piety, because hereby the felicity of angels will be augmented (Luke 15:10); the most pleasing satisfaction will be afforded to our gracious Redeemer (Isaiah 53:10-11); and God will become generally honoured by the human race (Malachi 1:11). (2) On principles of benevolence; for hereby much moral evil, or sin, will be prevented (James 5:19-20); much natural evil, or misery, will be avoided, as national judgments (2 Chronicles 7:14); political discord (Isaiah 2:4); and the eternal death of immortal souls (James 5:20); and much good, or human happiness, will be occasioned. From this interesting subject we may infer-- 1. The certain fulfilment of God’ s purpose to fill the earth with His glory. 2. The propriety of concurring with God in fulfilling His purpose. (Sketches of Four Hundred Sermons.) Psalms 72:19 Let the whole earth be filled with His glory; Amen, and Amen.David’ s dying prayer There was a time when this prayer was unnecessary, for the whole earth was filled with His glory. And, in a sense, it is still unnecessary. For the whole earth is filled with God’ s glory. “ All Thy works praise Thee, O God.” But David intended this prayer in another sense. He longed that men who have revolted from God should all return to Him. But-- I. Let us explain the prayer. It is a large and massive one. It includes the whole earth. It seeks--1. That in every country;2. In every family.3. In every individual heart, the true religion of God may be made known. II. Let us stir up our hearts thus to pray. I would have you all, like the Crusaders, because “ Deus vult,” rush forward to this great battle of the Lord. For--1. Think of the Majesty of God.2. His love on Calvary.3. Of the needs of men, how great, how pressing. III. Counsels in the pursuit of this object.1. You must in your own life remove all hindrances to it.2. You must forsake all sin. God will help you. Will not some volunteer in this service? (C. H. Spurgeon.) Psalms 72:20 The prayers of David the son of Jesse are ended.David as psalmist Why were such oceans of feeling poured into David’ s soul, such true and graceful utterance of poetry infused into his lips, and such skill of music seated in his right hand? Such oceans of feeling did God infuse into his soul, and such utterance of poetry He placed between his lips, and such skilful music He seated in his right hand, in order that he might conceive forms of feeling for all saints, and create an everlasting psalmody, and hand down an organ for expressing the melody of the renewed soul. The Lord did not intend that His Church should be without a rule for uttering its gladness and its glory, its lamentation and its grief; and to bring such a rule and institute into being, He raised up His servant David, as formerly He raised up Moses to give to the Church an institute of Law. And to that end He led him the round of all human conditions, that he might catch the spirit proper to every one, and utter it according to truth; He allowed him not to curtail his being by treading the round of one function, but by every variety of functions, He cultivated his Whole being, and filled his soul with wisdom and feeling. He found him objects for every affection, that the affection might not slumber and die. He brought him up in the sheep-pastures that the ground-work of his character might be laid amongst the simple and universal forms of feeling. He took him to the camp and’ made him a conqueror, that he might be filled with nobleness of soul and ideas of glory. He placed him in the palace that he might be filled with ideas of majesty and sovereign might. He carried him to the wilderness, and placed him in solitudes that his soul might dwell alone in the sublime conceptions of God and His mighty works; and He kept him there for long years, with only one step betwixt him and death, that he might be well schooled to trust and depend upon the providence of God. And in none of these various conditions did He take from him His Holy Spirit. His trials were but the tuning of the instrument with which the Spirit might express the various melodies which He designed to utter by him for the consolation and edification of spiritual men. Therefore, David had that brilliant galaxy of natural gifts, that rich and varied education, in order to fit him for executing the high office to which he was called by the Spirit, of giving to the Church those universal forms of spiritual feeling, whereof we have been endeavouring to set forth the excellent applications. And, though we neither excuse his acts of wickedness, nor impute them to the temptation of God, who cannot be tempted of evil, neither tempteth any man, we will also add that by his loss the Church hath gained; and that out of the evil of his ways much good hath been made to arise; and that if he had not passed through every valley of humiliation, and stumbled upon the dark mountains, we should not have had a language for the souls of the penitent, or an expression for the dark troubles which compass the soul that feareth to be deserted by its God. So much for the fitness of the psalmist to have been made the organ of spiritual feeling unto the Church. (Edward Irving.) . Psalms 73:1-28 Psalms 73:1-28 Truly God is good to Israel, even to such as are of a clean heart.The trouble of Asaph In human biographies men are wont to cover up their heroes’ imperfections. They see no reason why they should be recalled, but many why they should not. And in religious biographies what evident exaggeration there often is. But this can never be said of the lives of the men told of in the Bible. They are evidently men like ourselves. They have known our misery, passed through our struggles, and often, like us, have had to bow their heads in repentance. By this single trait I recognize the book of God. Nothing but the guidance of the Spirit of truth could have held back these writers from glorifying their national heroes. Now, this psalm tells of one who undoubtedly was a believe, but nevertheless passed through doubt and knew all its bitterness. See-- I. What made asaph doubt. It was the sorrow Of those who feared God combined with the prosperity of the wicked. The spectacle of this world is a great school for unbelief, and makes more unbelievers than all the books of atheists. Instinctively we believe in the God of holiness and love; but when we look out into the world we cannot find Him. Fatality is what we see. In nature, for it cares neither for our prayers nor our tears. In history, for if now and then there seems to be a providential law therein, more often there is no trace of anything of the kind See the fate of those vast empires which for ever have passed away. In life: was not the old prophet deceived when he said he had never seen the righteous forsaken? How often our prayers are not heard. Fatalism is what the world teaches every hour. Antiquity was fatalistic, and so are our chief thinkers of to-day. What problems are brought before us by the sorrows that befall the godly. Poverty, sickness, injustice--this most unendurable of all. II. What saved him from his doubt.1. He believed in God, the God of his race and people. He came--and it is a blessed thing to come--of a holy race. 2. But he could not explain these problems. Human reason cannot. There are the mysteries, insoluble, of affliction; yet more of sin; and of the future life. Science has no answer for them. 3. But Asaph went into the sanctuary of God, and then he understood the end, the purpose of God in all this which the future alone, and not the short-lived present, can unfold. Now, Asaph saw God’ s purpose in regard to the wicked, and his tone changed from bitterness to pity, as he thought of the “ slippery places” in which they stood, and of the “ destruction” which was their end. How all changes to our eyes when we consider things from God’ s point of view. And he saw God’ s purpose in regard to those who wait on Him and fear Him. Even now consolation, sweetness, peace are theirs. The meanest calling is invested with grandeur when God is served in it. Without doubt the struggles of God’ s people have been terrible. But consider their end--“ Nevertheless I am continually with thee.” Asaph has come out of the sanctuary, and his face is beaming; his tears are effaced. His look is brightened by a divine hope, and it is a song of thanks which comes from his lips. And so shall it be with all them whose trust is in Asaph’ s God. (E. Bersier.) The Asaph psalms Here in the beginning of the third book of the Psalter we have eleven psalms which are grouped together as being Asaph’ s psalms. Those psalms have very much of a common character and a common style; they are the production of some oriental Bacon, of some Tacitus of grace. They are obscure if you will, they are oracular, they are sententious, they are occasionally, it must be admitted, sublime. And, first of all, Asaph’ s was no affected scepticism; Asaph was a real doubter. In a certain sense he may be looked upon as the St. Thomas of the Old Testament, but the doubt of St. Thomas, as we all know, was about a fact and about a dogma which underlay that fact--the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead--the doubt of Asaph was about the moral truth of the government of God, for the cause of his doubt about the goodness of God was the inequality of human society, the fatal injustice as it appears to some in the distribution of the good things of this life. It was the base and mean character of many of those who are the most tremendous winners in what seems to be the ignoble lottery sometimes of a successful life. These men did not repeatedly hear the summons of the grim sergeant, Death; they were not repeatedly dragged by chains; “ there are no bands in their death;” that oppressive burden that lies on the rest of our suffering humanity--they seem for a time clean outside of it; they are not in trouble as other men. And then there comes the deterioration of character, the encompassing pride, being robed with violence; the fulfilment of the words of that fierce satire, “ Their eyes stand out with fatness, they have more than their hearts can wish.” There are hearts and hearts, and they have all, more than all, that hearts like theirs can wish for. Now, the means of removing Asaph’ s doubt we find to have been these four.1. In the first place, there was his own spiritual life. If these haunting doubts about the goodness and the justice of God were real, if there was no good God in the heaven above, then his whole spiritual life was worthless. Well might he say in the thirteenth verse, if it were so, “ Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocency.” 2. And the second means of the removal of this doubt was the spiritual life of the children of God--“ If I say I will speak thus, behold I should offend against the generation of Thy children” --he would be doing wrong to them, he would be breaking faith with the saints of God, who had lived this life upon earth and who had passed into the home beyond with this full faith. 3. Then a third means of removing this doubt we find in the closing part of the psalm (Psalms 73:23-28). The spiritual life is also an eternal life, an eternal life in God and with God. Now, this psalm might almost be marked as the great psalm of the Hebrew “ Summum Bonum, The Highest Good.” We are told by St. Augustine that the ancient classical philosophy had worked out no less than two hundred and eighty-eight different views or solutions of the “ Summum Bonum,” the highest good of man. It was, we have been told on great authority, a sort of scholastic theology of the Pagans, but here is Asaph’ s view of the “ Summum Bonum,” hero is the view of all the saints of God. How nobly the psalm begins! The prophet had long been encompassed about with the shadows of darkness and doubt. At last he looks upward and he says, “ And yet, after all, God is good to Israel, even to those who are of a clean heart” ; and as the psalm begins so it ends: “ It is good for me to draw nigh unto God.” Take this in, take in the eternal life with God in the home above, take in that and no doubt will arise about the distribution of God’ s good things, and we shall say with the psalmist: “ So foolish was I and ignorant, I was as a beast before Thee.” 4. And then the fourth means was this--it was a revelation in the sanctuary: “ When I thought upon this, it was too painful for me, until I went into the sanctuary of God.” All of us who love the Psalter have critical friends who tell us not to be too mystical in our views, not to think of Christ or Heaven in the psalms; but when they comment upon this verse they begin to turn mystical and say, “ Think of some inward sanctuary in your mind, think of some place where you may be alone with God” ; to which I only reply, “ My literal friend, you must be literal here at all events.” The word unquestionably means the outward sanctuary of God, the visible sanctuary built up upon Mount Zion, the place upon which men walked with human feet, and listened with human ears. This was where Asaph learned to find the solution of his difficulty. (A. Alexander.) A perplexing problem, and satisfactory solution I. A perplexing problem. We live under the government of God, and His government extends to all persons, and all interests in every life. This is a fundamental fact. From what we know of the character of God as good and just, and seeing that He has power to carry out all His decisions, we might expect that in every instance virtue would be rewarded and vies would be punished. But, in observing the circumstances of men, this expectation is falsified. For a time, at least, some of the wicked prosper, and some of the righteous do not prosper, until bad men say, and good men are tempted to say in their depression and doubt, surely the sympathy of the Divine Ruler must be on the side of vies, the reins of government must have fallen out of His hands, and what ought to be an orderly creation is simply a chaos. Why is the life of many a good man embittered by the wickedness of his son, whilst the ungodly father in some instances is surrounded by the best children? Why is the breadwinner taken away when the family seem to need most the strength of his arm, the intelligence of his mind, and the influence of his example? Why is it that some of the beautiful and noble, full of intellectual and Christian promise, are out off in youth, whilst not a few of the stained and mean are allowed to drag their ignominy through a long, stained and dishonoured life? Why is it that sunshine and sorrow seem in so many eases to follow no rule of effort or desert? Ah! those are some of the dark riddles, the strange perplexities, of which many a life is full. Here we are confronted with a business problem. Now, nothing is more clear than that in worldly affairs the battle is not always to the strong. Whatever we may say in our conceit, worldly success does not always reflect commercial genius. It is surprising indeed with how little brains some business men succeed. They ought to succeed in business, for they exhaust themselves in the one supreme and strenuous effort of money-making, and have no time or taste for anything else. Some of the most shallow and superficial men I have met are men of this mould. Beecher said of such: “ They resemble a pyramid, which is broad where it touches the ground, but grows narrower as it reaches the sky.” In saying this I do not wish it to be understood that the righteous man is less fit and likely to succeed in temporal affairs than the unrighteous. No, religion helps a man to get on in the world. Other things being equal in the man, that man who is honest, industrious and persevering is more likely to succeed than his neighbour, who may have the same natural ability, but no Christian principle. Undoubtedly religion quickens and expands the whole man, and fertilizes the wide area of life. A man who is formed, reformed, and informed by religion will do far more effectual work than the same man without religion. Another fact must also be borne in mind. Some good men, whom we like to hear sing and pray in the “ sanctuary,” are not strong and smart at the “ receipt of customs.” Business is not their forte. They are estimable men in their home and Church relations, but they lack the keenness, suspicion, alertness, push, and enterprise so greatly necessary in these days of keen competition and quick movement. One can easily see why some easy, confiding, unsuspicious men who do not adapt themselves to certain changed conditions in business do not succeed. The wonder would be if they did. But baying said this, we all know worthy men who comply with the conditions Of worldly success, and are even then disadvantaged, kept down and back by the greedy, avaricious worldlings, with whom they do not and cannot compete in certain questionable and wicked practices. Some are too delicately fibred, too considerate of justice, generosity, handsome behaviour, too Scripturally conscientious to chord in practice with those who do not scruple at lying advertisements, fictitious capital, adulterated articles. And so they secretly and silently suffer in mind and state. They are beaten and baffled, not simply by the greedy and gigantic monopolies, which appear to be the order of the day, but by the positive wrong-doing of the unscrupulous, who will have gain by means fair or foul. And so it is in my pastoral round, I have seen the good man--a struggling tradesman “ fretting” because of evil-doers, “ envious” against the “ workers of iniquity.”1. It tries his trust. It is easy to trust God when the “ cup runneth over.” But it is very hard for a man with an ill-stocked larder, and an ill-furnished wardrobe, to lean his whole weight upon God. 2. It proves his zeal. “ Money is a defence.” The rich man is protected by earthworks against much that beats pitilessly and cruelly upon the poor man. 3. It tests his humility. To retrench the pleasant superfluities of life, to abridge his sphere of usefulness, to curtail his gifts, to live in a smaller house, to miss his name from the subscription list, to rank among the unfortunates and be quiet--all this goes against the grain of a spirited, mettled man, who, although poor, is still a man of desire and ambition. 4. It taxes patience. Baffled and utterly bewildered, there are sad moments when the tempted Christian says he cannot understand the Divine dealings with him. II. A satisfactory solution. For a moment Asaph’ s conscience wavered, for a time giddiness seized him. How is it he did not fall into the abyss? Asaph believed in God. He could not after all believe in chance. That was the saving thought. Like a ship swinging at anchor, he swayed about by the ebb and the flow of the tide, but he did not drift from his moorings. What was it that wrought the vast change in the psalmist? It was going into the house of God. This is the Divinely-appointed place where God graciously answers those who are perplexed and pained, and who kneel, saying, “ Speak, Lord, for Thy servant heareth.” The judicial faculty to weigh things, to take a calm survey of the entire situation, needs stillness and retreat. It is here, in the sanctuary, we see the relationship of this brief and broken life on earth to the wide, boundless kingdom of the eternal. Wait calmly until the clouds roll by. Said Dr. Dixon, “ It is in the nature of a cloud to pass away.” Possess your soul in patience, and, amid the sweet silences and kindling visions of the sanctuary, you shall change your murmur to a psalm. Revelation reconciles, if it does not explain, by telling us that there is a magnificent future, veiled, but certain, for which present inequalities and seeming injustices are the necessary, the suitable, the merciful preparation. You are now moving in the twilight, but it is the morning twilight, to be followed by the glory of eternity, when all these tangled things shall be smoothed out, and the vexed things of earth made plain in the light of heaven. (G. Woodcock.) The goodness of God to Israel I. The description given of the people of God.1. Their name.2. Their character. II. The considerations by which their interest in the Divine love may be proved.1. By His Son He has saved them from hell.2. By His Spirit He purifies them from sin.3. By His providence He guides and guards them on earth.4. At their death He receives them to heaven. Lessons:1. If the goodness of God to the true Israel be thus great, how great should be their confidence in Him, and the love with which they love Him in return! 2. Let the sinner so come and share with the Israel of God in the blessing described in the text. (Evangelical Preacher.) Bad men in good circumstances, and a good man in a bad temper I. Bad men in good circumstances. The bad men are described as the “ foolish and the wicked.” Folly and wickedness are convertible terms. Sin is folly. Man sinning is man violating all the laws of reason, all the principles of true policy. Such are the bad characters before us, and they are found in good circumstances, they are in great prosperity. The material heavens shine on them, the earth yields up her fruit to gratify their every taste and to supply their every want. Providence pours into their lap those gifts which it denied the Son of God Himself. II. A good man in a bad temper. Asaph, the supposed writer of this psalm, acknowledges that he was “ envious” of these bad men who were living in good circumstances.1. He was in an envious temper. (1) Now, envy is ever a bad thing. It is ever the attribute of selfishness, and selfishness is the root of wrong. (2) Nor could envy well appear in a more unreasonable aspect. He was “ envious at the wicked.” This is truly irrational. Poor godless wretches, what have they of which the good should be envious? 2. He was in a murmuring temper (Psalms 73:18). (1) A right act. Cleansing the heart and washing the hands means the cultivation of personal holiness; and this is certainly a right work for man. It implies-- (1) The consciousness of personal defilement.(2) The possession of a cleansing element.(3) The effort of personal application. Moral evil is the defilement; Christianity is the cleansing element; and practical faith is the personal application. 3. A wrong opinion. The writer thought that it was “ in vain.” Three facts show that this is a great mistake: (1) That moral holiness involves its own reward.(2) That moral holiness is promoted by temporal adversity.(3) That moral holiness will meet with its perfect recompense hereafter. No; this cleansing the heart is no vain work. No engagement is so real and profitable. Every fresh practical idea of God is a rising in the scale of being and of bliss; every conquest over sense, appetite, and sin, is a widening and strengthening of our spiritual sovereignty; every devout sentiment, earnest resolve, and generous sacrifice attunes our hearts to higher music. (Homilist.) Psalms 73:2 But am for me, my feet were almost gone: my steps had well nigh slipped.Spiritual crises The problems of human life and destiny pressed sore upon the mind of the good and thoughtful Asaph, the writer of this psalm. The story of his struggle and victory is here recorded. I. The perilous crisis in a good man’ s life. “ My feet were,” etc. The sword is dropping from his nerveless hand, the shield from his grasp. His strength is ebbing fast. Now--1. Such crises may arise from circumstances over which we have no control: and-- 2. In the holiest lives. II. The antecedent history of this crisis is disclosed (Psalms 73:3-4; Psalms 73:13, etc.).1. Asaph had come to doubt of the Divine Sovereignty. “ How doth God know?” If God were Sovereign, how could He let such wickedness be? He forgot the future retribution. 2. And the Divine Fatherhood. 3. And had endeavoured to extricate himself by the aid of human reason alone (Psalms 73:16). 4. This crisis was not an innocent one. Its root was unbelief. III. The method of deliverance is revealed. “ Until I went into the sanctuary” (Psalms 73:17). On which note--1. The sanctuary is the best place for trembling faith. Because (1) There are special promises attached to its services (1 Kings 9:8; 2 Chronicles 7:15-16).(2) There we enter the domain of faith.(3) And are brought face to face with eternal realities. The future life comes into view. 2. The sanctuary is not necessarily any material edifice. Probably in this case it was. But every spot hallowed by heavenly intercourse is a sanctuary. Jacob’ s stony temple; Peter’ s housetop, etc. And even within the sanctuary it is the attitude of the mind, not the position of the body, which brings relief. IV. A recipe of prevention is recorded. We have--1. A confession of folly (Psalms 73:22). 2. An expression of confidence (Psalms 73:23). 3. An affirmation of trust (Psalms 73:24). 4. A testimony of gratitude (Psalms 73:28; Psalms 73:25). Therefore, learn-- (1) A querulous spirit is a source of spiritual danger.(2) The record of past experience is the safeguard of to-day. (3) God is our refuge and strength, and a very present help in trouble. (Homiletic Quarterly.) Narrow escapes The victorious general in the hour of triumph has not unfrequently reason be remember how nearly, through oversight or miscalculation, he had lost the day: a little more pressure on this wing or that, a trifling prolongation of the struggle, a few minutes’ further delay in the arrival of reinforcements--and his proud banner had been dragged in the dust. The pilot guiding his barque safely into port sometimes knows how through lack of seamanship he nearly made shipwreck. The successful merchant remembers crises in his history when he found himself on the brink of ruin, when the last straw only was wanting to precipitate the catastrophe. And like narrow escapes occur in the spiritual life. I. The occasions of our peril.1. Our soul is sometimes in imminent danger from unbelief. Many of God’ s people find their faith severely tried, and hardly endure the trial. We have perhaps been exercised on the Divine existence, or we doubted the Divine Word. Sometimes these doubts have been pressed upon us from the outside by the disciples and literature of scepticism, at other times suggested by our own experience; and our soul fluttered in the fowler’ s net. 2. At other seasons our special danger has arisen from worldliness. The most spiritual of God’ s people may perchance remember when their heart was all but absorbed by the secular--the inner man forgotten in the outer, the eternal in the temporary, the love of the Father in the love of the world. Little by little we yielded to the authority of worldly maxims, to the tyranny of worldly interests, to the indulgences of worldly society and pleasure. Prayer became infrequent and unreal; the house of God was neglected; the Scriptures lost their relish; the family altar was dropping stone by stone into the dust. 3. Again, our peril has been actual immorality. How nearly betrayed by passion, appetite, covetousness, pride: the partition thin between us and the fallen. II. The lessons of our deliverance.1. Thankfulness. Great is our debt of gratitude to Him who renders our venial errors innocuous, who sustains us as we unwittingly step on slippery place or giddy brink; who delivers us from our inexperience, short-sightedness and frailty, not permitting our infirmity to work its natural issue of woe. 2. Humiliation. When we remember the fulness of light, the strength of motive, the richness of grace against which we sinned and brought ourselves into jeopardy, we may justly be humbled. 3. Caution. Narrow escapes gender presumption in foolish men, but the wise are admonished. 4. Sympathy. Having so narrowly escaped condemnation, we must think kindly and hopefully of those who went a little further, only a little further, and fell; having been so nearly run over, we must think tenderly of those who are carried to the hospital. 5. Consecration to God. Where a Christian is ever stumbling and slipping there is a real weakness of character, a deep defect of mind or heart or will, a central lack of balance and force. What such of us need is to come to the psalmist’ s conclusion--complete, final devotion to God. Let us thus yield ourselves to God, and these humiliating, dangerous episodes we shall know no more. Let us dwell in the sanctuary. Every visit to the throne purges our vision, refreshes our soul, renews our strength. In communion with God we find the secret grounds of God’ s ways, and become able to await calmly and hopefully the solution of all painful problems. Worship, too, fills the soul with spiritual images and forces, preserving from the insidious en-croachments of worldliness. And, faithful to our priestly privilege and purity, we shrink from contact with the unclean thing. (W. L. Watkinson.) Faith--its peril and rescue I. When was the faith of the psalmist endangered?1. When he “ saw the prosperity of the wicked.” 2. When he observed the apparent desertion of the righteous. The adversity of the saints was more mysterious than the prosperity of the wicked. II. Why was the faith of Asaph imperilled? Faith is designed for times of darkness, distress, etc. Job declared, “ Though He slay me, yet,” etc.1. The psalmist has a wrong spirit. “ I was envious,” etc. Our opinions are affected by our moods. Envy impaired the judgement and blurred the spiritual vision of Asaph. 2. The psalmist had narrow views. We are apt to express our opinions as if we understood all events and could compass all time. III. The rescue of faith.1. Through holy influences. “ I went into the sanctuary” --the place nearest God. 2. Through clearer views, “ Then understood I their end.” As we trace, on the other hand, the closing chapters in the lives of Joseph, Daniel and others, apparent discrepancies fade away. 3. Faith becomes more vigorous than before. He not only was satisfied but jubilant: “ Whom have I in heaven but Thee,” etc. Lessons:1. Guard against judging by appearances, or from imperfect data. 2. Trust where it is difficult to trace infinite love. 3. Faith rests, questionings are silenced, when the soul is nearer to God. (John Love.) Psalms 73:3I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.A popular fallacy exposed The position I wish to lay down is this:--that the condition of the godly poor even in this world, is far superior to that of the ungodly rich. Public sentiment, I am aware, is against this doctrine; hence the universal struggle to be rich. Hence, too, the popular disregard of goodness as goodness, and the almost contempt for it if found in connection with poverty. Hence the current cant in some districts of the religious world that God’ s “ dear people “ have the worst portion in this life; that as a rule their situation here is not comparable to that of those who forget God. I. The wealth of the one is in his hand; that of the other in his heart.1. The one is of contingent value; the other is of absolute worth.2. The one is essentially virtuous; the other is not.3. The one is essentially a blessing; the other often a bane.4. The one is alienable; the other is not. II. The greatness of the one is in his circumstances; that of the other in his soul.1. The one is respected for what he has; the other for what he is.2. The respect rendered to the one is in proportion to the low state of moral education among the people; not so with the other. III. The happiness of the one is from without; that of the other is from within.1. The happiness that springs from without is sensational; the other spiritual.2. The happiness that springs from without is selfish; the other generous.3. The happiness that springs from without decreases; the other is ever heightening. (Homilist.) Our wealth is proportionate to our content Our incomes should be like our shoes; if too small they will gall and pinch us, but if too large they will cause us to stumble and trip. Wealth, after all, is a relative thing, since he that has little and wants less is richer than he that has much and wants more. True contentment depends not upon what we have, but upon what we would have. A tub was large enough for Diogenes, but a world was too little for Alexander. (The Quiver.) Psalms 73:4 For there are no bands in their death.No bands in the death of the wicked I. Their minds are occupied exclusively with the things of a present world (Philippians 3:19).1. Habits.2. Tastes.3. Wants. II. The conscience and heart, then, exemplify the effect of long-continued resistance to the Gospel.1. The natural effect.2. The judicial effect.3. This produced by the abuse of abundant mercy. III. The moral character of God is grossly misapprehended.1. It is with God they have to do.2. Did they apprehend His character, infinitely holy and just.3. They have an idol in His place. IV. The nature of the law by which they are to be tried and judged is not understood. V. There is generally an extreme ignorance as to the nature of the salvation which is offered in the gospel. (J. Stewart.) Bands in death I. Let us see what are some of the bands of death, the sufferings of the Christian at his departure, that we may realize more fully this seeming freedom and tranquillity of the wicked. Need we say that death, when seriously looked at, is always terrible? Consider that religion teaches men to be far more jealous of themselves, and to think far more deeply and correctly of judgment and of eternity than others do. At death the books are made up, our fate sealed irrevocably. There is also the sense of the holiness of God, before whom he must so soon appear, with the eager desire that he had served Him in his day and generation with all tenderness of conscience, and a consequently painful sense of shortcomings and offences. II. The freedom of the wicked.1. The quietness and peacefulness of the death-bed of a wicked man, without the agony of remorse, without bitter self-chiding and awful presentiments of judgment and eternity, may tell the same tale that the violence, the pride, the cruelty, the rashness, the unrestrained licentiousness of his life did. 2. The placid death-bed of the wicked, without a groan, or pain, or fetter, without regrets or murmurs, is sometimes welcomed by him in his stolidity and ignorance as a happy escape from some disappointment or trouble. 3. The wicked shall be freed from bands in their death, if, by the temptations of Satan, they have been led to presume on that mercy from God which they have never sought. 4. They have no bands in their death, because of its utter suddenness and unexpectedness. This busy present, these manifold wants, and cravings, and indulgences, these strong drinks that deaden the soul, and their over-mastering passions of a life of brief rule over others, of vengeance, of rivalry, of tyranny, of temporary renown and influence--oh, how they succeed in banishing the thought of death while yet the vigour of life is full in veins and body! (G. B. Blake, M. A.) Psalms 73:5-6 They are not in trouble as other men, neither are they plagued like other men.The mercy of a changeful life In the first verse a fact is stated; in the second verse an inference is drawn; and our business will lie with the showing you that the inference is just, The stated fact is, that the wicked have less of trouble than other men--and this fact we shall assume without any endeavour to prove; the inference which the psalmist drew was, that on this account, on account of their comparative exemption from tribulation and the changes and chances of life, the wicked remain the wicked--“ compassed with pride as a chain, and covered with violence as a garment.” And here therefore is the principle, which we shall endeavour to exhibit and establish;--namely, that continuance in wickedness is a natural consequence of exemption from trouble. You have the same principle announced in other portions of Scripture; so that we shall not be building on a solitary passage, in laying before you an important topic (Jeremiah 48:11; Psalms 55:1). We are well aware, that so natural is the desire for prosperity, and the aversion from the trials and changes of life/ that we may expect to have prejudices and inclinations arrayed against us, as we attempt to make good the position derivable from our text; but nevertheless, the cases we shall have to describe are so common, and the reasons we shall have to advance so simple, that we may calculate on obtaining the assent of the understanding, if not on overcoming the repugnance of the heart. I. And we shall perhaps best compass our design by endeavouring to show you, in the first place, the tendencies of a state in which there are no adverse changes. We may not hesitate be affirm of prosperity that it is far harder to bear than adversity. We may apply to it the remarkable words of Solomon in reference to praise: “ As the fining-pot for silver, and the furnace for gold, so is a man to his praise.” As though he had said, that praise as much tries a man, and detects what is in him, as the fire of the furnace the metals submitted to its alchemy. You will occasionally meet with cases in which there appear to have been few or none of the thwartings of what is called Fortune; whatsoever has been undertaken has succeeded, and the individuals have worn all the aspect of being the favourites of some overruling power, with whom it rested to dispense the good and the evil of life. And where there has not been from the first a course of unbroken prosperity, there will often set in a sudden tide of success, and the man is borne along year after year on the waters of this tide, with no storms to retard him, and no rocks to endanger. This is far enough from uncommon, especially in a commercial community. But with such men attachment to earthly things grows with their acquirement; and if not impossible it is a thing of extraordinary rareness and difficulty to have the affections fixed on things above whilst the hands are uninterruptedly busied with sweeping together perishable riches. The man who is never made uneasy upon earth, is naturally almost sure to take it as his home, and to settle himself down as though it were never to be left. Thus the reasons are plain and convincing, not to be easily overlooked nor controverted, which go to the proving of prosperity, that it has a tendency to keep men at a distance from God. Undoubtedly the grace of God, mighty at overcoming every obstacle to conversion and every impediment to piety, may enable a man, under circumstances the least favourable to religious improvement, to seek and to know “ the things which belong to his peace” ; but we now speak only of the natural and direct tendencies of prosperity, allowing that they may indeed be counteracted, though not perhaps without some more special assistances, than we are ordinarily warranted in expecting from above. II. Now, in thus showing the dangerous tendencies of an unbroken prosperity, we have in a measure also shown you the beneficial results of change and calamity; but the advantageousness of “ being in trouble as other men,” of “ being plagued like other men,” is too important a truth to be dismissed as a mere inference from what we have already established. We wish, therefore, now, to give ourselves to the separate consideration of this second truth: the truth, that it is the direct tendency of adverse changes in our circumstances to make us more attentive to religious duties, and more earnest in seeking those things which God promises to His people. We remark, in the first place, that change admonishes us of the transitory nature of terrestrial good. Exactly in proportion as calamity is deferred, confidence is strengthened; and if evil be slow in coming, men easily persuade themselves that it will never come. If for many years there have been no eruption of the volcano, from whose outbreak the peasantry had fled with every demonstration of terror, cottages will again be built around the treacherous mountain, and the smiling gardens clustered on its side; but if the cottages were swept away year after year by fresh descents of the fiery flood, we may be sure that the peasants, however attached to the place, would be finally wrought up to the abandoning it altogether, and seeking a home in some more secure, if less lovely place. And it may be, that with some of you the chain still binds, and the garment is still worn, because “ they are not in trouble as other men, neither are they plagued like other folk.” Then may the Almighty God send them trouble! Come anything rather than indifference, and apathy, and carnal security; anything, rather than that settling down of the soul in earthly comforts and entanglements, in which there is no disturbance, till from it there is no escape. (H. Melvill, B. D.) Psalms 73:10 Therefore His people return hither, and waters of a full cup are wrung out to them.The full cup for Christ and His people It is great comfort to meet amid the many references to the ungodly the mention of the people of God. But in the text he tells the sad truth that, owing to what they saw of the prosperity of the ungodly, many of “ His people” --God’ s people--return hither, that is, to the same unhappy place of doubt and unbelief where his own feat had well nigh slipped. It is disreputable ground for a Christian, but many of them have been found there. Observe, then, the following three things, which are set forth in my text: first, the holy and honourable household specified as “ His people” ; second, their usual experience--“ a cup, a full cup, waters of a full cup wrung out to them.” And then, in the third place, we will glance at the pattern and contrast all of this in the cup of Christ. (Joseph Irons.) Psalms 73:12-13 Behold, these are the ungodly, who prosper in the world; they increase in riches.Paganized Christianity The trouble with us is that in our everyday life we do not make our faith vital enough. We bring the ways of the world into the Church, instead of taking the ways of the Church into the world. We find doubt, and temptation, and difficulty, and sin at the very threshold of our being, and we try to drive these foes out of our nature by the weapons which we find lying scattered around us in our mixed social life, instead of rising to the height of our privilege and our calling aa followers of Christ and children of our Father in heaven. I. The common weapon of our moral life is duty--the sense of our moral obligation to a principle of right which is ruling us. It is a grand principle; it brings forth great moral results, but it is not the highest motive in the armoury of character. It is like the sure and faithful study of the primary school, which acts as a strong basis for the after education to rest upon. But the primary school can never be the university, and the mere sense of duty can never bring out of your nature the highest results of which you are capable A sense of duty is fine in a son and in a father, in a wife and in a husband; but there are higher motives in human nature than this primary motive of duty, and these higher motives bring about the higher results. A sense of duty is a fine element in an artist, in a poet, in a musician; but you know perfectly well that any genius, any nature with a soul and with a great executive capacity, will scorn this rudimentary germ of motive power. It is a primary motive; it is an clementary principle. It is like the ruled copy book to the child who is trying to write; it is like the transparent slate to the child who is learning to draw. You make use of it; you are trained and developed by it, and then you pass it by; it has done its formative work in the matter of your education. II. The other motive is faith--grasp upon God--the privilege of service--the faculty of spiritual apprehension. We do our duty to believe in God: we believe in God, and as a result of this we do our duty. After all that we may say about it in the brisk and brilliant intellection of our younger days, a living God is better than an uncertain conscience; privilege is always a higher motive than duty, and the grasp of your nature upon divine things through the faculty of spiritual apprehension will be a surer and more intuitive guide than your hastily gathered deductions from the decalogue. Over our fears, over our failures, over our shortcomings and wrongdoings, the borrowed light of duty will at times be powerless to force its way. But the cry of the rejoicing prophet of old, as with a new belief in the God of their fathers the captives came back from the land of their exileship, will again and again be realized with us as we stand face to face with the hard problem put before us--“ Who art thou, O great mountain?” etc. If you live for earth, for gain, for pleasure, or for self, you may gain your end, but you will lose your very soul. But if God is a reality, if the spiritual life has any meaning to you, if beneath all the rubbish of dogma and cant in religion, you get your feet once upon that rock which is the Rock of Ages--God above us--God in us--God in Christ--God in human life--God in immortality--then that instinct of the awakened soul, that hunger of the spiritual nature for the Being who created it, will generate its own motive power--a power fourfold greater than the mere sense of duty--and the problems of life which before had been too hard for you will be made easy when, like this far-off, honest doubter of our psalm to-day, you see the meaning of life as by a flash, when you stand in the presence, not of duty merely, but in the presence of God! (W. W. Newton.) The prosperity of the wicked no argument against God’ s providence I. The prosperity of the ungodly, which the good man is grieved at seeing, is a mere illusion of fancy, when no such thing as happiness doth really attend them. The emptiness of worldly good, and its utter insufficiency to answer the endless cravings of our several desires, betray themselves in nothing more, than in that general imagination which seems to haunt all orders of men amongst us, that if they had somewhat which they have not, somewhat which they see others have, and fancy themselves to want, all would be well and easy with them; when yet those others are not more easy than themselves, but are teased with the same incurable imagination, the same dissatisfaction for want of somewhat which they have not, or for some unpleasing circumstance in what they have, which spoils their relish of all the entertainment they can find in life. II. Divers considerations, which may clear the providence of God from all reproach and misconstruction in it.1. It is fit and reasonable that some room should he left for the operations of faith, for the trials of virtue, and for liberty of action; all which ends would be defeated if the punishment of sin did in every instance immediately attend it. 2. Without such an interposal from the hand of Providence, as, for the reasons just given, would be improper and inconvenient, the sinner must and will have his chances in the scramble of life, must and will secure to himself more than a common share in the felicities of fortune. 3. Our present state is designed not so much for retribution as for trial; and consequently what best answers to the latter purpose is the fittest portion for us. Now, the ends of trial may be consulted as effectually in a station of prosperity as in a post of adversity; since each hath its proper temptations cleaving to it, which, upon proof, may exemplify the firmness or weakness of our several virtues. And in all reason and decency it ought to be presumed that the great Searcher of hearts is the fittest judge which of the two conditions is most likely to approve them. 4. It follows, as a certain consequence from the promiscuous distribution of adversity and prosperity in this present life, that there must and will be a life beyond it, in which the righteousness of our holy Judge will perfectly clear up the honour of His government, and signalize His never-failing regard to His laws. (N. Marshall, D. D.) Psalms 73:13 Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocency.Trust and trouble The innocent suffer with the guilty, often suffer for them, that so the guilty, spared, may be led by God’ s goodness to repentance; to be helpful in such a ministry is an abundant recompense for all its pain. This the Gospel teaches us; it tells us that we have not “ cleansed our hearts in vain, and washed our hands in innocency” ; for that the fellowship of the righteous Saviour is the fellowship of the Man of Sorrows. But it brings us face to face with deeper mysteries than those which it solves. If we ask the reason of this--why God has so constituted the world as that all this is true; if we are not content with seeing how God acts, but want to know the reason, then there is no answer for us. We can do nothing but wait and trust. God is doing for us in the Gospel what He did for Asaph in the sanctuary; He is bringing us to trust in Him. He is confirming our faith, enlarging our conceptions of His righteousness, calling us to a broader view of His counsel, deepening our confidence that He is good. There is no mystery in life so dark but we can bear it, if only we are persuaded that God is pursuing His purpose in it. Let us consider, then-- I. How forgetfulness of God leads us to chafe under the painful dispensations of human life (Psalms 73:8). No doubt Asaph was perfectly familiar with the pious sayings in which the experience of the godly is gathered up and afterwards repeated by others. Doubtless he could have talked as sagely as we about the prosperity of the wicked being transient, of the Lord’ s loving whom He chastens, and scourging every son whom He receives. But the feebleness of his hold upon these truths is seen in that he cannot bear their actual sight. When he “ sees” the prosperity of the foolish; when he marks their pride and self-complacency, that seem to laugh his lowly trust in God to scorn; then he finds that his maxims do not serve him much, he gives way to envy of them. He needs more than maxims, however sage. It is the actual stress of life, contact with all its hard and trying realities, that tests our faith. We can talk well about God’ s favour being our chief joy. But can we bear to “ see” the prosperity of the wicked while we ourselves are in adversity? That is the real test and strain. Notice, too, how envy grows into self-righteousness. “ Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain.” Such words suggest that the man is pretty well satisfied with himself, because he is free front blame. And Psalms 73:10-14 show deep distrust in God, as well as flippant self-satisfaction. It suggests, “ We good men ought not to be treated thus, we are not being dealt with righteously.” They even venture to ask, “ Is there knowledge in the Most High?” Does God Almighty know what He is doing? This is what is meant. Asaph is startled when he sees where the speculation he has begun is leading him. Hence he says, “ If I say, I will speak thus, behold I should offend against,” etc. II. Notice some considerations which may help us to trust that God is good in ordaining for us the painful dispensations of human life. Perhaps we could not have borne prosperity. When Asaph went into the sanctuary of God and saw the end of the wicked, he learned that they had been “ set in slippery places,” that the “ pride” which “ compassed them about as a chain,” that their “ having more than heart could wish,” had but sealed them up against the day of “ desolation,” and the “ terrors” that should “ utterly consume” them. Because they were prosperous, they were self-confident, and their self-confidence was their destruction. And then there opens upon him an awful vision of what prosperity might have done for him. With the memory of his sinful murmuring upon him, he feared that he might have grown sinfully proud. The heart which tribulation had grieved would have been hardened by prosperity. So “ foolish” was he, and “ ignorant” in his adversity, “ as a beast before God” ; what would he have been if he had known no trouble? Then think, how hopeless would be the restoration of the wicked, which the Gospel bids us hope for, and not for their destruction, if all the sufferings of life were apportioned to them, and the righteous were never troubled. They would be consciously and irrevocably doomed, and they would sink into worse despair. It is to save them from this end that God does them good: He would “ spare” them, that so “ His goodness may lead them to repentance” ; He would save them from the hopeless agony of seeing themselves already condemned. It is the grace of God that restores the ungodly, not His punishments. And then let us look on Christ--what a life was His! Trouble, anguish, and at the end the Cross. And yet He was God’ s well-beloved Son. Would we not be with Him? God has better things for His children than prosperity. (A. Mackennal, D. D.) A right act but a wrong opinion I. Here is a right act. Cleansing the heart and washing the hands mean the cultivation of personal holiness; and this is certainly a right work for man. It implies three things:--1. The consciousness of personal defilement.2. The possession of a cleansing element.3. The effort of personal application. Moral evil is the defilements--Christianity is the cleansing element--and practical faith is the personal application. II. Here is a wrong opinion. The writer thought that it was “ in vain.” Three facts show that this is a great mistake:--1. That moral holiness involves its own reward.2. That moral holiness is pro-meted by temporal adversity.3. That moral holiness will meet with its perfect recompense hereafter. No; this cleansing the heart is no vain work. No engagement is so real and profitable. Every fresh practical idea of God is a rising in the scale of being and of bliss; every conquest over sense, appetite, and sin, is a widening and strengthening of our spiritual sovereignty; every devout sentiment, earnest resolve, and generous sacrifice attunes our natures to higher music. (Homilist.) Psalms 73:15-28 If I say, I will speak thus; behold, I should offend against the generation of Thy children.Searching and finding relief in the right direction . Searching for relief in the right direction (Psalms 73:16-17) He went where the mind of God was to be met with, where he obtained such ideas from the great Fountain of wisdom as calmed his agitation and solved his difficulties. Whenever God speaks to us, whether in providential events, or in the works of nature, or in sacred writings, or in the dictates of our own consciences, it must be in some place, and that place is a sanctuary. To go into this sanctuary, is simply to put our minds in a reverent, praying, waiting attitude. II. Finding relief in the right direction.1. New light came (Psalms 73:17). The condition of the wicked. (1) Their position is dangerous. “ Thou didst set them in slippery places.” (2) Their danger is awful. “ Thou castedst them down into destruction.” Into destruction of what? Of all their property, worldly grandeur, health, friends, all that renders existence tolerable. This comes and breaks the sleep of sin. “ As a dream when one awaketh.” (3) His own temper in relation to their prosperity (Psalms 73:21). 2. New inspiration came. New confidence in God. (1) New confidence in His upholding power (Psalms 73:23). (2) New confidence in His future guidance (Psalms 73:24). Man wants a guide through this life. God is the only safe Guide. Following His guidance, we shall be led on to glory. (3) A supreme delight in God (Psalms 73:25). He felt that without God the universe to him was nothing; that with God, whatever else was absent, he had all his delight. “ God is the strength of my heart.” (4) Here is a fact in the history of all men. The fact is decay. The law of decay is universal and inexorable. (5) Here is a privilege in the experience of some men. God is the soul’ s power and portion, all-satisfying, inexhaustible, ever-enduring “ portion.” (6) A higher consciousness of nearness to God (Psalms 73:27-28). (Homilist.) The problem of suffering A great preacher has reminded us of a truism that we are all in danger of forgetting, namely, how very old our difficulties are, that there is really very little of novelty about them. We are apt to think that they are new, that no one has ever faced the problems with which we are confronted; that human life at no period of its history has been crowded with problems and perplexities as it is crowded for us to-day. But all the time there is really very little of novelty about them. When the cry goes up, “ It is too hard for me,” what can religion say? “ Until I went into the sanctuary of God” --that is what religion says.1. To believe in God is to believe in His purpose; it is to be absolutely certain that there is a golden cord somewhere running through the history of the world, running through the story of my own personal life, often hidden, sometimes emerging, but continually there, the eternal purpose of God. If I am sure there is a purpose, though I have not found it yet, I can afford to wait if there is anything to be waited for. I can understand how the very waiting, the very imperfection of my knowledge, the very impossibility of explaining things to me as yet, may be invaluable to me, develop powers m me that will best enable me to see the light when it comes. 2. The man who prays, apart altogether from the answer to his prayer, prays humbly, feelingly, perhaps with moral consciousness, in the very act of prayer is calming his spirit, accumulating strength, exercising his highest powers in the highest way. “ As He prayed He was transfigured.” And the man who worships, without much thought of edification perhaps, in the very act of worship is realizing his dependence on his God, educating his whole nature. 3. The sense of immortality was borne in on him in the sanctuary of God. “ Man doth not live by bread alone.” The whole place rang with echoes of that cry. Those lives that were in his thought, those inequalities that troubled him, that suffering that was so undeserved, that prosperity that was so basely won--how small they all look beside that endless life of which the sanctuary spoke to him. God has a larger scheme than he has ever dreamt of, a vaster vision of prosperity a loftier standard of happiness--“ then understood! the end of these men.” The idea of consecration. The sanctuary of God! It speaks of a separate place, a hallowed house of men and things consecrated to the service of God. Do you remember that splendid picture, the vision of St. John, the crowned ones of the earth bringing their crowns and flinging them down before the throne? What were those crowns? Surely the completions, the highest developments of the power and the talent with Which God had endowed them. That is the picture of the future. But, tell me, may it not be the picture of to-day? Surely, it makes the grandeur of one’ s work when you dedicate your work. Those crowned ones were never so crowned as when they cast their crowns before the throne. It makes the value of their work. Everything is valuable, but for what, for whom is that work done? It lights up the whole career, it makes failure more bearable, success more sweet. It is all for God, it is brought into His sanctuary; we cast our crowns before Him. (Bp. F. E. Ridgeway.) Doubt The most intelligent among believers themselves have, as a rule, known painfully what doubt is, and have even built up their newer and better faith upon the ruins of the old. If there were no room for doubt, there would be no room for faith. Doubt is simply the power to see the negative side of things of which faith is the power to see the positive side. No believer who knows what he is talking about claims that everything is clear. What believers do claim, in all the great questions between faith and unbelief, is that the reasons for unbelief are outweighed by the reasons for faith, and that if faith has its difficulties, unbelief has more. And they claim this also, that while allowing to the full the force of the agnostic question, “ Who hath known the mind of the Lord?” all that we practically need to know of God for the imperious necessities of life and duty and redemption has been adequately revealed in Jesus Christ. And as we admit that there is room for doubt, let us further admit that the ministry of doubt has often played a beneficent part in the progress of men’ s knowledge of truth and their advance from a lower to a higher faith. God as often speaks to us through the chill silences of doubt as when the whole air around us is musical with the voices of faith. Hence the saying that the doubters of “ one generation are the believers of the next.” The great movements of thought in science, in philosophy, in religion, have invariably begun in scepticism as to the finality of the movements which went before them. True, as Carlyle says, scepticism is not an end, but a beginning. But you must have the beginning before you can have the end. Let us distinctly understand, however, that the doubt which deserves sympathy, and which God often uses as a stepping-stone by which a man may pass to a nobler faith, is doubt that rests on intellectual grounds, not on moral, or, rather, immoral grounds. That was the kind of doubt which the psalmist had. He assures us he had cleansed his heart, and washed his hands in innocency. His doubts were those of a good man, who was earnestly trying to live a pure and upright life. Now, supposing that a man is really and truly striving to be a good man, pure in thought, devout in heart, upright in life, spiritual in his views of things, and yet is troubled with grave and bewildering doubts, what is he to do? Several things; but the one thing which I have both time and desire to emphasize now, is this--he should keep his doubts to himself. That was what the psalmist did. He felt that, if he had not done so, if he had gone about instilling them into other minds, and suggesting to them difficulties they probably did not feel, he would have been acting treacherously towards God’ s children and his own brethren. Treacherously! No, more than that--devilishly! It is the serpent in Genesis who insinuates doubt. It is the Mephistopheles in Faust who is the spirit that denies. “ Don’ t tell me your doubts,” said Goethe wisely, “ tell me your certainties; I’ ve doubts enough of my own.” Be sure of this--that the most serious moral injury you can do to your brother-man is in any way to undermine his religious faith, unless you have a higher one to offer him in place of it, or to weaken his sense of the sacred imperiousness of the moral law. It involves, first of all, the man’ s loss of what even sceptics themselves admit to be, and what believers know from experience to be, the noblest and fullest source of the moral strength we all need for successful resistance of the assaults of temptation and of sin. What is the meaning of human brotherhood, if there be no Divine Father, if there be no Christ in whom humanity is summed up and perfected, crowned and glorified? Then, secondly, loss of faith involves, as a rule, loss of courage to do and bear in this human life of ours. It is a common saying, but it is very true, that ages of faith are strong and heroic ages, and ages of scepticism ages of weakness and decay. And what is true of ages is true also of individuals. Look abroad upon the world to-day, and everywhere you will find that it is believers who are foremost in the ranks of those who are toiling self-denyingly for the real progress of our race. And the reason of this is clear. You know how the companies that supply us here in London with water build lofty towers at their pumping-stations. Why? Because it is a law of nature that water will not rise above its own level. And so, if the cisterns at the top of our houses are to be supplied with water, a column of the fluid must be forced at the pumping-stations to a height higher than that of the highest houses where the water is to come. In the same way, if we are to be inspired to holy and loving activity for the good of others, we must draw our inspiration from a source higher than ourselves. Life for man must flow from life in God. We can give to others only as we receive from Him. And though I don’ t by any means deny that there are to-day many men and women who are doing noble service in the field of philanthropy without any profession of religious faith, this is rather in spite of their lack of faith than because of it. What they would gain in joy, in inspiration, in a sense of support in their work, if they had this faith, may be proved from the experience of those who, with labour for man, join belief in Christ and God. So much for the influence of faith as regards doing. And as for its influence as regards bearing--bearing pain and loss, grief and trial--can you find anywhere such a source of resignation and comfort and hope as in the conviction of God’ s changeless love and unerring wisdom, in the feeling of the tender and sustaining sympathy of the Divine Man of Sorrows? Our very tears glisten in the sunlight of God’ s smile. The Cross of Jesus has turned the bitter waters of suffering into a fountain of health and life. (Henry Varley.) Psalms 73:16-17 When I thought to know this, it was too painful for me, until I went into the sanctuary of God; then understood I their end.The rectifying influence of the sanctuary It is not perfectly clear what is here meant by “ the sanctuary of God” ; literally it means “ the holies of God.” A few would understand it in the first sense as designating “ the righteous plans of God’ s government,” or “ the secret grounds of his dealings with men” ; while others would take it, in the second sense, as denoting “ the eternity where God dwells as in a holy place.” But to me it seems self-evident that by “ going into the sanctuary of God,” in this seventeenth verse, the primary reference of the term must be to the temple, which was the earthly residence of God and the place where He communed with His people. Asaph had been greatly disturbed by the anomalies which were continually occurring in the world around him. But by the revelation made in the sanctuary, through sacrifice and symbol, he was enabled so to grasp anew the truth that God is righteous, and so to appropriate the God of the mercy-seat as his own God as to find there the compensation for all his privations and the solvent for all his perplexities. But under the New Testament, the Lord Jesus Christ is the true antitype of the temple, and therefore, when by faith we enter into Him, we have the true corrective influence, by which we are able to rectify the false judgments of the world, and to preserve our faith amid all the doubts and difficulties that the course of things suggests. See this in-- I. Christ’ s estimate of wealth. Men think it the supreme good. But Christ bids us care only to be rich toward God. II. Of greatness. He makes it to consist in service. III. Success. In a Christian’ s daily business he is thrown continually among those who consider that the laws of his Lord are fanatical, or impracticable, and who tell him that if he is determined to act upon them, he may as well make up his mind to be defeated in the race of competition. More than that, his observation convinces him that as things now are their assertion is largely true; and so, as the days go on, he is in danger of being lowered to their level. But the Sabbath comes, and he enters into the sanctuary, where he is confronted with God, and then and thereby all the webs of sophistry that his fellow-men have spun are swept away as easily as one brushes from his path the gossamer of the morning. During the week the consciences even of the best among us have been more or less affected by things immediately around us, so that we are in danger of making serious mistakes in our life voyage. But here Christ comes to us and gives us our “ true bearings,” as they are in the standard of His Word, undisturbed by any earthly or metallic influences, and so the needful rectifications may be made by us and we may start out afresh. (W. M. Taylor, D. D.) The faculty of judgment Let us think of the presence of God as the school of a right judgment, of communion with God as the means of growth in that high grace whereby frail, erring men may come to view with some justice of insight the movements and controversies, the hopes and fears, the promises and opportunities and dangers of tim age in which they have to play their part. I. How rare a thing is any high degree of the faculty of judgment. It may be, perhaps, more common than the very finest forms of literary or artistic excellence; but it is surely rarer than such a measure of genius as suffices to secure a recognized place among the poets or painters of a generation. There are more men whose works one can praise than there are whose judgment one can trust. There are many, indeed, whose decision on any point within the sphere of their especial business or study we, from outside that sphere, may gratefully accept as not likely to be bettered for some while. And even in regard to the conduct of life, in the sphere of judgment, there are many whose counsel it would be impossible to set aside without uneasiness or distress, many whom we must feel to be incomparably wiser judges than ourselves, many who will always enable us to see, more justly than by ourselves we could see, some aspect of a case. But there are very, very few from whom we get that higher, deeper, broader help which it is the prerogative of true excellence in judgment to bestow; help to discern, through the haste and insistence of the present, what is its real meaning and its just demand; help to give due weight to what is reasonable, however unreasonably it may be stated or defended; help to reverence alike the sacredness of a great cause and the sacredness of each individual life, to adjust the claims of general rules and special equity; help to carry with one conscientiously, on the journey towards decision, all the various thoughts that ought to tell upon the issue; help to keep consistency from hardening to obstinacy, and common sense from sinking into time-serving; help to think out one’ s duty as in a still, pure air, sensitive to all true signs and voices of this world, and yet unshaken by its storms. Yes, it is rare indeed, such help, and one’ s whole heart goes up to God in thanks and praise for those with whom one finds it; and it is as they are taken from one that something like the chill of autumn falls on life, and the real severity, the trial and strain of it, is felt, in deepening loneliness and silent fears. II. It hardly can seem strange that excellence in judgment is thus rare if we go on to think of the manifold discipline that it needs.1. Even physical conditions tend at least to tell on it, and most of us may have to own that there are days on which we know that we had better distrust the view we take of things. It is good counsel that a man should, if he has the chance, reconsider after his holiday any important decision that he was inclined to make just before it; that he should appeal from his tired to his refreshed self; and men need to deal strictly with the body and to bring it into subjection, not only lest its appetites grow riotous, but also lest it trouble with moods and miseries of its own the exercise of judgment. 2. There must also be the insight and resourcefulness of learning; that power to recognize and weigh and measure and forecast, which comes of long watching how things move; the power that grows by constant thoughtfulness, in study or in life; the distinctive ability of those who, in Hooker’ s phrase, are “ diligent observers of circumstances, the loose regard whereof is the nurse of vulgar folly.” It is a high prerogative of the real student of history, that power to summon from the past the very scenes and issues, achievements and disasters, unverified alarms and swift reversals, which may point to the real import of the present and correct its misplaced emphasis. 3. And then, beyond all physical and intellectual conditions, are the moral qualities and habits, without which even able men blunder so strangely. For round the seat of judgment there are specious counsellors, who read our perverse desires before we own them to ourselves, who know exactly the rate of swerving from justice which will suit and gratify without shocking us, whose Suggestions really seem reasonable enough, till, as it were, the search-light of an honest contrite heart is turned full upon them. No knowledge of the world will guard right judgment in a man who lets ill-temper have its way with him; no warnings from history or experience will pierce the smoky fog of wilful sullenness; no fineness of discernment will be proof against the steady pressure or the sudden onsets of ambition, And what shall we say of vanity as an assessor in the work of judgment? Surely, brethren, many of us might describe, with the help of humiliating recollections about our own folly, some stages of defective sight which are like milder forms of that blindness, that loss of all sense of humour and fitness and proportion, which belongs to a well-settled satisfaction with oneself. 4. But there is another disclosure that he needs, if in the multitude of sorrows, in the cloudy and dark day, in the terror by night, he is still to hold the course to which God calls him. Only by a light that is not of this world can we surely see our way about this world; only in the strength of thoughts that are not as our thoughts can we “ think and do always such things as be rightful.” In God’ s light do we see light; and for all our discipline and care we shall lose our way if we try to find or keep it in forgetfulness of Him and of His self-revealing. Sooner or later it will come home to us, by His mercy, that we must strive to bring our souls into His presence and to hold them there, if we would hope to “ see life steadily and see it whole.” We too may set our minds, as the psalmist set his, to think out and understand the hard things that the experience of life presents to us; we may perhaps fancy that we do understand them, and we may even deal with them successfully for a while; but presently we too shall find that they are proving too hard for us, until we go into the sanctuary of God. For it is there, in the most adequate consciousness of His presence that, in the power of the Holy Ghost, our weak and sinful souls can reach; it is there that the faculty of judgment gradually gains its freedom, its illumination, and its strength. It is not only that those who seek with contrite hearts that awful, holy Light must needs have striven to put away the sins that darken and bewilder counsel. It is far more than this. It is that in the stillness and simplicity of drawing near to God through Jesus Christ our Lord, and in the passiveness and intense listening of the soul, conscience may speak to us with penetrating clearness of the height, the majesty, the tranquillity of justice; of its home, in the very nature of God; of its work, sure as His will; of its exactness, absolute as His perfection; of the silent and immediate certainty with which the false estimates and verdicts of mankind are set right before “ the Judge of all the earth” ; of the solemnity of that appeal which, spoken or unspoken, reaches Him from every age, and is written down and cannot be erased: “ O our God, wilt Thou not judge them?” “ The Lord look upon it, and require it; Thou art the helper of the friendless;” “ Thou art set in the throne that judgest right;” and of our heavy responsibility for every exercise of the power given us from above, to judge and act in whatsoever sphere, as His vicegerents among men. And then, as conscience thus speaks out her witness to the supreme and everlasting royalty of justice, the soul is also strengthened in the presence of God by a deeper sense of the power that is on the side of justice--the power that can wait, but not fail; that may use this means or that, but all for one unalterable end; the power which is behind the patience of Almighty God, and which we forget when we grow restless and fretful at His tarrying, and misread the little fragment that we see of His vast purpose in the world. But, above all, more moving to our hearts, more responsive to our need, than any thought which we can grasp of His power and His justice--there comes to us, as we watch and pray in the sanctuary of His presence, the distinctive disclosure of the faith of Jesus Christ. Much may still be dark and strange to us, and the questions that are always rising round us will need our utmost care, and we may often make mistakes in thought, and word, and deed; but the real, inner bewilderment, the fatal blundering of the soul can hardly be when we think of men and deal with them as, one by one, the distinct and unforgotten objects of that love which we ourselves have known in its astounding forbearance and condescension and inventiveness and glory. There is some sure light in the perplexity of this world, some hope even in its worst disasters, something steadfast through its storms, something still undefeated by its sins; since it is the scene where God, whose love can only be measured by the Cross, is seeking, one by one, in countless, hidden ways, the souls of men, if here He may but begin to draw them ever so little towards Himself, that hereafter He may prepare them to be with Him where He is. (Bishop Paget.) The sanction of science to the Christian interpretation of the world I. The theories and findings of modern science agree with the scriptural account of the constitution of things. Everywhere the Bible affirms or assumes that the ideal, the primitive, the essential arrangement of things was “ very good,” but that the catastrophe called sin broke up the original order, and henceforth Nature became full of contradiction and misery. Never does revelation fall into the error of teaching that the substance of the world is vicious, or that any of its great laws are malevolent, but with wonderful clearness and consistency it main-rains that Nature is a right noble system unhappily spoiled. Are not our great philosophers conscious that this interpretation of the world expresses the substantial truth? Professor Huxley finds two distinct orders prevailing in Nature--a cosmical order and a moral order; the cosmical order being vicious, the moral order, which is discovered in the growth of civilization, being the expression of reason and righteousness. But is it possible to believe that two distinct antagonistic programmes prevail in Nature side by side? Surely if science has established one position more firmly than another it is that which affirms the unity of things, and it is impossible to believe that in the bosom of Nature a dual order should exist like that which Huxley suggests. Is it not far more reasonable, far more in keeping with science, to infer that there is but one celestial, persistent order, which someway has been obscured and disturbed? And what is this normal order? If the world presents such contradictory phenomena and yet we are compelled to believe in one fundamental law and order, what is that fundamental law and order? Is the good element the deepest thing in Nature, or the bad element? Are truth, goodness, and beauty the primitive, essential, and abiding laws of the world, or illusion, selfishness, ugliness, misery? Huxley suggests, as I have just said, that there are two orders, the cosmical order, which he calls the “ natural” order; and the moral order, which he calls the “ artificial” order; but this view has not commended itself to the majority of thinking men. The moral order of the world which is more and more coming into light presents no features of “ artificiality.” Surely the moral order is the universal, the fundamental, the persistent order; amid the flow of phenomena it is the moral kingdom and law which cannot be moved. The earth is full of perplexing sights and experiences, but at the bottom it is good. The ethical process is really the cosmical process. The eternal elements are truth, goodness, mercy, beauty, joy. We should not have noticed the maladies of the world had there not been first an organic health; we should not have felt the discords of the world had we not first ‘ been conscious of an eternal music. The rational, the moral, the good, constitute the profound and absolute order. Nature as we see it is not the ideal Nature; the order of Nature, taken simply as science knows it, is not its true order; we behold the primitive design in a darkened glass. Nature with all her terrible phenomena rises up,. as human nature with all its terrible crimes rises up, the magnificent protest on its lips: “ I, yet not I, but sin which dwelleth in me.” And as the ages proceed the true and eternal order of right and beauty is ever being revealed more conspicuously. II. Revelation teaches that all things have been thrown into confusion through the abuse of man’ s free will, and modern science has made it the more easy to believe in this doctrine. Let us state exactly the dilemma that the condition of the world involves. Very often we find it impossible to look out upon the great universe without feeling that it is a magnificent expression of infinite intelligence and beauty. Our intellect exults in it; our heart does; our whole unsophisticated nature. We feel as sure as we can feel sure of anything that this glorious orb could not spring out of the blind workings of rude matter. Little comes out of a pot of paint left to itself. You must put the fire of genius under it before those magical prismatic exhalations arise which are known as the Crucifixion of Rubens, the Transfiguration of Raphael, the Paradise of Tintoretto, the Judgment Day of Michael Angelo. Genius alone glorifies paint into pictures, builds stones and dust into a St. Mark’ s, converts ink into Iliads. So we cannot believe that this round world and all that it inherits sprang out of the blind working of slime and fire-mist. A fire of genius must have glowed under chaos before there arose out of it rounded skies, suns, moons, stars, the million types of birds, beasts, blossoms, human faces, human hearts, human consciences, all the living pictures and vital shapes of this wondrous universe. The order of the world suggests to our intelligence a rational Creator; the beauty of the world a loving and perfect God. Darwin acknowledges all this in his simple, touching manner. He says, “ Another source of conviction in the existence of God, connected with the reason and not with the feelings, impresses me as having much more weight. This follows from the extreme difficulty, or rather impossibility, of conceiving the immense and wonderful universe, including man with his capacity of looking far backwards and far into futurity, as the result of blind chance or necessity. When thus reflecting, I feel compelled to look to a First Cause having an intelligent mind in some degree analogous to that of man; and I deserve to be called a Theist.” Again he writes: “ I cannot anyhow be contented to view this wonderful universe, and especially the nature of man, and to conclude that everything is the result of brute force.” And in one of his latest letters he says, “ You have expressed my inward conviction, though far more vividly and clearly than I could have done, that the universe is not the result of chance.” But very different thoughts and feelings took possession of Darwin when he surveyed other aspects of Nature. Greatly distressed by its enigmas, he was constrained to write himself an Agnostic. He says, “ With respect to the theological view of the question, this is always painful to me. I am bewildered, I had no intention to write atheistically. But I own that I cannot see as plainly as others do, and as I should wish to do, evidence of design and beneficence on all sides of us. There seems to me too much misery in the world. I cannot persuade myself that a beneficent and omnipotent God would have designedly created the Ichneumonidae with the express intention of their feeding within the living bodies of caterpillars, or that a cat should play with mice.” Again he writes: “ I cannot overlook the difficulty” (of believing in the existence of God) “ from the immense amount of suffering through the world.” And again, “ This very old argument from the existence of suffering against the existence of an intelligent First Cause seems to me a strong one.” Revelation solves this problem by declaring that the world as we see it, and its line of development as we know it, are not according to God’ s ideal and purpose. “ And God saw everything that He had made, and, behold, it was very good! So God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him.” But, by the abuse of free-will, man has spoiled himself and marred the whole creation. There is something that man can call his own, “ his own lust,” inordinate, irregular desire, and this intemperance and disobedience of thought and action have spoiled the good and perfect gifts of God. There is a great deal in this world that was not created by God, that does not come from the normal action of His laws, and in which God disclaims all proprietorship. We call earthquakes, cyclones, pestilences, famines “ acts of God,” but the more we understand the power of man over telluric nature the more are we persuaded of his responsibility in these catastrophes. Man to a great extent holds the climates in his hand; the vast dominion of Nature falls into confusion through his sins of omission and commission; and if you consult Darwin, Marsh, and other scientists you learn that man, not God, is the agent of huge catastrophes which are charged to the account of the Almighty. As John Garth Wilkinson keenly observes, “ Man is the insect of the universal gall.” And when we regard the ugly, venomous, and “ destructive forms which abound in the earth, they are no more to be imputed to God than are deserts and pestilences. The author of “ Evil and Evolution” says aptly, “ Evolutionists are agreed that it is just the fierce struggle of created things that has produced birds and beasts of prey, and there can be little doubt that it is the malignity of the struggle that has produced the venom of so many reptiles.” And I may add here that this work, which I read after writing this address, contains a very interesting chapter on the subject of evolution without maladjustment. We do not hold the Almighty responsible for the stiletto of the assassin, the sword of the tyrant, the cup of the poisoner, and we do not hold the Almighty responsible for the locust, the spider, the vulture, the shark, the phylloxera, the microbe, for the fang of the serpent, the beak of the hawk, or the blade of the sword-fish. What is done under our eyes by the malign cleverness of the breeder of dogs has been going on in Nature to an infinite extent and by secret processes we may not follow. “ Every good and every perfect gift is from above;” but our lusts are our “own,” and they have put their stamp of original horrible disfigurement upon the fair face of the world. The lord of the house determines the house in an extraordinary degree, and the good creatures of God by our misrule and violation have become agents and forces of evil. But it will be said that it is only possible to develop the world on the lines of conflict and suffering, it is only thus that things can be evolved and perfected. Now, it is quite true that the world hitherto has been developed by bitter and bloody processes, and, without doubt, seeing that we are what we are, no other method is possible; but it was palpably God’ s design that we should reach the goal by another path--by a path of sunshine and flowers. Great things have come to pass through hunger, battle, bleeding, and death, but this is not the normal programme of God. He would have attained the glorious ideal through peace and plenty, through noble passions and fellowships. Sir W.J. Dawson has an instructive page in which he affirms that whilst the struggle for existence has played a great part in the development of the world, the most productive and progressive ages were those in which the struggle for existence played the least part. “ Again, we are now prepared to say that the struggle for existence, however plausible as a theory, when put before us in connection with the productiveness of animals and the few survivors of their multitudinous progeny, has not been the determining cause of the introduction of new species. The periods of rapid introduction of new forms of marine life were not periods of struggle, but of expansion--those periods in which the submergence of continents afforded new and large space for their extension and comfortable subsistence. In like manner, it was continental emergence that afforded the opportunity for the introduction of land animals and plants. Further, in connection with this, it is now an established conclusion that the great aggressive faunas and floras of the continents have originated in the north, some of them within the arctic circle, and this in, periods of exceptional warmth, when the perpetual summer sunshine of the arctic regions coexisted with a warm temperature. The testimony of the rocks thus is that not struggle but expansion furnished the requisite conditions for new forms of life, and that the periods of struggle were characterized by depauperation and extinction.” (Salient Points, p. 27). The world would be far more beautiful, scientists declare, without this exhaustive struggle for life. Colour being dangerous is kept down to conceal creatures from their natural enemies. Humming-birds are so splendid because they have no enemies, and all birds and beasts would acquire new beauty were it not for the hawk and the tiger. And in many directions it is seen that, whilst struggle secures fitness and strength, it also implies impoverishment and extinction. These facts give an insight into the benign possibilities of Nature, and show how peace, abundance, and sunshine might have filled the earth with mild beasts, glorious vegetation, and noble men. God could have worked with other pressures, attractions and stimulations. We struggle now by a “ Via Dolorosa “ and with bleeding feet to the golden goal, but God meant us to reach it by a way of pleasantness and a path of peace. That God should endow a creature with freewill, knowing that that endowment would involve its possessor in manifold sorrows, is a mystery we may agree to give God time to explain, but granted the moral agent, that is, the free agent, and granted that this agent proved faithless, the anarchy of the world is explicable without impeaching the character of its Creator and King. God is right and man is wrong, and the wrongfulness of man has perverted his whole environment. (W. L. Watkinson.) Light arising in darkness I. Unassisted human reason cannot vindicate Divine providence.1. Because we are prone to err. (1) Our intellect is depraved.(2) Our will is perverse.(3) The devil deceives us. 2. Because we see only parts of the ways of God. (1) The machinery is so vast.(2) The period of its revolution is so long. 3. Because Jehovah does not fully reveal Himself. II. The way of duty is the way of safety.1. We receive instruction. Wherever we commune with God, meditating on the Word of God, and praying, “ Open Thou mine eyes, that,” etc., we are in “ the sanctuary of God,” and are taught of the Lord. Receiving light from Holy Scripture, and from the Holy Spirit, our incorrect judgment respecting the prosperity of the wicked is rectified, and we see sufficient to convince us that the Judge of all the earth does right. (1) We see that rich sinners are insecure.(2) We see that rich sinners are suddenly cast down.(3) We see that rich sinners are the objects of God’ s displeasure. 2. We grow in faith. Two things especially nurture our faith. (1) A conviction of our own ignorance and insufficiency. “ So foolish was I, and ignorant,” etc. (2) A consciousness that God is near to us and sustains us. “ Nevertheless I am continually with Thee,” etc. Hence, “ we endure as seeing Him who is invisible,” and become “ strong in faith, giving glory to God.” 3. We rejoice in hope. The end is not yet. Eternity is before us. (P. J. Wright.) On the difficulties of speculative inquiry Knowledge is pleasant to the mind as light is sweet to the eye. But such pleasantness has its limit. Its pursuit may become painful--“ too painful for me.” See this in the mercy of the providence of God. Up to a certain point it is delightful to contemplate; but it has also its fearful aspects which forbid too close a scrutiny. So of man’ s intellectual nature: how pleasant to investigate man’ s position, prospects, destiny under the government of God. Yet inquiries of this sort lead to dark and fearful issues. What are we to say of the problem of evil under the rule of a benevolent God? And the effect of such inquiries is twofold. Some are made sceptics: others are embarrassed and distressed. Some become angry and do nothing but complain. Others are much troubled and hindered in their religious life. Now, I would offer some considerations by which this feeling of painfulness may be mitigated or removed. And I begin with a confession--that I cannot solve the difficulties of speculative philosophy, nor the problem of the universe. I admit their reality, but they are all of them reducible to a common clement, and to a simple expression. They all prove only this--the imperfection, the restriction of our knowledge, nothing more; and concerning this we note-- I. That such restrictions of our knowledge are only part of a general system. Mystery is everywhere. II. They are an essential element of our being. There are of necessity mysteries to all created beings. It may be that to God all things are clear, but to us they cannot be, for we are finite and He is infinite. III. We have knowledge sufficient for all practical purposes. But these are the great purposes for which life is given, and to accomplish them God did not teach any one a theory. Men fed themselves on the fruits of the field long time before they knew botany; sailed on the rivers and seas before they knew the science of navigation. And so our Bible will tell us our duty and what else we really need to know, though on many questions it leaves us where it found us. But how foolish to refuse practical obedience until we can solve the problem of the universe. IV. Restricted knowledge is an important element in our moral condition. It tests what is in a man’ s heart, and gives scope for faith. V. But restricted as our knowledge is, its field is marvellously ample. See the varied departments of science, natural, intellectual, moral. The expanse is crowded with objects. No one can master them all. And then-- VI. We are in a position, is regard to knowledge, of brilliant expectation. Soon we shall remove to a world where our present limitations will be no more, and where we shall know even as we are known. Therefore have patience. Are you prepared for the discoveries of the other world? Think how momentous they are. Do not, because some things are “ too painful “ for you to know now, waste your life in inaction and complaint. (J. H. Hinton, M. A.) Surely Thou didst set them in slippery places: Thou castedst them down into destruction. The sinner’ s end Want of understanding has destroyed many. The best place go get understanding is the sanctuary of God. Until he went there David was in a mist, but in the sanctuary he was as on a mountain summit with the clouds far beneath his feet. For there he had communion with God, and heard the law of God, and so understood the end of the wicked. Let us then try to-- I. Understand the sinner’ s end.1. Like all else, there is death, but what a death is his.2. It is the death of all in which he took delight.3. It brings him to the bar of God.4. He is sent be everlasting hell. Now, all this is certain; and often sudden; and how terrible; and it is endless. II. Seek to profit by it.1. How grateful should we be if we are saved.2. Let us make our calling and election sure.3. Be earnest about the salvation of others. III. Warn the unrepentant. You are slipping down to perdition. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Slippery places Winter is the season of frost. Then there is ice on every hand. There are perils on the land and on the water. I. There are slippery places in life.1. Scenes of animal excitement. The market--the theatre--the social feast--the excitements of wine and music, such things as work upon the senses, and enkindle the passions.2. Opportunities of selfish gratification.3. Company of the ungodly.4. When tempted to doubt God’ s righteousness and love. II. Those who walk in slippery places are in danger of falls.1. Insecurity.2. Risk of injury. (1) To peace.(2) To character.(3) To usefulness. III. Slippery places prove fatal to the wicked.1. Unmask the evil of their character (Proverbs 11:3). Judas. 2. Reveal the worthlessness of their hopes. Seem to thrive, promise themselves ease and length of days. Vanity. When tested they fail utterly (Psalms 73:17; Proverbs 29:1; Psalms 146:4; Job 8:13-20). 3. Manifest that they are the objects of God’ s displeasure. Nothing keeps them out of hell but God’ s mercy. Destruction is impending. Sure--sudden--overwhelming. IV. Some counsels as to slippery places.1. Avoid them, when possible (Psalms 119:101; Proverbs 1:10; 1 Thessalonians 5:10; Psalms 17:4). 2. When you do come to them walk warily. “ Watch and pray.” “ Be not high-minded, but fear.” 3. Take such friendly help as may be available (Ephesians 6:15; Psalms 23:4; Ecclesiastes 4:9-10; Psalms 26:1; Psalms 119:63). 4. Should you fall, endeavour to get good from the evil. Time for thought--prayer--renewal of faith and strength. 5. Should you escape, be thankful, and give God the glory (Psalms 94:18; Psalms 116:1-8). 6. Let Jerusalem come into your mind. There will be no “ slippery places,” etc. (W. Forsyth, M. A.) The prosperity of the wicked insecure This may be argued--1. From the fact that it is not founded on the favour of God. 2. From the uncertain and temporary nature of the very elements of which it is composed. (1) The good opinion of others.(2) The honesty and trustworthiness of our fellow-men.(3) Deceitful, uncertain riches. 3. From the fact that the very habits to which that prosperity gives rise, may acquire such strength as to destroy it. Napoleon Bonaparte is an illustrious instance of the power of that habit of overgrown, lawless ambition, which in one luckless hour can ruin the splendid fortunes of an empire. 4. From the fact that their own consciences are not thoroughly reconciled to their prosperity, and the pangs and forebodings of conscience can soon embitter and destroy the very essence of worldly fortune. 5. The known uncertainty of life haunts the wicked with a dread that destroys the baseless joys of their prosperity. (D. L. Carroll, D. D.) Psalms 73:20 As a dream when one awaketh.The sleep and dream of ungodly men I. The ungodly are asleep. Not physically but spiritually. II. In this sleep they dream. They fancy the world and its joys are real, abiding, secure, satisfying. III. At death they awake. Their all is in this world, and lo, death comes and strips them of all they valued, as a dream of one awaking. How much better to have this awakening here! (W. Harris.) Psalms 73:22-25 So foolish was I, and ignorant: I was as a beast before Thee.Flesh and spirit a riddle What secrets of inward experience we have in our text. Consider-- I. The confessions concerning the flesh. David was a great saint, yet he tells God--“ So foolish was I. . . beast before Thee.”1. Foolish. It was sinful folly, not to be excused by frailty, but perverse and wilful. And is not this true of us? 2. Ignorant. Surely after all his experience he ought to have known better than to be envious of the wicked. And how often we have to make the like confession. If we could but see ourselves we should see our knowledge to be nothing and our ignorance to he all. Then-- 3. “ As a beast before Thee.” The Hebrew is, “ I was a very beast before Thee.” It means, so worldly-minded, so empty of all holy desire, so short-sighted, so full of animal passions. But turn to-- II. The expressions of the spirit.1. He is conscious of Divine regard. “ Nevertheless I am,” etc. Upon His mind, before His eye, in His hand. 2. Of Divine help. “ Thou hast holden me.” 3. Of Divine guidance. “ Thou shalt guide,” etc. 4. Of Divine reception. “ Receive me to glory.” III. To the conclusion of the whole. “ Whom have I in heaven but Thee,” etc. I have known men lose their property, and what is dearer than property, but they have not said, “ Whom have I in heaven,” etc. The confessions of our text will be heard in the adoring gratitude of the redeemed in glory. That Christ should have saved them--the foolish, the ignorant, and who had been as a beast before Him. But this He will do for all who believe. (C. H. Spurgeon.) A pilgrim’ s progress I. The pilgrim’ s character and condition before he was turned to the Lord. “ So foolish . . . beast before Thee.” What a hearty and thorough confession this is! Probably it was not so made at first. Men never accurately measure the depth of the pit they lay in until they are out of it. Note the terms he uses in this confession. See the cattle browsing on the grass. It is no shame to them to be beasts; but it is a shame for a man to be as a beast, for he was made in God’ s image. The beast never had a soul; and I have quenched the life of mine--put out its light. I was like a beast in having a body and life and appetites, and stopping short with these, as if these were all! They knew not a God to live for; and I lived without God. Being a man, I became as a beast. II. His present nearness and peace. “ Nevertheless I am continually with Thee.” What a difference--“ I was as a beast” ; but “ I am with Thee.” Transformations unknown in nature are accomplished in grace. The man has become new. How has it been brought about? There has been reconciliation; the saved are made nigh through the blood of Christ. And this nearness continues. III. The cause and manner of this great deliverance. “ Thou hast holden me by my right hand.” It is God’ s doing, not his own. The picture represents a father leading his strayed child home. IV. The course through life which the penitent now expects to keep. “ thou shalt guide me,” etc. V. The issue of all in eternity. Look to the last three points, that we may mark their order and their relations.1. Salvation accomplished by almighty grace: “ Thou hast holden me.” 2. New obedience now, according to the Word of God: “ Thou shalt guide me with Thy counsel.” 3. Hope of glory afterward: “ Thou shalt receive me.” In the middle is the actual holiness--the new obedience of the saved man, and on either side of a strong one on whom it may lean. On the one side is salvation already accomplished; on the other is the hope of glory yet to come. (W. Arnot.) Psalms 73:23 Nevertheless I am continually with Thee: Thou hast holden me by my right hand.The Christian’ s portion Four privileges of God’ s servants are mentioned in the text. I. His presence with them--His constant presence. “ I am continually with Thee.” It is another way of saying, ‘“ Thou art continually with me.” The Lord is ever side by side with His people. II. Support. “ Thou hast holden me” --“ holden me by my right hand.” Two men may be travelling together the same road in company, and yet separate one from the other. “ But” (says the psalmist) “ not so the Lord and I His afflicted servant; He takes hold of my hand, as He walks by my side, and lets me feel His presence, and I am content.” With Him the wilderness becomes (as it were) a paradise; and without Him the fairest earthly paradise--oh, how soon does it become a desert to our souls! III. Guidance. “ Thou shalt guide me” --“ guide me with Thy counsel.” “ Thou” shalt do it. Hitherto we have looked on the Lord, as simply the companion and upholder of the believer on his way; here, you perceive, another character is given Him. He points out that way to him--the way to glory--leads him to it, and directs him along it. IV. Glory. Thou shalt “ afterward receive me to glory.” The Lord’ s guidance of us is ultimately to end in this. Thither all His dealings with us tend. And now I would say to you two things.1. Aim to get the psalmist’ s faith and confidence, He saw and felt and rejoiced in his own personal interest in God’ s care and love. And-- 2. Aim to get the psalmist’ s submissive spirit. (C. Bradley, M. A.) God’ s abiding presence Here was a man who lived with an abiding sense of the Divine nearness. To him God was not an occasional visitor, but an abiding guest. “ I am continually with Thee.” Now, is this a common experience with religious people? I fear not. “ Lo, I am with you always,” said Jesus, and if we do not realize His presence the fault must be our own. Well, now, let us see what effect this abiding consciousness of God would have upon our daily life and experience. I. Our life would be much holier. It is related that a certain shoemaker kept by his side a portrait of that famous Brighton preacher, the Rev. F.W. Robertson, and that whenever he was tempted to do anything wrong he took a look at the portrait, the very sight of which made it practically impossible for him to yield. Now, if the sight of that good man’ s portrait could have such a restraining effect upon that shoemaker, what would be the effect upon your life and mine did we daily live with the holy God before our eyes? “ I have set the Lord always before me,” said the psalmist; and did we live with a constant consciousness of the Divine nearness I am sure we should be restrained from many things to which we are so apt to yield, and in which we sometimes perhaps indulge. But in a more positive way, and in a much larger sense, our whole life would be wondrously hallowed if we only carried into it all an abiding sense of the Divine presence. Professor Drummond has said that “ there are men and women in whose company we are always at our best. While with them we cannot think mean thoughts or speak ungenerous words. Their mere presence is elevation, purification, sanctity. All the best stops of our nature are drawn out by their intercourse, and we find a music in our souls that was never there before.” And if the society of good people can exert such a hallowing influence upon us, what must be the sanctifying effect of daily companionship and fellowship with God? “ Ten minutes,” said Professor Drummond, “ spent in His society every day, aye! two minutes, if it be face to face, and heart to heart, will make the whole day different.” And if our whole life were pervaded with the consciousness of the Divine, as, thank God, some lives have been, then the whole life would be different. II. Such a consciousness of God would make our life much stronger and safer. Life is full of difficulty and danger, and if we would be valiant and victorious we must seek a fuller and more constant realization of the Divine presence. I remember that on one occasion I had a very lonely road to travel, and had often felt exceedingly nervous. But I had an old friend who frequently accompanied me on that part of the journey, and in his companionship I had no sense of danger, but felt equal to any emergency. And amidst life’ s thickest difficulties and dangers we may have the companionship of God, and that shall be our defence. The strongest and bravest man may well fear to face life’ s stern duties and- difficulties in his own strength; for in that case defeat is inevitable. But with the assurance of God’ s presence there comes power to face life’ s sternest forces and foes. “ Our sufficiency is not of ourselves; our sufficiency is of God.” III. This abiding consciousness of God would make our life much happier. In ordinary life there is certainly much to sadden and sour the human heart, and the one great antidote to that is a more vivid realization of the Divine presence. “ In Thy presence is fulness of joy.” Those words have a present significance. “ In Thy presence is fulness of joy;” not then and yonder only, but here and now. “ Then were the disciples glad when they saw the Lord.” The unexpected appearance of Jesus in their midst chased away those men’ s disappointment and doubt and sadness, and inspired them with a new hope and gladness. I have a little girl who repeatedly awoke in the night, and was terribly frightened with the darkness; and she always insisted on coming into her mother’ s room and bed. Nothing else would satisfy or soothe her. One night her mother said to her, “ You should not do so, Olive, for there is nothing to be afraid of; and it is just as dark in this room as in your own.” Then, nestling up beside her mother, the little one replied, “ Yes, mother, but you are in this dark room.” Ah, her mother’ s nearness made all the difference to the child’ s feelings. And there is nothing that can disarm the soul’ s fears and soothe its sorrows like the realization of our Father’ s presence. (B. Haddon.) Influence of the Divine presence on a good man I. His internal moral state.1. The belief of the Divine presence acts upon them here, first, as an incitement to virtue. The presence of one whom we highly esteem and revere, of a sovereign, for instance, a father, or a friend, whose approbation we are solicitous to gain, is always found to exalt the powers of men, to refine and improve their behaviour. Hence, it has been given as a rule by ancient moralists, that, in order to excel in virtue, we should propound to ourselves some person of eminent worth; and should accustom ourselves to act as if he were standing by and beholding us. But what is the observation of the greatest or wisest men on earth to that presence of the Divinity which constantly surrounds us? The man who realizes to his mind this august presence, feels a constant incentive for acquitting himself with dignity. 2. Supposing, however, his virtuous endeavours to be faithful, many imperfections will attend them. Passions will sometimes overcome him; and ambition or interest, in an unguarded hour, will turn him aside into evil. Hence he will be ashamed of himself, and disquieted by a sense of guilt and folly. In this state, to which we are often reduced by the weakness of human nature, the belief of God’ s continual presence brings relief to the heart. He can appeal to Him who knows his frame, that, in the general train of his conduct it is his study to keep the law of God. II. His external circumstances.1. It not only preserves the virtue of a good man amidst the temptations of pleasure, but it gives to his prosperity a security, and a peculiar relish, which to others is unknown. He dwells as with a friend and protector, from whom he conceives his blessings to proceed. He can appeal to him for the thankfulness with which he receives them; and for his endeavours to employ them well. He trusts that the God whom he serves will not forsake him; that the goodness which he has already experienced will continue to bless him; and though he believes himself not exempted from the changes of the world, yet, in the midst of these, he has ground to hope that sources of comfort and happiness shall always he left open to him. Moreover, the pleasures of life, while they last, are unspeakably heightened by the presence of that Benefactor who bestows them. The pleasing emotion of gratitude to the giver, mingles with the enjoyment of the gift. 2. From the prosperous, let us next turn to the afflicted condition of a good man. For as prosperity may, affliction certainly will, at one time or other, be his lot. It enters into the appointed trial of his virtue; and, in one degree or other, is the doom of all. Here we shall find various situations occur, in which no relief is equal to what a virtuous and holy man derives from a sense of the perpetual presence of God. (1) Is he, for instance, thrown into an obscure condition in the world, without friends to assist him, or any to regard and consider his estate? He enjoys the satisfaction of thinking, that though he may be neglected by men, he is not forgotten of God. (2) But though raised above obscurity or poverty, yet, in any situation of fortune, calumny and reproach may be the lot of the servant of God. His good intentions may be misconstrued; his character unjustly traduced; and, to the open reviling of enemies, the more bitter unkindness of friends may sometimes be joined. In this situation, when wounded in spirit, and, perhaps, unable to make his innocence appear, to whom shall he have recourse for defence, to whom make his last appeal, but to that God who is ever present with him, and who knoweth his heart? (3) Supposing the character of a good man to be untainted by reproach, supposing also his external situation to be opulent or distinguished; many, notwithstanding, and severe, are the distresses to which he may be exposed. Secret griefs may be preying upon him; and his heart left to feed in silence on his own bitterness. He may labour under sore disease, and discern his earthly frame gradually moulder into dust. He may be deprived of those friends and relatives who had been the chief comforts of his state; or may be obliged to prepare himself for taking farewell of them for ever. In the midst of these various afflicting scenes of human life, no consolation can be more powerful than what arises from the presence of a Divine protector and guardian, to whom our case, with all its sorrows, is perfectly known. (Hugh Blair, D. D.) The Christian with God, supported by Him I. What is implied in being continually with God.1. As a duty, it implies, that this is peculiar to real Christians; as they alone are prepared for it, and disposed to it, as being acquainted with Him, reconciled to Him, and in a state of the most intimate friendship with Him (Amos 3:3). (1) It is God’ s express command (Genesis 17:1).(2) Their covenant-consent strengthens the obligation (Jeremiah 1:5), and having opened their mouths they cannot go back.(3) The honour of God, which of all things is the dearest to them, obliges them to it. To forsake Him would be a reflection on God and His ways.(4) To this they feel the constraints of love (Psalms 73:25).(5) The blessedness arising from it, and the misery resulting from a contrary conduct, is a further obligation to this. (6) The sincerity of their love and attachment to God is thereby to be evidenced.(7) And they feel themselves deeply concerned thus to act, as they would not lose their work and their crown, and expose themselves to greater wrath (2 John 1:8.; Hebrews 10:38). 2. As a privilege, it implies that they are with God, (1) As members of His Son (1 Corinthians 12:27).(2) As His children (Romans 8:14).(3) As His heirs (Romans 8:17).(4) As His portion (Deuteronomy 32:9).(5) As His living temple (Ephesians 2:21). II. The happiness resulting therefrom. The Lord holds them by their right hand. This is necessary--1. On account of the weakness of their graces (1 Corinthians 3:1-2). 2. The remains of the carnal mind (1 Corinthians 3:3). 3. The prevalence of evil example (1 Corinthians 5:8). 4. The opposition of the world (John 15:19). 5. The unwearied diligence of Satan (1 Peter 5:8). 6. And in all these circumstances God will uphold them, according to His word and promise (Hebrews 13:6; Isaiah 54:17). Improvement:--1. How happy is the state of those who walk with God! Let us cultivate a greater intimacy than ever.2. How dreadful is the state of those who are at a distance from God! (Psalms 73:27). (T. Hannam.) Constant enjoyment of the Divine presence consistent with variable experiences Our abiding frame is the index of character, said Garfield. “ I have seen the sea lashed into fury and tossed into spray, and its grandeur moves the soul of the dullest man. But I remember that it is not the billows, but the calm level of the sea from which all heights and depths are measured. When the storm has passed and the hour of calm settles upon the ocean, when the sunlight bathes its smooth surface, then the astronomer and surveyor takes the level from which he measures all terrestrial heights and depths.” And it is thus with the saint in his spiritual enjoyments. They may be as variable as the surface of the ocean, but he does not judge of his state by their fluetuations, but by the fact that deep down in his heart, in yearning and desire, if not in actual experience, he is able to say, “ I am continually with Thee.” (The Quiver.) Psalms 73:24 Thou shalt guide me with Thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory.God-guided freedom Some, as the Church of Rome, would deny to men the right of free thought. They appeal to authority, and think it better that men should hearken only to their appointed guides. Now, I say that a Church which hinders and destroys thought curses the world. The men who think make progress; they become inventors, owners of the land they till and of the houses in which they dwell; they become foremen and masters; while the men who do not think are carriers of the hod, the hewers of wood and the drawers of water. I. That a god-guided life is a pilgrimage. II. Divine counsel is given to all who try to do God’ s will. III. Let the resolve of the psalmist be repeated in your soul. Thou shalt guide me and receive me. If you resolve to be true to yourself, by acting up to the light you have, then God will guide you by His counsel, and afterward receive you to glory. Our heavenly Guide will never steer us wrong. Trust Him. (W. Birch.) Guidance and glory In this psalm troubled men find help. I. How shall we meet our troubles?1. There is no better way than to go into the sanctuary of God. Sorrow is almost a blessing if it drives us there. 2. Next, we may well look on to the end of things. 3. Best of all, we must be careful to maintain the blessed life. To be continually with God, cultivating the momentary sense of His presence. II. But why are these experiences not more permanent? We read that “ Daniel continued.” Oh to be steadfast and unmovable!1. We must always distinguish between our emotions and our attitude. The one may die off our lives like the sunset glory from the ridges of the Alps, that seem so grey and cold when it is gone; but the other should resemble the changeless perpetuity of the everlasting hills, unaltered by the transitions of the ages, dr the alternations of day and night. You may not always feel as happy, but you can always say “ Yes” to the will of God, and realize your attitude in the risen, ascended, loving Jesus, amongst the thousand thousands that minister to Him. In moments of depression, be sure to live in your will and His will. 2. We must be careful to maintain this attitude of the will unaltered. God is constantly putting into our lives little or greater occasions of testing. Unless we are watchful in applying to each new point the principle of surrender, which we have assumed, we may drift from full face, to three-quarter, and half-face, before we are aware. 3. We must exercise ourselves to have the “ conscience void of offence toward God and toward men.” Not a scrupulous, but a sensitive, conscience. Conscience and the Holy Ghost are expressly allied by the apostle--the crystal stone ever bathed in the translucent glory of heaven. 4. We must ever keep our heart open to the Holy Spirit. It is His province and prerogative to nurture the inner life, and to fill it with the realized presence of the Lord. 5. We must be very careful to maintain unbroken the habits of the devout life. Too many are like the slip-carriage, which runs for a little from the impulse received from the engine, but then slackens till it comes to a stand; instead of resembling that which keeps its connection with the speed and strength of the locomotive. In a laundry, the other day, I saw two kinds of irons. One, the usual sort, needing to be put on a heated surface at frequent intervals to fit them for their work. The other, in which the iron was attached by a flexible gutta-percha tube to the gas-pipe, so that it was easy to use it, and inside the iron a jet of flame, fed by the gas, which maintained it at a regular temperature, and counteracted the chilling effects of its work. Is not this what we want? Not depending on the outside stimulus of a convention, a mission, or a sermon; but receiving straight from God Himself that inward fire of the Holy Ghost, to give and perpetuate which is the dearest passion of the heart of Jesus. All this will cost us something; the daily dying to self; saying “ No” to the flesh; the cutting-off of hand or foot; the dropping down into the earth to die: but these sufferings are not worthy to be compared with the growing glory of our life, or its blessedness. (F. B. Meyer, B. A.) Guidance to grace and glory I. The conviction which led the psalmist to take a guide. Happily for him, that conviction came very early. If I am to have a guide on my journey, I should like to have one at the beginning, for it is the starting that has so much to do with all the rest of the way.1. ] suppose it was because of a work of grace upon his heart; for, naturally, we do not like being guided. It is a fine piece of knowledge when you have learned that you are not fit to take care of yourself, but need somebody to lead you all the way through life. 2. I suppose that the psalmist said to the Lord, “ Thou shelf guide me,” because he had been convinced of his own folly, and therefore felt that it was well to commit himself into wiser hands; and also that he had obtained some knowledge of the difficulties of the way. To no one of us is the path of life an easy one, if we desire to be pure, and clean, and upright, and accepted with God. 3. The psalmist’ s desire to have a guide also showed his great anxiety to be right. I wish that all men began life with an earnest desire to act rightly in it; and that each one would say, “ I shall never live this life again, I should like to make it a good one so far as I can.” If this were the intense desire of every one of us, we should be driven at once to this conclusion, “ I must have a guide. I want to live a glorious life; and if I am to do so, I must be helped in it, for I am incompetent for the task by myself.” II. The confidence winch led him to take God as his guide. If we were but in our right senses, we should all do so.1. A man, looking about wisely for a guide, will prefer to have the very best; and is not God, who is infinitely wise, the best Guide that we can have? Who questions it? Is not the Lord also the most loving, the most tender, the most considerate, who can be chosen aa a guide? 2. Choose Him also because of His constant, unceasing, infallible care. If I choose a guide who may die on the road, I am likely to be unhappy; but God will never die. If I choose a guide who, being my friend at the starting, will not care for me when I have advanced halfway on my journey, I am unwise in my choice; but God cannot change, He will ever be the same. But will God guide us? 3. Well, it were vain to choose Him if He would not; but of all beings God is most easy of access. III. The heavenly commerce which now reigns between the soul and its guide. How does God guide us?1. By the general directions of His Word. Obey the Ten Commandments. Imitate Christ. 2. There are great principles infused in every man who takes God for his Guide. (1) Avoid everything that is evil.(2) Live for the glory of God alone.(3) Show love to your fellow-men. 3. God guides His people on the way of life by giving a certain balance of the faculties. When we come to God in penitence, when we are born again of the Spirit, and live by faith in Christ, then, first of all, fear is banished and faith takes its place. We are then better able to judge which is the right road. Above all, the grace of God guides us very much by the dethroning of self as the traitorous lord of our being, and makes us loyal to Christ When a man acts out of loyalty to Christ, he is pretty sure to act very wisely and rightly. 4. There is a special illumination of mind which comes from dwelling near to God. 5. At the very worst times, when all these things will fail you as a guide, you may expect mysterious impulses, for which you can never account, which will come to you, and guide you aright. IV. The sure result of this guidance: “ Thou shalt . . . afterward receive me to glory.” On earth, there is no real glory for us unless we are guided by God’ s counsel. There is no true glory for any man who takes his own course. Afterward He will receive you to glory. This is a delightful thought, but I can now only answer this one question. When we die, who will receive us into glory? Well, I do not doubt that the angels will. John Bunyan’ s description of the shining ones, who come down to the brink of the river to help the pilgrims up on the other side of the cold stream, I doubt not is all true; but the text tells us of somebody better than the angels who will come and receive us. Our dying prayer to our Lord will be, “ Into Thy hands I commend my spirit,” and His answer will be, “ I receive thee to glory.” (C. H. Spurgeon.) The Lord the Guide of His people I. In what way The Lord conducts and guides His people in this present state.1. By His providence.2. By His Word.3. By His Spirit. The Spirit of God does not reveal any new truths different from, or in addition to, those recorded in the written Word. He does not guide by impressions on the mind, the nature and tendency of which cannot be explained. But He opens the understandings to understand the Scriptures. He enables and disposes clearly to perceive, and faithfully to apply the truths already revealed in His Word, as the various cases and circumstances of His people require. II. What is implied in that glory into which The Lord will receive His people, after He has led and conducted them through the present life.1. Heaven may be represented by the term “ glory,” because it is a glorious place. If this earth which we inhabit, defiled as it is with sin, exhibit to a careful observer such evident marks of the most consummate wisdom and design--what must be the majesty of that place, where the whole art of creation has been employed, and where God has chosen to show Himself in the most magnificent manner to the view of all its blessed inhabitants? 2. Oh! how glorious is the company that fill the mansions in our Father’ s house above! 3. The employments of heaven are glorious. 4. The enjoyments of heaven infinitely transcend our highest conceptions. (A. Ramsay, M. A.) A new year’ s resolve I. Man requires a guide in the path of life.1. Man’ s ignorance of the future.2. Man’ s proneness to consult false guides.3. Man’ s frequent mistakes.4. The awful consequences of mistakes. II. God is the only true guide for man in the path of life.1. He alone knows all the future.2. He alone understands the full relation of the present to the future.3. He alone has capacity be provide for our future.4. He alone has manifested that interest that would warrant our perfect confidence for the future. III. God himself will guide man individually in the path of life. “ Thou shalt guide me,” etc. The psalmist did not believe in the Pantheist’ s god, he speaks of a person--“ Thou.” Nor in the Deist’ s god who cares only for the vast; it was for the individual “ Me.” Every man requires special guidance. Each man is a world in himself and has an orbit of his own. No two are alike. IV. Under the guidance of God the path of life becomes glorious. What does the world call glory? Conquest? You have conquest over evil when guided by God. Exalted fellowship? The greatest spirits of all worlds and times are the society of those whom God guides. Dignified position? They are kings and priests. (Homilist.) Guidance and glory I. Guidance here.1. He confesses his need of guidance, It is a grand thing if God compels us to seek direction. 2. He professes confidence in God. 3. He announces his belief in God’ s willingness to lead him. This is not included in the other; it is a distinct step. Are you sure that God will guide you? You may be sure, for He who wings an angel guides the sparrow; He who tells the number of the stars heals the broken in heart, and binds up their wounds. 4. He declares himself willing to be led. II. Glory hereafter.1. We are just as sure that it is to be revealed as we are that guidance is ours moment by moment. The glory seems more wonderful than the guidance, but it is not really so The flower is more beautiful than the bud, yet the flower was in the bud, and glory is but grace developed and revealed. The glory to which we are to be received is part and parcel of the guidance which we daily enjoy. 2. The only uncertainty is as to the time, and I think we ought to bless God that there cannot be full knowledge in this respect. It is enough that we know that He will receive us to glory afterward. Blessed word, “ afterward” !--after the pain, after the struggle, after the toil, after the cross, after the temptations, after the work is done, that is when He will receive us. Do not ask to know more than that. 3. Did you notice that the arrival is called a reception? “ And afterward receive me to glory.” Thank God for this! There is a welcome awaiting us there. I have known what it is, occasionally, to arrive unexpectedly in a strange place. The vessel draws up to the wharf, there is a crowd of folks to meet their friends, and one looks anxiously for a familiar face, but no, the message had miscarried, or there was some mistake about the time and there is nobody to extend a welcome. Oh, you do not run any such risk as regards heaven. 4. And what is there beyond the reception? Just this--glory! I was wondering what was the Scriptural use of this term glory. I find that in the Word of God it stands for riches, authority, sumptuous buildings and garments, and in some instances for hosts of warriors. Well, all these things are yonder in illimitable degree. (T. Spurgeon.) Man’ s constitution declares his need of Divine guidance Suppose a man were to say about a steamship, “ the structure of this vessel shows that it is meant that we should get up a roaring fire in the furnaces, and set the engines going at full speed, and let her go as she will.” Would he not have left out of account that there was steering apparatus which was as plainly meant to guide as are the engines to draw? What are the rudder and the wheel for? Do they not imply a pilot? And is not the make of our souls as plainly suggestive of subordination and control? (A. Maclaren, D. D.) The guidance of the Holy Spirit as compared to a compass A mariner who puts out to sea, losing sight of land, beholds nothing but a waste of waters around him. The night comes on, and clouds and darkness gather in upon him. But in his chart and compass he has an infallible guide. He regulates the sail as the wind requires, and holds to the rudder, never losing sight of the compass, and watchfully keeps the narrow way to which it confines him by night and by day. So the wise Christian looks up as one continually dependent on the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the one source of all his spiritual life and motion. He is careful to watch the least breathing of the Spirit upon his soul that he may not quench it, but yield himself up to its full impression. And adding to this, his faith, all diligence and watchfulness, he is wafted onwards in safety, amidst the storms and wrecks around him in an evil world. (H.G. Salter.) Psalms 73:25-26 Whom have I in heaven but Thee?end there is none upon earth that I desire beside Thee. God the only portion “ Whom have I in heaven but Thee?” Not “ what.” Not in things, but in persons, the personal soul must find its portion. Not in many, but in One, to whom the soul can look, and to whom, as here, it can lift up its cry. I. God alone can meet our sinfulness. This is our first need, for we are sinners, and this fact affects everything else. There may be any amount of slumbering grandeur in us, but it cannot get out for sin. None of us would be willing or able to reveal to another all that he is conscious of in himself. Hence men are reserved with one another. A man is accosting his neighbour in neighbourly kindness, and thinking the while, “ He does not know me, and I durst not tell him what I think and what I feel and what I am. If I were sure he would understand everything just as it is, I might be able to tell him; but being sure that he would not understand, I cannot.” Now we are not speaking of any great sins or vices which particular men may have committed, and the remembrance of which they carry within, like ghastly skeletons shut up in closed rooms, but just of the secret of sinfulness which is in every heart. A terrible secret! A secret which must be told, which cannot be shut up for ever. But to whom? To Him who is greater than the heart, and who knoweth all things. To Him, in fact, because He knoweth all things. And then, according to His own promise, He will meet us and take all our sin away. “ He that covereth his sins shall not prosper; but he that con-fesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.” God is for ever declaring His willingness to forgive. Thus He makes Himself our God by meeting our sinfulness. II. God alone can meet our feebleness. We are compassed with infirmities, we are made up of needs. Some are so utterly blinded and bewitched that for a while they seem to indulge the hope that this world is the foundation-rock on which they can rest. How we should pity such men! And how pitiable indeed they become when they are undeceived; when the seeming rock shows itself to be but shifting sand; when the fair house shivers itself to atoms in their hands, and they stand houseless and homeless in the storm. III. God only can meet our nobleness. For we are noble, as well as frail and sinful. Things high and low meet strangely in our nature. We are made in the image of God. The image is marred but not erased. We belong to a fallen but also to a rising race. And this is our nobleness that we are still God’ s sons, and that we are awakening to this consciousness. And God alone can meet us in this. As He alone can understand the vastness of our needs, so He only can understand the greatness of our desire and the strength of our endeavour to be like Him, and with Him again. We misread, and then we misreport, each other woefully. We are on the homeward way together, and no doubt there is thus great mutual help, but there is mutual hindrance as well. One often casts a shadow on the path of another. He seems to see nothing but the wrong things, and the weaknesses; the rightness and the growing strength are within, and are seen only by Him who looks from above. It is not only that the wrong things are seen, and the weaknesses are noted, but often the right is called the wrong, and treated so. No doubt the temper of suspicion and distrust is fostered by the publicity which everything now receives, or rather by the malign prominence given in our daily literature to the vile and the wrong things. For the good things are not published; they are put into quiet corners; a thousand of them may be enacted by effort and by sacrifice, by patience and perseverance and love, and no notice will be taken of them. This uncandid temper, this extreme unwillingness to see moral inequalities among men, this strange desire to strike down the lofty and lay them with the low, rather than toil for the elevation of the low to the level of the lofty, is becoming quite one of the operative principles of our intellectual and social life, and of course it affects the Church also. Suspicion is bred among Christian men. One does not see how God is working in another, how the glorious image is shining out again. All this is trying enough, but at least it should enhance and endear to us the truth we are now enforcing, that God alone can meet our nobleness. How precious the privilege of being able to turn to Him when we can turn to no one else! IV. God alone can meet and satisfy our immortality. He only is “ the strength of our heart, and our portion for ever.” Even if the things and the persons we are so apt in our haste and blindness to put in the place of Him could be to us what we hope, the question still remains, “ For how long?” and turn where we will, we can find no answer of such a kind as to furnish the ground of confidence for a single day. Try to apply the great language of the text to any person, to anything, but Him, and what a mockery it will be! Turn, then, from sin to God, from frailty to God, from trouble to God, from baffled endeavours to God, from unrequited love to God, from self to God, from men to God, from the world to God, from heaven to God, from eternity to God; and standing, separated and alone, on the height of this decisive hour, say, while heaven hears the cry, and angels register the vow--“ Whom have I in heaven but Thee? and there is none,” etc. (A. Raleigh, D. D.) The home of the heart The more perplexed and sad the music at first, the more triumphant and jubilant is the orchestral close. This singer’ s first notes were both perplexed and sad. He was wrestling in vain with the old problem of the apparent disconnection between goodness and happiness, his “ steps had well nigh slipped” ; he was down in the depths, burrowing there. He has soared now to the heights. He has caught hold of God’ s hand, and feels that he is ever with Him, and so the distribution of life’ s uncertain ill and good becomes a less difficult and a far less important problem. Therefore the end of his song circles back to the beginning. He began by saying, and saying it when he could scarcely believe it to be true--“ truly God is good to Israel, but as for me” --and He ends with “ it is good for me to draw near to God.” In this utterance we have-- I. The perfection of wisdom. What did the psalmist mean by the rapturous question, “ Whom have I in heaven but Thee” ? Perhaps, he was thinking, amongst other things, of false gods, and proclaiming the monotheism of Israel and disowning the gods of the nations. Perhaps he had no such specific idea in his mind; but simply looking up into the heavens with all their stars, and with all their possible inhabitants, he felt that they were nought to him. And then does he come down, or does he go up, in the next clause? “ There is none upon earth that I desire beside Thee.” In one respect that is a descent; more truly it is a climax. What does he mean? This is not the utterance of a foolish, false, unnatural, impossible effort to denude him of what makes man. God desires no vacuum in the heart into which He comes. He does not “ make a solitude and call it peace.” Mark that “ beside Thee” --“ none upon earth that I desire beside Thee.” Does not that suggest that there is to be none else on a level with Him; that His throne is to overtop all other golden seats? It implies, also, that all other delights and desires are held, not only in subordination to, but in association with, the supreme desire and delight which is fixed upon Him. A-s many loves as you will, as many desires as the heart can frame, if only all are linked with God, and you love and aim at all other loves and aims in God, and at God in all others. II. A practicable ideal. Can it be realized perfectly? No. Permanently? No. Approximately? Yes. Progressively? Yes. Do you ask how? The first thing to do, because men are meant to be guided by their brains, is to familiarize our minds, by frequent contemplation and meditation, with the truth that God is our all-sufficient good. There is no depth in religion unless that lies at the very root of it all. And there will be no power in the practical life, for the sake of the clamant demands of which so many of us are strangers to God and ourselves, unless, in the midst of the bustle and the crowd, we do clear for ourselves a little space, and there, in the silence of our own souls, learn to know how good God is. And another thing that is necessary in order that we shall progressively approximate to this great ideal is diligent and honest direction and suppression of desires that draw us away from Him. You have to cut off the suckers and the side-shoots if you want the leader to go straight towards the sky. You have to dam up the side-streams if you want the river to run with a power and a scour. And you have to exercise coercion, violence sometimes, on these vagrant desires, and gather them together, if they are to be directed successfully and triumphantly to Him. But there must be further distinct efforts, not only of a negative kind, and in the way of suppression and withdrawal, but of the positive kind, in the way of seeking after a closer union with God, and a more continuous experience of His all-sufficiency. If we practise these three things, meditation, self-control, and the aspiration after God, in the measure in which we do we shall be able to make this psalmist’ s word our own, and we shall find it true what God Himself has declared, “ I have never said to any of the seed of Jacob, Seek ye My face in vain.” III. The secret of blessedness. The misery of human life is its being torn asunder by the multiplicity of aims and objects. The blessedness of human life is its being simplified and unified into search after one. All of us know how the number of vulnerable points in a life is increased, just in the measure in which its aims and desires are manifold. And we might all of us know how we become lords of circumstances, and cased in triple armour against all sorrows, when we bring our lives down to the simplest form, and say, “ God only is my good and my desire.” It is bad business to put all your capital into one speculation. It is good trading to put all your desires on God. God, and God alone, will unify our lives. This saying discloses the secret of peace. It is something to be delivered from all painful and perpetual and profitless quests after the manifold, and instead of wandering about the world seeking for goodly pearls, to have no need to roam, because at home we have the one pearl of great price. Need I remind you, again, how this great utterance reveals to us the secret o! blessedness, in that it points us to the only path on which he that seeks is sure to find. To seek for anything else than God is to lay up for ourselves sore hearts some day. To seek after Him, and Him only, is to secure blessedness in the search, and blessedness in the fruition. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) The believer’ s portion in his God 1. We are here taught that God is the portion of His people. God not only gives us His grace and favour, pardon of our sins, a perfect righteousness, and a glorious inheritance, but He gives us Himself. He bids us find our happiness not merely in the streams which flow from His goodness, but in Himself, the fountain of all. 2. While the psalmist professes to take nothing short of God Himself as his portion, he expressly excludes all other claimants upon his supreme regard and affection. He can survey the whole firmament, and range through all the courts of heaven’ s glorious palace; and though his eye falls upon myriads of noble and blessed objects--angels and archangels, cherubim and seraphim--prophets, apostles, and martyrs--saints of all climes and all ages--all these he passes by, he will set his hopes upon none of them, he will fix his heart’ s trust upon nothing short of the eternal God Himself. 3. If the believer thus excludes all in heaven from competition with the one Lord of all for the supreme place in his heart’ s affections, much more will he not allow anything on earth to interfere with such a claim. The kind benefactor, the sympathizing fellow-sufferer, the beloved Jonathan who is as his own soul; none of these must be permitted to usurp a place reserved for only one. They have their own appointed places, but they must not presume to occupy that throne in his heart which of right is his Lord’ s. 4. But besides these various claimants upon the believer’ s affections, there is one who is often a more formidable rival to their rightful Lord than any other, and that is himself. It is very rarely that a man does not love himself better than any one else; and too often he occupies in his own heart the very throne of God. His dependence is upon his own wisdom and his own strength. He trusts in his physical or his mental capacity, or it may be his spiritual understanding and Christian experience. His trust is divided between his Lord and himself--his Lord’ s mercy and goodness, and his own faith and holiness; and so when these fail, as fail they always will, then of course he is disquieted and discouraged. 5. What then is the conclusion to which all this leads us? I do not know that we can express it more forcibly than in the closing words of the psalmist himself--“ It is good for me to draw near to God: I have put my trust in the Lord God, that I may declare all Thy works.” (W. E. Light, M. A.) Reasonable rapture The text indicates the very high-water mark of religious experience, the very apex and climax of what some people would call mystical religion to which this man has climbed because he fought with his doubts, and by God’ s grace was able to lay them. To him the world’ s uncertain ill or good becomes infinitely insignificant, because for the future he has a clear vision of a continued life with God, and because for the present he knows that to have God in his heart is all that he really needs. I. A necessity which, misdirected, is the source of man’ s misery. We all of us need, though, alas! so few of us know that we need, a living possession of a living perfect person, for mind, for heart, for will. You try to fill that deep and aching void in your hearts, which is a sign of your possible nobleness, and a pledge of your possible blessedness, with all manner of minute rubbish, which can never fill up the gap that is there. Cartload after cartload may be tilted into the bottomless bog, and there is no more solid ground on the surface than there was at the beginning. Oh I consult thine own deepest need; listen to that voice, often stifled, often neglected, and by some of you always misunderstood, which speaks in your wills, minds, consciences, hopes, desires, hearts; and is it not this: “ My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God” ? II. The longing which, rightly directed and cherished, is the very spirit of religion. He, and only he, is the religious man, who can take these words of my text for the inmost words of his conscious effort and life. And only in the measure in which you and I recognize that God is our sole and all-sufficient good, in that measure have we any business to call ourselves devout or Christian people. III. The blessed possession which deadens earthly desires. The sun when it rises quenches the brightest stars, that can but fade in his light and die. And so when, in answer to our longing, God lifts the light of His countenance--a better sunrise--upon us, that new affection dims and quenches the brightness of these little, though they be lustrous, points, that shed a fragmentary and manifold twinkling over the darkness of our former night. Only remember that this supreme, and in some sense exclusive, love and longing does not destroy the sweetness of lower possessions and blessings. A new deep love in a man’ s or a woman’ s heart does not make their former affections less, but more sweet and noble and strong. IV. The possession which is the pledge of perpetuity. The whole context requires us to suppose that the psalmist’ s eye is looking across the black gorge of death to the shining tableland beyond. So here we are admitted to see faith in the future life in the very act of growth. The singer soars to that sunlit height of confidence in the endless blessedness of union with God, just because He feels so deeply the sacredness and the blessedness of his present communion with God. Next to the resurrection of Jesus Christ the best proof of immortality lies in the present experience of communion with God. If there be a God at all, anything is more reasonable than to believe that the union, formed between Him and me, by faith here can ever come to an end until I have exhausted Him, and drawn all His fulness into myself. This communion, by its very sweetness, yieldeth proof that it was “ born for immortality.” And the psalmist here, just because to-day God is the Rock of his heart, is sure that that relation must last on, through life, through death, aye I and for ever, “ when all that seems shall suffer shock.” (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Tenderness of desire I. They express a conscious necessity which God alone is able to meet. “ Lord, to whom shall we go?” God alone can meet the varied needs of our nature. II. Strong and absorbing love for God. This no hireling love for what it gets, but love for the giver, for the Lord Himself. And it need not come into collision with the love of our earthly friends. If we put the love of man first, all is wrong: but put the love of Christ first, and then all is right. (E. Garbett, M. A.) Why should a man love Jesus Christ I. Because of the superlative beauty of His character. Jesus Christ is the purest, truest, highest, most gracious human character which this world has seen. Every lofty virtue had in His life its natural home; every rich grace flowered in faultless perfectness, in coherence, and congruity, and symmetry. In the great worlds of character and conduct, in the realms of thought and feeling, speech and act, He has a sovereign pre-eminence. Without the thought of His character and the power of His influence, the moral wealth of the world would suffer an irreparable impoverishment, and the strength of the world’ s ethical energy would be seriously diminished. II. Because of the depth of His appeal to us. He never appeals to us for small things, but asks for those higher consecrations which tax to the very limit every power of life. III. Because of the elevation to which He raises life. We have no need, and no desire, to disparage the delicate beauty of the lives of some splendid Pagans, nor are we unmindful of the nobility of some characters which have even neglected the Gospel of our Lord--unconsciously to them, Christ is the root of every bit of their goodness. In every walk of life, and in every realm, Jesus has lifted some noble spirit into an excellent grandeur; He has fertilized his thought, inspired his genius, deepened every noble enthusiasm, strengthened every holy purpose, lifted every power to its best energy, created and sustained the highest tastes and sweetest dispositions, and given to the whole life symmetry and influence. (G. B. Austin.) The desolate soul finding rest in God 1. In those moments when the soul is left desolate, do not still seek comfort from the world. Why would you set your heart upon that which is not? 2. Be not overwhelmed with over-much sorrow. Such feelings are natural in the first flowings of affliction; but it is not meet to indulge and brood over them, so as to abandon the duties of life and sink in melancholy. 3. Harbour not revenge against those who have injured you, or in any way been the cause of your affliction. Revenge stops the sources of Divine consolation. 4. Beware of interrupting your desires toward God by any wilful sin. Afflictions do not intercept, they rather raise the desires to heaven; but every wilful deliberate sin overspreads the soul with a thick cloud, and separates betwixt us and our God. 5. Improve distresses of every kind as means of virtue, and grounds of praise. (S. Charters.) The necessity of an Infinite Being to make men happy I. The insufficiency of any worldly good for the happiness of man.1. The nature of man in his present state makes it impossible for him to be completely happy. He hath hopes which cannot be answered, fears which cannot be silenced, desires will not be satisfied. 2. The nature of things, or at least the posture of them, will not and cannot render us completely happy. They have too much uncertainty to be depended on, and too much alloy mixed up with them to pass for durable or solid riches. II. The absolute necessity of an infinitely perfect being, to make man completely happy. Let us therefore examine what are the essential qualifications of an all-sufficient good, that we may be sure we are right, in resorting to God for it.1. God is Almighty, and so can do whatever He pleaseth in heaven and earth. Wherever therefore the ingredients of our happiness are scattered, He can bring them together, and make the faculty and its object meet. 2. Infinite wisdom knows how to employ an infinity of power with all advantage for our interests. 3. His goodness assures us that He will exert these great perfections in our favour, so that whatever infinite wisdom can contrive, or infinite power do for us, His infinite goodness assures us will be contrived and done for us. 4. Eternity and unchangeableness are necessary to finish and complete our happiness. (N. Marshall, D. D.) God the only adequate portion I. The psalmist had ascertained what the nature and properties of an adequate portion for man must be. He had, without doubt, considered himself, his nature, his wants, his capacities--had thought on his situation, and the dangers to which he was exposed from every quarter. He must have ascertained what influence that must have on his soul, and on those scenes of trial and temptation through which he might be called to pass--what it must do when strength and flesh fail, when death shall call him away from every created comfort, dissolve the dearest and tenderest connections--what it must do for his departing spirit, and that throughout eternity--to which he could direct his thoughts, and say, “ This is all I want.” II. The psalmist had resolved the question, whether the proper portion and felicity of man was in created nature, or in God. This would be his language:--“ Could I ensure the favour and friendship of Jehovah; His power, my shield; His light, my sun; His wisdom, my counsellor; His arm, my support; that consolation and joy He can at present create; and that never-ending felicity He can give me to possess; should I not then have what will satisfy my soul? May I not rest here, and say--‘ It is enough’ ?” III. The text expresses the decided conviction of the psalmist, that the only portion and felicity of man is in God.1. God is all-sufficient. There is no difficulty from which He cannot extricate the soul, no enemy out of the reach of His arm, no evil impending which He cannot prevent, nor any sum of felicity but what He can bestow. 2. God is an unchangeable good. 3. God is a portion of which the pious can never be deprived. IV. Our text supposes the psalmist’ s persuasion, that Jehovah would become that man’ s portion, who, renouncing every other, seeks it in Him. V. On this conviction, the psalmist made an actual and deliberate choice of God. VI. The psalmist reposed in God with entire satisfaction--He was the supreme object of his desire and delight. (N. Hill.) God the only adequate portion of the soul 1. God is the proper portion of the soul, because He is the only underived and absolute good. Whatever of virtue and truth, of moral worth and spiritual beauty, there may be in any part of the universe, among our race or other races, all must be referred to Him as its source. 2. He is a good adapted to the nature and necessities of the soul. Man was made originally in the Divine image; and whatever changes may have occurred in His character and condition, His nature is unchanged. A sick man is still a man; and a soul, dislocated and enervated by sin, is still a soul. As such it can find its supreme happiness only in God. 3. This will be further evident from considering that God is an infinite God. Here is a God we can adore. Here the intense longings of the soul are satisfied. In this august, ever-present, all-seeing, all-controlling Divinity, our minds repose with the assurance that His nature is not only suited to our nature, but absolutely boundless and unsearchable. 4. This implies that God is an eternal good--which may be mentioned as another proof that He is the only adequate portion for the soul. 5 As the crowning argument to show that God is the proper portion of the soul, it may be added that He is a most comprehensive good. Where He gives Himself, He gives every other good. (H A. Boardman, D. D.) Moral character tested by the estimate of God, the chief good The psalmist here uses the largest possible terms to assert his preference for God over all else. There is something very noble in such an assertion, so unqualified and so fearless, appealing, as it does, to the great Searcher of all hearts. Bow far off we are from being able to make the like assertion! Where is the single eye to God’ s glory? and how frequent the attempt to “ serve two masters,” and these irreconcilable. But such noble assertions as this are not to be regarded as beyond Christians generally. We have no proof that Asaph was a man of extraordinary piety. But though few only can adopt such language without presumption, still, to be a righteous man at all, it is necessary that he prefer God to aught besides, whether in heaven or in earth. A man may distrust himself whether he really does thus prefer God, and desire that he may do so far more, but the fact may be, all the same, that God is supreme in his affections. It is not the same thing our making God our chief good, and our being able to appeal to Him that we do. Just as there may be faith without assurance. There can be no real religion without God being first in our regard, but there may be this and yet no realization of it in our feelings. But our purpose now is to take the psalmist’ s words and to use them as a measure by which all may judge men’ s distance from moral excellence. And we do this-- I. In regard to the unconverted. God is not in all their thoughts, much less supreme in them. Nor do they wish Him to be. The psalmist desired, but they do not, to be for ever with God. It is said that men dread annihilation, the soul dying with the body. But do men dread this? Have not poetry and philosophy greatly exaggerated here? Unquestionably, man’ s dissatisfaction with the present is proof of his being designed for another state of being. But whilst a man may have the witness in himself that he is not to be annihilated, he yet may have no horror at the thought of it. He would be glad to know that death is but an everlasting sleep. For they cannot endure to look forward. Wrath and retribution are there. Hence they cannot shrink, as do the godly, from ceasing to exist. But is not this the most affecting of all evidences of the vast extent of human degeneracy--that any should be willing to perish as do the brutes: that the soul should not shrink from annihilation? But the psalmist--how different his desire! And this not only as to the future, but as to the chief good of the present. II. The righteous. Too often they love life over-much. If their circumstances be easy, how they shrink from death; how few are “ ready to depart and be with Christ, which is far better.” Christians who cling to this world are more blameworthy than the ungodly who shrink from the next. For the psalmist, God alone could suffice. And in regard to our hope of the future, take heed lest our delight in heaven be that there our loved ones are, rather than that God is there. The presence of God and Christ make heaven. Let us learn to say, “ Whom have I in heaven,” etc. (Henry Melvill, B. D.) God the only happiness of man Man himself is not sufficient for his own happiness. Because he is liable to so many evils; so full of wants; compassed about with so many infirmities, and this from youth to old age. Think what evils would happen to man if the providence of God did not rule the world. Man, therefore, needs a source of happiness outside himself.1. It must be an all-sufficient good.2. It must be perfect goodness.3. It must be firm and unchangeable in itself.4. It must be such a good as none can deprive us of, and take away from us.5. It must be eternal.6. It must be able to support and comfort us in every condition, and under all the accidents and adversities of human life.7. It must be such a good as can give perfect rest and tranquillity to our minds. Nothing that is short of all this can make us happy: and no creature, no, not the whole creation, can pretend to be all this to us. All these properties meet only in God, who is the perfect and supreme good; and, consequently, God is the only happiness of man. (J. Tillotson, D. D.) The discipline of desire The disciplining of our desire lays upon us no small or light or fleeting duty. On the contrary, it has to do with the weightier matters of the law. The issues are far-reaching, and the application must be constant.1. Be watchful of your desire for possession. A man may have a greed for gold without having the gold. A poor man may love money. 2. Be watchful of your desire for pleasure. Be on your guard that it does not take the moral grit out of your soul. Work and play should go hand in hand, and both should be hallowed. 3. Watch your desire for praise. Don’ t let it tone down the energetic strokes that give strength and value to your virtues. 4. Watch your desire for ease. I suppose it is true that there is a vein of laziness in all of us. We don’ t want to be bothered; but the world has a right to expect us to evince that we possess will, character, and to evince also that that character is supreme. 5. Watch your desire in reading. Be on your guard against books which make no requirement upon your thinking powers, and take care they do not wound your sympathy. Some persons will weep profusely over pathetic scenes described in books, and have no tears to shed or help to give in the actual needs and griefs of life. 6. Train your desire to make the best of your circumstances. We may not be able to choose our circumstances, but we can use them. Every man is a king or a slave. Don’ t ask to be “ coddled,” but let your request be: “ Get out of the sunlight; give me opportunities.” Be on your guard against wandering desires, refit is these that give emptiness to life. 7. Finally, bring your desires to Christ. Put that desire which is spoiling you into His hands. Let His love cleanse and direct and complete it. There is nothing that will kill an old love like a new love, and higher. Make faith the teacher of desire. (W. R. Britton.) The good man’ s reward There is a beautiful story of Thomas Aquinas, that one day, while worshipping in the chapel in which he was accustomed to perform his devotions, the Saviour appeared to him and said, “ Thomas, thou hast written much and well concerning Me. What reward shall. I give thee for thy work?” Whereupon he answered, “ Nihil nisi to; Domino” --“ Nothing but Thyself, O Lord.” Psalms 73:26 My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever.Immortality The especial point of this whole psalm lies in the contrast between the present and the future, between the transitory and the eternal. His bodily frame, or “ flesh,” the psalmist feels, is breaking up. For the moment it might seem that his “ heart” was partaking in the depressing sense of coming dissolution. The “ heart” with the Hebrews means, speaking generally, the centre or inner seat of life, whether physical or spiritual. It is indeed used in one well-known passage of the Psalter in the physical sense of animal life-power which is quickened by food and made glad by wine. More commonly it is the centre from which the life-stream of thought and feeling pours through the soul. Thus the “ heart” is said to “ speak,” to “ think,” to “ conceive within self,” to “ meditate,” to “ desire,” to “ cry out in song and jubilee,” to be heated with intense thought, to be grieved, to be desolate, to be smitten and withered like grass, to be wounded, to be broken. Especially is the heart the seat of the moral life, of its movement and repose, of its conquests and failures, of its final victory or death. Thus the heart is said to be “ ready,” or “ clean,” or “ fixed,” or “ whole” and “ perfect,” or “ converted,” or “ hardened,” as the case may be. As the seat of the moral life the heart is described as “ deep.” God knows its mysterious secrets. Thus, then, in the passage before us, “ the flesh” is in contrast to the “ heart,” as the animal frame of man might be contrasted with the life of consciousness, feeling, and moral effort. The former is yielding to the slow, certain action of time, and has already upon it the presentiment of death. The latter seems for one instant to lose the sense of its real indestructibility in its profound sympathy with the weakly body which yet encases it. But the darkness lasts for a moment only; for “ God is the strength of my heart,” etc. The contrast is too perfect to be evaded. On the one side the perishing body; on the other, the undying soul. And it is this vision which removes the difficulty he had felt in regard to the ways of God. It melts away altogether beneath the rays of light which stream from one cardinal truth, it is solved by the doctrine of the immortality of the soul of man. (Canon Liddon.) A common fact and a special privilege I. A fact in the history of all men. The fact is the decay of man as a citizen of this earth. The seed of death is planted in us all, and as the seed grows, man decays. “ All flesh is grass.” This inevitable decay of our nature shows two things:--1. The absurdity of worldliness. 2. The necessity of spirituality. Without this, man has no interest in a life beyond this mortal state. With this, brighter worlds loom before him. This spirituality, however, can only be obtained through Christ. This is life eternal, to know Thee the only true God. II. A privilege in the history of some men. “ God is the strength (rock) of my heart.”1. God is the soul’ s power. Without Him it has no moral strength to resist the wrong, to pursue the right, to endure trials, to welcome death, to serve humanity, and to honour God. God is the strength. As sap in all the branches of the tree, He is strength to all the faculties of the soul. “ Our sufficiency is of God.” 2. God is the soul’ s portion. “ My portion for ever.” A loving heart can be satisfied with nothing less than the object of its affection. The object may give to the lover all he has, but unless he gives himself the hunger of love is not allayed. Even so man’ s soul cries out for the living God, and nothing less will do. He is the portion (1) most satisfying;(2) most exhaustless;(3) most enduring. (Homilist.) The believer’ s consolation in death I. What the psalmist means by the flesh and heart failing.1. By the flesh failing, we are to understand death. (1) We die daily; are gradually decaying and wearing away (Job 14:10).(2) Universally (Ecclesiastes 6:6).(3) With great variety; in some early; in others in their bloom; with others, not till the shadows of the evening come upon them (1 Samuel 20:3).(4) Most certainly, without a possibility of prevention; neither food nor physic will always avail (Ecclesiastes 8:8).(5) Swiftly (James 4:14; Job 14:1-2).(6) In death, the flesh fails irrecoverably, as to its being restored to its former state upon earth (Hebrews 9:27; Psalms 39:13). 2. When the flesh is thus failing in a dying hour, the heart may be ready to sink into a state of despondency; and this may be owing-- (1) To severity of affliction (Job 16:12).(2) To the recollection of past sins, although forgiven, without eyeing the sacrifice of Christ (Job 21:6).(3) To the temptations of Satan (1 Peter 1:6).(4) To the loss of our evidence, as to our acceptance with God (Psalms 42:5-7).(5) To a suspension of the sensible presence of Christ. II. The source of our dependence in such awful circumstances, God. “ God is the strength of my heart.” This may be inferred--1. From His love to them (Psalms 11:7). 2. From His ability (Isaiah 59:1). 3. From His infinite presence with them (2 Chronicles 16:9). 4. From His faithfulness to His kind promises made to them, and on which He has caused them to hope (Isaiah 43:1-3). 5. From their interest in Him, their portion for ever, “ The Lord is my portion,” etc. (Lamentations 3:24). 6. What kind of a portion God is, no creature can fully describe (Job 11:7). (1) God is a suitable portion, suited to man’ s spiritual nature (Psalms 73:25).(2) All-sufficient portion (Genesis 17:1; Ephesians 3:20).(3) Infinite portion: and this is the ground of His being all-sufficient. Infinite mercy to pardon, infinite wisdom to counsel, infinite power to support, infinite grace to enrich, infinite glory to bestow (Psalms 84:11).(4) He is an eternal portion (Genesis 15:1). And on this ground it is, the children of God make their boast (Psalms 48:14). Improvement: 1. Let the consideration of our flesh failing daily excite us to a daily preparation for eternity. 2. As God is the strength of our hearts, let us trust in Him, in life and death, that He may be our portion for over. (T. Hannam.) Psalms 73:28 It is good for me to draw near to God.An assuredly good thing When a man is sick everybody knows what is good for him. They recommend specifics by the score. Amid such a babel, it is well for a man if he knows what is good for himself. And so in our spiritual troubles. Every friend commends some different course. But the psalmist puts them all aside, and declares, “ It is good for me to draw near unto God.” Thus-- I. He tacitly condemns other courses of action. From the connection of the text it is plain that he repents of certain kinds of thought to which he had given way. The text tells of his recoil from them.1. From trying to fathom the mysteries of Providence. What have we to do with measuring its great depths? And yet we are ever trying to. Gotthold in his “ Emblems” tells us of the freaks of his child. The father was one day sitting in his study, and, when he lifted his eye from his book, he saw standing upon the window ledge his little son. He was troubled and affrighted to the last degree, for the child stood there in utmost peril of failing to the ground and being dashed to pieces. The little one had been anxious to know what his father was doing so many hours in the day in his study, and he had at last, by a ladder, managed to climb up, with boyish daring, till there he stood, outside the window, gazing at his father with all his eyes. “ So,” said the father, as he took the child into his chamber, and rebuked him for his folly, “ so have I often tried to climb into the council chamber of God, to see why and wherefore He did this and that; and thus have I exposed myself to peril of falling to my destruction.” My God, it is not good for me to pry into Thy secrets with curiosity, but it is good for me to draw near unto Thee in sincerity. And-- 2. We learn also it is not good for us, under any circumstances, to go to a distance from God. The preceding verse reads, “ They that are far from Thee shall perish.” Now, the tendency of repeated affliction is, in the carnal mind, to drive us away from God. A dog may follow you if you otter it a bone but strike it and see if it will follow you then. But it can never be good for us to go away from God. II. Observe what is plainly commended--“ to draw near unto God.”1. This implies that we are reconciled to Him. To attempt to draw near while He is angry would be insanity. As well might the moth draw near to the candle. We must first be accepted in Christ. 2. To draw near the soul must realize that God is near to it, and must have a clear sense of who and what God is. 3. It is prayer, but it is more than prayer. There may be no words, but it is the laying open of the chamber of your soul that the Lord may enter and inspect the whole; it is the complete yielding up of yourself to God to be dealt with as He pleases. 4. It may assume the form of praise. As with David when he satin the Lord’ s presence, wondering “ Whence is this to me? What am I and my father’ s house, that Thou hast brought me hitherto?” 5. It is looking at the matter in the Divine light. If we judge God from our standpoint we shall misjudge; but see how that which troubles you looks in the light of God. Bereavement, poverty, when seen as God’ s way of saving your soul, look very different then. 6. It is the being pleased with anything and everything that pleases God. We are often willing to give up our own way to please those we love; should we not be so in order to please God? III. The grounds for the unqualified commendation of this drawing near to God.1. It is good in itself. How can it be otherwise? The courtier delights to bask in the presence of his sovereign. 2. It is good if we consider our relations to God. Are we not His children? But is it not a good thing for the child to come near to its parents? 3. And because of our pitiable condition and character. We are the weakest of the weak. 4. It removes many evils to which you are constantly exposed. Man of business, absorbed in your work, day by day, what can so keep you from worldliness and fret and anxiety, as drawing near to God? 5. And there are many good things which it will confer. There is no blessing which prayer cannot obtain, which close approaches to God will not ensure. If then it be so good, let us do it at once. You who have been living afar off; you who are happy; and especially you who are penitent sinners. (C. H. Spurgeon.) A devotional spirit I. Explain what is meant by such devotional spirit. Note then--1. Its means--prayer, etc.2. Its refuge--God.3. Its exercises. II. Its importance and advantages.1. Such spirit furthers holiness.2. Helps the understanding of Divine truth.3. Becomes a habit full of help to the soul. Is--4. One of the strongest safeguards against temptation.5. Cultivates all the Christian graces.6. Fixes his heart.7. Is humble, tender, childlike.8. Gives increase in holiness, which but for it would yield no help (Psalms 104:1-35.).9. Hangs round the very essentials of religion--Christ, God, the promises, etc. (I. S. Spencer, D. D.) Drawing near to God I. The conduct referred to.1. It implies that there has been separation.2. It is the religion of the heart.3. It demands enlightenment of mind, and--4. The realization of God’ s presence. II. The benefit of this drawing near to God. “ It is good for,” etc. This must depend upon the character of the God to whom we draw near. If He be only my judge, how could I say, “ It is good,” etc. But He is our Father, and hence it cannot but be good to draw near to Him. Now, the blessings of this are--1. Deliverance from care and fear. See David; the three Hebrew youths; Paul and Silas, etc.2. It is the only real preservative from sin.3. It is the assurance to us of safety new and for ever.4. It is a very foretaste of heaven. Remember it is not a mere isolated act, but our habit. How terrible to come to a death-bed without ever having drawn near to God. (Montagu Villiers, M. A.) The excellence of drawing near to God I. As to its nature, it comprehends much. It implies, first, that man is morally distant from God. This sacred exercise implies that a medium or a means of access is appointed. We have this blessed truth set forth by Christ Himself; “ No man cometh unto the Father but by Me.” He is the Daysman; He heals the wide and awful breach. In further illustration of this exalted exercise, I would remark, that prayer is appointed as the act of our approach to Him. There is a sense in which we cannot be nearer to God in one view than another. I cannot go where He is not. But in the act of prayer I enter as it were into His presence. Prayer is the appointed means of communication betwixt God and man. Let me further observe, in illustration of this holy exercise, that God requires it should be accompanied with a suitable disposition. Would you “ draw near to God” acceptably? you must come with humility. Would you “ draw near to God” with acceptance? you must draw near with fervour--contemplating the magnitude of the blessings which you ask. To “ draw near” to God acceptably, you must draw near in perseverance. The blessing which you ask may be for a season withheld; or the success you implore may for a time be suspended. II. The advantages of this exalted exercise. For David says, “ It is good to draw near to God.” And why so? Because God has commanded it; and this circumstance alone ought sufficiently to convince us of its value and necessity. “ It is good,” because, apart from the authority of that command, it is reasonable. “ There is no truth more obvious, and eternal.” And there is yet another great advantage; it tends to help us to cherish the calmness of mind, so essential to our advancement, and our spiritual prosperity and peace. “ It is,” further, “ good,” as instrumental in obtaining all spiritual blessings. The truth of the text is exemplified in all the events of life; but in the awful hour of death you shall find, with additional energy of conviction, that “ it is good for you to draw near to God.” “ He will be the strength of your heart, and your portion for ever.” (John Bowers.) Let us pray There are many ways by which we draw near to God, but prayer is the best used means. So then take our text-- I. As A touchstone. Try your prayers by it. Is there any drawing near to God in them? No matter how beautiful, venerable, scriptural the form, if the petitions be never presented. Suppose I should desire a favour of some friend. I shut myself up alone, and I commence delivering an oration, pleading earnestly for the boon I need. I repeat this at night, and so on month after month. At last I meet my friend, and I tell him that I have been asking a favour of him, and that he has never heard my prayer. “ Nay,” saith he, “ I have never seen you; you never spoke to me.” “ Ah, but you should have heard what I said; if you had but heard, it surely would have moved your heart.” “ Ah,” saith he, “ but then you did not address it to me. You wrote a letter, you tell me, but did you post the letter?” “ No, no,” you say; “ I kept the letter after I had written it; I never sent it to you.” Now, mark, it is thus with many prayers. There has been no drawing near to God. This drawing near is at first with holy fear, then with holy reverence, then with joy as a child to a father. Next-- II. On the text as a whetstone. Pray, for prayer explains mysteries; brings deliverances; obtains promises. If thou hast a burden on thy back, remember prayer, for thou shalt carry it well if thou canst pray. Once on a time Christian had to carry it. He crept along on his hands and knees. There appeared to him a fair and comely damsel, holding in her hands a wand, and she touched the burden. It was there, it was not removed; but, strange to say, the burden lost its weight. That which had crushed him to the earth had become now so light that he could leap and carry it. And prayer ensures success in our work for God. Two labourers in God’ s harvest met each other once upon a time, and they sat down to compare notes. One was sorrowful, and complained that though he diligently sowed, no harvest came. The other said, “ I steep my seed in prayer, and I have much success.” III. As a tombstone. For the prayerless soul is a Christless soul. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The saint’ s happiness “ It is good;” that is, it puts in us a blessed quality and disposition. It makes a man to be like God; and, secondly, “ it is good,” that is, it is comfortable; for it is the happiness of the creature to be near the Creator; it is beneficial and helpful. “ To draw near:” How can a man but be near to God, seeing He filleth heaven and earth: “ Whither shall I go from Thy presence?” (Psalms 139:7). He is present always in power and providence in all places, but graciously present with some by His Spirit, supporting, comforting, strengthening the heart of a good man. As the soul is said to be in several parts by several faculties, so God present He is to all, but in a diverse manner. Now, we are said to be near to God in divers degrees.1. When our understanding is enlightened; and so the young man speaking discreetly in things concerning God, is said not to be far from the kingdom of God (Mark 12:34). 2. In minding; when God is present to our minds, so as the soul is said to be present to that which it mindeth; contrarily it is said of the wicked, that “ God is not in all their thoughts” (Psalms 10:4). 3. When the will upon the discovery of the understanding comes to choose the better part, and is drawn from that choice to cleave to Him, as it was said of Jonathan’ s heart, “ it was knit to David” (1 Samuel 18:1). 4. When our whole affections are carried to God, loving Him as the chief good. Love is the first-born affection. That breeds desire of communion with God. Thence comes joy in Him, so as the soul pants after God, “ as the hart after the water-springs” (Psalms 42:1). 5. When the soul is touched with the Spirit of God working faith, stirring up dependence, confidence, and trust on God. Hence ariseth sweet communion. The soul is never at rest till it rests on Him. Then it is afraid to break with Him or to displease Him. But it groweth zealous and resolute, and hot in love, stiff in good cases; resolute against his enemies. And yet this is not all, for God will have also the outward man, so as the whole man must present itself before God in word, in sacraments; speak of Him and to Him with reverence, and yet with strength of affection mounting up in prayer, as in a fiery chariot; hear Him speak to us; consulting with His oracles; fetching comforts against distresses, directions against maladies. 6. When we praise Him; for this is the work of the souls departed, and of the angels in heaven, that are continually near unto Him. And thus much for the opening of the words. The prophet here saith, “ It is good for me.” How came he to know this? Why, he had found it by experience, and by it he was thoroughly convinced of it. (R. Sibbes.) Good to draw near Who does not wish for good? But too many fail to understand what real good is, and choose that which is evil by mistake. I. The action--“ drawing near.” We may do so by prayer, by study, by preparation. But we must do so chiefly by being conformed to the likeness of the Holy Spirit and by being united through Jesus. II. The reward. It is good--good in every way: good for our happiness; good for our holiness; good for our eternal interests; good for our usefulness; good for our Master’ s glory. (Homilist.) The nature and benefits of communion with God I. What it is to draw near to God. It is to have clear and realizing views of His character, and especially as that character is made known in and by Christ--to exercise towards Him suitable acts of faith, dependence, love, gratitude and worship. II. Why it is good thus to draw nigh to God.1. Because it is then the soul realizes in an especial manner God’ s love, and finds its own love powerfully called into exercise. 2. Because it has a peculiarly sanctifying influence upon the mind. 3. Because it is a means of strengthening the soul to run the race that is set before it, and to persevere without wavering in the ways of the Lord. (R. Oakman, B. A.) Advantages of communion with God I. What is included.1. A Scriptural knowledge of God.2. Faith in God.3. An explicit apprehension of the only medium of drawing nigh to God and of access, whether it be by prayer, meditation, or communion with Him.4. Humble, yet confident dependence on the aids of the Divine grace. II. The advantages.1. It tends to the intellectual elevation of the soul.2. It is essentially adapted to man’ s spiritual improvement.3. It is the source of man’ s highest blessedness.4. It is good as connected with our absolute safety.5. It is an essential preparation for the glory of heaven. (J. Burns, D. D.) On devotion I shall endeavour to recommend the duties of devotion, by considering their influence on the virtue and the happiness of human life. I. They are admirably calculated to promote your improvement in virtue. The duties of devotion, leading to the contemplation of infinite excellence, and improving the best affections of the heart, plant in our breasts the seeds of virtue. The exercises in which these duties engage us are favourable also to its growth; for we come into the presence of God, not merely to adore the perfection of His nature, and to celebrate the goodness to which we owe all our bliss--we come to lay open before Him the secrets of our souls--to bewail the transgressions by which we have offended Him--and to form our resolutions of future obedience. These exercises lead to a serious review, and produce a knowledge of our own characters extremely favourable to improvement. II. The influence of devotion on the happiness of life.1. Devotion is, itself, a source of the sublimest enjoyment. The human mind delights in exercise; and the duties of piety are the noblest exercise in which its powers can be employed. 2. Devotion exalts and purifies every earthly pleasure. It adds to the enjoyment of our present comforts the delightful emotion of gratitude to our Maker. 3. But adversity is the scene in which devotion triumphs; for, however in our prosperity we may forget our Maker, affliction reminds us of our dependence on Him. (W. Moodie, D. D.) The benefits of drawing near to God I. He is the author of our salvation, and the fountain from which we draw our spiritual supply. The waters of a stream become purer and better as we approach the fountain head. II. Drawing near to God enables us the better to know God. To know our fellow-men we must draw near to them. We may know something of God from tradition--from nature--from a cold and critical study of the Bible; but to know Him more perfectly we must draw near to Him, and thus know Him in our own Christian experiences. III. It involves a drawing away from the world. Our arms are too short for us to walk hand in hand with God and the world. The great, clutchy arms of the world are about us, and the loving arms of God are extended towards us, inviting us to come nearer to Him. IV. It puts us in our proper attitude toward the world.1. It enables the world to put a proper estimate on us. When we are far away from God, the world is in doubt whether or not to count on us. 2. It enables us to form a proper estimate of the world. We owe the world a great deal, and we never know how much until we draw near to God. 3. This is the secret of success in the Christian life. Are we to accomplish anything together for the Master? This will depend upon the distance between us and God. (John Hall, D. D.) On drawing near to God I. By the practice of holiness and virtue throughout the general tenor of our life. He who lives in the exercise of good affections, and in the regular discharge of the offices of virtue and piety, maintains, as far as his infirmity allows, conformity with the nature of that perfect Being, whose benevolence, whose purity and rectitude, are conspicuous, both in His works and His ways. II. By acts of immediate devotion. There are two ways by which these contribute to bring us near to God.1. The first is, by their strengthening in the soul that power of vital godliness and virtue in which consists our chief resemblance to God: for it is never to be forgotten, that all our devotional exercises are subservient to this great end. Herein consist their whole virtue and efficacy, that they purify and improve the soul, raise it above low passions, and thereby promote the elevation of the human nature towards the Divine. 2. When our acts of devotion are of this nature, they form tim other sense in which the words of the text are to be understood. We therein draw near to God, as we enter into the most immediate intercourse with Him, which the nature of our state admits; approaching Him through a great Mediator and Intercessor; sending up those prayers to which we are encouraged to believe that the Almighty is lending a gracious ear; resigning ourselves to His conduct, and offering up our souls to Him; exercising, in short, all those acts of faith, love and trust which become dependent creatures towards their Sovereign and Father. (Hugh Blair, D. D.) The benefit of drawing near to God I. It will establish your confidence in godliness as a reality. Nearness to God is nearness to all that is good; for “ with Him is the fountain of life.” Nearness to God is nearness to the object to which all religious institutions are designed to bring you: it is this that explains their meaning, and in this they gain their end. Nearness to God is nearness to religious truth, which is the animating soul of all these institutions; nearness to that truth, not in intellectual perception merely, but in an experimental, sense of its sweetness and efficacy. II. It will rectify your estimate of terrestrial things. It is in the mount of communion with God that you are drawn away from the sordid and the grovelling, and made to soar to the spiritual and the heavenly. There your range of view is exceedingly widened; your souls are elevated, enlarged, and filled; things unseen and eternal are realized in their transcendent greatness and importance, and things seen and temporal sink into insignificance; the sublime of heaven expands before you, and reveals earth in its littleness, and you say (Psalms 17:14-15). III. It will fortify your minds in the hour of temptation. What is the design of every temptation? To seduce from God. In nearness to Him, therefore, you are keeping your ground; you are resisting and overcoming. You are verifying what is said of the child of God (1 John 5:18). IV. It will quicken your spiritual desires. This is a thing of great importance. Just as your spiritual desires are, so is your spiritual health: when they are languid, it is infirm; when they are lively, it is vigorous. Again, just as your spiritual desires are, so is your affection to the things of earth: when they are keen, it is dull; when they are weak, it is strong. Moreover, just as your spiritual desires are, so is your spiritual prosperity as a whole; so is your growth in grace, and so is your spiritual enjoyment. It is of the nature of grace in the heart, that the more it enjoys, it craves the more; and the more it has of the best of earth, it longs the more for the bliss of heaven. V. It will augment your christian usefulness. The fit agent for rousing consciences, and moving hearts, and winning souls, is the man that comes forth from the presence-chamber of the King, with the atmosphere of “ the Holiest” about him, and his own face shining with the lustre of the glory of God upon it. To conclude: see from this subject--1. One thing about godliness which we should keep prominently before our minds. The good that is in it, and that flows from it. 2. One reason why we so much underrate the future world. It is because we so much overrate the present. 3. Who the safest and happiest man among us is. The man who is nearest to his God. 4. The mistake of those who make communion with God to consist chiefly in pleasing feeling. They will have the way to heaven to be heaven itself. 5. What to look for after those days of high privilege we have been seeing. The full harvest of those blessed fruits or effects of “ drawing near to God,” of some of which we have now been speaking, is yet to be reaped. Let us take good heed to ourselves that we reap this harvest in all its fulness and preciousness. (D. Young, D. D.) Nearness to God the key to life’ s puzzles I. Nearness to God is the one good. Union with God is life, in all senses of the word, according as the creature is capable of union with Him. Why; there is no life in a plant except God’ s power is vitalizing it. “ Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow” --because God makes them grow. There is no bodily life in a man unless He continually breathes into the nostrils the breath of life. If you stop the flow of the fountain then all the pools are dry. There is no life intellectual in a man unless by the “ inspiration of the Almighty “ in union with God, from whom all just “ thoughts do proceed.” And high above all these forms of life, the only real life of a spirit is the life that it draws from its union with God Himself, whereby He pours Himself into it, and in the deepest sense of the words it is true--“ Because I live ye shall live also.” I need scarcely go on pointing out other respects of this supreme--or more truly, this solitary--good. For instance, nothing is really good to me unless I have it within me, so as that it never can be wrenched away from me. The blessings that we cannot incorporate with the very substance of our being are only partial blessings after all; and all these things round us that do minister to our necessities, tastes, affections, and sometimes to our weaknesses, these good things fail just in this, that they stand outside us, and there is no real union between us and them. So changes come, and we have to unclasp hands, and the footsteps that used to be planted by the side of ours cease, and our track across the sands is lonely; and losses come, and death comes, and all the glory and the good that were only externally possessed by us we leave behind us. “ It is good for me,” amidst the morasses and quicksands and bogs of life’ s uncertain and shifting ill and good, to set my feet upon the rock, and to say, “ Here I stand, and my footing will never give way.” Do you, brother, possess a changeless, imperishable, inwrought “ good like that? You may if you like. But remember, too, that in regard to this Christian good, it is not only the possession of it, but the aspiration after it, that is blessed. “ It is good to draw near;” and the seeking after God is as far above the possession of all other good as the heaven is above the earth. II. The way to nearness to God is twofold. On the one hand the true path is Jesus Christ, on the other hand the means by which we walk upon that path is our faith. The apostle puts it all in a nutshell when he says his prayer is that “ Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith,” and then, by a linked chain, leads up to the final issues of that faith in that indwelling Christ--“ that ye may be filled with all the fulness of God.” So to draw near and to possess that good, that only good which is God, all that is needed is--and it is needed--that we should turn with the surrender of our hearts, with the submission of our wills, with the outgoing of our affections, and with the conformity of our practical life, to Jesus. Seeing Him, we see the Father, and having Him near us, we feel the touch of the Divine hand, and being joined to the Lord, we are separated from the vanities of life, and united to the supreme good. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) The delights of prayer Alleine once wrote--“ Though I am apt to be unsettled and quickly set off the hinges, yet, methinks, I am like a bird out of the nest, I am never quiet till I am in my old way of communion with God; like the needle in the compass, that is restless till it be turned towards the pole. I can say through grace, with the Church, ‘ With my soul have I desired Thee in the night, and with my spirit within me have I sought Thee early.’ My heart is early and late with God; ‘ tis the business and delight of my life to seek Him.” (Life of Alleine.) . Psalms 74:1-23 Psalms 74:1-23O God, why hast Thou cast us off for ever?why doth Thine anger smoke against the sheep of Thy pasture? The wail and prayer of a true patriot I. The wail (Psalms 74:1-17).1. Some communities of men are far more favoured of Heaven than others. The Jews were (Psalms 74:1-2). In this diversity of endowment-- (1) There is no just reason for complaining of God. As the Sovereign Author of all life, He has an undoubted right to determine as to whether He should give life to any or not; what kind of life it should be, and to how many; and what kind or measure of power He should give to each. (2) There is no injury done to any. The man or community least favoured has no right to complain, for he is only responsible for what he has. Obligation is bounded by capacity. 2. The most favoured communities are not exempted from terrible calamities (Psalms 74:7-9). 3. These terrible calamities are often inflicted by wicked men. 4. The wicked men who inflict these calamities are ever under the control of God. (1) He has power to arrest them (Psalms 74:10).(2) This power He has sometimes signally displayed (Psalms 74:13-14).(3) This power is implied in the universality of His dominion. II. The prayer (Psalms 74:18-23).1. The enemies of God are the enemies both of themselves and of their country (Psalms 74:18). A bad man cannot be a good citizen, but must be more or less a curse to his country. An ungodly man can never be a true patriot. 2. The interposition of God is necessary to deliver a country from the pernicious influence of wicked men (Psalms 74:22). (1) The cause of true philanthropy is the cause of God.(2) The cause of philanthropy is outraged on earth. Men, instead of loving each other as brethren, hate each, oppress each other, murder each other.(3) The cause of philanthropy is dear to the heart of the good. Hence the prayer, “ Arise, O God, plead Thine own cause.” In this prayer two things are to be noted-- (i.) The anthropomorphic tendency of the soul. (ii.) A good man’ s conscious need of God. How deeply did this godly patriot feel the necessity of God’ s interposition. In the midst of his country’ s distress he looked around, but there was help to be found nowhere but in heaven. (Homilist.) Psalms 74:5A man was famous according as he had lifted up axes upon the thick trees.The axe and the altar Shall we regard the text as an epitaph on the headstone of some worker for God and the good of man, long, long ago? If so, we shall find but the merest fragment of a sentence, which you have to complete by supplying the first two words, as our translators did, when they bent over it, as it were, on hands and knees, to read it. They found no name, and, in order to make sense of the broken record, they had to prefix two words--“ a man” ; for his name, whatever it was, has been lost to us, but not to God, in the dim shadows of the past. I. His work. We must throw our minds back to the time when the temple was in course of building. This man had no gold, or silver, or precious stones to bring: it may have been that he had little or nothing of material substance at his command; but he had strength in his brawny arm, and he gave himself, his time and his labour, and all the ardour of a loving heart to the good cause. Now he is on his way to the stately cedars with a fixed purpose clearly set in his face; he selects those that are best fitted for the roof, or for beams, or pillars, or for the doors, or other finer parts of the work that must be carved with great taste and care; and if he can do nothing else for the national undertaking, he can at least do the rough work of felling trees. II. His motive. Nothing is said about this in the text, but we may rest assured that his work would never have found a place in the sacred minstrelsy of the ancient Church, had there not been underlying it all a noble motive. It was the cause of God in the land that made him stand forth, and which brought him out of obscurity, just as it has done with many others in seasons of religious awakening, when the peasant and the artisan have come nobly forward to fight side by side, and generously to give of their substance for what was dearer to them than life itself. If the common people are not roused to action in the interests of true godliness, the heart of the nation will never be stirred to that combined effort, which must ever be put forth to secure any permanent good, and to give vitality and stability to any great religious movement. It is, therefore, a pleasing picture to us, to see “ our man” with his axe, which he consecrates most heartily to the cause of righteousness and truth. The work he does with it is not for personal or selfish ends, but for the nation; yea, for the world--for God Himself. It is this that gives surpassing dignity to every stroke, and makes him stand out on the page of the sacred record as a striking example of unselfish service, and true, honest work. III. His reward.1. This he received, in the noble enthusiasm with which he inspired others. Such a man could not but have a large following. He was from the people, and many of his comrades, animated by a similar spirit, went forth with him to do valiant things. The man who can move others for good has received a great gift, and when he makes use of it he has his reward in the number of enthusiastic followers he draws into the same path. 2. In the consciousness that he was doing good. The commendation of one’ s own conscience, and the sunshine of God’ s approving smile, are no small part of the reward connected with any work of faith or labour of love. 3. In the sacred memorial of the text. Rough as the work of the man referred to appears to be, in the mere felling of trees, it reached the very depths, and at the same time rose to the sublimest heights of man’ s spiritual nature, for it was inseparably bound up with the glorious future that lies before the cause of God, in its fullest development in earth or in heaven. The marble may be broken up and crumble into dust, and every feature that genius has impressed upon it may pass away, but the influence and the record of true worth are eternal as the spirit of goodness itself, and like the word of the Lord must endure for ever. So shall it be with the memorial of this man. 4. In the “ Well done, thou good and faithful servant: enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.” He did his work for God in a loving spirit, and was called home when it was done to enter into his rest, and to receive his reward. IV. His life-lessons.1. It matters not whether we work with the axe or the pen, with hand or with brain; given but the power of true faith, there will be work done, and that of a kind to an extent that will surprise ourselves and others. We have all our daily tasks, and in doing them honestly and thoroughly well, we are doing nobly for ourselves, for others, and for God, and thus the toils of every day may be pervaded by the Master’ s spirit, and lifted up to a higher level, far above the mere drudgery of life. 2. Passing from this personal view of the work for Christ in our own hearts and in connection with His Church, let me remind you that you are all members of the general community, and as such should be deeply interested in its welfare, and ready to do your part in securing this. (A. Wallace, D. D.) Psalms 74:8 They have burned up all the synagogues of God in the land.The synagogues of God We do not know the precise circumstances under which this psalm was written. But we thank God our synagogues are not destroyed as were those of the Jews. I. Let us glance at the synagogues of Judaea and in the ancient world. And we note--1. That they express one of the greatest marvels of Providence. They were to be the places where, and by means of which, the message of the Gospel was to be delivered. The Jews had synagogues everywhere, and thus God by His providence had prepared the field in which first the Gospel seed was sown. 2. They were intimately connected with our Lord’ s work. 3. And with the ministry of the apostles. II. At the synagogues of God to-day. The word means a coming together, and it expresses an essential idea of Christian worship. And they are synagogues of God. This the main thing. There God works and blesses souls. And think of them all, and of those especially in our own land. May God’ s power be manifested in them more and more. (J. Aldis.) The synagogue a post-exilian institution Dr. Prideux affirms that the Jews had no synagogues before the Babylonish captivity; for the main service of the synagogue being the reading of the law unto the people, where there was no book of the law to be read, there certainly would be no synagogue. How rare the book of the law was through all Judaea before the captivity, many texts of Scripture tell us. Dr. Fairbairn, in support of the same view, says, “ There is every reason to think that this psalm was composed during the Babylonish captivity, and was intended to describe the desolation which had been brought by the Chaldeans upon all the sacred spots of Palestine. The word for synagogue in the original, however, properly expresses the places of the revelation of God, and can refer only to the temple, that one place on which God had chosen to put His name.” Psalms 74:9 We see not our signs.Signs of life This psalm is clearly not one written by David. Verses 6, 7 prove that; but it is one of the psalms of the Exile. The signs here meant, which the writer mourns that he did not see, were certain outward marks of God’ s special favour. It is said that there were five signs in the first temple which the second had not--the ark of the covenant; the fire from heaven; the Shechinah; the Urim and Thummim; the spirit of prophecy, for that spirit ceased with Malachi, and did not reappear until John the Baptist. Now, on this groundwork we may build up a spiritual interpretation. We may not always do this, but only where there is, as here, a real groundwork for it, and where there is a response to it in the heart. The Church of to-day often has to lament that she sees not her signs. In considering this, note-- I. The nature of their signs. They are marks of God’ s favour, and there appear to be two classes of them.1. Those which, if removed, would not remove the thing itself which they signify. The crown of a monarch, you may take that away, but he remains a monarch still. Remove the milestones on a road, but you do not remove the distances which they indicate. Banknotes also. But-- 2. There are other signs which are constituent parts of the thing itself, so that the taking away of the sign is a taking away of the thing. For example, the lengthening days are a sign of spring; but if there be not this sign there is no spring. Now, of this sort of sign are those which the text tells of. Not, however, entirely. For good works may be absent, partly and for a time, but the life of grace may yet be present. And when good works are present they are not infallible signs of grace. 3. But for the most part the sign and the thing it indicates go together. As, the fear of the Lord; the spirit of grace and of supplication; repentance; faith in Christ; love to the Lord’ s people and to Christ; the witness of the Spirit; a life consistent with the Gospel. II. The seeing of these signs. What does this mean? It is implied that there are times when the signs can be seen, as well as when they cannot. Now, what is requisite to see them? Those that travel along the heavenward way have certain landmarks--Ebenezers, stones of help. But in order to see them there must be light, that told of in Psalms 36:9; not the pale moonlight of speculation, nor the frosty northern light of cold doctrine, nor the meteor light--the “ ignis fatuus “ of delusion; not the mere phosphoric light, which dimly gleams by rubbing together rotten evidences; not the sparks of their own kindling, elicited by the collision of flinty hearts and steeled consciences; we want no light such as we can make, but the Lord’ s light. III. Why it is that we see not our signs. Some people say they can always see them. This is not true, and the belief of it full of evil. But the causes of our not seeing them are various: the smoke of infidelity; the fogs of unbelief; the valley of trouble; the sun may go down by the Lord’ s bidding. But all this will be a source of sorrow and lamentation, for such things are no signs of grace, though not inconsistent with it. But you must have seen the signs before you can lament that you see them not. (J. C. Philpot.) The prospects of the age If it were suggested that there could be any parallel between our own prosperous, progressive, enlightened age, and those melancholy days to which the psalm relates, the supposition might at once be scouted as absurdity. Yet I am not so sure but that in respect at least of the one particular referred to in the text--the dearth of the greater order of men--some degree of parallel might not very fairly be argued. I. First, then, as to the fact--how far this description of the text answers to anything that exists in our own times. I have in view chiefly the bearings of this subject on religion, but it is not in religion only, but in all the spheres of our thought and life that I think this falling off of the greater order of minds can be detected. We had a series of great poets in the early part and middle of last century. Where is the poet of the present day whose works are likely to live like theirs? We have had a succession of great writers of fiction--their books are on every one’ s shelves--but where is the writer of to-day whose books we would put in the same rank? We have had great musicians--Mozart, Handel, Beethoven, Haydn, and the like. Their compositions live. Who are producing pieces of the same grandeur? We have had a century of great statesmen. It is no disparagement of the men of the younger generation to say that they are not men of the calibre of those who have led the country for the last fifty or eighty years. We had a generation or two of great preachers--men like Chalmers, Guthrie, MacLeod. Once more the piety and teaching of the past generation gave us Christians, whose weight of religious character it was a pleasure to acknowledge--men reverent, sober-minded, deeply instructed in God’ s Word, massive in Christian substance, matured and real in Christian experience; is the newer type of religious character--brighter and more attractive as it is in some of its aspects--characterized by anything like the same depth, solidity, and durableness? II. THE causes of this apparent absence, in all spheres of life, of the greater order of men in our midst, and what are the possible remedies.1. One thing which should give us hope is the fact that after every great and creative epoch in history, there comes necessarily a period of pause. The human mind cannot always be at its highest stretch. History does not flow on evenly, but in great ebbs and flows--in grand creative epochs, followed by long-breathing spaces, in times when the strongest call is made for great men, and they are drawn out and developed by the very magnitude of the crisis that calls for them, and quieter times, when people rejoice in the possessions they have won, and do not feel impelled to great efforts. 2. Again, it is to be remembered that after every great creative period which men live through, there comes a time when the results of that creative activity have to be gathered up; and this very process puts of necessity a check, for the time being, on further production. This, indeed, is how history proceeds--there is first a great burst of creative genius under the influence of some new idea or impulse; then, when the wealth of that new movement has been poured into the lap of the age, men have the new task laid upon them of sitting down and looking carefully into the nature of their treasure, taking stock of it, as it were, seeing what it really amounts to; getting to understand it, and working it out to its practical results. This is the labour of industry more than of creation, but it is equally essential to the world’ s progress. There is another part of this task which is of great importance. With every great advance of thought or discovery--with every burst of new truth into the world--there is laid on those who receive it, the duty of adjusting it to the truth they already possess. 3. There are, however, special causes which do belong to the character of the present age which tend, I think, to explain more particularly the dearth of the greatest type of minds in our midst. (1) It is obvious that from the very multiplicity of its possessions our age tends to diffusion rather than to concentration. (2) Our age is critical rather than constructive. (3) The bent of the present age has been to material ends rather than spiritual. (James Orr, D. D.) Faith in signs and without them The Israelites had formed a certain conception of God, and of His relation to them. They thought themselves to be His own peculiar people, and thought, therefore, that for them there would be a peculiar place among the nations of the earth. When they triumphed over their enemies, they regarded it as a sign of God’ s presence with them. National supremacy was one of the signs of God. At the time of this psalm that sign was not to be seen. National supremacy there was none. What was the truth behind that dogma? What was it that was struggling for utterance in it? That truth, I believe, was this: that through them the world was to receive a universal religion. They mistook their true spiritual significance for a prophecy of national dominion over the world. And, therefore, they were looking for victories as signs of the Divine Presence. In times of defeat they had to say, “ We see not our signs.” Again, they connected the Divine Presence specially with certain places. The sanctuaries were the peculiar dwelling-abodes of God--His places of revelation. But here are the enemies roaring in the midst of the congregation, and breaking down the carved work with axes and hammers; burning up all the synagogues of God in the land. No wonder they cry, “ We see not our signs.” This disposition to fix upon certain signs of God is still with us, and it is the prolific source of religious despondency and of partial temporary eclipses of religious faith. Some, when their undertakings do not succeed, cry dolefully, “ We see not our signs.” Others of us can maintain our spirit bravely enough until our sanctuaries are touched. One man’ s sanctuary is the Church. Another man’ s sanctuary is a theory about the Bible. The Bible is an infallible book, a Word of God indisputable. Question that theory, and they say they have no sign left, they can’ t be sure of God. Now, what are we doing when we thus choose signs of God? We are creating for ourselves the possibility, often the certainty, of overwhelming disappointments. We are liable to come to crises where such signs will fail us. In reality we have been setting up a little god of our own make as truly as if we had made an image of wood or stone, and the idol may be destroyed. I am glad to think that there is a faith without signs, and a faith that persists when things are apparently against us. And it is this faith which lies deepest in the human soul. This, I think, is evident even in the history of those who have looked for signs. When the signs do not appear, they are disappointed, they cry bitterly; but even then, as a rule, they pray! Their eclipses are only temporary. Indeed, nothing is more remarkable than the way in which religious faith, that apparently rests on some supposed evidences, can still live when those evidences are taken from it. This shows that the real root of faith was not in such evidences at all, but deeper in the soul of man. The sense of God belongs to us. And like this psalm, even when we have been expecting signs, and cannot see them, we pray to a God above the clouds, whose face is light and whose favour is life. Like the man in the Gospels we say, “ I believe, help Thou my unbelief.” We may doubt all the arguments for God’ s existence, declare this unsatisfactory and that untenable, and when every argument fails we find we believe in God still. We feel and know that He is here. “ Eternal Father, strong to save,” Thy child lives in Thee. (T. R. Williams.) Psalms 74:10-11O God, how long shall the adversary reproach?shall the enemy blaspheme Thy name for ever? The long forbearance of God 1. Men’ s patience is much short of God’ s longsuffering and forbearance; for here it is the speech of a suffering people: “ O God, how long shall the adversary reproach?” when with God it is not yet time to fall upon them. 2. The Lord’ s longsuffering patience doth greatly harden the adversaries in their insolent mocking of God’ s people; for instead of saying, Lord, how long wilt Thou bear with them? he saith, “ O God, how long shall the adversaries reproach?” 3. The truly godly can endure their own troubles better than they can bear the open dishonouring and blaspheming of God by occasion of their trouble. Therefore this expression, from the deepest sense of his heart, doth break forth, “ Shall the enemy blaspheme Thy name for ever?” 4. Albeit tentations from carnal sense do represent God as if He were idle when He suffers His enemies to trample on His people, and on His glorious Name; yet faith will not admit of such a thought, but dealeth with God by prayer, to let His strength and power be so manifest, that the world may not think His hand is in His bosom; “ Why withdrawest thou thy hand?” etc. This he believeth the Lord shall do, and giveth reasons for his hope, in that which followeth. (D. Dickson.) Psalms 74:12 For God is my King of old, working salvation in the midst of the earth.The sovereignty of God I. Loyally acknowledged. “ My King.” II. Of ancient date. “ Of old.” III. Beneficent in operation. “ Working salvation.” At this time, as the psalm indicates, His people were in a most desolate and afflicted state. Was the King working for their salvation? Their misery arose from their sin from their rebellion against His authority and govern-mont. At present, darkness, suffering, and sorrow are here, but they are here because sin is here. God rules to bless. IV. As a plea for His help. He mentions what God had done for them in olden time, and pleads that as their King He would interpose for them again. As their King--1. He would possess sovereign authority. 2. He would be faithful to His sovereign obligations. 3. He was immutable. This plea may be used by us-- (1) As communities forming part of His Church. When any portion of His Church languishes, or is afflicted, or is in difficulty, it may plead with the King for help. (2) As individuals on our own behalf. In our times of perplexity and distress, let us go to our King, and plead with Him for direction and deliverance. (William Jones.) Psalms 74:14 Thou brakest the heads Of leviathan in pieces, and gavest him to be meat to the people inhabiting the wilderness.Leviathan We cannot certainly tell what animal is meant by leviathan, but whatever be intended, it is here used to represent Pharaoh with all his policy and power. Who were the people inhabiting the wilderness? I. The birds and beasts of the desert. The carcases of the Egyptians became their prey. II. The Jews themselves. For literally, Pharaoh and his hosts became meat for them by the spoils they took from them. And morally, because they gained from the event food for their faith, gratitude, and hope. III. Christians to-day. For they are such a people: the world is a wilderness to them, not their rest. And for them many leviathans have been destroyed. Satan’ s power: the curse and condemnation of our natural state. And the remembrance will feed our humility, gratitude and trust. And there have been providential interpositions also. Take note of these things. (W. Jay.) Psalms 74:16 The day is Thine, the night also is Thine.The day and the night I. God’ s ordinances.1. Day is a Divine institution, and is strongly characterized by that wisdom and goodness which are over all God’ s works. In its principal feature--light--light over all, filling the heavens, flushing the earth, mantling over hill and valley, meadow and plain, kindling the great face of the ocean into a mirror, till it reflects on its bosom all that is above it, and repeats in shadow all that is upon it--it may even be regarded as the similitude of God, for “ God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all.” 2. But if the day is God’ s institution, so also is the night, which is not less closely written over with the characters of His wisdom and goodness. If day unto day uttereth speech, night unto night showeth knowledge. They are parts and counterparts of each other. The day makes us ready to welcome the night, and the night furnishes us with a standard by which to measure and estimate the splendours of the day. II. God’ s servants. Neither of these two servants of God ever rests. There is always day somewhere, and there is always night somewhere. Continually the night is laying down one half the world to repose, and continually the day is leading forth the other half of the world to work. The night receives the world weary from the hands of the day, and puts it to rest; and the day receives the world refreshed from the hands of the night, and lights it to action. And all the time also they are otherwise doing for man what man cannot do for himself. They are growing his food. They are weaving his raiment. They are enriching his dwelling-place with beauty and verdure. And in all this multiform kindness to us they are serving God, fulfilling His pleasure, doing what He meant them to do, when He set them in the heavens to be for signs and for seasons, for days and for years. So that, in point of fact, this manifold service of nature is just God’ s kindness to us through the ministry of His two great servants, the day and the night. III. God’ s absolute possession. That is to say, we are not at liberty to do what we choose with them. For the manner in which we deal, with the possibilities of good which they contain, we are strictly and constantly under law to God. In ministering to us as He has ordained, they are serving Him. But in the use we make of them we must serve Him too. What they do unconsciously we must do consciously, in the exercise of those higher faculties which render us capable of a higher service. God has always been jealous of the treatment His servants have received at the hands of those whom He has appointed them to serve. “ Touch not Mine anointed, nor do My prophets any harm.” And even these unconscious and inanimate servants, the Day and the Night, have a voice in His ears which He does not disregard, calling for judgment on those who treat them ill, who turn them to purposes of selfishness and sin; who degrade them to be the ministers of unworthy pleasures, or even slothful ease, and who do not rather send them back to their Proprietor laden with the fruits of righteousness unto life everlasting. (A. L. Simpson, D. D.) Disorder in the Church We have lost that immediate vision which is the peculiar privilege and gift of those religious Easterns, who see God in the undeviating realities of experience. The Jew sees God with the seeing of the eye, sees Him in the mighty activities of nature, sees Him in the concrete facts of experience. God is present to him there, attesting His validity, disclosed as the supreme and only actuality. In the roar of the storm, in the rush of the rain, in the splendour of the sun, in the obedience of the moon, in the steady fixities of rock and tree and cliff, he and his God come face to face and commune together. There is the dominion where his God never fails him. Tossed and afflicted as he may be in his spiritual experiences, he still holds fast to this abiding consolation. Anyhow “ the day is Thine, the night also is Thine: Thou hast prepared the light and the sun.” We have to learn to see with his eyes. That is what we mean by taking the Bible as our authority in revelation. And then we have one other lesson to learn from him. Not only did he find absolute certainty of evidence of God in nature, but he was also prepared to be loyal to a revelation which for long dark periods may fail to accord him that clear security of God’ s close presence, that regularity of order and seemliness in God’ s workmanship which he found so constant in the natural world, It is his revelation which is disturbed by such strange perplexities. It is his special privileges, sealed to him by God, which is open to such terrible insecurities. It is the holy Church which seems to be emptied of God, deserted, forgotten, left to the scorn of adversaries who make havoc of its fair delights. Outside there the great order of nature proclaims aloud God’ s mighty name, “ The day is thine; the night is thine.” They never languish or grow troubled. But inside the Church he cannot understand what God is about; and yet it is His congregation. It is His inheritance. Nothing shakes the Jew’ s loyal belief in the peculiar favours which were shown to him. He never dreams of arguing, “ If it is a revelation it is bound to be clear, decided, protected against all possible doubts and uncertainties. God would never give a revelation and then leave it open to perplexities.” The Jew answers, “ That is just what God has done. It is a revelation which He gives. We are His flock, His inheritance, His Church. That is certain, and yet look at our actual situation, how we are troubled, and tossed, and agonized, not knowing which way to turn. Nature is calm, but we are disturbed. And yet we will not fail the word given us, for all that. We are the Divine society, the holy congregation, even though God seems absent from us so long.” And we must possess ourselves of a like loyalty to his. The extraordinary assumption that a revelation, if it be a revelation, must be free from difficulties, must be clear-cut, logical, complete, must leave no problem unsolved, must secure itself against every possible misunderstanding, is flatly contradicted by everything that we know of the only revelation of which we have any experience at all. It is the mark of heresy--it was always the mark in old years--to aim at logical completeness, at clear-cut consistency. Surely we will take courage from this Israelite in our psalm. We may desire, as he did, that God’ s revelation in Jesus Christ might work with the even, smooth, unbroken regularity of natural law. We may painfully contrast, as he did, the comfortable certainty of the one with the perplexity of the other. But God will not have it so. And we know too little of the end He has in view to criticize or complain. Therefore, as the Jew of old, so we at all costs will surrender ourselves to the truth as it is in Christ Jesus, however strange its adverse fortunes, however belated its victory. (Canon Scott Holland.) The night also is Thine. The God of the night Regard night-- I. As a division of time. And as such it is--1. The first.2. Natural.3. Universal.4. Beneficent. “ The dews of the night heal the wounds of the day.” II. As the product and possession of God. Of storm as well as of calm, of night as well as of day. God is at once the Source and Sovereign. Therefore--III. Learn. 1. A lesson for the regulation of conduct. Take care to wisely and rightly use the night time.2. A message for the consolation of human sorrows. For our nights of pain and sorrow are ordained, relieved and terminated by God. (Wingate Thomas.) Psalms 74:17 Thou hast set all the borders of the earth: Thou hast made summer and winter.Summer This season so changes the whole of life, so intensifies and blesses it, that we begin to think of summer as a personal friend. One of its chiefest charms is its fulness. And this fulness is its peace. And with the peace is welfare, welfare in the world. For the perfect health of things makes us most happy. The air seems fondly to caress our cheek, the tree to give us its love in its shade, the stream to rejoice for our sakes in its own music. Summer has the deep consciousness of fruitfulness, it rejoices in its own fulness and wealth. Few things are more full of teaching than the beautiful endurance and quiet resolution of Nature during its stormy spring. It has so much to make grow, so much to perfect. Though all the aspirations of spring are not fulfilled, yet more than enough are, to give to summer satisfied content. Have we the like content in regard to our past year’ s life? Life is in fruitfulness, not in looking on to immortality, discontented with the present. Life is in fruitfulness which brings content to others, and which brings content to us. The real looking forward we should have is that which the summer has--to the harvest, and it is founded on the faith of work already done. That is the image of a true human aspiration. But we are not to be so content as to desire no better things and be without the mighty impulse of far-off ideals. Only remember, it is so easy to speak beautiful words and to do nothing--to have a fair show of leaves and no fruit. Better to have no ideals than this, and to be doing just what lies before us day by day. Repelled by mere talk of ideals, many men are saying now, “ We will have no future: we will be content to do the common work of daily life as it comes hour by hour to the hand.” And summer teaches also the contentment of rest. A time of quiet has come: it is no longer hard to live. But to many this is not true; summer is the contrast, not the image of their life. Things seem to have gone all wrong with them. But the cure is to learn the lesson which Nature gives us day by day--self-forgetfulness. Or we may win peace by daily self-surrender, doing good to others. Oh, seek the summer life of the soul--the rest of the Lord. (Stopford A. Brooke, M. A.) The Gospel of the summer I. It reminds us of God’ s existence. The glory of the world declares that the living God stands behind the world; for if He did not stand behind it and pervade it with His gracious energy, there could be none of this beauty. Beauty is always the outward and visible sign of indwelling mind. Mere paint does not make a picture, no matter how fine you may grind the colours; mere stone does not make an Athenian Parthenon, or a Doge’ s palace, or a Giotto’ s tower; mere wind and reeds do not make grand music; it is the soul of the artist that gives grace and grandeur to the things which delight the world. Objects of art are beautiful as they express great thoughts; the final secret is always intellectual. II. It reminds us of God’ s beauty. To the Jew God was full of wisdom, and justice, and patience, and tenderness, and benevolence, and this was the supreme primal glory which lights up with splendour both heaven and earth. “ How great is His goodness, and how great is His beauty!” And the New Testament fully recognizes this glorious truth. “ The word was made flesh, and dwelt among us; and we beheld His glory,” etc. The Deity was made known to us as the Rose of Sharon and the Lily of the Valley--the most delicate and majestic beauty of character and action were revealed in Him. He was strong, wise, pure, gentle, longsuffering, just, true, and full of infinite love and grace. This is the beauty of God, the beauty of holiness, and all other beauty is but a broken gleam of this. III. It reminds us of God’ s love. In the day of creation, “ God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good.” And blighted as creation has been by sin and wrath, we still know that the essentim plan is good, the deepest facts and laws are the best. Evil is on the surface; it is the accident, not the fundamental fact of the world and life. Philosophy and science tell us that all beauty is organic, that it always springs from the depths of a thing; and so let us be sure that, where there is so much beauty in the form of things, there must be love at the heart of things. IV. It reminds us of God’ s blessedness. “ He hath made summer.” He must be happy; it is the entrancing expression of His deep happiness. What a joy to know that the omnipotent One is the blessed One--a great bright ocean of sunshine and music! And does not the summer remind us that God wishes us to share His gladness? And many of us, perhaps, are full of darkness and distress. What we want is the summer putting into us. We want the tender blue sky putting into our mind; we want all the flowers that grow about our feet to spring in our heart; we want to hear in our spirit the music of the world; we want to get the rainbow into our conscience; we want all the fruits of light to enrich and adorn our life. This is what we want most of all. Well, is not God waiting to do this very thing for us? (W. L. Watkinson.) Summer Summer illustrates-- I. Some aspects of the Divine character.1. God’ s love of beauty. 2. God’ s wonderful wisdom. (1) The simplicity of the agencies which produce such a variety of results--creating the beautiful, picturesque, and the sublime--sustaining life--increasing happiness, and producing expansion of soul. (2) The permanent maintenance of these agencies. Earth still wears the freshness of Eden, wherever there are the perceiving eye and the sympathizing heart. And is not the truth felt by us, that the mind of God is unchangeable towards man, although His final purposes are not vet completed? 3. God’ s infinite benevolence. (1) It is given to all to enjoy. (2) It is appreciable by all. II. Some aspects of human life.1. The imperceptible progress of the spring into summer is a representation of the gradual advance of the mind in knowledge. 2. The gladsomeness of summer is an emblem of the temporal prosperity of man. 3. The luxuriance and loveliness of the summer is an emblem of the progress of the soul in the Divine life. There was as violent a struggle in nature between winter and spring as there was in the soul between sin and holiness; but the latter gained the victory, and it expands with life under the influences of the Holy Spirit and the Sun of Righteousness, as the fields and woods under the heat of the sun. And as the life of nature depends on the bounty of God, so does the life of the soul. And as the scenes of nature excite our admiration and love, souls Consecrated to His service in the dawn of manhood will kindle emotions of gratitude in our hearts too deep for utterance. (Homilist.) Lessons of summer It may be well enough, perhaps, to show one’ s acquaintance with nature, by talking learnedly of climate as affected by the sun’ s rays; the elevation of different regions above the level of the sea; the influence of mountains and currents; but, after all, we must discover in these several agencies the Hand of the Great and Good God. “ Thou hast made summer.” The constant repetition of this mercy should teach us-- I. That God’ s power is never diminished, nor His resources exhausted. II. Again: The text reminds us how patiently the good Lord bears with the ingratitude of man. The slightest disappointment of our unimportant plans by a shower of rain will be met by complaints and murmurings, as if we were the only beings to be thought of, and our convenience to be consulted before that of all others. “ All weather is good; sunshine is good; rain is good. One may see in Europe artificial waterworks, cascades constructed by the skill of man, at enormous expense--at Chatsworth, at Hesse Cassel--and the remains of magnificent waterworks at Marly, where Louis XIV. lavished uncounted millions of gold . . . The traveller thinks it a great thing to see a little water thus pumped up by creaking machinery or a panting steam-engine, to be scattered in frothy spray; and do we talk of its not being a good day when God’ s great engine is exhibited to us, His imperial waterwork sending up the mists and vapours to the clouds, to be rained down again in comfort, and beauty, and plenty?” III. If we are bringing forth the fruits of the spirit, no doubt the Holy Ghost has visited and blessed us. There is a delightful period of the year, known as Indian summer, and, in some parts of Europe, as St. Martin’ s summer. The woods put on their most brilliant colouring, the waters of the lakes are smooth and unruffled, and the red man of the forest are wont to welcome it as the special gift of their most honoured Deity, to whom they believe their souls go after death. As in nature, so in grace also do we find a pleasant illustration here: “ In the life of the good man there is an Indian summer more beautiful than that of the season--richer, sunnier, and more sublime than the world has ever known--it is the Indian summer of the soul. When the glow of youth has departed, when the warmth of middle age is gone, then the mind of the good man, still ripe and vigorous, relaxes its labours, and the memories of a well-spent life gush forth from their secret fountains, enriching, rejoicing, fertilizing; and the soul, assuming a heavenly lustre, is no longer shut up within the narrow confines of business, but dwells happily upon the summer which awaits it within the gates of Paradise.” Does not the same gracious God who makes summer in the physical, make it also in the spiritual world? And if the summer of the one be glorious, must not the summer of the other be even more glorious? Surely the joyful song of the ransomed ones, during the days of millennial glory, will be, “ Thou hast made summer.” (J. N. Norton.) Winter. Winter God has made the winter. It now claims our thought, and has as much happiness as gloom. Week by week we have watched decay doing its work on earth. The harvest was gathered in and the fruits of the earth, and then came the wind and the rain to gather the harvest of the leaves and flowers. And gradually all around winter has deepened, and there is no light in the sun nor heat in the bones of the earth. We strive to create joy and brightness at home to balance the mourning of the world. By the fireside when the light is low, we re-create the year, and recall its varied changes. And we see the image of what is when the winter of life comes chill on us in age. We had our spring and summer, and our days were warm with glowing love and happy friendship. Now these things have grown cold around us. Love remains, but the heart does not beat as heretofore. And in the dim firelight, as We sit silently, it is not living presences that haunt the room, but the ghosts of men and women long loved, long dead, and unforgotten. It is winter, not Summer. We had our harvest time, but we can only look back upon it. Such is our retrospect in the first days of gloom. What kind of prospect have we then? It also is imaged in the world of winter. The earth after the frost is bound in iron bands. The waters of the land are hushed, frost has chained their rippling light. The flowers, the trees, the birds and beasts, all suffer in their own way. The patient earth is dead; over its dark face the pitying heaven draws the winding sheet of snow, and the grey and bitter fog hangs over it the funeral pall. It is death we see, and death we look forward to, and death only in this first hour of wretchedness. And it is well to look straight into the gloomy eyes of the worst fate, and look into it however hard it be, without fear, and know it to its depths. For only so can we wring out of it its secret, and then, as is our way, when we have once seen the worst, we invent the better. We find we can rise above the evil and despise it, and we think we have power to create the good. And we do so by the aid of memories of the past. As the winter drives us to our homes and to life indoors, so the winter of age drives a man home to himself, and our life becomes an inner life. But our heart’ s happiness will depend on how we have lived our past life, if it has been truly and lovingly human, if it has been kind, and true, and good. For on that all will depend whether we can summon any and what guests to our hearts. And not only the memory of past love but the sweetness of love present, will make glad the winter of age. Love is not lost, nor beauty, nor all we mixed with love. Age may possess both a noble and a beautiful life. Only you must make ready for it. Keep your soul healthy, your heart and brain awake to noble thoughts. And there is far more than death in winter. See the life hidden away in every root, in every seed. Not death but life in preparation--hidden, but in slow activity, is what we see.:Faith arises for ourselves, and we forget the winter of age to realize the enchanted youth of the life to come. “ It was the winter wild,” when our Saviour came at His first advent, as if to tell us of the immortal spring that lies hidden in the winter of humanity. By His eternal life in us we conquer the decay of winter and the frost of death. (Stopford A. Brooke, M. A.) Winter I. The beauties of winter. II. The wonders of winter. One of the greatest wonders of winter is its most common product, ice. Had water followed the general law, and contracted and become specifically heavier in the act Of freezing, how terrible would have been the consequences to our comforts and perhaps our lives! Whenever the atmosphere had reached the freezing point, the water on the surface of lakes and rivers would, in the act of freezing, sink and form a layer of ice on the bottom. Another layer would immediately follow from the same cause, and this process going on through the several months of winter, would solidify all the water available for the use of man so thoroughly, that the heat of summer could never melt it, and after a time, the springs of water in the earth would cease to flow except in the tropical regions. How fully does the existing order of nature obviate all such difficulties and dangers, since the ice remains on the surface, and prevents the cold from solidifying the water to any great depth, and then is exposed to the direct rays of the sun and the warmth of the atmosphere, which liquefy it, whenever the season of cold is past. What a continued and apparent evidence have we thus furnished us during the winter, of the wonderful wisdom of God, and His wonderful care for the welfare of man. Another wonder of even greater value to us is, that the atmosphere we breathe is not capable of being congealed. If it were otherwise, life would speedily come to an end in the arctic and temperate zones. That it is not so, is an evidence of the kindness and wisdom of Him who is “ wonderful in counsel.” III. The blessings of winter. Suppose there was no winter, and consequently no cold and no difference in the degrees of temperature on the face of the earth. Many, without reflection, would say that if this monotone of temperature could be such a delightful medium as we sometimes enjoy in spring or autumn, it would be a great blessing to have it perpetuated. But if this state of things should exist, wind which is caused by the air rushing from a colder to a warmer place could not exist, and there could be no stirring of the atmosphere, except on such a limited scale as artificial means could effect. Then the impurities of the air which are now carried away and disinfected by the winds, would remain stationary until the atmosphere became loaded with them; the vapours which arise from the ocean would also remain stationary, and could not be wafted over the land to refresh by their shade, and invigorate by their descent in rain; and the deadly impurities of the air would be supplemented by the deadly drought, and would be aided by the deadly contagion of disease, to sweep the face of the earth with the besom of death, and make the imaginary paradise a perpetual desert. Let us never forget it as one of the chief causes of gratitude for earthly blessings, that we can say to our God, “ Thou hast made winter.” (N. D. Williamson.) Winter I. Its lessons.1. Divine power. (1) An ancient work.(2) A beautiful work.(3) A benevolent work. Winter comes like an angel of light on a mission of mercy; epidemics flee before its health-giving presence, the frost prepares the soil, the snow preserves the seeds, shoals of destructive insects are destroyed, the atmosphere is purified, there is a glory sparkles in the very frost, a lustre in the snow, and good in both.2. Divine equity. As in grace, so in nature; He is no respecter of persons; “ He maketh His sun to shine upon the evil and the good,” and though the blessings of nature are infinitely diversified, yet each zone has natural products, wisely adapted to its peoples. God decrees the alternation of winter and summer for the general good. At our summer solstice He says to the north, “ Give up I” and winter gradually returns; and at our winter solstice, He says to the south, “ Keep not back!” and the south flinging open her sunny gates, permits the return of summer to bless our isle. 3. Divine providence. The preservation of the feathered tribes in this season clearly and pleasingly illustrates this doctrine. You have seen during protracted snow storms, these interesting creatures picking up a precarious meal as best they could. Naturalists tell us considerable numbers necessarily perish; the wonder is all do not die, that any are left to warble the overtime of spring, or swell the chorus of summer. Well, winter teaches us of a great Provider who “ opens His hand, and satisfies the desire of every living thing,” and reminds us that He who in summer makes the lily more beautiful “ than Solomon in all his glory,” in winter cares for the feathered flocks “ which have no storehouse or barn.” If the providence of God respects the less, will it neglect the greater? II. Its emblems.1. A barren Church.2. A backsliding state.3. Old age.4. Death. (1) No exemption.(2) To the Christian death is the gate of life, where the winter of discontent is changed to glorious summer. (T. J. Guest.) The teachings of winter The approach of winter, first of all, may remind us of our own natural life--its progress, its beauty, its close. How short a time does it seem since we were rejoicing in the spring, with all its promises of plenty, all its elements of beauty! yet it has gone. The summer, with all its brightness and enjoyment, has followed; the autumn, with its bounteous stores of food for man and beast, has succeeded and passed; and already are we drawing on to the close of the year, almost before we seem to have realized the fact that those seasons are fled. Even so is it with our life. The springtime of youth, the summertime of manhood, the autumn of maturity, how soon do they pass! and the winter of old age creeps on; and with powers fading, faculties of mind and body weakening, we draw on towards the end. But what lessons of prudence and forethought should this resemblance of our life to the revolving seasons teach us! First, as to the duties of this world. The spring, the summer, and the autumn are the times provided for cultivating the earth, for producing and gathering its fruits. Winter is no time for this; but it is the time for using and enjoying what the other seasons had enabled us to secure. The husbandman that will not plough and till his land in the spring, shall beg in harvest-time, and have nothing. Thus the wise man employs the example even of a mean insect to teach men prudence in the affairs of this life:--“ Go to the ant; consider her ways,” etc. This is a lesson that is not confined to the cultivators of the earth. It applies to all kinds of employment, and especially to the employment of mechanics and others of the working classes. The expenses of a household in the genial seasons of the year are less than in the winter. The days, too, are longer, and afford opportunity for greater industry. Work is in general more plentiful. What, then, is the lesson taught by this example, but that every one should strive to lay up during those seasons for the increased expense, the probable deficiency of employment, and the interruption of work, which may be expected in the wintery There are those who act upon this prudent principle, and for them winter has fewer discomforts; they can look forward to it without alarm. But how is it with those who have been living from hand to mouth, spending all as it came, laying up nothing for the approaching period of trial? What but grievous suffering, if left to the consequences of their own imprudence, or painful dependence, or the uncertain benevolence of others? But if this lesson is important with respect to temporal interests, how much more so is it with regard to things spiritual and eternal! Youth, and manhood, and maturity are the seasons in which the seed must be sown, and the work done, which may end in a harvest of everlasting blessedness. It is the time in which treasure must be laid up for eternity. The call to repent, to believe in Christ as our Saviour, and to keep His commands, is too often neglected in those periods of life when it might be obeyed. Youth is too much occupied with enjoyment, manhood is too busy, maturity is too much absorbed with worldly interests; and then wisdom is too often pushed out of life. The call is disobeyed till too late. The winter of life comes on, and finds the worldly still worldly, the impenitent and unbelieving hardened; and they die as fools die. If, in spiritual things, this provision is made during the more vigorous periods of life for the inevitable change that awaits you, then, as it is with those who have laid up for the natural winter,--it has lost its terrors for them,--so will it be in the higher interests of the soul. Old age may be drawing on; death may be approaching; the winter of the tomb may be at hand. But it has nothing in it alarming for the sincere Christian. The seasons of this world teach him a lesson of trust and hope, as well as of prudence and activity. We know, that though at this time of the year all nature seems to die--though the sun loses its power, and storms, and cold, and darkness prevail--yet this state of things is not to continue. The winter’ s inaction is but a state of temporary repose: the vegetable world is only preparing to start afresh into renewed life and beauty in the spring. Even so the voice of revelation assures us, in prospect of the weakness and weariness of age, and the approaching darkness and desolation of the cold grave, that another springtime awaits our bodies as well as our spirits. (W. Blatch, M. A.) Winter God, who has “ made winter,” makes nothing in vain. For-- I. Winter belongs to the plan of heaven, and is a season indispensably necessary. It aids the system of life and vegetation; it kills the seeds of infection, and destroys pestilential damps; it refines the blood; it gives us vigour and courage; it confirms the nerves, and braces up the relaxed solids. Snow is a warm covering for the corn; and while it defends the tender blades from nipping frosts, it also nourishes their growth. Isaiah remarked this. Winter is the needful repose of Nature, after her labours for the welfare of the creation. But even this pause is only to acquire new strength; or rather it is a silent and secret energy of preparation to surprise and charm us again with fresh abundance. II. Winter is a season which has its pleasures. I love to hear the roaring of the wind. I love to see the figures which the frost has painted on the glass. I love to watch the redbreast with his slender legs, standing at the window and knocking with his bill to ask for the crumbs which fall from the table. III. Winter is a season in which we should peculiarly feel gratitude for our residence, accommodations, and conveniences. Things strike us more forcibly by comparison. Let us remember how much more temperate our climate is than that of many other countries. Our winter is nothing when we turn to the Frigid Zone. When the French mathematicians wintered at Tornea, in Lapland, the external air suddenly admitted into their rooms, seizing the moisture, became whirls of snow; their breasts were rent when they breathed it; and the contact of it with their bodies was intolerable. We read of seven thousand Swedes who perished at once, in attempting to pass the mountains which divide Norway from Sweden. IV. This season calls upon us to exercise benevolence. Sympathy is now more powerfully excited than at any other period; we are enabled more easily to enter into the feelings of others less favoured than ourselves. And while we are enjoying every convenience and comfort which the tenderness of Providence can afford--oh, let us think of the indigent and miserable. My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue, but in deed and in truth. V. Winter should improve us in knowledge. It affords leisure, and excludes many interruptions--it is, therefore, favourable to application. Let us read, and study, and prepare for action and usefulness in life. And let us not pass heedlessly by those subjects of reflection and improvement which the very season itself yields. How instructive, for instance, is the goodness of God, not only in the preservation of the human race, but in taking care of all the millions of animals during a period which threatens to destroy them! What a number of retreats does He provide for them! Some of them, by a singular instinct, change the places of their residence. Some of them are lulled into a profound sleep for weeks and months. And all this teaches us, first, to resemble Him, and be kind to every being. If we learn of Him, we cannot be cruel to the brute creation. The season is also instructive as an emblem. Here is the picture of life--thy flowery spring, thy summer, thine autumn, and at last thy winter. See to it that thou art possessor of eternal life. (W. Jay.) The winter and its moral analogies The winter is generally felt an unpleasing and gloomy season of the year; the more desirable is it to make it yield us some special good, by way of compensation. There are gratifying examples to this purpose. “ Thou hast made--winter.” God’ s work and wisdom in it are to be regarded. The Almighty Maker has fixed in the order of the world that which is the natural cause of the winter; a most remarkable adjustment of supreme wisdom and power, appearing at first view something like irregularity and disorder--that is, the inclination of the earth’ s axis. We may note the signal benefits of this adjustment. We must have our winter in order that others may have their summer. We are to be willing to part with a pleasing possession for a season for their sakes. And the unproductiveness of winter should remind us of the care and bounty of Divine providence, in that other seasons are granted us to make up by their supply for winter’ s want. Observe, again, the winter has a character of inclemency and rigour--has ideas and feelings associated with it of hardship, infelicity, suffering. In this, it should be adapted to excite thoughtful and compassionate sentiments respecting the distress and suffering that are in the world. The fair and cheerful aspect of the world is veiled, as if that our thoughts may take another direction. May we not here find an instructive emblem of another order of things? Think of the bloom and vigour, and animated action and expression of the human person, destroyed by sickness or disease! Think of delightful hopes, shedding spring and summer on the heart, suddenly extinguished! Think of a state of exuberant prosperity changed by a rapid reverse to one of difficulty, calamity, or desolation! (Job). There is another thing which the winter may suggest to our thoughts, namely, that resemblance to it which there may be in the state of the mind, in respect to its best interests. Is a man afraid to turn from the gloom and cold without to see what there is within? Would he even rather contemplate and endure the greater rigours of a still more northern climate a while than to take a sojourn in his own soul? Truly the winter in the soul is far worse than any season and aspect of external nature. Suppose a contrary state to be fully prevalent in the soul, how small an evil, comparatively, then, would be all that is inclement and gloomy in the seasons and scenes of nature! Suppose communion with heaven, animated affections, ardent devotion to God and our Redeemer. Why, if such a man were placed in the frozen zone (and could live there), he would be happy! This may suggest a last observation that the gloomy circumstance of winter on our globe points to the desirableness of an abode where there shall be nothing like winter; or of a mode of existence quite superior to all elemental evils. (John Foster.) Psalms 74:20 Have respect unto the covenant.The covenant pleaded It is the covenant of grace, not of works, that we are to plead.I. What is meant by this plea.1. Fulfil thy covenant: let it not be a dead letter.2. Fulfil all its promises.3. Let nothing hinder or turn them aside. II. Whence this plea derives its force.1. From the veracity of God.2. His jealousy for His honour.3. The venerable character of She covenant.4. Its solemn endorsement, God’ s Word.5. Its seal--the blood of Christ.6. Nothing in it has ever failed.7. The testimony of God’ s dying people. III. How and when this covenant may be pleaded.1. Under a sense of sin.2. Labouring after holiness.3. When under strong temptation.4. Or in great distress. IV. Practical inferences.1. Have a grateful respect for the covenant to which you pray the Lord to have respect.2. Have joy in it.3. Be jealous for it.4. Practically respect it. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The Divine covenant steadfast and sure Rutherford says that unbelief may tear the copies of the covenant of grace given us, but Christ keeps the original in heaven with Himself. Though we believe not, yet He remaineth faithful. He cannot deny Himself. The dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty. The Church’ s duty to the heathen The world wants the Gospel; the Gospel alone meets the world’ s necessities. I. The world’ s need of God. “ The dark places,” etc.1. How dark a system is idolatry: see its sin, and misery, and cruelty. II. God’ s provision for the world. The covenant tells of the Gospel with all its abundant provisions. It brings light; it implants love. Christ is offered as food for the hungry, pardon for the guilty, consolation for the mourner, life for the dead. III. How is this remedy to be applied?1. God Himself must apply it. But-- 2. We must pray for the heathen; pray in public and at home. 3. And we must send messengers to the heathen who shall tell them of Christ. (John Hambleton, M. A.) Psalms 74:21 Let the poor and needy praise Thy name.The poor and needy have cause to praise God’ s Name Rev. Mark Guy Pearse relates that he was walking once beside some cliffs, when he saw a father draw near with his children; the two boys were running on in front, and every now and then the father called to them to be careful, and gave them various directions for their safety. But he was leading the little girl slowly and gently, for she was blind. Presently he sat down beside her and told her of all the beauties of the vision, cheering her by many a tender thought. He never let his healthy boys go beyond his sight and care, but the blind child he held continually by the hand. So let the weak ones be cheered and encouraged by the thought that for them there are special promises, special assurances of care: thank God, none of us can drift beyond the reach of His love, but His feeble children He is holding by the hand. Psalms 75:1-10 Psalms 75:1-10 For that Thy name is near Thy wondrous works declare.God’ s nearness to the world I. He is near as the sustainer of a dissolving system (Psalms 75:3). The force of disintegration operates every moment, not only in organized matter, but even in what we call simple substances, if, indeed, such things exist. The mountains falling come to nought. Every plant in the great system of vegetation is dissolving; and the great world of animal life, from the tiniest insect to the hugest monster of the forest or the sea, is ever in the process of dissolution. What prevents the whole universe tumbling to pieces, flying off part from part, particle from particle as a log of wood in the flames? No force short of God. The same principle of disintegration is at work in human society. Families, societies, Churches, nations, are dissolving; kingdoms are constantly breaking into pieces. God alone keeps things together, bears up the pillars of a dissolving universe. “ He upholds all things by the word of His power.” II. He is near as the rebuker of human wickedness (Psalms 75:4-5).1. Three phases of wickedness are here indicated:-- (1) Folly--“ Deal not foolishly.” Sin is folly. It is against the reason, the interests, the dignity and blessedness of existence. “ He that sinneth against Me wrongeth his own soul.” (2) Haughtiness--“ Lift not up the horn.” Pride and arrogance enter into the very essence of wickedness. “ God resisteth the proud,” etc. (3) Recklessness--“ Speak not with a stiff neck.” Bold, shameless, obstinate disregard to the claims of God and all the moral proprieties. 2. God is present in the world, reproving all the wickedness with the voice of Providence, by the admonitions of conscience, by the ministry of His Word and the stricings of Ills Spirit. III. He is near as the sovereign disposer of all social changes. “ For promotion cometh neither from the east,” etc. “ But God is the judge: He putteth down one, and setteth up another” (1 Samuel 2:7). He is in the rise and in the fall, not only of empires, but individual men. “ He raiseth up the poor out of the dust,” etc. IV. He is near--administering to all men dispensations from a common source (Psalms 75:8). What is that cup? Infinite benevolence; and from this cup “ He poureth out of the same,” great natural blessings. “ God is good, and His tender mercies are over all the works of His hand.”1. The cup is a mixed cup. “ Full of mixture.” What an infinite variety of blessings are in this cup, this cup of level Something from it falls fresh upon every being every hour. 2. The contents of this cup have a different effect upon different characters. To the righteous it is a pleasant cup. Its blooming, sparkling mixture is delicious and inspiring. Not so to the wicked; what is delicious and sustaining to the good is distasteful and pernicious to the evil. Moral character changes subjectively the very nature of things. V. He is near to destroy the power of the wicked and to augment the power of the righteous (Psalms 75:10). Matthew Arnold has somewhere described God “ as a stream of tendency that maketh for righteousness.” His meaning, I presume, is that the whole procedure of God in the moral world tends to put down the wrong and to raise and glorify the right. (Homilist.) The nearness of God God is near-- I. To observe our sins (Job 24:14-15; Psalms 139:2-4; Genesis 3:9-24; Genesis 19:24-28; Joshua 7:24-26; Acts 5:1-10). II. To notice our desires after him (Jeremiah 31:18-20; Luke 15:20). III. To pardon, sanctify, and justify (Isaiah 50:7-9). IV. To answer our prayers (Psalms 145:18-19; Isaiah 65:24). V. To relieve our wants (Psalms 34:10; Psalms 84:11; Habakkuk 3:17-18). VI. To succour us in distress (Psalms 34:19; Isaiah 49:10). VII. To save us from danger (Daniel 3:27). Job; Peter. From this subject we may derive warning to sinners, an encouragement to the penitent; comfort to believers. (R. Simpson, M. A.) God’ s works declare Him When that great artist, Dore, was once travelling in Southern Europe, he lost his passport. When he came to the boundary line where he needed to produce it, the official challenged him. Said he, “ I have lost my passport; but it is all right--I am Dore the artist. Please let me go on.” “ Oh, no,” said the officer; “ we have plenty of people representing themselves as this or that great one.” After some conversation the man said, “ Well, I want you to prove it. Hero is a pencil and some paper. Now, if you are the artist, draw me a picture.” Dore took the pencil, and with a few master strokes sketched some of the features of the neighbourhood. Said the man, “ Now I am perfectly sure of it. You are Dore; no other man could do that.” Thus all the works of creation their great Original proclaim, “ that Thy name is near Thy wondrous works declare.” God revealed in nature A legend has it that a prophet appealed to God for a sign such as had been granted to other prophets. In response a tuft of moss opened before the man, and from the rock beneath rose a lovely violet. As he looked admiringly on the opening leaves he had no need to ask for signs and wonders, for as he was leaving home his little daughter had given him a violet precisely like the one created before his eyes. We need not ask to see a new star flashing gorgeous lights on the darkness of a wintry night, or oaks to spring in a moment from acorns, as demonstrations of a Divine presence. God is as truly revealed in a little flower as in the most stupendous miracle that could amaze and overwhelm the mind; Archdeacon Farrar tells about a boy who took a flower with him to his work every morning. He put the flower on his desk in the schoolroom, and when asked why he did this, replied that the flower was to remind him of God and keep him from evil thoughts. (The Signal.) Psalms 75:3I bear up the pillars of it.God behind nature It is literally true in the realm of nature. “ I bear up the pillars of it.” God is being gradually eliminated from His own world. In olden time God was brought in at every nook and corner and turn. If it rained, the Lord had opened the bottles of heaven. If there was a drought, the Lord had locked up the heavens. If a hurricane occurred, the Lord had raised up a mighty wind. In ancient times men saw God in all the phenomena of nature. We are more educated now--indeed, so educated that we have nearly excluded God from the realm of His own universe. There is a scientific explanation for everything. No matter what may happen, we are told, “ There are the pillars that support, and there is nothing supernatural.” But the Lord comes in and asks this question, “ Who supports the pillars?” If a semi-infidel world says, “ Everything can be explained by science, and that which at present seems almost insoluble has only to be waited for a little while, and the pillars will appear,” God says, “ True, but then 1 bear up the pillars.” (A. G. Brown.) Psalms 75:5 Speak not with a stiff neck.Stiff necks The text is a figure of that pride, stubbornness, or wilful disobedience which refuses to yield to rightful and loving authority. I. Let me indicate the classes of persons who are morally and spiritually stiffnecked1. If you resist the conviction of sin, you are stiffnecked. 2. You have shown your stiff neck by despising faithful warnings. 3. Or, it may be, that you have rejected the counsel of godly parents. 4. Your stubbornness in tribulation shows that you have a stiff neck towards God. II. Let me exhort you to repentance. Let the love of God draw you to turn to Him. (W. Birch.) Psalms 75:6-7 God is the judge: He putteth down one, and setteth up another.Getting on It is not a trivial question, whether your life, my young friend, is to be a failure or a success. Everybody is going on. We are all getting through our little span of daylight. But some people are not only going on, they are getting on. Each vocation has its rising men. How is it that men get on? It is a very simple and primary notion, capable of reception only by the most unsophisticated mind, that the most deserving always get on best. Whatever be the law, it is not that. To gain any advantage or eminence, a man must have a certain amount of merit. I am obliged to say, as the result of all my observations of the way in which human beings get on, that they get on mainly by chance or luck, in a fashion that looks fortuitous. There must be merit in walks where men have to make their own way; but that a man may get on, he must be seconded by good luck. We know, of course, that there is a Higher Hand, and we humbly recognize that. I believe that these words of the psalmist give us the entire philosophy of getting on. It is a matter of God’ s sovereignty; and God’ s sovereignty, as it affects human beings, we speak of as their good or ill luck. Of course, there is really no chance in the matter. Everything is rightly arranged and governed. Still, nothing can be more certain than the fact that there are men who are what we call lucky, and other men who are unlucky. The unlucky, perhaps, need it all; and the lucky can stand it all; but there is the fact. And we know that there are blessed compensations, which may make the crook in the lot a true blessing. Life is a lottery. No doubt, there is no real chance in life; but then there is no real chance in any lottery. Honest industry and perseverance, also resolute selfishness, meanness, toadyism, and unscrupulousness, tend to various forms of worldly success. But you can draw no assurance from these general principles, as to what either may do for yourself. My text is not the resort of soured disappointment: it is the confession of humbled and shamed success. The worthier way of getting on is, when a man, by his doings and character, makes a position important, which in other hands would not be so. In treatises on the arts of self-advancement and self-help, there is a fallacy at the foundation of all their instructions. They all say, “ Do so and so, and you will get on.” But they all fail to allow for chance or Providence. Let us always keep it in our remembrance that there is something far better than any amount of worldly success, which may come of worldly failure. A wise and good man in this world will not set his heart on getting on, and will not push very much to get on. He will do his best, and humbly take, with thankfulness, what the Hand above sends him. It is not worth while to push. “ Seekest thou great things for thyself? Seek them not.” It is not worth while. Let us trust in God, and do right, and we shall get on as much as He thinks good for us. (A. K. H. Boyd, D. D.) Psalms 75:8 For in the hand of the Lord there is a cup, and the wine is red.God’ s threatenings against incorrigible sinners In this verse we have a lively description and amplification of the judgments of God upon the world, which are here set forth unto us under a threefold representation of them. First, in their preparation. Secondly, in their execution. Thirdly, in their participation. I. The preparation.1. The vessel--a cup. By this we may understand whatsoever it is which is the means, and conveyance, and derivation of any evil unto us. God makes the same providences to be a cup of physic to His children, for the recovering of them from their spiritual infirmities, and a cup of poison to His enemies, for the destroying of them, in the midst of their sins. 2. The liquor. (1) Red wine--a cup of blood prepared for the inhabitants of the world, as an expression of God’ s vengeance upon them. (2) Full of mixture, i.e. wrath and revenge. 3. The preparer--God Himself. II. The execution. God will not be always in the forewarnings of judgment, He will be at last in the dispensations of it. He will not be always tempering it, He will be at last pouring out of it. The Lord is full of patience and longsuffering, and bears much with the sons of men for a long while together; but when His patience and longsuffering is once abused, He then comes on to punishment and execution. And this I say it is, when sin is come to its ripeness and maturity, and is at its full growth. There are three aggravations of sin which do put God upon the execution of judgment, and this pouring forth of wrath.1. Boldness and insolence in sinning (Jeremiah 8:12). 2. Generality in sinning; when it comes to taint and overspread a whole nation. 3. Security and presumption. III. The participation.1. The persons mentioned. “ The wicked of the earth,” that is, such as are more scandalous, and presumptuous, and impenitent, and farthest from reformation; such as those who, for the nature of sin, are more abominable, and for the continuance in it, are more incorrigible; these are they which the Holy Ghost does here point at in a more principal manner. 2. The evil denounced against them. (1) The potion or draught itself, it is the dregs of the cup. This is the potion of wicked men, while ‘ tis said they shall drink the dregs, there are three things implied in this expression as belonging unto it. (a) The reservation of judgment, they shall drink the last. (b) The aggravation of judgment, they shall drink the worst. (c) The perfection and confirmation of judgment, they shall drink up all. They shall drink the last, they shall drink the worst, they shall drink all; each of these are implied in the dregs. (T. Horton, D. D.) The Lord’ s cup I. The contents of the Lord’ s cup. “ The wine is red; it is full of mixture;” that is, however fair the appearance of things may be, however splendid any state of happiness, or any situation of life may appear, there is always added to it a certain portion of evil. By evil, I mean only the usual misfortunes and afflictions of human life. These are what temper the cup of the Lord; and in this mixed state it is poured out to the inhabitants of the earth. Man being compounded of good and evil, all his labours partake of the mixture. Let him form what schemes he will; let him employ all his little prudence and foresight in bringing them to perfection, still we will find mixed with them in one shape or other, uncertainty, disappointment, and miscarriage. II. How the ungodly man drinks. IV. The text says, “ He drinks the dregs.” Now, the dregs of any liquor are the pernicious parts. It is fairly implied, therefore, that the ungodly man turns both the good and evil of life to his own destruction. III. How the godly man drinks it. As the ungodly man drinks the dregs, the finer parts of the liquor are, of course, the portion of the godly man. In the first place, he expects to find a degree of bitterness in his cup. He sees the propriety of it, and fully acknowledges the great usefulness of this mixture of good and evil. If the potion were perfectly palatable, he fears he might drink to excess. When it pleases Heaven to bless him; when his designs succeed; and his hopes dilate in some view of happiness before him, “ Now is the time” (he suggests to himself) “ when I must guard my heart with double care. Now is the time when insolence, and wantonness, and pride, the attendants of a prosperous hour, are most liable to corrupt me. Let prosperity soften my heart, instead of hardening it. Let me be humble, and mild, and condescending, and obliging to all. In the midst of my own enjoyments, let my heart expand. Let me feel the misery of others; and turn my plenty to the relief of their necessity.” Again, when it pleases Heaven to mix some bitter ingredients in his cup, still he has the same sense of acting under the will of God. “ Now,” he cries, “ is the time when I am to exercise patience and resignation. Now my religion is put to the test. Shall I receive good at the hand of the Lord, and not receive evil? Gracious God! grant that I may improve my heart under this trial of my faith; and make my sufferings, through Jesus Christ, the means of purifying my affections. Let me for His sake bear a Lifting part of what He bore for me; and let me keep that great pattern of suffering resignation always before my eyes.” Thus the godly man drinks of the Lord’ s cup, and his draught, whether sweet or bitter, is wholesome to him. (W. Gilpin.) Psalms 75:9-10 But I will declare for ever; I will sing praises to the God of Jacob.A model of devout praise The praise resolved upon here is worthy of our imitation, inasmuch as it-- I. Loses sight of self in devout admiration of the character and doings of God.1. He will praise God for His doings. (1) Undeserved by us. “ While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” (2) Unsought by us. We did not seek God, but He sought us by Jesus Christ. (3) Freely and heartily given by God out of His own sovereign love. “ Bless the Lord, O my soul.” 2. He will praise God for His faithfulness. With Him there is “ no variableness, neither shadow of turning.” 3. He will praise God “ for ever.” “ Let not thy praises be transient--a fit of music, and then the instrument hung by the wall till another gaudy day of some remarkable providence makes thee take it down. God comes not guest-wise to His saints’ house, but to dwell with them. David took this up for a life-work: ‘ As long as I live, I will praise Thee.’” II. Evinces its reality by resolving to imitate him. Our praise of the excellences of others is a very hollow affair unless we also cultivate those excellences. We praise God for His “ unspeakable gift” ; are we imitating His pure generosity? We praise Jesus Christ for His great self-sacrifice for us; are we denying ourselves in His spirit that others might be benefited? We bless God for the Gospel; are we exemplifying the spirit of the Gospel? A certain Dr. Whitaker, on reading the fifth chapter of Matthew, brake out, saying, “ Either this is not the Gospel, or we are not of the Gospel.” And is it not to be feared that the spirit of the Gospel for which men praise God, and the spirit of their lives, are often widely different? Let us evince the sincerity of our praise to God by imitating Him in our spirit and life. Let us admire Him, commune with Him, adore Him, until we are transformed into the same image. (W. Jones.) . Psalms 76:1-12 Psalms 76:1-12 In Judah is God known: His name is great in Israel. Glorious aspects of the Divine character I. As the glorious resident in the midst of His people (Psalms 76:1-2). God is everywhere; but is in an especial sense present with holy souls. They are represented as His “ temple,” which implies--1. Special connection with Him.2. Special consecration to Him.3. Special manifestation of Him. II. As the triumphant conqueror of his enemies. He does His work--1. Thoroughly (Psalms 76:3-5).2. Easily (Psalms 76:6). His word is the fire that will burn up corruption, the hammer that will break the rocky heart, the sword that will slay moral evil.3. Judicially (Psalms 76:8-9). God is infinitely just in crushing all evil. Satan is a usurper, and all his hosts are rebels. As a just God, He will put all-enemies under His feel. In a moral sense, God is a “ God of battles.” He is eternally warring against wrong. III. As the absolute master of malign passions (Psalms 76:10).1. He subordinates human wrath. As the mariner makes the gale his servant to bear his vessel to the port, so God makes the malign passions of men and devils to bear on His great purposes to their complete fulfilment. 2. He restrains it. He allows the wrath of His creatures to go no further than He chooses. As He has set a boundary to the ocean, He has also to the human passions. “ So far shalt thou go, and no further.” IV. As the supreme object of human worship (Psalms 76:11). This implies two things.1. Devout resolutions. “ Vow and pay unto the Lord your God.” In this clause we have the fundamental God, and do right, and we shall get on as much as He thinks good for us. (A. K. H. Boyd, D. D.) Psalms 76:8 For in the hand of the Lord there is a cup, and the wine is red.God’ s threatenings against incorrigible sinners In this verse we have a lively description and amplification of the judgments of God upon the world, which are hero set forth unto us under a threefold representation of them. First, in their preparation. Secondly, in their execution. Thirdly, in their participation. I. The preparation.1. The vessel--a cup. By this we may understand whatsoever it is which is the means, and conveyance, and derivation of any evil unto us. God makes the same providences to be a cup of physic to His children, for the recovering of them from their spiritual infirmities, and a cup of poison to His enemies, for the destroying of them, in the midst of their sins. 2. The liquor. (1) Red wine--a cup of blood prepared for the inhabitants of the world, as an expression of God’ s vengeance upon them.(2) Full of mixture, i.e. wrath and revenge. 3. The preparer--God Himself. II. The execution. God will not be always in the forewarnings of judgment, He will be at last in the dispensations of it. He will not be always tempering it, He will be at last pouring out of it. The Lord is full of patience and longsuffering, and bears much with the sons of men for a long while together; but when His patience and longsuffering is once abused, He then comes on to punishment and execution. And this I say it is, when sin is come to its ripeness and maturity, and is at its full growth. There are three aggravations of sin which do put God upon the execution of judgment, and this pouring forth of wrath.1. Boldness and insolence in sinning (Jeremiah 8:12). 2. Generality in sinning; when it comes to taint and overspread a whole nation. 3. Security and presumption. III. The participation.1. The persons mentioned. “ The wicked of the earth,” that is, such as are more scandalous, and presumptuous, and impenitent, and farthest from reformation; such as those who, for the nature of sin, are more abominable, and for the continuance in it, are more incorrigible; these are they which the Holy Ghost does here point at in a more principal manner. 2. The evil denounced against them. (1) The potion or draught itself, it is the dregs of the cup. This is the potion of wicked men, while ‘ tis said they shall drink the dregs, there are three things implied in this expression as belonging unto it. (a) The reservation of judgment, they shall drink the last. (b) The aggravation of judgment, they shall drink the worst. (c) The perfection and confirmation of judgment, they shall drink up all. They shall drink the last, they shall drink the worst, they shall drink all; each of these are implied in the dregs. (T. Horton, D. D.) The Lord’ s cup I. The contents of the Lord’ s cup. “ The wine is red; it is full of mixture;” that is, however fair the appearances of things may be, however splendid any state of happiness, or any situation of life may appear, there is always added to it a certain portion of evil. By evil, I mean only the usual misfortunes and afflictions of human life. These are what temper the cup of the Lord; and in this mixed state it is poured out to the inhabitants of the earth. Man being compounded of good and evil, all his labours partake of the mixture. Let him form what schemes he will; let him employ all his little prudence and foresight in bringing them to perfection, still we will find mixed with them in one shape or other, uncertainty, disappointment, and miscarriage. II. How the ungodly man drinks it. The text says, “ He drinks the dregs.” Now, the dregs of any liquor are the pernicious parts. It is fairly implied, therefore, that the ungodly man turns both the good and evil of life to his own destruction. III. How the godly man drinks it. As the ungodly man drinks the dregs, the finer parts of the liquor are, of course, the portion of the godly man. In the first place, he expects to find a degree of bitterness in his cup. He sees the propriety of it, and fully acknowledges the great usefulness of this mixture of good and evil. If the potion were perfectly palatable, he fears he might drink to excess. When it pleases Heaven to bless him; when his designs succeed; and his hopes dilate in some view of happiness before him, “ Now is the time” (he suggests to himself) “ when I must guard my heart with double care. Now is the time when insolence, and wantonness, and pride, the attendants of a prosperous hour, are most liable to corrupt me. Let prosperity soften my heart, instead of hardening it. Let me be humble, and mild, and condescending, and obliging to all. In the midst of my own enjoy meats, let my heart expand. Let me feel the misery of others; and turn my plenty to the relief of their necessity.” Again, when it pleases Heaven to mix some bitter ingredients in his cup, still he has the same sense of acting under the will of God. “ Now,” he cries, “ is the time when I am to exorcise patience and resignation. Now my religion is put to the test. Shall I receive good at the hand of the Lord, and not receive evil? Gracious God! grant that I may improve my heart under this trial of my faith; and make my sufferings, through Jesus Christ, the means of purifying my affections. Let me for His sake bear a trifling part of what He bore for me; and lot me keep that great pattern of suffering resignation always before my eyes.” Thus the godly man drinks of the Lord’ s cup, and his draught, whether sweet or bitter, is wholesome to him. (W. Gilpin.) Psalms 76:9-10 But I will declare for over; I will sing praises to the God of Jacob.A model of devout praise The praise resolved upon here is worthy of our imitation, inasmuch as it-- I. Loses sight of self in devout admiration of the character and doings of God.1. He will praise God for His doings. (1) Undeserved by us. “ While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” (2) Unsought by us. We did not seek God, but He sought us by Jesus Christ. (3) Freely and heartily given by God out of His own sovereign love. “ Bless the Lord, O my soul.” 2. He will praise God for His faithfulness. With Him there is “ no variableness, neither shadow of turning.” 3. He will praise God “ for ever.” “ Let not thy praises be transient--a fit of music, and then the instrument hung by the wall till another gaudy day of some remarkable providence makes thee take it down. God comes not guest-wise to His saints’ house, but to dwell with them. David took this up for a life-work: ‘ As long as I live, I will praise Thee.’” II. Evinces its reality by resolving to imitate Him. Our praise of the excellences of others is a very hollow affair unless we also cultivate those excellences. We praise God for His “ unspeakable gift” ; are we imitating His pure generosity? We praise Jesus Christ for His great self-sacrifice for us; are we denying ourselves in His spirit that others might be benefited? We bless God for the Gospel; are we exemplifying the spirit of the Gospel? A certain Dr. Whitaker, on reading the fifth chapter of Matthew, brake out, saying, “ Either this is not the Gospel, or we are not of the Gospel.” And is it not to be feared that the spirit of the Gospel for which men praise God, and the spirit of their lives, are often widely different? Let-us evince the sincerity of our praise to God by imitating Him in our spirit and life. Let us admire Him, commune with Him, adore Him, until we are transformed into the same image. (W. Jones.) . Psalms 77:1-20 Psalms 77:1-20I cried unto God with my voice, even unto God with my voice; and He gave ear unto me.The faculty of human thought The whole psalm may be used to illustrate the faculty of human thought. Throughout the whole the author speaks of “ remembering, considering, musing,” making “ diligent search,” meditating, etc, etc. I. It is a power that can inflame the soul with longings for God (Psalms 77:1-2). By thought this man brought the Eternal into his soul, even in the stillness and darkness of night. It presented Him as an Object to whom he appealed in his distress, and from whom he received relief. II. It has power to fill the soul with mingled emotions.1. Here is sadness (Psalms 77:2-10). The writer says, “ his soul refused to be comforted,” “ he was troubled,” “ overwhelmed,” so “ troubled that he could neither sleep nor speak,” so troubled that he cries out, “ Will God cast off for ever? and will He be favourable no more?” What sinful man can think upon God without being troubled with remorse and troubled with forebodings? Thought can lash the soul into a tempest, can kindle it into a hell. 2. Here is joy (Psalms 77:10-20). “ And I said, this is my infirmity;” or rather, my hope. (1) The joy of gratitude. “ I remember the years of the right hand of the Most High.” Thoughts upon the past mercies of God have a power to kindle the soul into raptures of gratitude. (2) Joy of adoration. “ Thy way, O God, is in the sanctuary;” or, Thy way is holy. The holiness of God is suited to inspire us with holy rapture. (3) Joy of trustfulness. “ Thou art the God that doest wonders.” The psalmist remembers what God had done in conducting the children of Israel through the Red Sea into the promised land; and this inspired and exalted him with new hope. Thus, thought can fill the soul either with sadness or with joy. It createst the weather within--cloudy or sunny, stormy or calm; the seasons within--spring, summer, autumn, or winter. What a wonderful faculty is this with which Heaven has endowed us, this faculty of thought. III. It is a power over which man has a personal control. The psalmist speaks of himself as directing his own thoughts. “ I sought, I remembered, I considered.” This power over thought is the dignity of our nature, and is that which invests us with responsibility. Man has no direct power over any faculty but this. He has no immediate control over his feelings or faiths. He could no more awaken love or produce repentance by a direct effort, than he could create a world. He can think or not think--think upon this subject or that, in this aspect or another, consecutively or desultorily, profoundly or superficially. This he can do; and herein is his freedom. (Homilist.) God’ s ear open to the cry of the needy A cheque without a signature at the bottom is nothing but a worthless piece of paper. The stroke of a pen confers on it all its value. The prayer of a poor child of Adam is a feeble thing in itself, but once endorsed by the hand of the Lord Jesus, it availeth much. There was an officer in the city of Rome who was appointed to have his doors always open, in order to receive any Roman citizen who applied to him for help. Just so the ear of the Lord Jesus is ever open to the cry of all who want mercy and grace. It is His office to help them. (J. C. Ryle.) Psalms 77:2 My soul refused to be comforted.Refusing to be comforted I. When a man’ s soul refuses to be comforted, possibly he may be right. He may have a great spiritual sorrow, and some one, who does not at all understand his grief, may proffer to him a consolation which is far too slight. Not knowing how deep the wound is, this foolish physician may think that it can be healed with any common ointments. So, too, it is equally right to refuse to be comforted, when the comfort is untrue. When a man is under a sense of sin, I have known his friends say to him, “ You should not fret; you have not been so very bad. You have been, indeed, a very good sort of fellow. You have not committed any very terrible sin; God help the world if you are a great sinner! I do not know what will become of the rest Of us.” Another says, “ You have only to pray, and go to a place of worship; perhaps be a little more regular in your attention to religion, and it will all come right again; you are not so bad as you think you are.” Such talk as that is a lie, and the man whom God has really awakened to feel his state by nature will refuse to be comforted by such falsehoods as those. We have known others who have tried to comfort poor, mourning, repentant sinners in an unhallowed way. They have said, “ You want to raise your spirits, I can recommend you some fine old wine; it will do you a world of good.” Another will say, “ You should really mix a little more in society, and shake yourself up; you should get with some gay, lively people, they would soon take this melancholy out of you.” I am sure that a person who is really troubled in spirit will increase his sorrow if he attempts to cure it in that way. It is only putting more fuel on the flame. “ In danger every moment of death, and certain that, if death came, I should be lost, can I enjoy mirth? It cannot be!” Refuse every comfort short of being born again, and made a new creature in Jesus. II. But now, I want to show when this refusal is wrong. Probably he is wrong who says, “ My soul refused to be comforted.” It is quite wrong if it be a temporal matter that causes your sorrow. Refuse not to be comforted, I pray you; you are only driving the dagger deeper into your wounds. Instead of doing that, think of the mercies that you still have, think of how God can bless your troubles. But now I will suppose that yours is a spiritual trouble. Do not refuse to be comforted, for if you do, you will be spiritually a suicide. The man who will not eat, and so dies of starvation, is as much a suicide as he that puts the pistol to his head, and blows out his brains. III. But now, haply you will have to repent of refusing to be comforted. Possibly you will have to repent it in a very terrible way. Suppose, now, that you should refuse to be comforted, and so should wilfully go into a yet darker and deeper dungeon of despair. Suppose that your Christian friends should grow weary of you. Where would you be then? And suppose that, because you shut your eyes to the light, God should take it away? I do hope that many here present, who have refused to be comforted, will yet regret it when they shall be enjoying the fulness of comfort. “ What a fool am I, thus to lie in a stinking dungeon, when I may as well walk at liberty I I have a key in my bosom, called Promise, that will, I am persuaded, open any lock in Doubting Castle.” So he pulled it out of his bosom, put it in the lock, opened the door of the dungeon, and they soon passed out. Now, finally, when you and I get to heaven, we shall regret that we ever refused to be comforted. (C. H. Spurgeon.) A sermon for the most miserable of men My main bent, this morning, is to deal with mourners who are seeking Christ, but up till now have sought Him in vain. I. Concerning so deplorable a state of heart, alas I still so common, we will remark in the first place that it is very wonderful. It is a most surprising thing that there should be in this world persons who have the richest consolation near to hand, and persistently refuse to partake of it. Doth the ox refuse its fodder? Will the lion turn from his meat? Or the eagle loathe its nest? The refusal of consolation is the more singular because the most admirable comfort is within reach. Sin can be forgiven; sin has been forgiven; Christ has made an atonement for it. It is said that some years ago, a vessel sailing on the northern coast of the South American continent, was observed to make signals of distress. When hailed by another vessel, they reported themselves as “ Dying for water!” “ Dip it up, then,” was the response, “ you are in the mouth of the Amazon river.” There was fresh water all around them, they had nothing to do but to dip it up, and yet they were dying of thirst, because they thought themselves to be surrounded by the salt sea. How often are men ignorant of their mercies! How sad that they should perish for lack of knowledge! But suppose after the sailors had received the joyful information, they had still refused to draw up the water which was in boundless plenty all around them, would it not have been a marvel? II. Secondly, this wonderful madness has a method in it, and may be variously accounted for. In many, their refusal to be comforted arises from bodily and mental disease. It is in vain to ply with scriptural arguments those who are in more urgent need of healing medicine, or generous diet, or a change of air. In some the monstrous refusal is suggested by a proud dislike to the plan of salvation. They would be comforted, aye, that they would, but may they not do something to earn eternal life? May they not at least contribute a feeling or emotion? May they not prepare themselves for Christ? In others it is not pride, but an unholy resolve to retain some favourite sin. In some cases we have found out that the sorrowing person indulged still in a secret vice, or kept the society of the ungodly. I fear, in a great many, there is another reason for this refusing to be comforted, namely, a dishonouring unbelief in the love, and goodness, and truthfulness of God. They do not believe God to be gracious; they think Him so stern that a sinner had need plead full many a day before the stern heart of God will be touched. Oh, but you do not know my God! What is He? He is love. Some, however, have refused comfort so long, that they have grown into the habit of despair. Beware of nursing despondency. Does it creep upon you to-day through unbelief? Oh, shake it off if possible! III. This remarkable piece of folly assumes divers forms. One is a persistent misrepresentation of the Gospel, as though it claimed some hard thing of us. Another shape of this malady is this: many continually and persistently underestimate the power of the precious blood of Jesus. There are some who will then say, “ But I have sinned such and such a sin.” What, and cannot the blood of Jesus wash that away? “ All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men.” IV. This refusal to be comforted involves much of wrong. When you hear the Gospel and refuse to be comforted by it, there is a wrong done to the minister of God. He sympathizes with you, he desires to comfort you, and it troubles him when he puts before you the cup of salvation, and you refuse to take it. But worse than that, you wrong God’ s Gospel. You put it away as though it were a thing of nought. You wrong this precious Bible. It is full of consoling promises, and you read it, and you seem to say, “ It is all chaff.” Oh, but the Bible does not deserve to have such a slur cast upon it. You do wrong to the dear friends who try to comfort you. Above all, you do wrong to your God, to Jesus, and to His Holy Spirit. The crucifixion of Christ is repeated by your rejection of Christ. V. Such a refusal should not be persisted in. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Psalms 77:3I remembered God, and was troubled.Remembering God This was a very sad condition. Asaph must have felt that it was unnatural to entertain such gloomy thoughts of God. I. A test of our condition. Do we remember Him and become troubled? Then our state is wrong. If troubled now at the remembrance of His holiness, how much greater will the trouble be when we meet Him face to face in all His terrible glory. But if we remember Him with joy, happy indeed is our condition. II. An intimation of duty--“ I remembered God.” Alas, how few do remember God I And yet this is the first of all duties. We get a glimpse of Asaph’ s character. He was not a bad man. But he felt that it was better to probe the wound and open the sore, rather than that it should fester to the death. He would remember God; he would take his sin to God, so as to have it mortified, and then forgiven. (Homilist.) The memory of God a trouble I. An important mental exercise. “ I remembered God.” II. A sad spiritual experience. “ I remembered God, and was troubled.” What a deplorable fact is this: a soul “ troubled” at the memory of God.1. This is unnatural. It can never be that the great Father of our spirits formed us to think on Him in order to be miserable. 2. It is unnecessary. The memory of God with some is blessedness; it is so with the hosts of heaven, it is so with the saints on earth, it might be so with all. Thank God there is no need to be troubled at the idea of Him. 3. It is ungodly. It argues a morally corrupt state of soul. It is a sense of guilt that makes the idea of God so troubling. The idea of God to a depraved soul is hell. Here-- (1) Appears the necessity for regeneration. (2) Appears the value of the Gospel. Its grand work is to cleanse the soul from all evil, to redeem it from all iniquity, and to fill it with the love and life of God. (Homilist.) Troubled thoughts of God and the remedy for them To the unconverted, thoughts of God come laden with trouble. I. Because coupled with the consciousness of guilt. Adam: “ I heard Thy voice . . . and was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.” II. Coupled with thoughts of God’ s presence. “ i am.” “ Thou, God, seest me.” Your own personality face to face with God’ s personality! III. Coupled with thoughts of God’ s emotional nature. God loves good, hates evil, with all His infinite nature. Sinner must forsake sin or go down, along with it, under His wrath. IV. Coupled with thoughts of His attributes. Holiness brings out the awful bleakness of sin. Justice and Truth--“ I will by no means clear the guilty.” Omniscience (Psalms 89:2-6; Psalms 89:11-12). Omnipresence (Psalms 139:7-10). Omnipotence (Daniel 4:35; Luke 12:5). Immutability--He will never alter His decrees against sin. Eternity--He will always live to execute them. Goodness and Love--leave the sinner without excuse. V. Coupled with thoughts of the judgment. “ For God shall bring every work into judgment with every secret thing” (Revelation 20:11-15). VI. The remedy. “ Being justified by faith we have peace with God,” etc. (Homiletic Monthly.) Recollections of God painful to the wicked I. What we mean by remembering God. I mean, as the psalmist undoubtedly meant, recollecting those ideas which the term God is used by the inspired writers to signify. When they use the word, they use it to denote an eternal, self-existent, infinitely wise, just, and good Being, who is the Creator and Upholder of all things, who is our Sovereign Lawgiver, and who worketh all things according to the counsel of His own will; who is always present with us, who searches our hearts, who approves or disapproves our conduct, who loves holiness. II. Why the recollection of such a being should ever be painful. If our hearts condemn us not, says the apostle, then have we confidence towards God; and the man who has confidence towards God, cannot be troubled at the remembrance of Him. But on the other hand, if our hearts or consciences condemn us, it is impossible to remember Him without being troubled. It will then be painful to remember that He is our Creator and Benefactor; for the remembrance will be attended with a consciousness of base ingratitude. It will be painful to think of Him as Lawgiver; for such thoughts will remind us that we have broken the law. It will be painful to think of His holiness; for if He is holy, He must hate our sins. It will be painful to think of Him as Judge; for we shall feel, that as sinners, we have no reason to expect a favourable sentence from His lips. III. Application.1. This subject affords a rule, by which we may try ourselves, and which will assist us much in discovering our real characters; for the moral character of every intelligent creature, corresponds with his habitual views and feelings respecting God. 2. From this subject we may learn how wretched is the situation of impenitent sinners; of those who cannot remember God without being troubled. 3. How great are our obligations to God for the Gospel of Christ, the Gospel of reconciliation! Were it not for this, the remembrance, and still more, the presence of God, would have occasioned nothing but pure unmingled wretchedness to any human being. 4. Is sin alone the cause which renders the remembrance of God painful? Then let all who have embraced the terms of reconciliation offered by the Gospel, all who desire to remember God without being troubled, beware, above all things, beware of sin. (E. Payson, D. D.) Trouble at the thought of God I. The strangeness of such an experience--that a man should remember God and yet be troubled.1. Such an experience is against all that is made known to us of the nature of God. Many think the Bible hard because it speaks so of sin and the sinner’ s doom. But let it be borne in mind that the Gospel finds the disease in our world; it does not make it. “ I am come not to destroy men’ s lives, but to save them.” Is it not, then, strange that there should be men who, with this Word before them, can remember God and be troubled? 2. It becomes strange when we reflect on His promises. They are so universal, so free, so full, that they seem fitted to meet every want and satisfy every yearning of the human soul. 3. Trouble at the thought of God is declared to be against the experience of all sincere seekers. God’ s own declaration is, “ I never said to any of the seed of Jacob” --to any of those who wrestled as he did ill the dark with God--“ Seek ye My face in vain.” 4. Such an experience is against all that we can reasonably believe of the nature of the soul of man. Out of God no full satisfying end can be found for it. II. Some of the reasons that may be given for such an experience.1. Many men do not make God the object of sufficient thought, and so they hang in wretched suspense, remembering God only to be troubled. 2. Another reason why many are troubled at the thought of God is that they are seeking Him with a wrong view of the way of access. The most frequent mistake of all is that men think they cannot look God in the face without trouble, unless they have some good works or good thoughts, some outward reformation or inward repentance. They do not perceive, or at least they do not feel, the all-sufficiency of Christ as a Saviour. 3. A third reason why some are troubled at the thought of God is, that they are seeking Him with some reserved thought of sin. 4. Some have a mistaken view of God’ s manner of dealing with us in this world. There are so many things in the world most dark which He permits--so much of difficulty in the Bible which they feel He could have made more clear--such troubles in our life, in what we may call our true life, our spiritual life, which we long to have ended, and which still go on. These questions of God’ s ways are still for our study, for nothing that belongs to Him can be indifferent to us, and earnest souls will thirst for light on all that concerns Him. But we shall not wait for the answer before we embrace Him; we embrace Him first that we may find rest, and from that centre pursue our search, or calmly wait till God disclose it. (John Ker, D. D.) The remembrance of God I. The remembrance of God. 1. There is a necessity for constantly urging this duty, inasmuch as the cares and occupations and temptations of this present life are constantly more or less shutting out from our memory the truths of the Divine existence and presence. 2. Apart from all judgments as to the consequence of forgetfulness of God, consider the naturalness of the duty. He should be remembered as our Father, as the best and the most faithful of friends, as the Redeemer of our souls by the blood of His Son, and as the everlasting portion of all His believing and enduring people. 3. Consider, too, that the duty of remembering God is imperative. It is a law which is enforced by the most positive commands and illustrated by examples of the most illustrious character. We can not only point to these in the Scripture testimony of patriarchs, kings, prophets, and apostles, but also to the usages of enlightened governments, to the kings, nobles, warriors, and statesmen. II. The effects which the remembrance of God produces.1. The effects are various, and depend in a great measure upon the character of the individual, and the particular circumstances and seasons in which the memory of God operates. Their memory is uninfluential, cold, inactive for good, and dead as regards any practical and lasting result, except when some sudden calamity visits them, or when some visitation of disease sweeps their immediate neighbourhood, or when death itself knocks at the door of their own hearts. In such seasons the memory of God wakes up from its long slumber, and the image of wrath breaks upon it with an untold terror. But again, there are persons to whose hearts the Almighty is no stranger, and consequently when any trouble overtakes them and they are brought low like Jonah, they can say with him--“ When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the Lord.” To such persons, in the darkest hour of their trials, the memory of God is attended with much comfort. 2. Another result of this remembrance may be traced in its expediency. It becomes the means of leading us to the consummation of our highest purposes and ends: Perhaps there is no stronger faculty than that of memory, nothing more adapted to call into exercise the affections, and to wind its way into our deepest sympathies. How wonderfully it acts in the hour of danger, in the time of estrangement, from home and kindred, and in the closing scene of all. Thus as a means to an end, what better calculated to bring back the wanderer, to overthrow the intrigues of an enemy, and to restore the soul to its proper place in its relations to the Father of all our mercies! It is the memory of God in His relations to our past days of childhood, and to the-years through which we have passed, which induces a feeling of gratitude, and which supplies a motive-power for the future obedience and dedication of our lives. 3. The remembrance of God disturbs the rest of a false security. It produces the effect of breaking up the illusion of a peace founded upon a mistaken notion of the Divine character. In other words, it leads the mind of a thoughtful and honest professor of religion to the conclusion that it is impossible to serve God and mammon, to make a compromise with principle and inclination, and to unite the Church with the world. 4. To the humble and penitent; to the man who honestly rejects all false subterfuges, and with a trustful heart seeks for mercy through the sacrifice and intercession of Christ, there is much comfort in the remembrance of God. (W. D. Horwood.) On the advantages of affliction :-- I. The happiness and reasonableness of turning our thoughts to God in general. II. Adversity has its peculiar advantages, to bring us to a just sense of God, and our duty to Him.1. Adversity will make us, however unwilling, reflect and descend into ourselves. 2. Adversity puts our virtue to the test, and proves the sincerity of it. 3. Adversity is of service to disengage our minds from earthly pursuits, and to fix our thoughts where true joys are to be found. Convinced by melancholy proof of the insufficiency of worldly things, we take sanctuary in the fulness of the Divine sufficiency. (J. Seed, M. A.) The thought of God, the stay of the soul (P.B.V.):-- I. The thought of God as the remedy against despondency. “ When I am in heaviness;” whenever that may be, or whatever may be the character of my woe, I have one and only one method of meeting it, and that is, by the thought of God. II. Consider, then, how this thought will act. When we first look at it, we deem it almost impossible that it should be the remedy which it is here declared to be. For what is the thought of God naturally? lt is the thought of One infinitely above us, transcendently great and good, fearful, indeed, from His very holiness, as well as from His power. Yet the very greatness of God in the majesty of His outward creation is a comfort to a thoughtful soul. True, I am insignificant, and as a shadow before Him; but I feel that He is the author and the fountain of my being. If I die, therefore, must I not be before Him, just as I am now? Wide, therefore, and great, and awful, as the universe may seem, there is no terrible void in it, for He who made it fills it; and everything that it contains, the smallest particle of dust, yea, even such a worm as I am, is ever under His immediate eye, and must be the object of His special protection. III. Revelation confirms this thought. From first to last, God manifests Himself as our Father, yea, and our Friend. Friends may be false, and earthly streams grow dry; but the Lord God is my sun and my shield: I cannot be sad while He Smiles on me; I will dread no danger while He defends. Only remember this. While He is ever ready to help even those who have marred their own happiness; yet it is they who walk with Him, to whom He is a special source of peace. An allowed sin will drive Him away. He cannot dwell in the same heart with a cherished lust. (C. E. Kennaway, M. A.) Psalms 77:5I have considered the days of old, the years of ancient times.Lessons drawn from Scripture history From the history of the Bible we may learn much concerning-- I. The character of God.1. His wisdom.2. His power.3. His holiness and justice.4. His goodness.5. His faithfulness to His promises.6. His unchangeableness. II. The value of the blessings of redemption.1. The greatness of the preparations made to obtain it.2. The greatness of the sacrifice made to purchase it.3. The greatness of the means used to proclaim it. III. The condition, character, and fate of man.1. In his natural state.2. As redeemed. (1) The way of salvation.(2) The failings of the people of God.(3) The sorrows and fears of the godly.(4) The Christian’ s reward. (W. Dickson.) Psalms 77:6I call to remembrance my song in the night.The song in the night Among all those pains and pleasures which make up so large a part of every human lot, none are more real and more vivid than the pains and the pleasures of memory. Much that is sad, and tragic, and lamentable in the past would die but that it is kept alive in the memory, and much that is joyful and inspiring would perish out of life altogether but that it has become a property of the memory. There is not a little courage implied in this testimony of the psalmist: “ I call to remembrance my song in the night” --for you cannot recall the song without recalling the night. And the song seems so slight a thing--some poor, thin, quavering notes that perhaps aimed to be melody and were not. But the night--that was vast and awful. Its gloom was absolute; its darkness a darkness that could be felt. It wrapped the spirit round until heaven and earth alike were lost, beauty a dream, and light a legend. That was the night upon which that trembling song broke; and into the depths of which it wandered. And to recall the song is to remember the night. It needs some courage deliberately to do that. There is something in this well worthy of our thought. There should be nothing in life we are afraid to recall. Even our sins should be so associated with memories of penitence and God’ s pardoning mercy that there is room for the note of praise even out of so desolate a night as that. We are not really “ more than conquerors” until we can dare to look steadily at the darkest dispensations of earth. The suggestion with some people is that they can only continue to believe by hiding some of their trials out of sight, and resolutely refusing to think of them. If this be so, the victory is surely against, them. Will you now take yet another point in our meditation? It was the night that made the song. Not entirely, of course, for have we not already seen that the song had been impossible but for a communication of the reality of the Divine love. But the fact remains that but for the night the song had not been what it was. He whose love-song is the eternal inspiration and solace of our race was the Man of Sorrows, and His life was a song in the night. (C. S. Horne, M. A.) The song remembered in the night He looked out of the bars of his window of darkness, and thought of the old light of bygone times. For there are times when the soul cannot sing, the heart cannot be glad. Yet even then the old days may be thought of. A man may get lap out of the darkness unto the light of another man’ s window, and take comfort from that. So this is what this wise soul did. He goes to the window, he knows where it is, and looking out through the great darkness, he says--“ I call to remembrance the days of old, the years of ancient times.” For, thank God, to-day’ s darkness blots not out yesterday’ s light, and in the depth of winter it is oftentimes pleasant to remember the summer glory: so the uses of darkness are sometimes to make men value the light. Now, this is the remedy. He called to mind olden days, and so by degrees the light came. He speaks most pathetic words. It is so dark, I cannot sing, I have nothing to say to Thee, O God, but I will call to remembrance the song I did sing once. And so the memory does what the heart could not do at the time; and even from this little beginning victory commences: “I call to remembrance my song in the night.” And the tongue, toe dumb to sing, still perhaps whispers to itself the old song; and there mark amongst many other things the uses of learning, and singing when you are glad, teaching songs; they get into the memory, and lie there till they are wanted. Now, in calling to remembrance the old song, he called to mind that he had once sung it. What had been may be; yesterday is as to-morrow; old summers foretell future summers; and therefore he says, “ No light now; but there was light once, I will call that to remembrance.” But some of you may say that the very fact that you have known better days and know them not now, is a source of deeper trouble. Not at all. A thing that hath been may be. It is the very fact of the fickleness of the weather that gives us hope. It is now night, I call to remembrance the song I have sung in summer days I have seen sweet times of peace; they are gone now, they will come again. Ask me about next year’ s swallows, I call to remembrance the swallows of the past. They have been, they are not now, but they will come again. Their being gone is the, warrant of their coming again. A man sometimes is disappointed, disheartened; somebody who has been a friend has deceived him, and he says, “ There is no such thing as honesty,” and the man turns cynical, scornful, and denounces his fellows as being false. Think of the utter gloom that comes when a man has been thoroughly deceived. How hard it is to believe in the eleven, when the twelfth is a rogue. That is a terrible night for a man. But call to remembrance the song of the souls we have known that have loved us truly, purely, honestly, even to the end. Open the great book as the king did who could not sleep. Read of those who were true, think of all those you have known (now gone to rest), who were staunch, honest, and faithful; and though there is no song possible just now, yet “ I call to remembrance my song in the night,” and the men that were a comfort are amongst the men that are. So, far away from the!and of his birth, a man, perhaps in exile, sits down in a foreign land, it may be Babylon, but he cannot sing there, his heart is sad, and his harp hangs on the willows; though it is all night, he can call to remembrance the song he used to sing at home. Though unable to sing (for it needs a glad heart to make a very merry tongue), he can do as those Jews did, who opened their windows and looked towards Jerusalem, that even if they could not see the wreath of the smoking sacrifice ascending upward, they could remember the time that had been, and so take comfort from that. It is good to sing, but the next best thing is to think of the time when you have sung; for through the words which the heart utters it will become quiet and calm. (G. Dawson, M. A.) I commune with mine own heart; and my spirit made diligent search. Man, “ know thyself” ! Communion with ourselves! that is surely something very wonderful; and evidence enough of a sublime nature. “ I commune with my own heart: and my spirit diligently explores her own hidden world.” Why, nothing in the whole compass of nature can do that. A wise man will surely say, “ I am not going to analyze creatures who are lower than myself to know myself; but I must commune with myself, and make inquiry of the measureless capacities involved in my personal spirit.” Now, whoever thus searches into himself is constrained to search after the living God. Unless a man is under the influence and control of his inner and diviner nature he inevitably leads a life and acts a part which degrades and ruins him. God, the Father of his spirit, is infinitely averse to this, which He has most affectingly shown and proved by that great mystery of Love, God manifest in man’ s flesh. Bethlehem, Calvary, and Mount Olivet simply mean God’ s infinite concern for man’ s redemption. If Christ’ s Ascension does not signify the possibility of man’ s ascension to God and the angel world, it signifies nothing. To be destitute of self-knowledge is, strictly speaking, to be destitute of all true and right knowledge. If we know not ourselves, nor the end of our being, we shall fall into many foolish and hurtful snares, and mistake the value of everything. We shall take appearances and sophistries for truth, and regard God’ s truth as dreams. And worse than all, we shall misuse ourselves; thinking that we are wise when we are foolish, and that we are doing well when we are perishing. For we may take every possible care of the corruptible body of our flesh, while we are destroying the health and happiness of the precious inner man. Self-knowledge will inspire more than dignity and self-respect; it will inspire awe and a sublime hope. There will be no self-adulation in this knowledge; on the contrary, self-knowledge is always associated with sweet, restful, childlike humility. For right self-knowledge recognizes the Infinite Father-Spirit to be alone great and worshipful. We all share in Divinity; that is the one great human inheritance. To claim direct relationship to the Infinite Spirit is not presumptuous: “ Our Father, which art in heaven.” And the one tremendous thought is that our Divine birthright is for eternity. The Everlasting Christ, as the ideal of our own humanity, is not only revealed to us; but the breath of His power is within us all. (John Pulsford, D. D.) Self-companionship Often reflect upon thyself, and observe what company is with thy heart. We may know by the noise in the school that the master is not there; much of the misrule in our bosom arises from the neglect of visiting our hearts. (W. Gurnall.) Psalms 77:7-12 Will the Lord cast off for ever?and will He be favourable no more? Against excessive grief I. The grief which nature dictates, and which, in moderation, the God of nature does not prohibit, becomes, in its excess, a practical accusation of the conduct of providence. The psalmist admits, that in uttering his complaints, he was showing his infirmity; and it must appear an act of the greatest weakness to bewail events, which, in the common course of things, must happen, and against the occurrence of which we cannot promise ourselves the security, not even of a single hour. But our merciful Father makes allowance for that depression of spirits, which sometimes breaks out in all the bitterness of lamentation; and instead of stifling complaint by arguments from necessity, he answers them in accents of tenderness and love; soothing the heart amidst its deepest sorrows, and binding up its wounds with all a parent’ s tenderness (Isaiah 49:15). This is speaking to nature the language of nature--not with a view to stifle sorrow in those moments, when feeling is too strong for reason; but to lull the bosom to peace, till reason is enabled to regain her ascendency. But if this sentiment is willingly encouraged, after the mind becomes capable of meditating calmly upon the Divine goodness; nay, more, if it is not firmly combated and gradually subdued, we shall be chargeable with fostering a spirit, hostile to all the means, which a gracious Father is employing for our present improvement and future happiness. How do we judge of that child, who, after needful correction for his own good, mingled with salutary admonition against the offence that occasioned it, instead of kissing the rod and submitting to him who applied it, becomes furious in resentment; or yet worse, retires from a father’ s presence to cherish that sullenness of spirit which refuses to yield. Is not such a child guilty of despising paternal wisdom, of resisting paternal authority, of abusing paternal kindness, and of finally unfitting himself for paternal protection and forbearance? II. In order to justify Providence, and to perceive the unreasonableness of protracted grief, we have only to follow the example of the psalmist; to resolve, as he does, that he will remember the years of the right hand of the Most High; those years during which we have seen that hand guiding us in the way of safety and peace; delivering us from impending danger; relieving us amidst pressing embarrassments; and, instead of the evil which we feared, conferring an extent of good, which we could not have ventured even to anticipate. He who thus looks back upon the multitude of God’ s mercies, and compares his past pleasures with his present trouble, will be in a proper frame to commit himself in humble resignation to the care of that Providence, which has never failed him, even in his utmost need. (John Lindsay, D. D.) Psalms 77:9 Hath God forgotten to be gracious?A question for a questioner The question before us is what the logician would call a reductio ad absurdum; it reduces doubt to an absurdity; it puts into plain words the thought of an unbelieving mind, and at once it is seen to be a horrible notion. “ Hath God forgotten?” We stumble at the first word. How can God forget? “ Hath God forgotten to be?” We snap the question at that point, and it is blasphemous. It is no better when we give it as a whole--“ Hath God forgotten to be gracious?” The bare idea is bold, ridiculous and blasphemous. I. To the man of God in distress this question is commended, “ Hath God forgotten to be gracious?” What kind of distress is that which suggests such a question? Where had Asaph been? In what darkness had he wandered? I answer, first, this good man had been troubled by unanswered prayers. “ In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord” ; and he seems to say that though he sought the Lord his griefs were not removed. He was in darkness, and he craved for light, but not a star shone forth. Nothing is more grievous to the sincere pleader than to feel that his petitions are not heeded by his God. Besides that, he was enduring continual suffering. “ My sore ran in the night.” When Asaph had prayed for relief, and the relief did not come, the temptation came to him to ask, “ Am I always to suffer? Will the Lord never relieve me? It is written, ‘ He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds’ ; has He ceased from that sacred surgery? ‘ Hath God forgotten to be gracious?’” In addition to this, the man of God was in a state of mind in which his depression had become inveterate. He says, “ My soul refused to be comforted.” Many plasters were at hand, but he could not lay them upon the wound. More than that, there seemed to be a failure of the means of grace for him. “ I remembered God, and was troubled.” Some of God’ s people go up to the house of the Lord where they were accustomed to unite in worship with delight, but they have no delight now; they even go to the communion-table, and eat the bread and drink the wine, but they do not receive the body and blood of Christ to the joy of their faith. At the back of all this there was another trouble for Asaph, namely, that he could not sleep. He says, “ Thou holdest mine eyes waking.” It seemed as if the Lord Himself held up his eyelids, and would not let them close in sleep. Moreover, there was one thing more: he lost the faculty of telling out his grief: “ I am so troubled that I cannot speak.” To be compelled to silence is a terrible increase to anguish: the torrent is swollen when its free course is prevented. A dumb sorrow is sorrow indeed. Now, let us attend to the amendment of the question. Shall I tell thee what the true question is which thou oughtest to ask thyself? It is not, “ Hath God forgotten to be gracious?” but “ Hast thou forgotten to be grateful?” Why, thou enjoyest many mercies even now. Grace is all around thee, if thou wilt but open thine eyes, or thine ears. Thou hadst not been spared after so much sin if God had forgotten to be gracious. II. The seeking sinner in despondency. He makes you nothing that He may be all in all to you. He grinds you to the dust that He may lift you out of it for ever. Meanwhile, I do not wonder that the question crosses your mind, “ Hath God forgotten to be gracious?” Let me show how wrong the question is. “ Hath God forgotten to be gracious?” If He has, He has forgotten what He used to know right well. “ Hath God forgotten to be gracious?” Then, why are all the old arrangements for grace still standing? There is the mercy-seat; surely that would have been taken away if God had forgotten to be gracious. The Gospel is preached to you, and this is its assurance, “ Whosoever believeth in Him is not condemned.” III. The disappointed worker. You say, “ I do not feel as if I could preach; the matter does not flow. I do not feel as if I could teach; I search for instruction, and the more I pull the more I cannot get it.” “ Hath God forgotten to be gracious?” Can He not fill thine empty vessel again? Can He not give thee stores of thought, emotion, and language? Oh, perhaps you say, “ I work in a back street, and everybody is moving out into the suburbs.” You have lost your friends, and they have forgotten you; but, “ Hath God forgotten to be gracious?” You can succeed so long as the Lord is with you. Be of good courage; your best friend is left. He who made a speech in the Academy found that all his hearers had gone except Plato; but as Plato remained, the orator finished his address. They asked him how he could continue under the circumstances, and he replied that Plato was enough for an audience. So, if God be pleased with you, go on; the Divine pleasure is more than sufficient. “ The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge.” Did not Wesley say when he was dying, “ The best of all is, God is with us” ? (C. H. Spurgeon.) Hath God forgotten to be gracious? I. All complaints against providence proceed from weakness and the infirmity of human reason.1. The first of this sort, which naturally presents itself to the mind, when we consider God and ourselves, is this, That God is too great and too excellent a Being to humble Himself to behold the things that are on earth Epicurus and his followers, who denied God’ s government of the world, denied also that He made it. So far, at least, they were consistent; for, if they thought it too much trouble for God to govern the world, they could not consistently put Him to the trouble of making it. But if we turn the argument, and begin with considering the works of the creation and “ call to remembrance those years of the right hand of the Most High,” we shall from these works of God be led to just conclusions with respect to the methods of Divine Providence, less obvious to our observation, in the government of the world. 2. Another reason which some have for suspecting that the affairs of the world are not under the conduct of Providence, is, that they cannot discern any certain marks of God.’ s interposing. On the contrary, they think it evident that, all the inanimate and irrational parts of the world follow a certain course of nature invariably; and that men act with all the signs of being given up to follow their own devices, without being either directed or restrained by a superior power. But in this way of reasoning there are two great mistakes-- (1) That the conclusion is not, rightly drawn from the observation, supposing the observation to be true. (2) Supposing the conclusion to be true, it, will not answer the purpose intended. And whatever inequalities may appear to us in the distribution of good or evil in this life, they cannot stand as objections to God’ s government over the world, unless you can prove that there will be no day of reckoning hereafter. II. A settled peace of mind, with respect to God, must arise from a due contemplation of the great works of providence, which God has laid open to our view for our consideration and instruction. Happy are they who listen to this still voice! they will act not only the safest, but the most rational part; whilst others, full of themselves and their own wisdom, are daily condemning what they do not understand. And if ever they recover their right reason, the first, step must be to see their weakness, and to join wit.h the psalmist, in his humble confession, “ It is my own infirmity.” (Bp. Sherlock.) Adversity comes not always from Divine displeasure Let us rest assured of this, that the roughest of God’ s proceedings do not always issue from an angry intention: it is very possible, because very usual, that they may proceed from the clean contrary. The same clouds which God made use of heretofore to drown the earth, He employs now to refresh it. He may use the same means to correct and to better some that He does to plague and punish others. The same hand and hatchet that cuts some trees for the fire may cut others into growth, verdure, and fertility. (R. South, D. D.) Psalms 77:10I said, This is my infirmity.Religious depression I. The symptoms of religious depression. A settled depression of mind, in a perplexing debility and agitation of spirit, an apprehension of God’ s indignation, a prevailing doubt of our pardon and acceptance before Him, a dark view of the events which occur in the course of God’ s providential dealings with us, a succession of gloomy forebodings as to our future circumstances and destination, and a sinking of the heart, especially when we turn to subjects connected with our personal interest in the blessings of redemption. II. The causes of it.1. Bodily distemper.2. An overscrupulous conscience.3. A misapprehension of the doctrine of the remission of sins.4. Some wilful sin, secretly cherished in the heart, or practised in the life.5. Long-continued affliction.6. The temptations of Satan.7. Desertion, or the hiding of God’ s countenance. III. The cure. If the distressed Christian seems to labour under bodily maladies, or the effects of superstition, the minister will recommend in the first instance, A due attention to the health, and a more correct knowledge of the will of God. In cases of distress which seem to spring from a misapprehension of the plan of the Gospel, the minister will delight to expatiate on the love of God in Christ Jesus. This he will display to the fainting heart of the penitent. But, in the case of dejection of mind arising from some course of sin, which has been secretly or openly committed, the minister of God’ s Word must adopt another method. “ Repent, and do your first works.” Thus will the privileges and mercies of the Gospel be once more yours, and God will “ restore to you the joys of His salvation.” Should, however, long-continued afflictions be the principal cause of depression of mind, the Christian minister will, with the psalmist, endeavour to take off the sufferer’ s view from his own particular calamities, and direct it to God’ s general dealings with His servants. Lastly, in the case of desertion, and, indeed, in all the preceding cases, the important suggestion is to be made that resignation to God’ s holy will must be added to the humble use of all the means of grace. (Daniel Wilson.) The best saints imperfect I. The fact that the people of God, in the present world, are the subjects of manifold infirmities. II. The reasons for which these infirmities are permitted.1. To promote a spirit of humility and self-abasement.2. To excite in us a spirit of watchfulness.3. To increase our sympathy and compassion for others.4. To induce us to make frequent application to the Great Physician.5. To render heaven more attractive and endearing. (Expository Outlines.) Spiritual infirmities I. The nature of the psalmist’ s infirmity.1. A proneness to live too much on frames and feelings.2. Forgetfulness of past mercies.3. Distrust with respect to future appearances.4. Refusing to be comforted in times of distress is another of the infirmities of good people.5. Giving vent to distrustful thought in unbecoming language too frequently accompanies despondency. II. The reasons why God suffers such infirmities to attend His people in this life. Iii. Conclusion.1. We see that the best of saints have their infirmities. The most fragrant rose has its thorns, and the most shining Christian his shades. 2. There is some particular infirmity which every good man may call his own. 3. It becomes us well to know our particular infirmity, that we may guard against it; for to be without defence is the way to be overcome without resistance. 4. Having discovered what is our easily-besetting sin, let us bewail it before God, and seek for help against it. (B. Beddome, M. A.) Technical training in the spiritual life Whilst through the changing years we discover in ourselves many failings, most of us are humbled and distressed by special faults which tenaciously cling to us. These characteristic defects arise from personal temperament, or they are occasioned by circumstances, or perhaps they are the consequences of both.1. We can sometimes effectually restrain personal faults by wisely determining our circumstances. Sick people are careful to choose for themselves a special climate when they are at liberty to do so. Ought not spiritual men to study “ climatology,” escaping as far as possible the circumstances that would naturally develop their constitutional failing, surrounding themselves with the influences which heal and help? It is something more than folly, for the sake of taste, pride, or gain, to remain voluntarily in positions which are spiritually unfavourable. 2. We may observe this technical culture by abstaining from certain courses, legitimate in themselves, but which are dangerous to us. John Wesley relinquished the study of mathematics on this ground. Angelico would not paint a secular subject. Miss Havergal would not sing a secular song. Many Christians deny themselves in matters of appetite, being conscious that the indulgences which prove perfectly harmless to many are inexpedient to them. 3. We may discipline ourselves by persisting to do right things which are difficult and uncongenial to us, even when we do them with the least willingness and freedom. A German physician says: “ Precipitate men should accustom themselves to write and walk slowly. The irresolute should endeavour to perform their acts with rapidity. The gloomy, romantic dreamer should be trained to walk with head erect, to look others straight in the face, to speak in a loud, distinct tone of voice. Such habits exercise a great influence on both mind and body.” The reasoning of this physician is, that right action has a tendency to induce right feeling. And there is a real place for such training in the spiritual life. “ Do good, even when your heart is not free to it.” With a painful lack of sympathy, still do the right act, speak the proper thing, form the correct habit, follow the true course; and this method will exercise a most salutary influence, awakening and strengthening the soul, and at last filling the just form and action with the reality and force of life. 4. We ought to take special precautions against our characteristic failing. The man who sins with the tongue ought to set an express watch over the door of his lips. He whose peril is temper must keep his mouth as with a bridle. The man given to appetite must put a knife to his throat. He who suspects a snare in the cup is bound to fortify himself with vows and pledges. The slothful must set themselves large tasks, and rest not until they are discharged. (W. L. Watkinson.) Temperamental limitations We usually think of the world about us as being the chief arena in which we fight the battle of life, but really our greatest difficulty is with ourselves. Our constitutional temper and bias are the chief matters, and they very largely determine what our trouble shall be both as to its nature and degree.1. Feebleness of constitution is a limitation of which many are painfully conscious: a frailty of physique which prevents them doing much that they would desire to do, and which betrays itself in nearly all that they manage to do. When Henry Ward Beecher was exhorted to take care of his health and strength, he replied, “ I have already more than I know what to do with.” Many noble people are far from this enviable state. They take their place in the ranks and attempt their daily work, but with a lack of force that makes life much of a burden, and duty rarely a delight. They do not fulfil their promise, they start well and finish poorly, the outline they strike is beyond the picture, they are spasmodic, uncertain, ineffective. This is not exactly an intellectual defect. And it is just as little to the point to say that these people lack conscience or will; they want neither conscience nor will, they are simply destitute of that constitutional robustness and force of which Beecher had more than he knew what to do with. It is not a mental or moral defect, but purely a bodily infirmity which mars life and work that otherwise would give entire satisfaction. Resolute spirits surprise us with the wonders that can be wrought by frail mechanism, but many know by painful experience that a deficiency of native force has marred their whole life, spoiling thoughts, faculties, opportunities, and purposes which a flush of animal spirits would have converted into splendid achievement. 2. An intensity of constitution is the real infirmity of others. They are alarmingly vehement in speech and action. They flash in ordinary talk, and discharge the common business of life with explosive energy. Science has recently discovered that our hive-bees exhaust themselves prematurely by abnormal industry; they are not native to this country, and not having yet adapted themselves completely to a new environment, expend an excessive amount of force which involves their destruction. It is much the same with human beings of impassioned temperament. They do not so much burn out, as blaze out. No doubt they ought to restrain themselves, to check their rage, and act with becoming moderation; but of what use is advice of this sort? The Pacific Ocean may counsel the tempestuous Atlantic to cultivate stillness, and the Atlantic retort on the stagnation of the Pacific; but each remains true to its character. We can no more change our special constitutional qualities than we can change the colour of our eyes. The ardent temper, of which we are speaking, is attended by sorrows of its own. It is impossible to live an impulsive life without serious mistakes and bitter regrets. That temper also involves painful reactions and dejections. And it has its own subtle temptations and perils. 3. The hyper-sensitive constitution is another organ of martyrdom. Like Cowper, many noble souls are morbidly sensitive and shy. They seem born with a skin short, and feel with grievous acuteness a thousand things of which the ordinary man is positively unconscious, or to which he is practically indifferent. God alone understands what these neurotic, nervous, shrinking souls suffer in a rude world like this. 4. Only One knows all the mysteries of our personality, and we cannot live with Him too much. Let us go to Him for sympathy. Let us seek in His grace the strength to deal with the special need and peril of our nature. He can impart to the will of the delicate a force independent of bodily conditions; He can chasten the self-confident; endow with a saving instinct the impulsive; and the easily-wounded, weeping in secret places, He can sweetly soothe. He can so discipline us that our very defects and excesses may be made to yield the riches and beauty of moral and immortal perfection. (W. L. Watkinson.) I will remember the years of the right hand of the Most High. The years of the right hand of God Here the eternity of God is contrasted with the hand-breadth measure of man. The Right Hand of the Most High; its work through the years that are past; what suggestions are here, to silence weak complaint, to lift the soul far up above the trouble of this world! Think of the right hand, and of what it can do; that most wonderful member of this body. Its offices are numberless; it is like the executive function in the political system. Whatever the mind think, whatever the will decree, whatever the heart desire: heart, will, mind, must wait till the hand can act. To tell the uses of the hand, and the purposes it serves, would be to give a catalogue of great part of the intelligent and conscious actions of men, wherein, to some extent or other, that member is employed. Even so wide is the scope of those acts of the Almighty, which are included in the symbolic speech about His Right Hand. It is, indeed, a glorious study, that of the years of the Right Hand of the Most High. They are long, very long; from them unroll, panorama-like, the events which make history; stamped on them everywhere is the impress of mind, design, force; knowing what may be, ordering what shall be, compelling every other power to yield at last, vanquished in its death. And against them appears what? The bubbles which men blow of the froth of their conceits; the vapour which our life is; the rise and fall of upstart opposers of God; the wiping out of kingdoms, philosophies, systems, as a man turneth a dish upside down. Fast do the adversaries fade away; they do but little harm; the cord is broken, the thread soon cut; the world forgets them, or remembers but to chide their folly. The eternal years of God drink up these little lives of ours, and all in them that is not made secure by faith and religion, even as the sun drinks up the mist, or the ocean takes in the drops from the passing clouds which break above it and vanish for ever. This is the way to confidence and rest. Retire within yourself, and meditate of the infinite power, the sure providence, the unchangeableness of the Most High. Consider the days of old, the years of His Right Hand. (Morgan Dix, D. D.) The true focus The psalmist really said, “ This is my infirmity--the years of the right hand of the Most High!” He does not announce his intention to dwell upon them, but he announces the character of the years themselves. It is the suddenness of a quick appreciation of the true view of things. Do you not know what it is to suddenly adjust a picture, by the slightest touch of the hand, so that the whole thing is seen in its true focus? Yes, you have gained the real point of view. So it is here. From the midst of a God-questioning disposition, in which hope is lost, he suddenly says, “ This is my infirmity--the years of the right hand of the Most High!” Now, what do you find? The second half of the psalm is the same picture in focus. The right hand is a symbol peculiar to Hebrew thought and literature, and is used perpetually to mark some great fact in the character and person of God. Law and righteousness, salvation and strength, action and love, and the deep, full satisfaction of every necessity of human life, in pleasures for evermore,--all these things, to the mind of the Hebrew, were wrapped up in that magnificent figure of the right hand of the Most High. “ The years of my life,” now says the psalmist, “ are years conditioned in law and righteousness--years in which there is the perpetual outworking of salvation and the unceasing manifestation of strength; they are years in which God is active for me, years in which I am perpetually caressed by the love and tenderness of the Divine heart, years which, because they come from the hand of God, are years of the making of eternal and undying pleasure.” It was a new light upon his own life, a new point of vision, a new outlook. The things which had issued in his dirge of wailing and sorrow were suddenly seen, from this new point of vision, to be working together for his good, thus giving a forecast of the New Testament statement. “ The years of the right hand of the Most High.” There is a point of vision from which we may look upon the selfsame things, and may catch on them already the light and gleam of morning; a point from which, even to-day, I can look upon great grief and overwhelming sorrow, saying, “ Yes, that happened, not upon such a day of such a month, in such a year, but in one of the years of the right hand of the Most High. It was a part of the fiery law, a method of the Divine righteousness, a ministry of salvation, a manifestation of strength, a Divine action, a touch of the Divine love, it had within it the creation of joy for evermore.” We can only say those things by faith to-day; not yet by sight, not yet by personal realization, but by faith. There is no agony of heart that we endure, if we know how to false it, that has not in it the element that shall make heaven. “ The years of the right hand of the Most High.” I do not see the hand, I have only the years; but I know the hand is there. I know that somewhere beyond this, when the mists have rolled aside, and the life I am conscious of to-day shall have passed into fuller realization, then out of the darkness will the light come, and out of the agony of the moment will heaven’ s pleasure have been evolved. (G. Campbell Morgan, M. A.) Holy remembrance a means to recover out of distrust I. The simple proposition. “ This is mine infirmity.”1. The saints and servants of God themselves have their infirmities. (1) The reliques and remainders of the old man still abiding in them.(2) Grace is wrought imperfectly in them. 2. Commonly they have some one more especially which they are addicted and inclined unto. 3. From the context we see what to judge of staggering at God’ s promises and providences. It is a very great weakness and infirmity. (1) There is ignorance and want of understanding.(2) Infidelity.(3) Impatience. II. The personal reflection. “ I said.”1. The quickness of his apprehension, in that he spies and discerns this weakness and infirmity in himself, while he says it, it is evident he spies it and finds it out. 2. The tenderness of his conscience, not only in that he discerned this distemper and infirmity in himself, but likewise that he checked himself for it, for so we must here take it. 3. The ingenuity of his spirit. I said it not only to myself, and in mine own heart, but as there was occasion for it, I said it to others also, and acknowledged it likewise to them. 4. The ground hereof in the servants of God is-- (1) That wonderful exactness and curiousness and sincerity which is remarkable in them. Tender consciences lament even infirmities, whilst hardened hearts go away with greater sins. (2) It proceeds from that love and entireness of affection, which a good Christian bears to God. Love is shy of anything which may be offensive to the party beloved, not only of greater injuries, but of smaller unkindnesses. It is troubled when it is anything defective in the expressions of love, where it is due, and it concerns it to be so, and so it is also here. A godly man has his heart and his soul full of the love of Christ, and therefore is troubled for anything which is displeasing to Christ; not only for unsavoury speeches, but for unruly affections, not only for ungodly deeds, but for ungodly thoughts, which have a mark also of sinfulness upon them. (3) It arises also from Christian prudence, as considering whither infirmities tend, and what they will come to if they be not better prevented. III. The pitching or fastening upon the remedy. “ I will remember,” etc.1. Take it according to the former translation, as it does exhibit to us the power of God. “ The right hand of the Lord can change all this.” This was that whereby David did support himself in his present affliction, that the Lord was able to change and alter this his condition to him, and that for the better. Though God Himself be unchangeable considered in His own essence, yet His works and providences and dispensations have a variety in them, and all such as do perfect and accomplish His most unchangeable purpose and decree which He has set down with Himself. God does never less change His mind than when He does most change His carriage and practice and outward administrations, as being able from contrary means to bring about the same gracious ends and effects which He hath appointed to accomplish, so that this expression hath no repugnancy or inconsistency with it at all, but is freely admitted by us, and to be improved as it is here by the psalmist. 2. For this last here before us, that is this, “ I will remember the years of the right hand of the Most High,” where the word remember is borrowed from the next-following verse to supply the sense of this, as otherwise being not in the text. Now, here David fetches a ground of comfort from God’ s practice, as before he did from His power; there, from what God could do; here, from what He had done already in former times, and ages, and generations; he was resolved to reflect upon this, as a relief to him in his present infirmity. Now, there were two things especially which David here did reflect upon to this purpose, for the quieting of his spirit. The one was God’ s dealings with His people formerly, as to point of seeming desertion and outward discouragement; and the other was God’ s dealings with His people formerly, as to seasonable recovery and final acknowledgment. To each of these purposes would he remember the years of the right hand of the Most High, and each of them were a relief unto them. And there is very good ground to do so, because God is still the same; yesterday, and to-day, and for ever. He has the same love to His people still as ever, the same wisdom to advise them, and the same power to be active for them, and He will, therefore, change their conditions, because He does not change Himself. (T. Horton, D. D.) Psalms 77:11I will remember the works of the Lord.Time past, present and to come (with Psalms 39:4). We are so made that we live between an unalterable past and an uncertain future, with no time in our possession except that changing line which we call the present. Every present, as we live on, becomes a past; and so we are drawing continually on the future; we are carrying it over to the past in the great account-book of our existence, until the future of this world all becomes a past; and we enter the future of eternity. In this respect though made in God’ s image we are unlike Him. For to Him all is one eternal Now. He “ inhabiteth eternity.” But to us time in its three stages clings to our very nature and colours all our conceptions. We cannot conceive of God as eternally Now, it is too much for us. Time seems to us to be a power, a something that has life and force in it, though it is nothing apart from the events that make up our lives; nothing but a condition of our thought. It is nothing to the forgetful animal, or to the vacant mind, which looks not forward nor backward. But to a finite soul, born yesterday to die to-morrow, time is everything; and you may say that in proportion to the nobleness of a soul will be the value it sets on time. Compare time with space. Space is nothing but a receptacle to hold material objects, and a room for their activity. It is wholly outside of souls. A man shut up in a chamber ten feet square may fill the world with good thoughts and great plans. But a bird flies across a continent and no trace is left. What has space to do with character? What has time not to do with character? I. Memory extends our existence backwards. This is the closest analogy in man’ s nature to God’ s. He can go back far into the past--his own, and that of the world. He can listen, as it were, to the tumultuous waves of chaos. Memory has far more materials to work upon than belong to anticipation or foresight of the future. It is the treasure-house of our experience, and of the experience of mankind. Prediction, indeed, is possible by the help of what the past has afforded us, although the time that the present order of things shall last cannot be predicted. How many great events have happened which a few years before we had no apprehension of. If we had lived ages of agony we should remember them, but we cannot foretaste a distant joy. Memory causes the entire past to bear on our present lives and future destiny, for--1. It can carry forward the knowledge of past misdeeds through the boundless future. Good deeds, also, it can remember, but the most pressing thought for us as sinners is, that it surely takes with it all our misdeeds. It drops nothing like a careless messenger, but saves all as a trustful steward of God. It can compress our past lives into a moment like the photograph of an immense landscape brought within the compass of an inch. The fact is, we have in us the materials for the judgment day. They lie now piled up in dark chambers; they will be brought from their chests, and their forgotten testimony will shine like fire. The day of judgment is no appointed, instituted thing; it is the necessary sequel of a life of the thinking man under the righteous reign of God. You, then, who sin and forget it, who appear to yourselves far from danger, because you have hid your sin from your own eyes as men hide live coals under the ashes, what will you do when you find these coals to be still alive ages hence, and when they are freed from the rubbish that covered them? Can you make God forget? That would be something to the purpose, were it possible. Can you expect that feelings, such as the sense of ill-desert, which are immutable records of your own against yourself, will be blotted out by time? Even sin, then, has, in a sense, an eternal life. It can never grow old and vanish away. II. I remark again, however, that there is a wise provision by which, according to the ordinary laws of this life, the events of the past do not stay with us, generally, in all their first vividness, In other words, the actual weaknesses of memory are in part calculated for our moral as well as mental benefit. If we remembered everything as it was when it occurred, such vividness might render impossible a better life. All common sights, sounds, and actions--all such things as make up the mass of events, it is a blessing to have forgotten. This is of vast importance in reference to our spiritual and moral nature. A sincere penitent cannot well forget the great sins he may have fallen into. Yet such a penitent, by keeping in mind past sins with their aggravation, may be prevented from using his active powers. Remorse might reign in our souls to the exclusion of the purpose of amendment. Now, there must be hope and vigour in every mind that successfully strives to amend. Ever brooding on the past brings nothing but despair. The difficulty of a new life is almost hopeless if we remember nothing but past ill success, broken resolutions, and resisted motives to good. It is manifest also that this weakening of the hold of the past on us--owing to the defects of memory, within certain limits--helps on all improvement. Minds of finite capacities, if every past thing was continually fresh, would be full of details without the power of making principles prominent. But when we remember principles, and general strains, and life-currents of action, we can, without the burden of too great details, purpose in view of our past and live for our future. To this it should be added that there is a compromise effected in our nature--so to speak--between the present and the past by the power of recollection. We hunt up stray thoughts by using the laws which associate them with one another. And they also come back without our search. Thus sin becomes its own punishment. We try, but fail, to drown such thoughts. III. We ought to live for the present as well as for the future. Moralists talk of the present as a point in an endless path, and they represent the future of that path as being alone of importance. But this is not altogether true. To live merely for the present is doubtless ruinous, but to live only for the future is no virtue. What is the future but a run of moments which are to be present, and what worth can there be in any of these, if they are worth nothing while they are with us? It would be as if a man passing through grand scenery should not look on the beauties before his eyes because finer points of view were coming, and he should so act until the journey’ s end. If the future always remained future, it would be valueless. But let us test these remarks by scriptural truth. What can trust do--that is worth anything to us--if it cannot lay our interests for the future in the hand of God, and thus prevent the crowd of cares from coming to lodge with us before their time? And does not Christ say, “ Take no thought for the morrow, for,” etc.? How unlike is this peace of souls to our feverish haste, our inability to enjoy life until it settles on its dregs; our insurances and provisions against evil; as if each of us were a castle besieged by enemies. Of course our Lord’ s meaning is, “ be not solicitous for the morrow.” It is anxiety that He condemns, which is the foe of a quiet trust in God. He would have us plan great plans, embracing all the future, as He did Himself; but He wants us also to possess profound peace within our Souls. A life of faith will furnish the only true reconciliation. All progress depends on acting at the right time. You may have known persons who put off work until to-morrow, for the sake of amusement, and when the weight of the past, besides that of the present, came on their backs, it crushed them. Or you may have known those who were too provident, who sought to rob the future of its office, that it might furnish them rest, or better opportunities. But this overtasked them, and wore them out. Neither of these courses is wise; every moment has its rights. This is true in things spiritual as in things temporal. IV. And thus we discover the significance of future time. Who would desire a never-ending existence such as is one’ s now? Who could endure it, except by an act of religious resignation like that of a monk in his cell? And if this be so, why is it so? It is so because it is an essential part of the plan of our earthly condition that it should end. It is not too bold to say that superior being, who knew nothing of our destiny as it respects life and death, would conclude that death ought to be man’ s lot, and that he was made to finish his existence in some other sphere. This he would find out as soon as he perceived what man could do, and what his earthly limitations prevented him from doing. Death seems to be the most suitable event for an immortal placed on earth, more suitable for him than for the beast which may have no hereafter. This, then, is the true significance of future time, that, as it unrolls, a great change is to come over us--a change unlike anything in the past. For this futurity, life and death are preparations; it is this that makes life a great something, full of praise or full of shame. It is this that makes the world a theatre for an immortal. For every living man, then, the future has one thing in it wholly unlike in kind all the events of the past. Birth, or man’ s entrance into a world of time, was strange; that is the unique event of time gone by. Death, which is called for and made suitable by the whole meaning of life, is the unique event of time to come. And this unique event ought to throw a new power and energy into all our passing moments. I ought to feel that, because I am going to die, I am a privileged person. To what may I not rise? But for this I must be trained in time, and the future, by its one great event, ought to sober me, and train me as much as I could be trained by all the experience of the past. But do I ask, how can the unknown act in me except through my fears? The hope of that future will, and does, influence men. To souls who take in the whole of existence, the great contrast is that of this present time and the eternal life on high. And so habits, characters, choices of action, estimates of pleasure, as well as hopes, are all chastened, ennobled, beautified; they are clothing themselves for the presence of the King eternal, immortal, invisible. And when they hear the death trump calling them to come away, its clang, fearful to so many, turns for them into the voice of celestial music. (T. D. Woolsey.) Recollection, reflection, and declaration I. Recollection. “ I will remember,” etc. Memory may be regarded in several aspects--1. As a source of pain. Tennyson has beautifully and truthfully said:-- “ A sorrow’ s crown of sorrow is remembering happier things.” And Goldsmith:-- “ Remembrance wakes with all her busy train, Swells at my breast, and turns the past to pain.” 2. As a source of pleasure. “ A memory without blot or contamination,” said Charlotte Bronte, “ must be an exquisite treasure,--an inexhaustible source of pure refreshment.” 3. As an aid to faith. So the psalmist uses it on this occasion. (1) God’ s works are wonders. What marvellous things He is ever accomplishing in the material world! What wonders He wrought on behalf of His ancient people! How wonderful are His doings now in the experience of His people--sanctification and glorification! Truly, “ the bright glories of His grace, beyond His other wonders shine.” (2) God’ s wondrous works should be remembered. He who does not remember them overlooks the most glorious of records; and cannot be held guiltless of ingratitude. (3) God’ s wondrous works remembered are calculated to inspire confidence. They reveal a Being who is supremely trustworthy. II. Reflection. “ I will meditate,” etc. By means of reflection we are enabled to realize the facts recalled by memory, to perceive their significance and applications. And the emotions which naturally spring from the facts remembered are excited by reflection. Recollection is of little worth comparatively, unless accompanied and followed by meditation. It was by the exercise of both these faculties that the troubled heart of the poet grew calm and victorious. III. Declaration. “ I will talk of Thy doings.” A good man, having passed through experiences similar to those of the psalmist, should talk of God’ s doings. After his trouble, recollection, and meditation, his talk would be--1. Intelligent. He would not utter crude or rash statements concerning God and His providence. 2. Trust-inspiring. His own faith would grow stronger as he recounted to others, etc. The faith of those who heard him would also grow as they thought of his conflict, and how he won the victory. (W. Jones.) I will remember Thy wonders of old. Wonders remembered When the Christian takes a retrospect of his spiritual life, there is much that he remembers with gladness, and much that he remembers with sorrow. The lovingkindness of the Lord which has been manifested towards him--upon this memory can dwell with unalloyed delight. But the coldness of his own love, the frequency of his backslidings, the tardiness of his progress--when memory presents these, he is no true believer in Christ if he do not mourn at the recollection. I. In the first place, we shall speak of the things to be remembered. Now, it would appear, upon an attentive examination of this passage, that the psalmist does not mean to draw a distinction between the works and the wonders of God; but, rather, to state that all God’ s works are wonders. “ I will remember the works; surely I will remember the wonders.” The latter clause is only an emphatic repetition of the former. The works of the Lord are all wonders. Such is the assertion--an assertion which is to hold good, not merely when the spectacle is presented of some unusual setting forth of the energies of Omnipotence; but when the attention is turned towards those displays of glory and wisdom, which are furnished by the ordinary routine of God’ s providence. What we call natural and what we call supernatural--there is full as much of the miraculous in the one as in the other. If we moved on a wider sphere of being and were not shut up within the material framework, we should probably discern that the finger of God is equally active in every occurrence, and that the very name of miracle would hardly find place in our vocabulary. But we wish to speak on spiritual rather than on natural miracle, more especially as the expression, “ Thy wonders of old,” seems to point to those purposes of mercy which God from everlasting entertained toward His Church. We need not tie ourselves down to a survey of works which caused the wonder of the psalmist. We enter best into the spirit of the passage by supposing the writer to occupy the same position as is occupied by ourselves, and then reviewing those works which on this supposition would have crowded his retrospect. If we take the individual experience of the Christian, of what is that experience made up: Of wonders. The work of his conversion, wonderful!--arrested in a course of thoughtlessness and impiety; graciously sought, and gently compelled to be at peace with God, whose wrath he had provoked. The communication of knowledge, wonderful!--Deity and eternity gradually piled up; the Bible taken page by page, and each page made a volume which no searching can exhaust. The assistance in warfare, wonderful!--himself a child of corruption, yet enabled to grapple with the world, the flesh, and the devil, and often to trample them under foot. The solaces in affliction, wonderful!--sorrow sanctified so as to minister to joy. The foretastes of heaven, wonderful!--Angels bringing down the clusters of the Lamb, and the spirit walking with lightsome tread the crystal river and the streets of gold. Wonderful that the Spirit should strive with man; wonderful that God should bear with his backslidings; wonderful that God should love him notwithstanding his pollution; wonderful that God should persist in saving him, in spite, as it were, of himself. II. The advantage which may be gathered from remembering the works of the Lord. Such advantage is obvious. It is by musing on God’ s works that we learn God’ s character and attributes; it is by remembering what God has already done that we are encouraged to hope for future interferences in our behalf; it is by calling to mind that “ God spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all,” that we are sustained by the animating belief that “ He will with Him also freely give us all things.” It is by bringing forth the catalogue of wonders which the Lord hath wrought, the deliverance which His right hand hath achieved for His people, and the desolation which He has dealt out to their foes, that we are made confident that there are more with us than there are against us--that greater is He that is in us than he that is in the world. And it is, moreover, by strenuous and deliberate acts of memory that the importance of Gospel truth is kept vividly before us, and the mind prevented from dwelling on one part to the exclusion of any other. (H. Melvill, B. D.) Psalms 77:12I will meditate also of all Thy work.Meditation I. Motives to meditation.1. It is the proper occupation of the mind. 2. Our character in the sight of God depends on the character of our thoughts. 3. Meditation is essential to the success of God’ s Word. II. Subjects for meditation.1. God’ s existence and attributes. 2. His works. 3. His claims. Their comprehensiveness, their spirituality, their perpetual obligation. Our guilt in neglecting them. 4. Your future. (Evangelical Preacher.) The need of meditation In mere apprehension, whether through reading or hearing, there is little or no profit. The profit begins when that which is apprehended is so pondered as to become part and parcel of the man’ s inner nature. A man may run through a picture gallery so as to see every painting it contains, and to derive from the sight a certain amount of pleasure; but he alone profits by such an exhibition who pauses and studies each worthy work of art, and gathers ideas from it which enrich his mind, or learn lessons from it which refine his taste. “ It is the settling of milk,” says an old writer, “ that makes it turn to cream,” and it is the settling of truth in the mind that makes it turn to spiritual nutriment. (W. L. Alexander.) Psalms 77:13 Thy, way, O God, is in the sanctuary.God’ s way revealed in the sanctuary I. God’ s way of creation. II. His way of providence. III. The way of grace. IV. The way of human well-being. The light that is run up at the masthead does not require the vessel to stop sailing in order that it may shine. And so a living religion will show the light in the shop, in the street, in the business, in town to-morrow as well as in the sanctuary on the Sabbath day. And so the Church must stand closely related to all that is dear to the interest of humanity. The sanctuary, then, is the way of highest happiness; it is the way of joy and peace. It is the way of consolation, for evil and distress haunt every pathway of life, but God’ s house is the house of comfort. Again, it is the way of communion with God. Jehovah says, “ There I will meet with thee,” etc. (H. Johnstone, M. A.) God’ s way in the sanctuary I. Secrecy.1. In nature. 2. In providence. Pain and misery abounding; virtue suffering; vice triumphant. 3. In grace. God is behind the veil. Your best knowledge is the consciousness of ignorance, and your privilege it is to be sure that he who believes honours more than he who understands. II. Beauty. The loveliness of nature we all have seen; the bloom of infancy, the fresh flower of the early spring, or the wavings of the yellow corn. And some of us have felt the greater loveliness of grace; the unfoldings of the Christian character; the budding of a soft and tender gentleness; the humility; the chastened love; the hope that soars away to brighter worlds;--but has it ever occurred to you to think, if that is the porch, and this the holy place, what must be the sanctuary of God? What shall be that world which is as far better than grace, as grace is better than nature? III. Holiness. There never went a prayer from earth fit to be presented before God in the sanctuary--there never passed a thought through your soul to which there was not clinging a sin; for nothing is pleasing before God, not the sanctuary itself, except as He sees it in Christ; and all this is true of our holiest action, were it ten thousand times holier than ever it was. IV. Refuge. The self-condemning soul flies from the holiness to the love of God, and seeks a shelter from His wrath by throwing himself on His mercy. (J. Vaughan, M. A.) God’ s way in the sanctuary God designed, in the fulness of time, to gather all things into His Son, and to set Him forth as the alone source or channel of blessing; therefore did He make the temple, which typified that Son, the home of all His operations, the focus into which were condensed, and from which diverged, the various rays of His attributes and dealings. And this suggests to us a point of great importance, the consistency of the several parts of revelation. There is never the point at which we are brought to a pause by the manifest contradiction of one part to another. But we would now observe that, by the sanctuary, we may probably understand the holy of holies; for it was in that veiled and mysterious recess that the Shekinah shone, the visible token of the Almighty’ s presence. He who thought on the holy of holies thought on a solitude which was inaccessible to him, though close at hand; inaccessible, even as the remotest depth of infinite space, though a single step might have taken him into its midst; but, at the same time, a solitude where, as he well knew, everything breathed holiness, everything glowed with the lustre of that Being who is of purer eyes than to look upon iniquity. And to say of God that His way was in this sanctuary, what was it but to say that God works in an impenetrable secrecy, but that, nevertheless, in that secrecy He orders everything in righteousness? Certainly it is not the obscurity which there may be round the ways of the Lord which should induce a suspicion that those ways are not righteous. If God work in a place of secrecy, we know that it is equally a place of sanctity; we can be sure, therefore, of whatsoever comes forth from that place, that, if involved in clouds, it is invested with equity. We may not be able to discover God’ s reasons: but we can be certain from His attributes, attributes which shine through the veil, though that veil be impenetrable, that we should approve them if discovered. And if it be an evidence of the greatness of God, that His way is hidden, we scarcely need say that it is a further evidence of this greatness, that His way is holy. He contracts no impurity, but keeps travelling, as it were, “ in the sanctuary,” even whilst moving to and fro amid those who have defiled themselves and their dwelling-place--what is this but proof that He is immeasurably separated by difference of nature, from all finite being? The veil, whilst it hides, reveals Deity: nay, it reveals by hiding; it teaches the sublimity of God, inapproachable; His independence, none with Him in His workings; and yet His righteousness, for it is the awful purity of the place which warns back all intruders. Then there is enough to make us both discover, and rejoice in, the supremacy of our God. With a tongue of fear, for we are almost staggered by the mysteriousness of His workings, we will confess, “ Thy way, O God, is in the sanctuary” ; but with a tongue of triumph, for His very concealments are tokens of His Almightiness, we will give utterance to the challenge, “ Who is so great a God as our God?” But there can be no reason why we should confine the illustrations of our text to the Jewish temple and dispensation. We may bring down the verse to our own day, understand by the sanctuary our own churches, and still found on the confession in the first clause the challenge which is uttered in the second. His “ way is in the sanctuary.” It is in buildings devoted to the purposes of His worship, and through the ministrations of His ordained servants, that He commonly carries on His work of turning sinners from the error of their ways, and building up His people in their faith. We are always much struck with the expression of St. Paul to Timothy, “ in doing this, thou shelf both save thyself, and them that hear thee.” If God worked by mighty instruments such as angels; if the engines employed were, to all appearance, adequate to the ends to be effected; the honour of success would at least be divided, and the ambassador might be thought to have helped forward, by his own power, the designs of Him by whom he had been sent. But, as the case now stands, the services of the sanctuary all go to the demonstrating the supremacy of God, because, while undoubtedly instrumental to the effecting vast results, they are manifestly insufficient in themselves for any such achievement. And not only does God employ men in preference to angels, but He commonly acts through what is weak in men, and not through what is strong. It is, perhaps, a single sentence in a sermon, a text which is quoted, which makes its way into the soul of an unconverted hearer. God will oftentimes pass by, as it were, and set aside an array of argument which has been constructed with great care, and, seizing on the sentence which the speaker thinks the weakest, or the paragraph, will throw it into the soul as the germ of a genuine and permanent piety. And all this goes to the making good what we are anxious to prove, that the challenge in the second clause of our text is altogether borne out by the assertion in the first. There is no finer proof of the power of an author, than that he can compass great designs by inconsiderable means. Now, we think that in the successive illustrations of our text, which have thus been advanced, there has been much to suggest practical reflections of no common worth. Was God’ s way in the Jewish temple of old? Was He passing, in all the sacrifices and ceremonies of the temple, to the completion of the work of our redemption? Then let us not fail to study with all diligence the law: in the law was the germ, or bud of the Gospel; and it will aid us much in understanding the system, when fully laid open, to examine it attentively whilst being gradually unfolded. Is it again true that God’ s way was “ in the sanctuary,” in the holy of holies, that place of dread secrecy and sanctity? Then let us be satisfied that God’ s dealings are righteous, however incomprehensible. And lastly, is God’ s way still “ in the sanctuary” Is it in the sanctuary, the house devoted to His service, that He specially reveals Himself, and communicates supplies of His grace? Shall we not then learn to set a high worth on the public services of religion? (H. Melvill, B. D.) Psalms 77:19-20 Thy way is in the sea, and Thy path in the great waters, and Thy footsteps are not known.The perplexing force in human life I. There are evils in our way, unseen by us, from which it will be God’ s care to deliver us.1. An evil may be in our way, but too far off for us to see. It does not need to be very far off, to be beyond the range of our vision. If it lies only just outside the boundary of the day through which we are passing, it is as completely beyond our vision as if it were in another world. God sees the threatening danger, and in love, perhaps, turns our feet for a day or two out of the path we were treading, by bringing about some change in our course that we did not anticipate, and cannot understand. As we saw not the danger, we cannot understand God’ s way with us, in leading us safely past. To us, “ His way is in the sea.” 2. An evil may he also springing up at our side, unknown to us. Evils do spring up--in habits--acquaintanceships--local surroundings, etc. Being blind to the danger, the event that takes us out of its way is a mystery. 3. Moreover, according to the teaching of the Scriptures, there are plots and designs formed against us by the powers of darkness. Of these we are necessarily ignorant. Lord Raglan suddenly ordered the English lines to divide, when they were marching,--as far as the English soldiers knew,--right upon the Russian forces. But they soon perceived that the Commander-in-Chief had divided them only because he saw more than they could see, viz., that a company of the enemy was marching round the side of the hill, to take the English unawares on the flank. May not God do something like this with us, that we may escape snares laid for our feet; His movements being mysterious and perplexing to us, simply because we see not the snare out of which He is seeking to keep us? II. There is also good, unperceived by us, unknown to us, with which God is seeking to enrich us. Standing in the light of the Cross, we are driven to conclude that God’ s first purpose with us must be to bring us into a state of reconciliation with Himself; and having accomplished that, by winning us to a personal acceptance of the Saviour, His next purpose with us must be our sanctification: the filling of us “ with all the fulness of God.” But how shall this be done? The Spirit of God is the efficient cause of all spiritual growth, but the gracious Spirit may, and will, work along the lines of that wonderful providence which we are apt to speak of as a sphere lying outside the operations of Divine grace. III. There are bearings and connections in our life and lot, of which we know very little. In the wise adjustment of these, God’ s way, to us, must often be “ in the sea.” A gardener sometimes removes a plant, not because it needs removing for its own sake, but because it is keeping the air or sunlight from some other plant near. So possibly the Great Husbandman treats us, bringing about some change in our life and lot that is to shield another from harm or to further their good. Our one great need is faith in God. He “ guides his hands wittingly.” “ He is wonderful in counsel and excellent in working.” “ As for God, His way is perfect.” (Henry Starmer.) The way, path, and footsteps of God I. God’ s way is in the sea. The affairs of life are in many cases manifestly beyond our own control; it is true, that much of the evil that befalls us is owing to our own improvidence; and to all appearance, our own energy and foresight have much to do with success in our career; still, are there not abundant fluctuations and changes, all of which tell us that we are not the masters even of our own affairs? Ask any one who has had much experience of life, and he will tell you that, like the ocean, it is full of changes and of storms. Nor are God’ s children exempt from these; their experience of life is the same as that of others: they are carried by these storms where they would not be; and where they would be, thither they cannot go. Now, for us it should ever be sufficient, that we know “ His way is in the sea.” II. God’ s path is in the great waters. He not only acts, but does so according to a fixed and definite plan, His course of action being spoken of as a “ path.” Now, we know well that when men navigate the sea, they must do so by a compass and a chart; that they cannot expect to find a path upon the waters within the bounds of which they are to sail; but God has His own path marked out, and He sees it as plainly amid all fluctuations, and despite all enemies, as we do the track of an ordinary road. III. God’ s footsteps and not known. “ What I do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter,” is said to us, even as it was to the disciples of old. There are times when it must be enough for us simply to know that He is acting, and that on our behalf, and for our good. At such seasons we must pre-eminently “ walk by faith, and not by sight.” He chooses that the method of His dealings should be hidden, and we have no right to urge Him to withdraw the veil. And how often has there been a footstep of God where we have not discerned it! We had an illness, or a bereavement, or a disappointment, or a loss; the world said, “ How unfortunate!” but God passed our way; the world could not see His foot-print--blessed were we if we could. (P. B. Power, M. A.) The mysteries of Providence I. God exercises a constant providential superintendence over the affairs of His people. This is evident from--1. Scripture.2. Experience of men in all ages. II. The superintendence of God over the affairs of His people is attended by many dispensations of inscrutable mystery. This ought not to appear surprising, and ought not to produce any emotion of repining or of discontent, if two facts be considered and duly weighed. The first is, that our faculties are naturally imperfect and beclouded, physically and morally incompetent to understand much of the dispensations of a Being like the Almighty; and the second is, that the Almighty has reasons, doubtless sufficient and important, for designedly concealing from ourselves a large proportion of the course of His providence, both for designs associated with His own glory, and our future and eternal welfare. III. The mysterious dispensations attending the providential superintendence of God are regulated by wisdom and by grace. Consider this in the cases of Jacob, Joseph, and Job. And the time is not far distant when we, in the enjoyment of the good land and the large “ which God has prepared for them that love Him,” shall be called to “ remember the way” by which He has been pleased to lead us, “ to humble us and to prove us, to know what was in our hearts, whether we would keep His commandments or no,” and to recollect that “ as a father chasteneth his son, so the Lord our God hath chastened us” and then it will be proved, if we believe it not now, that the “ light afflictions, which were but for a moment,” have wrought out for us that “ far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.” IV. The character thus assigned to the mysterious dispensations associated with the Divine superintendence ought to produce powerful results upon all Christian and pious minds.1. We should exercise a spirit of entire contentment under the most severe dispensations, which Divine Providence may impose. 2. We should carefully apply all the dispensations of Divine Providence to the practical improvement of our own characters. (J. Parsons.) God’ s way unsearchable I. The doings of God embrace a wide range. Science has established the fact, that you cannot disturb the smallest part of the watery or atmospheric world without disturbing the whole of it. So in the moral world; all events, however small, have a bearing on events great and distant. God governs the life of one man in connection with all men. What happens to-day is only one link in the chain, which stretches through ages, and is connected with events, it may be, of distant lands. II. The traces of God’ s doings are not consecutively seen. Earthly soil which receives an impress retains it, but what impress can water retain? You may make the impression, but you cannot fix it. So may you interpret a sorrow; but its connection with your future history you may not see. The mark of God’ s finger you may see to-day, but to-morrow the impress is gone. Providence, like a vast and complicated machine, can only be comprehended, in all its complex arrangements, by Him who framed it. III. The reason of God’ s doings is often beyond all human comprehension. “ His paths are in deep waters.” The origin of moral evil--the access of fallen spirits to, and their mode of operation on, man’ s spiritual nature--human responsibility, and God’ s eternal decrees, involve questions which by man may never be answered; but enough for us should it be that His footsteps are in deep waters. The mysteries of heaven, however, we must believe to conduce to universal good. Some we know to be positive blessings. Great, indeed, is the mystery of godliness; and yet what fact is more glorious in its character, and more blessed in its practical bearings? (W. Bealby.) Divine providence incomprehensible I. God does exercise a universal providence over the world. No material object can move, and no living creature can act, without the constant and controlling agency of Him who made and preserves the world. They must all necessarily live and move, as well as have their being in Him. II. God is incomprehensible in the exercise of His universal providence. This appears from--1. Scripture. 2. Reason. As all the motions in a watch originate from the mainspring, so all the reasons of God’ s conduct, in preserving and governing the world, originate from His ultimate design in creation, which is too great, too wise, and too good, for any created being to grasp, and therefore must necessarily and for ever remain incomprehensible. 3. Fact. The ways of Providence have always been found to be unsearchable by all intelligent creatures. Scarcely a day passes but every person sees something in respect to himself, or in respect to others, which excites his admiration, and surpasses his comprehension. III. Improvement.1. If God be incomprehensible in the government of the world, then this is a complete answer to all the objections that have ever been made against His universal providence. 2. If God be incomprehensible in His providence, then it is as difficult for mankind to know why He bestows favours upon them as why He takes them away. 3. If God be incomprehensible in all the ways of His providence, then all the dispensations of His providence towards mankind are proper trials. 4. If God be incomprehensible in His ways of providence, then there is the same ground of submission under heavy, as under light afflictions. 5. If the ways of providence are incomprehensible, then all things in this world are suited to make all men religious. God carries them all in His holy and sovereign hand, and is practically speaking to them every day and every moment. 6. If God is incomprehensible in His providence, then it is easy to see that He can order things, so as to bring light out of darkness, good out of evil, and joy out of sorrow. (N. Emmons, D. D.) The teaching of the tides I. The tidal wave. Just as there are high and low tides of the ocean, so we have periods when everything is apparently in our favour, wind and wave working conjointly to bring us to our desired haven. It is also true that in the spiritual life we have our neap tides and spring tides. Seasons of enervation, when scarcely a ripple can be recognized on our monotonous life, energy is almost spent, faith is weak, God seems afar off, and we find it hard to pray, and life with its care and sin presents almost a dead calm. However, we have not always this experience of creeping slowly along; we have also our spring tides when we are carried forward as by a mighty flood. With a renewed energy, life is made worth living, irksome tasks become easy, a gracious influence fills our soul, and in an ecstasy of joy we are borne onward and upward. II. High tides. Have we not had our exceptional experiences when God came preciously near, and gave us visions and revelations of Himself? These are seasons of purity of life, devotion of service, implicit confidence in God. We discover at such times that we possess faculties of which we were ignorant. The whole of our spiritual being is made receptive. III. The obstacles. There are several obstacles which vary the regulating tides; e.g. the stars, contour of the land, seasons, conflicting currents, etc., affect the tidal wave more or less, varying its progress and force. Let us guard against placing, or allowing to remain, any obstacles in the entrance of our souls, but with a lull surrender to the will of God, allow Him to have entire control of our lives. Let us open our hearts to receive the highest floodtide which He may send, even the very presence of God Himself--the Spirit of God dwelling in us. IV. Tideless rivers and inland seas. Such rivers as the Nile, Rhone, and Po feel no effect of the tidal wave, beyond their month, whilst in the case of the Thames its force is felt as far as Teddington, about eighty miles from the sea. Persons living on the banks of the Severn may sometimes see a head of water forty feet high rushing up the river with great violence. The effect of the tide is to prevent the accumulation of mud and formation of ice at the mouths of the river; it also makes the river more useful, being navigable. In a similar manner as the high tides of spiritual influences flow into our lives, they rid us of collected debris--hindrances which choke our lives and mar our usefulness--evil habits, questionable amusements, shady practices, of which we could not ordinarily strip ourselves, are all swept away under such gracious influences. V. Tide-tables. In almanacks and elsewhere we find tables which give with fair accuracy time and place of these exceptionally high tides, as well as the ordinary spring and neap tides, but no means of thus calculating times and seasons of spiritual visitation. We can doubtless aid the tide of power and usefulness by obeying the Divine laws which have been made known; and certainly guard against any obstacles and hindrances to its flow. It is “ they that wait upon the Lord that “ shall renew their strength.” (J. B. Evans.) The mysterious dealings of God Our daily papers are full of sad histories. One day it is “ an accident in a coal-pit: one hundred lives lost.” Another day it is some frightful disaster on a railway, or a shipwreck, or an outbreak of disease in some place. And when we look at “ the daily history of the world,” we read of earthquakes, wars, pestilence, and massacres. And as we read, the question arises in our minds--why does the compassionate All-Father permit these horrors to take place? And if we, mere spectators of these afflictions from afar off, are ready to ask this question, with what agonized earnestness must it rise up in the breasts of the sufferers themselves! And looking closer and inquiring into the lives of our fellow-men, does not the same startling problem constantly appear? How often we see the desolate widow with her crowd of helpless children! How often we notice good and useful lives taken away whilst the worthless are still permitted to live! Now, all these cases bring us to this point--do calamities and afflictions happen by chance or are they appointed by a great Ruler of the world? And as Christians we answer, that “ affliction cometh not forth of the dust,” but conies from the hand of God; but when we are further pressed to explain God’ s dealings, we can only reply, “ His path is in the great waters, and His footsteps are not known.” And next, we may remark that this apparent contradiction between the character of God and His dealings with individuals, leads us to feel the need and value of a revelation. God has not left us to the stammering voice of “ natural religion,” but He has drawn aside the veil and revealed Himself. He has sent us a letter, in which He tells us of His love, and bids us trust in Him, through the gloom and darkness, and He will bring us into the perfect light; that though His footsteps are not known, yet He leads Israel by the hand. And as we reflect on these mysterious points of God’ s dealings with men, we see how they bring into light and accentuate the great doctrine of the faith; the truth that there is a future existence, when the sorrows of this life shall be balanced by the joys which cannot yet be conceived. It is the last great Day of Judgment which will declare the justice and righteousness of God. Thus, when we hear of terrible accidents and wholesale suffering we can take comfort in two ways--firstly, that God may overrule evil for good, by arranging that the accident or the misfortune may lead to good results. Thus the terrible disasters from fire-damp led Sir Humphrey Davy to invent the pitman’ s lamp, which has saved so many lives. The dangers of high-pressure engines, and the fearful explosions of the American steamboats, made the safety-valve popular and universal at last. The cruel ravages of disease and infection have taught men, by the very motives of selfish dread, to take up sanitary cares for others. And looking beyond these advantages which result in this world, we secondly can see how, in the longer sphere of a better world, God can compensate those who have suffered here. This fills us with confidence and hope, though as yet we cannot trace “ His footsteps,” for the dark waters roll over them. (J. W. Hardman, LL. D.) The trackless ocean and its master pilot I have taken a great interest in pilots, in their office, and in their work. After a long and monotonous voyage it is quite at event, as you may judge, to find a fresh face on board. Every eye is strained to look at the pilot as his little boat comes dancing over the waters; and when he springs on board we feel almost inclined to caress him, and we wish to know what is the latest news. I like to see him standing on the bridge, or on the quarter-deck, in command for the time being. Even the captain must take second place now. I like to feel the sense of perfect security which comes when the pilot is on board. He knows the place so well. It is his business to steer the ship through the narrows and up the tortuous channel.. He has been at it for years. He can, as they say, almost feel his way up that channel in the dark; and as we draw near the shore, the passengers feel that the time of anxiety is over. A sense of relief goes all over the ship. We had every confidence in the captain when there was plenty of sea-room, but on our coming near the harbour, it was some comfort to find on board a man who knew its every turn and twist. Since God’ s way is in the sea, I want to ask you whether He is your pilot, or whether you are trying to steer yourself. (Thomas Spurgeon.) God’ s way incomprehensible to man Take a little lad of ten years, and put him into an assembly of statesmen discussing the gravest questions of diplomacy and international law, to carry documents and messages from one desk to another. In that assembly the lad has a definite place and a definite duty which he can understand and do. But suppose he should refuse to carry a paper of which he did not understand the meaning and bearing. Suppose he should throw up his position as page, on the ground that he was not made acquainted with the whole course of complicated negotiation carried on in that chamber. Would any sane man regard the boy aa an injured being? Would any one think of reproaching those statesmen with unkindness or injustice? Would not the lad be simply laughed at? Even supposing that every man in the chamber were disposed to grant his ridiculous demand and to explain the business to him--could they do it? Could the child’ s mind grasp the destinies of nations? And yet, if this is absurd, what shall be said of a finite being, with his scanty knowledge, with his limited capacity, with his little range of experience, refusing allegiance to a God whose purposes comprehend eternity, and move in orbits vaster than his utmost reach of thought can even begin to conceive; in whose plan the countless details of all being in the eternity, past and future, are grouped and unified--what, I repeat, shall be said of the stupendous folly of a poor little man, the difference between whom and God is barely shadowed by the difference between a statesman and a babe, yet who refuses allegiance to God because he cannot, by searching, find out the Almighty to perfection? (Marvin R. Vincent, D. D.) Thou leddest Thy people. The true philosophy of life “ Thou leddest Thy people.” The whole philosophy of life is here, here for us no less than for Israel. If we think we need some other theory of living because the Israelites were only poor slaves, and we intelligent nineteenth-century Christians, we are greatly mistaken. After all these centuries, God has nothing to add to this, that men let Him lead them, in His own way, through the sea if so He will it. The true philosophy of life is summed up here, in simply following God. Over the Apennines there is a wonderful railroad, on which, in a space of less than seventy miles, one passes through forty-three tunnels, some of them of very great length. The road is full of magnificent outlooks, but every few moments you go plunging into a tunnel. And certainly the traveller over this road would show his good sense by sitting still and being carried along the line of the rail; and not by getting out at the first station, and striking into the mountains to find another path, because he did not like the tunnels. He would be almost sure to be lost and to starve to death. The road has been built to carry him to his destination by the shortest way, and he will get there more quickly and safely through the tunnels than in any other way. Oh, if we could only believe the same thing of God’ s way! We want to build our own road, all out in the light; and the consequence is, it is much less direct than God’ s, and much more dangerous, and we cannot bring it out where we wish. And remember, it is not all tunnels either: in the regions of the high rocks, where the tunnels are needed, are the most glorious prospects. If God’ s way is partly in darkness, the light places are full of beauty, commanding such outlooks of mercy and love as ought to reconcile us to the intervals of darkness, I remember once, in Italy, climbing a mountain up which a broad, fine carriage road led almost to the summit; but there the road suddenly ceased, and nothing appeared but a narrow footpath leading round the shoulder of the mountain, and that soon dwindled into a sheep-track; and the sun beat down with terrible power, and the way was rough, and more than once I was tempted to go back; but never shall I forget the vision which burst upon me as at last I reached the end of the narrow way: it repaid all the toil. So, I say, do not be afraid of the narrow way if God turns you into it. The great thing is that He lead you; and if He lead, even though His footsteps are not known, you know that His way is in holiness, and ends at last in eternal good. (Marvin R. Vincent, D. D.) . Psalms 78:1-72 Psalms 78:1 Give ear, O My people, to My law; incline your ears to the words of My mouth.The obligation to obey God’ s law I. It is the law of your nature. The foundation of morality is laid deep in human nature; its principles result from the constitution of our frame; and its authority will be supreme, while there is a mind to discern, or a heart to feel, or a conscience to judge. II. It is the law of heaven. III. It is the law of society. Public depravity paves the way for public ruin. IV. It is the Law of happiness. What does it forbid? Desires, passions, and vices, from which for our own sakes we should abstain, though there was no such prohibition. It forbids the gratification of desires which would lead us to ruin; the commission of vices which waken remorse, and deliver us up to the tormentors. What does the law of the Lord command? What is lovely, and pure, and praiseworthy; what tends to make men peaceable, gentle, humane, merciful, benevolent, and happy. (John Rogan.) Psalms 78:2I will open my mouth in a parable: I will utter dark sayings of old.The nature and design of parabolic teaching The word here translated parable did not probably convey to the mind of the psalmist the signification which we ordinarily attach to it. It might mean nothing more than a sublime, figurative, and sententious manner of stating facts or imparting moral lessons; or nothing more than a poem in which this style should prevail. I. The nature of parabolic teaching. It is that which discerns most deeply and employs most judiciously these manifold analogies and comparisons, more or less partaking of what we understand by a continued metaphor. And he who has the greatest moral perfection will assuredly be the best adapted to the discernment of the lessons they imply. The Lord Jesus Christ, then, must be, from His very character and offices, best acquainted with this method of instruction. He who made all things and without whom not anything was made that was made, He is not only the Word, but the Wisdom of God--pronouncing His dark sayings and forming His secret things in the progress of the world and the Church, so that Egypt is still the type of bondage, and Israel’ s journey through the wilderness to the land of promise one long parable, as Asaph saw darkly, of God’ s dealings with His saints in the latter day. Every hour we behold Him illustrating the nature of this varying and marvellous instruction; aiding us to its definition; supplying the materials of which its innumerable comparisons are formed. II. The adaptation of parabolic teaching to the condition of mankind upon earth. The human mind is so constituted, as to be unable to comprehend essences, properly speaking. The principles of causation are a sealed book to us. The progress of language, the manner in which we give names to objects, are of themselves sufficient proofs of this view. In everything pertaining to our moral conduct and choice, we follow another kind of evidence, and are influenced by another kind of reasoning. We determine what shall be our preference, not because we know absolutely the best course, but because our minds remark that what we are about to do bears a likeness to some other event or circumstance, which on another occasion, we have observed, came to pass. The rule and measure of our hopes and fears concerning the success of our pursuits; our expectation that others will act so and so under such circumstances; and our judgment that such actions proceed from such principles--all these rely upon our having observed the like to what we hope, fear, expect, judge; we say, upon our having observed the like, either with respect to others or ourselves. Our very life, then, is guided by a sort of parable, and hence the adaptation of its formal development to our circumstances and condition. But that propriety is illustrated not only by the connection of reasoning on probabilities, or likelihoods, or parallel courses of events, with the teaching by parables. We prove it also by the shortness of human life. A moral question comes before us; we make a parable to ourselves; we compare the subject on which we want to learn with another, where the decision and propriety is obvious. We do this involuntarily, because our time is so short; it is now or never. Here is another ground of arguing the adaptation of parabolical teaching to the necessities of mankind. We have said, what must the case be with the masses of which the world is constituted! Engaged as they are from morning to night in obtaining a scant supply for the wants of their bodies, they have no time or opportunity to rise, were the rising possible, above the range of this kind of information. But to them it seems strangely forcible. It strikes a chord in their understanding and heart. Metaphors are ever popular with the multitude. Children (and the mass of mankind are but children of a larger growth) love to be instructed by a similitude. It casts them on a new field of discovery; it opens their mind to a fresh series of glorious thoughts and feelings. And is it presumptuous to suppose that all this was part of ancient and venerable design on the part of our Lord Jesus Christ the Creator, and by creating the Teacher, as well as the Redeemer of our species? (T. Jackson, M. A.) Psalms 78:4 We will not hide them from their children.Children I. The interesting objects of our solicitude mentioned. Consider--1. The love which welcomes them.2. The evils which surround them.3. The possibilities which await them. II. The sacred duties which we owe to them.1. They are weak; we must protect them (Genesis 33:1-20.).2. They are helpless; we must provide for them.3. They are ignorant; we must instruct them. III. The object which we hope shall be realized.1. The knowledge of truth shall be perpetuated.2. Our children will put their hope in God.3. They shall be better than their fathers. (The Study.) The knowledge of national benefits and deliverances transmitted to the rising generation I. Point out a few of those things which we have heard and known, or which our fathers have told us, and which we, with the psalmist, may style “ The praises of the Lord, and His strength, and the wonderful works that He hath done.” II. Recommend and enforce the resolution in my text. The great Gad may justly expect that we acquaint ourselves with His ways and works; that we endeavour to trace Him in the natural, providential, and civil world, and in the world of grace; and that we treasure up in our hearts each signal deliverance He hath wrought. But a genuine disciple of Jesus, and a child of God, will neither wish to live nor to die unto himself. What we have known of the wonderful works of God in favour of our fathers, of ourselves, or of ages to come, we should transmit to the rising generation. I am apprehensive that one cause of the languishing state of public spirit, and of pious zeal, in this age, is the want of knowledge. Had the minds of persons in the present day been early and deeply impressed with the conduct of God to this highly favoured country, the privileges they enjoy would be more dear and important in their esteem, and patriotism would not be that empty boast which we have too much reason to apprehend it now is. With the knowledge of those “ things we have heard, and known, and which our fathers have told us,” transmit, as far as possible, the things themselves. On our part let nothing be left untried, that they who are soon to fill our places in civil and religious life, and that their descendants, even to the world’ s last period, may stand forth, under God, the guardians of each important and sacred right, and approve themselves the unshaken friends of their country, of Jesus, and of the Gospel. (N. Hill.) The transmission of Scriptural truth to posterity The text presents four grand arguments why we should zealously devote ourselves to this duty. I. The peculiar character of scriptural truth. Consider it--1. As a revelation of God.2. As a law of duty.3. As a history of God’ s conduct. II. The manner in which we have been put into its possession. As we have received the knowledge of God and the way of happiness from our fathers, who showed us by their lips and their lives the way of happiness, we are bound, by every consideration of gratitude, to give to others what has been so freely given to us. III. The divine arrangements as to its transmission. Fathers are commanded to make known the commands and the character of Gad to their children. Various powerful reasons might be assigned for this infinitely wise arrangement. The young come into our world with an awfully strong bias to evil, and it is unspeakably important to check the workings of their depravity by presenting the most powerful considerations which tend to the accomplishment of such an end. Nor must it be forgotten here, that, as immortal creatures, the character of man is usually formed in youth for eternity. IV. The great results which it is intended to accomplish. Every individual who receives the knowledge of God, in the love of it, becomes a moral sun, diffusing light and warmth around him, the glorious effects of which shall be felt through all the changes of time, and in eternity itself. (J. Belcher.) The true method by which generation helps generation I. True religious knowledge is a thing imparted to man. It is that “ which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us.” It is not inbred nor discovered. Without denying that man has a capacity to discover God as the Creator, all history shows that he has never done so; and as to His redeeming capacity, that, in the nature of the case, transcends all human conceptions. As sinners, this is the knowledge of God we require, and it involves the former. And we have it, not by intuition or discovery, but by impartation. It has been transmitted to us through many generations.1. They have handed it down to us by inspired documents. 2. They have handed it down to us by their own teaching. II. True religious knowledge is imparted to us, not to monopolize, but to transmit (Psalms 78:5-8). The transmittory arrangement implies--1. That the children of every generation have a capacity for receiving this knowledge. There is no danger of teaching religion boo soon. 2. That the children of every generation will require this knowledge. Coming generations may not require our philosophies, poetries, and governments; they may out-grow our sciences, and despise our civilization, but they will require our religion. Though they may not require our lamps, they will need our sun. 3. The eternal harmony of all God’ s operations. The Eternal does not contradict Himself. The first Divine act on earth’ s theatre will harmonize with the last. The whole will form one great anthem filling eternity with music. III. True religious knowledge is to be thus transmitted in order to elevate posterity.1. The grand result aimed at is threefold-- (1) Rightness of intellect. “ Not forget the works of God.” A constant recognition of Divine agency. (2) Rightness of heart. “ That they might set their hope in God,” and “ set their heart aright” ; the heart fixed on God as the supreme Good. (3) Rightness of conduct. “ Keep His commandments.” To bring immortal man to this sublime rightness--this rightness in thought, feeling, and action, is the grand and ultimate end of all this teaching. Glorious end! 2. It is coming slowly but surely. Humanity is rising, and every true thought arid virtuous act helps it on. (Homilist.) Psalms 78:5-8 For He established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel . . . that they should make them known to their children.The parents’ prerogative: how is it used Dr. Adam Clarke reminds us that there are no less than five generations specified in these verses. God has blessed no age for its own sake only. There is a chain of Divine purposes in the history of God’ s dealings with men, one link of which joins another in continuous progression until all, in their united and related capacity, present one completed purpose which is all-embracing and Godlike. This truth was repeatedly emphasized in the earliest days of God’ s special dealings with the Jewish people. Moreover, the duty of handing down to succeeding generations the truth which they had received was specially enforced in the case of parents, the natural guardians of the rising race, and, therefore, according to the law of Moses, the first special custodians of Divine truth. It is important to notice how tenaciously the Jewish people clung to the title “ the Children of Israel,” and how frequently in later days, when the title “ Children of Israel” had fallen into comparative disuse, they nevertheless clung to the memory of their “ fathers,” especially the three great primitive fathers of the race--Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. All this shows what a large place the family and its associations and relationships occupied in the life of the nation. There can be no doubt that it is God’ s will that the parent should be the first teacher and guide of the family, and if this is neglected by the parent no one else can fully compensate for that neglect. Hence the repeated emphasis placed in the Old Testament on the duties of parents. I say “ parents” because the law demanded filial honour alike to “ father and mother.” Now, in the household of the Jew there were certain religious duties to be performed by the mother. For instance, the lighting of the Sabbath lamp, as also the preparation of the Sabbath meal, and the fastening of the scroll of parchment upon the door-post, was done, not by the father, but the mother. Thus Jewish children from their earliest age learnt to associate certain religious acts commemorative of great facts in the history of God’ s dealings with the nation with some of the mother’ s duties. The child would ask, “ Mother, what are you doing?” She would reply, “ Kindling the Sabbath lamp,” or “ Preparing the Sabbath meal,” or “ Fastening the parchment upon the door-post so that all may know we love and serve the Lord God of Israel.” She would also tell the child the spiritual significance of all these customs. Thus the mother was a mighty power in Israel in forming the character, and determining the destiny, of the rising race. Moreover, the mother was the privileged teacher of the child during the earliest and most impressionable period of his life, and, oh, how wonderfully the Jewish mother availed herself of this opportunity! We find a striking instance of the mother’ s influence, even in a home, far away from any synagogue, where, moreover, the father was a heathen man, in Paul’ s allusion to Timothy, who from a child had known the Holy Scriptures. Now, parents, will you relinquish that vantage ground upon which God has placed you? Will you give it up instead of availing yourself of your prerogative to the fully Are you willing to send your children forth to the world without the advantage of your unique influence? Is it your will that, though you have the power placed in your hands so to influence your children that they shall find it exceptionally difficult to forget you and your teaching, they shall yet go forth into this fashionable, giddy, sinful world without the advantage of any such training as God calls upon you to give them, and all this because you idly trust that somehow or other some self-denying teacher may compensate for your neglect? Oh, parents, to have a conscience void of offence, and our hands clean so that not a spot of their blood shall remain upon us! (D. Davies.) Bible education, and its safest guarantee I. The real ground of the duty of transmitting knowledge from man to man. It is not a work of choice, to be done or not done, to be done partially or done heartily and entirely, at our option and after our judgment; but a positive duty laid down and imposed upon us by the express command of the Most High. II. What kind of knowledge God has commanded to be imparted.1. God has specially honoured and particularly prescribed religious knowledge. Indeed, what can be more inconsistent or unwise, than to educate man for time, add to leave his soul unfitted, unstored, untaught for the measureless eternity through which it will endure? 2. God has not excluded other instruction. III. The time which God particularly specifies for imparting instruction (Deuteronomy 11:18-19; Isaiah 28:9, etc.). (C. Hebert, M. A.) Children to be instructed in the Scriptures I. The peculiar benefit which the Lord conferred upon Israel. “ He established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel.” The law and the testimony may now be said to belong to us, and to belong to us in a far more eminent sense than they ever did to Israel. The canon of Scripture is now completed. We have not only Moses and the prophets, but also the evangelists and the apostles. We are favoured with all the revelations which in different ages of the world it has pleased God to communicate to His Church, and particularly with the glorious gospel of His grace. II. The important duty which God required Israel to discharge in virtue of the benefit conferred upon them. Having established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, “ He commanded the fathers,” etc. In proportion as the glory of the Gospel excels that of the law, are our obligations to see that the minds of our children are well imbued with its truths. And is not a knowledge of those truths absolutely necessary to their well-being and happiness? Can they be saved without it? Must they not perish without it? What is the body to the soul? Or what are the concerns of time compared with those of eternity? Let us weigh them in the balances of the sanctuary, end we shall find them to be lighter than vanity. Shall these, then, engross our cares in reference to our children, while we overlook their best and highest interests? (D. Bees.) Psalms 78:7-8 That they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep His commandments.On the deceitfulness of the heart, in disregarding providential dispensations in general I. Show what is implied in a diligent observation of providential dispensations.1. A close investigation of the various steps of Providence towards us. 2. Attention to the temper of our hearts, to the dictates of conscience, and to the motions of the Holy Spirit, which concur with these dispensations. 3. An accurate trial of the meaning of all dispensations by the infallible standard of revelation. 4. An earnest desire of perceiving God’ s design as of a loving nature. 5. A faithful recording of these dispensations. II. Illustrate some of the deceits practised by the heart, in order to prevent a diligent observation of providential dispensations.1. It entices us to indifference about practical religion. 2. It represents them as uncertain. 3. It represents many events as trifling and unworthy of attention. 4. It opposes this exercise, as if it unavoidably tended to enthusiasm. 5. It is represented as a great bondage to ourselves. 6. The heart may perhaps plead that this course is neglected by many who are as good Christians as we. III. Advert to the designs of the deceitful heart in dissuading us from observing Divine dispensations.1. It wishes to deprive God of the glory resulting from this exercise. 2. By this inexcusable negligence the delusive heart designs to deprive believers of much real comfort. There are two channels in which the Lord communicates consolation to His people. These are His Word and Providence. But we lose much of our comfort if we keep these separate. (1) Diligent observation would eminently open up the mystery of Providence.(2) It tends to increase a holy fear of God.(3) It is an illustrious means of discovering Divine love.(4) It tends greatly to strengthen faith. (5) It is a great inducement to live closely with God.(6) This practice must throw great light on the evil of sin, by discovering providential frowns and chastisements for those parts of our conduct that might otherwise appear trivial. IV. Suggest some motives for encouraging Christians to this exercise.1. The command of God (Deuteronomy 4:9). 2. God has pledged His faithfulness for the success of this work. 3. The example of the saints. 4. The consideration of God’ s constant and tender remembrance of you may encourage you to this exercise. 5. The recollection of former mercies will afford you an argument with God for renewed instances of His love. V. Concluding cautions.1. Beware of making Providence the rule of your conduct. This would be to put it in the place of the world, which is not merely the principal, but the only rule. 2. Judge not of providential dispensations by their outward aspect. 3. In all your observation of Divine providence, still remember that the ways of God are unsearchable. His judgments are a great deep. 4. Beware of forming a rash judgment with respect to God’ s designs. “ He that believeth h shall not make haste.” 5. Be especially on your guard against harsh and uncharitable judgment. (J. Jamieson, M. A.) Memory, hope and effort My text tells us how past, present and future--memory, hope and effort,--may be ennobled and blessed. In brief, it is by associating them all with God. It is as the field of His working that our past is best remembered. It is on Him that our hopes may most wisely be set. It is keeping His commandments which is the consecration of the present. I. Associate God with memory by thankful remembrance. We can see His presence more clearly when we look back over a long connected stretch of days, and when the excitement of feeling the agony or rapture have passed, than we could whilst they were hot, and life was all hurry and bustle. II. Live in the future by hope in Him. Hope owes to Memory the pigments with which it paints, the canvas on which it paints, and the objects which it portrays there. But in all our earthly hopes there is a feeling of uncertainty which brings alarm as well as expectation. And he whose forward vision runs only along the low levels of earth, and is fed only by experience and remembrance, will never be able to say, “ I hope with certitude and I know that my hope shall be fulfilled.” But they whose hopes are set on God have a certain hope, a sufficient one, and one that fills all the future. III. Live in the present by strenuous obedience. After all, memory and hope are meant to fit us for work in the flying moment. Both should impel us to this keeping of the commandments of God; for both yield motives which should incline us thereto. A past full of blessing demands the sacrifice of loving hearts and of earnest hands. A future so fair, so far, so certain, so sovereign; and a hope that grasps it, and brings some of its sweet fragrance into the else scentless air of the poor present, ought to impel to service, vigorous and continual. Both should yield motives; both should impel to such service. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Psalms 78:9-17 The children of Ephraim, being armed, and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle.God in human history I. A people is a community that are most favoured with privileges are oftentimes the most sinful. Ephraim was not only one of the largest, but one of the most favoured of the Jewish tribes. He descended from Joseph, the highly favoured of God. He received the benediction from the lips of Jacob; and yet this tribe was so prominent in the rebellion that it stands as the representative of the ten rebellious tribes. Two of its sins are referred to here.1. Cowardice in battle (Psalms 78:9). They had weapons for battle, but they had not the patriotic bravery to use them. 2. Disobedience to God (Psalms 78:10). II. God works specially in human history for man’ s advantage (Psalms 78:11-12). III. His special workings on behalf of man, whilst they should deter from sin, frequently fail of this purpose (Psalms 78:17). “ When God,” says an old author on this verse, “ began thus to bless them, they began to affront Him.” As sin sometimes takes occasion by the commandment, so at other times it takes occasion by the deliverance, to become more exceedingly sinful. (Homilist.) Cowards in battle I. The historical advantages of these men. “ Children of Ephraim.”1. This gave them the advantage of having had brave ancestors. Joshua and Samuel were Ephraimites--noble sires; this a great honour; a correspondingly great responsibility. Blood is much; grace is more. 2. This gave them the advantages of a central location. After settlement in Canaan, Ephraim, numerous and powerful, occupied the central portion of the land. In its territory were Shiloh, with the tabernacle and ark; Shechem, with its holy and tender associations. 3. This gave them prominence and power. But they were false to their great mission. They were leaders, and leaders in evil. “ Being armed and carrying bows.” II. The military condition of the people.1. They were defensively armed. So is the Christian. 2. They were offensively equipped. 3. They were skilful in the use of their weapons. We must know how to use this one offensive weapon. III. The cowardly conduct of these men. They “ turned back in the day of battle.”1. They turned back. Weapons worthless if courage be wanting; courage is wanting if God be absent. 2. They did this in the day of battle. They betrayed their trust. 3. They brought disastrous consequences upon themselves. Merited doom. Sanctuary transferred. God’ s rejection secured. We need bravery. Dare to be like Joseph, Moses, Daniel, Paul, Luther, Bunyan. Alas I that in these evil days--days of spiritual declension--there is so little genuine heroism in the Church. (R. S. McArthur, D. D.) Turning back in the day of battle I. What these men did. They turned their backs when the time for fighting came, and fled. This, I am sorry to say, is not an unusual thing among professing Christians. Some do this at the first appearance of difficulty. Timorous and Mistrust come running down tim hill crying, “ The lions! the lions!” and thus may a pilgrim turn back towards the City of Destruction. Others are somewhat braver. During the first thrust they stand like martyrs and behave like heroes, but very soon, when the armour gets a little battered, and the fine plume on their helmet a little stained, they turn back in the day of battle. Some professors bear the fight a little longer. They are not to be laughed out Of their religion; they can stand the jeers of their old companions. “ Cowards,” say they, “ are those who flee; but we shall never do this.” But by and by the skirmishers have done their work, and it comes to a hand-to-hand fight; the struggle begins to be somewhat more arduous, and now shall we see what metal they are made of. We have seen grey-headed apostates as well as juvenile ones. II. When they did it. “ In the day of battle.”1. At the only time when they were of any sort of use. If the Christian soldier never fights, of what good is he at all? Take off his colours, play “ The Rogues’ March,” and turn him out of the barracks! And this is what will come to some professors who turn back in the day of battle! Their regimentals will be torn off, and they will be excluded from the Church of God because they turned back in the day of trial and at the time when they were needed. 2. They turned their backs, too, like fools, in the day when victory was to be won. The soldier wants to distinguish himself; he wants to rise out of the ranks; he wants to be promoted. He hardly expects an opportunity of doing this in time of peace; but the officer rises when in time of war he leads a successful charge. And so it is with the Christian soldier. I make no advance while I am not fighting. I cannot win if I am not warring. 3. They turned back, when turning back involved the most disastrous defeat. The ark of God was taken. “ Ichabod,” the enemy cried, for the glory was departed from Israel, because the children of Ephraim turned back in the day of battle. And so, dear friends, unless God gives you preserving grace to stand fast to the end, do you not see that you are turning back to--what? To perdition. III. Who they were that turned back.1. Men of a noble parentage. “ Children of Ephraim.” 2. They were armed, and had proper weapons, weapons which they knew how to use, and good weapons for that period of warfare. And as Christians, what weapons have we? Here is this “ Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.” Here is a quiver, filled with innumerable arrows, and God has put into our hands the bow of prayer, by which we may shoot them, drawing that bow by the arm of faith. 3. Another translation seems to show that these Ephraimites were very skilful in the use of the bow, and yet they turned back. Oh! may God grant that none of us who have preached to others, and preached to others with fluency and zeal, may ever have our own weapons turned against US. IV. Why did they do it?1. “ They kept not the covenant.” Oh! that great covenant, “ ordered in all things and sure,” when you can fall back upon that, how it strengthens you! 2. “ They refused to walk in His law.” When we get a proud heart we very soon get beaten, for with the face of a lion, but the heart of a deer, such an one is afraid of the world. If I am willing to do what God tells me, as He tells me, when He tells me, and because He tells me, I shall not turn back in the day of battle. 3. They also seemed to have turned back because they had bad memories. “ They forgot His works, and the wonders that He had showed them.” Some of you have had very wonderful manifestations of the Lord’ s kindness, and if you forget all these I should not wonder if you should prove to be a mere professor and turn back. V. What was the result of them turning back?1. Their father mourned over them (1 Chronicles 7:22). What a lamentation it brings into the Christian Church when a professor falls! 2. Owing to their turning back, the enemy remained. It is our turning back in the day of battle that leaves Canaan unconquered for our Lord. 3. But, worse than this, the ark itself was actually taken. Those of you who are armed and carry bows, men of learning, men who understand the Scriptures, I do pray you, do not turn back just now, for just now seems to be a time when the ark of God will be taken. It can never really be so, but still we must mind that it be not the tendency of our actions. We must all of us hold fast the truth now. If there is a man who has got a truth, let him draw his bow and shoot his arrows now, and not turn back in the day of battle. Now for your arrows! Now for your arrows! The more our foes shall conspire against Christ, the more do you make war against them. Give them double for their double; reward them as they reward you. Spare no arrows against Babylon. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Turning back in battle True religion brings with it a courageous heart, and Dr. South has well and quaintly said, that “ since Christ has made a Christian course a warfare, of all men living a coward is the most unfit to make a Christian.” And yet it is mournful to think that, of the great army of Christians who enrol themselves under the banner of the Cross, in Baptism and Confirmation, and who wear the uniform and carry the sword of Christian soldiers, so many resemble the ill-starred men of Ephraim, who, “ being armed, and carrying bows, turned themselves back in the day of battle!” Courage can only be kept alive by zealous action. We can readily imagine a gallant regiment riding into the very valley of death at a dashing gallop, but it would be simply absurd to picture them crawling at a snail’ s pace towards the expectant foe, coolly calculating the chances of disastrous defeat. As Christians, we profess to be engaged in a warfare against something, even the enemies of our salvation, the world, the flesh, and the devil--three most formidable and deadly foes. The office for the Lord’ s Supper opens also with a prayer “ for the whole state of Christ’ s Church militant” --the Church which is engaged in open and determined war. We can all well afford to do good service for Christ and His kingdom, since the end draweth near. Here is the battlefield, and the land of the sword and the spear. There, already is sight to the eye of faith, in the triumphal procession of the conquerors, and the land of the wreath and the crown. (J. N. Norton.) Our proneness to forget past mercies We can see His presence more clearly when we look back over a long connected stretch of days, and when the excitement of feeling the agony or rapture have passed, than we could whilst they were hot, and life was all hurry and bustle. The men on the deck of a ship see the beauty of the city that they have left behind better than when they were stumbling through its narrow streets. And though the view from the far-off waters of the receding houses may be an illusion, our view of the past, if we see God brooding over it all and working in it all, is no illusion. The meannesses are hidden, the narrow places are invisible, all the pain and suffering is quieted, and we are able to behold more truly than when we were in the midst of it the bearing, the purpose, and the blessedness alike of our sorrows and of our joys. Some of us are like people who, when they get better of their sicknesses, grudge the doctor’ s bill. We forget the mercies as soon as they are past, because we only enjoyed the sensuous sweetness of them while it tickled our palate; and forgot, in the enjoyment of them, of whose love it was that they spoke to us. Sorrows and joys, bring them all in your thanksgivings, and “ forget not the works of God.” (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Psalms 78:14 In the daytime also He led them with a cloud, and all the night with a light of fire.Day and night leading Did some man imagine this? I thank him. It was worth being born to imagine this conception of God. It is so tender, so fatherlike; it is charged to the full with inspiration of the best kind; it makes all things feel securer; it brings to the soul contributions from all quarters, contributions that increase its wealth, that improve its quality, that inspire its courage,1. A startling statement that people were led in the daytime. Surely there is no need for leadership in the season of light. We have reason, experience, natural sagacity, human society, a thousand other ministries all operating in the daytime: what need have we for divinity, supernaturalness, providence--that higher rule which is called Divine? A very proper question, admitting of a very satisfactory reply. It is in the daytime men go most astray. Very few people go astray at night. There is a natural fear, which becomes a natural caution and restriction of liberty, and men say they had better wait until the light comes before they go out on any adventure. How tempting is the daylight I How well it would have been for some men had there been no daylight! How much there is in that daylight to excite the spirit of adventure! Yet, properly used, it is the very blessing of God, the great opportunity of life--so nearly do death and life lie together. God led His people in the daytime with a cloud. It required a poet to think of that. 2. Even the night need not shut out the light of God: “ all the night” He led them “ with a light of fire.” There must be night. That is strange, but true. There must be darkness. Why cannot we always have holiday, festival, noontide? If we close the Bible, we do not alter the facts of life. Better keep the Bible at hand as the deepest and wisest interpreter of all the mystery of existence. The Bible comes into the night of our experience, and says, I will set it with stars all over, so that there shall not be room to put another diamond in all the coronal; and as for this cold night, I will light a fire--not a crackling flame, but a glowing fire--and the darkness shall make it the more precious. How Providence adapts its communications to circumstances. A cloud would have been no use at night; a fire would have been wholly out of keeping with the poetry of daylight. Providence knows what is best. The fitness of things is a religious argument. There is a shaping Hand about. What is my proof of the existence of God? My own lifetime, that is a tract I never bought, and cannot sell, and the more I read it the more I pray. Providence brings with it not only a light at night-time, but “ a light of fire.” It might have been another light, but it would not have fitted all the occasion with so exquisite an adaptation. The night is cold, so the light is of fire. Other light may glare and dazzle, gleam upon the eyes so as to hurt the vision, but oh! there are two comforts in the household fire--the warmth and the light; not a light that could be seen afar, but a light just adapted to the next step or two--and so warm, it makes the house. And the fire is the crown of the winter. It is the very centre and joy of our Christmas festivity. However far you stray away in the snow it is the fire in the house that is getting ready for you the very delight of your enjoyment. There may be more barbarism than civilization, there may be more wickedness than goodness, there may be more desert than garden; and it is not for us to explain why these things should be or how they came to be; the counsel is in heaven, and we are living from without and from above, and by and by we shall be called in to hear how it all came to pass, and how the very darkness was made into a temple, how the very wilderness was needful for the culture of our life, and how our necessity was one of our chief riches. How regularly the day comes, how regularly the night; how regularly, therefore, the cloud and the pillar of glowing, illuminating fire. (J. Parker, D. D.) God’ s unceasing care “ All the night!” how much is often conveyed in that word “ all” : to have lain awake all night without one snatch of sleep; to have tossed to and fro, all night, wondering how long the hours are; these are some of the experiences of those who are familiar with this little word “ all” in connection with “ night.” The soul has its seasons of protracted trial, when it speaks of “ all” night. Long-continued temptations, or depressions, or struggles, make it talk of “ all night.” And now, that which so cheers us is the thought that there is no night too long for God. He that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep; whatever may be the length of our night the Lord is unwearied through it all. Man’ s watching is exemplified by the disciples in Gethsemane; God’ s by the pillar of fire. “ Could ye not watch one hour?” is the record of the one; “ all the night” is the record of the other. Is it not a blessed thought that, however much we may weary our fellow-watchers, so that one by one they drop off, by reason of the weariness of the flesh, we never weary out our God! And as God watches with us if we be wakeful, so also He watches over us if we be at rest. We never can enjoy any real repose of soul unless it be in the consciousness that God is near us, above us, manifesting Himself for us. A watchful and a watching God is the believer’ s warrant for repose; we repose beneath, when we are sure that He watches above. And God’ s watch is an undivided one--“ all the night.” He does not take us up, where another has laid us down. We have not to do with a new watcher, who has to learn from his predecessor all the peculiarities of our condition; where we are sore; how we must be handled; what are our peculiarities; what our special needs; it is the one watcher all through. And hence may God’ s people be assured of true tenderness; and consummate skill; and an anticipation of all their needs; our Divine Watcher has been too long with us not to know all we want. (P. B. Power, M. A.) Psalms 78:15-16 He clave the rocks in the wilderness, and gave them drink as out of the great depths.Streams from the rock I. Consider thy rock as a representation of Christ.1. What does a rock remind us of? (1) Solidity and firmness. Christ is “ the same, yesterday, to-day, and for ever.” (2) Power of defence. Christ is “ mighty to save.” “ Able to save to the uttermost.” (3) Power of support. “ Upon this rock I will build My Church.” (4) Power of refreshment. This is desirable; but bow is it with regard to Christians as to their relation to Christ? “ By believing they enter into rest” ; they feel “ a peace that passeth all understanding” ; in all their afflictions, tribulations, and trials, whether personal or relative, they find here “ the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.” 2. We pass from the image to its condition; we mean with regard to its being smitten. And how did the Lord Jesus become the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey Him? Not only by the dignity of His nature, though this was necessary; not only by the innocence of His life, though this was necessary; and not only by the perfection of His righteousness, but by suffering and by death: “ He was wounded for our transgressions,” etc. 3. It was not only smitten, but smitten by Moses--a type of the law. “ The Lord laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” “ He redeemed us from the curse of the law,” etc. 4. The last article of conformity is the result, for from this rock, as Smitten by Moses, streams flowed. “ He brought streams also out of the rock.” II. To survey some of the fine streams which flowed from it.1. The promises. These are “ exceeding great and precious” --“ exceeding great,” because of their contents; exceeding “ precious” to the Christian, because of the estimation they are held in by him. All these “ are Yea and Amen in Christ Jesus.” 2. Pardoning mercy. His blood “ cleanseth from all sin.” 3. Sanctifying grace. “ If any man be in Christ he is a new creature.” 4. Spiritual consolation. “ It is I, be not afraid.” 5. Future blessedness. “ Fulness of joy.” “ Eye hath not seen,” etc. III. The quality of these streams.1. They were marvellous and unlikely. Who ever saw a stream of water rising out of a flinty rock? How much more supernatural is the stream of redemption! 2. They were gratuitous. “ He did not deal with them according to their sine, nor reward them after their iniquity,” but furnished them with those supplies they needed. And how was it with us? for they were an exact counterpart of us. It was “ not by works of righteousness that we have done” that He saved us, “ but by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost” ; thus showing the “ exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness towards us by Christ Jesus.” 3. They were copious (verse16). So in regard to the waters of life, there is enough and to spare; enough for you, enough for others, enough for all. “ Ho, every one that thirsteth; come ye to the waters.” 4. They were constant, at least enough so to furnish an exact representation of the waters of salvation, for you have heard how far the reality has the pre-eminence. This rock in its streams followed them partially, and only for a while; and the people moved on in another direction, leaving these streams, and then they thirsted again. But it is true, perfectly true, without any exception, that this rock, or the streams thereof, follow Christians in all their travels in the wilderness, and it will never leave them, nor forsake them. When they look forward, therefore, they may say with holy confidence, “ Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life” ; and the meanest of them feels assured that he shall dwell for ever in God’ s house above. (W. Jay.) Psalms 78:17 And they sinned yet more against Him by provoking the Most High in the wilderness.Sin multiplying with mercies The more copiously the showers of mercies fell upon the Jew in the wilderness, the more abounding his sins. I. This is a lamentably common character. Seeds of sin innumerable are imbedded in every depraved heart; and the sunbeams and showers of mercy often develop them into harvests, whose ripened grains fall down into the soul to be multiplied again, etc. II. This is a monstrously unnatural character. The eternal design and the essential tendency of Divine goodness are to quicken all intelligent spirits into gratitude and virtue, to waken them into hallelujahs. “ The goodness of God should lead to repentance.” Man is somehow denaturalized, dehumanized; he pursues a course hostile to the constitution of things. III. This is a tremendously guilty character. It is “ treasuring up wrath against the day of wrath.” (Homilist.) Psalms 78:18-22 And they tempted God in their heart by asking meat for their lust.The conduct of God towards the world, and the world’ s conduct to Him I. God’ s dispensations towards depraved man.1. Wonderful mercies (Psalms 78:12-15; Psalms 78:24-25; Psalms 78:27; Psalms 78:44, etc.). There are Divine deliverances, guidances, protections, and rich and varied supplies of goodness in the life of every individual man, as well as in every family, community, country, age. His mercy is in every breath of air, in every ray of light, in every pulsation of health, in every particle of food, in every pleasant sensation, in every happy thought, in every uplifting hope. 2. Disciplinary chastisements (Psalms 78:21; Psalms 78:34; Psalms 78:44-51; Psalms 78:61, etc.) ever mingle with all His mercies towards man--physical pain, social bereavement, secular trials, intellectual anxieties. II. The conduct of depraved man towards God.1. They insulted Him (Psalms 78:18). 2. They slandered Him (Psalms 78:19). 3. They doubted His truthfulness (Psalms 78:22). 4. They hypocritically praised Him (Psalms 78:36-37). Alas! how prevalent is this sin. What a contrast between the weakly conduct of men in relation to God and the words of adoration and praise which they address to Him on Sunday in the devotional services of their Church! 5. They apostatized from Him (Psalms 78:41-42). (1) They “ turned back” in their hearts. Often did they express their desire to return to the flesh-pots of Egypt.(2) In doing this they practically “ limited” the power of God to help them through.(3) This they did because they practically ignored “ His past mercies.” Is not this apostasy of heart an evil almost as wide as the race? 6. They persisted in their rebellious conduct like their ancestors (Psalms 78:56-57). III. The retributive principle in human history (Psalms 78:29-30; Psalms 78:61-64, etc.).1. It often works through material nature. Furious beasts, poisonous reptiles, pestiferous atmospheres, withering blights, devastating Storms, etc., the retributive principle of the Divine government is ever acting through these. 2. It works always for beneficent purposes. (1) To prevent the spread of sin.(2) To reform the sinner. Prevention and reformation, these are the two great elements In God’ s retributive government. 3. Its greatest prodigies often fail in converting souls (Psalms 78:17; Psalms 78:32). Sin cannot be crushed, nor virtue generated by coercion. Blocks of ice defy the face of the mightiest storms that ever shook the earth; but before the gentle sunbeam they give way and run into sparkling streams. (Homilist.) Psalms 78:19 Can God furnish a table in the wilderness? A table in the wilderness Here is-- I. A base ingratitude. He had done so, and they had participated in the banquet. II. A miserable scepticism. Can He do it? He who peopled immensity with innumerable worlds and systems, etc. What an insane and imbecile scepticism is this! not worth argument. III. A. living rebellion. The question shows that rebellion was a rampant spirit within them. (Homilist.) The resources of God I. The nature and import of the question. It is not the language of faith, but of doubt, distrust and unbelief. II. The resources of God.1. As the God of Nature. “ The heavens declare the glory of God,” etc. 2. As the God of providence. To the Christian believer this doctrine is an unmixed source of Divine consolation. He believes that the same providing mind which bestowed “ the unspeakable gift “ is engaged to supply his daily bread. 3. As the God of grace--enlightening, preventing, convincing, justifying, sanctifying and comforting and strengthening grace. III. A God infinite in His resources, as He is able, is also willing to communicate His blessings to His needy creatures. He is a sun of brightness and a sea of fulness. IV. There is as much wisdom, mercy and goodness in what He withholds as in what He gives. The state of probation allotted to the Christian is of a mixed character. The brightest clay has the pillar of a cloud, and the darkest night a pillar of fire. The unmixed wine of the kingdom is reserved for the kingdom. The withheld mercies of our God are frequently blessings in disguise, so disguised that only the eye of faith can see through it. (W. B. Browne.) Psalms 78:20 Can He give bread also?can He provide flesh for His people? The cry of unbelief and presumption I. The cry of unbelief. The question presupposes a negative; they practically said, “ We do not believe that He can do any more than He has done.” The whole nation missed the meaning of history, and thus lacked all stimulus to hope and confidence. How often that is the case! It is most important that our children should learn history, and learn it as those grand inspired historians of the Old Testament wrote it, and as the father of each Jewish family taught it. They should learn not to see a human Colossus, astride all time, but to see God in every great development of history, in every change and every transition, and thus working out His purposes in all. What we need is simplicity of trust in God. God delivers just at a time when man cannot deliver himself. When, therefore, you are brought to trouble, look in the one direction where there is deliverance. You will never find God to fail you; and when once you have been delivered, do not forget it. II. The cry of presumption. Why should they dictate to God what He was to do? Why should they stake the honour of God upon the mere coincidence whether He thought the same as they did or not?--that is, whether He considered that the best thing that could happen to them was that they should have an abundant supply of bread and meat, and taste of the flavour of the old flesh-pots of Egypt for which they longed? In connection with this, read Exodus 13:17-18. Oh, how many of us are like them! We seem to presume upon what God has already done. I have heard many a man say before now, “ I was born in a good family, and here are poor people, who were born in cots, getting on, while of late I have had nothing but disappointments and losses. I do not see why the Lord should permit all this.” What would you have the Lord do? Is there any special reason why you should be free from all trouble? Why, some men have trouble from their cradles to the grave. God never made a special arrangement with your parents that you should go through your life without any anxiety, or sorrow, or disappointment. If He had, I am afraid it would have been the greatest curse you could have had in your life. God never sends sorrow to any of us more than we need. It is not only wrong, but also foolish, to dictate to God what He shall do with us. Leave it to Him. If many prayers we uttered in bygone days were but written up to-day on a tablet, we should each say, “ Ah, me, I must have been mad when I uttered that prayer. If God had granted me that, it would have been my ruin. He did not grant it, and I was disappointed; but now I see that was the greatest mercy He has ever shown me.” (D. Davies.) “ Can He provide flesh for His people?” This is an instance of man’ s attitude towards God in the presence of miracles. Miracles have either marked distinct starting-points in the history of revelation, or have been given as Divine adaptations to the peculiar needs of the people to whom they were granted. They have been necessary as special proofs, but not as continuous manifestations.1. This is an instance of the misuse man can make of a glorious history. The first part of the verse seems to prepare us for something sublime. Could a people who could relate such a history, who could record such facts of Divine intervention as these, finish up with anything but a hallelujah of praise? And yet these people who had a great history, and a history in which God’ s power ever flashed forth in deeds of exceptional love, missed the meaning of all, were caught by the splendour, and only sufficiently caught by the splendour to yearn for other manifestations still more startling, and more gratifying to their animal passions. The love and patience of God revealed in the miraculous provisions of the past were lost upon them. 2. Thus, too, this is an instance of the misuse men can make of miracles. This was not peculiar to the ancient people. Look at the New Testament. There is one striking instance in John 11:37. Thus these words, in common with the words of our text, reveal another fact. 3. That miracles thus misused by men not only failed to satisfy, or to ennoble their hearts, but also that they made men more exacting in their demands and more shameless in their requests. 4. Thus God, in dealing with men, has given miracles to convince them of His power only as the occasion demanded, and as the nature of the revelation which He gave required. He has never given miracles of which there has not been supreme need. There has been a Divine economy in miracles throughout the ages. It was necessary that they should cease, or they would cease to be miracles. God now works in another way, not less Divine or even less mysterious. The Kingdom of God cometh not with observation. (D. Davies.) Divine sufficiency ample for all our needs God is a spring, this day and tomorrow. The God of Isaac is not like Isaac, that had one blessing and no more. A believer’ s harvest for present mercies is his seedtime for more. God’ s mercies when full-blown seed again and come up thicker. Can the creature want more than the everlasting fountain can supply? What an irrational way of arguing was that! “ He smote the rock that the waters gushed out; can He give bread also?” As if He that filled their cup could not spread their table; as if He who had a hidden cellar for their drink had not a secret and as full a cupboard for their meat. (S. Charnock.) Psalms 78:21-22 Therefore the Lord heard this, and was wroth . . . Because they believed not in God, and trusted not in His salvation.Mistrust that destroys There are morbid growths in the human frame which our doctors divide into two groups--benign and malignant; and the distinction often comes to mean the distinction between life and death. In dealing with the unbelief which crosses our pathway and even creeps into our homes, it is most important that we should observe the same principle of minute and discriminating classification, and beware of confusing things that entirely differ. Some phases of scepticism are chiefly intellectual; morbid, weakening, and hurtful all the same: phases which begin to assume a moral complexion when a man parades them as a beggar parades his sores, and it may be frets and keeps them open when they tend to heal. And on the other hand there are scepticisms which are moral in their beginnings and which tend to destroy the most vital fibres of conscience and character.1. Unbelief is malignant when it is a product of the flesh and its tyrannous appetites. Of that we have an instructive example in the text. Our fleshly passions always tend to make us distrustful of the spiritual and the unseen, and this drift in the passions sometimes warps the reason and deflects the moral sense, and has done so for generations, so that we inherit a maimed aptitude for faith. It is only by the subjugation of the flesh that we become susceptible of the faith that God seeks from us. Men may be mistrustful malcontents because they do not find themselves in the kind of world upon which they have set their foolish desire. The atheist is occasionally a person who cannot get all the beer he wants. Now and again men gnash their teeth upon religious belief because Divine law puts restraint upon their lusts and upholds the strict sanctities of marriage and the home. The ideal world that would convince them of the Maker’ s benevolence would be a world fluttering with hosts of unclaimed hours. 2. Another sign of malignant unbelief is that it thwarts men in working out the appointed problems of life and salvation. We find the scientific mind smouldering with resentment because unscientific definitions of the supernatural have been current in religious circles, just as if such accidents were of the essence of faith. The mind trained to methods of historical research is exasperated to contempt by the uncritical methods of pietists who do not grasp the human part in revelation, and the Bible is despised because of the narrowness and illiteracy of some good Christians who honour it. The man needs our richest pity over whom, for any of these reasons, the Bible has lost its authority. But the obligations of faith are first of all those which present themselves in the pathway of our common duty, and when those obligations are met, we shall probably find the further claim the Bible makes upon our faith easier of fulfilment 3. That unbelief is malignant which impeaches a God who is in the very act of proving His covenant and friendship with us and leading us forth into freedom, privilege, blessedness. Our vaunted doubt is an affront to a living Benefactor, a stab at the warm love that is ever brooding over us, a gross filial impiety; for the signs that our lives are under covenant guidance are as indisputable as those vouchsafed to Israel of old, however much they may differ in form. If you flatter yourself that it is only the God of an empty tradition you disparage in your modes of unbelief, you eliminate the most noteworthy facts from your experience of life, and judge with disastrous prejudice. God is nearer to us than all others, directing our steps to right ends, moulding our characters by wise chastisement, and clinging tenaciously to the faint promise of better things that may yet be in us; and it is all this which puts the culminating blackness upon our unbelief. 4. Unbelief is malignant when the most memorable experiences of our history furnish sufficient warrant for the faith we are required to exercise. Such was the case with Israel in the wilderness. Such unbelief as they avowed might have been less unseemly before the first plague alighted upon Egypt, and the first wonder had been wrought for their salvation. God never asks from men an arbitrary and impossible faith, and it will always be found that He has prepared us by the lessons of our previous history for the next heroic act of trust that is required. In God’ s order for our education in this cardinal virtue, the intricate, the complex, the formidable do not come first, although misguided men do not always respect God’ s order. The duties of faith are graded just as carefully as a child’ s scales in music or his first exercises in reading. The infant who can scarcely climb up-stairs is not set to scale Mount Ararat. God’ s providence puts the demands of faith in a rational series, and we must rise in harmony with our personal experience of His grace and power. High destinies are in store for you, and you must needs believe in God’ s continuous salvation through every step of your pilgrimage, and let Him shape the plan of it in His own way. Why should your whims and weaknesses and insistences forsooth be sacred in His sight? Be content to have them set aside. When you believe in God’ s salvation as it persists through your life and breaks out into floods of ever-growing illumination, you will find it easier to believe in the history of salvation preserved for us in the sacred book; and mounting those ascents of faith, made ready for your steps, you shall find that nothing is impossible to him that believeth. (T. G. Selby.) Israel’ s sin and danger I. The sin charged.1. They believed not in Jehovah as contrasted with idol gods, or as the only living and true God. 2. They believed not in His great salvation to be achieved by the promised seed. II. The consequences.1. Because men believe not in God, they are left to become the dupes of delusion and error. 2. Because they trust not God, they remain slaves of sin. 3. Because they believe not in God, they taste not joy, peace, and true felicity. 4. Because they believe not in God, they are subject to fear of death, and despair of eternal happiness. 5. They wilt be subject to the wrath of God, and will be outcasts from Him for ever. III. The reasons which should induce us to believe in God.1. The essential immutability of His nature. 2. The infallible certainty of His Word, and the preparation He has made for our salvation. 3. The impossibility of finding salvation in any other way. IV. The means to be employed.1. Contemplation of our own weakness and inefficiency. 2. Study of His character and faithfulness, His Word and grace, His gospel, etc. 3. Diligent attendance upon hearing, for “ faith cometh by hearing.” 4. Fervent prayer for His Divine assistance. (The Evangslist.) Psalms 78:24 And had rained down manna upon them to eat, and had given them of the corn of Heaven.The manna in the wilderness That this miraculous provision was designed to be an emblem of the Lord Jesus Christ, and of those precious blessings of which He is the Author, is evident from His own declaration “ I am the living Bread,” etc.1. The manna in the wilderness was the bread which the Lord gave the Israelites to save them from perishing. Even so Christ crucified is the heavenly bread which God hath given to “ save our souls alive” ; to preserve them from that eternal decay, which, through sin, would otherwise have been their portion, and to nourish them to eternal life. 2. The manna descended freely, as the gift of God; and so the blessings of salvation through Christ are offered freely in the Gospel. Desert is no more required in the one case than in the other. “ By grace ye are saved,” etc. The Gospel salvation is no less freely offered than it has been provided. It is a gift for which no price is demanded, and which looks for nothing in its recipient but want and misery. Though unspeakably precious, it is placed within the reach of all; and if we do but ask in faith, it will be made ours. Those, therefore, who refuse to partake of it are entirely without excuse. 3. The manna was suitable alike to all; and so the blessings of Christ’ s purchase are precisely such as are suited to the circumstances of His people. In their natural condition they are hungering and thirsting after true happiness; but nothing in the wide range of the universe can ever satisfy the cravings of their immortal spirits. But that satisfaction which all created objects are unable to yield is to be found in Jesus Christ--“ He that cometh to Me,” He declared, “ shall never hunger; and he that believeth on Me shall never thirst.” How diversified soever their circumstances, they find in Him that spiritual food which is fitted to satisfy all the wants of their souls. Are they guilty? “ In Him they have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace.” Are they estranged from God? They are “ made accepted in the Beloved.” Do they need deliverance from the power of sin? He “ gave Himself for us that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify us unto Himself, a peculiar people, zealous of good works.” Are they doomed to die, and moulder away into dust? He “ is the resurrection and the life,” and has promised to “ redeem them from death, and ransom them from the power of the grave.” 4. It was necessary for the Israelites to gather the manna, though freely given of God; and it is required of us that we believe to the saving of our souls. Nor is the faith by which we obtain a personal interest in Christ’ s salvation a mere transient act. As the Israelites gathered the manna daily, so we must be daily feeding upon the heavenly Bread offered to us in the Gospel. Our whole life must be a life of faith upon the Son of God. And blessed be God! we may always have the grace that we need. 5. As the manna sustained the Israelites from day to day, so are they supported and strengthened who live by faith upon the Son of God. By believing on Him who is the living Bread that cometh down from heaven, they dwell in Him, and He dwells in them. He that eateth this Bread shall live for ever. 6. The appointed mode of distributing the manna among the Israelites is not without its significance. Some gathered more, and others less, according to their activity, but all received a plentiful supply. So believers receive liberally out of the “ exceeding abundant grace” of Christ. “ It pleased the Father that in Him should all fulness dwell” ; and if we only come to Him, we shall receive “ out of His fulness grace for grace,” abundance of every kind of heavenly and spiritual blessings. 7. A portion of the manna was laid up in the golden vessels of the tabernacle, where it remained for ages without suffering corruption. Even so, Jesus Christ liveth for ever in the heavenly sanctuary, as the “ hidden manna,” which He promises for the support and nourishment of His conflicting and overcoming people. And as He is represented in Scripture as “ dwelling in their hearts by faith, the hope of glory,” should not the purity of the golden vessels, in which the manna was hidden, teach us to cleanse our hearts from all sin and corruption, that they may be fit receptacles for Jesus Christ our heavenly manna? (P. Grant.) The manna a type of Christ We observe, first, that the food was supernatural. The Israelites were sustained by nourishment furnished them immediately from heaven. And did not this represent that the food of the soul was to be holy and good, and that the bread of life, whereof all men must eat who would not everlastingly die, must descend from heaven and fall around the camp?--that the person of Christ should not be produced in the ordinary course of nature, and that His birth should not be as the birth of other men? The manna, in the next place, sufficed for the whole multitude; there was enough for all, and it was suited to all, so that the old and young, the rich and the poor, partook of the same food and were equally benefited. Jesus Christ hath given Himself for the ransom of the world, and there is not an individual in the wide family of man for whom provision has not been made in the rich supplies of the Gospel. It may be further observed that the manna, before it was eaten, was ground in a mill, or broken in a mortar; so ere Christ could become the food of the world He was bruised and put to grief, became a curse and was pressed down by the weight of God’ s wrath against sin. There is something so remarkable in the direction that the manna should be used on the day it was gathered. In spiritual things God supplies our wants as they occur; He does not give strength till He gives the trial, “ As is thy day, so shall thy strength be.” If I may use such an expression, we have no stock in hand, but when the necessity arises we must apply afresh to the Saviour; yet practically we often endeavour to set aside that law. We distress ourselves with thinking that if such and such troubles overtake us we can never endure them, thus calculating on to-day’ s strength for to-morrow’ s trials; or because we have been diligent in prayer, and feel we have obtained a communication of grace, we are apt to suppose with the psalmist, “ that our mountain stands strong and can never be moved.” All this is but laying by till to-morrow the manna of to-day: and white experience teaches us that we cannot carry with us the provision, but must have recourse in every want to the Saviour, we learn the lesson which is typically taught in the inability of the Israelites to secure out of what God gave them on one day sustenance for the following. There is, however, another striking particular in which the manna was typical. It fell only when the Israelites were in the wilderness, ceasing as soon as they crossed Jordan and reached the promised land. And is not the type to be also traced in the food being given throughout the journey, but withheld on its completion? We shall have no more need of sacraments when once we are admitted into the kingdom of heaven. It is one of the finest descriptions given us by the evangelist of the new Jerusalem, “ I saw no temple therein; for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it.” (H. Melvill, B. D.) Psalms 78:25 Man did eat angels’ food.Angels’ food I. There are in the universe higher order of intelligent creatures than man, “ Angels.” The proofs, the nature, the functions, the varieties of their existence abound in the Scriptures. II. This higher order of intelligences require food. No creatures, however exalted, can be self-subsisting, i.e. can live of themselves or from themselves; they must appropriate something from without. III. Of this food man to some extent is a partaker. Revelations of truth, beauty, God, are the food of souls in all worlds, and this food is universal. (Homilist) Angels’ food We soon tell by our appearance what food we have been eating. You cannot hide the bill of fare. The face is a tell-tale. The more the sensualist eats the greater a sensualist he appears to be. He feeds the flesh. He gets coarser every day; what little music there was in his voice is all dead and gone; he has choked it with the food of beasts. Once there was a little child in him, well spoken of, thought to be the germ of a fine man; but that child-angel is dead. Every mouthful of meat the man now takes makes him more beast-like. Say not that it is of no consequence what a man eats. It is of vital consequence. The mystery, however, is this, that even the best food may be turned into evil nutriment, according to the nature of the man who partakes of it. The lion grows as a lion the more he eats; though it be of the daintiest food it all becomes lion. So with us bodily, intellectually, spiritually: we tell what our food is. Under what circumstances may men be said to cat angels’ food, corn of heaven, bread sent down from God? When earth cannot satisfy him any longer, the good food is beginning to tell upon him. Growing in spirituality is not a metaphysical process; it is concrete, intelligible, patent to the observation; it is not a growth in mere sentiment, it is not an enrichment of the nature in mere foam of ecstasy and rapture: it is a larger outlook, a firmer grasp of things eternal, a clearer view of distant things; it is a growth in preparation, in the estimate of relative values, in sympathy with God. Growing so, the whole world changes; its duties become light, its burdens become comparatively easy, its wealth a handful of dust that may be thrown up and caught again and laid down with a conjurer’ s ease. Growth in spirituality means larger intercourse with God, keener perception of religious essences and moral affinities. Growth in spirituality means a throwing-off of mere burdensomeness and ceremony and ritual; a forsaking of the fleshpots of Egypt, and a yearning for the society of angels and spirits, blessed and immortal. We can now do better than eat angels’ food, a larger feast has been prepared for us--we can eat the body and drink the blood of Christ. Faith takes the bread, and turns it into the flesh of Christ; faith takes the emblematic wine, and makes it sacrificial blood. Lord, increase our faith! (J. Parker, D. D.) He sent them meat to the full--The blessing of harvest View this verse as applicable to all time and all generations of men; for, just as surely as God fed Israel in the wilderness with manna, so surely is He feeding the whole human race to-day by a miracle not less wonderful. I. In what sense the statement of the text is true, as applied to all men. Look at the variety of the food God gives us. It is not merely the one food sent directly from above, but we can use a hundred kinds of food, so we cannot comment upon the poor character of the products of the earth. The courses of Nature bring round the seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, and point the Christian back to the God who lies behind them; and he who has the heritage of the Christian has a fountain of gratitude in his soul, because he recognizes that these come from above, for they tell the man who believes and trusts in God that these things are but another sign of that eternal love which has watched over us from infancy, and cares for us all the years of our life. II. In what sense the statement appears not to be true. How is it that in a world in which there appears to be plenty, or at least in which there is the possibility of plenty, there should be a vast number in every town and city kept pinched and bare? I believe, in many instances, because of their own mismanagement and misconduct. Idleness will clothe a man with rags. It is one of the wise provisions of God’ s providence that the earth surrenders her products only to those who work. There is also another explanation. Intemperance is the cause of a vast deal of the want that lies around us. Again, God has never said He will give a successive continuance of rich seasons, and commerce in its whole history has never gone straight on. It has always gone by leaps and falls, and there have been times of scarceness and plenty. But God means every prudent man to lay by in times of success and fulness for a time of scarcity, and I think it is nothing less than sacrilegious for men to blame God for want and poverty if they allow times of fulness to pass without laying by for a time of need. There are, however, some causes outside of a man’ s or woman’ s own control which lead to poverty and something approaching want. For instance, too many men rush into one trade, possibly because they think it a prosperous one. The result is, that the trade is overstocked, and there is not sufficient work for every one, and a great deal of pain and scarcity often follows, until matters right themselves--and they don’ t right themselves in a year. Or, again, the greed and cruelty of some may act as a pressure on those who are weak and unable to defend themselves, and because of this injustice and greed of gain they are not able even to make their bread. Or, again, bad economic laws, such as our Corn Laws that Cobden and Bright did so much to abolish, may raise the price of God’ s grain to a fictitious value. There is another cause of poverty and want that is perhaps more directly traceable to God Himself, and that is famine. God’ s universe is spiritual, and the powers that conquer in it must be Spiritual, and famine itself is, I believe, one of the methods by which God seeks to work out one of the spiritual purposes of the universe. See, for instance, how famine may bring a nation back to simpler and truer modes of life. See how famine disciplines men by bringing out generosity in them, making them go to the help of other nations. I believe that, too, may be the explanation of the fact that there is poverty among us. Does not God seek to lead us, by poverty, to think of that bread which perisheth not? (D. Woodside, B. D.) Psalms 78:30-31 They were not estranged from their lust.Dissatisfaction with plenty God gave them plenty, and they ate “ and were filled.” He gave them what they sought, flesh; feathered birds came in abundance. Notwithstanding, they were not satisfied, “ were not estranged from their lust” ; they had still a craving for something more. Here is dissatisfaction with plenty. I. This is a very prevalent experience. Men in plenty are everywhere in dissatisfaction. Where there is(1) Plenty of food,(2) Plenty of money,(3) Plenty of books,(4) Plenty of popularity,(5) Plenty of amusements, men cry everywhere, “ Who will show us any good?” II. This is a very suggestive experience. It implies--1. Something bad that is existing. Conflicting passions, compunctive consciences, moral forebodings within, prevent the possibility of satisfaction. 2. Something good that is lacking. What is the deep hunger of the soul? God. (Homilist.) But while their meat was yet in their mouths, the wrath of God came upon them, and slew the fattest of them. Kibroth Hattaavah Fleshly lust not only “ wars against” but kills men. I. Slays physically. An inordinate gratification of animal appetites saps the constitution and brings the body to a premature grave. II. Slays intellectually. It slays the elasticity, the freedom, the vigour of the intellect. How often, in the case of the gourmand and the voluptuary, does the brain run into fat, and the whole intellect into greasy mud. III. Slays morally. It slays--1. Purity of love.2. Tenderness of conscience.3. Force of moral purpose. (Homilist.) Psalms 78:32 For all this they sinned still Sinning still 1. God’ s revelation of His power, goodness, love and grace to the sinners of our day, in the completed canon of the Holy Scriptures, infinitely transcends anything made to ancient Israel. And yet, in the noonday light of that full and august revelation, they sin still and remain stout in their rebellion. 2. God incarnate in humanity, dying on the cross, and rising from the dead, with all their attending marvels, is the most stupendous event in human or in angelic history; and yet in full sight of the cress, and of eighteen centuries of redeeming grace and triumph, the sinners of this generation scoff and revile. 3. The dispensation of the Spirit, the ministry of the Word, the Sabbath and other Christian institutions, are powerful factors in God’ s plan of redeeming agencies; and yet, under the full force of these mighty Divine agencies, the sinners of this favoured day go on to sin and harden their hearts in iniquity. 4. The discipline of Divine providence has been tried again and again upon these rebellions, unrepentant souls; and still they sin on and wax worse and worse. Mercies do not soften their hearts, and judgments do not deter them. (Homiletic Review.) What God does to keep men from sinning God does a great deal to arrest the sinner and bring him to repentance. All His dispensations and dealings propose the sinner’ s repentance and salvation, until that period when his Spirit, which He says shall not strive always with man, ceases to strive with him (Hosea 4:17).1. He proclaims His own infinite abhorrence of sin. And will you persist in the love and practice of that which He abhors; is it not reason enough why you should hate and eschew it, that He hates it in its most plausible form, and in its mildest degree? 2. In the exercise of His sovereign authority He positively and pointedly forbids it; and dare you do what God forbids, knowing, too, that He forbids it? Fear you not Him who can not only kill the body, but destroy both body and soul in hell? 3. He has annexed to the commission of sin a penalty, deep as hell, enduring as eternity, inexhaustible as infinitude. He has declared His inflexible determination to inflict that penalty without abatement. He can do it, for all power is His. He will do it, for there is no change in Him; “ hath He said, and shall He not do it?” 4. He has ,not only threatened, but begun to execute His threatenings. The weight of His indignation long suspended, has fallen on many and buried them in the bottomless pit. Man’ s life here below is made up of vanity and labour because of sin. 5. But He has adopted a different set of measures; measures inviting, attracting, winning, melting; measures of mercy. He would draw by cords of love; He would overcome by methods of kindness. He declares His reluctance to punish. He proclaims His willingness to forgive. (W. Nevins, D. D.) Psalms 78:34-37 When He slew them, then they sought Him: and they returned and inquired early after God.Israel’ s hypocritical repentance I. The acts of repentance which they performed.1. Seeking God.2. Returning.3. Inquiring.4. Remembering (Psalms 78:35).5. Renewing their covenant with God (Psalms 78:37). II. The defects of their repentance.1. It was untimely; a fore-slowed, and delayed repentance: that is implied in this word, “ when” ; not till such a time; then, not till then. 2. It was enforced repentance, not ingenuous and voluntarily undertaken; it was extorted by plagues. They repented when they were under the rod; nay, under the sword. 3. It was an unsound repentance; not true and sincere, but feigned and acted only: it was a flattering and lying repentance. 4. It was a momentary, transitory, unsettled, unconstant repentance, not firm and lasting. And these four are usually linked together, one draws on the other. These four twists make up Esay’ s cart-rope of sin. What, then, is wanting? The main of all is, that the heart must be changed. A true convert, hath an inward principle of repentance planted into him; grace is a second nature, and works constantly, as Nature doth; but an hypocrite in his actions of reformation and repentance is moved not by an inward principle of God, but by some outward motive. When that ceases his conversion fails. The motions of piety in a good Christian are like natural motions; the motions of an hypocrite are as artificial motions. The motions of the sun and the motions of a clock keep time alike; and for a time, we will say, the clock goes as true as the sun. Aye, but here’ s the difference, the one moves out of an inward principle naturally; the other, the clock, is moved by an outward principle; the weight and plummet makes it go; and when that is down the clock stands still. Or, as in waters, a natural stream flows always, it is fed with a spring; but a sudden land-flood, though it runs strongly for a while, yet it will dry up; it hath no spring or fountain to feed it. (Bishop Browning:) Psalms 78:36 Nevertheless they did flatter Him with their mouth.Flattering God I. Here is a world-wide enormity.1. It is rampant in heathendom. Men “ flatter” their gods. 2. It is prevalent in Christendom. Looking at the moral character of England, for example, who can doubt that the vast majorities of all Churches “ flatter” God by the use of the hymns they sing and the prayers they repeat? II. Here is a monstrous absurdity. Poor man is so vain that he likes flattery, and is deceived by it. But to use it to Omniscience is the height of pre-posity. He knows what is in man. He “ abhors the sacrifice where not the heart is found.” III. Here is a moral abomination. What an insult to Omniscience! (Homilist.) Psalms 78:38 But He, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity, and destroyed them not.All good rewarded The whole Book of Judges may be said to be a commentary on these words, for it is a record of successive instances of idolatry and wickedness into which the people fell, of Divine judgments which in consequence overtook them, of partial and temporary repentance produced by those judgments, and of relapses into sin when the judgments were withdrawn. The people are said, in our text, to have “ flattered God with their mouth,” and “ lied unto Him with their tongues.” There was no sincerity in their repentance, for “ their heart was not right with Him.” And nevertheless, the repentance, hollow and transient as it was, had its effect. Moved by their distress and their cry, God “ many a time turned His anger away, and did not stir up all His wrath.” Now, so far as the Israelites themselves were concerned, there is nothing in this dealing of God which is inconsistent with His character and government. If not spiritually excellent, and therefore not likely to have been recompensed with spiritual blessings, the humiliation of the Israelites had a natural or moral excellence; and, though it could do nothing towards securing a reward hereafter, it might do something like the humiliation of the Ninevites towards procuring a respite from a threatened visitation. We have no right to suppose that the Ninevites when preached to by Jonah, any more than the Israelites referred to in the text, repented in such a sense that they finally separated themselves from idols and joined themselves to the worship of the one true God. But they recognized in a very striking manner the supremacy of that Being who had rescued Jonah front the deep, and sent him among them with a prediction of woe; and, though their cry may have been wrung from them by the fear of punishment, yet was that cry as fine a witness as ever went up from this sinful creation to the awfulness and resistlessness of its Maker. And, seeing that we live beneath a retributive economy, we might almost affirm it a maxim in the Divine dealings with men, that they leave nothing of good without reward and recompense from God. You will remember that our Lord, when denouncing the hypocrisy of those who prayed and gave alms that they might be seen of men, says, “ Verily, they have their reward.” There seems in this something more than a declaration that what they were in search of was the praise of men; it is rather a declaration that it was this praise on which they had fixed their desires, and that God permitted them to gain it, because outwardly, at least, they did Him reverence. It is the fixed end and decree of God’ s government to reward every man according to his works, and therefore may He award temporary advantages to those who yield Him some temporary obedience. The greatest share of public approbation, and the most desirable portion in this world, certainly appear to be reserved for those who are signal in the duties and warm in the charities of life. And if this be true, how are we to explain it but by declaring that God is not unmindful of the least thing which may seem to be done in obedience to His will; and that, since the men who are merely earnest in curbing their passions and zealous in benefiting others are to have no future recompense, He resolves to reward them with a large measure of temporal good, and thus to allow nothing to be overlooked by His retributive government? Just as there are actions which God punishes, so are there also actions which God rewards in this life; and the reward will be more conspicuous, because the man who receives it is not one who will be accepted at the judgment. Tremble ye who are men of virtue but not of piety, whom the world is applauding, and upon whom fortune, as it is called, is continually smiling. We put no slight upon your virtues; we do not refuse to admit your integrity, your honour, your warm-heartedness, your liberality; nay, we will net even say that these virtues are without worth in God’ s sight, and will not receive a recompense at God’ s hands; rather we say unto you, “ Verily ye have your reward.” You read in the Book of Psalms of men who have their portion in this life. Oh! think with yourselves whether this may not be your case. Is it not too possible, that whilst what is naturally excellent obtains for you a measure of happiness here, the want of what is spiritually excellent may cause you to be consigned to misery hereafter? You live beneath a retributive government; you shall not have to say you do well for nothing; but the retributions of good may last only for a few years, and then the retributions of evil will crowd upon you in eternity. But, on the other hand, though it may be indirectly that there is encouragement in the text for the contrite in heart, the true disciple of Christ may draw comfort from the ease of the Israelites. If God would not leave the show and semblance of contrition without a recompense, will He be unmindful of real penitences If “ many a time turned He His anger away “ from those who” did but flatter Him with their mouths, and fled unto Him with their tongues,” has He nothing in store for those who are humble in spirit and who come to Him with the sacrifice of a broken heart? (H. Melvill, B. D.) The wondrous compassion and forbearance of God The Israelites sinned in the face of abounding mercy. Their providences were special and peculiar. For them God clave the sea and rent the heavens. Angels’ food dropped daily round their tents, and the rocks ran with living streams. God rebuked kings for their sakes. The ancients said that Venus never looked so fair as when she sat beside Pluto. I suppose that Pluto never seemed so swarthy as when contrasted with the white-armed goddess. Sin looks its blackest when set against the lovingkindness and tender mercy of a long-suffering God. Yet even such enormities as black ingratitude and rank rebellion were “ forgiven hitherto.” Here is the record--is it not wonderful? “ He being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity and destroyed them not: yea, many a time turned He His anger away and did not stir up all His wrath.” (Thomas Spurgeon.) Psalms 78:39 For He remembered that they were but flesh; a wind that passeth away, and cometh not again.The frailty of human nature I. The frailty of human nature impressively described. Two terms are used--1. “ Flesh” ; not granite, iron, or even oak, but a sentient, weak, constantly-dissolving organism. 2. “ Wind.” (1) Mysterious. “ We know not whence it cometh, or whither it goeth.”(2) Fleeting. Wind is a rapid wave of air that rolls over you and is gone. A vapour, a shadow, wind, such are the symbols of life. II. The frailty of human nature Divinely remembered. This being so--1. He will not require from us more than we are able to render. 2. He will not lay upon us more than we are able to endure. (Homilist.) Psalms 78:41 Yea, they turned back and tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel Limiting God I. We limit the Holy One of Israel by dictating to him. Shall mortal dare to dictate to his Creator? Shall it be possible that man shall lay down his commands, and expect the King of heaven to pay homage to his arrogance? Will a mortal impiously say, “ Not Thy will but mine be done” ?1. O heir of heaven, be ashamed, and be confounded, while I remind thee that thou hast dared to dictate to God! How often have we in our prayers not simply wrestled with God for a blessing--for that was allowable--but we have imperiously demanded it. Christ will have nothing to do with dictatorial prayers, He will not be a partaker with us in the sin of limiting the Holy One of Israel. Oftentimes, too, I think, we dictate to God with regard to the measure of our blessing. We ask the Lord that we might grow in the enjoyment of His presence, instead of that He gives us to see the hidden depravity of our heart. The blessing comes to us, but it is in another shape from what we expected. We go again to our knees, and we complain of God that He has not answered us. You must leave the measuring of your mercies with Him who measures the rain and weighs the clouds of heaven. Beggars must not be choosers, and especially they must not be choosers when they have to deal with infinite wisdom and sovereignty. And yet further, I fear that we have often dictated to God with regard to the time. We pray again and again, and at last we begin to faint. And why is this? Simply because that in our hearts we have been setting a date and a time to God. 2. I will address myself now to those who cannot call themselves the children of God, but who lately have been stirred up to seek salvation. There are many of you who are not hardened and careless now. Sinner, what hast thou been doing, while thou hast Said, “ I will restrain prayer because God has not as yet answered me” ? Hast thou not been stipulating with God as to the day when He shall save thee? Suppose it is written in the book of God’ s decree, “ I will save that man and give him peace after he has prayed seven years,” would that be hard upon thee? Is not the blessing of Divine mercy worth waiting for? II. We limit the Holy One of Israel by distrust.1. Children of God, purchased by blood and regenerated by the Spirit, you are guilty here; for by your distrust and fear you have often limited the Holy One of Israel, and have said in effect, that His ear is heavy that it cannot hear, and that His arm is shortened that it cannot save. In your trials you have done this. You have looked upon your troubles, you have seen them roll like mountain waves; you have hearkened to your fears, and they have howled in your ears like tempestuous winds, and you have said, “ My hark is but a feeble one, and it will soon be shipwrecked. It is true that God has said that through tempests and teasings He will bring me to my desired haven. But alas! such a state as this was never contemplated in His promise; I shall sink at last and never see His face with joy.” What hast thou done, fearful one? O thou of little faith, dost thou know what sin thou hast committed? Thou hast judged the omnipotence of God to be finite. Thou hast said that thy troubles are greater than His power, that thy woes are more terrible than His might. I say retract that thought; drown it and thou shalt not be drowned thyself. Give it to the winds, and rest thou assured that out of all thy troubles He will surely bring thee, and in thy deepest distress He will not forsake thee. 2. And now I turn to the poor troubled heart, and although I accuse of sin, yet I doubt not the Spirit shall bear witness with the conscience, and leading to Christ, shall this morning deliver from its galling yoke. Poor troubled one, thou hast said in thy heart, “ My sins are too many to be forgiven.” What hast thou done? Repent thee, and let the tear roll down thy cheek. Thou hast limited the Holy One of Israel. Thou hast put thy sins above His grace. Thou hast considered that thy guilt is more omnipotent than omnipotence itself. He is able to save unto the uttermost them that come unto God by Christ. Thou canst not have exceeded the boundlessness of His grace. Be thy sins ever so many, the blood of Christ can put them all away; and if thou doubtest this, thou art limiting the Holy One of Israel. Another says, I do not doubt His power to save, but what I doubt is His willingness. What hast thou done in this? Thou hast limited the love, the boundless love of the Holy One of Israel. 3. If you will now consider how faithful God has been to His children, and how true He has been to all His promises, I think that saint and sinner may stand together and make a common confession and utter a common prayer: “ Lord, we have been guilty of doubting Thee; we pray that we may limit Thee no longer.” (C. H. Spurgeon.) Limiting the Holy One I. Men do it in their intellectual theories. In their theories they limit Him--1. In the sphere of His agency.2. In the range of His mercy.3. In the sovereignty of His action. II. Men do it in their religious formalities.1. In their prostration before material representations of Him.2. In stereotyped forms of worship of Him.3. In specially identifying Him with certain places of worship. III. Men do it in their moral habitudes.1. By their sins they exclude Him from the temple of their nature.2. By their sins they obstruct His influence upon their sphere. (Homilist.) Unbelief limiting God I. In what way we may limit the Holy One of Israel. To limit is to set bounds to His operations; to circumscribe or confine Him in His ability to effect certain purposes or works, Now, God is often limited--1. In the extent and freeness of His mercy. The Jews could not conceive of publicans and sinners being interested in Messiah’ s regards.2. The penitent sinner often does this as to the ability and willingness of God to save.3. The believer in trouble often does this in confining God to a certain mode of deliverance.4. We often do this in the contractedness of our prayers. II. The evil of limiting the Holy One of Israel. To limit the Holy One of Israel is--1. To bring down the Creator to the standard of the creature.2. Disbelieving His Holy Word.3. Ungrateful reflection upon Him for past mercies.4. To limit our mercies and enjoyments. He says, “ Be it unto you according unto your faith.” (J. Burns, D. D.) Limiting the Holy One of Israel I. This is the crime of idolatry and heathenism. Let us beware how we create an image of God in our minds, dishonourable to Him, and, by its limitation to our poor faculty, become the means of limiting the Holy One of Israel. II. Idolatry is the growth of a seed deeper than itself, and that seed is sin. Sin limits the Holy One of Israel: the corrupt influence in the mind--in the heart, the perverted imagination, the perverted will. Sin closes the avenues by which God enters the human soul, and narrows the Divine Being in the conception. How dreadful does it seem, that man should build for himself a prison in which he shelters himself from the Almighty! Here at least the Almighty cannot come, hither He cannot penetrate; into the malignity of this heart, into the impurity of the world, He cannot descend. III. By unbelief, or doubt, we limit the Holy One of Israel. Doubt is constantly taking the circumference of God with the compasses of man, and measuring His movements by earthly motheds and estimating His force and His ages by our notations and mechanics. How frequently men, Christian men, walk amidst the very mysteries and eternities of Godhead only to limit the Holy One of Israel. You talk of the boundlessness of His being--they run to and fro with a measuring line to take the dimensions of it. They limit the Holy One of Israel. IV. There is a disposition in some philosophers to limit the Holy One of Israel even in the operations of nature. “ Night,” it has been eloquently said, “ has had three daughters, Religion, Superstition, and Atheism.” The firstborn, the eldest and loveliest, is Religion; it is through her guiding that all the “ stars are heard to sing together,” and it is her voice which proclaims, “ The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmaments show His handiwork.” But Superstition was early born of the visions of the night; she named the Zodiac--she named the longest known of the planets--she hung over them the veil of fate, and made them the arbitrary mistresses and ministers of Destiny. But these latter ages have given birth to the third daughter of the dark hours--Atheism. (E. P. Hood.) The sin of limiting God I. The Being against whom the sin is committed. It is no one less than God Himself. He is here called “ the Holy One.” God is essentially holy. He is holy in His law--as poor thoughtless sinners, that trifle with His law and disregarding all the claims of conscience, shall find either in this world or the next. He is still more manifestly holy in the Gospel; in which every doctrine, every promise, every precept, is but one glorious manifestation of His holiness. Now, that there should be even in the true Israel a proneness to “ limit the Holy One” --that when they come into some new trial, into some new emergency, into some untried state--when they come to that stage in their journey that they have never travelled before, then there should be a proneness to “ limit the Holy One” --oh! it marketh out that which should cause you and me to lay our mouths in the lowest dust. II. The sin (Psalms 78:19-20).1. To limit God is to limit His power; and He is omnipotent. There is nothing difficult with God; alike easy were it, to utter a promise or create a world. To limit the Omnipotent is another word for denying Him to be God. 2. To limit Jehovah is to limit His wisdom; and He is omniscient. He knows every thought, every desire, every misgiving, every infirmity, every sinking of heart; He knows it all. But this is to deny Him, as such. 3. We limit Him when we have misgivings as to His faithfulness. He has given a promise; and how seldom can you and I say, “ I believe it simply because God says it; I do not take it now on the testimony of saints, I take it simply because God says it; God declares it, and I believe it!” But when we do not so, how is there a secret limiting of the faithfulness that is truth!--for “ He cannot deny Himself” ; He not only does not, but He cannot. 4. We limit Him when we mark out a line for His sovereignty, whereas “ He gives no account of any of His matters.” 5. And if we are brought into the region of a dark Providence, when everything seems against us, when our most favourite desires seem to be blasted, when we are touched the most sensibly where we the least desired it--because the Lord seems to thwart one, one seems to limit His goodness. As if there could be an unkind thought in God; as if there could be any want of willingness in God to bless His child; as if He could withhold any good thing. III. The cause. “ They remembered not His hand.” The immediate cause of their “ limiting the Holy One of Israel” was, no doubt, their unbelief; but this their unbelief seemed to have a cause, and that cause was their forgetfulness of God’ s mercies. “ They remembered not His hand” --the outstretched hand. What! when the poor soul first felt its weight and burden of sin--when the secrets within were developed--when the man began to see himself a sinner--and when there was the outstretched hand, and “ Come unto me,” and “ Him that cometh I will in no wise cast out!” --the hand that still sustains I that tender hand, that gentle hand, that strong hand, that broad hand, enough to cover us amidst the storm and the tempest. Oh! it is no small sin “ not to remember the hand of our God.” We thereby “ grieve the Spirit” ; we thereby strengthen unbelief; we thereby weaken faith; we thereby displease our Heavenly Father. (J. H. Evans, M. A.) Psalms 78:51-52 And smote all the firstborn in Egypt;. . . but made His own people to go forth like sheep.God’ s dealings with Egypt and Israel I. The punishment of egypt. Egypt, through its kings, had become the determined adversary of God. “ Who is Jehovah, that I should obey His voice?” was the challenge flung down by Pharaoh in defiance; and the Lord, who is a man of war, was not slow to accept it. Let us learn from this that, when God comes to try conclusions between Himself and His enemies, He may allow a certain time to elapse before He overthrows them, He may for a while smite gently, and so give opportunities for repentance; but if they be not accepted, we may depend upon it that God is not playing with sinners. In the case of Pharaoh, it was his own chickens that came home to roost; his sins brought their own punishment. He had slain many of the children of Israel, and God had, in effect, said to him, “ Israel is my firstborn; let my people go” ; and as he would not let God’ s first-born go God’ s stroke of judgment came upon his firstborn. This is, perhaps, the most dreadful truth about future retribution that a man will see his own sin in his suffering just as he sees his face in a glass. There is no escape from God’ s judgment and no recovery from His blows. II. The salvation of Israel (Psalms 78:52).1. God has His people to this day. Their distinguishing mark is faith. 2. God brings these people out from among all others. He brought Israel up out of Egypt; and if you are one of His people, He will fetch you out of the world. God did not drive His people out of Egypt, but He led them; they came willingly and gladly, for Egypt had become a place of misery to them. So does the world become, with all its sinful pleasures; its fine glories turn to emptiness and vanity to the true child of God, and God fetches him out of it all. 3. The Lord not only brings His people away from others, but He brings them to Himself: “ He made His own people to go forth like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a flock,” He Himself going before them through the desert way like a shepherd, O poor wandering souls, come to God through Jesus Christ His Son, follow where He leads, and walk ever in His way! 4. Further, in bringing sinners to Himself, God will also bring them to one another. “ He made His own people to go forth like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.” He does not say that they should be like a solitary dog that comes at his master’ s whistle, but like a flock of sheep that move together in one direction. It is one of the marks of God’ s people that they love each other; He leads them forth like a flock of sheep, He brings them into union with one another: gives them happy fellowship in His Church, and so guides them to heaven. 5. The Lord brings His people out from the world, and brings them to Himself, and to fellowship with one another, and then He guides them to a place of rest, even as He led Israel into Canaan. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Psalms 78:56-57 And kept not His testimonies: but turned back, and dealt unfaithfully their fathers.The deceitfulness of the heart as to duty I. As to the performance of duty, the heart discovers its power of deceit.1. By diverting a person from those duties that are most spiritual in their nature. It will plead as to self-examination and meditation on the Word, that these duties are of too difficult a nature; that they require too close an attention; that it is very provoking to God to perform them carelessly; and therefore insist for the neglect of them, and for giving a preference to those of a more general nature. 2. By endeavouring to prevent any real communion with God, and to distract the mind by wandering in duty. 3. By inciting to hypocrisy. The people of God are sometimes disposed to appear to Him more fervent in duty than they really are, to make professions of love to Him which they do not presently feel, to express a hatred of sin and desire of His favour, without the immediate sense of either in their hearts. 4. By prompting the possessor to retain sin in his heart, even when he draws near to God. 5. By exciting a person to rely on his own strength. 6. By pleading uprightness of intention as an apology for a multitude of defects. 7. There are many, on the other hand, who please themselves with the form of duty, without any regard to the intention. 8. By stirring up the believer to spiritual pride after enjoying the Divine presence in duty. 9. By dissuading the Christian from duty, when the observation of it is attended with no comfort. 10. By making the person seek comfort from the mere performance of duty. 11. By inspiring one with greater boldness in duty, because of former comfort in the observation of it. II. With respect to omission.1. The heart urges the delay of duty, and thus discovers its deceitfulness, by promising a future opportunity. 2. It persuades us to omit duty by calling in the world to its aid. This is a faithful ally to the corrupt heart, always willing to lend its aid in turning us away from God. 3. It presents evil in opposition to present duty. When God presents an opportunity of serving Him, to which the renewed will consents, the deceitfulness of the heart offers a temptation to evil; and by the artfulness or force of the temptation endeavours to divert the believer from the good that he designs. 4. It dissuades from duty, because of insufficiency for performing it aright. The deceitful heart will often contradict itself, rather than fail of its intention, to baffle all the attempts of the believer in the service of his God. If engaged in duty, it persuades him to depend on his own strength. If he be convinced of the folly of this proposal, it will try to hinder him from duty, because of felt inability. 5. It prompts the Christian to resist the present call to duty, for want of a proper temper. By this is meant a right disposition of heart, liveliness of affections, a present feeling of the comforts of religion. A comfortable warmth of affections is most desirable, indeed, in the service of the Lord. But it is not essential to acceptable worship. A duty may be performed in the exercise of faith, while no sensible comfort is attained. But wilfully to omit any one for want of this is to renounce the true foundation of our access to God, which is only through Christ. 6. It dissuades from duty, by representing that an eminent measure of holiness is not necessary to salvation. 7. It inclines to the neglect of duty, lest others should construe it as presumption or hypocrisy. This is a modesty, for which God may be provoked so to chasten His people as to give them just cause of shame, and to cover their faces with deserved confusion. We shall conclude with the following directions:--1. Beware of neglecting the season of duty. God’ s time is always the fittest for His own service. 2. Do not plead the world as an excuse for the omission of duty. God hath given you abundance of time to yourselves. “ To everything there is a season,” etc. You may easily accomplish all your worldly business, and yet devote that time to God which He requires. 3. Be extremely suspicious of every excuse that your heart offers for the neglect of duty. 4. Quench not the Spirit, when exciting you to duty. This is grieving to the Holy Ghost, by whom you are sealed to the day of redemption. 5. Carry on, in the strength of promised grace, a constant war against the carnality of your hearts, against that opposition which is in them to duty. (J. Jamieson, M. A.) The unfaithfulness of God’ s people When the bow is unbent, the rift it has may be undiscerned, but go to use it by drawing the arrow to the head and it flies in pieces; thus doth a false heart when put to the trial. As the ape in the fable, dressed like a man, when nuts are thrown before her, cannot then dissemble her nature any longer, but shows herself an ape indeed; a false heart betrays itself before it is aware, when a fair occasion is presented for its lust; whereas sincerity keeps the soul pure in the face of temptation. (W. Gurnall.) Disobeying the King To break the king’ s laws is punishable, but to pull him out of his throne, and set up a scullion in it and give him the honour and obedience of a king, this is another kind of matter, and much more intolerable. The first commandment is not like the rest, which require only obedience to particular laws in a particular action, but it establisheth the very relations of sovereign and subject, and requires a constant acknowledgment of these relations, and make it high treason against the God of heaven in any that should violate that command. Now, this is the sin of every worldling: he hath taken down God from the throne in his soul and set up the flesh and the world in His stead; these he valueth and delighteth in; these have his very heart, while God that made it and redeemed it is set lightly by. (Richard Baxter.) Psalms 78:69 He built His sanctuary like high palaces, like the earth which He hath established for ever. The Gospel palaces “ He built His sanctuary like high palaces” ; look through this very country, compare its palaces with its cathedrals and churches, even in their present state of disadvantage, and say whether these words are not more than accomplished; so that the palaces of England should rather, by way of honour, be compared to the cathedrals, than the cathedrals to the palaces. And rightly so; for our first duty is towards our Lord and His Church, and our second towards our earthly sovereign. And still more strikingly has the promise of permanence been fulfilled to us. For what were the years of Solomon’ s Temple? Four hundred. What of the second Temple? Six hundred. These were long periods, certainly; yet there are Christian temples in some parts of the world which have lasted as much as fourteen hundred years. Surely, then, when Christ multiplied His sacred palaces, He also gave them an extended age, bringing back under the Gospel the days of the antediluvian patriarchs. What a visible, palpable specimen this, of the communion of saints! What a privilege thus to be immediately interested in the deeds of our forefathers! and what a call on us, in like manner, to reach out our own hands towards our posterity! Freely we have received; let us freely give. See what a noble principle faith is. Faith alone lengthens a man’ s existence, and makes him, in his own feelings, live in the future and in the past. Men of this world are full of plans of the day. Even in religion they are ever coveting immediate results, and will do nothing at all, unless they can do everything--can have their own way, choose their methods, and see the end. But the Christian throws himself fearlessly upon the future, because he believes in Him which is, and which was, and which is to come. He can endure to be one of an everlasting company while in this world, as well as in the next. He is content to begin, and break off; to do his part, and no more; to set about what others must accomplish; to sow where others must reap. None has finished his work, and cut it short in righteousness but He who is One. Thus were our churches raised. One age would build a chancel, and another a nave, and a third would add a chapel, and a fourth a shrine, and a fifth a spire. By little and little the work of grace went forward; and they could afford to take time about it, and be at pains to do it best, who had a promise that the gates of hell should not prevail against it. Thus the temples of God are withal the monuments of His saints, and we call them by their names while we consecrate them to His glory. Their simplicity, grandeur, solidity, elevation, grace, and exuberance of ornament, do but bring to remembrance the patience and purity, the courage, meekness, and great charity, the heavenly affections, the activity in well-doing, the faith and resignation, of men who themselves did but worship in mountains, and in deserts, and in caves and dens of the earth. They laboured, but not in vain, for other men entered into their labours; and, as if by natural consequence, at length their word prospered after them, and made itself a home, even these sacred palaces in which it has so long dwelt, and which are still vouchsafed to us, in token, as we trust, that they too are still with us who spoke that word, and, with them, His presence, who gave them grace to speak it. In heaven is the substance, of which here below we are vouchsafed the image; and thither, if we be worthy, we shall at length attain. There is the holy Jerusalem, whose light is like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal; and whose wall is great and high, with twelve gates, and an angel at each;--whose glory is the Lord God Almighty, and the Lamb is the light thereof. (J. H. Newman, D. D.) Psalms 78:70-72 He chose David also His servant, and took him from the sheepfolds.David, the shepherd, called to be king A keeper of sheep, suddenly becoming conscious that he was chosen for a great yet terrible destiny; being gradually fitted among the quiet hill-sides to meet this mighty calling; and then, rising to the throne, so gifted with kingly power that he guided the people through their days of peril, and established them in a strength that outlived the wear of centuries--this man (so called) seems to stand far off from ourselves in a distant world of wonder. And yet, if we ask how he was trained unconsciously for his calling--how he was strengthened to discharge it, we shall find that the same Divine hand is shaping our career; the same Divine voice calling us; and the same Divine Spirit willing to fit us for our part in the battle of life. I. The Divine calling of David.1. How was David’ s shepherd-life an unconscious preparation for his calling? Amid the stillness of the ancient hills, David, the shepherd youth, was learning to feel a presence which “ surrounded him behind and before,” and to realize the nearness of One who read his thoughts in the silence, when the beatings of his own heart were audible, and who watched over him when the great night with its gleaming worlds gathered over valley and hill. 2. How did the Divine summons fit him for his vocation? The hour came when he was to know that through all his years he had been trained for it, when the “ Spirit of the Lord came upon him from that day forward.” And now observe--he was sent back to his flocks; in the full knowledge of his grand destiny, sent to pass years of silent waiting. He knew that a Heavenly will had chosen him for his work; that a Heavenly eye was marking his way; that a Heavenly hand had arranged every trifle in his destiny; and therefore, let the future threaten and storm as it might, he could stand firmly on that rock of belief, amid the whirling tides of trouble. II. Its modern lessons.1. There is a Divine plan in every life. We cannot guide ourselves. Great events which we never foresee, or trifles which we despise, are the powers that seem to influence irresistibly the current of our earthly years. And, even when our cherished schemes succeed, they are never what are expected. Now, behind these mysterious forces, and acting through them--controlling these strange disappointments, and rendering them blessings--is the plan of God; which plan, proceeding from the everlasting past to the everlasting future, makes the individual life of every man, as it made that of David, a Divine education. 2. There is a Divine vocation for every man. A Heavenly Spirit is near us all. There are hours when His light flashes consciously across the soul, calling it to arise. Like David, every man was meant to be a king--to be a king in heaven, by becoming on earth a priest in the sacrifice of himself. 3. There is a Divine Shepherd for every man. “ He gave His life for the sheep” That tells us who was the Shepherd whose presence David felt--the Christ, who came into this wild wilderness to seek and to save the lost. (E. L. Hull, B. A.) David’ s training I look on David as an all but ideal king, educated for his office by an all but ideal training. A shepherd first; a life--be it remembered--full of danger in those times and lands; then captain of a band of outlaws; and lastly a king, gradually and with difficulty fighting his way to a secure throne. This was his course. But the most important stage of it was probably the first. Among the dumb animals he learnt experience which he afterwards put into practice among human beings. The shepherd of the sheep became the shepherd of men. He who had slain the lion and the bear became the champion of his native land. He who followed the ewes great with young, fed God’ s oppressed and weary people with a faithful and true heart, till he raised them into a great and strong nation. So both sides of the true kingly character, the masculine and the feminine, are brought out in David. For the greedy and tyrannous, he has indignant defiance; for the weak and helpless, patient tenderness. For there is in this man (as there is said to be in all great geniuses) a feminine as well as a masculine vein; a passionate tenderness; a keen sensibility; a vast capacity of sympathy, sadness, and suffering, which makes him truly the type of Christ, the Man of sorrows; which makes his psalms to this day the text-book of the afflicted, of tens of thousands who have not a particle of his beauty, courage, genius; but yet can fool, in mean hovels and workhouse sick-beds, that the warrior-poet speaks to their human hearts, and for their human hearts, as none other can speak, save Christ Himself, the Son of David and the Son of Man. A man, I say, of intense sensibilities; and therefore capable, as is but too notorious, of great crimes, as well as of great virtues. We may pervert, or rather mistake the fact in more than one way, to our own hurt. We may say cynically, David had his good points and his bad ones, as all your great saints have. Look at them closely, and in spite of all their pretensions you will find them no better than their neighbours. And so we may comfort ourselves, in our own mediocrity and laziness, by denying the existence of all greatness and goodness. Again, we may say, sentimentally, that these great weaknesses are on the whole the necessary concomitants of great strength; that such highly organized and complex characters must not be judged by the rule of common respectability; and that it is a more or less fine thing to be capable at once of great virtues and great vices. But if we do say this, or anything like this, we say it on our own responsibility. David’ s biographers say nothing of the kind. David himself says nothing of the kind. He never represents himself as a compound of strength and weakness. He represents himself as weakness itself--as incapacity utter and complete. To overlook that startling fact is to overlook the very element which has made David’ s psalms the text-book for all human weaknesses, penitences, sorrows, struggles, aspirations, for nigh three thousand years. (C. Kingsley, M. A.) . Psalms 79:1-13 Psalms 79:1-13O God, the heathen are come into Thine inheritance.The inhumanity of man and the mixture of good and evil I. Here is a fact revealing the inhumanity of man and the permissive government of God.1. What inhumanity is here! (Psalms 79:1-3). (1) It is opposed to our a priori ideas of God, as a Being of infinite love. (2) It is repugnant to that moral sense that is implanted in every man. 2. What Divine permission is hotel Why does the Almighty allow such enormities to occur? (1) Perhaps because of the respect He has for that liberty of action with which He has endowed mankind. (2) Because of the existence of that state of retribution which He has appointed to succeed the present life. II. Here is a prayer revealing the mixture of good and evil in human piety.1. Mark the good that is in this prayer (verses 8, 9, 11). In these sentences there is-- (1) A prayer to be delivered from the iniquities of froward men, that is, the bad influence of their sinful lives. (2) A prayer that Heaven would vouchsafe His compassion to us. “ Let Thy tender mercies speedily prevent us;” which means, “ hasten to meet us with Thy mercy.” (3) A prayer for these of our fellow-men who are in distress. “ Let the sighing of the prisoner come before thee.” All these aspirations command our admiration and are worthy of our imitation. 2. Mark the evil that is in this prayer (verses 6, 10, 12). In all these clauses there is the hot flame of revenge, and this certainly is an evil. (Homilist.) Good men God’ s inheritance Good men are here, as in many other places in the Bible, spoken of as the inheritance of God. They are His property, His portion. I. He has no property to which He has a stronger right. Whilst good men are His, as all things are His in the universe, by creation, they are His also--1. By special restoration. They were lost as slaves, aye, as prisoners condemned to death are lost; but He redeemed them by a stupendous sacrifice. “ Ye are not your own,” etc. 2. By voluntary consecration. They have given themselves up to Him, body, soul, and spirit, which they felt to be their “ reasonable service.” This is the one constant act of religion. II. He has no property that is more valuable.1. A soul is more valuable in itself than the material universe. A soul can think upon its Creator and love Him, can alter its course, can change its orbit, but matter cannot. 2. A soul is more serviceable to its Owner than the material universe. (1) It gives Him a higher revelation. There is more of God seen in one soul than in all the orbs of immensity. (2) It renders Him a higher homage--of free-thought, conscience, heart, life. (Homilist.) Psalms 79:8O remember not against us former iniquities.The hereditary principle in God’ s moral government of mankind The proper translation of this would be, “ Remember not to us the iniquities of former men.” The text recognizes the fact that men suffer for the iniquities of their fathers and their forefathers. This is an undoubted fact. We may just state five practical purposes which this principle of the Divine government serves to answer. I. It serves to show the right which every philanthropist has to protest against the sins of individuals. If evil is handed down from sire to son, the sinner has no right to say, How does my sin concern you? To such we may say, You have no right to do that which injures your brethren; and, in the name of humanity, every man has a right to protest against your sine and to endeavour to restrain you by all moral means from their commission. II. It serves to show the solemn responsibility of the parental character. As our dispositions will be reproduced, and our deeds re-transacted, our actions will vibrate on the hearts of unborn men and women. Man lives, thinks, and throbs in the life of posterity. III. It serves to show that the best way to elevate the race is to train the young. As one generation so forms another, the best way to serve the whole race is to make a generation, physically, intellectually, and morally, what it ought to be. But there is no chance of thus forming a generation, except in the first stages of its life. Concentrate your efforts on the young. IV. It serves to throw some light upon what is called “ original sin.” V. It serves to indicate the philosophy of Christ’ s incarnation. “ To destroy sin in the flesh.” To do this, not merely in theories, books, or speech, but in actual human life, is the grand condition of the world’ s salvation. But inasmuch as sin, by this hereditary principle, is transmitted through physical relationship and social influences, it seems necessary that He who would destroy it, should become a link in the’ great chain of humanity, identify Himself with the race, and originate the counteracting influences of truth and righteousness. Hence the world’ s great Deliverer became the Son of Man. (Homilist.) Psalms 79:9 Help us, O God of our salvation.The highest Divine title, and the highest human privilege I. The highest Divine title. “ God of our salvation.” God in creation appears transcendently great; but in salvation we see--1. A higher kind of power: moral power; the power to manage, master, and mould free rebellious intelligences. 2. A higher love. The love of compassion, forbearance, forgiveness. II. The highest human privilege. To be saved involves the restoration oral. 1. A lost moral life. 2. Lost harmony. 3. Lost usefulness. (Homilist.) A nation’ s prayer in time of distress I. The petition itself.1. It is very fit for nations under heavy pressures and calamities to confess their sins to God publicly. 2. It is very proper for such an afflicted nation to pray earnestly to God for help and deliverance. II. The motive or argument used.1. By the Name of God, in Scripture, is frequently to be understood God Himself in all His excellences, attributes and perfections; and the glory of His name is the rendering those perfections conspicuous and observable; so that to move God for His name’ s sake, or the glory of His name, is to move Him, that the effects of His Divine attributes may be made visible and illustrious in the sight of men, so that they may be had in just esteem and veneration. 2. What particular reasons the Jewish nation had to petition God, to glorify those His attributes on their behalf. (1) As they were a nation selected from the rest of the world, and made the peculiar people of God. (2) As the people of the Jews were politically united to God, their Sovereign in a national bond, or covenant, so He expressed Himself frequently to have a particular kindness for them, giving them many repeated promises of establishing their government and the succession of their kings in the royal line of David to perpetual generations. 3. Inquire what general encouragement there is for other nations to address to God upon the same motive. And the encouragement is sufficient, in that God has upon occasions declared by His holy prophets that He is not a little concerned for His own honour, He would have His name known and published in all the world, He would have that honour given to Him, which is due unto His name, to all His names; for He is styled in Scripture by many names, not only with respect to His essence, and existence, but also to His supereminent attributes and properties. 4. Inquire, as far as it is fit for us, upon what occasions, and at what seasons it may be proper for a nation to use this motive in their addresses to God. (1) When the existence and providence of God is called in question, denied by some, and exposed and profaned by others. (2) When they themselves or others, whom common humanity and Christian charity oblige to commiserate, lie under great oppressions; in this case men may confidently apply themselves to God, for the sake of His honour and for His holy name. III. Application.1. If Almighty God have such a respect to the honour of His name, as to accept the addresses that are made to Him upon that motive, it is a great encouragement to us to make use of it upon all occasions; especially upon occasion of using some extraordinary offices of devotion. 2. Let us be careful that we do not as publicly dishonour Him by our sins as we pretend publicly to honour Him by our devotions. (Bp. Gardiner.) Deliver us, and purge away our sins. Sins forgiven for Jesu’ s sake There is an old book in Paris called the “ Chancellerie Book.” It is like our own “ Doomsday Book,” in which all the records are inscribed--all the records of William the Conqueror’ s division of the land of England. The Chancellerie Book does likewise for France. It has the record of the cities, towns, and villages, with the amount of taxes to be paid by each. As you turn over the old pages of that book, you come to “ Domremy,” and, behold! there are no taxes to be paid by Domremy. Across the page there is written in bold writing, “ Free, for the maid’ s sake.” No taxes for the sake of Joan of Arc, the heroine who flung the English out. Ah, me! when those books are opened when the Lord takes His place on the great white throne, and He comes to my life on earth, behold! across the otherwise condemning page there is written, with letters of His own atoning blood, “ Sins forgiven for His name’ s sake.” Man’ s need of cleansing from sin met in Christ A rough parable of Luther, grafted on an older legend, runs somewhat in this fashion:--A man’ s heart is like a foul stable. Wheelbarrows and shovels are of little use, except to remove some of the surface filth, and to litter all the passages in the process. What is to be done with it? “ Turn the Elbe into it,” says he. The flood will sweep away all the pollution. Not my own efforts, but the influx of that pardoning, cleansing grace which is in Christ will wash away the accumulation of years, and the ingrained evil which has stained every part of my being. We cannot cleanse ourselves. Psalms 79:10 Wherefore should the heathen say, Where is their God? A bad spirit and a theological error I. A bad spirit. “ Where is their God?”1. There is a tendency in wicked men to deal in it. This spirit always indicates-- (1) A mean nature.(2) A malignant nature.(3) A haughty nature. 2. There is a susceptibility even in good men to be pained by it. This is no sign of strength and greatness, but the reverse; the really great and strong man will feel no more the most cutting gibes of scorners than granite the drops of morning dew. II. A theological error. The question implies that the true God would not allow His people to suffer oppression and death at the hands of others.1. The creatures whom God has created with an inner sovereignty, He allows to act freely both for good and evil. 2. All the evil that comes into the universe in this’ way He overrules for good. (Homilist.) Psalms 79:11 Let the sighing of the prisoner come before Thee.The prisoner’ s sigh How difficult is it in earthly courts for the poor and sick to get access to the monarch’ s earl There is a fearful contrast between the king thus surrounded with magnificence and pomp, and the prisoner alone in his sad dungeon, the prey of hunger, of nakedness, and cold--the music of the monarch’ s court, the silence of the captive’ s cell, the monarch’ s prospects of power and glory for to-morrow, and the prisoner’ s that the morrow will be even as wretched as to-day. But what we cannot contemplate in things temporal is oftentimes plainly shown in things spiritual. The court of the Most High is unlike all others, for there the poor, the wretched, and the sad have entrance when they will. I. The prisoner.1. There is the prisoner under forced bondage to sin, who is held in degrading thraldom against his will, perhaps by some peculiar effort of the devil, perhaps by some evil habit which he has allowed to become ascendant in his heart. Be encouraged, we say to such an one, with all your sins you are not shut out from life and hope, your state is dangerous but it is not desperate, provided that you make God’ s throne the destination of these sighs. 2. The prisoner under the bondage of conviction. Whilst you are sighing in your captivity, our message is to sustain you, not to do away with your convictions, or bid you cease to sigh, but to make your convictions lead you to the Cross, and to tell you that your sighs are surely heard. 3. The prisoner in the dungeon of despair. We approach such an one and say, “ How earnest thou in hither? Who has denied the entrance of hope into thy cell, and fast bound thy soul in iron? Why shouldest thou at one time rage, and at another time be sullen? Hast thou ever petitioned for thy relief?” We tell this man of Christ, and of the free love of God, and of mercy shown to such sinners as David and myriads more, and exalting the power of the Cross; we show how “ Jesus is able to save even to the very uttermost all that, come unto God by Him” ; but what the immediate effect of this might be none can tell. At the sound of this Gospel’ s trump, the walls of some men’ s dungeons will immediately fall fiat, as Jericho’ s fell prostrate at the sounding of the priests. Then the captive of despair, seeing that there is salvation in Christ, will be set free by the Son, and so be free indeed. II. The prisoner’ s application for relief.1. A sigh is an unexpected declaration. Although we do not speak, still we can tell a long tale of sorrow with a sigh. 2. An unexpressed with for deliverance. A sigh indicates a condition of the mind: it tells us that there is sorrow there. Do you indeed feel this? If you do, is it possible that you can thus express your sadness without God’ s being well acquainted with it all? Surely not; and if God knows this, is His heart hardened that He will not feel; is His hand shortened that it cannot save? III. The source from which this prisoner looked for help. “ According to the greatness of Thy power.” This preservation shall be vouchsafed to every one of you who sigh for it to God. He Will deliver you from the place where you are confined with a sentence of death upon you, and will altogether reverse the sentence itself. It were of no use to escape from the prison-house with our sentence still impending over us; we might be apprehended again, and lose our life at last. Deliverance, however, and remission, shall both be yours; and the greatness of the power you have invoked shall be seen in each. And who will come forth, and bring you from your captivity, but Jesus Christ Himself? (P. B. Power, M. A.) The condemned prisoner I. Our sad and gloomy condition as fallen creatures. There are many sorts of prisoners; some are so from debt, some by being taken captive in battle, some for criminal offences. The sinner is all these. He is, as the word may be rendered, a son of death; a criminal, respited, but not pardoned. He is as one waiting for execution. His doom is delayed, but not averted. II. What are the obstacles to deliverance? In the King who can reprieve he sees the adversary whom he has wronged, and the Judge who has appointed him to die. Omnipotent power, injured dignity, and immutable justice are leagued against him. What can the prisoner do? III. That there is a way of escape. In the face of every obstacle, deliverance is attainable. In proof of this we may notice--1. The infinite knowledge of God. “ Let the sighing of the prisoner come before thee.” From whatever depth of guilt and misery you breathe the prayer of a broken and contrite heart, that prayer is heard by a gracious God. 2. The Almighty power on which the plea is founded--“ According to the greatness of Thy power.” This must be exercised. (Anon.) Psalms 79:12 And render unto our neighbours sevenfold into their bosom their reproach.Vengeance This is the same spirit as is breathed out in Psalms 79:6. It is revenge. We have here two things. I. A noble instinct. It is an instinct of justice, a cry against wrong. As an instinct, it is a spark from the Divine nature, a spark that reveals the justice which is at the head of the universe. Observe, the revenge here was not breathed for personal enemies, nor for bad men in the neighbourhood, the land, or the ago, but for bad men in a distant land and in a remote time. It was the breaking forth of that instinct of revenge which is in all our natures. II. A noble instinct wrongly developed. It was a prayer that God would punish with “ sevenfold” the sufferings which their enemies had inflicted on them.1. It was a personal, not a public, development. We are commanded not to return evil for evil, etc. 2. It was an exaggerated development. It is not merely, treat, them as they are treating us, but with seven times the cruelty. 3. It was an impious development. It was asking the God of Infinite Love to act cruelly, it was to dictate to Infinite Justice the method of avenging the wrong. “ Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord.” “ If,” says Sir T. Browne, “ thou must needs have thy revenge of thine enemy, with a soft tongue break his bones, heap coals of fire on his head, forgive him, and enjoy it.” (Homilist.) Psalms 79:13 We will show forth Thy praise to all generations.God’ s people should speak God’ s praise Dr. Parkhurst says he loves to think that every man is sent into the world with something to tell. “ That is what makes of any man a prophet, being filled with a story too big for his own soul to house,” a story he cannot, dare not, keep to himself. This truth God has given you to utter makes you a witness. You may be a false witness, and no witness is more than he who says nothing; or you may be a true and faithful witness, testifying to the best you know by your face and hands, your smiles and deeds and words. That is a startling thought of Andrew Murray’ s: “ God does not ask us to hide Christ away in our impure hearts.” Christ gives Himself to us constantly, but in order that we may as constantly give Him to others. Truth is like the water pressed upon the foul garments, that cleanses them if it is forced out again, but rots them all the more if it is allowed to remain. So is the religion that we selfishly cherish unexpressed. Indeed, is there a worse form of selfishness than that? (Amos R. Wells.) . Psalms 80:1-19 Psalms 80:1-19 Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, Thou that leadest Joseph like a flock.The Almighty in relation to erring man I. As a shepherd (Psalms 80:1).1. His flock indicated. “ Joseph” may stand for all Israel, and Israel as an illustration of the moral condition of men everywhere. (1) Rebellious.(2) Discontented.(3) Pursuing a perilous journey. 2. His dwelling-place described. Dwelt in symbol on mercy-seat. Now, God is in Christ, reconciling the world. 3. His interposition invoked (Psalms 80:2). (1) The end. “ Save us.”(2) The means. Divine strength Divine turning. Divine favour. II. As a character (Psalms 80:4). God’ s chastisements are--1. Always deserved. 2. Often very painful. Physical anguish, moral distress, social bereavement, disappointment, persecution. 3. They sometimes stimulate prayer. However great our afflictions, if they but send us in prayer to God, they are blessings in disguise. III. As a cultivator (Psalms 80:8-13).1. The work He does. (1) He prepares the soil. There is only one moral soil in the universe in which dead souls can be quickened and be rightly developed, and that is the Gospel of Christ. Souls are seeds. (2) He deposit the seed. God alone can bring the soul into the soil of Gospel truth and root it there. (3) He trains the plant. “ The hills were covered with the shadow of it.” The Jewish people became a grand nation under His training. So do human souls become under His spiritual training. 2. The evil He permits. “ Why hast thou then broken down her hedges?” etc. He did not do it by His direct agency, only by permission. He could have prevented it. He could have crushed the invaders. But He did not. For wise and beneficent purposes, He permitted it. So it is in the department of spiritual culture. He permits evils. IV. As the restorer (Psalms 80:14-19).1. He restores by special visitation. “ Look down from heaven,” etc. Dead souls are restored to life because God visits the world. “ He bowed the heavens and came down.” He appeared in Christ. 2. He restores from apparently the most hopeless condition (Psalms 80:16). “ There is nothing too hard for the Lord.” “ He is able of these stones to raise up children,” etc. “ Can these dry bones live?” you say. Yes, they can. 3. He restores by quickening the soul into devotion (Psalms 80:18). (Homilist.) The relative Deity I. Here He is presented in His relative character. He is a “ Shepherd.” As a Shepherd He has universal knowledge, self-sacrificing love, and almighty power. II. Here He is presented in His relative agency. “ Thou that leadest Joseph like a flock.” He leads us now by the dictates of moral reason, the events of His providence, the revelations of His book, and the influence of His Spirit.(1) The insufficiency of human reason.(2) The free agency of man;--He “ leads,” not drives.(3) The considerateness of His compassion. III. Here He is presented in His relative posture. “ Thou that dwellest between the cherubims, shine forth.” Man, from his nature, requires a place for his God--some point in space where he may meet Him. Under the old dispensation this want was met by His appearing in the Shekinah over the mercy-seat. In the new it is met in Christ, of which the old manifestation was but the symbol. Christ is the “ Mercy Seat “ where man meets his God. IV. Here He is presented in His relative light, “ Shine forth.” We want Him to shine forth upon us through Christ. (Homilist.) Thou that dwellest between the cherubims, shine forth. The mercy-seat The prayer in the text may be offered--1. When we are seeking the pardon of our offences,--when our hearts are stricken with conviction,--when we understand and feel that it is an evil thing to sin against God. 2. When we are oppressed by spiritual adversaries. 3. When commending particular efforts for the advancement of the Saviour’ s kingdom to the Divine regard. 4. When we contemplate the general condition and wants of mankind. (J. Parsons.) The God that dwelleth between the cherubims I. The character of God represented by this phrase.1. A God of glory. 2. A God of holiness and justice. 3. A God of mercy, full of love and goodness. 4. A God of condescending intercourse. God might be approached with safety and success as He sat upon the mercy-seat sprinkled with blood (Exodus 29:43-46). II. The import of the prayer in the text. “ Thou that dwellest between the cherubims, shine forth,” smile upon us with Thy heavenly favour; cast away all our transgressions from Thy sight; break in upon our darkened souls with the light of Thy truth, and cause us to see and know the truth with enlightened understandings; chase away with Thy bright beamings the gloom of sin and unbelief; and let Thy peace “ which passeth all understanding,” and the “ joy of the Holy Ghost,” dwell within us, to be our portion at all times. Guide us by Thy unerring counsel here, and receive us to Thy eternal glory hereafter. (J. S. Broad, M. A.) The word “ God” means the Shining One Special reference is probably made to the Shekinah. God under the Old Testament was manifesting His presence in a cloud of dazzling light. The name, therefore, by which He was known was the Brilliant or Shining One. It was long supposed that God etymologically meant good. God, good--they were believed to be one and the same word. But further investigation seems to point out that the English God, the Latin Deus, the Greek Theos, the Welsh Duw--all come from an old Aryan root signifying “ to shine.” Men thought of God, and to what could they compare Him? To nothing else than the shining splendour of the light. God is light, God means the “ Shining One.” (Cynddylan Jones.) Psalms 80:2 Before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh stir up Thy strength, and come and save us.For understanding of this verse we must remember that, when the ark of the covenant rested, or marched, in the wilderness, these three tribes were in the rearward of the host of Israel, or on the west side thereof, as is set down (Numbers 2:18-19). When the host marched, and the ark set forward, Moses said to the Lord, “ Rise up, Lord, and let thine enemies be scattered; and let them that hate Thee flee before Thee” ; answerable to this, doth the sixty-eighth psalm begin, when the ark removed, and was carried up to Mount Zion; now, the people of God being in distress here, do call those days to remembrance, and do request the Lord, that as He had in the eyesight of those three tribes here mentioned, manifested Himself many a time to be the leader and defender of His people, so He would now also in this their lamentable condition stir up Himself for their relief and safety. Whence learn 1. The remembrance of the Lord’ s humbling Himself to be familiar with His people, and how sweet and glorious communion His people have had with Him, may, and should, encourage believers in Him to seek and expect new experience of the like mercy in their need, as here the Israelites do pray for new proof of that favour, which their ancestors did find sometimes. 2. The posterity of those who have been in fellowship with God should pray for themselves, and be prayed for by the Church, that they may have room in the Lord’ s host, and have God their leader, as their godly fathers had before them. (D. Dickson.) Psalms 80:4O Lord God of hosts, how long wilt thou be angry against the prayer of Thy people?God’ s anger The Lord God of hosts is not properly a title of creation, but of providence. All creatures have their existence from God as their Maker; but so have they also their order from Him as their Governor. So that here, God would be respected, not as a creator, but as a general. His anger, therefore, seems so much the more fearful, as it is presented to us under so great a title, “ The Lord God of hosts is angry.” They talk of Tamerlane, that he could daunt his enemies with the very look of his countenance. Oh! then what terror dwells in the countenance of the offended God! I. God may be angry; and sin the cause of His anger. He hath scourged some in very mercy, till they have smarted under His rod (Job 6:4; Psalms 88:15-16). If He will do thus much in love, what shall be the terrors of His wrath? If the sun were wanting, it would be night for all the stare; and if God frown upon a man, for all the glittering honours of this world, he sits in the shadow of death. Thus terrible is the anger of God; now, what is He angry withal but sin? That is the perpetual make-bate between God and us; the fuel of the fire of His indignation (Isaiah 59:2; Isaiah 63:10). II. God may be long angry. It is some favour when we have the respite to cry, “ How long, Lord, wilt thou be angry with us?” There is some hope of remedy when we once complain of our sickness. Yet God may be long angry, and long continue sensible testimonies of His anger (Psalms 95:10). But how, then, doth the prophet say “ that he retaineth not anger” ? Well enough; for He never retaineth it one moment longer than we retain the cause of it. So soon as we ever cease sinning against Him, He ceaseth to be angry with us. III. God may be angry with the whole people. The universality of sin calls for the universality of repentance, or else it will provoke God’ s anger to strike us with universal judgments. If the whole people be guilty, the whole people must fall to deprecation. Such was the Ninevite’ s repentance, “ every man turning from his evil ways.” IV. God may be angry with His own people. Yea, their sins anger Him most of all, because, together with wickedness, there is unkindness. As dearly as He loves them, their sins may provoke Him. Our interest in God is so far from excusing our iniquities, that it aggravates them. The nearer we are to Him, the nearer do our offences torch Him; as a man more takes to heart a discourtesy done by a friend than a great injury by a stranger. V. God may be angry with His people that prayeth.1. There may be infirmities enough in our very prayers to make them unacceptable. 2. But such is the mercy of our God, that He will wink at many infirmities in our devotions, and will not reject the prayer of an honest heart because of some weakness in the petitioner. It must be a greater cause than all this that makes God angry at our prayers. In general, it is sin (John 9:31; Psalms 66:18; Isaiah 1:15). God will have none of those petitions that are presented to Him with bloody hands. 3. In particular, it is the hypocrisy of sin, or the sin of hypocrisy, that makes God so angry with our prayers. (T. Adams.) Obstructed prayer I. In what sense God may be said to be angry with our prayers.1. When He denies our requests.2. When He delays His answers.3. When He bestows blessings under a different form, and in a different manner from what we expected. II. Some of the causes for this.1. Our desires may be, and no doubt often are, improper.2. Desires, not in themselves improper, may be unsuitable to us, such as would not, if granted, become our case or circumstances.3. Prayers may be ill-timed.4. They may be polluted and spoiled by sins.5. They may be incompatible with the plans of infinite wisdom. III. Improvement.1. Instead of restraining prayer, this should make us more importunate.2. Though we should not give over praying, we ought to give over sinning.3. Acquiesce in all the Divine proceedings.4. Be thankful that whatever favours God may see fit to withhold or suspend, He bestows far more than we have deserved. (Essex Remembrancer.) Psalms 80:13 The boar out of the wood doth waste it, and the wild beast of the field doth devour it.People to be feared By this homely but expressive figure, the text sets forth the bad influences which in olden time broke in upon God’ s heritage, as with swine’ s foot trampling, and as with swine’ s snout uprooting the vineyards of prosperity. What was true then is true now. There have been enough trees of righteousness planted to overshadow the whole earth, had it not been for the axemen who hewed them down. I. I propose to point out to you those whom I consider to be the uprooting and devouring classes of society.1. First, the public criminals. What is the fire that burns your store down compared with the conflagration which consumes your morals? What is the theft of the gold and silver from your money safe compared with the theft of your children’ s virtue? 2. Again: in this class of uprooting and devouring population are untrustworthy officials (Ecclesiastes 10:16). It is a great calamity to a city when bad men get into public authority. Too great leniency to criminals is too great severity to society. 3. Again: among the uprooting and devouring classes in our midst, are the idle. When the French nobleman was asked why he kept busy when he had so large a property, he said: “ I keep on engraving so I may not hang myself.” I do not care who the man is, you cannot afford to be idle. It is from the idle classes that the criminal classes are made up. Character, like water, gets putrid if it stands still too long. 4. Again: among the uprooting classes I place the oppressed poor. While there is no excuse for criminality, even in oppression, I state it as a simple fact that much of the scoundrelism of the community is consequent upon ill-treatment. There are many men and women battered and bruised, and stung until the hour of despair has come, and they stand with the ferocity of a wild beast, which, pursued until it can run no longer, turns round, foaming and bleeding, to fight the hounds. I want you to know who are the uprooting classes of society. II. Because I want you to be more discriminating in your charities. Because I want your hearts open with generosity, and your hands open with charity. Because I want you to be made the sworn friends of all city evangelization, and all newsboys’ lodging houses, and all Howard missions, and Children’ s Aid Societies. But more than that, I have preached the sermon because I thought in the contrast you would see how very kindly God had dealt with you, and I thought that you would go to-day to your comfortable homes, and sit at your well-filled tables, and look at the round faces of your children, and that then you would burst into tears at the review of God’ s goodness to you, and that you would go to your room and lock the door; and kneel down, and say: “ O Lord, I have been an ingrate; make me Thy child.” (T. De Witt Talmage.) Ecclesiastical ruins Whatever may have been the period when this psalm was written, it is a remarkable fact that it has been suitable for every age, from the days of the Judges until now, and been found expressive of the prayer and outlook of the people of the Lord. Failure has ever attended the ecclesiastical systems of earth. The theocracy which Joshua left was soon in ruins. The magnificent and well-ordered temple ritual organized by David and established by Solomon did not continue in its glory for one generation. Again and again it was restored by reforms, but grew worse and worse till the Lord Christ came. Then followed the Christian Church; but as that slowly rose into power it became a degenerate vine, and Catholicism grew to be such a curse that one-third of the Christian world rose in open protest, and the revolt of another third was stifled with blood. Then came the Reformed Churches. For a while they flourish, but full soon when the Master looks for fruit they bring forth wild grapes. The holiest souls in each to-day are crying, as they have through all the ages, “ The forest boar rends it, and the wild beast feeds upon it.” This continued failure is solemn and instructive. As yet every religious system has sooner or later degenerated. Its fence has been broken down and wayfarers have mocked. Man was not made for ecclesiastical organization, but ecclesiastical organization for man. The work of the Holy Spirit of God is upon separate souls, and sometimes ecclesiastical failure drives the soul into closer communion with the true God. Grand spirits, like Asaph, are developed amidst Church disorder. Let the psalmists and the prophets, let the heroes of successive reformations, Columba and Patrick, Wickliffle and Luther, Wesley and Whitfield bear testimony to this. (J. H. Cooke.) Psalms 80:17 Let Thy hand be upon the man of Thy right hand.Christ made strong for God Of Jesus only can it be unreservedly said, that He is the man of God’ s right hand, and that He hath made Him strong for Himself. Of all the terms in the passage, we may indeed say that they are peculiarly emphatic, and embody views of character and position which could only be realized in the person and work of Christ. I. The import of the designations herein given to Christ.1. The Man of God’ s right hand. Inasmuch as a seat at the right hand among men is esteemed the place of honour and power, so the act of elevating to dignity and authority by Jehovah is spoken of as a placing at His right hand; and accordingly Jesus is referred to as sitting at His right hand, or as described in one instance, “ the right hand of power.” This leads us at once to perceive that the personal and official dignity of the Saviour are eplicity alluded to in our text, in His being called “ the Man of God’ s right hand.” 2. The Son of Man. Whilst the title in question implies the doctrine of Christ’ s perfect manhood, it equally implies that He was more than a mere man. Differing hence in these respects from all the sons of men--though still a man in His creature existence--with much expressiveness could He be called “ the Son of Man.” II. The appointment of Jesus to the office of redeemer. Such appointment is expressly involved, if not explicitly stated, in the words, “ whom Thou hast made strong for Thyself” ; for God is thus represented as having chosen or designated “ the Son of Man” to the office He thus holds. In this sense He “ made Him” or appointed Him for Himself, to the office of Redeemer. III. The peculiar fitness of the Man of God’ s right hand to discharge the duties of the office to which He was appointed. It is impossible for any created intelligence to say what strength, or amount of spiritual power, was required on the part of Jesus--the Man of God’ s right hand--to accomplish the work of redemption; but it behoves us not the less to direct our attention as closely as possible to the specific difficulties we know He had to encounter, that we may arrive at a fair estimate of His endurance; and hence of the greatness of that love and mercy by which these were animated. IV. What is implied in this petition, requesting God to let His hand be upon the Man of His right hand.1. A perception of danger.2. A consciousness that man’ s help is not to be found in himself.3. A willingness to rely for salvation on the means appointed by God, through the Son of His love.4. Full persuasion of God’ s willingness to confer the blessing thus sought. (J. Allan.) A prayer for the Messiah 1. In all ages the saints have greatly longed for their Saviour. Abraham saw His day afar off, and rejoiced that a child was to be born unto him, in whom all nations of the earth should be blessed. And the godly in this verse long for Him, and pray for His coming. 2. He is here shortly three ways described. (1) First, He is called the Son of God’ s right hand, for three causes: first, in respect of His marvellous generation in both His natures: in the one, without a father; in the other, without a mother. Secondly, He is called the Son of God’ s right hand, for that singular love and favour which the Father carries toward Him; for the right hand of God signifies His power, or His favour and love. It is true every Christian man is also the son of God’ s right hand; by nature his name is Ben-oni, the son of sorrow; but his father hath changed his name with his estate, called him Ben-jamin, the son of his right hand. But in a more special sense doth this title belong to the Lord Jesus. Thirdly, He is the Son of the Father’ s right hand in respect of his most perfect obedience and ready willingness to do in all things the will of His Father. (2) They call Him the Son of Man; He is in such sort the Son of God, that He is also the Son of Man, not begotten by man, yet formed, and conceived of the seed of man; He is the companion of Jehova; He is also, as Job calleth Him, our Goel or kinsman. Doubtless this is a strong bulwark of our faith, since we see that the Son of God is become the Son of Man, clothed with all the infirmities of our nature, except sin; since we see the God of glory humbled to the ignominy of the cross, why should we doubt that the sons of men shall also be made the sons of God, and that these vile bodies of ours shall be changed, and fashioned like unto the glorious body of Christ, especially since for no other end became He the Son of Man, but to make us the sons of God? (3) “ Whom Thou hast made strong for Thyself;” this respecteth His threefold office, and His unction to them all (Isaiah 61:1; John 6:27; John 1:14; John 3:34). Of all these it is plain how the Father is said to have made His Son strong for Himself; that is, He anointed Him, He sealed Him, He put His Spirit into Him, not in a measure, but communicated the fulness of grace to Him, that He might be strengthened to do unto us the office of a king, to deliver us from our enemies, or a prophet, to teach us the whole counsel of God, and of a priest, to offer Himself in a propitiatory sacrifice for us. In all these appeared His wonderful strength; when He suffered like a weak man, then He wrought like a valiant man. Every way the mighty strength of our strong Redeemer is to be admired, but specially His conquests by suffering, there did appear the weakness of God stronger than man; yea, then all these principalities, powers, and spiritual wickednesses that were opposite to Him. (Bp. Cowper.) Psalms 80:18 So will not we go back from Thee.Apostasy from God I. Wherein lies the true nature of apostasy from God.1. Every failure and defect in the exercise of grace is not to be reckoned as an apostasy. The soul may faint and flag in the pursuit of God, and yet not be carried off so far as to steer a contrary course. 2. Every positive discovery of corruption in the actual commission of sin is not apostasy. A man may halt and slip, yea, he may stumble, and fall, and yet not go back. 3. Apostasy from God includes not only a deviation in the life, but an alienation of the heart (Psalms 95:10; Acts 3:32; Psalms 44:18). 4. Apostasy from God is really an undoing of all the good which we have done. It is ending in the flesh, after we have begun in the Spirit; when our faces have been towards Zion, and our doings framed to turn to God; this is a revoking and disannulling of all, and driving towards hell. II. Of what concernment and importance it is to believers to re secured against such apostasy.1. How much they are in danger of it, viz. if left alone, and abandoned to themselves. (1) Grace in us is very weak. (2) Corruption in us is very active (James 1:14). There is folly enough remaining in the wisest and best of men to prevent and mislead them. (3) The temptations which come upon us are very numerous. Every place, every condition, every employment, every relation is full of them. 2. How much danger they incur by apostasy, if they should be left to be guilty of it. (1) They must needs at the present lose all comfortable communion with God. (2) They can never see the kingdom of God, unless they remember from whence they are gone back, and return and do their first works. (3) If they come back to God again, it must be by very bitter and sorrowful repentance. III. How is the strength of Christ our security in this case?1. Omnipotence belongs to Christ, on the account of His Godhead, and this shall be exerted on the behalf of them that believe, as there is occasion. 2. Christ was anointed with power, as Mediator, the improvement whereof is not to His own advantage, but the advantage of those that believe in Him (Isaiah 63:1; Luke 1:69). 3. Christ hath destroyed the power of the devil by a power superior to him. This is meant by His dividing the spoil with the strong (Isaiah 53:12). 4. Christ, by the matchless efficacy and merit of His blood, hath purchased for us confirming grace, and the perpetual presence of the Spirit with us. 5. Christ’ s prevailing intercession secures to us the needful, actual succours of grace, while we are here in this world. IV. Why hath God ordered it so, that believers should be secured against apostasy by the strength of Christ?1. This agrees with God’ s general design of heaping all the glory possible upon Jesus Christ. 2. This suits with God’ s design of grace in our eternal election; for we are chosen in Christ (Ephesians 1:4). Therefore it is fit that we should be also preserved in Christ (Jude 1:1). 3. It is necessary that we should be secured against apostasy by the strength of Christ, because He is the First and the Last in our sanctification. 4. It is necessary that Christ should secure us in our way to glory, because it is His business to receive us into the possession of that glory at the close of all (John 14:3). 5. The wisdom of God is hereby seen in a most shameful baffling of the devil. 6. Believers could not have a better security than that whereof there hath been a visible experiment in the Person of Christ Himself. V. Uses.1. This lays open the ground of the devil’ s enmity against Christ, which hath been always most extreme and implacable. 2. It is inexcusable folly for any one in the world to lean to his own arm. 3. Make no promises of perseverance in your own strength. 4. Look to your faith as the principal grace, which contributes to your establishment (Isaiah 7:9). 5. Do not arrogate the honour of your standing in Christ, and abiding with Christ, in the least measure to yourselves. Let Christ have all the glory of your setting out, and holding out; let Him have it now, and let Him have it at the last. (T. Cruse.) Backsliders and their guilt I. Point out those who may be justly charged with going back from God.1. Those who, having been once instructed in the Gospel, and having enjoyed the benefits of its means of grace, and continued for some time professors of Christianity, have afterwards renounced the faith through an evil heart of unbelief. The religion of Jesus presents insurmountable objections to fraud, deceit, or dishonesty--to the indulgence of sinful passions or of unlawful pleasures; yet they are attached to their worldly enjoyments, and, desirous of shaking off the restraints of religion, they begin by impugning particular doctrines, and imagine that the precepts of Christianity are not so strict, or its denunciations against sin so very positive as they seem, and fancy that they shall find some way of escaping punishment not commonly understood, some easier way than passing through the strait gate which Christ has pointed out By degrees they go on to deny religion altogether, and to magnify for themselves difficulties into serious objections. 2. Those who shrink from an open and fair avowal and confession of their faith. They are afraid lest they be accounted puritanical, singular, narrow-minded or superstitious; they dread the laugh, the ridicule, the contempt of weak and worthless mortals whom they cannot possibly esteem, more than the reproofs of a disapproving conscience, more than the awful displeasure of God. 3. There are many who, from pure fickleness and love of change, are carried about with every wind of doctrine; many have no root in themselves, and therefore become the deluded followers of every new instructor, of every arrogant pretender to superior knowledge or holiness. 4. There are also not a few who, influenced by worldly attachments and connections, accompany and follow their companions and friends, and separate themselves from others with whom they have had some trifling quarrel, or conceived something wrong. Those who thus act go in direct opposition to Christ’ s admonition. “ Seek ye first the kingdom of God.” 5. Those who act habitually inconsistent with their religious profession. A licentious and immoral Christian, a profane and ungodly believer, a false and deceitful follower of Jesus, a lover of God who is cruel or unjust to men, are characters which, by the very words of which they are expressed, involve a contradiction, and cannot by possibility have any existence. 6. They may be more especially charged with going back, who return to the wilful commission of sin, after having been engaged in the ordinances of devotion, namely, those professing Christians who have made public and solemn declaration of love, obedience, and attachment, to Jesus, and of a determination to act faithfully as Christians. II. Let me entreat you to avoid following their example, because--1. It is weak and contemptible. In the most ordinary affairs of life can you ever have confidence, can you ever have esteem for the fickle, changeable, and irresolute? 2. It is very sinful to go back from God; for dishonesty and unfaithfulness to engagements are uniformly regarded as criminal, and are generally punished. Shall he, then, who vows, escape the vows he has made before heaven? III. Let me entreat you, then, to form the resolution here expressed by the psalmist, that you will not go back from God. Whatever your difficulties or trials, whether pleasures allure or dangers intimidate, it is yours to follow unmoved the great Captain of your salvation. Think of the recompense set before you--the crown of life set before him who shall be faithful unto death. (D. Macfarlan, D. D.) Quicken us, and we will call upon Thy name. The quickening necessary to prayer Man requires spiritual quickening before he can pray. He must be quickened-- I. With the sense of the Divine presence. Who can pray without the vivid realization of the Divine personality, the Divine presence, and the Divine entreatability? II. With the sense of moral obligation. Who will pray without feeling the strongest convictions of duty to love, serve, and honour the great God? III. With the sense of spiritual needs. Sense of dependence underlies all prayer, all religion, all worship. This sense which, alas! is deadened within us, must be quickened before we can pray. (Homilist.) Psalms 80:19 Turn us again, O Lord God of hosts, cause Thy face to shine; and we shall be saved. Divine greatness and Divine graciousness I. Divine greatness, “ Lord God of hosts.” What hosts are under Him? All the tribes of irrational life on this earth, all classes of men, all the stars of heaven, all the myriad systems of globes in space, all the innumerable armies of intelligent existences, both the happy and the miserable, He is Lord of all. How great is God! “ To whom will ye liken Me? saith the Lord,” etc. II. Divine graciousness. “ Cause Thy face to shine.”1. The enjoyment of God’ s graciousness requires a Divine change on man’ s part. “ Turn us.” (1) Some do not see God at all. “ God is not in all their thoughts.” (2) Some see His frown. Their guilty conscience invests Him with terrible attributes and covers His face with the frowns of indignant justice. (3) Some see His shining face. “ Thy face” --beaming face; Such are they whom He has turned to Him, by repentance towards Him and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. 2. The enjoyment of God’ s graciousness involves the realization of man’ s highest hopes, “ And we shall be saved.” What is that? We know what it meant to the author of this poem; but it means infinitely more to all human souls. (Homilist.) One antidote for many ills This seems to be the only prayer the psalmist puts up in this psalm, as being of itself sufficient for the removal of all the ills over which he mourned. The reason is obvious. He had traced all the calamities to one source--“ O Lord God, how long wilt Thou be angry?” and now he seeks refreshing from one fountain. I. The benefits of revival to any Church in the world will be a lasting blessing. I do not mean that spurious kind of revival. I do not mean all that excitement attendant upon religion, which has brought men into a kind of spasmodic godliness, and translated them from sensible beings into such as could only rave about a religion they did not understand. I do not think that is a real and true revival. God’ s revivals, whilst they are attended with a great heat and warmth of piety, yet have with them knowledge as well as life, understanding as well as power. Among the blessings of the revival of Christians are--1. The salvation of sinners. For this we must, and will, cry, “ O Lord our God, visit Thy plantation, and pour out again upon us Thy mighty Spirit.” 2. The promotion of true love and unanimity in its midst. Oh, if God gives us revival, we shall have perfect unanimity. 3. The mouths of the enemies of the truth are stopped. 4. The promotion of the glory of God. If we would honour God by the Church, we must have a warm Church, a burning Church, loving the truths it holds, and carrying them out in the life. II. What are the means of revival? They are twofold. One is, “ Turn us again, O Lord God of hosts” ; and the other is, “ Cause Thy face to shine.” There can be no revival without both of these.1. “ Turn us again, O Lord God of hosts.” (1) Your minister feels that he needs to be turned more thoroughly to the Lord his God. (2) But there are some of you who are workers in the Church. Large numbers are actively engaged for Christ. Now, what I exhort you to is this: cry unto God--“ Turn us again, O God.” You want more of the Spirit of God in all your labours. (3) “ Turn us again” must be the prayer of all of you, not only in your religious labours, but in your daily lives. 2. The other means of revival is a precious one--“ Cause Thy face to shine.” Ah! we might ask of God, that we might all be devoted, all His servants, all prayerful, and all what we want to be; but it would never come without this second prayer being answered; and even if it did come without this, where would be the blessing? It is the causing of His face to shine on His Church that makes a Church flourish. A black cloud has swept over us, all we want is that the sun should come, and it shall sweep that cloud away. There have been direful things; but what of them, if God, our God, shall appear? III. Come, now, let me stir you all up, all of you who love the Saviour, to seek after this revival. (C. H. Spurgeon.) . Psalms 81:1-16 Psalms 81:1-16 Sing aloud unto God our strength: make a joyful noise unto the God of Jacob.A revelation of three great subjects I. True worship (verses1-5)1. True worship is the highest happiness, which consists in-- (1) Right activity. Worthy of our nature. In harmony with all our faculties.(2) The highest love.(3) The sublimest hope. 2. True worship is a Divine ordinance, binding on all moral intelligences. (1) Right in itself.(2) Essential to their happiness. II. Divine kindness (Psalms 81:6-10). This appears in--1. Their deliverance from thraldom. God’ s mercy should inspire the soul with gratitude; and gratitude is an element of worship. 2. Answering their prayer. 3. Giving them direction. III. Human foolishness (Psalms 81:11-16). By disobedience they lost--1. His superintending care. 2. Victory over enemies. 3. The choicest provisions. Disobedience to the Divine law is supreme folly. Sinners are fools. The Bible calls them so, and the experience of humanity proves them such. (Homilist.) Exhortation to sing God’ s praise If you begin praising God you are bound to go on. The work engrosses the heart. It deepens and broadens like a rolling river. Praise is something like an avalanche, which may begin with a snowflake on the mountain moved by the wing of a bird, but that flake binds others to it and becomes a rolling ball: this rolling ball gathers more snow about it till it is huge, immense; it crashes through a forest; it thunders down into the valley; it buries a village under its stupendous mass. Thus praise may begin with the tear of gratitude; anon the bosom swells with love; thankfulness rises to a song; it breaks forth into a shout; it mounts up to join the everlasting hallelujahs which surround the throne of God. What a mercy is it that God by His Spirit will give us greater capacities by and by than we have here! for if we continue to learn more and more of the love of Christ we shall be driven to sore straits if confined within the narrow and drowsy framework of this mortal body. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Psalms 81:5 Where I heard a language that I understood not.Ignorance of the language of a community It is by no means uncommon for men to be thrown into a community of whose language they are entirely ignorant. Now, ignorance of the language of others is of two kinds, intellectual and moral. I. Intellectual. By this we mean entire unacquaintance with the sounds, construction, and laws of the language. This kind of ignorance reminds us of two things.1. An abnormal condition of human society. It is natural to suppose that He who made us all of one flesh, endowed us all with social natures, and united us all to each other with tender relationships, such as parents, children, brethren, would have furnished us with a language which all could understand, and through which we could all receive and communicate the thoughts and feelings of each other. Instead of this, hundreds of languages abound, thus creating social divisions amongst the race almost innumerable. Now the Bible directs us to an event which shows that this variety of language is not an original state of things (Genesis 11:1-9). 2. An enormous social inconvenience. The race, which should have been one harmonious whole, is split, through these many languages, into hostile sections, and become inaccessible to one another. “ Languages shall cease.” II. Moral. Through the moral dissimilarity that exists amongst men it often happens that those who speak the very same language misunderstand one another. Put a pure Christly-minded man into the society of gamblers, mercantile speculators, and daring infidels, and he will say, “ I heard a language that I understood not.” The words honour, virtue, courage, love, justice, liberty, pleasure, happiness, which he might hear in these circles will not convey to him the ideas which they employed them to express. Again: imagine a thoroughly worldly and corrupt spirit transported into the heavenly regions, where all employ the language in which he was brought up, his vernacular, would he understand it? No; if he returned, he would say, “ I heard a language that I understood not.” Thus, wherever we go, we are constantly hearing a language we understand not. The lesson is--1. We must get Christ’ s Spirit in order to understand His words. We cannot reach their deep, fathomless meaning without it. 2. That we should be thankful to the great Father for not making our destiny to depend upon the right interpretation of a language. “ He that believeth on me,” etc. (Homilist.) Psalms 81:7I answered thee in the secret place of thunder.Answers to prayer often come mysteriously God has a thousand “ secret” ways of granting our requests. I. He may do it by a wave of air. A man is the subject of a painful disease, that seems progressing to the utter extinction of his life; for the sake of others depending on him, he implores his Maker to restore him. A fresh breeze from heaven is let into his chamber, it not only sweeps his foul room, but heaves his lungs with a new force, oxygenizes his blood, and quickens his pulses with a new vitality. Wave after wave continues to play around him until he is able to rise from his couch and go into the open fields. God has answered him from “ the secret place of thunder.” II. He may do it by the birth of a thought, The good man may be enfolded in darkness, wrapped in perplexities, so utterly embarrassed by his circumstances that he knows not what step to take next. He cries to Heaven for guidance; all worldly resources have failed. A new thought springs up in his mind, solves his problems, scatters his darkness, removes his embarrassments, reveals a path to enter, safe and sunny, full of promise. He pursues it, and all is right. His prayer is answered from “ the secret place of thunder.” III. He may do it by the visit of a friend. As he talks, the burden of sorrow falls from his heart, and he breathes once more the free air of hope. His prayer has been answered from “ the secret place of thunder.” IV. He may do it by a verse of scripture. (Homilist.) The place of thunder As there is a secret place of natural thunder, there is a secret place of moral thunder. In other words, the religious power that you see abroad in the Church and in the world has a hiding-place, and in many cases it is never discovered at all. I will use a similitude. Many years ago there was a large church. It was characterized by strange and unaccountable conversions. There were no great revivals, but individual cases of spiritual arrest and transformation. A young man sat in one of the front pews. He was a graduate of Yale, brilliant and dissolute. Everybody knew him and liked him for his geniality, but deplored his moral errantry. To please his parents he was every Sabbath morning in church. One day there was a ringing of the door-bell of the pastor of that church, and that young man, overwhelmed with repentance, implored prayer and advice, and passed into complete reformation of heart and life. All the neighbourhood was astonished, and asked, “ Why was this?” His father and mother had said nothing to him about his soul’ s welfare. In the course of two years, though there was no general awakening in that church, many such isolated cases of unexpected and unaccountable conversions took place. The very people whom no one thought would be affected by such considerations were converted. The pastor and the officers of the church were on the look-out for the solution of this religious phenomenon. “ Where is it,” they said, “ and who is it, and what is it?” At last the discovery was made and all was explained. A poor old Christian woman standing in the vestibule of the church one Sunday morning, trying to get her breath again before she went up-stairs to the gallery, heard the inquiry and told the secret. For years she had been in the habit of concentrating all her prayers for particular persons in that church. She would see some man or some woman present, and, though she might not know the person’ s name, she would pray for that person until he or she was converted to God. All her prayers were for that one person--just that one. She waited and waited for communion days to see when the candidates for membership stood up whether her prayers had been effectual. It turned out that these marvellous instances of conversion were the result of that old woman’ s prayers as she sat in the gallery Sabbath by Sabbath, bent and wizened and poor and unnoticed. That was the secret place of the thunder. The day will come--God hasten it-when people wilt find out the velocity, the majesty, the multipotence of prayer. O ye who are wasting your breath and wasting your brains and wasting your nerves and wasting your lungs wishing for this good and that good for the Church and the world, why do you not go into the secret place of thunder? “ But,” says some one, “ that is a beautiful theory, yet it does not work in my case, for I am in a cloud of trouble or a cloud of sickness or a cloud of persecution or a cloud of poverty or a cloud of bereavement or a cloud of perplexity.” How glad I am that you told me that. That is exactly the place to which my text refers. It was from a cloud that God answered Israel--the cloud over the chasm cut through the Red Sea--the cloud that was light to the Israelites and darkness to the Egyptians. It was from a cloud, a tremendous cloud, that God made reply. It was a cloud that was the secret place of thunder. So you cannot get away from the consolation of my text by talking that way. Let all the people under a cloud hear it. “ I answered thee in the secret place of thunder.” (T. De Witt Talmage.) Psalms 81:8 Blow up the trumpet in the new moon.New-year resolutions The savage and the child of civilization are alike in this, that they both draw their notions of time, and measure its lapse, by the movements of the heavenly bodies, thus fulfilling the primaeval prophecy that the sun, moon and stars should be for ever the means of marking time. The easiest of measures, and the one which would make the deepest impression on man’ s mind, would be the circle of the moon’ s changes--the thin crescent, the half-circle, and the full orb. Next would be marked the course of the sun. This is most to be observed when the sun sets behind some cliff or precipitous range of rocks, and after a certain anniversary begins to daily sink behind the horizon beyond that point. The idea of a regular year would, when once suggested by the heavenly bodies, be aided in many lands by the altered appearance of summer and winter, and thus the prehistoric races found themselves supplied with sufficient chronology for their simple needs. But amongst those nations where the higher instincts of religion were felt there was a need for measuring the recurring periods of religious festivals. The Jewish people strictly observed the weekly festival of the Sabbath, which, by its very peculiarity of dividing time by seven days, seems to point at once to its Divine origin. But in keeping other festivals they were guided by a more complicated system to fix the feast of the Passover in connection with the Paschal Moon; and the other feasts, such as Pentecost, and that of Tabernacles, had a certain relation to the harvest season. In addition to these great feasts, it was ordained that sacrifices and offerings should be made in the Temple on the occasion of each new moon. It was also usual to summon worshippers to remember this duty by the sound of the silver trumpets echoing through the air, and blown by the sons of Aaron. In addition to the festivals observed at each new moon, there was a special day of solemn observation called the Feast of Trumpets, on the first new moon of the first month of the year--in fact, on what answered to our New Year’ s Day. This day was fixed with the Jews in September, and with the mediaeval Christians it was observed on the 25th of March, and by modern usage on the 1st of January. It is of little importance on what particular day the year begins. The essence of the matter is that we are entering on a new cycle of days--on a new course of the earth’ s journeying round its great central sun; that another milestone on the road of life is passed; that another division of our mortal existence is entered on. The words of the text seem to call on the Priesthood of the magnificent Temple of Solomon to take up their trumpets and rouse the people to the great duties of offering sacrifice and acknowledging God. There is no other instrument of music that has such a wonderful power of rousing and exhilarating the soul as the trumpet. Its shrill, wild, exulting tones have ever been valued in martial music, and that person’ s feelings must indeed be cold and stagnant whose enthusiasm is not awakened by the clarion’ s sound. When the trumpet sounds the warrior ought to prepare himself for war. The imagery of the Christian conflict has lost its power by familiar usage, but it represents a great truth--the reality and force of temptation. Each new year will bring its temptations and difficulties. We should prepare to meet them by fresh resolves and more earnest prayers. (J. W. Hardman, LL. D.) The new moon The Jews thought a good deal of the new moon. When it first appeared they took note of it at once. Indeed, six times in the year they attached such importance to the appearance of the new moon that if any one saw it, and thought he was among the first to see it, he was expected to go to Jerusalem at once and state the fact to the Sanhedrim, who sat in the “ Hall of Polished Stones “ to receive the information. Those who went were carefully examined and cross-examined. If they had only seen the moon through a cloud, or anything like glass, or had only seen it reflected in water, their testimony could not be accepted. It was necessary that they should see it directly and clearly in the heavens above them. If no one saw the moon before the thirtieth day there was no special note taken of the fact, because they generally reckoned the month to be thirty days long, but if the new moon appeared on the 29th day of the month, special notice was taken of it, and a fire was lit upon the summit of Mount Olivet; then men who were on the watch on other summits kindled their fires, too, in order to show that they had noted the signal, and also in order to give the signal to those on other mountain tops; and thus from one end of the land to the other it was soon known that the new moon bad appeared before the thirtieth day. The Jews rejoiced exceedingly at the appearance of every new moon. It was a new beginning, and the Jews attached a great deal of importance to beginnings--the first fruits of the harvest, the oldest child in the family, etc. They consecrated the first of everything to God, and by so doing they felt they were consecrating all the rest. The first sheaves of harvest were consecrated for the whole harvest. They gave the first to God as aa acknowledgment of His right to all the rest. And so with regard to the months, they consecrated each month to God, by specially consecrating the first day of the month. Now, we may well follow their example in presenting the first of everything to God. I should like you to feel that you ought to give the beginning of your life to God as the Jews gave the first day of every month specially to Him. It is wonderful what is done by giving the beginning: so much depends upon how we begin. If every little boy here would give his heart to the Lord Jesus just now at the beginning of life, oh, what a blessing it would be! (D. Davies.) Psalms 81:10 Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it.The more morally hungry, the better fed I. Good men are the subjects of moral hunger--a craving for the chief good, hungering and thirsting after righteousness. This implies--1. Health. The body without appetite for food is diseased; the intellect without appetite for truth is diseased; and the soul without appetite for righteousness is diseased. 2. Provision. The existence of any native desire, physical, intellectual, or moral, implies a corresponding object. Goodness, like the air we breathe, is ever at hand; it encompasses our path. If we really desire it, we shall have it. II. The more hungry, the better fed. “ Open thy mouth wide,” etc. The Great Father wishes His children to have the profoundest cravings, the largest expectations; for He has an infinity of blessings which it is His happiness to bestow. The more you desire from Him, the more you shall have. (Homilist.) Motives to enlarged prayer I. Explain the exhortation. It implies--1. Warmth and fervency in prayer. 2. A holy fluency and copiousness of expression, so as to order our cause before Him, and fill our mouths with arguments. 3. Enlarged hope and expectation. II. Consider the import of the promise.1. If we open our mouths to God in prayer, He will fill them more and more with suitable petitions and arguments. 2. God will fill the mouth with abundant thanksgivings. 3. We shall be filled with those blessings we pray for, if they are calculated to promote our real good and the glory of God. III. Notice the limitations with which the promise requires to be understood.1. Though God answers prayer, yet He will do it in His own time, and not always when we expect it. 2. He seldom answers prayer in the manner we expect. 3. He sometimes answers prayer gradually, and not all at once. 4. It is not our performance of duty, but the inviolable faithfulness of God that binds Him to the fulfilment of His promises. IV. Inferences.1. It is no wonder that many continue in a destitute and hopeless state: they live without prayer, and so without supplies of mercy. 2. If God thus fills the souls of unnumbered millions, how full must He Himself be! (B. Beddome, M. A.) An invitation to prayer I. The basis of the invitation.1. “ I am the Lord” --the Lord of the whole earth. 2. I am “ thy God” --thy covenant God. 3. I “ brought thee out of the land of Egypt.” He appeals to what He has already done on our behalf. II. The invitation: “ Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it.” The invitation consists of an instruction and a promise: the instruction is, “ Open thy mouth wide” ; the promise is, “ I will fill it.”1. The instruction instructs us in two things--the manner of prayer and the measures of prayer. The manner of prayer is this--“ Open thy mouth.” The measure of prayer is this--“ Open thy mouth wide.” 2. The promise refers to both temporal and spiritual blessings. (P. Prescott.) God’ s gracious call and precious promise I. What it is to open the mouth of the soul wide to Christ.1. A sight of wants. 2. A sense of need. 3. A holy dissatisfaction with all things beside Christ. 4. The soul’ s removing its desires from off vanities, and fixing them on Christ for satisfaction. 5. An assumed expectation of salvation from Christ. 6. A hearty willingness to receive Christ as He offers Himself in the Gospel. II. Show how Christ fills the soul so as no other can do. “ Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it.” This promise imports--1. Such a suitableness in Him to the necessities of the soul, as is to be found in no other. 2. A sufficiency in Christ for all needs. 3. A cominunication of this suitable sufficiency unto that soul which opens its mouth wide to receive it. (1) Christ gives Himself to that soul, so that such an one might say (Son 2:16). (2) Christ gives them all good with Himself (Romans 8:32; Psalms 84:11). 4. The soul’ s satisfaction upon that communication. When all the cisterns are dried up, the believer has enough, He can rejoice in the Lord, and joy in the God of his salvation (Habakkuk 3:17). He can say also with Paul (Philippians 4:18), “ I am full” ; and no wonder, for the soul having Christ, has-- (1) A fulness of merit to look to (1 John 1:7). (2) A fulness of spirit in Christ to take away the power of sin (Revelation 3:1). (3) A fulness of grace in Him, lodged in Him as the common storehouse of all the saints (John 1:16; 1 Corinthians 1:30). (T. Boston, D. D.) Open thy mouth wide I. The only source of full satisfaction for human life.1. There is a recognition here of the vastness of human need. “ Open thy mouth wide.” Man has--and this is one of the evidences of his greatness--a vast capacity for desire. The mouth of desire in man is not satisfied though all the treasures of the earth be poured into it. 2. The words imply that man’ s vastest desires are not awakened until they are consciously turned God-ward. Israel will open its mouth “ wider “ if it turn to God than if it forsake Him. There is enough of desire for God in every man to make this world unsatisfying, but in the worldling this desire is Undeveloped and shrivelled. The life that is fixed in God expands, and its desires become richer and vaster. God fills us, not by lessening our desires, but by enriching them. 3. The words imply that nothing less than personal union with God can satisfy the life. “ I will fill it.” II. The condition of receiving from God. “ Open thy mouth wide.” Probably the figure is taken from the feeding of young birds in the nest by the parent bird. The picture is one of simple dependence and trust. Proud self-sufficiency shuts out the fulness of God. The first step to strength is to realize our own helplessness, simply to “ open the mouth wide,” that God may fill it. III. The measure of receiving. “ Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it “ According to the capacity for reception, so is the gift. We have to recognize natural differences of capacity. As an eaglet differs from smaller birds, so men differ from men. All are not, and cannot be, Isaiahs and Pauls. But, on the other hand, a man’ s receptive power may have its development hindered by his own worldliness or negligence. His spiritual desires may be narrower than they ought to be. Faith, love, and hope grow larger through service. (J. Thomas, M. A.) Encouragements to prayer In our text we have God coming very near to His people, and coming near them to encourage them to come nearer to Him. We have the Lord speaking to them, that they may speak to Him. He opens His mouth to them, that they may open their mouths to Him. I. God encouraging His people by saying, “ Open thy mouth wide.”1. I suppose that the Lord means by this exhortation, first of all, to help us to get rid of the paralyzing influence of fear. A man, in the presence of one whom he dreads, cannot speak boldly; and if he has been guilty of some great crime, and stands before one whom he regards as his judge, he is like the man in our Lord’ s parable, “ speechless.” A man on his knees, conscious of his sin, fearing the justice of God, would very naturally be unable to speak; and to encourage him God says, “ Open thy mouth; be not afraid.” 2. Next, “ Open thy mouth wide” ; that is, speak freely in prayer to God, be not hampered in thy pleading. I have known children of God who have felt a terrible awe in the presence of the Lord. We want freedom, and liberty of access to God, when we come before the mercy-seat; and the Lord therefore encourages His people to break loose from all their shackles when He says, “ Open thy mouth wide.” 3. It must also mean, ask great things: “ Open thy mouth wide.” The greater the thing that you ask, the more sure you are to have it. With men it is, usually, the smaller the favour you crave, the more likely you are to obtain it; but with God it is the other way. There is nothing greater to ask for than Christ, and thou mayest have Christ for the asking, for God has already given Him to all who believe. 4. I think that it also means that we are to feel intense desires: “ Open thy mouth.” Whenever a man speaks with very great earnestness, he opens his mouth widely. 5. Exercise a great expectancy. Consider-- (1) God’ s greatness.(2) His goodness.(3) The channel by which mercies come to thee: Christ Jesus thy Lord.(4) That the Holy Spirit is the Author of true prayer.(5) The greatness of thy wants.(6) God’ s exceeding great and precious promises. II. Observe God using two great arguments. “ Open thy mouth wide” --1. Because of what God has done. Child of God, this text belongs peculiarly to you. “ I am Jehovah, thy God.” He has revealed Himself to thee; He has chosen thee, and thou hast chosen Him. Now, canst thou not open thy mouth wide to thine own God, to Jehovah, the great “ I am” the boundless, the infinite, the Almighty God, canst thou not speak freely to Him? And then it is added, “ I am Jehovah, thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt.” Now, that is the greatest thing that God could do for His people, and, if He has done that, will He not do the lesser things? 2. Because of what God will do. “ I will fill it.” The story goes that the Shah of Persia, a strange man altogether, on one occasion said to a person who had pleased him very greatly, “ Open your mouth,” and when he had opened his mouth, the Shah began to fill it up with diamonds, emeralds, rubies, and all sorts of precious stones. I feel morally certain that the man opened his mouth wide. Would not you do the same if you had such an opportunity? Now, the Lord says to each of His own people, whom He has so highly favoured, “ Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it.” Suppose you open your mouth wide in prayer. “ I cannot,” says one. Well, open your mouth, and God will fill it with prayer; and then, when you have prayed the prayer that He has given you, He will fill it with answers. God gives prayer as well as the answer to prayer. Only open your mouth, and, as it were, make a vacuum for God to fill. God loves to look for emptiness where He may stow away His grace. When you have done that, then open your mouth with praise. The praise of God is something like Mr. Bunyan’ s ‘ Pilgrim’ s Progress.’ He began to write, he says, and he does not know how he wrote so much; but he quaintly says, “ As I pulled, it came” ; and you will find it is so with the praise of God. Praise Him, and you will praise Him. If you do not praise Him, you never will praise Him. If you do not begin, you will never keep on; but once open the sluices of gratitude, and the streams will flow more and more copiously every hour. “ Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it.” (C. H. Spurgeon.) Opening the mouth I. The exhortation.1. Labour after a great sense of need. You are weakness itself, and emptiness itself, and a mass of sin and misery, apart from God your Father, and Christ your Redeemer, and the Spirit the indweller; and when you know this, then you will open your mouth wide. 2. Seek after an intense and vehement desire. “ He that prays to God without fervour asks to be denied.” 3. Ask for large things, remembering the greatness and goodness of God, and the great pleas you have to urge when you come before Him. 4. Ask for enlarged capacities. If we had more room for the Lord’ s gifts, we should receive more. II. The promise. “ I will fill it.” You might expect such a promise as that. You could not think it possible for the Lord to say, “ Open your mouths for nothing.” It would not be according to His usual way of procedure. He does not set His servants praying and then say somewhere behind their backs, “ they shall seek My face in vain.” Tantalus belongs to the heathen mythology, not to the Christian’ s experience. “ Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it.”1. It is a promise only made to those who do open their mouths wide. 2. It is a promise given by One who can fulfil it, and will. How? (1) With prayers.(2) With the actual blessings.(3) With praises. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Affluence and receptivity This is a figurative expression, and it indicates that man is a creature of vast spiritual capacity. Men are rarely in full consciousness of that deep, strong, original aptitude of human nature for the things of God. For sin has so deeply impaired our nature, that atrophy and nausea have fallen upon our spiritual faculties, and our moral perceptions have become gross and insensible. But the faculties are in us. The ideas of God and duty, the fitness for responsibility, the spring of the inner nature towards immortal life, the sentiment of love, with its boundless range--these inhere in the soul of every man. They may lie dormant in the inner caves of our personal existence, unused and entrusted by guilt, but they are integral qualities. Nothing--riot guilt, not neglect, not the insane denial of these Divine qualities, not even the suicide’ s hand, can cast out of our being these exalted powers and prerogatives. There is a section of our being “ which cannot, but by annihilating, die.” It is a majestic fact, and it brings with it the most awful responsibility that we are beings of a constitution akin to the Divine, and that we shall live for ever! Now, the reference of the text, in its first section, is to this quality of our nature. When God says, “ Open thy mouth wide,” He refers to an actual capacity in us, latent though it be, which, quickened by the Spirit, may reach up to heaven in lofty aspirations, and take in all the things of God. So, too, the other portion of the text, for it has two terms: “ open thy mouth wide,” is one, and “ I will fill it,” the other. The promise here given us is equally as significant with regard to our nature as is the command. It is a declaration that when the immortal demands of our inner being are once quickened into life, that there is but one Being in the universe who can answer and supply them. Hence the entreaty, “ Open thy mouth wide,” etc., because God only can fill these infinite needs of the immortal soul. What, then, is the reach you are going to make in Divine holiness? How far will you stretch forth in godly desires and aspirations? First of all, if you would attain to a lofty, grand pre-eminence of spiritual growth, fix it in your minds to be men and women of a high order of morals. Not as though the advice be given to begin with morality. God forbid! The beginning of all true soul-life is in the spiritual; but, assuming that you are spiritual, that you have repented and believed, and that, having entered upon the Christian life, led by the Spirit of grace, you are anxious to reach the stature of perfect men in Christ. Lay the foundations of your piety deep in the purest morals! But observe, next, that another stretch of the soul to high spiritual excellence is to be attained by the exercise of duty, that is, the doing of good works. Practical goodness bears somewhat the same relation to eminent piety that husbandry does to the production of good crops, or the care of the gardener to the growth of beautiful flowers. It is, under God, the actual uplifting of the soul from one degree of holiness to another. It is the cultivation of the Christian graces; and, observe, all true cultivation tends to growth and expansion. By doing good to others for Christ’ s sake, we expand our own being; we multiply the force of our sympathies and affections; we reduplicate the power of our loving energy. And so it will follow that obedience to the text will show itself, in the purposed rise of the soul to a high spirituality. This topic is left for the last, because it is the most important; it is the very base of all spiritual acquisition. In the domain of the spirit, spiritual things, spiritual aims, spiritual efforts, spiritual longings, are the foremost of all things. So much, then, for the ideal or principle descriptive of what is spiritual life. And now we can turn to the evidence that is to be found in ourselves that we have this principle implanted in us. That evidence discovers itself in those characteristic spiritual acts of the soul, into which, as sons of God, the saints are led by the Spirit of God. And here the whole field of saintly life lies spread out before us, so that we cannot err. All of its rich productiveness is the fruit of the Spirit. It brings, to our sight, in exceeding brilliancy, the faith and prayerful mightiness of Abraham; the calm meditativeness of Isaac; the crystal purity of Joseph; the serene and unspotted godliness of Samuel; the burning flames of Elijah; the calm constancy of David; the stern self-sacrifice and zealous fervour of the Baptisit; the fiery ardour of holy Paul; the loveliness of St. John the Divine. The sum of what has been advanced may be stated as enforcing these two lessons.1. That you must avoid as though it were death, the idea of spiritual finality, in the attainments of grace. Never think you have enough of God and God’ s Spirit. Never be satisfied with any successes you have reached in holiness. Never pause in your career, saying to the deceived and languid soul, “ Rest and be thankful.” But press on ever to higher, nobler, and more spiritual heights. 2. That there is a law of progress implanted in our nature, which has no limitation. No man here can tell how high he can go in excellence--how far he can reach in godly purity. In the very idea of immortality is implied somewhat that is limitless and unconfined; and so we can by God’ s grace stretch out further and further, until we are lost in God Himself. O grand and noble acquisition! O blessed and heavenly consummation! (A. Crummell, D. D.) Psalms 81:11-12 My people would not hearken to My voice, and Israel would none of me: so I gave them up.Danger of presuming on God’ s mercy It is matter of painful observation, that very often when people enter on wrong courses, they think they shall be able to stop when they please. They don’ t pretend to be very good, and they don’ t mean to be very bad. Something between both contents them; and this they think is as much as can be expected of them, especially when vice and wickedness prevail in the degree they do. The root of this error, if we examine, seems to be want of love to God the Author of all good. Because if a person really loved God, or at least really desired to love Him, however he might fall short of accomplishing this his wish; yet at least he would not endure to do anything wilfully, which he might think would be displeasing to his heavenly Father, Redeemer, and Guide the supreme object of his affections. There is nothing about which we ought to be so watchful and suspicious of ourselves as of want of love, true and devoted love, to Almighty God. There are two great reasons why we should be thus watchful of ourselves in this respect. The one, because this Divine charity or love is the very life and soul of true religion: the other, because we are so peculiarly ready to deceive ourselves in our views of this; perhaps more than any other of the obligations of the Gospel. Every Christian is by his profession one of God’ s people--of His chosen Israel. If he labours and prays constantly to live up to this his high profession, then the Holy Spirit-leads him as it were by She hand from grace to grace, till mortality be swallowed up of life. In God’ s dealings with such an one, the ancient and just rule is eminently fulfilled (Matthew 13:12). If, on the other hand, this same Christian, having it in his power to go wrong, does go wrong--neglects duties which he knows are agreeable to his Lord’ s will, and allows himself in thoughts, words, and actions which he knows must displease Him; then does the Holy Spirit after long forbearance withdraw His gracious aid, and leave us to go our own way, as we will not go His. There is not, perhaps, in all Scripture a more awful, startling, alarming passage than this; because it warns us so plainly, that our notion of keeping up a tolerable degree of goodness, and staying at a certain point, not intending to be very good, and resolving at the same time not to be very bad: that these kind of notions are vain and presumptuous, and, as we may with reason fear, will prove at last the ruin of many souls for whom Christ died. Can we then venture to stand trifling upon the edge of such a precipice? Are we to wait till the world grows better before we grow better? Are we sure that because we feel comfortable, therefore we are safe? If not, what are we trusting t,o? Our heavenly Father has in mercy warned us of our danger. He has warned us that even if we are His peculiar people, His chosen Israel, yet if we obey not His voice, He will give us up. (Plain Sermons by Contributors to the “Tracts for the Times. ”) The day of grace I. It is matter of just complaint and reproach for any people or person not to hearken to the voice of God.1. What it is not to hearken to the voice of God (Jeremiah 7:23; Jeremiah 7:28). (1) His instructing and informing voice. That which discovers the nature of God, and our duty. (2) His commanding voice, unto the authority whereof we all owe utmost obedience and subjection. 2. How this appears to be such just matter of complaint from God, and reproach unto us, who are guilty of it. (1) Whose voice it is you refuse to hearken to (Hebrews 1:2). (2) What kind of voice it is. How gentle, obliging, beneficent, condescending. (3) Who they are that are said to refuse to hearken to the voice of God. “ My people Israel.” Christians succeed in their privileges, not only as domestic servants, but as children, visibly related to God, as our Father by the covenant of baptism. And shall not children receive the instruction of a parent? II. For wilful sinners to be given up to their, own hearts’ lusts, and to be left of God to walk in their own counsels, is one of the most tremendous judgments that can be threatened or inflicted in this world.1. What it is for God to give up any to their own hearts’ lusts. (1) Such persons are cast out of God’ s special protection and care, and so are exposed to wander and go astray, and so are more easily assaulted and overcome by the devil, who seeketh whom he may destroy. (2) They are left of God under the dominion and power and tyranny of their own lusts. 2. The severity and terror of this judgment (Proverbs 1:23; Hebrews 10:26; Luke 19:41-42). (1) Take heed not to pass a definitive sentence against yourselves concerning the state of your own souls as to this judgment. (2) Apprehend the danger of approaching to it if you are under any ill symptoms of that kind, and beware of those things that have a tendency to so sad a doom. (3) Diligently improve the means you are yet under by the warnings of the Word, convictions of conscience, and the motions of the Divine Spirit, that you may effectually prevent it. That as it is not your case for the present it never may be so. 3. By what steps or degrees God doth usually proceed in inflicting such a judgment as this. (1) When God forbears to afflict, and to restrain men from sin, by the rod of correction and the rebukes of His providence; or doth not sanctify such rebukes for their reformation. (2) By taking away the external means of knowledge and grace, or otherwise disposing of persons so as they cannot enjoy such seasons (Acts 19:9). (3) God is said to pour upon men a spirit of slumber and deep sleep, to suffer them to harden their hearts, and stupefy their own consciences the more by everything they enjoy; so that though the external means be continued, yet none of the Divine messages will be received, nor the most useful ministry do them any good: nor the providential goodness of God lead them to repentance. Inferences:-- 1. How much to be pitied is the ignorance and folly of sinners that are afraid of any other calamity more than this. 2. How unreasonable is the displeasure and anger of men at the sharpest methods of Divine grace that would bring them to repentance. 3. How wretched and dangerous is their mistake who think their case good because their consciences now trouble them no more. (John Shower.) The groundless doubts and mistaken apprehensions of some as to their being finally forsaken and left of God 1.To be under very great darkness, doubts, and fears, so as to create much trouble and torment to yourselves, will not of itself conclude your case desperate, and your souls finally forsaken. There are many reasons for soul trouble. Your own doubts and fears will not prove that you are given over, but rather the contrary. For-- 2. If you are given up to your own heart’ s lust, how is it that you thus mourn and grieve at the apprehension and fear of it? 3. Are you not resolved to hold on your fight and warfare against sin? To continue and maintain your conflict, notwithstanding all your doubts and all your complaints? You may sometimes take being tempted for being overcome. 4. You say you cannot weep and mourn and express your repentance as formerly, and as some others you know do; yet consider that it is the hatred of sin, and watchfulness against it, that is the truest sign of repentance and godly sorrow. 5. You may be sure that if you find your hearts penitent, and willing to return to Him, that it doth not reach you: it is not your case. 6. You that thus complain and fear, have you not many of the fruits of the Spirit visible and manifest in you? Therefore the Spirit of Christ hath not left you; God hath not given you over. 7. As to the complaint of a hard heart, remember it is the impenitent and the unpersuadable heart that is the only hard heart you need to fear. 8. That sight of sin, and sense of the burthen of corruption, which you complain of, as the ground of your fear, will argue the direct contrary to what you allege it for. 9. Though you cannot say so much as to present sense of your hatred of sin and loathing of it as you desire, yet examine yourselves as to the sins of others, and what sense you have of the dishonour of God by them. 10. But I do not grow, I rather wax worse, will some say. The promises of growth and faithfulness are not absolute, but depend on the improvement of grace received, and the performance of many duties, with great watchfulness and diligence in our whole Christian course. 11. Moreover, consider there may be much more of blaine and faultiness, of guilt and sin, in your unbelieving objections and despondency than you are aware of. Therefore while you complain of sin, take heed you do not increase and add to your sin by disobeying the command of God to believe and hope. 12. Lay this as a foundation truth and keep it, That you can never be more willing to come to Christ than He is to receive you. 13. As to the doubt concerning the sin against the Holy Ghost, I think such as make that objection do not well understand wherein it lies. Read Matthew 12:1-50. throughout, and Mark 3:28; Mark 3:30. Be sure none who own the Gospel to be true, and Christ to be the Saviour of fallen sinners, are guilty of that sin, though they may make dangerous approaches to it. Much less are they guilty of it who fear the guilt of this sin. 14. I do now tender you the grace and salvation purchased by Christ in His name. If now you are heartily willing to accept it, the case is determined and determined in the best manner that can be. (John Shower.) So I gave them up unto their own hearts’ lust: and they walked in their own counsels. Deliverance to a man’ s own lust involves the greatest ruin I. Man abandoned by his Maker.1. This abandonment must be very painful to the loving Father. Can there be a greater sorrow in the world than that of the human father who feels bound to shut his door against his own son and give him up? But what is a father’ s love to the love of God? 2. This abandonment must be very terrible to man. If the mother abandons her helpless infant, its condition is sad indeed; but a thousand times indeed sadder is the condition of a man whom God has abandoned. He is in a worse condition than the man in the furious and unabating tempest without a rudder or a chart, destined to sink into the fathomless abyss of ruin. II. Man abandoned by his Maker to his own lusts.1. Such an abandonment man’ s conscience must approve of. He has always said, Self is everything to me, nearer than the universe or God. Very well, says God, you have yourself; I leave you with yourself. 2. Such an abandonment is inexpressibly terrible. “ Unto their own hearts’ lust.” Let a man be given up to any lust--say avarice, drunkenness, sensuality, revenge, envy--and he is given up to the worst hell you can conceive of. (Homilist.) Man Divinely abandoned to his lusts I. It is an abandonment to a life most degrading. In it the man sinks into a brute. The brutal appetites govern him; the brutal pleasures engross his power and absorb his time. II. It is an abandonment to a life morally abhorrent. Is there a more loathsome spectacle in the universe to the rational eye of moral purity than that of a being having the moral attributes, relations, and form of a man living the mere life of a brute? III. It is an abandonment to a life of ruin.1. The law of its enjoyments is decrease. The animal pleasures of men, unlike their intellectual and spiritual, decrease in their power of delectation by repetition. Age deadens the nerves, and “ desire faileth,” and gradually the once delicious palls on the soul. It gradually brings on the awful, crushing ennui.2. The continuation of its enjoyments is necessarily short. Disease and death terminate them. 3. The memory of its enjoyments must become morally painful--“ Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime,” etc. (Homilist.) The case of those who are given up to their own hearts’ lusts 1. The first dangerous symptom is security, or a false, ungrounded peace of conscience. This is frequently the prologue and forerunner of judicial hardening. It is often a part of it and an evidence of it. 2. Another symptom of this judgment or dangerous approach unto it, is when the ministry of the Word and Gospel of Christ becomes a tasteless, insipid, ineffectual thing; not attended with any such spiritual impressions as formerly. 3. When the Spirit of Grace gives over striving with the souls of men. This is a most dangerous case: for, except He return, they are irrecoverably lost. 4. Though the Spirit have not done striving; yet when the preaching of the Word, though you cannot resist the light of Divine truth, but somewhat of it shines into the mind and conscience; if yet your hearts stand out and will not yield, this is a dangerous case. 5. There are others, whose case is exceedingly dangerous, who, after some trial in the ways of God, for want of that sensible joy and comfort which they expected, grow weary of them and leave them off. 6. When men continue in sin, and put off their repentance and turning to God, with this thought and intention that they will some time or other repent and turn to God, but not yet. One can hardly tell whether the provoking guilt and danger of such a case be greater than the horrid absurdity of it. And yet this is a delusion that has ruined thousands, and made ample harvests for the devil. 7. There is another sort, whose case is exceeding dangerous, viz. who often fall into the same sins which they repent of and are sorry for (James 4:7; Luke 12:49). 8. When, notwithstanding the profession of religion, and outward attendance on the duties of it, yet sin has the dominion and mastery in the soul; and sensual inclinations are indulged without restraint, even as to gross and notorious sins (Hebrews 6:4-5). Their ease is next to hopeless and desperate. And what reason have all backsliders to fear lest they sin themselves into such a dismal state? Use--1. To awaken apostates and backsliders to consider their danger. 2. See that your hopes be of a right kind, grounded on Scripture evidence, purifying the heart, conquering the world, exciting thy desires after Christ and heaven, making thee to sin less, and to please and glorify God more. Such a hope you may hold fast, it will not make you ashamed. (John Shower.) Abandoned There is always something very pathetic about anything that is abandoned; an abandoned farm, where the field used to be filled with busy activity in the springtime, and where later the waving billows of grain rose and fell before the wind; the orchard that once was kept neatly pruned, and where the children played and the birds built their nests, and all watched for the first ripe apples of summer; the garden near by, that once was the object of so much care, now desolate; the front yard that used to have its long rows of hollyhocks and sweet-williams; the porch where once hung fragrant roses; the house that was the abode of love and joy, where dwelt hearts full of all the hopes and fears, the plans and purposes, that animate men and women and little children, a house made sacred by births and marriages and deaths--all now desolate and despoiled. An abandoned ship is also a sad picture. It started out from port with laughter and joy and hope. It had a precious cargo. It carried passengers full of courage for the voyage. But the storm came up, the ship was driven out of its course, the captain lost his reckoning, his chart was swept overboard, and in the blackness of the night and the tempest the ship swung aground on a ledge of rocks; every effort was made to get her afloat again, but she only settled the more solidly into her rough bed. The priceless cargo was thrown overboard in order to save the ship, but even that failed. But all these are cheerful subjects for contemplation compared to the thought of an abandoned man or an abandoned woman--the soul made in the image of God; fitted for a high and lofty destiny; that might hold communion with heaven; that might live a life so sweet and pure, so brave and splendid, that the angels would look upon it with admiration and delight, and yet drifted from its course, with compass gone, with reckoning lost, stranded and broken, abandoned at last by God and man; given up to its own lusts, to perish in its own evil ways. Don’ t be deceived in thinking that it is a small thing when God says that He will turn you over to your own heart’ s lust. I can imagine that in folly some reckless soul might say, “ What do I want better than that? Just let me have my heart’ s desire. Surely that won’ t be very bad.” Ah, do you think not? To let the man who is getting fond of strong drink just go on getting more and more drunken, more and more like a beast, the hellish thirst for strong drink ever increasing in his parched and bloated body, his veins running with the fire of the insatiable longing until he cries out as others have done that even the fires of hell would be a refuge if it could quench this horrible and awful thirst--do you think that means nothing? To let the man or woman with impure thoughts and imaginations just go on thinking impure things, and meditating on wicked and evil pictures, until good thoughts come no longer; until the mind is full to overflowing with unholy and bestial imaginations; until after a while the soul loathes itself as a dirty thing; until the man or woman wallows in moral filth--do you think that means nothing? To let the greedy man go on with his greed, becoming more and more avaricious, until at last honour and love and faith and truth and goodness are idle words to him unless they bring him in money; until the soul is withered and dried up so that the one cry of the man’ s nature is for gain; and grim and miserly, unloving and unloved, the man gets old in a hard and bitter and greedy spirit--does that mean nothing? To let anger and hate have their own way; to let them brood in the heart and hatch their young; to let them seek for vengeance until a man watches on the path of his enemies that he may make life harder for every one who has offended him; until all love and generosity and forgiveness and gentleness are crushed down under the heel, and a gruff, rough, brutal-hearted man hides in ambush waiting for revenge--does that mean nothing? Some of you, it may be, are quaffing the first draughts of sin, and the intoxication of it is in your blood, and you think the preacher maligns and slanders sin. May God save you from the biter dregs at the bottom of the cup! (L. A. Banks, D. D.) Psalms 81:13-14 Oh that My people had hearkened unto Me, and Israel had walked in My ways! Jehovah’ s complaint against the condition and conduct of His people I. The humiliating position in which the Church is supposed to be standing towards its enemies. Think of the damnable heresies and apostasies from truth, which the abused name of religion is employed to cover, and the consummate wickedness with which the profession of Christianity has been converted by iniquitous laws into a tyranny and a trade. Look at every aspect of society, examine every walk of life, and what do you behold, but impiety triumphant in the very capital of Christianity? Take the most favourable estimate that Christian charity will allow, and yet how feeble in influence and numbers is the Church of Christ compared with its enemies! And if, after two thousand years, such be our position, how solemnly does it behove us to ask in what way this humiliating state of things is to be accounted for. II. The sinful cause to which its humiliation is ascribed.1. God has commanded His ministers to go into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature; and, in order that they might do so, His people are enjoined to send them forth, for “ how,” says the apostle, “ can they preach except they be sent?” And when the Church, in the warmth of her first love, responded to her Lord’ s commands, consecrating her energies arid her treasures freely to His service, city after city, kingdom after kingdom, and one system of error after another, fell vanquished at her feet. But, corrupted by covetousness and love of the world, His people grew weary of hearkening unto Him, and to walk in His ways, and consequently soon lost the conquests that apostles won. 2. But, besides sending forth ministers to preach the Word, God has commanded His people, individually, to labour for the spread of truth. But the individual responsibility of Christians has been almost forgotten; while a few are making personal exertions in God’ s service, how many hearers and even professors of the Gospel are no more concerned by any personal effort to extinguish the rebellion against God, than so many statues on a building wrapt in flames! 3. Again; as it is impossible by error to destroy error, and as the only antidote to darkness is light, Jesus Christ has commanded His followers to preserve the faith of the Gospel inviolably pore; warning them in admonitions of awful solemnity against adding to, or taking away, a tittle from His Word. And from how many sinful practices, how many debasing sentiments, how many idle ceremonies, how many bitter controversies and persecutions would the Church have been saved, had Israel walked in His ways, had His people hearkened to His voice. But, preferring the wisdom of man to that which cometh down from above, they have altered the constitution of the Church, perverted its ordinances, and corrupted its doctrines, suffering foreign mixtures, careless omissions, and presumptuous additions, to deface the beauty and destroy the simplicity of the truth. 4. Could the Christian Church, however, when she threw away the unity of faith, have preserved the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, she might, possibly, soon have recovered what she had lost; but converting every difference of creed into an occasion of division and strife, she advanced further in disobedience, and, consequently, further and further in weakness and disgrace. 5. Moreover, as the world is less likely to be subdued by precept than example, Christ has said to His disciples, “ Let your light shine before men, that they seeing your good works may glorify your Father which is in heaven.” And had the Church paid a becoming regard to His repeated injunctions upon this subject, she would have appeared in every conflict as bright as the sun, fair as the moon, and terrible as an army with banners. 6. And along with a far higher degree of holiness, would there not have been among the people of God, had they hearkened to His voice, an infinitely larger amount of fervent and effectual prayer? III. The affecting manner in which both the cause and the consequences are by God himself deplored.1. From all that God has spoken or accomplished, it is evident that His love for His Church is infinite and unchangeable. It is His husbandry and His vineyard, the garden He delights to water, His inheritance, and the place of His rest, the wife of His bosom, His peculiar treasure, His crown, His portion, and His joy. Next to His own glory, nothing, therefore, is so near to His heart, as the prosperity of His people; and while upon the warlike enterprises which historians and poets delight to celebrate, He looks with comparative indifference, the minutest victories of His Church have an everlasting record in heaven, and are celebrated by the angels of God in songs of ecstatic praise. 2. Nor must we exclude from our interpretation of this language the idea of infinite pity H a perishing world. In secular contests the triumph of one party is the disgrace, misery, or destruction of the other; and most justly and humanely has it been said by a great living warrior, nothing is so calamitous as a victory excepting a defeat. But to extend the conquests of the Church is to push forward the boundary of life and happiness into the realms of darkness and death; to subdue her enemies, to bring the haters of the Lord to submission is to save them with an everlasting salvation; to leave them unsubdued is to destroy them for ever. (J. E. Giles.) Psalms 81:16 With honey out of the rock should I have satisfied thee.A little but wise teacher You know it was said of the Holy Land, long before God led His people into it, that it was “ a land flowing with milk and honey.” Such it was and still is. That bees swarmed abundantly in the East many years ago, we may infer from the honey found in the dried remains of the lion which was killed by Samson. And in these modern days the wandering Arabs who live in tents, especially those who dwell in the wilderness of Judea, are said to support themselves by bee-hunting, bringing into Jerusalem jars of wild honey like that on which John the Baptist fed in the wilderness. The visitor to the Holy Land, when he sees the busy multitude of bees about its cliffs, cannot but recall to mind the promise, “ With honey out of the rock should I have satisfied thee.” But then these words of Asaph mean far more than that those who love and serve the Lord shall be thus fed. They mean that God will surely supply all the wants of His people; that He offers all His infinite resources as a security that they shall not be left to “ want any good thing” ; and that, as honey in abundance is gathered out of the hard and flinty rock, so He will provide for those who love Him, even though they are brought into the hardest trials, where it might seem as if they were beyond the reach of help. But a promise so large and rich as this we cannot expect to have made good unto us, no matter what we are, or do. No! this is a promise with a condition. That is, there are some things which we must do, if we would claim the fulfilment of this promise for ourselves. The bee which stores up honey that is gathered out of the rock may so teach us that we shall be truly wise, and be able to secure all the earthly blessings and all the spiritual riches which are promised by the text. I. Obedience. Do you know that in every hive of bees there is one which is called the Queen Bee? Those who have studied most carefully the habits of bees tell us that the Queen Bee is beloved and obeyed by all the others, who show in all ways that bees have a desire to please her. And if bees are thus obedient and devoted to their queen, how much more ought children to “ obey their parents in the Lord!” II. Cheerful and happy industry. How diligent and industrious the bees are in building the cells of the honey-comb, in storing them with honey, and in taking care of their young. They are not satisfied to work an hour a week, or an hour a day, and then dance away all the rest of the time in the warm and bright sunshine. They are not like some children that I have seen, who are hardly satisfied unless they can give themselves up to “ all play and no work,” which, as the rhyme says, “ makes Jack a mere toy.” But the bee works all the day long, day after day, bringing home full loads of honey. It finds pleasure in its work, singing continually as it goes about it. What a fine example for boys and girls! Our blessed Lord Himself, when still a little child, felt that He “ must be about His Father’ s business.” Every community of bees is apt to be afflicted for a time with what are called drones--that is, with bees that won’ t work. But the working bees very soon get rid of them, either by putting them to death, or by driving them out of the hive. And is not something like this the law of the Bible? Paul declared that, “ if any would not work, neither should he eat,” and Solomon says that “ an idle soul shall suffer hunger.” Idleness, then, brings a blight and a curse both upon the body and upon the soul. III. We should guard watchfully and well what treasures we have. The bee uses all possible care and skill to protect from its enemies its stores of honey, and the wonderful cells in which that honey is laid up. It has many enemies, such as wasps, hornets, spiders, dragonflies, lizards, toads, and a kind of winged moth. This last is a very dangerous enemy, for at night, when the bees are asleep, it creeps in at the door of the hive, and lays its eggs, from which little worm-like caterpillars are soon hatched, and these crawling things soon make such havoc with the waxen cells that the bees are obliged to desert. They do the best they can to defend their treasures from enemies wit, hour, but sometimes they are overpowered. My children, learn a lesson from them to guard and keep such treasures as you have; for you, unlike the bees, may effectually do this, with such help as God will give you, if you seek help of Him. IV. From the bee, again, we may learn the lesson that we can serve but one ruler and sovereign at a time. I have spoken of the Queen Bee. It is the supreme ruler of the hive, whom all the bees delight to obey. Not till one queen dies do they transfer their allegiance to another. You know that there is only One who has a right to demand, as He does demand, that you shall serve and love Him “ with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.” Jesus Christ Himself has said, “ No man can serve two masters,” etc. V. Another lesson, and a most important one, for us to learn from the bee, is, not to trust too much to appearances. Many a bright and most attractive-looking flower does the bee pass by, to alight perhaps upon some plain and humble one that we would have thought altogether unworthy of notice. “ All is not gold that glitters,” and not even the marvellous skill of the bee can extract honey from flowers which, though they may appear very beautiful, have no sweetness, and perhaps only deadly poison in them. There are many things which, to young eyes, and sometimes to eyes not so young, appear very beautiful indeed. Not having them, we greatly covet, and having, we greatly prize them. VI. We should make wise and timely provision for the future. The bees do not eat their honey as fast as they make it, but they lay by a store for winter. In this, they are unlike some young people, who are inclined to spend everything as fast as they make it, and sometimes faster. They lay up nothing at all to fall back upon in a time of need. This is more especially and sadly true with respect to religion. How many are there among the young who spend the best part of their lives in worldly pleasure. They think not of a future day, and are making no provision for needs of which they will soon, and may be suddenly, be made aware, when it will be too late to provide for them. (G. C. Noyes, D. D.) . Psalms 82:1-8 Psalms 82:1-8 God standeth in the congregation of the mighty; He judgeth among the gods.The supremacy of God I. As rebuking unjust rulers. “ How long will ye judge unjustly?” Here is a common crime. Human rulers, alas! through all times and the world over, have been prone to judge unjustly and to “ accept the persons of the wicked.” In proportion to the moral corruption of a man is at once his indisposition and incapability to deal out justice to others. II. As enjoying pity for the afflicted. “ Defend the poor and fatherless.” See that they have justice done them, deal tenderly with them. “ Deliver the poor and needy.” It argues bad for that ruler the poor and suffering of whose people are found in the heartless grip of wicked men. III. As characterizing the course of wicked rulers. “ They know not, neither will they understand,” etc. These magistrates pursue their course of moral ignorance, they are blind to the eternal principles of right, to the transcendent claims of justice; only alive to their own ambition, aggrandizement, pleasures, and gratifications. What is the consequence?1. Society is endangered. “ All the foundations of the earth are out of course.” All institutions are tottering. 2. Its rulers are doomed. “ I have said, Ye are gods,” etc. “ But ye shall die like men.” This language may mean-- (1) I have regarded you as divinities; in consequence of your office, as far superior to all ordinary men. (2) I looked upon your appointment as Divine. “ All of you are children of the Most High.” Magistracy is a Divine appointment, into that magistracy you have been permitted to enter; notwithstanding this, in consequence of your unrighteous conduct, ye “ shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes.” IV. As the grand object of the world’ s hope. “ Arise, O God,” etc. There is no hope for a corrupt world but in God. (Homilist.) The utility of magistracy Take government out of the world, and then take the sun out of the firmament, and leave it no more a κόσμος, a beautiful structure, but a χάος, a confused heap; without this men would be like Ishmael, wild men; every man’ s hand would be against his brother (Genesis 26:12). It is reported of Maximilian the emperor, that as oft as he passed by the gallows he would pug off his hat and salute it, with a calve sancta justitia! All hail, holy justice. Of all people, Christians have most cause to bless God for it; for they are exposed more to the malice of wicked men by reason of their profession and principles, which are so opposite to the ways of the world, so that they are as lambs amongst lions, as sheep amongst wolves, as a lily amongst thorns, which would soon be devoured, did not the great Shepherd of the flock raise up shepherds under Him to defend it. These are the ministers of God for our good--1. For our natural good, for our lives.2. Civil good, for our estate.3. Moral, for defence of us in goodness.4. Spiritual, to protect the Gospel; and this good is reduced by the apostle to three heads (1 Timothy 2:2), peace, piety, and honesty. They are a means under God to preserve the lives of us and ours; our goods, sabbaths, ordinances, and all that is near and dear to us; so that when government fails--1. Order fails;2. Religion fails;3. Justice fails;4. Strength fails;5. Wealth fails;6. Honour fails;7. Peace fails. As where there is no ministry, the people perish; so where there is no magistracy, the people come to ruin (Proverbs 2:14). These are shields to defend us, fathers to tender us, yea, nursing fathers to carry us in their bosoms, pillars that under God uphold the world, that it fall not into confusion, and the very life of the State (Lamentations 4:20). (T. Hall, B. D.) Magistrates should esteem their office a Divine institution Civil authority is a Divine institution. The man who holds municipal or political office is a “ minister of God.” One man may, therefore, have just as real a Divine vocation to become a town-councillor or a member of parliament, as another to become a missionary to the heathen, In either case it is at a man’ s peril that he is disobedient to the heavenly vision. The Divine right of kings was a base corruption of a most noble truth; so was the fanatical dream about the reign of the saints. We shall never approach the Christian ideal of civil society until all who hold municipal, judicial, and political offices recognize the social and political order of the nation as a Divine institution, and discharge their official duties as ministers of God. (R. W. Dale, D. D.) Psalms 82:2 How long will ye judge unjustly, and accept the persons of the wicked? Magistrates rebuked for unjust judgment 1. The sin reproved in general, and that is unjust judgment,--a sin most peculiar to judges. To be covetous, envious, passionate, and proud, is evil; but to judge unjustly, to justify the wicked, and condemn the just is not only abominable, but an abomination in the abstract (Proverbs 17:15). This is iniquity and perverseness with a witness. 2. The duration of their sin, implied in “ how long?” It implies that they had for a long time persevered in this practice, and therefore he doth not simply say, ye do unjustly, but how long will ye do unjustly? The interrogation is a vehement negation, ye ought in no wise to continue so long in your injustice as you have done. 3. The generality of the sinners implied in “ ye” ; how long will ye, i.e. all of ye, judge unjustly? There might be some few, some gleanings, as the prophet speaks (Micah 7:1-2), of just judges, but the generality was very corrupt. 4. An exegesis, an illustration, or, if you will, an aggravation of what went before. “ Ye judge unjustly.” What is that? Why, ye accept the persons of the wicked, ye admire their persons, ye favour their faces, ye plead their causes; but the cause of the poor and the righteous man cannot be heard. In the original it is, Ye accept the face of the wicked. Now, to accept the face of a man is a Hebrew phrase, and signifies a showing favour and respect to a man (Genesis 19:22). Observations:1. Even great men, when they go astray, must be sharply reproved. But for this great wisdom and prudence is required. 2. Continuance in evil is a great evil. How long, saith God, will ye judge unjustly? To do an unjust act is ill, but to persevere for many years in acting unrighteousness is the height of evil. As perseverance in goodness is the crown of goodness (Job 2:3), so perseverance in sin is sin in grain; it is of a deep dye; it is hardly, if ever, set out again. 3. It is no wonder to see judges judge unjustly. They did so here, and God complains of such elsewhere (Isaiah 1:23; Jeremiah 5:1; Micah 3:9). 4. Few great men are good men. They are subject to great temptations, and so to great corruptions. 5. Perverting of judgment is a great sin (Ezekiel 22:6-7; Isaiah 5:6-7; Jeremiah 5:28-29; Amos 2:6; Amos 5:6-7; Amos 5:11; Malachi 3:5). 6. Magistrates must judge impartially. They must not respect persons but causes. They must look more on the face of the cause than the face of the man. This respecting of persons is not good, saith Solomon, that is, it is very bad (Proverbs 24:23). It is a sin oft forbidden (Deuteronomy 1:17; Deuteronomy 16:19; Job 13:8; Job 13:10; 2 Chronicles 19:6-7; Proverbs 18:5; Proverbs 28:21; James 2:9; Jude 1:16), Men must not judge according to any outward appearance or quality of the person that appears before them, but according to the equity of the cause (John 7:24). (T. Hall, B. D.) Corrupt judges Catiline, being prosecuted for some great offence, corrupted the judges. When they had given their verdict, though he was acquitted only by a majority of two, he said he had put himself to a needless expense in bribing one of those judges, for it would have been sufficient to have had a majority of one. (Plutarch’ s Cicero.) Psalms 82:3-4 Defend the poor and fatherless: do justice to the afflicted and needy.The magistrate’ s duty This counsel of God, saith Luther, is worthy to be written in letters of gold on the walls of all judicatories. It may fitly be termed God’ s charge to magistrates. As if the Lord had said, This is your main business, and therefore let it be your great care, to defend the poor, succour the afflicted, and support the fatherless, and to help him who hath no helper. As the proper work of the physician is to cure the sick, and of a minister to comfort the weak, so of a magistrate to defend the poor, and vindicate the oppressed from the violence of the oppressor.1. Magistrates must be a defence to the poor and fatherless, to the afflicted and the needy. They are that great tree which must shelter such as are under them from storms (Daniel 4:20-22). 2. As magistrates must administer justice unto all, so especially to the afflicted and distressed. These are most liable for injury; and therefore, if justice incline to any side with favour, it should be towards the poor. This is the very end why rulers are set up, viz., to execute judgment, and do justice amongst the people (Isaiah 56:1; Hosea 12:6; Amos 5:24; Zechariah 7:9). Do justice-- (1) Discreetly;(2) Speedily;(3) Impartially and universally;(4) Resolutely and courageously;(5) Righteously and exactly;(6) Soberly;(7) Diligently. 3. Good duties need much pressing. Such is the dulness and indisposition of our natures to the best things, that without much pressing they take little or no impression upon us; hence it is that the Lord here calls on judges again and again to defend the poor and fatherless, and to deliver the needy out of trouble. 4. Magistrates must administer justice orderly. They must not go preposterously to work, and condemn a man before he is heard. (1) They must fully, freely, patiently, with a sedate, quiet, composed spirit, free from passion, prejudice, and precipitancy, hear both parties speak for themselves, for the law doth not use to condemn men till their cause be heard (John 7:51; Acts 25:15-16). (2) When, upon hearing, he hath found out the depth and truth of the cause, then he must justify and absolve the innocent, and rescue him out of the jaws of the wicked, by executing justice on him according to his demerits. (T. Hall, B. D.) Psalms 82:5 All the foundations of the earth are out of course, The radical wrongness of the world I. The foundation of mauve individual character is “ out of course.” The true foundation of man’ s character implies the supremacy of the Divine over the human, the spiritual over the carnal. Instead of this, the character of mankind is generally organized on the principle that puts the carnal over the spiritual, the human over the Divine. II. The foundation of man’ s social character is “ out of course.” The true principle on which society should be formed is, “ Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them.” Instead of this, alas! falsehood, fraud, cupidity, intensified selfishness, form the world’ s platform of social action. III. The foundation of man’ s political character is “ out of course.” Righteousness is the only true and safe foundation of kingdoms. No human government can be safe or useful that aims not chiefly to develop the rights of men and to deal out justice to all. How often is it that the many are sacrificed to the few, the principles of rectitude for a miserable expediency. IV. The foundation of man’ s religious character is “ out of course.” Supreme sympathy with the supremely good is the foundation of all true religion. Instead of which, as a rule, the religions of the world,--even the religion of England,--are based on dogmas, or ceremonies, or on mawkish sentiment. (Homilist.) Psalms 82:6-7I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the Most High.Human rulers I. Their official greatness.1. They are here called gods. “ Ye are gods.” In what sense are they gods? (1) Not in the sense of mental superiority. There are some men, it is true, so far superior in mind to the average of their kind, that they move about like divinities. But human rulers are seldom found of that lofty type. (2) Not in the sense of moral superiority. The highest greatness is moral. In every age men have appeared amongst their fellows as moral divinities, they have reflected the rays of Divine purity and beneficence. But human rulers have seldom been of this class. (3) Not in the sense of their own estimation. It is very true that many worldly rulers have esteemed themselves as gods, and, like Herod of old, demanded the worship of their fellow-men. But in none of these senses does the psalmist say they are “ gods.” His sense is an official sense. “ The powers that be are ordained of God.” 2. They are here called, “ children of the Most High.” The kingly office is a Divine creation. He is the “ minister of God,” says Paul. II. Their mortal doom. “ Ye shall die like men.”(1) The most illustrious must meet with a common event. They “ die like men.” He who is chief in the most elevated ranks of life must die as the obscurest in life’ s lowest grades. “ He bringeth the princes to nothing, he maketh the judges of the earth as vanity.” Death mingles sceptres with spades. (2) The most illustrious will meet with this common end in a way peculiar to themselves. “ Fall like one of the princes.” There are feelings which a prince must have in dying, utterly unknown to the dying man in humbler life--feelings, methinks, that add agony and horror to the hour. Other things being equal, death would be easier in a hovel than in a palace. (Homilist.) The magistrates’ Scripture I may call this text the magistrates’ Scripture; considering the state of kings and governors, how much good they might do, and how little they perform, God becomes a remembrancer unto them. And first, shows what a high calling princes and rulers have, and then, lest they should be proud of it, and make their magistracy a chair of ease, he turns upon them again, as though he had another message unto them, and tells them, that though they be above others, yet they shall die like others; and though they judge here, yet they shall be judged hereafter. A good memorandum for all in authority, so to deal in this kingdom, that they lose not the kingdom to come.1. “ I have said, Ye are gods,” etc. (1) This name informs us what kind of rulers and magistrates we should choose; those which excel all other men, like gods among men. For a king should he a man after God’ s own heart, like David. (2) This extolleth the calling of magistrates. There is a difference between kings and inferior magistrates; for the prince is like a great image of God, the magistrates are like little images of God, appointed to rule for God, to make laws for God, to reward for God, to punish for God, to speak for God, to fight for God, to reform for God, and therefore their battles are called “ The Lord’ s battles;” and their judgments, “ The Lord’ s judgments;” and their throne, “ The Lord’ s throne;” and the kings themselves, “ His kings,” to show that they are all for God, like His hands. By some He teacheth mercy, by some justice, by some peace, by some counsel, as Christ distributed the loaves and the fishes by the hands of His disciples (Matthew 14:18). This God requires of all when He calls them gods, to rule as He would rule, judge as He would judge, correct as He would correct, reward as He would reward, because it is said, that they are instead of the Lord God; that is, to do as He would do, as a scholar writes by a copy. (3) They are called gods, to teach them how they should govern, Howsoever other care for the glory of God, the performance of His will, the reformation of His Church, princes and rulers, which are gods themselves, are to do the business of God as their own business, God’ s law is their law, God’ s honour is their honour. (4) They are called gods, to encourage them in their office, and to teach them that they need not dread the persons of men; but as God doth that which is just and good without the jealousy of men, so they, upon the bench, and in all causes of justice, should forget themselves to be men, which are led by the arms between favour and fear, and think themselves gods, which fear nothing. 2. It followeth, “ but ye shall die as a man.” Here he distinguisheth between mortal gods and the immortal God. Ye have seen their glory; now behold their end. As if he would prevent some conceit that they would take of tim words which he east out before, he cools them quickly before they swell, and defers not to another time; but where he calls them gods, there he calls them worms’ meat, lest they should crow between the praise and the check, “ I have said that ye are gods, but ye shall die like other men.” But for this, many would live a merry life, and feast, and sport, and let the world slide; but the remembrance of death is like a damp, which puts out all the lights of pleasure, and makes him frown and whine which thinks upon it, as if a mote were in his eye. (Henry Smith.) The dignity of magistracy, and the duty of the magistrate I. The dignity of magistracy.1. In receiving honour from others. 2. In giving laws to others. 3. In executing the law, punishing the guilty and acquitting the innocent. II. The duty of magistrates. They ought to resemble God in their execution of justice amongst men.1. In not favouring any for their nearness. Pompey, aspiring to the Roman empire, and perceiving that Cato was against him, sent his friend Minucius to Cato to demand his two nieces, one for himself, the other for his son. But when the messenger had delivered his errand, Cato gave him this answer: Go, tell Pompey, Cato is not to be won by women. As long as Pompey shall deal uprightly, I shall be his friend, and in a greater degree than any marriage can ever make me. Surely this moralist will condemn many Christian rulers, of whom it is said that the sun might as soon be hindered from running his race, as he from doing what was just and upright. 2. In not sparing or fearing any for their greatness. Papinianus is worthy of eternal memory, who chose rather to die than justify or excuse the fratricide of Bossianus the emperor. (G. Swinnock, M. A.) Magistracy is of Divine authority 1. Their commission is from God (Proverbs 8:15; Romans 13:1). 2. Their command to govern is from God (Deuteronomy 17:1-20.). 3. Their protection is from God. As a king defendeth his inferior officers in the execution of their offices, so the King of kings defendeth magistrates in the discharge of their trusts. “ God standeth in the congregation among the gods” (Psalms 82:1), not only to observe whether they offer injuries to others, but also to take care that they receive no injuries from others. 4. The subjection of their people to them is from God. If He that ruleth the boisterous waves of the sea, and shutteth them up with bars and doors (Psalms 65:7), did not put forth the same almighty power in quieting the spirits, and stilling the tumults of the people, it could never be done. Well might David say, “ It is God that subdueth my people under me” (Psalms 144:1-2). (G. Swinnock, M. A.) Exhortation to magistrates If the God of heaven have appointed you to be gods on earth, then it may exhort you to walk as gods, and to work as gods amongst men.1. Walk as gods among men; your calling is high, and therefore your carriage should be holy. The greater your privileges are, the more gracious your practices should be. Remember whose livery you wear, whose image you bear, whose person you represent, whose place you stand in, and walk worthy of that calling whereunto you are called (Ephesians 4:1). Whether, saith one, a gangrene begin at the head or the heel, it will kill; but a gangrene in the head will kill sooner than one in the heel. Even so will the sins or great ones overthrow a State sooner than the sins of small ones; therefore the advice of Sigismund the emperor, when a motion was made for reformation, was, Let us begin at the minorities, saith one. No: rather, saith he, let us begin at the majorities; for if the great ones be good, the meaner cannot easily be evil. 2. Work as gods. (1) Execute justice impartially. It is a principle in moral policy, that an ill executor of the laws is worse in a State than a great breaker of them; and the Egyptian kings presented the oath to their judges, not to swerve from their consciences, though they received a command from themselves to the contrary. A magistrate should be a heart without affection, an eye without lust, a mind without passion, or otherwise his hand wilt do unrighteous actions. The Grecians placed Justice betwixt Leo and Libra, thereby signifying that there ought to be both magnanimity in executing and indifferency in determining. (2) As you should work like gods amongst men in executing justice impartially, so likewise in showing mercy: God is the:Father of mercies (1 Corinthians 1:8); rich in mercy (Ephesians 2:4); He hath multitudes of tender mercies (Psalms 51:1); He is abundant in mercy (1 Peter 1:3); His mercy is free (Romans 9:15); great (Psalms 57:10); matchless (Jeremiah 3:1); sure (Isaiah 55:1). (3) Work as God’ s in promoting piety to your power. Oh, consider, is it not reasonable as well as religious that you who rule by God should rule for God? that that power which you have received from Him should be improved mostly for Him? (G. Swinnock, M. A.) Magistrates are mortal Death is to every man a fall, from everything but God and godliness. Ye that are magistrates fall more stairs, yea, more storeys, than others. The higher your standing while ye live, the lower your falling when ye die. If magistrates are mortal, observe hence death’ s prevalency and power above all the privileges and prerogatives of nature. It is a memorable speech of Sir Walter Raleigh, Though God, who loveth men, is not regarded, yet death, which hateth men, is quickly obeyed. O mighty death! O eloquent death! whom no man could advise or persuade, Thou canst prevail with. Take notice from hence, that nothing in this world can privilege a man against the arrest of death Are magistrates mortal? Let me then, in the fear of the Lord, beseech you that are magistrates, now presently to make preparation for the hour of your dissolutions. My counsel shall be, with a little alteration, in the words of the prophet Isaiah to King Hezekiah, “ Now set your house in order, for you must die” (Isaiah 38:6). I must tell you, all the time ye have is little enough for a work of this weight. In reference to this great duty of preparing for your dying day, I shall commend six particulars to your most serious thoughts.1. Discharge your trust faithfully. The way to have great confidence when ye die, is to keep a good conscience whilst ye live. 2. Live among men exemplarily. Ye are the nurses of the people (Isaiah 49:23), and our naturalists observe that what disease nurses have, the children will partake of. Now, how will it gall your consciences, when ye come to die, if ye have been ringleaders in iniquity, and not patterns of piety. 3. Walk humbly with God. I have read of Agathocles, king of Sicily, that being a potter’ s son, he would be always served in earthen vessels, to mind him of his original. Some write of a bird so light and feathery, that it is forced to fly with a stone in its mouth, lest the wind should carry it away. The truth is, men that are high in place, are apt to be carried away with the wind of high-mindedness; they had need, therefore, to have earth in their minds, I mean their frailty, and it may prove, through the blessing of Heaven, a singular preservative. 4. Must ye die, and would ye prepare for it, then be active for God whilst ye live; the serious thought of death in your hearts will put life into your hands. This life is all your day of working, death is the night of resting. 5. Labour to find some inward work of grace wrought upon your hearts; be not contented with forms, but mind the power of godliness. A man may live by a form, but he cannot die by a form; when death cometh, when that damp ariseth, the candle of profession, separated from the power of religion, will first burn blue, and then go out; the bellows of death will blow the spark of sincerity into a flame, and the blaze of hypocrisy into nothing. 6. Make sure of an interest in Christ, in the death of the Lord Jesus. There is no shroud to this--namely, to be wrapt in the winding-sheet of Christ’ s righteousness. (G. Swinnock, M. A.) And fall like one of the princes. On the death of a king Death is the most awful of earthly things to all persons of all ranks; but there is something in the death of a king peculiarly solemn and instructive to all who are willing to consider matters with the fear of God before their eyes. It is a bad sign when people listen eagerly to the accounts of our King’ s sickness, death, and funeral, merely as to something new, and there an end.1. First, a man must be cold hearted indeed, not to feel in such an event the touch of an Almighty hand, awakening him to consider the utter vanity and worthlessness of this life, considered in itself. 2. But, secondly, although the sight of a king’ s death is naturally apt to make us all have sad thoughts of our common mortality, yet the Scripture warns us that we think not rudely on it, as if it proved kings, while they lived, to be no more than other men. You perceive, that in this same place where kings are warned that they shall “ die like men,” they are nevertheless called gods, and are said to be all of them “ the children of the Most Highest.” Wherefore the death of one sovereign, and succession of another, may well cause us to have serious thoughts of the high and sacred office of our King; and to remember that he is “ the minister of God” ; a minister in somewhat of the same sense as bishops and priests are ministers. “ Fear God, honour the King.” 3. Thirdly, we learn to have duo thoughts of the great anxiety of His Majesty’ s office, and the especial dangers, spiritual and temporal, which must needs wait upon so high a trust in this bad and unquiet world. “ Ye shall fall like one of the princes;” evidently meaning that princes, as such, were in more than common danger of falling; their life, as it were, hung by a thread, so many and so restless were their enemies, and so wearisome their heavy duties. In our time, and in our part of the world, the personal danger of a sovereign may be much diminished; though many who now live may remember a King of France murdered publicly by his own subjects; a sad proof that good and great kings are not yet exempt from violent deaths. Let us, then, remember to join most earnestly in the Church’ s prayers for the sovereign; and lot us learn to be more and more contented with our own condition. (Plain Sermons by Contributors to the “Tracts for the Times,”) The glory and the vanity of earthly greatness I. The picture.1. Earthly greatness at its highest elevation. The persons addressed were the judges, rulers, princes of Israel, and they are entitled gods, sons of the Most High, as being, in the office they held, in the authority which clothed them, and in the powers they wielded, representatives of God among their brethren. The title bespeaks for them nothing of Divinity, or infallibility, or even personal goodness. It simply claims for their position authority and power as of God. 2. Earthly greatness in its vanity and failure. Each setting sun flames out in warning colours, that life’ s sunset is also at hand. Each autumn’ s decay, shedding leaves, and flowers, and fruit into a wintry grave, is a type to our saddened eye of the parallel scene, when all our honours shall be gathered into dust. Each night that receives us into its soft slumber, pictures the dreamless sleep that comes after the fatigue of life’ s battles and burdens. II. The lessons.1. The insignificance of all earthly distinctions. There is no sounder part of true wisdom than a just sense of the difference between the littleness of time and the magnitude of eternity. The deep, habitual sense of this difference is the necessary ballast of the ship that would safely navigate the perilous sea of life, swept by terrible tempests. 2. To cease from man whose breath is in his nostrils. What multitudes of the greatest have risen and fallen, and God’ s work has gone on as before. What a blow to the Church when Joseph, Moses, David, Paul, Luther died; yet the Church was blessed not only by their lives but by their deaths, as much by their deaths as by their lives. By the very force of affection with which the Church clung to them while living, was she constrained, when they died, to grasp with a mightier faith the living Redeemer. 3. To lead us to prepare for eternity--not only because we have no other time than the present should this be done, but because the only preparation is life-preparation. (J. Riddell.) Mortality mocking earthly majesty This is a short psalm, little quoted, and seldom used. Jesus quoted this psalm, and, in doing so, showed its meaning and reference. When the Jews pronounced Him a blasphemer, because He made Himself the Son of God, in condemnation of them, and in defence of Himself, He quoted this Scripture of their own, in which earthly rulers were called gods, and all of them children of the Most High, in the authorized, unobjectionable language of inspiration. The Saviour’ s argument was this, that if the powers that be, as ordained of God, might be so named, much more might He call Himself the Son of God, who, the Father’ s equal, came on His errand to put an end to sin, and to bring in an everlasting righteousness. In this way there is no doubt that these words call us to think of earthly kings and princes, judges and rulers of this world, and the great ones among men. I. Our tendency to exaggerate earthly greatness. Even to this hour, some among ourselves, contemplating those who bask in the sunshine of worldly prosperity--those who tower far above other men in the dignity, grandeur and influence of earthly station, so exaggerate the position, that if not applying to them the words of our text, and saying, “ ye are gods, and all of you are children of the Most High,” withal imagine that these are the special favourites of heaven, and that blessed of God, they are to be admired, if not envied of men! Let us beware of all such thoughts. Admitting the value of earthly greatness, and the worth of worldly glory in their own place--and to question either were to belie nature, and to contradict Scripture--there are better things than earthly greatness in its most attractive type; better things than worldly glory in its most fascinating form. It is only by faith in Jesu’ s name that either king or subject, potentate or pauper, can choose the good part which shall never be taken from them. II. The cure for the error of exaggerating earthly greatness in the fact of universal mortality. Suffer me to handle in your presence those things which are the recognized emblems of earthly greatness and of worldly glory,--the crown, the coronet, the throne and the like. Shall I speak of them as baubles, toys, trifles? No; nature does not so regard them, nor do I find such names for them in the Word of God. Still--“ Be wise, ye kings; be taught, ye judges of the earth.” The throne I--it must be left for the tomb. So perish the things which are seen--for the things which are seen are temporal. But faith, hope, and charity, these three--the faith of Jesu’ s name; the hope which maketh not ashamed; charity, which is the bond of perfectness--there abideth these three. And, through grace, be these the heritage of kings and princes; and when their crowns and coronets fade and fail, these shall be for them in heaven a better and enduring substance. These, through grace, be the heritage of the poor of this world; and they, chosen rich in faith, shall inherit a kingdom that fadeth not away, and that cannot be shaken or removed. (John Smart, D. D.) How some princes have died Caesar was cruelly assassinated in the zenith of his glory. Casimir, King of Poland, died in the act of raising a jewelled cup to his lips. The Emperor Celsus was put to death seven days after his election. Charles XII. descended from the position of a conqueror to that of a forlorn exile. On the 24th of February, 1848, Louis Philippe rose in the Tuileries the King of the French; before midday he was a fugitive. Napoleon is one day ‘ “ the arbiter of the destinies of Europe,” and the next a forlorn exile on St. Helena. Psalms 82:8 Arise, O God, judge the earth: for Thou shalt inherit all nations.The true hope of the world This cry is-- I. One of the deepest cries of universal man. This cry, in some form or other, goes up to Heaven in every language udder the sky. “ Arise, O God.” “ There is no hope but in Thee, Thine arm is mighty,” etc. II. Implies the want of confidence in all creature help. Men have tried to put the world right. Moralists, statesmen, philanthropists, saints, have all tried. Every age has been rife with remedial schemes, but all have proved ineffective. “ Arise, O God,” etc. III. Involves a confidence in the possibility of securing Divine interposition. What rational spirit would cry to Him if it believed that His assistance was unattainable. Men have an instinctive faith in the power of prayer. Thank God, we have abundant evidence of its efficiency, in the Bible, in the memoirs of the good, and in our own experience. “ Call upon Me in the day of trouble,” etc. (Homilist.) . Psalms 83:1-18 Psalms 83:1-18 Keep not Thou silence, O God: hold not Thy peace, and be not still, O God.An appeal to Heaven I. A lamentable social scene (Psalms 83:2-8). The scene is that of men in tumultuous hostility both to God and His people. They appear developing all the leading characteristics of sin.1. Boisterous. They “ make a tumult.” Sin is agitation. There is no serenity in it, no repose. 2. Haughty.. “ Have lifted up the head.” They were bold, arrogant, defiant. The evil spirit is described by Milton as “ defying the Omnipotent to arms.” Sin intoxicates the soul with vanity and daring. 3. Intriguing (Psalms 83:3). Sin works insidiously, and with all the subtilty of the serpent. It is never open, frank, and straightforward; it is artful and scheming. 4. Malignant (Psalms 83:4). It is always in mischief. “ The poison of asps,” etc. 5. Antitheistic. “ They have consulted together,” etc. It is all against God. 6. Widespread. “ The tabernacles of Edom,” etc. II. A reprehensible religious prayer. In this prayer there is--1. A savage revenge (Psalms 83:13), etc. 2. Pious abomination. Their destruction is here invoked, what for? In order “ that they may seek Thy name, O Lord.” On what principle, either in ethics, or conscience, or sound philosophy, can such a prayer be justified? To me, I confess, it appears to be malice, inhumanity, and ungodliness in its worst aspect. (Homilist.) Mental tendencies in relation to God These words reveal two tendencies in the human mind in relation to the Creator. I. A necessary tendency. By this, I mean, the tendency to think of our Maker as like unto ourselves. The psalmist here imagines Him to be silent and inactive, two conditions Which belong to ourselves, but which are impossible to Him. Indeed, we cannot think of God in any other way. We invest Him with our own attributes, and thus we humanify Him. Hence, how infinitely more glorious is the God which Christ adored and revealed, to the God which even the best men ever had, even the prophet and the apostles. This fact--1. Accounts for the conflicting theologies of men. 2. Argues the necessity for following Christ. If we would reach exalted ideas of the Great Father, we must study and imitate His Blessed Son. II. A culpable tendency. The culpable tendency indicated here is twofold.1. A practical ignorement of God’ s unremitting communications and activity. “ Keep not thou silence, O God.” Silent! He is never silent. He speaks in all the sounds of nature, in all the events of history, in all the monitions of reason. 2. A proneness to regard Him as indifferent to us because we are in trouble. The psalmist seemed to think that because he and his countrymen were in great trial, the Almighty was silent and indifferent. How often is this the case with us all! How often we are inclined to think in affliction that our Maker has forsaken us! (Homilist.) Psalms 83:3-4 They have taken crafty counsel against Thy people, and consulted against Thy hidden ones.The enmity of the wicked against the Church I. The enmity which the wicked bear to the Church of God, and from whence it proceeds.1. This proceeds from the craft and policy, the malice of the Devil, who, being a competitor with God for dominion in the world, and whose whole design it is to defeat Him in the good that He would do for mankind, doth perpetually labour to put a stop to whatever may be offered toward the delivering of the souls of men out of his snare. 2. It proceeds from the restless temper of wicked men, whose minds are set upon mischief, and that do catch at all opportunities for it. 3. It proceeds from the interest of wicked men (Psalms 83:3). 4. It may proceed from the excellency of a Church, when it doth outshine them in the best and truest perfections, and that true goodness and substantial piety is there taught and practised. 5. It may proceed from the disposal of Divine Providence, that for the punishing of the sins of a Church, doth not only suffer others to aft]let her, but turn their displeasure that way. II. In what ways they show this enmity, and what course they take to afflict and destroy the Church.1. Slandering their adversaries, and raising false reports of them. 2. Dividing the Church, and setting one part of it against the other. 3. Downright force. III. The confidence they have of success. This may proceed from the review which they have of their own policy and strength, and from the observation which they make of the weakness of their adversaries; weak, perhaps, of themselves; weaker, perhaps, with their divisions; weak because they are secure, and not aware of an assault; and weak because they have made no provision against it. Confident again they may be of success because the design lies out of sight. IV. The course by which the Church and people of God may and shall be secured. Which is fervent prayer to God, and entire dependence upon Him. (J. Williams, D. D.) Thy hidden ones. God’ s hidden ones 1. We may find God’ s hidden ones where possibly you would least think of looking for them, amongst those who are about us most--the children. I often think of Charles Lamb’ s plaint over the wrongs and woes of children. 2. We may find God’ s hidden ones amongst the struggling souls so plentifully to be met with in society. Society, as such, frequently seems as if it were impossible for it to believe in penitence or amendment, as if it were impossible for it to exercise forgiveness, or hope, or charity, What God thinks of these hard-pressed, sin-tormented souls; how He cares for those who fail in the crisis, who sink in the depths, who lose name and character, and heart and hope, do we not see in His revealer and interpreter to mankind, His best gift to the world, the Lord Jesus Christ? 3. We may find God’ s hidden ones amongst the poorer, the obscurer, the unheard-of members of our Christian communities. Many a poor soul consigned to the free seats or the galleries loves the worship and work of the Church far more than those known of most or seen of all. Many a cottager, in proportion to his time or his means, denies himself more, contributes more, than those who take the Chief seats, or are saluted as leaders. 4. We may find God’ s hidden ones in regions or atmospheres that may to us seem least likely to produce them. I have heard of some worthy Christian men who, if you had told them that God’ s good Spirit taught the Romans, or the Greeks, or the Assyrians, or the Egyptians in ancient days as well, as the Jews, would have been tempted to charge you with blasphemy; or, if you had expressed the conviction that God was as much in Asia or Africa at this moment as He is in Europe or America, would have thought you well-nigh an atheist. 5. We may find the hidden ones of God without, as well as within, the pale of the Church. Where there is no declaration of faith on the lips, there may still be true loyalty in the heart; that where there is no outward profession, there may still be the sincerest inward service. (J. T. Stannard.) The obscurity and security of good men They are “ hidden “ in two senses-- I. In the sense of obscurity. The Divine motives that actuate, the sublime aims that inspire, the supernal joys that fill the souls of the genuinely good, are hidden from the eyes of worldly men. The world “ knoweth us not.”1. The characters of good men are misjudged by the world. They have often been treated as fiends rather than as angels, hence martyrdom. 2. Their moral superiority is unappreciated by the world. II. In the sense of security. “ In the time of trouble He shall hide me in His pavilion.” “ Thou shalt hide them in the secret of Thy presence.” Your “ life is hid with Christ in God.” The “ hidden “ things are generally the most secure, the “ hidden “ roots, the “ hidden “ springs, the “ hidden “ substances, etc. “ Hid with Christ in God.” What enemy’ s hand can reach them there? (Homilist.) God’ s hidden ones I know few studies that may be made more profitable to Christian people than the names and titles which are given to them in the Book of God. They are called the “ flock of God,” to intimate His care and their sure supplies; “ trees of God,” to intimate their hidden life, their growth and fruitfulness; His “ jewels,” to denote their preciousness and rarity; the “ family,” the “ children,” the “ household” of God, to denote His Fatherhood and their happiness and home; the “ priesthood of God,” that they may be holy and separate, and present daily sacrifice to Him; “ soldiers,” in order to inspire them with courage to fight the good fight of faith. In the text they are called His “ hidden ones.” The name implies-- I. The safety of God’ s people. Out of God and away from Him, man is exposed, without screen or shelter, to the storms of conscience, the tempests of sorrow, the blast of death, the winter of judgment and of doom. All round the world this shelterless condition is felt. Adam felt it, and tried to hide himself among the trees. The heathen fears the anger of the gods, and screens himself by cruel offerings to idols of wood and stone. Self-righteousness makes a fancied refuge for itself, but all in vain. BuS God Himself hath opened a hiding-place: His own infinite mercy, as manifest in the atoning death of Christ. II. The concealment of the Christian.1. The godly are for the most part hidden, unnoted, and unknown. They are not appreciated. The spirit of the world is at enmity with them--refuses to rank them amongst those whom it delights to honour. It altogether undervalues them, and has little but sneers, contumely, and contempt to give. 2. Besides this, the bulk of God’ s people in this world are hidden in the obscurity of their condition. In the main, Christianity dwells among the brushwood. It is composed of the rank and file, and has its dwelling, as it had in Christ’ s time, in the homes of the poor. 3. Some of God’ s children are hidden by persecution. In the olden time, the faithful ones were hidden among rocks, and dens, and caves of the earth. 4. Many loyal and faithful disciples of Jesus are hidden by a constitutional diffidence. They shrink from any and all publicity. These hidden ones, quiet, silent, and reserved, may be doing a holy work in secret spheres. 5. Then, again, the Lord has His hidden ones, who are hidden by age, by sickness, and by the iron wall of duty, from which they cannot, ought not to break away. Depend upon it, this is a large and noble army. 6. Then I would not forget how many of the Lord’ s loyal disciples are hidden from each other by the thick, man-spun veils of opposing creeds. 7. Many of ,God’ s hidden ones are hid away in the shelter of the restful grave. III. God’ s appreciation of His people. Nobody troubles to hide what is counted worthless. It either has an intrinsic value, like gold, or a circumstantial value, like an old letter or a lock of hair. Believers in Jesus are dear to Him, precious to Him. He hides them, guards them, keeps watch over them. “ Where do you keep your jewels?” some one asked of a Roman matron. “ In my heart,” said she, and straight brought her children into view. They were her precious things, hid in her heart. “ Thy hidden ones!” IV. The ultimate manifestation of God’ s people. Hidden, are they? Well, but “ He that hides can find.” The jewels are hidden in the casket till they are wanted; then they are brought out to flash upon the breast and to beautify the brow. The royal regalia is hid away under lock and key until another coronation-day comes round. (J. J. Wray.) God’ s hidden one I. Why are they called God’ s hidden ones?1. Because He has put them out of the reach of their adversaries, and concealed them in a place of safety. 2. Because He gives them quiet and peace, even in the midst of turmoil and sorrow. The more of trial you have to endure, the more of communion you shall have to enjoy. This is the happy, happy case of a tried child of God. 3. Because they are not understood. He who has been made to live unto God lives a life that is quite incomprehensible to ordinary men. 4. Because they are obscure. 5. Because all the saints are at present unrevealed. II. What is their special honour?1. He knows whom He chose and redeemed; He knows whom He has called; He knows whom He has justified. He has hot done any of those things in the dark. He has a familiar acquaintance with all that His grace has done for you. 2. Though you are hidden, you are not hidden from the Lord. You are hidden by Him, but you are not hidden from Him. He can read your thoughts; He knows the troubles that are yet to come as well as those that have come; He reads you as I read the pages of this Bible. 3. Some of God’ s hidden ones are among the very choicest of His children. I think there are some who are so very dear to God that He keeps them to Himself. 4. Hidden as you are, He has engaged to keep you. His Very hiding of you shows that He means to keep you in safety. You shall never perish, for “ He keepeth the feet of His saints.” III. What then?1. Let us rejoice that the Lord has more people than we knew. 2. Let us look for these hidden ones wherever we are. 3. Since God has hidden ones, let us take care never to act or speak so as to grieve them. 4. Although God has His hidden ones, let not one of us hide himself more than is needful. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Psalms 83:16 Fill their faces with shame; that they may seek Thy name, O Lord.Shame leading to salvation I. Ungodly men have good cause to be ashamed--1. Because of the wrong they are doing to their Maker. You pride yourself upon your uprightness and integrity; but must God alone, then, be made to Suffer through your injustice? Out of all beings, must He alone who made all other beings be the only one to be neglected? 2. There are many ungodly men who ought to be ashamed because they are acting in opposition to light and knowledge, contrary to their conscience, and against their better judgments. 3. Because of their postponements of what they know to be right. 4. Because of their violation of vows which they have made. 5. Because of their not loving the Lord Jesus Christ, and not trusting such a Saviour as He is. 6. A man ought to be ashamed who will not even think of these things. II. Now, concerning these ungodly people, let me show you that shame is a very desirable thing if it drives them to God. Hence the prayer, “ Fill their faces with shame, that they may seek thy name, O Lord.”1. Sometimes shame attends the breaking up of self-righteousness. 2. I have known this shame to operate in some when they have done wrong, and have lost the repute they enjoyed among their fellow-creatures. 3. So have I seen failure driving a man to the strong for strength. 4. I have also known men brought to Christ with shame of another sort, shame of mental error leading to a humble faith. III. The Lord is willing now to receive those who are ashamed of themselves.1. You are the sort of man to come to Christ, because, first, you have the greatest need of Him. In the time of famine, we give the meal away first to the most hungry family. 2. If you are ashamed of yourself, you are the man to come to Christ, because you will make no bargains with Him. You will say, “ Save me, Lord, at any price, and in any way!” 3. And you are the man who will give Him all the glory if you are saved. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Psalms 83:18 That men may know that Thou, whose name alone is Jehovah, art the most high over all the earth.The inner proofs of God The age in which we live is frequently characterized as an age of unbelief. Certainly it is an age in which much unbelief comes to the front, aggressively; and hence it is an age of conflict in regard to fundamental verities. The question raised, then, is whether the possible God is unknowable. Is the Absolute unthinkable? From one quarter the response is affirmative. An innumerable host out of all kindreds, tongues, and nations confess that the thought of God is the strongest force in life, the purest comfort in sorrow, the one rock-idea which no storm shakes, as true, as real, as natural, as fruitful as any thought, and more. To them history without that word is a riddle, being a mystery, life a torment, and death a horror. The concurrent testimony of millions affirms the central fact that God is, and the affirmation rests upon the experimental knowledge that He is. The fact is the reality; the knowledge is man’ s recognition of the reality. Only the unreal is unknowable. It is not, however, a question of majorities. The real point involved is, why does the great mass of mankind think that they can and do cognize God as the focal reality, the spiritual sun in the firmament of being? The data of the theistic argument are all to be found in man. Mr. Morell, adverting to this fact in his “ History of Philosophy,” asks, “ Do we wish the argument from being? Man in his own conscious dependence has the deepest conviction of that Independent and Absolute One on Whom his own being reposes. Do we wish the argument from design? Man has the most wonderful and perfect of all known organizations. Do we wish the argument from reason and morals? The mind or soul of man is the only accessible repository of both, Man is a microcosm, a world in himself; and contains in himself all the essential proof which the world furnishes of Him who made it.” And to those who with Schleiermacher accept the doctrine of immediateness, that is, the consciousness of God as an original and primary act of the soul antecedent to reflection or reasoning, man stands forth as the mirror of God, for it is in the depths of his nature that the two meet face to face. Man looks at himself, into himself, and by studied processes of thought or by sudden leaps of unconscious induction, he arrives at a knowledge of himself. He is not looking to see God in any mystic sense, but he is looking to see proofs of God. We come to the knowledge of God in much the same way as we come to the knowledge of our fellow-men. You could never know me if you did not first know yourself. The proof that I exist is in your existence. The evidence that I think is in your thought. That is to say, from the ascertained premise that you think you draw the conclusion that I think. “ The Father in heaven,” says Dr. Flint, “ is known just as a father on earth is known.” The latter is as unseen as the former. No human being has really ever seen another. No sense has will, or wisdom, or goodness for its object. Man must infer the existence of his fellow-men, for he can have no immediate perception of it; he must become acquainted with their character through the use of his intelligence, because character cannot be heard with the ear, or looked upon with the eye, or touched with the finger. Yet a child is not long in knowing that a spirit is near it. As soon as it knows itself it easily detects a spirit like its own, yet other than itself, when the signs of a spirit’ s activity are presented to it. The process of inference by which it ascends from the works of man to the spirit which origin-ares them is not more legitimate, more simple, and more natural than that by which it rises from nature to nature’ s God. The argument for God is many-sided, but the one determining force in us is that which seems like an instinct, which is original, primary, universal. No formal demonstration of God by trains of syllogistic reasoning could maintain theism through the ages but for the help of this implanted aptitude of the soul to respond to the thought of God. Anselm’ s a priori, beautiful as it is, belongs to trained thinkers, while the millions assert their knowledge of God with the same spontaneous confidence with which a child trusts the proof of parental love. Nature is clearer-headed than philosophy. And is so because Nature looks with all her faculties at the broad landscape of truth, and believes that she sees it, every cliff and scar, every bend of the river and flowery meadow, every forest and nestling cottage. Philosophy, meanwhile, is busy with the mechanism of the eye, and announces that the landscape is a miniature picture painted on the retina--a scientific truth, no doubt! But we are not fashioned to contemplate objects under the lead of a single faculty. We could not appreciate beauty if we should always keep the structure of the organ of vision in mind. We look--we see--we rejoice; we believe that we see what we see, we know that we see, and we know that all men excepting those who have lost the organ of vision see; and if at any time the thought comes to us that what we see is a picture on the retina, we accept the reflection as demonstrating the reality of the landscape, which, however, we did not doubt existed in all its beauty. It was not necessary to corroborate the fact. From the data before us we naturally inferred the reality of the scene by the same law of thought as that by which we rise from the phenomena of our consciousness to the reality of God. Now let us examine some of these phenomena.1. The great mass of mankind think that they can and do know that there is a God, because they find themselves reaching out into the realm of spirit after a power that is above them in the oft-recurring exigencies of their life, temporal and spiritual, in which they realize their own limitations in respect of strength, wisdom and foresight. This is not a mere impulse of unintelligent despair; it is quite as often the calm instinct of deliberation as the last resort of one who has no other source of help left. It is the refuge alike of childhood and age. 2. Another fact in our self-consciousness presents itself. When we walk out into a public park, the eye falls upon a splendid green sward, smooth as velvet, swelling into graceful curves, with head lands of noble forests jutting out, and islands of rarest flowers dotting its surface. The picture charms us and we seat ourselves in some shady spot to enjoy the Elysian scene. But we resume our stroll, and enter a densely populated slum of the city where the atmosphere is laden with poison, and where crime and vice eat like gangrenes into the souls and bodies of the miserable host. We hasten away with horror from the spot. The impression made upon us by either is distinct and influential, because there is in us an inherent capacity of admiring the beautiful and disliking the hideous. The same capacity exists in regard to the moral quality of things. Some things we plainly perceive to be right and some to be wrong. Being wrong as an idea wears a storm-cloud on its brow, and when it passes into a concrete shape and becomes in us doing wrong, then the storm bursts upon the soul, and it trembles to think that it will be called to account. Deeply implanted in the solid rock of man’ s nature, these two granite columns ought and ought not rise and form the gateway, through which we pass up to the cognition of an Infinite Judge. 3. How unlike is man to the brutes beneath him! They have their planes, fixed and uniform as a floor of rock, and thereon, through all the circuit of their tame existence, they fulfil their simple destiny. They do not hunger for that which is beyond their reach, but are content to live and die just as they live and die. No dream of happier climes or kindlier destinies ever disturbs them. The fledgling is satisfied with the bough where he was hatched. The lion seeks no other lair than that where he was born. But the soul of man soon gives token of a strange discontent, and when he thinks to settle down, a dream of other things stirs his blood and disturbs his repose. It is as true in the spiritual as in the secular life. Men aspire to higher planes of moral attainment, and even sainthood forgets its grace as it presses on to sublimer achievements in the imitation of God. Does it impair this majestic argument of God drawn from the depths of human consciousness that it does not formulate its postulates in the language of metaphysics? Heine tells us that it was while he was climbing the dizzy heights of dialectics, that “ the divine homesickness” came over him, and led him down to the levels of his kind, where he found God. There is a meadow-land of common-sense realism from which God has chosen to be more distinctly seen, and it is to that familiar spot we have led you to-day. It is there that our analysis of consciousness has revealed the indubitable phenomena that enables us to know that there is a God. The sense of dependence has led us up to a Power above us; the sense of obligation has pointed to an Authority above us; the sense of imperfection has ushered us into the presence of the Perfect Ideal, and the sublime inference of the race--the inference which has controlled history, created civilization, brightened the world with every virtue and grace of true nobility, thrown itself like a rainbow upon the storm of human sorrow, spanned the gulf of eternity with the bridge of hope, that inference is Jehovah. (Bp. W. E. McLaren.) . Psalms 84:1-12 Psalms 84:1-12 How amiable are Thy tabernacles, O Lord of Hosts! A good man in relation to the scenes of public worship I. As deprived of these privileges. In his deprivation he reveals--1. A devout admiration for them (Psalms 84:1). It is the law of mind, that blessings when lost always appear to us more precious. Lost health, lost property, lost friends, lost privileges. 2. An intense longing for them (Psalms 84:2). It is “ the living God “ that gives these scenes attractions to the soul. It is not the sublimity of the site, the splendour of the architecture, or the magnificence of the services, that the godly soul hungers for, but “ the living God.” 3. A high estimation of them (Psalms 84:3). What the house is to the sparrow, and the nest to the swallow, true worship is to the devout soul--the home, the resting-place. II. As in quest of these privileges (Psalms 84:5). Not only are they blessed whose home is in the sanctuary, and who spend their days in perpetual praise; but those also are blessed who, though at a distance, have God for their strength and help, and press on in pursuit of religious privileges.1. Though they encounter difficulties, they are still blest (Psalms 84:6). 2. Though they encounter difficulties, they shall with increasing strength pursue their way until they reach their blessed destiny (Psalms 84:7). III. As in contemplation of these privileges.1. He prays (Psalms 84:8-9). He invokes the Almighty to attend to his prayers, and to “ look upon the face,” or to favour, His “ anointed,” that is, the king. What titles he here applies to the Almighty! “ O Lord God of Hosts,” “ O God of Jacob,” “ O God our shield,” etc. 2. He avows the transcendent privileges of public worship (Psalms 84:10). 3. He exults in the relation and beneficence of God (Psalms 84:11). (Homilist.) Delight in God’ s house I. Longing for God.1. Soul-hunger (Psalms 84:2). A man in good health enjoys his food, and, when he is hungry, he desires it. But once the soul is quickened, it must have “ bread to eat that the world knows not of.” The “ heart and flesh cries out for the living God.” 2. God’ s altars (Psalms 84:3). The altars of God are suggestive of the forgiveness of sins, of communion, and protection. For there were the various sacrifices made which brought the soul into communion with God, through the burnt offerings, the meat offering, the peace offering, and the sin and trespass offering; there the man who was fleeing for his life might ever find a place of safety and refuge. Having expressed this desire, he ascribes two other titles to the Lord: “ my King and my God.” He who would call God his King must yield himself by faith to God, as well as do homage to Him. 3. The blessings of God’ s house (Psalms 84:4) “ In God’ s house everything will be granted to the soul, and nothing be asked of it in return but the praise of Him.” II. The blessed man is a blessing.1. The blessed man described (Psalms 84:5). His will and desire, all his powers and purposes are so surrendered to God, that God can use him in blessing others. 2. How the blessed man becomes a blessing (Psalms 84:6). God has ordained that His people, especially those who themselves have been filled and refreshed by His own blessed life, by dwelling in His house, shall be the means of saving the world. What a blessed mission is this; what a glorious privilege! 3. Reflex blessings (Psalms 84:7). (1) “ They go from strength to strength.” Every grace in us is increased by the use of it (Isaiah 40:29-31).(2) “ Every one of them in Zion appeareth before God” (Matthew 25:23). 4. The prayer of the blessed man (Psalms 84:8). III. The blessings of salvation (Psalms 84:9-12). God is the complete protection of His saints. He is the whole armour with which we clothe ourselves.1. Complete satisfaction. Sometimes the unbelieving world looks with pity upon the Christian who has turned his back upon all the carnal pleasures of the world; but the answer of the man who has found satisfaction in God and in His service is simple and emphatic (Psalms 84:10). To be such a privileged servant of God is better than to be like Dives in the midst of all his feasting and revelling. 2. Every need supplied (Psalms 84:11). Protection from all evil, and every needful thing He will supply out of His energetic goodness, as the sun causes the earth to be fruitful with every good thing by the power of his rays. Chief among these things is “ grace” for the time being, and “ glory” for the time to come. What can man want more? 3. A final beatitude (Psalms 84:12). May the Lord of hosts, the God of Jacob, our King and our God, fulfil all His goodness to us in these things, by creating in us a longing thirst and desire, which shall be converted into prayer, and trust, and real possession. (G. F. Pentecost, D. D.) Delight in God’ s house The great truth which underlies this psalm is that God reveals Himself especially in the sanctuary. In the house of God we find-- I. Pardon. II. Peace. As its walls shut out the noises of the world, so its worship shuts out earthly confusion and strife. III. Spiritual strength. Hearts fail, consciences yield, life-strings snap, because men do not seek the God of Jacob to strengthen them out of Zion. We must bear hardships and sorrows. Every road, from the cradle to the grave, leads through the valley of Baca; but pilgrims to Zion change barrenness to bloom, singing together as they go. IV. Spiritual Joy. Such delight is wholly disconnected from earthly advantages; it flourishes upon their loss. Pascal wrote, “ Happiness is neither within us nor without us; it is the union of ourselves with God.” There is no necessary limit to this joy, none except the capacity of the human spirit. Practical inferences:--1. A church should be built to manifest God. 2. The worship of the Church should seek the same end. Music, Scripture, prayer, teaching, have but one objects--to draw the soul nearer to God. 3. There is no substitute for the sanctuary. Bigotry may close its doors, but the early Christians consecrate a chapel in the catacombs, and Covenanters make cave or barn or sea-beach a temple. Neglect of the sanctuary proves not abundance, but lack of spiritual life. (Monday Club Sermons.) A psalm of exile We seem to see here a spirit chastened by grief, taught by suffering to sing and to pray and to hope. And such is the general tone of the psalms of the dispersion. They remind us of the old and deep lesson, that the chastisements which seem not to be joyous but grievous in the present, will yield hereafter the peaceable fruits of righteousness to them that are exercised thereby. The psalm falls naturally into strophes.1. In the first of these, containing the first four verses, he calls to mind and enthusiastically describes his feelings in thinking of the Temple. Nothing is left to the exile but the solace of memory, faith and hope. And memory and imagination, acting by the law of association, call up the details of the scene. He dwells fondly upon the birds nestling as they have been from time immemorial permitted to nestle in the Temple. This thought, that the God of the Temple afforded shelter to the birds of the precincts, swallows, doves, storks, etc., was held by Gentiles no less than Jews. Men of Kyme, says Herodotus, went to the Temple of Apollo, near Miletus, to inquire concerning one who had taken refuge with them from the Persians what they should do, and the oracle replied that he was to be given up to the Persians. One of the men of Kyme ventured to treat the oracle as false, and himself made renewed inquiry. But the same answer was returned. He then went round the Temple, and disturbed the sparrows and other birds who had built their nests in the Temple. Meanwhile there came a voice from the sanctuary to Aristodikos, saying, “ Most profane of men, how durst thou do these things? Dost thou overthrow my suppliants from the Temple?” “ O King,” was the retort, “ it is thus that thou succourest thy suppliants, for thou biddest the men of Kyme give up a suppliant.” There is something very beautiful in the idea of the Divine Being as the protector of small, helpless creatures like the house-haunting birds, and we at once remember the words of Jesus, “ Not a sparrow falls to the ground without your Father.” If God takes thought for sparrows, much more does He for men. 2. From the birds his thoughts glances to the worshippers, who are still able to frequent the Temple; and he recalls the pilgrim throngs on their way thither. “ Blessings on those who dwell in Thy house; still will they praise Thee. Blessings on the men whose strength is in Thee, who love to think of the pilgrim way.” Those whom he mentions as dwelling in Jehovah’ s house--i.e. in the Holy City--are under the yoke of a foreign conqueror in these last years of Judah, and in a very depressed condition. Yet the psalmist anticipates that they will still be able joyfully to sing of the Divine victory. And then, as to the believers scattered about in foreign lands, and who will travel up to Zion by the pilgrim caravans, they will have manifold hardships by the way; but confidence in Jehovah will give them strength, and they will overcome them all. With lively sympathy he thus depicts them--“ They passing through the Baca valley,” etc. We may compare the imagery with that in Isaiah where he depicts the desert solitudes as bursting out into rose blossoms, and being filled with songs; the parched land transformed into a pool; its thirst satisfied with springs of water; the haunts of dragons becoming green with reeds and rushes. Upon a great highway the ransomed people of Jehovah are seen returning, and coming to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads (Isaiah 35:1-10.). And the thought and the imagery are very similar when the prophet Hosea speaks of the Valley of Achor (woe) being transformed into a Door of Hope, and the people singing there as they did in the days of yore when they came up out of the land of Egypt. These things are for us allegories or parables of the soul. It is in the soul, and the soul alone, that we are to look for these wondrous transformations of deserts into gardens, and parched valleys into springs of living water. It is through undying trust and hope and love, cherished in the midst of every suffering scene of life’ s pilgrimage, that these marvels must be wrought. 3. And now, from these soothing exercises of memory and imagination, the royal poet turns to himself, and composes his spirit in an attitude of deep humility and holy prayer. “ O Jehovah, God of Hosts, hear my prayer: attend, O Jacob’ s God. O God, our shield, behold, look upon thine anointed’ s face!” This, then, is the language of a king. In virtue of his high office and dignity he would have enjoyed in former days a place of high honour in the Temple. But rather, he says, he would be as the humblest menial in a great house, and, after the Oriental custom, prostrate himself in the dust in the presence of his Master, than dwell, as he is dwelling now, possibly in circumstances of comfort or even of luxury, among the heathen. For supposing this psalm to have been composed by King Jeconiah, while he was in honour and esteem at the Court of Babylon, the language is peculiarly impressive as an evidence of the piety of his spirit. “ Sun,” he proceeds, “ and shield is the eternal God! Grace, glory will Jehovah give; will not refuse happiness to those who walk in innocency.” And then the psalm ends, as it were, with a sigh of relief and repose, betokening that the flow of feeling has found its true outlet and rest. “ O Jehovah of Hosts, blessings on the men who trust in Thee!” We may draw a few simple lessons from the beautiful psalm. We need to see the blessings and the privileges of our life in perspective, at a distance, before we can truly realize their worth. The youth knows not how happy he has been at home, feels not in all its preciousness the blessing of a mother’ s love, till he looks back upon the early scene from some distant place, and from amidst scenes that are strange to his heart. And so of those scenes of worship in which our spirit was educated for eternity. The afterglow of Sundays, the reflection amidst busy hours on songs and sermons that have been listened to not always with interest at the time--these are experiences often the most enriching. It follows, that all our diligence in attending to spiritual things now must secure for us a far-off interest of good--memories of sweetness and refreshment, it may be, in some distant land or scene of suffering, like that of the psalmist in exile. But there are other lessons. The soul deprived of its wonted props, its associations of place and circumstance, is taught more entirely to throw itself upon the spiritual resources. His soul was east down within him at the hill Mizar, and it is cast down in Babylon. Yet why so? He knows that God is to be sought and found there no less than in the Temple. What are space and time to the worship of the Spirit? And what is the use of the glorious faculty of imagination but that we may, in a sense, cancel time, and live in fellowship with the great and good of the past--that we may break down the bounds of space and pass to our friends across seas and deserts, and join with all saints in that worship which is invisible and unending, and is fixed to no particular spot of earth? As Fenelon says, “ We may be very near to one another without meeting, or be far apart while occupying the same room.” God unites all and obliterates the greatest distance where hearts united in Him are concerned. In that Centre be who is in China or Japan and those in France meet one another. But perhaps the thought that most naturally offers itself from the study of the psalm is the blessedness of religious memories. (E. Johnson, M. A.) Mingled music This psalm has well been called “ The Pearl of Psalms.” It shines with mild, soft radiance, comparable to that precious gem. I would myself speak of it as being full of mingled music, and mingled music is sometimes of the sweetest. For the most part the note is high, and the strain is sweet; yet there is a tone of sorrow underlying and interleaving all. David sings, indeed, but he sings of his sorrows. Happy is the man who can sing in the time of grief, and turn his very sadness into themes for melody. I. “ How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of Hosts.” This is a eulogy of the house and worship of the living God. Whereever David may have been in person, his heart was yonder. The windows of his soul were ever open towards Jerusalem. Is not the title which David applies to God instructive? “ O Lord of Hosts.” The tabernacle of the sanctuary seemed to David like the pavilion of the King or general, in the very centre of the camp, and he, as one of the King’ s mighty men, looked towards that pavilion, gazed at its waving signal, and longed to be soon beneath its very shadow. The Church of the living God, the God of Hosts--for He is still the God of battles, and a Man of war--is the place wherein the soldiers refurnish themselves, and refurbish their arms. The worship of His house, the means of grace, these are as the armoury whence the shield the helmet, the breastplate, the sword, the preparation of the Gospel of peace for the feet, are all provided. It is also as the refreshment place, where God succours and sustains the weary warriors, wells breaking up and leaping forth at their very feet, as they did at Samson’ s, if needs be. II. Then follows an elegy (verse 2). David was bereaved indeed. He had lost the sanctuary. He was away from the place where God revealed Himself particularly. They tell me that those who have dwelt among the glorious mountains of Switzerland cannot bear to live away from them. They pine and die, away from their native land. After some such fashion David looked Zionward. Absence made his heart grow fender still. What was it that he longed for? For the courts of the Lord. Ah, burner for the sake of the courts themselves. What are the courts without the King? He seeks not the place, but the presence; not the courtiers, but the monarch; not the subjects, but the Lord Himself. III. An allegory (verse 3). The birds were free to visit the sacred place. “ Oh,” thought David, “ would I were as privileged as they.” He would not change places with them. He did not wish he were a bird, but he wished he had the access they enjoyed, and the familiarity and temerity that characterized them. What birds were they? Only sparrows, merely swallows, the one the most worthless and the other the most restless of birds; yet were they privileged to be where David at that time was debarred from going. Oh, prize your privileges. Make God’ s house your home. Love it not only for the benefit you may get from it yourselves, but for the blessing it may bring your children. “ The swallow hath found a nest for herself, where she may lay her young.” Thank God for the church, and the Sunday school, and the Bible classes. Despise none of them; they will bless both you and your households. IV. An augury (verse 4). The birds dwelt in the precincts of the Holy Place, and, according to their nature, they praised, they sang. Swallows and sparrows are not song birds, you say. Ah, but they chirped and chattered, and this was their best praise to God. Now just as the Roman augurs pretended to foretell coming events by the flight of birds and other means, so it seems to me--perhaps it is a quaint conceit--David ventures to prophesy that all who dwell in the Lord’ s house will be still praising Him. “ Why,” he says, “ there are those birds chattering, chirping, twittering all the while, So long as they have so secure an abode, their hearts go forth in praise to God. There also are the priests, the Levites, and the Nethinim, the servants of the priests, surely so long as they have a hand in this work they will be full of praise to God.” Certainly this is true of the upper world. I do not know that I could suggest a better epitaph for the happy Christian who praised God on earth, but is praising Him better still on high, than this word or two from our closing verse. What are they doing yonder? “ Still praising, still praising.” I would fain have it on my own tombstone. I could not wish a better word than that, “ Still praising.” “ Still praising.” Yes, when eternity grows old, “ Still praising.” They practised here, and rehearsed on earth, and now they can see Him face to face, and praise Him more than angels can. Oh, begin His praises here, that you may continue them hereafter. (T. Spurgeon.) The beauty of the house of God I. Wherein lies the beauty of the House of God? It does not consist in mere outward loveliness. In proportion as one learns to worship God in the spirit he becomes unconcerned about the particular architecture of the building. As a piece of workmanship he may admire it as much as any, but as a place of worship it possesses no more charm than the country barn devoted on the Lord’ s Day to the preaching of the Gospel. I fear that in the present day reverence for mere bricks and mortar is becoming a very fashionable error. Beauty of design in the sanctuary walls is thought more of than beauty of holiness in sanctuary worship. This is the result of a religion that goes no deeper than the eye sees. But to the man educated of God, mere external symmetry will be powerless to evoke the psalmist’ s exclamation of “ how amiable are Thy tabernacles.” He wants something more. Something that touches the inner springs of the soul. A house of God without worship is a fiction and a lie. II. When this beauty is most seen. The amiability of God’ s tabernacle is not always equally perceived. There are times when we are led to utter the words of our text with a deeper emphasis than usual. Seasons when an unprecedented glory fills the house. I will just mention a few times when God’ s house seems to possess a charm almost beyond description. Certainly we must place first on the list the few Sabbaths immediately following conversion. What a blessed freshness there is about the worship then; it is something so new, so different to any joy experienced before that its very novelty lends enchantment. The beauty of the sanctuary is also wonderful when there is that in the service specially suited go our present experience. III. The extent to which the beauty is appreciated, and the only man who can appreciate it at all. The first word of the text gives us an idea of the extent of David’ s appreciation, and well may the verse close with a note of admiration. The psalmist felt that it was impossible to tell in words the beauty of the place. He could but exclaim “ how amiable” and leave it for hearts which have felt the same to fathom the depths of the word. This we know, however, that in his eyes the tabernacle made of skins outshone in beauty all the silken tents of luxury and sin, and one day in its Courts was worth more to him than a thousand spent elsewhere. The “ how” defies all measurement and description. The only man who can behold this beauty is also learnt from one word--the little word “ thy.” It was because the tabernacle was God’ s that its beauty appeared so great. Now, no alien from God can find a joy in anything because it is God’ s. He who loves not a person can never see a beauty in that person’ s house simply because it is his. Affection for the inhabitant must precede love for the habitation. (A. G. Brown.) The believer’ s love for the sanctuary The Christian loves the sanctuary-- I. Because it is the dwelling-place of the Most High. In the works of creation and providence we behold Him coming forth as a God of ineffable goodness, unable, as it were, from the graciousness of His nature, to withhold unnumbered good things even from the fallen. But it is the sanctuary which is the tabernacle of His glory. There He specially reveals Himself as the God of all grace; there is the mercy-seat; there, sinful though we be, we may draw nigh to the God of our spirits through the High Priest of our profession, the Son of His love. II. Because He feels pleasure in its hallowed employments. He knows by experience that as in Ezekiel’ s vision the healing waters flowed from the sanctuary, and imparted life and fertility to every region through which they wound their way, so the gifts and graces of God’ s Holy Spirit, descending from the heavenly Zion, pour their refreshing and sanctifying current through the courts of the Lord’ s house, and that from its services, as from consecrated channels, he drinks of that stream which makes glad the city of God. III. Because it is the symbol of better things to come. Our mental joys within these earthly temples are but the beginnings and the foretastes of the joys of heaven; our songs in the assembly of the great congregation, they are but the representative of the vast multitude who are even now singing the new song of the redeemed; and all the privileges which surround us, and in which we now delight, are the only outline of the final state of perfection when we appear in that land of which the Lord God is the light, and the glory, and the sanctuary. Oh! how glorious shall be that service compared with this! (S. Bridge, M. A.) Psalms 84:2 My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord: my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God.The profoundest hunger of human nature The words “ soul, heart, flesh,” are here used to represent the whole man, human nature in its entirety; and this human nature is here longing, craving, hungering, crying out for the “ living God,’ nothing less. This means-- I. That nothing less will satisfy humanity. Not a whole universe, not a million pantheons of dead gods; it is the “ living God.” II. That humanity requires no logic to prove that there is a God. So inwrought into man is the belief of His existence, that the whole being cries out for Him. III. That anti-theism is anti-humanity. Anti-theism is a lie to our common nature. (Homilist.) The heart’ s cry after God I. The desire of heart and flesh--the living God. Sibbes well observes that the desires of the heart are the best proofs of saintship; and if a man wishes to know whether he is really a saint or no, he can very soon find out by putting his finger upon the pulse of his desires, for those are things that never can be counterfeit. You may counterfeit words; you may counterfeit actions; but you cannot counterfeit desires.1. Every saint has within his breast that which is actually born of God, and therefore it cries out after its own Father. 2. Every believer has the Spirit of God dwelling within him, and if he has the Spirit of God dwelling within him, it is only natural that he should desire God. 3. The experience of earth often makes you long more for God. After you have discovered the hollowness, the disappointing nature of the world. II. The intensity of this desire.1. It is an intensity that drowns all other desires “ Crieth out for God.” I passed a little child the other day being led by the hand by a kind-faced policeman; and as the little thing walked by his side, I could hear it amidst its sobs, continually crying, “ Father! father! father! father!” Yes, in this great city-full of people, the only face the child waned to see was the face of its father. He knew he had lost a father’ s hand, for he had wandered from a father’ s side, and he wanted father back again. “ My heart and my flesh crieth out for God.” Just as a lost child cares not for a million faces it may meet along the road--it wants to look at its father’ s face--so the true born child of God can rest satisfied with nothing short of a sight of his God. “ My heart and my flesh crieth out for God.” 2. It is an intensity of desire that creates pain. The language of our text is the language of a soul which can bear its anguish no longer in silence. It is a cry extorted by inward pangs. (A. G. Brown.) The soul’ s want of God The chief want of man is God. The soul is for God, and God for the soul. What God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.1. The first step in this answer to the deepest want of human nature is the conviction that God is--that God lives. Heart and flesh cry; where is the response? Joyful is the moment in the soul’ s experience when the reality of God’ s being comes over us with its full power. The first need of the soul is to feel that God is real--the great reality and essence of all things. And if sin had not shut up and darkened the windows of our being, this gracious light would flow in on every side. 2. Then we are to feel that He is Present and Living. The belief of not a few seems to be in a past God, a deceased, departed Deity, and the world as a huge skeleton out of which all the soul has gone, not an abode for the indwelling Power, but the ruins of His former stately palace. But He has not made the world and then retired from it. He is not an absentee proprietor. He is the present Creator, the living God, as on the world’ s first morning. He dyes the flower, and ripens the corn. Laws are but His uniform modes of working. Forces are but the heavings of the indwelling Almightiness. He is, and He is present. He overflows creation. He is all in all. 3. But the heart and flesh have another note in their cry, and it is for a Good Being, or, as our Saxon has it, God, that is, the Good, whom we may love. God, the Good, is in all systems, all beings, and in all working according to His own being, that is, for good.” Father is His proper name. Nature, Providence, Jesus, all teach this comforting lesson. And When the heart in its hopes and affections, and the flesh in its griefs and pangs, cry, the response comes from every side, and is echoed and re-echoed in endless and harmonious sounds--God is good. 4. The want of the soul is not only for a good, but for a great God, whom we may adore. It admires greatness with an even earlier and intenser admiration than goodness. Our tastes change very much from youth onward. Things we once passionately admired cease to move us. The soul has got beyond them. It exhausts one thing after another. But there is one youthful sentiment that is never outgrown--that rises with our intellectual stature, and spreads with our moral expansion, and soars with our spiritual aspirations--and that is our faith in the Great God-- “ And, as it hastens, every age But makes its brightness more divine.”5. The nature of man has been so created as to seek after a Wise and Infinite Intelligence. We admire with huge respect the men even who have been able to pocket a little science, who can read a dozen languages, who are largely conversant with affairs, and know things as they are. A skilful invention is heralded from hemisphere to hemisphere. He who has read one of the characters in Nature’ s alphabet, or spelled out a few syllables or words in her mighty lore, is hailed with all the titles of glory. But no libraries, geniuses, scientific or literary associations, no fragments and crumbs that fall from the table of knowledge, can meet the unextinguishable thirst of man for the spiritual and the immortal. Let him not think to fill an infinite craving with anything less than the Infinite. But if I have at all rightly interpreted the significance of this cry, which is for ever ascending from the breast, and seeking after God, you may ask, How shall it be satisfied? I would not dogmatize, and say by any one way, but rather by all ways. It is more in the waiting, receiving, and teachable state of the soul, than it is by methods, cultures, churches, and dispensations. Seek, then, for the truth, and in the truth God will ever be coming, and entering in and taking possession of the soul, and driving out every darkness and weakness. Rest not short of God. (A. A. Livermore.) The religious sense What is the secret of the enduring charm, the comforting and ennobling influence of the psalms? Is it not to be found, in part at least, in the frank revelation made by the psalmist of his own personal experience and aspiration? His prayers are not addressed to the congregation I In rapturous praise and in fervent prayer he pours out his soul unto God. So wide and varied is the range of his experience that alike in joy and sadness, in exultation or contrition, in victory or defeat, we find in his confession of sin, his jubilant gratitude, his martial ardour, his triumphant faith, the best statement of our own sin and failure, expectation and yearning. Thus to the very depths of our nature does he go down when, as in the text, he exclaims, “ My heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God.” I. Man has a religious sense. It is customary to speak of the “ five senses” ; but modern physiologists affirm the popular enumeration to be defective. It does not take into account, we are told, the sensations of heat and cold, hunger and thirst, or the sensations of organic life. Neither does it recognize the “ muscular sense,” whereby we measure and regulate our bodily activities. We hear also of an “ internal sense,” or the mind’ s knowledge of its own operations. Then, again, we occasionally hear of the “ aesthetic sense,” whereby we have the perception or feeling of beauty. Philosophers, as Shaftesbury, have affirmed the existence also in man of a “ moral sense,” meaning that moral distinctions are not due to reasoning processes, but are recognized by a kind of feeling, or “ an immediate and undefinable intuition.” In like manner may it be affirmed that man has a religious sense. Just as we are constituted to taste and touch, to have a sense of the beautiful, and to have a sense of right and wrong, so are we constituted to feel after God. “ Wherever man is there religion is,” said Max Muller, who also affirms, “ I maintain that religion, so far from being impossible, is inevitable if only we are left in possession of our senses.” Just because you are a man, made by and for God, the religious element within you constrains you, in spite of yourself, to exclaim of all earthly pursuits and pleasures promising satisfaction and peace, “ Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.” II. The religious sense needs training. Whatever be the stage of moral and spiritual experience, the limits of development have not been reached. The religious sense can always be “ touched to finer issues.” By neglect it pines and withers. Through disuse the facility of speech in a foreign tongue lessens and disappears, and how completely the mastery has been lost may not be known till on some sudden emergency, to our utter humiliation, we find the words will not come when we “ do call for them” ; and we who once could swiftly weave our thought into speech, now stand in dumb imbecility. It is too often forgotten that a similar retribution, but infinitely graver in its issues, awaits the man who neglects to maintain his religious nature in healthful efficiency. When we call to mind the sure operation of this law, need we wonder that, spiritually, men differ so greatly, and that while some are keenly sensitive to the softer whispers of Divine love, others need the loud thunders of Heaven’ s artillery to rouse them to a consciousness of God? If the man of business give only the fragments of his time to the culture of his soul, what marvel that, whilst sagacious and successful in commerce, he should be weak, ignorant, and wayward in spiritual insight and service. If the student of Nature devote all his thought and energy to the investigation of her laws, what wonder that the penalty of excessive and exclusive study of physical science should be, as Darwin had to acknowledge with sorrow, the loss of relish for music, poetry, and the higher pursuits that refine and elevate life. If the intellect be trained and the affections neglected, what wonder that a Francis Bacon should show himself “ wisest, meanest of mankind,” ready and eager to sell his glorious birthright for a mess of pottage. O the pity of it, that men should so zealously train the understanding and so persistently neglect the heart, should suffer the cobwebs to darken the window of the soul, and allow the holy fire to go out! Yet is there no part of our nature we can so ill afford to leave undisciplined. If religion meant pardon only, even then delay would be dangerous, but if it mean the training of the soul, the development of character after the pattern of Christ Jesus, the discipline of the religious sense to swift, accurate, and joyous activity, is it not of all follies the greatest to neglect or postpone the culture of the soul? III. What is the method of training? The answer is not difficult. It is one advantage of the line of thought pursued that the reply can be so easy and natural. How do men proceed to train their other senses? How is it that the dyer discerns varieties of hue unapparent to the untrained eye? How does the artist appreciate distinctions of shade invisible to the ordinary vision? Though there may sometimes be original and native superiority, it still holds true that “ practice makes perfect.” How shall the ear be trained to appreciate the subtle harmonies of music? Will it suffice to read treatises that describe the auditory and vocal organs? Will it be enough to study theories of musical composition? Will it not be needful to listen to music, to note the separate and combined effects, and ourselves to play and to sing if we are to possess executive skill and correct musical judgment? No one ever yet became a musical expert who did not use his ears! In like manner, it may be said, no man ever became an efficient public speaker by reading manuals of elocution, or treatises of rhetoric alone. There is needed intelligent and persevering practice for the attainment of the art to conceal art, and to speak with ease, clearness, and force. A man learns to swim not by perusing written instructions on natation, but by swimming. He learns to paint by painting. However useful theories of the various arts may be, in every sphere it is recognized that it is only by practice, wise and sedulous, the highest efficiency can be gained. It is that the simplicity of this has caused it to be overlooked when religious training is considered? How many appear to think that the mere reading of the Bible will discipline the nature! To study a chart is one thing, to navigate the vessel by its information quite another thing. To read the Bible is good, to act according to its directions is better. “ Exercise thyself unto godliness,” was Paul’ s counsel to Timothy. IV. Can we by innate strength of will accomplish this high work? For physical and mental training are not schools, colleges, teachers, and professors required? Can the irreligious man, by his own resolve alone, develop high religious sensibility? The uniform declarations of the Book of God concur with the humiliating testimony of personal consciousness, that it is not in man to direct his steps, to subdue his turbulent passions, to bring his motives and plans into harmony with the Divine will, to educate to unerring precision and robust energy his religious sense. Nor is there any need that he should attempt the impossible task. The heart cries out for the living God, and He delights to answer its cry. (A. Cowe, M. A.) Psalms 84:3 Yea, the sparrow hath found an house, and the swallow a nest for herself.Sparrows and swallows These birds found in the sanctuary what we would find in God. I. Houses for themselves. That they should find houses in and around the Lord’ s house is remarkable, and David dwelt on it with pleasure.1. Consider what they were. Sparrows. (1) Worthless creatures. Five for two farthings.(2) Needy creatures, requiring both nests, food, and everything else.(3) Uninvited guests. The Temple did not need them, it might have been all the better without them.(4) Numerous creatures; but none were driven away. 2. Consider what they did. “ Found a house” --a comfortable, suitable abode. (1) They looked for it, or they could not have been described as having found it.(2) It was there already, or they could not have found it.(3) They appropriated it. Their right lay in discovery; they found a house and occupied it without question. O for an appropriating faith! 3. Consider what they enjoyed. Safety, Rest, Abode, Delight, Society, Nearness. All this in the house of God, hard by His altars. Thus do believers find all in Christ Jesus. And so, secondarily, they find the same things in the assembly of the saints, in the place where God’ s honour dwelleth. We come to the house of the Lord with joy. We remain in it with delight. We sit and sing in it with pleasure. We commune with our fellow-songsters with much content. II. Nests for their young.1. Some persons are not so much in need of a house fez themselves; for, like swallows, they live on the wing, and are active and energetic; but they need a nest for their young, for whom they are greatly anxious. They long to see the young people settled, happy, and safe in God. Children should be housed in the house of God. The sanctuary of God should be the nursery of the young. (1) They will be safe there, and free there. The swallow, the “ bird of liberty,” is satisfied to find a nest for herself near the altars of God. She is not afraid of bondage there either for herself or her young. (2) They will be joyful there. We should try to make our little ones happy in God, and in His holy worship. Dull Sabbaths and dreary services should not be mentioned among us. (3) They are near the blessing when we bring them near the house of the Lord. (4) They are in choice society; their companions will be the companions of Jesus. (5) They are likely to return to the nest, as the swallows do; even as the young salmon return to the rivulet where they were hatched. Young folks remember their first impressions. (6) Children truly brought to Christ have every blessing in that fact. They are rich: they dwell in God’ s palace. They are educated: they abide in the Lord’ s temple. They are safe for time and eternity. 2. The second blessing of a nest for our young often follows on the first, or getting a house for ourselves. But it needs prayer, example, and precept. Children do not take to religion as ducks to water: they must be led and trained with earnest care. Are you sighing after Christ for yourself and your children? Are you content without Christ? Then you are not likely to care about your children. Do you already possess a home in Jesus? Rest not till all yours are housed in the same place. (C. H. Spurgeon.) More value than many sparrows I. A bitter and significant contrast. “ The sparrow hath found an house, and the swallow a nest for herself,” while I! We do not know what the circumstances were, but if we accept the conjecture that he may have accompanied David in his flight during Absalom’ s rebellion, we may fancy him as wandering on the uplands across Jordan and sharing the agitations, fears and sorrows of those dark hours, and in the midst of all, as the little company hurried hither and thither for safety, thinking, with a touch of bitter envy, of the calm restfulness and serene services of the peaceful tabernacle. But, pathetic as is the complaint, when regarded as the sigh of a minister of the sanctuary exiled from the shrine which was as his home, and from the worship which was his occupation and delight, it sounds a deeper note and one which awakens echoes in our hearts, when we hear in it, as we may, the complaint of humanity contrasting its unrest with the happier lot of lower creatures. Be true to the unrest, and do not mistake its meaning, nor seek to still it, until it drives you to God. II. A plea which we may use, and a pledge on which we may rest. “ Thine altars, O Lord of hosts, my King and my God.” The psalmist pleads with God, and lays hold for his own confidence upon, the fact that creatures who do not understand what the altar means may build beside it, and who have no notion of who the God is to whom the house is sacred, are yet cared for by Him. And he thinks to himself, “ If I can say, ‘ My King and my God,’ surely He that takes care of them will not leave me uncared for.” The unrest of the soul that is capable of appropriating God is an unrest which has in it, if we understand it aright, the assurance that it shall be stilled and satisfied. These words not only may hearten us with confidence that our desires will be satisfied if they are set upon Him, but they point us to the one way by which they come. Say “ My King and my God” in the deepest recesses of a spirit conscious of His presence, of a will submitting to His authority, of emptiness expectant of His fulness; say that, and you are in the house of the Lord. For it is not a question of place, it is a question of disposition and desire. III. A warning. Sparrows and swallows have very small brains. They build their nests, and they do not know whose altars they are flitting around. There are plenty of people who live like that. We are all tempted to build our nests where we may lay our young, or dispose of ourselves or our treasures in the very sanctuary of God, with blind, crass indifference to the Presence in which we move. The Father’ s house has many mansions, and whereever we go we are in God’ s temple. Alas! some of us have no more sense of the sanctities around us, and no more consciousness of the Divine eye that looks down upon us than if we were so many feathered sparrows flitting about the altar. Let us take care that we give our hearts to be influenced, and awed, and ennobled, and tranquillized by the sense of evermore being in the house of the Lord. Let us see to it that we keep in that house by continual aspiration, cherishing in our hearts the ways that lead to it; and so making all life worship, and every place what the pilgrim found the stone of Bethel to be, a house of God and a gate of heaven. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Thy swallow’ s nest The swallow, like the robin and the wren, is one of the sacred birds of Christendom. Its own beauty throws a shield of protection over it; and by rude and gentle natures alike it is regarded with a feeling of veneration akin to that which pervades the quaint rhymes of the “ Ancient Mariner.” It makes its nest under the lowly cottage eaves, almost within reach of eager childish hands stretched forth from the dormer window; but it is as safe and unmolested there as under the porch of the rural sanctuary, whose profound quiet is disturbed only once a week by feet of reverent worshippers. Nor can we wonder at this beautiful feeling which extends to a few favoured birds and flowers an interest in that blessed religion which guards and hallows everything that God has made, as an earnest that it shall yet embrace all nature. It has more and other beauty than the mere grace of its form and the glossy sheen of its plumage. All the past summers of life have shed their halo around it. To the careworn mind there is childhood in every twitter of its little throat, and in every flash of its purple wing. It is full of our own human heart. Scarcely less wonderful than itself is the nest which it builds, in defiance of the laws of gravity, against the smooth masonry of the gable. It attaches its frail nest to the enduring structure of man that it may share in its endurance. It seeks, as the psalmist tells us, the vicinity of the altar of God, the safe sanctuary of holy places.1. And is there not a profound lesson for us in this curious contrast? We are migratory like the swallow; and the land from whence we have come and to which we are hastening is fairer than any tropical dream of groves of palm and violet skies of unfading summer. We wear immortal wings within; and no small part of the sadness of human life arises from the incongruity between our capacities and attainments, our longings and enjoyments; between the infinite duration of our immortal spirits and the transitoriness of all things here. 2. The swallow, aerial as is its flight, transient as is its stay, graceful and ethereal as is its form, nevertheless builds its nest of the common clay of the ground; but compensates for the seeming degradation by attaching that nest to the home of man and the very altar of God. And so God has made our bodies of the dust of the earth, and closely connected our life with it. We must make our nest of clay. But while by our bodies we belong to one set of circumstances, we belong by our souls to another and higher. We are immortal guests dwelling within a transient house of clay that must one day crumble and fall and be resolved into the elements out of which it was built. And we, too, must build our clay-nest against the house of God, near the very altar of heaven, if its vanity and insignificance are to be redeemed, if we are to learn most richly the meaning of our discipline, and find strength to endure unto the end, and lay up provision in a storehouse which death cannot rifle. 3. The swallow’ s nest has a wise lesson for us in the building of many other structures, mental and moral, as well as material. To labour steadily and to wait patiently is the precept which it enforces. Only by slow and cautious degrees can any human effort reach perfection. Especially in the growth of the spiritual being, the formation of the Christian character, do we need to act upon the swallow’ s motto of “ Haste is slow.” We must not force our higher nature into premature or impatient development lest it become weak and unstable. Like all Nature’ s operations, which proceed by a wise and orderly progression from the seed to the blade, and from the blade to the ear, and from the ear to the full corn in the ear, never anticipating at any stage what belongs to a more advanced one, never exhibiting an abnormal precocity, the kingdom of heaven in us should develop its germinating fulness with the same ease and quietude and steady progress. (H. Macmillan, D. D.) Psalms 84:4 Blessed are they that dwell in Thy house: they will be still praising Thee.The priest and the pilgrim 1. The means of grace are prized in proportion to the difficulty or danger in the way of their enjoyment. The Scottish Covenanters would not be absent from public worship, although to be present at a conventicle was to brave not only oftentimes winter cold and storm under the open sky, but as well the cruel death that threatened them as law-breakers. Shall we not appear to our less favoured brethren to be the spoilt children of too many mercies? 2. The psalmist’ s utterance also illustrates the universal disposition among men to think they see in the lot assigned to others benefits and advantages greater than anything they themselves enjoy. Much of this discontent and murmuring has no better justification than an erroneous estimate of the prosperity and happiness of others. A little reflection would show it to be unworthy and mean-spirited. Instead of saying, “ Happy are those others,” and allowing discontent to embitter our spirit, let us look around, and, seeing what others lack and suffer, say gratefully, “ Happy are we.” Not envy, but loving, self-forgetting sympathy will be the passion stirred in our hearts. The pilgrim is not justified in supposing that those who remain in God’ s house are so much better off religiously than himself. After all, it is not constant and close association with sacred things that makes a man blessed. The following three verses (5-7) effectively enforce this lesson. They are best understood as the reply of the Temple ministers to the pilgrim’ s exclamation, “ Happy are they that dwell in Thy house!” These do not seek to make out that they are not happy, but with quiet dignity they perform the useful and needful service of drawing the man’ s attention to his own happiness. “ Nay,” say they, “ not only those who dwell in God’ s house are happy. Happy is every man whose strength the Lord is, and very specially such as are pilgrims on the highways with gladness in their heart.” The pilgrim limits the conditions of happiness unduly. All who put their trust in God, pilgrims like himself, are as fortunate as they. Happy is the priest and happy is the pilgrim! (A. S. Laidlaw, B. D.) The blessedness of dwelling in God’ s house I. There is a place peculiarly distinguished as the House of God. Jehovah planned, built, furnished and inhabits it. II. There are persons who find an abiding residence in it. This implies--1. The most ardent attachment to it.2. Constant attendance upon it.3. The greatest enjoyment in it.III. Such characters are truly blessed.1. From the nature of their employment. Praise.2. From its perpetuity. (T. Spencer.) Blessings received in the sanctuary an incentive to special praise I. A sacred scene. What though wealth may have poured no tribute to enrich it? what though art may have conferred no labour to adorn it? what though nobility may have allowed no patronage to sanction it? what though royalty may have pronounced no decree to exalt it? what though there be no ceremonial of gorgeous pomp to decorate its ritual, and no thrilling notes of scientific harmony to reverberate through long-drawn aisles and lofty domes, melting the passions by its charm, and swaying the senses on the side of salvation?--yet let there be the open voice of inspiration, let there be the prayer of the penitent and the hymn of the grateful, let there be the voice of the living ministry “ declaring the whole counsel of God,” and expounding the Gospel of His grace--and there angel bands descend and hover, the “ ministering spirits” of the place, and there God pronounces, as of old, in solemn approval, “ This is my rest for ever, here will I dwell, for I have desired it.” II. A delightful fact. The house of God is the scene of--1. Instruction.2. Comfort.3. Fellowship with God.4. Preparation for heaven. Here it is, you plume your souls for “ the glory, which is yet to be revealed in you” ; and it is but a trifling distance that separates you from the consummation, when you shall stand in the presence of God. “ Blessed,” then, “ are they that dwell in His house.” III. As appropriate enjoyment. “ Still praising “ God--1. When you tell verbally of His goodness.2. As you render personal consecration to His service.3. By advocating with others the claims of His house and cause. (J. Parsons.) Contrasted lots It is early morning. A party of pilgrims are drawing nigh to the Holy City. They have come from afar to pay their vows in the house of the Lord. They catch sight of the golden sheen from the eastern front of the Temple as it flashes in the morning light, and break out into song. “ O how lovely are Thy dwellings, O Lord of hosts.” But as the pilgrim still toils on his way and climbs the long ascent, hot, wearied, travel-stained, his throat choked with the sands of the desert, his tongue parched with thirst, he cannot help contrasting his position with that of the fortunate servants of the Temple. There they are constantly and without effort where he can be but once or twice in his life, and then only at great sacrifice of time, energy, comfort. It takes him days of wearisome and exhausting travel to come and pay his vows, while the priest, and even the doorkeeper have nothing to do but to tumble out of bed at the last minute and they are on the spoil He can only stay amid these delightful scenes a few days at the most, and must then return to the tents of wickedness, where it is so hard to keep a conscience void of offence. The Temple servants, on the other hand, can hardly fail to be good. They dwell always in the gracious and heavenly atmosphere of the Temple courts, and continually engage in sanctifying and delightful duties. How enviable their lot! “ Blessed are they that dwell in Thy house, they are constantly praising Thee.” The priest, the Levite, and the doorkeeper are at their customary duty. The pilgrim song strikes on their car. They cannot help pausing a moment. How fresh and sincere it sounds! What genuine and holy passion! “ My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord.” And now again that note of exaltation and rapture, “ My King and my God!” The old doorkeeper looks at the aged priest. They are both in their fortieth year of service. They have never departed from the Temple, each engaged in his same round of duties all the time. They read and share each other’ s thoughts. “ Ah!” sighs the priest, “ for the pilgrim’ s experience! He is visiting the holy spot, not because he has to be here, but because he has a strong desire to come. What adventures he has had on the way! What perils confronted and difficulties surmounted! And now he is here, and sees everything for the first time. All is fresh, full of novelty and interest, reality and zest. I, poor wight, have been doing these same duties for forty years! And I am bound to fulfil them, whether in the mood or not. It is long enough since I had a new idea, or felt the breath of a fresh inspiration. Behold what a weariness in the monotonous reiteration of even holy duty! Would I could change places with these pilgrims!” “ Blessed is the man who finds such strength in Thee, who has it in his heart to make a pilgrimage to Zion.” So it is all the world over, in religious and in daily life! We see the desirable things of the lot of another and the hardships of our own. “ To this side of the river,” says the Hindu proverb, “ that side looks green.” But cross the river and see! Have you not in walking along a street after a heavy shower of rain often noticed that the other side was far drier than the puddly pavement you were treading? So to avoid walking in the water you have crossed the road, but your feet got wet nevertheless! Many a young Christian, harassed and tempted at his daily work, thinks how fine it must be to be a minister. Well, so it is. But the position must not be judged by the parade day. It might be a good thing for him to be a minister just for one week. Lots are more equally divided than we think, and it is well that we should be initiated into the secret of St. Paul, who had learnt in whatsoever state he was therein to be content. For we may be well assured that if we are not content in our own lot we never should be in that of any one else. From the opinion of others we may learn some of the advantages our own calling possesses. The pilgrim tells the Temple servant for what he envies him, the Temple servant can show the pilgrim the compensation of his position. And the wise-hearted will heed the criticism. The sage bids us not to leave the ills we have to fly to those we know not of. The pilgrim must see the grand compensation of his lot. He cannot always be engaged offering the sacrifices of the sanctuary. But let him remember that life’ s redeeming and renewing ministry is not confined to the hours or places of worship. “ Look,” says the priest, surveying the wilderness which the pilgrim has sorrowfully trodden; “ passing through the valley of weeping they make it a place of springs.” In the wilderness of the world, through which God’ s people pass as strangers and pilgrims, their struggles are sacrificial, their tears life-giving. They wander in the wilderness in a desert way, hungry and thirsty, their souls faint in them, but as they go through it they turn the wilderness into a pool of water and the dry land into a spring of water. All that come after them bless God for the sighs and tears, the struggles and pains of those that went before, for they find that the desert has rejoiced and blossoms as the rose. You bewail the wickedness of your generation or the neighbourhood in which you live, or the business place you work in. You sigh and say, Woe is me that I dwell in the tents of wickedness; I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of the Lord. Already you are a doorkeeper of the house of the Lord. If ever the people among whom your lot is east are to hear of Christ and see the Kingdom of Heaven opened, it is by your witness and Christly ministry among them. Christ is the Door, and, if I may so say, you are the Door-keeper. That is your privilege, your great opportunity. You may be the only one on the pilgrimage in your neighbourhood, or family, or place of business. But you will not long be. For as you pass oh your way your cheery courage, your prayers, your sorrows and struggles shall, by God’ s grace, avail to change the face of the dark spot in the midst of which He has placed you and to make the wilderness into a fruitful field. (F. L. Wiseman.) Psalms 84:5-7 Blessed is the man whose strength is in Thee.Soul strength I. It springs from a special connection with God. “ Whose strength is in Thee.” In what does a soul’ s strength consist?1. Disinterested love. 2. Sympathy with right. The stronger the sympathy with right, the more mighty. 3. Concentration of faculties. 4. Uplifting hope. All these elements are to be found in God, must come from Him; and where they are there is strength of soul, the sublimest Strength of all. II. It changes the unpropitious in circumstances into blessings. “ Who passing through the valley of Baca make it a well.” III. It involves a progress in the journey of life. “ They go from strength to strength.” The nearer the pilgrim advanced towards the Temple, the more strength he got, by companionship, exercise, and resolution. IV. It enables the soul to reach at last the very presence of the eternal. “ Every one of them in Zion appeareth before God.” (Homilist.) In whose heart are the ways. Ways in the heart This man’ s heart is not like the trackless desert or the wild waste. There are “ ways “ in it, “ ways “ of truth and righteousness and goodness, and these show that the spiritual and moral energies of the man have been, and are, at work. Now, the man is happy who has ways in his heart, for spiritual culture is the secret of spiritual blessedness, compared with which all other happiness is an empty dream, a passing shadow, and nothing more. Blessed is he “ in whose heart are ways.” I. The way of repentance. The work of grace begins with this. II. The way to heaven. But when we speak of a thing being in the heart we mean more than that it is known to us; we mean that we love it. And in this sense the way to heaven is in the believer’ s heart. Every child feels happy when he is on his way home, and so does every true husband, and every true wife, and every true parent, and so does every pious pilgrim feel as he journeys to his home in the skies. III. The way of holiness. IV. The way of prayer. Just as the quickened seed seems to know to grow upwards, or, at least, is drawn upwards, and gently finds its way through the soil, so the heart, quickened by grace, rises heavenward. (A. Scott.) Who passing through the valley of Baca make it a well.--The valley of Baca “ The pilgrim band,” says Perowne, “ rich in hope, forget the trials and difficulties of the way. Hope changes the rugged and stony waste into living fountains. The vale blossoms as if the sweet rain of heaven had covered it with blessings. Hope sustains them at every step. From station to station they renew their strength as they draw nearer the end of their journey, till at last they appear before God.” Delight in the end is thus described as rendering the way to it, however toilsome in itself, delightful too. A deep religious sentiments-such is the thought--has power to change the mind’ s estimate of things without, and thus to render the painful pleasant and the pleasant doubly blest. I. We may see this in the increased interest which spiritual religion imparts to the idea of life, and the view of the present world. What the sun is to the earth, God is to the souls of His rational creatures. The soul has an atmosphere which behoves to be filled with Heaven’ s own sunlight. We cannot be blessed without Him. It is the opening of the eye upon His glory that changes the aspect of existence (Psalms 36:9). II. We may trace this further, in reference to the exercises and duties of religion. See Hannah--with what joy she anticipated the day when she should perform her vow. See that student in a far-off land toiling at the acquisition of a foreign and sometimes barbarous tongue, presenting little when acquired to gratify his taste, and nothing to gain for him the world’ s renown, but one in which he may be able to “ preach “ among the heathen the “ unsearchable riches of Christ!” III. The same principle applies to the sadness and suffering through which God may lead. The very thought is sustaining, that affliction, instead of “ rising out of the dust, or springing forth out of the ground,” comes from the hand of God. But this is not all. Piety, devout feeling towards God, looks at the ends to be attained by Divine dealings. It is to pass through the crucible of the Almighty refiner. It is to receive the discipline of “ the Father of Spirits.” IV. This extends also to the hour of death. Humanity shrinks from dissolution; but religious feeling sustains even there, for now the aspect of death is changed. It is dissolution to the body, but it is emancipation to the soul. And it is the passage to life. It is the gateway home to God, to the fatherland, to the joys unutterable and eternal. (E. T. Prust.) The pilgrims in the valley of Baca I. The description given of the righteous people of God.1. The state of their souls before God. (1) Strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might. (2) Thoughts and affections interested with Divine and spiritual subjects; conversation in heaven. 2. The general tenor of their conduct in the world. To all such men this barren wilderness becomes a place of spiritual refreshment and purification. (1) They cordially believe the assurance that, “ though the Lord causes grief, yet doth He not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men; that He chastens us only for our profit, that we might be partakers of His holiness.” Under this impression they are mainly solicitous that their afflictions should produce in them the benefit which is designed. (2) The mercies and comforts which God bestows, they receive with devout and thankful hearts, as designed to cheer and support them on their way, and to inspire them with a thirst for more exalted blessings. II. The success and happiness which attend them (Psalms 84:7).1. Their successful progress. Whether the way be rough or smooth; whether their road now lies through the valley of weeping, or whether they are permitted to drink of the cup of heavenly consolation; in any case, we are commissioned to say to the righteous, that at least it is well with their souls. They are instructed how to derive spiritual support and nourishment from every circumstance of life; as the bee extracts its honey even from the most unsavoury flowers. 2. The happy termination of their journey. They may be scattered far and wide from each ether, as they pass along their destined course: they must be prepared, from time to time, to lose for a season their friends and companions by the way. Some will get before, and leave us weeping in the vale. But still they all shall meet again. (E. Whieldon, M. A.) Happy pilgrims Rightly rendered, the first words of these verses are not a calm, prosaic statement, but an emotional exclamation. The psalmist’ s tone would be more truly represented if we read, “ How blessed is the man,” or “ Oh! the blessednesses,” for that is the literal rendering of the Hebrew words, “ the blessedness of the man whose strength is Thee.” I. The blessedness of the pilgrim-spirit. “ Amplius,” the dying Xavier’ s word, “ further afield,” is the motto of all noble life--scientist, scholar, artist, man of letters, man of affairs: all come under the same law, that unless there is something before them which has dominated their hearts, and draws their whole being towards it, their lives want salt, want nobility, want freshness, and a green scum comes over the pool. To live is to aspire; to cease to aspire is to die. Well then, looking all round our horizon, there stands out one path for aspiration which is clearly blessed to tread. There are needs in all our hearts, deep longings, terrible wounds, dreary solitudes, which can only be appeased and healed and companioned when we are pressing nearer and nearer God, that Infinite and Divine Source of all blessedness, of all peace and good. To possess God is life; to feel after God is life, too. For that aim is sure, as we shall see, to be Satisfied. II. The blessedness of the pilgrim’ s experience. “ Passing through the valley of weeping they make it a place of springs, the rain also covereth it with blessings.” No doubt the poet is referring here to the actual facts of the pilgrimage to Zion. No doubt, on some one of the roads, there lay a gloomy gorge, the name of which was the Valley of Weeping; either because it dimly commemorated some half-forgotten tragedy long ago, or, more probably, because it was and and frowning and full of difficulty for the travellers on the march. The psalmist uses that name with a lofty imaginative freedom, which itself confirms the view that there is something deeper in the psalm than the mere external circumstances of the pilgrimages to the Holy City. If we have in our hearts, as our chief aim, the desire to get closer to God, then our sorrows and our tears will become sources of refreshment and fertility. Ah! How different all our troubles, large and little, look when we take as our great aim in life what is God’ s great purpose in giving us life, viz. that we should be moulded into His likeness and enriched by the possession of Himself. But that is not all. If, with the pilgrims’ hearts, we rightly use our sorrows, we shall not be left to find refreshment and fertilizing power only in ourselves, but the benediction of the rain from heaven will come down, and the great Spirit of God will fall upon our hearts, not in a flood that drowns, but broken up into a beneficent mist that falls quietly upon us, and brings with itself the assurance of fertility. And so the secret of turning the desert into abundance, and tears into blessings, lies in having the pilgrim’ s heart. III. The blessedness of the pilgrim’ s advance. “ They go from strength to strength.” I do not know whether the psalmist means to use that word “ strength” in the significance which it also has in old English, of a fortified place, so that the metaphor would be that from one camp of security, one fortress, to another, they journey safe always, because of their protection; or whether he means to use it rather in its plain and simple sense, according to which the significance would be that these happy pilgrims do not get worn out on the journey, as is the wont of men that set out, for instance, from some far corner of India to Mecca; and come in battered and travel-stained, and half dead with their privations, but that the further they go the stronger they become; and on the road gain more vigour than they could ever have gained by ease and indulgence in their homes. But, whichever of these two meanings we may be disposed to adopt, the great thought that comes out of both of them is identical--viz, that this is one of the distinguishing Joys of a Christian career of pressing forward to closer communion and conformity with our Lord and Master, in whom God is manifested--viz, that we grow day by day in strength, and that effort does not weaken, but invigorates. IV. The blessedness of the pilgrim’ s arrival. “ Every one of them in Zion appeareth before God.” Then there is one road on which whosoever travels is sure to get to his goal. On all others caravans get lost, overwhelmed in a sandstorm, or slain by robbers; and the bleached bones of men and camels lie there on the sand for centuries. This caravan always gets there. For no man ever wanted God that did not possess Him, and the measure of our desire is the prophecy of our possession. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) The vale of tears 1. Some have said that Baca is a real place--bearing, down even to modern times, a somewhat similar designation--a plain now called Wady Baker, lying in Northern Palestine, on the direct route of the pilgrims who came up to the Passover Feasts. In explanation of the name, which certainly means “ weeping,” they tell the story of a Bedouin who, fleeing before his enemy, lost here his favourite dromedary, and fell into tears, not only because of his broken attachment, but because of his inevitable capture in the deprivation of his means of escape. 2. Others have said that the reference is to any valley of Baca-trees, or mulberries. These would be of frequent occurrence on any line of travel around Jerusalem, and would be sought for defence in the middle of the day, when the sun’ s rays were hottest, and for the encampment at night, when the company made a halt. And in order to explain the allusion in the name, they remind us of the fact that the mulberry-tree, whenever any one of its twigs or leaves is wounded, exudes from the cut copious drops of thick sap, falling like tears on the sward beneath. 3. Still others say that this language is wholly figurative. There may, or may not, be an indirect allusion to some locality or some familiar landscape; but the meaning is simply tropical. It is intended to present an image of human life. The old Latin Vulgate, and all the ancient versions, render the expression--in valle lachrymarum. There originated our common metaphor, when we call this world “ a vale of tears.” I. Every true Christian must expect to have his own private “ valley of Baca.” No two believers can see or travel the same path. Every Christian has his personal path of experience. But even this shows the intelligence which is resident in our trials. Nothing happens; all is ordered. And one of our arguments to prove we are in the true way is found in the discovery that it leads through roughness and confusion. If it ever grows easy and luxurious, we may fear we have wandered. And this is the way along which our Saviour went before us. He was a “ Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.” II. Every true Christian must expect “ to pass through his valley of Baca.” Jerusalem lay on the top of a hill. It was surrounded with mountains, traversed by ravines and gorges. Straight up over them the festival-pilgrims forced their advance. And these were the times when they sang their cheerfullest psalm--this one among them. There is no mountain without its valley. Our finest off-looks of experience are found when we have risen to the summit of the hardest passes, “ And felt upon our foreheads bare the benedictions of the air.” And by the grace of God rests have been allowed by the way. Notable seasons of remembrance have we all of halts for refreshment we have already enjoyed. III. Every true christian must expect to find a “ well “ in each valley of Baca.” In every sorrow there is some mitigation. Sometimes, again, trouble opens sluices of joy in our experience quite new. It was one of the incidents in the Crimean war, that a soldier lay famishing with thirst, and complaining bitterly, as a cannon-ball tore past him, that he was still left under fire. Meantime the missile of iron buried itself in the cliff-side behind him, splintered the rock, disclosed a spring, and sent close to his hot lips a full stream of water for his refreshment. Most of us have watched almost breathlessly as some tremendous providence shattered hope, or health, or comfort, or home, and yet found we were still alive afterwards, and indeed surrounded with blessings of which we never knew the existence before, and never felt the power till now. IV. Every true Christian may force even the valley of Baca to become his well. The moment any Christian in simple-hearted confidence commits himself to Divine providence, he discovers the absolutely limitless reach of that statement with which this wonderful old psalm closes: “ The Lord God is a sun and shield,” etc. This positive self-surrender is one of the conditions of forcing sorrow to minister comfort. It is compelling the weapon, which slays thousands of Philistines, to pour forth a fountain for our thirst. And the other condition is habitual repose on Divine wisdom. Trust in God cannot be exercised by fits and starts. It is not a thing of impulse, but of steady, every-day principle. With these two conditions met, any believer can turn his valleys of weeping into fountains of refreshment always. V. Every true Christian will find his valley of Baca ending on the mount of God (Psalms 84:7). Then he will understand it at last. It may not have been what he would have chosen; but its discipline was profitable, and now its end is peace--eternal, sacred, sure. (C. S. Robinson, D. D.) Psalms 84:7 They go from strength to strength.The theory of true progress What is the true progress of man? We say progress of “ man” in contradistinction to the progress of ideas, “ graces,” principles, faculties, or arts.1. Progress in the accumulation of wealth is not the true progress of man.2. Nor progress in the attainment of knowledge.3. Nor progress in social influence.4. Nor progress in theological zeal.5. Nor the progress of any element in the soul distinct and separable from it. I. True progress is the progress of the soul in appropriating, with happiness to itself, all external objects to its highest use. But how is this appropriation to be made? How is this outward universe to promote the growth of our souls? Not without our willing and earnest effort. Put the acorn into a congenial soil, and external nature, by a necessity, will draw all the particles of vitality from its “ milky veins,” and elaborate them into majestic forests. The seed has no resisting force; it is passive in the plastic hand of nature. But it is not so with mind; it has a choice in the matter. There must be investigation and application. II. True progress is the progress of the soul in distributing, with happiness to itself, the highest blessings to the creation.1. Analogy indicates it. There is nothing made for itself--nothing whose powers and influences, are entirely circumscribed to self. Whatever a creature receives it gives out, with the modification and increase of its own force. The clouds borrow water of the ocean, but they pour it forth again in refreshing showers upon the thirsty hills, which, in their turn, send them amongst the valleys. The tree borrows from every part of the world in order to build up itself, but it gives out, in return, beauty, fragrance, and fruit. Thus all things give what they appropriate. The material is but the emblem of the spiritual, and thus all nature typifies man’ s distributive function. 2. Its instinct suggests it. “ There are,” says Bishop Butler, “ as real, and the same kind of indications in Nature that we are made for society, and to do good to our fellow-creatures, as that we were intended to take care of our own life, and health, and private good; and that the same objections lie against one of these assertions as against the other.” 3. It has a sphere for it. No two spirits, perhaps, throughout the intelligent universe are exactly alike: the one has what its neighbour requires, and thus to all there is a field for distribution. Now, true progress is, as we have said, the progress of the soul in distributing the highest blessings, with happiness to itself. What are the highest blessings? Spiritual thoughts. Ideas that will stimulate to duty, and nerve for nobler deeds; that will shed new light on being, and present the Eternal to the mind under aspects yet more lovely; that will guide to loftier walks of existence; that will touch new chords, develop new powers of being, awaken new hopes, and kindle higher aspirations; I call the highest blessings. III. True progress is the progress of the soul in both appropriating and distributing, under an ever-heightening consciousness of the Creator’ s presence and approval. Neither of the two former instincts to which we have referred--that of self or society--is more real, deep, or universal, than the Divine All men, in all periods, circumstances, and places, have developed their intuitive belief in the supernatural and Divine. This instinct is the ultimate fact in our spiritual constitution: it is the fountain-head of all religions. It has reared temples for the world, transformed men into priests, and wood and stone into gods. It is the breath of prayer, the song of thanksgiving, the soul of worship, through all lands and ages. To enjoy the approbation of the Deity is the grand desideratum of life. This last element of progress--namely, the ever-heightening consciousness of Divine approbation--transcends the other two, inasmuch as it involves them. It is only as this consciousness is felt that the spirit can succeed, either in the great work of appropriation or distribution. This is the spirit of advancement. (Homilist.) Spiritual progress Progress is the order of the day. It pervades everything. It is found in every walk of life. It is breaking up many of our old stereotype notions, and is forcing into notice and practice the newest and best discoveries. Who would not wish our age to be progressive in the useful and beautiful and great? So it is pleasant to see individuals progress--to see them rise step by step to the attainment of some great and worthy object I. The character of spiritual progress.1. It is slow. From step to step Holiness and heaven are to be obtained slowly--little by little. If we cannot fly or run we must be willing to climb and walk, thankful to go forward, though slowly. 2. It is toilsome. Not only slow work, but hard work. The ascent is difficult and dangerous, like the ascent of some ice-bound mountains. Painfully does the traveller move upwards. 3. It is certain. “ They go,” etc. They rise. They are near heaven. They have more of Christ’ s likeness. II. Some of the inevitable consequences of ceasing to progress.1. Declension. If the soul is not gazing upward and Godward, it will gaze earthward. If Christ, the strong, loving magnet, does not draw the soul to Himself, the worldly magnet will draw it to itself. 2. Loss at every step; his prospects and hopes clouded, his peace gradually departs. (W. Darwent.) From strength to strength The old and the new man co-exist, and they bring antagonistic elements to bear, so that warfare and strife are the result. The spirit born of God is annoyed, and hindered, and offended, by the spirit born of Adam. But in this condition there is progression as well as conflict. The new man gains ground, and the victory is reserved for him; and on each successive collision his power is greater, and that of his adversary is enfeebled. Although he may win his way but inch by inch, he shall win it in the end. The signs of this progress are-- I. A growing sense of God. His faith in God is a belief which stirs his mind, which sways his conscience, which animates his soul. Impatient, sometimes, in his fleshly thralls, he breaks away from time and sense, and strives to get at God. If he digs deep, he digs for God; if he soars high, he soars for God. Does he range creation? He finds God everywhere--in landscape, in field, in flower, and in flood. Nature is full of Him. Does he rehearse the ways of Providence? He sees the methods of God’ s wisdom, and the traces of His care. “ The angel of the Lord encampeth round about him.” Not only does he think of Him as the God of his life, but as his “ reconciled God and Father through Jesus Christ.” The spirit of estrangement is exorcised; and, in a filial and full assurance, he asserts his sonship by the cry of “ Abba, Father!” II. A growing dependence upon Christ. He strikes out the “ I” both for the past and for the future, and puts in “ Christ.” It is not what I have done; but what Christ has done. Not what I can do; but what Christ can do. The Christian lives inversely, if we may so speak; the weaker he becomes, the stronger he becomes;--i.e. the weaker grows the man, the stronger grows the Christian. For just in proportion as he realizes he is not only weak and helpless, but that he is absolutely nothing without Christ; in that proportion is he impelled to take the firmer hold upon Him, till he who was weak, helpless, and nothing in himself, grows mighty, able, and everything through Christ who strengthened him. This growth in grace, moreover, is accompanied by increasing spiritual discernment. III. Increasing steadiness and success in the resistance of temptation. The natural man makes no stand. He rather goes over to the enemy. Neither does the converted man, all at once, attain the full power of resistance, because he cannot, all at once, learn to look entirely to, and lean entirely on, Jesus. The young conscript will often show more apparent zeal against sin than the advanced Christian. The old soldier does not battle the less valiantly when the enemy is before him, because he does not brandish his sword so swaggeringly on parade. It is purpose, and not impulse, by which the old soldier is guided. And it is the veteran, not the recruit, who makes the fewest relapses, is most seldom disgraced by a repulse, and who gains the more frequent and most signal victories. IV. Decreasing absorption in worldly objects and attractions. He puts things in their proper place, and in their proper order. God and heaven stand first; self and earth stand second. V. An increased unselfishness and disinterestedness of religious emotion. He sees spiritual things now, absolutely; not merely in their relation towards himself, but as they are in themselves. He sees Jesus in a higher light than as a mere personal Saviour; he elevates Him to a loftier throne, for, as he beholds His moral excellency, he loves to commune with Him, and grows restless to be with Him face to face. The fully renewed heart wants to see Him take all His power, and reign. VI. A deepened composure in anticipating death and eternity. Talk to him of death, and you talk to him of liberty; you tell him of one who strikes off the dungeon bars, and unclasps the detaining gives. (A. Mursell.) The untiring travellers I. The progressive nature of the Christian’ s course. His repentance will be characterized by a greater hatred to sin--not so much on account of its penalties as of its pollution--its opposition to the Divine nature. His love to God--his benevolence to his fellow-creatures--and his affectionate sympathy for the household of faith, will perpetually improve in fervour, activity, and enlargement. His fortitude, mailed with a growing conviction of Divine truth, will be displayed in a more uncompromising adherence to what is right--in a more unbending resistance to what is wrong. Thus will he go from strength to strength, while the beauty of holiness will be daily brightening upon him, and his affinity and relationship to heaven made thereby increasingly manifest. II. The means by which He gathers increasing strength and energy for its prosecution.1. What the vale of Baca was to the Jewish pilgrims, the word and ordinances of God are to the heaven-bound traveller. Just as the little pits in the desert contained the rain which came from above to confirm the ancient inheritance of the Lord when it was weary, so are ordinances the instituted receptacles of the descending influences of Divine grace which come down like showers that water the earth to revive and invigorate the soul that thirsts for them. 2. The Israelites, in going up to Jerusalem, were strengthened and encouraged by the society of their fellow-pilgrims, who divided the toils of the journey, and whose presence and converse animated them to prosecute it to the end. Union and co-operation are powerful stimulants in any pursuit. 3. In going up to Jerusalem from the several parts of their country, to worship the Lord in the place where He had recorded His name, the Israelites, we are told, cheered their spirits and beguiled the weariness of the way by certain sacred melodies which they sang at intervals and in concert as they travelled along. The psalms entitled Songs of Degrees are generally understood to have been sung on these occasions. Now, this was a fruitful source of solace and refreshment. This made the journey pleasant and delightful. It is thus that the joy of the Lord is the strength of the Christian pilgrim. Every grace of the Spirit gives pleasure in its operation. 4. The Israelites were animated to the prosecution of their journey by the hope of reaching Zion and the prospect of the sacred enjoyments which awaited them there. “ I had fainted,” says the psalmist, “ unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.” As he advances onward in his Christian course, with the glow of spiritual health and activity, every fresh triumph over besetting sin--every fresh act of self-denial increased--every new habit of goodness acquired--every Christian virtue striking deeper root in his character--and every known duty more faithfully, fully, and cheerfully discharged, bear him record that now is his salvation nearer than when he believed. While he measures not his pace by his own strength, but leans upon the faithfulness of Omnipotence with all the confidence that one reposes on the arm of an old and well-tried companion, the oil of gladness is poured into his heart, and his soul becomes like the chariots of Aminadab, for he can run and not be weary, he can walk and not be faint. III. The blessed and glorious termination. The final issue of the Christian’ s course rests not upon a peradventure, but upon the omnipotent power and faithfulness of God, that they may have strong consolation who have fled for refuge, to lay hold upon the hope set before them. The same hand which gave the new bias to direct the soul in its heavenward motion will continue to quicken and secure its progress (Philippians 1:6; John 10:28-29). (J. Anderson, M. A.) Psalms 84:10 For a day in Thy courts is better than a thousand.Time spent in worship is time best spent I. There is no time like it for the development of the highest thoughts. Mind quickens mind. The greater the mind with which we are in conscious contact, the more power it has to rouse the intellect and set the wheels of thought a-going. Conscious contact with God’ s mind is the strongest impulse to thought, and to thought of the highest kind. Thought upon Him, His attributes, operations, laws, claims, etc. Hence no engagement like that of genuine worship can evoke and develop the wonderful powers of human thought. It is by thought alone that a man rises. II. There is no time like it for the excitation of the sublimest emotions. As our physical life is in the flowing blood, so our happiness is in the current of our emotions.1. Gratitude is an element of happiness. The mind full of thankfulness is the mind full of joy. In true worship gratitude rises to the highest point. 2. Adoration is an element of happiness. When the mind is wrapped even in the admiration of physical or artistic beauty, it is happy; but when raised to an adoration of the highest moral beauty, its happiness is ecstatic. In true worship this is the case, the whole soul, so to speak, seems to float on the calm and sunny sea of infinite love. III. There is no time like it for the promotion of soul growth. Our well-being consists in the healthy growth of all the wonderful germs of thought and feeling and faculty which are embedded in our spiritual natures. As there were in the earth when first it came from the hands of Almighty God the germs of all the vegetable and sentient life that have appeared during the untold ages that have gone, so in the human soul all the germs of power, greatness, and blessedness that a man will ever become are slumbering as embryonic germs in his soul. His paradise consists in their development. Now, genuine worship is the means, the only means, that can bring these powers out. It is only as the earth turns its face to the sun that its seeds of life are quickened, and it is only as the soul turns itself into conscious contact with God that its unbounded potentialities are quickened into vitality and brought into growth. (Homilist.) Delight in public ordinances The true servants of God may esteem a day in His courts better than a thousand-- I. On account of the distinguishing honour with which it is attended. II. On account of the sublime pleasure which is there experienced. III. On account of the high advantage that results from it. The service of the sanctuary tends to--1. Improve the heart.2. Regulate the conduct.3. Afford comfort in affliction.4. Prepare us for heaven. (D. Dickson.) The Divine reckoning of time The great need of the world is a vision of the vast unities of truth. Little thoughts make little lives. Vast inner apprehensions of truth are necessary to create a greater outer life. Now, it is clear that the psalmist in our text desires to lead us no little way beneath the surface of things. We have here first a measurement of time made in the light of the kingdom of God. It is the measurement of the sanctuary of the courts of the Lord--what we should now call the kingdom of God. In as far as we realize within our lives the power of this kingdom, we enter into the experience which the psalmist expresses in our text. Now, following the psalmist’ s suggestion, a little consideration will show that time is anything or nothing according to the intensity of our life. On the one hand you can conceive of a man’ s life becoming more and more vacant of thought and feeling and deed until time is scarcely existent for him. Such life is a living death, and death knows no dominion of time. On the other hand, you can conceive of a life so intense that vaster and vaster extents of life are crowded into a single moment until length measurements of months and days and years are almost annihilated by depth, and time is on the verge of appearing as eternity. The fact that between these two extremes there are greatly varying measurements of time affects our earthly life at every point. There are two or three simple facts concerning time related to our present subject which from their very simplicity may evade our attention. The first is, that our ordinary measurements of time are purely conventional, being taken from without us, and not from within our own lives. Another thing worth remembering is that time, whether inside or outside of us, is always measured by intensity, and can never be reduced to mere extension. Try as you will, you can only measure time by some expression of force, energy, power, movement. The next thing to be noted is, that the vast variations of intensities even in external things make any fixed measurement of time impossible. When we are told, for example, that certain rays of light are caused by some thousands of millions of vibrations in a second of time, thought has no possible way of reconciling the ordinary idea of a second with such an infinity of movement. The difficulty arises from the fact that the sunlight does not set its time by the revolutions of the earth, as we do, but by its own transcendent energies. Our thought is baffled because we try to measure the energies of one thing by the time of another. One day in the sunlight is better than a thousand. Yet all these external energies are as nothing compared with those that are possible for the human spirit. Here we stand in the very territories of the infinite. One great thought in a human heart has more intensity and mighty force of movement in it than all the forces of the external world put together. In human life, then, time has a completely new meaning, a meaning closely akin to eternity. But in human life also deep stretches beneath deep, and in man’ s grandest possibility, in the place where he feels the presence of God and consciously unites himself with the Infinite, time reaches its highest intensities. Here lifetimes are often lived in moments. One day in such a life and in such experiences is better than a thousand. What, then, shall we say to this? There are cases where men, seeking to live as long as possible, spare themselves the heat and the burden of the day, and reach their four score years and ten by contributing nothing of the blood of their heart to the healing of the world. There are others that burn with fiery zeal for God and His kingdom, with a great passion of love for men and of devotion to the cause of righteousness. To them length of days has been promised, yet the fires consume their life, and in the bloom of youth or the pride of manhood they are laid in the grave. This is, of course, not a universal rule, but appears often enough to demand our attention. It is just at this point that the psalmist intervenes, saying, “ Be careful how you measure. This is not a question of the revolution of the earth, but of the history of a soul. Here the measurements of the days and years vary infinitely. You have written four score years upon the tomb of the man that spent his years like a living death. Tell the sculptor to chisel out the falsehood without delay. Time is movement and energy, and he has been an idler. Even this slow revolving earth has outstripped him. Write clearly above his grave so that all may read it, ‘ Time was within his reach for eighty circling courses of the earth around the sun. But he never grasped it, and he died an infant of days, an ephemeral creature without a life and without a history.’” And turning to the other tomb where lamentation is written for the brevity of a consecrated life, he would say, “ Poor, blind calculators, to measure such a life by rising and setting suns, by changing moons, and by returns of summer and winter. In this life cycles of time gathered into single moments. For every day write down a thousand, and let the epitaph be, ‘ Died in fulness of days, according to the promise, “ With long life will I satisfy him.’ This measurement of time gives us also a new measurement of happiness. The Christian is sometimes scoffingly told by the sceptic that he, also, like everybody else, is simply seeking a maximum of pleasure, and working for a summum bonum of happiness. There is a plausibility in this accusation that makes it sometimes difficult to meet and refute. The first step towards meeting it is to make a great admission. Namely this, that the goal of the Christian life is unquestionably the point of highest and intensest happiness, and that such happiness is undoubtedly one of the glowing aims of the Christian life. It must further be allowed that, if anything called Virtue brought with it a maximum of misery and something called Vice entailed a maximum of happiness, the principles of Christianity would lead to the courting of vice and not of virtue. This apparent contradiction arises from the absurdity of the supposition that we have made concerning virtue and vice. To be flung into real and essential misery is an indication that the life is out of joint, that the unity of the spirit is shattered and lost, and its harmonies destroyed. To be really and essentially happy is an indication that the life has attained its highest powers and its noblest harmonies. By whatever game you may call these, the Christian life is a strenuous movement towards the latter, and must therefore have the maximum of happiness for its goal, and therefore in part for its aim. But when the scorner proceeds to say that all pleasure is essentially of the same nature, and that the difference is not one of morality but of taste, he puts himself at our mercy to be smitten hip and thigh. The human spirit must measure its happiness as it measures its time, not by length, but by depth. By this measurement the meaning of happiness, like that of its sources, varies to infinity. It may either be an ephemeral thing on the surface of the life, or it may sing its eternal song in the infinite depths of the human spirit. It may be simply the expression of a passing harmony of quivering nerves, or it may be the expression of the eternal harmonies of the Godlike moral forces that make man Divine. (John Thomas, M. A.) On the threshold Literally, “ I would rather lie on the threshold,” rather fill the lowest place and execute the meanest office in God’ s house, than be the greatest and happiest of those found elsewhere. We sometimes say, “ I have only a little religion, but I would not part with it for all the world” ; and that is substantially what David says here. The meanest living member of the Church of God is greater than the most honourable outside.1. The least of saints is superior to the world’ s greatest men. The doorkeeper represents the least glorious and least powerful member of the spiritual congregation; but even he is more influential than the richest and greatest of the children of ungodliness. The ultimate power in the universe is the power of righteous mind, the power of righteous character; and he who possesses these in the most modest degree is mysteriously noble and efficient. 2. The least of saints is superior to the world’ s happiest men. The position of the doorkeeper on the threshold is the least desirable of all positions in the spiritual kingdom. He has the faintest glimpse of the temple glories, hears the least of its music, tastes little of its delicacies; yet the psalmist in effect says, “ I would rather be the saddest of the saints than enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season.” And we feel that his judgment was just. Communion with God, however faint, faith in the promises, however feeble, a sense of infinite truth and love, however dull, and a glimpse of heaven, however dim, give us a satisfaction beyond all gratifications of time and sense. 3. The briefest life of goodness is better than the longest life of worldliness: “ One day in Thy courts is better than a thousand” elsewhere. A life of worldliness and sin properly speaking is not life at all. When Lizio, an Italian, was told of the death of his dissipated son, he replied, “ It is no news to me; he never was alive.” A life destitute of the spiritual element is not truly life. To live is to feel the spirit in contact with God, to be filled with His light, to be thrilled with His joy, to be warmed by His love, to be satisfied with His likeness. This is life, and the youngest believer in Christ knows more of the quality and fulness of existence than does the voluptuous patriarch. (W. L. Watkinson.) The good man’ s love for the house of God The good man loves the house of God--1. Because it is a constant testimony for God in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation. 2. Because it is a refuge to him from the inhospitable and uncongenial influences by which he is surrounded in the world. 3. Because it is a school in which he becomes more fully instructed in the truth as it is in Jesus. 4. Because it is the home where he enjoys the communion of saints. 5. Because there he enjoys fellowship with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. 6. Because it identifies him more and more with the paradise of God above. (W. Brock.) Psalms 84:11 For the Lord God is a sun and shield.God a sun and a shield This is a startling conjunction of emblems. A “ sun” : the centre of a system of worlds--the very synonym for splendour--so glorious, that it has been worshipped by multitudes as Divine. A “ shield” : an implement in human war, at first simple and rude, made of twigs, or skins, or metal--a piece of merely human handicraft. What could the sons of Korah have meant when they sang that God was sun and shield? God is sun and shield-- I. In His distance and in His nearness. The fiery globe ninety-one millions of miles distant, and the shield worn on man’ s left arm in battle, close to his very heart, are both emblems of Him of whom men often cry, “ Oh that I knew where I might find Him!” and to bring whom near men sometimes use their telescope of logic; but who is moreover so near, that in Him we live, and move, and have our being. II. In His greatness and in His gentleness. The sun so great, that if all the planets were fused into one, six hundred would not give the bulk of the sun;--and that shield that shelters the bleeding brow or wounded limb, are both alike true figures of God. III. In His holiness and in His benevolence. God is light, dazzling, unapproachable. God is love, etc. In Him mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other. The God I sometimes dread is the God to whom to cling. (U. R. Thomas.) A least for the upright I. Blessings in their fulness. “ The Lord God is a sun.”1. Then, if God is mine, I have not only light, but I have the source of light. 2. God is a sun: that is infinity of blessing. There is no measuring it. 3. It is an immutability of blessedness (James 1:17). 4. There must be added concerning God as a sun--that He is for ever communicating His light and heat and excellence to all who are about Him. I cannot conceive the sun shut up within himself. An unshining sun is a sun unsunned; and a God that is not good and pouring forth His goodness has laid aside His deity. It is contrary to the very notion and idea of an infinitely good God for Him to restrain His goodness, and keep it back from His people. II. Blessings in their counterpoise. One blessing alone might scarcely be a blessing; for in being too great a blessing it might crush us. We may have too much of a good thing. We want some other boon to balance the single benediction. So notice here, “ The Lord God is a sun and shield.” “ Sun and shield” hang before my eyes like two golden scales. Each one adds value to the other. When God is a sun to His people it may be He warms them into temporal prosperity with His bright beams, so that their goods increase, their body is in health, their trade succeeds, and their children are spared to them: they are grateful to God, and joyful because of the blessings which He has bestowed upon them. When everything is bright with us the Lord knows how to sober His children’ s spirits so that they use, but do not abuse, the things of this life. Even when they most abound with worldly joys He makes His people feel that these are not their heart joy. He shades us from the noxious effects of wealth and content. He suffers not the sun to smite us by day. Is not this a gracious style of counterpoise? It is also a great mercy that when God gives His people great spiritual joys He usually gives them a humbling sense of themselves at the same time. Its gives them grace so that they can be full of assurance, and yet full of holy fear; always rejoicing and yet never presuming; lifted up, and yet lying low before the Lord. III. Blessings in their order. The Lord is to us first a sun and then a shield. Remember how David puts it elsewhere:--“ The Lord is my light and my salvation.” Light first, salvation next. He does not save us in the dark, neither does He shield us in the dark. He gives enough sunlight to let us see the danger that we may appreciate the defence. We are not to shut our eyes and so find safety, but we are to see the evil and hide ourselves. Ought we not to be very grateful to God that He so orders our affairs? Ours is not a blind faith, receiving an unknown salvation from evils which are unperceived; this would be a poor form of life at best. No, the favour received is valued because its necessity is perceived. The heavenly sun lights up our souls and makes us see our ruin, and lie down in the dust of self-despair; and then it is that grace brings forth the shield which covers us, so that we are no more afraid, but rejoice in the glorious Lord as the God of our salvation. Then notice the order of the next two things--grace and glory: not glory first: that could not be. We are not fit for it. Grace must first blot out sin and change the nature. We could not enter glory or enjoy it by any possibility while we are sinful at heart. Grace must renew us or glory cannot receive us. IV. Blessings in preparation and blessings in maturity. “ The Lord will give grace and glory.” Grace is glory in the bud; you shall see the rod of Aaron full of blooming graces; but this is not all--glory is grace in ripe fruit: the rod shall bear ripe almonds. The Lord will give you both the dawn and the noon, the Alpha and the Omega, grace and glory. What is glory? He that has been in heaven five minutes can tell you better than the sagest divine that lives; and yet he could not tell you. Nay, the angels could not tell you, you could not understand them. What is glory? You must enjoy it to know it. Glory is not merely rest, happiness, wealth, safety; it is honour, victory, immortality, triumph. V. Blessings in their universality. “ No good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly.” Is there some good thing which does not come to us by the Lord’ s being our sun? We shall not lose on that account. Is there another good thing which cannot be included in God’ s being our shield? We shall not be deprived of that. Is there some good thing that cannot be comprehended in grace? I cannot imagine what it can be, but if there be such a thing we shall not miss even that. Is there some good thing that is not comprehended even in glory? Well, it does not matter, we shall have it; for here stands the boundless promise--“ No good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly.” (C. H. Spurgeon.) The privileges of the righteous I. What God is.1. A “ sun.” His people are not strangers to happiness, and they derive it all from Him. 2. A “ shield” --always at hand, impenetrable by any weapons, capacious, encompassing, adequate. II. What God gives.1. Grace--Divine assistance and influence, springing from the free favour of God. It is often expressed plurally: we hear of the graces of the Holy Spirit. When it regards truth, we call it faith;--a future good, hope;-trouble, patience. 2. Glory. This denotes splendour, fame, excellency displayed; and the sacred writers apply it by way of distinction to the transcendent dignity and sublime happiness reserved in heaven for the righteous. III. And what does He withhold? “ No good thing.” --O how full and comprehensive is the language of promise!1. Behold in it the grandeur of His possessions. He who engages to withhold no good thing must have all good things at His disposal. 2. Behold in this promise the wonders of His liberality. All earthly benefactors shrink from a comparison with Him. He acts by no ordinary rule of bounty, by no human standard of beneficence. “ As the heavens are higher than the earth,” etc. 3. Behold in this promise the wisdom of His dispensations. He has qualified His engagement, and regulated our hope, by the goodness of the things insured. Let us then drop not only our murmuring, but our anxiety. IV. Whom does God regard in all these exceeding great and precious promises?--“ Them that walk uprightly “ in reference to self, others, God. (W. Jay.) The Lord God a sun and shield I. WHAT THE LORD GOD IS TO His PEOPLE.1. A “ sun.” (1) Enlightening the dark mind.(2) Fertilizing the barren mind.(3) Consoling the cheerless mind. 2. A “ shield” ; protecting His people from the sword of Divine wrath, and from their spiritual adversaries. II. What God will do for His people. He will give--1. Grace. (1) He gives the principle of grace.(2) He encourages the growth of grace.(3) He will reward the combat of grace. 2. Glory. (1) The glory for which grace prepares.(2) The glory which the saints in heaven now enjoy.(3) The glory which He has promised(4) The glory that exceeds all conceptions. III. What God will not withhold.1. Any necessary instruction. 2. Any needful correction. 3. Any requisite support. (T. Dunn.) God as a sun and shield I. The nature of God in general.1. A “ sun.” (1) Illumination.(2) Calefaction.(3) Fructification.(4) All-sufficiency. What is it that makes the day? Is it not the sun? And so what is it that makes the happiness of the Christian but even God Himself? Seeing the Lord God is a sun, we should then hence learn to rejoice in that light and comfort which He does impart, and which we receive from Him. We should still desire that the light of His countenance may shine upon us more and more, and nothing should be more grievous to us than the withdrawing of this from us.2. A “ shield.” (1) A large and broad shield, which is able fully to cover us, protect and keep us safe.(2) A strong and impenetrable shield.(3) A present shield. God is not a shield at large to all sorts of persons whatsoever, but He is a shield and buckler to His children, and to such persons as by faith cleave unto Him. To these He is a shield indeed, and it is that which is matter of great peace and encouragement to them, especially in times of danger and uncertainty. And accordingly, further, we should learn from hence to improve Him, and make use of Him upon all occasions: we should betake ourselves to Him for protection, who has expressed Himself ready hereunto, and drawn out that virtue which is in Him to this purpose. There are two attributes in God especially which redder Him to us as considerable in this respect--His truth, and His power. The truth of God, He is a shield in regard of that (Psalms 111:4). All those gracious promises which God has made for the protection of His people, they are so many shields unto them, under which they may cover themselves. And then His power, that is another of His attributes which is useful in this regard: forasmuch as He is stronger than any evil which can happen unto them. II. The particular expressions of God’ s nature to us.1. Affirmative. “ The Lord will give grace and glory.” He might have said, has given for the time past, or does give it for the time present, but He chooses rather to set it in the future--will give for time to come, hereby to signify His constancy and unweariedness in this respect, and the continuation of His blessings to us. The gifts themselves here mentioned are of two forms: grace and glory, the one pertaining to this life present, the other to that which is in heaven. 2. The negative. “ No good thing,” etc. (1) In regard of that right and interest and propriety which a true believer has in all good things. There is no good thing whatsoever but a child of God has right to as his own, and as belonging unto him (Revelation 21:7; 1 Corinthians 3:21). (2) All true believers as they have interest in all good things themselves from their relation to the Lord Jesus Christ, so they have likewise interest in that affection which might incline the heart of Him that has these things in His own disposing to bestow these good things upon them whatsoever they be (Romans 8:32). (3) There is no good thing whatsoever which the children of God can desire which God is not able to bestow upon them in regard of Himself. (4) As to the matter of actual performance. God does withhold no good thing from those that fear Him, in the event itself, but does indeed bestow it upon them, and does here by this passage in the text engage Himself to as much for them. This must again be taken with these explications. First, there is no good thing which God does withhold from all His children, take it absolutely and specificatively in regard of the things themselves. There are some of the children of God which do partake of every good thing in kind, in one rank or degree or other, as some of them have riches; and some of them have none, and some health, etc. Secondly, there is no good thing whatsoever which God does withhold from any of His children either in the formality or equivalency of it. Let it be truly good, and He does not withhold it, or if He does withhold it in the kind, yet He does not withhold it in the analogy and proportion and equalness of it. He gives them the sweetness and comfort of all these things in the denial of themselves; this we may see in that expression in Mark 10:29-30. (T. Horton, D. D.) The believer’ s blessings Let us consider the several characters here given of God, and the several blessings which, in one way or another, these several characters ensure to the righteous.1. It is the combination of characters which we regard as most deserving of attention: “ The Lord God is a sun and shield.” If we consider God as a “ sun,” there is much of grand and gorgeous imagery which comes sweeping before us. God is emphatically our “ sun,” our source of light, as showing us ourselves. Conscience is the candle of Deity; and it will burn long and brightly in the natural man, though he thicken the atmosphere with the impure vapours of passion and lust; but it is not the candle of Deity which can search the dark corners of the heart--it must be Deity itself. “ O Lord,” says the psalmist, “ Thou hast searched me and known me” ; and again he prays, “ Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my thoughts.” God, as a sun, saith, Let there be light, and there is light., and as it was in the first creation, this light discloses an unshapen chaos; and man looks into Himself thus suddenly and supernaturally illuminated; and everywhere may he discover nothing but moral confusion. Even the light itself is the only beautiful and glowing thing--all on which it rests is deformity, wildness, and corruption; and ever after God is a sun to the man, by enabling him to carry on that very process of research and discovery which is indispensable to all progress in righteousness. According to the expression of St. Paul--“ He who commanded the light to shine out of darkness hath shined in our hearts.” And just as it is when the sunbeam finds its way into a darkened room, you see a thousand floating moats which would otherwise have escaped observation; so the piercing rays of Deity, entering the solitudes of the soul, will cause the chambers which had passed for cleansed and garnished, to appear full of the atoms of a widely diffused sinfulness. The light is carried into the corners which had been hitherto overlook 1. The sun shows him the hopelessness of the task in which he is engaged, and finds him fresh work to do, leaving him as far off as ever from completion. But now turn your thoughts on the combination of characters--“ The Lord God is a sun and shield.” As a sun He shows me more and more my sinfulness; but then as a shield He gives me power to oppose it, and an assurance that I shall conquer. As a sun He discloses so much of the enormity of guilt that I am forced to exclaim--“ Mine iniquities are like a sore burden, too heavy for me to bear!” But then, as a shield, He shows me how He has laid the load on a Surety who can bear it away into a land of forgetfulness. As a sun He makes me daily more and more sensible of the utter impossibility of my working out a righteousness of my own; but then, as a shield, He fastens my thoughts on that righteousness of His Son which is mysteriously conveyed to all who believe on His name. As a sun, in short, He brings facts to my knowledge, inasmuch as He brings myself and mine enemies to my knowledge, which would make the matter of deliverance seem out of reach and hopeless, if He were not at the same time a shield; but, seeing that He is a shield as well as a sun, the disclosures which He makes as a sun only prepare me for the blessings which He imparts as a shield; making me desirous, and fitting me to receive them. Who, then, shall wonder that under the combination of the characters of God the psalmist should break into expressions of confidence and assurance? Take the catalogue of things which inasmuch as we are fallen creatures, God as our sun instructs us to fear, and you find that, inasmuch as we are redeemed creatures, God as our shield enables us to defy. Who, then, shall doubt that there results from the combination of characters exactly that system of counterpoise which is generally to be traced in the dealings of the Almighty? Who can feel, if indeed he have been disciplined by that twofold tuition which informs man first that “ he hath destroyed himself,” and then that “ God hath laid help on One who is mighty,” the former conciliating, the latter encouraging--the one making way for the other, so that the sinner is emptied of every false confidence, that he may be tempted to courage--who, we say, can fail to draw from the combination of the Divine characters the inference drawn by the psalmist--to exclaim, that is, after recording that “ the Lord God is a sun and shield, He will give grace and glory; no good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly.” 2. Let us now examine more attentively the psalmist’ s expression of confidence, that “ He will give grace and glory.” Did David mean that God will “ give grace here,” and “ glory hereafter” ? No doubt the words are susceptible of this interpretation; and a very noble meaning it is--referring everything to the free gift of God, the power through which we become meet for heaven, and the heaven itself into which the righteous shall enter. And yet it would appear as though the psalmist were referring specially to what takes place upon earth. He applies the “ shield “ and the “ sun” in his description of Deity, though it is only at present that God is as a shield to His people; in the higher state of being there will be no enemy, no difficulty, and, withal, no need of a shield. And if the “ sun” and the “ shield” may both be most properly referred to the Divine character, as a present display of grace, the “ glory” may be presumed to belong to the Divine dealings, as at present experienced. In other words, “ grace and glory” are represented as in some sense one and the same, as though grace were glory, and glory were grace. The truth contained in the clause is, then, that which may be derived from the saying of St. Peter, when he bids us “ be sober, and hope to the end; for the grace that is to be brought unto us at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” “ The revelation of Jesus Christ” is to be at the consummation of all things, when everlasting happiness shall be entered on by the faithful; and nevertheless it is grace, not glory, which, according to the apostle, is then to be brought to the Church--an intimation which is only to be explained by identifying grace with glory--by supposing, that is, that glory differs from grace in measure, rather than in kind. And this is what we consider is taught by David in our text: he speaks of what God now communicates to the believer; but he speaks both of grace and glory. He represents, that is, grace as glory commenced, and glory as grace consummated. We do not wish to confound the engine with the work, or to make out that the process is the result. Of course, in strictness of speech, grace is the instrument, glory the produce. But if the glory lie in the being freed from sin, and if it be grace which is gradually setting us free, the hope of grace is the true “ hope of glory.” Nor is it only freedom from sin which grace effects. It effects also consecration to the service of God. There are none but true Christians who really fulfil the great end of their being--that of promoting the glory of their Maker; and it is not through the working of any mere human principle that they propose to themselves so sublime an object. There must have been a change in the affections, a withdrawment of the heart from temporary interests, a vivid recognition of the position which we occupy through creation and redemption, ere the end at which our actions aim can in any degree be for the honour of God it is therefore to grace, as a principle implanted by God, that we ascribe every effort to advance God’ s glory. If it be the direct result of the workings of grace that we are led to consecrate ourselves to the service of the Most High, let grace have unrestrained sway, and dust and ashes though we be, should we not become ineffably glorious? It will not be the robe of light that shall make us glorious, though brighter threads than sunbeams shall be woven into its texture; it will not be the palm and the harp that shall make us glorious, though the one shall have grown on the trees of paradise, and the other have been strung with the Mediator’ s hands. We shall be glorious, as ministering to God’ s glory--glorious as devoted to the service of the Almighty--glorious as employed on the business, and delighting in the commands of our Maker--glorious with a more than angel’ s glory, because entrusted with more than an angel’ s freedom. And if this be our glory, yea, then, poetry may give her music to what she counts more beautiful, and painting its tints to more sparkling things; but Christianity, the scheme of human restoration, recognizes no glory but the living to God’ s glory! If this be our glory, where is the word which describes glory so emphatically as “ grace” ? Grace is that which produces consecration to God’ s service, and therefore is grace nothing less than glory begun. (H. Melvill, B. D.) The sun and shield The psalmist here embraces both nature and art in his illustration, setting forth what God is to His people. What the sun is to nature, what the shield is to the soldier, God is to His people: He also gives grace and glory.1. God’ s blessing to His people set forth under the figure of the sun. (1) The sun is the centre of all beauty and glory. At first darkness was upon the face of the deep, but God gathered up the light and concentrated it in the sun, so that all the glory of the heavens and the beauty of the earth are but a reflection of the sun. So with the Sun of Righteousness (Colossians 1:19). All the beauty and glory of the Church triumphant and militant, collectively and individually, is a reflection of the Sun of Righteousness. (2) The sun reveals and illuminates. We may pass along a highway surrounded with beauty on the one hand and dangers on the other, but all ignorant of it until it is revealed by the sun; so the plan of redemption by the light of the Sun of Righteousness reveals to us beauties that were hidden to the men of the world (1 Corinthians 2:9-10). (3) The sun is the concentration of all power. Without Christ ye can do nothing, but with Christ all things are possible. (4) The sun is discovered by its own light. The same sun that looked down on the dial of Ahaz and painted the rose of Sharon in the days of Solomon, illuminates and beautifies the earth to-day, and is the only source of light, so the same Holy Spirit that inspired Samuel to teach and David to strike his lyre is the only source of instruction in the Church of God to-day. 2. The Lord is also a shield. This emphasizes the heroic side of the Christian’ s character. It means war, and protection in that war. God stands between His people and their enemies. 3. God will give grace. “ Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.” But we cannot work a thing out until it is first placed within, God gives us grace in the germ. Like the eagle that is in the egg, like the forest in the acorn, it takes time to develop. 4. God will give glory. The glory of creation is man. The glory of man is his soul. The glory of the soul is the grace of God within it. The kings of earth cause Daniel and Joseph to be clothed with royal robes, but God will clothe us with His own hands, with heaven’ s best wardrobe out of the ivory palace. (W. N. Richie, D. D.) The privileges of the upright I. What is God?1. A “ sun.” The source of-- (1) Light.(2) Prosperity.(3) Pleasure. 2. A “ shield.” (1) To your persons.(2) To your graces.(3) To your property. II. What does God do? He gives--1. Grace. (1) The goodwill of God towards us.(2) The good work of God in us. 2. Glory--the completion of grace. 3. All good things--everything necessary for life. III. Who are the characters likely to share this felicity? “ Them that walk uprightly.” (M. Wilks.) The Lord God a sun Perhaps no other object in nature has so many attributes that fit it to represent a supreme and invisible Source of power, and life, and government, as the sun. It has peculiar aptness in representing a pure and spiritual God. These silent, mysterious, rejoicing influences of sunlight, that give to the heavens and the earth a charm that no tongue or pen has yet expressed, symbol to us the universal influence of the Divine mind that pervades creation with silent, invisible, life-giving power. What other symbol could give such a conception of purity, vitality, diffusiveness, continuance, and life-imparting power? I. Observe its universality, as a fit emblem of the universal power of God. It is, in its centre and power, definitely located, as it were; and yet it reaches itself out, and fills immensity, and is as much in the east as in the west, in the north as in the south; and it pervades with endlessness, and, at the same time, every part of the vast physical domain of God. As much at night as by day is the stream falling down and beating upon this globe; and all the forces of light, its life-giving power, are borne, in this immeasurable flood, through infinite space. And is it difficult to rise from this glory of fulness to some faint conception of a mind that issues and impels streams of influence that go forth and fill the vast domain of existence? Is it impossible, when matter so nearly takes the proportion of universality or omnipresence, that mind, more ineffable and subtle and mobile than matter, should be able to bear itself abroad into the infinite realm? II. Consider, also, that this forth-streaming of light and power from the sun has been going on through incomputable periods of time. The historic period of this earth--that, in other words, which records the appearance of the race of man upon it--is relatively short, being but five or six thousand years; while the scientific periods--namely, those which are known only by the interpretation of physical facts--are inconceivably greater. And through the one and the other, doubtless for millions of years, the sun has poured its vast stream of influence, undiminished. Nor is the source apparently wasted. For all purposes of illustration, it may be said that the sun gives without wasting, and is infinitely abundant, after measureless periods and spaces have been filled, in its luminous supply. Thus we rise to the conception of a mind that shoots forth creative and nourishing energy, and that pours it unwasted down through the ages of time, boundless, fathomless, undiminishing. III. Consider also what an image of abundance the sun affords. The leaves of the trees, the blades of grass, all the parts of the growing vegetable kingdom, and the infinite swarms of minor insect life--all of them go to illustrate the thought of abundance, of multitudinousness. But what shall equal in these things the abundance of that solar flood that fills the heaven and the earth, that penetrates the soil, that saturates with heat rocks and stones, and that moves on for ever and for ever with illimitable processions, and everywhere both carries life and finds it? And where else shall there be anything that at all, for an illustration, equals the conception which we strive to form of the creative abundance of God, whose thoughts are for ever brooding, and yet whose life for ever is developed, and who is perpetually changing chaos into organization, and making organization progress through endless cycles of evolution, and through an inconceivable multiplicity of details? IV. Consider its stimulating and developing power. All things presuppose the sun. It seems to us unthinking, as though everything had been created with its life within itself; as though animals had their life within themselves; as though vegetation had its life in itself. Nothing has. That sun which the beast does not recognize, that sun which the insect does not know, is, after all, its father and its mother. I ask the daisy, “ Who is your father?” and it speaks to me of the seed and the root; while I know that the unplanted sun is the father of the daisy. I ask the pastures, “ Who has created you?” and they speak of the showers; no blade of grass speaks of the sun; but I know that the unbaptized sun has, by its light of fire, baptized these its children, and that there is nothing that grows in Nature, of animals, or birds, or insects, or plants, that is not the immediate result of that unconscious sun that works everywhere. And when men say to me, “ Show me the presence of your God; show me some sign that He is in human affairs, guiding them: you talk of the Holy Ghost, of the Spirit of God, of the Divine inspiration, and of the soul of man as being born thereby; now, give me some token that it is so” --when men say this to me, I point them to all the world, and say, “ By the same signs and tokens by which you recognize that the life of the globe is in the sun, that is a myriad of leagues distant; the sun, that sounds no trumpet and waves no banner; the sun, that steals silently through the air, and that works, though you see not the working, but only the fruit of working--by these same signs and tokens you may recognize that the life of the soul is in God.” V. The sun is the centre of attraction, the holding-force of the universe. Its invisible power harnesses all planets and stars. It guides the earth in all its courses. It is a government, in short. It not only gives vitality to all things of the earth, but it surrounds the earth, rendered vital, with guiding power, and holds it in its movements. So God is the centre of power, and the centre of government. By maintaining those eternal laws by which the human soul acts, He sits central. As the sun sits central in the solar system to hold the planets that roam only by its permission, so God sits central in the universe, holding this globe not only, but all its habiliments; and all its habiliments not only, but the soul of every man; and the soul of every man not only, but all that is in the human soul. VI. Consider that generosity and impartiality which the sun exercises. It makes no discriminations and distinctions. I have growing in my garden the portulaca in beds, for the sake of its glowing colour. You know that it is first cousin to purslane--a weed that everybody who undertakes to keep a garden hates. I have hoed it, and pulled it up, and denounced it, and spurned it, and given it to the fire and to the pigs with maledictions. But I cannot find out that the sun exercises any discrimination between the purslane growing in my garden and the portulaca, r call one flower and the other weed; but God’ s sun calls them both flowers. In this it is the emblem of God, who “ maketh the sun to rise on the evil and on the good,” etc. VII. Prolific and intimate in benefit as the sun is, it is observable that only a part of its benefit is thrust upon man, and that that part is mainly that which concerns his lower necessities. If we would go further, and use the sun as artists use it, and draw out its subtler elements of beauty, we must study its laws in that direction, and obey them. If we would derive from the employment of the sun its more perfect fruits and harvests, we must take the steps necessary to this end. Not upon every one does it thrust these bounties. They must be inquired for. So it is with the Sun of Righteousness. He sheds a providential watchfulness and protection upon all men, without regard to character; but if men would go higher, and perfect the understanding, refine the moral sentiments, purify the heart, and come to be God-like, developing the God that is in them, for this there is special labour required. (H. W. Beecher.) The sun an emblem of God What the natural sun is to material nature, God is to this world and its tenants, especially to those who fear His name. Of all the figures employed indicating some features of resemblance to God, there is none more beautiful and appropriate than the sun. “ It is a pleasant thing for the eye to behold the sun,” i.e. to enjoy the effect of his diffused and reflected radiance. Earth and its countless inhabitants are deeply indebted to his vivifying rays. He is the source of all that quickens and beautifies nature, and thus has become the emblem of many blessings.1. In all probability he was the first natural object which had the religious homage of man, and this may suggest the thought that the human mind delights in mysteries--in the insolvable more than the apparent and simple--as man could not easily prostrate himself before any object more mysterious in its nature. There is no searching of the sun; our eyes are too weak to stand the ceaseless ocean of light that emanates from him. How much less can we search the sun’ s Creator. Contrasted with Him, myriads of suns are like so many dark bodies. His revelation of Himself in His works, and in His Word, in His Son, and in our souls, is more than sufficient for the comprehension of any finite mind and beyond the ken of the most philosophic eye. 2. The sun is ever the same. Ever since the Creator said on the fourth day, “ Let there be light,” he has faithfully performed his function. Generations live and die; empires wax and wane; but he is the same from age to age, and gives his light to the father and the son; and shines upon the babe in his cradle as well as years after upon his grave, when numbered with the tenants of mortality. Thus the psalmist, in speaking of the kingdom of Christ, says, “ His name shall endure for ever: His name shall be continued as long as the sun.” God is unchangeable. He is “ the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.” His being fills every point of duration, “ the first and the last, the beginning and the end, the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever.” His thoughts and purposes are immutable. “ The counsel of the Lord standeth for ever; the thoughts of His heart to all generations.” 3. The sun is larger than all the other planets. It is difficult go conceive an adequate idea of his magnitude. If all the planets from Mercury, that receives a continual stream of light from him, to Neptune--that is three thousand and six hundred millions of miles distant from him, somewhere on the confines of creation--were made into one world, it is said that it would require six hundred such worlds to constitute one that would approach the sun in its dimensions. Infinitely greater than this is the disparity which exists between God and the highest, the mightiest, and holiest of His creatures. 4. Of all the works of God the sun is the most conspicuous. He occupies the most prominent position among the planets of heaven. Take him from the constellations of heaven, and all is darkness and confusion. What would this world be apart from God? Confusion, darkness, and unmitigated misery. Blessed be His name, He is here, as the cause of all causes, the force of all forces, the agent of all agencies, the breath of all life, and the source of all good. 5. The sun is most generous. He gives his all freely and impartially; he shineth on the just and unjust; his rays fall upon the sower of iniquity as well as the Christian in devout prayer and meditation. It is generally accepted now as being true that there are in the sunbeam three different principles, viz. the chemical, luminiferous, and calorific, and that each has a function to discharge in relation to the fruits of the earth. The chemical has to do with germinating the plant, the luminous assists in secreting from the air the carbon essential to its growth, while the calorie, or heating rays, are required to nurture the seed, and form the reproductive elements. What wisdom displayed in the fact, that the first of these is more powerful in the spring than in the summer, while the second becomes more powerful in the summer, and that in the autumn both are lessened, while the third increases in force; i.e. each principle becomes potent at the time when most required. How eminently adapted to our wants as well as those of Nature. 6. The sun is a fountain from whence flows a perpetual stream of goodness, and is an invaluable blessing to our world. God is an inexhaustible source of all good. He is the primal fount of all mercies. He is not only the Quickener of life, but the Giver and the Sustainer of it. Divine supplies and human wants are balanced. How loving the hand that adapts the blessings to our wants. How numerous they are. Can you reckon them? Life, health, food, raiment, peace, homes, relatives, friends, money, honour, and seasons of innocent pleasure; verily, our life is an endless history of Divine bounties. God gives these blessings to all without distinction. How loudly this calls for our gratitude. But He gives infinitely more to those that love Him, delight in His statutes, and frequent His sanctuary to adore and praise Him. To them He is a sun and shield. As the sun is everything to the earth, so God is to His people--He is their All. (J. Stevenson.) Children of the sun We are all lovers of the sun, and give it unwitting homage in a thousand ways. We seek it as if we were new-born flowers asking for a baptism of beauty and fragrance, and, like the birds, we pipe our merriest notes when it has dismissed the chilling clouds. Nor are bees and butterflies more content than are we when it favours us with its encouraging smiles and stimulating caresses. Distant yet near, hidden yet revealed, majestic yet lowly, mighty yet merciful, terrible enough to consume worlds and yet tender enough to open a blossom, vast enough to appal us, and yet beneficent enough to attract us--there can be little wonder that men of reverent temper have found in it touching suggestions of Him who giveth grace and glory. “ The Lord is a sun.” I. Then my life may be illumined. No nook or corner of our being need go unirradiated. Open the life to God as you open the eye to the sun, and you will no longer be a child of the darkness. We need not dwell in the shadow of sin, in the cave of doubt, in the pit of melancholy, in the cavern of unbelief, in the neighbourhood of gloom: we are called to the sunshine; we can walk in the light as He is in the light, we can tread on bright-topped hills, we can hear the message, “ Let there be light.” II. Then my life may be cheered. He, whose shining sun brightens every earth-spot, making the flowers start up in rare brilliancy, causing the birds to sing their sweetest sonnets, putting a beauteous bloom upon the fruits of the orchard, and dressing Nature in a glorious dress, says to us, “ What that sun is to the physical world, I am to the spiritual. I can work a mighty transformation in your lives, can put an end to your soul’ s winter, and can confer on you an endless summer. I can warm you through and through with My fires, and in the light of My face you can live perpetually, despite life’ s changefulness, and the hard, trying, and perplexing things which come to you--for I am God, your Exceeding Joy, the Fount of Life, the very God of Peace.” III. Then my life may be enriched. It is God who quickens me from the death of sin, who renews my life from day to day, who gives it its finest expression, who stores it with heavenly treasures, who generates within me the holiest desires, and fosters a thrice-blessed bliss-inspiring hope. Who can tell how rich I may yet become? When I see the gorgeous garniture of the universe, I know that God does not want me to be clad in less than a royal dress. When I see the opulence of Nature on all hands, L am sure He does not want me to fare meagrely. When I observe the superb dome of many-coloured glass above us, the vast panorama of earth and sea full of pictures, poems, and symphonies, I am sure that He intends me to rise to full and rich perfection. IV. Then my life may be beautiful. Standing in the stream of the Divine Brightness, there is no knowing to what splendour we shall come. Drenched with the glory of His face, we shall have a sweetness far surpassing that of sun-kissed flowers, a ripeness which the fairest fruit will only faintly image, a beauty superior to anything earth has known. (J. Pearce.) The Lord will give grace and glory.--Grace and glory the gift of God I. Viewing the promise as on the side of God, and of His condescension to us His guilty creatures, we may trace it in its source, and in the manner of its fulfilment.1. Absolutely, grace and glory are the Lord’ s; being of the essence of His nature; his property and possession. 2. Relatively to us, grace and glory are the Lord’ s to give; He has them so that He may give them. 3. Grace and glory are given from the Father through the Son. 4. Grace and glory are given from the Father through the Son by the Spirit. II. Consider it now on the side of man, and his need of God.1. What are the aspects of our condition that make the assurance peculiarly suitable to our case? (1) We find no favour, no grace, in the eyes of God. On the contrary, we are the objects of His just displeasure; guilty; condemned. (2) In this condition, we have no fitness or qualification for being advanced by God to any post of honour, or distinguished by any special marks of His confidence and approval; no capacity of being glorified. (3) In this predicament of estrangement and dishonour we are helpless; without any means of extricating or raising ourselves. 2. What more suitable,--what more necessary,--than this promise--“ The Lord will give grace and glory” ? A right princely and royal gift! And a right princely and royal act to make it absolutely a free gift! It is a procedure worthy of God. And it is the only procedure that could really meet our case. Of His own free will begat He us by the Word. Of His own free will He called us in His Gospel. Of His own free will He puts His Holy Spirit within us, and works in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure. III. The connection between grace and glory, and the dependence of the one upon the other.1. Grace comes before glory; and only through grace can glory be reached. Grace first, and then glory. It must be so. Vain will you seek to commend yourselves to God, and win a character and name before Him, if you are not first found willing to be debtors to His mercy and sovereign grace, His full and free mercy. 2. Glory comes after grace; and grace is in order to glory. Why would you have the Lord to give you grace? Is it that you may hopefully press on to glory? Grace is the means to glory. Do you so regard it? Are you anxious, not merely about your personal rest, and ease, and comfort, but about your being put in a position and receiving power to serve the Lord freely, and to enjoy Him fully? 3. Grace implies glory (Philippians 1:6; Romans 8:29-30). What gracious soul is in heaviness through manifold affliction? Let him not faint. Let him seek grace to hold on, in the confident belief that the Lord, giving the grace he seeks, will give the glory for which he is content to wait. 4. Grace prepares for glory; and the proportion of grace determines the proportion of glory; or, to put it in a pointed form, the more grace the more glory. 5. The seals of grace are the pledges of glory. This is doubly true. It is true of the inward seal of grace, which is the Holy Ghost in the heart, and of the outward seals of grace, which are the holy sacraments in the Church. (R. S. Candlish, D. D.) Grace and glory The Lord gives; there is nothing freer than a gift, and there can be nothing freer than that greatest of all the gifts of God, eternal life. That expression, “ eternal life,” sums up these two things, grace and glory. “ The Lord will give grace and glory.” It is His glory to give His grace; and because of His graciousness, He gives glory. Glory never comes without grace coming first, but grace never comes without glory coming last; the two are bound together, and “ what God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.” I. The first gift: “ The Lord will give grace.”1. The Lord will give grace to all those who feel that they need it, and confess their need. Claim anything as of right, and God will only give you what you have a right to claim, and that will be everlasting destruction from His presence and from the glory of His power. But confess that you are guilty, and stand ready for the death-sentence to be executed, and appeal to the unmerited mercy of God, and you shall have it freely given to you. 2. He will give grace to those who believe in His Son, Jesus Christ. Nay, He has given grace to them already. It has pleased the Father that in Christ should all fulness dwell, and therefore fulness of grace abides in Christ. 3. He will give more grace to those to whom He has given some grace. If you have had the first droppings of grace, keep on looking to Him who gave you those first drops, for there is a shower on the way. 4. He will give grace in the form in which it is needed. 5. He will give grace when it is needed. Grace is a thing which has to be used, and the Lord who gives it means us to use it. Whenever God sharpens my scythe, I know that there is some grass for me to cut. If ever He hands me down a sword, He seems by that very action to say to me, “ Go and fight,” and He does not give it to me that I may have it dangling between my legs to show what a man of war I am. When you need grace, you shall have grace. 6. He will give us grace to a much larger degree when we are prepared to receive it. 7. He will give grace till it melts into glory. II. The last gift. When our entire manhood, spirit, soul, and body shall be in heaven, then will this promise be fulfilled, “ The Lord will give glory.”1. “ Glory” means, first, recognition. When Christ shall declare that He knows us, and shall say to each one of us, “ Well done, good and faithful servant” ; when He shall confess us before men when He comes in the glory of His Father; O sirs, when Christ shall call out His poor persecuted followers, and amidst such a scene as never was beheld before, when angels shall lean from the battlements of heaven, and a cloud of witnesses shall gather round about assembled men, when Christ shall say, “ You were with Me in My humiliation, and I own you as My chosen, My beloved, My brethren,” that will be glory. 2. The next meaning of the word “ glory” is vision. “ Thine eyes shall see the King in His beauty.” With Job, each believer can say, “ I know that my Redeemer liveth,” etc. 3. The third meaning of the word “ glory” is fruition. What the fruition will be I will tell you when I have been there. Long ago, we learned that “ man’ s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy Him for ever.” Brothers and sisters, we have enjoyed His Word; we have enjoyed His day; we have enjoyed His covenant; we have enjoyed His love; but what will it be to enjoy God Himself, and to enjoy Him for ever? (C. H. Spurgeon.) Grace inexhaustible Mountains have been exhausted of their gold, mines of their diamonds, and the depths of ocean of their pearly gems. The demand has emptied the supply. Over once busy scenes silence and solitude now reign; the caverns ring no longer to the miner’ s hammer, nor is the song of the pearl-fisher heard upon the deep. But the riches of grace are inexhaustible. All that have gone before us have not made them less to those who follow us. When they have supplied the wants of unborn millions, the last of Adam’ s race, that lonely man, over whose head the sun is dying, beneath whose feet the earth is reeling, shall stand by as full a fountain as this day invites you to drink and live, to wash and be clean. (T. Guthrie.) No good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly.-- God’ s good things lot the upright It all depends on what you mean by a good thing. It does not follow, for instance, that a thing is good simply because it has a good name. Mankind is governed very much by names, and some very bad and hurtful things go by a good name in the world. The old name for the Cape of Good Hope was the Cape of Storms, but everybody would prefer the later name, though it does not lessen by an inch the height of the stormy waves. The Irish speak of the fairies as “ the good people” ; not that they have much confidence in their goodness, but because they think it judicious to speak of them in that way. Now, God’ s good things are very varied in their names. Some have the best and most beautiful of names. Others again, nominally, are not so attractive. What a lovely name was that which Jesus gave His disciples when He said, “ Henceforth I call you not servants, but I have called you friends!” They were raised to a higher level, and not merely got orders as servants, but confidences as friends. Who would presume, however, to call Himself by that name? But I find that Jesus speaks, in another place, of a yoke. That is not such an attractive name. There is no doubt, however, about its being a good thing, if it be Christ’ s yoke. It is through the taking of that yoke upon us that we shall find rest unto our souls. I suppose, if we were asked as to the characteristics of a good thing, most of us would say that a very important one must be that it lasts. Well, that is true, above all, of God’ s good things. They last. Time has been called “ the prince of honest fellows,” for he brings out the real value of things in the long run; and time has proved the value of the Gospel, and the blessings that come to us through it. “ Why do I not like that story so well to-day as yesterday?” said a little girl, when her mother told her the same story a second time. It is mostly the way, however. The interest fades with repetition. But the old, old story of Jesus and His love gets more precious and fascinating the longer we live, and the more we think about it. Sometimes we wonder what will be the good things of the next world, the good things that God has in store; for, you see, they have to last such a long time there, they have to last and satisfy us to all eternity. But that is a secret that will be kept till the time comes. Let us only be sure of this, the Lord can provide, and the Lord will provide. And to whom is the promise of the text made? To “ them that walk uprightly.” What could be simpler than these words, and yet what could better describe our spiritual requirements? There is something noble in the erect posture. Only man can stand erect. The body does get bent as age creeps on, but the power of Christ can still make straight and keep straight the soul. No debility of age need set in there. (J. S. Mayer, M. A.) Psalms 84:12O Lord of Hosts, blessed is the man that trusteth in Thee.Of trust in God I. The exercise itself.1. Man is altogether insufficient for his own happiness.2. God alone is all-sufficient for the happiness of man.3. God in His Word has made a revelation of His grace, mercy, and goodwill towards sinners. II. Some properties which ought to attend our trust in God. Our trust in God ought to be--1. Universal, for all good things.2. Fixed, close, continual.3. Heroic and fearless.4. Joyful.5. Resolute and determined.6. Reverential and humble.7. Regular; i.e. corresponding to God’ s revealed will, and to the tenor of His promises.8. Everlasting. III. The blessedness of the man that trusteth in the Lord.1. God Himself pronounces him so.2. His state, with regard to God and eternity, is perfectly safe.3. In being thus exercised he gives glory to God.4. His trust frees him from all care and fear.5. In thus trusting, he is filled with hope and joy.6. In so doing, he is strengthened both for doing duty and suffering affliction.7. His trust shall not be disappointed. (A. Swanston.) On a religious trust in God, and the happiness attending it I. The nature and grounds of a religious trust in God. To trust in God is to repose a steady confidence in His protection, and to have an invariable acquiescence of mind under all the dispensations of His providence. This notion of a Supreme Being, and submission to His will, cannot fail in producing proper sentiments of those Divine attributes, upon which this duty of affiance is grounded; which are His wisdom, power, goodness, and faithfulness. II. The efficacy and advantages that result from this religious trust in God.1. It teacheth us to entertain a modest and humble opinion of ourselves, and it is the best expedient to prevent those dangerous consequences that naturally flow from our supposed excellences. 2. By entertaining an humble opinion of our own endowments, our minds are more sensibly affected with juster apprehensions of God’ s goodness, and more disposed to patience and resignation under His dispensations. 3. To form a true notion of Divine providence will afford an additional strength to this argument: pursuant to this we must consider, that the same all-powerful, all-wise Being, who created the world, must of necessity be the Governor of it, and so order affairs and dispose circumstances as He thinks fit. III. Motives for improvement of this doctrine.1. A believing trust in God’ s help naturally produces the firmest persuasion and gives us the strongest security of His almighty protection. 2. We have the contemplation of a future state to cure all our discontentedness and to secure the stability of our peace. (W. Adey.) Blessed trust I. The heart of religion always has been, and is, trust in God. The bond that underlies all the blessedness of human society, the thing that makes the sweetness of the sweetest ties that can knit men together, the secret of all the loves of husband and wife, friend and friend, parent and child, is simple confidence. And the more utter the confidence the more tranquilly blessed is the union and the life that flow from it. Transfer this, then--which is the bond of perfectness between man and man--to our relation to God, and you get to the very heart of the mystery. Not by externalisms of any kind, not by the clear dry light of the understanding, but by the outgoing of the heart’ s confidence to God, do we come within the clasp of His arms and become recipients of His grace. Trust knits to the unseen, and trust alone. And trust is blessed, because the very attitude of confident dependence takes the strain off a man. To feel that I am leaning hard upon a firm prop, to devolve responsibility, to give the helm into another steersman’ s grasp, whilst I may lie down and rest, that is blessedness, though there be a storm. II. A life of faith is a blessed life, because it talks with God (Psalms 84:9-11). The ordinary Christian life of this day is terribly wanting in this experience of frank, free talk with God, and that is one reason why so many of us professing Christians know so little of the blessedness of the man that trusts in God. You have religion enough to keep you from doing certain gross acts of sin; you have religion enough to make you uncomfortable in neglected duty. You have religion enough to impel you to certain acts that you suppose to be obligatory upon you. But do you know anything about the elasticity and spring of spirit in getting near God, and pouring out all your hearts to Him? The life of faith is not blessed unless it is a life of frank talking with God. III. The life of faith is blessed, because it has fixed its desires on the true good. “ A day in thy courts,” etc. This psalmist, speaking with the voice of all them that trust in the Lord, here declares his clear consciousness that the true good for the human soul is fellowship with God. But the clearest knowledge of that fact is not enough to bring the blessedness. There must be the next step--“ I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness” --the definite resolve that I for my part will act according to my conviction, and, believing that the best thing in life is to have God in life, and that that will make life, as it were, an eternity of blessedness even while it is made up of fleeting days, will pub my foot clown and make my choice, and, having made it, will stick to it. It is all very well to say that “ a day in Thy courts is better than a thousand” : have I chosen to dwell in the courts; and do I, not only in estimate but in feeling and practice, set communion with God high above everything besides? IV. A life of faith is a life of blessedness, because it draws from God all necessary good. “ The Lord God is a Sun and Shield” --brightness and defence. “ The Lord will give grace and glory” : “ Grace,” the loving gifts which will make a man gracious and graceful; “ glory,” not any future lustre of the transfigured soul and glorified body, but the glory which belongs to the life of faith here on earth; link that thought with the preceding one. “ The Lord is a sun . . . the Lord will give glory” ; like a little bit of broken glass lying in the furrows of a ploughed field, when the sun smites down upon it, it flashes, outshining many a diamond. If a man is walking upon a road with the sun behind him, his face is dark. He wheels himself round, and it is suffused with light, as Moses’ face shone. If we walk in the sunshine we shall shine too. If we “ walk in the light” we shall be “ light in the Lord.” “ No good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly.” Trust is inward, and the outside of trust is an upright walk; and if a man has these two, which, inasmuch as one is the root and the other is the fruit, are but one in reality, nothing that is good will be withheld from him. For how can the sun but pour its rays upon everything that lives? (A. Maclaren, D. D.) The joy of trustfulness I. The joy of trustfulness. The deepest and purest joys are the outcome of trustfulness and the abandonment of oneself to another. The law holds good of our relationship to God, as of our relationship to each other, namely, that we receive according to our faith. Trustful people have a way of communicating their own simplicity and generosity to those with whom they have dealings. To trust the goodness of another is to make goodness seem to him at once more desirable and more possible of attainment. God has created us with this natural capacity for trustfulness, and the exercise of it is a source of joy. The dearest and most precious relationships are founded upon it. The joys of love and friendship are deeper and purer than those of material possessions. II. The believer’ s joy is the object of his trust. Trust is sometimes misplaced. There are those who are base enough to take advantage of trust reposed in them. Many tragedies are caused by the discovery of untrustworthiness in the man or woman in whose hands we have placed our lives. The most interesting stories in literature are those of heroes and heroines whose trustworthiness is for long under a cloud, but which is finally vindicated. That which underlies our trust in each other is our love for goodness itself. “ We needs must love the highest when we see it.” Our real love is for God, who is goodness itself. We love persons in whom we trust that goodness is to be found in large measure. The believer who makes God his trust is happy indeed, nor is there any danger of shock and disappointment to such a trust. If other trusts bring much joy, this brings supreme joy. III. The supreme character of the believer’ s joy--blessedness. There is something heavenly about the word. The kind and degree of joy which God experiences is known by this name. He is “ the ever-blessed God,” “ blessed for evermore.” Blessedness is calm and tranquil; it brings a sense of steadiness to the mind, and enables it to do its work without distraction or anxiety. (R. C. Ford, M. A.) . Psalms 85:1-13 Psalms 85:1-13 Lord, Thou hast been favourable unto Thy land.A psalm of deliverance; songs and sighs A part of the nation had returned, but to a ruined city, a fallen temple, and a mourning land, where they were surrounded by jealous and powerful enemies. Discouragement had laid hold on the feeble company, enthusiasm had ebbed away, and heart as well as faith had been lost. This psalm accurately reflects such a state of things, and is reasonably taken as one of the earliest post-exilic psalms.1. The first portion presents one great fact in three aspects, and traces it to Jehovah. The restored Israel had been sent back by the conqueror as a piece of policy, but it was God who had done it, all the same. The blessed fact is joyously announced in Psalms 85:1, and the yet more blessed fact of forgiveness, of which it is a token, in Psalms 85:2. The word rendered “ forgiven” implies that sin is regarded as a weight, which God lifts off from the pressed-down sinner; while that for “ covered” regards it as a hideous stain, which He hides. Our sins weigh us down, and “ are rank, and smell to heaven.” Verse 8 ventures still deeper into the sacred recesses of the Divine nature, and traces the forgiveness to a change in God’ s disposition. His wrath has been drawn in, as, if we may say so, some creature armed with a sting retracts it into its sheath. 2. God turns from His anger, therefore Israel returns to the land. But the singer feels the incompleteness of the restoration, and the bitter consciousness suddenly changes joyous strains to a plaintive minor in the second part (Psalms 85:4-7). “ Turn us,” in Psalms 85:4, looks back to “ brought back” in Psalms 85:1, and is the same word in the Hebrew. The restoration is but partially accomplished. Similarly the petitions of Psa 85:5 look back to Psalms 85:8, and pray that God’ s wrath may indeed pass utterly away. The prayers are grounded on what God has done. He does not deliver by halves. He is not partially reconciled. The remembrance of the bright beginning heartens the assurance of a completion. God never leaves off till He has done. If He seems to have but half withdrawn His anger, it is because we have but half forsaken our sins. 3. The third portion brings solid hopes, based on God’ s promises, to bear on present discouragements. In Psalms 85:8 the psalmist, like Habakkuk (Habakkuk 2:1), encourages himself to listen to what God will speak, “ 2 will hear,” or, rather, “ Let me hear.” Faithful prayer will always be followed by faithful waiting for response. God will not be silent when His servant appeals to Him, but, though no voice breaks the silence, a sweet assurance, coming from Him, will rise in the depths of the soul, and tell the suppliant that He “ will speak peace to His people,” and warn them not to turn to other helps, which is “ folly.” The peace which He speaks means chiefly peace with Himself, and then well-being of all kinds, the sure results of a right relation with God. But that peace is shivered by any sin, like the reflection of the blue heaven in a still lake when a gust of wind ruffles its surface. Verses 9-13 are the report, in the psalmist’ s own words, of what his listening ear had heard God say. First comes the assurance that God’ s salvation, the whole fulness of His delivering grace, both in regard to outward and inward evils, is “ nigh them that fear Him.” They, and only they, who keep far away from foolish confidence in impotent helps and helpers shall be enriched. That is the inmost meaning of God’ s word to the singer and to us all. The acceptance of God’ s salvation purifies our hearts to be temples, and is the condition of His dwelling with us. The lovely personification of verses 10-13 have passed into Christian poetry and art, but are not rightly understood when taken, as they often are, to describe the harmonious meeting, in Christ’ s work, of apparently opposing attributes. Mercy and faithfulness blend together in all God’ s dealings with His people, and righteousness and peace are inseparable in His people’ s experience. These four radiant angels dwell for ever with those who are God’ s children. In verse 11 we have a beautiful inversion of the two pairs of personifications, of each of which only one member appears. Truth, or faithfulness, came into view in verse 10 as a Divine attribute, but is now regarded as a human virtue, springing out of the earth; that is, produced among men. They who have received into their hearts the blessed assurance and results of God’ s faithfulness will imitate it in their own lives. Conversely, righteousness, which in verse10 was a human excellence, here appears as looking from heaven like a gracious angel smiling on the faithfulness which springs from earth. Thus heaven and earth are united, and humanity becomes a reflection of the Divine. Verse 12 presents the same idea in its most general form. God gives good of all sorts, and, thus fructified, earth “ shall yield her increase.” Without sunshine there are no harvests. God gives before He asks. We must receive from Him before we can tender the fruit of our lives to Him. In verse 18 the idea of Divine attributes aa the parents of human virtues is again expressed by a different metaphor. Righteousness is represented doubly, as both a herald going before God’ s march in the world, and as following Him. It makes His footsteps “ a way “ for us to walk in. Man’ s perfection lies in his imitating God. Jesus has left us “ an example” that we should “ follow His steps.” (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Genuine piety This psalm present to us genuine piety in three aspects. I. Acknowledging the mercies of the past.1. Restoration to their country. “ Thou hast brought back,” etc. He brought them from Egypt and from Babylon. 2. Absolution of their sins. “ Thou hast forgiven,” etc. When sin is forgiven it is “ covered” ; it does not reappear any more in producing suffering and anguish. Its guilt and power (not its memory) are crushed. 3. The cessation of penal afflictions. “ Thou hast turned thyself,” etc. Genuine piety can recount such blessings in the past as these, and even of a higher order. “ The presence of present afflictions should not drown the remembrance of former mercies.” II. Deploring the evils of the present.1. The sense of estrangement from God. “ Turn us, O God of our salvation.” Departure from God is our ruin, return is our salvation. The separation between man and his Maker arises, not from His turning from man, but from the turning of man from Him. 2. The sense of the displeasure of their Maker. “ Wilt Thou be angry with us for ever?” This really means, Wilt Thou afflict us for ever; shall we be ever in suffering? God’ s anger is not passion, but antagonism to wrong. 3. The sense of deadness. “ Wilt Thou not revive us again?” etc. They had been politically dead (Ezekiel 27:1-36.), and they were religiously dead. Such are some of the evils they deprecate in this psalm; and for their removal they now implore their God. III. Anticipating the good of the future. “ I will hear what God the Lord will speak.” Piety here fastens its eye on several blessings in the future.1. Divine peace. “ He will speak peace unto His people.” He will one day speak “ peace” --national, religious, spiritual, peace to all mankind. 2. Moral unity. “ Mercy and truth are met together,” etc. These moral forces, ever since the introduction of sin, have been working, not only separately, but antagonistically; and this has been one of the great sources of human misery; but in the future they will coalesce, unite. 3. Spiritual prosperity. “ Truth shall spring out of the earth,” etc. From the hearts of men truth shall spring as from its native soil, and it shall grow in stately beauty and affluent fruitage. And “ righteousness shall look down from heaven,” delighted with the scene. (Homilist.) The responsibility of favoured nations It is true that the God of nations has His special calling and election for each of the races of mankind. To quote Bishop Westcott: “ History on a large scale is the revelation of the will of God; and in the history of the greatest nations we may expect to find the will of God for them. They are themselves the record and the retribution of their past, and the prophecy of their future.” We Englishmen must be blind and thankless, indeed, if we fail to recognize God’ s ordination in our own history, God’ s warnings and promises in our fortunes. Surely He has been favourable unto this land of ours, until every acre of it is holy ground. To us also God has granted prophets, and captains, and reformers in long succession to “ bring back our captivity,” until freedom means more in England to-day than it means anywhere else in the world. And upon us, too, God has laid the burden of a duty and destiny which we still only half discern. He has given us a charge which we can never fulfil abroad except as we become faithful to our vocation at home. To realize the very hand of the living God laid on our nation to-day humbles us into awe and seriousness and searchings of heart. The proud vision of Empire fades into a solemn sense of the Divine Imperator who ordains our inheritance for us; because the kingdom, and the power, and the glory are His own. (F. H. Darlow.) Psalms 85:6 Wilt Thou not revive us again: that Thy people may rejoice in Thee?A prayer for revival I. What is the time for such a prayer as this?1. When we can remember some gracious acts of God in the past. After some mercy drops, it becomes us to cry for showers of blessing. 2. After tokens of Divine displeasure. 3. When saints feel languid. 4. When efforts seem to be useless. 5. When we have among us a number of persons who are backsliding. II. The need of such a prayer. Who needs it?1. The minister. If the preachers grow dull and sleepy, there is no wonder that the people do so; therefore, give us a special place in your supplications that we may be kept right for your sakes, and for Christ’ s sake, and the Gospel’ s sake. 2. All the leaders of our Church. Often, dead deacons and dead elders prevent a church prospering; therefore, let us pray earnestly for the leaders of God’ s Israel, “ Lord, revive them again. Put more spiritual life into them.” 3. The same is true of all the members of the Church without exception. How much they need reviving! 4. And all the workers, too. 5. The hesitaters. 6. The careless ones. 7. The outside public, who never go to hear the Gospel at all. III. The essence of such a prayer. It means--1. Dependence upon God. 2. Confidence in God. 3. Importunity with God. IV. The net result if this prayer be answered. It seems rather singular, does it not?--that the psalmist should put as the reason for a revival that God’ s people should rejoice in Him. You and I do not always estimate things aright. Preaching is only the stalk; conversion, prayer, praise,--these are the full corn in the golden ear. In the garden, the leaves may represent the work that is done; but the flowers are the praise that is rendered. In a revival, part of the result is the conversion of men, but the result is the praise of God; and that revival brings forth most fruit that gives to God the most glory. I reckon that we have served God when we have fed the poor, when we have taught the ignorant, when we have reclaimed the wanderer; but I am equally sure that we have rendered acceptable sacrifice when we have prayed to God, when we have delighted ourselves in Him, when the joy of our heart has in silence exhaled towards Him. So, therefore, if God will be pleased to send a revival, His people will rejoice in Him because they are revived. They will be thankful that their spirits are plucked away from their languor and lethargy; and then they will begin to rejoice with the joy of gratitude because God has done such great things for them; and then sinners will be converted, and straightway saints will rejoice over sinners saved. Now, as you come to the communion table, I want you to try to rejoice in God. “ But I am mourning about myself,” says one. Well, mourn about yourself, if you like; but do rejoice in God. “ Oh, but I am troubled in my circumstances!” Well, but a child of God should rise above circumstances, and rejoice in God. There is more in God to cheer you than in your circumstances to depress you. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Revival experiences I. This prayer was dictated by past experiences. “ Wilt Thou not revive us ‘ again?’” II. It is the prayer of one alive to the preciousness and needfulness of such special effusions of the Holy Spirit. “ Wilt Thou not ‘ revive?’” III. It is the prayer of one fully conscious that god alone is the source of reviving power and grace. “ Wilt not ‘ Thou?’” etc. Never was revival more needed than now. Therefore let us make this prayer our own. IV. At times of revival Christians rejoice in God. (American Homiletic Monthly.) Religious declension and revival I. The causes of religious declension.1. I have known trials in business the occasions of religious declensions--trials which ought to have led to God in prayer, who can by His mighty arm take us over them, but which have so absorbed the mind and so worried the spirit, that instead of their leading to God the man has sat down and sighed his soul away in sorrow. 2. I have known the very opposite of trials, namely, worldly prosperity, a cause of religious declension. The sea has been all calm, the tide has set in our favour, the breeze has filled our every sail, and with full sails our vessel has entered into the haven, and we have sought to make earth, not heaven, our home; our prosperity we have put down to our own ingenuity, and not to the goodness of God. II. The evidences of religious declension.1. Remissness in secret prayer.2. Neglect of family prayer.3. Neglect of the public means of grace. III. The remedy for religious declension. 1. There is a remedy (2 Samuel 14:14; Jeremiah 30:17; Malachi 3:7; 2 Chronicles 17:4).2. The means to be used for revival. (1) We must become alarmed about our state, and apply for the remedy.(2) We must humble ourselves before God.(3) We must make a full surrender of ourselves. IV. The blessedness of a revived religious state. It is the blessedness of--1. Restored spiritual health.2. Rejoicing in the God who gave it.3. Joy in common with others. (A. M. Brown, LL. D.) The causes and cure of religious declenesion I. The causes.1. Remissness in secret duty.2. Inattention to God’ s word.3. Neglect of self-examination.4. Allowed indulgence of some favourite sin.5. Indifference to public means.6. Self-complacency. II. The means of spiritual revival.1. Recollect yourselves.2. Humble yourselves.3. Surrender yourselves anew to the Lord.4. Give yourselves unto extraordinary prayer.5. Attend with constancy the public means.6. Apply to yourselves what you hear and read of God’ s Word. III. The advantage of a revived and cheerful state of mind.1. To ourselves. A new impulse will be given to our religious feeling and affections. 2. Others will share the advantage of our revival. Seeing how lowly, how forbearing, how kind, how cheerful, the followers of Jesus can be; they will be constrained to think favourably of that gracious Lord who “ taketh pleasure in the prosperity of His servants,” and to allow the excellency of that religion which can make a fallen sinful creature so holy, so contented, so happy. Saints will be edified; timid professors encouraged; mockers silenced; and sinners convinced and won to the love and practice of piety. 3. The Lord Jesus Christ will be magnified by our liveliness and zeal in His service. (W. Mudge.) A Pentecostal prayer I. A general revival of true religion is needed.1. The world needs it. (1) The world of Christendom needs it. From having so long lived in a Christian country, many are disposed to take it for granted that they are Christians. Others, from so often hearing and reading the truth, fail to feel its power. (2) The world of heathendom needs it. Much has been done to win the world to Christ, but much still remains to be done. 2. The Church at large and individual churches need it. 3. The individual members of our churches need it. II. The grounds for expecting such a revival.1. The fact that God has promised to revive His people. 2. The fact that He has again and again revived them--on the day of Pentecost; at the Reformation; under the preaching of Wesley and Whitfield. III. The means necessary for bringing about a revival.1. Prayer for an abundant outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Such prayer must be characterized by humility, fervency, perseverance, faith. 2. As all our blessings come to us through Christ, we must pray in His name. 3. As the Word of God is “ the sword of the Spirit” --i.e. its instrument--we must study it ourselves, and teach it to others. 4. As God always works by means, we must employ appropriate effort. (1) Put away all sin.(2) Seek to cultivate true, healthy piety, as opposed to austerity, narrow-mindedness, sentimentalism, or laxity.(3) Endeavour to progress in the Divine life ourselves.(4) Seek to arouse others. (E. W. Wilson.) The coming revival Each of the last four centuries, to go no farther back, has been distinguished by a great revival of religion. In the sixteenth century there came what we may call the Protestant revival, in the seventeenth century the Puritan revival, in the eighteenth century the Evangelical revival; and during the nineteenth century we have witnessed a revival which it is more difficult to characterize, but which has been as real and will probably prove as fruitful as any of the former. It has manifested itself in various ways, by high ritualism on the one hand and by much earnest evangelism on the other. Probably its most distinguishing characteristic is that it has inspired Christian people with a strong desire to reach the whole population of the land, to uplift socially and morally the most degraded, and so perhaps it might be called the Democratic revival. It is certain that neither this nor any other of the religious movements I have named has boon unmixed good or evil. Like all things on earth, they have bison imperfect in character and results. But in each case there has been a vast preponderance of good, and all of them have helped to hasten on the age of universal righteousness. And the history of these four centuries seems to render infinitely probable a great revival in the twentieth century Another fact which makes us confident that we shall shortly witness a great revival is the manifest need of it. The coldness and deadness of many of our churches, the utter indifference of the masses, the neglect of public worship, the practical infidelity which is so common in all ranks of society, the hopeless misery of the “ submerged tenth,” the comparative failure of the churches to rescue the very classes in which Jesus showed the greatest interest and amongst which He gained His chief success, all these things prove that a revival is necessary. Now, we find that when the need is greatest the help is nearest. It is the way of the Lord to display His grace and power in the day of His people’ s extremity. The coming revival will be an intellectual movement. It will very largely consist in the awakening of the mind. Of course, every revival is in some degree an intellectual movement. Conversion implies the opening of the eyes and the turning from darkness to light. But in former revivals the intellectual element has not been the most prominent. A century ago, and even later, religion was chiefly emotional. The majority of the people in this country were uneducated, many of them were grossly ignorant. They were incapable of understanding an argument or of appreciating a spiritual idea. And so the preachers of the evangelical movement appealed to the fears of men. In the coming revival men will be brought to God, not by craven terror, not by coercion of any kind, but by persuasion, by conviction, by recognition of the truth. The religious movement of the twentieth century will be the triumphal progress of reason. But the chief glory of the coming revival will be its ethical character. It will bring about a great moral reformation. The weak point in former revivals has been in the development of character. We find Martin Luther complaining that the Protestants were no better in moral character than the Catholics. Puritanism produced many eminent saints, yet it also produced some notable hypocrites. The Puritan theology did not give to morality the high place to which it was entitled; and, indeed, in some respects it tended rather to depress the importance of moral character. In the coming revival high and pure morality will be accorded its sacred rights. It will be a revival of righteousness; it will fill men with an enthusiasm for goodness. It will be inspired by the practical theology of Jesus Christ; not by the theology of Luther, or Calvin, or Augustine, or even of Paul, so much as by that of the Great Master. And so it will produce in Christian men a character more true and manly, more Christlike, and more Divine. And on this account the coming revival will be more extensive and more permanent in its results than any that have preceded it. The great sign and evidence of the revival, when it comes, will be its manifesting power, its power of discrimination and discovery. Men are separated by great lines of moral demarcation, but generally these lines are visible only to Omniscience. When the revival comes they will show up clearly and with astonishing vividness. There are those who are saved and know they are saved: they will be the chief instruments of the revival. There are those who are not saved and know they are not; they will be the objects upon which the revival will exert its convincing and converting power. But there are also those who think they are saved and are not, good, easy people, self-complacent and censorious, to them the revival will bring a rude awakening. There is yet another class--those who are saved and do not know it--a much more numerous class than is generally supposed. With the great revival there will come to them a clearer vision. Receiving the Spirit of adoption, they will thenceforth serve the Lord with gladness. Doubt and weakness will give place to confidence and strength. (S. T. Bosworth, B. A.) Personal revival I use the term “ revival” as implying, not simply the quickening and strengthening of the Divine life in the soul where it already exists, but also the production of that life where it has not before been enjoyed,--in other words, as including in it the conversion of sinners, as well as the edification of saints. I. We need a revival. Is there not amongst us much spiritual insensibility--much formality--much worldliness? Is there any one of us who does not feel, when he seriously and thoughtfully reflects on his opportunities and privileges, that he is not what he ought to be--not what he might have been? II. We may obtain a revival.1. That this desirable result may be gained, let me remind you that spiritual revival is a personal thing. The revival of a Congregation or of the church at large can only be reached by the revival of the individuals of whom the congregation or church is composed. 2. Do you ask, how are we to get it for ourselves? I answer,--by the use of the right means in the right spirit. (1) If you are not yet converted, you must begin by receiving Christ as your personal Saviour. This is the commencement of Divine life in the soul. (2) Prayer--secret personal prayer. It is very well that you should seek the prayers of others; but if you do not pray for yourselves, you have no right to expect personal revival. (3) The devout study of the Word of God. In it God speaks to us, and speaks to us directly. If we do not listen, bow can we be His children--how can we know His will or do it? (4) The cultivation of a watchful and dependent spirit. By a watchful spirit, I mean a spirit ever on its guard against sin. By a dependent spirit, I mean a spirit conscious of its own guilt and depravity, of its own weakness and infirmity. (John Robson, D. D.) Spiritual revival 1. What is the kind of spiritual awakening that is required in the days in which we are living? “ A new realization of God.” Now, understand what realization is. There may be belief and no realization. Devils believe and tremble. I may believe in God and be as foul as Satan. I realize God, and He will be the Power that dominates me in all my thought and in every department of my being. You go to Switzerland and one object is in your thought, Mont Blanc, which dominates the valleys. When we realize that God will dominate our thoughts and our actions, we shall realize that He besets us behind and before, and that if we take the wings of the morning and go to the uttermost parts of the sea He is there. I would realize God; I would try to help you to realize Him. Now, the great difficulty of this subject comes from the fact that with the progress of science, as science has brought us knowledge, and knowledge is reality, we are brought to an understanding of the fact that He is great, passing all our comprehension, and we begin to understand that no man by searching can by any possibility find Him out. I can only tell you some things which will be when we realize God, when He is near to us and we appreciate that He is near to us as we are to one another. When that is true all places will be holy. All times are sacred when God is realized. And in the next place, all duties are sacred. Why do we say that one man in a large place is doing a great work for God, while one in a small place is doing a work of insignificance? Because we do not appreciate that everything done for Him is great, and that those who are most faithful are those who are most worthy of praise. 2. And then, in the next place, when we realize God, all men are sacred. In the humblest, in the barefooted beggar boy, in the man who sweeps the streets, in the one who is outcast and forgotten, there is something of the Divine. We doff our hats when those who rule us ride by, but in the man who sweeps the walk for you there is something of the King of the Universe. Ah, do we think of these things? That is the kind of revival that is needed. How may this revival be promoted? Well, in the first place, those who bear the Christian name ought surely to be those who lead in it; and if they lead in it, certain things must be realized. They must learn to practise the presence of God; and, moreover, they must learn also to lay upon it every weight and every sin. We cannot prevent a thought knocking at the door of our mind and looking in, but we can prevent that thought coming in and staying there. And then, associate much with Jesus Christ; He is the One who brings God to us; He is the One who reveals Him in a way in which we can understand Him. Spend time with Him, think about Him, feed upon Him, live with Him. Next, this thought: What will result when we do realize God, when this revival has come to us? What will be the results? Will you pardon me if I return my question with a question, and ask you what kind of life do you think you would live if God was just as real to you as His sun in the heavens? If you were sure every day, every hour, every minute, that the holy eyes of the loving God were on you, what kind of life do you think you would lead? Now, once more, consider if there are any signs of the coming of such an awakening. 3. I find signs of it in the amazing earnestness which characterizes the young men and the young women in our institutions of learning, so far as I know, the world around. There were never so many who were pledging themselves to the missionary service in the whole history of the world as are pledging themselves to-day. I find signs of this spiritual awakening also in the spirit of expectancy. We all feel--sensitive spirits in the pews and in the pulpits everywhere feel--as if we were on the verge of some wondrous revelation of spiritual reality. (A. H. Bradford, D. D.) A revival sought I. A revival is greatly needed. Compare our lives with those of Paul, Brainerd, Calvin, Jonathan Edwards, M’ Cheyne, Baxter, Whitefield. Think of their love for souls, their zealous labours, their self-denials, their communion with God. Why, beside such men our piety is scarcely discoverable even by the aid of a microscope. II. It can come from God only. The land in India is parched and dried up for want of rain; where are the reviving showers to come from? Can a council of her wise men by consulting each other obtain it? No; from above it must come. We too, are dry and parched, and all our talk and schemes and Church organization will do nothing, unless the showers fall upon us from above. In tills matter we are absolutely dependent upon God. I have heard of men and Churches trying to “ get up” revivals. Got-up revivals end in spiritual dearth, or, worse still, spiritual death. They must be brought down to be of any service. III. Can we obtain revival? If so, how?1. I believe we can, because-- (1) Of the promises God has made in this respect (Malachi 3:10; Isaiah 44:3; Zechariah 12:10). (2) All who have ever earnestly and truly sought one have obtained it. Think of the times of Baxter, of Bunyan, of Burns, of Flavel, of Finney, of Wesley, of Whitefield, of M’ Cheyne. In our isle, and lands beyond the seas, God has poured out His Spirit. Lord, Thou hast revived others; wilt Thou not revive us? Thou hast revived us in days past; wilt Thou not revive us again? (3) Revivals are a part of God’ s method of accomplishing His purposes, and without them the world cannot be converted. 2. How are we to obtain it? (1) There must be a determination on the part of each member of the Church to have a better state of things. A revival must be desired before God will give it. (2) There must be on the part of each one of us sorrow of heart for our coldness and backslidings, full confession of sin to God, the giving up of every known sin, and the earnest petition, “ Cleanse thou me from secret faults.” (3) There must be also on behalf of sinners soul travail (Isaiah 66:8). In this there is deep philosophy: ‘ tis the mother who has felt the birth-pangs that loves and cares for the child as no other can. And ‘ tie those who have wrestled with God for the conversion of men, who know how to care for them when converted. IV. What will be the results of a revival when obtained?1. It generally affects the minister, first and most. His lips are touched with the live coal from off the altar; he is clad with zeal as with a cloak. He has an unction from the Holy One resting upon him. 2. The deacons and all the members feel a kind of spell come over them. They don’ t neglect family prayer now. They don’ t forget to read their Bible now. All is changed, and things are as they should be. 3. Sinners who have listened for years, now, upon confession of their faith, wish to be baptized. 4. Then shall all the members of our Church be glad and rejoice in the Lord. (W. W. Williams.) Lent, the season of revival The advantage of such a season as Lent,--a season set apart for special prayer, and searching of heart, and amendment of life,--is that, where there is a feeling of slackness and failure, it meets it, and welcomes it, and sustains it, and guides it; and where there is no such wholesome feeling of inward concern and self-censure, it tends to awaken, and foster, and stimulate it.1. Can we put a little more self-denial and effort into our religious exercises and devotions? 2. Can we see our way to embarking on a crusade,--a truly holy war,--against some besetting sin, or fault, or failing, of our own; with a determination to suppress it and stamp it out;-or to denying ourselves some little innocent indulgence, for the sake of self-discipline and the love of Christ;--or to applying the Cross practically to ourselves in any other special way whatever? 3. Can we cut out for ourselves, or anyhow aid in, any enterprise of Christian philanthropy, having for its object the bettering of the physical, social, intellectual, or religious condition of our fellow-men, around us or at a distance; some enterprise which we can help and forward by money, by prayers, or by personal labour and toil; and this, in the recollection, and under the inspiration of the Saviour’ s words: “ inasmuch as ye have done it,” etc. (D. J. Vaughan, M. A.) The test of a true revival--joy and delight in God Pardon and quickening are joined together in Psalms 85:5. We beseech the Lord and Giver of Life to revive among us that life of the spirit which grows stifled, and choked, and deadened by the pressure of the world. Nothing gives thoughtful Englishmen graver concern than the decay of high ideals, alike in the politics and the literature of the nation. And in the Church itself, while we raise great sums of money, do we not grow painfully aware of a certain dearth and poverty of spiritual passion, which can only be re-inspired and rekindled from above? “ Wilt Thou not revive us again, that Thy people may rejoice in Thee?” Note this searching test of a real revival: it fills Christians with a new joy and delight in God Himself. As the Holy Ghost comes upon us and the power of the Highest overshadows us, the Church breaks out in a fresh “ Magnificat,” and sings, “ My spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.” And the Church becomes the irresistible missionary when it can chant that victorious song. (T. H. Darlow.) Revivals--their relation to nations Historians seldom take note of so obscure an event; yet, if the secret connections of revivals with the destiny of nations could be disclosed, they would appear to be more critical evolutions of history than the Gothic invasions. A volume has been compiled narrating the decisive battles of the world. But more significant than this, and probing deeper the Divine government of the world, would be the history of revivals. (Austin Phelps.) Don’ t predict a revival There is a current idea that the best way to start a revival is to preach to the Christians in a church. I do not accept that idea. If you want to raise up a lazy crew on board ship, set them hauling in that man who has fallen overboard. Don’ t talk too much about “ revival! revival! revival!” Don’ t predict a revival. I never in my life knew a predicted revival that came to pass. In my own ministerial experience the spiritual operations known as “ revivals” generally began in a prayer-meeting. I learned more theology in those experiences than I ever could have learned in a theological school. A cold prayer-meeting inevitably makes a frigid church. Hang your thermometer up in the prayer-meeting. Watch the first indication of the Spirit. (T. L. Cuyler, D. D.) Psalms 85:8I will hear what God the Lord will speak.The return of prayers I. When a man hath put up prayers to God, he is to rest assured that God will in mercy answer his prayers; and to listen diligently, and observe how his prayers are answered.1. Because otherwise you take an ordinance of God in vain in your hearts, which is to take God’ s name, with whom in that ordinance you deal, in vain; for it is a sign you think your prayer not an effectual means to attain that end it is ordained for, and say secretly in your hearts, as they (Job 21:15). 2. Not simply God’ s name, as in an ordinance made known, but also His name, that is, His attributes, are taken in vain. For it is a sign you think of that God you pray to, that either “ His ear is heavy, that He cannot hear, or His hand shortened, that He cannot save,” or His heart straitened, that He will not: and thus you rob Him of one of His most royal titles, whereby He styles Himself (Psalms 65:2). 3. You let God speak to you in vain, when you do not listen to what He answers. 4. You will provoke the Lord not to answer at all; He will forbear to answer, because He sees it will be in vain. 5. If you observe not His answers, how shall you bless God and return thanks to Him for hearing your prayers? 6. As God loseth, so yourselves also the experience which you might get thereby. (1) Both experience of God and His faithfulness, which will cause in you hope and confidence in God another time, when you have found Him again and again answering your prayers. And also-- (2) By observing God’ s answers to your prayers, you will gain much insight into your own hearts, and ways, and prayers, and may thereby learn how to judge of them. 7. You will lose much of your comfort (John 16:24). Comfort it is many ways-- (1) To hear from God, as to hear from a friend, though it be but two or three words, and that about a small matter; if there be at the bottom this subscription, “ your loving father,” or, “ your assured friend,” it satisfies abundantly; so also-- (2) To know that God is mindful of us, accepts our works, fulfils His promises. (3) How doth it rejoice one to find another of his mind in a controversy; but that God and we should be of one mind, and concur in the desire of the same things ,--not two in the earth only agree (Matthew 18:19), but God who is in heaven and we agree,--this rejoiceth the heart exceedingly. And thus it is when a man perceives his prayer answered. Therefore you lose much of your comfort in blessings when you do not observe answers to your prayers. II. Now, as for rules and helps to find out God’ s meaning towards you in your prayers, and to spy out answers, and how to know when God doth anything in answer to your prayers.1. Concerning prayers put up for the Church, for the accomplishment of such things as fall out in ages to come. (1) There may be some prayers which you must be content never yourselves to see answered in this world, the accomplishment of them not falling out in your time: such as are those you haply make for the calling of the Jews, the utter downfall of God’ s enemies, the flourishing of the Gospel, the full purity and liberty of God’ s ordinances, the particular flourishing and good of the society and place you live in. All you whose hearts are right do treasure up many such prayers as these, and sow much of such precious seed, which yet, must be content to have the Church, it may be, in after ages to reap; all which prayers are not yet lost, but will have answers: for as God is an eternal God, and Christ’ s righteousness an “ everlasting righteousness,” and therefore of eternal efficacy (Daniel 9:24), “ being offered up by the eternal Spirit” (Hebrews 9:14), so are prayers also, which are the work of the eternal Spirit of Christ, made to that God in His name, and in Him are eternally accepted, and of eternal force, and therefore may take place in after ages. (2) Only at present in prayer it may be that thou hast revealed unto thee, by a secret impression made on thy spirit, that these things shall come to pass, and so hast thy faith confirmed. (3) And when they are accomplished, and thou in heaven, thy joy will surely be more full for thy prayers. 2. Concerning answers to our prayers for others, for particular men, as friends and kindred; and likewise for temporal blessings. (1) Such prayers God often hears (James 5:15-16; 1 John 5:16). (2) Prayers for others may often also not obtain the particular thing prayed for them (1 Samuel 15:35; Psalms 35:13). (3) When the prayers are thus made out of conscience of our duty for such whom yet God doth not intend that mercy unto, then they are returned again into our own bosoms, to our advantage; even as St. Paul saith, that his rejoicing that others preached, though they lost their labour, should turn to his salvation (Philippians 1:19), (4) If we have prayed long for those whom God intends not mercy unto, He will in the end cast them out of our prayers and hearts, and take our hearts off from praying for them. That which He did by a revelation from heaven to some prophets of old, as to Samuel and Jeremiah, the same He doth by a more undiscerned work; that is, by withdrawing assistance to pray for such by withdrawing the spirit of supplication from a man, for some men, and in some businesses. (5) God will hear those prayers for, and answer them in, some others, in whom we shall have as much comfort as in those we prayed for; and so it often proves and falls out. 3. The third case to be considered is, when a man prays for something with others, or which others likewise pray for with him, so as he is not alone in it; how then should he know that his prayers have a hand in obtaining it, as well as theirs? For in such cases Satan is apt to object, though the thing is granted indeed, yet not for thy prayers, but for the prayers of those others joined in it with thee. (1) If thy heart did sympathize and accord in the same holy affections with those others in praying, then it is certain thy voice hath helped to carry it: “ If two agree on earth,” says Christ (Matthew 18:19), that is, if they harmonically agree to play the same tune; for prayers are music in God’ s ears, and so called “ melody to God” (Ephesians 5:19). (2) God doth usually and often evidence to a man, that his prayers contributed and went among the rest towards the obtaining of it; as-- (i.) By some circumstance: as, for example, sometimes by ordering it so that that man that prayed most for a thing of concernment, should have the first news of it when it comes to be accomplished; which God doth, as knowing it will be most welcome news to him. (ii.) By filling the heart with much joy in the accomplishment of what a man prayed for: which is an evident argument that his prayers did move the Lord to effect it, as well as the prayers of others. (iii.) If God give you a heart thankful for a blessing vouchsafed to another, prayed for by you with others, it is another sign your prayers have some hand in it.(3) And, lastly, in case the thing concerned thyself, which was prayed for by others helping thee therein, what cause hast thou but to think that it was granted for thy own prayers, and not for theirs only? seeing God stirred up their hearts to pray for thee, and gave thee a heart to pray for thyself, and besides gave thee the thing which thou desiredst. Which argues thou art beloved as well as they, and accepted as well as they. (T. Goodwin.) Hearing the Lord I. As To doctrinal truth. It would be very dangerous if we had no rule to go by. In things of importance it is--1. Plain and decided. There is no obscurity as to man’ s sin or the way of salvation, or the reward of the good, and the loss of the evil. 2. Always accessible. The book of the law of the testimony is in our midst. II. As to my movements in life. How much depends upon one wrong step as it regards our comfort, reputation, or usefulness! Even if sin is pardoned, its consequences cannot be remedied. Marriage, business, the choice of a home, have frequently produced dire results. A Christian should, therefore, at every step try to hear what the Lord shall speak. Integrity and uprightness are the principles He requires, and these must form the groundwork of every action. III. As to the dispensations of His providence.1. Every visitation has its mission. There is a purpose in every pain and an object in every trial. Let us, then, not only hear, but learn. Many are often in such a state of ignorance, despondency, and doubt, that they cannot understand what object or purpose God may have in view; but while the natural man is concerned to escape from trouble, the Christian is only anxious to have the trouble sanctified and improved. 2. We pray to God. Do we want to hear what He has to say in reply? Most of our petitions are never thought of as soon as they are delivered. We knock at the door, but never stay to see it opened. Can we expect that God will attend to those prayers which we ourselves contemn? (Homilist.) The believer’ s expectation We have here a solitary believer introduced, reviewing the dispensations of God, meditating on the prayers and praises already offered to the Divine Majesty, humbly waiting for the result. I. His disposition. He had sought forgiveness, consolation, revival, from the hands of God, both for himself and his people; and now he would watch, wait, attend, expect the Divine direction, and the Divine blessing.1. It is a patient disposition. I long now for pardon; for the assurance of pardon; for the powerful efficacy of Divine grace, that I may be converted, and sanctified, and enabled to glorify God; but I must wait in the use of the appointed means, till the Lord shall “ lift up upon me the light of His countenance.” 2. It is an attentive disposition, an expecting, watching frame of mind. God the Lord will speak, and I must be observant of His voice. It may not come in the great and strong wind, nor yet in the earthquake, nor yet in the fire; it may be the “ still small voice,” the silent intimation of Providence; the gentle moving of the pillar and of the cloud. I must therefore attend and watch, to know what my Master’ s will is. 3. It is an obedient disposition. It is the disposition which Abraham evinced, when, having heard the most painful precept, he arose early in the morning, and hastened to its fulfilment. It is the temper of the wounded Israelite, who no sooner heard of the brazen serpent, than instead of reasoning or disputing, or prescribing some more excellent way, turned his dying eyes, beheld and lived. II. His expectation. God speaks peace to His people--1. By enlightening their understanding to perceive the way of peace. God “ can be just, and yet the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus” ; such gracious words as “ these descend like the dew or the rain upon a thirsty land. 2. By communicating to the soul the assurance of peace. Believing the declarations of His word; seeing a suitableness and sufficiency in the atonement of Christ, the convinced sinner comes with humble faith pleading His sacrifice and relying on Him. 3. By communicating to them a spirit of peace. Having much forgiven, they love much. III. The concluding caution. “ Let them not turn,” etc. The deceitfulness and depravity of the heart of man appears in nothing more striking than in the backslidings of those who have tasted that the Lord is gracious. (T. Webster, B. D.) Peace: how gained, how broken I. What we know the Lord will speak.1. He speaks peace to a certain company--“ to His people and to His saints.” Let us, then, ask ourselves, Has the Lord ever spoken peace to us, or will He do so? If God is everything to you, you are among His people, and He will speak peace unto you. That peace is, however, always connected with holiness, for it is added, “ and to His saints.” His people and His saints are the same persons. Those who have a God know Him to be a holy God, and therefore they strive to be holy themselves. 2. But now, notice here that the peace which is to be desired is peace which God speaks, and all other peace is evil. The question is sometimes put--“ We see bad men enjoy peace, and we see good men who have but little peace.” That is one of the mysteries of life; but it is not a very difficult one as to its first part. Sometimes their peace arises from sheer carelessness, sometimes from worldliness, and sometimes from despair. God alone can speak true peace to the soul. The blood of Jesus speaks “ the peace of God, which passeth all understanding.” We read that on the storm-tossed lake “ there was a great calm.” How great is the quiet of a soul which has seen and felt the power of the atoning sacrifice! 3. I have told you that only God can speak this peace; let me remind you that He can give you that peace by speaking it. One word from the Lord is the quietus of all trouble. No deed is needed, only a word. Peace has not now to be made: the making of peace was finished more than eighteen hundred years ago on yonder cross. 4. Sooner or later the Lord will speak peace to His own. How blessed are the shalls and wills of the Lord God! “ He will speak peace unto His people.” Doubt it not. There may be a time of battling and of struggling, the noise of war may disturb the camp for months; but in the end “ He will speak peace unto His people.” II. What we fear may mar this blessing of peace. Peace may be broken with the Christian, through great trouble, if his faith is not very strong. It need not be so; for some of those who have had the greatest fight of affliction have had the sweetest peace in Christ Jesus. Peace may be broken through some forms of disease, which prey upon the mind as well as the body; and when the mind grows weak and depressed from what are rather physical causes than spiritual ones, the infirmity of the flesh is apt to crush spiritual peace. When the Lord hides His face, as He may do as the result of grave offence that we have given Him, ah! then we cannot have peace. But, after all, the chief reason why a Christian loses his peace is because he “ turns again to folly.” What kind of folly?1. There is the folly of hasty judgment. Have you never judged without knowing and considering all the surroundings of the case? Have you not come to a wrong conclusion, when you have ventured to judge the dealings of God with you? You have said, “ This cannot be wise, this cannot be right; at any rate, this cannot be a fruit of love” ; but you have found out afterwards that you were quite mistaken, that your severest trial was sent in very faithfulness. 2. Another kind of folly is of like order: it is repining, and quarrelling with the Most High. Some are never pleased with God; how can He be pleased with them? There can be no use in contending with our Maker; for what are we as compared with Him? Let the grass contend with the scythe, or the tow fight with the flame; but let not man contend with God. 3. Another kind of folly to which men often turn is that of doubt and distrust. Be satisfied with God, and you shall be satisfied in God. 4. Some turn to the old folly of looking for life upon legal principles. You remember how Paul seemed astonished at this perversity. “ Having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?” When you try to draw your comfort from what you are, and what you do, you are foolish. Self is at best a dry well. 5. Some lost their place by turning again to the folly of intellectual speculation. Stick to the Scriptures. 6. But the worst form of folly is sin. Remember what it cost your Lord to make you free from the consequences of former folly; never return to it. Look a little way before you. Think of the street of gold, the river which never dries, the trees which bear eternal fruit, the harps of ceaseless melody. We cannot turn again to folly! O God, do not permit us to do so! (C. H. Spurgeon.) For He will speak peace unto His people. Tidings of peace to be spoken to consciences distressed In the words you have a discovery of God’ s proceedings in treating of peace or proclaiming war with His people and subjects.1. You see that sometimes God doth not speak peace to His own children. This was their state for the present, when this psalm was penned: “ He will speak peace” ; therefore, at present He did not. 2. There must needs be some great reason for this, they being His people. They had fallen into some gross folly or other; some sinful, inordinate dispositions had been indulged unto and nourished in them; which is usually, though not always, the cause of this His dealing. And as wicked men may out of His patience have a truce; so, on the contrary, with His own, God may take up a quarrel; yet He loves them, and remembers them with everlasting kindness. The uses are these-- (1) As peace with God is dear to you, so to take heed of turning unto folly. Only take this advertisement, that they are not mere follies or ignorances that do interrupt or break the peace. (2) Doth God take up quarrels against His own? Then, upon any breach made, go forth to meet Him. Let not the sun go down upon God’ s wrath towards thee. (3) If the peace of God’ s own people be thus often interrupted, what wrath is reserved for the children of disobedience? 3. When the child of God wants peace, he can have no peace till God speak it. (1) Because God is the king of all the world, the sovereign Lord of all. (2) Because God is the Judge of all the world, and the party offended. (3) Peace, especially of conscience, is a thing must be created, for our hearts of themselves are full of nothing but turmoil, as the raging sea, which cannot rest. (4) The wounds of conscience which are in God’ s people are of that quality that none but God can cure them; for the chief thing that wounds them is the loss of God’ s favour, not simply His wrath. 4. Let God’ s people be in never so great distress, yet it is an easy thing for God to give place to them. (1) Because His speaking is creating; if He speaks, He makes things to be, even with a word. As at first He did but say, “ Let there be light, and there was light” ; so still, if He but say, “ Let there be peace,” there is peace; He made all, and upholds all by the word of His power. (2) Because the light which God gives to a man’ s spirit when He speaks peace is a sure and infallible light, and therefore a satisfying light, so as when it comes it must needs give peace, and no objection, no temptation can darken or obscure it when it shines. 5. Let God be never so angry, and His people’ s distress never so great, yet He will speak peace in the end to His people. (1) Consider who this God is that is to speak peace, “ I will hear what God the Lord will speak” ; He is the Lord, and therefore able to speak what pleaseth Him; He is peculiarly “ the God of peace,” and therefore willing to speak peace. (2) Consider who they are to whom He is to speak it. They are His people, as the text hath it; and to them there is no question but He will speak peace, though He seems angry for a while. (3) If God did not in the end speak peace, they would indeed return to folly. As it is a rule in physic still to maintain nature, and therefore when that shall be in hazard to be destroyed, they leave giving purging physic, and give cordials; so doth God with His people: though with purging physic He often brings their spirits very weak and low, yet He will uphold and maintain their spirits, so as they shall not fail and be extinguished, but then He will give cordials to raise them up again. (T. Goodwin.) But let them not turn again to folly.--Saints cautioned against returning to folly 1. Sin, in every form of it, is the greatest folly and madness. 2. The whole world, God’ s people and saints as well as others, are naturally under the power of this folly. 3. When men first become God’ s people and His saints, they are in some degree turned from the folly of sin. 4. The people of God, after their first conversion from folly, do yet frequently relapse into it. 5. Such is the great grace of God unto His people, that He often speaks peace to them, even when they have been playing the fool remarkably; and this is the way in which He makes them turn to Himself. 6. God’ s people are very apt to return unto folly, soon after He has spoken peace to them. 7. God’ s speaking peace to His people, lays them under particular obligations not to turn again to folly. There is no vice held in more general abhorrence amongst men than ingratitude; and its enormity riseth in proportion to the importance of the benefits received, and to the dignity of him who confers, and the ill desert of him who receives them. Judging by this rule, how black the ingratitude of returning again to folly, after God has spoken peace to our souls! 8. A relapse into folly, after God has spoken peace to our souls, may be attended with very dangerous consequences to ourselves. We may perhaps hear again the voice of war, which formerly gave so much disquiet. 9. Those to whom God hath spoken peace ought to be particularly watchful, lest they return again to folly. Learn-- (1) How much it is our duty to read, hear, and meditate upon the Word of God; seeing in it, when explained and applied by His Spirit, He speaks peace unto His people. (2) What it is that enables the people of God to bear up under all outward crosses and troubles in this world. It is God’ s speaking peace to their souls. (3) That believers are not to be discouraged from entertaining an assurance of the love of God, from an apprehension that such assurance tends to licentiousness. (4) This subject reproves all those who enjoy a peace which God doth not speak to them in His Word. Those, for instance, who, when their consciences are disquieted with guilt, seek to suppress their clamours by vain amusements, or by a hurry of business. This peace is not founded in the faith of God’ s Word, and therefore it is false; and if it is rested in, it will issue in war and wrath. (A. Swanston.) Psalms 85:9 Surely His salvation is nigh them that fear Him.The nearness of salvation to piety The fear of God does not mean servile terror, but loving reverence; it means piety. The subject of these words is the nearness of salvation to piety. They are so near that they are inseparable; in truth, they are essentially one. Where there is piety there is salvation, and nowhere else; where there is salvation there is piety, and nothing else. This vital connection between salvation and piety serves two purposes. I. To correct a popular delusion. In popular religious tracts and pulpits, men are constantly exhorted to seek salvation, as if it were something outside of them, something away in another region, and to be reached by scheming. But it is in the state of the heart, and nowhere else. “ Say not in thy heart, Who shall ascend to heaven to bring it down?” etc. It is in supreme love to God and self-sacrificing love for man. II. To urge the cultivation of personal piety. “ The grace of God hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts,” etc. (Homilist.) There is safety in godly fear Holy fear is a searching the camp that there be no enemy within our bosom to betray us, and seeing that all be fast and sure. For I see many leaky vessels fair before the wind, and professors who take their conversion upon trust, and they go on securely, and see not the under water till a storm sink them. (H. G. Salter.) Psalms 85:10-13 Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other.The bridal of the earth and sky This is a lovely and highly imaginative picture of the reconciliation and reunion of God and man. The poet psalmist, who seems to have belonged to the times immediately after the return from the exile, in strong faith sees before him a vision of a perfectly harmonious co-operation and relation between God and man. He is not prophesying directly of Messianic times.1. The heavenly twin sisters, and the earthly pair that corresponds. “ Mercy and truth are met together” --that is one personification; “ Righteousness and peace have kissed each other” is another. It is difficult to say whether these four great qualities are to be regarded as all belonging to God, or as all belonging to man, or as all common both to God and man. I am disposed to think of the first pair as sisters from the heavens, and the second pair as the earthly sisters that correspond with them. “ Mercy and truth are met together” means this: That these two qualities are found braided and linked inseparably in all that God does with mankind. Mercy is love that stoops, love that departs from the strict lines of desert and retribution. And truth blends with mercy. That is to say, truth in a somewhat narrower than its widest sense, meaning mainly God’ s fidelity to every obligation under which He has come. God’ s faithfulness to promise, God’ s fidelity to His past, God’ s fidelity in His actions, to His own character, which is meant by that great Word, “ He sware by Himself.” Love is thus lifted up above the suspicion of being arbitrary, or of ever changing or fluctuating. In the second two, “ Righteousness and peace have kissed each other,” we have the picture of what happens upon earth when mercy and truth that come down from heaven are accepted and recognized. To put away metaphor, here are two thoughts. (1) That in men’ s experience and life righteousness and peace cannot be rent apart. The only secret of tranquillity is to be good. (2) Righteousness and her sister, Peace, only come in the measure in which the mercy and the truth of God are received into thankful hearts. 2. God responding to man’ s truth. “ Truth shall spring out of the earth, and righteousness shall look down from heaven.” Where a man’ s heart has welcomed the mercy and the truth of God, there shall spring up in that heart, not only the righteousness and peace, of which the previous verse is speaking, but specifically a faithfulness not all unlike the faithfulness which it grasps. Righteousness looks down, not in its judicial aspect merely, but as the perfect moral purity that belongs to the Divine nature. No good, no beauty of character, no meek rapture of faith, no aspiration Godwards, is ever wasted and lost, for His eye rests upon it. 3. Man responding to God’ s gift. “ Yea, the Lord shall give that which is good, and our land shall yield her increase.” Earthly fruitfulness is only possible by the reception of heavenly gifts. The earth yields her increase by laying hold of the good which the Lord gives, and by reason of that received good quickening all the germs. 4. God teaching man to walk in His footsteps. “ Righteousness shall go before Him and set us in the way of His steps.” The psalmist here draws tighter than ever the bond between God and man. Man may walk in God’ s ways--not only in the ways that please Him, but in the ways that are like Him, and the likeness can only be a likeness in moral quality. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) A blessed coalition I. Here is a coalition of the most blessed qualities. “ Mercy,” a modification of love, love commiserating: “ truth,” which means reality, eternally antagonistic to all shams and hypocrisies; “ righteousness,” the immutable law of the moral universe, to which all must bow sooner or later; “ peace,” not insensibility, inaction, or stagnation, but the moral repose of souls centred in God. These are the moral qualities here specified; and more precious are they a thousand times than all the gems of ocean, or orbs of immensity. II. Here is a coalition of blessed qualities that have been separated. In all human history, ever since the introduction of sin, these blessed qualities have been working separately and even antagonistically. There has been “ mercy” without “ truth,” and “ peace” of a certain kind, without “ righteousness.” They have not worked together either in communities or in individuals, hence the constant agitations and struggles in all human life. III. Here is a coalition of qualities blessed in their reunion. “ Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other.” These celestial sisters come together and embrace one another with delight. Blessed is this union! Let them be united in our hearts and conduct! (Homilist.) Divine perfections united to save sinners In the restoration of the Church by Jesus Christ, the glorious attributes of the great Jehovah conspire together for the redemption and salvation of sinners. And although the perfections of God, mentioned in the text, may be represented as opposed to each other, yet in the covenant of grace they all agree. Observe the uncommonness of such a meeting: two opposites in two pairs, meeting together. The unanimity of such a meeting; that contraries should shake hands and kiss each other. I. That the perfections of Jehovah do harmonize in their respective claims concerning the salvation of the Church.1. Mercy pleads for the guilty Church (Psalms 86:15).2. Truth stands up for God’ s faithfulness against sin (Genesis 2:17).3. Righteousness or justice comes and claims execution (1 John 3:4; Romans 12:9).4. Peace pleads for a mediator (Job 33:24; Isaiah 9:6; Galatians 4:4). II. The time and place of this friendly meeting.1. The place of assembly was in Christ (Colossians 1:19; 2 Corinthians 5:19). (1) Mercy is vouchsafed to the soul deserving of eternal death, through the mediation of Christ.(2) Truth or faithfulness stands engaged for the soul through Him, being upheld by Him, through the atonement.(3) Righteousness or justice is satisfied in him, and pleads for an everlasting release.(4) Peace flows into the soul of the believer, as proof of the unanimity of the meeting. 2. Some of the various meetings called by these parties. (1) At the eternal council-table of covenant love (Ephesians 1:5).(2) In the garden of Eden after the fall (Genesis 3:15).(3) At Bethlehem at our Saviour’ s advent (Luke 2:11):(4) On Mount Calvary (Hebrews 12:2), III. The manner of their meeting in the soul’ s salvation.1. A wonderful meeting (1 Timothy 3:16).2. A joyous meeting (Isaiah 53:10).3. A holy meeting (Jeremiah 2:2; Jeremiah 2:8).4. A happy meeting (Ephesians 1:8).5. A free meeting (2 Timothy 1:9).6. An unexpected meeting to us (Romans 11:33).7. An inseparable meeting (Hebrews 13:8). IV. The glorious purpose for which they met.1. To promote Jehovah’ s glory (Ephesians 1:6).2. To disunite some unhappy meetings (Isaiah 28:18).3. To unite opposite characters (1 Corinthians 1:7; John 17:21).4. To unite opposite nations in one body (Ephesians 2:16).5. To unite opposite covenants of works and grace (Romans 10:4).6. To bring the Church to glory (Hebrews 2:10). (T. B. Baker) The tenderness of God’ s rule We commonly think of God’ s righteousness as contrary to His mercy; we supplicate His regard for us, personally, to qualify His regard for right. How hard it is to recognize that law is the minister of love, and love the fulfilling of law! Let us now consider some of the ways in which He reveals this to us. I. Parental rule is one of these ways. The government of every pious household is, in measure, a revelation of the government of God. “ Men are but children of a larger growth.” We call ourselves the children of God, and this is much more than a merely endearing name. We have all a child’ s hold on God’ s affections, all a child’ s need of discipline and correction, all s child’ s power to grieve Him; and He has all a Father’ s kind determination to train us in right. II. The tenderness of God’ s strict rule is revealed to us again in the experience of life. It is hard to say whether most injury is done by over-strictness or by over-indulgence. Regard for right is the truest personal regard. God would shield men from woes unnumbered, from confusion of an unregulated will, from the conflict of passion, from the loathing that follows self-indulgence; and, therefore, has He made His laws so severe and certain, and, therefore, does He subdue us to His laws. Truth is not opposed to mercy; where there is no righteousness love works destruction. The experience of life prepares us to turn in gladness to our God, in gladness to rest in the rule of Him in whom we see that “ mercy and truth are met together,” etc. III. This revelation, again, is granted in prayer. We mourn under some appointment of life, thinking God is punishing us in it for our sins; as we pray to Him, we learn that we are not being punished, but chastened. We ask that God’ s anger may be taken away and we forgiven; we see that we are already forgiven, and that what we thought was anger was only the fidelity of love. IV. The tenderness of God’ s strict law is revealed to us in the Gospel of Christ. It is personal regard for man which we see pre-eminently in Jesus; yet who so much as He makes us feel the constraining bond of righteousness? He is filled with human sympathy; in the fulness of His pity He makes their sorrows, and their shame, and their struggles His own; but the influence of His associations is to make men feel more and more that they cannot escape the rule of God. He delivers them from the penalties of law; but it is to awaken in them a reverence for it, deeper and more solemn than any experience of penalty can be. He frees them from its pains by transforming its painfulness into an entire devotion to it. He shows them that personal regard is not at variance with regard for right; for the Father, who loved the Son, did not out of regard for Him turn aside from strictest law. V. The closing verses declare the blessed effects of this discovery in a true and fruitful, in a trusting, an intelligent and obedient life; in a life hallowed by God’ s smile and crowned with His constant benediction. (A. Mackennal, D. D.) Rigorousness and clemency in God’ s procedure with man The words “ truth,” “ righteousness,” and “ judgment” in these passages we shall take to represent the stern, the inflexible, and severe in God’ s dealing with men; and the words “ mercy” and “ peace” to represent the mild and the clement. I. In God’ s procedure with man these principles are found in harmonious co-operation.1. We see these two principles harmoniously operating in God’ s dealing with us through the phenomena of nature. In the earthquake and the tornado, in the fierce lightnings and the rolling thunders, in the raging oceans and the furious winds, we feel ourselves confronted with the stern, the rigorous, and the terrible; but in the serene and the sunny we feel ourselves in the presence of the mild and the lenient. Both in nature work together, they “ kiss each other,” and bring about the good ordained. 2. We see these two principles harmoniously operating in God’ s dealing with us through the events of human history. When we read the history of our race--its wars, famines, pestilences, and innumerable calamities--we are brought before the severe and awful in God; whilst in the happiness of tribes, the prosperity of nations, and the gradual advancement of the race, we see the merciful and the kind; but both principles co-operate, the rigorous and the clement. They “ meet and kiss each other.” They are in a blessed partnership in their endeavours to make humanity what God would have it be. 3. We see these two principles harmoniously operating in God’ s dealing with us through the circumstances of individual life. In the various afflictions, physical, intellectual, and social, which every man has, God in the sterner aspects of His character appears before us; whilst in the pleasures and enjoyments of our life He faces us in an aspect tender and kind. But both principles co-operate. “ Our light afflictions, which are but for a moment,” etc. 4. We see these two principles harmoniously operating in God’ s dealing with us through the means of redemptive Providence. In the life of Christ, God seems in one aspect terribly righteous, on the other side infinitely merciful, but the two are one; they meet, kiss, and co-operate in making a perfect Saviour. It is so in the redemptive training of men for everlasting blessedness. First, law comes to the man with its flashing light and terrible thunder, rousing conscience, and kindling the terrible fames of remorse, and the Divine One seems rigorous and awful. Then comes the assurance of forgiveness, the centralizing the affections in infinite love, and ell in God seems tender and merciful. But the two principles meet together and co-operate in bringing about the same blessed result, viz., the training of the soul for a higher life. II. Though these principles harmoniously co-operate in God’ s procedure with man, one is ever in the ascendant. “ Mercy rejoiceth against judgment.”1. In the phenomena of nature you see more of the clement than the stern. The mild, and not the rigorous, is the queen of nature; storms and earthquakes, thunderings and lightnings are but the exceptions; sunny days, serene earth, and calm atmospheres are the rule. 2. In the events of human history you see more of the clement than the stern. History, it is true, records bloody wars, blasting pestilences, and writhing famines, but these after all are only exceptions in God’ s dispensations with mankind; peace, health, and plenty, have been the rule. 3. In the circumstances of individual life you see more of the element than the stern. It is true we have our afflictions and our sorrows, but these are exceptions. As a rule, the existence of most men is that of health and judgment; goodness and mercy follow us. “ Mercy rejoiceth against judgment,” in our experience. 4. In the means of redemptive Providence you see more of the clement than the stern. In the Christian life there have been the pains connected with conviction, repentance, and conversion; but these are in the initial stages of the Christian life; succeeding stages are generally calm, and often jubilant, and the end everlasting life. (Homilist.) Mercy and truth meeting together There is always truth enough in the world, but it is merciless truth. Men are quick enough to see the faults and sins of their neighbours. If truth is merely fault-finding, then there is plenty of it everywhere. No man ever commits a sin but some one sees it and points it out. But cold, hard truth never convinces; it only provokes; It hardens instead of converting. It seems like injustice, cruelty, wrong. Truth without love has, therefore, virtually the effect of falsehood. It is often said that men are seldom converted by argument or controversy. This is because controversy is so apt to be carried on in a spirit of coldness and hatred, rather than love. There is also enough love in the world, if love means only kind feelings, weak good-will, which is too full of sympathy to see the faults of others and point them out, which will concede or suppress truth for the sake of peace. No. Love which has no truth in it is not love, but real enmity. To treat a bad man as if he were not bad, is a cruel kindness. It puts darkness for light, and light for darkness; bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter. It confounds moral distinctions. It encourages the man who might be cured by vigorous remedies to go on from bad to worse till he is incurable. It is not easy to unite these great forces, for they are polar forces and antagonist. A truthful man tends always to be too hard; a loving man tends to be too soft and yielding. This conflict between truth and love is sometimes presented to us as a problem in ethics. If a robber asks me which way his victim has gone, shall I tell a lie and deceive him or not? Shall I tell a lie to an insane person or a sick person for his good? Is it right ever to deceive? These questions, when put in abstract form, cannot always be answered. But the practical answer comes to us if we have learned to live in truth and love. When these are united in our character, they will not be divided in our speech or our action. We shall not tell any lies from good nature, but we shall be taught in the hour of exigency what to do and say. The promise of Jesus will be fulfilled: “ Take no thought what ye shall say, for it will be given you in that hour what ye ought to say.” If we live in the whole a united life, we shall not act partially or in a one-sided way. The Lord will help us in each exigency to say and do the right thing, not sacrificing truth to love or love to truth. Life often teaches us that way which logic fails to find. The only live work, too, is that which has both truth and love in it. We must love our work, to do it well; We must also believe in it, to do it well. The lowest drudgery becomes a fine art when we put our mind and heart into it: a fine art becomes mere drudgery when we practise it only to make money or get reputation out of it. Work is very hard when we do it only because we must; it is very easy when we have faith in it and love it. (J. F. Clarke.) True peace is inseparable from righteousness Peace may be sought two ways. One way is as Gideon sought it when he built his altar in Ophrah, naming it, “ God send peace,” yet sought this peace that he loved as he was ordered to seek it, and the peace was sent in God’ s way. “ The country was in quietness forty years in the days of Gideon.” And the other way of making peace is as Menahem sought it when he gave the King of Assyria a thousand talents of silver, that “ his hand might be with him.” That is, you may either win your peace or buy it--win it by resistance to evil; buy it by compromise with evil No peace is ever in store for any of us, but that which we shall win by victory over shame or sin-victory over the sin that oppresses, as well as over that which corrupts. (John Ruskin.) Psalms 85:11 Truth shall spring out of the earth; and righteousness shall look down from heaven.The moral prosperity of earth the joy of heaven I. The history of earth will one day be characterized by moral prosperity. Truth--what a seed is this! The deadly foe of all falsehoods and wrongs, the root of virtue, the river of joy. Two things are implied in this growth of truth--1. The preparation of the soil. 2. The implantation of the seed. II. The moral prosperity of earth will be A source of delight to heaven. “ More joy . . . over one sinner,” etc. What is the joy?1. It is the joy of benevolence. A delight springing from the discovery of an increase of happiness in the universe. 2. It is the joy of piety. It is a delight to discover that, instead of a world of rebels, it is a world of loyal subjects. (Homilist.) God’ s purpose concerning the world Heaven is the abode, the treasure-house of righteousness: it is filled with its riches, and no room is left for iniquity to enter. Truth is akin to righteousness--it is her daughter and her image; and when truth has covered the earth, even as righteousness clothes the heavens, this world and that, so long alienated in sympathy, and character, shall be one. Man shall bear the image of God, and earth shall be the reflection of heaven. I. The Divine purpose. It is to reverse the moral state of things long prevalent among mankind.1. Falsehood, and not truth, has had the ascendancy in our world, Falsehood has reigned in the regions of philosophy; and a thousand wild chimeras, the offspring of vigorous but wayward genius, have bewildered human minds. Portions of truth, gleams of light, playing amidst widespread darkness, have remained--the results of early impressions, the relies of primitive tradition, and the utterance of those instinctive tendencies and laws of mind, which nothing can completely crush; but error, various, manifold, portentous, gigantic error, has predominated and reigned. 2. The reversing of this scene forms the purpose unfolded in our text. What we have now been looking at reminds one of Vesuvius after an eruption, when the burning lava has transformed the surrounding region into a sulphureous lake, destroying the field and the garden, the village and the city. But, through the tender mercy of our God, the scene is to be changed; these fires are to be extinguished; a new moral soil, if I may so speak, is to be spread over the desolation of past ages; and then, quickened by the seeds of truth, and watered by the rains of reghteouness, the earth is to yield her increase, truth is to spring up and flourish, and so to clothe this lower world as to make it the counterpart of that upper one. II. The partial realization of this purpose. The Gospel has not been 1800 years in the world for nothing. Its early triumphs were wonderful. Like an electric shock it passed through the Roman Empire. Superstition felt it; the heathen mythology lost its remaining hold on the public mind. Idolatry felt it, and the images of the gods were forsaken; philosophy felt it, and its vain and delusive speculations were dispelled. A revolution took place unparalleled in the history of the world. The religion of a few poor fishermen overturned the religion of priests, philosophers, and emperors. It altered the destiny of man; it gave a new impulse to the progress of civilization; it infused a fresh and healing element into society; it entered the family, and reformed domestic habits; it entered the region of literature, and shed upon it new light; it entered the halls of legislature, and improved the codes of nations; it entered the royal palace, and taught princes lessons of justice and mercy. Christianity thus strove to embody in man and society the beautiful picture sketched in my text; and to a very considerable extent, through the grace accompanying its proclamation, it realized its object. There were individuals, families, and churches, sanctified by truth, and rich in the fruits of righteousness. In all ages there have been such specimens! Blessed be God, they are numerous in the present day; perhaps more numerous than ever. They are to be found at home and abroad. III. The future complete fulfilment. While man is eager, precipitate, longing to see the end of everything, God is saying, “ Wait!” “ The end is hot yet; but it shall come.” A glorious age of truth and righteousness shall come; the kingdom of Christ, in its power and glory, shall come. “ My counsel shall stand; and I will do all my pleasure.” Nor is there, after all, any actual deferring or postponement of what God intends to do. God is not putting off what He once purposed to do earlier: He is fulfilling His first intentions; He is following out the original plan. There the intermediate steps were all marked, as well as the final issue. Indeed, the slowness of God’ s work is only apparent. To us, who dwell upon the surface of the globe, its movements appear extremely slow--nay, it seems entirely stationary. Standing on the deck of our great world vessel, we feel not the motion of the mighty ship as it cuts its way through the infinite ocean of space; and it is only by the careful observation of the stars that we can realize and measure our progress; but in the eyes of God the earth is moving in its orbit with vast celerity, with a speediness of flight which mocks the arrow, and would startle us mortals, who are borne along by it, could we become fully sensible of its rushing pace. So the work of God in this world, for the consummation of the triumphs of truth and righteousness, seems slow to us; nay, sometimes may seem as though it had stopped; but, in the eye of Him who “ seeth the end from the beginning,” it is swift, though tranquil; rapid like the planets, and like them tending to the accomplishment of its appointed round. (John Stoughton.) Psalms 85:13 Righteousness shall go before Him; and shall set us in the way of His steps.Right steps I. The essential steps of the Lord’ s dealings with us. The first thing in God’ s dealing towards us is that He gives His well-beloved Son; and the first thing in His manifestation of Himself to us is to open our eyes to see our need of this, and thus to bring us into the same way, the way of His steps. The next step in a way of detail as given in this psalm is that of forgiveness. The steps now described in a way of detail naturally follow. “ Thou hast forgiven the iniquity of Thy people.” That is one of the sweetest features of the Gospel. “ Thou hast covered all their sin.” Here is Satan’ s universal and entire defeat, seeing He has covered all their sins; and “ who shall lay anything to the charge of God’ s elect?” Is not this a step in loving-kindness, is not this a step of grace, is not this an infinitely and an eternally advantageous step,--thus to receive Christ Jesus as to receive the forgiveness of sins? II. The reasons why the Lord setteth us in the way of his steps.1. That we may be supported when we fall into tribulations, adversities, and trials. If some of you are so placed at present that you may not exactly feel in your minds the force of this reason, you will before you die, because trouble is the lot of us all, affliction is the lot of us all, and the Lord brings us into His steps that we may be with Him, and be supported. 2. That He might foreshow us what we should do under difficult and trying circumstances. See Daniel in the lions’ den; see Mordecai. The Lord doth in ten thousand ways stir up His children, give them the spirit of prayer, make them look to Him to deliver them from their troubles; thus they shall escape ten thousand evils that they must have been entangled fatally by but for the reigning grace, power, and interposition of the blessed God. 3. The Lord keeps His people with Himself that they may be like Him. (James Wells.) . Psalms 86:1-17 Psalms 86:1-17 Bow down Thine ear, O Lord, hear me: for I am poor and needy.Man and the great God I. Man in a variety of aspects.1. What every man is. “ Poor and needy.” Morally this is the case with every man. He is “ poor” (Revelation 3:17). And “ needy.” What does he need? Knowledge, pardon, purity, power. 2. What every man requires. “ Be merciful unto me, O Lord.” “ The wages of sin is death.” He must throw himself on mercy; mercy is his only ground of hope. 3. What every man should be. (1) Pious. “ For I am holy.” (2) Trustful “ That trusteth in Thee.” He is infinitely trustworthy. (3) Incessantly prayerful “ I cry unto Thee daily,” or all the day. We should “ pray without ceasing.” True prayer is not a service but a spirit. 4. What every man should believe. “ For Thou, Lord, art good,” etc. (1) God is essentially good--the primal font of all goodness. (2) Forgivingly good. “ Ready to forgive.” Many men esteemed good have not sufficient goodness in them to forgive. Forgiving goodness is goodness in its highest manifestation. (3) Abundantly good. “ Plenteous in mercy,” etc. No sinner need despair. 5. What every man should do. (1) He should seek a knowledge of the Divine will, in order to obey it. “ Teach me Thy way,” etc. “ Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?” This should be the great question in every man’ s life. (2) He should strive for unity of heart, in order to praise God for evermore. “ Unite my heart,” etc. II. God in a variety of aspects.1. He is infinitely incomparable. (1) Incomparable in being. “ Among the gods there is none like unto thee, O Lord.” Angels that excel in strength, etc. But what are they to God? (2) Incomparable in works. “ Neither are there any works like unto Thy works.” 2. He is universally attractive. “ All nations whom Thou hast made shall come and worship,” etc. Glorious prediction this. 3. He is transcendently great. “ For Thou art great,” etc. (Isaiah 44:6). “ All nations before Him are as nothing.” 4. He is unspeakably kind (Psalms 86:15). (Homilist.) A pattern of prayer Earnest reiteration is not vain repetition. Christ used many repetitions, as does the psalmist. This is a pattern of prayer in its invocations, petitions and pleas. I. The invocations. The appeals to the Divine Name.1. The significance of invocation, not a mere formality, but the basis of all prayer. (1) Names expressing certain aspects of Divine character. (2) The use we make of these names. (a) Thought. We think of God under this aspect. (b) Confidence. We avow our faith in Him. (c) Appeal. We remind God of what He has declared Himself to be. 2. The invocations in this prayer. Note the frequent and varied use of the Divine names. These are made the ground of confidence. (1) Jehovah--a name with two-fold meaning. (a) The word itself. Eternal, underived existence. (b) Its history. The seal of the covenant, i.e. the eternal God entering into covenant relations with man. (2) My God. (a) God implies fulness of power. (b) My God. The Godhead appropriated, i.e. Almighty strength, claimed by human need. (3) Lord, not here meaning Jehovah, but the God of authority and dominion. II. The petitions--a progress in thought and desire.1. The introductory petition. (1) Loving regard. “ Bow down Thine ear.” (2) A mighty answer. Hearing means answering. 2. Deliverance under a three-fold aspect. (1) Protection--“ preserve my soul.” (2) Safety. (3) Mercy. The source of both. The first two emphasize the psalmist’ s peril. The last his unworthiness. No word as to the manner of deliverance. He leaves all that to God. 3. The crowning blessing. Gladness as the result of all these. “ Rejoice the soul of Thy servant.” III. The pleas. The arguments of prayer. The reasons why God should bless.1. Man’ s necessities. “ I am poor and needy.” (1) Circumstances borne down by outward calamity. (2) Character, destitute of inward resources. These constitute a prevailing plea with God. 2. Man’ s relations and desires towards God. (1) Divine favour. “ I am holy.” I am favoured by God. (2) Possession. “ Thy servant.” The Lord cares for the slave. (3) Confidence. “ That trusteth in Thee.” (4) Supplication. “ I cry unto Thee daily.” (5) Aspiration. “ Unto Thee do I lift up my soul.” 3. God’ s own character. “ For Thou, Lord, art good and ready to forgive.” This the mightiest plea of all. We can add to these pleas the name of Christ. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Assurances that God will hear prayer The most of these supplications may be found in other parts of Scripture as promises from God. Only so far as an articulate Divine word carries my faith has my faith right to go. In the crooked alleys of Venice, there is a thin thread of red stone, inlaid in the pavement or wall, which guides through all the devious turnings to the Piazza in the centre where the great church stands. As long as we have the red line of promise on the path, faith may follow it, and it will come to the Temple. Where the line stops it is presumption and not faith that takes up the running. God’ s promises are sunbeams flung down upon us. True prayer catches them on its mirror, and signals them back to God. We are emboldened to say, “ Bow down Thine ear,” because He hath said, “ I will hear.” We are encouraged to cry, “ Be merciful,” because we have our foot upon the promise that He will be. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Psalms 86:4 Unto Thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul. Soul elevation The soul’ s true elevation is a progress-- I. Godward. “ Unto Thee.” It does not really rise as it moves towards worldly wealth, position, influence, or knowledge; but only as it moves towards God. II. By self-effort. “ Do I lift up my soul.” It must rise, not as a stone rises into the air, by the application of a foreign force, and as soon as the force is expended comes down again; but as the lark rises, by its own energy, and the use of its own pinions. Self-lifting is the true lifting; and it requires aa effort, resolute, energetic, and persevering. (Homilist.) Psalms 86:6-7 Give ear, O Lord, unto my prayer.Concerning prayer In such a prayer-psalm as this, there is no studying of language: it is the pouring out of the heart as the heart boils over, the utterance of the desires as they bubble up from the soul’ s deeps, with an entire carelessness as to the fashion of the expression. This ought to be a hint to you when you pray. Do not study how to arrange your words when you come before the Lord. When your heart is like a boiling geyser, let it steam aloft in pillars of prayer. The overflowing of the soul is the best praying in the world. I. David in his prayer sought, beyond all things, to have personal intercourse with God. To my mind that is just the distinction between prayer before conversion and prayer after it. Note well that David, while he thus sought to have dealings with God, to come to close grips with the Lord in the act of prayer, was not presumptuously bold. He perceives the condescension of such fellowship on God’ s part. This may be seen in the first line: “ Bow down Thine ear, O Lord, hear me.” As if he said, “ Thou art so high that, unless Thou shalt stoop very low, Thou canst not commune with me. But, Lord, do thus stoop. Bow down Thine ear. From Thy lofty throne, higher than an angel’ s wing can reach, stoop Thou down and listen to me--poor, feeble me.” As you further read in this psalm, you will notice that David, in order to obtain this high privilege, pleads his need of it. He cries, “ I am poor and needy” ; as much as to say, “ Lord, do come to me, do let me have personal intercourse witch Thee, for nothing else will serve my turn. I am so poor that Thou alone canst enrich me; I am so feeble that Thou alone canst sustain me. Thou hast made me: Lord, forsake not the work of Thine own hands; I, Thy child, am full of wants, which Thou only canst supply. Oh, deal with me in great compassion!” He next pleads his personal consecration: “ Preserve my soul, for I am holy” --consecrated and dedicated to the Divine service. Moreover, David, anxious to use every argument, pleads his trust: “ Save Thy servant that trusteth in Thee.” This is s conquering plea: “ Lord, my sole reliance is on Thee; come to me, then, and justify the confidence which Thou Thyself hast inspired.” Then, notice that David pleads for God’ s presence because He is God’ s servant. “ Save Thy servant.” He urges yet another reason why just now he should see God, namely, that he is always in prayer: “ I cry unto Thee daily.” Blessed are we when prayer surrounds us like an atmosphere. Then we are living in the presence of God; we are continually conversing with Him. May we climb to the top of the mount of communion, and may we never come down from it! David also tells the Lord that, when he could not attain to the nearness he desired, yet he struggled after it, and strained after it. Now, when a man’ s daily cries and inward strivings are after God, he may certainly expect that God in prayer will have intercourse with him. There are occasions with all His people when the Lord brings them very near, and speaks with them, and they with Him, when His presence is to them as real as the all-pervading air, and they are as much rejoiced in it as in the presence of father, or wife, or child, or friend. Still David, conscious of the great privilege which he sought, was not content without pleading the master argument of all: he pleads the great goodness of the Lord. “ For Thou, Lord, art good.” As much as to say, “ If Thou wert not good Thou wouldst never listen to me. I am, as it were, a noxious insect which a man might far sooner crush than speak with; and yet Thou art so good, my God, that instead of setting Thy foot on me, Thou dost lift me up and talk with me.” II. David desired personal answers from God. We hear our fellow-Christians say, when we tell them of instances in which God has heard our prayers, “ How very extraordinary!” And we look at them, and say, “ Extraordinary?” Has it become an extraordinary thing for God to be true to His own promise? I like better the remark of the good old lady, who, when her prayer was answered, was asked, “ Does it not surprise you?” She said, “ No, it does not surprise me; it is just like Him.” A promise is like a cheque. If I have a cheque, what do I do with it? Suppose I carried it about in my pocket, and said, “ I do not see the use of this bit of paper, I cannot buy anything with it,” a person would say, “ Have you been to the bank with it?” “ No, I did not think of that.” “ But it is payable to your order. Have you written your name on the back of it?” “ No, I have not done that.” “ And yet you are blaming the person who gave you the cheque! The whole blame lies with yourself. Put your name at the back of the cheque, go with it to the bank, and you will get what is promised to you.” A prayer should be the presentation of God’ s promise endorsed by your personal faith. We expect our God to answer our prayer all the more surely when we are in trouble. David so expected: “ In the day of my trouble I will call upon Thee: for Thou wilt answer me.” Trouble is sent to make us pray. When we pray, the prayer becomes the solace of our trouble; and when the prayer is heard, it becomes the salvation out of our trouble. Many of you would be out of trouble quickly if you prayed. “ Sir, I have been doing my best.” And what is your best? A better thing than your best is to wait upon the Lord. Now, if we expect God to answer us, we do so on very good grounds. There are certain natural reasons. I was turning over in my mind the question, “ Why do I pray? Why have I any reason to believe that God hears me?” And I thought to myself, “ Well, on natural grounds I have a right to believe that God will hear prayer, or otherwise why is prayer commanded?” The Scripture is full of prayer. It is an institution of the old covenant, as well as of the new, and yet it is a piece of folly if God does not hear it. Observe, again, that prayer has been universal among all the saints. There have been saints of different moulds and temperaments, but they have all prayed. Some of them have been, like Heman and Asaph, masters of song, and they have prayed; others could not sing, but they have all prayed. But, if you turn to scriptural reasons, why was there a mercy-seat if there is nothing in prayer? Why does the throne of grace still remain as a permanent institution, of which Paul says, “ Let us come boldly to the throne of grace,” unless there is a reality in it? Tell me, why is Christ the way to the mercy-seat? Why is He Himself the great Intercessor and Mediator, if there is nothing in prayer?. The Holy Ghost helpeth our infirmities in prayer; surely there must be something effectual where He lends His aid. What! is He, after all, helping us to do a thing which produces no result? For, once more, we know that God hears prayer, because we have met with multitudes of His people who can tell of answers to prayer. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Psalms 86:7 In the day of my trouble I will call upon Thee: for Thou wilt answer me.The day of trouble I. Here is a day that may be expected by us all, Though all men do not “ walk in the midst of trouble,” all must meet with trouble sooner or later. There is no human experience that has not had, or will not have, such a day--personal and relative troubles, bodily and spiritual troubles. II. Here is a determination that should be formed by us all. “ I will call upon Thee.” This resolution--1. Agrees with our instinct. In trouble, men involuntarily call on God. This resolution-- 2. Agrees with our reason. Who else can really help us? Money profiteth nothing in the day of trouble; and the tenderest, truest friendships are helpless. III. Here is a hope that may be entertained by us all. “ For Thou wilt answer me.”1. Thou hast answered others who called on Thee in trouble. 2. Thou hast promised to answer all who call on Thee in trouble. (Homilist.) Psalms 86:8 Among the gods there is none like unto Thee, O Lord; neither are there any works like unto Thy works.God’ s works unique I. God’ s works in the material domain have no equal.1. How exquisite in perfection. How delicate in structure, symmetrical in form and hue. Compare the finest fabric that the human hand has ever produced with the commonest flower of the field, and what a difference. 2. How infinite in variety! From the microscopic atom to that central orb that holds the material universe together, from the animalcule to the archangel, no two alike. How limited the range of man’ s inventions, what a sameness in all his productions! 3. How immeasurable in extent! “ The works of the Lord are great,” etc. Ill. God’ s works in the mortal domain have no equal. For example, how different the way in which God deals with enemies with the way men do!1. God offers forgiveness to the rebel; man crushes him.2. God offers forgiveness to the rebel after he has frequently refused it.3. God offers forgiveness to the rebel, and makes the greatest sacrifice, “ He gave His Son,” etc. Verily, “ His ways are not our ways.” (Homilist.) The wonder-working God I. The glories of Israel’ s covenant God unequalled. “ There is none like unto Thee.” II. The operations of His hands. “ Neither are there any works like unto Thy works.”1. In nature, who can make a tree such as God makes? You may make an imitation of it. Who can make a blade of grass such as God makes? 2. In providence there are no works like unto God’ s. If He send forth His servants, as He did Jeremiah, to throw down, root up, and overturn nations and empires. It is He that giveth power to get wealth, He it is that fixes the bounds of our habitations; nay, more, it is His constant employ to order the very steps of every good man. 3. Now, look at what might be accounted religious works, or what may be termed the work of grace. Can any god work like Him? III. The designs of his love.1. The salvation and redemption of His Church. 2. The new creation of every member of the Church, to qualify them to enjoy redemption. What a subject for personal self-examination! 3. The tribute of praise He designs shall be paid to Himself. “ My glory,” says He, “ will I not give to another,” nor my praise to graven images; therefore is there no god like our God, and no other god shall have any of His tribute. (J. Irons.) God’ s work The text is the expression of the unsophisticated man in the presence of earth and sky; and, mind, Jesus Christ is on the side of the unsophisticated man. “ Consider the lilies, how they grow,” etc. He did not say that Solomon was not a match for a landscape, but he was not arrayed like “ one” of these. That is, in the estimation of Jesus Christ, there was more splendour in a single wild flower than there is in all our manufactured magnificence. It is something like what Mr. Ruskin said: “ There is more beauty in a bluebell than would be necessary to decorate a dozen cathedrals.” The unsophisticated man feels that there is no rivalry between our creations and the magnificence of the Creation. Everybody knows that when Aladdin’ s palace was built the magicians were disturbed, and left a window incomplete, and all the genius of the East failed to complete that window. But, I say, if a bit of the sky had been left incomplete, or a section of the rainbow unpainted, or the petal of a flower organically defective, who would have finished that? Oh, no, “ amongst the gods there is none like unto thee, O Lord.” A great many art critics fancy that God Almighty is not much of an artist, and that you require a great deal of correction and idealization before you can get a picture. The botanist feels that flowers must have a great deal of care and training before they are fit for the show; and most people who have to deal with nature have a consciousness that it does not satisfy their artistic sense. So to-day, you perpetually hear of the limitation, the irregularity, the defectiveness, and failures of nature. Now, what are you to say to these? Are you to deny them? Not for a moment. But remember this, that whenever you mark the defects of nature, those alleged defects are only part of a larger ultimate perfection. Let me say this--two great canons--everything in nature is good in its place, and everything in nature is good for its purpose; not ideally perfect, but good in its place, good for its purpose. But I wish to speak to you on the perfection of God’ s works as revealed in His government of the race. Now, the unsophisticated man, looking at the structure of society, the independence of the nations, the unfoldings of evolution, would say at once that God was wonderful in counsel and excellent in working; amongst the gods there is no ruler like Thee, O Lord, neither is there any government like unto Thy government. But the critic steps in again. What! Look at the planet; think of human history; mark all the confusions and catastrophes of the ages; and could any government be worse than the government of God--that is, if there be such government? Now, what are we to say? Let us begin again. Everything good in its place. What is that? Get the right distance, look at the thing with a true perspective, and you will give a favourable verdict. Let me illustrate it. There has appeared, almost in our own day, a new historian--the philosophical historian. The old historians gave anecdotes of kings and of camps, stories of the people, the movement of the times. It was a series of sketches, a series of anecdotes; and there they finished. But in modern times we have another historian--the philosophical historian. What is his particular vocation? He shows how the different nations have contributed to the development of civilization; what part the Egyptian civilization played, what part the Greek, what part the Judaic, what part the Roman. Why did not the philosophical historian come earlier? Because the right point of view had not been reached; the Egyptian did not know what he was doing--the Greek did not, the Jew did not, the Roman did not. They were up in the dome, they were far too near. But the philosophical historian is the man who has got the proper distance; he has got the floor, and he begins to see that the past has not been a gigantic muddle, but there has been system in it, order, purpose. The chaos is revealing itself as a picture. The philosophical historian says, “ Under everything there is a plan; running through all things there is a purpose; and what for ages looked to men but a confused and purposeless history begins to show to-day the great, universal, and splendid purpose of Him who sits upon the throne and governs all things to His own great ends.” Don’ t you judge too quickly; you wait ten thousand years; you have plenty of time. What is ten thousand years to you? The great purpose of God that is hidden begins to make itself known through the mist, and what you once thought to be a chaos you see to be a cartoon. Yes, you say, but ten thousand years is rather trying to us, with our impatience. It is; you need not always wait so long. Three centuries ago an ugly tyranny in this nation drove out from us some of the noblest women and noblest men that belonged to the commonwealth. Now, if you had been on the Atlantic coast, and had seen the Mayflower driving across that wild sea to an unknown world, you would have said, with your little view of things, “ Where is the wisdom and purpose of this? Talk of the government of God--could there be a worse government than the government that permits the expatriation of these noble men and women?” The American Republic of to-day is God’ s explanation of the mystery of three centuries ago, and the voyage of the Mayflower. Yes, you say, but one gets a bit tired in three centuries. It is tedious. Well now, let me tell you this. God does not always keep you waiting three centuries. You know, young people think they know every thing, and they do pretty nearly, but there are a few things that God keeps for the aged, there are a few odd truths that He whispers in our ear; and I tell you one is this. As a man gets older he begins to see that his life has not been made up of unrelated patches, but it has been an intelligent working and programme throughout. When a man is young, life seems made up of events unrelated, contradictory, grotesque; life seems made up of ups and downs, ins and outs, births, deaths, and marriages, without rhyme and without reason. But when a man gets old, at the right distance from the dome, he begins to see that God girded him when he knew it not, and that God has been shaping things from infancy to age. I don’ t think for a moment that I deceive myself when I think to-day of my life; I can see to-day what I did not see before, that God has been standing at the back, and He has ordered things, and what I once thought a mistake I see now to have been right, and before I have done, very likely, I shall see the picture more clearly than I see it to-day. I am a philosophical historian on a small scale, and I begin to feel that God has worked out my life with a distinct purpose and plan, and I have a deep conviction that He has done all things well. Everything good in its place--what did I say?--everything good for its purpose. Try that again. What is the object of the government of God? To make us perfect, to make us into noble men and women. The failures of society are only imperfections that aim at a larger perfection--the perfection of the man. When you judge things, you judge they are blunders, because they have spoiled your money, or they have spoiled your health, or they have spoiled your happiness. Not at all. Think how they stand related to your discipline, your higher education, your perfecting in knowledge and righteousness; think of that. Judge the purpose, and then you will see that it was not a blunder. “ Thy judgments are a great deep,” says the psalmist. Yes, a great deep, that is now, and we are sceptics, we are complaining, the air is filled with criticism and cynicisms and blasphemies. “ Thy judgments are a great deep,” and we say all sorts of wicked things. But on the last page of the book I read, “ For Thy judgments are made manifest.” (W. L. Watkinson.) The ways and works of God The psalmist is here speaking of the incomparableness of the workmanship of God. The perfection of the Divine action as we witness it in creation: “ Amongst the gods there is none like unto Thee, O Lord; neither are there any works like unto Thy works.” That is the utterance of the unsophisticated man as he stands in the presence of the grandeur of the world. You know that in the old story of the building of Aladdin’ s palace by the spirits, that they were disturbed in their work and they left one of the windows incomplete, and all the artistry of the East failed to finish that window and make it harmonize with the work already done. But I say if a bit of the sky had been left uncoloured, who would have dared to dye it? If the fragrance had been left out of the rose, who would have supplied it? But we are not left to instinctive admiration, for the critic comes along. There is not a man in this place but who knows that there is more said to-day about the imperfection of nature than about its perfection. Our artistic friends are sure they could have improved the world vastly if they had been consulted. The result is that many people speak much about the imperfections of nature, the imperfections of society, and the imperfections of life. Now, what are we to say about these? How are we to deal with these questions? Are we to deny them? No, not for one moment. Admit them, and then declare that the apparent imperfections of the world are only the proofs of a more glorious and more wonderful perfection. There are two principles which I want you to keep in mind while we follow this thought--that everything in nature is good in its place. It does not seem good if you take it out of its place. Now, when you went to Rome and had climbed to the dome of St. Peter’ s, the thing which struck you was the imperfection of the fabric, the material was coarse, the inlaying was carelessly done, and the colours were crude. But when you came down to the floor 250 feet beneath and looked up, it was a triumphant success; its very imperfection was its perfection. The artist knew that his work was to be looked at from the floor, and he made his plans accordingly. If he had finished it in fullest detail he would have defeated his own purpose. But instead he made it rough, and so created a picture of great beauty. It is just like that in nature. The sacred writer, with a fine discrimination, says: “ Everything is beautiful in its time, in its season.” Everything is beautiful in its order, everything is beautiful in its place, so that when a man sees only the imperfect or the unscientific, all I can say to such an one is that he has taken it out of its context, he has looked at it out of its perspective. There is a further principle, everything is good for its purpose. The ideally perfect is not always the ideally practical. One of the greatest scientists of this age has told us that if any optician was to send him an instrument as imperfect as the eye, he would return it at once with a severe reprimand for his carelessness. We are told that the eye has serious technical defects. The optician could make us a better, but he does not. I do not doubt that he could make us once more theoretically and ideally perfect. But if we got an eye like that, its very refinements would be an impediment to us. It would not be of service for its purpose. With all its defects the human eyes is good for its purpose. I want to say a word about the Divine action in the ways of God’ s government. The unsophisticated man looks on the world all down the ages, and he says, How wonderful, how marvellous in counsel! What providential leadings we have seen. Don’ t you be in too great a hurry, for you will have the critic down on you. He will ask you if you can shut your eyes to the suffering of the world, to the bankruptcies of civilization, to the tragedies of nations, and to the miseries of individuals. Let us go back to our first principle. Everything is good in its place. If you are going to judge wisely, you must have a true standpoint, and before we can judge history we must have such a true standpoint and wait long enough. In our day you have a new school of historians--the philosophical historian. The old historian used to give us pictures of things; he would tell us anecdotes about the kings, parliaments, and contemporaries, and the events of great personages. The philosophical historian is of another type. His method is to find out the succession and harmony of events. He says to you that “ through the ages one increasing purpose runs.” He tells you how the great nations have worked for one purpose. The Jew contributed ethics, the Greek beauty, the Roman jurisprudence, and he points out to you how the different nations were all working unconsciously for the bringing in of a wider purpose. Now, what I want to know is, why did not the philosophic historian come sooner? To see the providence of God sometimes you have to wait six, eight, or even ten thousand years, but what is that to you and me? We have plenty of time, for we are alive for evermore. God’ s plan runs on, and it is not for us to say Chat we can interpret His workmanship. If you had stood on the shore that day when the Mayflower steered her course from our land! The occupants were fleeing from tyranny in this country. Surely it was cruelty and a spectacle for pity. It seemed as if the great men and noble women were driven out to find a home in another part of the world. But we were too near to the pinnacle to see rightly. You wait until you get to the floor. Wait three hundred years, and the American Republic is God’ s interpretation of the Mayflower. The young people will not understand this, but it has its appeal to the patriarchs. They will agree with me that the difference in the past and the present vision of life is all a matter of a new perspective. Thus what was once a shapeless, purposeless confusion is revealed as the perfect plan of God. So I say to you, when you are tempted to judge God’ s ways hard, always be sure that you have waited long enough. “ He maketh the wrath of men to praise Him.” What is the purpose of the government of God? Is it to make us rich, or strong, or to make us famous and happy? If His government aimed at such results, it has broken down most pathetically. But it does not aim at such results. It aims at the moral development of the individual and the cleansing of the community, the making of a holy nation. These are the aims of His government, not material but moral aims. A German writer, in pointing out the defects of nature, shows that many animals are woefully defective. The organs of motion are often mechanically defective. We cannot argue with these men, they say it is so, and no doubt it is true. But t was most struck with the last line of the paragraph. He finished by saying, “ Considerations of a higher order have determined these imperfections.” I tell you that as I walk along the streets of the city and look on the suffering world, on the sickness and the loss, the poverty and the tears, I often whisper to myself, “ considerations of a higher order have determined these imperfections.” Ah! God sometimes smites us on lower grounds for higher purposes. He afflicts me to-day that He may give me to-morrow higher and better things, “ considerations of a higher order have determined these imperfections.” Let us consider this in relation to the Divine action in revelation. How you could emphasize this! How wonderful those pages have been to you, promises full of stars for dark times. Sweet pastures where the Shepherd leads His flock. But suddenly the critic comes down upon us, and he says with a mighty scorn, “ That Book perfect! It is full of crudities, full of inconsistencies, and full of imperfections.” Don’ t deny these charges, but reveal the greater perfection. The sun has spots, but you don’ t break it up and cart it away for scrap iron. Go back to your principles. Everything good in its place. Now, there are those who find fault with the Old Testament, and especially with the Pentateuch. I say to you that the Pentateuch has been effective not in spite of its imperfections, but because of them. It was the only way in which God could educate a sensual age. Just think of a rose looking down at its roots, and saying, “ There is a nasty thing. It has got no colour, no shape, and no fragrance.” But the root is perfect as a root, and the perfection of the root is the rose which graces its top. And I say to you to-day that you must not despise that Old Testament out of which you sprung. Boast not thyself against the root, for thou bearest not the root, but the root thee. It is also good for its purpose. What is the purpose of this revelation? It is to teach redemption, not geology or astronomy. It was to reveal God, and make you like Him. I was very interested during my visit to America in a correspondence on what would have been the effect if the sun had been another colour, say, if it had been green, or scarlet, or blue. It was a very amusing controversy, but I was most interested in the conclusion they arrived at, viz., that, on the whole, it was better as it was. The sun may be defective, but it ripens your corn, and colours your flowers. And so with the revelation of God: it fulfils its purpose. This book has illumined men, inspired men, and comforted men. His weakness is stronger than our strength. His weakness is greater than our wisdom. (W. L. Watkinson.) Psalms 86:9 All nations whom Thou hast made shall come and worship before Thee, O Lord; and shall glorify Thy name.The golden age that is coming When all the nations fall down in practical worship before the One all-holy, all-wise, and all-strong, then the golden age will have come, the millennium of the world. Three remarks about this event. I. To all human experience it is most unlikely. See what the nations have been through all the ages that are past, and see what they are now. How far away from, and how hostile to, the great God. Judging from our own experience it seems an impossibility. II. To all true reason it is most proper.1. Because all nations are His, and they are morally bound to serve Him.2. Because all nations must worship Him if they would be virtuous and happy. III. To all scripture it is most certain.1. Scripture teems with Divine promises of such an event.2. It is the nature of Divine promises that they must be fulfilled. (Homilist.) The hope of David I. The origin of this hope. It grows directly out of his reverence for God. He feels his God has charms that must win the hearts of men; that He has activities which lead Him to seek and to save the lost; that His Spirit is breathing everywhere upon the face of the great world; that God is not content to be without His children or to leave them in the far country, and accordingly, believing in God he believes in man; and his eye, filled with Divine light when it looks on man, catches some Divine features in man, traces a family likeness; and he speaks of “ man whom God has made.” If you despair of the success of the Gospel in heathen lands, it is not because you know man, it is because you do not know God. If you knew Him--that His heart is as large as all His attributes, that in His vast family there is no one beneath His care, or thought, or love, that His love touches all, and His kingdom rules over all--that knowledge of God would dispel doubt and loose your neck from the bands of poorer fears: and, revering God, you would hope for man--I have not yet done with the question of the origin of the hope, because there is a little more shown us by the psalm itself. For both this reverence for God and this hope for man have again their root in the psalmist’ s penitence; and we do not get at the bottom of the matter till we get to the broken spirit and the contrite heart; that gives him reverence for his Maker and faith in his brother man. Looking up he sees a Father, and looking round he sees the golden age coming on apace, mankind waking to truth, ready to accept it, erring only because they do not know it. He sees no gulf fixed between man and God here, and no despair necessary or inevitable. He lives in adoration and in hope. II. The hope itself. It is a hope that there will be one universal religion; that however diverse in constitution, temperament, training, experience, sooner or later truth will dominate over all error, and grace rule all hearts, and mankind belong to Christ. It is a great hope. Even the philosopher, the historian, the man of science might rejoice in that; much more we who know the value of each individual spirit in the sight of its Maker. Let us look at it.1. All the holiest men in all ages have cherished this hope. The devout has never been a narrow heart--never. It enlarges all thoughts when we get into the realm of communion with our God. Moses had breadth of view when he said, “ There shall be one law to you and to the sojourner that dwelleth with you,” and taught that God was the God of the stranger. David had no narrowness. Again and again in all his psalms you see precisely the same feeling as is exhibited here. You know how Isaiah dwelt in expectation of the distant isles coming to Jehovah, the rams of Nebaioth coming up on His altar, people coming from the north and the south, and the land of Sinim pressing into the house of His glory. You know how Ezekiel had the missionary spirit in him, how he describes the river of the water of life deepening as it flowed, and carrying to every land the life of healing with which it was charged. You know how Paul argued. Through all his epistles there is but one great argument advanced, that the Gospel is to be a world-wide message, that Christ is not second Abraham, but second Adam--head of mankind, and that as death has come upon all men, so the grace of God through Jesus Christ will come upon all men unto salvation. You know John’ s vision: “ I beheld, and lo, a great multitude out of every nation,” etc. 2. This hope has been justified largely by past experience. That creed of Israel was once the creed of a single man. It lay in the heart of Abraham, who found it. Although trained as a heathen, as an idolater, as a worshipper of other gods, following the inward voice he found the great God. He gave the creed to Isaac, Isaac to Jacob, and these to a few others. In two or three centuries it had received sufficient acceptance to become the living thing about which a nation crystallizes, and which can be embodied in a marvellous law infinitely ahead of anything then existing. It finds more adherence still, better acceptance in the days of David, still more in the times of the prophets, and still larger acceptance amidst the discipline and the furnace of the Babylonish captivity, till in the time of Christ it was the creed of a great people scattered throughout the world, and leavening all nations where they were scattered. That is an instance only; from one man, this creed spread till it animated a people. And the same thing has been going on ever since. The creed of the Church of Christ--that God is love and man should be--is brief and clear. There seemed but little hope of its being accepted. All nations resisted, as you and I did when it first came to us. It was too good news to be true. The Jew despised it, the Roman tried to crush it, and the warlike tribes of the nations turned away from it as something that would enfeeble their manhood. But it passed from heart to heart, from city to city, till it became the creed of the great Roman Empire, and has gone on and on until to-day it is the creed of three hundred millions of people, and these three hundred millions the strongest part of the earth’ s inhabitants. 3. The welfare of mankind is bound up in its realization. Raise the man and you raise his whole condition. Reform from the heart outward, and you secure an effective reform which you cannot secure if you begin at the other end. All good work is God’ s work, and will win His reward. But still the great work is that which gives the man his manhood, which sets him free, which gives him an immortal hope. Give him that, and you give him thrift and self-respect, and civil liberty, and the power of mastering everything that is adverse in his condition. The welfare of mankind is bound up in this hope. 4. The realization of this great hope tarries because of our indifference. We decline to be our brother’ s keeper. We eat our morsel of the bread of life alone. (R. Glover.) Psalms 86:10 Thou . . . doest wondrous things.Curiosities In this age a great amount of wealth is lavished on “ curiosities.” I. One of the greatest curosities which has been made for you is the created world. When you see anything which is wonderful, the first questions are, Who made it? How did it get here? Some people say that this earth made itself; and that the machinery of its creation is a thing of chance. What a grand old curiosity is this world which God has made! It may also be likened to a glorious picture which speaks to us of Him. II. Another curiosity which is intended for us is the bible. Thank God, the Bible is now so cheap that every man may possess a copy. It was once so scarce and dear that it was chained in the churches. The Bible is the grandest curiosity in the world. III. Another great curiosity is yourself. What are you? What is your destiny? What is your pathway? Is it for happiness or misery? (W. Birch.) Psalms 86:11 Teach me Thy way, O Lord; I will walk in Thy truth.Moral light I. Moral light sought from the true source.1. God has a “ way” for man. He has a course, a mission for every man. 2. Of this “ way” man is ignorant. He is in darkness. Errors as to the chief good have abounded in all times. 3. God alone can teach that “ way.” “ Teach me Thy way, O Lord.” Philosophers, poets, and priests have failed to throw light on this way. II. Moral light sought for a right reason.1. It is sought, not for mental speculation, but for life regulation. 2. Walking in this path is a walk of-- (1) Safety;(2) Invigoration; and(3) True progress. (Homilist.) Three phases of religion In the expressions “ teach,” “ fear,” “ walk,” we have religion presented to us in the three aspects of knowledge, feeling, and conduct. In other words, religion in the head, in the heart, and in the feet. The several forms of human activity may be described by three phrases--I think, I feel, I do. I. Religion as a matter of knowledge, a process of instruction. “ Teach me Thy way, O Lord.”1. The teacher is the Lord. Men are both blind and in darkness in relation to spiritual matters; there is an objective and a subjective disability in regard to these things. The Bible is calculated to meet both these conditions; it not only dispels the darkness--that is, removes the historical ignorance of men regarding God’ s plans and methods for saving them--but it goes further; it removes their blindness by conferring the faculty of spiritual vision. “ The entrance of Thy word giveth light.” There is not only the word, but the word secures an entrance into the mind, illuminating it with the light of God. Divine truth not only reveals objectively, but is by its very nature, as the mind of the spirit, instinct with a convincing force, enabling it often to overcome the most ingrained prejudices, to arouse the most callous indifference, conquer even the fiercest hostility, and secure for it the most cordial reception by the mind. 2. The learner. He displays the first essential of a true learner, a keen desire for his lesson. He craves it even on his knees, for he prays that he might be taught. How essential an attitude is this in all who would truly learn of God. It is the teachable disposition--the true receptive mood. The Divine Teacher will not withhold the waters of knowledge from a soul thus panting for them. How emphatically is Divine instruction promised to such as manifest this docile disposition (Psalms 25:9; Psalms 25:14). Meekness and fear, that is, docility and reverence, are qualities in the pupil which unlock the secrets of the Divine heart. II. Religion in the heart, or religion as a matter of feeling. “ Unite my heart to fear Thy name.”1. The “ fear” is not that of terror or dismay, but love. It is the childlike disposition, sweet, trustful, and penetrated with holy, subduing reverence. 2. The essential condition of this beautiful disposition is a heart at peace with all its passions, in thorough harmony with God. This consecrates all its aims. God becomes henceforth the great end of every act, thought, ambition, etc. III. Religion in the life, or as a matter of conduct. “ I will walk in Thy truth.” The process has now reached its final stage, from the head to the heart, from the heart to the conduct--in other words, from knowledge into motive, from motive into action; from an understanding illuminated by Divine instruction to a heart dominated by Divine love (heart-fear), from a heart dominated by Divine love to a life regulated by Divine truth. (A. J. Parry.) A dutiful prayer and a wise resolution I. A twofold petition.1. “ Teach me Thy way.” (1) Man’ s need of Divine instruction. (a) This is obvious from the darkness of his understanding. In consequence of this, he does not see things as they really are, and, as a result of this, the estimate he forms of them is false and deceptive. Hence the most pernicious results must necessarily accrue. These are manifest in the wrong objects which he naturally pursues, the sinful pleasures he seeks after, and the forbidden things in which he delights. No change for the better need ever be expected on the part of man’ s darkened understanding, for it possesses no power of self-rectification. He must receive light from above, just as the sun-dial must receive the sun’ s rays if it is to be of any practical utility. (b) This is obvious from the hardness of his heart. This state of hardness is one which does not remain stationary, for, just as in the continuance of frost, the ice thickens and the ground hardens, so in like manner, under the operation of his depraved tastes and habits, the heart of the natural man waxes harder and harder. (2) The psalmist doubtless desired instruction, at least, in two important points--viz., in God’ s way of pardon, and in the way of purity and spiritual progress. (a) Pardon is a blessing of universal need and measureless value. It is God’ s prerogative to forgive sins, for “ who can forgive sins but God only?” The way of pardon being provided, it is indispensable that we know it before the blessing can be enjoyed. (b) A renewal of heart is as essential as a reversal of condition: for how can two walk together except they be agreed? Without holiness, no man can see the Lord. 2. “ Unite my heart to fear Thy name.” (1) This petition obviously implies the conviction that reverence is due to Jehovah. This reverence for God requires the concentration of the heart’ s affections. (2) It is plainly implied that God alone can beget in us this reverential spirit. O let us be persuaded that from God alone all holy thoughts and pure desires proceed. II. The wise resolution. “ I will walk in Thy truth.” His resolution intimates progress. Whether conscious of it or not, progress is a law of our being--progress in that which is good, or growth in that which is evil. The resolution of the psalmist implies progress in the right direction. “ I will walk in Thy truth.” The objects to be sought are to possess the sanction of the God of Truth, the life that is to be lived is to be that which is enjoined by the God of Truth, and in prosecuting life’ s journey he is to take God’ s truth as a light to his feet, and as a lamp to his path. Religious profession and Christian practice must, therefore, correspond. (A Brunton.) Prayer for light and guidance A man in David’ s position needed special light, almost more than we do. He trod a somewhat solitary path in morals and religion, He had no spiritual masters at whose fees he could sit. Our world is made brilliant by guiding lights and example. We have Christ, and Christian influences, and Christian finger-posts everywhere about us. Yet we need to offer this prayer only less, if at all less, than those men of old. We often find ourselves in moral perplexities, riddles are set before us for which we can find no solution. It is very evident, then, that we need this prayer, and cannot offer it too frequently and too earnestly. In truth there is such a strong pull in the wrong direction that we are not likely to take the right way in any doubtful moment unless the light is made clear, unless we feel the drawings of a mightier Power, unless we ask each day, and often more than once a day, in all humility and in all sincerity, that God will make us feel that drawing power, and show us that light, and cause us to know the way wherein we should go. But now, to offer this prayer two things are indispensable. We must first believe that prayer is a real thing, offered to a real Being, offered to One who hears and takes the trouble to answer, and who can answer in ways unknown to us. Further, if this prayer is to be of any value, we must be prepared to go in God’ s way when He shows it. “ Teach me Thy way; I will walk in Thy truth; unite my heart to fear Thy name.” Because if the heart is not united, if one part is looking towards God’ s light and the other pulling away from it strongly to what one likes a great deal better, there is nothing but confusion, indecision, cross purposes, and the guidance is given in vain, even if in that case it is given at all. For we never get light unless we ask for it with the whole heart and are resolved to walk in it if it can be shown Us. (J. G. Greenhough, M. A.) Unite my heart to fear Thy name. Unity of heart Unity of heart is essential-- I. To force of character. Mind, like light, air, water, diffused, is comparatively worthless; compressed, it is mighty. Condense the rays of the sun, and they shall burn up the world; compress the air, and it shall rive the mountains. There are three states in which we find mind in this world.1. Unconcentrated. Millions of men have no definite object in the world, they are distracted and unstable. 2. Wrongly concentrated. There are minds set upon inferior objects, such as business, polities, literature, science, etc. 3. Rightly concentrated. It is trotted to “ fear Thy name.” United in God, centred in Omnipotence. II. To peace of soul. The mind divided is distracted and disharmonious. Peace requires that all the faculties and affections of the soul flow in one direction towards one object, and that object agreeing with our dictates of right and our highest aspirations. God alone is such an object. Our constant prayer should be, “ Unite my heart to fear Thy name.” (Homilist.) Prayer of saints for constant holiness I. A good man has not two hearts. David does not pray that God would unite his old and new heart, or his old and new principle, or his old and new disposition, or his old and new taste; but his one, only heart. The new heart destroys the old heart, II. What his one heart is. A sinner’ s heart consists in a train of mere selfish affections; but a saint’ s heart consists in a train of both benevolent and selfish exercises. The best of saints are imperfectly holy in this life; and their imperfection in holiness consists in their sometimes having holy, and sometimes unholy affections. Their holy and unholy affections are always distinct, and never blended together. Their holy exercises are never partly holy and partly unholy, but perfectly holy; and their unholy exercises are never partly holy, but perfectly unholy. A train of holy and unholy affections forms the heart of a saint; but a train of constant, uninterrupted sinful affections forms the heart of a sinner. III. The heart of the saint needs to be united. The perfect holiness of Adam, in his primitive state, wholly consisted in the constant and uninterrupted succession of his holy affections. The perfect holiness of just men in heaven consists in the constant and uninterrupted succession of their holy affections. Nor could there be the least moral imperfection in the hearts of good men in this world, if their affections were constantly holy, without any interruption by affections of an opposite and sinful nature. The reason why the heart of a good man needs to be united is, because it is disunited by a contrariety of affections; and not because his affections are too weak, or low, or languid. The only way to raise the ardour of a holy heart is, to make the succession of holy affections more constant and less interrupted, or, in other words, to unite one holy affection so intimately with another, that there should be no time, nor room, for any sinful affection to intervene, interrupt, or cool the ardour of Divine love. IV. There is a propriety in his praying that God would unite his heart.1. Every Christian finds that his heart is more or less disunited; that not only his love, his fear, his faith, and other gracious affections are sometimes what he calls low and languid, but actually interrupted by directly opposite exercises. He finds opposition instead of submission; unbelief instead of faith; the love of the world instead of love to God; and aversion to duty, instead of delight in it. These are positive exercises of sinful affections, which are diametrically opposed to positive exercises of grace. 2. It is proper for Christians to pray that God would unite their disunited hearts, because no external means or motives will produce this effect without His special influence. Improvement:--1. If every Christian has but one heart, and that heart consists in moral exercises, then no person is passive in regeneration. 2. If a good heart consists in good affections, which are continually liable to be interrupted by affections of an opposite nature, then it is easy to see wherein the deceitfulness of the heart consists, viz., in its mutability. 3. If the hearts of good men consist in free, voluntary exercises, then they ought to be perfectly holy in this life. For if they ought to have one holy exercise, then they ought to have another and another, in a constant, uninterrupted succession. They have no right to exercise one selfish, sinful affection. 4. If a good heart consists in holy exercises, then the Gospel as really requires perfect holiness as the law. The difference between the law and the Gospel does not lie in their precepts, but in their promises. The law promises eternal life to nothing short of the constant, uninterrupted exercise of holy affections, and-condemns the man who indulges one selfish, sinful affection; but the Gospel promises eternal life to every one who perseveres in holy exercises, though they are interrupted in a thousand instances. 5. If the hearts of saints consist altogether in moral and voluntary exercises, then they never have any more holiness than they have holy exercises. 6. If the hearts of saints consist altogether in free, voluntary exercises, then there is a foundation in their hearts for a spiritual warfare. 7. In the view of this subject Christians may see their great moral imperfection. (N. Emmons, D. D.) Man’ s need of a united heart Who will not recognize the immense importance in every pursuit and employment of having the heart at one, the character consistent? “ Methinks,” says Plato, “ it would be better for my lyre to be out of tune and discordant, and even the chorus of singers whom I lead,--yea, better for the whole world to be at variance with me and contradict me,--than that I in my own person should be out of concord with myself and self-contradicting.” Yes, anything is better for a man than a distracted, unharmonized, inconsistent character. Yet with how many is this the case! I speak not now of that progress of gradually ripening opinion and judgment which is the necessary condition of all thoughtful minds: I require not that a man’ s mature age should be brought to be measured by the unripe words and hasty inferences of his youth: it were better, indeed, and happier for him, if the whole life unfolded itself gradually and consistently; but of this progress, or of the lack of it, I am not speaking now. Few of us, I suppose, can look back many years without being sensible of more than a mere expanding change; few who are not conscious that while they have purchased some experience it has been at the reluctantly paid price of much of their former self-confidence. But what I do reprobate is this,--that the same man, at the same time, should be uncertain, self-counteracting, divided against himself,--in words, in acts, in the influence of his character over others. Anxious to appear like others in society, the young often profess strong opinions, and take decided courses, with regard to matters on which, from their very limited experience, they can know but little; they become strong upholders of this or that side in difficult questions, imitating, and going beyond, the partizanship of their elders. And hence, from this very pertinacity, comes fickleness and self-contradiction. As, by widening experience, the light of truth breaks in here and there, the young heart, if brought up under purifying and hallowing influences, is ever susceptible of just and generous impressions; and these very often clash with the artificial or traditional views before so strongly upheld, and bring about inconsistency and confusion. And these thoughts lead us to one remark; that with the young especially, one of the first conditions of this unity of heart is a humble and conscientious adoption of opinions. And here I say that it is lamentable to see men punctiliously upholding an accredited opinion which we have reason to knew they do not themselves hold. O it is by such men and such lives that mighty systems of wrong have grown up under the semblance of right; by such, that vast fabrics of conventional belief have been upheld for power’ s sake and for gain’ s sake, long after their spirit has departed; it is in spite of such men that the God of truth has broken these systems to pieces one after another, and has strewn the history of His world with the wrecks of these fair-seeming fabrics. Let us not be consistent thus. Our prayer does not run after this sort, “ unite my acts, that I may make me a name and become great;” but far otherwise--“ Unite my heart that I may fear Thy name.” Now, it is plain to all that these last words, “ to fear Thy name,” must have a meaning very far removed from that of mere dread or terror of God. This he may have, and has, whose heart is not united; the inconsistent and the unprincipled, even in his worst moments, has the bitter drop of the terror of God and His judgments abiding at the bottom of his soul. Besides, such a terror is as unreasonable as it is undesirable. A heart at unity with itself cannot be in disunion with the chief object of its being; and that object is to serve and glorify Him who is its Creator and Redeemer. Manifestly then we must seek here for another definition of fear than mere dread; and to that definition our last consideration will guide us. Take that consideration in this form. If our hearts are to be brought into real and wholesome unity, it must be by the objects of their affections being in their right relative places. A united heart, for instance, cannot place Him in a low or secondary position of affection and regard whom nature and reason themselves combine to place first. If it be so, conscience will ever and anon be bearing testimony against the disproportion,--and infinite disunion will be the result. No; if we would be consistent men, God must be first in everything. If this is so, the first consequence will be that our motives will be consistent. We shall not be acting from a selfish desire now, and a generous impulse then; openly and frankly to one man, and covertly and craftily to another; but this fear of God will abide as a purifying influence in the very centre of our springs of action; His eye ever looking on us, His benefits ever constraining us. And union of the heart in God’ s fear will save you also from grievous or fatal inconsistency in opinion. (Dean Afford.) Psalms 86:13 Thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest hell Saved from the depths A plan has lately been proposed and successfully employed for raising the cargoes of sunken vessels. A huge electro-magnet, operated from the deck of a vessel, is lowered to the submerged cargo; and if it be of a character subject to the influence of magnetism, it is attracted and lifted by this power, and thus easily saved. There is a power from on high which came to seek and save that which was lost. Down in the murky depths of the waters of sin, this magnet of love draws to itself sinful souls, and lifts them by its power to the bright sunlight and pure air above. Not by any virtue or power of their own--simply by the love that passeth understanding and the saving power of the Divine Redeemer--they are uplifted from the depths and made to stand among the rescued ones of the Lord. (Cora S. Day.) Psalms 86:17 Show me a token for good, that they which hate me may see it, and be ashamed; because Thou, Lord, hast holpen me, and comforted me.Tokens for good At the outset note--1. How this man in the hour of conflict looks to his Divine protector. Not to men but to God does he cry, And observe-- 2. That his troubles drove him to God. Too often they drive men away from God. 3. We look to God along. We may not set up a rival with God in the temple of our trust. What is it that thou wouldst yoke with God? Oh to be cut clear of all visible supports, and props, and holdfasts! You have seen a balloon well filled struggling to rise: what kept it downy What hindered it? The ropes which bound it to earth. Cut clear the ropes, and then see how it mounts! With a spring it leaps upward while we are gazing into the open sky. Oh for such a clearance and such a mounting for our spirits! Alas, we are hindered and hampered, and those bonds which detain us are our visible supports and reliances. “ My soul, wait thou only upon God.” The Lord bring us into this high state of spiritual emancipation. Now, let us notice the request David puts up. If we are in his state of mind when we put up a like prayer, this asking for a token will do us no harm: otherwise such desire may be very hurtful to us. I. This request for a token. It was to be from God and according to God’ s will, and asked in faith, not in unbelief. For we have no right to say we will not believe unless God give us a token. We are bound to believe Him whether He gives us a token or not. And tokens that men have had, or thought they had, they have come to question about after a while. Peter, though he had seen our Lord’ s transfiguration, declares that he had the “ more sure word of prophecy.” Yet may we ask for tokens in a subordinate sense, when we are willing to believe God without them: we may ask for them as confirmatory signs and seals. Several such are named in this psalm.1. We may long for answer to prayer (Cf. 5:1, 6). If we have received such answers (and have we not?), we may take them as tokens for good. 2. Then, preservation of character is another token (Psalms 86:2). If amid much trial and temptation we have been able to maintain an unblemished reputation, then you need not envy any among the sons of men. 3. Deliverance in trouble is another such (Psalms 86:2). And there is another form of token which must never be overlooked, and that is-- 4. A sense of pardoned sin (Psalms 86:3; Psalms 86:5). Before this all ills disappear. And-- 5. Support under trial. If God gives you this, if you are able to say to all God sends you, “ Thy will be done,” take comfort from that. 6. Cheering visits from Christ, and fresh anointings of the Holy Spirit are also most sure tokens for good. They are implied in Psalms 86:4; Psalms 86:11; Psalms 86:16; and in our text. II. The result of such tokens. Our enemies are abashed before them, The most malicious adversaries of God’ s people have stood in awe of them. III. Conclusion. What an unhappy state must those be in who have troubles, but have no God to go to: enemies, but no defender; darkness, but no star of hole. Your friends, and, still less, yourself, are to be trusted in such times. What can they do? Oh, seek the Saviour’ s face. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Tokens for good Webster defines a token thus: “ Something intended to represent or indicate another thing or event.” The rainbow was the “ token” to Noah that a second flood would not destroy the world (Genesis 9:1-17). The blood on the doorposts of the Israelites was a “ token” that their firstborn would be spared when the destroying angel passed over the land (Exodus 12:13). The going down of the shadow on the sun-dial of Ahaz, ten degrees backward, was a “ token” or sign that fifteen additional years would be added to Hezekiah’ s life (Isaiah 38:7-8). God grants to His people tokens for good.1. A deep sense of sin is a token for good--the precursor of salvation. Sinners must be made sorrowful for their sins, or they cannot be saved. 2. Prayerfulness. Do you feel a strong impulse to pray for the prosperity of the Church, or for one of its individual members; for your family, or for your personal growth in the Divine life? It is “ a token for good,” the work of the Spirit within you, a sure precursor of some blessing which God has in store for you. 3. A spirit of inquiry into the meaning of God’ s Word. Luther received “ a token for good” when reading an ancient manuscript in his cell. He saw what a treasure of light and life there was in the Bible compared with the traditions of the Papacy. He discovered the doctrine of justification by faith, which he calls “ the test of a standing or falling Church.” He also found that millions of people were ready to receive its blessed light. 4. In the prosecution of our work God gives “ tokens for good.” A preacher saw no good done, and resolved to quit the scene of his labours, but he was encouraged by the dream of a man with a small hammer striking a large head, which after a long time flew into a thousand pieces. 5. Dark and distressing dispensations of Providence are often a “ token for good.” Health decays: business fails. Temporal loss often leads to spiritual gain. If God takes away one blessing He confers another more fitted to promote our well-being than that of which He deprived us. The drying up of the streams of earthly comfort lead men to seek the water of life. (H. Woodcock.) God our helper I like this Saxon word “ holpen.” There is something substantial in the appearance of it and hearty in the sound of it. When associated with certain adverbs and prepositions its meaning comes out in full force. Help forward, onward, out, over, off, to, up. “ Thou, Lord, hast holpen me.” We have cause to say this every birthday, and when completing each stage of life. Have we not reason to say it at the end of decades of years, as we pass from childhood to youth and from youth to manhood? In truth this is a suitable utterance at the end of every day. (Samuel Martin.) Comfort To what shall we liken comfort? It is like copious and heavy dew to withering flowers. It is like rain to the parched and thirsty earth. It is like an anodyne to sharp pain. It is like the sight of coast and harbour to the mariner, when the sea is rough and the sky is stormy. It is like the appearance of the moon after hours of thick, black, dark cloudiness. It is like the mother’ s voice to a terrified child, and like the mother’ s arms to a fretful babe. “ Comfort” is a word which we interpret by our feelings. A mother’ s lap and bosom, and a bird’ s nest, are embodiments of God’ s idea of comfort. (Samuel Martin.) . Psalms 87:1-7 Psalms 87:1-7 His foundation is in the holy mountains.A material portrait of the spiritual Church I. It is glorious in its elevation (Psalms 87:1). The spiritual Church is a city set upon a hill. Though elevated it is safe; its foundation is in the everlasting mountains. “ Upon this rock,” etc. II. It is specially regarded by God (Psalms 87:2). The infinitely loving One must be interested in all the works of His hand; even the sparrow that falls not to the ground without notice. But for those Christian men who constitute the true spiritual Church He has a special regard. III. It is illustrious in its history (Psalms 87:3). Many glorious things had been said of Zion. It was said that they should call Jerusalem the throne of the Lord, and they should call all the nations to it; it was said they should come to see the city of Zion, and flow together to the goodness of the Lord. It was said by God (1 Kings 9:3; 2 Chronicles 7:16). But what far more glorious things have been said of the true Church. Read what victories she has won, not only in the time of the apostles, but in every subsequent age. It has been said of the true Church, that it is “ a royal priesthood.” IV. It is superior to all other communities (Psalms 87:4). Compare commercial, scientific, political, and other religious communities with it, and in all that is morally great and glorious, the brightest of their fires pales into dimness. V. It is the birth-scene of the good (Psalms 87:5). In the true spiritual Church, souls are born again. VI. It is divinely registered (Psalms 87:6-7). Jehovah kept a register of all that were born in Jerusalem, and so He does of all who are spiritually born in the true Church. “ When He writeth up the people.” Ah I the time will come when He will write up a register of all true men. No others, however lofty in rank and illustrious in genius, will find a place in that book. No one shall enter heaven who is not found written in “ The Lamb’ s Book of Life.” VII. IT is infinite in its resources. “ All my springs are in Thee.” This is what the poet says, as the representative of all that were born in Zion; and this is what all the members of the true spiritual Church can also say and most deeply feel. All my fountains are in Thee, in Thee, that is, in Zion or in God. If in Zion, it is from God. (Homilist.) The city of God I. Its foundation (Psalms 87:1). Christ’ s charactor, teachings, miracles, and merit. II. Its favour (Psalms 87:2). God canopies the city with His wing of covenant promise, and belts it with the attributes of His Being. III. Its fame: (Psalms 87:3), (2 Chronicles 7:16; Psalms 132:13-17; Zechariah 1:14; Zechariah 2:4-12). IV. Its fraternity (Psalms 87:4-6). Here are the true aristocracy of souls, the real nobility of earth. V. Its future (Psalms 87:5). VI. Its fountains (Psalms 87:7). (J. O. Keen, D. D.) Psalms 87:2 The Lord loveth the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob.The gates of Zion I. God has always shown a particular respect to houses set apart for His worship. Nor is He less present with us than He was with His ancient worshippers. Now God, dwelling in a tent and a temple, prefigured the incarnation of our Saviour, who having taken upon Him our nature, dwelt, or tabernacled among us. II. Worshipping God in such places is more conducive to the spiritual improvement of the worshippers than elsewhere.1. The character and perfections of God never appear with such bright lustre as in the sanctuary, where numbers of His faithful subjects are assembled before Him, to present the sacrifices of prayer and thanksgiving. 2. The worship performed in the house of God is the most direct testimony of our homage and obedience. 3. Worshipping God in such places animates and strengthens us in our devotional exercises. 4. Worshipping God in the sanctuary contributes to promote peace and happiness among all orders and degrees of men. III. The importance of a regular attendance upon the services that are there performed. Like the impotent man at the pool of Bethesda, we must continue our attendance till it please God to give a blessing to the means of His own appointment. (John Ramsay, M. A.) God’ s peculiar regard to places set apart for Divine worship I. That God bears a different respect to places set apart and consecrated to His worship, from what He bears to all other places designed to the uses of common life.1. Those eminent interposals of the Divine providence for the erecting and preserving such places, will be one pregnant and strong argument to prove the difference of God’ s respect to them, and to others of common use. 2. The second argument for the proof of the same assertion shall be taken from those remarkable judgments shown by God upon the violators of things consecrated and set apart to holy uses. A coal, we know, snatched from the altar, once fired the nest of the eagle, the royal and commanding bird; and so has sacrilege consumed the families of princes, broken sceptres, and destroyed kingdoms. 3. The ground and reason why God shows such a concern for these things is that He has the sole property of them. It is a known maxim, that “ in Deo Runt jura omnia” ; and consequently, that He is the proprietor of all things, by that grand and transcendent right founded upon creation. Yet, notwithstanding, He may be said to have a greater, because a sole property in some things, for that He permits not the use of them to men, to whom yet He has granted the free use of all other things. Now, this property may be founded upon a double ground. (1) God’ s own fixing upon and institution of a place or thing to do His peculiar use. When He shall say to the sons of men, as He spoke to Adam concerning the forbidden fruit, of all things and places that I have enriched the universe with, you may freely make use for your own occasions; but as for this spot of ground, this person, this thing, I have selected and appropriated, I have enclosed it to Myself and My own use; and I will endure no sharer, no rival or companion in it: he that invades them, usurps, and shall bear the guilt of his usurpation. Now upon this account, the gates of Zion, and the tribe of Levi, became God’ s property. He laid His hand upon them, and said, “ These are Mine.” (2) The other ground of God’ s sole property in any thing or place is the gift, or rather the return of it made by man to God; by which act he relinquishes and delivers back to God all his right to the use of that thing, which before had been freely granted him by God. II. That God prefers the worship paid Him in such places above that which is offered Him in any other places whatsoever.1. Because such places are naturally apt to excite a greater reverence and devotion in the discharge of Divine service than places of common use. The place properly reminds a man of the business of the place, and strikes a kind of awe into the thoughts, when they reflect upon that great and sacred Majesty they use to treat and converse with there: they find the same holy consternation upon themselves that Jacob did at his consecrated Bethel, which he called “ the gate of heaven” : and if such places are so, then surely a daily expectation at the gate is the readiest way to gain admittance into the house. 2. Because in such places it is a more direct service and testification of our homage to Him. For surely, if I should have something to ask of a great person, it were greater respect to wait upon him with my petition at his own house, than to desire him to come and receive it at mine. (R. South, D. D.) God’ s love for the gates of Zion I. The Lord loves the dwellings of Jacob--He loves those that are true Israelites. These are succeeded by the name Christian, for the Christian Church is now become the true Israel of God. He loves His saints on account of that image of Himself which they bear: He loves them on account of those graces which are infused into them when they are renewed by the Spirit; He loves them on account of the relation they stand in to Him as His people, and as His Church, who are qualified for the duties of the relation by that love of their Father, that reliance upon His care, that delight in His person, that enjoyment in His service which belongs to dutiful and affectionate children. II. He loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob--nothing in the dwellings of Jacob so much attracts His attention as the people of God connected together in a social capacity. He regards with peculiar complacency the worship of His saints--1. On its own account, as a yielding to Him that which is His prerogative. 2. On account of that union of mind and consent of heart evinced in the assembling of His people together and constituting themselves into a Church. 3. On account of that deference to His authority which is evinced by maintaining and keeping up the practice of those institutes which rest entirely on that authority. III. Consider how it is that God manifests this complacency in the gates of Zion above the dwellings of Jacob.1. By making the assembly of the saints the grand means of conversion, 2. By continually maintaining in operation those gifts which are for the edification of the saints, and without which the union of the saints would be with difficulty maintained. 3. By that marvellous protection which is afforded to the interests of the Church of God; whereby, though weak, and frequently reduced to a handful of disciples yet they have been protected, and their society on earth continued. (R. Hall, M. A.) God’ s regard for His Church I. The important fact implied. “ The Lord loveth the dwellings of Jacob,” i.e. the righteous in their personal and domestic capacities.1. He loves them in their individual character as His people. 2. He loves them in their domestic capacity (Psalms 128:1-6.; Proverbs 20:7; Jeremiah 31:1-40.), 3. He loves them in all their religious services. II. The glorious declaration given. “ He loveth the gates of Zion better,” etc. That is, He greatly prefers the public assemblies of His people over all the dwellings of Jacob.1. The evidences of this preference. (1) The special promises given. One of the most ancient promises is, “ Wherever My name is recorded,” etc. Then the one given to Solomon, “ My eyes, and Mine heart shall be there continually.” “ Wherever two or three,” etc. (2) The Divine manifestations afforded. In His house He reveals His truth, and faithfulness, and goodness, and grace, etc. (3) The invaluable blessings communicated. Here He says to the benighted chaotic minds. “ Let there be light,” etc. Here He speaks to heavy-laden, sin-sick souls, “ Go in peace--thy sins are forgiven thee.” (4) By perpetuating the public assemblies of His saints despite of all opposition. 2. What reasons can be assigned for this affectionate preference. It is in Zion, or the public assemblies of His saints, (1) That the graces and holy feelings of God’ s people are most fully displayed. (2) On account of the holy and happy harmony which is exhibited. Here men are brought together, to hear, and love, and pray. (3) Because it is the pillar and ground of truth. (4) Because of its resemblance to heaven. Application. 1. Do we love the gates of Zion? What evidences do we give? Speak for it; think of it; pray for it; labour for it. 2. What advantages have we derived from it? Justification, comfort, holiness, longing for heaven. (J. Burns, D. D.) Zion the spiritual centre The glory of a nation is in the quality of its manhood and womanhood. It is not determined by the number of square miles that it may possess, not by its geographical position, nor by its commerce, but by its men. There is a little village in the west of Scotland that has to-day no commercial value, but it is great because David Livingstone was born there. We come to this truth, then, that--1. Personality gives value to place. Bethlehem was but an insignificant Eastern village; it was not the centre of any trade, it was off the main highway of commerce. It is the personality of Jesus that gives value to Bethlehem. 2. Zion is great also because God “ records His name there. He loves the gates of Zion.” A peculiar blessing ever attaches to the house of God. This is the place where the feet of our God rest, and is thereby made glorious. It is here where this man and that man was born into the new life of God. 3. We come then to this further truth that Zion is the place where souls are born. This is where men are detached from the world and attached to Christ, where they are polished and perfected. In all these souls born in Zion, God sees wonderful possibilities. 4. Let me say further that in Zion God is always wanting to work on the men born there, and to bring the best out of them. Aaron’ s rod was to him only a piece of ordinary timber, a dead stick, with no possibility of life in it; but when he laid it up in the sanctuary, and God began to work His silent wonders on it, Aaron gazed with astonishment on the transformed stick as he saw it bearing buds and blossoms and ripe almonds. We often wonder what God can ever make of the men and women that are born in Zion. They come in late, some of them, and come in sighing and moaning, “ Give me back my lost years.” There is a sense in which God cannot do this, but there is another sense in which He can. “ I will restore unto you the years that the caterpillar and the locust and the palmerworm have eaten.” “ Where sin abounded grace did much more abound.” It is a significant fact known to botanists that the late flowering plants have often the most magnificent blossoms. Of late florists have been treating plants to what is known as the “ cold process.” The plants are kept in an ice-house so that the blooms are repressed. This repression really does the plant no harm. They blossom all the more freely and rapidly when brought into a warm atmosphere. Many a man has for years been kept in a kind of spiritual ice-house, but some day, in the warmth of a gracious revival, he breaks out into unexpected splendour and glowing wonder. A recent writer states that an “ Apollo” has been discovered in Rome amid a heap of rubbish. It was headless, and had only one arm. A sad sight. The artist’ s beautiful work marred by the rough handling of time and the weather. How many of Christ’ s works of art-saved men--get mutilated, debased, crushed, ruined. Some want a spiritual limb, an eye, a hand, a foot. They are full of defects and incompleteness; but it is the glory of God to work on them till not a coarse fibre is left, and His redemptive power produces in them spiritual completeness. 5. What lots of different material there is in Zion for God to work on. There are so many different characters, many of them unpromising and unlikely that God has much to do. Yet He never despairs. Out of Peter, that handful of sand blown away by a maiden’ s breath, God brings the man of rock-like solidity. He cares for the stars, will He not care for the man and woman for whom His own Son died upon the cross? The God who works with completeness in the starry realms will bring out perfectness in you, His own child. 6. And believe me, our God does not work haphazardly. He has a plan. “ It doth not yet appear what we shall be.” No, God has not finished with us yet. 7. But all this must begin down here. “ When God counts up the people, He shall say this man and that was born there.” The only important question about any Church is, “ Are souls born there?” This was the glory of the ancient Church. “ Multitudes turned to the Lord.” What value the Bible places on the individual! Christ thought very little of the tyranny of numbers. This old Jew saw them coming from the most unlikely places. From Rahab and Babylon, Philistia and Tyre and Ethiopia; “ all sorts and conditions of men “ were to find a resting-place, a home within the walls of God’ s Zion. God’ s house is not a select club for the rich. It is a home for all. What an honour to open the gates of Zion to the night-wanderer and the outcast. (A. J. Campbell.) A Divine preference and its reasons When the Roman soldier went out to fight, his battle-cry was “ Pro aris et focis” --that is, for altars and hearths. It was not of his fields that he thought, it was not of his beeves--or at any rate it was not of these in the first place, but of treasures he held dearer still, the inmates of his dwelling, the honour of his gods. Now, it is these two thoughts, of home and of sanctuary, that are brought together in the text. What are the “ dwellings of Jacob” ? Are they not just the peaceful homesteads scattered up and down the land, in which families dwelt together in unity with themselves, and in covenant with their God? And what are the “ gates of Zion” ? Are they not a symbol of the common convocations when they gathered for religious worship--to pray, to praise, and to sacrifice? I. God’ s regard for the family. We may prove it by various facts, and in especial by three,1. Consider the place God has given to the family in the economy of nature. For what is home--home, I mean, where it attains its destined ideal and fulfils its appropriate ends? It is a means of protection for the young, hiding them in their defenceless years from the sight of evil and the strife of tongues. It is a ministry of refreshment for the old, calming and recruiting them in their hours of weariness after the bustle and fret of toil. And it is a school of charity for all. 2. Consider the place God has given the family in the kingdom of grace. Let us never forget that there is a law of heredity in grace. There exists a principle of transmission, on which Scripture lays abundant stress, by which the generations are made one, linked together in a chain of blessing. 3. Consider, too, the place that God has given the family in the discipline of Christ. Can there possibly be a stronger proof of the honour which God sets on the household than the fact that to the household’ s keeping and to the household’ s care He entrusted the most precious treasure of heaven, the noblest life on earthy II. God’ s greater regard for the Church. The text says that, good and beautiful as home is, the assembly of the saints is better. And why? Why is it that, while God delighted in these peaceable habitations, each beneath its vine and fig-tree, the nurseries of brave young men and pure and gentle maidens, sons as plants grown up in their youth, daughters as corner-stones polished after the similitude era palace, He took still greater delight in the temple services at Jerusalem?1. The Church’ s fellowship is more catholic. However close, however sacred, and however enriching the fellowship of the family is, it is the fellowship of those that are one in blood. As such it is circumscribed. And there is an element of selfishness in it, innocent selfishness if you will, permissible selfishness, but selfishness notwithstanding, a certain home-contrariness which may easily turn to exclusiveness, coldness towards the wants, and indifference towards the interests, of those beyond. But in the fellowship of the Church the range is extended, the horizon is enlarged. We are out on the open platform of grace. 2. The Church’ s testimony is more public. Home means privacy, home means seclusion; there is the erection of a certain barrier, the intervention of a certain screen. And therefore the witness of home, however consistent and faithful, may be said to begin and to end with the inmates of home; it is seldom far-reaching, because little observed. It is otherwise with the Church; publicity is of its very essence. The character of the Church is maintained, the ends of the Church are fulfilled, not when it edifies itself merely, but when it makes confession to the world. 3. The Church’ s character is more spiritual. The Church is the special abode of the Holy Ghost, whose living and personal presence gives meaning to every privilege and might to every agency, purifying the Church’ s life, prospering the Church’ s work. And, in comparing the Church with the family, may we not say that the Church has ampler provisions, finer adaptations, more sacred and select appliances, more ample and effective energies, for the maintenance of God’ s worship, the proclamation of His message, and, as a consequence of both, the saving and the sanctifying of souls? 4. The Church’ s experiences are more permanent. There are duties and joys of the domestic life which it would be wrong to say, “ I am acting and feeling now as I shall act and feel in heaven,” for we shall be changed in more ways than we think, if by grace we get there. But we can say so of worship. For the exercises of worship are spiritual, they are therefore abiding and unalterable; the future can make no real change in them. Both home and Church have their close connection with the heavenly life. But while home life prepares for it, Church life anticipates it. The one is a training, the other is an earnest. III. The principle of the text, with its elevation of Church over home, in the aspects, and for the purposes we have spoken of, is suggestive of various practical lessons. I. It means comfort for the homeless. Though God has denied you the lesser good, He offers you the greater. If He has shut the door of home, He has thrown wide the door of the Church.2. The text suggests a caution to those who have homes. For though the Church may be a substitute for home, home can in no wise be a substitute for the Church. Beware of imagining that it may. See to it that the home points upwards to the Church. Teach your children to take their place at the Church’ s services. Accustom them to bear a share in the Church’ s work. Always keep before them the duty of communicating at the Church’ s table, and making avowal of the Church’ s Lord. (W. A. Gray.) Public worship to be preferred before private Public worship is to be preferred before private. So it is by the Lord, so it should be by His people. So it was under the law, so it must be under the Gospel.1. The Lord is more glorified by public worship than private. God is then glorified by us when we acknowledge that He is glorious. And He is most glorified when this acknowledgment is most public. 2. There is more of the Lord’ s presence in public worship than in private. He is present with His people in the use of public ordinances in a more especial manner, more effectually, constantly, intimately. 3. Here are the clearest manifestations of God. Here He manifests Himself more than in private. Why was Judah called a valley of vision, but because the Lord manifested Himself to that people in public ordinances? 4. There is more spiritual advantage to be got in the use of public ordinances than in private. Whatever spiritual benefit is to be found in private duties, that, and much more, may be expected from public ordinances when duly improved. There is more spiritual light and life, more strength and growth, more comfort and soul refreshment. 5. Public worship is more edifying than private. In private you provide for your own good, but in public you do good both to yourselves and others. And that is a received rule, that good is best which is most diffusive, most communicative. Example has the force of a motive; we may stir up others by our example (Zechariah 8:20-21). 6. Public ordinances are a better security against apostasy than private, and therefore to be preferred: an argument worthy our observation in these backsliding times. 7. Here the Lord works His greatest works; greater works than ordinarily He works by private means. 8. Public worship is the nearest resemblance of heaven. In heaven, so Ear as the Scripture describes it to us, there is nothing done in private, nothing in secret, all the worship of that glorious company is public (Hebrews 12:22-23). They make one glorious congregation, and so jointly together sing the praises of Him that sits on the throne, and the praises of the Lamb, and continue employed in this public worship to eternity. 9. The examples of the most renowned servants of God, who have preferred public worship before private, is a sufficient argument. 10. Public worship is the most available for the procuring of the greatest mercies, and preventing and removing the greatest judgments. 11. The precious blood of Christ is most interested in public worship, and that must needs be most valuable which has most interest in that which is of infinite value. The blood of Christ has most influence upon public worship, more than on private: for the private duties of God’ s worship, private prayers, meditation, and such like, had been required of, and performed by, Adam and his posterity, if he had continued in the state of innocency; they had been due by the light of nature, if Christ had never died, if life and immortality had never been brought to light by the Gospel. But the public preaching of the Gospel, and the administration of the federal seals, have a necessary dependence upon the death of Christ. As they are the representations, so they are the purchase of that precious blood; as Christ is hereby set forth as crucified before our eyes, so are they the purchase of Christ crucified, so are they the gifts of Christ triumphant. 12. The promises of God are more to public worship than to private (Exodus 20:24; Isaiah 4:5; Isaiah 55:2-3; Psalms 36:8-9). (D. Clarkson.) The gates of Zion The gates of our Zion ought to be-- I. Greeting gates. Think how the welcoming heart of Jesus opened itself to all sorts and conditions of men during His earthly life--to the leper, the Samaritan woman, the thief on the cross, etc. Surely, if the Church is to represent her Lord, her gates ought to be gates of greeting. II. Established and guarding gates. Our churches stand for great facts and doctrines--like God, the humanity and Deity of Jesus, the authority of Scripture, the atonement, the sacredness of the Sabbath, righteousness, beneficence, etc. III. Loved gates. What our Lord loves we should love. And especially your own Church should you thus love. IV. Supported gates, Every Church-member should be willing and glad to do his share toward the support of worship. V. Attractive gates. So winning, so wrapped in genial and cheerful atmosphere should our Church services be, so evident in their holding forth the attractive Christ, that the Churchless throng should be constrained to enter and to share. (Homiletic Monthly.) Psalms 87:3 Glorious things are spoken of thee, O city of God. The glorious city The inspired singer had the ransomed Church in view, and his soul was stirred by a vision of the new Jerusalem, its regenerated myriads gathered from every nation, and its crucified King, when he broke forth into this eulogy. I. There are glorious things with respect to the erection of the city. 1. The plan of its erection. Faultless, complete, wonderful for beauty and grandeur, worthy of its Divine Architect and of the end in view, viz. to rear a city for Him to dwell in. 2. The site. The sure decree, the Divine perfections, the promise of Him that cannot lie, and the incarnate Son Himself, are the holy mountains, whose summits are gloriously crowned by the city of the great King. There the city sits securely, beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth. 3. The date of its erection. It is older than any of the cities of the ancient world--Rome--Nineveh--Babylon; it reaches a higher antiquity than any of them all. It was standing before the flood; Noah, Enoch, Abel, dwelt in it. It is almost as old as the creation. II. There are glorious things to tell of the defences of the city. It is well fortified--encircled by the sleepless providence of Jehovah, girt about with the power of the Almighty. When its bulwarks were reared, He that made them “ saw that they were good” ; and He said, “ No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper.” III. There are glorious things in connection with the stores and supplies on which the city depends.1. The excellence of the city’ s supplies. It is little to say that there is the best of everything--the finest of wheat, honey from the rock, water clear as crystal. The bread, the water, the wine, the milk, and the pleasant fruits, are without a parallel. 2. The abundance of the city’ s supplies. There is enough for all the citizens. “ He, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters,” etc. 3. The source whence the supplies are derived. (1) They do not come from without. Its well-springs are not in the world. The corn, and the wine, and the oil, are grown where the foe is without any power. (2) There is a river that maketh glad the city of God. Yes, the city has a river--a pure river of the water of life, clear as crystal. But cannot Satan do to the river of our city as Cyrus did to the river of Babylon? The river is beyond his reach. The fountain whence it issues is within the city walls. The river-head, the perennial spring of the stream of life, is in the heart of the fortress, and in the very throne of the King. (3) The windows of heaven are right above the city; and the windows of heaven are frequently opened, and manna and other celestial products showered down, till there is not room enough in the magazines of the city to receive them. IV. There are glorious things respecting the King of the city.1. He is glorious in Himself. (1) His name--Wonderful. He is Adam, Jacob, David, Israel; Jesus, Immanuel, Shiloh, Christ; the Second Man, the Mighty God; the Lamb, the Shepherd, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah; the Branch, the Plant of Renown, the Rose of Sharon; the Morning Star, the Sun of Righteousness, the Word of God, the Alpha and the Omega, the Amen. And these are not the whole. There are many titles and appellations behind. (2) His person--full of grace and dignity. (3) His character. 2. There are glorious things respecting the King, when we consider Him in connection with the city. (1) His choice of the city is one of these. He made choice of the city before the foundation of the world; yea, the city itself was not built when it became the object of His choice, He foreknew the city; raising the curtain of futurity in the past beginning, He saw the city, He fixed upon it His love, and resolved to be its King. (2) The circumstance that He dwells in the city is glorious. (3) His sufferings for the city are glorious. (4) His victories for the city are glorious. V. There are glorious things in connection with the citizens of the city.1. The Dumber of the citizens. It was foretold long since that they of the city should flourish like grass of the earth, and that they should be like the stars of heaven for multitude. The population of the city is increasing accordingly. Sometimes its progress is greater, and sometimes it is less, but it is always advancing. 2. The rank of the citizens. All of them are princes--the King’ s own kinsmen. They are born of God, and the glorious King is their elder brother! 3. The circumstances of the citizens. In other places some are rich and some are poor. But here all the citizens are poor. “ To this man will I look,” says the King, “ to him that is poor, and of a contrite spirit,” etc. 4. The character of the citizens. All of them are on the way to perfection. They are being fashioned to the pattern of the character of the King. The climate in which they live, the atmosphere which they breathe, the diet on which they are fed, and the exercises they engage in, have a powerful tendency to produce a resemblance between them and Him, and to conform them to His image. The beauty of the Lord descends upon them more and more. 5. The employment of the citizens. 6. The privileges of the citizens. (1) They are served and protected by the King’ s attendants and guards.(2) They are permitted to eat fruit in the King’ s garden.(3) They may enter the King’ s palace, and approach His throne. (Andrew Gray.) The glory of the Church Glorious things are spoken of our New Testament Zion--1. As a magnificent city. I. It is populous. The polished European is there, and the rude islander from the great Pacific; the dark Ethiopian on whom the sun has looked down; and the wild dweller under the North Star from his dreary regions of perpetual snow. The philosopher is in Zion with his extensive learning and habits of independent thought, in humble submission to the Cross. The cottager is there, who has read and known little but his Bible; and the child, who, receiving the Gospel in its simplicty to his infant heart, has been set forth as a pattern to the older by Him who said, “ Of such is the kingdom of heaven.”2. It is increasing; but its past triumphs are not to be compared with its future glory. A time is coming when the Gospel shall be preached to all, when the true light shall shine in the dark places of the earth, and “ the isles shall wait for His law.” 3. Zion is a magnificent, because a well planned city. Glorious things are spoken of its situation. It has not an unhealthy site by the slough of despond, or a disagreeable position beside the habitations of horrid cruelty: “ His foundation is in the holy mountains.” Many cities are overcrowded, and while their best streets are beautiful and spacious, their alleys are the abodes of misery and the nurseries of disease: but this city has abundant convenience and blessings for all. II. As the seat of the great King. Many cities are beautiful in themselves, but want the honour of the metropolis. This is the capital of the dominions of a Monarch who is “ higher than the kings of the earth” --God in the person of Jesus Christ. He is great--1. In His character. 2. In His dominions. 3. In His actions. 4. In His speech. His decrees and revelations are not only superior to any statements to be found elsewhere in their cheering and instructive nature, but in the length of their duration. The edicts of other kings soon pass out of date; those of the King of Zion are eternal. III. As the abode of a happy people.1. Zion is the abode of a people who are happy, because they are well governed. The first element in a good government is a strong mutual affection between the prince and the people. 2. The inhabitants of Zion are happy, because well conducted. A realm whose inhabitants are idle can never be a happy one: and Christians, besides being taught not to be slothful in the common business of life, are told likewise to be active in their Master’ s work. 3. Zion is the abode of a people who are happy because all their wants are abundantly supplied. There is never a famine of spiritual food in that glorious and happy place. (W. Dickson.) The city of God I. The designation.1. A city, well-built and fortified. 2. It is the city of God. (1) He is its Architect and Builder.(2) He dwells in it.(3) He reigns over it. II. The excellences ascribed to this city.1. Its purity. There is no guilt there; for “ the people that dwell therein are forgiven their iniquities.” There is no defilement there; for “ they have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” There are no remains of transgression there; for “ they are without fault before the throne of God.” The place itself is holy, and all who dwell in it are holy, in every possible respect. Their actions, conversation, desires, and thoughts, are all holy. Nor is it merely by the absence of sin the city is distinguished. There all the fruits of righteousness abound, and in every member of its glorified community the Spirit takes up His abode, filling him with light, and life, and love. 2. Its magnificence. There is the throne of God and of the Lamb. If He were not there, it would be like a city wrapped in night; but because He is there, it shines with the brightness of perpetual day. Hence He is the object on which all eyes gaze. 3. Its opulence. Universal plenty. No toil, no anxious cares, nor disappointed hopes. Its inhabitants have for their portion God Himself, who is all in all. They are His people, and He is their God, and from the boundless resources of His nature they are ever supplied with the richest blessings. 4. Its permanence. It is an “ abiding city” ; “ a city that hath foundations” ; “ a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens” ; “ an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away.” III. Practical lessons.1. The necessity of personal holiness. 2. Learn, while dwelling in the vale below, to live as citizens of heaven. 3. Learn what estimate to put upon the things of time and sense. They are evanescent as the vapour which appeareth for a little time and then passeth away. There is nothing certain but death; there is nothing true but God; there is nothing permanent but heaven. (Thornley Smith.) The city of God Glorious things are spoken of--1. Its Founder. 2. Its privileges, Pardon, instruction, comfort. 3. Its eminent characters. 4. Its perpetual security. 5. Its future extent and magnificence. (J. Jowett, M. A.) Mother Church By universal consent Zion is regarded as type of the Christian Church. I. This mother is glorious is her reputation. (Verse 3). She has the reputation--1. For the highest intelligence. To her are committed the oracles of God. She is the receptacle and the revealer of heavenly intelligence. 2. For self-sacrificing love. The love which she possesses is of the same kind as that which the Son of God exemplifies--an unconquerable love for souls. 3. For the most beneficent achievements. She has created Christendom. All the arts that bless and adorn the civilized world must he ascribed to her. Her great work is to save souls. II. This mother is Divine in her resources (Psalms 87:5). She has had her enemies. Her continuance can only be ascribed to Divine support.1. In what does God establish the Church? In truth and love. She is like a tree which He roots and grounds in love; like a vessel which He fastens in the firmest anchorage; like a house which He builds upon a rock. 2. How does God establish the Church? He thus gives her “ power, love, and a sound mind.” III. This mother is illustrious in her family. 1 Her children are men. “ This and that man was born there.” Many call her mother whom she disowns.2. Her children have their birth divinely registered. “ When He writeth up.” 3. Her children are distinguished by every variety of mind (Psalms 87:7). There is the impulsive Peter, the heroic Paul, and the scientific Luke, and the lamb-like John. There is no monotony in her domestic circle. (Homilist.) The city of God I. In their literal reference to the Jewish metropolis, Jerusalem was truly the “ city of God” ; the city which He particularly chose--to which He paid especial regard. Hence “ glorious things” were spoken of her.1. There was the seat of the civil government. 2. There the Divine ordinances were celebrated 3. There was the general rendezvous of all the Israelitish tribes. 4. This city received a glorious name, “ vision of peace” ; and was at length honoured with the presence of our Lord, “ the Prince of Peace.” II. in their spiritual application to the Church of Christ. St. Paul styles this “ Jerusalem which is from above, which is the mother of us all” --of all believers (Galatians 4:26). Hence Christians are represented as “ fellow-citizens” (Ephesians 2:19) Now of this spiritual city, the antitype of Zion, glorious things are spoken:--1. That she is gloriously founded by the living God. 2. That she possesses glorious privileges. 3. That she contains glorious inhabitants. 4. That glorious promises shall be accomplished in her (Isaiah 55:1-13.). III. In their grandest typical reference to heaven itself. (Sketches of Four Hundred Sermons.) The city of God Glorious things are spoken of--1. Its security. 2. Its beauty. 3. The privileges enjoyed by its inhabitants. Theirs are the present and palpable advantages connected with a life of piety; evil things are sent them in mercy, and of the good things of life they have the real benefit and enjoyment, and possess them with God’ s blessing. Theirs is the inheritance of grace; theirs the heirship of glory. 4. Its enlargement, and the increase of its inhabitants. 5. Its durability. (James Kirkwood.) The Church and the city of God I. A ransomed city. II. A holy city. III. A united city. IV. An enlarging city. V. An everlasting city. (J. Smyth, D. D.) Zion’ s glories I. First on the catalogue is the fact of God’ s intimate connection with the Church. “ His foundation in the holy mountains.” God and His people cannot be separated. The Spirit dwells within the Church, aye, and tabernacles within the very body of each believer. II. The second glory is found in the fact that God Himself has established the Church. The Divine attributes and perfections are as the foundations of the city. III. An equally glorious fact is to be found in the special favour God has towards His Church. IV. The most glorious thing of all is the promise of increase, and the fulfilment of that promise. Certain nations are spoken of here. “ I will make mention of Rahab and Babylon to them that know me: behold Philistia, and Tyre, with Ethiopia; this man was born there.” Whole nations, you see! Yes, for a nation shall be born in a day, and men shall come to Christ as doves fly to their windows. The character of the people is here indicated. These are heathen nations, Rahab, Babylon, Philistia, Tyre and Ethiopia. Thank God for the missionary work at home and abroad, for home missionaries and city missionaries, as well as for foreign missionaries, since the heathen are at our very doors. But though nations are made mention of, it is very evident that individuals are dealt with. “ This man was born there,” “ This and that man was born there.” Yes, salvation is an individual matter after all. You cannot be saved with the crowd, though you can be saved in a crowd. It must be God’ s own Spirit working on heart and causing it to be new-born. Praise the Lord for this individual work among the people. (T. Spurgeon.) Glorious things of the city of God 1. Her redemption and salvation through Christ.2. Her spiritual life and beauty.3. Her increase and enlargement..4. Her relation to the kingdom of this world.5. Her millennial happiness.6. Her duration on earth.7. Her future eternal glory. (E. Ritchie.) Psalms 87:5 And of Zion it shall be said, This and that man was born in her.The Church of to-day I. The chief work and truest dignity of the Church lies in her regeneration and saving energy. In imitation of the example of her Lord, she has reached, and is reaching now, those whom philosophers and poets, statesmen and even philanthropists, had designated “ the lapsed and incorrigible classes.” Where schools of philosophy and codes of law have utterly and ignominiously failed to kill the virus of some moral epidemic, the religion of Christ has succeeded, the Gospel of Christ has proved an unfailing remedy. II. The conversion of men should be the first aim of the Christian ministry. III. This should be the great aim of all religious effort. We need more of the spirit of the sainted Alleine, who said “ he was insatiably greedy for the salvation of souls” ; or of Matthew Henry, who said “ he would deem it a greater happiness to gain one soul to Christ than thousands of gold and silver.” IV. The dignity and work of the Church lies with its individual members--“ this and that man.” The Church of every age can boast of names whose loss would be a loss to mankind. Time would fail to tell of Paul, the eloquent apostle of the Gentiles; Polycarp, the faithful disciple of John; Justin Martyr, the great defender of the faith; Augustine, Luther, Wycliffe, Knox, Wesley and Whitefield, and a host of others, of whom we say with pride, “ this and that man,” etc. V. The true inspiration in the Church is spiritual and supernatural, I have seen an unfilled balloon lying limp and useless on the ground. I have seen the same material expanded and floating gracefully far away above the toil and sin of earth. So have I seen the Church lying limp and lifeless, an object of loathing to some and pity to others. I have seen the same Church filled by the breath of God warm and full, no longer pitied, but admired as the centre of life and hope for a weary world. (Z. T. Dowen, D. D.) Zion a type of the Church Contemplate Zion in regard to-- I. Her converts. They are born, as it were, into a new world. The subjects of this change have new attachments and aversions; new joys and sorrows; new fears and hopes. They are actuated by new motives; and having experienced such a change in the inward man, they will manifest it in the whole of their deportment. II. Her perpetuity. III. Her final triumph. We may infer this from--1. The faithfulness of God to His promises. 2. The firm basis on which religious liberty rests in our day, and the growing intelligence of the age respecting the spiritual nature and the Scriptural means of supporting the Church of Christ. 3. The more abundant outpouring of the Holy Spirit with which we believe God will bless His Church. 4. The prayers offered and the efforts made for the religious interests of the neighbourhood. (Essex Remembrancer.) The Church’ s fruitfulness 1. In regard of the eminency of her births, she is not wholly barren; she bath her births of men, and worthy men. The carnal world hath not exceeded the Church in men of raised intellectuals; Zion hath not been a city of fools. 2. In regard to the multitude of them; “ this and that man,” of all sorts and conditions, and multitudes of them, so that “ more are the children of the desolate than of the married wife.” The tents were prophesied to be enlarged, the curtains of the habitations of Zion to be stretched out, and her cords to be lengthened, to receive and entertain that multitude of children that should be brought forth by her after the sacrifice of the Son of God (Isaiah 54:1-2); for that exhortation follows upon the description of the death and exaltation of Christ (Isaiah 53:1-12.). (S. Charnock.) Fragrant memories of spiritual birth-places There is nothing strange in the halo of dearness which, to every Christian, hangs around the scenes with which the beginning of his new life is associated. The place where two friends first met is sacred to them all through their friendship, all the more sacred as their friendship deepens and grows old. Only the last day shall tell how much of earth is hallowed ground. This is what makes the old churches holy with an accumulated sacredness which surpasses their first consecration. Who can tell how many this church of ours will find among the blessed to honour and treasure her for ever, that she may not be forgotten when the birthplaces of souls are remembered? (Bishop Phillips Brooks.) And the Highest Himself shall establish her. The Church’ s stability I. The explication.1. This stability must not be meant of any particular Church in the world. Particular Churches have their beginnings, progresses, and periods. Particular Churches have been corrupted by superstition and idolatry, rent by heresies, and scattered by persecutions, Zion hath stood, though some synagogues of it have been pulled down; it hath, like the sun, kept its station in the firmament, though not without eclipses and clouds to muffle it. The Church is but one, though it be in divers countries, and named according to the places where it resides, as the Church of Ephesus, the Church of Sardis, etc. If you obstruct the light of one beam, or lop off one branch, or dam up the stream, yet the sun, root, fountain remains the same. 2. Though God unstakes the Church in one place, yet He will not only have a Church, but a professing Church in another. It is a standing law of Christianity that a belief in the heart should be attended by confession with the mouth (Romans 10:9). And the Church is a congregation of people sounding the voice of Christ, as He was preached and confessed by the apostles. While there are believers, there will be professors in society together; some ordinances settled in being during the continuance of the world, as the supper (1 Corinthians 11:6). 3. This Church or Zion shall have a numerous progeny. The spiritual Israel shall be “ as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured or numbered” (Hosea 1:10), which was the promise made to Abraham (Genesis 22:17), and renewed in the same terms to Jacob (Genesis 32:12). The Church is a little flock in comparison of the carnal world, yet it is numerous in itself, though not in every place. II. God has hitherto established Zion.1. This is testified by its present standing, when other empires have sunk by age or violence. She bath borne up her head in the midst of earthly revolutions, and met with her preservation or resurrection where carnal interests have found their funeral. 2. No society but the Church ever subsisted in the midst of a multitude of enemies. 3. The violences against her, which have been fatal to other societies, have been useful to her. This bush hath burned without consuming, and preserved its verdure in the midst of fire; not from the nature of the bush, but the presence of Him that dwelt in it. 4. When she has seemed to be forlorn and dead, God has restored her. When Israel was at the lowest, a decree issued out in Egypt to destroy her males and root out her seed, deliverance began to dawn; and when a knife was at her throat at the Red Sea, and scarce a valiant believer found among a multitude of despairers, God turned the back of the knife to His Israel, and the edge to the throat of the enemies. 5. God never wanted instruments for His Church in the due season. If Nebuchadnezzar be the axe to hew down Jerusalem, Cyrus shall be the instrument to build her up; when His time is come, He will not want an Ezra and Nehemiah to rear her walls, nor be wanting to them to inspire them with courage and assist their labour, in spite of the adversaries that would give checkmate to the work. If Stephen be stoned by the Sews, He will call out Paul, an abettor of that murder, to be a preacher of the Gospel, and he that was all fire against it shall become as great a flame for the propagation of it: one phoenix shall arise out of the ashes of another. III. Why it must needs be so.1. It is necessary for the honour of God. Those societies may moulder away, and those religions grow feeble, which have drawn their birth from the wisdom of man and been settled from the force of man, but a Divine work must needs have a Divine establishment.. It is so-- (1) If you regard it as His main design in the creation of the world.(2) As He hath been the author and builder of Zion.(3) As He hath been the preserver and enlarger of her to this day.(4) In regard of the cost and pains He hath been at about Zion.(5) In regard of faithfulness, His veracity is engaged.(6) In regard it is the seat of His glory.(7) In regard that it is the object of His peculiar affection.(8) In regard of the natural weakness of the Church. 2. It is for the exercise of the offices of Christ that Zion should be established. He is prophet, priest, and king, which are all titles of relation. Prophet implies some to be instructed, a priest some to offer for, and a king some to be ruled; put one relation, and you must necessarily put the other. If there were no Church preserved in the world, He would be a nominal prophet without any disciples, a king without subjects, and a priest without suppliants to be atoned by Him upon earth. 3. The foundation of Zion is sure. It is founded upon Christ, the corner stone. IV. The use,1. Information. (1) If the Church hath a duration and stability, then ordinances and ministry are perpetual. Ministers may be thrust into corners, clapped up in prison, hurried to their graves, but the sepulchres of ministers are not the graves of the ministry. (2) The doctrine of the establishment of every member of Zion is clearly established. The same blood that is the cement of Zion, the same hand that built her, the same head that influenceth her, secures every one of her true-born children. They are all in the same posture and upon the same foundation with Zion herself. (3) How great is the folly of Zion’ s enemies! They judge of her by the weakness of her worldly interest, and not by the almightiness of her guardian. (4) What a ground is here for prayer! No petition can more comfortably, no petition can more confidently, be put up, than for Zion’ s establishment. Prayers for particular persons, or for ourselves, may want success; but supplications for Zion never miscarry. (5) What a strong ground is here for trust! Look not so much upon the condition of Zion’ s walls as upon her foundation; not upon her present posture, as upon her promise-charte; not upon her as a weak vine, but under the hand of the Highest as the vine-dresser. Look not upon the feebleness of the flock, but upon the care of the shepherd; nor upon the fierceness of the lions, but upon the strength and affection of her guardian. 2. Comfort. (1) In the confusions and troubles of the world. (2) In persecutions. (3) In the deepest designs of her enemies. If He be the Highest, and employs Himself as the Highest, there is none so high as to overtop Him, none so high as to outwit Him. Though their union be never so close, and their projects never so deep, yet God’ s being with the Church is curb enough for them and comforting enough for Zion (Isaiah 8:9). 3. Exhortation. (1) Take heed of apostatizing from Zion. (2) Let us love Zion. (3) Let us desire the establishment of Zion more than our own private establishment. (4) Let us endeavour the establishment of Zion. (S. Charnock.) Psalms 87:6 The Lord shall count, when He writeth up the people, that this man was born there.The last census I. When this dispensation shall come to its close, when the Lord Jesus Christ shall come in the clouds of heaven, then we believe the Lord shall write up His people. What will this writing be?1. There will be written in this census nothing but personal matters. “ This man was born there.” They are not taken in the plural--“ these men.” They are not taken as a corporate body--this nation, this Church, this family--but one by one each man’ s name shall be found either written there or else left out. There is no truth which we need more frequently to hold up before the eyes of our people than the truth that nothing but personal godliness will ever avail. 2. Again, you will perceive that this great census deals not merely with personal matters, but with vital matters which concern a man’ s birth. Here you have it that this man was born there. ‘ Tis true the things we have thought and those we have done shall be mentioned at the last, but not for their own sakes. They shall be mentioned only as means of proving that we were born again, or else as evidence that regeneration had never taken place in us. 3. This census will be decisive--the last polling of the people, the last counting of the jewels and casting away of the counterfeits, the last bringing in of the sheep and banishment of the goats. Oh that we were wise to look into futurities! II. Whose names will not be found written when the Lord counteth up His people.1. The name of the hypocritical Church member will not be found there. 2. The man who is a mere hearer. 3. Those who are living in vice and open sin, and die as they live. 4. Moralists. III. Whose name will be found there? We reply, there shall be the name of every soul that ever believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. IV. Who is to make out the census paper? “ The Lord shall count when He writeth up the people.” But why shall the Lord make out the census? Who else should do it? God is only wise. We will not question this man or that, this denomination or that. It is not for us to use our fingers to count the brands plucked from the burning, but to use our hands to pluck them from the fire, and we will pass the roll to the only wise God, and He shall at the last decide whether they be His or no. V. Why will the census be taken at all? The Lord counts up His people--1. To show His value of them. 2. To show to Satan his entire defeat. 3. To let all men see that the great riddle which has distracted human intellect was no riddle but a fact. God is glorified, and man free. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The correct census I. The counting. A census is no new thing. Refer to the history of Jacob, the time of Pharaoh, etc. Churches have their census. This describes the final census--1. It will be an individual counting. “ This man was born there.” The question not one of reformation, but of regeneration. 2. It will be unalterable. It will be final (Revelation 22:11). It is of supreme importance to have our name written in the Lamb’ s Book of Life. Seek to have it registered now. II. The counter. “ The Lord shall count.” What a mercy. Man might accidentally omit, or through partiality insert some name, but it is well that the Lord should be the Presiding Officer because of--1. His intimate acquaintance with every one. “ The Lord knoweth them that are His.” He cannot therefore be deceived. To Him all hearts are open. We may “ profess and call ourselves Christians,” but our profession will be worthless unless our name be inserted in the heavenly register. 2. His unfailing accuracy. No name omitted or inserted in error. The totals will agree. Man may err, but His accuracy none can call in question. III. The counted. Whose name will be found in the register? Only his who has been “ born again,” i.e. “ born from above.” I may be “ the weakest of them that love Him,” but if I have been “ born there,” I shall not be disowned. If we share in the bond of the covenant, we shall also share in the blessedness of the covenant. Will He count me? “ Except a man be born again,” etc. (Samuel Oliver.) God takes the census Why should the Lord make out the census? The reason is--who else could do it? Imagine for a moment that the pen could be given to the Pope of Rome. I am sure he would omit yours and mine, because we are not obedient to the Pontifical See; and even if he were under authority and command, I am sure he would make a great splutter in trying to write the name “ Martin Luther,” and he would throw down his pen and utterly refuse to obey if he had to write the glorious name of John Calvin. Suppose, now, we put the pen into the hand of Bigotry--Bigotry who lives not quite so far off as Italy, but takes up her residence in our own land, and hard by our abode. I think I see her, with her face bitter as wormwood, and with her eyes full of darkness, and she, having written all the names down, reads, “ There be few that shall be saved; they be so few that a child can count them.” . . . God, and God only--God the only wise--shall have the writing up of the people, for there is no one to be found but God who could do it. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Psalms 87:7 As well the singers as the players on instruments shall be there.Music an epitome of life Music does a great many things for us. It pleases the senses, it affords aesthetic delight, it calms perplexed feelings, it nerves the soldier’ s heart to battle, it soothes the babe upon its mother’ s breast, it thrills the maiden’ s heart with love, it consoles the mourner’ s grief and hallows it, it spurs the rapture of the dance, and moderates and sanctifies the march to the tomb. What man would but cannot, music seems to do for him. When his deed lags, she strengthens him; when his spirit falters, she inspires; when his voice is dumb, she speaks for him. In a word, music is capable of supplementing man’ s finitude, and opening for him the realm of his ideals and his aspirations. And this is the explanation of its power to do so much for us, and be so much to us, because in its own terms it has a capacity of expressing life. This is at once an explanation of its power and a statement of its inscrutable mystery, that it is fitted to be the common language of the universal sentiment of humanity. As good old Father Haydn said of it, “ My language is understood all over the world.” So, in recognition of this capacity to portray human experience and to reflect human sentiment, I have chosen to consider music as an epitome of life. One essential of music is based on time, and consists in the relation of notes to each other measured by duration. The savage beating his tom-tom is the rudimentary musician. The human ear is earliest susceptible to the impression of rhythm. Yet so radically and perpetually essential is this feature that the most elaborate symphony is dependent on it equally with the primitive drum-beat. Lacking it, either one would be incoherent, would cease to be music, and would become simply noise. This is manifest, but now where shall we find in life the equivalent of this essential term? What is the pulse of the moral life, the heart-beat of conduct as rhythm is the heart-beat of song? What imparts measure and meaning and impulse to the otherwise unrelated activities, and sets them in order in intelligible succession? What, if not the exercise of will, the putting forth of purpose? Yes, purpose is to life what rhythm is to song. Beside time, the other evident essential of music is tune, in which also we may discern some suggestive parallel to life. The possibility of tune depends on that mysterious feature of music we call the scale or the octave. These eight tones of relative pitch that compose the octave, with their semitones of the chromatic scale, furnish the material out of which all music is composed. Melody, which is a sort of harmony, and harmony, which is in turn a sort of condensed melody, both equally flow from this mysterious relation that sounds bear to each other, and depend on it. Not a single note in music stands alone in its significance. We are not far, then, from recognizing what is signified concerning human life, in the fact that music rests on the relation of note to note, of part to part. The parallel truth is that no man liveth to himself. Selfishness excludes one from the harmony of being. As the notes in the scale are fitted by their mutual relations to portray ideal beauty, so are we constituted for each other, attaining the roundness, the completeness, the satisfaction of life, never in ourselves alone, but only as we stand related to each other in the significance of that scale of character that imparts the meaning to life, and in this large relation we all inevitably stand for discord or for harmony. A closing parallel may be drawn from the motive of music. Its material it takes from time and tune, its method is obedience, and its motive is love. Each individual musical entity gives itself to the use and being of the whole. How the symphony exemplifies this truth! Each note is woven as a mesh in the network of tone; each part contrasts and amplifies every other part; each instrument sets in other colour the utterance of its neighbour--the violins in clear intensity of utterance give forth the theme, and then they part, some to maintain it, others to adorn it; the flutes and clarionets and oboes touch it with a sylvan tone; the lower strings grant it the fervour of their passionate thought; the horns breathe calm and clear; the trumpets sound the voice of resolute affirmation, while the basses solidly support them all: so many voices, yet with one harmonious theme, it is the picture of a community of inspired souls with a common purpose. Therein the finite escapes from its bondage and restriction, and goes out into the Infinite. Hear the words of the Christ, having identical import: “ He that loseth his life shall find it. Let a man deny himself, and he shall have a part in My eternal kingdom. Let the finite humble itself, and it shall be exalted to share in the Infinite.” A definition has been given of music, at once most philosophical and most poetical--a single line by Sidney Lanier:-- “ Music is love in search of a word.” Yea, this is its one abiding theme; not the mere feeling of affection and selfish preference, not of mawkish sensibility, the expression of which is music’ s bane and curse and disgrace, but love that comes from a humble consciousness of the worth of personal being, and that in the spirit of consecration and of self-bestowment devotes itself to that fulness of being of which its character enables it to supply a part. “ Music is love in search of a word.” True life is love striving for perfect utterance in word and deed. (C. F. Carter.) All my springs are in Thee. Christ Jesus the fountain of grace I. In Jesus Christ are the springs of pardoning mercy. This is the root of every other mercy. II. A Christian acknowledges all his springs of sanctifying grace to be in Jesus Christ. As the streams of a fountain are directed into various channels to water every part of the garden in which it springs, so doth the grace of God, in Jesus Christ, gush forth from its unfathomable depth of mercy, into every sentiment of the heart and mind of a sincere believer. It rectifies the erring judgment--it corrects the perverted will--it sanctifies the affections, weaning them from the vanities of earth and the defilement of sin, and turning them to dwell with complacency and with delight upon the supreme realities of eternal things. It quickens every languishing grace, and unites all the parts of Christian character in one supreme desire to glorify God. III. The springs of that peace and joy with which a Christian is filled in believing, are also found in the Son of God, as He is present with His Church. O if the sight of Joseph at Pharaoh’ s right hand, in favour and honour with the King of Egypt, could send the patriarchs home to Canaan with such joyful news to their aged father, what a message of delight must faith carry to the soul when it comes after a visitation of mercy in those services in which it hath contemplated the glory of Christ, and its own interest in that glory! With joy, even with joy unspeakable and full of glory, may such a soul draw water out of the wells of salvation. IV. The springs of hope that cheer and bless the pilgrimage of a Christian, are derived from the great Head of the Church. To Him are given exceeding great and precious promises; and a view of the unchangeable fidelity of his Father, in the covenant of love by Jesus Christ, fills him with a hope that maketh not ashamed. V. The springs of eternal glory proceed from the Son of God. The righteousness, the holiness, which constitutes the character of true Christians, and the blessedness with which it will be recompensed, are all given by Christ to the Church. They who possess them are the seed which should prolong their days, or be happy for ever. In them He sees of the travail of His soul, and is satisfied. Here the gracious purpose of Jehovah prospers in His hands, perfectly and for ever. (R. P. Buddicom, M. A.) A song of triumph I. The Christian requires divers kinds of blessings, and these are all furnished for him. Not one rill of supply merely, but many springs.1. We will speak first of that spring which may be called sanctification, which washes us from daily accumulating evil, and checks our own depravity--which makes us more holy, and more fit to become partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. 2. Sustaining grace. 3. Wisdom to direct. 4. Strength and assistance in every time of need. 5. Joy and comfort. II. Where are these springs to be found? In Jesus our Lord and our God. It is of the Father’ s grace that the Spirit gives us from Jesus’ fulness, so that we can never faint or fail. The wisdom of this arrangement will be evident if we consider--1. Our own folly. 2. Our weakness. 3. Our great ingratitude and forgetfulness of God. 4. Our tendency to pride. 5. We admire this plan because it exalts God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. It makes us to come often into their presence to acknowledge our need and to extol God as alone able to supply it. (J. A. Spurgeon.) . Psalms 88:1-18 Psalms 88:1-18O Lord God of my salvation, I have cried day and night before Thee.A portrait of a suffering man I. Depicting his wretched state. He speaks of himself as “ full of troubles,” satiated with sufferings.1. He represents himself as tottering on the grave and without power (Psalms 88:2-5). 2. Crushed by agonies and conscious of the Divine displeasure (Psalms 88:6-7). 3. Bereft of friends, and the subject of social contempt (Psalms 88:8). 4. Deprived of liberty and exhausted with grief. “ I am shut up,” etc. (Psalms 88:8). II. Supplicating his afflicting God. This he did--1. With unremitting earnestness (Psalms 88:1). To whom can human sufferers look for help, but to the God of “ salvation” ? And to look to Him with earnest constancy is at once our duty and our interest. 2. With profound inquiries (Psalms 88:10-12). The living have a profound interest in the dead. 3. With pious determination (Psalms 88:13). 4. With painful apprehension (Psalms 88:14-18). (Homilist.) Heman’ s sorrowful psalm From this psalm-- I. Learn how to pray.1. Tell the Lord your case. 2. Pray naturally. 3. Pray with this belief fixed in your mind, that your help must come from God, and pray expecting salvation from the Lord. 4. Pray often. 5. With weeping and mourning. 6. Pleadingly. II. Resolve to pray in your very worst case. When you are full of troubles, go to God with them, that is the very time when you most need to pray. “ But,” say you, “ Mr. Spurgeon, you do not know all that I have to think of.” No, but I do know that, the more you have to think of, the more reason you have to go to God in prayer about it. The more loads you have to drag, the more horses you need; and the more work there is to be done, the more reason is there for crying to God to help you to do it. Do not, I pray you, stay away from the outward means Of grace when you are in trouble; but especially do not stay away from God Himself when you are tried and perplexed. When you are as full of trouble as ever you can be, then is the time to pray most. “ But I have nobody to speak to,” says another. Never mind if you have not; that is all the more reason why you should pray to God, and plead with God, who will not leave you. “ But I am distracted,” says another. Yes, and you will be distracted, unless you will go to God as you are, and implore Him to look at your distractions, and to lay His gentle hand upon you, and to restore you to yourself, and then to restore you to Himself. III. Reasons why you should keep on praying.1. You cannot lose anything by prayer. 2. It is not so great a thing, after all, to have to continue to ask. As a sinner I kept God waiting for me long enough, aye, far too long. 3. Cease not to pray, for He to whom thou prayest is a gracious God. Take good heart; thou wilt not plead in vain, for He loves to hear thy prayers. He must, He will, answer thee, for He is a God of grace. 4. He has heard others. 5. He has promised to hear thee. (C. H. Spurgeon.) No trouble too great for God to lift The tide was out. A great ocean steamer lay at the wharf, loaded to the line; by its side was a little boat that danced on top of the waves. The big iron ship grew worried, and said to the dancing, happy boat: “ I fear, when the tide comes in, I’ m so heavy it can’ t lift me, and I’ ll go to the bottom.” “ Never fear,” said the smaller one, “ it can lift thee as well as me.” “ Oh but you are so light, while I’ m so heavy. It’ s easy enough to lift you, but me--oh, dear! Worry not, worry not, old ironsides. It’ s lifted the likes o’ you many a time, and will soon lift thee as well as me.” And the tide came in; up and up they both rose on the bosom of the sea; one lifted as high and as easy as the other. Great heart, loaded to the line with thine own sorrows and others’ burdens, filled with fears and worried with doubt, thou wilt not go down. (The Advertiser.) Psalms 88:3 For my soul is full of troubles, and my life draweth nigh unto the grave. Heman: a child of light walking in darkness (with 1 Chronicles 25:5):--A seer is just a man who sees. Other men also have eyes indeed, but, then, they do not see with their eyes as a seer sees. Now, Heman was a seer. Heman saw constantly a sight that to most men even in Israel was absolutely invisible. Heman saw, and saw nothing else, but his own soul.1. “ My soul is full of troubles,” says this great seer, speaking about himself. What led Heman to speak and to publish abroad this most melancholy of all the psalms we are not told. It was not Heman’ s actual sin, like David’ s. Neither was this terrible trouble, like David’ s, among his large family of sons and daughters. Heman had brought up his sons and daughters more successfully than David had done. For all Heman’ s children assisted their father in sacred song in the house of the Lord. At the same time Heman cannot take a happy father’ s full joy cut of his talented and dutiful children because of the overwhelming trouble of his own soul. It is a terrible baptism into the matters of God to have a soul from his youth up so full of inconsolable troubles as that. 2. “ My soul is full of troubles,” says Heman, “ till I am driven distracted.” Every day we hear of men and women being driven distracted through love, and through fear, and through poverty, and through pain, and sometimes through ever-joy, and sometimes, it is said, through religion. It was thought by some that the Apostle Paul was quite distracted in his day through his too much thought and occupation about Divine things. But be not too much cast down. Comfort My people. Say to them, and assure them, that this is the beginning in them of the wisdom, and the truth, and the love, and the salvation of their God and Saviour Jesus Christ. 3. Now, with all that, this is not to be wondered at that Heman says next (Psalms 88:18). Anything else but this is not to be expected from Heman. Heman makes it an additional complaint, but it is a simple and a necessary consequence of his troubled and distracted soul. Friends and lovers, the oldest, and the warmest, and the bests--they all have their several limits. Most men are made with little heart themselves, and they are not at home where there is much heart, and much exercise of heart. They flee in a fright from the heights and the depths of the high and deep heart. It needs a friend that sticketh closer than a brother to keep true to a man who has much heart, and who sees and feels with all his heart. Heman, besides being the King’ s seer, was also an eminent type of Christ, both in the distracting troubles of his soul, and in the fewness and in the infidelity of his friends. 4. Now, all that, bad as it is, would have been easily borne had it been a sudden stroke and then for ever over. Had it been a great temptation, a great fall, a great repentance, a great forgiveness, and then the light of God’ s countenance brighter than ever all Heman’ s after days. But Heman’ s yoke from his youth up has been of that terrible kind that it has eaten into his soul deeper and deeper with every advancing year. Had Heman lived after Paul’ s day he would have described himself in Paul’ s way. He would have said that the two-edged sword had become every year more and more spiritual, till it entered more and more deep every year into his soul. 5. There are these four uses out of all that. (1) The first is to justify such a proceeding as to take a text like this for a Communion evening. What could be more comely in a worthy” communicant, who has been stayed with flagons and comforted with apples all day than to say to the outcasts of Israel ere this day closes (Isaiah 43:1; Isaiah 43:25). (2) And then for the use of all Heman-like, all distracted communicants--do not despair. Do not give way to distraction. (3) Are you quite sure that this deep darkness of yours is quite unaccountable to you short of God’ s sovereignty--short of His deep, hidden, Divine will? I doubt it, and I would have you doubt it. I would have you make sure that there is no other possible explanation of this darkness of His face. All the chances are that it is not God’ s ways that are so distractingly dark, but your own. (4) There is a singular use in Heman for ministers. When God is to make a very sinful man into a very able, and skilful, and experimental minister, He sends that man to the same school to which He sent Heman. Now, who can tell what God has laid up for you to do for Him and for men’ s souls when you are out of your probationer-ship of trouble and distraction, and are promoted to be a comforter of God’ s troubled and distracted saints? He may have a second David, and far more, to comfort and to sanctify in the generation to come; and you may be ordained to be the King’ s seer in the matters of God. Who can tell? Only, be you ready, for the stone that is fit for the wall is not left to lie in the ditch. (A. Whyte, D. D.) Heman’ s elegy Two Hemans attained eminence in Israel. One was a singer, the other was a sage (1 Chronicles 15:16-22; 1 Chronicles 25:5; 1 Kings 4:31). The two facts which filled Heman’ s soul with trouble were by no means unusual facts. They were--1. The growing infirmities, the frailties and Sicknesses, of age (verse7); and-- 2. The loss of friends, or the supposed alienation of friends, which often accompanies age, especially when it is sick and weary of the world (Psalms 88:8-18). These are common facts, but they are none the more welcome for being common when they come home to us personally. Our sage broods over them, resents them, as we all do at times, and laments his feebleness and isolation. Nay, as he traces all the facts and events of human life to the hand of God, he charges God with all the responsibility, all the pains and bitterness of them, and concludes that even this great Friend has forgotten him; or has turned against him. With all his wisdom he has been, as he confesses (Psalms 88:5). Of a sceptical and misgiving temperament from his youth up. Two ways in which we may view the contents of the psalm--either making the best of them, or making the worst of them, in so far at least as they bear on the character and aim of the author of the psalm. We are not bound to adopt Heman’ s views, or even to sympathize with them. Much in the Bible was written for our warning and admonition. If we bring a generous spirit to the interpretation of this song, or elegy, we may recall the familiar maxim: “ In much wisdom is much sorrow.” A thoughtful mind is a pensive mind. The more a man sees of human life, the more he feels how much there is in it which is wrong, foolish, base, disappointing, if not hopelessly corrupt and bad. So we shall begin to make excuse for Heman. Let us remember also that in much sorrow there is much discipline, and discipline by which a wise man should profit. Do you, do all men, resent the wrongs of time? Remember that resentment, then, as well as the wrongs which provoke it; and consider what a happy omen lies in the fact that men do hate and resent that which is wrong, and both love and demand that which is just and right. Those who decry “ mere human wisdom” are very likely to conclude that Heman the sage was punished for his largeness and freedom of thought, that he was abandoned to the guidance of his own wisdom in order that he might learn how little it could do for him in the greatest emergencies of life, how little, therefore, it was worth. I see no reason to judge him thus harshly. I find much in this psalm to lead us to a more kindly judgment. But, doubtless, there are many among us to whom such a description would apply. (Samuel Cox, D. D.) Psalms 88:5 Free among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave.A true and a false idea of the grave I. A true idea of the grave: “ Free” --1. From all physical sufferings.2. From all secular anxieties.3. From all social tumults.4. From all human tyrannies. II. A false idea of the grave. That the dead are--1. Forgotten by God.2. Separated from God. They are not “ cut off” from Him in any sense. (Homilist.) “ Free among the dead” This remarkable expression is to he interpreted in the light of Job 3:19, which counts it as one blessing of the grave, that “ there the servant is free from his master.” But the psalmist thinks that that “ freedom” is loathsome, not desirable, for it means removal from the stir of a life, the heaviest duties and cares of which are better than the torpid immunity from these, which makes the state of the dead a dreary monotony. In some strange fashion they are and yet are not. Their death has a simulacrum of life. Their shadowy life is death. The psalmist speaks in riddles; and the contradictions in his speech reflect his dim knowledge of that place of darkness, He looks into its gloomy depths, and he sees little but gloom. It needed the resurrection of Jesus to flood these depths with light, and to show that the life beyond may be fuller of bright activity than life here--a state in which vital strength is increased beyond all earthly experience, and wherein God’ s all-quickening hand grasps more closely, and communicates richer gifts than are attainable in that death which sense calls life. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Psalms 88:7 Thy wrath lieth hard upon me, and Thou hast afflicted me with all Thy waves.For the troubled As men, the people of God share the common lot of men, and what is that but trouble? Yea, there are some sorrows which are peculiar to Christians, some extra griefs of which they partake because they are believers, though these are something more than balanced by those peculiar and bitter troubles which belong to the ungodly, and are engendered by their transgressions, from which the Christian is delivered. I. Expound the text.1. Tried saints are very prone to overrate their afflictions. 2. Saints do well to trace all their trials to their God. 3. Afflicted children of God do well to have a keen eye to the wrath that mingles with their troubles. God will visit His children’ s transgressions. He will frequently let common sinners go on throughout life unrebuked; but not so His children. If you were going home to-day, and saw a number of boys throwing stones and breaking windows, you might not interfere with them-, but if you saw your own lad among them, I will be bound you would fetch him out, and make him repent of it. Perhaps the reason of your trouble may not be a sin committed, but a duty neglected. Search and look, and see wherein you have been guilty of omission. When you have so done let me give one word of caution. Do not expect when in the trouble to perceive any immediate benefit resulting from it. Remember that word, “ Nevertheless, afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness.” The gardener takes his knife and prunes the fruit trees to make them bring forth more fruit; his little child comes trudging at his heels and cries, “ Father, I do not see that the fruit comes on the trees after you have cut them.” No, dear child, it is not likely you would, but come round in a few months when the season of fruit has come, and then shall you see the golden apples which thank the knife. Graces which are meant to endure require time for their production, and are not thrust forth and ripened in a night. Were they so soon ripe they might be as speedily rotten. II. The benefits of trouble.1. Severe trouble in a true believer has the effect of loosening the roots of his soul earthward and tightening the anchor-hold of his heart heavenward. How can he love the world which has become so drear to him? Why should he seek after grapes so bitter to his taste? 2. Affliction frequently opens truths to us, and opens us to the truth. Blessed is that man who receives the truth of God into his inmost self; he shall never lose it, but it shall be the life of his spirit. 3. Affliction, when sanctified by the Holy Spirit, brings much glory to God out of Christians, through their experience of the Lord’ s faithfulness to them. 4. Affliction gives us through grace the inestimable privilege of conformity to the Lord Jesus. We pray to be like Christ, but how can we be if we are not men of sorrows at all, and never become the acquaintance of grief? 5. Our sufferings are of great service to us when God blesses them, for they help us to be useful to others. Luther was right, when he said affliction was the best book in the minister’ s library. How can the man of God sympathize with the afflicted ones, if he knows nothing at all about their troubles? (C. H. Spurgeon.) Psalms 88:8I am shut up, and I cannot come forth.The imprisoning power of suffering I. Suffering always shuts us up to ourselves. It does this in two ways, it destroys both the disposition and the capacity to go out into society. Suffering isolates, it throws us back upon Ourselves, and makes us feel our absolute lonelihood. This is often--1. Spiritually necessary. 2. Spiritually beneficent. II. Suffering sometimes shuts us up to God. When “ shut up “ to ourselves, we are often urged into the conscious presence of God. God is better seen and heard in solitude than in society. I am not alone, “ the Father is with me.” “ Enter into your closet, and shut your door,” etc. III. Suffering must shut us up to the grave. Elsewhere the writer says, “ My life draweth nigh unto the grave.” (Homilist.) Psalms 88:9 Mine eye mourneth by reason of affliction.The godly man in trouble 1. Godliness doth not make men senseless of grief, nor doth it hinder tears or mourning, or any other effects of sorrow to be seen in their body. 2. Sorrow should neither hinder the godly to seek God, nor move them to seek their consolation elsewhere. 3. It is possible that a godly man may be instant daily with God, praying with tears for comfort, and yet not obtain for a long time, as this example doth teach. 4. As in serious prayer, specially in secret, the affections of the heart do utter themselves in the answerable gestures of the body, as well as in the voice and words of the mouth; so those gestures have their own speech unto God, no less than the words of the mouth have; as here, “ I have stretched out my hands unto Thee,” is brought forth to express his submissive rendering up of himself unto God, and his dependence upon Him. (D. Dickson.) I have called daily upon Thee. The necessity for daily prayer appears when we consider the consequences of neglecting it. Experience proves that a regular habit, at some fixed hour or hours, becomes a safeguard against forgetfulness, as well as an invaluable help to the constant “ practice of the presence of God,” whereas those who say that they can pray at any time, end in praying very seldom, or never. And Mrs. Besant has testified that “ God fades out of the life of the man who forgets to pray.” On the other hand, you may lose hold of many a Christian doctrine, but you have not lost your faith so long as the angels can say of you, “ Behold, he still prayeth.” Distress teaches us to pray, and prayer dispels distress. One wedge displaces the other. Psalms 88:10-12 Wilt Thou show wonders to the dead?shall the dead arise and praise Thee? The great problem I. Here is a problem common to humanity. Lived there ever a man who has not asked this question in some form or other? II. Here is a problem that unaided reason cannot answer.1. Ancient philosophy tried and failed. Witness Socrates. 2. Modern philosophy has nothing but speculations. III. Here is a problem on which the gospel throws light. What saith the Gospel? (1 Corinthians 15:51). (Homilist.) Wonders shown to the dead In these verses we find mention made of four things on the part of God: “ wonders,” “ lovingkindness, . . . faithfulness,” and “ righteousness” --four attributes of the blessed Jehovah, which the eyes of Heman had been opened to see, and which the heart of Heman had been wrought upon to feel. But he comes, by Divine teaching, into a spot where these attributes seem to be completely lost to him;and yet (so mysterious are the ways of God!) the very place where those attributes were to be more powerfully displayed, and made more deeply and experimentally known to his soul.1. “ Wilt Thou show wonders to the dead?” He is speaking here of his own experience; he is that “ dead” person, to whom those “ wonders” are to be shown. And being in that state of experience, he considered that every act of mercy shown to him where he then was must be a “ wonder.” All God’ s people are brought by the Spirit’ s operations upon their souls, sooner or later, to be in that spot where Heman was. Paul was there, when he said (Romans 7:9). Then, surely, he was “ dead” ; that is, he had been killed in his feelings by the spirituality of God’ s law made known in his conscience--killed, as to all hopes of creature-righteousness, and killed as to any way of salvation which the creature could devise. But the word “ dead” carries with it a still further meaning than this. It expresses a feeling of utter helplessness; not merely a feeling of guilt and condemnation, so as to be slain to all hopes of salvation in self, but also to feel perfectly helpless to deliver himself from the lowest hell. But if We look at the expression as it simply stands, it seems to be uttered by one who is passing under the sentence of death before the wonder is displayed. It does not run in the past tense, “ Hast Thou shown wonders to the dead?” It is not couched in the present tense, “ Art Thou showing wonders to the dead?” The language is not the language of praise for the past; nor of admiration for the present; but that of anxious inquiry for the future” “ Wilt Thou show wonders to the dead?” Is it possible? Am I not too great a sinner? Is not my case too desperate? 2. “ Shall Thy lovingkindness be declared in the grave?” We have come a step lower now. We had been communing with “ the dead” ; but now we must go a step lower. We must go to the sepulchre; we must accompany the corpse to the grave. Now, what is “ the grave” but the place where corruption riots, where putrefaction reigns? Here, then, is a striking figure of what a living soul feels under the manifestations of the deep corruptions of his heart. All his good words, once so esteemed, and all his good works, once so prized, and all his prayers, and all his faith, and hope, and love, and all the imaginations of his heart, not merely paralyzed and dead, not merely reduced to a state of utter helplessness, but also in soul feeling turned into rottenness and corruption. Now, were you ever there? Did your prayers ever stink in your nostrils? And are all your good words, and all your good works, and all your good thoughts, once so esteemed, now nothing in your sight but filthy, polluted and unclean? 3. “ Or Thy faithfulness in destruction?” What is this “ faithfulness” of which Heman speaks? It is, I believe, in two different branches; faithfulness to the promises that God has made in His word of truth--and faithfulness to His own witness and His own work upon the souls of His children. The Lord has destroyed your false religion, your natural hopes, your imaginary piety, your mock holiness, and those things in you which were not of Himself, but which were of the earth earthy, and were drawing you aside from Him; and has made you poor, naked, empty before His eyes. But it is in these very acts of destruction that He has shown His faithfulness--His faithfulness to His covenant, His faithfulness to His written word, His faithfulness to those promises which He has dropped with power into your heart. 4. “ Shall Thy wonders be known in the dark? and Thy righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?” Here is another attribute of God about which Heman was exercised. His “ righteousness,” God’ s righteousness, I believe, here and elsewhere does not mean only Christ’ s righteousness, but also the righteous acts of God in dealing with the soul in a way consistent with His own equitable character. This land of forgetfulness seems to imply two things--our forgetfulness of God, and God’ s apparent forgetfulness of us. (1) We often get into this sleepy land of forgetfulness toward God; we forget His universal presence, forget His heart-searching eyes, forget His former benefits, forget His past testimonies, forget the reverence which belongs to His holy name; which, above all things, we have desired most earnestly to remember. It is, then, in this land of forgetfulness, in this dull and heavy country, when, like the disciples in the garden, we sleep instead of watching, that God is still pleased to show forth His righteousness. God’ s righteousness runs parallel with Christ’ s atonement, for therein is His intrinsic righteousness manifested, that is, His strict compliance with equity and justice, because equity and justice have been strictly fulfilled by the propitiation of the Son of God. (2) But the land of forgetfulness often means forgetfulness on God’ s part--God seems to forget His people (Isaiah 49:13). “ Hath God forgotten to be gracious? Hath He in anger shut up His tender mercies?” Does it not seem, at times, as though the Lord had utterly forgotten us, would take no more notice of us, slights us, rejects us, and would not cast one look, or bestow one word upon us? (J. C. Philpot.) Marvels amidst the tombs What a sad day in the history of a great country was that when over the gateway of the chief cemetery of Paris was inscribed the sentence, “ Death is an eternal sleep” ! This hopeless statement was the product of a highly civilized age, that chose to live without God; but the primitive races of men had not sunk so low in religious matters. When the chieftain of prehistoric days was placed in his tomb, before they raised his tumulus they placed with his bones his weapons of stone, or bronze, that he might in “ the spirit world” pursue his avocations which he had followed on earth. But when men became philosophers, and studied the grounds of evidence, a cold withering frost of doubt seemed to freeze up their cheering convictions. Even the great Socrates, with his last breath, speaks with a kind of faltering utterance to his judges, “ And now we part, and whether it will be best for you, or for me, is known to God only.” Then came the dawn of a nobler day. Christ Jesus walked on earth. In the death-chamber of the little Jewish maiden He recalled the vanished spirit. Thus the Christian answers to the despairing, wailing cry of Scepticism--“ Does God show signs amongst the dead?” by pointing to the empty sepulchre; to the white-robed angels, that announce--“ He is not dead, He is risen” ; to the testimony of the pious women, who found the spices might be reserved for incense to burn in the worship of their Ascended Lord; and to the multitude of sober and sufficient witnesses, who both on the first Easter Day, and afterwards in Galilee, by many infallible proofs, perceived that He was alive, and alive for evermore! And now He holds the keys of death and of Hades--that is, the unseen world--and adoring Christendom bows before His name, who has “ shown wonders amongst the dead.” In this faith our dear ones close their eyes, in His peace they rest; “ in sure and certain hope “ of His resurrection power we lay their earthly tabernacles beneath the green sod. (J. W. Hardman, LL. D.) The land of forgetfulness. The land of forgetfulness There is a fabled river in ancient mythology called Lethe,--simply meaning forgetfulness. The idea of the fabulist was that whoever drank water out of that river instantly forgot everything that had happened; all the past was a forgotten dream. Nay, more than this, consciousness itself was not left after the Lethal water was taken. The man who drank one draught of the water of Lethe, oblivion, was not aware of his own existence; that draught had utterly extinguished him. Men have often longed for a draught of that water; men have sighed for the land of forgetfulness; souls, harps on which music was meant to be played, have desired with unspeakable earnestness to be allowed to die, to forget, to be forgotten. I. In some aspects the land of forgetfulness is a desirable land. There are moments when we want to enter it and be enfranchised in it for ever. There are things that other people have done to us that we long to forget; if we could wholly forget them life would be sweeter, friendship would be dearer, the outlook would be altogether more inviting. What is it that makes the land of forgetfulness a land in poetry, a land inaccessible? Is there no potion that the soul may take? there are potions that the body may drink, but we do not want to drink our bodies into some lower level and some baser consciousness; we are inquiring now about soul-potions, drinks that affect the mind, draughts that lull the soul. II. There are other aspects in which the land of forgetfulness is an attainable land. We can so live as to be forgotten. Men can live backwards. Men can be dead whilst they are alive, and forgotten while they are present to the very eyes. What is there to remember about them? Beginning as ciphers they have continued as ciphers; they have never done anything for the world, or for any individual in the world. Where are the parts of character on which we can lay hold and say, By these we shall remember you evermore? III. But the land of forgetfulness is in fact an impossible land. Effects follow causes: deeds grow consequences. The Lord forgets nothing: but after a process known to us by the sweet name “ forgiveness” there comes the state in the Divine mind which is known by the human word “ forgotten.” Sometimes we say we can forgive but never forget. Then we cannot forgive; and if we cannot forgive we cannot pray; if we cannot forgive we cannot believe. Forgiveness is the true orthodoxy. Largeness, sensitiveness, responsiveness of heart, slavery to love, that is orthodoxy. (J. Parker, D. D.) Things that should be forgotten Let us forget all unkindness, incivility, discourtesy. Let us forget our good deeds. That will be one great step towards the land of heaven. There are some who remember every good deed they ever did, and therefore they never did anything worth doing. No man has ever done anything for God if he has kept account of it. It may be difficult to teach this lesson, and to drive it home; but so long as a man can tell you when he gave pounds and shillings, and when he rendered service, and to what inconvenience he put himself, all that he did is blotted out. The value of our greatest deeds is in their unconsciousness. The rose does not say, I emitted so much fragrance yesterday and so much the day before. The rose knows nothing about it; it lives to make the air around it fragrant. Thus ought souls to live, not knowing how long they have preached, how much they have done, what the extent of their good deeds has boon. They know nothing about it; they are absorbed in love; they are borne away by the Divine inspiration, and whilst anything remains they suppose that nothing has been given. (J. Parker, D. D.) Psalms 88:13 In the morning shall my prayer prevent Thee.Morning devotion As the Oriental traveller sets out for the sultry journey over burning sands by loading up his camel under the palm-trees’ shade, and fills his water flagons from the crystal fountain which sparkles at its roots, so does Christ’ s pilgrim draw his morning supplies from the exhaustless spring. Morning is the golden hour for prayer and praise. The mind is fresh; the mercies of the night and the new resurrection of the dawn both prompt a devout soul to thankfulness. The buoyant heart takes its earliest flight, like the lark, towards the gates of heaven. One of the finest touches in Bunyan’ s immortal allegory is his description of Christian in the chamber of Peace, “ who awoke and sang while his window looked out to the sun rising.” “ In the morning will I direct my prayer unto Thee.” (T. L. Cuyler, D. D.) Psalms 88:14 Why hidest Thou Thy face from me? Divine hiding God sometimes hides Himself in nature that He may reveal Himself in providence; He sometimes hides Himself in providence that He may reveal Himself in grace; and He sometimes hides Himself in grace that He may reveal Himself in glory. Psalms 88:15I am afflicted and ready to die from my youth up: while I suffer Thy terrors, I am distracted.Religious terrors As the comforts which true religion affords are the only sure support against the evils and calamities to which every condition of life is more or less exposed, so the terrors of religion, being very grievous in themselves, exclusive of these comforts, add weight to all our miseries, and are a burden too heavy for the spirit of a man to sustain. These terrors arise from-- I. Uncertainty in religion. The religious man fears God because he knows Him; and therefore he fears Him, as a wise, just, good, and merciful Father and Judge ought to be feared: his fear is full of love and reverence, and has nothing dreadful in it, unless guilt and a wounded conscience arm it with unnatural terrors; but the superstitious man fears God, just as children and weak men fear spirits and apparitions; he trembles at the thought of Him, he flies from he knows not what, seeks refuge he knows not where; and this hurry and confusion of mind he calls religion; but the psalmist has given it a better name, it is distraction. II. False notions of God, and of the honour and worship due to Him. We ought never to expect more from God than He has expressly promised, or than He may grant consistently with the measures by which His providence rules and governs the world. If we exceed these bounds, religion, instead of being our comfort, will soon become our torment; but we, and not religion, will be to blame. If we consider that this world is a state of trial, and that afflictions are trials, we can never lay it down to ourselves, that God will relieve us at our request from all afflictions; for this would be owning ourselves in a state of trial, and, at the same time, expecting that no trial should come near us: It is supposing that God has shown us a way to defeat the great end of His providence in sending us into this world; He sent us here to be proved, and yet we think to prevail on Him not to prove us. III. A conscience wounded under the sense of guilt. Natural religion has no cure for this; because the title by obedience being forfeited, there are no certain principles of reason from which we can conclude how far, and to what instances, the mercy of God will extend; because we can have no assurance of ourselves that our sorrow is such, and our resolutions of amendment such as may deserve mercy; and lastly, because this whole matter is founded upon reasons and speculations too exact, and too refined, to be of common use to mankind. This last reason alone will sufficiently justify the wisdom and goodness of God, in proposing to the world a safe and general method for the salvation of sinners; for what if you have penetration enough to see a way for sinners to escape under natural religion; must your great parts be a measure for God’ s dealing with the world? Shall thousands and thousands live and die without comfort because they cannot reason as you do? This consideration should make those who have the highest opinion of themselves, and therefore of natural religion, adore the goodness of God in condescending to the infirmities of men, and showing them the way to mercy, which they were unable to find out. This He has done by the revelation of the Gospel of Christ, which is the sinner’ s great charter of pardon, a certain remedy against all the terrors and fears of guilt. IV. Accidental disorders of mind or body. Whatever the union of soul and body is, so united they are, that the disorders of one often derive themselves to the other. A melancholy mind will waste the strength and bring paleness and leanness upon the body; disorders in the body do often affect the mind; a stroke of the palsy will rob a man of the use of his understanding, and leave him disabled in mind as well as body. For this reason it is that I ascribe some religious fears to the disorders of the body, though they properly belong to the mind. These terrors cannot be imputed as a blemish to religion; not by him, at least, who acknowledges the providence of God, and whose principle of religion is reason; for all madness is destructive of reason, as much as these terrors are of religion: they are both destructive: they are evils to which we must submit; and if we cannot account for the reason of them, it becomes us to be dumb, and not open our mouths in His presence whose ways are past finding out. (Bp. Sherlock.) Psalms 88:18 Lover and friend hast Thou put far from me, and mine acquaintance into darkness.On sorrow for the death of friends I. The sorrow which we naturally feel when we are bereaved of dear and worthy friends, and the bounds within which it ought to be restrained. If Christianity pronounces it the height of profligacy to be without natural affections, the tears which flow from such affections, Christianity cannot forbid. What nature hath implanted the religion of Jesus means not to extirpate, but to moderate and direct. Shall it not calm the soul tossed with tempests, and if not dry up, at least diminish, the flowing tears, that a voice from heaven, the voice of the spirit of truth, declares: “ Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord” ? They see God as He is. They are satisfied with His likeness. II. The practical lessons which we ought to receive from the death of our Christian friends.1. It should impress on our minds a deep and lasting sense of our own mortality. 2. It should teach us the vanity and nothingness of this world. 3. It demonstrates the worth and excellency of religion. 4. It teaches us how important it is to discharge our duty to friends who yet survive. 5. It should kindle Within us a longing desire for a blessed eternity. We naturally wish to be with those whom we love. When Jacob hears that his son Joseph is yet alive, and advanced to great honour in Egypt, he cannot rest till he goes down there to see him. And when our friends have left that land in which we are yet strangers and pilgrims, our affections should be more weaned from it, and our desires inflamed to get to that better land, whither they have gone before us. (John Erskine, D. D.) The hand of God in removing our friends and acquaintances far from us I. The heavy affliction with which the psalmist was visited. In the removal of his friends and relatives he had lost--1. Their company. 2. Their counsel and advice. 3. The sight of their good works and examples. 4. Their prayers. II. The psalmist’ s devout acknowledgment of the hand of God in this affliction.1. He removeth our friends, who hath a right to do it. (1) They were our friends, but they are His creatures; and may He not do what He will with His own? (2) They were our friends; but do we not hope and believe that, by repentance, faith in Christ, and sanctifying grace, they were become His friends too? dear to Him by many indissoluble ties? Hath He not then a superior claim to them, and a greater interest in them? Is it not fit that He should be served first? His knowledge is perfect and unerring: His goodness boundless and never-failing. Application 1. The cause here described is a very pitiable one. Let us weep with them that weep, and pray for them. 2. Let us bless God for the friends we have had, and all the comfort we enjoyed in them. 3. Let us humbly submit to the will of God when He putteth our friends far from us. 4. Let us be careful and diligent to make a due improvement of such afflictions. (1) Let our departed friends still live in our memory, honour and affection. (2) Let us carefully recollect and consider what was excellent and praiseworthy in them, as every good man hath some peculiar, distinguishing excellencies, and let us imitate them. (3) Let us follow them in the path of Christian duty, obedience and zeal; endeavour to supply their lack of service, and be quickened to do so much the more good, because their time and opportunity are ended. (4) Let us particularly learn from their removal to be dead to this world. 5. Let us be thankful for our friends yet living, and faithfully perform our duty to them. 6. Let us make sure of a friend who will never leave us: even the almighty and everlasting God. (Job Orton, D. D.) The loss of connections deplored and improved I. The connections which give a charm to life.1. “ Lover.” As this is distinguished from friend and acquaintance, it stands for the tender relative. The husband, the wife, the father, the mother, the child, the brother, the sister, and other dear ties of flesh and blood. 2. “ Friend.” This is a sacred name, which many usurp, and few deserve. It cannot be applied to the confederate in sin; or to the mercenary, selfish wretch, that loves you because he wants to make use of you, as a builder values a ladder, or a passenger a boat. Friendship is founded in a community of heart. It supposes some strong congeniality, yet admits of great diversity. 3. “ Acquaintances” are distinguished from friends. The former may be numerous; the latter must be limited. The one is for the parlour, the other is for the closet. We give the hand to the one, we reserve the bosom for the other. II. Two ways by which we may be deprived of our connections.1. By desertion. The highest degree of this crime is the want of natural affection. Perfidy is a vile thing, but not a very rare one. How many kiss in order to betray; and gain your confidence, to sting when you are lulled to sleep. 2. By bereavement. This is principally, if not exclusively here intended. Several things add poignancy to the loss. (1) In some cases the bereaved are deprived of worldly support.(2) We are deprived of their company.(3) We can have no intercourse or correspondence with them.(4) They cannot promote our welfare where they now are. III. The agency of God in their removal. He has done it--1. Who is almighty and irresistible (Job 9:12). 2. Who had a right to do it. If they were your friends, they were His creatures and servants; and was He obliged to ask your permission to do what He would with His own? 3. Who was too wise to err, and too kind to injure in doing it. IV. Application. Improve such dispensations in a way of--1. Sympathy. 2. Gratitude. 3. Precaution. 4. Resignation. (W. Jay.) A loss bewailed It is an extreme distress that is portrayed in this psalm. I. The threefold loss.1. There are, or ought to be, three circles round every man like the belts or rings round a planet,--love, friendship, and acquaintanceship. (1) Love is the nearest, while, at the same time, it lends its value to the other two. Friendship and acquaintanceship have no real pith, or substance, or value in them, except as they are permeated by the spirit of the nearest circle. It is love that receives and nurtures us; it is love that knits the closest and tenderest bonds; it is love that is the sunshine and the strength of life; it is love by which we do good, by which we get good. Men learn to love by loving intensely a few. The heart is not a vessel of quantity which has only a certain amount to give. The more it gives, the more it has to give. It is filled by the effort to empty itself. (2) Friendship comes next, and implies certain sympathies. Happy is the man who has right true-hearted friends to sustain him in good principles, to reflect and stimulate noble feelings, and to cheer him in sorrow. Many are the blessings of friendship, but the chief is a genial brotherliness, a certain unexplained understanding, an undefined sympathy, an easy, unconstrained, general harmony. (3) Outside the circle of friendship is the larger but vague circle of acquaintance shading and thinning gradually off into the general world of humanity. Acquaintanceship broadens a man. It is some sort of bond between those who can have no close relation. It tends to cement and sweeten human society. 2. There is a period in life when ties are formed, but there comes a time when the breaking of ties is more frequent. That is a great part of the sadness of life, that, as one wears on in his journey, the friends of his early days drop off. Oh, strange life! It is a contradiction to our nature and to right, an enigma insoluble but for the light of another world, that we should be encouraged and impelled to throw our affections round men only to have the ties rudely snapt. Oh, strange; if there is nothing beyond this, that it should be our duty, our elevation, and our noblest impulse, to love strongly, to love as if we were never to part, all the while that parting lies but a little way before us. II. Reflections.1. Thinking of departed friends will help us to realize our own death. We need to realize death in order to be sober, in order to intensify all that is good, and to drive off vain thoughts. Yea, we need to realize death in order to conquer death, and live while we live. 2. Thinking of our departed will help to take away the bitterness of death. Death gets identified with the thought of father, or mother, or sister, or brother, or husband, or wife, or child, or friend, and we feel that we dare not, and cannot, shrink from going to them. 3. Thinking of the departed will enable us to realize immortality. Can you think of that friend, knowing all that was in him; and entertain the thought, even for a moment, that he has ceased to be? Is it not treachery and insult to his memory? 4. Thinking of the departed cannot but fill us with regret and penitence. To remember angry words or selfishness towards the departed is a bitter thing. It is good to be ashamed and blush before God for hardness, meanness, or selfishness. It is good to be brought to this lowly, contrite mood, though it be over the grave of the departed. That place of death may be the birthplace of eternal life. (J. Leckie, D. D.) Our threefold relationship to Christ 1. Acquaintance--knowing about Him only;--His birth, His life, His words familiar, but Himself unknown. Familiar with His circumstances, but ignorant of His true life--that heart of love. 2. Friend how much nearer is this! Here is trust; here is fellowship; here is love. His claim is admitted and is responded to, and His company is welcomed with delight. 3. But there is another relationship, infinitely more tender and more complete, which we may venture to claim as ours--lover: to love Him with a love that possesses us, that masters us, that subdues and compels all that we are and all that we have for His service and pleasure: a love which finds its highest heaven in His joy, its deepest hell in His grief: a love which has and holds Him for its own, for ever and for ever. This He seeks as His solace; this He offers to us as our high privilege and joy. (M. G. Pearse.) . Psalms 89:1-52 Psalms 89:1-52I will sing of the mercies of the Lord for ever.A majestic song This psalm is one of the very choicest songs in the night. Midst a stream of troubled thoughts there stands a fair island of rescue and redemption, which supplies standing-room for wonder and worship; while the music of the words, like the murmuring of a river, sounds sweetly in our ears. The writer was bearing bitter reproach, and was almost broken-hearted by the grievous calamities of his nation. Yet his faith was strong in the faithfulness of God, and so he sang of the stability of the Divine covenant when the outlook of circumstances was dark and cheerless. Nor did he ever sing more sweetly than he sang in that night of his sorrow. I. The eternal builder, and His wonderful work (Psalms 89:2). I can see a vast mass of ruins. Heaps upon heaps they lie around me. A stately edifice has tottered to the ground. Some terrible disaster has occurred. There it lies--cornice, pillar, pinnacle, everything of ornament and of utility, broken, scattered, dislocated. The world is strewn with the debris. Journey where you will the desolation is before your eyes. Who has done this? Who has cast down this temple? What hand has ruined this magnificent structure? Manhood, manhood it is which has been destroyed, and sin was the agent that effected the fall. Alas for manhood that it should be thus fallen and destroyed! But what else do I see? I behold the great original Builder coming forth from the ivory palaces to undo this mischief; and He cometh not with implements of destruction, that He may cast down and destroy every vestige, but I see Him advancing with plummet and line, that He may rear, set up, and establish on a sure foundation a noble pile that shall not crumble with time, but endure throughout all ages. He cometh forth with mercy. So “ I said” as I saw the vision, “ Mercy shall be built up for ever.” The psalmist has the idea of God’ s mercy being manifest in building, because a great breach has to be repaired, and the ruins of mankind are to be restored. As for building, it is a very substantial operation. A building is something which is palpable and tangible to our senses. We may have plans and schemes which are only visionary, but when it comes to building there is something real being done, something more than surveying the ground and drawing the model. And oh, what real work God has done for men! What real work in the gift of His dear Son! The product of His infinite purpose now becomes evident. He is working out His great designs after the counsel of His own will. A building is an orderly thing as well as a fixed thing. There is a scheme and design about it. Mercy shall be built. I see that it shall. This is no load of bricks shot out. It is polished stones builded one upon another. God’ s grace and goodness toward me have not come to me by chance, or as the blind distribution of a God who cared for all alike, and for none with any special purpose. No, but there has been as much a specialty of purpose to me as if I were the only one He loved, though, praised be His name, He has blessed and is blessing multitudes of others beside me. Now, think upon these words--“ built up.” It is not merely a long, low wall of mercy that is formed, to make an inclosure or to define a boundary, but it is a magnificent pile of mercy, whose lofty heights shall draw admiring gaze, that is being built up. God puts mercy on the top of mercy, and He gives us one favour that we may be ready to receive another. Once again would I read this verse with very great emphasis, and ask you to notice how it rebukes the proud and the haughty, and how it encourages the meek and lowly in spirit. “ I have said mercy shall be built up for ever.” In the edification of the saints there is nothing else but mercy. I wish I had an imagination bold and clear, uncramped by all ideas of the masonry of men, free to expand, and still to cry, “ Excelsior.” Palaces, methinks, are paltry, and castles and cathedrals are only grand in comparison with the little cots that nestle on the plain. Even mountains, high as the Himalaya range or broad as the Andes, though their peaks be so lofty to our reckoning, are mere specks on the surface of the great globe itself, and our earth is small among the celestial orbs, a little sister of the larger planets. Figures fail me quite: my description must take another turn. I try, and try again, to realize the gradual rising of this temple of mercy which shall be built up for ever. Within the bounds of my feeble vision I can discern that it has risen above death, above sin, above fear, above all danger; it has risen above the terrors of the judgment day; it has outsoared the “ wreck of matter and the crash of worlds” ; it towers above all our thoughts. Our bliss ascends above an angel’ s enjoyments, and he has pleasures that were never checked by a pang; but he does not know the ineffable delight of free grace and dying love. The building-up will go on throughout eternity. II. An everlasting singer (Psalms 89:1). Here is a good and godly resolution: “ I will sing.” The singing of the heart is intended, and the singing of the voice is expressed, for he mentions his mouth; and equally true is it that the singing of his pen is implied, since the psalms that he wrote were for others to sing in generations that should follow. “ I will sing.” We cannot impart anything to the great temple which He is building; yet we can sit down and sing. This singing praise to God is a spiritual passion. The saved soul delights itself in the Lord, and sings on, and on, and on unwearily. “ I will sing for ever,” saith he. Not, “ I will get others to perform, and then I will retire from the service” ; but rather, “ I will myself sing: my own tongue shall take the solo, whoever may refuse to join in the chorus. I will sing, and with my mouth will I make known Thy faithfulness.” Now, note his subject. “ I will sing of the mercies of the Lord.” What, not of anything else? Are the mercies of the Lord his exclusive theme? “ Arma virumque cano” --“ Arms and the man, I sing,” says the Latin poet. “ Mercies and my God, I sing,” says the Hebrew seer. “ I will sing of mercies,” says the devout Christian. This is the fount of mercy, whereof if a man doth drink he shall sing far better than he that drinketh of the Castalian fount, and on Parnassus begins to tune his harp. This singing of Ethan was intended to be instructive. How large a class did he want to teach? He intended to make known God’ s mercy to all generations. Modern thought does not adventure beyond the tithe of a century, and it gets tame and tasteless before half that tiny span of sensationalism has given it time to evaporate. But the echoes of truth are not so transient; they endure, and by means of the printing press we can teach generation after generation, leaving books behind us as this good man has bequeathed this psalm, which is teaching us to-night, perhaps more largely than it taught any generation nearer to him. Will you transmit blessed testimonies to your children’ s children? It should be your desire to do something in the present life that will live after you are gone. We instinctively long for a sort of immortality here. Let us strive to get it, not by carving our names on some stone, or writing our epitaphs upon a pillar, as Absalom did when he had nothing else by which to commemorate himself; but get to work to do something which shall be a testimony to the mercy of God, that others shall see when you are gone. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The uncovenanted mercies of God Ethan was the author of this psalm. It belongs to the early reign of Rehoboam, and to the invasion of Shishak. As Ethan recalled and weighed the clauses of the covenant, and compared them with the political facts of this distressful year, his mind was tossed into an agitation and distress from which he could find no relief, save in the large adventure and conclusion of faith, that the calamities which had fallen on David’ s kingdom and seed were, after all, only the loving corrections by which God was chastening them for their transgressions; and that, therefore, so far from breaking, God was fulfilling His covenant with them. Even God’ s covenants with men are but particular instances of His general ways, of His dealings with humanity at large; so that, in the very fullest sense which the words can be made to bear, it is true that His mercy endures for ever, that His faithfulness extends to all generations. There is a general impression abroad that a radical and vast difference obtains between what are called the covenanted and the un-covenanted mercies of God; that but for certain promises which He has made, and certain engagements into which He has entered, we should have little to hope for from Him. The doctrine of covenants plays, and must play, a large part in every system of theology. But every Divine promise is but a limited expression of a general principle. Every Divine covenant, even if it be made with a few, is nevertheless made for the benefit of the many, and can only be an instance of His ways, an illustration of a mercy as wide as the heavens, and of a faithfulness which extends to all generations of mankind. God can make no promise inconsistent with His character. Any momentary glimpse we can catch of God’ s attitude towards men reveals His constant and unchanging attitude. To every man who loves and trusts and serves Him He will be all that He was to David . . . Who can deny the mercy of that high Will which made the law of retribution the law--or rather, one of the laws--of human life? As for the inexorable severity with which this law of retribution is administered, how can we but acknowledge that it needs to be administered with an invariable and constant severity? Take all the facts of human experience, then, and you will feel that there is mercy even in that law of retribution which seems most opposed to the rule of an Infinite Compassion and Love. If you believe in a work of redemption as well as in a law of retribution, there is absolutely no reason why you should not sing, with Ethan, of a mercy which is being built up for ever, and of a faithfulness which is establishing itself in the all-embracing heavens. (Samuel Cox, D.D.) Psalms 89:2 For I have said, Mercy shall be built up far ever. The building up of a good government for the world I. A good government for the world is a desirable thing. Human society would scarcely be possible without a government. II. A good government for the world is destined to be established (Psalms 89:3). The Supreme here pledges in the most solemn way the establishing of a government in the world of which David’ s is a most imperfect type, viz. the moral reign of Christ. This reign will be the reign of truth and love, and will one day be commensurate with the race. III. A good government for the world will be reared by mercy and faithfulness. “ Mercy” and “ faithfulness” are to be the elements of which it is to be composed. As all the great mountains in nature are built up of certain elements, all grand and beneficent institutions in the world are built of mercy and faithfulness. (Homilist.) The house of mercy (to children):--Mercy is here compared to a building. I. The builder. Strangers when they visit this great metropolis, and see some of its remarkable buildings, such as St. Paul’ s Cathedral, for instance, very naturally ask, “ Who was the builder of this beautiful edifice?” The answer would be, “ Sir Christopher Wren.”1. A wise builder. 2. A mighty builder. II. The name of the building. The house of mercy.1. A very beautiful name. 2. A most just and proper name. Every little child who goes to the door of this House of Mercy, and asks admittance, is instantly received; and, when admitted, that child receives from Him who raised the building the choicest mercies--the mercy of pardon, the mercy of acceptance, the mercy of adoption, the mercy of holiness, and of a title to heaven. III. The foundation of the building. Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 3:11). IV. The apartments of the building.1. The storeroom, containing precious food. The bread of life, etc. Also medicine for the sick and diseased. The balm of Gilead, etc. 2. The wardrobe, containing the robe of righteousness, the garments of salvation, etc. 3. The armoury (Ephesians 6:13-17). 4. The library, containing books of history; books of doctrine; books of promises; books of threatening (these are all bound in black, and are very dreadful-looking books, though of great importance); books of precepts; books of songs, and oh, what beautiful songs! the songs of David, and other sweet singers of Israel; books of prophecy; and books of experience, such as the Psalms, Lamentations, and Job. V. The excellencies of the building. It is--1. Ancient.2. Large.3. Commodious.4. Beautiful.5. High.6. Durable. If you look at a building in this city which is ten years old you will see that it shows the effects of the elements upon it; it hears traces of the frost and smoke and rain. But there is no change in this beautiful building. It is very commodious. There is every comfort within these walls for every one without exception. It is filled with light. It is warm. There is no cold winter within that noble edifice. VI. The inhabitants of the building.1. All forgiven.2. All sons and daughters of the living God.3. All beautiful--no deformity there.4. All happy. VII. The road to the building. Every one who enters is convinced of three things:--1. That he is a sinner.2. That he is in danger of hell.3. That he will never be saved till he enters this Building of Mercy. VIII. The door of the building. The righteousness of Christ--what He did, became, and suffered. IX. The servants employed to invite sinners to enter the building. (A. Fletcher, D.D.) Thy faithfulness shalt Thou establish in the very heavens. The establishment of God’ s faithfulness God draws us into the conscious knowledge and enjoyment of His faithfulness-- I. By keeping the promises of His grace to us. II. By engaging us in special work. Though we have omnipotence on our side, God will employ the last ounce of our strength. He will not spare us thought, anxiety, trouble, endurance, labour, no, nor even some measure of disappointment--nothing that can conduce to make us workmen that need not be ashamed, and soldiers who can endure hardness. (J. P. Gledstone.) God’ s faithfulness That is a Christmas psalm chosen for the day, and it is the psalm of dauntless courage, for it is a song that sings always the lovingkindness of the Lord; it goes up out of the darkness of desolation, it sees no cause for cheerfulness ringing it round as it sings. The singer stands, he tells us, in the heart of a great dismay. The cause of God is in ruin and contempt and impotence and misery. And yet, and yet he has but one song, and he must sing it out in defiance of his generation. No dishonour shall defeat it, no darkness shall choke it, no doubt or hesitation, no soreness or anger shall cloud his upward look or hold down the outpouring of his soul. The old words shall sing out from his lips which have never yet failed down all the long years. We would turn to this singer of long ago to ask him how it was that he retained his heroic confidence. What was his secret, in the thick of those old-world troubles, by force of which he still sang on this unswerving chant of victory? Can he pass the secret on to us who need it so sorely?1. First, he relies absolutely on a word that God has once uttered, on a pledge that God has given to him (Psalms 89:3-4). God has said it, God has sworn it. That is what he relies on! This looks so simple, but to estimate it aright let us recall that we touch here on that elementary conception of God which differentiated the Jew’ s religion from all others. The Jew laid hold of God by this primary title, that He was a God who kept His word. A righteous God, so he called Him, and by righteousness he meant a God whose word can be trusted, and a God who never failed His pledge. This is the vital significance of the Jew that he was the first who took God seriously, the first to believe that God meant what He said, that what He spoke He spoke with a real and fixed purpose, and having spoken He held Himself bound by His own pronouncement. 2. Secondly, to justify his own confident assurance, he corroborates his belief in the verbal consistency of God by looking to that other handiwork of His, the vast fabric of ordered Nature. There it moves in its superb persistence, the immovable witness to the unchanging loyalty of God. Everywhere among the sequence of infinite changes God’ s original creative word holds on changeless and true (Psalms 89:8-11). Surely if a Jew had been allowed to know what we know of all that science tells us of the uniformities of Nature, of the persistence and conservation of force, he would have seen in these disclosures, not as we so stupidly do, the terms of a godless mechanism, but exactly the phrase that would best report his assurance of an imminent God. Everything that told him of the immutable permanence of a natural law beneath and through all change spoke to him directly of God Himself. Uniformity, persistence, conservation, yes, that is what he desires to find with all his soul in the world that God has made. That is the evidence he clings to of a God who keepeth His promise, whose word never faileth, the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever. 3. Thirdly, he finds the like witness yielded by the solid securities of history. “ Thou hast subdued Egypt” --God has done it, and if He has done it, surely not in vain, surely not without a fixed and final purpose! A historic act like that is a pledge put down by God: “ Hath He begun and shall He not finish?” Here again it is the faithfulness of God to which the appeal is made. “ He keepeth His promise for ever,” the promise sealed by His deeds; He will prove Himself consistent; if He take one step He will follow it by another; if He gives a decision He will hold to it. That is the significance of the actual deeds done in history. They are stakes laid versesown which cannot be withdrawn. They lay the honour and the power under obligation, and He cannot afford to retract. And God is honourable; He has a reputation which lie will keep clear at all hazards. And God has made His choice; He has laid down His stakes, He has taken His side, He has ventured His honour, He did it when He brought up Israel out of Egypt. He has done it since throughout the long story of His people whom He had fathered and shepherded, on whom He set His name; He has consummated this by the further steps taken when He went to give Israel a king and chose David for the kingdom. “ Thou spakest,” our psalm goes on, “ Thou spakest sometimes in visions and said, I have found David,” etc. All this has been done--it is down in the pages recorded in history which cannot be blotted out. What is done cannot be undone, and what God has done binds God as it binds a man. His will has gone out of it, He will never gainsay. That is the Divine freedom, that He binds Himself by His own deeds and His own words. His truth once more is His troth, His righteousness is the assurance that He will never fail to justify Himself. No, even if the witness of Nature were to fail, yet the witness of God’ s own acts in history would abide. God is true, God keeps His word. We want nothing further wherewith to meet the year before us. There may be anxieties and the sense of social trouble and a cloudy outlook, but nothing shall rob us of our song. (Canon Scott Holland.) Divine faithfulness A learned minister, attending an aged Christian in humble life, when in his last illness, remarked that the passage in Hebrews 13:5, “ I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee,” was much more emphatic in the original language than in our translation, inasmuch as it contained no fewer than five negatives in proof of the validity of the Divine promise, and not merely two, as it appears in the English version; intending by this remark to convey to him that, in consequence of the number of negatives, the promise was expressed with much greater force in the original language than in the English. The man’ s reply was very simple and striking: “ I have no doubt, sir, that you are quite right, but I can assure you that if God had only spoken once I should have believed Him just the same.” Psalms 89:5 And, the heavens shall praise Thy wonders, O Lord. The wondrousness of God I. His wonderfulness is the inspiration of universal worship. Awe, reverence, amazement, enter into the highest worship, but these could not exist if the object were fully comprehended. II. His wonderfulness is seen in his faithfulness. How wonderful that He has remained unaltered and unalterable amidst all the changes of nature, all the revolutions of millenniums! Faithful ever, to Himself and His word, no swerving from His promises, no deviations from His plans. III. His wonderfulness is manifest in his absolute incomparableness. (Isaiah 40:18; Deuteronomy 33:29; Psalms 53:10; Psalms 71:19.) (Homilist.) Psalms 89:6 For who In the heaven can be compared unto the Lord? The greatness of God The true God, Sovereign of heaven and earth, is incomparably great-- I. In His being and existence.1. Eternal.2. Perfect.3. Independent.4. Unchangeable. There are no tenses with God--past, present, and to come; but one eternal Now. II. In His attributes and perfections.1. Holiness.2. Wisdom and knowledge.3. Power.4. Justice.5. Patience.6. Love and goodness. III. In his works.1. Creation.2. Providence.3. Redemption and human salvation. Concluding inferences.1. Is God so great?--what a horrid nature sin is of, and rebellion against such a God I--yes, horrid the sin and folly that attempts to oppose God! 2. If God be so great, what love, reverence, worship, and obedience we owe to Him! 3. Is God so great?--what must be His condescension to notice such creatures as we are! 4. If God be so great, what must it be to be under His wrath for ever! 5. If God he so great, what will it be to enjoy His love, favour, and presence for ever. (T. Jones.) Psalms 89:7 God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints.A model social gathering Men meet in vast multitudes for pleasure, for counsel, and for worship. The text indicates a social gathering of the highest type. I. The characters united in this gathering. The word “ saint” means a sanctified or godly person. II. The Divine presence in this gathering. God is in this “ assembly.” All the members “ are about Him.”1. There is more of God seen in these assemblies than can be seen elsewhere on earth. There is more of God seen in the thoughts, emotions, and aspirations of the holy soul than the brilliant firmament can reveal. 2. There is more of God felt in these assemblies than can be felt elsewhere on earth. III. The heavenly spirit pervading this gathering. God is great--great in kindness there, and they have reverent gratitude; He is great in glory there, and they have reverent adoration. (Homilist.) On the fear of God I. The reasons which render a great fear of God, in religious services, necessary and becoming.1. The mysteriousness and un-searchableness of God, and of all those things which employ our mind in worship. 2. The infinite fulness of peculiar glory, which resides in the Divine Being. 3. His Majesty, as the Creator, Law-giver, and Judge of mankind. 4. The sublime majesty which appears in the character and procedure of God in the work of redemption. (1) Its first projection in the sovereign counsels of God. (2) The terrible events that have come to pass in subserviency to this work, and, as it were, to make room for its glory. (3) How shall we think or speak of that unspeakable majesty, which beams forth from the Son of God, when we contemplate Him as descending into our low nature, and accomplishing the mysterious purchase of salvation! (4) The awful majesty which attends the Spirit’ s work in applying redemption to the souls of the elect. II. The quality of this holy fear.1. Our fear of God, in solemn approaches to Him, is not worthy to be called “ great” fear until it begins almost to overwhelm the strength both of soul and body. 2. Those who fear God greatly are brought to a pressing sense of their need of shelter and support by a fresh and powerful application of Christ to their souls. 3. This great fear makes the soul exceedingly deliberate, cautious, and diligent in preparation for the more solemn seasons of communion with God. 4. This fear gives such an impulse to the soul as makes it break through all reluctance in the exercises of self-denial and the mortification of sin. 5. Where God is greatly feared there will be much regard to His sacred institutions, even in their minutest circumstances. 6. There will also be much coolness and indifference as to those outward circumstances in religious duties which engage the chief attention of carnal minds. 7. This great fear of God raises the soul above the cowardly fear of man, or of outward sufferings in the cause of Christ. 8. The greatness of this fear of God is manifested by an undaunted adherence to the people of God in the most hazardous times. 9. This great fear keeps a man at an awful distance from the pollutions of the world. Unhallowed pleasure, unjust gains, profane witticisms, are no better, in such a man’ s eyes, than a cup of sweetened poison. 10. The great degree of this holy fear is manifested by the vehement transports of joy, gratitude, and triumph which accompany a refreshing sense of the love of Christ. Application:--1. To those who are concerned and troubled in spirit, for their being destitute of the true fear of God. (1) Beware of stifling your convictions, or suffering them to be blown out by others. (2) Beware of resting in convictions, or of thinking yourselves safe, merely because you see the misery of your state. (3) Use your utmost endeavour to put yourselves in the hands of Christ, unreservedly, that He may powerfully draw you to Himself, and bring you to the true fear of God. (4) Do not conclude that your state is good till you find in yourselves a holy light, and a holy propensity of soul, leading you out to desire and to delight in the fear of God for its own sake (Nehemiah 1:11). 2. To those who know experimentally what it is to fear God and to fear Him greatly. (1) Glorify the distinguishing mercy of God. You might have been hardened, as others are. (2) Beware of resting in your attainments and frames. These are precious effects of grace; but they are not your righteousness before God. (3) Beware of losing what you have attained. “ Hold fast that which thou hast,” etc. (4) Press forward, after a higher perfection in the service of God. They who think themselves perfect are not, yet sincere. (5) Strive for the conversion of others. Seek earnestly that the power and majesty of God may be more gloriously visible in His sanctuary and in the lives of professed Christians. (John Love, D.D.) Reverence Reverence is defined as that spiritual susceptibility of our nature by which we touch and realize the sacred in life. Comparing reverence with awe, there is the element of fear in both. Fear enters into reverence, and fear enters into awe. But there is this important difference: the fear in reverence is born of love. The child that reveres its father fears because it loves. But reverence has in it, respect as well as fear. A lad respects his mother, but you cannot respect a mountain or the sun. You can admire these. So that in awe there is admiration, while in reverence there is respect; and respect can only be moral in its nature and personal in its object. Now, what are those objects which alone can inspire true reverence, objects in which the age has too truly lost faith, and in the going of faith there has been the going of reverence?1. There is the highest of all objects--God. But what has been the teaching of the age? The answer is “ Material Science.” The age has produced vivisection (in the interests, of course, of science), and not, only physical but literary vivisection, and this has made for irreverence. The most sacred things in life are cut up on the dissecting-tables of our literature, such as marriage, chastity, woman, truth, the Sabbath. The result of all this is that the age has lost real faith in God--I mean such a faith as Oliver Cromwell had. Much of the faith which remains is half-hearted, unreal, and semi-atheistic or semi-agnostic. 2. From the Divine Being--the highest possible object--we come to the revelation of this Infinite Being contained in the Holy Scriptures. The only fitting reverence, according to the notion of too many people, is to put the Holy Book on a shelf by itself, and never to commit the sacrilege of opening its pages with unholy hands; and when the dust gathers thick on its covers, not to commit the sacrilege of removing the dust with so secular a thing as a duster. That is the way too many people show their reverence for this holy Book. Besides, in this generation there has grown up a great Biblical literature--i. e., a literature on the Bible, books of exposition and commentary and theology on the different books of the Bible, and the result is that even the student of the Bible is face to face with a great temptation--a temptation peculiar to our times--viz, of reading those books on the Bible, and neglecting to read the Bible itself. Furthermore, we no longer believe--to put, the matter extremely--that this Book dropped from the sky, as the Koran is said to have done. The spirit of the age has convinced us that it is the production of earth. Man, under Divine inspiration, was the penman; man as prophet, priest, psalmist, apostle; man in many places, at many times; man with his powers lifted to the highest--but, still man, exhibiting everywhere the human hand; man, real man, and not a mere machine. We have the treasure in an earthen vessel. Our day has brought out into bold relief the sarthenness or the earthiness of the vessel, that there is danger in us forgetting the treasure, or in making the treasure to be earthen too. 3. After the object of the Bible we come to the object of man. Man ought to inspire reverence in man. But our age is essentially democratic, and while we heartily believe in democracy, this spirit, nevertheless, has been making for irreverence. Democracy preaches the doctrine of the rights of man on the broad basis of manhood, irrespective of his place in society. And in transferring the emphasis from mere place, birth, station, belongings, rank to character, sterling worth, brains, service, wisdom, it has tended to destroy reverence based on the former things, and to create a reverence based on the latter things. But while the democratic spirit has been tending thus, teaching us that brain and heart, life and character, spirit and service, hitherto underrated perhaps, or even entirely neglected when not linked to social status, ought to be, wherever found, the object of our respect and homage, and that no man with a spark of self-respect should bemean himself to act the snob, and bow down to wealth and position for their sole sake, at the same time this democratic spirit has had an unhealthy tendency in many, unable to discriminate between man and man. You hear the phrase, “ Jack is as good as his master,” and “ One man is as good as another.” All this tends to the destruction of faith in man, and therefore of reverence to man. When faith in man disappears, reverence to him cannot continue. How can I reverence man if every man is on my own level? To reverence man I must be able to look up to him, and neither down upon him nor at him on my own level. 4. The fourth object is human nature, and this comes after that of man; and I ask, Is not the temper of the times cynical? What faith is there in disinterestedness? The question of Satan is constantly repeated, “ Does Job fear God for nought?” The pure and disinterested motivity of Christian service is questioned. The cynical spirit is fatal to any faith in human nature. We cannot reverence that in which we have no faith. But we ought to reverence human nature, and therefore we ought to have faith in it. Degraded human nature may become--as it often has become--redeemed, sanctified human nature. No man is so low in the pit that he cannot be dug out. The worst we need not despair of. Disinterested goodness is a grand possibility to every man, as it is a blessed actuality to some. When we think of the great souls of the earth like Francis or Elizabeth Fry or John Howard, who readily renounced ease and comfort and refinement and civilized life, and even life itself, because they had a passionate love for Christ and for men, we are filled with a new “ respect for our nature, and a new hope for the world.” 5. The last object I will mention as a legitimate source of reverence is the past. The mighty past ought to call forth in me the feeling of respect; not all the past, for much there was in the life of yesterday which we can only renounce and denounce in our life to-day. Still the roots of our life to-day are in the soil of yesterday. The present always has its roots in the past. Let us remember-- (1) That our day is not perfect. There is very much to deplore all round; there are dangerous tendencies in the air. (2) What good there is in our life to-day has its roots in the life of yesterday. The knowledge that the life of our day is better than the life of yesterday ought not to rob us of respect for the day of our beginnings. But our real beginning is God. God is our source as well as our goal. Religion goes backward as well as forward. Behind us are the reformers, the fathers, the apostles, the prophets, the patriarchs, God. (P. McPhail.) Psalms 89:8I have made a covenant with My chosen, I have sworn unto David My servant. The covenant of redemption The psalmist is anticipating the time when the families of mankind should be raised from a condition of spiritual ruin, when the covenant should be given back to them, whereby they should be brought back to a state of reconciliation and friendship with God. This rising fabric which the psalmist here contemplated, therefore, instead of being an edifice of temporal prosperity, appears before us as a great spiritual temple, of which the plan is laid in the eternal ages, and of which the building up and the completion is to be effected by the eternal Son of God. I. The origin of the covenant of grace. It was devised and set on foot by God Himself. It was not to propitiate the Father that Christ came into the world. It was that God so loved the world that He sent His Son into the world. Here, therefore, is our security. It is the Judge Himself signing the prisoner’ s release. It is the infinite Creditor Himself forgiving us all our debt. It is the King whose laws we had broken, against whose throne we had conspired, and whose sceptre we had cast aside; He it is who out of love and mercy to us, and in the councils of infinite wisdom, originated that convenant whereby we may be restored to His friendship and reconciliation. II. With whom this covenant was made. “ My chosen,” --the eternal Son of God. Both actively and passively Christ manages the whole business of our salvation. It is therefore--1. Everlasting.2. Perfect.3. Sure. III. For whose benefit this covenant was intended, (1 Timothy 2:4; John 3:16; 1 John 2:2.) (D. Moore, M.A.) Psalms 89:9 Thou rulest the raging of the sea: when the waves thereof arise, Thou stillest them. The Divine government of the tumultuous I. He rules the material sea. How furious does the old ocean sometimes become, how its billows often rise like mountains, roar like lions, and battle like demons! But God rules them. He has set a boundary to them. “ He holds the waters in the hollow of His hand.” II. He rules the mental sea. The material ocean is but a faint emblem of the mental seas, which are a thousand times deeper, larger and more awful.1. There is the sea of thought. In every individual mind, thoughts rise and break like billows on the shore, and frequently they are most tumultuous. On this globe there are no less than twelve hundred million such seas, and what is the population of this globe compared to the mental population of the universe? He rules all these seas, rules them all even in their most raging condition. 2. There is the sea of passion. How the passions of men often rage in individuals, communities, nations! How rage, too, the passions of hell. But God rules them all. (Homilist.) God ruling the storm I. None who saw the sea, and the destruction it caused, could fail to realize the helplessness of men in presence of those forces by which we are surrounded. The spectators could only wonder. Life was in jeopardy: it was saved at the risk of life. All honour to the men who applied their knowledge of the ways of the sea; that, with their own lives in their hands, they sought to save--and succeeded, too, in rescuing--their fellows from a watery grave. II. The goodness of God in restraining those forces against which we are so helpless. There is a point beyond which they cannot go. True, there are controlling laws. If the sea, rising under the influence of the sun and moon, reaches a very high point, it is stayed by other forces from going farther. But whence do these forces derive their existence? Not in the material itself. It is the working of His power. “ He rules the raging of the sea,” etc. Thus we discover order and design in the whole range of God’ s works; if one force presses downwards, others press upward; if one force imperils the existence of men, another force controls it; if in one direction there is danger, in another direction the means of safety are found. III. The uncertain tenure on which material good is secured to us. In every combination there are seeds of destruction in the material itself. IV. God is ever present in the varying conditions of our life. Can He be present in that storm? Did He see the danger of those who stood in peril of their life? No, He could not be there, is the hasty conclusion of most of us. When His waves overwhelm us can He be there? Did not the sea break loose from His hand? No; He rules the raging of the sea. There is a certain extent in which it can remove from its ordinary course, but then it is as much under control as when, with its smooth and glassy surface, it lies basking in the summer sun. And why? Because by His laws He is there. The force is His force, whether it be a storm or calm. Does He, then, destroy? No; the destruction is only to that which trespasses on the sea. His object is health, and the storm is the action of opposing forces restoring their equilibrium, working out purposes of sovereign skill. But God is there. What a consolation and strength! (H. W. Butcher.) Psalms 89:11 The heavens are Thine, the earth also is Thine. The affluence of God God owns the whole universe. I. He holds His vast property by absolute right. He produced all. II. He holds His vast property in perpetuity. All that men fictitiously call their property must pass from their hands. But God holds on His property untransferred and untransferable. III. He holds His vast properly for benevolent ends. Men hold what they call their property generally for selfish ends, for their own aggrandizement and gratification. But God for the good of all His creatures1. A lesson to human legislators. Their grand object should be to secure to the people, to the utmost of their power, the full use of the blessings of nature. 2. A lesson to all. Whatever we have is not ours but His. We hold it but in trust. (Homilist.) Psalms 89:13 Thou hast a mighty arm; strong is Thy hand, and high is Thy right hand.The mighty arm When the soul is perfectly reconciled to God, and comes to delight in Him, it rejoices in all His attributes. At the first, perhaps, it dwells almost exclusively upon His love and His mercy, but it afterwards proceeds to find joy in the sterner attributes, and especially delights itself in His holiness and in His power. How clearly is His power beheld in creation; there, indeed, O Lord, “ Thou hast a mighty arm.” We injure ourselves and dishonour our Creator when we pass over His works as if they were beneath the notice of spiritual minds. The world is not left to itself, or to tyrants; the might is with the right after all, for power belongeth unto God. But our theme just now is power in alliance with grace. I. First, the mighty arm of God displayed in the way of grace, as manifested in our experience.1. First, remember the Divine longsuffering. What a mighty arm of grace it must have been which held back the anger of God while we were in a state of rebellion and impenitence. Glory be unto Thy lovingkindness and Thy longsuffering, O God, for in them we see Thy mighty self-restraining power. 2. But, next, we saw the power of God so as to recognize it when the Lord subdued us by His mighty grace. What omnipotence is displayed in the conquest of every rebellious sinner! He makes the lion to lie down with the lamb, so that a little child shall lead it. Thus the power of God is seen in the conquest of sinners. That power is equally seen in their transformation; for is it not a marvel that God should be able to make old and corrupt rebels into new creatures in Christ Jesus? Every conversion is a display of omnipotence. To turn the wilderness into springs of water and the desert into a flowing stream is nothing compared with turning the dead, cold, dry heart of man into a mighty wellspring of love springing up unto eternal life. Glory be to Thy power, O Thou infinitely mighty Jehovah, Thou hast a mighty arm. 3. That same power is seen in the various deliverances which the Lord gives to His people at the outset, when their enemies come against them so fiercely. And, since then, in the continual upholding of the saints, in their final perseverance which is guaranteed, how much of the power of God is seen. Is it not a marvel that though your faith has been as a bruised reed it has not been broken, and though your piety has been like smoking flax it has never been quenched? Kept alive with death so near, preserved when enemies have been so fierce, will you not say indeed, “ Thou hast a mighty arm, strong is Thy right hand” ? II. The mighty arm of God as specially displayed in the person of christ jesus.1. In the choice of Him (Psalms 89:19). Christ is the incarnation of the power of Divine grace, in Him dwells the power of God to save the sons of men; and yet in what weakness it dwelt. Strong is Thy right hand, O Saviour, for by weakness and suffering and death thou hast overthrown all Thy people’ s foes. 2. In our Lord’ s anointing (Psalms 89:20). In His preaching there went out of His mouth a sharp two-edged sword with which He smote sin, because the Spirit of God was upon Him. On the day of Pentecost the Spirit bore witness in the entire body of Christ, making all His servants speak with tongues of fire. The Spirit of God is with Christ on earth still in His Church, so that, feeble though the speech of His ministers may be, a secret power attends it, irresistibly subduing the forces of evil. 3. Because of the continuance of the empire of Christ in the world (Psalms 89:21-23). 4. In His mighty intercession (Psalms 89:26). III. How is this power to re practically recognized?1. Yield to it. Shall wax fight with the fire, or tow contend with the flame? 2. Trust Him to save you. All power lies with Him, He can forgive all sin, and He can also subdue all iniquity, change the most depraved heart, and implant every grace in the soul (Isaiah 26:4). 3. Trust Him in everything. Bring your burdens, your troubles, your wants, your griefs, pour them out like water before Him, let them flow forth at the foot of the Almighty, and they shall pass away and you shall sing (Exodus 15:2). 4. Shake off all fear of man. Trust in God and fear not, for the mighty God of Jacob is with us, and greater is He that is for us than all they that can be against us. 5. As to thy service, to which thou art called by the Lord. If He be so strong, do not think of thine own weakness any longer, except as being a platform for His strength. Art thou weak as water? Then rejoice this day, and glory in infirmity, because the power of God shall rest upon thee. Think not of what thou canst do--that is a very small affair, but consider what He can do by thee. He can strengthen the feeble against the strong. 6. With regard to all the future which lies before you--is God so strong? Then commit it to His hands. You have a great trouble to face to-morrow, you are expecting a greater trouble still at the end of the week. Now, be not afraid, for the Lord liveth to deliver thee. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The mighty arm I. First, some few words about the power of God itself, having as my drift the stirring up of believers’ minds to ask and to expect a great display of it.1. God’ s power is like Himself, self-existent and self-sustained. Power in the creature is like water in the cistern; power in the Creator is like water in the fountain. The creature is the moon, which shines with reflected light; the Creator is the Sun whose light is underived, springing from Himself within. Naturally and spiritually this statement holds good. 2. God’ s power is comprehensive, including within itself all the power which resides in all the creatures in the universe. 3. The power of God is immutable. Whatever He did of old, He is able to repeat now. We talk of changing ages, but we must not dream of a changing God. 4. God’ s power is in the fulness of it irresistible. When He puts forth His omnipotence proud hearts are humbled, hard hearts are broken, iron melts, and rock dissolves. 5. God’ s power is entirely independent-of place, time, instruments. 6. God’ s power is infinite. Ask of Him that He would give the heathen unto Christ for His inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for His possession; for the sceptre of Jehovah shall go forth, and the monarchy of Christ shall be extended from the rising of the sun to the going down of the same. 7. This Divine power is all our own, for we are told that this God is our God for ever and ever. II. The manifestations of this power are very varied in character and altogether innumerable in multitude.1. In destruction (Psalms 89:10). Here is a very strong argument for the people of God to stir them up to pray. The fearful nature of the sinner’ s doom should arouse us to earnestness, vehement and abiding. Must we not plead with God when we think of our fellow-creatures who are liable to prove the terror of the Almighty’ s arm? 2. In creation (Psalms 89:11-12). His word fashioned the creation of old, and His word can work marvels still. Spoken by whomsoever He pleases to send, His word shall be as potent now as in primeval days. There may be darkness and confusion in the sinner’ s soul; a word shall remove all, and swift and quick, requiring not even six days. 3. In sustentation (Psalms 89:12). The mighty arm of God has been conspicuous in supporting His Church in years gone by. No voyage more dangerous than hers! She has tracked a narrow channel between threatening rocks and hidden quicksands. As for her crew, they have been a feeble folk, but little able to cope with boisterous elements and furious tempests. Oftentimes the good vessel of the Church has mounted up to heaven upon the crown of an outrageous billow, and anon has gone down again into the depths of a yawning sea, while her sailors have reeled like drunken men, staggering to and fro, being at their wits’ end; but they have cried unto the Lord in their trouble, and He who was strong to stir up the deep from its very bottom and make it boil like a pot, has been equally strong to speak the word and still the raving of its waves. Let us be then of good comfort. Why should not God bless and succour His well-beloved Church now? 4. In redemption. That was no light labour which Jesus undertook. Hercules cleansed the Augean stable, saith the fable, but what an Augean stable was this world! Yet Christ will purge it; He is purging it, did purge it by His death. This Aceldama shall yet become an Elysium; the field of blood shall be transformed into a garden of delights. III. The lessons from the whole. There have been vouchsafed in the past very wonderful manifestations of Divine favour. Churches have grown very lukewarm, ministers very dull, doctrines have become unsound, the hearts of God’ s people have failed, the faithful have almost died out; on a sudden God has raised up some one man, perhaps some half-dozen; and the face of the Church was changed from languor to energy. These men did but strike the spark, and the flame flew over all lands. The Reformation was a marvellous type of genuine revivals, God-given revivals, which have been frequent in all times. In England we have had them, in America they have been abundant. Ireland has not been without them. In the darkest day when every one said the cause of religion was growing hopeless, then the great lover of the Church has appeared. Have you never read the story of Livingstone preaching in a heavy shower of rain, outside the kirk of Shotts, to the multitude of people standing there, who would not stir from the hearing of the Word? Or have you not heard the story of Whitefield’ s mighty preaching, when the people moved to and fro, as the corn is moved by the wind in summer, and at last fell down beneath the Word as the sheaves fall before the reaper’ s scythe? Why may we not see all this again? Why not? And why not greater things than these? What hinders but our unbelief? O God, Thou hast a mighty arm.1. God has proved the power of His arm in the persons whom He has saved. Saul of Tarsus. Lo, here is a great and hard rock; now wield Thy great hammer, and the sparks shall fly, and the flintstone shall be broken into pieces. Quarry Thine own stones, O God, and make them fit for Thy temple, for “ Thou hast a mighty arm.” 2. This is seen sometimes in the number converted. Three thousand, in one day, under Peter’ s sermon; why not three thousand again? Why not thirty thousand? Why not three hundred thousand in a day? There is nothing too great for us to ask for, or for God to grant. He could, if He willed, turn the hearts of men, as He turns the rivers by His foot. 3. This might has been manifested in the instruments which the Lord has employed, He has taken the base things and the despised, to make them the medium of His power, and we have then said, “ Thou hast a mighty arm” to do such wonders by such puny things. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Psalms 89:14 Justice and judgment are the habitation of Thy throne.The throne of grace I. A view of the throne.1. What it is, and why so called. It is God manifesting Himself in our own nature, and dealing with sinners through Christ according to the grace of the Gospel (2 Corinthians 5:19-20). Now, God’ s administration of grace toward guilty sinners through Christ may be called a throne, either-- (1) With allusion unto the mercy-seat in the typical temple of Jerusalem; or-- (2) Because of the glorious greatness and royal majesty of God flint shines in this administration of grace through Christ. 2. What comfortable views of God are to be had by a guilty trembling sinner from this throne of grace. In general, every view of God here is inviting and encouraging. More particularly-- (1) God upon a throne of grace is to be seen as “ the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Ephesians 1:3). (2) From a throne of grace, God is to be seen as a God of love--yea, as love itself (1 John 4:16). (3) From a throne of grace, a guilty sinner may view Him as a God of peace (Hebrews 13:20). II. The foundation of this throne is justice and judgment.1. It is an ancient foundation; for Christ was “ set up from everlasting, or ever the earth was” ; He is “ the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” 2. It is a foundation of God’ s own laying, and He had pleasure in laying it (Isaiah 28:16). 3. It is a firm foundation (Matthew 16:18). 4. It is a tried foundation. Justice tried it, and found it firm and stable. The powers of hell tried to overturn this foundation; but their kingdom and power was broken in pieces in the enterprise. The saints have all tried this foundation, and proclaim it sufficient to bear their weight; yea, it is sufficient to bear the weight of all mankind--yea, of millions of worlds, if they existed, and would venture upon it (Hebrews 7:25). 5. It is a precious foundation (1 Peter 1:19). 6. It is a most beautiful foundation. What God says of His Church (Isaiah 54:11) is much more true of the throne of grace. III. Notice some pillars wherewith the throne is surrounded and supported. The foundation of this throne being laid in the satisfaction of justice, all the other perfections, or attributes, of the Divine nature, fall in for the support of the reign and administration of grace. IV. Inquire why God will have justice and judgment for the foundation of His throne of grace. The answer is, “ That grace might reign through righteousness” ; that the glory of grace might be displayed in a consistency with the honour of Divine justice. Here a question offers, How does grace reign, or how is the glory of grace displayed in and by the righteousness of a surety?1. Grace reigns and is displayed in the contrivance of this righteousness; for it is the device of infinite wisdom, animated and inspired by free grace. 2. Grace reigns and is displayed in the acceptation of this righteousness. What but infinite love and grace could prevail with inexorable justice, so far to dispense with the rigour of the law, as to admit of a surety’ s righteousness in the room of the sinner! 3. Grace reigns in the impetration of this righteousness; for “ God (in His amazing grace) sent forth His Son made of a woman,” etc. 4. Grace reigns in the revelation of this righteousness. Grace was not content to contrive and bring about this righteousness, but the news of it must be proclaimed to a lost world, as it were by sound of trumpet. 5. Grace reigns through righteousness, inasmuch as that it is by the revelation of this justice-satisfying righteousness that grace conquers and powerfully subdues sinners, brings them under its own government and dominion. V. Application.1. Is it so that justice satisfied, and judgment executed upon the ever-blessed Surety, is the foundation of a throne of grace, then, hence we may see what an expensive piece of work a throne of grace is. Why, the foundation of it is laid in the death and blood of the Son of God. 2. See from this doctrine the glory of a Gospel-dispensation. 3. If it be so that justice satisfied, and judgment executed upon Christ, is the foundation of throne of grace, then see hence, that the salvation of a lost sinner by grace is very consistent with the honour of Divine justice. 4. Has God erected a throne of grace at the expense of the death and satisfaction of His eternal Son? Then I would have you to try, whether you be courtiers about this throne. (E. Erskine.) The necessity and foundations of a throne of grace for the behoof of poor sinners I. The necessity there was of a throne of grace for the behoof of poor sinners.1. Sin having entered, they could have no more benefit by the throne of law-goodness, which runs in that channel, “ Do this and live” (Genesis 3:22; Genesis 3:24). 2. They were bound over to answer at the throne of strict justice; for so was the law-treaty related and determined (Genesis 2:17). (1) They could have no claim to law-goodness and bounty, but upon perfect obedience (Galatians 3:12). (2) They were utterly unable to stand before the tribunal of justice (Psalms 130:3; Psalms 143:2). (3) The criminal once falling under the weight of the sentence a sacrifice to justice, there is no rising again (Psalms 94:23). (4) Justice had determined the execution-day to be the same with the sinning-day (Genesis 2:17). II. The necessity of these foundations and stays of justice and judgment against sin for the throne of grace to stand on.1. The justice of God could not suffer it to be erected but on these bases (Genesis 18:25; 1 Thessalonians 1:6). 2. The holiness of God and His hatred of sin would not suffer it (Psalms 5:5; Habakkuk 1:13). 3. The truth of God was a bar in the way of emanations of mercy and grace without satisfaction to justice (Genesis 2:17). 4. The honour of the holy law, the eternal rule of righteousness, stood in the way of erecting a throne of grace but on these foundations; it behoved to be “ magnified and made honourable” (Isaiah 42:21). 5. If there had not been an absolute necessity of these foundations for a throne of grace to stand on, they had never been laid at the cost of the blood of the Son of God (Romans 3:25). III. The laying of these foundations and the erecting of the throne of grace upon them.1. The general ends of this new erection. (1) The saving of sinners from the wrath of God due to them for their sins. (2) The making of sinners positively happy in the favour of God for evermore. 2. The necessary foundations of this throne. (1) Justice, as distinguished from judgment, whereby God gives good unto any, agreeably to the laws of righteousness, which the justice of His nature requires to be observed in His government of the world (Genesis 18:25). (2) Judgment, whereby vindictive justice is satisfied for sin, for the breaking of the holy law; vengeance is taken upon it in proportion to the offence, which in a sort is an infinite offence. 3. How these foundations were laid. There being no help among the creatures, God laid help on His own Son (Psalms 89:19). Thus He made provision--1. For the first foundation of the throne of grace, namely, justice, by His obeying the law completely in the sinner’ s room, observing exactly and giving obedience to its commands. 2. He made provision for the other foundation, namely, judgment, by suffering in the sinner’ s stead (Galatians 3:13). (T. Boston, D.D.) Divine justice Consider the justice of God-- I. As an element of His government. II. As the rule of His conduct. (W. H. H. Murray.) Psalms 89:15-18 Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound.The blessedness of knowing the Gospel I. The Gospel is a happy message. “ The joyful sound.” It is good news.1. Liberty to the captive. 2. Pardon to the condemned. 3. Salvation to the lost. 4. Immortality to the dying. It is a trumpet of jubilee. II. The Gospel accepted secures happy results. “ Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound.” Know it experimentally.1. It secures the highest happiness in life. “ Shall walk, O Lord, in the light of Thy countenance.” 2. It secures a personal joy in life. “ In Thy name shall they rejoice all the day.” The joy of a grateful heart, an approving conscience, of a glowing hope, of an adoring soul. 3. It secures a righteous exaltation in life. “ In Thy righteousness shall they be exalted.” There is no true exaltation in life that is not according to the righteousness of God. 4. It secures complete protection in life. “ The Lord is our defence, and the Holy One of Israel is our King.” Truly, then, “ Blessed is the people” that experimentally “ know the joyful sound” of the Gospel. (Homilist.) The blessedness of God’ s real and devoted servants I. They know the joyful sound. This is not a mere common or ordinary knowledge; it is not earthly knowledge; for man, by his own powers, could never have discovered a way of reconciliation with God. It is not mere superficial knowledge; but the desires and the affections and the heart are interested in it. It is not more intellectual knowledge; for although these subjects are the grandest upon which the mind of man may exercise itself, yet those who possess the knowledge here spoken of possess it not merely in their heads, but in their hearts; they are influenced by it; it is to them spiritual knowledge, experimental knowledge, practical knowledge, having an influence on their lives and conduct and conversation, their hopes, their desires, and their endeavours. II. They walk in the light of God’ s countenance.1. They live under the constant recollection that God sees them, that they are under His constant and diligent inspection. 2. They enjoy the favour of God. III. They rejoice in His name all the day long. What, then, is the character of this joy? It is pure; there is no admixture of unholy principle, or unholy desire, or unholy gratification: it is solid and steady, resting upon a sure and substantial foundation: it is animating; it inspires them amid the difficulties of life: it is satisfying; ah! and it is abiding. IV. In His righteousness they shall be exalted. (E. Tottenham, M.A.) Four stages of Christian experience I. Recognizing the Divine voice. “ Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound” --that is, blessed are they who know its meaning, who, hearing it break upon the morning air, know that the hour of their deliverance draweth nigh. II. Living in the Divine light. “ They shall walk, O Lord, in the light of Thy countenance.” The walking of which the Bible has so much to say is a sustained progression from sin to holiness. To hear and obey the joyful sound is to live in the Divine light, and to live in the Divine light is to live in the Divine favour. But we can only live thus as we set Him before us; regarding His honour as having the first claim, seeking first the kingdom of God. III. Rejoicing in the Divine name. “ In Thy name shall they rejoice all the day.” Our joy need not depend upon our mood of the moment: for knowing that the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth, we may rejoice ever in the saving name of our God. IV. Being exalted in the Divine righteousness. “ In Thy righteousness shall they be exalted,” or, “ they are exalted.” The people that know the joyful sound are lifted up, not by any power of their own, but by God’ s adherence to His own gracious covenant. In Adam we were abased, but in Christ we are exalted. What a paradox that the believer, lowly and poor, taking ofttimes a humble place among men, often cast down by the burdens of life, yet should be sitting with Christ in the heavenly places. (F. Burnett.) The Christian walking in the blessedness of the Gospel I. The joyful sound is the gospel.1. It comes from a world of joy, the happiest world in the universe. 2. It calls to a world of joy. II. The knowledge of this joyful sound. It is not so easy as we suppose to get the light of Divine truth into a sinner’ s darkened mind. It may shine down upon him from heaven so clear and bright that we may think it must penetrate his understanding at least; but let God leave him alone, it will be found perhaps in the great majority of cases that it has scarcely entered even that; that the man’ s understanding has been almost as completely closed against God’ s truth as the man’ s heart. III. The blessedness of those who possess this knowledge.1. An habitual enjoyment of the Divine favour. “ They shall walk, O Lord, in the light of Thy countenance;” that is, as long as their knowledge of the Gospel is clear and their faith in it undisturbed, they shall go on their way with a consciousness within them that He is at peace with them, full of love to them. 2. A rejoicing in the Divine perfections. “ In Thy name,” etc. If we have learnt the Gospel aright, we have learnt that there is something in God which can meet our case under all circumstances; that let the day change as it will, there is always a refuge for us in Him. He is like a port ever near the soul when the storm comes; and such a port, that let the soul be in it, all the storms that can blow will do the soul no harm. It will be as safe and may be as happy as though all around it were a calm. 3. A conscious elevation in the Lord’ s righteousness. They are invested, as it were, with it. And this exalts the soul; exalts it in fact--lifts it up above the law’ s curses and penalties; gives it in Christ a right and title to the law’ s promises; places it on a level in Christ with those of God’ s creatures who have never sinned. And it exalts the soul within, in its own apprehensions and feelings. With a righteousness upon me wrought out by God’ s holy, everlasting Son, where are my fears, my shame, and my native vileness? And feeling thus, the believer’ s soul becomes morally exalted, exalted in character. With his Saviour’ s righteousness upon him, he longs increasingly to be righteous within, like that Saviour. He feels impelled to rise, to live above sin and self and the world, above the ordinary level of his fellow-men; and so through grace in some measure he does rise and does live. (C. Bradley, M.A.) The privilege of knowing thy joyful sound I. The duty to which the joyful sound, known and believed, effectually excites men. “ They shall walk.”1. They shall not sit still, doing nothing to purpose for God and their immortal souls, like the rest of the world, dead in trespasses and sins. 2. They shall not go back to their former lusts in their ignorance. 3. They shall hold forward in their way in spite of all opposition. 4. They shall walk on in the sight of the Lord, as he who walketh in the light walks in the sight of the sun. II. The privileges which they that know and believe the joyful sound shall thereby have in their walk heavenwards. “ They shell walk, O Lord, in the light of Thy countenance.”1. They shall be ever in a state of favour, peace and reconciliation with God, 2. No cloud of revenging wrath shall ever gather above their heads any more, no curse of the law, no guilt of eternal wrath. 3. Whatever cloud may gather above their head in their way heavenward, it shall never be so thick but the light of the Lord’ s countenance shall shine through it (Psalms 89:31-34). 4. They shall be directed in their way (Psalms 32:8). 5. They shall be strengthened in their way, for this light is the light of life. 6. They shall be cheered and comforted in their way. Hence we may learn-- (1) Whence it is that many communicants are nothing bettered by Gospel ordinances, but even go away as they come, a prey to their lusts and an evil world. They sit down to the feast, but they rise not up to the journey. Why? Alas! they never get into the saving knowledge of the joyful sound. They hear it, but they do not believe it. They believe it not with application to themselves. Hence it hath no quickening, nor sanctifying influence on them. (2) Whence it is that many of the saints are so weak and comfortless in their way heavenward, walking so much in the dark. It is all owing to the small measure of their faith of the joyful sound. (3) That the faith of the Gospel is the sovereign remedy in all darkness and distresses in which a person can be. Believing is a duty that can never be out of season. This is the way to bring one out of darkness into the light. If then thou art in desertion, temptation, or affliction, go to the promise and embrace it by faith. Believers, bless God for what your ears do hear and for what your eyes do see. Seek for more of this blessedness. As ever ye would walk on your way heavenward, safely and comfortably, labour more and more to know the joyful sound; and to know it so as to believe it; and to believe it so as to apply it to your own souls, according to your several exigencies. (T. Boston, D.D.) The joyful sound I. The gospel is a joyful sound.1. Because it is a proclamation of mercy and forgiveness to the guilty and rebellious.2. Because it proclaims liberty to the enslaved.3. Because it produces peace to them that are in trouble. II. What is meant by knowing the joyful sound. III. The blessedness of the people that know the joyful sound.1. They are blessed in their life. O what invaluable privileges are contained in this blessedness!2. They are blessed in their death. (J. Hay, D.D.) Knowledge of the joyful sound I. The blessedness of knowing the Gospel.1. The Gospel is intended to make us blessed, because He, in whose will it has originated, is full of compassion, and announces that here His compassion has had its richest and most determinate exercise. 2. It is fitted to make us blessed; for the same God, whose compassion prompted it, has also contrived all its arrangements and operations, and the infinite wisdom which belongs to Him must have so adapted the means to the end as effectually to secure whatsoever it designs. 3. It is sure to make us blessed; its machinery being moved, and its effects being produced, by the power to which all opposition is feeble, and before which all difficulties vanish away. 4. It is known to make us blessed; for we have only to appeal to the experience of the Church in every successive age, and in every variety of its features, in proof of the fact that the Gospel has done for its disciples what nothing else has been able to accomplish--has put a joy into their hearts, and shed a brightness over their prospects, beyond all that worldly minds have experienced or conceived. II. What is implied in knowing the sound of the gospel.1. That the Gospel is communicated to us. And why is this annunciation requisite? Because the plan of saving mercy which it unfolds clearly embraces the character as well as the condition of the sinner; and this connection is so close, and of such a nature, that the condition of the sinner cannot become what his safety requires it to be, unless the character of the sinner is made to undergo a corresponding change. And this change cannot take place without the concurrence of his will, and that movement among all the affections and principles of his moral frame which presupposes him to be acquainted with what the Gospel demands of him, as well as with what the Gospel has effected for him. 2. That we attend to the Gospel and understand it. The blessedness flowing from the Gospel is to be received and enjoyed, not by chance or according to human fancy and caprice, but in a certain instituted way. There is a plan by which this blessedness is secured for the sinner, so far as to be brought within his reach: and there is a plan by which it is made over to him as an actual and personal attainment. If this plan be not studied and comprehended, how can any individual so betake himself to it, and so make use of its provisions, and so submit to its direction and influence, as that he may reasonably expect to derive the benefits by which it will contribute effectually to his safety and his happiness? 3. That we welcome, believe and obey the Gospel. (A. Thomson, D. D.) The Gospel a joyful sound I. The character of those who are the people of God. They “ know the joyful sound” --the Gospel.1. The trumpet in the year of Jubilee announced that all captives and slaves were to be set at liberty: and is not the Gospel’ s “ joyful sound” a universal proclamation of “ liberty to the captives” ? But to what description of captives? To all sinners--to all mankind. 2. The debtors also heard with joy the cheering sound of the jubilee trumpet, for they, too, were set at liberty when it was heard. And who are the debtors to whom the “ joyful sound” of the Gospel proclaims a like release? Which of us have not broken God’ s holy law, and failed to render to Him the debt of gratitude and obedience that is our rightful due and reasonable service? 3. The jubilee trumpet also announced that all who had forfeited or mortgaged their possessions were to be restored to their full right to them. Similar was our state; and similar also is the “ joyful sound” of the Gospel. II. The blessedness of those who know this joyful sound, and wherein it consists. (J. L. F. Russell, M.A.) They shall walk, O Lord, in the light of Thy countanence.--Walking in light The psalmist has been dwelling in magnificent language upon some of the attributes of God. The pillars of His throne are justice and judgment; “ mercy and truth go before His face.” He cannot say anything about that surpassing brightness that fell on the two heralds. The sunshine can only be spoken of as “ the people’ s blessedness” that hear the “ joyful sound,” the sound of the great name; “ they shall walk in the light.” I. “walking,” a simple metaphor of practical life. Our knowledge of our Father’ s character should make common life radiant. We should have continual consciousness of that sunny presence in all occupations. God has done His part, we must do ours, and determine whether that knowledge shall lead us into habitual, happy fellowship with Him. Life with God, for God, in God, is “ walking in the light of His face.” We may choose the sunny or the shady side of the road. Does that name steal into our hearts like sweet, beguiling melody? Hard it is, but possible, to “ set the Lord always before us.” They who walk in the light are surely blessed. II. Such a walk is a walk in gladness. Light is the emblem of joy. Two landscapes:--Winter, black fortress, grey rocks, dreary moor, dismal black tarns among the heather. Summer changes it into a dream of beauty. Our lives may be either; in the dark, cloudy days the light will break through many a chink in the cloud; men may not see it, but the eye, purged by faith, can behold it. Tropical sky not half as beautiful as ours. Nobody knows what brightness is until they have seen the gilded thunder-cloud; nobody knows God’ s presence until in the hour of darkness. III. “walking in the light” is guidance. No promise of infallible illumination, but those near God catch the wisdom that removes all clouds from our vision. If we dwelt nearer Him we should less often be in perplexity. “ I am the light of the world; he that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness.” IV. Light purifies--we should learn our faults (Psalms 90:8). That flashing brightness may be a terror or a joy (Psalms 139:23). An advantage, that every sin He sees shall be manifested also to us. Secret faults do most harm. A little defect may be the leak through which all our gladness ebbs away. Be thankful if you find it; refer all actions and habits to Him, and the light will reveal the evil. Nothing foul can live in that presence. V. Light bleaches; “ walk in the light,” and the blood will “ cleanse from all sin.” (A. Maclaren, D.D.) Walking in the light The out-and-out Christian is a joyful Christian. The half-and-half Christian is the kind of Christian that a great many of you are--little acquainted with the joy of the Lord. Why should we live half-way up the hill, and swathed in mists, when we might have an unclouded sky and a visible sun over our heads? If we would only climb higher, we should walk in the light of His face. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Joyfulness aids character An English manufacturer of colours could not produce the beautiful carmine tint for which a French competitor was famous, so he went to Lyons, in France, and agreed to pay the Frenchman a thousand pounds for his secret, he was shown through the factory, and everything was explained to him. But the Englishman saw nothing different from his own way of making colours, and thought he had been deceived, and that the secret had been kept from him. “ Stay,” said the Frenchman, “ don’ t deceive yourself--what kind of weather is this? A bright, sunny day,” replied the Englishman. “ And such are the days,” said the Frenchman, “ on which I make my colours. Were I to attempt to manufacture it on a dark or cloudy day, my results would be the same as yours. Let me advise you to make carmine on bright, sunny days.” And is it not thus with your own life and character? You cannot get the best results without the sunshine of God’ s smile and blessing. One of the principal things the Bible tells us to do is “ to walk in the light.” (A. H. Lee.) Psalms 89:16 In Thy name shall they rejoice all the day: and in Thy righteousness shall they be exalted.--The believer exalted in imputed righteousness I. A few propositions anent this righteousness for clearing its nature and necessity. II. A few properties of this righteousness in which believers are exalted, from whence its excellency will appear.1. It is in every way perfect and spotless righteousness: and how can it be otherwise, seeing it is the righteousness of God? 2. It is a meritorious righteousness. 3. It is an incomparable righteousness (Philippians 3:8). Compare it with Adam’ s righteousness in a state of innocence, or yet with the righteousness of the spotless angels, they are but like glowworms when compared with this sun: the one is but the righteousness of a creature, but here is the righteousness of God. 4. It is an everlasting righteousness (Daniel 9:24). 5. It is a soul-dignifying and exalting righteousness. III. The believer’ s exaltation by virtue of this righteousness.1. What evils it exalts him above. (1) It exalts him above the law as a covenant of works; yea, above both the commanding and the condemning power of that covenant.(2) It exalts him above the world.(3) It exalts him above the power and malice of Satan.(4) It exalts him above death.(5) It exalts him above all accusations, from whatever airt they may come (Romans 8:33). 2. What happiness or dignity the believer is exalted to by virtue of this righteousness. (1) A state of peace and reconciliation with God (Romans 5:1).(2) A state of sonship (Galatians 4:4-5).(3) A state of fellowship and familiarity with God, and access to Him with holy confidence and boldness (Hebrews 10:19-22).(4) A state of endless glory. (E. Erskine.) Psalms 89:19I have laid help upon One that is mighty. Our helper I. We need help. Christianity does three things for us, which Deism does not.1. It tells us that this was not our original state; that God made man upright, but he sought out many inventions. 2. It checks much of the evil now: by its direct influence in many cases, and by its indirect influence in many more; in humanizing war, in abolishing slavery, in taming the human passions; it has been the harbinger of peace, and has done more for man than all human institutions in the aggregate beside. 3. It tells us of a remedy for all this, and this is placed within our reach, if we would avail ourselves of it; and therefore if we perish in this state, the blame will be our own. II. God has provided help for us.1. This help includes redemption. “ With the Lord there is plenteous redemption.” “ Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us.” Thus the burden too heavy to be borne is rolled off the conscience, and we now “ joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have received the Atonement.” 2. It includes justification. We must have a title to heaven before we can obtain it; and from whence is this to be derived but from the righteousness of Christ by faith, “ which is unto all and upon all them that believe” ? 3. It takes in renovation. Man is not only guilty but depraved. Therefore he cannot be happy while in his natural state and under the dominion and love of sin. 4. It takes in strength. His duties are arduous; they are numerous and various; and he is inadequate to any one; but says the Saviour, “ My strength is made perfect in weakness.” “ As thy day so shall thy strength be.” Here is the blessed spirit of promise also enjoyed, and now the man lives in the Spirit, and walks in the Spirit, and prays in the Holy Ghost, and the Spirit helpeth his infirmities. 5. It takes in persevering grace, for “ he only that endureth to the end shall be saved.” III. God lays this help upon another. We may observe two principles upon which this dispensation is founded, and by which it is justified.1. It is an honour to Christ, it being a part of the reward for His doings and sufferings. 2. It is for our encouragement and comfort. The grandeur of the Supreme Being so terrified the Jews that they desired Moses to be their mediator, and said, “ Speak thou with us; but let not God speak with us, lest we die.” So we are encouraged to go to God through Christ, and “ we have boldness and access with confidence through the faith of Him.” IV. He on whom help is laid is equal to the engagement. He is not only human, but Divine--“ able to save to the uttermost.” He can by His influences, so mighty is He, penetrate and enlighten the darkest understanding; He can subdue the most rebellious will; He can take away the stony heart and give you a heart of flesh. Conclusion:--1. See the importance of knowing your spiritual state. Without this knowledge it would be impossible for you ever to see the beauty of the Gospel, ever to appreciate the evil of sin, or the excellence of purity, or to relish the privileges of the righteous. 2. See the folly of every other dependence but upon that rock which God has laid in Zion. Christ is the only ark in which you can be preserved; if you enter into this, you may be safe. (W. Jay.) The mighty man This refers to David, whom God had raised as a stripling out of the people, raised to be the leader and the ruler of the Jewish nation. I. The sovereignty of God amongst men. Why was David selected--a shepherd youth--from the millions of Israel to this high position? Because it was according to the counsel of the Eternal will. The positions of all mankind are determined by His will. Some high and some low, etc. II. The Divine method of helping man. The Jewish people wanted help, and David is raised up to help them. God helps man by man. Thus--1. He honours human nature. 2. He links men together by the bonds of interdependence. III. The superiority of one man over many. David was made the greatest man of his age, greater, perhaps, than any thousand ordinary men. Whilst all men have the same common nature and responsibilities, all men are not alike valuable. There is often one man in a generation, a Plato, a Luther, a Bacon, a Cromwell, of more worth than ten millions of others--one whom God has made “ mighty to help,” mighty in intellect, in genius, in power, in philanthropy, in force of character, in consecration to truth. (Homilist.) I have exalted one chosen out of the people. The people’ s Christ I. Our Saviour’ s extraction.1. Christ, by His very birth, was one of the people. True, he was born of a royal ancestry. Mary and Joseph were both of them descendants of a kingly race, but the glory had departed; a stranger sat on the throne of Judah; while the lawful heir grasped the hammer and the adze. 2. His education, too, demands our attention. He was not taken, as Moses was, from his mother’ s breast, to be educated in the halls of a monarch. He was not brought up as the lordling, to look with disdain on every one; but His father being a carpenter, doubtless He toiled in His father’ s workshop. 3. When our Lord entered into public life, still He was the same. What was His rank? He was a poor man--“ one of the people.” II. His election. God chooses sovereignty, but He always chooses wisely.1. First, we see that justice is thereby fully, satisfied by the choice of one out of the people. 2. Thereby the whole race receives honour. He made us, originally, a little lower than the angels, and now, despite our fall in Adam, He hath crowned us with glory and honour. 3. But let us take a sweeter view than that. Why was He chosen out of the people? Here, Christian: what dost thou think is the sweet reason for the election of thy Lord, He being one of the people? Was it not this--that He might be able to be thy brother, in the blest tie of kindred blood? 4. Christ was chosen out of the people that He might know our wants and sympathize with us. III. His exaltation.1. It was exaltation for the body of Christ to be exalted into union with the Divinity. That was honour which none of us can ever receive. Of no other man shall it be said that the Deity tabernacled in him, and that God was manifest in His flesh, seen of angels, justified of the spirit, and carried up to glory. 2. Christ was exalted by His resurrection. Out He came, and the watchmen fled away. Startling with glory, radiant with light, effulgent with divinity, He stood before them. Christ was then exalted in His resurrection. 3. But how exalted was He in His ascension! Up He climbs to that high throne, side by side with the Paternal Deity. “ I have exalted one chosen out of the people.” 4. The last exaltation of Christ which I shall mention is that which is to come, when He shall sit upon the throne of His Father David, and shall judge all nations. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Psalms 89:25I will set his hand also in the sea, and his right hand in the rivers.The mediatorial glory and dominion of Jesus Christ under the Gospel-dispensation I. The means and the agency by which the kingdom, authority, and grace of the Mediator are extended among the nations of the world, and this promise of Jehovah is fulfilled to His Son.1. In general, let it be observed, that the whole Word of God, as displayed and applied in the ministry of the Gospel, is the great comprehensive instrument whereby the spiritual dominion of Jesus Christ is established and spread abroad in the earth. 2. The powerful energy of the Divine Spirit is an indispensable requisite to give them force and impression on the souls of men. II. A few of the most eminent periods when the Redeemer’ s hand is set in the sea and His right hand in the rivers; together with some of the concurring circumstances which, under the direction of Providence, contribute to the establishment and enlargement of the kingdom of grace.1. The first period commenced at the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and includes the ministry of the apostles and of the first preachers of Christianity, when the glorious Gospel was attended with the most wonderful success, and, in a short time, spread its triumphs far and wide. 2. The Reformation. 3. The millennium. The former periods were glorious, but this will far exceed them in glory. They presented the first fruits, this will bring forward the full harvest. III. Improvement.1. The subject suggests to our consideration one great cause of the increase of irreligion and infidelity in the present age, viz. a mournful deviation from the system of Divine truth. 2. The missionary scheme, if prosecuted with prudence, zeal, perseverance, and a humble dependence on God for success, promises fair to be a blessing to the world, to this nation, and to the Church of God in it. 3. The promises of God afford the greatest encouragement to strenuous and persevering endeavours to propagate the knowledge of salvation among the heathen. 4. As the success of all our endeavours to promote the cause of religion must depend on the Spirits and providence of God, let us be frequent and fervent in prayer. (P. Hutchinson.) Psalms 89:30-33 If his children forsake My law, and walk not in My judgments.God’ s displeasure at His people’ s sins I. The conduct described.1. Far from uncommon.2. Exceedingly heinous.3. Very ungrateful.4. Highly inconsistent. How unlike Him whose name they bear!5. Truly lamentable. (1) In itself.(2) In its influence upon others. II. The punishment threatened.1. Most righteous. 2. Absolutely certain. (1) His character requires it. He is a holy God.(2) His Word declares it (2 Chronicles 7:19-22).(3) The whole of His conduct confirms it. The history of the Jews is full of instances, written for our admonition. 3. The ways in which He corrects His children are characterized by great diversity (1) As to the means He employs.(2) As to the measure in which they are inflicted.(3) The period to which they extend. III. The mercy proclaimed. “ Nevertheless, My loving-kindness will I not utterly take from him,” etc. Two reasons are assigned.1. His regard for the Son of His love. There is a change of person in this verse; it is not said “ them,” but “ him.” The claims of His Son, on the one hand, and the pleadings of His Son on the other, are the grounds why we are not altogether consumed. 2. His regard for the word of His truth. “ Nor suffer My faithfulness to fail.” Everything else may fail--the labour of the olive, the fruit of the vines, the herd in the stalls; but for His faithfulness to fail is impossible. (Expository Outlines.) The Lord’ s jealousy against backsliders consistent with His unchanging love It is taken for granted that the seed of Messiah shall go astray; but their sins, it is added, do not break the covenant, which stands fast for evermore; for it was not made with us, but with the Son for us. I. The seed of the Messiah stand in His relation to the Father, sons by grace because He is the Son by nature.1. They are more precious in God’ s sight than all the universe, and He loves them with a real father’ s love. It is not different love the Father bears to Christ’ s people from what He bears to Him (John 17:23). Our capacity, indeed, is limited, but if we are Christ’ s we are loved with the very same love in kind--yea, taken within the bond of that very love that from eternal ages has knit the Father to His only Son. 2. As they have borne the image of the earthy, they shall also bear the image of the heavenly; and at last they shall be like Him, when they see Him as He is. Yet a little while and the reviled sons of God shall shine brighter than the sun in a glory that will make kings and great men wonder. II. The Lord narrowly observes the new obedience of His children, and whether they will go astray. Allusion is made to that declension as proceeding step by step. We have begun this departure if our thoughts turn not naturally and habitually unto God as the needle to the pole. Let us labour that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of Him, and count it all joy to meet the trials which strengthen faith. III. God, jealous of His honour, cannot pass over the transgressions of His children without chastisement (Psalms 89:32). What He can bear with for the present in the children of the wicked one, He cannot bear in those who are a people near Him. Judgment begins at the house of God on those who bear His image; for more heinous in God’ s account, and more ruinous to souls around them, is sin in God’ s people than in others. IV. Our declensions do not utterly remove God’ s loving-kindness, because it is not founded on ourselves, but on another. The Father’ s love to the Son is the very foundation of the Gospel. The great triumph of the Cross is that He who hung there was more pleasing in the Father’ s sight than even sin was hateful--that the sin could be consumed, and yet the love remain entire. These words, “ My loving-kindness will I not utterly take from him,” show us the proper motive to be brought to bear on backsliders and the Lord’ s way of restoring them. If any presume on such words of tenderness--halt! they are not spoken unto you, but to the downcast child of God, at a loss to know how God can love him with so little that is pure and lovely--ready to doubt how a worm, a rebel, an enemy, can be endeared to God. (G. Smeaton.) Psalms 89:36 As the sun The sun as an emblem of God The sun has always been an object so full of mystery and amazing quality that in a large part of history it was worshipped as a deity, and it is destined in all the remainder of history to be the greatest emblem of God. It leaves behind it the seven wonders of the old earth and any seven wonders of the new, and makes of itself alone the one matchless object of all physical things and forms. It deals only in the great. Vast in all particulars, it easily became the early god of mankind, and very slowly and with difficulty became disengaged from the Hebrew and classic religions. At last the Christianized multitude has reached the ability to distinguish between the universe and the Maker of the universe; and, stupendous as the bounds of space may be, and sublime as their occupants may be, the modern mind says they are not God. Our sun could not be God, for there are millions of such suns. But, though as a deity our sun is dethroned, it is wonderful in its dethronement. In the spring months, when winter is being daily conquered by the arrows of heat, the mind will not easily escape the feeling that the sun is a vast expression of Divine love. Our sun has called into being a group of worlds. To him must earth, and Mars, and Jupiter, and Saturn, and their companions, give the credit of their very being as well as of their rich decoration, for the central orb is master of the whole scene. He holds all the planets in an orbit, and thus makes years and seasons possible; and thus detaining them as a mother leads her children by the hand, he makes their surfaces into gardens, and compels each globe to be a marvel of beauty. God as a pure spirit being invisible, we are constrained to feel that the universe is only God passing outward from thought into material, and that all these millions of suns with their planets around them are so many incarnations of the Love Infinite. As man came as an image of God, and as Christ came as an image, still closer, of the Father, so the countless suns are shining forth all glorious images of Him whose soul alone is invisible. Should the sun decline in warmth, all the life on our globe would cease. Should the sun increase his warmth all life of animal and plant would be burned up. What love is that which regulates this gigantic fire and makes it flame for ever as the fireside of our Father’ s house? If there is such a tremendous scheme for lighting and warming worlds through uncounted ages, may there not be also vast designs of human existence and progress equal, indeed, to all those outlined in religion? If all these physical wonders are for the final happiness of souls, if planets are thus made into the blessed homes of mind, what is to be the destiny of that mind for which such sublime preparations have been made? (D. Swing.) Psalms 89:37 It shall be established for ever as the moon, and as a faithful witness in heaven.The character of the Church of Christ upon earth as symbolized by the moon in our solar system In the history of the creation it is written (Genesis 1:14). How the sun and the moon in our solar system come to be “ for seasons and for days and years,” the astronomer is able to inform us; but why, and of what they were intended to be the signs, revelation alone can explain. Accordingly, if we look into the Word of God, we find that the heavenly bodies are held forth as emblems of certain things, and of certain principles bearing upon the Church and people of God. Thus Jesus Christ is represented by the sun (Malachi 4:2; Luke 1:78), and we are permitted to trace certain points in their analogy (John 14:6; John 11:25; John 5:24; Galatians 2:20; 1 John 5:11). The ministers of Christ are symbolized by the stars of heaven (Revelation 1:20). In like manner, the moon in our solar system is more than once introduced as representing the Church of God in the world. In the Book of the Revelation (Revelation 12:1), this luminary represents the Church of God under the law elected for the especial guardianship of the original revelation, which declared the one true God. In the Song of Solomon (Son 6:10) the same symbol is applied to the Church of God under the Gospel elected for the especial guardianship of the second revelation which declares the one true Mediator. It is in this latter sense--as representing the Church of God under the Gospel--that the words of the text are to be understood. I. It will be my endeavour to sketch the character of the Church of God under the Gospel, by cautiously tracing certain points of analogy between her and the moon in our solar system.1. The moon was ordained to “ rule the night” --to furnish us with light in the absence of the sun. Visible she may be at times after the morning dawn, but if visible she gives no light--she wanes beneath the light of the superior orb. Were the sun always to shine upon our shores, there would be no night here: the moon would have no place in our firmament; or, if she appeared at all, she would shed no light.. And so it is with the Church of Christ in this lower world: the absence of her Divine Head in the heavens, whither He has gone to perform an essential part of that work of redemption which He covenanted with God the Father to perfect for the salvation of mankind--renders necessary the existence of a Church in the world, which is ordained to exist and to be visible until His coming again. He is the Sun, she is the moon. 2. The moon has no light of her own. The purpose for which the moon was at first, and still is, set in the heavens is to reflect upon us and for our benefit the light of the sun during his absence from the part of the world we inhabits--or, to speak more correctly, during our absence from him. In this peculiarity the moon is cited in Scripture to symbolize the Church of Christ upon earth. The latter was ordained to reflect upon the world the light of the “ Sun of righteousness” during his absence in the heavens. In herself she has no light at all; without her Sun she has virtually no existence; severed from Him she is nothing worth. The Church has nothing whatever in herself whence can radiate those beams of light and life and love, without which all is darkness within--yea, a darkness that may be felt. No doctrine will fully enlighten the mind but the doctrine of Christ (Hebrews 6:1; John 2:9). No truth will dissipate the error of fallen nature’ s teaching but the truth as it is in Jesus (Ephesians 4:21). 3. As the moon has no light, so neither has she any heat of her own. Did not the sun arise upon the land, and daily cheer us with his rays, as well as benefit us by his light, in vain should we seek a substitute in the transparent brightness of the moon. She is set in the heavens simply and solely to reflect his light. In this respect also does the moon symbolize the Church of God upon earth. It is not from the Church herself, separated from her Divine Head, that we are to look for that quickening power, that holy enthusiasm, that heavenly glow of joy and peace in believing which cheers the heart of every child of God. The ordained purpose of God is that the Church upon earth should not dispense the heat of her absent Sun, but continually and extensively reflect His light. For this, and this alone, was the Church ordained to exist in the world. II. I close with a remark of a practical character. From what has now been said, we infer the necessity of an outward witness for Christ to satisfy the candid inquirer, and to silence a gainsaying world. Let me add, there must also be an inward witness for Christ (1 John 5:10), for the satisfaction and the comfort and the security of the believer himself. If grafted into the body of Christ’ s Church, by the Lord’ s own ordinance of baptism “ rightly received,” we are doubtless to be numbered with those symbolized by the moon. But beyond this, for the comfort of the believer, and to discriminate between a dead profession and a living faith (Romans 8:13; 1 Corinthians 7:19; Galatians 5:6; Galatians 6:15; Acts 8:37; Mark 16:16; Acts if. 38; James 2:17-26), there is another and an inward witness to be superadded to the visible testimony. When the soul becomes quickened (John 5:25; Ephesians 2:1) into spiritual action; when the mind (Ephesians 1:17-18) becomes enlightened, the heart cheered, the affections warmed, the whole man, body, soul, and spirit, affected and moved by the constraining love of Christ (2 Corinthians 5:14), the blessed experience of that peace of God which passeth all understanding (Philippians 4:7); this is the inward witness, not seen by those that are without, but more convincing far to the individual soul, because he inherits thereby a well-grounded hope of an entrance into the everlasting kingdom of Christ (2 Peter 1:11)--if he do but retain and exhibit the evidences of his renewed life (John 15:8). (W. J. Kidd.) Psalms 89:47-48 Remember how short my time is: wherefore hast Thou made all men in vain? The sense of life’ s brevity I. That it is a right feeling, because it accords with fact. Human life is short, if you consider--1. That an end must come to it here. 2. Its re-beginning after its earthly close. It is short in view of the new life. What is it to eternity? Nothing. II. That it argues the underlying sentiment of immortality. A man could have no feeling of the length or brevity of time, with all its changes, unless he had within him a settled sentiment of permanence. III. That it implies a deep interest in some purpose in life. He is anxious to see the work done; and he is so impressed with the brevity of life, that he works and labours with all diligence. IV. That it involves an underlying belief that life on the whole is a blessing. Of all the million sufferers in the world, there are but few of the number who would have their life shortened even by one day. V. That it serves to stimulate us to make the best use of it. One who feels that he is in the world only for a little time, will strike out for the best things. (Homilist.) A homily for the closing year God makes no man “ in vain,” but he may choose to live in vain. He may turn his existence in this world to utter vanity and waste.1. The true value of our life lies in its spiritual significance; and we save it from being vain and worthless only as we connect it with the spiritual and the eternal. We are accustomed to say that life is long or short, according as it is crowded with incidents and experiences, or is deficient in them. An eventful life is a long life. Some men live more in one year than others do in many. But then, what is the quality of the experience? Your life outwardly may be eventful enough, but inwardly it may be strangely destitute of all that is fitted to give it a distinctive and a noble character. 2. The value of our life lies in the nature of the work that has been given us to do in it; and we save it from being “ vain” only by earnest and diligent attention to that work. It demands the cultivation in ourselves of the affections and energies of the life of God, and the diffusion of such an influence and the doing of such deeds as shall be for the enduring benefit and blessing of the world in which He has placed us. (Joseph Waite, M.A.) Unfulfilled lives That men’ s lives are vain is the universal complaint. Men are perplexed and overwhelmed by the mystery of life and the world’ s misery. The Bible is full of it. Isaiah tells how “ we all do fade as a leaf,” and that plaintive thought was the same felt so keenly by Homer, too--“ like leaves on trees the race of man is found.” It is the solemn teaching and experience of the human heart, and of the sages and poets of all ages. “ Sadness,” said Savonarola, “ besieges me day and night. Whatever I see, or hear, bears the standard of sadness. The memory of my friends saddens me, the meditation of my studies afflicts me, the thought of my sins sinks me down, and, as in a fever, the sweetest things taste as sadness in my mouth.” It has been ever so; and apostles and prophets, however inspired, weep out the same sad notes. Christ alone, though he was “ the man of sorrows,” indulges no morbid note on man, for he saw too clearly the destiny of man to utter any words that could sound like a dirge over his being. I. Yet, I think, I may first attempt to collect and press upon you the evidence upon this common thought--the temptation to believe that man is made in vain. Everything rebukes vanity in man, since he himself, as well as the world, is vain. The idea often thrills through us that man is made in vain. Experiences are different, but the feeling is universal. All men feel it of all men. Job speaks of his being like a “ hidden, untimely birth.” Yes, and what a mockery there is, apparently, in the birth and death of little children. But I do not think that these are the most startling views of the vanity of life. I would rather fix the argument upon the utter disproportion between the powers and the position of man. It is then, I say and see, that man is made in vain. Nothing has more perplexed me than the sight in life of angels--I must call them so--who have lost their way; their lives seem to have been altogether in vain; a gifted sensibility, perhaps, in a hard, coarse family; a soul sensitive to every impression of gentleness and beauty, with a body unable to second the designs and desires of the soul--the soul soaring, the body limping. Our thoughts crush us--man was made to mourn, and man was made in vain. Unsatisfactory and miserable world, may we well exclaim, where nothing is real, and nothing is realized; when I consider how our lives are passed in the struggle for existence; when I consider the worry of life; when I consider how the millions pass their time in a mere toil for sensual objects; when I consider the millions of distorted existences; and the many millions!--the greater number of the world by far--who wander Christless, loveless, hopeless, over the broad highway of it; when I consider life in many of the awakened as a restless dream; when I consider this, and much else, I can almost exclaim with our unhappy poet-- “ Count all the joys thine hours have seen, Count all thy days from anguish free, And know, whatever thou hast been, ’ Twere something better not to be.” I can conceive many a soul, and not an irreverent one, saying, “ O God! what is my life? What am I? What have I done? I am a failure. Why have I had given me unoccupied affections; they have never met their response, their realization, their fulfilment. How I could have loved, how I could have wrought; I feel these things in me.” Now, it is the fashion of infidelity to believe that God has no details, no specialities, and this thought sometimes drives in with a panic on the spirit; for we are caught up by the huge engine of the machine-god, and torn amidst the wheels of what does not care more for hearts than it does for oaks. Our lives seem spent in vain. I know the reply to all this with many is a cold and icy sneer of contempt at the egotism and conceit of it all. “ The universe has done very well for you hitherto; trust the universe, let these inquisitive questions alone.” To which I reply, Alas! they will not let me alone; moreover, if my fault is egotism and individuality, what is yours? Indifference, inhumanity, coldness, in a word--brutality. I do not desire to sink to the unconsciousness of “ beasts that perish.” II. Notice the structure of the question, Is it possible to reconcile the vanity of man with the greatness of God? This vanity of man, is it consistent with thee, and with what thou art?1. I believe that thou hast not a chief regard to thine own power. God is not a mere power. What should we think of him who, able to stamp upon the canvas the forms of Murillo, the colours of Tintoretto, able to hew his marbles to the shape of Flaxman, or to mould his pottery to Etruscan loveliness, yet treated all as a freak, and destroyed remorselessly as readily as he created? But what is the artist of the canvas to the artist of flowers, to the artist of the human eye, the artist of the bird’ s wing? The artist says, I made them, but I cannot preserve them; but the author of eternal beauty Thou art, and why hast Thou made not only things, but man himself in vain? The mother, indeed, goes to her little cot where the lamb of her bosom lies stretched out in its little shroud. She says, “ Yes, my darling, I bare thee, and nursed thee; but I could not keep thee;” but God, “ Why hast Thou made men in vain?” 2. God is not mere law. “ I believe Thou art not heedless of Thy creatures’ desire, though they seem to be mocked.” We are not like children at play, blowing bubbles which break in non-existence even while they soar. This cannot be enjoyment to Thee. 3. Thou art pure being, Thou canst not, therefore, be pleased only to contemplate evanescence and decay. It is not consistent with Thy glory that “ the whole creation should groan and travail in pain together.” Dost Thou not “ rejoice in Thy works” ? and canst Thou rejoice in these? Is not Thy world one huge stone coffin, where every piece of limestone is but the record of death, and the fairest things float loathsomely out of existence into corruption and decay. And now these are, as you well know, the soliloquies and cries of our nature; and the appropriate answer to all is, Man is not made in vain. Unless I have mistaken myself, I believe that some of the topics I have suggested will convey a reply to this question, and show that the absolute vanity of man is incompatible with the glory and with the promise of God. There is something in him which God does not regard as vanity. “ The sure mercies of David” are not vanity; “ the covenant ordered in all things and sure” is not vanity; “ the exceeding great and precious promises, by which we become partakers of the Divine nature,” are not vanity. Mutation and change, indeed, surround us everywhere. But there are “ two immutable,” unchangeable “ things” --the will of God, and the Word of God, as the expression of His will. There is an image, over which change never passes. It can suffer no defacement; nothing can mar it. And as we are conformed to this, a growing joy steals over us, and steeps us in its blessedness as we become “ new creatures in Christ, Jesus” ; as the “ old things pass away,” as “ the Word” which “ gives light” enters and sows itself in the heart, we gradually learn what it is for man not to be made in vain. III. Hence I have conjoined with this poor human word; this elegy over unfulfilled lives; this other word; this word of repose on Divine intention and completed being--“ My times are in Thy hand.” Nothing is more certain, nothing are men more indisposed to perceive than this--we have to “ Wait for some transcendent life, Reserved by God to follow this.” To this end God’ s real way is made up of all the ways of our life. His hand holds all our times. “ My times are in Thy hand” --the hand of my Saviour. He regulates our life clock. Christ for and Christ in us. My times are in His hand. My life can be no more in vain, than was my Saviour’ s life in vain. IV. And this truth rightly grasped and held, we shall never think it possible that any life can be unfulfilled which does not, by its own voluntary perversity, fling itself away. No doubt, men may be suicides to their own souls. Did not our Lord say, “ Better were it for that man that he had never been born” ? and there are beings for whom that would be the only appropriate epitaph. All in vain! O my soul, anything to escape that. Let life here seem increasingly vain; only save me from the vanity of eternity, and the horrors of that fearful looking for where nothing is realized but woe. Oh to reach “ the fulness of joy,” so that I and mine may say as we gaze upon our Redeemer in light, “ No, through Thee and Thy merits, we have not been made in vain.” But you solitary, suffering, disappointed hearts, take some comfort. “ The best is yet to be.” (E. Paxton Hood.) Suggestions of life’ s vanity There are many circumstances in life that tend to impress us with the vanity of our mortal existence on the assumption that there is no future. I. The disproportion between the length of our existence and our longings. II. The disproportion between our faculties and our achievements. All feel they can do vastly more than they can accomplish here. III. The disproportion between our aspirations and our attainment. How much knowledge, power, influence we aspire to, but how little do we gain!(Homilist.) Vanity of man, if not immortal I. Some direct proofs of the vanity of human life.1. The brevity of our mortal existence. 2. The positive evils that are in the world. (1) Sickness and pain.(2) Wars and fightings.(3) Famine.(4) Earthquakes, volcanoes, floods, etc. II. The real value of those things which seem to render our existence of most worth.1. After all the failure, and fiction, and insincerity, and envy, that attend worldly possessions, we cannot surely suppose them of much real value. If we had only what they afford, we should be compelled to confess we were made in vain. 2. Knowledge is not necessarily happiness. We are not going to say, that increase of knowledge is always increase of sorrow (Ecclesiastes 1:18); but we believe most of the happiness that we find in knowledge, in exercising intellect, in discovering truth, springs from the hope we entertain of making our knowledge subserve our happiness in other respects. If our only felicity consisted in knowing, we believe it would be extremely small. And how little even men called learned succeed in making their acquisitions advance human felicity, the whole history of cultured intellect too sadly tells. 3. Some one might say to us, the joys of friendly attachment are neither few nor small; they are pure; they are peaceful; they are noble. But let us remember there are regions where the husband and the father is the tyrant; where the mother murders her offspring; where the wife is the slave; and where the widow burns on the funeral pile of her husband! Let us remember, too, how often friendships give place to enmity. When half the world is dressed in mourning, its friendships can scarcely convince us that, apart from another world, all men have not been made in vain. 4. Religion is vain, if the world is all. Its votaries are miserably deluded. They have renounced the world, but gained nothing. III. Conclusions.1. The amazing difficulties of that species of infidelity which denies a future state. 2. That the doctrine of immortality, and the truths of religion, are very needful to us, in order to make us happy even here. Remove immortality--and what is man? a distressful dream! a throb--a wish--a sigh--then, nothing! But, blessed be God, life and immortality are brought to light. Yes-- 3. That the true Christian is the happiest man. He is not perplexed with a thousand doubts and difficulties that trouble the unbeliever. (I. S. Spencer, D.D.) The vanity and value of human life I. If we consider life as it is is itself, and form our estimate of its value only by the degree of temporal enjoyment it is capable of affording, it will appear to be very vain indeed; and man will almost seem to be made for nothing.1. Consider how short life is! 2. Consider its uncertainty. Who can say of any project that he has formed, that he shall accomplish it? 3. Survey also the sufferings to which life is exposed in this short existence. Take notice of the natural calamities which belong to man. Look at the history of man, and see what he suffers from his own species. 4. Look also at the business of life, the very end for which most men live, and the same reflection will forcibly recur. What is the end for which so much toil is endured, so many cares and anxieties suffered? Simply this; to go on suffering the same anxieties and cares, and enduring the same toil. II. Let us look at life in another point of view, and we shall see that God has not made man in vain.1. We live not to eat, and drink, and labour; but we eat, drink, and labour, in order to live; that is, to fulfil the will of our great Creator and to glorify His name. Now, this is done when His will is made the chief rule of our lives, and His glory the end of our actions; when we exercise dispositions proper to our stations in life and agreeable to the duties we owe to Him. In this light the events of life are comparatively of little consequence, the duties they call forth are what are of importance. In this view, life is not to be regarded as given in vain. 2. When we carry our view forward to that eternal state of which this life is but the beginning, and in comparison of which it is but a moment; when we consider that this eternal life will be either miserable or happy according to the manner in which we spend our short existence here; surely this life is not in vain: it becomes of infinite importance--an importance proportioned to that infinite happiness or woe with which it is necessarily connected. 3. What a value is stamped upon life; what dignity upon the world, when we behold the only Son of God taking upon Him that life, and coming into that world! Are men made in vain, when the only begotten of the Father gave His life as a ransom for theirs? 4. Is life of such unspeakable moment, and yet is it so short in its duration? What an additional value does it derive even from this circumstance, which may seem, at first sight, to detract from its worth! If life be so uncertain; if almost the only thing certain in life is that we shall die, what manner of persons ought we to be in all holy conversation and godliness! (John Penn, M.A) Psalms 89:48 What man is he that liveth, and shall not see death?shall he deliver his soul from the hand of the grave? The certainty of death Death is the beaten road of all mankind: it is the way of all flesh.I. Illustrate the point.1. Both good and bad are promiscuously taken away by death. The reason is plain, because both the righteous and wicked are by death to pass into another state, the one into the everlasting life of glory, the other into eternal misery. Thence it is that they are equally liable to the laws and decrees of mortality. The corn and the tares standing and growing on the same ground are mowed down together at the harvest. 2. Death spares no rank, no condition of men. Kings as well as subjects are liable to this fatal stroke. The lofty cedars and low shrubs, palaces and cottages are alike here. 3. Death spares no calling or profession. The mathematic brain, amidst all its contrivances, hath found none to exempt the students of that art from the force of that which by Horace is called “ ultima linea rerum.” Yea, Archimedes, whilst he was drawing of lines and circles, lost his life. His brains were dashed out whilst he was beating them about demonstrations. The philosophers talk of immortality, but acknowledge death to be the way to it. The warriors, who are brisk in despatching others, fall a victim themselves to the common foe of mankind. 4. Death is favourable to no age. Sometimes the infant is no sooner set free from his dark prison, but presently he is sent to a darker confinement, the grave. Thus both old and young submit to the edict of mortality. The former may be said to go to death, but death comes to the latter, and comes as frequently as to the other. For the lamp of life is as often blown out as it goes out of itself, being spent and exhausted. 5. Death makes no difference between sexes. Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca, Jacob and Rachel, Elkanah and Hannah equally submit to the laws of fate. 6. There is no place where death does not and cannot enter. Some have been seized at the plough, some in the streets, others in their shops, some in the market, others in retirements. It appears, then, that there is no privileged place where this officer cannot arrest us, and consequently we are everywhere at his disposal There is no time, or any other circumstance of our life which is not obnoxious to death, winter and summer, spring and autumn; seed-time and harvest, the cold seasons and the hot ones, and those which are more moderate, are made use of by this destroyer. In the day and in the night, in the morning and in the evening, in times set for devotion, or for worldly business; in time of work or recreation, in times of calamity and prosperity this enemy invade us. II. Reasons.1. Death is universal, because the Divine decrees have so ordained it (Job 30:23). 2. Sin brought death into the world, and thence it is that all mankind are subject to it. “ The wages of sin is death” --it is become as due to a sinner as wages to a workman. 3. By sin’ s entering into the world, a curse came along with it on man’ s body, and thence frailty and weakness ensued, and thereby a constant liableness to mortality. (1) Strange accidents and unexpected events attend the life of man, and it is not in his power to prevent or avoid them. The fanciful poets tell us that Achilles was dipped in the Stygian Lake, that he might thereby be kept for the future from receiving any wounds in the wars: but it seems his heel was untouched by the water, whence it was, they say, that he was wounded in that place. So we see men have thought themselves to be as it were invulnerable in all parts; they have escaped the dangers that others fell under, nothing hath been able to hurt them: but at last they find their error, some sudden calamity attacks them, some mischief befalls them which never came within the verge of their thoughts. Julius Caesar, who had been victorious in fifty set battles, and never received a dangerous stroke; after all perils so happily escaped abroad, at home in the Senate-house received twenty-three wounds, all of them deadly. (2) A further account may be given of death’ s universal sway, from the consideration of the variety of infirmities and maladies which infest human nature, the multiplicity of diseases and sicknesses which our bodies are subject to. Many bring these into the world with them, for they are either entailed upon them by their parents, and so are hereditary: or else, without any infection or depravation from them, the parts are so prepared and framed by nature that they may be said to contain in them the seeds of such and such diseases. III. Inferences.1. Meditate constantly on death. Philip King of Macedon had a remembrancer on purpose to come daily to him, and to sound these words in his ears, “ Remember, sir, that you are a mortal man.” And we read that the very same words used to be cried aloud to the victors at their triumphs. The religious Jews (such as Joseph of Arimathea, of whom we particularly read in the Gospel) had their tombs and sepulchres in their gardens, that they might often see them, and walk to them, and converse with them in the midst of their delights and entertainments which those places afforded. St. Jerome, that religious and pious father of the primitive Church, that he might continually have the remembrance of death and judgment in his mind, used to fix this impression on his thoughts and imaginations, that he heard always the sound of the last trumpet. This is, as Seneca saith, to go to death: and judge you (saith he) which is best, that death should come to us, or that we should go to that. If we go to it in our forethoughts and meditations, then we shall not be surprised, then we shall not be seized on by death of a sudden, but we shall be provided for it, which is an unspeakable advantage 2. This doctrine of mortality teaches us humility. Some of the favourites of Alexander the Great had flattered him with the notion of being a kind of god, and nearly related to Jupiter; which begot in him high thoughts of himself. But it happened that he was wounded with a dart in the wars, and seeing his blood issue from the orifice, he was heard to say to the bystanders, “ They tell me I am the son of Jupiter, but this wound proclaims with open mouth that I am but a man.” The sense of which corrected in some measure the false opinion he had before, and made him entertain not so high thoughts of himself. 3. As this doctrine teaches humility, so it dictates peace and love. This was the design of the Egyptians placing a skeleton before their guests at their feasts; it was to stir up one another to mutual love and friendship, and spend the short time (of which that spectacle reminded them) in so good an employment. You must die, you must leave this world, you must take your lodging in the dust: this consideration should be effectual to cool your heats and animosities, to stop you in your furious encounters with one another. If you seriously think of dying, you will not dare to pass into the other world with your dissensions and antipathies. 4. You must all die, therefore make thence this rational inference, that you ought not to set your hearts on the things of this transitory life. What understanding traveller will load himself when he is on his journey? That rich miser showed his folly in building his barns up so high, when he was to lie low in so short a time. The thoughts of death should damp our covetousness and ambition. 5. Seeing death is the allotment of all mankind, and it is impossible to avoid it, let us stock ourselves with consolatory principles against that time, that when it arrives we may receive it joyfully. Men have alleviated their grief, and overcome their fear, by urging this upon their minds, that death is the common lot of all, and therefore it is unreasonable to repine and murmur at it. We must travel the highway, say they, which all before us have passed. They that are dead do but lead the way, and we must all follow them. Again, some of the great moralists endeavoured to antidote themselves against the fearful apprehensions of death by suggesting that, as it is an end of our lives, so it is of all our miseries, and therefore ought to be embraced with patience and contentment. But, alas! these are poor and sorry consolations against death, and such as cannot be satisfactory to rational and deliberate minds. For what comfort can it be to a passenger to travel in the road, though it be common, when he knows he shall be knocked on the head, or have his throat cut in it? And as for death’ s putting a period to all misery, if we speak of bad men, it rather begins then, for the evils of this life are nothing in comparison of those which they shall feel in another world. Death, which is so terrible in itself, is rendered pleasant and welcome by the death of Jesus, who shed His blood on the Cross to take away our sins. And thus death, which was a curse, is turned into the greatest and most desirable blessing. Live as those who know and profess this common truth, that all must die. The epicure’ s argument was, “ Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die.” But the wise man’ s argument and holy logic is quite different, “ Whatsoever thou findest to do, do it with all thy might, for there is no wisdom nor operation in the place whither thou goest.” (J. Edwards, D.D.) Concerning death It is reported to have been the practice of the nobles of Greece, in the clay whereon their emperor was crowned, that they presented a marble stone unto him; and he was asked, after what fashion he would have his tomb-stone made?--which practice speaks forth this unto us, that although these were most destitute of the light of the Scripture, they were very mindful of death. Death will surprise some, as it did Abel in the open field (Genesis 4:8); some, as Eglon in his parlour (Judges 3:21); some, as Saul and Jonathan in the fight (1 Samuel 31:1-13.). I. Advantages which attend those that live within continual sight of death.1. The faith of approaching death will make a soul exceedingly diligent in duty (John 9:4). 2. The faith of approaching death will make a Christian exceedingly serious, and zealous in the exercise of his duty (Ecclesiastes 9:10). 3. The faith of this truth, that we must all die, will help s Christian to be exceedingly mortified to the things of a present world (2 Corinthians 4:18; 2 Corinthians 5:1-2; 1 Corinthians 7:31-32; Philippians 4:5). 4. When a Christian believeth this truth, that he must die, it will be an exceeding great restraint to keep him from sinning (Job 31:13-14). 5. When a Christian liveth within the sight of this truth, that he shall once see death, it will make him exceedingly patient under every cross wherewith he meeteth. Such a Christian will hardly meet with a cross, but he will quiet himself with this:--death will put me beyond this cross--this is but a cloud that will quickly pass away (Psalms 39:4). 6. The faith of approaching death will teach the person that hath it to study saving wisdom (Psalms 90:12). 7. The faith of approaching death will make a Christian very careful in preparing for death. 8. Death will not be so terrible to him as it is unto many when it cometh. I know not a more dreadful dispensation than death and a guilty conscience meeting together. II. Some considerations for pressing you to prepare for death.1. To die well and in the Lord is a most difficult work; therefore I intreat you to prepare for death. It is a difficult work to communicate aright; it is a difficult work to pray aright; but, I must tell you, it is a still more difficult work to die aright than any of these. 2. You are to die but once; and if you die not aright, there is no mending of it. 3. They are pronounced blessed who die in the Lord (Revelation 14:13). 4. That though thou put all thy works by thy hand before death, yet shalt thou find that death shall have work enough for itself--yea, as much as thou shalt get done. It will then be much for thee to win to patience; it will be much for thee to win to the sight of thy justification; and then it will be much more for thee to win to assurance. O! then is it not needful for thee to put all thy work by hand before thy latter end come? 5. Your labours shall end, but your works shall not be forgotten; and is not that a glorious advantage? 6. Death may come upon you ere ye be aware; ye know not but death may surprise you this night before ye go home to your houses; and therefore let that press you to study a constant preparation for death. 7. As death leaveth you, so will judgment find you. If death shall leave you strangers to Christ, ye shall appear before Him strangers to Him: therefore I entreat you all to prepare for it. III. Some directions for helping you to prepare for death.1. Be much in preparation for death every day, for it is even a preparation for heaven, to be taking a sight of your grave and latter end every day. 2. Be much in these duties-- (1) Self-examination.(2) Repentance.(3) Faith.(4) Mortification. 3. Be much in minding the excellent things of heaven. 4. Labour always to keep a good conscience, void of offence towards God and man. 5. Slight not any known duty; do not crucify any conviction, neither break any resolution. (A. Gray.) Psalms 89:49 Lord, where are Thy former lovingkindnesses, which Thou swarest unto David in Thy truth?Ethan’ s psalm Of Ethan the Ezrahite we may form a much more complete conception than of Heman, his colleague and friend. Like Heman, he was born in the age of David, but moulded chiefly by the influences, literary and religious, which characterized the time of Solomon. Like Heman, he was one of the four pages who were deemed so wise that it was held a compliment to pay of Solomon himself that he was even wiser than they (1 Kings 4:31). Like Heman, too, he was one of the three singers set over the service of song in the house of the Lord (1 Chronicles 6:44), one of the leaders, or conductors, of the Temple orchestra, who marked time for the singers and players on instruments, not with a baton, but, as the fashion then was, by the clash of his brazen cymbals (1 Chronicles 15:19). He must have been, therefore, a man of high culture, of large and varied experience, of trained and practised wisdom, as well as a poet, and a musician of the most approved skill. In his psalm he gives us the last results of a long life of observation and experience. This psalm could not have been written until the fifth year of Rehoboam’ s reign. The occasion which prompted it was, probably, that memorable invasion of Palestine by Shishak, the reigning Pharaoh of Egypt, which is recorded in 2 Chronicles 12:1-16, and to the result of which allusion has been found in the sculptures of Karnac. If you read the psalm with the facts of this invasion, and its effect on Rehoboam, full in mind, it will become wholly new to you. The King of Judah, the Lord’ s anointed, the psalmist wails (verses 38-45), has been dishonoured, his crown has been hurled to the ground and defiled in the dust; his frontier-fortresses have been broken down; all his strongholds reduced; his glory has passed away; a haggard old age has come upon him in early manhood; he is covered with shame. Ethan meditates on these facts; he sets himself to understand them, to get at their inmost meaning, their Divine intention, and to learn the lesson with which they are fraught. He raises this problem--the apparent opposition between faith and fact, between the events of human life and the declarations of Divine will. He remembers the assurance given to David, “ Thy seed will I establish for ever,” and yet David’ s grandson lost ten of the tribes--lost, indeed, his own kingdom, and became a vassal of Egypt. What ground was left for faith and hope? He asks himself, Is not God able, is He not strong enough to keep His word, and to carry out the purposes of His love and compassion? And then he asks, Is He not good enough, is He not true and faithful to the word He has spoken, to the purpose He has framed and announced? His answer is untinged by doubt or hesitation (verse 8). Obviously Ethan is a man of more robust temperament than Heman. As meditative, as experienced, as wise, but not fretted into pessimistic misgivings by doubt, he can face the facts of life unalarmed, and the contradictions of thought which those facts are apt to breed in those who reflect on them. On what ground did he take his stand? One refuge, in which many take shelter, was closed against him. He could not admit, with Mill, that God was limited in goodness or in power. Nor could he admit that men have no claim on the God who made them. Ethan found ground for trust and hope by cherishing the conviction that God had sent these calamities in mercy, for correction, for discipline, and not in anger, for destruction. He cherished the belief and hope that God was keeping His covenant with the seed of David, not breaking it. Hence he could plead with God: “ How long, O Lord? Wilt Thou hide Thyself for ever?” It is this indomitable trust in the power and goodness of God; it is this resolute and unyielding conviction that all the apparent contradictions between the facts of experience and the declared will of God are only discords which will make the ultimate harmony more profound and sweet. This conviction we, too, need. We have to face the problem which pressed on the mind of the Hebrew sage. God has declared His will to us; He has entered into covenant with us. And yet is the world saved? The wise and much-experienced Ethan steps in to our help. Without in any manner seeking to abate our sense of sin, or our shame for sin, he teaches us that all our sorrow and shame, so far from proving that God has forgotten to be gracious to us, is a proof that He is correcting us for our transgressions and purging us from our iniquity. He affirms that by this discipline God is once more drawing us to Himself. (Samuel Cox, D.D.) The lovingkindnesses of God “ Where are Thy old lovingkindnesses?” As he sings Ethan looks around him, and his eye rests on a scene of degradation and ruin. He suffers as a patriot; he suffers as a religious man; he suffers as the descendants of the old Roman families suffered where they beheld Alaric and his hosts sacking the eternal city; as the countrymen of Frederick the Great suffered when the French entered Berlin after Jena; as in their turn the conquerors of Jena and Austerlitz suffered when the Allies entered Paris. These are the tragical incidents of history, and the house of David and its adherents were, it might have seemed, experiencing one of those great reverses by which the compensating justice that rules the world so often balances an overwhelming pre-eminence. But, then, in the case of the house of David, much more was at stake than the civil fortunes of the country. Bound up with, and behind the patriotic feeling was the religious and the theocratic one. Ethan’ s pain is in its kind, though not in its degree, that of Jeremiah in the greater catastrophe in a later century; it is that of the sorrowing Christians, who, as an Arab chronicler describes, saw their religion sink into ruins before the hosts of Islam; it is that of the Romanized Britons, who beheld in our own Saxon forefathers, yet pagan, the implacable enemies, not merely of their civilization, but of their faith. The throne of David was in the dust; David’ s grandson was a subject of the Egyptian king; the military defences of the country had been stormed by Egyptian forces; unprotected populations were pillaged by hordes of Suakims and Ethiopians who wandered at will over the sacred soil, carrying wherever they went desolation and ruin. The edge of the king’ s sword was turned; no resistance to the foes attempted in the open field; the unhappy monarch himself had been subjected to treatment which degraded him, and the psalmist apprehends that the days of his youth would be shortened by the ruin and dishonour which had thus overtaken the man who five short years before had ascended the mightiest throne in Western Asia, and who in his day impersonated the best hopes not merely of the children of Abraham but of the human race. Here, then, was the psalmist’ s difficulty. What had become of the lovingkindness of God? what of His faithfulness? what of His power? Ethan, in his report of the promise, has, in fact, answered his own difficulty. The covenant with David was not an absolute covenant. It depended upon conditions--conditions which were summed up in fidelity to Him who had done so much for it. Ethan himself states this supreme condition in the words of the Divine Author of the covenant (verses 30-32). The promise, however, continued thus (verses 33-35). The lovingkindness of God, overclouded for the moment, was not withdrawn, the punishment of the race of David was not its final extinction. Among Rehoboam’ s descendants were good and powerful kings not unworthy of their high and sacred ancestry, and when at last continued disobedience to the terms of the covenant led to the destruction of the monarchy in Zedekiah and to the ruin of the sacred city, the covenant still remained. Of the race of David one at last was born who should reign over the house of Jacob for ever, and of whose kingdom there should be no end. Ethan’ s cry has often been raised by pious men in bad days of Christendom. Over and over again Rehoboam has appeared in Christendom. The foolish lover of spiritual absolutism, the divisions which its pretensions render well nigh inevitable, and then the triumphs of the world over a weakened and divided Church--all these have been repeated once and again, and then goes up the cry, “ Lord, where are Thy old lovingkindnesses?” and the answer is, “ They are where they were.” “ The gifts and calling of God are without repentance.” Now, as always, the promises of God to His people are largely conditioned. If the gates of hell shall not prevail against His Church, much short of this may happen as a consequence of the unfaithfulness of her members or her ministers. God makes His work dependent for its complete success on the loyal co-operation of human wills. He accepts the semblance of defeat and failure rather than suspend the terms on which His gifts are given. But His promise all the while is sure; it is we who forget the conditions on which it is made, and Ethan’ s question is often answered in another connection. Every child, as you know, is taught in the Catechism to say that “ In my baptism I was made a member of Christ, a child of God, and an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven.” Now, this statement appeals to a mass of Scriptural testimony which is summarized by the statement of St. Paul that as many that have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. The covenant which God makes at its baptism with every Christian soul, is, indeed, a bountiful and magnificent gift, too great to be believed in if it were not the consequence and application of a gift which is still greater; for “ God so loved the world,” etc. But here comes in the sad contrast between this account of baptism and the actual lives of thousands, nay of millions, of the baptized. “ Look,” men exclaim, “ at baptized Christendom. Look at the millions whom you have taught to say that they are made members of Christ in their baptism.” Certainly Christendom is at first sight a libel on and an apparent contradiction to the highest gifts and promises of Christ, and yet in saying that do we not forget that those gifts and promises like the covenant with David are always conditioned? The grace of God whether given in baptism or at any other time, though it is promised for ever to the collective Church, is not a gift which is bestowed on any one of us irrespective of our method of receiving and treasuring it. The promises that none shall pluck those whom the Father has given to His Christ out of His hand, and that the predestined are called, and the called justified, and the justified glorified, are all of them accompanied by tacit conditions expressed elsewhere that these receivers of grace must correspond to the grace which they received. “ God,” says St. Augustine, “ will not save us through ourselves, but He will not save us without ourselves.” The grace of regeneration is not a talisman which wins heaven, be the baptized what they may; it is a conditioned gift which, like the crown of David, will be retained or forfeited by the monarch that wears it as men are careful or not to recognize its obligations. Of this let us be most sure, that if God’ s promises seem to any to have failed, the fault lies not with Him but with ourselves; it is we who have changed, not He. All we have to do if our lot is cast amid discouraging circumstances, or if we seem to be coming short of what He has promised us, is to lift up our hearts to Him in repentance and faith, and all will be well. (Canon Liddon.) Former mercies It is probable that the psalmist here refers to some special manifestation of God’ s mercy vouchsafed him in a season of past dangers and troubles, which being brought to his recollection in this his present calamity, he is encouraged to pray for a like deliverance. The recollection of former deliverances is a great help in praying for a rescue from present evils. Or, it may be that he was inquiring for those mercies which God had promised him, and this was a still greater source of confidence: “ Which Thou swarest unto David in Thy truth.” I. The contents of the inquiry.1. The fact of an inquiry being made argues an acquaintance, either personal or by report, between the inquirer and the one sought for.2. It implies an imagined temporary cessation of intercourse.3. It exhibits an ardent desire for a renewal of the intercourse.4. It breathes a spirit of sincerity. II. The cheering replies to the inquiry.1. Mercy still exists. Many of her former gifts are now no more; many of the instruments by whose means, in former days, she performed mighty deeds have been laid aside; many of her former messengers to you have become silent in death (Zechariah 1:5). No; a race that some of you still remember have passed away. But Mercy is still alive.2. She is with the Lord, and is always to be found at home.3. She is still in possession of all her faculties. She has sufficient strength of arm for the hardest undertaking, while she retains a firmness of hand and delicacy of touch for the most intricate work.4. She is still equally well disposed toward you. III. The probable results of such inquiry made in a proper spirit.1. It will gain the Divine approbation2. Every probability of a renewal of the intercourse. (D. Roberts.) . Psalms 90:1-17 Psalms 90:1-17 Lord, Thou hast been our dwelling-place in all generations.The prayer of Moses The propriety of the title is confirmed by the psalm’ s unique simplicity and grandeur; its appropriateness to his times and circumstances at the close of the error in the wilderness; its resemblance to the law in urging the connection between sin and death; its similarity of diction to the poetical portions of the Pentateuch (Exodus 15:1-27; Deuteronomy 32:1-52; Deuteronomy 33:1-29), without the slightest trace of imitation or quotation; its marked unlikeness to the psalms of David, and still more to those of later date; and finally the proved impossibility of plausibly assigning it to any other age or author. I. The great contrast (Psalms 90:1-6). The poet says what God has been, but he implies what He still was, and would continue to be. His Divine being reaches from an unlimited past to an unlimited future. Far otherwise is it with man’ s days. He has no independent existence. The Being who made him turns him back to the dust from which he came (Genesis 3:19), and when He say, Return, there is none to refuse obedience. He whose existence is timeless endures, but men soon perish. He swoops them away as with a driving storm which carries everything before it. Their life consequently is as unsubstantial as a dream. II. Death is the wages of sin (Psalms 90:7-12). The psalmist is a stranger to the fond notion that man is the victim of circumstances; that he deserves compassion rather than penalty. His brief life and swift death may seem mysterious, but they are not an accident. Like the flower he does not simply fade away, but is cut down. Various instrumental agencies may be employed to terminate man’ s existence, but the real cause is God’ s wrath against sin. How must iniquity take on a dreadful hue when contrasted with the unsullied purity of heaven, the resplendent glory of the Holy One of Israel? This dark shadow extends over the whole of life, and not only its close. “ All our days” bear the same stamp, and even when they stretch out into years, still they fly away “ as a thought,” a comparison used by Homer and Theognis, yet without the underlying thought of Moses that the flight is retributive (verse10). The best comment on this sad confession is the statement of Goethe made near the close of his long life. “ Men have always regarded me as one especially favoured by fortune Yet after all it has been nothing but pains and toil.” But besides this there is no permanence. An end does come, must come, even to the longest term of years. As the man of God looks over the record of the forty years’ error, he cries out, “ who knoweth,” who regards and feels “ the force of Thine anger” ? Who has such a conception of it as befits a becoming reverence for God? The implication is that there is none. Hence the devout entreaty, “ So teach us,” etc. Such is the power of sin, the seductive influence of a worldly mind, that we shall not know the link between God’ s wrath and our own mortality unless we get instruction from above. III. Prayer for the return of God’ s favour (Psalms 90:13-17). Here Moses returns to the starting point of the psalm. Whither should the contemplation of mortality as related to sin, and of Divine wrath against sin, cause us to turn but to God, our eternal home? The loss of His favour is, as usual, represented as His absence, and hence the entreaty for His return. The fervour of this request is well set forth by the abbreviated question, “ How long?” i.e. How long wilt Thou retain Thine anger? Calvin’ s letters show that this “ Domine quousque” was his favourite ejaculation in his times of suffering and anxiety. The literal version of the other member of the couplet is, “ Let it repent thee concerning,” i.e. so change Thy dealing with them as if Thou didst repent of afflicting them--a bold form of speech used by Moses elsewhere (Exodus 32:12; Deuteronomy 32:36). The next verse asks to be sated, abundantly supplied, with the lovingkindness of Jehovah in the morning, i.e. early, speedily; and the object of this prayer is stated to be that the offerers may have reason to sing for joy and be glad during the whole remainder of their lives. But if this be true of the Old Testament, that an early experience of grace gladdens all one’ s subsequent course, much more must it be of the New Testament with its fuller light, better covenant and larger promises. The next couplet is an affecting reminder of past trials, which are here made to be the measure of future blessings. The desire is that former sorrows may be compensated by proportionate enjoyments in time to come. The weary sojourn in the desert, where each halting-place was a graveyard and their march was marked by the tombs they left behind them, they desire to forget in the enjoyment of a permanent home in a land flowing with milk and honey. The same request is renewed in asking for the manifestation of God’ s work, that is, His gracious care for His chosen, the course of His providential dealings on their behalf. A beautiful and suggestive variation of this wish is given in the next clause where the term “ work” is exchanged for “ majesty,” intimating (Romans 9:23) that the glory of God shines conspicuously in His grace. This display of the sum of the Divine perfections is asked on behalf of the children of generations yet unborn, God being the God not only of His people, but of their seed and their seed’ s seed (Isaiah 59:2). The closing verse of the psalm comprehends both the Divine and the human side of the work given to God’ s people. First, the psalmist prays for the beauty of Jehovah, that is, all that which renders Him an object of affection, His wondrous graciousness, to be revealed to them in the way of experience. But this, so far from superseding rather implies their own activity. Hence the next petition mentions “ the work of our hands,” a favourite Mosaic phrase for all that we do or undertake, which God is requested to establish, i.e. to confirm and bring to a favourable issue. The repetition of the words is not merely a rhetorical beauty, but an expression of the importance, the necessity of such Divine aid. (T. W. Chambers, D.D.) The psalm of the wanderings Throughout this psalm two threads are twisted, the one sombre with gloom, the other bright with golden light. We will not dwell on the former. There is plenty of that already in the lives of most of us. Suffice it to say that to Moses the plaintive chords of sorrow appears to have been composed of three notes--the rapid flight of the ages, the anger of God incurred by sin, and the afflictions which beset human life. But opposite to these the aged lawgiver gives three thoughts, on which he rested his soul. I. God. What great thoughts Moses had of God.1. As Creator. To God he ascribes the birth of the mountains, which in their grandest aspects and in magnificent confusion were heaped in that Sinaitic peninsula. To God also he ascribes the moulding touch which shaped the universe of matter, and gave form to the earth. What though seas and rivers, glacier action and earthquake, were his graving tools, yet the maker and former of all things was God. 2. As eternal. He is not only God, El, the strong. He is Lord, Jehovah, the i am. And he labours hard to give us some true conception of His everlastingness. He speaks of the eighty years of human life as being, in comparison with it, short and soon; much in the same way as we should describe the duration of an insect’ s life, which passes through all the stages of existence from youth to age, between dawn and sunset in comparison with the life of man. He recites the generations of mankind, and describes their passing in to God like guests into a hostelry, their life to His being brief and transitory as a night-sojourn when compared with the permanence of the building in which it is spent. He goes back through the long process of creation, and says that God comprehends it in the extent of his being as a very little thing. 3. But the thought that helps us most is the conception of God as the dwelling-place, the asylum, the home of the soul. Moses needed it, if ever a man did. II. Gladness-making mercy. As Moses reviewed the desert pilgrimage it seemed one long line of transgression, each halting-place marked by its special graves, the monuments of some sad outbreak. He pined for gladness; he knew that there was gladness in the heart of the blessed God, enough to make him glad, and not him alone but all who were weary and heavy laden throughout the precincts of the camp; and having confessed their sins he now turned to God his exceeding joy and said, “ Make us glad.” And his demand for gladness was not a small one. He asked that it might be according to the days in which they had been affiliated and the years in which they had seen evil. It was a great request, but not unreasonable, for days and years of sorrow often give us capacity for receiving blessing. Let us, too, ask Him to put gladness into our hearts. Let us believe that it will honour and please Him if we dare to lay claim to blessedness, such as He alone can give, and when He gives does so with full measure, pressed down, and running over. The plea must be made to His mercy. We have no claim on any other attribute of God. And beyond that we must ask Him to satisfy us. We have sought satisfaction in all beside: in health and flow of spirits, in success and friendship, in books and affairs; but we have found it nowhere, and we shall never find it unless in Himself. III. Work, or co-operation between God and man. Moses’ complaint about the shortness of life indicates that he was no idler. The days were not long enough for all he had to do, and therefore life seemed to pass so quickly through his hands. Amid all that made him sad, he found solace in the thought that what he did would last. The leaves fall, but each, ere it finds a grave in the damp autumn soil, has done something to the tree that bore it, which will be a permanent gain for summers yet unborn. The preacher dies, but his words have furnished impulses to souls which have become part of their texture and will be part for ever. The workman finds a nameless grave beneath the shadow of the great unfinished minister, but the fabric rises still and will rise; his work will be part of it for ever, a joy and beauty for coming generations. But after all our work in itself is not sufficient to resist the disintegrating forces of time, which, more than all else, tries and tests its quality. And, therefore, we need to ask that God’ s work may become manifest through ours. In my work let Thine appear; through my weak endeavours may that hand achieve which made the worlds and built cosmos out of chaos. “ Let Thy work appear.” And in asking that God’ s work may appear, we make a request which involves His glory. The one cannot appear without the other, so that in all coming time children and children’ s children may behold it, and as that glory shines upon their faces it must transform and transfigure them so that the beauty of the Lord our God will be upon them. (F. B. Meyer, B.A.) God our home There was a tradition among the Jews, although these traditions are not altogether trustworthy, that Moses, the man of God, wrote this psalm or prayer. And it has always been felt that the psalm seemed to have some special connection with, or reference to, the experience and the impressions of the children of Israel in the days that they were doomed to wander up and down in the wilderness without being allowed to enter into the promised land. And there is much in the psalm that corroborates that view. It is the psalm of a generation of men who felt themselves to be wasting away under God’ s wrath, consumed by His anger. They are spending their years as a tale that is told. The vanity and emptiness of life are pressed home upon them with great severity. At the same time, it is not a psalm of mere wailing and lamentation. There is the exercise of faith in it, not only in the first verse, but in the appeal to God to come and dwell with them as their case requires, and make them experience His mercy. Now, if we are to take this idea, and see.how far it will carry us through this psalm, we must remember this, that when the children of Israel were leaving Egypt they were very much exercised about the hope of a habitation. They were leaving one habitation--the land of Egypt. It was a house of bondage; still, a house is a house, even if it be a house of bondage, and it is wonderful how men often shrink from breaking up some accustomed state of things, not discerning well what is to replace it. But the objections of the Egyptian rulers and the hesitations of the people were mightily overcome, and by and by they found themselves on that famous march through the wilderness towards the land which God had sworn to give them for an inheritance. It was to be their habitation, and it was not only to be their habitation, but also God’ s habitation. The value of it was that He was to dwell in it with them, watching over them; and accordingly at the Red Sea they sang: “ Thou shalt bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of Thine inheritance, in the place, O Lord, which Thou hast made for Thee to dwell in.” Many thoughts about this wonderful habitation, many expectations about what it should prove to be, must have been in their minds. By and by there fell out that rebellion upon the report of the spies, which carried away the people as will a flood. One or two stood out against it, but the general cry of the people was to go back to Egypt. They despaired of that promised land, of that goodly inheritance. I think it would be a mistake for us to take it for granted that all those who had joined in this defection, all those who were involved in this unbelieving revolt from God, wore even then mere carnal and unbelieving men. It may have been the case that some of them were men and women who had some good thing in them towards the Lord God of Israel. It is not such a rare thing, unfortunately, it is not such a surprising thing, to find persons Who have the root of the matter in them and are believers, carried away by a stream of defection and by a sentiment of unbelief, as if they could not stand against it. And certainly we may suppose, when we look to the ends that God has in chastening, which is not for our destruction but for our salvation, that among those who were visited by this great disappointment some were brought to faith by the very chastening which was inflicted upon them. That agrees with the ends which God has in chastening. We are told that the people mourned greatly. They strove, as it were, to reverse the sentence which could not be reversed; but I should be disposed to believe that there might be among them persons who either were or came to be men of desire and men of faith towards the Lord God of their fathers. But if we are to open our minds to an idea of that kind, then what a tremendous disappointment fell upon those who belonged to this class, and how difficult it must have been for them to know what to say or do. As to the mere unbelievers, they were disappointed, of course; but they would perhaps turn to the ordinary avocations of the camp in the wilderness, prepared to make the best of it until the end of their pilgrimage had come. But those who had any trust in God and any longing for the experience of God’ s favour, how must it have been with them? All hope was over now of that habitation to which they had set out to go. No more dwelling with God in the land of which their fathers told them. Their children should go in; the very bones of Joseph should go in; but they were to be shut out. Indeed, one would say that they would turn to the duties that fell upon them in connection with daily life, unable to speak to any man the thoughts that were in them. It was so hard the feeling that all was over; and yet the deep longing in the heart protesting against its being all over. Yes, and yet, when we come to think of it, we may see how such souls were visited, and how they found their way to God through that experience. We may see how God brought good out of evil and light out of darkness. For still they were under God’ s care; still the manna was supplied to them and still the waters ran to satisfy their thirst. Still in the midst of their tents one tent arose which was God’ s tent, who was dwelling in the midst of them. He was providing for them, caring for them, and they could go to Him in His tabernacle with their vows and their free-will offerings; and no doubt in the month Abib they would draw together and remember that they were God’ s firstborn whom He had brought out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand and with a stretched-out arm. To those who had no care about God, all that would be nothing, but it might be a great deal to these who were ready to say with Jonah, “ I am cast out of Thy sight, yet I will look again towards Thy holy temple.” For what did it come to, after all? That God was their dwelling-place even now. In His shadow they dwelt, His food they ate, His protection was extended to them, and if He chastened them, might they not remember that as a man chastenteth his own son, so the Lord God chasteneth them? And if they were enabled to get so far, if they were enabled to look upward out of that desolate condition of theirs and to claim a relation to God in which He was their dwelling-place, then they would not only be able to look upward, but to look forward too. I dare say it was one of the thoughts in their hearts, when they set their faces to go out of Egypt to that promised land, that when they came to die, as die they must, their tombs would be in that land on which God looked from the one year’ s end to the other. That was over now; there was nothing for them now but to leave their bones lying anywhere, wherever they might drop in the wilderness. Yet even so, they might believe that God’ s promise would hold and that God’ s goodness would not fail, and that when the great days of the fulfilling should come, they also, wherever their nameless grave might be, should not be altogether forgotten or left out of the blessedness of His people. And if God was their dwelling-place, how natural that their prayer should take this course of appealing to God to make them feel their interest in Him, to make them feel God’ s interest in them. The pledges that they had once looked to see fulfilled had been swept away, and they stood face to face with God, and if they were to live a life of faith in God they required help. “ O satisfy us early with Thy mercy, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. Make us glad according to the days wherein Thou hast afflicted us, and the years wherein we have seen evil. Let Thy work appear unto Thy servants, and Thy glory unto their children.” How that sentence on their lives expressed the vanity of their lives, they could make nothing of them; they would lead to no result. “ And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us; and establish Thou the work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands establish Thou it.” We also are passing through our pilgrimage to the land which God has set before us, and in the case of many of us our experiences are very different from those of which we have been thinking in connection with this psalm. But there are others of us whose experience prepares them to join in some of the reflections and especially in some of the prayers of this psalm. Perhaps there are some who cannot see the use of their lives. Their expectations in life have been crossed; sorrows have come where they hoped to have prosperous and progressive times. They have difficulty in understanding any Divine purpose in their lives, or any human purpose that a person could follow out with cheerfulness, with a sense of accomplishment and success. And they are apt to feel that God is not thinking about them. Such persons deserve the sympathy of all those who have not been so tried as they have been. Perhaps there have been circumstances in their lives, temptations and failures that lead them to feel that this failure of their lives, this want of an outlook and an upward prospect before them, has been duo to their own sin, and their own foolishness, which has perplexed their heart, and which has brought upon them the experiences which often do follow sin and folly--and it may be so. But it is true that you need a dwelling-place, and so also it is true that through these many experiences of yours you may be enabled to find your way to the faith that God is your dwelling-place; that He has not been forsaking you, but has been sweeping away treasures that were too lightly contemplated, and too lightly held, to make room for His coming in Himself into your lives, with a new manifestation of His grace, with a new sense of your own sin and unworthiness, and at the same time a new experience of His goodness. We have all homes, or have had homes, and what idea do we associate with the home, the dwelling-place to which we naturally belong? First of all the idea is of protection. A little child feels sure of protection in its own home, and it is right; there are people there who would die rather than let it come to harm. Then there is provision--wants met; forethought exercised that we may be provided for. Then there is a sense of peace, a sense of familiar surroundings, of being at home, at peace with all that is around you. There is also a sense of enjoyment, a sense of love and gladness that make a cheerful and happy place. We need this, and in a measure it comes to us in our own homes, but they may pass away. They are to teach us that we need the true home, and the Lord must be our dwelling-place, in whom is protection--“ He that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep” ; in whom there is provision, “ Bread shall be given him; his waters shall be sure.” And then there is gladness. Some of us, perhaps, cannot realize true, simple, childlike gladness in connection with religious faith or experience, but that is not because there is any doubt about the gladness, but because we are not far enough on. And, therefore, if I speak to any who find a difficulty in the experiences of their life is recognizing the Divine care and goodness, I would say to you, Is your case worse than the case of those men and women of whom I have been speaking? And if this was the very way in which God taught them what He was and what He could be to them, and enable them to say, “ Lord, Thou art our dwelling-place,” then should we not learn the same lesson; learn it when sorrows and perplexities and troubles come to us, to go to God for deliverance, and for a knowledge of what it is to yield ourselves to God, and our members as instruments of righteousness unto God. It is a sad business to think of those who are living in happy homes, in homes which have much happiness, and many elements of good about them, and yet have no outlook further; as if when by and by the materials of that earthly home fall away, they will pass out into eternity houseless and homeless. That will not do; we are very clearly told that if we are to find that blessedness we must seek it now. (R. Rainy, D.D.) Man and his Maker I. In the safe guardianship of God (Psalms 90:1).1. In other places God is represented as the dwelling-place of human souls (Isaiah 4:6; Deuteronomy 33:27; Psalms 91:9). Human souls want a home, a place where they can rest in confidence, sheltered from the storm, protected from the burning rays, and shielded from every danger and every foe. 2. What a dwelling-place is God! (1) How safe! The combined armies of hell cannot enter it; the strongest storm in the universe cannot affect it. (2) How happy! In it there is everything to charm the imagination, gratify the love, delight the conscience, transport the whole soul in raptures of joy. (3) How accessible. Its doors are open to all. Untold millions have entered it, and yet there is room. (4) How enduring! The strongest castles rumble before the breath of time, and the material universe may be dissolved, but this “ dwelling-place” will stand for ever. II. In physical contrast to God (Psalms 90:2-6). Here is the Eternal in antithesis with man the evanescent, the absolute in contrast with man the dependent.1. Man is mortal. Dust we are and to dust we must return. But this event occurs not by accident, or disease or fate. No. “ Thou turnest man to destruction.” There are no accidental deaths in the world. 2. Emblems of the brevity of human life. (1) A “ watch.” This, according to Hebrew chronology, was only one-third of the nocturnal season. Life is spoken of, not as a year or a month, but as a third part of a night, so brief it is. (2) “ Sleep,” “ Sleep ceases,” says Luther, “ ere we can perceive it or mark it; before we are aware we have slept, sleep is gone.” When the oldest man, as he is about passing away, looks back on his past life, the whole seems only as a vision of the night. (3) “ Grass.” What are men? Merchants, warriors, emperors, armies? Grass, nothing more. The wind passeth over them and they are gone. Oh, what is man to God? (Homilist.) The gate to God’ s acre It is the oldest of stories, sung in this oldest of psalms; of human weakness, turning in dismay from the change and decay about it, to find refuge in the eternity of God. We are not suffered to waste time in the attempt to comprehend the abstract truth of God’ s eternity. We are lifted for the moment, in order that we may descend; suffered to grasp a few of the treasures of the Divine glory, that we may carry them back to glorify our earthly life.1. This splendid thought of the Divine eternity is made to touch the shifting and inconstant character of our earthly state, by the single word “ dwelling-place.” I am a wanderer on earth, there is an eternal home for me; I am sick of confusion and change, there is eternal abiding in Him who is “ the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever,” and only a change “ into the same image from glory to glory.” 2. But a correct view of the eternity of God conveys warning as well as comfort. The more it is studied, the stronger is the contrast into which it throws the brevity and uncertainty of human life. (1) The eternal power of God convicts us of helplessness. Notice the sharp contrast. “ From everlasting to everlasting, O God,” Thy life is self-sustained--in Thine own power: man’ s life, that gift in which he so exults and on which he presumes to play “ such fantastic tricks before high heaven,” --that which flowers out in his pride and high endeavour, in his ambitions, plans, and grand enterprises, is a thing so little in his power, that Thou turnest him even unto the finest dust with a word; and, with another word,--“ Return, ye children of men” --callest others into being to fill his place. (2) The eternal being of God is used to convict us of delusion. We measure life by false standards. The psalm brings us back to the true rule of measurement (Psalms 90:4; Psalms 90:12). 3. These suggestions are enforced by the figures which follow. Each of them sets forth a truth of its own. (1) There is, first, the fact that man passes swiftly from life. “ Thou carriest them away as with a flood.” “ Thou carriest men away from life, as a mountain torrent, rising in an hour, sweeps away the frail but that man has built.” (2) Take the next figure: and to the same thought of the swift passage of life, we have added that of its unsubstantial, unreal character, and of man’ s unconsciousness of its passage. “ They are as a sleep in the morning.” (3) Again, look at the third image: the grass which flourisheth in the morning and is cut down at evening. Here still is the old key-note--the quick passing of the life; but with a new thought, namely, how the beauty and strength and aspiration of life are disregarded in the swift flight of time. It is cut down. Why this strong expression, as if it were not left to wither of itself, but were destroyed by violence? 4. The question marks the transition to the next portion of the psalm, embraced in the next four verses. This matter of brief life and swift death is a mystery, is it also an accident? Then, as now, men were prone to say, “ Man is to be pitied: man is the victim of circumstances: man is not guilty, but unfortunate: man is not depraved, but fettered: man deserves not punishment, but compassion: sin is no ground for wrath, but for tolerance.” True it is that the Bible is an evangel of love, and pardon, and compassion; true that “ like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear Him” ; but also true that the Bible, from beginning to end, blazes like Sinai with God’ s hatred of sin, resounds with warnings of man’ s danger from sin, and sets forth as in letters of fire that man is responsible for sin, and liable to its penalties; true that history, and prophecy, and psalm, and gospel, and epistle are grouped round one definite purpose, to save him from the power, dominion, and consequences of sin. In view of these terrible facts, and of men’ s persistent blindness to the power of God’ s anger then, as now, is it strange that Moses prayed, is there not good cause for us to pray, “ Teach us to number our days” ? Whither shall a sinful, short-lived man flee, but to a holy and eternal God? Thither turns the prayer of these last five verses, and turns with hope and confidence. Man is the subject of God’ s wrath, but there is mercy with Him to satisfy him who flees from the wrath to come. Man is a pilgrim and a stranger, with no continuing city, but there is gladness and rejoicing in God for all his brief days. Man’ s beauty consumes as the moth, but “ the beauty of the Lord our God” shall be upon him, and that beauty is immortal, untouched by time and change. Man’ s work is fragmentary, his plans often disconcerted, his grandest enterprises nipped in the bud by death, but God’ s touch upon human work imparts to it the fixedness of eternity; and if He establish the work of our hands, it shall abide though the world pass away and the lust thereof. He will make good the sufferings of sin by the joys of Holiness. (M. R. Vincent, D.D.) God a dwelling-place I. The eternity of God.1. The existence of God never had a beginning.2. The existence of God will never have an end; it stretches into futurity further than our minds can follow it or angels trace it; it is an everlasting life, a deep and mysterious stream which never began, and will never cease, to flow. II. In what relation this everlasting being stands to ourselves. We are reminded of the power by which He formed the earth and the worlds; we are reminded of the eternity in which He dwelt before there was a creature to know and adore Him; and for what end?--that a world of destitute sinners may be encouraged to consign themselves to His care and to trust in His love. He is “ our dwelling-place,” our refuge, our habitation, our home.1. A refuge from dangers.2. The seat of our comforts.3. The place of our abode. III. What feelings the contemplation of God in this light ought to excite.1. Grateful acknowledgment.2. Satisfaction.3. Humility.4. Confidence.5. To the careless and ungodly--terror. Other enemies may be incensed against us, but while they are preparing to execute their purposes of wrath, “ their breath goeth forth” ; they die; and there is an end of their terror. But an avenging God never dies. The weapons of His indignation are as lasting as they are strong. (C. Bradley, M.A.) The glorious habitation I. Explanation.1. The dwelling-place of man is the place where he can unbend himself, and feel himself at home, and speak familiarly. With God you can be always at home; you need be under no restraint. The Christian at once gives God the key of his heart, and lets Him turn everything over. The more God lives in the Christian, the better the Christian loves Him; the oftener God comes to see him, the better he loves his God. And God loves His people all the more when they are familiar with Him. 2. Man’ s home is the place where his affections are centred. Christian man, is God your habitation in that sense? Have you given your whole soul to God? 3. My next remark is concerning the lease of this dwelling-place. Sometimes, you know, people get turned out of their houses, or their houses tumble down about their ears. It is never so with ours; God is our dwelling-place throughout all generations. Christian, your house is indeed a venerable house, and you have long dwelt there. You dwelt there in the person of Christ long before you were brought into this sinful world; and it is to be your dwelling-place throughout all generations. You are never to ask for another house; you will always be contented with that one you have, you will never wish to change your habitation. II. Improvement.1. Self-examination. It is remarkable that almost the only scriptural writer who speaks of God as a dwelling-place is that most loving apostle, John. He gives us (1 John 4:12) one means of knowing whether we are living in God: “ If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and His love is perfected in us.” And again, further on, he says, “ And we have known and believed the love that God is to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.” You may then tell whether you are a tenant of this great spiritual house by the love you have towards others. In the 13th verse is another sign: “ Hereby know we that we dwell in Him, and He in us, because He hath given us of His Spirit.” Have you actually the Spirit of God within you? If so, you dwell in God. But the apostle gives another sign in the 15th verse: “ Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God.” The confession of our faith in the Saviour is another sign that we live in God. But there is one more sign whereby: we ought to examine ourselves, in the third chapter 24th verse: “ He that keepeth His commandments dwelleth in Him, and He in him.” Obedience to the Commandments of God is a blessed sign of a dwelling in God. Some of you have a deal of religious talk, but not much religious walk; a large stock of outside piety, but not much real inward piety, which develops itself in your actions. 2. Congratulation to those who dwell in God. I congratulate you, Christians, first, that you have such a magnificent house to dwell in. You have not a palace that shall be as gorgeous as Solomon’ s,--a mighty place as immense as the dwellings of the kings of Assyria, or Babylon; but you have a God that is more than mortal creatures can behold, you dwell in an immortal fabric, you dwell in the Godhead--something which is beyond all human skill. I congratulate you, moreover, that ye live in such a perfect house. There ne’ er was a house on earth that could not be made a little better; but in God you have all you require. I congratulate you, moreover, that you live in a house that shall last for ever, a dwelling-place that shall not pass away; when all this universe shall have died out like a spark from an expiring brand, your house shall live and stand more imperishable than marble, self-existent as God, for it is God! Be happy then. 3. One word by way of warning. Do you know, poor soul, that you have not a house to live in? You have a house for your body but no house for your soul. Have you ever seen a poor girl at midnight sitting down on a doorstep crying? Somebody passes by, and says, “ Why do you sit here? I have no house, sir. I have no home.” “ Where is your father? My father’ s dead, sir.” “ Where is your mother? I have no mother, sir.” “ Have you no friends? No friends at all.” “ Have you no house? No; I have none. I am houseless.” And she shivers in the chill air, and gathers her poor ragged shawl around her, and cries again, “ I have no house--I have no home.” Would you not pity her? Would you blame her for her tears? Ah! there are some of you that have houseless souls here this morning. It is something to have a houseless body; but to think of a houseless soul!(C. H. Spurgeon.) God our home There is pathos in the fact that the author of this psalm never had an earthly home in the truest sense. For the first fifty years of his life he was the foster son of an alien; for the next, a fugitive; and for the last, a wanderer in the wilderness. But God is the best home, after all. How one feels the blessing of a pleasant home after long travel. What should a home be? I. A place of shelter. And God is that, from wrath, sin, sorrow. II. A place of supply. There we go for “ our daily bread.” And it is God who gives us that. III. Of enjoyment. Those do not know God who have never found delight in Him.IV. Rest. V. Love. (M. B. Riddle, D. D.) Jehovah our home I. Man needs A home. Like the climbing plant, without the strongest stem to support it, the sensibilities of our frail but wonderful nature trail in the dust. II. God reveals himself as humanity’ s home. The perfection of our home in God is seen in three particulars.1. Physical adaptation. This world is fitted up for man’ s accommodation; fitted to engage energy and repay toil. It is not for the idler’ s comfort. 2. Intellect finds a home in God. Never talk of religious dulness. Our Father spreads out for the education of His children the grandly-illustrated page of nature, and the letter of His love. 3. Heart and soul--our moral being--find a home in God. “ In all generations.” Religion, under every different form, and with every varied accompaniment: patriarchal simplicity, Mosaic picture, Christian manhood--has ever been the same, ever fitted to man’ s heart. III. Our home in God is inviolable. Out of God, there is no resting-place for the jaded spirits of men. IV. God our home: then it is eternal. V. This home is to be reached through Christ. (Homilist.) The abiding-place I. How did Moses come to win this foil against his sense of the brevity of life? He sought to purge his vision of every film, and he trained his mind to detect a presence of God underneath the veils of nature and behind the masks of history, till the very earth around him was haunted ground. God was quite as invisible to him as to you or me, and yet, according to the apostle, he lived as seeing Him. God had become a dwelling-place to Moses, because thought and desire had made a well-worn path toward Him, and He was a refuge to which he continually resorted. Such realization of God cannot be extemporized. A solid and substantial fabric which shall afford thought and feeling, all the repose and solace of a home, can be ours only as we acquaint ourselves with God, and enter into such familiarity with Him that He shall grow to be as definite and real to us as any of the daily facts of our common world. II. What it meant to Moses that God should appear as a “ dwelling-place.” Through all the years of his earthly career he had never had a permanent home. He had been a pilgrim and sojourner on the earth, and learned the full meaning of the word “ homelessness.” But, as one weary with long marches behold afar some stately mansion where love and welcome wait to greet him, so on the thought of Moses dawned the great vision of a quiet and enduring home, where his tired limbs and aching spirit should find balm and ease. His life had been driven hither and thither at the caprice of circumstances; in no sunny nook or sequestered vale of peace could he stay; goaded on, he had to leave behind him whatever engaged his interest, and where he fain would tarry. But from that gleaming dwelling-place yonder he should go out no more for ever. Instead of change there would be permanency; instead of the vicissitudes and fluctuations of fickle fortune there would be the constancy of unharassed tranquillity. You say, such a faith is an experience to be coveted. You sigh, and wish that it might be yours. But note that he had no monopoly of such a dwelling-place. He says that it is just as available, just as accessible, to us as to him. God is a Dwelling-place for His people in all generations. And, in spite of the murky vapours which hide our heavens, many a one since has found it true that it is possible to have in God all the security and rest of a dwelling-place. “ In all generations” the great fact stands; it has never been annulled; its wide doors are sealed against the approach of none. We may conceive of the glorious attributes of our God as so many various chambers or retiring-rooms, places of security, of gratification, or of repose, to which it is our present privilege to resort. When disconcerted with the mysteries of life, we will rest in the omniscience of God, and remember that the all-knowing One cannot err. When our desires seem to fail, we will rest in His fidelity who will never break His word of promise. When life grows bitter, we will resort to Him, like the sobbing child that pillows its head on a mother’ s bosom, because He has sent us this message: “ As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort thee.” As I close, I want to ask whether or not you, any of you, feel “ at home” with God. I have read of some “ who remembered God and were troubled.” If it is thus with you, He cannot be your Dwelling-place. You may have paid Him occasional visits at distant intervals, but “ he that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High abides under the shadow of the Almighty.” (J. G. Van Slyke, D.D.) House and home (with Isaiah 57:15):--Here are two homes. In the one case, God is a home for the human heart. In the other, the heart becomes a home for God. This double doctrine has in it the very soul and marrow of real religion. The most complete description of man the sinner is that he is “ without God.” The most complete description of man the saved is that he is “ in God,” “ he dwells in God and God in him.” I once beard a negro bid “ good-bye” to the missionary who had found a way into his heart for Jesus and himself too. “ You lib here,” said he, putting his hand upon his heart. “ You lib right in my heart. You came to me, an’ you say, ‘ I love you, John,’ I open the door and you come right in, an’ I say, you’ se welcome to all I’ se got. You say, ‘ John, do this;’ ‘ John, don’ t do that;’ an’ you love poor John; till my heart warm through and through. Massa, good-bye; but you lib here all same till I die.” Verily the man of God was in John’ s heart. Jesus wants to come into the contrite heart! To you He says, “ Come down; for to-day I must abide in thy house!” But when God dwells in us by His Spirit, and “ makes our heart His home,” He becomes our dwelling-place and our home. It is not possible to retain in perpetuity any earthly home, but this home, the heart of God, can never fail through all the years. These walls can never crumble; this roof-tree can never decay; these foundations can never fail. From everlasting to everlasting He is God. Neither is there any eviction possible; nor any room for alarm at the approach of hostile foot or invading arm. The Lord is my fortress, my strong tower. “ A safe stronghold our God is still!” That was the thunderous victor-song of Luther and his fellows, and all the armies of Pope and devil could not dislodge them. The Christian’ s dwelling-place is a safe home! For the eternal God is his refuge, and around him are the everlasting arms. Only cross the threshold, and you shall go out no more for ever. The Lord our dwelling-place. That speaks to us of shelter. When the cold winds blow, and the tempest beats, and the storm of rain or snow goes driving through the streets, how sweet to cross the threshold and gain the shelter of our home. We can hear the hurly-burly outside--the noise of the rain against the window-pane; the moaning of the blast; but none of these things move us--we are safe at home. “ Our dwelling-place.” How the word tells us of comfort; of content; of rest and home delights. By the ingle and the hearth we are able to forget the tedious toil and moil of the day. The toil-worn limb, the tired hand, the weary foot, the aching head, the jaded brain find at home a welcome quiet, a refreshing rest, a comforting repose. To dwell in God is to win that refreshment and obtain that rest. And does not the word speak to us also of supplies? Our dwelling-place, God. Food lies on His table; the finest of bread; honey in the combs; wines well refined, fatlings of the flock; all this and more tells the story of the bountiful provision, the sumptuous fare provided for every one who dwells in God, housed and homed in the loving heart of Jesus Christ. (J. J. Wray.) God as a dwelling-place Perhaps the noblest form of dwelling-place, and the one most akin to Moses’ meaning, is that of human friendship. As little children, when taken among strangers, we looked all around for mother, and if only she were there we rushed to her, and hid in her, covering our face, but feeling safe, and able presently to look out on the guests as from a window in a house on a crowd. Or, in later life, it has been our lot to be misrepresented and misunderstood by all except by one man of noblest fashion. And it has seemed as if we were almost indifferent to all beside, so long as He is pleased and satisfied. “ Let the cruel winds of slander come,” we have cried, “ and reproach, and hate; He understands and appreciates me; judged by His standard, I am true; tested by His opinion, I am right against a world in arms, I am content to abide in His approval and be at peace.” Or, in other circumstances still, you have learnt to love, with all your heart and soul, so that your existence seems almost to have passed into that of another, and to be safe, restful, almost careless of all else, so long as that house stands unsmitten by the tempest which whirls around. All these are dwelling-places to which souls betake themselves, destined, alas! all of them, to perish, except that human love which, in so far as it is threaded with the Divine, partakes of the nature of God Himself, and is eternal. But none of them can give to the soul such blessed rest as to be able to say to God, “ Thou, O Lord, art my rock, and my fortress, my shield, and my high tower.” It was thus that the apostles made their dwelling-place in the nature of their Lord. Their life was hid with Christ in God. So our blessed Lord lived in God His Father. Just as a child looks out on a mob in the streets from the security of the strong castellated dwelling, where it sits on its father’ s knee, so did Jesus look out on the malice and hatred of men from His rest in the very heart of God. This is the true life, which, thank God! is within the reach of us all. Put God between yourself and men with their strife, or sorrow with its fret and care, chafing like the perpetual wash of the wave which retreats only to return. Ask what God says of you measure yourself only by His standards. Seek only His well-done. Dwell deep in God. And because thou shelf have made the Lord, even the Most High, thy habitation, there shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling. As the cathedral of Cologne rears itself in incomparable majesty beyond the trailer houses around, offering a permanence which storms and time cannot impair, so does God rear Himself as our all-sufficient dwelling-place amid the passage of creation, of generations, and of centuries. (F. B. Meyer, B.A.) God--the Home of the soul of man Heinrich Heine, a Jew by birth, not by conviction, professed Christianity in 1825. This profession, however, was merely formal, a necessary preliminary to his practising as a lawyer in Germany. Compelled to leave Germany, he lived in Paris, where he was one of the most brilliant figures in the brilliant society of his day. During many years his wittiest gibes were directed against religion; irreverence was rife in the world around him, and he never hesitated to give it sparkling utterance. But towards the end of his life came a change. A few years before death he wrote, “ Yes! I have returned to God like the prodigal son, after my long swineherdship . . . Is it misery that sends me home? Perhaps a less miserable reason. A heavenly homesickness overtook me.” Still later: “ I die believing in God one and eternal, Creator of the world. I implore His mercy upon my immortal soul.” Psalms 90:2 Even from everlasting to everlasting Thou art God. The eternity o God I. In what respects God is eternal.1. Without beginning.2. Without end.3. Without succession or change. Of a creature it may be said, he was, or he is, or he shall be. As it may be said of the flame of a candle, it is flame, but it is not the same individual flame as was before, nor is it the same that will be presently after; there is a continual dissolution of it into air, and a continual supply for the generation of more; while it continues it may be said there is a flame, yet not entirely one, but in a succession of parts: so of a man it may be said, he is in a succession of parts; but he is not the same that he was, and will not be the same that he is. But God is the same without any succession of parts, and of time; of Him it may be said, He is; He is no more now than He was, and He shall be no more hereafter than He is. II. God is eternal, and must needs be so.1. This is evident by the name God gives Himself (Exodus 3:14). The eternity of God is opposed to the volubility of time, which is extended into past, present, and to come. Our time is but a small drop, as sand to all the atoms and small particles of which the world is made; but God is an unbounded sea of Being,--“ I am that I am,” i.e. an infinite life. 2. God hath life in Himself (John 5:26). He hath life by His essence, not by participation. He is a sun to give light and life to all creatures, but receives not light, or life from anything, and therefore He hath an unlimited life; not a drop of life, but a fountain; not a spark of a limited life, but a life transcending all bounds. He hath life in Himself; all creatures have their life in Him, and from Him. He that hath life in himself doth necessarily exist, and could never be made to exist, for then he had not life in himself, but in that which made him to exist, and gave him life. What doth necessarily exist, therefore, exists from eternity; what hath being of itself could never be produced in time, could not want being one moment, because it hath being from its essence, without influence of any efficient cause. 3. If God were not eternal, He were not-- (1) Immutable in His nature;(2) An infinitely perfect being;(3) Omnipotent;(4) The first cause of all. III. Eternity is only proper to God, and not communicable (1 Timothy 6:16). All other things receive their being from Him, and can be deprived of their being by Him. All things depend on Him, He of none. All other things are like clothes, which would consume if God preserved them not. Whatsoever is not God, is temporary; whatsoever is eternal, is God. IV. Uses--1. Of information. (1) If God be of an eternal duration, then Christ is God (Colossians 1:16-17; Hebrews 13:8; Revelation 1:8; John 16:28; John 17:5). As the eternity of God is the ground of all religion, so the eternity of Christ is the ground of the Christian religion. Could our sins be perfectly expiated had He not an eternal divinity to answer for the offences committed against an eternal God? Temporary sufferings had been of little validity, without an infiniteness and eternity in His person to add weight to His passion. (2) If God be eternal, He knows all things as present. (3) How bold and foolish is it for a mortal creature to censure the counsels and actions of an eternal God, or be too curious in his inquisitions! (4) What a folly and boldness is there in sin, since an eternal God is offended thereby! (5) How dreadful is it to lie under the stroke of an eternal God! 2. Of comfort. (1) If God be eternal, His covenant will be so. (2) If God be eternal, He being our God in covenant is an eternal good and possession. (3) The enjoyment of God will be as fresh and glorious after many ages as it was at first. (4) If God be eternal, here is a strong ground of comfort against all the distresses of the Church, and the threats of the Church’ s enemies. God’ s abiding for ever is the plea Jeremiah makes for his return to his forsaken Church (Lamentations 5:19). (5) Since God is eternal, He hath as much power as will to be as good as His word. His promises are established upon His eternity, and this perfection is a main ground of trust (Isaiah 26:4). 3. For exhortation. (1) Let us be deeply affected with our sins long since committed. Though they are past with us, they are in regard of God’ s eternity present with Him; there is no succession in eternity as there is in time. (2) Let the consideration of God’ s eternity abate our pride. (3) Let the consideration of God’ s eternity take off our love and confidence from the world, and the things thereof. The eternity of God reproaches a pursuit of the world, as preferring a momentary pleasure before an everlasting God; as though a temporal world could be a better supply than a God whose years never fail. (S. Charnock.) The eternity of God I. Explication. Eternity is a duration without bounds or limits; now there are two limits of duration, beginning and ending; that which hath always been, is without beginning; that which always shall be, is without ending. But eternity, absolutely taken, comprehends both these, and signifies an infinite duration, which had no beginning, nor shall have any end: so that when we say God is eternal, we mean that He always was, and shall be for ever; that He had no beginning of life, nor shall have any end of days; but that He is “ from everlasting to everlasting.” II. Proof.1. From the dictates of natural reason. This attribute of God is of all others least disputed among the philosophers; all agree that God is eternal, and are agreed what eternity is; viz. a boundless duration; and however they did attribute a beginning to their heroes and demons, whence come the genealogies of their gods, yet the Supreme God they looked upon as without beginning; and it is a good evidence that this perfection doth clearly belong to God, that Epicurus, who had the lowest and meanest conceptions of God, yet is forced to attribute this to Him: Tully (do Nat. Deor. lib. I) saith to the Epicureans, “ Where, then, is your happy and eternal Being, by which two epithets you express God?” And Lucretius gives this account of the Divine nature, “ It is absolutely necessary to the nature of the gods to pass an eternity in profound peace and quiet.” 2. From Scripture and Divine revelation. St. Peter’ s conversion of the words, “ One day is as a thousand years,” etc., only signifies this, that the longest duration of time is so inconsiderable to God, that it is as the shortest; that is, bears no proportion to the eternity of God. But directly, the Scripture frequently mentions this attribute (Genesis 21:33; Deuteronomy 33:27; Isaiah 57:15); and this, as it is attributed to Him in respect of His being, so in respect of all His other perfections (Psalms 103:17; Romans 1:20; 1 Timothy 1:17; Galatians 1:5). III. Doctrinal corollaries.1. From the eternity of God, we may infer, that He is of Himself. That which always is can have nothing before it to be a cause of its being. 2. We may infer the necessity of His being. It is necessary everything should be, when it is; now, that which is always is absolutely necessary, because always so. 3. The immutability of the Divine nature; for being always, He is necessarily; and being necessarily, He cannot but be what He is; a change of His being is as impossible as a cessation. IV. Practical inferences. The consideration of God’ s eternity may serve--1. For the support of our faith. There are two attributes which are the proper objects of our faith and confidence--God’ s goodness, and His power; both these are eternal. 2. For the encouragement of our obedience. We serve the God who can give us an everlasting reward. 3. For the terror of wicked men. (J. Tillotson.) The eternity of God “ Time and space are not God; but creations of God: with Him it is universal here; so it is an everlasting how.” (T. Carlyle.) Psalms 90:3 Thou turnest man to destruction; and sayest, Return, ye children of men. Man’ s thoughts of man I wish to point out our duty to the world of humanity; to the communities to which we belong; to the generation in which we live; to the great family of mankind, of which God has made us members.1. What have been, what are men’ s thoughts respecting the race of man? We know not for how many thousands of years our race may have lived on this little planet, rolling and spinning “ like an angry midge” amid the immensities of space; but, over a space of forty centuries at least, in the pages of many literatures, in the accents of many tongues, we find the opinions of men respecting man. They have been uttered, as freely as to-day, by the bards and prophets of races long since vanished, in language long since dead. Man has ever been a mystery to himself. “ Who are you?” indignantly asked an irascible person, who had been delayed in his hurried progress by running against a modern philosopher in the streets. “ Ah,” replied the philosopher, “ if you could tell me that--if you could tell me what I am--I would give you all I possess in the world.” To-day, however, we do not want to enter into any transcendent mysteries; we only want to learn what men have thought of man in his moral, his spiritual, his religious aspect. And here, strange to say, we are confronted at once with a perfect chaos of conflicting judgments. According to some, man is a being so small, so intolerably contemptible, so radically unjust, mean, and selfish, that he is not worth working for; he is not only “ a shadow less than shade, a nothing less than nothing” ; not only “ fading as a leaf” and “ crushed before the moth” ; not only like the grass of the field, which to-day is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven; but also, as far as moral dignity is concerned, he is the mere insect of an hour; a creature essentially allied to the animal; a being who combines the instincts of the tiger and the ape; a blot on God’ s fair creation; a jar in the sweet untroubled silence; a discord amid the infinite harmony; “ a flutter in the eternal calm.” It is remarkable how cynics and sceptics in all ages have coincided in this view. Think of Diogenes, searching in daylight with a lantern to find a man in the streets of Athens; think of Phocion, whenever a passage in his speech was applauded, turning round and asking, “ Have I said anything wrong, then?” think of Pyrrho the atheist, describing men as a herd of swine, rioting on board a rudderless vessel in a storm; think of La Rochefoucauld reducing man’ s virtues into mere selfish vices in thin disguise; think of Voltaire describing the multitude as a compound of bears and monkeys; think of Schopenhauer, condemning this as the worst of all possible worlds, and arguing that man is a radical mistake; think of the more serious voice which says, “ However we brazen it out, we men are a little breed.” But then turn to the other side, the grand and exalted opinions which man has entertained of man. Think of Shakespeare’ s, “ What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason! how infinite in faculty! in form and moving, how express and admirable! in action, how like an angel! in apprehension, how like a god!” Think of Henry Smith’ s, “ When we turn our eyes upon the soul it will soon tell us its own royal pedigree and noble extraction by those sacred hieroglyphics which it bears upon itself.” Or take Novalis, “ Man is the true Shekinah, the glory-cloud of God. We touch heaven when we lay our hands on that high form.” 2. Which, then, are we to follow of these diverse judgments? By which are we to be guided in our own dealings with our fellow-men? I answer with all my heart, take the nobler and better view of mankind. Adopt it, not as a voluntary illusion, but as a sacred fact, as a living faith. Good and evil without end may be said of man; and both be amply borne out by history and by experience. That is due to the fact that man is a composite being; that he partakes of two natures--the animal and the spiritual; that he is swayed by two impulses--the evil and the good; that he has in him two beings--the Adam and the Christ; that “ the Angel has him by the hand, and the serpent by the heart” ; that our little lives are kept in equipoise by balance of two opposite desires--the struggle of the impulse that enjoys, and the more noble impulse that aspires. Hence we may say of man, in the same breath, “ How poor, how rich, how abject, how august, how wonderful, how complicated is man.” “ Glory and scandal of the universal,” says Pascal, “ the judge of angels, a worm of earth; if he exalts himself I smite him down, if he humbles himself I lift him up.” But is there no practical reconciliation of these antitheses? Yes, there is: not in the world, not in nature, not in philosophy; but there is in religion, there is in Christ.. 3. I would urge you, then, not to give up faith in God or in man, or in God’ s doctrines for man, nor sweetness, nor charity, nor invincible hopefulness. To lose faith in man is to lose faith in God who made him; to lose faith in man’ s nature is to lose faith in your own. Depend upon it, that the man who begins by saying, “ Mankind is a rascal,” will soon add the words, “ The world lives by its scoundrelism, and so will I.” It makes all the difference in the world whether you judge man from Thersites or from Achilles, from a Nero or from a Marcus Aurelius, from a Marat or from St. Louis; from living men like one or two whom one could name, or from the depraved, wife-beating sots and brutal burglars who are the festering curse of the lowest dregs of the population; from living women like some whom one could name, or from those unmotherly mothers and unwomanly women who nigh turn the motherhood to shame and womanliness to loathing. Oh, judge mankind from its highest and its best! (1) Let us try to believe that there is a good side in every man. Man, it has been said, is like a piece of Labrador opal. It has no lustre as you turn it in your hand till you come to a particular angle, and then it shows deep and beautiful colours. We sometimes read with amazement how some one, who seemed to be past all remedy in abandoned vileness, suddenly, touched by the glory of heroism, will rise to a great act of self-sacrifice. Look at the battle of Waterloo; look at the trenches of Sebastopol; look at the charge at Balaclava; look at the burning of the “ Goliath” ; look at the wreck of the “ Birkenhead” ; to see how the commonest and coarsest of men can recognize the invincible claim and sovereignty of duty, even at the cost of life. Man’ s nature may often look like the dull chill blank of the Alpine mountain side, darkened only by the shadows of its black and stubborn pines, but let the dawn blush in the vernal sky, and the south wind breathe, and the sun fire to the high tops of those mountain pines, and the snow will melt and vanish under their soft and golden touches, till at last it rushes down in avalanche, and then where yesterday was snow, to-day shall be green grass and purple flower. (2) And as another way to help us in retaining our faith in human nature, let us sometimes turn away from the thought of bad men altogether, to that galaxy of heaven, wherein shine the clustered constellations of saintly lives. The saints in the long ages have not been few. To these have been due the progress, to these the ennoblement, to these the preservation of the world. Among all the bad passions, among all the disordered lives of men--amid all their meanness, and littleness, and emptiness, and egotism--it is as water in the desert to come in life and more often among the records of the dead on these natures “ pure as crystal, active as fire, unselfish as the ministering spirits, strong, generous, and enduring as the hearts of martyrs.” Look on these; think of these; do not think of the heartless and aimless crowds that vegetate without living, but read the lives and actions of these fine children of the light. (3) But above all, as the best of all rules, think constantly of Christ; and fix your eyes on Him. “ Of what account after all are the saints compared to Christ? They are,” said Luther, “ no more than sparkling dewdrops of the nightdew upon the head of the bridegroom scattered among His hair.” The only measure of a perfect man is the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ. 4. And oh, lastly, the most sure way to justify our faith and hope in human nature is to justify it in ourselves. If you would raise others, live yourself as on a mountain; live yourself as on a promontory. Say with the good emperor of old, “ Whatever happens I must be good” ; even as though the emerald and the purple should say, “ Whatever happens I must be emerald, and keep my colour.” That is how men widen the skirts of light, and make the struggle with darkness narrower. To do this is a worthy object; it is the only worthy object of our lives. (Dean Farrar.) Psalms 90:4 For a thousand years in Thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night. God’ s estimate of time 1. Let us set this truth before our minds: that which seems a long season to man seems a very brief season to God. (1) God has lived for ever. Farther back than our strongest thought can travel, farther back than our swiftest wing or fancy can fly, and there our God was. As a drop in the boundless ocean, so is a cycle of a thousand years in the view of Him who is alike without beginning of days and end of years. (2) If God estimates the years by the magnitude of His empire, by the multiplicity of His cares, by the wide sweep of His eternal purposes, then no wonder that with God a “ thousand years are but as yesterday when it is past.” (3) Our Father in Heaven has an unspeakable blessedness. He is infinitely wise, holy, and good. He is love. “ His tender mercies are over all His works.” He tastes for ever the perfect joy of creating bliss, and conferring it upon others. 2. I proceed to point out the practical uses of this truth. (1) It helps our deep awe and holy reverence. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, as surely as love to God is the very summit of perfection. (2) One way of keeping the world in its proper subordinate place is to more frequently fasten our attention on these subjects,--the power and grandeur of God, the eternity of His being, the perfection of His character, the boundlessness of His empire. These things have power to lift our minds on high. (3) Lastly and chiefly: the practical use of this text is to strengthen our patience, and to cherish in us the assurance that, however long delayed, the purposes of God will be accomplished, the promises of God will be fulfilled. (C. Vince.) The long day of God With the Deity, such a vast existence indicates only vast events. And these events must necessarily assume the form of a progress in which the present shall become the cause of the morrow, for any other method would either make eternity a monotone, or else a reckless succession like the results of chance, the throwing of dice, or the forms assumed in the kaleidoscope. In ages and centuries where the mind has become aroused into that action which is called civilization, it is utterly impossible to believe in God except as being the Supreme Activity. Assuming, then, this Divine activity, we may the more readily assert that the endless events of this God will assume the form of a progress. This assumption of a universal law is justified by the fact proclaimed in many special laws. The acorn passes to leaf, to twig, to bush, to sapling, to tree, to the great monarch of the forest. In its long life each year is a progress, each day being the cause in part of the next day. Its second year so multiplies the leaves that they breathe in a double quantity of air in behalf of the third year, and the roots of the second year so redouble the nutriment on hand that they also order an advance of the whole plant for the next springtime. All that we see around us in the organic form is acting under a law of progress, hence it does not seem hasty if we conclude that all the events coming from the Divine activity are occurring in the form of a progression, the present being a result of the past and a cause of the future. If, as we all believe, man is an image of the Creator, we may read in the human mind a confirmation of the idea that God is expressing Himself in a continuous series of events, for in such a career only does man, God’ s image, find happiness. The idea that God once acted should be crowded out by the idea that He is now acting. The world is a chain in which all the links are equally valuable, because each one is an inseparable part--a part without which there is no value in the chain. Hence you stand as much in the presence of God to-day as stood the earth when God was planting the Garden of Eden for the first sons of man. It may be that the external world, with all its forms and laws, is nothing else than the spiritual God, expressing Himself in visible and audible and tangible forms, in order that our souls may possess some outward revelation of the Deity. The light that makes myriads of colours, the sound that is divided up into music, the height and depth that are emblems to us of infinity, the grandeur of the “ star depths,” and the millions of years consumed in their orbits, may be the only ladders upon which our humble feet can climb to any belief in a God. The laws of the universe, instead of concealing a God, do reveal Him, for they are the footprints of One whose form cannot otherwise be traced As the delicate wire of Franklin revealed an agency of which he had only dreamed--as it became a Jacob’ s ladder upon which the invisible angels came down from the clouds--so the whole material world must be concluded as the path where God bursts from His invisible spirit-life out upon the sight of His children. Hence the laws of Nature are not indications that there is no God, or that there once was, but they are the places and the times when and where this Creator continually confesses His presence. The “ thousand-year” day of God seems to argue that His children will not be limited to the earthly mornings and evenings, but will rise to where they can, like their Heavenly Father, see the past and the present, rise to where the love and memory dimmed by a few years have many returns to the souls torn asunder in this vale. If in God’ s sight the children of earth stand near together, so that Paul and Wesley mingle their eloquence, and Magdalen and Guyon mingle their love, and Lovejoy and Lincoln their liberty and blood, then this “ thousand-year” day which so mingles things separated on earth should be man’ s day also beyond the tomb, that there, in blest companionship, souls may meet which toiled here for one end, but who never saw the faces about to follow them, nor saw the golden harvest destined to spring from their blood and tears. If to God the graves of Paul and Fenelon, of Magdalen and the Dairyman’ s Daughter, of Lovejoy and Wiberforce, are all close together; under the same flowers and same Divine presence, there should be a realm beyond where those sleeping souls should wake to consciousness of their blended lives. (D. Swing.) Psalms 90:5 Thou carriest them away as with a flood.The devastating ravages of death The Israelites had not yet witnessed the swellings of Jordan, through which, by their Maker’ s presence and power, they were to pass dry-shod; but they had witnessed--and never could they forget,--the watery ramparts of the Red Sea, where, rejoicing in their God, they walked through the flood on foot, which the Egyptians essaying to do, were drowned. And while standing safe and victorious on the opposite shore, full of recollections of the country which they had left, they can contrast the regular, pacific, fertilizing flood of Egypt’ s river with the sudden and overwhelming inundation their eyes now behold, that awful flood which carries away their foes, when Pharaoh and his chosen captains, and their chariots and horsemen, and all their multitude are, in a moment, covered by the depths, and sink into the bottom like a stone; yea, the flood covers them, they sink as lead in the mighty waters.1. The general idea intended to be conveyed by the phraseology before us is--destruction, fell, certain destruction, for such is the invariable consequence of a flood like that which is here supposed. 2. Such is the general idea intended by the phraseology before us; but connected with this, there are several special and subordinate ideas, which seem descriptive of some of the accompaniments of that visitation of Providence which is here referred to. (1) The destruction caused by a flood is sudden. And this is a circumstance which adds, in no small degree, to the terrors of such a scene. (2) The destruction which is caused by a flood is as indiscriminate as it is sudden. Wherever the flood spreads, it leaves some traces of its ravages. Like death, it has no respect of persons or property. It will enter kings’ palaces as readily as the hovels of the poor; it will assail the crowded streets and densely-peopled lanes of a city equally with the lonely tenants of the sequestered vale. And it is no less indiscriminating as to the victims whom it engulphs. On it rushes with undistinguishing and resistless speed, passing by none upon its course, pitying none, sparing none. (3) There is this other peculiarity in the ravages of a flood, like that which is here supposed, viz. that in its progress it is irresistibly powerful. So long as the fury of the torrent lasts, human skill and human prudence are altogether futile. 3. Now, if you combine together these different ideas, viz. that a flood presents the imago of certain destruction--that in its approach it is sudden--in its ravages indiscriminate--in its progress irresistible, you will perceive with what propriety it is here employed as an emblem of death. (N. Morren, M.A.) Like grass which groweth up.--Like grass which groweth up 1. It is in vain to seek for a paradise or a home in this poor, delusive world. 2. After all, we ought not to weep too much over the vanity of life. Human life answers the purpose for which it was given. What Christian would consent to take up with earth and be for ever exiled from heaven? It is an infinite privilege that a good man may die. 3. It ought not to be a ground of despondency to good men that they are growing old and beginning to decay, and drawing rapidly towards a termination of their course. Death will not swallow up all. “ There is a land above the stars and joys above his power.” 4. The delusive and fleeting nature of all terrestrial things, and the afflictions which are largely mingled with them, ought to make us long more earnestly after heaven. When we cannot find here a place on which to rest the sole of our foot, it ought to endear to us the thought of our eternal home. 5. The shortness of life and the unsatisfying and perplexing nature of all that it has to bestow, ought to stir us up to diligence in the proper business for which it was given us. (E. D. Griffin, D.D.) Psalms 90:7-11 For we are consumed by Thine anger, and by Thy wrath are we troubled. Man under a consciousness of Divine displeasure I. It arose from a sense of moral wrong. “ Thou hast set our iniquities before Thee,” etc. True it is that all our iniquities, even the most secret, those wrought in the deepest concealment, stand out clearly evermore to the eye of God. Thus a sin-convicted conscience profoundly feels that man is consumed by His anger, and by His wrath is he troubled. When a sinful spirit becomes conscious of its sinfulness, it invests the Almighty with the most terrible attributes of vengeance. II. It solved the unhappiness of life.1. Life is sad. “ We are consumed by Thy wrath.” The same trials of life which are regarded by the man who has a sense of Divine forgiveness as the disciplines of a loving Father, are regarded by the man who is impressed with a sense of guilt as the inflictions of an incensed Judge. Hence Providence is different to different men. One feels it a system of grace, another a system of rigorous severity. 2. Life is empty. “ We spend our years as a tale that is told.” Some translate “ tale” thought, and some, sound that dieth away. How soon the loudest sound, even the crash of thunder, dies away in the atmosphere! 3. Life is brief. “ The days of our years are threescore years and ten.” (Homilist.) A conception of God’ s anger God’ s anger is His love thrown back upon itself from unreceptive and unloving hearts; just as a wave that would roll in smooth and unbroken green beauty into the open door of some sea cave is dashed back in spray and foam from some grim rock. (A. Maclaren, D.D.) Psalms 90:8 Thou hast set our iniquities before Thee, our secret sins in the light of Thy countenance.Sin estimated by the light of heaven God and men view objects through a very different medium, and are placed with respect to them in very different situations. God is present with every object; He views it as near, and therefore sees its real magnitude. But many objects, especially those of a religious nature, are seen by us at a distance, and of course appear to us smaller than they really are. God sees all objects just as they are; but we see them through a deceitful medium, which ignorance, prejudice and self-love place between them and us. If you are willing to see your sins in their true colours; if you would rightly estimate their number, magnitude and criminality, bring them into the hallowed place, where nothing is seen but the whiteness of unsullied purity, and the splendours of uncreated glory; where the sun itself would appear only as a dark spot, and there, in the midst of this circle of seraphic intelligences, with the infinite God pouring all the light of His countenance round you, review your lives, contemplate your offences, and see how they appear. I. Bring forward our iniquities, that is, our more gross and open sins, and see how they appear in the light of God’ s countenance. Have any of you been guilty of impious, profane, passionate, or indecent, corrupting language? How does such language sound in heaven? in the ears of angels, in the ears of that God, who gave us our tongues for noble purposes? Have any of you been guilty of uttering what is untrue? If so, bring forward all the falsehoods, all the deceitful expressions, which you have ever uttered, and see how they appear in the presence of the God of truth. Have any of you been guilty, either at home, or in foreign countries, of perjury, or false swearing? If so, you may here see the awful Being whom you mocked, by calling Him to witness the truth of a known deliberate lie. And how, think you, such conduct appears in His eyes? Have any of you been guilty of fraud, injustice, or dishonesty? If so, bring forward your dishonest gains; hold out the hands which are polluted by them, and see how they look in heaven, in the presence of that God, who has said, Let no man overreach or defraud his brother in any matter; for the Lord is the avenger of all such. II. Bring our hearts into heaven, and there, laying them open to view, see how they will appear in that world of unclouded light, and unsullied purity. Surely, if all the evil thoughts and wrong feelings which have passed in countless numbers through either of our hearts, were poured out in heaven, angels would stand aghast at the sight, and all their benevolence would scarcely prevent them from exclaiming in holy indignation, Away with him to the abode of his kindred spirits in the abyss! To the omniscient God alone would the sight not be surprising. III. Take a similar view of our sins of omission. Our whole lives present one unbroken series of duties neglected, of favours not acknowledged. And, oh, how do they appear, when we review them in the light of God’ s countenance! But the duties which we owe to God are not the only duties which we are required, and which we have neglected to perform. His law also requires us to love our neighbour as ourselves. And this general command virtually includes a great number of subordinate precepts; precepts which prescribe the duties of the various relations that subsist between us and our fellow-creatures. And how far have we obeyed these precepts? Oh, how much more might we have done than we actually have done, to promote the temporal and eternal happiness of all with whom we are connected! Nor do our sins of omission end here. There is another Being whom we are under infinite obligations to love, and praise, and serve with supreme affection. This Being is the Lord Jesus Christ, considered as our Redeemer and Saviour who has bought us with His own blood. We are required to feel that we are not our own, but His; to prefer Him to every earthly object. Every moment, then, in which we neglected to obey these commands, we were guilty of a new sin of omission. (E. Payson, D.D.) All sin committed under the eye of God I. Sin is inward and outward lawlessness. It is disloyalty in heart and life. A black and bitter thing leading to black and bitter consequences. II. Men commonly attempt to conceal their sin.1. From themselves--and will hardly admit that some evil deeds are sins under their peculiar circumstances. 2. From society generally. 3. From God Himself, who sees and knows their sins in all their enormity and aggravated character. III. In attempting to conceal their sins men are doomed to complete failure. They are already “ before Thee” --even “ our secret sins in the light of Thy countenance.”1. It is so with all our personal sins. 2. With family sins. 3. With Church sins. 4. With national sins. IV. To attempt to hide sin is to commit further and deeper sin.1. Against ourselves--deeply injuring our moral nature. 2. Against our fellows--lowering the moral tone of society. 3. Against God--who is increasingly wronged and outraged. V. Men ought to acknowledge their sin. Private sin. Public sin. All sin of every kind and character should be penitently confessed to God. “ Thou hast,” etc. VI. God has a complete knowledge of all sin committed against Him. It is in the very light of His countenance.1. We have only a partial knowledge of sin,--in ourselves, in our friends, in society generally. 2. We have dim and imperfect conceptions of sin at best; for human lights are always changing, but God sees sin in itself and in the light of His own countenance, which never disguises evil. 3. We cannot prevent God seeing and knowing our sin. He Himself places it before His own eyes in all its nakedness and reality. What, therefore, must be the ultimate shame and misery of those who persist in sin? Therefore repent and believe the Gospel. (W. Unsworth.) Secret things brought to light If you were to take this church, as it is in ordinary daylight, and seek to inspect the secret impurities with which its atmosphere abounds, your sight would be unable to detect them. It would be the same if in broad daylight you were to examine the cleanest drawing-room in the cleanest house in this city; the sight would detect no uncleanliness in its atmosphere, it would appear perfectly pure. But now let a bright ray of sunlight stream through the church or through the drawing-room. Look into the beam! What do you see? Why, a new world: a multitude of motes, innumerable particles of dust, vast quantities of impure matter all floating about in the atmosphere which seemed so clean! In the broad, common light they lay concealed, but in the bright, sunny beam the secret things are discovered, and live and move before our gaze. Are there any secret things in our worship which need to be revealed? Do we worship in the light of God’ s countenance, or in the light of mere tradition and custom? What more sweet and beautiful than the bringing of a gift to place upon God’ s altar! It seems so spiritually pure and sound. We often regard it as a sign of moral and spiritual health. But worship is not so superficial a thing that it can be so superficially judged. Worship which may pass muster in a worldly light reveals its impurities in a more searching spiritual light. Every worshipper who passes into the light of God’ s countenance is met by this bold challenge, “ Has thy brother aught against thee?” and that is a challenge which searches us through and through. “ First, be reconciled to thy brother.” Our secret relationships are held up in vivid clearness before us, and their rectification is an essential condition in all acceptable worship. Now let us pass from our worship to our social fellowship. Look at the dim, thick light in which social life is lived. The darkness is sufficiently tempered to enable us to detect prominent crimes, presumptuous sins--outrage, murder, and obtrusive forms of lust. But in this dim, thick light how much can be concealed, how many deformities, how many crooked dispositions, how many perverse purposes, how many malicious designs, how many revengeful spirits! Social life is poor because social light is dim. If we water a stronger social life we must have an intenser light, in which secret uncleanness will rise up to be judged. Here is a ray from God’ s countenance (Matthew 5:39). Flash that through social life, let that light play on our relationships; would any horrible crookedness be revealed? It is not a business motto. It is not a social maxim. Here is rather the maxim of the world, “ Pay a man back in his own coin.” A man can do that and not violate the current standard of social morality. He may do it and yet live up to social light. But if such action will satisfy society, it does not satisfy God. “ Pay a man back in his own coin!” That is not how the great God pays us! (Psalms 103:10). That was not the way of Christ (1 Peter 2:23). That was not Paul’ s way (1 Corinthians 4:12). The Lord purposes for us a clean, sweet, wholesome, social life, free from all secret foulnesses, and we can only obtain it by permitting the light of His countenance to fall upon us, and bringing our life into conformity with its great requirements. There is a bright side to all this, and I want to close with a gentle and encouraging word. The light which thus brings into prominence the secret sins also brings into prominence the secret virtue. The good Lord takes the candle and sweeps the house, not just to find the dust, but find the piece of silver! No bit of silver is lost. Every bit of secret goodness is seen in the light of His countenance. (J. H. Jowett, M.A.) Psalms 90:9 We spend our years as a tale that is told.Life--a tale Assuming this version to give the true idea of the author, we have here three thoughts,1. Significance. A tale has some meaning; is intended to impart some idea to others. Life is big with meaning. Amongst the many things which the tale of life speaks out are two wonderful things. (1) Man’ s power of opposing himself, the arrangements of creation, and the will of God. (2) The amazing patience and condescending mercy of God. 2. Observance. A tale implies, if written, readers; if oral, listeners. It is intended for observers. What observers has the life of every man! Society, devils, angels, God, are all observing, all reading us. Every act tells out some portion of this tale, and falls upon unnumbered ears. 3. Transitoriness. “ A tale told.” Not inscribed upon marble or brass, not even written in a book,--but just “ told.” The transitoriness of this tale, however, is not in its influence that is everlasting, every idea will tell on the ages, but in its earthly form of expression. It is passing away from here like a flower, a vapour. (Homilist.) Life--a tale I. Seeing that life imperceptibly passes, it should be the care of us all, that it be not misspent, or its opportunities unimproved. Life may be passed as vainly as the time occupied in hearing an idle tale.1. Some tales are light and trifling,--merely to amuse and make the reader laugh. Such, also, is the life of some. Always light-hearted, never serious. They tread a round of vanity. 2. Other tales are of a grave caste, and turn on the interests of human life; but they are altogether worldly in their tone and tendency. So with the lives of many. They occupy their days with business; they are industrious, enterprising: but they have no concern about spiritual things. 3. Some tales are tales of truth. They give an account of godly men who served God in their generation, and died in peace. Such are the lives of Christians. They are using the means of grace, and growing in weanedness from the world; they seek the salvation of others, and prepare themselves for the coming of the Lord. II. The most important of the tale is its close, and so also it is with life, The interest thickens towards the end.1. Some tales, whether serious or trifling, have an unhappy termination. So the life of many. They die without preparation and without hope. The tale of human life is soon told, but how momentous are its issues! 2. Other tales have a joyful ending. Hope is realized. So the life of God’ s people. Whatever doubts, troubles, trials, disappointments chequered it, the close of it is peace. III. Some tales come sooner to a close than others. So life;--in some cases three-score years and ten, or four-score years; in other cases not sixty, not fifty, not forty years--not thirty or twenty years, or even ten. Delay not. Make sure of salvation now. (W. H. Hewitson, M.A.) Life an exclamation I. The main idea of the text is the transientness of life; it has the brevity of a cry. Some lives have only one word, some several, yet is each an exclamation. Some have the completeness of finished sentences; some fail in the midst; some have only a beginning, rather intimate that there is something to be said than say it. Then is life short, indeed, when man dies, not because he has exhausted a force so much as because he has met with an obstruction. And yet how often is this the case! The days are “ cut off;” “ the sun goes down while it is yet day; “ the flower fadeth.” Then, also, is life short when, though its voice fails not at the commencement of its utterance, it is broken off in the midst, and gives no complete expression to the deep meaning with which it is charged. And yet how often is it as an unfinished cry! How often do men pass away before they have half revealed the significance of their being! Things are long and short in comparison. The sense of duration is not absolute. The insect that lives but a day has, or might have, the feelings with which we regard seventy years . . . Suppose a being to live two millions of years, he would look down on our existence of seventy years with the same feelings as those with which we regard the creature of a day. It is only eternity that is really long--absolutely long. Eternity makes life nothing, and yet everything; sinks it to utter significance, and yet invests it with inconceivable importance. II. If life is transient as a cry, it is a cry full of meaning. The importance of utterances does not depend on their length; it is not how long it takes to express a thing, but the nature of the thing expressed, which decides the greatness of the expression. A few words may reveal a world of meaning. Life is a cry, but what does it not reveal? The broken speech of our earthly days is the voice of souls. It shows what we are as souls; our principles, habits, etc . . . And, showing what we are, it shows also what we shall be, what we shall be for ever. And it does more than show what we shall be, it helps to make us it. Many different cries proceed from our common nature. Life in some is a cry of wonder, an expression of amazement at this mysterious universe, and their own mysterious being. Life in some is a cry of pain, grief from physical suffering, grief from adversities of lot, grief from social pressure on the heart’ s affections. Life in some is a cry of joy, the rapid, incoherent speech of ecstatic feeling. I do not ask which of these your life is, nor does it much signify in relation to the most important of all matters. But I do ask you, what is the temper and the form of your life? Time, which is so short, is the season for conversion, salvation; and without these, when it is passed, you will find yourselves in an eternity for which no preparation has been made. Everlasting life dates from regeneration, not from death; we cannot have the life immortal if we be not born again. (A. J. Morris.) The tale of our years I. The tale of our years is told in chapters. This is necessary for reference, for the understanding of the main points and features of the story--chap, 1, chap. 2, chap. 3, and so through the table of contents. But what are these chapters? Is there one devoted to infancy, that piece that every one forgets if he ever knew it? Is there another for childhood with its gambols, summer days in the woods and on the shore, and Christmas Days in the dear old home? Is there another for youth, that sentimental time, so foolish and yet so sweet? Is there one for manhood, with its responsibilities and strenuous work, and yet one more for old age with its pensiveness and its memories, “ the tender grace of a day that is dead” ? But these are, after all, only the headings of the chapters. When you read what is written you would perhaps be inclined to make other divisions. There is, e.g., a chapter of sins. Every tale told has that in it. Then there is the chapter of opportunities, the chapter of change, the chapter of sorrows, the chapter of mistakes. When the true man turns to read through some of these, the tears fall upon the page. He can hardly, dare to think. But blessed be God he can pray. To read the story of the years m a spirit of penitence and trust is so to number our days as to get us a heart of wisdom. II. The tale of our years is illustrated. Illustrations are exceedingly popular in these days. Now, one advantage of an illustration is that by it an impression is conveyed immediately. It is to a page or two of writing what a photograph is to a water-colour drawing, or what a telegram is to a letter. The salient features of the situation are seized at once; what would take ten minutes to read is taken in from a picture in ten seconds. So there are many people who see the illustrations who never read the story. Has it ever struck you that it is precisely so in our lives? For one who reads their story there are a hundred who see the pictures. From them they form their opinion of the story. For example, such a comparatively unimportant thing as manners is an illustration of life’ s story. If you acknowledge an acquaintance in the street as if you saw a ticket-of-leave sticking out of his pocket, you will make an impression on him. It may be that behind a lofty look and a disdainful air there is a kindly heart and a really humble nature. But it was the illustration that was seen and that lingers in the mind. How true it is, too, that our habits illustrate the tale. Such things as exaggeration, little mean ways, indolence, unpunctuality. Or, again, how often we illustrate our story by exhibitions of temper. This is seen by our children and servants, and perhaps by some who have read less of the tale of our years than those who share our home. Now, there is a sense in which all our acts are illustrative. III. The tale of our years has a plot. It is often not intricate and dramatic. It may be free from excitement, from that which in some stories is so unhealthy, the sensational. It may be homely, familiar, and commonplace. But it is there. God has a plan for my life. Not more surely had He for Abraham and David or for a Tennyson, a Gladstone or a Bismarck, the greatest of great men than He has for me. There is a hidden unity, an interaction and a coinciding, a sequence, to which we have at present no complete key. Life is not a chaos, it is a cosmos. IV. The story of our years has an end. It is soon told, “ the days of our years are threescore years and ten,” etc. “ A thousand years in Thy sight are but as yesterday,” etc. ‘ Twas but yesterday that we were children, our world the nursery. ‘ Twas but yesterday that we were wed, that our children were born, and now ‘ tis toward evening; the day is far spent-the tale of our years will soon be told. Now of 999 out of every 1,000 of these tales it might be said, they are fleeting literature, they soon pass out of circulation; even the critics forget them, and they are interred in the vast literary sepulchre of the British Museum. But are they on that account valueless? Not necessarily. Those forgotten books may have suggested ideas to greater minds than their authors’ . A spark may be dropped that kindles the fires of genius, and they blaze out in a splendour that impresses the world. So these lives of ours, which seem so commonplace, may enrich others. V. The tale of our years has a moral. Every tale has, implicitly if not explicitly. And so has every life. When it is finished, it leaves on the mind of those who have known it intimately, some impression. There are some features that stand out, some moral qualities that have given a tone to the personality, or some principles that it has livingly illustrated. Men sum up their impression of the character. “ He was a successful man, but he never lost the simplicity of his tastes or the geniality of his demeanour.” “ He was a prosperous man, but his wealth corrupted his spirituality.” “ He was a disappointed man, but his sorrow never soured him.” “ He had an uphill fight, but he won the respect of all and the love of many.” But what the moral will be depends upon the dominant motives of the life. Are all lower considerations brought into subservience to that all-comprehending and ennobling ideal--“ Man’ s chief end is to glorify God and enjoy Him for ever” ? Then, if it be that, the story told by the years will be a “ Pilgrim’ s Progress,” a progress out from sin and bondage and selfishness, guided by the heavenly light, up to the Cross, where the burden of guilt rolls off into the grave of the Divine forgiveness; through the dark valley of temptation and awful conflict with him who would spill your soul; through “ Vanity Fair,” unsoiled by its corruptions, to the Delectable Mountains of a solid and settled peace; then to the land Beulah, “ where the shining ones commonly walk, because it is nigh unto the city;” until only the river remains, over which there is no bridge, but for which there is a Divine Pilot who makes it shallow for all who trust: “ when thou passest through the waters I will be with thee,” etc. Then through the gate over which is written, “ Blessed are they who do His commandments,” etc. (R. B. Brindley.) Our years 1. Our years are “ determined” (Job 14:5); give entertainment to this thought, close as we are upon the end of another year. “ Fear not, fret not, weary not, poor pilgrim of a day. The pilgrimage will soon be over. Thy days are determined. The number of thy months is with me. I have appointed thy bounds that thou canst not pass. Thou wilt soon accomplish as an hireling thy day. There is a time to be born, and a time to die.” 2. Our years are connected the one with the other. They are not like adjacent islands, deep water flowing around and between. We go right onwards, treading on the same kind of ground to the end. Such, too, usually, is the growth of character in the individual man. It goes on growing through the year, and it will not stop growing at the end of one year, and then begin again to-morrow morning when the year is new. The growing may be quickened or it may be confirmed a little, by the impressions and the sanctities of this last hour; quickened or confirmed in goodness; or else, alas, the heart, passing through these solemnities and agitations without a real religious faith, will be hardened in evil, and made more impervious to the impressions of any future season. And yet here let us be careful, else we shall come near to the acceptance of the very worst intellectual doctrine of this time--the doctrine of inevitable necessity, or, religiously viewed, the doctrine of a moral continuity in character and being, which nothing can break. We never lose our personal identity, character runs on, the same thinking substance, the same immortal soul continues; but grace, that renovating, cleansing, saving power, is introduced into the consciousness, transforms the character, lives in the experience, brings out the Divine images, makes the “ new creature in Christ Jesus.” Need I say how prophetic our years become when we thus begin them in grace? Grace is the earthly name for glory. Glory is the heavenly name for grace. (A. Raleigh, D.D.) Psalms 90:10 The days of our years are threescore years and ten.The days of our years I. Life’ s earthly limit. “ Threescore years and ten.”1. How long when viewed in the light of time--when compared with the common lot of mankind. 2. How short when viewed in the light of eternity. II. Life’ s common heritage. “ Yet is their strength labour and sorrow.”1. Life even at its best estate is made up largely of labour and sorrow, of working and weeping. 2. Thank God for the labour and the sorrow, for they help us to rise to higher things. “ Before I was afflicted,” etc. III. Life’ s final transition. “ We fly away.”1. Happy transition for the Christian. The restraints of this cage life are ended. 2. Hopeless transition for the Christless. (Homiletic Monthly.) New Year I. God has divinely appointed that life shall be measured by divisions of time. Day and night, spring, summer, autumn and winter are God’ s way of distributing time. Each division is big with suggestions to us for whom the divisions were made.1. It is a beneficent arrangement. The changes from the brightness of noonday to the blackness of midnight, from spring’ s sunshine and flowers to autumn’ s shadows and yellow leaves, from summer’ s heat to winter’ s frost, are voices whose emphasis and pathos are ever uttering grand yet awful lessons about mortality and death. 2. The arrangement furnishes symbols of our lifetime. Spring paints our childhood, summer our manhood, autumn old age, and winter death. Each year is an epitome of life. II. Life is measured by years because of its brevity. III. Life must be measured by years because of its worth. Each year is dealt out to us in particles because of the preciousness of time. The possibilities that lie in every year, for good or evil, are prodigious. IV. Life must be measured by divisions of time because of its imperceptible departure. It ebbs from us with every breath. We never had less of it than we begin this new year with. All the past is spent. Whether it has been squandered or well laid out, it is gone, and it went almost imperceptibly. (Homiletic Monthly.) The limits of life I. Explanatory remarks.1. Consider threescore years and ten, or fourscore years, as the limit beyond which the life of man doth not pass. The folly which leads men to expect to live a hundred years, because one individual may have reached them, is like that which encourages them to expect mercy in their last hour, because the thief on the cross obtained it. It hath the worst effects on life, and produces the bitterest feelings of disappointment and regret in death. (1) If we attend to the situation of the wicked, we will perceive the wisdom of this limitation of life. Seventy or eighty years are surely a sufficient space for the exercise of the Divine patience with them, and for proving what is in their hearts, whether they will keep His commandments or no. (2) To the righteous, life is a state of manifold temptations, and as God doth not afflict willingly, He will not subject them longer to these than He sees it necessary for the trial of their graces. 2. Consider that the limits of human life which are here specified are reached by few. Death commonly selects for its victims life at its best, and man in his prime. It becomes us, therefore, to say, “ I will use the world as if I were soon to leave it; I will live with my friends as if I were soon to part with them; I will discharge my duty as becomes one who expects soon to give in his account.” 3. The protracting of life to the limits here specified is not in itself desirable the strength of such old men is labour and sorrow. (1) In consequence of the decline of their faculties, the aged are unfit for labour; and when they do apply themselves to it, they are soon obliged to desist. To them the grasshopper is a burden. (2) Mental application is oppressive to them likewise. It is a toil to them to read, and what they do read is quickly forgotten. (3) The languor and the wandering of their minds in religious duty distresses them. The affections which were once so active and fervent, now move slowly and reluctantly: and when they contrast their present with their past condition, it fills them with the painful apprehension that the Spirit of God hath abandoned them, and that they have lost what God hath wrought. 4. When life is come to these limits, its extinction may be hourly expected. It becomes the aged to submit to death without murmuring. It is your duty to be ready for your departure, and to employ every moment that remains in cultivating the spirit of the world to which you are going. II. Conclusion.1. To those who have arrived, or are on the point of arriving, at these limits. (1) Think on the many opportunities you have had of promoting the Divine glory in comparison of others; and remember, that to whom much is given, of them also shall much be required. (2) Remember that if you are strangers to Christ, your saving acquaintance with Him must be now or never. 2. To those who are yet at a distance from these limits of human life. (1) Let those who are far advanced in years be the object of your pity and of your kind attentions. Encourage them in their labour, and cheer them in their sorrow. (2) Acquaint now yourselves with God; and if your days shall be shortened, grace shall conduct you more speedily to eternal life; and should they be prolonged for fourscore years, it will support and comfort you amidst the labour and sorrow of the season of decay. (3) Consider the diseases and afflictions which may be sent to you in the early seasons of life, as intended to remind you that death is at hand, and to induce you to submit to it cheerfully. (H. Belfrage, D. D.) From twenty to seventy The seventieth milestone of life is here planted as at the end of the journey. A few go beyond it; multitudes never reach it. First, then, I accost those of you who are in the twenties. You are full of expectation. You are ambitious--that is, if you amount to anything--for some kind of success, commercial, or mechanical, or professional, or literary, or agricultural, or social, or moral. Are you looking for wealth? Well, remember that God controls the money markets, the harvests, the droughts, the caterpillars, the locusts, the sunshine, the storm, the land, the sea, and you will get wealth. Perhaps not that which is stored up in banks, in houses and lands, but,our clothing, and board, and shelter, and that is about all you can appropriate anyhow. What a critical time, the twenties! While they continue you decide your occupation and the principles by which you will be guided. You make your most abiding friendships. You fix your habits. Lord God Almighty, have mercy on all the men and women in the twenties! Next I accost those in the thirties. You are at an age when you find what a tough thing it is to get recognized and established in your occupation or profession. In some respects the hardest decade of life is the thirties, because the results are generally so far behind the anticipations. Nine-tenths of the poetry of life have been knocked out of you since you came into the thirties. Men in the different professions and occupations saw that you were rising, and they must put an estoppel on you, or you might somehow stand in their way. They think you must be suppressed. Your decade is the one that will probably afford the greatest opportunity for victory, because there is the greatest necessity for struggle. As it is the greatest time of the struggle, I adjure you, in God’ s name and by God’ s grace, make it the greatest achievement. The fact is, that by the way you decide the present decade of your history you decide all the following decades. Next I accost the forties. Yours is the decade of discovery. No man knows himself until he is forty. By that time he has learned what he can do, or what he cannot do. He was sailing on in a fog and could not take a reckoning, but now it clears up enough to allow him to find out his real latitude and longitude. He has been climbing, but now he has got to the top of the hill, and he takes a long breath. Oh, this mountain-top of the forties! You have now the character you will probably have for all time and all eternity. Tell me, O men and women who are in the forties, your habits of thought and life, and I will tell you what you will for ever be! My sermon next accosts the fifties. This is the decade which shows what the other decades have been. If a young man has sown wild oats, and he has lived to this time, he reaps the harvest of it in the fifties, or if by necessity he was compelled to overtoil in honest directions, he is called to settle up with exacting nature some time during the fifties. O ye who are in the fifties, think of it! A half century of blessing to be thankful for, and a half century subtracted from an existence which, in the most marked cases of longevity, hardly ever reaches a whole century. By this time you ought to be eminent for piety. You have been in so many battles, you ought to be a brave soldier. You have made so many voyages, you ought to be a good sailor. So long protected and blessed, you ought to have a soul full of doxology. My sermon next accosts the sixties. The beginning of that decade is more startling than any other. In his chronological journey the man rides rather smoothly over the figures “ 2,” and “ 3,” and “ 4,” and “ 5,” but the figure “ 6” gives him a big jolt. He says: “ It cannot be that I am sixty. Let me examine the old family record. I guess they made a mistake. They got my name down wrong in the roll of births.” But, no, the older brothers or sisters remember the time of his advent, and there is some relative a year older and another relative a year younger, and sure enough the fact is established beyond all disputation. Sixty! Now, your great danger is the temptation to fold up your faculties and quit. You will feel a tendency to reminisce. If you do not look out you will begin almost everything with the words, “ When I was a boy.” But you ought to make the sixties more memorable for God and the truth than the fifties, or the forties, or the thirties. You ought to do more during the next ten years than you did in any thirty years of your life, because of all the experience you have had. My subject next accosts those in the seventies and beyond. My word to them is congratulation. You have got nearly, if not quite through. Here and there a skirmish with the remaining sin of your own heart and the sin of the World, but I guess you are about done. How do you feel about it? You ought to be jubilant because life is a tremendous struggle, and, if you have got through respectably and usefully, you ought to feel like people toward the close of a summer day seated on the rocks watching the sunset. The most of your friends have gone over the border, and you are going to join them very soon. They are waiting for you. What we all need is to take the supernatural into our lives. Do not let us depend on brain, and muscle, and nerve. We want a mighty supply of the supernatural. How to get it? Just as you get anything you want. By application. If you want anything you apply for it. By prayer apply for the supernatural. Take it into your daily business. A man got up in a New York prayer-meeting and said: “ God is my partner. I did business without Him for twenty years, and failed every two or three years. I have been doing business with Him for twenty years and have not failed once.” Oh, take the supernatural into all your affairs! (T. De Witt Talmage.) The days of our years The days of our years are threescore years and ten. There is more sound than reality in that statement. The figures are illusory. Take from the seventy years some five years of more or less irresponsible infancy, and the figure drops to sixty-five. From sixty-five subtract one-third of itself as spent in sleep, and the figure drops to some forty-three years. That is, assuming that we live out the whole string of the seventy years. But let us take the obviously too high average of human life at fifty years: make the same deductions, and we shall find the average of human life reduced to some thirty years. But, though life is short, yet it is immortal; both the statements are true, and are therefore reconcilable. The leaves of every summer fall and die, but the great forests fatten and strengthen, and wave in the winds of centuries. An individual man dies and can no more be found than can the knell that dies upon his grave, yet humanity continues--continues building its cities, its temples and towers, weaving and spinning, carving and singing, going with a high joy, as if no grave had ever been cut in the breast of the green earth. We are not, therefore, to mope and moan about our own little day; we are not to lock ourselves up in the little prison of the uncertainty of our own existence; we are not to sit down and read the Bible till death tells us that it is time to go. We have to take in all the world as if it were our business to look after it; we must be inspired by our immortality, not discouraged by our frailty. It was thus that Jesus lived. He died ere He had lived out half His seventy years, yet He never died at all. He said: “ Pull down what temple you like, that is good, and I will build it again: you cannot pull down God’ s temples except that they may be rebuilt and enlarged;” and whilst the enemy had Him, the one on the left shoulder and the other on the right, and were hurrying Him away to kill, Him, He turned His head over His shoulder, as it were, and said, “ Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.” Jesus Christ still keeps His place in civilization. He begins where others end. Where they cry from exhaustion He puts on His strength. Where the mystery bewilders and blinds them, He dispels it by many a shaft of light. He is the propitiation for my sins, He stands between me and God, and O, mystery of love, He stands between me and Himself; for He, too, is Judge, and the sentence of life and death is upon His lips. He knows my days--He comforts me with many a promise. (J. Parker, D.D.) And if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow. The evening of life sorrowful 1. From the ordinary weaknesses of the body. Very few are permitted to carry with them down into the vale of years the vigour of youth. The muscles lose their elasticity, the eye grows dim, the ear is dull of hearing, and the whole body bends toward the grave. 2. From decay of the mental energies. The power of thought, of reflection, of association, and of reasoning, the power of recollection and of memory, seem all to partake of the same weakness as do the powers of the body. 3. From depression of animal spirits. The mind that has been active, and has commanded attention and respect, cannot, without some degree of pain, see itself neglected, and sinking into comparative disesteem. Hence we cannot wonder if we see crossing the cheek, furrowed with age, the tear of melancholy. 4. From loss of companions. He stands like a tree which was once in the bosom of a forest, but now is left to feel the full weight of every storm, while the associates of his youth, whose united energies would obtrude the blast, have all perished; and his decaying boughs too strongly indicate that he must soon yield the soil to a later growth, and permit the winds of heaven to pass unobstructed. 5. From the impression that every step is upon the margin of the grave. Every pang he feels reminds him that his grave will soon be ready. So tardy flows the stream of life as to assure him that soon the heart will beat no longer. (D. A. Clark.) Psalms 90:11 Who knoweth the power of Thine anger?even according to Thy fear, so is Thy wrath. The power of God’ s anger I. When I consider the difficulties which lie in the way of our measuring the power of anger that resides in the bosom of God, I conclude that it is chiefly His steady and orderly goodness which has thrust His displeasure out of sight. Only occasionally does nature suggest wrath. Her deliberate arrangements are all inspired by goodness. I have often had occasion to observe how quietly the earth sets herself to repair, by slow and helpful work, the mischief which had been wrought in an hour, and I have never been able to witness it without admiration. I well recollect a scene which seemed to set me in the midst of nature’ s fury. A fertile and populous Alpine valley had been turned to desolation by the storm of one winter’ s day, when fierce torrents from heaven had snatched the frost-loosened stones from the mountain’ s crest, and rolled them down its huge ribs with a rattle like thunder, to hurl them, an avalanche of barrenness, upon the peasants’ farms below. At once the wrath of Heaven had undone the labour of generations of patient men, silted up their homesteads and mills, torn up by the roots their vines and mulberry-trees, and turned into a bed of stones the acres on which their corn had grown. Here, one thought, might be seen “ the power of His anger.” But long before I passed that way, the steadfast beneficence of God’ s earth, lending itself to toilsome and unrepining hands, as it is wont to do, had begun to correct the mischief of its sudden wrath; and years on years of prosperous husbandry may pass over these peasant families before another day of ruin shall come to fill their vale with lamentation. Thus the earth bears witness that the Lord is slow to anger but of great mercy; that “ in a little wrath He hides His face from us for a moment,” but it is “ with everlasting kindness He hath mercy on us.” The experience which we have had of God in our own lives is to the same effect. To most of us, the days on which disaster fell into our life to crush us may be the most memorable we have spent; but they are by far the fewest. Such bitter days we count upon our fingers; our happier ones by years. The healthful and gladdening influences of God’ s bounty, and human fellowship, and hope, and natural affection, are all about us continually. Judgment is God’ s strange work; but His tender mercies are over all His works. II. Yet, although we cannot reach to the bottom of God’ s wrath, and need not regret that we cannot, there is one way open to us by which we may partly estimate it. The wrath of God is “ according to His fear” ; to His fearfulness, that is, or His fitness for inspiring in the bosoms of men an awful and sacred dread. Such attributes as infinity, immensity, unsearchableness, almightiness, and omnipresence, are very fit to overwhelm our feeble souls under a consciousness of helplessness which is near of kin to terror. When to these is added the moral magnificence of a justice which judges by an absolute standard, and of a perfection which makes no account of anything in comparison of mere rightness or goodness, then such frail and yielding creatures as we are, whose very virtues are compromises, in whom nothing is found of perfect temper, may most reasonably shrink in terror.1. Susceptible souls are sometimes, under favourable conditions, wrought to fear by the mere vastness, or mystery, or loneliness of God’ s material works. 2. The mass of men are too unimaginative or too stupid to be much moved by the mere sublimity of God’ s everyday creation. They need occasional outbursts of unwonted violence to prick their hearts to fear Him. God does not always mean, when He lets loose disease or disaster among men, to “ make a way to His anger,” as He is said to have meant when He plagued old Egypt. For the most part He means mercy. He is still “ turning His anger away and not stirring up all His wrath.” But what He probably does design by exceptional explosions of the fatal forces which slumber in nature is to awaken a wholesome terror in dull hearts, and to suggest how dreadful His wrath may prove when the time for wrath shall have come, since now in the time of grace His providence can be so fearful. 3. All this, however if we take it by itself, does not mean a great deal. In order to estimate the capacity of wrath in the Almighty, I need to know more than His strength, more than His material terribleness. I must know whether there exists in His moral nature any severity which will dispose Him to be angry on just cause, which will steel Him against the infirmity of unrighteous pity, and will move Him to be rigorous where rigour is required. In other words, has God in Him any element of moral terribleness? Is He of such deadly earnestness in His displeasure against wrong that He can, in despite of pity, inflict the extreme of pain, of wrath, of bitter death? for, if so, He is beyond question a most fearful God. A Being who possesses such strength as His, and at the same time is not too tender to use it against sin, must be to every sinner unspeakably dreadful. I do not say whether God can inflict uttermost suffering for sin, judge ye of that; I say He can endure it. He bore what it would be fearful to see another bear. He pursued sin to His own death, and in His jealousy for justice satisfied justice in His own blood. I make bold to ask every one of you who is not sure that he has repented of his sins, whether he thinks the God who took flesh and died for sin at Jerusalem is a God with whom it is safe to trifle? (J. O. Dykes, D.D.) On the greatness of God’ s anger First see how anger can be ascribed to God: for an infinite and Divine nature cannot be degraded to those affections and weaknesses that attend ours. Anger is a passion, but God is impassible. Anger is always with some change in the person that has it, but God is unchangeable. Certainly, therefore, anger and the like affections can by no means be ascribed to the infinitely perfect God, in the proper and usual acceptation of the words, but only by an anthropopathy. God is said to be angry, when He does some things that bear a similitude to those effects that anger produces in men. I. Preparatory cautional observations.1. Every harsh and severe dispensation is not an effect of God’ s anger. The same effect, as to the matter of it, may proceed from very different causes. Love is sometimes put upon the rigour of those courses, which at the first aspect seem to carry in them the inscriptions of hostility. 2. There is a great difference between God’ s anger and His hatred; as great as there is between the transient expiring heat of a spark, and the lasting continual fires which supply a furnace. God was angry with Moses, David, Hezekiah, and with His peculiar people; but we do not read that He hated them. The effects of His anger differ as much from the effects of His hatred, as the smart of a present pain from the corrosions of an abiding poison. II. Instances in which this unsupportable anger of God does exercise and exert itself.1. It inflicts immediate blows and rebukes upon the conscience. When God wounds a man by the loss of an estate, of His health, of a relation, the smart is but commensurate to the thing which is lost, poor and finite. But when He Himself employs His whole omnipotence, and is both the archer, and Himself the arrow, there is as much difference between this and the former, as when a house lets fall a cobweb, and when it falls itself upon a man. 2. God’ s anger exerts itself by embittering of afflictions. Every affliction is of itself a grievance, and a breach made upon our happiness; but there is sometimes a secret energy, that so edges and quickens its afflictive operation, that a blow levelled at the body, shall enter into the very soul. As a bare arrow tears and rends the flesh before it, but if dipped in poison, as by its edge it pierces, so by its adherent venom it festers. 3. It shows and exerts itself by cursing of enjoyments. We may, like Solomon, have all that wit can invent, or heart desire, and yet at last, with the same Solomon, sum up all our accounts in “ vanity and vexation of spirit.” Alas! it is not the body and the mass of those things which we call plenty that can speak comfort, when the wrath of God shall blast and dispirit them with a curse. We may build our nest soft and convenient, but that can easily place a thorn in the midst of it, that shall check us in our repose. III. Those properties and qualifications which declare and set forth the extraordinary greatness of God’ s anger.1. It is fully commensurate to the very utmost of our fears, which is noted even in the words of the text: “ According to Thy fear, so is Thy wrath.” 2. It not only equals, but infinitely exceeds and transcends our fears. The misery of the wicked, and the happiness of the saints, run in an equal parallel; so that by one you may best measure the proportions of the other. And for the former of these, we have a lively description of it in 1 Corinthians 2:9. 3. Though we may attempt it in our thoughts, yet we cannot bring it within the comprehensions of our knowledge. And the reason is, because things which are the proper objects of feeling, are never perfectly known, but by being felt. 4. We may take a measure of the greatness of God’ s anger by comparing it with the anger of men. How dreadful is the wrath of a king! (Proverbs 19:12). But what can be said of the terrors of an almighty wrath, an infinite indignation? IV. Improvement.1. The intolerable misery of such as labour under a lively sense of God’ s wrath for sin. 2. The ineffable vastness of Christ’ s love to mankind in His sufferings for them. 3. Terror to such as can be quiet and at peace within themselves, after the commission of great sins. 4. The most natural sequel and improvement of all that has been said of God’ s anger, is a warning against that cursed thing which provokes it. We see how dreadfully it burns; let us beware of the sin by which it is kindled. (R. South, D.D.) The power of God’ s anger There is a slavish fear of God, and there is also a filial fear. The one belongs to the man who know God only as Creator--the other to him who through the Spirit of adoption has been led to know God as a Father. Which fear, then, is it which the psalmist gives as the measure of God’ s wrath: “ Even according to Thy fear, so is Thy wrath” ? We cannot decide between the two, for either will equally serve as a standard, and therefore both may be considered as intended by the Spirit. But the difficulties of interpretation are not done with, so soon as we have settled that the passage thus admits of double application. There are more senses than one in which God’ s wrath is according to His fear, whether that fear be the fear of a slave or the fear of a son; and we cannot, perhaps, better divide so intricate a subject, than by taking the two great classes of mankind, the lovers of the world and the lovers of God, and endeavouring to show in each case the applicability of the text. I. We begin with those who as yet have turned no willing ear to the invitation, “ Be ye reconciled to God,” and we are to listen to this thrilling question circulating through their ranks, “ Who knoweth the power of God’ s anger?” What then? If I view the whole family of man, exiled from happiness for the offence of their forefather, do I know nothing of the power of God’ s anger? If I look upon our globe, going down with its teeming tenantry into the sepulchre of waters--if I survey the cities of the plain, drenched with the fiery showers--if I behold Jerusalem, turned up by the ploughshare of the Roman, and her sons and her daughters scattered like the ashes of a furnace--if I see God exemplifying with an awful fidelity the word of the psalmist, “ A fruitful land maketh He barren, for the wickedness of them that dwell therein” --know I nothing of the power of the anger of the Lord? No man knows the power of God’ s anger, because that power has never yet put itself forth to its full stretch. Is there, then, no measure of God’ s wrath no standard by which we may estimate its intenseness? There is no fixed measure or standard, but there is a variable one. The wicked man’ s fear of God is a measure of the wrath of God. There is such a fear and such a dread of that God into whose immediate presence he feels himself about to be ushered, that even they who love him best, and charm him most, shrink from the wildness of his gaze and the fearfulness of his speech. And we cannot tell the man, though he may be just delirious with apprehension, that his fear of God invests the wrath of God with a darker than its actual colouring. On the contrary, we know that “ according to the fear so is the wrath.” We may therefore pause, and beseech those amongst you who are still living at enmity with God seriously to lay to heart this simple, but solemn truth--that fear is no microscope, when turned towards the wrath of your Maker. It cannot give the true dimensions, but it is utterly impossible that it should give larger than the true. God’ s anger is altogether measureless: when once aroused we set no limits to its power; hence it is not possible that the fear should mount too high: wrath keeps pace with it in its most enormous strides. But God’ s anger may be arrested; and here again it is that according to the fear, so is the wrath. The fear which gave a measure of wrath, in itself gives also the measure and the degree wherein it should be executed. God willeth not the death of any sinner, but would rather that all men should repent, and turn unto Him and live. Let this fear produce submission, obedience; and the wrath which was just ready to strike is mitigated and softened away; according as men do more or less tremble at God’ s judgments, God does more or less execute them. Thus the power of the anger is not to be understood, because it is altogether inexplicable. II. We turn to those men who have been admitted by adoption into the family of God, and we seek for senses in which, in reference to them, it holds good, that according to his fear, so is God’ s wrath. It would appear from a verse in the 130th psalm, that true fear of God arises from a sense of God’ s forgiving love--“ But there is forgiveness with Thee, that Thou mayest be feared.” It is, you observe, distinctly affirmed that the fear of God is the result of being forgiven of God. Let us, for an instant, trace the connection, and then turn it to a further illustration of the text. We may admit that in transactions between man and man such a connection does not necessarily exist at all. The forgiveness may be accorded without change of heart, and is not necessarily productive of change of deportment; but the reverse of all this must be affirmed when the forgiving party is God: He pardons only those whom He hath Himself made penitent; He renews the man when He remits his offences, and thus there is at once an assurance that the man becoming an altered man on becoming forgiven, forgiveness will bind him to God’ s service by all those ties of gratitude and affection which an act of free grace seems most calculated to produce. And from this it clearly follows, that he who has most of the fear of God, will have the keenest sense of the wrath of God. It is the man who lives much upon Calvary, who frequently visits the scene of the Saviour’ s agony, and who marks with wonder, with contrition, and with thankfulness the pouring forth of the most precious blood for the sake of his own rescue from final perdition--this man it is who will fear God with the fear to which forgiveness is parent; and who, we may now ask, can know so much of the wrath of God as he who is thus conversant with the emptying of that wrath on the head of the Redeemer? on this one occasion, though it may be on no other, God set forth to the intelligent creation the power of His anger; and if it were not that our affections are quickly borne down by the mysteries of Christ’ s death, so that we can form to ourselves no conception of the intenseness of anguish, but are quickly bewildered and confounded at the very mention of the sweat of blood and the hidings of the Father’ s countenance; if we could estimate--but who can estimate?--eternity condensed into a moment, and driven into the soul; if we could estimate the wretchedness, if we could weigh the burden, if we could count the arrows, and thus bring within our compass the endurances of the Saviour, there might rise up some amongst us to reply affirmatively to the question--“ Who knoweth the power of Thine anger?” But, nevertheless, though no one can affirm of his knowledge that it is coextensive with the power, yet must all perceive that he carries knowledge furthest who is most deeply studious of the sufferings of Christ. And if it be undeniable that he will fear God most who is most with Christ in the garden and on the mount, and if it be equally undeniable that he who most scrutinizes the anguish which thronged the work of expiation will discern most of the anger of the Lord, then it will follow at once that the wrath is in proportion to the fear. (H. Melvill, B.D.) Psalms 90:12-17 So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. Man imploring the mercy of God Moses prays-- I. For a right estimate as to the duration of life. “ Teach us to number our days,” etc.,1. There is a certain judgment to be formed as to the duration of our earthly life. The prayer does not mean that we should know the hour, scene, or circumstance of our end; but that we should have a practical impression that life is temporary and preparative. 2. There is a tendency in man to neglect to form a true estimate of life. “ All men think all men mortal but themselves.” 3. The formation of a correct judgment is essential to practical wisdom (Psalms 90:12). II. For a restoration to the blessings of life.1. Divine favour (Psalms 90:13). The meaning is, remove the sense of Thy displeasure, bless us with the consciousness of Thy favour. 2. True satisfaction (Psalms 90:14). Let the satisfaction be early. Come at once. Let it run through the whole of our life. “ That we may rejoice and be glad all our days.” Let the satisfaction be proportioned according to our past affliction (Psalms 90:15). Let our future joys compensate for our past affliction. III. For a discovery of Divinity in life.1. In His works, to men and their children (Psalms 90:16). The glory of human life is to see the glory of God in all the works of His hand. 2. In the prosperity of man’ s own works. (Homilist.) Numbering our days This is a psalm of life and death, and one of the finest in the whole Bible. The comparisons made between the frailty and brevity of human life and the omnipotence and eternity of God are very striking. But a right use of the sense of mortality is a priceless blessing. We must all be accountants and arithmeticians in the best sense. Like the wise merchants we must frequently take stock in order to see where we stand. And we must also number our nights, with their blessings of rest and repose and renewal, for human life is incomplete without the night as well as the day. I. Every man must come to his last day. We are born to die, and we die daily. Our home is not here, but yonder. II. Man has a set time in which to live. Job speaks of certain bounds which man cannot pass. His life is fitted within certain boundaries by Divine Providence. III. Man’ s life on earth is comparatively short. We are asked to number our days, and not our years or months or weeks. We must live a day at a time. IV. Man is dangerously apt to forget this numbering. He allows the days to slip away unnoticed. He counts his oxen and sheep, but not his days. He numbers other men’ s days, but not his own. As Sir Thomas Smith said some months before his death, “ It is a great pity men know not to what end they are born into the world until they are ready to go out of it.” V. The nature of the numbering advocated by the psalmist. “ Teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.” We cannot number our days rightly without the Lord as our Teacher. We must go in for numeration under Divine guidance. It is not mathematical but moral counting--a numbering that brings glory to God. The chief end of man is to seek wisdom--not riches, or worldly honours, or sinful pleasures--but wisdom and not the wisdom of the world, but that of God. We have emphasized the truth of man’ s mortality, let us also emphasize his immortality. (J. O. Davies.) Divine teaching I. Who is it that teaches? It is God Himself. The mere record, as contained in the world which we see, or in the written Word which we read or hear, is not of itself sufficient. It is the letter, not the life: it cannot of itself convey a saving knowledge of the truths, of which it is nevertheless the chosen depository. Christ must be revealed in us as well as to us ere we can know Him as we ought. It was in Him, as the apostle tells the Galatians, that God was pleased to “ reveal Himself.” II. How does God teach? In many ways. By parents, ministers, friends. Also by outward objects--churchyard, storm, epidemic, etc. III. The end of God’ s teaching. “ That we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.” Do you find this a hard lesson? The Israelites found it so, and their stiff-neckedness is written in an enduring record for your learning. The old world found it so; for they were “ eating and drinking,” etc. The foolish virgins found it so. Their lamps were gone out, they themselves were slumbering, when the bridegroom came and the door was shut. Are you wiser? Have you profited by these warnings? Have you been “ taught” ? Are you numbering your days with a consciousness of the relative difference between time and eternity? But what is wisdom? That is the practical question which so many never ask, though it concern them so vitally to learn the lesson; that is the question, too, which so many ask, but not of Him who alone can give them the true answer. What, for instance, did Moses himself esteem wisdom to be? Not all the learning of the Egyptians with which he was conversant, for he renounced it all, esteeming the reproach of Christ better than all the riches of Egypt. And what is Job’ s definition of wisdom (Job 28:28; 1 Corinthians 3:19). What did the great apostle pronounce is not to be, after he had ceased to sit as Saul of Tarsus at the feet of Gamaliel? And what does he say it is? First, the receiving of Christ by us as sinners; secondly, the adorning of the doctrine in our lives. (Bp. Sumner.) Numbering our days I. What is intended by numbering our days?1. We must form a correct estimate of human life, comparing its average length with its interests. 2. We must cherish a serious conviction of the uncertainty of life. Boast not thyself, young man, of thy strength, nor old man of thy wisdom, for a worm is in the bud of youth and at the root of age. 3. We must pay an observant regard to our days as they pass away. Days, weeks, and years are but the landmarks. II. The specific purpose for which we are to number our days.1. Wisdom consists in the adoption of the best means to secure the best ends. In what relation do I stand to God and eternity? is the first question which every man should put to himself. Until he can answer this solemn inquiry satisfactorily, he is but a fool in knowledge and a child in his pursuits. 2. To apply our hearts unto wisdom, we must moderate our affections to earthly objects. Eternity will be our grand concern. Like the apostle, we shall learn to die daily, we shall be crucified to the world with its affections and lusts; it will gradually recede and eventually disappear as an object of felicitous contemplation. 3. We must peculiarly cherish those graces which mitigate the sorrows and heighten the joys of the present life. 4. We must cultivate those dispositions of mind which will increase all the lawful enjoyments of life. Habitual dependence upon God, walking with humility and gratitude beneath his favour, adds zest to all our enjoyments. (S. Summers.) The transitoriness of life I. The feelings suggested by a retrospect of the past.1. The analogies of nature which correspond with human life. All things here are double. The world without corresponds with the world within. No man could look on a stream when alone by himself, and all noisy companionship overpowering good thoughts was away, without the thought that just so his own particular current of life will fall at last into the “ unfathomable gulf where all is still.” No man can look upon a field of corn, in its yellow ripeness, which he has passed weeks before when it was green, or a convolvulus withering as soon as plucked, without experiencing a chastened feeling of the fleetingness of all earthly things. No man ever went through a night-watch in the bivouac, when the distant hum of men and the random shot fired, told of possible death on the morrow; or watched in a sick room, when time was measured by the sufferer’ s, breathing or the intolerable ticking of the clock, without a firmer grasp on the realities of Life and Time. 2. Moses is looking back, and his feeling is loss. Many a one consumed, like Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, by the wrath of God. Many a Hebrew warrior stricken in battle, and over him a sand-heap. And those who remembered these things were old men--“ consuming,” his strong expression, “ their strength in labour and sorrow.” We stand upon the shore of that illimitable sea which never restores what has once fallen into it; we hear only the boom of the waves that throb over all--for ever. 3. There is, too, an apparent non-attainment. A deeper feeling pervades this psalm than that of mere transitoriness: it is that of the impotency of human effort. “ We are consumed” --perish aimlessly like the grass. No man was more likely to feel this than Moses. The cycles of God’ s providences are so large that our narrow lives scarcely measure a visible portion of them. So large that we ask, What can we effect? Yet there is an almost irrepressible wish in our hearts to see success attend our labours, to enter the Promised Land in our own life. It is a hard lesson: to toil in faith, and to die in the wilderness, not having attained the promises, but only seeing them afar off. II. The right use of these sad suggestions. Duty is done with all energy, then only, when we feel, “ The night cometh, when no man can work,” in all its force. Two thoughts are presented to make this easier.1. The eternity of God. Shall we give up our hopes of heaven and progress, because it is so slow, when we remember that God has innumerable ages before Him? Or our hopes for our personal improvement, when we recollect our immortality in Him who has been our refuge “ from generation to generation” ? Or for our schemes and plans which seem to fail, when we remember that they will grow after us, like the grass above our graves? 2. The permanence of results. (1) The permanence of our past seasons. Spring, summer, autumn, are gone, but the harvest is gathered in. Youth and manhood are passed, but their lessons have been learnt. The past is ours only when it is gone. (2) The permanence of lost affections. The sound and words are gone, but the tale is indelibly impressed on the heart. So the lost are not really lost. Perhaps they are ours only truly when lost. Their patience, love, wisdom, are sacred now, and live in us. (3) The permanence of our own selves--“ The beauty of the Lord our God be upon us.” Very striking this. We survive. We are what the past has made us. The results of the past are ourselves. (4) The permanence of work. Not a true thought, pure resolve, or loving act, has ever gone forth in vain. (F. W. Robertson, M. A.) For the New Year I. The wisdom contemplated in our text means something like the following: “ Teach us, O God, the essential truth as embodied in the Lord Jesus Christ, and in His life. Then enable us to accept Him in faith.” II. The word “ heart” includes all the faculties. The whole soul and spirit, with all their strength, are to be applied in the search for wisdom. III. God’ s qualifications to instruct us.1. He possesses sufficient knowledge. Is it not true that in the study of history, science, or philosophy, we are thinking God’ s thoughts? It is said of Agassiz, that before he would venture upon a line of investigation, he would bow his head in prayer, and ask God to direct him in the discovery of the truth. Let us pray, likewise, that God will teach us wisdom; that He will enable us to discover the highest, and the greatest truth; the truth as it is in Christ Jesus, His only begotten Son. 2. God has the power to teach. 3. God has the strong personality necessary to impress the learner. 4. God’ s works are evidence to us that He is competent to teach us wisdom. Can we look across the broad meadows of our valleys, the rolling pasture lands on the hillsides, and the boundless grain-fields of redeemed prairies, without feeling in our souls that He has stretched these out before us, and for us, in infinite wisdom? And as we dig into the bowels of the earth, and discover stupendous and varied forces, undreamed-of wealth of gold, silver, copper, oil and gas, are we not confounded and led to exclaim, “ What infinite wisdom, goodness and power are manifested here” ? IV. Time is our only opportunity for acquiring wisdom. An Italian philosopher expressed in his motto “ that time was his estate; an estate, indeed, that will produce nothing without cultivation, but will always repay abundantly the labours of industry, and satisfy the most extensive desires, if no part of it be suffered to lie waste by negligence, to be overrun by noxious plants, or laid out for show rather than for use.” Time is our opportunity to estimate human life by the purpose to which it should be applied. It should be measured by the eternity to which it leads. (R. V. Hunter.) Life measured by days Life must be measured by days-- I. Because a day is a Divine division of time.1. This division of our time by God into periods whose coming and going must be felt, is a beneficent arrangement. Without it the voice of time would be a monotone in which we should sleep, not listen; or, even if we listened, it would make no impression on us. “ Days should speak.” 2. God has given us, in the arrangement of “ days,” striking symbols of the lifetime they unitedly compose. Each day is an epitome of a life. Morning paints our childhood, noon our manhood, night our death. II. Because of its brevity. We do not attempt to reckon our mortal life by centuries, scarcely by years; for they are so uncertain, and at best there are so few of them. Only then do we realize that the sum of life demands, and will repay, careful calculation, and that a blunder in it is of immense mischief. III. Because of its worth. Gold-dust and diamonds shall be weighed by grains, not by tons. So, because of its preciousness, “ Time is dealt out by particles,” and we number it, not in decades or in years. Life, as a whole, is of such untold worth, that every portion of it is priceless. IV. Because of its imperceptible departure. Its final departure is marked and emphatic enough. The agonies of bereavement, the mysterious process of dying, make that known and felt. But it is equally and more solemnly true, that life is always departing. It ebbs from us with every breath. (Homilist.) The brevity of human life The frailty of our being; the certainty of our death; the shortness of the intervening period; these are ideas with which we are familiar; and yet, strange to say, they seldom influence us, either justly or constantly. We may use this knowledge, in order to add to stoical indifference; to give pathos and interest to poetry; to induce certain arrangements with respect to our property or our families: to augment, by contrast, the enjoyment of the passing hour; but these are not the essential purposes to which our knowledge of the shortness of life ought to be applied. In the midst of all these speculations we may fail to “ apply our hearts unto wisdom.” I. The brevity of human life. “ Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.” Against this destiny no sagacity and no prosperity can build up a shelter. II. Our indisposition to contemplate wisely the results of that brevity. That which follows death; the introduction to another world; responsibility; judgment to come; the vision of God; eternal weal or woe; the friendly or unfriendly mediation of Christ; the spiritual character which welcomes or opposes the celestial manifestations of truth and wisdom; these are the associations which properly belong to death. Yet from this view of death, men deliberately turn away! III. Thus situated, thus exposed, thus beguiled, how palpable becomes the truth, that a wise use of our conviction of mortality is the gift of God. Unless God shall deign to teach, we refuse to learn. The means of instruction are indeed abundant. Much knowledge is afloat in the world; and the daily events of life utter solemn accents, were we disposed to listen. But the machinery of instruction; the apparatus of revelation; the combination of events, are inadequate to make us wise. These are the means of wisdom, but they are not the disposition to be wise. The conversion of the heart is from God. (G. T. Noel, M.A.) Numbering our days (to children):-- I. What it is to number our days.1. To find out the number of them. You cannot hope to live above seventy; it is an even chance whether you live to be thirty; and you are not sure that you will live a day. 2. To consider the kind of them. They have all been days of blessing--yet all of sin. Still God has spared you, and all His gifts continue with you. II. For what purpose we are to number our days.1. So as to be ready for the last one when it comes. What is the preparation needed? To be in Christ, and so escape condemnation in the judgment (Romans 8:1). To be like Christ, and so fit for the pure joys and company of heaven (1 John 3:2). To be each of these things now, as our last day may come at any time (Matthew 24:44). 2. So as to use them to the best advantage. Time given to sin is wasted and something worse. You must not only be doing, but doing good. Cultivating the garden of life. Digging out the weeds, and digging in the flowers and useful herbs (Ephesians 4:22). Cultivating the garden of your neighbour also. Helping the sinful out of sin, the suffering out of sickness, the sorrowful out of grief (1 John 3:17; Romans 9:1-3; 2 Corinthians 1:4). 3. So as to make up for lost days. Time is a river, and runs only once under the bridge of life. Still lost time may be made up for a little by working extra in the time that remains. The train behind time makes up for it by putting on extra speed. You may do the same. In one hour get through the work of two. III. How we are to learn to number our days aright. “ So teach us,” etc. The text is a prayer. Moses could not number his days profitably. But God could teach him, and he cries to be taught. You cannot begin all this too soon. The Inquisition tortured its victims by putting them in a cell which gradually contracted till at last it crushed them to death. So life--large and roomy-looking in youth--gets narrower year by year, till at last we are pressed in the arms of death. Therefore begin early. (J. E. Henry, M.A.) The wise reckoning of time I. We ought, as Christians, to appreciate the opportunities presented of making great progress in knowledge--in intellectual improvement. Every thing is tending to show that the human race will soon be under no other government but that of mind; that, whatever may be the instruments which it shall use, intelligence will be the arm that will rule the world. By no higher ends than earth can afford, a multitude of unsanctified minds have been stimulated even to death in the career of mental improvement. Time, health, riches, life, have been sacrificed in the over-reachings of their souls after knowledge. But every Christian has infinitely higher motives to impel him to make acquisition of true science. If he be asked why he is labouring to obtain stores of knowledge, he can answer, because “ the Lord hath need of them.” II. We ought to count upon the opportunities presented for forming an elevated religious character.1. One of these is the awakened attention and increased facilities for studying the Bible. 2. As another event in these times, adapted to form religious character, we may notice in some respects a salutary change in the ministry of the Gospel. It is now freed from many of the encumbrances of former ages that destroyed its power on the conscience and the heart. 3. Another fact bearing on this point is, that the days which we are numbering are days in which “ the glorious ministration of the Spirit,” in that form which it took after the ascension of Jesus, has become more pervading and effective than it has been since the day of Pentecost. III. We ought to count upon exerting a far more widely extended influence as Christians. Such are the laws of our intellectual and social being, arid such are the relations and connections of one mind with another, that an influence of some kind we must and shall inevitably exert. The kind of influence exerted, and the direction which that influence shall take, will be one of the most solemn items of man’ s last account to his God. The elements of Christian influence are knowledge and holiness. How much more available is the power of holy example now than in those past days, when population was more sparse, and the means of personal intercourse more restricted! What an organ of extended Christian influence does the religious Press constitute! Think, too, what instruments of power are put into the hands of Christians by the organization of the great benevolent societies of these times. They can thus truly extend themselves, in an important sense, “ beyond their measure,” --can stretch out the arm of mercy and pour light on the darkness and miseries of the whole earth. (D. L. Carroll, D.D.) On numbering our days I. What is implied. In order to make a just estimate of our days, let us reckon--1. Those days, or divisions of time, in which we feel neither good nor evil, neither joy nor grief, and in which we practise neither virtue nor vice, and which, for this reason, I call days of nothingness; let us reckon these, and compare them with the days of reality. 2. The days of adversity, and compare them with the days of prosperity. 3. The days of languor and weariness, and compare them with the days of delight and pleasure. 4. The days which we have devoted to the world, and compare them with the days which we have devoted to religion. 5. The amount of the whole, that we may discover how long the duration is of a life consisting of days of nothingness and of reality; of days of prosperity and of adversity; of days of pleasure and of languor; of days devoted to the world, and to the salvation of the soul. II. Conclusions.1. The vanity of the life that now is, affords the clearest proof of the life to come. 2. Neither the good things, nor the evil, of a life which passes away with so much rapidity, ought to make a very deep impression on a soul whose duration is eternal. 3. This life is a season of probation, assigned to us for the purpose of making our choice between everlasting happiness or misery. 4. A life through which more time has been devoted to a present world, than to preparation for eternity, corresponds not to the views which the Creator proposed to Himself, when He placed us in this economy of expectation. 5. A sinner who has not conformed to the views which God proposed to Himself in placing him under an economy of discipline and probation, ought to pour out his soul in thanksgiving, that God is graciously pleased still to lengthen it out. 6. Creatures in whose favour God is pleased still to lengthen out the day of grace, the economy of long-suffering, which they have improved to so little purpose, ought no longer to delay, no, not for a moment, to avail themselves of a reprieve so graciously intended. (James Saurin.) Right estimate of life The prayer implies-- I. That there is a certain judgment to be formed as to the duration of an earthly life. What is it? Not the exact hour, scene, or circumstances of our end. We thank Heaven for concealing all this. Ignorance of this is--1. Essential to our practical watchfulness. 2. To our personal enjoyment. 3. To our social usefulness. It means that we should have a practical impression that life here is temporary and preparative. II. That there is a tendency in man to neglect the formation of such a judgment. Why this tendency?1. Not from the want of circumstances to suggest it. History, observation, experience--all remind us every day of our end. 2. Not from any doubt that we have about the importance of realizing it. All acknowledge the importance. But-- (1) From the secularity of one controlling purpose.(2) From the instinctive repugnance that we have to death.(3) From the moral dread of future retribution.(4) From the delusive suggestions of the tempter. “ Ye shall not surely die.” III. That the formation of a correct judgment is essential to practical wisdom. “ That we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.”1. Such judgment would serve to impress us with the connection between this life and the future. 2. It would serve to moderate our affections in relation to this earth. 3. It would serve to reconcile us to the arrangements of Providence. We are pilgrims, voyagers, scholars. 4. It would serve to stimulate us to render all the circumstances of this life subservient to a higher. Time is bearing us and all away. (Homilist.) The just estimate of the shortness of human life, and our proper employment here I. As regards the present world.1. As all virtues in general, both by their own proper influence, and the blessing of God, which reason leads us to expect, and Scripture expressly assures us of, conduce to prolong our days, the consideration of their natural brevity may well direct us to a virtuous conduct; particularly to sobriety, temperance, and chastity; to a prudent moderation of anger; and to whatever duties have especially the promise or the prospect of long life annexed to them. 2. Since we have but a small time to stay here, it is our wisdom to make it as easy and agreeable to ourselves, and all with whom we have any intercourse, as we are able; and to imitate persons of prudence, who occasionally go journeys together; bearing with each others’ temper and behaviour; giving mutual comfort and assistance under the misfortunes and inconveniences of the way; and continually endeavouring to preserve or restore the good humour and cheerfulness of the company. 3. The shortness of life should teach us to be speedy and diligent in doing all such things as we ought to do. 4. The shortness and precariousness of our present state of being should teach us to avoid long pursuits of worldly profits or pre-eminences; which probably either we shall not have time to attain, or must soon quit. 5. A fifth use of numbering our days is, to check and compose all strong emotions of mind about worldly concerns; for in so transitory a state there can be nothing to deserve them. Why should we be elated with hope of future good, when both our own lives, and those on whom our expectations may depend, are subject to such innumerable chances; and the higher we raise ourselves in imagination, the more afflicting will be our fall? Why, again, should we be dejected with fear of future evils, when a thousand accidents which none of us can guess at beforehand, may prevent their coming; or, if they do come, our head may be laid low enough before that time, and far enough out of the way of feeling them? 6. The most important lesson, taught us by the shortness and uncertainty of our present life, considered in itself, is, that we may reasonably expect, and should therefore continually look forward to another. II. With respect to the eternal life which is to follow. Whatever conclusions men may think they can draw from the former view, yet, when our life on earth is contemplated as a state of preparation for another and an endless one, then neither the wit, nor almost the folly of man, can make any other than virtuous inferences from the shortness of it.1. Conviction of the necessity of applying diligently to know and do our duty. 2. Encouragement to persist in it to the end against temptation. 3. Support under the afflictions to which we are exposed in the meanwhile. (T. Secker.) Life wisdom What is the wisdom which comes from the numbering of our days? Rather let me put it in this way: What are the varieties of human life which this wisdom condemns?1. The anxious life. A matter of temperament, you say. Yes, to a certain extent. Blood, inherited disposition, may not be overlooked here. Then it is said that this over-anxious condition of the mind is a result of impaired health. And here also is a truth. It is only a very superior person who can rise above and triumph over his physical condition; who can be equable, and wise, and tender, when the body is sick. But admitting all this, still education, reason, truth, must not be left out here. There is such a thing as a man taking himself in hand for correction. He may call reason to his aid. He may smite his propensity with the hand of truth. So here, the hand of truth is raised for smiting, for condemnation. First, this truth,--your own helplessness; secondly,--God’ s infinite goodness. And now comes the wisdom of the text, sharpest, strongest of all to rebuke and condemn here. Thus it speaks: It will soon be over. The dream will soon be past. The battle will soon be fought. Do not worry then. The burden so heavy, you shall carry it but for a day. The trial so sharp, you shall soon have an escape from it. These things will soon have an end, and that for ever. Oh, how quiet, how peaceful is the region to which human life hasteth! 2. The selfish life. This covers the whole range from mere indifference to hate; from hands which are folded in the presence of human want, to hands which are raised to beat down the weak and the struggling. Consider that only for the brief period of this life is it given unto any one of us to work our life power into the welfare of our fellow-men. 3. The worldly life. It may be to make money; it may be to get into places of honour; it may be the acquisition of knowledge. It matters not. Only so that the life of man is circumscribed by sense. Only so that in its noblest outreachings it is bounded by this world. So that the man does not love, or think upon, or care for, anything which he cannot handle, or see, or analyze. Just so sure as this is the case, so surely does the wisdom prayed for in the text condemn, “ Thou fool, thou hast not numbered thy days.” 4. The irreligious or unchristian life. Doth not the fact that our days may end at any time condemn such a life? Unpreparedness for an event which may be precipitated at any moment,--is not this folly? (S. S. Mitchell, D.D.) Time wisely computed I. The psalmist’ s petition. It suggests--1. A duty to be discharged: “ number our days.” The very term implies-- (1) That they have a limit, and that this is within the scope of our powers to calculate. The tale may soon be told. (2) The uncertainty of life. (3) The preciousness of time. As the miser counts and recounts his gold because it is his treasure, and fears lest a single piece should be lost, so should the child of eternity number those few and fleeting days which constitute his only season for preparing for eternity. Here alone is parsimony a virtue. 2. An inaptitude on the part of man for the fulfilment of the duty. He is called, indeed, to that for which his understanding is qualified, but to which his heart is not inclined. 3. This duty involves-- (1) A comparison of the number of our days with the duration of eternity. (2) A comparison of the work which we have to do, with the space allotted for its accomplishment. 3. His need of assistance in the duty. God communicates this necessary instruction by His Word, and Providence, and Spirit--reminding by many a solemn text, by many an awakening dispensation, and by many an inward admonition, that “ The time is short.” II. The end to which the petition was directed. What is “ wisdom” ? We need no better definition than that which describes it to consist in “ pursuing the best end by the best means” ; and seeing that happiness is “ our being’ s end and aim,” and that holiness is the only revealed means of securing it, the definition in question obviously identifies wisdom with godliness. “ The fear of the Lord, that is wisdom.” Seek, then, to apply your hearts to the “ wisdom which cometh down from above.” (C. F. Childe, M.A.) The divine arithmetic of life If ever we ought to practise what has been called the Divine arithmetic of life, it is at the close of one year and the beginning of another. In garrison towns there is a cannon fired at noon, and when people not accustomed to it hear it for the first time, they generally start and say, “ Oh my!” so that the gun is often called by soldiers the “ Oh my!” People are startled by the noise, but they might start, too, at the thought of how quickly each day passes. How much more ought we to feel the passing of a year !We have known fond mothers who got their children photographed annually to compare the pictures and see the progress that had been made. Were our spiritual photographs compared with those of last year, would we be found to have grown in grace? Have we been as happy as we might have been; have we done any acts of purely unselfish kindness; has any one been much the better for our existence during the past year; have we offered up one uninterrupted prayer? Let the walls of our chambers speak; let our churches, houses, offices speak. Are we more trusting in God and more useful to man? (E. J. Hardy, M.A.) The true use of time The man who numbers his days rightly, numbers them not as if they ended anything, but as if they began something. He thinks of them in their termination as bringing him, not to an end, but to a beginning, a beginning for which, if rightly used, they prepare and fit him. You should not look upon men and women as if they were grown, as trees which stand in their maturity plain to your sight. You should look upon them as seeds which are planted, which are hidden as yet, but which are destined to have appearance of full growth by and by. If you will only carry yourself in thought over beyond the time of what you call death; if you will only stretch your lives out endlessly, and conceive of yourselves continuing as living beings with all your present powers amplified and quickened to greater intensity of expression for ever and ever; if you will only think of yourselves as having close and emphatic connections with that which is beyond as well as that which is here--if you will only think of yourselves in this way, I say, until the next world has become as actual and impressive to your consciousness as the present world is, you will then put true measurement upon and give the true significance to time. You will then see what it is worth and what it is not worth. You will then see what it should lead to and what you cannot afford to have it lead to. And seeing this you will apply your hearts unto wisdom. Wisdom is a great word, because the idea it symbolizes is great. It is greater than knowledge, for knowledge symbolizes only what one has received. Knowledge symbolizes the accumulation of facts, the gathering and retention of information, the reception on the part of our memories of whatever has been discovered. But wisdom represents that finer power, that higher characteristic of mind, which suggests the proper application of facts, the right use of knowledge, the correct direction of our faculties. He whose heart is applied to wisdom has put himself in such a position that he can think divinely--think as God would think in his place. Have you this wisdom touching the government of your lives? Do you see your connections with eternity, with its law and its love, with its opportunities and: its occasions, with its joys and its glories? Are you living as those should live who can never stop living, who cannot even remain what they are, but must become better or worse? It is well for us that we can be taught of God. It is well that heaven has not left us in our ignorance. What would the world know of right and wrong but for God? What should we know even of ourselves but for Him? Let us, therefore, more and more accept God as our Teacher. Let us read His Holy Word with profound attention. Let us study Nature with reverent and inquisitive eyes. Let us by every method inform ourselves in respect to those great duties and obligations which deliver us from frivolity and sin. (W. H. Murray.) How rightly to number our days I was reading of King Alfred, who, in the days long before the modern time-pieces were invented, used to divide the day into three parts, eight hours each, and then had three wax candles. By the time the first candle had burned to the socket, eight hours had gone; and when the second candle had burned to the socket, another eight hours had gone; and when all the three were gone out, then the day had passed. O that some of us, instead of calculating our days by any earthly time-piece, may calculate them by the numbers of opportunities and mercies which are burning down and burning out, never to be relighted. (T. De Witt Talmage.) Psalms 90:13 Return, O Lord, how long?and let it repent Thee concerning Thy servants. God’ s return to the soul or nation I. God doth sometimes desert and depart from His people for a time. Not in regard of their union, but in regard of communion and manifestation. Though nothing is hid from the heat of this sun, yet our souls may be hid from the light of this sun: God doth sometimes depart from His own people. There are some graces that do not open nor show themselves but in the sunshining day of God’ s presence--thankfulness, joy, assurance. But there are other graces, that are best seen when God withdraws, and when God is absent--faith in God, and love to God especially. II. The people of God are very sensible of His displeasure. They look upon it as a very tedious thing; and most afflictions. “ O Lord, how long?” Without the presence of God they have no enjoyment, their enjoyments are as no enjoyments: the presence of God with them is the top of all their enjoyments. If the sun be down, it is not all the torches and candles lighted up that will give you a day; and if God be gone, it is not all your creature comforts will give you joy. III. In the time of those departures their great desire is that God would return. What is the presence of God but the most desirable thing in the world? (Acts 3:19). God’ s presence is the saint’ s pleasure. God never returns empty-handed to His people. When He hath stricken them, He will let out more love unto them than ever before. IV. When the Lord doth return unto His people, He doth then repent Him concerning His servants.1. God doth not repent by the changing of His affection, but by the changing of His dispensation. 2. God will more easily repent of His judgments than of His mercies. 3. How it may appear that when God returns unto His people, that then He will repent Him concerning His servants. Why that appears by the thing itself. If a man say he will go from such a town and never return again, and then do return, he doth repent him concerning the thing, by his return; and so concerning God (Jeremiah 18:7-8). 4. But then, how shall we know in case God be absent, or God be departed, to know that God will return again? You may know it by your relations. If you be in covenant with God, God will return again to you though now He be absent; “ Though He afflict you with rods, His lovingkindness will He not take away, nor suffer his faithfulness to fail.” V. What shall we do that God may return again?1. Be sure of this, that you keep your door open, the door of your hearts open for Christ’ s return. When the master is abroad, the servant sits up to keep the door open for his coming in. 2. Be sure of this, that now in the time of Christ’ s absence you neglect no duty, though very unsavoury to you. The more unsavoury the duty now is unto you through the absence of Christ, the more acceptable unto Christ. 3. Be sure that you go and stand there where Christ used to be. (W. Bridge, M.A.) Psalms 90:14O satisfy us early with Thy mercy; that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.An early interest in God’ s mercy essential to a happy life 1. That a man may live happily, that he may rejoice and be glad all his days, it is necessary that he should be early freed from all fears of death. Will it be said, he may refuse to think of death? I answer, he cannot always banish this subject from his thoughts in a world like this, where so many things occur which are suited to remind him of it. But from this cause of unhappiness, the man who early obtains satisfactory evidence that he is a subject of God’ s pardoning mercy, is entirely free. 2. That a man may rejoice and be glad all his days, it is necessary that he should be freed in early life from a guilty conscience, and from apprehensions of God’ s displeasure. But from these causes of unhappiness the man who is early satisfied with God’ s pardoning mercy is free. He enjoys peace of conscience and peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 3. To render a man happy during the whole progress of life, it is necessary that he should be early freed from care nd anxiety, and especially from apprehensions of losing what he most loves. But it is impossible that an unpardoned sinner should feel perfectly safe, or that he should be free from care, anxiety, and apprehension. 4. That a man may rejoice and be glad all his days, he must early learn, in whatsoever state he is, therewith to be content. A discontented man is, of course, an unhappy man. But it is impossible that an unconverted sinner should be otherwise than discontented. While the soul is empty it cannot but feel uneasy, dissatisfied, discontented. But far different is the situation of one who is satisfied early with God’ s mercy. What the sinner seeks in vain he has found. The light which sheds its radiance on his ath is furnished, not by lamps, but by the sun, a sun which never sets. The water which quenches his spirit flows, not from broken cisterns, but from the inexhaustible fountain of living waters. 5. That a man may rejoice and be glad all his days, it is absolutely necessary that he should early obtain the mastery of his appetites and passions, and be secured against the evils into which they would lead him. And no young man can have any security that he shall not be left to form such habits, unless he obtains that security which is afforded by God’ s sanetifying grace and pardoning mercy. Presume not then, young man, upon thine own strength. Where so many others have fallen, thou mayest fall. Against such a fall thou canst have no security until thou obtainest the protection of God. Let Him hold thee up, and then, and then only, wilt thou be safe. This safety is enjoyed by all who are satisfied early with His mercy. (E. Payson, D.D.) Abiding satisfaction The text sets before us-- I. That which alone can satisfy the soul. II. When that satisfaction ought to be sought. Oh, to seek it early! how much easier it is, how much more reasonable and according to the order of things, than to neglect it. Let not the frivolities, and the fooishnesses, and the delusions, and the day-dreams of life, cheat you of the one great thing. III. The blessed results of that satisfaction, if sought and found. The very design of the Gospel is to restore the human race to happiness, and glory, and immortality. (H. Stowell, M.A.) The prayer and the plea I. The prayer.1. The kind of blessing sought. “ Thy mercy.” 2. The measure of it. “ Satisfy us.” I never knew a scholar who had so much learning that he did not wish any more; or a rich man who was so rich, that he wanted no more wealth; or a man of the world who had had so many pleasures, that he had no desire for more; or one who was so well off, that he was in every respect thoroughly content. There is always a craving for something that we have not. We never can say, “ It is enough!” There is just one thing that will fill any heart, and that is, God’ s mercy. When a man has got that, he can say, with Paul, “ I have all, and abound.” 3. The time of it. “ Early” --in the morning. This is the very prayer for young people. They may be said to be in the morning of life. You can never ask or get the blessing too early--too soon. II. The plea. “ That we may rejoice and be glad all our days.” The reason given in support of the prayer is, that it would make those who offer it happy and glad, then and ever after. That would be no plea with a stranger, but it would be with a father. We have here the secret of true happiness. Many would put it differently--“ That we may be good and holy all our days;” or, “ That we may do what is right, and please Thee all our days.” That is all very good, and one may pray that too, but mark this--the plea is, that we may rejoice and be glad, as if joy and gladness could not be got in any other way. The sooner you experience the mercy of God, the sooner will you be truly happy and glad.1. It will give present joy and happiness. John Bunyan was so overjoyed when he first found mercy that he could hardly contain himself, and tells us that as he went along the road, he could have told “ the very crows on the ploughed land” what God had done for him, and how glad and happy he was, now that he was a pardoned man. 2. It will give future joy and happiness. “ All our days.” When a child has got a new toy, at first it is everything to him; he is overjoyed about it, but soon he tires of it, and lets it fall out of sight, and seeks something else. But God’ s mercy makes a man glad all his days. The gladdest hour of his life may be when he first finds it, but his peace is “ like a river,” and flows on from day to day. And then, when the end comes, it is best of all: “ all our days,” --not only here, but hereafter,--and that is the great thing. (J. H. Wilson, D.D.) Satisfaction I. The deepest yearning of man is for satisfaction. “ O satisfy us.” That is everywhere and evermore the cry of humanity. And what a strange cry it is, when you think of it. Man is the offspring of God; the bearer of His image; he stands at the head of the terrestrial creation; he possesses wondrous capacities of thought, and feeling, and action. The world, and all that is in it, has been formed in a complete and beautiful adaptation to his being. Nature seems to be ever calling to him with a thousand voices, to be glad and rejoice; and yet he is unsatisfied. II. Satisfaction can only be found in the realization of Divine mercy.1. Divine mercy is that which meets man’ s greatest need--the need of pardon for sin. 2. Divine mercy brings all other blessings in its train. Pardon with Him is meant just to put us into a condition, legally, in which He can lavish upon us all the wealth of blessing that He possesses. It is one link only in a chain of benefits, reaching from the moment when it is bestowed right on through the ceaseless cycles of an eternity to come. He gives him a new heart; He sends His Holy Spirit to dwell in him; He sanctifies, and gradually makes him meet for heaven. 3. Divine mercy is a permanent good--it endures. The blessings which it involves are eternal in their nature. You cannot affirm this of any other gifts. III. Divine mercy is to be sought by prayer. How easy, suitable, gracious is this method! (C. M. Merry.) The young man’ s prayer I. We will make our text the groundwork of a solemn pleading with young men and women to give their hearts to Christ this day.1. The voice of wisdom reminds you in this our text that you are not pure in God’ s sight, but need His mercy. Remember, then, that if you be saved in the morning of life, you will be wonderful instances of preventing mercy. 2. Salvation, if it comes to you, must not only be mercy, but it must be mercy through the Cross. Nothing else can “ satisfy” a sinner. 3. I would press this matter of a youthful faith upon you, because you have a dissatisfaction even now. Well, then, I would have you come to Jesus, for depend upon it there is that in Him which can thoroughly satisfy you. What can you want more to satisfy your heart than love to Him? You say that not only does your heart want something, but your head. My witness is that there is in the Gospel of Christ the richest food for the brain. You get Christ as the central sun, and then every science and fact begins to revolve round about Him just as the planets travel in their perpetual circle around the central orb. 4. Our text says, “ O satisfy as early with Thy mercy; that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.” We never rejoice in the true sense of the term; we never possess solid gladness, till we are satisfied with God’ s mercy. It is all a mockery and a pretence; the reality never comes to us till God’ s mercy visits our heart; but after that what joy we know! II. Take the text as your address to God. Every word here is significant.1. “ O.” This teaches us that the prayer is to be earnest. Dull, dead prayers, ask God to deny them. We must pray out of our very souls. The soul of our prayer must be the prayer of our soul. “ O satisfy us.” 2. Makes it a generous prayer when you are at it. “ O satisfy us early!” Pray for your brothers and sisters. I am sure we are verily guilty in this thing. Those that sprang from the same loins as ourselves, would to God that they were all saved with the same salvation. 3. See to it, next, that your prayer be thoroughly evangelical. “ O satisfy us early with Thy mercy.” The prayer of the publican is the model for us all. 4. Let the prayer be put up now at once. The text says, “ O satisfy us early.” Why not to-day? Oh that it had been done years ago! But there was time enough, you thought. There is time enough, but there is none to spare. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Early religion escapes the sequel of a lost life There is a very interesting story told in a book of Dr. Barrett’ s of an aged peer, a benevolent and distinguished lawyer and judge in his day. In his old age he was converted to a saving knowledge of Christ. But the story is that in his old age it was almost pitiable to see him at times. When his friends spoke brightly and cheerfully to him, he would say, “ I am saved, but my life is lost.” He could not bring back the past, and that past stood out before him in such dark, ghastly vividness that he could not rise above the depression--he had lost his opportunity. Young men, young women, beware lest your lives are lost. True, you may come to Christ and be saved in after years; but the precious hours that are wasted now, without any serious purpose, are wasted for ever. Psalms 90:15-17 Make us glad according to the days wherein Thou hast afflicted us, and the years wherein we have seen evil. Gladness for sadness Our prayer should be for-- I. Proportionate gladness; that our God who has filled one scale with grief would fill the other scale with grace till they balance each other. I have been told on the Scotch lakes that the depth of the lake is almost always the same as the height of the surrounding hills; and I think I have heard that the same is true of the great ocean; so that the greatest depth is probably the same as the greatest height. Doubtless, the law of equilibrium is manifest in a thousand ways. Take an instance in the adjustment of days and nights. A long night reigns over the north of Norway; in these wintry months they do not even see the sun; but mark and admire their summer; then the day banishes the night altogether, and you may read your Bible by the light of the midnight sun. Long wintry nights find compensation in a perpetual summer day. There is a balance about the conditions of the peoples of differing lands: each country has its drawbacks and its advantages. I believe it is so with the life of God’ s people: therein also the Lord maintains a balance. “ As the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ.” The good Lord measures out the dark and the light in due proportions, and the result is life sad enough to be safe, and glad enough to be desirable. A step further, and we have it thus, sorrow often prepares for joy. It might not be safe that you should enjoy worldly prosperity at the outset of life. Your adversities in business are meant to teach you the worthlessness of earthly things, so that when you have them you may not be tempted to make idols of them. In the spiritual life God does not run us up with glittering virtues all of a sudden; but deep prostration of spirit and thorough humiliation prepare the under-courses; and then, afterwards, stone upon stone, as with rows of jewels, we are built up to be a palace for the indwelling of God. Sorrow furnishes the house for joy. Once again, let me say to you, there is such a connection between sorrow and joy that no saint ever has a sorrow but what it has a joy wrapped up in it. It is a rough oyster, but a pearl lies within those shells if you will but look for it. Once more: the day will come when all the sorrows of God’ s sending will be looked upon as joys. Perhaps in heaven, among all the things which have happened to us that will excite our wonder and delight, our furnace experience, and the hammer and the file will take the lead. Sorrow will contribute rich stanzas to our everlasting psalm. II. Peculiar gladness.1. Gladness at the sight of God’ s work. When we are in deep tribulation it is a sweet quietus to survey the handiwork of our Father in Heaven. His work in providence, also, is often a consolation to us. Let us but see what God has done for His people and for ourselves in years past, and we are cheered. Trouble itself, when we see it to be God’ s work, has lost its terror. A certain Persian nobleman found himself surrounded by soldiers, who sought to take him prisoner; he drew his sword and fought right valiantly, and might have escaped had not one of the company said, “ The king has sent us to convey you to himself.” He sheathed his sword at once. Yes, we can contend against what we call a misfortune; but when we learn that the Lord hath done it, our contest is ended, for we joy and rejoice in what the Lord doeth; or, if we cannot get the length of rejoicing in it, we acquiesce in His will. 2. Gladness at the revelation of God to our children. No better comfort can be found for bereaved mothers than to see their sons and daughters converted. 3. Gladness at beauty bestowed. Sorrow mars the countenance and clothes the body with sackcloth; but if the Lord will come to us and adorn us with His beauty, then the stains of mourning will speedily disappear. 4. Gladness at our own work being established. To build up the Church and win souls for Jesus is first of all God’ s work, and then our work. Why should a Christian work to win souls? Answer: because God works in him to win souls. God works to set us working: our work is the result of His work. (1) The text prays for our work that it may succeed: “ Establish Thou the work of our hands.” Oh, if God will but prosper us in our work for Him, how happy we shall be! It is web weather just now, the damp of sorrow is on all things, and so the seed sown in tears is speedily reaped in joy. Is not this something to comfort us? Let us pray God to send us more of it, that by conversions our work may prosper. (2) Then we pray that our work may be lasting,--that is the chief point. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Psalms 90:16 Let Thy work appear unto Thy servants, and Thy glory unto their children.The religious consecration of our households I. Truths suggested in this prayer.1. That real religion, wherever it exists, is a Divine production in the human mind. “ Thy works,” etc. It is a work, and a work of God. God begins it. 2. That they who have experienced its power and preciousness themselves are anxious for its prevalence among those most dear to them. “ Their children.” 3. That the preservation of religion in families is a leading object of God’ s dispensations. 4. That it becomes the young, as they rise to years of consciousness and maturity, to unite their prayers with the prayers that are offered on their behalf. O satisfy us with Thy mercy. II. Encouragements to present this prayer.1. It is a point in which God’ s glory, and man’ s good, are found to meet and centre. You do not run counter to the tide of Divine designs, but in unison. It is God’ s work, and God’ s glory. 2. It is a subject to which the richest promises are made. 3. It has been amply answered in every age. III. Practical hints for our own conduct.1. Aim to be the instrument of fulfilling your own prayer. Show them God’ s glory. 2. Take heed there is nothing in your conduct to counteract your instruction. 3. Ascribe to God all the glory of success. (Evangelist.) Desire that God would let His work appear I. The “ work” of God, as mentioned here, denotes, primarily, the establishment of Israel in the promised land of Canaan; ultimately, the preparation of the way for the Messiah and His Church. II. When this “ work” may be said to “ appear.” It may be described as appearing anew in different periods; as a work, delayed at times, yet “ revived in the midst of the years.” Often, after seeming to have let alone His work, has the Divine Being awoke, laid bare His arm, and set His hand a second time to His unfinished work. The degree of piety prevailing at any time is the gauge by which we may measure that progress of this work in the prosperity of Israel. III. Why it is so desirable that this prayer should be accomplished. The first concern of a Christian is, that his own life may be given to him as a prey; that He who has begun may perform the good work of His grace in his own soul: the second is, that the same good work may extend to others; that they also may be sharers with ourselves of the same salvation.1. This desire is the dictate of piety,--of a regard to the glory of God. 2. It is equally the dictate of benevolence,--of a regard for the happiness of others. (R. Hall, M.A.) Work and glory This psalm has the threefold interest of subject, of authorship, and of association. Of subject, because it contrasts and combines God and man in the most thrilling and yet most natural way. All the greatness of God and all the weakness of man, and this so as to draw man to God in the longing cry, “ Let Thy work appear to us, let the beauty,” etc. And this interest is enhanced by the bare possibility that we read in this psalm, “ a prayer of Moses, the man of God.” How wonderful was his history, second only in interest to that of our Lord. And then the associations of this psalm--read as it is over the grave of our beloved departed ones. Therefore our attention is aroused when we come to consider the teachings of such a psalm. I. “Show thy servants thy work” God worketh everywhere and always. Above all in Christ, in the Holy Ghost, and in all the operations of His grace. But man sees it not. Many things hide it. God must show it to him. And here Moses prays that his people may be made to see God’ s work. Let us, as we need to, make the prayer our own. II. “and their children thy glory.” The glory spoken of is the self-manifestation of God. There might, in conception at least, have been God and no glory. But it pleased Him not thus to be. He came forth to communicate, to recreate, to redeem. That forthcoming was outshining. And Moses prayed not only for the generation then living, but for their children. What better prayer can parents offer for their children than this? What better defence against the anxiety on their behalf which they feel so often and so keenly? And God has, in large degree, answered for us this prayer. Let us be grateful for the blessing, and let us hand it on. Never consent that your children should receive a Godless education. The prayer of the patriot, like that of the saint, must be, “ Show the children Thy glory.” (Dean Vaughan.) Psalms 90:17 Let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us. The beauty of the Lord We all feel moral beauty to be the highest. Much as we may admire the delicate touches of light and shade in a landscape, the rainbow tints on the rosy-coloured Alps, the beautiful gothic of the arched forest, the fragrant Kentish banks, the human face divine, yet we all feel that given a touch of heroism, martyr-like courage, or persevering fidelity to truth, the beauty of character as far exceeds beauty of face as the soul is higher and nobler than the tabernacle in which it dwells. Blessed be God, the Divine nature can be restored to us, “ Where sin abounded grace did much more abound,” and as at the Cross we receive pardon and remission of our sins, so in vital union with Christ do we receive the new nature and the new name. I. The beauty of God in our character. We cannot have the highest beauty without having God. I do not say we cannot have anything that looks beautiful. Everything that is amiable, considerate, gentle, true, unselfish in human character is in one sense beautiful--but if you look deeply enough you will see that one thing is wanting, and that without life in God, these virtues are only like the broken arches of Bolton Abbey--beautiful in ruins.1. God’ s image is beauty of the highest type. 2. The beauty of the Lord is brought out by the Spirit of God in the Christian. Character is a garment. Men see it. Religion is the life of God in the soul of man, and it blossoms before men. It is hard to see how a man can be churlish, or cold, or morose, or selfish, and yet claim to be considered a Christian; religion is not grace grafted on to our nature, but grace changing, purifying, and renewing our nature, so that we become new creatures in Christ Jesus. 3. In the midst of religious privileges this beauty may decay and decline. The Jews. 4. The production of this likeness may involve severe providences. To bring out the Divine likeness so that it may last, you may have to pass through the fiery furnace. God may put us in the furnace, but He will never heat it too highly: the picture will never be marred--never: “ He will finish the work.” II. The blessing of God on our undertakings. I like that expression, “ work of our hands” --because all work, brain-work for instance, has to do with them, and all the forms of common toil as well. “ Establish our work!” Can we all conscientiously ask God to do that? I do not mean in a spiritual sense as members of Churches, but as Christian men. Are you conducting your work on such principles that you can ask God to bless it? If not, the distinction between spiritual and secular will not help you. There is, of course, in reality no such distinction. It is conventional. But assuming that you use the distinction, how can you ask God to bless the work of your hands, if it is base, tricky, evil? When the prayer in the text was uttered--1. It was the morning of a new life. Beautiful prayer that at special seasons. When the daughter is leaving her home, and bride and bridegroom are commencing the battle of life together, having to plan, to achieve the position which circumstances make possible to them. Yes! it is a season to kneel around the family altar, and for the fatherly lips to ask God to bless the work of their hands. So is it when we commence new undertakings about which we are full of much anxiety, and which will necessitate much effort. Who can bless, if God cannot? 2. It was the prayer of earnest men. God does not prosper our laziness, but our labour. Moreover, God meant all of us to use our hands. We want earnest hands. Not that earnestness is all. We want intelligence, thought, devoutness, wisdom, behind the earnestness! Our prayers will be but mockeries unless we have work to be established after all. 3. It was the expression of Divine dependence. The best building will soon show signs of downfall and destruction unless the work be cemented together by God. (W. M. Statham.) The cry of the mortal to the undying I. The yearning and longing cry of the mortal for the beauty of the eternal. The word translated “ beauty” is, like the Greek equivalent in the New Testament, and like the English word “ grace,” which corresponds to them both, susceptible of a double meaning. “ Grace” means both kindness and loveliness, or, as we might distinguish, both graciousness and gracefulness. And that double idea is inherent in the word, as it is inherent in the attribute of God to which it refers. So the “ beauty of the Lord” means, by no quibble, but by reason of the essential loveliness of His lovingkindness, both God’ s loveliness and God’ s goodness; God’ s graciousness and God’ s (if I may use such a word) gracefulness. The prayer of the psalmist that this beauty may be “ upon” us conceives of it as given to us from above and as coming floating down from Heaven, like that white Dove that fell upon Christ’ s head, fair and meek, gentle and lovely, and resting on our anointed heads, like a diadem and an aureole of glory. Now, that communicating graciousness, with its large gifts and its resulting beauty, is the one thing that we need in view of mortality and sorrow and change and trouble. And then, note further, that this gracious gentleness and longsuffering, giving mercy of God, when it comes down upon a man, makes him, too, beautiful with a reflected beauty. If the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us, it will cover over our foulness and deformity. II. The cry of the worker in a fleeting world for the perpetuity of his work. “ Establish,” or make firm, “ the work of our hands upon us,” etc. Our work will be established if it is His work. This prayer in our text follows another prayer (Psalms 90:16)--namely, “ Let Thy work appear unto Thy servants.” That is to say, my work will be perpetual when the work of my hands is God’ s work done through me. When you bring your wills into harmony with God’ s will, and so all your effort, even about the little things of daily life, is in consonance with His will, and in the line of His purpose, then your work will stand. If my will runs in the line of His, and if the work of my hands is “ Thy work,” it is not in vain that we shall cry, “ establish it upon us,” for it will last as long as He does. In like manner, all work will be perpetual that is done with “ the beauty of the Lord our God” upon the doers of it. Whosoever has that grace in his heart, whosoever is in contact with the communicating mercy of God, and has had his character in some measure refined and ennobled and beautified by possession thereof, will do work that has in it the element of perpetuity. And our work will stand if we quietly leave it in His hands. Quietly do it to Him, never mind about results, but look after motives. Be sure that they are right, and if they are, the work will be eternal. Just as a drop of water that falls upon the moor, finds its way into the brook, and goes down the glen and on into the river, and then into the sea, and is there, though undistinguishable, so in the great summing up of everything at the end the tiniest deed that was done for God, though it was done far away up amongst the mountain solitudes where no eyes saw, shall live and be represented in its effects on others and in its glad issues to the doer. (A. Maclaren, D.D.) A lovable God Our times need the doctrine of a lovable God--a God whoso moral beauty may be all around us and upon us. The distortion and deformity of the Deity have long enough followed mankind. The moral beauty of such a Being should be above us, and in man’ s heart and life. This “ beauty” may in part be seen in the assumption of a long day for the unfolding of the Divine plan. It is perfectly vain to seek the “ beauty of God” in the few days that surround man here. It is necessary to chant the words of the old anthem, “ from everlasting to everlasting Thou art God.” As we cannot take up a drop of water from the Atlantic and find in that drop the flow of the tides, the lifting up of billows, the power that floats all the ships of a thousand ports, and the soft and loud music of calm and storm; as to see the ocean we must grasp it all in its rocky bed, bordered by continents, so we cannot, in the face of a dying infant, or in the adversity of a good man, see the government of love of God. It has boundaries wider than these. We must wait, and, what the fleeting moments of man deny, ask the great years of God to bring. The tides of the mind, the deep music of human waters, cannot be seen in the drop of life. There is a God of justice that may be all lovable. The punishment may be so just, so inseparable from conscious guilt, so essential to the welfare of time and eternity, that it will not make God fearful, but will be one more circle of splendour in His halo of light. Alongside this attribute of justice must be seen with wonderful distinctness the fatherly love. We must give thousands of years of time to a Divine love. Our earth must be seen floating, not in an ether which our chemists shall attempt to weigh--not even in that sweet ether which Figuier imagines to surround some stars, and to be the food of the souls beyond--but floating in a Divine love. (D. Swing.) Moral beauty What are some of the characteristics of moral beauty?1. Beauty has no sharp angles, but its lines of continuance are so gentle that curve melts into curve. The truly beautiful life has no breaks, no harsh traits, or times when the better nature seems asleep or on a journey; no sudden starts from moral torpor into fresh spiritual life. The moral life is uniform; varied, it may be, at times, but pervaded always by the same spirit. But let it be said emphatically that this beauty cannot be put on. The blast that shall awake the soul’ s rich melody must come, not from without, but from within. This beauty can be sustained only by taking our Saviour’ s motto, “ I am not alone, but the Father is with me.” The felt presence of God will be efficient beyond all things in keeping passion subdued and temper under control, while we maintain in the daily flow of life that sweet serenity with which everything good is seen to be in harmony. I remember seeing a picture of Joseph’ s workshop, representing the carpentership of our Lord. The holy light which encircled the place rested on the shavings, the chips, the plane, and the saw, making it look like a picture of heaven. The painter was right; for with our Lord there was just the same Divine beauty in His handling of the plane and the saw as when He stooped at the grave of Lazarus and bade him rise and come forth. In so far as we can put this spirit into the humblest of work or play we make it divinely beautiful. 2. This beauty grows, or, if not, it cannot be. This is so with the outward beauty of the universe and its changes; year by year the spring in its delicate foliage is beautiful as it comes upon us so full of promise from the lifeless winter; but not less beautiful is the glow of summer; nor is the limit of this beauty reached till the fields bend with ripening grain, the trees with golden, luscious fruit, and the vines are drooping with the purple clusters. But the beauty of character, as that of nature, fades as soon as it ceases to grow. Take God’ s perfect law, and look at it as the microscope for the examination of your characters; bring it to the level of your thought, feeling, and conduct for a single day; look close and deep, endeavour to ascertain precisely how your soul would appear with the strictest standard of judgment applied. I trust many of you would find ample reason to be happy and thankful; but are you sure that the microscopic mirror would not reveal to you those defects of which otherwise you were not aware? But apply this scrutiny to your Saviour’ s character, and it only brings to light finer lines and richer hues of spiritual beauty; and those who have been long in the holy temple of that Divine character feel that it still grows upon them, and they can see more and more to admire every year they live. Thus it is that the best of men and women can talk of themselves in the humblest terms, not because they are less good, but because they use the microscope of God’ s law upon themselves, and therefore see the difference between themselves and their heavenly Father. The more of His Spirit they have the more earnestly they crave for more. 3. Such are some of the characteristics of moral or spiritual beauty; and we need it for our own sake and for the sake of our fellowman. (1) For our own sake, because without it we cannot in any sense be satisfied with ourselves. (2) We need this beauty of character for the sake of others; it is this which, far more than anything else, confers goodness and the power of doing good. You will do good not so much by what you say as by what you are. What you say and do for others, and what you give, is the mere multiplicand of which yourself and the soul of goodness in you is immeasurably the larger multiplier; and the nature of the product depends mainly upon the multiplier. 4. Contemplate for one moment the union of strength and beauty in our great Exemplar, Christ; and the degree to which that strength, in Him so peculiar, lay in His beauty of character. As for strength, the world has not seen might like His. You know how the multitudes were silenced into respect by His presence. His days were full of energetic toil, and the prophetic phrase, “ travelling in the greatness of His strength,” seems to refer to the momentous journey from His baptism to His cross; but would this might have come down through the ages had it not been for its majestic and transcendent beauty? 5. Take with you on your life’ s journey the motto given in our text: “ Let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us.” Seek with strength that beauty that shall make your strength immeasurably stronger; so far as you can see along your path, instead of thorns, instead of briars, show by your faithful conduct that the flowers of heaven can grow on earthly ground. Worship God in the beauty of holiness; not alone in formal prayer and praise, but by making your work itself worship, your enjoyments thanksgiving. Rejoice in the Lord always; and so live that yours shall ever be a happy, lovely service, one that waits not for its reward in heaven, but is in itself an exceeding great reward (A. P. Peabody, D.D.) The beauty of God I. What is the beauty of God? Some have said that beauty is the indication of utility, the stamp of the highest usefulness. Others have made it to consist in the harmony of opposites; others in proportion or symmetry; others in conformity to a certain ideal standard of perfection. The saying attributed to Plato comes nearest to satisfying us,--“ Beauty is the splendour of truth.” It is the lustre of perfection, the sign or token of a completed ideal. It always suggests the thought of a Being behind who seeks to realize His ideas and express Himself in them, and give a conception of their worth and beneficence. Do not beauty and sublimity owe their power to this, that they are suggestions of the illimitable, the transcendent, the infinite? Once in the history of this sinful world infinite beauty appeared. Divine loveliness spoke and acted among us, shone through the eyes, and lived in the actions and sufferings of Jesus of Nazareth. A beauty more splendid than day and all the jewelled crown of night, more tender than the most ethereal tints of flowers, more sublime than the mountains--the beauty of Divine love and truth and righteousness, of patience and longsuffering, dwelt in mortal flesh, streaming evermore through its covering, seeming the richer and tenderer for its covering, till it shone out in noontide glory through anguish and death. It is a perception of the beauty of God, a delight in it, a desire after it, which distinguish the spiritual man from others. II. The beauty of God as reflected in man. There is always a suggestion of joy and hope about spiritual beauty. It speaks of a wide horizon. It is the beauty of a day in spring, having a hold of the future, while struggling with east winds and rain; looking on to summer, and not back upon it as do the fairest autumn days. It is the beauty of the rising sun, or of the sky before sunrise that presages a day of glory. Benevolence is the essential element. It is love that is lovely. To love the Infinite One and all Being in and through Him cannot but impart to the soul a deep beauty in harmony and alliance with the fairest scenes in Nature. But it is a strong and abundant life that is beautiful. Strength is the natural and genuine root of loveliness; and if there be anything fair to look upon that is not associated with this, but is rather a tender delicate grace inseparable from feebleness of principle or purpose, it must be somewhat of the nature of a sickly flush. Only, we should not forget that there is a beauty that precedes strength. For this is a characteristic of God’ s work as distinguished from man’ s, that it carries a measure of beauty with it from the beginning through all its stages. There is one beauty of the tender shoot and another of the plant in flower. Unity is an element of beauty. Intellect requires unity and is pursued through all sciences by this quenchless thirst. Conscience, heart and imagination also desire it, and without it have no rest. If we will examine it, we shall find that in every object which we reckon beautiful there is unity open or concealed. What we call proportion, harmony, balance, order are only modifications of this. But unity must never be so understood as to seem in conflict with freedom. The beautiful is free, expansive, flowing. Unity and freedom are both included in this utterance, as they are in the truth of things--“ I will walk at liberty because I seek Thy precepts.” Joy also is an element of beauty. The joy that we get by looking at Christ is healing and softening. It is a joy from beholding beauty of the loftiest and tenderest kind, and must be productive of beauty. Repose is not less an element of beauty. How powerfully this element of calm strikes us in the life of our Lord. He had the repose of a perfectly balanced soul, of strength and love, of patience, meekness, and unshaken trust in God. Hence there is a beauty in Him of which the tranquil majestic vault of heaven and the serene stars are a picture. They who inherit His peace cannot but inherit something of His beauty. Naturalness and unconsciousness must be added as necessary to all the elements of beauty. Let us have simple reality, whatever else we want. The beauty of life is life. We do not make beauty. It grows. We must not seek it directly, else we shall certainly miss it. Now, what light does this psalm shed on this beauty of God? What light does it give on the means of attaining it? First of all, a soul must have its home in God. It must have rest and a centre, and it can only have this in the bosom of infinite love. It must realize God’ s eternity. A deep sense of sin is another outstanding element in this psalm, and there is no real beauty possible to sinful man without that. The gladness that God gives, and the wisdom that God gives, are both prominent here, and they are both necessary to work out the beauty of God in us. (A. Raleigh, D.D.) The beauty of the Lord There is a relation between beauty and work. In this writer’ s mind the two things are indissolubly connected. To him the beauty of the Divine nature is the beauty of an energy ever streaming forth towards some harmonious and perfect end. This is clear from the parallelism between the parts of this sentence: “ Let Thy work appear unto Thy servants,” “ And Thy glory unto their children,” and, “ Let the beauty of the Lord our God rest upon us.” God’ s work, then, is His glory and His beauty. The three are correlated as parallel, and therefore kindred, ideas. Perfect beauty is the fruit of activity ever tending towards useful and beneficent ends. You may have a beautiful statue or a beautiful picture, but the highest beauty is when you have movement and development. A painted flower, however exquisitely wrought, can never exercise the same charm as a growing wheat-stalk or an expanding rose-bud. Work itself is beautiful. What is more fascinating than to watch the movements of a skilled workman, a master of his craft? Let us understand, then, that the only truly beautiful life is the active life. The beautiful hand is the hand that has wrought something for the benefit and enrichment of humanity, that has achieved something for the common good. If I were to ask you to name the most beautiful life ever lived upon this earth, you would not hesitate. You would name the life of Jesus of Nazareth, the life whose motto was, “ Wist ye not that I must be about My Father’ s business?” and whose record was, “ He went about doing good.” And herein was its beauty, that though cut off in its prime, He could say, “ I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do.” And I want you to feel that “ the beauty of the Lord our God” may be upon us in all honest, earnest doing. No one ever asks whether Jesus of Nazareth was physically beautiful or not. He may have been plain-featured, as was Socrates; none the less is He the “ altogether lovely” to our thought. It is significant that religion should be always spoken of in the Bible as a work of Divine “ grace” in the heart; and “ grace” is an essential element in our conception of beauty. It is the same identification as that which arose in the mind of the psalmist. He is thinking of no mere outward decoration stuck on to hide something ugly, like the plaster and stucco adornments of our modern debased architecture, which only accentuate the native hideousness of that which they are designed to conceal. He is thinking of the beauty which is the expression of an inward life, the “ beauty of holiness.” (J. Halsey.) The beauty of God Beauty is that indescribable something in an object of sight or thought which awakens in us a feeling of satisfaction and gratification by the presentment of a perfect symmetry and harmony, a true proportion and adjustment, a unity without confusion or discord of a multitude of parts in a complete and congruous whole. And thus far the feeling is one and the same in the region of sense and in the region of mind. The beautiful in nature, the beautiful in art, the beautiful in literature, the beautiful in a person, the beautiful in a character, might be spoken of without impropriety in the same terms and ascribed substantially to the same characteristics, however distinct and diverse its action in these several provinces. The effect, the influence of beauty is, of course, utterly different in a thing and in a person--in a scene or a landscape on the one hand, in a countenance or a character on the other; and yet the same nominal account might be given of both, and the admiration awakened by both might be described in the very same phrase. Even so is it in that beauty which the text speaks of. Like that love of God which the Bible tells of, and which we must conceive of, however inadequately, as of the same nature and texture, so to say, only differing in its intensity and its purity, as the love which glorifies and sanctifies this human life of ours, so also is the beauty of God and the admiration of it by men and angels not to be idealized away in the fear of too much humanizing it; rather shall we dare to say of it, that it is the same quality and the same emotion in nature and science with the human, only infinitely lifted above it by its application to that one object in which there is no touch of defect in the beauty, and no possibility of excess in the admiration. It is still the symmetry and the harmony, the unity in manifoldness, the combination of parts in one consistent and congruous whole, which is the beauty, and which awakens the admiration of God Himself. But now, lest we should lose the thought in words, or fail to grasp the thing signified, just because it is so far above out of our sight, let us mention two or three particulars, the absence of any one of which in the revelation of what God is would be fatal to the beauty, and therefore fatal to the admiration, of God.1. And we shall all, I think, be willing to place first, and not last, the Divine holiness as an attribute essential to the perfect Being. When a man really feels what sin is, feels what is the hatefulness, the meanness, the shamefulness, what is the wretchedness of sin, or of having sinned; that he even wishes to have it judged, and punished, and slain in himself; that it were no boon, but a sore penalty to be left with, and in, his sin, punishment being excused him;--I am sure that that man would miss in God, if it were not there, the attribute of severity; he would feel that the proportion, that the balance, that the combination was imperfect, if the Lord God were not, whatever else He be, strictly, severely just, of purer eyes than to look with toleration upon iniquity whatever the consequence to the creature that has clone amiss, and let in the tempter. 2. But if holiness is the first ingredient of the Divine beauty, certainly you will all say that sympathy is the second. To have revealed to me only a just God, only a God who rewards or recompenses according to our deservings, or only a God who makes His sun to rise indifferently on the evil and the good, and has made no provision at all for the mighty transition from the one class to the other by an all-availlng sacrifice and by a sanctifying Spirit--this would be to break the unity, to destroy the harmony, of Divine beauty, for it would leave me such as I am, out of the light and the warmth, out of the very reach and scope of the saving regard. I want the sympathy, which can supplement, which can condescend to touch the leper, and avail to say to the dead man, “ I say unto thee, Arise.” 3. And we must not end without a third element, and what is that but the Divine help? Oh, when the battle has gone against me, when the good resolution has been again broken, when the severe lesson of consequence has been learned yet once more in vain, where should we be and what, if we might not still look up and lift up the eyes to One who is willing, often as it is, to help our infirmities, who will not upbraid us with sin or ingratitude will we but seek Him again with all our hearts, crying out for strength perfect in weakness, nay, enabling us to hazard the audacious yet most true paradox, “ When I am weak,” just then, and then only, “ I am strong” ? Oh, “ let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us,” stirring us first to admiration, then to adoration, and then to communion. Let us remember how each one of the constituent parts of the Divine beauty is associated in Scripture with the name of Love. In one single letter St. Paul uses the three phrases, “ Love of God,” “ Love of Christ, “ Love of the Spirit.” In one single verse St. Paul brings together in prayer the Trinity of the Divine Unity when he says, “ The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship (or communion) of the Holy Ghost be with you all.” Grace, love, communion. What lack we yet? Only that we stir up the gift; only that with such blessings as ours we starve not for lack of using; only that we east ourselves more humbly upon the goodness and forbearance, and longsuffering which has suffered us all those years, and still waits to bless. (Dean Vaughan.) Beauty Beauty would be said, I dare say, by scholars, to be not a Hebrew, but a Greek idea. And yet the Hebrews had an idea of their own of beauty, and a very original one. I. That God is beautiful (2 Chronicles 20:21; Psalms 27:4; Zechariah 9:17; Isaiah 33:17).1. A feature of God which appears to ms go have this attractiveness is His own love of beauty. All the beauty that exists in the universe is of God’ s making. “ From Him all things sweet derive their sweetness, all things fair their beauty, all things bright their splendour, all things that live their life, all things sentient their sense, all that move their vigour, all intelligences their knowledge, all things perfect their perfection, all things in any wise good their goodness.” 2. A second feature of the mind of God which makes the same impression is the artistic perfection He bestows on His work. The two great instruments of modern scientific investigation, the telescope and the microscope, have enlarged our knowledge of God’ s works in opposite directions. 3. There is a beauty of a still higher order, which we call moral, and this is still more characteristic of God. There are some elements of moral character which we cannot see displayed in men or illustrated in their actions without the heart rising up to greet them with delight. Gentleness, for instance, is of this nature. Is there any sight more touching you can see in a home than a strong man stooping to a child, and laying aside his strength and dignity to be its playmate, or in the streets than a father leading his little one and waiting patiently for the toddling foot? The same may be said of generosity. If a man who has been wronged, having both right and power on his side, yet forbears to take revenge and heaps kindness on his enemy, poetry will celebrate his act, and every heart that listens to it will respond. Self-sacrifice, voluntarily giving up comfort and dignity to go down to the rescue of the miserable, commands the same kind of allegiance. Now, all the qualities of this class, in their highest form and intensest degree, belong to God. They are comprehended in what is called the grace of God. 4. One other feature of the beauty of God must be mentioned, because it is the one which the Old Testament writers chiefly had in view when they conceived God as beautiful. This is holiness. God is even called in one passage “ the beauty of holiness.” Now, by this word we generally understand a negation of everything impure, absolute freedom from sin and abhorrence of it. But in the Scriptures the word has a more positive and a richer signification: it signifies the perfection and unison of all God’ s attributes. No quality belonging to a perfect being is absent from His nature; every quality is present in perfect development; and all are in unbroken harmony. This is very nearly the Greek idea of beauty. II. The Church of God is beautiful, and its beauty is derived from the beauty of God: “ Let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us.” Is not holiness beautiful? Is there anything else so beautiful? I appeal to you who have seen it. Have you ever known any one who was conspicuously holy; who, when he met you, created in you the impression often that he had just come out of the presence of Jehovah, and that the glory of the interview was still lingering about him; whose very look reminded you of God and heaven, and was an undeniable proof of their existence? If you leave known such an one, tell me if you have ever seen anything else so beautiful as such a character? It is all beautiful, but there are some elements of holiness that have a quite peculiar attractiveness. Humility is one. What a lovely grace that is, especially when it is united with exceptional position or exceptional gifts! Unselfishness produces the same effect on the beholder, and so does the simplicity of a large manhood. But the beauty of the Church and of the true Christian is not only the beauty of the Lord in the sense of being like His, but also in the sense of being obtained from Him. It is not natural, not derived. It is a beauty which the Lord puts upon His people; and it is communicated not from without, but from within. (J. Stalker, D. D.) Man’ s prayer for triumph over time and death I. Man’ s character when Divinely beautified. The prayer is that the beauty of God should “ be upon us.” Then we shall remain. Our circumstances will change, our condition alter, our bodily powers decay, but upon us, that is upon something that is the actual, veritable indestructible we, a Divine something may ever rest. The “ beauty of God” is that something. “ All colours, lines, beauties of visible creation and of the invisible heavens are but dim hints of the ineffable beauty of God,” the beauty not of His creation, which is only a partial manifestation of Him, but of His character, which is Himself. This beauty of holiness is the beauty of God. When it clothes, covers, possesses, in a word is “ upon” the human character, man is Divinely beautified. I. What is the nature of this beauty?(1) Manifold. Exquisite variety. (2) Complete. No blemish or defect. (3) Lasting. True character endures. Fever cannot burn out truth, consumption cannot waste away conscience, the axe or the guillotine cannot smite love. When we pray for the beauty of God, then we pray for a character that nothing can consume, or wither, or even enfeeble. 2. What is the method of its attainment? (1) Right relationship with God. God must be our home, the sphere of our thoughts, labours, loves. Reconciled to God; at one with God. (2) The discipline of the past. It was upon Moses, when he was old, that the “ beauty of the Lord our God” was to rest. Just as it was upon “ Paul the aged” that there gathered the glories of contentment, and peace, and heroism, that lit up his brow as with a diadem from heaven. II. Man’ s work when Divinely blessed. “ Establish Thou the work of our hands,” etc. Men’ s works outlive them. This is true in every sphere. The common mason’ s labour has helped to build houses that will stand long after he has become dust. And in the realms of mind and morals it is still more emphatically so. But man’ s great triumph, as Moses felt his would be, is in work that God so establishes that generations to come shall be blessed by it. It may have been quiet work. It may have been unseen work, as the hidden under waves of the tide that leave their deep ripples congealed on the sand long after the tossing, breaking surface breakers have been absorbed again in the great sea. Yes, in its results, work done for God and done in God’ s Spirit is permanent. The results of the work of a reformer, like Luther, or statesman like Hampden, or philanthropist like Howard, are henceforward part and parcel of the moral universe, as truly as the planets are part and parcel of the material. But yet more permanent. They will last throughout eternity. (Homilist.) Spiritual beauty This beauty is-- I. Varied. Faith in Abraham; patience in Job; purity in Joseph; meekness in Moses; earnestness in Paul; love in John; all in Jesus. II. Growing. Like corn: first the blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear; like the growth of trees: first the seedling, then the young tree fenced round, then the large tree fully developed, with its beautiful arch reflecting perfectly the great arch of the majestic sky overhead; like light: first the twilight, then the silver dawn gradually growing into the golden splendours of noon. III. Unfading. Earthly beauty grows until it reaches full bloom, and then it begins to fade. But not so with the beauty of God. It grows brighter and brighter, for ever and ever. Time cannot write its wrinkles; care cannot plough its furrows; disease cannot impress its marks upon any of the features of this beauty; death cannot breathe upon its fadeless bloom. IV. Attracting. Josephus informs us that the babe, Moses, was so remarkable for beauty, that “ it happened frequently that those that met him, as he was carried along the road, were obliged to turn again upon seeing the child; that they left what they were about and stood still a great while to look on him.” Thus the perfect beauty of childhood is attracting, and in this it is a lovely symbol of spiritual Beauty. The beauty of God upon the primitive Church drew the eyes of the heathen toward her, and forced from them the exclamation, “ Behold these Christians, how they love one another.” The beauty of God upon the disciples caused the people around to wonder, and take “ knowledge of them that they had been with Jesus.” The beauty of God upon the members of the Church has been drawing and assimilating men of all tribes and all ages. And in proportion as her members have this beauty upon them are they successful in making others lovely. V. Unconscious. A dutiful daughter watches by the bedside of her dying mother; anticipates her every wish; serves her day and night. How beautiful she is, but she does not know it. So with spiritual beauty (Exodus 34:29; Matthew 25:37-39). Thus, like the beauty of stars and rainbows, and flowers, and birds, and children, the beauty of God upon us, not in crescent fragments, but in full-orbed splendour, is invariably unconscious, until revealed to us by those who gaze upon it. VI. Rare. It is rare as a few flowers amid a garden of weeds; rare as a few pebbles gleaming up out of an ocean of sand; rare as a few star clusters shining on the dark breast of night. It is rare and yet free, rare and yet attainable. Oh, it is wonderful that this beauty should be so uncommon when it is so free! It is universally attainable, for “ it is unto all and upon all them that believe.” (John Dunlop.) The privilege of believers in knowing God’ s glory; and the effects of it upon their personal holiness I. The privilege of Zion’ s children. II. The effects which the beauty of the Lord our God produces; it establishes the work of our hands; yea, most certainly the work of our hands shall be established. The privilege mentioned in our text consists of two parts: a vision of the beauty of the Lord, and an appropriation of Him as our God. The means of this vision and appropriation is usually called faith in the Word of God.1. The work of our personal salvation is a great work, in which every one is concerned to be established. This is the one thing needful; and until we have some assurance of it, we can never be happy. Let us labour, then, to enter into this rest by faith. 2. Another great work every believer will wish to see carried on, and established, is the furtherance of Messiah’ s kingdom upon earth. “ Let Thy kingdom come,” he will constantly pray, in the conversion of Jew and Gentile, in the progress of the Gospel at home and abroad. (R. Frew.) Moral beauty I. This beauty of the Lord our God was originally upon us,--was the primitive endowment of mankind, our highest and divinest excellence, described by our Creator Himself His own “ image.”1. Wisdom and knowledge. 2. Moral purity. 3. Vigour of moral purpose, or rectitude of will. 4. Supreme felicity in the Divine favour. 5. Immortal life. II. This beauty, or moral perfection, has been lost.1. By the fall, or the incipient act of human disobedience against God, moral evil has contaminated the whole of our nature. Sin entered, and in its train soon followed ignorance, error, weakness, guilt, misery and death. 2. The moral beauty of our original nature is utterly lost. If there exist any traces of man’ s former beauty, they resemble such only as are left behind in the fragments of an edifice, or a city, which a conflagration has destroyed, or an earthquake shaken into ruins. 3. Our moral beauty, so far as relates to ourselves, is irrecoverably lost. III. What ground there is for hoping that this beauty of the Lord our God may yet be restored to us.1. We now see this beauty actually restored, in the person of the Son of God in our nature. He is called the second man, the Lord from heaven,--the restorer of the ruins of the first Adam,--by the renovation of the moral nature of all who are in Him,--upon the principle of assimilation to His own moral beauty. 2. The ministry, or dispensation of the Spirit, furnishes another firm support to the hopes of those who are desirous of attaining to the beauty of the Lord their God. The souls whom the Spirit of God renews and adorns after the image of Jesus Christ, shall retain the freshness and the perfection of their new and spiritual beauty for ever; and neither grow old nor grow weary in the felicities of their heavenly state. 3. The promises of the Divine Word are also replete with assurances of the restoration of our fallen nature. 4. The Mediator, Jesus Christ, is now glorified at His Father’ s right hand in our nature; and has received all power in heaven and on earth,--power directly official and mediatorial, for the purpose of completing those objects that brought Him into our world corporeally. 5. Our hope, if not founded upon the experience of the saints of God, is yet confirmed and illustrated by it; for what we read concerning those in distant ages, and what we have witnessed in our own days,--of the knowledge, holiness, obedience, spirituality, joy and triumph of the Lord’ s people, that we know is attainable still. And since the attainment of a renewed mind depends upon no gifts of nature, no mysteries of art, no advantages of birth, no endowments of education, no privileges of station or rank, but entirely upon Divine grace, every anxious, humble, wrestling heart may indulge the joyous hope of receiving the blessing. IV. What means might be used by us to promote this desirable and glorious consummation, the attainment of moral perfection, felicity, and immortality.1. The text sets before you by example, the important, all-important exercise and means of prayer. 2. There must be diligent attention to the Word of God, and faith in it. This is the celestial mirror both of truth and beauty; the very exact, identical reflection or image of all that we are required both to be and to do; not a broken fragment, as the heathens fabled in their classic story of the natural mirror of truth, first given perfect into the hand of man, but afterwards dashed to the ground, and pieces only of which can now be gathered up and fitted together with much skill and infinite labour by the wisest of the sons of men; but that mirror of truth which we possess is perfect and entire,--the mirror of the Divine mind, most pure, perfect, and unsullied. Into this law of liberty we must daily look, not as “ a natural man beholding his face in a glass,” but coming thereto and continuing therein, that we may be changed, and till we are “ changed, into the same image, from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord.” (G. Bedford, D.D.) Beauty from Christ Modern science teaches us that the crimson colour of a rose is not in the rose itself, but consists alone in the flower’ s property of picking out, and reflecting back the crimson ray that mingles in the sun’ s white light. And this applies to flowers of every hue. Their beauty is not their own; it is wholly due to the colours which emanate from the sun itself. So it is equally true of the believer. He has no grace of beauty in himself, but all his purity of thought and life, like the beauty of the flowers, is drawn from the Sun of Righteousness. In Christ he is “ fair as the splendid, flower-embroidered hangings of Judah’ s royal palace.” (R. Venting.) Work made beautiful A pathetic story is told of Professor Herkomer, the famous authority on art. His aged father, who lived with him in his beautiful home at Bushey, Hefts., used to model in clay in his early life. Later, when he had nothing definite to do, he took to it again; but his constant fear was that his work would show the marks of imperfection. At night he would go to rest early, and then his talented son would take up his father’ s feeble attempts and make the work as beautiful as he well knows how. When the old man came clown in the morning he would go to see the work, and say, with evident satisfaction, “ Ha! I can do as well as ever I did!” May we not believe that the hands of Divine Love will thus make beautiful our feeble work for God till it shall bear the light of day, and be perfect to all eternity! Psalms 91:1-16 Psalms 91:1-16 He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.A song of faith I. The solitary voice of faith. “ He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High” --how high up that “ secret place” must be; how deep the silence up there; how pure the air! How far above the poisonous mists that cling to the low-lying swamps; how far out of the reach of the arrows or shots of the foeman, is he that dwelleth with God by communion, by constancy of desire, by aspiration, and by clear recognition of the Divine goal of all his work! “ He that dwelleth” thus, “ in the secret place of the Most High, shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty” --and since He is Almighty the long shadow that that great rock casts will shelter him who keeps beneath it from the burning rays of the fiery sunshine, in every “ weary land.” Let me keep myself in touch with God, and I keep myself master of all things, and secure from the evil that is in evil. II. The great assurances which answer to this solitary voice of faith. Now, is it true, as the psalmist goes on to portray under a double figure of battle and pestilence, that the man who thus trusts is saved from widespread calamities which may be devastating the lines of a community? If we look on the surface it is not true. Those that “ dwell in the secret place of the Most High” will die of an epidemic--cholera, or smallpox--like the men beside them that have no such abode. But, for all that, it is true! For suppose two men, one a Christian, another not, both dying from the same epidemic. Yet the difference between the two is such that we may confidently say of the one, “ He that believeth shall never die,” and of the other that he has died. It is irrelevant to talk about vaccination being a better prophylactic than faith. No doubt this psalmist was thinking mainly of physical life. No doubt, also, you and I have better means of interpreting and understanding Providence and its dealings than he had. And for us the belief that they who “ dwell in the secret place of the Most High” are immune from death, is possible and imperative, after a fashion far nobler and better than the psalmist could have dreamed. We must remember Old Testament conditions when we read Old Testament promises, and apply New Testament interpretations to Old Testament assurances. When we read, “ there shall no evil befall thee,” and think of our own harassed, tempest-tossed, often sorrowful lives, and broken, solitary hearts, we must learn that the evil that educates is not evil, and that the chastening of the Father’ s hand is good; and that nothing that brings a man nearer to God can be an enemy. The poison is wiped off the arrow, though the arrow may mercifully wound; and the evil in the evil is all dissipated. III. A deeper voice still coming in, and confirming the enlarging all these promises. God Himself speaks, promising deliverance consequent upon fixed love. “ Because he hath set his love upon Me, therefore will I deliver him.” As the word in the original suggests, when a poor man presses himself close up against the Divine breast, as a dog might against his master’ s limbs, or one that loves might clasp close to himself the beloved, then God responds to the desire for close contact, and in union He brings deliverance. Further, He promises elevation consequent on acquaintance with Divine character. “ I will set him on high” --high above all the weltering flood of evil that washes vainly round the base of the cliff--“ because he hath known My name.” Loving acquaintance with the revealed character of God lifts a man above earth and all its ills. Further, there is the promise of Divine companionship consequent on sorrows. “ I will be with him in trouble.” Some of us know what that means, how we never get a glimpse of God until earth was dark, and how when a devastating flood as it seemed came sweeping over the fair gardens of our lives, we found, when it had gone back, that it had left fertility that we knew nothing about before. “ With long life will I satisfy him,” through the ages of eternity, and “ show him My salvation” in the glories of an immortal life. (A. Maclaren, D.D.) The special providence of God Rarely, if anywhere, has faith made so complete a shield of God, or planted itself so firmly within the circle of His defence. No wonder we find this psalm called in the Talmud a “ Song of Accidents,” that is, a talisman or prophylactic in times of danger. And no wonder the ancient Church used it as its “ Invocavit,” to rally and encourage the hearts of the faithful in troublous and stormy times. The question is, How are we to understand it? Is it true? Can a man, because he is a Christian, and fears God, count upon such immunity as is here described? Does he lead a sort of charmed life, clothed with impenetrable armour, which no shaft of pestilence can pierce, so that while thousands or tens of thousands may fall at his right hand, he shall never be touched? We know that it is not so. Is there, then, any way in which we can interpret it, so as to use it with intelligence and profit to ourselves? I. The difficulty we feel in connection with the psalm is not that it assumes a special providence, as we call. It. This is taught everywhere in Scripture. It is difficult, indeed, to see how there can be any providence at all if it does not condescend to particulars, and take the individual, as well as the community or the race, into account. In the Old Testament its primary concern is with Israel as a people, and with the individual only in a subordinate and secondary degree. In the New Testament the individual is more distinctly and definitely an object of Divine regard. He, and the community of which he forms a part, are equally essential to one another, and that because the Church is not moved and governed from without, but from within; and such a government is impossible, except by the indwelling of the Spirit of God in the heart of each individual believer. II. The difficulty which meets us here, then, is not that of a special providence, but of the manner in which it is said to act.1. In the Old Testament the Divine providence was specially concerned in so guiding and controlling the history of Israel, that in it as a nation the kingdom of God, or of the Messias, should be realized. He was to judge the world with righteousness, and the poor with judgment. His reign was to be an era of peace and prosperity which should know no end. Those who were to be more immediately about Him, and to occupy the chief places of honour and authority, were to be His own people, to whom in a special sense He belonged. And round them, in ever-widening and more distant circles, were to be the other inhabitants of earth, all under the sway of the same benignant sceptre. 2. In the New Testament the point of view is entirely different. Religion is not embodied in a national history, nor is the kingdom of God an earthly kingdom, as even the disciples believed it would be up to the Day of Pentecost. Its essential characteristics are spiritual--righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. What made the difference? It was the Cross of Christ. On this stone of offence Israel had stumbled, and been broken in pieces. The kingdom of God was henceforth to appear under altered conditions. The old things having passed away, all things became new. And on this new creation was the impress of the Cross. And how had the Cross so transformed the whole spiritual outlook and hopes of men? It had shown that the greatest evil was sin, and that the righteousness which was to characterize the kingdom of the Messias could only be reached by atonement. Henceforward the great evil to be shunned was not poverty, nor hardship, but that which all along had arrayed itself against Him, and finally had nailed Him to the tree. Henceforth the greatest blessing to be gained was to have His spirit of disinterested and generous self-sacrifice. But the Cross of Jesus was more than the altar of expiation, more than the revelation of a love that passeth knowledge. It was also the consummation of His own experience, the perfecting of His humanity. But the sacrifice of the Cross, it may be said, was voluntarily borne. And though Christians must be ready to suffer for the truth, and to lighten the world’ s burden, by bearing it as Christ did, may they not expect to be delivered from those evils which are neither imposed by loyalty to the Gospel, nor assumed for the good of others? Have they no right to look for special protection in times of famine or pestilence; or does God send these indiscriminately on the evil and the good, just as He sends the sunshine and the rain? Undoubtedly He does, and Christians have no right to look for immunity from the ills that are the common lot of men. Inasmuch as they are still a part of a sinful humanity, they must share in the judgments which may come upon it. But does a Christian, then, derive no advantage from his Christianity in such visitations? By no means. For he has placed himself under God’ s care, who spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, and who cannot allow His servant to suffer, simply because He will not take the trouble to save him, or grudges what the effort might cost. Moreover, he is persuaded that God is acquainted with every particular connected with his trial, the very hairs of his head being all numbered, and that if He chose He could secure his absolute safety. And what reconciles him to the fact that God does not choose? What but the conviction that there is thus to come to him a larger blessing than he would otherwise receive? (C. Moinet, M.A.) God’ s secret and shadow I. The position indicated.1. The place. We are to enter and to abide in the secret of God. (1) God’ s Word has its secret. There are some who read it through chapter by chapter, who have a large amount of superficial biblical knowledge, but who know comparatively nothing of its grand, glorious, momentous secrets. There are others who so read it that they grasp the real meaning, the grand spiritual realities that underlie its utterances; they so read it that they catch the very spirit of its Divine Author, so that the views formed and the feelings kindled towards the subject of which it treats, are the same as God’ s. Such may be said to enter into the secret of God, or into “ the secret place of the Most High.” (2) Communion with God has its secret. There are some who say their prayers very regularly and very devoutly. So far as outward decorum and forms of speech are concerned, they are faultless. But communion with God there is none. There are others whose communion with Heaven is a sublime reality. The very presence of the Heavenly Father is consciously enjoyed. (3) The love of God has its secret. There are some, and we fear professing Christians too, whose feelings towards God are those of polite reserve. They know nothing of living in the love of God. But there are others who get into His very heart. They are children. (4) The purpose of God has its secret. There are some who feel little or no interest in that which lies close to God’ s heart, engages His profoundest sympathies, and employs His untiring energies. They have never entered into that purpose, never felt its vital importance, never conceived its glorious design. Never seriously considered whether by their lives and actions they were co-operating with God, or opposing Him. But there are others who have so closely identified themselves with God’ s purpose that it is the great centre to which every line of thought, of feeling, of intention, and of sympathy converges. 2. The attitude. “ He that dwelleth.” To dwell means a fixed, settled, habitual mode of life. It must be so with our conduct in reference to God’ s Word, God’ s friendship, God’ s love, and God’ s purpose. We must dwell in them, live in them. We must ask for no holiday, no leave of absence, there must be no departure. 3. How attained. How can we reach and take up our abode in this the very heart of God? Christ supplies the answer, “ I am the way,” etc. II. The blessing enjoyed.1. We have indicated what it is to dwell in the secret place of God’ s Word. With minds thus furnished and filled we are under their protection. The world’ s thoughts, and ideas, and principles of things may assail us, but they cannot do much with us; we know better; we have received a higher education, our minds are fortified with God’ s thoughts, guarded with God’ s ideas, protected with God’ s principles. 2. We have indicated what it is to dwell in the secret place of God’ s communion. In that position we get our whole nature animated with holy impulses, sympathies, tastes, and dispositions. We get our whole nature magnetized with the nature of God. With our whole nature thus infused, fired, animated, and magnetized with the very impulses and inspirations of God’ s nature, we are under their protection. We are lifted into a higher sphere of life. 3. We have indicated what it is to dwell in the secret place of God’ s love. In that position we get our best, strongest, and supreme affections impregnated with the love of God. We live under its shadow and protection. By its high and holy and potent influence we are preserved from the love of low, base, temporal, inferior things. 4. We have indicated what it is to dwell in the secret place of God’ s purpose. In that position our energies, our sympathies, our interests, our intentions, and our pursuits are all enlisted and engaged in co-operating with God in bringing about the desire of His heart and the great pleasure of His will. In our labours and toils, our efforts and struggles to destroy sin and to establish holiness, whether it be in our own hearts, in the lives and conduct of our children, or in the spirit and practice of the world, we are under the protection and shadow of the Most High, because we are identified with God’ s purpose. (B. Pierce.) The believer safely dwelling in God I. The place the psalmist has in mind. Intercourse and communion with the God that made us is not, as some represent, a fallacy. You may describe it as an idle thing; and so might the blind man say of the light of this glorious sun, and so might the deaf man say of music. But the thing is real; and your doubts of its reality lie in this--you want the discerning faculty. You want to be brought into contact with your God. II. The conduct of the believer. Strip the text of metaphor, and this “ dwelling” in God is only another term for trusting God. Try your confidence by these two tests. Is it an habitual, everyday confidence? Did it lead you yesterday, the day before, and the day before that,--has it led you to-day--to cast yourselves on the Lord? Is it a habit of faith? And then--is it grounded on the blood of the Lord Jesus? Is it a confidence in a reconciling, pardoning, redeeming God? III. The blessing which the believer finds in the habitation he dwells in. This is expressed in almost the same terms in which his conduct is expressed. He “ dwells in the secret place of the Most High” ; that is his conduct. He “ shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty” ; that is his privilege. Make God your refuge, and He will be your refuge; take Him as your habitation, and He will be your habitation; seek shelter in Him, and He will shelter you; go to Him for refreshment, and He will refresh you; delight thyself in Him, and He will give thee the desires of thy heart. (C. Bradley, M. A.) A home in Christ The psalmist has been pierced with the shafts of unkindness, yet he speaks of what he seems perfectly sure when he speaks of his dwelling in the secret place of the Most High, and abiding under the shadow of the Almighty. What is more sweet than this promise? I. The secret place.1. Some think the secret here spoken of is that intimacy of fellowship which God’ s children enjoy in communion with Him. 2. Others think it has a more definite or special meaning. To my mind it is certain that the secret spoken of contains a promise and an expectation of the coming Messiah. The Wonderful, named in Isaiah 9:1-21, is in the margin rendered “ secret.” So, in the text, the word rendered secret is connected with the Messiah; then the Christian’ s hiding-place is in Christ. II. Dwelling in this secret place. He that dwelleth, he who has a home, in Christ shall abide in the shadow of the Almighty. Every congregation might be divided into those who make their home in the world and visit Christ, and those who have their home in Christ and visit the world. A home in Christ. Oh, wondrous thought! The psalmist speaks of God as a refuge, a home, an abiding-place. John says, We dwell in Him and He in us. He is in all we have, all we are, and all we hope to be or hope for. You might as well undertake to describe a sunset to the blind or music to the deaf, as to talk of dwelling in Christ to one who has never tasted of the graciousness of the Lord. No man knows this but he who is already in Christ. III. The promise. He shall abide, etc. When God’ s love makes a promise, His sovereignty secures its fulfilment. He shall abide in the shadow of the Almighty.1. In that shadow the Christian finds protection. We may live and die in its shadow. It is always the same, yesterday, to-day and for ever. 2. There is also refreshment in this shadow. He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High has a perfect home, complete in all that can contribute to its safety, rest, and perfectness. Oh, make the experiment! (J. A. M. Chapman, D.D.) God our dwelling, and in our dwelling Where is the secret place of the Most High? We can find it by two spiritual lines of measurement, as by latitude and longitude at sea. The longitude, we will say, is the omnipresence of God. All do not practically believe that God is everywhere. Many will acknowledge this in words, while they have no realizing sense of it which makes it of practical value. To know the longitude at sea would be of little use without another element in the calculation, the latitude; as to know the latitude without the longitude leaves the mariner bewildered. Frequently a passing ship will set her signals to inquire of another ship, What is your longitude? though the latitude may have been determined by the sun at noon. Hence the other element of measure to find the secret place of the Most High, though we know Him to be everywhere, is a praying heart. It is interesting to know that the place here mentioned is not confined to one spot. A man may always live under the same tent; the place where he eats and sleeps will always be a secret place to him; yet the tents may be movable, sometimes in a valley, then on the side of a hill; then upon the hill top. So the secret place of the Most High is movable. As there is no latitude at the poles, no longitude at Greenwich, because longitude is the distance east or west from Greenwich and latitude is the distance from either pole, this represents that which heaven will be to us, where there are no seeming distances from God; for we shall no more walk by faith but by continual sight. But on earth, in all our journeyings toward heaven, we have constant need to find the secret place of the Most High, that is, a place of communion with God. The promise in the text is to such as make praying their breath; who hold continued communion with God, referring all things to Him as their fixed habit; breathing out love, adoration, confession, supplication, more intimately than they commune with the dearest friend. The promise is that they shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. This may signify--1. Nearness. A child walking with you abides under your shadow; you are never far from him, you keep him in sight, within reach. 2. Protection. We cannot estimate the benefit of frequent prayer. (N. Adams, D. D.) The secret of the Most High We have here two distinct aspects of the one life in their living relations with one another. The first clause furnishes the living reason for the second; while the second is the necessary complement of the first. The luxuriance of the figures which the psalmist employs is due to the exuberance of a profound faith that has mastered all difficulties and contradiction, and dares to assert to the utmost possibilities of language the perfect security of those that dwell in the secret of the Most High. We are here in truth at the very highest point of pre-Christian revelation with regard to man’ s spiritual relation to God, and it would be difficult even now to express the truth in question more grandly and truly than it is here expressed. I. The secret of the true life. There is something inspringly grand in the conception here offered, that the secret of man’ s truest and noblest life is identical with the secret of the Most High. The brute may find its life in the relations of the visible and temporal. But it is precisely in this that man is essentially different from the brute. He is not true man until he occupies the eternal standpoint; he does not begin to live until he has the vision of God. When man finds God’ s secret place, he finds the place of eternal calm.1. Such a life is marked by “ inwardness.” In finding the secret of the Most High, man finds his most inward self. He enters into the inner temple of spirit, and feels the throb of life at its deepest point where it reveals its affinity to the essential life of God. 2. Again, to dwell in the secret of the Most High is to know God and be in fellowship with Him. By knowing God I do not mean an intellectual belief in His existence or a correct conception of His nature and attributes. I mean by it the direct consciousness of His presence. The life enters into the inner realm where God is seen, and gazes upon the glorious vision. 3. Such a life will be actuated and inspired by the highest ideals of service. Those that stand in the presence of God are of necessity “ ministers of His that do His pleasure.” Those that truly walk with God will walk like God. II. The security of the true life. There are three stages.1. In the first (Psalms 91:1-8), the idea of temporal security predominates. The man of God is immortal until his work is done. 2. In the second stage (Psalms 91:9-13), the figures used are more suggestive of spiritual or quasi-spiritual foes. 3. The next and last stage (Psalms 91:14-16), leads us from security and victory to honour and glorification. The relation between the victorious man and God grows wondrously near; it is a relation of mutual knowledge and of mutual love. The language grows indefinite, the glory gathers in nebulous suggestion of a dazzling beyond, the godly man becomes transfigured before us, and a cloud receives him out of our sight. (John Thomas, M.A.) The secret of His presence There is some thing about the word “ shadow” that always interests, for there never has been a shadow without the light; thus the “ secret place” must be a place of brightness. It is a place where God is, for the nearest of all things to me in the sunlight as I journey is my shadow, and he who walks in my shadow or rests in it must be very near to me, so that when I am in the shadow of God I can reach forth my hand and touch Him; I can lift up mine eyes and see Him face to face. I know there is a sense in which God is always near us; He is in all things and He is everywhere; but there is something about the “ secret of His presence” to which every one is a stranger until he has dwelt there. I. The typical reference must be to the holy place of the tabernacle, which the priests were privileged to enter; but Peter assures us that we have become in this new dispensation “ a holy priesthood,” so that it is possible for us to enter on that ground. For in the tabernacle just beyond the veil was a glory cloud, and all the magnificence that could be wrought in gold and silver, purple and fine linen; but I am persuaded that even that was as nothing when compared to that which awaits us when we enter the secret place of God. II. It would be impossible for one to read the verses immediately following the text without being impressed with the fact that the most remarkable results will follow our abiding and dwelling is the “ secret place.”1. In the “ secret place” there is peace. “ In the world ye shall have tribulation,” our Master said, “ but in Me ye shall have peace.” I have read that a certain insect has the power to surround itself with a film of air, encompassed in which it drops into the midst of muddy, stagnant pools, and remains unhurt. And the believer may be thus surrounded by the atmosphere of God, and while he is in the midst of the turmoils of the world he may be filled to overflowing with the peace of God, because God is with him. This is true whatever your occupation, if it is ever so menial. The Rev. F. B. Meyer tells us of Lawrence, the simple-minded cook, who said that “ for more than sixty years he had never lost the sense of the presence of God, but was as conscious of it while performing the duties of his humble office as when partaking of the Lord’ s Supper.” What peace he must have had. 2. In the “ secret place” there is purity. I suppose we might have been with Jacob when in his dream he saw the heavens opened and beheld the angels going up and coming down and heard the voice of God, and we should only have seen the dreary mountains round about. I doubt not but that we might have been with Paul when he was caught up to the third heaven, and we should have seen nothing but the humble surroundings of his tent; and I doubt not but that if Paul were here he would see God here this morning, and he would have walked on the street with Him yesterday. Is not the trouble with ourselves instead of our surroundings or our times? Every permitted sin encrusts the windows of the soul and blinds our vision. And every victory over evil clears the vision of the soul, and we can see Him a little plainer. 3. In the “ secret place” there is power. There can be no effective service that is not the outcome of communion. Our Lord’ s Day precedes the week of work, and this is always the plan of God. That wonderful fifteenth chapter of John is founded on that idea. We must abide first, and after that we cannot help but bear fruit. Oh that we might be so near to Him that we should be magnetized and charged with a spiritual force that the world can neither gainsay nor resist. III. How may i enter into this “ secret place” ? Cannot something be said that will make the way plain? It can all be summed up in this answer. None can “ know the Father but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal Him.” Jesus Christ said, “ I am the way, I am the door, by Me, if any man will, he shall enter in.” There are some places in the Bible where the way seems plain. “ He that eateth My flesh and drinketh My blood dwelleth in Me and I in him.” (J. W. Chapman, D. D.) Abiding in God Mr. Meyer says, “ The sun says to the little earth planet, Abide in me. Resist the temptation to fly into space; remain in the solar sphere, and I will abide in the formation of thy rocks, the verdure of thy vegetation, and of all living things, baptizing them in my fire.” “ Abide in me,” says the ocean to the alcove, that shows symptoms of division from its waves. “ Keep thy channel unsilted and open, and I will pour my fulness up to thy furthest shore twice in every twenty-four hours.” Abide in me. The vine says it to the branch, that it may impart supplies of life and fruit; the air says it to the lung, that it may minister ozone and oxygen to its cells; the magnet says it to the needle, that it may communicate its own specific quality, and fit it to guide across the ocean the mighty steamer, laden with the freight of human life. Psalms 91:2I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in Him will I trust. The soul’ s experience of God I. A soul’ s experience of God. The humblest child of God has as great a weapon forged for his defence of spiritual truths as has the most learned: they each have an experience of God, and that is a weapon which can never be blunted by any intellectual parrying. II. The wealth of such a soul-experience of God.1. He is my refuge--from trouble, sorrow, despair. 2. He is my fortress. The forces arrayed against the soul are not merely powers which need to be coerced if they are to yield their best, but some of the forces are in antagonistic opposition to the soul. At such times as these, what a fortress was to the people of ancient days--a place of secure defence--so God was to the psalmist. 3. He is my God. This is an advance upon the other two utterances. It is a grand thing to be able to say of any one, “ He is my refuge.” It is a better thing to be able to say, “ He is my fortress, my protector.” But it is the acme of happy experience to say, “ He is my friend, my companion, my confidant.” III. The result of his soul-experience of God. “ In Him will I trust!” Trust, or faith in God, is the experiment of the soul in spiritual things, and the only way to a fuller knowledge and a more blessed experience. No longer need the scientist sneer at the faith, the experiment of the Christian, for the man who trusts God in all the circumstances of life is as rational, and proceeds from as rational a basis, as the scientist who, starting from the known, goes on by experiment to discover the unknown. Let your experience of God, of the Christ, of the Holy Spirit, never alter, except to be enlarged, purified, and intensified. This is the will of God concerning you. What are you to do in order to obtain that better experience? Why, this: you must experiment with God--“ In Him will I trust” --along the lines He shall reveal. (W. A. Todd.) My God.--My God To try and preach from this text is like trying to carry honey in your hands. Ere you can reach your friends to whom you would give it, you will find that a large part of it has oozed out between your fingers: or that you failed to convey to others what was so delicious to yourself. My text has been to my own heart sweeter than honey and the honeycomb. Have you been in the Alps, or in some other region where the scenery is peculiarly impressive, and where you have witnessed some transcendently beautiful and sublime view, have you tried to tell your friends what you have seen? How utterly you have failed, your words are all inadequate to give them any satisfactory idea of the glorious spectacle you have seen. Now, the unspeakable beauty of these two words is such that I feel I cannot fully convey it to you. I have seen in these two words such a wonderful display of the Lord’ s condescension, of His favour to His chosen, and of the intense delight which springs therefrom, that I feel all incompetent to set it forth to you. However, may God the Holy Spirit give His help, and our meditation shall be sweet. Think-- I. Of these two words together. Now, to get at them, let us think of some of the special occasions in which God’ s children have used them and have said, “ My God.”1. This is the young convert’ s early confession. See Ruth’ s word to Naomi--“ thy God, my God.” 2. The statement of the Christian belief. There is one creed and confession of faith. See Thomas--“ My Lord and my God.” 3. They have often been used to declare the determination of the believer when he has been surrounded by opponents and persecutors. See old Micaiah when the false priests were around him. “ As the Lord my God liveth.” 4. They express the secret vow of the believer as he consecrates himself to the Most High. See Jacob at Bethel--“ then shall the Lord be my God.” 5. They have been the deepest possible comfort to children of God in times of terrible trouble. See our Lord upon the cross, when all the waves and billows of judgment were going over His soul--“ My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?” 6. And in times of great deliverance. Hear Miriam’ s song--“ He is my God and I will exalt Him.” Daniel to Darius--“ My God hath sent His angel,” etc. May these words be the frequent language of our lips. II. The first word, “my.” “ My God.” How can I call God mine? How can I call that mine which I cannot even conceive? If my thoughts cannot compass it, my heart shall possess it. Love possesses what reason cannot even look upon. But this daring appropriation means--1. That I own God to be my God. 2. That I do personally recognize him. He is not a god in cloudland to us; He is intensely real and true. 3. That we have come into personal relations with Him, and-- 4. That we have appropriated Him to ourselves. III. The last word, “ God” --what does it mean? But that is more than I can answer. There is no defining the Incomprehensible One. Yet we can call Him “ My God.” But reflect upon His being near as to--1. His nature, His person, His essence. 2. His attributes. 3. In what He has done I do not know, but I seem to myself to have talked away and to have missed my aim and object altogether, compared with what I have felt in meditating in private upon these dear and blessed words, “ My God.” It is a deep well, but the water is cool and sweet if you can draw it up. “ My God” --there is more than satisfaction in the words. If you have no money, never mind; you are rich if you can say, “ My God” If the husband is buried, if the children have Bone home to heaven, do not despair, thy Maker is thy husband, if you can cry, “ My God.” If your friends have forsaken you, if the unkindnesses of men drive you to say, “ My God,” you will be a gainer by them. Anything which weans from earth and leads to heaven is good. I saw yesterday a park in which they were felling all the trees, and yet there were the poor crows building on elms that were marked to be cut down. I thought to myself, “ You foolish birds to be building your nests there, for the woodman’ s axe is ringing all around, and the tall elms are tumbling to the ground.” We are all apt to build our nests in trees that will be cut down. We get to love the creature, and to say, “ My this,” and “ My that,” and from this weakness our sharpest sorrows arise. If you build nowhere but on the tree of life, which can never be felled, your happiness will be eternal. For this you must be able to say, “ My God.” (C. H Spurgeon.) Psalms 91:4 He shall cover thee with His feathers, and under His wings shalt thou trust.The covering wing There is here a very distinct triad of thoughts. There is the covering wing; there is the flight to its protection; and there is the warrant for that flight. “ He shall cover thee with His pinions” ; that is the Divine act. “ Under His wings shalt thou trust” ; that is the human condition. “ His truth shall be thy shield and buckler” ; that is the Divine manifestation which makes the human condition possible. I. The covering wing. The main idea in this image is that of the expanded pinion, beneath the shelter of which the callow young lie, and are gathered. Whatsoever kites may be in the sky, whatsoever stoats and weasels may be in the hedges, they are safe there. The imago suggests not only the thought of protection but those of fostering, downy warmth, peaceful proximity to a heart that throbs with parental love, and a multitude of other happy privileges realized by those who nestle beneath that wing. If we have felt a difficulty, as I suppose we all have sometimes, and are ready to say with the half-despondent psalmist, “ My feet were almost gone, and my steps had well-nigh slipped” ; when we see what we think the complicated mysteries of the Divine providence in this world, we have to come to this belief that the evil that is in the evil will never come near the man sheltered beneath God’ s wing. The physical external event may be entirely the same to him as to another, who is not covered with His feathers. Here are two partners in a business, the one a Christian man, and the other is not. A common disaster overwhelms them. They become bankrupts. Is their insolvency to the one the same as it is to the other? Here are two men on board a ship, the one putting his trust in God, the other thinking it all nonsense to trust anything but himself. They are both drowned. Is drowning the same to the two? As their corpses lie side by side among the ooze, with the weeds over them, and the lobsters at them, you may say of the one, but only of the one, “ There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling.” For the protection that is granted to faith is only to be understood by faith. The poison is all wiped off the arrow by that Divine protection. It may still wound, but it does not putrefy the flesh. The sewage water comes down, but it passes into the filtering bed, and is disinfected and cleansed before it is permitted to flow over our fields. II. The flight of the shelterless to the Shelter. “ Under His wings shalt thou flee to a refuge.” Is not that a vivid, intense, picturesque, but most illuminative way of telling us what is the very essence, and what is the urgency, and what is the worth, of what we call faith? There are plenty of men that know all about the security of the Refuge, and believe it utterly, but never run for it; and so never get into it. Faith is the gathering up of the whole powers of the nature to fling myself into an Asylum, to cast myself into God’ s arms, to take shelter beneath the shadow of His wings. And unless a man does that, and swiftly, he is exposed to every bird of prey in the sky, and to every beast of prey lurking in wait for him. The metaphor tells us, too, what are the limits and the worth of faith. A man is not saved because he believes that he is saved, but because by believing he lays hold of the salvation. The power of faith is but that it brings me into contact with God, and sets me behind the seven-fold bastions of the Almighty protection. III. The warrant for this flight. “ His truth shall be thy shield.” Now, “ truth” here does not mean the body of revealed words, which are often called God’ s truth, but it describes a certain characteristic of the Divine nature. And if, instead of “ truth,” we read the good old English word “ troth,” we should be a great deal nearer understanding what the psalmist meant. You cannot trust a God that has not given you an inkling of His character or disposition, but if He has spoken then “ you know where to have Him.” That is just what the psalmist means. How can a man be encouraged to fly into a refuge unless he is absolutely sure that there is an entrance for him into it, and that, entering, he is safe? And that security is provided in the great thought of God’ s troth. “ Thy faithfulness is like the great mountains.” “ Who is like unto Thee, O Lord; or to Thy faithfulness round about Thee?” That faithfulness shall be our “ shield,” not a tiny targe that a man could bear upon his left arm, but the word means the large shield, planted in the ground in front of the soldier, covering him, however hot the fight; and circling him around, like a tower of iron. (A. Maclaren, D.D.) Safe shelter The Lord here compares Himself to a hen covering her brood, and He speaks not only of the wing, which gives shelter, but He enters into detail, and speaks of the feathers, which give warmth, and comfort, and repose. I. When may this text be relied upon by a believer?1. In cases of extreme peril. (1) Public calamity.(2) Domestic grief.(3) Personal danger. 2. But texts of Scripture like this are not made to be hung up on the nail and only taken down now and then in stress of weather. Blessed be God, the promise before us is available for sunshiny days, yea, for every hour of this mortal life. You always need protection, and, believer in Christ, you shall always have it. 3. In times of temptation. 4. In times of expected trials. Many a true servant of God has said to himself, “ What shall I do when I get old? I am just able now to pick up a living, but what shall I do when these withered limbs can no longer avail to earn my daily bread?” Do? Why, you will have the same Father then as you have now to succour you, and you will have the same Providence then as now to supply your wants. You thank God for your daily bread now, and you shall have your daily bread then, for He will cover you with His feathers, and under His wings shall you trust. 5. In the hour of death. II. How may we expect the text to be fulfilled?1. It may possibly be verified to us by our being preserved altogether from the danger which we dread. God has often, as predicted in the present psalm, in times of pestilence, and famine, and war, preserved His people by remarkable providences. Strong faith has always a particular immunity in times of trouble. When a man has really, under a sense of duty, under a conscientious conviction rested alone in God, he has been enabled to walk where the thickest dangers were flying, all unharmed. 2. There are some dangers from which the providence of God does not preserve the Lord’ s people but still He covers them with His feathers in another sense, by giving them grace to bear up under their troubles. You shall find your afflictions become your mercies, and your trials become your comforts. You shall glory in tribulation, and find light in the midst of gloom, and have joy unspeakable in the season of your sorrow. 3. In yet another way doth God set seal to this record when by His grace having sustained His servants in their trouble He brings them out of it greatly enriched thereby. Oh! it is a great blessing to be put through the fire, if you come out purified. III. Why may we be sure that it shall be so?1. Faith enlists the sympathy of God. 2. God’ s promise is pledged. You keep your promise to your child, and will not God keep His promise to you? O rest in Him, then; He shall cover us with His feathers, for His own word declares it. 3. Moreover, you are His child, and what will not a father do for his own dear child? Were he a stranger you might take little heed though he were in trouble, in danger, or in deep distress--but your child, your own child--oh! you cannot rest, while he suffers. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Under His wings shalt thou trust. God s protective care The simile before us represents the mother-bird guarding her young until they can guard themselves. It is protection as a process in training until one has learned to use his capacities for self-protection. The figure before us may be so misused as to emphasize what we may call the “ nursery idea” in religious life. God’ s purpose and plan is to train man to be self-reliant. As the meaning of all true charity is found in that help which develops self-help, so is God’ s method in training man. His protecting help is to make man competent to help himself. This is a wide-reaching principle. The kind of God it discloses is one who has great respect for the creature He has made--a God who has put His image upon man by endowing him with certain qualities capable of growth; a God who puts great value upon the manly, self-sustaining character; a God who expects that when one is a child he will speak as a child, he will understand as a child, he will think as a child. But this same God expects that when the child grows into the man, he will put away childish things. A God who specially puts His protecting care round about the growing time of moral and spiritual childhood, that one may grow up into self-reliant, spiritual manhood--it is this kind of God who is revealed under this familiar likeness. It is truly the mother-bird brooding over her young, teaching, training, and caring for them against the time they must care for themselves. So, also, does this figure show us a certain kind of man--namely, a man who has developed a spiritual vigour and strength under the protecting care of God; a man who has learned from God that he has a mind which can expand with the thoughts of God, a heart which can throb with the feelings of God, a will which from feebleness and indecision can, under this same Divine training, grow virile and resolute. What can come nearer to what must be the true religion of the world as that which shows God protecting man, so that man may grow up into protecting himself? and, again, man affectionately accepting that protection, so that mind, heart, and will may grow up into religious self-reliance? Do we not see in Nature that the picture of the young always under the mother’ s wing argues sick offspring when Nature would have growth in healthy self-reliance? In like manner Christian character, if it deserves the name, must be other than an exotic, to be cared for under glass and at a certain temperature. The true likeness is not to a tropical palm in a greenhouse, but rather to a sturdy oak or elm, living and growing in the climate of a North American winter. I know of no better illustration of God’ s protecting care rightly used than in the staunch ocean steamer sailing out at the appointed time into the teeth of a hurricane. It is advertised to sail over the seas. The commander is not consulting the signals to see when he can safely set sail. Nor once under way is he studying his chart to find where he can make a harbour. Lighter ships, built for coast service, run for a refuge. Not so the sturdier craft. It is not seeking shelter or protection from the storm. But, with valiant confidence in itself, it moves out into the storm, with much buffeting, some breakages, half-speed at times--yes, occasionally “ have-to,” so terrific is the gale--yet with no purpose to turn back, but moving on--steadily, slowly, resolutely moving on. (A. H. Hall.) Psalms 91:8 Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked.The reward of the wicked I. There is a difference between the sufferings of the righteous and the wicked. The same external afflictions and trials may befall them; but to the righteous they are educational, to the wicked they are punitive--“ the reward,” etc. II. The Divine rule in this world is righteous. Under it the godly are protected by God, while the wicked are punished. III. The righteousness of the Divine rule is not always manifest in this world. IV. The righteousness of the Divine rule will ultimately be clearly manifest to all. The godly with their eyes “ shall see the reward of the wicked.” There is a state where all the apparent inequalities of the moral government of our world will be clearly rectified (Isaiah 3:11). V. The weak and fearful believer, notwithstanding his fears, shall not perish with the wicked. “ Only with his eyes shall he see the reward of the wicked,” while he himself shall enjoy the glorious inheritance of the good. Psalms 91:10 Neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling.Immunity from disease That wealthy promise has not become exhausted by the lapse of time. Rather has the promise acquired a new and deeper significance, and it now embraces in its generous charge the interests of the soul. We move amid moral pestilences. Plague-stricken people are all about us--men and women afflicted with moral and spiritual diseases which carry the germs of perilous contagion. How are we to escape them? The Maser went into the very precincts of the plague, and yet was immune in the foul contagion. Disease demands prepared conditions. If the conditions are absent the contagion is impotent. What, then, was our Lord’ s condition when he entered into fellowship with men and women who were smitten by the plague of sin? “ The prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me.” How different it all was in the life of Judas Iscariot! “ The devil put it into the heart of Judas!” The germs fell in the prepared conditions; they found a congenial lodgment, and they bore their issues in an evil life.1. One of the primary pre-disposing conditions of disease is physical exhaustion. The natural forces are reduced. The energy is spent. The army is driven away from the walls, the gates are left undefended, and the enemy has an open way. Our physical defences are found in the natural resistances of the body. Let these be impoverished, and our security is gone. Let me change the analogy. In the life of the body we are only safe when our income exceeds our expenditure. How is it with the soul? The strength of the soul depends upon the quality of its resistances. If the soul is strong and powerful, the Pharisaic germ of hypocrisy or the microbe of actual vice will gain no foothold. But the soul can become faint. Its defences can be straitened, and the stronghold may then be easily taken at the first besiegement of sin. Now, how does a soul become exhausted? We can use our previous figure: the expenditure has exceeded the income. We have broken correspondencies with our resources. We have ignored the land of rest. Men easily capitulate to the evil one when, by neglect of prayer, they have reduced themselves to spiritual exhaustion. 2. Another of the predisposing conditions to disease is bad food. Diet is not altogether a matter of indifference when we are considering the advance of disease. Some foods are the friends of hostile microbes; they are the forerunners of disease; they prepare the way, arranging congenial conditions. How is it with the soul? Is diet of any moment? With what kind of food are we feeding the mind? Is it a food which predisposes the mind to offer hospitality to the foe? How about our reading? Let us subject ourselves to a rigorous self-investigation. Can we honestly expect our minds to be healthy with the kind of food we give them? Thoughts are foodstuff. Where, then, shall we gather them? “ He gave them bread from heaven to eat!” The Lord’ s bread will make us immune against disease. “ This is the bread, of which, if a man eat, he shall not die.” 3. Another predisposing condition to disease is undisciplined emotion. The bacteriologist has told us that excessive grief and fretfulness open the doors to the invading army of disease. It is not so much some commanding emotional passion which exhausts the body; little frets can do it. We can lose a pound quite as effectually by dropping two hundred and forty pennies as by losing a sovereign. The great point to remember is, that all these dispositions lower the strength and quality of our physical defences. How is it with the soul? Undisciplined emotion is a condition against which we must be on our guard. How easily some people can be stirred into violent emotion! Now, all unharnessed emotion impoverishes the spiritual defences. The devil likes nothing better than to get our emotions well stirred, to make us satisfied with these pleasurable feelings, and then behind our satisfaction to carry on his nefarious work. Emotionalism is the forerunner of evil contagion, and provides conditions for the microbe which will end at last in the bondage of an eradical disease. Let me mention one other predisposing condition of moral and spiritual disease. 4. Our bacteriologists tell us that one of the greatest discoveries of the last generation has been the absolute necessity of scrupulous cleanliness in all surgical work. Our doctors are now vigilant to the last degree in closing every door against the entrance of dirt. Operations are performed with sterilized instruments under the most exacting conditions of cleanliness. The smallest remnant of uncleanliness affords a foothold for disease. How is it with the soul? Is there any need of the same scrupulousness? Are we as vigilant in maintaining the purity of our spirits as the surgeon is in maintaining the cleanliness of His work? Do we not rather treat small scruples lightly, and do we not laugh at the morally painstaking, and label them faddy or puritanical? We retain a dirty little prejudice, or some spirit of undue severity, or some little policy which we persuade ourselves cannot be called wrong, but only expedient; and these retained uncleannesses afford the occasion an opportunity to the enemy of our souls; and through the entrance thus obtained he leads all the forces of darkness and the strong black battalions of hell. If we are to defeat him we shall have to attend to the scruple. One grain of dirt can afford sustenance to a host of microbes. Now, let me recall the glorious promise with which I began. “ Neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling.” It is possible for us to be in the world and yet not of it, to mix with sinners and yet be separate from them, to be perfectly pure and yet to go and be their minister and guest. Our only security is in God. In Him we have all-sufficient defences. (J. H. Jowett, M.A.) Safety from disease In 1854, when Mr. Spurgeon had scarcely been twelve months in London, there was raging there a fearful epidemic of Asiatic cholera. With all his youthful ardour he plunged at once into the work of relieving the sick and the suffering and the dying, and of burying the dead. Weary and worn with much work, he one day came back from a funeral service feeling as though he himself were a prey to the awful judgment and scourge of God. He was passing along a certain street, and he observed in the window of a shoemaker’ s shop a paper wafered to a pane of glass, and on which were inscribed in large characters the 9th and 10th verses of the 91st psalm--“ Because thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the Most High, thy habitation; there shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling.” Mr. Spurgeon said, “ That was God’ s message to me. I at once took heart, and from that moment I neither felt any fear of the cholera myself nor did I suffer any harm from repeated ministries upon the sick and the dying.” Psalms 91:11-13 For He shall give His angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.God’ s angels helping good men on earth I. God has angels at His command.1. Spiritual existences.2. Full of vitality.3. Mighty in power.4. Rich in knowledge.5. Countless in number.6. Vast in variety. Spirits differ from spirits as plant from plant, star from star. They differ in nature, in the kind and measure of faculty. In experience. Some are older and more intelligent than others. In office. From Gabriel, who “ stands in the presence of God,” down to that spirit next in degree to man. There are principalities and powers amongst them. II. God employs His angels to help good men on earth.1. Human life has many “ ways.” There is the way of the boy, the way of the man, the way of the husband, the way of the father, the way of the merchant, the citizen, the statesman. 2. These “ ways” are perilous. There are stumbling-stones at every step; temptations to infidelity, insensibility, dishonesty, falsehood, revenge, etc. 3. God sends His angels to help the good in all these “ ways.” They impart-- (1) Sustaining power.(2) Conquering power. III. Conclusion. If angels are thus engaged in helping good men on earth, the following things may be inferred:--1. That there must be some method by which they can communicate with man. What is this method? What is that which is the great sustaining and conquering power in man? Thought. Thought makes the man. May not angels have the power of suggesting thoughts--strengthening and all-conquering thoughts? 2. That the spiritual interests of man must be supremely important. 3. That it is consonant with the highest dignity to minister to the lowly. 4. That it is a profound disgrace to man that he should feel so little interest in the spiritual concerns of his brother. If angels are thus concerned for us, should we not be doubly so for ourselves? 5. That the humblest Christians may take courage. (Homilist.) Angelic protection in appointed ways I. There are ways which are not in the promise. “ All thy ways” are mentioned; but some tracks are not to be followed by children of God, and are not their ways.1. Ways of presumption. In these men court danger, and, as it were, defy God (Matthew 4:6). 2. Ways of sin, dishonesty, lying, vice, worldly conformity, etc. We have no permit to bow in the house of Rimmon (Ephesians 5:12). 3. Ways of worldliness, selfishness, greed, ambition. The ways by which men seek personal aggrandizement are usually dark, and crooked, and are not of God (Proverbs 28:22; 1 Timothy 6:9). 4. Ways of pride, self-conceit, boastful promisings, pretended perfection, etc. “ Pride goeth before destruction.” 5. Ways of will worship, wilfulness, obstinacy, fancy, day-dreaming absurd impulse, etc. (Jeremiah 2:18). 6. Ways of erroneous doctrine, novel practice, fashionable ceremonial, flattering delusion, etc. (2 Timothy 3:5). II. There are ways in which safety is guaranteed.1. The way of humble faith in the Lord Jesus. 2. The way of obedience to Divine precepts. 3. The way of childlike trust in providential guidance. 4. The way of strict principle, and stern integrity. 5. The way of consecrated service, and seeking God’ s glory. 6. The way of holy separation, and walking with God. III. These ways lead us into varied conditions.1. They are changeful and varied: “ all Thy ways.” 2. They are sometimes stony with difficulty: “ foot against a stone.” 3. They may be terrible with temptation. 4. They may be mysteriously trying. Devils may throng the path--only to be met by holy angels. 5. They are essentially safe, while the smooth and easy roads are perilous. IV. But while walking in them all believers are secure.1. The Lord Himself concerns Himself about them:--“ He shall give His angels charge over thee.” He will personally command those holy beings to have an eye to His children. 2. Mysterious agencies protect them: angels bear them up in their hands, as nurses carry little children. Wonderful tenderness and power! Angels acting as servants to men! 3. All things are on their side, both visible and invisible. Command is laid on all to protect the saints (Psalms 71:3). 4. Each one is personally watched over. “ Charge over thee to keep thee” (Isaiah 42:6; Genesis 28:15). 5. That watchfulness is perpetual--“ All thy ways” (Psalms 121:3-4). 6. This guard also confers honour. How noble a thing to have the courtiers of heaven for a corps de garde! 7. All this comes to them by Jesus, whose the angels are, and whom they serve (Isaiah 43:4). V. Lessons.1. See how the lowest employment is consistent with the highest enjoyment:--Keeping guard over the Lord’ s stumbling children is no discredit to angels. 2. How cheerfully we should watch over others! How vigorously should we hold them up whenever it is in our power. To cast off a stumbling brother is not angelic, but the reverse. 3. How safe we ought to feel, how fully trustful we ought to be. Alexander slept soundly, “ for,” said he, “ Parmenio wakes.” 4. How holy we should be with such holy ones for watchers! Great privileges involve heavy responsibilities. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Psalms 91:12 They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone. Angels our guardians in trifles The Scriptural representation brings down the ministration of angels to what appears trivial and insignificant, in place of confining it to some great crisis in the history of the righteous. And it is this fact which is so forcibly set before us by our text. For what contrast can be greater? We direct you to the examining whatsoever is told you in the Bible as to the nature and endowments of angels. You cannot come from such an examination but with minds fraught with a persuasion of the greatness and gloriousness of the Heavenly Hosts, impressed with a sense of the vastness of their capacities, the splendour of their excellence, the majesty of their strength. And then we set you to the considering what occupation can be worthy of creatures thus preeminently illustrious; not allowing you indeed to indulge the excursions of imagination, which might rapidly hurry you into the invisible world, and there place before you the thrones and dominions of those whom God is pleased to honour as His instruments in the government of the universe; but confining you to the single truth, that angels have offices to perform to the Church, and that every righteous man is a subject of their ministrations. I want a guardianship which will go with me to my everyday duties, which will be around me in my everyday trials, which shall attend me in the household, in the street, in my business, in my prayers, in my recreations; which I may be aware of as watchful where there is no apparent peril, and which I may be assured of as sufficient where there is the worst. And such a guardianship is revealed to me, when the hosts of heaven are affirmed to be employed on the protecting me against the most trifling accident. Oh! it might not do much towards cheering and elevating the poor and unknown of the flock, or towards the daily, hourly upholding of such as have higher places to fill, to be told of angels as encamping, as they encamped about Elisha, crowding the mountain with chariots of fire and horses of fire, when the King of Syria sent a great host to take the man of God. It cannot be often, if ever, that there is anything parallel to this peril of the prophet. But it just brings the celestial armies, in all their powerfulness, into the scenes of ordinary life--in other words, it gives to the doctrine of a Divine providence all that extensiveness, that individuality, that applicability to the most inconsiderable events, as well as that adequacy to the most important, which we require, if the doctrine is to be of worth and of efficacy, at all times, to all ranks, and in all cases--to be told that God has commissioned angels, the mightiest of His creatures, to bear us up in their hands, not lest we fall over a precipice, come beneath an avalanche, sink in a torrent, but lest at any time we hurt our foot against a stone. We are far, however, from being content with this view of the passage. There is indeed something that is exquisitely soothing and encouraging in the thought that angels, as ministering spirits, are so mindful of us that they look to the very pebbles which might cause us to trip;--how can we be other than safe if we do but trust in the Lord, when there is such care for our safety that the highest of created beings sedulously remove the least impediments, or watch that we surmount them? But this proceeds on the supposition that the hurting the foot against a stone is a trivial thing. We have spoken of the contrast in the text as though it were matter of surprise, that such an instrumentality as that of angels should be employed to so insignificant an end as that of preventing the hurting the foot against a stone. But is it an insignificant end? Is there, after all, any want of keeping between the agency and the act, so that there is even the appearance of angels being unworthily employed, employed on what is beneath them, when engaged in bearing us up, lest at any time we hurt the foot against a stone? Nay, the hurting the foot against a stone has often laid the foundation of fatal bodily disease: the injury which seemed too trifling to be worth notice has produced extreme sickness, and ended in death. Is it different in spiritual respects, in regard of the soul, to which the promise in our text must be specially applied? Not a jot. Or, if there be a difference, it is only that the peril to the soul from a slight injury is far greater than that to the body: the worst spiritual diseases might commonly be traced to inconsiderable beginnings. There is many a man who evinces, for a time, a steadfast attention to religion, walking with all care in the path of God’ s commandments, using appointed means of grace, and avoiding occasions of sin, but who, after a while, in the expressive language of Scripture, leaves his first love, declines from spirituality, and is dead, though he may yet have a name to live. But how does it commonly happen that such a man falls away from the struggle for salvation, and mingles with the multitude that walk the broad road? Is it ordinarily through some one powerful and undisguised assault that he is turned from the faith, or over one huge obstacle that he falls to rise not again? Not so. It is almost invariably through little things that such a man destroys his soul. He fails to take notice of little things, and they accumulate into great. He concedes in little things, and thus gradually gives up much; he relaxes in little things, and thus in time loosens every bond. Because it is a little thing, he counts it of little moment; utterly forgetting that millions are made up of units, that immensity is constituted of atoms. Because it is only a stone, a pebble, against which his foot strikes, he makes light of the hindrance; not caring that he is contracting a habit of stumbling or not observing that, whenever he trips, there must be some diminution in the speed with which he runs the way of God’ s commandments, and that, however slowly, these diminutions are certainly bringing him to a stand. Learn, from what angels are intent to do for you, what you should be earnest in endeavouring to do for yourselves. Those glorious, though invisible, beings bestow not their vigilance and carefulness on what is unworthy so lofty an instrumentality. They would not give such earnest heed to pebbles in the way, if it were not that pebbles are what men stumble over till precipitated into perdition, or what they mount upon till elevated into excellence. And if it might make you feel as though it were only at some great crisis, under some extraordinary temptation, or confronted by more than common enemies, that you had need for anxiety, effort, and prayer, to be told of angels as attending you to ward off the thunderbolt, or chain the tempest, oh, let it teach you how easy a thing it is to lose the soul, from what insignificant beginnings may fatal disease rise, with what unwearied earnestness you should avoid disobeying God in trifles, conforming to the world in trifles, relaxing in duty in trifles, to be told that angels, creatures of surpassing splendour and might, are commissioned to bear us up in their hands, not lest at any time we rush into the lion’ s den, or fall from the mountain top, but “ lest at any time we hurt the foot against a stone.” (H. Melvill, B.D.) Angel guardianship A little boy asked his mother to let him lead his little sister out on the green grass. She had just begun to run alone, and could not step over anything that lay in the way. His mother told him he might lead out the little girl, but charged him not to let her fall. I found them at play, very happy in the field. I said, “ You seem very happy, George? Is this your sister?” “ Yes, sir.” “ Can she walk alone?” “ Yes, sir, on smooth ground.” “ And how did she get over these stones which lie between us and the house?” “ Oh, sir, mother charged me to be careful that she did not fall, and so I put my hands under her arms, and lifted her up when she came to a stone, so that she need not hit her little foot against it.” “ That is right, George. And I want to tell you one thing. You now see how to understand that beautiful text, ‘ He shall give His angels charge concerning thee, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.’ God charges His angels to lead and lift good people over difficulties, just as you have lifted little Ann over these stones. Do you understand it now?” “ Oh, yes, sir, and I never shall forget it while I live.” Can one child thus take care of another, and cannot God take care of those who put their trust in Him? Surely He can; and there is not a child among you here to-day, over whom He is not ready to give His holy angels charge. (Christian Herald.) Psalms 91:13 Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder. Spiritual victory This promise refers not only to the reptiles and wild beasts of outwards evil, but also to evils in which the deadliness of sin is concentrated against our individual hearts--the evil thoughts and deeds and words and habits that assault and hurt the soul. The lion is that inward sin, that special impulse and temptation which has most power against you. It is the favourite vice against which you are weakest. Oh! let none of us shirk the momentous question. Are you, or are you not, wrestling with; have you, or have you not, conquered the sin which doth most easily beset you? Let a man but once give himself over to a besetting and unrepented sin, and all else becomes in vain. Therefore, as you love your lives, enter alone, and with awful resolution, the dark caverns of your own hearts, face once for all the lion who lies lurking there, lay aside utterly the fancy that he can remain there without destroying you, give up the idle notion that you can fence yourself round against him by reason, or by philosophy, or by prudential reserves, or by vague procrastinations of the struggle. Nothing will save you but desperate wrestling with all the gathered forces of your life intensified by grace and prayer. But notice that the more early this battle is undertaken the more surely is it won. Hercules in the legend, while yet an infant in the cradle, strangles the serpent sent to slay him. He who strangles serpents in his youth will slay monsters in his manhood; he of whom the grace of God has taken early hold, and who has early strength to conquer temptation is not likely later on to lose his self-reverence and his self-control; if in the flush of youth he has stood at the feet of the law he will be little likely to revolt afterwards. Victory is won more easily at fifteen than at twenty, and more easily at twenty than at thirty, and a hundredfold more easily at thirty than at sixty. And alas! which of us has not been in one way or another defeated? Which of us can encounter that poison-breathing lion in the dark cavern of his heart, and strangle it fearlessly as once he might have done? But, lastly, lest such thoughts should tempt any one to despair, let me add at once that it is never too late to fight, never too late to mend, never impossible to slay the lion within you, and to tread the young lion and the dragon under foot. Was not King David a murderer and an adulterer, and yet God gave him back the clean heart and the free spirit? Was not King Manasseh an apostate and a worshipper of Moloch; and yet did he not learn to know that the Lord was God? And was not John Bunyan once a godless tinker; and did not he grow up to write the “ Pilgrim’ s Progress” ? If you have sinned with these, cannot you with these repent? (Dean Farrar.) Psalms 91:14-16 Because he hath set his love upon Me, therefore will I deliver him. The character which God approves I. The character which God approves. It is founded in the knowledge of Himself; it is established in the love of Himself, which that knowledge naturally inspires, and it is manifested and completed in the worship of Himself, which is the genuine expression of that powerful and animating affection which we are bound to cultivate. II. The privileges which belong to this character. How great a satisfaction and relief is it in the time of affliction to have the company of a faithful and affectionate friend, who takes a part in our sorrow, who tenderly hears all our complaints! who kindly watches over our weakness! Such friends are the precious gifts of God. But they cannot be always near to each of us, and in many cases, all their attentions and sympathy are fruitless. Is there, then, no eye to see, and no powerful hand to assuage the sorrows of the heart, and the pains of sinking nature? Yes--“ I.” saith the Lord, “ will be with you!” (J. L. Adamson.) A good man and the great God I. A good man in relation to the great God.1. He loves God. “ He hath set his love upon Me.” All his affections are set on God; in Him his soul reposes. 2. He knows God. “ He hath known My name.” He knows Him, not merely with the intellect, but with the heart, experimentally. God’ s “ name” is Himself. You can only really know a man as you sympathize with him. 3. He worships God. “ Call upon me.” II. The great God in relation to the good man. “ Because” the good man is thus in relation to God, God does two things for him.1. Delivers him. “ Therefore will I deliver him.” Delivers him from all evils, natural and moral. 2. Dignifies him. “ I will set him on high,” where he shall have the sublimest views, enjoy the greatest security, command the greatest attention and respect. (Homilist.) The favourite of God I. What God says of him.1. “ He knows My name.” (1) As a sin-hating, sin-avenging God! and this knowledge was a means of leading him to a deep sense of his own personal corruption, guilt, and danger as a sinner.(2) As concentrated in the name of Jesus, who “ shall save His people from their sins.” 2. “ He hath set his love upon Me.” In the love of a Divinely-illuminated believer there is-- (1) Gratitude.(2) Admiration.(3) Delightful complacency. 3. “ He shall call upon Me.” “ A holy heart,” says Leighton, “ is the temple of God, and therefore must be a house of prayer.” II. What God says to him.1. There are some important truths implied. Though persons may be the objects of Divine favour, yet they are not exempt from trials and crosses of various kinds. Though the guilt of sin be taken away, there remains some of the effects of it, which God’ s people feel while in the body; and though they are sinners saved by grace, yet they are still on probation for eternity, and exposed to temptations, and pains, and sufferings, and to death itself. 2. There are some important truths expressed. The Lord’ s eye of infinite love is always fixed upon His suffering children; His ear of infinite love is wakefully attentive to their cry; His hand of infinite love is exerted to support them under their troubles, and finally to exalt them above them. (W. Dawson.) Love must be fixed on God Now, that is not a state to be won and kept without much vigorous, conscious effort. The nuts in a machine work loose; the knots in a rope “ come untied,” as the children say. The hand that clasps anything, by slow and imperceptible degrees loses muscular contraction, and the grip of the fingers become slacker. Our minds and affections and wills have that same tendency to slacken their hold of what they grasp. Unless we tighten up the machine it will work loose, and unless we make conscious efforts to keep ourselves in touch with God, His hand will slip out of ours before we know that it is gone, and we shall fancy that we feel the impressions of the fingers long after they have been taken away from our neglectant palms. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) I will set him on high, because he hath known My name.--The name of God known Knowing by sight and knowing by name are the two expressions we use in common conversation to indicate a slight and superficial acquaintance with any one. To say that we know a man by name, and only so, is to lay claim to the least possible acquaintanceship, and yet God’ s declaration runs, “ I will set him on high because he hath known My name.” Evidently one of two things is true. Either the preparation needed for entrance into heaven is a very slight and trivial one, being the mere ability to remember and repeat a given word; or else there must be in this Bible phrase, “ knowing God’ s name,” a vast deal more meaning than appears. Without doubt we are all agreed in favour of the second of the two alternatives. In modern life proper names are given in such an artificial way that we have come almost to forget the original purpose and design of names. But when we come to look into the matter we find that there is more in a name than this, or, at least, that there ought to be. Consider, by way of illustration, the method a naturalist, a chemist let us say, follows in assigning names to the materials with which he has to deal. He gives to things names that tell their own story--names that to the practised eye reveal in a moment the nature of the thing named. When a chemist discovers a new compound he does not name it at random, he does not choose a name simply because it strikes his fancy; indeed, he has really no choice at all in the matter, for the very laws of his science compel him to assign to the new substance a name which tells exactly, by means of a pre-arranged system of letters and numbers, just what the ingredients are, and in precisely what proportions they are mingled. Thus with the chemist to know the name of anything is equivalent to knowing the nature of it. Of course, taking men as they are and the world as it is, the application of this principle to proper names would be out of the question. And yet in primitive communities, and in that state of society’ which we find depicted in the earlier books of Scripture, some approach to this method of assigning names according to nature is observed. The proper names in the Book of Genesis almost all of them point to some personal characteristic either of body or mind in the bearer of the name. With these thoughts fresh in our minds we shall be better able, I think, than without them we could have been, to appreciate the singular stress laid in Scripture upon the importance of knowing God’ s name. What is really meant is this, that man’ s highest privilege, the end and purpose for which he was created, is to know God. But notice this: Every stage, every epoch, era, crisis in this progressive revelation of God has been marked by the annunciation of a name (Genesis 17:1; Exodus 3:14; Exodus 6:3). Just is proportion to men’ s enlarged knowledge of the nature of God has been their need of a new name for Him, not so much to replace as to supplement the old name. In other words, the names of God are so many tide-marks to indicate the continuous rise of revelation. The risen Christ is speaking to the eleven on a mountain in Galilee. They are there by an appointment made on the day of the Resurrection. They are alone together. They are soon to part. The movement is one when we naturally listen for a word of power. Now, if ever, is the time for the whole substance of the revelation which this Christ has come to bring to be compressed into a sentence. It is spoken: “ Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.” This is the Christian name of God. This is the new dispensation ushered in. Is God the Father our Father? Do we know Him as the provident and faithful parent who cares for all our cares, who watches for our need, who lifts us when we stumble and strengthens us when we stand? Do we look upon the world we live in as His workmanship? Do its glory and its beauty, its wealth of storm and sunshine, speak to us of Him? Is God the Son our Saviour? Do we accord anything more than a cold assent to those sentences of the Creed that tell how for us men and for our salvation He came down from heaven, and, in the dreariness and isolation of a poor man’ s lot, toiled, and wept, and prayed, and suffered? Do we really find in Him and in His Cross a refuge when conscience upbraids us and the thought of guilt lies heavy on the heart? Is God the Holy Ghost our Sanctifier? All unworthy of so Divine a guest, do we still believe that He is our guest, and that He dwells within us? Do we supplicate His greater nearness and dread the thought of grieving Him away? Are we willing that His presence should be to us a cleansing fire, burning away all that is base and worthless in us? The doctrine of the Most Holy Trinity is precious to believers, not on account of its title; no special virtue is claimed for that, but simply because it faithfully reflects what the Scriptures teach about the being of God. The Bible tells us plainly that God is one. The Bible tells us plainly that God is Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. The doctrine of the Trinity couples together these two declarations, and affirms of them that they cannot be conflicting, that they must be harmonious. That is the whole of it. The Church does not stultify herself by asserting that three means the same thing as one, or that one equals three. But what the Church in this instance does is merely what natural science in a hundred instances does--she affirms two truths, the relations between which can only be dimly discerned, and, having asserted them, she lets them stand. There are motions of the heavenly bodies that cannot be reconciled with Newton’ s law of gravitation. But does astronomy deny either the fact of the motions or the truth of the law? No; she accepts both, and bides her time, hoping for fuller light. The doctrine of the Trinity of God in no sense militates against the doctrine of the Unity of God. Indeed, the assertion of the Unity is quite as much an essential feature of the doctrine as is the assertion of the Trinity, for the ancient faith is this: “ That we worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity.” (W. R. Huntington, D.D.) Psalms 91:15 He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him. Four great promises Peter speaks of “ exceeding great and precious promises” (2 Peter 1:4). The promises of the text are among this number. I. He will answer their prayers. He answers--1. Kindly.2. Quickly.3. Always.4. More abundantly than we ask.5. Wisely. II. He will be with them is trouble. We cannot escape trouble in this world (Job 5:7). In trouble many persons are forsaken of their friends. But God is the companion and friend who is nearest to us when we need Him most. In poverty, persecution, sickness and death He will be with us. III. He will deliver them.1. Surely.2. By unexpected means.3. Completely.4. Eternally. IV. He will honour them. It is not wrong to seek honour, but we should seek the best (Romans 2:7; John 5:4; John 5:44). God honoured Moses, Joshua, David, Ruth. These promises belong only to the people of God. (Anon.) Prayer and its answer I. A declaration. God has said in positive terms, “ He shall call upon Me.” It therefore does not rest with the creature, whether he will call upon Him or not; it is not a matter poised in the balances of the creature, whether he shall pray or not. God has not left it to man, whether he shall take up prayer or lay aside prayer, but He has made it a part of His own sovereign appointments, of His own eternal decrees, which can no more be frustrated than salvation itself. Therefore this soul, that “ dwells in the secret place of the Most High” --“ he shall call upon God.” “ He shall call upon Me.” When shall he call? Why, when the Lord pours out “ the Spirit of grace and of supplications” ; when the Lord lays wants upon his heart; when the Lord brings conviction into his conscience; when the Lord brings trouble into his soul. Then to call upon the Lord is no point of duty, which is to be attended to as a duty; it is no point of legal constraint, which must be done because the Word of God speaks of it; but it is a feeling, an experience, an inward work, which springs from the Lord’ s hand, and which flows in the Lord’ s own Divine channel. II. A promise. “ I will answer him.” What will He answer? Why, He will answer those prayers, which He Himself has indited. He will answer those wants, which He Himself has created. He will answer those hungerings, which He Himself has produced. But the answer that God gives, He gives in His own time. And I believe many of the children of God have had to cry to Him for days and weeks and months and years. But sometimes the Lord is pleased to answer our prayers more immediately; He brings us into those straits and troubles from which we cannot extricate ourselves, and then will answer our prayers and fulfil the promise. But perhaps it is in such a way as we least expect; and yet in such a way as most glorifies Him. We say, “ Lord, make me rich.” He says, “ I will; but thou must first be made poor.” We say, “ Lord, let me have a precious view of Christ.” “ I will; but you must first have a wretched view of self.” “ Let me know the riches of Christ’ s blood.” “ I will; but you must first know the depth of your guilt.” (J. C. Philpot.) Prayer answered You may not get what you fancy you need. You may not get this, that, or the other blessing which you ask, for perhaps they are not blessings. We are not always good at translating our needs into words, and it is a mercy that there is Some One who understands what we do want a great deal better than ourselves. But if below the special petition there lies the cry of a heart that calls for the living God, then, whether the specific petition be answered or dispersed into empty air will matter comparatively little. (A. Maclaren, D.D.) The honour God puts on His faithful servants The biographer of the Countess of Huntingdon tells how, “ One day at court the Prince of Wales inquired of Lady Charlotte Edwin where Lady Huntingdon was, that she so seldom visited the court. Lady Charlotte replied, with a sneer, ‘ I suppose praying with her beggars.’ The Prince shook his head, and, turning to Lady Charlotte, said, ‘ Lady Charlotte, when I am dying, I think I shall be happy to seize the skirt of Lady Huntingdon’ s mantle to lift me with her up to heaven.’” (R. Pitman.) Psalms 91:16 With long life will I satisfy him, and show him My salvation. Long life desirable Were it possible, angels perhaps would gladly exchange their seats of bliss, their harps of gold, and their crowns of glory, for the opportunity of playing the part we have in the great drama of the universe. I. Because of the knowledge of God which we may here acquire. The more we know of God the more we shall love Him, and the more we love Him the more readily and efficiently shall we serve Him, and the more efficiently we serve Him the more exquisite the felicity we shall enjoy in His service. Now, there is a knowledge of God which we may acquire in the present life which we shall not have the opportunity of acquiring again. The method by which God is conducting the affairs of our world is different from any other; but it is only for a time. It has been adopted to secure a certain purpose, when that is secured it will cease (1 Corinthians 15:24; 1 Corinthians 15:28). Let us, then, improve the shining hour. If every thought of God will augment our eternal happiness and joy, let us seek to make the most and the best of life, by acquiring as full and comprehensive a knowledge of Him as the present life and state will admit. II. Because of the grace of God which we may here experience. As the sick child has a fuller and more demonstrative proof of the care, tenderness, and affection of an earthly parent than the child in heath, so we have a fuller and more demonstrative proof of the care, tenderness, and affection of our Heavenly Parent than even angels can have. Think of the constant attention the tender care, the loving forbearance required on the part of God to keep us from falling, to support us under trial, to bear with our mistakes and blunders, our fears and unbelief. III. Because of the obedience to God which we may here display. We are now encompassed with foes, beset with temptations, surrounded by opposing influences, and some of these are of the most subtle and alluring character. To obey God now, to pursue a course of unswerving adherence to His will and command now, is to give Him a higher and stronger proof of our fidelity and love than we shall have the opportunity of giving Him in any future state. And is God indifferent to such a proof of faithfulness and affection? He appreciates it with pleasure; He contemplates it with delight. IV. Because of the work for God which we may here accomplish. V. Because of the reward which we may here obtain. The right employment of every talent will ensure the more hearty commendation of the Master. (B. Preece.) Christianity and longevity It is high time that religion joined the hand of medical science in attempting to improve the world’ s longevity. Adam lived 930 years. Methusaleh lived 969 years. As late in the history of the world as Vespasian, there were at one time in his empire forty-five people 185 years old. So far down as the sixteenth century, Peter Zartan died at 185 years of age. I do not say that religion will ever take the race back to antediluvian longevity, but I do say the length of human life will be greatly improved, and a person will be called a child at 100 years of age (Isaiah 65:20). Religion has only just touched our world. Give it full swing for a few centuries and who can tell what will be the strength of man and the beauty of woman, and the longevity of all? I. Religion makes the care of our physical health a positive Christian duty. The Christian man lifts this whole problem of health into the accountable and the Divine. He says, “ God has given me this body, and He has called it the temple of the Holy Ghost, and to deface its altars, or to mar its walls, or crumble its pillars, is a God-defying sacrilege.” So wonderful are these bodies that God names His own attributes after different parts of them. His omniscience--it is God’ s eye. His omnipresence--it is God’ s ear. His omnipotence--it is God’ s arm. The upholstery of the midnight heavens--it is the work of God’ s fingers. His life-giving power--it is the breath of the Almighty. His dominion--the government shall be upon His Shoulder. A body so divinely honoured and so divinely constructed, let us be careful not to abuse it. When it becomes a Christian duty to take care of our health, is not the whole tendency toward longevity? II. Religion is a protest against all the dissipations which injure and destroy the health. Bad men and women live a very short life. Their sin kills them. Byron died at Missolonghi at thirty-six years of age, himself his own Mazeppa, his unbridled passions the horse that dashed with him into the desert. Edgar A. Poe died at Baltimore at thirty-eight years of age. The black raven that alighted on the bust above his chamber-door was “ delirium tremens.” “ Only this and nothing more.” Napoleon Bonaparte lived only just beyond mid-life, then died at St. Helena; and one of his doctors said that his disease was induced by excessive snuffing. How many people we have known who have not lived out half their days because of their dissipations and indulgences! Now, practical religion is a protest against all dissipation of any kind. “ But,” you say, “ professors of religion have fallen, professors of religion have got drunk, professors of religion have misappropriated trust funds, professors of religion have absconded.” Yes, yes; but they threw away their religion before they did their morality. III. Religion takes the worry out of our temporalities. It is not work that kills men; it is worry. When a man becomes a genuine Christian, he makes over to God not only his affections, but his family, his business, his reputation, his body, his mind, his soul--everything. Industrious he will be, but never worrying, because God is managing his affairs. “ All things work together for good to them that love God.” Is there not rest in that? Is there not tonic in that? Is there not longevity in that? Suppose a man is all the time worried about his reputation? One man says he lies, another man says he is stupid, another man says he is dishonest, and half-a-dozen printing establishments get the man under Hoe’ s cylinder and flatten him out, and he is in a great state of excitement and worry, and cannot sleep at night; but religion comes to him and says, “ Man, God is on your side; He will take care of your reputation; if God be for you, who can be against you?” How much is that man going to worry about his reputation? Not much. Oh, nervous and feverish people of the world, try this almighty sedative; you will live twenty-five years longer under its soothing power! It is not chloral that you want, or morphine that you want; it is the gospel of longevity. “ With long life will I satisfy him.” IV. Religion removes all corroding care about a future existence. A mighty One on a knoll back of Jerusalem one day, the skies filled with forked lightnings and the earth shaking with volcanic disturbances, turned His pale and agonized face toward the heavens, and said, “ I take the sins and sorrows of the ages into My heart. I am the expiation. Witness earth, and heaven, and hell, I am the expiation.” Accept that sacrifice and quit worrying. Take the tonic, the inspiration, the longevity of this thought. Religion is sunshine; that is healthy. Religion is fresh air and pure water; they are healthy. Religion is warmth; that is healthy. Ask all the doctors, and they will tell you that a quiet conscience and pleasant anticipations are hygienic. Glory be to God for this robust, rubicund religion! It will have a tendency to make you live long in this world, and in the world to come you will have eternal longevity. (T. De Witt Talmage.) . Psalms 92:1-15 Psalms 92:1-3 It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord. Good to be thankful 1. Had we no other motive but our own personal happiness, we should find it “ a good thing to be thankful.” When we have reviewed the mercies of past years, traced the hand of Providence in all our course from infancy onwards, and seen goodness following us all the way, and then have fallen down before our God, with melting hearts and tender eyes, or have poured forth our feelings in some sacred hymn of praise, have we not at such times known the highest luxury this earth can afford? A friend of mine in travelling, happened to lodge in one of the hotels of a neighbourhood city, and in the middle of the night he heard some one in an adjoining room singing in a low but earnest tone of voice, Addison’ s hymn, “ When all Thy mercies, O my God,” etc., the whole of which he went through, evidently supposing that none heard him but his God. He proved to be a governor of one of our Western States, suffering under an incurable disease, of which he soon after died. But what a frame of mind must that have been which poured forth the gushings of a full heart at the midnight hour, and with a consciousness of approaching death, in such a hymn as that. And as there is no grace which so immediately fills the heart with pleasure, so again it would seem as if none might be more easily cherished than thankfulness. We have so much to make us thankful, that it would appear as if none could resist the impulse. And then, in addition to this, the natural heart is apparently more susceptible of this Christian grace than of any other, so that they who show right feeling in nothing else have seemed moved at times to gratitude to God. And though earth has many trials, yet God has given to us, as well as to everything else in nature, a wonderful restoring power, which makes it easy for us to recover a cheerful and thankful spirit. 3. Again, it is a good thing to be thankful, because such a spirit exhibits religion in a beautiful form to others. We have read of instances of great thankfulness in the midst of great privations, and we may have seen them. We may have gone to some wretched abode of poverty, where it seems, that had it been our lot to dwell there, we could discover nothing but occasion to murmur at our hard fate, and we may have heard there expressions of gratitude and acknowledgments of God’ s goodness that have perfectly amazed us. Have we not gone away in love with such a spirit, and ashamed that we possessed no more of it? 4. “ It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord,” because it is pleasing to Him. It is true that our returns of praise can add nothing to God’ s glory or happiness, and yet He has declared that “ whoso offereth Him thanks and praise, he glorifieth Him.” When we confer a favour on a fellow-man we say that we want no thanks for it, meaning thereby that we did not do it for the sake of the thanks; we want not the thanks for our own sake, but as evidence of a right state of heart in him. And for the same reason God loves the returns of gratitude. (W. H. Lewis, D.D.) Thankfulness After the return of the Jews from captivity the liturgy of the temple service was rearranged, and this psalm was selected as the Sabbath psalm, and appointed to be sung in the morning service when, on the offering of the first lamb, the wine was poured out as a drink-offering unto the Lord. We must all feel the appropriateness of the selection. What more proper and profitable Sabbath employment than to sing praises unto the name of the Most High? This Sabbath, then, let us raise this Sabbath psalm. By our thanksgiving we shall worship God; through our thanksgiving God will bless us, and we shall prove, in our own experience, “ It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord.” I. Thankfulness is the best antidote to the evils of life and lightens life’ s burdens. The burdens of life are not equally distributed; but no life is without them. “ Man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upwards.” The chief difference between us lies here--while one man gets him to his burden and carries it, another frets and murmurs and magnifies it. Now, thankfulness, perhaps more than anything else, helps us to keep our eye fixed upon the brighter side of life. If every night as we retired to rest we added up and recorded the mercies of the day, and started each following morning with the record in our hands, what a transfiguration of our life there soon would be! The gloom around us would be scattered, the trees would seem to clap their hands, the mountains and the hills to rejoice together, and the meadows to break out into song. II. Thankfulness quickens spiritual perception and enlarges spiritual capacity. Take a son who accepts every attention and provision of his mother as a matter of course, regards all that she has done for him as her duty and his due, looks upon all her service as simply fulfilling her obligation to him--what will that son know of his mother’ s heart? She may make some great sacrifice for him, and he will greedily accept the gift without appreciating the cost at which it is given. But take a child whose tender heart is touched with every token of the mother’ s thoughtfulness and love, that child will understand something of the mother’ s heart; as it leaves the gift to fly into its mother’ s arms, it will feel something of the joy the mother feels in giving, and the mother’ s love will be more to it than the gift itself. It is precisely so with us in our relation to God--the thankful heart discerns and realizes God. The more we are thankful the more we know God as our Friend and our Father. Our thoughts will be nearer the truth and our hearts will be nearer to God because we accept His blessings with gratitude. And thankfulness enlarges spiritual capacity. There are some attitudes of mind and heart in which God cannot bless us. The thirsty man might as well lower a sealed bottle into the well as a man seek blessing from God with a sealed heart. Let us remember this when we think of unanswered prayers. Now, thankfulness opens the heart to God, and God’ s blessing fills the open heart as the fresh air rushes through the open window, and the light of heaven fills the unshuttered room. When the heart is thankful for past mercies, new mercies are not far away. III. Thankfulness fosters confidence and love. The heart that registers mercy received knows there is mercy to follow. The milestones we reach on the King’ s highway become guide posts to the Royal City. The ungrateful heart keeps no record of the past, its memory furnishes no evidence of the eternal faithfulness, and every step in life is an untrodden path; but the thankful heart treasures up the record of the past, and travels along as though it had been that way before. That record becomes a guide. With that in our hand we feel no fear, shrink before no difficulty, cringe before no spectre, bow beneath no burden, but trudge along in the confident possession of a strength greater than our own. Soldiers march best to music. They go to face the fatal fire of the musketry, and encounter the keen edge of the sword, but the cheerful and triumphant strain of music quickens their spirit, strengthens their resolve, whets their energy, dissipates their fear, and inspires their courage. Christians live best to praise. It lifts their thoughts from the possibilities of the “ awful unknown” and centres them in the faithfulness of their Father. (F. Wells.) Thanksgiving--a good thing I. The spirit of thankfulness, and the audible acknowledgment of mercies received, are good on the part of the individual recipient thereof. II. It is a good thing for the Church of God to give thanks unto the Lord, in open and special acts of acknowledgment. III. It is a good thing for a nation to give thanks unto the Lord, and especially when distinguished national mercies are vouchsafed. (T. W. Aveling.) To sing praises unto Thy name, O Most High.--Praise I. The reasonableness of praising God. It is His due; and we defraud Him of that which He has a just claim to, at our hand, if we hold it back. To have minds furnished with scientific acquirements, or stored with historical information, or replenished with theological doctrine, and yet to fail to confess with adoring praise that God, with whose wonders, whether of science or of providence or of redemption, we are daily conversant--this is to be as like Satan as we well can be. While, on the other hand, devoutly to acknowledge God in His great works, to laud and magnify His holy name more and more, in proportion as our knowledge is enlarged--this is to be like the holy angels, who live in the continual contemplation of His excellencies, and in the adoring acknowledgment of them. II. The advantages which accompany the right discharge of this duty.1. It is a most cheering and enlivening occupation. It is impossible for any one to enter into it with all his heart, without having his spirit refreshed and invigorated by the exercise. One cannot imagine a person to be habitually dejected who spends much of his time in it. 2. It is an antidote to our natural selfishness. In many of our duties we have an eye to ourselves, even while our thoughts are directed to God or to our neighbour. In prayer, for instance, this is the case, and even in thanksgiving. But praise, as distinct from thanksgiving, is eminently unselfish: it draws away our thoughts from ourselves, and fixes them exclusively upon God. We adore and praise Him not merely for those of His perfections, of the advantage of which to ourselves we are directly conscious, but for others also--such as His majesty and greatness, His justice, His wisdom, His power, the advantage of which to ourselves is less immediate and less obvious. (C. A. Heurtley, D.D.) Psalms 92:2 To show forth Thy lovingkindness in the morning, and Thy faithfulness every night. Morning and evening songs The Jews have for a long while used this psalm in their Sabbath worship; and this, not because there is much if any allusion to Sabbatic rest in it, but because it is fitting that on that day above all others our thoughts should be lifted up from all earthly things to God Himself. It is a psalm of praise, and this should be the Christian’ s continual exercise. And we should avoid all slovenliness and formalism in our praise; and as before prayer it is well to pause and consider what we are going to ask for, so in praise we should not rush upon it helter-skelter, but engage in it with prepared hearts. Thus the psalmist would have us offer praise; not mere praise, but varied praise, praise with distinct subjects at appointed seasons. Note, then-- I. Morning worship. “ To show forth thy lovingkindness in the morning.” There cannot be more suitable time for praise than this. Every morning is a sort of resurrection. We are full of vigour then. Let us give the Lord the bud of the day, its virgin beauty, its unsullied purity. The morning is the choice time. And so is it with the morning of our life. Nothing can happen to you who are young so blessed as to be converted now, while you are young. And the bright morning-like periods of our life--these, too, should be seasons for showing forth God’ s lovingkindness. We have our darker hours, our more sombre seasons, but when the joy days come, let us always consecrate them by praise to the giver of them. Do not, as some do, who, if they are prospering, make a point of not owning to it. We often whine as if our lives were martyrdoms, and every breath a woe, thus slandering the good Lord. There are bright days like the morning, and in them we ought to render praise. And see what is to be the subject of our praise--God’ s lovingkindness. Was there ever such a word in any language as this word lovingkindness? It is a duplicate deliciousness. There are within it linked sweetnesses long drawn out. It is a kind of word with which to cast spells which should charm away all fears. And this lovingkindness we are to show forth; we are not to keep it to ourselves. I do not mean by talking of it to every one he meets, casting pearls before swine, as it would be to some men, but by the very way in which he speaks, acts, and looks. A Christian ought to be the most cheerful of men. Let the joy of the Lord be our strength. II. Evening worship,--“ to show forth Thy faithfulness every night.” The evening is the Sabbath of the day, and should be the Lord’ s. And our subject should be God’ s faithfulness, for we have had more experience of it. Notice that the text says “ every night,” the dark, drear, cold nights as well as others. Let the old who are nearing the night of life show forth the Lord’ s faithfulness. And let us all publish it abroad. If there be any one topic on which Christians should speak, it is this, and they should speak of it bravely, continuously, thankfully and positively. Satan makes a dead set upon it in the minds of many tempted ones, and therefore all the more should you bring the strength of your testimony that God doth not forsake His people. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Morning and night set to music I. A general statement (Psalms 92:1). “ To give thanks unto the Lord” --1. Is in harmony with the original design of creation (Job 38:7). Sin has brought discord with it into the world; but it is supremely a good thing to add to the world’ s harmonies, and not to its discords. 2. Is the highest expression of human service. (1) It is good for a man when he learns to give, to feel that he has so much of blessing as that he can afford to give out of the fulness that is in him: good for him to forget himself, and to think of some one whom he feels a yearning desire to bless. (2) It is good “ to give thanks.” A grand thing when man has that delicacy of feeling that enables him to appreciate a blessing, to recognize its source, its value, and in return acknowledge his own indebtedness. (3) Further, it is good “ to give thanks unto the Lord.” Anything that brings man into contact with God, everything that reciprocates the relationship between man and God, is ennobling. God gives. In thanks I give something back. 3. Imparts joy to the heart of the Lord Himself. All that we know of the heart of God teaches us that He yearns for this response. II. Details.1. The morning song. To show forth God’ s “ lovingkindness in the morning” is a grand exercise, when the energies of life are refreshed once more; when the morning dew rests upon mind and heart; when everything is vigorous; and when the day’ s toils have not taken the spring and vivacity out of your spirit. 2. The evening song. “ To show forth . . . Thy faithfulness every night.” The faithfulness represents the strong side, the robust aspect, of Divine goodness. It expresses the fidelity of God; His strong adherence to His promise. This represents the more fatherly aspect of His goodness: the power that sustained you in the struggle of the day. (D. Davies.) Psalms 92:4-6 For Thou, Lord, hast made me glad through Thy work: I will triumph in the works of Thy hands. Delight in God’ s works The Hebrew prophets and psalmists, when their minds were in the most exalted and inspired state, saw God in everything; in the mightiest and in the meanest movements of the universe, in all the events of history and in all the incidents of the individual experience. They were all and everywhere the works of God. To them the universe was no self-propelling machine, but a living organism of which God was the ever present soul.1. Religious people are often afraid of science, and denounce it as an enemy to faith and piety. But what is science, and what is its aim? Its aim is to know and understand God’ s work in nature. Why should such an aim be construed as antagonistic to religion or detrimental to piety? God has not sent us into the world blindfolded to the wonder and glory of His works, as if He did not mean us to unriddle the secrets of His workmanship. 2. Then there are rich poetic reasons for a closer communion with the Divine works of nature. God has endowed the meanest nature among us with the susceptibility of being pleased and delighted with the scenes of beauty and grandeur with which the world is filled. We were made for very sweet and pure enjoyments, and not only to grind in the mill of our daily work. This must have been partly what the psalmist meant (Psalms 92:4). 3. Then there is the religious motive to a more intimate acquaintance with the works of God. “ How great are Thy works, and Thy thoughts are very deep!” The Divine thoughts are embodied and expressed in the Divine works. And if we wish to know God more perfectly, what ideas the Divine Being has been expressing in His creative acts--ideas of beauty, goodness, and power; to know something of the range of the infinite wisdom, and something of the sweep and compass of Almighty power, we must give ourselves with greater energy to the contemplation and study of His works. (C. Short, M.A.) Divine workmanship I. The work of the Lord.1. Creation. 2. Providence. 3. Grace. The renovation of the heart of man, the removal of idolatry, the creation of the beauties of holiness, that is the work of God. And it is His chief work, His sublimest achievement. II. Some reasons or grounds on which a contemplation of this work of grace is so eminently fitted to inspire the breasts of good men with sentiments of peculiar gladness.1. Because it is a work of such beneficial character and tendency. Wherever you see a sinner converted from the error of his ways, you see the firstfruits of a most glorious state, the scene of a mighty harvest. 2. Because it contains the richest impress of the hand of its Author. 3. Because it is a work so surprising and unexpected. “ Eye hath not seen,” etc. 4. On account of its permanency. This work shall advance and triumph, till there shall be unbelief nowhere, faith everywhere; hatred nowhere, love everywhere; confusion nowhere, order everywhere; darkness nowhere, light everywhere; Satan nowhere on earth, Christ everywhere. 5. Because of its necessary connection with still higher operations. The work is too much for one world to hold. When it has filled one world it will rush over into another, and fill the recesses of eternity when earth is a cinder and time a story. (W. Beaumont, D.D.) The Christian made glad I. An interesting subject. It is the work of God--1. To redeem the soul (John 3:16; Psalms 89:19; Romans 8:3; Romans 5:6-8). 2. To regenerate the soul (Ephesians 2:1; 2 Corinthians 5:17; John 1:13; 1 Peter 1:23). 3. To receive the soul to favours and privileges lost by sin (Ephesians 2:11-13). 4. To comfort the soul (Isaiah 40:1-2; 2 Corinthians 1:3-4; Psalms 119:50; Romans 15:4; Acts 9:31). 5. To protect and save His people to the end (Romans 8:31). 6. To glorify the soul (John 14:2-3; John 17:24). II. An interesting statement: “ Thou hast made me glad through Thy works.” This gladness is--1. Divine (Psalms 40:1-3). 2. The gladness of experience (Psalms 4:7). 3. Social joy (Malachi 3:16). 4. The gladness of faith and hope (Romans 15:4; Hebrews 6:16-19; Titus 1:2; Titus 2:13). III. A judicious resolution: “ I will triumph in the work of Thy hands.” This implies--1. Grateful acknowledgment of Divine obligation (1 Peter 1:3). 2. Intimate acquaintance and rapturous satisfaction with the works of God’ s hands (1 Corinthians 2:2; Galatians 6:14). 3. Expectation of an ultimate and complete triumph. 4. A determination to proclaim the works of God’ s hands to others. (Helps for the Pulpit.) Psalms 92:5O Lord, how great are Thy works! Man’ s admiration and marvel at God’ s great works A near connection of Sir David Brewster, but not a relative, who in former years often lived in his house, and formed one of the loving watchers by his death-bed, gives this characteristic and striking anecdote: “ When we were living in his house at St. Andrew’ s, he was much occupied with the microscope, and, as was his custom, he used to sit up studying it after the rest of the household had gone to bed. I often crept back into the room on pretence of having letters to write or something to finish, just to watch him. After a little he would forget that I was there, and I have often seen him suddenly throw himself back in his chair, lift up his hands, and exclaim, ‘ Good God, good God! how marvellous are Thy works.’ One Sunday morning I said to him that it had been given to him to show forth much of God’ s great and marvellous works, and he answered, ‘ Yes, and I have found them to be great and marvellous; and I have felt them to be His.’” Thy thoughts are very deep. The depth of God’ s thoughts I. Out of those thoughts have come all that ever have been, and that are gone. Who can tell the number of worlds, with all their productions, populations, institutions, that have been and that are no more? They were all once in the thoughts of God. II. Out of those thoughts have come all that are and will be. How vast is this universe! Who can tell the number of worlds and systems, and the myriad creatures of varied species, sentient and insentient, rational and irrational, that belong to them? They all came out of the depths of God’ s thoughts; the archetypes and germs were all there as in immeasurable seas. Who shall tell what worlds and beings are yet to come? Generations of creatures in all planets may succeed each other as waves that break upon the shore. But all the worlds, systems, and existences that are ever to come, are in the thoughts of God. How “ deep,” then, are God’ s thoughts! (Homilist.) Psalms 92:6A brutish man knoweth not; neither doth a fool understand this.The degradation of man In this psalm we have a contrast between the animal and the spiritual life, the latter exulting in God, uttering His praise, receiving His thoughts, studying His works; the former cleaving to the earth, wallowing in the dust, with no ambition that soars higher than the husks which it eats, or the roof of the sty which it occupies. “ A brutish man.” It is originally a compound expression--“ a brute-man.” It is a degrading epithet, and it is employed in common daily life. I. Man’ s nature is very closely allied to that of the animal. It is difficult to define the boundary between instinct and reason. The mental faculties of man and of the animals run in parallel lines to a point high up on the scale, Where the difference begins. Animals serve man, and should be treated justly, considerately, kindly. II. The degradation of man to the level of the animal.1. When he is ruled by appetite, not by conscience. A man will sometimes attempt to justify his avarice, his pride, his vindictiveness, his sensuality by saying that he is only following the lead of passions which God has implanted in him; that the light which “ leads astray is light from heaven,” that God has created the appetite in his nature. Yes; but God never intended it to rule or lead; He intended it to serve, to be under the control of reason and conscience and religious principle. 2. When he eats and drinks, and does not worship. Training may produce a great change in animals; education may turn the stolid rustic into an intelligent, cultured scholar; but there is something greater than any advantage which education may confer--that is, the capacity of union and communion with God of lifting up the soul to the Most High. And yet there are some who ignore this, who cast this pearl before the swine of evil passions, darken the window that looks heavenwards, nail the shutters over it, so that not a ray of light can reach the spirit; go down, down to the animal, as if there were no God, no worship, no adoration, no gratitude. The altar is in ruins; and the man has become as the brute. 3. Because he is working blindly. Take a man who is bent on acquiring wealth, who sacrifices everything on the altar of Mammon; he is shrewd, quick to take advantage of the favourable breeze, successful, makes his “ pile,” as they say. Is he working blindly? Yes, blindly; he has never discerned the meaning of what he is doing, he has never appraised the course at its right value, never estimated its bearing, its consequences to his moral nature; he is like a mole, scratching and burrowing in the dust, with no eye for the broad universe, and the light of God that floods it. And there is no thought of the future. He degrades himself to an equality with the brute, forgetting that while the beast “ goes downwards to the earth,” the spirit of man “ goeth upward,” and that man shall receive in another state “ according to that he hath done in the body, whether it be good or bad.” III. The consequences of this degradation.1. He has no eye for the greatest and noblest in life. Just as the eyes and the light, the air and the lungs correspond to each other, so it is with beauty and taste, science and intellect, friends and affection. And there is a spiritual faculty by which we discern spiritual things. The brutish man represses, restrains, stifles this faculty; resists the Spirit of God, who would quicken, direct, enlarge it. 2. He does not, then, value his nature, as God values it. He has degraded himself to a level with the swine; he has no sense of sonship, no feeling of spiritual dignity, he has gone down and down to the mire. Happy is he if he comes to himself, if in a sane moment the animal is cowed, and the angel asserts itself, and the ragged swineherd says, “ I will arise and go to my Father.” 3. He has no resources in time of suffering and trouble. God is a stranger--he dreads the thought of God--would fain hope that God does riot exist. He is like the brute; he has nothing to fall back upon. Very different is the experience of the spiritual man. Trouble comes; but he sees God in it. The tempest gathers; but “ His way is in the whirlwind,” etc. The deep, full, bitter cup is presented--but it has been mingled by a Father’ s love. The bear deprived of her whelps can only rage and moan; the brutish man bereaved of his children can only curse and rebel; the godly man, missing his loved ones in the gloom of the gorge of death, can say (Job 1:21). (J. Owen.) Psalms 92:8 But Thou, Lord, art most high for evermore.The utmost [or the Highest Mr. G. F. Watts, the spiritual seer amongst our modern masters of art, was asked by an enterprising editor to quote the motto which had been most influential in his artistic life. He replied, “ I have invented a motto for myself, ‘ The Utmost for the Highest.’” There is a matchless inspiration for life, as for art, in Mr. Watts’ characteristic message. The Divine election of youth is vision, and its grace is the passion for the highest. Longfellow recognizes it when he makes the typical climber a youth: “ A youth, who bore, ‘ mid snow and ice, A banner, with the strange device, Excelsior!” And one of the latest additions to the roll of climbers of the Matterhorn, the Alpine peak last to be conquered because most inaccessible, is a young French girl of seventeen, who, by a happy coincidence, rejoices in the name Felicite it is the youngest of the modern nations to enter the concert of great world powers whose citizens urge their growing race to “ hitch their wagon to a star.” Economists have discussed of late the interesting phenomenon in business life that the most successful men are mostly young. The spectacle of millionaires under forty has perplexed them. The secret probably comes nearest to revealing itself in the suggestion that it is the ambition of youth for the highest, and the willingness, unfettered by maxims of prudence, to venture everything in its attainment that explains their success. Emerson penetrates the arcana of the same mystery with his saying, “ The hero is one who takes risks.” The excelsior spirit is by nature a prerogative of the young. They are in a peculiar sense “ children of the highest.” But the earliest of the grave perils that await the young is the danger and discouragement of disillusionment; the peril of seeing the highest and becoming content with less than the highest--of settling into inglorious ease with the best undone and the utmost untried. Less than the utmost is sacrilege in the sanctuary of the highest. “ She hath done what she could” is the test of the service of duty as well as of the sacrifice of love. To do our best is the proof of talent in the ethical sphere, for the pursuit of the highest, and not its attainment alone, is the hallowing of work. This is the pursuit that Michael Angelo reverently expounds: “ Nothing makes the soul so pure, so religious, as the endeavour to create something perfect; for God is perfection, and whosoever strives for it strives for something that is godlike.” It is the strife for the best that matures and enriches character, whether the joy of triumph is added or withheld. It is not the song alone, but the spirit of the singer, that perfects the utmost for the highest. It is said of Jenny Lind that in conversation one day with Mr. John Addington Symonds, she said of her life-work, “ I sing to God.” There is a memorial brass in the chapel of Balliol College, Oxford, to the late Mr. Lewis Nettleship, who a few years ago was lost in an ascent of Mont Blanc, with an inscription that has been to many an abiding inspiration: “ He loved great things and thought little of himself; desiring neither fame nor influence, he won the devotion of men, and was a power in their lives; and, seeking no disciples, he taught to many the greatness of the world and of man’ s mind.” Life’ s greatness of privilege and of responsibility meets and mingles in the inscrutable sense that our “ utmost” lives and moves in others. And lest we should imagine that the utmost for the highest is merely an artistic euphemism for the eager strife for fame and prestige, we need day by day to guard any noble ambition within us from depreciating into the pursuit of the paltry boons of self-seeking by holding it back from “ The longing for ignoble things, The strife for triumph more than truth.” To do this successfully we must watch also lest “ We wind ourselves too high For mortal man below the sky.” To remember the sanctity of common life, and that obedience to simple dues simply fulfilled are ladders on which we climb to our highest things, will be to most of us the way of enduring conquest over meaner modes of the soul. We cannot serve the lower within us and reach the higher beyond us. Weighted with self, the wings of the strongest weary. There is no gain except by loss. Perhaps a beautiful converse of Mr. Watts’ motto might be found in Michael Angelo’ s suggestive saying, “ As the marble wastes, the image grows.” Waste and growth, how they correlate themselves in all progress towards the highest; their very correspondence, indeed, is life’ s law of progress. (F. Platt, B.D.) Psalms 92:10 But my horn shalt Thou exalt like the horn of an unicorn: I shall be anointed with fresh oil. Character: an ordination charge The image of lifting up the horn denotes strength, courage, victory over enemies--the power and glory which rays out from the Christly life in the soul. In the legends of early Christianity we read that night and day a cloud of light shone round about Jesus; and the old masters used to paint a nimbus round His sacred head, by which they sought to express, or at least to suggest, the Divinity of our Lord. We do not blame them. The halo was there, though it rarely assumed the form of a visible Shechinah. It was the beauty of holiness--something to be felt and not seen. John said, “ We beheld His glory” --the Shechinah occasionally shining forth, as in the Transfiguration. But that was at rare intervals, whereas the power of the holy life was always present. And here also is the hiding of His ministers’ power, in the bright, subtle aura, the throbbing, living light that streams from them, the Christlike character that rays out from the life of Jesus in the soul and makes the atmosphere bright and healing around about them. The true minister is not simply a speaker, not at all an actor--he is more; he is an influence, a spiritual force, a fragrance--subtle, pervading. All unconsciously we exert an influence for good or evil. Was there not a power of healing in the very shadow of Peter as it fell? There is that in every man, call it what you will, which adds to or detracts from all he may say or do. Character, the Greeks called it. You miss it in biography; it refuses to be put into words--but it is there; we all know it, we have all felt it. It is as inseparable from man as his own shadow. The psalmist’ s horn was not the loose tantur which formed part of the Eastern headdress. What he meant was that as the horn grows out of the animal, even so the glory of the Divine life rays out in a luminous character. It is the life of Christ in the soul that will make our life beautiful to behold and powerful for good. Raphael, in sketching his figures, gave his first attention to the drawing and modelling of the limbs, adding the draperies only after he had satisfied himself as to these. He thus succeeded in imparting to them an air of inimitable ease and truthfulness; whereas Carlo Maratti, as Reynolds informs us, was of opinion that the disposition of drapery was a more difficult art than even that of drawing the human figure. The natural result was, that “ in Maratti the disposition of the drapery appears so artificial that he is inferior to Raphael even in that which gave him his best claim to reputation.” Have a far greater care for the cultivation of sound principles than of the winning manners of the “ society man” or the accomplishments of the drawing-room--all very well in their way. It has been not altogether inaptly remarked that good breeding is surface Christianity. A graceful address and the “ manners that maketh man” may form a suitable finish to a noble character. But be you careful not to deal in varnish or veneer. Cultivate the Spirit of Christ--it will shed a lustre over any society. And how may this be attained? By God’ s grace. Let not the simplicity of the reply blind you to the wealth of its meaning. “ For Thou art the glory of their strength.” “ In Thy favour shall our horn be exalted.” “ I am anointed with fresh oil.” As guests were anointed at feasts with perfumes, so are believers cheered and delighted by fresh outpourings of Divine grace. The consciousness of God’ s favour is the oil that maketh the face to shine; it transfigures life. “ As He prayed the fashion of His countenance was altered.” It was the secret of the Lord’ s Transfiguration. And the same truth applies to all Christians. Have we not seen men and women possessed with great ideas, their countenance all aglow with a sweet saintliness, in their eyes a deep, living light? You might well say that in their case the resurrection was already past, or that they had begun to put on the resurrection body. Dignity of mind will impress itself on the most homely countenance, and through determined spiritual preference we may obtain a spiritual body. But it means constant and unbroken communion with God. (M. O. Evans.) I shall be anointed with fresh oil.--The holy oil The world, like the Athenians (Acts 17:2), is ever craving for some new thing. And they will take immense trouble to gratify this craving. It is a proof in itself, were there none other, that the world has nothing really satisfying to offer. Its happiness is always “ in the next room.” Real freshness, newness of heart and life, the secret of perpetual youth is to be found alone in Him in whom “ all things are become new.” Now, of this freshness the psalmist speaks in our text. Let us inquire-- I. His meaning. What is this oil? It is undoubtedly the type of the Holy Spirit. Now, this oil was--1. Sacred (Psalms 89:20; Exodus 30:33). The tabernacle and all its furniture were sanctified by it. And it tells of the Holy Spirit (Luke 4:18; Acts 10:38) 2. Ennobling. Prophets, priests and kings were consecrated by it to their great offices. And those whom the Holy Spirit anoints are, now, made kings and priests unto God. 3. Invigorating, enabling. The Greek runners and wrestlers were anointed with oil, as it was supposed to give them strength and help in their contests. Undoubtedly it is so in the Christian race; this oil gives power for all we have to do or bear. The Church’ s crying need is power from on high. All human strength will fail to win a single soul if the power of the Holy Ghost is wanting. For instance of counterfeited power (Acts 19:13-17). Lay to heart Christ’ s words (Luke 24:49). 4. Uniting (Psalms 133:1-2). Strife, anger, wrath--all depart under the influence of this anointing. 5. Gladdening. A joyous face is often a sermon in itself. Gladness of heart which shines out of us, whether we will or no, is no mean testimony to the presence of the Christ within. God wants us to be glad (Hebrews 1:9). If we are not, press the inquiry (Job 15:11). 6. Illumining and guiding (1 John 2:27). And-- 7. Perfuming, fragrant. See the fragrance of Mary’ s alabaster box of ointment. And we are to be a sweet savour of Christ. II. The condition of this anointing.1. Union with the anointed one--Christ. 2. Abiding in Christ. If we walk after the flesh, this anointing cannot rest on us. “ Upon man’ s flesh it shall not be poured.” Are we in communion with Him now? (E. W. Moore, M.A.) Fresh grace confidently expected David is very positive. He does not say, I hope, but, I shall be. And this is not wonderful, for the subject of this psalm is the ever living God. Now, on this confidence of David, note-- I. It was a confidence full of meaning. For it meant--1. That his strength would be renewed. It was a common belief amongst Orientals that anointing with oil added to a man’ s vigour. So David felt and knew that whenever it was required God would renew his strength. 2. That he should be afresh assured of the Divine favour. To anoint a man with oil was a token of his welcome to your house. His feet were washed that he might be refreshed, and then the guest worthy of especial honour was anointed with perfumed nard. David had the favour of God as a shepherd boy, he found it anew as a warrior, and he had yet other tokens when he became King of Israel. Every favour received is a pledge of more to follow. Dawn is the earnest of noon. 3. That he should be confirmed in his estate. It is noteworthy that David was anointed three times. First of all by Samuel, in prospect of his ultimately becoming king; a second time by the men of Judah, when he reigned over a part of the nation; and a third time at Hebron, when the whole Israelitish nation came together, and he was solemnly elected to be their king, Perhaps he recollected this, and looking upon these various anointings as confirmations of his kingly state, he felt that God would yet further confirm him therein. There were many rebellions against him, but they were all futile. Now, we are kings and priests unto God, and Satan, if he could, would soon bring our kingdom and priesthood to an end; but it is written, “ Thou maintainest my lot.” 4. That he should be qualified for his office by the bestowal of fresh grace. This was the meaning of the anointing whether of king or priest. This is a very sweet confidence for us. If you are a minister of the Gospel, you will have a thousand reasons for feeling yourself to be incompetent, and you might well throw down the staff of your pastorate, and leave work, if you were not sure that your sufficiency is of God. 5. That he should have more cause of delight. Anointing was intended to give pleasure. There are some now-a-days who would like to strike out everything from mortal life which gives pleasure. We have societies now which are anti to every mortal thing that is pleasant and agreeable, and if there remains one solitary enjoyment in this vale of tears which has not some society opposed to it, I have no doubt that some genius will commence a crusade against it to-morrow. The theory is that all wholesome things are nasty, and that all gratifications are deadly. Now, I do not believe in this theory for ordinary life, much less for spiritual life. Men used of old to anoint the heads of their guests to give them pleasure, and they were never blamed for it; and the Lord intends that His people should have the richest pleasure in their souls. He is the happy God, and would have those around Him happy. He never intended this world to be a great workhouse, a great drill shed, or a convict settlement, so arranged that labour should banish joy. He has made this world to be a happy lodging for His dear children till He shall call them home. I believe the Lord intended His people to be the happiest people under the sun. When I see certain of them repining, complaining, fretting, worrying, and calling that state of mind “ experience,” I pray, “ The Lord save me from that experience.” Our Lord Jesus was sorrowful not as our example but as our substitute; He was put to grief that we might be joyous; He bore our load that we might have no load to carry. We which have believed do enter into rest, and in that rest we discover new joys each day. The banks of the river, the streams whereof make glad the city of God, are not dark with weeping willows, or dreary with a jungle of thorns and thistles, but they are lovely with the rose of Sharon and the lilies of the valley, and among its shady groves the righteous lie down at peace. Yes, we did rejoice, we have rejoiced, and we mean to rejoice again. II. The confidence of our text is well guarded. When we rest in God we may boast as we will. I stood the other day by a spring, pleased to see it bubble up constantly with cool, refreshing water. One who came thither to fetch water for her house said to me, “ It is always the same, sir, always the same; I never knew the sharpest frost to freeze it, or the most burning summer to dry it; the stream is equally full at all times of the year.” This was very different from a fountain which I often pass, which more than half the year bears the notice, “ This drinking fountain is closed during the winter” ; and very different from those brooks in our own and other lands which live upon the rains, and therefore do not contain a drop of water in the time of drought. Why does the spring always remain the same? Because it has tapped the great fountains. There is a deep that croucheth beneath, there are vast secret reservoirs in the bowels of the earth, and if you can set them abroad, you are sure of a perpetual supply. Now, if you live upon God, you can say, “ All my fresh springs are in Thee.” And all this is so because of our union with Christ. Every Christian is a part of Christ. And because the Holy Spirit dwells in us. It was a good day for the poor widow of Zarephath in which Elijah came to live with her. If I had been in her case I should have felt that I was safe enough, for if God did not think of me He would think of Elijah. O, child of God, know ye not that ye are the temples of the Holy Ghost? Look, too, at the promises of God’ s Word. They are to me a gradual revelation. I cannot realize, grasp and understand them except by degrees. I have one for to-day, but I shall find another open for me to-morrow. The train which starts from London to go to the North continues to traverse the distance day by day--how is it supplied with water? Why, there are trenches between the rails in several different places, and from them the engine drinks as it rushes along; it is supplied as it runs. This is just what our Heavenly Father has done for you. You are on the road to heaven, but between here and there there are many stores of grace waiting for you. Our experience has proved that we shall be afresh anointed. We have been so many a time already. Changes are appointed for us as long as we are here. David said, “ My mountain standeth firm; I shall never be moved,” but in a very little time he sang another hymn. When I hear brethren so very confident I am reminded of a story I have heard of the olden times, when a young gentleman who had never travelled before went over Hounslow Heath, and was accosted by another gentleman who rode by his side and joined in an interesting conversation. Our friend said at last, “ I have always been told by my father that this is a very dangerous heath, but the old gentleman, I think, was exceedingly nervous, for we have come all this way without being molested by highwaymen.” “ Yes,” said the other, “ but now is the time for you to stop and deliver;” and he clapped his pistol to his ear. It often happens when we say that we shall have no more temptations that our confidence is in itself a temptation. But when times of sore trial come the Lord has appeared for us. III. This confidence calms all our fears. Sometimes we are filled with fear on account of our soul poverty. Our text is the answer to it. I am poor, but I shall receive my daily pension. Imagine two Israelites talking together one day, and one of them says to the other, “ Your cupboard seems to be very empty, I fear you are improvident.” “ But,” says the other, “ do you know, we gathered this morning an omer full of manna, and it exactly supplied my family. I have a wife and a troop of boys with mighty appetites, and very soon the omer which had been full was empty, but we look for more to-morrow.” “ Nothing in the house!” said the other, “ do you not feel distressed? No, not at all.” “ Why not? Because I believe the manna will fall to-morrow morning, and that there will be just as much as I shall want, so that I have no need to lay by any in store.” “ Very imprudent,” said the other. “ I believe we ought to make hay while the sun shines. If you will come to my house, I will show you the good stock of manna which I have carefully laid by.” “ No,” said the other, “ I do not care to see it just now, but I will tell you what I will do; I will come down to-morrow at dinner-time and see it.” So the man gathered in the morning his own manna fresh, and his family have been satisfied with it and delighted, and after they have eaten he says, “ I will go down and see my rich friend’ s manna; he was much better off last night than I was.” He goes to his friend’ s door, but his friend does not seem pleased to see him. “ I have come to see your manna that you stored up so carefully.” But the other blushes, and owns that he has none to show. “ Why not?” his friend inquires. “ Well, the fact is, I do not want you to come into my tent at all. I must come forth from it myself. There is a most detestable smell all through the tent. I had to take away the manna and bury it, for it bred worms, and stank.” “ Ah,” said the other, “ then, after all, I. did well to live upon daily manna, and to have no stock in hand; and you did foolishly to lay by a store.” Beloved, it calms our fears about our poverty when we remember that the granary of heaven is not exhausted, and that as each morning breaks we shall find the dew of grace lying about our tent. IV. And this assurance tends to raise our hopes. As to our holding on to the end, as to our useful service, as to full fellowship with Christ. V. This makes us feel great pity for those who cannot hope to be anointed with fresh oil. Such are all those who are destitute of faith. The present may please you for the present, but there are evil times coming. It is a blessed thing to be so rich that there is no end to your wealth, and nobody can say that but a Christian. It is a blessed thing to have a stream at your foot, which will never fail; and nobody has such a river but a Christian. O the utter, utter poverty of the man who lives and dies without Christ. God grant it may not be so for us. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Anointed with fresh oil I. Christian illumination is the anointing of the sacred Spirit (2 Corinthians 1:21; 1 John 2:20; 1 John 2:27).1. The conversion of man is effected through the influence of God’ s truth applied to the heart by the Holy Spirit. It is in the very essence of this process that the verities of Scripture impress themselves with such resistless energy over the whole man that he is compelled to yield to their influence. It is, however, the influence of Truth--reasonable, genial, and gratifying to its subject. 2. The subsequent growth in grace of the man who has become a believer is effected by the same Almighty and gracious influence. The Word of God is the nutriment of faith. 3. Nothing short of close personal dealing with the Spirit of God in prayer will maintain the proper influence of Divine truths over our understanding, our conscience, and our affections. II. Christian consecration is the anointing of the Spirit. Great is the change made in the individual who is the subject of such consecration. The disciple who declares to the servant-maid, “ I know not the man,” is hard to identify with him who, on the temple steps, exclaims, “ In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.” The result of such an anointing upon our Churches would be incalculable good; the growth of holy enjoyment, and the increase of holy usefulness, would elicit from all quarters of the land the joyful shouts proclaiming a present God, and wonders wrought by His power. III. Christian gladness is the anointing of the Spirit (Psalms 45:7; Hebrews 1:9). Gladness is the inheritance of the saints, and, in regard to it, we often need to be “ anointed with fresh oil.” Exhortations to joy are frequent in both the Old and New Testament. Joy is one of the foundations of the kingdom of grace in the heart, which is righteousness, joy, and peace. This holy gladness rests on the twofold basis of a firm, constant belief in the all-pervading providence of God, and a confident assurance of participation in His forgiving mercy, manifested in the Lord Jesus Christ. IV. Christian graces are the anointing of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23). There is a legend which represents St. Francis as having looked so long and so eagerly on the body of the suffering Saviour, that the prints of the nails were reproduced in his hands, and the mark of the spear in his side. There is another legend, which affirms that Veronica possessed a napkin with which the Lord Jesus wiped His brow on the way to Calvary; which cloth was said to bear upon it a perfect representation of the Saviour’ s countenance. These fables have lying behind them an important fact--the assimilating power of communion with Christ (2 Corinthians 3:18). (W. G. Lewis.) Freshness I. Its excellency.1. In our devotions. 2. In our feelings. Whether it be exultation or depression, let it be true, not superficial or simulated. 3. In utterance Nature, pure and unsophisticated, is the best instrument for grace. 4. In labour. We ought to serve the Lord to-day with just as much novelty in it as there was ten years ago. I may even venture to say thirty years ago. Talk of Jesus as if you were telling news. Is it not always glad tidings, fresh from heaven? II. The fear of its departure.1. Christian people can lose the freshness of their own selves by imitating one another. By adopting as our model some one form of the Christian life, other than that which is embodied in the person of our Lord, we shall soon manufacture a set of paste gems, but the diamond flash and glory will be unknown. 2. Another way of spoiling your freshness is by repression. The feebler sort of Christians dare not say, feel, or do, until they have asked their leader’ s leave. 3. If we want to keep up our freshness, however, the main thing is never to fall into neglect about our souls. Do you know what state the man is generally in when you are charmed by his freshness? Is he not in fine health? III. Hope of its renewal. Let us not think that we must grow stale and heavenly things grow old with us.1. For, first, our God in whom we trust renews the face of the year. He is beginning His work again in the fair processes of nature. The dreary winter has passed away. The time of the singing of birds is coming on, and the sweet flowers are peeping out from their graves, enjoying a resurrection of glory and beauty. Now, this is the God whom we serve; and if we have been passing through our winter-time, let us look out for our spring, if any of you have been growing cold of late--if any of you have grown stale and mechanical, and have fallen into ruts, come, took up: look up, and pray the great Renewer to visit you. 2. Moreover, there is an excellent reason why you may expect to have all your freshness coming back again: it is because Christ dwells in you. Do you not know it? Christ is formed in you the hope of glory; and, if so, your glory will be fresh about you, for He never grows stale. It is God that said of Him, “ Thou hast the dew of Thy youth.” 3. Then there is the other grand doctrine of the indwelling of the Holy Ghost. If your bodies are the temples of the Holy Ghost, shall He not be always to you a fountain of new life--a spring of fresh delights? Why, it must be so. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Psalms 92:12-15 The righteous shall flourish like the palm-tree: he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon. The prosperity of the righteous I. Who shall flourish? “ The righteous.” There are none who are righteous by a righteousness of their own--that is, a righteousness derived from themselves; but there are those who are righteous by a righteousness derived from God. Of this the apostle speaks; “ That I may be found in Him, not having mine own,” etc. There is a twofold righteousness spoken of in the Scriptures: the righteousness of justification, and the righteousness of sanctification. These are very distinguishable from each other; and unless it is clearly discriminated, a confusion will pervade the whole of the religious system. The one is the change of our state; the other of our nature. The one is a relative change; the other personal. The one entitles us to glory; the other is a meetness for the inheritance of the saints in light. The one is an instantaneous operation, and applies at once; the other is gradual and progressive. Yet they are always inseparable, though distinguishable. II. How shall they flourish? “ Like the palm-tree;. . . like a cedar.” There is a real and active progressiveness in religion; though Christian principles and passions at present are all imperfect, yet they are growing, and shall advance to maturity. This progressiveness is to be considered as a Christian’ s duty, his desire, and his privilege. His duty; and therefore it is so often enjoined upon him. “ Grow in grace, and in the knowledge,” etc. “ Giving all diligence add to your faith,” etc. His desire; therefore he “ forgets the things that are behind,” etc.; and therefore his prayer is, “ Perfect that which concerneth me.” “ Forsake not the work of Thy own hands,” etc. His privilege, and therefore it is provided for him; “ therefore it hath pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell;” and from this fulness he is to receive “ grace for grace.” III. Where shall they flourish? “ In the courts of our God.” There it is that you have fellowship with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. There His ordinances are dispensed--the ordinances of life. There God hath commanded the blessing, even life for evermore. In order to enjoy these advantages, you must be planted there, as a tree must be, in order to be fruitful; that is, you must be fixed there. How is this? In two ways. One by choice--for, “ where the treasure is, there will the heart be also” ; and where the heart is, there you are, wherever the body may be. The other is by the frequency of your attendance, availing yourselves of every opportunity the providence of God allows you to be found there. IV. When shall they flourish? “ They shall still bring forth fruit in old age.” Not that they escape all the effects of old age, far from it; but as the apostle says, “ When the outward man perishes, the inward man is renewed day by day.” When the outward ear grows deaf, then the inward man hears the voice of God. When the eye grows dim, the mind is irradiated and enlightened. When the fleshly parts grow weak, we are “ strengthened with might in the inner man.” It is one of the consequences of old age in Christians to look towards heaven. There he reckons upon his relations and friends. “ There my best friends, my kindred dwell--there God my Saviour reigns.” He seems to have more connection with that world than with this. We look for meekness in the aged. The young are giddy, fierce, fiery, and determined--the older are willing to give up everything for the sake of peace, unless it is a good conscience and truth. There we look for maturity and judgment in divine things--that he should be able to distinguish things that differ, that his heart may be established in righteousness. He has not only had faith, but experience: the one is help to the other. V. Why are they to flourish? “ To show that the Lord is upright.” There seems something remarkable in this. Their fearing God, attending His ordinances, and “ bringing forth fruit even to old age,” shows that they are upright; but how does it show that God is upright? It does this in two ways. First, as it evidences His faithfulness to His engagements. All the ways of the Lord are mercy; not only mercy, but truth; because they are in fulfilment of His promises. Then, next, because it shows their adhering to Him with purpose of heart; and not turning back from Him, shows that they found Him what they took Him to be. Had they been deceived in Him they would have given Him up. Under the law, the servant that had his ear bored gave proof that he loved his master; and he would not have loved him if he had not behaved well to him. The attachment and the adherence of the servants of God proclaim his faithfulness; and show they have not been disappointed in their expectations of Him. Just like the venerable Polycarp, who, when asked to deny his Saviour or perish, saith, “ He has been a good master to me these eighty years, and can I now forsake Him?” This shows the perseverance of the Christian; not what he is, but what God is. “ By the grace of God I am what I am.” VI. Who can bear his testimony to this truth? “ I,” says David; “ He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.” Every one can say this, and will say this, who has, like David, made God his rock for building upon--his rock of danger--his rock of refreshment, whose streams follow him all the wilderness through. (W. Jay.) The plants of grace I. The threefold righteousness which all the godly possess.1. Imputed. This is sometimes called the righteousness of God, because God provided it; it is called the righteousness of Christ, inasmuch as He performed it; it is also called the righteousness of faith, as that is the appointed means whereby we receive it. 2. Implanted. He is the subject of new principles, motives, feelings. 3. Exhibited. A changed heart will be seen in a changed life. II. The comparison employed.1. For the righteous to be compared to the palm-tree, reminds us of the important truth that the most useful is the most flourishing believer. 2. The righteous will also grow as the cedar in Lebanon. A flourishing Christian is a growing Christian; he grows in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ; he advances in the divine life, and abounds more and more both in the active and passive fruits of the Spirit. III. The place specified. “ The house of the Lord,” etc, “ Christians,” says an able writer, “ are like soldiers; it is easier to fight in the regiment, where the men stand shoulder to shoulder, than standing alone to maintain some solitary outpost. They are like live coals; when separated they go out, but when gathered into heaps they burn and brighten, so as even to purify gold and silver. They are like trees; they grow the tallest where they stand together, running no small chance, like a solitary tree, of becoming dwarfed, stunted, gnarled, and bark-bound, if they grow alone. You never yet saw a tall and tapering mast which, catching the winds of heaven in its outspread wings, impelled the gallant ship on through the sea, and over the rolling billows, but its home had been the forest; there, with its foot planted upon the Norwegian rock, it grew amid neighbours that drew up each other to the skies.” IV. The period indicated. “ They shall still bring forth fruit in old age,” etc. This, of course, does not imply that all the godly live to be old. It is true that the fear of the Lord prolongeth days; but still it often happens that the fairest specimens of sanctified humanity are called away in their early prime and promise. What the words signify is, evidently, that if they lived to be old their souls would continue to prosper, and that the peaceable fruits of righteousness would still be produced. V. The reason adduced. “ To show that the Lord is upright,” etc. A most conclusive proof have we in every “ old disciple” of the faithfulness of God. When the hoary-headed saint reads the promise, “ I will never leave thee nor forsake thee,” he can stand up and say to all the world, It is true, for so have I found it during the whole course of my pilgrimage. (Expository Outlines.) The provision made in the Gospel for the progressive advancement in holiness, and the way in which we may avail ourselves of that provision I. The blessed security furnished in the Gospel for our making daily progress in the way of holiness, even to the end of life. This security we may consider as resting on these two grounds.1. God hath declared this to be His unchangeable purpose with regard to all His people. 2. He hath also revealed to us the means by which that purpose is to be carried into effect, and which we see to be admirably adapted for answering the purpose for which they were intended. (1) The mediation of Christ.(2) The dispensation of the Spirit. II. How we should avail ourselves of this ample provision made in the Gospel for the establishment of our faith, and for our making daily progress in the way of life.1. Let us often fix our thoughts on that abundant provision, believing the declarations of God’ s Word, and that they shall be fulfilled in the experience of all who receive them in faith, and act upon that faith. 2. Let us attend regularly and conscientiously upon the means of grace which are intended for promoting our spiritual improvement. 3. Let us set ourselves without delay to engage entirely in the duties of the Christian life, and to do so heartily, as to the Lord, and to do so in the exercise of faith, believing that in the inexhaustible fulness of Christ there is enough and to spare for all--grace suited to our state and circumstances, whatever they may be. (J. Muirhead, D.D.) Tongues in trees I. The palm-tree and the cedar grow in apparently uncongenial soil. In the East the palm does not grow in the fertile loam, but in the arid sand, where there appears to be no moisture to sustain it, and where the scorching sun seems almost certain to destroy it; and the cedar of Lebanon grows, not in the fertile, sheltered valley, where the streamlets play and the silvery rivers glide, but on the rocky heights, where all seems cold and sterile. And the righteous in this world grow and flourish in apparently uncongenial soil. II. The palm-tree and cedar grow because they are wed by hidden resources. The palm in the desert is fed by hidden springs that flow beneath the surface of the dry sand; its roots drink deep and are sustained, and they send up the moisture into the leaves and branches, and they are refreshed and invigorated. The roots of the cedar are fed by the streams that come trickling down from the snow-crowned tops of Lebanon; they go far and wide into the fissures of the rocks, securing stability by their sturdy grasp, and continuing strong by drinking of the perpetual supply that comes down from the melting snows. So the righteous in this world grow and flourish. Like the palm, they are fed by hidden resources: with joy they draw water out of the wells of salvation. Like the cedar, the righteous grow, for they are fed by hidden resources which come from above; the water of life flows down from the river of life that flows by the throne of God. III. The palm-tree and cedar, fed by hidden resources, grow into things of beauty and utility. In many particulars the righteous are as the palm-tree, for they yield the fruit of the lip and of the life to the praise and the glory of God; and their lives are not only happy and holy, but exceedingly useful to their fellow-men. They live, not for themselves, but for others, and endeavour to leave the world better than they found it. They also afford grateful shelter and shade to the weary and heavy-laden ones. “ Come unto Me, all ye that are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.” They are as palm-trees, the emblems of victory; they have been victorious over the difficulties that beset their pathway and opposed them in their coming to Christ--they have overcome Satan, and they are overcoming the world, and they are to conquer even death itself. Much that we have said about the palm will apply with equal force and aptness to the cedar, for it is towering and widespreading and evergreen, exceedingly noble, and very useful; and there is this additional about the cedar--its wood was exceedingly useful for sacred purposes, being used in the building of places dedicated to the worship of the Most High. So the righteous--they grow stately like cedars, and when cut down by the hand of death, they are removed to the new Jerusalem, and form part of the Church triumphant in the skies. (F. W. Brown.) The righteous flourishing like the palm-tree “ The righteous shall flourish like the palm-tree.” We must, of course, consider this comparison as chiefly applicable to our adorable Redeemer, the King of Righteousness, and the Tree of Life. It must also have some relation and likeness to the character of every faithful servant of God. I. Their usefulness. “ The extensive importance of this tree (says an Eastern traveller) is one of the most curious subjects to which a person can direct his attention. A considerable part of the inhabitants of Egypt, Arabia, and Persia, subsist almost entirely upon its fruit. They boast of its medicinal virtues. Their camels feed upon the date stone. From the leaves, they make a variety of articles for domestic use. From the fibres of the boughs, thread, ropes, and rigging are manufactured; from the sap is prepared a spirituous liquor; and the body of the tree furnishes fuel.” However remiss individual Christians may be in the discharge of their duty, the natural tendency of religion is to make them “ fruitful in every good work” (Colossians 1:10). Where are the homes for orphans? Where the hospitals for the sick? Where the asylums for the lunatic and the blind? These are the monuments of righteousness. These are founded by the Gospel of Christ. Who are the patient and painstaking teachers? Who are the first and foremost in carrying light and cultivation among savage tribes? Who are the peacemakers? Who are most ready to discharge their duties as citizens, and neighbours, and friends? Whose promises are the most solemnly and strictly kept? Whose principles are the source of the greatest benefit to mankind? The righteous--the children of God. II. Their resistance to external calamities. It is a remarkable fact, that the more you attempt to hinder the growth of this tree, by pressing it down with weights, by heaping stones and rubbish upon its roots, and by injuries to the bark, the stronger powers of resistance does it manifest: shooting up its straight and upright trunk a hundred feet and more. And even when the old stock has withered and decayed with age, and fallen prostrate to the ground, fresh sprouts spring vigorously from the roots; thus giving rise (as some have thought) to the fable of the Phoenix dying, and another rising from its ashes. When does the spiritual life of the righteous flourish best? Not when all hindrances and temptations are removed. Not when the skies are always bright, and the breezes soft and refreshing. Not when prosperity gathers about the Christian everything which heart can wish for. The soul is much more likely to rise upward, or assert its higher claims, when misfortunes, and ill-usage, and wrongs, are pressing heavily upon it. As the bodily strength is best developed and preserved by those inured to toil, and who boldly face the tempest and the cold, so is our inner life invigorated and prolonged by the roughnesses and afflictions which beset the good man’ s way. III. Their duration. According to the report of naturalists, this tree is most productive from the thirtieth until the eightieth year, and continues to flourish for more than two centuries. At first thought, it might seem almost absurd to say, that the children of God live longer than those who serve the world, the flesh, and the devil. But the Bible certainly encourages this idea (Psalms 55:24; Proverbs 3:16; Psalms 91:14-16). Habits of regularity, and moderation, and self-restraint, which the rules of the Gospel require, do greatly contribute to the health and happiness of such as observe them. And who does not know that peace of conscience, the sense of sins forgiven, and of God’ s favourable regard, are more efficacious remedies for healing our infirmities than any which can possibly be devised? (J. N. Norton.) The righteous flourishing I. In their usefulness.1. While other trees are distinguished by their devious trunks, the palm shoots perpendicularly upward to a considerable height, and thus resembles the pious mind, whose inclinations and pursuits ever tend toward heaven. Even Mahomet could say of the generous man: “ he stands erect before his Lord: in every action he follows the impulse received from above, and his whole life is devoted to the welfare of his fellow-creatures.” 2. The palm-tree is noted for the abundance of its fruit. The powerful action of the sap is developed not only in thick umbrageous foliage, but in multitudes of flowers and dates. Are not thus the righteous pictured forth by this tree? They who “ have put on Christ” abound in every good thought, word, and work, and remembering that they are the branches of the living vine, they yield much fruit of righteousness to the glory and praise of God. Are they not eyes to the blind, ears to the deaf, and feet to the lame? II. In their resistance to external calamity. Neither weight nor violence can make this tree grow downwards or crooked; but the more it is oppressed, the more it flourishes, the higher it towers, and the stronger and broader it becomes at the top. From this singular quality it became the emblem of constancy, patience, and victory by the Eastern nations; and hence Christ was honoured at Jerusalem by the waving of the palm branches; and the redeemed in heaven are described as carrying palms in their hands, in token of the triumphs they had achieved. No situation so thoroughly proves the Christian as the afflictions of mortality. The feeblest infant may endure the sunshine, but it requires the man to face the storm. III. In their duration. It has been the prayer of the great and good, that they might never outlive their usefulness: and when we behold the aged, hoary, not with wisdom, but with hairs, we tremble lest they have lived in vain. But when we contemplate the pious patriarch spared for threescore years and ten, who has been both parent and priest of his domestic flock, he resembles, indeed, a fruitful palm-tree, which, still yielding fruit in its old age, is only awaiting for the transplantation of the master of the vineyard. Many are they which have flourished thus around us; but their time of vigour and usefulness has expired, and now they beautify, and enrich the paradise of God. (John Grigg.) Palm-tree Christians What is there about the palm-tree which would suggest its employment as a figure to describe a righteous man? Let the reader remember where it grows, and he will see. As often as not it grows in the desert. In its own home it is the noblest product of the vegetable world. It lives to a great age, and the older it grows the better its fruit becomes. It often marks the one spot in the desert where water can be found. Other vegetation can spring up under its shadow; it provides food and shelter for the weary and travel-worn. Now let us apply the analogy to our Christian life. In the first place, we may regard the palm-tree as a type of strength. Christian character ought to be stronger than native self-sufficiency, wherever found. Growth in holiness means breaking away little by little from dependence upon the good things of this life. Though rooted in earth we rise higher and higher to breathe the free air of heaven. Health, riches, success, power, fame, should all be held loosely. They are God’ s gifts, to be used for His glory, but Christian character should be independent of their presence or absence. They may add to the brightness or interest of life, but if they take to themselves wings and fly away, faith should remain uninjured. Our love for and confidence in Christ should be independent of the external trappings of the soul. How often we find well-meaning, but weak, Christians thrown off their balance by a stroke of adversity, and ready to curse God and die. Further, the palm-tree affords guidance to the thirsty traveller. It is frequently the indication of the presence of water. That which nourishes its own roots can, of course, quench the thirst of man and beast. Christian character has a function of a similar kind, and should never rest till it has fulfilled it. It is our business to live so that men may take knowledge of us that we have been with Jesus. How often the weary and heavy-laden will turn to the meek and quiet, helpful spirit of one who is wise in the things of God! One now and again hears the remark that So-and-So is evidently in possession of a secret, a secret of goodness which ordinary people have not. As a concluding remark, it may be well to mention over again the fact that the palm-tree affords food and shelter to those who need it. Some Christian Endeavourers, at any rate, must have read with special interest Mr. Jowett’ s recent sermon on the death of Dr. Berry. It was a happy thought of the preacher to speak of the departed Nonconformist leader as one who had been “ a hiding-place from the wind, a covert from the tempest; as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.” It is said of Dr. Berry that many persons have lived, as it were, by his strength. He has given fresh heart and new hope to many a one who was overborne in the battle of life. There is many a man to-day who would have made shipwreck of himself and his career except he had found a friend, under the shade of whose sympathy he was able to abide until he was strong enough to go forward by himself. To be such a shelter is a great thing in this world. (R. J. Campbell, M.A.) The righteous like the palm-tree The palm grows not in the depths of the forest or in a fertile loam, but in the desert. Its verdure often springs apparently from the scorching dust. “ It is a friendly lighthouse, guiding the traveller to the spot where water is to be found.” The tree is remarkable for its beauty, its erect aspiring growth, its leafy canopy, its waving plumes, the emblem of praise in all ages. Its very foliage is the symbol of joy and exultation. It never fades, and the dust never settles upon it. It was, therefore, twisted into the booths of the Feast of Tabernacles, was borne aloft by the multitude that accompanied the Messiah to Jerusalem, and it is represented as in the hands of the redeemed in heaven. For usefulness, the tree is unrivalled. Gibbon says that the natives of Syria speak of 360 uses to which the palm is applied. Its shade refreshes the traveller. Its fruit restores his strength. When his soul fails for thirst, it announces water. Its stones are ground for his camels. Its leaves are made into couches, its boughs into fences and walls, and its fibres into ropes or rigging. Its best fruit, moreover, is borne in old age; the finest dates being often gathered when the tree has reached a hundred years. It sends, too, from the same root a large number of suckers, which in time form a forest by their growth. What an emblem of the righteous in the desert of a guilty world! It is not uninstructive to add that this tree, once the symbol of Palestine, is now rarely seen in that country. (Joseph Angus.) Like a cedar in Lebanon.--The righteous like a cedar 1. Downwardly, as to humility.2. Upwardly, as to heavenly-mindedness.3. Inwardly, as to heart holiness.4. Outwardly, as to usefulness.5. Grow even in the midst of storms.6. Grow imperceptibly.7. Grow till it ceases to grow. The strongest cedar in Lebanon shall cease to grow; so shall every righteous man, as to this world; but the very thought of the termination of his growth here should remind him of the issue of this termination. (T. Adam.) The good man like a cedar How does the cedar grow?I. By the unfolding of its inner life. The cedar of a thousand years once slept in a little germ. Thus holy souls grow by putting forth the germinant powers within them. II. By the appropriation of the outward. The cedar assimilates to its own substance things that are unlike itself. The dews of heaven, the salts of the earth, the gases of the air, it turns all into its own essence. Thus the godly soul turns everything into its own character. III. By the influences of the trying. Whence comes the strength of the cedar? Not merely from the dew that sprinkles its branches nor the sunbeam that warms its heart, nor the soil that feeds its roots; but from the tempests also. Even so trials help the growth of the true soul: it makes hostile elements do it service. IV. By its own constant activity. The sap may be regarded as the very spirit of the tree, and that is ever active; it runs up the roots through all the pores of the trunk into every branch and leaf. From the leaves it runs back again, feeding and strengthening every part as it goes down to the very roots. Thus circulation goes on; it is incessant. The cedar grows so long as it lives; when it ceases to grow it ceases to live. So is it with the soul. There is no end to its growth. It passes from strength to strength, from glory to glory, through all ages. (Homilist.) Psalms 92:13-15 Those that be planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God.The trees in God’ s courts I. The planting. It sounds odd to hear of planting a tree in a house, and of its flourishing in courts; but remember an oriental house is a sort of quadrangle. It is a four-square building, with the middle open to the sky, and generally there is a small garden, in which a palm-tree, or an olive, or some other evergreen tree will be found planted: so that what seems strange to us--a tree planted in a house--was not at all strange to David or to anybody else who lived in the city of Jerusalem. And it is a very beautiful figure--this being planted within the four courts of God’ s house, that we might grow right in the middle of the place where God with His family deigns to dwell. Well, we are planted in God’ s house in two respects. First, in regeneration, when we are born into the house; and secondly, at our profession of faith, which should be by baptism, when we are publicly brought into the house and planted in the likeness of Christ’ s death by being buried, after His commandment, in the water.1. Planting implies, first, that there has been something done for us that we could not do for ourselves. A tree cannot plant itself. And you know, there is a necessity that there should be a work of grace upon our souls, which shall come, not from ourselves, but distinctly from God. 2. It implies, too, that there must be a great change in our position, for a tree that is planted has been growing somewhere else. Do we know ourselves to be “ new creatures in Christ Jesus” ? 3. It implies also that there is life in us. God does not intend to have dead stumps standing in His court. If we do not know the life of God, we know not God at all. 4. And it implies that we ourselves have taken hold of the soil wherein we have been planted. Are you seeking for vital truth to sustain your soul’ s vitality? Do you in the ordinances send out the rootlets of your desire, to seek after what God has prepared for you? Is there in you a living sap flowing, which sap is being fed by what you draw in from the soil in which God has placed you? II. The promise. “ Those that be planted shall flourish.”1. Because God has said that they shall. His promises are sure to be fulfilled. If He plants a tree He will cause it to flourish. Therefore, be very hopeful. As your needs arise, they shall be supplied. 2. Because of the goodness of the soil. They are planted where the means of grace abound, and where the Holy Spirit has promised to abide. 3. Because they are planted in a sheltered position are you not like a vineyard on a very fruitful hill, which He has hedged about and walled, and in which He has put a wine-press, and which He has watered every morning, and, lest any should hurt it, has kept night and day? 4. Because they are so near the husbandman (John 15:1). Now, if any of you are not flourishing, though you are planted in the house of the Lord, I am sure it is not through any faultiness on God’ s part. Let such ask Him, and ask themselves, the reason why, and go to Him in prayer, and say--“ Good Lord, I am planted in Thy house; make me to flourish according to Thy word.” III. The continuance of this flourishing. “ They shall bring forth fruit,” etc. There are some that begin with a spurt, and it is soon over; and there are some trees that promise exceedingly well for fruit, but the blossoms did not knit, hence they fail to yield fruit in due season. But those whom God plants, and whom He makes to flourish, bring forth fruit, and continue to bring it forth till old age.1. What fruit, then, you will ask, do they bring forth? (1) There is the fruit of testimony. I distinctly recollect hearing a blind old minister talk of the lovingkindness of the Lord when I was sixteen or seventeen, and the encouragement that he gave me has never departed from me. A young man could not have done that, because he had not attained so much experience; but the weight of years, and even of infirmities, made that venerable blind man’ s testimony very, very weighty to my soul. (2) Saints bring forth fruit in the way of savour when they grow old. Many young ministers can rattle out some of the truths of the Gospel very readily; but if you want to taste the sweetness, to feel the unction, to enjoy the savour, you must hear one that has had long and deep experience. It must be so. There is an inimitable mellowness about the Christian who has grown old in his Master’ s service. (3) The aged Christian ought to have the fruit of patience. You remember Dr. Hamilton’ s story of poor old Betty, who could not do anything but lie in bed and cough, but she said, “ Well, bless the Lord, whatever the Lord has told me to do I have tried to do it; and when He said, ‘ Betty, bring up your family,’ I tried to bring them up in the fear of God. When He said, ‘ Betty, go to the house of God and sing My praises,’ I was delighted to do it. And when He said, ‘ Betty, go upstairs and lie in bed and cough;’ well, I will do it,” she said, “ and bless the name of the Lord for letting me do it, so long as there is anything to be done for Him.” (4) One of the most delicious fruits that Christians produce in their old age is calm, quiet confidence in God. 2. The text does not speak of old age merely bringing forth fruit, but it says--“ They shall be fat and flourishing,” which means that Christians, in their advanced years, shall have a fulness of savour and life in them. IV. The manifestation that affords conclusive proof of the Divine faithfulness. “ To show that the Lord is upright.” These good folks are to bring forth fruit, and to be fat and flourishing, on purpose to manifest before the eyes of all men.” That the Lord is upright: He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.” “ That the Lord is upright.” Well, how does the fruit-bearing of an aged Christian show that? Why, it shows that God has kept His promise. He has promised that He will never leave them nor forsake them. There you see it. He has promised that when they are weak they shall be strong. There you see it. He has promised that if they seek Him they shall not lack any good thing. There you see it. He has promised them, “ Thy bread shall be given thee; thy water shall be sure.” Hear what they have to say, and you will see it. He has said, “ Even to hoar hairs I am He. I have made and I will bear, and I will carry you as in the days of old.” There you have it. Ask them. There you see it. We put “ Q. E. D.” at the end of a proposition when it is proved. So you may put that down at the end of the problem of life. God is good to His people. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Fruitfulness of piety I. The fruitfulness of piety. Its abundance. It is like the palm-tree. The righteous surpass the wicked, as the palm-tree the grass that is cast into the fire. “ Much fruit” glorifies God. The palm, the noblest tree of the plain, and the cedar, the noblest tree of the mountain, both stand as symbols of the righteous. Both are superior to the caprices of seasons. The palm looks from a lofty eminence down on the desert, and the cedar defies the storm. Both are enduring. Fruits are better than seeds. Deeds than profession. II. The immediate and ultimate source of this piety. They are planted in the courts of the Lord. Piety must find its nutrition in holy exercises. Worship, meditation with the lights of Christian truth should lead on to far higher spirituality than the broken lights of the Old Temple services. There is never a doctrine in the Word or nature that is not intended for enrichment and elevation of the true and temper of life. III. The fruitfulness of piety gives direct and honourable testimony to God. “ The Lord is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.” Dependence on God essential to fruitfulness. (G. B. Johnson.) Plants that grow in the Church I. The place where these righteous people shall develop is said to be the house of Jehovah. This is the temple of God’ s ancient people.1. The psalmist uses this figure to describe the character of the righteous. “ The righteous shall flourish like the palm-tree.” This is the kind of plant that grow in the house of Jehovah, quite in contrast with the wicked described as springing as the grass. The grass springs up quickly and withers as quickly. The palm-tree grows tall and straight. So with the righteous. The palm-tree also is strong. The righteous, those who have been made righteous with God’ s own righteousness, can stand against the fiercest tempests of sin and temptation. 2. The palm-tree is the most graceful and beautiful of trees. In the Song of Solomon, the most beautiful of women is likened to it. We learn to esteem a most beautiful one whose features were at first repulsive, because of the character of righteousness that has enveloped his person. 3. The palm-tree, too, is endogenous. While many trees grow by additions of rings to the outsider this tree grows by adding cell within cell, thus developing from within outward. The man you have known as a boy, now developed into a truly righteous character, has done it by no change that you can detect without. You recognize his features distinctly enough as those of the boy. Character makes the difference. It is an expansion that has come from within. 4. The palm-tree is useful for its food products. II. God is in His house. God dwells in His church to-day, in the assemblages of His people, as nowhere else, to make central power-stations for the production of righteous lives. The area for the growth of the date palm is limited. There is no fruit at an altitude of more than one thousand feet above the sea-level. So God has given us a place where He can successfully grow the righteous. It is His Church. III. They shall flourish. No one cares to start a business that is going to fail, or to live a life that is not going to be life indeed. A sixteenth-century man who owned a lot in London instructed his architect that the lot was small, but he would have him remember that he owned all the way up. That is the advantage the righteous man has. The possibilities of his development are limited only by infinite space upward. The immeasurable altitudes belong to him. (D. T. Wyman.) Soul planting I. The soil which it requires. “ The house of the Lord.” “ The courts of our God.” This means the redemptive religion of God; or, in other words, the Gospel. Nothing but the Gospel has the power to quicken, nurture, and fully develop the human soul as it is found in its corrupt state. Science, philosophy, poetry, social ethics, and all the arts and influences of civilization have tried and failed. You may as well expect that an acorn would grow to a perfect oak planted in the sand, as to expect that the soul will grow to its proper proportions if planted in any soil but the Gospel. II. The prosperity which it will realize. “ Shall flourish.”1. Flourish in size, multiplying their branches of power, and towering higher and higher. 2. Flourish in strength. Ever receiving more vitality and vigour. 3. Flourish in beauty. More majestic in figure, more exquisite in hue, more charming in flower. 4. Flourish in fruitfulness. Clusters increasing with every age. “ They shall flourish.” How glorious the soul may become! (Homilist.) Psalms 92:14 They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and flourishing. The fruitfulness of aged Christians considered and urged I. The duty of the righteous.1. The fruits which may be expected of them. Knowledge, holiness, patience, meekness, quietness of spirit, renunciation of the world, preparedness for death, a heavenly conversation, also a deep concern for the honour of God, the support of religion, and the good of mankind. 2. How reasonable it is, that such fruits should be found in them. (1) From the nature of religion, as a vital principle, or the Divine life in the soul. True grace is growing. “ A well of water springing up unto everlasting life.” (2) Through the natural force of habit and custom. Having been so long in Christ’ s school, we reasonably expect that they should have made a great progress in knowledge and religious skill: that they will be expert in the exercises of devotion; have a greater command of their passions and tongues, than younger persons; and not be, like them, tossed about with every wind of doctrine, or the sport of vanity and temptation. (3) They have more advantages and fewer temptations than others. (4) They may expect peculiar assistances from the Spirit of God, in proportion to their many prayers and improvements. II. The privilege and happiness of the righteous. “ They shall flourish,” etc. Time, which impairs their strength and everything else in the natural world, shall improve their graces, meliorate or refine their fruit. And this they are to expect from Divine influences attending the means of grace. The faithfulness of God is engaged to do this. Therefore the psalmist adds, “ to show that the Lord is upright,” or faithful to His promises. He then subjoins his own testimony to the truth of this: “ He is my rock;” I have found Him kind, powerful and faithful in supporting the religious life in my soul, under all my difficulties and trials; and you will also find that “ there is no unrighteousness in Him.” III. Application.1. Let aged Christians labour after greater fruitfulness. (1) For your own peace and comfort.(2) For the honour of God and your profession.(3) For an example and encouragement to others. 2. They who would bring forth fruit in old age must begin betimes to do so. 3. Learn the great usefulness of public ordinances. (Job Orton, D.D.) Old age I. Let us look at some of these inevitable experiences of advancing years, which evince the need of some principle of greenness and vitality beyond the power of time or of earthly change. In the first place, if we live long, we must outlive the keen enjoyment of mere pleasure,--of the lighter and gayer portions of life. The feeling rapidly grows upon one, that the game of life is too doubtful, and its stakes too desperate, for trifling; and many of the voices, much of the laughter, which used to make him glad, and on which in early life his free soul could float forth in entire sympathy, have become as vapid as the crackling of thorns. With regard to the more serious pursuits of life, a man very early ascertains and exhausts the capacities of his condition, knows all that he is likely to be and do, and sees but little unattained for which he can reasonably hope. Golden visions have grown dim, wide and far-reaching prospects have been narrowed, and the horizon is fast shutting in on every side. The foremost places in society, the commanding posts in public life, are constantly usurped by younger and still younger claimants, so that instead of the fathers are the children and the children’ s children. Then, again, though the domestic life of the aged is often serene and happy, it is made so only by the hallowing power of a higher world; for, in an early point of view, it is but little that we can promise ourselves in declining years as to our social and domestic relations. II. Let us look at some of those things which we shall need for our happiness, under the full consciousness of declining years. In the first place, we must feel that we have lived for some worthy purpose, accomplished some satisfying and permanent results, laid up some treasure that cannot be taken from us. Let us walk with God now,--and then, should the days come when we can no longer walk with men, we shall still retain our hidden life with Him; and in hoary winter, when the harvest of our earthly life has passed, and its sheaves are all gathered in, the fruits of piety shall still be ripening for a better harvest in heaven. Again, would we enjoy a happy old age, let us make kindness and love the law of our lips and our lives. Let us bind ourselves by ties of mutual benefit with as many of our fellow-beings as we may. Again, would we pass a happy old age, let us not forsake the communion of our departed friends. Let us learn of the spirit of Jesus to regard those who have gone as still near and with us, as separated from us but by a thin veil, which faith may make transparent, and as forming a goodly company to welcome us to our final rest, and to shed over the majestic courts of heaven a familiar, homelike aspect. (A. P. Peabody.) Improvement The Bible is always telling Christian people to go forwards--to grow--to become wiser and stronger, better and better day by day; that they ought to become better and better, because they can, if they choose, improve. This text tells us so; it says that we shall bring forth more fruit in our old age. Now, what does all this mean? It means that the life of our souls is in some respects like the life of a plant; and therefore, that as plants grow, so our souls are to grow. Why do you plant anything, but in order that it may grow, and become larger, strong, bear flower and fruit? Be sure God has planted us in His garden, Christ’ s Church, for no other reason. Why has God given us senses, eyes, and ears, and understanding? That by them we may feed our souls with things which we see and hear--things which are going on in the world round us. But is this enough? Consider, again, God’ s example which He has given us--a tree. If you keep stripping all the leaves off a tree as fast as they grow, what becomes of it? It dies, because without leaves it cannot get nourishment from the air, and the rain, and the sunlight. Again, if you shut up a tree, where it can get neither rain, air, not light, what happens? The tree certainly dies, though it may be planted in the very richest soil, and have the very strongest roots: and why?--because it can get no food from the sky above. So with our souls. We must be fed, and strengthened, and satisfied, with the grace of God from above--with the Spirit of God. Consider how the Bible speaks of God’ s Spirit as the breath of God; showing us that as without the airs of heaven the tree would become stunted and cankered, so our souls will without the fresh purifying breath of God’ s Spirit. Again, God’ s Spirit is often spoken of in Scripture as dew and rain. His grace, or favour, we read, is as dew on the grass; and again, that God shall come unto us as the rain, as the former and latter rain upon the earth; and again, speaking of the outpourings of God’ s Spirit on His Church, the psalmist says (Psalms 72:6); and to show us that as the tree puts forth buds and leaves, and tender wood, when it drinks in the dew and rains, so our hearts will become tender, and bud out into good thoughts and wise resolves, when God’ s Spirit fills them with His grace. (C. Kingsley, M.A.) Fruit in old age A cynical statesman said, with more, perhaps, than a grain of truth, “ youth is an illusion; manhood a blunder; old age a regret.” So it may be; so it is--in a life of godlessness. But in such a life only. “ The righteous shall flourish,” etc. I. The fruits of testimony to God--the witness which a matured Christian bears to Him as the God of our salvation.1. There is testimony to His faithfulness, to the sure foundation of His Word, especially the Word of His Promise. We are the children of promise, and have to live by it. Is the promise true? Can it be trusted? Will God never fail? The aged among us know that He and His word abide for ever. 2. Testimony to the righteousness of God’ s government. He is equitable and just, without respect of persons, showing displeasure to the wicked and favour to the righteous. 3. Testimony to the joy of the Christian life, to the blessedness of fellowship with Christ. Like other men they have been tried and tempted; but how readily will they testify that these experiences could not separate them from the love of God in Christ Jesus their Lord. II. Fruitfulness is also seen in the inwrought graces of the soul, in the virtues and excellences to which the righteous attain. The life of a Christian man is a growth. He gradually leaves behind him the weaknesses and imperfections of youth.1. You will generally see in old age a nobler and more perfect patience, not a dull acquiescence in a fate that cannot be averted, but an intelligent, glad submission to the will of a Father who is loved. 2. We often see a generous, unselfish interest in those who shall come after them, interest in work which cannot benefit themselves; the promotion of Christian aims and industries the fruit of which they cannot live to see. 3. The power of Christian hope. 4. The grace of spiritual preparedness, of meetness for the heavenly inheritance, readiness to depart and be with Christ. This God gives before the summons is delivered, so that His people shall not be taken unawares. (J. Stuart.) Triumphs of old men Lord Palmerston the famous statesman, when he was sixty-eight, began to feel that he was old, and said: “ I am getting old; I will be laid aside. There will be no further use for me.” But Lord Palmerston went to a library in order to find some particular subject, and while looking for it, he took down the life of Wesley, and found that Wesley preached and taught with unabated strength when he was eighty-six years old. Palmerston’ s hopes began to rise, and then he happened to hit on the life of Care, and found that Care influenced the world more after he was eighty years of age than during all his previous life. Then Lord Palmerston found in the same library on the same day the life of Julius Caesar, and he read that Julius Caesar had never been a soldier and had never visited a military camp until forty-nine years of age. According to Lord Palmerston, he learned that there had been wrought out in human life the greatest things man has ever done between fifty and sixty years of age. Then he declared: “ I did not get what I went to the library to secure, but I secured what was far better--hope.” Psalms 93:1-5 Psalms 93:1-5 The Lord reigneth; He is clothed with majesty. The Supreme Ruler of the world The psalm teaches the following things concerning the rule of God over the world:-- I. It is all-glorious. God “ clothed!” Poetry has represented the universe as the costume of the mighty Maker. How inexpressibly magnificent is that costume! But His clothing is of no material fabric. His moral character is His garment, and that character is transcendently grand--“ glorious in holiness.” II. It is all-mighty. “ The Lord is clothed with strength.” How strong in might must He be who sustains and manages the stupendous universe! How strong in intellect, to arrange and plan and balance the countless globes of space! How strong in purpose! No swerving from the original plan; the same from age to age. III. It is all-enduring (Psalms 93:2). Under His Government all past generations of men lived and died, and all coming ones, down to the last, will be the subjects of His Almighty rule. IV. It is all-victorious (Psalms 93:3-4). What within the whole range of human vision or experience is more sublimely awful than the sea when the tempest has lashed it into fury, when its waters rise like lofty mountains, and fight and foam like maddened lions? But these floods are only emblems of floods more terrible and dangerous--the floods of the wicked passions of wicked souls. But He is above those floods. V. It is all-holy (Psalms 93:5). This “ house” --where is it? Everywhere. (Homilist.) The Eternal Sovereign I. The king.1. Supreme in authority--none higher, greater; the primal source of law. 2. Infinite in wisdom--omniscient, unerring. 3. Holy in character (Psalms 93:5) knowing nothing of prejudice, partiality, connivance at wrongdoing: hence, righteous in administration, consistent, and beautiful in all. 4. Glorious in apparel--“ clothed with majesty,” “ clothed with strength” (His attributes are His royal robes) (Psalms 93:1). 5. Excellent in laws (Psalms 93:5)--“ thy testimonies are very sure,” in rewarding obedience, in punishing transgression--they are just, perfect, good, can never fail. 6. Almighty in power (Psalms 93:3-4)--tumults and wars are all under His sovereign control. II. The Kingdom.1. Creation. 2. Providence. 3. Grace. 4. Everywhere. From eternity unto eternity. III. The lessons.1. We must first know Him as Saviour before we can obey Him as Sovereign. 2. Despite the most furious storms that may rage around the Christian or the Church, we have nothing to fear while “ The Lord reigneth.” He is mightier than nature’ s mightiest forces, and stronger than the “ Strong man armed.” We are “ in His hand” ; nor earth nor hell can pluck us thence (J. O. Keen, D.D.) The Divine Kingship I. In relation to creation. Life has no intelligible meaning, there is no satisfactory explanation of anything apart from the belief, “ The Lord reigneth.” To find “ laws,” yet to deny the Lawmaker; to admit processes, yet to negative the mind which started and controls the processes; to gaze on astounding effects, and yet ignore the only adequate cause; to talk of kingdoms, and yet reject the reigning Sovereign, is, to all intents and purposes, the climax of folly, and a gross violation of all correct logical principles. “ Worlds are but signs of His presence, systems are but His initials in bold type, and the universe but His flaming superscription. All the activities displayed are but a faint symbol of the unlimited and ceaseless movements of the King. They are but bubbles on the rushing torrent of His onward sweep, sprays from the cataracts of His operations, wavelets upon the fathomless ocean of His activity.” II. In the sphere and mysteries of Providence. In all the dramas of life--individual life, family life, national life, Church life--we must rise in thought and faith from secondary causes to the great First Cause: from mere caprice to Eternal Sovereignty: from the seeming accidental to the actual Divinity, which governs every life, evolves every history, and works all things after the counsel of His own Will. His march is in mystery--through the shadowed avenues of His “ Hidings,” the very emblems of His Majesty being the robes of His concealment. What can we know of the interlacings of life with life? of the mysterious and untraceable effects of blood relationship? of hereditary and transmitted evil, disease, influence, and so forth, down through the vast chain of human life and history? Here, the highest created intellect must pause in adoring wonder, and say, “ Just and true are Thy ways, O King of saints.” Are any of you troubled and dismayed about the outcome of events, complicated and strange in your eyes, relative to the Church? “ The Lord reigneth.” We have nothing to fear. III. In the history and progress of Christianity. Christianity does not rest on such side-issues as the miracles of Christ, but on Christ Himself, and its culminating fact--the miracle of His Resurrection. He is its grand historic Reality, its abiding supernatural fact. How came it to be a history, if it is not true? How came it to be first reported, and then to be written, if it were wholly or in part false? The magnetism of Christianity was never greater among the nations than it is to-day. “ Think of the undermining process that has been slowly but surely going on in the hoary systems of idolatry, and how the old mythologies have been transfixed by rays of light from Bethlehem and Tabor. Brahma and Vishnu are quaking on their precarious thrones, and Buddha lies sprawling on the rivers of China. Add to this the fact that the Christian religion is making in our day a vast impression on society, and enters more deeply than ever into the thoughts and life of the world. It is leavening all literature. Essays, poems, treatises, biographies, and even novels are almost as full of it as sermons are. It affects legislation, sweetening the Statute-book, and purifying the fountains of justice. It is never weary of erecting hospitals, asylums, orphanages, homes, colleges, and other monuments of beneficence whose name is legion.” Do these look like the symptoms of an exhausted force or a dying cause? (J. O. Keen, D. D.) The stability of God’ s throne I. The stability of God presented to us in the Scripture consists in His fixed character and purposes, backed by unlimited power. It is not law--regular and uniform sequence, dependent on the necessity of things--to which the Bible refers the order of nature. There is a will above law, and a character of infinite wisdom and goodness behind will, which is the support of the universe. But this wisdom and moral excellence could not sit upon a throne, God could not be a king without power equal to His wisdom. Separate the two, conceive of wisdom without power, or power without wisdom, and there could be no stability in the system of things. Power alone would be ever fashioning and destroying; wisdom would be ever contriving without accomplishing, or else would confine itself to the field of its own limited resources, because, it would be unwise to push further. God’ s majesty and strength as a ruler is, in fact, the union of His perfect attributes. II. The stability of the world results from the stability of God. It is the place where He unfolds His fixed but progressive system. “ The world is established that it cannot be moved.” This stability is an emanation of the wisdom and power of God--of wisdom which has contrived it as the theatre where He is carrying forward His great plan, and which must be kept in its place as long as the plan demands, and of power which deals with unyielding matter, as easily as the potter with the clay. III. The psalmist proceeds to speak of forces natural, and perhaps moral or human, whose violence seems for the time to obstruct the plan of God and to endanger the stability of the system.1. Casting our eyes first upon the seemingly irregular forces of nature, with what awe we behold the great deep agitated by tempests, etc. These are wild, convulsionary forces, but others wear away or alter the earth in silence. In a course of ages what vast effects are produced by moisture, by heat and cold, by the soil descending with the currents of rivers, by melting snow and the decay of vegetable matter. But notwithstanding all these powers, violent or quiet, the world is established that it cannot be moved. The agitated sea and air, the flood and the lightning, do their work, and that on the whole a beneficent work according to God’ s laws, without endangering the safety of the system. 2. But violence in the moral world, the fury and wild force of nations, as of individuals, is not only against moral order but also against the original conception of the system. The fact of sin, then, the impetuous rage of sin on the great scale, looks as if finite beings were getting the better of God, as if they were disappointing Him, and marring somewhat the majesty of His throne, when they lift up their waves against Him. But it is far otherwise: the Lord on high is in the end shown to be “ mightier than the noise of many waters, yea than the mighty waves of the sea.” (1) The law of retribution is continually coming into play, when nations commit great crimes. The blind force of finite minds punishes itself, and thus clothes God before the eyes of His creatures with majesty, and establishes His throne. (2) God draws good out of evil. IV. The psalmist passes on by an easy sequence to teach us that God’ s testimonies or precepts are sure, that is, are true, permanent, and to be relied upon. If the swelling waters that lift up their voice are symbols of disorder among nations as well as in nature, the transition is yet more smooth; for from the majesty and power of God as displayed against rebellious nations we go directly to His precepts which they have violated and which He upholds by His judgments. The great system of righteousness must take a permanent place in a mind of boundless wisdom, which has no biasses and needs no experience. And not only this, but the moral in God’ s sight must have a far higher value than the physical; righteousness is the stability of His throne; it were better for heaven and earth to pass away than that He should favour or sanction one jot of injustice. If so, His precepts are sure, they can never be abrogated, never be made light of. They are the reliance of all who love righteousness, individuals or nations. And thus holiness becomes His house for ever. Having a character of holiness which will never alter, He demands a like disposition from those who worship Him.1. Whatever adds to the strength of the conviction that God and His precepts are immovable, adds also to the power of the righteous in the world. 2. Times of natural and moral convulsion are preeminently times calculated to bring God before the mind. They bring Him from behind the cloud, He seems to show His face, and to those who humble themselves before Him He speaks words of encouragement and hope. 3. How glorious the system of God will appear to those who shall see it in its oneness and completion. God will not seem slow or slack then, but majestic, almighty, all-wise, one and the same through the whole drama. We look upon some vast mountain of solid rock; we call to mind that it has defied the elements for ages; the flood rose and fell leaving it as it was, the rains and snows have scarcely made an impression on its surface; it has outlasted all human works and will stand until the doom. Such, to illustrate great things by small, will the stability of God’ s system appear, when surveyed and traced out from the heights of Heaven. But even in this world we may expect that at some future time there will be a most profound impression pervading mankind of the stability and oneness of God’ s counsels; general history will one day be more wrought out than now, and will be brought into harmony with revelation. When such a time shall come, the world will appear to be one more than now, and the race one, and the counsels of God one from their germ to their perfect fulfilment. (T. D. Woolsey.) Psalms 93:2 Thy throne is established of old: Thou art from everlasting.The eternity of God I. The vastness and majesty of this truth. Apart from wonder and curiosity, there appears no substantial object in ascertaining how far the sun is from the earth, or Sirius from the sun, or one world from another, or in computing the waves in that sea of time which has been rolling from the creation of the globe until now. But when we take these vast measurements as counters by which, though in the faintest degree, to approximate the idea of God’ s eternity; when we use them as steps by which to rise towards that height, as lines by which we try to fathom something of that depth; when we think of the universe in its present relations as only a single season in His endless years; when in those rocky joints and scars we trace the tide-marks of His ceaseless action, the footprints of His forth-going from eternity--then do we find a special use in these computations. At least, in our attempt to form some conception of God, they serve to steady us. In their degree, they lift us to a higher point of contemplation. As the fine spider’ s web stretched across the telescopic lens enables us to appreciate the movement of the stars, so, in their turn, do these objects, stretched across the area of our thought, help us to recognize the boundlessness of the Almighty. II. Regard the truth set forth in the text as a necessity of reason. The words of the psalmist here are not a mere metaphor: they proclaim a reality. This orderly movement of the universe must have proceeded from design, which implies pre-existent mind. Indeed, the human mind itself, which thus conceives an eternal Mind, testifies to the existence of such a Mind. It is more conceivable that the substantial Root of these transient phenomena should be intelligent than that it should be non-intelligent. Our thoughts, perplexed at the best, are compelled to lodge somewhere; and they lodge far more satisfactorily upon the proposition of eternal mind than upon the proposition of eternal matter. III. This truth of God’ s eternity, vast as it is, and transcending all finite thought, is, in some sense, a standard for human measurement.1. It presents a standard of human littleness. Here stretches before us the limitless horizon on which the drama of human life stands out in full relief. Across this disc of absolute being glide all our plans, our pursuits, and the lines of our mortal years. And, compared with this, what are they all? That which we call “ a long life” --what is it as it thus flits into nothingness? What are our schemes in which we plunge our hearts and our hopes? What are our achievements, our monuments of brass or granite, when all the ages of the world upon this fathomless deep are but a ripple, a scud of foam? 2. The eternity of God is also a standard for human hope and confidence. For, fleeting as is the measure of our days, to this immutable Being we are bound by imperishable relations. “ God is patient because He is eternal;” and we may learn to be patient in proportion as we realize our share in that eternity--patient with this swift-flying time, that will not let us rest, but hurries us through the precious years; patient with this transient suffering and loss; patient with any special affliction, considering that it is only a part of a transcendent scheme. 3. The text presents a standard of personal responsibility. Among all the interests of life, among all that claims our love or tempts our desire, this throne that is established of old demands our supreme homage. The criterion of all our conduct is the will of Him who is from everlasting. (E. H. Chapin.) Psalms 93:3 The floods . . . lift up their waves. Thoughts for the seaside I. What are the waves saying to us of human life? Even in its greatest tranquillity there is its deep throb and moan; the sea is really never at rest. Life is like the sea, in constant motion. However exempt some may seem to be from anxiety and care, every heart knows its own bitterness, every spirit its own sob and sigh. Especially to the Christian this is not a place of rest. Toil and care, temptation and sorrow, mingle in the woof and warp of life. The waves therefore speak to us of the restlessness of human life. They also speak to us of the changefulness of life. How ever-changing the ocean is! At one time its waves are lashed into frantic fury, and its huge billows leap mountain high; anon, it is hushed and reeked to a cradled calm; at one time it is all aglow, and flaming with phosphorescent fire; at another time it is dull and leaden, and looks like liquid blue. How changing, too, is human life! Seasons of sorrow succeed seasons of gladness. Life is made up of losses and crosses, as well as of prizes and crowns. Especially is the life of the Christian chequered with storm and calm, shadows and sunshine, smiles and tears. The waves speak to us also of the separations of life. How the sea separates continent from continent and shore from shore! How many farewells are uttered on its shores! Life is full of adieus, from the cradle to the grave. The waves also speak to us of the depravity of life. By sin, death came into our world; and the ocean is like a mighty grave. II. What are the waves saying to us of Divine Providence.?1. The history of God’ s Providence has been as the ebb and flow of the tide. The rising tide has ever gained back what it seemed to lose, and it rises higher and higher; and the issue shall be that the knowledge of the Lord shall one day cover the earth as the waters cover the face of the mighty sea. 2. The sea cannot be controlled, but it can be made subservient to man, and a minister to his good. So we cannot command or control Divine Providence; but we can work with it, obey its laws, and make it subservient to our present and permanent good, and with its friendly aid we may sail to a better and a brighter shore. 3. The sea has an under-current. Although the waves may leap and roar, or the surface of the deep may be calm and still as a sheet of glass, yet the great deep, undisturbed, moves on! So, in the course and conduct of Divine Providence, around the shores of time, in the bays and creeks of human affairs, the waters may twist and twirl; but the great purposes of God move on, and His undisturbed affairs perpetually progress. III. What are the waves saying to us of Almighty God? They speak to us of His power, wisdom, goodness, immensity. The sea is the symbol of infinity and eternity. (F. W. Brown.) Psalms 93:5 Thy testimonies are very sure.Things that are sure Men love things that are sure. Uncertainty is painful, and often maketh the heart sick. We cannot live upon shadows and clouds. It is no use building a house upon the sand. I. The protection of God (Psalms 18:2; Psalms 125:2). God is our strength, our shelter, our shield, our sun, and for ever. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my Father’ s love shall be my portion, my joy, my immortal life. This is enough; I ask no more. II. The fulfilment of Holy Scripture. The ruins of Tyre, Babylon, and Nineveh attest that there was in ancient years a sure word of prophecy, and, as time passes on, the Word of the Lord continueth to be its own witness. It needs no defence. The Bible, in the march of daily events, is fulfilled to the letter. Sooner shall the Nile cease to flow, to rise and fall, than the word of prophecy fail. So with the promises of the Bible. They are renewed every morning. III. The confusion of slanderers. Let loose talkers remember (Proverbs 19:5). And if the liar and gossip should have annoyed you, let your soul find hope in this gracious promise (Proverbs 16:7). Go on your way, then, with a light step and a brave heart, and the Lord in whom you trust will deliver and comfort you. IV. The harvest time. Science teaches you that the earth’ s fertility is boundless. Cultivate it wisely, and it will blossom as the rose. And what saith the Scripture of God, and the earth which He made (Genesis 8:22; Psalms 145:15; Psalms 23:1)? Fear not, then, to ask God for your daily bread. He hath promised it; He will give it. V. The reward of true service. God is a good paymaster. He will not be debtor to any man. His reward will be abundant. Be brave and true, then, in the service of God. VI. The remission of sins. This salvation is free. You need bring no silver, gold, or precious stones. This salvation is full. It is for every soul and for every sin. This salvation is everlasting. It begins on earth, and is continued in heaven. VII. The resurrection of the just. (G. W. McCree.) Holiness becometh Thine house, O Lord, for ever.--The house of the Lord I. The necessity of holiness.1. The ministers of God’ s house must be holy in manner, motive, life, doctrine. 2. They must preach holiness. 3. All in the Lord’ s house are called to holiness. It is profitable to meditate beforehand on the glorious majesty and might of the Eternal Sovereign to whose palace we are going. It is dangerous to engage in worldly conversation, or irrelevant thoughts, up to the sacred porch. II. The method of holiness. They do not show an intelligent appreciation of the holiness of the house of the Lord who are indifferent to the order and symmetry of its services. One step in public and united worship rests on another. If the first be missed it is not easy to reach the second. Be in time! There is a calm preliminary exercise indispensable to those who would be in time for the entire service. Looking round to know what people are coming in and going out is not the business of everybody. Let your thoughts be directed continually to the Lord. (E. J. Robinson.) The beauty of holiness Beauty is a strong and deep word, capable of the fullest possible meanings. There is nothing which appeals to the finer side of our emotional nature which may not be included in the word beautiful. Well, we find that God has added to His wisdom and power that great adornment which we call “ beauty” ; in all our natural relations with Him we are constantly meeting with it and being uplifted by it. It is the allurement which is ever seeking to draw us to better and noble ideals; it seems to give us glimpses into worlds of enjoyment which are in the nature of God Himself; it is the music which accompanies the march of knowledge, the glow and enthusiasm which dignifies the colder toils of mere science. Beauty! it is God’ s mark upon the world. Well, but the inquirer asks, in my other relationship to God, the moral relationship, is there any adornment or accompaniment which may be said to be parallel to this? if God has adorned the work of His hands with this wonderful beauty, is there anything in the moral world corresponding, and the answer is, Yes. You have it again and again in the Hebrew phrase, “ the beauty of holiness.” “ Holiness becometh thine house.” The real beauty of religion gathers about the personal character; the adornment of a house of prayer is in the lives of the people who worship in it. Men and women who during the week have lived beautiful lives--just and honest, merciful and kind, intelligent and refined--if they gathered in the plainest meeting-house ever erected, and their worship was devoid of all ritual, would there not be a beauty in it which nothing sensuous could ever create, a spirit in it which would be an inspiration to all who were present? But for this worship they must come together. Solitary worship is impossible to most men; we must feel the common pulse of sympathy, and so coming together we make the reality of the worship. “ Holiness becometh thine house.” They who bring into it the earnest desire to find the inspiration for the best and noblest life will bring with them the secrets of a beautiful worship. We shall utterly fail to accomplish this unless we seek to grow familiar with the beautiful aspects of God’ s own will and character. It is an unfailing law that you grow like that with which you are most familiar. We carry about with us the manners of the place which commands most of our time and affection. Let our religion be the mere letter, the lifeless creed, the rigid formalism, and whatever fidelity and strength there may be about us, our life and our worship, there will have no beauty. We shall repel where we ought to attract. We shall wonder why others are so joyous and why to us there is so much constraint in religion. But we have to cultivate the other side, and it is the earnest endeavour of some of us to seek in our teaching always to discover that side--the side which allures, attracts by the noblest means. And we can hardly do that without striving to show the dangers and imperfections of the merely formal side of religion. To preach against a dead creed is not to say a word against a living, a beautiful belief. To denounce the orthodox uncharitable is not to say a word against the loving, vital theology of one whose beliefs are all warm with the love of God and of men. To point out the dangers of mere artistic performance in worship is not to deny to any man the right to express the sense of adoration in the way which seems to be most suitable. But we must stand by the living belief and the sincere worship, and they are inseparable from character, and character is fed by the living truths of God. Let us be quite frank with ourselves. Are we earnestly striving to be better men and women? Do we come to this act of worship with the honest desire to gain strength to conquer all our evil, and to become truthful, right-doing, brave, compassionate men and women? If that is our aim we bring the best adornment--a beauty greater than any of art or music--the holiness which becomes the house of God. (W. H. Harwood.) Holiness becomes the worship and service of God In the temple, every “ little” ornament even of the mighty structure that crowned the cliffs of Zion was “ holy” to the Lord. Not the great courts and inner shrines and pillared halls merely, but all. Not a carved pomegranate, not a bell, silver or golden, but was “ holy.” The table and its lamps, with flowers of silver light, tent and staves, fluttering curtain and ascending incense, altar and sacrifice, breastplate and ephod, mitre and gem-clasped girdle, wreathen chains and jewelled hangings--over all was inscribed “ Holy,” while within, in the innermost shrine, where God manifested Himself above the mercy-seat, was the Holiest. Thus the utter holiness of that God with whom they had to do was by every detail impressed upon the heart and conscience of ancient Israel. (A. B. Grosart.) . Psalms 94:1-23 Psalms 94:1-23O Lord God, to whom vengeance belongeth . . . show Thyself.Persecutors and their victims I. The awful condition of the wicked persecutor. The persecutors referred to (Psalms 94:1-10) are represented as “ proud,” speaking “ hard things,” as “ workers of iniquity,” as “ breaking in pieces” the people of God, as “ slaying the widow and the stranger,” and “ murdering the fatherless.” Every age and country has abounded with such oppressors, they are rife even in this land of liberty.1. They are prayed against by their godly victims (Psalms 94:1-2). 2. They are understood by their godly victims, who saw in their hearts-- (1) Atheism (Psalms 94:7).(2) Brutality (Psalms 94:8).(3) Folly (Psalms 94:8-10). II. The blessed condition of their pious victims. These victims regarded their persecution--1. As a Divine chastisement (Psalms 94:12). All afflictions even when they come by the cruel persecution of men are employed by the Almighty Father as chastisements and corrections. Although He does not originate the evil He directs it and uses it for good. 2. As a Divine chastisement that would come to an end (Psalms 94:13). The afflictions will not continue for ever, a long and blessed repose will ensue. The persecutors will fall into the pit which they have dug. The sinner is ever his own destroyer; with every crime he is sinking his own dark bottomless pit into which he must fall. 3. As a chastisement under which they were guaranteed Divine support. The pious victims experienced (1) Divine help (Psalms 94:17-18).(2) Divine consolation (Psalms 94:19). 4. As a Divine chastisement that would end in the ruin of their enemies (Psalms 94:20-23). (Homilist.) Psalms 94:7-10 Yet they say, The Lord shall not see, neither shall the God of Jacob regard it. The absurdity of libertinism and infidelity In the style of the sacred authors, particularly in that of our prophet, to deny the existence of a God, the doctrine of providence, and the essential difference between just and unjust, is one and the same thing (Psalms 10:1-18; Psalms 14:1-7; Psalms 53:1-6).1. If ye consider the discernment and choice of the people, of whom the prophet speaks, ye will see, that he had a great right to denominate them most brutish and foolish. What an excess must a man have attained, when he hates a religion, without which he cannot but be miserable! 2. Having taken the unbelieving libertine on his own interest, I take him on the public interest, and, having attacked his taste and discernment, I attack his policy. An infidel is a disturber of public peace, who, by undertaking to sap the foundations of religion, undermines those of society. Society cannot subsist without religion. Nor can worldly honour supply the place of religion. Finally. Human laws cannot supply the place of religion. To whatever degree of perfection they may be improved, they will always be imperfect in their substance, weak in their motives, and restrained in their extent. 3. The infidel carrieth his indocility to the utmost degree of extravagance, by undertaking alone to oppose all mankind, and by audaciously preferring his own judgment above that of the whole world, who, excepting a small number, have unanimously embraced the truths which he rejects. 4. Yet, as no man is so unreasonable as not to profess to reason, and as no man takes up a notion so eagerly as not to pique himself on having taken it up after a mature deliberation; we must talk to the infidel as to a philosopher, who always follows the dictates of reason, and argues by principles and consequences. Well, then! Let us examine his logic, or way of reasoning; his way of reasoning, ye will see, is his brutality, and his logic constitutes his extravagance. In order to comprehend this, weigh, in the most exact and equitable balance, the argument of our prophet (verses9, 10). These are, in brief, three sources of evidences, that supply the whole of religion with proof. The first are taken from the works of nature; He who planted the ear; He who formed the eye. The second are taken from the economy of Providence; He that chastizeth the heathen. The third are taken from the history of the Church; He that teacheth man knowledge. These arguments being thus stated, either our infidel must acknowledge that they, at least, render probable the truth of religion in general, and of this thesis in particular, God regardeth the actions of men: or he refuseth to acknowledge it. If he refuse to acknowledge it, then he is an idiot; and there remains no other argument to propose to him, than that of our prophet, Thou fool! When wilt thou be wise? But if the power and the splendour of truth force his consent, then, with the prophet, I say to him, O thou most brutish among the people! 5. Why? Because in comparing his logic with his morality I perceive that nothing but an excess of brutality can unite these two things. 6. I would attack the conscience of the libertine, and terrify him with the language of my text, He who teacheth man knowledge, shall not He correct? That is to say, He who gave you laws, shall not He regard your violation of them? The persons whom I attack, I am aware, have defied us to find the least vestige of what is called conscience in them. 7. Perhaps ye have been surprised that we have reserved the weakest of our attacks for the last. Perhaps ye object, that motives, taken from what is called politeness, and a knowledge of the world, can make no impressions on the minds of those who did not feel the force of our former attacks. It is not without reason, however, that we have placed this last. Libertines and infidels often pique themselves on their gentility and good breeding. Reason they think too scholastic, and faith pedantry. They imagine that, in order to distinguish themselves in the world, they must affect neither to believe nor to reason. Well, you accomplished gentlemen! do you know what the world thinks of you? The prophet tells you; but it is not on the authority of the prophet only, it is on the opinions of your fellow-citizens that I mean to persuade you. You are considered in the world as the most brutish of mankind. You live among people who believe a God, and a religion; among people who were educated in these principles, and who desire to die in these principles; among people who have many of them sacrificed their reputation, their ease, and their fortune to religion. Moreover, you live in a society the foundations of which sink with those of religion, so that were the latter undermined, the former would therefore be sunk. All the members of society are interested in supporting this edifice, which you are endeavouring to destroy. What is this but the height of rudeness, brutality, and madness? (J. Saurin.) God and human misery Whatever we think of it, there can, I think, be no doubt that the pressure of human misery has led many to doubt that there can be a God at all; and, if He exists, whether He can be as beneficent as He has been represented to be. Men simply say that if they were omnipotent they would not tolerate the wrongs that now smite, the evils that now destroy. They say that they could not tolerate it if they had only power to prevent it, but God, if He exists at all, and if He be all-powerful, seems to us as if He paid no heed, but restrains His power and lets the hideous carnival of misery go on from generation to generation. Now, let me say inferences on this line are often hasty, and obviously erring. Things are overlooked that must needs be considered if intelligent judgment is to be reached. I do not know, indeed, any explanation that removes every difficulty Concerning some things we can at best but yet see as through a glass darkly. Still, I want to mention some things that, in forming our judgment concerning God and His relation to human misery, should never be forgotten.1. Wrong is very often done by the general ascription to God of all human misery. Men overlook what the Divine purpose of our Lord was, to declare the relation of God to the sin and woe of our race. We find in the world wheat and tares--that is indisputable; the tares are hurtful, deadly--yes, but whence came they? Not from God: He repudiates alike responsibility and blame. “ An enemy hath done this.” The world is not as God wants it, not as God designed it, not as God seeks it shall yet become. He should not, therefore, be credited with, or blamed for that which men freely and wickedly do. Now, it is no reply to say that God should have made a race that could not sin. That is but the spluttering of human ignorance. God had a right, if He saw it wise, to create a race of moral beings; but moral being you cannot have without the possibility of sin. If the moral nature be given, then man may exercise his power in good or in evil. He can go up or go down, can do the one because he can do the other. 2. Wrong is often done by thinking of the misery that prevails as if it were undistributed. We are apt to think of the mass of suffering that we know exists as if it fell on one human heart. But no one bears it all. It falls on those who are countless in their multitude. Every heart knows its own sorrow, but no heart knows the sorrow of all other hearts. Each carries his own burden. Now, let us be honest and face the facts. We speak of human misery as crushing men and women. But should they be crushed by it? Have we a right to complain of misery as mastering us, if we do not take advantage of the grace by which God means us to master the misery? And then let us not overlook that into every life, however darkened, there comes some compensation. I have known a man declaim against God for creating a world like this, speak of it as hurtful and unfair and without interest; and within a few minutes he was in raptures over a painter’ s reproduction of a very little bit of the earth or of the sea. I have known a man complain by the coffin of his child, but never thank God for the gift of that child, or for all the gladness the child meant to him during the years that it lived. 3. Wrong is often done by overlooking the slowness of moral progress. The cruel wrong that grieves and hurts is not, as I have pointed out, of God. He is against it, and He would have men to put it away from them. But then men are slow in responding to the Divine call. Of course we should have been far further on in progress than we are now, and we would have been if we had only been more responsive to God; but the selfishness that seeks to sway us all, the ignorance as to what is really our true interest, the absorption in the things that can be seen and felt--these have betrayed, and have prevented God’ s will being done on earth as it is done in heaven. The wheels of the Gospel-chariot drag heavily, and wrongs that have hurt others still remain to hurt us, and some of them probably will remain to hurt generations yet to be. You say, Why does not God arise in His might, and lay all iniquity in the dust? Because He is God. That which you desire is not His method, cannot be, just because He is God. He deals with His children alike, the loyal and the rebellious, according to the nature which He has given them. He teaches, He draws, He allures from evil, and you can see the effect in the growing sensitiveness as to what we owe to our fellow-men. There are forces at work that must make for a fairer distribution of wealth; forces at work that must bring to an end the wide disparity between East and West. 4. Wrong is often done by overlooking that pain is often sanctified unto much good. Pain in itself is not an evil. Pain is but nature’ s cry to men to give heed to avoid what is hurtful, and to follow that which is beneficent. God doth not afflict willingly the children of men, but in order that we may be made partakers of the Divine nature. There is always an uplift in our sadness, an uplift towards God and heaven. 5. Wrong unutterable is often done by overlooking the all-transforming and all-subduing grace that is put at our disposal the sorrow of life is too great for any one to bear alone, but no one is meant to bear it alone. God wants to carry our griefs for us; grace is revealed, grace that touches our common lot, grace that lightens our larger and our lesser griefs, grace that comes that through it we may attain even now unto the foretaste of heavenly blessedness. All things work together for good to them that love God. (G. Gladstone.) A blind god wanted A god or a saint that should really cast the glance of a pure eye into the conscience of the worshipper would not long be held in repute. The grass would grow again around that idol’ s shrine. A seeing god would not do: the idolater wants a blind god. The first cause of idolatry is a desire in an impure heart to escape from the look of the living God, and none but a dead image would serve their turn. (W. Arnot D. D.) Psalms 94:9-10 He that planted the ear, shall He not hear?He that formed the eye, shall He not see? Evolution and design These words contain the germ of all natural and moral philosophy. There are two great underlying ideas--First, the abstract argument from design that intention and purpose, not blind chance, has evolved the most wondrous mechanism of the animal frame; second, the parallelism between the laws and working of mind and of matter, proceeding from one and the same Author. Each has its laws of sequence, causes produce results, and those results intended and foreseen in both cases alike. As the ear is made for hearing and the eye for seeing, so He that gave man knowledge, or, what is the same thing, the power of acquiring knowledge, intends it to be used; and if, as in the case of the heathen, the moral light is perverted, suffering, punishment, as a necessary law or consequence must ensue. Chance is set aside, as it is now by the student of physical science, dismissed like the older idea of fate. On the scientific doctrine of chances, the evolution of such a mechanism as the eye is, as has been shown by Professor Pritchard, almost incalculable. “ Blind law,” the next hypothesis, is equally insufficient. Hence some of the ablest exponents of the doctrine of evolution maintain that the circle of evolving laws or forces must certainly be ruled by some Intelligence, either inherent and immanent, or else transcendental and probably personal, guiding and superior to them all. One of the foremost living naturalists and a champion of the doctrines of evolution maintains(1) that atoms are centres of force,(2) that force is known to us as Will,(3) that the Will that governs the world is the will of higher intelligences, or of our own supreme intelligence; that we cannot account for man’ s physical peculiarities, much less for his consciousness, his language, his volition, or his moral sense by evolution simply, that there is a feeling, a “ sense of right and wrong in our nature, antecedent to, and independent of experiences of utility” (Wallace) . A “ Blind Intelligence,” immanent in matter or not, by no means solves the problem. “ What are the core and essence of this hypothesis? Strip it naked and you stand face to face with the notion that not alone the more ignoble forms of animalculae or animal life, not alone the noble forms of the horse and lion, not alone the exquisite mechanism of the human body, but that the human mind itself, emotion, intellect, will, and all their phenomena, were once latent in a fiery cloud. Surely the “ mere statement of such a notion is more than a refutation.” But when, passing beyond the notion of a blind intelligence, we accept the fact that He that made the eye could see, that there is a relation between a personal Supreme Being, and His creation; we find far fewer difficulties. There are difficulties, but the fact of the possibility of the theory is admitted by all. John Stuart Mill designated it as the most persuasive of all arguments for Theism. It explains the world; and, what is more, it does what no other theory does, it finds a first ground for all existing things. The theory of design stands undisturbed by the doctrine of evolution. No laws impressed upon matter or upon mind, banish a God from the world He has made. We do not necessarily press the idea of design in each detail, but we maintain that, throughout the universe, there is a general fitness, a correlation of function with power, which point to a prescient antecedent Intelligence. Above all is this correlation manifest in organic structures, animal and vegetable. Mind is presented to us throughout the universe. And, as evolution in the organic world, carries out the Will of a prescient Intelligence, so, in the moral world, sin or evil, by a natural consequence, entails punishment. “ He that chastiseth the heathen, shall not He correct, for He knoweth?” We are here brought face to face with the greatest admitted difficulty in the world as we know it: the existence of evil, and of suffering as a consequence of evil. Nothing can be more unphilosophical than to separate the material and moral government of the world. Parallel laws rule both. The existence of man now throws light on the final cause of the animated creation. To be consistent with the plan adopted by God, it was necessary to evolve successively the long line of vertebrates from the Silurian epoch to the present day. Man’ s rudimentary organs are suggestive of evolution. But in his moral nature he stands apart from animals by a gap which neither observation nor philosophical reasoning has ever bridged. Nor can we conceive of any force capable of being differentiated into the Will, a power which may act in direct opposition to the forces of nature. Evolution could not by natural laws produce man. As Mr. Wallace writes, “ If it be proved that some Intelligent power has guided or determined the development of man, we may see indications of that power in facts which by themselves would not seem to prove its existence.” Among these he adduces the brain, with its convolutions far beyond the needs or use of the savage, the absence of hair on the back of even the lowest races, and the hand, which has all the appearance of an organ prepared beforehand for the advance and use of civilized man, and one which was indispensable to render civilization possible. But why should evil be introduced? Simply because of God’ s will. Man was made a moral free agent. Moral evil has been defined as the conscious abuse of means, instead of using them for the ends for which they were designed. An animal cannot be guilty because it obeys natural laws without reflecting upon them. Man can and does reflect, and uses his freewill to obey or not: but he has disobeyed. The heathen did not choose to retain God in their knowledge. Here comes in the distinctive feature of God’ s moral government. In all else, a gradual process is wrought out by natural laws. But moral evil has come in, and, as nature cannot always effect a cure without external aid, so natural processes alone could not restore humanity. The impetus of evil was too strong; the natural instincts of goodness were overborne. God steps in as the physician, and by the revelation of His Son enables humanity to rise from its moral degradation. Neither out of Greek philosophy, nor out of Judaism, nor out of any other existing system could the teaching or the work of Christ have been evolved. The results have proved it. No other system has ever done for man what this has done, and is doing, in elevating the degraded. Christ’ s teaching of universal love and everlasting life through Himself, has done what no other religion or philosophy ever attempted. If evil be the necessary concomitant of Freewill, it is no less a recognized law of nature as a result of the struggle for existence. Pain and death are spoken of as physical evils. Let it be so. But death is a necessary accompaniment in the natural world of the struggle for existence, and pain is a necessary and benevolent provision for maintaining the instincts of self-preservation. So in the moral world, misery, the result of sin, and sin itself, or the misuse of powers and faculties, are the necessary concomitants of Freewill. Why does evil exist? Why do animals exist? Why do I exist? There is no answer except for Christianity. There is but one explanation of our existence here, and Revelation gives it. It was to render man’ s life here probationary in every way. The future existence of man is the only interpretation of his existence here, and the more we wait for our final redemption in patience and hope, the less shall we feel the penal character of physical evil here. And in spiritual life there is the same doctrine of development as in the natural, for what is the growth in grace but the evolution of the perfect man in Christ from the germ of the Holy Spirit’ s planting? That Holy Spirit and His work may be an enigma, but it is no greater enigma than the origin of physical life. For both we claim an origin, and that origin divine. And the doctrine of evolution, which deduces all natural life from the germ, on the origin of which it does not speculate, is exactly parallel to the doctrine of theology, which deduces all spiritual life from the heaven-implanted germ, and all man’ s spiritual future from the unfolding of that grand revelation of the Will of God, that “ what the law could not do,” etc. (Romans 8:3). (Canon Tristram.) The three/old argument Reverence is at the root of all religion! When the libertines of the French Revolution crowned the Goddess of Reason with garlands, they worked hard to eradicate the old reverence for God out of the hearts of men! Reverence is not superstitious fear; it is not a degrading and debasing affright at the Great Power above us, who rules the world as with an iron sceptre: it is a reverence for God as He is, the embodiment of all holiness, justice, righteousness and truth. Who, in this sense, shall not fear Thee, O God? I. The first argument is physical, and founded on the senses. Use has deadened our sense of wonder. The ear is the most wonderful harpsichord in the universe. It is exactly related to the constitution of things around us, working with ease, with pleasure, and with perpetuity, so that year after year it never requires returning, is unaffected by variations of temperature, and is not worn out with use--all this is very, very wonderful! It has opened up to us already a most wonderful world. Myriad are the voices of creation, the whispering of the breeze, the purling of the brook, the songs of birds, the rustling of the corn, the deep bass of the breaking waves of the sea, and all the varied tones of human voices. These sensations of hearing which might have been painful, are all full of pleasure. And so wonderful is the variety of sound, that we know the tones of our own children’ s voices in an assembly. The prisoner knew the voice of the musician singing outside his cell. Mary knew her Master’ s voice after the resurrection. The sheep on Israel’ s mountains may hear the familiar call of Jesse’ s shepherd son, but God’ s sheep must not hear His voice! We are often told of the marvels of faith: of what men will believe. I have often longed to prepare a paper on the marvels of unbelief! With these facts of observation before us, with this present constitution of things, with man himself the great marvel of workmanship, well may we once more ponder the words, “ He that planted the ear, shall He not hear?” Then think of the eye; on its soft and delicate mirror, what pictures have been reflected: they have required no porters to carry them into the picture gallery within you, and memory, with little effort and no noise, re-touches them as they hang upon the wall. And is God, who created the eye, the only Being that is not to see? Is the finite being to watch, to behold, to observe, and the Infinite One to be sightless? What a marvel of unbelief is this! We have indeed reached the ultima thule of folly’ s argument if we can believe this. II. The second argument is historical, and founded on God’ s moral government of nations. “He that chastiseth the heathen, shall not He correct?” God not only hears and sees, He acts. When the ungodly were exclaiming, as the psalmist says, “ The Lord shall not see, the Lord shall not regard it,” the Lord was seeing, regarding, judging! Had they forgotten how Pharaoh and his host were drowned in the Red Sea? Had they forgotten the heathen priests (1 Samuel 5:4-6)? Had they forgotten the judgments on the priests of the house of Ahab (2 Kings 23:1-37)? We have a larger and broader background of history than they had! We have seen “ joy and gladness taken away from the plentiful field, and from the land of Moab” (Jeremiah 48:32-33), and now pastures, vineyards, villages, cities, all are waste. Yes! “ Moab is spoiled and gone up out of her cities” (Jeremiah 44:15-24). We can see from ruined ramparts Bozrah desolate as Isaiah says (Isaiah 33:10), “ without man, without inhabitant, without beast.” We can look upon the high places of Eastern Judea, and remember the words of Jeremiah, “ I beheld, and lo, the fruitful place was a wilderness,” etc. Yes, and far away from Judea we can walk amid the ruins of the idolatrous Egyptians, we can visit their pyramids and the remains of their stupendous temples, and we can turn to the words, “ I will make the land of Egypt utterly waste and desolate, it shall be the lowest of the kingdoms, neither shall it exalt itself any more upon the nations.” We can visit Nineveh, and Babylon, and find the truth of our text written there. We can go to Hebron and Kerioth, and read the words of the old Hebrew prophets (Isaiah 27:10; Isaiah 22:4). “ He that chastiseth the heathen, shall,” etc. In the light of these facts we need no voice from the heavens to give us the audible yea! And conscience and Scripture say the same. Is it wise, then, to live the frivolous, indevout lives that so many do? to risk our high estate as immortal beings? III. The third argument is mental, and founded on the mind of man. “ He that teacheth man knowledge, shall not He know?” Few study their own minds! I cannot think that they would indulge in such empty conceits about the future if they did! Any one mind is more wonderful even than a material universe! How noiselessly it works; how vast its store. Some minds, of course, illustrate this wonderfulness more than others. Historians like Hume, Macintosh, Macaulay, Lecky, must have the rich gatherings of years of study stored in their mental treasury. Let a man ponder himself, and then he will cease to be deluded by the sophistries of materialism! Two facts will be self-evident, one is personal consciousness--man is! He mingles with no other! If he is certain of anything, he can say, “ I think, therefore I am.” The other fact is, a receptive power, man is constantly receiving, growing alike in the extent of his knowledge and in the capacity to know. Now whilst man has this consciousness himself, it is strange that the tendency of modern science should be to do away with the idea of a personal God, and to lose Him in some generalization of force or law. The psalmist anticipates this beautifully in these words: You know, you think! How came you to do it? “ He that teacheth man knowledge,” etc. Yes, the teacher of knowledge knows. Let that thought comfort our hearts in all the bitter experience of grief. He knows. Many of our inner histories may be as difficult for others to interpret as Egyptian hieroglyphics. But He knows. Verily, then, there is a God that judgeth in the earth. Verily, then, there is a God that comforteth His people. Verily, then, there is a God that is able to help and willing to cast His shield over us in every time of battle and trouble. His eye is upon us, His ear is open to our cry, His judgment is not according to outward appearance, but His judgment is just and His thoughts are to us-ward: and once more the Saviour stands before us with open arms, saying, “ Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.” (W. M. Statham.) Views of the Divine character The argument by which the being of a God is established is one of the simplest that can be conceived. We feel that we ourselves exist; we see the world, both of intelligence and of matter, existing everywhere without us; we know that neither we ourselves, nor any other human beings, were the original causes of the existence and powers which we and they possess. Matter, we not less irresistibly conclude, could not create itself. From what we feel in ourselves and see in others, and behold in the material world, we therefore rise to some higher Being and power--to some superior mind--till we reach one that is above all--a first cause, which must be immaterial and uncreated; and this cause is God. Whoever has ears to hear, or eyes to see, or an understanding to apprehend any truth, has, in these powers of body and of mind, a constant and indisputable evidence, if he would only attend to it, of the providence and government of God. I. “He that planted the ear, shall He not hear?” The wonderful mechanism of the human ear; its exquisite adaptation to the purpose which it is intended to serve; the delicate construction of some, and the stronger texture of other parts of its organization; the one so requisite to the acute discernment of the almost infinite variety of sounds that are conveyed to it, and the other to protect it from the external injuries to which it is constantly exposed: all these circumstances bespeak the existence and influence of a Power in its formation super-eminent alike in wisdom and in goodness. He who heard the groanings of Israel in the land of Egypt, and the prayer of Daniel in the lions’ den, heard also the cry of Abel’ s blood from the field of fratricide, and the sigh of Jonah from the bowels of the deep. And His ear is not now heavy that it cannot hear. We may be bound in the arms of sleep, and incapable of being roused by the loudest noise around us; but He never slumbers nor sleeps: His ear is ever watchful and acute. We may, through inattention or ignorance, mistake one sound for another; but nothing can weaken or injure His power of perfect and intuitive discernment. We can hear a voice only when it is comparatively near us, and when unimpeded by natural obstructions to its conveyance; but, from the very ends of the earth, and throughout every region of the universe--from the depths of a dungeon, as well as the solitude of an unpeopled wilderness--every sound that is uttered enters His ear. II. “ He that formed the eye, shall He not see?” As, of all our senses, that of sight is the most important and, valuable, so its organs are the most exquisitely and delicately constructed; presenting us, in every part, with new and most demonstrative evidence, that He who formed them must be equally almighty and all-wise. Knowledge is to God what vision is to us. When, therefore, in the figurative language of Scripture, we speak of His eyes being in every place, beholding the evil and the good; of His eyes seeing and His eyelids trying the children of men; of the darkness and the light being both alike unto Him; and of His looking not on the outward appearance, but on the heart--we speak of His universal, intuitive, and penetrating knowledge of every object, and event, and being, through every region and spot of His universe, during every day and hour and instant of time. Appearances may deceive us, but nothing can impose on Him. We may be betrayed by an illusion of our senses, but His is an eye of unerring, penetrating and infallible knowledge. III. “He that teacheth man knowledge, shall He not know?” Must not He who formed the human mind, with its wondrous complement of varied yet united, and, when in the state in which they originally came from Him, exactly balanced and harmonizing faculties, be perfectly acquainted with every movement of every one of them? He knows on what our affections are most constantly and supremely placed--whether on objects of present earthly endearment, and things that perish with the using; or on Himself and Christ, and the things that are above, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God. He knows how our conscience is directed and influenced--whether by our own wayward passions, and the maxims and practice of the world around us, or by His unerring and holy will, by the dictates of His Word, and the motions of His Spirit; and whether it is insensible and hardened, sometimes roused, but again and more deeply deadened; or sensible and tender, alive and on the watch, as the monitor of His grace within us. He knows also the reception which we have given to the revelation of His mercy and will--the light in which we regard its intimations--the interest which we feel and take in its warnings and its promises--the faith which we exercise in the Saviour, whom it makes known to us--the submission which we give to His righteousness and law, or the impenitence and unbelief and disobedience with which we contemplate and think of His plan of reconciling and justifying and sanctifying grace. (D. Dickson, D.D.) The Divine signature in man The text is a beautiful statement of a principle which has always been held to have great argumentative force. It played a part in the mental history of the German philosopher Leibnitz. Suggested to him by a friend, who pointed one day to an open Bible, and asked, “ Will not these words help you?” the words of our text became the motto and the keynote of his system, the pattern on which he constructed it, the statement in which he summarized it. We shall look at it, however, not in its philosophical, but its practical bearings, and select our illustrations accordingly. I. The eye and the ear of perception. Simple observation, that is the thought we set out with: the power to discern, to discover, to watch, to know. And for the purpose we speak of--the purpose of mere perception--how marvellously are these instruments fitted! Take the eye, what a miracle of delicacy, adjustment, and minuteness we have there! “ Whence is it,” Sir Isaac Newton asks, “ that the eyes of all sorts of living creatures are transparent to the very bottom, and the only transparent members in the body, having on the outside a hard, transparent skin, and within transparent humours, with a crystalline lens in the middle, and a pupil before the lens, all of them so finely shaped and fitted for vision that no artist can mend them? Did blind chance know that there was light and what was its refraction, and fit the eyes of all creatures, alter the most curious manner, to make use of it? These and suchlike considerations always have prevailed, and always will prevail, with mankind to believe that there is a Being who made all these things, and has all things in His care, and is therefore to be feared.” What a power to disturb and disquiet has the human eye! There is the eye of the warder, for instance, with its vigilance. When Lafayette was imprisoned at the time of the French Revolution, part of his punishment was this: that in the door of his cell there was a slit, and at the slit there was placed an eye, never closed, never withdrawn. And it was just the portion of his punishment he felt most intolerable. Or, again, there is the eye of the child with its innocence. That man, that woman must be far gone indeed who can consciously and deliberately sin with the clear, unsuspicious eye of a child turned upon them in the act, in wonder at its character or in ignorance of its guilt. Or, again, there is the eye of the professional man with its searching. Among the heathen recipes for virtue is this one by Cato, pathetic in its half-presentation of the truth: “ I conceive,” he says, “ that the best plan for cultivating goodness is continually to imagine the eye of some distinguished character fixed upon you.” What the pagan lawgiver commended as a matter of fancy, the Bible-taught believer acknowledges as a matter of sober, solemn fact. II. The eye and ear of appreciation. What does the eye of the artist mean? It means the revelation of new sights, or rather the shedding of new glory on common and familiar sights. It means a deeper mystery in the sky, a softer shimmer on the sea, a fresher green in the woods, a richer purple on the heather, a brighter gold on the gorse, a lovelier glow in the sunset as it mirrors itself in the placid lake, or sheds itself upon Alpine snows, turning the white into orange and rose. What does the ear of the musician mean? It means a susceptibility to all sweet sounds, and these not only the strains of art, but the melodies of nature too. It means sympathy with song, whencesoever it arises--from the surge as it booms on the beach, from the rivulet as it chimes on the pebbles, from the birds as they pipe on the branches, from the wind as it harps on the pines, from the cataracts as they blow their trumpets from the steep. The eye and the ear of appreciation--this eye of the artist receptive of all fair visions, this ear of the musician receptive of all sweet tones--who gave them? And “ He that planted the ear, shall He not hear? He that formed the eye, shall He not see?” He that created these faculties of appreciation, shall He not appreciate? He that bestowed these capacities of enjoyment, shall He not enjoy? He that formed the eye, in correspondence with all fair colours, shall He be blind? He that planted the ear, in responsiveness to all rich cadences, shall He be deaf? Nay, let me realize that He watches the unfolding of these colours, let me realize that He listens to the echoing of these cadences, drawing a joy out of each deeper than mine is, as the infinite is deeper than the finite--purer, too, as the absolutely and originally holy is purer than the frail, the imperfect, and the fallen. III. The eye and ear of affection. We may look at these two senses as symbolical of the feelings that so often inform and direct them, the instincts of love, benevolence, and compassion, to which the eye and the ear are ministers, of which the eye and the ear are interpreters. So that the argument runs, “ He that inspired these instincts, so real, so deep, so powerful, in the heart of humanity around, to soothe its sorrow, to help its weaknesses, to cement its relationships, all through social and family life--He that inspired these instincts in His creatures, shall He not Himself possess them, and that too in far higher measure?” While human friendship and human love remain to us, they will be all the more welcome and all the more precious, as windows through which we see the wealth of the Eternal sympathy, stepping-stones by which we may climb to the mystery of the Eternal love. Never let that man or woman despair of the pity and helpfulness of God while there remains to him or to her the beating of one kind human heart, still interested, still loving, still hopeful, still true. So long as that heart is there, it is a witness and a pledge of the friendliness of God’ s heart, that great charity of His which suffers long and is kind, and which is still ready to receive you, still anxious to help you, if you will only believe Him, and go back. Yes, and when human friendships vanish, and human ties dissolve, when we can speak of them no longer as possessions of the present, but only as memories of the past, we can learn the lesson, we can use the argument notwithstanding. The eye that brightened with welcome at the sight of our coming, or moistened with sadness at the hour of our going, may have mouldered in the dust of the grave; the ear that lent itself--oh, how readily!--to the tale of our joys and sorrows, our successes and failures, may be sealed in the dulness of decay: but He that planted the eye and the ear lives on, the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever, unchanged in His sympathy, His helpfulness, and His love; and when father and mother forsake, then the Lord will take up. I say all this is comfort--comfort for those who are willing to accept of it, on God’ s own terms, in God’ s own way. Recognize Him as a Father, receive Him as a Father, revealed and guaranteed in Christ. (W. A. Gray.) Man’ s powers the gifts and emblems of God I. Man’ s powers are the gifts of God.1. This fact should check all tendency to pride in the man of superior endowments. 2. This fact should check all tendency to envy in the man of inferior ability. II. Man’ s powers are the emblems of God. The argument implied is, that what He has given us, He has in Himself.1. A sense of moral justice. 2. Affection for offspring. 3. Power of spontaneous action. 4. Sense of personality. In conclusion: Man! adore thy Maker. Wipe from the mirror of thy being all the pollutions of sin, that, having a pure heart, thou mayest see God Himself, and be blessed for evermore. (Homilist.) The Planter of the ear must hear I. The notion that God cannot hear or see is pernicious. We perceive that men who talked in this godless fashion were proud. Hence the prayer, “ Lift up Thyself, Thou Judge of the earth: render a reward to the proud.” Pride is very apt to grow great when knowledge is small, and reverence is absent. Proud language usually goes with profane talk and blasphemous ideas; for it comes of the same kindred. “ How long shall they utter and speak hard things? and all the workers of iniquity boast themselves? . . . Their tongue walketh through the earth,” saith David. No bounds can be set to the evil perambulations of an atheistic tongue. Not even heaven itself is free from the assaults of its pride. They slander God Himself, because they imagine that He does not hear. Nor is this the end of the mischief. When the fear of God is taken away from men, they frequently proceed to persecute His servants. “ They break in pieces Thy people, O Lord, and afflict Thine heritage.” If they cannot get at the leader, if they cannot smite the shepherd, they will at least worry the flock. “ They slay the widow and the stranger, and murder the fatherless.” Take God away, and what a place this world would be! Without religion our earth would soon become a huge Aceldama, a field of blood. A world without God is a world without fear, without law, without order, without hope. Note well, that if we were persuaded that God did not hear, and did not see, there would be an end of worship. Would there not? Could you worship a deaf God? Nor is this all: it seems to me that there is, to a large extent, an end of the moral sense. If there be no God to punish sin, then every man will do as seemeth right in his own eyes; and why should he not? II. The notion that God cannot see and hear is an absurd notion. The very idea of hearing seems to me to necessitate that He who conceived the idea, was Himself able to hear. He could not have borrowed the idea, for there was no other being but Himself in the beginning: whence took He the thought, but from His own Being? He that invented the idea, also planned the way by which hearing would become possible. What an intellect was that which forged the link between matter and mind, so that the movements of particles of air, and the impression made by these upon the drum of the ear should turn into the impressions upon mind and heart! And can you believe that this marvellous instrument for hearing was made by a deaf God, or a dead God, or an impersonal power; or that it came into existence through “ a fortuitous concourse of atoms” ? But even if you had an ear made--and I suppose that it would be no very great difficulty to fashion, in wax, or some other substance, an exact resemblance to an ear--could you produce hearing then? God alone gives the life which hears. That particular point in which motion is translated into audible sound--where is that? There is a spiritual something--the true man, and this it is which God makes. Do you know yourself? Could you put your finger on yourself? Oh, no; that mystic being, that strange, half Godlike existence, the soul, is not within the range of our senses. He that made the soul, has He no soul? Can He not hear? III. That God hears His own must be especially certain, from the very argument of the text. “ Why?” say you. Why, because they have new and spiritual ears, and they have God-given spiritual eyes; and He that planted the spiritual ear, shall He not hear? And He that formed the spiritual eye, shrill He not see? Do you imagine that if God has given us the grace to hear His voice, He will not hear us when we lift up our voices to Him? Rather let us each one say, “ I will hear what God the Lord will speak; for He will speak peace unto His people and to His saints.” He has created in the minds of some of you a sense of need, and will He not pity you? You were not hungry for mercy; you were not thirsty for righteousness till His Spirit came and gave you life, and with that life the soul-hunger. Will He not satisfy the hunger He creates? Will He not fulfil the desire He has implanted? In addition to this, He makes us long after holiness; will He not work it in us? Does your child pine to be good, and can you help him to be good, and will you not do so? To the ear which God has enabled to hear His call the Lord will lend His own ear to hear prayer. He that makes us long for purity will work it in us. IV. A belief what God hears and sees has a very beneficial tendency upon those who firmly hold it. It works good in a thousand ways. Time would fail me to recount a tithe of them. It may suffice to take a thought or two, and turn the matter over in our minds. If we feel that God sees and hears, what an incentive it is to do right, and to be valiant for the truth! Soldiers will play the man in the presence of their prince. If our Lord looks on, what will we not do and dare? The same sense of His presence will act as a check to any and every deed of sin. We cannot indulge the thought of evil when the Lord Himself hears that thought. Does the Lord look on, and shall I sin in His Divine presence? It acts grandly as a preservative against the desire of applause and the fear of man. He who knows assuredly that God hears him will speak the truth though all the world should listen, or though no one but God should hear him. The assurance that God sees and hears is a wonderful care-killer. Why should I be anxious? If the Lord knows our soul in adversity, and if His eye is ever upon us, are we not safe? And, oh, how this will tend to promote your fellowship with God! How we love Him who heareth us always! Since He is always seeing us, we learn to see Him. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The ear Among the most skilful and assiduous physiologists of our age have been those who have given their time to the examination of the ear and the study of its arches, its walls, its floor, its canals, its aqueducts, its galleries, its intricacies, its convolutions, its Divine machinery, and yet, it will take another thousand years before the world comes to any adequate appreciation of what God did when He planned and executed the infinite and overmastering architecture of the human ear. The most of it is invisible, and the microscope breaks down in the attempt at exploration. The cartilage which we call the ear is only the storm door of the great temple clear down out of sight, next door to the immortal soul. Great scientists have attempted to walk the Appian Way of the human ear, but the mysterious pathway has never been fully trodden but by two feet--the foot of sound and the foot of God. Three ears on each side the head--the external ear, the middle ear, the internal ear, but all connected by most wonderful telegraphy. The external ear in all ages adorned by precious stones or precious metals. The Temple of Jerusalem partly built by the contribution of earrings, and Homer in the “ Iliad” speaks of Hera, “ the three bright drops, her glittering gems suspended from the ear” ; and many of the adornments of modern times were only copies of her jewels found in Pompeiian museum and Etruscan vase. But while the outer ear may be adorned by human art, the middle and the internal ear are adorned and garnished only by the hand of the Lord Almighty. The stroke of a key of yonder organ sets the air vibrating, and the external air catches the undulating sound and passes it on through the bonelets of the middle ear to the internal ear, and the three thousand fibres of the human brain take up the vibration and roll the sound on into the soul. The ear so strange a contrivance that by the estimate of one scientist it can catch the sound of 73,700 vibrations in a second. The outer ear taking in all kinds of sound, whether the crash of an avalanche or the hum of a bee. The sound passing to the inner door of the outside ear halts until another mechanism, Divine mechanism, passes it on by the bonelets of the middle ear, and, coming to the inner door of that second ear, the sound has no power to come further until another Divine mechanism passes it on through into the inner ear, and then the sound comes to the rail track of the brain branchlet, and rolls on and on until it comes to sensation, and there the curtain drops, and a hundred gates shut, and the voice of God seems to say to all human inspection, “ Thus far and no farther.” In this vestibule of the palace of the soul, how many kings of thought have done penance of lifelong study and got no further than the vestibule! Mysterious home of reverberation and echo. Grand Central Depot of sound. Head-quarters to which there come quick despatches, part the way by cartilages, part the way by air, part the way by bone, part the way by nerve--the slowest despatch plunging into the ear at the speed of 1,090 feet a second. Small instrument of music on which is played all the music you ever heard, from the grandeurs of an August thunderstorm to the softest breathings of a flute. Small instrument of music, only a quarter of an inch of surface and the thinness of one two-hundred-and-fiftieth part of an inch, and that thinness divided into three layers. In that ear musical staff, lines, spaces, bar, and rest. Oh, the ear, the God-honoured ear, grooved with Divine sculpture and poised with Divine gracefulness and upholstered with curtains of Divine embroidery, and corridored by Divine carpentry, and pillared with Divine architecture, and chiselled in bone of Divine masonry, and conquered by processions of Divine marshalling. The ear! A perpetual point of interrogation, asking How? A perpetual point of apostrophe appealing to God. How surpassingly sacred the human earl You had better be careful how you let the sound of blasphemy or uncleanness step into that holy of holies. The Bible speaks of “ dull ears,” and of “ uncircumcised ears,” and of “ itching ears,” and of “ rebellious ears,” and of “ open ears,” and of those who have all the organs of hearing and yet who seem to be deaf, for it cries to them, “ He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.” To show how much Christ thought of the human ear, He one day met a man who was deaf, came up to him, and put a finger of the right hand into the orifice of the left ear of the patient, and put a finger of the left hand into the orifice of the right ear of the patient, and agitated the tympanum, and startled the bonelets, and, with a voice that rang clear through into the man’ s soul, cried, “ Ephphatha!” and the polypoid growths gave way, and the inflamed auricle cooled off, and that man, who had not heard a sound for many years, that night heard the wash of the waves of Galilee against the limestone shelving. To show how much Christ thought of the human ear, when the Apostle Peter got mad and with one slash of his sword dropped the ear of Malchus into the dust, Christ created a new external ear for Malchus corresponding with the middle ear and the internal ear that no sword could clip away. And to show what God thinks of the ear we are informed of the fact that in the millennial summer which shall roseate all the earth “ the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped,” all the vascular growths gone--all deformation of the listening organ cured, corrected, changed. Are you ready now for the question of my text? Have you the endurance to bear its overwhelming suggestiveness? Will you take hold of some pillar and balance yourself under the semi-omnipotent stroke? “ He that planted the ear, shall He not hear?” Shall the God who gives us the apparatus with which we hear the sounds of the world not be able Himself to catch up song and groan and blasphemy and worship? Does He give us a faculty which He has not Himself? Drs.Wild and Gruber and Toynbee invented the acoumeter and other instruments by which to measure and examine the ear, and do these instruments know more than the doctors who made them? “ He that planted the ear, shall He not hear?” Just as sometimes an entrancing strain of music will linger in your ears for days after you have heard it, and just as a sharp cry of pain I once heard while passing through Bellevue Hospital clung to my ear for weeks, and just as a horrid blasphemy in the street sometimes haunts one’ s ears for days, so God not only hears, but holds the songs, the prayers, the groans, the worship, the blasphemy. How we have all wondered at the phonograph, which holds not only the words you utter but the very tone of your voice, so that a hundred years from now, that instrument turned, the very words you now utter and the very tone of your voice will be reproduced. Amazing phonograph! But more wonderful is God’ s power to hold, to retain. Ah! what delightful encouragement for our prayers! What an awful fright for our hard speeches! What assurance of warm-hearted sympathy for all our griefs!” He that planted the ear, shall He not hear?” (T. De Witt Talmage.) The eye The imperial organ of the human system is the eye. All up and down the Bible God honours it, extols it, illustrates it, or arraigns it. Five hundred and thirty-four times it is mentioned in the Bible. Omnipresence “ the eyes of the Lord are in every place.” Divine care--“ as the apple of the eye.” The clouds--“ the eyelids of the morning.” Irreverence--“ the eye that mocketh at its father.” Pride--“ Oh, how lofty are their eye!” Inattention--“ the fool’ s eye in the ends of the earth.” Divine inspection--“ wheels full of eyes.” Suddenness--“ in the twinkling of an eye at the last trump.” Olivetic sermon--“ the light of the body is the eye.” This morning’ s text--“ He that formed the eye, shall He not see?” I. The human eye.. If I refer to the physiological facts suggested by the former part of my text, it is only to bring out in plainer way the theological lessons of the latter part of my text. “ He that formed the eye, shall He not see?” I suppose my text referred to the human eye, since it excels all others in structure and adaptation. Man, placed at the head of all living creatures, must have supreme equipment, while the blind fish in the Mammoth Cave of Kentucky have only an undeveloped organ of sight, an apology for the eye, which, if through some crevice in the mountain they should get into the sunlight, might be developed into positive eyesight. See how God honoured the eye before He created it. He cried until chaos was irradiated with the utterance, “ Let there be light!” In other words, before He introduced man into this temple of the world He illuminated if, prepared it for the eyesight. And so, after the last human eye has been destroyed in the final demolition of the world, stars are to fall, and the sun is to cease its shining, and the moon is to turn into blood. II. To show how God honours the eye, look at the two halls built for the residence of the eyes. Seven bones making the wall for each eye, the seven bones curiously wrought together. A kingly palace of ivory is considered rich, but the halls for the residence of the human eyes are richer by so much as human bone is more sacred than elephantine tusk. See how God honoured the eyes when He made a roof for them, so that the sweat of toil should not smart them; and the rain dashing against the forehead should not drip into them; the eyebrows not bending over the eye, but reaching to the right and to the left, so that the rain and the sweat should be compelled to drop upon the cheek instead of falling into this Divinely protected human eyesight. See how God honoured the eye in the fact presented by anatomists and physiologists that there are 800 contrivances in every eye. For window shutters, the eyelids opening and closing 30,000 times a day. The eyelashes so constructed that they have their selection as to what shall be admitted, saying to the dust, “ Stay out,” and saying to the light, “ Come in.” For inside curtain the iris, or pupil of the eye, according as the light is greater or less, contracting or dilating. III. A contrivance so wonderful that it can see the sun ninety-five millions of miles away, and the point of a pin. Telescope and microscope in the same contrivance. The astronomer swings and moves this way and that, and adjusts and readjusts the telescope until he gets it into the right focus; the microscopist moves this way and that, and adjusts and readjusts the magnifying glass until it is prepared to do its work; but the human eye, without a touch, beholds the star and the smallest insect. The traveller among the Alps, with one glance taking in Mont Blanc and the face of his watch to see whether he has time to climb it. IV. What an anthem of praise to God is the human eye! The tongue is speechless and a clumsy instrument of expression as compared with it. Have you not seen it flash with indignation or kindle with enthusiasm, or expand with devotion, or melt with sympathy, or stare with fright, or leer with villany, or droop with sadness or pale with envy, or fire with revenge, or twinkle with mirth, or beam with love? It is tragedy and comedy and pastoral and lyric in turn. V. Divine inspection. Shall Herschel not know as much as his telescope? Shall Fraunhofer not know as much as his spectroscope? Shall Swammerdan not know as much as his microscope? Shall Dr. Hooke not know as much as his micrometer? Shall the thing formed know more than its master? “ He that formed the eye, shall He not see?” The recoil of this question is tremendous. We stand at the centre of a vast circumference of observation. No privacy. On us, eyes of cherubim, eyes of seraphim, eyes of archangel, eyes of God. “ The eyes of the Lord are in every place.” “ His eyelids try the children of men.” “ His eyes were as a flame of fire.” “ I will guide thee with Mine eye.” Oh, the eye of God, so full of pity, so full of power, so full of love, so full of indignation, so full of compassion, so full of mercy! How it peers through the darkness! How it outshines the day! How it glares upon the offenders! How it beams on the penitent scull Oh the eye of God. It sees our sorrows to assuage them, sees our perplexities to disentangle them, sees our wants to sympathize with them. If we fight Him back, the eye of an antagonist. If we ask His grace, the eye of an everlasting friend. VI. There is no such thing as hidden transgression. A dramatic advocate in olden times, at night in a court-room, persuaded of the innocence of his client charged with murder, and of the guilt of the witness who was trying to swear the poor man’ s life away--that advocate took up two bright lamps and thrust them close up to the face of the witness, and cried, “ May it please the court and gentlemen of the jury--behold the murderer!” and the man, practically under that awful glare, confessed that he was the criminal instead of the man arraigned at the bar. “ Oh!” you say, “ my affairs are so insignificant I can’ t realize that God sees me and sees my affairs.” Can you see the point of a pin? Can you see the eye of a needle? Can you see a mote in the sunbeam? And has God given you that power of minute observation, and does He not possess it Himself? But you say, “ God is in one world, and I am in another world; He seems so far off from me I don’ t really think He sees what is going on in my life.” Can you see the sun ninety-five millions of miles away, and do you not think God has as prolonged vision? But you say, “ There are phases of my life, and there are colours--shades of colour--in my annoyances and my vexations, that I don’ t think God can understand.” Does not God gather up all the colours, and all the shades of colour, in the rainbow? And do you suppose there is any phase or any shade in your life that He has not gathered up in His own heart? (T. De Witt Talmage.) God hears He who knows assuredly that God hears him, will speak the truth though all the world should listen, or though no one but God should hear him. We do not want applause from men, since God hears us. If the Queen were by, and a soldier performed a deed of valour, and a person were to say to him, “ You did well, and you may be proud that Corporal Brown and Sergeant Smith saw you and approved of what you did.” “ Oh,” says be, “ I care nothing for corporals and other petty officers; Her Majesty herself looked at me, and said, ‘ Well done.’ She will, with her own bands, put the Victoria Cross upon me in due time. That is the reward I seek.” (C. H. Spurgeon.) Psalms 94:11 The Lord knoweth the thoughts of man, that they are vanity. God’ s indictment of our thoughts In treatises on morals and in manuals of religion, much has been said about controlling one’ s thoughts. This is a difficult task to perform. I. God in the text brings a severe charge against our thoughts. We are taught that only the blood of the Lord Jesus can cleanse them.1. Consider what thought is, and how far and swiftly it can go. It allies us to the spirits above. It can go so far that the bounds of the infinite alone can check it; so swiftly, that it can distance an archangel in his most rapid flight. Think of its achievements! 2. This thought, so marvellous in its capacity, God charges with vanity. It is a heavy indictment. II. There are many proofs of the correctness of the charge.1. This vanity appears in man’ s persistent seeking to pry into the mysteries of God. 2. It is seen in this, that when man cannot see, he proceeds to conjecture; when he cannot know then he guesses. 3. It is seen in the many ways the thoughts of men lead them into arrant, nonsense. Self-importance. Pleasures of sense, and appetite, etc. 4. It appears by a review of our past. In manhood, how foolish the thoughts of our childhood appears! We have then put away childish things. So the past period of our lives appears to us at every succeeding stage. III. Two things are needed,1. Purification of our thoughts. 2. Regulation of our thoughts, by-- (1) Watchfulness;(2) Discipline;(3) Self-examination. (M. Dix, D.D.) The true character of man’ s thoughts Suppose a man should find a great basket by the wayside carefully packed, and, on opening it, he should find it filled with human thoughts, all the thoughts which had passed through one single brain in one year, or five years, what a medley they would make! How many would be wild and foolish, how many weak and contemptible, how many mean and vile, how many so contradictory and crooked, that they could hardly lie still in the basket! And suppose he should be told that these were all his own thoughts, children of his own brain, how amazed would he be, how little prepared to see himself as revealed in these thoughts! And how would he want to run away and hide, if all the world were to see the basket, opened and see his thoughts! (J. Todd, D.D.) Psalms 94:12-15 Blessed is the man whom Thou chastenest, O Lord, and teachest him out of Thy law. Blessed discipline I. God’ s children are under tuition. Other children may run about, and take holiday; they may wander into the weeds, and gather the flowers, and do very much what they like; but. God’ s own children have to go to school. This is a great, privilege for them, although they do not always think so. Children are not often good judges of what is best for themselves. Note how this tuition is described in our text; the very first word concerning it is “ chastenest.” In God’ s school-house the rod is still extant; with the Lord, chastening is teaching. He does not spoil His children; but chastens them, aye, even unto scourging, as the apostle puts it (Hebrews 12:6). I know that some of us have learnt much from the Lord’ s chastening rod. For instance, we have learnt the evil of sin. “ Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now have I kept Thy Word.” Our chastening teaches us the unsatisfactory nature of worldly things. We can easily become attached to the things which we possess. It is a very difficult thing to handle gold without allowing it to adhere to your fingers; and when it gets into your purse, you need much grace to prevent it getting into your heart. Do we not also learn by affliction our own frailty, and our own impatience? Ah, yes, we find how great our weakness is when first one thing is taken away, and then another. Do we not then learn also the value of prayer? And then how precious the promises become. They shine out like newly-kindled stars when we get into the night of affliction. And oh, how should we ever know the faithfulness of God if it were not for affliction? We might talk about it and theoretically understand it; but to try to prove the greatness of Jehovah’ s love, and the absolute certainty of His eternal faithfulness--this cometh not except by the way of affliction and trial. II. God’ s children educated. “ That Thou mayest give him rest from the days of adversity,” etc. “ What!” you ask, “ chastened to give us rest? It is usual for chastening to break our rest.” Yes, I know that it is so with other chastenings; but in very deed this is the way in which God gives rest to His people. First, we learn to rest in the will of God. Our will is naturally very stubborn; and when we are chastened, at first we kick out, like a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke; but by degrees we feel that we must bear the yoke. We then go a little further, and we feel that we ought to bear it, even though God should lay upon us anything He pleases, and we should feel it very galling. By and by the yoke begins to fit our neck, and we come even to love it. We make advances in our spiritual education when we learn to rest after our afflictions. When any trouble is over, great delights often come to us. It is with us as it was with our Master; He had been with the wild beasts; worse still, He had been tempted of the devil; but angels came, and ministered unto Him. Perhaps there is no happier period of life than the state of convalescence, when the sick man is gradually recovering his former strength after a long illness. So God gives surprising peace to His people when He takes away their troubles, but He also gives them a great measure of peace in their troubles. Thus, for another lesson, we learn to rest in adversity. The Lord chastens us in order that we may learn how to stand fast, and bear up bravely while the trouble is yet upon us. III. God’ s children are still dear to Him (Psalms 94:14). First, “ the Lord will not east off His people.” When you are put into the furnace, and into the greatest heat that can be obtained, it is that the Lord may take away your dross and purify you for His service. Then, further, the Lord “ will not forsake His inheritance.” IV. God’ s people will be righted in the end (Psalms 94:15). Judgment has gone out of the world for a while, though it watcheth and recordeth all things. It is gone partly for our trial and testing, that we may learn to trust an absent God and Saviour. Judgment is also gone away in order that mercy may be extended to the ungodly, that they may live, and that they may turn to God; for He willeth not the death of any, but that they may turn unto Him and live. Judgment has gone up to the throne for a while until the wicked shall have completed the full measure of their sin, “ until the pit be digged for the wicked.” Do not be in a hurry, child of God; the Lord has timed His absence. “ Judgment shall return unto righteousness.” You shall hear the trumpet soon. And what then? Judgment shall be welcomed by the godly. When it comes, “ all the upright in heart shall follow it.” The chariot of righteousness shall lead the way, and all the people of God shall follow it in a glorious procession. Then shall they receive their Lord’ s commendation, “ Well done, good and faithful servants.” (C. H. Spurgeon.) The Word of God taught by His providence I. Why God chastises men in order to teach them out of His word. The general reason is because they disregard milder modes of teaching. If men would regard the still small voice of God in His works, and read His character therein displayed, they would fly to His Word for light and instruction, without needing or feeling His chastising hand. But they will not open their eyes to see Him, nor their ears to hear Him, until they are constrained to do it by the rod of correction. II. How God employs chastisements to teach men out of His word. He makes them feel the necessity of reading, hearing, understanding and embracing the Gospel, and then opens their hearts to embrace it. He causes them to know the rod, and who has appointed it; and the happy fruit is the taking away of their sins. Thus He often afflicts men for the purpose of giving them saving instruction. III. The happiness of those whom God effectually teaches the knowledge of His word, by means of the afflictive dispensations of His providence.1. The knowledge men are taught through this medium affords them real comfort and consolation, though their afflictions continue. They feel a joyful confidence in the rectitude, wisdom and goodness of all His dispensations. They choose that His will should be done rather than their own; and that His glory should be promoted, rather than their own personal good should be regarded. 2. They are happy when their peculiar troubles and trials are removed. Divine instruction in adversity teaches them how to feel and act in prosperity. 3. They shall be happy for ever. IV. Improvement.1. If God sometimes chastens men in order to teach them out of His Word, because milder means will not produce that desirable effect, then we must conclude that they are very unwilling to receive Divine instruction. 2. If it be owing to Divine-instruction that Divine chastenings do men good, then we may conclude that Divine chastenings alone will do them no good. The natural tendency of Divine chastenings is to stir up whatever moral corruption lies in the heart; and they will produce no other effect unless God Himself teaches them to profit. 3. If God improves the time of affliction as a favourable opportunity of instructing men out of His Word in the knowledge of Divine things, then the friends of God ought to improve the same favourable season for giving religious instruction to the afflicted. 4. If God employs chastenings as the most powerful means of instructing men in the knowledge of spiritual and Divine things, then those who refuse instruction under His correcting hand have reason to fear He will say concerning them, “ Let them alone,” that they may perish in their ignorance. He has said, “ My Spirit shall not always strive with man.” 5. Since God oftener instructs men in a time of adversity than in a time of prosperity, they have more reason to fear prosperity than adversity. 6. Let what has been said lead all to inquire whether they have ever derived any spiritual benefit from adversity. (N. Emmons, D.D.) The school of affliction I. The qualities of the man here blessed by the prophet.1. He is chastised of God. (1) This must teach us patience when we are wronged, injured and oppressed in any sort by evil men, because then being under them we are under God’ s rod. (2) It is a doctrine of singular comfort to the children of God being in the hands of their cruel and crafty adversaries, because their adversaries also are in the hands of God, as a rod in the hand of the smiter. 2. He is taught of God in His law. If in our affliction we will learn anything, we must take God’ s Book into our hands, and seriously peruse it. And hereby shall it appear that our afflictions have been our teachers, if by them we have felt ourselves stirred up to greater diligence, zeal, and reverence in reading and hearing the Word. 3. The lessons which affliction teacheth. (1) Those who are yet to be converted. They by their afflictions are taught this one worthy lesson, worth all the lessons in the world; namely, to convert and turn to the Lord, to repent and believe the Gospel. (2) The second kind of lessons taught by affliction is to those already converted. Concerning the right manner of bearing affliction. Concerning the right profit and holy use of afflictions. These lessons are proper to the converted, it being impossible for a man unconverted to leave either of them. II. The blessedness which belongeth to the child of God.1. The first kind of blessedness I call privative, because it consisteth in taking away of that curse which naturally cleaves to all afflictions. 2. There is also a positive blessedness in the afflictions of the godly. There is not only the absence of evil from affliction, but good also is present, in regard whereof the afflicted worthily are called and counted blessed. (1) The good from whence they have their original; namely, the love of God disposing these afflictions to us. (2) The good annexed to them, and necessarily concomitant with them. Our conformity with Christ our elder brother, who first suffered, and then entered into glory, who first wore a crown of thorns, and then of glory; who first felt the weight of His burdensome cross, and then that eternal weight of happiness (Romans 8:29). Our communion with Christ who is a fellow-sufferer with us in all our afflictions, unless such wherein we suffer as evil-doers (1 Peter 4:18). The powerful presence of God’ s Spirit, cheering and comforting us in our affliction. Blessedness is nothing else but enjoying sweet communion with God. Now, since this communion is most of all enjoyed in affliction, worthily are the afflicted counted blessed. (3) The good confirmed to us by them. The present good is our adoption, whereof they are assured pledges and badges unto us (Hebrews 12:1-29.). Good which afflictions confirm unto us is future. And that twofold. (i.) In this life, an enlargement of comforts both inward and outward, even answerable to the measure of afflictions. (ii.) In the life to come. “ If we suffer with Him,” etc. Thus were the martyrs blessed in their afflictions, blessed in their martyrdom, God honouring them like Elias, sending for them, as M. Bradford speaks, to heaven in a fiery chariot. Thus we see how in every respect the afflicted are to be accounted blessed. (D. Dyke, B.D.) How God deals with His saints We all seek happiness. Some place it in high, some in low things; some seek it in the gifts of earth, some in the thoughts of heaven; some in sensuality, some in temperance; some in gratifying themselves, some in helping others; some in the fleshpots of Egypt, some in the manna which is angels’ food; but happiness we all seek, even if, at the very moment of our seeking it, we are utterly destroying its possibility. Now, does God grant what we call happiness to His saints on earth? Think you that they will complain that He slew them, though they trusted in Him? Do you imagine that had they to make their choice once more, they would say that they had been but miserably befooled, and would be ready to exchange their Saviour’ s service for Satan’ s lies? Oh, let them come forth; let them lean from the crystal battlements of heaven; and though we see them not, let them make the silence voiceful. And do they not say, “ Listen ye, our brothers, who are toiling on the sea, while we have gained the shore. And know first that God in no wise deceived us. If He gave us not the things that earth counts blessings, neither did He ever promise them, but forbade us to set our heart in any way upon them. And if He gave us sorrow and sighing, and what the world accounted evil things, neither in this has He deceived us, for He warned us that we should have them. He bade us mortify the flesh; and we knew that mortification is not bliss. He told us that ‘ whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth’ ; nor were we ignorant that chastisement is not pleasant. Tradition told us that our Lord had said, ‘ He who is near Me is near the fire’ ; and no tradition, but His own words, told us (Matthew 10:25). No, our God never deceived us. Our eyes were open. We had counted well the cost.” Nor is this all their answer. They bend to us from those pure sunlit heights, and we hear them saying, “ And all that our God made us suffer, we knew to be for our good. We wished to be true and noble men, and at any cheaper price than this we could not be so. Not a pang we suffered, but it weaned us more wholly from the world. Not a disappointment which befell our feebleness, but it made us rest more utterly on Him. Not a garish lamp of earth which died out in fume, but it made more visible to us the living sapphires of spiritual hope. For the afflictions which were but mercies in disguise; for the flame which purged away the dross; for the furnace-heat which tried the silver; for the conflagration which burned up the straw and stubble, while the precious stones were left; for the floods which swept away the sand-built bases, to prove to us how unshakeable is that alone which is built upon a rock; for all these we thanked God then--we thank Him yet more deeply now. Yes, remember that our desires were not those of the world. All that we prayed God for was a noble heart which no earthly affection could drag down; and that He gave us, not only in, but by our sufferings. Oh, think not that we repine at these our sorrows; for we longed for one thing, and one thing only, which was to be perfect as our Father in heaven is perfect; and He (as with His own dear Son) so made us perfect by the things which we suffered.” And once more the saints say to us, “ And you who think that God dealt hardly with us His saints, ask yourselves whether others, who were not saints in any wise, escaped the sorrows which He gave to us. Selfish men, mean men, vulgar men, false, sensual, unloving men, may seem for a time to escape their cross, but does it not fall on them more crushingly at the end? If our lives seemed to fail, do not theirs? If the wicked flourish like a green bay-tree, are they not scathed sometimes by the fire from their bramble passions, and does not the axe at last swing down through the parted air upon their root? If men abused and slandered us, do bad men also escape slander and abuse? And have they any amulet against pain, sickness, loss, bereavement, and all the natural ills of life? But was there not this difference between us, that when calamity fell on us we were strong and calm and pure to bear it, but when it fell on them it was calamity meeting an accusing conscience? And when calamity meets crime, then indeed it is the thunder-cloud gathering upon the midnight, it is the dashing of the sea against the sea. And even at what they would have called the best, did not the very world sicken them of the world? Is there not, as Bossuet said, enough of illusion in its attractions, of inconstancy in its favours, of bitterness in its rebuff, of injustice and perfidy in the dealings of men, of unevenness and capriciousness in their intractable and contradictory humours--is there not enough of all this to disgust us? Aye, and therefore better was our hunger than their satiety; better the freedom of our emancipated affections than their sick, surfeit, and passion-fettered ease.” So, then, the saints would tell us that God did indeed deal hardly with them--that He did send them trials, but had forewarned them that it should be so, and He sent largely and richly His peace therewith; and if they had not been His saints, then they would have had the trials but not the peace. “ The things we resigned,” they say, “ were mean things, and vile, and things we did not value; the things we gained were eternal. To us alone was it given to be sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; to count it all joy when we fell into divers temptations; to rejoice in tribulations; to plunge into the willing agony and to be blessed. And in choosing this lot we heard voices which you too may hear; we saw beckoning hands which you too may see. ‘ Come, My children,’ those voices called to us, ‘ come and do My will. Let the hearts of others be foul with iniquity or fat as brawn--had all been such, the world had been a fen of corrupted waters, or a hell of raging strife--but ye are called to help, to raise, to inspire, to ennoble it.’“ (Dean Farrar.) New conceptions of truth gained through discipline A friend, writing of Dr. Gunsaulus, the beloved Chicago preacher, tells us that one large factor in his later religious development has been an experience in physical suffering and nervous depletion such as is rarely the lot of any child of God. “ I have suffered an inch off my leg,” he said plaintively, and then he added words that sank deep into his friend’ s memory: “ If I had to suffer it all again, and, in addition, to crawl across the continent on my hands and knees in order to get the conception of truth and life which has come to me through this discipline, I would gladly do it.” What a testimony from such a man!--The privilege of trial At a meeting I attended lately for the Army Scripture Readers Society (writes a correspondent) I was greatly struck by a speech made by one of the soldiers present. In this speech he twice remarked, “ It was my privilege to be wounded,” when speaking of the South African War. How beautiful and how rare. If we could all only have faith like this simple untaught soldier, and receive all trials and sorrows of our everyday life as privileges because sent from our Heavenly Father to lead us to Him! “ So by our woes to be Nearer, my God, to Thee; Nearer to Thee.” Psalms 94:13 Until the pit be digged for the ungodly.The retributive doom of the wicked I. It is terrible; it is a “ pit” ; conveying the idea--1. Of darkness; no sunlight.2. Confinement; enclosed all around.3. Of desolation; no society. II. It is preparing. The pit is being “ digged,” it is in process, not completed. Who is digging it? Not the Almighty, but the sinner himself. Deeper and deeper it becomes with every transgression he commits. (Homilist.) Psalms 94:16 Who will rise up for Me against the evil-doers?or who will stand up for Me against the workers of iniquity? The summons to holy work It is hardly possible to read this psalm through without feeling that the inspired voice in it denounces the unbelief of the heathen’ world. When a man has come to a deep conviction of the Oneness of Jehovah every other worship is to him an abomination, for such worship must either be an awful rivalry to Him whose glory cannot be given to another, or must involve a total misconception of His nature and a blasphemous corruption of His name. I. Characteristics of these evil-doers.1. Not more than one-seventh of the human race is even nominally Christian; and among these Christians are reckoned all the populations of Austria, France, Russia, America, and Spain; the Greeks, the Copts, and the Armenians; the priest-ridden inhabitants of Brazil and Mexico, and all the crowds of our English cities; the Sabbath-breakers, the despisers of God’ s love, the haters of God’ s law, the drunkard, the harlot, the miser, the dotard, and the fool. Verily, an accumulation of sin, a multitude of evil-doers, are to be found in so-called Christendom! But let us turn from the one-seventh to the six-sevenths of this world’ s population. Here, notwithstanding all our grievous imperfections, we are passing out of Goshen into Egyptian darkness. 2. Their variety. In one place there is subtle speculation, in another gross vice; here utter indifference, there wild fanaticism; in one tribe crushing ignorance, in another daring philosophy and luxuriant imagination. Some there are who, under the stimulus of history and myth, are virtual adorers of humanity, as the Confucianist and the Northern Buddhist; others, without traditions, or love, or duty, cherish no reverence, and fear no evil. The regiments of the prince of this world wear various uniforms; the mutineers in God’ s army are widespread and bear divers colours: they speak a hundred dialects or tongues, and are scattered over the whole world. Amid the varieties that we have to contend against, and the sins that we know to be grieving the heart of Immanuel, let us not omit to notice the men who find in the variety of the mutineers some arguments against the legitimacy of the Great King, who give to these forms of evil-doing gentle names, who are hopeless about the work of their reduction, and give it up in despair. 3. Their organization. The differences of which we have spoken in race, position, language, religion, philosophical character, take great leading types, and have prominent characteristics. Take away caste from the Brahmin, and you deprive him of his birthright. Take away caste from the mind of the Hindu, and you take away his living God. The most acute minds, and the best educated of the native populations, fight against all that we can believe to be sacred and holy, with the desperation of men who are contending for the altar, the homesteads, the graves of their fathers. 4. Their depravity. We would not blacken our poor humanity beyond its deserts, but nowhere, not even amid the most polished provinces of India and China, can we find a righteous class, or discover anything approximating a moral elevation--a standard of excellence which can excite the faintest hope that heathenism has within itself the elements of improvement or the seeds of life. Even the few exceptions of men whose virtues have been notorious, whose temptations have been overcome, whose philosophy, whose affections, or whose patriotism have triumphed over their lust, and been mighty enough to redeem them by God’ s grace from the universal pollution, do after all shed the most terrible light over the corruption that is untouched, and reveal throughout the wide extent of man the presence of a power and of possibilities, of a conscience, a freedom, and a spirit in man which leave him, as the apostle says, “ without excuse.” II. The course which God has taken with these evil-doers, and also what is involved in the appeal here uttered. “ Who will rise up for Me against the evil-doers?” “ Who is on the Lord’ s side? Whom shall we send, and who will go for us?” By these appeals to the heart of His people, God seems to tell us that He is not going to crush, or destroy, or convert, or save these evil-doers by any fiat of omnipotence, by any touch of His imperial sceptre, His method has always been to teach men by men; to uproot error by truth; to overturn and undermine evil influence by good influence; to conquer darkness by light; to drive out hatred by love. He took up the manhood of Jesus into His own Godhead, and made that great light henceforth to rule the day, and He made the reflections of His glory--as all lesser lights really are--to rule the night; and ever since the exaltation of Jesus, when He intends to reach the hearts and conquer the wills of men by His love, He calls the sons of men, the brethren of Jesus, to His help against the mighty. III. The response which is made to this appeal. Science, commerce, luxury, a polished language and unlimited resources, have had their day and utterly failed, having miserably succumbed in revelry, suicide and hell. Never let us hope that we can save Africa with cotton, or India with railways; the Moslem is not softened by a telegraph, nor the Dyak of Borneo purified by geometry. God calls for other helpers; and lo! by the side of all these shadowy forms, an angel of light (Revelation 10:1-2). The thunders utter their voices, and “ another angel appears, having the everlasting Gospel,” etc. Wheresoever this power has gone it has gained victories. Every sanctuary, every log-cabin where the name of Jesus has been breathed, is a scene where a battle has been fought against evil-doers, and a victory has been won. With whatsoever individual, class, or nation it comes fairly into contact, the evil is driven out, the tendencies to good sublimed and purified. It is the Gospel which shows the only way of meeting the clamour of insulted conscience, and supplies motives strong enough to lift the soul into harmony with its own moral law. (H. Reynolds, B.A.) Zeal for Christian enterprise When Dr. Beecher, the father of Mr. Beecher-Stowe, lay dying, his sons said to him, “ Would you rather go to heaven, or begin the battle on earth again?” The eyes of the old warrior in the cause of Christ sparkeled as he replied, “ Boys, if I had the choice I would choose the battle.” If all professing Christians were as eager to fight for their King against the forces of darkness, the world would soon be won to the Saviour. Alas! too many seem to think more about going to heaven than seeking to lead others there. (The Quiver.) Help anywhere During one of the great battles of the American Civil War a recruit who had lost his company in the tumult of strife approached General Sheridan and timidly asked where he would “ step in,” “ Step in?” thundered Sheridan, in a voice that frightened the already terrified recruit almost as much as the roar of cannonading and musketry. “ Step in anywhere; there’ s fighting all along the line.” An accident occurred recently that very forcibly brought Sheridan’ s words to mind. A heavy piece of machinery was being moved into a building by means of a block and tackle. Suddenly one of the ropes parted and the machine began to slide backward. The two men who had charge of the work sprang to stay its progress, but it was more than they were capable of doing. “ Give us a lift,” one of them shouted to a bystander. “ Where shall I take hold?” asked the man thus addressed, unmindful of the fact that both men were exerting every muscle to control the machine and that there was not a second to lose. “ Grab hold anywhere!” yelled the mover. But another had already seen the necessity for instant action, and rendered the necessary assistance. It may be that we are in a field of Christian enterprise where we are unaccustomed to work, and are timidly asking where we shall “ Step in.” We may find our answer in the words of Sheridan, “ Step in anywhere; there’ s fighting all along the line.” (Christian World.) Psalms 94:18 When I said, My foot slippeth; Thy mercy, O Lord, held me up.A common incident of the journey The soul in peril can seldom say much, but that which is said is generally expressive. Take, for example, these words: they imply faith in the presence of One able to help--abhorrence of the sin to which ha is tempted--and confidence in His willingness to save. This experience is a common one. All of us are, at some time, found in slippery places. I. Some slippery places, We are the more exposed to falling when we are brought into circumstances of--1. Poverty and want. Christ was tempted when He hungered.2. Of annoyance and vexation. Moses smote the rock in anger.3. Of dejection and perplexity (Psalms 73:2-3).4. Of sore bereavement and trial (Job). II. Some things concerning the traveller, rendering these the more perilous.1. The absence of the staff, or negligence in its use. Learn the promises and use them.2. The foot ill-shod.3. Drowsiness. “ Watch and pray, that,” etc.4. Carelessness.5. The lantern untrimmed or insecure, so that it goes out or burns dimly. III. The sure means for preservation. We have simply to cry to the Deliverer. The secret of a secure and blessed life is constant ejaculatory prayer. The moment danger is oven anticipated, to ask for timely assistance. (R. A. Griffin.) Upheld by Divine mercy Not often has the voice of man pointed the way and brought sinners to Christ with so much of picturesque and sweet persuasiveness as did that of Dr. Bonar. What could be finer than this eccentric way of stating the Gospel: “ Suppose that I, a sinner, be walking along yon golden street, passing by one angel after another. I can hear them say, as I pass through their ranks, ‘ A sinner! a crimson sinner!’ Should my feet totter? Should my eye grow dim? No; I can say to them, ‘ Yes, a sinner--a crimson sinner--but a sinner brought near by a forsaken Saviour, and now a sinner who has boldness to enter into the Holiest through the blood of Christ.’” Psalms 94:19 In the multitude of my thoughts within me Thy comforts delight my soul. Comfort amid disquieting thoughts The word here translated “ thoughts” means thoughts of a pensive, anxious nature--thoughts which have in them nothing bright and pleasant; thoughts which yoke themselves with cares; which perplex and disturb and depress us; and which we are not very ready to speak about, but are rather inclined to keep to ourselves. Our text speaks of the “ multitude” of such “ thoughts.” They are not rare and exceptional. They are to be found in all. Nor do they come to us merely at great crises and emergencies of our life, when something startling wakes up within us slumbering faculties, or when something crushing evokes hidden feelings of our heart. No; such thoughts come to us all at times, now darting into our mind like a lightning flash; now floating dreamily within our consciousness on some current of ordinary reflection. And their number who will reckon? As sparks fly off from the heated iron, so do these thoughts spring up in every reflective mind. For such thoughts, the psalmist implicitly admits there is no remedy in ourselves. From disagreeable things outside us we may protect ourselves; but who can insure himself against the influence of thoughts which arise within, and which come most easily in seasons of solitude and retirement from the world? Happy are they who learn the folly of fleeing from such thoughts; who know the wisdom of boldly fronting them with the precious thoughts of God; who are able to use the psalmist’ s words as the expression of their experience. “ In the multitude of my thoughts within me Thy comforts have caused me to leap and dance for joy.” Not only has he been able to bear the uneasy, anxious thoughts; not only has he been able to resist and overcome and quench them; but also he has experienced sensations of a directly opposite character; sensations of joy and exhilaration comfort. Care and anxiety and grief do, by God’ s grace, but make more real to us the tenderness of His sympathy and the amplitude of His love. Let us particularize some of these thoughts within us which disquiet and distress us, and let us see how they are met and satisfied by the comforts of God which delight our souls. In the multitude of our disquieting thoughts will be found some concerning God and the future. “ What if there were no God? What if it be true, after all, that the immortality of the soul is a delusion?” Such thoughts are very distressing. Still, let us face them calmly. It is not sinful to face and examine them when they come. They are permitted to come to us that we may not be satisfied with a traditional, superstitious, unintelligent belief. They who have passed through honest doubt without making shipwreck of their faith attain to a confidence and assurance regarding the truth of Christianity which nothing can shake or weaken. Their faith before was a sapling which had never felt a breeze, whereas now it is an oak which has been nursed into strength amid furious storms. They will feel that it was worth all the disquiet they suffered to attain to the firm peace which they now enjoy.. The consolations of God were small to them formerly compared with what they are now. They never knew before the preciousness of God’ s thoughts as they know them now. But another, and a very different class of disquieting thoughts are to be met with in many of God’ s people; I mean uneasy thoughts about their temporal affairs. You remember how you trembled at the thought of things which were threatening; how you persuaded yourself that disasters were inevitable; how your spirits were depressed, your bodily health enfeebled, and yourself unfitted, in a great measure, for meeting an emergency if it arose. In such an hour, when you turned to Him whom you were dishonouring, what light fell upon your path, what consolation entered your heart, what strength was imparted to your resolution, what grace was given you to accept cheerfully whatever might come. Think yet again. In the multitude of our uneasy, anxious thoughts there will be some about our friends. God has linked us so closely to those around us that even the most selfish of us cannot always care only for ourselves. Perhaps some of the most solicitous thoughts we ever have are about those who are near and dear to us. And yet we must bury them to a large extent in our heart. They must be to each, “ My thoughts within me.” The careful, anxious thoughts which crowd forth from a Christian parent’ s heart, and cluster round his or her children, are a multitude which no man can number. Yet, amid such thoughts, what comfort a Christian parent has in God! Upon whom, save upon Him, can he roll such a load of care? To whom, save God, can he tell all that is in his heart? And mark his consolation. God is his Father. All the love and pity and care; all the solicitude and tender concern which he feels for his child, God feels for him. What confidence, what gladness, what trust that enables him to feel. His anxieties about his children are changed into arguments for faith; into unanswerable reasons for calm, unwavering trust. Once more. How many anxious, disquieting thoughts some Christians have about death. Perhaps most or all of us have them. And there is no class of thoughts men are more unwilling to utter than these. They keep them in their own heart. “ My thoughts within me.” And yet, when we bring them to God in prayer, how many consoling messages He brings home to our hearts from His Holy Word. What peace, what satisfaction, what comfort we experience in leaving to His loving care all that may happen! The hour of our departure is fixed by Him. Before that hour comes, nothing can take us away; after it has arrived, nothing can detain us here. “ My times are in Thy hand. Not only the time, but also the place and the manner are arranged by Him. And who loves us so wisely or so well as He? Regarding it all, we need not have a single care. (W. Young, B. A.) David’ s malady and remedy I. The malady.1. The grief itself. “ Thoughts” considered simply in themselves do not contain any matter of grief or evil, they are the proper and natural issue and emanations of the soul which comes from it with a great deal of easiness, and with a great deal of delight, but it is the exorbitancy and irregularity of them which is here intended, when they do not proceed evenly and fairly, as they ought to do, but with some kind of interruption. The finest wits are liable to the greatest distractions; and the more advantages any have of doing evil, the more occasions have they likewise of suffering evil, as the mind is capable of the greater comfort and contentment, so it is also of the greatest trouble; and look as it is in the body, that the most exquisite constitutions are liable to the greatest pains, so in the soul the most sublime and raised parts are exposed to the most disquieting thoughts. 2. The amplification of this evil from the number. “ Multitude of thoughts.” Thoughts crowding and thrusting in themselves in a violent and confused manner one upon another. (1) Man’ s mind goes from one thing to another like a bee in the change of flowers, and is never at rest; and this is a part of that vanity which is upon it; this infirmity is seen in nothing more than it is in the performance of good duties, prayer and hearing of the Word, and such religious exercises as these, wherein this multitude of thoughts does in a special manner discover itself. (2) Our thoughts are for the most part answerable to the estate we are in, and the occasions which are presented to us. Now, forasmuch as there is an alteration in them, there is also a diversity in these, suitable and agreeable thereunto. 3. The subject of this grief and distemper is David himself; from whence observe that even the children of God themselves they are sometimes troubled with anxious and solicitous thoughts, and that also in a very great multitude and plurality of them. (1) Concerning their own salvation and state in grace. (2) Concerning their own preservation and provision and state always in the world. (3) Concerning the public state and condition of the Church of God and the commonwealth. All these several heads do make up this multitude of thoughts in the Church of God. 4. The intimacy or closeness of it. “ In my very heart.” (1) The secrecy of this grief. (2) The settledness and radication of this evil; it was within him, and it was within his heart, that is, it was deeply rooted and fastened, and such as had a strong groundwork and foundation in him, such were these troublesome thoughts, they were got into his very inwards and bowels, and so were not easily got out again. (3) The impression which they had upon him, and the sense which he himself had of them. They were such as did grievously afflict him, and pierce him, and went near unto him, they went to his very heart, and touched him, as it were, to the quick, through the grievousness of them. II. The remedy.1. The physic itself. (1) To take it distinctly and simply in itself. “ Thy comforts.” He speaks here to God, and gives testimony to His comforts in this hi.s present condition. “ My thoughts,” but “ Thy comforts” ; we may raise thoughts of ourselves, but it is God only can settle them: we may torment ourselves, but it is God only can relieve us; none can comfort but God. “ Thy comforts,” not only original and effective, but likewise material and objective; not only as God is the author and bestower of these comforts, but likewise as God is the object and matter of this last. If we speak properly and exactly, so all comforts are God’ s comforts, even those comforts which are in the creatures, and which are derived and conveyed to us in them, they are no other than His. The comforts which are in friends, estates, outward blessings, are all His comforts. They are His as giving the thing, and as giving the contentment. But these comforts here in the text are said to be His in a further consideration. “ Thy comforts,” that is Divine comforts, Christian comforts, spiritual comforts, comforts drawn from religion. The closer we walk with God, the more comfort we have from Him, not only hereafter in heaven, but also now at present here upon earth, which should therefore be a further spur to incite us hereunto. (2) The second is by considering them connectively in reference to what went before in the beginning of the verse, “ In the multitude of my thoughts.” First, here is their concomitancy, by making “ in” to be as much as “ cure.” “ In my thoughts,” that is, altogether with them; and so it does imply thus much unto us, that the children of God are never wholly and absolutely disquieted and dejected in themselves; but as God does in His providences suffer them now and then to be troubled with sad thoughts, so at the very same moment and instant of time does he administer comfort more or less unto them. The second is their opportunity, “ In the multitude” of distracting thoughts; that is, just when they were come to their height and extremity in me. The comforts of God are seasonable, and observe the proper time for their coming, neither too soon, nor too late; not before, that were too soon, nor after, that were too late; but “ in,” that is, just in the very point and nick of time. This should teach us never to despair, but rather then to be fullest of hope, and to make perplexities to be a remedy against themselves. And so much for that second particular, to wit their opportunity. The third particular is their conveniency, and the suitableness of these comforts here spoken of. This is signified in that interpretation, which renders it by the word “ according.” And here again are two things more. First, they are suitable to the number of the evils. And, secondly, they are suitable to the greatness of them. 2. The operation of this physic, and that we have briefly in these words, “ Delight my soul.” (1) For the act “ delight,” this is a transcendent expression, which the Holy Ghost in the pen of the prophet David comes up unto: it had been a great matter to have said, they satisfy my soul, or they quiet me, no more but so, that is the highest pitch which a perplexed spirit can wish to itself. Those which are in great pain, they would be glad if they might have but ease, they cannot aspire so high as pleasure and delight; this is more than can be expected by them; but see here now the notable efficacy of these Divine comforts, they do not only pacify the mind, but they joy it; they do not only satisfy it, but ravish it; they do not only quiet it, but delight it. (2) The second is the object, and that is my soul. We showed before how the grief was in the mind, and therefore the comfort must be so also, that the remedy may answer the malady. Bodily comforts will not allay spiritual troubles, but spiritual comforts will make very great amends in bodily infirmities. A good heart it will do good, as a medicine, as Solomon speaks; and it will give marrow and fatness to the bones. (T. Horton, D.D.) Unruly thoughts quieted by Divine consolations I. In evil times the misery of the saints of God is more from thoughts within than from troubles without.1. The best men they are not freed, while they live here, from unruly, unsubdued thoughts. (1) From the corruptions of the unregenerate part, the remainder of a corruption in the best men, it is like fire in an oven (Hosea 7:4-5), and he hath violent irruptions. (2) From the invasion of some enticing creature-objects amongst them, as David saw Bathsheba: Achan saw, and he desired; considered and desired: so likewise it is said in 1 John 2:6. (3) From the injections of Satan: for what are unruly thoughts? It is Satan doth himself many times immediately inject: so the devil put it into the heart of Judas to betray Christ. 2. In times of trouble, these thoughts come in by multitudes: a man’ s thoughts are never so tumultuous as in troublesome times. (1) Because in troublesome times the souls of men are awake. In times of prosperity and peace there is usually a spirit of slumber upon men; but when God empties a man from vessel to vessel, then how full of projects is the heart of man? never brought into danger, but the man his thoughts rise. Oh, how shall I escape? what shall I do? and how shall I make provision for myself? (2) Satan takes special care to assail the hearts of men with thoughts in an evil time. 3. The great part of afflictions doth lie more in these tumultuous and unruly thoughts within, than in all a man’ s troubles and afflictions without: winds without do not cause an earthquake, but wind within. II. God doth provide for His people consolations in and answerable to their afflictions. Consider, first, there is no affliction that ever the people of God are cast into that He leaves destitute of consolation. It is never pure darkness (Genesis 15:17), even when the Church of God was as a sacrifice cut in pieces, yet notwithstanding there was a light passed between the pieces; it is never pure darkness, but yet notwithstanding it may be many times darkness in reference to creature-comforts, they may have no comforts they can look at here below. And this consolation that God gives them is a seasonable consolation, “ In the multitude of my thoughts” : in the very time when I am most perplexed, then doth God bring in His consolations. Nay, not only in the affliction, but according unto the affliction, so shall the consolation be, and therefore Jerome reads it, “ According to the multitude of my thoughts” ; so were the multitude of God’ s consolations; God will give it in the time and the season of it; but, withal, the Lord will give it according unto the measure; when He doth bring great afflictions, He provideth for you strong consolations, that as the affliction aboundeth, so the consolations shall abound; the Lord tells you, that His rewards shall be according to the measure of His mercies: it is an admirable expression in Hosea 10:12. (W. Strong.) Religion the best support under the troubles of life I. Religion moderates our love of the world, restrains our affections from the eager pursuit of its enjoyments, and thereby enables us to bear with greater patience its evils and afflictions, and prevents immoderate sorrow and dejection under them. II. Religion affords such immediate delight and pleasure, as in a great measure supplies the want of any outward enjoyment, and allays the pain of any worldly distress. III. Religion, as it teaches that all things are ordered by the most perfect wisdom and goodness, so it particularly assures every good man that all things shall work together for his real interest. IV. Religion gives us the blessed prospect of a happy end to all our sorrows, and of rest from all our labours in the life which is to come. V. Religion entitles us to the gracious influences of the Spirit of God, by which we are enabled to apply all these things to our comfort, and to rejoice in the Lord always. (F. Carmichael.) Divine comforts in the world of thought I. Man’ s real world is in his thoughts, “ As a man thinketh in his heart so is he.” The universe and God are to a man according to his thoughts. Those thoughts are very multitudinous. “ The multitude of my thoughts.” Who can count the thoughts of one man, even during one day? They flow through the soul as wavelets on the rapid stream. II. Man’ s real happiness is in his God. “ Thy comforts delight my soul.” Thy unchangeableness amidst the mutations, Thy paternal providence amidst the solicitudes, Thy pardoning mercy amidst the remorses, Thy promises of immortality amidst the forebodings--all these “ delight my soul.” (Homilist.) God’ s comforts greater than our troubles God’ s comforts are not like melting vapours and summer brooks. They are “ rivers of pleasures,” and “ wells of salvation.” We stoop down to drink where Abraham bent the knee. We draw water where David assuaged his thirst. Jesus talks to us of the living water which shall be “ in us a well of water.” If the toils, and cares, and troubles which exercised the pious soul of the writer of this psalm should come in on us in all their multitude, and with all their tumult, like the noise of many waters, the “ comforts” of our God, fuller, deeper, and more abiding, will come flowing in to still them, and to fill all the soul with their own sweet delights. I. Suppose that the trouble arises directly out of the heart. The multitude of the thoughts in this ease are all tinged with self-accusation. Sin revives, the better self seems dead. Where is the comfort for such a state? In the whole Gospel. In all the fulness of Jesus Christ--His cleansing blood, His purifying Spirit, His tender love, His power to save to the uttermost. II. Suppose that the trouble arises, not out of the heart directly, but out of the circumstances. There are some who have not habitually many fears within, but who have often or constantly great fightings without. Martha still lives her busy, toilsome life. “ Careful and troubled about many things” is written on many a face. The comforts God has for such a state are manifold, and they sometimes break upon the man suddenly, like stars through clouds. “ Ebenezer!” That seals and keeps all the past, so that now you cannot lose it. It will be a fact for evermore, and I trust to you a blessed memory, that the Lord has helped you through all that past. “ The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want!” Is not that a plentiful provision for the present hour? And there are some texts with still more tenderness in them (Matthew 6:8; Philippians 4:19; 1 Peter 5:7). III. Or suppose that the trouble arises in some way out of the strangeness and the strength of Divine providence. Every man with a will, with a plan, with any great and generous purpose, is sure to be at some time so thwarted as greatly to need the comforts of God. Then take these comforts, these two:--The first is this, that undoubtedly the supreme and perfect will of God has been working in all. And as soon as there is a devout recognition of that will, there will be some beginning of rest, some influx of a holy calm. But there is another. Because another is needed to make the comfort full. For the man might still say, “ Then all I have been working for is pure loss--loss of energy, loss of affection, loss of time--mere ruin in God’ s universe. God does not need ruins to build with. How much better, therefore, it would have been if I could have discovered the perfect will earlier, so as to save all that bootless toil and useless waste.” Not so. For here is the second comfort:--“ All things work together for good to them that love God.” IV. A devout Christian looking at the whole Church may well have a “ multitude of thoughts within him.” This whole Church is the one body of Christ, and “ every one members one of another” ; and yet what divisions, what conflicts there are among the parts and sections! But here also God’ s comforts come in. The Lord reigneth. He will heal the distractions of His Church. He will give “ the same mind and the same judgment.” He will give one heart and one soul. He will pour out His Spirit as a spirit of love and power and of a sound mind. He will restore the waste places, the ruins of many generations. He will bring again Zion. He will establish and make Jerusalem a praise in all the earth. (A. Raleigh, D.D.) Deliverance from danger; delight in distress I. The soul’ s danger and distress.1. The danger arose, not from any impotency in the man, but from the slippery or rough state of the road. Your horse may be quite sure-footed, but if you drive him over a rough or ice-covered road he may stumble. This good man was both sound and strong. He believed that the man was blessed whom the Lord chastened. But just at this point the path became very slippery, and for the moment he felt confused, excited, and troubled, so that he was almost falling. Now, a much-needed lesson springs out of this circumstance. We are taught to guard ourselves against a spirit of self-sufficiency, and also to sympathize with our stumbling brethren, who are quite as sound and strong as ourselves, but who slip because of the stronger temptations they have to encounter. 2. But connected with this danger there is distress. As a rule distress follows in the wake of danger, even though the threatened danger has been averted. People who have experienced what seemed miraculous escapes have afterwards been visited by the greatest distress of mind. They are intensely thankful that they did escape, but the danger, that was so dreadful and imminent, takes such hold of their mind, that, though saved from it in a physical sense, they, nevertheless, go through it again and again in their imagination, and the process is one of the most acute pain. Deliverance from evil does not, as a rule, leave the mind full of pure joy and gratitude; the thought of the other alternative--what might have been--fixes itself like a barbed arrow in the breast. II. Deliverance and delight. Observe the nature of the deliverance. He was held up, not lifted and carried away. His surroundings remain the same. The slippery path is before him as well as behind him. God simply sustains him. Thus it is that His mercy is often vouchsafed. He takes not away the burden; but He enables us to bear it. He changes not the scene from war to peace, but arrays us in the armour and strengthens us with the might that will ensure for us a glorious victory. He makes not the path less rough or slippery, but takes us by the hand, and so helps us on. And just as the danger is followed by distress, so the deliverance is followed by delight. “ Thy comforts delight my soul.” The feet are not only firmly established, but a new song is put into the mouth. The heart’ s agitation is calmed. The shock is allayed. The troubled mind finds peace. Its darkness is turned into day, and its motions are no more those of fear, but the ecstasies of pure delight. III. The soul’ s access to these blessings. “ When I said.” The confession and the salvation are connected--the one leads to the other. And what of the confession? It is that of a trembling, humble soul that mistrusts itself; but though perplexed still, trusts in the living God, and so, in answer to its call, deliverance comes. What a difference there is, then, between confession and profession (Matthew 26:33-34). (Adam Scott.) Medicine for the distracted Good people are a thoughtful people. They are none the less so because they are men of faith. Christ’ s words, “ Take no thought for the morrow,” meant only take no carking care, no anxious thought: it was anxiety, not prudence, which He condemned. They take much account of their thoughts. Other men are scarcely alarmed at their actions unless they be very glaring, but the saint trembles when an impure thought defiles his soul. For thought makes character: “ As a man thinketh, so is he.” We must, then, look well to our thoughts and keep our heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life. Happy shall we be if we can say as the psalmist, “ In the multitude,” etc. Note-- I. The psalmist’ s declaration: It means--1. That, when passing many subjects in review before him, he selected the joys of true religion, or the comforts of God, as the subjects which he preferred before all others. He knew the joys of quiet meditation. He was a man whose contemplations would take a wide range. He had lived a country life, he knew much of the beauties of nature, of the glories of the heavens, and he could unite his thoughts about them to fit words. Of all purely intellectual joys there is, surely, none greater than to be able to pour forth sublime truths in fitting words. But he knew also the delights of active life, and they are not a few to a man who is in vigorous health and mental force. Also he knew the splendours of a court. Yet, reviewing all his life thoughts, he makes this declaration, “ In the multitude,” etc. Should not this be the assertion of every Christian? 2. The text means, also, that when he was exercised with many cares in life, he found his solace in the comforts of his God. He had many reasons for care. At court, when persecuted; “ but,” we read, “ David encouraged himself in the Lord his God.” This what we should do. Then-- 3. When oppressed with evil thoughts he found his shelter in God. Such thoughts do come into the holiest minds. How horrible they are, and how desperate is the conflict of a gracious soul when it is tortured with them. But at such times the only consolation is to fall back upon God. 4. When the mind is worried with thoughts which cannot be dissipated, it is well to turn unto the Lord. Men will have periods in which they do not seem so much to have a subject for thought as to be prisoners of care to ten thousand subjects at once. They are carried away as with a flood. What nights of weary watchings and longings for rest that will not come do they cause! Now, there is no sleeping draught that I know of like contemplation of the love of God. 5. If ever we are beset with a multitude of thoughts of a doubting kind, we shall find our best solace in flying to our God. Francis Quarles, in his quaint “ Emblems,” represents a man with a flail, who is dealing heavy blows all around, and the only one who escapes is a person who, with much daring, comes close to him; the way to escape the heavy blows of Providence is to close in with Him who wields the rod, for the further off the heavier the blow. In all dark times run home. Return unto your rest. If you cannot come to the Lord as a saint, come as a sinner. II. What is this subject upon which David lays such stress? He says, “ Thy comforts delight my soul.” What are God’ s comforts? They are the truths which surround the person and work of God. First there is the Father. What comfort that He is our Father! Then comes Jesus, the Son of God, our very brother, man, our perfect atonement, and He who has perfumed the grave in which we shall sleep, and then removed its door. And then the Holy Spirit, for He helpeth our infirmities. But these consolations spring from the whole work and system of Divine grace; from the attributes and from the promises of God. The Bible is a great honeycomb, and it drips with honey. Conclusion:--The way to comfort is the way which leads thee to thy God. And oh, poor sinner, the same way is open to you. Do not look within for comfort, for you will find none. As well go to the Arctic regions, and pierce icebergs to discover warmth, as look to yourselves for consolation. Away then to Him who has said, “ Whosoever cometh unto Me I will in no wise cast out.” (C. H. Spurgeon.) Multitudinous thoughts and sacred comforts If a man were a mere animal he would not need the comfort which thought may bring, outward things would be enough. Let but the trough be full and the swine are happy; the pasture abundant and the sheep are content. But man needs far more. His greatest joy or misery must proceed from inner springs. Hence the importance, but also the labour and difficulty of guarding our thoughts, for they are unstable, unruly, fickle, swift, impetuous, changeable as the clouds of heaven. How then shall we do this? Let the text tell us. It speaks--I. Of multitudinous thoughts and sacred comforts. None of these thoughts, then, are those which are tumultuous in the night of trial. At such times it is a great blessing if God’ s comforts are, as they may be, our stay and holdfast. They were so to David (Psalms 94:9; Psalms 94:12; Psalms 94:14). And he calls to mind his own experience. “ Unless the Lord had been my help,” etc. “ Thy mercy, O Lord, held me up.” Such thoughts as these in times of tumult will not merely console, but delight the soul. Perplexing thoughts and periods of dilemma. It is with some as with Israel at the Red Sea. The sea before them, the rocks on either hand, and the cruel Egyptians in the rear. In such cases there is nothing for it but to “ stand still and see the salvation of God.” Remember that often all thy way is ordered by a higher power than thine. Our Pilot never sleeps, and His hand never relaxes its grasp. Remorseful thoughts in the hour of recollection. Who can be without these when he passes his life in review? Can there be forgiveness for all these? Then the comforts of God come to us in Jesus. Thoughts of heart-searching in seasons of spiritual anxiety. And of foreboding in days of depression. Lift high the banner, “ Jehovah Jireh.” It must be well with us, it cannot be ill. Occasionally we have thoughts profound in times of meditation. There are many great mysteries in the Word of God, and foolish persons utterly befog themselves with them; some minds seem never to be satisfied until they find something which they cannot comprehend, and then they are ready to give up the Bible altogether; they act like one who should come in to a feast, and after turning over all the good things, should at last find a bone with no meat upon it, and should insist upon it that he would not eat a morsel until he could digest that particular bone. But I bless God for a religion which I cannot perfectly understand. II. View these sacred comforts. View them in their nature. They are connected with God--the Father, Son, Holy Ghost. When Archbishop Whately was dying, a friend said to him, “ Sir, you are great in death as well as in life.” The good man shook his head and replied, “ I am dying, as I have lived, a simple believer in Jesus Christ.” “ But what a blessing it is,” said the other, “ that your glorious intellect does not fail you at the last.” “ There is nothing glorious,” said he, “ but Jesus Christ.” “ Still,” said the other, “ your grand endurance is a great support to you.” “ I have no support but faith in the crucified Saviour,” said he. Comfort comes from the Lord alone. And these comforts have stability. Many consolations are like the life-buoys heard of a while ago, which are exceedingly useful on dry land, but of no service whatever when once a man trusts his life to them in the sea. But not so God’ s comforts. And they are efficient. They delight “ my soul,” my very self. And they delight, not merely sustain and quiet the soul. III. A contrast. For many never think at all. Their thoughts, if they have any, are like a swarm of gnats, volatile, dancing up and down, light, useless. Oh, that men would think! Once there was a canoe afloat on Niagara, but some miles off the fall. As the current carried it on, people on the bank could see that the paddle was shipped and an Indian lying in the canoe fast asleep. They shouted as loud as they could to awake him, for they well knew what dread peril he was in. They ran along the bank shouting and calling to him, but it was of no use. He had either been drinking or was so fatigued that his slumber was most profound, and the canoe went on, continually increasing its pace. It dashed at last against a headland, and spun round in the torrent, and they said one to another, “ He is safe; the man will be awakened. Such a start as that must rouse him up, and he will paddle out of danger.” But no, he went right on till the roaring of the fall was near, and then the course of the boat was so rapid that none could keep up with it, and it went whirling on faster and faster. So profound was the Indian’ s sleep, that for a while even the roar of the fall did not awaken him, but at last he was aroused, and then he grasped his paddle; but it was all too late; he was borne onward, and the last that was seen of him was his standing bolt upright in the boat as it plunged over the abyss, and was never seen or heard of more. Ah! how like is this to those of you who are asleep, and are borne onward by the treacherous current. That fever, that sick-bed, like a headland jutting into the stream, methought it would have made you think. That frail bark of thine was twisted round and round. O that thy soul had been but aroused from its slumber. The noise of hell may well be in thy ears, and the sound that cometh up from the abyss of terror may well arouse thee; but alas, I fear, thou wilt sleep on until escape be no longer possible. But may God forbid. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Man’ s comfort Here is a twofold army, one marching against another, an insurrection and a debellation; a tumult and its appeasement; a band of thoughts assaulting, and a host of comforts repelling, resisting, protecting. There is a multitude of those thoughts, and no less is the number of these comforts. These troublous thoughts have got into the citadel of the heart, within me; and these consolatory forces have entered as far, even into the soul; “ they delight my soul.” Those thoughts fight under the colours of flesh and blood, but these comforts under the banner of God; they are “ my” thoughts, but “ Thy” comforts; the cogitations of man, but the consolations of Jesus Christ. I. Our foes.1. The rebels are thoughts. As the world produceth vipers, and serpents, and venomous creatures, worms and caterpillars that would devour their parent, so the soul breeds noxious and mutinous thoughts, that are like an earthquake in her bowels; and while they maintain civil broils and factions one against another, she feels the smart of all. 2. The number of them is a multitude. Thought calls to thought, jealousy to fear, fear to sorrow, sorrow to despair; and these furies leap upon the heart as a stage, beginning to act their tragical parts. Man hath more wheels moving in him than a clock; only the difference is, that the wheels of a clock move all one way, whereas his faculties, like the epicycles, have a rapt motion. His sensitive appetite gives him one motion, his fantasy another, his reason a third, and his imperious, impetuous will crosseth them all, driving the chariot of his affections with the fury of Jehu. He desires and thinks, and chooseth, argues, consents, and dislikes, and makes more business than time itself. There are not so many hours in one year as there may be thoughts in an hour. 3. The captain of this troublesome soul is himself; “ my” thoughts. From what suggestion soever our thoughts come, we call them our own; as whosoever begot the babe, the mother calls it her own child. Indeed, the praise and propriety of good motives we ascribe only to God, without whom we cannot so much as think a good thought; as the channel may gather filth of itself, but it cannot have a drop of pure water but from the fountain. Bad suggestions, though they proceed from Satan, we call them our own, because they are bred in the womb of our natural corruption; stubble is blown by the wind into the fire, and, being inflamed, it becomes fire. 4. The field where the skirmish is fought; “ within me.” It is unhappy when soldiers march over the palaces of peace and seats of justice, where the councillors and senators used to sit. If there must be war, let it be in foreign countries, or if it will be in our own land, yet let it proceed no further than the borders; but when it is gotten into the chief city, though it be subdued, it will cost a dear victory. II. Our friends.1. They are “ comforts” ; not presumptions, nor promises, nor mere hopes; but solid and sensible comforts. 2. There is a plurality of them: “ many comforts.” Are we troubled with the wants and miseries of this life? We have a comfort for that: “ The Lord is my portion; He is my shepherd. I shall lack nothing.” Do we sink under the burden of our transgressions? We have a comfort for that. Mary Magdalene heard it to quiet all her storms: “ Thy sins are forgiven thee.” Are we haunted with temptations, hurried with persecutions? We have a comfort for that: “ I will be with thee in trouble,” saith the Lord. Our comforts vie with the number of our sorrows, and win the game. The mercies of God passed over in a gross sum breed no admiration; but cast up the particulars, and then arithmetic is too dull an art to number them. As many dusts as a man’ s hands can hold is but his handful of so many dusts; but tell them one by one, and they exceed all numeration. 3. “ Thy comforts.” Troubles may be of our own begetting; but true comforts come only from that infinite fountain, the God of consolation; for so He hath styled Himself. The eagle, at her highest flight, will not lose sight of her young ones; if she perceive any danger approaching, down she comes again to their defence. Christ is indeed ascended up on high, yet He hath a favourable eye to His servants below. 4. “ Delight the soul,” which is the last circumstance; the effect of all. All God’ s war is for peace. We should never have had such a conflict, if God had not intended us for such a conquest. If here were nothing but sorrows, earth would be thought hell; if nothing but comforts, it would be thought heaven.But that we may know it to be, as indeed it is, neither heaven nor hell, but between both, and the way to either, we have a vicissitude of troubles and delights. In calamity, good nourishments are comfortable, good words are comfortable, good friends are comfortable, the physician is comfortable, a good spouse is specially comfortable; but in respect of these comforts, which do nevertheless pass all understanding, we may say of them, as Job did to his visitant friends, “ Miserable comforters are ye all.” But blessed are the souls upon whom this Sun of comfort shineth; and happy are those showers of tears and sorrows that shall be dried up with such beams of comfort. (T. Adams.) Thought of God should be continuous Life is but a dreary stretch of wilderness unless all through it there be dotted, like a chain of ponds in a desert, those moments in which the mind fixes itself upon God, and loses sorrows and sins and weaknesses and all other sadnesses in the calm and blessed contemplation of His sweetness and sufficiency. The very heavens are bare and lacking in the highest beauty unless there stretch across them the long lines of rosy-tinted clouds. And so across our skies let us cast, a continuous chain of thoughts of God; and as we go about our daily work, let us try to have our minds ever recurring to Him like the linked pools that mirror heaven in the midst of the barren desert, and bring a reflection of life into the midst of death. (A. Maclaren, D.D.) Divine comfort alone sufficeth In all the comforts we have it is good to consider from whence it comes; is it God’ s comfort or a fancy of our own? A comfort that is made up of our fancies is like a spider’ s web that is weaved out of its bowels, and is gone and swept away with the turn of a bosom. (T. Manton, D.D.) The thoughts of man multitudinous The thoughts of a man’ s heart--what millions are there of them in a day! The twinkling of the eye is not so sudden a thing as the thinking of a thought, yet those thousands and thousands of thoughts which pass from thee, that thou canst not reckon--they are all known to God. (A. Burgess.) Psalms 94:20 Shall the throne of iniquity have fellowship with Thee, which frameth mischief by a law?Wrong legalized I. Iniquity has a “ throne” on earth. It is a ruling power, it has the sway everywhere. Wrong is an imperial power. II. The “ throne” of iniquity is incompatible with God. “ Shall the throne of iniquity have fellowship with Thee?” Impossible. It is eternally antagonistic to the Divine nature, law, and procedure. III. The “ throne” of iniquity legalizes wrong. “ Which frameth mischief by a law.” In England wrong is legalized. What is war but legalized murder, monopoly but legalized dishonesty, unrestrained accumulation of wealth but legalized greed? What wrongs, alas, our fathers have legalized, from which we are suffering to-day. (Homilist.) A startling inquiry I. What is the throne of iniquity? Any government that upholds and protects wrong-doing, or that does not protect the people from the workers of iniquity, is a throne of iniquity. It frames mischief into law:--1. When it protects that which is morally wrong by legal enactments, and enables men to defend their bad conduct by saying, “ I have a government licence.” 2. When it patronizes that which is evil by using it as a source of revenue. II. Such a throne has no fellowship with God.1. Because God’ s throne, God’ s government, is upright, righteous. 2. He never makes a law to protect that which is wrong, nor to regulate evil. 3. He condemns, denounces, and prohibits all evil, both in the person and the state. He has no fellowship with the workers of iniquity. III. Apply this to the liquor-traffic.1. The manufacture, importation, exportation, transportation, and traffic in intoxicating liquors, for drinking purposes, is a great wrong. 2. Those who pass enactments to regulate or protect such an evil frame mischief into law. 3. To vote for such laws, or to suffer them to exist if we can prevent it, is to sustain “ the throne of iniquity.” 4. Licence laws do not make the liquor-traffic right, but they do make those who enact them accomplices in the crime of the liquor-seller. (D. C. Babcock.) . Psalms 95:1-11 Psalms 95:1-11O come, let us sing unto the Lord. The grandest of creature services I. It is the most righteous. Adoration rendered to--1. The greatest Being. (1) Great in Himself (Psalms 95:3).(2) Great in His possessions (Psalms 95:4). 2. The kindest Being. (1) He made us. Possessing reason, imagination, conscience, freedom, etc.(2) He supports us--provides for our necessities, watches over us, guides us through intricacies, and guards us from perils.(3) He delivers us. “ The rock of our salvation.” The strong ground of our confidence, the foundation on which our safety rests. Who will say then that this service is not the most righteous,--to adore most the most adorable, to thank most the supremely kind? II. It is the most delightful. “ Joyful noise.” Worship is the only service that ensures happiness.1. It accords with the highest dictates of conscience. 2. It gratifies our highest love. 3. It engages our highest powers. III. It is the most urgent (Psalms 95:7-8).1. The neglect of this service is the hardening of the heart. 2. The hardening of the heart leads to procrastination. 3. This procrastination involves most calamitous results. (1) It provokes the Almighty (Psalms 95:8).(2) It leads to ruin (Psalms 95:11). (Homilist.) The Venite I. A call to praise (Psalms 95:1-2; Psalms 95:6). Our call to praise and thanksgiving leads on, as we should expect such an one as David to teach us, to prayer. We praise for evidences of His nature, and such praise must lead us to pray that His attributes may find their exercise towards us; that He will deal with us as His perfect nature has dealt with other generations and other people. We offer thanks for the past, and every past mercy is ground of prayer for future mercies; every received mercy is a ground of hope upon which we build our prayers for new mercies. II. The causes which demand our praise.1. He is not only the Author of oar salvation, but He has made it strong, firm, immovable, resting upon Him, the Rock of Ages (Psalms 95:1-2). 2. We praise God for permitting us to observe His greatness; for the power to know Him in His works. It is not until we begin to examine the details of Creation--plants, birds, insects--to use the telescope upon the heavens, or the microscope upon invisible objects--that every single work, in itself a wonder, helps us to look up awestruck to the One Mind which made and which sustains all. 3. His individual care for each of us (Psalms 95:7). III. A caution against the loss of the accepted time (Psalms 95:7-10). Alas! we have daily teaching like the men in the wilderness, that the chastened may only harden themselves against the hand of love which chastens! And poverty and sickness, by which God seeks to draw His children to Him, and to purify them for Himself, are made the very grounds for neglecting and disobeying Him! IV. Rejection could not finally pass unpunished. There was a sentence upon those despisers (Psalms 95:11). God’ s truth requires that His promises should be as sure to His opposers as to His followers and friends; and the sentence will follow. They could not enter into God’ s offered rest, as Paul explains to the Romans, on account of unbelief. (D. Laing, M.A.) The genesis of praise This has been called the Invitatory Psalm. The Temple at Jerusalem had been restored. Its doors were again open for worship. And the psalmist sought to allure the people to a worship long neglected in the time of their exile. From the earliest times this psalm has filled a somewhat similar place in the services of the Western Church. It is the first note of praise in the order for morning prayer. I. The spontaneity of song. Jehovah did not say: “ Sing unto Me,” but men said one to another: “ O come, let us sing unto the Lord!” Men sang because they could not help but sing. There are some things so natural to men that no Divine command is needed. Song is one of these. It grows naturally out of the emotions of a godly heart. The deepest feelings of the race have always found their fullest expression in poetry, and poetry reaches its highest utterance when wedded to music, on whose wings it soars to heaven. II. The religious inspiration of song. Love is the great kindler of song, and takes on its noblest, purest forms as it goes out to God. And hence it will be found that in proportion to the strength of love in any religion is the place and power of its song. To the lovelessness of most of the pagan and heathen religions is due the poverty and even absence of song in their worship. To all intents and purposes the Hebrew and its successor, the Christian, faith are the only ones in which song prevails. And it will be found, if you look into the history, that as their conception of God grew in depth and tenderness, the more lovable He was seen to be, so their song grew in volume and worth. The theology of each age is reflected in its hymnody. III. The religious occasion of song. The psalm before us probably sprang out of joy at the reopened temple at Jerusalem, that the feet of Israel could once more stand within the gates of Zion. Every lofty hymn has a sacred history. And thus the experience of elect souls is made to help other souls to higher levels of thought and feeling. They are like climbers who have reached the mountain summit, and beckon those in the valley to share with them the grand outlook to which their eye has reached. It is for us to respond to their call, so that as we sing we may be drawn upwards from the mists of earth to those. Goethe once advised, “ as a means of making life less commonplace, that we should every day, at least, hear or read a good poem.” Better still would it be if we allowed no day to pass without joining in a hymn of praise. Marvellous has been the influence of song in the furtherance of religion in the days that are past. The Arians were among the first to discover its power. They organized singing processions to propagate their doctrine. Then the orthodox party followed their example. When Ambrose, the good Bishop of Milan, was ordered to give up one of his churches for Arian worship, he refused, and his devoted followers surrounded his house day and night to protect him from the troops of the Emperor. He arranged for his defenders hymns for every hour of the day and night. It was a charge against Luther that he was singing the whole German people into the Reformation doctrine. The Lollards gained their name from their custom of “ lulling” --that is, singing softly. The Methodist Revival owed quite as much to the hymns of Charles Wesley as to the preaching of her saintly brother. The Oxford Movement owed its success not only to the “ Tracts for the Times” and the sermons of Newman, but to “ The Christian Year” of Keble. Where would the Moody and Sankey movement have been but for the “ Sacred Songs and Solos” ? The Salvation Army could not carry on its work without its rough but inspiring music. And my own conviction is that holy song will be one means of bringing to the Church a deeper unity. Through it the heart is permitted to speak, and by means of the heart, rather than the intellect, Christian people are drawn closer together. Theology has too often proved a dividing influence. Song usually tends to unity. (W. G. Horder.) Psalmody I. The practice of singing. Old Testament saints, as well as New, seem never weary of celebrating the praises of their Lord and Saviour; because He was made an offering for their sins, dead, risen, and ascended to His throne. And this is still the sweetest subject in the Church of Christ; for happy are they who have the Lord for their God--yea, thrice happy they who have “ the kingdom of God” set up within them, which “ is righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.” II. The object of singing psalms. The object of singing is, we see distinctly, the praise of Jesus. It is very important for you to notice that; for as the joy of the believer arises from his conscious standing in Jesus, so this joy is expressed in celebrating the praises of the glorious person and redeeming work of Jesus--for “ God would have all men to honour the Son even as they honour the Father.” Singing is the outward expression of inward joy; and this is no doubt why the Holy Ghost has enjoined it on believers. It shows their sense of the infinite love of God in Christ Jesus. But at the same time that believers find joy in singing the praises of Jesus, as they are set forth in the Book of Psalms, they may also as they sing learn lessons for the practice of daily life. They have an interest not only in all Jesus was, but also in what Jesus is. Do they see that His trust in God was unshaken? They trust Him to make theirs steadfast also. Again: was His walk “ holy, and harmless, and undefiled,” so that He could say in truth, “ I have set the Lord alway before me; because He is at my right hand I shall not be moved” ? Then they depend upon Him for strength to tread in His steps. Were His tempers perfectly holy, so that He could say, “ Thou hast proved Mine heart; Thou hast visited Me in the night; Thou hast tried Me, and shalt find nothing; I am purposed that My mouth shall not transgress” ?--when, I say, they sing of this, they admire His example, and through His Spirit they strive daily to “ put off the old man” and to “ put on the new.” Again: was He carried through the greatest sufferings in perfect resignation, so that He could say, “ Not My will, but Thine, O Lord, be done” ? Then may they look up to Him in every trial for His promised support. Have the “ everlasting gates” been opened, and “ the King of glory” gone in? It is promised to them that they shall “ see the King in His beauty” --yea, that they shall partake of that very glory. III. The spirit in which we are to sing. Two things are necessary--that a man should sing spiritually, and that he should sing intelligently--that he should know what he has to thank God for, otherwise he cannot do it intelligently. Have we not mercies to thank God for? Why not, then, join the Church of Christ in thanking Him for them? The believer should live as he sings; his life should be in harmony with his principles. (J. W. Reeve, M.A.) Praise the outcome of Divine influence The whole of Glasgow is supplied with water from Loch Katrine. It is brought through the intervening country, and is distributed in pipes along every street, and from the palaces above Kelvin Grove to the wretched flats in the Saltmarket it tells, to those who have ears to hear, sweet stories of lofty peaks, wooded slopes, cataracts, and sparkling rivulets in its Highland home. Embosomed in the Mountains of Eternity, and reflecting in its placid sweep the magnificent devices of uncreated wisdom, we see the vast unfathomable ocean of Divine love. From that ocean a bountiful outflow of holy influence has come down into the human mind, and been divided into little rills known as “ psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs.” Not to the rich only do they ripple, but also to the poor; labour forgets its weariness while taking in or giving out their sacred words, and the widow mingles their sweetness with her scanty food, and even the little child sends forth a triumph caught from their melody. Inciting one another to praise God You know how the birds stir up each other to sing. One bird in a cage will excite its fellow, who looks at him and seems to say, “ You shall not outstrip me: I will sing with you,” till all the little minstrels quiver with an ecstasy of song, and form a choir of emulating songsters. Hark how the early morning of the spring is rendered musical by the full orchestra of birds. One songster begins the tune, and the rest hasten to swell the music. Let us be like the blessed birds. Bless the Lord till you set the fashion, and others bless Him with you. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The Rock of our salvation.--Christ the Rock of our salvation The shipwrecked mariner, hoping for safety on the sea-girt rock; the hunted fugitive, flying for a refuge to the cliff on the plain; the fainting traveller, throwing himself down in the shade of rock in the desert; the steep and precipitous hill, with its encircling stream, forming the site of a mighty fortress: each of these pictures tells us of weakness finding comfort and aid, each sets forth the value of the redeeming work, and the mighty mission of Christ our Lord. For the very idea of a rock is that of stability and strength, that which cannot be moved, that on which we may rest secure. “ For us and our salvation” Christ died, says the noble language of our Creed. He is the great example of self-sacrifice, and of the One who devoted Himself to death and suffering for the benefit of “ the many.” But how shall we apply to our own selves the benefit of Christ’ s work? How shall we find a refuge in the Rock of our salvation.? By a humble and faithful realization of what He has done for us. (J. W. Hardman, LL.D.) Psalms 95:3 For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods.On the existence, greatness, and government of God I. The transcendent greatness of the psalmist’ s God.1. He is great in the eternity of His existence. God “ only hath immortality.” Finite beings are always going forward to further immortality; but God possesses it in the most absolute sense. Other beings depend for their immortality on the will of their Maker, and flow of their duration; but He is “ the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever.” And as He is infinite in essence, He must necessarily be indestructible in the nature of His existence; for the power that destroys must always be greater than what is destroyed. 2. He is great in the immateriality, unity, and immensity of His existence. These are all necessarily implied in His eternity. 3. He is great in Omnipotence. Creation, in all its works of greatness and grandeur, falls infinitely short of a full exhibition of omnipotent power. For no finite substances, however multiplied and extended, could ever fill boundless space, or circumscribe the efforts of God Omnipotent. Here we might contemplatively roam after the ways and works of the Almighty Architect, until we were bewildered and lost in the magnitudes, mazes, and mysteries of creation. His power is also manifested in upholding all things created. He commands all the suns, systems, and planetary orbs, and they move in obedience to His sovereign pleasure. 4. He is boundless in love. Our first parents proved His goodness in the Garden of Eden, where His benevolence lavished around them every charm. There the “ Tree of Life,” in grand and conspicuous pre-eminence, unfolded its verdant glories, and invited the human pair to partake of its immortality. The redemption of this fallen world is another proof of Divine love--into which angels desire to look, and in which we are everlastingly interested. 5. He is gloriously great in holiness. All the works of His creation, holiness of His laws, dispensations of His providence, influences of His Spirit, and condemnation and overthrow of wicked men and devils, proclaim that He is holy. And “ Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty,” will be the sublimest song that immortal millions can endlessly sing in the heaven of heavens. 6. He is incomprehensibly great in omniscience. II. He is a “ great King above all Gods.”1. His right to the empire. (1) Right of eternal priority. As there can be but one absolute and endless monarchy, so there is but one supreme and independent King. (2) Right of eternal sufficiency. His “ throne is for ever and ever.” It is founded in infinite wisdom, and upheld by everlasting strength. Amidst the revolutions of ages it stands the same. (3) Right of universal inheritance. In His administration no law can be defective, no faithful subject go unprotected, and no enemy be triumphant. The thunders of the throne shall prevent all invasion, and His omnipotence defy all usurpation, until His right to reign shall be indisputably acknowledged, and the God of everlasting sovereignty be gloriously magnified. 2. His extensive empire. (1) He reigns in the Kingdom of Nature. He reigns over inanimate nature by those fixed laws which regulate and revolve all matter; and carries forward as undeviatingly His superintendence over an atom as over a magnificent world. He reigns over animate irrational nature by instinct. He reigns over man by reason, conscience, and revelation. (2) He reigns in the kingdom of providence. (3) He reigns in the kingdom of darkness and damnation. (4) He reigns in the kingdom of grace, for the protection and complete triumph of His Church. (5) He reigns in the kingdom of glory--the heaven of heavens, the home of all the saint. (W. Barns.) God of gods I. The Divine sovereignty in the physical realm. Nature is full of the manifestations of a great intelligence, full of remarkable adjustments and adaptations, full of ordered sequences and wise contrivances. In other words, Nature, through all her domain, from those gleaming stars which shoot their rays through vast and interminable spaces down to those invisible and primordial atoms of which all substances are composed, and which maintain their ceaseless movements to and fro, is subject to a high and beneficent power. Everywhere there is manifest the sovereignty of law, and the sovereignty of law is the sovereignty of God. In most great cities they have a mansion house, or some similar building, which is a symbol and centre of that civic authority which rules over the whole of the area comprised in the civic boundary; and so this physical universe is the mansion house of creation’ s God--not a house empty and tenantless, so far as the Creator’ s presence is concerned, but occupied and inhabited throughout with that same creative spirit which in the beginning created all things, and which ever since has sustained and controlled all things. II. The Divine sovereignty in the moral and spiritual realm. The kingdom of grace is the extension of the kingdom of nature, and the laws and principles which operate in the one operate in the other.1. There is the prominence given to beauty. One might almost say that the object of the Creator was the creation of beauty, and that the great Designer had set His heart upon producing a picture of surpassing loveliness. And the object of God in redemption is clearly the creation or the re-creation of beauty, not outward beauty merely, but inward--beauty of character, beauty of soul. 2. There is the insistence of the Divine constancy and faithfulness. Banks fail, governments are overturned, empires break up and pass away, but the sun never refuses to shine, and the earth never declines to bring forth the vintage of her fruits and the harvest of her flowers. And this characteristic of faithfulness belongs as truly to the sphere of grace as of nature. The promises of God are all “ yea and amen.” 3. There is the recognition of the value of the individual. Nature cares for the whole, and she cares not less for the individual parts of which the whole is composed. There is not a cowslip in the meadow, nor yet a blade of grass which catches its little drop of crystal and holds it suspended in the early sunlight but witnesses to the care and providence of God, and to the individualizing character of that providence. And the same is true of the grace which bringeth salvation. The disciples were all chosen and called separately and individually. There is not one of us, down to the least and the youngest, whose name is not written in Creation’ s book, and for whom there is not a place reserved in Redemption’ s record! (T. Sanderson.) Psalms 95:4 The strength of the hills is His also. The strength of the hills The characteristics of the things made are characteristic of their Maker. What, therefore, I find suggestive in the hills I find suggestive of God. What is the strength of the hills? It is not mere bulk, size, hugeness of form, massiveness of outline. Strength is not one characteristic; it is a combination of characteristics. Strength is a harmony of various elements. I. Beauty. To see their green slopes speckled thin with sheep; the grey crag peeping out here and there like a hoary battlement; the purple heather making a feast of colour; the huge boulder, poised upon some dizzy eminence, seeming to threaten destruction to the venturesome climber; the cloud-shadows passing like swift and silent ghosts along the frowning steeps; is not all this an impressive exhibition in the picture-gallery of nature, open every day, and free of charge? And the thought of the psalmist is this,--that the beauty of the hills is in reality a beauty of God; that all this panorama of living loveliness is an indication of the loveliness of the Divine character. II. Permanence. Who that has looked thoughtfully upon the mountains could imagine anything more typical of the immovable? Their sunless pillars are sunk so deep in earth that we cannot dream of their being moved out of their place; the idea of the fugitive and the transient is excluded as we contemplate the fixity of the hills. An Old Testament writer, indeed, has made them an image of permanence when he says that sooner than imagine that the kindness of God can pass away, or that the mercy of the Eternal can cease, the very mountains shall pass and the hills be removed. But even as he regards the one impossible, so he is sure that the character of God is fixed and unchangeable for ever. In this way does Nature become one of our best religious teachers. The hills speak to us of the permanence of the Divine. A fickle God would be worse than none at all. A God whose principles of action were continually changing would be the terror, and not the inspiration of his worshippers. Jesus Christ has given me a greater sense of trustworthiness and permanence than any one I know, and I think the reason is that He is the express image of the person of God. There is only one thing that abides--and it is character. There is only one thing that can make character--and it is love. There is but one man who lasts and keeps young throughout the centuries--“ he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.” III. Atmosphere. Why did your doctor send you away to the hills? It was to get change of air. He wanted you to get some of that mountain breeze into your wasted lungs; he knew that if he could get you away into that bracing ozone it would be better than all the pills and mixtures as before. The air of the hills is a tonic. The atmosphere ought to be an element in your religion. A religion without atmosphere is like a picture without perspective, dull, flat, uninteresting because unnatural. We are afraid to be natural in our religious life. Why is it that so many Christian people seem to be so bloodless, lifeless, atrophied in their character? It is simply want of air. They have no mountains in their creed. We shall never make much impression upon the world until we are less afraid of our own honest thought, and less bound by the rigid rule-of-thumb religion of society. Christ came to be to us the Truth, and to be the Truth that makes us free--free from our own ignorance, and sin, and unbelief, and fear--free to do the will of the Father by ministering health and kindness to our brethren. To be whole, holy, complete; to be like Christ, is at once the noblest, freest, hardest thing in the world, the one desirable attainment, the sole way to happiness; yes, to more than happiness, to blessedness; and the only way to reach this end is to live in the strengthening atmosphere of Christ’ s love, and to avail ourselves of all the manifold riches of His grace. IV. Outlook. What is it that makes you so anxious to climb the hill? The view. To see the landscape lying outspread before the eye; to see the country stretching away to the distant horizon; to realize the sense of vastness; to revel in the subtle poetry of distance; this is enough to make you toil up the steep path, and scale the rugged crag, and for a moment call the spreading scene your own. And it is this sense of outlook we need to get into our religion if we would obtain from it the best it has to give us. There is no faith which gives to man such a sense of vastness as the faith of Jesus Christ. The outlook He gives is so commanding and so rich that the eye cannot take it all in, and the mind reels as it tries to grasp it. But the heart is satisfied with that outlook, and pronounces it very good. Do not allow your outlook to be bounded by the grave; stand by the side of the Saviour, and look beyond into the eternal city. (A. Mursell.) The strength of the hills I. The immense power involved. We read of the hanging gardens of Babylon and count them among the wonders of the world. Yet in magnitude they were insignificant compared to the everlasting hills. We climb a range of mountains and find building material sufficient for a hundred cities. It exceeds the power of arithmetic to calculate, and it surpasses the power of language to describe, the colossal greatness, power and wealth of which they are the embodiment. How easy are miracles to Him who built the hills! How terrible to live in a world of such energies, unless we are loyally obedient to Him who can create and can destroy, and who is as wise and benign as He is omnipotent! II. The dainty and marvellous beauty of the hills. Their loveliness images the beauty which exists in the mind of the Builder. In form, and outline, and altitude, here in round or undulating lines, there in abrupt and jagged peaks, here lofty and there in lowly elevations, there is constant variety. So, too, in the relation the mountains bear to each other. Some stretch along in terraces and some in continental ranges or chains; some tower up apart and alone; still others tumbled together in confusion, but everywhere bringing refreshment to the vision of the beholder, who is alternately awed and delighted. The verdure that covers their slopes, from the beech and birch below to the evergreen of the higher slopes, with the wild flowers between the splintered crags or the mosses and lichens that cling to them, and the changing colour of the verdure as autumn touches it with brilliant hues--all teach us God’ s wonderful and eternal love of beauty and lift our thoughts to that city above which He is to make the crown and consummation of beauty eternal. III. The utility and the helpfulness of the hills. They are rich in their stony or metallic materials, and in the forests that clothe them. Mountains influence the temperature, cooling in summer and protecting us from the rigour of winter. They are great hospitals for the sick, for some diseases cannot exist 2,000 feet above the sea. The springs that run among the hills unite to form the rivers that in turn pour their waters into the sea. There are moral as well as physical benefactions. The mountains teach us to face difficulties and to overcome them, inspiring strength to labour, perseverance and patience in toil and trial. The hills are helpful in stimulating the love of liberty, quickening great thoughts and poetic inspirations. The mountains have sheltered the persecuted people of God, and there the bones of His slaughtered saints have been sometimes laid. It was to the mountain Christ retired to pray; it was on a mountain He was transfigured; it was on a mountain He delivered that matchless discourse which will inspire men as long as time lasts. It was into “ a great and high mountain” that John was carried, in the spirit, from which he saw Holy Jerusalem. Mountains are earth’ s spires. We build spires a hundred feet or more, but these spires are lifted up miles in height toward heaven, pointing to Himself and clothed with pure, white, awful majesty, as if to remind us of the great white throne of judgment which is to be revealed. IV. The littleness of man is another lesson of the hills. Men may tunnel the earth and lift magnificent bridges, but with all their wealth and force they can neither build nor level the Alleghanies and the Sierras. God alone has reared them, and at His word they will vanish as a dream when one awaketh. “ What is man that Thou art mindful of him!” V. How beautiful is the revelation of God in Jesus Christ! The mountains tell us nothing of His mercy and grace toward sinful men. They tell of inexorable power, but not of forgiveness. It is in Christ alone we learn this: He who built the mountain opened the eyes of the blind, and blessed the little children. The Bible is the great moral mountain of the world. Why is it that men are unwilling to receive it? (R. S. Storrs, D.D.) Psalms 95:5 The sea is His, and He made it. Considerations on the sea When we place ourselves upon the shore, and from thence behold that immense body of waters, stretching away on all sides, far as the eye can reach; and when we consider how large, a portion of the globe is covered in like manner; what a noble idea are we hereby enabled to form of the immensity of that Being who is said not only to weigh the mountains in a balance, but to take up the sea in the hollow of His hand! In whose sight the hills are but as dust, the ocean is no more than a drop. The immeasurable breadth of the sea may remind us of God’ s boundless mercy; its unfathomable depth holds forth an image of His unsearchable judgments. When we see a mass of water rising up by a gradual ascent, till the sky seems, as it were, to descend and close upon it, a thought immediately strikes us--what is it which prevents these waters from breaking in upon and overflowing the land, as they appear in heaps so much above it? Let us adore that unseen power which, by a perpetual decree, keeps them in their proper place, nor suffers them to intrude themselves into one which is not theirs. Hear attentively the noise of the sea--how grand and awful the sound, even as the voice of the Almighty God when He speaketh! And is not this what the waves always say,--praise the Lord--praise Him with your voices, as we constantly do with ours, while we thus intelligibly proclaim aloud the might of His power and the glory of His majesty! Nor is the sea more wonderful in itself than it is beneficial to mankind. From its surface vapours are continually arising, drawn upwards by the heat of the sun, which, by degrees formed into clouds, drop fatness on our fields and gardens, causing even the wilderness to smile, and the valleys, covered over with corn, to laugh and sing. Thus the prayers of the faithful servants of God, daily ascending from all parts of the earth, return in large effusions of grace and blessing from heaven. But we are indebted to the ocean not only for the vapours sent up from its surface, but likewise for many springs, which have their origin from the great deep beneath, with which the sea communicates. These, arising in vapour through the lower parts of the earth, break forth and issue in streams, many of which joined form rivers, and so go back again to the place from whence they came; as the blood in the human body flows in streams from the heart, through the arteries, and returns to it again, in rivers, by the veins, which grow larger as they approach and are about to empty themselves into the great reservoir. In the greater, as well as the lesser world, there is a constant circulation maintained. The income is proportioned to the expense, and nothing is wasted. All rivers, saith Solomon, run to the sea, yet the sea is not full, or, does not overflow; to the place from whence the rivers come, thither do they return again; but not till, by their innumerable turnings and windings, they have refreshed and enriched large tracts of country in their passage. So Divine grace springs up in the heart of a Christian man, as water doth in a fountain, supplied from an invisible and inexhaustible storehouse. It flows forth in his words and action, doing good to all around it in its course, and is finally swallowed up and lost in the boundless ocean of infinite perfection. (Bp. Horne.) God’ s ownership of the sea God has given the land to man, but the sea He has reserved to Himself: “ the sea is His, and He made it.” He has given man “ no inheritance in it; no, not so much as to set his foot on.” If he enters its domain, he enters it as a pilgrim and a stranger. He may pass over it, but he can have no abiding place upon it. He cannot build his house, nor so much as pitch his tent within it. He cannot mark it with his lines, nor subdue it to his uses, nor rear his monuments upon it. If he has done any brilliant exploit upon its surface, he cannot perpetuate the memory of it by erecting so much as an arch or a pillar. It steadfastly refuses to own him as lord. And with this is connected that other feature of the sea which marks its reservation to God: I mean its loneliness. There are spaces measured by thousands and thousands of miles over which no ship has ever passed. The idea of a nation’ s commerce whitening every sea is the wildest fancy. If all the ships that have ever been built were brought together into a single fleet, they would fill but a hand-breadth of the ocean. The space, therefore, that man and his works occupy on the sea is as small in extent as the hold he has on it by his power is slight and superficial. Both together are as nothing. The ocean covers three-fourths of the surface of the globe, and by far the greatest part of this vast expanse is and ever has been entirely free from his presence and visitation. And it is this vastness, this loneliness, and this impossibility of subjugation by man, that set it apart from the secular aspect that belongs to the rest of the world, and consecrate it as the peculiar possession and dwelling-place of the Most High. Like some vast builded temple, it perpetually speaks of Him and for Him. It bodies forth His immensity. It represents eternity. Its vastness, its omnipresence, and its separation from the presence and power of man, set it apart as the symbol of God, the temple of His abode, and the place of His special manifestation. We can walk down to the shore and lay our hand upon its waters; and when we do so, we feel as if we touched the feet of Jehovah; as if we saw the very fields of immensity and eternity, and held within our grasp the lines that bound us to another life. And it is this which gives the sea its mystery and might; that it is fraught with these Divine elements; that it is charged with these spiritual suggestions; that it is the symbol of eternity and infinity, and crowds upon us, with irresistible majesty, the vision of that life unseen, and those worlds unknown, for which our souls are made, and to which the feet of every one of us are swiftly and irreversibly travelling. (L. Swain, D.D.) The wonders of the sea I. Its extent. The surface of the globe is said to be two hundred millions of square miles, and of these more than two-thirds are supposed to be water; so that the surface of the sea may be one hundred and forty millions of miles. And then, with regard to its depth, it is beyond all calculation. The depth may, in some parts, be sounded; but a great portion is unfathomable. It is, therefore, a fit emblem of the immensity of its Maker, of whom it is said, “ Who by searching can find God, who can find out the Almighty to perfection?” It may be considered also as an emblem of eternity, that vast eternity to which we are all hastening, and into which we must ere long be launched. II. Its bounds and limits appointed by God (Jeremiah 5:22; Isaiah 40:12). Shall such a God be forgotten? Shall He be insulted by profane oaths, drunkenness, etc.? III. Its inhabitants. Although the surface of the sea presents only a barren prospect, having no hills nor trees to adorn it, yet it contains a multitude which no man can number of living creatures, far more numerous than all the tribes of animals which inhabit the land. IV. Its utility. But when we speak of the great advantages which the world has derived from the sea, there is one which as much surpasses all the rest as the brilliant sun in the firmament exceeds all the twinkling stars of the night--it is “ the glorious Gospel of the blessed God,” which must have been brought to our country by a ship; and it is supposed as early as in the days of the apostles, and most probably by some British princes and nobles who had been prisoners in Rome, where it is thought they were converted by the ministry of St. Paul. To the Gospel we owe the great and innumerable improvements gradually introduced; which have at length rendered England the glory of all lands, and have made us superior in religion, arts, and arms to every nation under the sun. (Anon.) Psalms 95:6-7O come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord our Maker. Congregational worship I. Its principle. God made each, and God rules all; and while of each is demanded individual acknowledgment and homage--“ Stand in awe and sin not, commune with your own heart upon your bed and be still,” “ enter into thy closet, and shut thy door, and pray to thy Father which is in secret,” --yet of all is required, that they should acknowledge a common origin, recognize a common supremacy, confess a common necessity, deprecate a common peril, avail themselves of a common salvation. II. The form. We are enjoined in the text to “ worship and bow down, and kneel before the Lord our Maker.” III. The benefits. We thus realize by faith the presence of an unseen Deity. We thus recognize the moral supremacy of the God who wilt be our Judge. We feel the precariousness of life, and are thus made to improve its remaining opportunities. The act of coming hither is the confession that we have a soul; and the act of uniting in what is here transacted is a cultivation of the soul for immortality. (T. Dale, M. A.) Worship Our modern word “ worship” is the old Saxon “ worth-ship” --that is, in its application, the adequate recognition of God’ s “ worth “ or due, and the creature’ s loyal payment of his debt. In the Bible the word signifies generally an act of respect or of homage. Sometimes it is used of the deference which one man pays to another--as, for example, the case of Nebuchadnezzar, who “ worshipped “ Daniel. Sometimes it is used to express the spurious devotion which men of old paid to idols. But most frequently it is used to indicate the highest homage that man can pay to his Maker, i.e. adoration. It is only moral intelligence that can appreciate the worth and due of God, and that is capable of offering to Him the sublimest adoration. Now, man is involved in a threefold relationship--a personal one, a family one, and a public one. From none of these will God consent to be excluded, nor is it right that He should be. We cannot dismiss Him from our personal lives, for He so encompasses us that to be rid of God means that we cease to exist. We may not close the door of the family against Him, for the family is peculiarly His institution, over which He has the right of perpetual superintendence. And if public life advances without God as its Captain, it must, as all history demonstrates, finally land in the bog of despair and ruin. But it is not sufficient that God be not excluded from the threefold life of man. He must be actively welcomed into each sphere, and His “ worthship” be recognized therein. Undoubtedly, the most important thing of all is the worship of God in the persona! life of each man. As individuals we must recognize and love God. We cannot in this matter lose ourselves in the crowd. Next in importance to personal life is the life of the family and the worship of God there. With every fibre of my being I say to you, guard your families. Do not let your children grow up little better than heathens--teach them the Fatherhood of God and His right to their love and service. But now let us give all our attention to the matter of the public acknowledgment of the worship of God. The New Testament throughout assumes the necessity of public worship, while in several places it commands it (Hebrews 10:25; Matthew 18:20; 1 Corinthians 14:40). And there is the example of Christ (Luke 4:16). But these commands and assumptions are not arbitrary; they simply voice the Divine instinct within us, that gregarious instinct which results in public gatherings. It is this instinct that makes public worship a necessity, for in it we express our common belief, our common prayers, and our common thanksgivings. Each of us is bound to a common Creator by a common bond, and each creature is bound to every other creature by virtue of the bond which binds all to God, and this common bond must receive common recognition. How shall this recognition be best set forth so as to employ the whole of our faculties in the exercise? Our public worship should be a service common to all. It is impossible for any minister to pray so as to comprehend all the needs of his people; at best he can only touch the surface, and it is inconvenient and might be indecorous for each person to state his own case in public. But there are certain thanksgivings and prayers which touch every nature, and in public worship these should be stated. Christ taught His disciples a form of prayer in which they were to say, “ Our Father,” “ Give us,” “ Our trespasses” --a prayer common to all. But for thanksgiving and prayer to be common they must be responsive--this is demanded by the necessity of the case. The Bible patterns of worship are responsive. Read the accounts of worship in Revelation 5:12. And that great Temple book--the Psalter--was composed for responsive worship. This, you perceive, brings us at once to the question of a liturgy. Might we not have a series of liturgies, compiled, if you will, from the Bible only, so arranged as to promote unity of thought? (F. C. Spurt.) Adoration The psalm contains two strophes or stanzas: the first consisting of five verses and the second of six. Each of these stanzas opens with an invitation. The first is an invitation to praise offered loudly with the voice. “ O come, let us shout joyfully to the Lord: let us make a joyful noise to the Rock of our salvation; let us go forth to meet Him with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to Him with hymns.” And the second stanza begins with an invitation to something altogether different,--to worship, or as we had better render it, to adoration. “ O come, let us prostrate ourselves, let us bow down, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker.” The word which is rendered “ worship” means prostration, literally nothing less than prostration. The two Words which follow mean something less emphatic--the first, the bending of the body while the worshipper still stands, the second kneeling. Nothing changes in the East so far as habit is concerned, and you cannot to-day enter a mosque without seeing each of these three words literally acted on. Sometimes the worshipper bends his head and shoulders, then he kneels, then he prostrates himself entirely, touching the ground with his forehead. This, so far as the outward posture goes, is undoubtedly what the psalmist meant to invite the congregation of Israel to do, as being the outward expression of adoration. But adoration is an inward act of the soul which corresponds with those postures of the body which have just been described. It is the soul recognizing its nothingness before the magnificence of God, its sin before His purity, its ignorance before His omniscience, its feebleness before His power. It is the creature lying in the dust and understanding, as by a flash of light from heaven, what it is to have a Creator and to be alive in His presence. It is sinful man emptying himself of self-assertion before the Being who made him, knowing himself, or almost knowing, himself as he is known, crying: “ Out of the deep have I called unto Thee, O Lord,” etc. When we assemble and meet together in church, it is to “ render thanks for the great benefits that we have received at God’ s bands, to set forth His most worthy praise, to hear His most holy Word, and to ask those things which are requisite and necessary as well for the body as the soul.” Of these four objects of assembling together in church, that of hearing God’ s Word, whether read or preached, is not now in question. But what is the relation of the other three, thanksgiving, praise, and prayer for blessings, to adoration? They all three differ from adoration in this, that in each of them the soul is less prostrate, more able to bear the thought of self, than in pure and simple adoration. Certainly, in praise we seem to forget self more easily than in thanksgiving or prayer, since thanksgiving carries the mind back to something which we have received, and by which presumably we have profited, and prayer, in the narrower sense of the word, asks for new blessings, whether for the body or soul. Pure adoration has no heart for self; it lies there silent at the foot of the throne, conscious only of two things, the insignificance of self and the greatness of God. And yet adoration must be the basis, so to put it, of true thanksgiving, and praise, and prayer; it is the fitting acknowledgment of our real relations with God, which should precede them. It sometimes does, indeed, imply so paralyzing a sense of this our nothingness before God that left to itself it would make praise, thanksgiving, and prayer impossible. But here, as we lie in the dust, the one Mediator between God and man bids us take heart as He utters that most consoling sentence: “ No man cometh unto the Father but by Me.” He-bids us, as it were, take His hand, and thus, with Him and by Him, not merely adore God, but praise Him, thank Him, pray to Him. Let us, then, briefly remind ourselves of some leading benefits of worship, which explain the importance which is assigned to it by the Church of Christ. First of all, it places us, both as individuals and as a body of men, in our true place before God our Creator. Unless, or until, we believe that one Being exists to whom we stand in a relation utterly different from that in which we stand to any other--namely, that of owing our very existence to Him--worship is impossible. Worship only begins when faith acknowledges the Almighty Creator: it dies away as faith in Him decays; it dies away as He gives place in thought to some purely human imagination respecting how the universe came to be what it actually is. But even where there is no difficulty in believing in God the Creator, and no disposition to question His existence or His power, we sometimes observe that this great belief has no practical effect whatever upon life and thought. Many men practically live as though it were not true that it is God who has made us and not we ourselves. Now, the corrective to this--which is a practical failure, after all, rather than an intellectual mistake--the corrective to this is worship. Worship places us face to face with the greatness of the Creator. The very first effort of worship implies that God is resuming, has resumed, His true place in our thoughts, that He is no longer jostled out of our mental life by a hundred puny worthless rivals belonging to the world of sense. Worship, too, obliges us to think that we are ourselves. It is one thing to hold the immortality of man as an abstract tenet; it is another to be looking forward with a steady, practical aim to a life to come. Worship, depend upon it, is the great preparation for another life--a waste of time, no doubt, if the soul dies with the perishing body, if decay be succeeded by no resurrection, but a use of time than which none can be more sensible, more legitimate, if there be a most certain hereafter, and if, while “ the things that are seen are temporal, the things that are not seen are eternal.” And thus, lastly, worship is a stimulus to action when--and, of course, only when--it is sincere. If it be true that “ to work is to pray,” it is also true that to pray is to work. Prayer is, in fact, work, since it makes a large demand upon the energies of the soul, and it creates and trains in us capacity for other kinds of work than itself. It not only illuminates the understanding and kindles the affection, it braces, it invigorates the will. In worship we are in contact with the most real of all beings; with Him off whose will all else that is strictly depends, and in comparison with whom the most solid matter in His universe is but as an unsubstantial shadow. This contact with the highest reality cannot but brace us, and accordingly we find in all ages that the noblest resolves to act or to suffer have again and again been formed as though in obedience to what seems a sudden overpowering flash of light during worship. So it was with Isaiah when he saw the vision in the temple. “ Then said I, Here am I; send me.” So it has been with more than one enterprise of our own day; the original resolution to make the venture has dated from the half hour of sincere worship, in which the energies of a single character have been lifted altogether above their average level, so that it became natural and easy to remove the mountains of obstacles around that had before barred the way to action. In another world we shall probably look back upon the way in which we have spent much of our time here with deep, although unavailing, regret; but we may be sure that no such regret will ever be felt on account of any time that has been devoted to the worship of our Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier. (Canon Liddon.) The duty of external worship External adoration may be considered as-- I. A part of that natural homage which the whole man, soul and body, owes to God, upon the account of His creation and preservation of us, and His sovereign dominion over us. We all look for the glorification, not only of our souls, but bodies, in the life to come. Now, a reward supposeth a work; it is meet and right, therefore, that we should worship and glorify God in this life with the body as well as the soul, if so be we expect that God should glorify “ both our bodies and souls in another.” II. A help and assistance towards promoting the spiritual worship of our souls. There is so close a connection between the mind and its organs, that they act, as it were, by consent; and the motions of the one do commonly, and in some degree, pass into the other. And this natural sympathy shows itself nowhere more remarkably than in acts of devotion. We usually blame the body to a high degree, as the great clog and hindrance of the soul. And so it often is. But here it may be made to draw equally in the yoke of duty; nay, even to give wings to the mind, which it presseth down, and overwhelms on many other occasions. Nor is the body more beholden to the soul, for the beginning of its motions, than the soul afterwards is to the body, for the increase of hers. III. A sign by which we express to others the religious esteem and veneration that dwells in us. Great are the advantages which the people of God, when they are met together, do mutually receive from it. The cold and remiss worshipper is, at the sight of an exemplary, kindled into some degrees of holy warmth; the fervent and devout in the presence of it becomes yet more inflamed. A religious emulation rises then in the breast of the faithful, a holy strife and desire of excelling. But believers are not the only persons that receive benefit by it; unbelievers, too, though unwillingly, have their share. The profane scoffer, who dares encounter a single Christian without shame or fear of reproof has here an answer to his bold scoffs, in that still and powerful argument, which arises from the behaviour of a devout multitude, worshipping God in the beauty of holiness: such an argument as will destroy all its unreasonable suspicions, and convince him of the sincerity of men’ s hearts towards God, by the natural unaffected signs of it, which are shown in his service: such as will put him in mind of the numbers of devout and good men against which he engages; lead him on from the thought of the present congregation to those of the same kind that are spread over the face of the earth; and make him sit down and consider whether with such a small strength (his own, and that of a few more) he can encounter so many thousands, even the united wisdom and practice of mankind (1 Corinthians 14:24-25). (Bp. Atterbury.) Spiritual worship Whatever other ends are secured by sanctuary service,--the education of thought, the quickening of sensibility, and the deepening of religious trust,--this is one main end, the worship of God. We bow before God because He is infinitely just, and true, and pure, and good,--worthy of all our reverence and love; and the song of redemption, as it is celebrated in heaven, fixes our attention upon the glory of the Saviour’ s nature, as well as the merit of the Saviour’ s work. I. Everything in a Christian service should be regulated so as to advance spiritual life. The instincts of a fervent Christian man will resent all that is showy and formal, and will rejoice in all that lifts his heart and his thoughts into communion with the living God. II. If that spiritual worship be present there will be no cry for forms of prayer. To enjoy prayer is one of the marks of true devoutness, and when there is delight in approaching God, the soul will choose its own simplest forms of speech. They will be touched with a broken spirit and a contrite heart. Meditation is prayer in preparation, and prayer is preparation spoken. III. In the preservation of spiritual devoutness the worshippers have much to do. Remember this: that worship must be in harmony with our life, and not a brilliant exception to it. True prayer is connected with the continuous life of God in the soul. It is not the lifting up into a region we are strangers to, a kind of Alpine summit situation to which we have painfully climbed, but rather the enjoyment of an air which is the common breath of our souls. Then the worshipper can afford his earnest and hearty Amen! This he ought to do, this God wishes him to do: “ Let all the people say, Amen.” IV. In such spiritual worship, praise takes, its appropriate place. We desiderate united praise. It is not loudness we want; shouting, either in preaching, praise, or prayer, is not power; but we do want the united service of all voices and hearts, as they are touched with the Spirit of the living God. Nothing is so painful as a kind of languid indifference, or a listless mannerism, as though we had little at all to do with the service. Every man, woman, and child in the sanctuary ought to sing, ought to be in earnest about it, and ought to do their best at it. V. In such spiritual service we are typing and tasting the worship of heaven. That worship we may well believe will be all that is deepest in reverence, all that is sweetest in melody, all that is purest in love. (W. M. Statham.) Divine worship I. The component elements of true worship. As it is the chief fact with regard to man, so it is of the highest consequence.1. It has its inward principles. Its root is in the soul. “ God is a Spirit,” etc. There must be-- (1) Profound reverence. This is the basis of religious excellence, and is inspired by the contemplation of God and of ourselves in His sight.(2) Humility.(3) Submissive trust and love.(4) Humble hope. 2. It has its proper external acts. As the face is the index of the emotions, so outward acts are the index of the spiritual feelings within. There must be-- (1) Appropriate postures and demeanour.(2) Appropriate times.(3) Appropriate acts and places. “ Splendour of churches is only blameable when it interferes with charity; God, who requireth charity as necessary, accepteth the other also as being an honourable work.” II. The reasons rendering Divine worship obligatory.1. It is based upon our relations to God and the constitution and nature of the human mind. 2. It is a Divine institution. In the Old Testament it is abundantly commanded; taken for granted in the New Testament. 3. It is of supreme importance to the mental and spiritual welfare of the world. (1) Its importance to ourselves is great. It maintains a sense of religion in the soul.(2) To others the value is great. Without our days, and acts, and places of worship, men would become entirely abandoned to a worldly and irreligious life. The maintenance of worship is the proclamation of the fundamental truths of religion, which bring blessedness to the individual soul, and peace and prosperity to society. Seek to attain the highest ends of worship in yourselves. Make your life one act of worship, “ one great psalm.” (James Foster, B.A.) Humility in approaching God “ Shall we presume,” says Thoreau, “ to alter the angle at which God chooses to be worshipped--kneel before the Lord our Maker?” Psalms 95:7-8 To-day if ye will hear His voice, harden not your heart, as in the provocation. To-day I. The time specified--“ To-day if ye will hear His voice.” This is the uniform time and tense of the Holy Ghost’ s exhortations. “ Consecrate yourselves to-day to the Lord.” “ I command thee this thing today.” “ Son, go work to-day in My vineyard.” Therefore, “ To-day if ye will hear His voice, harden not your heart.”1. “ To-day” is a time of obligation Every man is under a present necessity as a subject of God to obey his Lord today, and having rebelled against his God, every sinner is under law to repent of sin to-day. 2. Remember, also, that to-day is a time of opportunity. There is this day set before us an open door of approach to God. This is a very favoured day, for it is the Lord’ s day, the day of rest, consecrated to works of grace. Today our Lord Jesus rose and left the dead that He might declare the justification of His people. This is a day of good tidings, therefore I pray you to seize the golden moments. 3. Remember that it is a time limited (Hebrews 4:7). To-day will not last for ever; a day is but a day. When days are longest, shadows fall at last and night comes on. The longest life soon wanes into the evening of old age, and old age hastens to the sunset of the tomb. 4. A word of encouragement: it is a time of promise, for when God says to a man, Come to Me at such a time, He by that very word makes an engagement to meet him. He has made no appointment with thee to meet with thee to-morrow, but He has engaged to speak with thee to-day, if thou wilt hear His voice. Never shall one wait and say, like young Samuel, “ Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth,” without God’ s speaking in words of love ere long. II. The voice to be regarded. “ His.”1. Remember that the voice of God is the voice of authority. God has a right to speak to you; shall the creature refuse to hear the Creator? Shall those who are nourished and fed by Him turn a deaf ear to the Preserver of men? When He saith “ to-day,” who among us shall dare to say that he will not hearken to-day, but by and by? 2. It is the voice of love. How wooing are its tones! 3. It is the voice of power. Old man, the Holy Ghost saith still, “ To-day, to-day” ; and He that saith “ to-day “ can make to-day for thee a day of tenderness and melting, till you will be no longer like a stone. 4. It is a pledging voice. When He saith, “ Seek ye the Lord while He may be found,” He doth, as it were, covenant that He will be found of you. Listen, then, to His promising voice, His cheering voice; it will cast all unbelieving fear out of you, and drive away Satan better than David’ s harp drove the evil spirit out of Saul. God help you so to do. 5. The voice of God should be easy to hear; for “ the voice of the Lord is powerful, the voice of the Lord is full of majesty.” III. the evil to be dreaded. “ Harden not your heart.”1. It will be a serious evil if you do. Under the sound of love’ s entreaties, within ear-shot of mercy’ s imploring tones, the sinner is hardening his heart. Sad work to harden one’ s heart against one’ s own welfare! Shall any man do this and go unpunished? What think you? 2. It is a greater sin in some than in others, for the Scripture quotes the instance of Israel (Hebrews 3:8). Some of you are the highly privileged as compared with others. 3. This dreadful sin can be committed in a great many ways. Some harden their hearts by a resolution not to feel, some by wishing to wait, some by getting into evil company. 4. This sin will bring with it the most fearful consequences. “ He sware in His wrath, they shall not enter into My rest!” You wish to rest at last, you long to rest even now. But it cannot be till you yield to God. You are not at peace now, and you never will be if you harden your hearts. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Sinners entreated to hear God’ s voice I would press the importance, the necessity, of immediately becoming religious-- I. Because of the shortness and uncertainty of life. You are mortal; it is appointed to all men once to die. You are frail, and may die soon and suddenly. You stake your soul without any equivalent; for if life should be spared you gain nothing; but should it be cut short, you lose all, you are ruined for eternity. II. Because you cannot properly, or even lawfully, promise to give what is not your own. To-morrow is not yours; and it is yet uncertain whether it ever will be. To-day is the only time which you can properly give to God. III. Because if you defer the commencement of a religious life, though but till to-morrow, you must harden your hearts against the voice of God. God commands and exhorts you to commence a religious life immediately. If you do not comply, you must refuse, for there is no medium. If you disobey, you must assign some excuse to justify your disobedience, or your consciences will reproach you and render you uneasy; if no plausible excuse occurs, you will seek one; if none can readily be found, you will invent one. This tends most powerfully to harden the heart. IV. If you do not commence a religious life to-day, there is great reason to fear that you will never commence it. The very causes which induce you to defer its commencement render it highly improbable that you will ever become religious. Every day’ s delay will render it more difficult. V. Because, after a time, God ceases to strive with sinners and to afford them the assistance of His grace. He gives them up to a blinded mind, a seared conscience, and a hard heart. Thus He dealt with the old world; the wicked sons of Eli; the Jews in the time of Isaiah (6:9,10); and the inhabitants of Jerusalem in our Saviour’ s time (Luke 19:41-42). VI. Because you are, while you delay, constantly making work for repentance; you are doing what you mean to be sorry for; you are building up to-day what you mean to throw down to-morrow. How irrational and absurd is this! I will not now hear God’ s voice, but I mean to mourn, to be grieved for it hereafter. Could you say this to your fellow-creatures without blushing? VII. Because it is the express command of God. “ God now commandeth all men everywhere to repent.” And the Holy Ghost saith, Obey God’ s command, hear His voice to-day, and do not harden your hearts against it. Dare any of you trample on a known command of God? (E. Payson, D.D.) Hardening process In the winter evening, when the frost is setting in with growing intensity, and when the sun is far past the meridian glory, and gradually sinking in the western sky, there is a two-fold reason why the ground grows every moment harder and more impenetrable. In the first place, the frost, with increasing intensity, is indurating the stiffening clods; on the other hand, the genial rays of the sun, which alone can soften them, are every moment withdrawing and losing their enlivening power. As long as the sinner remains unconverted, he is under a double process of hardening. The frosts of eternal night are settling down upon his soul, and the Sun of Righteousness is withdrawing His powerful beams for evermore. If grace do not penetrate the heart to-day, there will be less chance of it to-morrow. (R. Venting.) Psalms 95:10-11 Forty years long was I grieved with this generation. Israel’ s provocation against God, and the punishment inflicted on them I. The conduct of israel. Their conduct was marked by ignorance and error. “ They have not known My ways,” and they “ do err in their hearts.”1. Ignorance is not always criminal. Some things we cannot know, through the limited nature of out faculties; other things God does not choose for us to know (Deuteronomy 29:29); and others it is not our interest to know. God will never impute blame for unavoidable ignorance. 2. When the most important subjects are presented to us, and the most favourable means offered for knowing them, then ignorance is highly criminal. This was Israel’ s case. Does not our conduct too nearly resemble theirs? 3. Error was another of their crimes. Ignorance produces error (Matthew 22:29). Errors are of two sorts,--of judgment, and of heart. Errors of judgment may consist with rectitude of heart; the heart may be right with God, where erroneous opinions warp the judgment. But errors of heart are the most deadly and destructive that exist upon earth; when the affections are perverted and the heart wanders from God. This was Israel’ s error (Isaiah 5:20; Isaiah 29:13). And this error in heart gave birth to error in the life (Isaiah 28:7). II. The effect produced by this conduct. “ Forty years long was I grieved with this generation,” etc.1. God takes cognizance of human conduct. He sees all our actions, whether in the broad daylight, or amidst impenetrable darkness, for the darkness and the light are both alike to Him: and He sees them as they are. 2. The ignorant and erroneous conduct of men is highly offensive to God. His is the grief of a Father whose bowels yearn over the miseries of a child (Jeremiah 31:20; Hosea 11:8). 3. God exercises long patience with His creatures (Acts 13:18). III. The punishment which this conduct merited. “ Unto whom I sware in My wrath,” etc.1. Whatever forbearance God may exercise towards His creatures, yet a continuance of crime must ultimately produce the infliction of punishment. 2. Israel’ s punishment was a deprivation of rest; “ They should not enter into My rest.” This threatening primarily referred to the exclusion of Israel from the land of Canaan (Numbers 14:22-23). This was a land of rest, compared with the toils and perils of the wilderness (Exodus 33:14). But Canaan was typically representative of heaven (Hebrews 4:11). They shall not enter into it--they have no preparation for it, and no promise of possession. 3. The awfully affecting language in which the threatening is expressed leads us to reflect on the terrible doom of its subject; “ I sware in My wrath.” Illustrated by Numbers 14:28-29; Numbers 14:35. IV. Inferences.1. Learn what ideas we ought to entertain of sin. 2. That ignorance and error which some deem perfectly innocent expose men to the wrath of God. 3. That sin in the professing people of God is attended with peculiar aggravations. 4. That the doom of impenitent sinners is certain and irreparable. (Sketches of Four Hundred Sermons.) Psalms 95:11 Unto whom I sware in My wrath, that they should not enter into My rest. Obstinate sinners doomed to eternal perdition I. The ways by which God usually prepares and ripens a sinner for certain destruction. 1. By withholding the virtue and power of His ordinances; and when God seals up the influences of these conduits, no wonder if the soul withers and dies with drought. For, alas! what is a conduit by which nothing is conveyed! That which God uses as an instrument to save, meeting with the corruption of some obdurate hearts, is made a means to ruin: as it softens some, so it hardens others. As the same rain that, falling upon a tree or plant, makes it grow and flourish: falling upon wood cut down and dried, makes it rot and decay. He whom the very means of salvation did not save must needs perish. 2. By restraining the convincing power of His providences. (1) Common calamities.(2) Particular judgments.(3) Unexpected deliverances. 3. By delivering up the sinner to a stupidity or searedness of conscience. This hardness growing upon the conscience, is like a film growing upon the eyes: it blinds them. And that which makes the conscience blind to discern its duty makes it bold to venture upon sin. II. What sort of obstinate sinners those are that God deals with in this manner.1. Such as sin against clear and notable warnings from God. God sometimes hedges in a sinner’ s way, so that it is really very difficult for him to proceed, and not only more safe, but also more easy for him to return. How many men have gone to church with their hearts fully engaged in a resolution to pursue some secret, beloved sin; and there have been strongly arrested with the convincing force of some word, so seasonably and, as it were, purposely directed against that sin, that they have thought the preacher to have looked into their very hearts, and to have been as privy to their most inward thoughts and designs as their own consciences! Now, this is a manifest admonition and caution, cast in by God Himself; which, to baulk or break through, greatly enhances the sinner’ s guilt. Sometimes God warns a sinner from his course, by making strong impressions upon his mind of its unlawfulness and contrariety to the Divine will: which impressions are so strong and cogent that they overbear all the shifts and carnal reasonings that the subtlety of a wicked heart can make in the behalf of it. Again, sometimes God meets the sinner with some heavy threatening sickness, lays him upon the bed of pain and languishing, and scares him with the fears of an approaching death, and the weight of an endless confusion. 2. The other sort of sinners are such as sin against special renewed vows and promises of obedience made to God. The violation of these is more than ordinary sinful; not only from the necessity of the matter to which they oblige, but also from the occasion upon which they were made. For men seldom make such vows but upon extraordinary cases; as upon the receipt of some great endearing mercy, or some notable deliverance; which causes them, by way of gratitude, to bind themselves to God in closer and stricter bonds of obedience. Whereupon, such as make a custom of affronting God, by a frequent and familiar breach of these, are justly very odious to Him, and, from odious, quickly become unsupportable. III. Two questions that may arise from the foregoing particulars.1. Whether the purpose of God passed upon an obstinate sinner (here expressed to us by God’ s swearing against him) be absolutely irrevocable. This is most certain; that both these propositions may, and are, and must be unalterably true; namely, That whosoever repents, and leaves his sins, shall be saved; and yet that he whosoever God has sworn shall never enter into His rest can never enter into it; and all pretences to the contrary are but harangue and declamation, and fit to move none but such as understand not the strength of arguments or the force of propositions. 2. Whether a man may know such a purpose to have passed upon him antecedently to its execution. Now, if any will pretend to gather the knowledge of such a purpose of God against him, it must be from some effects of it. Such, as I show, were God’ s withdrawing His grace, and that secret convincing power that operates in His word and in His providences; but this cannot immediately be known by any man; since it is (as we here suppose it to be) altogether secret. Or, further, he must gather this knowledge from some qualifications, or signs, accompanying those persons that are in such a wretched condition. Such, as I show, were sinning against particular warnings and admonitions from God; as also against frequently renewed vows and promises of amendment and obedience. But these I mentioned not as certain, infallible marks of such a forlorn estate, but only as shrewd signs of it. For besides that the Scripture declares no man absolutely and finally lost, as soon as these qualifications are found upon him, unless they continue so till his death; so it is further manifest that the grace of God is so strange and various in its working upon the heart of men that it sometimes fastens upon and converts old overgrown sinners, such as, to the eye of reason, were going apace to hell, and almost at their journey’ s end. From all which it follows, that no man, in this life, can pass any certain judgment concerning the will of God in reference to his own final estate; but ought, with fear and trembling, to attend God’ s precept and revealed will; and so gathering the best evidence he can of his condition from his obedience, with all humility to expect the issue of God’ s great counsels and intentions. IV. Uses. 1. To exhort and persuade all such as know how to value the great things that concern their peace, to beware of sinning under sin-aggravating circumstances. 2. To convince us of the great and fearful danger of a daring continuance in a course of sin. Who knows what a day may bring forth, and what may be the danger of one hour’ s delay? This is most sure, that every particular repeated act of sin sets us one advance nearer to hell. And while we are sinning obstinately, and going on audaciously in a rebellious course, how can we tell but God may “ swear in His wrath” against us and register our names in the black rolls of damnation? (R. South, D. D.) . Psalms 96:1-13 Psalms 96:1-13O sing unto the Lord a new song: sing unto the Lord, all the earth.A supreme existence and a supreme service I. A supreme existence.1. Great in His nature--in power, intellect, heart. 2. Great in His work. “ Made the heavens.” 3. Great in His character. 4. Great in His government. II. A supreme service.1. Joyous. 2. Fresh. “ A new song.” The song of yesterday will not do for to-day, for there are fresh motives, fresh mercies, fresh needs. 3. Constant. Worship as an occasional service is worthless, it is only worship as it becomes an all-pervading spirit, a permeating, dominating inspiration. “ From day to day.” 4. Universal. “ All the earth.” “ Ye kindreds of the people.” This service is confined to no tribe or class of men, all sustain the same relation to the Supreme Existence, and out of the same relationship the same common obligations spring. 5. Practical. (1) Acknowledgment of God’ s claims.(2) Proclamation of God’ s glory to the world. (Homilist.) The new song and the old story There are mighty passions of the human soul which seek vent, and can get no relief until they find it in expression. Grief, acute, but silent, has often destroyed the mind, because it has not been able to weep itself away in tears. The glow of passion, fond of enterprise and full of enthusiasm, has often seemed to rend the very fabric of manhood when unable either to attain its end or to utter its strong desires. So it is in true religion. It not only lays hold upon our intellectual nature with appeals to our judgment and our understanding, but at the same time it engages our affections, brings our passions into play, and fires them with a holy zeal, producing a mighty furore; so that when this spell is on a man, and the Spirit of God thoroughly possesses him, he must express his vehement emotions. Our purpose is to suggest two modes of expressing your consecration to God and your devotion to the Lord Jesus Christ. These two methods are to sing about and to talk about the good things the Lord has done for you, and the great things He has made known to you. Let song take the lead--“ O sing unto the Lord a new song: sing unto the Lord, all the earth. Sing unto the Lord, bless His name.” Then let discourse engage you; be it in public sermons or in private conversations--“ Show forth His salvation from day to day. Declare His glory among the heathen, His wonders among all people.” We begin with the voice of melody. All ye that love the Lord, give vent to your heart’ s emotion by song, and take care that it be sung to the Lord alone. As ye stand up to sing, there should be a fixed intent of the soul, a positive volition of the mind, an absolute determination of the heart, that all the flame which kindles in thy breast, and all the melody that breaks from thy tongue, and all the sacred swell of grateful song shall be unto the Lord, and unto the Lord alone. And if you would sing unto the Lord, let me recommend you to flavour your mouth with the Gospel doctrines which savour most of grace unmerited and free. Praise the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath begotten us again unto a lively hope, who provides for us, educates us, instructs us, leads and guides us, and will bring us by and by to the many mansions in His own house. Sing ye also unto the Son. Adore the Lamb slain. Kneel at the Cross foot, and praise each wound, and magnify the immortal who became mortal for our sakes. And, then, sing ye to the Holy Spirit. Oh, how our hearts are bound reverently to worship the Divine Indweller who, according to His abundant mercy, hath made our bodies to be His temples wherein He deigns to dwell. “ Sing unto the Lord a new song.” Let the freshness of your joy and the fulness of your thanks be perennial as the days of heaven. This song, according to our text, is designed to be universal. “ Sing unto the Lord, all the earth.” Let sires and sons mingle in its strains. There is not one of us but has cause for song, and certainly not one saint but ought especially to praise Him. In three ways, methinks, it becomes us to sing God’ s praises. We ought to sing with the voice. Angel harp and human voice! If the angel harp be more skilful, surely the human voice is more grateful. We are like a bird that has only one wing. There is much prayer, but there is little praise. “ Sing unto the Lord.” To sing with the heart is the very essence of song. Though the tongue may not be able to express the language of the soul, the heart is glad. Oh, to have a cheerful spirit--not the levity of the thoughtless, nor the gaiety of the foolish, nor even the mirth of the healthy--there is a cheerful spirit which is the gift of grace, that can and does rejoice evermore. Then when troubles come we bear them cheerfully; let fortune smile, we receive it with equanimity; or let losses befall us, we endure them with resignation, being willing, so long as God is glorified, to accept anything at His hands. These are the people to recommend Christianity. Their cheerful conversation attracts others to Christ. In the second place, then, let me stir you up to such daily conversation and such habitual discourse as shall be fitted to spread the Gospel which you love. Our text admonishes you to “ show forth His salvation.” You believe in the salvation of God--a salvation of grace from first to last. You have seen it; you have received it; you have experienced it. Well, now, show it forth. “ Declare His glory among the heathen.” Show them the justice of the great substitution, and the mercy of it. Show them the wisdom which devised the plan whereby, without a violation of the law, God could yet pardon rebellious sinners. Impress upon those that you talk with that the Gospel you have to tell them of is no commonplace system of expediency, but really it is a glorious revelation of divinity. A third expression is used here. “ Declare His wonders among all people.” Our Gospel is a Gospel of wonders. It deals with wonderful sin in a wonderful way. It presents to us a wonderful Saviour, and tells us of His wonderful complex person. It points us to His wonderful atonement, and it takes the blackest sinner and makes him wonderfully clean. The wonders of grace far exceed the wonders of nature; there are no miracles so matchless in wonder as the miracles of grace in the heart of man. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Psalms 96:4 For the Lord is great, and greatly to be praised. God’ s praise The greatness or majesty of God is the prominent thing dwelt on in this psalm; but it may be dealt with in a larger and more comprehensive way. I. The duty of praise. The psalmist calls upon us to sing. It honours God not only that we should speak to others about Him, and preach to others His truth, but that we should sing His praise, finding thus expression for our joyous and loving thoughts of Him who is worthy to receive glory and honour for ever and ever. Impress that joining in the songs and praises of the great congregation is still our way of honouring God. “ Whoso offereth praise glorifieth Him.” II. Where should we praise? (Psalms 96:6). “ In His sanctuary.” The place of worship, the consecrated place, rich with the associations of years of worship. Show how strongly urged is the duty of joining in public services; and how important the duty of forming, in this respect, good early habits. III. What should we praise? We may praise God for what He has done; in creation, providence, and grace; and for what He has done directly for us. The psalmist rises to a nobler height, and sets us the example of praising God for what He is, for the greatness, and majesty, and strength, and honour that belong to Him. IV. Before whom should we praise.? Before those who do not know God, or who sadly neglect Him. Our praise is to be a witness to them; an example for them; and a persuasion of them. Our acts of worship and our godly habits are to say to them, “ Come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker.” V. Who should join us in praise? Note the poetic sentiment of verses11-13; all nature joins man in praise. But man should be the leader of the choir. (Robert Tuck, B.A.) Psalms 96:6 Strength and beauty are in His sanctuary. Strength and beauty Christianity alone has combined the two ideals of the world. Strength and beauty are diverse, but not contradictory. Yet we seldom find them united in the national ideals of ancient or modern times. “ Thy sons, O Zion!” cried one of the Hebrew prophets, “ against thy sons, O Greece” --the nation which stood for moral strength inexorably opposed to the nation whose ruling passion was beauty. To the Hebrew beauty was a secondary and an inconsiderable ideal compared with the strength of moral restraint and attainment. Strength was for men, and beauty perhaps was good enough for women. But the point of our text is that it combines strength and beauty into one harmony of character, which both men and women should seek to acquire. “ Not like to like, but like in difference-- Yet in the long years liker must they grow; The man be more of woman, she of man; He gain in sweetness and in moral height, Nor lose the wrestling thews that throw the world; The mental breadth, nor fail in childward care, Nor lose the childlike in the larger mind.” Aaron’ s rod was the symbol of authority, the strength of the High Priest’ s office, but Aaron’ s rod it was that budded, and there you have the beauty. Our text, then, points out that there is no character complete which does not possess both strength and beauty. But, more than that, it shows that true strength and beauty are found only in God’ s sanctuary--that is, in genuine relationship with God. A very little thought will suffice to satisfy us how closely this corresponds with the facts. For if there is anything which our experience makes clear, it is this: that sin’ s tendency is to weaken, to soften the moral fibre of our natures, and to throw us open to the germs of all spiritual diseases. You all know how sins of sensuality bring their terrible revenge upon the body, and how nature exacts the uttermost farthing. In precisely similar fashion the soul is weakened by the transgression of the laws of moral and spiritual health. To commit any sin is to make oneself less able to resist it in the future. One falsehood leads almost necessarily to more. Where is the boasted strength and liberty of the sinner? Liberty to destroy oneself? Strength enough to take away by an act of moral suicide one’ s spiritual life? Yes, but no strength to live purely and nobly, no power to aspire, no courage to battle with the incursions of evil; is it not a mockery to say that there is strength in the pursuit of sin? Strength is in God’ s sanctuary, for He alone enables men to trample under foot the weakening influences of sin through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. What, then, are the nature and value of that strength which is to be found in Christ? What end does it serve and to what attainment does it lead? For one thing, it enables a man to cleave fast to the highest that he knows though all the world deride. No one can doubt how tremendous is the pressure of public opinion in these days, and how strong (one might almost say obstinate) a man must be who is to set himself to resist it. We talk of the pressure of the atmosphere upon the human body, and no doubt it is vast; buy we do not feel it because our frame has been made equal to the strain. For our moral frame, however, we must win the protecting armour of God’ s grace, and until we are safely clad in it, the pressure is grievous to be borne. In every line of life there are practices which have grown common and are sanctioned by custom, yet your conscience tells you they are wrong. “ I do not think,” said President Garfield, “ what others may think or say concerning me, but there is one man’ s opinion concerning me which I very much value, that is the opinion of James Garfield; others I need not think about. I can get away from them, but I have to be with him all the time . . . It makes a great difference whether he thinks well of me or not.” These are noble words, and they show us the sort of strength we need--strength to be faithful to what we know as the best and highest that a man can set up within his soul. From that tribunal we may not escape judgment, and if we are acquitted there our hearts are at peace. The same thing is true of all manner of temptation. We do not escape the snares of the tempter by running away. To these we must offer a constant and pitiless antagonism. There is an old tower on the Continent where in one of the dungeons the walls have graven upon them again and again the word “ Resist.” It is said a Protestant woman was kept in those dark recesses for forty years, and all the time she spent in graving with a piece of iron for all who might come after her that solemn and courageous word. Oh! we need it graven upon our hearts. Strength is in God’ s sanctuary--strength for bestowal--and you may have it if you will reach forth your hand. It is useless to say, “ Be strong,” but it is wisdom to say, “ Be strong in the Lord.” And then we should seek strength for the sake of others, so as to impart to them help and encouragement. “ Briefly,” says Ruskin, “ the constant duty of every man to his fellows is to ascertain his own powers and special gifts, and to strengthen them for the help of others.” Our moral strength also is not for ourselves alone. It is intended that by example of words and deeds, by patient endurance and active courage, we should inspire our fellows and make them also strong. The greater your spiritual strength in face of temptation, the braver your courage against all foes of the soul, the more you will help your fellow men to subdue their enemies and to go on from strength to strength. But a character which has strength alone without beauty lacks the perfect round of the Christian ideal. If we would see an instance of such defective character, let us think of the Puritans, who three centuries ago in England stood for righteousness and integrity and the fear of God. But there was little in their lives which could be termed the “ beauty of holiness.” They were upright and they were true; but they had trained themselves to a stern, hard, rugged strength, without polish, without beauty, and without the adornment (though doubtless not without the reality) of love. We see in them the need of those softer and more attractive virtues which fill in the stature of the perfect man. Not only strength, but beauty, is to be found in God’ s sanctuary. Nor can true beauty be won save in Him. Just as sin is weakness, so sin is ugliness. It does not always seem so. The siren voices are sweet and their song is fairest music. The form of sin is often beautiful to the eye, and men long to embrace it. But when the sinner clutches it, the lovely form changes to a hideous skeleton that grins and chatters in his face. As George Eliot says of one among her gallery of human characters: “ He had no idea of a moral repulsion, and could not have believed, if he had been told it, that there may be a resentment and disgust which will gradually make beauty more detestable than ugliness, through exasperation at that outward virtue in which hateful things can flaunt themselves or find a supercilious advantage.” Yes, brethren, beauty in its essence is the form of the true and the good, and there is no beauty without goodness. It is a false antagonism to say that one seeks the beautiful rather than the good. There is nothing really beautiful except what is good. “ The true beautiful,” says a modern prophet, “ differs from the false as heaven does from Vauxhall.” Let us, then, get rid of the notion that beauty is not to be sought. Every fresh soul that enters the world instinctively claims a share of the light and joy which this world’ s beauty brings; and God forbid that Christians should shut the door upon the beautiful. “ The instinct,” says some one, with truth, “ even in its lowest forms, is divine. It is the commentary on the text that man shall not live by bread alone.” And so far is Christianity from excluding the beautiful from its scheme that it actually recommends the softer and more attractive virtues as no other religion has done. The highest type of Christian character is the most truly beautiful this world has seen. We cannot hear of self-renunciation, or forgiveness, or kindness, or gracious love without exclaiming, How beautiful! And these are the graces which Christ bestows. Strength and beauty, then, make up the perfect character. But where do we find them perfectly combined? Nowhere, save in Jesus Christ. In what wonderful harmony they are blended there! How constantly in His life do we see strength and beauty, in perfect balance and poise, shining forth from His acts and words! In the garden of agony, faced by cruel and murderous men, He stands erect, calmly repeating to His enemies, “ I have told you that I am He” --there is strength; but mark the tender beauty of what follows: “ If ye seek Me, let these go their way” --solicitude for His faint-hearted followers mingling with His fortitude. As one has truly said: “ The eyes that wept beside the grave of Lazarus were eyes that were like a flame of fire.” And so Christian character holds the field, combining the two necessary elements of strength and beauty. That is why Christ appeals to men as well as women. And that is why we cannot but deplore the folly which keeps so many men aloof from active profession of the faith of Christ, because, forsooth, they count it an unmanly thing. Oh! brethren, there is strength as well as beauty in the service of Christ, and nowhere else can you find strength worthy of the name. There is beauty as well as strength, and nowhere else can you find beauty that will last and increase as the years go by. Strength and beauty are in God’ s sanctuary; and the sanctuary is the holy place--the place where God and man come nigh, where God’ s cleansing and strengthening flow down to men, and where man’ s service is rendered up to God. (J. Waddell, B.A.) The sacred union of strength and beauty I. True of nature as a temple. In nature as a whole,--as one vast cathedral,--and in different scenes, it is as so many aisles and courts and chapels, in it there is strength and beauty. For example, in the forest there is the strength of the gnarled tree, with sinewy and majestic trunk, and the beauty of exquisite foliage and delicate moss and wild flower. II. True of the Hebrew sanctuaries. In the tabernacle were stout poles and coverings of skin for strength, and finely spun, delicately woven embroidery for beauty. In the temple, what massive and majestic stone for strength! what gleaming of precious and wondrous tapestry for beauty! There were in those sacred structures not only richest harmonies for the ear, but beauties for the eye as well, that so all nature should be toned and tuned to good impressions. III. True of Christian worship. There may well be Puritan earnestness of spirit, distinctiveness of doctrine, directness of rebuke, fixedness of faith, and at the same time aesthetic refinement of demeanour and tone and thought. Does not “ worship in the beauty of holiness “ involve obedience to the precept, “ Let all things be done decently and in order” ? IV. True of Christian character. That is the most perfect sphere of Divine worship; for to Christly men it is infallibly said, “ Ye are the temple of the Holy Ghost.” There must be in such character “ virtue,” the strength of manliness. By which is surely meant honesty, truth, courage, fidelity. But what does St. Peter teach us is to be added to virtue? Clearly, all moral beauty. Our character is to be a sanctuary with solid foundations, but adorned with finely wrought gold; our work is to be a war, but with chivalry. (U. R. Thomas.) Strength and beauty Strength and beauty are not always found in company, either in the works of God or of man. The lily is beautiful, but a child’ s foot may crush it; the gale is mighty, but it is the opposite of loveliness. In the works of man beauty is often allied to the fragile, and strength to the coarse and ungainly. But in the sanctuary of God they meet in undivided perfection. I. The strength and beauty of attraction. Here is found an attraction mightier than the magnet: it is not a law which acts upon matter, but a life which acts upon mind; a life which enlightens our darkness, quickens the conscience, sways the will, gives hope to the heart, bounding pleasure to the affections. II. The strength and beauty of an unflinching purpose--to reign, to save, to judge (Psalms 96:2; Psalms 96:10). This golden chain has never been broken, never been damaged, never been seen, by the enemy. “ The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him,” etc. III. The strength and beauty of a perfect organization. It does not grow old; it is a stranger to decay; there is no friction, no loss of power. It is sublimely perfect, and immortal as the years of the Most High. IV. The strength and beauty of imparted character. The true worshipper comes not only to admire, but to imbibe, be assimilated to the Father; justification is imputed, sanctification is imparted; under the robe of righteousness there must be the holy body, and beneath the manners and bearing of the outward man there must be enshrined, enthroned, the Lord and Saviour of the soul (Psalms 100:4). (H. T. Miller.) Strength and beauty Had the psalmist set himself to give an “ inventory,” if I may so say, of the things to he found in God’ s sanctuary, he would have involved himself in the construction of a very long catalogue. Had he attempted even a somewhat general description, it would have been much the same. For moral impression he does better than either. He passes his eye quickly but reverently round the whole, and feeling that amid all the multiplicity of objects there were two qualities or elements always to be found, sometimes apart, though never far apart, and generally passing into each other and blending together, he seizes upon these as in reality constituting all that was there, and, consequently, all of good that could be anywhere, and thus, with that graphic brevity which is to be found only in Scripture, gives us the whole nature and meaning of religion at a stroke--“ Strength and beauty are in His sanctuary.” The union of strength and beauty in nature is obvious. Some things, indeed, are distinctively strong, and some are distinctively beautiful, but the strongest things are not without beauty, and the most beautiful things are not without strength. Thus “ order” is the all-pervading principle of nature, and as implying security against confusion, collision, and all such things as might lead to these, manifests itself as the very strength of the universe--the invisible cord on which God hangs His material creation. But out of this order comes all the beauty of adaptation, mutual dependence, mutual helpfulness, the succession of seasons--weaving a many-coloured robe for the year--and that felt though hidden harmony which led heathen philosophers to speak of the music of the spheres. So is it also in the sanctuary of home. God “ setteth us in families,” and in these He has a sanctuary, which is as plainly as any other inscribed with the characteristics of strength and beauty. There is the strong arm to work and the loving heart to feel. But the sanctuary here referred to is different from that of nature and of home. It is God’ s sanctuary proper--in its first sense, the scene of His worship, of which He has said, “ I will place salvation in Zion for Israel My glory” --Zion, so strong that it cannot be moved--the “ mountain of the Lord’ s house” ; and yet Zion, so fair that out of it, as “ the perfection of beauty,” God hath shined. In the further sense, all that belongs to God’ s redemption-work is included in it. Take the character and teaching of Him who is its “ Author and Finisher,” Jesus, the Son of God, on whom the execution of the work was laid, and who gave Himself for us that He might redeem us from all iniquity. In Him was the strength of holiness, as a necessity; for He was God, “ the brightness of the Father’ s glory, and the express image of His person.” But He was God in human nature and in human relations, and this brought Him within the sphere of human observation, and made His life on the earth the visible image of man in his ideal perfection. The trying and every-varying circumstances in which He was placed served to bring out the strength and beauty alike which were enshrined in this “ sanctuary” of God; for the strength of His purity never passed into hardness, and the beauty of His compassion never sank into weakness. He was both a merciful and a faithful High Priest. This example His people must follow. The spirit of Christ must be their spirit too. The strength of holiness must be conspicuous in them; the strength of obedience even unto death; the strength of a firm and resolute will in the direction of all that is true and just. But this must not be without beauty in their case, any more than it was in His: the beauty of tenderness mingling with their fidelity; the beauty of meekness, gentleness, pity,--knowing, like Him, to have compassion on the ignorant and them that are out of the way. And so also with the services of the sanctuary. In these there must be first, and mainly, the strength of truth, in the reading of the Scriptures and the preaching of the pure and simple Gospel of grace and love. Without this, services are a delusion, “ clouds without water, carried about of winds, trees whose fruit withereth.” And yet they are not to consist entirely in the enunciation of doctrine, but must rise out of that into the beauty of emotional feeling, and find expression in the broken accents of prayer and the uplifted melody of psalms and hymns and songs of praise. In conclusion: this brief sentence might be expanded indefinitely. It passes round and appropriates all that belongs to a religious character and life, and it holds in it many words of counsel and caution. It forbids us to be harsh for the sake of faithfulness, or to be weakly compliant for the sake of tenderness. It takes the two staves of the prophet--Beauty and Bands--and binds them together in the laws and principles of God’ s house and service, and in the whole character and life of His people, even as they are bound together in the nature of God Himself, and were so wondrously exemplified at every step by Him who achieved our redemption in all the strength of His immaculate holiness, and in all the beauty of His immeasurable love. (A. L. Simpson, D.D.) Strength and beauty It is a common observation that the finest and most impressive effects are often produced by the combination of things that are unlike each other. The painter recognizes this principle when he brings his darkest shadows to heighten the effect of his clearest lights, or contrasts the peaceful life of some humble cottage home with the stately magnificence of the stern mountains that surround it. The architect appeals to the same principle when he crowns his columns with beautiful capitals, and relieves the massive masonry of his walls with delicate tracery and forms of sculptured beauty. In such cases two ideas entirely different from each other are brought together. The massive wall and the marble column suggest the thought of strength; while the delicate carvings and the sculptured friezes appeal to the sense of beauty. The thought which lies deep in the artist’ s mind, and to which he strives to give expression in his work, is that there is a natural alliance between strength and beauty. We see illustrations of this truth in-- I. The works of God. All the strong things in nature are beautiful: all the beautiful things are exhibitions of strength. The dewdrop that glitters on the rose-leaf--we all know the perfection of its beauty; but how little do we understand the mystery of the strength by which that beauty is secured! That little drop of water is composed of elements which are held together by electric forces sufficient to form a flash of lightning that would rend the rocks of the mountain or blast the stoutest oak of the forest. All that mighty thunder of power lies sleeping in the crystal sphere of a tiny dewdrop. Each day is enlarging the sphere of our knowledge of the natural world; and every fresh discovery brings a new gleam of light to kindle up afresh the brilliancy of the illuminated scroll, “ Strength and beauty are in His sanctuary.” II. The revealed character of God. Strength and beauty are before Him--the strength of an infinite majesty, the thunder of an almighty power, the calm serenity of an eternal righteousness. And these, when seen alone, apart from those other attributes of His nature which are their gracious complement, can bring no peace to the troubled conscience or rest to wearied hearts. They can bring us trembling and awe-stricken into that majestic presence; but they know not the secret of transforming the shrinking terror of the criminal and the slave into the holy reverence and the joyous freedom of the son. Strength and beauty--the beauty of tenderness, the graciousness of Divine condescension, the winning aspects of a love that “ beareth all things, believeth all things, endureth all things, hopeth all things.” III. The person of Christ. IV. The various revelations of Divine truth to the world, and the order of their succession. The law precedes the Gospel: and law is to the Gospel as strength to beauty. We speak and think of the severe aspects of the law, its “ shalt” and “ shalt not,” its stern repressions and its calm, passionate sentences. But it had its softer side, its gracious and tender aspects for those who had the heart and the eye to see them. To men like David it was given to rejoice in the thought that the law has its seat in the bosom of the God of Love. The Ritual of Judaism had deeper meanings for the spiritual worshipper, and its law brought him to Christ. The man who had the clearest vision of the strength and majesty of the law was the man who rejoiced most deeply in the everlasting mercy of the Lord. The law had its prefigurement of the Gospel, just as the Gospel had its undying reminiscence of the law. V. Human character. There is danger in opposite directions. Some Christians are content with the strength, and care little for the beauty, of the Christian life. They are stern in their adhesion to principle, careless of the lesser charities of life, apt to be harsh in their condemnation of error and sin. Every one knows their worth, believes in their honesty, would trust implicitly to their integrity. But they do not win love by their gracious bearing, their kind words, their charitable construction of men and things. They have the strength, but they lack something of the beauty of the Christian character. Others are in danger from the opposite tendency. They would sacrifice something of the severity of perfect uprightness to the graces of life. They must have peace at any price. It is the emotional side of religion that has the chief attraction for them. They are in love with the beauty of religion, but they are not good specimens of its strength and steadfastness. The text has a message for each. Strength and beauty. This is the ideal of a complete Christian character. The one is the framework, the other is the covering, of the man of full spiritual stature. In matters of principle, in the sphere of actions that touch the conscience, remember the call for strength. “ Be strong in the Lord.” But remember the other element, and cultivate the spirit and the practice of “ the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.” Give wide interpretation to the prayer of the psalmist,” Let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us.” (W. Cameron, D.D.) Strength and beauty A subject of never-waning interest to the student of comparative religions is she influence upon the character of a nation in its conception of God. It is sometimes asserted, in somewhat too sweeping a fashion, that a people will be as is its idea of God. In qualification of that proposition it has to be said that not all people hold themselves pledged to the imitation of God. Many, indeed, would argue that such a thought is little short of presumptuous folly. Moreover, even when the imitation of God is regarded as man’ s chief and proper endeavour, the fact remains that a nation’ s character is determined not by certain merely traditional and abstract ideas of Deity, but by the quality of its faith in the reality of God. With these qualifications, it may be generally admitted that the character of every people tends to be influenced by the character of its God or gods. It is impossible to maintain that the old popular mythologies of Greece and Rome had no influence upon the common lives of men. The weaknesses, follies, passions, and vices of the immortals became in the nature of a justification for similar failings and excesses among mortals; and it can never have been easy of belief that what is right in God is wrong in man. No doubt it was a favourable maxim of the Stuart dynasty, “ Do you not know that I am above the law?” ; and apologists were wont to maintain in very old times that gods and goddesses could no more than earthly autocrats be subjected to the laws of ordinary human morality. But example tells when the subtlest casuistry fails; and, save where unbelief has relaxed or destroyed the sanctions of religion, the character of the God it worships tends to impress itself upon the character of the worshipping people; and insensibly, if not of settled aspiration, the nation does tend to an imitation of God. We are on surer ground, however, when we turn from that heterogeneous multitude of people we call a nation to a consideration of the individual life. The stronger a man’ s faith in God, the more will he realize in his own character those qualities which occupy the largest place in his conception of God. The degree of his imitation of God will be proportionate to the intensity of his belief in God. Now, the psalmist, in this lyrical outburst of adoration, professes to have discovered two qualities which are revealed in combination in the character of God, and which, such is the suggestion, He will Himself communicate to devout, worshipful, and aspiring souls. These two qualities are strength and beauty. Neither quality is of itself uncommon; it is their combination that is so rare. Somehow in this world the strong is not usually the beautiful, and the beautiful is not the strong. We think of the beautiful in Nature as the fragile, the delicate, the evanescent. We think of the strong, and with its massive solidity it is difficult to associate any thought of grace and loveliness. But this psalm was a hymn for the Temple; and if it be true, as we suppose, that there are yet remaining many of the glorious pillars which adorned that magnificent structure, it is conceivable that they suggested to the psalmist’ s mind this rare combination of qualities. For these pillars of the Temple were of radiant marble, stately and splendid in themselves, and with the added decoration of capitals nobly carved in all manners of exquisite device. And not the pillars alone, but the whole majestic pile itself, was it not the standing witness to the truth that the God whom it represented to men was at once strong and beautiful? For its durability and solidity was only equalled by its magnificence; the strength of its stone by the beauty of its colouring and the glory of its decoration. The architects of that ancient cathedral seem to have derived their ideas from Nature and to have seen that He who laid the enduring foundations of the earth, decorated the world, He made with the gold of the crocus, the crimson of the field-lily, or the blue of the gentian and the harebell; and they built for Him a lane which, like the world He built for them, was strong and beautiful, massive, but full of delicate colour. As was this temple of their God, so was the God of the Temple--in His Divine Being they felt there must be this glorious combination of strength and beauty. If, then, the religious life be the imitation of God, the man of God will manifest to the world a character in which strength and beauty are found in combination. (C. S. Horne, M.A.) Strength and beauty It does not admit of question that not only the Hebrew ideal embraced them both, but the creed of ancient art in its noblest era associated the perfection of beauty with the perfection of strength. The sculptor honoured magnificence and majesty in the human frame; he revealed the beauty that lay in limbs that denoted a sense of power. It is only later on that we begin to see ideals contrasting themselves. One painter worships soft loveliness, and his imagination riots in luxuriance of colouring; but another still upholds the ideal of the majestic, and about his work there is a restraint and even austerity. That is how the ideals of Raphael and Michael Angelo perpetually contrast themselves. And the pre-eminence of the latter is just this: that he never wearies of insisting that strength is inseparable from the highest beauty. (C. S. Horne, M. A.) The highest beauty is strong, noble magnificent You remember how Mr. Ruskin enforced the truth in his teaching about architecture. In the rudest forms of building, a strong arch was constructed by laying a huge square stone slab across two huge square upright pillars. When it was complete it had certainly the aspect of durability. Plain it was, and ugly, but surely, said the builder, it could not at any rate be stronger. On the contrary, arches did not become strong until they became beautiful. It was only when the curved line of beauty was discovered that the secret of strength was discovered too . . . Or, again, you will remember how the old pillars of the ancient temples were made thick and square, and squat and ugly. But then came the discovery that you did not detract from strength if you built a more tapering pillar and adorned it with carved capitals, or fluted it from base to summit. There is no antagonism between strength and beauty. This psalmist is in agreement with the thought of the apostle who wrote, “ I will make thee a pillar in the temple of my God.” (C. S. Horne, M. A.) The supremacy of love in strength and beauty Without reverence there is no beauty of manhood; nay, and without love, none, none. I know that to-day men praise the strength of will, of energy, and I have no dispraise for that, until it becomes one of the “ idols” of the market-place. Mere strength of will is not by any means always beautiful: it is not seldom hard and brutal. Love is the stronger force when all is said, and love is beautiful. Matthew Arnold’ s lines contain a haunting truth. “ I, too, have longed for trenchant force And will, like a dividing spear; Have praised the keen, unscrupulous course Which knows no doubt, which feels no fear. But in the world I learnt what there Thou, too, wilt surely one day prove: That will, that energy, though rare, Are yet far, far less rare than love.” (C. S. Horne, M. A.) Psalms 96:8-9 Give unto the Lord the glory due unto His name: bring an offering, and come into His courts. Public worship I. Prayer. As we all have religious feelings to express, sins to acknowledge, mercies temporal and spiritual for which to give thanks, evils to feel or fear, with regard to ourselves and others, it highly becomes us to join together, and to lift up our hearts with one accord, in a public and social manner, to the hearer of prayer, and thus to offer unto Him our united homage and supplication with thanksgiving. Prayer is not only a duty, it is a high privilege and honour; the nearest approach to God, and the highest enjoyment of Him which we are capable of in this world. II. Praise. The saints on high, and the angels around the throne, praise God in the highest, and well does it become men upon earth to join their humble notes of praise to the anthem of the heavenly choirs, in exalting together His great and glorious name. All the works of God praise Him, from the heights of heaven to the depths of the earth; the angels around the throne praise Him; the sun, and moon, and stars of light praise Him in their courses; the mountains, and valleys, and woods, and fields, and seas, and streams of water praise Him; the elements of nature praise Him and obey His Word. III. The preaching and hearing of the word. Both the ministers and the hearers of the Word should watch over themselves, that they may have singleness of eye and heart to the glory of God, more desirous of the Divine approbation than of human applause, avoiding all vain and vexatious questions, which profit not, but engender strife and ungodliness, and which violate that heavenly charity without which all our services are hateful in the sight of God. IV. The giving and receiving of the Sacrament of the Lord’ s Supper. We should consider the “ nature and design of the Lord’ s Supper,” the dispositions which are required for an acceptable participation, and the graces which it is calculated to cherish. The Lord’ s Supper thus observed would be attended with the happiest and most beneficial effects on our hearts and lives, in confirming our faith, enlivening our hope and charity, and in promoting our progress in holiness, and in meetness for the pure and perfect service of heaven. (J. Wightman, D. D.) Worship Worship may be called the flower of the religious life. It will be absent where there is no religion at all; it will be scanty or poor when one’ s religion is feeble; it blossoms into beauty and perfection only when godliness is assiduously cultivated in daily practice and the soul is accustomed to dwell habitually under the shadow of the Almighty. Here, then, you have a very useful test by which to judge of your real religious condition. Is worship irksome? Do you find your affections generally cold, your desires languid, or your thoughts wandering when you come to church? Search within for the cause; see if there be not a negligent state of the soul behind this undevout frame of yours; inquire into your daily habits of obedience, your vigilance against known sin, your study of God’ s will and mind, your practice of repentance, and of faith in the Saviour. As a Christian lives well or ill so will he worship. Again, his worship, if it be hearty and constant, must feed and purify his spiritual life. And here let me speak a little on the utterances which the devout mind finds for its feelings towards God; because it should be recollected that although worship begins in a state of the heart it does not stop there--to feel penitence, or gratitude, or adoration is not just the same thing as to worship; worship or homage begins when the hidden emotions of a devout mind, stirred up at the thought of God, run out into some form of utterance. The utterance may, no doubt, be secret and silent--no voice--hardly even the lips moving, like pious Hannah’ s, the soul talking only to its God. This is how people commonly worship when they are alone. No matter; there is none the less real outflow and utterance of the man. An outflow of the heart towards the Most High there must be, perfectly well understood by Him whether discernible to men or not--then the soul worships. Now, of what nature is this outflow from the religious heart? Briefly, it is of the nature of an offering of a sacrifice. Foremost of all, that of which it is expressly said, “ The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit,” etc. Next comes the offering of our grateful and joyous praise for Him who hath been sent among us to heal the broken-hearted; I mean the words of our lips giving thanks to His name in song and audible confession of His mercy, for “ with such sacrifices,” likewise, “ God is well pleased.” One other offering alone I shall name which we ought to bring within His courts--it is that which the apostle has described as a service reasonable on our part and acceptable to God--I mean the dedication to His service of ourselves. Christian homage to the Redeemer finds its supreme utterance here in the recognition of the fact that we are no longer our own, at our own bidding and disposal, but are His who bought us with a price, willingly devoted, separated of our own choice, to the service and honour of our Redeemer, living and dying body and soul the Lord’ s. (J. O. Dykes, D. D.) The duty of prayer 1. The primary foundation of this duty is the soul’ s relation to God. Every consideration by which we commend filial piety towards earthly parents holds still more forcibly in reference to our heavenly Father. How unnatural the child that never asked his father for anything, that never made his mother the confidante of his troubles and difficulties, that could drink the cup of enjoyment and success, and never ask his parents to share it, or that never poured into their hungering ears the expressions of affection and honour. What opportunities the wants, troubles, and enjoyments of childhood afford for intercourse between parent and child, for the moulding influence of the parent to exert itself upon the child’ s character, for the play of mutual affection and delight. Judging from human analogy, it would seem quite sufficient reason for God’ s making the bestowment of His best blessings to depend upon their being sought in prayer, that “ communications concerning giving and receiving” send themselves so directly to the expression and strengthening of love. 2. Prayer is a duty we owe to God’ s name, an offering which we ought to make to His blessedness. “ God is love,” and love has its expectations, its satisfactions, its dues, its delights. “ Will a man rob God?” the prophet asks. Ah, we have robbed Him of dearer treasure than tithes and offerings. Where is the husband or wife, the father or daughter, who would not account the withholding of the affection that was their just expectation a more grievous wrong than any passing injury or lapse of material gifts? Our obligation as Christians to live in communion with God is all the stronger that in these last days He hath spoken unto us by His Son. 3. Public worship is a duty we owe to God as witnesses to His existence, authority, and grace. The maintenance of this testimony is a most efficient means of advancing His kingdom in the world. When we render it, we are doing in a humble way the work of such men as Elijah and Daniel. This is one important use of public worship. Such worship, by uniting many suppliants in one request, calls forth more abundant praise when it is granted: it provides, also, a fuller expression of adoration than the individual soul can compass, and therefore intensifies and exalts its feeling; further, it exhibits the sympathy and concord of human beings in the loftiest employment of their powers; but beyond all this, it lifts up a clear and striking testimony to the reality of God’ s authority and grace, and bids men everywhere bow down before their Maker. 4. The neglect of prayer indicates a general indifference to duty. Since we are really dependent upon the inspiration and guidance of God for the power to serve Him acceptably, to neglect the means of obtaining these is to be careless where we ought to be most careful. If out of the heart are the issues of life, and prayer is the chief instrument of heart culture, how blamable our want of diligence in it. To neglect prayer is to leave our loyalty open to every hostile temptation, to burn our lamp and make no provision to replace the exhausted oil. (E. W. Shalders, B.A.) Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. The Church’ s worship in the beauty of holiness Slightly changing the order of the psalmist’ s biddings, I will invite you to lend to him your attentive ears, first, as he says to you and to all, “ Worship the Lord,” and that “ in the beauty of holiness” ; and then, as he summons you to one duty, or rather one privilege, more, “ Bring presents, and come into His courts.” And first, as he says to you, “ Worship the Lord,” this house being first and chiefly a house of prayer, according to that word of the prophet, afterwards made His own by Christ the Lord, “ My house shall be called a house of prayer.” “ Seek ye My face,” He says to each that enters its gates. They only enter those gates with profit, they only carry away a blessing, who make answer from the heart, “ Thy face, Lord, will we seek.” But this worship, how shall it be offered, and with what accompaniments? “ In the beauty of holiness.” Other beauty is good in its place and its degree; has its worth, although that altogether a subordinate worth. The outward apparel of the king’ s daughter may be of wrought gold (and who would grudge her this, where it may be fitly had?) but she must be “ all glorious within,” glorious with the inward graces of faith and love, humility and holiness, if that Lord for whom she adorns herself is indeed to delight Himself in her or to behold any beauty in her, that He should desire it. But how worship Him “ in the beauty of holiness” ? We unholy, we defiled, our souls not beautiful, but ugly with sin, how shall we fulfil the condition which the psalmist requires? First, then, I reply, or rather the Word of God replies, he only who has his conscience purged from dead works through the blood of sprinkling can do this. And the second condition is like to it, that we, as the true Israel, worship God in the spirit, praying in the Holy Ghost. But what else does the psalmist say? “ Bring presents, and come into His courts.” And first, lest there should be any mistake here, let me remind you of that without which every other present will be worthless in the sight of Him who does not weigh what we give, but with what spirit we give it. See, then, that you offer first and chiefly yourselves, your souls and bodies, acceptable through Christ, washed with His blood, sanctified by His Spirit. Give, and that without keeping anything back, yourselves to God. But, this done, bring other presents, other gifts; they will all, indeed, have been included in this all-embracing one, to Him. If you have leisure, leave not your clergy to cope single-handed with the ignorance, the vice, and the misery around them; range yourselves among their helpers; give them some of that lay assistance which is so invaluable to them. If you have means, suffer not the Church’ s charities at home, her missions abroad, to be starved and stunted through contributions by you withholden altogether, or doled out with a niggard hand. If you have any special talent, see if it cannot be enlisted in the service of God, and find its highest consecration there. (Abp. Trench.) Worship I. Its nature. It consists in devout exercises of the soul, whether in meditation, adoration, admiration, or supplication. It is the spirit disentangled from the sensuous and engaged in fellowship with the Invisible and Divine.1. Worship is a necessity of man’ s nature. He is no mere machine, or thinker, or theorist; he is pre-eminently a worshipper, distinctively moral in his make, religious in his proclivities, akin in the great spiritual invisibilities of his nature to the all-glorious Creator. 2. Worship is an evidence of man’ s greatness. The existence of moral intuitions amid the sad wreck of the soul by sin proclaims a fallen nobility, a crownless royalty: yea, tells it even now to be--“ Sublime in ruins and grand in woe.” 3. In worship man finds his native element. Like the bird which has been encaged for weary months, that breaks through the wires of its prison and escapes on swift wing, pealing forth its song of freedom as it finds its native element, so the believer, escaping from the din and turmoil of the world, or of business, and entering into the hallowed retreat of the closet, or “ the holy place of the tabernacle of the Most High,” hears amid its hush and stillness angelic voices whispering, “ The Lord is in His holy Temple,” and finds in His presence the society for which he was made, and the fellowship for which he pants. There is a kinship of soul, an affinity of sympathy, a unity of will, a oneness of spirit, a reciprocity of affection. II. Its object. “ Worship the Lord.”1. He should be worshipped in His sovereign and paternal relationship to us. 2. He should be worshipped in the Tri-unity of His nature. Though it be impossible to give a “ positive definition of the distinction between Father, and Son, and Holy Spirit, yet this is no sufficient reason for denying the distinction itself, of which the Bible assures us; for reason, when left to herself, sets before us objects concerning which we, indeed, know that they exist, but concerning whose nature we have no positive knowledge. We can only distinguish between them and some false representations, or determine what they are net; but of their intrinsic nature, how they are we have not the slightest knowledge.” 3. Man becomes assimilated to the object of his worship. How vastly important, then, that our knowledge of God should be intelligent, correct, scriptural, and true. III. Its spirit. “ In the beauty of holiness.”1. Reality. 2. Simplicity. (J. O. Keen, D.D.) Beauty o/ soul Why do we think that nature is beautiful? Because it is the external world formed by the same hand that made us. We, partakers of the likeness of God, naturally admire our Father’ s works. We see beauty and divinity in them, and if He hath made the external world beautiful He hath made the human soul also, and devised that it shall be beautiful, like a great and beautiful temple, full of costly and beautiful things, a soul in harmony with itself, a soul in harmony with other souls that seek with it to do God’ s will, a soul filled with purity, light, gladness, charity, a soul overflowing with the love of God, with love of our fellow men, with the earnest desire to do always the things that are pure and virtuous. Look into such a soul and see how beautiful it is, the marvellous symmetry in the human soul, the marvellous colours, divinely gifted, in the human soul, the marvellous possibilities in the human soul. It is God’ s wonderful picture, His wonderful dream. God made the human soul, and the beauty of God, the beauty of the Divine conception that was in God’ s mind is expressed there. What a wonder is a beautiful soul! The soul that has been recognized in this world as transcendently beautiful is the soul of Jesus Christ. It has drawn other souls that had been contaminated with sin, drawn them to itself and transformed them to the glorious image; it has influenced more than anything else that we know the whole mind, the whole movement of the human family. The beauty of the soul of Christ--transcendent, heavenly, bewitching--we gaze upon it, and we say, “ whatever divinity may be we cannot tell, but this is divine enough, it is the summation of divinest ideals for us.” And gazing thus on the beautiful soul of the Christ, we are drawn up and beautified, filled with His love, transformed to His likeness, made more and more divine in the excellence of that grace which He gives to those souls that seek, for His sweet sake, that love to forsake evil, to put away the deformity, the debasement and the ugliness of vice, and to lay a herd of the Divine ideal, the beauty of Christ, and to worship God through Him and in His likeness, laying our noblest and our best, our best thoughts and our best feelings, and our noblest actions on the high altar of dedication to Him who has invited us in the old words of the psalm to worship Him “ in the beauty of holiness.” (A. Bennie, B.D.) Holiness What is this “ holiness” which is so beautiful? It is not justice--though it must include justice and have its root in strong integrity. It is not charity--though it must make man charitable with that finer love which not so much denies itself as simply forgets itself. It is not purity, but it is only in the pure soul that holiness can live; and purity which may be as cold as marble, touched by holiness takes on a glow as warm and radiant as the light of heaven. And it is no fancy of mine to make holiness include these things. Do you remember that “ holiness” in its original derivation is simply “ wholeness,” though the words have grown so curiously out of likeness in the spelling? Wholeness--the wholeness and completeness of character! Do you note the great, far-reaching meaning of this? I might figure the complete whole of human character as a pyramid: broad based in bodily power and aptitudes of strength or skill for life’ s basal work; then, above this the various grades of intellectual faculty; above these, again, the moral with the lofty sense of conscience and right, and, still in these higher reaches of character, those human affections which give a tenderer grace to mere rigid morality; and, then, rising highest of all, capping and crowning all, the apex to the pyramid--religion. As a fact, holiness has come to mean, not all this wholeness, but especially that crowning and completing religious element which makes life “ whole” at the higher end of it. And I do not want it taken away from that meaning, but it does want recognizing that the other is included, that for real holiness there must be wholeness; that holiness is not just a little religious element up in the heights of soul, and which may have nothing underneath it, but that it must have strong, full manliness or womanliness underneath it. The holiness that is not based on manly wholeness is not what the world wants. Man’ s being, in this common work-a-day world, has to be based on capable manhood; man has to have his feet firm on the solid earth. But now the other side of all this wants recognizing also. For that strong manly wholeness to come to any fine worth, there has to be this crowning element of holiness. The manhood that stops at strength, ability, or even intel-lect; the manhood that is not adding to these some crowning grace of earnest religiousness, is a poor truncated manhood. That is the most common trouble to-day. Men--men especially--are too content in life’ s lower levels. They are strong, busy, capable there, but there they are content to stop. Life never was stronger at its base, but there is too little effort to build it up towards that finest manhood which is “ made whole” by genuine, unashamed religion. And life loses immeasurably by this. It loses its highest outlook, its loftiest hopes, and all its noblest spring and power. Life wants to be made whole at the top. (B. Herford, D.D.) Psalms 96:10 Say among the heathen that the Lord reigneth. The message to the heathen world I. Its meaning.1. As the utterance of Jewish faith and joy. (1) The supremacy of Jehovah above all others called gods and worshipped.(2) His dominion over all the elements and agencies of nature.(3) His supreme authority over the moral world. In the procedure of the Divine government there might be much dark to men, but on the principles regulating it they might calmly rely. Its reasons were often concealed; its designs appeared different to what its subjects would have chosen. Confusion and disorder not infrequently seemed to prevail, but the Lord on high was King. He sat on the throne, doing right. Over all lands, through all ages, by all agencies, in all things, He ruled absolutely, as not under the power of Fate, righteously as ever doing well.2. In the announcement of this text by the Christian teacher there is all this and much more. God’ s revelation of Himself and of His government has been gradual. The fullest is that made to us in Christ. To us who bow before Christ as Lord of all, the assertion that He reigns means “ grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life” --it means that sin shall not reign in those who submit to Him--it means that He has received power to forgive sin, having suffered the just for the unjust to bring us to God--it means that He can impart a Spirit that shall root out the love of sin, and infuse strength to subdue the power of it, and gain more than victory over that death which was entailed as its curse. II. Its proclamation. Tell it out among the heathen, the people outside the Church, all the nations beyond the covenanted people--“ The Lord reigneth.” Why so?1. The kingdom of heaven upon earth, into which men are received to be blessed, has never been proclaimed, much less established amongst them; and the people are perishing from lack of knowledge. They must know it to become partakers of its blessings. Many blessings the whole family of man partake of through the bounty of God and the mediation of Christ, though they know nothing of either of them; but the great blessings of redemption from sin, deliverance from the kingdom of darkness, life eternal, are given to those who believe (Romans 10:14). 2. We have the command, and it is important to us that we obey it. Objections-- (1) “ I can do but little. I could not speak in a language the heathen understand. I cannot leave my home and duties here to teach them.” Very true. The Church must find its messengers, as the nation finds its soldiers. Every one may not go out to the battle, but all the nation take part in it. (2) “ I must think of heathen at home.” Doubtless. They are many, and they need to know all about these great things as much as the heathen abroad. They have been much more thought of, and taught Divine truth, since men have been more interested in those of other lands. Attempts to enlighten others will never excuse your neglect of these. (3) “ I do not think it is much good to preach to the heathen. They are unfit to receive it. You do no good by it.” “ Civilize them first,” say some, “ by education, by commerce.” Great agencies, doubtless, the one in destroying superstitions and making infidels, the other in circulating spirits and gunpowder, and showing men that many think gain is godliness. Alone they have not done much else. (4) “ You increase the responsibility of those who refuse to receive the truth.” Truly, so we do whenever we teach the truth at home; so we do in educating our children if they use not education aright; so you do in warning a criminal charged with a first offence if he should do wrong again; but what then? We are to obey, do good, and communicate, and leave the results with God. (5) “ We shall not do much till Christ come.” Will it not be well to be found doing the Master’ s work when He comes? (John Trafford, M.A.) Proclaiming Christ’ s reign to the heathen The Rev. E. P. Scott, while labouring as a missionary in India, saw in the street one of the strangest-looking heathens his eyes had ever lit upon. Upon inquiry, he found that he was a representative of the inland tribes that lived in the mountain districts, and which came down once a year to trade. Upon further investigation he found that the Gospel had never been preached to them, and that it was hazardous to venture among them because of their murderous propensities. He went to his lodging-place and pleaded for Divine direction. Arising from his knees, he packed his handbag, took his violin, with which he was accustomed to sing, and started in the direction of the tribe. As he bade his fellow-missionaries farewell, they said, “ We shall never see you again; it is madness for you to go.” But he said, “ I must preach Jesus to them.” For two days he travelled without scarcely meeting a human being, until at last he found himself in the mountains and suddenly surrounded by a crowd of savages. Every spear was instantly pointed at his heart. He expected that every moment would be his last. Not knowing of any other resource he tried the power of singing the name of Jesus to them. Drawing forth his violin, he began with closed eyes to sing and pray, “ All hail the power of Jesus’ name! Let angels prostrate fall; Bring forth the royal diadem, And crown Him Lord of all.” On commencing the third verse he opened his eyes to see what they were going to do, when lo! the spears had dropped from their hands, and the big tears were falling from their eyes. They afterwards invited him to their homes. He spent two and a half years among them. His labours were so richly rewarded that when he was compelled to leave them because of impaired health to return home, they followed him for thirty miles. “ Oh, missionary,” they said, “ come back to us again!” After visiting America, he went back again to continue his labours till he sank into the grave among them. Psalms 96:13 Then shall all the trees of the wood rejoice before the Lord.A summer homily on the trees I. The lessons from the characteristics common to all trees.1. This is the first thing we learn from the trees of the wood: life, growth, effort after perfection, suggesting to us what we are here for. 2. Productiveness, fruitfulness, manifestation and justification of the profession of life by fruit; that great characteristic of all trees whereby they produce the bud, the blossom, the fruit, without which they have not accomplished the end for which they exist; without which, at the right time, all professions of life are vain. 3. Beauty, gracefulness, symmetry of parts, proportion. There are Christian men and women not a few whose lives can only best be characterized when we call them lovely; so full of harmony they are, so free in obedience to highest law. We are drawn to them by an instinct we cannot resist; in them and upon them we see the beauty of the Lord. These are the trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord by which He is glorified. II. The lessons from the characteristics peculiar to some trees.1. This one to begin with, for example, that every tree has its own peculiar quality, in virtue of which it differs from every other: that every individual Christian, every man, has his own peculiar quality in virtue of which he differs, is meant to differ, from every other. If we have been endowed with special gifts and graces it is that these may come out in special work; if we have what nobody else has, it is that we may do what nobody else can. Generally true as it is that trees in the mass are of great use in the economy of nature; in the modification of climate, for example, or in their effect upon animal existence: it is also specially true that individual trees have their own peculiar ways of producing these results. A very special quality of the pine tree is to send its roots not downwards as others that require depth of earth, but obliquely, where if it but get a hold it will live. But in this special quality there is the special work: to be a covert, a protection to the rich harvests that are to be reaped behind their friendly shade. And so in the forest of God there is special work for special gifts. Some are more fitted for the maintenance and defence of moral purity and sound doctrine, others for the more private comforting and building up of weak or wavering seekers after God, and others still for the promotion of true piety among the young. Each has his gift; each his work. 3. The lesson of true worship,--the homage of the creature to the great Creator of all. To the Hebrew the stars rayed forth the glory of the Lord, and the everlasting hills bowed themselves down before the God of the whole earth; the voice of the Lord was upon the waters, His way in the deep, and His path in the mighty waters; the trees of the field rejoiced before Him! And why all this, and for what spiritual end in the upward progress of man? Surely to attune his heart and mind to that spirit of worship, that reverential homage, that glad rejoicing before the Lord for which he, of all the creatures He has made, is most fitted. (Peter Rutherford.) For He cometh to judge the earth.--The advent of the Lord No insinuation is more unfair than this--which is not seldom thrown against the Jews of old--that their conception of Jehovah was that of a local God, who concerned Himself with the affairs of Palestine, but was indifferent to those of the world at large. On the contrary, the marvel is that a people dwelling like the Jews in an obscure corner of the globe, and planted in a district about as large as three or four English counties, should have had such magnificent conceptions of their destiny, and so deep-rooted a conviction of the destined universality of their faith. Not only, however, was it given to Israel of old to see in the truest spirit of prophecy that the earth should be filled with the knowledge of the Lord, the God of Israel, as the waters cover the sea, but with a foresight no less marvellous, and a wisdom very far in advance of the age, it was given to that nation, and to that alone, to perceive that there was an aspect of the Divine judgment in which it would become the object of exulting and triumphant joy. Minos and Rhadamanthus and their attendant horrors were the dream of heathen Greece. The glory of the Divine light which fell upon the hills of Palestine had revealed a more joyous prospect: it was that of all nature singing aloud and clapping her hands for joy at the advent of the Lord of hosts as the recognized judge of all the earth. What a glorious thought it is! Whose heart does not leap up within him when he sees the fields rejoicing in their waving crops as they sway to and fro in the summer breeze? What prospect is more glorious than that of the distant wood, gay with the delicate foliage of returning spring, and glimmering in the sunlight, or dashed with a thousand hues that may vie in brilliancy with those of the garden in her splendour, and which have no counterpart in the autumn tints of England, golden and glorious as they are? These are all sights and sounds more or less familiar to all of us, and the associations they awaken are in the highest degree pleasurable; but whoever associates these images, as the Hebrew poet did, with the thought of the Lord of the whole earth coming to judge the world which He made so fair? And yet why not? Are these sights and sounds of nature out of harmony with God or produced in obedience to His will? If we are strictly in harmony with nature, shall we be in harmony with God, or the reverse? We want the triumph of justice, and truth, and right: nothing less will give free scope to the repressed and stifled voices of praise which this sin-burdened, but otherwise beautiful and glorious earth, longs to raise. We want the abolition of crime and poverty, oppression and ignorance. We want the extinction of selfishness, and of selfish, thoughtless, sinful, God-forgetting luxury. This, and much more than this, is what we want, but we cannot gain or recover it for ourselves. It is not in the power of society at large to give to itself what every separate member of society in his degree feels the want of. There is something wrong here, and that which is wrong here cannot be rectified by the combined efforts of others, not one of whom is free from the same radical defect. What is wanted is for the Lord to come to judgment. When the truth of Christ has free course and is glorified in the heart of man, it is the advent of Christ to judgment. He casts down the proud and lofty, He lifts up the low and humble, He makes the crooked straight, and the rough places plain; He casts out what is base and trivial, and brings in what is pure, and true, and noble. There can be no joy like that which arises in the heart, when for the first time and in truth every thought has been brought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, when He, and He alone, is recognized as the Judge and Lord of all. That is, indeed, the foretaste and the earnest of a greater advent to come, an advent which cannot be delayed, and which can alone be hastened by each individual heart being subdued to Christ. But whatever may be the apparent prospects of this future advent--of the coming of this mighty One, whose advent shall be the signal for the bursting forth of the manifold chorus of universal nature--there can be no question as to its ultimate destiny (Isaiah 40:5). Be it ours, then, to set forward and promote the advent of this great and glorious time, each in his sphere, vocation, and duty. That is the mission of the Christian, to exhibit in himself the operation of a law which is destined to universal recognition, which is even now recognized in a greater or less degree wherever truth, justice, and equity are accepted as the guiding principles of life, and the recognition of which, when it is commensurate with human society and the limits of the human race, will be the mark of the accomplishment of the Divine purposes in the regeneration of the world. (Stanley Leathes, D.D.) . Psalms 97:1-12 Psalms 97:1-12 The Lord reigneth; let the earth rejoice. The reign of God over the world I. The reign of God over the world (Psalms 97:1).1. His laws are righteous. 2. His purpose is benevolent. II. The providential procedure of God in the world.1. If is inscrutable. “ Clouds and darkness.” 2. It is righteous. 3. It is terrible (Psalms 97:3-4). III. The moral triumphs of God in the world (Psalms 97:6-11).1. The false are confounded (Psalms 97:7). Idolatry is crushed. 2. The true are blessed (Psalms 97:8). Why glad? (1) Because their God is exalted (Psalms 97:9).(2) Because they are delivered (Psalms 97:10).(3) Because their happiness must progress (Psalms 97:11). (Homilist.) The Lord reigneth “ The Lord reigneth.” Where shall we put the emphasis? Shall we put it here--“The Lord reigneth” ? Yes, let the emphasis be first placed upon the lordship of God. Whatever appearances may seem to dictate, and, in spite of all evidence which suggests the sovereignty of the devil, the Lord is upon the throne. Where, again, shall we place the emphasis? Shall we place it here--“ The Lord reigneth” ? Yes, let us vary the music by changing the emphasis. The Lord reigneth; He does not hold the sceptre loosely, giving part of His sovereignty to another; He never relaxes His hold of dominion, and, amid all the changing seasons, He pursues His sovereign will. Now, what kind of man should this great evangel make of me? What ought to be the tone and disposition of my life? I think the psalmist proceeds to give the answer. “ Let the earth rejoice.” The word rejoice is significant of movement, of nimble movement, of dancing, of a certain busy activity of limb. It suggests the busy habits of birds on a bright spring morning. “ A bit of sunshine makes all the difference.” And here in my text the sun is up and shining; “ the Lord reigneth,” and we His children are to be as busy as His birds on the bright spring day. “ Let the multitude of isles be glad.” The soul must not only be vigorous; its vigour must be set to music. And now I am startled by the succession of the psalm. The fact of the sovereignty of God should make me blithe and busy as a bird. But all this seems to be challenged by the words which immediately succeed. Why should the psalmist introduce the ministry of the cloud? He knew that joy that is not touched with reverence is superficial or unreal, Joy is never at its sweetest until it is touched by awe. And, therefore, the suggestion of the mysterious dispensations of God is not intended to smother the song, but rather to deepen and enrich it. Every grace needs the accompaniment of reverence if it is to be perfected. But now, in order that the gathering cloud and darkness may not paralyze men, something is told us as to what dwells in their innermost place. “ Righteousness and judgment are the habitation of His throne.” The darkness may throw men into perplexity, and yet the darkness itself is regulated by the Lord of the noonday. In the very midst of the cloud and the darkness there is the throne of righteousness and judgment. Therefore must my reverence be inspired with confidence, and not be stricken with cringing fear. “ A fire goeth before Him and burneth up His enemies.” We need the pure flame of His presence; we need the ever-burning atmosphere in which all defilement is consumed. And now the psalmist turns away to retrospect. He has proclaimed the sovereignty of God, and now he turns to the things of yesterday to find the evangel confirmed. “ His lightnings lightened the world.” Who does not know the lightning interposition of God? He flashes upon us unexpectedly; the Divine is obtruded when we least expect it. We had almost forgotten the Divine. The nearness and the depression of the cloud had caused us almost to forget Him. Or we were wondering if He would ever return. And suddenly He appeared!” The hills melted like wax at the presence of the Lord.” The Divine suddenly interposes and the obstacles melt away. Have we not known the experience? The difficulties towered in front of us like gigantic hills, and we saw no way over the tremendous heights. And then suddenly, half-unexpectedly, the hills melted, and the difficulties vanished away. Missionary literature abounds in such experience. Every Christian could produce confirmatory witness. God has suddenly interposed, and the difficulty has withered away, and the “ outsiders” have seen the glory of the Lord, and His leadership and righteousness have been declared. It is the lightning interposition which confounds the ungodly. They are turned pale by the passing of the hills, and by the triumph of the meek and lowly in heart. “ But Zion heard and was glad.” Now, in the face of this evangel, “ The Lord reigneth,” and with this corroboration from the witness of experience, what shall we do? The psalmist supplies the answer. “ Ye that love the Lord hate evil.” This is the foundation of everything. And what shall be our reward if we are possessed by this love-hatred, this twin ministry, this mortifying grace? “ He preserveth the souls of His saints.” We shall be kept by God, He will erect fences to guard us from peril. “ Light is sown for the righteous.” We are not only to be preserved, we are to be illumined. God will give to us the light we need. “ And gladness for the upright in heart.” Then my light is not only to be sure, it is to be glad light, sunlight! It is to minister to the warmth of my heart as well as to the illumination of my mind. It is to comfort me as well as lead me. It will be a genial presence as well as a counsellor. (J. H. Jowett, M.A.) Jehovah is King I. Earthly dominion is the gift of God. David and Solomon were the ideal kings of the Israelites. They did not only represent the Divine power, but also Divine righteousness. We apply the title of “ majesty” to earthly monarchs, though, strictly speaking, it is an attribute which can only he ascribed to God. The grandeur of the going forth of earthly monarchs is but a feeble and material imitation of the going forth of God so eloquently described in this psalm. II. God rules over all spiritual powers. It was at first the belief of the Hebrews that there were “ gods many and lords many.” They would have been no more tempted to worship them, if they had been convinced that they had no real existence, than we should be tempted to worship Juggernaut. The Assyrians thought Asshur the most powerful god, who alone could give victory in battle; hence they worshipped him. Croesus sent to the oracles of all the gods to inquire what he should be doing on a certain day; and he worshipped the god whose oracle declared most accurately the future. Israel worshipped Jehovah, not only because He possessed power and foreknowledge, but most of all for His character. He was exalted above the other gods by His righteousness. III. The consideration of these facts a cause of joy to the believer. It is the conviction that a wise and loving power is at the back of all we see around us, and working through all history to accomplish gracious purposes, which made Israel the greatest of all the ancient peoples--great, not in having the best soldiers and lawgivers, like the Romans, or the wisest philosophers, like the Greeks, but the noblest, truest, and best men. That faith which made the nation immortal will also make the individual immortal. God is on the side of our holiest aspirations and deepest yearnings, and against that which is base and miserable and sinful. Every desire must be brought into subjection, and God be all in all. (R. C. Ford, M.A.) The reign of God I. The subjects of the Divine government. We speak now of God’ s moral government only. And beneath it are angels, devils, man, as a race, as nations, as individuals. II. Certain characters which mark his administration.1. It is sovereign and uncontrolled. 2. It does not interfere with human liberty. 3. Is in the hands of a Mediator. Jesus governs the world with reference to the interests of His religion. III. Proofs of the doctrine of the text which late occurrences have furnished.1. The great evils of bigotry and opposition to the rights of conscience have been permitted to display themselves. Also-- 2. Infidelity has shown its full character for the warning and instruction of mankind. 3. See what God has done. He has preserved our country from invasion, punished persecuting and wicked nations: France and Napoleon especially have been overthrown, and God has made us the principal agent in accomplishing this. (R. Watson.) The Divine government of the universe I. The fact.1. The sacred singer here speaks of a God who exercises a personal agency in the universe. The Lord “ reigneth.” That implies power. All energy that has play anywhere is in a true sense His. Gravitation, electricity, heat, what are these but names which we have given to the operations of the everywhere-present Deity? Even that force of will, and nerve, and muscle which we and other creatures exert is from Him “ in whom we live, and move, and have our being.” 2. This personal agency of God is carried on in a regular and orderly way. The history of the universe is the development of His plan. He sits at the great loom, and, while the shuttles that carry the threads move, so to speak, consciously and of purpose, it is God who weaves the broad result, fabric and design being His. He reigns over beings who have not respect for His will, but are opposed to it, by working out, in His superior wisdom, His plans by means of their very opposition. II. Its mystery and awfulness (Psalms 97:2). The symbol here expresses three ideas.1. The majesty of the Divine government. Great clouds and darkness are ever suggestive of the sublime. And God’ s is a lofty and glorious rule. When we try, by the aid of astronomy, to realize the extent in space of God’ s material universe, and by the aid of geology to conceive of its past duration; when we think of the different generations of the human race which have existed, and of all the higher intelligences; and when we try by imagination to explore the eternal future, with its ever-opening vistas of life and crowding events which are to form history as real as that of the days that are gone by, we feel a necessity of adoration to relieve our hearts of the burden of their awe. 2. The incomprehensibility of the Divine government. God is within the “ cloud and darkness.” We do not see Him at all. His rule in every department is to us a thing of faith. Philosophers cannot tell what is the connection between cause and effect in the material world. And how, in the moral world, God works out His purposes by means of the free action of His rational creatures, and makes “ His people willing in the day of His power,” while their wills are still theirs, we cannot comprehend. But such are the facts. God does rule in these ways, as the uufoldings of history show. 3. There is the idea of the Divine government being characterized by judgments. Out of the “ clouds and darkness” proceed “ hailstones and coals of fire.” “ A fire goeth before Him, and burneth up His enemies round about.” I, for my part, could not understand God’ s dealings with the world if I did not recognize the fact of there being sin in it, which leads to the expression of the Divine displeasure, and also to the use of the means of discipline. III. Its moral excellence (Psalms 97:2). This “ King” can “ do no wrong.” It is impossible from His very nature. That nature gloriously necessitates the working of righteousness. To a properly constituted mind there is no sight more sad than that of an unjust judge, an unrighteous government. The world has not been, and unhappily is not now, free from the baleful presence of such miscalled governments. But it is consolation, in view of them, that “ justice and judgment are the habitation of God’ s throne.” (W. Morrison, D.D.) How may our belief of God’ s governing the world support us in all worldly distractions I. What is government? It is the exerting or putting forth of that power which any one is justly clothed with, for the ordering and directing of persons and things to their right and proper ends.1. In all government there is an end fixed and aimed at; which end is either supreme and ultimate, or inferior and subordinate. (1) The supreme and ultimate end is, and ought and deserves to be, the glory of God, the exalting of His name, the preserving, securing, and enlarging of His interest, the maintaining and promoting of religion and godliness. (2) The inferior and subordinate end is the good of the communities, the happiness and welfare of the whole country, the peace, comfort, and prosperity of all the people, over whom governors are set. 2. In all government there is supposed a power sufficient for the ordering of things unto these ends. Not only natural power, but also moral authority, lawfully come by; for, without that, there can be no just, right, and good government. 3. In government this power is reduced into act: there is a prudent, seasonable exerting and putting forth of the power in order to the attaining of these ends. II. Prove that God governs the world.1. The light of nature has discovered this. Even some among the heathen call God “ the Rector and Keeper of the world,” “ the Soul arid Spirit of the world,” and do expressly compare Him to the soul in the body, and to the master in a ship, who doth command, rule, direct, steer, and turn it what way and to what port He Himself thinks good. 2. Scripture is full of testimony to this effect (Job 5:9-13; Isaiah 14:5-7; Psalms 34:16-17; Ephesians 1:11; Daniel 4:34-35; Matthew 10:29; Psalms 103:19). 3. God has a most unquestionable right to order and govern the world. 4. For God to govern the world is no dishonour to Him. Is it possible that His doing so should render Him cheap to the children of men? Nay, is it not enough to commend Him to all wise and thinking persons, that He is so great a God as that He can extend His care to so many millions of objects, and so graciously condescending as to look after the lowest of the works of His hands? 5. God is abundant in mercy and goodness. He built this huge and stately fabric, and He furnished it with all its inhabitants, from the highest and most glorious angel to the meanest and most contemptible insect. And how can we possibly think otherwise, but that the pity and love which He hath for the works of His own hands will draw out His wisdom and power and care for the ruling and directing of them? III. How our belief of God’ s governing the world may support us in all worldly distractions.1. God is most fit and accomplished for this great work. Men have unruly passions; they interfere in their several interests, and, while they are carrying them on, quarrel and jostle one another: and who but God can order all, and direct them to most noble and excellent ends? Who but God can take these several scattered shreds, and unite them together in one curious and amiable piece of workmanship? Who but God can take these jarring discords, and turn them into an admirable and delightful harmony? 2. Consider the extent of God’ s governing providence. It reaches to-- (1) All creatures.(2) All motions and actions.(3) All issues and results of things both good and evil. 3. The properties of God’ s government. He governs the world-- (1) Mysteriously.(2) Wisely.(3) Powerfully.(4) Most righteously. (S. Slater, M.A.) The Divine government I. Some of the attributes of the Divine dominion.1. It is a righteous dominion, and it is founded upon unquestionable right. Sovereignty alone, without these virtues, is often the greatest curse. God’ s government is regulated by His moral perfections: these blend to form an administration absolutely perfect. Justice regulates it (Psalms 97:2). Holiness (Psalms 145:17). Faithfulness (Psalms 36:5). Mercy (Psalms 145:9). 2. The Divine government is universal. The extent surpasses our conceptions. The earth is but a fraction. Our system is but a speck. 3. The Divine government is directed to the greatest ends. The dominion of such a Being must be adapted to the worthiest purposes. (1) The glory of the Governor.(2) The happiness of His subjects. II. The various responsibilities which devolve upon us in consequence of this character of the Divine government.1. Joyful praise. 2. Cheerful obedience. 3. Unlimited confidence. Personal, national. 4. Look forward to the day of account. (Evangelical Preacher.) The Divine government the joy of our world Men are placed here to be formed by a proper education for another world, for another class, and other employments; but civil rulers cannot form them for these important ends, and therefore they must be under the government of one who has access to their spirits, and can manage them as he pleases. “ The Lord reigneth” -- I. Upon a throne of legislation. “ Let the earth rejoice” --1. That God has clearly revealed His will to us, and not left us in inextricable perplexities about our duty to Him and mankind. 2. That God’ s laws are suitably enforced with proper sanctions, such as become a God of infinite wisdom, almighty power, inexorable justice, untainted holiness, and unbounded goodness and grace, and such as are agreeable be the nature of reasonable creatures formed for an immortal duration. How happy is it to live under a government where virtue and religion, which in their own nature tend to our happiness, are enforced with such resistless arguments! On the other band, the penalty annexed by the Divine Lawgiver to disobedience is proportionably dreadful. 3. That the Divine laws reach the inner man, and have power upon the hearts and consciences of men. II. By his providence.1. Over the kingdoms of the earth. 2. Over the Church. 3. Over all contingencies that can befall individuals. 4. Over evil spirits. He keeps the infernal lions in chains, and restrains their rage. He sees all their subtle plots and machinations against tits feeble sheep, and baffles them all. III. Upon a throne of grace. This is a kind of government peculiar to the human race; the upright angels do not need it, and the fallen angels are not favoured with it. This is invested in the person of immanuel (Ephesians 1:22; Matthew 11:27; Matthew 28:18). This is the kingdom described in such august language in Daniel 2:44-45; Daniel 7:14; Luke 1:32-33). To His throne of grace He invites all to come, and offers them the richest blessings. From thence He publishes peace on earth, and good will towards men. From thence He offers pardon to all that will submit to His government, and renounce their sins, those weapons of rebellion. From thence He distributes the influences of His Spirit to subdue obstinate hearts into cheerful submission, to support His subjects under every burden, and furnish them with strength for the spiritual warfare. IV. The Lord will reign ere long upon a throne of universal judgment, conspicuous to the assembled universe.1. In that day the present unequal distributions of Providence will be for ever adjusted, and regulated according to the strictest justice. 2. In that day the righteous shall be completely delivered from all sin and sorrow, and advanced to the perfection of heavenly happiness. (S. Davies, M.A.) The Divine government matter o/ universal joy I. The Divine government.1. God’ s right to govern the world must be original and inalienable. 2. God alone can uphold creatures in being. 3. The government of God is universal. 4. All second causes are under His direction and control. II. The causes of rejoicing which this affords.1. The benevolence of its design. When we consider the character of the God of love as opened in His Word, we are sure that His conduct is governed by an ultimate regard to the highest felicity and glory of His moral kingdom; whether He pardon transgressors, or make them feel His wrath in the present world, or exclude them from happiness in the next. 2. The certainty of its accomplishment. It is promoted by all events in providence; and will fill its enemies with confusion, and its friends with joy, in the day when all creatures shall appear at the bar of God, and His righteous judgment shall be revealed before the assembled worlds. (C. Backus, M.A.) The fact and consequence of the Divine government I. Visible evils call forth the expression of the psalmist’ s faith. Some powerful form of evil had been judged and overthrown. II. The fact concerning which the psalmist utters his conviction--that God reigns. God is overhead counteracting the shortsighted selfishness of the wicked. In the psalmist’ s day, men looked on the idols of the heathen as wicked spirits, less powerful than the righteous Jehovah. We are too advanced to believe in the gods of other people. We can scarce believe in a devil, though that would be less awful than to be in the grasp of nature. It would have been “ some comfort could I have fancied myself tormented of the Devil,” said Carlyle once. Those who think the universe a vast machine find it terrible to contemplate a fall amidst its ponderous wheels. Better a devil than a blind force. But Jehovah is a living God, and not hostile to us. Righteousness and judgment are the base of His throne. And He is a God of love. III. The occasion herein for joy. It was this thought that inspired Handel’ s “ Hallelujah Chorus.” “ Hallelujah! for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth . . . King of kings, and Lord of lords. Hallelujah!” And it is a glorious conviction to reach. Those who hold it may rejoice in the midst of injustice. Or while patiently doing deeds of unappreciated lovingkindness, they may, like the Saviour, have respect unto the recompense of reward. In the storms of life they may say, as did the happy child to the anxious passengers: “ My father is at the helm.” And when Death knocks his dire summons at the door, since God reigns, they may remember that he is but a messenger from the courts of heaven. And when the Lord comes to judgment, and the wicked call upon the rocks and hills to hide them, the saints may shout for joy, since this God is their God for ever and ever. (G. M. Mackie, M. A.) Jehovah’ s sovereignty I. In the material world. What men call a “ law of nature” is nothing else than God in action; it is infinite power carrying out the plans that infinite wisdom has devised. Is God then present as the presiding Deity? He is. The world proclaims it by its infinite variety; by its beauty and harmony of arrangement; by its constancy of succession. “ Yes,” you say, “ we do not doubt that, but what of these disturbances, these irregularities? Sometimes our fruits are nipped by an early frost; our herds are swept away by disease, our fields wasted by the flood. What of these? Is there a providence in them?” We must remember that the grand centre of the world is man; that all things are made for him. Vegetation blooms for him; minerals are stored in the hills for him; beasts graze in the fields for him, and around him the world revolves. But there is a soul as well as a body, and as the world ministers to the body and is in subjection to it, so in turn the body ministers to the soul and is in subjection to it. Here, then, come in the grander purposes of God. He is preparing a race of intelligent beings for Himself; and so what we call His natural government must be subject to His moral government. Man may transgress the Divine law, but that transgression must be punished; he may mistake, and that mistake, while it brings no guilt, may bring loss. It still may be infinite wisdom that sweeps away the promise of a harvest, for this temporal loss may be the one ingredient needed in order to bring spiritual gain. II. In the political world. We judge of events from the low standpoint of expediency or of self-interest. When we sum up the results of the war we borrow the language of diplomacy, and tell of an indemnity at so much, and certain boundaries altered. But God cares not for these. They are but as trifles, motes in His vast heavens, so small they do not cast a shadow. We want to get up--up where God is; up where Infinite Wisdom looks down! Then shall we discern the harmony, and learn that in the grand march of nations the music is set to two keys only--God’ s promises and God’ s purposes! III. In the individual life. Even those lives that run contrary to His will He checks and controls, and makes them subserve His own purposes; nor is there one life, however dissipated, however wild, but some time or other it gets into one of God’ s sluices, and turns one of His thousand wheels. But when the heart is submitted to Him, He does more than control the life, He guides it and shapes it to His will. But how far does this intervention of Providence extend? Does He not leave us to follow our own judgment; and is not that judgment the only cloud we follow? Even granting that it is, still that judgment is influenced by Him, for “ The meek will He guide in judgment; the meek will He teach His way.” Many a time when we fancy our decisions are merely the result of the exercise of common sense and ordinary prudence, God has been secretly influencing our minds to the choice. But then many of the actions of life are so insignificant, what can God have to do with them? He has worlds to look after, why should the little motes of my life cause Him any concern? We do wrong in thus thinking, in thus banishing God from what we call life’ s trifles. What is our life made of? Of so many days. And what is each day made of? Of so many moments and so many little deeds. But what is a little action? I put a piece of bread in my mouth. A little thing you call that, you do it frequently. But stay. That crumb may choke me, may end my life, and leave all my plans undone. Is it a little thing now? I set my foot down upon the pavement. Ah, that’ s a little thing, you do it thousands of times a day. Yes, but I step upon some orange peel and slip. That fall gives me a broken limb, unfits me for some intended pursuit, and completely changes the current of my life. Is it a little thing now? And does not God mark these little events that fill up each day of my life when such vast interests may depend upon them? (H. Burton, B.A.) The consolation of God’ s sovereignty I. The Kingdom of God on this earth.1. Necessarily autocratic in its form.2. Singular in its basis.3. Universal in its range.4. Profound in its reach.5. A present, active, accessible power. God is with us--not locally and geographically merely, but spiritually, sympathetically, practically, actively with us; controlling, cooperating, counteracting; directing, defeating, determining; making effectual or bringing to nothing the designs of the children of men. And we do well to go to Him, not trembling, as Esther to Ahasuerus, but with holy confidence in all times of personal, family, social, national necessities, to ask for His pity, to pray for His delivering power. II. The consolation which the fact of God’ s sovereignty gives to the good.1. It is a consolation that the Evil One does not reign: that strong as are the forces of evil in this world, they are not supreme; that greater is He that works for righteousness than all they that work for sin and ruin; that our great adversary has himself an Adversary who is mightier than he; that though we may be in danger of being “ led captive at his will,” he is under the control of the Omnipotent. 2. It is a consolation that mere force does not reign. All the forces that are at work are “ under law,” and law is under the control of the Divine Law-maker; and He can act upon and control His own laws, touching links out of sight with His skilful hand, changing the aspect and the issue of things at His holy will and in accordance with His far-seeing wisdom, evolving the bright and the blessed out of the dark and the distressing. 3. It is a consolation that man does not reign. There have been times when the destinies of a continent have seemed to be in the hands of a Cyrus, a Caesar, a Napoleon; and now it may seem that very large issues hang on the decision of a few controlling minds in London, St. Petersburg, Berlin. Yet God can and will determine results, and He can overrule all events, either saving from calamity, or compelling disaster itself to yield “ peaceable fruits of righteousness.” 4. We may all rejoice that we ourselves do not reign over our own lives. “ The Lord reigneth” --the loving Lord, who wills the happiness of His children; the holy Lord, who wills their true and pure well-being; the wise Lord, who will not withhold any good thing, but will withhold that which seems to be so but is not; the mighty Lord, who can compel the saddest and strangest events to contribute to our well-being; the faithful Lord, who will make good the kindest of His promises--“ The Lord reigneth,” and not we ourselves; “ let us rejoice and be glad.” (W. Clarkson, B.A.) Psalms 97:2 Clouds and darkness are round about Him; righteousness and judgment are the habitation of His throne. The providence of God I. Its mystery. Infinite plans require an infinite mind to comprehend them. Before you can justifiably impugn the ways of God, you must be able to understand the majestic march of all events from “ everlasting to everlasting.” You must see the past, the present, and the future in a moment. But canst thou comprehend all that has been, and is, and is to come? No. How, then, canst thou explore the mysteries of the providence of God? II. Its perfection.1. In nature. From the beginning the earth has proclaimed the glory of God. The four seasons are four witnesses for Him. Seedtime and harvest, summer and winter, cold and heat, come in grand procession, each the messenger of plenty; all of them the gifts of God. 2. In the rise and fall of nations. There is no natural decay in nations as there is in a tree. “ Righteousness exalteth a nation,” and so long as nations act on righteous principles they prosper; but God hath ordained that warlike, oppressive, cruel, profligate nations shall perish. Let history bear witness to this fact. 3. In the rewards of the good. Read the histories of Abraham, Joseph, Daniel, and Job--study them well, and you will learn how perfect is the providence of God. You will see how He led them, comforted them, vindicated them, raised them to honour, did them good, and not evil, even when He permitted their afflictions, and how He made their peace to flow like a river, and their righteousness to shine like the morning stars. III. Its glory.1. In the fertility and beauty of the earth. “ The earth is the Lord’ s, and the fulness thereof.” And how great is that fulness! Think of the mountains; the pastures covered with flocks; the valleys filled with corn; the cattle on a thousand hills! Oh! see in all these the goodness of God. Behold the glory of God’ s providence in His care of all living creatures. He made them by His power; He protects them in His love. 2. In the redemption of men. The Cross of Christ is the most eloquent exponent--the truest interpreter--of the providence of God. Speak ye of God, of His justice and mercy? Speak ye of man, of his guilt, death, and future? Turn to the Cross. There in your Saviour you have a vindication of God’ s law and a manifestation of God’ s love. 3. In the judgment to come. He will then appear as He is--almighty, merciful, and holy--and He will show forth before men and angels and fallen spirits the glory of His name. None will then reply against Him. (G. W. M’ Cree.) The majesty of God obscured by the sinfulness of man View this subject with respect try--1. Our own conceptions of the Divine Being.2. the providential government of God.3. The dispensation of sovereign grace.4. The final judgment. (Essex Remembrancer.) The mysteries of Providence 1. The limited spread and small success of the Gospel.2. The success that has attended the propagation of error.3. The gifts bestowed upon bad men, who abuse them, while many men of piety have smaller talents.4. The afflictions of good men, while the wicked are so extensively prosperous.5. The poverty of the liberal, while the churl is opulent.6. The small degrees of sanctification in God’ s people. (D. A. Clark.) God’ s ways, though inscrutable, are righteous and just I. “Clouds and darkness are round about God.” The appearances of God to the saints in old times are the origin of the figure in the text (Exodus 14:19-20; Exodus 19:16; Exodus 19:18; Exodus 19:20; 1 Kings 8:10-11; Matthew 17:5; 2 Peter 1:17). Clouds are emblems of obscurity; darkness of distress. The works of God’ s providence are often obscure and productive of distress to mankind. In the affairs of nations we see the interference of Divine providence; yet it is surrounded with “ clouds and darkness.” So it is also in instances of smaller kind; it is thus in the removal of the most eminent, holy, and useful characters, that while we acknowledge the hand of God, we say “ clouds and darkness are round about Him.” Again, look at Christianity. How little has been done by it compared with what might have been anticipated from its Divine principles, the character of its Author, and from the interest it possesses in the heart of God! Paganism yet strikes deep its roots in various lands. Even in Christendom, how little have the known and blessed effects of the Gospel been manifested! II. Righteousness and judgment are the habitation of His throne.1. The dispensations of God towards man are regulated by the consideration of his being a fallen and disordered creature. 2. The Divine Being was not bound in justice, either to prevent the disordered state of man, or to correct it when it had taken place. 3. The whole of those evils that form clouds and darkness round about God are either the penal or natural effect of moral evil. 4. Those that receive the grace of Jesus Christ are still in such a situation as renders a great part of their trials and miseries necessary. 5. The moral evils of man, and the depravity of human nature, age often, in a great measure, corrected and subdued by the natural evils of life, which thus are made the means of conducting to repentance, reformation, and happiness (2 Corinthians 4:17-18). 6. The light of prophecy dispels many of those clouds which would otherwise obscure, for the present, the government and the throne of the Deity. (R. Hall, M.A.) The unknowable and knowable in God I. The psalmist confesses his ignorance. “ Clouds and darkness are round about Him:” through clouds a little may be seen; through darkness nothing can be seen. So this may mean that slight glimpses of God may here and there be caught; but that, taken altogether, He is a mystery to men. Is there to be wondered at? Consider how short a time we are here to explore the mystery. Threescore years and ten, or at the most four or four and a half score years. “ For how small a portion of even this are our powers at their best! What are thirty or forty years of life--even life at its best--to sound the depths of the Infinite? Then consider how small are our powers for this great work. We have but five gateways of knowledge. John Bunyan says, “ The famous town of Mansoul had five gates, in at which to come, out of which to go.” And the greater part of these are of no use for reaching the knowledge of God: only perhaps the two--Ear-gate and Eye-gate; and how small these gates are! The ear can hear only that which is within easy reach. The eye can see only that which is within the horizon’ s bound. We need to realize the limitations of our present condition, and then perhaps we should not be surprised--as often we are--that we cannot see through the clouds and darkness that now are around the Eternal One. II. The psalmist expresses his confidence. Do you believe in God? Then you must believe that justice and truth are the foundation of His throne. There is a common Latin saying, “ Fiat justitia, rust coelum.” If justice were not at the core of the universe the firmament would fall. Why, in the little affairs of nations the reign of injustice and falsehood sooner or later brings overthrow. It has been long coming to the Turkish Empire, but it is on its way. And if a nation cannot get on save as justice and truth prevail, be very sure that the universe cannot get on without these. We are not far-sighted enough to see how the ways of God are just and true. Some of them, because we see only a part, appear neither just nor true. But then we see only a fragment, and you cannot judge by a fragment, any more than you can judge of a house from a single brick. But we see enough of order, of law, of regularity, to be assured that, when the whole is revealed, we shall cry, “ Just and true are Thy ways, O thou King of saints.” (W. G. Horder.) The hidings of the Deity I. As to himself. Turn, e.g. to the doctrine of the Trinity. We are not perhaps competent to judge whether the union of three persons in one essence could have been made intelligible unto man; it may be that we have not the faculties by which so wonderful a fact could in any case be grappled with; so that whatever the amount of information, we must still have continued unacquainted with the mode how three can ever be one. At all events, it is certain that God hath concealed this mode from us; “ He hides Himself” even when He would reveal Himself. Clouds are about Him, even when He would give light; and what we want you to feel in regard to all this concealment of God is that it should summon forth our thankfulness. We ask you what limit there would be to human pride if reason availed to “ find out God.” What then? If I have been brought to the confession, “ Clouds and darkness are round about Him,” must I shut myself up in my ignorance, as though I could make out nothing on points which most concern me as an accountable being? Nay, quite the reverse. The obscurity which there is about God does but strengthen my conviction that He is God, my persuasion that He will show forth all the attributes which pertain to God; so that after confessing, “ Clouds are round about Him,” I shall exclaim with assurance, and even with exultation, “ Righteousness and judgment are the habitation of His throne.” II. In His dealings with His creatures.1. This is true in providential dispensations. God does not lay open the reasons of His appointments; He does not explain why prosperity should be allotted to one man, and adversity to another. The wicked, moreover, often flourish like a green bay tree, whilst the righteous are cast down, and given over to the extremes of misery and destitution. Evil, too, is permitted to stalk unblushingly abroad, whilst “ wisdom crieth” in vain “ in our streets.” Indeed there is much of cloud in all this, and much of obscurity, which may well overtask any earthly philosophy. But we contend, that what is thus hidden furnishes matter of confidence and thankfulness; for man is hereby thrown upon his faith, and faith gives most honour to God, and is the best discipline for ourselves. 2. Or again: “ who knoweth the day of his death?” Here, again, are the clouds and the darkness. “ One dieth,” saith Job, “ in his full strength,” etc. (Job 21:23-26). Nature has been ransacked for imagery; the shortness of our days is on every man’ s tongue; and everything that is fleeting and everything that is fragile, and everything that is uncertain, has been laid under contribution to furnish similitudes for a human life-time. It is a most trite, but melancholy saying, that no man is able to reckon on to-morrow. Then is it not an evidence of God’ s faithfulness, of His regard for the creatures of His hand, that we cannot reckon on to-morrow? Such is the constitution of our nature, that if a fixed period were allotted to our days, the thought even of the distant hour would in most cases prove an insupportable burden. 3. There is much hidden from us respecting the nature of a future state. Here, again, are clouds and darkness which God Himself throws around it. There is enough disclosed to stimulate zeal, and enough to scare from transgression; but still, whilst the heirs of immortality are clothed with corruption, they see only “ through a glass darkly,” and neither the harpings of glorified spirits nor the wailings of the ruined convey more than a feeble metaphor of futurity. But if the veil had been more drawn back, what, then, we ask, would become of a state of probation? Where would be the province of faith, when everything was thus made the object of sense? Where would be the trial of hope, when every joy was thus already told? Where the exercise of self-denial, when the better portion forced itself on the notice of the most unobservant, compelling by its burning manifestations the universal recognition of its superiority? And where would have been the excellency of an economy under which a race of sinful beings could have found no place for faith, no sphere for hope, no occasion for self-denial? (H. Melvill, B.D.) Psalms 97:8 Zion heard, and was glad; and the daughters of Judah rejoiced because of Thy judgments, O Lord. The judgments of God are a proper cause of gladness and rejoicing to His people I. The Church is glad, and rejoices in the judgments of God, because it is itself redeemed with judgment.1. By judgment the Church is redeemed from the curse of the law--judgment on Christ. 2. By judgment the Church is delivered from the captivity of Satan--judgment oil Satan. 3. By judgment the Church is freed from the bondage and tyranny of the world--judgment on the world. 4. By judgment the Church is to be redeemed from the power of Antichrist (Revelation 18:20). 5. By judgment the Church is to be redeemed from the power of sin--judgment on the Church. II. The Church is glad, and rejoices in the judgments of God, because they are the triumphs of Christ.1. The triumphs of Christ are of two kinds-- (1) The triumphs of His grace.(2) The triumphs of His vengeance. 2. The one as well as the other is rejoiced in and celebrated by the Church. III. The Church is glad, and rejoices in the judgments of God, because they diminish the amount and prevalency of sin.1. The direct effect of judgments is to remove the barriers which hinder the progress of the truth. 2. Another effect of Divine judgments is to deter from the commission of sin. 3. The effect of the finally overwhelming judgments of God is to remove sin from its place in the moral universe, and shut it up in everlasting concealment, Hellazar-house. IV. The Church is glad, and rejoices in the judgments of God, because they furnish a glorious manifestation of Himself.1. They reveal His holiness--He cannot look upon sin. 2. They manifest His justice. He gives to each one according to his work. 3. They that prove His omnipresence as a moral governor. No sin escapes Him. 4. They demonstrate His truth--for they are for the most part predicted. 5. They exhibit His power--for they overwhelm the mightiest. 6. They reveal His love to the Church--for they are chiefly in her defence and rescue. (James Stewart.) Psalms 97:10-12 Ye that love the Lord, hate evil. The privileges and duties of the Lord’ s people I. The character of the persons addressed. “ Ye that love the Lord.” This love is--1. The consequence of God’ s love to the soul (Jeremiah 31:3).2. Genuine, or pure (Romans 12:9).3. In its power unconquerable (Son 8:6-7).4. In its duration lasting (Philippians 1:9-11).5. In its influence constraining (2 Corinthians 5:14).6. In its nature-- (1) Working.(2) Uniting.(3) Confirming.(4) Lasting to eternity. II. Their privilege declared. “ He preserveth the souls of His saints,” etc.1. He secures them from the sinfulness of their hearts (Romans 6:14).2. From the prevalency of ignorance (Psalms 73:24).3. From all slavish fear (Isaiah 26:3).4. From the curse of the broken law (Galatians 3:13).5. He rescueth them from Satan (Romans 16:20).6. From wicked and deceitful men (Psalms 27:2-3).7. From every other kind of opponent (1 Peter 1:5). III. The duty or practice exhorted to. “ Hate evil.”1. Personal or internal evil (Romans 7:6).2. The sin which we see in others (Psalms 139:21-22).3. The evil that is in the world (Psalms 119:104).4. All national evils (Proverbs 14:34). IV. The state of the soul described (Psalms 97:11).1. Light. (1) The knowledge of God’ s purpose of grace (Ephesians 1:3-4).(2) The comprehension of Scripture (Psalms 119:105).(3) Light was sown for the righteous (Isaiah 9:2).(4) Salvation is sown for the righteous (Psalms 27:1).(5) The teaching of the Holy Ghost is light (2 Corinthians 4:6). 2. Gladness. (1) Heartfelt (Psalms 4:7).(2) The gladness of received mercy (1 Peter 4:13).(3) Future and joyous gladness (Psalms 31:7; Psalms 31:19). V. The evidences and experiences of the Christian (Psalms 97:12).1. “ Rejoice in the Lord.” (1) In the death of the Lord.(2) In the life or righteousness of the Lord.(3) In the majesty or power of the Lord.(4) In Christ the salvation of the righteous. 2. “ Give thanks to Him.” (1) For His essential holiness as a Divine person.(2) The holiness of His life as God-man mediator.(3) For our being partakers of His holiness.(4) And for that perfect holiness which we shall have and enjoy in heaven with Christ hereafter. (T. B. Baker, M.A.) Righteous hatred The Spirit of Christ is love. Wherever He governs, love reigns. The Christian man is not allowed to hate any one. But we may and must hate a man’ s sins. Hatred is a power of manhood, and therefore to be exercised. And we may hate and sin not. We may have hatred in our hearts, only see to it that it run only in one stream, and that against evil. And we are to hate all evil, not merely some. It was said long ago of some professors that they did-- “ Compound for sins they were inclined to, By damning those they had no mind to.” But it is a universal duty to which we are here called. I. Hate all evil in thyself. Thou hast good reason. Think--1. What mischief it has already wrought thee. It kept you from Jesus, it would have lost you your soul but that grace interfered. 2. How unbecoming it is to thee. Thou art of the blood royal of the Kingdom of God. Shall such a man as thou sin? Thou art set apart for God Himself. 3. How it weakens you. Can you pray after committing sin? You know you cannot. You have lost your power. Sin will make thee leave off praying or else praying will make thee leave off sinning. And if you try to engage in work for Christ, you cannot do it. An unholy man must be a useless one. 4. Hate it, because if you indulge in it you will have to smart for it (Psalms 51:1-19). If thou wouldest strew thy path with thorns and put nettles in thy death-pillow, then live in sin. 5. You will do hurt to others. The Church of Christ--how you will shame that: and poor sinners, how you will cause them to stumble and encourage them in their sin. And think especially-- 6. How it grieves Christ. Now, if you would be rid of sin, the terrors of the law will not help you, but communion with Christ will. And get as much light as you can upon it. The housewife when she is busy about her house, with curtains drawn, may think everything looks clean; but she opens a little corner of the window, and in streams a ray of light, in which ten thousand grains of dust are dancing up and down. “ Ah,” she thinks, “ my room is not so clean as I thought it was; here is dust where I thought there was none.” Now, endeavour to get not the farthing rushlight of your own judgment, but the sunlight of the Holy Spirit streaming upon your heart, and it will help you to detect your sin--and detection of sin is halfway towards its cure. And if you have fallen into sin make confession of it, and when your mind is in a holy state seek to estimate sin aright. With regard to some sins, flee them. There is no other way. And if you would keep from sin, seek always to have a fresh anointing of the Holy Spirit. Old Master Dyer says, “ Lock up your hearts by prayer every morning and give God the key, so that nothing can get in.” And never palliate sin. II. Hate sin in others. Then, if you do, never countenance it, not even by a look. Often condemn it openly. Of course prudently. And do not get into it yourself. Those who live in glass houses, etc. And encourage all who are fighting against it. (C. H. Spurgeon.) A good man sensitive to moral evil If we would realize the full force of the term “ hatred of evil” as it ought to exist in all, as it would exist in a perfectly righteous man, we should do well to consider how sensitive we are to pain, suffering and misfortune. How delicately is the physical frame of man constructed, and how keenly is the slightest derangement in any part of it felt. A little mote in the eye hardly discernible by the eye of another, the swelling of a small gland, the deposit of a small grain of sand--what agonies may these slight causes inflict. That fine filament of nerves of feeling spread like a wonderful network over the whole surface of the body, how exquisitely susceptible it is. A trifling burn, scald, or excision, how does it cause the member affected to be drawn back suddenly and the patient to cry out. Now, there can be no question that if man were in a perfectly moral state, moral evil would affect his mind as sensibly and in as lively a manner--would, in short, be as much an affliction as pain is to his physical frame. He would shrink and snatch himself away as sin came near; the first entrance of it into his imagination would wound and arouse his moral sensibilities, and make him positively unhappy. (Dean Goulburn.) Psalms 97:11 Light is sown for the righteous. Seed from God’ s storehouse I. The seen, “ light.”1. The preciousness of this figure is seen as we reflect upon (1) The quality of the seed, “ light.” “ Whatsoever doth make manifest is light.” That which dispels mists and shadows, and reveals realities, is the seed.(2) The idea of increase involved in the fact, “ light is sown.”(3) The amount of this precious seed that is sown. 2. Through the entire field of probation, from the gate of responsible action, in every direction, clear back to the river of death that rolls at the extreme end, “ light is sown.” II. The sowers, implied in the fact, “ Light is sown.”1. God was the first being to scatter this precious seed. Dwelling in the midst of the unlocked granaries of “ light” in regard to Himself, and the universe, and especially in regard to the great scheme of salvation, He soon commenced to scatter the seed, which was caught up and disseminated by “ holy men of old who spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.” 2. “ Light is sown by the righteous” -- (1) For his own good.(2) For the good of others. Sometimes we have got to sow our own “ light.” Little irregularities, follies, or besetments may be persisted in till we are made to see, by the light of experience, that they are deceptive and damaging.3. Light is sown for the righteous by the wicked. (1) By wicked nations. French Revolution the result of the infidelity and atheism of France.(2) By wicked men. The sensuality, want, destitution, misery of the multitude who forget God is light revealing to the righteous the blessedness of his choice. III. The persons for whom the sowing is done. “ The righteous,” not the half-hearted, worldly, or hypocritical professor, but the man whose purpose in the right is a whole purpose, and who stands before his own conscience and his God in the full honours of rectitude. Such a man, no matter where he may be, is surrounded with growing light. (T. Kelly.) Sown light I. The metaphor is a rather singular one, and yet full of poetry--light is sown. We can very soon catch the idea if we follow Milton in his speaking of the morning, “ Now morn, her rosy steps in th’ eastern clime Advancing, sowed the earth with orient pearl.” The sun, like a sower, scatters broadcast his beams of light upon the once dark earth. Look up at night upon the sky bespangled with stars, and it seemeth as though God scattered them like gold-dust upon the floor of heaven in picturesque irregularity, thereby sowing light. Or if you want a fact which comes nearer to the sowing of light literally than anything which our poets have written, think of our vast coal-beds, which are literally so much sown light. The sun shone upon primeval forests, and the monstrous ferns grew and expanded under the quickening influence. They fell, as fall the leaves of chestnut and of oak in these autumns of our latter days, and there they lie stored deep down in the great cellars of nature for man’ s use; so much sown light, I say, which springs up beneath the hand of man in harvests of flame, which flood our streets with light, and cheer our hearts with heat. Understand then that happiness, joy, gladness, symbolized by light, have been sown by God in fields that will surely yield their harvest for all those whom by His grace He has made upright in heart.1. Sown light signifies, first, that light has been diffused. That which is sown is scattered. Before sowing, it was in the bag, or stored up in the granary, but the sowing scatters it along the furrows. Thank God, you who love Jesus and are resting upon His atonement, that God’ s happiness is not kept to Himself, but is diffused for you and the whole company of His elect; and that the pleasures which are at God’ s right hand for evermore are not kept within their secret springs, but made to flow like a river; that you with all the blood-bought may drink thereof to the full. 2. Seed that is sown is not in hand. After the husbandman has scattered his wheat he cannot say, “ Here it is.” It is out of sight; gone from him. So the gladness which belongs go the righteous is not to be regarded as a thing of the present. Their great store of pleasure is yet to come; it is light that is sown, not light that now gleams upon their eyes; it is a gladness that has been buried beneath the clods for a special purpose, not a gladness which is now spread upon the table as bread that has been baked in the oven. Let us remember that this world is not our rest. 3. As seed sown is not visible, so it is not expected that it shall be seen or enjoyed to-morrow. It was said of the northern nations, near the Pole, and said truthfully, that they sowed their barley in the morning and reaped it at night, because the sun goes not down for four months at a time; but in sober truth we must not expect to have the rewards of grace given to us immediately we believe. There must be a trial of our patience and our faith. 4. But while seed sown is not in sight, and is not expected to be seen to-morrow, yet it is not lost. The husbandman counts it gain to have sown his corn. He has transferred his treasure from one bank to another. He does not reckon that any of it has been lost. So with the happiness of a Christian. Lost, the happiness of a single hour in which we have wept for sin! Lost, the happiness of a single moment in which we have suffered affliction for Christ’ s sake, through persecution and slander! Nay, verily, it is put to our account, and the record of it remains in the eternal archives, against the day when the Judge of all the earth shall measure out the portions of His people. 5. Corn sown is not lost, but is actually in possession still. If a farmer had to sell his field, he would of course ask much more for that in which the seed was sown than for one which was remaining fallow, because he counts that seed sown is still his own property. Even so you may reckon the joys of the hereafter as your own, and you ought so to reckon them; they are the best part of your estate; they are yours, though you do not enjoy them. Yours to-day the seraph’ s wing and the angel’ s harp, yours to-day the cherubic song and the bliss of the immortals, the presence of the Lord, and the vision of His face. 6. Sown seed is in the custody of God. You merchants may fancy you can do without the Lord, but the man who has to till the soil is obliged to feel, if he hath any sensibility, his entire dependence upon the God of the rain-cloud and the Lord of the sun. So, beloved, here is our comfort. The light that is sown for the righteous is in the custody of God. Our future happiness, our eternal bliss, are kept by the great Guardian of Israel, who doth neither slumber nor sleep. Be not afraid, therefore, that you shall lose your heaven, for Christ keeps it for you. 7. A thing that is sown is not only put into God’ s custody, but it is put there with a purpose, that it may come hack to us greatly multiplied. The believer gives up in this life his self-seeking; he suffers some degree of self-denial; he yields up his own boastings to trust in Christ’ s righteousness; and he makes a good bargain thereby. We shall get back the seed-corn multiplied ten thousand times ten thousand, and we shall bless and magnify for ever and ever the glorious Sower who sowed such a harvest for us. II. Having opened the metaphor of sown light, let us now speak of the sowing itself. When were the happiness and security of the righteous sown for them? Answer: there are three great Sowers, the Father, the Son, and Holy Spirit, and all these have sown light for the chosen people.1. First, the Father. Long ages past, or ever the world was, it was in the Eternal mind to ordain unto Himself a people who should show forth His praise. Now, all those great decrees of God, of which He has revealed some inklings in His Word, were so much sowing of light for the righteous, so much provision of gladness in the future for the upright in heart. 2. A second great Sower was God the Son. He sowed happiness for His people when He joined with the Father in covenant and promised to be the substitute for His saints. But the actual sowing took place when He came on earth and sowed Himself in death’ s dark sepulchre for us. He dropped Himself like a priceless seed-corn into the tomb, and what fruit He has brought forth let heaven and all the blood-washed company declare. The flower that springs from His root is immortality and life. 3. The Holy Spirit is a third great Sower, sowing in another sense, sowing in a sense that comes nearer home to our experience. Light is sown for the righteous by the Holy Spirit. In the hour when He brought the law home with its terrors, and laid us, broken, at the feet of Moses, He was sowing light for us. Our humbling was the preface to our exultation; and we have already proved it so. In that moment when we were subdued, humbled, made to loathe our own righteousness, trampled into the very mire under a sense of weakness and death, He was sowing light for us. It needed that we should be weaned from self; it was necessary that we should make the terrible discovery of our soul’ s depravity. To-day that Blessed Spirit continues His sowing in us. Every gracious thought; every stroke from the whip of affliction when sanctified; every down-casting of our proud looks; every discovery of our utter insignificance, worthlessness, and death; everything in us that harrows us, cuts us to the quick and wounds us, but yet brings us to the Good Physician that He may exercise His healing art; all these are sowing for us a blessed harvest of light for which we must wait a little while. Be thankful for painful inward experiences; when they are most severe they are often most beneficial. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Joy peculiar to religion Joy is here represented under a double metaphor; one of light, and another of seed. This seed is said to be sown; and sown in a faithful soil, that will be sure to preserve it, and send it forth for those who are to possess it. The people for whom this joy and comfort are thus said to be prepared are described by a principal feature of their character--that of righteousness. Behold the characters for whom God is here said to have made abundant provision of joy and comfort. How does this appear? I. He has furnished ample materials or causes for this joy and comfort in them.1. One is the knowledge of Himself and His real character. 2. They alone are capable of deriving the full benefit of Scripture. What developments of principle, for their guidance or warning, do they perceive in its histories; what correspondence between the workings of good men’ s hearts, there delineated, and their own: these produce a kind of glad surprise and pleasing wonder! 3. Materials for joy are provided for believers in the very workings and exercises of piety. As in the material constitution, where every act of life and motion gives pleasure, so in the spiritual. Every grace of the Spirit gives pleasure in its operation. II. God has not only provided materials for the happiness of His people, but means for the removal, in their case, of the several impediments to its enjoyment.1. He opposes, for this purpose, their inordinate cares and anxieties about the things of this life, chastening their mind, by a variety of means and considerations, to get rid of this weight upon its energies, this cloud upon its views and prospects. 2. He prohibits the indulgence of the irascible tempers, and the vexation of the passions. He imparts, also, the influence of His dove-like Spirit, forming the graces of meekness and humility in the heart, guiding it, as the rudder the vessel, smoothly and peacefully through all the commotions of life. 3. He divests their minds of dread from guilt, adversity, Satan, and death. III. God sometimes, by the immediate operations of His Spirit, produces the emotions of joy in their souls, from their appropriate sources.1. Sometimes it is by the outward objects and exercises of piety. The work of the Spirit then consists in adapting the state of the mind to these objects. He softens the wax to receive the impression of the seal, or moistens and loosens the soil towards the sun that is ready to pour upon it his full beams. Hence the delight sometimes communicated to the mind in the reading of the Scriptures. The portions that at other times produced little or no emotion, now excite, gladden, and transport us. The same spots of landscape, invisible before, or but half revealed, are seen in a light that imparts an interest to them, and reveals beauties in them altogether new. 2. But there are times when the Spirit produces these emotions in the soul, by opening sources of joy that lie nearer to it, and within itself, apart from externally favourable objects, and even in the presence of circumstances and objects most unfavourable. In order, indeed, to render His work more evident and more conspicuous, as well as more illustrious, from the effect of contrast, He seems to prefer the seasons of deep surrounding gloom and agony for these his gladdening and transporting emotions. This explains the paradoxes of Scripture (2 Corinthians 1:5; 2 Corinthians 6:10; 2 Corinthians 12:10; Romans 5:3). (J. Leifchild.) The seed of light Light and gladness. It is natural to desire them, and God does not crucify nature. He only trains and corrects it. This text tells us that light and gladness are for the upright, and the next verse bids the righteous rejoice. An eagle desires the air, and a fish the water. Is it strange? A child of God is a child of light, begotten of Him who is light and in whom is no darkness at all. If he longs for the light, is that strange? But what about the peculiar way in which this promise of light and gladness is put? Light and gladness are “ sown.” A startling figure that, and a grand one too. God gives light and gladness to His children just as He does other things, germinally, in the seed form; not all at once, in floods, but with a large reserve into which the man is to work his way. As life moves toward God, it unfolds this seed and lets out more and more light, until eternity develops the full harvest of light. With this figure of sowing seed are naturally associated two thoughts--hiding and diffusion: and the two inevitably run together, because, in the natural process, hiding is with a view to diffusion. The process of growth is distributive, not only in the final scattering of the seed, but in that, in the unfolding of the seed, something beautiful and promising is developed at every successive stage, in the blade and in the ear, no less than in the full corn. I. If, then, light and gladness are to be looked for in Christian life, it is important to remember that they are growths, and that, as such, they carry with them a certain amount of concealment and delay. Let us consider some illustrations of this. God hides away light and gladness in certain things which, for the time, give no hint of what is within, even as the rough acorn gives no visible promise of the grandeur and leafage of the oak. And here be very careful to note that when God gives us these seeds, He expects us to look for our light in them. None the less, because the acorn is hard and rough, must you look for your oak in your acorn. You will not find it by turning away to something smoother and softer. One of the very first things to which God introduces us on our entrance into His kingdom is duty. God knows that in all duty there is light which faithful doing will bring out. Often, however, He shows us very little or none of the light and promise, but only the dark furrows of duty in which the light is sown: and He says to us, “ Your work lies up and down along those furrows, to keep them free from weeds, to drive away the birds, to keep the earth loose, and to watch and wait until the light shall appear.” The same truth appears in the providences of God. They are full of light, but it is sown light. We understand well enough how God hides the diamond and the topaz in the dark and overlays them with hard and coarse crusts; how He shuts up the crystal in the heart of the rough geode; and we doubt not that human skill and labour can bring them forth from their wrappings and make them blaze in the coronets of kings. Why will we limit these facts to nature merely, to God’ s economy on its lower side, and not see that God carries up the same facts to a higher level, and applies the same method in His spiritual economy, and conceals light and joy beneath the hard incrustations of sorrow and pain? All of you remember the story so graphically told by the Scottish poet, of the wizard buried in the abbey aisles with a lamp upon his breast; and how, when the stone was removed after many years, the light from that lamp blazed up and lighted the tomb and the magic volume in the dead hand. So it is that sometimes we go back after many days to the grave when we buried, as we thought, all the gladness and light of our lives, to find in the hand of the dead a lamp and a lesson-book. A hard providence of God is a seed with a rough and prickly husk, but it is a seed of light, sown by Him who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, and who will shine in His people’ s hearts to give the light of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. The truth applies equally to the process of winning Christian knowledge and faith. We are like children at school. Study and thought and books are full of light to you now; but when you were a child, light came to you under cover of duty, by way of rules and formulas; through labour when you saw more gladness in sport; through strict discipline when you thought that complete freedom would be perfect gladness. Would it be strange if God should deal with you in similar wise in acquiring the knowledge of His truth and will? II. But let us look at the other thought--that of diffusion or distribution. Concealment or reserve in God’ s economy is with a view to revelation. Christ said, “ There is nothing hidden but in order that it should be revealed,” and though, as we have seen, God’ s revelations unfold gradually, that very fact results in the distribution of His revelations along the whole line of an individual life or of a nation’ s history. That is one aspect of the truth. A grain of wheat is wheat, not only in the full corn, but in the blade and in the ear likewise, and in the growth of the seeds of light they unfold into light all along the way of the upright. Though something is hidden, though all godly living includes patient waiting, yet God does not condemn His children to walk in darkness all their days, and only then let in upon them the light of heaven in one overwhelming flood. The perfect day is at the end, it is true, but still the path of the just shineth more and more. The word is a lamp unto the feet in their daily walk. And therefore the hard duties and the hard providences, while they hide light, yet do not keep in all the light. There is self-denial, for instance. No doubt it will be a good while before it will cease to be hard, or will bring its full reward: but meanwhile the practice of it is not without its gladness and light. Take the grace of Hope. Hope has a hard fight for life in some natures; and the climb to even low slope of hopefulness is a distressing one. Yet when one of God’ s desponding children does manfully grapple with his despondency and resolutely work his way upward, saying, “ Why art thou cast down, O my soul? Hope thou in God. I shall yet praise Him” --light breaks in along the line of that struggle. Some of you have stood on a rocky platform among the high Alps and watched the coming of dawn. You saw the saffron light deepen behind some monster peak, and soon the first sunbeam appeared above the crest; and as it darted forth, it struck and was flashed back from a great snow-field which blushed and kindled under its touch. Another beam shot over to a cluster of ice-needles, and each one of them became a point of dazzling light. Then a long ray leaped over to that peak, far up in the calm ether, awful in the loneliness of its virgin snow, and the great cone glistened and sparkled over its whole surface, and threw back the light to another peak, and flash answered flash, and the threads of light crossed and twined until the heaving sea of hills was bathed in glory. So every Christlike effort, every Christian grace resolutely carried into practice, not only emits light, but multiplies the light at every point where it touches. Faith nerves itself for a timid venture and throws out its one feeble ray toward a hard task or a hard trial or a hard problem; and behold the thing brightens, and in its own brightening throws light on some other duty or trial, on some great snow-field of lonely sacrifice and patience. In short, the more faithfully and persistently one addresses himself to doing God’ s will, the more points his experience affords from which the goodness and love and faithfulness and power of God are reflected. And these points enlighten each other. Each experience takes up the light furnished by the smallest, and reflects and helps to distribute it over the whole area. Righteousness is light and gladness though its way lie through sorrow and sacrifice: and you who are pursuing that road in faith and hope may take this for your comfort that you are going forward to inevitable gladness. God has already wrought out great goodness before your eyes; but that is nothing to the goodness which He has laid up for them that fear Him. (M. R. Vincent, D.D.) The future happiness of the righteous I. The character that is here given of good men. They are righteous and upright. Which words may stand--1. As terms of the same import and signification. Every righteous man is an upright man; and the upright man is the only righteous man. Or-- 2. They may be put as explanative of each other. The righteous and the upright man is the sincerely righteous man. Not one who is so in reputation and appearance only, but in deed and in truth; who takes more care to be good than appear so; who is not only righteous in life, but upright in heart. II. The present state of good men implied, viz. Darkness and Sorrow.1. Darkness denotes either ignorance, or a state of doubts and fears. In either sense it may be here applied. 2. Their ignorance and doubts produce much sorrow. III. The happiness of the righteous and upright man’ s state in the other world, expressed in the text by light and gladness.1. Heaven is a state of light. (1) When the righteous are admitted into the heavenly world their knowledge shall be greatly increased. (a) Their intellectual powers will then be very much strengthened and enlarged. (b) A great variety of new and unthought of objects will be continually offering themselves. We shall then have a much more plain and perfect conception of those things which we now think we do know. The facility with which this knowledge shall be acquired will add not a little to the pleasure of the acquisition. Our knowledge then will be perpetually progressive, or for ever increasing.(2) As darkness not only implies ignorance but doubtfulness and uncertainty, so light implies not only knowledge but stability and assurance. 2. Illustrate the other branch of the saint’ s blessedness in heaven denoted by the word gladness. (1) Some of the chief properties of that joy and gladness which is prepared for the saints in heaven. To begin with the lowest, it will be a total freedom from every kind of pain and uneasiness. To rise a step higher, in heaven there will not only be a perfect freedom from all pain, but an enjoyment of the most solid and satisfying pleasure. The saint’ s pleasures in heaven shall be constant and uninterrupted. Their variety will be equal to their purity. The happiness of the saints in heaven will be an unenvied happiness. To crown all, this joy will be everlasting. There will be no fear either of an interruption, or a period of it. (2) The source of all this happiness, or whence it flows. One thing which to be sure will greatly contribute to this unspeakable degree of gladness and felicity which the righteous shall enjoy in heaven is their eternal release and freedom from a body of sin and death. The natural faculties and powers of the soul will be then strengthened and preserved in their full vigour and exercise. Not only the natural, but the moral powers of the mind will then be in a state of perfection, and every grace and virtue be complete. Much of our happiness will arise from the survey of the glorious objects which will all around open to our intellectual view; and which we shall see, if not with bodily eyes, yet with as clear and satisfying a perception as that conveyed by the organs of sense. Our perpetual advances in knowledge will be the perpetual increase of our happiness. Joy shall spring up in their souls from the immediate, free, and uninterrupted efflux and communication of it from God Himself; whose smiles shall inspire them with heavenly gladness, and fill them with satisfaction unutterable. If to this we add the society to which the glorified saints will be admitted, we have then all the principal sources of their happiness in heaven. IV. The metaphor. “ Light is sown,” etc. This implies--1. Something must be done by the righteous now, in order to their being partakers of that happiness which is prepared for them in heaven. 2. Though the future blessedness of the righteous must now be sown by themselves, yet it is nevertheless the free gift of God. 3. The saints on earth should patiently wait for their glory in heaven (James 5:7). 4. They should encourage themselves with the hopes and prospects of it, and thankfully acknowledge those providences and dispensations which tend to prepare and fit them for it; as the husbandman does those fruitful and suitable seasons which raise his hopes of a plentiful harvest. (J. Mason, M.A.) Light sown for the righteous The text evidently teaches that light is sown by the righteous, and not only for them, yet forasmuch as good and evil work together in spiritual things, we may fairly regard the righteous as having to do with both. If they themselves are in one sense the ground, they themselves are in another the mere tillers and cultivators of the ground. It is important to observe this twofold character, if you would enter fully into the metaphor of the text. The husbandman must have in the springtime a certain portion of that very grain from which he hopes for an abundance in the bright days of harvest; he must have seed for the sowing; otherwise, there can never be the reaping. The same holds good in regard to the righteous, who are taught they must sow light, and they shall also reap light. We have “ light,” but we have it as the husbandman, when he sows rather than when he reaps. But to every one who receives the glorious gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, that gospel is light which shineth in a dark place--the day-spring from on high visits him--the word becomes his candle searching the heart and the spirit, as a lantern guiding his feet. We have light; we know God’ s light shineth in darkness--that light which is a celestial effulgence of the happiness of heaven. And the light of God already possessed has in it the elements of the knowledge and glory which shall constitute a higher state of being. The knowledge in that state shall not be partial, but, nevertheless, it shall be only our present knowledge completed. Our gladness shall be uninterrupted; but, nevertheless, it shall be only what I now feel, perfected. The future, as compared with the present, is the harvest time, as compared with the seed time. But whilst it has been necessary that we should remark on the text upon the supposition, that by man light is sown, the more interesting trains of thought suggested by the passage follow from the supposition that God Himself is the sower. God can hide light in darkness. It is light when thus sepulchred. It is the special prerogative of God to bring good out of evil, to give “ the valley of Achor for a door of hope,” to make the despondency of death productive of the happiness of life. It is plain that from the first God has been acting on the principle of sowing light for the righteous. What is all prophecy, but an illustration of this principle? Who knows not how God sows light for the righteous in the dealings of providence? What darkness is there often around these dealings--what mysteriousness? The Christian can find nothing in them but gloom and perplexity, when they seem clothed with an impenetrable blackness; but they are germs in which, though buried, there is light. A voice is often heard from among the tombs, and as the Christian goes forward in life, is he not enabled to derive profit from that which he had counted but loss? He is not thrown exclusively on his faith; he is not without present evidence that God is furthering His own purposes; he is sometimes permitted to see that what appeared against him has been for him, and that he has derived benefit where, from the aspect of God’ s dealings, he might have thought himself injured; and thus the whole field of his pilgrimage is sown with light; but he must wait till that fervent heat, through which the elements shall be dissolved, shall have brought up the harvest. There are now occasional springings up of luminous shoots; and these serve him as “ first fruit.” There is another and a very inter-eating view under which these words may be surveyed. The psalmist, you observe, does not limit the “ sowing” to any particular season. As though the seed of light were always being deposited in the ground, he uses language which may denote that there is continually a fresh harvest in preparation for the righteous. He says nothing as to time; but leaves it to be inferred that the sheaves would be gathered in due season. But by making sowing continual, he seems to imply that one crop will succeed another, so that as fast as one is reaped another will be ready to be swept into the granary. And the truth figuratively taught by such a representation is that there shall be no standing still in the attainments of the righteous. The righteous shall be always in progress; one harvest of light furnishing, so to speak, seed for another. It ought to alarm us, and therefore suggest doubts as to the genuineness of our faith, if we find no advance in spiritual things, if we do not grow in acquaintance with ourselves, with God, with eternity--if as we draw near to death there is not apparently greater fitness for heaven, Now let us draw in conclusion some practical lessons from this subject. There are two prominent lessons--one to the righteous, and the other to the wicked. To the righteous we would say, be not dismayed or disquieted if God’ s dealings seem mysterious, and if you are met often by obstructions. In seasons of anxiety and doubt a helper shall arise; in “ wiping away all tears,” God shall scatter all clouds, and your exulting confession shall be--“ He hath done all things well.” But what have we to say to the wicked, to those who care nothing for the soul, but who “ love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil” ? God soweth no light for you; but nevertheless you are sowing light for yourselves. You shall not be always in darkness; you shall not be always able to hide the truth from yourselves. You must wake at last to the fearful discovery, that you have been your own destroyers, that you have bartered immortality for a bauble, and purchased a momentary gratification with everlasting anguish. Oh, that you would make the discovery now!--the discovery that such must be the confession of all who close their eyes against the light, till that light gleam from the great white throne. (H. Melvill, B.D.) Light sown for the righteous (Easter Sermon):--Each Easter morning is a signal for fresh joy: and on each Lord s Day we celebrate our Easter festival afresh. It is an old story, this tale of Christ’ s Resurrection; but it is so full of meaning, has such a depth of comfort, such a largeness of joy, that we can never take it all in at once. The aspect of the Resurrection set before us in my text is that it was joyful in itself, and, moreover, a preparation for more perfect joy. “ Light,” says the psalmist, “ is sown for the righteous.” Now, we have here a beautiful metaphor, not uncommon in ancient writers, by which the dawn is said to scatter the beams of light upon the earth. It is God drawing near to man: God approaching, bearing with Him every blessing: and as He comes within our view He sows and scatters light upon the inhabitants of the earth. The words thus refer to the rising of the Sun of Righteousness, with healing in His wings. But in the next place, they suggest that this sowing is a preparation. If the morning is beautiful, still it is but the beauty of promise. At the dawn man goes forth to labour in the path of duty and of active service; but as the sun rises towards the zenith, each hour it sheds upon earth a brighter radiance. And then, if God’ s work has been done earnestly and truly, even if feebly and with human imperfection, there follow softer and gentler hours, till at evening the sky is reddened with bright hopes of a future rising, and the sun sets in a bath of glory. Yet all upon earth is but a sowing; the fruit ripens not in the cold regions of this world. It is in the world to come that the fruit is gathered. So said our Lord: “ He that reapeth gathereth fruit unto life eternal.” But the great central thought of the text is that the blessing which God so bountifully sows upon the earth is “ light.” The psalmist sees the world lying in darkness. Men grope about, and examine the things around them; but it is a mere feeling with the hands. They have no real knowledge, and all that they do is wrought uncertainly. No work of much value can be done in the dark; and least of all can men set out in gloom and obscurity on a distant journey to an unknown land. And until the day of Christ’ s Resurrection this was the state of mankind. The darkness was that of ignorance in all that concerns the destiny of the soul and its relations to God. If you had asked the wisest heathen how this world came into being, he could not have told you. Heathen sages and philosophers had no certainty that there was but one God. Most of them had lost all belief in the numerous gods of their mythology: many even felt that there must be, and was, some one Central power behind the many gods of the poets, which controlled the gods themselves: but they regarded this power only as a blind fate, or destiny. They had no certainty of there being but one God, and still less had they the idea of that God concerning Himself with the affairs of men, loving them, caring for them, and full for them of mercy and kindness. And thus such knowledge as is given to us in the very first verse of the Bible, that “ in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth,” contains more than one truth beyond the utmost range of heathen philosophy: for it tells us that there is but one God, that He created matter, and that this world is His workmanship. And if they knew nothing about the world, so equally they knew nothing about man. But now, if God made the world, and placed man upon it, with all that preparation of which we read in the first chapter of Genesis, we at once gather that in man this world finds the cause of its being; or in other words, that this world was made for man’ s sake. Though cloud and gloom may cover the face of the sky, yet behind them we know that the sun of God’ s goodness and love ever shines in all its glory. But Christ’ s Resurrection triumph gives us more than general lessons and assurances, such as follow from the doctrine that one God made the world. It tells us that God so loved the world as to give us His Son to die for us: and that God the Son has accomplished the work He consented to do and has risen triumphant from the grave. Our enemies are sin and death. But sin is forgiven in Christ, and His Resurrection proves that He has vanquished the grim tyrant Satan, whose power over us is caused entirely by sin; and Death is vanquished too. The heathen knew nothing of the bright side of life. They knew nothing of the prize that may be won: of the peace that may be enjoyed here: of the happiness in store for those who bravely fight the battle of life. They saw only too clearly the dark side of life: its sorrows and troubles, its vices and crimes, its sad disasters and the changes of fickle fortune. They saw, too, old age ever creeping nearer and nearer, and if they asked themselves, “ What next? What is there after old age and death?” no one could answer. It was all a region of mist and darkness, and they knew of no light there. But we have hope. That future land is our Master’ s Kingdom. It is our true, our real home. Old age has no terrors for us. We are only getting nearer home. As we look up, we see a loving Father waiting to welcome us home for Christ’ s sake. And if Christ by His Resurrection has thus shed upon this world the bright light of hope, so has He made plain before our face the pathway of duty. The heathen had nothing to work for in this world: and if the Christian’ s hope were destroyed we should have nothing worth working for. For money, and pleasure, and earthly goods cannot satisfy an immortal soul. Christ came to do His Father’ s will; and He has set before us the same pathway of duty: namely, to do God’ s will, and labour earnestly for the glory of God and the good of man. True, He describes it as a strait, narrow, and uphill path. But what has He placed at the end? He has placed there a great light. We see the portals of the heavenly city bright and resplendent with glory. We see the myriads of the redeemed saints waiting to welcome us: angels with crowns of joy ready to be placed upon our heads. And within that heavenly city God is seated upon His throne, with all joy and happiness in His hand for the eternal blessedness of His people. And that light there is no more sowing; it is the full harvest of light: its perfect and complete realization. And that which gives us the certainty of this hope, and light, and glory is the risen Saviour. (Dean Payne Smith.) Fields sown with light for the righteous Where are the fields that we may well say are sown by God’ s grace with happiness for us? Here is one field--the field of His Word. Ah! you may almost see the happiness here. Every promise of God has a secret meaning beyond what we as yet have learnt, and that hidden sense is full of happiness for the children of God. So it is with providence. Every event which can occur is sown with light for the faithful. It does not so appear; far rather the fields just now are very unpleasant to look upon; the water stands deep in those broad furrows; you cannot imagine there will ever be a harvest in a land so flooded with trouble, but wait a while. There is not a dying child or aa ailing wife, there is not a dishonoured bill, there is not a wrecked vessel, there is not a burnt house, there is not a single diseased bullock but what you shall see at the last, and perhaps before then, to have been full of real blessedness for you. There is not only mercy in God’ s dealings with His people in the gross, but in the detail. All the providence of God, far-reaching as it is, and extending from our cradle to our tomb, is full of the Divine intent that His children shall be blessed, and blessed they shall be. There is one little field called “ God’ s Acre,” which to some appears to be sown with much darkness, but is really sown with light--that sleeping place, the cemetery, where your loved ones lie beneath the sod. Yes, but they shall rise again, and so light is sown for you, even in the mouldering bones of your beloved children and friends. You would not have it otherwise, would you? Would you lose that seed? Imagine for a moment that it should never come up again from the sepulchre! Would not that grieve you beyond measure? It is your comfort to feel that these dry bones shall live, and all the band of those you loved so dearly who have gone from you for a while are not lost, but gone before. “ Refrain thy voice from weeping, and thine eyes from tears: for thy work shall be rewarded, saith the Lord; and they shall come again from the land of the enemy.” And what a happy meeting, what joyous greetings, what blessed reunions, when they meet to part no more! In that “ God’ s Acre,” then, in the many burials we have attended, light is sown for the righteous. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Sown light “ If the different objects which treasure up and reflect the sunlight in their different ways could speak, it seems that their utterances would be something as follows. The coals would say, “ I treasured up the sun’ s light and warmth” : the plants would testify of its attraction in causing them to bud and blossom; the fruits would whisper that they owe their ripeness and bloom to its kisses; the flowers would exclaim, “ We obtained our colours from its artistic touches” ; the doctor tells us of its beneficent and healing properties; the astronomer unfolds to us its influence and heat; the photographer speaks of his dependence upon its rays for the reproduction of his pictures; yea, the whole creation is indebted to its presence and power for warmth, colour, and brightness. (F. E. Marsh.) Gladness for the upright in heart.--The joy which attends godliness I. Good and righteous men, and only they, are the possessors of true joy. This appears from--1. The true nature and quality of joy, which may not unfitly be defined that pleasant and ravishing affection whereby the mind wonderfully delights itself, and acquiesces in the fruition of something that is good and beloved. New the righteous and holy man resteth with an unspeakable delight and complacency in Him, who is the chiefest Being, and the chiefest good, and the most worthy of love, and therefore is the firmest basis of joy. God only, of all beings, is immediately, directly, originally, and necessarily good: and no being can have the denomination of being good, but from this fountain and everlasting source of goodness. Nothing is good, but aa it brings and unites us to this best of Beings, to this original of all perfection and excellency. He then that entirely loves God, and rejoiceth in Him, is in the possession and fruition of all good; and whatever he enjoys carries pleasure and delectation with it. 2. The nature of true righteousness, which always carries joy and gladness with it. For first, all virtuous actions and exercises of righteousness are in themselves agreeable to our rational nature, they are fitted to our faculties, as we are men and reasonable creatures: He that commits any vice doth violence to his own mind, and he that sins against God rebels against himself. Again, as all holy actions are agreeable to our rational and regenerate nature (and consequently to the nature of God and His will), so they agree most friendly with themselves. All moral virtues and graces are of a knot, and are tied to one another. They are all of a piece, and hold together. 3. The great benefits which the righteous man is possessor of, purchased for him by Christ. (1) The spiritual favours and blessings which a holy man is partaker of such as these, the purifying and sanctifying of his nature, the justification of his person, the pardon and forgiveness of his sins, his access with boldness to the throne of grace, his being adopted and made a Son of God, his assurance of God’ s providence and protection, and that all things shall work together for his good, his experience of the Divine help, and gracious assistance of the Spirit (which one thing alone is able to fill his soul with unspeakable joy, for he cannot but be happy who hath God always to assist him), the enjoying of the blessed ordinances of Christ’ s institution, the benefit which he receives from all the offices and undertakings of Christ. Lastly, the certainty of a future reward, of enjoying heaven and happiness, when this world is at an end. These are great and ravishing blessings, and it is impossible that he who is assured of these should not rejoice. (2) Not only spiritual, but temporal and earthly things are real matter of rejoicing to a righteous man. Whether he eats or drinks, or whatever he doth hath not only a tendency to God’ s glory, but his own comfort and contentment. A virtuous and godly man hath his pleasures refined and purified, strained from the filth and feculency which adhere to the delights of the wicked and debauched, and so he finds a greater gust and relish in them. Nay, to proceed higher, those things which seem in themselves to be most unpleasant and grievous are not so to a righteous person. He rejoiceth even in calamities, sufferings, persecutions. II. The excellent properties of the righteous man’ s joy.1. It is vast and ample, its object being infinite, and therefore most comprehensive; whereas the pleasures and delights of sense are short and shallow, narrow and contracted, their objects being of that nature. 2. It is not precarious, or dependent on things outside him. 3. Though inward and retired, yet it is also visible and operative. Who can lodge in his heart an entire love and complacency in God and goodness, who can nourish that holy fire there, and not discover it to others by some eruptions and flashes of joy? 4. It is constant and durable, perpetual and inexhaustible (Psalms 36:8-9). They are at the Fountain; a continual spring feeds and supplies their joy, so that it cannot be dried up. This spring is the kindness and favour of the God of heaven, the free bounty and goodness of that great Benefactor whose gifts and graces are without repentance, who perseveres in His love, if we do so in our duty, whose promises are all Yea and Amen, and whose faithfulness is as immutable as Himself. III. It will be objected that in the observation and experience of the world things are far different from what i have represented them. Nothing is more ordinary and obvious than this, that the best men are sad and sorrowful, and spend their days in pensive thoughts and penitential tears: they mortify their bodies and chastise their souls, and discover little of joy all their lives long. I answer--1. It is true righteous men retain a deep sorrow and regret upon their minds for their sins, but even this is pleasant to them, it being their duty, and urged upon them by the command of Heaven. Even the austerities and mortifications which holy men exercise are productive of the highest solace and rejoicing. 2. I answer that the joys of devout and holy men being not the same with those of the corrupted world, there may thence arise a mistake, and it may be thought by some that good men are sad heavy when indeed they are nothing so. For I do not mean by this gladness any such thing as the jollity and laughter of the world. Every faithful follower of Christ, like his Master, hath meat to eat which the world knows not of, he hath pleasures and delights which they are unacquainted with. It is promised to the Christian champion that fights the good fight of faith, and overcomes the world, that he shall eat of the hidden manna, the delicacies of which are wholly concealed from vulgar palates (Revelation 1:7). A good conscience is a continual feast. IV. Inferences.1. It is a false report and a slander raised against religion and the sincere professors of it, that there is no content and complacency, no delight and pleasure in a virtuous life, but that they who resolve to become Christians indeed, must bid farewell to all mirth, they must not expect to see any more pleasant days, but bury themselves in darkness and melancholy. 2. This great privilege and blessing in the text ought to be a prevalent motive to virtue, a powerful persuasive to a godly life. The joys and pleasures of Christians are not all in reversion. Such is the infinite goodness and bounty of God, that although He hath made heaven to be the place of complete joy and rest, yet He is pleased to reward a holy life with present joys and pleasures in this world. Righteous men taste enough of these here to make them amends for all the difficulties and troubles they meet with in this life. 3. Let the proposition which I have treated of be copied out in the practice and behaviour of all good Christians. Let those of you who have sincerely devoted yourselves to the service of God, and have faithfully discharged your duty according to your power, lay aside the mourning-weeds, and clothe yourselves with the garment of joy. Dry up your tears, and silence your sighs, put on a joyful look, and let not sadness and pensiveness dwell on your faces any longer. Let the world see and be convinced that you do not serve a hard master, and that the yoke of Christ is not difficult and insupportable. 4. Would you know how you may attain to the practice of it, and experimentally find this doctrine true, that Christianity is attended with solid joy and gladness; then-- (1) See that you religiously and conscientiously make use of all means and helps which God hath instituted to this purpose. (2) Carefully avoid the commission of all known sin. (3) Be sincere and upright. (John Edwards.) Joyful gladness for such as are true-hearted (P.B.V.):--Surely there is a great deal of meaning wrapped up in this word, “ true-hearted.” Reality, loyalty, courage, in all dealings with God and man: not one of the three here and another there; for indeed they may be separated, sadly to the hurt of the man who loses hold of the bond that unites them; a man may be real and yet selfish, loyal and yet cowardly, courageous and yet neither faithful nor sincere--not one of the three here and another there, but the three together. The union of the three in the Christian character seems to be the first and most direct of the effects of faith; and, indeed, faith itself, in its normal aspect, may be defined, or rather described, as the true-heartedness that unites the three characteristics I have marked: faith, the substance of the things hoped for; faith, that though He slay me yet will I trust in Him; faith, which is the victory that overeometh the world. You ask me what I mean by Reality. We know well enough what we mean by unreality, something less wicked than hypocrisy and less excusable than mere weakness: the acceptance of principles without testing them or the authority that presents them, the profession of beliefs without experimental maintenance of them; enthusiasms caught by infection from the enthusiasm of those around you; mechanical observance of rites and usages which have no meaning to you, but which, because you have been trained in them, are easy to you, and which, when you have misgivings about them, you are too careless or indolent to cast off; the disposition to be satisfied with the easiest solution of hard questions; for the mere saving of trouble, to shirk responsibilities, whilst you confess to feeling them; to join in the upholding of institutions simply because they are institutions; to profess general good-will without doing anything to prove it; to advocate rash changes simply because they are changes; the superficiality of a whole life that has neither interest in the lot of other men nor conviction of the majesty of truth, nor the sense of responsibility for the work which the Master, by way of privilege, sets before each one of His own to do. All and each of these things is unreality, and there is much besides. But we cannot define the word by the mere exclusion of its opposites, at least in the close and near interests of which I am speaking now. “ I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest and art dead:” God help us, and say not that of us; but judge yourselves, and apply true-heartedness to judgment. In the reality of religious true-heartedness, in this its first aspect, there is a single mind and honest openness, veracity to oneself and to God, which is indispensable to the very first idea of either righteousness or repentance; love without dissimulation, obedience without selfish consideration, faith without wavering. And second: loyalty is an element in the true heart; faithfulness to the cause or person, realized by the single mind. The devotion of affection, the identification of oneself with the cause. I said that this is separable from the other, in idea; it is so in fact also, a man will be loyal to a cause which he has not proved, zealous for an institution which he neither understands nor cares for, in any other sense than that it is somehow connected with the line that he has chosen for himself. And such loyalty is but a glorified form of self-will; and where self-will has opened the way, how does it cover and disguise all sorts of still inferior motives--self-interests and aggrandizement, party spirit and jealousy, misrepresentation justified by antipathy which denies the sincerity and honesty of opponents; persecution, all the poison of controversy, all the self-righteousness of vulgar ambition. Here again it is not enough to say that true loyalty can be defined by the exclusion of the false. It sacrifices and effaces self, or merges it in devotion: “ Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it unto me according to Thy word.” But more; the self is effaced not for the sake of affacement, but that the devotion may be entirely practical. The hermit of the Thebaid, the votary of Nirwana, effaces himself, and does no more; he is loyal to an idea that contents itself with absorption; the loyal Christian, in the reality of his affection, girds up his loins with faithfulness to do his Lord’ s will; to minister to his Lord’ s people; as a true and living member of His body, to diffuse through every joint the life supplied from the head, that the whole may increase of itself in love. But trueheartedness has one feature more: it has the courage of its convictions, the courage not of pertinacious, desperate determination, but of convictions based on reality and developed in loyal faithfulness. This courage is a courage of patience and of struggle, of attack as well as of defence; it is one that realizes danger and realizes duty; that watches in no morbid, sensitive apprehension, but in manly facing of the occasions, be they of difficulty, doubt, temptation, or over assurance of safety. The soldier of Christ cannot fight with the world’ s weapons, the advocate of Christ cannot argue with the finesse or the virulence or the captiousness of the adversary. It is no small exercise of moral courage in which the truehearted refuses to meet sneer with sneer, or sharp saying with cutting retort; or where he is lashed into impatience by the persistent utterance of half truths, or by misrepresentations intended to confuse, or by accusations so wild and wanton that he cannot see which is to be first met without risking the imputation that, by defending one point, he surrenders the rest. The true-hearted who can face all this has the very truest courage, the ghostly strength with which the Lord has anointed those that, with their eyes open and heart set, have taken up their cross to follow Him. It is not so with us all! It should be, by the very condition of our sonship; His grace shall work even this in us. Two thoughts arise in conclusion: First, how does all this apply? The cause of Christ, the cause of our salvation, is not a mere abstraction; our soldiership involves a real struggle, our advocacy real argument, our service real labour. The Church of the living God is to us presented in the flesh and blood of those with whom and for whom we are called on to fulfil our duty as members of the body of Christ. As men, as Englishmen, as Churchmen, our true-heartedness is being tried every day. And then, secondly, how about the joyful gladness? Is it the answer of a good conscience towards God--I have done what I can, surely He must see to the doing of the rest? Scarcely that, I think; although He does sometimes give His beloved such sleep, even with the knowledge that they shall be satisfied when they wake up after His likeness. But for it to come day by day; for the weary man to be able to say when he lies down to sleep, that there are no arrears to be made up, no post unguarded, no part of the day’ s work left for to-morrow; to be able to say, I sleep but my heart waketh; if He come at the second watch or at the third watch, I am ready: joyful gladness it would be indeed, but it can scarcely be. Can it be anything else than that loving meeting of our faith with a certain conviction and manifestation of His faithfulness, the strengthening and refreshing of the light of His countenance vouchsafed to those who, in answer to His “ Seek ye My face,” reply with life and courage and true heart, “ Thy face, Lord, will I seek” ? The joyful gladness to the true-hearted comes in the experience of the loving-kindness of the Lord, the increase of faith, the clearness of hope, the fuller realizing of that likeness, which by the name of Charity He sets before each of us, and begins to work in each of us, the instalment of the glory that shall be. Will He not increase it more and more? Trust ye in the Lord for ever! (Bishop Stubbs.) Psalms 97:12 Rejoice in the Lord, ye righteous. The nature of religious joy I. What is meant by our rejoicing in the lord.1. It signifies that cordial pleasure, which the serious and devout mind takes in the meditation of God’ s existence, perfection, and providence. 2. It signifies our receiving a very great delight from the discoveries of His will to us in His Word. 3. It imports our rejoicing in the interests which He has been graciously pleased to give His people in Himself; and in those comfortable and honourable relations which we stand in to Him. 4. We rejoice in the Lord when we rejoice in His continual protection, guidance and influence. 5. Rejoicing in His gracious intercourses with us in the duties of Divine worship, is another thing intended. 6. The lively hope, to which all those are begotten who love God, of fulness of joy at His right hand, and of rivers of pleasure for evermore, makes them to rejoice in the Lord with joy unspeakable. II. Rejoicing in the Lord signifies that our joy in God is superior to all our other joys; otherwise it is a joy unworthy of Him, and no way, or not savingly, profitable to us. We can build nothing on such a feeble joy; we have no ground to regard that joy as a grace and fruit of the Spirit, which is extinguished by the joys and pleasures of sense; or so suppressed and overpowered by them, as to have no considerable and lasting effect. III. Whatever else we rejoice in, we are to rejoice in such a manner that we may be properly said to rejoice in the Lord, even when other things are the immediate occasions of our joy.1. We rejoice in the Lord in the use and enjoyment of other things, by considering those things which yield us an innocent satisfaction, as the gifts of God, the effects of His unbounded munificence, and the marks of His creative and providential goodness. 2. Our joy in the Lord should be the chief spring of our joy in all the blessings and advantages with which His goodness hath supplied us. 3. The good man’ s joy in the Lord regulates his joy and delight in other things; being at once an incentive to it as far as it is lawful, and a restraint upon it when it would pass beyond its proper bounds. 4. Then do we rejoice in the Lord, when other joys lift our hearts to Him, are considered and improved as motives to greater diligence and zeal in serving Him here, and increase our desires of enjoying Him hereafter. IV. Our rejoicing in the Lord, to be worthy of Him, must be constant and permanent: it must not vary as our outward circumstances vary, but subsist the same in all the changes of life. It may be we are deprived of health, or perhaps have trouble in the world; however that be, we are still to rejoice in God. V. Thus to rejoice in the Lord is both the privilege and the duty of the righteous or sincerely religious.1. It is their privilege. (1) It is a very great privilege and happiness to be able to rejoice in the Lord. The object of this joy is the most excellent in the whole compass of being; the joy itself resides in the highest region of the soul; and the effects of it are of all most extensive, beneficial, and lasting. (2) This privilege is peculiar to the righteous, or sincerely religious; they only can rejoice in God, and they only have a right to do it. 2. To rejoice in the Lord is the duty of those whose distinguishing privilege it is that they can do it. Let me name some of those things which Christians should practise, in order to their being in an actual disposition or preparedness of mind to rejoice in the Lord. (1) It is their duty to make their calling and election sure, and by an impartial inquiry into the state of their souls, to decide the great question upon which their peace so much depends, viz. Whose they are, and whom they serve; for if they are the children of God, and serve Him in sincerity, nothing else is necessary to their rejoicing in God, but their knowing it. (2) It is their duty to remove out of the way whatever things they have found, or their reason tells them are hindrances to this holy joy; particularly these two, a multitude of worldly cares, and a too free indulgence to worldly joys and pleasures. (3) It is the duty of Christians to call upon their souls to rejoice in the Lord. They are not to allow themselves in a heartless melancholy frame; they must not give way to it, as if it were a temper of mind acceptable to God, and creditable to religion; but must endeavour to chide themselves out of it, expostulating with their own souls as (Psalms 42:11). (4) They must make this a frequent petition in their addresses to the throne of grace, that God would uphold them with His free Spirit, and enable them to rejoice in Him: they should entreat Him who is the Father of lights to dart some beams of heavenly light into their souls, that they may not sit in darkness, and in the shadow of death; but walk and rejoice in the light of life. (H. Bonar, D.D.) The duty of rejoicing Christians are ready enough to speak of the privilege of being joyful. They regard joy (and with perfect truth, for it is so reckoned by St. Paul) as one of the fruits of the Spirit; and they are too apt to consider as fruits what they may be permitted to taste, rather than what they may be bidden to do. But throughout Scripture joyfulness is just as much a commanded thing as a promised, even as temperance is a commanded thing, and justice and charitableness, though all the while these may be elsewhere exhibited as fruits of the Spirit, forasmuch as it is only through the operations of the Spirit that these qualities can be produced in such form or maintained in such strength, as a righteous God will approve. But being a commanded thing, and not merely a promised, the being joyful is as actually a duty--a duty to be attempted and laboured at by the Christian, as the being temperate or just or faithful or charitable. Yet how little is this thought of, even by those who are in the main jealous and zealous for the commandments of the Lord! God designed and God constructed religion for a cheerful, happy-making thing; and, as though He knew that had He made joyfulness matter only of privilege, numbers would have wanted it, and would have excused the want under the plea of unworthiness, He made it matter of precept, that all might be ready to strive for its attainment. We wish you, then, to consider whether, when rejoicing is thus presented to you under the aspect of a duty, you may not find ground for accusing yourselves of having neglected a duty. Have you not been far too well contented with a state of compunction and contrition and doubt, in place of striving to advance into the glorious liberty of the children of God, and the full and felt appropriation of those rich provisions of the Gospel, with which it is hard to see how any believer can be sad, and without which it is hard to see how any one who knows himself immortal can be cheerful? And has not this very much sprung from your overlooking joyfulness as a duty to be attempted, and fixing your thoughts on it as a privilege to be bestowed? You may have often said to yourselves, “ Oh! that we had a greater measure of joy and peace in believing;” but have you laboured for this greater measure? Have you wrestled with sadness as with a sin? Have you argued with yourselves on the wrongness of being depressed? Have you made memory do its part in telling up God’ s gracious acts? Have you made hope do its part in arraying God’ s glorious promises? If you have not thus endeavoured to “ rejoice in the Lord,” you are chargeable with having neglected a positive duty, just as much as if you had omitted to use the known means of grace, or to strive after conformity of life to God’ s holy law; and the continued spiritual gloom which you find so distressing, may not be more an evidence of disobedience to a command, than the punishment with which God ordains that the disobedience should be followed. And do not for a moment think that you yourselves alone are the sufferers, if rejoicing be a duty and the duty be neglected. The believer has to give an exhibition--a representation of religion; it rests with him to furnish practical evidence of what religion is, and of what religion does. If he fall into sin, then he brings disgrace upon religion, and strengthens many in their persuasion of its having no reality, no worth, as a restraining, sanctifying system. If he be always dispirited and downcast, then he equally brings disgrace upon religion, and strengthens many in their persuasion of its having no reality and no worth as an elevating, happy-making system. Yet there may be a lingering suspicion that the “ rejoicing in the Lord,” so distinctly commanded, is not always possible; that, like some other precepts, it rather marks out what we are bound to aim at than what we may hope to attain. And we may perhaps safely admit that, compassed with infirmities, exposed to trials, and harassed by enemies, the Christian must alternate, in a measure, between gladness and gloom; nay, that since it is more than we can hope, that he may never commit sin, it is more than we can wish that he should never feel sad. Yet is it to be strenuously held that there is such provision in the Gospel for the continued joyfulness of the believer in Christ, that if his joy be ever interrupted, it ought only to be as the sun’ s brightness may be dimmed by the passing cloud, which quickly leaves the firmament as radiant as before? When betrayed into sin, but only then, has the real cause for sorrow; and if he have no heart for sin, and is a true Christian (sin being that which he abhors, although he may be betrayed into its commission), he will indeed grieve at the having failed in obedience, but quickly remembering the power of the Mediator’ s intercession, his “ heaviness may endure for a night, but joy should return to him in the morning.” And it would seem as if the latter clause in our text were intended to meet the objection that there are causes of sorrow which must prevent continued rejoicing. Not content with bidding the righteous “ rejoice in the Lord,” he singles out one of the attributes, one of the distinguishing properties of God, and requires that it be made a subject of special thanksgiving--“ Give thanks at the remembrance of His holiness.” We suppose that by adding to the general call for rejoicing, a call for thanksgiving at the remembrance of God’ s holiness--that property at which the timid might feel as though it almost stood in their way--the psalmist wished to show that there was no sufficient reason in the circumstances of the true believer why he should not habitually exult in the Lord. There is nothing, it appears, in the attributes of God to prevent, nay, there is nothing but what must encourage, rejoicing. And is it not too self-evident a proposition, to require the being supported by argument, that if there be nothing in God in which we may not rejoice, there can be nothing in the universe at which we ought to be sad? We may conclude, therefore, that it is not asking too much from the believer,--a redeemed man, a baptized man, a justified man, a man for whose good “ all things work together,” a man who may say that all things are his, “ whether life or death, things present or things to come,” --it is not asking too much from him, to ask that his habitual mood be that of gladness, and that he present religion to the world as a peaceful, cheerful, happy-making thing. (H. Melvill, B.D.) Rejoicing in God There is no duty more reasonable, more becoming, and agreeable; and yet there is none more generally misunderstood, less inquired into, and worse regulated, than that of rejoicing. Joy seems to be the peculiar privilege of innocent and happy creatures; when, therefore, we consider ourselves as sinners, as poor, and naked, and miserable; polluted with the stain, and loaded with the guilt, of our iniquities; clothed with infirmities, beset with enemies, born to trouble, exposed to danger, always liable, and sometimes obliged, to grief and sorrow; we may be apt upon this melancholy view to think that joy is not made for man, and least of all for Christians; and be tempted to understand our Saviour in the most strict and rigorous sense, when He tells His disciples that they shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice. The methods which men usually take to express their joy, seem, at first view, to give the good Christian still farther objections against it; and when he observes that levity of mind, and vanity of thoughts; that excess, intemperance, and licentiousness, which it too often occasions; he thinks he may well be justified, if, with Solomon, he says of laughter that it is mad; and of mirth, what doth it? But these seeming objections against this duty of rejoicing will easily be removed; the nature of it will be fully opened; the benefits we may hope to reap from it will clearly be discerned; and we shall soon be satisfied that joy and gladness is as suitable to our nature and religion, as it is agreeable to our desires and inclinations; if we consider carefully the exhortation in the text. I. What it is to rejoice in the Lord. It implies our making God the chief, the supreme, and adequate object of our joy. The true nature of joy consists in that agreeable serenity and satisfaction of mind, which we feel upon the presence and fruition of some good. Good, therefore, is the proper object of our joy; good, not in itself alone, but good to us; such as repairs, preserves, advances, exalts, perfects our nature. The good we are to rejoice in must be full, sufficient, and satisfactory; proportionable to the desires, the wants, the necessities; and suitable to the inclinations, the condition, and circumstances of those who are to be delighted with it. It must be an effectual, prevalent, and sovereign good; able to remove from us, not only the present pressure, but the danger, the possibility, or at least the fear of evil. It must be a substantial, lasting, durable good; immortal, like the soul, that is to be satisfied; ever yielding fresh delight, and yet never to be exhausted: in a word, it must be our own proper good; a good, which we may be able to attain, and sure to hold fast; a good always present with us, and never to be taken from us. Now, on all these accounts God alone is the proper and adequate object of our joy. It is He only whom we can truly look upon as a pure, perfect, suitable, sovereign, eternal, and, what is still more, our own, proper, peculiar God. Our joy must be fixed on Him, as our universal, chief, and ultimate good; and upon other things as occasional, subordinate, and instrumental to that. II. We lawfully may, and are in duty bound, so to rejoice. True joy, when it is founded upon a right principle, directed to its proper object, kept within its due compass, and not suffered to exceed either in its measure, or in its duration, is not only lawful, but commendable; not only what we may, without sin, allow ourselves in, but what we cannot, without folly, abridge ourselves of. Pleasure and good, pain and evil, are but different expressions for one and the same thing. No action is ever forbidden us, but what, upon the whole, brings more pain than pleasure; none is commanded us, but what, all things considered, yields greater degrees of pleasure than it does of pain. And it can never, therefore, be an objection against anything we undertake, that it will cause joy; nor a commendation of any action, that it will produce sorrow. True it is, the great duty of repentance does in the very nature of it include sorrow; but then the end of this sorrow is, that we may be put into a condition of rejoicing the more abundantly. The sense of our sins must make us weep and lament; but then our sorrow will be soon turned into joy. Though our conversion hath its pangs, yet we shall no more remember the anguish, for joy that a new man is born into the world. Whatever reasons we may have for our grief and sorrow, they are mightily overbalanced by those motives that recommend joy and gladness. If the sense of our manifold infirmities, our heinous sins, our grievous sufferings, our violent temptations; if the prosperity of our and God’ s enemies; if the calamities of our brethren, and His faithful servants lie hard upon us, and may seem to justify and require a more than ordinary degree of grief; yet in the Lord we have still sufficient matter of rejoicing; of rejoicing in God, who is our Creator, our Preserver, our Father, our Friend; of rejoicing in Christ, in His person, in His office, in the graces He vouchsafes us, in the light of His countenance, in the hopes of His glory, in the greatness of His love, in the exceeding riches of His pardoning mercy, in the fidelity of His promises, in the efficacy of His intercession, in His readiness to assist, in His power to support us in time of need. (Bishop Smalridge.) Give thanks at the remembrance of His holiness.--Giving thanks at the remembrance of God’ s holiness This command is addressed to the “ righteous,” not because they only ought to obey it, but because they only can obey it, and because, indeed, only they can understand it. If one thing more than another can show the entire and radical change which the Spirit of God, in the hour of regeneration, works upon the hearts of sinners, it is, that after this change has passed upon them they are not merely reconciled to God’ s holiness--cannot merely bear the thought of it, even when apprehended far more clearly and powerfully than before--but regard it with complacency and delight. I. What is implied in this duty.1. Our being in a state of reconciliation with God. Before we can delight in, and give thanks for the holiness of God, we must be at peace with Him,--we must believe that the flame of consuming wrath which His holiness kindled against us for sin has been quenched by the blood of His own Son poured forth on our behalf,--we must believe that His holiness, which was so awfully against us for sin, is now for us and on our side, because all its demands have been gloriously met by Him who was made “ sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him” --in short, we must be persuaded that, pacified and propitiated towards us through the atonement of Jesus, God’ s holy eye no longer rests on us with the unpitying fury of an avenging Judge, but beams on us with the purest kindness and love of a merciful Father. 2. That we have a new and holy nature; for otherwise we can neither understand nor appreciate the holiness of God. And such a new and holy nature has been wrought by God’ s own Spirit in all who have been born again. They “ have put on the new man which, after God,” --that is, in the likeness of God,--“ is created in righteousness and true holiness.” They have been made “ partakers of the Divine nature, having escaped the pollution that is in the world through lust.” Possessed of this Divine nature, they begin, in their own finite and imperfect measure, to hate sin as God hates it; they begin, in their own finite and imperfect measure, to love holiness as God loves it; and therefore they remember God with supreme complacency and delight, because they see in Him the perfection of that which their nature loves and approves--the perfection of an absolute and ineffable holiness. 3. The remembrance and contemplation of God’ s holiness as this is exhibited in the person and cross of His Son. It is when we behold God subjecting Him who is the partner of His glory and throne, by whom also He made the worlds, to the awful humiliation of taking the nature and the place of His guilty creatures; it is when we survey the sufferings of the world’ s Creator and Lord under His Father’ s hand,--the sorrow unto death, the bloody sweat, the strong cryings and tears unto Him that was able to save Him from death, the slow death of shame and woe; and it is when we remember that such suffering on the part of the Divine Sufferer was all absolutely necessary ere God could pardon a single sin, or allow a single sinner to approach the footstool of His mercy:--that we learn how holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts. II. The grounds or reasons of this duty. Why may the righteous well give thanks at the remembrance of God’ s holiness?1. They may well praise God for it, as that which gives lustre and glory to all His other perfections. His holiness is the crown of all His perfections. It ensures, if we may so say, that they shall be exercised in a way worthy of Himself. Oh, when we think that our God is holy, that His wisdom is holy, that His power is holy, that His mercy is holy, that His providence is holy, that all His acts and manifestations of Himself in His government of the universe are, and ever must be, perfectly holy, and worthy of Himself,--well does it become us to join with every creature in heaven, and give thanks at the remembrance of His holiness. 2. The righteous may well give thanks at the remembrance of God’ s holiness, because the display and vindication of it in the work of their redemption pacify their conscience, and secure their everlasting safety. If He were not absolutely holy, I might well tremble in perpetual terror, lest, after having punished sin in Christ, my Surety, He should refuse to pardon it to me; and lest, having received the price of my redemption from Christ, He should yet deny some of its blessings to me. But well may I give thanks at the remembrance of His holiness, when I think that His absolute holiness is my security,--a security strong and abiding as His own unchangeable nature,--that, having accepted the price of my redemption at the hands of my glorious Surety, He will assuredly bestow on me all its blessings, from the pardon of my sin, to my full investiture with all the riches of glory. 3. The righteous may well give thanks at the remembrance of God’ s holiness, when they remember that, however mysterious and trying God’ s dealings towards them may be, they are all holy, and designed to promote their holiness. 4. The righteous may well give thanks at the remembrance of God’ s holiness, because it is the security and pattern of their own ultimate holiness. You hate sin, O Christian, and long to be delivered from it. Think, then, that the God of your salvation infinitely hates sin, and that His infinite abhorrence of sin is a pledge that He will destroy its power and its being in every soul whom He loves. What comfort, when you are using the means of holiness,--often, as you fear, vainly and with little success,--to think that this is the will of God, even your sanctification; and that, when your will is thus coinciding and co-working with the will of the Omnipotent God, it cannot fail to reach the summit of its highest endeavour! O then, give thanks at the remembrance of His holiness! It is the pledge of the progress and perfection of yours. And not only so, but,--most elevating and ennobling thought of all,--it is the pattern of yours. Your duty is always your privilege; and God commands what He will certainly give, when He says, “ As He who hath called you is holy,” etc. Jesus Christ is the brightness of His Father’ s glory. He is the living manifestation of the brightness of the Father’ s holiness; and is it not said, “ We shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is” ? (James Smellie.) . Psalms 98:1-9 Psalms 98:1-9O sing unto the Lord a new song.Genuine praise I. Genuine praise is founded on the strongest reason (Psalms 98:1-2). Why should man be so urgently called on to praise God?1. Because of the extraordinary deliverance which was vouchsafed to him--from the bondage of ignorance, carnality, prejudice, and guilt. Unfallen angels should always sing praises unto the Lord, and they always do; but we have no reason to believe that they have such deliverances to celebrate as we have. 2. Because all the extraordinary deliverances vouchsafed to him originated in the mind of God. “ His mercy,” “ His truth, . . . His righteousness.” As transgressors of His laws and rebels against His government, men, instead of having any just reason for expecting deliverance, have the strongest reasons to apprehend eternal bondage. It was of His free love and compassion that He interposed. Therefore “ sing unto the Lord a new song.” II. Genuine praise should be rendered by all with rapturous enthusiasm.1. By all. This means all mankind. Praise should be as wide as the race. Its spirit, like the tide in ocean, should heave and swell, and rule the mighty mass. 2. By all with joy. True praise is not a ceremonial service, not an irksome duty, still less a moan of sadness, it is the soul breaking out into the transports of delight. 3. By all with enthusiastic rapture. (Homilist.) Christianity’ s most joyous fact These words, this Easter Sunday, will find an echo in every Christian heart and congregation. The hymns of Lent, and the passion songs, are beautiful, and touch the heart; but if they were not to be followed by any Easter hymns our condition would indeed be sad. It would be a night without a morning. But today, everywhere, the Church resounds with this song, “ O sing unto the Lord a new song!” For the great Easter message is-- I. A most assured word.1. It bears the bloodstained seals of many witnesses. See the Gospel histories, listen to the impassioned arguments of St. Paul, who brands himself as a false witness if his message be not true. 2. Upon it rests the massive building of the entire Church of Christ. If it had been founded upon imposture or falsehood, would it be standing now? 3. And if this also testifies the heartfelt experience of all true Christians, in themselves they have the realized presence of Christ. He speaks to them, they to Him. They know He is with them. II. It is a most precious word. For it enables us to believe properly, to live godly, and to die happily. (Charles Von Gerok, D. D.) A summons to song According to the language of the “ royal singer,” God’ s great cathedral of nature is full of magnificent harmonies. The heavens rejoice; the earth sings; the sea and the fulness thereof roar in deep-toned bass; the fields with all they contain, and the trees of the woodland with their ten thousand tongues, peal forth melodies. This chorus we have in creation; and the laziest in the song is man, who should be loudest, noblest, heartiest. Oh, it is time for us to be roused to duty by an inspired voice! We have been musicless too long, prosaic too long, dormant and mute too long, ungrateful and selfish too long. We want the summons to song, to action, to thankfulness. “ O sing unto the Lord a new song,” etc. And why a “ new” song? Because new mercies, new deliverances, new gifts, new triumphs demand new songs. God’ s “ marvellous things,” or doings, are many and multiform. They are to be seen in creation, in providence, in redemption, in grace, in the world, in the Church, in nations, in families, in individuals. Everywhere in His theatre of action are His wonders manifest. It is impossible for us to be praiseless, if we only pause and recount our Father’ s gracious dealings, and manifold mercies, and wondrous goodness towards us. But interpreters of the Scripture refer this psalm to Jesus Christ. Its prophetic finger points to Him who was not only marvellous in doing, but likewise marvellous in person. From the manger to the ascension-mount, the cloud of mystery enveloped Him. At times He seemed near, intimately near as a brother-man--at other times distant, infinitely measured off as the awful and the “ mighty God.” Every privilege, every blessing, every gift, every enjoyment, every mercy crowded into our daily lives, flows to us through that Divinity which, blending with humanity, satisfied the claims of holiness, and instituted peace between heaven and earth, God and man. Have we, then, no song to sing unto Him who has done such “ marvellous things” ? Yes, thank Heaven, we have a song; and while the redeemed on high chant it, we join in the chorus, saying, “ Worthy is the Lamb.” Once more, not only are we called upon to break forth into joyful song because of the doings of “ marvellous things,” but also because of the achievement of splendid victory. “ His right hand and holy arm hath gotten Him the victory.” This unquestionably has specific reference to the sternest battle and grandest conquest ever fought and won on the world’ s great carnage-field. Through Christ’ s victory we shall be victorious. Our life in grace is a prolonged battle--a succession of engagements. We are on the winning side, and shall be “ more than conquerors through Him that hath loved us.” Awaiting us, in the not far-distant heaven, is the crown, the palm, the robe, the kingdom, and the welcome song! Let our onward march be brightened by the music of martial songs and celebrations of our Captain’ s praise, whose “ right hand and holy arm” will assuredly secure for us the victory. (J. O. Keen, D. D.) Psalms 98:2 The Lord hath made known His salvation. The praise of the vastness of God’ s salvation Mr. Booth, of the Blue Ribbon Army, told me that on his first journey to England, before he started, he said to his wife, “ I have dreamed a dream. I have dreamt that I shall be wrecked and be the only person that will escape; and what a thrilling story that will be for me to tell.” He left home, and there was a collision, both ships were in very great danger, but by the wonderful providence of God both ships got back in harbour, and there was nobody lost whatever. So he said to his wife, “ Is not this a much more thrilling story to tell? Is it not a much more happy thing to have to say, ‘ Saved, and all saved that sailed with me, not one of them lost‘ ?” Oh, that we might have the privilege of saying, “ Here am I, and the children that Thou hast given me.” (C. H. Spurgeon.) Psalms 98:7-9 Let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.Man and nature When piety and poetry are married to each other, such a song as this is the offspring of their marriage. Alas! that the two should be so often divorced--that the pious man should so often look abroad upon the earth with unimaginative gaze, and that the poet should so often revel in the beauties of nature with a heart unmoved by any perception of the Divine glory. Here we have a man who is elevated into a state of joyful adoration by the Spirit of God, transferring his own emotion to the world around him, and, without any sense of incongruity, calling upon the inanimate creation to share his gladness and to join him in his worship. The truth is that a religious man becomes or remains unimaginative, not in virtue of, but in spite of, his religion. And so far is it from being an unreal or “ sentimental” thing for a devout man to associate the inanimate creation with himself in praising the Creator, that, on the contrary, such association is natural to all simple, fervid godliness. For man--according to the Divine idea--is the prophet, priest, and king of nature. I. Man is nature’ s king. The psalmist speaks as if he were the leader of nature’ s orchestra. And indeed, insignificant as man may seem in presence of those forces by which he is surrounded, yet here he stands in the midst of the world, “ by the grace of God,” its king. The earth was made for man, not man for the earth. If the “ Great King” were governing nature capriciously, without any fixed or discoverable order, man would be the slave of nature, instead of her lord. He would be at the mercy of her ever-varying moods,--liable to have his plans nullified by the unexpected outbreaks of her power, and to be himself dragged as a captive at the wheels of her mighty chariot. But, as it is, every fresh discovery which man makes in the realm of science is a new gem in that royal crown which bespeaks his lordship over the world. All fuller knowledge of nature’ s facts is virtually, for him, a more extended mastery over nature’ s forces. And so he harnesses these forces to the chariot of human progress, and makes them do his bidding. II. Man is nature’ s priest. The whole inanimate creation, reflecting the glory of God, and radiant with the beauty which He has impressed upon it, seems to the mind of the psalmist to be praising its Creator. Or rather, looking abroad upon the world with the eye of a priest who is laying upon the Divine altar the sacrifice of grateful adoration, he takes it upon himself to interpret and present the inarticulate offering of nature. The most beautiful melody may be played upon the harp or the organ; you may call it a “ sacred” melody if you please; and the sounds which are drawn forth from the instrument may, in their very nature, be such as would furnish a most fitting vehicle of worship; yet, in these sounds there is no actual praising of God, if there be no praise in the heart of player or listener. But, on the other hand, even if the player be himself an ungodly man, let there only be some one by who can interpret these sounds and who makes them his own through sympathy with their spiritual significance, having his heart attuned to the feeling which they are fitted to express,--and now the melody is no longer soulless; it becomes a living thing; the very sounds themselves rise up before God as acceptable worship. In like manner, throughout the whole region of the material world, considered merely in itself, there is no actual praise of God; for there is no spirit conscious of His presence, thankful for His goodness, exulting in His smile. The trees of the wood are beautiful as their green leaves glance in the sunbeams and rustle in the summer breeze; and the song of the birds amongst the branches harmonizes with the idea of thankful worship; but there is no thankfulness--no worship--there, until man comes, with a devout, joyful heart, consecrating the grove into a temple and making the birds his choristers. Influenced by the beauty and music of the world, be in turn fills all that beauty and music with a soul. To his eye the sun is as “ a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoicing as a strong man to run a race.” To his ear “ the heavens declare the glory of God.” And, having an ear for the voiceless language of nature, when she speaks to him of God, he in turn becomes, as it were, the voice of nature, enabling her to speak to God. And who can doubt that, through the exercise of this “ royal priesthood,” the whole world becomes more beautiful in the sight of the Creator Himself? The smile upon the face of earth, as it brightens beneath the sunshine, becomes a living smile. And nature is thus made to praise God, just as the harp or the organ praises Him, when the listener has not only an appreciative ear, but also a worshipping soul. III. Man is nature’ s prophet. The psalmist feels sure that the righteous and merciful God will not allow sin to disfigure and curse His world for ever, that He will manifest Himself as the rectifier of the earth’ s evil, the healer of the earth’ s sorrow, the enlightener of the earth’ s darkness. And there is no wonder that, in his glad hopefulness, he should call upon the inanimate creation to rejoice, as it were, with him, in prospect of that coming day which he himself delights in anticipating. For the prophetic vision of the world’ s regeneration implies and includes the vision of nature’ s redemption. Surely it is but natural that we should thus identify ourselves with the world in which we dwell, so as to associate its future, in our thoughts and hopes, with the future of its inhabitants. We know how much more heavenly this earth seems to us when we ourselves are in a heavenly frame of mind; and we can conceive in what a “ celestial light” it would be “ apparelled” were it only the abode of an unsinning race. We observe, moreover, how, as mankind advances in intelligence and goodness, the face of the earth undergoes a corresponding change, so that, even literally, the “ wilderness” is often made to “ rejoice and blossom as the rose.” And therefore, cherishing, as man ought to do, a faith in the ultimate perfection of the race, it is only right that, as the prophet of nature, he should also speak with glad hopefulness concerning the future which is in store for the material creation. We may well rejoice in the thought that this earth, linked to our memories by so many associations, is to share the destinies of our redeemed humanity. And, looking forward with prophetic eye to the time when this world shall be the perfect dwelling-place of a perfected race, we may, with poetic fitness, call upon the inanimate creation to share our gladness. (T. C. Finlayson.) . Psalms 99:1-9 Psalms 99:1-9 The Lord reigneth.The rulership of God over the world I. As seen in symbol. “ He sitteth between the cherubim.” This reference to the Shekinah teaches us that His reign is--1. Moral. 2. Merciful. 3. Glorious. The ark is a humble emblem of that throne which is invisible in its nature, and universal in its authority, and withal characterized by the sublimely moral, merciful, and redemptive. II. As extolled in language (Psalms 99:2-4). He is extolled--1. Because He is supreme. “ King of kings and Lord of lords.” 2. Because He is holy. His throne has never been stained with wrong, it is a “ great white throne.” 3. Because it is mighty in rectitude (Psalms 99:4). God’ s throne is morally omnipotent because it is infinitely just. III. As recalled in memory (Psalms 99:6-8). His reign as here brought to the memory of the author of this poem taught two things.1. That His reign had respect to human prayer. Moses and Aaron prayed and they were answered, Samuel prayed and he was answered, and so ever it was with the pious Hebrew. He recognized the duty and power of human prayer. Prayer is an element of the Divine Government. 2. That His reign had respect to human forgiveness. How frequently did He forgive His people of old; He forgave Moses, Samuel, Aaron, David, etc. Thus under God’ s reign on earth forgiveness is dispensed, dispensed to all true penitents. “ Let the wicked forsake his way,” etc.IV. As felt in conscience (Psalms 99:5; Psalms 99:9). Here the sublime sense of moral obligation in the author is touched, excited and speaks with an ill-imperial voice. “ Exalt ye.” It is at once the supreme interest and duty of every man to give Him in all things the pre-eminence in thought, sympathy, volition, aim. (Homilist.) The supreme dominion of God The text states not only a truth, but a necessity also. It is not only absolutely true--that is, true without any restriction whatever--that God reigns; but it is also equally true, that He must reign; and that He must reign everywhere--throughout His entire universe, and over all His creatures. I. Consider the fact, that “ the Lord reigneth.”1. And in doing so, let it be understood, that nothing whatever is intended to be said by way of proof. That would be both useless and impertinent; for God has declared the fact. And when God speaks, it is the duty of men to believe, not to dispute or argue. 2. But though it is not necessary to prove the truth of what God has said, or to explain its reasonableness, ere we receive it, it is of the utmost advantage to obtain suitable illustrations; as thereby, not only is a more sensible impression made upon the mind, but our faith also is greatly strengthened. 3. The first idea suggested arises from a consideration of the person who is said to reign--“ The Lord reigneth” --that is, the Almighty, Omniscient, Omnipresent God. Now, if such attributes belong to God, then all difficulties as to the ability of God to reign supremely at once vanish. 4. Having thus glanced at some of the attributes of God, we next observe that the idea of “ reigning” implies permission of every thing which occurs. We must not, therefore, be staggered at those strange transactions, which ever and anon fill the world with wonder and alarm, as though they indicated the absence of a supreme sovereignty. 5. But this idea of “ permission,” when applied to God, necessitates the thought of control also. For to say that He permits only because He cannot resist is to deny His power altogether. 6. But if God reigns supremely, then all things must be reader His direction, as well as control. Otherwise, there may be another will in operation before the will of God, and independent of Him. 7. But, in thus endeavouring to show the absolute supremacy of God, we may not forget that His glory will be the sure result of His reign, whatever efforts may be made by men or others to frustrate it. 8. It has sometimes been argued, that as no creature can do anything except by the permission of God, add as the glory of God is the necessary result of whatever He permits, so men are justified in all their actions; and the well-known sentiment “ whatever is, is right,” has become a very favourite maxim with many, who plead for a licentious and irresponsible course of life. Such reasoning, however, is of no weight, since it totally overlooks the Word of God, which is our only rule of action. II. Consider the duty of those who believe that “ the Lord reigneth.” “ Let the people tremble.”1. It is a fearfully solemn and overwhelming thought, that an almighty and infinitely holy God is the ruler of this ungodly world, and that “ He has appointed a day in the which He will judge the world in righteousness” (Acts 17:31). Surely, then, those who believe the Word of God ought to take every opportunity to “ let their light shine” ; not only that they may bear a testimony in favour of His truth, but likewise that, “ knowing the terror of the Lord,” they may persuade men to “ flee from the wrath to come.” 2. This consideration is strengthened by remembering, how utterly impotent and vain are all our efforts to withstand the Most High. 3. It is not a man that reigns, nor any creature, however great in intelligence or power. It is the eternal God, “ with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.” However much men may repine at His dispensations and strive to alter His purposes, and whatever wickedness may fill the earth while the nations are resisting His authority and His laws, the wisdom of His government is unimpeachable, and demands our unreserved and cheerful submission. 4. But not less are we called to rejoice in the goodness, than in the wisdom of God. Is the law to be vindicated? Is justice to be satisfied? Is holiness to be enforced? All this is done, so as clearly to discover that “ God is love.” 5. But are not other duties imperative, besides those already referred to? It is not enough that we should “ tremble” and “ rejoice,” while we remember that God reigns. He requires us also to be co-workers with Him in establishing His kingdom. (T. Woolmer.) The great King We have here a contrast between the omnipotence of God and the impotence of man:--We see the great King sitting on His throne, raised up far above all the changes of time and sense; we see the people raging, discontented, contending one with another, but all their fury in no way affects the calm majesty of the great King. The picture is an impressive one. Power, solemnity, grandeur, on the one hand; paltriness, meanness, pretence on the other. I. Let it teach us our own insignificance. We make among ourselves lords many and gods many. Our little sphere is exalted and magnified, but how ridiculous are our pretensions! II. Let it teach us our dependence. All we can do cannot alter or change our condition. We must be dependent on the sovereign power of the Almighty. III. Let it teach us patience. The restless wave is hurled back upon itself broken in pieces from the granite rock. Our greenings and discontent recoil upon our own heads when we attempt to murmur against Omnipotence. IV. Let it teach us reverence We cannot but honour One so great. Our own insignificance should teach us the folly of setting up ourselves as a model of perfection. (Homilist.) Signs of God’ s kingdom Among these are-- I. Greater honesty of thought. Professor Huxley, when he set himself to number the triumphs of scientific work during the reign of Victoria, did not put so high the inventions which have yoked steam and electricity to man’ s service as he put the more general habit of scientific thinking. The man in the street takes fewer statements on faith, and popular literature offers more reasons for actions. Old customs and old beliefs are tried in a court where the question is, “ Does this custom express present belief? Does this belief express truth?” Positions of great attraction are now often considered, not only in relation to the pay or the power they offer, but the further question is asked, “ Can I take this post and be honest? Can I, having my views, serve in this leader’ s party? Can I, with my opinions, take orders?” Men of high intelligence and goodness who would to-day be preaching and teaching in the Church, are doing work they like less because they will not be untrue. Justice to the individual is now often regarded as of greater obligation than expediency. The value set on thinking has brought out the value of the man; each one would live his own life and would let his neighbour live his life. Never before was there so much care that the weak and the wicked should have fair treatment. II. A larger human spirit. Each morning’ s news takes in the history of the world, and sympathy from English breakfast-tables reaches out to the needs of the sick, the plague-stricken, the wrecked, and the oppressed in all parts of the world. People watch with anxiety the movement of ideas, and without an eye to their own profit give their time and money to forward or hinder the spread of ideas. Societies for relief, for giving knowledge, for passing on discoveries and inventions increase daily. III. A more general historic sense. This is shown in the new interest taken in the characters of old times, in the many books and essays written out of much study to throw light on men who hitherto have been but names. It is shown in the interest taken in old forms, in the revival of ritual and pageantry, and in the popularity of romantic literature, in the care and restoration of old monuments. It is shown in the judgments now passed on the manners and morals of other ages. Acts wrong in the present society are seen to be right in another environment. The same principle has been discovered in martyrs and persecutors, in those who kill prophets and in those who build their sepulchres. The seeds of institutions now admired have been sown in deeds now condemned. The past and present are parts of one whole. Unity is seen to be in diversity rather than in uniformity, and a care for beauty, which is the expression of the unity of diversity, has thus been developed. Religion, which I have been trying to show is the thought about God, is, if we will only open our eyes, being worked into the actions and feelings of modern life. God is King, and His kingdom comes. (Canon Barnett.) Christ’ s reign over men Quoting the words “ God reigneth” of the forty-seventh Psalm, the Church Father, Justin Martyr, added, by way of explanation, “ from the wood.” He meant from the wood of the Cross: Christ being lifted up on the Cross reigneth over all whom He draws to Him. We are reminded of Napoleon’ s saying that Charlemagne himself, who conquered and ruled by force, will soon be forgotten; but that Jesus Christ will reign for ever in the hearts of men by loving them. Psalms 99:2 The Lord is great in Zion. God great in His Church God is ever within the Church. Therefore the greatness of the Church is God. Not her wealth, prestige, orthodoxy, culture, or intelligence, but His inhabitation. I. He is her greatness as a living force--attracting, new-creating, enlightening, and teaching men; as her Vital Energy moving and moulding individual character and national life (where it is allowed free course) to the high ideal of the Perfect Life. Gold, like steam in the locomotive, rightly used and directed, is a power for good. Without it the machinery will be idle. It is indispensable to the aggressive activity and beneficent service of the Church, to the carrying out of her plans of operation, and for the accomplishment of her benignant purposes. “ Bring the tithes into the storehouse,” saith the Lord of Hosts. But let the Church try to draw her life from her wealth, and she will be strangled in the very attempt. God is her life--not national approbation and prestige. What the soul is to the body, He is to the Church. Her organization may be complete; on her roll of membership she may count the names of millions. She may look upon the nations as her friends. She may have the most stately buildings, the most exquisite architecture, music, and ritual; wealth may fill her coffers, eloquence may flow from her pulpits, scholarship, literature, and the sciences may flourish in her soil. She may spread herself until the melody of her bells shall tremble in the breeze of every clime, and the music of her songs and psalms shall be heard wherever man is found; yet, if God be not great in the midst of her, statue-like she is beautiful, but dead! All her action will be forced and mechanical, not the spontaneous outflow of life. “ The Lord is great in Zion.” II. God in the midst of His Church is the greatness of her moral excellence. Apart from Him humanity has no moral excellence, as apart from the sun there can be no vegetable life and fruitfulness, and no floral beauty. Every man is therefore morally excellent to the extent that he thinks, and feels, and acts like God. The true Church is in all her action consistent, dignified, noble. Her obedience is filial and faithful, and the glory of her supreme Head is her single and constant aim. III. God is great in the Church as her infallible teacher. The two books--Nature and Revelation--which He has put into her hands, with reverent intellect and devout heart she studies, seeking from Him the right interpretation thereof. She finds “ tongues in trees, books in running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything.” She finds no contradiction between the two volumes. And when “ things hard to be understood” present themselves--seeming antagonisms and contradictions--she does not doubt, or dispute, or discard, but waits for “ more light,” knowing that the defect is in the reader, in the student, and not in the book. IV. God in the Church is the source and secret of her strength. Every man is strong to the extent that he incarnates the Divine. God’ s thoughts actualized in man give sturdiness to moral muscle, firmness to the moral step, fixedness to moral purpose, a triumphing power to moral effort. Filled with God, omnipotence is man’ s strength. Therefore, as the individual soul’ s strength is proportionate to the measure of the Divine he incarnates, so is the strength of the Church. Her language has always been (Isaiah 12:2). The power which has sustained her hitherto shall not fail her in days to come. No weapon formed against her shall prosper. She shall never fail. The end of time and the destruction of earth will be but the dawning of her day--the beginning of her life in heaven. Ever closer will be her connection with the Infinite Father. V. God being great in His Church, He is the motive power of her action--the highest reason for all she does. (J. O. Keen, D.D.) The greatness of God in Zion “ The Lord is great” in-- I. Supremacy. He is over all and above all. Then let us serve Him with reverence and gladness. II. Power. Creation--the creation of heaven and earth; of angels and men; of suns, moons, stars, mountains, and seas; of blooming flowers and cedars of Lebanon; of all that is, seen and unseen, known and unknown--was easy and facile to Him, to whom belongeth power for evermore. III. Faithfulness. He never falsifies His precious promises, never violates His covenant, never forsakes His people. IV. Mercy. It endureth for ever. (G. W. McCree.) Psalms 99:5 Exalt ye the Lord our God, and worship at His footstool; for He is holy. Jehovah exalted The grand distinction between real godliness and every description of its counterfeit lies in this one point; all counterfeit professions tend to exalt the creature, and all real godliness aims at exalting God alone. I. The first principle of Christianity is the exalting of Jehovah. “ Exalt ye the Lord our God,” by ascribing to Him the plan of salvation whereby millions upon millions of ruined sinners shall be brought home to glory. II. The order of worship which exalts Jehovah, and which we are called on to do personally. “ Worship at His footstool.”1. Mark the position, and say, have you ever been there, so low at the footstool of Divine mercy as to be ashamed and confounded before God, respecting all that we find and feel in ourselves, and yet favoured with a glimpse of Divine glory in the face of Jesus Christ by a supernatural aid? Oh, wondrous position! Then, indeed, we may look on the world, with all its toys and trifles, as utterly contemptible. This is not only compatible with, but the true consequence of, the highest attainments a Christian can make. 2. Now what shall we say about the worship? The two prominent acts of worship are prayer and praise; and I do not know if they may not be said to include everything. But they must be “ in spirit and in truth” ; and if our offering of prayer is a mere ceremony, a mere repetition of words, a mere display of talent, it is rather mockery than worship. III. The reason assigned. “ For He is holy.” All the persons and perfections of Deity are our inheritance, to be enjoyed personally as long as eternity shall endure. And then mark, that this inherent holiness is in Him, not in us. The man who possesses real holiness has it imparted to him; and hence the exhortation, “ Be ye holy, for I am holy.” A solemn command, and a gift with it; so that Jehovah the Spirit imparts a holy nature, and a holy life to the soul of the real believer, to make him like God, that he may grow up into Christ Jesus and perfect holiness in the fear of the Lord. Follow on to mark, that it is an official holiness, which is given as the reason why we should exalt Him. The Father is so holy in His covenant engagements of an official kind that He cannot withhold any good thing from the objects of His love who walk uprightly. The Son is so holy in His mediatorial character, that He cannot allow it to be tarnished by the failure of any one part of the work He undertook to perform. The Holy Ghost is so holy, as Comforter, over and above the inherent holiness on which I have been dwelling, that He cannot allow a sanctified vessel to be polluted; but will cleanse it thoroughly from every sin. Moreover, it must be a national holiness that we derive from our God, and on account of which we exalt Him (1 Peter 2:9). (J. Irons.) On public worship I. The duty and propriety of public worship.1. The universal homage which under various forms is paid to the Deity, is a proof that it is founded in human nature, and is, consequently, of moral and perpetual obligation. 2. Public worship is a duty of positive institution, and being expressly enjoined by Divine authority, involves an obligation which will not surely be called in question. 3. The great and beneficial consequences with which its due and regular observance is attended. II. The effects of public worship upon our moral conduct. Suppose that the solemn observance of the Sabbath was no more; that the altar and its worship were abandoned; that all days and seasons were alike; and that the business and bustle of the world knew no pause; what would be the dreadful result? The depravity of the human heart, already too general, would be universal; science and the elegant arts would languish; men would revert to a state of barbarity, without government, law or control; and unheard of crimes would follow the destruction of those sacred piles, which the approved wisdom and piety of ages had consecrated to religion. (A. Stirling, LL. D.) How to determine whether our love is selfish I. Certain principles in natural men which prepare them to relish a false or defective image of God under the name of the true God. Here are five of these principles: selfishness, which delights in a benefactor and a friend; humanity, which, when self-interest does not too strongly oppose, is affected with kindness to men in general; conscience and the love of natural fitness, which, with the aid of self-love and humanity, are pleased with a good government and social order, when personal interest does not stand in the way; and sympathy, by which the soul, in view of moving grief or the tenderness of love, is melted into compassion or tenderness. All these are found to a high degree in many infidels. II. There is a false or defective image of God which natural men often form, and which they love from no higher principles than those which have been stated. Among the great variety of natural men I will select two classes.1. Those who think superficially, have little to do with the moral character of God as exhibited in a moral government. The order of their thoughts is somewhat as follows. First they contemplate Him as a benefactor to themselves; as the one who preserves their lives, who sends them rain and fruitful seasons, who sent His Son to save them, and has filled their lives with mercies. This is pleasing to their selfishness. They next consider His kindness to the world, and contemplate the generous being who pours His bounty upon all nations. This gratifies their humanity; and it does not disturb their selfishness, pride, or love of the creature. But His moral character, as manifested in a moral government, is still out of view. 2. But there is another class of natural men who think more deeply and systematically. (1) The more ignorant suppose that the Divine law relates only to outward actions (like human laws), and requires nothing but that integrity, decency, and kindness in the different relations of life which all admit to be necessary to the order and happiness of society. (2) The less ignorant class are aware that the Divine law extends to the heart, and requires them to love both God and man. Well, they do. Their natural humanity wishes well to their fellow-men. They love God as a benefactor and a friend, and admire His generous munificence to the world. But let the Holy Spirit suddenly open their eyes, and they will see that the feelings required by the Divine law, and the temper of the Lawgiver, are altogether different from anything they ever conceived. They have been contemplating a law and character which called forth only the selfish and humane affections, and the love of which (self-righteous as that love was) only inflamed instead of weakening pride, and had no tendency to wean them from the idolatrous love of the creature. III. Some ways by which we may test the genuineness of our love.1. Is the Divine love in view of which we are affected, the mere fondness of creature love, fitted only to melt the animal affections? Or is it that holy love which, under the guidance of infinite wisdom, hates and punishes sin, which maintains a vigorous moral government, requiring all to be holy under penalty of eternal death? 2. If it is the true God you love, you will love all the essential truths which relate to Him, as comprehended in the doctrines of the Gospel. 3. Does your love, as far as it goes, subdue your selfishness, pride, and love of the world? This is an infallible test. 4. If you have no genuine love to man, you have no sincere love to God. But all love to man is not genuine. To say nothing of the domestic affections, humanity wishes well to mankind where no self-interest is in the way, and therefore almost always is gratified with the prosperity of distant nations. But try your love to man by something nearer home,--something that comes most in competition with selfishness. Select your rival in business or honour; select your greatest enemy. Do you, in any sense or degree, love him as yourself? 5. Do you conscientiously and habitually obey God? I do not ask whether you are what the world calls moral. This you may be from the mere influence of natural principles. I ask whether you habitually act, from hour to hour, with a sensible reference to God’ s authority,--often asking yourselves, How would God have me do in this thing? Do you cheerfully perform the most self-denying duties from a sacred regard to His authority? (E. D. Griffin, D.D.) Psalms 99:8 Thou wast a God that forgavest them, though Thou tookest vengeance of their inventions. Pardon with punishment A very great and grave mistake about the whole relations of forgiveness and retribution, and about the whole character of that Divine nature from which they both flow is implied in that word “ though” ; what the psalm really says is, “ Thou wast a God who forgavest them, and Thou tookest vengeance,” etc. No antagonism between pardon and retribution; both are regarded as parts of one great whole, and as flowing from the holy love of God. I. Forgiveness is, at bottom, the undisturbed communication of the love of God to sinful men. We are far too apt to think that God pardons men in the fashion in which the sovereign pardons a culprit who has been sentenced to be hanged. Such pardon implies nothing as to the feelings of either the criminal or the monarch. The forgiveness of God is over and over again set forth in Scripture as being a father’ s forgiveness. Indeed, I do not remember that we ever read of the pardon of our Judge or of our King, but we read “ Your heavenly Father will forgive you your trespasses.” Let us keep fast by that. And then, let us remember our own childhood. What makes the little face fall, and the tears come to the eyes? Is it your taking down the rod from behind the door, or the grave disapprobation in your face, and the rebuke in your eyes? It is not only the buffet from the father’ s hand that makes the punishment, but still more the displeasure of the father’ s heart that makes the child’ s punishment. And forgiveness is not complete when the father says, “ Well, go away, I will not hurt you,” but when he says, “ Well, come, I am not angry with you, and I love you still.” Not putting up the rod, but taking your child to your heart is your forgiveness. II. Such pardon does necessarily sweep away the one true penalty of sin. What is the penalty of sin? “ The wages of sin is death.” What is “ death” ? The wrenching away of a dependent soul from God. How is that penalty ended? When the soul is united to God in the threefold bond of trust, love, and obedience. The two statements that forgiveness is the communication of the love of God unhindered by man’ s sin, and that forgiveness is the removal of the punishment of sin, are really but two ways of saying the same thing. III. The pardoning mercy of God leaves many penalties unremoved. If you waste your youth, no repentance will send the shadow back upon the dial, or recover the ground lost by idleness, or restore the constitution shattered by dissipation, or give again the resources wasted upon vice, or bring back the fleeting opportunities. If you forget God and live without Him in the world, fancying that it is time enough to become “ religious” when you “ have had your fling” --even were you to come back at last--and remember how few do--you could not obliterate the remembrance of misused years, nor the deep marks which they had left upon imagination and thought, and taste, and habit. The wounds can all be healed indeed; for the Good Physician, blessed be His name, has lancets and bandages, and balm and anodynes for the deadliest, but scars remain even when the gash is closed. IV. Pardoning love so modifies the punishment that it becomes an occasion for solemn thankfulness. The outward act remaining the same, its whole aspect to us, the object of it, is changed, when we think of it as flowing from the same love which pardons. It is no harsh--no, nor even only a righteous Judge, who deals with us. We are not crushed between the insensate wheels of a dead machine, nor smitten by the blow of an inflexible fate, but we are chastened by a Father’ s hand, who loves us too well to do by us that which He forbids us to do by one another,--suffer sin upon our brother. “ When we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned.” The stroke of condemnation will never fall upon our pardoned hearts. That it may not, the loving strokes of His discipline must needs accompany the embrace of His forgiveness. And so the pains change their character, and become things to be desired, to be humbly welcomed, to be patiently borne and used, and even to be woven into our hymns of praise. (A. Maclaren, D.D.) Believers pardoned, yet chastened Here we see, as in a glass, how God deals with His people. Toward their persons He acts in grace, answering their prayers and forgiving their trespasses--towards their sins, in justice, taking vengeance on their inventions. The allusion is to Moses, who must die in the wilderness because he sanctified not the Lord at the waters of strife; to Aaron, who joined with Miriam in murmuring; and to Samuel, who was partial to his sons whom he appointed judges over Israel. I. The most faithful to God have committed some sins which need His pardon. These may be--1. Concerning His worship. This was Aaron’ s sin (Deuteronomy 9:20). Uzziah only puts forth his hand to steady the ark, and he dies. God’ s order of worship must be observed. Holy acts require holy frames. “ The fear of the Lord” ever attends on the “ comforts of the Holy Ghost” (Acts 9:31). 2. Neglecting to give God glory before men (Numbers 20:10). God’ s glory is very dear to Him, it is the end of all His purposes and dispensations (Malachi 1:16). It is very great attainment to say continually, “ Let God be magnified.” 3. Want of humiliation because of our and other’ s sins. We are more proud of our graces than ashamed of our sins. Jeshurun (Deuteronomy 32:15), Uzziah (2 Chronicles 26:16), David prays (Psalms 25:5), Job complains (13:26).The sins of youth, if not confessed, will be the sufferings of age. A believer has his sweetest joys with his deepest wounds, his greatest exaltation when most truly humbled. In all our sufferings and joys, sin and grace should never be forgotten. Samuel was faithful to God, but too favourable to his sons (1 Samuel 8:3). what a commendation it was to Levi (Deuteronomy 33:9). II. Why does God take vengeance on their inventions, while He pardons their sins?1. To prevent the abuse of His mercy. Samson profaned God’ s ordinance and fell into the hands of his enemies; Peter, etc. If Christians, like the men of Bethshemesh, pry unwarrantably into the ark, they must like them suffer (Jeremiah 2:19). 2. To manifest the holiness of God and His law. Our sins are known, our repentings and pardon unknown, therefore God publicly vindicates His holy name by a public reproof. He pardoned David, yet the child died. 3. To secure our watchfulness. A believer’ s very life lies in heart holiness, and when he is chastened for sin, he prays, “ Cleanse me from secret faults,” searches out earnestly his besetting sin, and walks more closely with God. 4. To warn the impenitent. If the son be scourged, surely the servant more. III. Why does God answer and forgive while He chastens His saints?1. From the relation He sustains to them. The covenant remains firm, while its dispensations vary. Though He hide His face, yet not his heart. 2. Because of the ransom which the surety has paid. Christ has more to say for us than our sins can say against us. 3. It is one of His titles. “ Thou are a God of pardons,” “ a just God, yet a Saviour.” 4. If He will not pardon, then we must all perish. The Canaanite is left in the land to prove, not to destroy us. Grace and mercy are for a time of need. (Homiletic Review.) Suffering after forgiveness I. Why suffering to one forgiven.1. Discipline (John 15:2).2. Warning. For the security of society and morality; to restrain men (Hebrews 11:36-38; 1 Peter 4:17-18).3. To teach the distinction between forgiveness and escaping the consequences of sin. Whoever seeks only the latter deserves not the former. II. Repentance and forgiveness remove a large share of evil consequences.1. Evil habits are stopped which otherwise would grow continueally worse.2. The penitent secures peace.3. He secures God’ s help to overcome evil and improve.4. He avoids death, and secures life eternal.5. He hastens towards the home where suffering ceases. III. Observations.1. True penitence seeks chiefly God’ s love, not escape from punishment.2. Think not God has not forgiven because you still suffer. (Homiletic Review.) . Psalms 100:1-5 Psalms 100:1-5 Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands.Worship Worship is at once the duty of all duties, the service of all services, the joy of all joys. I. It is founded on knowledge (verse 3).1. A knowledge of what God is in Himself--the absolutely good. 2. A knowledge of what God is in His relations. (1) Our Maker.(2) Our Owner.(3) Our Preserver. II. It is developed in service. This should be--1. Gladsome (verse 2). 2. Thankful (verse 4). 3. Demonstrative. “ With praise.” True worship does not skulk into solitude, shun the gaze of society, ashamed to show itself. It craves for an opportunity of public manifestation. The spirit of true worship breaks through obscurity as the living seed breaks through the soil to unfold itself in foliage, branches, and blossoms to the eye of all. It is a life, and all life seeks to come out into the sun. (Homilist.) The Old Hundredth I. The elements of true worship.1. Service (verse 2). Everything connected with it-- (1) Real.(2) Happy. 2. Praiseful (verse 1). (1) Fervour.(2) Cheerfulness. 3. Intelligent (verse 3). 4. Grateful (verse 4). II. Motives (verse 5).1. Essential goodness. 2. Eternal mercy. 3. Immutable faithfulness. Such a trinity of qualities in unlimited perfection sets before us a Being infinitely beautiful, infinitely lovable, infinitely worthy of our service and trust. (J. O. Keen, D.D.) Religious gratitude Gratitude, in the view of Dr. James Martineau, is a variety of generosity. It recognizes more than a mere fulfilment of duty. It is one of those warm human impulses that are not reduced to a science, without which we might be saved from a few mistakes, but at the expense of much that enriches life. Getting behind the psalm to the condition of mind which could produce it, we find that it could only come from one familiar with good things--from one who so thought upon God’ s character that his theology became translated into the poetry of song. Many do not admit the grounds of the psalmist’ s theology; hence the two common objections--1. God did not make us to be happy. This objection is met by showing that the greatest fact of life is its possibilities of happiness. Especially is this true in an age of such marvellous scientific progress as the present, every step in which progress opens the way to a vast increase in the possibilities of happiness for the masses of mankind. 2. God ought to be able to keep us good. This objection is met by showing that in making moral, human beings good, God can only act within His character. The goodness of a man is not the goodness of a tree or of a sheep; were it forced upon him and made compulsory, it would not be moral. (W. H. Harwood.) Psalms 100:2 Serve the Lord with gladness. Glad service I. There are essentials which God and our own nature require in order to render spiritual service with gladness.1. There must be reconciliation with God through faith in Christ. 2. There must be love to God as the motive (Galatians 5:6). 3. We must take God’ s will as our rule in the service. 4. We must serve Him in hope of success and reward. II. The reasons there are why we should serve the Lord with gladness.1. Because of our indebtedness to Him (Psalms 103:1-5; Ephesians 1:3). 2. Because the service itself is holy, ennobling, and in its very nature joy-inspiring. To be in harmony with God, to be engaged in His service, seeking to raise men out of the ignorance, guilt, and misery of sin--how blessed is such service. 3. Because such service only can be acceptable to God. God loveth “ a cheerful giver.” We cannot endure to serve grudgingly. How welcome is love-inspired glad service! (G. W. Humphreys, B.A.) The joyfulness of the service of God I. The obligation, duty and privilege of thanksgiving. There is not only “ the showing forth the praises of God with our lips, but in our hearts and lives” ; this latter the real practical offering and sacrifice, of which the former should be the inspired utterance and expression. Our outward worship must be verified and substantiated by inward truth; and this can only be done as we serve God in spirit, principle, life, action, and thus with the whole man show forth His praise. II. The reasons.1. Because He is our Maker, Supporter, God. 2. Because He is the Author of reconciliation and redemption, and His rule is the rule of righteousness and love. 3. Because of the largeness, freeness, universality and unchangeableness of His love. 4. Because the very spirit and principles of His service are “ a wellspring of life” and gladness. 5. Because His will, His commandments, are right and good, His service a “ reasonable service.” 6. Because we thus most truly represent and heartily commend His Gospel and service unto men. (W. Smith.) Serving the Lord with gladness “ Serve!” saith the man, “ why should I be a servant? I hate the yoke, and I will not bow my neck.” The lawless spirit, fond of what it calls “ free thought” and “ free action,” hates the sound of the word “ serve.” “ I will be my own master,” says the wayward soul of the man who knows not what is meant by obedience, and has never drunk into the deep joy of submission to the Lord. “ Serve!” saith he, “ let those do so who are calves enough to bow their necks, but as for me, I know no government but my own ungovernable will.” But to the soul that is humble, teachable, weaned from the world, and changed into a little child, the thought of service has heaven in it; for such a heart remembers that in the New Jerusalem they serve God day and night, and it looks forward to perfect service as being its perfect rest. Renewed minds accept “ Ich dien” --“ I serve” --as their motto, and feel ennobled thereby. I. The gladsome service of God has its secret springs.1. One main cause why the believer serves God with gladness is, that he is free from the bondage of the law. When the believer serves the Lord, it is with no idea whatever of obtaining eternal life thereby. The child of God works not for life, but from life: he does not work to be saved, he works because he is saved. 2. Another reason why the Christian serves God with gladness, is because he has a lively sense of the contrast between his present service and his former slavery. What a hard, cruel, Egyptian bondage, was that out of which Jesus brought us! Jesus is the Master and Lord, whom to obey is perfect peace; but Satan, the foul tyrant, is one from whom we rejoice to have been delivered. 3. Moreover, the believer’ s joy in the Lord’ s service springs from the fact that he serves God from the instincts of his new nature. The genuine Christian, full of the love of God, cannot be an idler. 4. Another reason why the Christian is conscious of great gladness in serving God is, that he has a sense of honour with it. Did you ever reflect how wondrous a condescension it is in God to allow a creature to serve Him? He sits on His own throne, and establisheth it by His own power. He has no dependence upon His creatures. The greatest of spirits He has ever made are as nothing before Him, and yet, see! He condescends to be served by us! 5. Furthermore, the believer, when he serves God, knows that his service is not the highest place which he occupies. “ I am a servant,” saith he, “ I am not ashamed of it--to serve God is royal dignity, but then I am not altogether and alone a servant.” Here is the Christian’ s joy--he hears his Master say (John 15:15). 6. Again, there comes over the Christian’ s mind a gentle thought which in his darkest moments yields him joy; namely, that grace has promised a reward. We are not to be rewarded for the merit of our works, but still the free grace of God has promised that we shall not toil for nought. “ Well done, good and faithful servant,” etc.II. Trace some of the manifest streams of Christian service in their gladness. In the first place, we should always serve the Lord with gladness in the public assemblies of His people. The more hypocritical a people are, the more solemnly miserable their outward aspect when at worship. O ye chosen seed, be glad; and of all the days in the week, look at the first as the prime glory of all the feast-days of the soul. Do not pull the blinds down, let the sun shine into the room more cheerily than on week days. Be cheerful and happy at family worship. In your private devotions you should also “ Serve the Lord with gladness.” “ Serve the Lord with gladness.” But then the Christian’ s service for God lasts all the day long! The genuine Christian knows that he can serve God as much in the shop as he can in the meeting-house; that the service of God can be carried on in the farmyard and market, while he is buying and selling, quite as well as in singing and praying. Should not we do our business much better if we looked upon it in that light? Would not it be a happy thing, if, regarding all our work as serving God, we went about it with gladness? III. It is not always easy to serve God with gladness; if it were, we should not need to be told to do it, but on account of the difficulty of it, we are therefore the oftener bidden to be happy. “ Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again,” says the apostle, “ I say, Rejoice.” If he had felt it would be easy, it was sufficient to tell us once, but the repetition shows the difficulty. Our inbred sin--is not that enough, when we serve God, to make us do it with the bitter cry, “ O wretched man that I am l who shall deliver me?” Yes, but we shall be delivered, I thank God, through Christ our Lord, we shall be delivered from the bondage of our corruption. Let us serve God in infirmities with the glad thought that we shall not always be imperfect, but by and by shall be in the glory of our Master, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing. Outward trials, again--how hard it is to serve God with gladness when one is losing an estate, or when the cupboard is bare, and there is scarcely money to provide the children with clothes! Yet the Christian does not live upon what he sees alone; he knows there is a secret strength, a secret helper, and he knows how to go to God in times of outward trouble, and cast his care upon Him who careth for him. IV. There is much excellence in cheerful service. Is it possible that when we serve God with gladness, we thereby escape many fatherly chastisements which otherwise might come upon us? (Deuteronomy 28:47). Do you not think, too, that when Christians serve God with gladness, they derive many benefits themselves? Does not the Lord water those who water others? Besides, does not our God deserve to be served with gladness? Oh, when we get to heaven, if we could have regrets, would not this be one, that we had not served Him better? Our Master deserves to have the best love, the warmest confidence, the sternest perseverance, the utmost self-denial--let us seek to give Him these, and to give them with a cheerful heart. Besides, if we would do good to our fellow-men, we must serve God with gladness. I believe thousands of young people are kept from considering the Gospel by the gloom of some professors. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The religion of being happy Are you happy? I look upon the faces of the men and women I see as I pass along the crowded street as I meet them on the railway, or in the tram, in their business, or at their leisure, and how few faces comparatively look really happy! The most people one looks on seem to exist rather than to live. Why are people not happy? Is it right to be happy? Is it consistent for a Christian to be happy? Is religion designed to make us happy or unhappy, to depress life or to stimulate and fulfil it? I may take it that there is no being who exists who does not wish to be happy. Yet many a man and woman who in the abstract wishes to be happy rather takes a delight in being or feeling unhappy, in assuming that it is rather a proper thing not to realize happiness; and many men, while sincerely wishing to be happy, never take the smallest steps scientifically to discover the way of happiness, and to realize it in their own person. Then, again, ideas rule the world, and I have no doubt that the deficiency of happiness in our age is due to a religious idea. While science has advanced, religious conceptions have advanced very little beyond those of the savage. Our own age, so far from having escaped from its meshes, has deliberately reverted to mediaeval theology. The conviction prevails that religious people in particular ought to suffer and be more or less unhappy. Pain itself is thought to be pleasing to God. Because suffering is in the world we have no right to say that it is God’ s will it should remain there. We have grown out of many things, and we are to grow out of this. God is happy, and therefore we are destined to be happy. We shall grow happier as we grow nearer Christ. But how to be happy? I will tell you the secret. “ The Kingdom of God is within you.” Once realize that happiness is not going to be given you by anybody, that you have the power in yourselves, and you have learnt the mighty secret, you are on the first step of the path. You may be happy, you ought to be happy. Were you to range through the universe, and live through eternity, happiness can come no nearer to you while you ask it of any as a favour, or expect it as a gift. Begin the work within. You are your own self-creator, by the power which the Eternal has entrusted to you. Are you unhappy, what you lack is life. Illness, disease, moral, physical, mental, is want of life. We ought to be happy in all our activity. “ Blessed is the man who has found his work, and can do it,” says Carlyle. Our work is the manifestation and expression of our life. No work is well done which is not done joyfully, therefore joyousness is a very element of religious service. (C. E. Beeby, B.D.) Joy in service Wellington once took passage to Portugal in one of His Majesty’ s frigates, the captain of which asked him if he did not admire the order, and discipline the ship was in. “ Certainly,” answered Wellington; “ I could not have supposed it possible, everything goes on like clockwork; but, sir, I would not command an army on the same terms you do your ship for thee crown of England. I have not seen a smile on the face of any individual since I have been on board her.” All service of God should be set to praise The story is told of an ancient king that he caused a temple to be built to the accompaniment of music. From the laying of the corner-stone until the last tower was finished, the workmen performed their task under the influence of the sweetest, most melodious sounds. When the temple was finished it was found that the work had been done not only more expeditiously, but more soundly and beautifully than any of its kind in the kingdom. Psalms 100:3-5 Know ye that the Lord He is God. The claims of God “ Man’ s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy Him for ever.” There is a vast amount both of theology and philosophy in that simple answer, which our old divines have put into the mouth of a child. Were we to-day what we should be, it would be our element to love, to serve, to adore our God, and we should not need ministers to stir us to our pleasurable duty or remind us of Jehovah’ s claims. I. Thy claims of God, on what are they grounded?1. They are grounded, first of all upon His Godhead. “ Know ye that Jehovah He is God.” As Matthew Henry has very properly said, ignorance is not the mother of devotion, though it be the mother of superstition. True knowledge is the mother and the nurse of piety. Really to know the deity of God, to get some idea of what is meant by saying that He is God, is to have the very strongest argument forced upon one’ s soul for obedience and worship. 2. The second ground of the Lord’ s claim is His creation of us. “ It is He that hath made us, and not we ourselves.” You never saw a child startled when it was told for the first time that God made it, for within that little mind there dwells an instinct which accepts the statement. 3. A third reason for living unto the Lord lies in His shepherding of us. “ We are His people, and the sheep of His pasture.” God has not left us and gone away. He has not left us as the ostrich leaves her eggs, to be broken by the passer’ s foot. He is watching over us at every hour; even as a shepherd guards his flock. Over us all He exercises an unceasing care, a watchful providence, and therefore we should return to Him daily praise. Men, because ye are men, adore the God who keeps you living men; but saintly men, men renewed and fed out of the storehouse of Divine grace, serve your God, I pray you, with all your heart, and soul, and strength, because you especially are the sheep of His pasture and the people of His hand. 4. A fourth reason for adoration and service is the Divine character (verse 5). Here are three master motives for serving the Lord our God. Oh that all would feel their weight. First, He is good. Now, if I were to lift up a standard in this assembly and say, “ This banner represents the cause of everything that is just, right, true, kind, and benevolent,” I should expect many a young heart to enlist beneath it; for when pretenders in all lands have talked of liberty and virtue choice spirits have been enchanted and rushed to death for the grand old cause. Now, God is good, just, right, true, kind, benevolent; in a word, God is love, and therefore who would not serve Him? Then it is added, “ His mercy is everlasting.” Who would not serve one whose mercy endureth for ever? Cruel is that heart which infinite gentleness does not persuade. If God be merciful, man should no more be rebellious. It is added, “ His truth endureth to all generations,” that is to say, you will not find in God one thing to-day and another thing to-morrow. What He promises He will perform. Every word of His stands fast for ever, like Himself, immutable. Thus I have set before you the grounds of God’ s claims; are they solid? Do you consent to them? Oh, that sovereign grace would constrain each of us to live alone for the glory of God. It is His most righteous due. II. The claims of God--how have we regarded them? Answer for yourselves. Alas, some have paid no respect to these claims--in fact they have denied them, and have said in effect, “ Who is the Lord that I should obey His voice?” Sorrowfully must we all confess also that where we have tried to honour the Lord, and have done so in a measure by His grace, yet we have failed of perfection; we have to confess that oftentimes the pressure of the body which is near, and of the things that are seen and tangible, has been greater upon us than the force of the things which cannot be seen, but are eternal. We have yielded to self too often, and have robbed the Lord. What shall we do in this case? Why, we have to bless our everlasting God and Father, that He has provided an atoning sacrifice for all our shortcomings, and that there is One, partaker of our nature who stands in the gap on our behalf, in whom we can be accepted, notwithstanding all our shortcomings and offences. Let us go to God in Christ Jesus. III. The claims of God, when they are regarded, how do they influence men? Let me show you how healthy it is to serve God. The man who serves God, led by the Spirit of God so to do, is humble. Were he proud it were proof at once that he was not serving God; but the remembrance that God is his sovereign, and has made him, that in His hand is his breath, makes the good man feel that he is nothing but dust and ashes at his very best. How horrible it is when man lives for lust, and puts forth all his strength to indulge his passions! Brutes! beasts! Alas! I slander the beasts when I compare them to such men. The man who lives for God is a far nobler being. Why, in the very act of self-renunciation and of dedication to God the man has been lifted up from earth, and from all that holds him down to its dust and mire, and he has risen so much nearer to the cherubim, so much nearer, in fact, to the Divine. This makes a man a man, for a man who serves is courageous, and too manly to be a slave. The love of God makes heroes. Give a man a resolve to serve God, and he is endowed with wondrous perseverance. Look at the apostles, and martyrs, and missionaries of the faith, how they have pressed on, despite a world in arms; when a nation has been apparently inaccessible they have found an entrance; when the first missionary has died another has been ready to follow in his footsteps. The first Church, in her weakness, and poverty, and ignorance, struggled with philosophy and wealth, and all the power of heathen Rome, till at last the weak overcame the strong, and the foolish overthrew the wise. O Lord, Thy service makes us akin to Thee. Blessed are they that wear Thy yokel How strong they grow, how patient to endure, how firm to stand fast, how swift to run. They mount with wings as eagles when they learn to serve Thee. The man who is led by the Holy Ghost to serve God is incited thereby to a zeal, a fervour, and a self-sacrifice to which nothing else could bring him. (C. H. Spurgeon.) It is He that hath made us, and not we ourselves.--God-made or man-made? There is a superficial way of reading these words which makes them a mere truism. That noble paraphrase of the psalm, “ All people that on earth do dwell,” seems rather to fall flat and stale. “ Without our aid He did us make.” The psalmist is not giving utterance to a commonplace of that sort. That is not the point at all. The psalmist is, as you will see, calling upon all lands, the heathen lands, to believe in God, to believe that He is the Lord, and there is no other, because His workmanship is manifest in the people whom He has chosen; His guiding and shaping Spirit has been within them and upon them to make them what they are. All that they have of moral and religious training and continuance is the gift of His grace, and the result of His training. They are the witness to the world of God’ s constancy, faithfulness, truth, and mercy. Consider the application of these words-- I. Is the individual Christian life. No man with any religious conviction, or any religious emotion, can look back on the story of his life up to this point, through all these changes, wrestlings, temptations, and moral victories, without feeling that God’ s shaping hand has been with him there all through. That man sees nothing clearly, and feels nothing deeply, who does not both see and feel that all the best things in him are not self-wrought, but are the result of forces not his own, and higher than his own. Alas, there is much of the self-made left in all of us, and it is the part of which we are the least proud. There are in us bits of the world, the flesh, and the devil, that have not been crucified with Christ; and there are hard lumps in the tenderest heart which have not felt the melting of His love. Would God they were replaced by Diviner stuff! But all the good you have and know, the noble faith, the uplifting, cheering hope, the recoil from sin, and the patience, and the courage, and the self-sacrifice, and the wells of pity, and the fountains of love, the joy in God, and the sweet singing in your heart at Jesu’ s Name--all these have been woven in you by God, and the Spirit of God, and the indwelling Christ. II. In the nation to which we belong. How a reader of the Bible can find God in every page of Jewish history and not see His overshadowing and guiding presence in the wonderful story of Britain’ s growth and greatness is to me an indication of incomprehensible dulness. We are not a self-made people, no, indeed. “ Our builder and maker has been God.” For no human thought would ever have imagined, and no prophet’ s vision would ever have foreseen, the unexampled and extraordinary growth and expansion of this little island and its people. Looked at on the map, it is a mere dot on the surface of the globe; yet its name, and flag, and ruling power, and shaping ideas have girdled and well-nigh embraced the globe. Men say we owe it to our insular position, our sea-protected shores, or perhaps to our climatic influences, or to the singular mixture of races in our composition, or to the blunders and failures of other nations, or to the grit and determination in our character; or we owe it to the wisdom of our statesmen, the enterprise of our merchants, the daring of our sailors, the valour of our soldiers, and to the sturdy, self-reliant independence which has been at the base of all the rest. And they do not see that most of these are moral and religious causes; that behind them, in the shadow, God has been standing watching and working, and that underneath them all have been the everlasting arms. They forget how heavenly light dawned and shone down on the people in their superstitious and benighted days to give them religion in its purest form and to make them righteous, truth-loving, and strong in the fear of God. They do not remember that our fathers were delivered almost in spite of themselves from the blight of superstition, how the truth set them free and gave them room to expand. They do not take into account how large a part has been played by our open Bible and our praying heroes. They do not see that reverence and faith, and faith-rooted justice and Christian virtues have been the very soul and backbone of our people’ s strength, and that nearly all our greatest thinkers, writers, statesmen, sailors, soldiers have grown up in nurseries of prayer. They are blind to the fact, moreover, that once and again in days of stress and trial, in the dark and cloudy days when the fortunes of the nation have been well-nigh overwhelmed, the outstretched arm of God brought our fathers through Red Seas of trouble to a safe and wealthy place. Nay, we may say that hundreds of times the very blunders, follies and crimes of our statesmen have been overruled and our people led along paths which their own wisdom and foresight would never have chosen; and it may be all summed up in this, that through all the guilts and sins which have had their part in the upbuilding, the Almighty Architect has been the chief worker in carrying our name and commerce to the uttermost parts of the earth and in bringing hundreds of millions of souls under our rule. (J. G. Greenhough, M.A.) God the Maker It is not in God’ s work in creation that the text is laid, but in His redemptive work in history. It is an exultant historical consciousness that teaches the lips of the psalmist to sing, “ It is He that fashioned us; and His are we.” I. God’ s fashionings of human life constitute the chief witness of His power and glory to men. The hand of God was unmistakably the power that fashioned the striking course of Israel’ s history. The great difference between the history of Israel and that of contemporary nations corresponded precisely to the difference in their relation to Jehovah. While other nations had wandered after the gods which were no gods, Israel had been the servant of Jehovah. The authority of Jehovah, and the influence of their worship of Him, had been beyond all question the shaping force of their distinctive and remarkable history. Other nations waxed great in external splendour; Israel’ s own consciousness of national greatness lay in inward truth. Other nations produced statesmen and conquerors; Israel’ s preeminent sons were its seers and prophets. Other nations fell when the foot of the conqueror trampled them into bondage; Israel waxed greater in the dark years of captivity. II. God’ s method in fashioning human lives is selective. The conspicuous instance of the nation of Israel I have already mentioned. This little nation was, by a marvellous process of selection which can be conceived only in reference to a Divine plan, singled out of the general mass of humanity for special blessings, spiritual potencies, and religious responsibilities. In spite of its per-versifies and infirmities, the elective call of God was so effective that it answered to the call, became conscious that it was chosen of God, and was made the radiant centre of truth for the whole world. In varying degrees and for different ends, one can see the elective operations of God’ s shaping hand in reference to other nations, and not least in the startling history of our own England. The history of nations is full of acts which irresistibly point to a Divine elective and discriminative power. This principle is still more evident, if possible, in the life of individual men. In the circle of the nation, of the city, of the village, or of the family, we constantly see this process of election, sometimes in very startling forms. By the operation of some unseen and mysterious force, “ the one is taken and the other left.” God’ s strongest men have always lived and acted in the holy consciousness that they were singled out by God. III. God’ s selective method is one of concentration with a view to the most effectual universalization. The inward essence of “ particular election” is the yearning of God’ s love for the salvation of the world. God’ s “ vessels of mercy” are chartered to bear the freight of His grace to every shore. The “ few are chosen” in order that the many may be more effectually reached. Exclusion is but a fleeting phase of God’ s elections; the abiding soul of them is a graciously determined and comprehensive inclusion. The mountain of the house of the Lord is exalted above the hills, in order that all nations may flow into it. This gracious development of God’ s elective purpose multiplies the honour and glory of the elect spirit. For in this glowing light, every “ election” is twofold. It is an election of a human soul into the grace and Kingdom of God, and it is also an election into the special ministry of salvation to others. (J. Thomas, M.A.) There is inspiration in the thought that God made us Our powers are finite, and sometimes we are troubled about that fact, wishing we could do more for our Lord: but we need not fear when we remember that He hath made us, and therefore fixed the measure of our capacity. In Roger de Wendover’ s “ Flowers of History,” an ancient Saxon chronicle, we read of a Saxon king, who, riding through a forest, came upon a little church in which a priest was saying prayers, and this priest was lame and hump-backed; and therefore the rough Saxon king was ready to despise him, till he heard him chant these words, “ It is He that hath made us, and not we ourselves.” The king blushed, and owned his fault. If, then, we are of small beauty or slender talent, let us not complain, but serve Him who has made us what we are. (C. H. Spurgeon.) We are His people, and the sheep of His pasture.--The pasture or provision for God’ s sheep I. God provides good pasture (Ezekiel 34:14). Although spoken of Israel, yet surely God’ s spiritual Israel may lay the hand of faith and appropriation upon the promises of this chapter. One chief idea of good pasture in the mind of a shepherd would be pasture from which nutriment could be derived without fear of deleterious herbs. The psalmist says, “ Thy Word is very pure” (Psalms 119:140), and again (Psalms 12:6). The writings of men may be good and very helpful, but God’ s Word is essence. No other book will fully satisfy the soul that has found a living Christ in the written Word, and that knows experimentally how pregnant with life and meaning the Holy Ghost can make the simplest verses of God’ s Book. II. God provides large pastures (Isaiah 30:23). This seems to refer to literal cattle, but 2 Timothy 3:16-17, embodies the same thought. In God’ s Word may be found everything necessary for the soul’ s real good, but not anything for curious speculation. Yes, large--wide as the needs of the human heart--extensive as the infinite fulness of God. Every promise from cover to cover belongs to the believer, and there is no need of man which has not its corresponding supply in the promises of God. But the mere letter of the Word will profit little; it is only as Christ the living Word, in whom all fulness dwells, is seen and appropriated through the written Word, that the need of the human heart and the infinite fulness of God are brought together. III. God provides green pastures (Psalms 23:2). “ He maketh me to lie down in green pastures;” or, as the margin, “ pastures of tender grass” --some one has rendered it “ springing grass.” Evidently the idea is that of freshness--not stale food. There is a great tendency in our day to feed upon stale spiritual food. One says, “ I had a great blessing last year through Mr. So-and-So’ s preaching.” Another says, “ My Bible seemed to be lit up one morning last week, and I have been living upon the blessing I got then ever since.” If God’ s pasture is ever green and springing, why have you had no fresh food to-day? In the country you will see the sheep turn from the rank grass of long growth to seek the delicate fresh-springing grass. Your body cannot be strong upon yesterday’ s food, neither can your soul be strong upon past experiences of blessing in the Word. The fresh pasture is still there, and the Holy Spirit waits to nourish the soul by means of it. Get fresh food daily. IV. God provides fat pasture (Ezekiel 34:14). Those who have the charge of sheep sometimes say a piece of pasture land has “ no heart in it” ; and Christians sometimes say they find their Bibles lifeless--they read them regularly, but get no good from them. It is possible to read chapter after chapter without blessing, for the letter of the Word alone may be compared to the husk which covers the grain--to the casket which contains the precious gem. But use it as revealing Christ; see Him in and through it; take home its warnings; claim the fulfilment of its promises; touch Christ in the Word; feed on Him; seek to extract the kernel from its covering, the gem from its casket, ever seeking and depending upon the Holy Spirit’ s teaching and power, and there will be no more complaint over a dull Bible; but it will be found to be fat, rich pasture that will abundantly satisfy (Psalms 36:8), and upon which the soul will gain new life, strength, joy, and power for useful service. V. God provides pasture in high places (Isaiah 49:9). And in Ezekiel 34:13-14, the Lord promises to feed His flock upon the “ mountains” and “ upon the high mountains.” May not a New Testament parallel to these “ high places” be found in the “ heavenly places,” or heavenlies, of the Epistle to the Ephesians? Five times in that epistle the words occur, and in no other epistle. A careful study of the context would seem to show that it is a position attained through union with Christ in death and resurrection--a death unto sin (Romans 6:1-23), in His death, that, raised with Him, His resurrection life may be ours; not judicially only, but in actual fact and realization, through faith in God’ s mighty power (Ephesians 1:19-23) and promise. A daily death unto self and sin, “ that the life of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh” (2 Corinthians 4:10-11), that we may be able to say with the apostle (Galatians 2:19-20). (The Christian.) Psalms 100:4 Enter into His gates with thanksgiving. Thankfulness Thankfulness denotes a composite emotion, whose elements are joy for a gift, and love for the giver. It differs from gratitude, not essentially, but only in form; the one being necessarily a feeling only, the other that feeling both existent and expressed. I. The hindrances which practically interfere with this great moral and Christian duty.1. The habit of looking too much at other people, and too little at ourselves. If the poor man would go into his own heart, and fling overboard all but his own peculiar cares and troubles, and sit down to feast on the rich viands God has gathered as his sea-stores, then his lightened and relieved bark would float buoyantly on the waters, and answer readily her helm, and with glad songs and bright skies, go on her way rejoicing. 2. Letting the mind dwell too much on the dark side of our experience. The ten thousand daily blessings wherewith God has been surrounding our lives are lost sight of in the occasional clouds of difficulty that may have chequered our pathway. We think more of the one thousand dollars lost, than of the twenty thousand left us. More of the one month of sickness, than the eleven months of health. More of the one beloved friend dead, than of the many beloved yet living. 3. Regarding the first gift of a good thing as alone demanding gratitude, and its subsequent preservation as a natural sequence. II. The helps to thankfulness.1. We must entertain just and philosophic views of life’ s nature and mission. A man, crossing an ocean on shipboard, is not discontented because he cannot carry with him his sumptuous furniture and equipage; and grumbles not that his state-room hath not the breadth and brilliancy of his palatial pavilions. His very gladness is, that he is in a structure so modelled that it can have speed upon the waters. And just so it is with a man in progress to immortality. What we want is rather a tent that can be pitched and struck at pleasure; and provisions of a kind that can be carried in journeys; than a splendid palace, and ponderous luxuries, incapable of transportation. And so a true appreciation of the real uses of things will go far to render us thankful for the peculiar size and shape of the blessings God gives us. 2. We must dwell much in thought upon these Divine mercies, present and actual. We are too much given to day-dreams amid things possible and future. We lift the glass of imagination to the far hills, that, mellowed by distance and haloed with the purple and gold of the setting sun, look like fairy lands, and grow dissatisfied with the present and possessed. And yet, there is no one in whose present experience there is not enough at least for thankfulness--of comfort and blessing. 3. We must make the best of our misfortunes. What the Germans tell us as a parable, we have all of us--who have gone afield with nature in observant moods--witnessed not unfrequently. Standing by some autumnal and over-matured flower, we have seen the laborious bee come hurrying and humming, and plunging into the flower’ s cup, where there was not a particle of honey. But what does the bee do? Why, after sucking, and finding no nectar, does it come up from the flower’ s heart with a disappointed air, as if departing to some other field of labour? Ah no! If there be no sweets at the flower’ s red core, yet its stamens are full of golden farina, and out of the farina the bee builds its cells; and so it rolls its little legs against these stamens, till they look large and loaded as golden hose, and, thanking the flower as sweetly as if it had been full of honey, gladly humming, it flies home with its wax. Yes, and herein lies God’ s moral--If our flowers have no honey, let us be glad of the wax! 4. We must, meanwhile, learn to look upon these very evils as God’ s disguised blessings. To every true Christian, they are so, positively, and beyond controversy. As part of the special providence of a wise and loving Father, they cannot be otherwise. It is God that determines the bounds of our habitation; the stations we are to fill; the comforts we are to enjoy; and the trials we are to suffer. And if we have not much of the present world, it is not because our heavenly Father is not able to give us more. It is all to be resolved into the wisdom and kindness of the Divine administration--God’ s wisdom discerning how much is best for us--and His love determining to allow us no more. 5. To become truly thankful, we must become Christians--and Christians growing in grace and advancing in knowledge. (1) Religion makes a man humble; and humility, as a grace, lies at the foundation of contentment. (2) Religion gives him just views of present things, and of the true relation he sustains to them, in this earthly economy. They never seem to him ends, but only means unto ends. He understands how his present life is a sojourn--an exodus. And, as a true-hearted traveller, he expects not home comforts on a journey, but is content with rude fare and humble hostelries, and can thank God even for rough roads and foul weather, if they hinder not his progress. (3) Religion, as it is essentially a principle of self-denial, moderates a man’ s wishes, and so creates happiness. Diogenes was happier in his tub, than Alexander on the throne of his empire. And for a good reason--because the tub held the wishes of the philosopher; but the world was too small for those of the conqueror. (4) Religion produces trustfulness, and so brings contentment. III. The reasons of thankfulness.1. Our circumstances demand it. Just contrast your own condition this day, with that of the exulting pilgrims, when they kept their first thanksgiving festival. See them, amid the solitudes of that great wilderness--the cry of the wild beast, and the roar of the strong wind rising around them--the loved homes of their childhood, and the precious temples of their fathers, far away over the waters--a barren soil beneath their feet; and above, the cold and cheerless azure of a stranger-heaven! And yet singing triumphantly unto God their thanksgiving anthem! 2. For the sake of your own souls, you ought to be thankful. The habit of mournful sadness blinds the eye, and dwarfs the pinions of the soul; renders the heart a nervous and neuralgic thing; eats out a man’ s piety; weakens every Christian grace; and makes the creature a torture to himself, and a curse to his neighbourhood. 3. As Christians, we ought, for the sake of others, to manifest this abiding spirit of icy and thanksgiving. 4. For your heavenly Father’ s sake, you ought to cherish and display this spirit of thanksgiving. A monarch, whose subjects are always complaining of their lot, is set down by the world as a hard and selfish tyrant. A father, whose children walk abroad ever in sadness and tears, is anathematized by all people as a heartless and cruel parent. Shame on us, if, surrounded by such blessings, and hastening onward to such revelations of glory, we go ever with the bowed head, and the mournful footsteps, saying to the world by our pitiful complainings--“ See how the eternal God is maltreating His loyal subjects! . . . See how our heavenly Father is torturing His children!” (C. Wadesworth.) And into His courts with praise. Praise God’ s praises must be sung-- I. With the attention of the mind. The words must be considered, as well as heard or read. A person can never be rationally or piously affected with what he sings, except he understands it. Without this, there is no more devotion in him, than there is in an organ or other musical instrument which utters the like sounds. Or if there be anything like devotion excited by mere sounds, it is probably enthusiasm, or something purely animal; a sort of pleasing mechanical sensation, which perhaps some brutes may as strongly feel by sounds suited to the state of their frame. II. With the melody of the voice. Poetry enlivens praise; and music heightens the powers of poetry, and gives it more force to engage and affect the mind. It puts spirit into every word, and their united influences elevate, compose, and melt the soul. From hence it will follow that the better the poetry is, provided it be intelligible, and the greater harmony there is in uttering it, the greater effect it will have upon the mind, and make the impression of what we sing more deep and lasting. As God hath formed us with voices capable of uttering harmonious sounds, He expects that they be employed in His service. III. With the devotion of the heart. It is not sufficient to understand what is sung, to attend to it, and join our voices with those of our fellow-worshippers; but our intentions should be upright and good. And they should be these; to glorify God, and to edify ourselves and others.1. Our intention should be to glorify God; that is, not to make Him more glorious, for neither the praises of men nor angels can do that; but to do Him apparent and public honour; to acknowledge His glory; to proclaim our high veneration and affection for Him, and celebrate and recommend Him as an object worthy the esteem and praises of the whole world (Psalms 62:2; Psalms 1:23; Psalms 69:30). 2. It should be our desire also to edify ourselves and one another (Ephesians 5:19; Colossians 3:16). (Job Orton, D.D.) Psalms 100:5 The Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting; and His truth endureth to all generations.The Divine goodness exemplified I. An important statement. “ The Lord is good.” All we see around us confirms this glorious truth. Nothing has left His hand without partaking, directly or more remotely, of His perfection; and the more deeply we contemplate the produce of His creative skill, the more accurately we track the wheels of His providence, and the more carefully we ponder the economy of His grace, the more enlarged will be our hearts, the louder our song, as we adopt the statement of the text. II. An encouraging doctrine. “ His mercy is everlasting.” Such is the uniform tenor of the announcements and declarations of the Divine Word.1. His mercy is “ from everlasting” in its source. If we look backward that we may be able to tell the period, in the past, when mercy took its rise in the heart of the Almighty, we shall find that before duration began to be measured by revolving seasons, the “ Father of mercies” hath “ delighted in mercy.” 2. It is “ to everlasting,” in its efficacy; so that, casting the eye forward, in order to discern the length of its duration for time to come, we are lost as we contemplate it, flowing on in its effects through the amazing circle of eternity, even after the apocalyptic angel shall have proclaimed, that “ time shall be no longer.” III. A strong attestation of His faithfulness, in connection both with His goodness and His mercy. “ His truth endureth to all generations.” If we regard this portion of the text as an appeal to the display of the perfections already mentioned, in times gone by, then it will carry us back, in our contemplations, to His dealings with His people of old. And here time would fail us to speak of the various examples of the Divine goodness and mercy on record, from the moment when the voice of mercy was heard in the garden of Eden, to the present hour. From these considerations may we gather confidence, that this “ goodness and mercy” shall not fail us, neither the generations yet to come. Conclusion:--1. Admire the condescension of God, in thus displaying His goodness and mercy around us, and in our behalf. 2. Examine yourselves, whether you have a personal interest in the truths that have now been stated. 3. Be grateful to the Divine Being, for the character in which He has thus revealed Himself. (John Gaskin, M. A.) His truth endureth to all generations. The eternal truth of God I. God is true.1. He is true in His very nature. Falsehood is the wickedness--I dare not call it the infirmity--the wickedness of little natures; but as for the Great Supreme, you cannot conceive Him acting in any manner that is otherwise than straightforward, upright, and truthful. A God of truth and righteousness is He essentially. He must be so. 2. The Lord our God is not only true in His nature, but He is true to His nature. You never find Him doing anything that is not godlike. Select the acts of His creation. If He makes an aphis to creep upon a rosebud, you will find traces of infinite wisdom in it: you shall submit the insect to the microscope end discern a wisdom in it as glorious as that which shines in yonder rolling stars. If in providence some minor event comes under your notice, in that event you shall find no deviation from the constant rule of right and love by which the Most High characterizes all His doings. There are no emergencies with God in which He could be driven to an act of untruth; no pressures, no difficulties, no infirmities which could produce falsehood in Him. “ I am Jehovah: I change not,” saith He. 3. He is true in action. The covenant of grace has many promises in it, but not one of them has failed. As on Christ’ s side the covenant was kept by His death, so on the Father’ s side the covenant has been kept by the salvation of those whom Jesus redeemed from among inert when He gave Himself a ransom for many. 4. He is true to His promises. 5. He is true in every relation that He sustains. II. God is true in all generations.1. He has been true in the past. All history, sacred and profane, goes to prove that. 2. God is true still. All things are moving according to the decree of goodness and wisdom, and you must not doubt it. Like Jacob, you sometimes say, “ All these things are against me” ; but they are not, they are all for you. God is ordering all for the best. 3. God will be true. I do not know how far we have to go before we shall reach to our journey’ s end; but this I know, the whole of the road that we have to travel is paved with love and faithfulness, and we need not be afraid. (C. H. Spurgeon.) . Psalms 101:1-8 Psalms 101:1-8I will sing of mercy and judgment. One man in two characters This psalm depicts one man in two characters, one comparatively good, the other comparatively evil. Such a man is a fair type of the race. I. The character of a saint. He is full of good resolutions--1. In relation to his conduct towards God (verse 1). A lofty theme for song--kindness and justice. 2. In relation to his conduct towards self (verse 2). He determined to exercise over himself a wise control, to act not from passion or impulse, but from principles, and from principles that were rational and just. 3. In relation to his conduct towards his household (Psalms 101:4-7). 4. In relation to his conduct towards his country (verse 6). II. The character of a despot (verse 8). Here the man assumes the prerogative that belongs to God and God only. Were all kings to act upon this resolution the world would soon be depopulated, for how few there are amongst the millions of the race who are not wicked! (Homilist.) A song of mercy and judgment This resolution indicates a hopeful and happy state of mind. A song is the natural channel for the outflow of gladness (James 5:18). I. To whom he sings. Conscious nearness to God, and exuberant joyfulness of spirit, come together here. These two do not always go together: very often when they are brought near, they mutually destroy each other, like fire and water. Apart from regeneration and reconciling, you may have one of these two in human experience, but not both. In the multitude of his thoughts within him, an unconverted man may be brought, and for a time kept, consciously near the Holy One; but then there are great sadness and grief in his heart: or an unconverted man may experience great joy; but then he has turned away from God. You may bring such a man to the Lord; but as long as he is there, he has no song: or you may give him a song; but while he is singing, he has put God out of all his thoughts. To turn to the Lords and in that attitude to sing for joy, belongs to the children--to those who have been made nigh by the blood of Christ, and are accepted in the Beloved. II. The psalm that he sung. “ Mercy and judgment” are the two sides of the Divine character, as revealed by God, and apprehended by men. They are the two attributes which lie over against each other, for conflict or in harmony, according to the conditions in which they are exercised, or the point from which they are viewed. A song cannot be constructed out of justice or mercy separately. Neither can they become the subjects of praise, if they meet in mere conflict to neutralize or destroy each other. It is not that God is less just because He is also merciful, and less merciful because He has undertaken to be just. When these two meet in the eternal covenant, they kiss each other. Justice is greater because mercy meets it: mercy is greater because justice is satisfied and assents. Justice is made more just because mercy keeps it company: mercy becomes more merciful in presence of a righteousness that never bends. They so meet as to support each other. This union takes places in Christ crucified. In Him the promises of God are yea and amen. We are saved, because Christ our passover was sacrificed for us. It is a song that is needed now, this song to the Lord--a song about mercy and judgment, from the ranks of the redeemed. For their own comfort this is needed; for the honour of God, and as a witness to the world. (W. Arnot.) The twofold song I. what is there in mercy to demand a song?1. Freeness.2. Fulness.3. Greatness.4. Seasonableness.5. Permanency. II. What is there in judgment to allow of a song?1. You are not required, properly speaking, to bless God for your afflictions themselves. No; afflictions are in themselves evils; the effects of sin. But, through the overruling providence of God, they may be made the means to take away sin; and Christians are required, not only to be submissive under their sufferings, but to acquiesce in the will of God concerning them. 2. There are views to be taken of your afflictions which will allow, yea, require even, your thanksgiving and praise. (1) The nature of them. They are not the inflictions of the judge, but the chastisements of the Father. (2) Their brevity. What is time to eternity, and what is our life to time itself? But frequently your trials are much shorter than life. (3) Their judiciousness. There is nothing casual in them. (4) Their alleviation. If you would “ sing of mercy and judgment,” you must dwell upon the blessings you still enjoy, as well as upon those of which you have been deprived; you must look upon the bright side, and not be always gazing on the dark. (5) Their usefulness. If the vine had reason it would thank the vinedresser for the use of the knife by which it was pruned, and made to bring forth more fruit; and if the ground had reason it would bless God for the ploughshare which breaks up the fallow. I never knew a man converted to God by gaining a fortune, but I have known more than one converted to God by losing one. (W. Jay.) The psalm of grave, sweet melody I. The mingled character of the Divine dispensations.1. In the work of redemption. 2. In the general course of providential dispensation towards the world. 3. In the Divine action towards the Church. 4. In the lines of our household and individual history. II. The reasons for praise under all the variety of providence.1. The discovery made by the variety in question of the Divine character is of itself enough to make us sing to the Lord with delighted heartiness. 2. The disciplinary development of our own moral and religious character thereby promoted. (1) There is the way in which such dispensations operate in subduing our corruptions.(2) The same thing operates in exercising our graces.(3) The dispensation of mercy and judgment operates in the way of leading us to exercise a more abiding dependence upon the Lord Himself.(4) This vicissitude of dispensation still further operates in the way of preparing us for a condition of unmingled enjoyment in a better world. (E. A. Thomson.) The twofold song of the believer I. Mercy.1. What is it? Goodness and kindness to the undeserving. 2. What is there in mercy, of which we ought to sing? (1) The marvellousness of its origin.(2) The expensiveness of its sacrifices.(3) The abundance of its blessings.(4) Its universality and freeness.(5) As to other special distinctions of mercy. Its length--from eternity to eternity. Its height,--higher than the heavens, and above the clouds. Its perpetuity--it endureth for ever. Besides, it is said to be strong, rich, tender, faithful; and above all, God Himself delighteth in it. What a theme then for holy contemplation and joyous song. II. Judgment. This may mean--1. God’ s righteousness. 2. God’ s law. 3. God’ s wrath. 4. God’ s chastening dispensations. (1) Their wise administration.(2) The tenderness of their application.(3) The supports He gives with them.(4) The great ends His judgments are to accomplish. Conclusion.1. Have we not a keynote which ought to suit every heart and voice? 2. The advantages of this joyous course will be many. It will lighten the load of sorrow. It will sweeten the bitter potion. It will while away the dreary hour. It will exhilarate the oppressed and fainting heart. It will, by a kind of divine chemistry, bring new elements of health and comfort out of nauseous medicines. It will cheer the soul, honour religion, glorify your Father, and aid greatly in your spiritual and upward flight to the land of eternal joy and everlasting glory. 3. May some now learn to sing the Lord’ s song in a strange land. 4. Sing on the way to heaven, in the expectation of singing there, for ever and ever. (J. Burns, D.D.) Mercy and judgment I. The mercy which every believer ought to acknowledge.1. Mercy designed from everlasting.2. Mercy revealed.3. Mercy applied.4. Mercy secured in the covenant of grace. II. The judgments of which he may have reason to sing. Christian, have you not reason to sing of the judgments which attended your conversion? Did not your terrors and alarms divest you of self-righteousness, and deepen your feeling of the detestable nature of sin? Did they not endear the Saviour to you, when He stilled the tempest and spake peace? And judgments of one kind or other will mark our progress through this wilderness. We cannot bear the continual sunshine of prosperity. It is only in heaven that our sun will never go down; but it is only in the perfection of heaven that we can endure its perpetual brightness. (Carus Wilson, M.A.) Mercy and judgment The mercies of God are new every morning, and are renewed every evening. Think of His redeeming mercies, who spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all. Think of His sparing mercies when thousands have gone from this great metropolis in that last influenza epidemic. Think of His patience, with you, that while He spared your soul your behaviour has been so far short of what it should have been, if you had done your best. Think of your spiritual privileges, think of these precious Sabbaths, this open Book, this welcome home, with its fellow-disciples and warm hearts, and the Father’ s smile to greet His children when they come. Think of God’ s providential mercies from the cradle to this hour; how He has kept you still in life, rescuing you from more perils than you ever dreamt of. How He has replenished your basket; how He has filled your cupboard. Mercies! let your mind dwell on them. Surely, like David, we should say this morning, “ I will sing, I will sing of mercy.” Then let us gel on a little further. “ I will sing of mercy and judgment.” Ah! that is a different thing. How can I sing with a choking in my throat? I can sing with the lark in the times of sunrise, but to sing in the night when the wind moans, when the owl hoots, and the bat flits through the shadows of the evening; to sing when the lights are gone, the fruit has fallen, when the icy wind nips me to the marrow, and the snow is falling heavy on a winter’ s day, to sing then, when God’ s hand is heavy upon me! Like Hezekiah I can roar; or I can hold my peace, because God did it. But to sing, to sing a night song, a winter’ s song, a sorrow psalm, surely that can never be! And yet here it is, “ I will sing of mercy and of judgment.” I find that David is not by any means alone in it. I turn me to the grand old patriarch Job, and in the day of his affliction I hear from his lips that snatch of heavenly music which we have heard so often at the graveside: “ The Lord gave,” etc. I turn to the Apostle Paul, and as he is manacled and chained in the dungeon with lacerated feet, I hear them singing praise to God, and that with such gusto that their songs betray them, and the whole of the prison wonders how such a song can be sung there. And so this man David sings of judgment, “ It was good for me to be afflicted.” “ Who giveth me songs in the night.” “ I will praise the Lord in the fire, and in the night-time His song shall be with me.” These are patterns, so you see it can be done. Not only so, but you will find that the Church’ s richest, sweetest, and most excellent songs of all are those which have been sung in the fire of suffering, wrung out from their lives. I call to mind the beautiful story of the days when martyrs burned. When one poor old man was tied to the stake, as soon as the flames began to rise, he bared his white head and sang the “ To Deum,” that matchless song of praise. Hark! “ The noble army of martyrs praise Thee.” And hark again, “ When Thou hadst overcome the sharpness of death, Thou didst open the kingdom of heaven to all believers.” “ I will sing of mercy and of judgment.” Another martyr, a woman, when the fire began to crack round her, sang the “ Magnificat.” Surely never was sweeter song sung by woman’ s lips as she sang “ My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour. He that is mighty hath done great things for me.” For her, poor creature, in the flames, He hath done great things for me. He has exalted her of low degree. And then the royal robes were put on, sad a still more glorious Magnificat sounds from her lips on high. I ask you to look at the conjunction of mercy and judgment as a reason why you should sing. This blending of sorrow and joy, this admixture of sorrow and peace. See if you cannot find ground for singing, for singing loud. Not that you sing enough, even on the mercy side. But see if you cannot find how we do need judgment to keep us humble, and watchful, and pure. How greatly we need mercy in its turn to make us hopeful, to nerve our efforts, assure our hearts, and sustain our patience. We need both the rod and the staff. “ Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me.” Why the rod? That tells of expectation of correction, does it not? The staff! why, that means support, help, and strength, as you walk along. You don’ t like the rod, but God knows things better than we do. Do not forget that the judgments are not the applications of a judge. We get above all that. They are not the carrying out of a sentence. No strokes of vengeance. They are the medicines of the soul. They are tonic if the believer’ s heart is right with his God. The cross is love; on the cross is love. I need not tell you that grace is the key that opens all the treasure that God has for you. Another thing to think about is the duration of these judgments. That we are to sing of these judgments, to think of their profit even if they last a lifetime. This is but the school time. Do you know how Paul puts it? “ These light afflictions which are but for a moment.” Still they bowed his head for him. Sorrow endures for a night, but joy cometh in the morning. (J. J. Wray.) Mercy and judgment in nature Never shall I forget the terrible sublimity of the scene around me, when in the heart of the icy solitudes of the Alps, in the innermost shrine of one of nature’ s most stupendous temples, amid stupendous precipices, lofty spires of rock, towering domes of everlasting snow. But the scene that struck me most in the landscape was the glaciers, which filled with their rigid, ghastly masses every gorge around. Amid these was a bright little garden of Alpine flowers, blooming on the very borders of the ice, which eloquently spoke to me of the greatness and goodness of the Creator, the life and death, the joy and sorrow, the blight that destroys, and the blessing that renews, are so mysteriously blent on this earth of ours. On the one hand the glaciers were grinding down the mountains, and the Alpine flowers were healing scars which she inflicted. The terrible majesty and love of God, His mercy and judgment were there, as they ever are, if we could only see it, side by side. (Hugh Macmillan, D. D.) Mercy and judgment a subject for praise Some people seem never to have any serious thought of life. They think only of amusement, and never get beyond the airy surface of things. But to one who thinks deeply life is not all a round of empty pleasure. A traveller who tarried at Antwerp describes the effect which the bells in the great tower had upon him. Every quarter-hour they rang out on the air their sweet notes, in soft melody, which fell like a delicious rain of music dropping from the heavens. Then at the full hour, amid their shower of liquid notes of silver, there rang out the solemn strokes of the great bell, with iron tongue, deep and heavy; and these heavy tones filled him with a feeling of awe. As he listened, hour after hour, go the chimes, the tender melody of the smaller, sweeter bells reminded him of the mercy and love of God, and the solemn undertones that broke on his ear at the end of each full hour spoke of the awful themes of justice, judgment, eternity. So it is that every thoughtful person is impressed in reading the Scriptures. Their usual tone is mercy. Love rings everywhere, like the notes of angels’ songs. But here and there, amid the words of Divine tenderness, comes some deep note telling of justice, of wrath against sin, of the awful Judgment Day. It is the same in life. The flow of the common day is gladness. There is music everywhere. Flowers bloom. Love lights its lamp in our path. Then suddenly there breaks in, amid the merry laughter, a tone, deep and solemn, which fills us with awe. Life is not all gaiety. Even now its undertone is serious. We should be thoughtful. Eternity lies close to time. The momentous things of judgment are hidden only by a thin veil of mist. Psalms 101:2I will behave myself wisely in a perfect way.A holy and homely resolve I. What a comprehensive resolution this is! “ I will behave myself wisely in a perfect way.”1. With a full knowledge of all the care and circumspection it entailed on himself, add with as clear an apprehension of all the risks of popularity it involved among his subjects, this was David’ s deliberate choice. Influenced by the grace of God he, like his son Solomon after him, chose wisdom as the principal thing, and accounted the fear of the Lord as the choicest safeguard. 2. This deliberate choice of David was no doubt suggested by a sense of necessity. He felt that he needed to behave himself wisely. He was to be a king, and a foolish king is no ordinary fool. Oh, parents and heads of households, masters of factories, managers of business houses, and you, too, ye working men and servants, ye all need wisdom, and you must have it, or you will make shipwreck. If the fisherman’ s little boat be wrecked through mismanagement, it is as bad for him, especially if he be drowned in it, as if he had lost the greatest steamship that ever ploughed the waters, and perished with the vessel. It is his all; and your all is embarked in the momentous voyage of life. You need to behave yourselves wisely whatever your vocation in the world may be. 3. Moreover, David recognized that to behave oneself wisely one must be holy; for he says, “ I will behave myself wisely in a perfect way.” He felt he could not be wise if he were unacquainted with the true ideal of absolute unblemished perfection; wisdom lay there. The wise man will keep along the king’ s highway, cost what it may. But you do not need to be a philosopher, and consult huge books, to discover how you ought to act under any circumstances. The way to act in every case is to fear God and keep His commandments. II. But now the text is interrupted. There is a break; there is a piece inlaid, as it were, of a different metal. It is an ejaculation. “ Oh, when wilt Thou come unto me?” Many inspired writers, without diverging from their train of thought, interline their purpose with a prayer. There is an old proverb that “ kneeling never spoils silk stockings.” Prayer to the preacher is like provender to the horse. It strengthens and cheers him to go forward. As the scribe halts to mend his pen, or the mower to whet his scythe, without loss of time, but rather with more facility to do his work; so you expedite instead of hindering your business by stopping in the middle of it to offer a word of prayer. So here it is written, “ Oh, when wilt Thou come unto me?” It is a crying of his soul after Divine teaching, Divine direction, Divine assistance; nor less, I believe, is it a yearning after Divine fellowship. You know we never walk aright unless we walk with God. As I have said that holiness is wisdom, so let me say that communion is the mother of holiness. We must see God if we are to be like God. “ Oh, when wilt Thou come unto me?” seems to me a question full of solicitude. Lord, it may be Thou wilt come on a sudden with a surprise, for Thou hast told me that in such an hour as I think not Thou wilt appear. Am I ready? Am I able to give in a satisfactory account as to what I have done as Thy servant, in my general walk and conversation? Come, let me press these thoughts upon myself, and then upon you. “ I will behave myself wisely in a perfect way;” and well I may, since Thine eye is on me, O my God, and Thy day is coming when I must be put into the balances, and if I am found wanting, terrible must be my doom, for other eyes than mine shall search my heart, and other scales than I am able to use shall give the final test, and settle once for all my endless state. God grant you to order your lives by His grace. You cannot do so without the power of the Holy Spirit. Oh that whenever the Lord shall come you may meet Him with joy. III. After a parenthesis of devotion, he returns with more intense earnestness to his resolution. In a most practical manner he concentrates his aim--“ I will walk within my house with a perfect heart.” With his house or household in view, for which he felt a deep responsibility and a yearning anxiety, he applies himself with a delicate consideration to the state of his own heart. “ Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life.” A very wise thing. If any man were to say to you, “ I mean to be a good husband, a good father,” --if any woman shall say, “ I mean to be a good mistress,” or “ a good servant,” that will not do, unless you understand that the heart must first of all be altered. If the heart be right, other things will surely follow in their place. Now, the heart, if we are to walk rightly, must show itself in the house. “ I will walk within my house with a perfect heart.” The heart must be perfect, and then we must show our heart in our actions. Oh, a house is all the better for having a heart inside it, and a man is a man, and he is more like God when there is a heart inside his ribs. When he gets home the children feel that father has got a heart, and as they climb his knees and smother him with kisses, and when he greets his dear relatives, especially those that are part and parcel of himself, he has got s soul that goes beyond his own little self, and is enlarged and inspires the whole of the family. Oh, give me heart, and that is what David meant when he said he would behave himself wisely. But when he was in his own house he would walk with a perfect heart. He would be hearty in everything he did and said. Well, now, the next thing is that the conduct at home must be well regulated. “ I will walk within my house with a perfect heart.” The Christian man at home should be scrupulous in all departments within his house. We may have different rooms there, but in whatever room we are we should seek to walk before God with a perfect heart. (C. H. Spurgeon.) On wisdom in religious conduct Of the wisdom or prudence which is necessary to guide and support virtue, I purpose to treat in this discourse. I shall adventure to propose some practical rules for that purpose; which may be of service to persons who, with good dispositions and intentions, are beginning the career of life; and which may, perhaps, deserve attention from persons in every period of age. I begin by observing-- I. That it is most necessary to lay down principles on which we are to form our general conduct. If we set out without principles of any kind, there can be no regular plan of life, nor any firmness in conduct. No person can know where they are to find us; nor on what behaviour of ours they are to depend. If the principles which we pitch upon for determining our course be of a variable nature; such, for instance, as popular opinion, reputation, or worldly interest; as these are often shifting and changing, they can impart no steadiness or consistency to conduct. The only sure principles we can lay down for regulating our conduct, must be founded on the Christian religion, taken in its whole compass; not confined to the exercises of devotion, nor to the mere morality of social behaviour; bus extending to the whole direction of our conduct towards God and towards man. I proceed to advise-- II. That we begin with reforming whatever has been wrong in our former behaviour. This counsel is the more important, because too many, in their endeavours towards reformation, begin with attempting some of the highest virtues, or aspiring to the most sublime performances of devotion, while they suffer their former accustomed evil habits to remain just as they were. This, I apprehend, is beginning at the wrong end. We must first, as the prophet has exhorted, put away the evil of our doings from before God’ s eyes; we must cease to do evil, before we learn to do well. III. We must shut up, as much as possible, the avenues which lead to the return of former evil habits. Here is required that exercise of vigilance, self-distrust and self-denial which is so often recommended to us in Scripture. This wisdom requires farther-- IV. That consistency and uniformity be preserved in character; that not by pieces and corners only we study goodness, but that we carry one line of regular virtue through our whole conduct. Without this extensive regulation of behaviour, we can never hold on successfully in a perfect way. True virtue must form one complete and entire system. All its parts are connected; piety with morality, charity with justice, benevolence with temperance and fortitude. If any of these parts be wanting, the fabric becomes disjointed; the adverse parts of character correspond not to each other, nor form into one whole. It is only when we have respect unto all God’ s commandments, as the psalmist speaks, that we have reason not to be ashamed. At the same time, when I thus advise you to study entire and consistent virtue, and to guard strictly against small transgressions, let me warn you-- V. Against unnecessary austerity, as forming any part of religious wisdom. Too strict and scrupulous, indeed, we cannot be in our adherence to what is matter of clear duty. Every dictate of conscience is to be held sacred, and to be obeyed without reserve. But wisdom requires that we study to have conscience properly enlightened. We must distinguish with care the everlasting commandments of God, from the superstitious fancies and dictates of men. A manly steadiness of conduct is the object which we are always to keep in view; studying to unite gentleness of manners with firmness of principle, affable behaviour with untainted integrity. VI. In order to walk wisely in a perfect way, it is of importance that we study propriety in our actions and general behaviour. In a great number of the duties of life, the manner of discharging them must vary, according to the different ages, characters, and fortunes of men. To suit our behaviour to each of these; to judge of the conduct which is most decent and becoming in our situation, is a material part of wisdom. In the scales by which we measure the propriety of our conduct, the opinion of the world must never be the preponderating weight. Let me recommend-- VII. The observance of order and regularity in the whole of conduct. Hurry and tumult, disorder and confusion, are both the characteristics of vice and the parents of it. Let your time be regularly distributed, and all your affairs be arranged with propriety, in method and train. VIII. We should give attention to all the auxiliary means which religion offers for assisting and guiding us to walk wisely in a perfect way. These open a large field to the care of every good man. We must always remember, that virtue is not a plant which will spontaneously grow up and flourish in the human heart. The soil is far from being so favourable to it; many shoots of an adverse nature are ever springing up, and much preparation and culture are required for cherishing the good seed, and raising it to full maturity. (Hugh Blair, D.D.) The art of good behaviour The Bible is the one great authority on good manners. There are others, of course; but they are absolutely unnecessary, for all we need is here. In fact, this book is mostly about behaviour--how men have behaved and how they ought to behave under the varying conditions of human life. It is such a mistake to think that these things are externals, additions to a man--they are fundamentals. Good behaviour is a vital thing, it is from the heart. “ I will behave myself.” We have often been told to do it--perhaps that is one of the first things most of us remember being told. But necessary as the parent, the guardian, and the schoolmaster are to enforce obedience, to moral, and national, and religious law, it is best to take the matter into our own hands, assert our own responsibility, and say, “ I will behave myself.” Oneself is the person we ought to be most concerned with. And yet there are very many people who are so anxious about the behaviour of others--such careful guardians of other people’ s morals. How many wise and gratuitous critics there are! How many to point out the mote in their brother’ s eye l Reformation begins at home--“ I will behave myself” --and to do that properly will take me all my time. The psalmist now tells us in what good behaviour consists. “ I will walk within my house with a perfect heart.” The first thing, then, to be seen to is home-conduct. “ Is he a Christian?” said one to a friend the other day; and the answer was, “ I don’ t know, I haven’ t seen him at home.” It was a wise reply; home is the best place to judge--there we have the evidence unmistakable. Home graces are best; and if a woman would have her name kept in sweet and everlasting remembrance, let her always be at her best at home; and if a man will win fame that will outlast the renown of all the world’ s battlefields, let him be a hero at home, a knight of the little round table in his own parlour, where those who love the best will clown him with a wreath that is incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away. The psalm continues, “ I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes.” That undoubtedly is an essential part of fine conduct. Even to look on sin is harmful; it blurs, while it dazzles the vision; it casts a film over the eyes. “ I will not know a wicked person.” Literally that seems a resolve too difficult to carry out. In business, shop, and office we often have to meet wicked persons, to do business with them, to work at their side. We have to know them--we cannot help ourselves. But we must not know more of them than we can help--we must not be friends with them. Acquaintances they may be, but never friends. “ Mine eyes shall be upon the faithful of the land that they may dwell with me.” Whoever we cast our eyes upon does well with us in a very real sense. “ I am a part of all that I have met.” We cannot help being imitative, we reproduce what we see over and over again. So must we fix our eyes upon those who do good and are good, upon those whose atmosphere is purest and most reverent. But mark now that the psalmist has no sooner made this great resolve, than he realizes that the task is beyond him. It requires more wisdom and strength than he possesses. So in the midst of his resolution the prayer breaks from his heart, “ O when wilt Thou come unto me?” For such behaviour as this the etiquette of high society is useless--it is the grace of God that we want; not more education, but more love--that love which “ doth not behave itself unseemly.” “ O when wilt Thou come unto me?” That question is soon answered. When will a father run to his child in need? “ When wilt Thou come?” Why, He is “ not far from any one of us” --“ closer than breathing and nearer than hands or feet.” Our very feebleness and frailty make irresistible appeal to Him. (W. A. L. Taylor, B.A.) I will walk within my house with a perfect heart.--The sanctity of the family That which strikes us first in this psalm is that the qualifications for continuing in the household of David are to he moral qualifications. He does not say that he will make choice of the clever, or of the strong, or of the brave to he companions of his life. He, for his part, will live with the good, the faithful in the land, the perfect in the way. That which shall disqualify men from living with him is not want of ability or want of distinction, but want of loyalty to goodness and to God: “ A froward heart shall depart from me; I will not know a wicked person.” David needed all the help he could get from courage and from talent in his difficult position; but he made up his mind to reserve his highest favours for goodness. And next we observe that the qualifications for membership in David’ s household are chiefly negative. He is more careful to say who shall not than who shall enjoy the privilege. The sins of unfaithfulness, the froward heart, the privy slanderer of his neighbour, the man of proud look and high stomach, the worker of deceit, the teller of lies--these were to have no access in the house of David in Jerusalem. It seems to be a low because it is a negative standard; but people would not say so who have at all tried to act upon a like principle. Let us be sure that we could do as much before we criticize him. What, then, is David’ s hope? He hopes that with the coming of the sacred ark of Jerusalem--in other words, that with a nearer contact with the presence of God--he will be able to effect a great change. The restored sense of a sacred presence among them, the active works of the ministers and the sanctuary, the pervading atmosphere of worship and of praise, where everything suggested what God expected of His people and what was due to God from each and from all--these things would, in time, make the reformation which David had at heart easy and natural. In Christendom the family is a different and it is a more beautiful thing than it was in David’ s time. It is a return to nature, to the order of life clearly traced in nature, and at the bidding of the Restorer of our race. He reminds us that “ at the beginning God made man, male and female,” and that “ for this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife; and they twain shall be one flesh.” More than one French writer has expressed the admiration felt by his countrymen--felt, at least, in their more judicial moments--for the family life of the middle classes in England, and of the English poor throughout the country districts. It is, indeed, one of the choicest blessings which God has bestowed upon our country. But we must admit that family life in England is threatened not only by the standing enemies of its happiness and well-being, such as a preference of club society to that of wife and children on the part of men, of a husband’ s personal extravagance or inconsiderateness, or cruelty, or worse. In conclusion, two lessons would seem to be suggested by this psalm of King David. Observe the order and methods of David’ s proceeding. He began by improving himself. “ Oh, let me have understanding in the way of godliness. I will walk within my house with the perfect heart.” No man can hope to influence others for good who is not taking pains with himself. No man to whom eternity, sin, prayer, are not real, can hope to get others to think seriously about them. No man who is not endeavouring to rule his own temper, his own tongue, his own life by the law of Jesus Christ can hope to make that law a rule of the life of others, however much younger, however much less instructed they may be than himself. And next the improvement of the family can only be procured by religious as distinct from moral--merely moral influences. David does not expect to do much with the sinister elements of his motley household until the return of the sacred Ark to Jerusalem. There is one mark of the household in which God is known and loved, which is too often wanting in our day, I mean the practice of family prayer. Depend upon it, the worth of every practice of the kind can only be measured by its effect during a long period of time. Family prayers, though occupying only a few minutes, do make a great difference to any household at the end of a year. (Canon Liddon.) Family religion A house without a roof would be scarcely less a home, according to Bushnell, than “ a family unsheltered by God’ s friendship.” A pious wife with a prayerless husband is compared by Payson to a dove with a broken wing, trying to beat her upward way through storm and wind. (E. P. Thwing.) Piety at home Some people in public act the philanthropist, but at home act the Nero with respect to their slippers and their gown. Audubon, the great ornithologist, with gun and pencil went through the forests of America to bring down and to sketch the beautiful birds, and after years of toil and exposure completed his manuscript and put it in a trunk in Philadelphia, and went off for a few days of recreation and rest, and came back and found that the rats had utterly destroyed the manuscript; but without any discomposure, and without any fret or bad temper, he again picked up his gun and pencil, and visited again all the great forests of America and reproduced his immortal work. And yet there are people with the ten thousandth part of that loss who are utterly irreconcilable; who, at the loss of a pencil or an article of raiment, will blow as long and loud and sharp as a north-east storm. Let us learn to show piety at home. If we have it not there, we have it not anywhere. If we have not genuine grace in the family circle, all our outward and public plausibility merely springs from the fear of the world, or from the slimy, putrid pool of our own selfishness. Home is a mighty test of character. (T. De Witt Talmage.) Psalms 101:5 Whoso privily slandereth his neighbour.Sins of the tongue Mr. Spurgeon used to say that if all men’ s sins were divided into two bundles, halt of them would be sins of the tongue. And if any one thinks that is a preacher’ s exaggeration, let him read what is written in the Book of Proverbs and the Psalms on the matter, and he will find that the preacher has good authority for his strong words. The sins of the tongue, who can number them? The mischief of the tale-bearer, who can measure it? When St. Paul commands aged women that they be not slanderers,” the word he uses means, literally, “ devils” ; it is the word which has given us our adjective “ diabolical” ; and verily there is no temper that is so wholly un-Christian and anti-Christian, that so well deserves the ugly name of “ devilish,” as the temper of the slanderer and the back-biter. The Apostle James is, if possible, more emphatic still: “ If any man thinketh himself to be religious,” he says, “ while he bridleth not his tongue but deceiveth his heart, this man’ s religion is vain.” But on the other hand, “ If any stumbleth not in word, the same is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body also.” It is said that St. Augustine had engraved upon his table these words: “ There is no place at this table for any one who loves scandal.” Shall not we make a like resolve, speak no slander--no, nor listen to it? For, if for every idle word that men shall speak they shall give account in the day of judgment, where shall the slanderer and the back-biter appear? (George Jackson, M.A.) Psalms 101:6 Mine eyes shall be upon the faithful of the land, that they may dwell with me. The King and His court I. Who are these faithful men to whom Jesus, our King, will have respect at all times?1. They are true in their dealings with God. How many a man has become a bankrupt by a lavish expenditure which exceeded his income! He said that he “ must keep up appearances,” and he did keep up appearances till they became his ruin. God grant that you and I may never try to keep up appearances before Him! Be what you would seem to be; and in the presence of God never seem to be or dream of seeming to be what you are not. Thus I think we, first of all, know the faithful by their upright dealing with God. 2. This will lead them to be true in their dealings with men. That man is not faithful in God’ s esteem who is not upright, honest, true to a hair’ s breadth, in his dealings with his fellow-men. We must stand to our bond even though we lose by it. We must be true to the word we speak though it be to our own hurt. 3. Such people will, in the next place, always be true in their dealings with men on God’ s behalf. I think this passage bears very pertinently upon the minister, and upon the Sunday-school teacher, and upon the Christian worker. 4. These faithful men are thorough in all that they do. The psalmist says, “ He that walketh in a perfect way, he shall serve me.” May I be permitted to say, especially to you who are commencing the Christian life, that if you wish to live near to God, and to be greatly used of Him, it is important that you should begin as you mean to go on, by endeavouring to walk in a perfect way? Be you determined that, if others do as they please, you are not accountable for their action; but you will do what you believe to be right. If you are a Christian, go through with it; be a follower of Christ in every respect as far as the Word of God and your own conscience lead you. II. What will the King do with them?1. His eye of search will seek them out. There is a working-man who, the other day, in the midst of a swearing company, rebuked the blasphemer, and spoke up for Christ. That noble action is not recorded in the newspaper, and never will be; but God’ s eye is upon the faithful of the land. 2. His eye of favour will cheer them. God greatly favours and blesses those whom by His grace He makes to be faithful. 3. They shall dwell with God. Oh, this is a choice privilege! When grace makes a man faithful, God rewards his faithfulness by permitting him to dwell in close communion with his Lord. It is a wonderful thing to me that, if we have any good works, God always works them in us, and then he rewards us for them as if they were our own. He gives us grace, and then smiles on us because of the grace that He Himself gives. 4. They shall be Christ’ s servants. I do not know which is the greater privilege, “ He shall dwell with me,” or, “ He shall serve me.” Perhaps the second is the higher. Have you ever thought what an honour it is to be permitted to do anything for God? For God to bless us, is great condescension on His part; but for Him to permit us to be of any use to Him, this is a wonderful honour from His right hand. III. How may we get among these faithful ones?1. Perhaps we can truly say, God helping us, we hope that we are among them. If so, “ it is He that hath made us, and not we ourselves.” If there be any faithfulness, if there be any uprightness, unto God be the glory of it all. Pray that you may never lose your faithfulness, but that you may be kept even unto the end. 2. But now I speak to others who are not as yet faithful. You say, “ How are we to get among the faithful?” (1) Well, I should say, first, so far as you may be, and so far as your light goes, be faithful to-night, be honest in confessing sin. Before you sleep, put yourself before God just as you are. (2) Then, next, be anxious to have a new heart and a right spirit. (3) Be sincere in all your dealings with the living God. (4) Depend continually on the Lord Jesus and His Word to make and keep you faithful. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Psalms 101:7 He that worketh deceit shall not dwell within my house.Wise choice of companions “ A man is known by the company he keeps;” yes, and by his company you may know what he is coming to be. We unconsciously fall into the habits of thought and feeling of those with whom we are associated. Our ideas are moulded by our ideals; our conduct by our examples. To choose refining, purifying society is the grandest step up and on, to keep the company of the vicious and the vile is as sure a step toward ruin. The Church is mainly given us to meet this demand of our social nature. (A. T. Pierson, D.D.) . Psalms 102:1-28 Psalms 101:8I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes.In the mind’ s eye On one occasion Sir Thomas Lawrence, the great painter, then President of the Royal Academy, visited the studio of a struggling young artist. He had noticed the young man’ s work, and thought it had some promise; but when he saw the sketches tacked up on the walls of the bare little room, he shook his head. They were rough, clever examples of the Flemish school, striking but coarse. “ If I were you,” said the great painter to the beginner, “ I would not allow my eye to be familiarized with any but the highest forms of art. If you cannot afford to buy oil paintings, buy good engravings of great pictures. If you allow your eye to become familiar with what is vulgar in conception, however free and dashing the handling, and however excellent the feeling for colour, your taste will insensibly become depraved; whereas, if you habituate your eye to look only upon what is pure and grand, or refined and lovely, your taste will insensibly be elevated.” It was sound artistic advice, and the young painter profited by it. It remains, also, sound moral advice for all young people. Our mind’ s eye needs training as much as our physical vision. If we hang pictures in the halls of our brain that are not elevating, our moral perceptions will become lowered. The best thoughts are within our reach. Why should we choose, instead, thoughts that are flippant, vulgar, or worse? Every time we put an undesirable picture in our mind’ s eye, where it will be often in view, we deprave our own understanding. “ As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.” If we wish to elevate and strengthen our souls, we must be careful in our choice of habitual thoughts. “ Whatsoever things are true,” etc. It is well-known advice--but can it be bettered? (Free Church Record.) I hate the work of them that turn aside. Turning aside I. Describe their character. The phrase, “ turn aside,” denotes three things--1. That there exists a way, path, or road in which we have to go. 2. That we have been in that way. 3. That there has been an awful departure from it. (1) Some turn aside cowardly (Numbers 21:4). (2) Some turn aside incautiously (1 Samuel 12:23). Bunyan’ s Pilgrim, with his companion Hopeful, wandered into the grounds of Giant Despair, and ultimately found themselves in the dungeons of Doubting Castle. He discovered a stile which led into a meadow, where was a footpath that seemed to run parallel with the high-road; into this path he went, thinking that it would prove easier for his feet. Let this illustrate what is meant to be conveyed by the term turning aside incautiously. (3) Others turn aside courteously and complaisantly. (4) Some turn aside through unwatchfulness (Matthew 26:41). II. Illustrate their work.1. An evil work (Jeremiah 2:19). 2. A disgraceful and dishonourable work (Proverbs 14:34). What a disgraceful reflection it is upon the wisdom and economy of a man who begins to build, and is not able to finish! (Luke 14:28-30). How scandalous to forsake God, and associate with the devil; to exchange Christ for Belial, light for darkness, truth for error, liberty for bondage, heaven for hell! 3. It is a diabolical work; because it displays more of the devil than any other engagement pertaining to earth. It is following the example which apostate fiends have set. What was their original transgression but turning aside? 4. It is a ruinous work (Hebrews 10:28-29). III. Exhibit the abhorrence of the psalmist.1. Our hatred of this work should be sincere. 2. It should be publicly professed. Though the Christian ought to avoid the very appearance of ostentation, there are times when silence or neutrality would be highly criminal. 3. It should be constantly and cordially cherished. Pray that you may increase in the love of God; for in proportion as you love God, you will hate evil. Meditate also on the tremendous consequences which will not fail to follow. 4. It should be practically exemplified. Do not forget how possible it is for those who now profess to detest the evil, by slow, and almost, imperceptible, degrees to become familiarized with it, and ultimately being led to practise that which now they hate. David fell into this snare. Also Peter. How frail is human nature! Exemplify your detestation of the evil in question, by attending to the injunction of the apostle (Philippians 3:16). Persevere in the good way. (R. Treffry.) Psalms 102:1-28 Hear my prayer, O Lord, and let my cry come unto Thee.Thoughts of comfort and complaint I. Thoughts of complaint (Psalms 102:1-11).1. Concerning bodily sufferings. (1) The physical anguish of life (verse 3).(2) The terrible brevity of life (verse 11). 2. Concerning mental sufferings. “ I am in trouble.” “ My heart is smitten,” etc. His mental anguish destroyed his appetite for food, made his bones “ cleave” to his “ skin,” and to mingle his drink with tears. Such is the connection between the mind and the body that a suffering mind will soon bring the body to decay and death. One dark thought has often struck down a stalwart frame. 3. Concerning social sufferings (verse 8). The coldness, the calumny, the envy and jealousy of our fellow-men cannot fail to strike anguish into the heart. 4. Concerning religious sufferings (verse 10). Moral suffering is the soul of all suffering. “ A wounded spirit who can bear?” II. Thoughts of comfort (Psalms 102:12-28). These thoughts refer to God.1. His existence amidst all the changes of earth (verse 12). 2. His anticipated interposition on behalf of mankind (Psalms 102:13-18). (1) It is fixed--a “ set time.”(2) It is conditional (verse 14). “ Seek, and ye shall find,” etc.(3) It is glorious (verse 15).(4) It is prayer-answering (verse 19).(5) It is always rememberable (verse 18). 3. His past kindness towards the suffering (Psalms 102:19-22). 4. His unchangeableness amidst all the mutations of the universe. (1) Men change, but He remains the same (verses23, 24).(2) The universe changes, but He remains the same (Psalms 102:25-27). The universe had an origin and is destined to have a dissolution. It had an origin. “ Of old hast Thou laid,” etc. This account of the origin of the universe contradicts atheistic eternalists and sceptical evolutionists. It will have a dissolution. “ It shall perish.” Dissolution, in fact, is a law of the organized universe. Both the origin and dissolution of the universe are attributable to One Personality. “ Of old hast Thou laid.” The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews applies this to Christ, therefore to him Christ was Eternal God. One Being created all, one Being will dissolve all. This One Personality remains unalterable from the origin to the dissolution of the universe. (Homilist.) The conditions of acceptable prayer 1. There must be a holy respect for the character and ways of God. We must come looking at all His attributes. They must fill all the eye, and ravish all the heart. 2. As we are social beings, the mode of our approach must show that we are not praying alone, that we belong to a praying family; and we should wish to get near to His presence, and not pray at a distance. The child would choose to come where the father was, if he could speak to him, and not stand at a distance, as if he were praying by proxy to an absent father. 3. Our prayers must go up with sincerity before him, and with that open frankness that love is accustomed to generate. And we should really desire the blessing we need, and not some other that we are afraid to ask for, as if we were held in the attitude of foreigners, who were supplicating mercies which we not only did not deserve, but had no reason to expect. 4. We must have our eyes filled with the precious Mediator: He must be to us “ the chief among ten thousands, and altogether lovely.” 5. We must approach Him with a spirit of submission. This, however, will not imply indifference. There can be no resignation, unless the heart desires earnestly the blessing it supplicates. 6. We must come with a spirit of humility and penitence. The suppliant who can for one single moment forget that he is a suppliant will deserve to be repulsed in the very prayer he makes. 7. It would be natural and indispensable that we remember that we have received blessings from the same hand before, and there is no part of our plea that is more efficacious than where we tell of the mercies received in days gone by. (D. A. Clark.) Earnest prayer alone succeeds “ Not very long ago I was staying at Matlock, and some one in Manchester wanted to call me up on the telephone. Speaking through the telephone is a thing to which I am unaccustomed. I could hear the voice at the other end asking me if I were there. I shouted that I was, I bellowed that I was, but still I heard the question, ‘ Are you there?’ In despair I put the instrument-down and went to the porter. With a pitying smile be took the instrument, and spoke through it as quietly as possible. He was heard. I said, ‘ Why can’ t I make him hear?’ ‘ Because,’ he said, ‘ you forget one very simple thing. You do not take hold of the receiver firmly.’” Oh, how often in our appeals to high Heaven we ask and receive not because we forget to take a firm hold. (R. J. Campbell, M. A.) God will hear my prayer There is Christ, as most of us, I suppose, believe, Lord of all creatures, administering the affairs of the universe; the steps of His throne and the precincts of His court are thronged with dependents whose eyes wait upon Him, who are fed from His stores; and yet my poor voice may steal through that chorus-shout of petition and praise, and His ear will detect its lowest note, and will separate the thin stream of my prayer from the great sea of supplication which rolls to His seat, and will answer me. (A. Maclaren, D.D.) Psalms 102:13-14 Thou shalt arise, and have mercy upon Zion: for the time to favour her, yea, the set time, is come.A revival of the Church, and symptoms which precede it I. There is a favourable time to promote the revival of the Church.1. The source to which the Church must look for a revival. The Lord alone can revive the Church, and add to her such as shall be saved (Psalms 80:1-3; Psalms 85:6; Isaiah 51:3; Habakkuk 3:2; Zechariah 4:6). 2. The nature of that revival which the Church may expect. The words “ mercy” and “ favour” suggest-- (1) Deliverance.(2) Union. There may be unity of effort with a great variety of name, method, and form. The union of which God is the Author is frequently spoken of in the Bible (Psalms 133:1-3.; John 13:34-35; John 17:21).(3) Prosperity. The conversion of sinners. 3. The time when the revival of the Church may be expected. The deliverance of the Jews from their captivity was foretold (Isaiah 14:1-2; Jeremiah 25:11-12; Jeremiah 32:36-39). How wonderfully Jehovah brought about the deliverance of His people from Babylon at the set time! He influenced Cyrus and Darius, heathen princes, to forward it. He raised up Ezra and Nehemiah, etc. II. The revival of the Church is always preceded by certain infallible signs.1. Solemn humiliation before God. Before the Jews were delivered from the Babylonish captivity, they were humbled before God on account of their transgressions. The nation was ashamed and cured of its idolatry, and never since then has it bent its knees at an idol’ s shrine (Ezra 9:6-7; Ezra 10:1; Daniel 9:7-11). Is there this spirit of humiliation before God in modern churches? 2. Special, importunate, believing prayer. What beautiful instructions and examples we have in the Bible of the value of such prayer (Isaiah 62:1; Ezekiel 36:37; Luke 11:5-10). 3. Affection for the ordinances of God’ s house. They loved the very stones, and even the dust of their dilapidated Zion (Psalms 137:5-6). So it is in a revival of religion. When God is about to visit His people in mercy, everything in regard to the Church is loved. 4. Activity and self-denying efforts in God’ s cause. The Jews showed their love to Jerusalem in a practical manner (Nehemiah 4:6). They work despite the scorn of their foes. Let these signs exist in any Church, and the fruit will soon appear. She shall increase in purity and influence. (J. Wileman.) Religious revival Zion is in captivity; but the psalmist is confident that God will deliver and revive His people. I. Grounds for expecting a revival.1. God’ s unchangeable character (verse 12).2. God’ s memory (verse 12).3. God’ s mercy (verse 13).4. God’ s purpose (verse 13). II. Signs of approaching revival.1. The Church’ s increased attention to all that pertains to its welfare and success (verse 14).2. Its affectionate desire for such a revival (verse 14).3. Its compassionate concern on account of prevailing desolations (verse 14).4. Its manifest pleasure in service (verse 14). III. The effects of such revival.1. The ungodly shall fear the Lord (verse 15).2. The great of earth will recognize our God, abiding in and working through His Church. (Anon.) The set time to favour Zion I. whenever God afflicts His Church He has good reasons for doing so.1. The purification of the Church. Before the last great persecution, under Diocletian, the Church had sunk into a state of declension from the truth and vital piety through the continuance of a long season of comparative tranquillity. The same remarks will apply even to a yet earlier persecution, under Decius. During this last calamity Cyprian, of Carthage, bore the following testimony:--“ It must be owned and confessed that this calamity has happened to us because of our sins. Christ, our Lord, fulfilled the will of His Father, but we neglect the will of Christ. Our main study is to get money and to raise estates. We follow after pride; we are at leisure for nothing but emulation and quarrelling, and have neglected the simplicity of the faith. We have renounced the world in words only, and not in deed.” 2. The trial and development of the graces of the saints. Adversity tries the mettle of our faith. It shows whether or not we are really walking under the influence of that principle which is the substance of things hoped for--the evidence of things not seen. It tests the quality of our zeal, demonstrating whether it be the mere result of the excitement produced by a crowd, or whether it has its foundation sufficiently deep in principle and affection to sustain it in being and activity when it has to work, as did Elijah, almost alone; whether it be like the flower, which blooms in summer and dies in winter; or like the hardy evergreen, which lifts its head and wears its foliage amid the severest cold. Every Christian grace is, more or less, tried, and the whole character of the man of God is tested by adversity--just as the qualities of the ship are proved by the fury of the billows on which she rides, and the might of the tempest with which she is assailed. And as a time of adversity tries, so it strengthens and matures the virtues of the Church. It imparts a robustness to the faith of believers, and an energy to their patience and zeal. It brings them into frequent and protracted communion with their God, and imparts an agonizing earnestness to their addresses to the throne of grace. 3. The display of the Divine power to deliver. It is manifest that if the Church had no trials, she could have no deliverances. God permits her to be led into straits, that He may show her how He can save, and that the recollection of past deliverances may fortify her mind against all future difficulties. II. God has a set time for the deliverance of the Church.1. This time is unalterably fixed by the Divine wisdom and mercy. 2. It is selected as being most conducive to the Divine glory. He commonly selects the time when He sees that “ the power of His people is gone, and that there is none shut up nor left “ for their deliverance. Then the creature can arrogate none of the praise to himself, and it is evident that all the honour must be laid at the feet of the Almighty. The pride of all human glorying “ is stained,” and “ the Lord alone is exalted.” 3. The arrival of this time is promoted by the whole course of Providence. How admirably does the history of the Reformation in Europe in the sixteenth century illustrate this sentiment. The rising up of such men as Luther, Melanchthon, Zuingle, Calvin, Knox, and their coadjutors, and their appearance almost simultaneously upon the theatre of Europe; the extraordinary political convulsions of the times, which repeatedly served to divert the attention of the enemies of the Church from their designs upon her; the conversion to the faith of some of the potentates of Germany, and other countries, who screened most opportunely the lives of the reformers from the fury of the papists; the recent invention of the art of printing; and the revival of literature under the auspices of Erasmus, all served to aid in shaking the ponderous pillars of the papal power! The pages of general ecclesiastical history, and of particular religious communities, abound with examples of a similar character, proving that the course of Providence, and the riches of universal nature, are ever subservient to the Mediator’ s sceptre. III. The near approach of the time to favour zion is always indicated by certain infallible signs. It is preceded by--1. The sanctification to the Church of her trials. When God’ s design in the affliction of His Church is answered, the chastisement ceases. 2. The prevalence of great affection for the ordinances and people of God. One principal evidence that the Lord was about to restore the Jews to their native land, was the ardour of their reviving affection for the city and Temple of their God. 3. Faith in the Divine promises. Faith is to God’ s mercies what the tone of the digestive organs is to the aliment of which we partake. It enables us so to receive them as to convert them into nourishment for our spiritual life; whereas without faith they would only produce sluggishness and disease. (John Stock.) Zion’ s prosperity I. The nature of the prosperity of the Christian Church. We do not conceive it necessarily to be a sign of a church’ s prosperity when the congregation is large or rich, or the minister eloquent. We must consider for what purposes the Church was formed; and if it be not accomplishing that particular object, it is not prospering. The Church is established for two objects: first, for bringing God’ s wandering sheep back to the fold of Christ; and, secondly, for fostering those sheep that are brought within the fold. II. The necessity for tee prosperity of the Church. I trust that some of you have a regard for the Church’ s prosperity; if not, you ought to have. Let me remind you why; even selfish as we may be, we ought to care for the success of the Church.1. For our own sakes. If we do not, by Divine grace, live and labour for our fellow-creatures, their decline will have a deleterious influence upon our own piety. 2. Your families, too, are deeply interested in the prosperity of the Church. What is good for the parent is good for the child, and what is good for the child is good for the parent. 3. Also, for the sake of the neighbourhood in which you live, labour for God, seeking His blessing, that your Church may prosper. 4. Again, for the sake of our nation, seek the prosperity of Zion. If we are to be a prosperous nation, we shall not accomplish that result by our commerce, or by the force of arms, but by our Christianity. The flag of old England is nailed to the mast, not by our sailors, but by our God. But, most of all, we want to see the Church prosper for Christ’ s sake. III. The only means of revival in God’ s Church. What is it? We may hear of some great evangelist going through the land; surely he will revive the Churches. We will hold a convocation of the clergy, and they shall devise means of reviving the Churches. Not so thinks the psalmist; he says, “ Thou shalt arise,” as if God had nothing to do but to arise, and then His Church would arise, too; for, when God arises, Zion begins to prosper. How easy are the methods by which God accomplishes His great works! IV. The signs that God’ s Church is being blessed (verse 14). What are the “ stones” of Zion?1. The Church of God is built of living stones,--that is, the children of God; and it is a good sign when God’ s servants take pleasure in one another, and “ favour the dust,” --that is, not the ministers, nor the deacons, but the poor members. 2. The next translation we will give of this word “ stones” is, the doctrines of the Bible. You say, “ I do not see so much in doctrines, after all.” Then you will not see much prosperity. I love so much what I believe to be true, that I would fight for every grain of it; not for the “ stones” only, but for the very “ dust thereof.” I hold that we ought not to say that any truth is non-essential; it may be non-essential to salvation, but it is essential for something else. 3. The stones of Christ’ s Church are the ordinances, and God’ s people ought to take care that they love her “ stones,” and favour her “ dust.” 4. It is a good sign of the Church’ s prosperity when the ministry of the Word and the prayer-meeting are well attended;--especially the latter. If you say, “ It is only a prayer-meeting,” even that is the “ dust “ of Zion, and God’ s people “ take pleasure in her stones, and favour the dust thereof,” --the little services as well as the great services. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Zion’ s ruin and Zion’ s hope I. Zion’ s state of ruin and desolation.1. The enemies of vital godliness triumph.2. Iniquity abounds, and the love of many cools.3. Worldliness.4. Sorrow.5. Darkness. Zion is under a cloud. The world asks: “ Where is thy God?” II. Zion’ s friends.1. They love its ruins and dust.2. The very mournful state of Zion produced a gracious effect upon the hearts of its friends. III. Zion’ s hope.1. Zion’ s hope is in God.2. God’ s time to work deliverance is when His people are ready.3. God’ s time, yea, God’ s set time, has come, when hopeful signs appear among God’ s people. It would be presumption to expect God to work for us if we were inactive. The love of God’ s people for Zion prompts their prayers; their knowledge of God inspires hope. (E. Compton.) Psalms 102:14 For Thy servants take pleasure in her stones, and favour the dust thereof.The secret of the stones Stones and dust! Stones that have fallen out of place and lie scattered on the ground; dust that flies on every wind and drops back again into crevice and heap. Stones that are chipped and stained with smoke and fire and blood; dust, the final form of great things, the last remainder of vanished glories. There is nothing specially interesting or attractive about these things; you would not go out of the way to view them. Yet to a certain few they are beautiful with a beauty neither nature nor art can give. They are the stones of a temple that once smoked with sacrifice and rang with resounding psalms. It is the dust of a shrine that once reared its head into the sky, and centred in itself the national pride and worship. I. Bricks and stones and mortar are neither interesting nor impressive materials. Scattered about over yards and fields, they have no attraction for any one except the boys of the neighbourhood. But bring them together, combine them, and their condition is at once altered, and the commonplace things become a force whose power all men must acknowledge. Weld them into the monument of some illustrious statesman, and crowds will gather round it and garland it with flowers. Build them into some cathedral of vast proportions, and the effect is overwhelming; you sink into insignificance, and feel like an ant crawling over its floor. Fashion them into some mighty sepulchre to hold the dust of some uncrowned king, and pilgrims from the far places of the earth will come to gaze upon it. II. The temple stones have a power over us, but the secret of their power is not so much in them as in that with which they are identified. It may be found partly in the memories which cluster about them. Round those stones of the Temple there hung for the Jew memories of his two great kings, David and Solomon--memories of the full tide of national prosperity and the zenith of their power as an empire; of the great priests and prophets who had ruled them; of the oracles and revelations in national need; of great days of festival; and of sacrifice, confession, and pardon. And our less ancient and less historic fanes are full of memories, less splendid, but equally dear. There is the memory of one long since dead, who first guided our little feet up the aisle. There is the memory of the saintly men who first taught us how sweet and strong and beautiful human character could be. There is the memory of friendships formed there and loves born there which have been woven into our lives, and are part of our lives for ever. There is the memory of that great hour when we first discovered Christ was real and living, and knew what it was to believe and be saved. III. It is customary for some to look upon this affection with scarcely veiled contempt. They call it love for bricks and mortar, and dub it superstition and sentiment. Instead of being a superstition or sentiment, this attachment to God’ s house is one of the great forces which make for the building of character. Love of the temple is love of the best and highest, and its harvest is nobility of character and righteousness of life. Let us use our wisdom, our intellects, our energy, and our wealth to make the temple increasingly dear. Let us make it so beautiful, its service so attractive, its ministry so strong, its power so Christlike that the love for the stones of His house--which is one of the strongest formative and conserving forces in the lives of men and nations--may be the common and binding sentiment of all classes of men. (C. E. Stone.) Psalms 102:16 When the Lord shall build up Zion, He shall appear in His glory.The building up of Zion I. When may Zion, or the Christian Church, be said to be built up?1. When sinners are converted to God. 2. When Christian converts grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour. 3. When pure and undefiled religion spreads to the ends of the earth. II. The building of Zion is God’ s own work.1. He is the Author, Cause, and Fountain of all blessedness. 2. He has promised prosperity, success, and extension to the Christian Church. III. In the building up of the Christian Church, there is an extraordinary display of the glory of God. Conclusion:--1. Christians may see how much reason they have to be confident and joyful under the most discouraging circumstance which occur, both with respect to themselves and the Church. 2. The duty of Christians to observe, with habitual attention, the course of Providence, and diligently to compare it with the designs announced in prophecy. 3. Reproof to those who are saying that the time is not yet come for the friends of Zion to exert themselves with diligence and zeal for her building up, extension, and glory. 4. The extreme folly, impiety, and danger of those who ridicule our hopes, and attempt to oppose the progress of the gospel 5. This subject is eminently fitted to illuminate our path, and direct our steps, in the present situation of the world. 6. Our subject affords great encouragement to missionary plans and exerstions. (W. B. Browne.) The glory of God displayed in the building up of Zion I. The building up of Zion is wholly the work of God. In affecting this work, indeed, it pleaseth God to employ and to honour mortal men, and other creatures, visible and invisible. He calls “ pastors and teachers for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ,” by publishing and enforcing the doctrine of salvation. He raises up kings and queens, and princes and nobles, to be “ nursing fathers and nursing mothers” to His Church. He gives a Paul to plant, and an Apollos to water. This He does, however, not because He stands in absolute need of them, nor because of any fitness they possess in themselves to accomplish the end. All their motions and operations and success depend entirely upon God. II. When it pleaseth God to build up zion, He appears in His glory.1. Consider the materials of which the Church is built. When a building of strength, of beauty, and of magnificence, is to be erected, men collect the most excellent materials that can be procured. But here, materials are chosen and employed which are in themselves the most worthless, and the most unlikely to answer the purpose. 2. Consider the instruments which God employs for accomplishing this great object (1 Corinthians 1:27-28; Matthew 21:16; 2 Corinthians 12:9). 3. Consider the circumstances of the times in which Zion is most remarkably built up; times the most unlikely for her revival. Such was her condition at the close of the seventy years’ captivity, when she was like “ a valley of dry bones.” Such was her condition when “ the Word was made flesh, and tabernacled” on earth; and when the apostles of Jesus were sent forth to propagate the Gospel among the nations, “ blinded by the god of this world, sitting in darkness, and in the region and shadow of death.” III. What the particular glories are which He then displays.1. His unsearchable wisdom. The plots and combinations of avowed enemies, their strength, their artful policy, their cruelty, their persecutions, nay, the very imperfections, faults, and corruptions of sincere friends (like the contention between Paul and Barnabas), all contribute to the building of the Church, though all of them seem to have a quite contrary tendency. 2. His almighty power. So eminently is this Divine excellence manifested in this work, that it is not unusually represented in prophecy, as a new creation (Isaiah 65:17-18). 3. His holiness. 4. His benignity. 5. His faithfulness. 6. His justice. (T. Davidson, D.D.) God’ s glory in the building up of Zion I remember to have seen, close by the side of the Alps, a house which had upon its front words to this effect: “ This house was built entirely by the skill, wealth, and industry of its inhabitants.” It struck me as not being a very modest thing to put in front of one’ s house, for after all the structure was not very marvellous; but when we look at the glorious architecture of the Church of God, it would be no mean part of its lustre that it may fittingly bear such an inscription as this--“ This house was built entirely by the wisdom, the munificence, and the power of the infinite Jehovah.” I. Zion built up.1. One essential to the building up of Zion is practical conversion. As we see our sons converted, and the great miracle of regeneration still being performed, we take heart and are of good courage to go on in the work of the Lord. 2. A public confession of faith must follow conversion. It is the duty of every Christian--nay, it is the instinct of his spiritual life--to avow the faith which he has received, and avowing it, he finds himself associated with others who have made the same profession, and he assists them in holy labour. When he is strong he ministers of his strength to the weak, and when he is himself weak, he borrows strength from those who just then may happen to be strong in the faith. 3. We cannot build without union. A house must have its doors, and its windows, its foundation, its rafters, and its ceiling. So, a church must be organized; it must have its distinct offices and officers; it must have its departments of labour, and proper men must be found, according to Christ’ s own appointment, to preside over those departments. 4. There must also be edification and instruction in the faith. No neglect of an appeal to the passions, certainly; no forgetfulness as to what is popular and exciting; but with this we must have the solid bread-corn of the kingdom, without which God’ s children will faint in the weary way of this wilderness. 5. It does not strike me, however, that I have yet given a full picture of the building up of a church, for a church such as I have described would not yet answer the end for which Christ ordained it. Christ ordained His Church to be His great aggressive agency in combating with six, and with the world that lieth in the wicked one. 6. After a church has become all that I have been describing, the next thing it ought to do should be to think of the formation of other churches. The building up of an empire must often be by colonization; and it is the same with the Church. II. The building up of Zion is, according to the text, connected with Jehovah’ s being glorified.1. God often appears in glory to me as one of His builders, and I will tell you in what respect. When I have been sitting to see inquirers, I have sometimes found that God has blessed to the conversion of souls some of my worst sermons--those which I thought I could weep over, which seemed more than ordinarily weak, and lacking in all the elements likely to make them blessed, except that they were sincerely spoken. 2. Persons have been brought up and educated under sermons that are as hostile to spiritual life as the plague is to natural life. The case of Luther is one instance of this, and in all such cases God appears in His glory. 3. Think, too, of the agencies which are abroad hostile to the Church of God. What a splendid thing was that--may we see it repeated in our own day!--when the twelve fishermen first attacked Roman idolatry. The prestige of ages made the idolatry of Rome venerable; it had an imperial Caesar and all his legions at its back, and every favourable auspice to defend it. Those twelve men, with no patronage but the patronage of the King of kings, with no learning except that which they had learned at the feet of Jesus, with weapons as simple as David’ s sling and stone, went forth to the fight; and you know how the grisly head of the monstrous idolatry was by and by in the hands of the Christian champion as he returned rejoicing from the fray. So shall it be yet again, and then, amidst the acclamation of myriad witnesses, shall God appear in His glory. III. The hope excited. If God be glorified by the building up of Zion, then most certainly Zion will be built. If He is glorified by the conversion, and by the banding together of converted men and women, then it seems but natural to hope, yea, with certainty we may conclude that the zeal of the Lord of Hosts will perform it. I like the spirit in which Luther used to say, that when he could get God into his quarrels he felt safe. When it was Luther alone, he did not know which way it would go; but when he felt that his God would be compromised and dishonoured if such a thing were not done, and would be glorified if it were done, then he felt safe enough. So in the great crusade of truth is not God with us beyond a doubt? The honour of the Church is intertwisted with the honour and glory of Christ; if she shall pass away, if she be deserted, then where is her Captain, her Head, her Husband? IV. Our whole subject suggests an inquiry. Have I any part or lot in this work which is to bring glory to God? I may have to do with it in two ways, as a builded one, or as a builder. I can have nothing to do with it in the latter capacity, unless I have had to do with it in the former. God will be glorified in the building up of Zion: shall I minister to His glory by being part of the Zion that is to be built up? If thou wouldst glorify God, humble thyself, and receive salvation from the Lord Jesus Christ: and then, being built upon this foundation, thou shall glorify God. The inquiry shapes itself afresh. Hast thou anything to do with glorifying God in respect of being thyself a builder up of Zion? Did you ever win a soul to Christ? (C. H. Spurgeon.) Zion built--the glory of the Lord I. Zion may lie for a time in a somewhat ruinous condition.1. When but few are converted--when a preached Gospel does not reach the heart--and when pardon, grace, and salvation are not seen, and acknowledged, to be the most important objects that can be attended to or pursued. 2. When many of the professors of religion draw back, and the enemy of souls hath so far prevailed as to lessen their number. When a worldly and carnal, proud or contentious spirit, or any other proceeding from the same corrupt source, makes inroads among Christians, carries them off from those societies to which they belonged, and from that allegiance they owed and professed to Christ; her walls are broken. 3. When the religious character of those who compose the Church of God is low. When those who belong to Christ are weak in faith, and inconstant in their affections; when they are so immersed in the cares and concerns of this world as that they move but slowly on the road to that for which they were born, and to which they ought ever to aspire; when they do not attend the house of God with that constancy, pleasure, and profit they once did; when they read not the Word of God with that relish and self-appreciation which they formerly experienced--and when the warmth of their holy zeal and devotion is abated, the Church is in an unhappy state. II. To build up zion is the work and province of God.1. This will appear from His own Word, which is the highest authority (Psalms 147:2-4; Ezekiel 36:26-28; Ezekiel 36:36; Matthew 16:16-17; Ephesians 2:10; 1 Corinthians 6:2; 1 Corinthians 3:9). 2. When I consider what the Christian is, the principles by which he is actuated, the spirit he possesses, the attainments he makes, the calm fortitude and dignity with which he meets affliction and death, and that unparalleled heroism which multitudes have displayed in persecuting times; I can be at no loss to know, independent of the Word of God, whose work and province it must be to build up Zion at large, the Church in Britain, or those Christian societies to which we belong. 3. When we consider the blindness of men, the hardness of the human heart, the very affecting contrariety there is in us to the holy nature and righteous law of God, the state of things in the world, in a religious view, when the Saviour appeared, and what is the real state of the unconverted in these times; does it not appear that the grace and power of God are requisite to raise a Church out of such materials? III. It is a wok in which He will certainly engage. From the perfections of Jehovah--from the personal dignity and glory of the Redeemer, the scenes he passed through, and the characters he now sustains--from the preparation that was made for His appearing among men--from Christianity’ s having nothing of a local nature, but being equally suited to the state and condition of all men--and also from the circumstance of the Gospel’ s having stood the test of the strictest inquiry for so many years; and the strongest objections that have been made to it only serving to clear and illustrate its evidence; it appears exceedingly probable, that the kingdom of Christ will more fully come, and His religion have a more splendid and glorious triumph. But the main pillar of our hope, with respect to this delightful subject, are the promises and declarations of Him, to whom nothing is impossible (Psalms 2:8; Isaiah 11:9; Psalms 36:9; Daniel 7:18; Malachi 1:2). IV. Then the Lord will appear in His glory.1. When faith and holiness prevail among men, the Lord will appear in the glory of His wisdom. This perfection shines whenever a single soul is converted: how much more when the glorious fruits and effects of the Redeemer’ s undertaking, death, and intercession shall be abundantly visible! 2. When Zion is built in the world at large, or in any particular place, the Lord will appear in the glory of His power. What display can there be of this Divine attribute, at once so honourable to God, and happy to man, as “ quickening the dead in trespasses and sins” ; causing the blind to see, the deaf to hear, the insensible to feel, and changing the corrupt and sinful bias of the human heart? 3. When Zion is built, God will appear in the glory of His grace and love. 4. When the Lord shall build up Zion, He will appear in the glory of His truth and faithfulness. God will appear to be faithful to every engagement into which he entered with His Son, and to every promise which His Word contains. On a review of what hath been advanced--1. Let us rejoice in, and be grateful to God for what He hath done, and is still doing, towards building up Zion. 2. Let us rejoice in that great prosperity which awaits the Christian cause; and let the Church encourage herself under all her troubles. 3. Let us all cherish an ardent desire of seeing the Church of God in a more prosperous state, and manifest that desire by our utmost exertions in its favour. (N. Hill.) Psalms 102:17 He will regard the prayer of the destitute, and not despise their prayer.Good news for the destitute Trumpets are sounding, banners are displayed, princes and nobles glitter in their array, and the King appears in His glory. But who is this whose mournful wail disturbs the harmony? Whence comes this ragged mendicant who bows before the Prince? Surely he will be dragged away by the soldiery, or cast into prison by the warders, for daring to pollute so grand a ceremonial by sash wretched presumption! But see, the King hears him, the sound of the trumpet has not drowned the voice of the destitute. His Majesty listens to him while he asks an alms, and in matchless compassion pities all his groans. Who is this King but Jehovah? I. The spiritual pauper. The spiritual pauper is, in our text, described as “ destitute,” and you may take the word in its extreme sense--the spiritually poor man is not only positively but utterly, thoroughly, terribly destitute. He is destitute of all wealth of merit or possession of righteousness. He is so far from claiming anything like merit that he loathes the very thought of self-righteousness, feeling himself to be guilty, undeserving, ill-deserving, and hell-deserving, meriting only to be banished from the presence of God for ever. There is a kind of destitution which is bearable. A man may be quite penniless, but he may be so accustomed to it that he does not care; he may even be more happy in rags and filth than in any other condition. Have you ever seen the lazzaroni of Naples’ ? Notwithstanding all their attempts to move your compassion, they generally fail after you have once seen them lying on their backs in the sun, amusing themselves the livelong day. You feel sure that beggary is their natural element; they are perfectly satisfied to be mendicants like their fathers, and to bring up their sons to the profession. The ease of poverty suits their constitutions. But the spiritual pauper is not a member of this free and easy lazzaroni club by any manner of means, he is destitute of content. The poverty which is upon him is one which he cannot endure, or for a moment rest under; it is a heavy yoke to him, he sighs and cries under it. He is hungering and thirsting after righteousness. II. His suitable occupation. He has taken to begging, and it is a very fitting occupation for him, indeed there is nothing else he can do. Blessed is that soul which is shut up to prayer. When you stand as a condemned criminal at the bar, and plead “ Guilty, guilty, guilty,” then you stand where God can look upon you with an eye of pity, and can save you. The trade of begging is one which is most suitable for a spiritual pauper, because, if he cannot do anything else, I warrant you be can do this right well. They say in London that many of our beggars are mere actors, they mimic distress; if so they do it uncommonly well, and are splendid imitations. But I will venture to say this, that nobody will ask help so well as the man whose distress is real; he needs no one to teach him, starvation is his tutor. Take away his diffidence, and give him courage enough, and his distress will make him eloquent. Still, perhaps, there will be some here who say, “ I do not feel in a fit state to ask for mercy.” It is your unfitness that is your fitness. Your poverty fits you for alms, your sickness fits you for the physician, your being nothing fits you to have Christ made all in all to you; your emptiness is all He wants, that He may fill it with all the fulness of His grace. Take to begging; that is the way to be rich towards God. III. The mendicant’ s very natural fear. He is afraid that the great King will despise his prayer, or will not regard it, and he is afraid of this, first, from the greatness and holiness of God to whom he addresses himself. Can He look on worthless me? Infinite, and yet listen to my sigh; eternal, and yet catch my tears? Can it be? Many are a long while in distress of soul, because they do not remember that there is a Mediator between God and man, the Man Christ Jesus. God is thus glorious, but he is not far from any of us; for there is one who is God, and at the same time a man like ourselves, even Jesus, who has compassion on the ignorant, and on those that are out of the way. Cease ye then to fear, for the gulf is bridged. You may approach the Lord, for Jesus has paved the way The same fear takes another shape. Trembling souls are afraid that God can never look upon them in love, because their prayer itself is so unworthy of notice. Ah, yes; but the Lord looketh at the heart, and he does not regard the eloquence nor the style of prayer after the manner of man. Cry on, and look away to Jesus, and you shall find all your destitute soul wants, and one of these days you who have learned to pray shall learn to praise and bless the prayer-answering God who did not suffer the soul of the destitute to perish. The Lord visit you at this moment and give you peace! IV. Our text affords to the destitute beggar a most comfortable assurance. “ He will regard the prayer of the destitute.” God, in order that destitute sinners should never doubt His willingness to hear their prayers, has left this on record, with a very special note appended to it: “ This shall be written for the generation to come, and the people which shall be created shall praise the Lord.” You see the Lord not only said that He would regard the prayer of the destitute, but He added, “ This shall be written,” because, when a poor soul is in doubt and fear, there is nothing like having it in black and white. God has said it, but, says He, they shall not merely go by their ears, they shall see with their eyes. “ This shall be written.” When a man brings my own handwriting to me and says, “ You promised me, and there is the writing,” I cannot get away from it; and how shall the Lord draw back from what He has said, “ This shall be written for the generation to come” ? Oh, it must stand true. Be of good courage, poor seeking sinner, God will hear you. Remember, too, that when the Lord Jesus Christ was on earth, He used to choose for His associates the destitute. “ This man receiveth sinners,” said they, “ and eateth with them.” “ Then drew near unto Him all the publicans and sinners for to hear Him.” Jesus cast out none when He was here; He will cast out none that come to Him now. Remember, in the matter of praying, that God loves to hear sinners pray. We may be quite sure of that, because He teaches them how to pray. Do not be afraid, therefore, to pour out those broken sentences which God the Holy Spirit has taught you. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Psalms 102:18 This shall he written for the generation to come.Our responsibility towards the young The antecedent to the word “ this” are the truths contained in Psalms 102:1-13 :--1. That the Lord will have mercy upon Zion.2. That the heathen shall fear the name of the Lord.3. That He will build up Zion.4. That He will regard the prayer of the destitute. These were the promises that were to be written for the generations to come. Why written? That they might be preserved and handed down. Tradition is uncertain, imperfect, often fails wholly, cannot command credence. The New Testament declares that these things were written for our instruction. I. What has been written?1. Observe the nature of this knowledge of God which was written. It concerns God’ s faithfulness and ability in the performance of all He has promised. He who makes a promise comes under obligation. In this God differs from man. He was under no obligation to come under obligation. Having promised, He has come under obligation, and Christians everywhere bear testimony to His faithfulness and His ability to perform fully all He has freely promised. 2. What God has promised. The great thing is the reconciliation of Himself to man; the salvation worked out through atonement; the establishment of a Church--a family that bears the name of Jesus. Salvation can be wrought only through this atonement. It is loose thinking that makes men imagine that education, culture, political economy, philosophy can lift up the world. The fear of the Lord lifts up man. II. Our duty.1. Let us be faithful to our own children. We want more men and women to tell to the generation coming of God’ s promises and faithfulness. 2. We want to take care of the children grown up into youth. The most critical period in the life of man is when he is breaking away from home. How many of the children at this age become vagrants among the Churches, wandering here and there, receiving but little benefit and giving none. The class most largely reached are the children of believing parents. 3. Then we have a great work to do among the children near us, those who are to be our fellow-citizens. A great work is there to be done. God knows there is enough of ignorance and criminality around us. These evils must be restrained by knowledge, by virtue. Ignorance and crime must be restrained, or social ruin is inevitable. 4. We must do all possible for the children of the entire country. If we would have the nation Christian, we must work and bear the burdens. We have the opportunity. (John Hall, D.D.) Psalms 102:24I said, O my God, take me not away in the midst of my days: Thy years are throughout all generations.The death of good men, in the midst of their days, considered and improved I. The reasons of this dispensation.1. The sovereignty of the Divine will, which is-- (1) Absolute.(2) Uncontrollable. But the will of God is always reasonable. 2. It is a point of wisdom. We are born mortal, and under a sentence of death. When any, therefore, are removed in early life, as there is nothing uncommon and extraordinary, so it is nothing but what He has a right to do by the constitution of His law, and has reserved the judgment of to Himself. But more particularly still-- 3. It is a display of His all-sufficiency, and to show that He needs not the best instruments, and the most fitted for His service, but that He can do without them, or raise up others in their room. 4. It is in great mercy to themselves. It is a great kindness to them, though it is a grief and loss to us. (1) He sometimes removes them from the evil of the world, and impending calamities coming upon it (Isaiah 47:1). (2) Or they may be taken from the snares of life, and the temptations of sin, which might prove a great disadvantage to them; and from all the conflicts and hazards of the Christian life, which they are sure to be exercised with. (3) Besides, it is a great instance of Divine mercy that He takes them the sooner to heaven, and gives them their reward betimes. They are not only the sooner out of danger, but the sooner happy. 5. It may be considered as an act of justice, and as the punishment of sin. (1) God may remove useful persons in the midst of their days, in rebuke for their own sin. He may see fit to contend with them for former offences (Deuteronomy 32:40). (2) Or else they may be removed for the sins of others. God may take them away for our over-indulgence, and too great opinion and expectation from them. Gustavus Adolphus, the great patron of the Reformation, is reported to have said in the midst of his remarkable victories and success, “ That he believed God was about to lay him aside, because the eyes of all Europe were drawn upon him, and their expectations raised to so great a height.” (3) Or else, it may be on the other hand, when they are neglected and slighted. God sometimes punishes the ungrateful world by removing early eminent persons, whom they did not know how to value or treat with kindness. 6. It is for the good of others, and to exercise the graces and virtues of those who survive. What so proper as the thoughts of death, to inspire our sluggish souls with life and vigour, and makes us more fervent in spirit and zealous of good works, to keep up a lively sense of religion in the world, and a constant care to please God? Hereupon-- 7. To be a standing monument of human frailty, and to give warning to all about them. 8. Perhaps it may be considered as an instance of our conformity to Christ. As the servant must not be above his lord, and we must not expect kinder usage from the world than He met with; so we must not wonder if we are suffered to stay no longer in it than He did. 9. It is to make heaven more desirable to us, and raise our hearts more powerfully thither. II. Improvement of the subject.1. We should reverence and adore the Divine sovereignty and wisdom. Does He do us any wrong when He takes away what is His, and calls back again what we first received from Him, and enjoyed so long by His leave? 2. Let us look more to God, and live more entirely upon Him. 3. Let us comfort ourselves in their loss by the consideration of the mercy it is to them. Let not us be uneasy that they are happy, and repine at that which is the matter of their joy. 4. Yet we should be humbled under the sense of their loss, and lament it as a great affliction. 5. It should teach us to value useful men while they live, and make the best use of them we can. Labour to be better for them, and get some good by them, while you have them. 6. The reasonableness of early religion, and being in good earnest in it. And here let me caution you against dangerous delays, and reckoning upon long life, and neglecting present duty. 7. What reason of thankfulness for longer life and opportunity! How great is the mercy of continued life in a view of further usefulness, and better preparation for heaven. (W. Harris, D.D.) The year past 1. Time is a sacred deposit, entrusted to them who sometimes think they have no one talent for which they must give account at last. 2. Let us ask what new principles we have gained, or what old principles have been confirmed and strengthened in that space of time. The question I have really in sight is this--Have you been leaving the first rudiments of the faith, and going on unto perfection? 3. With regard to our habits, what use have we made of the closing year? Have evil habits loosened their hold; have good ones been grafted in their place? 4. Inquire how the year has been employed with respect to the society we have sought, the connections we have made, the friendships we have cemented. Have you been prudent? Have you never sat in the seat of the scornful; nor stood in the way of sinners? (J. B. Marsden, M. A.) The year to come In all undertakings, success very much depends upon the plan we have laid down to guide our conduct. What, then, are the plans by which your course is to be steered throughout the coming year? Life’ s voyage will lie among hidden rocks, as well as over stormy seas. Of the dangers you will meet with, some are evident, but some cannot yet be known. How, then, do you propose to conduct the frail bark in which your all is ventured? On what principles, in what direction, do you purpose to proceed? I. Some events may be foreseen.1. The duties which our station will demand. 2. The difficulties with which our station in life is usually connected. We should foresee, in order to resist and conquer them. Shall we pass on as heretofore? No fresh precautions! Such indifference is the prelude to destruction. 3. What facilities our condition in life will afford for spiritual improvement. Is not the Lord’ s Day such an one? II. Some events are contingent as regards ourselves, though not so in the sight of God. The preparation they demand is that which events call for that may come soon, and of which some at least must come at last.1. Unexpected sorrow may surprise us; and how soon we cannot tell, for we know not what a day may bring forth. 2. Sudden prosperity may await you. “ In all time of our wealth, good Lord, deliver us.” 3. There is another trial which may overtake us lengthened sickness. 4. Death itself may appear within the limits of the present year. Should not a great seriousness mark our deportment? Should not the world be less, and heaven far more, in our thoughts? (J. B. Marsden, M. A.) Fear in the prospect of death Here a pious Israelite, whether Nehemiah, or some other, for self and for the afflicted Church; elsewhere, David, Job, Hezekiah, and others, in like manner cast into gloom and great grief at the prospect. I. If even Christians themselves had tormenting fear, let us by God’ s help seek out some of the causes of this distemper, that we may be guided to its cure.1. Christians shrink from the prospect of death as long as there remains any uncertainty as to their real state in the sight of God. The very light of the Gospel, where it is unaccompanied by the fulness of its felt comforts, intensifies the dread of the awful judgment. And what originates and fosters so much this morbid, melancholy foreboding and doubt in the matter that above all others is of most vital concern to you? What but not taking God at His word? You do not receive the record He has given concerning His Son. 2. Another hindrance to the tranquil prospect of death is the spiritual declension or backsliding to which Christians are liable. Love and zeal do not always burn with a steadfast flame, nor does this present world ever hold the child of God by such slender attachment, that like Job, Elijah, or Peter, he can pray for an instant summons hence. 3. There is sometimes a need-be, a gracious necessity in the sovereign purpose of God, that the valley that leads down to death should be shadowed with clouds and thick darkness. You know that all believers suffer chastisement in this present life for their sins; this is in God’ s infinite wisdom and love, and not in anger. Thus it is that strong natural passions are curbed, and thus, too, even amiable and pious persons, who follow the guidance of God’ s eye and lean on Christ, are taught that they too, like others, owe an infinite debt to the sovereign mercy; that they are infinitely unworthy, and God infinitely gracious and long-suffering; the fire is made to burn that they may meditate on love Divine and free. 4. It is sometimes a keen disappointment to a godly man to be summoned away in the midst of active usefulness. II. Suggestions that may be helpful to Christians in preserving a tranquil and cheerful prospect of death. For though dying grace must not be expected till the dying hour, the prospect and preparation for that dying hour is one of the highest duties of our lifetime.1. Remember, if you would welcome death without fear, your only standing ground, and refuge, and comfort, must be in the redeeming work of Christ. 2. If so, grace is begun; and as grace grows wherever it lives, seek the growth of grace if you would have a comfortable prospect of death. All who lean on Christ grow like Christ; and all who grow like Christ are fitting for heaven; and death is the happy portal that ushers them into His blissful presence, and the work and the joy of heaven differ more in measure than in character from the work and joy of the Christian life below. (G. B. Blake, M.A.) Death in the midst of life I. Those who are in the midst of their days are generally the most unwilling to die. Generally, I say, because there may be exceptions to this opinion. There are so many changes in the outward and inward statue of mankind, that some in the earlier, and some in the later period of life, may be the most unwilling to die.1. Those in the midst of their days have the strongest expectations of living. They have often been visibly exposed to accidents; but have always escaped those that are fatal. They have often been sick, and sometimes dangerously so; but have always happily recovered. All these recoveries from sickness, and escapes from danger, have had a natural tendency to create hopes and expectations of living, and still escaping future dangers and diseases. 2. Those in the midst of their days often wish to do a great deal more good in the world before they die. Nature and grace unite in giving them a peculiar reluctance to leaving the stage of action, before they have gratified their benevolent feelings. 3. Those in the meridian of life very often wish, not only to do more good, but to get more good in the world before they die. Mankind generally have the most promising prospects of worldly prosperity in the midst of their days. It is, therefore, in this fascinating season, that they most sensibly dread the approach of death, which must necessarily lay all their promising hopes and prospects in the dust. 4. Those in the meridian of life are the most intimately and extensively connected with their fellow-men. These connections are the principal source of human happiness in the present life, and render it the most pleasant and agreeable. 5. Those in the meridian of life are often very unwilling to leave the world, because they have not accomplished the designs they have formed, nor obtained the purposes which they have long pursued. 6. Those in the midst of their days are more unwilling to die than others, because they are more unfit. This is commonly the case, whether they are saints or sinners. We find that the meridian of life is often very different from the beginning and close of it, both in good and bad men. Christians frequently brighten up in the decline of life, who had been cold and lifeless in the days of their vigour and prosperity. And on the other side, those who had been stupid sinners in their early days, sometimes become more serious and disposed to think about death and eternity, in the decline of life. II. God does take away some in this period of life. It is true, indeed, He more seldom takes away the middle-aged, than either those who have not reached, or those who have passed, the meridian of life. Much the largest portion of the human race die before they have arrived at thirty years of age, and the next largest portion die after they have arrived at fifty. And between these two periods the smallest number of mankind go off the stage of action and return to dust. This may be owing to both natural and moral causes. In the meridian of life the bodily constitution is generally the most firm and robust, and least exposed to fatal accidents and disorders. The moral cause may be, that God has the most occasion for the exertion of mankind, while they are in the vigour of their mental and corporeal powers and faculties. He employs human agents in carrying on most of His providential designs. He has occasion for strong men, bold men, wise men, and enterprising men, to carry into execution His wise and holy purposes. Improvement:--1. If those in the meridian of life are so unwilling to die, then those who have been preserved through that period have peculiar reason to be thankful that they are still among the living. 2. If those in the meridian of life are so unwilling to die, and so desirous of living, then they have been greatly favoured and distinguished. Distinguishing goodness calls for distinguishing love, gratitude and obedience. 3. If those in the meridian of life are the most unwilling to die, then they are the most unwilling to hear and obey the voice of God in His Word and providence. 4. If those who are in the midst of their days are the most fond of living, and the most unwilling to die, then we may see one reason why God does actually take away some in that period of life. He may do this for the benefit or hurt of the dying, or for the benefit or hurt of the living. He knows that the deaths of those in the midst of their days are more alarming, and make a deeper impression upon the human mind, than the deaths of the young, or of the old. He knows how painful and distressing it will be to the dying, to have all their earthly desires and hopes destroyed; and He knows how distressing it will he to the living, to have those taken away on whom they had placed peculiar hopes and dependence. But He may see it best to disappoint all such mutual hopes and expectations, to teach them and others the vanity of the world, the uncertainty of life, and the infinite importance of being habitually and practically ready to go the way of all the earth. 5. If those in the midst of their days are the most unwilling to die, then those in this stage of life, in this place, are in a very dangerous situation. How few are either habitually or practically prepared to leave the world! How many are entirely absorbed in the cares and concerns of the world, and are too busy to think, to read, to hear, to meditate, or pray! They are standing all the day idle, and refusing to enter into the vineyard of Christ. They neither worship God in secret, nor in private, nor in public. Is it safe to stand, and live, and act in such a manner, while God has need of you, and calls you into His service? Are you willing to live in this manner; are you willing to die in this manner? (N. Emmons, D.D.) Prayer for a complete life, and its plea This is a prayer which springs from the bosom of the Old Testament, and it bears the impress of its time. Life and immortality had not yet been brought to light; and long life in the land which the Lord their God had given them was a special promise made to these ancient saints. The prayer looks to that promise. It is thus the request for a complete life. I. When is it that a life may be said to be complete? While length of life in this world is not the chief blessing of the New Testament, there is nothing wrong in desiring it, and that, when well used, it may have on it special marks of God’ s wisdom and kindness. It is necessary, then, in speaking of a complete life, to find those elements that will suit either him who has come to his grave in a full age, or the young who have been taken away in the beginning of their days. We thank God that in His Word we can find a goal where the old and the young may meet in a complete and perfect life.1. The first thing needed to gain this is that a man should have lived long enough to secure God’ s favour. Until he has found this he has not attained the great end for which life has been given to an intelligent and responsible creature. 2. A complete life has this in it still further, that it has done God and His world some service. We are here not merely to find God’ s favour, but to do God’ s work (John 9:4). Stephen’ s Christian life was short, and yet what ends it gained! The dying thief’ s was still shorter, but how many sermons his words have preached to dying men! 3. The next thing we mention in a complete life is that it should close with submission to the call of God. 4. It should look forward to a continual life with God. II. The plea for a complete life which this prayer contains. The psalmist contrasts his days with God’ s years, his being cut off in the midst of his days with those years that are throughout all generations. There is deep pathos in it, a sense of his own utter frailty and evanescence. And yet in the heart of it there is faith and hope. It is an appeal to God as the possessor of a complete life in the most absolute sense, the inhabitant and owner of eternity.1. The eternal life of God suggests the thought of His power to grant this request. He is the possessor of independent and everlasting existence, and can share it with His creatures as seems good to Him. 2. The eternal being of God suggests the thought of His immutability to secure the request. We may have the confidence of this if we realize the thought of an ever-living God, who not only gave being to our souls, but holds them in His hand, and puts into them desires after Himself. All the changes, whether of life or death, cannot affect our relation to Him, except in bringing us nearer. Without an eternal God, what refuge would there be for troubled souls? 3. The thought of God’ s eternal being suggests His Divine consistency as an encouragement to this request. He has done so much that we may infer He will, if we ask Him, do still more. When I contemplate Him, I see that His eternity is the enclosing zone, the compact and mighty girdle of all His attributes, without which they would be scattered, conflicting forces, aimless and chaotic and fruitless. And what eternity is to God, immortality is to man. It is the indispensable requisite to the unity and completeness of His being. If, then, God has made Himself my highest standard, His unalterable truth and righteousness and goodness the goal towards which I should press, may I not expect that the course will be opened which leads to the goal? 4. God’ s eternal being is a plea for this request, because it suggests His Divine compassion for us. Great natures are made not more limited by their greatness, but more comprehensive; and the eternity of God does not shut out the thoughts and trials of human lives, but brings them more within His merciful regard. When we feel a touch of tenderness to the feeble creatures around us, to the bird or butterfly that sings its song, and flutters its hour, and dies, let us not imagine that we are more compassionate than God. Every spark of mercy is from His hearth. And when He has put into our souls a sense of a higher life, and a cry for its fulness in Himself, let us not believe He will treat us worse than the beasts that perish, that He will meet their wants in His great liberality and leave ours in endless disappointment. (John Ker, D. D.) Psalms 102:26-28 They shall perish, but Thou shalt endure.A perishing world and an immutable God The great practical lesson which we are being daily taught is this, to withdraw our hearts from a changing and decaying world; and fix our hopes, and seek our happiness, in an unchanging and eternal God. This is the secret of real and permanent happiness to the soul of man. I. The description which the text gives of the material world--the heavens and the earth. They are described as--1. The effect of Divine operation. The contemplation of God’ s creative wisdom and power, as displayed in the works of His hands, should deepen the feeling of awe and reverence, with which we regard His sacred majesty. 2. Mutable, perishable, and destined to destruction. II. The contrast which it presents in the perfections of the world’ s Creator and man’ s Redeemer. Thus the shifting scenes and dissolving frame of nature may be improved by the children of God to their own comfort, by giving the force of a most advantageous contrast to the perfections of God their Saviour. III. The conclusion which it draws from this view of the Divine character. God our Redeemer will maintain His cause in this mutable world, as long as the world shall continue. Conclusion:--1. How utterly unsuitable the world and the things of the world are to be the chief objects of man’ s solicitude and pursuit. 2. How preeminently secure and blest are they, whose dependence and hopes are fixed in the eternal God. (Essex Remembrancer.) Things which grow not old 1. The love and mercy of God as shown in our creation, preservation, and all the blessings of this life, never grow old or wear out.2. The salvation of Jesus has not grown old.3. The sympathy of Jesus never grows old or worn out.4. Heaven never changes nor wears out. And yet how old Heaven is! (H. J. Wilmot Buxton, M.A.) Psalms 102:27 But Thou art the same, and Thy years shall have no end.The immutability of God God is unchangeable in His essence, nature, and perfections. This unchangeableness of God was anciently represented by the figure of a cube, a piece of metal or wood framed four square; when every side is exactly of the same equality, cast it which way you will, it will always be in the same posture, because it is equal to itself in all its dimensions. He was therefore said to be the centre of all things, and other things the circumference; the centre is never moved, while the circumference is; it remains immovable in the midst of the circle. Shadows and variations have no place in the eternal Father of lights; He hath not the least spot or diminution of brightness; nothing can cloud Him or eclipse Him. I. In what respects God is unchangeable.1. God is unchangeable in His essence. He is unalterably fixed in His being, that not a particle of it can be lost from it, nor a mite added to it. God is the first being, an independent being; He was not produced of Himself, or of any other, but by nature always hath been, and therefore cannot by Himself, or by any other, be changed from what He is in His own nature: that which is not may as well assume to itself a being as He who hath and is all being have the least change from what He is. Again, because He is a Spirit, He is not subject to those mutations which are found in corporeal and bodily natures; because He is an absolutely simple Spirit, not having the least particle of composition, He is not capable of those changes which may be in created spirits. 2. God is immutable in regard of knowledge. God hath known from all eternity all that which He can know, so that nothing is hid from Him; He knows not at present any more than He hath known from eternity, and that which He knows now He always knows (Hebrews 4:13). 3. God is unchangeable in regard of His will and purpose (Isaiah 55:11; Isaiah 46:11; Numbers 23:19). 4. God is unchangeable in regard of place. Therefore observe, that when God is said to “ draw near to us” when “ we draw near to Him” (James 4:8), it is not by local motion or change of place, but by special and spiritual influences, by exciting and supporting grace. II. The reasons to prove God immutable.1. The name Jehovah signifies this attribute (Exodus 3:14). ]f we say not of Him He was, nor He will be, but only He is, whence should any change arrive? 2. If God were changeable, He could not be the most perfect being. God is the most perfect being, and possesses in Himself infinite and essential goodness (Matthew 5:48). If He could change from that perfection, He were not the highest exemplar and copy for us to write after. 3. God were not the most simple being if He were not immutable. But God is the most simple being; for that which is first in nature, having nothing beyond it, cannot by any means be thought to be compounded; for whatsoever is so depends upon the parts whereof it is compounded, and so is not the first being. Now, God being infinitely simple, hath nothing in Himself which is not Himself, and therefore cannot will any change in Himself, He being His own essence and existence. 4. God were not eternal if He were mutable. God cannot be eternally what He was; that is, He cannot have a true eternity, if He had a new knowledge, new purpose, a new essence; if He were sometimes this and sometimes that, sometimes know this and sometimes know that, sometimes purpose this and afterwards hath a new purpose, He would be partly temporary and partly eternal, not truly and universally eternal. All changeableness implies a corruptibility. 5. If God were changeable, He were not infinite and almighty. All change ends in addition or diminution; if anything be added, He was not infinite before; if anything be diminished, He is not infinite after. All change implies bounds and limits to that which is changed; but God is infinite, “ His greatness is unsearchable” (Psalms 145:3). III. Immutability is proper to God, and incommunicable to any creature.1. The changeableness of all creatures is evident. (1) Of corporeal creatures it is evident to sense. All plants and animals, as they have their duration bounded in certain limits, so while they do exist they proceed from their rise to their fall; they pass through many sensible alterations, from one degree of growth to another, from buds to blossoms, from blossoms to flowers and fruits; they come to their pitch that nature hath set them, and are torn back to the state from whence they sprung; there is not a clay but they make some acquisition, or suffer some loss; they die and spring up every day; nothing in them more certain than their inconstancy (Romans 8:20). The heavenly bodies are changing their place; the sun every day is running his race, and stays not in the same point; and though they are not changed in their essence, yet they are in their place; some indeed say there is a continual generation of light in the sun, as there is a loss of light by the casting out its beams, as in a fountain there is a flowing out of the streams, and a continual generation of supply. But in man the change is perpetually visible; every day there is a change from ignorance to knowledge, from one will to another, from passion to passion, sometimes sad, and sometimes cheerful, sometimes craving this and presently nauseating it. His body changes from health to sickness, or from weakness to strength; some alteration there is either in body or mind. (2) Spiritual natures, as angels. They change not in their being, but that is from the indulgence of God; they change not in their goodness, but that is not from their nature, but Divine grace in their confirmation; but they change in their knowledge, they know more by Christ than they did by creation (1 Timothy 3:16). 2. No creature can be unchangeable in its nature. (1) Because every creature rose from nothing. As they rose from nothing, so they bend to nothing, unless they are preserved by God. (2) Because every creature depends purely upon the will of God. He that created them by a word, can by a word destroy them. (3) Because no creature is absolutely perfect. The perfections of all creatures are searchable, the perfection of God only is unsearchable (Job 11:6), and therefore He only immutable. IV. Some propositions to clear this unchanceableness of God from anything that seems contrary to it.1. There was no change in God when He began to create the world in time. The creation was a real change, but the change was not subjectively in God, but in the creature; the creature began to be what it was not before. 2. There was no change in the Divine nature of the Son when He assumed human nature. There was an union of the two natures, but no change of the Deity into the humanity, or of the humanity into the Deity, both preserved their peculiar properties. 3. Repentance and other affections ascribed to God in Scripture argue no change in God. 4. The not fulfilling of some predictions in Scripture, which seem to imply a changeableness of the Divine will, do not argue any change in it. God declared what would follow by natural causes, or by the demerit of man, not what He would absolutely Himself do; and in many of those predictions, though the condition be not expressed, yet it is to be understood; so the promises of God are to be understood with the condition of perseverance in well-doing, and threatenings with a clause of revocation annexed to them, provided that men repent. And this God lays down as a general case, always to be remembered as a rule for the interpreting His threatenings against a nation, and the same reason will hold in threatenings against a particular person (Jeremiah 18:7-10). 5. God is not changed, when of loving to any creatures He becomes angry with them, or of angry He becomes appeased. The change in these cases is in the creature; there is a change in the dispensation of God, as there is a change in the creature, making Himself capable of such dispensations. 6. A change of laws by God argues no change in God, when God abrogates some laws which He had settled in the Church, and enacts others. God commanded one thing to the Jews, when the Church was in an infant state, and removed those laws when the Church came to growth (Galatians 4:3). A mother feeds not the infant with the same diet as she doth when it is grown up. Our Saviour acquainted not His disciples with some things at one time which He did at another, because they were not able to bear them. (S. Charnock.) Divine immutability I. It is an undoubted fact. This is clear--1. From reason. Immutability enters into the essence of our idea of Deity.2. From nature, which in its essence seems immovable.3. From the Bible. II. It is peculiar to Himself. Mutation is the law of the material universe, so far as its laws are concerned. Geology shows that the history of the earth is the history of revolutions. “ The mountains falling come to nought,” etc. Astronomy tells of planets that once shone in the heavens, that are gone, and of new ones that appear. The vegetable and animal systems of the earth are changing every hour. Mutation is also the law of the spiritual universe. Human minds are constantly changing in thoughts, feelings, purposes, character. Angels changed. Some have fallen from heaven to hell. But God sits enthroned above all these changes, more fixed than the sun above the shifting clouds, or the rock amidst the surging waters. God alone is unchangeable. III. It is a blessing to the universe. Were God unholy, untruthful, malevolent, the universe might well pray for a change in Him. But He is eternally opposite to all this. He is infinitely holy, true, and loving, and a change in Him would be a terrible calamity. We would not have Him change. We rejoice that we can look up to Him midst all the false and morally foul and infernally malignant, and feel that there is One who is ever pure, ever true, ever merciful and good. (Homilist.) A revelation of the immutability of God The chemist in his laboratory, as he questions Nature, may be almost said to put her to the torture when, tried in his hottest furnace, or probed by his searching analysis to her innermost arcana, she by a spark or an explosion, or an effervescence, or an evolving substance, makes her distinct replies to his investigations. And . . . in every quarter of the globe her answer is the same--so that, let the experiment, though a thousand times repeated, only be alike in all its circumstances, the result which cometh forth is as rigidly alike, without deficiency, and without deviation . . . But there is a God who liveth and sitteth there, and these unvarying responses of Nature are all prompted by Himself, and are but the utterances of His immutability. They are the replies of a God who never changes, and who hath adapted the whole materialism of creation to the demonstration of it. The certainties of Nature and of science are, in fact, the vocables by which God announces His truth to the world; and when told how impossible it is that Nature can fluctuate, we are only told how impossible it is that the God of Nature can deceive us. (T. Chalmers, D.D.) Psalms 102:28 The children of Thy servants shall continue, and their seed shall be established before Thee.God’ s care for the posterity of His servants I. How far a blessing cometh on the posterity of God’ s servants.1. Good men do convey many temporal mercies to their relations; that is the least. God cannot satisfy Himself with doing good to the persons of His children, but He must do good to their relations; all about them fare the better for their sakes. A land fareth the better for them (2 Kings 2:12). 2. Where the parent is in visible covenant, the children also are in visible covenant with him as soon as born. 3. If they die in infancy, we need not trouble ourselves about their salvation. God is their God (Genesis 17:1); and that is all the best of us has to show for his right to heaven. 4. If they live, and betray the corruption of their natures, there is more hope of them than of others. The grace of the covenant runneth most kindly in the channel of the covenant (Romans 11:24). 5. Among them salvation is most ordinary, though God leaveth himself a liberty to take men of an evil stock. A rose may grow upon a thorn; a slip of an ill stock may be grafted into the tree of life. 6. They are not cast off till they do even wrest themselves out of the arms of mercy. Cain excommunicated himself (Genesis 4:16). II. The reasons.1. That He may show the riches of His grace, which reacheth not only to the persons, but to the families of those that love Him and serve Him. Grace, like a mighty river, will be pent within no banks, but overfloweth all that a man hath, all his relations. 2. Out of an indulgence to natural affection. God hath a son of His own, and He knoweth how He loveth Him, and is acquainted with the heart of a father, and he hath planted an affection in parents to their children. Love, like a river, is descensive. III. How can we reconcile the promise with experience, since the children of the servants of the Lord are reduced to great extremities, and are as naught and bad as others? I answer, The blessing is invisible for a great measure, and we want faith to interpret this privilege, as well as any other mentioned in the covenant. Sometimes their outward portion may be small, but, however, they are a holy seed unto God. We see the providence of God by pieces; for the present they may be in their natural condition, and the blessing doth not as yet break out in effects of grace, as it doth afterwards. We must leave the Lord to His own seasons. IV. To whom the promise will re most eminently fulfilled. There are some qualifications mentioned. All God’ s servants have their blessings, but these especially; as, namely--1. The strict, and such as dare not offend Him (Psalms 103:17). 2. The just and upright. They abridge themselves of many advantages of gain which others hunt after. It is not lost (Psalms 112:2). 3. The merciful and charitable (Psalms 37:26). When we are urged to giving, you may object, What shall wife and children do? l answer, Give the rather; do something the more for every child, that the blessing may be entailed upon them; it is lent to the Lord, and it will be paid to your posterity: your children will not have a whit the less. 4. Those that are tender of God’ s institutions: the second commandment, that provideth for God’ s instituted worship, the sanction of it speaketh of blessings and punishments in the posterity, and deservedly. (T. Manton, D.D.) The perpetuity and establishment of God’ s servants How blessed the assurance contained in this text; and if it might be understood literally, what encouragement would it afford to godly parents. But, alas! it is a lamentable fact that not a few of God’ s servants have to mourn, as Abraham once did, “ Oh! that Ishmael might live before God.” Those who are children of God by a second birth, and consequently the posterity of Zion, shall continue for ever, and their seed be established before God. I. The births in succession. There is no real religion in existence but that which commences with the new birth. These births, which are in constant succession, conduct to grace privileges and to a glorious inheritance. II. The establishment of which the text speaks. The first thing which I would press upon your attention here is, that the true Church of God must continue on earth, “ despite all the rage.” We pass on just to remark of this establishment and perpetuity that the holy seed cannot die. Observe, further, that the experience of these established ones, and their establishment too, is supernatural. “ Shall be established before Thee.” Now, I wish to bring my own establishment,--for I claim to be an established Christian--to this test. Will it bear being brought before God? (J. Irons.) . Psalms 103:1-22 Psalms 103:1-22 Bless the Lord, O my soul.A song of praise Like stately pillars supporting a solemn temple, three noble psalms, placed side by side, exalt the glory of Jehovah: 103 glorifies the God of grace; 104 the God of nature; 105 the God of history. Each springs from a strong pedestal of adoration, and is crowned with a rich capital of praise. I. This is a psalm of humanity. It is a true psalm of life; the experience of a throbbing human heart; born of the Holy Ghost, in travail of soul, amid the exigencies of weakness and sin, into the rapture of Divine compassions. All the darkness and evil of the world it knows, but suffers these only to enhance the richness of the life with God into which we move. This great achievement is won by finding out God. II. This is humanity’ s psalm of adoration to God. We see His throne exalted, His kingdom stretched abroad; His angelic hosts above, His inanimate works, below, called upon to praise Him. His eternal power and Godhead, His everlasting years, are set before us in great majesty. Think rightly on God, and all that is within you will bless Him; and this will bless you. If our life had more praise, it would feel less drudgery. “ Forget not,” unworthy source of so much ingratitude, despondency, distrust. “ Count your mercies.” III. A great truth and a great duty.1. God offers the penitent a full redemption.2. Accept this full redemption. (C. A. South-gate.) A song of praise I. The object of praise. The living, not the imagined, the present, not the remote God, by His own inbreathings, called forth this tribute to Himself from a heart in which He dwelt. Sublime in His being, He is oftenest called Preserver, Judge, Father, King. In these several relations He is brought before us in this psalm. II. The persons and things which are summoned to praise. The grossest confounding of body and spirit then prevailed; yet the soul was a term which all understood, though few could explain. This, the direct inspiration of the Almighty, would naturally be the first to perceive and respond to Divine favours. It is bidden, therefore, to express itself. The emotional, intellectual, and even animal nature may and must each offer Him its peculiar sacrifice of thanksgiving. III. The reasons for praise. The shower of good things had been so constant, that merely to mention some of them seemed to the enthusiastic singer to ensure within himself the response he sought. He accordingly rallies his own too sluggish soul to pour forth its meed of praise, mindful of the general blessings he had received. He was prone to forget them. All are. Ingratitude is fostered by abundance. Thanklessness is more than meanness. Themistocles sadly said of the Athenians, that when a storm arose, they sheltered themselves under him as under a plane tree, which when the weather was fair again, they would rob of its leaves and branches. So do the needy multitudes cry unto God, and helped, return not to give Him glory, save here and there a stranger. Nay, more; they selfishly use their benefits to deprive Him of that honour which is His due. It was just this sin against which Jehovah had cautioned Israel (Deuteronomy 32:15). And so, as if writing down the long list of gifts that he may count them, the psalmist would beget a fit return. This psalm has been called “ a little Bible within the greater.” It is a striking revelation of the being, character, and purpose of God. It is also a clear portrayal of the origin, doings, needs, blessings, and destiny of man. (Monday Club Sermons.) A song of praise I. Thanksgiving for personal benefits.1. Thanks for forgiveness and inward healing.2. Thanks for redemption and glory.3. Thanks for intermediate blessings. There is a long journey from the mouth of the pit of destruction, whence God has rescued us, to the gate of glory by which God will bring us in to receive our everlasting inheritance. On that way we are not left to our own resources. He gives us the supplies needful for the journey, and ministers the strength with which we may reach the end. II. Praise to the character of God.1. The righteousness and judgment of the Lord (Exodus 33:13).2. The mercy and grace of God (Exodus 34:6-7). III. The measure of God’ s mercy.1. Heavenly greatness (verse 11; Romans 5:20).2. Infinite forgiveness (verse 12).3. Fatherly pity (verse 13).4. The shortness of man’ s day and the eternity of God’ s mercy (Psalms 103:15-17).5. A solemn reminder (verse 18). IV. A universal call to praise (Psalms 103:19-22). Let us who have been forgiven, renewed in the inner man, redeemed from destruction, whose lives have been crowned with lovingkindness and tender mercy, take up the song of thanksgiving, and so, perchance, extend His mercies to those who are yet strangers to it, by setting forth His benefits as we have come to know them in our own experience. (G. F. Pentecost, D. D.) A soul’ s song to God The singer of this melody, whoever he may have been, has left behind him the valley and has climbed to magnificent heights; yea, on the suburbs of heaven, he sings with impassioned ardour of the goodness of his God, and, finding his voice inadequate to give vent to his gratitude, he summons a goodly choir--the works of God, the ministers of God, the angels of God--to accentuate the joyful strains and to make His praise glorious. I. A blessed exercise. Some one has said that the Christian ought to be like a horse that has bells on his head: so that he cannot go anywhere without ringing them and making music. His whole life should be in harmony; every thought should constitute a note; every word he utters should be a component part of the joyful strain.1. The psalmist is solicitous that his praise should be spiritual. It is his soul and not his lips he addresses. He wants nothing formal, mechanical, lifeless, spiritless. 2. The psalmist also arouses himself to unreserved adoration. “ And all that is within me,” etc. Our nature is a many-stringed instrument, and every string is to contribute its quota to the symphony. If the soul is to be the leading singer, then every faculty of our mental, moral, and spiritual being, like a united choir, are to render the chorus. 3. The psalmist also urges himself to personal adoration. “ O my soul.” He begins with himself, and, albeit he goes out from himself and seeks to engage others in singing unto God, he comes back and concludes his exhortation with himself as the subject. Let the trees clap their hands, let the ocean lift up its voice, etc. “ Bless the Lord, O my soul.” II. A reasonable exercise. In praising God, we perform one of the highest and purest acts of religion. In praise, we largely eliminate the element of self, and are like the angels in performing the unpolluted service of the skies.1. There are national benefits. 2. There are social benefits. “ God setteth the solitary in families.” He has placed us together so that the cup of our life might be full. What a benediction is Home! 3. But better than all others, there are spiritual benefits of which we must take strict account. These are God’ s greatest gifts to us. (1) Forgiveness. Mercy comes to thee full-handed. Love abundantly pardons. (2) Healing. Eyes at one time blinded by the God of this world can now see the things eternal, ears afflicted with deafness can now hear the welcome sound of God’ s voice, hands once sadly paralyzed can now perform the glorious business of the King, feet which dragged from sheer impotency can now run on God’ s errands with joyous alacrity, and faces once wearing the ugly scowl of sin now shine with the beauteous smile of God. (3) Redemption. (4) Coronation. (5) Satisfaction. (6) Rejuvenescence. (J. Pearce.) Sell-exhortation to worship I. With the whole soul. There are at least three immeasurable faculties within--intellect, imagination, conscience. All these should praise Jehovah, who is the True, for the intellect; the Beautiful, for the imagination; and the Righteous, for the conscience. Let all come out in praise, as all the powers of the harp come out under the touch of the master musician; as all the powers of the seed come out under the genial influence of the sunbeam. II. For urgent reasons. “ All His benefits.”1. Sin is an offence; and here is forgiveness.2. Sin is a disease; and here is healing.3. Sin is ruinous; and here is restoration.4. Sin is a degradation; and here is exaltation.5. Sin is discontent; and here is satisfaction.6. Sin is weakness; and here is invigoration. (Homilist.) The saints blessing the Lord You see here a man talking to himself, a soul with all his soul talking to his soul. His own soul is the first audience a good man ought to think of preaching to. Indeed, if any man desires to excite the hearts of others in any given direction, he must first stir up himself upon the same matter. I. This exhortation is remarkably comprehensive.1. The unity of our nature is hero bidden, in its concentration, to yield its whole self to the praise of God. No white-washed sepulchres will please the Lord,--“ Bless the Lord, O my soul,” --Let the true Ego praise Him, the essential I, the vital personality, the soul of my soul, the life of my life! Let me be true to the core to my God; let that which is most truly my own vitality spend itself in blessing the Lord. My immortal soul, what hast thou to do with spending thine energies upon mortal things? Wilt thou hunt for fleeting shadows, whilst thou art thyself most real and abiding? Raise thyself on all thy wings, and like the six-winged cherubim adore thy God. But the words suggest yet another meaning,--the soul is our active self, our vigour, our intensity. When we speak of a man’ s throwing his soul into a thing, we mean that he does it with all his might. My intensest nature shall bless the Lord. Not with bated breath and a straitened energy will I lisp forth His praises, but I will pour them forth ardently in volumes of impassioned song. 2. But, then, David speaks of the diverse faculties of our nature, and writes, “ All that is within me bless His holy name.” The affections are to lead the way in the concert of praise. But the psalmist intended next to bestir the memory, for he goes on to say “ forget not all His benefits.” Recollect what God has done for you. Thread the jewels of His grace upon the thread of memory, and hang them about the neck of praise. For mercies beyond count, praise Him without stint. Then let your conscience praise Him, for the psalm proceeds to say, “ who forgiveth all thine iniquities.” Conscience once weighed thy sins and condemned thee; now let it weigh the Lord’ s pardon and magnify His grace to thee. Let thy emotions join the sacred choir, for thou hast many feelings of delight; bless Him “ who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies,” etc. Is all within you peaceful? Sing some sweet pastoral, like the twenty-third psalm. Let the calm of your spirit sound forth the praises of the Lord upon the pleasant harp and the psaltery. Do your days flow smoothly? Then consecrate the dulcimer to the Lord. Do you feel the exhilaration of delight? Then praise ye the Lord with the timbrel and dance. On the other hand, is there a contention within; does conflict disturb your mind? Then praise Him with the sound of the trumpet, for He will go forth with you to the battle. When you return from the battle and divide the spoil, then “ praise Him upon the loud cymbals: praise Him upon the high-sounding cymbals.” What-ever emotional state thy soul be found in, let it lead thee to bless thy Maker’ s holy name. II. This suggestion is most reasonable. The Lord has given innumerable blessings to every part of our nature; all our faculties are the recipients of blessing; therefore should they all bless God in return. Every pipe of the organ should yield its quota of sound. As all the rivers run into the sea, so all our powers should flow towards the Lord’ s praise. To prove that this is reasonable, let me ask one single question:--if we do not devote all that is within us to the glory of God, which part is that we should leave unconsecrated; and being less unconsecrated to God what should we do with it? III. It is necessary. It is necessary that the whole nature bless God, for at its best, when all engaged in the service, it fails to compass the work, and fails short of Jehovah’ s praise. All the man, with all his might, always occupied in all ways in blessing God, would still be no more than a whisper in comparison with the thunder of praise which the Lord deserves. Do not, therefore, let us insult the Lord with half when the whole is not enough. Jesus Christ will have of us all or nothing; and He will have us sincere, earnest, and intense, or He will not have us at all. IV. It is beneficial.1. It is beneficial to ourselves. To be whole-hearted in the praise of God is to elevate our faculties. Consecration is culture. To praise is to learn. To bless God is also of preventive usefulness to us; we cannot bless God and at the same time idolize ourselves. Praise preserves us from being envious of others, for by blessing God for all we have, we learn to bless God for what other people have. 2. It is also useful to others. You cannot do good more effectually than by a happy consecrated life, spent in blessing God. If there be anything that is cheerful, joyous, dewy, bright, full of heaven, it is the life of a man who blesses God all his days. This is the way to win souls. We shall not catch these flies with vinegar,--we must use honey. V. All this is prepatratory. If we can attain to constant praise now, it will prepare us for all that awaits us. We are harps which will be tuned in all their strings for the concerts of the blessed. The tuner is putting us in order. He sweeps his hands along the strings; there is a jar from every note; so He begins first with one string, and then goes to another. He continues at each string till He hears the exact note. The last time you were ill, one of your strings was tuned; the last time you had a had debt, or trembled at declining business, another string was tuned. And so, between now and heaven, you will have every string set in order; and you will not enter heaven till all are in tune. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The keynote of the year David sounds the tuningfork with this clear note--“ Bless the Lord, O nay soul.” I. The blessed occupation. How, then, can we bless God?1. God blesses us by thinking well of us, and we bless God by thinking well of Him. Think deeply of what the Lord has done. Do not pass His mercies over superficially, but look into them. Do not cease to think of the covenant of electing love, of everlasting faithfulness, of redeeming blood, of pardoning grace, and all the ways in which eternal love has shown itself. 2. We also bless God when we wish Him well. Sit down and wish that all men knew God, that all men worshipped Him; and let your wishes blaze up into prayers. Wish that all idols were abolished, and that Jehovah’ s name would be sung through every land by every tongue. Wish well to His Church, His cause, His people, and all that concerns His glory. 3. You can bless God by speaking well of Him. Have you said anything to praise God to-day? 4. Bless His name by acts and deeds of holy service and consecration Do it with hand, and purse, and substance, and sacrifice. II. The commendable manner mentioned. Half the virtue of a thing lies in the way in which it is done. Now, in the service of God, it is net only what you bring, but in what spirit you bring it.1. That mode of blessing God to which we are called is very spiritual--a matter of soul and spirit. The music of the soul is that which pleases the ear of God: the great spirit is delighted with that which comes from our spirit. A heart that praises Him has within itself all the harmonies that He delights in. The sigh of love is to Him a lyric, the sob of repentance is melody, the inward cries of His own children are an oratorio, and their heart-songs are true hallelujahs. 2. When we bless God, the sacred exercise should be intense. Let every part of your manhood be aroused, and so aroused as to be in fine form. Give me a man on fire when God is to be praised. Let “ all that is within me bless His holy name.” A whole God, and a holy God, should have the whole of our powers engaged in blessing His holy name.” 3. The text seems to remind me that we ought to do this repeatedly, because in my text the word “ bless” occurs twice. “ Bless the Lord, O my soul: bless His holy name.” And in the next verse there is “ bless the Lord” again. He is a triune God: render Him triune praise. III. The sacred object of this blessing--Jehovah. I adore the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God that made the heavens and the earth. I worship the God that cut Rahab, and wounded the crocodile at the Red Sea, the God that led His people through the wilderness, the God that gave them the land of Canaan for a heritage. “ This God is our God for ever and ever. He shall be our guide, even unto death.” “ Bless Jehovah, O my soul.” Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, we worship Thee; we bless Thee! Do you love a holy God? While you bless Him for His mercy, do you equally bless Him for His holiness? You bless Him for His bounty, but do you feel that you could not thus bless Him if you were not fully aware that He is perfectly righteous? “ Bless His holy name.” Aye, when that holiness burns like fire, and threatens to devour the guilty, let us still bless His holy name! When we see His holiness consuming the great Sacrifice, we bow before the Lord in deep dread of soul, but we still bless His holy name. An unholy God! It were absurd to think of such a thing; but a thrice-holy God--let us bless and praise Him. IV. The suitable monitor. Who is it that says to David, “ Bless the Lord, O my soul” ? Why, it is David talking to David. The man speaks to himself. (C. H. Spurgeon.) A song of praise This psalm is a type of intelligent thanksgiving--an expression of sanctified emotion based upon sanctified thought. We see at once how this true emotion is distinguished from mere formal thanksgiving by the words, “ all that is within me” --words which appeal to the very deepest feelings of the heart. But we also notice how, as so often in Scripture, a caution is associated with the highest devotional feeling at the point where one in the ardour of holy rapture forgets for the moment that he is a sinful man in a sinful world: “ Bless the Lord, O my soul! yet, my soul, thou art weak and fallible, and prone to forget these very mercies which are calling forth thy praise. Forget not all His benefits.” It is with blessings much as with troubles: few people, comparatively, have great catastrophes in their life, and few have great, colossal joys. There is only the daily succession of little, commonplace pleasures, and we foolishly get into the way of attaching little importance to anything which is not of the nature of a crisis. Go back over your life and pick up the happy times--the day your little child began to walk; the day your boy graduated with honour; the many evenings you have come home tired and have found rest, and light, and warmth, and pleasant words at home; how many happy hours over a book or in conversation with a friend. These, after all, are the benefits which make up the staple of our life. They seem to be little blessings, perhaps because they are so common, yet if we number all God’ s benefits we shall find the sum of them very great. The psalmist specifies certain causes for thanksgiving; and the first of these is very significant--the forgiveness of his sins. And rightly, because this is essentially the first fact in all thanksgiving, and is therefore the key not only to this psalm, but to the whole great lesson of Christian thankfulness. Having thus laid this spiritual foundation for a true thanksgiving, the psalmist now passes to mention temporal mercies, yet, possibly, all along with an undertone of spiritual meaning. God healeth all diseases, redeemeth the life from death, ministers to the healthful appetite with good things, makes His child strong and vigorous as the eagle. The association of these benefits directly with God imparts to them a spiritual suggestiveness such as they may well have in this psalm. They are not only pleasant facts, but types of spiritual good. He healeth all thy diseases, but the most deadly disease of all is sin. Thy mouth is satisfied with the kindly fruits of the earth, yet man lives not by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Thy youth and vigour are renewed like the eagle’ s, but thou knowest too what it is to be strengthened with might by God’ s Spirit in the inner man. And now, through all these things--forgiveness, redeeming, renewing--God is working toward an ulterior purpose. “ He crowneth thee.” God’ s work is not finished in the forgiveness of sins. If a prince were to take a beggar out of the street in order to make him the heir to his throne, would his work be done when he had washed and decently clothed him? No. He must be trained for his position. All that kingly power and fatherly love can command must combine to fit him to be a king. The redeemed sing to Him who not only washed them from their sins, but also made them kings and priests. And as we reach the close of the psalm we find its keynote struck again. It is a psalm of thanksgiving, but it tells us that true thanksgiving can be only within the sphere of God’ s accepted sovereignty, from the standpoint of voluntary allegiance to Him. The foundation of all thanksgiving is that God reigns--the foundation of our individual thanksgiving is that God is our King. (M. R. Vincent, D.D.) Divine goodness celebrated I. The mercies enumerated.1. Benefits bestowed. (1) Personal. Life, health, food, etc.(2) Spiritual. The great gift of His Son, Gospel ordinances, Word, Spirit, etc.2. Iniquities forgiven. (1) We are all chargeable with iniquities.(2) They are many.(3) God forgives all.(4) This forgiveness is communicated through repentance and faith in Christ. 3. Diseases healed. (1) Bodily.(2) Spiritual. 4. Redemption from destruction. 5. A crown of lovingkindnesses and tender mercies. II. The thanks presented.1. He blesses God. 2. He does this with all his soul. 3. He calls upon all within him to join in the work of praise. 4. He purposes a lively remembrance of God’ s goodness. “ And forget not all His benefits.” He would keep it before his eyes; he would be constantly meditating upon it; morning and evening, and in the night watches, etc.Application.1. The amazing extent and profusion of the Divine goodness.2. The immense obligations we are under to serve and bless God. (J. Burns, D.D.) Worship Worship means recognition of worth, doing homage to goodness. Even when the worth is limited, as in the case of a good man, the recognition should be cordial. When the homage is offered to Infinite Goodness all the gifts of mind and heart should be brought into play, so as to yield the maximum of worship and recognition. The Lord our God ought to be loved and served with all the heart, and soul, and strength, and mind. Unhappily, in no department of human conduct do the ideal and the reality lie further apart than in religious worship and in religious life. What then are the conditions under which it is possible to render such a service as is illustrated in this exquisite psalm?1. Faith, or a right conception of God, a right idea of God. We must believe in a God whose character is fitted to inspire devout thought and excite religious affections of reverence, trust, gratitude, and admiration; such a God, that is to say, as is presented to our view in this psalm. He must bless God in a feeble, cold, hesitating fashion, who is all the time not sure whether his Divinity be worthy of worship. The lips say: “ God is good” ; the mind thinks only of the chosen objects of an arbitrary favouritism. The tongue declares: “ God loveth the right” ; the reason asks: “ Why then do bad men prosper and good men pine?” If we are to worship and serve God aright, this antagonism between word and thought must be overcome. We must believe in a God whose name is a veritable gospel of gladness to our souls 2. Sincerity. Everywhere in Scripture we find great stress laid upon this condition of efficient service. The perfect man in the Bible is not the man without fault, but the man of single-hearted devotion who loves and serves God. Faults in conduct, errors of judgment, infirmities of temper there may be in abundance. The one quality that redeems, ennobles character is self-devotion without reserve to the Divine kingdom of the Gospel, to the cause that is worth living for. 3. Liberty. No one can say with emphasis, “ O Lord, truly I am Thy servant,” unless he also is able to say, “ Thou hast loosed my bonds.” There are bonds which keep men from being religious, or from being devoted in religion, and there are bonds springing out of religion itself by which many saintly souls are bound. Everything pertaining to religion--worship, creed, practice, tends to become an affair of routine, ceremonial, formula, mechanical habit. Fetters are forged for soul and body, for every faculty of our composite nature--for hand, tongue, mind, heart, conscience. And by such as are in bondage it is regarded as a mark of piety and sanctity to wear with scrupulous care all these grievous fetters. There are times, however, when the bondage becomes unbearable, and the human spirit rises in rebellion and asserts its liberty. Such an epoch is a veritable year of jubilee, when minds are emancipated from worn-out commonplaces, and hearts are enlarged into original and heroic love, like rivers in flood overflowing their banks, and “ consciences are purged from dead works to serve the living God.” It is “ the acceptable year of the Lord,” “ acceptable” to redeemed men, though regarded with pious horror by the slaves of tradition, and “ acceptable” to God also. For, be it understood, God takes no pleasure in spiritual bondage. God gets no glory from that sort of thing. His glory is bound up with liberty, for with liberty came opening of closed lips, unsealing all the fountains of religious emotion, locked up by the frosts of a dreary winter, awakening all dormant powers of thought, whereupon once more men bless God with “ all that is within them.” (A. B. Bruce, D. D.) The Christian’ s gladness deeply rooted How vigorous was the plant of joy in the writer’ s heart. And why? Because its roots were spread far and wide in a nourishing soil. In the experience of God’ s forgiving love and ever bountiful kindness to himself, in the recognition of God’ s sure friendliness towards all that are oppressed, in the remembrance of the vast past of His lovingkindness to His people, in a large, real, partnership of joy with “ all them that fear Him,” and in an exultant realization that God and gladness ruled the universe, did this cheery saint and singer root his joy. What a poor feeble plant is the happiness of many professed Christians! And no wonder--for it lacks strong and ample roots. No sufficient time or pains are given that thought and affection may spread abroad in the rich nourishing ground of God’ s vast goodness and lovingkindness. Take time to be happy--to be exultingly and persistently happy in God and His salvation! (C. G. M.) The harp of the heart A more wonderful instrument than any which Israel’ s psalmist ever struck is carried in the human breast. Upon its “ ten strings” the hand of God often strikes, and evokes most sublime melody. The one hundred and third psalm was originally played upon this harp of the heart. Its keynote is, “ Bless the Lord, O my soul! let all that is within me bless His holy name.” At another time the strains of that harp were inexpressibly plaintive and mournful. They were like the wail of a sick child. “ Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Thy lovingkindness. Against Thee have I sinned, and done this evil in Thy sight. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise.” Happy is the man who can begin to rehearse for heaven by attuning his heart to the will of God. He is like the old psalmist’ s psaltery, every wind that Providence sends only makes music in him. Even boisterous gales of adversity call forth grand and sublime strains of resignation. When he is in trouble, he “ giveth songs in the night.” The kind acts he performs for others touch sweet chords in his memory. And amid all the harsh and jangled discords of this world, such a Christ-loving soul is a harp of gold making constant melody in the ear of God. (T. L. Cuyler, D.D.) Praising with the soul When the photographer fits that iron rest at the back of your head and keeps you waiting ten minutes, while he gets his plates ready, why, your soul goes out of town, and nothing remains but that heavy look! When the work of art is finished, it is you, and yet it is not you. You were driven out by the touch of that iron. Another time, perhaps, your photograph is taken instantaneously, while you are in an animated attitude, while your whole soul is there; and your friends say, “ Aye, that is your very self.” I want you to bless the Lord with your soul at home as in that last portrait. I saw a book wherein the writer says in the preface, “ We have given a portrait of our mother, but there was a kind of sacred twinkle about her eyes which no photograph could produce.” Now, it is my heart’ s desire that you do praise God with that sacred twinkle, with that feature or faculty which is most characteristic of you. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Psalms 103:2 Forget not all His benefits. Remembrance of God’ s benefits I. Some of those things we have to remember.1. The pardon of sin. 2. The various providential mercies we have received during our lives. 3. The hope of a renewed life beyond the grave. II. Some of the advantages attending this recollection of the Divine goodness.1. It will convince us of the fact of God’ s providential care of us. 2. It will preserve us from undue despondency under the adverse providences of God. 3. It will help us to connect the thoughts of God with every detail of our common life. III. A few directions for the discharge of this duty.1. Take no step in life without a previous reference to the law of God. 2. Remember those seasons of life in which Divine providence appeared for you in a remarkable manner. All have such seasons: your first settlement in life--your going out into a situation--the choice of a trade or profession--the first definite step. 3. Remember that it will be utterly inexcusable hereafter if we pass through life without the recognition of God. (W. G. Barrett.) Motives to gratitude I. Some of the mercies which we are called on to acknowledge.1. The possession of life. 2. The continuance of bodily health and enjoyment. 3. Protection from numerous dangers, and the supply of constantly returning wants. II. The manner in which this acknowledgment should be made.1. Grateful emotions should be felt in the heart. 2. The devout and grateful aspiration of the heart to God. 3. The offering of praise and thanksgiving in public, that others may be encouraged, and may unite with you in the delightful exercise. 4. Corresponding devotedness of life to God must accompany these feelings of the heart, and these public expressions of thanksgiving. (Essex Remembrancer.) Why we should bless God for His mercies I. For the sake of the mercies themselves. Are they not worth it? Is there a year, a day, an hour, which is not crowded with them? II. For the sake of the giver. If they came from a dear earthly friend, should we not prize them for friendship’ s sake? If they flowed from royal bounty, would we not be profuse in our praise and feel burdened with a sense of our obligation? But all our mercies are the gifts of God our Heavenly Father; they are the purchase of infinite love; they flow to us through Christ. We can render no returns for them save gratitude, praise and service. III. For the sake of our example--our influence on others. The tone and tint of our religion go very far in impressing ethers. One happy, bright, ever rejoicing and praising Christian will impart cheer and life to a whole circle, while one gloomy, despondent, ever-mourning disciple will chill a prayer-meeting, and often a whole church. IV. For their own sake. It is their birthright. It is honouring to God their Saviour. It is in harmony with the spirit and purpose of the Cross. It is the spirit of the heavenly world. It is the first notes of the song everlasting that will resound through all the mansions of glory and give expression to the gratitude and harmony of the redeemed. (Homiletic Review.) The believer gratefully recounting his mercies I. The exhortation given. Show that you do not slight the benefits which God has bestowed upon you, but hold them up, and evidence your gratitude before God and the Church.1. Publicly.2. In private.3. By your actions. II. The benefit declared. “ Who forgiveth all thine iniquities,” Not a part of them; not the greatest sins which we may have committed, to the exclusion of the less. III. The communication made. “ Who healeth all thy diseases.” And truly our diseases are many. Look at the disease of the understanding. Although it may be brought by tuition to the comprehension of much that relates to our redemption, it is nevertheless totally incapable of comprehending Divine things, unless God heals it; for the understanding is so corrupted by sin, that “ the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, neither can he know them.” And how is this done? The operation of the Spirit of God consisteth in letting light into the understanding--the light of life--Jesus Christ our Lord. So there is the rectification of the will. Though our wills are naturally stubborn, and we are inclined to turn to that which is opposed to God, and to turn from God, yet let but the Holy Spirit enter into our understandings and our wills, and then we find rectitude. Thus He “ healeth” our will. He further gives a direction to our affections. For the affections of the heart are all alienated. But God the Holy Spirit communicates an impulse to the soul, whereby the poisonous influences of this terrestrial atmosphere are so far counteracted that they shall not be fatal to our souls. IV. A deliverance accomplished. “ Who redeemeth thy life from destruction” --i.e. from the consequences of sin, from the love of sin, from the fear of death; and from eternal torment. V. The reception of a promised blessing. “ Crowning” the soul here denotes the application of these wonderful mercies, which God has communicated to us in Christ. It signifies the enjoyment of them all. It further signifies power over sin and Satan. VI. The gratification of the spiritual appetite. “ Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things.” VII. “thy youth is renewed like the eagle’ s.” This expression is used to signify, that saints, through the grace of God, even in old age become “ fat and flourishing, steadfast and unmovable,” “ fruitful in every good word and work.” They “ run and are not weary, they walk and do not faint” ; and they rejoice in the approach of their end. (T. B. Baker, M.A.) The memory By “ memory” two things are designated, which are really very distinct; the one is the power of bringing past experience into consciousness; and the other is the power of retaining past experience in the mind out of consciousness. Suppose I meet a friend. He says to me as we meet, “ What is the Latin for door?” I answer at once, “ Janua.” The question has brought this Latin word at the moment into my consciousness, and we say that I remembered it. But if I am a Latin scholar there are thousands of Latin words in my mind; not in the sense of being at present in my consciousness--because all the Latin I am conscious of at the moment is “ janua” --but in the sense that I am capable of bringing them into consciousness when required. Perhaps it would be a good thing if in English these two powers were designated by two words instead of one. They are in other languages. This is the difference in German between “ erinnerung” and “ gedachtniss” ; and in French between the word “ souvenir” and “ memoire.” Perhaps in English the power of bringing past experience into present consciousness might be called “ recollection,” while the word “ memory” might be reserved for the other power of keeping past experience in the mind out of consciousness. This latter power of keeping past experience in the mind out of consciousness is in some respects the most extraordinary feature in the whole realm of psychology. You might put it in this way, that at the back of our present consciousness--I mean the consciousness of the moment--there stretches within us a vast treasury or magazine in which past impressions are stored. In some people it is larger, in others smaller; in some minds it may be slight, in others well arranged. You can hardly help thinking of it, in some people, as comparable to one of the huge warehouses of this city, where the passages are like streets for length, and there are ever so many departments, but everything is in its own place. Things that are like one another are found near one another, and the master has complete hold over all his possessions. But where is this storehouse? Has it a local habitation? Is it in the head, or where is it? Perhaps there is nothing which is so antagonistic to a materialistic view of the human mind. You know materialism holds that thought is simply a movement of matter; but if so, in what form do these modifications of matter continue so as to be remembered? If they were additions to the matter of the brain, however slight, they would very soon expand far beyond the holding power of the skull. If they were marks, like tracks or other marks, they would soon be covered up, so as to be wholly irrecoverable. The spiritual view looks on mind, as a whole, as a mystery; and it refers, especially this aspect of memory, to the region of mystery, and that is obviously where it belongs; and though in the act of remembering, as perhaps in every mental act, the mind uses the brain as its organ, the brain is no more to be identified with the mind than the musical instrument is to be identified with the person who is playing. “ Great,” says St. Augustine in his confessions, “ great is the force of memory, O my God; a large and boundless chamber! Who ever sounded the bottom thereof? And men go abroad to admire the heights of mountains, the mighty billows of the sea, the broad tides of rivers, the compass of the ocean, and the circuits of the stars, and pass themselves by.” The second power to which the name of memory is applied is the power of bringing past experience into present consciousness. Now, in comparison with the great magazine which I have described, this power of memory takes place on a very limited stage. It is as if in front of this silent magazine there were erected a platform, to which the images of the magazine could at any time be summoned. The summons occasionally is very slight. All that is necessary often is that a passing thought should appear on the platform, when immediately a thought like it comes from within. Perhaps a whole bevy of them may come. For instance, one will go home at the holiday time to his native place, and will take a walk in some scene of beauty which he used to frequent in his boyhood; and as you go along at every step the images of the past will throng out on you, the faces of your companions and their merry talk. “ On this seat,” you will say to yourself, “ I used to sit with so-and-so by my side; at that turn of the road I once thought on such a subject; across the ravine some one’ s voice once called to me.” Images will pour out of the past on you in a perfect tumult, and you will be astonished at the vividness and minuteness of the reproduction. At other times, however, the summons has to be louder and more urgent. Sometimes, when you call for the images of the past, they will not come. Perhaps the wrong ones come, and you have to order them back to their places again. However loud you call they will not come, and you may have to go into the magazine, and search about in odd corners, and tumble things over, and at last you say, “ Ah, there it is; I remember.” Or perhaps after all your searching you are baffled, and you say, “ No, I am beaten; I cannot remember.” If we remembered everything we should be embarrassed with our riches. As a rule, older impressions push out newer ones, though in old age this law is reversed, although in every mind there are some memories that never become dim: “ Time but the impression deeper makes, As streams their channels deeper wear.” But the rate at which memories become dim and sink out of sight is extremely different in different minds; and one of the excellences of what is called a good memory is to have a large domain of reminiscence permanently within one’ s grasp. Every man of great ability thus holds sway over a wide domain of acquisition and experience. Another excellence of memory is the power of committing things rapidly to heart., as we call it. This also varies exceedingly in different persons. In some it has been almost miraculous. It is said, for instance, that the scholar Scaliger committed the Iliad to heart in three weeks, and even more astonishing feats of memory have been accomplished by men who were not in the least distinguished in other directions. And a still more curious thing is that such persons have sometimes been able to retain the things they thus rapidly committed to memory. But, as a rule, what comes quickly goes quickly. An advocate, for instance, may get up quickly details of a complicated case, and perhaps along with that the outlines of a whole science, for a particular occasion, but as soon as the occasion is past, the whole thing goes out of his memory. Perhaps the most enviable excellence of memory is the copious and ready delivery of its contents as occasion requires. It is this that makes the happy historian, because, as he writes, he can recall parallel incidents from other histories. It is this that makes the good speaker, because, as he speaks, his memory calls principles and illustrations unto his mind from which he can select what is most suitable. It is this that makes the fortune of the conversationalist; whereas the speaker who has not this quality of memory makes all his best remarks to himself on the way home after the occasion is past. The conditions of a good memory are very simple and are worth remembering. The first is, that we must attend to things as they are entering the mind. The more we attend to them at the time they are entering the mind, the more easily will we remember. Then, secondly, we remember what we have repeatedly attended to. The oftener we think of things, the more likely are we to remember them. But most important of all is emotion--to mix things as they enter the mind with emotion. Now, this will easily guide us to the religious use of memory, and I cannot help regarding it as a fortunate circumstance that we are discussing this subject to-day, because there is no day so consecrated to memory as the last Sabbath of the year. “ Forget not all His benefits.” That is the first religious use of memory. I am sure none of us can look back over the past year, however carelessly, without observing how good God has been to us, to our families, to our Church; but we shall remember these benefits the better the more we attended to them at the time when they happened. Even, however, if we did not attend to them then, we can compel the memory to give them up. We can go into the magazine which I described, and search for what we have lost or forgotten. We can go back to the beginning of the year, and trace downwards till to-day the footsteps of our Almighty Guide. Then the other great religious use of memory, especially on a day like this, is to remember our sins. Some of them, like God’ s mercies, can he seen the moment we turn our eyes in that direction, because all of us during the year have committed some sins that burn in the memory. Others may need to be called up out of the place where they are loitering because at the time they were not much Observed, our consciences not being keen. It is only as we look back on a day like this, over an important stretch of life, that we see how little use we have made of golden opportunities; how little we have grown; how little we have done; how seldom we have prayed. It is no pleasing task thus to recall our sins of the past, but it may be a very salutary one. Better to recall them now than to recall them in a place of woe. Do you remember the first word spoken to one in that place? What did Abraham say to the rich man? It was, “ Son, remember.” Memory is the worm that dieth not. (J. Stalker, D.D.) Count up your mercies I. The philosophy, which underlies all true praise of God, is exceedingly slender in its analysis; there is no ponderous weight or tedious intricacy in its development.1. Grateful thanksgiving is the most reasonable of all human duties, for the earliest instincts of our redeemed nature turn us towards the immediate acknowledgment of our vast spiritual favours received. The common courtesies and interchanges of civilities in life require the outward expression of gratitude. 2. This decent duty is easily performed. Peace is very uncertain and hard to attain, for the devil is continually coining out accusations against each believer. Repentance in ourselves has sometimes to be sought carefully, and with as many tears; for the heart of man remains stony, and is frequently in exposure by reason of regnant corruption. Gratitude is so spontaneous and natural, that a generous and manly soul has often to cheek its profuse outflow by some external force of reserve. It is actually harder to repress it than to exercise it; one is compelled to be sullen, morose, or malicious, in keeping it back. 3. Praise is the oldest duty in performance on the records of the race. Before faith was required in the human heart, before there was the least reason for repentance, when our first parents dwelt in primal purity within the undefiled precincts of Paradise, even then they cherished the spirit of thankfulness, and sang their songs of simple adoration. Hence the privilege of “ blessing” the Lord is older than justification, older than sanctification, older than prayer, older than sacrifice. 4. Grateful praise is the longest-lived of all human obligations. It is a duty and a privilege which will never end. As the supreme truths of celestial knowledge, and the supreme felicities of glorified enjoyment, which God means to give to the redeemed, are disclosed, our souls will assuredly swell with a fresh enthusiasm, our voices will grow tremulous in the expression of a new exultation. Thanksgiving is to enter into the serene perpetuity of eternal communion with each other and with God. II. What are the advantages which accrue from the habit of grateful praise?1. We need not go far to find vivid illustrations of the effects produced upon one’ s temper and heart by a songful spirit of grateful acknowledgment. We will admit that there is much to test human patience all around us; but the question is, What are we going to do about it? We can treat the world in one of two ways. We can carp at it, and grow morose in our feeling; or we can rise cheerfully above it, and diligently seek for those kind mitigations which Divine wisdom has made to accompany all our vexatious experiences. We can wear our lives out discontentedly, finding fault with everything that is an annoyance to us; or we can labour trustfully on, recognizing the good, and ingeniously endeavouring to counteract and balance the evil. What we think, settles what we shall become. 2. But now add to this, that a determinate cheerfulness of praise really seems to modify work. Gratitude transmutes our disciplines into evidences of love. It is related of one of the most distinguished clergymen in England, that he always read at the family: altar, on Saturday evening, this one hundred and third psalm. But his wife died. For a moment he waited; and then he said quietly, “ I see no reason why we should not choose our usual song to-night.” There is in the writings of old Thomas Fuller one curiously quaint paragraph, which I have often wanted to quote: “ Lord, my voice by nature is harsh and untunable, and it is vain to lavish any art to better it. Can my singing of psalms be pleasing to Thy ears which is unpleasant to my own? Yet, though I cannot chant with the nightingale, or chirp with the blackbird, I had rather chatter with the swallow, yea, rather croak with the raven, than be altogether silent. Hadst Thou given me a better voice, I would have praised Thee with a better voice; now what my music wants in sweetness, let it have in sense--singing praises with my understanding. Yea, Lord, create in me a new heart, therein to make melody, and I will be contented with my old voice, until, in Thy due time, being admitted unto the choir of heaven, I have another, more harmonious, bestowed on me.” He does the best work, in this moping, croaking age, whose cheerful face gives the benediction of a happy heart wherever a heavy step is treading along just behind him. Think of the martyr Ignatius exclaiming, “ Oh, would that I could do what would make all the earth adore Thee, and psalm to Thee.” (C. S. Robinson, D.D.) Yesterday’ s mercies forgotten What recollections have we of the sunsets that delighted us last year? The energy of an impression fades from the memory and becomes more and more indistinct every day. We constantly affirm that the thunderstorm of last week was the most terrible one we ever saw in our lives, because we compare it, not with the thunderstorm of last year, but only with our faded and feeble recollection of it. (John Ruskin.) Insufficient gratitude It is no less certain, however, that we are not so wide awake to the wrongfulness of insufficient gratitude. We are all prone to let ourselves off too easily in this respect. We let slip the memory of benefits conferred, or we fail to see our obligation for acts of unselfish service rendered to us by our best friends. We take things too much as a matter of course, not only in human relationships, but in the sphere of religion. Dante has a place in the Inferno for those who were sullen and gloomy in God’ s sweet air; failing to perceive or acknowledge the Divine benefits on earth, they were condemned to continue sullen in the under-world. We are not ungrateful, but our gratitude costs us little. (R. J. Campbell.) Psalms 103:3 Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases.Forgiveness and healing I. Forgiveness and healing are men’ s greatest needs.1. Because without them there can be no upward spiritual progress. Man’ s course is downward until he is divinely forgiven and healed. The accumulating power of sin. 2. Because without them there can be no truly happy service for God. 3. Because without them, existence itself must ultimately become intolerable. II. Forgiveness and healing are received from God.1. He only has the right to forgive and heal. 2. He only has the power. 3. With God is the disposition to put forth His power and assert His right to forgive and heal. III. Forgiveness and healing are, in the kingdom of grace, inseparably connected. Whom God forgives He heals (1 John 1:9). IV. Forgiveness and healing, when possessed, inspire deepest gratitude to their author. (W. Smith.) The pardon of sin First, we are blessed with the pardon of sin, and then we bless God for the pardon of sin. I. Forgiveness is A primary blessing.1. We never enjoy a mercy as a mercy from God till we receive the forgiveness of sins. 2. There are many mercies which are not given at all, and cannot be given, until first of all the pardon of sin has been bestowed. The application of the blood of sprinkling must be felt, the cleansing power of the atonement must be known, or the rest of the blessings of the covenant will never reach us. 3. And well may the Lord place this mercy first, because when it comes it ensures all the rest. The day-dawn is always followed by the clearer light. 4. The pardon of sin comes first, that it may be seen to be an act of pure grace. If any other blessing had preceded it, our legal spirits would have dreamed of merit and fitness: if any attainment had been reached by us before the forgiveness of sins was given, we might have been tempted to glory in self; but now we perceive that God forgives our sins before He heals our moral diseases, and therefore there is no room for pride to set her foot upon. II. Forgiveness is a present blessing.1. This privilege the believer has actually obtained. As many as have looked to Christ upon the cross are now justified by faith, and have peace with God. This is a matter of present fact, and not of mere hope. 2. This present mercy is perpetually bestowed--He still forgiveth our iniquity; there is perpetuity in it. At this very moment I may be mourning my sin, but God is forgiving it. Even in the holiest deeds we do there is still sin, but even then God is still forgiving. 3. This mercy of pardon is knowingly received. Nobody ever sings over uncertain blessings. 4. This present blessing is immediately efficient, for it secures us a present right to all that is involved in being pardoned. Then seek it at once. III. Forgiveness is a personal blessing. “ Who forgiveth all thine iniquities.” Our Lord is a blessed God to forgive anybody, but that He should forgive me is the greatest feat of His mercy. A good brother wrote me the other day, “ Mercy had reached its zenith when it saved me.” He thought so of himself, and we may each one think the same of his own case. “ But may we know this personally?” saith one. I answer, “ Yes.”1. Some of us know that God has forgiven us, because we have the character which He describes as being forgiven. In repentance, in confession of sin, in forsaking sin, and in faith in our Lord Jesus, we have the marks of pardoned sinners, and these marks are apparent in our souls. 2. Moreover, if you have any doubt about whether the Lord forgives you now, it will be well for you to make sure that you accept His way of salvation. It is by faith in His dear Son. 3. We know that we are at this moment forgiven, because we at this moment give to the Lord Jesus Christ that look which brings forgiveness. IV. Forgiveness is a perfect blessing. “ Who forgiveth all thine iniquities.” He does not remove the great ones, and leave the little ones to rankle; not the little ones, and leave one great black one to devour us, but “ all of them He covers and annihilates with the effectual atonement made by His dear Son. Now, I want you to obtain this pardon as a complete thing. Do not rest till you have it: you will never know true peace of mind until it is yours. V. Forgiveness is a priceless blessing. Though it could not be purchased by a life of holiness or by an eternity of woe, forgiveness has been procured. This pardon which is freely preached to-day to all who believe in Jesus hath been purchased, and there is He that procured it, sitting at the right hand of God the Father, a man like unto ourselves, but yet equal with the ever-blessed One. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The disease of sin, and its remedy I. Why sin is called a disease.1. As it destroys the moral beauty of the creature (Genesis 1:31; Genesis 6:5; Psalms 38:7; Lamentations 4:1). 2. As it excites pain (Psalms 51:8; Acts 2:37; 1 Corinthians 15:56). 3. As it disables from duty (Isaiah 1:5; Romans 7:19). 4. As it deprives men of sound reason (Isaiah 5:20). 5. As it leads to death (Romans 6:1). II. The variety of sinful diseases to which we are subject (Mark 7:21-23; Romans 1:29; Galatians 5:19). III. The remedy by which God heals these diseases.1. His pardoning mercy through the redemption of Christ (Isaiah 53:5; Romans 3:23). 2. The sanctifying influences of grace (Ezekiel 36:25; Hebrews 10:16). 3. The means of grace (Ephesians 4:11-13). 4. The resurrection of the body (1 Thessalonians 4:16). 5. The ease of an ignorant, insensible sinner is very deplorable. 6. The case of a real Christian is very hopeful. (1) His sinful disease is radically healed.(2) The completion of his cure is certain. 7. The glory of Christ, as the Physician of souls, is great indeed. (The Study.) Forgiving mercy I. Forgiveness is the crown of God’ s benefits (verses 2, 3). Think of all God’ s common daily mercies, and all God’ s special care and blessing, and then show why, in view of this life and the next, His forgiving seems to be the best blessing of all. II. Forgiveness is the first of many new benefits (verses 4, 5). When God forgives, He follows on to give temporal blessings. His providences wait on His mercies. Illustrate in Job, and in David. III. Forgiveness takes even the remembrance of sin away. See figures in (verses 11, 12, 13). They help us to realize how complete God’ s forgiveness is. He remembers our sins no more against us for ever. Show how true this is of the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Then we may well be happy in our forgiving, merciful God, and sing psalms of praise to Him. Only let us always remember that God’ s forgiving us is made to depend on our forgiving others. (Robert Tuck, B.A.) The great Physician I. Disease itself affords us one of our richest luxuries. It is impossible to describe, to one who has not known the joy of a timely release from the fierceness of disease, the exquisite enjoyments of such an hour. And in this we see the goodness of God. “ Sorrow may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.” There may remain still great weakness, and much, that in other circumstances, would be called distress; but this is all forgotten amid the luxury of a temporary release, and a hope still better. II. We see Divine goodness in the efforts that nature makes to effect her own cure. By “ nature” I mean the unseen operation of His hand who healeth all our diseases; I mean God Himself, operating by certain laws which He has indented upon every part of our frame. The cure is effected without a miracle, but not without the finger of God. David, when diseased, was cured like other men, by the laws of matter, and by human means; still he takes occasion to bless and praise Jehovah as Him who healeth all our diseases. III. The great variety of specifics found in every part of the creation, for the various diseases of men, speak the Divine goodness. Probably there is not a plant or shrub that grows but yields us either food or medicine. The severest poisons are, at length, in many instances, considered the safest and speediest remedies. The mineral and vegetable kingdoms are constantly pouring their treasures into the chamber of distress. And there seems an almost inexhaustible variety. Hence they furnish a specific for every disease. Now in all this how good is God! He could have sent the plague without the remedy, the poison without the antidote. It would be our shame if we could withhold our praise, and yet live in a world so full of the glory of God, where every plant, and shrub, and mineral speaks His praise, and every disease yields to the specific He prescribes. IV. It still is true that it is God who healeth all our diseases. But for that wisdom which He has given to man, physicians could never have known the nature or the virtue of those plants and minerals which are their appointed remedy. And His blessing makes the means effectual. Remarks.1. A period of recovery from sickness should be a season of praise. 2. The life that God has made His care should be devoted to Him. 3. We see why many have praised the Lord upon the sick bed. It is not a place so destitute of comforts as many have supposed. 4. The subject will lead us to reflect with the psalmist on the wondrous mechanism of our natures. (D. A. Clark.) Divine healing The Almighty is over and over again presented as the source of strength, and as the supreme cause of health. Not without reason is He termed “ Jehovah that healeth” ; and various are the references to His healing mercies (Exodus 15:26; Jeremiah 17:14; Jeremiah 30:17; Psalms 147:3; Isaiah 30:26). Also, when Jesus appeared as the Messiah fulfilling the hopes of the Hebrews, He healed the broken-hearted, bound up wounds and gave sight to the blind. The direct agency of the highest of all beings is brought out in the case of the woman who for twelve years had suffered and had spent her living on physicians, and only found relief when she touched the border of Christ’ s garment (Luke 8:41). In this example we have only another version of Abraham’ s prayer (Genesis 20:17). Now, however men may argue, the scientific mind is at one with the Bible. Life in all its phases is a mystery. While conditions and aspects of its beginnings and development have been fixed and determined, birth and death defy explorers, and that which fluctuates between the two--disease--is hardly less obscure. God the ultimate healer will be more fully recognized as science attains to its maturity. To Him, then, should the honour be attributed when we are restored from the bed of languishing and pain. That is His due. The tribute was paid Him by the ancients in adorning the altars with votive offerings, and a similar practice obtained in the Middle Ages, and in some countries has been continued to this day. I have seen altars in Europe burdened with models of the limbs and organs that have been healed by Divine mercy. It would be well for Christians in their prayer-meetings to tell how God has helped their bodies as well as their souls. Were we to speak more in His praise we would encourage more to look to Him for restoration. But His being the healer does not preclude the use of means in overcoming disease. These means may be infinitely varied and may border on the inscrutable, but they are real just the same. When it is said a virtue went out of Christ to cure the woman, that influence was the means employed, and though inexplicable, may at least suggest to thought the transmission of something from God when the sick are made whole. That certain states of feeling are remedial agencies, that they who rouse such feelings are useful, that cherished beliefs will operate on the body, and that moral improvement has in itself a curative value, is becoming more and more apparent. Xavier, who found Simon Rodriguez sick at Lisbon, chronicles the feel that the joy excited in the patient broke up the fever; and Melanchthon was operated on in a similar way by the appearance of Luther. Mr. Herbert Spencer illustrates the great power of mind over body, when he shows how intense feeling brings out great muscular force. Dr. Berdoe has shown us a gouty man throwing away his crutches and running to escape an infuriated animal. I have never doubted that the mind can affect in a wonderful way the sick. The story of the Prince of Orange at the siege of Buda, 1625, sending for mock medicine for his troops dying of scurvy is well known. He brought into camp a decoction of camomile, wormwood and camphor, which he gave out as so precious a medicine that a drop or two in a gallon of water would suffice. The restoration of the men to health was due to imagination, not physic. And the same may be said of cures wrought at the hands of monks or pious souls in the past, and at the shrines of Lourdes and Old Orchard in the present. It will not do to ascribe a desire to deceive to all the so-called miracle workers. While impositions are discernible, still many were sincere, and God evidently used their sincerity to His own glory. The cures wrought by the Jansenists at St. Midard, by the UItramontanes at La Galette and Lourdes, and by Father Ivan at St. Petersburg, have been neither few nor slight. A curious instance of the power of mind we have in what was known as the cure of the King’ s evil by royal touch. Charles II touched nearly 100,000 persons, and many were healed. And coming nearer to our own time we find William III, while practising the same act, offering a different prayer: “ God give you better health and more sense.” Among curative agencies a very high rank must be assigned to the moral and the spiritual. When a man abstains from demoralizing habits, excessive feeding and drinking, the effect will be discernible in his appearance. While the cure is like that wrought by sanitation, back of it is the ideal of a pure manhood. When the spiritual is supreme, and Christians have little time to think of themselves or of their cares, and when they are fully occupied with celestial visions, they usually keep well and hearty. At such times we understand the text: “ Thou art the health of my countenance and my God.” But among the means owned of God are we to class what is known as material remedies? St. Ambrose insisted that “ the precepts of medicine are contrary to celestial science, watching or prayer” ; only it must be remembered that this was maintained as necessary to the efficacy of relics as remedial agencies. Calstadt for different reasons sympathized with Ambrose. He declared that “ whoso shall fall sick shall use no medicine or physic, but commit his case to God, praying that His will may be done.” To which Luther made answer: “ Do you eat when you are hungry?” And as only an affirmative reply could be given, he continues: “ Even so you may use physic, which is God’ s gift just as meat and drink is, or whatever else we use for the preservation of life.” When Jesus says that “ they who are whole need not a physician, but they who are sick,” He lends His countenance to the medical science. We find medicine distinctly recognized in the following places: (Proverbs 17:22; Jeremiah 30:13; Jeremiah 46:11; Ezekiel 47:12). Paul commends to Timothy a little wine for his stomach’ s sake and his infirmities. He does not regard it as an invalidation of faith in God to use a remedy. Neither did Isaiah (2 Kings 20:7). When Ezekiel beholds the vision of “ Holy Waters,” he says the leaf of the tree which grows on either side of the river shall be for medicine. Here is a distinct recognition of medicinal virtues in nature. Why should the “ balm of Gilead” be praised, why should the mollifying quality in ointment be referred to by Isaiah, if all such means reflected on and were inimical to Divine healing? The case of Asa, “ who sought not to the Lord, but to the physicians” (2 Chronicles 16:12) is sometimes adduced against this supposition. But his error did not lie in employing doctors, but in trusting to them. Had he shown in his sickness the same discrimination he evinced in his attack on Ethiopia, when he cried out (2 Chronicles 19:11), he might have overborne disease as he did his foe in the field. If God is the supreme healer what line of conduct should we, especially Christians, pursue? Surely we ought to do all in our power to provide for the comfort and recovery of the afflicted. It is written (Psalms 41:8) that “ God will make all his bed” --the sick man’ s--“ in his sickness.” But that surely does not mean that we are not to make it too. The hand of God is precious to smooth our pillow; and a wife or daughter’ s or mother’ s is not an unnecessary second. We want to carry the spirit of Christ into our contact with disease. With that came more humanitarianism in the past. Establishments for the cure of the sick appeared at an early day in the east; the Infirmary of Monte Cassino and the Hotel-Dieu were opened at Lyons in the sixth century, and in the seventh the Hostel-Dieu in Paris; and it is to the credit of Napoleon III that while he was building the Opera House in Paris, he was rebuilding, on a magnificent scale, the hospital of that sacred name. In this department wonderful has been the progress. We have everything apparently new from such institutions to the Ambulance Corps and the Genevan Cross. But more and more should these arrangements be permeated with the Christ spirit. This faith in God as the Divine Healer should lead to prayer for the sick. Many answers have come to us. I can testify to as many notable instances of recovery from disease as perhaps any other minister. And yet we must never forget that Jesus, overcome by agony, trembling on the verge of death, while praying for deliverance, exclaimed, “ Thy will be done.” Complete reconciliation and harmony with God is worth more than a few years, more or less, of existence in the world. The devout soul will realize that He is healing all its diseases, and that the final health of the body can only come through the collapse of death leading to the glorious resurrection. But until then, I expect, in proportion as God is exalted, by faith and science the approach of that time when sickness shall largely disappear, and when (Isaiah 65:20). And when that season comes health and holiness, both, under God, the product of human agencies, shall preserve the race, and the burden of earth’ s anthem be: “ Bless the Lord, O my soul, who forgiveth all thine iniquities, who healeth all thy diseases.” (G. C. Lorimer, D.D.) What follows forgiveness At one of his mission meetings Gipsy Smith recently told a story about his own little ones who had played truant, and in trying to be stern he sent them to bed without any supper. He passed the rest of the evening tiptoeing about, listening, and wondering what the effect of the punishment would be. Finally, not hearing any sound, he made his way to the bedchamber. As he leaned over the bed, one of the little fellows said: “ Is that you, father?” and sobbed out, “ Father, will you forgive me?” “ Yes, my son, yes--yes, I will forgive you, for I love you.” “ Then, father, take me down to supper.” This was used by Gipsy Smith to point the lesson that once we are forgiven by our Heavenly Father, we have the blessedness of sharing intimate communion with Him. After the kiss of reconciliation the erstwhile prodigal breaks again the “ bread enough and to spare” of his Father’ s house. (Sunday Circle.) Forgiveness possible No debt need be carried forward to another page of the book of our lives, for Christ has given Himself for us, and He speaks to us all--“ Thy sins be forgiven thee.” (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Christ forgiving sin There is much need of asserting the great truth that God can forgive sin. Science is a teacher much honoured now, and science says that it is as impossible morally as physically to put things back where they were before; as impossible to restore a sinful heart as to make whole a broken shell. Under such teaching has grown up a modern religion whose god is fate, whose hope is dust for the body and nothingness for the soul, whose heaven is but to be an influence in others’ lives. The sect is not large, but skilful of speech in philosophy, poetry, fiction. One of them speaks through the hero of a tale: “ I hate that talk of people as if there was a way of making amends for everything. They’ d more need to see that the wrong they do can never be altered. It’ s well we should feel that life’ s a reckoning we can’ t make twice over; there’ s no real making amends in this world, any more than you can mend a wrong subtraction by doing your addition right.” And the age may need this lesson. We have been guilty of making sin too slight and punishment too soft. “ It is good,” sing the old Eumenides in AEschylus, “ that fear should sit as the guardian of the soul, forcing it into wisdom--good that men should carry a threatening shadow in their hearts under the full sunshine; else how should they learn to revere the right?” True, but God has thought it also good to give His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Far diviner is the message of Hawthorne in “ The Scarlet Letter,” where the badge of sin and shame becomes the charmed symbol of a pure and helpful life. Nature knows nothing of forgiveness; science and conscience as well assure us it is impossible. They speak for their own realms, and truly. But, “ when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.” How God takes care of the disaster wrought by our sin is one of the hidden things. That He will blot out our transgression as a thick cloud vanishes in the sun is His radiant promise. It is a forgiveness which not only enables us to enter heaven; it is heaven, or else, for our race, there were no heaven. God can forgive sins, and God alone; and Jesus is “ God with us” forgiving sins and sending penitents away praising with a song that angels could not sing. (Christian Age.) The greatness of Divine mercy “ Who forgiveth all thine iniquities.” God’ s mercy is so great, that it forgives great sins to great sinners, after great lengths of time, and then gives great favours and great privileges, and raises us up to great enjoyments in the great heaven of the great God. As John Bunyan well says, “ It must be great mercy, or no mercy; for little mercy will never serve my turn.” (C. H. Spurgeon.) Pardon precedes crowning We cannot expect God to crown a man with lovingkindness and tender mercies while still he is dead in sin, and lives in daily dread of a second death--a death eternal. A coronation for a condemned criminal would be a superfluity of inconsistency. To crown a hardened convict who lies in the cell at Newgate awaiting his execution, would be a cruel mockery. How could it be that God should wreathe a chaplet of favours for a man who has refused His mercy and wilfully abides under His wrath on account of unconfessed and unpardoned sin. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The need of a healer “ Who healeth all thy diseases.” “ Do you think that was necessary? If my Lord came to me and wiped out the guilt, annulled the debt, would not redemption be perfect?” If you take sin into your life, all the powers are affected. Conscience is seared, the fineness of the judgment is lost, the river of the affections becomes foul, the will loses its erectness. I saw the Metropolitan Tabernacle a few days after the great fire there, and noticed that every one of the pillars in the building had received a wrench, a twist. “ When the fire of sin breaks out in my body every pillar of my life gets a wrench.” (J. H. Jowett.) Psalms 103:4 Who redeemeth thy life from destruction. Redeemed from destruction By destruction here he meaneth, not only the danger of being killed by his enemies, but also and especially the state of condemnation and perishing in God’ s wrath, from which the man justified is redeemed by the Mediator.1. The benefit of preservation from eternal death is given unto the man, to whom all iniquity is forgiven; for here these benefits are joined the one with the other. 2. The deliverances which are given to believers, as well bodily as spiritual, temporal as well as everlasting, do come to us in the way of redemption, made by our kind and faithful kinsman, Jesus Christ. 3. A man must be sensible of the merit of sin, and see himself in the state of perdition for sin, before he can put a right estimation upon his delivery; he must count himself a lost man till the Lord’ s Redeemer deliver him. 4. The favour which God bestoweth upon a believer is not in giving unto him one or two, or some few evidences of His love and mercy, but in a constant compassing of him on every hand, in everything; so that He shall turn him about to what act He will, he is circled round about with love and mercy, supplying wants, preventing, or mitigating and seasoning, his troubles, reclaiming him from sin, and directing him in God’ s way. 5. The evidences of God’ s kindness and mercy to a man is not only a means to glorify God, but also a means to our respect and honour; yea, and a crown of glory on the head of the believer, in the sight of all who look upon him. (D. Dickson.) Who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies.-- A present crown One Sunday morning we visited a poor old man of 97 years. He told us two gentlemen had each promised him a sovereign, if he lived to be 100. “ I wish they’ d give ‘ em to me now,” he said. God promises us crowns in the future; but we are also crowned with lovingkindness in the present. (W. Luff.) Divine mercy He who hath said to us, “ Thy sins be forgiven thee,” has given us a grant of all needful good in that one sentence of His love. Like the comet’ s nucleus, which bears a streaming train of light behind it, so doth forgiveness draw along with it a far-reaching glory of boundless favour. Well may this blessing be set first, since it carries all the rest in its loins. “ When dreadful guilt is done away No other fear’ s we know; That hand, which scatters pardons down, Shall crowns of life bestow.” (C. H. Spurgeon.) Psalms 103:5 Thy youth is renewed like the eagle’ s. Like eagles “ Like the eagle.” I think it is helpful to contrast this figure with the figures used in the previous psalm. There we have a psalmist upon whom the renewing ministry has not yet been wrought, and he lies prone in the grip of a deep depression. “ I am like a pelican of the wilderness” ; this is the very figure of gloom and desolation. “ I am like an owl of the desert” ; he finds a fitting symbol in the bird which dwells among the ruins, and which finds no comfort in the light of day. “ The moping owl doth to the moon complain.” And yet a third figure is used by this melancholy singer: “ I am like a sparrow alone on the housetop.” In his loneliness he finds a suitable emblem in the bird which has lost its mate or its young, and which abides on the house-top silent, lonely, and desolate. Now turn away from these dark and dismal figures to the one of my text. Now my text makes the inspiring declaration that the eagle type of life is the divinely-purposed possession of every man. Men and women who are in covenant with the Almighty will not appear to the world to be kinsmen of the owl and the pelican. They will rather be significant of the eagle. The eagle is, perhaps, our most majestic bird; even to see it in captivity is to behold a creature of splendid and royal build. This is the bird which is to typify the life that is in communion with God. First of all, the life will be eagle-winged. There is nothing more striking about the eagle than its mighty power of wing. The bird can soar away into uplifted mountain vastnesses, and far beyond the highest summit it can mount into the glorious blue. “ They shall mount up with wings as eagles!” And our life is never completed, and we have never really come to our own, until we are in possession of these wings. It is that wing power which marks the maturity of our life, and by which we enter into our splendid destiny. Now, this wing power is just the ability to rise above our circumstances, and to soar into the “ heavenly places” in Christ. We are all familiar with men and women who never get above their immediate surroundings. Such experiences have been the lot of all of us. Our immediate surroundings become our prisons, and we sit down and mope in the midst of our captivity. Life with God is life with the eagle wing; in the strength of that wing we can rise above our prison house into the purer, larger air of the Spirit. I can rise above my temptations. When snares are crowding round me, and when the enemy comes quite near, it is purposed that I should just “ take wings” and find myself far above them. “ Flee as a bird to your mountain!” We make a great mistake when we confront every temptation in the attitude of fight. Most of our temptations could be conquered by quietly rising into a higher sphere. And we can rise above our sorrows. And so it is with our worries and cares. Too many of us just creep and crawl, or we sit among them in cold complaint. Our destined inheritance is the heights. It is the eagle’ s wings we want. “ Give me the wings of faith to rise!” And life in God will not only be eagle-winged but eagle-eyed. What a piercing, wide-casting eye is the dowry of the eagle! When we want a suitable figure to express our conception of a Gladstone’ s eye, or a Kingsley’ s eye, or an Emerson’ s eye, we go to the eagle for it. And this eagle vision is to be the gift of every soul which is in sacred covenant with God. But how this book bemoans our feeble eye. “ Your eyes are dim.” “ Ye cannot discern.” “ Eyes have ye, but ye see not.” “ Ye are blind.” But the book not only indicts us for our short and imperfect sight; it offers us the gift of splendid vision. If we had the eagle eye two things would happen. First of all, we should discern the significance of the immediate. But, secondly, we should have a sensitive discernment of the remote. We should be the first to see the little cloud on the horizon which betokens the coming rain. We should be the first to catch the faint dawning which is the herald of the coming day. No one would be before us. With the eagle eye we should get the first glimpses of the coming of the Kingdom. Now, how are these gifts of the eagle wing and the eagle eye to be obtained? They are to become ours by the ministry of renewal. God will so re-fashion us that in our recovered strength we shall be like the eagle. The words which immediately precede my text describe to us two of the ways by which this renewal is to be effected. We are to be made young by the repair of diseased tissue.” He healeth all thy diseases.” The gracious Lord will lay hold of powers upon which decay has fastened, and He will renew the dead matter, and make it sound again. “ God by His mercies recovers His people from their decays.” Decay so easily sets in! Our highest powers so speedily become destroyed. As we grow older our sympathies are apt to shrivel, and love is apt to wither, and hope loses its youthful strength. And, secondly, He will feed the sound tissue. “ He satisfieth thy mouth with good things.” He will remove the disease, and He will provide suitable nutriment to sustain the powers He hath renewed. And the nutriment will satisfy, and we shall have no restless and tiring cravings. “ Our inner man is renewed day by day.” And so in our spirits our youth can be recalled, and in strength of wing and power of eye we can be like the eagle. In old age we can have daily surprises, as we make daily discoveries of “ the unsearchable riches of Christ.” The whole secret of the renewal so far as we are concerned is just here; we must “ wait upon the Lord.” “ They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.” (J. H. Jowett, M.A.) The secret of perpetual youth These words suggest three points from which to view the great problem of human life, namely, those of the “ Good,” the “ perfection of life,” and “ Satisfaction.” Each of these represents an aspiration of human life, and corresponds to a conviction of what should be, and must be, in a world with an infinite wisdom, power and love on the throne of it. I. Thy “ good” for man must be found in living trust in, and union with, God. As in the ease of the words, “ Open Thy mouth wide, and I will fill it,” we have here an allusion to the relation of birds in the nest to the parent-bird. Man does not find the “ good” for his life until he enters into a living spiritual relationship with God. II. Through the attainment of the “ good” man obtains “ perpetual youth.” There can be no old age or decay for those into whom the life of God is flowing, for those that drink out of the fountain of good. The inner life is ever young, and grows more beautiful with the advance of time. III. In this divinely-sustained and ever new life man finds full satisfaction. Who satisfieth thy mouth, etc. “ Fulness of life” only can bring “ fulness of joy,” and “ fulness of life” can be found only “ in the presence of God.” Satisfaction cannot be full unless it is permanent. “ Fulness of joy” cannot be asserted unless we are able to add “ Pleasures for evermore.” Eternal youth is the fount of eternal joy. In finding God man finds himself, finds life, finds joy. A “ real satisfaction” even in this world of change; by and by “ in God’ s presence” fulness of joy. (John Thomas, M.A.) The renewal of youth I. A striking figure. The eagle is an emblem of the prosperous Christian--1. In the penetration of its eye. 2. In the elevation of its flight. 3. In the swiftness of its motion. If the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts, we cannot be dull and inactive. 4. In the dignity of its appearance. The grace of God elevates the mind and ennobles the soul. Christians are dignified in character, principles, pursuits, duties, ends and aims, and destinies. II. A pleasing fact. There are times when God graciously appears on behalf of His people, in such a way, that He may be said to “ renew their youth like the eagle’ s.”1. In the recovery of health after severe sickness. 2. In the renewal of vigour after religious decay. 3. In the restoration of joy after spiritual depression. 4. In the perpetual bloom of immortality. (E. Temple.) Renewed youth Past spiritual experience need not be a memory only, nor need the claims of the future alarm us, in Christ we have never had or been our best, from age to age through the satisfaction of our mouth with good our youth may be renewed like the eagle’ s. I. Spiritual life, then, may be marked by constant youth.1. Because youth’ s best features are of the very essence of the spiritual nature. (1) Conscious possibility.(2) Enjoyment of life.(3) Untiring strength. Christianity is constant youth, it brings youth’ s best features with it, as it increases the more spiritually youth-like we are, according to our Lord’ s principle that to grow in greatness in the kingdom of heaven is to grow towards the child.2. Because spiritual life has never reached its maturity. The Christian can never say, The best is gone. With him, better experiences, and attainments, and service are to come. 3. Because its source is untouched by the deteriorating influences of earth. “ Our life is hid with Christ in God.” Thus it cannot die, Christ maintains it from Himself. For the same reason it never need decline. II. We sometimes fail of the youthfulness of spirituality. We need not. It is a grave dishonour to Christ to suppose that He cannot keep us from failing, and a great injury to ourselves to suppose that anything in the nature of the ease forbids unbroken Christian progress. Therefore, though what we speak of now is a fact, let us remember that it need not be, and is only due to sin.1. It is so when we feel our chance is gone: “ Time is the great enemy,” said a statesman. And so we say of our religious possibilities, “ Time is the great enemy” --it destroys what we might have been. In early life we form ideals, we determine then to conquer circumstances, and rise; time passes, and the ideal fades, we think then we can only be what circumstances let us. 2. It is so, too, when we miss the sacred powers and experience of other days. For “ the days that are past,” with some, “ were better than these.” 3. And it is so, when there is nothing youth-like in our piety. III. This failure is remedied by partaking of Divine nourishment.1. We have as much strength as we receive in nourishment, and no more. Every life has its proper food--vegetable life, animal life, human life, and so on; and if it be deprived of it, it fails till at last it dies. Our natural strength is the result of the food we have taken, and its maintenance, and increase, and revival depend on our feeding it. Now it is so with spiritual life, Christ is its food, “ I,” said He, “ am the Bread of life,” our life is in Him, the measure of our piety therefore is the measure of our reception of Him, we can have no more Divine life than we receive through partaking of Christ. 2. That, then, indicates the source of spiritual decline. Have we lost our youth? Have our powers, and possibilities, and joys vanished? It is due to this, and if we trace it back we shall find it so: we have neglected Christ. 3. That reveals the means of renewal. Christian young in years, and Christian young by the long retention of spiritual youthfulness, you will never grow old (faded and worn, I mean) in the Divine life, you will keep and increase your blessedness, if you but constantly feed upon Christ. (C. New.) The renewal of youth Every fresh inspiration is a new beginning of life. Over the years as they slip by there will always be inscribed the apostolic saying, “ Not as though I had already attained.” But though perfection is ever in front, we may thank God for every experience that opens out new roads, and helps us to move forward to that which is holy and good.1. Renewal is essential in all things. When the body ceases to form new ceils the hour of its dissolution quickly arrives. Does the imperial mind cease to delight itself in, and eagerly search after, new and brilliant aspects of truth? You know the result, how soon that mind becomes either as sweet bells jangling out of tune, or is enervated, crusted, stale, and unprofitable. Carried out into nature, the same law ordains that the capacity of the earth to sustain mankind shall depend on bursting seeds, prolific roots, opening buds, and the renewal of generous fruits. Repeated in form, they are new every year. But while renewal is at once a law, and a most marvellous manifestation of the Divine Providence, it never assumes such a profound significance as it does in the world of thought and feeling. Your ideals are opportunities for renewal; from the splendid aims and hopes they reveal you may go on to the greatness and beauty of the deeds that make them real. 2. The redemptive and saving purposes of Divine love work by and through the same law. Renovation is the guarantee of spiritual health; recreation is the secret of sustained energy, and of triumphant faith. In “ Jesus our Immanuel” the words of the psalm before us find their verification. He came that He might say to the weary and storm-tossed, to the evil who repented, to the bowed-down and forsaken, to those in the guilt and slavery of iniquity, “ Thy youth is renewed like the eagle’ s.” He is still saying it; He is still offering to satisfy our mouths with good, that our youth, too, may be renewed. 3. Consider the powerful contrast hero set forth. Age, even though veiled with poetic grace, and having many compensations, is a time of waning powers. There is less generous enthusiasm and more of caution and prudence. On the other hand, youth is marked by splendid impulse and ardour; radiant in energy, care sits lightly on its shoulders. It is “ like a morning gladness before the heat and burden of the day.” In this world these conditions, so strangely distinct in features and qualities, are equally essential. We must have beginnings, the sweeter and purer the better; and we must have endings, and always is it cause for rejoicing when they are full and honourable, and the garments of time and the tools of nature are laid aside after long and faithful use. But there is no such thing as age in heaven. “ Growing old in heaven is growing young.” “ Those that are in heaven are continually advancing to the spring of life, with a greater advance towards a more joyful and happy spring the more thousands of years they live,” because “ it is goodness and charity that forms and presents in them its own likeness.” (J. T. Freeth.) Youth renewed I. The youth of the soul of God’ s child was renewed gloriously, and he entered on a new and imperishable life in his new birth,--in the hour of that entire change of state and of character, of which Jesus said to Nicodemus, “ Except a man be born again,” etc. Most blessed renewing this of youth, wherein a sinner, throwing off the iniquities of a lifetime, returns back to somewhat of the very gladness, and innocence, and guilelessness, of childhood! II. There is often a further, most blessed renewing of the soul’ s youth of God’ s child--some call it a second conversion, though the expression requires to be used cautiously--when, after a period of darkness, and distance, and spiritual decay, with, it may be, the commission of positive sin, God revisits His child with His pardoning and sanctifying mercy, brings him to deep repentance, and restores to him the purity and the joy of His salvation. III. But there is what I might call a more normal and progressive rejuvenescence,--renewal of the soul’ s youth of the child of God,--which Paul exemplifies for us (2 Corinthians 4:16-18). Oh, this is God’ s filling His child with all peace and joy in believing, that he may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost. IV. The youth of the soul of God’ s child comes to be renewed, strange to say! in the highest of all ways, in his death,--in that which, to the eye of sense, might seem to be the end and wreck of all. Oftentimes there are marvellous foretastes and anticipations of this in the closing hours. (C. J. Brown, D.D.) The renewal of youth This thought of the renewal of youth appears again and again in the traditions and legends of mankind. As if shrinking from decay, and having somehow a conviction that man was not intended to be lost, outworn and exhausted in his earthly pilgrimage, he has had his dreams of the renewal of youth. Sometimes the dream took the shape of the legend of the phoenix, living for centuries, and when consumed rising from its ashes; or the eagle mounting up into heaven till he comes near to the seat of central fire in the sun, when scorched by the sun he casts himself into the sea; thence he emerges again with new vigour and fresh plumage, till at his hundredth year he perishes in the sea. In the text there may be an allusion to the yearly moulting of the feathers of the eagle and other birds, the eagle being selected as the liveliest image of strength and activity. And the old alchemists were searching for the elixir that would not only transmute inferior metals into gold, but would restore to man his youth, and so prolong his life, enabling him to resist disease, and set the destructive influences of nature at defiance. It was a beautiful dream. It contains a hint of man’ s great capacity of life, and his wondrous destiny. I. God is the fountain of youth. He is “ from everlasting” --the underived, uncreated, unbeginning Existence; the Ancient of Days. But He is eternally young. His mercies are “ new every morning.” The resources of Omnipotence have not begun to fail; the energies of the Holy Spirit are not spent. The measurements of time are only a convenience to us, our dates and chronologies are nothing to God. He is clothed with the eternal beauty of youth; and new benefits, too numerous to be counted, are ever bearing witness to the freshness and constancy of His love. II. We, then, may receive from Him the gift of perpetual youth. The psalmist, with the boldness of faith, speaks of the Eternal as standing in close relation to himself. Jehovah and the soul are represented as in touch with each other. “ Who forgiveth all,” etc. It is difficult to satisfy a human soul. Myriads are making the attempt, and failing. But here is satisfaction. The soul at rest, its longings met; no longer wandering in the market-places of the world in search of goodly pearls, it has now found the pearl of great price, it has found the “ good.” What is this good? Why, it is God Himself, and that is the reason why it is satisfying. “ The Lord is my portion.” III. What are the characteristics of youth? Think of two or three. There is energy. A young man without energy is out of his place; he is “ born out of due time.” If he is not energetic in youth, he had better apply for a position among the lotos-eaters, and “ steep his brows in slumber’ s holy balm.” Action is identified with life. Energy, activity is the mark of the renewed nature. The rest to which it attains is not indolence, but the harmony of the powers in the service they render, the absence of all disturbing or thwarting elements, the repose of the soul in God, who is not idle, but ever working out the counsels of His own will. Youth is a time of hopefulness. It is led On and sustained by the visions of hope. Many of them may be, and probably are, only illusions; but even then they are useful. It is God’ s kind provision that the morning should be bright. And this trait of youth is in the renewed nature. It is begotten again to a “ living hope.” Many hopes are dead; they grew very weary as the years advanced, and gave up the ghost. The paths of all who forget God are strewn with the withered hopes that were once green and beautiful. But this is a living hope--living because Jesus is living, the hope of life, fulness of life, complete victory over the powers of darkness and death. And we speak of the enthusiasm, fervour, dash, daring of youth. And so there is brightness and fervour in the renewed nature. We say that the heart grows cold with age; no new friendships are formed; the interest in the outside world is lessened; the blood is more sluggish; the pulse more slow; the heart more cold. But the man who is living in the company of Jesus Christ has not a cold heart; it is burning with love to Him, and with zeal for the triumph of His cause. IV. This new life is beyond the power of the visible and temporal. Suffering cannot harm it. Indeed, it has manifested its greatest beauty and shone with heavenly splendour in seasons of affliction and trouble. Death cannot harm this life. While the outward man is decaying, the inward man is renewed day by day, moment by moment. The true life can no more die than God can die; and the change will only be a renewal of youth. Heaven is a land where the people “ grow younger,” and their glory never fades. (J. Owen.) Rejuvenescence Ever since our first parents were banished from the Tree of Life, by whose blessed medicine they were kept in undecayed vigour, mankind have sought a substitute for it in ways of their own. In Greek mythology we read the story of Medea, who, by the magic of her incantations, restored the aged to the bloom of youthful beauty. In Eastern fables we are charmed with descriptions of the Vijara Nadi, the ageless river, which makes the old young again by only seeing it; and of the spring of immortality flowing in caverns below the earth, and guarded by the pundit Kabib, where the bodies of those who bathe in it shine as if anointed with oil, and are fragrant as with the scent of violets. The South Sea islander, seeing the sun sinking, dim and weary, in the western waves, and rising again from the eastern main fresh and bright, conceived the beautiful myth of “ the water of enduring life,” which removes all deformity and decrepitude from those who plunge beneath its silvery surface. Among the Aleutian islanders the legend is current that in the early ages of the world men were immortal, and when they grew old had but to spring from a high mountain into a lake, whence they came forth in renewed youth. In the Mediaeval romances we are familiar with the “ Fountain of Youth,” and with the wanderings of pilgrims in search of its miraculously-healing waters--wonderful and adventurous as those in quest of the Sangreal, or the treasure hid at the foot of the rainbow. Rejuvenescence is the one great poetic idea of the universe. All the phenomena of the spiritual and material worlds are illustrations of it. The dream of humanity is the fact of creation; the longings that in the human world have been expressed in myths and romances have been symbolized in the objects of nature, in the epic poem of the seasons and the ages. Geology is the history of rejuvenescence on our earth. It reveals to us continual disintegration counterbalanced by continual construction; decay everywhere followed by renewal; so that all things have continued as they were from the beginning, and the earth looks as young to-day as it did on the first morning of creation. Every spring there is a rejuvenescence of the vegetable kingdom. But although most apparent at this season,--showing itself in the tender verdure of green grass, and fresh beauty of bright leaves and blossoms,--it is not the work altogether of spring. The labour of renovation begins at an earlier period; and the breath of spring only unfolds that which was preparing in silence and secrecy during the dark chill season of winter. The illustrations of rejuvenescence which zoology affords are still more interesting, because connected with a more complex organization and a higher function of life. Animal growth differs very widely from vegetable growth. The vegetable grows by means of additional cells; the animal by means of substituted cells. The cells of the plant die as soon as they are produced and have served their purpose, but they are retained in the structure and help to build it up; there being no provision made in the economy of the plant for the expulsion of dead cells. The cells of the animal on the other hand also die, but they are expelled from the body, and new ones take their place. Many animals have periodical and most curious replacements of entire organs and parts of their structure. Every one is familiar with the process of moulting in birds, in which the old feathers drop off every year and new ones are formed; this change in the plumage being accompanied by corresponding constitutional changes. Lizards, serpents, and spiders statedly cast their entire skin, and are furnished with a new one. The crab even replaces its stomach, forming a new one every year and casting away the old one. Just as plants rejuvenize by the annual renewal of their leaves and flowers, so animals rejuvenize by the annual renewal of some of their parts or organs. Passing on to man, who sums up in himself all animal and vegetable types of structure and function, and connects them with the spiritual world, whose existence is the aim to which the infinite rejuvenescences throughout all nature strive, we find that his body is subject to the same laws of growth which rule in the bodies of other animals. He, too, grows by the substitution of new particles for the old. But besides this particular and general molecular renovation, there are also periodical renewals of some organ or conspicuous portion of the body itself. The body renews its youth through fever, producing new hair and new skin, and becoming stronger and healthier afterwards. Sleep is one of the most wonderful phenomena of rejuvenescence. The mind in sleep relaxes its hold of the outward world, and becomes a mere passive mirror to reflect its images and sensations in dreams; but in this state of passivity it gathers itself into new force--into a renewed recollection of its specific purpose--and rearranges in an orderly manner all the confusions and perplexities of its waking state. It is also through the soft soothing sleep which occurs at the crisis of severe diseases that the rejuveneseence of the body occurs. Humanity rejuvenizes itself in the birth of every child; and grows young again in the youth of its children. Our own character fixed, our opinions become prejudices--this young generation with plastic minds comes forward to carry on the work of the world a few steps, and to become stereotyped in turn. In the rise and fall of nations, in the birth and death of individuals, humanity rejuvenizes itself. But the greatest of all rejuvenescences was the origin of Christianity. In the person of the child Jesus, humanity became young again. By His works the world became a new creation. Every rejuvenescence which man experiences is an additional assurance to him that, as he has borne the image of the earthy, so he will bear the image of the heavenly. This is the glorious hope set before us in the Gospel; this is the climax and consummation of all rejuvenescences here--the renewal of nature--of man’ s body--of his mind--his heart--his soul. All these renewals are leading to and preparing for the great renewal of heaven. The kingdom of heaven in its highest sense is the “ restitution of all things.” It is the New Jerusalem, the new heaven and the new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness--not another physical world specially created for the dwelling-place of glorified humanity; but this earth itself which in all its various phases has been so closely united and bound up with the nature of man, and hallowed by the footsteps, yea, oven by the tears and blood of the Son of God Himself, and which in the end shall share in the new and wondrous birth of redemption,--“ put on its glorious resurrection robes and minister delight to the ennobled senses of the redeemed.” (H. Macmillan, D. D.) Recovered youthfulness A famous Roman once penned a delightful treatise intended to reconcile himself and the friend to whom it was dedicated, to the approach of old age. Much in his cheerful philosophy is worthy of the study of Christian people, though some things are superfluous; for the Bible shows to us a more excellent way. The humiliations and bitter distresses of old age need never come to us if an inward process of spiritual repair is affected to compensate the disabilities of outward decay. True religion is always fresh and glowing as the day-dawn, and if it has lost its youthfulness, decay and oblivion are inevitably before it. The Apostle Paul is pre-eminent for his unfailing youthfulness of character; no tribulation could quench the fire of his enthusiasm or destroy the buoyancy of his spirit. He speaks of himself as “ Paul the aged,” but neither in his mental nor spiritual life is there the slightest sign of abating vigour or failing vitality. A tree of tenacious hardihood called the tree of life grows in the Central American forests. If the leaf be cut, new buds will at once form themselves on the shorn, bleeding edge thereof, and its tenacious vitality and productiveness will be asserted in face of the fiercest injury. As we read the catalogue of the ills that failed to daunt the spirit of the apostle, we feel he must surely have eaten of the fruit of that tree. And the Giver of life repeats His wonder to those who wait in His presence. If our youth is renewed, the sorrow that has cut us to the heart will not prove itself a death-wound nor hinder our after-fruitfulness. True religion must be young, for it is an expanded childhood. Recovered youthfulness is in itself meetness for immortality. Our doctrine of an endless being would be repulsive apart from that rejuvenation of the powers which makes ready for the enjoyment of it. The sense of jadedness may weigh upon our anticipations of heaven. For the appreciation of this world as well as that which is beyond it, we need a replenished inward life. In nine cases out of ten when Alexander weeps it is not that he has no more worlds to conquer, but because he has so worn himself out that he cannot possess the world which lies at his feet. We have come to speak of the activities of heaven as various, including widely differentiated ministries as well as worship; and rightly so, for a monotonous immortality would be a curse grievous to bear. But the cure for monotony often lies within. The ever-lengthening duration of life apart from its replenishment with new faculties and new enthusiasms would be intolerable. There must be that constant renewal of the youth of which devout worshippers of God in every period of the world’ s history have had experience. And the writer of the Apocalypse, in describing his visions, is mindful of this need. Life blooms with a vernal freshness that never stales. The river that flows through the celestial city and the fountains to which the Shepherd King leads His redeemed flock are symbols of vitality and perpetual renewal. It is always springtide, for the trees yield their fruit every month. Let us live in the fellowship of Jesus Christ, and be baptized with His Spirit, and we shall then be ever renewing our life. “ Your young men shall see visions and your old men shall dream dreams.” The dreams of old men who receive the Spirit are as rich, as far-ranging, as many-hued as the visions of the young men. Cherishing this Spirit, however deep our wounds and fierce and wasting our conflicts, we shall not fail in warmth and hope and fresh springing force. (T. G. Selby.) Rejuvenescence All occupations and professions have afforded illustrations of rejuvenescence. Hippocrates, the father of medicine, lived one hundred and nine years, and among those eminent in the medical profession who became septuagenarians, and octogenarians, and nonagenarians, were Darwin, Gall, Boerhaave, Jenner and Ruyseh, observing themselves the laws of health that they taught their patients. In art, and literature, and science, among those who lived into the eighties were Plato, and Franklin, and Carlyle, and Goethe, and Buffon, and Halley. Sophocles reached the nineties. You cannot tell how old a man is from the number of years he has lived. I have known people actually boyish in their disposition at eighty years of age, while Louis II, King of Hungary, died of old age at twenty. Haydn’ s oratorio, “ The Creation,” was composed at seventy years of age. Humboldt wrote his immortal work, “ The Cosmos,” at seventy-five. William Cullen Bryant, at eighty-two years of age, in my house, read without spectacles “ Thanatopsis,” which he had composed when eighteen years of age. Isocrates did illustrious work at ninety-four. Leontinus Gorgias was busy when death came to him at one hundred and seven years of age. Herschel, at eighty years of age, was hard at work in stellar exploration. Masinissa, King of Numidia, at ninety years of age, led a victorious cavalry charge against the Carthaginians. Titian was engaged on his greatest painting when he died, in his one hundredth year. How often they must have renewed their youth! (T. De Witt Talmage.) The oldest become the youngest Commenting upon the words, “ Thy youth is renewed like the eagle’ s,” Mr. Jowett paid a beautiful tribute to “ The youngest deacon of my church,” the old man who is always the child of the morning, the revolutionary, and the Radical in his party. “ I have never heard him speak about sunsets. He is a child of God, his youth is renewed every day, he will die with his face to the east, looking for the morning.” Psalms 103:6-14 The Lord executeth righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed. God’ s conduct towards mankind In the preceding verses the hymnist exhorts himself to praise the Great God on account of the benefits conferred on himself. Here he strikes off into general reasons why he and all men should bless His holy name. I. God’ s conduct in relation to the socially oppressed. He “ executeth righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed” (Job 36:5-6; Isaiah 10:1-2; Proverbs 22:22-23; Psalms 111:12; Amos 8:4-6; Deuteronomy 24:14-15; Matthew 19:27; James 5:1-5).1. To some extent in this life this is seen in the strength that is given the oppressed to bear up under all their trials, and in the unhappiness and the ruin that God brings upon their oppressors. Pharaoh, Nebuchadnezzar, Herod, Napoleon. 2. He does so fully in the life to come. II. God’ s conduct in relation to the methods of revealing Himself to mankind (verse 7). There is a great difference between the “ ways” and the acts of any intelligent agent; as different as cause and effect. All men have their particular ways of doing a thing. God has His way, His method of action.1. It is more difficult to know the “ ways” of God than to know the “ acts” of God. A child may understand many of the actions of a philosophic father, but not his ways or methods of action. Israel understood many of the acts of God; but Moses only rose to a knowledge of His ways, His principles, and manner of actions. 2. It is more important to know the ways of God than the acts of God. (1) As a man knows His ways, he may forecast the future. Such and such events will occur in the future because it is in the order of the Divine procedure. (2) As a man knows His ways he may acquiesce in His dispensations. (3) As a man knows His ways he becomes exalted in thought and sympathy. III. God’ s conduct in relation to sinners in general (Psalms 103:8-10).1. His mercy is longsuffering. “ Slow to anger.” 2. His mercy is abundant. “ Plenteous in mercy.” 3. His mercy overcomes His resentment. 4. His mercy restrains punishment (verse 10). IV. God’ s conduct in relation to the genuinely pious (verses 11-14).1. Immeasurable grace (verse 11). 2. Sin-removing grace (verse 12). 3. Fatherly considerateness (verses 13, 14). Our physical, intellectual, and moral constitutions are thoroughly understood by Him. If He thus knows us, we may infer two things-- (1) That He will not lay on us more trials than we are capable of enduring. (2) That He will not demand of us more service than we are capable of rendering. (Homilist.) Christianity and the penal code A young exile in Siberia told me that during the first part of his imprisonment the only literature given him were the Bible and the Penal Code. The intention, doubtless, was to incite to virtue on the one hand, and to warn against crime on the other. But the effect produced was to lead only to a comparison between the laws of Russia and the laws of Christ, and not to the benefit of the former. (George Kenman.) Psalms 103:7 He made known His ways unto Moses, His acts unto the children of Israel.A twofold revelation, and a twofold attainment I. A twofold Divine revelation. There is an obvious distinction between ways and acts. Acts are deeds; ways are methods. A man’ s acts are the results and representatives of his ways. A man’ s ways indicate the leading principle, spirit, and style of his life. His acts are not always consistent with his ways.1. God reveals His ways. The universal, immutable, and eternal principles that guide Him in all His operations in the spiritual world are clearly laid down in the Book. The laws He gave to Moses reveal His ways, and so does the biography of His blessed Son in a still sublimer measure. 2. God reveals His acts. His acts are recorded in the Bible: creative acts--governing acts--redeeming acts--acts of justice and of mercy. His acts should be studied in order to reach the higher knowledge of His ways. II. A twofold theological intelligence. Moses, on Sinai, received the eternal principles that regulate the Infinite in all His operations with man. The children of Israel down in the desert only saw His acts. They understood not the laws of His providence, and the grand purposes of His heart. There is a great distinction between these two kinds of knowledge.1. One is far more profound than the other. The outward acts of God, as recorded in this Book, may be easily ascertained and detailed in fluent and accurate speech. But to understand His ways, to penetrate the region of principles, and to have an insight into the method of Divine operations, is a difficult work. This requires not only an inductive study of the Holy Book, but exalted feelings of devotion. “ The secrets of the Lord are with them that fear Him.” 2. One is far more valuable than the other. It is more valuable to the possessor. The man who is only conversant with the mere acts of God will often be filled with confusion by providential events. One act will apparently contradict another, but he who understands the ways, the grand purposes and principles of God, will not be easily confused. It is more valuable, too, in qualifying us for usefulness. The man who is acquainted with mere details may repeat Bible anecdotes, and be popular. The man who has some knowledge of eternal principles can alone instruct souls. 3. One is far more uncommon than the other. (1) In nature the millions observe the acts of God. They hear His thunder; they witness His lightning. They see His operations in heaving oceans and revolving worlds. But only one here and there understands His ways, and these are our men of science. (2) In human history, numbers are conversant with the leading facts of human history. They know the acts of this statesman and that, this warrior and that, this nation and that; but the ways of God, the great principles with which He governs man are known only by a few--the philosophic historians. (3) In redemption, the leading facts of Christ’ s life are familiar to most in Christendom; but His ways, His grand principles, and sublime purposes, how few know anything about! (Homilist.) Revelation by action God has revealed Himself to man. Nothing can be more reasonable. Can it be that a supreme intelligence would create intelligent subjects of His government and children of His family, and have no further communication with them? Intelligence creating intelligence, revelation is inevitable. But how did God reveal Himself to man? When I was a very little child, I supposed that He had revealed Himself in a book, and that the self-revelation was limited to the book. I wish to insist that God, in revealing Himself to humanity, does not limit Himself to a book; but that God “ made known His ways” unto individuals, “ His doings” unto nations, and that His revelation was a revelation chiefly by action, a revelation on the plane of human activity, in vast historic unfoldings, through long centuries, on a colossal scale and with deep incisions. He did not write, He wrought. And man wrote. God wrought deeds to make words possible, to give significance to words; but His revelation was primarily a revelation in action. “ He made known His ways unto Moses.” Glance for a moment at that wonderful scene recorded in the Book of Exodus, where Moses and Aaron appear before Pharaoh. Pharaoh demanded a sign, and Aaron, in obedience to Moses’ command, cast his rod upon the ground and it became a living serpent. At Pharaoh’ s command his magicians cast their rods to the ground, and they became living serpents. But “ Aaron’ s rod swallowed up their rods.” And then began a series of marvellous deeds which made the people of Israel and the people of Egypt acknowledge that the finger of God was there. The outcome was that the children of Israel were delivered from bondage and taken into the wilderness, where through many years they were guided by the God who had delivered them. Thus “ God made known His ways unto Moses, His acts unto the children of Israel.” From the Old Testament let us go to the New. Jesus Himself never wrote a book, a sermon, an essay. “ He went about doing good.” His words were the explanation of the things He did, and the things that God did in nature and in providence. When John sent his disciples to Jesus, they asked the question, “ Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another?” His first answer was--silence. Then He touched the eyes of the blind man, and he saw; He touched a lame man, and he walked; a leper, and he was cleansed; a deaf man, and he heard; and, pointing to the son of the widow of Nain, who the day before had been rescued from his bier and restored to his mother, He said, “ Go your way, and tell John what things ye have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up; the poor have good tidings preached to them.” Thus He made known His ways, His doings to the children of men. As in the time of Moses and in the time of Jesus, so in all history has God manifested Himself as Lord of nature, who works His will on the material and with the forces He has created. And is He bound to any one mode or order of action because of the nature He has created? See the fountain breaking loose upon the top of the mountain, pouring forth its water! Following the laws of nature, these waters work their way through the yielding soil to the edge of the mountain, and then fall over in a succession of fine cascades to the plain below, where, winding their way through the sand, they join the river and pass to the sea. We say that this movement is a work of nature. Is there any other way of doing with the water that springs from the mountain than that which we have observed? Certainly. Even a man can do something other and better with this stream on the mountain. As proprietor of the land he proceeds to dig, regulate, guide, and carry for a mile along the brow of the hill the waters that break from the fountain. He then causes the stream to descend in waterfalls down the mountain-side, and then in artificial channels, crossed by rustic bridges, here and there, expanding into little lakelets, and now confined in narrow limits, he brings the stream to the river and to the Sea. Thus there are at least two ways of using the same elements in nature. Nature does one thing if left to herself. Man’ s ingenuity and power can make nature do another thing without violating a law of nature. Can God do with His own resources what man can do with God’ s resources? And why should there not be action in the realm of human history that is not simply a product either of nature or of man? And why may we not encounter in the records of human history marvels of which we are compelled to say, “ Lo! God hath wrought this.” I once listened to a rendition of a concerto by Rubinstein where Rubinstein himself took part. Before the artist himself appeared, Thomas’ s orchestra delighted the great audience with Rubinstein’ s music. Although I did not see him I heard his music. After a little while he came in and took his place at the piano while his own music was going on. After a while he touched the keys himself; and, accompanying his own music rendered by other performers, he swept from the instrument strains of exquisite harmony that held the multitude spellbound. The same artist produced indirectly the music he had composed through the orchestra that rendered it, and directly through the instrument under his fingers. Can God do such things with His universe? Through all the ages His purposes have gone rolling on in harmony with His wisdom, in display of His power, in manifestation of His goodness; but there came a time when on the plains of Palestine One walked the earth, the incarnation of wisdom and love and power, and went about doing good to the children of men. In the light of this law of revelation by action, let us look at the life of Jesus. He came to reveal God to man that He might reveal man to himself. He did not come to startle our race by the wonders that He wrought. He did not come to depreciate nature as a revelation of God by simply showing that there were possibilities beyond nature. He did not come to stifle human research or to put a ban on human science and discourage human culture. He came to set forth before all the ages God’ s holiness and love, the worth of man and his destiny and possibilities. See Him yonder hanging on that cross between heaven and earth, revealing by action God’ s loathing of sin, His love of righteousness, and His boundless mercy. By His victory over death, as He emerged from the sepulchre, He demonstrated by action the power of the immortal life. By His ascent from the summit of Olivet into the visible heavens He revealed, as no literary or artistic production could ever have revealed, the fact of a realm of being beyond this. Reappearing in tongues of fire at Pentecost, He made known to men the fact of His presence and power on the earth for the ages to come. Thus “ He made known His ways” and “ doings” to humanity. In the light of this law of revelation by action let us look at the Scriptures. It is easy for us to fancy what a Divine book ought to be--how perfect and flawless, with no syllable in it that is not exact and Divine; a book completed in heaven and handed down to humanity. But this is not the Bible which we do have. We can easily see what would happen if the law of revelation by action through gradual processes be the Divine way of revelation. First, the Bible would be largely biographical; then, of course, historical; and gradually developed. It must be characterized by an all-pervading unity; there would be progressiveness in the unfolding of truth, and we should expect to get a fuller, larger, and worthier idea of God through Paul than through Moses, and through Paul’ s last writings than through Paul’ s earliest writings. If it was to be a revelation by action, it would take ages to produce it and ages to complete it. Its perpetuity would be guaranteed. It would be a trustworthy book if rightly interpreted. The human element would be present in it; for, if God revealed Himself through men, He would recognize the limitations of the man through whom He reveals Himself, and do the best He could with the material in hand, without violating the laws of nature or of man. In the light of this law of revelation by action let us look at the Christian life. When an individual soul receives the Divine truth and lives it out, he makes known to men by action the Divine truth he has received. Horace Bushnell has a great sermon entitled “ Every Man’ s Life a Plan of God.” Chrysostom says, “ The true Shechinah is man.” Give me a living man in whom God dwells, whose character is moulded by the Divine truth, whose spirit is possessed by the Divine Spirit, and whose life is under the Divine direction, and I will show you a version of the Scriptures that will be of immense value to the community in which that man dwells. You have read an essay about the sun. You have seen pictures of the sun, although artists are usually ingenious enough to give a landscape just before the sun rises or just after sunset. You have seen the sun reflected in a dewdrop as it trembles on the little twig. You have seen the sun embodied in the beauty of the flower. But there is still another embodiment of sunlight. It is when on a cold day I come to your house, and a man puts a huge piece of bituminous coal on the fire. Millions upon millions of years ago the sunlight was stored in that lump of coal, but now in your home it comes out again; and the flashing light, with its brightness and its warmth, is the old sunlight millions of years ago hidden, and now giving blessing to your household. So God by action has put into this book of Divine truth the energies of His grace. These in turn have been transferred by faith to the souls of earnest and obedient students, and they in their turn make known again by action the ways of God to men. The Christian is thus a “ living epistle,” read and known of all men. Often in walking through the Palace of Versailles, where those fine historic paintings fill the wall, I have imagined the trembling of the canvas, and then the coming down to the floor of those pictured men and women, no longer dead, but living and walking as they did one hundred years ago and more. It is a great thing for people to get the ideas that are in the Book inwrought into personal character, so that ideas, growing into ideals, will become realities, and people whom you meet will seem more and more like the prophets and apostles of old. Thus may we walk among men, incarnations of the Divine truth, and work over again the works of God. Therefore, let Him have His way with you that He may make known to others through you His ways of grace, and power, and victory, and blessing. (J. H. Vincent.) Psalms 103:8 The Lord is merciful and gracious.The mercy of God I. Define the idea of mercy. It is the exercise of a Divine benevolence in respect to a guilty being, and such an exercise, that if it had been wholly wanting, no just judgment could ever have impeached the benevolence of God. Mercy is the intervention of gratuitous goodness. It is benevolence, bending in pity and compassion over the very creature, whose guiltiness has deserved the everlasting abandonment of Heaven. II. Guard against an error in relation to it. The error we wish you to avoid consists precisely in the difference there is between the notions of Divine Mercy entertained by an intelligent and humble Christian, and those entertained by unconverted sinners at ease in their sins. When we speak of the pre-eminence of Divine Mercy, we are speaking of that thing which we, as Christians, feel to be of all things most calculated to make us fear and hate sin. We see it does not render the Deity indifferent to His laws; it does not infringe upon His justice, or make Him less terrible, but more terrible, to all who will indulge themselves in sin. But still the Divine Mercy is pre-eminent. By this attribute God peculiarly shows Himself. If you did not pervert the Divine Mercy, you would feel it as an infinite attraction; you would find its solace reaching the deepest woes that ever trouble your agonized spirit. III. Explain how it comes to pass that the mercy of God, which ought to affect our hearts so much, really does affect them, while unconverted, so little. The believer walks with God and lives in Christ. He sees God in all things, and all things in God. The influence, and a sweet and sensible influence of the perfections of God, all His perfections, comes over the renewed heart. An unregenerated heart fails in this. And it fails in a very remarkable manner to be affected by the Divine mercy. There are several things which conspire together to cause this.1. The first is found in the nature of mercy itself. Sin in the human heart tends always and uniformly (when the heart is unaffected by the Divine Spirit) to put God out of mind. 2. The second cause is found in the fact that sin, in the human heart, has made its most perfect triumph over those very sensibilities which mercy aims to affect. 3. A third reason is found in the sufferings that fill the world; i.e. the ideas of irreligious people about these miseries give them a wrong idea of the Mercy of God. Let us not be materialists, to weigh nothing but dust and ashes, and the earthly felicity that springs out of them. Let us think as immortals--feel, hope, and fear, as immortals. Let us go out in our contemplations, and plant our feet on the borders of that unbounded field, as wide as eternity, and, by the mercy of God, as blissful as heaven; and then we shall not be tempted to think God’ s mercy little and unworthy to be trusted, though He should give us but few joys here. He intends to give us but few. He means to show us that He cares very little about the dying bliss of this dying world. And if we understand His Word rightly, we shall understand that He mentions His earthly mercies to us, not on account of any value He puts upon them, but only as tokens and attractions to that infinite mercy which would save, eternally save, our sinful and immortal souls. IV. Endeavour to gain some just ideas of the mercy of God.1. Mercy is that attribute in which the Deity peculiarly delights. God loves to forgive sinners, to adopt them into His family, and to cheer them with His promises. 2. The great purpose of the Divine revelation is to disclose to us the mercy of God, and lead us to accept it. God has trusted His world to demonstrate His other attributes, but not to demonstrate His mercy. His mountains and His seas--His winds, His lightnings, and His thunders--His worlds wheeling in infinite space around His throne--suns, stars, and comets in their order--the existence and nature of this material universe, God has trusted to unfold to us His wisdom, His omnipotence, His justice. But the mercy of God has such a pre-eminence that He Himself must speak it out to us from His hiding-place in eternity! 3. Divine mercy is of such pre-eminence, that its method of operation is entirely singular, and unlike anything else which God Almighty does. It operates by the incarnation, life, and death of the eternal Son of God. 4. The promises of mercy in the Gospel are absolutely unlimited by human guilt. There is no crime so odious, no circumstances of sinning amidst light and warnings, and the strivings of the resisted Spirit, so aggravating as not to be pardonable, when the sinner sincerely turns to Jesus Christ. This is wonderful! Human reason could never have conjectured this. Human sentiments, without grace, never have anything like it. 5. The extent of the sinner’ s guilt makes no difference about the readiness of His forgiveness--that the mercy of God will forgive him if he repents at any stage of his sin on this side of hell, with precisely the same facility and readiness! This is pre-eminence in mercy. It surpasses all the extent of human reason, human expectations, human sentiments and hopes. It not only reaches the greatest offences, but the greatest as readily as the least. (I. S. Spencer, D. D.) Divine mercy The term mercy is derived from misericordia; a compound of miserans--pitying, and cor--the heart; or miseria cordis--pain of heart. The mercy of God, then, is the pity, the pain of His heart, inclining Him to pardon the guilty and succour the helpless. Grace is the twin-sister of mercy--gratuitous favour, unmerited bounty, benefit bestowed where there is no claim, blessing communicated without worthiness in the recipient. I. Its beneficence. It is not an inert compassion, but communicative and bounteous. It flows forth a spontaneous stream from an infinite fountain. The air is not more free, nor the light more diffusive and impartial. II. Its forbearance. “ The Lord is slow to anger.” His “ charity suffereth long and is kind” ; and, though its patience is often abused by impenitence, it “ is not easily provoked.” He delays punishment that He may lead to repentance; men pervert the delay into an occasion and encouragement of crime; and when He can justly delay no longer, He hurls His thunder with an averted face and a backward aim. He always warns before He smites; generally suspends the judgment long after the warning; then executes it gradually and by slow degrees, with frequent intervals of kindest indulgence, and arguments of unwearying love. III. Its abundance. “ The Lord is plenteous in mercy.” Wonderful words! “ Mercy” --what music in those two syllables! There is no term of richer import in any language. It is sweeter than sympathy, more tender than charity, and lies deeper than the fountain of tears. The inspired writers adopt a variety of expedients to heighten its signification. Sometimes they connect an epithet with it, and we read of His “ great mercy,” “ tender mercy,” “ loving mercy,” “ abundant mercy,” “ everlasting mercy.” Sometimes they couple another term with it, and we have “ mercy and grace,” “ mercy and truth,” “ mercy and goodness,” “ mercy and judgment,” “ mercy and compassion.” Sometimes they employ the plural form “ mercies” --to indicate the frequency, the variety, the endless modifications and adaptations, of this most engaging trait of the Divine character. Then the plural is intensified in the phrase “ manifold mercies,” giving the idea of mercies wrapped up in mercies, a thousand contained in one. At last enumeration is outdone in “ the multitude of His mercies” mercies numberless, thronging upon mercies unnumbered--a host to which the stars of heaven multiplied by all their beams of light could scarcely furnish a competent arithmetic. The apostle calls Jehovah “ the God and Father of all mercies,” because He rejoiceth in His mercies as a father in his children; and tells us that “ He is rich in mercy to all that call upon Him,” because no monarch ever dispensed his bounty so freely; and, though infinite in capacity, “ full of mercy” --full as the ocean is of water, as the atmosphere of light. (J. Cross, D.D.) Psalms 103:9 He will not always chide: neither will He keep his anger for ever.The Lord chiding His people Text refers only, as does the whole psalm, to the children of God. They only can sing it. But though we are forgiven as rebels, He, when needful, chides and chastens us as children. I. He will chide. He will be angry, though not for ever.1. Why will He chide His dear children? (1) Because if He did not do so, it would seem like winking at sin. See Eli and his sons. (2) Others of the family would follow their evil example. If I knew a man living in sin and yet enjoying the light of God’ s countenance, should I not conclude that I may do as he does, and fare well as he does? (3) And what would the world say if God did not chide His sinful children? Shall it be said that the great Father of spirits does not enforce discipline in His own house? (4) If He did not, the evil would lie festering in us, breeding I know not what of deadly mischief. And we should never humble ourselves at the Cross of Christ, as His rebukes lead us to do. 2. How does He chide? (1) Often by means of the sin itself. They who sow it have to reap its harvest. See Lot’ s history. (2) Often by His providence. See Rebekah by loving Jacob. (3) By the withdrawal of privileges. Assurance departs. The means of grace have no blessing in them. There is no joy in private prayer, no communion with God. Your prayers have lost their prevailing power. Influence over others. See David, and Shimei cursing him. Success in service all gone; no conversions, no edification. His Holy Spirit chides us, through the ministry of the Word. By the discipline of the Church; not the formal discipline so much as that which God Himself exercises. See Church at Corinth. Many cases which I shall never relate are written down in the tablet of memory with this verdict, “ Removed by the discipline of God.” I have seen others blighted in fortune, chastened in body, and especially depressed in spirit as the result of grieving the Spirit of God in the Church. Church sins are surely visited with strifes. 3. When does God chide? Not for every sin. His Word does, but He does not actually chasten in the sense here intended. That is reserved for sins of which we will not repent. Anything like deliberate sin is sure to bring down the Father’ s anger. See Nathan’ s parable about David. Thus we have gazed at the black cloud, now see the silver lining. II. He will not always chide.1. This means that tie will not chide for every fault; nor will He chide long; He does not hold any grudge. Many men say, “ I forgive you,” but it is only because they have not now the opportunity to pay you out. They will do so as soon as they can. Not so God. And there is no eternal wrath for a child of God. The Lord will soon leave off chiding, He will when we begin repenting: when we come to tears, then He will cease rebukes. When we put an end to sin, there shall be an end to chastening. But often not till the results of the sin as well as the sin itself shall have been removed. So was it with David. 2. Why does He thus leave off chiding? He would not have His children treated as slaves. Our spirits would fail altogether if He always chided. He will not crush our spirits. To chide too much might lead to other sins. Some parents, in driving out one devil, drive ten in. Not so our God. 3. Though God chide, He loves us as much as when He caresses them. He never loves to chide. Be comforted, therefore. III. Inferences from the whole subject.1. Consolation for Israel. 2. Ministers in their preaching must not always chide. 3. Nor parents with their children. 4. Nor masters with their servants. 5. Go, tell God’ s love to His troubled ones. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Psalms 103:10 He hath not dealt with us after our sins.God’ s mercy to sinners I. The views which this declaration presents to us of the Divine conduct.1. He has not dealt with us as our sins deserve. 2. He has not dealt with us as He has dealt with others. This especially will be a reflection greatly beneficial to our minds, when we enumerate our mercies of a personal and relative kind--our mercies of a civil and religious kind--our mercies temporal and spiritual, the unexpected concurrence of events overruled by Divine Providence in our favour, the staying of the rough wind, in the day of His east wind. 3. His dealings towards us have always been mingled with mercy even in the severest dispensations. II. The practical uses we should make of this declaration,1. It should lead us faithfully to inquire what has been the effect of chastening and trial on us. Are we brought to humility, self-abasement, penitential sorrow? 2. The subject ought to excite adoring gratitude for the love, the patience, the wisdom, and the faithfulness of your Father in heaven. 3. Let the subject teach you to cherish humble confidence. Whatever be the issue of His conduct towards you, remember it must be for the best. 4. Let there be practical imitation of the Divine conduct in your judgment towards others--in your temper towards others--in your patience, forbearance, in your longsuffering, in your forgiveness. (J. Fletcher, D.D.) The mercy of God I. What have we deserved during the past year? We are painfully conscious that we have been guilty of “ sins” and “ iniquities,” heinous and aggravated because committed against light and knowledge. We have not deserved the least of God’ s mercies. Let us be humble, penitent. II. What have we received during the past year? The gifts of God to us are as innumerable as they are inestimable.1. Think of temporal mercies--health, food, clothing, home, friends. 2. Think of spiritual mercies--Bible, Sabbath, sanctuary, means of grace, hope of glory. III. What have we returned during the past year? The earth has received the showers and sunshine, and in return has given foliage, flowers, and fruits. Have our hearts and lives yielded fruit to the glory of God for all His goodness to us? Or have our hearts been like the barren rock or desert sands, giving no response or return for heavenly influences received? (F. W. Brown.) Psalms 103:12 As far as the east is from the west, so far hath He removed our transgressions from us.Plenary absolution The doctrine of forgiving love is one of those necessaries of daily life, of which we may say that however frequently it be set before you, you would not tire of it. Therefore, in the simplest manner, we would speak of the great Gospel truth of the forgiveness of sins. Now, in our text which tells of it, notice-- I. The word of peculiarity. It is not all men who can say, “ As far as . . . from us.” They are a specific people who can say this: they have felt the chidings of God in their conscience,--hence they say, “ He will not always chide.” And they have been humbled into contrition, repentance and confession; hence they say, “ Neither will He keep His anger for ever.” But they have tasted of God’ s surprising mercy which baffles all human thought, and excites the adoring wonder of all who receive it, and hence come the words of our text. Can we all say them? II. The word of positiveness. The psalmist does not indulge in vague hopes or fond wishes, but he declares that God “ hath removed” our transgressions from us. He is quite sure about it. It is an actual fact. Now, there are many who think that we never can know in this world that we are forgiven. They are taught to go on asking for pardon as if they had never received it. But we are forgiven. Pardon is a fact, and there is nothing more sure to believers than this. It is far more presumptuous to pay respect to our own misgivings than to believe what God has so plainly said. How wretched it must be not to know: how can a man do anything whilst he is in doubt about whether he is forgiven? And we can be sure, for we have the plain word of God. Not the evidence of sense, for that may often deceive: and still more may feeling. But we have the evidence of God’ s word. If I have trusted my soul with Jesus, then I am forgiven, and our text is true of me. And over and above the written word, God gives to believers the inward witness in the deep peace they feel in their souls. They may not be able to fix the date when they were forgiven, but whenever they look to the Cross and see the incarnate God bleeding thereon, they get a renewed assurance of complete absolution. Some love always to gaze upon their crucified Lord, as if they had never before looked upon Him. They stand and kiss those bleeding feet and look up to that dear face bedewed with drops of grief and that dear brow crowned with thorns, and say, “ Thou art my Saviour! Dear lover of my soul, I rest in Thee.” Happy are they who can thus stand at the Cross. III. Note the comprehensiveness of our text. I do not find any list of sins here. Only these two words, “ our transgressions.” I am not skilful in matters of common law, but I remember hearing a lawyer make this remark about a man’ s will, that if he were about to leave all his property to some one person, it would be better not to make a recapitulation of all that he had, but merely to state that he bequeathed all to his legatee, without giving a list of the goods and chattels, because in so doing he would be sure to leave some of them out. In one instance, a farmer who desired his wife to have all, recounted, as he thought, all his property; but he actually omitted to mention his largest farm and the very house in which they lived. Thus his attempt to be very particular failed, and his wife lost a large part of the property. Let us be thankful, then, that in our text God speaks in this broad way which takes in the whole compass of enumeration. “ Our transgressions” --that sweeps them away all at once. Like as the Israelites saw with joy all their enemies dead upon the sea-shore. Not one of them left. Well might Miriam dance and sing. IV. The perfection, the absolute perfection of the pardon. “ As far as the east is from the west.” Who can tell how far that is? Not any distance measurable on this earth, or in our solar system. It is just infinite distance. That is how far God hath removed from us our sins. Some think that after men are pardoned they may yet go to hell. It does not seem to me worthy of a God or even a man. Poor is that pardon which may be followed by eternal torment. I have heard of the Duke of Alva pardoning a man, and then hanging him; but to think that God should do this! And God means by our text that He has forgotten our sins, so far has He put them away. “ Your sins and iniquities will I remember no more.” Note-- V. The ray of divinity, full of hope for us, in our text. It is God that thus forgives. God is the great remover of sin. No priest can do this, God alone. VI. Its touch of personality. Our sins are removed not only from Himself, but “ from us.” I sometimes see believers troubling themselves as if all their sins were laid up in an iron safe in some part of the Lord’ s house. It is not so. They are all gone. See Zechariah’ s vision of Joshua the priest. We moan and fret ourselves about what does not exist. I saw two men yesterday handcuffed to be taken off to prison. But suppose I had walked behind them, with my wrists close together, and had never opened my hands, nor stirred them, and said, “ Alas! I committed, years ago, some wrong, and had handcuffs put upon me.” You would naturally says, “ Well, but are they not taken off?” And I reply, “ Yes, I have heard they are, but somehow, through habit, I go about as if I had them on.” Would not every one say, “ The man’ s insane” ? But this is what we too often do as to our sins. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The believer separated from his sins I. In what respects? He is separated from his sins as regards--1. The sentence they procured--the sentence of death. What this sentence implies. How was it removed? 2. The power they wielded--that is, their reigning power. “ Sin shall not have dominion over you.” 3. The alienation they caused. From God, hence from His favour, family, fellowship, kingdom. 4. The prospect they commanded. Of wrath to come, of exclusion from heaven, of endless destruction. II. To what distance? “ As far as the east is from the west” --one side of infinite space from the other--infinity intervenes.1. An infinity of merit intervenes--the atoning merit of Christ’ s sacrifice intervenes. What? How? 2. An infinity of rectitude intervenes--the rectitude of the Divine nature. 3. An infinity of faithfulness intervenes--God’ s faithfulness to His word, covenant, purpose. 4. An infinity of love intervenes--God’ s love, which is infinite, eternal, unchangeable, sovereign. All these infinities must be exhausted and cease to exist before his sins can be reunited to the believer. Learn-- (1) That separation from sin is necessary to admission into heaven. “ There shall in nowise,” etc.(2) That the separation here described is the work of God--of His grace, righteousness, word, spirit. (3) That separation from sin requires active exertion on our part. “ Work out,” etc.(4) That the separation we have been considering is the privilege of only true believers. (N. Macdonald.) No Eastern or Western poles The distance from north to south is measurable. In every sphere there are north and south poles--both fixed points; and on the earth the distance between them is about twelve thousand miles. So that had the psalmist said, “ As far as the north is from the south,” our conceptions would have been thus limited. It is otherwise with the east and the west. There are no eastern and western poles. From every point alike in the circuit of the world, the east extends in one direction, the west in the other. Thus, the traveller westward, for example, might be said to be for ever chasing the west without coming nearer to it. The psalmist himself might not have known this astronomical fact; yet, regarding his words as dictated by the Spirit of God, we are surely permitted to read them in the light of modern science, and so to discern in them the most forcible illustration that can be imagined of the illimitable distance to which God has removed the iniquities of His people. (Cyclop. of Nature Teachings.) Forgiveness a delightful remembrance Like some black rock that heaves itself above the surface of a sun-lit sea, and the wave runs dashing over it; and the spray, as it falls down its sides, is all rainbowed and lightened; and there comes beauty into the mighty grimness of the black thing; so a man’ s transgressions rear themselves up, and God’ s great love, coming sweeping itself against them and over them, makes out of the sin an occasion for the flashing more brightly of the beauty of His mercy, and turns the life of the pardoned penitent into a life of which even the sin is not pain to remember. (A. Maclaren, D.D.) Psalms 103:13-14 Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear Him. The tender pity of the Lord With a text from the Old Testament, I purpose to take you straight away to the New, and the tenderness and pitifulness of the Father shall be illustrated by the meekness and lowliness of the Son towards His immediate disciples, the apostles. While the Holy Spirit shows you thus the pity of Jesus Christ towards His own personal attendants, you will see as in a glass His pity towards you. I. The Divine patience of our Lord Jesus towards the apostles. He kept no register of their faults, He never rehearsed the list of their shortcomings, but, on the contrary, His main rebuke was His own perfect example, and He ever treated them as His friends and brethren. Think of this, and you will see in Christ Jesus that “ like as a father pitieth his children,” etc. Much forbearance He had with their lack of understanding. The apostles, before Pentecost, were very gross and unspiritual in judgment. Their eyes were holden in more senses than one. Many a master would have grown weary of such pupils, but infinite love brought to its succour infinite patience, and He continued still to teach them though they were so slow to learn. “ Like as a father pitieth,” etc. He taught them humility by His humility; He taught them gentleness by His gentleness; He did not point out their defects in words, He did not dwell upon their errors, but He rather let them see their own spots by His purity, their own defects by His perfection. Oh, the marvellous tenderness of Christ, who so paternally pitied them that feared Him! II. The reasons of this Divine patience in the case of our Lord. Doubtless we must find the first reason in what He is. Our Lord was so greatly good that He could bear with poor frail humanity. When you and I cannot bear with other people it is because we are so weak ourselves. I would to God we could copy His love and borrow His “ meekness so divine.” He bore with them and pitied them because of His relationship to them. He had loved them as He has loved many of us, “ from before the foundation of the world.” He was their Shepherd, and He pitied the diseases of His flock; He was their “ brother born for adversity,” and He stooped to be familiar with their frailties. Another reason for His patience was His intention to become perfect as the Captain of our salvation, through suffering. In order that He might be a complete High Priest, and know all the temptations of all His servants, He bears with the infirmities and sins of His disciples whom He could have perfected at once if He had willed, but whom He did not choose to perfect because He desired to reveal His tender pity towards them, and to obtain by experience complete likeness to His brethren. Did He not also do this that He might honour the Holy Spirit? If Jesus had perfected the apostles, they would not have seen so manifestly the glory of the Holy Ghost. Until the Holy Ghost was come, what poor creatures the eleven were! but when the Holy Ghost was given, what brave men, what heroes, how deeply instructed, how powerful in speech, how eminent in every virtue they became! It is the object of Jesus Christ to glorify the Spirit, even as it is the design of the Holy Spirit to glorify Christ in our hearts. III. The teaching to de derived from this patience.1. If the Lord had thus had pity upon you as He had on His apostles, do ye even so to others. Look at the bright side of your brother, and the black side of yourself, instead of reversing the order as many do. Remember there are points about every Christian from which you may learn a lesson. Look to their excellences, and initiate them. Think, too, that small as the faith of some of your brethren is, it will grow, and you do not know what it will grow to. Though they be now so sadly imperfect, yet if they are the Lord’ s people, think of what they will be one day. 2. In your own case, have firm faith in the gentleness and forbearance of Christ. Think of how gentle He was with the apostles, and remember He is the same still. Change of place has not changed His character. The exaltations of heaven have not removed from Him the tenderness of His heart; He will accept you still. (C H. Spurgeon.) The Divine pity No word better brings home the truth of Divine lovingkindness than pity--the pity of the Lord. There is love and mercy shown in passing by our sin, and forgiving us; but it is the love shown in the pity of the Lord that touches us most directly, and at once reaches the quick of our nature. And the reasons for this are not difficult to understand. I. The pity of God is condescending love. It is the love of one who is infinitely our superior. Abject penitence on the one hand, and reliance upon the Divine compassion on the other--that is the truest and best relation in which the sinner and God can stand. II. The pity of God is understandable. The pity of God is most welcome to us, because it is that which best corresponds to our own thoughts concerning ourselves. It is true, we are unworthy; and so unworthy, the very thought of it often repels us from God and makes us ashamed to seek His forgiveness and help; but we can say very sincerely that, however great our sins may be, there is need so great, weakness and helplessness so great, that, apart from our deserts, we ought to be the objects of the pity of a compassionate and loving God. III. God’ s interest in humanity. The wounds of the patriot who has bled for his country become eloquent appeals to his countrymen if he come to be in want; the distresses of the poor become appeals to our hearts, even when they are brought about by their own sin. In the hour of distress we fail to be judges. There is only one feeling of compassion to a fellow-creature in distress. Shall not God be as much moved by the sight of human need as we are? (James Ross.) Our heavenly Father’ s pity I. The displays of this pity.1. God pities His children, in all their ignorance; He is not angry with them, nor doth He speak sharply to them; but He leadeth them on by His Spirit, until they understand His truth, and receive His Word. 2. What pity has the Lord had upon you and me, in all our wanderings. 3. In actual transgressions and downright sin. 4. In sickness. 5. In all our manifold trials, of whatever kind they are, and from whatever quarter they proceed 6. Sometimes God’ s people have wrongs; and a father pities his children, if they have wrongs that are unrevenged. There never was a wrong done to one of God’ s people that God did not avenge; there has never been an ill deed done towards them yet but He hath punished the doer of it. II. The spirit of God’ s pity.1. There is no contempt in it. 2. It is not the pity of inaction. 3. It is not the pity of mere sensitiveness. Go to Him now if you are poor; tell Him all your care, and see if He will not help you. Go and try Him, for His pity is a heavenly pity; it is the very nard of Paradise, that healeth sores effectually. III. The people whom God pities. “ The Lord pitieth them that fear Him.” Oh, that ye would tremble at His presence; and, then, oh, that ye could know yourselves to be His children, and fear Him as children do their parents! Oh, that ye did reverence His name, and keep His Sabbaths! Oh, that ye did obey His commandments, and have His fear ever before your eyes! Then should your peace be like a river, and your righteousness like the waves of the sea. (C. H. Spurgeon.) God’ s pity I. It is like that of a tender and merciful father. 1 He forbears summary punishment.2. He encourages us when we try to serve Him. 3. He ceases to chastise when chastisement has accomplished the purpose for which it was sent. II. Why God shows such pity to His children.1. It is His character to be pitiful. 2. He feels to us as a Father. (W. Handcock.) The best need the pity of God It is like tolling the death-knell of all our pride to talk about God pitying us. Why, we shed our pity profusely upon the ungodly; we are often pitying the wicked, the profane, the blasphemer, the Sabbath-breaker; but here we find a God pitying us. Even David, the mighty psalmist, is pitied; a prophet, a priest, a king, each of these shall have pity from God, for “ He pitieth them that fear Him,” and finds good reasons for pitying them, however high their station, however holy their character, or however happy their position. We are pitiable beings. (C. H. Spurgeon.) A father’ s great love How much a father loves his son is shown in the story of the nobleman who went all the way from Capernaum to Cana for the sake of his boy. The other day an American father gave the great Austrian, Dr. Lorenz, £6,000 to make his crippled daughter able to walk. Many other fathers and mothers brought their children to this great doctor, and he treated as many of them as he had time to do. We never know how much our parents love us until we are sick or in danger. Then it is mother who sits by our bed and never goes to sleep until the danger is over. Then it is father who thinks no toil or sacrifice too great for his darling boy or girl. (Freeman.) Psalms 103:14 For He knoweth our frame; He remembereth that we are dust.God’ s perfect knowledge and merciful consideration of our frame I. The nature of the human frame.1. The body. (1) Its wants and necessities. (2) Its weakness. (3) Its pains and sicknesses. (4) Its mortality. 2. The soul, as in union with the body. (1) The disadvantage arising from hence to that faculty of the soul which we call the understanding; the foundation of all the excellency and glory of man, but liable to be sadly confined, clouded and even distracted by the alterations that happen in the temperature of the body. (2) Being united to a fleshly body, the soul is beset and agitated by a variety of passions, that are not natural to it, and yet could not more vex and influence it if they were. (3) The consequence of all the rest is, that the embodied soul has a great many difficulties to struggle with and surmount, in the steady exercise of virtue and piety, in the regular exercises of devotion, and in maintaining its integrity and faithfulness to the end of this mortal life. II. God’ s knowledge of the human frame.1. Immediate and direct. 2. Perfect. He sees us through and through, without and within. This perfect knowledge of God extends not to some actions only, but to all; not only to our external actions, but even those which pass no further than the mind itself; its thoughts, and purposes, and affections; its least tendencies to good or evil; and the degree of good or evil in each. III. God’ s compassionate regard to the nature and weakness of our frame in all His dealings with those that fear Him.1. He does not expect that they should new-model and alter their frame. This is absolutely out of their power, and therefore no part of their duty. 2. God, who knoweth our frame, requires no other measures of virtue, obedience, and devotion, than are proportioned to the nature He hath given us, and the state and circumstances of being in which we are placed. 3. He knoweth our frame, and therefore does not willingly afflict and grieve us, not for His pleasure but for our profit, and that we may be made partakers of His holiness. And when He sees it necessary to correct us, it is in measure, and for no longer time than is expedient. 4. Out of a merciful regard to our frame, and remembrance that we are but dust, our gracious God grants us all that assistance and support and consolation of which we stand in need. 5. Remembering that we are dust (as liable to be swept out of the world as dust is to be scattered and blown away by the wind), He watches over us with a most tender care, and preserves us in life, as long as His own glory and our interest requires it. IV. The ground or reason of that mercy which God exercises towards them that fear Him. He has the relation of a father to us, and the affection of a father for us; the affection or love without any of the imperfections attending it in earthly parents. Application.1. Since the words of the text are designed not only for the consolation of those that fear God, they that do not fear Him have nothing to do with the comfort they administer, as long as they continue in their sins. 2. This should make us more favourable in our censures of the characters and actions of others, than we too commonly are. 3. Let such as truly fear God often revolve the subject of this discourse in their thoughts: it would be of great use to them, by affording them ground of caution on the one hand, and of comfort and encouragement on the other. (1) Let me consider that I am dust, and from hence learn not to boast of anything I call mine, or to presume upon it: for, alas! what is anything merely human as such? human life, or reason, or virtue, or any other accomplishment? how weak the foundation! how uncertain the tenure! (2) The comfort which the same consideration yields to persons of integrity is very great, and very apparent. Does not my heart condemn me, as wanting sincerity? I may, then, have confidence towards God, that He will not condemn me for the want of perfection: all my desire is before Him, and my groaning is not hid from Him. As He knoweth my most secret sins, so my sorrow for them, and my conflicts with them. As He knoweth all my weaknesses, so He knoweth how to pity them, and is both willing and able to help them. He will proportion my burdens to my strength, or my strength to my burdens. (H. Grove.) God remembers man’ s weakness 1. God is absolutely faithful in all His dealings with us. He treats us as just such creatures as we really are. He remembers that we are dust. But He remembers, too, what is in this dust: our insignificance in connection with our immortality, our powers and capacities of spirit. He therefore does not despise, but pities us. “ As a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear Him.” And this knowledge of our frailty is given as the occasion of His compassion, “ For He knoweth our frame,” etc. It is thus contrast in us which stirs the Divine heart. I never had my sympathy more excited than once when I found a man, of superb education and talent, doing the most menial tasks, in order to get food and raiment. Had he been a boor, of spirit in keeping with his condition, he would have hardly awakened a passing thought. And if man’ s soul were as limited as his bodily condition, as the materialist says, only “ animated dust,” God would have evinced no such concern, for there would have been no occasion for it. It is the reflection of God’ s own image in human nature, spirituality, that might glow at His throne, confined in clay, an incorruptible chrysalized in corruption, that brings the Divine to bow in solicitude over us. 2. But the Divine compassion is not of the nature of comfort in our perishing condition, to sustain us until all is over. He does not let us perish. Note the contrast in a succeeding verse, “ But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear Him.” How many once familiar faces I miss! Others are getting ready to fold up the tent of the flesh and disappear over the horizon of time. I shall soon miss others, or you will miss me; but not much. Lord Macaulay, speaking of the death of Wilberforce, says, “ I was truly fond of him. And how is that? How very little the world misses anybody! If I were to die to-morrow, not one of the fine people with whom I dine every week will take the less on Saturday at the table to which I was invited to meet them . . . And I am quite even with them . . . There are not ten people in the world whose deaths would spoil my dinner; but there are one or two whose deaths would break my heart.” Macaulay was not hard-hearted, only plain-spoken, to say that, for it is true of all of us. God alone follows us with His solicitous care when we leave the world. If we have accepted His companionship, and walked with Him on earth, He will conduct us for ever in the land of His rest. 3. The expression, “ God remembereth that we are dust,” suggests that the plan of salvation which He has devised for us may be easily understood. If we were fallen angels, with powerful intellects, accustomed to solve eternal mysteries, glowing, like stars in this, our nether firmament, and with vast moral energies, and ages in which to perform, I can imagine that God would have given us a very different and immensely fuller scheme of doctrine and duties than He has given. But remembering that so brief is life that we can know but little, He has flashed the saving truth before our souls, so that he may run that reads. Behold the consideration of God in telling us, so simply and vet so clearly, all we need to know; and telling it in such a way that it falls into the heart as easily as light through a window into your dwelling, if you will only make your heart walls transparent with sincerity. 4. God, “ remembering that we are dust,” has given a religion which may be readily accepted. We have no time to transform our natures by any process of development in virtue, by the evolution of any slight germ of spirituality we may have within us, for have we the strength any more than the leaves now dropping from the trees in the winter winds have strength of growth to grow into a forest? Some of you have tried it; ten, twenty, thirty years have been spent in the honest attempt to make over your lives, refine your dispositions, spiritualize your natures. But you will confess that you have made hardly perceptible progress; perhaps have only felt more strangely the downward current in your attempt to buffet it. 5. Behold the loving consideration of God, in making, not the complete renovation of heart and life the condition of salvation, but simple faith and repentance, and the acceptance of the peace of the Spirit, which transforms the nature. I cannot revive myself, lying as a poor, drooping, dying plant; but I can give myself up to the showers of heaven which quicken me. I can accept of immortality with the gasp of my mortality. (J. M. Ludlow, D.D.) The pity of the Lord The pity of the Lord is here said to spring out of His knowledge and His memory; but if He were not pitifully inclined towards the frail children of the dust, no amount of knowledge and memory could in themselves originate in Him the sweet qualities of tenderness and mercy. A hard man may fully know and well remember the sorrows and afflictions of his neighbours, and yet feel no pity, and exercise no benevolence. Even the fact that such an one is a father is no absolute security here; for there are fathers without natural affection, who harden their hearts against their children, and close their doors against their own flesh and blood. As to the limitation that is here, “ them that fear Him,” there need be no thought for a moment of narrowness or exclusiveness; for if the Lord pitied only those who fear Him, what would have become of us when we feared Him not? “ He knoweth our frame,” for He hath made it. He, and He alone, understands the mystery of life, and the invisible link that binds together the body and the spirit, the silver cord which, being loosened, ends the feast of life so far as this present world is concerned. He “ knoweth our frame,” too, for He has taken part with us in our very flesh in the person of His Son Jesus Christ. “ Forasmuch as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself took part in the same.” “ The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.” He knows the weakness of our flesh, for He Himself was weak; when shrinking from the Cup He said, “ If it be possible, let it pass,” while yet, in the impossibility of love’ s failure, it passed not. “ Could ye not watch with Me one hour?” not one brief hour? “ Verily, the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” We are but dust. He knows it, and by the experience of His humanity remembers it. He knows, too, the strength of our temptation, matched, and, alas! sometimes overmatched, against this weakness, and He will not burden us above our strength; or if even for wise ends this should be, and we should faint and fall, we shall be sure still of His pity, for He “ knoweth our frame.” (J. W. Lance.) God’ s individual care The historian tells us that the great Duke of Wellington, who was known as the Iron Duke, before one of his earliest campaigns had a soldier with his full marching equipment accurately weighed. Knowing what one soldier of average strength had to carry, he could judge how far his army might be called to march without breaking down. Our Heavenly Father does not deal in averages. With infinite wisdom and love He cares individually for us. (L. A. Banks, D.D.) Psalms 103:15-18 As for man, his days are as grass. Human life We have here presented man’ s existence in relation to-- I. The material and the moral.1. His relation to the material. Like the flower-- (1) He springs out of the earth.(2) He is sustained by the earth.(3) He returns to the earth. 2. His relation to the moral. Inside this flame of organized dust there is a spirit that can reverence the Infinite, that can keep His covenant and attend to His precepts. Herein is the glory of man’ s nature. The power to do this is His distinction; the willingness to do this is his glory. II. The temporary and the eternal.1. The connection of all men with the earth is temporary (verses 15, 16). The wind of mortality is ever breathing through the human world, and men like flowers wither every hour, aye, every minute. 2. The connection of good men with mercy is eternal (verses 17, 18; Isaiah 54:10). (Homilist.) The lessons o/autumn There is a pensiveness in this season, which surely all must feel, and which must dispose all, except the most thoughtless, to some degree of reflection. It would be strange if we could stand amidst the decay, which is now so rapidly advancing, without being led by it into some train of meditation, favourable to religious feeling; and without receiving impressions calculated to make us wiser and better. I. The frail and fleeting nature of man (verses 15, 16; Psalms 90:5-6; Isaiah 64:6; Isaiah 40:6-7; Job 14:2; James 1:10). The place which we now occupy was once occupied by others, but it knows them no more; and soon it will know nothing of us. Our occupation will be gone--our daily doings will have ceased--our history will have come to its close. To fix our wishes on earth, would be to doom them to certain disappointment; it would be like putting our goods into a dwelling which we knew the next hour would be burned unto the ground--trusting our treasure to a vessel which we knew would go to pieces in the coming storm. II. The enduring nature of the mercy of God (verses 17, 18; 1 John 2:17; John 6:27; Matthew 24:35). Why, then, need we be depressed at the thought, that our days on earth are but as grass, and our joys but as the fading flowers of the field, since we may revive again, and become partakers of an “ enduring substance” in a better world. III. The character of those to whom this mercy will be shown. Although it is free in its offers, it is not indiscriminate in its gifts: although it is given gratuitously, it is not given unconditionally: although it is offered to all, it is not granted to all. (G. Bellett.) Mortality If we consider ourselves as offenders in many things, which we all are, death is a just consequence of our transgressions; for it is fit and reasonable that disobedient creatures should be deprived of the powers which they pervert and abuse. I. Our present state of mortality is upon many accounts convenient and useful.1. It is convenient that we should die, because this world is a state of trial. 2. As the consideration of death hath a tendency to deter us from vice, it consequently prevents some disorders, and makes us live together in society better than we else should pass our days. 3. It is also convenient that we should die, because the future recompenses of obedience are of a spiritual nature. 4. Another reason why it is convenient that we should die, is, that our obedience at best being defective, death prepares us for the next state, and excites in the soul thoughts and inclinations which ought to accompany it at its entrance into the world of spirits, and into the presence of its Maker. 5. It is not only convenient, but desirable and profitable, that we should die, if death conducts us to life eternal. 6. If by obedience and perseverance we secure to ourselves an inheritance in the Kingdom of God, when that promised time shall come, and this corruptible shall have put on incorrutption, the remembrance of our former earthly state, and of all its inconveniences, may probably add to our happiness; and then it will be good for us that we once were mortal creatures. II. The methods which we must use, to allay and restrain those immoderate fears of death, which are blameable, and which also render life itself, with all its conveniences, dull and comfortless.1. Frequent thoughts of our latter end will assist to produce this good effect. 2. Another way of reconciling ourselves to death is to consider it as unavoidable. 3. Another consideration tending to make us more willing to die, is, that it is common to all. 4. The troubles of life, rightly considered, may help to remove a great dislike of death. (J. Jortin, D. D.) As a flower of the field.--What the flowers say (Flower Service):--Let us listen to the preaching of the flowers today. What do they say to us? One thing they all say is--“ trust God.” God takes care of the flowers, and sends them dew, and rain, and sunshine, and fresh air, and they tell us that the same God who cares for them cares also for us. And next, I think, all the flowers say to us, “ thank God.” See how the daisies in the meadow seem to look up thankfully to God. Some one says that God smiles on the earth, and that the earth smiles back again with its flowers. Next, the flowers say to us, “ be contented.” They are quite satisfied to grow, and smell sweet, and look pretty, in the place where God puts them. Now, just as God plants the flowers in a certain place, some up high on the hills, others down low in the valley; some in the Queen’ s greenhouse, others in the cottager’ s garden, so He puts you children in your right place. Another thing which all the flowers tell us is this, “ remember that you must die.” When the autumn and winter come we say the flowers are dead because we cannot see them. But the flowers are not really dead. They are sleeping in the earth till the spring comes again. God has put them to bed in the warm ground, and when the proper time comes they will waken up. Just what God does to the flowers He does to us. What else do the flowers say to us? I think they say, “ keep in the sunshine, be happy.” You always find that flowers are on the sunny side of things. So ought we to be. There is another thing which the flowers say to us--“ Be sweet.” There is nothing so delicious as to go into a flower garden after a warm shower, and to smell the sweet scents. Well, God has sent you into the garden of this world to be sweet like the flowers. Some children are regular stinging nettles in a home, or a school. They always make people uncomfortable. They sting with their tongues, and they sting with their looks and their tempers. (H. J. Wilmot-Buxton, M.A.) Psalms 103:16 For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more. The autumn wind: an emblem of death I. The autumn wind works gradually. Blade by blade, the herbs wither under its influence; and leaf by leaf, the tree is stripped of its foliage. Thus on gradually until all is dust. So death works gradually. “ We die daily.” II. The autumn wind works universally. It is on all herbage, in all forests, it withers all, sows death everywhere. All are dying, individuals, families, nations, the whole generation. III. The autumn wind works insidiously. Only occasionally does it come with the rush of violence, and scatter the leaves. Quietly, invisibly, insidiously it works. So does death. It is working in their systems when men are utterly unconscious of it. “ The wind passeth over it and it is gone.” And when the wind of death passeth over us, we are gone, gone for ever. (Homilist.) Soon forgotten We shall sleep none the less sweetly, though none be talking about us over our heads. The world has a short memory, and, as the years go on the list that it has to remember grows so crowded that it is harder and harder to find room to write a new name on it, or to read the old. The letters on the tombstones are soon erased by the feet that tramp across the churchyard. (A. Maclaren, D.D.) Psalms 103:17 But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear Him. Man and mercy Verses 15-19 form a beautiful contrast between man’ s life and God’ s mercy. I. There is a contrast in their strength.1. Man’ s life is weak. All men in all places and at all times are like grass, and will soon pass away. But the mercy of the Lord is not weak, feeble, and easily consumed; it is almighty. The almightiness of mercy is proved by its wonderful achievements. 2. Man’ s life is a disappointment. “ As for man, his days are like grass.” Grass soon withers away. Such is human life. It is frail, and full of disappointments. But God’ s mercy is everlastingly green. II. A contrast in their beauty. (Isaiah 40:6). This figure refers to human beauty. The apostle calls the beauty of man his glory (1 Peter 1:24). Man’ s glory is his health, energy, beauty, talent, wisdom. His vigour is soon gone; his beauty fades, his wisdom ceases. But “ the beauty of the Lord” --the beauty of holiness--the beauty of mercy never fades away. III. A contrast in their duration.1. Man cannot carry out his designs after death, but mercy executes her plans independent of his presence. 2. Mercy distributes her invaluable blessings among families throughout all generations. (Homilist.) The character and privileges of God’ s people I. Their character.1. They fear Him. By this we are to understand obedience to all the duties of religion. 2. They keep His covenant. This implies that they walk agreeably to their baptismal and Lord’ s Supper engagements; that they resist the devil, the world, and the flesh. 3. They remember His commandments to do them. II. The privileges of God’ s people are innumerable, and are almost all summed up in this one word mercy. They are all summed up in Christ.1. Original mercy. This, in God, is like a fountain that runs night and day--that is never diminished or dried up. 2. Communicative mercy. It is over all God’ s works. Since the earth was created, it has been full of temporal and spiritual mercies. 3. Tender mercy coming from the heart. It is exercised towards miserable objects, immediately and in the very time of need. 4. Free in its exercise towards us, without any deserving on our part. 5. Great mercy. God is “ plenteous in mercy; rich in mercy” ; abundant in mercy; He has manifold mercies; He keeps mercies for thousands (Exodus 34:7). 6. Infinite mercy. Far above the heavens (Isaiah 55:7; Isaiah 55:9). Deeper than the sea (Micah 7:19). 7. Eternal mercy. His compassion fails not; “ His mercy endureth for ever.” III. Improvement.1. Those who have experienced this mercy are happy. Finding the end of this mercy is like finding the end of a ring--impossible. 2. Those who have never experienced this mercy are truly miserable. (James Kidd, D.D.) The mercy of the Lord to the children of those who fear Him The word “ righteousness” here, as in many other places, is equivalent to mercy or beneficence; and the ever-enduring lovingkindness of our God, described in the first clause as from everlasting to everlasting, is in the second more precisely defined, as continued to the children’ s children of those who fear Him. The Almighty hath done nothing in vain. Every power, every affection of the human soul, is implanted in it by Him for some valuable end, and is operated on by the means which His wisdom hath appointed for carrying forward our improvement here, and accomplishing our preparation for happiness hereafter. Of those principles, there is no one more universal, more powerful, or more obviously beneficial, than parental affection. In the inferior animals, with whom it is merely instinctive, it exercises a power to which every other habit and propensity seems to be subordinate. Under its dominion the most ferocious become mild and gentle, the most fearful, fierce and daring in the defence of their offspring, the feeblest and most indolent, indefatigable in providing for their subsistence. By its operation, the living tribes of earth are, in almost each individual instance, trained up to maturity, and prevented from perishing from off the surface of the globe. In man, especially when he is enlightened and civilized, it assumes a loftier bearing, and holds a more important place. When it is guarded by religious principle and sound judgment from the abuses to which all the feelings of mortality are liable, when it is purified and refined by the sacred and endearing habits of domestic life, and hallowed by the hope of immortality, it triumphs over every selfish inclination, and connects the successive generations of men by ties equally blessed to the present and the future inhabitants of earth. It is obvious, that under the diversified government of God, this, like every other principle, is made to produce the most valuable fruits. His providence employs it to control selfishness, to restrain turbulent passion, to draw forth useful exertion from the individual, to supply a most powerful motive for acting uprightly and honourably. Yet it is not only by its direct operation that parental love influences the human mind for good. The Almighty appeals to it in His Word as a motive to cherish godly fear and holy obedience. To mankind He holds out a blessing on their posterity, as a most powerful incentive to compliance with the requisitions of His law (Exodus 20:5-6; Genesis 22:17-18; Psalms 112:1-2). Though the Christian revelation, in directing our views to another and a better world, renders the vicissitudes of this life less marked and less momentous, still an attentive observer may discern the fulfilment of this gracious declaration in the ordinary and general course of human affairs. You see the unsullied fame of the parent descend on the son and recommend him to notice, confidence, and employment. Were it given you to enter more deeply into the counsels of the Almighty, and to trace more accurately than you now do the ways of His providence, you might behold proofs still more decisive of His righteousness to the children of His servants, in soothing their afflictions, in supplying their wants. Such views of the Divine procedure must fill our minds with admiration of the wisdom of Him by whom our souls and bodies were formed, and who governs and conducts us by laws and motives adapted to every branch of that nature in which He hath created us. In filling the hearts of parents with an indelible attachment to their children, He not only prompts them to those exertions which contribute so largely to the happiness and improvement of mankind, but renders them capable of appreciating, and disposed to comply with those inducements to obedience which are suggested by His promise of a blessing on their posterity. What parent who reflects can resist their influence? who, with a heart to feel, would not endeavour to keep His covenant and remember His commandments to do them, when assured that His mercy is from everlasting to everlasting on them that fear Him, and His righteousness to children’ s children? If there be one branch of Christian conduct in which, more than in another, it becomes you to be followers of God as dear children, it is in doing good to the children of those who have loved and served Him. In so doing you imitate those dispensations of His providence in which His unerring wisdom is most conspicuously displayed. You copy the most amiable and affecting manifestation of His fatherly benevolence. (D. Macfarlan, D.D.) Psalms 103:18 To such as keep His covenant. Keeping the covenant Saints are to look upon themselves as wholly the Lord’ s, in opposition to all competitors. The Lord will not divide with rivals; if ye take Him these must go. The soul till it comes Within the covenant is in a restless case, like a bee going from flower to flower, or a bird from bush to bush; but when it is married to Christ it is settled with Him, and breaks its league with all others. Remember, the covenant ye have entered into is an offensive and defensive league. You are to have common friends and common foes with the Lord. His people must be your people, and His enemies your enemies. (Thomas Boston.) Psalms 103:19-22 The Lord hath prepared His throne in the heavens. Genuine piety I. It recognizes God as the supreme governor of the universe (verse 19).1. His government is absolute. His authority is not delegated, it is absolute. 2. His government is universal. “ It is in the heavens,” over all. As the heavens encompass the earth, His government embraces the universe, over all matter and over all mind, over all loyal citizens and all rebels, all heavens and all hells. II. It is enthusiastically interested in the universe and its God.1. It is enthusiastically interested in the universe. “ Bless the Lord, ye His angels,” etc. “ All His hosts,” etc. “ His ministers,” etc. “ All His works,” etc. “ In all places.” 2. It is enthusiastically interested in the universe because of its God. Piety is supreme love to God; and hence its supreme desire is that all should love and praise Him. If I love an artist, I am interested in his painting. If I love a father, I am interested in his children. If I love God, I have a deep interest in His universe. III. Although it gives an enthusiastic interest in the universe, it does not deaden the sense of individual responsibility. “ Bless the Lord, O my soul.” Though I may wish the whole creation to praise Him, let me not forget that I am bound to do so for myself. (Homilist.) The dominion of God Jehovah’ s dominion is here proclaimed as universal. I. Some general propositions for the clearing and confirming this glorious fact.1. We must know the difference between the power of God and His authority. As God is Lord, He hath a right to enact: as He is Almighty, He hath a power to execute. His strength is the executive power belonging to His dominion. 2. All the other attributes of God refer to this perfection of dominion. His goodness fits Him for it, because He can never use His authority but for the good of the creatures. His wisdom can never be mistaken in the exercise of it; His power can accomplish the decrees that flow from His absolute authority. 3. This of dominion, as well as that of power, hath been acknowledged by all. It is stamped upon the conscience of man, and flashes in his face in every act of self-judgment. 4. This notion of sovereignty is inseparable from the notion of God (Hebrews 11:6). II. Wherein the dominion of God is founded.1. On the excellency of His nature. God being an incomprehensible ocean of all perfection, and possessing infinitely all those virtues that may lay a claim to dominion, hath the first foundation of it in His own nature. On this account God claims our obedience (Isaiah 46:9; Jeremiah 10:6-7). 2. In His act of creation. He is the sovereign Lord, as He is the almighty Creator. 3. As God is the final cause, or end of all, He is Lord of all (Proverbs 16:4; Revelation 4:11). 4. The dominion of God is founded upon His preservation of things (Psalms 95:8; Psalms 95:4). 5. The dominion of God is strengthened by the innumerable benefits He bestows upon His creatures (Isaiah 1:2; 1 Corinthians 6:19-20). III. The nature of this dominion.1. Independent. 2. Absolute. (1) In regard of freedom and liberty. Thus creation is a work of mere sovereignty; He created, because it was His pleasure to create. Preservation is the fruit of His sovereignty. Redemption is the fruit of His sovereignty. (2) In regard of unlimitedness by any law without Him. He is an absolute monarch, that makes laws for His subjects, but receives no rules nor laws from His subjects for the management of His government. (3) In regard of supremacy and uncontrollableness. None can implead Him, and cause Him to render a reason for His actions (Ecclesiastes 8:4). It is an absurd thing for any to dispute with God (Romans 9:20). In all the desolations He works, He asserts His own supremacy to silence men (Psalms 46:10. (4) In regard of irresistibleness. His word is a law; He commands things to stand out of nothing (2 Corinthians 4:6). 3. Yet this dominion, though it be absolute, is not tyrannical. If His throne be in the heavens, it is pure and good. This dominion is managed by the rule of wisdom, righteousness, goodness. His throne is a throne of holiness and of grace (Hebrews 4:16). 4. This sovereignty is extensive. God is King of all the earth, and rules to the ends of it. IV. Wherein this dominion and sovereignty consists, and how it is manifested.1. The first act of sovereignty is the making laws. This is essential to God; no creature’ s will can be the first to rule the creature. Hence the law is called the royal law (James 2:8; Isaiah 33:22). The Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king. 2. His sovereignty appears in a power of dispensing with His own laws. Positive laws He hath reversed; as the ceremonial law given to the Jews; the very nature of that law required a repeal, and fell of course (Ephesians 2:14). 3. His sovereignty appears in punishing the transgression of the law. 4. His dominion is manifested as a governor as well as a lawgiver.and proprietor. (1) In disposing of states and kingdoms (Psalms 75:7). (2) In raising up and ordering the spirits of men according to His pleasure (Exodus 2:3-6; Isaiah 44:28; Isaiah 45:5). (3) In restraining the furious passions of men, and putting a block in their way. (4) In defeating the purposes and devices of men (Job 5:12; Job 5:14). (5) In the means and occasions of men’ s conversion. (6) In disposing of the lives of men. Conclusion.1. How great is the contempt of this sovereignty of God. 2. How dreadful is the consideration of this doctrine to all rebels against God. 3. What matter of comfort and strong encouragement for prayer. (S. Charnock.) The dominion of God I. The proper characteristics by which the Divine dominion is distinguished.1. It is founded upon unimpeachable right. 2. It occupies a vast extent. 3. It is regulated by infinite moral perfection. 4. It is destined to accomplish the noblest purposes. (1) The glory of the Governor.(2) The well-being and happiness of the governed. 5. It is established for perpetual duration. II. The various obligations which the character of the divine government impresses universally on mankind.1. Men are under obligation to render praise to God, by whom this dominion is exercised. 2. Men are under obligation to render obedience to the laws by which the Divine government is sustained. 3. We are under obligation to exercise confidence that all the events which transpire within the sphere of the Divine dominion must be managed wisely and for the best. 4. We are under obligation habitually and daily to anticipate those great purposes in connection with the government of our own world which yet remain to be fulfilled. (James Parsons.) The Lord rules over all The Lord rules over all. All things belong to His kingdom, and are under His dominion. Nothing is more plain and express in Scripture than both His reign and the extent of it. For the first, Psalms 93:1-2; Psalms 97:1-2, where we have His royalty, and His throne, and the basis of it; and Psalms 99:1. For the extent of it, see 1 Chronicles 29:11-12. I. The act. To rule includes--1. Authority (Romans 13:1; Revelation 1:5). 2. Power (Psalms 66:7; Revelation 19:6; Revelation 11:17). 3. The actual ordering and disposing of what is under Him, for the ends of government--the actual exercise of power and authority for this purpose. God is not like an artificer, who, when he has made a clock, and set it in order, and hanged weights upon it, leaves it to go of itself; but more like a musician, who, knowing his instrument will make no music of itself, does not only tune it, but actually touch the strings, for the making of that harmony which pleases him. II. The object of subject of His government.1. He rules both heaven and earth (Isaiah 66:1). The glory of His kingdom appears most in heaven, but the power of it reaches the earth, yea, and hell too. That is the proper place of rebels indeed; but He has them in chains, and shows that He is their ruler by executing justice upon them. They would not obey the laws of His government, and therefore the penalty is inflicted on them; and this is an act of government, as well as enacting laws and propounding or giving rewards. 2. He rules not only heaven and earth, but all the parts thereof; the whole world, and every part of it (Psalms 113:5; Colossians 1:16; 2 Chronicles 20:6; Daniel 5:20-21; Daniel 4:32; Daniel 4:34-35). 3. He rules not only great things, but small (Genesis 31:11-12). Things so mean and inconsiderable as we mind them not, judge them not worthy of our thoughts, care, or regard, they are all under the government of God, and He actually orders and disposes of them. 4. He rules not only all beings, but all motions (Acts 17:28). 5. He rules not only actions, but events, so that acts and undertakings have not such an issue as they promise or threaten, but such as the Lord pleases to order (1 Kings 20:11; Ecclesiastes 9:11). 6. He rules and orders not only the substance, but the circumstances of things and actions (1 Samuel 25:32; 1 Samuel 25:34; Matthew 2:5; Ezekiel 21:20-21). 7. He rules and disposes both end and means (Hosea 2:21-22; Isaiah 10:12; 1 Kings 17:1-24; 2 Kings 2:24). 3. He rules and disposes not only things orderly, but such as seem most confused (Genesis 45:4-8; Genesis 1:50). The Lord once, out of chaos, brought a well-ordered world. He rules still; and can, when He pleases, out of mere confusion and darkness, bring forth a new heaven and a new earth, wherein righteousness may dwell. 9. He rules and orders things, both necessary and contingent or casual. Things necessary, such as proceed from necessary causes, which act in one certain uniform way, and cannot of themselves vary nor proceed otherwise; such are the course of the heavens, the eclipses of the luminaries, the seasons of the year, the ebbings and flowings of the sea. The Lord gave law to all these, and keeps them to the observance of it, yet overrules them, and gives them other orders when He pleases. The Red Sea and Jordan are evidences that He who rules all can overrule anything. So things contingent and casual, which fall out uncertainly or accidentally, which those who know not God ascribe to chance and fortune, the Lord orders them, they fall out as He pleases. 10. He rules and orders not only that which is good, but that which is evil and sinful (Psalms 118:12; Acts 14:19). (1) He limits and bounds it, so that it proceeds not so far as Satan and the depraved will of man would have if. (2) He overrules it to good ends, and disposes it to excellent purposes (Acts 4:27-28; Acts 2:23). 11. He rules things natural and voluntary. (1) Natural, such as have their next causes in nature, the hand of God rules them, as in thunder and lightning (Job 37:2-3); wind and rain (Jeremiah 10:13; Psalms 148:7). (2) But more particularly He rules things voluntary; such are intelligent and rational beings. Man in special is the subject of His government. He takes order about His conception, formation, and birth (Job 10:9-11; Psalms 139:14-16). He fixeth the period of his life, and determines how many his days shall be upon earth (Job 14:5). He orders what his state and condition shall be while he lives (Psalms 75:6-7; 1 Samuel 2:7-8; Psalms 113:7-8). He rules the mind and heart (Proverbs 21:2; Psalms 119:36; Psalms 105:25). No heart so obstinate but He can bend it; none so fast closed but He can open it (Acts 16:4). III. The mode of God’ s government.1. It is a supreme sovereignty. He that rules over all has none above Him, none co-ordinate with Him, none but such as are below Him, indefinitely below Him, none but what are subjected to Him, and under Him at an infinite distance. 2. He rules absolutely; His government is unlimited, for who can bound Him who rules over all? 3. He rules irresistibly. None can give check to His orders, nor hinder Him from accomplishing His pleasure (Isaiah 46:10-11; Daniel 4:35; Job 9:12-13). 4. He rules perfectly. There is not the least weakness or imperfection in His government, as there is in that of other rulers; nothing of error or mistake; nothing that the most excellent prudence would order otherwise; nothing defective for want of judgment as to things present, or want of experience as to things past, or want of foresight as to things to come; for He has all things, past, present, and to come, clearly before His eyes, in every act of government, and in His ordering of every particular (Psalms 147:5). 5. He rules all at once. The multiplicity of them is no more distraction to Him then if He had but one thing in hand. 6. He rules easily. He takes care of all without any solicitousness; He orders all, without any toil; He acts all, without any labour; he does it continually, without any weariness. 7. He rules continually. If He were but to withdraw His governing hand a moment, all the wheels of the great fabric of the world would stand still or fall to pieces. (D. Clarkson.) The providence of God in the natural world By the natural world, we understand the whole mass of matter, which is variously disposed into a multitude of shapes and forms, and different sorts of creatures, as sun, moon, and stars, air, earth, and sea; with all the vast variety with which they are stored, and by which they are inhabited. God’ s providential kingdom is absolutely universal, and over all. But at present, consider the providence of God, as the preserver and sovereign disposer of all things, in the natural world only. I. That there is a Providence, which presides over the whole course of nature, and all the world of creatures, may be argued--1. From the perfections of God: and of those we need only single out His knowledge and His wisdom, His goodness and His power; for if we believe that God is infinitely possessed of such perfections as these, it will hardly be possible for us to stop short of believing His providence. For will not His wisdom and goodness incline Him to take care of His creatures, and govern them in the best manner? 2. Express testimonies of Scripture, for the proof of a Providence. It is said that God upholdeth all things; and that they continue according to His ordinance. “ He appointeth the moon for seasons” (Psalms 104:19). He bringeth the winds out of His treasure (Psalms 104:24-25; Psalms 104:27). God is the supreme governor among the nations. This providence of God presides not only over great and important affairs, but it reaches to the minutest creatures (Matthew 10:29-30). I will only further hint to you one article of the doctrine of Providence, which we learn from Scripture, viz. that the kingdom of Providence is administered by Christ our Saviour. It is by Him that all things consist (Colossians 1:17). And to Him is all power given (Matthew 28:18). The whole administration of Providence, over all creatures, and all worlds, is committed into the hands of the Mediator, Jesus Christ; which speaks both the dignity of His person, and the safety and happiness of His friends and people. 3. Appeal to the appearance of things: to the frame of nature, and the continued order and harmony of the whole creation; where we have as good testimonies to a Providence, as to the very being of a God. Can it be only by chance, that day and night, and summer and winter so regularly succeed to one another? (Genesis 8:22). II. Explain and illustrate the providence of God in the natural world, by some of the principal acts of it.1. The providence of God is exercised in preserving His creatures. (1) In the preservation of the several species or kinds of animal creatures; so that though all the individuals die, one after another, yet no species is lost out of the creation. And this is truly wonderful, if we consider what a natural enmity there is betwixt some animals and others, and with what diligence men have endeavoured, in all ages, to destroy some whole kinds of them. The due proportion of the various inhabitants of the world to one another, and especially of the males to the females, which is so constantly preserved throughout the animal creation, is a very sensible instance of providential care. (2) God preserves them by His providence in their individual beings, until the end has been answered for which He made them. It is God that holdeth our soul in life. In Him we live. We are the living instances of Divine preservation: hitherto God has helped us. Nor is God’ s providential care confined to man. “ He heareth the young raven cry. Not a sparrow falls to the ground,” etc.2. As God preserves, so He also disposes of, and governs His creatures and their actions by His providence. (1) The inanimate creatures. He who fixed the laws of nature in the first creation, does still by His providence continue their force and power. Thus does God keep the springs of universal nature in His own hand, and turns them which way soever He pleaseth. 2. The whole animal creation. “ The beasts of the forest are His, and the cattle upon a thousand hills;” they are all His creatures, and the subjects of His providence. What but a Providence could direct every beast, bird and insect where to seek its food and its habitation? Or teach every parent-animal how to take the properest care of its young? Or, what is it that conducts those birds, who shift their country and climate at certain seasons of the year, in their passage to some distant land, where multitudes of them never were before? III. Some of the most remarkable properties of God’ s providence, as it appears in the natural world.1. The wisdom of Providence. A property so remarkable, that one may apply those words of the apostle to the mysteries of Providence, as well as those of grace: “ O the depth of the riches!” How is the wisdom of God displayed in His preserving and governing the whole frame of nature! It is by this the “ sparrow is directed to find a house, and the swallow a nest for herself.” How admirably is the wisdom of Providence displayed in the different instinct of the various tribes of animals! Or, if we hearken to the voice even of storms and tempests, they will further declare to us the admirable wisdom of that God whose word they obey, and whose designs they execute. 2. The goodness and kindness of it (Psalms 33:5). “ These all wait upon God, and He giveth them their meat in due season” (Psalms 104:27-28). God extends His kind regard to many thousands of creatures, who have no capacity of knowing and praising their Benefactor (Jonah 4:11). “ He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle” (Psalms 104:14-15). And as God has plentifully stored the earth with the blessings of His goodness, so His providence kindly directs us to find out the various uses, whether for food or physic, for necessary support, or for convenience and delight. 3. It is very powerful. God upholdeth all things by the word of His power. The continued harmony of nature, and the constant and regular revolutions of seasons, are sensible demonstrations of the power of God (Psalms 119:90-91). Improvement.1. To raise our admiring thoughts to the great God. What a great and mighty Being must He be, who is able thus to wield and manage the whole frame of nature! 2. We may infer, how terrible the wrath of this great and mighty God must be, and of what importance it is to secure His favour. So Pharaoh and the Egyptians found it. 3. Let the reconciled friends and people of God learn from hence to trust and acquiesce in Providence (Romans 8:32). 4. Let us learn to observe and adore the providence of God in all that befalls us, and to bless Him for all our enjoyments and comforts. (S. Jennings.) God’ s universal rule David said, “ His kingdom ruleth over all.” Our Saviour, as Creator, is also the God of providence. His kingdom has no limits. In Detroit, in the State of Michigan, the last place where I was before coming home, wife and child and self frequently crossed the river into Canada, just to see the old Union Jack for a bit of change from the Stars and Stripes. There is the boundary; the black, solemn deep Detroit, on which Indians paddled their canoes not so long ago. The States ended at the one shore, and when you got to the other there was another flag, another kingdom, another ruler. But no man ever yet found the limits of God’ s kingdom; no angel on mighty wing ever passed the boundary of God’ s providential kingdom. Why, the very Devil as he tumbled to the pit never got beyond the kingdom of the God against whom he had rebelled. In hell God reigns. (John Robertson.) Psalms 103:20-22 Bless the Lord, ye His angels.On ministering spirits I. The lowest occupation of tutelary beings upon the earth consists in the preservation or deliverance of the servants of God from situations of danger. To be conscious, that whithersoever we may bend our steps;--in the midst of the throng, or in the solitary path,--these celestial protectors are at all times beside us,--to encompass as with a shield, and to cover as with a canopy,--must doubtless be an animating and soothing reflection. Yet this is no fanciful supposition (Psalms 91:11-12; Psalms 34:7; Psalms 68:17; Psalms 139:3). II. Another office, in which guardian spirits are engaged, is that of bearing consolation to the afflicted. To diffuse a holy calm throughout the troubled mind;--to pour forth into the wounded bosom their pitcher of refreshment, drawn from the rivers of Paradise;--to suggest considerations which recommend submission or fortitude;--are employments not unsuitable to that heavenly host, concerning whom we know, that one of them stirred the pool of Bethesda, in preparation for the cure of the maimed (Acts 1:11). III. These ethereal spirits are greatly occupied, as messengers of grace in time of temptation;--as servants sent forth by the Holy Ghost into the breast, suggesting good, or banishing unholy thoughts;--as turning away the eye from the seductive spectacle, or sealing the ear to accents of delusion. We speak of sermons, of sicknesses, of afflictions, of a place of graves, as means of grace;--wherefore, then, should not we, in like manner, speak of angels as its dispensers? It is in the highest degree reasonable to believe, that the office of transmitting the suggestions of grace may be imposed on them, on their own account, as intelligences, whom it becomes to praise the Father of the Universe, and to purify and approximate towards perfection their own natures, by active services as well as by hymns of adoration. It is natural to suppose, likewise, that pure and benevolent beings, permitted to witness the affairs of this lower world, should feel deeply interested for the favourable issue of the spiritual conflict sustained by those who may become their future and eternal associates:--and, if by any means possible, that they should exert themselves in promoting that issue. IV. If to bear from above the emanations of grace be an office in which pure and kind intelligences may be supposed to take high delight, with still greater satisfaction, may it further be presumed, do they wing their way back to the courts of happiness, carrying tidings of the successful result of their embassy (Tob 12:13; Revelation 8:2-3). V. This welcome report of the pure and upright behaviour of faithful sojourners upon earth, being circulated throughout the mansions of bliss, we cannot doubt that the glorified host of the happy will listen to it with complacency and delight;--that they will congratulate each other on the triumph of good;--on the prospect of an increase to their band;--on a new advancement of the glory of the Most High (1 Peter 1:12; Luke 15:10). VI. When the awful hour which awaits every child of Adam, the hour of dissolution, approaches;--when the eye is about to close on those objects of fond affection, of whom it cannot take leave with indifference, another interesting office of guardian spirits will consist in whispering words of peace to the departing followers of Jesus;--in removing the film and dimness from the sight of faith;--in rolling back to its view the curtain of the skies, and permitting it to descry those seats of boundless felicity where it will speedily be, and where it will be as the angels. (J. Grant, M.A.) Angels real Some of the eminent doctors, in Rowland Hill’ s day, said that there were no such beings as angels; that they were only Oriental metaphors. “ Very well,” said Rowland Hill, “ then it was a company of Oriental metaphors that sang at the birth of Christ, ‘ Glory to God in the highest.’ “ Angels are Oriental metaphors; then it was an Oriental metaphor that slew 185,000 of Sennacherib’ s army in a single night. Angels are Oriental metaphors; then it was an Oriental metaphor that appeared to Peter in prison, that knocked off his chains, and led him through the streets. “ Truly,” said he, “ these Oriental metaphors are wonderful things!” (C. H. Spurgeon.) Psalms 103:22 Bless the Lord, all His works in all places of His dominion.The illimitable vastness of the universe How does our conception of the universe differ from that of David? It differs, among other things, mainly because we know, and he did not know, of infinite time, peopled with innumerable existences, on infinite space, crowded with unnumbered worlds. To David the earth probably seemed comparatively a thing of yesterday. We know of ages when the earth may have been a nebulous mass; of ages more when it was certainly one tangled growth of gigantic vegetation; of ages more when it was trodden by huge and fearful lizards--dragons of the prime, tearing each other with lethal armour of incomparable deadliness. We look at a piece of chalk, and we know that to form it took the spoils of millions of living organisms; and the man sinks powerless before the effort to conceive the years which it must have taken, by ordinary processes, to build up the white ramparts of our coasts. Yes, the knowledge of the deeps which geology reveals, so far from rendering too dim for us, tends only to brighten for us the image of a Father’ s love. We know that that Father is caring for us now, and geology has simply proved to us that He was caring for our race, it may be, a billion of years before it appeared upon our globe. But if science has thus widened for us the horizons of time, still more illimitably has it widened for us the horizons of space; still more completely has it annihilated man’ s self-importance about his race, and about the globe on which he lives. To the ancients, for instance, the world was a very centre of all things, and a very image of immovable stability. To us it is an insignificant speck in the heavens of no material importance, and with no centrality about it; and, so far from being fixed, we know that it is rolling, with incessant revolution, on its own axis, whirling, at immense velocity, round the sun, “ spinning,” as one has said, “ like an angry midge, in the abyss of its own small system, of which it is but one out of one hundred planets and asteroids, and of which the farthest of these planets rolls three hundred thousand millions of miles round the sun upon its sullen and solitary round.” Again, to the ancients, and to David, the moon was but an ornament of the night, a silver cresset hung by God’ s hand in heaven, to illumine the darkened earth. To us it is, indeed, this, and we thank God for it, and also for its services, unknown to our forefathers, of attracting the waters, and so causing to roll, from hemisphere to hemisphere, that great tidal wave which purifies the world. But we have also learnt with amazement what the moon is. We know that it is a small world, in structure like our own; but without atmosphere, without clouds, without seas, without rivers, rent with enormous fissures, scathed and scorched with eruptive violences, a burnt-up cinder, a volcanic waste, the wreck, for all we know, of some past home of existence, a corpse in night’ s highway, naked, fire-scathed, accursed; and if, in the complications of her silent revolutions, “ She nightly, to the listening earth, Repeats the story of her birth,” yet that story presents us with so blank a mystery, that it forces our acknowledgment that it may seem as if its one blank hemisphere was only turned to this earth and its science in mocking irony, as though to convince us, against our will, that what we know is little--what we are ignorant of immense. Then, once more, turn to the sun. The ancients saw its splendour; they felt its warmth; they thanked God for its glory. To David it was, as you know, “ as a bridegroom cometh forth out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a giant to run his course.” It was thought a monstrous extravagance when one of the Greek philosophers said that it was a fiery mass, and another that it was about the size of Attica. But what is it to us? Look at the bas-relief of the tomb of Newton in Westminster Abbey, and there you will see the little genius weighing the sun, and the earth, and the planets on a steelyard. Yes, we know its weight; we know its distance; we know its revolution. We know even, of late years, by spectrum analysis, of what metals and gases it is composed. No human language can express its awfulness. That great orb, as we have discovered, bursts and boils with a horrible impetuosity, such as no human imagination can conceive; and yet this vast, portentous globe of fire is made to subserve the humblest purposes of man. Once more, for a moment, turn to the stars. Turn to the millions of stars in the Milky Way. Our sun is neither more nor less than just one, and one unimportant, star in that Milky Way. To David, when he said that the heavens declared the glory of God, only were known two or three thousand stars visible to the naked eye. To us are known somewhere about fifty millions. And, yet, I say again that the Christian is not in the least appalled by all this vastness. Space is nothing to that God who extends through all extent, and in the hollow of whose hand all those worlds lie as though they were but a single water-drop. But, by the telescope, better without it-- “ Man may see Stretched awful in the hushed midnight, The ghost of his eternity.” But yet, happily, perhaps, for us, simultaneously with this abyss of non-existence beyond man, God has revealed to us an infinitude of life below Him. Take an animalcula, and Pascal will tell you that, however small its body, it is yet smaller in its limbs, and there are joints in those limbs, veins in those joints, blood in those veins, drops in that blood, humour in those drops, vapour in that humour, and an abyss even below this--an immensity of invisible life; so that man, we say, is suspended between two infinities--an abyss of infinity below, and of nothingness above, him. He is a mean between the nothing and the all--nothing compared to the infinite, infinite compared to the nothing. Is not this, at least, a lesson of humility? Should it not compel man rather to contemplate in silence than to inquire with presumption? “ Such knowledge is too deep and wonderful for me; I cannot attain to it.” “ What is man that Thou art mindful of him, and the son of man that Thou so regardest him?” Here, for the Christian, at any rate, lies the solution of the dark enigma, the removal of the painful perplexity, the removal of the intolerable weight. Man is nothing in himself. He is as small, as mean, as abject as you please. He is but a fragment of the dust to which he shall soon return. Yes, but in himself nothing, in God man is every-thing--sacred, holy, sublime, immortal, a child of God, a joint-heir with Christ. What is vastness, then, to the Christian that it should appal him? It is nothing; it is less than nothing. It does not oppress or crush him. He is greater than those worlds. He is more immortal than all those clustered suns. They are, after all, but gas and flame; but he lives, and he is immortal, and he is created in the image of God. (Dean Farrar.) Bless the Lord, O my soul--The perils of the spiritual guide In the two preceding verses the psalmist had similarly demanded that the Lord’ s works should praise Him--“ Bless the Lord, ye His angels,” etc. In our text, as though he would no longer invoke separately any order of being, or any department of creation, he summons the whole universe to join in the glorious work--“ Bless the Lord, all His works in all places of His dominion” ; and after this most comprehensive demand, is there anything else from which he can ask praise? Yes, he subjoins, “ bless the Lord, O my soul.” It seems as if a sudden fear had seized the psalmist, the fear of by any possibility omitting himself; or, if not a fear, yet a consciousness that his very activity in summoning others to praise, might make him forgetful that he was bound to praise God himself. Alas! how possible, how easy, to take pains for others, and to be neglectful of oneself: nay, to make the pains we take for others the reason by which we persuade ourselves that we cannot be neglecting ourselves. Religion of all matters is that which will least bear to be handled professionally: in the mere way of business or occupation. If we once come to handle spiritual things as though they were objects of merchandise or topics for essays, if we come to speak of them with the language of barren speculation, so that the description of the tongue outruns the experience of the heart; alas for the condition of the minister! But it may be well that we consider a little more in detail how that danger may be guarded against, which it has been our endeavour to expose. How shall the guide who feels his mind deadening to the influence of the natural landscape, through the frequency of inspection and the routine of describing it to strangers,--how shall he prevail in keeping his mind alive to the beauties of the scene, the wonders and splendours which crowd the panorama? Let him not be satisfied with showing that panorama to others; let him not look upon it merely in his professional capacity, but let him take frequent opportunities of going by himself to various points of view that he may study it under all possible aspects, now when the shadows of evening rest darkly on the water, now when the sunshine sleeps lovingly on the valley, now when the storm is abroad in its strength, now when the spring mantles hill and plain with its loveliness, and now when winter reigns in coldness and desolateness. Let him not be content with expounding the Bible, or with studying it with a view to his professional duties; let him be careful that he have his season of private meditation, when, like the guide, he may stand on Pisgah by himself, and for himself, not considering the scene with the eye of one who has to delineate the magnificent landscape, but rather with that of one who has to find in it a spot which he may call his own, and where he may fix his everlasting habitation. The more we engage in teaching others, in setting before others the blessings procured by the interference of Christ, the more tenacious should we be of seasons of private meditation and self-examination. For such seasons become then increasingly needful, lest we fancy our acquaintance with truth perfect, or our appreciation of it adequate, and thus shall we not only keep our own lamp well trimmed, but be more than ever fitted, by the blessing of God, to shed light on those who may be walking in darkness and the shadow of death. It is he who is daily schooling himself who is most likely to be instrumental in guiding others to God; the note struck within will produce the greatest vibration around; if I would waken an anthem of praise, I must first attune to thanks the chords of my own soul. (H. Melvill, B.D.) . Psalms 104:1-35 Psalms 104:1-35O Lord my God, Thou art very great.A hymn of praise to God in Nature I. The universality of God’ s workings in Nature.1. In the domain of dead matter. He is operating in the waters as they sail in the clouds, come down in the showers, etc. He is operating on the crusted earth, laying its “ foundations,” touching its soil into verdure, and shaking it by volcanic fires. “ He looketh on the earth and it trembleth,” etc. 2. In the domain of living matter, (1) He works in all vegetable life--in the smallest blade as well as in the mightiest monarchs of the forest. (2) He works in all sentient life--feeds every beast of the field, etc. 3. In the domain of rational existence. God works in all moral minds, from the highest angel to the humblest soul on earth. II. The personality of God’ s workings in Nature.1. He works sublimely. If we take the telescope, we are struck with mute amazement at the vastness and splendour of the stellar systems; if we take the microscope and look at the wing of the smallest insect, or even at an atom of metallic dust, what brilliancy and perfection we discover. He paints His beauty on an insect’ s wing, and wheels His throne upon the rolling worlds. 2. He works incessantly. There is no pause in His exertions; He neither slumbers nor sleeps, always at work, and at work everywhere and in everything. “ It takes as much life,” says Emerson, “ to conserve as to create the universe.” 3. He works benevolently. His desire to communicate His blessedness to other beings is the philosophy of the universe. 4. He works wisely. The Great Author never revises His books, the Great Architect never alters His plans. 5. He works in nature morally. (1) The inspiring of the human soul with rapturous worship (verse 34). There is no true happiness without true worship; and God so appears in Nature as to awaken all souls into an anthem of praise. (2) To clear from the soul all moral wrong (verse 35). God’ s purpose, in all His operations on the earth as well as in the truths of His Gospel, is to make this world morally better and happier. (Homilist.) A psalm of Providence This and the psalm immediately foregoing are closely connected. The one sings of God in salvation, the other of God in creation. The first is a hymn; the second, a poem. The first is the peculiar song of the Church; the second, of all His manifold works. The opening of the psalm conveys a sense of being bowed down with the greatness of the Divine Majesty. No description of God is attempted. Only His robe is seen. Light is the robe of God, with which He has covered Himself. And water is the robe of earth, with which God has covered it. This thought governs the chief part of the poem. It might be called the water psalm. For physical life, as we know it, water is essential. God may have creatures formed of fire and living in the fierce stars. God has, we believe, beings of a spiritual nature. But in the natural universe it is only in that small region where water can exist that vegetable, animal, and human life are found. We can but live in earth’ s water robe. And grandly the psalmist describes it. In clouds the waters gather above the mountains, and await the Divine bidding. Then they hasten to their appointed work. Some roll up the hill sides in mists, some stream down in rivulets; all go to the place God has appointed them. In the deep seas they dance in waves, and roar on the beach, but keep their bounds. With splendid vivacity the poet then describes the water at work in sustaining life. The wild ass drinks, and his strength is renewed. The cedars of Lebanon have their draughts. The great trees, water sustained, provide homes for the singing birds. In them the stork has her house. Grass for cattle, bread and wine and oil for men, supplying varied needs, are produced. In the far-stretching sea there is vigorous life in many and varied forms. And as thus the waters are seen to obey their first command, to bring forth abundantly, there comes the beautiful remark, “ These all wait upon Thee, O God,” etc. The 104th psalm is very evidently a paraphrase of the 1st chapter of the Book of Genesis. There is this great difference, the psalm before us is rather a song of Providence than of creation. It does not speak of God as completing the machinery of earth and then setting it in motion and retiring for rest. It is God ever living, ever watching, ever at work. This psalm is the necessary supplement to Genesis. In the panorama at the opening of Holy Scripture there is calm and restfulness, but in the picture here all is movement. In the one God looks, and again and again pronounces all to be good. But here there are signs of the entrance of some element of restlessness and disorder. The mountain streams suffer rebuke--they are chased by thunder to their appointed place. When night comes the young lions are heard roaring after their prey. When the sun leads in the dawn man has to go to his toil and labour until the evening. There is something wrong. Signs of manifold wisdom are apparent, but there are darkness, want, toil, trouble, and death. A discord has evidently entered, and the perfect harmony is gone. Here then is a great mystery. Looking abroad upon nature, the prospect is that of a glorious creation, but with something wrong. It has been compared to a perfect chronometer into the works of which a pin has fallen. Science cannot but see much that is mysterious, and at times seem baffled. Creation tells of marvellous wisdom, but all is not right. It shows vast arrangements for happiness which something has marred. This world is a vase of exceeding loveliness, but it has fallen and lies shattered with jagged edges and points. The study of nature ever leads to the conclusion that it is the work of infinite wisdom, but spoiled in some mysterious manner. Everywhere are there signs of the handiwork of One who wrought for purity and peace and love, and everywhere is foulness and disorder and war. Fact or poem, Genesis gives the only solution. Sin has entered, and the splendid work is shattered. With a truer science than many of those who profess to study nature, the psalmist recognizes this and breathes the prayer, “ May sinners pass away from the earth and evil-doers be no more. Bless the Lord, O my soul. Hallelujah.” St. Augustine of Hippo, in his very remarkable series of sermons on this psalm, comes to the conclusion that a spiritual meaning must be sought. He will have water here to allude to “ the love of God which is shed abroad on our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given us.” By the world which He hath so founded “ that it shall not be moved for ever and ever,” he says “ I understand the Church.” As light is the garment of God, and water the garment of earth, so is love the garment of the Church. It is only as she is robed in this that she is attired with beauty. It is her wedding garment, for he that loveth not is not in Christ. It is in love that God lays the beams of the chambers of His home where there are many mansions. It is love that flows up over the lofty mountains and down in cascades to the humble valleys, sometimes in rushing torrents, and sometimes in hidden springs. It is love that gives verdure and refreshment, and through which souls find a home. Love which is like a mighty sea wherein live creatures innumerable. In God’ s works in nature are seen His glory and majesty. In the Church is manifest His love. And it is as we consider this, that with sweetest notes we sing, “ My meditations of Him shall be sweet, I will be glad in the Lord.” (J. H. Cooke.) The greatness of God I. In comparison with the kings of the earth. We read of Alexander the Great, of Constantine the Great, and Frederick the Great, but, verily, in comparison with the God of heaven, their greatness dwindles into insignificance--dwindles into nothing! Have they thrones? Their thrones are upon the earth; God’ s throne is in the heavens, “ high above all height.” Have they robes? God’ s robes are robes of light and majesty. Have they pavilions? He stretcheth forth the heavens as His pavilion, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in. Have they chariots? He maketh the clouds His chariot--He walketh upon the wings of the wind. Have they kingdoms? The whole universe is God’ s kingdom, and literally He ruleth over all. II. In certain passages of Scripture which speak sublimely of Him (Habakkuk 3:3-6; Psalms 18:6-15; Isaiah 40:12; Isaiah 40:15-17; Revelation 20:11-12). III. In certain attributes ascribed to Him.1. He is uncreated and eternal.2. Omniscient.3. Omnipotent.4. Omnipresent. IV. In the mighty work of creation. We have spoken of His omnipotence as an attribute; here we have its sublime demonstration. How vast is this creation, and how wonderful in all its parts! V. In the world of redemption. This exhibits His moral grandeur; and it is this which makes Him emphatically and supremely great indeed. Infinitely great in goodness as He is infinitely great in power; infinitely great in all His moral as in all His natural perfections; so that, in the sublimest sense, it may be said of Him that “ He is a God, all o’ er consummate, absolute, full orbed, in His whole round of rays complete.” Inferences.1. How reasonable it is that we should worship and serve this only living and true God.2. How dreadful a thing it must be to have this great God for an enemy.3. How blessed it is to have God upon our side. (D. Baker, D.D.) Nature Nature has two great revelations,--that of use and that of beauty; and the first thing we observe about these two characteristics of her is, that they are bound together, and tied to each other. The beauty of nature is not, as it were, a fortunate accident, which can be separated from her use; there is no difference in the tenure upon which these two characteristics stand; the beauty is just as much a part of nature as the use; they are only different aspects of the self-same facts. It is worth observing, in the history of the mind of this country, the formation of a kind of passion for scenery and natural beauty. Though it might sometimes appear that there is nothing particularly serious in the current fashion, still the general sentiment shows a serious passion existing in the poetry and thought of the age, which it follows and copies. What is the religious bearing, then, of this modern passion for nature in its pictorial aspect? First, then, with respect to the place which the beauty of nature has in the argument of Design from nature. When the materialist has exhausted himself in efforts to explain utility in nature, it would appear to be the peculiar office of beauty to rise up suddenly as a confounding and baffling extra, which was not even formally provided for in his scheme. Nature goes off at a tangent which carries her farther than ever from the head under which he places her, and shows the utter inadequacy of that head to include all that has to be included in it. The secret of nature is farther off than ever from what he thinks of it. Physical science goes back and back into nature, but it is the aspect and front of nature which gives the challenge; and it is a challenge which no backward train of physical causes can meet. But again, nature is partly a curtain and partly a disclosure, partly a veil and partly a revelation; and here we come to her faculty of symbolism, which is so strong an aid to, and has so immensely affected, the principles of worship. It is natural for us to regard the beauty and grandeur of nature as not stopping with itself, but bearing a relation to something moral, of which it is the similitude and type. Certainly no person has a right to fasten his own fancies upon the visible creation, and say that its various features mean this and that, resemble this or that in the moral world; but if the association is universal, if we cannot even describe nature without the help of moral terms--solemn, tender, awful, and the like--it is evidence of a natural and real similitude of physical things to moral. Nature is sometimes spoken of in a pantheistic corporeal manner; as if it were a kind of bodily manifestation of the Divine Being, analogous to that garment of the flesh which encircles the human soul, and is the instrument of expression to it. But the manifestation of the Deity which takes place in the beauty of nature rests upon the ground and the principle of language. It is the revelation of the character of God in the way a material type or similitude can be. But a type is a kind of distinct language--the language of oblique and indirect expression, as contrasted with direct. While we do not worship the material created sign, for that would be idolatry, we still repose on it as the true language of the Deity. In this peculiar view of nature there are two points in striking concurrence with the vision-language of Scripture. First, Scripture has specially consecrated the faculty of sight, and has partly put forth, and has promised in a still more complete form, a manifestation of the Deity to mankind, through the medium of a great sight. This view only breaks out in fragments in the Old Testament. It emerges into light when nature is spoken of as the garment and robe of the Deity, when the glory of the Lord covers the tabernacle; when Moses is permitted to behold from the cleft in the rock the skirts of the Divine glory. Especially does the idea of a visible manifestation come out in the prophetic visions, where the splendid gleams and colours of nature, sapphire and amber, rainbow and flame, are collected together, and combined in an emblematic figure and shape, in order to make “ the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord.” “ And when I saw,” says the Prophet, “ I fell on my face, and I heard the voice of one that spake.” But the scattered rays of pictorial representation which only occasionally pierce through the clouds of the Old Testament, are gathered into one focus in the New, they converge and are absorbed into an ineffable, eternal appearance, in which God will ever be seen as He is, and they issue in the doctrine of the Visio Dei. Secondly, it must be remarked, as another principle in the Scriptural representation, that the act of seeing a perfectly glorious sight or object is what constitutes the spectator’ s and beholder’ s own glory. The future life is called a state of glory in Scripture, and it is called such not only in reference to the world in which it will be enjoyed, which is a glorious world, but also with regard to those who enjoy it; who attain to glory as a personal state. This personal state is enjoyed by them on this principle, that they are glorified as spectators of glory, that beholding Majesty is their own exaltation, and adoration their own ascent. But this latter is certainly the principle of nature and it is inculcated by all who vindicate the place and office of nature as a spectacle. No one was ever struck with wonder and admiration in beholding the works of God, no one was ever impressed strongly by the beauty and majesty of the visible creation, without at the same time feeling an accession of rank and elevation to himself from the act. (J. B. Mozley, D.D.) Nature’ s teaching Nothing is more obvious than that the writers of the Psalms were attracted by the beauty, influence, and fecundity of the earth. Now beauty, apart from all else, is something which must for ever attract us. Beauty is something so subtle, so incomprehensible, that there is no language we can employ or discover which can in any way enable us to understand what is the common root and ground out of which all the beauty springs. And this particular view of nature is very highly important in this materialistic age, when men are so disposed to teach that there is nothing beyond what we see; and so lead our minds to the contemplation of what is material, to give an explanation of all the wonders of nature, the causes of their wonderful operations, and the secret of their power. Wherever you travel with a man of science, and you draw his attention to something in the universe, he will have ready to hand an explanation of what you have pointed out, and a ready answer to the difficulties in your mind. If you are travelling, for instance, in Switzerland, and you point out the grandeur and glory of the mountain range, he will at once begin to explain to you how they arose and got their present configuration, and be extremely learned with regard to the properties of which they consist. After he has dilated at great length, with all learning and profundity, on these aspects of nature, you suddenly turn to him and say, “ All you tell me may be very true; your explanation may be very profound, and your science may be very subtle, but I would like to ask you one question. Can you tell me what the beauty of the mountains is? Is it the height, or the depth; is it the light or the shade? Is it the cloud above, or the earth beneath, which constitutes its beauty?” He looks at you and says, “ That is beyond me.” For what is beauty? No man can describe it, or tell us what it is. It has no real existence apart from intelligence; for you must recollect that the beauty of nature is as much open and exposed to the brute as it is to you and to me. I am, therefore, left to draw a single inference, and that is this--The beauty of nature is not a mere accident; the beauty of nature is not something painted on the surface of nature. The beauty of nature is some integral part of its whole working; and while it is working as a machine it is sleeping as a picture. In the Bible you always find the writer draws the attention of the reader to the soul. The psalmist, after contemplating the glory of God, and that spectacle of light, felt there was a mystery beyond all explanation; and he called on his higher nature to rejoice. (Canon Barker.) Psalms 104:3 Who maketh the clouds His chariot.The cloudy equipage To understand the psalmist’ s meaning, you must know that the chariot of old was sometimes a sculptured brilliancy, made out of ivory, sometimes of solid’ silver, and rolled on two wheels, which were fastened to the axle by stout pins, and the defeat of OEnomaus by Pelops was caused by the fact that a traitorous charioteer had inserted a linch-pin of wax instead of a linch-pin of iron. All of the six hundred chariots of Pharaoh lost their linch-pins in the Red Sea: “ The Lord took off their wheels.” Look at the long flash of Solomon’ s fourteen hundred chariots, and the thirty thousand chariots of the Philistines. But my text puts all such occasions into insignificance, as it represents the King of the Universe coming to the door of His palace, and the gilded vapours of heaven rolling up to His feet, and He, stepping in and taking the reins of the galloping winds in His hand, starts in triumphal ride under the arches of sapphire, and over the atmospheric highways of opal and chrysolite, “ the clouds His chariot.” He has His morning-cloud chariot and His evening-cloud chariot--the cloud chariot in which He rode down to Sinai to open the law, and the cloud chariot in which He rode down to Tabor to honour the Gospel, and the cloud chariot in which He will come to judgment. When He rides out in His morning chariot at this season, He puts golden coronets on the dome of cities, and silvers the rivers, and out of the dew makes a diamond ring for the fingers of every grass blade, and bids good cheer to invalids who in the night said, “ Would God it were morning!” From this morning-cloud chariot He distributes light--light for the earth and light for the heavens, light for the land and light for the sea, great bars of it, great wreaths of it, great columns of it, a world full of it. What a mighty thing the King throws from His chariot when He throws us the morning! Yea; He has also His evening-cloud chariot. It is made out of the saffron and the gold and the purple and the orange and the vermilion and upshot flame of the sunset. That is the place where the splendours that have marched through the day, having ended the procession, throw down their torches and set the heavens on fire. Oh, what a rich God we have that He can put on one evening sky pictures that excel Michael Angelo’ s “ Last Judgment,” and Ghirlandajo’ s “ Adoration of the Magi,” and whole galleries of Madonnas, and for only an hour, and throw them away, and the next evening put on the same sky something that excels all that the Raphaels and Titians and Rembrandts ever executed, and then draw a curtain of mist over them never again to be exhibited! How rich God must be to have a new chariot of clouds every evening! But the Bible tells us that our King also has His black chariot, for we are told that “ Clouds and darkness are round about Him.” That chariot is cloven out of night, and that night is trouble. When He rides forth in that black chariot, pesitilence and earthquake and famine and hurricane and woe attend Him. Then let the earth tremble. Then let nations pray. Mark you, the ancient chariot which David uses as a symbol in my text, had only two wheels, and that was that they might turn quickly, two wheels taking less than half the time to turn than four wheels would have taken. And our Lord’ s chariot has only two wheels, and that means instant reversal, and instant help, and instant deliverance. While the combined forces of the universe in battle array could not stop His black chariot a second, or diverge it an inch, the driver of that chariot says, “ Call upon Me in the day of trouble, and I will deliver thee.” “ While they are yet speaking I will hear.” His two-wheeled chariot, one wheel justice, and the other wheel mercy. Aye, they are swift wheels. A cloud, whether it belongs to the cirrhus, the clouds that float the highest; or belongs to the stratus, the central ranges; or to the cumulus, the lowest ranges--seems to move slowly along the sky if it moves at all. But many of the clouds go at such a speed that even a limited lightning express train would seem lethargic, so swift is the chariot of our God; yea, swifter than the storm, swifter than the light. Yet a child ten years old has been known to reach up, and with the hand of prayer take the courser of that chariot by the bit and slow it up, or stop it, or turn it aside, or turn it back. Notice that these old-time chariots, which nay text uses for symbol, had what we would call a high dashboard at the front, but were open behind. And the king would stand at the dashboard and drive with his own hands. And I am glad that He whose chariot the clouds are, drives Himself. He does not let natural law drive, for natural law is deaf. He does not let fate drive, for fate is merciless. But our Father King Himself drives, and He puts His loving hand on the reins of the flying coursers, and He has a loving ear open to the cry of all who want to catch His attention. But there are clouds that touch the earth and discharge their rain; and, though the clouds out of which God’ s chariot is made may sometimes be far away, often they are close by, and they touch our shoulders, and our homes, and they touch us all over. I have read of two rides that the Lord took in two different chariots of clouds, and of another that He will take. One day, in a chariot of clouds that were a mingling of fog and smoke and fire, God drove down to the top of a terrible crag fifteen hundred feet high, now called Jebel-Musa, then called Mount Sinai, and He stepped out of His chariot among the split shelvings of rock. The mountain shook as with an ague, and there were ten volleys of thunder, each of the ten emphasizing a tremendous “ Thou shalt” or “ Thou shalt not.” Then the Lord resumed His chariot of cloud, and drove up the hills of heaven. They were dark and portentous clouds that made that chariot at the giving of the law. But one day He took another ride, and this time down to Mount Tabor; the clouds out of which His chariot was made, bright clouds, roseate clouds, illumined clouds, and music rained from all of them, and the music was a mingling of carol and chant and triumphal march: “ This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” Transfiguration chariot! “ Oh,” say you, “ I wish I could have seen those chariots--the black one that brought the Lord to Jebel-Musa, at the giving of the law, and the white one that brought Him down to Tabor!” Never mind, you will see something grander than that, and it will be a mightier mingling of the sombre and the radiant, and the pomp of it will be such that the chariots in which Trajan and Diocletian and Zenobia and Caesar and Alexander and all the conquerors of all the ages rode will be unworthy of mention; and what stirs me most is, that when He comes in that chariot of cloud and goes back, He will ask you and me to ride with Him both ways. How do I know that the judgment chariot will be made out of clouds? Read Revelation 1:7. (T. De Witt Talmage.) Who maketh His angels spirits.--The powers of Nature 1. What a number of beautiful and wonderful objects does Nature present on every side of us! and how little we know concerning them! In some indeed we see symptoms of intelligence, and we get to form some idea of what they are. For instance, about brute animals we know little, but still we see they have sense, and we understand that their bodily form which meets the eye is but the index, the outside token of something we do not see. Much more in the case of men: we see them move, speak, and act, and we know that all we see takes place in consequence of their will, because they have a spirit within them, though we do not see it. But why do rivers flow? Why does rain fall? Why does the sun warm us? And the wind, why does it blow? Here our natural reason is at fault; we know, I say, that it is the spirit in man and in beast that makes man and beast move, but reason tells us of no spirit abiding in what is commonly called the natural world, to make it perform its ordinary duties. Of course, it is God’ s will which sustains it all; so does God’ s will enable us to move also, yet this does not hinder, but, in one sense, we may be truly said to move ourselves: but how do the wind and water, earth and fire, move? Now, here Scripture interposes, and seems to tell us that all this wonderful harmony is the work of angels. Those events which we ascribe to chance as the weather, or to nature as the seasons, are duties done to that God who maketh His angels to be winds, and His ministers a flame of fire (John 5:4; Exodus 19:16-18; Galatians 3:19; Acts 7:53; Revelation 7:1; Genesis 19:13; 2 Kings 19:35; 2 Samuel 24:15-17; Matthew 28:2; Revelation 8:1-13; Revelation 9:1-21; Revelation 16:1-21). Thus, whenever we look abroad, we are reminded of those most gracious and holy beings, the servants of the Holiest, who deign to minister to the heirs of salvation. Every breath of air and ray of light and heat, every beautiful prospect, is, as it were, the skirts of their garments, the waving of the robes of those whose faces see God in heaven. And I put it to any one, whether it is not as philosophical, and as full of intellectual enjoyment, to refer the movements of the natural world to them, as to attempt to explain them by certain theories of science, useful as these theories certainly are for particular purposes, and capable (in subordination to that higher view) of a religious application. 2. Vain man would be wise, and he curiously examines the works of Nature, as if they were lifeless and senseless; as if he alone had intelligence, and they were base inert matter, however curiously contrived at the first. So he goes on, tracing the order of things, seeking for causes in that order, giving names to the wonders he meets with, and thinking he understands what he has given a name to. At length he forms a theory, and recommends it in writing, and calls himself a philosopher. Now, all these theories of science, which I speak of, are useful, as classifying, and so assisting us to recollect, the works and ways of God and of His ministering angels. And again, they are ever most useful, in enabling us to apply the course of His providence, and the ordinances of His will, to the benefit of man. Thus we are enabled to enjoy God’ s gifts; and let us thank Him for the knowledge which enables us to do so, and honour those who are His instruments in communicating it. When then we walk abroad, and “ meditate in the field at the eventide,” how much has every herb and flower in it to surprise and overwhelm us! For, even did we know as much about them as the wisest of men, yet there are those around us, though unseen, to whom our greatest knowledge is as ignorance; and, when we converse on subjects of nature scientifically, repeating the names of plants and earths, and describing their properties, we should do so religiously, as in the hearing of the great servants of God, with the sort of diffidence which we always feel when speaking before the learned and wise of our own mortal race, as poor beginners in intellectual knowledge, as well as in moral attainments. 3. Lastly, it is a motive to our exertions in doing the will of God, to think that, if we attain to heaven, we shall become the fellows of the blessed angels. Indeed, what do we know of the courts of heaven, but as peopled by them? and therefore doubtless they are revealed to us, that we may have something to fix our thoughts on, when we look heavenwards. (J. H. Newman, B.D.) Spiritual ministries The author of this psalm is deeply impressed with the manifestation of God’ s presence in nature. Everything reminds him of God. And the wonderful fact about his language is, that it not only conceives of material things in spiritual phraseology, but that it ascends higher than this, and describes spiritual things in the wording of material symbols. I. The truest ministries in God’ s service are the spiritual ones. We, in our earthliness and sense-satisfied lives, wrapped about continually with the demands of the flesh, crave creaturely ministries; we want prosperity, success, and pleasure; we want material food, and physical delights, and social honour; we run after the trumpet-blare of fame, and bite at the dangling hook of influence and power. And who can wonder, when nerves and brain, and soul itself, are all enwrapped in matter, so that the touch of the senses is over all that we do? Yet right in the face of all this material and creaturely drift of our natures, we need to hear these far-off words of inspiration and command, “ He maketh His angels spirits.” Who does not know and feel the power and the truthfulness of this thought? II. God’ s truest servants are those whose characters are an inspiration to others. This it is which gives to history its interest and its highest meaning; it is the charm which always comes from bringing forward new men and new issues to take the place of worn-out men and times. This touch of God’ s inspiration is like a new incarnation of Divine power in every strong, brave, true life. Then we feel that we can conquer, because others have conquered; then we feel that we, too, can rise above self and those miserable infirmities of our existence which seem, at times, to hedge our lives into a land-locked inland sea of mediocrity of living, simply because others have threaded their way through similar narrow places, and have escaped from their moral captivity altogether. This is what makes a good piece of honest biography such attractive reading: we get bird’ s-eye views of this common life of ours; we get an insight into the secret working of causes which have their home in the souls of us all. (W. W. Newton.) Ardency required of ministers It is true that a man may hold out a light to others who himself does not see it. It is true that, as a concave speculum cut from a block of ice, by its power of concentrating the rays of the sun, may kindle touchwood or explode gunpowder, so a preacher may set others on fire, when his own heart is cold as frost. It is true that he may stand like a lifeless finger-post, pointing the way along the road where he neither leads nor follows. It is true that God in His sovereign mercy may thus bless others by one who is himself unblessed. Yet commonly it happens, that it is that which proceeds from the heart of preachers that penetrates and affects the hearts of hearers, like a ball red-hot from the cannon’ s mouth, he must burn himself who would set others on fire. (T. Guthrie, D.D.) Psalms 104:5-9 Who laid the foundations of the earth, that it should not he removed for ever. Stability of Nature essential to prosperity Earthquakes alone are sufficient to destroy the prosperity of any country. If beneath England the now inert subterranean forces should exert those powers which most assuredly in former geological ages they have exerted, how completely would the entire condition of the country be changed! What would become of the lofty houses, thickly packed cities, great manufactories, the beautiful public and private edifices? If the new period of disturbance were first to commence by some great earthquake in the dead of the night, how terrific would be the carnage! England would at once be bankrupt; all papers, records, and accounts would from that moment be lost. Government being unable to collect the taxes, and failing to maintain its authority, the hand of violence and rapine would remain uncontrolled. In every large town famine would go forth, pestilence and death following in its train. (Charles Darwin.) The stability of the earth The stability of the earth is of God as much as the being and existence of it. There have been many earthquakes or movings of the earth in several parts of it, but the whole body of the earth was never removed so much as one hair’ s breadth out of its place, since the foundations thereof were laid. Archimedes, the great mathematician, said, “ If you will give me a place to set my engine on, I will remove the earth.” It was a great brag, but the Lord hath laid it too fast for man’ s removing. He hath laid the foundations of the earth that it shall not be removed, nor can it be at all moved, but at His pleasure; and when it moves at any time, it is to mind the sons of men, that they by their sins have moved Him to displeasure. (Joseph Caryl.) The waters stood above the mountains.--Land from beneath the waters It results from the simplest methods of interpretation that, leaving out of view certain patches of metamorphosed rocks and certain volcanic products, all that is now dry land has once been at the bottom of the waters. It is perfectly certain that at a comparatively recent period of the world’ s history--the Cretaceous epoch--none of the great physical features which at present mark the surface of the globe existed. It is certain that the Rocky Mountains were not. It is certain that the Himalaya Mountains were not. It is certain that the Alps and the Pyrenees had no existence. The evidence is of the plainest possible character, and is simply this: We find raised up on the flanks of these mountains, elevated by the forces of upheaval which have given rise to them, masses of cretaceous rock which formed the bottom of the sea before those mountains existed. It is therefore clear that the elevatory forces which gave rise to the mountains operated subsequently to the Cretaceous epoch, and that the mountains themselves are largely made up of the materials deposited in the sea which once occupied their place. (Huxley.) Geology the Divine record To me it seems that to look on the first land that was ever lifted above the waste of waters, to follow the shore where the earliest animals and plants were created when the thought of God first expressed itself in organic forms, to hold in one’ s hand a bit of stone from an old sea-beach, hardened into rock thousands of centuries ago, and studded with the beings that once crept upon its surface or were stranded there by some retreating wave, is even of deeper interest to men than the relics of their own race, for these things tell more directly of the thoughts and creative acts of God. (Agassiz.) At Thy rebuke they fled.--God’ s command over the elements The famous description of Virgil comes to mind, who introduces Neptune as sternly rebuking the winds for daring without his consent to embroil earth and heaven, and raise such huge mountain waves: then, swifter than the word is spoken, he calms the swollen seas, scatters the gathered clouds, and brings back the sun. (Lorinus.) Thou hast set a bound that they may not pass over.--Restraint imposed upon the sea The Baltic Sea, in our own time, inundated large tracts of land, and did great damage to the Flemish people and other neighbouring nations. By an instance of this kind we are warned what would be the consequences were the restraint imposed upon the sea by the hand of God removed. Although the natural tendency of the waters is to cover the earth, yet this will not happen, because God has established, by His Word, a counteracting law, and as His truth is eternal, this law must remain steadfast. (J. Calvin.) Psalms 104:10-18 He seneth the springs into the valleys. The furnishing of the earth 1. Because the use of fresh waters was necessary for man, and necessary it was that man should have it nigh at hand unto him, for the more commodious use, the Lord broke up wells of water in several places, and made brooks and waters, and rivers and floods, like veins in a man’ s body, to carry from them water along to all habitable places of the earth, where God had appointed men to dwell (verse 10). 2. Not only where men do dwell, but also where men’ s ordinary resort is not, the Lord hath set drinking vessels full of water, for the use of travelling men and other creatures, appointed to attend man, and some way to serve his use. 3. For the furnishing of man’ s house on earth, God hath provided him with parks for beasts to feed in, and trees for fowls and birds to live in, and ponds for fishes, as we will hear afterward; and these beasts and fowls, and singing birds, have their drinking vessels set for them (verse 11). 4. The Lord hath adorned the habitation of man, with trees growing beside the waters; not only for his own proper use, but also for the use of fowls and singing birds (verse 12). 5. Where wells and rivers are not, as in hills and high places, it is seen for the most part; there the Lord supplieth the lack of waters, by rain from the clouds. “ He watereth the hills from His chambers,” that is, from the clouds, wherein as in chambers He hath stored up great waters. 6. The Lord doth not dissolve the clouds all at once, but by little and little maketh them distil smaller or greater drops only. 7. There is no part of the earth, whereupon God bestoweth not so much of the fruit of His operation, as may fill it full of His glory (verse 13). 8. The grass and herbs, and the divers sorts of them, serving for the use of beasts and men, are worthy of a room in our meditation of God’ s provident care for man and beast (verse 14). 9. The Lord’ s allowance upon man is very large, not only for necessity, but also for delectation (verse 15). 10. The right use of God’ s creatures is not to surfeit, and bury the memory of God and of the excellency of man above beasts, in gluttony and drunkenness, but to give him strength and gladness in such a measure as may encourage him cheerfully to serve his Maker. 11. God will have His excellency taken notice of in everything which is great, notable, excellent: upon which ground, great trees are called here, “ The trees of the Lord.” 12. The Lord hath furnished trees, not only with so much sap as might make them grow; but also with so much sap as might serve man for meat and drink and medicine, and other uses. 13. Among the trees the Lord will have us take notice of the cedars, as of a special plant of His husbandry on the earth, for their height and greatness, and durableness of the timber, and namely of those of Lebanon, designed for the use of His people. 14. It is worthy of our marking, that for the nests of birds He hath provided high trees, where they might breed and lodge, and bring forth their young more safely and securely (verse 17). 15. It is worthy of our observation for glorifying of God, that God hath taught weak creatures naturally to draw themselves to strong defences; and sundry sorts of them to have their several sorts of refuge (verse 18). (D. Dickson.) Mountain springs My little girl gazing one day upon the brown freckled ripples of a streamlet, suddenly said to me, “ Why does the water always run?” This is a question that is apt to puzzle many older minds. It seems a great mystery why hour after hour the stream should continue to flow without any diminution. You sit beside it a whole forenoon and watch a stone in its bed, and you see that the water keeps the same level along its sides. Day after day its voice is as full-toned and its sparkle as bright as ever; and you wonder from what perennial fountain comes the inexhaustible supply. Let us ascend to the source of the stream, and we shall obtain an explanation of the mystery. We see in the cushions of moss around its source the explanation of the ceaseless flow of the streamlet down in the valley. Nearly all our mountain tops have large spaces covered with dense carpets of moss. On these the snow appears early and lingers late; and during the rest of the year the clouds and mists are constantly distilling their moisture into them. They are therefore thoroughly charged with water, and give rise, wherever the ground forms a sloping hollow, to tiny rills, which drain the mossy sides of the hill, and nourish large quantities of moss along their course; and these in their turn imbibe more moisture from the clouds and mists, and conserve the gathering waters, until at last they acquire some volume, and in well-defined channels flow down to the valley in a series of snowy cascades and sparkling pools. Moss serves on our mountains which are below the snow-line the same purpose which the glacier serves on the mountains of other lands that are above the snow-line. They each afford one of the most striking examples of those marvellous adjustments which pervade the whole economy of nature. Without the intervention of the glacier and the moss the moisture that falls on the mountain summits would speedily run off in raging torrents, inundating the plains, scattering over the cultivated fields the barren debris of the mountains, and leaving behind after their subsidence a dry white wilderness of stones and mud. But the moss and the glacier retain the moisture of the clouds, and part with it gradually and safely, allowing it to descend to the plains so gently and continuously that, instead of destroying, it imparts beauty and fertility to the fields. Associated with the glacier and the moss in the formation of the springs that run among the hills, is the tree. The Chinese have a proverb that the grandest rivers are cradled in the leaves of the pine. Artificial springs may be created among the foldings of the hills by simply digging a hole in the ground, and sheltering it from the sun’ s rays by planting around it trees and bushes, when the rain that falls will drain towards this hole, and in a short time make it a source of living water. The rod of Moses, smiting the rock and producing the miraculous water from it, is thus in a line with the natural way in which the growth of the tree on the arid rock gives birth to a fountain. Periodical rains, however abundant they may be, speedily pass away and descend into the valleys with unrestrained violence, doing infinite harm. But the alpine woods retain the fallen moisture long after the storm has abated, and the surface of the hill is dried up under the scorching sun. The continued existence of moisture in these woods, and the constant evaporation from them, produce a cooler atmosphere, which in its turn attracts and condenses the vapour of the clouds and thus replenishes the springs. Nor must we omit from this wonderful partnership in the circulation of the vital fluid of the earth, the agency of rocks. Layers of sand alternating with rocky strata imbibe and retain an immense quantity of water, which supplies the source of springs. Ordinary building stones contain a large percentage of moisture. Granite and marble are highly absorbent. Limestone contains two pints of water in every cubic foot, and as it is more pierced and more easily dissolved by the carbonic acid which the rain-water holds in solution, it forms the best of all mediums for the formation of springs and wells. Hence the abundance of fountains in the Holy Land, whose geological structure is almost entirely limestone. Even the driest rock has its pores filled with moisture like a sponge. Mountain rocks are thus vast storehouses of water, which husband and equalize the supply, and replenish the springs with unfailing regularity, independently of the varying rainfall. Very mysterious seems the origin of a spring as it sparkles up from the bosom of the mountain, from the heart of the rock into the sunshine. We do not wonder that in ancient times it should be regarded as the local haunt of some Divine presence, the sites of the Grecian oracles were always beside springs, whose water gushing up from the dark depths of the earth expressively symbolized the Divine voice speaking from the unseen world. And in harmony with the same idea, the Hebrew name of a prophet was derived from the bubbling forth of the waters of a spring, implying that his utterances were the irresistible overflowings of the Divine fountain of inspiration in his soul. Beside the well of Sychar, incarnate in human form, in visible manifestation to the eyes of men, was the great Reality to whom all these myths and symbols pointed, who thirsted Himself that He might give us to drink. And if our eyes be purged with spiritual eye-salve, we too shall see beside every spring the True Oracle, the Great Prophet, the Divinity of the waters who “ sendeth the springs into the valleys which run among the hills.” (H. Macmillan, D.D.) Psalms 104:14 He causeth the grass to grow. In the hayfield I. Grass is in itself instructive.1. As the symbol of our mortality. The whole history of man may be seen in the meadow. He springs up green and tender, subject to the frosts of infancy, which imperil his young life; he grows, he comes to maturity, he puts on beauty even as the grass is adorned with flowers; but after a while his strength departs and his beauty is wrinkled, even as the grass withers and is followed by a fresh generation, which withers in its turn. 2. As an emblem of the wicked. As the Eastern husbandman gathers up the green herb, and, despite its former beauty, casts it into the furnace, such must be your lot, O vainglorious sinners! 3. As a picture of the elect of God. How like the grass are God’ s people for this reason, that they are absolutely dependent upon the influences of heaven! Our fields are parched if vernal showers and gentle dews are witheld, and what are our souls without the gracious visitations of the Spirit? Sometimes through severe trials our wounded hearts are like the mown grass, and then we have the promise, “ He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass: as showers that water the earth.” Thank God for that old saying, which is a gracious doctrine as well as a true proverb, “ Each blade of grass has its own drop of dew.” 4. As comparable to the food wherewith the Lord supplies the necessities of His chosen ones (Psalms 23:1-6). II. God is seen in the growing of the grass.1. As a Worker. The simple production of grass is not the result of natural law apart from the actual work of God; mere law would be inoperative unless the great Master Himself sent a thrill of power through the matter which is regulated by the law--unless, like the steam-engine, which puts force into all the spinning-jennies and wheels of a cotton-mill, God Himself were the motive power to make every wheel revolve. How I could fall down, and find rest on the grass as on a royal couch, now that I know that my God is there at work for His creatures! 2. As a great Caretaker. He gives grass to the cattle, and He will give grace to you. III. God’ s working in the grass for the cattle gives us illustrations concerning grace.1. Preventing grace may here be seen in a symbol. Grass grew before cattle were made. And what a mercy that covenant supplies, for God’ s people were prepared before they were born. Long before sin came into the world the everlasting mercy of God foresaw the ruin of sin, and provided a refuge for every elect soul. 2. Then I perceive an illustration of free grace, for wherever the ox comes into the field, he brings no money with him. There is the food ready for him, but he brings nothing with which to purchase it. So I, poor needy sinner, having nothing, come, and receive Christ without money and without price. 3. And why is it that God gives the cattle the grass? The reason is because they belong to Him. “ The silver and the gold are mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills.” How is it that Christ is provided for God’ s people? Because “ the Lord’ s portion is His people; Jacob is the lot of His inheritance.” (C. H. Spurgeon.) God’ s care for the lonely and obscure Grass does not merely grow where men take care of it, but up there on the side of the lone Alp, where no traveller has ever passed. Where only the eye of the wild bird has beheld their lonely verdure, moss and grass display their beauty; for God’ s works are fair to other eyes than those of mortals. And you, solitary child of God, dwelling unknown and obscure, in a remote hamlet, you are not forgotten by the love of Heaven. He maketh the grass to grow all alone, and shall He not make you flourish despite your loneliness? He can bring forth your graces, and educate you for the skies, in solitude and neglect. The grass, you know, is a thing we tread upon, nobody thinks of its being crushed by the foot, and yet God makes it grow. Perhaps you are oppressed and down-trodden, but let not this depress your spirit, for God executeth righteousness for all those that are oppressed: He maketh the grass to grow, and He can make your heart to flourish under all the oppressions and afflictions of life, so that you shall still be happy and holy, though all the world marches over you; still living in the immortal life which God Himself bestows upon you, though hell itself set its heel upon you. Poor and needy one, unknown, unobserved, oppressed and downtrodden, God makes the grass to grow, and He will take care of you. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Psalms 104:16-17 The trees of the Lord are full of sap. The trees of the Lord The cedars are amongst the most beautiful of the trees--majestic in appearance, towering in stature, and enormous as to girth. Being indigenous to Palestine, they are fitly called trees of the Lord’ s planting, for no human hand has fixed them on their heights. Moreover, it must be God who waters them, from the river that is always full. Despite their exposed position, they are ever green, and always fragrant: they never shed their leaves, and from every branch and spine exudes a sweet aroma. “ The trees of the Lord are full of sap.” And that sap is sweetly scented. “ The smell of Lebanon” is most delightful, and the cedars themselves are the noblest and the royalest amongst the trees of the forest. Let us give glory to God, as we view every object of His cure, every token of His power. The cedars are a fitting type of the people of God. I. The first likeness that I trace is as to ownership and possession. The cedars are “ the trees of the Lord.” They are His peculiar property; His mark is on them, if I may so speak. We own no proprietorship but that of God Most High. His we are, and Him we ought to serve. “ The Lord’ s portion is His people.” The Lord has planted the cedars and His Saints; therefore He owns both. If there is any beauty in us, any blossom on us, any promise of fruit, any shadow or shelter for our fellows, it is the Lord’ s doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes if we are members of Christ’ s Church through faith in Him, it was His Spirit that planted us upon the hills of God. II. God’ s people resemble cedars because of their beauty and majesty. I associate those two adjectives, for it takes at least two to describe the peculiar charm of the cedar tree. It is possessed alike of grace and grandeur. So should it be with Christians. There should be about every lover of the Lord a tender spirit, a loving disposition, the beauty of holiness, the charm of grace: and there should be withal a sacred dignity, a laudable ambition, a holy audacity, high up-holding of the head--not in selfish pride, but in simple trust. III. The feature of these trees to which our text specially directs us is their vitality. They are full of sap. The sap of the tree is as the blood of the body--and “ the blood is the life thereof.” It is this same sap which is the secret of its growth from the sapling stage to the full maturity of which we have been speaking; and it is the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the power of this blessed Book, and the influence of the good Spirit in our hearts, which make us to grow. Oh, that all my powers of heart, and head, and thought, and wish, and feeling, felt the blessed influence of the Divine life. I cannot bring forth fruit, I cannot hope to be fresh and green, unless I also am thus full of sap. IV. We shall also do well to seek to be like the cedars as to their utility. I venture to class under this head their ornamental character. We get into a habit of dissociating these two qualities--ornament and usefulness. I cannot at all see why a thing cannot be both ornamental and useful. If it can be only one, I know which I prefer. Away with the mere ornamental, and let us have what is practical and serviceable. But if we can combine the two, so much the better: what say you? The cedars are both ornamental and useful. We have spoken of their charm and grace, and I put that down as one of their uses. Do you not think God designed that some eye should be gratified by a look at His cedars? You know that wherever trees are, the adjoining country is rendered much more fertile through their presence. Some lands have been quite transformed by the patient planting of trees. Oh, where the Church exists, if the members are often of this sort, there will be blessing all around. The wide-spreading cedars gave grateful shade. This was the beauty of their branches, that ‘ twixt them the sunshine could scarcely filter through; and in those hot lands it was gratifying indeed to get beneath those boughs. Have you shaded anybody? Have you tried to help the sick, to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, and to teach the ignorant? That is your work. Do it for Jesus, and your reward is sure. The cedar trees were useful, too, for building purposes. The woodwork of the House of the Lord was of cedar-beams. You know what this meant for the cedars--the axe had to be plied upon them. They must needs he cut and planed and squared, that they might have their place in the Sanctuary, the Lord make us content even for this. If we can serve Thee better, let Thine axe come upon us; let us know the sharp edge of sorrow, and the heavy tool of trial. What matters it if we by so suffering can take honourable place in the building of God, and help to glorify the Name of Jesus! (T. Spurgeon.) The trees o/ the Lord I. As the sap is the vital principle of vegetation, so is the holy spirit the Lord and Giver of life--of all life in every realm where living things move and have their being. But the life of man is the highest outcome of His vital force, revealing itself in his physical, mental, and emotional energy. From Him and from Him alone has come that most wonderful of all forces, which can arrest the moral decay within the souls of men and transform them into living trees of the Lord’ s right-hand planting.1. The creation of the Christian Church was an evidence of this Divine energy. 2. Another evidence of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in the Church is its imperishable vitality. He has enabled it to grow through all these centuries, to survive the wear and tear of years, the storms of persecution--still clothed with foliage, and laden with fruit for the healing of the nations. 3. If the presence of the indwelling Spirit accounts for the existence and indestructible vitality of the Church, it also explains the marvellous variety of its forms of life. II. The movements of the sap are suggestive of the methods by which the Holy Spirit conveys His life to men.1. There is a mystery in His operations. Nature in all her works for ever “ half reveals and half conceals the soul within.” So is it with the energy of the Lord and Giver of Life. His ways are past tracing out, nor can it be otherwise. He is a Spirit, moving with absolute freedom whensoever He listeth on whomsoever He pleaseth, in whatever manner He may choose. 2. A second analogy between the movement of the sap and the energy of this spiritual life lies in its gentleness. 3. The impartiality of the Holy Spirit’ s influence. The sap leaves no part of the tree unvisited. The unseen network of roots and fibres, the pillared stem and its bark, the branches and their twigs, with the innumerable leaves--all receive their supply. It is so with the individual--the mind, will, and affections, aye and the body also, are penetrated by the Divine influence. It is so when the Divine grace descends upon a congregation--it reaches the richest and the poorest, the youngest and the oldest, the learned and the illiterate. It will be so when it enters the open heart of the habitable world--for we may perceive by the very trees of the wood that God is no respecter of persons! III. Returning once more to the trees of the Lord, we see in their abounding fulness the response they give to the spring life imparted. They are filled--they are satisfied. The human heart is not like the three things of the wise man--the grave, the thirsty earth, the flame of fire--insatiable. It longs and craves and seeks, but there is a supply. “ We cannot hope from outward forms to win the passion and the life whose fountains are within,” but the Holy Spirit brings to the soul that inward stream of life to fill it with all the fulness of God. Then are we satisfied, as the trees are, and for similar reasons. Their yearnings are appeased--the impulse to unfold themselves in form, colour, movement, is met, and that mysterious ecstasy of travail to bear fruit is abundantly fulfilled. (E. J. Brailsford.) The trees of the Lord (a Spring discourse):--They are “ trees of the Lord.” I. On account of the peculiarities of their structure. They reveal a new idea of the creative mind. They are neither Phaenogams, or flowering plants, nor Cryptogams, or flowerless, and have many points of alliance with club-moss. They combine the highest appearance with the lowest structure, and are thus links binding together the two great orders of vegetation. In them we have an example among plants of a common principle in God’ s moral procedure towards His creatures, choosing the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty, and giving more abundant honour to that which lacked. Into the earthen vessel of the humble organization of the cedars He has poured the glory of the highest development, that the glory may be seen to be all His own. And in this wondrous combination of types in the “ trees of the Lord” we have a dim foreshadowing of “ Him who dwelt in the bush” ; who united in Himself the highest and the lowest, God and man, in one person for ever; and who still, though in the midst of the throne, dwells with the man that is of an humble and contrite heart. The cedars are “ trees of the Lord.” II. On account of the antiquity of their type. Of this class Preadamite forests were principally composed. In every stratum in which arborescent fossils occur we can trace this antique tree pattern. We burn the relics of extinct cedars in our household fires, as the microscopic investigation of the coal formation reveals. They form the evergreen link between the ages and the zones, growing now as they grew in the remote past, inhabiting the same latitudes, and preserving the same appearances in bulk and figure. Universal in space and universal in time they are monuments of the unchangeableness of the Ancient of Days--proofs indisputable that the vegetable kingdom did not commence as monads, or vital points, but as organisms so noble and complicated that even the most bigoted advocate of the development theory must admit that they could not have been formed by the agency of physical force. During untold ages the cedars were the sole examples of forest vegetation. They afford an illustration of a general law of the deepest philosophic import, namely, that the first introduced animals or plants of any class have been combining types. From the side, as it were, of those Preadamite cedars God took the ribs, of which He made the graceful palm-tree to yield its welcome shade and fruit in the thirsty desert, and the beautiful apple-tree to clothe itself with its bridal dress of blossoms under the smiling, tearful skies of the northern spring. Thus is illustrated that the ceaseless working of the Creator hitherto has been exercised only in the eternal unfolding of the original conception. The cedars are “ trees of the Lord.” III. On account of the majesty of their appearance. Religion and poetry have sounded so loudly the praise of the cedar that it has become the most renowned natural monument in the world. At an elevation of six thousand feet, with their roots firmly planted in the moraines of extinct glaciers, with their trunks riven and furrowed by lightning, with the snows of Lebanon gleaming white through their dusky foliage, who can fail to feet the force of the psalmist’ s words, “ The trees of the Lord are full of sap,” etc. (H. Macmillan, D.D.) The abundance of the trees In A.V. the words “ of sap” are added by the translator; in R.V. the translation is, “ The trees of the Lord are satisfied.” I think that the true meaning is indicated by A.V. without the addition of the words “ of sap,” which the translators added. It is not contentment which the trees suggest to the writer; it is not merely abundance of moisture or sap in their veins; vegetation suggests fulness, abundance. The trees of the Lord are full of everything--full of sap, full of leaves, full of blossoms, full of fruit, full of shade, full of singing-birds, full of seeds for new trees. It is very strange that men should not understand the message which the abundant provision of God in nature has for them. If this teeming earth were cultivated, and all that she offers in her palm were freely distributed, there would be no hungry men in all this globe of ours. But if God thus provides for the body which to-day is and to-morrow is not, does He make only niggardly provision for the soul? No, no. The trees of the Lord are full--always full (2 Corinthians 9:8).1. The grace of God is like the vegetation of the earth, in all places. Climb the Alp, and far up on its side you pluck the edelweiss. God was here before you. Go out upon the desert, and far out in that sterile plain you find the waving palm growing beside the spring. God was there before you. Go with your message of cheer to some down-town ward where men are crowded together thicker than corpses in a cemetery, and between the chinks in the pavement are seen blades of grass. God was there before you. As in nature, so in grace. God’ s prophets are not all confined to Judaism; God’ s grace is not all confined to Christendom. Wherever a man has been found bowing the knee and lifting up the heart, there God’ s grace has been responding; for God’ s grace reaches unto all them that call upon Him, by whatever name, through whatever form, in whatever service. 2. As God’ s grace is everywhere, like the trees, God’ s grace is freely offered unto all, as the forest offers its shade alike to the wild beast and to the domestic animal, and its shelter for nests alike to the large and the little, and drops its fruit alike into the hands of the good and the evil. 3. The grace of God, like the trees of God, is everywhere, and for every one; and it is clothed with a great, great power. Ask the child what is the greatest manifestation of force in the world. Perhaps he will summon you to the battlefield. “ Listen,” he will say, “ to all these cannon belching out their thunderous tones; what power there is.” Perhaps he will carry you to the factory. “ See,” he will say, “ this ponderous engine driving its great wheels, and stirring all thin factory with its vibrating life.” But when he is wiser he will go to the forest, where there is no sound of hammer or of saw, no buzz or bustle of wheel, no bang as of cannon; but in one great forest more power is wrought, it is said, than in all the factories in the world put together. The power of God is the power of a silent love. The still, small voice is more than the fire, the tempest, or the earthquake. Not in Sinai, but in Calvary; not in deluge of water or destroying flame, but in the manger and the cross, is the power of God witnessed. 4. “ My God shall supply all your need.” There is scarce any physical need of man which the carpeted and sheltering earth does not provide. And this is what the abundant trees whisper, bending their leaves to you, to repeat the message: “ God is able to make all grace, abound toward you, that you at all times, having all sufficiency in all things, may abound unto all good works.” We need not wait for the great transition, but here and now we may walk by the river of the water of life, we may walk under the shade of those trees whose leaves are for the healing of the nations, and we may pluck the fruit of that only tree that bears its fruit every month. Other trees lie bare and sere through the long winter; other trees drop their fruit only in the autumn time; but this tree of life, of which they are, after all, but a poor symbol, gives forth its fruit in every month, and every manner of fruit for every manner of need; and here and now we may harvest them, fed on food more life-giving and sheltered by shade more comforting than the Garden of Eden ever knew. (Lyman Abbot, D.D.) The cedars of Lebanon, which He hath planted.-- The cedars of Lebanon If Solomon were here, who spoke of all trees, from the hyssop on the wall to the cedar that is in Lebanon, he would greatly instruct us in the natural history of the cedar; and, at the same time, uttering similitudes and proverbs of wisdom, he would give us apples of gold in baskets of silver. But since Christ, according to His promise, is with us, one greater than Solomon is here, and we trust He will speak to our hearts concerning those who are “ planted in the courts of the Lord,” and, therefore, flourish like cedars. Let the venerable cedars of Lebanon serve as witnesses concerning them. And these reveal-- I. The absence of all human culture. For--1. They owe their planting entirely to the Lord. No human hand had any part in this work, neither delving the soil nor dropping in the fruitful cone. How those giants of the grove came to be where they are, none can tell. The early planting of these mighty trees is among the secrets which belong unto God. And this is quite true of every child of God. We are not self-planted, but God-planted. 2. Nor are they dependent upon man for their watering. The trees in the plain are fertilized by little canals running at their roots, and therefore are they green: but these, on the top of Lebanon, who shall find a stream for them? And so is it with the Christian who has learned to live by faith. He sings, “ The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want.” And-- 3. No mortal might protects them. They are planted on a mountain ridge no loss than six thousand feet above the level of the sea. The snow frequently lies upon their branches in enormous masses. They are in the most exposed position conceivable. Deadly dangers have threatened them from the very first. They are left unprotected, and yet the veterans survive. It is precisely the same with the Christian. He is not a hot-house plant, sheltered from temptation; he, too, stands in most exposed positions, and innumerable perils compass him about. But still he is able to say, “ In all these things we are more than conquerors.” 4. And they are utterly indifferent to human gaze. For thousands of years no human eye may have looked upon them. Moses desired to see them. David sang of them. But they heed not. And so with the Christian: he cares nothing for the smiles of men, and he cares as little for their frowns. He walks not before them, but “ before the Lord.” He leans not upon any arm of flesh, but understands how to stand upright. Out upon the piety which depends upon the public eye. I am not to have a religion like a dog-collar, which I may slip off and on, and be glad to be rid of it; it must be part and parcel of my being. It must not be the Pharisee’ s paint and tinsel which he puts on in the public place, and privately laughs at when he gets alone. 5. Their exultation is all for God and not for man. In vine and other fruit trees man has had some share in the product: not so here. It is all of God. The cedars have not a green leaf to magnify man with, nor a single cone with which to make him proud. And so in the Christian: there is nothing in you that can magnify man. All your thanks are due to God. You are the Lord’ s trees from first to last. 6. The cedar is independent of man in its expectations. They never expect man to care for them or to help them. Arab and Turk do their best to ruin the whole grove, but yet there they stand, expecting as little help from man as, in fact, they get. That is your case, O Christian. You are to depend on God alone. God is ever seeking to strike away from us all our human props and buttresses upon which we are so apt to lean. He would wean us from the world. II. The cedars of lebanon are a glorious display of Divine care.1. In the abundance of their supply. “ The trees of the Lord are full.” They are saturated with moisture.2. They are always green.3. See their grandeur and size. In “ The Land and the Book “ it is said that some of them measure forty-one feet in girth, and are a hundred feet high. Supply direct from God is better than all else.4. Their fragrance.5. Their perpetuity.6. How venerable they are. III. They have fulness of living principles. “ They are full of sap.” Now this is--1. Vitally necessary.2. Essentially mysterious.3. Radically secret.4. Permanently active.5. Externally operative.6. Greatly to be desired. Think, what glory to God a full-grown Christian brings to God Let us have this fulness of life. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The cedars of Lebanon The cedar is the tree par excellence of the Bible--the type of all forest vegetation. Religion and poetry have sounded its praises so loudly and repeatedly that it has become the most renowned natural monument in the woods. For untold ages it covered the rugged slopes of Lebanon with one continuous forest of verdure and fragrance, and formed its crowning “ glory.” The ravages of man, carried on century after century, in the most ruthless manner, laid its proud honours low; and now only a few scattered groves survive amid the fastnesses of the highest valleys to tell of the splendour that had perished. But what a magnificent relic the one grove of Kadisha is! Each huge trunk, scarred and hoary with the elemental strife of hundreds of years, still spreads out its great gnarled boughs laden with emerald foliage and exquisite cones, “ full of sap” in the freshness of undying youth, so that we cannot wonder at the superstition of the awe-struck Arabs, who attribute to the cedars not only a vegetative power, which enables them to live eternally, but also a wise instinct, an intelligent foresight, by means of which they understand the changes of the weather, and provide accordingly. No temple of Nature can be grander than the interior of that grove, where the natives of the neighbouring villages celebrate mass annually in June. It is a spot unique on earth. The sacred associations of thousands of years crowd around one there. In the fragrance of the cedars comes up the richness of Bible memories; each sight and sound suggest some incident alluded to by psalmist or prophet, and a feeling of awe and reverence, such as few other scenes can inspire, fills the soul to overflowing. There, at an elevation of six thousand feet, with their roots firmly planted in the moraines of extinct glaciers, with their trunks riven and furrowed by lightnings, with the snows of Lebanon gleaming white through their dusky foliage, with the stillness of earth’ s mightiest powers asleep around them, who can fail to feel the force of the psalmist’ s words, “ The trees of the Lord are full of sap; the cedars of Lebanon which He hath planted.” (H. Macmillan, D.D.) Graciousness of a devout soul A traveller tells us that in the wood, bark, and even the cones of the cedar there is an abundance of resin. They are saturated with it, so that he says he can scarcely touch one of the cedars of Lebanon without having the turpentine or resin of them upon his hands. That is always the way with a truly healthy Christian, his grace is externally manifested. There is the inner life within, it is active, and by and by when it is in a right state it saturates everything. You talk with the gracious man, he cannot help talking about Christ; you go into his house, you will soon see that a Christian lives there; you notice his actions and you will see he has been with Jesus. He is so full of sap that the sap must come out. He has so much of the Divine life within, that the holy oil and Divine balsam must flow from him. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Where the birds make their nests.-- Little birds and cedars John Ruskin makes bold to say that “ every real triumph of natural science is anticipated” in this, the 104th, psalm. By which he means that the Hebrew poet has found out the “ bright shoots of everlastingness” that flash for ever behind the veil of nature, while physical students of our day are too much absorbed in examining and admiring the veil itself. “ The cedars of Lebanon” show more than the pretty playfulness of blind force; they are parts of a living whole. “ Little birds” --such the word signifies--prove more than the skilfulness of mechanical adjustment; they prove that God likes a pretty little thing, and cares for it well. These tiny, roving minstrels of the air find a happy home in the venerable trees of God’ s planting. The little and the great are fitted for each other: the great give the home, the little give the song. Wings and flowers, feathers and leaves, are adjusted to meet mutual wants and cultivate mutual trade. So God wills. I. No greatness is self-complete. The spirit of the angels has been given largely to the forces of nature--“ are they not all ministering spirits?” Is not the sea a servant, the wind a servant, and the sun a servant to the needs of man? Does he not count the lightning and the breeze and the moon among his maidservants? Had God created a larger sun than that which lights us now; had He made its face more clear, its heart more fiery, but had not given it a ministering spirit, that would be a worthless sun. If the sun we now have had been more independent, rising and setting according to its fancy, making winter in a fit of bad humour, and making summer after coming to itself again; if it burned its fires without caring anything for the comfort of the worlds under its government, there would be no longer any Cosmic life. But the sun knoweth its going down; and its light and heat have been blessed with the spirit of the angels--the spirit of generous service. The best minds of the world do not gather knowledge to keep it for themselves, but to share it with all. The best thinker that ever trod the earth was the young teacher of Nazareth, who was not ashamed to publish the highest truths of heaven in a common and popular language. His parables are meek and gentle enough to come in as the door of the poorest cottage. Had Christ been less a servant He would have been less a God. His generosity of intellect has made Him the Teacher of the ages the best disciples of God are the best teachers of men. II. A true Christian life delights in the service of others. To the religious idler the chapter of excuses is a very interesting chapter; and there are many in the Church to-day who know every verse of it by heart. What could the cedars of Lebanon say if they wanted to refuse shelter to the little birds?1. They might say that they were too venerable to serve such poor little things. Is there not a murmur like this on the lips of the Church? saying under its breath that it is too venerable “ to go out into the highways and hedges” to search for the wounded poor? the way is too rugged and too far to go after the lost sheep. That is not the speech of God. Eternity was not too far away for Him to think of saving man. No Church can live on its past history. When it gives itself too much to the reading of “ the genealogies of the family,” its decay is beginning. 2. They might say that there were other trees in plenty who could serve the little birds. One of the chartered texts of Carlyle was that the world had made the value of a soul to be notching. And his severe way of putting the truth calls for the solemn thought of the Church. “ Souls” are lost in the “ congregation” ; and we forget that the salvation of one soul is worth a life of toil and weariness and sacrifice. “ You have laboured for twenty years and have made only one convert yet,” said a man unmercifully to a quiet, hard-working minister. “ Have I made one convert?” was the noble answer; “ here are twenty years for the next one.” One pearl won by thee for the Redeemer’ s crown will shine through all heaven! 3. They might say that the little birds often went away to sing. Many a village church teaches its children well, and then the glitter of city life takes them away from it before they have paid anything in return. Many a father and mother have placed the noblest sacrifices on the altar to give their boys to the world. There is a sound of loss in every home and in every church--the birds gone away from the nests. The teachers of our Sunday schools have to change their scholars often; the old leaving and the new coming. Is there not a moaning among the cedars of Lebanon for the music that is lost, the sweet carollings that have been hushed there for ever, the morning hymn and evening song silent, and the little homes empty and cold? When shall they return? This only teaches every honest workman in Zion to leave the harvest unreaped until he has reached home. The creation has been too skilfully fitted together for any good to get lost in it. If the song has forsaken the cedar where the young soul was nursed, the music of the world is richer somewhere. The hymn learned on the hallowed hearth keeps a longing in the mind for heaven. There the songsters, separated and scattered here, will meet again; and to hear them sing among the branches of the tree of life in Paradise will more than repay for the grief and distress of the parents, and the teacher, and the minister who lost them here. (H. E. Lewis.) Lesson, s Item nature This psalm is all through a song of nature, the adoration of God in the great outward temple of the universe. Some in these modern times have thought it to be a mark of high spirituality never to obscure nature; and I remember sorrowfully reading the expressions of a godly person, who, in sailing down one of the most famous rivers in the world, closed his eyes, lest the beauties of the scene should divert his mind from scriptural topics. There may be persons who think they have grown in grace when they have attained to this; it seems to me that they are growing out of their senses. “ What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common,” and nature, unlike ourselves, hath been clean from the beginning. And it is a mark not of strength but of weakness in the Divine life to forbear the study of nature. As it was a sign of weakness and not of strength for monks and hermits to shut themselves out from the world in which God had placed them. Now, let us learn from the psalmist’ s contemplation of nature as given in our text-- I. That for each place God has prepared a suitable form of life. For the fir trees, the stork; for the high hills, the wild goat, and so on. Now, the teaching of this is clear.1. Each age has its saints. So has it been, and so it ever will be. 2. And every position. From the palace to the poor-house, the Christian religion is adapted to all conditions. 3. In every Church. 4. In every city. God has an elect people everywhere. II. Each creature has its appropriate place. They look wretched enough out of their place. See the animals in the Zoological Gardens. Each creature looks best in his own place. So we each one are best in the position where God has placed us.1. Providentially. We think otherwise, oftentimes; we say, “ Oh, if we were only in such a position, how much better it would be.” 2. Experimentally. God has not made two creatures precisely alike. No two leaves are: and it is so in Christian experience. Many distress themselves because they have not the experience of certain good people of whom they have read. “ Have I felt precisely thus? Have I felt exactly that? If not, I am lost.” But how vain all this is. 3. The same holds good as to individuality of character. God gives to one man one temperament: to another man another. As Luther and Melanchthon; Peter and John. Let no man wish to be what another is. Be yourselves in your religion. III. Every creature that God has made is provided with shelter. See the declarations of the text. If, then, He has so cared for the lesser creatures, can He have left man’ s soul without shelter? IV. For each creature the shelter is appropriate. And-- V. Each creature uses its shelter. I never heard of a stork that when it met with a fir tree demurred as to its right to build its nest there, and I never heard of a coney yet that questioned whether it had a right to run into the rock. Yet the sinner does not recognize the provisions of his Saviour. He asks, “ May I?” and “ I am afraid it is not for me.” O sinner, come, believe in Jesus and find salvation now. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Psalms 104:23 Man goeth forth unto his work, and to his labour, until the evening.The day’ s work The psalm from which our text is taken is one of the most complete and impressive pictures of the universe to be found in ancient literature, and it breathes the very spirit of the Hebrew race. It has been called the Psalm of the Cosmos. It moves through all creation, and begins and ends with praise. In our psalm until we reach the text, the Deity is represented as working alone, causing the grass to grow and giving to the wild beasts their food; but man goeth forth--goeth forth a self-conscious, self-acting being, a distinct person, a sovereign soul with power to shape the course of his own life and activity. And this going forth of man is not only the summing up and end of a creation, but the beginning of a new creation. Marvellous as is the material universe, in man is hidden a glory beyond that of all things visible. Because he thinks and wills, and loves, he is kindred to the Infinite Mind and Will and Heart--kindred to God; not only a creature formed and sustained by the Creator’ s power, but a Son of God, begotten not made, and therefore more to God than vast worlds and burning suns. He has his origin and home in the Eternal Fatherhood with all its thought and labour and sacrifice. I. Why are we here in this world and what for? Has the question never occurred to you? Rather has it not come up often in your experience? It has been at times only a vague and fleeting curiosity. Why are we here and what for? He is a little man in a little world who thinks that he can give a complete answer to this question. Why did the Creative power send forth man into this world at all? What if he were not and never had been? Can his work and labour in his brief mortal day count for much or anything in the universal plan? The mystery is great, but it is plainly the purpose of the mystery to challenge our courage and to lead the human mind onward step by step to the conquest of the unknown. We have not drifted to the place where we now find ourselves. We are not accidents, chance appearances in the world, a mass of solitary creatures unrelated to anything truly great and significant beyond and above ourselves. Of one thing we may be certain, that the whole purpose and order of the world must have some relation to our lives, and our lives some relation to the whole purpose and order of the world. We are here, must it not be? as parts of this great creation, to fill our place in it as faithfully as we can. In childhood many of us were taught that the chief end of man is to glorify God. It is a sublime answer to our question, and cannot be improved upon, if we only put the true meaning into it. We glorify God when we give ourselves to His purpose in the world and in our human life, to His will and work. St. Paul describes himself and his companions in service and sacrifice as fellow-workers with God. In his controversy with John Stuart Mill, the French philosopher Comte said, “ My Deity (Humanity) has at least one advantage over yours--he needs help, and can be helped.” Mill met the charge by saying that the theist’ s God is not omnipotent, “ He can be helped, Great Worker though He be.” But we are not compelled to doubt or deny the omnipotence of Deity before we can believe that our part in the Divine movement of the world is not a passive one, that we are not simple recipients and blind instruments, but allies and helpers of the Eternal Power. There prevails here and there a kind of belief in the power of God which makes all human effort appear to be unnecessary and superfluous, and which if acted on would deaden the sense of duty and be the paralysis of energy. On the other hand, what the philosopher described as the feeling of helping God, has always been cherished by the most sincere and earnest believers in the power of God over all. No one believed in the sovereignty of that power more than St. Paul, but his belief in it did not prevent him from putting forward the claim again and again, to be a fellow-worker with God. To be a fellow-worker with God may appear to be too vast and impossible an idea of the purpose of human life in this world; yet nothing is clearer and more certain than that He who made and meant man and sent him here to work and to labour until the evening has left many things for man to do in fulfilling His plans and completing His works. The Divine power in the world is not an abstract, impersonal energy, not an unembodied and wandering spirit. God in the world creating and perfecting it means His power and spirit dwelling in and working through industrious, righteous, faithful, beneficent lives. The unit of power in the world is not God isolated from man and not man isolated from God; but God and man united, working purposely and continuously together; God quickening and inspiring man and man opening his life to be a part of the Divine life of the world. How we have lost sight of this truth! And what confessions and miseries have come of our searching and effort to field God in the world outside of and apart from man; from placing God and man over and against each other as though their spheres of activity were separated by the chasm of an infinite difference! Deity has been conceived as a majestic Being dwelling apart from the universe, over-seeing it and intervening now and again by special acts, but working as a rule in profound and mighty isolation, outside of and apart from the world, outside of and apart from His children. Men have sometimes wrought and fought against the evil of the world as if they had no Divine companion at their side, and felt no need of any other help than their own. Again, at other times, they have imagined that God would do it all, that they had no place in the Divine work, that it was their place to stand by and wait and pray. In this vast order of things we often count ourselves of little worth and significance. But our littleness is only seeming. We can think the Creator’ s thoughts, be conscious of His purpose, and take some intelligent part in fulfilling that purpose. It must surely be more honouring and pleasing to Him who made us to pray and strive to be something. Our unreal and morbid self-depreciation cannot be acceptable to Him. We were not made to be nonentities, and the pietistic cry to be “ nothing, nothing,” must be hateful in the ear of Him who created us in His own image and sent us forth to work and to labour until the evening. II. We are here to share the work of God in creating the world--called not only to subdue and control, but to create. “ God made the heavens and the earth,” said the ancient seer; but when God made the world He did not finish it. Creation is not finished, but is always proceeding. We stand in the midst of an unending Genesis. We do right to expand the six days of the Hebrew story into the whole life of the world. “ My Father,” says Jesus, “ works continuously, and I work.” And in this continuous and never-ceasing work of creation man can help or hinder, develop or retard, the creative purpose and process. Things have been made possible, but man has to make the possible into the actual. The world into which he is born has all the raw material prepared to his hand, but he is here to work it into new and nobler forms. Nature is a wilderness; he must work and labour to make it a garden. Some of you are familiar with the pathetic picture which Plutarch draws of a man of the earlier period addressing the men of a later ago: “ O how you are cherished of the gods, you who live now! How fortunate is your time! All Nature is engaged in giving you delights. But our birth-time was mournful and barren. The world was so new that we were in want of everything. The air was not pure, the sun was obscured, the rivers overflowed their banks, all was marsh and thicket and forest; we had neither inventions nor inventors, our misery was extreme.” The immense change which has taken place in the environment of man since the time Plutarch recalled has been due entirely to the co-operation of successive generations of mankind with God. What we behold as we look back is God creating through man, improving and completing His world, making it more habitable and home-like, less rude and barren, fairer and more fruitful. The one great teaching of modern knowledge is that not anything above a certain low level of excellence comes by natural law unaided by man; that all best things in the world of Nature to-day are the result of his thought and toil. An eminent geologist has written a book that bears the title, “ The Earth as Modified by Human Action,” and one has only to read it to see the wide range of human power and to discover how closely man is in partnership with God in carrying out and completing the creative process which is still going forward on a vast scale. True! he can do nothing without God; he can create no new force; neither sun nor soil, nor plant nor seed are of his making; all the material with which lie works Nature has furnished him; but what can he not do with that material, and what has tie not done? He has modified climate, made the rivers change their course, the ocean its shore, made forests grow and made new ground for them to grow in, made the parched ground a pool and the thirsty land springs of water, changed useless ore into iron and sand into glass clearer than Nature’ s crystals. Eight hundred years ago, for example, there was no such country as the Holland of our day; God had made it possible, but men had to give it frame and form. The map of Holland now is not even what it was at the beginning of last century. It has about 120,000 more acres of land than it had then. Thus does man work with God, thus does God work along the lines of human life, thus is the ancient miracle of creation repeated--“ The waters under the earth were gathered together and the dry land appeared.” Man is not only a factor in evolution but an instrument. Not without him does Nature evolve. He has his contribution to make towards the finishing and perfecting of the material universe. The message of evolution to man is, “ Thou art God’ s fellow-worker.” Through the animal world we see him working with creative touch, carrying out the Creator’ s purpose, improving the type and elevating in the scale of being the creatures God has made. To bring flowers and fruits to their perfection the labour of man must be joined to the labour of God, and man must improve and finish what God begins. III. In his own making and saving, in the development of personal faculty and character, man is called to work and to labour until the evening. What he can do for the earth and for the creatures and things which live upon it, he can do for himself--fulfil and finish the Creator’ s purpose and plan. God makes nothing right-away and perfect at once. Like the rest of His work man was left unfinished that man himself might complete what God began. All creation moved by steady gradation up to man, and from age to age man has been moving upward, slowly finding himself, becoming more and more an intellectual and moral being, more and more a son of God able to know the truth, to discern and do the right, and to love and serve the Infinite God. Not alone and not out of nothing has he created language, literature, art, science, society, religion; but with the help of God and out of capacities which were hidden in him from the beginning and which contained the promise and potency of his future development. Faith in man, in what he can do and achieve, and in his power to create character, does not exclude but include God as the ground of all power, the giver of all good, and the helper of all endeavour. Our knowledge is knowledge of His ways in those laws which to the religious mind are His will. We can do nothing for ourselves without God, but God can do nothing with us, cannot bring us to ourselves, without our cooperation. To an extent practically unlimited we can make or mar ourselves. “ Work out your salvation,” says the apostle. We cannot be passive recipients of the divinest blessings of life. But the work of God for and with man is identified not only with the salvation of individual souls and lives, but with all work we respect, honour, and rejoice in; with art, science, literature, politics, trade, with every activity that makes for the good of the community and the civilization of nations. We must not think of Him with whom we have to do as if we only had to do with Him in parts of our life and not in the whole of it; as if He were only interested in ministers of religion, missionaries, itinerant evangelists, in supplying theological colleges with students, in starting revivals, in the size of congregations and the amount of collections. His kingdom ruleth over all. Not long ago I read in the biography of an eminent business man that he would never engage in any commercial enterprise which he did not think to be beneficial to the community. That is what it means to work with God in the ways of common life. It is working in accordance with His will. The great duties, believe me, are never at the ends of the earth. Let us idealize our daily tasks and put them on the side of the Power who is working for righteousness and love in human society. IV. In the saving of the world God seeks to join men with Himself and His Christ, and calls them to work and labour with him until the evening. In the New Testament the work of reconciliation or atonement is spoken of as in a peculiar sense the work of God in our human world. We cannot conceive of the Eternal Goodness ever being insensate and passive, or as other than ceaselessly compassionate and helpful. The life of sacrifice is the law of love for heaven as for earth. It was not a new and strange work which His beloved Son came to do, but the work which He knew His Father was doing continuously. It is the Father’ s work into which the Son enters. In redeeming the world, even more than in creating it, God works through men and in human ways. God the Saviour must be helped even more than God the Creator. And we--if we have the spirit of sonship to God and live in the fellowship of Jesus Christ,--cannot help sharing in the ministry of reconciliation and in the sorrow and sacrifice of that cross in the heart and life of God, which was shadowed forth in space and time in the crucifixion on Calvary. God needs strong men. His Kingdom will never come in this world without them. Men and women! what are we doing in the way of helping God to create and redeem His world? Fellow-workers with God! This is what you and I are here for in this world; this is why we are endowed with various gifts and why we ought to train them to the utmost and make the best of them; this is why we are placed in different spheres and stations, with different opportunities and duties. Fellow-workers with God! This is a vision of life at its prophetic best and when one realizes its meaning it becomes his greatest inspiration. There is no dead line in that man’ s work and no slackening of effort. He keeps his faith, his freshness of spirit, his enthusiasm unto the end. (J. Hunter, D.D.) Man’ s work-day This psalm was a favourite with Humboldt. In his “ Cosmos,” after speaking of the views of nature given in the Old Testament, as the living expression of the omnipresence of God, he says of this psalm, “ We are astonished to find in a lyrical form of such limited compass the whole universe, the heavens and the earth, sketched with a few bold touches.” The section of the psalm with which our text is connected begins with the nineteenth verse and ends with the text. It is occupied with the uses of the seasons, of night and day, and the preciousness of time. These natural divisions of time fulfil high moral ends. I. “ Man goes forth unto his work and to his labour until the evening” --in the first place because the very existence of God makes work a universal and eternal ordinance. The first chapter of George Gilfillan’ s “ Alpha and Omega” is entitled, “ The Solitary God Inhabiting Eternity.” But that is unthinkable. The first essential conception of God is activity. “ My Father worketh even until now, and I work,” said Christ. And in my conception of God work must be a universal and eternal law. He is the God of the tiniest mote dancing in the sunbeam, as much as of the archangel standing in His presence; and in the creative design each was meant for the other, and all meet in and answer to something in man. God’ s plan is one, and unity is the reigning idea. Thus all existence is in indissoluble connection with Eternal Being: and the law of work is stamped upon mineral, vegetable, animal, man, and angel--all work, led on by the great Eternal Father who is for ever working with all the ceaseless energy of almighty and unslumbering love. II. “ Man goeth forth unto his work and to his labour until the evening,” because not to work is sin. Idleness, indeed, often makes a business for itself. But the first blush of eternity will turn this seriousness about trifles into shame and contempt. Paul speaks of some who were “ learning to be idle.” They were learning to be fussy about nothing--to be talkers and busybodies. For idleness is not mere inaction. Every life without power and effect is an idle life, and every work is an idle work in proportion as it is not done as well as we can do it. The idler sins at once against himself, the creation, his fellows, and his God. III. “ Man goeth forth to his work and to his labour until the evening,” and is blest in and by his work. There is a close connection between the habit of industry in secular and in spiritual things; and when our daily work is performed in the spirit of love to God and man it becomes the business of eternity. All faculties are given to be cultivated for ever, and all powers to be used at their best; therefore let your best to-day be but the starting-point for something better to-morrow. Sir Joshua Reynolds sat at one time thirty-six hours before the canvas that he might bring out in beauty “ the human face divine.” You are doing more and greater than painting a human face; you are “ putting on Christ,” making an immortal soul divine, and therefore you are under obligation to “ Adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things.” He who does this finds his very creed steeped in love. IV. “ Man goeth forth unto his work and to his labour until the evening.” This ordinance finds its highest development in the spiritual life. There could be no saving religion without duties to perform, powers to develop, sacrifices to make, and a personal God to love and obey. One of the greatest preachers of the past century is reported to have said that “ Salvation could be secured between two ticks of the clock.” Now, while that is true, it requires so much explanation to guard it from misconception that perhaps it were better it never had been said. Salvation in the sense of the pardon of sin is a free gift bestowed the moment the sinner believes in Jesus Christ. But it is one thing to get into the way that leads to heaven, and another to pass through life’ s dangers, fulfil life’ s duties, and accomplish life’ s work, so that the verdict of the God of Truth shall be, “ Well done, good and faithful servant.” True success only comes with all-round endeavour of head, hand, and heart. Half-heartedness is wasted power. Only at the Cross do we obtain motive power enough to do our work well. But here being is more than doing. “ If,” says one, “ you do a great thing and lose your temper in doing it, you are like a man who toils up a hill to find a shilling and loses a sovereign on the way.” If we would do more, we must be more. Do you know this high and holy meaning of life? The Kingdom of God has come nigh unto you, but have you entered into that Kingdom? Our opportunities are great and precious, but the better the opportunities the worse the waste. The prodigal was ruined by the portion of goods falling to him. God’ s gift of time is sufficient; there is plenty of time for work, but not an hour for waste. V. “ Man goeth forth unto his work and to his labour until the evening.” Yes, man. “ More than men,” says John Pulsford, “ you cannot be; and if you are less, your own nature will never forgive you.” And forget not that the greatest thing we shall ever see in earth or heaven is a man--“ a Man upon the Throne.” “ Until the evening,” for after all no man is given to see his work through. Until the evening bell call the worker home. Soon, and sudden as a tropical night, may the shades of the evening fall. Then, I would rather be found working than resting. (Hugh M’ Gahie.) Work I. Work is a duty. “ Six days shalt thou labour,” is as much a Divine ordinance as is the command to do no work on the seventh. He who is idle seven days is as out of harmony with God’ s law as is he who toils without a break. Paul’ s command, “ That if any man would not work neither should he eat,” represents the ideal to which society, as it grows perfect, will tend. The idle man is neither happy nor healthy. Says Carlyle, “ To make some nook of God’ s creation a little fruitfuller, better, more worthy of God; to make some human hearts a little wiser, manfuller, happier,--more blessed, less accursed! It is work for a God.” II. Work is a right. While some will not work, many who would cannot get it to do. And men and women are in poverty, and near to starvation, who would gladly toil had they the chance. We need to have the teaching of Christ applied more broadly to this than it has ever yet been. No employer has a right to think simply of getting all he can out of his men, and then to discharge them when trade is slack, while he himself is living luxuriously on the fruit of their toil. III. Work has, or ought to have, a limit. “ Until the evening.” “ Come ye apart,” said Christ, “ and rest awhile.” That is a need of life. No labour is right that does not allow it. No man does himself justice or gives God His due service when he lets his work monopolize his life. IV. Work must have a termination. Just as the hours hastening on limit opportunity, and the shadows lengthen until the evening comes and work is ended; so life’ s days go, carrying with them openings that can never be ours again, and the shadows draw out, and the sun sets, and the day is at an end, and its work is done--good or bad it must stand for ever. How man will toil when he knows that on it depends home with its rest and happiness. And shall not we toil earnestly in the Master’ s service when we know that on our faithful labour depends the home beyond with its bliss. (F. Smith.) Non-working and over-working the curse of modern England I. Human labour is a Divine institution; and therefore non-working is an evil.1. Nature does not supply man with what he requires, independent of his own agency. (1) As a mere physical existence, does he not require food, raiment, and a dwelling? But does nature yield these to him as he requires them, either for his physical well-being, or his physical preservation, without his effort? No. (2) As an intellectual being, it is the same. Man must work for the knowledge he requires. (3) As a moral being, having obligations to discharge, spiritual powers to develop, a God to love and serve, he must inevitably perish without labour--agonizing labour. 2. Man is endowed with working powers admirably fitted to get from nature whatever he requires. There is the investigating and planning intellect; and there is the executive hand; and there is the varied impulse of animal appetite; social affections, and progressive aspirations, rising every moment like a tidal force in the soul, pressing the faculties of the mind, and the members of the frame, into action. He is made for the work required. 3. The Bible teaches that human labour is the ordination of Heaven. (1) Non-working is a moral wrong. Inaction, where there is the power of action, is a crime. (2) Non-working is a positive injury. To the individual himself. Muscular inactivity enfeebles the body, mental the intellect, moral the soul. To others. The idle person is a social thief. II. Man’ s labour has its proper limitations, and therefore excessive work is an evil.1. Overwork involves an infringement of the laws of health. The spring will bear so much pressure and no more without danger or ruin. Too much weight will bend the lever and strain the engine. 2. Overwork involves a violation of the claims of mind. Over the door of every room, office, shop, warehouse, manufactory, where excessive labour and long hours prevail, you may write, “ Within, are intellects fitted to tread in the footsteps of illustrious sages, explore new regions of truth, and enrich posterity by their discoveries, losing their vision and their vigour;--within, are hearts containing germs of sentiment and wells of sympathy, the sublimest gifts of Heaven, undergoing the terrible process of ossification;--within, are souls that must outlive the stars and yet be young; sacrificed to matter and to mammon.” 3. Over-work involves a wrong to humanity in general. The advancement of the race depends upon each individual contributing his part to the general intelligence and virtue--the two great uplifting forces. Society advances by the increase of these Divine elements, and in no other way. Every true thought from every brain, every noble sentiment from every heart, every honest word and deed, serve to augment these elevating forces of the world. But what opportunity have the over-worked men and women of England to do their part in a mission so indispensable and glorious? (Homilist.) Work “ Man goeth forth.” And thus tents and ships have, from time immemorial, charmed the attention of young and lively minds. The ocean and the desert have ever been the pathways along which the most adventurous spirits of our race have travelled; and the most romantic and imaginative have transported their thoughts over the same mysterious fields--hailing any means of escape from the present monotony. We are the subjects of Divine, or of merely natural, sometimes infernal, restlessness; and, in truth, we do not much prize the lymphatic and indifferent beings who sit still in their chimney-nook, and take no interest in the great world roaring around them. I. Work is the true sacrament of life. It has been truly said, “ a man cultivates himself by working.” Very plainly God has put us into such a universe that He only can shape us by,--destiny only Spins its purpose out of us by,--work. Every toil may be the platform for a higher toil; and all toils point to the consummation and perfection of the worker, the invisible, but living, personal soul. Work! it never ends with its act; it has a great beyond, and there is a great beyond to thee. It is from brave labour that life rises, “ rises the God-like force, the sacred life-essence breathed by God. It is by labour, by work you rise to all nobleness--you rise to all knowledge.” This is the Work of nature, to which, man goes forth. In the kingdom of grace there is work too. Understand, as has been said, the Gospel does not abrogate works, but it provides for them. Man goeth forth to his work and labour from the morning of the world to its evening. II. I turn from the thought of the work as a fact, to the spirit in which it should be engaged. A nobleness of soul looks out from the words, “ go forth!” The view of labour is not only great objectively, it is subjectively also. Some men’ s souls are like a French drawing-room, all looking-glass, whichever way they look they see themselves. It is not so with noble souls; they see their work, and not merely the little piece which lies before them, they see its end. So man goeth forth. The blessed glow of labour spreads over the man. “ He goeth forth” ; and it means that he calls to patience, courage, perseverance, and to that simple, weak-looking little faculty, good temper, to wait upon him. “ He goeth forth” ; then what to him are the doubts and difficulties that beset him? “ Doubt of any kind--it is extinguished by action,” and difficulties retreat as the man goeth forth. As the ploughman drives his team through the stubble, and knows it is for the harvest,--the sailor waves a farewell to the shore, and knows it is for the freightage,--as the builder rears the scaffolding and knows it is for the building, so man goeth forth; so the Christian goeth forth, refreshed by prayer; “ the crooked becomes straight” before him, “ the rough places plain,” “ the valleys are exalted,” “ the mountains brought low.” Have you not heard in some of those old wild legends of the Middle Ages, how, while men slept, some of the old church towers and spires rose in the night--invisible builders working in the air: so rise the towers and the spires of our life--a mystic building: so it is also with our life. Or, say it is like a building, the design of the architect hidden behind the scaffolding; but, at last, the building is complete, the scaffolding falls, and all stands revealed. (E. P. Hood.) Work This psalm is the creation-story of Genesis, set to music and brought down to our own day and our own doors. As in Genesis, so here, the crown and master of creation is man. We must never let go either the dignity or the responsibility of this. Since the Incarnation, when the Infinite Worker Himself stepped forth into the midst of human affairs, creation itself, with our own place and part in it, has a new meaning for us--a tenderness, a livingness, a sacredness, which nothing else we can conceive could have given it. I. Human labour is universal. Let a tribe be just clear of the grade of savagism: you find the men, with fishing-net, or fowling-gear or rude implements of husbandry, earning a regular livelihood by labour, while the women fill up the blanks in the daily toil by the lighter occupations which befit them. Let a people be rising in civilization: you find fewer idlers, less of wandering, less of mere sport or mere fetching of food, and more of settled labour. And let a people be standing high in the ranks of humankind: you note that labour has become general, varied, skilful, steady, honourable, more evidently a thing which speaks of manhood at its best. “ Man goeth forth unto his work.” II. Human labour belongs to the regular system of things. Man was made for work; he did not fall into it. He fell into sin, and sin has cast its shadow upon his work as upon all else that concerns him. “ The curse of labour,” then, means no more than that particular part of the shadow of the general curse of sin which lies upon labour, as one of the most important and essential and radical elements in human existence. For labour, work, belongs to humanity as humanity, and not to merely sinful humanity or to human sin. We may be tempted often to sigh for a life that has no labour in it. But do not permit your work to overbear and oppress you thus. In the best sense of the words, you must keep above your work, and must keep your work beneath you. You must never feel it a thing you have to endure, to put up with, to slave to or to serve. Do not degrade your work to task-work. Let it be work to you still--a thing honourable, a thing appointed, a thing human, a thing amid which you are able to lift up your head in God’ s creation as a being who is thus, and now, claiming and affirming your likeness to the Divine. III. Human labour has upon it God’ s eye and God’ s smile. He sets our work for us, and He looks on continually while we do it, with no indifferent gaze, but with His great fatherly approval when we do it well. He would have us to seek His help in it, and His blessing upon it. Every day, it is certain, He knows well what we are doing, what we have done, and how we have done it. His interest in our work, in ourselves as workers, is deep and unwearied. We wrong Him and ourselves if we think of our daily work as being of no account to Him--if we cut it off from Him because we deem it too lowly, too secular, too common, too much our own needful affair, for Him to trouble Himself, or to be troubled by us, concerning it. It is the balsam of a labouring life--it is oil to every wheel in our daily round of toil--this felt interest of God in it all, and this unearthly geniality touching it all with a holy sweetness of dignity and peace. IV. Human labour is man’ s ordinary method of serving and glorifying God. Men speak of doing “ God’ s work” when they are doing work which bears closely upon the spiritual welfare of their fellow-men; and worthy work it is, and momentous, when done in wisdom and love and humility. Men talk of “ Christian work” when they mean the definite doing of good around them upon plans and motives that recognize the kingdom of Christ in the world; and all success to every one who puts his hand to it thoughtfully for the Lord’ s sake. But really, ought not all our work to be made “ God’ s work” ? “ Christian work” ? It shall be just this if it be done for God and for Christ. Let us “ go forth unto our work” when the morrow breaks, let us stay our labour when the morrow closes, let us go forth and return as morning and evening pursue each other along our little life, making each day a day of Gospel work, of evangelic labour, “ until the evening” of our earthly sojourn itself closes in, and we “ go forth” into our Lord’ s eternity, at our Lord’ s bidding still--go forth to “ our work,” our true life-work, which has so little of “ labour” in it, and so much of rest--the work of the day which shall always be brightening in its happy perfectness, and always be fresh in its cloudless peace. (J. A. Kerr Bain, M.A.) Our labour and God’ s order 1. The world in its peace and gladness is a compound of many activities set in motion by God: the seasons, night and day, sun and rain, and the labour of man. 2. Our labour, springing from our free choice, is most closely connected with the moral order, for which the physical order was established. 3. This daily toil may include, as a part of it, a direct attempt to join hands with God in His moral and providential work. 4. This was meant to bring out our humane and religious character. (F. Noble, D.D.) Work The grammarian will tell you that work means prolonged exertion of body or of mind, to attain some desired end. It implies conscious efforts;--the strain and stretch of mind or body. Even the most slothful are sometimes constrained to work; and very many human beings do very little else than work, through all their waking hours, to earn food and clothing and shelter for themselves and their children. We wrest our livelihood from the elements and from society by labour. It has been well said that labour is at once the symbol of man’ s punishment and the secret of man’ s happiness. And it has been well said, too, that the Gospel does not abolish labour, but gives it a new and nobler aspect. “ The Gospel abolishes labour much in the same way as it abolished death: it leaves the thing, but it changes its nature.”1. One good end served by work, and served most effectually when work is felt most hard and painful, is this: it all goes to keep us in mind that we are fallen creatures,--to keep us in mind of the evil of sin. Man was at first intended for work; and afterwards, when he fell, doomed to work. The distorted form of the miner, labouring in peril and darkness that we may have our cheerful fires; the stiffened limbs of the sailor, drenched with the wintry spray; the lined face, the grey hair, the frail unmuscular body, which speaks of the over-driven brain; what do all these remind us of, but that sin is bitterly hateful in the sight of God? Sin brought all suffering, and all suffering should remind us of the evil of sin. 2. A second reason why our Saviour has set “ to every man his work,” doubtless is, that in so doing He provided effectually for the health and sound estate of our bodies and our minds. We cannot be happy when we are idle. The machine, body and soul, is made for working, and in a little, the appetite for occupation revives again. Many of us would be lazy enough if we had it in our power: let us thank God that He has saved us from that temptation. Where is it that we shall find the grossest forms of vice and folly, but among those who by their circumstances are freed from the necessity of labour? 3. A third advantage to the Christian of having suitable work to do is this: that in faithfully doing his work, and doing it in a right spirit, he is doing what tends to make him grow in grace: he is working out his salvation all the while. Our Redeemer has appointed us to labour as we do: and so labour must be the right thing. It has its temptations, like everything on earth: but the Holy Ghost wilt help us through them, if we do but earnestly ask His blessed guidance. (A. K. H. Boyd, D.D.) Work and leisure The great God of Nature who has appointed, as this psalm tells us, a season, a use, a function, a duty, for every created thing, has ordained for man the day wherein to labour, and the evening wherein to rest. Work and leisure alternately are His ordinance. I. Work. Wise men, such as Plato, Aristotle, and Cicero taught that it was unworthy of a free-born citizen to engage in trade or commerce; and agriculture which, with the sanction of Socrates, held longest an honourable place among civic avocations, came also at last to be regarded with contempt. Any profession that exchanged its products for money was despised. Even intellectual work, done for money, was counted unworthy of respect. “ The freeman was degraded by acting as tutor or schoolmaster. Only the liberal arts, such as medicine, philosophy, architecture, commerce on a large scale, were regarded as honourable and suitable to the position of citizen.” But, in contradistinction to this pagan teaching, our Bible puts the highest dignity on work. Our first parents, even in their innocency, were “ to dress and keep” the garden. The Lord of Glory Himself worked as a carpenter. St. Paul--the free-born Roman citizen--deigned to soil his hands at tent-making. In his epistles he again and again comes down, as with a shattering sledge-hammer, on the idleness of some professing Christians. “ If any will not work, neither let him eat.” The law of work is, moreover, stamped on our being. The anatomy of our body shows that work is a necessity for its health and vigour. “ It is not work,” says Beecher, “ that kills men; it is worry. Work is healthy; you can hardly put more upon a man than he can bear.” Work is not only a negative good, saving us from the “ mischief” which “ Satan finds for idle hands to do,” but it is also a positive good. Besides keeping us physically healthy, it also calls out our intelligence; and when done honestly, it strengthens us in many a virtue such as patience, courage, endurance, fidelity. These moral gains we may find as readily in sweeping the street or performing trivial household duties as in sowing our grain or in attending to a piece of delicate machinery. II. Leisure. By many a voice God says to each of us in the words of the poet, “ Work like a man, but don’ t be worked to death!”1. The leisure of the evening is appointed for rest. The machinery of our body is such that it soon wears out under too lengthened physical toil; and the balance of our mind is such that it is liable to give way under the monotony and overstrain of too many hours of application. 2. The leisure of the evening is appointed for wholesale recreation. The bent mind, like the bow, needs to be occasionally unbent for a while. And innocent amusement for the man who has been working hard is as a strengthening medicine. But alas for the recreations of some! It is more killing than their work. 3. The leisure of evening is appointed for spiritual improvement. Were we only physical beings, then it were right that we should only live to eat--to secure the comforts and luxuries which are dear to our animal appetites. Or were we only the social creatures of a day, then it were pardonable that we should give the great bulk of our leisure hours to gratify our selfish taste for exciting amusements and companionships. But if it be true that we are undying souls in need of salvation, and of that sanctified fitness which must be acquired for the heavenly state, then surely there ought also to be daily leisure for spiritual meditation and private prayer. (T. Young, M.A.) Work and labour contrasted Work and labour are not the same. Work is the operation of body or spirit but labour is not simply work, but work attended by fatigue, weariness, and pain. It is said that man goeth forth to his work and to his labour, because, for us, work and labour run into each other; we cannot have the former without the latter; what we do in this world, from the morning of our days until the evening, is done with toil and care, and amid difficulties and vexations. But it was not so from the beginning, and it shall not be so, with us, for ever (Revelation 14:18). Now, it is not necessary to prove that the Christian, as such, has a work to do. But it is, perhaps, a less familiar thought, that the Christian’ s work, being that of man here in this world, is not a work only, but a labour also; that it is not easy nor light; that it is hard to do, and costs, like all labour, much toil and fatigue, and weariness of heart and flesh; not because the service of our Master is, in itself, intrinsically, a hard and painful one, but because we make it such, and cannot help making it such, by that native opposition to it, and reluctance to do it, which every life exhibits. If any one finds it sweet, delightful and easy, to bear the Cross, and mortify the flesh, to resist temptation and school himself in silence and submission, to practice self-denial, and feel the burden and heat of the day, to go and come in season and out of season, where good is to be done; let him be thankful; but, with most of us, it is not so. In all our work, whatever intention hallow it, we find labour; and it seems hard, in certain respects, and sometimes so very hard, that we are all but ready to give out; and this is so whether we be working for ourselves or for others. And yet we dare not rest, or cease from work, until the end come: because the work is to live and to be imputed to us, eternally, for weal or woe. We must endure the pain and weariness, as knowing that without these, as accompaniments, the work cannot be done; and that, unless the work be done, we shall have nothing to follow us at the last, nothing to show when we are called to account, and therefore nothing to reward. For the sake of the work that shall remain, we must sustain the labour which is to end. This is, of course, the practical conclusion, which they should be urged to consider who find it a great effort to do their duty, and who think perhaps that they will never improve. To them we say: You ought to know, that it is of the nature of things that your struggle is what it is. Labour, pain, toil, and everything most repugnant to your self-indulgent spirit, attend upon, and are inseparably united to the work which is set before you to accomplish. It is so, it must be so, it always will be so. We must accept our lot, and do what we can, and wait for the hour when the labour and the work shall be separated, and the former shall cease and be forgotten, and the latter shall remain with us, the proof of our fidelity and the guarantee of an eternal reward. (Morgan Dix, D.D.) Occupation a blessing Physical occupation is an excellent aid to a happy and contented mind. I have seen a stage coach driven by a man of L10,000 a year, because he was wretched without regular muscular exertion. I have heard of a nobleman who, for the same reason, bargained with the cutler of the village to be allowed for a certain time every day to turn his grinding wheel. If you visit the Louvre in Paris you may see with your own eyes the anvil at which Louis XVI was in the habit, with a smith’ s apron on, of making locks, in order to divert his mind. (J. Thain Davidson, D.D.) Working hours of a man’ s life Did you ever calculate that the number of working hours in the mature part of life is only 135,000? Rest a moment on that thought. Between twenty-five years, which pass in the early part of life without much fruit, and the seventieth year of life, there are forty-five years of life which we call mature. Now, suppose that a man throw away in every year fifty-two days for Sundays, thirteen days for illness, vacation, and other interruptions; and suppose that for forty-five consecutive years he works 300 days a year--a large average--that would give a man in the mature part of life, 13,500 days. Supposing that a man have health and industry enough to work ten hours in each of these 13,500 days, he will have 185,000 mature working hours. A man who is forty, however, has but 90,000 hours left; a man who is sixty has so few hours left that I don’ t want to shock you by mentioning their number. (Joseph Cook.) The daily round Life to every one is a common round of continual beginnings and endings. Each day is a little circle returning where it began. Each year is a wider circle linking on its last day to its first. We lived within the same limited, circumscribed horizon. We have to perform, day after day, the same actions, to repeat the same duties, to go round and round in the same routine of daily tasks. Our range is as narrow as that of the ox that treadeth out the corn among the heap of sheaves. And all this is apt to become monotonous and wearisome. Some are so consumed by ennui that life has lost all relish for them; and some have grown so tired of pacing the irksome daily round that they have put an end to it by violent means. But surely it gives a new zest to life if we realize that all this constant doing of the same things, this constant going round and round the same little circle of daily duties, is not a treadmill penance, a profitless labour like weaving ropes of sand, but is designed to bring out and educate to the utmost perfection of which we are capable all that is best and most enduring in us. And surely it heightens the interest immeasurably to be assured that God has not merely ordained this long ago as part of His great providential plan for the world, but that He is daily and hourly superintending the process of our discipline and education by His personal presence, compassing our path, going round with us in the circle of life’ s toils and duties, and causing all our experiences, by His blessing, to work together for our good. (H. Macmillan, D.D.) One’ s special work There is a work for all of us. And there is special work for each, work which I cannot do in a crowd or as one of a mass, but as one man, acting singly, according to my own gifts, and under a sense of my personal responsibility. There is, no doubt, associated work for me to do; I must do my work as part of the world’ s great whole, or as a member of some body. But I have a special work to do as an individual who, by God’ s plan and appointment, has a separate position, separate responsibilities, and a separate work; if I do not do it, it must be left undone. No one of my fellows can do that special work for me which I have come into the world to do; he may do a higher work, a greater work, but he cannot do my work. I cannot hand my work over to him any more than I can hand over my responsibilities or my gifts. Nor can I delegate my work to any association of men, however well-ordered or powerful. They have their own work to do, and it may he a very noble one. But they cannot do my work for me. I must do it with these hands or with these lips which God has given me. I may do little, or I may do much. That matters not. It must be my own work. And, by doing my own work, poor as it may seem to some, I shall better fulfil God’ s end in making me what I am, and more truly glorify His name, than if I were either going out of my own sphere to do the work of another, or calling in another into my sphere to do my proper work for me. (John Ruskin.) Industry A celebrated divine has said, “ If it were not for industry, men would be neither so healthful nor so useful, so strong nor so patient, so noble nor so untempted. There is no greater tediousness in the world than want of employment. Time passes over the active man lightly like a dream, or the feathers of a bird; but the idler is like a long sleepless night to himself, and a load to his country.” (Christian Weekly.) Psalms 104:24-30O Lord, how manifold are Thy works. The spiritual significance of the universe I. The Divine existence should constitute the central fact in all contemplations of the universe. This reflection serves--1. To disprove the speculations of Pantheism. 2. To annihilate the materialistic theory. Materialism recognizes no mind in the universe. 3. To invest the universe with a mystic sanctity. It is His handiwork. The grand and the simple, the sublime and the beautiful, will awaken corresponding emotions in the heart of the true worshipper. II. The principle of dependence is everywhere developed in the universe. “ These wait all upon Thee.” From this we infer--1. That there exists an absolutely self-existent Power. We cannot comprehend the modus existendi, but there is the fact. 2. That each part of the universe has its own mission. God made nothing in vain. 3. That profound humility becomes every intelligent agent. “ What hast thou that thou hast not received?” III. An intelligent contemplation of the universe is calculated to increase man’ s hatred of sin. “ Let the sinners be consumed,” etc.1. Because sin mars the harmony of law. Unity is broken. 2. Because God, in having made so wondrous a universe, has proved Himself too good a Being to be disobeyed. Sin is not only a violation of law, but an insult to Goodness. What is the voice of this psalm to my heart? (1) God must occupy the supreme place in thought. (2) That I sustain intimate relationships to God. There is one relationship I must sustain; that of a dependant. But mere animals do so. The worm beneath my foot is a dependant. Am I not a son? (3) This beneficent Creator has also revealed Himself as man’ s Saviour. Do I love the Saviour? (4) The extinction of sin should form a prominent object in the life of the good. The greatest benefactor is he who does most to purify spiritual life, by the means which the Lord Jesus has appointed. (J. Parker, D.D.) A threefold aspect of the work of creation I. As the platform or theatre for the display of the Divine glory. It is evident that God Himself so designed it see how the account of creation closes (Genesis 1:31). But good for what? Why, good for the display of His own glory; good for the making His name illustrious to the highest orders of created intelligence; good for the satisfying of those beneficent and joy-diffusing agencies which seem to be the very necessity of the Divine nature. We cannot conceive of God but as an energy, nor yet of His operations but as directed to one end, and that end must be the one by which His own glory is illustrated, by which He will attract to Himself the homage of every responsible spirit, by which angels, and principalities, and thrones, and powers shall both partake of His happiness, and as they stand within the circling radiance of the everlasting throne, exclaim (Revelation 15:3). II. Throughout creation God has preserved a clear and legible inscription to his eternal power and Godhead. The Almighty foresaw that His Word would not have free course in the earth--some would hide it under a bushel, some would overlay it with human traditions, some would confine it to their own shores. And since its diffusion was to rest upon these human agencies, more than half the population of the globe would for centuries walk on still in darkness, and man’ s faithlessness and neglect might seem to put a stop to the work of God. Still, not utterly was it thus (Acts 14:17). The world is so constructed that it must be accepted as the product of supreme and all-directing intelligence. The ear of the untutored savage, as he is startled by the roaring thunder, fails not to recognize an emblem of the mighty power of God; the thoughtless mariner, as he plies his business on the great waters, sees a Providence in his safety, and the presence of God in the storm. Observe, too, that it is a first instinct with us to connect God and goodness. The mind’ s normal type of the ruling Divinity is beneficence. Evil, of whatever kind, is always an extraneous accident, its origin unsearchable, its agents unknown, its toleration the problem of all time; but, certainly, is not God, nor yet of God. III. Our admiration of this created system was to be called forth by the contemplation of man himself, with all the abounding provisions made for his comfort and happiness. The earth is full of provisions for man’ s material comforts. If our world were made for angels to admire, it seems also to have been made for men to enjoy. Man found himself placed, as it were, on the throne of this lower world. Every element in nature ministered to his wants; every department of creation was commanded to do him service. He could not touch or look upon a single object around him, of which the design was not to minister to his happiness,--to refresh the body with food, to regale the sense with beauty, to fill the mind with pure imaginings, to draw forth from the heart the same daily song of praise, “ O Lord, how manifold are Thy works! in wisdom hast Thou made them all.” “ All,” --without execptions;--and yet one work is there in which, more than all this wisdom of the great Creator has ever been conspicuous. And that work is man, in his creation, preservation, moral history, mighty endowments, in his lifting up from the lowest abyss of being, and in his designation to endless life. Mystery of mysteries is he in his creation. Contemplate him as a thing of reason and intelligence--a being that can reflect upon himself and his actions,--and to what a pitch of elevation have you raised him above the manifold works of God. Or contemplate him, again, in his moral relations; in his participation of the Divine nature; in his possession of that, which, by its resemblance to God, and by its community of mental character, connects him with an Infinite Mind; qualifies him to become an object of the Divine regard; fits him to discourse and hold thoughts with God. (D. Moore, M.A.) The wonderful works of God in Nature It is our privilege and duty to meditate upon the works of God.1. Our privilege: as we alone of all the mundane creation are able to do this. To us alone the universe as such exists. God who makes everything beautiful in its season, takes pleasure in His works, and in that pleasure we may suppose the angels join. And we are also permitted to join, if we will, and thus become sharers with the angels in the Divine happiness. 2. Our duty: for the possession of the power carries with it responsibility for its exercise: we who are men ought not to be thoughtless as the brutes. (1) It is a duty which we owe to ourselves, for though it will not feed the body, it stimulates and feeds our higher nature. (2) It is a duty which we owe to God; he who slights the works, slights the Worker. In meditating upon the works of God, notice-- I. How manifold they are, even if like the psalmist we keep to man’ s world.1. The earth itself, with its mighty mountain ranges and ocean depths, its lakes and rivers, its ancient garment of rock strata, rent and folded, worn and renewed, recording in its present condition the history of its experiences in ages past, its rich stores of metals and minerals, furnishes a theme for lifelong meditation. 2. How pleasing and varied are the forms of vegetable life which adorn its surface from the humble lichen which discolours yet adorns the face of the rock to the lofty fir tree which overhangs it. 3. How infinitely manifold are the manifestations of animal life from the mere dot of living albumen to the specialist in biology who is investigating its chemical and vital characteristics! 4. If with the telescope we search the heavens, or with the microscope pry into the marvels of minute structures, we shall find further illustrations of the wonderful unity joined with endless diversity manifested in the works of God. II. The wisdom manifested in them all.1. This wisdom is apparent not only in the contrivance, formation, and management of the whole, but in the adaptation of each to its element and to its place in the scale of being. The fish is perfectly adapted for the water, and the swallow for the air. The marvellous instincts of the bee and ant are out of all proportion to the development of their nervous system, but are essential to them in the struggle for existence. The strength of the horse makes him a useful servant to us, but if he excelled us as much in intellect as he does in strength, he would be our servant no longer! 2. This wisdom is further manifest in the perfection of workmanship, finish and colouring even in the most minute of the works of God. The microscope shows that the wing of the moth is as perfectly feathered as that of the bird, that the joints of an insect’ s limbs are as perfect as those of the horse, that the sting of the bee is pointed with a smoothness impossible to the art of man. III. They are all the works of God. “ My Father made them all.” Cowper well says, “ Nature is but the name for an effect whose cause is God.” If the scientific theory of evolution were proved completely true, which at present it is very far from being, it would only unveil to us the process by which in the ages of the past our Father wrought so as by degrees to bring about the present condition of things; and the power possessed by many creatures to adapt themselves within certain limits to changes in their surroundings, only places in clearer light the wisdom of God in imparting to those creatures a power without which they must soon fall out of the ranks of the living. It was our Father’ s mind that planned, and His the hand that wrought. Heaven and earth are full of the majesty of His glory. IV. They all belong, to Him. “ The earth is full of Thy riches.” Divine ownership is not like human, acquired by inheritance, conquest, or purchase. It is original and essential, grounded upon the absolute dependence of all things upon the great First Cause. Without Him there had been no universe, and without His continued support and providential care all things would sink into their primitive nothingness. His ownership is absolute and eternal grounded in the nature of things, they must ever be dependent. He must ever be the Fountain of good to all His works. (C. O. Eldridge, B.A.) God in Nature This psalm has well been called “ the Hymn of Creation.” It is, indeed, an anthem of praise inspired by Genesis 1:1-31; for the writer, whoever he was, must have had that birth of the history of the world before him, and he follows it throughout. It suggests to him his adoring thoughts of the wisdom, the majesty, the beneficence of God. This is his chief conviction, his overwhelming impression, that justifies his song of praise to God. In the succession of the seasons, in the springs that rise in the hills and course through the valleys, in the showers that make the grass to grow for the cattle and herb for the service of man, even in the fierce instincts and the struggle of the weaker creatures who roar after their prey and seek their meat from God, in the teeming life of the great deep, in the sails that stud its bosom, in the whole order of man’ s existence, in his daily round of labour, even in the mysterious successions of life, in the periodical convulsions which sweep the earth and prepare it for other tenants, the psalmist sees the work of one and the same mind bestowing or revoking at will the wondrous gift of Being. And not only is the world, in the psalmist’ s eyes, the handiwork of a Divine Creator, but of a Creator who never ceases to work. He who made, renews the face of the earth, in Him we live, and move, and have our being. He not only has given, but He never ceases to give. From day to day, from hour to hour, He presides over all existence. He giveth to all life and breath and all things. Now, there are two opposite extremes into which our conceptions on this point may fall. We may merge God in nature, or we may isolate nature from God. I say, first of all, we may merge God in nature. And this is what a great many people continually do. They personify nature, they speak of it as if it originated its own processes, as if it aimed at certain things, as if it were conscious of its own plan. Nature, men say, does this or does that. It is not wise to allow ourselves to drop into this current laxity of language. It may easily lead us astray, and vitiate our own belief, and from a poetical personification it is easy to go on to a virtual deification of the physical universe. One corrective lies in this spiritual idea of creation as an act of will on the part of One who is outside all material being. Philosophy traces all phenomena to the action of a living will. By no mental effort can we conceive it otherwise. The attributes and personality of the Person whose will has determined that nature should be what it is demand that He must be a Person who is not Himself included in His work; He must be outside of, and above, His own creation. “ In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” On the other hand, we may fall into the error of isolating the workmanship from the worker, of looking at nature apart from God. This is what men do when they conceive of the universe and treat it as though it taught us nothing of God, as though it were a succession of changes without meaning, or a machine supplied with a certain storage of force to keep it going, or as if it had no spiritual purpose, no one far off end towards which it was always moving, and separate the Worker from the work. But this confusion is hardly scientific, and it is most certainly irreligious. “ The heavens declare,” not only perfect processes of mechanism, but “ the glory of God, and the firmament showeth His handiwork.” We know that the word of a person has two functions. It is the organ of command conveying an act of will; it is also an organ of expression, it reveals the nature of the speaker. Now, in the creation of the universe the Word of the Lord exercises both these functions. It is absolutely inconceivable to our faculties, this genesis of matter without a Divine act of creation. Yet in this account of it there is that which accords with the experience of our own human consciousness. For I know that within the little spheres in which I too am an originator, a sort of creator, it is in my will that the primary force resides. And so that sublime succession of edicts, “ Let there be light,” “ Let the earth bring forth,” etc. And, on the other hand, the word of a speaker, while it utters his will, must at the same time reveal his mind, it must reflect more or less consciously his inner self, his real nature. Words are the medium through which we convey to another our feelings and our thoughts, and the Word of God must be a manifestation of His nature. If He breaks silence it is to make Himself known; He cannot speak without unveiling what He is, He cannot speak but truth and beauty and goodness must be expressed. But now this revelation of God through the things that are made, great and glorious as it is, does not suffice to accomplish the grand purpose towards man--man the crowning work of His hands, the being whom He has endowed with that sublime mysterious faculty of knowing and loving and imitating Him. It is not enough to draw man into communion with Him. And this is what God seeks. He can be satisfied with nothing less. Over and above the great advertisement of deity in nature, a moral revelation was required, and a moral revelation has been given. And it is of surpassing interest to note how, up to a certain point, the new revelation proceeds upon the lines of the old. First of all, that absolute unity of plan of which science is continually perfecting the demonstration--a unity which is now known to extend as far as the planets in their spheres--bears witness that the Creator is one. More and more clearly we are learning to read the action of one and the same mind through the whole range of created things. Is not this truth in complete accordance with the voice of Scripture? The Bible proceeds from its first utterance to its last on the unity of God. Again, throughout all nature, we find a will at work whose method is to bind itself by an orderly plan of fixed law. Now, what is the revelation of the Divine will in the Bible? It is the revelation of a law and its chief end is the redemption of moral anarchy and deviation from moral order. In the God of the Decalogue, in the God of the Sermon on the Mount, we recognize the God of law intolerant of all that is arbitrary, eccentric, lawless, the God of system and obedience. And, once more, we are daily learning how patiently, and through what a long process the physical universe has been built up, as though to this eternal work a thousand years were not of any more account than a single day so long as the results are achieved by method and evolution rather than by sudden shocks and intervention. Look at the structure of our own dwelling-place. Sir Charles Lyell has even estimated the time at two hundred millions of years. The mind faints in the effort to take in these stupendous figures. But do we not find that He works in the realm of grace as in the realm of nature with equal tenacity and patience? Through long millenniums He has kept in hand the same task. He has carried on His moral creation. The education of the race has been spread over ages. By divers manners God has imparted to man the knowledge of His will, and shown him his own destiny as the heir of immortality. And yet, again, the God of nature vindicates the sacredness of the physical law by penalty for transgression of it on the part of a sentient creature. God does not interpose in nature between the cause and its consequence, and the Bible pictures God to us as equally intolerant of any breach of His moral order. He cannot connive at disobedience. “ He will by no means clear the guilty.” “ Whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap.” “ He that doeth wrong shall receive for the wrong which he hath done, and there is no respect of persons.” Thus far it may be said that the two revelations walk abreast and proclaim one and the same message. But, thanks be to God, the second revelation goes on while the first stops. God commendeth His love to us His erring, rebellious, fallen creatures, in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us; when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son. In this marvellous revelation of redeeming love we clearly mount a great step above nature, we are lifted to a new and loftier plane of thought, we are passed behind the veil, we enter the inner circumference of the Divine nature. Nature does indeed declare the glory of God. But here is the more excellent glory, here the display of a higher tribute than nature can interpret. What tidings so joyful as that of the new creation, the new heaven and the new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness? (Canon Duckworth.) God’ s world When we read such psalms as this, we connot help seeing a great difference between them and any hymns or religious poetry which are commonly written or read in these days. The hymns which are most liked now, and the psalms which people most willingly choose out of the Bible, are those which speak, or seem to speak, about God’ s dealings with people’ s own souls, while such psalms as this are overlooked. David looked on the earth as God’ s earth; we look on it as man’ s earth, or nobody’ s earth. We know that we are here, with trees and grass, and beasts and birds, round us. And we know that we did not put them here; and that, after we are dead and gone, they will go on just as they went on before we were born,--each tree, and flower, and animal, after its kind: but we know nothing more. The earth is here, and we on it; but who put it there, and why it is there, and why we are on it, instead of being anywhere else, few ever think. But to David the earth looked very different; it had quite another meaning; it spoke to him of God who made it. By seeing what this earth is like, he saw what God who made it is like: and we see no such thing. The earth?--we can eat the corn and cattle on it, we can earn money by farming it, and ploughing and digging it; and that is all most men know about it. But David knew something more--something which made him feel himself very weak, and yet very safe; very ignorant and stupid, and yet honoured with glorious knowledge from God,--something which made him feel that he belonged to this world, and must not forget it or neglect it; namely, that this earth was his lesson-book--this earth was his work-field; and yet those same thoughts which showed him how he was made for the land round him, and the land round him was made for him, showed him also that he belonged to another world--a spirit-world; showed him that when this world passed away, he should live for ever; showed him that though his home and business were here on earth, yet that, for that very reason, his home and business were in heaven, with God who made the earth, with that blessed One of whom he said, “ Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth,” etc. Think, when you are at your work, how all things may put you in mind of God, if you do but choose. The trees which shelter you from the wind, God planted them there for your sakes, in His love. The birds which you drive off the corn--who gave them the sense to keep together and profit by each other’ s wit and keen eyesight? Who but God, who feeds the young birds when they call on Him? The sheep whom you follow--who ordered the warm wool to grow on them, from which your clothes are made? Who but the Spirit of God above, who clothes the grass of the field, and the silly sheep, and who clothes you, too, and thinks of you when you do not think of yourselves? The feeble lambs in spring, they ought to remind you surely of the Lamb of God, who died for you upon the cruel cross, who was led as a lamb to the slaughter; and like a sheep that lies dumb and patient under the shearer’ s hand, so He opened not His mouth. Oh, that I could make you see God in everything, and everything in God. (C. Kingsley, M.A.) In wisdom hast Thou made them all-- The wisdom and holiness of God (with Isaiah 6:3):--Every mental quality is subordinate and inferior to wisdom, in the same sense as the mason who lays the bricks and stones in a building is inferior to the architect who drew the plan and superintends the work. Wisdom should determine when we are to act and when to cease; when to disclose a matter and when to hide it; when to give and when to receive; and to provide the means to be pursued in every deliberate course of action. The wisdom which essentially and necessarily belongs to an eternal and self-existent Being, differs as to its character and extent from what He gives to man. The essential differences are as to extent, certitude, and the Divine power associated with them in the eternal God. We can perceive, both by our organs of vision and by our minds, what we specially turn our attention to; but God is everywhere, sees and knows all things everywhere, every atom of matter, every movement of mind, and hence of His knowledge and wisdom we say they are infinite, and without limit. Man has the power of reasoning upon means to an end; the reasoning may be wise or foolish; and he has the power of aiming at an end by the means he can command; but he has neither sufficient wisdom nor power to command the end he desires. The absolute and perfect knowledge of God, of all causes, and of all effects, is necessarily associated with His wisdom and power in creation, and development of all His wonderful works. To arrange and fit together the many parts of a vast and comprehensive design, so that they shall accomplish the contemplated end, is an operation demanding much wisdom; and when we apply this remark to the wide range of all God’ s works, comprehended by us under the term Universe, surely, if anywhere we can find proofs of perfect, of infinite wisdom, it must be here. The infinite mind knows how to combine perfect wisdom with intricacy of execution, while the marvellous range of objects in the seas, on the dry land, in the stellar system, the ruling of the day by the sun, and of the night by the moon, exhibit to man what is nothing less than wisdom without limit. I take but one illustration, and it is of a practical character, and intimately connected with our comfort at this season of cold and rain. Our means of warmth, our coal: we throw it on the fire and burn it, but bow little de we think of it! It is the produce of the destruction of plants preserved from former worlds long anterior to the existence of man. It is the result of mortality. Primarily it is the product of a fecundity exceeding all the other uses which animals could have derived from it; and, we may safely infer, directed to the end for which it is now employed. Peat and coal are the most striking cases, independently of food, for our uses derived from the fecundity and mortality of plants. Even the globe itself, with others that in the progress of ages may succeed it, has been ordained to depend in part in its very structure and materials on the succession and destruction of animal and vegetable lives, as its surface has been committed to the labour of man, chiefly for its modification and improvement. The beauty and glory of man, of woman, and their marvellous adaptation for the happiness of one another, when their moral natures are educated and controlled, and their daily will is to promote each other’ s happiness, is worthy of the infinite wisdom of God; thus blessing one of the races of His creatures with a happiness which to a large extent He has put within their own power. Of the holiness of God who can speak with sufficient diffidence and reverence? we learn nothing of it from His works. It has been a necessary conclusion in the minds even of Pagans, that an intelligent Creator must be good, pure, and holy. The Scriptures everywhere proclaim it. It is to us a consolatory thought that the God we worship is holy, just, merciful, of longsuffering and compassion, and full of pity and love to the children of men. (R. Ainslie.) The apparent intentions of Divine wisdom I. The production and preservation of life. Wherever there is a proper receptacle or habitation, there we find suitable inhabitants; and in many states and conditions, in which we should think it impossible for living creatures to subsist, did we not find them actually subsisting. These all draw their support from the world around them, fill up their place and time, till others succeed in their room. II. The pleasure and felicity of His creatures in the enjoyment of that life. Even the lowest creatures have their enjoyments, and show more symptoms of ease and delight, than of pain and trouble. III. The acquisition of knowledge. IV. The attainment of virtue and religion. (S. Bourn.) Perfection in God’ s work The ordinary daisy of the field is not the simple thing it at first appears. Seen under a powerful microscope it is really a small bouquet of flowers, each petal being a separate bloom, whilst the yellow eye is another posy massed together in the centre. God has touched with His own perfect skill and finish this homely blossom. (H. O. Mackey.) Wisdom displayed in all God’ s works Think of a wisdom that was able to form, without any suggestion or any model to work by, the eye, the ear, the hand, the foot, the vocal organs. No wonder that Galen, the most celebrated of medical authors among the ancients, fell on his knees at the overwhelming wisdom of God in the constitution of the human frame. Our libraries are filled with the wisdom of the great thinkers of all time. Have you considered the far superior wisdom which fashioned the brain for all those thoughts, of the Infinite Mind that built those intellects? But it is only the millionth part of that wisdom that has come to mortal appreciation. Close next to every discovery is a wonder that has not been discovered. We see only one specimen among ten thousand specimens. What we know is overwhelmed by what we do not know. What the botanist knows about the flower is not more wonderful than the things he does not know about the flower. What the geologist knows about the rocks is not more amazing than the things which he does not know about them. The worlds that have been counted are only a small regiment of the armies of light, the Hosts of Heaven, which have never passed in review before mortal vision. (T. De Witt Talmage.) The wisdom of God The works of God everywhere show perfect wisdom in their Author. Take the air for example. If this were a few miles less in height than it is, men would soon be suffocated; if it were a few miles more, it would be unendurably hot wherever the sun’ s rays penetrated. Take land and water for another example. If the land were harder or softer than it is, it could not be cultivated; if softer, nothing could be made firm on the surface. If the water of the sea were heavier, the fishes would rise to the surface, and could not swim; if it were lighter, the fish would sink to the bottom, and die. Another example is the proportionate size and weight of man and the globe. If a man were conveyed to the moon, he would weigh five times less than on the earth: he might bound up like a grasshopper, and would be easily upset. If the earth were as large as Jupiter, and otherwise as now, our weight would be increased eleven times, and none of us could walk or stand upright. (L. Gaussen.) The earth is full of Thy riches.-- The munificence of Nature’ s God The earth is God’ s treasure-house assigned supply the temporal needs of man.1. This treasure-house is full. God is not niggardly in the bestowment of His gifts. His supplies are immeasurably greater than the necessities of the human population can possibly require. 2. This treasure-house is filled with varied gifts. There is something to gratify every taste and meet every want. They stream from the heavens, flow in the atmosphere, abound in the land, burrow in the mountains, sparkle in the river. These gifts show the versatility of God’ s power and the wisdom of God’ s mind. 3. These riches are all God’ s property. Man is only the beneficiary, the recipient, the steward. All God’ s riches, of which the earth is full, should be used only as God designed they should. All abuse and waste of these riches by man is a spoiling and robbing of God. God will one day say to all guilty of malfeasance, “ Give an account of thy stewardship.” (Homiletic Review.) The manifoldness of beauty To those who have eyes to see, the works of God are instinct with delicate and intensest beauty, and the subtlest blasphemy against high Heaven is that which speaks of God’ s world as “ a waste howling wilderness.” Whether it be in the infinitely great or the infinitely little, this is one of the outstanding characteristics of nature, this the one thing that puts an arrest upon human thought and challenges human admiration. Before the gorgeous splendour of midnight stars, and the fastidious delicacy of a pencilled butterfly’ s wing, before the majesty of a planet’ s orbit and the graceful curve of a sea-gull’ s flight, before the infinite grandeur of tumultuous waters and the rare grace of a sensitive flower, the mind of man, with a stoop which is uplifting, bows as in the presence of beauty, whose face is unveiled and whose glory is discovered. That is the one arrestive splendour, that the continually insistent note. And our conception of this beauty is enhanced and its profound suggestiveness increased by a consideration of its manifoldness, the almost bewildering variety of its fascinating forms. Nowhere in the wide realm of beauty is this infinite variety more obvious, more pleasing, more full of subtle power than among the flowers. There is a beauty in the pomp of crowded rose-bush, as well as in the snowdrop, the first frail prophecy of coming spring. Sweet violets, fit symbols of virtues that are not noisy and aggressive, touch our hearts with the same power as the opulent wealth of the “ laburnum’ s dropping gold.” Delicate daffodils, bending like sweet nuns in breathless adoration, hold our hearts with the same magic strength as stately lilies robed in a glory which surpasses that of kings. Beauty is everywhere, but it is beauty wrought into infinite diversity of lovely forms, and by its very manifoldness widening and deepening its appeal, giving to its voice a deeper note, and to its splendour a more ravishing charm. And this great fact not only holds rare suggestions for character, but is full of vast implications--it is instinct with noble teachings for life. In the world of soul God is not a God of uniformity. Each man has his own temperament and tastes and dispositions, each has had his own cross and temptation and conflict, each has his own grace and combination of graces, and every true man is himself, and no other. In all that there is a profound suggestion of individuality. Every good man, by the tender grace of God, is to develop his life into the beauty of Jesus, according to its kind. Let not the violet quarrel with the rose, nor the rich peony mock the whiteness of the narcissus: each has its own grace, its own power, and its own appeal. (G. B. Austin.) Psalms 104:25 So is this great and wide sea, wherein are things creeping innumerable.The sea’ s inhabitants Since the psalmist’ s days our knowledge of the grandeur of the seas, and of their marvellous fulness of life, has been vastly extended. The discovery of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans made the Mediterranean, that seemed to him a “ great and wide sea,” a little inland lake. Modern science has explored all the waters of the earth, and revealed to us the wonderful forms that exist even at the most enormous depths in the sunless abysses. The last great “ Challenger” Expedition round the globe brought home treasures of knowledge, and opened up new fields of speculation, which have engaged the profound interest of naturalists ever since. Recent years have made us almost as familiar with the productions of the deep as with those of the dry land, and have taught us that there is no field so rich in illustrations of the Divine wisdom and power as the “ great and wide sea.” Fishes as a class partake of the grace of the waters. They are adapted to its motions. They are moulded by its requirements. A ship is built to suit the conditions of its home on the mighty deep, and is therefore the most compact and well ordered of man’ s works. And so a fish has the most exquisite adaptation and concentration. Fishes are in the sea what birds are in the air, amongst the most elegant of God’ s creatures. They have similar beauty of colour and shape, and exhibit the same wonderful provisions and contrivances of Divine skill. (H. Macmillan, D.D.) Life in ocean depths It used to be an axiom that there was no life in the sea beyond a certain limit of a few hundred feet. It was learnedly and conclusively demonstrated that pressure and absence of light, and I know not what beside, made life at greater depths impossible. It was proved that in such conditions creatures could not live. And then, when that was settled, the “ Challenger” put down her dredge five miles, and brought up healthy and good-sized living things with eyes in their heads, from that enormous depth. So, then the savant had to ask, how can there be life? instead of asserting there cannot be; and, no doubt, the answer will be forthcoming some day. We have all been too much accustomed to draw arbitrary limits to the diffusion of the life of Christ among men. Let us rather rejoice when we see forms of beauty, which bear the mark of His hand, drawn from depths that we deemed waste, and thankfully confess that the bounds of our expectation, and the framework of our institutions, do not confine the breadth of His working, nor the sweep of His grace. (A. Maclaren, D.D.) Psalms 104:26 There go the ships.I was walking the other day by the side of the sea looking out upon the English Channel. It so happened that there was a bad wind for the vessels going down the Channel, and they were lying in great numbers between the shore and the Goodwins. I should think I counted more than a hundred, all waiting for a change of wind. On a sudden it came, and the vessels at once hoisted sail and went on their way. It was a sight worth travelling a hundred miles to gaze upon to see them all sail like a gallant squadron, and disappear southward on their voyages. “ There go the ships,” was the exclamation that naturally rose to one’ s lips. The psalmist thought it worth his while, though he had probably never seen such number of vessels as pass our coast, to make note of the fact the text declares, and we will learn now some of the lessons which the ships and the sea teach us. And, first, they teach that every part of the earth is made with some design. The land certainly is, but what about the broad acres of the sea? Assuredly it is not waste. “ No,” says David, and so say we--“ There go the ships.” Innumerable are the uses of the sea. It seems to be a grievous separation of lovers and friends, but it really unites them, for it is the highway of nations. But we would speak rather of the ships than of the sea. And I. We see that the ships go.1. They are made to go. So are Christians, but many of them don’ t go; they have no activity in them. Now, I wish we could launch some of you. Brunel had less trouble in launching the “ Great Eastern” than we have in trying to make you go. Would that you would “ launch out into the deep.” 2. In going, the ships at last disappear from view. So shall we: our life is short. 3. They are going, mostly, upon business. Some few are for pleasure, but the most part have serious business in view. Have you? Have you any worthy object in life? 4. They sail upon a changeful sea. So do we. Terra firma is not in this world. II. How go the ships? Well--1. They must go according to the wind. We leave steamships out of the question. And if our port be heaven, there is no getting there except by the blessed Spirit’ s blessing upon us. 2. But the mariner must nevertheless exert himself. The sails must be spread and managed so that the wind may be utilized. Hence the ships are no scene of idleness, but of great industry. Some Christians think they have nothing to do; “ God will save His own people.” Yes, He will; but will He save them? His own people do not talk as they do. 3. The ships have to be guided and steered by the helm. Love is our helm: what we love, after that we go. Let love to God rule us, and let Christ have the tiller, and He will steer you to the haven of perfect peace. 4. Direction must be sought from charts and lights. So must we he guided by the chart of God’ s Word and the light that Heaven has kindled. The voyage of a ship on the main ocean seems to me to be an admirable picture of the life of faith. The sailor does not see a road before him, or any land mark or sea mark, yet is sure of his course. He relies upon fixed lights in heaven, for far out he can see no beacon or light on the sea, and no keel ever leaves a furrow to mark the way. The late Captain Basil Hall tells the following interesting incident. He once sailed from San Bias, on the west coast of Mexico; and after a voyage of eight thousand miles, occupying eighty-nine days, he arrived off Rio de Janeiro, having in this interval passed through the Pacific Ocean, rounded Cape Horn, and crossed the South Atlantic, without making land or seeing a single sail except an American whaler. When within a week’ s sail of Rio, he set seriously about determining by lunar observations the position of his ship, and then steered his course by those common principles of navigation which may be safely employed for short distances between one known station and another. Having arrived within what he considered from his computations fifteen or twenty miles of the coast, he hove to, at four o’ clock in the morning, to await the break of day, and then bore up, proceeding cautiously, on account of a thick fog. As this cleared away, the crew had the satisfaction of seeing the great Sugar Loaf Rock, which stands on one side of the harbour’ s mouth, so nearly right ahead, that they had not to alter their course above a point in order to hit the entrance of the port. This was the first land they had seen for nearly three months, after crossing so many seas, and being set backwards and forwards by innumerable currents and foul winds. The effect upon all on beard was electric, and, giving way to their admiration, the sailors greeted their commander with a hearty cheer. And what a cheer will we give when, after many years sailing by faith, we at last see the pearly gates straight ahead, and enter into the fair haven without needing to shift a point. Glory be to the Captain of our salvation, it will be all well with us when the fog of this life’ s cares shall lift, and we shall see in the light of heaven. Then-- 5. Ships will go well or ill, according to their build. With the same amount of wind, one makes more way than another. Now, there are some Church members who are so queerly shaped that somehow they never seem to cut the water, and even the Holy Spirit does not make much of them. They will get into harbour at last, but they will need a world of tugging. The snail got into the ark: I often wonder how he did it; and so there are many Christian people who will get to heaven, but Heaven alone knows how. I suspect that many of them have by degrees become like the “ Great Eastern” --foul under water. They cannot go because they are covered with barnacles. They want laying up and cleaning a bit, so as to get some of the barnacles off. It is a rough process, but it has to be done. When I saw those ships go I happened to be near a station of Lloyd’ s, and I noticed that they ran up flags as the vessels went by. I suppose they were asking questions, as to their names, cargo, destination, and so on. So, then-- III. Let us signal the ships. And--1. Who is your owner? Some, in spite of all their profession, belong to Satan: their names are such as these: Self-Righteousness, Pride, from the port of Self-Conceit, Captain Ignorance. They belong not to Christ. 2. What is your cargo? Some high-sailing craft prove by that fact that they carry nothing. Big men, very important individuals, who float high, are common enough, but there is nothing in them. If there were they would sink deeper in the water. Some are in ballast; they have a deal of trouble, and they always tell you about it. Some carry a cargo of powder. You never know when an explosion may take place. But it is well to be loaded with good things. Some are emigrant ships. They have a cargo of blessed souls on board who have been brought to Christ by some faithful ministry. Thank God, I have sometimes had my decks crowded with passengers who have from my ministry received the Gospel. 3. Where go the ships? Some of you are bound for the port of peace, the Lord be praised. But alas! some ships which bid fair for heaven are lost on the rocks, or on the sands: others founder; others become derelict. Where will you all go? It is a fine fleet I am looking upon. I hope all will be found in the great harbour of heaven. Give me a hail when you get into port. But it is a dreadful supposition, and it may be worse than a supposition, that some of you will have to cast anchor for ever in the Dead Sea, whose waves are fire, and where every passenger feels a hell. Let it not be so; pull down the black flag, and run up the red flag of the Cross, and be Christ’ s for evermore. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Heavenward bound What a noble thing is a ship! In bearing how majestic, in mechanism how wonderful! Have you ever thought as you have seen it lying quietly at its moorings, or sailing gallantly across the mighty deep, how much of art and science there were needed to produce such a complicated piece of mechanism? Have you ever thought how much of our Lord’ s ministry was associated with the sea and with those who go down to the sea in ships? A few illiterate fishermen were the companions of our Lord’ s ministry and the founders of that religion which has revolutionized the world.1. Both in voyaging over the sea and on the ocean of life, how important it is to keep ever before our minds to what haven we are bound, to what port we are bearing on. It is this want of fixed and definite purpose and thought of the end that makes shipwreck of so many lives that would otherwise sail bravely and brightly over life’ s ocean. What may be called our sailing or steering orders are plain, direct, explicit. “ Strive to enter in,” the onward movement. “ Set your affections on things that are above,” the upward or heavenward movement. 2. Not only must we know whither we are bound in the great voyage over the ocean of life, we must continue sailing, we must persevere in our work with our eyes steadily fixed on the pole star--fixed on “ Hope’ s beaming star.” If the sails are to be unfurled, we must be at our post, whatever betide; if the rigging has become tangled we must never think it too much trouble to go aloft and set it right. We must have the lamps trimmed, though the oil be difficult to get, and the lights burning, though the trimming may soil our fingers. We must constantly be advancing, sailing onwards over life’ s ocean. For if we do not attend to this onward movement the tide will carry us back, and, it may be, dash both ourselves and our craft on the rocks of indolence. 3. We must not only know whither we are bound, we must not only keep in constant activity and show unflagging zeal, but we must make for the haven, Heaven is our haven. We are voyaging still. To that port and haven is our vessel bound. Oh! let our lives be conformable to the great, momentous, and immortal destiny before us. And, amid all the changes and chances of life, let us ever remember whose we are, and whom we serve. Once upon a time, there was a great storm at sea--the ocean was rolling mountains high, and the vessel was in imminent danger of shipwreck. The passengers were rushing wildly over the deck, or sitting clothed with despair in their cabins. Nothing but disorder and terror prevailed. Only one little boy was quiet and calm and unconcerned, and when an agitated and affrighted spectator asked how in such a storm he could be so calm, he quietly replied, “ Father is at the helm.” This fact we have ever to bear us up. “ Our Father is at the helm.” (J. B. S. Watson, M.A.) “ There go the ships” That is not a bad text for a seamen’ s society. “ There go the ships.” Yes; that is quite true, but ships do not go of themselves. The ship implies its builder, its captain and a crew. Sailors, then, are necessarily connected in our minds with the ships.1. Sailors have a claim upon our gratitude. What should we do without them? Think what our island would be if there were no ships, or if none were allowed to enter our ports. If we are to be thankful to any class of men--I believe in being thankful to all who do good work--we should specially be so to sailors, for among all those whose labour contributes to the wealth and prosperity of our country, there is no class more deserving our gratitude than seamen. 2. They also deserve our sympathy. The life of sailors is not a pleasant one. A ship is not a home, nor has it the comforts of home. And then there are the perils of the sea. The sailor’ s life is a dangerous one, for he has a treacherous element to deal with. There are the winds and the waves to control if possible, or to battle with their rage. Danger may arise at any moment, and when he is least prepared for it. If there is any class of men who carry their lives in their hands it is the seamen. But the sailor is exposed to perils of a more serious kind. He has his own special forms of temptation. Not so much on the sea, but, shut up as he is in uncongenial society, he is the more prone to give way to those perils besetting his path when he lands. He finds himself in possession of means of indulgence, and solicitations to vice pressed upon him. 3. Sailors deserve our help. Sympathy is of no use, or very little, unless it takes a practical character. Pity itself is pitiful unless it extends the helping hand. If we feel grateful to the sailor, and sympathy for him, we must show it by trying to help the seaman to realize his position in God’ s universe, to become a true and faithful man, and a true and living child of God. We ought to make his surroundings better than they have been. (J. D. Burns, D.D.) Ships What boy is not fond of hearing and reading about ships? I am not, however, going to talk about any wonderful discovery, but wish to compare my young friends to three different kinds of ships. I. A man-of-war. This is for fighting purposes, and speaks both of the defensive and of the offensive, not the fighting some boys like to indulge in, either with tongues or fists; but I want every one of my readers to be fighting for the Lord Jesus. Many are unknowingly fighting against Him--they resist the strivings of the Spirit; they admire Him, and like to hear about His deeds, and to know of Him; but they do not know Him (John 17:3) or receive Him (John 1:12). Now, first you must be able to say, “ The Lord is on my side,” etc. You will then need strength to stand your ground, and, though helpless of yourself (John 15:5), yet with Him, note your power (Philippians 4:13). A man-of-war ship must be properly armed: it is not built to play at soldiers, but to defend the country from invaders. Notice on chart, how it is armed, and for what purpose. Try to bring others into submission (read 2 Chronicles 30:8).1. Submission.2. Admission.3. Commission. II. Merchant ships. A merchant ship is used for bringing cargoes, etc., from one port to another, sometimes many miles. The cargo, however, has to be stored away in the hold. Show how, if we have God’ s Word (which speaks of Life, Light, Pardon, Peace, and Power) stored into our hearts, at whatever port we may land in our life, we shall have blessings to leave. Sometimes we cannot ourselves go abroad, but, by the pennies we raise, we are enabled to send missionaries to take the Gospel to the heathen. III. Passenger ships. The passenger ship would be for passengers. Let us remember what has been done for us: how it has been all of grace. The fare has been paid: so then let us seek to lead others to the Haven of Perfect Peace. Andrew brought Peter (John 1:42). Little is said about the former, but never mind though your name does not appear, if Christ be glorified. In Matthew 9:2, four brought the one to Christ. Be more occupied in the One to whom you bring the sinner than in the method adopted. (Newton Jones.) The voyage of life “ There go the ships.” Each of them has got a name of its own. Each has a starting-place where it began its life; each an end to which it is going. It may be a tragedy. Each has a different register. It is not every one that is “ A1 at Lloyd’ s.” When a ship is first built, and has been surveyed, and certified to be equal to all the emergencies which a ship ought to be fitted for, it is registered as “ A1” And when it has made some voyages it is inspected again; and next time it goes out it will have to be registered again. This time it may be “ A2,” or lower still, and as the ship gets older she becomes of less value and a greater risk. That is so with a ship, but it need not be the case with men. There are men who began twenty years ago as “ A1 at Lloyd’ s,” and they stand the same to-day. Instead of falling, there is nothing to prevent us from rising in value as we get grey hairs. “ There go the ships.” We see that all of them have a different tonnage. The one of two hundred cannot carry as much as the two thousand, but she can venture where the other dare not follow her. And there are different ways of usefulness that men can get out of littleness. A great preacher has a glorious history, but it takes a great deal to make him what he is, and it takes more to keep him right. The more water the ship draws the greater is the danger if she gets into shallow water. Some of us are little ones, and we shall never be anything else all our lives. But we can go where the big ones dare not. And if you subtract from the total work done for the Truth all the work that is done by small people you will sink the total very much. “ There go the ships.” Every one has got a cargo. They all carry something: some of them carry precious freight; some of them carry that which enriches the world. Look at that ship going with a cargo of cotton. It means work for nimble fingers and bread for hungry children. And after it has been spun, woven, and worn, it will make rags that will be used for paper that will make Bibles and books. She carries something valuable, does that ship. What cargo are you carrying then? Are you a ship in ballast? A ship must carry something. She must be a certain weight or they cannot sail or steer her. And if they cannot get a cargo they fill up with stones and clay. And up in Sunderland yonder, there is many a hill made of ballast brought by ships that have taken out cargoes of coal, and had nothing else to bring back. And it costs just as much to sail her with ballast as with a cargo. It costs God Almighty just as much to keep a useless man as to keep a useful one. Have you been carrying ballast? There is no need. You may be filled with a cargo, if you will come alongside this wharf--a cargo that shall bring pleasure and blessing wherever you go. Where go the ships? To fortune or to failure; to harbour or to ruin? Ah! you need not go many miles to find these wrecks of manhood. You can remember some; I can remember others. Some ships have foundered because they have set out before they were ready for a voyage. We need all of us to remember, “ Lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil.” But there are some vessels lost by striking hidden rocks, and others by striking rocks that may easily be seen. How many have gone down and become wrecks through the rock we call Drink! And what numbers are ruined by gambling! Wrecks! How are we to be delivered from such things? There are other things we might have said about these wrecks, but how are we to be delivered from them? First, we must take care who the skipper is. Make sure that you get hold of Captain Credence. If you want to see what voyages he has made look in the Epistle to the Hebrews; and there you will read: “ By faith . . . By faith . . . By faith . . . ” Captain Credence will take charge of you, and always bring his own hands aboard, and he will place them in every part of the ship. At the helm stands Obedience, an able-bodied seaman is he. He takes his orders here. You want to have Obedience, who always works by the words of the Chart. And then, like Joseph, when tempted, you will hear him say, “ I cannot. Helm hard-a-port! Do you think I am going to the other side?” Captain Credence always brings with him Conscience, and puts him as the look-out. He has keen sight; he needs no spectacles. He can see the land before any one else sees it; he can see the sand-banks before anybody else sees them, and the rocks. If you only put Captain Credence aboard, he will bring all the hands with him who have sworn obedience to Jesus. Some day, if only you hold on by Christ, your ship will reach the good land. If is a land within reach of every one of us, a land that is fairer than day. (T. Champness.) Psalms 104:27-28 These wait all upon Thee; that Thou mayest give them their meat in due season. The waiting world supplied Often the poet, rather than the scientist, is the true interpreter of nature. Mystic links which the scientist kens not, bind the universe to God. The devout poet hears God in the thunder; sees His touch on the smoking volcano; beholds His glory in sun and stars; hears the trees clapping their hands before Him: and, listening to the sounds of want and woe rising from a travailing creation, catches the accents of a universal prayer; while, in the provision made for every living thing he sees the bountiful answer from the opened hand of Deity. I. Universal dependence. “ These all wait upon Thee,” etc. We are dependent for life and all the good of life upon circumstances beyond our control. Earth, air, water, warmth, light, all so necessary, may all become destructive. They are all under law; but God Himself made and enforces their laws. The universe is an embodied thought of Deity, the product of His will: it runs its course sustained by the power which called it into being. The Creator is the Sustainer; the Alpha is the Omega of existence. II. Universal prayer. “ The eyes of all wait upon Thee,” etc. Want looks up into the face of fulness. The sight of want and woe is a prayer to the bountiful. A drooping plant, a pining cat, or a crying babe, appeals to us all the more powerfully, because the appeal is inarticulate. Now, God is intimately connected with all forms of life, and perfectly understands the language of all His creatures. He sees the thirsty earth pining for rain; He hears the cry of the young ravens and roar of the lions (Jonah 3:7-8; Jonah 4:11). But it is reserved to man as the high priest of Nature, to understand both his own wants and those of the lower creation; and to voice those needs in the heaven-taught prayer, “ Our Father, give us this day our daily bread.” III. Universal supply. Thou openest Thy hand--the hand of infinite power, wisdom, benevolence, love--and the rain falls, the sun shines, the earth yields her fruit, “ the pastures are clothed with flocks; the valleys also are covered over with corn,” and the desire of every living thing is satisfied. How pleasantly He prepares the table in our sight. He spreads His cloth of green: He decks it with the bloom of innumerable flowers: He permits us to watch, while His servants, the Laws of Nature, gather out of the dewdrop, the sunbeam, the atmosphere and the earth, the raw material which they compound into living food. Gradually earth is laden with the bounty of heaven. Food and decoration are here in rich profusion and golden glory. Man and beast alike are satisfied with the hospitality dispensed by the great Father of all. So also has He spread and richly furnished the Gospel table in our sight; so that we may in His Word trace the whole process of preparation: and now, for our soul’ s needs it is our privilege to gather what He has given. (C. O. EIdridge, B.A.) The bountifulness of God in His providence I. His munificence to His creatures is general. Consider--1. How large a family He provides for.2. The variety of the provisions which He makes.3. The regularity with which all is provided.4. The abundance which He provides for all.5. The ease with which tie distributes the provisions.6. He does all this gratuitously. II. His special generosity to man. This is seen--1. In His preparing the earth to bring forth fruit to the service of man.2. In His unremitting supervision of the earth.3. In that all the gifts bestowed upon others are intended for man’ s benefit. 4. In that He makes provision for man’ s soul. (D. Roberts, D.D.) How the lower creatures are fed On the pampas, whenever grasshoppers, mice, frogs, or crickets become excessively abundant, we confidently look for the appearance of multitudes of the birds that prey on them . . . It is plain that these birds have been drawn from over an immense area to one spot; and the question is how have they been drawn? Many large birds possessing great powers of flight are, when not occupied with the business of propagation, incessantly wandering from place to place in search of food. They are not, as a rule, regular migrants, for their wanderings begin and end irrespective of seasons, and where they find abundance they remain the whole year. They fly at a very great height, and traverse immense distances. When the favourite food of any one of these species is plentiful in any particular region all the individuals that discover it remain, and attract to them all of their kind passing overhead. This happens on the pampas with the stork, the short-eared owl, the hooded gull, and the dominican or black-backed gull--the leading species among the feathered nomads: a few first appear like harbingers; these are presently joined by newcomers in considerable numbers, and before long they are in myriads. (Hudson.) Divine sufficiency After a world of hungry men have fed upon Christ, He remains inexhaustible as at the beginning; like the bread in His own miracles, of which the pieces that were broken and ready to be given to the eaters were more than the original stock as it appeared when the meal began. Or like the fabled meal in the Norse Walhalla, which the gods sat down to to-day, and to-morrow there it is, all on the board, as abundant and full as ever. (A. Maclaren, D.D.) Sufficiency for all varieties of experience So manifold are the aspects of God’ s infinite sufficiency, that every soul, in every possible variety of circumstance, will find there just what will suit it. That deep fountain is like some of those fabled springs which gave forth whatsoever precious draught any thirsty lips asked. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Psalms 104:28 That Thou givest them they gather. God’ s giving and man’ s gathering I. God alone gives; we only gather. He is the Sole Proprietor in the universe, and of it. We can have nothing but by His bestowal. Our industry, perseverance, skill, are only methods that we employ in gathering. We have nothing that we have not received. II. What God gives we ought to gather.1. In the world of nature. The fields must be cultivated, harvests reaped, etc. 2. In the realm of grace. Truth must be apprehended, Christ believed, the Holy Ghost received. (U. R. Thomas.) Gathering God’ s gifts This text refers to the animals mentioned in the preceding verses. The birds and beasts are set forth by our Lord as examples of the providence of God. “ Your Heavenly Father feedeth them.” And perhaps to our minds they supply the most perfect illustration of dependence. God supplies their wants; He gives them everything; and if He did not feed them they would perish. Yet, though He gives all, they have to gather all. Not a mouthful does one of them get which it has not worked for. Now, there is a great principle of the Divine procedure here, which God observes not only in providence, but in grace. He gives, but we must gather. He is able to make His grace abound to us, so that we, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound unto every good work. It is this fulness of the Divine grace, accessible and available to us, that we must think of first when we are speaking about the deepening of the spiritual life. But the other side is not to be forgotten, or the good of it all may be lost--that which He giveth we must gather. Take even the illustration of the steam-engine. You say, What would the engine be without the steam? Yes; but what would the steam be without the engine? There was plenty of steam in the world before James Watt was born. But it was not gathered. Take another illustration. Here is a rifle, exquisitely constructed beautifully grooved inside, and with it cartridges made on the most scientific principles. You might look at it and moralize in this way: What a heavy thing; what a cold thing; how useless it would be to hit anything without the powder; it is the little thimbleful of gunpowder and the flash of fire by which everything is done. Now, this is perfectly true, and it illustrates a grand spiritual truth. It is the flash of fire from heaven that does all the execution in the wars of the Lord. Yet how important also is the other side of the truth. What would the powder be if it were not for the gun? Why, the puff of it would hardly singe a fly. It is when its force is gathered and packed close in the cartridge, and when the ball is directed on its course by the finely-grooved barrel, that it brings down the object at a thousand yards. God’ s power, I say, is often there; but we are not in a position to use it and to retain it. He gives, but we do not gather. This is a principle in Christian work of every kind. Mr. Moody has been going from town to town over Scotland. Now, if you meet the ministers of some of these towns a year hence, they may tell you that the meetings were very successful, the district was stirred, the churches were filled, and there were hundreds of inquirers. But it has not come to much. The results that have lasted are small. This may be true, but what is the reason of it? In many cases the reason, I believe, is this: God has given, but His servants have not gathered. It is the same with His work in our own souls. He blesses us, but we lose the blessing. For example, I hear a Christian complaining that he is cold and not growing in grace. But I take up his Bible and turn over its leaves. They are as clean as when they came from the printer, and here and there they are actually sticking together. The man might as well construct a zinc covering over the flower-bed in his garden, and then complain that the flowers are dying for want of rain. There is plenty of rain, but he has kept it away from the plants. Or I meet a young man or woman who is at that period of life when the mind is all awake and alive, reading books, acquiring scientific methods of research, and entering into the glorious heritage of the knowledge of the past. The man complains that he is not enjoying his Bible; and the fact is his Bible is distressing him. I ask him how he reads it, and he says, “ Oh, just as I have always done.” “ That is,” I say, “ you read a chapter a day, and you give five minutes to it?” “ Yes.” “ You never spend the time on it that you do on an ode of Horace or a paragraph of Thucydides; you never study a book of it as you would a play of Shakespeare?” “ Oh no, I never thought of such a thing.” “ Then no wonder you are getting no good out of your Bible. God’ s manna is there, but you are not gathering it.” (J. Stalker, D.D.) Psalms 104:29-30 Thou hidest Thy face, they are troubled: Thou takest away their breath, they die. Views of death I. Death disorganizes and destroys our corporeal frame. The words of the text merely announce the execution of the original sentence, “ Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.” II. Death puts an end to all worldly distinctions. Sometimes, indeed, they may appear to remain. One man is honoured with a splendid and imposing burial. Another has a blazoned monument erected over him. A third may have historians to record his name, and poets to sing his praise. And in contrast to all these, a fourth may be laid in the base earth, and have not even a stone to tell where he lies, and fade from the remembrance, almost as soon as he passes from the sight of that world, in which he did little more than toil, and weep, and suffer. But let your eye penetrate through those showy forms which custom, or affection, or vanity has thrown over the graves of departed mortals, and behold how the mightiest and the meanest lie side by side in one common undistinguished ruin. Receive, then, and practise the lesson which all this inculcates. It speaks to you who occupy distinguished situations in the world; and it says, Behold the nothingness of earthly grandeur, and power, and riches. Though elevated in station, be humble in spirit. The same fact speaks to you who are moving in the humble walks of life; to you it says, Why repine that you are not invested with the insignia of worldly greatness? III. Death terminates all labour and all pleasure under the sun. “ There is no work, nor wisdom, nor device, in the grave;” and “ as the tree falleth, so must it lie.” Let no good action be unnecessarily delayed, or carelessly performed. IV. Death dissolves the dearest and tenderest ties. V. Death blasts the fairest prospects of individuals, of families, and of nations. He teaches us to put no confidence in our own life, or in that of any of the sons or daughters of men. He teaches us to recollect how feeble are all our efforts, and how short-sighted are all our best-laid schemes, and how perishable are all our most sanguine hopes. VI. Death introduces us to judgment and to eternity. This is the most important view which we can take of it. (A. Thomson, D.D.) The death of animals Pain, suffering, and death, we know, may be of use to human beings. It may make them happier and better in this life, or in the life to come; if they are the Christians which they ought to be. But it seems, in the case of animals, to be only so much superfluous misery thrown away. Of the millions on millions of living creatures in the earth, the air, the sea, full one-half live by eating each other. In the sea, indeed, almost every kind of creature feeds on some other creature: and what an amount of pain, of terror, of violent death that means, or seems to mean! The Book of Genesis does not say that the animals began to devour each other at Adam’ s fall. It does not even say that the ground is cursed for man’ s sake now, much less the animals. For we read (Genesis 9:21). Neither do the psalmists and prophets give the least hint of any such doctrine. Surely, if we found it anywhere, we should find it in this psalm. But so far from saying that God has cursed His own works, or looks on them as cursed it says, “ The Lord shall rejoice in His works.” Consider, with respect and admiration, the manful, cheerful view of pain and death, and indeed of the whole creation, which the psalmist has, because he has faith. There is in him no sentimentalism, no complaining of God, no impious, or at least weak and peevish, cry of “ Why hast Thou made things thus?” He sees the mystery of pain and death. He does not attempt to explain it: but he faces it; faces it cheerfully and manfully, in the strength of his faith, saying--This too, mysterious, painful, terrible as it may seem, is as it should be; for it is of the law and will of God, from whom come all good things; of the God in whom is light, and in Him is no darkness at all. Therefore to the psalmist the earth is a noble sight; filled, to his eyes, with the fruit of God’ s works. And so is the great and wide sea likewise. He looks upon it; “ full of things creeping innumerable, both small and great beasts,” for ever dying, for ever devouring each other. And yet it does not seem to him a dreadful and a shocking place. What impresses his mind is just what would impress the mind of a modern poet, a modern man of science; namely, the wonderful variety, richness, and strangeness of its living things. Their natures and their names he knows not. It was not given to his race to know. It is enough for him that known unto God are all His works from the foundation of the world. But one thing more important than their natures and their names he does know; for he perceives it with the instinct of a true poet and a true philosopher--“ These all wait upon Thee,” etc. (C. Kingsley, M.A.) Life by respiration It has always been supposed that man’ s power to breathe lay primarily in the united action of heart, lungs and blood. But a recent scientist of recognized authority declares that this is not altogether the case. He asserts, and apparently proves it to the satisfaction of many scientific minds, that although heart, lungs and blood assist the act of breathing, and constitutes man’ s physical safeguard against suffocation, the actual breathing--i.e., the taking in of the oxygen and hydrogen of the atmosphere, is done by the living substance of the human body. Practically we breathe, so to speak, at every pore, and not simply by the elaborate parts hitherto looked upon as the only human agents of respiration. Plants and animals as well as men thus breathe through the living substances which severally compose them. And what is equally wonderful, perhaps, is that, as this authority declares, “ the mutual action of plants, animals and men upon the atmosphere in respiration is one of the most beautiful harmonies in nature.” What one gives off as waste product is taken up and utilized by the other. Truly “ we are fearfully and wonderfully made” ! (Homiletic Review.) Psalms 104:30 Thou sendest forth Thy Spirit, they are created.The breath of the Most High God The Holy Spirit is called the Breath of God, as being breathed out in a mysterious and marvellous way over His whole creation, but especially into the souls of reasonable beings, to make all in their several measure partakers of God and of happiness. The Holy Spirit is God secretly present, encompassing us about, entering into us, piercing even to the very depths of our being, like the air we breathe, unseen, but known by its effects. If this parable of Breath be well considered, it may seem to account for other like parables, so to call them, by which Holy Scripture teaches us how to think of this our most Holy Comforter. For instance, the Holy Spirit is sometimes compared to the wind, as in the discourse of our Saviour to Nicodemus: “ The wind bloweth where it listeth,” etc. Thus the wind, when we hear or feel it, may remind us of the Breath of Almighty God; and the effects of the wind, the clouds which it brings over the earth, the moisture which the air takes up, the dews which descend, the rains which pour down, the springs which gush out, the waters which flow over the earth; all these are in Scripture tokens of the same Spirit, showing Himself in gifts and sanctifying graces, and communicating spiritual life to His people. The Holy Ghost, one with the Father and the Son, as He is present in all His works, so is He ever in a peculiar manner abiding in those whom He has regenerated and made members of Jesus Christ,--out of sight, out of hearing, beyond all feeling or any outward sense, yet infinitely nearer and closer to every one of us than any of the things we do see, hear, or feel, or can make out by reasoning; ready at hand to all His faithful ones, at every moment of their dangerous and trying pilgrimage, to guide and comfort, to purify and refresll them. “ By Him we live, and move, and have our being,” as people of God. (Plain Sermons by Contributors to the Tracts for the Times.) Thou renewest the face of the earth.-- The Hebrew genius and the spring season There is a deep religious undertone in all the descriptions of nature which we owe to the Hebrew poets; there is little dwelling on the beauty of nature as it appeals to the imagination. With our modern poets the scenery is everything; the manifestation of the power, or presence, or goodness of God is nothing, or next to nothing. The Hebrew nature was too moral, too possessed with the idea of duty; of a great power overshadowing the life of man, putting His voice and mandate in the conscience within, aiding and abetting the good and destroying the evil, to give itself over wholly to the power of the beauty of the material world, to the enjoyment of purely scenic effects, to the indulgence of the imaginative or artistic faculties. It made imagination subordinate to conscience, a handmaid to wait upon and describe its intuitions, feelings, and voices; not a power that exists for its own ends or for its own self-indulgence. It is in harmony with this great characteristic of Hebrew poetry that the psalmist carries up the thought of the fertility and beauty of the spring season to the thought of God. There is no brooding on the singing birds, the bursting buds, the opening blossoms, the returning grass, the intermittent sunshine, the vernal showers, as if they had any satisfying charm in themselves. He sees them all in God, and prefers rather to look at them in and through the medium of the religious emotion, than as objects to be gazed at directly. The thought is not one of quiet resting upon the smiles in which the face of nature is wreathed, which is certainly that on which the genius of a modern poet would trove lingered; but rather that He who is the joy of the soul, the restorer of righteousness, the strength and stay of the upright, has been the great cause of this wonderful transformation from desolation to loveliness; and, therefore, that He and not it should be rejoiced in and thought of. And so we find that after a description of God’ s wonderful doings in the world the poet concludes,--as if that was what his review should lead up to (verses 33, 34). (James Forfar.) The parable of Spring Nature is God’ s mirror, in which the “ invisible things of Him” can be “ clearly seen.” Spring is God’ s parable, in which He speaks as the Saviour did when He turned our attention to the lilies of the field. I. In the world around, and in the world within, there is a change which only the Creator’ s power can bring about. Nature apart from God is but a name. The truth may be used as an instrument, the chances and changes of life may be pressed into service, and the ministries of pastors, teachers, and parents may be employed; but after all we have to say, “ Thou renewest.” It is only “ He that “ sitteth” upon the throne that can say, “ Behold, I make all things new.” II. Like the renewal of the face of the earth, the spiritual renewal is often gradual and without clearly marked stages. We do not trouble about the almanack when we see the bursting blossoms and hear the song of birds. And you need not trouble as to how the “ beauty of holiness” came to you, or when the “ new song” was put into your mouth; it is enough that you sing and make melody in your heart unto the Lord, and that the new life is yours. III. In both cases God’ s renewing work seems oft retarded by hindrances, and proceeds by way of removing things unsuitable. Buds of promise may be nipped, flowers of grace may be withered, fruits of holiness may be retarded in their ripening; but He who worketh hitherto will work, He will not “ fail nor be discouraged,” for the fulness of the Spirit is with Him. (T. Hind.) Voices of the spring I. The Divine existence and presence with us in His works. “ All His works praise Him,” but the works He is now working in such profusion around us sing to Him the sweetest song of all the year. They sing it not only to Him, but to us. They tell us He is near; that the living earth is a fair new robe of the living present God. II. The Divine faithfulness. Every spring is with God the keeping of covenant (Genesis 8:22). That is the general promise, and how true He is in the keeping of it! He is, as it were, conducting an argument as to His own fidelity. The argument is increscent and cumulative. It grows in length and strength year by year. The green fields to-day make it stronger than ever it was before. It will be stronger next year than it is to-day, although to-day it is strong enough for the trust of all the world. III. God’ s great goodness. It is not merely that He made a certain promise four thousand years ago, and must keep it. It is that He made the promise and loves to keep it. IV. Divine tenderness. Did God raise with His own hand that flower on its stem, with all those rich minglings of colour? Then He must love beauty. Did He call out in the grass and buds and flowers that exceeding delicacy of texture, that softness almost ethereal, which will vanish if you touch it, which seems to quiver almost if you draw near? Then God must be very tender Himself. The tenderest and dearest things we have we can bring to Him--our wounded feelings, our trembling hopes, our brightest joys, our children when they are sick, or when they are seeking salvation, our own souls when they are all sensibility--all these we may bring to Him whose mercy is “ tender” mercy, whose kindness is “ loving” kindness, who “ pitieth” them that fear Him, and who gives new proof of His tenderness, love, and pity every spring. V. A voice of good cheer to all who are serving God faithfully, and seeking good ends for themselves or for others, although as yet with little apparent result. For when does it come? Immediately after the winter. The darkest, bleakest, deadest season of all the year is followed by the freshest and most reviving, as if to show us every year anew that nothing is impossible with God. VI. A voice winch sounds away into the far future, and foretells “ the time of the restitution of all things.” God, in renewing the face of the earth, seems to give us a visible picture and bright image of that blessed moral renovation which is coming in the fulness of the time. If you were in the country you could not fail to be struck with the universality of the vegetative power, and with its resistlessness. You would see it everywhere--climbing up to highest places, and blooming down in lowly dells, invading the most hidden spots, embracing with its green arms the roughest rocks, healing the scars of winter. A type, I say, of the universality of the springtime of the world, when it comes. It will be everywhere. VII. Another voice--giving announcement of the general resurrection from the dead. VIII. Another voice tells us that all our earthly time is the spring season of our existence. Every day we are sowing. And we must sow on to the end. To a certain extent we are reapers too, but summer prime and harvest wealth are not here. (A. Raleigh, D.D.) Spring I. Let us go forth into the field to meditate: meditation is often better than books. Our own thoughts will do us much more good than the opinions of others. Danger often attends our perusal of the works of men; but there is no hazard in pursuing knowledge among the works of God. II. It becomes us not only to observe nature, but to observe it devotionally, and as Christians. There is a difference between our studying them as mere admirers and philosophers, and applying them as men formed by Divine grace for a life of communion with God. See a Christian among the works of nature. He looks after God in all--for He needs Him in all: and be is enabled to find Him. Though familiar with the effect, he does not disregard the cause. He also makes them images to remind him of better things. The rising sun brings to his thoughts “ the Sun of Righteousness arising with healing under His wings” ; a flowing spring, the influence of the Holy Ghost; the rain and the dew, the doctrine of the Gospel. Thus, by a holy chemistry, he extracts heaven from earth. III. Let us observe and adore this wonder-working God in renewing the face of the earth. How many times has He done this since the creation! He does it every year. Let us remember, that He who renews the face of the earth, can renew the Church. Think of any particular cause--however depressed, He can revive it; however small, He can increase it. He can also renew the soul. We read of the “ renewing of the Holy Ghost” ; and of being “ renewed in the spirit of our minds.” Thus “ God beautifies the meek with salvation” ; and the change in nature is an imperfect representation of the change made in the soul by Divine grace. (W. Jay.) Spring a symbol of spiritual renewal The seasons have a moral contagion in them. The autumn breathes upon us a spirit of pensiveness, producing a sweet sadness because of the spirit of change add decay that rests upon all beautiful things. The spring, however, breathes upon us the spirit of hope and promise. There is the influence of new beginnings, new energies, and new efforts. I. The springtide is a period of restored vital energy. Life is starting from every pore of Nature. The whole face of the earth heaves and throbs with an exhaustless tide of life. Every spot teems with new existence. We are impressed with the infinite affluence of the “ Fountain of life.” Spring is really a new display of God’ s presence and power--a renewal which comes from the putting forth of Divine energy. And what He does in the natural world He also does in the spiritual realm. There are times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord--veritable springtimes--which come both to the Church and to the individual soul. For such times we should pray, and expect them to come. A time of depression and barrenness should be succeeded by a time of new life and new spiritual energy. II. The springtide is a period of renewed and buoyant activity. Restored vitality must put on new forms of activity. It is only natural that where there is real life there should be vigorous effort. III. The springtide is a period of restored beauty. The beauty of the Lord is upon the face of nature, and that beauty is as fresh and full as if there had never been a springtide before. The minutest form of life has its wonder and beauty in structure, form, and hue. Beautiful, too, is the boundless variety and distribution of the whole. “ The earth is full of Thy riches,” and these are true riches, because they bring a wealth of life; they minister energy, beauty and joy to every living creature. What is the Gospel of Christ but the intention of God to impart to our life and character the beauty of holiness, the beauty of God’ s own being? The work of the Spirit is to produce in us meekness, gentleness, patience, charity--all of which go to form real loveliness of life. The springtime should have a message and influence for us on this part of our life. IV. The springtide is a period of renewed joy and hope. (G. Avery.) Spring life I. Hidden life. II. Quiet life. As we pass out of the striving town, with its trampling feet and rumbling vehicles, ringing hammers and roaring machinery, into the country, what a contrast we find! We hear the buzz of many insects, the music of many birds, and the occasional bleat of sheep and low of cattle; but this only serves to emphasize the prevalent stillness. The trees, grass and flowers do their work in absolute silence. But what a change is wrought in a few weeks or even a few days. There is life in a factory, where men are hurrying about with bared arms and spindles are flying and wheels are whirring, but the life is just as deep and full in the quietly springing grass and the noiselessly opening flowers. So applying this thought to spiritual things--there may be life in the Salvation Army barracks, but there may be life also in a Quakers’ meeting. Noise, fire, smoke, are not the only signs of life: as life is strong and rich, it tends to become subdued. The brook babbles and makes a great noise, but it is very shallow, and there are only little minnows in it; the river sweeps along in silence, but it is deep and full of varied life. III. Beautiful life. It goes without saying that the spring life is beautiful. Firm Christian principles are a good stout trunk, stern moral qualities are good sturdy branches, Christian graces are the leaves, and blossoms, and fruit, which adorn life’ s tree with beauty. IV. Constant life. The origin of life is an insoluble problem for science. If you give the scientific man a bit of protoplasm, he will build you up any creature whatever in an astonishing manner, but he cannot bridge over the gulf between life and no life. Years since, however, the psalmist could account for the origin of life, “ Thou sendest forth Thy Spirit,” etc. The corn which waved in the fields last autumn is gathered in and consumed or soon will be, so the fruit; the winter has killed off thousands of birds and animals, human creatures are continually ending their days. You see where this would soon lead us. But presently the blade will shoot through the ground and again the fields will be laden with golden corn, and the trees with fruit. Young birds will come from their nests to take the place of those dead. The human family is not only maintained but increases. Life is like a lake with an outflow at one end, but at the other end there is a stream continually flowing in. The life of the world is continually renewed. The trees which yielded you apples last year, have come under the sleep of winter, but they will yield you apples this year; the bush from which you gathered roses last year will yield you roses this year. And as spring after spring, the face of the earth is renewed, so is it in God’ s Church. (T. Pitt.) Lessons from the spring 1. It bids us be content and patient, and believe that God has never forgotten any of our need; that His care and providence girdle our lives everywhere. 2. It fills us with joy and gladness, and bids us break away from the spell of dark moods and rejoice with all nature when “ the mountains and hills break forth into singing, and all the trees of the field clap their hands.” 3. It teaches us, by the objects of tenderness and beauty which it places everywhere before our eye, to make our own lives beautiful, and to excite nobler tastes and simpler emotions in the minds of our fellow-creatures. 4. But the one I would most impress upon you is reverence for the buds. Cherish your worthiest purposes and impulses as most sacred things. Do not think lightly of even your loftiest dreams and imaginings of a perfect and holy life. They will come to fruitage. They will be presently realities. Here on earth you will see many of them translated into fact, and you have a hope beyond earth. (A. J. Griffith.) The lessons of spring I. A proof of our entire dependence upon God. By a suspension of His power He might in a moment stop the varied mechanism of nature; or, by applying that power in a different way, He might produce the very opposite of the expected and desired results. Now let us only reflect how fatal would be the consequences should spring altogether cease, or should it even for any length of time delay its coming. Let the frost of winter continue to bind the earth in its iron fetters: let its snows continue to fall, its cold to blast, and its feeble sun to struggle in vain with the ice-bound fields; and then the seed which was intended to produce a future harvest must remain unscattered; the hopes of the husbandman must give place to despair; plenty must soon be exchanged for famine. II. Spring as emblematic of misery followed by happiness. It is but a very limited experience any of us can have of the progress of the cause of righteousness during our stay upon the earth; but when we look back on the centuries which are past, and consider the advancement which has undoubtedly been made, we see enough to persuade us that the world’ s winter is surely, though slowly, passing away, and that even now we may be treading on the confines of its promised and expected spring. III. Spring as emblematic of a coming resurrection. IV spring as emblematic of youth. The husbandman, we know, is fully alive to the duty and necessity of diligently employing the days, and even the hours, of spring. If he trifle or loiter in spring, it will be vain that he is active and industrious in summer. Now, the point of analogy in this respect between youth and spring is plain, and it should suggest a most important lesson both to parents and children. It warns all parents that if they neglect their children when young, no future efforts will compensate for the loss. (A. Roberts, D.D.) Spring I. Spring, in the simple fact of its return, proclaims to the world God’ s faithfulness. Our tendency is to forget this. Because we know something of the way God gathers the rain into the chambers of the clouds, we are apt to forget that it is the gift of God; because we have learnt something about the growth of corn in the furrows, we almost forget that the harvest is from God; because we have heard that the earth revolves upon an axis, and that spring, like everything else, is produced by adequate means, we are in danger of saying, It is no gift; it is nothing to be thankful for. There is no benevolence in it whatever. Let us not thus deny the great Father’ s love, but as we mark that God’ s method is orderly, let us the more adore His wisdom, and bless His faithful, fatherly care. II. Spring instructs us as to the manner of God’ s working. God works not as man works. Man must display his power, must blow a trumpet before him when about to perform some great work. Not so God. With the quietness that belongs to strength; with the gentleness, the noiselessness, the secrecy that pertains to mightiest power, He has wrought the wondrous change. His working has been silent as the fall of dew, it has been gradual as the dawn, it has been tender, yet mighty, as the light. III. Spring proclaims that God is a lover of beauty. IV. Spring teaches us by its profusion the infinite wealth of God’ s resources. Power, wisdom, beneficence, seem to have spent themselves upon the earth’ s teeming life. No ocean tide has ever rolled in upon its shore so proudly, so grandly, so full in volume, as the tide of life that has now touched our world. No thoughtful mind can watch it without awe! (H. Wonnacott.) Springtime: Divine renewal I. God in the renewal of nature. Canon Mozley bids us think of nature both as labouring as a machine, and as sleeping as a picture--to regard its uses, and its impressions. In both these aspects we may regard the Divine renewal of the earth.1. As working secret causes of change in the revolution both of the earth and of the whole solar system that has its effect in making one primrose blow. 2. As effecting a change in the appearance of things making the earth’ s “ face” express Life, Love, and Joy. II. God in the renewal of man. His work here is illustrated by His work in nature.1. There is secret work at hidden causes--repentance, regeneration. 2. There is the effecting of change in outward appearance, the character, like the spring, has Life, Love. Joy. For illustration of this look-- (1) At the individual. Natural childhood and youth is a renewal of the face of the earth. The buddings of childhood’ s intellect, the bursting forth of youthful love. The beginnings of spiritual life. The glory of God seen by any soul in the face of Jesus Christ awakens new life in that soul. In raising to immortal life after death. That is the renewal of which spring sings to us in graveyards and cemeteries. (2) At the race. As flowers and fields seek the sun, we may all say to Christ, “ All men seek for Thee.” In the time of the restitution of all things it may be said literally, sung gloriously, “ Thou renewest the face of the earth.” (U. R. Thomas.) God’ s renewals I. The power of God. What power there is displayed in making the trees and plants grow forth from the ground! So little is this power within the power of man that, until he saw it, he could not suspect such a thing. And not only in growth itself, but in the shape and feature of the growth, there are equal marks of the power of God. When the seed grows, it grows according to certain fixed laws, and those laws cannot be changed. They may be enlarged, but not altered. This power is none the less apparent in the variety in each species. How weak, how powerless is man in this sphere again! Even if he had creative power, could he create? Would he not have to copy servilely from what he saw? Could he make a blade of grass or a leaf of a tree so distinct that there should be no other blade of grass, no other leaf of a tree exactly like it? Could he even imagine how it should be done, much less do it? II. The goodness of God. God foresees for us. He is never in a hurry; He is never after His time. God begins His provision in spring, that we may have it in due time in the autumn. And how richly does He provide! How ungrudgingly! How equally! He sends the sun to flood the whole world with its life-giving beams. And He gives not only necessary food, but enjoyment and luxury He gives not only bread to strengthen man’ s heart, but wine to make his heart glad, and oil to make him a cheerful countenance. He scatters enjoyments in every sphere; for every sense He finds delight. III. The beauty of God. When we look into the face of nature, now all renewed, do we not trace some of the Divine features of the great Creator arid Renewer? And oh, if this beauty can be traced in this fallen nature, how much more could it be traced in unfallen Eden! (E. Browne, M.A.) Contemplations in the spring of the year I. What a diversity of animation surrounds me! What a stirring and bustling! Everything in motion, above, below, in the air and on the ground! How powerfully everything is at work, within itself and without, through all and upon all! Yes, the vivifying energy of nature, or rather of the Author of nature, is ever new, ever active, is inexhaustible! Oh let us adore this eternal, never-failing source of life! Thence we may draw eternal life and the fulness of joy! If. The order of nature is invariable. It is therefore a constant, speaking witness to the being of God, His superintendence over all, His providential care for all, His vital influence in all. He is and works on all sides; in the scarcely visible moss as in the tall and stately cedar, in the mite as in the eagle, in the creeping worm as in the spirit that worships before the throne of His glory. And where He is and works, there is order, connection, harmony, beauty, perfection; there is the most accurate correspondence between ends and means. III. Joy and happiness is the final aim of all the revolutions and phenomena in nature, of all the regulations which God has established. Whichever way ye turn, do ye not now walk in a paradise of delights? And what salutes your ear on all sides but sounds of mirth and exultation, the celebration of the grand festival of nature? IV. Innocent, sedate enjoyment of nature, and profound inward adoration of the God of nature are the most honourable and pleasing occupations. Yes, this is enjoyment, unalloyed, truly worthy of the man, which never draws after it either surfeit or repentance. Thou art the priest of nature, O man, and the temple of thy God, the gorgeous fabric of the universe is everywhere filled with votaries, who ask thy ministration. V. The renovation and embellishment of the face of the earth, the resuscitation of the life of nature is a glorious type of the future renovation and perfection of the human race, Of the general resurrection of the dead to the superior life. What a scene of most astonishing revolutions and transformations! What diversity of life and enjoyment of life, of thoughts never yet conceived and emotions never yet imagined! What a harvest from the sowing of all ages, of all the thousands of years that have elapsed since the first to the last of mortals! What a glorious unravelment of all that appears to us now mysterious and incomprehensible in the ways of Providence and the fortunes of mankind! (G. J. Zollikofer, D. D.) A spring homily I. Spring is an awakening. So is the turning of a soul to God. It was a soul asleep; it is a soul awake. It is opening its eye on a new world, a new time, new thoughts, new possibilities, a blessed new life. II. Spring is a manifestation of life. How full, how manifold is this new life in a converted soul! Thoughts which came and went without God before, are now alive with God. Hear how the birds are singing in the actual woods! That is nothing to the song of a soul on whom the spring of a new life has descended. See how the verdure hastens to clothe the naked branches of the trees! That is nothing to the glory which decks the hitherto bare and dead powers of a converted soul. See how the fields are aglow with flowers! That is nothing to the beauties of holiness in a regenerated soul. Oh, the joy of spring! Oh, the better joys of conversion! Oh, the newness, the freshness, the deliciousness of the hum of the singing of birds! Oh, the more blessed newness, freshness, and deliciousness of a soul attuned by grace to God! The summer which follows spring is not more truly a natural sequence of spring, than holiness, trust, love, righteousness, prayer, joy in the Holy Ghost are natural outcomes of the awakening we name conversion. Why is this not always experienced? Because we will not believe the truth of God, and will not taste and see that God is good: because we refuse to be filled with the Spirit, and are slack to go in and possess the land. III. Spring is a gateway. It is the gateway to the harvest--seedtime first, then harvest. At the gateway of the year, a promise; at the end, fulfilment. A gateway!--A way into the King’ s highway; a way to bread and wine, and milk and honey; a way to joy and wealth, and labour and the reward of labour. Wordsworth speaks of “ the harvest of a quiet eye.” But every new-born faculty in the life of the converted gathers a harvest for itself. The life becomes fruitful; and the several powers of life bring forth fruit to God. In every form, and along every line by which it comes, we owe to Christ the renewal of life, which leads to these harvests of the soul. His blood was the price He paid for our joys. The death that was ours, He took upon Himself, that we might become the heirs of the life that is His. (A. Macleod, D.D.) The spiritual aspects of spring I. As a revelation of God.1. The profuseness of His vital energy.2. His wonderful tastefulness.3. The calm ease with which He carries on His work.4. The regularity of His procedure. II. As the emblem of human life. Both in spring and in human life--1. There are vast capabilities of improvement.2. There is remarkable changeability.3. There are many fallacious promises.4. There is nothing that can substitute for the present. III. As a symbol of moral renovation. The new spiritual life is like the spring--1. In the season from which it has emerged.2. In the tenacity with which the past seeks to maintain its hold.3. In that it tends to a perfect future. IV. As a type of the general resurrection.1. A resuscitation.2. A resuscitation from apparently extinct life.3. A resuscitation against which many antecedent objections might have been raised. (Homilist.) The message of the springtime From the dawn of literature, poets have sung the praises of the spring. Chaucer, the earliest of the great English poets, tells us that nothing could take him from his studies “ Save certeynly whan that the monethe of May Is comen, and that I here the foules synge, And that the floures gynnen for to sprynge, Fairewel my boke and my devocioun.” So also Wordsworth sings-- “ To me the meanest flower that blows can give Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears.” But whether we are poets or not we may yield ourselves to the gentle influences of the spring. How welcome it is after the ice-bound winter. You may see the welcome on many a pale face and in the weary eyes of the invalid to whom it will be the coining of a new life. You may hear it in the happy laughter of children who can now go out to play in the meadows and to gather cowslips by the river’ s brim. Spring has the peculiar charm of anticipation. It is like the rosebud to the rose. Not the tired dusty veteran laying his weapons down, but the young and ardent soldier buckling on his armour for the war. Spring is the truest emblem of childhood, and childhood is a springtime which is always with us if we look for it. There is always a new world in the cradle and in the playground. A new generation travels across the planet every thirty years. It is the merciful provision of God by which He stirs up the stagnant pool of our thought and interest. It would be sad indeed if we saw around us the evidences of the mighty power of God in nature, if we felt that sinful and guilty men were like dead branches which nettling could renew. But the Word we preach is a gospel of infinite hope. The infinite love of God, the mercy of a Saviour, and the power of the Spirit hover around the hardest heart and the most deified life seeking to renew and cleanse and to impart the Eternal and Heavenly Life. “ Thou renewest the face of the earth,” but it is only a renewal and a repetition of those forms of life which have appeared year after year and age after age. They seem new to us and no doubt culture does introduce some fresh varieties, but practically we look upon the same world as the psalmist did when he wrote these words. And to apply the analogy to human life, we find that there is no new thing under the sun.” They were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage in the days of Noah when the flood came upon the earth, and so will it be when the Son of Man shall come. “ Thou renewest the face of the earth,” but it is only the face. The earth itself remains the same. The ripples pass over the face of the great deep. It may even roll in great billows, but beneath is the undisturbed ocean. So while there are processes wrought by raging fires in the heart of the earth which we know little about, while a lonely rock is upheaved or sunk suddenly here and there in some lonely sea, the general configuration of mountain and plain, land and water is unchanged. Or if we go down through the earth’ s crust we find that the geological strata were formed long before the historic period. Granite was still granite, coal was still coal chalk was chalk, and the old red sandstone was still there. Or to carry it further back, the ultimate elements of matter wore the same as now and subject to the same laws. In exactly the same way, while the face of human life is renewed, in its depths it is very old. If we measure it intellectually, it has never varied. None of our inventions can add a single ounce to the human brain, or a single capacity to the human mind. We know better how to use the forces of light and heat and electricity, but if we go back to the age which knew none of these things we find teachers as wise, thinkers as subtle, and poets as sublime as those of to-day. The moral and spiritual needs of man are unchanged. Sin and sorrow and death cast their shadow on his path; he is a victim to the same fears; he is facing the religious problems of 3,000 years ago; he lives in the same wonderful relation to the unseen; his most urgent cry is still for God. Therefore the world can never outgrow the answer which Christ offers to its cry. Every age, every condition and period of life may rest upon the rock, which is Christ, just as the wintry ice and the spring flowers rest upon the same substratum of earth. (J. H. Shakespeare, M.A.) The feeling for nature In experiencing the rapture of spring, not a few of the excellent rejoice with trembling. They are hardly sure if those who desire to walk close with God should permit themselves to delight in nature. Indifference to earthly beauty has so long been regarded as an almost indispensable condition of viewing the heavenly glory that their hesitation is hardly surprising. The monk who on his journey down the Rhine shut his eyes lest the beauty of the scene should steal away his heart from God was by no means singular in his strange notion. Our Puritan forefathers are charged with holding a somewhat similar view. Possibly by their prohibition of the celebrations of May-day and other festivals of the seasons they may have done something to impair the feeling for nature. Though, truly, if the price to be paid for its cultivation is the restoration of the unrestrained and licentious revels of the Middle Ages, we had better continue without it. But more is due to the attitude which their ideal of the religious life caused them to assume. It is enshrined in Bunyan’ s “ Pilgrim’ s Progress.” This world lies in the wicked one. In it the Christian is a stranger and a pilgrim. To participate in the joys and pleasures of this world is to delay his progress to the loved eternal city, and even to jeopardize his final entrance into it. Even though nature should display parts of God’ s ways, there was the clearer and fuller revelation of the Scripture and in Christ. Seeing then that that which is perfect is come, where is the wisdom of troubling about that which is in part? A yet more considerable factor is to be found in the philosophic view of God then current. Deism held the field. God was practically outside His universe. Creation displayed the skill of the Creator in the mechanical adaptation of means to end. Design was utilitarian, the design of a carpenter making a tool. Against this hard and unsympathetic presentation of God, those who loved Nature for her own sake, and felt that she was not a machine, but was throbbing with life, revolted with their whole heart; the notion of such a God they flung away, and, like Shelley, proclaimed themselves Atheists. Thereupon also rose a new school of investigation of nature, the standpoint and earlier conclusions of which seemed to run counter to the current interpretation of Scripture. So it came to pass that in earnest Christian circles research into nature was deprecated as likely to result in the abandonment of the Evangelical faith and the denial of God. But times are changing. Denizens of the crowded cities, with their restricted field of vision, their unpleasing and unnatural objects of sight, and their unwholesome atmosphere, begin to cry out against such cruel bondage of their elemental feeling, and to long for open spaces and green swards, for woodland and hill, for stream and valley, for singing birds and the sounds of the country. On grounds of both tradition and tendency, therefore, a somewhat timid and tepid enthusiasm for nature would seem the path of discretion. But is there really sufficient cause for such a position? Indifference to nature is not, and never has been, of itself a sign of spirituality, neither is a quickened pulse in the spring the proof of total depravity. Surely, of all men in the world, the people of God should be most sensitive to the works of God. Those who know Him most intimately should be in closest accord with all that He has created and made. The children of the Old Covenant, as well as the nation that knew not Israel’ s God, celebrated the great epochs of the year with festival and sacrifice. They waved the firstfruits of the earth’ s increase, and gave thanks for the completed harvest, rejoicing before the Lord in their feast. Search the literature of any nation or any period, and you will find it hard even to equal the appreciation of the majesty, the beauty and the manifold wonder of the works of God as shown in many of the Psalms. I say it reverently--What a Child of Nature was the Lord Jesus Christ. How He delighted in the country and loved the fresh air. His discourses are redolent of the open field. Is it not indeed truer to say that to understand nature you must be a learner of Christ? The more fully you know Him and the power of His resurrection, the more fully nature will yield to you her secrets and increase your pure delight in her companionship. To an inconsiderable degree the new feeling for nature is itself the outcome of the Evangelical Revival. That is the true order. See God in Christ, and you have the key that unlocks the mystery of God everywhere. Already the Christian lives in a new heaven and a new earth; not merely in anticipation, but in experience. “ If any man be in Christ, there is a new creation, old things pass away, behold all things become new,” the old world along with them. The world on which he now looks forth all speaks to him of the Father. Despite the sin and the darkness, he obtains joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing flee away. (F. L. Wiseman.) The message of the spring One need not be a nature student to be conscious of the charm of spring. The town dweller misses much of its glory, but no less than the more fortunate countryman he feels its genial and irresistible spell. Nevertheless, in springtime the country draws. The restriction of one’ s vision by the long and tedious rows of houses is never so irksome as then; nor the roar of the traffic, the clang of the bell, and the vulgar hoot of the motor-car ever so irritating. One longs for a wide and uninterrupted prospect, and the rich colours of the young grass and the bursting foliage. But the Christian, while he delights in the spring for what it is in itself, delights in it still more for what it suggests. He looks beyond the picture to the painter, through the music to the composer, through the work to the worker, through nature to nature’ s God, and his attitude is one not of mere sensual enjoyment, or even of intelligent appreciation of wondrous wisdom and skill, bug of adoring gratitude, and glad and thankful worship. “ All Thy works praise Thee, O God, and Thy saints give thanks unto Thee.” It is no part of my present business to discuss how far nature witnesses to the existence of God, or what is the character of the God whom it reveals. To these questions the Christian has found the answer elsewhere. In the Gospel he has learnt to trust and rejoice in the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. To him, therefore, the witness of nature is not evidential, however clearly it may pronounce upon the great ultimate facts, nor even corroborative, although such might, at times, be highly serviceable, but rather is illustrative. He has seen God in Jesus Christ, and that same God he now sees everywhere present and active. Like the Gospel, the spring is always new. It is a somewhat saddening reflection, but as true as it may be disheartening, that novelty quickly wears away. There is nothing to which we do not get accustomed by use and repetition. But spring, though it never fails to appear at the set time, retains its freshness. Previous experiences, far from removing its charm, seem only to heighten the wonder of its appearance. This very year they have found more gladness in the blossoming trees, in the primroses and daffodils, in the song of the birds and the gambols of the lambs, than ever before! How like the Gospel of the grace of God! That, too, is always fresh. Again, how suggestively spring reminds us of the great saving truths of the Gospel, every year setting before us the great Gospel facts of birth into a new environment, death, resurrection, and glorification. I am not contending that the analogy is perfect, or that it “ proves” anything. There is no death, hints the spring, but re-birth, resurrection, abundant life. Christ hath abolished death and brought life and immortality to light. Think once more how the spring sets its seal to the Christian doctrine of God as Father. I do not say that it reveals the Father--Christ does that. But when you have learnt the fact from Christ, you see therein, also, the attributes of a Father. What Fidelity is here, what Power, what Bounty, what Beauty! The God of the spring-tide is a Covenant-keeping God. Seedtime and harvest have never failed. He cannot lie. He abideth faithful. And what power is here! Brother Laurence goes into the field in the winter, and, “ seeing a tree stripped of its leaves, and considering that within a little time its leaves would be renewed, and after that the flowers and fruit appear, received a high view of the providence and power of God, which has never since been effaced from his soul.” Which brings me to my last thought, the peculiarly Christian qualities inspired by the spring. It is preeminently the season of joy and gladness, that sentiment so characteristic of “ the spring of souls.” It strongly inculcates the abiding Christian qualities, faith, hope, love. Who but finds his faith reinforced through contemplating the works of this covenant-keeping God of grace? (F. L. Wiseman.) Spring an image of youth The newness, liveliness, fair appearance, exuberance of the vital principle, rapid growth--such are the flattering points of likeness. But there are also less pleasing resemblances--the frailty and susceptibility, so peculiarly liable to fatal injury from inauspicious influences, blights and diseases. Those who have to watch over infancy, childhood, and early youth, can often see, in smitten plants and flowers, the emblems of what they have to fear for their charge. As in spring, the weeds, the useless and noxious vegetables, the offensive or venomous animals thrive as well as the useful and salutary productions; and that too, not only without attention to assist them, but in spite of efforts to repress or extirpate them. How many a rich bloom of the trees comes to nothing! How many a field of corn promising in the blade, disappoints in the harvest! Under this point of the analogy, the vernal human beings are a subject for pensive, for almost melancholy contemplation. There is one specially instructive point of resemblance. Spring is the season for diligent cultivation; so is youth. What if the spring were suffered to go past without any cares or labours of husbandry! But see how the parallel season of human life is, in numberless instances, consumed away under a destitution of the discipline requisite to form a rational being to wisdom, goodness, and happiness. It may be added, as one more point in this parallel, that the rapid passing away of the peculiar beauty of spring gives an emblem of the transient continuance of the lively and joyous period of human life. (J. Foster.) The Holy Spirit’ s continuous energy Here we learn that, while death is incessantly destroying the numerous forms of animal and vegetable life, and decomposition reducing them to unorganized matter, the Holy Spirit is constantly supplying a power which replenishes the wastes of nature, and thus renews the face of the earth with successive generations. This vital energy, though, like gravitation, it is unseen, is everywhere present, everywhere active and efficient. Without it all animal existence would soon perish, and be reduced to unorganized matter; but it is the Divine idea and purpose that the ravages of death and dissolution should be counteracted by a perpetual reviviscence of dead matter, and the Holy Spirit’ s vitalizing energy, everywhere present and everywhere active, doth accomplish this, and thereby He perpetually “ reneweth the face of the earth.” Without the Spirit’ s reproductive energy, death would bring universal ruin in a single generation; but the Spirit’ s reviving energy arresteth death and disorder, replenishing the earth with continuous life, and clothing it with endless forms of animation and beauty. Moreover, the Spirit’ s vitalizing and reproducing energy, in thus neutralizing the ravages of death and disorder, is accompanied by a conserving power which displays His presence and agency in all organized existence. I select one evidence of this--that of instinct. It is evidence of mind, yea, of a high order of mind, and of one presiding and directing mind, everywhere present and everywhere active, pervading every creature, great or small, in earth, air, or ocean. What, then, is this invisible, intangible, inaudible, and ubiquitous presence? If not in the creatures themselves as an attribute of their own nature, it must be in the all-wise beneficent Creator; and their Creator is, as we have seen before, God the Holy Spirit. It is He who in the beginning moved upon the dark chaotic mass of matter and formed it into order and beauty; it is He who hath garnished the heavens and preserved them in constant harmony and grandeur; it is He who continually “ reneweth the face of the earth” by His vitalizing energy; and it is He who thus conserves the creatures He has made, by unerringly directing them to perform those remarkable functions which indicate a wisdom not in themselves, and which therefore directs the thoughtful observer to a source higher than the creatures, to that Infinite Source from which all good is derived. (W. Cooke, D. D.) Psalms 104:31 The Lord shall rejoice in His works. God’ s joy in His works With the spirit in which the psalmist penned these words, it may be, we have too infrequent and imperfect familiarity. Compelled to frequent acquaintance with grief, we may find the avenues of joy not sufficiently opened up to us. I. Consider then these “ works of the Lord” which rejoice Him. Some of them rejoice us, when we see their use, their beauty, their perfectness. There is a treasure of satisfaction in some of the commonest works of God: they need little interpreting, they speak their own and their Maker’ s praise. How they transcend in perfectness all the exactness of art; how orderly are all their encircling movements, rebuking the waywardness of our fickle endeavours; how unselfish is their aim; how lavish their bounty. Nothing purposeless, however incomprehensible to us; nothing without some special mission to accomplish; all depending upon the one loving Will by which they were called into being. II. But nature’ s glory and meaning need interpreting. It may be said that this is the poet’ s office. Not quite so, although we justly celebrate our Hebrew bards. Theirs was a real inspiration. The creations of the poet differ in character from the visions of the spiritual seer. And it is not alone to the gifted that this insight comes. Not as the songs written out of the soul of the age do I regard the various rhapsodies of inspired penmen. There must be some deep underlying basis of authority for the pledges their words give us. We are charged by them to believe that the works of God are all tending to some grand issues; that God has given to man to be nature’ s lord, so that we must take into our thought what God is doing for him, to read rightly the purpose of all creation. And, to know the secret of nature, we must know the mystery of human life and its apparent failures. The groans of creation await the glory to be revealed in the sons of God. As the ages revolve, they bring all created life nearer to its goal. The throes of the past and the present need to be read in conjunction with the final development and harmony, when the many “ works” shall be as one grand work of the Divine Artificer. Faith is not only a struggle against appearances; faith is also a broad generalization, which looks to the ultimate end of all things, and can sing in sympathy with the spirit of the psalmist: “ The Lord shall rejoice in His works.” Must we not look to manhood if we would understand infancy? III. What about the glory and the joy of God in relation to those works and ways which it is the special function of the Christian teacher to unfold and illustrate? Before His presence shall stand dove-like peace, gentle charity, chaste innocence, meek faith, and patient hope, in all the lovely forms they have assumed; here, in maiden modesty and sweetness; there, in martyred truth and righteousness; here, in youthful consecration caught up with its dews flesh upon it; there, in mature devoutness sprinkled over with the snows of venerable age; here, childlike lives, mere buds of moral loveliness taken to blossom amid winterless scenes; there, lives of quiet beauty, readily passed by amid the loud cry for sensational piety. All these form but part of His manifold works, over which, as treasures safely gathered, He will breathe the eternal spirit of unutterable peace; and in which, discerning His reflected image, He will rejoice. Fruits these of His redeeming grace, trophies of His all-conquering mercy, for eternal rejoicing. (G. J. Proctor.) Psalms 104:32 He looketh on the earth, and it trembleth. God can shake the world Earthquakes certainly teach us that human existence in this world is entirely dependent upon God. Probably no natural experience impresses the mind as completely with the sense of utter insecurity. A traveller in South America gives a graphic account of his own helplessness during one of these terrible convulsions. He was in the street when the ground began to rock under his feet. His first impulse was to seek refuge inside a house, and it tumbled into ruins before him. He turned toward the shore, and there was the sea tossing and foaming as if in a storm. He glanced at the hills, but even they were shaken like trees with the wind. All he could do was to stand still, and look towards heaven, which alone was unmoved amidst the upheavings of the globe. He did well, for in God only is perfect safety. All other refuges save His mercy and power are refuges of lies. But none need fear whom He protects. One gladly recalls the remark of the good old lady mentioned by Mr. Spurgeon in a sermon. When her neighbours were in mortal terror, owing to certain vibrations of the ground,, she remained quite calm. “ Are you not afraid?” they asked her. “ Afraid? No!” was her answer; “ I rejoice to know I have a God who can shake the world.” (Sunday Companion.) Psalms 104:33I will sing unto the Lord as long as I live.A joyous faith The Oriental life differed in a very marked degree from our modern life. For one thing, it was spent more in the open air than is possible in these colder climates; it was a simpler life, coming into contact with nature, open to the influences which nature is sure to have upon the sensitive mind. We gain something, possibly, by living in great cities, but we certainly forfeit something also; we know man better, we are brought more into contact with our fellow-men, but we lose sight of a great deal which might speak, and which does speak to us of the wonderful works of God the frame of mind in which we live habitually, as well as our surroundings, will have much to do with the spirit of our worship. We may be in the condition of men who are overwhelmed by the thought of man and his works, or of money and its influences, immersed in the noise and smoke until the very heavens themselves are hidden from us, and then the charm of creation is gone, or we may do, what some men never seem to do, possess our souls in the midst of it all. It is something to have seen the works of God, to have taken note of them, even if it be only a glance on a starry night at the wonders of the firmament above. And when we look at the world and at life in this way, with eyes of devotion, and see the Lord there, realized as having a personal existence and share in it all, having to do with its being and its well-being, then it becomes impossible to be silent in His praise. The psalmist has not to reason himself into a right feeling about God; the right feeling is there, and so the psalm begins with an outburst of praise. He is a singer because he is a seer. And because he sees, he is full of devoutness and adoration, and sings as easily and naturally as birds sing when they have entered into the gladness and joy of coming spring. “ When I think of God,” said Haydn, “ my heart is full of joy, the notes dance and leap. I write according to the thoughts I feel.” And Handel, when he wrote his “ Hallelujah Chorus,” said he almost saw heaven opening before him. Devout and joyous worship, then, can only arise from a conception of a world and of a Deity like this. Absence of it in men is fatal; to them, as Hazlitt once expressed it, “ the heavens have gone farther off, and become astronomical.” The ladder that linked heaven and earth has disappeared; they are not likely to say with David, “ The earth is satisfied with the fruit of Thy works,” or, with Jacob, “ How wonderful, how dreadful is this place!” And yet the duty of man remains. If he understands his true position he will worship, he must worship. But only in right thoughts and devout meditations will be found the secret of a lifelong praise such as the psalmist promises. “ Even so, Father, for so it seemeth good in Thy sight.” A spirit like that may rejoice even in a world like this, and He rejoiced in spirit, for it is the soul which makes the music of life; and therefore fitly and properly this psalm begins and ends, as many another psalm, with: “ Bless the Lord, O my soul!” (W. Baxendale.) Singing to the Lord I. The psalmist’ s determination.1. That he will sing. He felt that God had given him a voice capable of singing as well as of speaking; that the power to utter sweet sounds in song, and the ear to delight in sweet sounds in song, was a noble faculty of his nature, and that this faculty was to be used in the Divine service. 2. That he will sing to the Lord--not for his own gratification and pleasure merely, nor to amuse his friends. He believed God heard his voice in song as much as He heard his voice in prayer. 3. That he will sing to the Lord as long as he lives. II. It is instructive to observe how often, and in how many different ways singing is mentioned and enjoined in the Scriptures.1. It is enjoined by Scripture command and precept. Moses and Miriam, David and Asaph, all unite in similar precepts,--“ Sing unto the Lord all the earth, sing unto Him, sing psalms unto Him,” is the burden of their frequent utterance. Gospel precept accords with Old Testament command. The apostles are careful to exhort to the practice (Colossians 3:16; Ephesians 5:19). 2. Singing is enforced by Scripture argument. We always find this duty of singing to the Lord linked to and connected with other moral duties. The psalmist unites singing and prayer together. In the same psalm we read, “ O come, let us sing unto the Lord,” “ O come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker.” Here singing and prayer are conjoined (James 5:13). 3. Singing is enjoined by Scripture example. Moses both pens a psalm, viz. the 90th, and sings a holy song. Miriam led a number of Israelitish women in a joyful song of triumph to the Lord. David earned for himself the title of the Sweet Psalmist of Israel, alike for the psalms he composed and sung. Asaph and Heman, Jeduthun and Ethan, were eminent for the service they rendered to the psalmody of the Temple-worship. Turning to the New Testament, we find the singing of sacred hymns enjoined by the highest example of all (Matthew 26:30). The apostles were addicted to the same practice (Acts 16:25). (J. Shillito.) Singing 1. Singing is the music of nature. The Scriptures tell us “ the mountains sing,” “ the valleys sing,” “ the trees of the wood sing before the Lord.” The air of summer is filled with melody of birds. 2. Singing is the music of the Ancient Church. Pliny makes mention in a letter he wrote to the Emperor Trajan, that the Christians of those times being gathered together before day, sang hymns and praises to Christ as God. Paulinus testifies that this practice overspread every province of the Western Church. Justin Martyr tells us that in his time they sang and sent up prayers to God. Beza confesses that at his first entrance into the congregation, hearing them sing the 91st Psalm, he felt himself exceedingly comforted, and did retain the sound of it afterwards upon his heart. St. Augustine reports of himself, that when he came to Milan and heard the people sing, it was the occasion of his conversion. His words in his Confessions are, “ When I remember my tears at my conversion under the melody of Thy Church.” 3. Coming to more modern times, we find the same practice not only in vogue, but also of greater practical advantage. The reformation in Germany, under Martin Luther, was greatly promoted by singing. Luther taught the children to sing hymns, expressing the great truths of the Gospel. The children went about the streets singing these Gospel hymns, and thus conveying the truth on every hand. The Romanists said “ Luther has done us more harm by his songs than by his sermons.” The followers of Wickliffe and Huss were named psalm-singers. In later times the great religious movements and revivals, which have greatly aided the spread of religion, have been more or less connected with singing to the Lord. 4. Singing is the music of heaven. The glorious saints and angels express their praises in this way, and make one harmony in their state of blessedness. This is set forth in many passages of the Book of Revelation. The soul on the wing Birds are seldom taken in their flight; the more we are upon the wing of heavenly thoughts the more we escape snares. (T. Manton.) Chiming Christians “ Clocks converted to chiming” --such were the words that caught the writer’ s eye in an advertisement of a watchmaker’ s wares. “ Conversion to chiming“ is precisely what many need now-a-days. In the midst of gloom and worry, what a call there is for bright Christians who can advertise the grace of God, which is able to dispel all sorrow and care! Many are converted who yet are far from chiming, and they require the change which can fill their lives with a music never dying, ever singing. Then there is a thought in the chime which may stimulate us. Chimes are striking constantly--often every quarter of an hour, always every hour. How about our testimony for Christ? Is that as frequent as it ought to be? Are we not often silent instead of chiming Christians? (Signal.) Psalms 104:34 My meditation of Him shall be sweet. Meditation upon God I. The meditations of a pious man--he meditates on God. Meditation is the action of the thoughts upon subjects which present themselves to the mind. As man is by nature, the quality of his thoughts is said to be evil. The Redeemer, when on earth, pointed out the connection existing between the heart and the deportment of life (Matthew 12:34).1. The pious man meditates upon the excellency of the Divine character. His holiness, His justice, His truth, His love, His mercy, His grace, His faithfulness, are all great parts in His infinite goodness. 2. The pious man meditates upon the works of God as they are seen in creation. Here every object has the mark of Divine power stamped upon it. These wonderful mountains, whose tops point to the clouds; these vales, these fields, and majestic forests; the whole of this earth which is beneath our feet, and the whole of yonder heavens which are above our heads, declare the glory of God, and show forth His handiwork. Now, a good man does not pass through the world without observing these things; and, in all these works, the Christian can behold his God. 3. The pious man meditates upon the goodness and wisdom of a Divine providence in the wonderful and ample provisions which He has made. Though there are mysteries deep and dark in the dispensations of Divine providence, yet the goodness of its character is evident. 4. The pious man meditates upon the love, the grace, the mercy, and the wisdom of God as they are manifested in the glorious plan of human redemption. This is the principal feature, the grand bearing of Scripture: to reveal God, to reveal Him in that lovely character, the God of grace--yea, the God of all grace. II. The character of the pious man’ s meditation. “ My meditation of Him shall be sweet.”1. To meditate upon the Lord gives strength to the mind. The more we know of God the more will we trust in Him; the greater will be our spiritual courage, and the more feeble will be our own fears. 2. Meditation of a pious nature upon God will give pleasure. Indeed, there is nothing that gives pleasures of an immortal nature but religious meditations. The very poorest of individuals, straitened in circumstances and despised by men, yet, if he loves God and meditates upon the Most High, he has more real pleasure of soul than the greatest of impious monarchs upon earth. 3. Religious meditation in a pious frame of mind will enable the Christian to forget his other cares--not to forget them so as to be carelessly unmindful of the necessary duties and lawful concerns of life, but he forgets them so as not to be spiritually injurious to his soul. (D. V. Phillips.) The sweetness of meditation Meditation is the calm and quiet dwelling of the mind upon a great fact, till the fact has time to get into the mind and pervade it with its influence. It is the quiet thinking on single truths; the dwelling of the mind upon them; the steady setting of attentive thought, drawn away from other things, and concentrated on this alone. I. The text implies a personal relationship--that is, the relation of the human person who thinks towards a Divine Person on whom he meditates. All through the psalm, from end to end, it is not a thing, nor an abstract truth, but a living being who is presented. The psalmist speaks of things indeed. The objects from which he derives illustrations of the glory of God are taken from the realm of nature, although it is evident to a sanctified intellect that the writer uses the wonders of nature to express the yet deeper wonders of grace. He speaks of the glories of the sky; but it is God who covereth Himself with light, who maketh the clouds His chariot and walketh upon the wings of the wind. Sweeter yet should our meditation be, in proportion as our knowledge is greater, and the acts of love on which we have to dwell are more marvellous. But the ground of joy must be the same to us as it was to the psalmist. We see God not only as Creator, but as Redeemer. Not the doctrine, but Himself; not the Book, but the august Jesus, whose grand figure fills it from Genesis to Revelation; not the Church, but He in whom the Church believes--Jesus Himself, with none between the soul and Him; Jesus is our all in all. II. Whence comes the sweetness of this exercise? It is sweet to think of the love of Christ, and especially to realize that we, with all our conscious unworthiness, are the objects of it. That love is wonderful in itself, wonderful in its freedom and spontaneity, wonderful in its eternal duration, wonderful in the depth of suffering it led our Lord to endure, wonderful in the tenderness and affectionate sympathies of His heart towards the wants and weaknesses of His people. Again, it is sweet to dwell on the love-tokens of our absent Saviour. If a loved one be far parted from us, have we not pleasure in the letters which tell us of constant love and undying affection? Yet what are they to the actual intercourse, daily maintained between Christ and His people? Can we not tell Him of our love in prayer and praise? What are the sacraments but meeting-places with Christ, the salutations of His mercy and His love? Is it not sweet to think of the bonds which knit us together with Him in a union indissoluble as His immutable promises? Lastly, is it not sweet to anticipate the time when we shall meet Him, “ whom, not having seen, we love,” etc.? We shall see Him face to face in the reality of His presence, and dwell with Him for ever. (E. Garbett, M.A.) The sweetness and profitableness of Divine meditation I. What this meditation is. In Scripture it is called a thinking upon God (Psalms 48:9), a remembering of God (Psalms 63:6), a musing on God (Psalms 143:5). Meditation is the work of the whole soul. The mind acts, and the memory acts, and the affections act. “ Let the words of my mouth, and the meditations of my heart:” it is an intense and a vehement application of the soul unto truth. II. How and in what respects may a man be said to meditate on God?1. When a man doth meditate on the name, nature, titles and attributes of God, then he is said to meditate on God. 2. When a man doth meditate on Christ the Son of God, then he is said to meditate on God, for Christ is God; and therefore saith the apostle (Hebrews 3:1). 3. When a man doth meditate on the Word of God, the law and statutes of God, then he is said to meditate on God (Psalms 1:2). 4. When a man doth meditate on the works and concernments of God (Psalms 77:11-12). III. How may it appear that it is a sweet thing to meditate on God? Is it not a sweet thing to enjoy God? Enjoyment of God is the life of our lives. And how do we enjoy God? Sometimes God doth come down into our souls; sometimes there is an ascent of the soul unto God. And what is the ladder whereby we ascend unto God, and take our turns in heaven with God, but believing meditation? It is a sweet thing for a good and gracious man to meditate on God and the things of God, because it is natural to him. Natural works are pleasant works. It is a help to knowledge, thereby your knowledge is raised. Thereby your memory is strengthened. Thereby your hearts are warmed. Thereby you will be freed from sinful thoughts. Thereby your hearts will be tuned to every duty. Thereby you will grow in grace. Thereby you will fill up all the chinks and crevices of your lives, and know how to spend your spare time, and improve that for God. Thereby you will draw good out of evil. And thereby you will converse with God and enjoy God. And I pray, is not here profit enough to sweeten the voyage of your thoughts in meditation? But hard work, you say, and therefore how can it be delightful? The harder the nut is to crack, the sweeter the meat when it is cracked; the harder the Scripture is that is to be opened, the sweeter is the kernel, the truth when it is opened. Would you meditate on God and the things of God with sweetness? When you are most fearful, put your thoughts upon that in God which is most cheerful; when you are most cheerful, put your thoughts upon that in God which is most dreadful; evermore divide your thoughts if you be to meditate on God, and the name, and nature, and attributes of God. In case you would meditate on Christ the Son of God, be sure of this, that you think on Christ, and meditate on Christ as your great example as well as your gift, and your gift as well as your example. In case you would meditate on the works of God, be sure of this, that you look upon all the works of God as enamelled and embroidered with so many attributes of God; for the more you see the attributes of God shining forth upon His works, the more sweetness you will take in the meditating thereof. (W. Bridge, M. A.) The work and way of meditation I. It is our work and duty to meditate on God and the things of God. Wicked men are blamed that God is not in all their thoughts (Psalms 10:4). Good and holy men are commended and rewarded for this (Malachi 16, 17). It is our duty to praise the Lord. Not only to be thankful to God upon the account of benefits received, but to praise the Lord upon the account of His own excellencies. And how should the heart be tuned and framed unto this praising of God, but by meditation on the name and nature and titles of God? (Psalms 48:1). How doth he tune his heart to this praise? “ We have thought of Thy lovingkindness, O God.” II. This work of meditation is every man’ s work, it is every day’ s work, and it is that work that is consistent with every business and condition.1. It is every man’ s work. (1) It is the work of the wicked, for it is their first step to conversion. (2) It is the work of the godly. For, either he is weak or strong. If weak, he has need of it that he may be strengthened; if strong, that he may be quickened. If a beginner, he ought to meditate, that he may proceed; if a proficient, that he may be perfect; if perfect with Gospel perfection, that he may hold on his perfection. 2. It is every day’ s work. Is the Sabbath Day unfit for it? No; there is a prayer for the Sabbath (Psalms 92:1-15), to meditate on the works of God. Is the week day unfit for this work of meditation? No. The Sabbath Day is our market day; and then after we have bought our market on the Sabbath, we should roast it by meditation on the week. We do not go to the market on the market day, to buy meat into the house only for the market day, but for all the time until the market day comes about again. 3. As it is every day’ s work, so it is that work that is consistent with every business and with every condition: a garment that will fit the back of every condition. What dunghill condition, but this flower of meditation may grow thereupon? III. What help or what means to this work of meditation?1. Be very sensible of your want, and of your neglect herein. 2. Labour more and more for a serious spirit. 3. A fixed spirit. 4. Intenseness of affection. 5. If you would indeed meditate on God and the things of God, be sure that you lay out such objects as may give entertainment to your thoughts. For if there be no corn in the quern, what grinding will there be? 6. If you would meditate on God and the things of God, strengthen your love and delight; for meditation grows upon the stalk of love and delight: and the more a man doth love God and the things of God, the more he meditates thereon. 7. Labour to get a deep impression of the things of God upon your heart and souls. 8. Take heed that your hearts and your hands be not too full of the world, and the employments thereof. 9. Go to God for this skill of meditation. IV. How should this work of meditation be carried on with sweetness and success?1. In all your retirements be sure that you retire into God Himself. 2. Take heed that you be not legal in this work. 3. Be sure of this, that nothing fall within the compass of your meditation, but what falls within the compass of the Scripture. 4. In all your settled meditation, begin with reading or hearing. Go on with meditation; end in prayer. For as Mr. Greenham saith well: Reading without meditation is unfruitful; meditation without reading is hurtful; to meditate and to read without prayer upon both, is without blessing. 5. If you would have this work of meditation carried on with profit and sweetness, join with your meditation the examination of your own souls. 6. Observe what those times and seasons are that are most fit for meditation, and be sure you lay hold thereon. 7. Though there is a great deal of profit and sweetness to be found in this work of meditation, and it is every day’ s work, yet take heed that you do not so meditate on one of God’ s excellencies as to neglect another; nor so spend your whole time in the work of meditation, that this work of meditation should eat up other duties: God would have us rise from this work of meditation, as from any other duty, with a hungry appetite. (W. Bridge, M. A.) Spiritual meditation I. The proper objects of it. The truths revealed in the Word of God, the doctrines and precepts, the invitations and warnings, the promises and threatenings of the Gospel, in all their bearings and relations to the temporal and eternal concerns of mankind, and more especially with reference to our own spiritual state. II. The benefits resulting from it. It is by reflecting often and earnestly upon holy things that the affections become excited, and the heart filled with a sense of their unspeakable importance. III. The best method of promoting and conducting it.1. Meditation should be regular and frequent,. 2. To make our meditations profitable, we should pray and strive to be enabled to conduct them with holy and devout affections. 3. We should cultivate all the powers of the spiritual understanding, and all the graces of the renewed heart. 4. We should learn to reflect upon the blessings treasured in the Gospel in connection with our own wants, and should endeavour so to ascertain the reality of our religious character as to feel that we are not uninterested spectators, but real inheritors of all that we survey. (Anon.) On meditation as a means of grace Meditation is much neglected. And perhaps to that change in the manners and habits of religious people, which has brought family instruction comparatively into disuse, is it to be attributed that meditation is so little practised. Owing to a variety of causes, the Christian has been drawn of late years more into public life; and time has been occupied in forwarding the spiritual good of others, which, in former days, would have been devoted to reading, meditation, and prayer. I. The nature of meditation. Meditation may be set, and at regular times, or habitual and unprepared. And doubtless those Christians who are favoured with a contemplative habit of mind, have much enjoyment in its exercise, and find it very profitable. While engaged in the ordinary business of life, they can maintain the recollection of spiritual things in the mind. And where persons are so constituted as to possess, in a considerable degree, the power of abstracting themselves from other things, there is never a want of time, place, or subject for meditation. But meditation, in the usual sense of the word, means deep, clone, and steady thinking:--retired and secret contemplation. It is not self-examination nor self-communion, though intimately, if not necessarily, connected with both. It is the settled, quiet, serious thinking over any point or subject;--ruminating upon it;--pondering it in the mind. It is in the beautiful language of the psalmist “ musing” : “ I remember the days of old; I meditate on all Thy works; I muse on the works of Thy hands.” In considering meditation as subservient to the best interests of the soul, the subject on which it is employed must be spiritual; some of the “ things by which men live, and in which is the life of the Spirit.” The state of our own souls,--our past lives,--the dealings of God with us,--and the various truths of God revealed to us in the Scripture, may well form subjects for profitable meditation. And by meditation on truths, we would understand the remembering, and retracing, and dwelling on such in our minds, as we have been previously taught, and made acquainted with, rather than the investigation of points which as yet we are but feeling after. II. The usefulness of meditation.1. The practical influence of the truth can only be known and felt, when it is habitually present to the mind. A truth absent from the mind is for the time of no more influence than if it were altogether unknown, or disbelieved. Whatever be the direct tendency of any truth,--whatever be the effect which it is calculated to produce,--whether peace in the conscience,--joy in the heart,--mortification of sin,--the raising of the affections to high and heavenly things,--love to God and Christ,--the patient suffering and cheerful doing of the Lord’ s will,--it cannot have that tendency in us,--it cannot produce that effect in us, if it be as a forgotten thing. But it is not possible that any truth should be thus habitually present to us, unless it be more or less the subject of meditation. The mind does not otherwise become fully imbued with it: though we do understand it, and acknowledge it, and believe it; we are not leavened with it; it is not become a part and parcel of our own minds. If the acquisition of knowledge be compared to the reception of food, then meditation is as digestion, which alone converts it into the means of sustenance and vigour. It is thus also, in no slight measure, by the mind dwelling upon spiritual things, that men become more and more spiritual. The contemplation of the character of our Lord, as revealed in the Word of God, is the ordained means of conforming His people to His likeness (2 Corinthians 3:18). 2. Again, it is by meditation that we apply to our own cases the things which we hear and read. Great excitement, or impression and conviction, may be produced by preaching, and yet, unless recalled and revived by meditation, may very soon entirely pass away. Who has not been a wonder to himself, that he should remember so little of a discourse which, at the time, pleased and interested him; and yet in a week scarcely any traces are retained;--a dim, indistinct, general notion is all that remains floating in the memory. The simple reason is, because it was never digested; never by subsequent meditation made our own. Like a language imperfectly learned, it is soon forgotten. 3. Meditation is useful, and a means of grace, as it is a medium of holding communion with God. The psalmist said, “ My mediation of Him shall be sweet; I will be glad in the Lord.” And though, doubtless, the love of meditation has, in some instances, degenerated into the error of those who make the whole of religion to consist in a meditative habit of mind--in quiet contemplation--still we must not forget that it is a means of grace, and that the people of God often enjoy much blessed intercourse with Him in thought, in solitude and in silence. 4. Meditation is also useful, as preparatory to other duties; for instance, prayer. We should consider beforehand our object in prayer, and what we intend to make the subject of our requests. III. Hints on meditation.1. It is difficult. Scarcely is any duty more repugnant to the natural man. He cannot bear to shut himself up to commune with his own spirit, and with God alone. And at this we need not be surprised; though it is not to our present purpose to show, that in his ignorance and unbelief, regarding God as his enemy, “ he therefore likes not to retain God in his knowledge.” But whence the difficulty to the Christian believer? Meditation is difficult to many persons, because it is with them almost an impossibility to think steadily, and intently, and continuously on any subject, for any length of time. They cannot control and concentrate their minds. They have thoughts, but they cannot think. The mind flies off, and will not be fixed down to one point. And besides, it is difficult to meditate on spiritual things, because of the sad reluctance of even the renewed mind, through the influence of remaining evil, to be occupied with what has more immediate reference to the soul, to God, and to eternity. Hence it is, that time, which was sincerely intended to be passed in meditation, is to our sorrow and shame not unfrequently frittered and trifled away in vagaries, vain and profitless. 2. As to the most suitable time for meditation, that depends altogether on circumstances. They who cannot command opportunities, will be enabled at those intervals, which even the busiest can create, to settle their thoughts in pious meditation; and in the wakeful hours of the night to revolve in their minds the words and the works of God. “ I remember Thee on my bed, I meditate on Thee in the night-watches.” Those, whose time is at their own disposal, should choose that portion of it which, by experience, they find most advantageous. Bishop Hall and Mr. Baxter loved the tranquil evening-hour, the twilight stillness; and the latter speaks thus on the subject: “ I have always found the fittest time for myself is the evening, from the sun-setting to the twilight.” And, lastly, let us never forget, that if meditation is to be a means of grace, it must be made effectual to that end by the power of the Holy Spirit. In common with all other means, it is entirely dependent on His grace and blessing. (Christian Observer.) Religious meditation I. Meditation upon God is a high and elevating mental act, because of the immensity of the object. “ Behold the heaven of heavens cannot contain thee,” said the awe-struck Solomon. Meditation upon that which is immense produces a lofty mood of mind. Says the thoughtful and moral Schiller: “ The vision of unlimited distances and immeasurable heights, of the great ocean at his feet and the still greater ocean above him, draws man’ s spirit away from the narrow sphere of sense, and from the oppressive stricture of physical existence. A grander rule of measurement is held out to him in the simple majesty of nature, and environed by her great forms he can no longer endure a little and narrow way of thinking. Who knows how many a bright thought and heroic resolve, which the student’ s chamber or the academic hall never would have originated, has been started out by this lofty struggle of the soul with the great spirit of nature; who knows whether it is not in part to be ascribed to a less frequent intercourse with the grandeur of the material world, that the mind of man in cities more readily stoops to trifles, and is crippled and weak, while the mind of the dweller beneath the broad sky remains open and free as the firmament under which it lives.” But if this is true of the immensity of nature, much more is it of the immensity of God. For the immensity of God is the immensity of mind. The infinity of God is an infinity of truth, of purity, of justice, of mercy, of love, and of glory. II. Meditation upon God is a sanctifying act, because God is holy and perfect in His nature and attributes. The meditation of which the psalmist speaks in the text is not that of the schoolman, or the poet, but of the devout, saintly, and adoring mind. That meditation upon God which is “ sweeter than honey and the honey-comb” is not speculative, but practical. That which is speculative and scholastic springs from curiosity. That which is practical flows from love. All merely speculative thinking is inquisitive, acute, and wholly destitute of affection for the object. But all practical thinking is affectionate, sympathetic, and in harmony with the object. When I meditate upon God because I love Him, my reflection is practical. True meditation, thus proceeding from filial love and sympathy, brings the soul into intercourse and communion with its object. Such a soul shall know God as the natural man does not, and cannot. True meditation, then, being practical, and thereby bringing the subject of it into communion with the object of it, is of necessity sanctifying. For the object is Infinite Holiness and purity. It is He in whom is centred and gathered and crowded all possible perfections. And can our minds muse upon such a Being and not become purer and better? III. Meditation upon God is a blessed act of the mind, because God Himself is an infinitely blessed being, and communicates of His fulness of joy to all who contemplate it. Mere thinking, in and of itself, is not sufficient to secure happiness. Everything depends upon the quality of the thought, and this again upon the nature of the object, upon which it is expended. There are various kinds and degrees of mental enjoyment, each produced by a particular species of mental reflection; but there is no thinking that gives rest and satisfaction and joy to the soul, but thinking upon the glorious and blessed God. There is a strange unearthly joy, when a pure and spiritual mind is granted a clear view of the Divine perfections. I rejoices with a joy unspeakable and full of glorying. All finite beauty, all created glory, is but a shadow in comparison. (G. T. Shedd, D.D.) Meditation on God I. The exalted, incomprehensible nature of Him who is the object of our meditation.1. The source of being, the author and parent of all that exists. If the acts of almighty power should produce reverence and awe--if the displays of unerring wisdom should excite admiration and esteem--if the exertions of unbounded goodness should command gratitude and love--devout meditation on the Source of being should be attended with feelings of pure delight. 2. The source of all moral excellence. What beauty is, in material objects, moral excellence is, among rational beings: it is that which renders them at all attractive, and to the reflecting, and cultivated mind, is the direct object of esteem and love. 3. Let us recollect that these excellencies exist in One with whom we are most intimately connected, and that they are all continually exercised in our belief. 4. In surveying the circumstances of ourselves or others, we cannot shut our eyes on the painful and trying situations in which, by the providence of God, men may at times be placed. But this presents another most amiable view of the Supreme Being as attending to the different circumstances of His creatures, and accommodating His dealings to their respective characters, and situations. 5. There is yet another character in which He appears, that claims our most attentive regards, and which must call up our most ardent affections. And this is--As the Saviour of His offending and wretched creatures. Doomed to death, and destined to return to dust, He is to raise us from the grave, free us from all imperfections, place us beyond the reach of sorrow or the possibility of suffering, enlarge our powers, extend our knowledge, perfect our characters, introduce us into the society of angels, and crown all His gifts with everlasting life. II. In all these characters our meditation of Him should delight the soul; because all that is great, and excellent, and glorious, and good, and attractive, passes before our minds in contemplating the character, the works, the ways, and the purposes of God; objects, the contemplation of which, not only gives scope for the exercise of its noblest powers, but excites all the most pleasing affections of the soul; reverence, esteem, love, gratitude, faith and hope. (R. Bogg, D.D.) Meditation on God, the pleasure of a saint I. How we should meditate on God.1. We should meditate upon the perfections of God: His immensity and eternity, to fill us with fear and reverence; His power, as our protection and defence; His wisdom, to fill us with praise and admiration; His holiness, to excite us to imitate Him, and to abhor sin; His truth, to encourage our belief in His promises; His justice, to make us dread being obnoxious to His wrath, and to magnify His judgments to ourselves and others; His goodness, which is the sweetest theme to employ our thoughts upon, it being His most amiable perfection. Well might David say (Psalms 48:9). 2. Upon His works. (1) His works of creation. Thus we read: “ The works of the Lord are great,” etc. (Psalms 111:2; Psalms 8:3; Job 36:24-25). (2) His works of providence. How wisely and graciously God governs, preserves, and provides for His creatures, and upholds the world He has formed, and His special providences towards ourselves, and keep a memorial of them! (3) The work of redemption. Herein the perfections of God are wonderfully displayed. 3. Upon His Word. Christ requires it (John 5:39). In this is the godly man’ s delight (Psalms 119:11; Psalms 119:92). Moses recommended it to the children of Israel (Deuteronomy 11:18; Deuteronomy 6:6-7). The Word of God should dwell in us richly: it should be often in our hands, but oftener in our hearts. 4. Upon the future glory of God. If heaven were more in our thoughts, we should lead a more heavenly life. II. At what special times we should meditate on God. He desires to be in all our thoughts, and the continual companion of our minds, and the delight of our souls. But we should meditate upon Him more especially--1. In our seasons of private retirement: then the mind enjoys itself most, and then it may enjoy God most (Genesis 24:63). 2. In the time of trouble and affliction (Jonah 2:7; Hosea 5:15). This is a time when we can think more impartially of God, of the things that are above, and of the true interest of our souls. On a bed of sickness, it gives delight and refreshment, strengthens the weak heart, and sweetens the bitterest pains. 3. By night on our beds (Psalms 42:8; Psalms 63:6). Paul and Silas (Acts 16:25). We should endeavour to close our eyes in the love of God, and in peace with Him, that our slumbers may be sweet. III. The happiness arising from such meditations. The soul is insensibly warmed with love to God, while it views Him, and runs over his adorable perfections. The thoughts of His power establish and strengthen him. The thoughts of His wisdom resign him to all His providences. And the thought of His eternal love and goodness fill him with triumph in hope and joy. The more we are with God, the more shall we have of God and of His image in us. Moses came down from the mount with a heavenly brightness on his countenance. Holy meditation will prepare our hearts for every duty and ordinance. Finally, it will help us to live above the world, and be a means for fitting us for death and eternity. (T. Hannam.) David’ s contemplation I. The performance implied--Divine meditation. God’ s servants are much employed and taken up in the thought of God, in holy and Divine meditation. Reasons--1. The gracious and heavenly frame and temper of a Christian soul, being sanctified and renewed by grace. 2. The servants of God are much in thoughts and meditations of Him, because as their hearts are made like unto Him, so (which also follows thereupon) fastened upon Him. 3. They are much employed in Divine exercises, prayer, reading and hearing the Word, etc.; and these performances suggest holy thoughts and meditations. 4. From the Spirit of God dwelling in them. II. The qualifications expressed--pleasantness or sweetness.1. The attributes of God, there’ s a great deal of delight in thinking upon them in their several kinds. (1) The power of God, how much sweetness is there in that to a Christian that shall seriously consider it and think upon it, that God is almighty, and all-sufficient, and can do whatsoever He pleases both in heaven and earth, as the Scripture represents Him. (2) The goodness and mercy of God, there’ s a great deal of sweetness in that also to be sucked out by us in meditation, that the Lord is gracious, and merciful, and long-suffering, and pitiful; there is very much contentment in it. (3) The wisdom of God, to meditate on that also, that He is great in counsel, etc., and the Scripture proclaims Him, that He can foresee all events, and discern all hearts, and search into the secret corners of the soul. (4) The truth and faithfulness of God, the God that keeps covenant and mercy, that is true to all His promises, and that performs whatever He undertakes. 2. The Word of God which is a part of Himself, the meditation on that is sweet also. If we look into Scripture we shall find variety of gracious intimations suited to particular conditions; now, these cannot but be very comfortable to those that are in them, in sickness, in poverty, in captivity, in temptation, and the like, and we cannot better provide for our own comfort, and contentation in them, than by thinking and meditating upon them in our own minds; and where we are not furnished with particulars, yet at least to close with the generals, which have a miraculous sweetness in them also: I mean such promises as are made to God’ s children at large; that God will give His Spirit to them that ask it. That no good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly, that He will never leave them, nor forsake them. That all things shall work together for good to them that love Him. 3. The works of God, the meditation on them also, it is very sweet, and that in all kinds. (1) His works of creation, to consider of them, as they are all very good and beautiful considered in their nature and kind, so the contemplation on them is also remarkable (Psalms 8:1, etc.). (2) The works of Providence, how sweet it is to meditate on these also, to reflect upon all ages, and to consider what great things God has done for His Church and people in them. What mercies He has bestowed upon them, what deliverances He has wrought for them; and that also sometimes after what a strange and miraculous manner: it is very delightful to think of it. (3) The works of redemption, how sweet is it likewise to meditate on these: to meditate upon God in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:18). This is the sweet meditation of all, and without which we cannot meditate upon God without any true comfort or contentment. III. The qualifications required.1. A savouriness and heavenliness of spirit, as it is this which must put men upon such meditations, so it is this only which must make them relish and take delight in them. 2. A special love to God. 3. A persuasion of the love of God to him. 4. A special sense of a man’ s own wants. (T. Horton, D. D.) . The sweetness of meditation on God The Hebrew word which is here used signifies three things especially, and each of them very considerable of us. First, meditation; secondly, prayer; thirdly, discourse. According to the former notion, it signifies the sweetness which is in Divine and spiritual contemplation, and the musing on heavenly matters; according to the second motion, it signifies the sweetness which is in Divine and spiritual communion and converse with God in prayer. According to the third notion, it signifies the sweetness which is in holy and religious conference, and the speaking of God one to another. All of them very useful and profitable duties, and such as are to be practised by us. I. First, take it in the first sense: meditation on God is sweet. And the sweetness of it should stir us up to the putting of it in practice. We have very great cause to be careful what we meditate and pitch upon in our thoughts, which are of great importance to us, and that as they are a very great discovery of the frame and temper of our hearts. There’ s nothing which does more show what men like, than their meditations. Flittering and transitory thoughts, which do pass through the mind, but do not stick, they are not such an infallible discovery, because they may not have that tincture and impression of the soul upon them. But meditations they have much of the will in them, and are carried with more deliberation attending upon them. And therefore it concerns us to look to them, and to see what they be in us; and of this nature that we now speak of, we should cherish in ourselves as much as may be these holy and heavenly meditations which are of God, and things belonging to Him, as being such as He takes special notice and observation of in us (1 Timothy 4:13-14). First, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine, and then meditate upon these things. And so much of the first notion of this word, which is here used in the text, as it denotes Divine contemplation, and meditation on the things of God, there’ s a great deal of sweetness in this. II. The second is, as it denotes, converse and communion with God in prayer. There’ s no friends that have such mutual complacency and contentment in one another’ s society as God and His servants have in One another; it is pleasing to them to think of God, but to speak to Him, and He to them is a great deal more comfortable; when the heart opens itself at any time to God, and He again returns upon it, there’ s most unspeakable contentment in it. III. The third notion of this word in this text is discourse, which refers to the communion of saints, and the converse of Christians one with another. Christians find a great deal of contentment in holy and religious communication; not only when they think upon Him within themselves, which is meditation, not only when they speak unto Him, which is done in prayer, but also when they speak of Him, and about Him in converse, and Christian discourse. (T. Horton, D. D.) Meditation on God I. A very profitable exercise--meditation. Do not imagine that the meditative man is necessarily lazy; contrariwise, he lays the best foundation for useful works. He is not the best student who reads the most books, but he who meditates the most upon them! he shall not learn most of divinity who hears the greatest number of sermons, but he who meditates the most devoutly upon what he does hear; nor shall he be so profound a scholar who takes down ponderous volumes one after the other, as he who, reading little by little, precept upon precept, and line upon line, digests what he reads, and assimilates each sentiment to his heart by meditation,--receiving the word first into his understanding, and afterwards receiving the spirit of it into his own soul.1. Meditation is the couch of the soul, the rest of the spirit. 2. Meditation is the machine in which the raw material of knowledge is converted to the best uses. 3. Meditation is to the soul what oil was to the body of the wrestlers. Who are the authors to write your books, and keep up the constant supply of literature? They are meditative men. They keep their bones supple and their limbs fit for exercise by continually bathing themselves in the oil of meditation. How important, therefore, is meditation as a mental exercise, to have our minds in constant readiness for any Service! II. A very precious subject. “ My meditation of Him shall be sweet.” To whom does that word “ Him” refer? I suppose it may refer to all the three Persons of the glorious Trinity: “ My meditation upon Jehovah shall be sweet.” And, verily, if you sit down to meditate upon God the Father, and muse upon His sovereign, immutable, unchangeable love towards His elect people,--if you think of God the Father as the great Author and Originator of the plan of salvation,--if you think of Him as the mighty Being who, by two immutable things, wherein it is impossible for Him to lie, hath given us strong consolation who have fled for refuge to Christ Jesus,--if you look to Him as the Giver of His only-begotten Son, and who, for the sake of that Son, His best gift, will, with Him also, freely give us all things,--if you consider Him as having ratified the covenant, and pledged Himself ultimately to complete all His stipulations, in the ingathering of every chosen, ransomed soul, you will perceive that there is enough to engross your meditation for ever, even were your attention limited to the manifestation of the Father’ s love. Or, if you choose to do so, you may meditate upon God the Holy Spirit. Consider His marvellous operations on your own heart,--how He quickened it when you were dead in trespasses and sins,--how He brought you nigh to Jesus when you were a lost sheep, wandering far from the fold,--how He called you, with such a mighty efficacy,--how He drew you with the bands of love which would not let you go. But I prefer rather to confine this word “ Him” to the person of our adorable Saviour: “ My meditation of Him shall be sweet.” Ah! if it be possible that the meditation upon one Person of the Trinity can excel the meditation upon another, it is meditation upon Jesus Christ. Jesus may be compared to some of those lenses which you may take up, and hold in one way, and you see one light; you hold them in another way, and you see another light; and whichever way you turn them, you will always see some precious sparkling of light, and some new colours starting up to your view. Ah! take Jesus for the theme of your meditation, sit down and consider Him, think of His relation to your own soul, and you will never get to the end of that one subject. III. A very blessed result. “ My meditation of Him shall be sweet.” What a mercy that there is something sweet in this world for us! We need it, I am sure; for, as for most other things in the world, they are very, very bitter. “ My meditation of Him shall be sweet;” so sweet, that all the other bitters are quite swallowed up in its sweetness. Have I not seen the widow, when her husband has been called away, and he who was her strength, the stay and sustenance of her life, has been laid in the grave,--have I not seen her hold up her hands, and say, “ Ah! though he is gone, still my Maker is my Husband; ‘ The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away;’ blessed be His holy name” ? What was the reason of her patient submission to the will of God? Because she had a sweet meditation to neutralize the bitterness of her reflections. And do I not remember, even now, seeing a man, whose property had been washed away by the tide, and whose lands had been swallowed up, and become quicksands, instead of being any longer profitable to him? Beggared and bankrupt, with streaming eyes, he held up his hands, and repeated Habakkuk’ s words: “ Although the fig tree shall not blossom,” etc. Was it not because his meditation on Christ was so sweet, that it absorbed the bitterness of his trouble? And oh! how many, when they have come to the dark waters of death, have found that surely their bitterness was past, for they perceived that death was swallowed up in victory, through their meditation upon Jesus Christ! (C. H. Spurgeon.) The sweet and the sweetener I. First let us talk about the sweet: “ My meditation of Him shall be sweet.” “ Of Him” --that is, of the Well-beloved of the Father, of the Well-beloved of the Church, of the Well-beloved of my own soul; of Him who loved me, in whose blood I have washed my robes, and made them white;--it is meditation “ of Him” that is sweet; not merely of doctrine about Him, but of Him, of Himself; “ my meditation of Him” --not merely of His offices, and His work, and all that concerns Him, but of His own dear self. There lies the sweetness; and the closer we come to His blessed person, the more truly we have approached the very centre of bliss. But let me dwell a minute on that first word: “ My.” Not another man’ s meditation, which is afterwards related to me, but my own meditation of Him shall be sweet. Make meditation of Christ to be your own personal act and deed; grasp Him for yourself, and hold Him by the feet. II. Now let us turn to the second part of the subject, the sweet as a sweetener: “ My meditation of Him shall be sweet.” That is to say, first, it shall sweeten all my other sweetnesses. If thou hast honey, and thy hands are full of it, be cautious how thou eatest of it, for thou mayest eat honey till thou art sick of it; but if thou hast a great store of honey, put something sweeter than honey with it, and then it will not harm thee. I mean, if God has given thee joy in thy youth, if thou art prospered in business, if thy house is full of happiness, if thy children sing about thy knee, if thou hast health and wealth, and thy spirit danceth with joy, all this by itself may curdle and spoil. Add to it a sweet meditation of thy Lord, and all will be well; for it is safe to enjoy temporal things when we still more enjoy eternal things. If thou wilt put Christ upon the throne, to rule over these good things of thine, then all shall be well. But I need not say much about this point, because, at least to some of us, our very sweet days are not very long or very many. The comfort is, that this sweetness can sweeten all our bitters. There was never yet a bitter in the cup of life but what a meditation upon Christ would overcome that bitterness, and turn it into sweetness. If thou art poor, get thee to Him who had not where to lay His head, and thou wilt even seem to be rich as thou comest back to thy place in the world. Hast thou been despised and rejected? Do but look on Him on whom men spat, whom they cast out, saying that it was not fit that He should live, and you will feel as if you never had true honour except when you were, for Christ’ s sake, despised and dishonoured. You will almost feel as if it was too great an honour for you to have been contemned for His dear sake, who bore the shame and the spitting and the cruel cross for your sake. Yes, the best sweetener of all temporal troubles is a meditation upon Christ Jesus our Lord. One thought more. Our text might be read thus, “ My meditation shall be sweet to Him.” We are going to uncover the table of communion directly; you will have nothing to think of but the body and the blood of Him by whose death you live. That meditation will, I trust, be very sweet to you; but this fact ought to help to make it so, that it will be “ sweet to Him.” Jesus loves you to love Him, and he loves you to think of Him. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Meditation There are reflective moments in all lives, but set times for meditation are not as frequent as they might be. I. Meditation in general. It is not the pressing act of mind, as when pursuing knowledge, or seeking to unravel some mystery, but the mind, in its own seclusion, dwelling calmly and seriously on matters affecting life and death.1. Retrospect. We have a wonderful grasp of the past in spite of the ravages of time. Sometimes meditation produces a profounder impression than the event itself. The lesson which this teaches is our sense of responsibility. We cannot wipe out the past. Inasmuch as there is a possibility of the present becoming past, care should be taken that its memories shall be sweet. 2. Introspect. To dwell on things around us in a cool moment is of great value to life. Men who live by rushes often make mistakes. The busiest man would facilitate his work by reflection on the nature of things immediately affecting life. The true estimate comes after a calm examination. 3. Prospect. In nature the future is the sequence of the present,--summer follows winter. Human life is built on the same plan, therefore the acts of to-day ought to be considered in relation to the morrow. II. Religious meditation in particular. God can only be known to us through His works. Certain portions of the work are beautiful, and they lead us to a contemplation of God, as the consummation of every attraction. Some translate the words,--“ My meditation shall be acceptable to Him.”1. When centred upon Himself. It is not an uncommon thing that children who have left home, after a while forgetting to write. After the lapse of years they have need to write, and how acceptable to the parents to hear from them. The Divine Father delights to see the wandering heart coming home again. To think upon, when reconciled to Him, is the sweetest thought that can enter the human breast. “ Call upon Me, and I will answer thee.” 2. When we think according to His own will. Meditation may take a wrong turn, and dwell upon matters in the wrong spirit. Many people brood over their cares, and make their lives miserable. The train of thought which brings sweetness to the breast is the fact that by every step He draws us nearer to Himself. The nearer the fountain the clearer the water. The highest joy of the soul is communion with God. 3. When our meditation ends in a closer walk with Himself. There can be no virtue in recalling matters, or causing the mind to dwell on objects which have neither an intrinsic nor a relational value. Let us meditate upon one Jesus Christ--our Prophet, Priest, and King. The theme is endless. Nothing can surpass the beauty of the Rose of Sharon. In eternity the soul shall dwell on the glory of His person, and join in the anthem of His praise. (Weekly Pulpit.) Christian meditation 1. Let there be greater solicitude cherished, so to meditate on the presence of Christ as to make us conscious that we are with Him. Then the thought of His presence will be connected with a subduing power and friendly influence. 2. To meditate, and so to meditate on the character of the Shepherd of Israel, until we are sensible that He is leading us in the paths of righteousness, for His name’ s sake. To protect and sustain, are views of Him eminently calculated to impart the feelings of safety and supply. 3. Meditate, and so meditate on the power of subduing grace, until it is felt that the dominion of sin is becoming increasingly weak. 4. Meditate, and so meditate on the ability and qualifications of Christ aa the great Teacher, until the soul feels at home with His instructions. What a teacher, and what instructions! One who is infinite in knowledge teaching the ignorant. How patient and compassionate is the great and loving Instructor! How ready to open the understanding and the heart! 5. Meditate, and so meditate on the love of Christ until that love is felt in the heart,--felt as a heavenly impulse bearing the soul onward and upwards,--felt in its hallowed and stirring emotions, as a heavenly fire kindled upon the altar of the broken and contrite heart, and burning there night and day. 6. Meditate, and so meditate on the promised Spirit of Christ, that there may be now the earnest of what is to come. Meditation on the work and office of the Spirit of Christ, is to find that there has been not only a work finished on Calvary, but that there is a work also going on in the believing heart. It is to know that there is not only wealth and light in Him, but to have that wealth and light within. (Anon.) Meditation on God a delight Foster, the essayist’ s natural tendency to solitary meditation never showed itself more strikingly than in his last hours. Aware of the near approach of death, he requested to be left entirely alone, and was found, shortly after he had expired, in a composed and contemplative attitude, as if he had thought his way to the mysteries of another world. I will he glad in the Lord.--The province of the will in Christian experience The Christian, in common with the great majority of men, recognizes the force of the will in the realm of circumstances. We cannot say, I will be rich, I will be great, I will be successful--this would be presumptuous and vain; yet in the realm of circumstances we allow the reality and significance of willing. We can hope to be little or to do little without firm purpose and resolution. So far as character is concerned, the Christian maintains the sovereignty of the will. In fierce and bitter temptation we are bound to interpose our resolution and keep ourselves pure. The sanctified will is equivalent to all practical righteousness But as Christians we do not sufficiently recognize the force of will in regulating the soul’ s moods. We sit down as perfectly helpless, and permit sentiments of coldness, fear, and melancholy to rule us in the most despotic fashion. “ I will be glad in the Lord.” Often we resign ourselves to sadness and gloom; we feel that to fight with melancholy is to smite with a sword the fluid air. But the psalmist thought otherwise: he felt that he could command the sunshine. We too may vanquish these moods of the night and walk in the day. We acknowledge, as I say, the dominion of the will in all questions of conduct; we have power to speak what is true, to do what is kind, to act in consistency with wisdom and righteousness. But we must not forget that there is a morality of feeling as well as of conduct. In a true sense coldness of heart is a sin equally with a lapse in action, fear is a sin as well as dishonesty, and sadness is a sin as well as selfishness. The will has a wider dominion than we sometimes think, and we are responsible for our moods as well as for our doings.1. To will aright gives the mind the right attitude. How important this is! We fail to secure various blessings because we have not the proper attitude and bias of soul. To will aright is to put the soul in position to see great truths, to receive precious gifts. It is part of the preparation of the heart, without which we cannot receive the answer of the tongue. 2. To will aright fixes the mind on the right objects. In coldness think of God’ s love and beauty; in fear sing of His faithfulness; in every sorrow remember the word of grace strong as that which built the skies, the hope of glory which shall not make us ashamed. Your miserable moods will vanish then as ghosts before the morning lights. 3. To will aright gives to the mind the right impetus. The will is a cause, a master cause. What amazing vigour a resolute volition shoots through the whole of Christian life and experience! (W. L. Watkinson.) Psalms 104:35O my soul The soul (to children) I. You have a soul. A stone can be seen and felt, weighed and measured; but it has no life. A flower is superior to a stone, because it has a certain kind of life. A dog is more valuable than a flower, because he possesses a higher form of life. He has all the five senses which you have. He has also instinct and sagacity, by which he does a great many wonderful things. Now, your bodies are not so hard as the stone; they are not so beautiful as the flower; and there is no little boy here who could run as swiftly as the dog. Nevertheless, you are far more valuable than the stone, the flowers, and the dog; yea, you rise above everything that is material, vegetable, and animal, because you have souls within your bodies. It is your duty to care for both. Try to preserve your bodies from everything that would injure them. Be very anxious about the salvation of your soul. II. Your soul is full of life. This life is not to be compared to that which is either in the flowers or in the animals; it does not depend for its continuance, as they do, upon such things as light and heat, wind and rain. The soul, under the blessing of God, moves itself, and the body too in which it dwells. It is your souls which cause your eyes to see, your ears to hear, your tongues to speak, your hands to work, and your feet to walk. Now, you all know that everything in which there is life requires food. Our bodies could not live unless they were nourished from day to day. As it is with all these things, so is it with the soul. Unless it is strengthened with food it must become exceedingly weak. You also know that the same kind of food will not suit everything in which there is life. What kind of food, then, does the soul require? The truth as it is in Jesus, and the truth about Jesus, is the food for the soul. III. Your soul is distinct from and independent of your body. When the Spaniards went first among the Indians they were on horses. And what do you suppose the poor, ignorant Indians thought? They thought that there was no difference between the horse and the rider, but that both were the same person. Even so, there are many men who have the conviction that there is not any distinction between the soul and the body. They believe that both are composed of the same material, and that both are buried in the same grave. This is a dangerous error. You have all heard of the telescope. The astronomer looks through it to the sun, the moon, and the stars. If the telescope were taken from the astronomer and destroyed he would no doubt be grieved, but that would not destroy him. Well, the body is the telescope through which the soul looks out upon men and things. It is, as Dr. Watts has said, “ the harp of a thousand strings, which keeps in tune so long.” It is, as Eliphaz said many years ago, the house in which the soul lives. When death comes, and takes away the beauty, the strength, and the life of the body, that does not interfere with the soul. During that hour the soul goes away, like the Arab from his tent, or the bird from the cage, to the place in eternity for which it has been prepared. IV. Your soul has a number of wonderful powers.1. There is the understanding. As it is with the eyes of the body that we see the things by which we are surrounded, so it is with the understanding that we perceive truth and error. The two disciples who were walking towards Emmaus with Jesus had their understandings opened by Him. This enabled them to comprehend the meaning of the Scriptures as they had never done before. If you pray to Jesus for the same blessing, He will grant it, for--“ Ask and ye shall receive.” 2. There is the judgment. As it is with the hand that the farmer sometimes separates the chaff from the wheat, so it is by the judgment that we distinguish right from wrong. A good judgment is most invaluable in a world such as this is. In order to secure it, be close observers of all you see and hear; think for yourselves upon every subject which comes before you, and keep the company of those who are older and wiser than yourselves. 3. There is the memory. We might compare it to a museum, for we have hung up around it the pictures of the places we have seen and admired, and the portraits of the persons we have known and loved. We might also compare it to a book, for we write upon it the figures and the names, the facts and the truths, which we wish to retain. Trust your memories as much as possible. By this means you will strengthen them, and in after years they will be to you faithful and useful servants. 4. There are the affections. You have seen the ivy. It is deeply rooted in the soil; it entwines itself around the old tree or the old cottage, and adds considerably to their beauty. Your affections resemble the ivy. With these you can grasp persons, places, and books. “ Set your affections on things above.” Love to be truthful, honest, benevolent, and pure, in thought, word, and deed. 5. There is the conscience. A judge in a court of law sits calmly upon the bench. He watches all that is done, he listens to all that is said, and then he pronounces the verdict either by setting the accused person free, or by sending him to prison for a certain time. Conscience is very much like the judge. It observes all your thoughts, words, and actions; and while it smiles upon the good, it frowns upon the bad. Listen to the voice of your conscience. It is a good guide; keep on good terms with your conscience by hating every wrong thing, and only doing that which is right. This will contribute largely to your peace of mind. 6. There is the will. The will is the commander-in-chief, both of the body and the soul. Learn to obey your parents cheerfully, promptly, and continuously. Tips will prepare you to obey others with pleasure who shall be over you when you go out into life. V. Your soul will never die. Abel’ s soul is still living, and so is Cain’ s. There was a time when your souls were not in existence, but the time will never come when they shall cease to be. Prepare, therefore, to meet God, by giving your hearts and lives to Christ, that you may be perfectly happy in eternity. VI. When your soul leaves the body at death, it will go to see Jesus the Judge. Time does not dim the eyes of the soul, affliction does not touch them, and over them death will have no power. How soon after death will you see Jesus? In a very short time. He said to the penitent thief upon the Cross, “ To-day shalt thou be with Me in paradise.” (A. McAuslane, D.D.) . Psalms 105:1-45 Psalms 105:1 Make known His deeds among the people.God in Jewish history, an object of worship I. Gratitude for His mercy is demanded.1. The greatness of His favours.2. The disinterestedness of His motives. II. The celebration of His works is demanded (verse 2).1. Publicly.2. Rapturously. III. Delight in Him is demanded (verse 3). If a noble son rejoices in his father because of the nobility of his character, the greatness of his influence, the superiority of his attainments, natural and acquired, the greatness of his resources, how much more should a true man delight in the Infinite Father, the Fountain of all goodness. IV. Pursuit of Him is demanded (verse 4).1. For this we were made.2. This alone is our happiness. V. The remembrance of Him is demanded (verse 5). There are here two subjects for memory.1. God’ s wonderful works for man.2. God’ s wonderful utterances to man. God has spoken to humanity many things, many times, in many lands--wonderful thought! These words should be remembered by all men. (Homilist.) Psalms 105:3 He brought them forth also with silver and gold.A stanza of deliverance Egypt may very fairly represent those states of sorrow and sadness, depression and oppression, into which God’ s people come far too frequently. Specially is the house of bondage a true picture of our condition when we are convinced of sin, but are ignorant of the way to escape from its guilt and power. Then sin, which was once our Goshen of pleasure, becomes the iron furnace of fear. Glory be to God, He has now brought us out from that state of slavery, and we can sing of freedom given by His own right hand! I. Our deliverance is by Divine power. When Israel came out of Egypt, it was Jehovah who brought with her armies. When any man is saved from spiritual bondage, it is the Lord Jesus who looseth the captive. But this does not exclude the use of means, or the action of the will. The Lord brought Israel forth; but they had cried unto the Lord by reason of their sore bondage, and they did not receive the blessing without desiring it, yea, and sighing for it; and when it came, they joyfully accepted it, and willingly trusted themselves with him whom the Lord had made to be their mediator and leader, even Moses. They did not share the honour of their deliverance with God, but still they gave their hearty assent and consent to His salvation. Willing as they were to move, it was still true, “ He brought them forth.” We can never escape from the bondage of sin by our own power. If we are ever set free from sin and Satan, it will be eternally and infinitely true that the Lord brought us forth out of the house of bondage. “ Salvation is of the Lord.” There is no true liberty but that wherewith Christ makes you free. “ If the Son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.” Do you know what it is to be brought out of prison by a miracle of grace, by a revelation of the Holy Ghost, by the blood of Jesus shed for many? If so, you will join with all the saints in singing, “ As for His people, He brought them forth.” I. Our deliverance was attended with enrichment: “ He brought them forth also with silver and gold.” The natives as good as said, “ Take whatever you please of us, for we have all treated you ill. Only leave us alone; for plagues and deaths fall upon us thick and fast so long as Pharaoh detains you here.” However, this is not my point. I am dealing with more spiritual things. When God brings His people out of bondage, they come out enriched in the best and most emphatic sense. Trials and afflictions, which threaten to kill us, are made to sanctify us; and sanctification is the best form of enrichment. How much we owe to sorrow and sickness, crosses and losses! Our bondage ends in our coming forth with much that is better than silver and gold.1. Thus do we come forth from conviction of sin. “ Now tell me,” says one, “ what does a man gain by being in a desponding, sorrowful condition, convinced of sin, and full of fears?” By the work of the Holy Spirit he will gain much. He will obtain a clearer knowledge of the evil of sin. An awful sense of guilt, an overwhelming conviction of sin, may be the foundation stone of a gloriously holy character. The tried and tempted man will also see clearly that salvation is all of grace. He can do nothing, and he knows it. When a child of God can spell grace, and can pronounce it clearly, as with the true Jerusalem accent, he has gained a great deal of spiritual silver and gold. Such persons gain by their soul trouble a fund of healthy experience. They have been in the prison, and have had their feet made fast in the stocks. “ Well,” says one, “ I do not want to feel that sort of treatment.” No, but suppose you had felt it, the next time you met with a brother who, was locked up in the castle of Giant Despair, you would know how to sympathize with him and help him. Where this is the result of severe trial, we may well say that the Lord has brought them forth with silver and gold. 2. Thus do saints come out of persecution. The Church is refined by the fires of martyrdom. Individual piety is also deeper, stronger, nobler in persecuting times than at other seasons. 3. Thus do believers come out of daily afflictions. They become wealthier in grace, and richer in experience. A man of God, whose life has been full of mental exercises and spiritual conflict, as well as outward tribulation, becomes, through Divine grace, a man of large wealth of knowledge, prudence, faith, foresight, and wisdom, and he is to the inexperienced like some great proprietor, by whom multitudes of the poorer class are fed and guided, housed and set to work. Those who have been much tried are in the peerage of the Church. 4. When you and I reach the shores of heaven, thus shall we come into glory. When we come forth out of our graves, it will not be with loss, but with enrichment. We shall leave corruption and the worm behind us, and with them all that earthly grossness which made us groan in these mortal bodies. God will bring us forth also with silver and gold. What golden songs will we sing! What silver notes of gratitude will we pour forth! III. Our deliverance is accompanied with health and strength: “ There was not one feeble person among their tribes.”1. This fact is typical of the health and strength of the newly saved. The Lord’ s people, at conversion, are as a rule wonderfully strong in their love to Jesus, and their hatred of sin. In most cases our young converts, when they have truly come to Christ, even if they are a little timid, are vigorous, much in prayer, abounding in zeal, and earnest in speaking out the Gospel. Many of them, I believe, would die at the stake readily enough, while they are in their first love. In their earliest days nothing is too hot or too heavy for them, for the sake of Christ. 2. Full often it is so with the persecuted. A man who has fulfilled an apprenticeship to this hard master, is likely to be a man indeed. If he has endured hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ, he will be fit to become an officer in the army, and an instructor of recruits. 3. It would be a glorious day if it were so with all God’ s people, that there were none feeble. We should, as a Church, labour to reach this high standard. We would have the weakest to be as David, and David as the angel of the Lord. We would have our babes become young men, and our young men fathers in Christ. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Psalms 105:4-6 Seek the Lord and His strength: seek His face evermore. Public recognition of God I. After glorious success abroad, and in the most desirable affluence and security at home, it is the duty both of prince and people to have then a particular regard to the public worship of God established amongst them, and to attend it with a religious and devout disposition of soul. This the Holy Spirit demands from us by the pen of David, requiring us to exhort and encourage one another in our public assemblies for the worship of God; to “ Seek the Lord and His strength.” II. A solemn commemoration of God’ s particular mercies to a nation He has chosen so to bless by distinguishing favours is a proper subject for such religious and acceptable service: “ Remember His marvellous works,” etc. III. In all such public acts of worship, we are each of us to consider ourselves in our public capacity and national relation, as being closely united to our sovereign, to our superiors, equals, and inferiors, who are our contemporaries, yes, and with our ancestors and posterity too, so as to sustain but one single person in all God’ s providential dealings with us. We are not in these holy and solemn gratulations to contract our minds, nor confine our prospect to the present personal satisfactions and benefits we reap from such exercises of our faith, and gratitude, and adoration; but we are to enlarge our thoughts, and extend our view backward and forward, whilst we celebrate the praises of God, the common Lord, Deliverer, Benefactor, and Father of us all. Thus the psalmist carries the thoughts of the then worshippers of God, in his new tabernacle, to a contemplation of His lovingkindness which had been ever of old, even as far backward as to the ages of Abraham and Jacob. Do this, “ O ye seed of Abraham His servant,” etc. (W. Needham, B. D.) The face of God This hymn is the first recorded strain of the psalmody of public worship. On the day when the ark was brought to its tent in the city of David, “ David delivered first this psalm to thank the Lord.” It was sung in the presence of this sacred object, which was the ancient symbol of the presence of God. To those who heard it that day our text explained what the ark meant. “ Seek the manifestation of your God, who shines upon you from over its mercy-seat. Magnify and seek His awful power, of which you are reminded by this ark of His strength. And constantly meet Him around this central depository of the covenant between your God and His congregation.” The ancient symbol is gone, being done away in Christ. Those days have come concerning which Jeremiah predicted, “ They shall say no more, the ark of the covenant of the Lord.” We must remember every one of these memorials; for, though they are gone, they eternally teach their lessons. The Epistle to the Hebrews shows us this. It takes us into the old temple to teach us the mysteries of the new. I. The God whom we worship bids us seek His face. The word is one which runs through the entire Scripture as a most attractive figure. But it is more than a figure, and suggests to our thought a most blessed reality. First, we cannot help perceiving that by such a phrase as this we are taught to approach a personal Being, supreme over all His creatures, and eternally separated from them by His essence, yet having something in Himself that is common to them and to Him. He is an individual Spirit to whom our spirits may draw near. He asks us as persons to come to Him a Person. His ways indeed are not as our ways; His thoughts are not as our thoughts: but only because they are higher and nobler than ours. There is a sense in which the same things are true in us and in Him. The Bible does not use the abstract term personality or person with reference to the Deity; but it everywhere means this. God can say Thou to me, and I can say Thou to Him. No language could more touchingly declare this than “ Seek His face,” which is literally, “ Visit ye your God! The face is the expression of our individual self. Now, there are two great errors under which the world has groaned in all ages, which are swept away by this simple testimony. A certain philosophy has always found it impossible to understand how the Infinite Essence can be distinct from the creature. Almost from the dawn of religious thought a system has been constructed, called Pantheism, which makes everything God and God everything: without a personal Face towards the creature; for He and the creature, or what we call the creature, are one. He is not a Person Himself, though He gives birth to millions of personalities, which appear for a little while, and then vanish back into His bosom, the infinite abyss of being. How glorious is the religion of the Bible in contrast! In Him we live, and move, and have our being; “ but only as “ His offspring,” who are children invited to seek their Father, and live in Him. An opposite error, or the same error under another form, has multiplied the universal Creator and Upholder of the universe into ten thousand manifestations: “ gods many and lords many.” This has always been a kind of compromise between Pantheism and the doctrine of a Supreme First Cause. It gropes after one great being behind all the rest, but makes almost every force in nature a lesser god bringing that great abstraction near. The Christian worship is an eternal protest against these most destructive errors. We have inherited from Moses and the prophets the doctrine that there is one God. This is the foundation of all the devotions of this house. We visit every time we come up to it a Personal God, one Supreme Being, who summons us to His presence. He is afar off: filling and transcending all space, so that the heaven beyond the visible heavens cannot contain Him. But He is also nigh at hand: He is in all the infinity of His being present in every place, and in all His Godhead present here. Yet, though we approach one God, whose name is One, there is a Trinity of sacred Persons in that unity. And the term we consider veiled a mystery which is now fully manifested. The face of God is the Incarnate Redeemer, and its manifestation is by the Holy Ghost. This was veiled and typified by the ark of the covenant, a covenant not for Israel only, but for all flesh. The term itself implies a mediator. Now Moses was not that mediator, nor was Aaron. It was the Son of God made man in the fulness of time. It pleased God to set forth that truth under types and shadows while the ancient temple remained. Approaching from without none could behold the place of the ark without sweeping the altar of sacrifice. Their inseparable union signified that God dwelt among His people only because the great sacrifice had opened the way to Him: had enabled Him to return to man and man to return to Him. The ancient secret is fully revealed now. Our Lord Himself expressly tells us, “ He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father.” The Person of Jesus through whom we approach is the very face of God to whom we approach. “ God,” says St. Paul, “ who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” The whole system of mediation is now fully disclosed. But it was in virtue from the beginning. The face of God made man was marred for the suffering of death for us. It then became resplendent in glory, and is now the very outbeaming of the reconciled Godhead. But that sacred face is withdrawn: we could not now behold it and live. A glimpse of it has a few times been seen as it were to assure us of its glorification. We worship God in the Spirit while we rejoice and are glad in the face of Jesus. We approach not Christ in the flesh: His Person is glorified, and we must seek it and find it by the Holy Ghost. This revelation is to all and to each. We come up together to see the face of our God, but every one of us must enjoy the privilege in order to this common enjoyment. Then seek now your privilege; lift up your heart for your own blessing. “ Cause Thy face to shine upon us and we shall be saved.” We proclaim in the name of God, “ He pardometh and absolveth all them that truly-repent and unfeignedly believe His holy Gospel.” II. From the face to the strength of God the transition is easy: the light of His countenance is the strength of God in the soul. The ark, however, was called emphatically the ark of His strength, and the people were called to visit it for two reasons: to acknowledge the glory of the Divine power in their midst, and to seek its manifestations within themselves. Our supreme business in this house, and in all worship, is to extol the Divine name: the noblest employment of those who have seen the Divine face in reconciliation. The strength of God is the assemblage of His perfections, of which omnipotent power was the representative. This was the attribute that came nearest to the ancient people, and of it the ark was a constant remembrancer. Jehovah was called “ the Strength of Israel.” It was His Right Hand that had delivered them from the beginning. They extolled His power especially, while they also remembered His wisdom, fidelity, and other perfections which were behind. “ Give unto the Lord glory and strength: give unto the Lord the glory due unto His name.” In all their worship, the glory of God was the uppermost sentiment. The ark, so awfully shut in and dwelling in such unapproachable light, kept that evermore before them. The glory due unto the Supreme the ancient worshippers offered as worthily as we can offer it. But there is a sense in which they did not so perfectly offer it, because His being was not fully known. The Three-one Deity had not been revealed. That secret was kept back, though it could scarcely be hid. Although the “ Holy, Holy, Holy!” is not surpassed even in the New Testament, yet this was the Name by which Jehovah was not known to the fathers. To us the Triune name and the Triune perfections are one in the glorious works of the Redeeming God. And when we hear the words, “ Declare the wonders that He hath wrought,” of what do they remind us? The ark told the Israelites a marvellous story; it had witnessed all their triumphs and all their disgraces; it was the will of God that with it should be attached the thought of His mighty interpositions. We have no visible symbol; but of what does our house of prayer remind us, what does that table silently commemorate, what is the burden of this hymn book, what is the high subject of the New Testament? We have that to remember and extol which dwarfs the Jewish annals to utter insignificance. But we cannot more effectually adore the strength of our God than by seeking its manifestation. He does not only wait in His holy Temple for our tribute, as if He had only to receive and we to give. Whoso offereth Him praise glorifieth Him, but equally he that honours his God by seeking and trusting in His power. The ark was a perpetual token that there was a reserve of strength in the God of Israel at the people’ s service. In the New Testament the word is, “ Where two or three are gathered together there am I in the midst of them.” There is no limit to the power of the Spirit in the assemblies of His people who pray. His strength is everything here; we must only seek it in the consciousness of our utter impotence. The only power in our assemblies is the power of the Lord. The ark was a perpetual remembrancer of that. It humbled the people by reminding them that when God was not with them they fled before their enemies; that it was only when He was with them that they conquered. We have no symbol to remind us, nor do we need it. God Himself speaks and bids us remember that we are not sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves. “ Without Me,” said the Lord, “ ye can do nothing.” But God is here in His strength. The ark was the pledge that the ancient God of the people was with them. His name was still, while they trusted in Him, the Strength of Israel. The measure of His strength among His people is “ the working of His mighty power, which He wrought in Christ when He raised Him from the dead,” the “ exceeding greatness of His power.” The standard to us is, “ According to your faith be it unto you.” Then we must seek it in prayer for the carrying on of the work of salvation in our midst. There is a power in this place for the conversion of every sinner that ever enters it. Our common supplication must plead for it, our common faith must expect it, and we shall then have the desire of our heart. Enlarging our view we should remember that we belong to the catholic temple of the Church. If you study our psalm you will see how it embraces the heathen throughout. “ Fear before Him all the earth.” “ Give unto the Lord, ye kindreds of the people, give unto the Lord glory and strength.” This is prophetically to them. To us it is, “ Declare His glory among the heathen; His marvellous works” of redemption and grace “ among all nations.” This we do by our missions abroad, and we do it by our prayers at home. This house which we have dedicated to God must never forget that He is the God of the whole earth. Once more I must remind you that the strength of God which is sought in His ordinances is altogether a personal energy within the individual soul. There is indeed a common manifestation, a shedding forth of Divine influence, which sometimes overpowers the whole congregation, and surprises those who neither sought it nor expected it. But every one after all must lay hold on the strength of God for himself. The promise is of a Divine power put forth in the inmost secret of our nature. Hear the apostle’ s prayer that “ He would grant us according to the riches of His glory to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man.” But this is according to our own personal faith. So St. Paul says, “ I can do all through Christ which strengtheneth me.” Our righteousness He is as a free gift; but our strength He is through our own faculties. Seek it then and find it in your inmost spirit. Let it be your constant exercise everywhere to make the Divine omnipotence your own. Strength to do and strength to suffer, strength to resist and strength to overcome, strength to command mountains out of the way, and strength to uproot the long-standing tree of sin: all is yours. If your religion has been scanty and feeble it is simply and solely your own fault. III. We must not forget the emphatic manner in which the expression “ evermore” is added, both as exhortation and encouragement. The actual assemblies we must delight to visit, and be found in our place continually. Here, as in everything else, we have great advantages over the people of the ancient covenant. They came up only by their representatives three times a year, and on certain other set occasions. During the intervals they could only “ remember Zion.” We have constantly recurring opportunities. Every Christian sabbath we are invited to assemble; and on certain evenings in the week we may join the congregation in the services which are held around the invisible altar and ark. There are some special occasions when the members of Christ’ s discipleship gather around the table of the Lord; if I may so speak, nearer than usual to the ark, and its mercy-seat, and its glorious face. Never be absent then, unless the Lord Himself keep you away. Seek His face and seek His strength continually. But this last word reminds me that there is a sense in which the true Christian is never absent from the house of the Lord, “ Whose house are we.” We are not commanded to come up at set times to obtain a glimpse of His face, have our sins forgiven, gain a renewal of strength, and then go away for an interval of absence. We dwell in His house. We live and move and have our being in the mystical temple. The word of the text seems to say, “ Seek Him here, but seek Him continually,” in our private devotions, in the midst of our duties, in our family worship, and everywhere. This “ evermore” echoes in eternity. It is not necessary that we should determine how far the Hebrews understood the reach and meaning of this Word. Whatever they believed, or hoped, or felt in presentiment, we have the full revelation that our worshipping assemblies are earnests of an everlasting fellowship of more perfect worship in the house above. There is an eternal temple awaiting us where we shall not need to seek the face nor to seek the strength of our God. Both shall have been found in their utmost blessedness, to be lost no more for ever. The countenance of God in Christ shall be the eternal joy of the redeemed. Meanwhile the commandment is to seek His face for ever. Count time and all its opportunities of seeking the Lord as given for one sole purpose, the preparation for that eternal fellowship. (W. B. Pope, D. D.) Psalms 105:7-15 He is the Lord our God: His judgments are in all the earth.God in Jewish history, working for His people I. His absolute sovereignty (verse 9). The selection of Abraham to distinguished privileges is only an example of what has been going on in the history of men in all times. All men are not alike endowed, nor alike distinguished in privilege. Some have more health, more beauty, more talent, more enjoyments, than others. Shall any find fault with this? “ Who art thou that repliest against God?” We should, however, always remember that God’ s sovereignty is not arbitrary power, not capricious impulse, but is evermore the free expression of His heart, and that heart is love. II. His inviolable faithfulness (verse 8). Men fail to fulfil their promises from one of three reasons--either because they were insincere when they made the promise, or because they subsequently changed their minds, or because difficulties occurred which they never anticipated. None of these reasons can be ascribed to God. III. His territorial proprietorship (verse 11). Let all landowners remember that the acres they call their own are only borrowed property, they are only tenants at will, or rather stewards, responsible for the use they make of every foot of ground. IV. His compassionate superintendence. He watched over them.1. When they were few (verse 12). How He watched over Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, only three! We lose individuals in the mass. To Him the individual is the object of interest, the individual is His offspring, representative, fountain of immeasurable influence. “ Unto that man will I look.” 2. When they were wandering strangers (verse 13). Though unknown, ignored, it may be despised, the few wandered amongst ten thousand strangers, His eye was upon them, and His sympathies were with them. 3. When they were threatened (verses 14, 15). (Homilist.) Psalms 105:15 Touch not Mine anointed, and do My prophets no harm. The inviolable Messiahs and prophets I. Every Christian is a Messiah. Jesus was the Christ, the Messias, because that Divine Spirit dwelt in Him without measure. And if we are Christians in the real sense of the word, then, however imperfectly, yet really, and by God’ s grace increasingly, there is such a union between us and our Saviour as that into us there does flow the anointing of His Spirit. And, there being a community of life derived from the Source of Life, it is no presumption to say that every Christian man is a Christ. II. Every Christian is a prophet. The word is connected with a root which means “ to boil, or bubble, like a fountain.” It expresses, not so much the theme of the utterance as its nature. The welling up, from a full heart, of God’ s thoughts and God’ s truth, that is prophecy. The patriarchs were prophets, in the sense of being bearers of a Divine Word, breathed into them by that anointing Spirit, that it may be uttered forth by them. That sort of prophetic inspiration belongs to all Christians. Every one who has been anointed will be thus gifted. A silent Christian is an anomaly, a contradiction in terms, as much as black light, or dark stars. If Christ is in you He will come out of you. If your hearts are full the crystal treasure will flow over the brim. III. Every Christian, in his double capacity of anointed and prophet, is watched over by God. There is no real harm in so-called evil. That is the interpretation that Christianity gives to such words as this of my text, not because it is forced to weaken them by the obstinate facts of life, but because it has learnt to strengthen them by the understanding of what is harm and what is good; what is gain and what is loss. (A. Maclaren, D.D.) Psalms 105:19 Until the time that His word came: the word of the Lord tried him. God’ s promised tests There is a contrast drawn between two “ words,” “ his” (i.e., Joseph’ s) and God’ s. Joseph’ s word, which delayed its coming, or fulfilment, was either his boyish narrative of the dreams that foreshadowed his exaltation, or, less probably, his words to his fellow-prisoners in the interpretation of their dreams. In either case the point to which our attention is directed, is the period when that word came to be fulfilled, and what nay text says is that during that long season of unfulfilled hope, the “ word of God,” which was revealed in Joseph’ s dream, and was the ground on which his own “ word” rested--did what? Encouraged, heartened, strengthened him? No, that unfulfilled promise might encourage or discourage him; but the psalmist fixes our thoughts on another effect which, whether it encouraged or discouraged, it certainly had, namely, that it tested him, and found out what stuff he was made of, and whether there was staying power enough in him to hold on, in unconquerable faith, to a promise made long since, communicated by no more reliable method than a dream, and of the fulfilment of which not the faintest sign had, for all these weary years, appeared. It proved the depth and vitality of his faith, and his ability to see things that are not as though they were. Will this man be able continually through years of poverty and imprisonment to keep his eye on the light beyond, to see his star through clouds? We do not know how long his Egyptian bondage had lasted, nor how long before that his endurance of the active ill-will of his surly brothers had gone on. But at all events his chrysalis stage was very long, and one would not have wondered if he had said to himself, down in that desert pit or in that Egyptian dungeon, “ Ah, yes, they were dreams, and only dreams,” or if he had, as so many of us do, turned his back on his youthful visions, and gained the sad power of being able to smile at his old hopes and ambitions. Cherish your youthful dreams. They are often the prophecies of capacities and possibilities, signs of what God means you to make yourselves. The trivial, short-lived anticipations which do not look beyond the end of next week are far less operative in making strong and noble characters than are those, of whatever kind they may be otherwise, which look far ahead and need years for their realization. It is a blessing to have the mark far, far away, because that means that the arm that pulls the bow must draw more strongly, and the eye that sees the goal must gaze more intently. Be thankful for the promise that cannot be fulfilled in this world, because it lifts us above the low levels, and makes us feel already as if we were endowed with immortality. The Word will test our patience, and it will test our willingness, though we be heirs of the Kingdom, to do humble tasks. Because Joseph was sure that God’ s long-lingering word would be fulfilled, he did not mind though he had to be the lackey of his brothers, the Midianites’ chattel, Potiphar’ s slave, Pharaoh’ s prisoner, and a servant of servants in his dungeon. So with us, the measure of our willing acceptance of our present tasks, burdens, humiliations, and limitations is the measure of our firm faith in the promise that tarries. It was for Joseph’ s sake that the slow years were multiplied between the first gleam of his future and the full sunshine of his exaltation. And it is for our sakes that God in like manner protracts the period of anticipation and non-fulfilment. “ If the vision tarry, wait for it.” Is not the delaying of the blessing a means of increase of the blessing? And shall not we be sure that however long “ He that shall come” may seem to tarry ere He comes, when He has come they who have waited for His coming more than they that watch for the morning and have sometimes been ready to cry out: “ Hath the Lord forgotten? Doth His promise fail for evermore?” will be ashamed of their impatient moments and will humbly and thankfully exclaim: “ He came at the very right time and did not tarry.” (A. Maclaren, D.D.) Joseph: a sermon to young men Joseph’ s was a monumental and magnificent life, not so much because of the great station and good fortune that he won as because of the coherence and completeness of his career, character, and work being wielded together, and crowned with the fitting close. It was a sunbright, victorious life! Yet a life of public action and manifold dangers and responsibilities, through which no mere cleverness could have carried him successfully. Nothing but right-mindedness, together with capacity, could ever have borne him onward to so great and just renown. That right-mindedness was truth, honour, faith, love. I. The dreams of his youth. Possibly we find it difficult entirely to sympathize with this part of the record, because we have a not unreasonable objection to precocious children and their egotism. But, notwithstanding this general prejudice, we should remember that genius is wont to be precocious and self-conscious. Moreover, in this child of genius egotism had no unpleasant expression. His narratives are far too artless and ingenuous to be charged with conceit. We must also recognize that his dreams arose from the growing consciousness of power, and were apprehensions of that immense capacity which he afterwards displayed. Oh, a few more dreams will not hurt our young people to-day--such dreams--dreams of honourable success, of usefulness, of widening influence! It is not surprising that young people in their first endeavours to realize themselves should make some mistakes--that they should carry themselves awkwardly, and fail in self-measurement. But after all, better this, a thousand times, than that they should not be at all aware of the day of nature’ s visitation, nor imagine glorious possibilities from being alive, and more and more alive every day. II. The discipline of life. If Joseph had nourished a too luxuriant imagination, time and circumstance soon clipped the tendrils. There is something as touching, as dramatic, in his being so suddenly “ dropped out of the bright world” into the dark pit in the desert, and then hurried away into a slavery that might have been worse than death--cut off at a stroke from the care of his father, from the patriarchal home with its princely privileges, and reduced, politically, below the status of a man. Here was a fate overwhelming enough to bring a young fellow to despair, or to a degradation worse than that! But there was in him that quality of moral fibre which is braced and not weakened by lonely adversity. He has virtue, and he has faith, and these united shall prevail, so that there shall be nothing more admirable in all biography than the patience, cheerfulness, and fidelity with which he fulfils his lot. Adversity is a ladder, up or down, as we will. You can, so to speak, do what you like with your troubles, or let them do what they like with you; so that they shall either be stepping stones, upon which you shall rise to a clearer, graver view of God and life; or they shall be stones of stumbling and rocks of offence to cast you down to that limbo where the craven and futile whimper their lives away. But some of you are thinking that it was hard that Joseph should have to suffer for refusing to do wrong. I would counsel you to be very slow in saying that anything is hard, if you mean as a matter of providential treatment. A little faith and patience, and God will take care of it all. III. The man that emerged. Joseph came forth from prison with faith in God unimpaired, with the old sweetness of temper, and clearness and fixity of moral equilibrium. He is “ not ashamed to stand before kings,” and there is the unerring accent of modesty and faith in his words: “ It is not in me. God shall give Pharaoh an answer of peace.” But I desire especially to point out the essential Christianity of the man, whom the word of the Lord had tried, so that he was made manifest to his generation as a pre-Christian Christian. That forgiveness of his brethren, so frank and free, without a thought behind, so foreign to every ancient code of obligation, shows him at a glance possessed by the spirit of Christ. Again in his large humanity he became an earthly Providence, and an expositor of the philanthropy of God our Saviour, not only nourishing his own family, and those brothers who plotted his ruin; but bearing the burdens of all the people, and with such benevolence and sympathy that, in the great language of that time, he was called “ the Saviour of the world.” Finally, in his faith he saw something of Christ’ s day. Loyal to his family and race, he was loyal also to the ancestral hope; and in his final charge showed clearly enough that his soul had her last anchorage there. “ By faith he gave commandment concerning his bones;” and when, long centuries after, his people departed out of Egypt, they carried with them these dumb tokens of their great ancestor’ s faith in the covenant of promise. This was a great life--pure, gracious, wise, imperial. All was on the grand scale; but all the goodliness thereof grew out of the virtues of his youth. “ The child was father of the man” in reverence, and human kindness, and faith. So let it be with you. (A. H. Vine.) Trial by the Word I. The importance of trial.1. Because trial and persecution test men’ s professions, they are used as the winnowing fan in the Lord’ s hand. “ He will throughly purge His floor.” In persecution, the mere professors, the camp-followers and hangers-on, soon flee away, for they have no heart to true religion when the profession of it involves the cross. They could walk with Jesus in silver slippers, but they cannot travel with Him when His bleeding feet go barefoot over the world’ s rough ways, and therefore they depart every man to his own. Oh, man, if thou be a child of God thou art like a house which He is building with gold, and silver, and precious stones; but by reason of thine old nature thou art mixing up with the Divine material much of thine own wood, and hay, and stubble; therefore is it that the fire is made to rage around thee to burn out this injurious stuff which mars the whole fabric. If the Holy Spirit be pleased to bless thine afflictions to thee, then wilt thou be daily led to put away the materials of the old nature with deep abhorrence and repentance, and thus shall the true work of God, which He has built upon the sure foundation, stand in its true beauty, and thou shalt be builded for eternity. 2. Every good man is not only tested by trial, but is the better for it. To the evil man affliction brings evil, he rebels against the Lord, and, like Pharaoh, his heart is hardened. But to the Christian it is good to be afflicted, for, when sanctified by the Spirit, trial is a means of instruction to him second to none in value. In the case of Joseph. (1) It corrected the juvenile errors of the past. (2) He learned in his trial much that was good for present use. That God could be with him, even in a dungeon. That temporal things are not to be depended upon. To “ cease from man,” etc.(3) The chief use of trial is very often seen in our future lives. It gave Joseph power to bear power. It trained him to bear the other dangers of prosperity. In the prison he learned to speak out. His whole course had been a rehearsal fitting him to be bravely truthful before the king. II. The peculiarity of the trial. “ The word of the Lord tried him.” How was that? Potiphar tried him, and the chains tried him, but did the word of the Lord try him? Yes. But there is a previous question--how did he receive any word of the Lord? His dreams were to him the word of God, for they were communications from heaven; the instruction he received from his father was also the word of God to him; his knowledge of the covenant which God had made with Abraham and Isaac, and his father Jacob, was God’ s word to him. Moreover, the secret teachings of the Holy Spirit quickened his conscience and afforded him light on the way. When there was no written Word the Divine Spirit spoke without words, impressing the truth upon the heart itself. All these were to Joseph the word of God. How did it try him? It tried him thus,--the word said to him in his conscience, “ Thou shalt not commit adultery.” Without that word he would not have been tried, for nature suggested compliance with his mistress’ s desires. The test, however, he could bear: grace enabled him to flee youthful lusts and to cry, “ How can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?” The trial which arose out of his innocence must have again tested him by the word of God. There he is in prison--for what? Why, for an action so pure that had he been set on a throne for it he would have well deserved it. Do you not think that many questions perplexed him while he lay in prison? What problems were put before him--Is there a moral governor of the universe? If so, why does He allow the innocent to suffer? Why am I in fetters, and the lewd woman in favour? Could not an omnipotent God deliver me? Why then does He leave me here? Could Joseph in the face of such questions still cling to the faithful word? He could, and he did; but the word tried him, and proved his constancy, his faith, and his integrity. Then, too, the word of the Lord which he had heard many years before would come to him and try him. His trembling heart would say, Has God ever spoken to you at all? Those dreams, were they not childish? That voice which you thought you heard in your heart, was it not imagination? This providence of God which has prospered you wherever you have gone, was it not after all good luck? Has the living God ever revealed Himself to one who at length became a slave? Look at your fetters, and ask if you can be His child? III. The continuance and the conclusion of the trial. Trial does not last for ever. Cheer up; the tide ebbs out, but the flood will return again. He who counts the stars also numbers your sorrows, and if He ordains the number ten your trials will never be eleven. The text says, “ until” ; for the Lord appoints the bounds of the proud waters, and they shall no more go over your soul when they reach the boundary of the Divine “ Until.” “ Until the time that His word came” --the same word which tried Joseph in due time set him free. If the Lord gives the turnkey permission to keep us in prison, there we must remain, “ until” He sends a warrant for our liberation, and then all the devils in hell cannot hold us in bondage for an instant longer. (C. H. Spurgeon.) God’ s promise as a refining fire “ Tried” is in the Hebrew “ smelted,” and “ word of the Lord” refers to the promise of greatness given to Joseph when a lad. This vision smelted his soul. How? It resulted in-- I. A purified faith. Before imprisonment, Joseph worked and God helped; the prison shut him in to God alone. Faith is this reaching Godward, and the Godward side of a man determines character. II. A strengtheining character. The youth who entered came out a tried man. More strength is increased power, and power is valuable. III. An enhanced value. He became worth more--to himself, to Pharaoh, to God. The promises of God Incarnate come to you in definite language. He offers you pardon, help, a growing likeness to Himself. Have you accepted? Are you holding fast? Your soul is in the furnace of the promises. Shall it come forth metal or slag? (Homiletic Review.) Trial by the Word of God His trial arose from “ the word of the Lord.” The evils of his lot were great in themselves, but their magnitude was increased in consequence of the Divine intimation that he should be raised to greatness and honour. His faith was put to a rigorous test, his patience was severely tried. I. Our knowledge of the Divine word is a means of trial. It tests our character, and it does this by leaving us without much we expected to receive, and imposing on us burdens from which we would fain be free: What forms, then, does this trial assume?1. It is seen in relation to our belief, the Bible demanding our assent to truths which are beyond the range of human discovery. As Bishop Butler has said, “ There seems no possible reason to be given why we may not be in a state of moral probation with regard to the exercise of our understanding on the subject of religion, as we are with regard to our behaviour on common affairs. The former is a thing as much within our power and choice as the latter.” 2. The next form of trial is in relation to our conduct. The Bible demands from us the discharge of duties which are not congenial with our nature, and large numbers who are ignorant of speculative difficulties feel strongly those that relate to Cbristian practice. We cannot practically “ fulfil the law of Christ” without strenuous exertion. We must surrender pleasures we have prized and accept toils for which we have had no relish. We shall never be able to follow Christ unless we “ deny ourselves and count all things as loss for His sake.” Is it not notorious that many, very many, refuse submission to the Gospel on this ground? And thus “ the Word of the Lord” tries them. 3. The Word of God tries us in our experience or in respect to the fulfilment of its promises. We do not realize them at the time or in the manner we expect, many even “ dying in faith” without seeing that for which they have waited. II. The trial is of limited duration. It lasted “ until His word came,” but no longer. As there came an hour of deliverance to Joseph, so there will to us, premising, of course, that we continue faithfully in the path of duty. Never will God alter the truth we are to believe, relax the duties to which He summons us, or modify the essential character of His promises; but our relation to His Word shall become such that the trial, the element of pain and disappointment shall pass away.1. When we accept the truth of Christ on sufficient evidence, although its substance is immutable, although we may never find it to be logically explicable, it will yet gain our assent in an ever-increasing degree. It will quicken and purify our spiritual perceptions, removing the blindness thrown over us by sin. It will restore our nature to a holy condition, sanctifying us and imparting the power of recognition which comes from sympathy. 2. The duties to which we are summoned will not always be uncongenial. We shall be empowered with strength equal to our need. Our souls will become more able for works of righteousness. By reliance on God, by resolute perseverance, our work will lose its irksomeness and become a service of gratitude and joy. 3. The promises of Scripture may not secure the results we expect. That which we rightly look for may be delayed. But we shall be assured that God is doing for us the thing which is best, that He is adapting His mercy to the necessities of our condition, that He is leading us from one stage of glory to another, and will, in due time, “ perfect that which concerneth us.” (J. Stuart.) The trial of man by the promises of God By the “ word of the Lord” that “ tried him,” the psalmist evidently refers to the dreams of his future destiny which were sent to Joseph from God; and in saying that they tried him “ until His word came,” he evidently means that his faith in those promises was tested by his long imprisonment, until the day of his deliverance dawned. I. God’ s promises must try man.1. By revealing his secret unbelief.2. That He may accomplish His own purposes of discipline. II. God sends the hour of deliverance.1. Sometimes by death. Elijah.2. Sometimes by transforming the height of trial into the height of blessing. The three youths in Babylon.3. Sometimes by the glance of love on the failing soul. Peter.4. Sometimes by continuing the trial, but increasing the power to endure it. Paul. III. God makes the trial by promise fulfil the promise itself. We hope not for an Egyptian kingdom, our dream-vision is of a heavenly inheritance, and the palace of a heavenly King. But every temptation resisted, every mocking voice of doubt overcome, is an aid upwards and onwards. Trials, sufferings, struggles, are angels arraying the soul in the white robes of the heavenly world, and crowning it with the crown that fadeth not away. And when the end comes, then it will be seen that the long dreary endeavour to hold fast the dream-promise--the firm resolute “ no” to the temptation to disbelieve, are all more than recompensed with “ the exceeding and eternal weight of glory.” (E. L. Hull, B.A.) From the pit to the throne I. The severity of His sufferings. Confined in a stifling, foetid prison, his feet bound by fetters. His religious notions added greatly to his distress. What had he gained by his integrity? Could there be any truth in what his father had taught him of good coming to the good, and evil to the bad? Was there a God who judged righteously on the earth? You who have been misunderstood, who have sown seeds of holiness and love to reap nothing but disappointment, loss, suffering, and hate, you know something of what Joseph felt in that wretched dungeon hole. Then, too, disappointment poured her bitter drops into the bitter cup. What had become of those early dreams, those dreams of coming greatness, which had filled his young brain with splendid phantasmagoria? Were these not from God? He had thought so--yes, and his venerable father had thought so too, and he should have known, for he had talked with God many a time. Were they the delusions of a fevered brain, or mocking lies? Was there no truth, no fidelity, in heaven or earth? II. These sufferings wrought very beneficially. Iron entered into his soul. The iron crown of suffering precedes the golden crown of glory. I may be asked, Why does God sometimes fill a whole life with discipline, and give few opportunities for showing the iron quality of the soul? Why give iron to the soul, and then keep it from active service? Ah, that is a question which goes far to prove our glorious destiny. “ There is service in the sky.” And it may be that, God counts a human life of seventy years of suffering not too long an education for a soul which may serve Him through the eternities. III. Joseph’ s comfort in the midst of these sufferings.1. “ He was there in the prison, but the Lord was with him.” The Lord was with him in the palace of Potiphar; but when Joseph went to prison, the Lord-went there too. The only thing that severs us from God is sin; so long as we walk with God, God will walk with us; and if our path dips down from the sunny upland lawns into the valley with its clinging mists, He will go at our side. 2. Moreover, the Lord showed him mercy. That prison cell was the mount of vision, from the height of which he saw, as he had never seen before, the panorama of Divine lovingkindness. It were well worth his while to go to prison to learn that. It was in prison that Bunyan saw his wondrous allegory, and St. Paul met the Lord, and St. John looked through heaven’ s open door, and Joseph saw God’ s mercy. God has no chance to show His mercy to some of us except when we are in some sore sorrow. 3. God can also raise up friends for His servants in most unlikely places, and of most unlikely people. “ The Lord gave him favour in the sight of the keeper of the prison.” All hearts are open to our King; at His girdle swing the keys by which the most unlikely door can be unlocked. 4. There is always alleviation for our troubles in ministry to others. Joseph found it so. A new interest came into his life, and he almost forgot the heavy pressure of his own troubles amid the interest of listening to the tales of those who were more unfortunate than himself. (F. B. Meyer, B.A.) Changes of fortune overruled The chief lesson to be learned from the swift and violent alternations of fortune, to which he was subject, is not that men are like shuttlecocks, tossed up and down by random blows, either of blind chance or of hostile men, but that they are moved and guided by one loving will, which weaves malice and murderous intents into its great web, and uses unconscious men and women to effect its purposes. The point of a wheel that is at the top at one moment, is at the bottom at the next; but the wheel moves on steadily on its course, and the revolutions advance it to its goal. The naked boy in the pit, the sad captive in the prison, the favourite of Pharaoh, were equally set in these places by God, though envy and baulked lust and a despot’ s whim were the immediate occasions of the violently contrasted conditions. Life’ s bewildering mutations would look very differently if we habitually grasped the calming confidence that opposite states, such as joy and sorrow, elevation and depression, gain and loss, came from one source, and tended to one end, as surely as the opposite motions of two cog-wheels, working into each other, result in the forward motion of the hands of a watch. (A. Maclaren, D.D.) Psalms 105:22 To . . . teach His senators wisdom. Wisdom-taught senators I. God’ s instruction of senators. God’ s education of Joseph became the Divine education of the senators of Pharaoh; so we learn how statesmen are taught by God in all ages.1. By the life-work of the great and good. The knowledge of Joseph’ s biography would spread from the throne to the humblest tent in the land. An apprenticeship is needed for every great teacher and ruler of men. 2. By the events in a nation’ s history. The Hebrews were now an incipient nation, of which Joseph was a member. Israel shall teach Egypt, and Egypt Israel. Whilst the Bible is the statesman’ s great manual, the facts of all history, rightly interpreted, are a high education in anticipative experience, and in the philosophy of life. The barbaric, feudal, and constitutional periods through which all nations pass, are intended by God to educate the statesman. 3. By insight into a nation’ s needs. Joseph saw and taught what was coming upon Egypt, therefore he economized its resources. Valuable is vision and revelation! England needs men like Joseph, and those who learnt of him, in her senate-house; then should we obtain needful education, emigration, economy, and national unity. II. God’ s purpose in the instruction of senators. Every highly-gifted man is the bestow-ment of God upon the age in which he lives, and upon all subsequent ages. Joseph, Moses, David, Daniel, in Judaea; Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Demosthenes, in Greece; Cicero, Marcus Aurelius, Boethius, in Rome; Goethe, Schlegel, Fichte, in Germany; Burke, Pitt, Peel, in England. God’ s purpose in giving such men to a nation is--1. The entire well-being of a country. Physical, mental, spiritual, domestic, social. 2. Advancement in scientific achievement. Egypt was scientific. The physical and spiritual resources of the universe are the gift of God for our development. God intended us to possess railways, telegraphs, machinery, and all other appliances of human progress. 3. Perfection of His creation. Perfect righteousness is the result of His will, and of all He has willed to create; therefore shall all things be gathered together in Christ. Inquire-- (1) How far have we wisdom-taught statesmen?(2) How far is our nation a wise and understanding people? (W. N. Percival.) Psalms 105:41 He opened the rock. The rock at Horeb I. The source whence the waters are said to have sprung. A rock is in many respects an appropriate emblem of Christ.1. It suggests the ideas of stability and unchangeableness.2. Chosen by God Himself.3. Smitten. II. The uses for which they were designed.1. To save from death by thirst.2. To purify.3. To refresh. “ Hungry and thirsty,” we are told, “ their soul fainted in them.” But the same waters that saved them from perishing, renewed their strength, and enabled them to prosecute their journeyings to Canaan with fresh vigour and alacrity. And is it not thus with the weary and heavy-laden traveller to Zion, when supplies from the Redeemer’ s grace are afforded to his soul? III. The manner in which the waters flowed from the opened rock.1. Abundantly. So it is with the grace of Christ. It is “ exceeding abundant.” Its efficacy to save, to purify, and to refresh our souls is inexhaustible. 2. Freely. So with the blood of Christ. It is open even to the vilest and guiltiest. 3. Constantly. No drought could exhaust nor cold arrest the waters which the Israelites enjoyed in the wilderness; so neither shall any worldly trial deprive the true Israel of the reviving streams of the Redeemer’ s grace. Goodness and mercy shall surely follow the ransomed of the Lord through all their earthly pilgrimage. (P. Grant.) . Psalms 106:1-48 Psalms 106:1-5 Praise ye the Lord. The true in praise, religion, and prayer I. True. Praise and its reasons (verses 1, 2). This call to praise Jehovah is binding on all intelligent and moral creatures, because of--1. The goodness of His nature.2. The permanency of His mercy.3. The immensity of His works. II. True religion and its blessedness (verse 3). What is true religion? Keeping to the right at all times. “ If ye love Me, keep My commandments.” The only hymn of praise acceptable to the ear of the Infinite is a life of rectitude. Now, this is happiness (Psalms 1:1). III. True prayer and its desires. What is the grand desire of true prayer? All may be summed up in one sentence--identification with the excellent of the earth (verses 4, 5). A desire to be identified with the rich, the powerful, and the distinguished of the earth is common, is “ of the earth, earthy” ; but a desire to be vitally associated with the morally excellent of the earth is rare and of heavenly origin. May this be our grand aspiration! (Homilist.) Psalms 106:4-5 Remember me, O Lord, with the favour that Thou bearest unto Thy people. Sharing the blessings of God’ s people I. Who the lord’ s people are. They are a people who, deeply sensible of their own guiltiness and vileness, rest simply upon Jesus as their Saviour from the wrath to come. They are a people led also by the Spirit of the Saviour they believe in; actuated by His love; conformed to His image. II. The favour which the Lord bears unto His people.1. He sends His Spirit into their hearts to dwell with and abide in them--to work in them both to will and to do what is pleasing in His eyes. 2. He gives them His Word, full of precious things--comforts, invitations, promises, directions. 3. He makes all things work together for their good. 4. He gives them free access to Himself in prayer. III. The prayer in the text. I. We are here taught what to do, if we fear that we have no part nor lot in the Lord’ s favour to His people. Pray for it.2. Imitate the fervency of the psalmist in seeking for a clear, personal interest in these privileges. (A. Roberts, M.A.) The poor man’ s prayer I. This is an admirable prayer for a poor humble Christian. Notice with interest the first fear felt by this poor, trembling Christian. He is afraid that he is such a little one that God will forget him, and so he begins with, “ O remember me with the favour which Thou bearest to Thy people.” He is a true believer, but he is a sad doubter. He is on the road to heaven, but he is often afraid he is not, and that makes him watch every step he takes. I almost wish some confident professors were altogether as doubtful as he is if they would be half as cautious. Now, I am not quite sure about this good man’ s name,--it may be Littlefaith, or Feeblemind. Or is it Mr. Despondency I am thinking of? Or Miss Much-afraid? Or Mr. Ready-to-halt? Well, it is some one of that numerous family. This poor soul thinks, “ Surely God will forget me I” No, no, dear heart, he will not forget you. It is wonderful how God does think of little things. Mungo Park picked up a little bit Of moss in the desert, and as he marked how beautifully it was variegated, he said, “ God is here: He is thinking of the moss, and therefore He will think of me.” Observe next, that this poor, trembling heart seems to be in great trouble for fear the Lord should pass it by, but at the same time feels that every good thing it can possibly receive must come from the Lord, and must be brought to it by the Lord. Thou needest not say, if thou hast a broken heart, “ Lord, visit me.” Do you not know that He dwells in you, for is it not written (Isaiah 66:2)? Are you not the very person? Poor sorrowing heart, let me say to thee, and say in God’ s name, if thou lovest thy Lord, all things are thine. They are thine freely to enjoy even at this moment. The Lord denies thee no covenant blessing. Make bold to appropriate the sacred joys, for if thou be the least child in the family, yet the heritage of God’ s children is the same for every one. II. This is a suitable petition for a poor, penitent backslider. It is clear that this poor, pleading backslider feels that he has forgotten his God. Have you done that? You have been a Church-member, and you have gone sadly astray; have you quite forgotten His commandments? You thought you loved Him. You used to pray at one time: you had some enjoyment in reading and in hearing the Word; but now you find your pleasure somewhere else. You have left your first love and gone after many lovers. But, oh, if the Lord is gracious to you, you are lamenting your forgetfulness; and though you have not remembered Him, the prayer leaps to your lips, “ Lord, remember me.” Blessed be His name, He does not so easily forget us as we forget Him. It is He that sets thee weeping, and makes thee sorrow for thy sin. And then, I think, your next trouble will be this: you feel that you have lost your fellowship with Christ: and you are right in so feeling, for “ How can two walk together except they be agreed?” How could Christ have fellowship with you in the ways of folly?” Come back, my Lord, and visit me with Thy salvation.” Is not this a prayer made on purpose for you? And, next, you observe in the text that the poor backslider is longing to get a sight of the good things which for a long time have been hid from him He cries, “ That I may see the good of Thy chosen. He has been out amongst the swine, but he could not fill his belly with the husks. He has been hungering and thirsting, and now he remembers that in his Father’ s house there is bread enough and to spare. The poor backslider praying in the words of my text longs to taste once more the joy he used to feel, and therefore he says, “ That I may rejoice in the gladness of Thy nation” ; and, again, he wants to be able to speak as he once could--“ that I may glory with Thine inheritance.” Come back even now, my brother, and get another application of the blood of sprinkling. Look again to Jesus. Ah, and I may here say, if you have not backslidden, look again to Jesus. We have all wandered to some extent. Come, let us look to those dear wounds anew. Looking, my heart begins to love, and then begins to leap. Looking, I come back again to where I stood before; and now, once again, Christ is my all, and I rejoice in Him. Have you gone through that process, backslider? III. This is a very sweet prayer for a poor sorrowing seeker. To begin with, it is a sinner’ s prayer. The dying thief rejoiced to use the words. This is the best of prayers,--“ Lord, remember me when Thou comest into Thy kingdom.” Trembling sinner, what suited the dying thief may well suit you. Note, again, it is the prayer of a lost one. “ Visit me with Thy salvation.” Jesus Christ has not come to seek and to save those who do not want saving, but He has come on purpose to seek and to save that which was lost. Look to Him, and thou shalt find that He is the Saviour thou dost require. Further, remark that our text is the prayer of one who has a dim eye--“ That I may see the good of Thy chosen.” We have told the seeker to look to Jesus, but he complains, “ I do try to look, but I cannot see.” Beloved seeker, I do not know that you are bidden to see. You are bidden to look; and if you could not see when you looked you would at least have obeyed the Gospel command. The looking, the looking would bring salvation to you. But for dim eyes Christ is the great cure. He can take away the cataract and remove the gutta serena. Then it is a prayer for a heavy heart. “ That I may rejoice in the gladness of Thy nation.” The seeking soul moans out, “ O that I had a little joy, or even a trembling hope. If it were ever so small a portion of light I should be glad.” Pray for joy. The Lord waits to give it, and if you believe in Jesus your joy shall be full. And in the last place our text, is the prayer of a spirit that is humble and laid in the very dust, which cries to God to enable it to glory with His inheritance, because it is stripped of all other glory, emptied of its own boastings. Practically its plea is, “ Lord, give me to boast in Thy mercy and Thy goodness, for I have nothing else to boast of.” Now, this prayer I would most earnestly press upon you, and I would press it upon you for these reasons. Just think for a moment. Supposing you are living now without seeing the good of God’ s chosen, without being saved, what a wretched life it is to live! I cannot understand what men do without God: I cannot comprehend how they live. Do you have no cares, men? “ Oh,” you say, “ we have anxieties in shoals.” Well, where do you take them? Poor man without a God, how do you keep up your spirits? What comfort is there in your life? No prayer in the morning, no prayer at night: what days, what nights! Oh, men, I could as soon think of living without eating, or living without breathing, as living without prayer. Wretched naked spirits, your souls must be with no God to cover them! But if it be bad to live without Christ--and I am sure it is,--what will it be to die without Him? (C. H. Spurgeon.) The abounding prayer I. The immediate requests.1. The first solicits a specially loving Divine remembrance. He knew that general providential mercy and visible Church privilege mould profit him but little, if he had nothing more, if he had not over and above a personal interest in a much more special favour, in the Lord’ s covenant-favour towards His own elect; and hence it was his earnest prayer, his constant prayer, to be remembered with this favour. 2. The second solicits a graciously saving Divine visit. Come, Lord, and by Thine own finger, write upon my heart the assurance of Thy love. Come, Lord, and by Thine own Spirit witness with my spirit that I am Thy adopted child. Come, Lord, and by Thine own counsel, guide me while I live; and afterwards by Thine own hand receive me, when I die, into everlasting habitations. II. The ulterior requests.1. There is the consciousness of gracious well-being. “ That I may see the good of Thy chosen.” He desired to see it as the “ chosen” do, with the eye of a conscious faith, of a spiritually illumined soul; to see it so as to be sustained, stimulated, rejoiced, and beautified by it; to see it as made over to himself, so that it might become his own, just as when the owner of an estate looks over it and says, “ This farm, that goodly mansion, those spacious parks, the domain all round, the whole is mine.” Such was the sight which he desired, the only sight which is ever satisfying. 2. There is the experience of spiritual joy. “ That I may rejoice in the gladness of Thy nation.” Not see it merely, but share it too in a way answerable to its high and holy character, singing with grace in my heart to the Lord in psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs. 3. There is the exultation of holy triumph. “ That I may glory with Thine inheritance.” The heirs of an earthly inheritance are but heirs apparent or heirs presumptive, and either in one way or in another they may be disappointed of the inheritance after all. But not so here. The Lord is their inheritance, and they are His inheritance; and there can he no shortcoming of the mutual inheritance on either His part or theirs. What is it to glory with His inheritance in the Lord? It is to exalt Him highest in our affection and esteem; to claim Him as our own and only Lord; to confess Him before men; to place on Him the crown of our salvation; to give all the glory of it from first to last to Him to whom it all belongs. (E. A. Thomson.) The blessed lot of the saints desired I. The blessedness of the saints of God. See this from--1. The names given them. (1) The people of God.(2) His chosen.(3) His nation.(4) His inheritance. They are the richest treasures, it says, that God possesses; the prized and the loved of His soul; of all things in heaven and earth the most delighted in.2. What they may be said to possess. (1) The good of His chosen (Proverbs 8:20). All the treasures of God--of Omnipotence--are at their disposal.(2) The gladness of His nation--a portion of the gladness of heaven, vouchsafed to the heirs of heaven before they get there.(3) The glory of His inheritance. II. The prayer drawn from the psalmist by the contemplation of this blessedness.1. Here is, first, a belief expressed both in the existence and in the happiness of God’ s people. This is generally the first step a man takes towards obtaining a part in their blessedness. It is a great point gained when we are brought really to believe that such a people exist on the earth as you have now been hearing of. Here is a proof that light is breaking in upon your minds. And what a call is here, Christian brethren, on you, for a conduct consistent with your high profession! 2. We discover in this prayer a tracing of all the blessedness of God’ s people to His special “ favour” and “ His salvation.” “ Remember me,” the psalmist says, “ with” --what? “ That ‘ tender mercy’ which is ‘ over all Thy works‘ ? that universal goodness of Thine, which shines in the sun, which falls down in the rain ‘ on the evil and on the good‘ ?” No; with that “ favour,” that special favour, “ that Thou bearest unto Thy people.” “ O visit me,” he says again, “ with Thy salvation.” And this special favour and this salvation he asks for, observe, in order that he may obtain and rejoice in “ the good of God’ s chosen” : letting us see, that all this “ good” and all this “ rejoicing” and all this “ glory” have their origin and spring out of God’ s “ favour” and God’ s “ salvation.” 3. We may trace in this prayer an earnest desire of making the blessedness of God’ s saints his own. It is, you observe, a personal prayer: “ Remember me, O Lord; O visit me with Thy salvation.” This is the turning-point. Such a prayer is indeed an indication of favour already gone forth for the soul that offers it. Such a prayer proceeds from grace already at work in the soul. (C. Bradley, M.A.) Prayer for the Lord’ s favour to His people The text contains a petition which is very expressive of the desires of the renewed soul; and which no one in truth can really offer who is not under the influence of the Spirit of God. I. What are the things which the person, who sincerely uses this petition, believes.1. That the Lord has a people, a people in this world peculiar to Himself, who in an especial manner belong to Him, and in a way different from others, are His property, the objects of His care, and the sheep of His pasture. 2. That the Lord has a peculiar favour to His people. (1) Gracious and free in its origin.(2) Active in its operation.(3) Constant in its exercise.(4) Unchangeable both as to its degree and duration. It does not depend upon their feelings, neither is it the less because of their fears. II. What is the desire which the person who sincerely users this petition, heartily feels and expresses. “ Remember me, O Lord,” etc. Believing that the Lord has a peculiar people, and that He beareth to them a peculiar favour, he longs to be included in their number, and to participate in their privileges. Do you feel a lively interest for your own salvation, and do you anxiously pray for your own soul? Do you look upon true religion as s personal transaction between yourself and God? Be then of good courage. If you heartily desire His favour, you have already obtained it. None but those who are His people, and possess His favour, ever thus heartily desire, and sincerely pray for these things. (E. Cooper, M.A.) O visit me with Thy salvation. A visit from the Lord I. The psalmist here prays for salvation. He says, first, that God saved the people out of Egypt. There they were, a nation of captives and bond-slaves; and He began to work with a high hand and an outstretched arm to bring them out of their captivity; and though they did not understand His wonders, yet, nevertheless, He saved them. That is a salvation in which you and I also delight,--salvation by the sprinkled blood,--salvation by the Paschal Lamb,--salvation by the right hand of God and His stretched-out arm,--a salvation which reveals His faithfulness, His mercy, and His power. Let us bless God if we know experimentally what this salvation means; and if we do not, let this be the prayer of each one of us, “ O visit me with Thy salvation.” Further on in the psalm, the writer sings of a second salvation when the people were delivered at the Red Sea. Its waves rolled before them, and they could not tell how they were to escape from Pharaoh, who was close behind with all the chariots and horsemen of Egypt pursuing them. So it was when you and I, having cried to God for mercy, at last found it through Jesus Christ our Saviour. Then we saw our sins cast into the depths of the sea, and we were ready to dance for joy as we said, “ The depths have covered them; there is not one of them left.” It may be that you and I have gone further on than this. We have been saved from our natural ruin, and saved from the power of despair wrought in us by conviction; and now we are fighting with our uprising corruptions. Our inbred sin is like the deep that lieth under, and perhaps, lately, the fountains of the great deep have been broken up within us. We cannot sin without being grieved and troubled by it; it is a vexation even to hear the report of it. Oh, that we could live without sinning at all! Well, now, if you are struggling against it, let this be your prayer to the Most High, “ O visit me with Thy salvation.” Our text may also be used in another sense, for salvation means deliverance from grievous affliction, just as, in this psalm, when the children of Israel were brought into great distress by their enemies, then God came, and saved them from their foes. So, at this time, you may be in great distress. Whether you are suffering in body, or in mind, or in heart, God knows how to deliver you. II. Vistation. Mark the condescension which the psalmist feels that the Lord will thus manifest. “ O visit me with Thy salvation.” Lord, I cannot be saved unless Thou wilt visit me. Visit me not as a saved one, but “ visit me with Thy salvation.” I am lost until Thou dost come to me. O come, Lord, and visit me as a Saviour. Come and visit me as a Physician, for I am sick. Pay me a visit of mercy, a visit of grace and tenderness. O thou great and glorious Lord, I beseech Thee, come and visit me. By the remembrance of Bethlehem’ s manger, come and visit me. And, as the angels sang when Thou didst thus descend to the lowliest of lowliness, so shall my heart sing yet more sweetly if Thou wilt visit me,--even me. It will be a great condescension on Thy part, but ‘ O visit me with Thy salvation.’” And it will be compassion, too, “‘ O visit me.’ I am a prisoner; yet come, Lord, and visit me. I am lame and very weak. Lord, I have not a leg to carry me to Thy house; so come to my house, Lord. ‘ O visit me.’ My heart is heavy, and sorely burdened; my very wishes lag, my prayers limp, my desires halt. O come and visit me. If I cannot come to Thee, yet come Thou to me, my God.” But there is more in it even than that, there is also communion: “ O visit me with Thy salvation.” A visit from a beloved friend,--oh, what a joy it is! Most of you must have some friends who love you so much that, when they see you at their house, they do not want to know when you are going, but, if they could, they would make you always stop there. Dr. Watts went to see Sir Thomas Abney, at Abney Park, to spend a week; but that week lasted through all the rest of his life, for he never went away from there, and he lies buried in Abney Park, and Sir Thomas is buried there also, so that even in death the friends are not divided from one another. They never meant to part after they once came together. That is the kind of visit we want from the Lord, so let us breathe this prayer now, “ O Lord, come and visit me; but do not merely pay me a brief visit, but come to stay with me.” III. Personality. “ Visit me.” This petition of the psalmist shows great necessity, great unworthiness, and great concentration of desire. If anybody says that it is selfish to pray for yourself so much, just ask him what he would do if he were drowning? Does anybody say that it is selfish for him to strike out and try to swim, or selfish to seize the lifebouy that is thrown to him? If you were in a fire, and likely to be burned to death, would anybody call you selfish because you looked out for the fire-escape, and climbed on to it as soon as it touched your window? And when your very soul is in danger, it is a hallowed selfishness to seek first its salvation. If your own soul be lost, what can you do for the salvation of other people? If you perish, what benefit can you be to your fellow-men? Therefore, keep to this personal prayer till it is answered, and when it is, then pray for all others as earnestly as you have prayed for yourself. IV. Notice one thing more in this text, and that is, a speciality: “ O visit me with Thy salvation,” --the kind of salvation he has been describing in this psalm, the salvation wrought by omnipotent grace, the salvation of enduring love. The psalmist prayed, “ O visit me with Thy salvation,” and by that he meant real salvation, a radical change, a thorough work of grace. God’ s salvation includes a perfect cleansing in the precious blood of Jesus, a supernatural work in renewing the heart, a resurrection work in raising the dead, and giving a new life. This salvation is also complete salvation. It saves the man from the love of sin. It not merely saves him from getting drunk, from lying, and from thieving, and from uncleanness; but it saves him within as well as without. It is a thorough renewal,--a work of grace that takes effect upon every part of his nature, Lastly, and chiefly, God’ s salvation is eternal salvation. A good old divine was once asked whether he believed in the final perseverance of the saints. “ Well,” said he, “ I do not know much about that matter, but I firmly believe in the final perseverance of God, that where He has begun a good work He will carry it on until it is complete.” To my mind, that truth includes the final perseverance of the saints; they persevere in the way of salvation because God keeps them in it. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The visit of salvation Looked at from the standpoint of a true and sincere Christian, the one great salvation which runs through all his experience presents to his mind three distinct aspects. He contemplates a salvation of the past, a fact complete in itself, the starting-point of his new experiences, the commencement of his new life. But further, he recognizes a salvation of the present, a salvation that is going forward from day to day, a salvation which is as needful to the development and maintenance of the new life as the salvation of the past was to its commencement. And he looks forward to a salvation of the future, in which the life thus received and maintained will be crowned with glory, honour, and immortality, a salvation which shall lift him into a state in which danger is unknown, and in which therefore salvation is required no longer; so we may say, a state in which salvation shall be merged in glory. Let me offer a very simple illustration. We will suppose that this country is at war with some barbarous foe, and that a soldier, in whom our King is specially interested, has been captured by the enemy and condemned to death. Such a man is in present danger, and requires an instant salvation. Our King hears that he is to be executed, and he represents to the king with whom he is at war that he is particularly anxious that this man should not die, and backs the application with the offer of a large ransom. The terms are arranged, and the ransom is accepted. That moment the man is saved, saved by the King’ s grace. Such is the salvation of the past, to which the believer looks back with feelings of joyous certainty and of deep and fervent gratitude to Him who has rescued him from so great a death. But let us carry our illustration further. We will suppose that on his return home from that scene of terribly close danger the soldier approaches his sovereign to offer his thanks, and that he puts it to him, “ I have saved you from death; now are you willing to fight my battles for me?” Surely, if the man has a spark of gratitude in his nature, his reply will be, “ I am at your service, my King, from this time. My body and my blood are yours, and all my faculties, to my latest breath. Command what you will, I am ready.” “ Very well,” replies his sovereign, “ you shall go to the battle-field and fight my battles once more.” But here, to complete our figure, we must suppose a thing impossible under the conditions of modern warfare. We will suppose that the King points to a suit of armour hanging mayhap on the wall. “ Put on that suit of armour,” he says, “ and I will guarantee that as long as you wear it you will be safe, even in the midst of the battle--safe from all danger and death.” Watch that man go forth to the battle. Here he is surrounded by danger. You ask the question, “ Is he in danger, or is he not?” Look at him outwardly, and he is in great and unquestionable danger. Can you not hear the whistling of the bullets as they fly around him? At any moment he may fall, so you think, until you are let into the secret of that mysterious armour; but then, when you see him wearing that armour in the midst of every danger, you know that, since nothing can touch him or harm him as long as he wears it, in the midst of danger he is being saved. It is clear, then, that his part in this matter of his continuous salvation consists in the carefulness with which he sees to it that he never omits to clothe himself in the panoply of safety. If he becomes careless and despises his foe, or forgets that his safety is dependent upon the provision which his King has made to ensure it, he may still fall, but the fault will be his own. Even so we are being saved so long as we trust to and appropriate to ourselves the Divine provision for our safety; but when we cease to walk by faith we cease to live in safety; we are no longer being saved. Let us look at another picture. The campaign ends at last in victory; the enemy is crushed and slain; the soldier returns in triumph to his native land. His salvation is complete now, because he is not only rescued, not only armed with an impervious suit, but he is saved from all possibilities of carelessness that might have exposed him afresh to the powers of the foe. He is received into the palace, and becomes a member of the royal household, and his perils are of the past. Even so are we to be saved when the long conflict which has run through all human history comes to its close, and the latest foe is crushed under our great Victor’ s feet; then shall we join the great company that no man can number in the cry--“ Salvation unto our God and to the Lamb.” (W. H. M. H. Aitken, M.A.) That I may see the good of Thy chosen.-- The good of God’ s chosen I. God has a chosen people. That God does choose men is beyond question. Why, how, and when He chooses them, are quite a different matter. It will be enough if we point out that the people of Israel were chosen of God, to enjoy as a nation such a good and happy lot as should serve to set forth in a figure the spiritual good of the spiritual Israel of the future. Similarly, even now, God has His chosen ones, who, like the ancient Israel, are brought into a very close relation with Himself; only that those relations with God are spiritual, where the relations of Israel with God were national and ecclesiastical. But who are these chosen ones, and how are they distinguished from others? If any of you to whom I speak imagine that you are in a position to enjoy the good of God’ s chosen, just because of your membership in the outward Church and your participation in the external ordinances of religion, this utterance alone is surely enough to undeceive you. Called you certainly have been, but do you wear the wedding garment? Are you clothed with that “ righteousness which is of God by faith” ? God dwells in hearts that are submitted--willingly and cheerfully submitted--to Him in the obedience of faith. These are God’ s peculiar treasures in a world that disowns and rejects Him; they are His “ people of possession,” and no wonder that He should reserve for them some special good, of which others can know nothing, until they too join this favoured company. II. These chosen ones have a special good of their own. It consists primarily in the possession of God. “ The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms.” Surely in a world where foes are strong, and we are only too conscious of our weakness, it is no small matter to enjoy the help of Omnipotence. And in a world where trials and troubles are so numerous, it is something to have a refuge open unto us whereunto we may always resort. Why should you condemn yourselves to perpetual restlessness, when you have God’ s own peace which passeth all understanding within your reach? Why should you prefer the evil of God’ s enemies, the cruel Nemesis which they bring upon their own heads, to the good which might be yours if you were His? Have you not had enough of weariness and restless toil? Why not listen to the voice to-night which proclaims, “ Peace, peace to those that are far off, to those that are near” ? Why not offer the prayer, “ O visit me with Thy salvation, that I may see the good of Thy chosen” ? Psalms 106:7 Our fathers understood not Thy wonders in Egypt.Sin: its spring-head, stream, and sea Great things, whether good or evil, begin with littles. The river that rolls its mighty volume to the sea was once a tiny brook; nay, it started as a spring-head, where the child stooped down to drink, and, with a single draught, seemed as if he would exhaust the supply. The rivulet ripples itself into a river. Sin is a stream of this sort. It starts with a thought; it increases to a resolve, a word, an act; it gathers force, and becomes habit, and daring rebellion. I. Want of understanding of God’ s wonders is the source of sin. Many professing Christians of whom we have a good hope that they will prove to be sincere, never had any deep conviction of sin, nor any overwhelming sense of their need of Jesus: hence they have seen little of our Lord in His glorious offices, and all-sufficient sacrifice, and have gained no thorough understanding of His truth. They are like slovenly farmers, who have ploughed their fields after a fashion, but they have not gone deep, and the land will never yield more than half a crop. We have all around us too much surface work. II. Failure of memory follows upon want of understanding.1. Mercies should be remembered. It is a great wrong to God when we bury His mercies in the grave of unthankfulness. Especially is this the case with distinguishing mercies, wherein the Lord makes us to differ from others. Light, when the rest of the land is in darkness! Life, when others are smitten with the sword of death! Liberty from an iron bondage! O Christians, these are not things to be forgotten! 2. Mercies multiplied should never be forgotten. If they are new every morning, our memory of them should be always fresh. Read the story of the ten plagues, and see how the Lord heaped up His mercies upon Israel with both His hands. Even if they had forgotten one wonder they ought to have remembered others. “ Forget not all His benefits.” 3. The Lord’ s mercies ought to be remembered progressively. We should think more and more of His exceeding kindness. III. Grievous provocation followed their forgetfulness of God. It is a high crime and misdemeanour to sin in the presence of a great mercy. Abhor the sin which dogs your heel, and follows you even to your knees, and hinders you in drawing near to God in prayer. Oh, the accursed sin which even on Tabor’ s top makes us fall asleep or talk foolishly! Lord, have mercy upon us, and forgive the sins of our holy places, and let it not stand against us in Thy book that “ They provoked Thee at the sea, even at the Red Sea.” (C. H. Spurgeon.) The Israelites’ ingratitude to God I. Their unworthy and ungrateful deportment towards God upon a most signal mercy and deliverance. To provoke, is an expression setting forth a peculiar and more than ordinary degree of misbehaviour; and seems to import an insolent daring resolution to offend. A resolution not contented with one single stroke of disobedience, but such a one as multiplies and repeats the action, till the offence greatens, and rises into an affront: and as it relates to God, so I conceive it strikes at Him in a threefold respect:1. Of His power;2. Of His goodness;3. Of His patience. II. The aggravation of their unworthy deportment towards their Almighty Deliverer. The baseness and ingratitude of which He casts in their teeth, by confronting it with the eminent obligation laid upon them, by the glorious deliverance He vouchsafed them: a deliverance heightened and ennobled with these four qualifications:1. Its greatness;2. Its unexpectedness;3. Its seasonableness:4. Its undeservedness. III. The cause of this unworthy behaviour, which was their not understanding the designs of mercy in the several instances of it: “ They understood not Thy wonders in Egypt.” Now, in every wonderful passage of providence, two things are to be considered:1. The author, by whom;2. The end, for which it is done: neither of which were understood by the Israelites as they ought to have been (R. South, D.D.) Psalms 106:8 Nevertheless He saved them for His name’ s sake. Why are men saved? I. A glorious Saviour--“ He saved them.” Who is to be understood by that pronoun “ he” ? Possibly many may answer, “ Why, the Lord Jesus Christ is the Saviour of men.” Right; but not all the truth. Jesus Christ is the Saviour; but not more so than God the Father, or God the Holy Ghost. Thou canst not be saved by the Son without the Father, nor by the Father without the Son, nor by Father and Son without the Spirit. But as they are one in creation, so are they one in salvation. But, note here, how this Divine being claims salvation wholly to Himself. “ Nevertheless He saved them.” But, Moses, where art thou? Didst not thou save them, Moses? Thou didst stretch the rod over the sea, and it clave in halves. And thou, Aaron, thou didst offer the bullocks which God accepted; thou didst lead them, with Moses, through the wilderness. Wast not thou their Saviour? They answer, “ Nay, we were the instruments, but He saved them. God made use of us, but unto His name be all the glory, and none unto ourselves.” But, Israel, thou wast a strong and mighty people; didst not thou save thyself? Perhaps it was by thine own holiness that the Red Sea was dried up; perhaps the parted floods were frighted at the piety of the saints that stood upon their margin; perhaps it was Israel that delivered itself. Nay, nay, saith God’ s Word; He saved them; they did not save themselves, nor did their fellow-men redeem them. II. The favoured persons. “ He saved them.” Who are they? In the first place, they were a stupid people--“ Our fathers understood not Thy wonders in Egypt.” In the next place, they were an ungrateful people--“ they remembered not the multitude of Thy mercies.” In the third place, they were a provoking people--“ they provoked Him at the sea, even at the Red Sea.” Ah, these are the people whom free grace saves, these are the men and these the women whom the God of all grace condescends to take to His bosom and to make anew. III. The reason of salvation. “ For His name’ s sake.”1. He saved them, first, that He might manifest His nature. God was all love, and He wanted to manifest it; He did show it when He made the sun, the moon, and the stars, and scattered flowers o’ er the green and laughing earth. He did show His love when He gave the air balmy to the body, and the sunshine cheering be the eye. “ How can I show them that, I love them with all My infinite heart? I will give My Son to die be save the very worst of them, and so will I manifest My nature.” And God has done it; He has manifested His power, His justice, His love, His faithfulness, and His truth; He has manifested His whole self on the great platform of salvation. 2. He did it, again, to vindicate His name. Some say God is cruel; they wickedly call Him tyrant. “ Ah!” says God, “ but I will save the worst of sinners, and vindicate My name; I will blot out the stigma; they shall not be able to say that, unless they be liars, for I will be abundantly merciful. I will take away this stain, and they shall see that My great name is a name of love.” And said He, again, “ I will do this for My name’ s sake; that is, to make these people love My name. I know if I take the best of men, and save them, they will love My name; but if I take the worst of men, oh, how they will love me! If I go and take some of the offscouring of the earth, and make them My children, oh, how they will love Me! Then they will cleave to My name; they will think it more sweet than music; it will be more precious to them than the spikenard of the Eastern merchants; they will value it as gold, yea, as much fine gold. The man who loves Me best, is the man who has most sins forgiven; he owes much, therefore he will love much.” This is the reason why God often selects the worst of men to make them His. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Salvation entirely free God is a sovereign and jealous of:His prerogative. Especially is He jealous of the undivided honour of redeeming man from the degradation and ruins of the fall. In the salvation of sinners by Jesus Christ, He has taken, as it should seem, extraordinary pains to establish and illustrate this fact; for this reason; that therein He, or His name, is more deeply interested--that thereby His name is more highly magnified and more abundantly glorified, both in heaven and in earth, than by any other of His most stupendous works. I. The nature of the salvation granted to the people of God. It is a spiritual and eternal salvation--a salvation of the sinner from the power, the love, the pollution, the practice, and the punishment of sin. II. Upon what grounds or upon what terms this salvation is vouchsafed. “ For His name’ s sake.” By the name of God we may understand His person and attributes. For the sake, therefore, of illustrating His power, mercy, wisdom, truth and faithfulness, justice and holiness, He devised the great work of redemption. III. In opposition to what impediments this salvation is vouchsafed. “ Nevertheless He saved them” --nevertheless what? In spite of what, according to the calculations of reason and of conscience, were utterly insuperable difficulties. But, blessed be God, His “ thoughts are not as our thoughts.” Notwithstanding therefore the sins of Israel were so numerous and so heinous He saved them; and to judge of their enormity you have only to consult this psalm--by which it appears they were guilty of the most abominable idolatries, of the blackest ingratitude, of the most determined rebellion. Notwithstanding all which God “ saved them for His name’ s sake.” Yes, and so likewise are we encouraged to hope that He will save us. (Essex Remembrancer.) Psalms 106:9 He rebuked the:Red Sea also. Israel at the Red Sea No doubt the children of Israel supposed that now all was over; the Egyptians had sent them away, entreating them to depart, and loading them with riches. They said within themselves, “ We shall now march to Canaan at once; there will be no more dangers, no more trials.” “ Not quite so speedily,” says God; “ the time is not arrived yet for you to rest. It is true I have delivered you from Egypt; but there is much you have to learn before you will be prepared to dwell in Canaan. Therefore I shall lead you about, and instruct you, and teach you.” I. The children of Israel just now had three difficulties--three exceeding great dangers. And so I believe that every heir of heaven, within a very short period after the time of his deliverance, will meet with the same.1. The first they had was a great trial sent by God Himself. There was the Red Sea in the front of them. Now, it was not an enemy that put the sea there; it was God Himself. We may therefore think, that the Red Sea represents some great and trying providence, which the Lord will be sure to place in the path of every new-born child; in order to try his faith, and to test the sincerity of his trust in God. 2. Then the children of Israel had a second difficulty. They would not have cared about the Red Sea a single atom, if they had not been terrified by the Egyptians who were behind them. These are the representatives of those sins of ours which we thought were clean dead and gone. The pangs after we come out of Egypt are at times even more painful than those we feel in the house of bondage; and there is usually a time of trial a little while after the new birth, which is even more terrible and awful than the previous agony of the soul, though not usually so protracted. 3. But there was a third difficulty, which perhaps wrought them more misery than either of the other two; these poor children of Israel had such faint hearts. They no sooner saw the Egyptians than they began to cry out; and when they beheld the Red Sea before them, they murmured against their Deliverer. A faint heart is the worst foe a Christian can have; whilst he keeps his faith firm, whilst the anchor is fixed deep in the rock, he never need fear the storm; but when the hand of faith is palsied, or the eye of faith is dim, it will go hard with us. II. But, thanks be to God I the children of Israel had three helps. Oh! child of God, dost thou discern this mystery? Whenever thou hast three trials, thou wilt always have three promises; and if thou hadst forty afflictions, thou wouldst have forty measures of grace.1. The first help they had was Providence. Providence put the Red Sea there, and piled the rocks on either hand, while providence represented by the fiery cloudy pillar had led them to its shore, and conducted them into the defile, and now the same pillar of providence came to their assistance. They had not come thither undirected, and therefore they should not be left unprotected, for the same cloudy pillar which led them there came behind them to protect them. Cheer up, then, heir of grace! What is thy trial? Has providence brought it upon thee? If so, unerring wisdom will deliver thee from it. 2. Again: the children of Israel had another refuge, in the fact that they knew that they were the covenant people of God, and that, though they were in difficulties, God had brought them there, and therefore God was bound in honour to bring them out of that trouble into which He had brought them. “ Well,” says the child of God, “ I know I am in a strait, but this one thing I also know, that I did not come out of Egypt by myself--I know that He brought me out; I know that I did not escape by my own power, or slay my first-born sins myself--I know that He did it; and though I fled from the tyrant--I know that He made my feet mighty for travel, for there was not one feeble in all our tribes; I know that though I am at the Red Sea, I did not run there uncalled, but He bade me go there, and therefore I give to the winds my fears; for if He hath led me here into this difficulty, He will lead me out, and lead me through.” 3. The third refuge which the children of Israel had was in a man; and neither of the two others, without that, would have been of any avail. It was the man Moses. He did everything for them. Thy greatest refuge, O child of God! in all thy trials, is in a man: not in Moses, but in Jesus; not in the servant, but in the master. He is interceding for thee, unseen and unheard by thee, even as Moses did for the children of Israel. Look! on yonder rock of heaven He stands, cross in hand, even as Moses with his rod. Cry to Him, for with that uplifted cross He will cleave a path for thee, and guide thee through the sea; He will make those hoary floods, which had been friends for ever, stand asunder like foes. Call to Him, and He will make thee a way in the midst of the ocean, and a path through the pathless sea. III. God had a design in it. And here, also, we wish you to regard with attention what God’ s design is, in leading the Christian into exceeding great trials in the early part of his life. “ They were all baptized,” says the apostle, “ unto Moses, in the cloud and in the sea.” God’ s design in bringing His people into trouble, and raising all their sins at their heels, is to give them a thorough baptism into His service, consecrating them for ever to Himself. I mean by baptism this morning, not the rite, but what baptism represents. Baptism signifies dedication to God--initiation into God’ s service. It is not when we are first converted that we so fully dedicate ourselves to God, as afterwards, when some great Red Sea rolls before us. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Psalms 106:13-15 They soon forgat His works. God’ s praises sung; His works forgotten The conduct of the Israelites, as here described, affords a striking exemplification of that spurious gratitude, which often bursts forth in a sudden flash, when dreaded evils are averted, or unexpected favours bestowed; but expires with the occasion that gave it birth; a gratitude resembling the joy excited in an infant’ s breast by the gift of some glittering toy, which is received with rapture, and pleases for an hour; but when the charm of novelty vanishes, is thrown aside with indifference; and the hand that bestowed it is forgotten.1. A person unacquainted with human nature, who should witness for the first time some striking exhibition of national gratitude, would not, indeed, suspect this to be its character. Such a person, while listening to the rapturous ascriptions of praise poured forth by the Israelites on the shore of the Red Sea, would have little expected to hear them, within three days, impiously murmuring against that God, whose goodness they had so recently experienced, and so loudly acknowledged. And as little, perhaps, would such a person be prepared to anticipate the scenes, which usually attend, and follow our days of public thanksgiving. 2. Some instances, in which the works and perfections of Jehovah engage our attention; excite our natural affections; and, perhaps, call forth expressions of praise; but produce no salutary effects upon our temper or conduct; and are soon forgotten. (1) The first, which I shall notice, is furnished by the works of creation; or, as they are often, though not very properly called, the works of nature. In so impressive a manner do these works present themselves to our senses; so much of variety, and beauty, and sublimity do they exhibit; such power, and wisdom, and goodness do they display; that perhaps no man, certainly no man who possesses the smallest share of sensibility, taste, or mental cultivation, can, at all times, view them without emotion; without feelings of awe, or wonder, or admiration, or delight. But alas, how transient, how unproductive of salutary effects, have all these emotions proved! (2) A second instance of a similar nature is afforded by the manner in which men are often affected by God’ s works of providence. In these works His perfections are so constantly, and often so clearly displayed; our dependence on them is at all times so real, and, sometimes, so apparent; and they bear, in many cases, so directly and evidently upon our dearest temporal interests, that even the most insensible cannot, always, regard them with indifference. Here nations and individuals stand on precisely the same level. Both are equally, that is entirely, dependent on the providence of God; and both are occasionally constrained to feel and acknowledge their dependence. But the feeling is usually transient; and the acknowledgment is forgotten almost as soon as it is made. How often have we seen Christian nations, when scourged by war, pestilence, or famine, and when the help of man was evidently vain, addressing public and united supplications to Heaven for relief. And as often have we seen them, after relief was obtained, singing with apparent thankfulness, “ Te Deum laudamus,” --Thee, O God, we praise; and then proceeding without delay to repeat those sins, the punishment of which had just been removed. (3) But once more, let us turn, for further illustrations of this subject, to our families, and to ourselves. On reviewing our personal and domestic history we shall all find too many instances, in which, though we may have sung God’ s praises, we have forgotten His works. 3. Men are willing to offer God praises and thanksgivings, because it is an offering which costs them nothing; and because, while it seems to shield them from the charge of ingratitude, it involves the renunciation of no favourite sin; the performance of no disagreeable duty; the practice of no self-denial. But they are not willing to make those constant returns for God’ s goodness, which He deserves and requires, because this is, in their estimation, an expensive offering; because it implies sacrifices, which they are not disposed to make, and an attention to duties, which they dislike to perform. (E. Payson, D.D.) Spiritual declension We have here some of the greatest words in human history, and some of the most vivid experiences of human life. We have all believed, praised, forgotten, and tempted. What is now our duty? If that question can be answered directly and solemnly and with due effect in the life, this will be as a birthtime, memorable through all the ages that are yet to dawn upon our life. “ Then believed they His words.” When He rebuked the Red Sea, and it was dried up, etc. Any credit due to them? Not one whit. “ Blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed.” This brings us into the region of personal providential deliverances, and we have all been in that hallowed region. That such deliverances do occur every man who has read his life with any attention will instantly attest. Our whole life is a providential deliverance. So blind are we, so foolish, that we expect only to see God in the miracle that is occasional, rather than in the miracle that is constant. Now the tone changes, the wind goes round to a bitter quarter--“ they soon forgat His works.” How easy it is to forget favours. How possible it is to give so many favours to an ungrateful person as to cause that person to imagine he has a right to claim them as his due. The giving of favours where gratitude is not kept up proportionately with the gift is a heart-hardening process. “ They soon forgat.” Religious impression is most transitory. Beautiful as the morning dew while it lasts, it exhales, and we see no rainbow in the sky. It vanishes, it perishes, unless it be diligently seized and wisely deepened, yea, even cultured with all a husbandman’ s patient care, until it blooms into flower or develops into fruit, and is fit for the Master’ s plucking. Frail is the thread that binds us to heaven, mean and weak the threadlet that attaches us to the altar and the Church--a breath may break it, a little splutter of flame may crack it, and then our life may be lost. Perhaps the catastrophe ended at forgetfulness? No; further reading gives denial to that happy hope. The reading is black, and proceeds thus: “ They lusted exceedingly in the wilderness, and tempted God in the desert.” They believed, they lusted, they sang, they tempted. It is such swift oscillation that we find in our own consciousness and experience of religious things. Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. (J. Parker, D.D.) Evanescent goodness and inveterate carnalism I. Evanscent goodness (verses 12, 13; Exodus 14:31; Exodus 15:1-19).1. It leaves the soul with increased guilt. It implies an abuse of the highest influences of God. 2. It leaves the soul with a decreased capability of improvement. The longer a man continues a mere hearer of the Gospel, the less likelihood is there that he will be saved by it. What effect can the beauties of the fair creation have on one whose eyes are sealed in blindness? Or the harmonies of the universe on one whose ears are deeply closed to every sound? And what effect can Christianity have on a soul whose sensibilities are gone? II. Inveterate carnalism (verses 14, 15). The more you pamper the body, the more you pauperize the soul. A sadder sight know I not than that of an individual, family, nation, surrounded with material abundance, and yet “ lean” in soul, matter governing mind, plethoric bodies the residence of starving souls. Conclusion. Take care of religious impressions. Do not trifle with them. Entertain them and cherish them into holy principles of action. Take care also of material prosperity. Labour not for the bread that perisheth. (Homilist.) On speculative faith, and ingratitude to God in practice The same wise and good Being, who hath fitted the whole frame of this world to the various wants of His creatures, hath fitted the events of things to our reformation and moral improvement. Were they to be considered as events only, it would be folly not to learn from them; but as they are lessons intended by Heaven for our instruction, it is impiety also. Now, the obvious method of securing events of importance, both from oblivion and misconstruction, is, by appointing stated and solemn commemorations of them. God Himself hath done this, to preserve a just sense of His works of creation and redemption; but the celebration of His providential goodness He hath left, as it was natural, to human care. I. The nature of the blessing which we commemorate. II. What behaviour the great event which we commemorate prescribes; what is the counsel which God hath given us by it. The greatest part of the instruction, indeed, must arise from our sufferings; but the whole power of making advantage of it arises from our deliverance. And our sufferings being caused by mutual vehemence, and our deliverance being effected in peace; both may well dispose us to a mild consideration of what they teach. (T. Secker.) The unthankful heart Dr. O. W. Holmes says, “ If one should give me a dish of sand, and tell me there were particles of iron in it, I might look with my eyes for them, and search for them with my clumsy fingers and be unable to find them: but let me take a magnet and sweep it, and how it would draw to itself the most invisible particles by the power of attraction. The unthankful heart, like my fingers in the sand, discovers no mercies; but let the thankful heart sweep through the day, and, as the magnet finds the iron, so it will find in every hour some heavenly blessings: only the iron in God’ s sand is gold.” He gave them their request; but sent leanness into their soul.--Lust and leanness This passage is not only a masterly interpretation of the motive and movement of certain chapters of undoubted history, but one of those characteristic accurate photographs of human nature with which the Scriptures abound. In the language of the stage here is a transformation scene, a quick transition from joy, hope, praise, to sadness, despair, and bitter complaining. We have no difficulty in discovering the wisdom and tenderness of the Divine dealing when it intervenes for our extrication or harmonizes with our wish; we are equally ready to denounce its injustice and pitilessness when it crosses our plan. The Christian mother, praying for the recovery of her sick child, adds, as she has been taught, “ Not my will, but Thine, be done.” If the child recovers she devoutly gives God the praise; if it dies she says, “ I cannot understand this.” Yet she believes the other life to be infinitely better than this, and humbly hopes that she and all her family may one day know its joy. I speak not now of sorrow, but of rebellion and bitterness. So is it with every inferior mystery--for every other is inferior to this mystery of death and bereavement--our praises depend upon compliance with our wishes. How small and foolish the petulance and resentments of your child appear when by some denial or exaction you have done what you knew to be best! Did you ever think how exceedingly childish your bitter thoughts and complainings must seem to the Father in heaven? But here is another pregnant suggestion: “ He gave them their request, but sent leanness into their souls.” You have looked upon a withered and sunken human form in the coffin, from which disease and the agony of dissolution had driven out almost the last trace of resemblance to the same form in health. Is that the suggestion here?--a shrivelled and shrunken spiritual nature, lean and ghastly, atrophied through ill-usage and neglect, withered by worldliness? Man’ s darling desire is often such as to interfere with God’ s purpose for him. We need constantly to have emphasized the truth that God’ s anxiety is for man’ s spiritual fatness and prosperity; and when the human wish refuses to yield to the Divine purpose there can be but one result--leanness of soul. The time is to come when the supreme question concerning human pleasures and pursuits will be, “ Will they minister to the spiritual growth--that is, to the highest and best in man?” rather than that most commonly heard query of this day, “ How will they affect the physical and material prosperity?” The lesson of this incident in the record of Israel, as well as of the passing years, is, wait for God to prove Himself; see what He will do, His past dealings being an unimpeachable pledge for the future. If we could believe that He knows what is best and will do it, that His ideals are the true ones, and the spiritual is infinitely more to be valued than anything temporal, life would have a new meaning and beauty and richness for us, and out of it would come diviner influences to cheer our fellow-men. (W. L. Phillips, D. D.) Realized desires often injurious to the soul The inquiry, “ what is good for a man in this life?” is not easily answered, because the answer must be determined by the social condition and material circumstances, by the mental capacity and physical state of those interested in the inquiry--that is to say, what is good for one man will be questionable, or, perhaps, injurious for another.1. Even the best of men may and do sometimes desire that which is good in itself, but which is not really good for them to receive. 2. God sometimes grants our requests even when they are not in accordance with His will, nor for our good. He permits us to realize the things desired, allows us to climb the heights upon which we had fixed our gaze. He gives us our own way, but our success is no indication of His approval, or of our wisdom, nor is it a guarantee of present happiness or future well-being. 3. Whatever we realize, however good it may be in itself, in answer to desires which have not been submitted to the Divine will, is questionable if not injurious. I. The operation of this law.1. The spirit which prompts a desire which we are unwilling to submit to God’ s wisdom and disposal, must be prejudicial to religion, whether it is entertained by an ungodly person, by one seeking to know the truth, or by one who has long known the way of righteousness, because the manifestation of such desire is expressed opposition to God, and must alienate the heart, more or less, from Him. 2. The efforts made by us to realize what we desire, but ought not to receive at the time and in the way we wish, are generally unfavourable to religion, if they do not undermine and dissipate it. That which is desired, when realized, being realized under such circumstances, must be injurious rather than helpful to a life of religion, because you have a wish fulfilled in opposition to God’ s will--a good received which is not good for you, and this which you desired, and now possess, comes between your soul and God, between your spiritual need and your greatest good. No wonder, then, that you lose interest in religion, tire of the ways of piety, and that your zeal and love and devotion decline, your joys diminish, and your hopes become darkened. II. The general application of this law. And here comes before us the appalling fact that the law is universal, unvarying and potent; and we can escape it only by submitting our desires and requests to God, and by acquiescing in all His arrangements.1. This law applies to individuals, whatever be the positions they occupy, or the circumstances by which they are surrounded. 2. This law operates not only in individuals, but in communities, in nations. Let a people thirst for glory, for distinction, for conquest, let them desire to be in advance of all other nations, and all this without consulting God’ s will or seeking His glory. Such a nation may realize their desires, but it is more than probable that the manners and lives of the people will be corrupted, and that religious life will sink to a low ebb or pass away altogether. 3. This law is true in respect to churches. Let a people desire a grand and imposing structure for its own sake, to gratify their vanity and pride, and to place them in advance of the churches in the locality, their ambition may be gratified, but it is more than probable that their religious life will wane, and it will be a great mercy if they have not to say in reference to their religion, “ The glory has departed.” III. The teaching of this law.1. There is much in this world good in itself that we can well do without. 2. Every supposed good does not, when realized, answer all our expectations. “ All is not gold that glitters.” Lot knew something of this by a prolonged sojourn in Sodom. 3. It is better to be without the seeming good and retain our piety and interest in religion than to realize that good and lose the freshness and vigour of spiritual things, and endanger our everlasting well-being. 4. We should learn to submit all our desires to God. 5. Let us remember that with an increase of material good we require a corresponding measure of Divine grace. 6. In how many the text has been or will be even everlastingly fulfilled. May our desires be controlled and sanctified by our Father in heaven, and we be ever able to say, “ Not my will, but Thine be done.” (John James.) Soul leanness I. As existing in connection with material prosperity.1. This combination is general. Everywhere we see great material prosperity associated with spiritual destitution--great physical feasting and spiritual starving, great material wealth and spiritual pauperism. 2. This combination is deplorable. A sadder sight to a holy eye there cannot be than an individual, family, nation, surrounded with material abundance, and yet lean in soul, matter governing mind--bodies living tombs of souls. II. As existing because of material prosperity. Why should material prosperity bring spiritual leanness?1. Not because it is Divinely designed to do so. God does not make a man materially rich in order spiritually to starve him. The design of all His goodness to man is to lead him to repentance. 2. Not because there is any inherent tendency to do so. A man in possession of an abundance of material good is supplied with abundance of motives and facilities that tend to spiritual excellence. A condition of material prosperity is, we think, more favourable in itself to a cultivation of spiritual goodness than that of material poverty. The man of a well-fed body is especially bound to have a well-fed soul; the man with material wealth is especially bound to secure spiritual treasures. But in the case before us the material prosperity was the cause of spiritual leanness, and why? Because the material good was sought as the chief end. How general this is here in our England in this age! Desire for wealth is the all-absorbing passion, and hence souls are morally lean and dwarfed. (Homilist.) Short-sighted supplications I. God has in all ages revealed Himself as the hearer and answerer of prayer. The Lord has not only heard the petitions of His people, and amply rewarded their faith in Him, but He has shown that “ He is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think.” Just as the clouds of the skies which ascend from the earth in impalpable vapours, revisit the ground in rich and abundant showers, so prayer, which goes forth in weak and imperfect approaches to heaven, returns in full and enlarged answers. “ No human creature can believe,” said Luther, “ how powerful is prayer, and what it is able to effect, except those who have learned by experience.” Perhaps there is no one direction in which the fruit of successful prayer is so distinctly discernible as in the great sacred peace which it produces in the heart of the suppliant. II. The wisdom and mercy of God are as real in the delays and even the denials of prayer as in the answers He graciously vouchsafes. Moses earnestly entreated that He might go into the good land, but it was denied him; yet the Lord showed him the earthly country, and then took him to the better land. David prayed for the life of Bathsheba’ s child, but he prevailed not; yet his God heard his prayer, and gave him a son honourably born, and rarely endowed. As in the Saviour’ s dealings with the Syrophoenician woman; beneath the Lord’ s seeming, “ No,” so to us often there is hidden a better “ Yes” than we have dared to hope or to think. Paul prayed that “ the thorn in the flesh” might be removed; but he had to learn that the all-sustaining support of God’ s grace is better than exemption from suffering and trial. When our petitions seem changed in the answers we receive to them, it is for our good always. Leighton says, “ God regards our well more than our will.” III. We may well expend our chief importunity on the best gifts, since we have the promise that “ all other things shall be added thereunto.” “ Covet earnestly the best gifts.” These are enjoyments which are congenial to our spiritual nature: they afford real solid satisfaction, their possession is perpetual, they ennoble and dignify us, they make their subject a blessing to men and glorious to God. In their pursuit we cannot be too earnest, ambitious, or covetous. IV. Worldly good is dearly purchased at the cost of spiritual gain. “ He gave them their request, but sent leanness into their souls.” Many a well-spread table has proved a snare, a trap, and a stumbling-block--often injury to health is the price paid for the poor gratification, or else satisfaction and delight in the enjoyment are removed. Worse still is the case of the unhappy victim who finds worldly enjoyments to be an oil feeding the fires of corruption, which might otherwise have been extinguished. It is natural to us to desire a large measure of worldly prosperity, the gratification of our wishes, and the increase of our possessions. It is gracious to be willing to defer all to the Divine disposal, in the conviction that nothing can be a blessing which is injurious to the soul. (W. G. Lewis.) Our own way not the best way It is an awful circumstance, and yet it is true, that our mercies may be our curses; that our desire may prove our ruin. It may strike some of you that it is a harsh, or at least a mysterious feature of the Divine dealings with us that tie may give us, or may permit us to acquire, what will work in us and for us sore mischief; and that it would be more merciful to withhold from us whatever will injure us. But let us see for a moment how far such a principle would carry us. It should be quite enough for us to know that whatsoever God doeth is right. This indeed is involved in our very conception of God, if we invest Him with the attributes of infinite wisdom, justice, and goodness. We can be more certain of the fact that God acts wisely and best, than we can be certain that our interpretations are right of any act of His that seems hard and cruel. Not to believe and trust Him where we cannot comprehend Him, is not to believe and trust Him at all, but to make our own reason the measure of our faith. If, then, we see His gifts becoming curses instead of blessings, let us not accuse Him because they are His gifts. As all man’ s toil is profitless without the blessing of God, so it may be said, when man succeeds in his labours and endeavours after any fancied good, God gives him his request. We have now to look at the other side of this picture. The man, you will say, who has obtained the object of his desire, whether through prayer or toil, ought to be happy. Who would not envy him? He sows and reaps abundantly; He casts his nets into the sea, and brings them up full of fish; all his bargains end in gain, he might have in his possession the philosopher’ s stone which turns all it touches into gold. But there is a dark set-off against all this. When you come to look down through the man’ s circumstances into himself, you find what the psalmist here terms leanness; and by leanness he means waste, emaciation, loss of strength and beauty; the leanness you sometimes see in a body when there is some fatal mischief at work which prevents the assimilation of the food, and day by day reduces the man until the spirit seems ready to leave its frail tenement. What is this leanness of soul? How shall we discover its presence in ourselves or in others?1. By its trust in outward things. Grace is needed by every man, but great grace is needed by the man who gets his request. It is not easy to carry a full cup, to walk with a steady head and unfaltering step on the high places of prosperity, to have many of God’ s earthly blessings, and yet to trust in God alone. The eclipsing power of success is fearful. 2. Another symptom of spiritual leanness, and one of the results of having our request, is self-pleasing. How many men there are who have been earnest labourers in the vineyard of Christ during the early years of their life while they were comparatively poor, but who now are seen nowhere among the vines, who are digging nowhere, planting nowhere, pruning nowhere, training nowhere. And it is not that sickness has disabled them, it is not that old age has called them to enjoy its well-merited rest, it is not that the arrangements of providence have precluded all further active toil. It is nothing but the melancholy consequence of their having received their request. Their very success has been their snare. 3. I will mention but one more symptom, or rather class of symptoms, which may be all ranged under one head, loss of sympathy with all that helps to build up the spiritual life. Is it possible to lose this sympathy? Possible--do we need to ask it? Is it not our besetting danger? Are we not warned against it? Have we not known it? Our text speaks to us as with the voice of a trumpet, and rings out the great and impressive truth that we cannot be too guarded in our petitions, or in our desires for merely temporal things. It is certain that in Scripture we have no encouragement to ask for any great measure of them. The necessaries seem to define the limit, for in that Divine scheme of prayer our Saviour has left us we find the modest petition, “ Give us this day our daily bread.” Beyond these necessaries all else should be sought in very humble and willing subordination to the will of God. For who of us knows what beyond these is good for us? (E. Mellor, D.D.) Prayer for wrong things Chactas, the blind old sachem in Chateaubriand’ s Wertherion romance, is made to bring the story to an end by relating a parable to his woe-fraught young listener. It tells how the Meschacebe, soon after leaving its source among the hills, began to feel weary of being a simple brook, and so asked for snows from the mountains, water from the torrents, rain from the tempests, until, its petitions granted, it burst its bounds and ravaged its hitherto delightsome banks. At first the proud stream exulted in its force, but seeing ere long that it carried desolation in its flow, that its progress was now doomed to solitude, and that its waters were for ever turbid, it came to regret the humble bed hollowed out for it by nature, the birds, the flowers, the trees, and the brooks, hitherto the modest companions of its tranquil course. (F. Jacox.) Prosperity and degeneration A striking incident illustrating the liberty one feels when trusting Christ implicitly to supply all his needs is here related: A rich lady, when asked by her pastor to help a cause dear to her heart in her previous comparative poverty, and to which she gave one pound then, proffered him five shillings. Her pastor called her attention to the surprising and ominous change. “ Ah,” said she, “ when day by day I had to look to God for my daily bread, I had enough and to spare; now I have to look to my ample income, and I am all the time haunted with the fear of losing it and coming to want. I had the guinea heart when I had the shilling means; now I have the guinea means and the shilling heart.” (Christian Age.) Psalms 106:16-18 They envied Moses. Religious envy and its doom I. Religious envy.1. Envy is the chief in many respects of the principalities and powers of darkness in the soul. 2. But for many reasons religious envy is the worst kind of envy. (1) It is the most unreasonable. For in religious possessions there can be no monopoly. The man who envies another on account of his wealth may reason, “ Because he has so much, I have so little” ; but not so in spiritual riches. (2) It is the most impious. The more true religion a man has in him, the more he pleases and honours his Maker. To envy a man on this account, therefore, implies hostility to Heaven. II. Its doom (verses 17, 18). It is here suggested--1. That the evil passions of mankind are offensive to the Almighty 2. That nature is every moment at the disposal of its Maker. 3. That material events symbolize spiritual realities. Envy is a ruinous passion. It is like a whirlpool; it draws down into ruinous abysses all the faculties and powers of human nature. (Homilist.) Psalms 106:19-23 They made a calf in Horeb, and worshipped the molten image.The idolatry of man and the indignation of Heaven I. The idolatry of man (verses 19, 20).1. The strength of the religious instinct. Man must have a God. If he loses the true one, he will create a false one. 2. An unrighteous compliance with a popular demand. The preacher who ministers to the prejudices and tastes of his people, commits the same sin as Aaron did when he made the “ golden calf.” 3. The force of early habit. Before his figure they had been wont to bow in Egypt, and by the instinct of habit they cried out for his figure now in the wilderness. To see God everywhere is one thing; to make everything God, is another. The one is right, binding, and useful; and the other is wrong, sinful, and pernicious. II. The indignation of heaven (verse 23). All this idolatry and forgetfulness were offensive to Him, and lie determined on their destruction. Why did He not strike the fatal blow at once? “ Moses His chosen stood before Him,” etc. See here the marvellous efficacy of prayer. The Bible teaches that “ The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much,” and gives us many instances of this; but how it affects God I know not. Let us grasp the fact and live accordingly. (Homilist.) Psalms 106:24-31 Yea, they despised the pleasant land.The persistency of sin, the retribution of God, and the influence of saints I. The awful persistency of sin (verses 24, 25, 28). You may reason with the sinner, convince him both of the folly and wrongness of his conduct. Trial after trial may come down upon him in consequence of his wicked conduct. You may threaten him with the terrors of death and the terrible retribution of the life beyond, still he continues blindly, and madly he pursues his course (Jeremiah 13:23). II. The fearful retribution of God (verse 29).1. It was justly deserved. How great the provocation! The conscience of every sufferer will attest the justice of his fate. 2. It was a warning to others. The punishment that befalls one sinner says to every sinner, “ Take care.” God punishes, not for the sake of inflicting pain, but for the sake of doing good. It is to arrest the progress of sin, which is a curse to the universe. III. The social influence of saints (verse 30). Phinehas interposed as a magistrate to suppress sin and check its progress. This act of his was approved of God as a righteous act. It was rewarded by God by a perpetual priesthood (Numbers 25:10). It is said that “ one sinner destroyeth much good,” but one saint may destroy more evil. Not until the last day, if then, shall we know the enormous amount of good that one good man may render to his age and even to his race. (Homilist.) Contempt of the pleasant land Take the text as descriptive of the feeling of too many Christians towards that in which we all profess our faith as the life everlasting or the life of the world to come. “ They thought scorn of that pleasant land.” Ours is a freethinking and it is an outspoken generation. It is by no means uncommon to hear men say now, Give me earth and I will give you heaven. I cannot realize, and I see no beauty in, the life of that world. You tell me that it has streets of gold and gates of pearl. It is an orientalism of exaggeration which conveys to me no meaning at all. If it did convey a meaning, it would be an unattractive one. I greatly prefer the Old Testament phraseology. I can understand a land of wheat and barley, of fountains and streams, which God cares for, and upon which His eyes are open from the beginning to the end of the year. Such a land, with the addition of a wiping away of tears from all eyes and a cessation of pain and grief and death, speaks for itself. But you have made it so figurative, so metaphorical, so grotesque, that I cannot admire and I cannot long for it. “ They thought scorn of that pleasant land.” I can see many things to account for this. I can suggest perhaps a few things in correction of it. Theologians and mystics have so described that land as to make it unlovely. They have painted it to the manly and the vigorous, to the large-hearted and the active-minded, as a world of absolute repose, of perpetual quiescence. They have painted it to the feeble and the invalid and the languid and the weary as a scene of perpetual devotions, of a day never clouded and a night as bright as the day--of a praise never silent, a sabbath never ending, a congregation never breaking up. The one kind of men demanded an activity which is absolutely refused them; the other a repose, spiritual as well as physical, which is resolutely shut out. All these descriptions are quite conjectural. Scripture tells of a new heaven and a new earth, and expressly adds in explanation this particular--“ wherein dwelleth righteousness.” How can righteousness dwell in a land of mere inertion, mere torpor, or even unintermitted praise and song? Does not the very choice of the word suggest to us, though without detailing, a multitude of relationships, old perhaps as well as new, which shall give full scope to all the energies and all the activities which have here been coerced and counteracted alike by the weakness of the flesh and by the unwillingness of the spirit? Amongst all negatives and all conjectures, expanding the vision of the great future without stint or limit, we have one certainty and one positive--and with it we conclude. “ His servants shall serve Him--they shall see His face--His name shall be in their foreheads.” Whose servants? whose face? whose name? Look above--you will find the answer in that great combination--“ God and the Lamb.” Yet not their servants but His servants--not their faces but His face--nob their names but His name. Who now shall dare to think scorn of that pleasant land? God is there--there in a sense in which He is not here. “ Thine eyes shall see the King in His beauty,” as He can only be seen in “ the land that is very far off.” Who shall speak of that land in a tone half of condescension--“ Yes, if I must go hence, I will consent to go thither” ? Shall any one indeed find entrance there who can only say, I will not refuse--I have no objection? (Dean Vaughan.) Contempt of the inheritance I. The pleasant land. Palestine was a country in many views highly desirable--in itself compact, and possessing special facilities of commerce with Asia, Africa, and Europe, all the known quarters of the globe. As to its intrinsic character, we have it portrayed in Deuteronomy 8:7-9. Palestine, in all the glory of culture, must have been a “ pleasant land.” We know, however, that this country, with all its distinguishing institutions, formed but a shadow of better things to come; and it becomes us now to be enjoying a land still more pleasant. The Kingdom of God has come to many thousands, has come with power; and its blessings, to which those of Judea were not for a moment to be compared, are brought nigh to the remotest and most unworthy. Its inhabitants He hath delivered from the curse of the law, being made a curse for them. Their depraved and perverse hearts He renovates by the agency of His good Spirit, purifying them unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. Whatever fightings they may have, they have peace with God; whatever vicissitudes, an immovable kingdom; whatever sorrows, everlasting consolation; whatever poverty, unsearchable riches; whatever disappointments and repulses, victory at last over sin and death and the grave. But I would point you to another land, in which the emblem of the text finds a more perfect accomplishment. True, we are here favoured with a morning, and the morning star shines bright: yet it is only the morning, and the shadows of the night largely intermingle with the dawning of the day. But in that “ better country which is an heavenly,” sunshine is qualified by shadow no longer. There Jesus appears in all that glory which He had with the Father before the world was--the distinctive glory of mediatorial triumph and recompense enhancing His Divine effulgence--and “ the nations of them that are saved do walk in His light.” II. Contempt of the pleasant land. “ Every gift of God is good and nothing to be despised.” Nay, not only are manifest mercies to be gratefully acknowledged, but we are forbidden to despise the chastening of the Lord, and enjoined to count it all joy when we fall into manifold temptations or trials. And how, then, can God look upon our conduct without anger when we treat with contempt a promised inheritance? As to the liability to this sin, it might appear that our inheritance being more valuable than that of the ancient and literal Canaan, it would be less readily and less probably disparaged. But alas! the things of God are not so appreciable to natural and unaided perception. The eye sees not their beauty, the ear hears not their melody, the nostrils smell not their odour, the tongue tastes not their deliciousness. We have had samples of heaven itself; its righteousness has come down to us; its celestial truth has been proclaimed to our guilty and perishing world; and humanity has discredited and disrelished all. III. The source of the Israelites’ contempt. “ They believed not His word.” If we had only full confidence in the Saviour, if we but eyed Him with a completion and constancy of trust at all commensurate with His trustworthiness, what distressing apprehensions of Him would vanish, what ravishing views of Him would succeed! How sure would heaven become! We should feel as secure of it as if we were already there, and something like as happy. (D. King, LL. D.) Heaven The Israelites in the wilderness are a recognized illustration of the Christian’ s walk through the world. The promised land is a type of heaven. Is it not true, then, of thousands who have set their faces towards a better home, that, after a time, they think scorn of that pleasant land, and give no credence unto God’ s Word? Why?1. Because the land is hard to reach. Yes, it is hard, and it is easy: hard if the heart is absorbed by the world, the flesh, and the devil; easy, if the world has once been despised, the flesh once crucified, the devil put to scorn. 2. Others think scorn of that pleasant land because they cannot see it, and therefore hardly believe that it exists at all. If we are only to believe in what we see, there will be but little to believe in. We cannot see the Father or the Son or the Holy Ghost with the human eye; we cannot see the soul; we cannot see that the dead are living: but Jesus taught us, and our conscience teaches us to believe these things; and Jesus taught us also to believe in heaven. (W. R. Hutton, M.A.) Despising God’ s gifts There can be no greater slight and dishonour to a giver than to have his gifts neglected. You give something that has perhaps cost you much, or which, at any rate, has your heart in it, to your child, or other dear one; would it not wound you, if a day or two after you found it tossing about among a heap of unregarded trifles? Suppose that some of those Rajahs that received presents on the recent royal visit to India had gone out from the durbar and flung them into the kennel, that would have been an insult and disaffection, would it not? But these illustrations are trivial by the side of our treatment of the “ giving God.” (A. Maclaren, D.D.) Psalms 106:32-40 They angered Him also at the waters of strife, so that it went ill with Moses for their sakes.A good man suffering for a community, and a community pursuing its way to destruction I. A good man suffering for the wrongs of a community (verses 32, 33; Numbers 20:3; Numbers 20:10; Numbers 20:13).1. The conduct of bad men has a strong tendency to disturb the moral temper of the good. (1) By disgusting the moral tastes. (2) By shaking the faith. (3) By disturbing self-control. 2. God holds the best men responsible for the loss of their moral temper. “ So that it went ill with Moses for their sakes.” He lost by it. Difficult as it may be for a good man to keep his temper undisturbed, it is his duty to do so, and under God he can do so. “ In patience he should possess his soul.” He should “ trust in Him that liveth for ever.” “ None of these things move me,” said Paul. II. A community pursuing its course to destruction.1. Instead of destroying the peoples, as God commanded, they fraternized with them (verses 34, 35). 2. Instead of serving the one true living God, they engaged in the worship of idols (Psalms 106:36-38). (Homilist.) Sins of eminent men It was the sin of one occupying a high official position. You know how in armies a sentinel who sleeps on the post is shot, because great matters are weighed in the balance, great interests are at stake. Why, the ancients used to have a plan of taking a builder, and if his building crumbled and fell, they would take away the ruins and bury him there, and let the next builder put the building up upon him. They held him accountable. Persons that are in positions of authority and of office are held severely to account. Just the same way with a policeman, whose duty it is to see that the law is observed; if he violates the law, he is held to sharpest account. And so we have Moses, the great law-giver. There was an appropriateness in the fact that the great law-giver should himself be held to sharpest and closest account when he himself violated the law of God. (E. Judson, D.D.) Psalms 106:40-46 Therefore was the wrath of the Lord kindled. Four solemn thoughts concerning God I. God’ s abhorrence of men’ s sins (verse 40). God’ s wrath or anger is not a malign passion, but a benevolent principle, antagonism to wrong. Do not blame the sun or the moon because of the shadows they throw upon the earth; rather blame the objects that obstruct their rays. God’ s wrath is only the rays of His love obstructed by sin. Remove the obstruction, and all is genial and beaming. II. God’ s dominion over men’ s minds (verses 41, 42). As the billows of the ocean in furious battle serve the grand cause of nature as well as the placid river in its majestic flow, so does the rage of wicked spirits serve the Almighty plans as truly as the loyal services of the good. “ His purposes must stand.” III. God’ s regard for men’ s penitence (verses 43, 44; 2 Chronicles 15:4). IV. God’ s forbearance with men’ s wickedness (verses 45, 46). (Homilist.) Psalms 106:45 He remembered for them His covenant.--God’ s remembrance of His covenant I. Then the covenant exists.1. The covenant is in its own nature everlasting. By everything that is permanent in the universe, and by everything that is permanent in the Godhead, we are made to know that the covenant of grace is a fixed and settled thing, and abides to-day as it ever has done; for there is no variableness nor turning with Him from whom every good gift comes down. The promises in Christ Jesus are Yea and Amen, to the glory of God by us. Heaven and earth shall pass away; but not one jot or tittle of the law shall fail, much less shall the covenant of Divine grace be disannulled. 2. Well may the covenant of grace be everlasting, for it was made with deliberation and foresight. God made it, knowing all that would happen in time or eternity. 3. The covenant was sealed and ratified in the most solemn manner. Jesus has gone into heaven bearing with Him the blood of sprinkling. Can God deny His promise to His bleeding Son? 4. The Divine glory is wrapped up in it. The Lord cannot break His word, nor forego His designs, nor forget His promises. Think not so. The crown jewels of God are staked and pawned upon the carrying out of the covenant of grace. 5. Furthermore, it is not possible for God to break a covenant. When you and I stand and tremble before a Divine promise for fear it should not be fulfilled, we cast a slur upon the truth, faithfulness, and immutability of God. Has He ever changed? Has He ever been false? II. This covenant is too often forgotten by us.1. Are not God’ s people at this day chargeable with forgetting the covenant by their unspiritual carelessness? 2. Sometimes, too--and in the case of Israel it was so--we get away from that covenant by wanton sin, or by negligent omission of most delightful duty. This ought to yield in our hearts a harvest of repentance. It should bind us to God with intense affection that should tend towards perpetual sanctification from this day and onward. 3. These people had forgotten their God for another reason, namely, in the depth of their sorrow. A great sorrow stuns men, and makes them forget the best sources of consolation. A little blow will cause great pain; but I have frequently heard in reports of assaults that far more serious blows have occasioned no pain whatever, because they have destroyed consciousness. So do extreme distresses rob men of their wits, and cause them to forget the means of relief. Under the chastening rod, the smart is remembered, and the healing promise is forgotten. III. Though we forget the covenant, yet God remembers His covenant: “ He remembered for them His covenant.” Even though these people had so grievously provoked Him, He remembers His covenant so as to find in it a reason for pardoning their sin, and dealing with them in a way of mercy. He meets the flood of their sins with the flood of His faithfulness. O friend, God must remember His covenant; fur He can never forget what the making of that covenant has cost Him. It cost Him His Only-begotten: the eternal Son, the Well-beloved, must die the death of the cross that the covenant may be established. IV. If God remembers for us His covenant, let us remember it. What is the covenant? Here is one form of it: “ I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be thou perfect.” The Lord God Almighty gives Himself up to be our portion, and we are to yield ourselves to Him, to walk before Him in perfect obedience. This also is the covenant: “ I will be their God, and they shall be My people.” Say not, “ I am poor.” Not so, for God is yours, and so all things are yours. Say not, “ I am weak.” Not so, God Almighty is yours: when you are weak, then you are strong. “ But I have no wisdom.” Is not the Lord Jesus made of God unto us wisdom, righteousness, and sanctification? He that hath God hath everything. Wilt thou belittle thy God and limit the Holy One of Israel? Come, find thine all in God. This is thy part of the covenant, to accept God as being to thee what He says He is. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Psalms 106:48 Let all the people say, Amen. Amen The word Amen has a history full of instruction and interest. Its original meaning had reference to the material. It signified firm, durable, lasting. “ I will build him a sure house.” “ His waters shall be sure.” In course of time, like other words, Amen came to have a higher, even a social meaning. As what is firm and secure is able to bear and carry other things, it at length described carrying. “ A nursing father” : “ Naomi took the child and became nurse.” Next it was promoted to the honour of an intellectual office, and signified trustiness or skill. “ He removeth away the speech of the trusty.” Then it was raised to the dignity of an ethical use. As what is truthful and upright is firm, it came to mean trust and faith. “ Who hath said Amen to our report?” Finally it acquired an ecclesiastical import, and is now commonly employed in the well-known sense of, “ Truly; so be it; so let it be!” I. To God’ s commands, “ Let all the people say, Amen.”1. The Divine commands are wholly right. Were we able to see absolute rectitude, looking at it as upon an elaborate architectural plan, we should find, on comparing it with the edifice of God’ s laws, that the latter is a wonderful and minute reflex on the former. What an inspiring thought! 2. The Divine commands are wholly beneficial. “ In keeping of them is great reward.” II. To God’ s providence, “ let all the people say, Amen.”1. To do otherwise is thoughtless. In the Divine government there is a “ balance of power.” A law of compensation is at work. Weal and woe are more evenly distributed than is commonly imagined. No person, class, or condition has a monopoly of either the blissful or the baleful. One thing is set over against another. A good man in a sea of troubles is in a condition infinitely preferable to that of a bad man nursed in the lap of luxury, housed magnificently, and faring sumptuously every day. 2. To do otherwise is useless. Where is the profit of rebelling against God’ s sovereign dealing? It is vain to oppose the inevitable. Nay, it is worse than useless; it is injurious. It increases, instead of alleviating, our misery. An oak that had been rooted up by the winds was borne down the stream of a river, on the banks of which many reeds were growing. The oak wondered to see that things so slight and frail had stood the storm, when so great and strong a tree as itself had been rooted up. “ Cease to wonder,” said the reed, “ you were overthrown by fighting against the storm, while we are saved by yielding and bending to the slightest breath that blows.” Yes; it is eminently advantageous to say, Amen to the darkest dispensations of Providence. 3. To do otherwise is forgetful. It ignores the oft-repeated doctrine that out of our trials God perfects our good. When we murmur at sorrow, we cease to remember that it is through “ much tribulation” that all kingdoms worth occupying are entered. III. To God’ s gospel, “ let all the people say, Amen.” The good news of free and full pardon through the sacrifice of Christ and in answer to prayer--be that kept intact. We must take it just as it is. Nothing must be added, nothing removed. It is neither too large nor too small, and woe to us if we attempt to alter it. (T. R. Stevenson.) Hearty Amens St. Jerome tells us that it was the custom, in his time, to close every prayer with such a unanimous consent, that the Amens of the people rang and echoed in the church, and sounded like the dash of a mighty cataract, or a clap of thunder. There are several kinds of Amens. I. The amen of habit. People have uttered it from their infancy, all unconscious how much was really contained in that single word. No feeling nor earnestness has accompanied the vocal sound. So far as receiving any benefit from such empty mummery, you might as well expect it from swinging the pendulum of a clock, or by winding up the machinery of an automaton. II. The amen of hope. Melanchthon, once going forth upon some important service for his Heavenly Master, and having many doubts and fears as to his success, was cheered by a company of poor women and children, whom he found praying together for the prosperity of the Church. And so, the Amen of hope is breathed forth by the trusting soul, as it hears the Saviour’ s promise, “ Behold, I come quickly” (Revelation 3:11). III. The amen of faith. When the devout Christian who has poured forth his soul in prayer, says, Amen, it is not the mere utterance of earnest desire, but of undoubting faith in Him who is “ always more ready to hear than we to pray.” The same gracious Father whose promises we plead in prayer, is able, also, to perform. Faith clasps its arms around the Cross of Jesus, and looks, with undoubting confidence, for an answer of peace. (J. N. Norton.) . Psalms 107:1-43 Psalms 107:1-31O give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good; for His mercy en-dureth for ever.Men and mercy I. Men consciously needing the mercy of Heaven. Morally, we are all distressed travellers, captives, invalids, mariners. The worst feature of this moral distress is that the subjects are not conscious of it. II. Men effectually delivered by the mercy of Heaven.1. Just in time. Each had reached the extremity. The lamp of hope was all but extinct, and black despair was settling on the soul, when mercy came to the rescue. 2. After the prayer, God listens to the cries of His distressed children. III. Men urged to acknowledge the mercy of Heaven.1. The mercy of Heaven is generally unacknowledged. 2. The acknowledgment of this mercy is an urgent obligation. (1) Because a proper recognition of God’ s mercy is essential to the extinction of the evil in man. (2) Because a proper recognition of God’ s mercy is essential to the generating of good in man. (Homilist.) Psalms 107:2 Let the redeemed of the Lord say so.“ Say so” An overture, an antiphon, a doxology is this psalm, and in my text the psalmist calls for an outspoken religion, and requests all who have been rescued and blessed no longer to hide the glorious facts, but to publish them, and, as far as possible, let all the world know about it. “ Let the redeemed of the Lord say so.” If you have in your heart the pearl of great price, why not let others see it? If you got off the wreck in the breakers, why not tell of the crew and the stout lifeboat that safely landed you? If from the fourth storey you are rescued in time of conflagration, why not tell of the fireman and the ladder down which be carried you? If you have a mansion in heaven awaiting you, why not show the deed to those who may by the same process get a home on the same boulevard? By the last two words of my text the psalmist calls upon all of us who have received any mercy at the hand of God to stop impersonating the asylums for the dumb, and, in the presence of men, women, angels, devils, and all worlds, say so. What a thrill went through the meeting in Portland, Oregon, when an ex-Attorney-General of the United States arose and said: “ Last night I got up and asked the prayers of God’ s people. I feel now perfectly satisfied. The burden is rolled off and all gone, and I feel that I could run or fly into the arms of Jesus Christ!” What a confirmation would come if all who had answers to prayers would speak out! If all merchants in tight places because of hard times would tell how, in response to supplication, they got the money to pay the note! If all parents who prayed for a wandering son to come home would tell how, not long after, they heard the boy’ s hand on the latch of the front door! This psalm from which I take my text mentions several classes of persons who ought to be outspoken; among them all those who go on a journey. What an opportunity you have, you who spend so much of your time on rail-trains or on shipboard, whether on lake or river or seal Spread the story of God’ s goodness and your own redemption wherever you go. (T. De Witt Talmage.) The duty of confessing indebtedness A heart without gratitude is like a grate filled with fuel unlighted, and the room all the colder because of the unfulfilled promise of glow and warmth. A grateful heart is one in which the fire of holy love is kindled. Let those who have received favours and feel their obligation either to God or man, give some expression of it. The world is filled with illustrations of the propriety of such acknowledgments. You must have observed how in great campaigns it is customary for commanders to make honourable mention of those who have distinguished themselves by successful valour--not for the purpose of ministering to the soldier’ s pride or flattering his vanity, but for awarding him a tribute founded in justice and truth. It is right that the soldier who has stood upon the bloody front of battle and vindicated his valour and patriotism should receive the grateful acknowledgment of the country he has served. The leader of brave men is not content with thinking well of the prowess of those who have done nobly; he proclaims it as something due to those who have struggled and triumphed. In kind words from such a source there is both inspiration and reward. There was something pathetic in the appeal which a little boy made to his father, when he cried, “ I often do wrong, I know, and then you scold me and I deserve it; but, father, sometimes I do my best to do right! Won’ t you let me know when I do please you?” Let the discriminating parent, pleased with the child’ s progress in any right direction--“ say so.” So, too, there are parents who have to wait long for the recognition of their devotion to their children--a devotion which gathers into itself the prayers, the anguish, the sacrifices of body, soul, and spirit. An old Virginia minister said lately, “ Men of my profession see much of the tragic side of life. I have seen men die in battle, have seen children die, but no death ever seemed so pathetic to me as the death of an aged mother in my church. The children gathered around her bedside. The oldest son took her in his arms. He said, ‘ You have been a good mother to us.’ That was not much to say, was it? It was much to her, who had never heard anything like it. A flush came ever her pallid face, and with husky voice she whispered, ‘ My son, you never said so before!’” The text directs our thought and affection to what we owe to the very Father of mercies. “ His mercy endureth for ever.” How illimitably broad is the field which is thus opened before us--the field of the Divine mercy! It is like the field of creation. In that field the telescope cannot pierce to depths of space where shining worlds do not declare the glory of God--nor can the microscope search out a point which is not still bright with evidences of His handiwork. The eye of sense looks out and everywhere goodness and mercy rise before it, until the horizon shuts down and bounds the vision. And then the eye of faith opens, and new fields, measureless and glorious, meet its gaze, until, in its turn, its powers fail. Yes, its powers fail, but the field has not failed; onward it stretches, illimitably, and over it the redeemed shall range with every new delight to all eternity. God’ s mercy is from everlasting, and so the treasures of memory will ever be increasing; it is to everlasting, and so the anticipations of hope can never be diminished. (M. D. Hoge, D.D.) Acknowledge the goodness of God We need appreciation and the expression of it in our religious life. “ Let the redeemed of the Lord say so!” Redemption and all implied in it is surely a gift that demands acknowledgment! If you were struggling in the grip of some mysterious or deadly disease, and after many disappointments at last you found a doctor who understood your case, conquered the disease, and set you in perfect health again, what would you do? You would blazon that doctor’ s name abroad, you would tell everybody of his skill, you would speak of yourself as a living illustration of his healing power. Redemption acknowledged At the Isthmian Games, A.D. 197, Flaminius caused a trumpet to command silence and a crier to proclaim that the Roman Senate restored to the Grecians their lands, laws, and liberties. So astonished were the people that they asked the crier to repeat it. Then a shout arose that was heard from Corinth to the sea. (H. O. Mackey.) Psalms 107:4 They wandered in the wilderness. The sinner homeless The old legend of the Wandering Jew tells us how he who had struck and insulted Jesus as He left the Judgment Hall was condemned to wander homeless through many lands, a stranger, unwelcomed and uncared for, who found no city to dwell in. The legend is not without its teaching. Those who wilfully sin against Jesus and the Truth wander through the wilderness of the world out of the right way. They are in a barren and dry land where no water is--no water of life, no water of grace, no water of penitent tears. They are homeless, they find no city to dwell in. Like the Prodigal, they have left their Father’ s House, their true home; they have wandered from the true Food, and they are hungry; they have deserted the true Fountain, and they are athirst--“ Hungry and, thirsty, their soul fainted in them.” They have shut themselves out of God’ s House, and it is no longer home to them. (H. J. Wilmot Buxton, M.A.) Psalms 107:6 And He delivered them out of their distresses. The way out This psalm is an Old Testament lovefeast. In the first three verses the redeemed are exhorted to speak out their experience of the goodness of God. In response, four representative testimonies are given. Travellers who had lost their way tell how they were found and led to a city of habitation. Captives who had been brought out of dungeons repeat the story of their deliverance. Sick ones who had been restored from the gates of death speak to the praise of their Healer; and others who had been in peril on the sea declare the wonders of the Lord upon the great deep. Each recital is followed with an exhortation to praise the Lord for His goodness, and for His wonderful works to the children of men. There are many ways into trouble. All the people in this psalm came to distress by various ways, and the different ways led to different sorts of trouble. The travellers got lost. They strayed in the wilderness, not wilfully, but from lack of knowledge. They could find no place of habitation. Their food and water were exhausted, and they sank, in faintness and despair, a helpless prey to all the perils of the desert. Then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble, and He came to their help. He led them by a straight way, that they might go to a city of habitation. They ought not to have started without a guide, but inexperience is often self-confident and apt to despise the counsels of the wise. The second class came into trouble through disobedience. They rebelled against the word of God. They held God in contempt, despised His authority, and ignored His law. It is in man’ s power to defy God. He rules in each life by each man’ s consent, and when men say they will not have Him to rule over them, He leaves them free to follow their own course. No man can break the least of His commandments without penalty and loss. To throw off the yoke of righteousness is the surest way to bondage. The third class is spoken of as fools. In the Scriptures this term is used not of mental deficiency so much as of moral perversity. According to the Old Testament method, sickness is attributed to moral delinquency; a doctrine that is considerably modified in the New. There is a close connection between iniquity and affliction. A life of sin is ruinous to health. If we would be sound in body we must be pure in heart. They that sow to the flesh, of the flesh reap corruption. The fourth class come into trouble in the course of duty. “ For He commandeth and raiseth the stormy wind.” Most of our trouble is of our own making. It is often due to our ignorance and vanity, sometimes to our downright badness, and not infrequently to our folly. But trouble comes to the best as well as the worst. It meets us not only in the ways of sin, but in the path of duty. There are forces in life over which we have no control, and for which we have neither wisdom nor strength. Winds and storms, hurricanes, and disaster make no moral distinctions, and adversity and tribulation come to the upright as well as to the disobedient. Inexperience leads to wandering and hunger. Rebellion is the way to the dungeon, with its darkness and chains. Wrong-heartedness brings the soul to the gates of death. Even duty leads us into conditions which soon find the end of our wits. How helpless we are in trouble! Lost! Captive! Sick! Storm-tossed! What can we do? We must cry to another for deliverance. There are many ways into trouble, but there is only one way out. The lost could not find themselves, the bound had no way of escape, the dying had no healing power, and men at their wits’ end could never save the ship. In their extremity they all cried unto the Lord. If they had consulted Him sooner most of them would never have needed to cry. It is good to cry when lost, but it is better to be sure of the way before the start is made. Herein is the mercy of God made manifest, that He bids us call on Him in the day of trouble. He makes no exceptions, and imposes no conditions. Need, not merit, is our passport to God. He does not stop to inquire how we got into trouble, nor ask for a certificate of character before He helps us out. Peril is a great, leveller. Distinctions of rank and worth disappear in the presence of danger. He makes haste to help. If you are in trouble, cry! No matter how you got in, cry! It is your only chance, cry aloud! If you are lost, cry! He seeks the lost. If you are in bondage, cry! He came to open the prison doors to them that are bound. If you are sick unto death, cry! In Him is the life of men. If you are in peril, cry! Even the winds and the waves obey Him. It shall come to pass that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. The Lord our Deliverer. When there is none to help, the Lord is our Helper. In Him is deliverance for all. (F. Wiseman.) Psalms 107:7 He led them forth by the right way. The way and guide to heaven I. The end for which the people of God were led forth from Egypt was that “ they might come to a city of habitation” ; in other words, “ to a city, or cities, which they might inhabit.” Are you by faith in Christ Jesus the sons of God? He, who has given you the adoption of sons here, will not withhold the inheritance of sons hereafter. II. The way by which the believer is led to that city of habitation.1. It is not the nearest. His heavenly Father knows t.hat it is expedient for him, as for Israel, to be led about and instructed. 2. It is not the pleasantest. Like a wilderness, it is a dry and thirsty land. The soil is barren--its waters are bitter and often fail. The road is “ the narrow way,” intricate to discover, difficult, to pursue, and having “ but few that find it.” 3. To all appearance, it is not the safest. An enemy’ s country. A snare at every step. 4. Yet it is the only sure road to those pleasures which are for evermore. III. The guide.1. He is experienced. 2. He is fitted to sympathize with those who are toiling along the difficult road, in that He Himself hath suffered, being tempted. 3. He is a watchful, careful Guide. 4. He is also a supporting and upholding Guide; not merely leading His people through every difficulty, but either removing every impediment, or enabling the pilgrim to overcome it. Conclusion:1. See the necessity of a guide in the journey of life. 2. Is the wilderness the right way to the city of habitation? Then how easy should it make us under all the discouragements, weariness, temptations, dangers of the journey! 3. Remember that none reach that city but “ the redeemed of the Lord.” Is this your character? (R. Davies, M.A.) The way of the redeemed I. The way of the redeemed.1. Long.2. Difficult.3. Lonely.4. A desert way. II. The rectitude of the way. It is “ the right way.”1. It is the Divine way.2. To what it leads: “ the city of habitation.” Two lessons.1. Take an enlarged view of the Divine conduct. Remember the end of it all.2. Ever seek the Divine guidance. God goes before; follow, trust Him. (Preacher’ s Analyst.) The right way The psalm is a series of pictures; and they are not pictures of light and joy. They are scenes of distress and uttermost extremity. The lost traveller, ready to die in the silence of the wilderness! the reeling sailor, dashed with spray, and watching every coming billow in the fear that it may be his grave! the fettered prisoner, weeping his life away in the darkness of the dungeon! the sick and dying man, clinging still to this life, but looking fearfully or to another!--such scenes of extremity the psalmist paints; and while we are thinking that no deliverance is possible, lo! the deliverance is wrought;--the traveller is on his way; the sailor is in his haven; the prisoner is looking down to the dungeon where he lay; the sick and dying soul is filled again with life! Such are the wonders wrought by Divine goodness! I. The company. Any considerable company of men is imposing. Nothing more quickly raises our interest than a large assemblage of human beings. The march of an army, the movement of a procession, the gathering of some great multitude for deliberation or for worship, even the rush of a common city crowd, will make the heart throb with unusual emotion. But here is a company more illustrious than any other upon earth, a company overwhelming in its vastness, and yet ever growing in numbers--calm in aspect, and yet irresistible in power--aiming at the noblest objects, manifesting the purest character, adorned with supernatural symbols of distinction, and pursuing her sublime and silent march from time into eternity under the direction of a guide invisible to all but her! II. The leader. The leader of this ransomed company is the Lord himself. The Bible abounds with intimations of the nearness of God, and particularly with assurances of His actual and perpetual presence with His people as their guide, and guard, and everlasting friend (Isaiah 48:17; Isaiah 41:10; Matthew 28:20.) III. The way. Happily to some it is covered with the clouds of disappointment; to others it is bleak and cold with the gales of adversity; to others it is drenched with the rains of sorrow. It has places of heart-wringing separation from fellow-pilgrims, and even deep, dark gulfs of sin; but netwithstanding all its mystery, and all the wrongness put into it by ourselves and others, as God’ s way, it is always right--right in shade as well as in sunshine,--right in winter as well as in summer,--right to all alike who are in the way,--and right on to the end. IV. The end. The idea chiefly brought before us is that of heaven as a fixed and settled home, “ a peaceable habitation,” “ a sure dwelling,” “ a quiet resting-place “ for ever. The way is narrow, but it leads on to the “ large and wealthy place.” It is rugged; but it opens at last into “ green pastures,” and winds beside “ still waters,” over which no blight or blast can come. It is a way of ceaseless toil and watchfulness; but they will be repaid by the rest that cannot be broken, by the joy that cannot end. It is long--at least in our days of suffering and dreariness we think so; but seen in retrospect, and when it has been all trodden, it will look but like the journey of a day. (A. Raleigh, D.D.) The right way This old Hebrew history is turned into a parable of our Christian life. There is a prophecy at the heart of it, and this prophecy says, “ Judge not by the feeble glimmering light of human judgment. God’ s ways are higher than your ways; they take in higher issues, and immortal results. The Father will lead you by the right way. Press forward, for, as Quarles says, ‘ he goeth back that continueth not.’” I. The moral side of life is higher than the material. To please self is the aim of most men, yet most patent is the fact, that to deny self-indulgence to ourselves is beneficial. The very physical frame, its laws of health and vigour, declare that! It requires, however, little self-denial to give up what is simply pleasant to the taste or to the eye. These are mere outward things. The more thoughtful student of life will see that God places human life under a higher and more searching discipline. A man is placed where his pride must be denied, his mental prepossessions laid aside, his will subordinated, his inmost purpose chastened. II. The pilgrim side of life is always prospective. It is no mere maze. We never return. Ours may be a long way, a winding way, but it is forward. A Christian man will feel with modesty, and yet with certainty, that his path is progress, that he does know more of the love of Christ, that his affections are more set on heaven, that salvation is nearer than when he believed, that the pilgrimage is one of temptation conquered, grace bestowed, and glory nearer to the soul. Spiritual pilgrimage is not a deceit in the moral sense. God is not allowing us to experience all these emotions merely that the circle of our little life may complete itself in the grave. We are nearing home, we shall soon be with Christ, which is far better. III. The leadership of life is in the hands of Christ. Tell me who is leader, and I can also tell you much. Men admire sacrifice of ease and wealth, absence of bribe and advantage; and in Greece they glorified Socrates and Aristides, and in Rome, Quintus Curtius and Regulus. Men crave leaders, and can appreciate courage and self-control; only too often, alas, men do not ponder on the sacredness of the cause, the end of the ambition, the spirit of the campaign or pilgrimage. What we have to teach and to live in this age is that the Christ-led way is the right way. IV. The pilgrimage ends in the fellowship of home. The discontinuance of things here below is the saddest of all experiences. Vessels keep coming and going out of this little bay of life. Along the roads new pilgrims appear where others rested; they loose their sandals, refresh themselves at the wells, and rise betimes for their onward way. We are quiet spectators of such pictures, and note the effects of change and time on others. For us, too, there is change and discontinuance. What we want is permanence! It is the beauty of the Christian Revelation that it uses all the symbols of a home to give our hearts rest in the thought of departure; that is what we want, that has been dearest after all to judge and soldier, merchant and statesman, monarch and peasant--the home! Yes, no image of court or temple is so inspiring as this--my Father’ s house. (W. M. Statham.) The right road I. The right road. Christianity is much more than sentiment; it is right living. The road that leads to the Cross of Christ. II. The leader. We need these elements in a leader:1. Strength. “ Who is stronger than this mighty King of kings?” etc. 2. Wisdom. “ He knoweth all things,” etc. 3. Tenderness. Christ taketh in His arms the little helpless child. III. The end of this road.1. There is no entrance to the Eternal City except by this right way. 2. The Bible is the only guide-book for the pilgrim in this way. 3. The Christian who is helped by his Leader should also freely help all weak and overloaded brethren in this way. 4. Always bear in mind the end of your journey--heaven. (T. L. Cuyler, D.D.) The right in life God is the leader of humanity. The way He leads is always the right way. There are many wrong ways; there is only one right. I. “ The right way “ is always God’ s way.1. His existence is the foundation of right. 2. His will is the law of right. 3. His Son is the revelation of His will to fallen man. II. “ The right way” is always a trying way. That is, always trying to fallen man. It involves great struggles, and often much anguish. It involves the abandonment of the old and the adoption of the new. III. “ The right way” is ever the prosperous way. Right is always expedient. The path of duty is at once the path of safety and success. IV. “ The right way” is always supernatural. (Homilist.) Present dispensations the right way to glory I. The happy place to which every true believer is taking his journey. How great a satisfaction does it afford, to the weary pilgrim that has borne the burden in the heat of the day, to hear of a rest to which he shall soon arrive? a city of habitation, where he shall for ever dwell? a crown of glory which he shall ever wear? And this is the lot not only of some, but of all God’ s children; they shall not always be tossed with tempests. II. The intermediate space through which the believer is to pass, in his way to this city of habitation.1. This present world is a state of distance, and in this respect it may be fitly compared to a wilderness. 2. This present world through which we were passing may be justly styled a wilderness, as it is a solitary and barren way. 3. This present world through which we are passing is also properly compared to a wilderness, as it is likewise a dangerous way. III. God leads his people by the right way to the city of habitation. Let us only take a view of three particular seasons, wherein we are most apt to question the lovingkindness of our God, and we may by them determine the happy issue of all the rest.1. Let us begin with the melancholy state and condition of those from whom God hides the light of His countenance. Were He never to hide His face, we should live upon the streams rather than the fountain; we should be too ready to say with the three disciples, “ Lord, it is good for us to be here” ; without pressing after any further manifestations in a better world. 2. Concerning the various outward afflictions with which the believer is exercised. They are all of them, let them arise from what quarter soever, useful to us, and necessary for us. 3. The temptations of Satan every one of them answer the same general end. The powers of darkness are suffered to dwell amongst us, for the same reason that some of the Canaanites were left among the people of Israel; that is, to try us, and show us how weak we are without Christ; and how strong we are when we depend upon that grace which is treasured up in Him. IV. Practical remarks.1. Has God prepared for His people a city of habitation? how great then is that grace, how free and sovereign is that love, to which this was originally owing. 2. Are we to pass through the wilderness to this city of habitation? How much need have we of a guide to show us the way, and how thankful should we be to Him who has undertaken to perform this kind office for us. 3. Is the way of the wilderness the right way to a city of habitation? How easy should this make us under all the temptations, trials, and afflictions with which we are now exercised. 4. Can none get admission into this city of habitation but the redeemed of the Lord? (verse 2). Let this lead us to Christ Jesus, the only person who is of God made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption (1 Corinthians 1:30). (John Hill.) The Leader and the way to heaven I. The leader. Every true man is proud of his leader. If we had asked those brave men who lately sailed to the far north whom they followed, they would have uttered, with flashing eye, the name of their captain; if we could have asked those who fought at Waterloo who was their general, they would have answered, with eager pride, “ Wellington!” So we, if the world asks us of our leader, can answer Jesus, Name which is above every Name, Name of victory, Name of power, Name of love, Name of sweetness. II. The right way. There is but one way to heaven, that which God chooses for us, and where Jesus leads. That way may take us through various scenes and circumstances. Some amongst us are destined to be rich, others poor; for some the way of life lies in active scenes, for others in quiet retirement; some are frequently exposed to the fierce sun of trouble, others are more sheltered from the storms of life. Still, through whatever scenes our way of life may tend, we must strive to make it the right way. What, then, is this right way? It is the King’ s highway, the way of holiness. (Anon.) The Leader and the way in providence The way by which God led them was-- I. A long way. For example, the answer to prayer is sometimes long delayed; but if the blessing tarry, wait for it,--it is worth waiting for, and will come at last. II. A desolate way. Your way to heaven lies through the wilderness--the wilderness of His world. There is no other way, and there could be no better way. There might be a smoother, easier, more flowery, less thorny path; but such a path might lead you to lose sight of your journey’ s end, and of your own character as pilgrims. III. A difficult way. All our powers are improved by exercise; the very muscles of our bodies require labour to form and bring them to their full strength. So it is with our powers of mind; their education consists in meeting and overcoming difficulties. So it is in regard to the higher powers of the soul; they are matured and perfected by the labours and difficulties that meet us in the way to heaven In all our labours we have a direct object in view, which may often seem very ignoble and temporary. Much of our time and effort are engaged in securing the bread that perisheth, gold that perisheth, and other things that perish in the using. But in this very labour, God has another object in view--our preparation for the active duties of heaven, and the forming in us of qualities that may fit us to act our part there. IV. A dangerous way. Our pilgrimage, like theirs, is a warfare. We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities and powers of darkness. Therefore we must not only be strong in the Lord, but take to ourselves the whole armour of God. V. An unknown way. (C. G. Scott.) A trustworthy guide A famous Swiss guide recently interviewed by a magazine writer is reported as saying: “ There are guides and guides. One takes you up and trusts to luck. He is ready for anything, but does not know what is coming, he guesses where he is, when you ask: ‘ How far off is the peak?’ I never do that. Before I start on a new track, or one I have not made before, I study it fully. I make a map of it. I watch it through the glass until I know it. When I say ‘ Go,’ then I can see what is before me. On the mountain I must always know where I am. I’ m not scientific, but I must carry my map with me and point: ‘ We are here.’ I never start without my compass, thermometer, and aneroid, so that when you come to me at any moment and ask: ‘ Where are we?’ I can say: ‘ Here, and it is so many feet from the top.’ “ So is it with the soul’ s great Guide. Jesus knows every inch of the way, has never failed a single traveller, and can say: “ None lost, or ever shall be.” (H. O. Mackey.) Psalms 107:8-9 Oh that men would praise the Lord for His goodness. Thanksgiving for a good harvest The importance of the harvest season is universally known. The labour and produce of the whole year depend finally on it. A good harvest is not a particular, but a general benefit. Bread is the staff of life; and as all mankind are maintained by the fruits of the ground, so they are all interested, either directly or indirectly, in the season of harvest. Now, the benefits we enjoy in common with our fellow-creatures are the most proper grounds of gratitude and praise to the universal Benefactor; and it is incumbent on us all on this occasion to unite in thanksgiving to Him who gives us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with joy and gladness. To awaken a still more lively sense of our obligation to God, let us consider the time at which it was bestowed. If we turn our attention from God to ourselves, from the Author to the object of this blessing, we shall see still fresh ground for religious gratitude, in estimating the kindness of a benefactor, the character of the beneficiary is a circumstance which is always to be taken into account. The unworthiness of those who receive a favour, enhances the kindness of him who bestows it, and should more strongly recommend him to their affection. If this consideration recommends the goodness of men, how much more does it enhance the Divine beneficence! Let our souls rise, then, in gratitude to that gracious Being, who is ever mindful of us, though we be forgetful of Him; who daily loads us with His benefits, though we perversely abuse them. To complete a sense of our obligation to God, let us consider our security for the enjoyment of this blessing which providence has bestowed upon us. He has not only blessed us with plenty; he has also given us peace to enjoy it. (A. Donnan.) The Divine goodness illustrated I. Some illustrations of the Divine goodness.1. The Divine goodness is self-evident in the creation of the world. How beautiful, how glorious, are all the works of His hand! 2. The high dominion to which man was appointed by the Divine fiat further proves the goodness of his beneficent Creator. He was not to be a vassal, not to be placed on terms of equality, but was to have “ dominion over the fish of the sea,” etc. 3. The Divine goodness is further evident in the provision of the Gospel. How comprehensive is the scheme of wisdom; bow glorious the atoning sacrifice of the Lamb of God! II. God’ s legitimate claim. “ Forget not all His benefits.” The Divine goodness claims the praise of our tongues. III. The earnest desire of the psalmist. He would not only give praise himself, but he would be the means of leading others to see and feel that it is an important duty. (G. Hall.) The wonderful works of God’ s goodness The earnestness with which the psalmist repeats again and again this benevolent wish--as devout as it is benevolent, and expressive of the gratitude that it invokes--implies that men are remiss in paying their thanks to the Supreme Benefactor, and that they have need to be urged to the performance of that cheering duty. Not that the human heart is naturally disinclined to acknowledge God in His benefits, but because it is so easily led to forget Him altogether in the multitude of its cares and pleasures; and because it knows that it can never estimate fully the number and extent of His mercies; and because it is so apt to misunderstand the truest occasions of thankfulness, and so not pay its tribute aright. The sacred poet describes under four distinct figures the lovingkindness, of which He would impress the memory upon the minds of His people. They are fitted to represent all those examples of deliverance which are often vouchsafed, and which challenge in a peculiar manner the admiring gratitude of those who are permitted to witness them. But we perceive that they are all of one class. They all look to some extraordinary exhibition of the saving might of the Most High. If we await such as these, we shall soon be capable of appreciating none. Cases of visible and imminent peril are always rare. A long life will often stand in no need of rescue from such. But few have found themselves in the situation of the fainting traveller in search of his way. Few have been compelled or have chosen to expose themselves to such a risk. As for the second example, the preacher might address many a crowded assembly without finding one person who had felt chains upon his wrists, and sat in undeserved captivity, abandoned of all companionship, and trembling for his life. Sickness, on the other hand, we must admit, is a common visitant, and sickness of the most alarming and fatal character no unfrequent one. And yet it is almost a singularity, compared with comfortable health, and the answer, “ I am well,” to friendly inquiries. Then, as to the last succour named--that amidst the horrors of shipwreck--what a small proportion of people have ever undergone any personal hazard of this kind ,--have ever been likely to be swallowed up in that treacherous highway, whose dust is the salt spray and its pavement thousands of fathoms down! We should have to make similar abatements and allowances as to any other of those uncommon demands on our thanksgiving, which are the most striking to the most common minds. And when we have made all these, there is another set of exceptions that claims equal consideration. They remind us, and how truly, that such occasions as have been alluded to are not only seldom experienced, but are in the highest degree doubtful as to their result; the issue being for the most part deadly, and not gracious. The bones of the poor traveller are found in some unknown spot, or never found. The loaded captive is left to his fate. The diseased man sinks away from a bad state to a worse, till the grave is friendly enough to open its last refuge from weariness and distress. The shattered vessel goes down in the gale, and the sailor’ s cry of entreaty or despair is drowned in the hollow gust, as if none regarded it. What, then, is the inference? It is, that we should not found our praises of the Lord on things that are precarious in their event, and far apart in their occurrence. It is, that we should look for His “ wonderful works” in those that are most constant. We should think more of our continual preservation than of a fortunate escape,--more of the benefits that millions partake of with us, than of those by which we may be for a moment distinguished,--more of the merciful laws of our being, than of its transient incidents,--more of the great truth that a parental Providence reigns, than of any fact that may seem to illustrate its singular interferences. The spirit, then, of the contemplative man should be filled with the love of the Being that fills all in all. The succession of our years should be one thanksgiving day. (N. L. Frothingham.) Psalms 107:9 For He satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness.The longing soul satisfied I. The source of true satisfaction is God.1. The soul being made in His image has infinite yearnings which nothing finite can satisfy, and powers which can only find their due exercise in Divine worship and service. 2. The soul is fallen and therefore has need of restoration which nothing finite can accomplish. II. The recipients of true satisfaction. Longing souls--men and women who realize their celestial origin. In time past, they may have turned to the world for satisfaction, they may have hewn them out cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water, but now they seek to slake their thirst from the fountain of living waters (Jeremiah 2:13). They may in the past have been among the dissatisfied, saying, “ Who will show us any good?” (Psalms 4:6). Now they know that blessedness consists in having the light of the Divine countenance shining upon them. III. The condition of true satisfaction. Obedience. The obedience which springs from filial trust and submission to the will of God. To those who hearkened to the Divine commandments the promise is (Isaiah 48:18). They shall be God’ s people, and He shall be their God. God for them, and with them, and in them shall be a source of perfect and eternal satisfaction. (H. P. Wright, B. A.) A longing soul satisfied I. What is implied in a longing or hungry soul.1. That it wants something which it has not got. Pardon, peace, purity, God. 2. That it wants something which it cannot provide for itself. 3. That the want of this something unsettles and makes it discontented. II. What is the satisfaction which God gives to the longing or hungry soul. The gifts of God to the soul, of pardon, health, and life, are its coronation; its honour and glory; its satisfaction. Beyond this it cannot go on earth. This is being filled and satisfied with goodness. (Anon.) The soul’ s thirst and satisfaction (with Psalms 143:6):--Man has a threefold nature--physical, mental, and spiritual. The soul is the nobler part of man, and needs a nobler satisfaction than the body. I. The soul’ s thirst.1. The soul comes from God, and its happiness is inseparably connected with obedience to the Divine will. 2. It is immortal. 3. It was made for God, in whom alone can it find true satisfaction. 4. It needs God, His smile, favour, and companionship. 5. How do men try to gratify this desire of the soul? (1) Some force the body to do double work to make up for the lack of spiritual food. But the body resists excess. Man was made to be something nobler than a mere eating and drinking apparatus. (2) Some with money--business. But the man who thought fifty pounds would give him complete satisfaction was unsatisfied with five hundred. Man should be better than a money-making machine, a slave to business. (3) Some with worldly pleasure, drinking constantly at the wells of worldly bliss, which only increases their thirst. You may as well strive to catch the east wind as try to satisfy immortal hunger with sensual pleasures. II. The soul’ s satisfaction.1. The world can stimulate and excite, but cannot give rest. 2. How may the soul be satisfied? (1) In being at peace with God (Romans 5:11). (2) In mutual sympathy, reciprocal affection. (3) In regeneration, sanctification, moral likeness to God. (4) In doing God’ s will. “ To do the will of Jesus: this is rest.” (5) In constant communion with God. Through Christ we have access by the Spirit unto the Father. (C. Cross.) Psalms 107:14-16 He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death. Song for the free, and hope for the bound The deliverance here intended is one which is brought to us by redemption, and comes by the way of the great sacrifice upon Calvary. I. Who are these favoured men?1. Guilty men (verse 11). Hear this, ye sinful ones, and take heart! God has wrought great wonders for a people whom it seemed impossible for Him to notice. If they came into prison through rebellion, you would expect Him to leave them there. Yet rebels are set free by an act of immeasurable grace. The Redeemer has received gifts for men, “ yea, for the rebellious also.” 2. Doomed men (verse 10). It is your condemned condition which needs free mercy; and, behold, the Lord meets your need in His boundless grace! 3. Bound men (verse 10). You long to be delivered, but you are unable to cut the cords which hold you. Jesus Christ has come on purpose that He might proclaim the opening of the prisons to them that are bound. 4. Weary men (verse 12). “ Come unto Me,” etc. 5. Downcast men (verse 12). The Lord Jesus delights to lift up those that lie at His feet. 6. Helpless men. What a word that is--“ None to help” ! The proverb says, “ God helps those that help themselves.” There is a sort of truth in it; but I venture to cover it with a far greater truth: “ God helps those that cannot help themselves.” When there is none to help thee, then God will help thee. 7. They did at last take to praying (verse 13). There is that about prayer which makes it a token for good, a pledge of blessings on the road, a door of hope in dark hours. Where is the man that cries? Where is the man that prays? That is the man of whom it shall be said, and of others like him, “ The Lord brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death,” etc. II. How has this deliverance been wrought?1. By the Lord Himself. There is no salvation worth the having which has not the hand of the Godhead in it. None but the Trinity can deliver a captive soul from the chains of sin, and death, and hell. 2. Next, the Lord did it alone “ He hath broken the gates of brass.” Nobody else was there to aid in liberating the prisoner. When our Lord Jesus trod the winepress, He was alone. When the Spirit of God came to work in us eternal life, He wrought alone. 3. By the Lord’ s own goodness. He gives the alms of His grace only to the undeserving. 4. Most completely--light, life, and liberty. 5. Everlastingly. O child of God, you were once shut up as with gates of brass, and bars of iron, and the devil thinks that one of these days he will get you behind those gates again! But he never will, for the Lord “ hath broken the gates of brass.” The means of our captivity are no longer available. III. What is to be done about this?1. If the Lord has set any of you free--record it. Say, “ The Lord hath done great things for us.” 2. When you have recorded it, then praise God with all your heart, every one of you, every day. When you have praised God yourselves, then entreat others to join with you. The oratorio of God’ s praise needs a full choir. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Psalms 107:17-20 Fools, because of their transgression and because of their iniquities, are afflicted.The history of sundry fools Here are four pictures, and you may find your likeness in one of the four; but, be not so unwise as to condemn yourself if you are not seen in the other three. “ I never went to sea,” says one, “ this cannot picture me.” “ I never traversed a Sahara,” says another, “ this cannot picture me.” “ I never was in prison in the dark,” says a third, “ this cannot picture me.” But it is possible that you have been a fool, and therefore the sick fool may picture you. When you find yourself in one of the pictures, you may conclude that, as the four are but variations of the same subject, all the four in some degree belong to you. I. The miserable people.1. They were fools. We call those fools who have a great want of knowledge of things which it is necessary to know. Where other men find their way, they are lost. Where other men know what to do upon very simple matters, they are quite bewildered and cannot tell how to act. He, too, is a fool who, when he does know, does not make right use of his knowledge. He is a greater fool than the former one. He understands that the only way to be saved is to believe in Christ; but he does not believe. He knows that men must repent of sin if they would find mercy; but he does not repent of sin. He knows that life is uncertain, and yet he is risking his soul upon the chances of his continuing to live. We call him a fool who hurts himself without any profit--without any justifying cause. We count the ox foolish that goes willingly to the shambles; but there are multitudes of men and women who take delight in sin; and, though every cup around them be poisoned, yet they drink of it as though it were nectar. Verily, sinners are fools! We are great fools when we think that we can find pleasure in sin, or profit in rebellion. We are great fools when we displease our God,--when our best Friend, on whom our eternal future depends, is despised, neglected, and even rejected and hated by us. 2. They were not only fools, but sinners. The text says that “ fools, because of their transgression, and because of their iniquities, are afflicted.” They began with one transgression; they went on to multiplied iniquities. There was first in their heart a transgression against God; afterwards, there were found in their lives many iniquities, both towards God and towards man. Sin multiplies itself very rapidly. It grows from one to a countless multitude. What form has your sin taken? Think of it in your own heart. But, whatever form it has taken, God is able to forgive you. “ The blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin.” 3. These people had a third mischief about them: they were afflicted. Their affliction was the result of their folly and their transgression. 4. They had fallen into a soul-sickness (verse 18). 5. They were almost dead. II. The merciful Lord.1. He sent the affliction. Your sicknesses, your poverty, and your misery--oh, I bless God for them! The heavenly Father has sent this rumbling wagger to bring you home to Himself. Oh that you would but come to yourself! Oh that you would but come to Him! 2. They began to pray; and here we see the Lord again; for no one seeks after God till God has put the prayer into his heart, and breathed a new lifo into his spirit. 3. Then, as soon as ever he did pray, the Lord heard the prayer. “ He sent His word, and healed them,” etc. So all that God has to do, in order to save us, is to send us His Word. He has done that by sending His dear Son, who is the incarnate Word. He sends us the Word in the shape of the Holy Scriptures; He sends us the Word in the preaching of His servants; but what we want most of all is to have that Word sent home by the power of the Holy Spirit. The Lord does not operate upon the symptoms, but upon the person; He does not deliver us from this sin, and that sin, and the other sin; but He takes away the old heart, out of which the sin comes, and gives a new heart, out of which there come repentance, and faith, and a change of life. (C. H. Spurgeon.) A rescue from death, with a return of praise In these words you have--1. The cause of this visitation, and of all the grievance he speaks of: “ transgression and iniquity.” 2. The kind of this visitation: “ sickness.” 3. The extremity, in two branches: “ Their soul abhorreth, all manner of meat” ; and secondly, “ They draw near to the gates of death.” 4. The carriage of the affected and sick parties: “ They cry unto the Lord in their distress.” 5. The remedy of the universal and great Physician: “ He saves them out of their distress.” 6. The manner of this remedy: “ He sent his word and healed them” ; His operative and commanding word, so as it works with His command. 7. The fee that this high Commander asks for; all the tribute or reward that He expects is praise and thanksgiving. “ Oh that men would therefore praise the Lord for His goodness,” etc. I. The quality of the persons here described. Why are wicked men fools? and God’ s children, so far as they yield to their lusts?1. For lack of discerning in all the carriage and passages of their lives. 2. A fool is led with his humour and his lust, even as the beast. 3. He is a fool that will play with edged tools, that makes a sport of sin. 4. He is a fool that knows not or forgets his end. 5. He is a fool that hurts and wounds himself. II. The cause. “ Because of their transgressions, and because of their iniquities.” “ Transgression” especially hath reference to rebellion against God and His ordinances in the first table. “ Iniquity” hath reference to the breach of the second table, against men; and both these have their rise from folly. For want of wisdom causeth rebellion against God, and iniquity against men. All breaches of God’ s will come from spiritual folly. Why doth He begin with transgressions against the first table, and then iniquities, the breach of the second? Because all breaches of the second table issue from the breach of the first. III. The extremity.1. “ Fools for their transgressions are afflicted.” We by our sins put a rod into God’ s hand--“ a rod for the fool’ s back” (Proverbs 26:8); and when we will be fools, we must needs endure the scourge and rod in one kind or other. Those that will sin must look for a rod. 2. “ Their soul abhors all manner of meat.” This the great Physician of heaven and earth sets down as a symptom of a sick state, when one cannot relish and digest meat. Experience seals this truth, and proves it to be true. 3. “ They draw near the gates of death.” Death is a great commander, a great tyrant; and hath gates to sit in, as judges and magistrates used to “ sit in the gates.” (1) “ They draw near to the gates of death” ; that is, they were “ near to death” ; as he that draws near the gates of a city is near the city, because the gates enter into the city. (2) Gates are applied to death for authority. They were almost in death’ s jurisdiction. Death is a great tyrant. He rules over all the men in the world, over kings and potentates, and over mean men; and the greatest men fear death most. (3) The power of death. It is the executioner of God’ s justice. IV. Their carriage in their extremity. “ They cried to God in their trouble.” This is the carriage of man in extreme ills, if he have any fear of God in him, to pray; and then prayers are cries. They are darted out of the heart, as it were, to heaven. Extremity of afflictions doth force prayers: “ In their affliction they will seek Me early.” When all second causes fail, then we go to God. Nature therefore is against atheism. V. The remedy.1. “ He saved them out of their distress.” God is a physician, good at all manner of sicknesses. Other physicians can cure, but they must have means. Other physicians cannot cure all manner of diseases, nor in all places, but God can cure all. “ He saved them out of their distress.” Other physicians cannot be always present, but God is so to every one of His patients. He is a compassionate, tender, present Physician. 2. “ He sent His word and healed them.” What word? His secret command, His will. VI. The duty.1. The persons who must praise God: “ Oh that men would praise the Lord.” 2. The duty they are to perform: “ to praise God,” to “ sacrifice to God,” to “ declare His works” --one main duty expressed by three terms. 3. For what they should praise Him: “ for His goodness.” It is the spring of all, for all particular actions do come from His nature. Why is He gracious, and merciful, and longsuffering? Because He is good. This is the primitive attribute. And then another thing for which we must praise Him: “ for His wondrous works for the children of men.” 4. The manner how this should be done: “ with rejoicing and singing,” as the word signifies, “ declare His works with rejoicing.” “ God loveth a cheerful giver” (2 Corinthians 9:7), much more a cheerful thanksgiver, for cheerfulness is the very nature of thanksgiving. VII. Helps and means to perform this duty the better.1. Consider our own unworthiness. 2. Dwell not on second causes. 3. Consider the necessity and use of the favour we pray for. 4. Again, if we would praise God, let us every day keep a diary of His favours and blessings: what good He doth us privately, what positive blessings He bestows upon us, and what dangers He frees us from, and continues and renews His mercy every day; and publicly what benefit we have by the state we live in. (R. Sibbes.) Psalms 107:20 He sent Him word, and healed them.The healing influence of God’ s Word Those who do not enjoy Divine revelation are in a very miserable state: they sit in darkness and in the shadow of death. Their habitations are full of darkness; their lives are full of sin and misery, and they have no hope in their death; for, where there is no vision the people perish. “ He sends his word and heals them, and delivers them from their destructions.” I. Some observations concerning the written word of god.1. It was Divinely inspired. 2. It is necessary to discover unto us most important truths. 3. It is most profitable unto men, for the doctrines which it teaches, for the precious effects which it produces on the hearts of men, and for the reformation which it is calculated to accomplish in the world. 4. The written Word of God may be considered as a sacred trust committed to Christians, to be improved by themselves, and conveyed unto others. II. The manner in which the Word of God, written and preached, has been sent to man, and how it ought to be sent by us to the heathen, that they may be healed, and delivered from their destructions.1. The Word of God, written and preached, was sent to man by God Himself. 2. The Lord sends His written and preached Word by the ministers of the Gospel. 3. The Lord sends His Word accompanied with the Divine Spirit, who renders it effectual to salvation. 4. The Word of God should be sent unto the heathen, accompanied with much fervent prayer for its success. III. Obstructions which the Word of God is calculated to remove. The Word of God is excellently adapted to--1. Remove out of the world, and from the hearts of men, darkness, ignorance, and superstition. 2. Heal division, and to promote the peace and happiness of civil and religious society. 3. Heal the soul of those injuries which, by sin, it sustains. 4. Produce hope in the soul. (W. Gould.) Delivered them from their destructions.--Delivered from destructions What! Are there many destructions to a man? Oh yes, a great many! I have known one man destroyed by his shop, another by his wife, another by his children. Many a woman is destroyed by her clothes; many a man is destroyed by his eating; millions are destroyed by their drinking. Everything about us will destroy us unless God saves us. There are a thousand gates to hell, though there is only one road to heaven One man may perish by debauchery; another may perish by respectability. One man may be lost in the ale-house; another man may be lost through his teetotalism, if he makes a god of it. One man may go down to hell by his want of common decency, and another by his pride, and prudery, and self-righteousness. Do not deceive yourself--the way to ruin is easy, and many crowd it. A little matter of neglect will land you in hell. But it is not a little matter of thought that will bring you to heaven; there must be a stirring up of the entire soul--an awakening of the whole man to seek after God in Christ Jesus; or else you shall perish. Surrounded, then, with destructions--snares about your bed, snares about your table, snares in your solitude, snares in the street, snares in your shop, snares at dawn of day, and snares at set of sun--you are in awful, terrible danger; and yet persons surrounded with destructions have been saved, and why should not you? They have cried to God in their trouble, and He has delivered them out of their destructions; will He not do the same at your cry? (C. H. Spurgeon.) Psalms 107:23-31 They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters. Distressed seamen and the Sovereign of the sea I. God’ s sovereignty over the sea. Behind the laws there is the Lawgiver. Behind the force of the winds and waves there is the Force of all forces--the great God. To regard God as the Ruler of the sea is--1. Philosophical. 2. Scriptural. 3. Assuring. We know His will is good. We bow reverently before the mystery, and wait for more light. II. Man’ s impotency when the sea rebels against him. But even when impotent, and defeated by the warring elements, man is greater than they; for he is conscious of his impotence and defeat, while they know not of their triumph. III. Man’ s resource when the sea rebels against him. When all else fails, prayer to God is left. But is it only when you are at your wit’ s end that you cry unto God? What right have you to expect that He whom you seek only when you are in trouble wilt answer your selfish cry? IV. God’ s answer to man’ s cry. God does not always literally allay the storm, and save from it those who cry unto Him. He, however, calms the inward tempest, so that the waves of anxiety and terror are still. V. Man’ s obligation for God’ s interposition.1. God’ s gracious doings for man are wonderful. 2. Men are prone to overlook God’ s gracious doings for them. 3. Men are under the most sacred obligations to celebrate the gracious doings of God for them. (Homiletic Magazine.) On the stormy sea I. The ship sails forth. Life is a voyage. We all go down to the sea in ships, to a life of mystery and danger, of glorious privilege and responsibility. Our hearts are full of happiness as of new wine. Rejoice, O young man, but remember, be mindful of the sublime things. II. The wind rises. Has it come to you already? Has there been a turn in your prosperity? Are things going wrong? Is it sickness, bereavement, financial stringency? Are the winds whistling through the cordage? Fear not! God holds the trident; the winds are in His fist. There are some anchors that will hold in the fiercest stress OF Euroclydon. One is the Wisdom of God. There is nothing that happens without His cognizance. No storm comes haphazard. God understands the end from the beginning; and He makes no mistakes. Another is God’ s Goodness. He doth not afflict willingly. Whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth. But never too much. III. The sailors are at their wit’ s end. In the margin it is, “ All their wisdom is swallowed up.” Then there is hope! For when I am weak, then am I strong. My strength is made perfect in weakness. IV. They are on their knees. Our Lord said that men ought always to pray and riot to faint. But alas, men do not always pray. They will not. But they pray when the storm breaks. And, strange to tell, God is willing to hear even the cry of desperation. He is of great lovingkindness and forbearance. For some men prayer is their vital breath, their native air. To others it is like the bell in the coal-mine, used only in time of danger. V. The storm is assuaged. The rule, after all, is fair weather. The storm, rage it never so fiercely, will soon be spent. Our “ light afflictions” are “ but for a moment.” Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning. There is no night without a dawn. VI. The ship sails in. In that day the sorest troubles of the earthly life will seem insignificant as we look back upon them. We shall understand then what the apostle meant when he called our afflictions “ light,” and spoke of them as “ enduring but for a moment.” It will be in our hearts to bless God for all the storms and the trials. (D. J. Burrell, D.D.) The voyage of life I. The voyage of life is fraught with many dangers.1. Our vessel is weak. Many have been shattered by striking on comparatively small rocks, and many have been wrecked by only just changing the tack from prosperity to adversity, or sometimes from scarcity to abundance. Others have been wrecked through too much joy, too weak to bear it; whilst the sorrows of this world have worked death to a vast multitude so weak that they are “ crushed before the moth.” 2. The sea is rough. Where are those that set out from the same port--nursed on the same hearth with us? Many have been crushed by the storms, but very few, comparatively, are still afloat. 3. Our course lies among rocks. Many have been stranded, but, obtaining timely help, have been prevented from becoming a wreck. It is but seldom we find any one who has not undergone some repairs at the hands of a physician. Some have been in dock a long time, and, being wonderfully restored, have been launched again into the deep. But others are seen being dashed to pieces by some disease or other; and it is a sad sight to see any one striking upon those rocks, and every blow carrying away part of the vessel, as it were, until at last the sides of the ship are laid bare. 4. The weather is foggy and dark. We know not on leaving our homes what will befall us before we return. And our safety so long is not to be attributed to our own care and foresight, but “ having obtained help of God we continue unto this day.” II. Divine grace has made every provision necessary to enable us to make the voyage of life in safety.1. An abundant supply of stores. They that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing. 2. Ballast in the ship to keep her from capsizing. Many have made shipwreck for the want of it. “ In time of temptation they fall away.” But if the fear of God be in the heart they will withstand every squall, as Joseph did in Egypt. 3. A chart to sail by. The Word of God is the rule which tells us where every danger lurks, and also how to avoid it. 4. A compass to steer by. Although the believer’ s vessel is tossed by the waves quite as much as any other vessel, her prow now in this direction, now in that, yet there is a principle of rectitude which governs him; he knows what point to sail for and what direction to take in the midst of all weathers. 5. A quadrant to take observations. “ Faith is the evidence of things not seen.” 6. A light fixed wherever there is moral danger. 7. Means of constant communication with the shore. (D. Roberts, D.D.) The Christian mariner I. His voyage.1. The Christian voyager, like the mariner, looks daily for guidance to his great Teacher in the heavens. The lights and landmarks along the coasts of Christian attainment; his frames and feelings, comparing himself with others, etc., which are the main guides of the religions coaster, are all discarded, and the Sun of Righteousness becomes his great Teacher and Guide. 2. He is a close student of his chart--the Bible. How it inspires courage and strengthens hope! II. His compass.1. The Christian’ s conscience, like the mariner’ s compass, is his indispensable and most constantly trusted guide, to be obeyed in darkness and storm, as well as in sunshine and calm. 2. The Christian’ s conscience, like the mariner’ s compass, is easily deranged, and if not frequently tested may lead him astray. The question is not, therefore, have you been faithful in following your conscience, but have you been faithful in testing your conscience by the Sun of Righteousness? 3. The Christian’ s conscience, like the mariner’ s compass, is more or less influenced by early associations. We can never permanently settle ourselves from the effects of the moral direction in which our prow was set, or the spiritual atmosphere that surrounded the laying and shaping of our keel. Because of these great channels and laws of influence no two Christians look out upon the sphere of duty from exactly the same standpoint; and we need nothing so much as charity to enable us to patiently meet and rightly construe the opinions and conduct of others, who, though perhaps equally conscientious, may not be able to see eye to eye with us in many things pertaining to Christian character and conduct. 4. The Christian’ s conscience, like the mariner’ s compass, is frequently deranged by something taken on board. Especially is that Christian in danger who is greatly prospered in temporal matters, and wields a sort of sovereignty over all manner of wares. It indicates great strength and purity of character when such persons remain humble, conscientious, and loyal to God. 5. The Christian voyager, like the mariner, sails by his compass, though he cannot explain the mystery that surrounds it. There are mysteries about the compass which the ordinary sailor never attempts to explain or understand. He becomes possessed of its benefits, not by solving its mysteries, but by following its guidance. So the Christian’ s safety is secured not by understanding everything, but by obedience to Divine teaching. Hence, although surrounded by mystery, he sails by faith. 6. The Christian who, like the mariner, tests and sails by his compass, is daily nearing his desired haven. “ Land ahead.” “ Its fruits are waving o’ er the hills of fadeless green.” (T. Kelly, D. D.) Soul navigation I. Its weather is fouler to some than to others. This difference is partly necessary and partly moral. A man’ s condition in life depends greatly both upon his temperament and upon the external circumstances under which he has been brought up. Some have temperaments that are impulsive and tempestuous; others gentle and pacific. Some are surrounded by circumstances suited to soothe and to please, others by those tending ever to agitate and distress. This difference in the temperaments and circumstances of men, whilst it reveals the sovereignty of that God who arranges human affairs after the counsel of His own will, should at the same time dispose us to act with tender consideration in all our intercourse with our fellow-men. But there is a morality in this difference that should not be overlooked. Men have power to rule in a great measure their own temperaments, and control their own circumstances. The man to whom God has given the most fiery passions He has given corresponding intellect for control. II. It exposes to terrible disasters. How many souls are shipwrecked every day! They go down into the abysses of passion, worldliness, impiety. III. There need be no shipwrecks. In all cases man is responsible for them.1. He has an infallible chart--a chart which reveals life true to eternal fact. There is not a danger it does nob expose. It draws the very line over which you should sail if you would sail safely and meet a prosperous end. It tells you how to avoid all the perils lying beneath the wave, how to escape the fierce hurricanes, how to sail through peaceful seas and into sunny climes. 2. He might have a safe anchorage (Hebrews 6:19). 3. He might have an all-sufficient captain--Christ. (Homilist.) Lessons from the ocean in a storm The sight of the ocean in a storm serves-- I. To impress us with the majesty of god. Perhaps there is no spectacle in nature so overwhelmingly grand as that of the ocean when lashed into fury with the tempest. How great is God! II. To awe us with our utter helplessness. How powerless we feel in the presence of such wild majesty! Such a sight may well take the egotism out of man, and bury it in the abysses of forgetfulness for ever. “ What is man?” etc. III. To inspire us with sympathy for mariners. How many brave men, who fight our battles, who enrich our markets, who diffuse our civilization and religion, will go down in that storm! (Homilist.) A plea for sailors The Roman poet has celebrated in familiar verse the courage of the heroic pioneer of civilization--the man who first trusted his fragile barque to the treacherous sea. In what striking contrast to this solitary man--brooding over the unknown possibilities of that wide and unexplored world of waters, at once inviting and alarming him, until at length his final resolve was taken and his daring venture made are the vast multitudes who to-day do business in the great waters! They include men of all nationalities who find a point of common interest in their love for the free and daring life of the sailor. They have habits, tastes, tendencies peculiar to themselves. If we would realize how much we owe to them, let us try to imagine the island deprived of their services. That all the luxuries which are drawn to our markets from all the provinces of the world would at once be withdrawn would be a comparatively small matter, and yet that loss would be felt as seriously even by classes who are not generally regarded as consumers of luxuries. For under that term must be included many things to which even those of very moderate means have become so accustomed that they esteem them necessaries of life. But the mischief would not end here. The supplies even of the staff of life would be curtailed and before very long would cease altogether. Nor would this exhaust our calamities. We export as well as import. Our little island is the centre of a vast trade which has the world for its circumference, and at every point of importance we have our representatives. The peculiar treasures of all countries are attracted to us, and our prosperity, in truth, our very existence, depends on the maintenance of that complicated network of communications which unites us with all peoples, making us at once their debtors and creditors. Needless to insist on the passionate feeling with which England regards her empire of the sea. The sentiment has been cultivated so long, and has sunk so deep into the national heart, that it seems now to be a rooted and invincible instinct. The most popular among our national songs are songs of the sea. The most stirring incidents in our national struggles are stories of the sea. The most popular of our heroes are those whose laurels have been won on the sea. The heart of the Englishman glows with pride and gratitude as he remembers the great deliverances wrought for the nation by the gallant men who won for us the supremacy of the seas. But their services are equally great in the works of peace. There are few classes who contribute more to the fabric of national wealth and greatness than those who go down to the sea in ships. These men see the works of the Lord and His wonders in the deep. They have a great commission with nature, and with nature in some of her most impressive and majestic scenes of which dwellers in the crowded streets of great cities know nothing. It has been said that an undevout astronomer is mad. The same might be said with much more truth of the undevout sailor. He may be said to live in the presence of the Infinite. Grandeur, majesty, mystery, are around him continually. He is away from those displays of human arrogance and conceit which hide from so many the presence and the work of God. Under few, if any, conditions is there so much to make him feel how little and how feeble man is; how great and unsearchable is God. Did we not know so much of the deceitfulness of the human heart and understand how soon familiarity with the most impressive spectacles will weaken, and step by step, by little and little, ultimately destroy their power, we might think that the effect of such scenes must be to induce faith and reverence. But where the sight of these wonders does not soften it will certainly harden; when the sailor is not devout, the danger is lest he become profane. He does not remain merely negative; he grows reckless, daring, unbelieving. Let it not be forgotten, further, that the peculiar conditions of his life withdraw him from a multitude of influences which tell in favour of godliness. It is true that the temptations which beset the path of others are during a large part of his time absent from him; but then, on the other hand, when they do assail him, they come with peculiar severity. A period of liberty, apt to degenerate into licence, has succeeded the severe restraint under which he is confined. He is thrown into the companionship of those who desire to lead him astray, without any experience of their wiles, or probably without any friend to supply the necessary word of warning. He feels as though some measure of indulgence were due to him in compensation for the perils and privations of months. Thus even his comparative exemption from the common seductions of life only becomes a source of graver spiritual danger in the time of recreation he spends ashore. When to this is added the loss of the advantages resulting from the influences and associations of home, it will be seen that he is in a position calling for special sympathy and help. For us who rejoice in the blessings of the Gospel and would fain give them to all, what remains but that we give our special thought and care to our brethren who go down to the sea in ships. (J. G. Rogers, D.D.) At their wit’ s end. Then they cry unto the Lord. “ At their wit’ s end” Nothing is more certain, or calls for more grateful acknowledgment, than the ready and merciful interpositions of God in our seasons of exceptional weakness and need. Nothing, perhaps, of a romantic kind attached to the circumstances in which we were placed; it was in the routine of trade rather than amid the excitements of travel; in the safe places of life, and not among gloomy cells or staggering ships, when, face to face with a yet very authentic extremity, we “ cried unto the Lord, and He delivered us out of our distresses:” It is human to “ cry aloud” to God when we feel ourselves in the hands of forces we cannot control, when resource of power or of knowledge is exhausted. But when men practically only “ cry unto the Lord” in moments such as these; when they only claim the friendship and help of God when all else has failed; when these words set forth an habitual state, “ At their wit’ s end, then--!” well, I will put the matter mildly, and say, this is serious. This is to reduce the Divine friendship to the low level of a mere selfish convenience, and, on the whole, to be rather more dishonourable before God than we would like to be before our fellow-man. The great mistake lies in supposing--and, indeed, sometimes in actually teaching--that our need of God is greatest in the critical moment of our lives. We are supposed to be fairly equal to the ordinary strain, or that the ordinary strain is in some way provided for. It is in the great trials we think, as their merciless grasp fastens round us, that we stand in direst need of Divine assistance. Thus we say to men, “ How will you do when sickness overtakes you? If your child should die, or you yourself be called upon to step down into the valley, how will you do without God then?” Badly enough, I should say. But can there be any question that it is not at such times we are tempted to forget God? In a passionate crisis the problem solves itself. It is in the common uneventful days, in the regular routine of daily life, amid faces, and scenes, and duties familiar to us as the light of the morning, it is here that the real difficulty lies. There is no question about crying to God “ out of the depths.” It is not in the “ depths,” it is in the long level flats that most men’ s danger lies. (J. Thew.) Through stress of weather I. How slow men are to pray in prosperity. It may be written down as an axiom, that “ prosperity prevents prayer.” Thank God it is an equally true axiom that “ adversity prompts prayer.”1. We are apt to become careless of Divine things when prosperity smiles upon us. 2. There is also a danger of becoming absorbed in the business that is thus blessing you. The more we have, the more, as a rule, we want. 3. Prosperity, too, is prone to make us lose our sense of dependence upon God. The ballast of adversity is not to be despised. II. How ready men are to pray in adversity. “ Then” is a very commonplace adverb of time, but it is wonderfully expressive. Not till they were obliged to in any of these cases, not till pressed by utmost need did they cry. Not till they got to the end of the creature did they appeal to the Creator.1. This truth, sad as it is, is noticeable in the case of temporal troubles. Those who have been thoughtless till the trouble came upon them, and prayerless too, begin to think and to pray as soon as the grief afflicts them. Thank God for the griefs that make us pray, for the troubles that drive us to the mercy-seat. Thank God that He sometimes takes the Aeolian harp and puts it where the rough winds blow, for it would remain mute did not the breezes sweep through its strings. 2. Sometimes it is in spiritual matters that this experience comes to us. Do not despair; cry loudly to God, plead the merit and death of Christ, and He will save you out of your troubles. III. How willingly the Lord hears the prayer. True, it was belated; true, it was a small compliment to God to pray only when one was driven to it, but it does not seem to me as if God minded even that, so gracious and generous is He. He seems to say, “ You are late in coming, but it is better late than never. I will heal you, I will deliver you.” He does not reproach, He does not refuse, He does not even delay. They have been long in asking, but He is quick in saving. (T. Spurgeon.) When at wit’ s end “ Most that are acquainted with God are taken in the briars. Jesus Christ in the days of His flesh had never heard of many, if their necessities had not brought them to Him.” Sending up a signal of distress Wearied and worn, suffering from “ brain-fag,” from the strain of incessant service through the winter season, Brother C--and I set sail from Old England on the 22nd of May, bent on availing ourselves of the advantages of enforced rest en voyage, and change of scenery and associations on the Continent. Five days later, we were nearing the north coast of Germany. A wild wind and a “ choppy sea kept us later than usual on deck. Driven by sheer weariness, I retired to my berth at two o’ clock in the morning; but not for long. At five I was ruthlessly roused by my friend, “ What meanest thou, O sleeper? Arise, call upon thy God.” “ What’ s the matter?” I inquired. “ We have run aground, and can’ t move.” Hurrying up to the captain’ s bridge, we found him the picture of anxiety. We were (in the wrong sense) “ steadfast, unmovable” --of this there was little doubt. For three hours had the captain been trying to “ go ahead,” then “ astern,” but not an inch could he move the good ship; and with one thousand two hundred tons of cargo aboard, we were evidently getting more and more deeply embedded in the sandbank. We wanted sixteen feet of draught to float us, and had but nine. As well might we try to float a “ heavy-laden” sinner into the kingdom of grace on the shallow doctrines so common to-day, as to steer our ship over this sandbank. At length the captain bade “ Jack” run up the signal for help. Friend C--caught at the idea, and seizing me by the arm, said, “ I think we will get to our cabin, and fake the hint.” There we retired, and “ sent up the signal for help.” Presently, addressing the steward, C--asked, “ Did you feel the vessel move?” “ Not likely,” he replied, “ after sticking here three hours.” Turning to the mate, C--put the same question, with a similar result, “ Not likely! What do you land-lubbers know about it?” Just then the vessel fairly lurched. “ Did she move, mate?” “ Yes,” said he, with an astonished air; “ but I can’ t understand it.” By this time a tug from the coast was bearing down upon us, but reversed her course as our captain lowered his signal. When we again mounted his bridge, he was almost beside himself with joy to think we had slidden bodily off the bank, and were once more steaming into the Channel. “ I am thankful we’ re off; but I can’ t understand it a little; it completely puzzles me.” Said friend C--, “ Shall we explain it, captain? We are firm believers in the efficacy of prayer; and seeing your trouble, we just now took your unintentional hint, and sent up a signal for help. Do you never resort to prayer in the midst of trouble, captain? God has said, ‘ Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify Me.’” (C. H. Spurgeon.) Psalms 107:30 Then are they glad because they are quiet. The quiet of the Sabbath I. Why on this day of rest ought we to be glad?1. Because the week is the scene of perpetual activity. 2. Because the week is the season for impairing rather than increasing our spiritual vigour. 3. Because the week is the time in which we ale exposed to the most spiritual danger. II. What the quiet of the Sabbath signifies and symbolizes.1. It does not mean mental inaction. It does not signify having nothing to think about, and nothing to do on this day of rest; but having other things to think about, and other things to do, than those which occupy and all but absorb us during the week. And not only other, but better things, things connected with the life that lies beyond the grave. 2. The quietness of the Sabbath is intended to prepare us for the toil and tumult of the week. Let a Christian man enter the house of God with this idea, and he will never find the Sabbath tedious, or its hours of public worship a weariness; he has laboured to enjoy this rest, and now he rests to be fitted for ensuing labour. 3. The quiet of the Sabbath is a happy quiet, because it is an emblem of the heavenly Sabbath. Learn-- (1) The fitness of Divine ordinances to our human constitution. We must have rest and quiet: nature demands; God graciously supplies them; and he that believes enters into rest. (2) Let us remember the danger we are exposed to of forgetting the claims of the Sabbath amidst the perpetually recurring anxieties of the week. (3) Let us rejoice if in our intelligent appreciation of this day we can truly say, “ This is the day the Lord hath made, we will rejoice and be glad in it” ; and let memory ever say, “ Then were we glad because we were quiet.” (W. G. Barrett.) Memories of dangers passed Thinking of the past, there may be a sense of not unwelcome lightening from a load of responsibility when we have got all the stress and strain of the conflict behind us, and have, at any rate, not, been altogether beaten. We may feel like a captain who has brought his ship safe across the Atlantic, through foul weather and past many an iceberg, and gives a great sigh of relief as he hands over the charge to the pilot, who will take her across the harbour bar and bring her to her anchorage in the land-locked bay, where no tempests rave any more for ever. (A. Maclaren, D.D.) He bringeth them unto their desired haven.--The desired haven I. Thy Port. “ Their desired haven.” Comforting view of heaven this! ‘ Tis a haven; not an “ undiscovered country,” not a desolate coast chafed by storms, and strewn with wrecks and lifeless bodies. Entrance ample, water deep, anchorage secure, may be taken in all weathers; no blinding haze, no dreary night, no want, no sin. ‘ Tis a desired haven (Hebrews 11:13; Hebrews 11:16). II. The pilot. “ He bringeth them;” not He driveth, as if behind; nor draweth, as from far-off spot, as the pole draws the needle of the compass by a cold and mighty attraction; but He bringeth, as the reaper bringeth his sheaves. Jesus bringeth! Not ahead to draw, not astern to drive, but on board to bring! Oh! is He not a Pilot? He sounded the channel, took the bearings, mastered the details, made the chart, and now goes in company with the believer to perform the voyage. You ask who erected the beacon, placed the lightship, anchored the buoy? Christ, all Christ. He unites the pilot and commander in one: never leaves nor forsakes. Oh, come to Him; “ He bringeth,” He only; He bringeth unto. None founder under His command. III. The providence. “ So.” “ His way is perfect.” ‘ Tis not so short as you would like it, nor so easy, nor so pleasant, but it is “ so.” Sometimes He brings to wit’ s end, makes men to stagger, and the great billows, which they think will bury them, only lift them higher up into safety and peace. (H. T. Miller.) The port of glory Whether we will or not, it is ours to sail across the sea of life. As the ship on the sea is subject to calms, and storms, and fair weather, and is exposed to dangers untold, and driven here and there by the force of winds and tides; so is every man’ s experience; and it behoves each to ask himself whither he is bound, and whether he has a good hope of reaching his “ desired haven.” I. It is suggestive of rest. It is a “ haven.” Fellow-voyagers, are you looking for rest? Beyond all this toil of the ocean, are you expecting the repose of the haven? II. It is suggestive of safety. As the sailor cannot be endangered until the very harbour is destroyed; so, as long as Jehovah is, the Christian soul is safe. And this is true not only of his future, but also of his present state. Yes, God Himself is their protection. III. It is suggestive of happiness. Do not blame us if we sometimes turn a longing gaze towards the “ fulness of joy” which is in His “ presence,” and to the “ pleasures for evermore” which are “ at His right hand.” IV. It is suggestive of possession. He knows that when once the “ desired haven” has been reached, all life’ s dangers will be for ever over; all life’ s mysteries will be for ever solved; all life’ s labours will be for ever crowned, and he will “ enter into the joy” of his Lord. “ And so shall we ever be with the Lord.” (W. H. Burton.) Sure sailing 1. The port, or harbour--“ Their desired haven.” The spirits of the righteous, who have vanished out of their sight, are not flung upon the coast of some dreary country, desolate and unknown, whose shores are chafed with angry storms and strewn with wrecks. They reach “ their desired haven” “ when all the ship’ s company meet who sailed with their Saviour beneath.” 2. The Pilot. “ He bringeth them.” Adequate knowledge of the voyage is an important qualification in a pilot, and also a quick discernment or apprehension of dangers, and skill to avoid them. Every feature of perfect qualification is found in Christ, as the Pilot of humanity across the sea of life. 3. How He bringeth them is implied in this little demonstrative “ so.” As professing Christians, it might be well for us to single out all the trials, sorrows, and calamities which are the result of our own folly, indolence, or presumption, and distinguish them from those over which we have no control and in the production of which we have shared no part. I believe that many of our trials in secular and spiritual matters are not God’ s creations, but our own. (T. Kelly, D.D.) Christ, the pilot’ s Pilot An old pilot of the Hudson River Line lay dying. A minister came in and talked with him, and he was respectful but unmoved. The preacher felt he must say something that would appeal to him. Just then the Spirit of God seemed to say to him: “ Present Jesus as the pilot’ s Pilot.” And so he said: “ Now, you have many times piloted your steamer away from the rocks; the current is running against you now, and the fog is on, and you need a pilot. Jesus is the pilot’ s Pilot; won’ t you take Him on board?” The man’ s attention had been caught and his heart won, and with tear-wet eyes he said, “ I will,” and with the Saviour’ s joy in his heart and a happy light in his eyes, Christ piloted him home. Will you take Jesus as your pilot to-day? (Sunday Circle.) Psalms 107:33-43 He turneth rivers into a wilderness. God’ s management of man upon the earth I. It involves great revolutions.1. In the secular department (Psalms 107:33-38). Sodom’ s fertile soil was smitten with barrenness. Canaan, at one time one of the most fruitful spots under heaven, is now one of the most worthless. How does God do this generally? (1) He does it by man. To man He has given the power to change the character of the soil, to make orchards out of wildernesses, and gardens out of deserts, and thus cause the “ wilderness to blossom as the rose.” (2) He does it by man, with a due regard to man’ s character. By the moral, the wise, the industrious man, He makes the barren places fruitful; and by the corrupt, the indolent, the foolish man, He turns a fruitful land into barrenness. 2. In the social department. (1) In families. Providence has been compared to a wheel; as the wheel goes round, those who are up to-day will be down to-morrow, and the reverse. (2) In nations. II. It repays the study of the wisest men. There is no subject for human study of such transcendent interest and importance as that of God’ s management of mankind. The study of this subject will serve three purposes.1. To rejoice the good. “ The righteous shall see it and rejoice.” The righteous will see in the subject how wisely, how beneficently, how universally all things are managed, how “ all things work together for good to them that love God,” how even evil is overruled to answer benevolent ends. 2. To confound the wicked. “ All iniquity shall stop her mouth.” “ It shall be,” says an old author, “ a full conviction of the folly of atheists, of those that deny the Divine providence, and forasmuch as practical atheism is at the bottom of all sin, it shall in effect stop the mouth of all iniquity. When sinners see how this punishment answers to their sin, and how justly God deals with them in taking away from them those gifts of His which they had abused, they shall not have one word to say for themselves. God will be justified, He will be clear.” 3. To reveal God’ s infinite lovingkindness to all. (1) Human suffering, however great., is never equal in amount to that of human enjoyment. This is obvious from the circumstance that men, even in the greatest affliction and trial, earnestly desire the perpetuation of their life and struggle for it. (2) Human suffering is generally, if not always, ascribable to human conduct. Either their ancestors or themselves have broken those organic, moral, and social laws, the observance of which is the condition of happiness. (3) Human suffering may, and should, contribute to lasting enjoyment. Sufferings are disciplinary, they are only storms to purify the moral atmosphere of the world, medicated ingredients in the cup of life which, though bitter, are designed and suited to heal the diseases of the soul, and to make it happy and hale. (Homilist.) Psalms 107:43 Whoso is wise, and will observe these things, even they shall understand the lovingkindness of the Lord. The benefit of a wise observance of providences I. The wisdom of a devout attention to the ways of Providence.1. They who are wise will observe those things--take notice of the hand of God in the various turns and methods of His providence. 2. A religious observation of providence is the way to improve in true wisdom. “ Who is wise? Even he will observe those things,” and by observing those things he will become still wiser. 3. It requires much wisdom and prudence to make right observations on the ways of Providence, and to put a proper construction upon them. (1) Let us fix in our minds a full and lively persuasion of the doctrine of providence: or be firmly assured of the reality and certainty of an overruling and governing power that reaches to all events. (2) We must attend to Divine providences with diligence; observe them with a steady and accurate eye, and deposit them faithfully in our memories to be reviewed and applied hereafter. (3) We must be cautious in our application of providences, and in our determinations concerning their immediate design. (4) Let us patiently wait the events of providence before we judge. (5) We should carefully compare one providence with another. (6) We should carefully compare the book of providence with the Book of Scripture. (7) If we would understand the providences of God let us obey the calls of them. (8) Frequently pray for direction in this matter, and for that wisdom which is profitable to direct. II. The great benefit and advantage of such a prudent and devout attention to the providences of God; particularly as it will open to us new discoveries of the Divine goodness. “ Even they shall understand,” etc.1. This may refer either to public and general, or to particular and private providences. (1) It may refer to public and general providences. And then the meaning is, that by such a wise, discreet and careful attention to the ways of Providence in general, we shall soon come to be convinced that the whole earth is full of the goodness of the Lord; that His tender mercies are over all His works, etc. (2) The words have a more immediate reference to private and particular providences. 2. It may be objected that there are a thousand things in the present state, both of the natural and moral world, which we can by no means reconcile with our ideas of infinite mercy and goodness. Now, to this I answer-- (1) The psalmist does not say, nor can any man presume to think, that there are inexplicable mysteries in the ways of Providence; or that there are not many things in the course of the Divine dispensations which we are not able at present to reconcile either with the goodness or wisdom of God. (2) All that the text affirms is, that they who make the wisest and justest observations on providence, will make the plainest and largest discoveries of the lovingkindness of the Lord; and may discern traces of love in those events which to others appear tokens of anger. (J. Mason, M.A.) The wise observation of providences urged I. What it is to observe providences wisely.1. It presupposes-- (1)That there is a providence. Is it unworthy of God to govern what He has created? As for the wisdom in the management of the world, they are fools who judge it folly before they see the end. (2) The faith of this providence. We must believe the doctrine of providence, if we would be wise observers thereof. (3) Providence has a language t.o the children of men. (4) A disposition to understand the language and design of providence. 2. It imports-- (1) A watching for them till they come (Habakkuk 2:1; Isaiah 26:8; Psalms 130:1; Psalms 130:5-6). (2) A taking heed to them, and marking them when they come (Isaiah 25:9; Luke 19:44). (3) A serious review of them, pondering and narrowly considering them. It is a mystery many times, looking at which our weak eyes will begin to dazzle. And that we may unravel the clue by a sanctified judgment (Psalms 77:6), it will be needful to call in the help of prayer, with much humility, faith, and self-denial (Job 10:2), and of the Scripture (Psalms 73:16). (4) Laying them up, and keeping them in record (Luke 1:66). We should keep them as one would do a treasure, for the time to come. Then are they experiences, which will be notable provision for after-times. (5) A practical observation of them (Micah 6:9). II. The things about which we are wisely to make our observations.1. Providences may be considered with respect to their objects, which are all the creatures and all their actions. (1) Look into the invisible world, and trace providence there. (2) Look to the visible world, and trace providence there (John 5:17). 2. We may consider providences with respect to their kinds (Psalms 40:5). The wisdom of God is manifold wisdom, and produces works accordingly (Psalms 104:24). And each of them is to be observed. (1) Providences are either cross, or smiling and favourable. Both ought to be observed, and may be so profitably. (2) There are great lines and small lines of providence.. (3) There are common and uncommon providences. 3. We may consider providences with respect to the time of their falling out. (1) We should observe the past dispensations of providence (Psalms 77:5). Towards others. Towards ourselves. Observe how God gave thee such and such education, ordered thy log in such and such a place in His earth, and in such sort as He has done, how He brought thee into such and such company, saved thee from such and such dangers, etc. (2) We should observe the present dispensations of providence towards ourselves and others (Zechariah 6:1-2). It is a stream that still runs by us, like those rivers that bring down the golden ore (Psalms 65:11). By day nor night it ceaseth not (Psalms 19:2). III. What we are to observe in providences.1. The timing of providences, the great weight of a dispensation sometimes lies ill this very circumstance, that then it came, and neither sooner nor later. And O the admirable wisdom that appears in thus jointing of them! (Genesis 24:45; Judges 7:13). 2. The beginnings and dawnings of providences (Psalms 130:6). 3. The progress of providence, endeavouring always to notice the several steps of it (Luke 2:19; Luke 2:51), and to follow the thread. For God ordinarily brings great works to pass by degrees, that so men that are weak may have the greater advantage for observation (Hosea 6:3). 4. The turns of providence. The wheel of providence is a wheel within a wheel, and sometimes it runs upon the one side, and sometimes on the other. Observe the change of the sides. For providence to our view has many turnings and windings, and yet really it is going straight forward (Zechariah 14:7). 5. The end of providence (James 5:11; Job 42:10; Job 42:12). 6. The mixture of providence. There is never a mercy we get, but there is a cross in it; and never a cross, but there is a mercy in it. Observe the mixture of your mercies, to make you humble and heavenly; for the fairest rose that grows here has a prickle with it, and there is a tartness in our sweetest enjoyments. Observe the mixture of your crosses, to make you patient and thankful; for the bitterest pill God gives you to swallow has a vehicle of mercy (Lamentations 3:22). 7. The concurrence of providences. 8. The design and language of providences (Micah 6:9). 9. The harmony of providences. (1) With the Word.(2) Among themselves.(3) With their design and end.(4) With the prayers of the people of God. IV. Why Christians should wisely observe providences.1. Because they are God’ s works (Psalms 135:6). 2. Because they are great works (Psalms 111:2). 3. Because they are often very mysterious works, and therefore they need observation (Psalms 92:5). 4. Because they are always perfect works. They will abide the strictest search and the most narrow inquiry (Deuteronomy 32:4). 5. Because they are speaking works. They speak Heaven’ s language to the earth, and therefore should be observed. (T. Boston, D.D.) The operations of the Divine lovingkindness Human love, we may say as a general rule, is easily understood by human creatures. Not so the Divine love, the lovingkindness of the Lord. Guided by a wisdom to which our minds cannot reach, that often operates towards us in a way that much perplexes us. I. Whenever He loves, He afflicts us. Either He finds us in trouble, or He ere long brings us into it--that is one of the rules He has laid down for the exercise of His lovingkindness. Are you, then, prepared to receive affliction from Him when, though conscious of a whole mass of evil dwelling in you, you can discover no indulged, no specific sins which have called down that affliction on you? Are you prepared for the storm, and the storm of God’ s raising, when honestly engaged in your worldly callings? Are you prepared for hunger, and thirst, and faintness of soul in God’ s own ways, while walking with God, following prayerfully and closely as you can the Lord’ s own guidance? II. He generally brings His people to an extremity of danger or of trouble, before He succours them. We are often made to see and to see with wonder that our extremity is, indeed, God’ s opportunity; that His helping work begins just when we are beginning to fear there is no help for us; that He does all that is needful for us when we are brought with a sorrowful and perhaps half despairing heart to say, nothing can be done. Deliverance we may depend on, but we must not depend on it till the extremity comes. III. He draws forth from His people earnest prayer for relief before He sends it them. He has it in store for them, but He says, “ I will be inquired of them for it before they shall have it.” And this is one of His main designs in allowing our troubles to come to an extremity before He helps us--He wants to strip us of all creature-confidence; that we may be compelled to turn to Him for help, be constrained to come to Him with our difficulties and sorrows. Our prayers do Him no good, but they do us good--they bring us into closer union with Himself, the fountain of all good. IV. When the Lord delivers His praying people in their extremities, He generally delivers them signally and most effectually.1. Signally. He lays bare His arm as He delivers them; makes it visible; compels them to see, and to see with grateful wonder and a thrilling delight, that their deliverance is His work and His alone. 2. Effectually. He makes the help He gives them adequate to their extremity and more than adequate to it, surpassing their necessity. He often blesses and enriches them while He delivers them. (C. Bradley; M.A.) Providence observed I. In what manner we should observe the-Divine providence.1. There should be a prevailing recollection that there is a providence; so that we live not like heathens who know not God. 2. We ought to take particular notice of special events or remarkable occurrences. 3. We should gratefully acknowledge the Divine goodness; observe particular mercies. 4. Humbly submit to the Divine chastisements. These are often heavy and severe, though wisely ordered and mixed with mercy. 5. Observe, as far as may be, the design of God in the events of His providence, and particularly what benefit you may derive from them. II. The wisdom and advantage of a due observance of the ways of Providence.1. If you observe these things you shall see God’ s lovingkindness prevailing in all His dealings with the children of men. 2. We may extend the application of the promise. For, according to the whole tenor of the Word of God, all the truly pious, such as they are who devoutly observe the ways of God, are really interested in His gracious regards. The Lord loveth the righteous. He receives them into His favour through the grace and righteousness of Jesus Christ. He will save them with an everlasting salvation. They shall, therefore, understand what a glorious thing it is to have an interest in God as their portion. (Essex Remembrancer.) The lovingkindness of the Lord If we wish to “ understand” the lovingkindness of the Lord, we need not speculate, we have only to “ observe” ; and we have nor anxiously to east about for examples, as they are gathered and classified for us in the induction which distinguishes this inspired song. I. It is effectual. Gives complete relief. No mockery of favour, no semblance of love. Deals not in half-measures, but secures complete deliverance. II. It is seasonable. God interferes in the crisis, and waits till it come, ere He show His power and love. III. It is undeserved. We forget Him, but He does not forget us; and when our sins expose us to imminent peril--and that peril is a righteous and appropriate punishment, even then does He “ make no tarrying,” but He swiftly comes to save us. IV. It is habitual. God has special pleasure in such acts of beneficent intervention. He has often vouchsafed relief to others, and will He not to thee? “ The Lord’ s hand is not shortened.” “ He daily loadeth us with benefits.” V. If we take pains and still “ observe these things,” we shall find “ these things” all to be acts of simultaneous lovingkindness. God is not so occupied with one case of misery as to overlook the others. All those deeds of lovingkindness may happen, and very often do happen, at one and the same time. VI. It is manifested in answer to prayer. The spirit, in the hour of its weakness, looks up to God, and He blesses and saves. O, then, ask and wait; wrestle and triumph. VII. It is often startling in its nature and results. The good it does is amazing, and the penalty it sends is confounding. These sudden and terrible reverses are meant to teach and humble--for they show the justice of God, exhibit the evil of sin, and induce man to forsake it. (John Eadie, D.D.) Observation What are we called upon to do? To “ observe.” But that is a scientific word. Certainly. There is no book more scientific than the Bible Is not science called sometimes the art of observation? Here is a religious teacher who says, Be scientific--observe. Sometimes we want a microscope, sometimes a telescope; everything depends upon the object on which we are fixing our observation; if it be minute, there is the microscope; if it be distant, there is the telescope; what we have to do is to observe,--which few men can do. There are few born surveyors. We are not to observe a little here and a little there, but we are to observe minutely, we are to observe in detail, to observe the little spectral shapes no larger than the band of a man, and we are to observe them growing until the accumulation fills the firmament with promise of rain. It is delightful to find a word which binds us to a scientific policy. Isaac Newton said he was not aware that he excelled any one except it might be in the faculty of paying attention--shall we call it the faculty of observation? Darwin never slept; he was observing whilst he was dreaming; he left the object for a moment or two and came back to it to follow it on. And one would imagine from some of Sir John Lubbock’ s most useful books, packed as they are with information, that he had spent the most of his life in an ant-heap. He knows about ants--their policy, their economy, their method, their conflicts, their conquests--all their wondrous system of society. When a man observes God in that way, there will be no atheists. Atheism comes from want of observation,--not observation of a broad vulgar kind, as for example the eyes that take in a whole sky at a time without taking in one solitary gleam of light for careful and reverent analysis, but an observation as minute and detailed, and patient and long-continued, as a man has bestowed upon the habits of an ant. Who would go to a man who had never seen an ant, in order to learn from him the habits of the busy little creature? We smile at the suggestion. Yet there are men who go to professed atheists to know what they think of theology! That which would be ridiculous in science is supposed to be rather philosophical and somewhat broad-minded in the Church. We go to experts. We are right in doing so. We ought to go to experts in the study of history,--not the broad vulgar history of kings, and rival policies, and sanguinary battles; but the inner history of thought, motive, purpose, spiritual growth, and those mysterious inventions which seem to have no beginning and no ending, circumferences without visible centre, centres without measurable circumferences,--the mystery of social movement. What shall be the result of this observation: shall man see the power of God, the grandeur of God, the majesty of God? No: or through them he will see the further quality, the beauteous reality:--“ Whoso is wise, and will observe these things, even they shall understand the lovingkindness of the Lord.” The exiles shall say, He was good to us in Babylon, though we knew it not at the time. The prisoners shall say, There was not one bar too many of iron or brass in the cage that held us: we see it now. Sick men shall say, In the sick-chamber where we mourned and pined in weakness God was love. And men who have been tossed to and fro on great waters shall say, The earth is the Lord’ s and the fulness thereof, and His also is the fulness of the sea. They come out of all this tumult of experience, not saying, God is great, God is majestic, God is overwhelming: hear them; they come out of all this tragedy, agony, loss, saying, “ God is love.” (J. Parker, D.D.) . Psalms 108:1-13 Psalms 108:1-13O God, my heart is fixed.A threefold moral state of mind I. Moral fixation of soul (Psalms 108:1-6). This concentration of soul is unknown to unregenerate men. They are unsettled, divided, distracted, and therefore more or less unhappy. The verses point to two of the grand results of this moral fixedness.1. The highest happiness (verses 1, 2). All this is the language of exultation, and this exultation springs from a true decision of soul, self-unity, and concord. 2. The heartiest worship (Psalms 108:3-5). The thoughts and affections being fixed on Him who is transcendently good, beautiful, and true, worship follows as a matter of course. II. The inflation of worldly success (Psalms 108:7-9). The psalm (Psalms 60:1-12) from which these verses are taken is a war song in anticipation of victory. The warrior is flushed by the prospect of triumph over his enemies, and looks down upon them with a heartless contempt. The tendency of worldly success is to make men supercilious and heartless; men who have won great success in any department of life, be it in war, commerce, or learning, have ever been disposed to look with contempt on those not so distinguished. The haughtiness of some is not only the most vile but the most pernicious state of mind. “ Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.” III. Consciousness of utter dependence (Psalms 108:10-13). This state of mind,--viz. a conscious dependence on God is right, for there is no creature more dependent than man,--lies at the foundation of our personal religion, for without it there is no looking to God, no prayer, no thanksgiving. (Homilist.) Psalms 108:4 For Thy mercy is great above the heavens, and Thy truth reacheth unto the clouds. God’ s mercy above the heavens I. The ideas involved in this representation.1. Its lofty conspicuousness. (1) It is clearly expounded in the Word of God, which every one may read in his own tongue. (2) It is openly proclaimed by the ministers of God, who are commanded to preach it everywhere. (3) It is pre-eminent in the earth, as actually attracting the attention of mankind, even among the wisest and most advanced nations. 2. Its wide embrace. The heavens encompass and enclose all the earth. So that the people at the antipodes see the same sun and moon and stars that we see. What an emblem of the comprehensiveness of the Gospel! 3. The almighty sovereignty. The heavens rule the earth physically: so God’ s mercy governs all the events of mankind. His dominion, through Christ, rules everything in the Church, and subordinates everything in the world. Think of His benign character, His holy law, His gracious purposes: and then see how He can abase the proud, reward the wicked, avenge the just. 4. Its settled stability. Christ reigns on high, and maintains His majesty and state, undisturbed by worldly tumults, darknesses, and changes. II. How to be contemplated.1. With ardent admiration, delight, and confidence. 2. With cheerful submission. 3. With watchful care to please God: for He is over us everywhere. 4. With hope as to the future: for He must bring final victory to the good and true, and reign till all foes are under His feet. (Anon.) The immensity of mercy I. The moral character and number of its objects. II. The grand purpose of its operations. Why does it exercise itself towards this universe of sinners? In one word--to restore them to the image, the friendship, and the blessedness of God. III. The extraordinary means it employs.1. The gift of Christ.2. The preaching of the Gospel.3. The ministry of Providence.4. The agency of the Spirit. IV. The countless multitudes it has saved. John in his day beheld multitudes which no man could number, etc. V. The exhaustless provisions which remain.1. Equal to the emergency of the greatest sinner. Magdalene, the thief, Saul, the sinners on the day of Pentecost, etc.2. Equal to the emergency of all the sinners that will ever be. (Homilist.) Psalms 108:12 Give us help from trouble: for vain is the help of man. Help in trouble I. A very common experience. “ Trouble.”1. Bodily.2. Family.3. Church.4. Heath. II. A very certain resource. Betaking ourselves to God in prayer.1. The resource itself. God. He knows all our troubles. He is ever graciously disposed to help and comfort His people. 2. How the resource is available. By prayer. It may be very short--a mere fragment. But it must be the prayer of conscious need, and of believing supplication. III. A very evident truth. “ For vain is the help of man.” Good men may give us wise counsel, and they may sympathize sincerely and tenderly, and they may pray for us, and thus be instrumental of good to our souls; but they can neither sustain us in trouble, nor sanctify our sorrows, nor deliver us out of our afflictions.1. They cannot control our circumstances. But God can; He alone disposes of the conditions of men--raiseth up, or casteth down--enriches, or impoverishes--sends prosperity, or adversity--joy, or grief. 2. They cannot drive back our enemies. Either those in the world, or our spiritual ones; but God can; He can enable us effectually to resist both, and to triumph over them. 3. They cannot turn our afflictions into a blessing. But God can; He is able “ out of the eater to bring forth meat, and out of the strong to bring forth sweetness.” 4. They cannot deliver us from our troubles. Look at Abraham on the mount with Isaac! Jacob meeting Esau! Israelites on way to Red Seal Daniel in den of lions! Hebrews in the fiery furnace! Peter in prison--Paul in the stocks! In all these cases vain would have been the skill and power of man; but God did deliver each and all of them; and He will deliver those who pub their trust in Him. (J. Burns, D. D.) Human help is of no avail About twenty years ago a fisherman on the way to his boat met his little boy, who pleaded with him to be taken on the little voyage across to the neighbouring island. The fisherman looked at the waves; they had begun to pub on their white caps of wrath, and the swell of the sea had commenced, and he hesitated; but at last he allowed his boy to go. All seemed well in the smack, till half way across a sudden squall caught the canvas and flung the father and his assistant into the deep. They caught hold of the rope that attached the little boat behind the smack, and climbed in and were saved. Looking back, they saw the smack on her beam end, filling rapidly, and a pale, white little face, the face of the little boy at the cabin window. He had been sent down below when the squall had come. The father, in desperation, flung himself on the sinking smack. One blow of his strong fist shattered the window, and the little face there still looked out, but he cannot escape: what could the father do? The window is too small. The man was nearly demented; he tried to tear the beams from the sinking vessel, but they were too strong; and the little boy, in his homely Scotch, said, “ Daddy, save me, help me.” Deeper and deeper, the smack turned on her side; and the tears streamed down the little white face, and down the face of the despairing father. At last he cried, “ God help thee, my laddie, I canna.” Down went the smack, with a gurgle and a foaming bubble, and that was all. That father never went to sea again. Twenty years passed, and on his death-bed it was the same cry, “ God help thee, my laddie, I canna.” Dear soul, you are in greater danger than that little fisher-lad. You’ re sinking! God help you, you immortal soul, you’ re sinking; and I cannot help you, your father can’ t, your mother can’ t. God help thee (J. Robertson.) . Psalms 108:13 Through God we shall do valiantly. Assurance of the Church’ s victory 1. Whatsoever may be the variety of the exercises of faith, victory and triumph shall close the war, and crown the wrestler. 2. Albeit the means be nothing but vanity without God, yet they must be used, for they are something when they are used by us, and put in God’ s hand. 3. What the Lord doth by the believer as His servant, or by any other instrument, God must have the glory of it. 4. The faith of the Church’ s victory over her enemies is grounded upon God’ s engaging in the war for the Church, and against our enemies. (D. Dickson.) Faith’ s impossible feats We need the courage of those ancient soldiers who were wont to regard difficulties only as whetstones upon which to sharpen their swords. I like Alexander’ s balk--when they said there were so many thousands, so many millions, perhaps, of Persians. “ Very well,” said he, “ it is good reaping where the corn is thick. One butcher is not afraid of a thousand sheep.” I like even the talk of the old Gascon who said, when they asked him, “ Can you and your troops get into that fortress? it is impregnable.” “ Can the sun enter in?” said he. “ Yes.” “ Well, where the sun can go we will enter.” Whatever is possible, or whatever is impossible, Christians can do at God’ s command, for God is with us. (C. H. Spurgeon.) . Psalms 109:1-31 Psalms 109:1-31 Hold not Thy peace, O God of my praise.A song of imprecation I. The misdeeds of the wicked (Psalms 109:1-5). II. The imprecation of wrath (verses 6-20). III. The cry for mercy (Psalms 109:21-25). “ The thunder and lightning are now followed by deep, sorrowful complaint like a flood of tears.” IV. The display of the Divine righteousness (Psalms 109:26-31). In this concluding strophe the cry for help is renewed, together with a confident assurance of being answered. The suppliant asks relief in such way as to show that it came from God’ s own hand. God’ s blessing is set in sharp contrast with men’ s cursing. The efforts of the ungodly shall end in disappointment and shame, but the Lord’ s servant will only rejoice. This deliverance will call forth his thanks, which will not be private, but expressed in the presence of a multitude. (T. W. Chambers, D. D.) Psalms 109:4 But I give myself unto prayer. The universal suitability of prayer This is the great resource of God’ s children. Observe the disjunctive particle “ but” with which the text begins. Let others do this or that (he would say), “ but I give myself unto prayer,” or, as it stands in the original, But I--prayer; as though he meant to imply that prayer was everything to him;--I have no other resource, and I need none. What shall we do, asks the pious parent, to secure our children, who will soon be beyond the control of parental authority, and will have to encounter the snares of a world which “ lieth in wickedness” ? Give yourselves unto prayer. Let us take another case; namely, the feelings and anxieties of the junior touching the senior members of the household. Here I desire to speak a word in favour of family prayer. Give yourselves unto prayer, as Abraham did, who wherever he went, “ there he builded an altar unto the Lord, and called upon the name of the Lord.” The opening of the new year calls for a review of the past, and that review is fraught with matter for humiliation. Be humbled: yet let not humiliation take the gloomy and unbelieving character of despondency. And in order to prevent this, give yourself unto prayer. (T. E. Hankinson, M.A.) Constancy in prayer When a pump is frequently used, but little pains are necessary to have water; the water pours out at the first stroke, because it is high. But if the pump has not been used for a long time, the water gets low, and when you want it you must pump a long while, and the water comes only after great effort. It is so with prayer; if we are instant in prayer, every little circumstance awakens the disposition to pray, and desires and words are always ready. But if we neglect prayer it is difficult for us to pray, for the water in the well gets low. (Felix Neff.) Psalms 109:5 They have rewarded me evil for good. Evil for good Florence, when dominated by the preaching of Savonarola, became transformed; high-born ladies threw aside their jewels and finery, men turned from evil ways into sobriety, the churches were crowded with all classes of the people, from nobles to peasants; the very children were turned into instruments of the good work, going through the streets in procession, singing hymns and collecting money for the poor--and then the tide turned, and, when Savonarola was in the crisis of his struggle with the pope, almost the whole city was against him; a mob attacked his convent of San Marco; and the great friar went to his martyrdom, with the sorer martyrdom of his heart at the thought that all his work was overturned. (Hugh Black.) Psalms 109:8 Let his days be few; and let another take his office. The outcast’ s place filled (for St. Matthias’ Day):--The words in themselves sound simple enough; they might seem to speak of no more than all human beings must undergo, by the necessity of their mortal nature. All our days are few: they are but as grass, they are gone almost before we can count them. All our places, stations, and offices, whatever they may be, must soon pass away from us, and another take them in our place. But this, the common lot of all, is here turned into a fearful and peculiar curse, for those who slight high privileges, and betray sacred trusts. The instance of Judas is a very plain one, for showing forth the dealings of God’ s providence in this respect. His short life as an apostle would have been a blessing, had he been such as St. James, the first of the twelve who came to his great reward: he would have departed, and been with Christ so much the sooner. But as it was, what judgment could be more fearful? Thus his days were signally cut short; and as to another taking his office, St. Peter reminded the disciples that the Scriptures concerning him were of course to be fulfilled, especially two which he specified: “ Let his habitation be desolate, and let no man dwell therein;” and, “ His bishopric let another take.” Now, it is a serious thought for us all, If Judas Iscariot, who, favoured as he was, had never received the Holy Ghost; if the Jewish people, whose highest privileges were but a shadow of what we receive in Baptism,--if they had their days cut off by so dreadful a sentence, and their place in God’ s world given over to others: what are Christians, what are Christian pastors to expect, should they prove, after all, unclean and unworthy? The nearer Christ has called us to Himself, the more dangerous surely are the first beginnings and whispers of sin; and the nearer we have ventured to approach, the greater advantage have we given to Satan, except we tried in earnest to purify our hearts and desires. No doubt, St. Matthias himself may have had trembling thoughts like these, wherewith to keep himself lowly and humble, when he was called to so great an honour, so high a place in the Church. What must have been the new apostle’ s thoughts, when he was thus put in mind of Judas’ s place! How earnestly must he have prayed in his secret heart, that such place, or a worse, might never be his own! I say a worse; for must it not be worse for those who, besides Judas’ s other privileges, have also that which is above all, union with Christ by His Holy Spirit, and yet fall away as Judas did? That privilege Matthias received within a few days, when the Holy Ghost came down upon the assembled apostles, and he never forfeited its; he went on glorifying God as an apostle, until he was permitted to glorify Him as a martyr. Or how can a sinner ever be thankful enough that it is not yet over with him; that he has still time, he knows not how much, to humble and punish himself heartily for his great imperfection and unworthiness; to watch and break himself of all beginnings of sin; to subdue the flesh to the Spirit; in all things; to acquaint himself with God in all the ways of His Church; to fear always; and to be more faithful and true in every part of his calling towards God and man? (Plain Sermons by contributors to the “ Tracts for the Times.”) The Apostleship of St. Matthias There is a fearful light, as it were, around the Apostleship of Matthias. We cannot think of him without recalling his memory who went before. Surely, we imagine, he must have gone about the work of an apostle With a fear and trembling which even Peter never knew.1. It is remarkable that the sin of Judas was amongst those particulars of the life and sorrows of the Saviour of the world which were not obscurely predicted in the Old Testament. He was placed upon his trial; a certain position given him, a position of vast privileges. These Scriptures were amongst the means vouchsafed to enable him to maintain his station in the spiritual world, and finish the work given him to do. Now, the state of Judas thus viewed is a very correct type of our own. Consider for a moment the Christian Church itself. It stands indeed to the Jewish race, as Matthias to Iscariot. The Israelites were the first called to be God’ s special servants; to them was the commission given to keep alive the remembrance of His name, to make His praise to be glorious. They betrayed the trust; they adhered not to His worship; they gave His honour to another; they stoned His prophets; they rejected His Son! And then went forth the decree, “ Let their days be few, and let another take their office.” There is a voice from the past to the present, from the old Israel to the new, which bids us not be high minded, but fear, as those who fill a traitor’ s place. And when we extend our thoughts from the Christian Church to the whole human race, we find the same to hold good. There is much to confirm the idea, that the creation of man had its origin in the fall of Satan and his angels. Before us is now placed the choice which ages ago was given to Satan and his legions--the choice whether in sincerity and truth we will be the servants of the Son of God. We are on our trial now, as they were before the pillars of the earth were set up; but with this advantage, that like Judas, who sinned after their manner, we have warnings against the consequences of rebellion. He with the example of their sin and punishment, fell into the same sin, viz. the disowning the Only Begotten. We, with his example also, are called to stand where they stood, and exhibit the obedience which they withheld. 2. But there are deducible from the foregoing remarks, certain truths touching our relation to God. (1) For example, we learn in a most striking manner from what has been advanced, the sureness with which God’ s will is accomplished, sooner or later. God has no need of our services; He requires not our obedience; our very sins help on His designs. If we are obedient, He will work through us; if disobedient, He equally bends us to His purpose; or it may be, blots us out of the book of the living, and calls others into existence to do that which we refused; and all without the least pause in the majestic march of His providence. If we resist, it costs Him nothing to say, “ Let another take His office.” (2) Again, we cannot but press upon you the wonderful uniformity of the test to which God has subjected all His creatures; the test is simply, loyalty to the Only Begotten Son. There are but two kingdoms, the kingdom of light and the kingdom of darkness; but two monarchs, the Lord Jesus, upon the right hand of the Father, and the outcast archangel, in the fiery abyss. And all choice between good and evil, right and wrong, is a choice between these. (Bishop Wood ford.) Psalms 109:21 But do Thou for me, O God the Lord, for Thy name’ s sake.An exemplary prayer I. It is true in its direction. It is addressed to “ God the Lord.” There is but One all-suffering Being to whom we can address our prayers. Think what is requisite to be able to answer prayer at all times--infinite intelligence, unlimited goodness, universal sovereignty, etc. The petition of the psalmist indicates his belief that he was approaching such a Being. If he could but secure the help of God he would leave everything else to Him. II. It is personal in its aim. “ Do Thou for me.” Man’ s first business is to secure the blessing of God for himself. We should not keep the vineyard of another and neglect our own. We should not attempt to lead ethers unto Jesus Christ until we know Him as our own Saviour. This is not selfish, but benevolent. III. It is submissive in its spirit. The wise and good man leaves the means and the manner of blessing to God. He leaves the time also to God. This submission is both wise and pious. IV. It is powerful in its plea. “ For Thy name’ s sake.” The name represents the character of God. The honour of the Divine name is bound up with His treatment of His people. If any one trusting in God were to perish, the glory of His name would be sullied. Such a plea--1. Implies great faith in God on the part of Him who urges it. 2. Honours God by the exalted conception of His character which it implies. 3. Prevails with God. The man who honours God by believing greatly in Him is mighty with God in prayer. (W. Jones.) The Christian’ s prayer I. General remarks.1. The petition may be considered as addressed with equal propriety to each of the Persons in the Godhead, who are the joint objects of religious worship, possessed of the same adorable perfections, and equally concerned in carrying on the work, and conveying the blessings of salvation. 2. Though the good man may and should pray for others, yet he is and ought to be principally concerned for himself. “ Do Thou for me” ; for my body, for my soul, especially the latter. Begin Thy work there in conviction and conversion, carry it on in progressive sanctification, and perfect it in eternal glory. “ Say unto my soul, I am thy salvation.” 3. The good man desires that what God does may be for him, and not against him; that He would deal by him as a friend, and not as an enemy. 4. When we desire that God should “ do for us,” it is proper that we should leave the way and manner entirely to Him. II. What is implied.1. Do that for me which I cannot do for myself. Reduce my wandering heart, direct my feeble steps, teach me both the way in which Thou walkest towards me, and the way in which I ought to walk toward Thee, the way of duty and of peace. 2. Do that for me which no one else either can or will do. They cannot restore case to a distempered body, nor comfort to a discontented mind; cannot reprieve one moment from the demands of death, nor disarm it of its terrors. 3. Do that for me which Thou knowest to be necessary, and without which I must be undone for ever. 4. Do all that for me which Thou hast appointed and promised, and whereby Thou mayest be glorified. In all our prayers it becomes us to have an eye to (1) The Divine appointments: for if our petitions do not refer to them, and are not regulated by them, they are not likely to meet with acceptance, nor to procure a blessing.(2) The Divine promises.(3) The Divine glory. III. Improvement.1. The prayer of the psalmist will apply not only to a state of prosperity, but adversity; not only to God’ s merciful dispensations, but also to those which are afflictive. “ Do Thou for me,” in wounding as well as healing, in casting down as well as lifting up. 2. The petition is suitable for those who have most to do for God, or their fellow-creatures; such as magistrates, ministers, masters of families and others. There are also peculiar seasons to which it is especially suited; when our path is intricate, and our work difficult, either in the morning of the Sabbath, or in the near approach of death. 3. It is likewise necessary at all seasons, and for all sorts of persons. (B. Beddome, M.A.) All of grace Sir James Simpson, the doctor-saint, was waiting for a train at a station, and when it drew up he saw a poor lad, looking very ill, being conveyed by his mother home. He went in beside them into the carriage, and asked all about the boy. By and by he said to the mother, “ Your boy might be made quite well; why don’ t you take him to Dr. So-and-So? Because,” said the mother, “ I haven’ t money enough to pay the fees.” “ Well,” said the stranger, “ I am a doctor;” and then he told his name, to the poor woman’ s great surprise. “ Will you put him in my hands, and I will do what I can for him, and it shall cost you nothing?” The mother thankfully consented; her boy was carefully treated, and in a few weeks’ time returned home quite cured. The great Physician does all His cures, bestows all His blessings, and gives all His salvation, for love’ s sake. And His healing is perfect. (H. O. Mackey.) . Psalms 110:1-7 Psalms 110:1-7 The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit Thou at My right hand, until I make Thine enemies Thy footstool The King who is also Priest The title ascribes this psalm to David, which is confirmed by its internal character, its laconic energy, its martial tone, its triumphant confidence and its resemblance to other compositions of the son of Jesse. Besides this is the testimony of our Lord (Matthew 22:43; Mark 12:36; Luke 20:42). Peter at Pentecost expressly quoted it as David’ s (Acts 2:34). It is a counterpart to the second psalm, completing the prophetic picture of the conquering Messiah. The opening word of this spirited lyric indicates its peculiar character. It is the term almost always used to denote an immediate Divine utterance. The utterance here is an oracular address to David’ s Lord, i.e. the promised Anointed One on whom his and his people’ s hopes were centred. Jehovah bids this personage take His seat at His right hand, not merely as a place of honour, but as implying a participation in His power, of which the right hand is a constant symbol. This exalted position, on the same throne with Jehovah, He is to hold till His enemies are made His footstool, i.e. are completely and for ever subjugated. In the next verse the psalmist addresses the Messiah directly. He tells Him that His strong rod, His rod of discipline and correction, by which foes are to be subdued, shall be sent forth by Jehovah out of Zion, considered as His earthly residence, the seat of the theocracy; thus showing clearly that Jehovah acts not only for Him, but in and through Him, for the overthrow of His enemies. Hence, the poet calls on Him to take the dominion and rule, even though hostile powers surround Him and threaten His dethronement. These will prove no obstacle, nor can there be a doubt of the result. The certainty of it is still further secured by the character and number of Messiah’ s followers. It is not an army of mercenaries. There is no need of a conscription; they stream toward the royal banner from every direction. They are free-will offerings. By a spontaneous movement they come to consecrate themselves to service in the day when the host is put in battle array and mustered for the onset. They come, too, not with coat of mail and battle-axe, but in holy attire, with allusion to the sacerdotal dress. They are clad in sacred vestments, because they are servants of a priestly King, and belong to “ a kingdom of priests” (Exodus 19:6). Nor are these few in number or worn with age, but in number and character and vigour resemble “ dew-drops which the sun Impearls on every leaf and every flower.” From the womb of the dawn there come in perpetual succession youthful warriors who delight to uphold the royal banner. There follows in the next verse the essential point of the whole lyric, the perpetual priesthood of Messiah united with a perpetual kingship, both secured by the oath of Jehovah Himself. This verse is made the subject of elaborate comment in Hebrews 8:1-13, the author of which dwells at length upon the oath which founded the priesthood, upon the perpetuity of the office and upon the want of hierarchical succession. Immediately after the announcement of Messiah’ s priesthood, the psalm resumes its martial tone. Before, the might of the king and the character of his army were described; now we see the conflict and the victory. The Lord--who in this case is Jehovah--stands on Messiah’ s right hand as His defender and upholder. The consequence of Jehovah’ s support is that Messiah crushes not merely ordinary men but kings, and the subjects they represent. He inflicts a mortal blow, one from which there is no recovery. In the 6th verse, by a sudden turn, Messiah is spoken of in the third person. He exercises supreme control, as judge, over nations. If they resist Him they fall in slaughtered heaps over a vast extent of country, heads or princes being overthrown with all the rest. In the closing verse David paints the Conqueror as wearied with the battle and the pursuit, but not suffered to perish through exhaustion. A brook by the way revives Him, and He passes on with uplifted head, continuing His work with new vigour, and pressing forward to a complete and final triumph. The psalm is peculiar in setting forth Messiah as a priest upon His throne. He is s real priest, one that makes atonement, intercedes and blesses, and as such meets all the needs of sinful men, because He is a King, and can give effect to His sacerdotal functions, applying the merits of His sacrifice, and actually bestowing the blessing which He pronounces. And all this for ever. Christ neither has nor needs a successor. He is an unchangeable priesthood. Again, Messiah’ s followers are like Himself, wearing holy attire--an emblem of their cause and character. It is not a kingdom of this world to which they belong, but one heavenly and divine. They wear its uniform and seek to express its spirit. Nor are they in any sense hirelings, but rather volunteers, eager to obey and glorify Him whom they call Master and Lord. Napoleon truly said, “ My armies have forgetten me even while living, but Christ has left the earth, and at this hour millions of men would die for Him.” The strength of His cause lies in the character of His followers and the fulness and freeness of their consecration. A host made of such materials cannot be overcome, for it is perpetually renewed from the womb of the dawn. Once more, the final result is sure. Messiah leads forth judgment to victory. All foes are to perish. The appurtenances of ancient warfare, captured kings and slaughtered heaps, only indicate the thoroughness of the conflict and its predetermined result. Forward the royal standards go, and the issue is not uncertain. The priestly King must reign till all enemies are made His footstool, and the whole earth acknowledges His rightful supremacy. (T. W. Chambers, D.D.) Jesus ascended and exalted In this psalm Jesus is set forth to us as-- I. King and prophet (verses 2, 8). The rod of His strength is His Word, even His preached Gospel, accompanied by the power of the Holy Spirit. II. King and priest (verse 4). Here the people of Jesus are directed to look to Him as the ground of their hope. For it is what He has done, and what He is still doing, for them as their Priest, that must ever be most important to them, as long as they are in their present imperfect and polluted state. III. King and judge (verses 5, 6; Psalms 2:9; Daniel 2:31-45; Revelation 19:11-16). (W. Hancock, M.A.) Christ sitting at the right hand of God I. His heavenly exaltation.1. Elevation.2. Power. II. The state of our world at the time when Christ was thus exalted to be its King. We are all by nature the enemies of Jesus Christ, as much alienated from Him as we are from His Father. This blessed Jesus was not hated in Jerusalem only where He was crucified, as though there was something peculiar in the men of that place--He was hated wherever He appeared; and had He gone out from Judaea and Galilee into other countries, He would have been hated there also; Rome, with all her boasted admiration of virtue, would have cried out for His destruction, and polished Greece would have cast Him away with scorn. III. The means employed by Jehovah to overcome the hostility of the world against His Son (verse 2). Has the Gospel proved itself the rod of Christ’ s strength? That something produced a mighty effect on the world soon after our Lord’ s ascension is quite certain. “ Rule Thou in the midst of Thine enemies,” says the text to Him, and in the midst of His most violent enemies Christ did rule. In the inveterate and lately infuriated Jerusalem, thousands bowed at once to His sceptre, and throughout pagan Greece and Rome His name was called on and adored. And what wrought this change? Preaching--the simple preaching of Christ’ s Gospel by a few determined, faithful men; holding up Christ on a cross to men, and bidding them look to Him and be saved. IV. The happy results of this interposition of Jehovah (verse 3). Here is a description, and a beautiful one, of all Christ’ s real people in every age of the world.1. They are a willing people. “ Willing,” we may say, “ for what?” For anything and everything which Christ desires. The language in the original is stronger than in our translation. It is “ willingness,” the noun for the adjective--a Hebrew way of expressing a thing forcibly. This people are eager to receive Christ as their Prince and Saviour; they feel it to be their delight and joy to come under His dominion. 2. This willing people are to be numerous. In the land where the Scriptures were written, the dew is much more abundant than in our country, but even here the drops of dew as they sparkle on the trees and grass, are sometimes countless. As numerous, this psalm says, shall be the people of Christ. 3. The people of Christ are to be beautiful, and beautiful because holy--“ willing in the beauties of holiness.” The drops of’ the early dew are beautiful. The rising sun not only discovers them, it brightens and gilds them, makes them the glittering ornaments in the early morning of our gardens and fields. And what were the early Christians? Their very enemies were constrained to do them honour. They hated but they admired them. As they led them forth to persecution and to death, they wondered at their lofty and splendid characters. But their graces were not their own. The dew does not sparkle when the sun does not shine on it. Even a Christian man has no beauty, no holiness, but as Christ imparts it to him. And what is his highest beauty and holiness? It is only a faint reflection of his Lord’ s beauty and holiness--a dew-drop reflecting the sun. But still that dew-drop does reflect the sun; and so does every real believer in Christ Jesus reflect in some measure his Redeemer’ s likeness. (C. Bradley, M.A.) A picture of Christ as the Moral Conqueror of mankind I. Invested with Divine authority (verse 1). Christ is represented as God manifest in the flesh, as One with God, as the beloved Son of Jehovah, as sitting down at the right hand of God, as exalted above all dominion and power, as King of kings and Lord of lords. His history when on earth confirms this illustrious distinction. How grand were the doctrines He propounded, how stupendous the miracles He wrought, how unexampled the moral character He exhibited, how unearthly and transcendent the spirit which He breathed. II. Endowed with Divine power (verse 2). This is a far mightier rod than that which Moses wielded, it is a rod that breaks rocky hearts, and makes clear for human souls the way to Canaan. III. Possessed of a splendid army (verse 3). The words suggest that His army is distinguished--1. By willingness. “ Shall be willing.” Their services will not be compulsory, they throw themselves into the spirit of the campaign. 2. By purity. “ In the beauty of holiness.” They coruscate with holiness. 3. By youthfulness. “ Thou hast the dew of Thy youth.” They are not old and worn out, they are as fresh as the dew “ from the womb of the morning.” 4. By abundance, How numerous are drops of “ dew.” Such is the army of this Hero. Such a Chieftain with such soldiers must win victories the most brilliant. IV. Invested with a priestly character (verse 4). He is a Priest by the solemn and unalterable promise of God. Melchizedek was a wonderful priest--original, final, beneficent, and royal. Christ is a Priest-King. As a Priest He is at once the Sacrifice, the Sacrificer, and the Offering. He is the Mediator, He Himself is the Atonement, the Reconciliation. V. Achieves magnificent triumphs (verses 5, 6). They are won not by force, but by love, they do not destroy or injure the conquered, but bless and save them. (Homilist.) The enemies of Christ vanquished I. The person to whom universal dominion is assigned. II. His solemn inauguration to His regal dignity (verse 1; Psalms 24:7-10). III. The enemies arrayed against His rightful claims (verse 1). How strange a collocation of words is “ enmity against God,” and God in Christ! Behold His purity, His meekness, His wisdom, His kind teachings, His generous sufferings for men; the freeness and copiousness of the blessings which He has to bestow upon all who will ask of Him; and say, is there a stigma upon human nature so deep, so dark, as this,--that it is enmity to God! IV. The means of their subjugation.1. The rod of His power. 2. Granting days of power. 3. The willing co-operation of His people. V. The glorious result (verse 3).1. Behold this beauty of holiness among the nations. Wars, oppressions, injuries, cease. The earth, tossed and swept for ages by the storms of night, is quiet, imbibes the vivifying dew of Divine influence, and catches the glory of the brightening truth of revelation. 2. Behold it in civil society; in the beautiful order and harmony of pious families; in the charity and kind offices of Christian neighbourhoods; in the reciprocal reverence and confidence of rulers and their subjects. 3. Behold it especially in the Church. There, indeed, it is eminently appropriate; for, “ holiness becometh Thine house, O Lord, for ever.” It is seen in her ministry; for her Priests are clothed with salvation,” and their “ lips keep knowledge.” In her doctrine; for the compass, the depth, the height, the harmony, of the whole system of the Gospel being understood and professed, errors and partial views are banished. In her members; those are truly elect according to the foreknowledge of God, through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth. (R Watson.) Psalms 110:2-3 The Lord shall send the rod of Thy strength out of Zion: rule Thou in the midst of Thine enemies. Messiah’ s sceptre and kingdom The kingship of Christ is a twofold kingship. It is essential and it is hereditary. The one belongs to Him as God, the other belongs to Him as Mediator. The first is founded upon the Divinity of His Person, the second upon the dignity of His work. Hence the first is eternal, the second conferred. I. The sceptre of Christ, the power which wields it, and the place of its appearing.1. The sceptre is the symbol of royalty and is of even greater antiquity than the crown. Homer speaks of it as “ that sacred rod of kings.” Christ’ s sceptre is His Gospel. It is the Word of the Lord which is powerful, a Gospel which is the power of God unto salvation, Jehovah’ s rod of strength, mighty for the pulling down of Satan’ s strongholds. 2. This sceptre is wielded by no feeble hand. To subdue the will of an alien world required an agency yet more powerful than that which created the universe and will raise the dead. Its sentiments, prejudices, habits, interests, pleasures, sins, form a positive quantity of antagonism. Hence the conversion of a soul from Satan to God is a miracle of miracles. The humanly impossible becomes the Divinely accomplished. The Holy Ghost wields the sceptre. 3. This sceptre was to appear out of Zion, and from thence by gradual conquests extend its influence over the entire earth. On Zion the apostles received their commission to preach; there they remained until power came upon them; there the first Gospel sermon was preached, and at the first swaying of this sceptre three thousand souls were added to the Lord; there the first Gospel Church was founded, almost under the shadow of the recent cross, and from thence this mystical sceptre went forth into all lands. II. The establishment of His kingdom. The psalmist describes its position and its people.1. Its position. (1) It is a position of conflict. Rule Thou in the midst of Thine enemies. In heaven He rules in the midst of friends. “ All the angels of God do worship Him.” Here His kingdom is a beleaguered kingdom. (2) It is a position of conquest. He rules. The sceptre has civilized where it has not converted men. It has quickened the conscience and entered into the life of nations. Education, liberty, philanthropy, and the sanctities of domestic life have resulted from its benign rule. (3) It is a position of continuance. The positions thrown up against it are airy fabrics. Reared by vanity, they will be overthrown by time. 2. Its people. (1) Their disposition--willing. (2) Character--holy. (3) Influence. The meaning of the similitude is that the people of Christ, full of a young and ardent vigour, should appear upon the earth in multitudinous number and fertilizing influence as the drops of dew at the dawn of day. (E. T. Carrier.) Psalms 110:3 Thy people shall be willing in the day of Thy power. Christ subdues a people to Himself The glory of a king consists in the multitude of his people. Messiah is a king, but He is described as ruling in the midst of His enemies. Has He, then, none but these over whom He is to reign--none that willingly do Him service? Was He to spend His labour in vain, His time and strength for that which profiteth nothing? No! He should see of the travail of His soul and be satisfied, and the pleasure of the Lord should prosper in His hand. Jehovah promises to Him, “ Thy people shall be willing in the day of Thy power.” I. The character and condition of Messiah’ s subjects. They are His people--1. Because they are given to Him by the Father. 2. Because they are bought with a price, even with His own precious blood. 3. Because they are created anew by His Holy Spirit, and so fitted for His service here, and for the full enjoyment of heaven hereafter. II. The prediction regarding them. They “ shall be willing.” Worldly kingdoms have often been established by violence--they rule over the body only, they govern by fear and terror. In all these respects, Christ’ s kingdom is not of this world. His people are willing to enter into His kingdom in the way of His own appointment, they are willing to obey the laws of His kingdom, and they are willing to submit to that discipline which His infinite wisdom sees meet for them. III. The time when, and the means by which, they shall be made willing. “ In the day of Thy power.” The exertion of Messiah’ s power is requisite to bring the most amiable of the human race cordially to submit to Him as their rightful Lord; and by the exertion of this power, the most hardened rebel may be transformed into a willing subject. (C. Greig, M. A.) Christ’ s triumph and our glory I. Christ’ s triumph.1. Christ triumphs through us, manifesting His power to destroy sin in the flesh, and to restore the God-like image. He works in us, enabling us to will and to do His good pleasure. 2. His triumph waits upon us. Because He lives, His people shall live for ever. 3. There will come a day when we shall be willing-- (1) To learn of Him. To receive with meekness the truth; to be taught of Him. (2) To suffer with Him. We shall be willing to humble ourselves, and sacrifice every heart’ s desire and ambition to His glory. (3) To follow Him, in going out after all the lost and erring ones. (4) To do His will, promptly and perfectly as the angels, who stand around the throne, awaiting His bidding. II. Our glory. We have a victorious Leader. Our King will come forth in the beauties of holiness. His reign will be refreshing and quickening as dew, every drop reflecting all heaven. He will lead His people gloriously, while they shout their song of triumph. Christ is also our royal priest, the mystery of His birth and succession being prefigured in the person of Melchizedek. His Word is our battle-axe, which strikes devastating blows in the ranks of the enemy. We read of the triumphal entrance of Pompey into Rome, when for two days the procession moved along the Via Sacra. At the head of the procession were carried the brazen tablets, engraven with the names of the conquered nations, the record of the wealth amassed, and the vast increase in the revenues of the empire. The captives followed the triumphal chariot, and as many trophies were displayed as there had been victories gained, either by Pompey or his officers. But how vastly more magnificent and dazzling will be the procession of the heavenly hosts of the redeemed of all nations and kindreds and people and tongues as they enter the New Jerusalem with their King of kings, to crown Him Lord of all. (J. B. Donaldson, D.D.) Soldier priests We have here the very heart of the Christian character set forth as being willing consecration; then we have the work which Christian men have to do, and the spirit in which they are to do it, expressed in that metaphor of their priestly attire; and then we have their refreshing and quickening influence upon the world. I. The subjects of the Priest-King are willing soldiers. We are all soldiers, and He only has to determine our work. We are responsible for the spirit of it, He for its success. Again, there are no mercenaries in these ranks, no pressed men. The soldiers are all volunteers. “ Thy people shall be willing.” Constrained obedience is no obedience. The word here rendered “ willing” is employed throughout the Levitical law for “ freewill offerings.” This glad submission comes from self-consecration and surrender. II. The soldiers are priests. “ The beauties of holiness” is a frequent phrase for the sacerdotal garments, the holy festal attire of the priests of the Lord. So considered, how beautifully it comes in here. The conquering King whom the psalm hymns is a Priest for ever; and He is followed by an army of priests. The soldiers are gathered in the day of the muster, with high courage and willing devotion, ready to fling away their lives; but they are clad not in mail, but in priestly robes, like those who wait before the altar rather than like those who plunge into the fight, like those who encompassed Jericho with the ark for their standard and the trumpets for all their weapons. “ The servant of the Lord must not strive.” We cannot scold nor dragoon men to love Jesus Christ. We are to be gentle, long-suffering, not doing our work with passion and self-will, but remembering that gentleness is mightiest, and that we shall best adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour when we go among men with the light caught in the inner sanctuary still irradiating our faces, and our hands full of blessings to bestow on our brethren. III. The soldier-priests are as dew upon the earth. There are two points in this last clause which may occupy us--that picture of the army as a band of youthful warriors; and that lovely emblem of the dew as applied to Christ’ s servants. As to the former--there are many other words of Scripture which carry the same thought, that he who has fellowship with God, and lives in the constant reception of the supernatural life and grace which come from Jesus Christ, possesses the secret of perpetual youth. If we live near Christ, and draw our life from Him, then we may blend the hopes of youth with the experience and memory of age; be at once calm and joyous, wise and strong, preserving the blessedness of each stage of life into that which follows, and thus at last possessing the sweetness and the good of all at once. We may not only bear fruit in old age, but have blossoms, fruit, and flowers--the varying product and adornment of every stage of life united in our characters. Then, with regard to the other point in this final clause--that emblem of the dew comes into view here, I suppose, mainly for the sake of its effect upon the earth. It is as a symbol of the refreshing which a weary world will receive from the conquests and presence of the King and His host, that they are likened to the glittering morning dew. We are meant to gladden, to adorn, to refresh this parched, prosaic world, with a freshness brought from the chambers of the sunrise. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) A willing people and an immutable Leader I. A promise made to Christ’ s people. Here is a promise of time: “ in the day of Thy power.” Here is a promise of people: “ Thy people.” Here is a promise of disposition: “ Thy people shall be willing.” Here is a promise of character: “ Thy people shall be willing in the beauties of holiness.” And here is a majestic figure to show the manner in which they shall be brought forth. By a very bold metaphor, they are said to come out as mysteriously as the dew-drops from the womb of the morning. We know not how, but they are produced by God. Philosophy has laboured to discover the origin of dew, and perhaps has guessed it; but to the Eastern, one of the greatest riddles was, out of whose womb came the dew? Who is the mother of those pearly drops? Now, so will God’ s people come mysteriously. It will be said by the bystander, “ There was nothing in that man’ s preaching; I thought I should hear an orator; this man has been made the means of salvation to thousands, and I thought I should hear an eloquent man, but I have heard a great many preachers far more intelligent and intellectual than he; how were these souls converted?” Why, they have come from the womb of the morning, mysterously. Again, the dew-drops--who made them? God speaks; He whispers in the ears of nature, and it weeps for joy at the glad news that the morning is coming. That is how God’ s people shall be saved; they come forth from the “ womb of the morning” divinely called, divinely brought, divinely blessed, divinely numbered, divinely scattered over the entire surface of the globe, divinely refreshing to the world, they proceed from the “ womb of the morning.” II. A promise made to Christ. “ Thou hast the dew of Thy youth.” Ah! believer, this is the great source of Gospel success, that Christ has the dew of His youth. Jesus Christ, personally, has the dew of His youth. Certain leaders in their young days have led their troops to battle, and by the loudness of their voice, and the strength of their bodies, they have inspired their men with courage; but the old warrior hath his hair sown with grey; he begins to be decrepit, and no longer can lead men to battle. It is not so with Jesus Christ. He has still the dew of His youth. The same Christ who led His troops to battle in His early youth leads them now. The arm which smote the sinner with His Word smites now; it is as unpalsied as it was before. The eye which looked upon His friends with gladness, and upon his foemen with a glance most stern and high--that same eye is regarding us now, undimmed, like that of Moses. He has the dew of His youth. So also doctrinally, Christ hath the dew of His youth. Usually, when a religion starts it is very rampant, but it afterwards decays. Look at the religion of Mahommed. For one hundred years or more it threatened to subvert kingdoms, and overturn the whole world, but where are the blades that flashed then? Where are now the willing hands that smote down the foes of Mahommed? Why, his religion has become an old worn-out thing; no one cares about it; and the Turk, sitting on his divan, with his legs crossed, smoking his pipe, is the best image of the Mahommedan religion--old, infirm, effete. But the Christian religion,--ah, it is as fresh as when it shafted from its cradle at Jerusalem; it is as hale, and hearty, and mighty, as when Paul preached it at Athens, or Peter at Jerusalem. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Christ’ s people, a willing people There is here--1. Something supposed. Namely, that Christ hath a people in the world where He erects His standard, that He hath a special relation to, and interest in. “ Thy people,” even His people (Matthew 1:21). He hath bought them with His blood (John 10:15). It is supposed also, that He finds these unwilling to submit to Him, as well as the rest of the world. The corruption of the will is common to them with others. 2. Something ensured to the Mediator, respecting this people of His; namely, that these unwilling people shall be willing, Hebrew, “ willingnesses” ; which imports that they shall submit to Him, and give away themselves to Him; acknowledge the right which Christ hath to them, and be His people by their own consent (Isaiah 49:18; Isaiah 55:5). 3. The time when, and the way how this shall be done. “ In the day of Thy power.” That is, in a day of the Gospel’ s coming with power. “ For the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation.” I. That corruption of the will, with which Christ finds His people, as well as others, possessed.1. There is a weakness in their will; they cannot will what is spiritually good and acceptable to God. 2. An aversion to good. 3. A proneness to evil, a woful bent of the will carrying it to sin. 4. A contrariety in the will, to the will of God. 5. Contumacy: the will is wilful or obstinate in evil. II. The willingness of the soul submitting to Christ. What makes the change? They are made, they do not make themselves willing. The Lord changes their wills, takes away the evil qualities of their will, and gives new qualities.1. They are willing to part with sin. 2. They are willing to go out of themselves; to cast off all confidence in their attainments and duties; to come to Christ empty, with nothing in them or on them to recommend them to Him but misery. 3. They are willing to take Christ as their Saviour, and to submit to His righteousness. 4. They are willing to take on the yoke of Christ’ s commandments. 5. Willing to bear Christ’ s Cross, to cleave to Him and His ways, and to follow Him through fire and water. 6. Willing to go away with Christ, for altogether, home to His Father’ s house. III. The day of power.1. Though the Gospel may be long preached unto a people, yet there are some special seasons that may be looked on as days of power. Days when the Gospel is new to a people, days of persecution, days when there is a spirit of prayer poured out, and times of sealing ordinances, these are more likely than others to be days of power. 2. There is an appointed time for the inbringing of all the elect of God, and that is the particular day of power to them. 3. A dark night usually goes before this day of power. 4. Whenever this day of power comes, the soul is made willing, the fort of the heart is taken, and the King of glory enters in state, turns out the old inhabitants, and puts in new. (T. Boston, D.D.) The necessity and claims of the missionary enterprise I. The nature of the work itself. The Gospel is just a voice from heaven calling on the Church to evangelize the world. II. The necessity of this work. Ill. The prospects of this work. IV. The relation in which Christians stand to this work. (D. Young.) The willingness of God’ s people I. God has a people in the world, and there never was a period when He had not. II. There is a day of His power that shall pass on them for their regeneration and conversion.1. It is a day, not a natural day of twenty-four hours, that is interrupted by night, but I conceive it means three things-- (1) A period destined for the conversion of His people,(2) A period perfectly clear to God,(3) A period limited to time. 2. It is the day of His power. To the perishing sinner the Gospel comes, “ not in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance.” It is an arresting power; it meets the sinner, and stays his mad career, as in the case of Saul of Tarsus. It is a convincing power; it teaches the sinner that he is ruined in every respect, and leads him to cry out, “ What shall I do to be saved?” It is a life-giving power; it quickens dead souls, and will eventually bring the dead bodies from their graves. III. The result; that they shall be brought to Him, made willing to part with all things, and to be His voluntary subjects and followers in the world. The power of God does not do away with the liberty of the will, nor does the liberty of the will render unnecessary the exercise of the power of God. (J. Jones.) The law of least resistance I. The day of Christ’ s power. The day of our Lord’ s power was the day when, like Samson, He burst the green withes of death, and carried the gates of the grave up the hill of God. The day of His power was proclaimed to all the world when He ascended up on high and sat down at the right hand of God; and the day of Pentecost witnessed, by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the assembled thousands, that, the work of Christ was finished and accepted, and had achieved all the mighty results for which it was undertaken. Ever since then, the day of Christ’ s power has continued. All power on earth and in heaven has been given to Him for the purpose of carrying on His mediatorial work. II. The willingness of the people in the day of the Lord’ s power. What a world of meaning is there in that word “ willing” ! It denotes the condition of one who offers the least resistance to the saving power of Jesus, and in whom, therefore, that power finds it easiest to work and to carry on its gracious purposes. Such a person has no self-will, giving it freely up to be moulded by the Divine will; willing to give up all--to give first the heart and then the life, a living sacrifice.. Such a person is not compelled by law, but impelled by love. “ Not my will, but Thine be done,” is his rule not only in regard to the salvation of his soul, but also in regard to all the duties and relations of life. Christ will bless such an one up to the fulness of His own loving heart, because there is nothing in his heart to prevent it. III. What will the day of power do for them? It will adorn them with the beauty of holiness, and it will renew their youth. The will of God is our sanctification. The dearest wish of His heart is that the fair image in which He created us, and which we have marred by our sin, should be restored. He wishes us to place ourselves unreservedly in His hands, that He may create us anew in Christ Jesus. The glory of the Godhead shines in Him who assumed our nature; and all power is given to Him in order that He may make us conformable to His image. Who would not accept a king to reign over them who could thus make them what they were meant to be--sons of God and heirs of heaven; who could fulfil here and hereafter, to the fullest extent, their prayer, “ Let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us” ? But, besides the beauties of holiness, perpetual youthfulness is also what the grace of Christ will produce in those who are willing in the day of His power. In His service the dew of their youth, the brightness of life’ s morning, will be ever upon them. He who has the power of an endless life, who is the same yesterday, today, and for ever, will renew their strength from day to day from the fountainhead of His own strength. Eternal life is eternal youth; and He who takes away the old nature of sin and gives the new nature of grace, with it makes all things new. (H. Macmillan, D.D.) The increase of the Messiah’ s kingdom prophetically anticipated I. The prospect which the text affords.1. Its nature. Light pours in upon his understanding--Divine influence renews his heart. The kingdom of God is within him, and he is swayed by the sceptre of redeeming love. 2. Its effects. True holiness is, in strict propriety of expression, the holiness of truth--it is excellence of character, produced by excellence of principle. Its moral influence is Divinely designed to be, and actually has been in every age, for the healing of the nations. 3. Its extent. The subjects of the Redeemer’ s kingdom shall be numerous as the drops of morning dew, which sparkle upon the grass in countless profusion when the day breaks, and the glory of the rising sun is poured over the earth. Sinners of every class will perceive so much beauty and evidence in Divine truth, that they will have no more power to resist its illumination, to elude its force, and to remain longer in subjection to their errors, their vices, and their prejudices. II. The certainty of its accomplishment.1. The immutability of Jehovah’ s counsel. 2. The perfection of the Redeemer’ s atonement. 3. The invincibility of Divine grace. (W. Hutchings.) The Gospel dispensation one of power I. Look at its extent. Superstitions the most powerful and beloved,--systems of philosophy the most specious and plausible,--opinions which are congenial to the human heart, and have been entertained for ages,--and habits, strengthened not merely by personal indulgence, but by the influence of the most remote antiquity,--all give way before the Cross. Conversion of the most degraded and ignorant tribes takes place,--the change effected, and the contrast furnished by it, being more visible, and, therefore, more impressive than former dispensations have witnessed. And the most glorious displays are yet future. The close of this day of power is to be most excessive in its brightness,--at eventide there is to be the purest and the fullest light. II. The production and increase of piety in men’ s souls is more natural to this dispensation than the preceding ones. What was made known under them is not to be compared with what has been made known since, for explicitness and fulness. III. It is the dispensation of the Spirit. He is the official agent in the conversion and sanctification of men. (A. J. Morris.) When God marshals His forces The word rendered “ power” has the same ambiguity which that word has in the English of the date of our translation, and for a century later, as you may find in Shakespeare and Milton, who both used it in the sense of “ army.” We do not employ “ powers” in that meaning, but we do another word which means the same thing, and talk of “ forces,” meaning thereby “ troops.” “ The day of thy power” is not a mere synonym for “ the time of thy might,” but means specifically “ the day of thine army” ; that is, the day when thou dost muster thy forces, and set them in array for the war. The King is going forth to conquest. (A. Maclaren, D.D.) In the beauties of holiness. The excellence of Christian morality The words of the text evidently describe the subjects of the Messiah They illustrate the most distinguishing features of their character and principles. They display the predicted, expected, and now realized superiority of the morality of the Gospel. I. Its principles. Strictly speaking, religion and true morality are in substance the same. In the Scriptures, the application of religion to practice is expressed by the term “ holiness,” and the maturity or perfection of its principles, appearing in the demeanour and actions of men, is elegantly called “ the beauties of holiness.” Religion refuses not the aid of reason, when unsophisticated; of the moral sense, when enlightened; or of the eternal distinctions of things, when rightly understood. Nay, religion requires, employs, and retains them all in her service. But above these she exalts, as her peculiar principles of morality.1. The authority of an all-perfect Being. 2. The operation of faith. True faith is the offspring of light, and the parent of purity. It originates in knowledge and in reason. It is cherished by inquiry and research. It is perfected in the free and full assent of the will, communicated by the Spirit of God, when men are “ made willing in the day of His power.” 3. Supreme love to God. 4. To live to the glory of God. II. Its extent. Social and relative duties are unquestionably of high importance in morality, and politicians and legislators will ever regard them as the most valuable part of religion, because they are most immediately conducive to the external peace and order of states. But shall philosophers, admirers of wisdom, and students of virtue, pious and aspiring inquirers, extend no farther their conceptions of morality? Let persons of this character prosecute their researches with candour and fidelity, and in the Scriptures of truth they shall soon attain to many new and elevating discoveries. In that sacred volume, does not the great God and our Saviour demand assent, not merely to the common position, that He exists, but require that the conviction of His perfections and presence should affect all our actions? Does He not reveal, not merely His counsels, but challenge an active and universal obedience to His will? Does He not claim, not merely respect for His laws, but zeal for His glory? not merely the homage of the body, but fervour of the spirit in serving Him; not merely submission, but confidence; not merely gratitude, but joy; not merely hope, but assurance; not merely desire, but delight in His communion? III. Its efficacy. The Gospel is, in more respects than one, like the principle of light to which it has been so justly compared. It may be distorted by a false medium, or obscured by the intervention of clouds, yet still it assists vision, still it may be beneficial, still it is light, and preferable, in every case, to darkness. Or it is like the element of heat, which, even though unseen, may latently support and invigorate life. Thus even the worst corruptions of the Christian religion have not utterly extinguished its beneficial tendency. To what but the influence of the Gospel is Europe indebted for her boasted superiority of civilization? What has exalted the whole female sex to respectability, to deference and to love? Without a question it was Christianity. What has mitigated the horrors of war, civilized the manners of nations, attempered the power of the great, and exalted the condition of the poor? It was the same cause. And no system of philosophy, before its appearance, ever produced any similar effects, or ever even attempted such designs. IV. Its consequences.1. Exemption from the power of sin and the practice of vice (Romans 6:14; John 8:36). 2. A willing mind in the performance of every duty, with its attendant satisfaction and delight, follows this exemption from the dominion of sin. 3. The evidence thus established, that we are in a state of grace and acceptance with God, is a new consequence and fruit of this invaluable morality. Upon no other presumption can the persuasion of this opinion be founded, than the evidence of our conformity to the standards and precepts of the Gospel, the palpable and genuine proof that we are actually redeemed from sin, exempted from its dominion, habituated to holiness, active in virtue, and made willing in a favoured time of power. 4. The true enjoyment of life results from these principles. Without them all is dark, cheerless, and uncertain. With their support, all is light, joyous, and secure. 5. How delightful a talk would it be to describe the peculiar resources in affliction, which flow from these principles, and the triumph in the arms of death, to which they lead! 6. The preparation for heaven, which they confer, the anticipation of its joys, and consequently the proof of its assured existence, which they afford, is their last and most important consequence. (W. Bennet.) The secret of moral beauty If you would make your life truly graceful, truly beautiful, you must go back to conscience, principle, conviction; there must be within you reality, a true godliness and a true consecration to God and to man. You often meet with people whose beauty disappoints you--I mean their moral beauty. They are excellent people, charming people, but somehow or other you are not satisfied with them. What is the matter? There is more amiability than energy. You never like to speak discouragingly about nice people, because there are so few of them; but really some people who are exceedingly amiable are exceedingly unsatisfying. What is the matter with them? It is this--lack of depth, reality, force. They have got more graciousness than they have grit. They make a great many gracious concessions that at last question their conscientiousness. They have a supply of amiability about them that makes you suspect a flabbiness within. No amiability is really satisfactory to men except as it springs from deep, radical, organic conscientiousness, conviction, and devotion. To see lilywork upon a pillar is admirable, but frosted work on a bride-cake is another thing altogether. And I say to you that if you would make your character as you are anxious to make it--graceful, noble, beautiful--there is no way for you but to go back to the roots and foundations of life. If you wish to make yourself right, I say to you: Don’ t paint your face; see to it that there is health in the central organs. Don’ t revise your etiquette; see to it that you are transformed in the spirit of your mind. Out of the heart are the issues of life, and out of the love of God and the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit spring at last the real majesty and sweetness of human character. (W. L. Watkinson.) Thou hast the dew of thy youth.-- The youth of Godhead Everything young and fresh, everything bright and smiling, everything buoyant and happy, may be traced to the perpetual youth of Godhead, which streams forth for ever and ever, impregnating all receptive souls and substances with its own quality; and it is owing to the unchangeable youth of the Son of God, that every new-born babe, after thousands of years, preserves the freshness and the beauteous innocence of the first-born child of Adam. The fulness of life which rises and dances in every young heart, and the living sunbeams which play upon the face of youth, are from the same one and only eternal source. And after myriads of springtimes in myriads of planets, each succeeding spring is as fresh and full of young vigour and beauty as were the springs before the flood. Every babe, and every spring, and every new morning, are world-types of the everlasting youth of our God. There is no light like the early morning light, there is no air like the early morning air, there is no water like the dew of early morning, and when do the birds sing as they sing in the opening day? Every morning is a new sermon on the youth of Jesus. And the new life that rises with us in the morning, after our nightly death in sleep, is a daily demonstration that life continues young and fresh in its fountain-head. (John Pulsford.) The dew of Christ’ s youth I. Christ has the dew of His youth.1. Let me speak first of Christ personally; has He not all the freshness, all the vigour, all the strength of ancient times? 2. It is the same if you think of Him as revealed in His doctrine. The Gospel is always fresh. 3. Our text is also specially true of Christ as revealed in the Bible. There are many other valuable books that have been written; but, as a rule, however valuable they may be, when you have read them half-a-dozen times, you may be quite satisfied that you need not read them any more. You can get to the bottom of all other books; you dive into them, and at first they seem to be very deep; but every time you plunge, they appear to get shallower and shallower, until at last you can see the bottom at a glance. But in God’ s Word, every time you dive, the depths grow deeper. 4. Everything that has to do with Christ is always young. Everything lives where He is; for He is life, and in Him there is no death at all; and because lie is life, He is always full of freshness, and therefore doth He scatter living force wheresoever He goeth. II. What is the reason for this freshness?1. No man, who understands what it is to have Christ in his heart, will ever get tired of Him through want of variety. You may look at Christ a thousand times, and you shall have, if you please, a thousand different aspects of His beauty. 2. Christ has the dew of His youth because of His excellence. Ah, you thought Christ was sweet when first you tasted Him; but you will know Him to be sweeter still when you know more of Him, and taste and see that He is good; but you can never know all His sweetness, for you can eat, and eat, and yet not discover it all; possibly, scarcely in heaven itself will you know all the sweetness of Christ. 3. Christ will never lose His freshness to us, because He is Divine, and therefore inexhaustible. 4. Another reason why Christ will always have the dew of His youth is, because He meets all the cravings of our nature. When we really have Christ, we feel that we have nothing else that we can wish for. 5. We shall never be tired of Christ, because the need we have of Christ can never cease. “ But,” says one, “ we shall not need Him in heaven.” Who told you that? Not need Christ in heaven! Why, if you could take Christ away from heaven, you would take heaven away altogether. If I shall not need Christ to cleanse me in heaven, yet I shall want Christ to commune with Him. If I shall not need to pray to Him, I shall want to praise Him. If I shall not need Him as a Shepherd, I shall need Him as a Priest, as a King, that I may for ever serve Him with joy and gladness. III. What are the lessons we should learn from this truth?1. For the pulpit, a lesson of admonition. We who occupy the pulpit must take care that we never entertain the idea that the Gospel has become worn out. It still has the dew of its youth. 2. A lesson of self-examination to each one here present. What you should ask yourself is, “ Have I found the right Christ?” If the Christ I have found has lost His freshness, is it not very likely that I have found a wrong Christ, one of my own making, one of my own conception? For the real Christ is always fresh, always interesting, always new. Have I not either laid hold of the wrong truth, or held it in the wrong way? 3. A word of aspiration, if Christ has the dew of His youth upon Him, let us, my dear friends who serve the Lord Jesus Christ, aspire to show the world that we do so. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The dew of youth 1. Make sure that your life’ s morning is fresh as the dew. The first thing which strikes us in the dew is its transparency. Is your soul transparently clear? Is your conscience without offence toward God and toward men? How is this purity and beauty of soul to be had? Look at the dew-drop again and ask whence comes its jewelled brightness. It is all the sun’ s doing. Now, Christ is the Sun of Righteousness. He is wooing you now from all that is low and unworthy, even as the sun woos the vapour from the murky pool. It cannot resists--you can; but will you? 2. Make sure that you keep the freshness of the dew. First by never allowing a stain to remain on your conscience and in your life. That stains will come is inevitable. But let them not remain. But it is not enough to keep clear of stains, or when stains are contracted to have them at once washed away; there must also be a constant renewal of life. You cannot live on the strength of yesterday; you must have the strength of to-day for the work of to-day. Live in time, and for time, and your morning will soon change to sultry noon, to sad afternoon, darkening down to the blackness of night. But accept the eternal life which God gives you in His Son Christ Jesus, and lo! the freshness of the morning is about you all through life. (J. M. Gibson.) The dew I. The dew descends from heaven.1. Every moral production of the earth is impure. Man--systems--institutions--maxims. 2. The productions of the earth may be known by their distinguishing characteristics. The naturalist knows the country of an animal. The botanist, of a plant. The moralist, of a sentiment, or action, or character. 3. The character of the believer proves him not of the world. “ They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.” 4. The Bible tells his native country. (1) He is Divine in his parentage.(2) The Spirit comes down to regenerate him.(3) Grace comes down to animate and actuate, etc.5. Do you feel heaven-born and home affections towards heaven? II. The dew descends during the night.1. The present is to the heavenly state as night to day. It is now that the believer is regenerated and sanctified. 2. A season of suffering is to one of personal joy, as night is to day. It is in suffering that the believer is most effectually purified. III. The dew-drops are very plentiful.1. Believers are a little flock, in any past time--at present--at any one given time. 2. They shall be more numerous during the latter-day glory. 3. They shall be very numerous in heaven. IV. The dew-drops refresh the vegetable world.1. Believers, being themselves refreshed, refresh others. (1) By their conversation.(2) By their example.(3) By their prayers.(4) By their deeds of kindness. 2. Are you to your neighbourhood as a dew from the Lord? V. Each dew-drop reflects the sun’ s image.1. Man originally bore God’ s image. 2. When renewed he again bears it. 3. What is it to have God’ s image? (1) The same views--Bible views.(2) The same objects--His glory in redemption.(3) The same character--in heart and life. 4. When the believer thinks of God, how high is the attainment of bearing His image! 5. Do you love His law--doings--designs--character--fellowship--people? VI. The dew reascends to heaven when it has refreshed the earth.1. Even now the believer soars aloft--in thought--desire--conversation--hope--confident anticipation. 2. At death, his soul ascends--a constant ascension. 3. At the resurrection, his body ascends. 4. Are your tendencies heavenward? VII. When the dew ascends, it is in perfect purity, freed from any mixture of earth. (James Stewart.) Psalms 110:4 Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek. Christ, our Priest I. Divine authorization to priesthood.1. The Divine oath has a reference to Christ, for it is the Divine authorization of His priestly office. What spiritual power resides in this mandate of God! It not only creates this office, with all its heavy duties and responsibilities, but it gives it full and free scope for the play of its functions. 2. The oath has also a reference to the sinner, the warrant for his approach to God. What stronger assurance of God’ s willingness to pardon, nay, rather, heart yearning anxiety to bring us into a justified state? II. The office to which the Son was called--Priesthood. Christ, in His struggle with the powers of hell and darkness, was not an overborne subject, He was not a conquered victim, but He was in very truth an active, official, priestly agent), working out and bringing in, amidst sweat and agony and blood, that righteousness which is “ unto all and upon all them that believe.” III. The duration of Christ’ s Priesthood.1. Christ was Priest on earth. His whole life, from the manger to the cross, was an offering--a sacrificial oblation of sweet-smelling savour to God. 2. He is now a Priest in heaven. (S. McComb.) The order of Melchizedek I. Christ is a priest after the order of Melchizedek.1. That order was unique. (1) In its loneliness, Melchizedek stood alone. He was the one true priest before the Mosaic dispensation. Christ is the one true priest after it, and He stands alone. (2) In that it was underived and untransmitted. Melchizedek did not follow, nor was he succeeded by, a priestly line. So Christ’ s priesthood is “ not after the order of a carnal commandment” ; nor does it “ pass over to another.” (3) In its efficacy. 2. That order was righteous. His very name, “ King of righteousness,” is significant of that. But in a far more real and valuable sense is this so with Christ. (1) He is absolutely righteous in Himself. As such He was predicted (Isaiah 53:11; Jeremiah 23:5). As such He was by the confession of both friends and foes (Luke 23:4; 1 Peter 2:23). (2) As the King of righteousness, He makes His subjects righteous (Isaiah 53:11). By cleansing away their unrighteousness and imparting His Holy Spirit, and encouraging and directing their holy lives. 3. That order was peaceful. He was “ King of Salem which is King of peace.” Christ is (1) absolutely peaceful in Himself. As such He was predicted and acknowledged. “ The Prince of peace.” “ He shall not cry,” etc.(2) As King of peace Christ gives peace, promotes it, and reigns over peaceful subjects. “ My peace I leave with you,” etc.4. That order was royal. He was king as well as priest. So is Christ a “ priest upon His throne.” Christ rules from His Cross: “ I, if I be lifted up,” etc. And adoring Christendom says, “ Thou art the King of glory, O Christ,” because “ when Thou hadst overcome the sharpness of death Thou didst open the kingdom of heaven to all believers.” 5. That order was superior. (1) In its antiquity. It was before the authorized priesthood of Aaron. So Christ is “ the Lamb slain from before the foundation of the world.” (2) In its perpetuity. “ For ever.” Christ “ continueth ever,” and “ ever liveth to make intercession.” (3) In its universality. Christ is “ a propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.” II. Christ’ s appointment to this priesthood is held under Divine authority, “ The Lord hath sworn, and will not repent.” Persons occupying important offices must show their credentials. (J. W. Burn.) Psalms 110:7 He shall drink of the brook in the way: therefore shall he lift up the head. Refreshment through suffering The words place before us two pictures. The one is that of want, and the other is that of its supply. He that drinks of the brook is he who needs its refreshment. He lifts up his head, when he has drunk of the running stream: it was drooping before; he had been faintly pursuing his object, but now he goes on his way with head erect, and with elastic tread. I. The similarity between the features of nature and of grace. II. The meaning of the text as spoken by David. In some of his sharp encounters with Saul, in some of those hot persecutions which he suffered in such number, there might have been some occasion in which the taste of water was the renovation of his strength; or perhaps he had special reference to the river Jordan, or the brook of Siloa, and coupled them with the holy city, and thought of them as typical streams, and looked at their waters, when tasted, as declaring that the city was nigh at hand, and that he that should drink it would be approaching its shining gates. III. The application of the words to Christ. When we first read them, we deem them to speak of the refreshment of exhausted nature; and perhaps, in their primary application they do so. But surely the life of the Son of Man was not one of refreshment or relaxation, at least to Himself. We must remember, then, that water has another meaning, and it is that of distress and the overwhelming of the soul. And was this His refreshment? How could it be so?1. Because it was the greatest of actions, the crucifixion of self in man. 2. Because it was the performance of the Father’ s will, and, through this, the way of the redemption of the world. To these waters Jesus stooped down; of these He drank, and after drinking them, He lifted up His head, where now He sits above the clouds in the exaltation of the highest heaven. IV. The application of the words to ourselves.1. We must be partners in the fortune of our Head: what He endured, that,--it is a law of our union with Him--we must look to endure also; if His bark went through stormy seas, so surely must ours. 2. We are suffering now, and our reign is not until hereafter. But while we suffer we recruit; we derive immortal vigour from mortal woe; we live through our very death. (C. E. Kennaway, M.A.) The brook by the way We march with a Captain who makes common cause with the humblest. The contrast in this verse between a splendid destiny and the simplest life was never so true of any as of Him (Galatians 4:4; Hebrews 4:15).1. See how true this is of the lowest part of human life, the life of the body. For thirty years Jesus lived the frugal and simple life of a carpenter’ s son in a quiet village among the hills of Galilee. His first recorded temptation was to break His fellowship with us by claiming miraculous supplies, at least of bread; but this help, which He gave to others, He would not Himself employ. 2. Observe, however, that He does drink. You will not find one innocent pleasure, which came “ in the way” to Jesus, and which He sourly or wilfully refused. He would leave a feast at once, if called by Jairus to a sick-bed; but He would not refuse the feast of His friends in Bethany, though He knew that He was reproached for eating and drinking. How does His example affect us? We may have to refuse pleasures because we are weak, because temptations must be avoided. Or, like St. Paul, we may deny ourselves for our weak brother’ s sake, which is an honour, and a Christ-like thing; but the rule, apart from special cases, is that the best and truest life is such as welcomes and is refreshed by all simple pleasures. 3. It is still more wonderful to think of the spiritual life of Jesus nourished by the same means of grace which are available for us all. As if we saw Him rise from the throne of heaven to stoop by our waysides and drink from the rills of earth, so should our heart burn within us, when we observe our Master’ s constant use of the very means of grace which men neglect. Our prayers are formal, and easily interrupted; but He once rose up a long while before day, and again continued all night in prayer. We easily absolve ourselves from public worship; but He was careful to frequent the synagogues, and attended the festivals in Jerusalem. We neglect the Supper of our Lord, concerning which He said, “ Do this in remembrance of Me” ; but with desire He desired to eat the Passover with His disciples. We rely on our own judgment and conscience, and but few of us feel it a duty to instruct our conscience and keep it sensitive by a constant study of God’ s Word, which is as a lamp to the feet. But He was never at a loss for spiritual guidance from the Old Testament, saying, in every emergency, “ It is written.” It is surely a bitter reproach to us every one, that a stranger who watched our Master and His followers might easily suppose that He it was who needed help most, that we could better afford to dispense with it. The brooks which refreshed Him on His march are not dried up; neither are they, like Solomon’ s fountain, sealed. (C. A. Chadwick, D.D.) Christ invigorated in the prosecution of His redemptive work I. Christ in the prosecution of His redemptive work is refreshed and invigorated because He drinks from the inexhaustible fountain of His own love. He still prosecutes His work of mercy, because “ He drinks of the brook in the way--the brook of His eternal inexhaustible love!” II. Christ may he said to drink of the brook in the way, because of the perfectly righteous work in which He is engaged. “ All His victories are righteous in their end, and in their means.” The consciousness of the rectitude of His entire work is a “ brook from which He drinks in the way.” III. The joy in prospect of the final salvation of all the subjects of His kingdom is another “ brook from which He drinks in the way.” IV. Christ may be said to “ drink of the brook in the way,” from the certainty He has of a final victory over all His foes. “ He must reign.” All enemies shall be vanquished. Christ is “ expecting” this. (John Lewis, B.A.) Refreshment supplied by the way The promises are fruits laid up to ripen in time to come, and as most fruits become ripest and sweetest in the winter, so have we found that God’ s promises have a peculiar mellowness in our times of distress and affliction, such a sweetness as we did not perceive in the summer days of our prosperity. The train which starts from London to go to the North continues to traverse the distance day by day--how is it supplied with water? Why, there are trenches between the rails in several different places, and from these the engine drinks as it rushes along its iron pathway; it is supplied as it runs. That is just what our Heavenly Father has done for you. You are just like an engine on the road to heaven, and between here and heaven there are many stores of grace awaiting you; you will take up fresh water without slacking your speed, and so will be able to keep on to your journey’ s end. To use another illustration, when the Eastern nations used to trade across the desert in the olden times, in Solomon’ s days for instance, there were stations built, wells sunk, and provisions stored at convenient halting-places, so that the caravans might pause and take in fresh provisions. The caravans reached their journey’ s end because the long way was broken up by a series of resting-places. Now, the promises are resting-places for us between here and heaven. There is a long line of them at well-ordered intervals, and as we journey through this desert world we shall be constantly coming, first to one, and then another, and then another, and another, and so we shall find fresh provision stored up, that we may not fail. The manna will fall daily till we come to Canaan. (C. H. Spurgeon.) . Psalms 111:1-10 Psalms 111:1-10 Praise ye the Lord.I will praise the Lord with my whole heart. The highest work of mankind--praising God I. A noble resolution for this highest work.1. Thoroughness. “ With my whole heart.” (1) Without this thoroughness it would be unacceptable to God. “ He abhors the sacrifice where not the heart is found.” (2) Without this thoroughness it will yield no happiness to ourselves. (3) Without this thoroughness it will not be continuous, but broken, desultory, and worthless. 2. Publicity. Man has to do with society, he lives in society, and by it; and if he is thorough, worship will come out in every conversation, in every act, in the sublimity of the look, in the dignity of gait. II. A mighty argument for this highest work. Founded upon--1. The works of God. (1) They are here spoken of generally. His works, whether of creation, government, or redemption, whether in connection with matter or mind, are in every sense great, infinitely great in number, variety, and perfection. It is here implied, however, that their greatness is only seen by those who search for them, “ sought out.” Their greatness is not in their bulk, their form, their colour, but in their essence, their plan, their uses, their relations, their bearings, etc. That those only search into them who have pleasure in them. A man must be interested in the works of God before he will study them. And to be interested in them he must love their Author. Hence piety is the spring of true philosophy. (2) They are spoken of specifically. His works are grand. Whatever He does in nature is worthy of Himself, who Himself is “ clothed with honour and majesty” (Psalms 104:1). Wonderful. Can the greatest created intellect in the universe comprehend all concerning what appears to be the most insignificant work of God? Memorable. Can anything impress the human soul like the worlds of God? Beneficent (verse 5). Truthful (verse 7). 2. The character of God. (1) His rectitude (verse 3). (2) His mercifulness (verse 4). (3) His faithfulness (verses 5, 7). III. An essential qualification for this highest work (verse 10).1. This “ fear of the Lord,” or piety, is the commencement of wisdom. He who has not a reverential love for God has not learnt the first lessons of true wisdom. True philosophy begins in piety. 2. The “ fear of the Lord,” or piety, secures a sound understanding. (Homilist.) Hallelujah “ Praise ye the Lord.” Just as though the psalmist would say, “ Whether you will or no, I will; I will praise Him, if I am alone in doing so; I will praise Him with my whole heart--with all the fervour, spirituality, and sincerity with which I am endowed; I will praise the Lord with all my heart; and, in order that I may not be alone in praising Him, I will get into ‘ the assembly of the upright,’ and probably some of my rustic notes will induce them to praise Him also; and Jehovah shall have the entire revenue of praise and glory that can be sounded forth from all the ransomed souls on earth, and all the ransomed souls in heaven.” I. An exhortation. “ Praise ye the Lord.”1. This exhortation is addressed to those who possess a capacity to praise God--a heaven-born life--a quickened nature. It must be the praise of the soul, called into exercise under the immediate operation of the graces of the Holy Spirit. 2. Those persons who have a spiritual capacity--who have been born from above--have many reasons for praising God. Has this mighty God, to whom we sound our hosannahs, put forth His operations of grace, touched your proud, rebellious heart, nay, created a spiritual capacity in you, implanted all His own graces, opened your eyes to your own ruin and the law’ s terrors, and then opened them to see the light of the glorious Gospel? If so, can you cease to praise the Lord? II. A vow. “ I will praise the Lord.” I verily believe that we have not paid attention enough to the act of praise, as going forth from the inmost soul. We may have paid more attention to the act of prayer, we may have paid more attention to the act of believing; we may have paid more attention to the act of humiliation before God in deep repentance; all these are very important; but shall we forget to praise Him? shall we forget to acknowledge the infinite debt of gratitude we owe to Him? What should we think of creatures who did this towards each other? How many thousands of providences, of a most momentous description, has He overruled for us, and not received any return of praise? How many thousands of prayers has He answered, and we not given a single tribute of praise? III. Experimental godliness. “ With my whole heart.” This includes spirituality, simplicity, and earnestness. There seems something of emulation in this expression--“ with my whole heart” ; and sure I am, that when the Holy Ghost enables us to move upwards in the spirit of praise, troubles, difficulties, temptations, snares, enemies, afflictions, sorrows, death itself, have no power to harm us; the spirit of praise bears us above all, carries us within celestial regions, where we seem to mingle our praises with the hallelujahs of glorified spirits around the throne. “ With my whole heart.” IV. The relative position. “ In the assembly of the upright and in the congregation.” Where am I to find “ the assembly of the upright” ? The man that is upright before God has owned or confessed the worst he knows of his case before the footstool of Divine mercy, he has thrown open his books, he has declared his insolvency to the law and justice of God, he adopts the very language of the psalmist, “ I acknowledged my sin unto Thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid” ; and instead of offering any compromise or making any specious promises, he betakes himself to the Divine Surety, of whom he obtains by faith a perfect obedience, a full satisfaction, a perfect righteousness, and presents them before God as His own. Thus he is accepted before the throne as an upright character. His condemnation is removed--his justification proclaimed--his absolution is enjoyed (without the interference of infidel priests)--his sanctification is given to him, and his glorification waits for him. (J. Irons.) Whole-hearted praise I. Without whole-heartedness our praise is not acceptable to God. He requires us, not ours. “ He abhors the sacrifice where not the heart is found.” II. Without whole-heartedness it will yield no happiness to ourselves. There is no true enjoyment in any service not rendered with the whole soul. No man is ever happy in any enterprise into which he cannot throw his whole being. III. Without this whole-heartedness it will not be continuous. (Homiletic Review.) Psalms 111:2 The works of the Lord are great, sought out of all them that have pleasure therein.The greatness of the works of God Greatness, when attributed to the works of man, is a relative term, and it is only correct in one direction. Our works can only be great in comparison with the works of other men; they can have no greatness in relation to Gad, or to His operations. Our utmost skill cannot go beyond new combinations, or new discoveries of existing things; we can neither create nor preserve. Our knowledge results from creation; when correct it agrees with its works; but with God, creation results from knowledge--the prototype of it existed in the eternal mind before He began to work (Acts 15:18). I. The greatness of the works of God.1. Their immensity. What a wonderful incomprehensible work was it to produce the matter which forms our globe! Yet our planet is but a small part of the solar system: there are spheres many times larger than our world, revolving at immense distances round the same sun. The sun itself is but one among millions of suns, which in boundless space enlighten other worlds, and are the centres of other systems. We are at once lost in the vastness of creation, in the immensity of being God has called into existence; and are oppressed with an overpowering sense of the magnitude of His works. 2. Their variety. The water affects the land, the land affects the water, an endless diversity of influences of different substances on each other are perpetually producing specific and well-ascertained results. Beings possessed of life were created from inanimate substance: by the infinite power of God the sea and land brought forth abundantly, the vegetable and animal kingdoms were called into existence by the Creator’ s voice, and the tribes of land and ocean proclaim the magnitude of His work. 3. The preservation and government of the world. Cause and effect is not a necessary but an ordained connection; the energy that works is not that of the instrument but that of God; substances operate upon one another in a natural way, by which we mean an habitual, ordinary manner; but it is God who causes them so to operate; whatever is the instrument its efficacy is from God. 4. His moral government over voluntary and accountable beings. What a vast work must it be to educe order out of the chaotic workings of human minds; to maintain a system of operation and government over myriads of beings, who live as they list, preserving their own schemes of aggrandizement and gratification, without any reference to the will of God: and yet the mightiest of men can accomplish nothing but what God permits, and frequently they are working out, though contrary to their own intentions, the purposes of the Eternal Mind. 5. His greatest work is redemption. It unveils the whole character of God. In the natural world we behold manifestations of His power and wisdom; in His providential government we may learn something of His justice and goodness; but neither of these perfections is so gloriously exhibited as in the Gospel of His Son, where His love and mercy shine with unclouded lustre. II. Successful inquiry is in proportion to the deep interest we take in the works of God. We must love truth, and justice, and mercy, before we can in any degree estimate the expression of Divine love and justice in saving sinners by the gift and death of the Son of God. (S. Summers.) The worlds of God, in nature, providence, and grace I. In nature. Every clod of earth teems with animation; every drop of water swarms with animalculae. Surely curiosity might induce us to seek out the works of God even if we had no other motive than mere inquisitiveness and curiosity. But we cannot examine these things as we ought without feelings of lively gratitude, that through the life-giving power of Jehovah everything ministers either to the necessities or to the convenience of man. But there is a still more familiar manifestation of the works of God which we should meditate upon. I wish you to turn your reflections upon yourselves. Contemplate the human body; observe the union of its several parts, and their fitness for the particular purpose for which they are designed; mark the composition and appearance of the whole; what incomparable workmanship is perceptible in the whole frame. II. In preservation. III. In grace. We look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. Since, then, all things are yours if ye are Christ’ s, whether the world, or life, or death, or things present or things to come, let us call to mind that we have them as the subject matter of privilege; as the subject matter of improvement here, and as the subjects of praise throughout eternity. (H. F. Fell, M.A.) The works of the Lord 1. Consider-- (1) The variety and multiplicity of the objects that constitute theearth and the creatures that dwell on it. How varied is the form of its surface! What an alternation of enormous ridges with summits of different heights, of hills and plains, of spacious, open fields, and of impassable, impenetrable forests, of continents and seas, rivers and lakes! What diversity and what riches in various kinds of precious gems, stones, ores, minerals, lie concealed in its bowels! What a world of wonders is enclosed in its fathomless abysses! (2) Their beauty--no less great and admirable than their variety; consider the outline, the form, the hues, the infinitely blending shades of colours, the delicate texture, the artificial structure, the arrangement and composition of the several parts of every herb, every flower, every leaf, every tree, every plant, every greater and smaller, visible, and invisible, animal. (3) The accurate and admirable connection that subsists between the several parts and creatures of the earth, causing them all to promote one grand design, the greatest possible welfare of the living. (4) The gradual progress of all things to higher perfection. See how the plant, the tree expands, grows, flourishes, arrives at maturity, bears fruit, propagates and multiplies, from a seed so small as to be indiscernible to thy naked eye; how the crawling maggot rises into a butterfly; how every animal gradually acquires and communicates to others his agility, his powers, his habitudes; how the infant grows into the stripling, the youth into the man, and the man into the citizen of another world. (5) The magnitude and inexhaustibility of the energies which animate and actuate all nature; those energies which operate so uniformly and silently, and yet so powerfully and irresistibly in all and through all; those energies which are in perpetual exertion through all successive evolutions, renovations, transformations of the whole innumerable host of creatures, and through all their efforts and effects, and in such various methods; those energies which, from what appears to be confusion and strife, produce the fairest harmony--from what we term death and destruction, incessant life and action. 2. Having considered these things, ascend in thought to the original, eternal energy, from whence these powers are derived--to the original, eternal fount of life, from whence these several kinds of life and efficacy flow--to the Supreme Dispenser of all that joy which fills the capacity of thy soul--to that God who predisposed, accomplished, and called them into being, who bears, upholds, connects, enlivens, and rejoices all, who through them all reveals Himself to His intelligent creature--man--speaks to him by a thousand voices, appears to him in a thousand varied forms, and in all and by all as Author, Benefactor, Father. (G. J. Zollikofer, D.D.) The order and beauty of the visible creation I the grandeur and simplicity of the works of God. How low and contemptible are all the proudest works of men compared to those of God! Could we suppose a person in full maturity of sense and understanding, but who had never seen the light of the sun and the face of nature, presented on a sudden with an ample prospect of the sublime canopy of heaven, the blazing sun, the illumined atmosphere, and the florid earth diversified with its various landscapes; how would the appearance astonish and transport him, stamp at once on his mind the new ideas of grandeur and beauty, and excite his veneration of the wisdom and power of God! II. The uniformity and variety which appear in the works of creation. The heavens above, and the earth beneath, continue the same from age to age; yet afford a diversity of successive spectacles: the clouded, the clear, the parti-coloured sky; the nocturnal darkness, the meridian light. If we examine carefully the minuter productions of nature, the smallest insects, or the leaves, flowers, and fruits of plants, we find a wonderful mixture of the various and the uniform, that strikes the mind with a pleasing idea of order and beauty. III. The perpetual circulations discernible in the world. The sun, moon, and stars perform their appointed courses with a stated unerring motion. What is it that unholds and directs them? How come they to know their seasons and courses? What enables them to travel incessantly with the same unremitting force? Why they never fall to the earth? Or wander through the pathless desert of the sky? In a word, why they never err?--These questions will necessarily turn our attention to the unerring wisdom of the Creator. IV. The regular proportions observable in the several parts of the world, are a further evidence of creative wisdom in the structure of the whole. For as in the fabric of every plant and animal, the several parts bear a due proportion to each other and to the whole, so it is of the world in general: the parts were all formed by rule and measure, proportionate to each other and to the whole system. V. The multiplicity of effects in nature flowing from the same cause; and the combination of a multitude of causes to the same effect. The single principle of gravitation, pervading the universe, at the same time gives solidity to the land, stability to the mountains, and fluency to the rivers; binds the ocean to its bed, and the whole earth to its orbit; maintains the due distance of the heavenly bodies; and retains everything through universal nature in its proper situation. Similar to this is the single principle of benevolence in the moral world: which in like manner is diffused through human nature, and produces, according to its different modifications, various beneficial effects: hence parental care; relative union; combination of friends; public spirit; good government of superiors; fidelity of inferiors; and it is this which retains every individual in his proper sphere, cements human society, and contributes to all virtuous actions, honourable pursuits, and innocent delights. How should it excite the inquisitive understanding, and affect the religious temper, of every considerate person, to find the whole world framed and disposed, and all the elemental parts of it contending and co-operating in a perpetual motion, to please and benefit the human race! (S. Bourn.) On seeking out the worlds of the Lord and praising Him “ The works of the Lord are great;” yet, great as they are, they cannot be understood nor perceived by those who are absorbed in earthly ideas and pursuits. The works of the Lord must be “ sought out” ; that is, they must be mindfully and diligently observed, in order to their being adequately understood: nay, if we would know anything of their vastness or their excellency. We must be in the constant habit of connecting the ordinary operations and occurrences of life with a higher power, with the counsel and government of heaven; a gracious promise is given, that “ all things shall work together for good to them that love God” ; and we must be always endeavouring to trace this working, and observe the striking manner in which this effect is produced. Nor can any, but the pious and faithful servant of God, find delight in this holy and profitable exercise; and the longer he lives, the more clearly he perceives the hand of the Almighty in everything; in discomforting the evil and blessing the good: he sees and admires the wonders of grace, as well as the wonders of providence, vouchsafed to others as well as himself; to the Church in all ages. In all the good he receives or does, and all the evil he escapes or prevents, he traces the power and mercy of his God: “ Not unto me, O Lord, not unto me, but unto Thy name be the glory and the praise.” Thus he imitates the conduct of the psalmist, recorded in the text, “ I will give thanks unto the Lord with my whole heart” : all the power of his understanding and all the affections of his soul are employed in magnifying the majesty and loving-kindness of the “ Author and giver of every good gift.” And the grateful Christian imitates the psalmist yet farther; he does not hide the sense of God’ s goodness within his own bosom; but declares it openly as opportunity serves. (J. Slade, M. A.) New interest in God’ s works An American poet tells us, in one of his letters, how he once met an aged French priest on the Pacific Railway. The priest told him that he was on a journey round the world, and that he had been put up to that by a dream. He dreamed that he had died, and he met the good God, who asked him how he liked the world he had come from. He was obliged to confess that he had not looked at it very much: for the whole time he was there he had been busy getting himself ready to die, and getting other people ready to die--as if getting ready to die were the chief end of man here below. When he awoke he resolved that, old as he was, if the good God would only let him stay on in this world a little while longer, he would take a good look at it before he was summoned to pass another such examination. So he had furnished himself with some little books in physical geography and the like, and was reading, and looking, and thus preparing for the other world by trying to get all the real and Divine good he could out of this earth. (John Hunter, D.D.) Psalms 111:3 His work is honourable and glorious: and His righteousness endureth for ever. God and the godly (with Psalms 112:3):--These two psalms are obviously intended as a pair. They are identical in number of verses, and in structure, both being acrostic, that is to say, the first clause of each commences with the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet, the second clause with the second, and so on. The general idea that runs through them is the likeness of the godly man to God. Worship is, or should be, adoration of and yearning after the highest conceivable good. Such an attitude must necessarily lead to imitation, and be crowned by resemblance. Love makes like, and they who worship God are bound to, and certainly will, in proportion to the ardour and sincerity of their devotion, grow like Him whom they adore. I. In enduring righteousness. That seems a bold thing to say, especially when we remember how lofty and transcendent were the Old Testament conceptions of the righteousness of God. But, lofty as these were, this psalmist lifts an unpresumptuous eye to the heavens, and having said of Him who dwells there: “ His righteousness endureth for ever,” is not afraid to turn to the humble worshipper on this low earth, and declare the same thing of him. Our finite, frail, feeble lives may be really conformed to the image of the heavenly. The dew-drop with its little rainbow is a miniature of the great arch that spans the earth and rises into the high heavens. And so, though there are differences, deep and impassable, between anything that can be called a creatural righteousness and that which bears the same name in the heavens, the fact that it does bear the same name is a guarantee to us that there is an essential resemblance between the righteousness of God in its lustrous perfectness and the righteousness of his child in its imperfect effort. Another psalmist has sung of the man who can stand in the holy place. “ He shall receive the blessing from the Lord, even righteousness from the God of his salvation.” And our psalms hint, if they do not articulately declare, how that reception is possible for us, when they set forth waiting upon God as the condition of being made like Him. We translate the psalmist’ s feeling after the higher truth which we know, when we desire “ that we may be found in Him, not having our own righteousness which is of the law, but that which is of God by faith.” II. In gracious compassion. In the former psalm we read “ The Lord is gracious and full of compassion” ; in the latter we find “ he” (the upright man) “ is gracious and full of compassion, and righteous.” Our hearts need something more than a righteous God if we are ever to worship and draw near. Just as the white snow on the high peak needs to be flushed with the roseate hue of the morning before it can become tender, and create longings, so the righteousness of the great White Throne has to be tinged with the ruddy heart hue of gracious compassion if men are to be moved to adore and to love. And each enhances the other. “ What God hath joined together,” in Himself, “ let not man put asunder;” nor talk about the stern Deity of the Old Testament, and pit Him against the compassionate Father of the New. He is righteous, but the proclaimers of His righteousness in old days never forgot to blend with the righteousness the mercy; and the combination heightens the lustre of both the colours. And the same combination is absolutely needful in the copy, as is emphatically set forth in our text by the addition, in the ease of the man, of “ and righteous.” For whilst with God the two attributes do lie, side by side, in perfect harmony, in us men there is always danger that the one shall trench upon the territory of the other, and that, he who has cultivated the habit of looking upon sorrows and sins with compassion and tenderness shall somewhat lose the power of looking at them with righteousness. And so our text, in regard of man, proclaims more emphatically than it needs to do in regard to the perfect God, that ever his highest beauty of compassion must be wedded to righteousness, and ever his truest strength of righteousness must be knit with compassion. But, beyond that, note how, wherever there is the loving and childlike contemplation of God, there will be an analogy to His perfectness in our compassion. We are transformed by beholding. The sun strikes a poor little pane of glass in a cottage miles away, and it flashes with some likeness of the sun and casts a light across the plain. The man whose face is turned Godwards will have beauty pass into his face, and all that look upon him will see “ as it had been the countenance of an angel.” III. We have still another point, not so much of resemblance as of correspondence, in the firmness of God’ s utterances and of the godly heart. In the first of our two psalms we read, in the seventh verse, “ all His commandments are sure.” In the second we read, in the corresponding verse, “ his heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord.” The former psalm goes on, “ His commandments stand fast for ever and ever;” and the next psalm, in the corresponding verse, says “ his heart is established,” the original employing the same word in both cases, which in our version is rendered, in the one case “ stand fast,” and in the other “ established.” So that the psalmist is thinking of a correspondence between the stability of God’ s utterances and the stability of the heart that clasps them in faith. His commandments are not only precepts which enjoin duty. All which God says is law, whether it be directly in the nature of guiding precept, or whether it be in the nature of revealing truth, or whether it be in the nature of promise. It is sure, reliable, utterly trustworthy. We may be certain that it will direct us aright, that it will reveal to us absolute truth, that it will hold forth no flattering and false promises. And it is “ established.” The one fixed point amidst the whirl of things is the uttered will of God. Therefore the heart that builds there builds safely. And there should be a correspondence, whether there is or no, between the faithfulness of the Speaker and the faith of the hearer. Lean hard upon God, put all your weight upon Him. You cannot put too much, you cannot lean too hard. The harder the better, the better He is pleased, and the more He breathes support and strength into us. (A. Maclaren, D.D.) Psalms 111:4 He hath made His wonderful works to be remembered. The duty of remembering God’ s wonderful works 1. In reference to any signal benefits, any extraordinary mercy received, it is necessary we should have a true sense and firm persuasion of the work of God in it, that we may learn to depend on His providence, which we find so vigilant over us, so beneficial to us; that we may attribute nothing to ourselves, or sacrifice to our own nets; that we may discern His hand in His own work, and say (Psalms 52:9; Psalms 75:1). 2. This design of God teacheth man to make a true estimate, and set a value upon the benefit received as coming from His hand. 3. This design of God ought to be embraced with all comfort and cheerfulness. For what greater honour can man receive, than that God should desire to be honoured by him? What greater advantage can we have, than that He should therefore bless us, that He may receive praise from us, and purchase His glory by the expense of His goodness? 4. The equity and excellency of the duty enforce the obligation. Here is not anything required, but what may be justly challenged, what cannot be with any pretence denied. There is a moral obligation between men, to render to every man his due, honour to whom honour: and this Divine acknowledgment is required upon no other terms (Psalms 29:2). It is required in a due proportion (Psalms 150:2), according to the manifestation of it. This is the exercise of the blessed saints and angels in the nearest view of His perfections: the language of heaven is Alleluia; and there is nothing more heavenly upon earth. (Bp. Pearson.) Psalms 111:5 He hath given meat unto them that fear Him.The Lord’ s faithfulness in providing food for His people Consider the text-- I. In its literal sense.1. The work, on account of which the psalmist here calls upon us to praise God, is the supply of food; the furnishing us with those provisions which are necessary for the support and comfort of our bodies. (1) They are the Lord’ s gifts.(2) They are special marks of the Lord’ s favour to His people.(3) They are proofs of the Lord’ s faithfulness and truth. 2. Let us beseech Him to give us His grace, that we may receive with thankfulness, and enjoy with moderation, and use to His glory, those gifts of His providence, which He has been pleased to bestow on us; and that we may show forth His praise not only with our lips, but in our lives, by giving up ourselves to His service, and by walking before Him in holiness and righteousness all our days. 3. And let us learn to confide in Him for blessings to come. II. In its figurative or spiritual meaning.1. In this sense, the meat mentioned in the text signifies that meat of which our Saviour speaks when He directs us to labour for the meat which “ endureth unto everlasting life” ; namely, spiritual food, that food by which the soul is supported, strengthened, and refreshed. 2. And what, in this view of the text, is the covenant of which “ He will ever be mindful,” but the covenant of grace: that spiritual covenant, “ well ordered in all things and sure,” which God has made with every believer in Christ? The terms of this covenant are, “ Repent ye and believe the Gospel.” “ Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.” And the promises of it are, “ Thou shalt be saved.” “ Thou shalt have everlasting life.” (E. Cooper, M.A.) He will over be mindful of His covenant.--The covenant I. What is this covenant? If you go to a lawyer, and inquire how a deed runs, he may reply, “ I can give you an abstract, but I had better read it to you.” He can tell you the sum and substance of it; but if you want to be very accurate, and it is a very important business, you will say, “ I should like to hear it read.” We will now read certain passages of Scripture which contain the covenant of grace, or an abstract of it (Jeremiah 31:31-34; Ezekiel 11:19-20; Ezekiel 36:25, etc.). Let us just go a little into detail about this. God has made a covenant with certain people that He will do all this for them, and in each case it is of pure grace. He will take away their stony hearts: it is clear from this promise that when He began with them they had stony hearts. He will forgive their iniquities: when He began with them they had many iniquities. He will give them a heart of flesh: when He began with them they had not a heart of flesh. He will turn them to keep His statutes: when He began with them they did not keep His statutes. They were a sinful, wilful, wicked, degenerate people, and He called to them many times to come to Him and repent, but they would not. Here He speaks like a king, and no longer pleads, but decrees. He says, I will do this and that to you, and you shall be this and that in return. Oh, blessed covenant! Oh, mighty, sovereign grace! II. Have i any portion in it?1. Are you in Christ? If so, you are saved in Him. 2. Have you faith? This is the mark, the seal, the badge of His chosen. 3. Have you been born again? Is the life that is in you a life given by God? The true life is not of the will of man, nor of blood, nor of natural excellence; but it comes by the working of the eternal Spirit, and is of God. If you have this life you are in the covenant, for it is written, “ In Isaac shall thy seed be called.” The children of the promise, these are counted for the seed. III. If indeed we can believe upon the good evidence of God’ s Word that we are of the seed with whom the covenant was made in Christ Jesus, then every blessing of the covenant will come to us. I will put it a little more personally--every blessing of the covenant will come to you.1. God cannot lie, cannot deny Himself. 2. God made the covenant freely. If He had not meant to keep it, He would not have made it. 3. On the covenant document there is a seal--the blood of the Son of God. 4. God delights in the covenant, so we are sure He will not run back from it. 5. God has sealed the covenant with an oath (Hebrews 6:18). (C. H. Spurgeon.) Covenant blessings I. The gift: “ He hath given meat.” We are to understand this expression, of course in a twofold sense, of our necessities; the first, temporal, the other, spiritual. II. The covenant. The covenant of grace is a covenant without any conditions on our part whatever, of any sort, in any form, or any fashion. The covenant, in fact, is not made between us and God; it is made between God and Christ, our Representative. All the conditions of that covenant are fulfilled, so that there are none left for us to fulfil. The conditions were that Christ should suffer, and He has suffered; that Christ should obey, and He has obeyed. God will not suffer one single promise of the covenant to be unfulfilled, nor one single blessing of the covenant to be kept back. III. The character of the persons here referred to: “ them that fear Him.” Those who fear the Lord are in the covenant of His grace. If we fear Him, we may believe that He will ever give meat unto us, and that He will always keep His covenant towards us which He has made for us in Christ Jesus our Lord. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Psalms 111:9 He sent redemption unto His people.Redemption and atonement Theology has frequently confused redemption and the atonement. The atonement for sin offered by Christ on Calvary was universal, but redemption is limited to those that accept the conditions as specified in the Scriptures. Christ died for all, but, as a fact, only they that believe are saved. The atonement is God’ s provision for the salvation of the world, redemption of the sinner is the object God has in view. There could be no redemption without the atonement, but if redemption is not appropriated the atonement still remains. The work of atonement was the act of one person, but redemption involves several agencies. Christ, by suffering the death of the cross, made the atonement; in effecting redemption, the subject works, the teacher works in presenting God’ s truth, the Holy Spirit works and applies the Gospel with power to the heart. By this threefold agency redemption is effected. The atonement came without the world’ s request; but redemption never comes without the earnest seeking of the individual. The atonement was an event that took place “ once for all,” at one period, on Calvary, two thousand years ago; redemption is constantly taking place in all parts of the world, and in all periods of human history. This is the correct Biblical distinction between the two theological terms as used in the Scriptures. (R. Venting.) Holy and reverend is His name.--Scriptural piety I. What it is. We take the term reverence to denote respect; and with this latter term we associate generally a more definite meaning. In the case, indeed, of God, respect must be of the very highest description, to rise to the character of reverence. II. Its foundation. Let the mind be informed, not only that God has given a conscience to rebuke, but that God has met the rebuke of conscience, to redeem the party rebuked from despair by holding out His own Son as the vindication of His holiness. The foundation, therefore, you perceive, of Scriptural piety, is the knowledge of the Divine character. III. The means of its cultivation. Shall we pray that God would enlighten us, while we refuse to come to the means, by which He has Himself told us we are to be enlightened? Shall we seek that He would give us of the Spirit, whilst we neglect the fruits of the inspiration of that Spirit, as those fruits are laid down in the testimony of Divine truth? IV. Its fruits. Piety is not a faculty of the mind; it is an influence, pervading all the faculties. Piety is not some particular mental power; it is an energy, that tells on the whole man. If such be the fruits of Scriptural piety upon the mind itself, what must be its fruits upon society generally? Even the ungodly and unthinking world, when they discover that piety is thus enlightened by the word of truth, and that in the Church of God there is not a greater degree of warmth than there is of light, will be compelled to confess “ that God is in us of a truth.” (John Burnet) Psalms 111:10 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Piety is true wisdom I. Explain the text.1. By “ the fear of the Lord,” you are to understand, not merely one affection of our minds towards God; but, piety in general, the service of God, and the devotion of the heart to Him. 2. “ Wisdom,” in the Scripture sense, is a virtue which makes a man not only skilful and intelligent, but also good and virtuous. It consists, not so much in knowledge, as in practice. 3. “ The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” This may signify, either that it is first in order of time--the rudiment, the foundation of wisdom; or first in point of dignity--the principal, or chief part of wisdom. 4. “ A good understanding have all they that do thereafter;” i.e. they are truly wise, and best consult their own interests, both in this and the next world, who do such things as belong to the fear of the Lord. II. Illustrate and confirm the truth of the text thus explained: showing, that to practise those duties, in which the fear of God consists, is to be really wise; that it is acting agreeably to our reason, and our interests.1. Religion alone teaches what is the supreme good of man; concerning the nature of which the philosophers so much erred. It is religion that points out to us an end most excellent, most worthy of our efforts, and of such inestimable value, as to overpay all our labours in the attainment of it: and that end is,--to enjoy eternal, uninterrupted happiness, in the presence of God. 2. Religion not only shows this admirable end to us; but also teaches the means to be used by us for attaining to it; namely, faith and obedience, prayer and thanksgiving; which constitute our religious duty. (S. Partridge, M.A.) The danger and folly of living without religion Philosophically speaking, it has been said that nature abhors a vacuum; and morally speaking, it may also be said that the absence of the fear of God is revolting to the human soul. I. To live without the fear of God, or, in other words, without religion, must be a dangerous thing. Whether we consider the character of God, or the sinfulness of man--whether we contemplate the sacrifice which God has made, in laying a foundation for our religious homage--whether we fix our views on the riches of God’ s love, or on the terrors of His wrath,--whether we look to time or to eternity, to death or to doom: Is it not, we would ask, yea, must it not be a dangerous thing to be at war with Heaven? And what, but this, is the position of man without religion? Verily, God is to be feared and held in reverence of all His creatures. His might in creation, and His majesty in providence--our own weakness and our own wants, all combine in enforcing on us this important truth. And yet how strange that we above all His other workmanship should refuse Him a willing homage! Let it not be forgotten that the want of religion is sin, and for sin the Son of God died. Can the irreligious, therefore, the sinful man, be safe? II. To live without religion is to exemplify the very perfection of folly.1. Is he not a fool who overlooks the end of his existence--who forgets and forgets entirely the purpose for which he was sent into the world? 2. Is he not a fool who sacrifices the ethereal, the immortal mind that is in him, to the appetites and desires of the material body in which that mind is enshrined? 3. Is he not a fool who willingly foregoes all that can give a charm to worldly prosperity--a relish to the joys that Providence dispenses in this vale of tears. 4. Is he not a fool who willingly and of his own accord, and recklessly, makes a sacrifice of all that can soothe him in sorrow--support him in trial--comfort him in adversity, or give him hope in death? (W. Craig.) Religion the highest wisdom, and sin the greatest madness and folly Wisdom consists in two things: choosing a right end, and using right means to obtain it. Now, what end so becoming a creature to live for ever, as everlasting happiness? And what way can it be obtained, but in the way of holiness? I. Men will not take the safest side in religion, which their reason and self-love carry them to do in other cases. Believe and regard what God has said; be holy in all manner of conversation; strive with all your might to enter in at the strait gate; accept of Christ as your Lord and Saviour. Do this, and you are safe, let the case be as it will; there are no bad consequences that can possibly follow from this conduct. II. Is it not the greatest folly to believe, or profess to believe, the great truths of religion, and yet act quite contrary to such a belief? Do you plead, that “ you intend to repent of this inconsistent conduct hereafter” ? But if religion is an excellent thing, as you profess to believe it, why do you not choose it now? the sooner the better. Again, is it not the greatest folly to indulge yourselves in a practice that you deliberately intend to repent of? Will you prosecute a scheme which you deliberately intend afterwards to condemn and be sorry for? III. Is it not the greatest folly for men to pretend to love God, when their temper and conduct are inconsistent with it, and plainly evidential of the contrary? What mean thoughts must they have of God, when they think to put Him off with such an empty compliment and hypocritical profession! IV. Is it not the greatest folly for men to hope for heaven, when they have no evidences at all of their title to it, or fitness for it? Can an illiterate rustic find pleasure in rigid mathematical demonstrations, and learned speculations, or a man of pleasure and business in the ascetic, mortified life of a hermit? Can a man, whose taste is vitiated by sickness, enjoy happiness in the entertainments of a feast? No, nothing can make a man happy, but what is suited to his relish and disposition. V. Is it not the greatest madness to be more concerned about the affairs of time than those of eternity? If you should throw away an estate to obtain a farthing, if you should run upon a drawn sword to escape a prickle, if you should prefer pebbles to crown’ s and kingdoms, darkness to light, or one luxurious meal to the support of your whole life, it would not be so shocking a piece of madness.1. Since there is so much folly in the world in matters of religion, how astonishing is it that it is not universally contemned and ridiculed, or pitied and lamented! 2. With what an ill grace do the irreligious contemn and despise those that make religion their great concern, as weak, silly creatures! 3. How absurd is it for men to pretend they will not turn their thoughts to religion, lest it should make them melancholy or distracted! Alas! sinners, you cannot be more so than you are already; and you will never come to yourselves till, with the prodigal, you determine to return to your Father’ s house. 4. If the fear of the Lord, religion, is the perfection of wisdom, how unreasonably does the world charge it with making people mad! 5. Since men are such fools in matters of religion, since they censure it with so much severity and contempt, how astonishing is it that God should send down that Divine, heaven-born thing, religion, into our world, where it is so much neglected and abused! (S. Davies, M.A.) A good understanding have all they that do His commandments.--Keeping God’ s commandments the surest evidence of a good understanding I. Illustrate and confirm the declaration. By “ them,” or the commandments of God, we are to understand our general duty, as His reasonable creatures; whatever He hath revealed to us as His will, whether by the light of nature or His written Word. Besides living soberly, righteously, and godly, it requireth faith in Christ, love to Him, trust in Him, an humble dependence on the help of the Holy Spirit, and a compliance with the institutions of Baptism and the Lord’ s Supper, which are commandments of God, as being enjoined by Jesus Christ, who was a teacher sent from Him. Doing His commandments implies avoiding everything that is evil (Job 28:28). It includes also learning to do well, and practising every duty which God requiteth of us. It is not sufficient to study the commandments of God as a science, to understand their meaning and extent, and to be able to explain them with the most critical exactness. It is not sufficient to talk of them, to admire their suitableness and excellency, but we are to do them, to do them sincerely, cheerfully, and constantly, unmoved by any temptations that would lead us to neglect the observance of them. Now, they who thus do God’ s commandments are said to have good understandings, that is, to be wise men.1. They understand the nature of things best, and judge rightly of their essential difference. 2. They understand the nature and will of God best. 3. They understand this world best. They consider it, not as their home and portion, but as a distant land; a school of education; a state of trial for another world. 4. They understand themselves and their own interest best. They know, and consider, that they were formed for God; for His service and honour. Therefore their first inquiry is, “ Where is God my Maker?” What doth He require of me, and how is His favour to be obtained? They know, from reflecting upon their own natures, that they were not formed to scrape together the riches of earth, to indulge its pleasures, and to gratify every craving appetite. Therefore, whilst others are “ cumbered about many things,” their attention is fixed upon the “ one thing needful.” They know that “ to fear God, and keep His commandments, is thewhole duty and interest of man,” and therefore they do this. II. Apply it in some useful reflections and advices.1. Let us be thankful for the Divine commandments, which are adapted to exalt us to such dignity and felicity. 2. We may hence learn to judge, who are truly wise, and have good understandings. 3. Here is the true test of orthodoxy. There is no error or heresy so opposite to the Gospel as a wicked life. “ There are many,” saith Mr. Flavel, “ who hate doctrinal errors, yet perish by practical ones; who hate false doctrine, yet perish by a false heart.” 4. Let us all make it our great care and business to do the commandments of God. Let us study this as the most important branch of science; mind this as the great concern of human life. Here let your labour and zeal be employed. (Job Orton, D.D.) . Psalms 112:1-10 Psalms 112:1-10 Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord, that delighteth greatly in His commandments.Genuine piety I. Its characteristics. A truly good man--1. Feareth the Lord.2. Delights greatly in His commandments.3. Is upright.4. Is merciful. What a noble character! Heaven multiply such. II. Its advantages. He is blessed--1. In his posterity.2. In his possessions.3. In his influence.4. In his calamities.5. In his steadfastness.6. In his memory.7. With fearlessness of soul.8. With exaltation.9. To the confusion of the wicked. (Homilist.) Psalms 112:3 Wealth and riches shall be in his house. Prosperity and its qualifications I. What is prosperity? To be prosperous is to have that which will promote the well-being of man’ s whole nature and which has that end secured. Material, moral, and intellectual wealth and its results. II. What is calculated to produce it? The psalmist, our Lord, and St. Paul are at one as to the qualification. “ Righteousness” --the harmony of a man’ s whole nature with the will of God.1. When that is the case, a man is moderate, temperate, observant of natural laws, and (supposing of course no constitutional ailment) therefore healthy. 2. He holds in check the feverish desire to succeed, and thus godliness with contentment becomes great gain. 3. He holds those passions in check which cloud the understanding and impair the vision. 4. He respects the rights of others. Hence, those whose rights you respect, will respect yours. 5. He will be frugal of his time, his money, etc., in recognition of God’ s claims upon both, and, as God’ s steward, will put them out to usury, and strive to be prosperous, that he may advance God’ s interests in the world. III. What objections can be urged against all this?1. That the righteous are not better off than others. But (1) Do those who are called righteous answer to the law of righteousness in its entirety? (2) Without controversy it is all true respecting communities. All history proves that they prosper in proportion to their righteousness. (3) It is so by the common consent of the world. How often do we hear the expression that such an one is “ worth his weight in gold.” 2. That men prosper who violate the laws of righteousness. But (1) Are these men prosperous? (2) Supposing them to have all that heart could wish, “ what shall it profit a man?” etc.(3) Supposing it true of an individual, when was it ever true of a nation? (J. W. Burn.) Treasure in the house The treasures in the house of the righteous--i.e, in the Christian home--though very great, are not duly appreciated, even by those who possess them. I heard a good man say once, as we passed the home of a millionaire, “ It, doesn’ t seem right that such a man as he is should be rolling in wealth, while I have to work hard for my daily bread.” I made no reply. But when we reached the home of the grumbler, and a troop of rosy children ran out to meet us, I caught one in my arms, and, holding him up, said, “ John, how much will you take for this boy?” And he answered, while the moisture gathered in his eyes, “ That boy, my namesake! I wouldn’ t sell him for his weight in gold.” “ Why, John, he weighs forty pounds at least, and forty pounds of gold would make you many times a millionaire. And you would probably ask as much for each of the others. So, according to your own admission, you are immensely rich. Yes, a great deal richer than that cold, selfish, childless millionaire whom you were envying as we came along. Nothing would tempt you to change places with him. Then you ought to be grateful instead of grumbling. You are the favourite of fortune, or, rather, of Providence, and not he.” (H. W. Beecher.) Psalms 112:4 Unto the upright there ariseth light in the darkness. The influence of religion in affliction I. Describe the nature of real religion. II. Trace its general influence in affliction.1. It informs the sufferer of the source whence affliction springs--from a Father and a Friend--a God who has engaged every attribute of His nature to promote the highest interests and everlasting happiness of the creature He afflicts. Can it, fail of its design?--His power controls it. 2. It acquaints him with the design of affliction, if this momentary pain produce everlasting ease; if this night of sorrow be followed by an endless day of joy; who but must welcome the fleeting anguish, the temporary gloom? 3. It apprises him of the limited duration of affliction. 4. It affords him communion with God in his affliction. III. Illustrate the influence of religion in affliction, by an appeal to some specific cases.1. Disease. Here is no fretfulness, no complaining, no petulance. Affliction has so refined the sufferer, that he seems already half immortal, and his pinions are plumed for glory, ere he receives the commission to take his flight. 2. Bereavement. Religion gives a partner to that widowed mother, more tender and kind than he could ever prove, over whose grave she weeps in all the agony of woe. It gives a father to those orphan children, full of sympathy and love. 3. Poverty. Religion has dignity with which to invest the poor man, which wealth can never purchase, nor rank confer. 4. Death. “ I have,” said the dying Romaine, “ the peace of God in my conscience, and the love of God in my heart. Jesus is more precious than rubies, and all that can be desired on earth is not to be compared with Him.” (T. Raffles, D.D.) Light in darkness 1. “ Light “ and “ darkness,” figuratively, denote life and death, knowledge and ignorance, virtue and vice, joy and sorrow. 2. There are four things in the text. (1) Certain characters--“ the upright.”(2) Their seasons of darkness--“ the darkness.”(3) Light in those seasons--“ there ariseth light.”(4) The time when the light comes--“ in the darkness.” 3. Who are “ the upright” ? (Psalms 97:11; Psalms 43:3). 4. The “ upright” have their seasons of darkness. Sickness, poverty, debt, family trials, etc. To some, the whole of life is, in a measure, a season of “ darkness” (Proverbs 14:10). 5. To “ the upright,” “ light” comes in such seasons of “ darkness.” There is the cloud, but there is also “ the bright light on the cloud.” Innocence can shed “ light” in the seasons of slander and mis-judgment. A desire to know the truth, and to follow it, with a quiet consciousness of the necessary limits of our knowledge, is so much “ light” in seasons of doubt and mystery. Repentance, faith, confession, and reparation, bring “ light,” when our own sins bring “ darkness.” 6. Notice particularly that the “ light” is said to arise “ in the darkness.” It was so with Christ in Gethsemane (Luke 22:43); and with St. Paul when the “ thorn in the flesh” troubled him (2 Corinthians 12:8-10). In neither case was the “ darkness” entirely removed. There was “ darkness,” but there was also “ light in the darkness.” 7. All persons, whether “ upright” or otherwise, have their seasons of “ darkness,” of one kind or another. All, too, have “ light” from some source or other, for man as naturally seeks relief from what is painful, as he seeks for food when he is hungry. But from whence come the “ darkness,” and the “ light” too? (Isaiah 1:10-11). 8. “ Darkness” there must be: no being can escape it. And when the “ darkness” comes, and while the “ darkness” continues, there may be “ light.” Where, from, and to whom? (Psalms 4:6). (F. Young.) Light in darkness The Christian often has to walk in the night. Clouds and gloom are round about him. Physical weakness, mental infirmity, relative anxiety, and spiritual distress,--these are part of his earthly lot. I. Upright men should bravely walk on in darkness. That is heroic: but it is difficult. The heart seeks for recognition of its rectitude. Flowers love sunshine, and so do the spirits of men. Job seems to have missed the greetings in the market-place as much as anything. There is a tone of peculiar poignancy in his grief about that. I do not wonder at it. We all like to be loved: we all like to be thought right. It is much easier to walk on against sleet, hail, wind, right in your teeth, than it is to move forward against the prejudice, the peevishness, or the misconception of others. When the sluggish waters of the Ouse rolled at the feet of Bunyan’ s prison, with the blind child clasping his feet, and a dim light falling on the Bible on his rude table,--he bravely bore on through the persecutor’ s night. When the dark fortress of Wartburg shut its gates on Luther, he bore worse ills than bodily sickness,--he fought in fancy with darkest forms of evil. II. Upright men are living for all the coming ages when they are waiting for the light. The worthies of the old world live now: being dead they speak to us: and, in a special sense, they affect us in two ways.1. They lead us to recognize the law of right. We are often endangered by the sophisms of expediency. “ Wait,” --says Policy, it will be time to-morrow to leave Egypt, and make an enemy of the powerful Pharaoh; do not smite the idols now,--the idolatries left alone will die out! “ Trust in God, and do the right,” --says Conscience. Obey and suffer. Never mind the darkness,--the day-star will soon arise. You are not living for yourselves alone,--the beacon-light of your conduct will guide the after-ages of the world. 2. They lead us to recognize the fidelity of God to His promises. They claimed no strength of their own, apart from the inspiration of God. In the calm heights, where God dwells, they had full communion with Him, and there the fevered heart was comforted and cooled. III. Upright men are not wholly dependent on outward light. This is refreshing to them as well as to others. I mean, of course, by outward light, that which arises from visible associations. We might as well try to pluck a star from the heavens, or imagine that the storms can waft out the light of the sun, as to suppose that the God-light within us can be dimmed or quenched. No! “ The path of the just is as the shining light,” etc.IV. Upright men bring forth beautiful graces in the darkness. Naturalists will tell you that there are few night-blowing flowers; they are very rare, for as a rule night opens no petals, but shuts up the bloom. It is otherwise in grace. Many of the sweetest and most fragrant graces of the spiritual nature blossom in the night season of affliction and trial. And why is this? Because God is able to make all grace abound to us in seasons when nature has withdrawn from us her most cheering beams. V. Upright men may have their minds clouded with doubt. Probably they will. The more upright they are the more anxious will they be to have the foundation of God which standeth sure. Some of the devoutest minds have had seasons of mental trial merging almost into agony. We can see the outward forms that men’ s opinions at last have shaped themselves into, but any acquaintance with the thought-struggles of Augustine, of Anselm, of the great thinkers of the Middle Ages,--whether they were Nominalists or Realists in their philosophy,--shows us that in the search for truth there are forests to be traversed that sometimes hide the light. But where there is simplicity of mind, sincerity of heart, spirituality of soul, God leads the mind that trusts in Him out into the perfect day. (W. M. Statham, M. A.) Light in the darkness There is, of course, some specific reference and application intended here, such as will harmonize with the general drift of the psalm. But we cannot fail to notice that this is a general proposition--a broad assertion which covers the whole of life for the persons of whom it is said. And I want now to show how true the text is; and how, being true, it practically works, and holds good, in the different spheres of human existence. I. Matters of faith--those revealed truths which are to be apprehended by us, and accepted, and turned to perpetual use for guidance, health, salvation. Concerning those truths we may be said to begin in the darkness. And we get into the “ light” --not in an easy, natural, irresistible manner, but--by hints and suggestions at first, by help of broken gleams, and through falling shadows; through doubts and uncertainties, and frequent misconception; by gropings, and hesitations, and discoveries: held often in the restriction of our own narrowness, circumscribed always by necessary limits, liable always to mistakes, and at no time holding the complete and perfect truth. The doubts that may arise, in particular minds, and at particular stages of the development of some human souls, are not to be numbered, can hardly indeed be described, they are so delicate and changeful. Yet to a sensitive mind, to a mind full of spiritual anxiety, they are very distressing. How are you to make light arise in the darkness? And how are you to have the assurance that it is light, and not some fatal splendour as transient as it is misleading? Now, here the principle of this text is of direct application, and of priceless force and value: “ Unto the upright there ariseth light in the darkness.” Sincerity: an honest desire to know the truth: readiness to make any sacrifice in order to the knowledge: obedience to the truth so far as it is known already--these will bring the light when nothing else will bring it. “ Light is sown for the righteous;” and the harvest from God’ s sowing never fails. First conceptions and lower knowledge is the seed of the higher; and that again of higher still. Mistakes and misconceptions fall off and die if only there be the fruitful ground of “ an honest and good heart.” II. Matters of experience. Say then that the chief intellectual difficulties are now solved; or say that they have never existed, and that “ the Gospel,” in much of its Divine simplicity, stands clearly before the apprehension, and, as far as the intellect is concerned in the operation, is received in the faith--what will then be the inward condition? Why, a true faith ought to produce a true feeling. And the feeling ought to be a happy one. Faith in “ glad tidings” ought to make glad hearts. But at this point be sure you do not mistake. Be sure you seek heart-light “ lawfully.” It is fruit, and not root. It is consequence, not cause. Seek first the righteousness of the inward kingdom, and the light will come out of that. III. Matters of practice. Religion in its organized forms in this world, and in its practical operations, is not exempted from the ordinary laws and vicissitudes of human life. Societies and Christian Churches have their times of darkness, their trials, their disappointments. They fall upon the best methods they can think of to extend the cause--the very truth of God--among men. And you would think that God is almost bound by the terms of His own covenant to lift an endeavour like that quite above the ordinary plane of things, and into a realm of visible clearness and certainty. But no. God has time enough, and He takes it. He takes it, and teaches His people to take it; to take--not “ their time,” which is indolent unfaithfulness, but His time. He educates by trial, by delay, by defeat. “ Light is sown for the righteous,” but, like all living seed, it takes a while to spring. The days of sowing are sometimes chill and dark. The bright harvest days will make amends for all. (A. Raleigh, D.D.) Light in the darkness to the upright I. The character of the person to whom this promise is made, The “ upright man” is the honest man, the man of integrity.1. He hath a serious and hearty sense of God and religion upon his spirit, and is above all things careful to preserve and increase that sense. 2. In his civil conversation-- (1) As a private person, the general rule by which he frames his whole conversation, is such a prudent and diligent care of himself, and his own good, as is not only consistent with, but doth effectually tend to promote the good and happiness of all others that he deals with. (2) As a magistrate. The great thing he proposes to himself, in taking any office upon him, is the glory of God and the public good. II. The advantages and privileges that such a man enjoys in evil and dangerous times. “ Light in the darkness.”1. By “ light,” we may understand light for his guidance and direction; and then the sense is, That in critical and perilous times, the upright man, of all others, will be best enabled to order and manage his affairs. 2. By “ light,” we may understand safety and defence, as the word is sometimes taken in Scripture; and then the sense is, That in evil times the upright man walks most free from danger; he of all others may expect security and protection in a common calamity. 3. By “ light,” we may understand peace and joy (as that likewise is another usual sense of the word), and then the meaning is, That in evil times, let things happen as they will, though it should be the fortune of the upright mail to be oppressed in the crowd; yet this happiness he will always have, that his mind will be at perfect ease and peace. Nothing shall ever discompose him, but in the midst of his sufferings his heart shall be replenished with perpetual Comfort. (Abp. Sharp.) Psalms 112:6 The righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance. The reputation of good men after death I. Whence it comes to pass, that good men are very often defrauded of their just praise and reputation whilst they are alive.1. From what cause it proceeds. (1) Good men themselves are many times the cause of it. For the best men are imperfect; and present and visible imperfections do very much lessen and abate the reputation of a man’ s goodness. (2) The principal cause is from others. From the hatred and opposition of bad men to holiness and virtue. From the envy of those who perhaps have some degree of goodness themselves. (3) There is something in the very presence and nearness of goodness and virtue, which is apt to lessen it. Perhaps familiarity and conversation does insensibly beget something of contempt; but whatever the reason of it be, we find the thing most certainly true in experience. 2. For what reasons the providence of God permits it thus to be. (1) To keep good men humble, and, as the expression is in Job, “ to hide pride from men.” (2) This life is not the proper season of reward, but of work and service. II. What security good men have of a good name after death.1. From the providence of God. (1) In respect of the equity of it. God, who will not be behindhand with any man, concerns Himself to secure to good men the proper reward of their piety and virtue. (2) In regard of the example of it. It is a great argument to virtue, and encouragement to men to act their part well, to see good men applauded, when they go off the stage. 2. The other part of the account of this truth is to be given from the nature of the thing: because death removes and takes away the chief obstacle of a good man’ s reputation. For then his defects are out of sight, and men are contented that his imperfections should be buried in his grave with him. III. Inferences by way of application.1. To vindicate the honour which the Christian Church hath for many ages done to the first teachers and martyrs of our religion; I mean more especially to the holy apostles of our Lord and Saviour; to whose honour the Christian Church hath thought fit to set apart solemn times, for the commemoration of their piety and suffering, and to stir up others to the imitation of them. 2. Let this consideration, that “ the righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance,” be an encouragement to us to piety and goodness. This, to a generous nature, that is sensible of honour and reputation, is no small reward and encouragement. 3. Whenever we pretend to do honour to the memory of good men, let us charge ourselves with a strict imitation of their holiness and virtue. (J. Tillotson.) Everlasting remembrance of the good I. It is seen in the favours which Heaven confers upon remote posterity for their sake. God blesses children’ s children, unborn generations, for the sake of a holy ancestor. David may be selected as an example of this (1 Kings 11:11-13; 1 Kings 15:4; 2 Kings 8:19). II. In the good which the Almighty accomplishes by their instrumentality through distant times.1. By their biography. 2. By their literary productions. III. In the connection of their labours with the indestructible consciousness of men. The saved and the lost will remember their counsel, their reproofs, their exhortations, their sermons, their prayers, for ever and ever. IV. In the blessings which the almighty will impart to them through all eternity. The subject teaches--(1) The immense value of a righteous man in society. His usefulness is as permanent as the stars. (2) The best method of achieving lasting fame. Usefulness alone can give it. (Homilist.) The religious aspect of history It is now more than six hundred years ago since one of the earliest fathers of English history, an inmate of the venerable Abbey of St. Albans, which nurtured the first school of English historical learning, recounted, at the commencement of his work, how he was vexed by questions, some put by envious detractors, some arising from serious perplexity, whether the record of times that were dead and gone was worthy of the labour and study of Christian men. He replied, with a lofty consciousness of the greatness of his task, first by an appeal to the highest instincts of man, and then added, as a further and complete sanction of these instincts, the words of the psalmist, “ The just shall be had in everlasting remembrance.” These are simple and familiar words; but the old chronicler of St. Albans was right in saying that they contain the principle which vindicates and sanctifies all historical research. “ If thou,” he said to his readers, “ if thou forgettest and despisest the departed of past generations, who will remember thee?” “ It was to keep alive,” so he added, “ the memory of the good, and teach us to abhor the bad, that all the sacred historians have striven from Moses down to the ‘ deep-souled’ chroniclers of the years in which we ourselves are living.”1. “ Everlasting remembrance” --“ eternal memory” --“ a memorial that shall endure from generation to generation.” This is what history aims to accomplish for the ages of the past. As we are reminded both by Scripture and by experience of the noble, the inextinguishable desire implanted within us to understand and to bring near to us the wonders of the firmament, so in like manner we may be assured that there lies deep in the human heart a desire not less noble, not less insatiable, to understand and to bring near to us the wonders of the ages that are dead and buried (Psalms 77:5; Psalms 77:10-11; Psalms 78:2-4). As the celestial spheres are mapped out by the natural student to guide the mariner, and “ for times, and for seasons, and for days, and for years,” so the spheres of earthly events are mapped out by the historical student, and the monuments of glory and the beacons of danger are set along the shores of the past, to direct us through the trackless ocean of the future. Happy, thrice happy he who has the ears to hear those voices of the dead which others cannot hear--who has the eyes to see those visions of the ancient times which to others are dim and dark. History may be fallible and uncertain, but it is our only guide to the great things that God has wrought for the race of man in former ages; it is the only means through which “ we can hear, and” through which “ our fathers can declare to us the noble works which He has done in their days, and in the old time before them.” 2. And not only the religion of the natural man, but the whole structure of the Bible is a testimony to the sacredness and the value of historical learning. Unlike all other sacred books, the sacred books both of the Old and New Testament are, at least half in each, not poetical, or dogmatical, but historical. Doctrine, precept, warning, exhortation, all are invested with double charms when clothed in the flesh and blood of historical facts. If there has been an “ everlasting remembrance “ of One supremely Just, in whom the Divine Mind was made known to man in a special and transcendent degree, it is because that Just One, the Holy and the True, “ became flesh and dwelt amongst us,” and became (so let us speak with all reverence and all truth) the subject of historical description, of historical research, of historical analysis, of historical comparison. The sacred historians of the Jewish Commonwealth--still more the simple, homely, but profound historians of the New Testament whom we call the Evangelist,--are the most impressive of all preachers. 3. And this power is not confined to the history of the Jewish people, or of the Christian Church. It extends to the history of “ the nations” --of “ the Gentiles,” as they are called in the Bible. “ The just,” without reserve, in whatever nation, and of whatever creed, “ is to be had in everlasting remembrance.” “ Whatsoever things are true,” etc., in whatsoever race, or under whatsoever form,--these things are the legitimate, the sacred, subjects which the Father of all good gifts has charged the historians of the world to read and to record wheresoever they can be discerned. (Dean Stanley.) The reputation of the righteous The desire of reputation is part of the social constitution which God has given us; and, when properly directed, has a powerful tendency to promote our moral perfection. But we desire not the esteem of our contemporaries alone. Extending our prospects through a wider sphere, we seek to be approved by the spirits of the just who adorned the ages that are past; and look forward, with fond expectation, to the reverence that awaits us, after this mortal frame shall have mouldered into dust. But though the desire of reputation be natural to man, and though it operates with peculiar force in the noblest minds; yet it is not to be followed as the guide of our conduct. It is valuable only when it acts in subordination to the principles of virtue, and gives additional force to their impression. Separated from these principles, it becomes a source of corruption and depravity. Instead of animating the soul to generous deeds, it descends to foster the swellings of vain glory, and to beget the meanness of ostentation, or the vileness of hypocrisy. When the love of praise is perverted to such unworthy purposes, it seldom accomplishes its end. For though the artifices of deceit may succeed for a while, and obtain for the undeserving a temporary applause, yet the constitution of things has placed an insuperable bar between the practice of iniquity and a durable reputation. To the virtuous alone belongs the reward of lasting glory; and the Almighty will not suffer a stranger to intermeddle with their joy. For them Providence has prepared the approbation of the age in which they live, and their memorial descends to warm the admiration of succeeding times. Light is sown for the upright; the memory of the just is blessed; and the righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance. Death removes the chief causes of uncharitable judgment, and enables us to estimate the value of departed worth, free from the influence of prejudice and passion. The little jealousies which darken the reputation of the living seldom pursue them beyond the limits of the grave. Envy ceases when their merit has ceased to be an obstacle to our ambition. Their imperfections are buried with their bodies in the tomb, and soon forgotten; while their better qualities, recalled often to our thoughts, and heightened by the inconveniences which their departure occasions, live in the remembrance of their neighbours, and receive the tribute of just approbation. We are even willing to repay them by an excess of praise for the injury we did them while alive. (J. Finlayson, D.D.) The immortality of influence We think that when a man dies he has done with the world, and that the world has done with him. That view, how, ever, needs revision. There is much about a man that cannot be put into a coffin. Keats left for his epitaph, “ Here lies one whose name was writ in water.” The names of men are generally so writ, but the life and character are impressed on society deeply, indelibly. We cannot properly speak of the immortality of bad influence; yet that influence spreads and persists to a distressing extent. But we can speak confidently about the immortality of the influence of the good. Abel being dead yet speaketh; we are not told that Cain does. It is a reassuring thing to know that the good which men do is not buried with their bones. Not only do remarkable saints influence posterity beneficially; all saints do so, although it may be in a less degree. We find it easy to believe that the men influence posterity whose deeds are emblazoned in history, whose books are in the libraries, whoso monuments are in the minster, but we are slow to believe in the posthumous life of the obscure and unknown. Yet the immortality of influence is just as true in regard to the humble as to the illustrious. Nature perpetuates the memory of the frailest and most fugitive life, of the simplest and most insignificant action and event. The rolling pebble, the falling leaf, and the rippling water of millions of years ago left their sign in the rocks. The minute creatures of the primeval world built up the strata on which we live, and affecting traces of their being and action are palpable everywhere. All this is going on still; every flash of lightning is photographed, every whisper vibrates for ever, every movement in the physical world leaves an imperishable record. Let us not, then, be anxious lest we should be forgotten. A secret law renders the lowliest life immortal. This gives a new view of the duration of life. We plaintively speak of human life as a dream, a flower, a shade. But the doctrine of the immortality of influence puts the subject in another light. We gain a new view of the seriousness of life. Confined to threescore years life appears insignificant; yet in the light of immortality of influence it appears unspeakably solemn. There is no circle to our influence but the horizon; we are alive to the coming of the Son of Man. We must wait for the last day before we are finally judged. Why? Because men do not close their account with the world at their death; our influence reaches to the last day, and therefore only then can the full and final verdict be given. (W. L. Watkinson.) Psalms 112:7 He shall not be afraid of evil tidings: his heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord. Heartsease Those who have laid hold on Christ Jesus, and are resting in the Father’ s love and power, have no reason to be disquieted: should all hell be unmuzzled, and all earth be unhinged, they may rejoice with a joy undamped by carnal fear or earthly sorrow. I. Evil tidings may come to the best of men--to those whoso hearts are fixed and are trusting in the Lord.1. Let us remember the frail tenure upon which we hold our temporal mercies: how soon may evil tidings come concerning them. We rightly class our families first in our possessions. Our dear relations are but loaned to us, and the hour when we must return them to the lender’ s hand may be even at the door. The like is certainly true of our worldly goods. Do not riches take to themselves wings and fly away? And though we have heard some almost profanely say that they have clipped the wings of their riches, so that they cannot fly, yet may the bird of prey rend them where they are, and the rotting carcase of the wealth which the owners cannot enjoy, may be a perpetual curse to them. Full often gold and silver canker in the coffer, and fret the soul of their claimant. This world at best is but a sandy foundation, and the wisest builder may well look for an end to the most substantial of its erections. Evil tidings may also come to us in another respect: we may suddenly find our health decay. That strength which now enables us to perform our daily business with delight, may so fail us that the slightest exertion may cause us pain. Certain expositors refer this passage to slander and reproach, and they translate it, “ He shall not be afraid of evil hearing.” It is one of the sharpest trials of the Christian’ s life to be misunderstood, misrepresented, and belied. The more prominent you are in Christ’ s service, the more certain are you to be the butt of calumny. In all these things, however, we ought to expect evil tidings. 2. Evil tidings will also come to us concerning spiritual matters, and babes in grace will be greatly alarmed. Every now and then there cometh a messenger with breathless haste, who tells us that the sages have discovered that the Bible is a fiction. But the religion of Jesus is so full of life, that her deadliest foes cannot make an end of her. We hear also at times that professors have fallen. Moreover, Satan will tell us that we are hypocrites, and conscience will remind us of sundry things which raise the suspicion that we are not soundly regenerated. 3. Moreover, the evil tidings of death will soon be brought to you by the appointed messenger The message will be given to us, “ The Master is come, and calleth for thee.” II A Christian at no time ought to fear either in expectation of evil tidings, or when the tidings actually arrive. And why?1. Because, if you be troubled, and distracted, what do you more than other men? Where is the dignity of that new nature which you claim to possess? 2. Again, if you should be filled with alarm, as others are, you would, doubtless, be led into the sins so common to others under trying circumstances. The ungodly, when they are overtaken by evil tidings, rebel against God; they murmur, and think that God deals hardly with them. Will you fall into that same sin? Will you provoke the Lord, as they do? 3. Further, you must not give way to these doubts and alarms and fears, for, if you do, you will be unfit to meet the trouble. 4. If you give way to fright and fear when you hear of evil tidings, how can you glorify God? III. Fixedness of heart is the true cure for being alarmed at evil tidings.1. The Christian’ s heart is fixed as to duty. He says within himself, “ It is my business so to walk as Christ also walked: it can never be right for me to do contrary to God’ s will. I have set the Lord always before me, and in integrity of heart will I walk all my way, wherever that way may lead.” Such a man is prepared for anything. 2. But, more comfortable than this, the Christian’ s heart is fixed as to knowledge and so prepared, he knows, for instance, that God sits in the stern-sheets of the vessel when it rocks most. He knows, too, that God is always wise, and, knowing this, he is prepared for all events. They cannot come amiss, saith he, there can be no accidents, no mistakes, nothing can occur which ought not to occur. 3. Further, there is the fixedness of resignation. When we gave ourselves to Christ, we gave Him our person, our estate, our friends, and everything. It is a good thing every morning to give all up to God, and then to live through the day, and thank Him for renewing the daily lease. 4. Better still, let me remind you of one form of fixedness which will make you outride every storm, namely, fixedness as to eternal things. “ I cannot lose” --the Christian may say--“ I cannot lose my best things.” 5. I believe that holy gratitude is one blessed way of fixing the soul on God and preparing it for trouble. IV. The great instrument of fixedness of heart is faith in God. “ His heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord.” You see that we have come hither by progressive steps. Evil tidings may come to an heir of heaven; he ought not to be afraid of them; the way to be prepared for them is to have the heart fixed and prepared, and the method of having the heart fixed is confident trustfulness in the Lord. God is never away from any of His children, but He is nearest to those who are the most sad, and sick, and troubled. If there be one sheep in the fold that is more watched over than the rest, it is the weakest sheep. “ He carrieth the lambs in His bosom, and gently leadeth those that are with young.” (C. H. Spurgeon.) Trust in God the best antidote against fear 1. The truster in the Lord shall not be afraid of tidings of wrath and condemnation from the law of God. 2. The truster in God shall not be afraid of sin’ s recovering its dominion over him. 3. The truster in the Lord of hosts shall not be afraid of tidings of calamity to the Church of God. 4. The truster in God shall not be afraid to hear of public national disasters. 5. The truster in the Lord shall not be afraid of tidings of persecution for the sake of Christ. 6. The truster in the Lord shall not be afraid of the tidings of arduous duties, to which he finds himself altogether unequal. 7. The truster in the Lord shall not be afraid of tidings of personal worldly losses and afflictions. 8. The fixed truster in the Lord shall not be afraid of the evil tidings of his own death. 9. The fixed truster in God shall not be afraid of tidings of judgment. Learn--1. That fearful doubts and apprehensions are no part of the character of a Christian. 2. The true principle of a steady and upright practice, namely, trust in God. 3. The reason why God often makes His people to hear evil tidings; and that is, to try their trust in Him. 4. What unhappy persons are believers! If the truster in God is afraid of no evil tidings, they have reason to be afraid of everything; for the wrath of God abideth on them, and His wrath is comprehensive of all evil, both in this world and that which is to come. (A. Swanston.) The unreasonableness of fear in the Christian 1. The anxiety of the Christian partakes of the unreasoning terror of childhood. The nervousness of little children is often extreme. What agonies of suspense! what excruciating listening! what cold sweats the little ones suffer when alone in the darkness! But, growing older, we discover how groundless and foolish this childish terror was, and that all the suffering which arose out of it was absolutely needless. In the dark night, when we were almost paralyzed by fear, how a father’ s or mother’ s reassuring voice scattered the ghosts, and once more restored to us sweet sleep! Shall it not be thus again as we listen to the voice of the Heavenly Father? Carlyle considers “ that the extent to which we have put fear under our feet is a good measure of manhood” ; and it is certainly a sign of the reality and growth of the spiritual life that we walk with increasing confidence. 2. The fear of the Christian partakes of the unreasonableness of the terror of the savage. Ignorant of the laws which govern the system of nature, the savage is the victim of the wildest and most distressing fancies. The storm, the eclipse, the lightning and thunder inspire him with boundless terror, because he interprets them by an arbitrary and gloomy imagination. But it is entirely different with the educated European. He has come to understand the great and beautiful laws which regulate the movements of earth and sky and sea; and with perfect confidence and satisfaction, with entire admiration and delight the astronomer and meteorologist look upon the very phenomena which occasion the savage the ghastliest terror--the vast horror of the untutored mind gives place in the breast of the philosopher to a rational confidence. The anxiety of the Christian has its origin in a defective faith in the Divine government of the world, and is so far kindred with the fear of the superstitious heathen. When we once believe in our very heart that God rules, that He rules well, and that He rules perfectly for the individual as for the universe at large, we regard disturbing events with serene confidence and hopefulness; but how slowly we come to understand and rest in this wise and loving sovereignty! 3. The fear of the Christian partakes of the unreasoning alarm and anxiety that we sometimes perceive in the brute. A bit of vapour from a passing engine will create a panic in a flock of sheep or herd of cattle; they fly panting before the empty whiff of steam as if it were a wolf or leopard. Are not we equally absurd? We are haunted by imaginary fears, we are alarmed beyond expression by baseless imaginations, we see dark omens in things and events which do not and which cannot harm us. Most of us have sniffed ruin in bits of vapour, and suffered martyrdoms in frantic efforts to escape them. How much wiser it would have been to repose and feed in the green pastures into which the faithful Shepherd leads us! And we habitually give way to a causeless and useless anxiety about the things of life which is entirely irrational. The beavers at the London Zoological Gardens are fed every day and have nothing to fear from the weather, but their old instincts are strong, and they make a fussy show of storage against the winter; and the few branches which are given them only in make believe they engineer with the greatest industry and ingenuity; everything is really done by their keepers for their protection and provision, but they are unconscious of it all, and in a feeble way they store and build as if they were in the wilds and everything depended upon their forethought and toil. How much is this like our gratuitous and abortive anxiety in relation to the government of God! (Anon.) Not afraid of evil tidings An eminent divine, eccentric but honest, said pleasantly and religiously that he was never afraid to open his letter bag. He was in full possession, we may conclude, of the “ mens conscia recti,” the upright consciousness. He lived, as he himself expressed it, with all his windows constantly wide open, that is, the world was ever welcome to fasten the prying inquisitive corner of its evil eye upon him and all his doings. Living thus honestly, as in the day, he had nought to fear from messenger or letter bag. He opened his daily letters fearlessly. That expression of Sydney Smith’ s was a familiar version of our text. It expresses the enviable calm of an honest and good heart. The first who feared was Adam. Guilt caused his fear. “ I heard Thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid!” “ Why?” “ I was naked. My soul in its disobedience was exposed to the all-seeing Eye. I was uncovered of the robe of duty and obedience, and I dreaded punishment. I feared my physician’ s face.” All along the pages of history runs a stream of like fear. Poor old Jacob, waiting his sons’ second return from Egypt. The trembling mother, watching and awaiting the fate of her bulrush ark. David, lying upon the earth and listening with strained ear, to every faint whisper of the servants, as they spoke of his guilt-born child. Felix, wondering as he listened to each round period, how near and nearer judgment was coming. All these are examples of human nature afraid of evil tidings. But trusting in the Lord God, we need fear no evil, and no tidings of evil. The black seal will then only mean, “ here is another messenger to tell me my own time draws near.” The consumption, and the growing weakness, and all the other heralds of death will find us prepared with the utterance, “ O God, my heart is fixed, my heart is fixed, I will even sing and give praise.” The little harmless speculation, the haps of the regiment, the delay of the ship, the story about the son or daughter, the witness to our misdeed, the enemy, the slanderer, the possible danger, the probable affliction--all, everything, whatever betide, whatever befall, whatever may threaten--can then only bring out the calm declaration, “ My heart is fixed--O God, Thou knowest my heart is fixed, trusting in Thee.” There have been men, and women too, who have read with brave solemnity their own warrant of death; over whom the glittering axe has had no terrors, the fire and fagot no unworthy influence. Their heart has been fixed. Of all which this is the point. See that we have our hearts fixed upon God, our feet upon the Rock of Ages, our house built firmly, our sin’ s penalty transferred surely. Then we need fear no evil tidings. (S. B. James, M.A.) Established on God Here is a most remarkable type of man--quite out of the line of our every-day experience. One is impelled to look back at the earlier verses of the psalm to see who “ he” may be! Not afraid of evil tidings! quite a unique person, then--calm as he scans the startling telegram, serene and composed while he reads the black-edged sheet! There is a moral dignity in a character which is not easily shaken and swayed to and fro by every wind of circumstance; we would all like to be possessed of a character firmly rooted, established; therefore the text ought to have an interest for us all. In writing “ evil tidings” the psalmist was thinking of what we commonly call bad news, and to enter into his meaning it is necessary to realize the world’ s bad news. How much there is! The world seems full of it; so full, indeed, that the glad news of God--the good news of the kingdom of heaven--is often unheeded for this cause alone. The world’ s bad news reaches us in many ways. We read it on placards and newspaper headlines. A “ Stella” goes down, an express train is wrecked, a mine is flooded, or the first shot is fired and a bloody war begins! These are the common “ evil tidings” of the world. We can all most fervently join in that petition of the Litany--“ From lightning and tempest; from plague, pestilence, and famine; from battle and murder, and from sudden death, good Lord, deliver us!” Now, I want rather to direct your thoughts to the man who is not afraid of the world’ s bad news even at its worst. “ He shall not be afraid of any evil tidings.” Who is he? In the Biblical examples and teachings about the righteous man, there is a moral grandeur and dignity unsurpassed in the literatures of the world. Where else in the realm of literature should we go--even if we were not Christians--to find a more exalted and dignified description of man at his best? In the far Eastern literatures of China and India we can easily find sages, dreamers, and adepts of occult philosophy. In Greek literature we meet with heroes, poets, and philosophers in abundance. In Roman literature there is no lack of soldiers, statesmen, and lawgivers; and there are stories among them all of men who knew how to endure the extremity of suffering without making any sign of despair. But the Hebrew literature of the Old Testament flowers in the portraiture of the righteous man. For the moment we may omit any reference to the New Testament as outside the region of mere literary comparison. In reviewing these facts the question naturally arises, Why is the righteous man the flower of Hebrew literature? And the answer is inevitable: Because the Hebrew Bible is the product of men who had a sense of God, the holy and just One, the eternally righteous One! The righteous man is rooted on the rock; that is, the roots of his faith are closely entwined round the central rock of the universe--“ the Rock of Ages.” “ His heart is fixed, standeth fast, trusting in the Lord.” The most modern of the world’ s mystics, Maurice Maeterlinck, seems to have entered deeply into the meaning of our text. In his latest book he asks the question, “ Is the sage never to suffer?” And when Maeterlinck writes “ sage” he means the good, the truly wise man. “ Is the sago never to suffer?” he asks. “ Shall no storm ever break on the roof of his dwelling, no traps be laid to ensnare him? Shall wife and friends never fail him? Must his father not die, and his mother, his brothers, his sons--must all these not die like the rest?” And to his own questions Maeterlinck answers, “ Needs must the sage (or good man) like his neighbour be startled from sleep by blows at the door that cause the whole house to tremble. He, too, must go down and parley. But yet, as he listens, his eyes are not fixed on the bringer of evil tidings; his glance will at times be lifted over the messenger’ s shoulder, will scan the dust on the horizon in search of the mighty Idea that perhaps may be near at hand.” Could we find a better commentary on our text? In this spirit--old as Abraham, yet new-born to-day--we can face all the events of the coming time, and “ Greet the Unseen with a cheer!” No doubt the Messenger of Sorrow will knock at all our doors, for it is not his custom to pass any by; but while we listen to his message we can lift our glance over his shoulder, and seeing Jesus, who has overcome the world, we call “ be of good cheer” and say, “ Whatever thy news may be, there shall no evil befall us, for our heart standeth fast and trusteth in the Lord.” (A. E. Hooper.) The fixed compass The pattern saint of this psalm is happy as well as holy. Evil tidings, when they come, will pierce a good man’ s heart; but in two things he has an advantage over those who know not God: first, he is not kept in terror before the time by the anticipation of possible calamity; and next, even when calamity overtakes him, he does not look upon it in blank despair. He knows that it is the chastening of a Father, and is sure that love is wielding the rod. “ His heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord.” This man has a solidity and an independence which others never know. His heart is fixed. It is something to have one’ s mind made up and settled. No man can be happy as long as he does not know his own mind--does not know what he would be at. On the contrary, “ if thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.” To have an object in view, and to go straight at it, constitutes in a great measure the difference between a useful and a wasted life. We obtain here an interesting glimpse of the true relation in which the children stand to our Father in heaven. It is a matter of the heart, more than even of the intellect. True religion is not a matter into which a man is driven against his will; it is a matter that he seeks with desire, as the hart panteth for the water-brooks. The heart goes to God; the desires of the new nature flow out in that direction: “ Nearer to Thee, my God; nearer to Thee.” And then, when you come nigh in the covenant, God is not a terror, but a trust. The magnet of the ship’ s compass is in this aspect very like a godly man in the course of his earthly pilgrimage. The magnet on the sea and the believing soul in this life are firmly fixed on one side, and hang loose on the other. Both alike are fastened mysteriously to the distant and unseen, but are slack and easily moved in all their material settings. Precisely because they are unattached beneath, they are free to keep by their hold on high; and precisely because of their hold on high, they do not turn round with every movement of their material supports. (W. Arnot, D.D.) Psalms 112:9-10 He hath given to the poor. The excellency and reward of charity Among the various methods of giving glory to God, it is none of the least considerable to celebrate the acts and the reward of His saints. Whilst He is acknowledged for the author of their virtue and their happiness, there will be no danger of declining by this means to superstition and idolatry; the Creator’ s power and goodness will be observed resplendent in His creatures, but not the creature worshipped instead of the Creator. So thought the holy penman of this psalm, who undertakes to set forth the praises of the Lord, by declaring the blessings of the man that delights in His commandments. I. The amiable nature of a beneficent and bounteous disposition.1. The general notion and exercise of this virtue. “ He hath given to the poor.” It appears to he a principle of nature, that all who have ability, whether of purse, of body, or of mind, are bound to consider the necessities of other people, and spare some decent proportion of their own superfluities, to supply them in such manner as their respective exigencies call for help. The voice of nature, in this as well as other matters, is confirmed by the unerring precepts of revealed religion (1 Timothy 6:17-18; Acts 20:35; Ephesians 4:28). 2. Its great extent and diffusive quality. “ He hath dispersed,” says the psalmist, or (in the old translation) “ He hath dispersed abroad,” not confined himself to one or two such acts of charity, but repeated them with frequency, and spread them with discretion. As the husbandman takes care that his ground be first duly prepared for the improvement of his seed, and throws it not away on rocks or uncultivated deserts; so the liberal man should he careful to bestow his bounty where it may turn to use and benefit, and spread abroad with greatest profit and advantage to mankind. 3. Its duration and influence on future times. “ His righteousness endureth for ever,” i.e. it shall always be had in remembrance before God (as is intimated of the alms of Cornelius), and receive such a reward from Him, as will demonstrate that his substance has not been wasted or thrown away, but discreetly improved to his own greatest advantage. This will be often seen in the increase of temporal blessings to him and his posterity (verses 2, 3; 2 Corinthians 9:8). And if this temporal increase do not always follow, yet the psalmist adds that “ unto the righteous there ariseth light in the darkness,” such inward peace and tranquillity of mind as must more than counterbalance all the outward evil of adversity. II. The happiness or reward annexed to such beneficence. “ His horn shall be exalted with honour.” It is said of godliness, or the practice of religion in general, that it has the promise of the life that now is, as well as of that which is to come. But more particularly is that part of godliness, namely bounty to the poor, encouraged to trust in the care and goodness of Providence, even for temporal prosperity (Proverbs 11:24). Our Saviour represents it as the test of that reckoning He shall make with us at the last day, whether we have duly ministered to the various wants of His afflicted members, which He will esteem as done unto Himself. And therefore St. Paul has pertinently urged it as the ground why rich men should be ready to distribute, and willing to communicate, that so they may lay up in store for themselves a good foundation (or charter) against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life. Then shall their horn truly be exalted with the highest honour. Not that the bare act of giving alms can ever entitle us to such a reward! But when it is given, as it is here considered, from a religious principle, it will then be accompanied with other Christian virtues, all springing from the same root of faith and obedience, which is the very condition of our laying hold on the Gospel promises, and entering into endless felicity. This is to receive honour from God, that durable, substantial honour which should chiefly be regarded. (W. Berriman, D.D.) Thy duty and reward of bounty to the poor Our text hath two parts, one affording us good information concerning our duty, the other yielding great encouragement to the performance thereof; for we are obliged to follow the pious man’ s practice, and so doing we shall assuredly partake of his condition. The main drift is, to represent the liberal exercising of bounty and mercy to be the necessary duty, the ordinary practice, and the proper character of a truly pious man; so that performing such acts is a good sign of true piety; and omitting them is a certain argument of ungodliness. I. I will show with what advantage the Holy Scripture represents it to us, or presses it on us.1. We may consider that there is no sort of duties which God hath more expressly commanded, or more earnestly inculcated, than these of bounty and mercy toward our brethren: whence evidently the great moment of them, and their high value in God’ s esteem may be inferred. 2. It is indeed observable that as in every kind that which is most excellent doth commonly assume to itself the name of the whole kind; so among the parts of righteousness (which word is used to comprehend all virtue and goodness) this of exercising bounty and mercy is peculiarly called righteousness: so that righteousness and mercifulness (or alms-deeds), the righteous and bountiful person, are in Scripture expression ordinarily confounded, as it were, or undistinguishably put one for the other. 3. We may also consequently mark that in those places of Scripture where the Divine law is abridged, and religion summed up into a few particulars of main importance, these duties constantly make a part. 4. It is in like manner considerable that in the general descriptions of piety and goodness, the practice of these duties is specified as a grand ingredient of them. In this psalm, where such a description is intended, it is almost the only particular instance; and it is not only mentioned, but reiterated in divers forms of expression. In the 37th psalm it is affirmed and repeated, that “ the righteous showeth mercy; he showeth mercy, and giveth; he showeth mercy, and lendeth.” 5. Also in the particular histories of good men this sort of practice is specially taken notice of, and expressed in their characters. In the story of Abraham, his benignity to strangers, and hospitableness, is remarkable among all his deeds of goodness, being propounded to us as a pattern and encouragement to the like practice. In this the conscience of Job did solace itself, as in a solid assurance of his integrity: “ I delivered the poor that cried,” etc. 6. So near to the heart of piety doth Scripture lay the practice of these duties: and no wonder; for it often expressly declares charity to be the fulfilling of God’ s law, as the best expression of all our duty toward God, of faith in Him, love and reverence of Him, and as either formally containing, or naturally producing all our duty toward our neighbour. And of charity, works of bounty and mercy are both the chief instances, and the plainest signs. 7. To enforce which observations, and that we may be farther certified about the weight and worth of these duties, we may consider that to the observance of them most ample and excellent rewards are assigned; that, in return for what we bestow on our poor brethren, God hath promised all sorts of the best mercies and blessings to us. 8. And correspondently grievous punishments are designed and denounced to the transgressors of these duties; they, for being such, do forfeit God’ s love and favour; they can have no sure possession, nor any comfortable enjoyment of their estate; for “ he,” saith St. James, “ shall have judgment without mercy, who showeth no mercy.” 9. It is indeed most considerable that at the final reckoning, when all men’ s actions shall be strictly scanned, and justly sentenced according to their true desert, a special regard will be had to the discharge or neglect of these duties. II. In regard to God--1. We may consider that, by exercising of bounty and mercy, we are kind and courteous to God Himself; by neglecting those duties, we are unkind and rude to Him: for that what of good or evil is by us done to the poor, God interprets and accepts as done to Himself. 2. We by practising those duties are just, by omitting them are very unjust toward God. For our goods, our wealth, and our estate are indeed none of them simply or properly our own; God necessarily is the true and absolute proprietary of them. 3. Showing bounty and mercy are the most proper and the principal expressions of our gratitude unto God; so that in omitting them we are not only very unjust, but highly ungrateful. We may seem abundantly to thank Him in words; but a sparing hand gives the lie to the fullest mouth: we may spare our breath, if we keep back our substance. 4. Yea, all our devotion, severed from a disposition of practising these duties, cannot have any true worth in it, shall not yield any good effect from it. Our prayers, if we are uncharitably disposed, what are they other than demonstrations of egregious impudence and folly? 5. The conscionable practice of these duties doth plainly spring from those good dispositions of mind regarding God, which are the original grounds and fountains of all true piety; and the neglect of them issueth from those vicious dispositions which have a peculiar inconsistency with piety, being destructive thereof in the very foundation and root. Faith in God is the fundamental grace on which piety is grounded; love and fear of God are the radical principles from which it grows: all which as the charitable man discovers in his practice, so they are apparently banished from the heart of the illiberal and unmerciful person. 6. Let us consider that nothing is more conformable to God’ s nature, or renders us more like to Him, than beneficence and mercy; and that consequently nothing can be more grateful to Him: that nothing is more disagreeable and contrary to the essential disposition of God, than illiberality and unmercifulness; and therefore that nothing can be more distasteful to Him. III. In regard to our neighbour.1. He whose need craves our bounty, whose misery demands our mercy, what is he? He within himself containeth a nature very excellent; an immortal soul, and an intelligent mind, by which he nearly resembleth God Himself, and is comparable to angels: he invisibly is owner of endowments, rendering him capable of the greatest and best things. 2. That distinction which thou standest on, and which seemeth so vast between thy poor neighbour and thee, what is it? whence did it come? whither tends it? What the philosopher said of himself, “ What I have is so mine, that it is every man’ s,” is according to the practice of each man, who is truly and in due measure charitable; whereby that seemingly enormous discrimination among men is well moderated, and the equity of Divine providence is vindicated. But he that ravenously grasps for more than he can well use, and gripes it fast into his clutches, so that the needy in their distress cannot come by it, doth pervert that equity which God hath established in things, defeats His good intentions (so far as he can), and brings a scandal on His providence: and so doing is highly both injurious and impious. 3. It was also one main end of this difference among us, permitted by God’ s providence, that as some men’ s industry and patience might be exercised by their poverty, so other men by their wealth should have ability of practising justice and charity; that so both rich and poor might thence become capable of recompenses, suitable to the worth of such virtuous performances. “ Why art thou rich,” saith St. Basil, “ and he poor? Surely for this; that thou mayest attain the reward of benignity, and faithful dispensation; and that he may be honoured with the great prize of patience.” 4. We should also do well to consider that a poor man, even as such, is not to be disregarded, and that poverty is no such contemptible thing as we may be prone to imagine. Shall we presume, in the person of any poor man, to abhor or contemn the very poor, but most holy and most happy Jesus, our Lord and Redeemer? No; if we will do poverty right, we must rather for His dear sake and memory defer an especial respect and veneration thereto. 5. Thus a due reflection on the poor man himself, his nature and state, will induce us to succour. But let us also consider him as related unto ourselves: every such person is our near kinsman, is our brother, is by indissoluble bands of cognation in blood, and agreement in nature, knit and united to us. 6. Farther, as the poor man is so nearly allied to us by society of common nature, so is he more strictly joined to us by the bands of spiritual consanguinity. IV. If we reflect on ourselves, and consider either our nature, or our state here, we cannot but observe many strong engagements to the same practice.1. The very constitution, frame, and temper of our nature directeth and inclineth us thereto; whence, by observing those duties, we observe our own nature, we improve it, we advance it to the best perfection it is capable of; by neglecting them, we thwart, we impair, we debase the same. 2. And if the sensitive part within us doth suggest so much, the rational dictates more unto us: that heavenly faculty, having capacities so wide, and so mighty energies, was surely not created to serve mean or narrow designs; it was not given us to scrape eternally in earth, or to amass heaps of clay for private enjoyment. 3. Farther, examining ourselves, we may also observe that we are in reality, what our poor neighbour appears to be, in many respects no less indigent and impotent than he: we no less, yea far more, for our subsistence depend on the arbitrary power of another, than he seemeth to rely on ours. 4. The great uncertainty and instability of our condition doth also require our consideration. We, that now flourish in a fair and full estate, may soon be in the case of that poor creature, who now sues for our relief; we, that this day enjoy the wealth of Job, may the morrow need his patience. 5. And equity doth exact no less: for were any of us in the needy man’ s plight, we should believe our case deserved commiseration; we should importunately demand relief; we should be grievously displeased at a repulse; we should apprehend ourselves very hardly dealt with, and sadly we should complain of inhumanity and cruelty, if succour were refused to us. 6. We should also remember concerning ourselves, that we are mortal and frail. V. If we contemplate our wealth itself, we may therein descry great motives to bounty.1. Thus to employ our riches is really the best use they are capable of: not only the most innocent, most worthy, most plausible, but the most safe, most pleasant, most advantageous, and consequently in all respects most prudent way of disposing them. 2. Excluding this use of wealth, or abstracting a capacity of doing good therewith, nothing is more pitiful and despicable than it; it is but like the load or the trappings of an ass: a wise man on that condition would not choose it, or endure to be pestered with it; but would serve it as those philosophers did, who flung it away, that it might not disturb their contemplations: it is the power it affords of benefiting men, which only can season and ingratiate if to the relish of such a person: otherwise it is evidently true, which the wise man affirms (Proverbs 15:16). 3. Again, we may consider that to dispense our wealth liberally is the best way to preserve it, and to continue masters thereof; what we give is not thrown away, but saved from danger: while we detain it at home (as it seems to us) it really is abroad and at adventures; it is out at sea, sailing perilously in storms, near rocks and shelves, amongst pirates; nor can it ever be safe, till it is brought into this port, or insured this way: when we have bestowed it on the poor, then we have lodged it in unquestionable safety; in a place where no rapine, no deceit, no mishap, no corruption can ever by any means come at it. 4. Nay, farther, we may consider that exercising bounty is the most advantageous method of improving and increasing an estate; but that being tenacious and illiberal, doth tend to the diminution and decay thereof. 5. Farther, the contributing part of our goods to the poor will qualify us to enjoy the rest with satisfaction and comfort. The oblation of these first-fruits, as it will sanctify the whole lump of our estate, so it will sweeten it. 6. The peculiar nature of our religion specially requires it, and the honour thereof exacts it from us; nothing better suits Christianity, nothing more graces it, than liberality; nothing is more inconsistent therewith, or more disparageth it, than being miserable and sordid. VI. Some rewards peculiar to the exercising the duties of bounty and mercy.1. “ His righteousness endureth for ever.” These words may import that the fame and remembrance of his bounty is very durable, or that the effects thereof do lastingly continue, or that eternal rewards are designed thereto; they may respect the bountiful man himself, or his posterity here; they may simply relate to an endurance in God’ s regard and care; or they may with that also comprehend a continuance in the good memory and honourable mention of men. Now, in truth, according to all these interpretations, the bountiful man’ s righteousness doth endure for ever. 2. “ His horn shall be exalted with honour.” This may be supposed to import that an abundance of high and holy, of firm and solid honour shall attend on the bountiful person. And that so it truly shall, may from many considerations appear. (1) Honour is inseparably annexed thereto, as its natural companion and shadow. God hath impressed on all virtue a majesty and a beauty which do command respect, and with a kindly violence extort veneration from men. (2) An accession of honour, according to gracious promise (grounded on somewhat of special reason, of equity and decency in the thing itself), is due from God unto the bountiful person, and is by special providence surely conferred on him. (3) God will thus exalt the bountiful man’ s horn even here in this world, and to an infinitely higher pitch He will advance it in the future state: he shall there be set at the right hand, in a most honourable place and rank, among the chief friends and favourites of the Heavenly King, in happy consortship with the holy angels and blessed saints; where, in recompense of his pious bounty, he shall, from the bountiful hands of his most gracious Lord, receive “ an incorruptible crown of righteousness,” and an “ unfading crown of glory.” (Isaac Barrow, D.D.) The commendation and reward of the benevolent man I. His conduct is commended.1. Its disinterestedness. 2. Its judicious distinction of their recipients and their circumstances. 3. Its modesty, and the benignity of manner in which it is performed. 4. Its evangelical motive and single aim. He looks to Calvary, and sees there the grand incentive to all virtue. The influence under which he acts is not the temporary excitement of sympathetic feeling, nor the sentimental emotion of a poetic generosity, nor the feverish thirst for distinction and applause, nor the mere mechanical habit of doing as others have done; but it is a Divine influence--a motive which comes fresh into his bosom from the fount of all purity and grace, and which instigates not to a fitful, but to a persevering--not to an indolent, but to an indefatigable--not to a self-complacent, but to a self-denying exercise of that “ pure religion which is to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.” He who from such a principle engages in offices of brotherly kindness and charity never arrogates to himself the glory, but ascribes it all to God. II. His reward.1. The exercise of benevolence naturally conciliates esteem. All virtuous conduct is deemed honourable; but men ever reserve their best eulogiums for the disinterested benefactors of their kind. 2. The inspired writers in repeated instances speak of it as part at least of a good man’ s singular felicity that his name shall be followed with blessings, and the remembrance of his piety be cherished when he has entered upon his everlasting rest. 3. The chief part of that reward which it pleases God to bestow upon Christian beneficence is reserved for another world. Little as we know of that future state of being upon which we enter at death, we are left in no doubt of the fact, that it will be to every man a state of misery or of happiness, according to the manner in which he shall have spent this present probationary season on earth. They, consequently, who, “ by patient continuance in well-doing, are seeking for glory, honour, and immortality,” shall not find themselves disappointed at last. (E. Steane.) . Psalms 113:1-9 Psalms 113:1-9 Praise the name of the Lord. Highest service and the highest Being I. The highest service in which intelligent creatures can engage. What is praise? Not verbal laudation, however enthusiastic in feeling, appropriate in language, or transporting in music. What, then, is it to praise God? It is to have our whole souls, and being, attuned to His holy character, and to His benevolent purpose. A holy life is the only true anthem.1. Because its inspiration can alone give worth to all other services. 2. Because it alone can harmoniously develop and satisfy all the faculties and aspirations of our nature. It is-- (1) A service for all men (verse 1).(2) A service for all time (verse 2).(3) A service for all space (verse 3). II. The highest being that intelligent creatures can contemplate.1. His character. All-wise, all-holy, all-merciful, etc. 2. His incomparableness (verse 4). 3. His condescension (verse 6). 4. His operation-- (1) Abroad in society (verse 7).(2) At home in families (verse 9). He operates in families as well as abroad and in society. To Him the birth of every child must be ascribed. (Homilist.) Psalms 113:5-8 Who is like unto the Lord our God, who dwelleth on high? The greatness and goodness of God I. His inconceivable greatness (verse 5).1. The place of His habitation. With great propriety, heaven, and the heaven of heavens, though they cannot contain God’ s essence, are represented to us as the place of His immediate abode; there His glory dwells. This heaven is called the high and the holy place. “ He dwelleth on high,” far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named. 2. His infinite superiority to the greatest of beings and the greatest of things. The purest and loftiest angel that stands in the presence of God is far removed beneath Him. How much more must He stoop, then, to behold the things that are done on the earth, things of the greatest interests--things that in our view swell into the mightiest importance. II. His matchless goodness (Psalms 113:6-8).1. The ministrations of His providence. 2. The manifestations of His grace. Consider not only the general scheme of our recovery by grace Divine, through the humiliation, and suffering, and death, and burial of the Divine Redeemer, but consider the manner in which this salvation is applied by the sovereign and gracious operations of the Holy Spirit. 3. The revelations of eternity. “ Eye hath not seen,” etc.III. What practical lessons may we learn from the combined or associated display of the greatness and goodness of God.1. Let it fix on our minds a deep sense of our own insignificance, meanness, and vileness. 2. Let it promote reverence in worship. 3. Let it nourish in our bosoms confidence towards God. 4. Let it scatter-- (1) Those doubts of scepticism, and those hesitations of infidelity which are too industriously spread amongst us at the present day. The minute observation which God’ s providence takes of the affairs of men. (2) The efficacy of believing prayer. (G. Clayton.) God’ s condescension in beholding the things in heaven and in earth I. The unequalled majesty and glory of God.1. He dwelleth on high. He is described as “ seated on a throne high and lifted up” (Isaiah 6:1). The residence of His glory is in the heavenly world. From thence He beholds the whole universe, reigneth over it; and all creatures, and all worlds are under His government and control. 2. There is none like Him. It is impossible, in the nature of things, that there should be any more than one eternal, self-existent Being. II. His great and amazing condescension.1. It is great condescension in God to behold the things that are in heaven--the saints and angels; for they are creatures, and fall infinitely short of Him in perfection. They cannot by searching find out God, nor have they minds capacious enough to receive Him, Besides, their best services, though not sinful and polluted, are yet imperfect. They are not equal to His glory; for “ He is exalted above all blessing and praise.” 2. It is greater and more wonderful condescension to behold the things on earth. They derive their being from the dust; dwell in houses of clay; at their best estate they are altogether vanity; will soon be laid in the grave and turned to corruption. They have lost their innocence and are become unclean; have lost their order and are become irregular. They often desire, judge, and act wrong; and there is not one that perfectly doeth good, no, not one. By the generality of men God is affronted, neglected, or forgotten. Even the worship and obedience of His saints, of the best of His saints, are imperfect and polluted. Who, then, is like to the Lord our God, that stoops to regard such creatures, and be so good to a world so full of vanity, sin, and pollution? III. Application.1. Learn to reverence this great and glorious Being, since He dwelleth on high, and there is none like Him. 2. Learn the odious nature of pride. 3. The condescension of God affords much comfort to His people. 4. How strongly should the condescension of God attract our hearts to Him, and make our gratitude and love to Him warm and constant. 5. Learn to imitate the condescension of God. To be friendly and affable to all, and stoop with a grace, is to be polite, to be a gentleman; yea, what is better, it is to be a Christian; to be so far like God. Condescension is not meanness. The very word implies dignity. As you owe more to God than others, for His bounty to you, show your gratitude this way. By kindness and condescension you will be esteemed and beloved; for “ before honour is humility; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.” (Job Orton, D.D.) The majesty and condescension of God There are two propositions in the text which human reason could never unite. “ Who is like unto the Lord our God, who dwelleth on high?” --but yet He “ humbleth Himself to behold the things that are in heaven, and that are in the earth.” And the reason why the mere unassisted faculties of man could never unite these two ideas is, that they could not, in the nature of things, be united, but by the third discovery, which must come from God Himself, and show the other two in perfect harmony,--the discovery that “ God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son,” etc. There God and man met. And when we know this, and enter into the spirit of this great truth, then we know that there is a philanthropy, a love of man, in God; an intense, a boundless love even of creatures low and degraded as they are; then we wonder no longer how it is that He who exalteth Himself to dwell on high should humble Himself to behold, not only the things which are in heaven, but those also upon the earth. I. God dwelleth on high.1. This is a declaration of the Divine majesty, designed to rebuke that thoughtlessness which we are so apt to indulge, and to impress us with that reverence which is at once so becoming and so necessary. 2. This is a revelation of His power. Everything being subject to Him who is high above all, whose almighty power has hitherto controlled all things, and continues to control and regulate them, this revelation of the Divine power is made, that man--the man that trusts in God, and rests upon His almighty power--may be afraid of nothing; and that, when he has to believe any express promise which is made to him in the Word of God, whose accomplishment, to the man of the world, seems altogether impossible, he may say, “ Is any thing too hard for the Lord?” 3. This is a revelation of His wisdom, of His infinite and arranging wisdom. It is connected with our comfort, as to individual life; connected with our confidence, as to God’ s Church; and connected with all our views of Providence, as to the management and issues of the affairs of this world. II. As is the majesty, so also is the mercy of our God (verse 7).1. This condescension of God to things on earth respects, the regard which He has had for our race, for the race fallen indeed as it is, poor, and seated in the dust, and lying on the dunghill. 2. There is, no doubt, also, a reference in this to the respect which God pays even to the lower ranks of the race, seeing that He raiseth up the poor, and lifteth up the needy. 3. The text includes a reference, also, to the condescension of God in His relation to man in circumstances of trouble. His eye penetrates through the ranks of angels, and fixes upon a trembling, humble, contrite sinner. 4. The expressions of the text refer to our nature. Christ, who is the head, cannot be exalted without the members; and therefore Christ’ s exaltation is the pattern of ours; His body, now incorruptible, the pattern of our body to be glorified; His stainless glorified spirit the pattern of ours, which is to be without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing, pure as the light in which God dwells in the kingdom of heaven, the very place into which He has entered; this glory is to be the residence of His people for ever. (R. Watson.) The extent of the Divine condescension God, in addition to the bare faculty of dwelling on a multiplicity of objects at one and the same time, has this faculty in such wonderful perfection, that He can attend as fully, and provide as richly, and manifest all His attributes as illustriously, on every one of these objects, as if the rest had no existence, and no place whatever in His government or in His thoughts. I. For the evidence of this position, we appeal, in the first place, to the personal history of each individual. His eye is upon every hour of my existence. His Spirit is intimately present with every thought of my heart. His inspiration gives birth to every purpose within me. His hand impresses a direction on every footstep of my goings. Every breath I inhale is drawn by an energy which God deals out to me. And what God is doing with me, He is doing with every individual.2. But, secondly, were the mind of God so fatigued, and so occupied with the care of other worlds, as the objection presumes Him to be, should we not see some traces of neglect or of carelessness in His management of ours? Should we not behold, in many a field of observation, the evidence of its Master being overcrowded with the variety of His other engagements? 3. But, thirdly, it was the telescope, that, by piercing the obscurity which lies between us and distant worlds, put infidelity in possession of the argument against which we are now contending. But, about the time of its invention, another instrument was formed which laid open a scene no less wonderful, and rewarded the inquisitive spirit of man with a discovery which serves to neutralize the whole of this argument. This was the microscope. The one led me to see a system in every star. The other leads me to see a world in every atom. The one taught me that this mighty globe, with the whole burden of its people and of its countries, is but a grain of sand on the high field of immensity. The other teaches me that every grain of sand may harbour within it the tribes and the families of a busy population. They, therefore, who think that God will not put forth such a power, and such a goodness, and such a condescension in behalf of this world, as are ascribed to Him in the New Testament, because He has so many other worlds to attend to, think of Him as a man. They confine their view to the informations of the telescope, and forget altogether the informations of the other instruments. They only find room in their minds for His one attribute of a large and general superintendence; and keep out of their remembrance the equally impressive proofs we have for His other attribute, of a minute and multiplied attention to all that diversity of operations, where it is He that worketh all in all. And when I think that as one of the instruments of philosophy has heightened our every impression of the first of these attributes, so another instrument has no less heightened our impression of the second of them--then I can no longer resist the conclusion, that it would be a transgression of sound argument, as well as a daring of impiety, to draw a limit around the doings of this unsearchable God--and should a professed revelation from heaven tell me of an act of condescension in behalf of some separate world, so wonderful that angels desired to look into it, and the Eternal Son had to move from His seat of glory to carry it into accomplishment, all I ask is the evidence of such a revelation; for, let it tell me as much as it may of God letting Himself down for the benefit of one single province of His dominions, this is no more than what I see lying scattered, in numberless examples before me--and running through the whole line of my recollections--and meeting me in every walk of observation to which I can betake myself; and, now that the microscope has unveiled the wonders of another region, I see strewed around me, with a profusion which baffles my every attempt to comprehend it, the evidence that there is no one portion of the universe of God too minute for His notice, nor too humble for the visitations of His care. What a grandeur does it throw over every step in the redemption of a fallen world, to think of its being done by Him who unrobed Him of the glories of so wide a monarchy, and came to this humblest of its provinces, in the disguise of a servant, and took upon Him the form of our degraded species, and let Himself down to sorrows and to sufferings and to death for us! (T. Chalmers, D.D.) The nature, possibility and truth of a particular providence I. State the doctrine of a particular providence.1. We must not expect that God’ s particular providence would interpose, where our own endeavours are sufficient. For that would be to encourage sloth and idleness, instead of countenancing and supporting virtue. Nor ought we to expect to be relieved from difficulties and distresses, into which our own mismanagement and criminal conduct have plunged us. 2. We must not expect that Providence would so far consult our private interest, as to counterwork that of the whole. 3. We are not to expect that Providence upon our repeated requests would grant what we imagine a blessing; there being several things which we think to be blessings, that are not so upon the whole, or not so to us. And Providence is not like an over-indulgent parent, who destroys the future happiness of His children, by complying with their importunate petitions, and removing their present uneasiness. 4. Nor must we hope that Providence will prevent every calamity that may befall good men. All that the assertors of a particular providence contend for is that, if He does not think fit to prevent it, He will either support them under it, or rescue them from it; or make all things, at the last winding up of the drama, work together for good to them who love Him. II. Having stated the doctrine of a particular providence, prove the possibility of it. We must distinguish between the grand and fundamental laws of nature, and those of an inferior and subordinate nature. The economy of Nature may be in a great measure unalterable, as to the grand and fundamental laws, by which the universe is steered: such are those respecting the revolution of the heavenly bodies, the succession of day and night, and the round of the seasons. But there are subordinate and inferior laws, which God may alter without any seeming or visible alteration. And to recede from them, under proper limitations, occasionally at the instance of particular persons, may be no detriment to the universe, and yet of great importance to them. Such are the laws relating to the course of infectious and pestilential vapours, the state of the atmosphere, etc. III. Prove the truth and certainty of a particular providence.1. That the Deity should not grant every particular good man what is really for his good upon the whole, and no ways inconsistent with that of the public, must either argue that He is unwilling or that He is unable to grant it. Infinite goodness cannot but be willing to communicate happiness to every individual, who is not wanting to himself, and infinite power cannot but be able to bring about whatever His goodness wills. 2. God will respect and treat every man agreeably to what he is, and therefore there can be no irrespective course of things. 3. Instinct is a proof that providence extends itself to every particular brute; instinct being the immediate energy of the Deity acting upon each of the brute creation. Now, if Providence condescends to regard every individual in the brute creation so far as to act constantly in it and upon it, shall He not much more extend His care to every particular person in the rational world, and adapt His dispensations to the necessities of each single person in it? 4. Those who admit a general providence, but deny a particular one, seem to forget that generals are nothing but a collection of particulars; they are nothing but the sum total of individuals. And consequently as generals include particulars, a general providence must imply a particular one. 5. The surprising discoveries of murder, the fall of the wicked into the pit which they made for others; the strange and judicial infatuation of men, wise at all other times, when some great event was to be brought about, which can only be resolved into His power, who maketh the knowledge of the wise foolish, and turneth their counsels backwards; the indiscretion of others succeeding, when well-concerted plots have failed; the disproportion of the visible means to the effect; these are so many arguments to prove a particular providence at the helm, who has a perfect view of all things, whether great or small, at all times, and in all places, with infinitely more ease, than we can attend to one thing at once. IV. Reflections.1. Let us learn from hence to form the most august ideas of the Divine nature of which ours is capable. 2. Instead of scaring yourself with melancholy views, let it be a matter of joy and comfort to you, that, amidst all the confusion and madness of the world, men cannot faster perplex and entangle things than God can unravel them; or embroil the world, than He can bring order out of confusion. 3. Let us never do anything to throw ourselves out of His protection. While we enjoy the light of the Divine countenance, we need not be dejected at the frowns of the whole world. For if God be for us, it will in a short time signify little or nothing who was against us: but if He be against us, what will it signify who was for us? (J. Seed.) Psalms 113:7-8 He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth the needy out of the dunghill From the dunghill to the throne I. Where God’ s chosen ones are when He meets with them.1. Many of them are in the lowest place socially. The Lord excludes no man from His election on account of his rank or condition. Come as a beggar, if you be a beggar. Come in rags, if you have no other covering. 2. The expression in the text does not refer merely to social gradations; I have no doubt it has a more spiritual meaning. (1) The dunghill is a place where men throw their worthless things, How often have God’ s own chosen people felt themselves to be mere offscourings and sweepings, good for nothing but to be cast away! You are in a like case, for you have discovered your own utter worthlessness. When we think little of ourselves, God thinks much of us. “ God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.” He will not break thee, O thou bruised reed! (2) The dunghill is a place of contempt. Contempt sometimes sneeringly says of its victim, “ He is such a person, that I would not pick him up if I saw him on a dunghill.” Well, despised one, let me remind you that the Lord has often looked upon those whom man has despised. (3) The dunghill may be spiritually considered as the place of condemnation. You look at a certain article of food for instance, and the economical housewife does not wish to waste anything. Well, if it may not serve for food, may it not be useful for something else? At last, when she sees that it is of no service, the sentence of condemnation is, “ Let it be cast on the dunghill.” Well, poor sinner, it thou be in thyself condemned, and a hoarse voice has said, “ To the dunghill with him!” yet I come to thee in Jehovah’ s name, and bid thee hear this word, “ He raiseth up the poor out of the dust,” etc.(4) A thing which lies upon the dunghill is in contact with disgusting associates; and, therefore, the text may represent those who have hitherto lived in the midst of evil associations. II. How the Lord raises them from it. He lifteth the needy out of the dunghill. It is a dead lift, and none but an eternal arm could do it. It is all done by the power of the Holy Spirit through the Word, filled with the energy of God. When the Lord begins to deal with the needy sinner, the first lift He gives him raises his desires. The man is not satisfied to be where he was, and what he was. That dunghill he had not perceived to be so foul as it really is; and the first sign of spiritual life is horror at his lost condition, and an anxious desire to escape from it. The next sign generally is that to such a man sin loses all sweetness. When the Lord begins to work with you, even before you find Christ to the joy of your soul, you will find the joy of sin to have departed. A quickened soul that feels the weight of sin cannot find pleasure in it. It is another blessed sign that the man is being lifted from the dunghill when he begins to feel that his own self-righteousness is no assistance to him; when, having prayed, he looks upon his prayers with repentance, and having gone to God’ s house, rests not in the outward form. It is well when a man is cut off entirely from all confidence in himself. Now comes the true lift from off the dunghill. That poor, guilty, lost, worthless one hears of Jesus Christ that He came into the world to save sinners: that poor soul looks to Him with a look which means, “ Lord, Thou art my last resort! If Thou dost not save me, I must perish; and Thou must save me altogether, for I cannot help Thee.” III. How He raises them up.1. They are lifted up by complete justification. This furnishes the believer with a throne as safe as it is lofty; as happy as it is glorious. 2. The children of God who have been taken from the dunghill, many of them enjoy full assurance of faith. They are certain that they are saved; they can say with Job, “ I know that my Redeemer liveth.” As to whether they are children of God or not, they have no question; the infallible witness of the Holy Spirit bears witness with their spirit that they are born of God. To know that my Beloved is mine, and that I am His, and that He loved me and gave Himself for me, this is far better than to be heir-apparent to a score of empires. 3. The children of God, favoured by Divine grace, are permitted to have interviews with Jesus Christ. Like Enoch, we walk with God. Union with the Lord is a coronet of beauty outshining all the crowns of earth. 4. Nor is this all: the elect of God, in addition to receiving complete justification, full assurance, and communion with Christ, are favoured with the Holy Spirit’ s sanctification. God the Holy Spirit dwells in every Christian; however humble he may be, he is a walking temple in which resides deity. 5. God lifts His people up in another sense: while He gives them sanctification and usefulness, He also anoints them with joy. Oh! the joy of being a Christian! IV. Where it is that our Lord sets His people. “ Among princes,” we are told. “ Among princes” is the place of select society. We are a Chosen generation, a peculiar people, a royal priesthood. Our courtly privileges are of the highest order. Listen! “ For through Him we both have access by one spirit unto the Father.” “ Let us come boldly,” says the apostle, “ to the throne of the heavenly grace,” etc. We have courtly audience and peculiarly select society. Next to this it is supposed that among princes there is abundant wealth, but what is the wealth of princes compared with the riches of believers? for “ all things are yours, and ye are Christ’ s, and Christ is God’ s.” “ He that spared not His own Son,” etc. Among princes, again, there dwells peculiar power. A prince has influence; he wields a sceptre in his own domain: and “ He hath made us kings and priests unto God, and we shall reign for ever and ever.” We are not kings of England, Scotland, and Ireland, and yet we have a triple dominion; we reign over spirit, soul, and body. We reign over the united kingdom of time and eternity; we reign in this world, and we shall reign in the world that is yet to come: for we shall reign for ever and ever. Princes, again, have special honour. Every one in the crowd desires to gaze upon a prince, and would be delighted to do him service. Let him have the first position in the empire; he is a prince of the blood, and is to be had in esteem and respect. Beloved, hear ye His word: “ He hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus,” so that we share the honour of Christ as we share His cross. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Psalms 113:9 He makoth the barren woman to keep house, and to be a joyful mother of children. Influence The psalmist must have been thinking surely of the many modes in which the powers are called out and the affections exercised. The guidance of the household, the care of children,--these are certainly the commonest ways in which the affections and the powers of one half the human race are brought into free and full play. But there may be no house to guide, and no children to love and tend and educate; and yet the words may be made true, “ He maketh the barren woman to keep house, and to be a joyful mother of children.” I take the words, then, as telling us, first of all, this: That no powers and no affections were intended by the Giver of all to lie fallow and waste. He, from whom these, as well as all other good and perfect gifts, come, has, we may be sure, in His view also a field for their exercise--a field, into which He is prepared, by His providence and His Spirit, to guide the owner. There is room and need, depend upon it, for every power and every affection that the Creator has implanted in us. Now, I may be speaking to some who have not yet found their place in the world, and who suffer from the heartache and the restlessness which come of unused faculties and dormant affections. It is to such cases as these that the words of the psalmist should come home with a special message to rouse and comfort and invigorate. The matter is really in their own hands. They have but to look around them, and they will soon perceive that the literal meaning of the psalmist’ s words is not the only, nor in many ways the most satisfying, meaning. It will be strange if they cannot find, within the circle of their own acquaintance, more than one life which looks at the first glance very lonely, very dull, very uninviting; in which the nearest and dearest ties of husband, wife, and children have no place; and yet which on closer inspection turns out to be full of interests, full of affections, full of duties, full of good works and heavenly charities. It may be the life of some poor widow living amidst a crowd of neighbours as poor as herself, of whom she is the loved and trusted friend, counsellor, and comforter. Or it may be the life of some daughter and sister at home, who is the link between all the widely-scattered members of the old household. Or it may be the life of some poor helpless and hopeless sufferer on a sick-bed, whose couch of pain is the meeting-point of many hearts, which are cheered and elevated by the sight of Christian endurance, and soothed and softened by the warm tide of Christian affection. (D. J. Vaughan, M.A.) . Psalms 114:1-8 Psalms 114:1-8 When Israel went out of Egypt.The workings of the Eternal will God has a will. He doeth all things after the “ counsel of His own will.” The universe is but His will in form and action. It is the primordial, the propelling and presiding force of all forces and motions. The psalm leads us to look at this Eternal will in two aspects-- I. As acting on moral mind. In the deliverance of the Jews from Egyptian bondage, it acted both on the Egyptian mind and on the Hebrew mind.1. This will acted on the Egyptian mind disastrously. Whose fault was this? Not God’ s. (1) Man can resist the Divine will. Herein is his distinguishing power. This binds him to moral government, and renders him accountable for his conduct. (2) His resistance is his ruin. To go against the Eternal will is to go against the laws of nature, the current of the universe, the eternal conditions of well-being. Acquiescence to the Divine will is heaven, resistance to the Divine will is hell. 2. This will acted on the Hebrew mind remedially. (1) It brought Israel out of Egypt, (2) Into blessed relationship with God. II. As acting on material nature.1. Its action on matter is always effective. God has only to will a material phenomenon, and it occurs. “ He spake, and it was done.” Nothing in material nature comes between His will and the result purposed. Not so in moral mind. 2. Its action on matter is philosophically exciting (verses 5, 6). The motions of matter are constantly exciting the philosophic inquiry. Would that philosophy would not pause in its inquiries until it traced all the forms and motions of matter to the Eternal will! It was that will that.was now working in the mountains, in the hills, and the rocks. 3. Its action on matter is sometimes terrific (verse 7). (Homilist.) Psalms 114:3-4 The sea saw it, and fled.The removal of obstacles I. Antagonisms are quelled. Wherever the Church has advanced--1. Sin and Satan have receded. Where it has not been so the Church is to blame. The promise depends on the proper spirit, and the use of proper means. 2. Idolatry has receded. Christianity simply annihilated the classical, Druidical, Saxon, Tartar, and Scandinavian mythologies, the bloody rites of the South Seas, and is now doing the same for the debasing superstitions of Africa and the foul abominations of Hindostan. 3. Infidelity has receded. For all the ancient philosophies she proved an overmatch. II. Boundaries are removed. “ Jordan was driven back.”1. Christianity levels all class distinctions. To all castes, Jewish, Roman, Indian, etc., it is a formidable foe. It reduces all mankind to one common level of crying need, for which but one provision has been made. 2. Christianity obliterates all physical barriers. It goes into all the world and preaches the Gospel to every creature. It was not made for home consumption, but is the property of all nations. 3. Christianity fills up all intellectual chasms. No greater remove could possibly be than that between the old philosopher and the common people. Christianity appeals to both. Its truths are The food of the scholar and the refreshment of the slave. III. Difficulties are overcome. “ The mountains skipped,” etc.1. All difficulties of nature. Wherever Christianity has appeared “ the valleys have been exalted,” etc. Crooked ways have been made straight. No mountain has been too high, no sea too broad, no continent too wide, for the pioneers and missionaries of the faith. 2. All difficulties of human prejudice. Armies have been levied to extirpate it. Fires have been kindled to burn it. Learning has been accumulated to refute it, but in vain. In conclusion. This history is prophecy. Fulfilled prophecy in some instances. It holds good through the ages. Let the Church in the strength of it redouble her efforts, brighten her hope, perfect her faith, and go on conquering and to conquer. (J. W. Burn.) . Psalms 115:1-18 Psalms 115:1-18 Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto Thy name give glory.Genuine religious consciousness I. A consciousness of God’ s greatness leading to a contempt for all idols.1. The majesty of God. (1) God is great in His moral excellence (verse 1). “ Mercy” and “ truth” lie at the foundation of all moral greatness. The grand mission of Christ was to bring these into the world in the most impressive forms. “ The law came by Moses, but grace and truth by Jesus Christ.” All sound beliefs or convictions are based on truth or reality. Without love all is selfishness, and selfishness is the essence of sin. Without truth all is sham, and sham is the curse of the world. In God these two exist in essential unity and in infinite perfection. (2) God is great in His sovereignty (verse 3). He is over all. There is no being above Him, the highest are infinitely below Him, and in all His operations He is absolutely free. He hath no counsellor to teach Him new methods of action, no power to restrain Him in any course. He acts according to His own good pleasure, the only being who is absolutely free, independent, and irresponsible. 2. The worthlessness of idols (Psalms 115:4-8). (1) Material productions. (2) Human productions. (3) Worthless productions. (4) Lying productions. (5) Symbolic productions. They are but the visible forms of the brutish ignorance, stupidity, and depravity of those who made and worshipped them, mere embodiments of their ideas and wishes. II. A consciousness of God’ s goodness inspiring the highest philanthropy. What is the highest philanthropy? That whose main object is to draw men to the One True and Living God; and the man who is conscious of God’ s goodness, who has “ tasted and seen that the Lord is good,” will surely address himself to this work--the work of drawing men to God (Romans 10:1). This is what the psalmist felt (Psalms 115:9-15). III. A consciousness of God’ s property leading to a sense of our stewardship (verse 16). He who created the universe owns it, is is His absolute property, and how vast, how immeasurable it is! (1 Chronicles 29:11). But this sense of God’ s unbounded wealth leads to the impression of our stewardship of the earth which He hath given us. To the “ children of men,” not to a class, but given to them as air and light, and fire and water are given for their common use. IV. A consciousness of life’ s termination urging the discharge of religious duty (verses 17, 18). (Homilist.) “ Non nobis, Domine !” Every careful reader can see the connection between this 115th psalm and the one which precedes it. In the 114th psalm we see the gracious and grateful Jews sitting around the passover table, having eaten of the lamb, and singing of the miracles of Jehovah at the Red Sea and the Jordan. It must have been a very jubilant song that they sang, “ What ailed thee, O thou sea,” etc. When that joyful hymn was finished, and the cup of wine was passed round the table, they struck another note. They remembered their sad condition, as they heard the heathen say, “ Where is now their God?” They recollected that, perhaps, for many a year there had been no miracle, no prophet, no open vision, and then they began to chant a prayer that God would appear--not for their sakes, but for His own name’ s sake, that the ancient glory, which He won for Himself at the Red Sea and the Jordan, might not be lost, and that the heathen might no longer be able tauntingly to say, “ Where is now their God?” I. A powerful plea in prayer: “ Not unto us,” etc. There are times when this is the only plea that God’ s people can use. There are other occasions when we can plead with God to bless us, for this reason or for that; but, sometimes, there come dark experiences, when there seems to be no reason that can suggest itself to us why God should give us deliverance, or vouchsafe us a blessing, except this one,--that He would be pleased to do it in order to glorify His own name. You may be emboldened to urge that plea, notwithstanding the vileness of the person for whom you plead. In fact, the sinfulness of the sinner may even be your plea that God’ s mercy and lovingkindness may be seen the more resplendently by all who know of the sinful soul’ s guilt. II. The true spirit of piety. “ Not unto us, O Lord,” etc. That is to say, true religion does not seek its own honour. For instance, suppose, in preaching the Gospel, a man has, even as a small part of his motive, that he may be esteemed an eloquent person, or that he may have influence over other men’ s minds;--for it is lamentably true that this mixture of motives may steal over the preacher’ s soul. Ah! but we must fight against this evil with all our might. Somebody once told Master John Bunyan that he had preached a delightful sermon. “ You are too late,” said John, “ the devil told me that before I left the pulpit.” Satan is a great adept in teaching us how to steal our Master’ s glory. “ Glory be to God,” should always be the preacher’ s motto. And as it should be so with our preaching, do you not think that the same thing is true concerning our praying? III. A safe guide is theology. When I am going to read the Scriptures, to know what I am to believe, to learn what is to be my creed, even before I open my Bible, it is a good thing to say, “ Not unto us, O Lord,” etc. This is, to my mind, a test of what is true and what is false. If you meet with a system of theology which magnifies man, flee from it as far as you can. This is why I believe in the doctrines of grace. I believe in Divine election, because somebody must have the supreme will in this matter, and man’ s will must not occupy the throne, but the will of God. The words of Jehovah stand fast like the great mountains. IV. A practical direction in life.1. This text will help you in the selection of your sphere of service. You will always be safe in doing that which is not for your own glory, but which is distinctly for the glory of God. 2. Sometimes my text will guide you as to which you should choose out of two courses of action that lie before you. What flesh revolts against, your spirit should choose. Say, “ Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto Thy name give glory. I will do that which will most honour my Lord and Master, and not that which would best please myself.” V. The acceptable spirit in which to review the past.1. This is the spirit in which to live. Has God blessed us? Do we look back upon honourable and useful lives? Have we been privileged to preach the Gospel, and has the Lord given us converts? Then, let us be sure to stick to the text: “ Not unto us, O Lord,” etc.2. Aye, and when the time comes for us to die, this is the spirit in which to die, for it is the beginning of heaven. What are they doing in heaven? If we could look in there, what should we see? There are crowns there, laid up for those that fight the good fight, and finish their course; but do you see what the victors are doing with their crowns? They will not wear them; no, not they; but they cast them down at Christ’ s feet, crying, “ Not unto us,” etc. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Glory to God for public blessings The inspired author seems to have had his thoughts employed in the contemplation of some public blessing vouchsafed to the house of Israel, and to the house of Aaron; some late and remarkable instance of God’ s having been their help and their shield; a devout sense of which made him break out into these words, fall of great humility and pious gratitude: “ Not unto us, O Lord,” etc.1. When the psalmist denies that the glory of those mighty and wonderful successes, wherewith God’ s people are at any time blessed, doth belong to them, he intimates that men are apt to ascribe the praise thereof to their own merits, counsels or achievements. 2. When he with earnestness and vehemence repeats that denial, he doth by such reiterated negation imply the great folly and impiety of men’ s thus ascribing the glory of such successes to themselves, or to any of the children of men. 3. When he expresses his desire that the glory thereof may be given to God’ s name, he directs us to pay the tribute of praise and thanksgiving to that sovereign Being, to whom only of right it is due. 4. When he requires that this glory should be given to God for His mercy and for His truth’ s sake, he instructs us that when we receive such blessings from the hands of God, we derive them, not from His justice, but from His clemency; they are not such as we can of right claim, but such as He, out of His unbounded goodness, and regard to those gracious promises, which He hath made to His Church, vouchsafes to grant. (Bishop Smalridge.) Giving God the glory I was reading of the battle of Agincourt, in which Henry V figured; and, it is said, after the battle was won--gloriously won--the king wanted to acknowledge the Divine interposition, and he ordered the chaplain to read the psalm of David, and when he came to the words, “ Not unto us, O Lord, but unto Thy name be the praise,” the king dismounted, and all the cavalry dismounted, and all the great host of officers and men threw themselves on their faces. Oh, at the story of the Saviour’ s love and the Saviour’ s deliverance, shall we not prostrate ourselves before Him to-night, hosts of earth and hosts of heaven, falling upon our faces, and crying, “ Not unto us, not unto us, but unto Thy name be the glory.” (T. De Witt Talmage.) Psalms 115:3 But our God is in the heavens: He hath done whatsoever He hath pleased.The sovereignty of God Sovereignty signifies, in general, supremacy, the possession of supreme power, a right to govern without the control of another; or, as in our text, a power to act as one pleases.1. This right is here ascribed to God, and can belong to no other in the same sense or degree. He made all things; He supports all things; and is it not fit that He should govern all things? For His pleasure they are and were created (Revelation 4:11); may He, then, not do with them as He pleases? especially when we consider-- (1) He is infinitely wise. He perfectly knows all His creatures, all their actions, and all their tendencies. (2) He is infinitely good. 2. Observe His sovereignty in-- (1) The creation of the world. (2) The awful event of man’ s apostasy. (3) The method He has been pleased to appoint for the recovery of fallen man. (4) The application of this great salvation. (5) His disposal of the temporal affairs of men, whether as individuals or as nations. As individuals. Our parentage, the circumstances of our birth, the place, the time, are all arranged by the great Ruler. That sovereign hand is, perhaps, more visible in the affairs of nations; they rise and fall, flourish and decay, and the connection between natural causes and effects may sometimes be plainly discerned; yet that the Ruler of the world directs and controls them is sufficiently evident, for in His hand are both the causes and the effects. (G. Burder.) Psalms 115:4-8 Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men’ s hands.Babylonian idolatry Babylon was a land in which life was overshadowed by a vast idolatry. What this idolatry was, we may see, in part, by a visit to the British Museum. There are to be seen at this hour figures and inscriptions which might well have been gazed on by the writers of this very psalm, and which show how the Baal worship which, in its different forms, prevailed from the Mediterranean Sea to the Indian Ocean, was the most striking feature of the life of the Imperial race that had conquered Palestine. To this hour, the ruins of what was the great Temple of Belus within the city, and of the Temple of Nimrod without the city, show how powerfully this idolatry must have addressed itself to the senses of the people. And the same conclusion is warranted by the anxious warnings of Isaiah in anticipation of the captivity, and by the language of the later psalmists who wrote in Babylon. Isaiah describes with a fine and indignant irony how in Babylon, too, the smith with the tongs, and the carpenter with his rule, would combine to make an idol according to the beauty of a man, and how worship would be paid to what was, in reality, only the stock of a tree. And the psalmist of the later epoch was, we can hardly doubt, inspired to write at the sight of the splendid images in the Babylonian temples, and notably, perhaps, by that of the golden image of Belus. “ Their idols are silver and gold,” etc. (Psalms 115:4-8). It was this idolatry which Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego resisted at the risk of their lives, and at which Daniel struck a deadly blow when, according to the Alexandrian account--till lately read in our churches, and undoubtedly embodying a germ of substantial history--he exposed on a great scale the fraud of the priest of Baal and destroyed his image. (Canon Liddon.) Eyes have they, but they see not.--The eye of the spirit The rich and varied gifts, the pure exalted pleasures, which the eyes of the body are intended to minister to man, are marred by want of sympathetic observation even more than by want of knowledge. Two boys went out one summer’ s day, each alone, to spend a holiday in the fields. I have forgotten every detail of the story, but whatever the story was, it is easy to imagine what it might have been. The one boy came back in discontent. He had seen nothing, done nothing. He was tired; he had wasted the holiday. The other came back full of delight. He had watched the cattle and the fishes and the birds. He had noted the flowers and the hedgerows and the corn. They had spoken to him with voices which--though he knew it not--his spirit heard. They had told him--though he felt it only, understood it not--they had told him of the marvels of their nature, of their fitness for their appointed place, of the ever fresh beauties which man could see in them, if he would but enable the eyes of his body with the spirit of thankfulness and love. You have this contrast, thus drawn, set before you every day in many ways. I suppose that no one here would wish to live a merely material--animal--life, a life of the body only; to spend his time in securing the largest amount of pleasure--harmless pleasure if you will--for the delight or solace of his bodily senses; to feel more and more sad, as the years run on past middle life, that one sense and another is become less keen, is capable of less pleasure; to watch the sands of life running out apace, with no sense of compensation, no quiet conviction that as one transient pleasure after another becomes less bright or passes away, the place of each is taken--is taken and more than filled--by consolations of no transient kind, by blessings that make their abiding home with him. We must, if we would avoid a growing discontent, we must live the inner--the Spiritual--life too. The eye of the spirit must be an eye that sees. The life of the spirit must be a real life. Not a life apart from that of the body, but a life spiritualizing and etherealizing the bodily life. To teach the eye of the body to see in the higher sense, to observe, to interpret, to enjoy, to minister to the intellectual capacity of man, and be in turn quickened and brightened by man’ s intellect, we educate the man; working in faith and hope; not discouraged by the many discouragements; sure that it cannot but be right that man should learn to know. How shall we treat the eye of the spirit? how shall we help it to see? how give it insight? I speak not now of what our holy religion may do; for the moment I am not referring to the realms of grace. That which the spirit of man most needs, for its full play and development, is just that which in this hurrying age is ever more and more difficult to obtain,--rest and quiet, time and place for contemplation. This is no idea specially of the Christian revelation; it is common to all ages and all peoples; it is the natural demand of the spirit of man. We have all of us probably seen and noted the highest oriental ideal of spiritual isolation from things and thoughts of the world,--a seated figure with inscrutable face, the eyes for ever cast down, gazing endlessly into the palm of the hand. This was one of the ideas connected with the prophet of old times. He sat apart in rapt contemplation; the things of the world and of the flesh shut out from his sight; his eyes fixed steadily on some unmoving thing; the spiritual element ever growing in relative importance, and at last overpowering the material and dominating the whole man. And then there welled up within him, from some spiritual source, some inspiration, the thoughts and the words that were to frame and to form his prophetic utterance; and he poured forth dark sayings, or declared, as one inspired, the will of God. But need I really go further than the experience of each one of you, to find evidence of the power of contemplation on the spirit, the need of it, if we would have a spiritual sense, a spiritual insight? You know of what extreme importance it is, if you have any serious matter in hand, to put yourself in the right frame of mind to consider it duly and make a wise resolve. How often it happens that you cannot shut out the disturbing presence of other things. You know that for this special purpose you ought to isolate yourself, to be clear of confusing voices, confusing thoughts. And what you have to make your resolve about is coming on so rapidly; a resolve will be forced upon you so soon; there is such a sense of rush and hurry; you cannot properly decide the matter without previous quiet thought and communing, and quiet thought you cannot get. You feel this in matters of business; you feel it in difficult moral questions; you feel it in many a decision, which circumstances force upon you, in your relations with those who are of your bone and of your flesh. You feel it whenever you think of yourself in your higher relations, as a spiritual existence, as having duties beyond the realms of sense, as being under some conscious obligation to be guided in your walk through life by aims which shall of themselves ennoble your endeavours, by principles which are of eternal truth and justice. (Bishop Browne.) Psalms 115:8 They that make them are like unto them; so is every one that trusteth in them.False religions A false religion has all the outward signs of importance. A false religion could not live if it showed only its lying side. Even a lie could not live but for the one grain of truth that may be in it: it may be a grain of probability only, or even of possibility, but the lie owes its life, however brief, to the element of at least seeming truth, or possible truth, that may be in it. So with false religions: enumerate them, set them all out in a line, and one looks very much like another as to outward appearance. How long would a piece of lead be in the market-place if offered as a coin? Not one moment. But if treated, if smelted, minted, stamped, drilled, and made to look like a coin, it might deceive somebody, it might live a little while. To what would it owe its life? Not to its intrinsic quality, but to its appearance. So when you cite the religions of the world, and set them all in a line, you are perfectly right in saying, Behold them, and see how very strikingly they resemble one another. The counterfeit coin lives in its resemblance: take away this resemblance, and you take away its whole value; its similitude is its life. What wonder, then, that we find men deceived by religions that are superficial, and merely human inventions, that have nothing to live upon that is of an eternal and Divine nature? It is quite possible that the counterfeit coin may be more brilliant than the real coin. How did the five-pound note pass? Because it was like a five-pound note: the paper was the same, the mill mark was the same, the writing was the same; the resemblance was the reason of the successful deception. Much is mistaken for faith that is not faith, that is mere intellectual assent, or mere intellectual indifference. A man does not believe things which he simply names with his mouth. He only believes those things for which he would die. What havoc this makes in the professed beliefs of the Church! Yet everything must be judged by the degree in which it realizes its own pretensions. To pretend to have hands means power of handling, or it is a lie: to profess to have feet and yet to be unable to walk is to contradict your own statement: to have ears carved by an Angelo which yet cannot hear a thunderburst is to have ears that are visible falsehoods. Where we find hands we have a right to expect handling: where we find faith we have a right to expect morality, or service, or action: and if we with all Christian profession of an intellectual kind are not balancing that profession by actual, living, useful service, then let all the mockers of the universe taunt us, saying, They have hands, but they handle not. The taunt is not a mere taunt; it is a sneer justified by reason. If there were no hands we should pity the sufferer. Who expects to refresh himself from the branches of an oak tree? Yet if the hungry soul should come to a fig tree in the time of figs, and should find upon the tree nothing but leaves, hunger has priestly rights of cursing, hunger may excommunicate that tree from the trees of the garden, because it pretended to be a fruit tree and yet it grew nothing but leaves. (J. Parker, D.D.) Psalms 115:12 The Lord hath been mindful of us. The mindfulness of God I. Grateful acknowledgment for grace bestowed. Have we not abundant reason, individually and collectively, to say one to another in exhortation, and together in thankful acknowledgment to God, “ The Lord hath been mindful of us” ? Let us look back and reflect upon the way in which He has led us these many years. Shall we not, like Samuel of old, raise our Ebenezer? And as we travel through the past, until we step from the past into the future, shall net we take encouragement and joyfully exclaim, “ Jehovah-jireh” ? In creation, in redemption, in providence and in grace, in the fulness of spiritual blessings provided, and in the measure of grace imparted, we have abundant cause for the grateful acknowledgment, “ The Lord hath been mindful of us.” II. A grateful sense of past mindfulness begets a sure confidence of future blessing. “ He will bless us.” To what extent does this promise go? He will bless us in our walk and all our work, and in whatever He calls us to do! His blessing will ever rest upon us for good. His everlasting hand will be beneath us and will keep us from falling. He will guide us with His counsel and afterward receive us to glory. You deserve to perish, you deserve to reap what you have sowed, but God is merciful and kind. You may look to Him in confidence, for He will bless you. He will blot out the past, and He will break the power of sin. I have also a word for the true believer in God, who is sorely tempted and doubtful of the future, who is conscious of weakness, knowing painfully the power of temptation, knowing sadly in recollection the influence of this evil world. Do not think you will prove unfaithful at the last. The Lord hath been mindful of you, and it will be in the future as it has been in the past. Look at the promises which He has given for your comfort in His Word. He hath been mindful of you and He will bless you. (Bishop Pelham.) Past mercies inspire confidence of continued good Many minds know a good deal of the Roman Emperor’ s forebodings, that if things have long gone well with you, then something amiss is very likely to come. If we could but all rise to the happier argument from the past to the future of a certain ancient and inspired poet, and really believe that “ The Lord hath been mindful of us: He will bless us.” The common way of judging constantly is, that since all has been so pleasant for many days or years, now a smash is due. But though this way of judging be common, and though, to a superficial glance, it seems to be confirmed by facts, it would be very easy to show that it is entirely wrong. (A. K. H. Boyd.) Psalms 115:13 He will bless them that fear the Lord, both small and great. The equality of small and great There are thousands of young men and women who retain belief in God, but do not fear Him; cherishing the easy notion that since He is so very good, everything will come right by and by. This is not love. It is something near akin to contempt, and God is not good enough to consent to be despised. Rather let me say that He is too good, too righteous, too mindful of the interests of His children, who can only find salvation in faith and love that are touched with holy fear. God is Love. He so loved the world that He gave His son: His lovingkindness is over all His works; and He includes in His Divine regard both the small and the great. I. We have here a recognition of the natural inequality of men, “ great and small.” Men differ outwardly, and the difference counts for something. But there are deeper differences that count for more: the differences of the mind. Sometimes a massive and majestic frame co-exists with a weak will. Or it may be that a man of feeble appearance, like St. Paul, has a will of tempered steel. And what a force that is. The crowd makes way for one of inflexible determination, and he moves on to the fulfilment of his purpose with something like the inevitableness of fate. As John Foster exclaims, “ It is wonderful how the casualties of life bow to a will that will not bow to them, and in the end subserve a purpose which at first they seemed to frustrate.” II. The impartiality of God. “ He will bless both small and great.” We are always being tempted to respect of persons; often we scarcely make pretence of resistance. But the Bible reiterates the statement that God is no respecter of persons. He is sublimely impartial. He is a faithful Creator, a loving Father. He is not dazzled by His own gifts. He considers not the beauty, the stature, the cleverness, which come to men without their seeking; but that inner man, which is expressed in character, and which accepts or rejects eternal love. “ He will bless them that fear the Lord, both small and great.” III. The blessing of God, that tends to make men equal in spite of differences. Lately I was standing near an elm tree that towered scores of feet above me. No other tree was by to draw attention from its solitary glory. The splendour of its early foliage flashed and darkled in the sunshine, and its giant shadow fell across the field. It was a mighty work of God and dwarfed its surroundings, making the bushes of a neighbouring hedge seem little things indeed. A little later my attention was arrested by tiny blossoms shining in the long lush grass beneath this giant tree. “ Bright-eyes” the flowers are called, and the name is descriptive, though I never saw eyes so blue as the petals of these flowers. I plucked one or two, looked up again at the tree, and thought of the contrast. They represented the great and the small. The one had braved the storms of generations, the other lived for a fleeting summer and might be plucked and torn by baby fingers, and yet were they brought into equality by the blessing of Almighty God. Each was perfect in its own order, and it were impossible to say with which Divine power had taken more pains, the elm tree or the bright-eyes. It is a parable: God made the elm tree and the bright-eyes. He made each to fill its place. Each is faithful to its own order. Each equally declares the glory of the Lord. And God has made men “ both small and great.” And when in holy fear and reverent love they open their hearts to Him, as the trees and flowers open their hearts to the sunshine, He blesses them by coming in to dwell with them, and His blessing means that they fulfil their destiny and manifest His glory; and herein are they equal. (G. Hawker.) Psalms 115:15 Ye are blessed of the Lord which made heaven and earth. The Lord blessing His saints I. A blessing belonging to a peculiar people,1. A people whom God has blessed because He willed to do so. 2. A people to whom this first will of God to bless them has been certified by countless acts of indisputable love. Gethsemane and Calvary speak volumes concerning the reality of the blessings which God has given to His chosen, for there they were loved to the death and redeemed by blood. An incarnate God, a Mediator covered with bloody sweat, a Redeemer wounded and slain,--What say you to this? 3. The people to whom this blessing comes are, after their conversion, known by their character. They “ fear the Lord.” 4. It is very sweet to notice that this benediction is common to all Godfearing persons,--“ both small and great;” and the small are put first, lest they should think they are forgotten. II. A blessing from a peculiar quarter. “ Ye are blessed of the Lord which made heaven and earth.”1. This is a blessing from one peculiarly related to us, and therefore it is the more to be prized. All other blessings are only blessings in proportion as they contain the essence of this blessing; God’ s blessing is the sea, and others are but drops; that is the sun, and others are but sparks. 2. This blessing comes not from an idol-god. The psalm leads us to make that observation. The gods of the heathen had mouths, but they spake not; ears, but they heard not: any benediction from them would be a mockery: but the children of God are not blessed of Baal or Ashtaroth, but of Jehovah, the self-existent Lord of all! 3. This benediction comes from the omnipotent Creator, “ who made heaven and earth.” This intimates that the blessing is almighty in power. Have I the blessing of Him who said, “ Let there be light,” and there was light? Then He can speak into my darkness, and cheer the gloom of my despair. Does the blessing of Him who brought order out of chaos rest upon me? then He can speak to the confusion of my circumstances, and the turmoil of my desponding mind, and charm all things into harmony. The blessing of Him who clothed the earth with beauty, piled the hills, and digged the channels of the sea, must have in it a fulness unrivalled. 4. It is a blessing from the All-wise One “ who made heaven and earth.” His infallible counsels shall conduct thine affairs to a blessed issue. III. A benediction with a peculiar date. “ Ye are the blessed,” etc. This verb is in the present tense, and, indeed, it may be said to be in all the tenses put together, in a tense that is not a tense, a time that hath no time, but lasteth on evermore, till time shall be no more.1. This blessing embraces all circumstances. You are laid low and pining away with consumption, but “ You are blessed of the Lord which made heaven and earth.” You are smitten down in the very heyday of your usefulness, and laid aside, but “ You are blessed of the Lord which made heaven and earth.” Oh, that your faith may lay hold of this when you are very sorely exercised, for happy is the man whom God correcteth, and blessed is the man whom thou chastenst, O Lord! 2. Our text reaches to all time and beyond all time, because it runs thus: “ Ye are blessed of the Lord that made heaven and earth.” While I am on earth, this shall console me: “ I am blessed of the Lord that made the earth;” and He Himself has said of His servants, “ Blessed shalt thou be in the city,” etc. When I have to go out of this earth into another world, this shall console me: “ I am blessed of the Lord that made heaven.” I shall still dwell in a place which my Father made. I am not going into a foreign country when I leave the warm precincts of this house of clay. I shall emigrate to the country where flowers never fade, and winter never chills. IV. A blessing with a peculiar certainty. Scripture does not lie, or utter “ perhapses” and “ ifs” and “ buts.” “ Ye are blessed of the Lord which made heaven and earth.” Oh, ye that fear God, this is a matter of fact, ye daily and continually abide under a true and real blessing. Some blessings are vain words: the utterer is a hypocrite. Other blessings are sincere, but the person pronouncing them has no power to fulfil them. Such blessings are wells without water, or barren fig trees bearing leaves but no fruit. The Lord blesses not in word only, but in deed; not in futile wishes, but in omnipotent acts. We may fail to obtain the benedictions which our friends invoke upon us, but God’ s blessings are sure to all the seed. V. This blessing involves a peculiar duty, for, if God has blessed us, the succeeding duty is that we should bless Him (verse 18). “ Praise Him from this time forth.” If the past has been marred by any other talk, now “ from this time” bless the Lord. Wash thy mouth of all complaining, take the cup of gratitude to sweeten thy soul, and bless His name from this time forth. What, dumb till now? An heir of heaven speechless? May a sight of God’ s blessing open thy mouth. From this time forth begin to bless Him. Then the psalmist resolves to praise the Lord “ for evermore.” Our adoration of God is never to cease. As long as there is breath in our body let us praise Him who gives it to us. “ Dum spiro spero,” said the heathen, “ While I breathe, I hope.” But the Christian says, “ Dum expire spero,” “ When I die, I will still hope in God.” While we exist we will adore. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Psalms 115:16 The heaven, even the heavens, are the Lord’ s: but the earth hath He given to the children of men.The mysteries of the universe Our contemplation of the mysteries of the universe is to be associated-- I. With faith. “ The heavens are the heavens of the Lord.” All the wonders of unseen worlds are in charge of Him whom we serve. Whatever marvellous forces range the universe we may sing, “ All things serve Thee,” and dismiss all fear. How foolish to fear the discoveries of science! “ All facts,” as Kingsley used to say, “ are God’ s facts.” How foolish to fear for our safety here or hereafter if we be the Lord’ s, for all is His! The mysteries of the universe are those of Him who died for us, and in the heart of those mysteries there is love. II. With diligence, “ The earth hath He given to-the children of men.” Earth’ s fields are to be tilled, her provisions stored and distributed. Homes are to be superintended and cities and states to be governed. These are the first claims upon our thoughts as servants of God. “ The heavens are the Lord’ s,” let us claim the kingdom of the earth for Him and humbly help to establish His dominion hero. (W. Hawkins.) The earth for men I. A strong rebuke to all social monopoly. The earth is for “ the children of men.” II. A strong rebuke to religious indifference. The earth is given to man in trust for certain uses.1. As a scene for man’ s physical development. 2. As a school for man’ s intellectual culture. 3. As a temple for man’ s religious worship. The children of men to use this world rightly should worship God in all they suffer, enjoy, think, or do. In everything there should be-- (1) A reigning gratitude. The earth is a gift to every man, and every man should use every portion of it thankfully.(2) A reigning reverence. The earth is a gift where the greatness of God is everywhere seen, and, therefore, “ take off thy shoes from off thy feet,” etc.4. As a sphere for evangelical labour Christ has been on this earth. Here He has left doctrines for every child of man to believe, propagate and work out. (Homilist.) The earth of the redemption The heavens and the earth are set in contrast with each other. The heavens with their sun and moon and stars, their wandering winds, their majestic domes and pinnacles and fields of cloud, their mysteries of rain and dew, of frost and snow; and then the earth, with its familiar cities and forests and cornfields, its homes of men and women, its seas and rivers, its sports and toils, its friendships and kinships, these stand over against each other. And their contrast is in this,--that while the heavens are out of the reach of man, the expression and result of forces which he cannot control, the earth is what man makes it. He is the changing power here. It is the familiar contrast which is always present, and always having its effect upon our life. The earth, and life upon the earth, are never the same things they would be if the great heaven did not stretch, mysterious and unattainable, above them. Man, great as his power grows upon the earth, is always kept aware of how limited his power is. There is always the heaven above him, which is not his, but God’ s. And this becomes a figure of the limit of man’ s power everywhere. When David says that God has “ given the earth to the children of men,” he cannot mean that it was given away from those eternal plans and purposes of goodness which God must always keep with reference to all His creation. It is God’ s world still. It has been given to man not absolutely, but in trust, that man may work out in it the will of God. Here is the fundamental difference in the lives of men. Man finds the world in his hands. He can do with it what he will. Everywhere the difference of men lies here, in whether this mastery seems to be absolute, or whether it seems to be a trust. Absolute mastery means self-indulgence. The mastery of trust means humility, conscientiousness, elevation, charity, the fear of God and love of man. It is in this higher and true view of the giving of the world by God to man that the coming of Christ into the world gains its true meaning. Here was God’ s world, given to man to keep, to use, to work for God. Here was man, always falling into the temptation to think the gift of trust an absolute gift. And here the Giver came, with clear assurance of Himself; making the men who saw Him know that it was He; not taking the earth back out of man’ s keeping, but making Himself man, so that all men might see what it might really mean for man to keep and use and work the earth for God; so God came to the world. It is within this great general purpose that all the special personal works which Christ does for men are included. (Bishop Phillips Brooks.) Psalms 115:17-18 The dead praise not the Lord, neither any that go down into silence.But we will bless the Lord. Living praise The living God should be adored by a living people. A blessing God should be blessed by a blessing people. When we bless Him we should not rest till others do the same: we should cry to them, “ Praise the Lord.” Our example and our persuasion should rouse them to praise. I. A mournful memory. “ The dead praise not the Lord, neither any that go down into silence.” This reminds us--1. Of silenced voices in the choirs of Zion. Good men and true who neither sing nor speak among us any longer. 2. Of our own speedy silence: so far as this world is concerned we shall soon be among the dead and silent ones. 3. Of the ungodly around us, who are already spiritually dead, and can no more praise the Lord than if they were dumb. 4. Of lost souls in hell. Never will these bless the Lord. II. A happy resolution. “ But we will bless the Lord.” In heart, song, testimony, action, we are resolved to give the Lord our loving praise; because--1. We live. Shall we not bless Him who keeps us in being? 2. We live spiritually, and this demands perpetual thanksgiving. 3. We are blessed of the Lord: shall we not bless Him? 4. He will bless us. More and more will He reveal His love to us: let us praise Him more and more. Be this our steadfast vow, that we will bless the Lord, come what may. III. An appropriate commencement. “ We will bless the Lord from this time forth.”1. When the heathen ask, “ Where is now their God?” (verse 2), let us reply courageously to all atheistic questions, and meet infidelity with joyous adoration. 2. When under a sense of mercy, we are led to sing--“ The Lord hath been mindful of us” (verse 12), let us then bless Him. 3. When spiritually renewed and comforted. When the four times repeated words, “ He will bless,” have come true in our experience, and the Lord has increased us with every personal and family blessing (Psalms 115:12-14), then let all that is within us bless the holy name of the Lord. 4. When led to confess Christ. Then should we begin the never-ending life-psalm. Service and song should go together. 5. When years end and begin--new-years’ days, birthdays, etc., let us bless God for-- (1) Sin of the year forgiven.(2) Need of the year supplied.(3) Mercy of the year enjoyed.(4) Fears of the year removed.(5) Hopes of the year fulfilled. IV. An everlasting continuance: “ from this time forth and for evermore.”1. Weariness shall not suspend it. We will renew our strength as we bless the Lord. 2. Final falling shall not end it: the Lord will keep our soul in His way, and make us praise Him all our days. 3. Nor shall death so much as interrupt our songs, but raise them to a purer and fuller strain. 4. Nor shall any supposable calamity deprive the Lord of our gratitude (Job 1:21). (C. H. Spurgeon.) United and continuous praise On Thursday evening, March 29, 1883, for above an hour all who had occasion to use the telephone in Chicago found it vibrating to musical tones. Private and public telephones, and even the police and fire-alarm instruments, were alike affected. The source of the music was a mystery until the following day, when it was learned that a telegraph wire, which passes near most of the telephone wires, was connected with the harmonic system, that tunes were being played over it, and that the telephone wires took up the sounds by induction. If one wire carrying sweet sounds from place to place could so affect another wire by simply being near to it, how ought Christians, in communication with their Father in heaven, to affect all with whom they come in contact in the world! The Divine music of love and praise in their lives should be a blessing to society. (Pulpit Treasury.) . Psalms 116:1-19 Psalms 116:1-19I love the Lord, because He hath heard my voice and my supplications. Christian experience and its results I. The psalm opens with a general declaration of gratitude to God, as the hearer of prayer (verse 1). I. The true believer is a man of prayer.2. Another feature of the child of God is conviction of sin (verse 3). 3. He is one who can testify that the Lord has answered his prayers: one who has tasted the sweetness of Divine mercy (verses 5, 6, 8). 4. He seeks his happiness from God, and looks to the bosom of God as the only resting-place for his soul (verse 7). II. The results of Christian experience.1. A deep sense of gratitude, and a desire of manifesting the same (verse 12). 2. A special resolve to manifest his gratitude, by a devout attendance on ordinances, appointed of God as the public and solemn expression of thanksgiving and self-dedication (verses 13, 14). (W. Hancock, B. D.) The religion of gratitude We trace this religious gratitude-- I. In a profound impression of God’ s relative kindness. His relative kindness is shown in two ways.1. In delivering from distress. The distress seemed to have consisted (1) In bodily suffering. (2) In mental sorrow. 2. In delivering from great distress in answer to prayer. II. In an earnest confession of God’ s relative kindness.1. His general kindness (verse 5). 2. His personal kindness (verse 6). III. In a determination to live a better life in consequence of God’ s relative kindness. Here is a determination--1. To rest in God (verse 7). (1) The soul wants rest. Like Noah’ s dove it has forsaken its home, and is fluttering in the storms of external circumstances. (2) Its only rest is God. It is so constituted that it can only rest where it can find unbounded faith for its intellect, and supreme love for its heart. And who but God, the supremely good and supremely true, can supply these conditions? (3) To this rest it must return by its own effort. “ Return unto thy rest, O my soul.” The soul cannot be carried to this rest. As you steer the sea-tossed bark into harbour, so it must go itself into the spheres of serenity and peace. (4) A sense of God’ s relative kindness tends to stimulate this effort. “ The Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee.” “ The goodness of God shall lead to repentance.” 2. To walk before God. “ I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living.” “ I will set the Lord always before me.” Whoever else I may lose sight of, ignore, or forget, His presence shall always be before my eye. IV. In a public acknowledgment of God’ s relative kindness. (Homilist.) Prayer answered, love nourished The particular objects which you are now to look back upon are the manifold and manifest answers to prayer, which God has given you. I. The first thing I would have you recollect is, your own prayers. If you look at them with an honest eye, you will be struck with wonder that ever God should have heard them. Look back now, Christian, upon thy prayers, and remember what cold things they have been. Thy desires have been but faint, and they have been expressed in such sorry language, that the desire itself seemed to freeze upon the lips that uttered it. And yet, strange to say, God has heard those cold prayers, and has answered them too, though they have been such that we have come out of our closets and have wept over them. Then, again, believer, how unfrequent and few are your prayers, and yet how numerous and how great have God’ s blessings been. Ye have prayed in times of difficulty very earnestly, but when God has delivered you, where was your former fervency? Look at your prayers, again, in another aspect. How unbelieving have they often been! You and I have gone to the mercy-seat, and we have asked God to bless us, but we have not believed that He would do so. How small, too, the faith of our most faithful prayers! When we believe the most, how little do we trust; how full of doubting is our heart, even when our faith has grown to its greatest extent! I am sure we shall find much reason to love God, if we only think of those pitiful abortions of prayer, those unripe figs, those stringless bows, those headless arrows, which we call prayers, and which He has borne with in His long-suffering. The fact is, that sincere prayer may often be very feeble to us, but it is always acceptable to God. It is like some of those one-pound notes, which they use in Scotland--dirty, ragged bits of paper; one would hardly look at them, one seems always glad to get rid of them for something that looks a little more like money. But still, when they are taken to the bank, they are always acknowledged and accepted as being genuine, however rotten and old they may be. So with our prayers: they are foul with unbelief, decayed with imbecility, and worm-eaten with wandering thoughts; but, nevertheless, God accepts them at heaven’ s own bank, and gives us rich and ready blessings, in return for our supplications. II. Again: I hope we shall be led to love God for having heard our prayers, if we consider the great variety of mercies which we have asked in prayer, and the long list of answers which we have received. It is impossible for me to depict thine experience as well as thou canst read it thyself. What multitudes of prayers have you and I put up from the first moment when we learnt to pray! You have asked for blessings in your going out and your coming in; blessings of the day and of the night, and of the sun and of the moon; and all these have been vouchsafed to you. Your prayers were innumerable; you asked for countless mercies, and they have all been given. Only look at yourself: are not you adorned and bejewelled with mercies as thickly as the sky with stars? III. Let us note again the frequency of His answers to our frequent prayers. If a beggar comes to your house, and you give him alms, you will be greatly annoyed if within a month he shall come again; and if you then discover that he has made it a rule to wait upon you monthly for a contribution, you will say to him, “ I gave you something once, but I did not mean to establish it as a rule.” Suppose, however, that the beggar should be so impudent and impertinent that he should say, “ But I intend, sir, to wait upon you every morning and every evening:” then you would say, “ I intend to keep my gate locked that you shall not trouble me.” And suppose he should then look you in the face and add still more, “ Sir, I intend waiting upon you every hour, nor can I promise that I won’ t come to you sixty times in an hour; but I just vow and declare that as often as I want anything so often will I come to you: if I only have a wish I will come and tell it to you; the least thing and the greatest thing shall drive me to you; I will always be at the post of your door.” You would soon be tired of such importunity as that, and wish the beggar anywhere, rather than that he should come and tease you so. Yet recollect, this is just what you have done to God, and He has never complained of you for doing it; but rather He has complained of you the other way. He has said, “ Thou hast not called upon Me, O Jacob.” He has never murmured at the frequency of your prayers, but has complained that you have not come to Him enough. IV. Think of the greatness of the mercy for which you have often asked him, We never know the greatness of our mercies till we get into trouble and want them. God’ s mercies are so great that they cannot be magnified; they are so numerous they cannot be multiplied, so precious they cannot be over-estimated. I say, look back to-day upon these great mercies with which the Lord has favoured thee in answer to thy great desires, and wilt thou not say, “ I love the Lord because He has heard my voice and my supplications” ? V. How trivial have been the things which we have often taken before God, and yet how kindly has He condescended to hear our prayers. In looking back, my unbelief compels me to wonder at myself, that I should have prayed for such little things. My gratitude compels me to say, “ I love the Lord, because He has heard those little prayers, and answered my little supplications, and made me blessed, even in little things which, after all, make up the life of man.” VI. Let me remind you of the timely answers which God has given you to your prayers, and this should compel you to love Him. God’ s answers have never come too soon nor yet too late. If the Lord had given you His blessing one day before it did come, it might have been a curse, and there have been times when if He had withheld it an hour longer it would have been quite useless, because it would have come too late. VII. Will you not love the Lord, when you recollect the special and great instances of His mercy to you? You have had seasons of special prayer and of special answer. What shall I say then? God has heard my voice in my prayer. The first lesson, then, is this--He shall hear my voice in my praise. If He heard me pray, He shall hear me sing; if He listened to me when the tear was in mine eye, He shall listen to me when my eye is sparkling with delight. My piety shall not be that of the dungeon and sick-bed; it shall be that also of deliverance and of health. Another lesson. Has God heard my voice? Then I will hear His voice. If He heard me, I will hear Him. Tell me, Lord, what wouldst Thou have Thy servant do, and I will do it. The last lesson is, Lord, hast Thou heard my voice? then I will tell others that Thou wilt hear their voice too. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Reality of answer to prayer A prayer is an appeal from helplessness to power. No wonder that prayer in its prompting and incentiveness is always attributed to the Holy Spirit. David says, “ He has heard my cry and my supplications.” All the language is not on one side. I sent a letter to a certain city across the Atlantic, believing that the mail would carry my missive, that the British flag under which the mail ship sailed would protect her in safety across the Atlantic, and that thus my epistle would reach its destination. In due course a reply comes, showing that my expectations were fulfilled. You could not reason me out of my belief; you might go into discussion about the mighty leagues of ocean that separate Glasgow from Chicago, but you could not reason me out of my belief when I had that reply in my hand. There are men who as literally and as definitely have had a reply from God to their cry. They can say with David, “ God has heard my voice and my supplication;” they have got the proof; they have received the reply. (J. Robertson.) Love of God in the heart “ I love the Lord.” Can you say that? There is a bell in Moscow that never was hung and never was rung. It is one of the largest bells in the world, but its clapper has never swung against its great echoing sides. There is many a human heart that was placed where it is to beat with love to God; but, like the bell, it has never been hung and never been rung. Dead, lost soul, your heart was made to love God. Will you let it lie there, as they let the Moscow bell lie in the courtyard amid the dust and rubbish and daily defilement of the palace? Would you not rather pray, and strive, and agonize that your heart should be hung, and that it should be rung in a melody of love to God? (J. Robertson.) Psalms 116:2 Because He hath inclined His ear unto me, therefore will I call upon Him as long as I live. Answers to prayer confirm habits of prayer Philip Henry, after he had been engaged in prayer for two of his children that were dangerously ill, remarked, “ If the Lord will be pleased to grant me this my request concerning my children, I will not say, as the beggars at our door used to do, I’ ll never ask anything of Him again;” but, on the contrary, “ He shall hear oftener from me than ever;” and I will love God the better, and love prayer the better, as long as I live.” Psalms 116:3-4 The sorrows of death compassed me.To souls in agony I. First, here is the wretched condition into which many a poor awakened soul has been brought.1. Many a troubled conscience feels the sorrows of death; that is to say, he is the subject of griefs similar to those which beset sinners on their dying beds. They are all around him--these sorrows of the past, and the present, and the future. 2. Awakened sinners sometimes feel what they describe as the pains of hell: not that any living man does endure the pains of hell to the extent which they are suffered in hell, but still a dreadful foretaste of those pains may he experienced by an awakened conscience. What are these pains of hell? Remorse; a sense of condemnation; a terrible despair; a crushing sense of misery. 3. But the case was worse than this, for the poor soul felt no alleviation and knew of no escape. These things were by themselves, unsoftened, left in all their terror, the gall was unmixed, the vinegar undiluted. Notice the language. “ The sorrows of death compassed me.” It is a very strong word. When the hunters seek their prey they form a cordon around the poor animal that is to be destroyed. The poor panting creature looks to the right, but a man with a spear is there, he looks to the left and there are the dogs. Before and behind him are more spearmen, more hounds, more hunters; there is no way of escape. So does an awakened soul discern no rescue, no loophole by which it may be delivered. The text says, “ The pangs of hell gat hold upon me.” “ Gat hold,” as if the jaws of the lion had really gripped the lamb, or the paws of the bear were hugging the poor defenceless sheep. “ Gat hold upon me,” as though God’ s terrible sergeant from the court of justice had laid his band upon his shoulder, and said, “ I arrest thee in the name of God to lie in hell’ s prison, and perish for ever.” Many a soul has felt that, and felt also that it could not get away from the terrible grip. 4. Once more, the psalmist felt no comfort from any exertion that he made. That takes in the last sentence of the text’ s description. “ I found trouble and sorrow;” so that he looked for something, but the only result of his search was that he found trouble and sorrow. Do you remember, in the days when you were under bondage on account of sin, how you bound yourself apprentice to Moses to work out your own salvation by your own goodness? What did you get? Surely you found trouble in the work, and sorrow as its wages. You found trouble and sorrow. Perhaps you went to Mr. Legality, and he and his son, Mr. Morality, did what they could for you; but if you were really awakened all that you got from them was trouble and sorrow. That was the whole result of it. II. The awakened sinner’ s course of action. What did he do? First, he called--called upon God’ s name, lifted up his heart, and lifted up his voice, and called as a man might do who is lost in a fog and calls to a neighbour, hoping to hear a voice that will guide him; or as one who is far away in the bush of Australia and gives a call in the hope that some human voice may respond to it. This call is often described as a cry--a natural, simple, inartificial, unpleasant, but most effectual style of expressing our distress. Oh, sinner, if God has really been at work with you, and put you where I have been describing, you will call to God now. Now, notice, he says, “ Then called I upon the name of the Lord.” The sinner had forgotten the Lord till then, and now the Lord came to his remembrance. When did he call? That is the important point in this text. “ Then called I upon the name of the Lord.” Then. Was that the first time in his life? Perhaps it was. Begin at once, O sinner. When his condition was at its very worst, then he called upon God. Why did he not stop till he became better? He knew that delays are dangerous. And now for his prayer. Here it is--“ O Lord, I beseech Thee, deliver my soul.” A very natural prayer, was it not? He just said what he meant, and meant what he said, and that is the way to pray. It is a very short prayer. Many a prayer is too long by twenty times. It is smothered under a bed-full of words. It was a humble prayer: “ O Lord, I beseech Thee.” It is the language of one who is bowed into the dust. It was an intense prayer: “ O Lord, I beseech Thee, deliver my soul.” But I want you most of all to notice that it was a scriptural prayer. There are three great little prayers in Scripture,--’ O Lord, I beseech Thee, deliver my soul;” “ God, be merciful to me a sinner;” and, “ Lord, remember me when Thou comest into Thy kingdom.” These are all contained in the Lord’ s Prayer. “ O Lord, I beseech Thee, deliver my soul,” is “ Deliver us from evil.” “ God be merciful to me a sinner,” --what is that but “ Forgive us our trespasses” ? And what is the prayer, “ Lord, remember me when Thou comest into Thy kingdom,” but that grand petition, “ Thy kingdom come” ? How wonderfully comprehensive is that prayer which our Lord Jesus has given us for a model. All prayers may be condensed into it, or distilled from it. III. Deliverance (verse 8). He gained a great deal more than he asked for. He prayed, “ O Lord, I beseech Thee, deliver my soul,” and God delivered his soul from death, his eyes from tears, and his feet from falling. He asked for one thing, and he obtained it, and two other things besides; for it is our Heavenly Father’ s way to do exceedingly abundantly above what we ask or even think. He gained deliverance from death; for souls can die though they cannot cease to exist. They die when separated from God; all souls are dead until by union to God they are quickened into spiritual life. His eyes were also cleared from tears. Who is not free from sorrow when he is free from the fear of the death-penalty? Forgiveness brings joy at its heel wherever it comes. And then, having gained salvation and joy, the Lord gave him stability. Those feet that were so apt to slide were set fast, and the fear of future apostasy was removed by the gracious securities which God gave to him that He would never leave him. Thus he had a blessing for his soul, his eyes, and his feet--salvation, joy, and stability. The last word to be said is this--these same blessings can be had by others. “ Gracious is the Lord and righteous; yea, our God is merciful.” That is why the Lord heard David’ s prayer--because He is gracious, and He loves to show grace to sinners. It was also because He is righteous, and therefore keeps His promise. Remember, too, that if your distresses are like David’ s you may use the same prayer, because you have the same promises. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Psalms 116:6I was brought low and He helped me. God’ s method of helping Thousands of times has this experience of the psalmist been repeated. It is the Divine method. Bring low and then help. Cast down and then lift up. There are some diseases of the human system which the skilful physician thus treats. He begins at once to deplete and bring down the patient, reducing him little by little till the unskilled observer trembles lest life itself will depart. But at the right moment when the disease has been expelled the restoratives are applied, and a new life enters into the system. And there is a rapid and healthy building up. Brought low he has been helped. So in all God’ s gracious dealings with human souls, this is His method. Take the process in conversion. First comes the terrible conviction. The soul discovers depth after depth of the evil within it, till it seems as though its condition were absolutely hopeless. And when this process is complete, and the soul is thoroughly cast down, brought low, then the Infinite Helper stretches forth His hand. Then power from on high comes. And thus through all the stages of the Christian life. The soul is brought low, pride is humbled, lofty looks are brought down, and then the help comes. Was is not thus with poor sinning Peter? He had grown self-reliant. He could even boast of his resolution and firmness. But when the trial came he was weaker than weakness itself, and fell; terribly, disgracefully fell. He wept bitterly. But just when the humiliation was complete he was reinstated in his office, and commissioned to feed Christ’ s sheep. He was brought low and he was helped. Ask the aged and experienced disciple of to-day how it had been with him in the long years of his pilgrimage. He will tell you that he has many times been laid low, even in the dust, and just then he has been helped. Divine help is neither welcomed nor appreciated till the soul is taught its need of it in the stern school of experience. The process may not be pleasant at the time, but an infallible, Physician superintends it. (Anon.) Psalms 116:7 Return unto thy rest, O my soul, for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee.The gate to rest The psalmist exhorts his soul to return unto its rest; not because it has heard of God, or has seen His power in nature; not because He recognizes Divine order in the universe, not because his poetical feeling is kindled by the thought of Divine majesty and glory, but because he has had personal dealings with God. “ Return unto thy rest, O my soul, for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee.” I supplicated Him, He “ heard” my supplication, I was brought low, He “ helped” me: He “ delivered my soul from death.” He wiped the tears from my eyes and gave His angels charge to keep my feet from falling. Therefore, on my side, I too, will deal with Him. I will “ call” upon Him: I will “ rest” in Him: I will “ walk before” Him: I will “ believe” in Him: I will “ pay my vows” to Him. We really need get back to the old Hebrew conception of God’ s relation to man. But we never can do so through any conception of God which makes Him less than a personal Father in heaven. Now, let us look at three questions in the light of this thought of the soul’ s rest, all of them practical questions which every thoughtful man asks. “ Whence do I come? How shall my life be ordered? Whither am I going?” No soul is at rest until it can answer these three questions; and no soul will ever find rest until it shall have found its answer in God.1. As to the first of these questions--“ Whence did I come?” Modern thought is seeking rest for itself, not in God, but in scientific theories of the origin of man. We have no fault to find with such researches. All I say now is that the scientist does not give you anything restful, even if he succeeds in proving that God had no hand in your creation. You go on craving a leather in heaven just the same. You are restless as ever, no less restless than the child who knows his mother is in her grave, but who, nevertheless, cries for her unceasingly. You want the truth, but may not your filial instinct be truthful? May not your sense of sonship be a sense of a stupendous truth? 2. How shall I live? How make the most and best of life? What guides shall I follow? Here again we find a point of rest only in a personal God, a God of providence, who interferes (I am not afraid of the term) in our affairs. You may prove, if you can, that your life moves on under the guidance of mere, settled, mechanical order. That conclusion will not give you rest. If this world of men which we see and of which we are a part, with all its clashing and contradiction, its triumph of evil and its struggle of good, is uncontrolled by a Supreme Will, if men like grains of sand, merely fly before the wind that drives them against the rocks and against each other, if change, and sickness, and ruin, and death come just as the water shoots the precipice, just as two and two make four,--it is but mockery to point our souls to such a conception of life and say, “ Return unto thy rest, O my soul.” We can obtain a calm, restful outlook upon life, a tranquil, cheerful participation in life only as we get back to God. We find these only when Christ leads us as He led the disciples of old to the market, and points to the little dead sparrow, and says “ Your Father marked its fall; fear not, ye are of more value than many sparrows.” We shall not be frightened at a mystery, provided we know God is behind it. 3. And, once more, the soul finds no rest as regards the question of destiny, until it finds it in God. Whatever restful thought of heaven we have, whatever knowledge of its conditions we have, comes entirely from the moral quality of heaven, and therefore from the thought of God; for, take out God from the universe, and no determinate moral quality is left anywhere, in heaven or in earth. Heaven is heaven to us because God is there; because God’ s law rules there absolutely; because its happiness is the happiness of perfect moral order. (M. R. Vincent, D.D.) The soul’ s rest “ There would seem,” says James Martineau, “ to be an incurable variance between the life which men covet for themselves and that which they admire in others; nay, between the lot which they would choose beforehand and that in which they glory afterwards. In prospect, nothing appears so attractive as ease and licensed comfort; in retrospect, nothing so delightful as toil and strenuous service.” The truth of this remark is being repeatedly impressed upon us both by public and private circumstance. It does seem as if Providence had conditioned us to a lot of labour and struggle,--nay, forced it upon us,--while our first aim is to smooth our path and prepare the way for an after happiness which consists in rest and passive pleasure. Born for contest, we ask for repose. We would skip, if possible, the drill and the discipline, and clutch at once the prizes of victory. How many of us go through life like complaining school-children,--doing our tasks, it may be, but longing for the time when books shall be put aside and all lessons come to an end! But, notwithstanding the prevailing extent of this desire for repose and the fallacious arguments with which we attempt to cover our own delinquencies in the matter, human nature, in its inmost heart, is sound, and honours no repose which is not honourably achieved by contest and victory. Human nature is to be judged, not by the standard which individual men live by, or even set for themselves, but by that which they most admire in others; and that must be regarded as the aim of humanity at large, which, though exhibited in the attainment of but a single individual, gathers about it the greatest number who applaud and revere it. Who but the brave, who but those who against all obstacles have contended manfully and unflinchingly and kept their integrity to the bitter end, have ever been adopted as the models or worshipped as the heroes of mankind? How immeasurably more has the world admired the character of Socrates for refusing to avail himself of the plan of his jailer, who had been bribed to aid his escape! These two points, then, seem to be clearly established: first, in the midst of the toil, trials, and struggles of our lot there is an instinctive craving within us for rest; and yet, secondly, the standard of life which we also instinctively place the highest, and which, at the bottom of our hearts, we do most really admire, is that in which there is the least of rest. Solve this seeming paradox, and we shall answer the question of what the soul’ s rest is. We crave for rest, it is true; and the desire is so universal that it must be regarded as instinctive. But, like all our instincts, the desire is blind. Instinct does not see and consciously choose its end, but gives only direction toward a certain satisfaction which human nature requires in order to fulfil its destiny. What is the extent and character of that satisfaction, not any one instinct or desire, but the whole nature, must determine. What, then, is the kind of rest which the human soul demands, and which alone can satisfy its desires? The rest that our natures crave is not the repose of passivity, of listlessness, of sleep, but the rest of healthy spiritual life,--of life in accordance with the laws of our being, which are laws of progressive activity, and, if obeyed, put us into harmony with the spirit and peace of God. The rest that we want is like the rest of the heavenly bodies, which, though all may be in rapid and varied movement, are yet at peace with regard to each other, because moving according to the harmony of a Divine law. And such rest as this we can have, though in the midst of labour and trial and conflict. It is the rest to which Jesus invited the “ weary and heavy-laden” ; the rest, not of those who have thrown their burdens off or would impose them upon others, but of those who would have taken upon them the yoke of God’ s law, and find the “ yoke easy” and the “ burden light,” because, through obedience to this law, a mighty strength and a mighty peace have come into their being. (W. J. Potter.) The Christian’ s disposition under a sense of mercies received I. The state of those with whom the Lord hath dealt bountifully.1. The Lord hath dealt bountifully with those from whom He hath removed any affliction under which they groaned, and for deliverance from which they prayed. 2. The Lord hath dealt bountifully with you, if you can observe a particular mark and signature of His providence in your mercies. (1) When the means by which any mercy is brought about are extraordinary, and far beyond the reach of human wisdom, it serves to show that God Himself hath been their help. (2) Sometimes the providence of God is seen in the season of the mercy. It is bestowed when it is most needed, or when it may be of greatest use. (3) The signature of providence is sometimes seen in the nature of the mercy, when it is exactly suited to the state and character of the person concerned. 3. The Lord deals bountifully with His people, when He gives them a clear and satisfying view of the salutary end, and enables them to make a sanctified use both of their trials and mercies. 4. The Lord hath dealt bountifully with those whom He hath admitted to the most intimate and spiritual communion with Himself; those whom He hath carried above the sphere of temptation, filled them with sensible joy in the Holy Ghost here, and earnest desires after the complete and perpetual enjoyment of His presence in heaven. II. The import of the psalmist’ s resolution.1. Return and give the praise where it is due; and humbly acknowledge God as the author of thy mercies. 2. This expression may imply returning to God, and delighting in Him as our reconciled God, and supreme portion and happiness. 3. This expression implies a confidence and reliance on God for protection and security against future dangers. III. Practical improvement.1. Observe one great branch of the sinfulness of the world in general--forgetfulness of God, and unthankfulness for His mercies. 2. Let me beseech every serious person to consider how far he hath sinned against God and his own comfort by forgetting the goodness of God, both in common and special mercies. 3. Directions to those who are truly sensible of the goodness of God. (1) Be circumspect and watchful; though a thankful frame of spirit is of great advantage, both for your sanctification and peace, yet it is not out of the reach of temptation; let it not produce pride, security, or self-sufficiency. (2) Be public-spirited and useful; if the Lord hath dealt bountifully with you, commend His service, and speak to His praise. (3) Be frequent and diligent in secret prayer. This is the way to preserve your watchfulness, and to increase your usefulness. (J. Witherspoon, D.D.) Soul rest I. As an original inheritance. “ Return unto thy rest.” There is no rest for souls in places, however fair, beautiful, or grand; not in any externalisms, however calm and sunny. It is nowhere but in their own moral states. But what are the moral states that constitute soul rest?1. Unquestioning trust.2. Satisfying love.3. Conscious rightness.4. Congenial pursuits. II. As a lost inheritance. The whole world is in disquiet. Men are trusting, but their trust is not unquestioning. The foundations of their hopes prove to be sand. The staff they grasp for support proves to be a reed that breaks beneath their weight. Everything they rest on fails them. Men are loving, but their love is unsatisfying. They are loving the imperfect, and the discovery of their imperfections distress them. They are loving the unreciprocating, and their indifference fills them with painful solicitude. They are loving the inconstant, and their inconstancy tosses them as timbers on the billows. They love the unhappy, and the sorrows they discern bring a shivering shadow over themselves. Men want righteousness; their deep cry is, “ Oh! wretched man that I am.” They see the right, they reach after it, but it eludes their grasp. Men are active, but the pursuits they follow are uncongenial wish their nature, and felt to be unworthy of their lofty powers and destiny. III. As a recoverable inheritance. The text implies the possibility of regaining the rest. How can this soul-rest be recovered? The Gospel and the Gospel alone returns the satisfactory answer. “ Come unto me all ye that are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” How does He give rest? By supplying man with the necessary conditions. He presents the only object for unquestioning trust. One that is all-wise, all-kind, all-powerful, the unchangeable and eternal God. And He bids man to trust in Him that liveth for ever. He presents to man the only object for a satisfying-love. One who is all perfect, who is light, in whom is no darkness at all. One who returns in an infinite degree all the love that is given. One who is constant, who will never leave and never forsake. One who is happy--the “ ever blessed God.” He supplies man with the means of becoming consciously right. He presents congenial pursuits--pursuits connected with the advancement of holiness, the promotion of human happiness, and the glory of God. (Homilist.) The soul’ s rest 1. From vain endeavours to relieve a burdened conscience, return unto thy rest, O my soul, in the perfected redemption and pardoning grace of Jesus. 2. From the distress and disquiet of inconsistent conduct, return unto thy rest, O my soul, in unreserved obedience to Christ. Cease that opposition; forsake that evil path: cast from thee the accursed thing; cease to do evil; and thus return unto thy rest. 3. From the fretting anxieties and disappointments of pride, return unto thy rest, O my soul, in the humility of Christ. 4. Disappointed in thy search for happiness elsewhere, return unto thy rest, O my soul, in the love of Jesus, and the peace the world cannot give. As the dove flew to and fro, finding no rest for the sole of her foot till she returned to the ark, so the believer cannot repose away from Christ, our true and only refuge. 5. From vain speculations and sceptical doubts, return unto thy rest, O my soul, by childlike faith in Christ. 6. From the sorrow caused by afflictions, return unto thy rest, O my soul, in the sure mercies of a God of Love. Rest in His wisdom; He knows what is most needful for thee. Rest in His love; He will not withhold what is good. Rest in His power; He is able to do what His love prompts and His wisdom plans. Rest in His tenderness; for as a father pitieth his children, so He pitieth thee. Rest in His faithfulness; He cannot deny Himself. Gratefully remember past deliverances, and thus “ Return unto thy rest,” etc.7. From all the trials of the present life, return unto thy rest, O my soul, in the home which is preparing for thee above. Every step of the journey brings us nearer. Every care, every conflict, every grief helps us onward. There is rest yonder. Let us even now enjoy it by anticipation. (Newman Hall, LL.B.) The rest of the soul I. God is the rest of the soul.1. As the light of the intellect.2. As the refuge from the charges of our consciences.3. As our chief good.4. As our almighty protector.5. As our great and ultimate end. II. The circumstances under which we are more especially called to return to God our rest.1. When we are too much affected by the cares of ordinary life.2. When we are pressed with uneasy fears as to our spiritual safety.3. When we have vainly perplexed ourselves with difficulties.4. When we have experienced special deliverance. Having obtained from God pardon, a revival of piety, restoration from affliction, deliverance from temptation and sorrow; then we ought to summon the spirit to “ cleave with purpose of heart to the Lord,” and to rest more fully in Him, who is the strength of our heart, our portion, our exceeding great reward. (R. Watson.) “ Return unto thy rest” I. The believer has his rest. While trying to think how I should describe it, nothing seemed to strike me as a more full and accurate description of the believer’ s rest than the apostolic benediction with which we are accustomed to dismiss our assemblies. If you have these three things,--the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost,--I am sure I need not stay to prove to you that, in your experience, you have realized what it is to enjoy rest for your soul. II. Sometimes the believer leaves that rest.1. Through affliction.2. Through a want of submission to the Divine will.3. Through want of contentment.4. Through the world’ s joys.5. Through allowing some conscious sin. III. The believer, when he has gone away from his rest, should return to it; and the sooner he does so, the better. As Noah’ s dove came back to him, so fly back to Christ, who is your Noah, your rest, for that is the meaning of the name.1. It is quite certain that you can never rest anywhere else.2. This unrest puts you out of order for everything.3. Your want of rest is putting you into a state in which you are very liable to be tempted and overcome.4. This unrest can do no possible good. IV. The believer has one excellent encouragement to return: “ Return unto thy rest, O my soul; for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee.” The psalmist tells us in detail what the Lord had done for him; or, rather, he tells the Lord. “ Thou hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling.” Now, believer, you ought to come back, and rest in God, because you hays received from Him these three marks of His Divine favour. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Spiritual rest In reconciliation to God through Christ Jesus the soul regains its lost equilibrium, finds again the centre of repose for which it had been sighing in vain. What sensual pleasure, wealth, ease, honour, power, the applause of men--what even intellectual pursuits, and the domestic and social charities of life, fail to bestow, or bestow for the moment only to stimulate the thirst they seem to quench, in the ineffable sense of union with God the soul finds at lasts--rest, satisfaction, perfect peace.1. This “ rest” not bodily or physical, but mental or spiritual rest. When doubt and disbelief are gone, when the object of life is found in Christ, when God becomes the sure portion and sweetest joy of the heart, and the spirit within us, hitherto, it may be, groping bewildered amidst earthly hopes and pleasures, like one in the dark for the friendly hand, feels itself at last embraced in the sure grasp of strong and changeless love--then is the true rest of man, the stillness of the weary spirit in the everlasting arms. This is the only repose which is independent of outward circumstances. Even amidst the outer toil and distraction of the world, it is “ the peace of God which keepeth the heart and mind.” Nor does death, which disunites and disturbs all else, for a moment interrupt its continuity: for the rest of the soul in Christ is identical with the rest of heaven--“ the rest which remaineth for the people of God.” 2. It is the rest, not of immobility, but of equipoise. The rise of religion in the heart may be indicated by the bitter pangs of an awakened conscience, and by the painful struggle of spirit with sense, of the reviving element of moral freedom with the old and inveterate tyranny of sin in the soul. And it may only be by a long-protracted process of holy discipline that the soul attains at last to the complete mastery over self, the perfect inward harmony of a spirit in which every thought and feeling and desire are “ brought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.” But when that glorious end is gained, then the “ weary strife of frail humanity” is at an end, and a repose--oh how deep, how tranquil, how sublime!--diffuses itself throughout the spirit--a repose in which there is at once calmness and power, the sweet serenity of an infant’ s slumbers, yet the strength of an angel of God. 3. The true “ rest” of the soul is that, not of inactivity, but of congenial exertion. As love to Christ deepens in the soul that is truly given to Him, the work which it prompts us to do for Him loses the feeling of effort, and passes into pleasure. Less and less of set purpose do we need to constrain the mind to think of Him, or to approach Him in the formal attitude of devotion. The idea of Christ in the holy mind becomes gradually blended with all the actions of its daily life; thought goes out to Him as by a divine instinct; an ever-acting attraction draws the heart upwards to its great and first object, and life becomes an unconscious yet continuous prayer. The transition from motive to act, from holy intention and design to holy doing, becomes less and less marked, until at last the will acquires an almost mechanical certainty, an almost unconscious smoothness and rapidity of action. And so, with the unfettered ease of one “ who playeth well upon an instrument,” from the many-stringed harp of life the soul renders up to God the sweet melody of holy deeds. Then indeed has it “ returned into its rest.” (J. Caird, D.D.) The soul’ s resting-place It seemed scarcely a stone’ s throw from the busy streets, almost in the centre of the city’ s crowding and rushing, that we found the quaint little park with its grass and trees, its flowers, its quiet resting-places and playing children. “ How strange it seems to find such a garden spot in the heart of all the city’ s din and traffic, its restless comings and goings!” we said, dropping down upon one of the rustic seats. “ Yet how hard it would be to endure all the strain and turmoil if there were no such places!” “ It is like life,” said a friend thoughtfully. “ Our days are full of care and toil, of eager pursuit and feverish ambition. The demands of business, of civic duty, and of social life crowd and press upon each other; but deep in the heart of each of us, if life is what it should be, lies some quiet little garden spot, fenced about and protected. Our religious life has its roots there; it holds our holiest ties and friendships, and something from out our childhood which never grows old or dies. The world may fill our outward lives with the city’ s roar and tumult, but the soul holds ever amid it all its garden of flowers and rest.” (W. L. Watkinson.) Psalms 116:8-9 For Thou hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling.On recovery from sickness I. The blessing conferred. Why was the psalmist so transported with joy, on being delivered from death? As if a mariner were to give thanks that he is not arrived in port; a traveller that he has not reached the end of his tedious journey; a banished man that he is not restored to his country; or a man groaning under a heavy burden that he is not relieved from it. Let us not hastily blame this emotion of the psalmist. For although death, through God’ s favour, be a benefit to pious and holy persons; yet in itself, abstracted from those considerations, it is fearful and terrible. It is the sentence of our condemnation; the punishment of our rebellion; the bitter fruit of our corruption. But the text suggests to us, on this subject, two particular reflections.1. David was not a mere private person; for he held two very important public stations. He was a king, and a prophet. As a king, his life was highly important to the state; as a prophet, it was a singular utility to the Church of God. And in each of these distinguished relations David was an extraordinary personage. He was a signally brave, wise and pious king, and he was a prophet of unequalled vigour and comprehension of mind. David, therefore, might wish for life, and be thankful on his deliverance from death, not only for his own sake, or chiefly, but for that of his people; for the good of his subjects, and the service of God’ s Church, to which he was so useful and necessary. 2. There are actually occasions on which even good persons may fear death, and feel a most lively joy in being delivered from it. And those are when their sickness and sufferings are the immediate effect of their sins. For although their peace may be made with God, by the blood of the everlasting covenant, yet God may send upon them very sharp corrections, when they have offended Him by criminal acts and provocations. And they may wish and pray not to die in this state; death, presenting itself in such junctures, being more than commonly formidable. II. The grateful acknowledgment (verse 9). When we read in Scripture of “ walking before the Lord,” we often find other expressions joined with this, such as prove that it means piety in general, the whole duty of a religious and godly person. One of the Grecian sages having said, “ All things are full of God, and He seeth all our actions,” another great man judged this maxim to be so beautiful and important that he pronounced it to comprehend the whole philosophy of virtue.” And with great reason: for, in truth, the conviction and feeling of having God over present with us is the grand security of all good morals. The promise and vow, therefore, of David in the text is--a pure and holy life: “ I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living.” (S. Partridge, M.A.) Experience, resolve and hope This is a quotation from an earlier psalm, with variations which are interesting, whether we suppose that the psalmist was quoting from memory and made them unconsciously, or whether, as is more probable, he did so deliberately and for a purpose.1. The words in the original psalm (56) read, “ Thou hast delivered my soul from death; hast Thou not delivered my feet from falling?” The writer of this psalm felt that that did not say all, so he put in another clause--“ mine eyes from tears.” It is not enough to keep a man alive and upright. God will wipe away his tears; and will often keep him from shedding them. 2. The original psalm goes on: “ Thou hast delivered . . . my feet from falling, that I may walk before God.” But the later psalmist goes a step further than his original. The first singer had seen what it is always a blessing to see--what God meant by all the varieties of His providences, viz. that the recipient might walk as in His presence. But the later poet not only discerns, but accords with, God’ s purpose, yields himself to the Divine intention, and instead of simply saying, “ That was what God meant,” he says, “ That is what I am going to do--I will walk before the Lord.” 3. The original psalm says, “ in the light of the living” ; the other uses another word, a little more intelligible, perhaps, to an ordinary reader, and says, “ in the land of the living.” Now, noting these significant variations, I would draw attention to this expression of the psalmist’ s acceptance of the Divine purpose, and the vision that it gave him of his future. It is hard to say whether he means “ I will walk,” or “ I shall walk” ; whether he is expressing a hope or giving utterance to a fixed resolve. I think there is an element of both in the words. I. A sure anticipation. “ Thou hast” --“ I will.” The past is for this psalmist a mirror in which he sees reflected the approaching form of the veiled future. God’ s past is the guarantee of God’ s future. What God has done, He will keep on doing. Our experience yields fuel for our faith. We have been near death many a time; we have never fallen into it. Our eyes have been wet many a time; God has dried them. Our feet have been ready to fall many a time, and if at the moment when we were tottering on the edge of the precipice, we have cried to Him and said, “ My feet have well-nigh slipped,” a strong hand has been held out to us. “ The Lord upholdeth them that are in the act of failing.” And if we have pushed aside His hand, and gone down, then the next clause of the same verse applies, for He “ raiseth up those that have fallen,” and are lying prostrate. As it has been, so it will be. “ Thou hast been with me in six troubles,” therefore “ in the seventh Thou wilt not forsake me.” We can wear out men; and we cannot argue that because a man has had long patience with some unworthy recipient of his goodness, his patience will never give out. But it is safe to argue thus about God. II. A firm resolve. “ I will walk before the Lord.” What does “ walking before the Lord” mean? It means the habitual--I do not say unbroken, but habitual--effort to feel in our conscious hearts that we are in His sight; not only that we are with Him, but that we are “ naked and open to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.” And that is to be the result, says our psalm, as it is the intention, of all that God has been doing with us in His merciful providence, in His quickening, sustaining, and comforting influences in the past. He sent all these varying conditions, kept the man alive, kept him from weeping, or dried his tears, kept him from falling, with the intention that he should be continually blessed in the continuous sunshine of God’ s presence, and should open out his heart in it and for it, like a flower when the sunbeams strike it. Oh, how different life would look if we habitually took hold of all its incidents by that handle, and thought about them, not as we are accustomed to do, according to whether they tended to make us glad or sorry, to disappoint or fulfil our hopes and purposes, but looked upon them all as stages in our education, and as intended, if I might so say, to force us, when the tempests blow, close up against God; and, when the sunshine came, to woo us to His side. Would not all life change its aspect if we carried that thought right into it, and did not only keep it for Sundays, or for the crises of our lives, but looked at all the trifles as so many magnest brought into action by Him to attract us to Himself? But there has to be something more. There have to be a firm resolve, and effort without which the firmest resolve will all come to water, and be one more paving stone for the road that is “ paved with good intentions.” That firm resolve finds utterance in the not vain vow, “ I will” --in spite of all opposition and difficulties--“ I will walk before the Lord,” and keep ever bright in my mind the thought, “ Thou God seest me.” Aye! and just in the measure in which we do that shall we have joy. If we are right with God, then the gladdest of thoughts is, “ Thou knowest me altogether, and Thou hast beset me behind and before.” If we are right with God, “ Thou hast laid Thine hand upon me” will mean for us support and blessing. If we are wrong, it will mean a weight that crushes to the earth. And if we are right with Him, that same thought brings with it security and companionship. Ah! we do not need ever to say, “ I am alone,” if we are walking before God. It brings with it, of course, an armour against temptation. That thought, of the present God, draws the teeth of all the raging lions, and takes the sting out of all the serpents, and paralyses and reduces to absolute nothingness every temptation. Clasp God’ s hand, and we shall not fall. III. A far-reaching hope. When we read, “ I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living,” we cannot but think of the true and perfect deliverance, when it shall be said, with a depth and a fulness of meaning with which it is never said here, “ Thou hast delivered my soul from death,” and the black dread that towered so high, and closed the vista of all human expectation of the future, is now away back in the past, hull-down on the horizon, as they say about ships scarcely visible, and no more to be feared. We cannot but think of the perfect deliverance of “ mine eyes from tears,” when “ God shall wipe away the tears from off all faces, and the rebuke of His people from off all the earth.” We cannot but think of the perfect deliverance of “ my feet from falling” when the redeemed of the Lord shall stand firm, and walk at liberty on the golden pavements, and no more dread the stumbling-blocks of earth. We cannot but think of the perfect presence of God, the perfect consciousness that we are near Him, when He shall “ present us faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy.” We cannot but think of the perfect activity of that future state when we “ shall walk with Him in white,” and “ follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth.” And one guarantee for all that far-reaching hope is the tiny experiences of the present; for He who hath delivered our souls from death, our eyes from tears, and our feet from falling, is not going to expose Himself to the scoff; “ This ‘ God‘ began to build, and was not able to finish.” But He will complete that which He has begun, and will not stay His hand until all His children are perfectly redeemed and perfectly conscious of His perfect presence. (A. Maclaren, D.D.) A series of great deliverances Lo, here a deliverance, not from one, but many dangers--“ death,” “ tears, falling.” Single deliverances are as threads; but, when multiplied, they become as a cord twisted of many threads, more potent to draw us to God. Any one mercy is as a link, but many favours are as a chain consisting of several links, to bind us the closer to our duty. Frequent droppings of the rain cannot but make an impression even on the stone, and renewed mercies may well prevail with the stony heart. Parisiensis related a story of a man whom (notwithstanding his vicious courses) God was pleased to accumulate favours upon, so that at last he cried out, “ Most gracious God, Thy unwearied goodness hath overcome my obstinate wickedness,” and from that time devoted himself to God’ s service. No wonder, then, if David, upon deliverance from such numerous and grievous afflictions, maketh this his resolve, “ to walk before the Lord in the land of the living.” (N. Hardy.) Psalms 116:9I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living.The nature and necessity of good works 1. The matter of the duty in which the psalmist promiseth to engage--“ I will walk.” It signifies the practice of what is good and lovely, as the words following intimate. 2. The manner in which he purposed to walk before the Lord, that is, in such a manner, that God, the searcher of hearts, would be pleased with it, and approve of it. 3. The place and time: while he continued on earth, and remained among the living. I. Confirm the proposition, that inward affection to God must be declared by our outward conversation.1. The one cannot be without the other. 2. This duty is frequently pressed in Scripture. Abraham; Noah; Zacharias; and Elizabeth. 3. Walking before the Lord has been abundantly rewarded. Enoch. II. Show why our inward affection to God must be declared by our outward conversation.1. In this way God is glorified. 2. Others are benefited. 3. Our own good is promoted. It is by a good conversation, that the security of our hearts, the integrity of our consciences, the soundness of our faith, and, in a word, the truth of all graces are clearly manifested, cherished, and increased. III. Consider the necessity of good works.1. They are commanded and expressly required by God Himself. 2. They are the way to the Kingdom of God. 3. They are an evidence or demonstration of our faith. 4. The not doing of them merits eternal death. 5. They are necessary as expressions of our gratitude. IV. Conclusion.1. This subject teacheth us that those who walk not in God’ s ways cannot be esteemed His affectionate people. 2. The knowledge, affection and profession of persons who walk not before the Lord are all in vain. 3. Walking with God, in the external duties of religion, will best stop the mouths of the adversaries of the truth. 4. Those who walk not before the Lord in the land of the living are exposed to the most dreadful ruin. (G. Faitoute, M.A.) The Christian’ s walk before God I. To walk before the Lord in the land of the living includes reconciliation with God as a pardoned sinner. II. To walk before God in the land of the living requires a realizing sense of His presence and perfections. III. To walk before God in the land of the living comprehends a supreme regard to the authority and the requirements of His Word. IV. That we may walk before the Lord in the land of the living, we must have respect unto the recompense of reward. (J. Smyth, D.D.) Walking before the Lord I. To walk before the Lord is a style of speaking made use of to represent that manner of life peculiar to good men. It may be considered as including in it--1. That men live under a lively impression of the presence of God. 2. The exercise of a sincere love to Him, and such friendly intercourse with Him as this imperfect state admits. 3. To live in dutiful and constant subjection to His will. II. The excellence of such a course of life.1. There is joy in it. If you are really desirous to know whether it be so, go and consult the words of Him who cannot lie. They say that “ gladness is sown for the upright in heart” ; that “ the voice of rejoicing is in the tabernacles of the righteous” ; that “ great peace have they who love God’ s law” ; that “ everlasting joy shall be upon them.” If you ask, again, how these things are so, they will reply, that the righteous rejoice before God; that their hearts rejoice in Him, because they have trusted in His holy name; that their rejoicing is this, the testimony of their conscience, that, “ in simplicity and godly sincerity, not in fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God,” they have their conversation in the world. 2. There is honour in it. There is a dignity connected with walking before the Lord superior to everything celebrated by that name among men. “ I will,” says the Almighty, “ guide them with Mine eye. I will never leave them nor forsake them. I will be to them a God, and they shall be to Me a people.” 3. There is a preparation for heaven in it. Every step they take in walking “ before the Lord in the land of the living” is just so much progress in the path of life--every temptation overcome is a new advance to glory--every good disposition acquired will increase their happiness in the paradise of God. (W. F. Ireland, D.D.) Psalms 116:10I believed, therefore have I spoken: I was greatly afflicted. Opinions and convictions There is sincerity, intensity, reality, in every line of this song. Nobody doubts the psalmist when he says, “ I believed, and therefore do I sing my song of trust in God, and thankfulness to Him for a great salvation.” I know few portions of the: Bible more fitted than this psalm to bind our hearts with the bands of faith and gratitude to truth, and duty, and God, and to make us turn away from mere opinions and empty speculations on the high affairs of religion. While it is very desirable, for many reasons, that we should take broad views of the bearings of the Divine government, and especially of the plan of redemption, on the whole world of men, and while it may be very profitable that we even study the religions of the race, and see the points of contrast and comparison between these religions and the truth as it is in Christ, it is imperative that we, first of all, fix our attention on the personal necessities of our own nature, and character, and circumstances, and on the Divine methods of meeting these necessities. We must begin at home, not in the spirit of selfishness, but because that is the natural order of things, and because if we do not see how our own necessities can be compassed, we can only find in the regions outside of us matter for barren talk about religion, and for opinions changeable as the weather. If we cannot get to facts in our own capacities and circumstances, and in the Divine dealings with ourselves, we can never come within sight of facts in the spiritual condition of the world, and in God’ s methods of working for the weal of mankind. Mark the prominence of the “ I,” and the “ me,” and “ my,” in this psalm, and yet there is not the semblance of egotism. God’ s Spirit deals with your spirit. Yourself cleave to Christ with full purpose of heart, and then you will speak because you believe, really believe. Although, if we are to have convictions and not mere opinions on the high affairs of religion, we must begin with ourselves, and a God and Saviour for ourselves, the spirit of faith in us must travel out over our neighbour, and the world, and out over a gospel adequate to meet the wants of the race. The gospel for ourselves is the gospel for the race, and if we are taught aright the truth to be believed, we get a glimpse of its adaptations for man everywhere, when we get a glimpse of its adaptations for our own selves. We can believe only for ourselves. We cannot by proxy believe for others. But our creed can compass a Christ, a complete Christ for every man. That confession of faith we can make, because we believe it. And it is a great confession of faith,--a real Saviour for the real wants of every man. When believed as a vast and blessed spiritual reality, it makes a man speak. (W. Bathgate, D.D.) Conviction is the spring of all action Tozer says, “ Conviction lies at the root of all consistent action. A mechanical genius conceives an idea. It is as clear as noon-day in his mind, but ere that idea is embodied in a wheel, a spring or lever, he must believe in the possibility of its embodiment: and just in proportion to the strength of his conviction as to the practicability and probable success of his idea, will he be consistent and earnest in working it out. The mind must conceive and believe before the hand or foot will move. Columbus conceived the existence of a continent; the conception grew into a conviction; the conviction was followed by consistent action, and that action was crowned with success, by the discovery of America. A man believes that an observance of certain physical laws is conducive to health, and he acts accordingly. Another believes that obedience to certain moral laws is necessary to a good moral character, self-respect, and peace of conscience, and he obeys these laws. Christianity, then, by making man’ s pardon and happiness to hinge upon faith, acts in accordance with the laws of his mental and moral being. It is no arbitrary requirement; it is as necessary to holy obedience as any cause is to an effect. A man, for instance, must believe in God, or he will never serve Him; in law, or he will never obey it; in sin, or he will never see the necessity of a Mediator.” (The Weekly Pulpit.) Psalms 116:11I said in my haste, All men are liars.The dangers of pessimism Pessimism is a sin, and those who yield to it cripple themselves for the war, on one side of which are all the forces of darkness, led on by Apollyon, and on the other side of which are all the forces of light led on by the Omnipotent. I risk the statement that the vast majority of the people are doing the best they can. Nine hundred and ninety-nine out of a thousand of the officials of the municipal and the United States Governments are honest. Out of a thousand bank presidents and cashiers, nine hundred, and ninety-nine are worthy the position they occupy. Out of a thousand merchants, mechanics and professional men, nine hundred and ninety-nine are doing their duty as they understand it. Out of one thousand engineers, and conductors, and switchmen, nine hundred and ninety-nine are true to their responsible positions. It is seldom that people arrive at positions of responsibility until they have been tested over and over again. It is a mean thing in human nature that men and women are not praised for doing well, but only excoriated when they do wrong. By Divine arrangement the most of the families of the earth are at peace, and the most of those united in marriage have for each other affinity and affection. You hear nothing of the quietude and happiness of such homes, though nothing but death will them part. But one sound of marital discord makes the ears of a continent, and perhaps of a hemisphere, alert. The one letter that ought never to have been written, printed in a newspaper, makes more talk than the millions of letters that crowd the post-offices, and weigh down the mail-carriers, with expressions of honest love. We need a more cheerful front in all our religious work. People have enough trouble already, and do not want to ship another cargo of trouble in the shape of religiosity. If religion has been to you a peace, a defence, an inspiration and a joy, say so. Say it by word of mouth; by pen in your right hand; by face illumined with a divine satisfaction. If this world is ever to be taken for God, it will not be by groans, but by hallelujahs. If we could present the Christian religion as it really is, in its true attractiveness, all the people would accept it, and accept it right away. Exemplify it in the life of a good man or a good woman, and no one can help but like it. A city missionary visited a house in London and found a sick and dying boy. There was an orange lying on his bed, and the missionary said, “ Where did you get that orange?” He said, “ A man brought it to me. He comes here often, and reads the Bible to me, and prays with me, and brings me nice things to eat.” “ What is his name?” said the city missionary. “ I forget his name,” said the sick boy, “ but he makes great speeches over in that great building,” pointing to the Parliament House of London. The missionary asked, “ Was his name Mr. Gladstone?” “ Oh yes,” said the boy, “ that is his name; Mr. Gladstone.” Do you tell me a man can see religion like that and not like it? Why do you not get this bright, and beautiful, and radiant, and blissful, and triumphant thing for yourselves; then go home telling all your neighbours that they may have it, too; have it for the asking; have it now? Mind you, I do not start from the pessimistic standpoint that David did, when he got mad and said in his haste, “ All men are liars!” or from the creed of others that every man is as bad as he can be. I rather think from your looks that you are doing about as well as you can in the circumstances in which you are placed, but I want to invite you up into the heights of safety, and satisfaction, and holiness, as much higher than those which the world affords as Everest, the highest mountain in all the earth, is higher than your front doorstep. (T. De Witt Talmage.) The spirit of cynicism The Cynics were a sect of philosophers among the Greeks, founded by Antisthenes, who, on account of his snappish, snarling propensities, was frequently called “ The Dog” ; and probably enough it may have been on account of this that his school of philosophy was called the “ Cynic” or “ Dog” school. He was stern, proud, and unsympathetic. He taught that all human pleasure was to be despised. He was ostentatiously careless as to the opinions, the feelings, and the esteem of others. He used to appear in a threadbare dress, so that Socrates once exclaimed, “ I see your pride, Antisthenes, peeping through the holes in your cloak!” His temper was morose, and his language was coarse and indecent. His disciple, Diogenes, even “ bettered the instruction,” living, it is said, in a tub, and peering about the streets with a lantern in the daytime, in search, as he alleged, of a man! It was part of his system to outrage common decency, and he snarled and growled even more bitterly and insolently than his predecessor. It is from this old school of philosophy that we derive the term cynicism; and we commonly apply it, now-a-days, to that mood or habit of mind which looks out upon mankind with cold and bitter feeling, which finds little or nothing to admire in human character and action, which systematically depreciates human motives, which rejoices to catch men tripping, which sneers where others reverence, and dissects where others admire, and is hard where others pity, and suspects where others praise. It would appear, then, to have been some such mood as this through which the psalmist had been passing. With him, however, the mood seems to have been but transient. For a time his soul was darkened by its baleful shadow--all human goodness eclipsed for him, and his own human sympathies and affections frozen. But only for a time. He does not seem to have cherished this cynical mood. On the contrary, he seems to have been conscious of its wretchedness, and to have retained the power to pray against it. When you are tempted to “ say in your haste, All men are liars,” then cry with the psalmist, “ O Lord, I beseech Thee, deliver my soul!” And now let me mention further one or two practical safeguards against the attitude or habit of cynicism. I. Let us cherish a modest estimate of our own abilities and our own importance. A vain man is naturally exacting. He expects from others recognition, admiration, and deference; and if he does not secure the appreciation which he fancies is due to his abilities or merits, he may begin to rail at the blindness and stupidity of the world. An exacting nature, also, is apt to suspect the genuineness of an affection or friendship which is not always showing the amount of attention demanded and expected. The “ milk of human kindness” --curdled somewhat at the outset by a selfish vanity--is still further soured when that vanity is wounded. A selfish ambition, too, when disappointed, is apt to leave the spirit embittered. Some of the most snarling and carping critics are men who have failed to reach the fame they coveted. And then, again, even the ordinary calamities of life, coming upon an intense egotism, will sometimes plunge a man into the cynical mood. That mankind in general should be subject to disease or to misfortune is not so strange to him; but that he himself should be thus visited surprises and chafes him. Nay, but let us cherish a modest estimate of ourselves--this is a grand safeguard against cynicism, and helps to preserve the sweetness of the spirit in times of disappointment and affliction. A humble recognition, too, of our own defects and faults will tend to keep us from harsh and censorious judgments of our brethren, and from all scornful and bitter railing at the weaknesses of humanity. II. Let us cultivate the habit of looking out for human excellences, and of putting the most generous construction on human actions, The man who finds nothing to admire in others thereby reveals the shallowness of his own nature. A soul--and especially a young soul--that has no “ hero-worship” in it, of some sort or other, thereby writes itself down as ignoble. The cynic who is constantly depreciating the actions and suspecting the motives of others is certainly paying no compliment to himself. A man does some deed that has a noble and worthy look about it. You know nothing whatever of the man; but you must, forsooth, begin with bitterness to insinuate that his action may not be so disinterested as it looks--that it springs, probably, from some selfish or sinister motive! What does all this mean but that you find it hard to believe in nobleness? And what does this, again, mean but that you yourself are incapable of such disinterested conduct? Nobleness believes in the possibility of nobleness, and delights to recognize it. Get into the habit, then, of looking out for excellences of character instead of picking out flaws and magnifying faults. “ Charity rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth.” Cultivate also the habit of putting the most generous construction on human actions. If an action can be ascribed to two possible motives, why should you ascribe it to the lower? “ Charity believeth all things, and hopeth all things.” III. Let us seek to look at all men as through the eyes of Christ. This is the grand antidote to the cynical spirit. Christ is our Lord; Christ is our Saviour; it is our safety and blessedness to cling to Him, and to receive His Spirit into our hearts. And the grand secret of loving and caring for and bearing with others lies in looking at them through the eyes of Him who is their Redeemer and ours. Christ “ tasted death for every man.” He so loved even the unworthy that He was willing to shed His blood for them. They tell us that “ Love is blind” ; but be sure that hatred, or even indifference, is far blinder. Love may sometimes be blind to faults, but it has a quick eye for excellences. (T. C. Finlayson.) Faith in God and man It has been left to a pitiful cynicism and to a threadbare wit to remind us, especially of late, that if David had lived in our days the words which he once uttered in haste he might now have spoken with utmost deliberation. Is it true? Is falsehood the invariable characteristic of the dealings and the speech of men? I will not trifle with your intelligence by seriously discussing the question. We may not blink or belittle the crimes that are done in high places or in low ones--least; of all may we deny the essential evils from which those crimes have sprung; but to own the power of evil in the world, to be afraid of it, to hate it, to frown upon its exhibitions when they flower into personal transgression--that is one thing. It is quite another to be precipitated by these things into that blunder of hasty generalization which David no sooner detected in himself than he so simply and manfully disowned and repented of it. Have we ever realized that, if we seriously believed as some of us are willing to affirm, that all men are liars, life would be simply unendurable? After all, the foundations of human society are laid in the cement of mutual trust, not of mutual suspicion. It paralyzes effort, it deadens aspiration, it destroys hope when we find that our own confidence in others evokes no answering trust in them. We do not realize, I think, how readily distrust begets its echo in those who are distrusted. To be doubted and suspected,--this with the young is often a short road to ultimate recklessness. “ What is the good of it,” cries the young and sensitive nature, which has not yet learned to appeal from the judgment of its fellows, to the verdict of its unseen Master--“ what is the good of any effort after right, if one is met at the threshold with a sneer and a suspicion? Is there no such thing as truth, after all? is all life hollow and false and unreal? Well, then, why should I try to be true and to hate what is false? Why should I revere what is good, and despise what is base and mean? No one believes in goodness any more. It must all be a game--this life that I am living, and cleverness, not righteousness, the aim of it.” And thus is born the cynic and the sceptic--the unbeliever in truth and the scoffer at faith. And if there is any life more wretched and any character more unlovable, the world has yet to reveal it. In the phraseology of science, there is what is known as a good working hypothesis. It is a probability assumed for the time to be true, as a means of reaching conclusions which lie beyond. Now, in our dealings with our fellow-men, which is the better working hypothesis: to assume with David in his haste, that all men are liars, or to prefer to believe that on the whole all men are not liars? Which will best serve to redeem the fallen, and steady the tempted, and inspire the timid? Give your brother man your confidence. Provoke him to love and to good works by the good which you look to see in him. And you that are fathers and mothers, ennoble the child whom you are training by appealing to that which is noble in him. Amid all his faults and waywardness, strive to love him with an unextinguishable hope and trust. Believe me, what your suspicions, your scorn, your lurking distrust of him can never do, your loving confidence will far oftener and far more surely accomplish. (Bishop H. C. Potter.) Psalms 116:12-14 What shall I render unto the Lord for all His benefits toward me? Giving thanks by taking more There is a wonderful ministry of contrast in this varied psalm. A diamond resting upon black plush or velvet shines with a more dazzling lustre. And so it is with the bright patches in this psalm, they are lifted into a still whiter radiance by their surroundings. Take this bit of black environment: “ The sorrows of death compassed me, and the pains of hell gat hold upon me: I found trouble and sorrow.” And now take this gracious bit of light lying just upon the very fringe of the dark country: “ Gracious is the Lord and righteous; yea, our God is merciful! The Lord preserveth the simple.” And here, again, is a similar contrast: “ I was greatly afflicted; I said in my haste, All men are liars.” How sweet is the music that follows! “ What shall I render unto the Lord for all His benefits toward me?” My text is therefore born of the brighter season, when the storm is dying and rumbling away in the distance, and the sun is out again. We find him overwhelmed in the contemplation of Divine benefits. “ All His benefits toward me.” He is amazed at the richness and the multitude of the favours which surround him. He is engirt by the vast crowd of Divine guests! Into whatever room of his house he enters, the guests are there. In highway and byway they throng his steps! Now, here is a very matured attainment of the spiritual man. To perceive and appreciate our benefits necessitates a very refined soul. That is so upon the merely human plane. There are some men who cannot appreciate kindness. They either never see them or they misconstrue them. They are the victims either of dulness or pride, and both these foul spirits make this kind of appreciation impossible. But this spiritual numbness is even more apparent in our relationship to the Divine. We receive multitudes of benefits, but we do not see the Divine mark upon their foreheads. We take them in, but they are not revealed to us as the King’ s bounty. It is amazing how fine is the perception of other souls! They never open their eyes without seeing the presence of the hosts of God. “ The mountains are full of horses and chariots.” “ Having nothing,” they yet possess all things. Now, this is a fine perception which can be cultivated by continual exercise. We can have our “ senses exercised to discern.” It is amazing how we can cultivate even a bodily perception. We can train it so as to discover even more minute distinctions. And it is the same with the senses by which we realize the presence of the Divine. But the exercise must be deliberate. We must set about in dead-set purpose to discern the mercies of the Lord. We must just be on the look-out for them as a botanist is on the look-out for wild flowers as he walks the country lanes. You must sit down to-night, for instance, and range over your life to-day, and seek out with eager eyes the mercies which have been about your path. Get hold of Frances Ridley Havergal’ s “ Journal of Mercies,” and she will help you in the cultivation of the finer sight. And then the happy issue is this, that what begins in deliberate exercise becomes an instinctive habit. Our souls can become habituated to the perception. Day after day your life would appear more and more filled with the bountiful guests of the Lord. What is the issue of such contemplation? The fountains of desire are unsealed. Love awakes, and yearns to make some return unto the Lord who has poured His benefits upon us. “ What shall I render unto the Lord?” Have I ever used that word? If such phrase has never leapt to my lips it is because I have never gazed upon the mercies of the King. What return can I make? Now, mark this; the first answer which comes from a soul that has attained to fine spiritual perception is this--“ I will take the cup of salvation.” How exceedingly strange it all is! He asks what he can render, and he answers that he will further take! And this is the very essence of true gratitude. The best return we can make for a gift of God is to take a higher gift. Have you thanked Him for your daily bread? Then the best return you can make is to take the bread of life. Have you thanked Him for your sleep? Then the best return you can make is to take His gift of rest and peace. Have you thanked Him for your health? Then the best return you can make is to seek His gift of holiness. “ I will take the cup of salvation.” I will take the finest thing upon the Lord’ s table! He has given me this gift, now I will take a bigger gift! But that is not the only return the psalmist makes. “ I will pay my vows unto the Lord now.” When the cords of death compassed him he had made a strong and secret vow. He said to himself, “ If I get over this I will live a more pronounced life unto the Lord! If I get my strength back, I will use it for the King.” “ If I get out of this darkness, I will take a lamp and light the feet of other men!” And now he is better again, and he sets about to redeem his vow. The midnight vow was redeemed in the morning! As soon as he was out of the peril he remembered his covenant. “ Now!” There must be no delay. In this sphere delays are attended with infinite peril. Aye, and he will surround the redemption of his vow with publicity. “ In the presence of all His people.” He will do something publicly which will strongly proclaim him on God’ s side, and tell to all men that he has given his devotion to Him. And that must be our way. The vow we made in secret must be performed openly. We must do something to indicate that we have passed through a great experience, and that we are remembering the benefits of the Lord. We can speak His name to another. We can write some gracious letter to a friend. We can attach ourselves publicly to the Master’ s Church. We can commit ourselves openly and outwardly as professed followers of the King. (J. H. Jowett, M.A.) Awake, sweet gratitude I. A very suitable inquiry. It contains--1. A remembrance of all His benefits. 2. A recognition of the Lord’ s consequent claim. 3. A desire appropriately to acknowledge these benefits. 4. An overwhelming sense of inability to acknowledge God’ s mercy. II. A truly remarkable reply.1. Thank God for the cup of communion, and the cup of consolation. The best way to praise Him for mercies past is to accept mercies present, and to anticipate the mercies that are still in store. 2. True prayer is worship, homage. As a sickly flower pent within the cottage window turns itself towards the sun, and by drinking in its beams worships it, so you who have nothing to give to the collection, so you who have no talents for Sunday school teaching, so you whose lives seem to be one dull round, one common task, do worship God in most spiritual fashion by just breathing His air, imbibing His beams, meditating on His mercy, and asking still for more. 3. Praise and prayer are acceptable to God, and better sacrifices could hardly be, but with praising and praying the psalmist links paying. Do not divorce one from the other. Do not rob God. Have you never read of one who, being brought to the place of martyrdom, kneeled down in the mire at Smithfield, and, lifting up his eyes to heaven, said, “ I will pay my vows now in the midst of thee, O Smithfield” ? The place was red with the blood of saints, and brown with the burning of fires! Ah me! the lines are fallen to us in pleasant places; we have a goodly heritage. Will you pay your vows unto the Lord in the basement of the tabernacle? Smithfield’ s fires are out, thank God. It should be easier for us to be consecrated, and devoted, and whole-hearted here and now. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Harvest Thanksgiving The importance of gratitude in the heart of man cannot be over-estimated. This is true, even viewing it as an item in the economy of human things. But the sin and the shame of not possessing it are surely greatest when men are found unthankful to their God. “ What shall I render unto the Lord for all His benefits?” It is a practical question, for God does not expect any reward from us which we cannot give.1. And, first, might we not have a full appreciation of God’ s goodness? This would please Him. There are times certainly when we should practise abstinence, but to say this is very far from teaching that it is sinful to appreciate and use to the full the means of sustenance and enjoyment which God has given. A full appreciation of the beauty of the world in which we live,--of the warmth of its sunshine and the fragrance of its flowers, of the strength and healing in its kindly fruits,--is one of the least rewards God merits and expects. A lack of due appreciation is one of the seeds of ingratitude. 2. And then, too, let us be patient in all the circumstances of our life. This also will please God. There may be some who are in want. What shall we say to such as these? Shall we be content to tell them of a better land? Let us tell them of that country, and lead them thither, but let us also tell them to be patient here. Tell them that Jesus, who laid their burden upon them, will help them to bear its weight. “ Sweet are the uses of adversity” if it leads us to trust more in Him. I once heard of a man who was rich, and happy in his wealth. Suddenly a reverse in fortune came, and he lost all. Yet, even in misfortune, he was still happy. On being asked the reason why he was happy in all circumstances of life, he answered, “ When I was rich, I saw God in all things. Now that I am poor, I have all things in God.” Brethren, “ in your patience possess ye your souls.” 3. And God expects us to be kind. That will surely please Him, for He has said, “ Inasmuch as ye have done it unto the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto Me.” The very existence of the poor (and we have them with us always) is an opportunity for good works. May all of us in time “ learn the luxury of doing good.” We have kept the grandest lesson of harvest till the last. 4. It leads our thoughts on from carnal food to Jesus, who is the Bread of Life. As food is necessary for the sustenance of the body, so is Jesus necessary for the life of the soul. Therefore, like David, let us “ take the cup of salvation, and call on the name of the Lord.” (F. St. John Corbett.) How may each Christian best glorify God? I. The benefits which we Have received from God. The catalogue is endless. It stretches into eternity. Converting mercy--pardoning mercy--renewing mercy--justifying mercy--restoring mercy--supporting mercy;--where shall I close the enumeration? II. The return of gratitude and love which God requires at your hand.1. There are methods of glorifying God common to every Christian. Every Christian must dedicate his body to God as His temple. Surrender to Him the key of every apartment. Lay open to Him every chamber of your heart. Let your spirit bow before Him as He enters in, and hail Him Lord of all that it contains. 2. By employing your talents in His service. If you are the property of God, then all the powers of the mind, as well as the members of the body, are individually his right. (T. Raffles, D. D.) What shall I give to Him? I. The desire that prompts the question.1. It seems to be a law of nature that some return should be made for benefits received. 2. Gratitude can only be shown by making some return. 3. Thanksgiving is the peculiar privilege of the saint. 4. How may we know when we are truly thankful? (1) When we are quick to see and slow to forget our mercies.(2) When our heart is in our praises.(3) When there is an absence of all thought of human merit. II. Some thoughts suggested by the question.1. The possessions of God. 2. Our own poverty. III. The only answer that can be given. The heart’ s gratitude is all the saint can give in return for mercies that are fresh with every hour, and as numerous as the seconds in the day. Do not niggardly withhold the only thing you can render. Praise Him, it costs nothing, it is all that you can do, and it is just what He is willing to accept. Not to do so is disloyalty to heaven’ s throne. But if thanksgiving be good, remember thanksliving is better, therefore let thy whole life join in the harmony. (A. G. Brown.) What will you do The text is the language of a man who sees religion in its true light. I. The benefits received. 1. The benefit of answered prayer. The ancient Romans had many gods, some of which they regarded as their especial deities; but they were so much afraid of some other nation stealing or enticing their gods away that they never mentioned their names; and in one instance the marble image of a god was actually chained in the temple, to prevent his leaving them or being spirited away to some other place. Being fickle themselves, they believed their gods were also fickle. The blessedness of true religion, based upon Divine revelation, is that is clearly shows that our God will never leave us. He has promised, “ I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.” God careth for us because He is our Creator and our Redeemer. He is a prayer-hearing and prayer-answering God. 2. The Lord had redeemed his soul from death. Then, because He has redeemed your soul from death on the cross, what will you render unto the Lord? Will you not take the cup of salvation? Will you not be the Lord’ s servant and pay your vows in the presence of His people? II. The return made for these benefits. “ I will take the cup of salvation.” Jesus spoke of His body as bread and of His blood as wine; and when He told His disciples that they must eat His flesh and drink His blood, it is evident He meant that we must get our spiritual nourishment from believing in the truth and love of His Gospel, and our strength from practising that truth and love in our lives. It is considered doubly treacherous to injure or betray a man of whose bread and wine you have partaken. The Arabs say that if you eat bread with them or taste their salt, they can never injure you; everlastingly they are your friends. Now, when you take the cup at what is called the Lord’ s Supper, it means, likewise, that you publicly testify that you are a friend of Jesus who died for you; and when you eat the bread, you mean that you earnestly desire to receive the truth, which the bread represents. Partaking of this cup also means that we trust our Lord. Alexander of Greece was warned by a friend that his physician was seeking an opportunity of poisoning him; but, when the physician next time presented the cup, Alexander looked in his face steadfastly, and then, taking it in his hand, said, “ I drink to show my trust in thee!” (W. Birch.) I will take the cup of salvation.--Taking from God the best giving to God It is a most natural thing, as all languages show, to talk of a man’ s lot, either of sorrow or of joy, as the cup which he has to drink; and there are plenty of instances of the metaphor in the psalms, such as “ Thou art the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup, Thou maintainest my lot.” “ My cup runneth over.” That familiar emblem is all that is wanted here. “ The cup of salvation” expresses, by its plural form, the fulness and variety of the manifold and multiform deliverances which God had wrought and was working for the psalmist His whole lot in life appears to him as a cup-full of tender goodness, loving faithfulness, delivering grace. It runs over with Divine acts of help and sustenance. As his grateful heart thinks of all God’ s benefits to him, he feels at once the impulse to requite and the impossibility of doing it. The great thought, then, which lies here is that we best requite God by thankfully taking what He gives. I. Now, I note how deep that thought goes into the heart of God. Why is it that we honour God most by taking, not by giving? The first answer that occurs to you, no doubt, is--because of His all-sufficiency and our emptiness. No doubt that is quite true; and, rightly understood, that is a strengthening and a glad truth. But is that all which can be said in explanation of this principle? The principle of our text reposes at last on “ God is love and wishes our hearts,” and not merely on “ God has all and does not need our gifts.” He delights in no recompense, but only in the payment of a heart won to His love and melted by His mercies. II. But now let us look at the elements which make up this requital of God in which He delights. And, first, let us be sure that we recognize the real contents of our cup. It is a cup of salvation, however hard it is sometimes to believe it. How much blessing and happiness we all rob ourselves of by our slowness to feel that! Then, again, another of the elements of this requital of God is--be sure that you take what God gives. There can be no greater slight and dishonour to a giver than to have his gifts neglected. Do not complain of your thirsty lips till you are sure that you have emptied the cup of salvation which God gives. One more element of this requital of God has still to be named--the thankful recognition of Him in all our feasting,--“ call on the name of the Lord.” Without this, the preceding precept would be a piece of pure selfish epicureanism--and without this it would be impossible. Only he who enjoys life in God enjoys it worthily. Only he who enjoys life in God enjoys it at all. This is the true infusion which gives sweetness to whatever of bitter, and more of sweetness to whatever of sweet, the cup may contain, when the name of the Lord is pronounced above it. If we carried that spirit with us into all our small duties, sorrows, and gladnesses, how different they would all seem! We should not then find that God’ s gifts hid Him from us. Nothing would be too great for us to attempt, nothing too small for us to put our strength into. There is an old legend of an enchanted cup filled with poison, and put treacherously into a king’ s hand. He signed the sign of the cross and named the name of God over it--and it shivered in his grasp. Do you take this name of the Lord as a test. Name Him over many a cup which you are eager to drink of, and the glittering fragments will lie at your feet, and the poison be spilled on the ground. What you cannot lift before His pure eyes and think of Him while you enjoy, is not for you. Friendships, schemes, plans, ambitions, amusements, speculations, studies, loves, businesses--can you call on the name of the Lord while you put these cups to your lips? If not, fling them behind you--for they are full of poison which, for all its sugared sweetness, at the last will bite like a serpent and sting like an adder. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Taking in giving “ What shall I render?” “ Take!” Why, the whole essence of Christianity is in that antithesis, if you think about it. For what does the doctrine that a man is saved by faith mean, if it does not mean that the one thing that we all have to do is to accept what God bestows? And the same attitude of reception which we have to assume at the beginning of our Christian life must be maintained all through it. Depend upon it, we shall make far more progress in the Divine life if we learn that each step of it must begin with the acceptance of a gift from God, than if we toil, and moil, and wear ourselves with vain efforts in our own strength. I do not mean that a Christian man is not to put forth such efforts, but I do mean that the basis of all profitable discipline, and self-control, and reaching out towards higher attainments, either in knowledge or in practical conformity to Jesus Christ, which he puts forth, must be laid in fuller acceptance of God’ s gift, on which must follow building on the foundation, by resolute efforts to work God’ s gift into our characters, and to work it out in our lives. All around you, Christian men, there lie infinite possibilities. God does not wait to be asked to give; He has given once for all; and continuously as the result of that once-for-all giving, just as preservation is but the prolongation of the act of creation. He has given, once for all, and continuously, all that every man, and all men, need, for their being made perfectly like Himself. We hear people praying for “ larger bestowments of grace.” Let them take the bestowments that they have, and they will find them enough for their need. God communicated His whole fulness to the Church for ever when He sent His Son, and when His Son sent His Spirit. “ Open thy mouth wide and I will fill it.” Take what you have and you will find that you have all that you need. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Receiving and rendering The two component parts of true religion are receiving and rendering. As to the first disciples, so to each one of us, according to the several providential gifts and spiritual graces bestowed upon each, the Master still says, “ Freely ye have received, freely give.” And I doubt not many a financial loss that has overtaken wealthy or well-to-do members of the Church has been visited upon them because while they “ received” they failed to “ render.” The true record of the bankruptcy of many a Christian merchant might be written thus:--First, he failed to render to his God; then, and therefore, he failed to receive from God (for God could no longer give where no adequate return was made), and then, lastly and consequently, he failed to pay his fellows. But whether or not such retribution overtakes the unjust steward in this life, there can be no doubt that when the Lord returns He will require the balance-sheet to be presented--a balance-sheet in which the receiving and the rendering alike will he faithfully chronicled; and then the Lord “ will render unto every man according to his work.” I. The psalmist refers to the great benefit of personal salvation (verse 16). It is true that as you “ were not redeemed with” such “ corruptible things as silver and gold,” so such things as silver and gold can never make adequate repayment to your Redeemer. He claims your love, your life; not yours, but you. And yet shall we refuse these “ corruptible things” when by them we may bring honour to our Saviour and help to extend His kingdom? II. The psalmist refers, again, to the great benefit of pious parentage. “ The son of Thine handmaid” --how great a blessing is acknowledged in those simple words! Through this small loophole we can see the inestimable advantages of a religious home. The psalmist makes no reference to his father, but his mother’ s pre-eminent piety stands before him still, and he recognizes it as one of his choicest blessings when he says, “ I am Thy servant and the son of Thine handmaid.” How many of us have to thank God for this priceless benefit--the benefit of a pious parentage and religious training! III. The psalmist also refers--and, as it is the occasion of the psalm, refers at length--to the benefit of restored health and prolonged life. Through pain and weakness he had been “ brought low.” Disease held him fast in its fierce grip, so that he “ found trouble and sorrow.” “ The sorrows of death compassed him” --came crowding round him on every side, till there seemed to be no escape; and the “ pains of hell” --the mysteries of the unseen world and the darkness of the grave--“ got hold upon him.” Then in his pain and misery he cried unto the Lord, and God heard his voice and his supplication. “ Precious in the sight of the Lord was the death of His saint;” i.e. it was not lightly regarded by God that His servant should perish. He rebuked the destroyer, made “ Death ungrasp his fainting prey.” He “ delivered his soul from death,” his “ eyes from tears,” his “ feet from falling.” And now, with health restored and life prolonged, the psalmist cries, “ What shall I render unto the Lord for all His benefits towards me?” And he answers, “ I will walk before God in the land of the living” ; “ I will pay my vows unto the Lord” ; “ I will offer to Thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving.” (J. H. Grooves.) The cup of salvation In the Bible “ the cup” is used to represent the condition of a man, his circumstances, and his portion (Psalms 11:6; Psalms 16:5; Psalms 23:5; Psalms 60:3; Psalms 75:8). The cup of salvation is the condition of deliverance, which this psalm celebrates, not the drink-offering appointed by the law, not the cup of blessing. Noah’ s deliverance was a cup of salvation. “ To call upon the name of the Lord” is a phrase of greater power than to call upon the Lord. There is a reference, in the use of the word “ name,” to the manifestations of God, to historical Divine manifestations (Exodus 3:13-15). I. God giving.1. A personal God. 2. Something which the personal God has provided and arranged, held out to His creatures. 3. A recognition of a relation with us upon God’ s part, and of dependence upon our part. 4. Kindness shown. The cup of blessing is a revelation of love. II. Man taking. Here it may be said, Will he not invariably take? Must he not take? The taking here is not a simple laying hold of that which God gives, but the use and enjoyment of what God bestows. To “ take the cup of salvation” is to receive a blessing in all its fulness, to the utmost limit of our receptive capacity, and of our power to accept and to enjoy. III. God’ s servant seeing God in what he takes. There is a name of God on every cup and in each act of offering a cup. The words, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, represent the God who is to be seen in the lives of these men. But God is as really in the lives of Robinson, and Smith, and Jones, as in the lives of the patriarchs. God is in health and in healing, in wealth and in extrication from poverty, in prosperity and in lifting up out of adversity. In His giving and working and ministering and protecting, God is ever writing His name. One point of difference between the godly and ungodly is that the former see God in connection with their cup, and that the latter see Him not. As far as a landscape without sunshine is inferior to a landscape upon which the sun sheds his rays, is the appearance of blessings when separated from God, to the same blessings when regarded as the gift of His hand. IV. Worship, the fruit of what we receive and see. “ And will call upon the name of the Lord.” Past and present gifts on the part of God should encourage us in three things--prayer, praise, and thanksgiving. (S. Martin.) Taking all God offers How much more happy we should all be, if we only received all that God offers and accepted more cordially that which we do take! A writer in “ The Reader,” in an admirable article on Thermo-electrical Science, observes, “ Like windmills, thermo-electric batteries might be erected over the country, and entrap, finally converting into mechanical motion, and thus into money, gleams of sunshine, which would be as wind to the sails of the mill. What stores of fabulous wealth are, as far as our earth is concerned, constantly wasted by the non-retention of solar rays poured on the desert of Sahara. Nature here refuses to use her wonderful radiation net, for we cannot cover the desert sands with trees, and man is left alone to try his skill in retaining solar energy. Hitherto helpless, we need not be so much longer, and the force of a Sahara sun may be carried through wires to Cairo, and thence irrigate the desert, or possibly, if need be, it could pulsate under our streets, and be made to burn in Greenland.” Take up your neglected mercies, my brethren. Take the cup which you have overlooked and despised. Take the cup entirely, which you have taken but partially, and with the taking of every cup call upon the name of the Lord. (S. Martin.) The cup of life The whole lot in life of the psalmist appears to him like a cup full of tender, good, loving faithfulness and delivering grace. And why is it that the best return for God’ s goodness is by further taking, not by giving? The principle upon which this text rests ultimately is that God is love, and wants our hearts, and not merely that God has everything and does not need our gifts. Take the illustration of our own case. Do we not feel that all the bloom and beauty are gone from a gift if the giver hopes to receive anything in return? Love gives because it delights to give. It gives to express itself, and to bless the giver. If there be any thought of return, it is only the return of love. And that is how God gives. As St. James expresses it, He is the giving God. “ I will take the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord.” The Jewish father at the head of his family on the old Passover day, at a certain period in the family feast, solemnly lifted the wine cup and breathed a thanksgiving to God, and then drank of it with all around him. This word here “ I will take” we may fairly translate as “ I will raise.” Perhaps it is intended that there should be preserved for us within the sacred word that old picture as emblematic of the consecration that should rest upon all our happiness and upon all our life--the remembrance of God, the calling upon the name of the Lord. Christ gave us not merely the ritual of an ordinance, but the pattern of all our life, when He took the cup and gave thanks. And so common joys become sacraments, and enjoyments in our homes and in our innocent pleasures become worship, and the cup of mingled bitter and sweet that is provided for each of us by our loving Father becomes a cup of blessing and of salvation over which and by reason of which we can come more fully to recognize and praise the goodness of God. (M. Hartley.) The cup of salvation This cup of salvation is standing on the table of infinite love, filled to the brim with the wine of the Kingdom; all heaven is there in solution, all joy, peace, comfort, security, for the word salvation covers all. How came it there? Ages back man was tempted and drank of a forbidden cup; it wrought madness in the brain, enmity in the heart, and the poison spread into all parts of his being, and as the result of the first draught he had to drink of another, the cup of sorrow. But over and beyond there is a third cup of God’ s holy anger against sin, deep and filled with wormwood and gall. The Man Christ Jesus comes in a body like our own, He looks on the cup of Divine anger, He takes and begins, to drink, and finds it a cup of trembling and amazement, but never a moment’ s pause or hesitation till He came to the dregs, and His anguished soul cried, “ My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” and He puts it down and says, “ It is finished.” He rises again; and now the cup which He had drained is as full of blessing as it was of woe. It is the cup of God’ s salvation. “ Take” the cup of salvation, not make. So many are wanting to tread out grapes of their own good works and put them into the cup, but that is filled with the wine which comes from Jesus Himself, having been trodden in the winepress. “ Take,” not admire and wonder. “ Take,” not only hold it in a trembling hand, but drink, put it to thy lips and say, “ I will take the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord.” All believers may take a fresh and a deeper draught, and the more you drink of this wine the more sober you become, and the deeper and sweeter, for there is more in Christ than was ever dreamed of, and a delight in God’ s salvation that could never be thought possible. (A. G. Brown.) Psalms 116:14I will pay my vows unto the Lord now in the presence of all His people. Whether well-composed religious vows do not exceedingly promote religion Whoso doth engage himself by a well-ordered vow, doth set his religion in the whole, or in some particular part of it, in very good forwardness. Religion is a gainer by this bargain well made; the bond is to God, but religion receives the interest at least: well-composed vows are religion’ s engines, able to move the weightier burdens and loads, and fit to be only employed in them. I. What a vow is.1. A promise. 2. Voluntary. 3. Made to God alone. II. Whether it be lawful, in any case, for us now to make a vow.1. What is not evil in itself, nor evil by accident, unless made evil by the undue ordering of it through our fault, may lawfully be done by us. 2. Vows may be lawfully made now by us Christians, because what was lawful to the Jew on moral considerations, and not on any ceremonial considerations, that is also lawful now unto us Christians. 3. Vows may lawfully be made by us Christians; for it is a kind of thankfulness and acknowledgment made to God, with the universal approbation and consent of men. 4. Unless such vows may be accounted lawful to us, I cannot see how we have any way of making free, voluntary, and extraordinary acknowledgments unto God. 5. But that is lawful to us Christians which doth most certainly ensure our duty to God, yet doth not ensnare us in the ensuring of it. III. When vows are well-composed, and so consequently for the advantage on religion.1. If you would duly and well compose your vows, you must wait a fit season; not vow on every occasion. 2. When the extraordinary case warrants thee to this extraordinary obliging of thyself, then be sure to proceed deliberately, and with advice. Consider what thou doest: every one condemns rash vows; and, I am sure, inconsiderate vows are rash ones. Here Jephthah failed. Consider-- (1) Whether that thou vowest to do be lawful.(2) Whether acceptable to God.(3) Whether that thing which thou vowest bear a proportion to that thou didst expect and pray for when thou vowedst, or to that thou hadst received, for which thou dost now make thy vow. 3. Thou must vow cheerfully, and with a ready mind. 4. Vow sincerely and uprightly. IV. How well-composed vows promote religion.1. Religion hath its concernment in the credit and reputation which it hath in the world. Religion hath a name to look after, so well as you or I; and it loseth or gaineth, as it is either honoured or reproached by the professors of it. Now, when times of extraordinary danger drive us to our prayers and vows to the true God, and we resolve to have mercy from Him, or to choose to fall into His hand, this sets the credit and honour of religion, that it can have recourse to God, who, we know, can deliver us. This is somewhat; but the making a vow doth not so much honour religion as the performing of it doth, when it is hereby declared to the world,--that religion is the thing that makes men the same in their mercies which they were in their distresses; that the God whom they worship is the true God, able to require their vows, if they should neglect to pay them. 2. By setting forward the growth of religions in the midst of those who profess it. 3. Vows well made, and kept well, very much improve And promote religion in the heart and life of him who so voweth and keepeth his vow. V. Whence these well-composed vows have such influence on religion, what have they in them more than ordinary thus to promote it? To this I will answer as briefly as I may: There is in such vows a most notable awakening and quickening power, which sets all a man’ s care, wisdom, truth, and strength on work, to do the things whereby religion is so much promoted. VI. Application.1. If well-composed vows do indeed much promote religion, it will teach us how careful we should be in making our vows to the greatest advantage of religion. 2. Do well advised and composed vows so much promote religion when well and faithfully kept? Are they also such sacred and inviolable bonds? Then look what vows you are under, look how you have performed them. (H. Hurst, M.A.) Religious decision I. The elements of which religious decision consists.1. A settled faith in the principles of Christian truth. 2. A self-denying conformity to the precepts of Christian holiness. 3. A public dedication to the interests of the Christian cause. II. The arguments by which religious decision is commended.1. It is a due and proper return for the mercies you have received. 2. It must greatly elevate your own character. 1. It is the source of the purest and highest happiness. III. The practical result which our contemplation of religious decision and the arguments commending it ought invariably and universally to answer.1. It is that you should thus be decided and devoted for yourselves. 2. Resolve upon it without delay. (1) By hesitation you lose time.(2) By hesitation you diminish the probabilities of devotedness at a future time.(3) By hesitation you presume guiltily upon the probabilities of future life. (J. Parsons.) The sanctity of vows I. A vow is a distinct and conscious assertion of our religious nature. It is made with the most perfect consciousness of personal responsibility, in the presence and under the authority of that august Being to whom all obedience and worship are due. And it is void of all significance and solemnity if the whole religiousness of man’ s nature does not find expression in it. II. A vow Is the acknowledgment of moral responsibility, and a confession of guilt before God. In this vow it is confessed that God holds man responsible for what he does. There is no significance in the vow if it is not based upon the recognition of his individual responsibility before the law. And as this springs from a conscience under the pressure of guilt, it is a confession of judgment identical in character with that which will be made by the sinner at the bar of God in the last day. III. The vow is a voluntary act of the will, and is, therefore, of the nature of a covenant with Almighty God. It cannot be broken, therefore, without the guilt of perjury. IV. Every proper vow is in the direction of original duty, as well as in the direction of offered grace. A vow is, therefore, doubly binding. It has absorbed into itself an obligation that existed before. It has embodied a duty which was in itself binding, and by its form ratifies, endorses and strengthens that obligation under the sanction of an oath. A voluntary pledge to perform that which is in itself a duty, rivets the obligation upon the conscience, and leaves no loophole for escape. But the vow is also in the direction of offered grace. Being made to Almighty God, with entire reliance upon Divine aid in its fulfilment, it is clearly in the line of the grace which is offered to man. V. The vow is made under the sanction of the eternal world. For a moment the spiritual eye has been opened to catch a partial glimpse of all that is blessed in heaven, of all that is dreadful in hell, of all that is awful in the judgment-day, of all that is sublime in the vastness of the silent eternity to which we are hastening. How solemn the obligation becomes under the pressure of such a sanction as this! (B. M. Palmer, D. D.) Psalms 116:15 Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints.Precious death As we see death, it means decay, removal, absence--things which we do not prize. But as God sees death, He beholds something really precious to Him and, we may justly infer, precious to us, for whatever is against us cannot be precious to our Father. We are looking at the wrong side of the tapestry, where all is tangle and confusion. God sees the right side, where the design is intelligent and the colours harmonious. We are without the veil, and see but the dim light through the curtain; within is the Shechinah glory. We stand in the dark, believing and hoping; God is in the light, seeing and knowing. I. To God death means the opportunity to supply every need of His child. Health means conscious strength. While we are well, we may feel that we are equal to taking care of ourselves. Dying means absolute helplessness. Such is God’ s opportunity. When physicians give up the case, He takes it up. After human help has failed, the Lord delights to be to us all that we need. II. To God death means the most intimate communion. He rejoices to have all to Himself those whom He loves. He said of Israel, “ I will allure her and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her.” No one else can help us die. Through the valley we must go alone--yet not alone, for Jesus accompanies. III. To God death means rest. Jesus said, “ Come unto Me,” etc. It was His delight to quiet the heart and give rest to the weary mind. The voice from heaven said, “ Blessed are the dead,” etc. “ There remaineth a rest,” etc. To us death looks like a rest of the body--the lifeless form no longer suffers; it sleeps until the waking on the resurrection morning. God sees the rest of soul, and the event which introduces His children into this restful state is precious to Him. IV. To God death means larger life. Christ came to give life, and to give it more abundantly. Whatever imparts and increases the life of God’ s people is of great value. While to us death seems to be the cessation of life, to God it is an increase of life. The last words of Drummond Burns were, “ I have been dying for years, now I shall begin to live.” It is passing from the land of the dying into the land of the living. V. To God death means joy. All through the Bible we are exhorted to “ Rejoice, rejoice evermore!” The joy of His children is precious to God. Dying, Rutherford exclaimed, “ I feed on manna; oh, for arms to embrace Him!” President Wingate, of Wake Forest College, whispered to his wife with his last breath, “ I thought it would be sweet, but I did not think it would be so sweet as this.” It is passing from shadow into sunshine; from the discords of earth into the music of the celestial harps; from contraction into everlasting expansion. VI. To God death means ministry to the living. Through death Jesus entered the family of the Jewish ruler, and the death of our friends often leads us to invite the Man of Sorrows to our homes. The departure of loved ones opens a window of heaven, and gives us a glimpse into the beyond; and in leaving us, they, in a very true sense, come to us. We appreciate them as we never did before; we see their virtues and forget their faults; they are to us transfigured, while everything about them shines with a peculiar glory. (A. C. Dixon, D.D.) Precious deaths I. The statement here made implies a view of death of a peculiar kind. Death in itself is terrible. But to the saint death is by no means such a thing as happens unto the unregenerate. The change lies mainly in the fact that it is no more the infliction of a penalty for sin upon the believer. To him it is a privilege to die. The Head has traversed the valley of death-shade, and let the members rejoice to follow. We know that to die is not to renounce existence; we understand that death is but a passage into a higher and a nobler existence. The soul emancipated from all sinfulness passes the Jordan, and is presented without fault before the throne of God. II. The statement here made is of a most unlimited kind.1. There is no limit here as to whom. Provided that the dying one be a saint, his death is precious. He may be the greatest in the Church, he may be the least: he may be the boldest confessor, he may be the most timid trembler; but if a saint, his death is precious in God’ s sight. 2. There is no limit as to when. What, shall the hero fall when the battle wants him most? Shall the reaper be sent home and made to lay down his sickle just when the harvest is heaviest, and the day requires every worker? To us it seemeth strange, but to God it is precious. Oh, could we lift the veil, could we understand what now we see not, we should perceive that it was better for the saints to die when they died, than it would have been for them to have lived longer lives. 3. There is no limitation as to where. Up in the lonely garret where there are none of the appliances of comfort, but all the marks of the deepest penury, up there where the dying work-girl or the crossing-sweeper dies--there is a sight most precious unto God; or yonder, in the long corridor of the hospital, where many are too engrossed in their own griefs to be able to shed a tear of sympathy, there passes away a triumphant spirit, and precious is that death in God’ s sight. Alone, utterly alone in the dead of night, surprised, unable to call in a helper, saintly life often has passed away; but in that form also precious is the death in God’ s sight. 4. There is no limit as to how. Their deaths may happen suddenly; they may be alive, and active, and in a moment fall down dead, but their death is precious. III. The statement of the text may be fully sustained and accounted for. “ Precious in the eight of the Lord is the death of His saints,” is a most sober and truthful declaration.1. Because their persons were, and always will be, precious unto God. His saints! These are they whose names are borne on Jesus’ breast, and engraven upon the palms of His hands; these are His bride, His spouse; therefore everything that concerns them must be precious. 2. Because precious graces are in death very frequently tested, and as frequently revealed and perfected. You cannot tell what is in a man to the fulness of him till he is tried to the full, and therefore the last trial, inasmuch as it strippeth off earth-born imperfections and develops in us that which is of God, and brings to the front the real and the true, and throws to the back the superficial and the pretentious, is precious in God’ s sight. 3. Because precious attributes are in dying moments gloriously illustrated. I refer now to the Divine attributes. In life and in death we prove the attribute of God’ s righteousness, we find that He does not lie, but is faithful to His word. We learn the attribute of mercy, He is gentle and pitiful to us in the time of our weakness. We prove the attribute of His immutability, we find Him “ the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever.” 4. Because it is a precious sheep folded, a precious sheaf harvested, a precious vessel which had been long at sea brought into harbour, a precious child which had been long at school to finish his training brought home to dwell in the Father’ s house for ever. God the Father sees the fruit of His eternal love at last ingathered: Jesus sees the purchase of His passion at last secured: the Holy Spirit sees the object of His continual workmanship at last perfected. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The preciousness in God’ s sight of the death of saints I. As the supreme crisis of human experience. This life is a life of changes, of pains, of destructions. But all are dwarfed by that change, that pain, that destruction.1. Physically.2. Socially.3. Spiritually. II. As affixing the seal to human character. III. As the entrance into new fellowship with God (Ecclesiastes 12:7; 2 Corinthians 5:8; Philippians 1:2-3). To the wicked, such nearness of the soul to God, with all disguises stripped away, must be an embrace of fire; but to those that are the saved of the Lord, an ineffable blessedness. The children are at school now, and the time is often a time of weary waiting; but there shall be the homecoming then! IV. As the beginning of a boundless life. The intermediate waiting, be it what it may, shall be but “ as a watch in the night.” And then? Then a perfect manhood, a perfect world, a perfect progress for ever! The long waiting is all for this crowning joy; the many hindrances and oppositions are but a discipline to prepare for this consummate blessedness; the great salvation finds its full completion in the all-perfect life whose beauty dawns immortal at last. (T. F. Lockyer, B.A.) The preciousness of the saints in life and in death I. The Lord has His saints--His holy ones. This imports--1. Appropriation. They are “ His” saints--saints through Him and in Him, saints of His making and modelling and establishing. 2. Devotedness. They are holy unto the Lord, sanctified or set apart to His service, self-surrendered to the adorable Redeemer. 3. Resemblance. Such characters are emphatically Godlike, holy and pure; children of their Father which is in heaven; certifying to all around their filial relationship to Him, by their manifest participation of His nature, by their reflection of His image and likeness. 4. Endearment. II. They enjoy no immunity from bodily death. Waiving whatever is occasional, arising out of circumstances peculiar to individuals, it is easy to see that, though this is so painful for the time being to God’ s dear children, it is well adapted to promote such important ends as these;--the trial and improvement of their present grace,--the consequent heightening of their happiness in the future state ,--the arresting of the sinner’ s attention,--the encouragement of many feeble and wavering believers through their dying testimony,--the illustration, in a stronger light, of the awful evil of sin,--the demonstration, too, of the spiritual and superior nature of Christian joy, and its absolute independency on artificial circumstances, and its true character, the joy of the Holy Ghost,--and the complete, eventual display, in the sight of heaven, and earth, and hell, of the conquest of Christ, and of His religion, over suffering, and death, and hell. III. Yet, even in death they are the continued objects of God’ s complacent regard.1. He watches over, and sets a high value upon the holy and useful lives of His people, and will not lightly allow those lives to be abbreviated or destroyed. 2. He exercises control over the circumstances of their death. 3. When they are dying, He looks upon them and is merciful unto them. 4. He attaches great importance to their deathbed itself. The close of a Christian’ s career on earth, his defiance, in the strength of his Saviour, of his direst enemy, the good confession which he acknowledges when he is enabled to witness before those around his dying bed, all these are precious and important in the sight of the Lord, and ought to be so in our view, and redound, not only to his own advantage, but to the benefit of survivors, “ to the praise and glory of His grace.” 5. He evinces his estimation of their character, and of their circumstances, by providing for their recovery from the grave, and their enjoyment of a glorious immortality. (W. M. Bunting.) The preciousness of the death of believers I. The death of the saints is a great and momentous event in the sight of God. II. It affords supreme gratification to His paternal love. O believers, it is precious to the Father to see your trials close, to see you entering on the glories of the spotless bride of Christ, to see all tears wiped from your eyes and your voices tuned to the song of Moses and the Lamb, to see you lay aside the cross and take up the crown. III. It exerts a powerful influence on the salvation of others. Can you forget the prayers breathed out for you amid uttered longings to depart and be with Christ? IV. The place it occupies in the salvation of the saint himself. The time of death is a most precious time for God to work. It is the time when all pride is laid in the dust, and the soul, emptied of itself, is ready to be filled with the fulness of Christ. It is a time when lusts and passions have lost their power, and the poor sinner is ready to acquiesce in salvation by free grace. It is the time of man’ s extremity which is God’ s opportunity; a time when all human help fails, and Jehovah comes in mercy to aid. V. The saint’ s death is so precious to the Lord that He takes care to order all things respecting it for the saint’ s good and for His own glory. (J. Walken, D. D.) The death of good men dear to God I. Whence it is that the death of the saints is dear to God.1. Because then they are delivered from all their sufferings. 2. Because an end is then put to all their labours. 3. That He may approve their conduct, and confer upon them a glorious recompense. 4. Because they are then made capable of serving Him better than in this present world. II. The practical influence which the consideration of the death of the saints being dear to God should have upon us.1. It should make us ambitious to attain their character. 2. It teaches us that none are exempted from mortality. All the ingenuity of the sons of men hath not been able to discover an antidote against mortality, and the saints must submit to it as well as others. What, then, remains for us to do? Surely to live the life of the righteous, that we may have our last end like his, 3. The death of the saints should fill us with the deepest regret. I may call them the pillars of the earth, which preserve it from destruction. When these are removed, there is reason to apprehend approaching desolation. (D. Johnston, D.D.) Death of saints I. Consider why God claims saints as His own.1. He has set them apart for Himself, in His original purpose of redemption. 2. He has enstamped His moral image upon them. 3. They have freely and sincerely given themselves away to Him. II. Show that God takes peculiar care of the death of His Saints.1. He always takes care when His saints shall die. 2. He takes care that they shall die, not only at the best time, but under the best circumstances. 3. God takes care of His saints, when their pure and immortal spirits leave their clayey tabernacle, and take their course to the world of light. He knows that death is a great and solemn change, and He will not forsake them while passing through it. III. Improvement.1. If God treats His saints in such a manner as has been said, then we may learn the extent of His sovereignty towards all mankind. 2. In the view of this subject, we may see that real saints have a permanent source of comfort, to which all who disbelieve and reject the Gospel are entire strangers. 3. Since God claims all real Christians as His own, and always takes a gracious care of them, they ought to make their calling and election sure to themselves. They are absolutely secure in His view, and they ought to be absolutely secure in their own view. 4. If the death of saints be precious in the sight of the Lord, then it ought to be precious and desirable in their own sight. They ought to live in hope, and not in fear of death. 5. Since God claims saints as His own, and takes peculiar care of them both living and dying, it infinitely concerns sinners to become saints, and live a holy and devout life. 6. If God takes peculiar care of saints in life, and often gives them a peaceful death, then their death ought to be peculiarly regarded as very precious and instructive. 7. If God claims all real saints as His own, and takes peculiar care of their death, which is precious in His sight, then pious mourners have ground of support and consolation under the bereavement of their pious relatives and friends. (N. Emmons, D.D.) The importance which God attaches to the death of His saints I. He will not permit it to take place at the will of His enemies, or whenever they in their malice may seek to compass it. He who turned the hearts of Joseph’ s brethren rather to sell him into slavery than to slay him and conceal his blood; He who preserved the three Hebrew children in the midst of the fiery furnace, and brought Daniel unhurt out of the lions’ den; He who sent His angel and delivered Peter out of the hand of Herod, and from all the expectation of the people of the Jews; He who, when His servant Paul was pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that he despaired even of life, but had the sentence of death in himself, delivered him from so great a death as that which he feared, has still the hearts of all men in His hands, and all events at His disposal. He knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptation, and to reserve the unjust to the day of judgment to be punished. II. He will not permit the death of His saints to take place but for purposes worthy of being gained even by such a price.1. The impression it may make on others who remain for a time behind those who are taken away. 2. The acceptable homage which God may purpose to derive to Himself from the death of His saints. 3. The purpose of their death to the saints themselves, which is to usher them into a blessed immortality. (J. Henderson, D.D.) The death of His saints precious to God I. Precious, therefore, in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints, because it brings them nearer to God. How strange, indeed how absurd, this life would be if death ended all! Think of a man like Gladstone, who lived under a high sense of duty, whose life was one of prayer, who sang “ Praise to the Holiest in the height” amid the sufferings of his last days;--just imagine all this ending in nothingness! Why, it reminds one of the famous Amblongus pie of the nonsense book. It was a pie of most elaborate construction. Particular directions were given as to the making of it, what was to be put in, and in what quantities. It was to be very carefully compounded, and most scientifically baked, and then the final instructions were to “ open the window and pitch it out as fast as possible.” Just as laughable, so to speak, is the idea of a man, trained to high thought and holy feeling and submissive will, being, at the last, simply “ cast as rubbish to the void.” But Christ hath brought life and immortality to light. II. Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints, because it ends their struggle. There is no surer thing about life here than that it is a struggle. The road is uphill all the way, and you must wrestle on towards heaven. But it is just this struggling that makes us, and gives us a character worth taking into the next world. It is told of the mother of Mr. Balfour that, on one occasion, when her sons were going to play in a football match, some friend advised her to keep them from going because of the danger. “ Would you have me spoil a character?” was the mother’ s reply. She herself was anxious about them, and didn’ t like their playing; but to keep them back from joining their comrades merely because of any risk, she felt, would do more harm than good. All the same, you may be sure, it would be a relief to her to see them safe home again after it was all over. And so God does not separate us from the need for struggle here, and the risks attending it. We have to face them all. He wants us to gain and acquire character through a well-fought fight. But will not He too be pleased,--relieved, might we say?--when all the struggle is safely over, and death brings His children home? III. Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints, because it ends their ignorance. It is said, and with a good deal of truth, that most people who do any good in the world die without knowing it. That is very hard. Surely such, above all, deserve to know at least the good they have done. But often not till they are gone is the value of their work realized. They may have thought they were failures, they may have longed to be taken away as useless; and yet, when they are gone, others rise up and call them blessed. “ Ah!” we say, “ if they had only known, if they had only had the satisfaction of knowing that while they were with us!” But do you not think they know now? We may be sure that death ends their ignorance as to that, and as to many of the things that men here have for ages desired to look into. (J. S. Maver, M. A.) The death of the righteous precious in the sight of God You might have thought that it would have been their life which was declared “ precious” ; for what are they but the army of the Lord? Are they not those who maintain His cause against a wicked and rebellious generation? And when withdrawn from earth, are they not comparatively withdrawn from all opportunity of witnessing for the truth, and upholding Christ’ s kingdom against the powers of darkness? Oh, it does but show more clearly how much of danger surrounds the saints during their sojourning below, that their death should be counted so valuable, notwithstanding that it interrupts their usefulness, removes them from the scene where alone they can wage the war with the enemies of God. Was the death of Paul precious, though his death was as when a standard-bearer fell, and there have arisen none since to take up his mantle as a champion of Christ? Then does not the very preciousness of his death give additional meaning and emphasis to his own words--“ I keep Under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway” ? The death is precious because the life is perilous; and God rejoices over His saints when He has gathered them into the separate state, because then they can be no more tempted to the forsaking His law, no more exposed to the assaults of the evil one, no more challenged to a battle in which if victory be glorious there is all the risk of a shameful defeat. And though it may seem to you that the usefulness of life must after all detract from the preciousness of death, so that you can hardly see how that is to be thought of great worth which transplants the believer from activity to quietude, from the maintenance of God’ s cause to the deep recesses of the separate state, yet reflect for a moment on the power of a saint’ s death, and you may believe that, even as a weapon against the unrighteous, death must be precious. It was in dying that Christ conquered. What was so precious as His death, forasmuch as through death He destroyed “ him that had the power of death, that is, the devil” ? It is in dying that saints often achieve their greatest victory, or do most for the cause of God or the truth. There is a power in their memory which makes them survive dissolution. The death of the righteous is often effectual in convincing those who were not moved by their life. The piety which can smile at the grim tyrant, more persuades men of its truth, and more urges to imitation, than piety under lesser trial and demonstration, as it was not in the pulpit, nor in the study, but at the stake, that martyrs lighted the candle which yet sheds over nations so rich an illumination. Let us not, then, speak of death as necessarily the termination of usefulness. It may often be only that which carries usefulness to its height, and gives it perpetuity, Having put off their armour, they may still be in the fight, their example remaining to incite others to constancy, their memory descending to lead on successors in the championship of truth. Housed, then, by death, so that everlasting blessedness is made theirs beyond every possible contingency; removed from a scene where every hour in danger of dishonouring and denying God, to one where they are certain to love Him and adore Him without the slightest interruption, the dissolution moreover of this framework of flesh being often but a process through which righteousness takes a higher stand in the witnessing for the Gospel, and in the advancement of the kingdom of Christ--oh, tell me not that death can be other than valuable in the eyes of the Almighty; valuable as securing those whom He loves and promoting that which He designs. (H. Melvill, B.D.) The death of God’ s saints The word here rendered “ saints” means those that are saved by grace, to use the New Testament language, and are now endeavouring to live soberly, righteously, and godly in the world, because they are taught or trained so to do by the grace of God which has brought them salvation. Now, all through their lives God watches over these, His saints. Precious are their lives in His sight. He hears their supplications, and when they are brought low He helps them; He makes all things work together for their good; precious to Him are their prayers and their praises. Their very tears and cries and the sobs of their hearts are known to Him. Precious is their daily service, whether rendered in silence and obscurity or under the stimulus of publicity and the responsibility of a high position. Precious to the Lord is their walk before Him. In their going out and their coming in, their rising up and lying down, the Lord knoweth them that are His, and the Lord careth for them. He will not let them die at any such time or in any such way as may do them hurt. They may die early or late (God appoints the time)--early with much promise unfulfilled or just in the midst of a very useful life; or in old age, after years of helplessness. No one can tell you why. But God knows, and the death of His saints, at what time and in what manner soever it occurs, is always watched over by His unsleeping eye, engaging the tender pity and lovingkindness of Him who is Lord both of the Lead and of the living, for these have fought a fight of faith, and their Master calls them to peace. Peace, at last: no enemies any more; no enemies within; no enemies without; no more wounds from false tongues or blows from hands unjust; no more conflict in the heart; no more temptation of the world, or of the flesh, or of the devil. They have finished their work, and their Master calls them to rest. Their bodies rest in the tomb, but their spirits rest in the light of God. Oh, happy release to those that have laboured and not fainted! Absent from the body, they are present with the Lord, and it is far better. (D. Fraser, D.D.) Death culminates God’ s designs for saints The death of His saints is the climax and culmination of all God’ s works on their behalf; therefore does He rejoice in it. As fathers welcome home their boys and girls when holiday-time arrives--as the shepherd looks with joy upon the sheep gathered in the fold, and welcomes the late-comer with special gladness--as they who stand upon the pier look on with pleasure when the sails are furled and the anchor dropped and the voyage over--as the husbandman gazes with delight upon the sheaves ingathered, and hears with delight the cries of harvest home,--so does our Father stand with rapture at His gate to welcome home the children for their eternal holiday; so does our Shepherd gather to His side in heaven the sheep for whom He bled; so do the heavenly watchers on the quays in glory look with glistening eyes upon those who have an abundant entrance into the kingdom of His dear Son, like ships that have sailed from far, and weathered many a storm, arriving safely in the harbour with their precious freight; so does the Lord God, the Husbandman of our souls, look on with great delight when shocks of corn that are fully ripe fall beneath the sickle and are gathered into His garner. “ Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints,” for it is the fulfilment of all God’ s designs of life; and, when the topstones are brought on with shouting, they shall pass from sonnets of His grace to singing of His glory, which He has made to be theirs as well. (T. Spurgeon.) Psalms 116:16O Lord, truly I am Thy servant. God’ s service This, with the following verses, may be thus paraphrased: Blessed Lord, from the sense of what Thou hast done for me, I cannot but declare myself infinitely obliged to Thee; no servant bought with a price, or born in a house, can be more engaged to his Master than I am to Thee, who by Thy providence hast rescued me from the utmost dangers; what remains but that I should return the humblest offerings of praise and prayer, that I should spend my whole life as a vowed oblation to Thy service, and render Thee all possible praise in the public assembly, in the most solemn manner? I will own and endeavour to approve myself Thy servant. I. Reasons why such a service should be chosen by us.1. It is a just service. (1) He has a right of creation, for He hath made us, and not we ourselves (Isaiah 44:1). (2) He has a right of redemption. We are His by purchase (Exodus 12:44; 1 Peter 1:18; 1 Corinthians 6:20). (3) He has a right to us by conquest (Luke 7:54). 2. It is a most necessary service. (1) Because we are born to serve. (2) If we withdraw our service from Him, we perish in our rebellion (Isaiah 60:12). (3) It is necessary by our own voluntary act. For we bound ourselves by a solemn promise and vow, in the face of the congregation at our baptism, to continue Christ’ s faithful servants and soldiers to our lives’ end. 3. God’ s service is easy. What He commands us to do, He helps us to perform, so that “ His commandments are not grievous.” 4. God’ s service is the most honourable. No man ever truly served God that did not gain incredibly by it. These things the servants of God may depend upon as the certain perquisites and benefits of His service, protection, maintenance and reward. II. How we should demean ourselves in God’ s service.1. With reverence. This is accompanied with-- (1) Humility. (2) Fear of offending (Malachi 1:6; Psalms 2:11; Hebrews 12:28). (3) A care of desire and pleasure (Colossians 1:10). 2. With obedience. (1) Active obedience to God consisteth in keeping His commandments and doing His will. (2) Passive obedience consists in contenting ourselves with the allowances of our supreme Master, and submitting ourselves to His corrections. 3. Fidelity. This is shown in-- (1) The sincerity and heartiness of our service. (2) Zeal in His behalf. (3) Diligence. (E. Lake, D.D.) The delight of God’ s service (to young men):-- I. I commend the service of God to you.1. I have never regretted that I entered it. All sorts of enticement have assailed me, and siren voices have often tried to lure me; but never since the day in which I enlisted in Christ’ s service have I said to myself, “ I am sorry that I am a Christian; I am vexed that I serve the Lord.” I think that I may, therefore, honestly, heartily, and experimentally recommend to you the service which I have found so good. I have been a bad enough servant, but never had a servant so lovable a Master or so blessed a service. 2. I have great delight in seeing my children in the same service. When a man finds that a business is a bad one, you will not find him bringing up his boys to it. Now, the greatest desire of my heart for my sons was that they might become the servants of God. I never wished for them that they might be great or rich, but, oh, if they would but give their young hearts to Jesus! 3. So blessed is the service of God, that I would like to die in it. David Brainerd, when he was very old and could not preach to the Indians, was found sitting up in bed, teaching a little Indian boy his letters, that he might read the Bible, and he said, “ If I cannot serve God one way, I will another; I will never leave off this blessed service.” (1) To serve God is the most reasonable thing in the world. It was He that made you. Should not our Creator have our service? (2) This is the most honourable service that ever can be. (3) This service is full of beneficence. It is good for yourself, and it is good for your fellow-men; for what does God ask in His service but that we should love Him with all our heart, and that we love our neighbour as ourselves? He who does this is truly serving God by the help of His Spirit, and he is also greatly blessing men. (4) It is the most remunerative work under heaven. A quiet conscience is better than gold. To wear in your button-hole that little flower called “ heart’ s-ease,” and to have the jewel of contentment in your bosom--this is heaven begun below: godliness is great gain to him that hath it. II. A word of caution. David said, “ O Lord, truly I am Thy servant.” “ Truly.”1. If you become the servant of God, become the servant of God truly. God is not mocked. It is the curse of our Churches that we have so many merely nominal Christians in them. It is the plague of this age that so many put on Christ’ s livery, and yet never do Him a hand’ s turn. Oh, if you serve God, mean it! 2. If you would be God’ s servant, then count the cost. You must leave all others. “ Ye cannot serve God and mammon.” Ye cannot serve Christ and Belial. He is not God’ s who is not God’ s only. 3. You must enter upon God’ s service also for life; not to be sometimes God’ s servant and sometimes not--off and on. III. I want now to offer counsel in the matter of distinct confession if you become the servant of Christ. “ I am Thy servant,” says David, and I want every young man here who is a Christian to say so, that there may not be one among us who follows the Lord Jesus in a kind of mean, sneaking way. It has become a custom with some to try to be Christians and never say anything about it; but I urge the true servants of Christ to out with it, and never to be ashamed, because, if ever the declaration was required, it is required now. IV. I close by congratulating some of you who are God’ s servants upon your freedom, for that is the last part of the text. “ Thou hast loosed my bonds.” (C. H. Spurgeon.) Devotedness to God I. The import of the psalmist’ s declaration and purpose.1. A very humble sense of his distance from, and dependence upon, God as His creature. 2. A confession of it is being bound by particular covenant and consent unto God, and a repetition of the same by a new adherence. 3. An expression of his peculiar and special relation to God. 4. A sense of gratitude for signal mercies. 5. A solemn dedication and surrender of himself to God and His service for the time to come. II. Practical improvement.1. Plead with every one the right of his Maker to his service. 2. Warp such as are living in open and avowed profanity. They are so far from being the servants of God that they are His enemies, his confederated enemies, and the enemies of everything that stands in a visible relation to Him. (J. Witherspoon, D.D.) The divine servant I. The Divine servant. He should be--1. A voluntary one, willing in every sense of the word to do the bidding of his Master, even when it is opposed to the wishes of men. 2. Earnest. 3. Unselfish. 4. Humble. 5. Inspired by the Holy Spirit, who dwells within him. II. Divine service. Cathedrals and chapels may be likened to spiritual stables, where divine servants are born and fed and rested; but our workshops, our families, our school-rooms, our editorial chairs are the places where we should do our divine service. (W. Birch.) The Lord’ s servant A servant is one who obeys the will of another. The will of a person may be obeyed consciously or unconsciously. Hence servants are of two kinds ,--those that obey consciously, and those that obey unconsciously. The latter--such as obey unconsciously--may be called instruments of the master’ s will; and the former--such as obey consciously--may be called agents of it. All believers are God’ s servants in the best and noblest sense of the word. They do His will because they know it, and because it is their delight; they obey His law, because they know it, and because they have it within their heart. They are not the blind instruments of His power; they are the conscious and willing agents of a service in which they glory. I. How the believer becomes a servant of the Lord.1. By birth. It must not be confounded with that birth which the believer has experienced in common with all the race, and which brought him into a world of sin, and sorrow, and death. This is his second birth. This is his new birth. It is a birth which is peculiar to the believer. He is born of water, figuratively, symbolically; of the Word, instrumentally; of the Spirit, efficiently. 2. By purchase. Christ gave Himself for you, that He might redeem you from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. 3. By conquest. 4. By voluntary engagement. He will have nothing more to do with his old master. He desires that his ears may be bored, and that he may be the servant of Christ for ever. II. The state of mind which the believer, as a servant of God, should cultivate.1. He ought to remember that he is a servant of God. It will be easy to do this in heaven. The difficulty would be to forget it for an instant amid the fellowships of that glorious place. But there are strong temptations to forget it here. The service of God is unpopular. It is unfashionable. And it is inconsistent with many practices which are pleasant to the flesh. 2. He should remember how he became the Lord’ s servant. 3. He should keep his duty as a servant of God always in view. We conjoin these two--the obeying of God’ s commandments with the doing of God’ s work--because it is not enough, and does not come up to the full idea of what a servant should be, that he be zealous in his master’ s cause, and devote himself to his master’ s interests; for it is necessary also that he be guided implicitly by the master’ s will, and that he do God’ s work in God’ s way. (A. Gray.) Self-dedication to God I. The old bonds loosed. No sooner is a man united to the Crucified One by living faith, than the sentence, borne by the Surety, falls from off him (as it is written, “ Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us” ), and, with that sentence, all the other bonds together--sin, Satan, the world. II. The new bonds which have come in place of the old for ever.1. The nature of the new bonds. As they consist in the service of God, so that service is, as to the character of it, first, true; second, entire; and third, hearty and free. 2. The spring and source of the new bonds. It is taught here as to this, that it is the loosing of the old bonds which is the source and spring of the new. (1) The loosing of the old bonds is the source and spring of the new, in that it is indispensable to the whole formation of them. So long as the old are not loosed, the new cannot exist. (2) The loosing of the old bonds is the source and spring of the new, inasmuch as it fixes the new, many ways, sweetly and strongly on the soul,--enhances many ways the obligation of God’ s service on the soul. (3) The loosing of the old bonds is the source and spring of the new, in that God’ s express purpose and design in the loosing of the old was to fix the new for ever upon the soul,--to set the soul free in order to its serving and glorifying Him for ever. (4) The loosing of the old bonds is the source and spring of the new, in that it brings into the soul a Divine power and strength,--the power of the Holy Ghost, effectually to persuade, enable, constrain, the soul to the service of God. (5) The loosing of the old bonds is the source and spring of the new, in that, besides the power, it brings into the soul all manner of inducements, persuasives, motives, to the service of God; and specially among these, the motive of an overpowering gratitude and love, under whose blessed influence it comes to pass that, whereas we could not serve God before, now we cannot but serve Him, as David sings in this psalm, “ What shall I render unto the Lord,” etc. (C. J. Brown, D. D.) Personal service The religion of Jesus is the religion of liberty. The true believer can say, when his soul is in a healthy state, “ Thou hast loosed my bonds. The penal fetters with which my soul was once bound are all dashed to shivers; I am free!” “ There is now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus,” etc. The burdensome bonds of ceremonials are all cast to the winds. Henceforth the beggarly elements are trodden under foot; shadows have yielded to substance, and the type and the symbol cease to oppress; the true light now shineth, and the torches are quenched. “ Thou hast loosed my bonds” --that is to say, Thou hast not only saved me from the penal consequences of my sin and from the heavy burden of the old Mosaic ceremonial law, but Thou hast moreover delivered me from the spirit of bondage which once led me to serve Thee with the fear of an unwilling slave. Thou hast made me Thy freedman. No more do I crouch at Thy feet or go to Thy footstool cowering like a slave; but I come to Thee with privilege of access, up to Thy very throne. By the Spirit of adoption I cry, Abba, Father. Thou dost own the kindred. For by the selfsame Spirit I am sealed to the day of redemption. Thus, O Lord, “ Thou hast loosed my bonds.” Nor, if religion has had its full sway in us, is this all. Thou hast loosed me from the bonds of worldly maxims; Thou hast delivered me from the fear of man; Thou hast rescued me from the stooping and fawning which made me once the slave of every tyrant who laid claim to my allegiance, and Thou hast made me now the servant of but one Master, whose service is perfect liberty. I. The nature of personal service. Let me explain it by a contrast. The service of God among us has grown more and more a service by proxy. Do we not observe, even in the outward worship of God, at times a great attempt towards worship by proxy? Do we not often hear singing the praises of God confined to some five or six or more trained men and women who are to praise God for us? Do we not sometimes have the dreary thought when we are in our churches and chapels that even the prayer is said and prayed by the minister for us? We shall never see great things in the world till we have all roused ourselves to our personal responsibilities. God will not give the honour of saving the world to His ministers. He meant it for His Church; and until His Church is prepared to grasp it, God will withhold the crown which He has prepared for her brow, and for hers alone, and which none but she can ever win. II. Its reasonableness. Heir of heaven, blood-bought and blood-washed, Jesus did not save thee by another. But, again, have you not a personal religion? You live, if you be a true Christian--you live upon the personal realization of your interest in the covenant of grace. What more reasonable than that you should give personal service? Further, this personal service is reasonable from the fact that personal service is the only kind of service at all available. I scarcely know whether you can serve God except by individual consecration. III. Its excellence. This excellence is manifold. Among the first of its charms, personal service is the main argument of the Christian religion against the sceptic. Let every private man have his mission; let every man and woman begin to build nearest to their own house, and from that day scepticism begins to lose, at least, one of its arguments; and, with it, it loses one of its most formidable elements--one of its deadliest weapons with which it has attacked the Church. But, further, I am persuaded that while it would be a grand argument against sceptics, it would be one of the greatest means of deciding that class of waverers who, although they are not sceptical, are negligent of the things of the Kingdom. There is no way to make another man earnest like being earnest oneself. But, further, excellency of personal service, it strikes me, is not confined to the good we do, but should be argued from the good we get. We have in our Churches men and women who are always looking for an opportunity for finding fault. They are never consistent in anything but in their inconsistent grumbling. The mightiest cure for the Church is to set them to work. (C. H. Spurgeon.) God’ s servants It would ofttimes help us to bear our trials were we to reflect we are all God’ s servants rather than His guests. This does not degrade us, for the work of all the world is carried forward by underlings. No monarch saves a state, no commander wins a battle, no captain sails a ship, no trader amasses a fortune, but by the fidelity of his servants. To be God’ s servants, if faithful, is to be the world’ s co-redeemers. (Christian Weekly.) Joyful Servitude It is told of Socrates and his servant, that the servant gave himself to his master on his birthday, and that the master loaded his faithful servant with presents, and said, “ Now I give thee thyself back richer than before.” Then the servant replied, “ But now, my master, I am more than ever thy servant still.” (Quiver.) Psalms 116:18-19 In the courts of the Lord’ s house.The duty and blessing of public worship I. An urgent duty. That God should receive the adoration of His creatures is the first dictate of all theology. We are told, in the earliest periods of sacred history, of altars erected and sacrifices offered. It was not until natural religion degenerated into idolatry that the manner of their service was specially revealed. The light of nature had led them together into God’ s presence. The throne of grace, the song of praise, the Word of God--by means like these His people find Him, and they can come even to His seat. They are to us the patriarch’ s ladder, connecting earth and heaven; and if ours is the true spirit of devotion, we too shall be encompassed with messages of Divine approval, and shall leave its scenes of gracious manifestation, exclaiming, “ It was none other than the house of God; it was the gate of heaven.” II. An invaluable privilege. The truth, that all duty is privilege, applies here with special force. The holy city drew forth the desires of the pious Hebrew, because it was the place of the visible presence of the Most High, where His favour was to be obtained. Within the gates of Jerusalem He was to be found; and the psalmist therefore “ longed, yea, even fainted for the courts of the Lord.” Surely the Christian cannot lag behind the Jew, when he reckons up the benefits that flow from united approach to the place where prayer is wont to be made. What are all the ordinances of Christian faith, its simple sacraments, the Sabbath institution, the house of God, our perpetual access to the Throne--what are all these but our Jerusalem? III. A scene of hallowed enjoyment. It is impossible to read this psalm without being struck with its cheerful, happy tone. It expresses feelings very unlike the repulsive gloom with which some have invested the sanctuary and its services. God’ s worship inspired those who of old engaged in it with most enviable dispositions, if one may judge of them by their record here. How comprehensive its sympathies! How tender its affections! Love to God and man, to His Word, and to His people, breathes through every verse; and whenever God is worshipped in truth, the same experience is realized. Our feet stand on holy ground. Far hence be banished all profane thoughts and ungenial tempers, with the dark crowd of lusts that war against the soul. Here contrition mourns over sin; humility owns unworthiness; trustfulness casts herself on sovereign mercy; and love awakens love, as devotion enkindles her sacred fires. Let such feelings be in our hearts on one day of the week, and every other will own their influence; while the communion of saints is deepened in the place where the rich and poor meet together, and the Lord is the Maker of them all. Let it be something to us to belong to the company of those who worship God. Let our brethren be to us co-heirs of the grace of life, with whose joys and sorrows we seek to sympathize; and let our fellow-worshippers have a place in our kind regards and unfailing prayers. Let the very church we worship in be dear to us as the scene of sacred fellowship. (A. MacEwen, D.D.) . Psalms 117:1-2 Psalms 117:1-2O praise the Lord, all ye nations: praise Him, all ye people.An exhortation to praise God for His goodness 1. In God’ s worship it is not always necessary to be long; few words sometimes say what is sufficient, as this short psalm giveth us to understand. 2. The conversion of the Gentiles was foreseen and foretold long before the Jews were rejected, as this exhortation directed unto them, and prophesying of their praising God doth give evidence. 3. Invitation of any to the fellowship of God’ s worship, and in special unto praise and thanksgiving, is an invitation to them to renounce their sinful course, and to subject themselves unto God in Christ, and to embrace the offer of His grace, that so they may join with the Church in the song of praises. 4. Yea, this invitation to all the nations to praise God, set down in Scripture, is a prophecy which was to take effect in all the elect Gentiles in all nations, for so reasoneth the apostle (Romans 15:11) from this place. 5. Albeit there be matter of praise unto God in Himself, though we should not be partakers of any benefit from Him, yet the Lord doth give His people cause to praise Him for favours to them in their own particular. 6. There is no less reason to praise God for what He hath promised, than for what He hath given already. 7. As God’ s kindness and truth are the pillars of our salvation, so also are they the matter of our praise, which always go together, and run in the same channel toward the same persons, and do run abundantly and for ever together. 8. All they who hear of God are bound to praise God. (D. Dickson.) Worship the duty of all peoples I. All peoples are to worship the same god.1. All are identical in spiritual condition. They all have a capacity to form a conception of the same God, and the same tendency to reverence and adore. 2. All have identical moral relationships. "In Him all live and move and have their being." 3. All should have identical controlling sympathies. Thus true worship becomes the unifying force of the race. II. All peoples are to worship the same God for the same reason.1. His kindness to all. 2. His faithfulness to all. God is truth, hence He never alters. Error is like the clouds, never shifting; truth, like the sun, continues the same from age to age. (D. Thomas, D.D.) Universal adaptability of Christianity Christianity alone, of all so-called faiths, overleaps all geographical limits and lives in all centuries. It alone wins its trophies and bestows its gifts on all sorts and conditions of men. Other plants which the "Heavenly Father hath not planted," have their zones of vegetation and die outside certain degrees of latitude; but the seed of the kingdom is like corn, an exotic nowhere, for wherever man lives it will grow, and yet an exotic everywhere, for it came down from Heaven. Other food requires an educated palate for its appreciation, but any hungry man in any land will relish bread. For every soul on earth this living, dying love of the Lord Jesus Christ addresses itself to and satisfies his deepest wants. It is the bread which gives life to the world. (A. Maclaren, D.D.) . Psalms 118:1-29 Psalms 118:1-4O give thanks unto the Lord; for He is good: because His mercy endureth for ever.The perpetuity of Divine mercy This is a subject for-- I. Joyous gratitude. “ O give thanks,” etc. Why should the perpetuity of Divine mercy inspire such fervent gratitude?1. Because all men that now live require mercy. All men are so guilty and depraved as to render them more or less unhappy here, and miserable hereafter. Mercy creates men anew in Christ Jesus in good works. 2. Because all men that will hereafter live require mercy. Thank God, then, that mercy is to run on to the crash of doom. II. The celebration of all men. The perpetuity of mercy is a subject in which men of all characters, of all lands, of all times may triumphantly rejoice. Here we can all meet, both the rich and the poor. (Homilist.) Boundless mercy O this mercy of God! I am told it is an ocean. Then I place on it four swift-sailing craft, with compass, and charts, and choice rigging, and skilful navigators, and I tell them to launch away, and discover for me the extent of this ocean. That craft puts out in one direction, and sails to the north; this to the south; this to the east; this to the west. They crowd on all their canvas, and sail ten thousand years, and one day come up the harbour of heaven; and I shout to them from the beach, “ Have you found the shore?” and they answer: “ No shore to God’ s mercy.” Swift angels, despatched from the throne, attempt to go across it. For a million years they fly and fly; but then come back and fold their wings at the foot of the throne, and cry: “ No shore; no shore to God’ s mercy!” (T. De Witt Talmage.) Psalms 118:5-7 The Lord . . . set me in a large place.God the Deliverer and Defender of His people I. The deliverer (verse 5).1. The deliverance seems to have consisted in raising him from a circumscribed to an expansive position. 2. The Almighty is constantly delivering men in this way, lifting them from the narrow to the broad. (1) Secularly. Often by His providence He takes men from the narrowness of poverty out into the broad places of worldly prosperity. (2) Intellectually. He takes men from the narrowness of ignorance and prejudice, and habit, out into the broad places of knowledge and freedom. (3) Spiritually. From the narrowness of guilt and corruption He takes men by the Gospel of His Son, into the broad realms of forgiveness and virtue. II. The defender (verse 6). “ The Lord is for me.”1. Because of this we need not fear. If He is for us, who can be against us? “ God is our refuge and strength.” If He is for us, we have not only the whole universe for us, but even our very enemies shall be made to subserve our interest. 2. Because of this we shall conquer (verse 7). The word “ desire” is not in the Hebrew. The words should be, “ and I shall look upon my haters,” look with calm defiance, look with expectant triumph. (Homilist.) An urtrammelled life The Christian is absolutely the freest and most untrammelled man in the world. I am a freer man, a richer man, a blither man, a stronger man, a hopefuller man, because I am a Christian. He has “ set me in a large place.” I. I have a grand, broad creed.1. First, a God whose love is universal; who is pledged to every soul to whom He has given being; to whom every soul is as dear as every other, and who works to realize the meet perfect blessedness of all. 2. A creed which makes its best possible for everybody. You can be a hero anywhere; you can be a saint anywhere; you may win your place in God’ s “ legion of honour” anywhere. “ Cribb’ d, cabined, confined?” Nay! God has “ set me in a large place.” 3. A creed which invites me to examine and explore it, which courts criticism, which positively invites men to do what many imagine it forbids. One of its proudest mottoes is, “ I speak as unto wise men; judge ye what I say.” The Gospel invites you to explore all its territories, to dig for its hidden treasures; indeed, will only give itself to him who will question, think, search. II. A broad, rounded, healthful life. A life that includes every sweet and noble thing.1. Every bright and healthful pleasure. All natural pleasures are mine. Mirth which is medicine and food is mine. All intellectual feasts are mine. Oh magic books which I love, in which I delight to dig! 2. A life that is to attain its blessedness, the ideal aimed at, not by prohibitions, but by growth. The way to kill the bad life in you--“ the old man,” as Paul calls it--is by filling yourself with the rich graces of life as seen in Christ Jesus. Courage and sweet help for those who need it, the brave love that can bear any cross--the life of Jesus,--there is room in that; it is “ a large place.” Live it, and you will grow in God’ s own bliss. III. The noblest enterprises, the most royal work, the grandest aims, for the betterment of the world. Broaden the soul! Nothing broadens the soul like work for the wants and woes of men, and nothing inspires men to work like the dreams, the hopes, and promises of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We have caught a vision of the world as He saw it, yearned for it, died for it. We also carry this world in our heart; the African, the Hindoo, the South Sea Islander, are also children of God, and we will toil for their redemption. IV. I have noble and inspiring hopes. Rich indeed are the hopes which the Gospel gives me; immortality is a grand word. I find “ a large place” for myself under the broad skies of “ eternal life.” Man, according to the Gospel, has room to grow and time to grow. Over-hurry spoils the best work. Few of us have the courage of Browning’ s grammarian, who refused to hurry; who never dreamt that he could finish his studies here, but was sure that he should be allowed to finish them yonder. Let us also be a little wiser; we will not get scared and spoil cur work by over-hurry. Eternity is ours. Give me room; plant me with the noble sky of immortality over me; I will grow into my full stature then. Set me where God set me--in “ a large place.” (J. Morlais Jones.) Psalms 118:8-13 It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man.Confidence in. God I. As justified by experience. “ It is better,” says Matthew Henry, “ more wise, more comfortable, and more safe, there is more reason for it, and it will speed better, to trust in the Lord, than to put confidence in man, yea, though it be in princes. He that devotes himself to God’ s guidance and government, with an entire dependence upon God’ s wisdom, power, and goodness, has a better security to make him safe, than if all the kings and potentates of the earth should undertake to protect him.” II. As the inspiration of courage. What courage breathes in these words, “ All nations compass me about,” etc. True confidence in God will always make a man invincible and fearless. The courage of Moses, Daniel, and the three Hebrew youths, and Paul, who said, “ None of these things move me,” all grew out of confidence in God. (Homilist.) The duty of trust in God It is readily acknowledged that God governs the world, and interposes in all the affairs of it; yet this principle has not those pious and generous effects that might be expected; how often do we promise ourselves success from human means and visible preparations, without taking a Divine Providence into the account, or without attributing so much to it, as to our own prudence, address, or experience I. Wherein the religious trust here recommended does consist.1. This duty implies a humble belief that all things, by God’ s blessing, will succeed well with us. I do not mean that everything should exactly correspond to our desires, or the probability of second causes; but that upon the whole matter God will appear for us, and interest Himself in our favour. 2. In order to a well-grounded trust in God, human means and endeavours must not be wanting. 3. In the use of human means, we must take care not to have recourse to such as are unlawful. How can we reconcile it, either with a common sense of piety or prudence, to acknowledge that all things come to pass by the will of Heaven, and at the same time knowingly and deliberately to act in opposition to it? 4. The main foundation of our religious trust, upon which all the fore-mentioned qualifications of it are supported, is a due regard to the laws of God and religion in general. II. Motives and arguments to enforce it.1. Because there is nothing but God wherein we can place an entire trust and confidence. The good state of our fleets, the conduct of our generals, the integrity and abilities of our ministers, the number and importance of our alliances, are usually the first things that come into consideration; but yet if we leave God out of the account, they all signify nothing. 2. A motive to this duty shall be taken from the nature of it; as it is the highest and noblest act of religious honour, the most sensible acknowledgment of the Eternal power and Godhead. And for this reason so many particular promises are everywhere in Scripture annexed to it; and God has as remarkably on all occasions made them good. (R. Fiddes.) Trust in princes perilous Voltaire for a time was the friend and familiar of Frederick the Great. He was honoured with a seat at the King’ s table, and appeared almost essential to the King’ s happiness. But the attachment was soon over. Royal smiles turned to frowns, and Voltaire was put under arrest at Frankfort, and there the comedy ended. Many efforts have been made to exempt Frederick from all blame in this matter and throw it upon his servants, but there the ugly fact remains, and the man who was receiving the royal flatteries was shortly afterwards detained as a prisoner. The late Prince Bismarck of Germany experienced a reverse about as great when his royal master, the young Kaiser William II, dismissed him from his office. Shortly after that event, he had an interview with the Tsar, Alexander III., and with great freedom and certainty propounded his political convictions and intentions, as if futurity belonged to him. When the Tsar suddenly interrupted him and said, “ Yes, I agree with you, and I place the utmost confidence in you, but areyou quite sure that you will remain in office?” Prince Bismarck replied, “ Certainly, Majesty; I am absolutely sure that while I live I shall remain Minister.” However, only five months after, he was unceremoniously dismissed from office. (H. Livesey.) Psalms 118:12 They compassed me about like bees.Like bees I know the bees can compass one about right well; but, as a rule, they compass about those who threaten to attack their home and to take away their little treasure. Let us think about a few things connected with the bee’ s life.1. Bees build their own house, and a beautiful house it is. The skill of the bees in building is wonderful. Every little room built by them has six sides; but all the rooms are not of the same size. They are made according to their requirements; but they are all so beautifully planned and partitioned that every room is just big enough for its purpose. There are no end of little nurseries, store-rooms, and ordinary living-rooms in a beehive. The bees’ house is a wonderful house; we could not build anything like it. Then, having built the house-- 2. They are very busy in filling their larders. I know there are some drones. You never found a community anywhere without drones, and the poor bees are not perfect; but the bulk of them are very busy workers. There are, for instance, many wax-makers--those who produce wax and thus make up cells and construct walls. They also store the honey. Then there are the nurse-bees: such tender little creatures! They seem to tread softer and move about more quietly than the other bees. They see to all the sick, and to all the little children that are in the house, and feed, nurse, and watch over them. 3. They also reserve food for the winter. They fill a cell with honey and then seal it up, very much as your mother does with the preserve, when having filled a galley pot she puts a sheet of white paper on the top and seals it. Some of you boys wish it were not so well sealed. I have no doubt some little bees occasionally wish some of the cells were open; but they must not open them. They are not opened until the winter comes, and there is urgent need of food. Then older bees open those little cells just as your mother does the preserve pot, then they take just what is needed. Thus, there is such careful preparation for winter, that the bees can live right through until the spring comes back again, when they are able to begin to work and provide once more. Well now, could not we imitate the bees, could not we be active, and be ever doing our part? And even if we are put on the defence, can we not show strong characters, and let people learn that because we deal in honey we are not necessarily helpless? (D. Davies.) Lessons from the bees I. Loyalty. They all love their queen. She is their ruler and their mother, and they are her subjects and her children. Without her, home would be nothing. She is queen, and must be obeyed. II. Loving the home. Bees are very much attached to their hive. No mother of a family loves her home more than a queen bee; and all the true worker bees take after their mother in this respect. Some people have a genius for helping; there are others who seem to have a genius for hindering. III. Cleanliness. The care with which they remove dirt of all kinds is something remarkable. Every boy and girl may well follow the example of these wise little philosophers, the bees, and keep everything clean in their homes. IV. Sympathy. I have seen a wounded bee carried at length, and laid on the bee-board in the warm sunshine. One bee would lick the sufferer from head to foot with his tongue, another would roll him over and over in the sunshine. After they had succeeded in doing this, they would carry him to his sick-bed. This shows us the sympathy of the bee, and sympathy is the most divine thing in the world. V. Being happy in one’ s work. “ Place yourselves,” says one who has written on this subject, “ before a hive, and see the indefatigable industry of its busy toilers. Let the bee’ s hum inspire you with the honourable resolution to do all things cheerfully in the active duties of life. We ought to be happy and cheerful in our work.” (R. Newton, D. D.) Psalms 118:13-14 Thou hast thrust sore at me, that I might fall: but the Lord helped me. Christian experience Christian experience is the richest product of grace, and it ought to be laid at the feet of the Well-beloved from whom it comes, and to whom it belongs. What God hath done for one of His people is an indication of what He will do for others of His chosen. The Lord’ s providences are promises, and His benedictions are predictions. To be silent concerning the lovingkindness of the Lord is a robbery of the worst kind; it is taking from our God the glory due unto His holy name. I. Tribulation and patience. “ Thou hast thrust sore at me,” etc. Truth most always strive against error, and holiness must battle against sin. It is an uphill journey to glory, and that man had need be a hardy mountaineer who resolves to ascend into the hill of the Lord, and to dwell in His holy place. He who is born for the crown is bound for the cross. A thousand snares are laid in your path; and only be who made you a Christian can cover your head, and carry you safely through the bombardment which awaits you. II. Patience and experience “ The Lord helped me” --1. To believe. 2. To pray. 3. To stand. 4. To fight. III. Experience and a hope that maketh not ashamed.1. Our God has become our strength. He is the Lord all-sufficient when we are most insufficient. With Him for our strength, we cannot faint, or fail; but, on the contrary, we shall renew our force, and rise continually to something higher and better than before. 2. Our God has also become our song. It may mean, “ The Lord is my strength while I am waging the war, and my song when I have won the victory.” This is an excellent sense, but another seems to me more clearly in the words, “ The Lord is my strength and song” ; both are in the present, we sing while we fight. Your great Lord and mine, when He went to His last tremendous conflict, where the powers of darkness marshalled all their strength against Him, and He strove until He sweat as it were great drops of blood,--how did He go? Here is the answer, “ After supper, they sang a hymn.” Let us claim the victory, anticipate it, and shout it, while yet we are contending. On our beds let us sing God’ s high praises, and magnify Him in the midst of the fires. Set your whole lives to music. Make your entire career a psalm. But what shall we sing about? Well, “ The Lord is my song.” Sing the Father and His love eternal. Sing the Son of God, whose delights were with the sons of men before He came here to dwell. Tell how He took our flesh to take away our guilt. Tell how He died, and rose again, and led captivity captive, and ascended up on high. Make that your song, but do not forget to sing the Holy Spirit’ s love. Magnify the Holy Ghost, the Illuminator, Comforter, Guide, abiding Advocate, and Paraclete. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Psalms 118:14-18 The Lord is my strength and song, and is become my salvation.God and man I. How God should be realized by every man. What should He be to every many1. He should be his strength. All the strength we have, physical, intellectual, and moral is from God; nay, more, is God’ s. Conscious dependence upon His strength is the foundation of piety. “ Hold thou me up, and I shall be saved.” 2. He should be his “ song” ; that is, his joy. The source of all his joy and spring of his delights. We should rejoice in God as our Father. 3. He should be his salvation. He saves from misery by saving from sin. II. How God is enjoyed by the righteous. Who is the righteous man? The man who is right in himself and right in relation to God and the universe.1. Such a man has rejoicing. “ Being justified,” or made right by faith; he has “ peace that passeth all understanding.” Religion is happiness wherever it exists. 2. Such a man has salvation. A righteous man is saved--saved from sin, and to be saved from sin, is to be saved from all evils of all kinds. III. How God appears in His procedure.1. Courageous (verse 16). He moves on in the execution of His eternal purposes with absolute fearlessness. Of what can He be afraid, whose will can at any moment create or destroy universes? 2. Glorious. “ The right hand of the Lord is exalted.” That is, praised, hououred, adored. Who that studies His works, whether the minute or the vast can fail to exalt and adore the right hand of the Lord? 3.Restorative (verses 17, 18). (Homilist.) Christ is our song I. In what sense Christ is a believer’ s song.1. He is the main object of hope and trust (Isaiah 12:2). 2. He is the main subject of praise and thanksgiving (2 Corinthians 9:15). 3. He is the main matter of joy and rejoicing (Psalms 137:6; Psalms 43:4). Three things are necessary. (1) An interest in Him as our Saviour.(2) The knowledge of that interest.(3) Suitable walking. II. What of Christ especially is a believer’ s song? True believers sing, and ought to sing--1. Of what Jesus Christ is in Himself as to His personal excellences and perfections. 2. Of what He is to us. He is our foundation, our food, our root, our raiment; and should we not sing of these? 3. Of what He hath done, and is doing, and will yet do, for us. (1) He hath taken our nature upon Him, and in our nature suffered and died; He hath washed us from our sins in His own blood; called us with a holy calling; begun a good work. (2) Is He not ever living to make intercession for us? Is He not guiding and guarding us, enlightening and comforting us, every day? (3) He will perform the good work that He hath begun; He will come again and fetch us to Himself, that where He is there we may be also. Can ye name any other to sing of, that hath done the like for you? III. What are the properties of this song?1. He is the angels’ song (Job 38:7; Luke 2:13-14). 2. He is the most ancient song; the song of the ancients. They sung of Him as one to come, for they saw Him, though it was but as through the lattices, or as through a glass darkly. 3. He is the new song. Wherever ye read of a new song in Scripture, it points at Him (Psalms 33:3; Psalms 96:1; Psalms 98:1; Psalms 149:1). He is the New Testament song. Ever since His coming in the flesh all His saints have been singing of Him, as of one already come; rejoicing in Him, and showing forth His praises. As fast, as they have been made new creatures they have learned this new song. 4. He is their night song (Psalms 42:8; Job 35:10). (1) In the night season, when others are sleeping, true believers are rejoicing in God their Redeemer, and solacing themselves in Him (Psalms 149:5; Son 1:13; Acts 16:1-40.) Paul and Silas sang at midnight. (2) In the night of sorrow and affliction. To be able to sing then, when everything looks sad and sorrowful round about us, is a great matter; as David (1 Samuel 30:6) 5. He is their song all the week, and their song on the Sabbath. We are bid to rejoice in the Lord always, every day, and they that have an interest in Christ, and know it, do so; but especially on Sabbath days (Psalms 118:24). Sabbath days are set apart on purpose. 6. He is their song while they live, and their song when they die. While they live, in all the turns of their lives (Psalms 146:2). And in a special manner when they come to die; upon sick-beds, and death-beds. As it is said of the swan, that she sings sweetest when dying, so it is with many of God’ s people. At the death of Mr. John Janeway, one present said he never was in a room where God in Christ had more praises than there at that time. 7. He is their song in the world, and will he their song to eternity. What is the great employment of heaven, and what will it be for ever and ever, but to lift up God-redeemer (Revelation 5:9-13). Jesus Christ is to be our everlasting song (Isaiah 35:10). It is good to be found doing that, now that we would be glad to be found doing hereafter--world without end. IV. Application.1. This may serve for an examining sign, or mark of trial, whereby to know what we are as to our spiritual state and condition. We are bid to try ourselves (2 Corinthians 13:5). What, is Jesus Christ to us? What think we of Him? Hath He ever been our song? Do we rejoice in Him? 2. Here is a word of reproof to the true believers among us, that do not make Christ their song, that are in Him, but do not rejoice in Him; however, not with evenness and constancy, not in that measure and degree, that they should and ought. Thou shouldst chide thyself for it (Psalms 43:5). (1) It grieves the Spirit of God. (2) It blemishes the ways of God; makes thee a stumbling-block to them that are without, like the evil spies. (3) It is weakening to thyself. The more Christ is our song the more is our strength (Nehemiah 8:10). Then search out the cause. 3. Exhortation, to all that call themselves believers. Make Christ your song, week days and Sabbath days. (1) He is worthy that you should. (2) The gain of it will be thy own, in present comfort, in eternal recompense. (Philip Henry.) Making God our song Instead of waiting until you get sick and worn out before you speak the praise of Christ, while your heart is happiest, and your step is lightest, and your fortune smiles, and your pathway blossoms, and the overarching heavens drop upon you their benediction, speak the praises of Jesus. The old Greek orators, when they saw their audiences inattentive and slumbering, had one word with which they would rouse them up to the greatest enthusiasm. In the midst of their orations they would stop and cry out: “ Marathon!” and the people’ s enthusiasm would be unbounded. My hearers, though you may have been borne down with sin, and though trouble, and trial, and temptation may have come upon you, and you feel to-night hardly like looking up, methinks there is one grand, royal, imperial, word that ought to rouse, your soul to infinite rejoicing, and that word is Jesus. (T. De Witt Talmage.) Psalms 118:15-16 The voice of rejoicing and salvation is in the tabernacles of the righteous.The joy of holy households A believer in Christ is not long without finding joy. He is in the land which floweth with milk and honey, and he will get a sip of sweetness very soon. Like Nicodemus, he comes to Jesus in the dark, but the sun is rising. This joy is in him and abounds, so that he belongs to a happy people. I. There is joy in the families of the righteous.1. To some extent, this is in proportion to the salvation that is found in the family. Many among us can say, “ All my children are children of God: they go with me from my table to the Lord’ s table: I have a church in my house, and all nay household are in the church.” Here is a picture, a pattern, a paragon, a paradise. Seek, then, the salvation of the whole of your household. 2. The joy which is here alluded to is mainly spiritual: a joy of the father, because he is saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation; a joy of the mother, because she, too, has had her heart opened, like Lydia, to hear and to receive the Word; a joy of the dear children, as they offer their little prayers, and as they talk of Jesus, whom their soul loves. 3. This kind of joy, while it is spiritual, is not dependent upon external circumstances; it hangs not on wealth or honour. They said of old that philosophers could be merry without music, and I am sure that it is truer still of Christians that they can be happy in the Lord when temporal circumstances are against them. Our bells need no silken ropes to set them ringing, neither must they be hung in lofty towers. 4. Christian joy, whether in the individual or the family, can be abundantly justified. If God is pleased with us, we may well be pleased with Him. II. This joy should be expressed. “ The voice,” etc. We should put a tongue in our joys, and let them speak. The voice should be heard daily, from morn till eve, and till the silence of sleep steals over all; but it should never fail to sound forth in the daily gatherings for family prayer. It should be a happy occasion when we meet to read the Word of God, and to pray together. It is well if we can also sing at such times. Matthew Henry says, concerning family prayer, “ They that pray do well; they that pray and read the Scriptures do better; they that pray, and read the Scriptures, and sing a hymn, do best of all.” There will be frequent occasions for holy joy in all Christian families, and these ought always to be used right heartily. Holy joy breeds no ill, however much we have of it. You can easily eat too much honey, but you can never enjoy too much delight in God. Birthdays and anniversaries of all sorts, with family meetings of various kinds, should find us setting life to music right heartily. Moreover, it would be well if our houses more generally resounded with song. It drives dull care away, it wards off evil thought, it tends to a general exultation, for the members of a household to be accustomed individually and collectively to sing. If you really cannot sing at all, yet the voice of rejoicing and salvation may be in your tabernacles by a constant cheerfulness, bearing up under pain and poverty, losses and crosses. God give you more and more of this spirit in all your households! The whole Church shall be blessed when every family is thus made happy in the Lord and in His great salvation. III. This joy of holy households is a joy concerning what the Lord hath done.1. How we should joy in God, in our families, when we think of all that He has done in conquering sin and Satan, death and hell! Christ hath led captivity captive; therefore, let us sing unto the Lord, for He hath triumphed gloriously. 2. Then let us think of what the Lord has done for each one of us individually. 3. Since then, the Lord has helped us in providence, and delivered us from fierce temptations, and made us to stand steadfastly when the adversary has thrust sore at us that we might fall. 4. And when you see great sinners converted, when the drunkard leaves his cups, when the swearer washes out his filthy mouth, and sings the praises of God, when a hardened, irreligious, sceptical man bows like a child at Jesus’ feet, should not our families as well as ourselves be made acquainted with it, and should it not be a subject for joy at the family altar? (C. H. Spurgeon.) Domestic happiness I. Its importance.1. In reference to our avocations and cares. These are numerous and diversified, and demand relaxation and relief. Who could endure perpetual drudgery and fatigue?--and what so refreshing, so soothing, so satisfying, as the placid joys of home! 2. In reference to the afflictions of life. It looks like a general remedy, furnished by the kindness of Providence, to alleviate the troubles which from various quarters we unavoidably feel while passing through this world of vanity and vexation of spirit. How many little sighing vacancies does it fill up! How many cloudy nervous vapours does it chase from the mind! 3. In reference to the good things of this life. Without this, all will be insipid, all will be useless. Imagine yourselves prosperous in your affairs; trade pouring in wealth, your grounds bringing forth plentifully, your cup running over--misery under your own roof would be sufficient to canker your gold and silver; to corrupt your abundance; to embitter every pleasure. 4. In reference to the seductions and snares of the world. From the danger of these there is no better preservative than the attractions of a family. The more a man feels his welfare lodged in his own house, the more will he prize and love it. The more he is attached to his wife and children, the less will he risk their peace and comfort by hazardous speculations, and mad enterprises in trade. II. To open its sources, and examine on what it depends.1. Without order you can never rule well your own house. “ God is not the God of confusion.” He loves order: order pervades all His works. 2. Many things will arise to try your temper: and he is unqualified for social life who has no rule over his own spirit; “ who cannot bear the frailties of his fellow-creatures with common charity, and the vexations of life with common patience.” 3. The influence and advantage of good sense are incalculable. This will preserve us from censoriousness; will lead us to distinguish circumstances; to draw things from the dark situation of prejudice which rendered them frightful, that we may candidly survey them in open day. 4. We must go beyond all this, and remind you of those religious principles by which you are to be governed These are to be found in the Word of God; and as many as walk according to this rule, mercy and peace shall be upon them. God has engaged that if you will walk in His way, you shall find rest unto your souls. If it be said, There are happy families without religion, I would answer-- (1) There is a difference between appearances and reality. (2) If we believe the Scripture, this is impossible--“ the way of transgressors is hard: there is no peace, saith my God, unto the wicked.” (3) Religion secures those duties, upon the performance of which the happiness of households depends. (4) Religion attracts the Divine blessing--and all we possess depends upon its smiles. (W. Jay.) The happiness o/ the righteous I. Explain. The joy of the righteous is--1. Intense.2. Satisfying.3. Abiding. You “ rejoice” in that which rust cannot destroy, and which the tongues of men cannot injure. II. Apply.1. How miserable is the state of the wicked.2. How important is vital piety. (C. Clayton, M.A.) The cultivation of piety I. True piety has a voice ringing with the note of joy and health. Could we set forth the beauty of its offices, the beauty of prayer, the joyousness of worship, the peace of Divine fellowship; could we restore the bloom of health to its wan countenance; could we put the mountain air end breezes into our religion and make it a strong, healthy, living thing; could we make it a voice of rejoicing and salvation in the dwellings of our land, how grand, how triumphant, how sovereign a power it would become! II. The place of true piety is the home. We need better homes; homes ruled in the fear of the Lord, where father and mother are prophet, priest and king; homes sweetened by the incense of prayer and worship and well-ordered discipline; homes where the Sabbath is honoured and all needless toil and travelling on the day of the Lord areavoided, and worship and edification as becometh immortal beings are the order of the day; homes where reverence has her abode, and holy beauty and the gladness of Christian faith and charity; homes that are none other than the house of God, none other than the gate of heaven. (H. F. Henderson, M.A.) Union of gladness and goodness It demoralizes life and religion to believe that God does not desire the happiness of His creatures, just as surely as it demoralizes life and religion to imagine that He has no higher aim for them than that they should be happy. It was a wise, as well as a Scriptural, answer which was given to the first question of the Westminster Shorter Catechism as to man’ s chief end. “ Man’ s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him for ever.” It is not without reason that spiritual life and blessedness are always in some form joined together; for goodness and happiness were not meant to be divided. Culture and restraint. (Hugh Black.) Psalms 118:16 The right hand of the Lord is exalted; the right hand of the Lord doeth valiantly. Mighty to save I. The triumphs of the Lord Jesus. He did not come as a man of war, for He is the prince of peace; He came not here with shield and buckler, but He came with a body fitted to suffer, and with a heart strong to endure. The Christ of God came in lowliness and in shame; but for all that He fought great battles in the midst of His weakness, and won for Himself wondrous spiritual victories. II. The triumphs of the Church of Christ. The Church began with feeble numbers, with small wealth, and with comparatively little talent, but she was clothed with the Holy Ghost, and was therefore mighty. III. The triumphs of grace in individuals. Do you remember when you sought to escape from the multitude of your sins? Do you recollect when they compassed you about like bees? You could not count your sins--you had forgotten them; they seemed dead and buried, but they all came to life again, and they swarmed about you. They buzzed about you at your table; they stung you in your sleep; in your dreams they harassed you; at your work you had no peace because of them. And dost thou mind the place, the spot of ground, where thou didst meet with Jesus? Oh let your soul go back to your spiritual birthday; ring the bells of your heart again; hang out the streamers of your soul for that happy day when Jesus washed your sins away. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The power of God displayed in the redemption of man I. A sublime attribute of god. “ The right hand of the Lord” represents His power in its loftiest manifestation, its sovereignty, its resistlessness, its omnipotence. II. Signal achievements which, by the operation of that Divine attribute, are performed.1. The personal history and work of the Messiah. 2. The application of the work of the Messiah to individual men. 3. The progress of the economy founded upon the work of the Messiah, and its wide diffusion throughout the earth. III. The emotions which the contemplation of these achievements produces in pious minds. Our rejoicing is to be connected with, and ensured by, practical manifestations. They are these: implicit trust on the Saviour’ s mediation; abounding gratitude for the Saviour’ s goodness; devoted obedience to the Saviour’ s commandments; zealous activity for the Saviour’ s glory. And as those, who are set apart by Him to be the instruments in the advancement of His empire, by our self-denial, our activity, and our prayers, we are to attempt the ingathering of His people, and the advancement of those grand and wonderful designs we have presented, which are to be fulfilled in the recovery of the world. (J. Parsons.) Psalms 118:17I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord. The power of recovery This buoyant and hopeful language is obviously in place on Easter Day. The psalm which contains it was sung for the first time either at laying the foundation-stone of the new temple, or at its dedication: and it breathes, in every line, the spirit of thankfulness, of triumph, of hope. It is the hymn of the deliverance from the captivity, just as Miriam’ s song is the hymn of deliverance from Egypt: it is such a Te Deum as was possible when as yet the Gospel had not been revealed. I. The meaning of the words as used by Christ. Before His Crucifixion the words were a prophecy of the Resurrection. Unlike ourselves, out Lord throughout His earthly life knew what was before Him. From us the future is hidden in mercy: we could not bear the sight, it may be, if the veil were lifted. But our Lord surveyed everything. “ I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how am I straitened till it be accomplished!” And yet the foreknowledge which surveyed His coming agony surveyed also the peace and triumph beyond. He was to die, yet He was to rise; it was the prospect of death modified by the prospect of triumph over death; it was Calvary, but already irradiated by the Resurrection morning. “ I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord.” But after the Resurrection the words must have a fuller meaning: they became to Him more literally true. “ Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more.” II. We listen here to an utterance of the heart of the Christian Church, again and again heard during the centuries of her eventful history. In many ways the Passion and Resurrection of Christ have been reflected in the later fortunes of Christianity; and especially the Church’ s power of recovery from weakness and disaster is a note and proof of her union with Christ.1. There has been the distress and suffering produced by outward persecution. At times it seemed as if the faith must be killed out from among men. But all through these dark and dreary years, the secret leaven of the Resurrection power of Jesus was working in the heart of Christendom. Never was the darkness so thick that no ray of light reached the soul of the suffering Church. Never was her cause so desperate but that she could, not boastfully or in scorn, but in the clear, albeit broken accents of faith and hope, utter her unfailing conviction: “ The empire will pass, but Jesus Christ remains; ‘ I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord.’” 2. The Church has been exposed more than once to a more formidable danger,--the decay of vital convictions within her fold. This happened in the early part of the thirteenth century, when the Arabian philosophers of Moorish Spain were so widely read in the Universities of Europe, and caused for some years a secret but profound unsettlement of faith in the leading truths of Christianity. So again, at the revival of letters in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, especially in Italy. So also, and conspicuously in the eighteenth century, we may almost say, throughout Europe. The great anti-Christian campaign was opened in England by Bolingbroke, Tindal, and the English Deists. It was carried on in France by their pupil--for such virtually he was--Voltaire, and the Encyclopaedist writers. It found a powerful patron in Frederick the Great of Prussia. It closed, in Germany, with Lessing, who mistook criticism for faith, and to whom the search for truth seemed better than its possession; and with Nicolai, and other writers of the “ enlightenment” period; while on the western bank of the Rhine, the worship of the goddess of Reason was keeping time with the horrors of the Revolutionary Tribunal and of the Reign of Terror. 3. Worst of all, the Church has been exposed to moral corruption. Here surely is an evil more perilous far than any persecutor’ s sword, or even than any form of intellectual-rebellion. Good men always feel strongly the evils of their own day; it is their business to recognize and to combat them. But in doing so they are sometimes led to think that no previous age has been so weighted with energetic mischief as their own. Here there is a risk of losing a true sense of proportion; of not merely exaggerating the evils of present as compared with those of past times, but of forgetting the Divine resources upon which the Church of Christ may always fall back, and which are more than equal to her needs. Let us be sure that to believe that Christ has risen is to know that, come what may, His Church will not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord. III. In these words we have the true language of the individual Christian soul, whether in recovery from illness, or face to face with death.1. This is the language of the convalescent. The legend that the risen Lazarus was never seen to smile expresses the sense of mankind as to what beseems him who has passed the threshold of the other world; and surely a new and peculiar seriousness is due from those who have all but passed it, and have returned to life by little less than a resurrection. Of what remains of life the motto should surely be, “ I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord.” Surely such a life must be consecrated; like the Risen Jesus, and in virtue of His Resurrection power, it must declare the works of the Lord. 2. These words should express the feeling of every Christian soul, in the prospect of death and eternity. (Canon Liddon.) Gratitude for deliverance from the grave You know, perhaps, that this text was inscribed by Martin Luther upon his study wall, where he could always see it when at home. Many Reformers had been done to death--Huss, and others who preceded him, had been burnt at the stake; Luther was cheered by the firm conviction that he was perfectly safe until his work was done. May you and I, when we are tried, be able, through faith in God, to meet trouble with the like brave thoughts and speeches! I. At the outset, here is the believer’ s view of his afflictions. “ The Lord hath chastened me sore.” On the surface of the words we see the good man’ s clear observation that his afflictions came from God. It is true he perceived the secondary hand, for he says, “ Thou hast thrust sore at me that I might fall.” There was one at work who aimed to make him fall. His afflictions were the work of a cruel enemy. Yes; but that enemy’ s assaults were being overruled the Lord, and were made to work for his good; so David, in the present verse, corrects himself by saving, “ The Lord hath chastened me sore. The enemy was moved by malice, but God was working by him in love to my soul. The second agent sought my ruin, but the Great First Cause wrought my education and establishment.” Next, the believer perceives that his trials come as a chastening. “ The Lord hath chastened me sore.” When a child is chastised, two things are clear: first, that there is something wrong in him, or that there is something deficient in him, so that he needs to be corrected or instructed; and, secondly, it shows that his father has a tender care for his benefit, and acts in loving wisdom towards him. “ What son is he whom the father chasteneth not?” “ As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten.” There is not a more profitable instrument in all God’ s house than the rod. Consider the psalmist’ s view of his affliction a little more carefully. He noted that his trials were sore: he says, “ The Lord hath chastened me sore.” Perhaps we are willing to own in general that our trouble is of the Lord; but there is a soreness in it which we do not ascribe to Him, but to the malice of the enemy, or some other second cause. The false tongue is so ingenious in slander that it but touched the tenderest part of our character, and has cut us to the quick. Are we to believe that this also is, in some sense, of the Lord? Assuredly we are. If it be not of the Lord, then it is a matter for despair. If this evil comes apart from Divine permission, where are we? Even while the wound is raw, and the smart is fresh, be conscious that the Lord is near. Yet there is in the verse a “ but,” for the psalmist perceives that his trial is limited; “ but He hath not given me over unto death.” Certain of the “ buts” in Scripture are among the choicest jewels we have. Before us is a “ but” which shows that, however deep affliction may be, there is a bottom to its abyss. There is a limit to the force, the sharpness, the duration, and the number of our trials. II. The believer’ s comfort under his afflictions. “ I shall not die, but live.” Occasionally this comes in the form of a presentiment. How do you understand the story of John Wycliffe, at Lutterworth, in any other way than this? He had been speaking against the monks, and various abuses of the Church. He was the Morning Star of the Reformation. Wycliffe was ill--very ill, and the friars came round him, like crows round a dying sheep. They professed to be full of tender pity; but they were right glad that their enemy was going to die. So they said to him, “ Do you not repent? Before we can give you the viaticum--the last oiling before you die--would it not be well to retract the hard things which you have said against the zealous friars, and his Holiness of Rome? We are eager to forget the past, and give you the last sacrament in peace.” Wycliffe begged an attendant to help him to sit up; and then he cried with all his strength, “ I shall not die, but live, to declare the works of the Lord, and to expose the wickedness of the friars.” He did not die, either: death himself could not have killed him then; for he had more work to do, and the Lord made him immortal till it was done. How could Wycliffe know that he spoke truly? Certainly he was free from all foolhardy brag; but there was upon his mind a foreshadowing of future work that he had to do, and he felt that he could not die till it was accomplished. Forecasts of good from the Lord may come to those who are sore sick; and when they do, they help them to recover. We are of good courage when an inward confidence enables us to say, “ I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord.” This, however, I only mention by the way. When a believer is in trouble, he derives great comfort from his reliance upon the compassion of God. The Lord scourges his sons, but he does not slay them. He may often put His hand into the bitter box, but He has sweet cordials ready to take the taste away. For a small moment has He forsaken us, but with great mercies will He return to us. You have an effectual comfort if your faith can keep its hold upon the blessed fact of the Lord’ s fatherly compassion. Next, faith comforts the tried child of God by assuring him of the forgiveness of his sin, and his security from punishment. Please to notice the very distinct difference between chastisement and punishment. “ The Lord hath chastened me sore,” and in that He has acted a fatherly part; “ but He hath not given me over unto death,” which would have been my lot if He had dealt with me as a judge. III. The believer’ s conduct after trouble and deliverance. “ I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord.” Here is declaration. If we had no troubles, we should have all the less to declare. A person who has had no experience of tribulation, what great deliverance has he to speak of? Tried Christians see how God sustains in trouble, and how He delivers out of it, and they declare His works openly: they cannot help doing so. They are so interested themselves in what God has done that they grow enthusiastic over it; and if they held their peace, the stones would cry out. If you read further down, you will find that they not only give forth a declaration, but they offer adoration. They are so charmed with what God has done for them, that they laud and magnify the name of the Lord, saying, “ I will praise Thee: for Thou hast heard me, and art become my salvation.” This done, they make a further dedication of themselves to their delivering God. “ God is the Lord, which hath showed us light.” It was very dark! We could not see our hand, much less the hand of God! We thought that we were as dead men, laid out for burial; when suddenly the Lord’ s face shone in upon us, and all darkness was gone, and we leaped into joyful security, crying, “ God is the Lord, which hath showed us light.” We were convinced that it was none other than the true God who had removed the midnight gloom. Doubts, infidelities, agnosticisms--they were impossible. We said, “ God is the Lord, which hath showed us light.” (C. H. Spurgeon.) Life in face of death These words were inscribed upon the walls of Martin Luther’ s study. They were the incarnation of his courage and his faith. Luther lived his strenuous life in the midst of dangers. Hour by hour as the years sped on he looked death in the face. Such a life of conflict and hazard irresistibly drives a godly man nearer to God. It is not under the impulse of some coward terror that he crawls to the feet of the Strong One. It is not the pitiful appeal of fear for deliverance from the ever-during dark. It is a sixth sense which has been developed in the soul of man. It is the sense of the Infinite, which demands its satisfaction in tones so imperious that the cries of all other senses are stilled. In the common experiences of life we need God, oh, need Him so deeply! But in these uncommon experiences we have God. No normal mind deliberately chooses the life of daily and nightly nearness to death; yet all men would choose it if the normal mind could see realities in their true proportion. For in the life which is lived in the presence of death, the man of God knows that he lives and moves and has his being in God. Any man who is called upon to lead a life in which day by day there is but a step between him and death becomes either a better man or a worse under the pressure of it. He becomes a worse man--reckless, dissipated, abandoned--as we see often in the life of miners, sailors, soldiers, and a hundred others whoso disdain of moral restraint appals us. You know how true this is of times of war, epidemic, or plague. Yes; he becomes a worse man, or he becomes a better. For life is never the same again. He has looked upon the heights and depths of things. He has endured as seeing Him who is invisible. That which he thought realest in the universe has crumbled at the breath of a new emotion, and the Unseen has become the one Reality. Henceforth, there is a deeper note in his thinking; in his feeling a fuller tenderness Psalms 118:1-29, from which I take this text, was written for some great national festival, and was chanted in the Temple thanksgiving service. Its praises and its prayers are alike the expression of national aspiration and gratitude. It is of Israel protected, ransomed, restored, Israel Divinely reinforced, Divinely saved, that the poet sings. It is united Israel which declares that His mercy endureth for ever. Each worshipper may say for himself what he sings for the nation, “ I shall not die, but live.” Each devout soul may promise for himself what he desires for his Church and for his country, that in this restored life the first purpose shall be to “ declare the works of the Lord.” If I were to read our poet’ s feelings by the light of my own, I should be ready to say that all other considerations are lost in the overwhelming solemnity of the experience through which he has passed. He has emerged upon a new and different world. In that world he finds himself at first a stranger. Sky and sea, meadow and mountain, the grass on the hillside, and the flowers beneath his feet, have a new meaning for him. While that strange, unspeakable thing which we call life--life one and indivisible in its myriad manifestations--is so wonderful, so wonderful that he feels that he has never lived before. You never feel the awfulness of life till death has held you. It is through the darkness of death that we walk in the light of life. A baffled wonder is one of the elements of this deep solemnity. The foundations of life have been shaken. Earth’ s base is built on stubble. The realization that one is mortal like his neighbours is the strangest revelation which comes to the heart of man. Almost too painful for analysis is the sense of humiliation which such an experience brings, the shrinking from the physical accompaniments of sickness and death. The pride of life has vanished in the twinkling of an eye. And of one other aspect of such an experience I do not trust myself to speak--the parting from those whose love has given us the purest joy which we have known on earth. Then, after all this, comes to our poet, has come, thank God, to millions of the sons of men who have passed through his experience and been the better for it, the exquisite realization of life again, the knowledge that all is yet possessed, the life of the flesh and the life of the soul, the desire of the eyes and the pride of life, the joy of thought, the power of aspiration, the delight of action and of service, the passion of labour, the potency of love! Surely this is the most solemn experience of human life, this in which the new-born man in a new-made world says to himself in amazement, “ I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord!” You do not marvel that this vague wonder passes into fervour, into exultation, rapture, into consecration? “ I shall . . . declare the works of the Lord!” Learn the lesson! There comes a time when all else fails you. The good that you have done alone abides. Learn that lesson well, for immortality is there. On the day when John Wycliffe died, while yet breath remained in the old man’ s body, the friars crowded round his bed, and demanded of him that he should make confession of the evil deeds that he had done to them and to their craft. He raised himself upon his pillows, and gathering together the last remnants of his expiring strength, exclaimed, “ I shall not die, but live, and declare the evil deeds of the friars.” That day the great reformer died. But the great reformer never dies! Wycliffe lives, like many another son of the Highest, mightier dead than when he lived indeed. (C. F. Aked, D. D.) And declare the works of the Lord.--Declaring the words of the Lord I. Many are the works of the Lord.1. Creation.2. Providence.3. Redemption.4. Regeneration. Do not be ashamed to declare that work of the Lord; and do it mainly by exhibiting the fruit of it in your life, but also by clearly narrating your own experience whenever you have a fitting opportunity. II. These works of the Lord ought to be declared.1. For God’ s glory.2. For the comfort of His people.3. To guide the anxious.4. As a warning to the self-righteous.5. To gladden the Church of God. III. Who ought to declare the works of the Lord? We who have experienced the working of God’ s grace should bear our own personal testimony concerning what He hath done for our soul. Personal witness-bearing is always effective. And if God does not get witnesses among those who have had their sins forgiven, whence are His witnesses to come? IV. Now I want, with all my heart, to stir up your hearts and my own also to the duty of declaring God’ s works.1. I pray you to declare His works, and to be encouraged to do so because, first, it is a very simple duty. This work of glorifying the grace of God is a mosaic; I can put in my little pieces of stone or marble to form the pattern so far, but there is another part of that mosaic which nobody but yourselves can manufacture. It can be made out of the odds and ends of your spiritual experience, as you think them to be; but, insignificant and unimportant as they seem to be, they help to complete the whole design. 2. Then notice what a very manifest duty it is that you should tell out what God has done for you. Does this need any proof? Do you think that the Lord saved you that you might just be happy, keeping your joy within your own heart, ever feeding and fattening it? 3. Notice also that this is a very profitable duty. I hardly know of anything that is more useful to a Christian than to tell out what the Lord has done for him. You will never know the truth in all its fulness till with all your heart, and mind, and soul, and strength, you have attempted to inculcate it in the hearts of others. 4. Moreover, it is a very pleasant duty to those who practise it. 5. This ought also to be a constant duty with all who love the Lord. When we have once told the story, we ought to feel bound to tell it again and again. “ But I cannot,” says one. What can you not do? If you were to be cured of a dreadful disease, I am sure you would be able to tell somebody who the doctor was. And if, to-night, a thief were to break into your house, and a policeman came and seized him, I am sure you would tell somebody tomorrow about what had occurred. Do you ask, “ Whom shall I tell?” Well, good man, tell your wife, if you have never yet spoken to her about these things. Christian woman, do you inquire, “ Whom shall I tell?” Why, tell your husband, and your children! You cannot have a better congregation than your own family. Are you in a factory? Tell your work-mates about Jesus Christ. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Psalms 118:18 The Lord hath chastened me sore: but He hath not given me over unto death. The afflictions of God’ s people I. The condition.1. The Author of it. Affliction comes not out of the dust; God is the Inflicter of all evils and crosses upon us. (1) Look up to the Lord in every affliction and labour So see Him in it. (2) Here is matter of comfort to the servants of God: that whosoever, or whatsoever may be the instrument, God Himself is the principal cause of every trouble to them. It is the cup which their Father gives them to drink, and therefore they may be sure that it is well mingled and tempered for them. 2. The nature of it--a chastening, for the better rule and government of His family. (l) To wean us from the world, and an inordinate love of things below. (2) To embitter sin to us, and subdue corruption. (3) For examples to others-- (a) of warning, that they may avoid and take heed of the like provocations; (b) of patience, that they may be strengthened to endure the like afflictions. 3. The aggravation. (1) The frequency of these chastenings, not once only, but often, even again and again. (2) The multitude of these chastenings, not one single one only, but many, one in the neck of another. (3) The grievousness and tediousness of them, not some light ones only, but such as were very irksome and hard to be borne. II. The qualification. “ But He hath not given me over unto death.” Consider these words--1. In their connection, add so they are a qualification of those that went before, and they serve to show unto us the manner of God’ s dealings with His people, which is to mitigate His afflictions of them, and to correct them still in measure; He chastens them but does not undo them. Thus (2 Corinthians 6:9; 2 Corinthians 4:8-9; 1 Corinthians 10:13; Lamentations 3:32). (1) God’ s aim and intent is not destruction but reformation, which death doth hinder and prevent the opportunities of, unto us. (2) As God does thus mitigate His corrections in wisdom, so also in mercy, because He is a gracious God, and He continues still so to be without alteration (Lamentations 3:22; Malachi 3:6). 2. Absolutely. “ He hath not given me over unto death.” (1) Out of His goodness, and mercy, and love to His people. (2) Because He has work and service for them to do. (3) For the good and comfort of their friends. (T. Hereon, D. D.) Psalms 118:19-20 Open to me the gates, of righteousness. The realm of righteousness I. A felt obstruction to it. Open to me the gates of righteousness. ‘ The gates of righteousness are closed to us--closed not by God, but closed by ourselves--closed by ignorance, prejudice, sensuality, worldliness, unbelief, pride. Who does not feel the obstruction? II. A determination to enter the realms of righteousness. “ The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence,” etc. We must agonize to enter in. We have to wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against powers, principalities and darkness, and crush them on our way to the gates. III. A welcome into the realms of righteousness (verse 20). If this response is from within the sacred enclosure it may be taken as a welcome. Spiritually all within the realm of righteousness are ready to welcome us. Saints, angels, Christ--all are ready to welcome us. (Homilist.) The gates of righteousness Though by “ the gates of righteousness” the psalmist mainly refers to the gates of the sanctuary, the words may be taken in a sense that will suggest truths of the most vital moment, and of universal application. I. They suggest that a state of “ righteousness” is a most desirable state for man.1. The want of it is the cause of all the evils that afflict humanity. All physical, social, political, intellectual, and moral evils arise from unrighteousness. 2. The possession of it will secure all good. Let all men be righteous in the principles of action towards God, and man and Eden will bloom again. II. They suggest that into this most desirable state there is a certain way of entrance. “ The gates of righteousness.” One Scriptural expression will describe the gates:--“ Repentance towards God, and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.” Those gates are difficult to enter. “ Strive to enter in,” etc. (Matthew 7:13). Those gates are exclusive. There are no other ways of entrance. III. They suggest that men require assistance to enter these gates. “ Open to me the gates.” Whomsoever the psalmist, in the words might appeal to, in order to open the gates of the sanctuary, we know that spiritually no one can open the gates of righteousness but God Himself. He leads the soul unto repentance and faith--(1) Through the revelation of His Son.(2) Through the events of His providence.(3) Through the work of His Spirit. IV. They suggest that when the entrance is fully obtained the man will be taken up with worship. “ I will go into them, and I will praise the Lord.” Worship is at once the great want and grand end of man’ s existence. (Homilist.) Psalms 118:21-24I will praise Thee for Thou hast heard me, and art become my salvation.A blessed consciousness, a marvellous providence, a joyous day I. A blessed consciousness (verse 21).1. A grateful assurance of answered prayer. “ Thou hast heard me.” To know that God has heard me is, of all knowledge, the most, transporting. 2. A grateful assurance of personal salvation. “ Art become my salvation.” Not shall become, or will become, but “ art” become. Salvation is a present blessing. “ This is life eternal,” etc. The consciousness that I am saved is indeed a blessed consciousness. II. A marvellous providence (verse 22, 23). What man rejects, God accepts.1. Man rejects insignificant, means with which to accomplish his chief ends. When man has a great plan to carry out, he looks out for the most gifted, the most mighty and skilful agents. Not so with the Almighty. By whom did He deliver Israel from Egyptian bondage? By Moses, a poor Hebrew exile. 2. Man despises the very agents whom God employs. This was pre-eminently the case with Christ. “ He was despised and rejected of men.” Yet He was employed in a work of transcendent greatness. III. A joyous day (verse 24). Man has to create his own Sabbaths, and when they come to him, he feels the Lord hath made them, and he “ will rejoice and be glad in it.” (Homilist.) Psalms 118:22 The stone which the builders refused is become the head stone of the corner. Christ, the head stone of the corner The ode seems to have been sung in a solemn procession to the temple; and by the Levitical band in responsive chorus. The stone, styled the “ head of the corner,” was not placed on the top of the wall, but in some important and conspicuous position. Now, when the temple was built, a stone, intended by the original designers for this purpose, seems to have been rejected by the builders, and cast away as useless among the rubbish: but as no other stone could be found to supply its place, either from necessity, or from Divine warning, the despised stone was sought for, and built into that honourable station to which by the heavenly Architect it had been destined. And when the gates of the temple were opened, and the procession was arranged in its courts, its massive buildings and golden ornaments are left out of view,--though the most prominent beauties of the wonderful fabric ,--and by the Spirit of God this truly wonderful event is commemorated, as being the most notable in the history of the erection of the sanctuary, as proving the minute and surprising care which God exercised over His house, and as being typical of future erections no less strange and worthy of celebration. The verse may now be illustrated by a reference to Christ as Prophet, as Priest, as King. I. As prophet. The important office of teacher or interpreter of the will of God has been exercised by the Son of God ever since revelations have been made to the world. As Logos, or Oracle, the Son bears such a relation to the Father as speech does to thought. This mysterious personage was the Jehovah of the Hebrew nation, who gave the law from Sinai, and was worshipped on Sion, and came at length to “ His temple,” which He had consecrated and inhabited. But when Messiah appeared in human form, and began his prophetical career, proclaiming the spirituality and extent of the law of God,--affording evidence of His divine mission by miracles so decisive, so public, so frequent, so peculiar,--then was the indignation of the builders excited. And as the stone despised by the builders might be cast away among the rubbish, and be at length buried and out of sight, so was Jesus slain, and committed to the sepulchre, and hid from view in its depth and darkness; yet, though rejected, has He become the head of the corner. To prove Himself the faithful and true Witness He rose from the dead; if by His own power, then He was God, and as God could neither deceive nor betray His creatures; if by His Father’ s power, then Jehovah would not accredit an impostor. Now Jesus is exalted as the great Prophet of the Church, though He was once despised; and now, what with the descent of His Spirit to guide into all truth; what with the commission, “ Go ye into all the world,” and the varied qualifications for that lofty enterprise; and what with the living ministry which He has founded, and perpetuated, and blessed to preach the Word; may we not perceive the truth of the psalmist’ s declaration, and may we not add in adoring wonder and gratitude, “ This is the doing of the Lord!” II. As priest. The priesthood of Jesus is of eternal ordination. In virtue of His priesthood did He act with men as a prophet. It was necessary that He should assume our nature, that He might have somewhat to offer; yet, alas! how few recognized His sacerdotal dignity. Nor were they without warning from the typical language of their priesthood and sacrifices; yet, through prejudice, they would not recognize a priest in Jesus, for He wore not the sacred vestments, and was not sprung from Aaron,--nor an atonement in the death of Him who died on Calvary amidst the scorn and execrations of the multitude. This His noblest office was unseen, unvalued; and, in His decease, men saw nothing but the merited end of treason and blasphemy. Hoping to effect the extinction of His pretensions by His death, they assisted only in unfolding His designs. Immortal life to a dying world has flown from His blood,--yet, though the manner of His death combined the stigma of slavery with the degradation of crime, that death was a true and proper sacrifice, vicarious, perfect, accepted, successful. And now in heaven the great High Priest in the heavenly temple has become the head of the corner. Now does He pursue the great work of intercession in the realms of repose and glory; by His “ own blood He entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.” III. As king. The incarnate Jesus had been often depicted by the prophets as a monarch, “ on the throne of His father David,” --yet “ when He came to His own, His own received Him not.” Was not He who died on Calvary condemned for His treasonable aspirations to the throne of Judea? And who could fancy Him a king who wore no diadem and waved no banner, lived in obscurity and privation, and died in desertion and ignominy? But the stone, though disallowed of men, is chosen of God and precious. God hath raised Him from the dead, and placed Him at His own right hand, and endowed Him with universal government. The sceptre of all worlds is swayed by a human arm. So that if you consider what contempt was poured upon Jesus as a King,--how they crowned Him with thorns, and put a reed in His hand, and arrayed Him in garments of mock royalty, and bowed the knee before Him in contemptuous obeisance, and placed a tablet over His cross, and inscribed on it as His accusation, “ This is Jesus, the King of the Jews” ; and then again consider His present exaltation to the throne of the universe, angels obeying His word, and the countless armies of heaven rejoicing to execute His mandates, and the work of the last judgment committed to His hand; you cannot fail to perceive how truly the symbol has been verified: “ The stone which the builders despised is become the head of the corner.” (John Eadie, D.D.) The stone rejected by the builders exalted as the head atone of the corner I. View the Church as a house or building (Isaiah 2:2-3; 1 Corinthians 3:9). II. The character given to Christ with relation to this building. He is “ the Stone” in a way of eminence and excellency. He is the matchless and incomparable Stone, for He is the chief Stone of the corner; the brightness of His Father’ s glory is in Him, and the express image of His Person. III. The workmen employed in rearing this spiritual building or fabric of the Church here called builders. IV. The fatal errors of these builders spoken of in my text. They reject the Stone, without which their whole building was nothing but a medley of confusion, however glorious it might appear in their own eyes.1. This fatal error of theirs proceeded from their ignorance of Christ, in the excellency of His person, and of the glorious mystery of redemption and salvation through Him (Acts 3:17; 1 Corinthians 2:7-8). 2. Mistaken notions of the nature of the Messiah’ s kingdom was another cause of their rejecting this precious stone. What a dangerous thing it is not to have right conceptions of the spiritual nature of Christ’ s kingdom. V. Inquire what may be implied in Christ’ s being made the Head Stone of the corner, notwithstanding the attempts of the builders to jostle Him out of His place.1. It implies Christ’ s exaltation and victory over all His enemies and opposers. 2. It implies that God has a great regard for the glory of His Son, as the Head and King of His Church. 3. It implies that the whole spiritual fabric or building of the Church hangs upon Him, as the superstructure leans upon the foundation and chief corner stone. 4. It implies that He alone is the centre of unity in the Church. 5. It implies that Christ is the beauty and ornament of His Church, for much of the beauty and ornament of the building lies in the corner stone. 6. It implies that they who would build the Church of Christ must still have Him in their eye, and that the whole of their conduct and administration in the house of God must be regulated with a view to His glory and honour. 7. It implies that God and corrupt builders are driving quite different measures and designs. VI. Application.1. Let us beware of the fatal errors before mentioned, whereby the Jewish builders ruined their once glorious fabric, and buried themselves in the ruins thereof. 2. Let us seek the builders’ word from the great Master-builder; for there is a word which Christ gives to His faithful ministers, whereby the art of building is much conveyed (John 17:14). 3. Let us take care that every stone of the building corresponds with the foundation and corner stone. In order to which, let us examine our own and others’ doctrines and conversation by the plumb-line and infallible rule of the word (Isaiah 8:20). (E. Erskine.) The crone refused by the builders I. Notice the views here given to the rejection of the messiah.1. The ignominy with which they treated His Person. 2. The opposition with which they met His doctrine. II. notice the subsequent exaltation of the Lord Jesus Christ.1. His Person has become highly exalted. 2. The victory gained by His doctrine, in rapidly subduing the hearts of men, and nations of men, to the faith. III. Consider this change in the fortunes of the stone as the doing of the Lord, and not the doing of man; not the work of angels, not the achievement of angels, but the doing of the Lord.1. It is the doing of all the persons in the Trinity. 2. It is the doing of all the attributes of the Godhead. 3. It is the doing of all the dispensations of Providence. IV. The claim which this magnificent event--the exaltation of Christ--has upon the attention and admiration of men.1. The exaltation of the Saviour’ s mediatorial person is marvellous in our eyes. 2. The victory gained by the doctrines of Christ. “ It is marvellous in our eyes.” There is a sevenfold marvel; whether you consider the doctrine which won the victory, the instruments employed, the weapons that were wielded by those instruments while they were propagating the doctrine, the opposition over which it triumphed, the number of those on whom it took hold, and over whom it prevailed, or the supernatural effects on all those of whom it took hold--whether you consider the one or the other, “ it is marvellous in our eyes.” (J. Beaumont.) The rejected stone I. The fact. We have Christ’ s authority for applying this spiritually to Him. The rejection of Christ foreknown. Rejection by man no proof of worthlessness: the rejected may be of God. Men reject the greater for the lesser; the moral for the sensual, all self-indulgent men risk their moral in gratifying their sensual; the spiritual for the natural, God has ordained us to life by faith, because that life is higher and nobler than the life of sense or appearance; the enduring for the sake of the temporal: all this in rejecting Christ. Hostility to Him worse than useless--ruinous. II. The cause. “ This is the Lord’ s doing.” God works by man: through man as an agent: over man as the sovereign fjord. God works by the wrath of mum the child’ s rebellion and anger will not frustrate the father’ s purpose. That may be the Lord’ s doing which looks very unlike it. Evil a mystery, but God’ s doing through it, clear in the Gospel, though nowhere else. III. The result. “ It is marvellous in our eyes.” The scheme of salvation, marvellous in conception, unlike and beyond all human thought. All that God does should be marvellous to us, would be if we were His little children. Wonder plays an important part m our history and religion. (Homilist.) The head stone of the corner I. Christ rejected.1. He was clearly placed before the Jewish people as the stone which God would lay in Zion as the foundation of their hopes, but they persistently refused Him. Alas, for the blindness of men’ s hearts. 2. His rejection was rendered the more remarkable and the more sorrowful because He was rejected by the builders or leaders of the nation. 3. It was a violent and indignant rejection. They were not content to say, “ He is not the Messiah,” but they turned their hottest malice against film; they were furious at the sight of Him. 4. This rejection was most unreasonable; they did violence to truth and justice by their evil deed. II. Christ exalted.1. At this moment Christ has the chief place of honour in the building of God. 2. Nor is He alone eminent for His position of honour, but for His surpassing usefulness. He is the head stone of the corner, that stone which joins two walls together, and is the bond of the building. Jew and Gentile are now one in Christ Jesus. Wondrous corner stone Thou dost bind all of us together who are in Thee, so that by love of Thee we are builded together for a temple of the Holy Ghost. Thou art the perfect bond, the eternal holdfast, the Divine cement which holds the universe in one. Is it not written, “ By Him all things consist” ? 3. Our Lord Jesus Christ then is brought up from all rejection and shame go which His enemies put Him to be by usefulness and by honour the grandest personage upon the face of the earth; and all this none the less, but all the more, because He was rejected. He lost nothing by His enemies. They scourged His back, but they did not rob Him of that imperial purple which now adorns Him; they crowned Him with thorns, but those thorns have increased the brilliance of His diadem of light; they pierced His hands, and thereby prepared them to sway an irresistible sceptic of love over men’ s hearts; they crucified Him, but His crucifixion led Him to His greater honour. III. The exaltation of Christ is due to God alone (verse 23). Jesus Christ’ s name and work were at length had in honour in the world, but this was due to no man’ s wisdom, eloquence, or power, but entirely to the Lord, who is wonderful in counsel and great in might. When I consider how hostile is human nature to the Gospel, the very existence of a true Church in the world is to me a miracle. Just think of it. Why, at this very day, we have all the wisdom, and power, and eloquence, and skill of the superstition of the world arrayed against the simple Gospel of Jesus. Though they are agreed in nothing else, they all unite against Christ. IV. The exaltation of the rejected Christ commences a new era (verse 24). We date from our Lord’ s resurrection even as the Jews of old counted from the night wherein they went out of Egypt. What is this day which the Lord hath made? I reply first, it is the day of the Gospel. Through our Lord’ s exaltation pardon for the guilty is freely preached among all nations, and whosoever believeth in Him hath everlasting life. What day is this which the Lord hath made? Why, in the next place, it is a Sabbath day, the beginning of a long line of Sabbaths. The day in which our Lord Jesus rose from the dead is now sacred to rest and holy joy. Let us keep it with reverent love, and bless God for making it. Again, “ This is the day which the Lord hath made.” The resurrection of Christ commences an era of triumph. We have spoken of the Gospel day, and the Sabbatic day, but it is also a day of victories. As Jesus Christ rose from the dead, so will His truth continually rise from the sepulchre into which men may east it. As he triumphed over the powers of death and darkness, so will His Gospel triumph over all opposition. V. The exaltation of Christ suggests a prayer (verse 25).1. A prayer for salvation. Put it in the present tense. Ask for a display of the present saving power of our exalted Head. 2. The other half of the prayer is for prosperity. “ O Lord, send now prosperity.” (C. H. Spurgeon.) Christ the head stone of the corner The corner is the place where two walls meet, and the corner stone is that by which they are connected or combined. Hence the idea suggested by a corner stone is mainly that of union; and it is as uniting what was separated or detached that Christ is specially presented to us under such an emblem. And verily He was the Corner Stone. In His Person were combined the Divine nature and the human; and it was this combination, His being the Corner Stone between God and man, which alone fitted Him for the vast office He had undertaken to discharge. Did He not, moreover, unite Jew and Gentile, making both one, by removing all ceremonial distinctions, and founding a Church which threw open its gates to every nation under heaven? Nay, did He not unite God and man in another sense by becoming, in His own person, a Corner Stone? He reconciled the world to its Maker--He restored harmony where sin had wrought a fearful separation. Yes, He was, and He is, the Corner Stone between earth and heaven. But it is evident from the manner in which St. Peter has quoted the prophecy in our text, that it had especial reference to the resurrection of Christ. It was by and through the Resurrection that the rejected Stone was exalted to the head of the corner; and forasmuch as the alleged marvel lies evidently in the transition from the rejection to the exaltation, we are bound to conclude that the process through which the transition took place had much to do with the wonder expressed by the psalmist. And never ought the Resurrection of the Redeemer to appear to us other than a fact as amazing as it is consolatory; for there is a respect in which the resurrection of Christ differs immeasurably from every other recorded case of the quickening of the dead. Others were raised by Christ, or by men acting in the name and with the authority of Christ; but Christ raised Himself. He rose from the grave--rose by His own act. “ Destroy this temple,” said He, “ and in three days I will raise it up;” the evangelist adding, as a comment, “ He spake of the temple of His body.” Marvel of marvels! that which we believe will not cease to be marvellous when eternity has been given to its contemplation--is that “ the Word was made flesh and dwelt amongst us” ; but the marvel seems immeasurably heightened when the dead Christ, as well as the living, may be defined as actually a person of the Godhead. Divinity in the gravel--this is a stupendous thing. But Divinity was in the grave--Divinity was proved to have been in the grave, when the rejected Stone, by the exercise of its own power, came forth from the grave. Verily, we must exclaim with the psalmist--“ This is the Lord’ s doing.” The resurrection of Christ, effected through His own power, supersedes all necessity for any other miracle in evidence of the Divine origin of Christianity. How could that being be less than Deity itself, who, even when dead in human nature, was mighty enough to quicken that nature--who, by the strangest of all combinations, must have been dead and alive at once, and who was able, in that respect in which He was alive, to reanimate Himself in that respect in which He was dead? Need we ask whether this excites your amazement? Oh! which of you, when he thinks how, in rising from the dead, the Redeemer destroyed the curse and provided that “ the creature itself also should be delivered from the bondage of corruption” --which of you can refuse to join in the exclamation--“ This is the Lord’ s doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes” ? But amazement or admiration is not only the feeling which the fact before us should excite. The battle, the narrative of which is so surprising, was fought in our behalf, and the landscape, which awakens such lofty emotions, includes within its sweep whatever is most precious to ourselves. A Redeemer detained in the grave, would have necessarily been a Redeemer unable to redeem; a stone not exalted to “ the head of the corner,” would have been one which failed to combine earth and heaven. We, then, who can rejoice, because there has arisen a Mediator between us and God, must therefore rejoice in the exaltation of the rejected Stone. It was in the rising to “ the head of the corner” that this Stone swept down the obstacles to the forgiveness of man, and opened to him the pathway to heaven and immortality. And there is more to be said than this. The resurrection of our own bodies is intimately connected with the resurrection of Christ--connected, as an effect with a cause; “ for since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection from the dead: for as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.” Therefore, if it be any cause for joy that our bodies are to rise, it is cause for joy that the Stone rejected by the builders was exalted of God to “ the head of the corner.” And the resurrection of the body is a cause for joy. The body, indeed, is to be a spiritual body, and therefore will renovated materialism assume a more spiritual character, congenial to that of the celestial inhabitants; but a material system there surely shall be--a material world, with material loveliness, and an over-arching sky, in which, when the present constellations shall be quenched, their places shall be filled with others, more beautifully, more eloquently bright. If such, then, be the resurrection, and such our personal interest in the rising of the rejected Stone to be “ the head of the corner,” it is not amazement only with which you will hear the record or look upon the landscape. The record is that of a stupendous victory, but a victory which secured you the means of grace and the hope of glory. Oh! then, delight must be added to amazement. If you have already exclaimed with a tongue of wonder, “ This is the Lord’ s doing; it is marvellous in our eyes,” will you not now add with a tongue of exultation, “ This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it” ? (H. Melvill, B.D.) Psalms 118:23 This is the Lord’ s doing; it is marvellous in our eyes. The Lord’ s doing The following appear to me to be evident marks, or strong indications of an immediate work of Divine Providence.1. When great and notable events are brought about by causes apparently inadequate to produce them,--by means that, to all human reason and appearance, are unable to attain their end. 2. When nature herself seems to arm in defence of, or in opposition to, any cause, by operating for, or against the same, in an extraordinary and unusual manner (Joshua 10:13; Judges 5:20; 1 Samuel 7:10). 3. When the hidden works of darkness are brought to light in some sudden, surprising, and unexpected manner, as if by accident (2 Kings 5:20-27; Acts 5:1-12; Matthew 2:1-17; Esther 6:7; Acts 9:23-25; Acts 23:12-25). 4. When some great and notable mischief is not only discovered and prevented, but likewise when it is returned upon the heads of its first contrivers. Pharaoh, Haman. 5. When great, good, and noble ends are brought about by wicked men quite contrary to their malevolent intentions (Exodus 1:15; Exodus 2:1-10). 6. When events are well timed and highly seasonable. Learn-- 1. That with God nothing is impossible.2. Wherein the spirit and power of thankfulness doth chiefly consist: it consists in the life of those who are truly thankful. (D. McIndoe.) Psalms 118:24 This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it. The day of days The day of days in the life of Christ was the day of His resurrection; and to the early Christians Easter Day was the queen of festivals. Easter should provoke a joy in Christian hearts, greater than any event in our private lives; greater than any in the world’ s public history; greater than any other even in the life of our Lord Himself. This is the immemorial feeling and sense of Christendom; but why should it be so? why has Easter, why has the resurrection, this extraordinary claim on the buoyancy of the Christian heart? I. The joy of a great reaction; a reaction from anxiety and sorrow. So it was at the time of Christ’ s resurrection. The apostles had been crushed by the sufferings and death of Jesus Christ. When He was in His grave, all seemed over; and when He appeared, first to one, and then to another, on the day of His resurrection, they could not keep their feelings of welcome and delight,--traversed though these were by a sense of wondering awe,--within anything like bounds. “ Then were the disciples glad when they saw the Lord.” And this joy of theirs is repeated every year in the greatest feast of the Christian Church. Those who have felt the sorrow feel the joy. Year by year we stand by, in spirit, while Joseph of Arimathaea and Nicodemus lay Him in His grave; and the tension of sincere feeling, of sympathetic sorrow, of penitence and contrition which this implies, is followed by a corresponding reaction on Easter morning. II. The joy of a great certainty. The resurrection of our Saviour is the fact which makes an intelligent Christian certain of the truth of his creed. And in this way it satisfies a real mental want, and it occasions keen enjoyment by giving this satisfaction. All else in our creed depends on the resurrection of Christ; and to-day when we remind ourselves of its historical certainty, which is scarcely less illustrated by the apparent contradictions than by the collective and direct force of the accounts which have come down to us, we experience a mental delight at the freshening touch of truth, and cry, “ This is the day which the Lord hath made: we will rejoice and be glad in it.” III. The joy of Easter is inspired by the hope which Easter warrants and quickens. Hope and Joy are twin sisters. Joy best enters the human soul when leaning on the arm of Hope. As the apostle says, “ We rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.” What is this hope which Easter most distinctly puts before us? and how does it spring from our Saviour’ s resurrection? The great hope which Easter sets before us is the completeness of our life after death. The difficulty of believing in a future life is due, not to the reason, but to the imagination as controlled by the senses. Who of us has not made this discovery in some one of those dark hours, which sooner or later visit every human life? Who of us has not stood by the open coffin, and felt himself, or marked how others feel, the terrific empire of sense in the presence of death? At such a moment the most modest anticipations of reason are deemed an unsubstantial guess: the clear teaching of revelation a solemn fancy; the mind’ s sceptre has passed to the imagination and the senses, and they decide that all ends with death, and that the grim secrets of the grave are the measure of man’ s impotent aspirations after a future existence. Now it was to deal with this specific difficulty that our Lord willed to die, and then, by a literal bodily resurrection, to rise from the grave. Truly we may exclaim with the apostle, that God “ hath begotten us again unto a lively hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,” and with the psalmist, that “ this is the day which the Lord hath made: let us rejoice and be glad in it.” (Canon Liddon.) Easter Day I. This is the day which the Lord hath made great, by giving the most glorious proof of His own greatness; by rising on it from the dead, by being born again of the womb of the earth, to prove Himself God, as His first birth had proved Him to be man. II. This is the day which the Lord hath made glorious, by displaying the glory of His everlasting kingdom, by taking possession of eternal life in His own person, and thereby assuring the same precious blessing to them who by faith lay hold on His promises. III. This is the day which the Lord hath made a day of triumph and rejoicing, by subduing all the most formidable enemies of human nature, robbing death of its sting, the grave of its victory, spoiling principalities and powers, triumphing over them, and making a show of them openly: by flinging open the gates of death and hell, proclaiming liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound. IV. This is the day which the Lord hath made wonderful, by turning dishonour into honour, by converting the ignominy of His death into the glory of a resurrection, the cross on which He suffered into the trophy of His victory, the crown of thorns into a ray of glory. V. This is the day which the Lord hath made comfortable to all that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heartiness. (A. Grant, D.D.) The memorial of Christ’ s resurrection ought perpetually to be celebrated I. The import of the words--“ This is the day,” etc. The everlasting mercies of God which are celebrated in the four first verses by way of repetition; Christ’ s being set in a large place (verse 5), which the prophet elsewhere explains by God’ s delivering him (Psalms 18:19); his exultation, because he shall see his desire upon them that hate him (verse 7); his declaring that it is better to trust in the Lord than to put any confidence in man (verse 8); the power given him to destroy all nations in the name of the Lord (verse 10). All these expressions, I say, import some effects of his royal dignity, more permanent and extensive, and more evident tokens of the Divine interposition, than can be attributed to the former event; though that was not ejected without the direction of a particular providence. But all these effects, as all other effects of Christ’ s mediatorial Office, being fully accounted for from the truth of His resurrection, and such facts as were consequential to it; it is most reasonable to consider the text as respecting His resurrection. II. Upon what reasons so eminent and peculiar a distinction of this day is made.1. The resurrection of Christ did evidence the Divine authority of our Saviour, as it could not, upon the principles of the Jews themselves, have been ejected, but only by a Divine power. 2. But the proof, indeed of the Divine mission of Christ from His resurrection does not only affect the Jews, but all other persons indifferently; for granting a power to man of doing very strange and surprising things by means of the union of his soul and body, according to the laws of which they here act upon one another, or upon other bodies; yet, when this union is dissolved, when the soul is incapable of acting either upon its own former body, or any body whatever, how is it possible to conceive that it should be able to restore the bodily organs, which it before informed, either to their proper offices or order again? This can only be the act of God, who made us and fashioned us; by whom, as the psalmist celebrates His wisdom and power, we are so fearfully and wonderfully made; in whose hand is the soul of every living thing; of whom, and through whom, and to whom are all things. III. What are those proper acts of joy and gladness wherewith it ought to be celebrated.1. The first and highest expression of our joy on occasion of so extraordinary an act of the Divine power and goodness, ought to consist in those inward and spiritual sentiments which the soul of a good man naturally feels when he reflects on any special mercy of God, or any spiritual good which it is the means of conveying to him; especially in so ample a manner that it is fruitful and diffusive of many other spiritual goods. Such is the Divine mercy which we now commemorate; and therefore, if we commemorate it as we ought, we shall inwardly rejoice in the Lord, according to the joy in harvest, or as men rejoice when they divide the spoil on occasion of so great a flow of Divine blessings upon us all at once. 2. This internal joy ought also to be expressed by some outward and proper significations of it. Acts of religious praise and thanksgiving to God; and acts of innocent festivity in other external respects. (R. Fiddes.) The Lord’ s day I. This day is distinguished by His triumphs--let us hail Him Conqueror. II. This day He claims as an offering--let us present it with joyful obedience. III. On this day He advances with peculiar privileges--let us get forth to meet Him with all the ardour of hope. IV. On this day we discern our interest in the triumph of the Redeemer. (J. Hughes.) The blessings of a day A day, what is it? A space of light between two mountain-walls of darkness; a time of redemption from the kingdom of Chaos and Old Night; the half or the two-thirds of life really given us to live; the season of consciousness, duty, trial; the end and aim for which sleep is given, and the veil of temporary oblivion and rest spread over our faculties so many hours. Wonderful and rich, far beyond the line of our usual appreciation, is the gift of a day. It stands like a monument between the eternity of the past and the eternity of the future. One day! It is little; a fugitive twenty-four hours, a hurried routine, a mill-horse round of cares and toils, a succession of meals,--breakfast, dinner, supper,--a miniature life, “ rounded with a sleep,” a daybreak of childhood, a morning of youth and hope, a noonday of manhood and activity, a twilight of age and pensiveness, a night of death. How quickly it is here, how soon it is gone! But in this very shortness of a day we discern a benevolent intention. Constituted as we are, we could not bear the burden of a double day. Literally, our “ strength is according to our day, and our day according to our strength.” They have been weighed and balanced by a sure Hand, one to the other. The mechanical arrangements by which the day is made, the position of the earth and the sun and their respective revolutions, and those of the other planetary and celestial bodies, the nature of the influence exerted on us by the sun through light, heat, and electricity and other elements, too subtle and delicate for our coarse senses to take cognizance of them, all are indications of the Fatherly care over us, and fitted to assure us that “ this is the day which the Lord hath made,” and to inspire us to “ rejoice and be glad in it” We discern a most beneficent intention in the separation and subdivision of our life into daily fragments. Each night is a gentle semi-oblivion, that our past lives may not tyrannize over us, that the door of progress may still be kept open, that we may have in some sense a new and untrammelled being every day. Every night is a faint death, every morning a fresh birth. The blessing of the day depends in no slight degree on the manner in which we begin it, on the key-note of the morning hour. It is well begun by the Almighty Disposer. He gives us a new world, bathed in dew, blushing with the dawn, vocal with the song of birds, while clouds of vapour and smoke rise like columns of incense from hill and vale and human homes to heaven. Fair and gracious world of ours, we feel like saying, how sad and strange it is that we should ever forget that this is a Divine handiwork, or that we should ever abuse such royal gifts by our ingratitude and disobedience! Devotion is the spontaneous service of the morning. To invoke the guardian care of Heaven, and to bless its new mercies, is but a fitting counterpart to all the other beauty, and solemnity, and hope, and renewed life of the world. Shall the birds arise and sing at the gate of heaven, and man feel no uplifting sentiment at the birth of a new day? “ Man,” says the psalmist, “ goeth forth unto his work and to his labour until the evening.” That work and labour, the heat and burden of the day, called, in the external and figurative language of the elementary dispensation, “ a curse,” have proved on long trial, and in the wide experience of a world, to be some of the best blessings of the day. Who has the pleasant, consciousness of being useful? The worker. Who stores up the rich memories of many things done? The worker. Who sleeps sweetly? The worker. Who relishes his food more than the epicure? The hard worker. Who enjoys leisure? He who has used his time so industriously that he has earned a right to be idle. Who can understand the full measure of blessing in a day, bug he who has so earnestly pursued its opportunities that its minutes are to him as gems, and its hours as diamonds? There is great work yet to be done on this planet,--continents to be reclaimed, oceans to be navigated, wild elements to be yoked to the car of human progress, acres of brains to be tilled, Augean stables of moral filth to be purified, swarming multitudes of souls to be touched to finer spiritual issues, vast social Saharas to be clothed with verdure, new and grander organizations in Church and State, and family, and art, and labour, and literature, to be formed, that shall make our modern homes, and sanctuaries and schools, galleries and Crystal Palaces, seem to be but the bungling work of apprentices compared with the productions of the perfect Master-workman. The past history of our race has its representative in the night,--dreamy, sleepy, irresponsible, fearful, often riotous, artificially lighted, addicted to passion, meteor-led night. The ages have been dark ages, and history has been profane, and the earth has not been holy land. But the dayspring from on high hath visited us, and the future is to be a day of action, usefulness, progress, as the past has been a night of preparation, dreams, and darkness. (A. A. Livermore.) Evangelical gladness First, it brings with it a spiritual delight. Secondly, an external gladness which opens itself in signs and tokens. The spiritual delight which we treasure up within the soul looking steadfastly upon Jesus that died for our sins, and rose again for our justification, is heavenly and unutterable, it is a superlative joy that cries down all other petty delights. The external utterances of a pious joy are these--1. Days of rest from bodily labour; for the meaner labour must give way when a better and a worthier is to be undertaken. And while the mind hath just occasion to make its abode in the house of gladness, the weed of ordinary toil and travel doth not become us; therefore it is fit that ordinary labour should sometimes surrender itself up to the service of God. 2. To laud the name of the Lord, and to give thanks unto Him are the only language of our thankfulness (Psalms 42:5). 3. God doth not deny it, but he that offereth Him praise doth honour Him; but will you know how that honour is best exalted? Make a cheerful noise to the God of Jacob, singing and making melody to the Lord with psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs. If the Jews might justly say, how can we sing the Lord’ s song, while we are in a strange land, while we are in captivity? then we must acknowledge, on the contrary, how can we choose but sing the Lord’ s song, being delivered out of captivity? Singing of psalms is a most proper exercise of our reasonable service. 4. Another effect of Christian joy is to give, because it abounds. A joy that will not distribute to the needy is a shrunken withered joy, nay, a joy that will carry the curse of God with it, because it wants fruits; and a joy that will carry the curse of the poor with it, because they are suffered to pine and languish in our public gladness. 5. All sorts of mirth and innocent recreation, wherein our substance is not exhausted, nor our time trifled away, are agreeable to our Christian conversation. At our times of respite from sacred offices, to delight our sullen nature with harmless pleasures, it rubs off the rust of melancholy, and puts alacrity in us to rejoice always in the Lord. (Bp. Hacket.) Psalms 118:25-27 Save now, I beseech Thee, O Lord: O Lord, I beseech Thee, send now prosperity. The voice of the Church I. The voice of the Church in relation to all. Here is the voice of prayer (verse 25).1. It is a prayer for immediate salvation. “ Save now, we beseech Thee, O Lord.” The great want of mankind is salvation from their sins. 2. It is a prayer for immediate prosperity. “ I beseech Thee, send now prosperity.” There are different kinds of prosperity. Some prosperities become curses. Temporal prosperity is often spiritual adversity. The prosperity which is here prayed for is soul prosperity--prosperity in all that is Christ-like. II. The voice of the Church in relation to those who are entering it (verse 26). Here is a hearty welcome. The true Church is always ready to welcome those who enter it in the name of the Lord. Nay, it goes further, it sends out messengers to the highways and hedges, cud seeks to compel those who are morally hungry and thirsty, to come to ira feast. III. The voice of the Church in relation to all within (verse 27).1. It is the voice of mutual congratulation. He “ hath showed us light.” How blessed are we! 2. It is the voice of mutual exultation. “ Bind the sacrifice with cords,” etc. We should all provoke one another to love and good works. (Homilist.) Prayer for prosperity I. What is the object to be thus ardently desired? A Church is prosperous--1. Where there is growing knowledge and holiness among its members.2. When there is the cordial exhibition of brotherly love amongst its members.3. When there is a constant accession of new converts. II. Why we should be concerned to secure this prosperity.1. The proof of our godly sincerity requires it.2. The value of the object itself demands it.3. No system of means can alone ensure this prosperity. (W. G. Barrett.) A prayer for spiritual prosperity I. The blessing implored.1. That peace and union may prevail amongst us.2. That a spirit of zeal may be manifested by us.3. That increased spirituality may be found in us.4. That true disciples may be added to us. II. The earnestness employed. “ O Lord, I beseech Thee!” It is the language of one who feels what he says. What is prayer without earnestness and fervour? What is the outward form without the inward feeling? (E. Temple.) The plea for prosperity I. In what does spiritual prosperity consist? I. A growth in knowledge. In a prosperous Church the members will manifest a growing acquaintance with the teachings of God’ s Word--their views of the Person and work of Christ, of the spirituality of God’ s law, of the privileges and duties of piety will be expanded and enlarged.2. Where this growth in knowledge and in spiritual understanding obtains there will be found a corresponding growth in holiness. The two things are inseparable (2 Corinthians 3:18). 3. A quickened Church will, as the result of its deepened spiritual life, address itself to aggressive work--to evangelize the nations, to convert the world. II. What is essential to such prosperity?1. Purity of doctrine. Truth is to the Church what food is to the body. 2. The maintenance of godly discipline. What should we think of a gardener who allowed a diseased or a withered branch to remain on the tree, or of a general who tolerated in his camp the presence of known traitors? Far more perilous is it for us to tolerate in the Church that which is manifestly evil. 3. Union of feeling and of action. On the field of battle a small band of brave men acting in unbroken phalanx, with one common determination, and under one bold and resolute leader, will accomplish far more than ten times their number acting singly and alone. So a Church composed but of few members, if they be living to God, one in feeling and in action, will do more for Christ and for the salvation of the world than ten times their number who are alienated in affection and who work independently of each other. 4. The manifest presence and power of the Holy Spirit. A Church without the Spirit is like an engine without steam; the engine may be beautiful to look upon, perfect in all its parts, admirably adapted to answer the ends for which it was made, but without steam there is no motion, no power. III. What can we do to promote and ensure the prosperity of the Church? We suffer, the Church at large suffers, from the great rush and hurry of life in the present day. Let us find time for thought. If we do this our minds and our hearts will become full of the subject, and out of the abundance of the heart the mouth will speak. (C. Garrett.) Prayer for the Church’ s prosperity I. What are the elements of true prosperity to such a community as the Christian Church? First, “ righteousness” ; the great generic principle of righteousness living in the heart, rising up to its ascendancy in the heart, and working itself out in the life: “ righteousness and true holiness,” as the idea is amplified and illustrated. Second, “ peace” ; holy tranquillity, “ the peace of God which passeth all understanding, and keepeth the heart and mind through Jesus Christ” ; “ peace” in the Christian, and “ peace,” too, among Christians. And, third, “ joy in the Holy Ghost” ; “ joy “ produced by “ the love of God shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us,” and by the hope of glory. II. From whom does prosperity come to the Church? The work is as really God’ s, as is the production of the animal life which pulsates in our bodily frame; and so is all that belongs to the preservation of the spiritual life, and to its progress up to perfection. Is it nourished? He nourishes it. Is it revived? He revives it. Is it developed and exercised in holy and useful activity? He draws it out, and guides and sustains it (Jeremiah 33:4-9; Hosea 14:5-8). III. What is required on the part of the Church in order to the attainment of prosperity?1. Prayer is required of us for this purpose. The psalmist knew this: nay, more, he felt the knowledge to he so working at his heart, as to bring warm from his lips the words that lie before us, “ Save now,” etc.2. With our prayers we must combine activity. 3. Another thing necessary to the success of social prayer is pervasive unity of purpose, giving rise to unity of desire. (D. Young, D.D.) Church prosperity I. The salvation of men is the first plea of the Church.1. Our increase depends on it. 2. The Church’ s best joy lives in it. 3. Our riches in gifts and graces, labours, and in all variety of experience, will be found as the Lord answers this prayer. We shall value our spiritual wealth, our wealth of gifts and graces, all the more if we know they come to us in answer to our own pleadings. II. Soul culture and spiritual life is the best prosperity of a Church. Not numbers, or social status, or human applause, or intellectual greatness; but the spirituality of her life, and all increase of saved men brought into her midst. III. These two matters that come out of the prayer of the text are the highest glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. He Himself came to save. That was His one great business while here among men. He came on this one specific errand, and when He had made it complete He passed up into the heavens, still to give repentance unto Israel and remission of sins. He is coming again to gather us to Himself. Let us hope and trust, let us watch and pray, and we shall not be disappointed. (W. Cuff.) Church prosperity I. It is not to be determined by the mere number of the congregation. II. Neither is prosperity determined by the wealth of the Church. History shows us that the days of least usefulness of the Church have been the days of its greatest wealth. III. Prosperity is not determined either, by the magnificence of the meeting place. IV. The way to judge of the prosperity of a Church is to see if it accomplishes the purpose for which it was organized. (W. L. Harris.) The prosperity of Messiah’ s kingdom I. The nature of the prosperity here desired. It includes--1. A revival in the personal religion of each member of the Christian Church. 2. Numerous conversions to God. 3. Harmony, peace, and joy in the Church. 4. Liberal support to religious institutions. II. The importance of this prosperity.1. This is important in its relation to your personal happiness. The Christian should not only possess but enjoy religion. 2. It is important in its relation to our usefulness. Spiritual prosperity is important that the parent may be a blessing to his children, that the Sabbath school teacher may be a blessing to his class, that the minister may be a blessing to his people, and that the Church may be a blessing to the world. Eminent piety is essential to eminent usefulness. 3. This prosperity is important in its relation to our ineptness for heaven. There are two things essential to our ineptness for heaven, viz. justification and sanctification. The first refers to a change of our state, the second to a change of our nature. Justification is derived from the righteousness of Christ, sanctification from the spirit of Christ. The one is instantaneous in its accomplishment, the other is gradual in its advancement. Justification gives us a title to heaven, sanctification a ineptness for it. 4. This prosperity is important when viewed in its relation to God’ s glory. The fruitful Christian exercises strong faith in God, which produces ardent love, meek submission, and cheerful self-denial; these, and the other graces of the Spirit, reflect the highest honour upon the character and government of God. “ Herein is My Father glorified that ye bring forth much fruit.” III. The means in the use of which this prosperity may be secured. The Holy Spirit operates upon the human soul through the medium of truth, this truth is contained in the Scriptures, and is to be presented to the minds of men by the Christian Church. (H. Hollis.) Religious prosperity I. Wherein does it consist?1. The preached Word made effectual to salvation. 2. A steadfast, zealous adherence to the leading doctrines of revelation. 3. A universal observance of the duties of religion. 4. Where the bond of union is such as to promise permanent stability. Not custom, nor wealth, but love. 5. Profession in grace, love, humility, and general resemblance to God. II. Reasons why this should be adopted as a prayer.1. Because this prosperity is from God. 2. And when you look to your own characters, you will find abundant reason for this prayer. 3. Your cordial adoption of this prayer will prove the truth, and promote the growth of your own personal religion. (John Clayton.) The prosperity of the Church This is the language of a man of God, who, by “ prosperity” intended the progress and triumphs of Divine truth, the revival of true religion, the enlargement of the kingdom of God, embracing the best interests of the children of men. I. What is the prosperity here solicited, and when may the children of God be regarded as in a prosperous state?1. When her borders are extended--when the light of Divine truth is carried into the dark places of the earth, making inroads on the seats of ignorance, of sin, and of Satan. 2. When her converts increase. 3. When her members are fruitful. 4. When her helpers multiply. 5. When the Head is present with the Church. II. What is necessary to prosperity? On what does it depend?1. The blessing of God--without which the most able, learned, and zealous minister, without which the most pious, active, and generous people, without which the most unremitting exertions of both, will be perfectly unavailing. 2. Those means which the blessed God has appointed, and to which He has promised His blessing for a portion of success and prosperity, are such as the following:-- (1) Pure doctrine.(2) Strictness of Christian discipline.(3) Union.(4) A praying people.(5) A faithful ministry. (W. Atherton.) Psalms 118:26 Blessed be He that cometh in the name of the Lord. Christ received with great joy The words are an acclamation of the people, declaring and setting forth the welcome of Christ to all believing souls; their joy and rejoicing conceived upon the coming of Christ among them; their gratulation and thanksgiving for Christ’ s appropinquation and coming nigh unto them; their vote and exoptation of all prosperity., blessed and happy success to Christ in His kingdom. Christ’ s coming proves most joyful to them that lovingly receive and entertain Him. In the words we have in the general two things considerable--1. A gratulation uttered by the people, Blessed be He that cometh in the name of the Lord. 2. A benediction pronounced by the ministers of the Lord, We have blessed you out of the house of the Lord. In the gratulation there is-- (1) The agent, the people, they bless, they rejoice, they are thankful for Christ’ s coming. Man hath greatest cause of all creatures to rejoice in and for the coming of Christ Jesus. (2) There is the act, Blessed, praised, exalted, magnified be Christ. Christ, is worthy to be celebrated with all praises for His coming to us. (3) There is the manner of their gratulation, blessed, expressed-- (i.) By way of thanksgiving and rejoicing, and-- (ii.) By way of exoptation and wishing. Whosoever truly rejoiceth in Christ doth also wish well to the cause and kingdom of Christ.(4) There is the party coming, He who is the Son of God by eternal generation, and by grace of hvpostatical union, the Prince of the kings of the earth by authority and dominion; He who is the Head of the Church by spiritual jurisdiction; He who is the Redeemer of man by the merit of His obedience and passion; He who is the Conqueror over hell, death, sin, and Satan by His resurrection; He who by His office is the Prophet instructing us, the King commanding and defending us, and the Priest offering Himself a sacrifice for us; He who is the Mediator between God and us by His intercession, the fountain of all mercy, grace, and peace unto us by Divine ordination. Blessed be He, welcome be He, in Him let our souls rejoice, His coming let us entertain with the chiefest and strength of our rejoicing. The Lord Jesus ought to be the prime and complete object of man’ s joyfulness. (5) Here is His motion, cometh. Christ as God is everywhere, and neither goes nor comes, but fills all places; yet He cometh by His laws and ordinances, as a Prince by His proclamations; He cometh by His ministers, as a King by His ambassadors; He cometh by His incarnation, as a brother taking our nature upon Him; He cometh by His gifts and graces bestowed on us, as a friend cometh by his love-tokens; He cometh by His Word and Gospel, as the sun cometh by his light, enlightening us, as a king cometh by his sceptre binding, bowing, and inclining our hearts unto obedience. (A. Grosse.) The coming deliverer During the dark days of the struggle for Italian liberty the people generally looked upon Garibaldi as their invincible deliverer. Prisoners, hurried away to loathsome dungeons, would be cheered as they passed along the streets by friends whispering in their ears, “ Courage, Garibaldi is coming!” Men would steal out at night and chalk on the wails and pavements, “ Garibaldi is coming!” And when the news of his approach near to a city was announced the people broke out into the rapturous shout, “ Garibaldi is coming!” He came, and Italy broke her political and religious fetters never to be so enslaved again. A greater than Garibaldi is coming to God’ s people. The Desire of all nations is on the way. Jesus is coming, coming to reign, and His kingdom is of icy, peace, blessing eternal. (H. O. Mackey.) We have blessed you out of the house of the Lord. A benediction uttered by the ministers of the Lord 1. The parties blessing, the ministers of the Lord; we, who are called of God to this sacred function, who are appointed to make prayer and supplication for you, to pronounce a blessing upon you. Holy and faithful ministers are the instrumental causes of great blessings to God’ s Church and servants. 2. Here is their act, an act of blessing, We have blessed. Ministers bless the people sometime by way of vote and exoptation, prayer and supplication; sometime by way of vocal pronunciation, pronouncing good things in the name of God upon them; sometime by way of prophecy and prediction, foretelling great blessings to come; sometime by way of doctrine and instruction. They declare and open the blessings which God hath prepared for them, and the Lord by them, as by His ministerial instruments, communicates His grace and blessing to the people. It must be the care of ministers so to demean themselves in their function that they prove a blessing to the people. 3. Here is the object or parties blessed, you; you to whom Christ’ s coming is acceptable, you who wish well to Christ’ s kingdom, you who readily endeavour the exaltation of Christ’ s name and Gospel, we have blessed you. The labours of God’ s ministers prove a blessing only to such people as rejoice in, and endeavour the advancement of, the Gospel. 4. Here is the place from whence they blessed the people, out of the house of theLord, the place of God’ s public worship, where His saints are assembled, His ordinances sincerely handled, His name invocated, His Word preached, and religious duties celebrated. God useth to dispense His spiritual blessings in the public and sacred assemblies. (A. Grosse.) Psalms 118:27 God is the Lord, which hath showed us light.--The light from God I propose to consider how the words of my text may be used in an improper manner, and how, as I think, we may use them aright.1. If in saying “ God is the Lord who hath showed us light” we imply that we in any way have authority to dictate to our follow-men what they should believe, we are making a most pernicious use of them. Men like ourselves found by prayer and by the right exercise of their reason some precious belief which for all practical purposes may be called for them “ the truth.” It was, we, will say, some great advance on the beliefs prevailing around them; it was the clear detection and straightforward repudiation of palpable error; it was as the lifting of a dark mist which had clouded their souls. In so far it was true; and native piety would make each pioneer and reformer in turn lift up his heart in gratitude and say, “ God is the Lord who hath showed us light.” But whatever truth was thus discovered we may be very sure was only partial. At its best and brightest it was but a streak of dawn, only one ray of that everlasting sun of the truth of God which no man can look upon and live. This was not all. The truth, whatever it was, had to be proclaimed. It must take shape in words; and from that moment it was liable to be misstated or misunderstood. 2. I turn now to consider in what way we may use the words of my text aright. It is especially good for us to keep ever before our minds the source of any light that shines in our hearts. There is no more wholesome state to be in than in one of perpetual thankfulness, both as a safeguard against conceit and vainglory, and as an incentive to fresh effort in the pursuit of truth. We have to thank God and not ourselves for every step in our victorious march. He it was who gave the first impulse to our search for purer truth, who made us restless under the bondage of tradition and filled us with longings to know more of Himself, He it was who in answer to our cry poured upon us His blessed Spirit, enlightening our understandings, quickening our consciences and warming our hearts by His love. I believe it to be a fact that we cannot ask God for too much light. The more we ask, the more we receive; and although the sanctities of the soul are far too sacred to be exposed to public scrutiny, many a prayerful heart can bear witness to the ever ready hell? of our Father in heaven when His children lift up their cry for His strength and guidance. “ Many are the perplexities of the righteous, but the Lord delivereth them out of all.” Still we must never forget that all this is between ourselves and God, and must never be used as a means of illegitimate influence, much less as a plea for authority over the souls of others. God has never promised to work a miracle to keep a man from error, must less to give him spiritual authority over his fellow-men It is enough that each uplifted seat is conscious of Divine illumination exactly in proportion to its own needs and for its own use alone. We know it does not render us incapable of error; we know how far it must fall short of all the truth which God has in store. But we, also know that in answer to one cry, God gives quite as much light as He sees fit, as much as He knows our souls can receive, and--most important of all--as much as we can make good use of in our service of our brethren. (C. Voysey, B. A.) The use to make of the light 1. Rejoice in this light. Not as children, that come abroad to play in the sunshine, and make no more account of it. Nor as a people that never saw the sun, step out of their doors to gaze upon it, and then turn their backs on it. But rejoice with a solid joy, as they whom God hath “ brought out of darkness into His marvellous light.” 2. Walk worthy of this light (Ephesians 4:1). Be children of the light. As the light shines on thee, let it shine in thee. Thou hast small comfort to be in the light unless the light be in thee. Saith the prophet to the Church (Isaiah 60:1). As God hatch showed His light to you, “ so let your light shine before men,” etc.3. Take heed of sore eyes. Pleasures, lusts, and vanities make the eyes sore that are dotingly fastened on them. The usurer with telling his gold; the haughty with contemplating his greatness; the drunkard with looking at the wine laughing in the cup; the lustful with gazing on his painted damnations, make their eyes so sore, that they cannot look up and behold this light. 4. Take benefit of this light while it shines. Either this light may be set to thee, or thou be set to it. That to thee, by removing the candlestick; thou to that, by the hand of death, which shall send thee to the land of forgetful darkness. Our Saviour taught us this, not only in precept, but in practice (John 9:4). Let us not do like some courtiers, that having light allowed them, play it out at cards, and go to bed darkling. 5. Lastly, help to maintain this light, that it go not out. If you would have the lamps of the sanctuary shine, pour in your oil. Grudge not a little cost to keep this light clear. Repine not you then at a little charge for the everlasting lamp of the Gospel. (T. Adams.) Bind the sacrifice with cords, even unto the horns of the altar.--Binding the sacrifice Bishop Wordsworth gives the most probable explanation of this difficult passage. “ The Hebrew word ‘ chug,’ translated ‘ sacrifice,’ literally means ‘ a feast-day.’ Probably the word is adopted here, because the expression is a figurative one. We do not hear that the sacrifices were literally bound to the horns of the altar, on which the blood was sprinkled (Exodus 29:16; Leviticus 4:7; Leviticus 8:15; Leviticus 9:9). Nor does it appear to have been possible that the immense number of victims offered on the day of dedication (Ezra 6:17) could have been so bound. The Targum, indeed, explains the words as meaning, ‘ Bring the sacrifice bound until it arrives at the horns of the altar.’ But the sense seems to be, bind the festival of dedication to the altar of God--that is, let the joys of all Israelites be concentrated as the joys of one man in a great national act of thankful communion and self-consecration to God. Let the people of God be no more separated from one another by schism, as they were by the severance of Israel from Judah; let them no more be scattered, as they were in the Assyrian and Babylonian captivity; but let them all be bound to one centre of unity--the altar of God.” In view of this explanation of the expression as a figurative one, there is no need for inquiries concerning ancient customs of binding sacrifices to altars, or for the assumption that any new practice was enjoined. The passage is best treated as a poetical figure. Psalms 119:1-176 Psalms 119:1-8 Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord.Moral law I. There is a Divine moral law for the regulation of moral life. The Creator has given a law to every creature He has made, and to every creature its own law. This law Christ reduced to two primary obligations--right affection for God, right affection for man. II. Genuine obedience to this law ensures human happiness. “ Blessed,” etc.1. The nature of true obedience. (1) Sincere.(2) Cordial.(3) Assiduous.(4) Divinely inspired.(5) Spiritual rather than literal, constant rather than occasional. 2. The happiness consequent upon true obedience. (1) Freedom from shame. This implies consciousness of virtue. Sin is the shameful thing.(2) Heartiness in worship. The highest happiness of man consists in worshipping with the whole heart. (Homilist.) Well-doing I. Human happiness consists in well-doing. “ Blessed are the undefiled in the way.” It is not in theories, professions, ceremonies, but in right-doing. There is true blessedness for man only in his deed, not in his mere thoughts or emotions, but in his actions. Inaction is torpor, wrong action is misery, right action is bliss. II. Well-doing has respect to the Divine. “ Who walk in the law of the Lord.” If there really be an atheistic world, that world knows nothing of well-doing. Well-doing can only grow out of a practical regard for the Supreme Existence. III. The respect for the Divine must be thorough. “ With the whole heart.” God must become the Moral Monarch of the soul, inspiring and controlling the whole. (Homilist.) God’ s beatitudes and the world’ s The world has its own idea of blessedness. Blessed is the man who is always right. Blessed is the man who is satisfied with himself. Blessed is the man who is strong. Blessed is the man who rules. Blessed is the man who is rich. Blessed is the man who is popular. Blessed is the man who enjoys life. These are the beatitudes of sight and this present world. It comes with a shock and opens a new realm of thought that not one of these men entered Jesus’ mind when He treated of blessedness. (John Watson, D. D.) The truly happy man The happiest life is that of the man who accepts Christ as his friend and model. Good Matthew Henry says, “ You have heard the dying words of many--these are mine: ‘ I have found a life of communion with Christ the happiest life in the world.’” This is the testimony of all who have tried it. Hear what Coleridge says: “ The Bible, and only the Bible, shows clearly and certainly what happiness is, and the way to its attainment.” Philosophy may culture the mind and uplift the emotions, but it cannot heal a sore heart. Socialism may improve a man’ s environment, but it cannot give him happiness. True, deep rest of heart can only come as the result of knowing, loving and following Christ. (The Young Man.) Psalms 119:2 Blessed are they that keep His testimonies, and that seek Him with the whole heart.The best pursuit I. The pursuit specified.1. The object proposed. They “ seek” God--His enlightening truth--His pardoning mercy--His sanctifying grace--His indwelling presence--His communicable fulness--and His eternal fruition beyond the grave (Psalms 17:15; Romans 2:7). 2. The conduct described. “ With the whole heart” --not hypocritically and lukewarmly; but with all the powers and energies of the soul, the understanding, the will, the conscience, and the affections; supremely, above every other object; diligently, in all the means of salvation; immediately, without delay, or procrastination; earnestly, with zealous and undivided hearts; continually, being faithful unto death, etc. (Psalms 27:4; Isaiah 55:6-7; Jeremiah 29:13, etc.). II. The obedience required.1. It must be regulated by His Word, the only perfect and infallible standard of Christian faith and practice. 2. It must be conformable to His will. The Divine testimonies must be kept in our memories--in our affections--and in our practices. We must keep them sincerely, not in name and profession only; believingly, in the exercise of a lively and vigorous faith; affectionately, from a principle of love filling and ruling the heart; universally, having impartial respect unto all His commandments; faithfully, through all opposition, and indefatigable perseverance in well-doing (1 Corinthians 15:58). III. The happiness enjoyed.1. They have blessed enjoyments. They are blessed with inconceivable peace--unspeakable joy--the testimony of a good conscience, and the witness of the Holy Spirit. 2. They have blessed anticipations. The present holiness is an earnest of their future blessedness. (Sketches of Four Hundred Sermons.) Right use of the Bible A workman has the plan of the house he is to build; but he must use plumb-line and spirit-level and foot-rule if he is to build securely. The engineer has his beautiful engine, his marvellously constructed piece of mechanism; but it is useless to him unless it is joined up with the lathe it is to turn or the loom it is to work. Your electric generating station is a place of wonder and mystery, a marvel of skill and knowledge; but it is useless if it is only kept to look at and wonder about; it only becomes effective as the electricity generated there is carried to your electric motors for power, to your filaments of carbon for light. And what we so often forget is that, in the same way, the Gospel of Jesus is of no practical use to us while we keep it isolated from our daily life; it is no use in a book, or in theological syllogisms; it only becomes of use as it becomes the power of God in our daffy lives. We must take it as the guide of our daily conduct, as the inspiration of thought and emotion, as the determining factor in our daily actions, as the light to lead us along life’ s dark and difficult ways, As the food upon which the soul is nourished it must affect all our thought and feeling, speech and action; it must penetrate to the remotest corners of our life and give form and colour and character to every experience. (B. A. Millard.) Psalms 119:4 Thou hast commanded us to keep Thy precepts diligently. Reasons for diligence in obeying God In worldly affairs no weighty thing can be done without diligence; far less in spiritual. For three causes should we keep the commandments of the Lord with diligence: first, because our adversary, that seeks to snare us by the transgression of them, is diligent in tempting; next, because we ourselves are weak and infirm; by the greater diligence have we need to take heed to ourselves; thirdly, because of the great loss we sustain by every advantage Satan gets over us. For we find by experience that as a wound is sooner made than it is healed, so guiltiness of conscience is easily contracted, but not so easily done away. (Bishop Cowper.) Psalms 119:5O that my ways were directed to keep Thy statutes! Virtuous solicitude A solicitude to perform our duty, to practise holiness at all times, and to make a constant progress in it, is an essential ingredient in a virtuous temper, a necessary qualification of our obedience, and a powerful means of our becoming active and steadfast in it. It implies--1. A lively sense of the supreme importance of holiness.2. A settled love of goodness, and hatred of iniquity.3. A vigorous, constant, and prevailing desire to keep God’ s statutes.4. A firm resolution to keep them.5. A prevailing bias of the whole soul towards virtuous practice.6. Fervent desire of God’ s assistance in the practice of holiness. (A. Gerard, D. D.) The temporal lot of a good man subservient to the advancement of his personal religion I. A truly good man will be concerned to keep the statutes of God. He is as much concerned to avoid secret as open sins; he seeks intently a temper devout and spiritual; he finds an unutterable pleasure in striving, and watching, and praying that not a single particular in the Christian temper or conduct may be found absent from him. II. A good man will at some periods be especially concerned to keep the statutes of God.1. Perhaps an extensive and an affecting sight of the Divine holiness is instrumental in producing this improvement. 2. A fixed and an admiring contemplation of the grace of the Gospel is sometimes productive of a similar effect. 3. Affliction is sometimes the forerunner of this enlarged concern. III. When a good man is thus especially concerned to keep the statutes of God, his temporal lot will be rendered subservient to the promotion of his personal religion. “ O that my ways,” my general circumstances, and the daily and hourly incidents which occur, “ were directed to keep Thy statutes,” to advance my personal religion. IV. In order to the temporal lot of a good man becoming thus subservient to the advancement of his personal religion, he must be aided by a Divine interposition. 1. In the form of a wise and benevolent appointment. 2. In the form of a gracious influence. (Essex Remembrancer.) Longings A longing after the good, after anything higher and better than the sinner has, what is it but the beginning of the new life, its first pulsation, its first and feeblest cry? It is the confession of sin and want. This need may give expression to itself in the quiet, trustful prayer of childhood, saying to God, “ My Father, wilt Thou not from henceforth be the guide of my youth?” This need may be spoken with a heavy heart and a downcast face by the young prodigal, as he stands in presence of the shame and poverty which his own sin has created. This need may be spoken by the philosopher who, having sought for rest for heart and intellect in every theory of the universe and in every method of life but the Divine, and sought in vain, turns at last to the Fountain of living waters. It is a longing which may be quickened by very diverse things, or it may move of itself, as we think; yet in all is there the presence and power of the Spirit of God. Nor when the soul has come to the knowledge of God, when its first longing has been spoken and has been met by the bestowal of a heavenly gift, is there an end of longing and desiring. In fact, it may be said that longings do but then begin. By giving pardon and cleansing, God does but open the door to the demand for a perfect righteousness. The soul sees above it an ever higher ideal than it has yet attained to, and, therefore, longs and prays for it. Our longings are like the wings of the soul upon which it is borne, if only for a moment, into a purer and heavenlier clime. They set us in motion Godward. Call not the wishes of the heart vain and useless; for they are the spirit of our prayers, they turn our wills and fix our resolutions; they are the beginnings of the kingdom of heaven. Impalpable, and coming even upon him who has them as the breeze comes upon the still lake and stirs it with life and motion, these yearnings and longings anticipate and determine a man’ s destiny. When a man says, “ I wish to pray; I wish to know God; I wish to be a new man,” he speaks weightier words than when kings or statesmen issue manifestoes and proclamations. That is the opening up of his case with his Father and Saviour. “ Sir, we would see Jesus,” said some Greeks to Philip, who had come up to the feast to worship, and that wish of theirs caused a response on the part of Jesus, the effect of which is felt in the words of Jesus in multitudes of souls to-day, and shall be for ever and ever. (J. P. Gladstone.) Psalms 119:6 Then shall I not be ashamed, when I have respect unto all Thy commandments.A clear conscience We are not under the law, but under grace, yet are we not lawless, since we have become servants of God. Nay, but we are under another law, which works upon us after another fashion. The child may be quite clear of the police court, but there is a rod at home. There is a father’ s smile; there is a father’ s frown. I. The universality of believing obedience. The esteem in which we hold, and the tribute we pay to, all God’ s commandments is spoken of. Not picking and choosing--paying attention to this, because it pleases me, and omitting that, because it is not equally pleasurable. What do we mean by having respect to all God’ s commandment I reply that, whatever there is that the Lord has spoken in any part of His Word we desire to hold in devout esteem, and to have respect to every utterance of His will. “ Then shall I not be ashamed, when I have respect unto all Thy commandments” --to the foundation commandments, striving to dig deep; to the high soaring commandments, seeking to rise into the utmost fellowship with God; to those commandments that need stern labour, like the rugged walls upon which much toil must be spent, and upon those which are a delight and a beauty, like the golden aureole windows that require fine taste and delicate skill. Oh that we were enamoured of this perfection, and were seeking after it! II. The excellency of its result. “ Then shall I not be ashamed.” That means, first, that as sin is removed, shame is removed. Sin and shame came into this world together. Unless sin gets to a high head, which it will not do in the believer, shame is sure always to go with sin. Excessive sin or habitual transgression at last kills shame, so that the hardened culprit knows not how to blush. It is an awful thing when a man is no longer conscious of shame, but a more awful thing still when he comes to glory in his shame; for then his damnation is not far off. But as sin is cast out of the believer, shame is cast out of him in proportion, and it thence comes to pass that courage rises with a consciousness of rectitude. The man that has respect unto God’ s commands is no longer ashamed of men. He is not abashed by their scorn, or disconcerted by their ridicule. There is nothing to be ashamed of in keeping God’ s commands. Then, again, before men we shall not be ashamed of our profession. “ I am a Christian. Look me up and down and examine my conduct. I do not boast of it, but I know that I have sought honestly and sincerely to walk before God in righteousness.” Or, when an accusation is brought against you falsely, meet it in the same spirit. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Unlimited obedience to the Divine commands I. The psalmist made little account of the world’ s opinion. II. His profound obedience to God. III. The concern he was under at failing in some particulars. IV. His earnest desire to obey all the Divine commands. V. That peace which would follow upon his keeping all the commandments.1. A peace that is built upon the most solid foundation--the promises of God. 2. A peace that is most pure and genuine, having no mixture of baseness and alloy. 3. A peace that secures the mind from all the accusations of Satan, who would willingly disturb us; and that prepares us for setting light by the molestations which others may endeavour to give us. Conclusion--1. In what light do you view the world’ s opinion? Are you not too much biased by it? 2. Inquire into your obedience, and ask if it does not differ from that of the psalmist, who objected not to any of God’ s commandments, but had respect unto all. 3. Have you not had respect to every commandment? You cannot surely look back upon the fact with indifference, or unaffectedness, etc. 4. What must be said of those who instead of being grieved that they keep not all the commandments of the Lord, keep none; but wilfully break them all, and glory in doing so, etc. (J. Dorrington.) The effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance for ever Consider the advantages that we shall receive, from a regular, uniform obedience to God’ s commandments. I. As it gives us peace of mind. The man that makes this his care is approved by his besom-witness, and satisfied from himself. God has wisely ordered it, that as soon as we have done well, we should be encouraged to continue in well-doing, by the approbation of right reason; and whensoever we sin against Him, we should also offend ourselves, and be condemned by our own impartial sentence. II. As it encourages us to look cheerfully upon the world. Having no design but to satisfy his conscience, to do justice to his brother, and to please his God, he wishes that his actions were as clear as the light, and his dealings as the noonday: for he wants no pretences, no private reserves. And he takes the easiest, the safest, and the most satisfactory course of life. His way is plain before him, and he needs not trouble himself with any inquiry but this, Whether the action that he is going to commit is consistent with his duty to God. And if the tongue of censure should endeavour to fix its calumnies upon him, and shoot forth its poisonous arrows, even bitter words, they cannot disturb the harmony of his thoughts, or make any impression upon him. He is safe in his integrity, and beats off their furious onsets with a fixed and unmovable resolution. III. As it gives us a lively hope and confidence in God. Blessed is the man that has thus made God his friend, and by the actions of an unblameable life has presented himself, his soul and body, a reasonable, holy, and lively sacrifice to God. Being entirely devoted to Him, he can resort to Him in every danger and difficulty, and truly ask for His counsel to direct, and His assistance to deliver him. (T. Newlin, M. A.) Psalms 119:7I will praise Thee with uprightness of heart. The duty of thankfulness Thankfulness is a duty wherein we are all obliged to the Lord. It is good in regard of the equity of it. Since the Lord gives us good things, shall not we give Him praises again? especially seeing the Lord is content so to part all His works between His majesty and us, that the good of them be ours, the glory of them be His own. It is good to praise the Lord in regard of Himself, who is the object of our praises. Since He is the treasure of all good, the Author of all blessings, it cannot be but a good thing to bless Him.3. It is good in respect of our associates and companions in this exercise: the angels, cherubim and seraphim delight continually in His praises. Our elder brethren, that glorious congregation of the first-born, are described unto us falling down on their faces, casting their crowns at the feet of the Lord, to give Him the glory of their redemption. Now, seeing we pray that the will of God may be done in earth, as it is in heaven, why do we not delight in these exercises of praising God, by which we have fellowship with them who are glorified in Him? 4. It is good in respect of the great benefits we receive by it; nothing thereby accrues to the Lord, all the advantage is our own. (Bp. Cowper.) Psalms 119:8I will keep Thy statutes.Good resolutions It is a great help to godliness to resolve that we will live godly; for that which is not, concluded, how shall it be performed? Or what hope is there we should attain to the end--that is, to the perfection of piety--when we are careless of the beginnings thereof, which are purposes, intentions, and resolutions that we will be godly? Where, when of weakness we fail in following forth our resolution, it shall be well done again to renew it; for, by often renewing of our resolution to do any good, we become the stronger to accomplish it. (Bp. Cowper.) Psalms 119:9 Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way?by taking heed thereto according to Thy Word. How a young man may cleanse his way I. This is the great practical problem for life. It is more especially the question for young people.1. You are under special temptations not to ask it. There are so many other points in your future unresolved that you are only too apt to put aside the consideration of this one in favour of those which seem to be of more immediate importance. And you have the other temptation, common to us all, of living without any plan of life at all. At your age, judgment and experience are not so strong as inclination and passion; and everything has got the fresh gloss of novelty upon it, and it seems to be sometimes sufficient delight to live and get hold of the new joys that are flooding in upon you. 2. It is worth while for you to ask it. For you have got the prerogative that some of us have lost, of determining the shape that your life’ s course is to take. 3. You have special temptations to make your ways unclean. II. We can only make our way clean on condition of constant watchfulness. “ Take heed to thyself” is the only condition of a pure and noble life. That such a condition is necessary will appear very plain from two considerations. First, it is clear that there must be constant watchfulness, if we consider what sort of a world this is that we have got into. And it is also plain if we consider what sort of creatures we are that have got into it. We are creatures evidently made for self-government. Our whole nature is like a monarchy. There are things in each of us that are never meant to rule, but to be kept well down under control, such as strong passions, desires rooted in the flesh which are not meant to get the mastery of a man. And there are parts of our nature which are as obviously intended to be supreme and sovereign; the reason, the conscience, the will. III. This constant watchfulness, to be of any use, must be regulated by God’ s Word. The guard on the frontier who is to keep the path must have instructions from head-quarters, and not choose add decide according to his own phantasy, but according to the King’ s orders. Or, to use another metaphor, it is no use having a guard unless the guard has a lantern. In the Word of God, in its whole sweep, and eminently and especially in Christ, who is the Incarnate Word, we have an all-sufficient Guido. A guide of conduct must be plain--and whatever doubts and difficulties there may be about the doctrines of Christianity, there are none about its morality. A guide of conduct must be decisive--and there is no faltering in the utterance of the Book as to right and wrong. A guide of conduct must be capable of application to the wide diversities of character, age, circumstance--and the morality of the New Testament especially, and of the Old in a measure, secures that, because it does not trouble itself about minute details, but deals with large principles. A guide for morals must be far in advance of the followers, and it has taken generations and centuries to work into men’ s consciences, and to work out in men’ s practice, a portion of the morality of that Book. If the world kept the commandments of the New Testament, the world would be in the millennium; and all the sin and crime, and ninety-nine hundredths of all the sorrow of earth would have vanished like an ugly dream. Here is the guide for you, and if you take it you will not err. IV. All this can only be done effectually if you are a Christian. My psalm goes as far as the measure of revelation granted to its author admitted; but if a person had no more to say than that, it would be a weary business. It is no use to tell a man, “ Guard yourself; guard yourself.” Nor even to tell him, “ Guard yourself according to God’ s Word,” if God’ s Word is only a law. The fatal defect of all attempts at keeping my heart by my own watchfulness is that keeper and kept are one and the same. And so there may be mutiny in the garrison, and the very forces that ought to subdue the rebellion may have gone over to the rebels. You want a power outside of you to steady you The only way to haul a boat up the rapids is to have some fixed point on the shore to which a man may fasten a rope and pull at that. You get that eternal guard and fixed point on which to hold in Jesus Christ, the dear Son of His love, who has died for you. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) On cleansing our ways The picture in his mind was of this sort. There stood before him a young man who had not long set out on the journey of life; and who yet, to his own deep surprise and disgust, found many shins of travel already upon him. He had not meant to go wrong; as yet, perhaps, he was not gone very far wrong. And yet where did all this filth come from? And how is it to be got rid of? How is he to make his way clean, and keep it clean? I. If we are to make our life pure, noble, satisfying, we are to take heed to it: We are to think about it, and to force ourselves to walk according to our best thoughts and aims. Carlyle sums up the whole teaching of Goethe in the brief citation, “ Think of living.” Many never look forward and think of their life as a whole, and of how they may make the best of it. God has put this great and solemn gift of life into their hands: yet they never really think of it as His gift, nor ask themselves what they mean to do with it, what they have done with it, or how they may so use it as to show that they are not unworthy to be trusted with it. Nay, more; many of them do not even think of it bit by bit, day by day, step by step. So far from considering what they can make of their life as a whole, how they may make it pure and fair and bright; they do not so much as ask, “ What shall I do with my life to-day, so as to make it as clean, as fair, as useful as I can?” Is it any wonder that they often wander round and round without making any real advance; and sink, again and again, into the very sloughs from which, again and again, they have been drawn out; or fall, again and again, into the very traps from which they have been set free? But to think is not enough. We want a high and true standard to which to refer, by which we may measure and direct our thoughts. II. And this standard the psalmist gives us when he tells us to take heed to our ways according to the Word of God. It bids you remember that you have a soul as well as a body; that moral virtues and graces are still more valuable than mental gains and shining parts; that there is a world above and beyond this present world, a life above and beyond this mortal life; and it warns you to provide for that as well as for this. It asks you to believe that God is more than man, the soul more than the body, virtue better than pleasure, goodness better than gain, and the life to come more and better than the life which now is. It demands that when the claims of God clash with those of man, as they sometimes will, or the claims of the soul clash with those of the body, or the claims of virtue and goodness with those of gain and pleasure, or the claims of eternity with those of time, that you sacrifice the lower claims to the higher, that you sacrifice passing and inferior interests to interests which are noble and enduring. (S. Cox, D. D.) Moral culture of young men I. Young men require cleansing. Somehow or other, from the very commencement of moral agency, impure thoughts enter the mind, and impure emotions are awakened. So that cleansing is required almost at the beginning, because spiritual uncleanness is (1) Inimical to peace of conscience.(2) A hindrance to true soul growth.(3) An obstruction to Divine fellowship. II. Moral cleansing requires circumspection in life. “ By taking heed thereto.” If you tread the path of vanity, avarice, sensuality, selfishness, you will go down deeper and deeper in moral filth. If you tread the path of virtue as trod by Jesus of Nazareth, you must take heed that you tread that path constantly and not turn to the right hand or to the left. “ Take heed.” There are many on all hands who will try to turn you from the path. III. Circumspection of life should be guided by the Divine Word. “ Thy Word,” that contains the map; Thy Word, there burns the lamp; Thy Word, there dwells the inspiration. (Homilist.) Young manhood: its peril and its rescue I. Its peril. One thing that makes it hard for a young man to succeed in his manhood is the prevalence among us of influences that work distractingly and scatteringly. It takes time and a certain amount of leisure if a man is going to be at his best. We are torn hither and thither by multiplicity of interest.2. Another disadvantage under which our young men are suffering is that they have so largely slipped their old anchorages. They have cut adrift from the past. Hereditary tastes, ideas and methods are ignored. The age to which a custom or doctrine has attained is taken as measure of its inherent absurdity. To be old-fashioned is, with them, to be silly. 3. Another tooth in the jaw of the Babylonian lion is the rum-shop and the wine-cup. 4. Still another incisor that pricks into and tears the life of our young manhood is the prevalence among us of so much that works personal impurity, in the shape of coarse literature, dirty pictures and houses of ill-repute. 5. Another obstacle that obstructs the efforts of our young men to maintain their manliness is the engrossing love of money. II. The service of succour that we can render.1. Prayer. Christ teaches us that He not only regards the prayer of faith when offered by those who need help, but that He regards the prayer of faith when offered in behalf of those who need help. Prayer generates work, and so makes us co-operate with God in bringing the answer to our own prayer. 2. Another thing we can do is to contribute in a material way to the work of the Young Men’ s Christian Association that has the interests of our un-homed young men in particular charge. 3. But we must not relegate to organization the work and responsibility that devolves upon us in our character of individual Christians. (C. H. Parkhurst, D. D.) The young man’ s conduct I. It requires moral cleansing.1. There are several elements more or less impure in a young man’ s life that must be cleansed:-- (1) Animalism. The senses are likely to control him.(2) Illusion. His imagination creates fictitious joys and dignities.(3) Vanity. The tendency of the young to overrate themselves is all but universal. 2. From these elements of impurity he must be cleansed. The animal must give way to the spiritual, the fictitious to the real, the vain to the sober and the humble. II. Its moral cleansing requires personal circumspection. “ By taking heed thereto according to Thy Word.” “ Sanctify them through Thy truth: for Thy Word is truth,” said Christ. “ Now ye are clean through the Word I spoke unto you.” By personal circumspection the Word must be applied (1) For correction;(2) for guidance. (Homilist.) A young man’ s way I. The Bible makes a great deal in its teaching about the ways of men.1. There is the way of the transgressor, which is hard; and the way of the fool, which is right in his own eyes; and the way of the slothful, which is a hedge of thorns; and the way of the wicked, which is as darkness. And there is the way of the righteous, which is plain, and which the Lord knows; and the way of the saint, which is preserved; and the way which is like the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day. 2. There is variety in the ways of individual men at different periods of their life. There is the peculiar bent and passion of the old man, the characteristic of the man in middle life, and, differing from these, the way of a young man. II. What is meant by “ cleansing the way.” It is something very deep and pure which is intended, or Job would never have said, “ What is man that he should be clean?” It is something very practical and searching, or Isaiah would not have begun his prophecies with the call, “ Wash you, make you clean,” etc. It is something intended to cover the whole area of life, or it never would have been made an ordinance in the old dispensation to have the vessels and persons clean that came into the presence of God; nor would Jesus in the new, in so solemn a way have washed the feet of His disciples to make them “ every whit clean.” It is the cleanness which is part of God’ s life which is intended. God is of purer eyes than to look upon sin. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring for ever. It is the cleanness which is also the holiness of God--cleanness from sin, from evil, from guile, from insincerity; the very quality praised by the adoring angels when they cry, “ Holy, Holy, Holy,” in the presence of God. The question, therefore, means, “ Wherewithal shall a young man lead a holy life like the life of the Holy God? Wherewithal shall he make his way the way of a saint?” III. The answer to this question is “ By taking heed thereto according to God’ s Word.” By taking God’ s Word as the light, the guide, and the director of the way; by considering your steps in the light of that Word; by taking that Word as the chart, the pilot, and the propeller of your way. For the young soul who receives this Word and makes it his bosom companion, who accepts its light as the guide of his way, who follows the Lord whom it commends--life from that hour is changed. His heart is fixed on the strength of God. His career is along the lines of the life of God. He will be no more a straw tossed in the wind, a dead log swung hither and thither by the swirl in the river, a wave driven this way and that by the wind; but a life--a stream from the life of God--a life made wise by the indwelling of God’ s truth in the mind, and by the constraint of His love in the heart. (A. Macleod, D. D.) To young men I. The character of the way spoken of.1. Its moral aspect. The law cannot relax its claims; it is inexorable, and cries, “ Pay me that thou owest.” it smiles on the obedient, and frowns on the disobedient. Hence, your every word, thought and deed should be subject to its authority. 2. Its social aspect. “ Evil communications corrupt good manners” is a truth which receives daily corroboration. Hence, how important that young men should be very particular in forming connections, and that great care should also be observed in making companionships (Proverbs 1:10; 2 Corinthians 6:14; 2 Corinthians 6:17). Divine grace does not destroy our social nature; it sanctifies it, and directs our social instincts in a pure channel; so that whilst sinners are joining “ hand in hand,” Christians may enjoy the “ communion of saints.” 3. Its intellectual aspect. Mental culture is an important part of your duty. When Virgil was asked by a friend why he studied so much accuracy in the plan of his poems, the propriety of his characters, and the purity of his diction, he answered, “ I write for eternity.” Let it be, my young friends, the daily language of your hearts and life, “ I am living for eternity.” 4. Its spiritual aspect. Your soul in its origin, capacities, immortality, and the price paid for its redemption, has a claim on your attention and efforts to save it. II. What is implied in the phrase, “ Cleanse his way” ?1. That the young man must ponder his steps. Want of reflection and forethought is characteristic of youth. 2. That he must resist temptation. Wealth, pleasure, fashion, company, amusements, pernicious books, and sensual enjoyments surround you, and you are in danger of being unduly influenced by them. 3. That he improve by the use of his privileges. 4. That he prepare for eternity. III. How is this to be done? All your proceedings are to be regulated by God’ s Word. Its cautions and threatenings must serve to preserve you from sin and danger. Its precepts and doctrines must guide you in your journey through life: and its precious promises and bright examples must allure you to scenes of felicity and glory beyond the grave. IV. Lessons. A young man’ s “ way” is--1. Highly critical. Beset with snares, dangers, and enemies. Demanding constant watchfulness and prayer. 2. Deeply solemn. Leading to heaven or hell, eternal happiness or endless woe. 3. Personally responsible. The means of salvation within reach. (James White.) To young men I. The danger to which young men are exposed.1. The depraved nature common to them as well as others.2. The strength of their passions.3. Their inexperience.4. The incitements of wicked men.5. The evil example of others.6. Want of solid religious principles. II. The Divinely-provided remedy, or preventive to pollution.1. We must begin by seeking regenerating grace.2. We must keep constant watch over our own hearts, or they will ensnare us.3. We must pay strict attention to every part of our conduct.4. We must seek assistance from the proper quarter. (W. Peddie, D. D.) A young man cleansing his way I. What is implied in the question. That for a young man to cleanse his way is--1. A necessary thing. 2. A difficult thing. 3. A noble thing (verse 1). Such are beautiful in youth, and strong in their radiant manhood. They are the flower of the race. They are the hope of the Church. And the Lord Jesus, “ beholding them, loves them.” II. What is taught in the answer.1. He must have a fixed purpose to “ cleanse his way.” Determination is everything in religion, as in other matters. The young man who is firmly resolved to live a holy life will succeed in doing so, provided he lays hold of the grace of God, and uses the appointed means of sanctification. 2. He must take Holy Scripture as his guide. The Bible is the cleanest book in the world. Its ideals are the noblest. It is the purity of the Divine Word that has invested it with indestructible vitality. The morality of Scripture satisfies our moral being as the very perfection of the True, the Beautiful, and the Good; and Scripture shows us that fair ideal of purity embodied in an actual human life--the life of the Son of God in our nature. (C. Jerdan, LL. B.) Religion the only safeguard of youth The infidel, Thomas Paine, was one night haranguing a promiscuous company, gathered in the common room of the New York tavern where he had his lodgings, on the great harm done to the world by the Bible and the Christian religion. When he paused for breath, he was much astonished at the remark of a stranger, who said, “ Mr. Paine, you have been in Scotland. You know there is not a more rigid set of people in the world than they are in their attachment to the Bible. When a young man loaves his father’ s house, his mother in packing his chest always puts a Bible on the top of his clothes.” The infidel nodded acquiescence. “ You have also been in Spain,” continued the stranger. “ The people have no Bibles, and in that country you can hire a man for a dollar to murder his neighbour, who never gave him any offence.” Mr. Paine answered that this was so. “ Then, see how the argument stands,” said the advocate for Christianity. “ If the Bible were so bad a book as you represent it to be, those who use it would be the worst members of society; but the contrary is the fact. Our prisons, almshouses, and penitentiaries are filled with men and women whose ignorance or unbelief prevents them from reading the Bible.” I. The young man who rules himself after God’ s Word will walk in the ways of honesty. Make it a rule, young men, never to sacrifice integrity for broad. II. The young man who rules himself after God’ s Word will cultivate a spirit of reverence. The young man who rules himself after God’ s Word will utter no profane oath; and when he comes into God’ s holy temple, it will always be with uncovered head, as becomes the presence-chamber of the King of kings. III. Another thing which will distinguish those who walk in obedience to God’ s laws is that they will be found in the ways of sobriety. By one of the laws of ancient Greece, every offence committed by a drunken person received double punishment. Christian nations would do well to adopt it. IV. The young man who rules himself after God’ s Word will be found in the ways of purity. “ Keep thyself pure” (1 Timothy 5:22). V. The young man who rules himself after God’ s Word will be religious. Youth is the stormy cape, within sight of which many a frail bark is lost; and God’ s Word is the only chart which can guide one safely On his voyage. (J. N. Norton.) The cleansing Word I. The question.1. Man’ s ways need cleansing. 2. Youth is the most important time for this. (1) The youngest person has contracted defilement and sin. (2) The young may die. (3) Youth is a time of the greatest danger. (4) The young are forming those associations and habits which go on increasing in strength, and give colour to all the actions of their future lives. (5) In youth the hopes of your parents, and friends, and masters, look for some reward for the pains they took with you in early infancy. II. The answer.1. How does the Word of God provide for this cleansing of the way? (1) By pointing out to the young man the evil of his way. The Bible tells him what God is, and what he is, and what evil is in him and in his way. (2) By discovering an infallible remedy for the disorders of his nature. And that remedy is the salvation that is by Jesus Christ. (3) By becoming a directory in all the paths of duty to which they may be called. 2. You must take heed to it. This implies-- (1) Care and thoughtfulness. (2) Prayer. (D. Wilson, M. A.) Take heed to thy way I. The senses is which the Word of God is a cleanser of the way of life.1. It purifies as a rule. 2. God’ s Word is an instrument by which He cleanses the heart. So Jesus prayed--“ Sanctify them through Thy truth: Thy Word is truth.” The Word that said, “ Let there be light,” and in a moment changed the darkness and confusion of the aboriginal elements into the light, order, and beauty of creation, is the same Word which breathes the breath of spiritual life into the new creature in Christ Jesus. II. The manner is which the Word of God is to be applied to cleanse the young man’ s way. “ By taking heed thereto.”1. This implies an earnest study of the Word; frequent and unintermitred contemplation. 2. It also implies a care and watchfulness over our own hearts and ways. III. The reasons which should appeal to youth to take heed to their way.1. How reasonable it is in itself. Ought not God to have our first and best, who loved us first and gave us His best? 2. Temptation is never so strong and fiery as in the tropical clime of youth. 3. The fearful hindrances to the work of grace which increase and aggravate upon the postponement of repentance. (J. B. Owen, M. A.) Clean ways A way has a direction, and leads somewhither. A way is continuous, and if we are in it, we are advancing in it. A way differs in its direction from other ways, and diverges more and more from them the farther one travels upon it. There is hardly any error so perilous as that of imagining that there can be isolated acts or states of mind. Every present has its closely affiliated future. Every deed, every reverie, every thought, is a cause. We are moving on in character, as in years. Let me beg you, then, to see whither you are going, whither your way leads. Start not in a direction which you are not willing to follow to the end. Take not your first step on any evil way, unless you are ready to encounter the dishonour, degradation, misery, and ruin which have visibly overtaken the advanced travellers on that way. Remember, our ways lead on through the death-shadow; and I know that there is but one way on which you are willing that death should overtake you,--but one way whose steps brighten under the shadow, and in which you can hope to walk with those whom you would crave as your companions in the life everlasting. “ Wherewithal shall a young man ‘ cleanse’ his way,” or, more literally, make his way clean? This is a metaphor which appeals vividly to our experience. What is there so disheartening as the necessity of treading muddy streets? We sedulously seek, if they are to be had, clean paths for our feet, and bewail ourselves when we cannot find them. We are ashamed, even though no other eye be upon us, if we are forced to prolong travel-stain or any squalid condition of person or attire. Can it be that there is one so imbruted that he feels not the travel-stain of sinful ways,--that there is not a close-clinging sense of impurity when the soul has debased itself by foul deeds, indulgences, or associations? Must there not be a self-loathing, a self-contempt, in those who are making themselves vile? “ Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed thereto according to Thy Word.” What is the Word of God? An unerring and undying conscience, a sense of right and wrong, native in the soul of man, is God’ s Word to you and me. There is never a question of duty, in which you do not know what you ought to do. There is never a sinful compliance to which you are tempted or urged, of whose moral character you have the slightest doubt. So long as you obey your conscience, you are taking heed to your way according to the Word of God. But this phrase has for us another meaning--another, yet the same. The Word of God--the very same word which speaks to us in con-science--has lived incarnate in the one sinless Son of Man, or rather, not has lived, but ever lives, in the heaven whither He has gone before us, and where His welcome awaits our following Him, in His Gospel, fresh as when the words of grace and truth fell from His lips, in the pure spirits trained in His nurture, in the examples of excellence that have transmitted His holiness in a line of living light all down the Christian ages, and in whom the Christ within has shone forth in radiant beauty. (A. P. Peabody, D. D.) Taking heed to God’ s Word You are to “ take heed.” Look at the pilot at the helm, when he is steering the vessel, in the storm, amidst the rocks: what is he doing? “ Taking heed.” He is all eye, all sensibility, all intelligence, as to the position in which he stands. That is “ taking heed.” Look at the sentinel, walking his weary round, when he knows that the enemy is at hand. Hearken to his footsteps; why, they seem to be but the echo of the man’ s sensibility of alarm and of danger. He is “ taking heed.” And you are to “ take heed to your way.” What did God give you faculties for, but to be employed? You have the faculty for observation: employ it. You have the faculty for examination: employ it. You have the faculty for reflection: employ it. You have the power of “ taking heed” : employ it. And recollect that no man can do this for you. It is to be done individually, vigilantly; you, as a man alive to your danger, are to enact the part of the pilot amidst the rocks. And doing this “ according to God’ s Word,” you shall not “ labour in vain, nor spend your strength for nought.” You can discern between good and evil, you know what is offensive, and you know what is pleasing to God; you know what you must do to be saved; you know that yonder is a scene of profligacy and vice, and that here is an opportunity for serving and worshipping God; you know that there is a literature which is saturated with all manner of ungodliness, and that here lies a Book which will lead you to “ glory, honour, immortality, and eternal life.” “ Take heed,” then; and “ take heed,” “ according to God’ s Word.” When your vigilance is once excited, and your mind is all in action, and you leave your house of business, and are plied with all manner of fascinations, “ take heed” what you are about; but be sure to “ take heed” according to the requirements, the directions, the expostulations, the promises of God’ s Word. To “ take heed” according to the maxims of the world, or the suggestions of fashion, would only be to mock your misery, and accelerate your downfall; but “ taking heed according to God’ s Word,” that Word being hid away in your hearts, for constant and appropriate use, you will be able to say with a voice which he will be forced to listen to, “ Get thee behind me, Satan,” and to “ stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ shall make you free.” But this requires attention, diligence, and personal effort. How will God’ s Word enable you to take heed? You must get it into your memories, it must be associated with your recollections, it must be ready whenever you want it, your hearing of it having been mixed with faith; and when it has thus been lodged and assimilated there, it will be “ the sword of the Spirit,” “ the Word of God.” (W. Brock.) A clean life Some years ago, in most of the large railway stations of England, there was a picture which greatly amused me. It represented a little boy who had been washed, and stood half white and half black beside a bath. A certain kind of soap had been used in the boy’ s ablutions, and the result was that, although he had not become white, he was half white and half black. “ Like some people of my acquaintance,” I thought many a time; “ not so dirty as they once were, but they are far from clean yet.” We ought to be clean every whit--that is, clean in all our thoughts, words, and especially in our conduct. Let us all aim at having a clean life. Almost the first thing that we discover when we begin to think about ourselves and the world in which we live is this need of cleansing. Sin has defiled everything, and its marks are upon our hearts. How can we remedy this? what can be done for us to remove the stain which seems fixed so fast in the fibres of our lives? What would you think of a negro who washed his face, and scrubbed it with all his might, in order to make it white? He could not make his skin fair like ours, even if he used all the soap in England, and all the washing powders, too; because the black lies underneath the skin, and it cannot be got at by rubbing. Once a year farmers wash their sheep so as to cleanse the wool, but then all the dirt is on the outside. That which defiles us, however, is inside us, and so it cannot be so easily got rid of. We must become clean within, and to do this for us is God’ s good work. Mr. Moody tells us that one day he promised to take his little boy out for a drive. But the child played about in the dirt, and made himself quite unfit to be seen. “ Let me come with you, father,” he pleaded. “ No, Willie, you are not ready. I must take you in and wash you.” “ Oh, papa! I’ se ready.” “ No, you are all over dirt.” “ Mamma washed me; I’ se clean.” Finding that he could not convince the child that he had contracted dirt since he had been washed, Mr. Moody lifted Willie up in his arms and showed him his face in a looking-glass. Says Mr. Moody, “ The looking-glass stopped his mouth, but I did not wash his face with it!” Now, the Bible is a looking-glass, and intended to show us our need of cleansing; and if you will but prayerfully study it you will see your need of cleansing. George Herbert, while catechizing asked, after other questions about man’ s misery, “ Since man is so miserable, what is to be done?” and the answerer could not tell. He asked him again what he would do if he were in a ditch? This familiar illustration made the answer so plain, that he was even ashamed of his ignorance; for he could not but say he would haste out of it as fast as he could. Then the minister asked whether he needed a helper, and who was that helper? And then we must be kept clean, and that every day. For one thing, we must avoid that which would defile us, and that we can do if we are careful. A gentleman, when he brought his son to London in order that he might apprentice him to an engineer, made up his mind to give him a few words of kindly counsel. He turned over in his mind how best to say what ought to be said, without getting any nearer the solution. But as they walked along the street,, they observed that the roadway was very muddy. The youth was about to cross in the mud, but his father stopped him. “ Wait,” he said, “ we will seek a clean crossing. Always seek a clean crossing in life.” After he had been left alone in town, the youth pondered these words, and dimly began to see their meaning. Seek a clean crossing in life; mind where you go, and keep out of the mud. There are some places that are known by almost every one to be evil--keep away from them; seek a clean crossing. There is another thing said in the text about the cleansing Word of God, and that is, we must frequently consult it. On board ship the captain consults his chart, and shapes his course by it. The Bible is our chart, a map of the roads through life along which we must tread in order to reach heaven. A chart kept wrapped up would be useless; look at it, study it, and then follow its guidance. At times we are perplexed as to what is the right and wise course for us to adopt. We are perplexed, and do not know whom to consult. Open your Bible, and you will probably find there some one in precisely the same circumstances. You will certainly find some text suitable for you, and will thus learn what to do. “ The entrance of Thy Word giveth light,” says a psalm, and many people can testify that this witness is quite true. (N. Wiseman.) Go by the directions Go by the directions. I saw a picture once which has stuck to my memory for years and years. It was a picture of a dark, wild, stormy night, and a traveller was standing up in the stirrups of his horse at a parting of the way, trying to read the directions on the finger-post. How eagerly he was looking! I can see him yet holding the lighted match carefully in his hand lest the wind should blow it out before he had read the directions l It was a good thing for him that there were directions, and it is a good thing we have them, too. Where are our directions? They are--the Bible. That is God’ s Word to us, telling us which road to take when we come to the parting of the way. Go by the directions Do what God says, and you will never go wrong. (J. R. Howatt.) Psalms 119:10 With my whole heart have I sought Thee: O let me not wander from Thy commandments.Man’ s distinguishing capacity and fearful liability I. Man’ s distinguishing capacity. What is that? Power to wander from the Divine law. He can bound from his orbit, he has done so, is doing so. Sublimely awful power this, the power that makes us men and links us to moral government. II. Man’ s fearful liability. The possession of this power is a dignity of our natures, the wrong use of this power is our crime and our ruin, and to the wrong use, alas, we are all fearfully liable. If I wander from God’ s commandment I wander from the right into the wrong, from light into darkness, from liberty to thraldom, from happiness to misery. (Homilist.) The grandest pursuit and the greatest peril I. The grandest pursuit of man.1. The object of pursuit--God. Not merely His works, but Himself. Not a mere knowledge of Him, but the possession of Him. To obtain God as the Father of the soul is the grandest end of being. 2. The mode of pursuit. Unless it is done with the whole heart, the concentration of the soul, it is never done. II. The greatest peril of man. To wander from God’ s commandments is to wander from light into darkness, from order into confusion, from plenty into pauperism, from happiness into misery, from life into death. (Homilist.) Keeping to the path Old Humphrey has a good paper against wandering from the path of duty, suggested by a notice at the entrance of a park:--“ Take notice. In walking through these grounds, you are requested to keep the foot-path.” Bunyan has supplied the same theme for solemn warning, in the pilgrim straying into Bye-path meadow. (Bowes.) Psalms 119:11 Thy Word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against Thee.God’ s Word in the heart Such was David’ s wise precaution against temptation, but we have a far higher example of the use of such precaution in the history of the temptation of our Lord. The holy Redeemer made his appeal to the Word of God, and in so doing He teaches us where to find succour and strength against temptation. The text shows us-- I. A view of the internal principle which actuates a good man. It is a heart inspired with love to God. II. One of the efforts of that principle--he hides God’ s Word in his heart. Not merely in his memory, not in the intellectual powers of the mind, but in the city and citadel, where the affections dwell, where reason governs, the home of motive, of principle, and feeling. The memory should be the storehouse of the Divine truth; it is often the very quiver of God, from which He draws His arrows of conviction, and the storehouse where He draws comfort and peace for His people. I believe the human mind never forgets; what it seizes, it never lets go. The mind acquires, retains, hides up, and in a moment brings back past thoughts. This is a power of vast importance in a moral point of view. How well, then, that our minds should be stored with Divine truth. The Holy Ghost brings thence those things concerning God and so teaches us. Children should learn the very words of Scripture, even when they cannot fully understand them. But they will have their use some future day. But not in the memory alone did David hide God’ s Word, but in his heart. Love needed to understand God’ s Word. Suitable dispositions are like proper lights to a painting--it cannot else be rightly seen. Now with the Word of God hid in our hearts, lovingly treasured up, we shall find a preservative against temptation, as did our Lord. What raises such a barrier against sin of all kinds as the Word of God lovingly remembered? You know how a pebble from a poor shepherd boy slew, in days of old, a most powerful and defiant giant; but then the pebble was taken from the brook in the spirit of confidence in God. And so we must take forth the teachings of God’ s Word in a spirit of confidence that God will give us His promised strength. Then hide up God’ s Word in your heart, and pray the Holy Spirit to visit you as the remembrancer in your moments of need. (C. J. Phipps Eyre, M. A.) The Word of God in the heart I. The great desire and aim of a good man. Not to sin against God.1. His views of God give this desire and aim. 2. His love of God. 3. His views of sin in its nature and its consequences. II. The means which, a good man adopts to realize this desire. The Word must be in the heart as power and life; controlling the thoughts--the motives--the principles. In the heart. Hid in the heart. Laid up there; made secure there against the robbery of sin, Satan, scepticism, etc. The Word of God, in its doctrines, precepts, promises, threatenings, examples, is a power in man which no other word can be. It teaches; it restrains; it warns; it guides; it saves. Things which we value; which are essential for certain ends, we preserve in the most secure places; as deeds, jewels, wills, etc. So a good man hides the Word of God in his heart; so that in times of danger it is safe. A Roman priest once took a Bible from a boy, and burnt it. The boy said to him, “ You cannot burn the Word which I have in my heart.” It was the Word of God hid in the heart that made the apostles so courageous in work and sufferings; that made martyrs so true and faithful; that now makes Christians so unyielding to the world’ s jeers, persecution, and atheism. Heaven and earth shall pass away; but God’ s Word, hid in the heart, endureth for ever. (Anon.) Treasure safely kept I. “thy” Implying Jehovah’ s presence. Omniscience. This eye ever looks you through! In His dread presence you this moment are. II. “ Thy word.” “ Better than thousands of,” etc. “ Sweeter than honey,” etc. A light, guide, chart. “ The power of God unto salvation.” Christ is its fulness and glory. III. “ Thy Word have.” Not will, intend, purpose. An act already done. Let us change our intentions into deeds, our purposes into facts. IV. “ Thy Word have I.” The individual stands out. We are individuals, not congregations, before God. V. “ Thy Word have I hid.” Not as the miser. As leaven. As seed. For personal use. For wide and extended use. VI. “ Thy Word have I hid in.” If all of God’ s Word that is not in us was taken from us, how much should we have left? The Pharisees wore it outside. It must be in us a living power. In us a spring of action. VII. “ Thy Word have I hid in my.” Parents, you wish to hide it in your children. How about yourselves? Sunday-school teachers, etc.? All of you wish it to be hid in those who sit next to you, etc. VIII. “ Thy Word have I hid in my heart” Must be in the heart. With the heart we feel, believe, love. (R. Berry.) A sure preventive of sin I. The Word of God is in its very nature expulsive of sin and cleansing therefrom (John 15:3.) II. Hid like a sword in its sheath to be drawn out at a moment’ s notice. Christ’ s answer to Satan: “ It is written.” Hid like a guard in a house, a sentinel in a fort, to watch diligently against the approach of temptation. (Homiletic Monthly.) Three great things in human life I. A great revelation. “ Thy Word.” A word is a revelation of intelligent moral mind. The value of a word depends up the intellectual and moral worth of the mind it expresses. The words of thoughtless men are wind and nothing more. The words of corrupt men are the channels of impurity. The words of the holy and the strong are amongst the most elevating forces in society. But what is a human word compared with the Word of God? The revelation of a mind infinitely wise, immaculately holy, boundlessly loving and almighty in strength. This Word we have here, and it is given us in order to work our spiritual renovation, and to restore us to the moral image of its Author. II. A great act. “ Thy Word have I hid in mine heart.”1. There are many wrong uses of this Word. (1) The infidel uses it in order to throw doubt upon its contents, invalidate its authority and caricature its discoveries. (2) The sectarian uses it in order to sustain his own crotchets and justify his own exclusiveness. (3) The worldly-minded uses it in order by writing or preaching, or profession, to promote his secular gains and advance his social influence. 2. What is the right use of it.? To hide it in the heart. Hide it as golden grain in the soil that it may germinate and grow, and produce abundant fruit. It is a wonderful thought that God has given man the capacity to take into his nature the Word, and profoundly solemn is the thought that it is only as he takes in this Word into the depths of his nature and hides it there that he can reach a happy destiny. III. A great purpose. “ That I might not sin against Thee.”1. Sin is a terrible evil. It is worse than hell, for it is the cause and spirit of it. 2. There is a propensity in man to fall into this evil. This, alas, is true to all history universal. Experience and our own consciousness. 3. God’ s Word in the heart is the efficient counteractive. (Homilist.) The best thing in the best place I. The word of God is the rest thing.1. Because it is Divine. 2. It is good throughout. 3. It is the root of all good. 4. It is most prized at last. II. Put it in the best place. It is of no good to any of us until it is there,--that is, in the heart. III. Here is the best purpose, “ That I might not sin against Thee.” Does some one fancy that there could be a higher reason, a nobler purpose, than that? If you will think it over you will come to the conclusion that the Christian has no nobler ambition than to live without sin. “ That I might not sin against Thee!” --there is no higher ambition than to live on earth the life of heaven. But, how does hiding God’ s Word in the heart promote holiness, how does it prevent sin?1. It discovers sin. If you know God’ s Word well, you are on the high road to the easy discovery of God’ s will, for it is the revelation of the Divine will. By these testimonies you will know what God approves and delights in. It will be equally plain what He abhors and detests. These are the balances of the sanctuary. 2. It announces sin. It tells you where the evil is, and when you may expect it. It is a sort of tocsin that warns you of impending danger; an alarum timed to startle you just when the danger is close, and there is yet time to escape. 3. It points out the way of escape, it reveals the secret door in the wall, when your only safety is in flight. It is the chart on which is marked every shoal, and every quicksand, and every rock; and the safe channels, too. 4. It arms us against the danger. If kept in the heart, it keeps the heart. 5. It strengthens and nerves the spirit. 6. It reveals to us the path of duty. (T. Spurgeon.) God’ s Word hidden in the heart I. What the psalmist hid. “ Thy Word” --the Word of God, the message He has sent to us for our instruction and guidance, for our encouragement and consolation and delight. It is a Word which has reached us through the ministry of men who were themselves enlightened and inspired by God, that they might teach us all that we most need to know. Do not, on any account, neglect the Bible. It contains all that is essential, and the man who knows it has the essence of all wisdom. It is, indeed, light to guide, a beacon to warn, a mine of gold, a well of ever-living water, and the bread of eternal life. For all our deepest needs there is, as Sir Walter Scott said on his death-bed, but One book, and that book is the Word of God. II. Where he hid its--“ in my heart” --in the very lowest depths, the most secure and secret places of his nature. No external possession or hiding of the Bible is of the slightest use here. It is not having, but using that tells. The Bible is ours only so far as we know and understand and love it. Pray that the Holy Spirit may open your heart that you may attend to the things written and spoken! III. Why he hid it--“ that I might not sin against Thee.” That was, indeed, a good purpose. To sin is to do wrong, to go astray, to miss the true mark of our life--the mark at which we ought to aim. It weakens and degrades us, mars our nature, and destroys our happiness both for this world arid the next. We are all in danger of falling into it. If left to ourselves, to our own ideas and inclinations and desires, we shall fall into it. We need to be ever on our guard, and to pray, “ Hold Thou me up.” If we remember and rightly love the Bible we shall not sin against God. It will make us wise unto salvation. (James Stuart.) The bane and antidote of souls I. The bane of souls. What is the bane? “Sin.” A little word, but a terrible thing. The Bible represents it as a slavery, a diseases a pollution, a poison, etc. It is loathsome to the Creator, it is the curse of the creature. This is the bane. II. The antidote of souls. God’ s “ Word” contains the power, and the only power, to destroy sin. (Homilist.) Hiding and not hiding (with Psalms 40:10):--Those two texts seem to contradict, but really complete, each other. There is a “ hiding,” without which a Christian life is scarcely possible, and cannot be vigorous. There is a “ not hiding,” which is equally indispensable. The latter is the consequence of the former. Unless a man can say, “ Thy Word have I hid in my heart,” depend upon it, he will never say, “ I have not hid Thy righteousness from the great congregation” ; and, conversely, unless a man can declare that he has hid his deepest convictions, his deepest convictions will be very shallow.1. The deep, inward secret of all noble, and especially of all deep, real, Christian life. “ Thy Word have I hid in my heart.” This means, first, familiarity with your Bible. Do not let any notion that God speaks “ at sundry times and in divers manners,” not only in Scripture, but otherwise, in providences, and in the world, and in our own hearts, cause us to neglect, as this generation does neglect, the systematic, diligent, daily perusal of Holy Scripture. You cannot hide the Word of God in your heart if you neglect, as so many of us do, the most articulate utterance of that Word in that Book, which, whatever may be the theories about the way it came into being, is the Word of the living God. Then there is another way by which we hide the Word in our hearts. It is, to cultivate the habit of referring everything to God’ s will. There must also be loving submission to what we know to be God’ s will. Put the will of God into your heart, and it will be like a bit of camphor wrapped up in some fur garment; it will keep all the moths off. II. A not hiding, which increases possession. “ I have not hid Thy righteousness within my heart,” etc. That life of which I have been speaking, the deep, secret life of communion with the will of God, will he hidden, but it will not be hidden. No man can smother up and bury his deepest convictions. If there be a bulb in the ground, and there be life in the bulb, the flower will force its way up through the earth when the spring days come. And every one of us, although unconsciously, declares the secret of our hidden lives by our conduct in the world. But there is more than that. No Christian man that has in his heart the Word and will of God but will know the impulse to impart it, and that in proportion as his own possession of Jesus Christ, who, as the embodiment of the will, is the Word of God--is deep and vital. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Word in the heart a defence The early settlers in America had to keep their guns within reach while about their work on the farm, for the Indians might come upon them unawares. Our foe, the devil, is quite as likely to take us when off guard. We need to have our weapon at all times within reach. It is not probable that our Saviour had the Scriptures in His hands when Satan came to Him in the wilderness, but He had laid up the truth in His heart so that no surprise was possible. Psalms 119:15-16I will meditate in Thy precepts, and have respect unto Thy ways.A threefold internal action of the soul about the Word These two verses present to us a threefold internal action of David’ s soul towards the Word of God: first, meditation; secondly, consideration; thirdly, delectation; every one of these proceeds from the other and mutually strengthen one another. Meditation brings the Word to the mind; consideration views it, and looks at length into it; whereof is bred delectation. That which comes into the mind, were it never so good, if it be not considered, goes as it came; leaving neither instruction nor joy; but being once perfected by meditation, if it be pondered by consideration, then it breeds delectation; which is the perfection of godliness, in regard of the internal action. Thus we see that a godly man is ever fruitful in good: like that tree planted by the rivers of waters. For at the same time when his external good actions cannot be seen, he is not without internal good motions, breeding good in the root of his affection; which shortly brings out good fruit in his action, to the glory of God, and good of others. (Bp. Cowper.) Reading profitless without meditation St. Francis de Sales did not think well of those men who flit from book to book, taking up first one religious exercise and then another; he compared such persons to the drone bee, which makes no honey. “ Always learning, yet never coming to the knowledge of the truth; always gathering and acquiring, without retaining anything, because what they gather is put into a bottomless sack, a broken cistern. The longer a bee rests upon the flower, the more honey it will gather,” he used to say. (Christian Weekly.) Psalms 119:17 Deal bountifully with Thy servant, that I may live, and keep Thy Word. Human life Two facts suggested concerning human life: I. That its continuance depends upon Divine mercy. No creature has a right to live. All finite life is a gift; especially is this the case with human life, that has outraged its constitution and rebelled against its Creator. We live by mercy. II. That its value depends upon true obedience. Life apart from obedience is a life without moral peace, without harmony, without spiritual usefulness, without God, without hope. (Homilist.) Psalms 119:18 Open Thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of Thy law.Moral blindness Moral blindness is the worst kind of blindness. I. Physical blindness has its compensations. Other faculties and organs generally become so keen and active as to make up for the loss of the eye. The imagination also, as in the case of Milton, Homer, etc., gets power to create sunny worlds. II. Physical blindness is not criminal. It is a calamity. All blindness arises from one of three causes, the want of the visual faculty, the want of light, or the non-employment of the visual faculty. Man is morally blind not from the first cause, for he has conscience, that is, the eye of the soul; not from the second, for he has a moral revelation outside and inside of him. It is the last; he closes his eyes. III. Physical blindness conceals the hideous. To look upon the hideous is painful. The blind man sees them not. But the man who is morally blind has often terrible visions of the most horrible things, his conscience scares and scathes him. (Homilist.) Spiritual illumination I. Man by nature is spiritually blind. “ Open thou mine eyes.”1. This spiritual blindness is the effect of sin.2. It is universal.3. It deprives man of his prerogatives.4. It exposes man to danger. The refuge is before him, but he travels the path that leads to ruin. Who so blind as the sinner? II. The removal of this spiritual blindness will enable man to perceive the truth of god’ s law. He is brought into a new sphere and new world.1. The Bible is replete with realities.2. The realities of the Bible are wonderful.3. They are inexhaustible.4. Mankind stands in need of perceiving these wonderful realities. III. The removal of this spiritual blindness is God’ s work.1. By the agency of His Word.2. By the agency of His Holy Spirit, who applies the Word to the conscience. IV. Application.1. The necessity of applying to God for the removal of this spiritual darkness.2. The impossibility of being happy without Divine light and life.3. The obligation of the Christian to God for being possessed with light to perceive the truths of the Bible. (J. O. Griffiths.) God’ s Word suited to man’ s sense of wonder I. The sense of wonder in man, and what generally excites it. It is a great thing not to lose the sense of wonder, and yet to keep it for right objects.2. The feeling may be excited by different objects. (1) The new and unexpected.(2) Things beautiful and grand.(3) The mysterious. II. God has made provision for this sense of wonder in his revealed Word.1. The Bible addresses our sense of wonder by constantly presenting the new and unexpected to us. (1) As to its form, it has gone on from first to last to add something new and fresh to all it had said before, and, if its circle has now closed, it is because it is already wide enough never to become old. (2) As to the spirit of the Bible, we know how it exhorts us to search, to meditate, to “ dig for wisdom as for hid treasures,” which must mean that we should bring out the fresh and unexplored. 2. While the Bible makes provision for constantly new views of truth, it sets before us also things beautiful and grand, without which the new would be a matter of idle curiosity. 3. And then, if we come to the third source of wonder, that which raises it to awe, it is the peculiar province of the Bible to deal with this. Its aim is, all through, to lead us to such subjects as the soul, and God, and the eternal world, and sin, the great mystery and root of mysteries, and the marvellous remedy which has been provided for it in the descent of the Divine nature to the human, that great mystery of godliness, “ God manifest in the flesh.” III. The means we are to use in order to have God’ s Word thus unfolded. The prayer of the psalmist may be our guide--“ Open Thou mine eyes that I may see.”1. He asks for no new revelation. It was in God’ s hand to give this, and He did it in His own time to those ancient believers; but to all of them at every time there was enough given for the purposes of life. The request is not for more, but that he may employ well that which he possesses. Still better does such a form of request suit us, to whom life and immortality have been brought to light in Christ. 2. He asks for no new faculty. The eyes are there already, and they need only to be opened. It is not the bestowal of a new and supernatural power which enables a man to read the Bible to profit, but the quickening of a power he already possesses. In one view it is supernatural, as God is the Author of the illumination by a direct act of His Spirit; in another it is natural, as it operates through the faculties existing in man’ s soul. (John Ker, D. D.) A necessary prayer There are two classes of persons who may learn something from this prayer of the psalmist. I. There are those-and many of them good Christians--who do not take so large a view of the Bible as they ought. They confine themselves to some doctrines and precepts, central and needful, and they read the Bible to find these in constantly recurring forms, just as some men look on flowers chiefly as verifying some botanical theory. This reduces the Book of God to a set of doctrinal moulds, and often makes what should be the most interesting of all books, one to which they have to urge themselves by a constraint of conscience, when they might be drawn to it by the attraction of constant freshness and growing beauty. For our own sakes, and for the sake of presenting it in its true light to the world, let us seek to study it in all the vividness of life and variety of colour with which God has set it forth. The special want of our time is to make the Bible more human without making it less Divine.2. There is another class who may have given much thought to the Bible, and obtained from it fresh views of man and nature and God, but they have not yet lifted up the heart with this petition, “ Open Thou mine eyes,” etc. They have not felt their need of any such enlightenment, because they have not felt the presence of sin, nor realized the darkness that it pours over the spiritual vision. Let them ask of its Author the Divine eye-salve with which He anoints the eyes. Its first revelations may be unwelcome, and men may be startled to see how fancied wealth and fulness sink into spiritual poverty and misery. But continued vision will open up Divine remedies, gold tried in the fire, and white raiment, the value of which will only be enhanced by growing insight. (John Ker, D. D.) The Bible as containing the wonderful The Bible contains “ Wondrous things.” Wonderful in their nature, wonderful in their number, and wonderful in their influence. As containing the wonderful-- I. It agrees with the constitution of the human mind.1. Man has a craving for the wonderful. 2. Man has a need for the wonderful to excite his faculties, to stimulate his inquiries, to challenge his powers. II. It accords with the character of nature. All nature is crowded with the wonderful. We need not take the microscope to search the myriad worlds invisible to the naked eye, or the telescope innumerable worlds and systems rolling through infinite space to discover the wonderful. The wonderful comes under our eye, sounds in our ear, and beats in our pulse every moment. If the Bible did not contain the wonderful it would not be in harmony with nature, not in harmony with the works of God, either in this planet or in any parts of immensity. III. It reproves the dogmatism of religionists. “ (Homilist.) Spiritual discernment Two forms of Divine teaching are implied in these words--revelation and spiritual apprehension to receive that which is revealed; truth in the written Word, and the inward illumination of the Holy Spirit; the one therefore universal, common to all men--the open Bible, the Gospel preached to every creature under heaven; the other personal, private, incommunicable by man to man; the one the noonday sunshine flooding the whole world with light from the hills on the horizon to the grass and pebbles at your feet; the other the eye in which a clouded lens or a palsied nerve leaves you dark in the midst of the blaze of noon.1. The distinction which is here implied is in perfect harmony and analogy with all the conditions of human knowledge. Every branch of human knowledge has what in the philosophical language of the day is called its objective and subjective side. In every art, every science, every pursuit, there are these two things; there are general laws, rules, theories, principles, illustrations, examples, which can be committed to writing, stored up in books, taught in words by the teacher to the scholar; and there is the personal aptitude, which may be developed by culture if it be latent, but which can never be bestowed when it is wanting. In the very same family one child has a talent for drawing and painting, and no ear whatever for music; another, if he were to drudge with the pencil or brush for years would never make anything of it, but music speaks a language that seems like his native tongue, and, with moderate teaching and moderate opportunities, yields up its secret to his ear and his finger. So it is familiarly in business as well as in art and in science, in everything that man can teach man; one succeeds where another fails, and the best and ablest, and most skilful teacher has often to say in despair, “ If you cannot see it, I cannot make you see it.” Now, if we find something exactly corresponding to this in regard to spiritual truth; if this book is one book to one man and quite another book to another; if doctrines which to some minds shine by their own light need no proof but what is in them, are to others dark, mysterious, difficult, and to others totally incredible or utterly uninteresting--this, you observe, is no more than you might expect; it is merely the repetition within the sphere or region of spiritual truth of what is abundantly familiar to us in all other directions. But it does not follow that the difference between the Christian and the unbeliever, between the earnest inquirer after Divine truth, and the careless, unintelligent, irreligious hearer, is to be accounted for on the same principles, and is simply of the same kind, as the difference between the musician and the painter, between the linguist and the mathematician, between the keen successful man of business and the blunderer who is always failing. Thank God, no; but surely this follows, that the prevalence of scepticism or of irreligion, were these a hundred times more prevalent than they are, does not produce the shadow of a presumption that the Christian is wrong in his faith, or that he is deluded in his experience. 2. The Bible amply recognizes and abundantly teaches this double character of Divine knowledge, this analogy between Divine knowledge and every other kind of knowledge, but at the same time with a broad and vital difference. The Bible knows nothing, either in the Old Testament or in the New, of any doctrine of reserve. Where it speaks it speaks to all; its “ voice is to the sons of men” ; its “ sound is gone out through all the earth, and its word is to the end of the world” ; but at the same time nothing is more emphatically and plainly taught in the Bible itself than that these open pages, open to the whole world, and even to be pressed upon the eyes of all men who can be persuaded to look into them, are all the while a sealed book except to those who have eyes to see. So far as it is possible for truth to be put into words, so far the Holy Scriptures are “ able to make us wise unto salvation.” But the Scriptures themselves tell us that there is a learning that cannot be put into words, that cannot be written, or printed, or spoken, and that, therefore, cannot be communicated by man to his fellow-man; that there must be the eye to see and the ear to hear. 3. It is an unspeakably consoling and delightful reflection that this impossibility of attaining spiritual truth apart from Divine teaching which God’ s Word so plainly sets forth, puts no hindrance in any man’ s way, no hindrance in the way of the simplest learner, no hindrance in the way of the unbeliever any more than of the believer, if only the unbeliever is desirous of knowing what is truth. Our Saviour’ s words, when He says, “ No man can come to Me, except the Father who hath sent Me, draw him,” are not building up a barrier between Himself and any human soul; they are throwing down all barriers; they are assuring us that so far as is possible, God has put all men upon one spiritual level of privilege and opportunity. It is not that a hindrance and a barrier has been built up; it is that human nature, as it exists, needs the Divine light, the Divine grace, the Divine help, as it needs the Divine atonement and the Divine Saviour, and that as man cannot lift himself, even a single foot or inch from his mother earth by his own power, so much less can he lift himself one step towards God, unless not only the light shine down and shows him what he is, and what God is, but the saving hand lays hold of him and inspires within his heart the assurance that the hand that has once taken hold upon him shall never loose its hold. (E. R. Conder, D. D.) Divine illumination I. Some things in which it does not consist.1. It does not consist in any degree of knowledge acquired in the ordinary manner. 2. It does not consist in revelations of new truths. 3. It does not consist merely in lively and affecting views of the truths already revealed in the Word of God. 4. It does not consist in any conceptions, or creations of the imagination, respecting God, Christ, heaven, or hell. II. In what, then, does it consist? It is a sense Of Divine things. In its results it differs entirely from a mere opinion or judgment of the mind. There may be an opinion founded on the testimony of others, that light is pleasant; but of this pleasantness the blind man has no just conception. If sight is granted to him, he will find light to be widely different from anything which he had ever conceived. So of Divine things. The natural man may believe them to be excellent and glorious, but of this excellency and glory he has no just conception. The natural man discerneth not the things of the Spirit. A sense of their superlative excellency and glory in the mind is as certainly the work of God as sight in the natural eye, or hearing in the natural ear, or tasting in its appropriate organ. III. The production of this spiritual understanding His people is everywhere in the Scriptures literally and immediately ascribed to the Almighty. IV. Conclusion. This subject suggests,1. The reason why those who have been newly born into the kingdom of Christ seem to regard everything as new, and feel themselves to be in a new world. 2. That persons of very limited capacities may have spiritual understanding. 3. The importance of inquiring concerning the nature of our understanding in a spiritual respect. 4. No other knowledge is so pure and elevated as that which is thus acquired. 5. No other knowledge is so capable of producing sacred joy. 6. No other knowledge is so purifying in its influence. A spiritual understanding of the character of God, a holy sense of His presence, a sacred view of the character of Christ, a holy sense of the presence and work of the Spirit, a spiritual appreciation of the extent and spirituality of the law--all these things are pre-eminently calculated to excite the renovated heart to walk in the statutes and commandments of the Lord. (J. Foot, D. D.) Divine revelation I. It contains wonders. The Bible has many wonders, but the great “ wonder” is the Incarnation of Christ. It is that into which angels desire to look, that which will be the study of eternity. II. Man should discover these wonders. To know Christ is of paramount importance to him. It is his life eternal. III. To discover these wonders god must open man’ s eyes. Man has spiritual eyes, eyes to see moral truth and God. These eyes are closed. No one can open them but the Divine Ophthalmist. Oh that men saw things as they really are! (Homilist.) Spiritual vision I. We are all born spiritually blind. Think of Samson when the Philistines put out his eyes. What a picture of misery l and further, what a picture of man l a mirror where unconverted men, had they eyes to see, might behold themselves. Was he taken captive of the Philistines?--so are they of their vices. Did he pass his days in the service of his enemies?--slaves of Satan, they serve one who hates them with cruel hatred. Was he bound in fetters of brass?--what are fetters of brass or iron to the chains of the drunkard, of the licentious, of the miser, of the lover of this world? Was he blinded as well as bound?--so are they. “ Eyes have they, but they see not;” “ the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not;” they are insensible to their state. But here fails the parallel. Samson felt his degradation keenly; longed for liberty; groped about to find a door of escape. How different the poor sinner! He hugs his chain, and delights in the vices that enslave him. II. Consider some of the characteristics of this blindness.1. Blindness deprives its subjects of many pleasures which God’ s goodness lavishes on us, and, through our eyes, pours into our hearts. 2. Blindness makes the condition of its subjects one of painful dependence. 3. Blindness exposes its subjects to deception. Satan makes thousands believe that all is right, that the path they tread is one of safety, when all the while, step by step down, but gently down, he conducts his blind, deluded, singing, dancing joyous victims on to the brink of ruin, and to that last, fatal step which plunges them into hell. 4. Again, blindness exposes us to danger. A blind man will starve with bread within his reach; parched and perishing with thirst, he will pass the well that invited his lips to drink; drowning, with a rope thrown within his grasp, and the cries of eager voices in his ear, Lay hold of life! he will sink into a watery grave--lost, when he might have been saved. Such is the case of the unconverted. III. The eyes of the blind being opened, they behold wondrous things out of the law of God. There was an eminent philosopher who had devoted a lifetime to the pursuits of science, and not, as he thought, in vain. She had crowned his brow with laurels, and inscribed his name in the temple of fame. In the evening of his days, at the eleventh hour, God was pleased to call him, open his eyes, convert him; and now, he who was deeply read in science and conversant with its loftiest speculations, as he bent his grey head over the Bible, declared that, if he had his life to live over again, he would spend it in the study of the Word of God. He felt like a miner, who, after toiling long and to little purpose in search of gold, with one stroke of his pick-axe lays open a vein of the precious metal and becomes rich at once--the owner of a vein that grows the richer the deeper the mine is driven. Such a treasure the Bible offers to those whose eyes God has opened to its wonders of grace and glory. It is inexhaustible. IV. God only can open our eyes. Hence to Him David directs the prayer of my text; and also this--Lighten mine eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death. Men use instruments to restore sight, and nowhere does surgery achieve a nobler triumph, or bestow greater blessings on mankind, than in yonder theatre, where skill and a steady hand cut into the sightless balls; and man, opening a way for the light of heaven, imitates Christ in His divine works of might and mercy--pouring light into the blind man’ s eyes, and joy into the blind man’ s heart. God also uses instruments--His instrument the Word, His agent the Holy Spirit. By these, working faith in men, and renewing them in the spirit of their minds, He has often answered, and is now ready to answer the prayer, Open Thou mine eyes. (T. Guthrie, D. D.) The lifted veil It was an ancient custom for the reader of the Law in a Jewish synagogue to put a veil upon his face. Originally designed as an act of reverence, as if the glory of this law was too dazzling for the human eye to behold, the veil upon the countenance has become an awful type of the veil that is Upon the heart. Century after century has passed away, and still in every Jewish synagogue “ Moses is read.” But so blinded are the minds of those who read, and of those who listen, that they do not perceive the beauty, or understand the meaning of their own Scriptures--an affecting proof of the necessity of the Spirit’ s teaching, for the right understanding of the Word of God. I. God’ s law contains “ wondrous things.” All the Divine works are wonderful. There is not a leaf which God has moulded, or an insect He has formed, or an atom He has made, which does not demand, and will not repay, our thoughtful study. But Revelation contains a brighter display of His wisdom and love than nature with all its sublime and glorious discoveries. II. The enlightened mind can alone understand it.1. There is ignorance. “ Having the understanding darkened,” is the brief but solemn description which the apostle gives of the Gentiles, and it is a true representation of unregenerate nature. 2. Then there is prejudice. We cannot understand a truth, if we dislike that truth. 3. Unbelief prompts men to misinterpret Scripture, and renders them ingenious in their objections against it. 4. Worldliness is another veil which hides from our view the wonders of God’ s Word. III. That God only can communicate the light we need.1. The Spirit humbles us, and humility enables us to understand the Scriptures. 2. The Spirit purifies the heart, and purity enables us to understand the Scriptures. 3. The Spirit fills our hearts with love, and love enables us to understand the Scriptures. (H. J. Gamble.) Longing for spiritual sight I. The involved acknowledgment of spiritual ignorance. II. The reasons upon which the plea rests.1. Spiritual sight or knowledge is of itself a great blessing 2. Such a petition honours and acknowledges the work of the Holy Ghost. 3. There are wonders in the system of revealed truth which have yet to be explored and known. 4. The opening of our eyes is a work of Divine grace and power, and stands intimately connected with our pardon and regeneration. 5. This prayer stands before us as a spiritual and heaven-inspired petition, because of its opposition to the spirit and desires of the carnal mind. 6. Unless this prayer, or its equivalent, be uttered in an earnest and believing spirit, a blinding process will go on, which can only terminate in the darkness of death eternal. (A. Barrett.) The need of spiritual vision:--In the Old Testament what do we see? A great many Christian people see very little in the Old Testament, and they are always ready to criticize. I know men in the Church who go into raptures over the poetry of Homer, or the eloquence of Demosthenes, or the philosophy of Plato, about the artistry of Greece or about the jurisprudence of Rome; but they have no enthusiasm whatever for these great, noble teachers who declare the simple everlasting laws which are the very light and fire. In this great Book of Righteousness, this Old Testament, a good many of us see but little into the gleam here and there; our eyes have not been opened to its breadth and depth and significance. I remember once looking over a magnificent piece of scenery--mountains, rocks, and sea--and all of it bathed in the splendours of the setting sun. And I heard a lady close to me complain that she did not think much about it because it was all land and water. Exactly. But, I say, what if Claude had been there? What if Turner had been there? What would they have seen in that panorama of splendour and delight? What did your Master see in the Old Testament? How Christ appealed to these prophets, minstrels, and seers, and how He brought out of that Old Testament all the wondrous things of the Sermon on the Mount! The Church wants its eyes opening to the full noon of the Old Testament, where God has given to us such grand histories, and statutes, and suggestions. You may well pray, Open Thou mine eyes that I may understand these great teachings, that I may appreciate these great parables of truth and of righteousness. What do a great many of us see in the New Testament? Do you think, to-day, that we see all the glory of the incarnate Christ? Do you think that we have seen with open eyes the crucified Christ--the Christ of the Resurrection? “ My soul has feelers, not eyes; I grope, I do not see. Oh, that I might get eyes, that I could see,” that I could see the glory of God, that I could see the beauty of Christ, that I could see the majesty of His higher law, that I could see a door opening into heaven t Open Thou mine eyes, that I may see the wonderful things out of Thy law. There is another thing. Here you consider the special appeal: that I may see wonderful things out of Thy law. What wonderful things? I tell you one is this: We ought all to pray to God that He would open our eyes to the reality of the law of righteousness. Oh, what you want God to do with this generation is to work into its understanding and soul the truth, the reality, the inviolability of the moral commandment. One French writer says he does not like Christianity because it condemns a man if he does not believe in it. And the law of gravitation condemns you if you do not believe in it. I wish we could for once believe that the law, the higher law, is as true as the law of gravitation, and that it will as certainly inflict upon the transgressor a penalty, only infinitely more disastrous. But there is another thing which we want to have our eyes opened to about the law of righteousness, and that is its universal application; that it is like the sky shutting us all down. Oh, that society might feel the obligation universally, the absolute obligation, rich and poor, intellectual and vulgar; clergy and laity; public virtue and private virtue all under one great commandments--“ thou shalt,” “ thou shalt not!” We want our eyes opening to the broad, solid, imperative commandment, as we shall all one day stand before one throne and each and all give an account of themselves. (W. L. Watkinson.) The wonders of God’ s law There is nothing so wonderful as God’ s law; nay, it may justly be said to include in itself all that is most wonderful, all that truly merits our admiration, all that will really reward our curiosity. For what is it? The psalmist here was not thinking merely of the law given to Moses, or of the words written in any book, however sacred; he was not thinking of spoken words or written characters, but of God’ s eternal realities. He was an earnest man, and his mind sought to be in contact with truth itself; he was a pious man, and his heart longed for nothing less or lower than communion with the living God. He felt himself in the Divine presence, and he felt that the Divine law was within and around him. The wonders of physical nature, and the human soul and human history, and of redeeming love and grace, are all wonders of that law of God which the psalmist longed and prayed to behold, that law which ruleth alike in what is least and greatest, to which all things in heaven and earth do homage, the seat of which is the bosom of the Eternal, the voice of which is the harmony of the universe. There is no science cultivated among us which can ever have anything else for its highest aim than simply to discover and exhibit some part of the Divine law, since the end of every kind of study worthy of our engaging in is directly or indirectly to extend our knowledge of laws which we distinguish from one another by calling laws of astronomy or chemistry, laws of language or history, physical, morn], or spiritual laws, but which all agree in being laws of God, the operations of His will, the expressions of His character, the rules which He has implanted in His creatures, and assigned to them as the conditions and limits of their workings. But the most important of God’ s laws are those which He has given us for the regulation of our own lives. In reality, whether we see it or not, there is far more that is wonderful in these laws than in any other. They are, for example, the laws of God in a far higher sense than other laws; the laws of the physical world might have been quite different from what they are. God made them to be what they are by making the physical world itself what it is; if He had made quite a different material world, with quite other laws, He would have been none the less God, the true object of our worship. But He did not make by any forth-putting of His will the fundamental laws of moral life to be what they are; they are eternal and unchangeable. That God should alter them would be for Him to cease to be wise and righteous and holy and loving, it would be for Him to cease to be good. The wonders of these laws are thus the wonders of the Divine nature, and far greater, therefore, than any wonders of created nature; at the same time these laws are the laws of our natures, of our spirits, of what is much higher and much more wonderful than anything else to be beheld in nature. On earth, it has been said, there is nothing great but man, and in man there is nothing great but mind; and certainly a soul is a far more wonderful thing than even a star, a spiritual being than a material world, and its laws far more wonderful. It is spiritual law which determines men’ s relations to their God and one another, and it is on obedience or disobedience to it that the weal or woe of individuals or societies chiefly depends, so that all the marvels and mysteries of human life and destiny gather around. If we would see, however, the wonders in the most impressive light, we must turn to Revelation. Every miracle, every prophecy, every striking dispensation recorded in Scripture, whatever else it may have meant, was always a proclamation of God to men that they should reverence this His law. If we can see no wonders in the law which Christ died to satisfy and glorify, if we do not see it to be unspeakably more wonderful than all other law, assuredly our blindness is great indeed, and we cannot too earnestly cry to a merciful God, “ open Thou mine eyes.” (R. Flint, D. D.) The wonders of God’ s law The psalmist’ s delight in God’ s law, and intense desire to know God’ s judgments, may thus be read as an expression of a feeling which we may cherish towards everything that is going on in our world and among the stars. There are wondrous things for us to behold in the processes of nature and human life. The more our eyes are open to the ordering and the law of God in all existences and events the more fascinating will our view of the universe become to us; and as our brief sojourning here draws toward its close, the more intensely interesting will all our experience of life and the vistas of promise beyond become to us. Consider, first, why it is that we take pleasure in watching the course of events. What deeper motive is there which leads men with increasing civilization to ask daily, “ What is the news?” Why is it that we wish to live where we can keep in quick touch with everything that is transpiring throughout the whole world? Not simply because they are current events, but because they are events in history; because they are things happening in the life and progress of the world; because these facts are parts and moments of some vast half-discovered whole of human history; because they are not mere happenings, but they are orderings of events; because they are not mere blows of events struck over and over again upon the hollow round of the world, sounding ever the same dull tone; but because they are events beaten out to some single purpose; because they are successive notes in the world’ s marching music. What beyond our passing sympathy interests us so much is not merely the event, or the fact in itself, but something to which the fact belongs, the movement, the order, the problem, the on-reaching history, the providential purpose to which it belongs. Oh, the charm of the seen is the unseen, and the perpetual fascination of history is the revealing of its Messianic law and order l Consider as another instance our interest in common human life. What is that ultimately, in the last analysis of our comradeships or our friendships? Some of you can remember for many years past. But in what, as one whole, lies to you the real human interest of all this which you have been seeing, and knowing in your sojourning here? The persons, the events, the friends, the faces? Yes, they shall always Be of concern, some of dear memory and hope to you; but the supreme interest of your life as a whole, in all its human contacts and experiences, lies after all not in what you have seen and known, but in something that you have half seen, or dimly grasped after, or at times without seeing have become inwardly, deeply sure of; it has been the leading of God through it all; something more than human felt through all human love and sorrow; the Infinite surrounding the finiteness of it all; the eternal giving and taking the lives of men back into itself; the larger hope, the ever forward movement, the eventful Providence; the mystery of some higher purpose, measureless, unknown, let with moments of bright revealings; oh, this is something vaster and diviner, which as you sit and think over the long past, seems to take it all up, events, persons, sorrows, joys, all that you have been and seen, and felt, into one indistinguishable memory and dream and hope of glory, and to leave your heart, like the psalmist of old, saying. “ I have seen wondrous things,” etc. (Newman Smyth, D. D.) Spiritual sight The spiritual eyesight must be opened in order that the spiritual beauty and wisdom and glory of the Divine Word may be discovered. When the great philosopher, Sir David Brewster, was dying, he said to Sir James Simpson, “ I have had the light for many years, and oh, how bright it is! I feel so perfectly sure, so perfectly happy.” “ Come and see.” That is the short, simple, earnest common-sense appeal which is made to every honest seeker after truth, every soul troubled with a sense of sin and guilt. Come and see. (Christian Age.) Removing obstruction to sight The other day (writes Mr. Reader Harris, K.C.) I had the privilege Of witnessing one of our great surgeons remove the cataract from a woman’ s eye. It is a beautiful illustration of God’ s work of deliverance from sin. It was done almost instantaneously. The cataract was taken out of the eye. The surgeon took it right out, and then, very soon afterwards, he put glasses on that woman’ s eye, and he said: “ Mr. Harris, take out your watch,” and to the woman he said: “ How long have you been blind?” She said: “ I have been blind for six years.” “ Now,” he said, “ look through this glass, and tell what his watch says.” She read it at once, hour hand and minute hand. Why? Because the surgeon had taken out of the eye that which obscured the vision; and because that operator had not only taken out what hindered the vision but he had given her, in the lens, that which could take the place of it. May God clarify our spiritual vision by purifying our hearts, and filling them with the Holy Ghost! (Sunday Circle.) Spiritual Vision The naked eye can see only about 3,500 stars, but the man who looks and sees through the telescope the star dust of eighty-five million worlds grows more interested through deeper views into the skies. So with the Bible, when the eyes of our understanding are opened on the vast firmament of Bible truth by the aid of the telescope of spiritual discernment. (J. Crafts.) Psalms 119:19I am a stranger in the earth: hide not Thy commandments from me.Songs for the way (with verse 54):--Two cries ascend from the human heart to God--the cry of the lorn spirit for its Father, and the cry of icy after the Father has been found. A sad life, astir with perplexities, hedged in by shadows, utters its natural longings in the words, “ I am a stranger in the earth,” etc. The same life, emerging from the shadow, with God’ s light shining on its path, exclaims, “ Thy statutes have been my songs,” etc. Taken together, these words set forth our condition as strangers and pilgrims on the earth, and God’ s bountiful provision for meeting that condition in Christ. I. The fact that we are strangers is forced upon us by our ignorance. Apart from revelation, we know almost nothing of the world we live in, and absolutely nothing of its Lord. In every age, and to every thinking soul, arise the great questions, Who sent me into this earth? Why am I here? Whither am I going? The Gospel is God’ s answer to this cry. It is the revelation of the light which is behind sun and stars. What sun and star, what hill and stream cannot disclose of themselves, their Maker has disclosed in Christ. He reveals Himself in Christ as our Father. By His Spirit He says to each of us, “ My child.” He puts the faith and assurance of His fatherhood into our hearts. And this great truth of His fatherhood becomes the first round of the song which He has given to cheer us in the house of our pilgrimage. II. OUR sins still more than our ignorance have put this sense of strangeness into our hearts, and the marks of it upon our countenance. When the soul awakens to spiritual consciousness, and finds itself in the presence of this great truth of the fatherhood of God, the first fact which confronts it is a sense of farness from the Father. It is God’ s mercy that He has not left us to rest in this depth of strangeness. He has made a way for us in Christ:--the new and living way by the blood. Christ dying for sinners, coming near to the lost to bring them near to God:--this is the light which God has kindled for all strangeness between the soul and God, the light which, touching the heart of the sinner, dissipates his estrangement and fills him with thankfulness and song. III. Another proof that we are strangers is the estrangement we find among men. Think of the conflicts, oppressions, misunderstandings among the inhabitants of the earth at any moment; think of hatreds so fierce and vital that only bloodshed can express their fury; whole races in subjection to other races over large sweeps of the globe, and during many generations; sectarian and selfish policies of nations, of the pride and isolation of classes; narrownesses and spites and arrogances of society, of the evil-speaking and backbiting and talebearing, and the hot and sullen tempers of men; quarrels and contests and ambitions which make up such a sum of the general sum of life:--these are the footprints of the stranger. Christ comes to us with the olive branch in His hand, as the great uniter and binder together. “ One is your Father.” He carries it up into the region occupied by thinkers and men of science, and down to the lowest levels of active and suffering life. He comes with the grand purpose of binding those who receive that word into a holy and abiding fellowship. Out from the contending and shifting crowd He calls a people for Himself, baptizes them with His own Spirit, inspires them with His truth, builds them into a holy nation, and rules over them as King. IV. The last and saddest mark of the stranger upon us is death. If we are all to die, if there is nothing beyond the grave, then, indeed, we are strangers in the earth; we are without a home or a fatherland. If there had been no light for this shadow, how great our misery should be! There could be no hope of an immortal fellowship for society, or of an immortal life for individual men. But, blessed be God! He has not hidden the future from His child. A home awaits us beyond the grave. A new life blooms for us in the very presence of God. Our torn and suffering earthly existence is to be crowned with glory and immortality in the world of the risen dead. (A. Macleod, D. D.) I am a stranger on the earth There is something very affecting in this expression. It is emphatically repeated, at long intervals, in the Scriptures. (Psalms 39:12; 1 Chronicles 29:15; Genesis 23:4; Hebrews 11:13.) The emotion which the very phrase excites, running down from the earliest times to the present generation, shows that it refers to something permanent in human nature. Plato felt it when he tried to prove, from the nature of the soul’ s operations, that it was but a mysterious visitor from some pre-existent state. A modern author felt it when he described men as ships passing each other on the ocean, and hailing each other in vain for directions on the way. Very shallow must have been our experience, very lightly must we have pondered our condition, if we too have never felt it, and responded to the declaration, “ I am a stranger on the earth.” The world is beautiful and glorious: it lies around us, as one has said, “ like a bright sea, with boundless fluctuations.” But we are not at home in it. We are lost and bewildered amid is splendours. We are unsafe amid its wasting forces. We are but little versed in its capacious stores. Our hold upon it is faint and transient. So, across the gulf of past ages, we enter into eager sympathy with those old believers who confessed that they too were strangers; and we would seek with them “ a city which hath foundations.” But my object is not only to verify the feeling indicated in the text, but to show the deliverance offered us in our religion, from everything in the feeling that is painful or sad. By the terrors of doubt that cloud the prospect of the unspiritual, I would warn--by the satisfaction of Christian hope, I would win you, vitally to embrace the peculiarity of the Gospel, in the ties of fellowship it offers you, not only with the living and present, but with the unseen beings of another world--no longer the dim, shadowy, flitting, uncertain phantoms they were to the pagan faith--with the saints, truly worthy that name, elder and younger, in “ the household of God.” As the New Testament is true, this association is offered us. Death, terrifier of the world, stands back to let the light stream through his gloomy house, and reveal the holy and happy assembly. Sorrow bends aside her head, so as not to obstruct the inspiring vision. Sickness lifts from the couch her heavy eyes, to catch a glimpse of it. What refinement! What elevation! What generosity and joy! What motive and impulse! There, alive, appear to us the good departed, whom we have known here below, and those we have not known; the celebrated in the calendar, and the uncanonized, as worthy as they; those whose names stand as monumental exemplars on She page of the Bible, with names no less pure, written only in the Lamb’ s book of life;--and we “ strangers on the earth,” in these crumbling garments of clay, are invited to be fellow-citizens with them all. But there are conditions. We must give up our selfishness, and every shape of sin. We must leave behind our spiritual sloth and our sensual excess. “ So live,” says our subject to us, cultivate such sympathies with the departed “ wise” and “ good,” that, when the body goes to mingle with theirs in the dust, the soul may meet theirs in the heavens, not as an alien and a stranger, but as a fellow-citizen and a friend. (C. A. Barrel.) Good men strangers upon earth I. The petition. The psalmist does neither plead by this form of language that God would reveal a new system of precepts to him, which he had never before made known, nor that these already revealed should be expressed in plainer terms; but he prays for grace to improve them, and To apply them to practice, that he might see the proper use of his knowledge; for the internal illumination of God’ s Holy Spirit to render the external revelation of the Word profitable to his soul; for the practical saving knowledge of his duty in opposition to mere speculation. Now, God is said to hide this knowledge from us, when He doth not actually impart it; and the psalmist here means, by negative expressions, the very same thing which he speaks in positive terms in verse 18. II. The argument the psalmist makes use of to enforce his petition; “ I am a stranger in the earth.” Consider the several respects in which good men may be styled strangers in the earth.1. In respect of their heavenly extraction; they are natives and citizens of heaven. 2. In respect of their inheritance. The children of this world have their portion in the things of this life only. But the resting-place of saints is not in this world; it remains, it waits them. 3. In respect of their affections and desires. As their treasure is in heaven, their hearts are there. No characters can be more unlike, nor tempers more strange, than these are to earthly minds. Their ends, their motives, their principles, their employments are contrary to one another. III. Conclusion.1. Let us learn, as strangers upon earth, to keep a close correspondence with heaven, to live near to God, much in the exercise of prayer, under a lively sense of our own necessities, and with believing views of Divine grace to direct and uphold us; otherwise, it will be no wonder if, instead of coming well to our journey’ s end, mischief befall us by the way. 2. Let us never satisfy ourselves with the knowledge without the practice of our duty. 3. We should meddle as little with the world as may be. 4. We should live indifferent to the pains and pleasures of this world. 5. We should accustom our minds to look forward to our latter end. 6. We should learn to be kind and hospitable to all mankind, as all are strangers in the earth in some respects; and our common lot is a powerful inducement to offices of kindness. (W. Beat.) Human pilgrimage I. I am as a stranger in the earth because of the impermanence of my position. Here we have no continuing city. II. I am as a stranger in the earth because of my life and language. If there be but a slight difference between the Christian and the secularist, it is because the Christian has not been “ transformed by the renewing of his mind,” for though bearing a new name he carries an old nature. We instantly detect a foreigner by so small a sign as an accent or a posture; and the Christian is known to men of the world by a glance or tone, by a frown or smile. This should be the Christian’ s business as a stranger--to operate as the light, not as the lightning--to master men by attraction, and not by reprobation. III. I am a stranger in the earth because of the perils to which i am exposed. The adventurous explorer feels that he is in constant danger. (J. Parker, D. D.) The stranger’ s prayer I. A remarkable confession.1. A stranger is absent from home. 2. A stranger has no fixed residence where he is liable to remove, he looks for changes, and meets them without surprise. 3. A stranger feels no particular interest in the place through which he passes, or in the events which transpire around him: he is not wholly unaffected by them; yet many things which concern a resident are of little or no consequence to a traveller: his home is elsewhere, and his main business lies in another quarter. 4. A stranger forms no intimate connection with the society among whom he is cast. He converses with them; he shows to all civility and respect; but as a stranger he never thinks of close alliance and lasting friendship. 5. A stranger reckons on inconveniences, and prepares to meet them. If he cannot have things altogether to his mind, he submits: if he be treated with neglect, it gives him not much concern: direct affronts do not deeply affect him--he is but “ a stranger,” and he looks forward to home as the seat of comfort, and the place of rest. II. An appropriate prayer.1. The Word of God is the stranger’ s best companion. 2. It is his kindest comforter. It makes up for all he needs, and supports under all he endures. III. Conclusion.1. The delusion of ungodly men. They are “ strangers on the earth” in regard to the fluctuations that await them, but too much at home in the temper of their minds. What awful surprise will such feel when the summons of departure comes! Go they must, however reluctant, however unprepared! 2. The importance of a right spirit in professors of religion. And what is this, but a spirit of abstraction from a polluting world, of holy indifference to its fascinating smiles, and of noble superiority to its forbidding frowns? (T. Kidd.) A stranger in the earth I. An estimate of life. The Christian is a “ stranger in the earth,” because he is conscious of an intense longing for a land of greater purity and perfect rest. His principles also may appear strange to others. II. A sure solace in life.1. God’ s commandments his solace, because they told him-- (1) What to be.(2) What to do.(3) Where to go.(4) What to avoid. 2. They were revealed, (1) By the Spirit speaking in the soul,(2) By the Word of truth,(3) By the openings out of prudential dealings. God is always going before us. III. Conclusion.1. We need not think of ourselves as such strangers, that we are to despise the ordinary joys of life or beauties of the world. 2. We must not try to find our permanent home in this world. We could not if we would. Abraham and David recognized this (Genesis 23:4; 1 Chronicles 29:15). 3. We should increase daily in our appreciation of God’ s commandments. (Homiletic Magazine.) Strangers in the earth This language may be looked upon in two aspects: I. As expressing a necessary fact in man’ s earthly history. “ Stranger in the earth.” Two ideas here:(1) Ignorance. A stranger in a neighbourhood is ignorant of it. (2) Unsettledness. “ No abiding city.” II. As expressing a virtuous fact in man’ s earthly history. A desire to be guided by God’ s commandments. “ Hide not,” etc. These are necessary to guide through the labyrinthian path of life. (Homilist.) A stranger in the earth When a child is born, it is spoken of sometimes under the designation of “ a little stranger!” A stranger, indeed! come from far. From the presence, and touch, and being of God! And going--into the immensities again--into, and through all the unreckonable ages of duration. I. The stranger. Such, in regard to earth, and this human life altogether here, is he who makes the confession and breathes the prayer which these words express. He does not belong to this place. He is, consciously, intentionally, and earnestly passing through. In the ordinary sense, no doubt, he is as much of the earth as any other; yet has he, truly, a higher nativity, for he is “ born from above.” Let him show that he is, by living as a citizen of the higher land. Let him be in spiritual life a true patriot. Let him be loyal to the kingdom that claims his soul, that has his name registered in its book of life, and that will one day--if he be really of it--call forth its mighty, shining multitudes to receive him and his brethren with acclamations of delight. Let him be “ a stranger in the earth,” and then it will not only be possible to believe, but it will be impossible not to believe, that he justly claims citizenship in the higher country. A principle, an instinct, a habit of reserve, will be found running through the whole of life on the earthly side of it with the stranger. As for instance:1. Reserve in secular occupation: in what we call the business of life. Will a man find fittest preparation for calmness, and nobleness, and purity in the everlasting kingdom by giving all his actual energies, and all his time in this world, to these earthly, transient things? It must be the better part to aim high, to “ look” far, to disengage ourselves not only from what would corrupt and injure, but from what would over-occupy and thus insensibly degrade and betray us, and in the serene and lofty spirit of the “ stranger,” to do our duties, and pass through our days. 2. Reserve in pleasure. A pleasure-loving soul never can be unselfish, magnanimous, serene, brave, pure. It is therefore one of the Christian’ s daily lessons to teach himself effectually how to “ use this world as not abusing it” ; i.e. how to extract from present things all fair and honest enjoyment, without allowing selfishness and mere appetite so to touch and transmute them in the process that the enjoyment shall have in it some admixture of baser elements, and be no longer the thing which the Divine beneficence provides for man’ s hunger and thirst. 3. This principle of reserve must run through the whole of life. (1) There are many who would freely allow that it is rightly applied to business and to pleasure, but who have no idea that the application of it is as legitimate and as necessary within and through all the darker spheres of human life--those of pain, and trouble, and sorrow. But this is so. For these things, just like their opposites, are temporal and evanescent. They belong to “ the fashion of this world which passeth away.” Weep, then, but dry thy tears. Mourn, but be comforted. The great to-morrow will soon be here, whence you will look back, and be ashamed that you made so roach fret and moan in this little yesterday. (2) Nor must we fail to apply the principle and cultivate the habit of reserve even in the sphere of highest duty. Underneath all outward, upward manifestation lies the steady purpose--“ One thing I do.” But in holding to this one purpose and secret law of our life we are subject to many changes, disappointments, reverses. Rather we are subject to a higher will, the faultless, loving will of our heavenly leader, who shapes His own perfect plan and builds it out of the toils and conflicts, the triumphs and reverses, of His servants; and to that will we ought to be always ready to bow. We ought to plan, and purpose, and will our very best, and throw all our heart and strength into our work, and yet have some reserve, and stand ready for some otter issue. The fruit may be as good as the flower is fair, or the “ blossom may go up as dust.” No matter. I lose nothing if my purpose is true and my will is loyal. My harvest in such case is not really loath--it is only postponed. II. The prayer, as we cannot but see, is perfectly suited to the condition which has thus been described. “ A stranger” --here but for a little, and yet morally beginning the great hereafter. “ Never continuing in one stay,” and yet ever possessing one being, and developing and settling that being into character. Passing through a fleeting life, and yet, at every step, gathering and carrying forward what must be the elements of the endless life to come--what need there is of light, direction, sacred influence, so that the passage through this world, which must be swift, may also be prosperous, the traveller finding not merely the supply of momentary needs as they arise, but extracting nourishment out of the vanishing scenes of life as they vanish, for the life everlasting. God’ s “ commandments” revealed and brought home to the heart will yield, plentifully, all that can be needed in the pilgrim state. In one way or other they touch all the chances and hazards of the journey, and all the requirements of the traveller, while they all combine to make one supreme influence of preparation for what will come when the earthly journey is over. And will not God hear such a prayer, offered in such circumstances, and with such consciousness? Can there he the doubt of a moment about this? (A Raleigh, D. D.) Strangers, but not homeless Dr. South has made the striking observation that one world is enough for one man, and God has given us the choice between this and the heavenly. We cannot reign princes in both, or hold one in one hand and the other in the other. If strangers and pilgrims here we shall be at home in the other, and vice versa. (E. P. Thwing.) Sense of pilgrimage state Jewish national trait The Jews never seem to lose sight of the fact that they were descendants of pilgrim forefathers. In the most brilliant periods of their history they still regard the life of the moving patriarchs as a type of their own. The confession of Abraham as he stood asking from the children of Heth a place for his dead, that “ he was a stranger and a sojourner,” finds an echo in the prayer of David as he consecrates the treasures that had been offered for the building of the temple. “ We are strangers and sojourners as all our fathers were.” The same characteristic view of life is heard again in the prayer of Hezekiah, when he compares his life to a shepherd’ s tent. Peter, who was a true type of his race, exhorts as “ strangers and pilgrims abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul.” The same refrain surges back from the Epistle to the Hebrews, “ We have here no continuing city.” Now large numbers of men feel themselves aliens because they have no stake in the soil and land is unequally distributed. But this was not the ease with the twelve tribes to whom Canaan was apportioned by lot. Attachment to the soil became a passion of unrivalled fervour, even in those who had not been schooled into a lover-like devotion to the fatherland by years spent in bondage in an alien land, and yet in spite of this Jewish feeling the rational temper seems to have been ever haunted with a sense of the forlorn loneliness of life. (T. G. Selby.) Psalms 119:20-21 My soul breaketh for the longing that it hath unto Thy judgments at all times. The right and the wrong I. A hungering for the right. This hunger indicates:1. The existence of rectitude. For every Divine instinct there is an objective provision. 2. The condition of healthfulness. As a rule, where there is hunger there is health. The soul that hungers for the right is not utterly diseased. 3. The certainty of supply. Physical hunger is not always satisfied, but spiritual always. Blessed are they that hunger, for they shall be filled. II. A deploring for the wrong. Pride is a wrong.1. That is Divinely rebuked and cursed. 2. Which turns men from the commandments of God. (Homilist.) Holy longings One of the best tests of a man’ s character will be found in his deepest and heartiest longings. You cannot always judge a man by what he is doing at any one time, for he may be under constraint which compel him to act contrary to his true self, or he may be under a transient impulse from which he will soon be free. He may for a while be held back from that which is evil, and yet he may be radically bad; or he may be constrained by force of temptation to that which is wrong, and yet his real self may rejoice in righteousness. A man may not certainly be pronounced to be good because for the moment he is doing good, nor may he be condemned as evil because under certain constraints he may be committing sin. A man’ s longings are more inward, and more near to his real self than his outward acts; they are more natural, in that they are entirely free, and beyond compulsion or restraint. As a man longeth in his heart, so is he. I. The saint’ s absorbing object. They long after God’ s judgments, His revealed will.1. The psalmist greatly reverenced the Word. All other books are at the best but as gold leaf, whereof it takes acres to make an ounce of the precious metal; but this book is solid gold; it contains ingots, masses, mines, yea, whole worlds of priceless treasure, nor could its contents be exchanged for pearls, rubies, or the “ terrible crystal” itself. Even in the mental wealth of the wisest men there are no jewels like the truths of revelation. 2. He intensely desired to know its contents. He was not so well able to get at the truth as we are, since he had not the life of Christ to explain the types, nor apostolic explanations to open up the symbols of the law; therefore he sighed inwardly, and felt a killing heartbreak of desire to reach that which he knew was laid up in store for him. He saw the casket, but could not find the key. 3. He wished to feed upon God’ s Word. The Word received into the heart changes us into its own nature, and by rejoicing in the decisions of the Lord we learn to judge after His judgment and to delight ourselves in that which pleases Him. 4. Doubtless, David longed be obey God’ s Word--he wished in everything to do the will of God without fault either of omission or of commission. He prays in another place, “ Teach me Thy law perfectly.” II. The saint’ s ardent longings.1. They constitute a living experience, for dead things have no aspirations or cravings. You shall visit the graveyard, and exhume all the bodies you please, but you shall find neither desire nor craving. Where the heart is breaking with desire there is life. 2. The expression represents a humble sense of imperfection. The apostle of the Gentiles said, “ Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect” ; and the man after God’ s own heart, even David, when he was at his best, and I think he was so when he was writing this blessed psalm, says not so much that he had obtained anything as that he longed after it, not so much that he had yet grasped it, but sighed for it: “ my soul breaketh for the longing that it hath.” 3. Furthermore, the expression of the text indicates an advanced experience. Augustine dwells upon this idea, for he rightly says, at first there is an aversion in the heart to God’ s Word, and desire after it is a matter of growth. The more full a man is of grace the more he hungers for grace. Strange it is to say so, but the paradox is true, the more he drinks, and the more he is satisfied and ceases to thirst in one sense, the more is he devoured with thirst after the living God. It is an advanced experience, then. 4. It is an experience which I cannot quite describe to you, except by saying that it is a bitter sweet; or, rather, a sweet bitter, if the adjective is to be stronger than the noun. There is a bitterness about being crushed with desire; it is inevitable that there should be, but the aroma of this bitter herb is inexpressibly sweet, no perfume can excel it. After all, a bruised heart knows more peace and rest than a heart filled with the world’ s delights. How safe such a soul is. III. A few cheering reflections. Methinks this morning some heart has been saying, “ There are comforting thoughts for me in all this. I am a poor thing, I have not grown much, I have not done much, I wish I had; but I have strong longings, I am very dissatisfied, and I am almost ready to die with desire after Christ.” My dear soul, listen--let this encourage you.1. God is at work in your soul. Never did a longing after God’ s judgments grow up in the soul of itself. Weeds come up of themselves, but the rarer kind of plants I warrant you will never be found where there has been no sowing: and this flower, called love-lies-bleeding, this plant of intense eagerness after God, never sprang up in the human breast of itself. God alone has placed it there. 2. The result of God’ s work is very precious. Thank Him for it. Though thou caner get no further than holy longing, be grateful for that longing. 3. Not only is the desire precious, but it is leading on to something more precious. “ The desire of the righteous shall be granted.” Rest you sure of that, and cry mightily to Him with strong faith in His goodness. 4. Meanwhile, the desire itself is doing you good. It is driving you out of yourself, it is making you feel what a poor creature you are, for you can dig no well in your own nature, and find no supplies within your own spirit. It is compelling you to look alone to God. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Psalms 119:22-24 Remove from me reproach and contempt; for I have kept Thy testimonies.Social contempt and conscious rectitude I. Social contempt (verse 22).1. Is a thing to be deprecated.2. Is a thing not always to be deserved. It is a characteristic of wicked society, that it condemns the good. II. Conscious rectitude (verses 23, 24). Contrast social contempt with conscious rectitude.1. The one is painful, the other pleasing.2. The one depressing, the other elevating. (Homilist.) Psalms 119:23 Princes also did sit and speak against me.1. It is a hard temptation when the godly are troubled by any wicked men; but much harder when they are troubled by men of honour and authority. (1) First, by reason of their place: the greater power they have, the greater peril to encounter with their displeasure; therefore saith Solomon, The wrath of a king is the messenger of death. (2) Next, because authorities and powers are ordained by God, not for the terror of the good, but of the evil. And therefore it is no small grief to the godly, when they find them abused to a contrary end; that where a ruler should be to good men like rain to the fields new mown; on the contrary, he becomes a favourer of evil men, and a persecutor of the good. Then justice is turned into wormwood; that which should bring comfort to such as fear God, is abused to oppress them. 2. And therefore, it should be accounted a great benefit of God, when He gives a people good and religious rulers. The Christians in the primitive Church, being sore troubled by the bloody persecutions of Nero and Domitian, thought it a great benefit unto them, when under Nerva the persecution was relented. Albeit he did not profess Christ with them, yet he did not persecute them. What then should we account of such a king, as is not only a protector of the Church, but a professor himself? so far from persecuting Christian religion; that for professing of it, many times hath his majesty been persecuted to the death, but blessed be the Lord, who hath given many glorious deliverances to His anointed. (Bp. Cowper.) Psalms 119:24 Thy testimonies also are my delight and my counsellors.These are two great benefits, which commonly men crave: Pleasure to refresh them; Counsel to govern them. David protests he found them both in the Word and sends all other, who would have them, to seek them there where he found them.1. As for joy and recreation of mind, commonly men seek it in other cisterns; but with no good success: for as a man in a hot fever is eased no longer by drinking strong drink, then he is in drinking of it; for then it seems to cool him, but incontinent it increaseth his heat; so is it with the troubled and heavy heart, which seeks comfort in external things; however, for a time they seem to mitigate the heaviness, they do but increase it. Only solid and permanent comfort must be drawn out of the fountains of the Word of God. 2. The other is wisdom, which without God’ s Word can never be obtained. As Jeremiah spake of the wicked in his time (Jeremiah 8:9). So is it true of all the wicked: The wisdom of this world is but foolishness. Achitophel his end, with innumerable more, may teach all men that he shall never be found wise who is not godly. The beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord. (Bp. Cowper.) Psalms 119:25 My soul cleaveth unto the dust: quicken Thou me according to Thy Word. Cleaving to the dust Several verses of this long psalm begin with the same words: “ My soul melteth away from very heaviness” ; “ my soul hath longed for Thy salvation” ; “ my soul is always in my hand” ; “ oh, let my soul live, and it shall praise Thee.” Often as the expression occurs it is the recognition from old time, and even under the old dispensation, of something in us, not imagination, not memory, not intellect, not even conscience; something which is real, important, and everlasting; something of which the health and disease, the welfare and adversity, the happiness and misery makes itself felt, can be marked and recorded, and is of vital moment to the being, the I, myself, I, of the immortal accountable man. I. A dire malady of the soul. It is not the occasional, but the habitual loss of interest in things spiritual. It is the inability ever or anyhow to hold conscious intercourse with Him who is our life. It is the hanging for hours over a prayer which will not speak; or, to take the commoner case, it is rather the acquiescing in that dumbness, treating it as a misfortune, or calling it a sin, yet going on in it as though a hardship or else a punishment, but in either view to be let alone and made the best of. It is the shelving of the Bible as a book which may have a voice for others, but which has no voice for us. It is the going about the daily business as a machine that has neither heart nor will in it. II. The possible causes of a condition so lamentable. Either the strength has been undermined, before any effort was made after God, by some evil habit of boyhood, youth, or manhood, fatal to moral and spiritual energy; or else the very virtue has gone out of the religion by the attempt to serve two masters, the one in name and appearance, the other in deed and in truth. But without this last and saddest supposition, there may have been at some point a definite failure in duty or affection which has given a shock to the better nature from which it has never recovered, and of which this paralysis of the higher being is the Nemesis and the retribution. Yet, again, without any such definiteness of cause and effect, there is much of explanation in that Egyptian taunt of old, “ Ye are idle, ye are idle,” in its bearing upon the secret life and the Godward relationship. Men who are vigorous in all else, in business or polities, in field sports or personal habits, are unmanly and effeminate in spiritual effort. III. The cry for help. “ My soul cleaveth to the dust;” and, though I was taken from the dust, and to dust shall return, yet God breathed into me afterwards a living soul, and that soul is not dust, and that soul must return to the God that gave it. Tell me, thou man of God, how to snap this chain, how to disengage this attachment of the God-breathed soul to the dust from which its mere shell and husk were taken. IV. The answer to the cry. The psalmist seems to have had but one answer to this request. It forms the last part of the text: “ Quicken Thou me; oh, quicken Thou me.” You see hew he felt that the thing impossible with men is possible with God. To cleave to the dust before God, consciously and purposely, in the sight of God, is at once to pray, to beseech Him to look upon you, and to call Him in to witness my misery, is to pray. We de not say--for it would be untrue--that the soul which has long cleaved to the dust will all at once spread her wings for the everlasting flight. It is not so. It would not be a moral doctrine to leave out of sight and mention efforts, daily possible relapses and frequent disappointments. Only we say, that which God has once done in quickening, God will do again, day by day; will de again and again without upbraiding; and will not leave you until He has done it effectually. (Dean Vaughan.) The soul reluctantly made fast to earth I. A confession. The psalmist felt that his mind had become sordid.1. One in such a state will neglect duty. It is a burden, because there is no pleasure felt in the performance.2. A state of relapse is generally marked by a heartless performance of those duties which are not entirely neglected.3. This state is always attended with a pressure of worldly care.4. The wandering believer must be the subject of small enjoyments. II. A prayer. III. The plea used by the psalmist in his guilty and gloomy circumstances. “ Quicken Thou me according to Thy Word,” according to Thy gracious promises. In making this plea, the psalmist discovered both his humility and his faith. IV. Conclusion.1. The subject gives us a humiliating picture of the human heart.2. The subject gives us enlarged views of the mercy of God, that He will make beings so depraved the objects of His affectionate regard. (D. A. Clark.) Quickening grace I. The psalmist’ s complaint. “ My soul cleaveth unto the dust.” This is the complaint of one:1. Conscious of the spirit of worldliness. Worldliness is a false relation to human creatures and to worldly things. (1) An unnatural thing--that the immortal should be loaded with thick clay. (2) A dishonourable thing--to subordinate the spirit to things and relations which it ought to use and rule. (3) A destructive thing. Being too much with the world, coveting it, finding our pleasure in it, forgetting its higher uses, we lose our spiritual insights, sensibilities, strivings, delights, and become of the earth earthy. To be carnally minded is death to all the nobler senses. 2. Conscious of the bondage of sorrow. Cleaving to the dust suggests sitting in dust and ashes, as Job did when he was overwhelmed with grief. If we loved the world less, many woes would cease to consume and exhaust us. If we thought more of the honour that cometh from God, we should be less troubled by the reproach of men; if we thought more of the treasures of the soul, we should be less afflicted by the moth and rust which dissolve material treasures; if we lived more in the higher world of thought and feeling, we should be less affected by the ebb and flow of an ever-changing world of shadows and echoes. II. The psalmist’ s appeal. “ Quicken Thou me according to Thy Word.” This appeal is to the right source.1. God quickens us by granting new insight into the highest truth. The perception of a great truth invigorates our whole nature (Psalms 36:9). 2. God quickens us by kindling in us a new affection to Himself and to whatever reflects Him. When the love of God is shed abroad in the heart, the power and tyranny of terrestrial life abate. 3. God quickens us by inspiring us with a new hope. (W. L. Watkinson.) Enlivening and invigorating I. Reasons why we should seek quickening.1. The deadening influence of the world.2. The influence of that which is actually sinful (verse 37).3. We are surrounded by deceivers (verses 87, 88).4. In seasons of affliction we are apt to fall into a dark, cold, dead state of mind (verse 107). II. Motives for seeking quickening.1. Because of what you are. Life is always aiming at more life.2. Because of what you ought to be--like Jesus Christ; He was full of life.3. Because of what you shall be. You are to be a pure spirit in heaven; be spiritual now.4. In order to obedience (verse 88).5. Because it will be your comfort (verse 107).6. As the best security against attacks of enemies (verses 87, 88). III. Some of the ways by which this quickening may be wrought in us. Of course the Lord Himself must do it. In prayer it must be sought, because by His power it must be wrought. God quickens His people:1. By His Word (verse50).2. By affliction (verse 107).3. By means of Divine comfort (verse 50). IV. Where are our pleas when we come before God to ask for quickening? What arguments shall we use?1. Use first the argument of your necessity. Whatever that necessity is, particularize it, as David does in verse 107.2. Plead the earnest desire that God has kindled in you (verse 40).3. Appeal to His righteousness.4. Plead His lovingkindness (verse 38).5. Plead His Word (verses 25, 107). (C. H. Spurgeon.) A cry from the dust It sounds like a paradox for the spiritual man to say that he is bound by the material, and cannot emancipate himself from it. A paradox, however, only at first sight, and only in seeming. For it is only the spiritual man who is sensible of the humiliations and the degradations of the material, and therefore impatient of them. If he were of the dust, he would be content to remain on the dust-level. He would be in his own element, satisfied with it, unconscious of any higher aspirations. It is a question of spiritual sensitiveness. This is why it is that in the diaries of the saintliest people you find the deadliest self-accusation. John Bunyan, in his “ Grace Abounding,” paints himself as a villain of the deepest dye for peccadilloes that would never have troubled an ordinary conscience. His spiritual nature was like the outer membrane of the eyeball, and the presence of an infinitesimal evil in his soul caused him the acutest pain. We seem, even the best of us, to be ever sinking back to our native element; the spiritual is ever reverting to the original animal. This, indeed, is the source of all our conflict. Our souls “ cleave unto the dust,” because we are dust. We are not, however, to despise and hold cheap even our corporeal parts. Matter is evil only when we sustain a wrong relation to it. “ First the natural, afterward that which is spiritual.” But then the spiritual must dominate the natural. When we take Christ fully into our hearts, the higher elements within us become regal, and the lower subside into their place. They are not suppressed. If they were, our manhood would be left incomplete. But they are subordinated. We are no longer “ carnally minded,” though the flesh is still with us. “ The law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus” introduces a new and regnant principle into the soul, to which the animal passions and fleshly instincts transfer their allegiance. And it is while this process is going on, and because it is going on, that such confessions as that of our text break from the struggling heart. We no more belong to the dust when we can make this confession and offer its accompanying prayer. It is the sign and the song of our uprising. By force of old habit we cling to the dust, but not with longing, rather with loathing; not with desire for it, but with passion for freedom from it. We are often like the miserable fly struggling to extricate it, s cloyed wings from the honey which is its lawful food, but to which it has been too passionately addicted. The poor thing wants to rise, it tries to soar, but it is, as it were, glued to the lower element, and will be suffocated in it, unless some friendly finger comes to the rescue. There is the picture of our condition. Fain would we ascend to the heights of spiritual communion, fain would we breathe the heavenly air and behold the vision of God, but our sins and foolishness cause us to “ cleave unto the dust.” But for us, too, as for Paul, there is the friendly aid. “ Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (J. Halsey.) Depression I. It is not a strange experience for believers to be in this depressed condition, the soul cleaving to the dust. Sometimes there may be physical causes connected with a man’ s state of health, and sometimes other providences of God are concerned in producing this state of things, but it is a stage in a man’ s spiritual history. There are many causes which have to do with it. Generally it is connected with indwelling sin. More particularly it arises in connection with the failure of faith on the part of believers. Looking at it from the side of God’ s providence, it is permitted by God just as a step in the believer’ s history; because it is necessary that the believer’ s history should include an enlarged acquaintance with himself, with his own insufficiency, with his own tendency to unbelief, and darkness, and sin. II. It is not characteristic of a believer to be contented in this condition. How should he be? If he is a believer he has faith in the living God, and in the power of a life-giving Christ. Now, can any man have a believing consciousness that there is this living and life-giving Christ, this Mediator, this Redeemer, and be contented with an experience which in so humiliating a way contrasts with Christ and the fit state of Christ’ s people? The believer has faith also in the life-giving Spirit and in the mission and work of the Holy Ghost in its peculiar power and gentleness and love. What it is, perhaps, he can hardly feel when his soul is cleaving to the dust; but he believes it. How can a man who believes this be content to go on with his soul cleaving to the dust? And, again, the believer has the conviction and persuasion that his proper home and portion are above; that there is a heaven on high containing all elements that are pure and suitable to the life and blessedness of God, and he is on the way to it, and his Lust is that, through God’ s mercy, he will reach the country he seeks. And with these experiences how can he be contented to lie in the dust, making no progress at least not feeling that he is making progress? Therefore he casts himself on God in prayer. III. There is a sure refuge for the believer with reference to this case of his. There is life for those who feel in themselves so much that looks like death. “ Quicken thou me” --give me life, cause me to live--“ according to Thy Word.” This cry is not merely a cry of distress. He has the Word which he can plead made known to him. What Word? There are many particular promises adapting the provisions of the Gospel to the experience of believers; but we should always have regard to the root promise when we betake ourselves to God. That promise was given to Abraham: “ I will be a God unto thee.” Therefore, he whose soul cleaves to the dust is met and satisfied by that great promise that out of an experience in itself no way good to us or glorifying to God may come lessons good for us and glorifying to God. Application:1. There is great reason for hopefulness in the condition of believers even when their souls cleave to the dust. There is comfort for the sorrowful, refreshing for the weary, strength for the weak, life for the faint, and forgiveness of sins for sinners. 2. There is great reason for earnestness. It is not a fitting thing that people should be contented while their souls are cleaving to the dust. There should be earnest and instant recourse to God, with the expectation that something very different from cleaving to the dust shall presently be ours. 3. There is a sure reward for those that seek the Lord. (R. Rainy, D. D.) Psalms 119:26I have declared my ways, and Thou heartiest me: teach me Thy statutes.A man of God alone with God The first lesson for man is, to know his God; the second is, to know himself; and as the unbeliever fails in the first, he fails in the second also, he does not know himself. He does not think much about himself--about his real self, the most important part of his being. For his body he caters freely, he can scarcely spend enough upon it; but he starves his soul. But a true believer knows himself. We are sure, from our text, that he does, for he would not declare his ways if he did not know them. But he has practised introspection, and looked within himself. He does not understand his own ways; he cannot always comprehend his own thoughts, or follow the devious wanderings of his own mind; but, still, he does know a good deal about himself; and when he goes before his God, he can truthfully say, “ I have declared my ways, and Thou heardest me.” Among other things, he has discovered his own ignorance, and hence he presents the prayer with which the text concludes, “ Teach me.” He is ignorant even of God’ s revealed will, so he prays, “‘ Teach me Thy statutes,’ O Lord! I know the Book in which they are recorded, and I can learn them in the letter; but do Thou teach them to me, in my spirit, by Thy Spirit, that I may know them aright.” I. So, first:, we see here a man of God alone with God; and we notice three things about him, he is making his case known: “ I have declared my ways” ; he is rejoicing in an audience which he has obtained: “ Thou heartiest me” ; and he is seeking a further blessing: “ Teach me Thy statutes.” I think the psalmist means this, “ My Lord, I have told Thee all; now, wilt Thou tell me all? I have declared to Thee my ways; now, wilt Thou teach me Thy ways? I have confessed to Thee how I have broken Thy statutes; wilt Thou not give me Thy statutes back again? I have owned my weakness; now, wilt Thou not strengthen me, that I may run in the way of Thy commandments?” II. Now let us turn to the man of God in public stating his testimony.1. First, we have here a man of God who has borne his testimony. He has spoken to man experimentally. You remember that remarkable expression of our Lord, “ Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on Me through” --what? “ through their word.” Then, is it their word? No, it is the Lord’ s, yet it is also theirs, for they have made it theirs by personal appropriation and experience of it. The truth of God never seems to have such vividness about it as when a man tells it out of his own soul. That is what this servant of God could say, “ I have declared my ways.” And he had not declared them with any view to vainglory, but only that he might glorify God. Neither had he spoken of himself except with the object of persuading others to walk in the ways of the Lord in which he had himself been so graciously led. 2. The next sentence teaches us that God had heard this man. What solemn work it is to preach if we have God for a hearer! And yet what a cheering thing it is that the Lord hears our testimony, and can confirm its truthfulness! 3. This man needed more teaching, so he prayed, “ Lord, teach me Thy statutes.” We must ourselves be continually making progress if we would lead others onward. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Psalms 119:27 Make me to understand the way of Thy precepts; so shall I talk of Thy wondrous works.The student’ s prayer I. The student’ s prayer. I hope that we are all students in the school of Christ--all disciples or scholars--and I trust we shall adopt the student’ s prayer as our own: “ Make me to understand the way of Thy precepts.” Prayer is to study what fire is to the sacrifice.1. The student’ s prayer deals with the main subject of the conversation which is to be that student’ s occupation, namely, the way of God’ s precepts. It is well for us to know exactly what the law teaches, and what the law designs; why we were made subject to its prescript, and how we may be delivered from its penalties. Great need too have we to understand the way of God’ s Gospel precepts--what these precepts are: “ repent,” “ believe,” “ be converted,” and the like; to be able to see their relation, where they stand, not as means to an end, but as results of Divine grace--commands but yet promises, the duty of man but yet the gift of God. The way of God’ s precepts! Does not that mean that we ought to be acquainted with the relative position which the precepts occupy, for it is very easy, unless God gives us understanding, to preach up one precept to the neglect of another. It is possible for a ministry and a teaching to be lop-sided, and those who follow it may become rather the caricatures of Christianity than Christians harmoniously proportioned. 2. Very obviously here a confession is implied. “ Make me to understand the way of Thy precepts.” It means just this. “ Lord, I do not understand it of myself. I am ignorant and foolish, and if I follow my own judgment--if I take to my own thinkings, I shall be sure to go wrong. Lord, make me to understand.” Who can put wisdom in the inward parts but the Lord? Or who can give understanding to the heart but God Most High? II. The occupation of the instructed man. When the Lord has taught a man the way of His precepts, it behoves him rightly to use his sacred privileges: “ So shall I talk of Thy wondrous works.” As a faithful teacher let him testify of God’ s works--His wondrous works. There are two works, especially, that you Christian people must talk about to others--the work of Christ for us and the work of the Holy Ghost in us. These are themes that will never be exhausted. Some men are far more interested in stating their own crotchets than in unfolding God’ s counsels. If we understand the way of God’ s precepts, acquire the language of it, get into the groove of it, then we shall talk with understanding; and there will be a harmony and a wisdom about our utterances which will be blest to the edification of the hearers. III. The intimate relation between the prayer of the student and the pursuit that he subsequently followed. “ Make me to understand the way of Thy precepts: so shall I talk of Thy wondrous works.” The connection lies partly in the enchantment of this knowledge and the passion to communicate it. A man who understands Christ and His mediatorial work, and the Spirit and His sanctifying work, cannot be silent. The fire once kindled, the flames will spread. “ Woe is me if I preach not the Gospel.” (C. H. Spurgeon.) The teacher must first be taught There is not really any grave duty a man can be called on to discharge, no responsible office he may be elected to fill, nor even any plan or purpose he lays it on his heart to accomplish, which does not require diligent preparation on his own part to fit himself, to train his faculties, and to discipline his mind. What you call unskilled labour may possibly be utilized by efficient officers, but unskilful labour is a sheer waste of power. How much more imperative the demand that we should be endowed with the requisite faculties and qualified by suitable instruction if we have any work to do for God, or any office, however humble, in the service of the great King! Zeal without knowledge would only betray us into reckless presumption. When called to talk of God’ s wondrous works, we ought not to rush upon that exercise at once unfitted and unprepared, but we should wait upon the Lord, that the eyes of our understanding may be enlightened, that our stammering tongues may be unloosed, and that our lips may be attuned to tell the noble tale in grateful strains. We must first obtain for ourselves an understanding of the way of the Lord’ s precepts before we can make it plain to others. He who tries to teach, but has never been taught himself, will make a sorry mess of it. He who has no understanding, and yet wants to make others understand, must assuredly fail. Some there are who cannot teach and will not learn, and it is because they will not learn that they cannot teach. I believe aptness for being taught is at the bottom of aptness to teach. The psalmist had both. He says, “ Make me to understand the way of Thy statutes.” There he would be taught. “ Then,” saith he, “ I shall talk of Thy wondrous works.” There he would be teaching. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The Spirit of God gives understanding of the Word I remember once I was travelling in Germany--I was a student in one of the universities there--and was making a tour of certain caves with some companions. One day we met the village postman. He said, “ Would you not like to see a cave that is not down in the guide book?” We said, “ Yes” ; so away we struck through the brush and came to the cave. It was dark as midnight. He said, “ It is perfectly beautiful. Every formation is an altar of the Druidical times,” and so forth and so on. “ Look curl there is a hole right there, and nobody has ever found the bottom of it.” We looked up; we were afraid we would be the first to find the bottom. There was nothing at all pleasant about it; everything was dark and uncanny. But our guide just took a bit of magnesium and lit it, and suddenly the dark, cold, forbidding, dangerous place became luminous, and the stalactites came down from the ceiling to meet the stalagmites as they came up from the floor. Every one was an altar, not a Druidical altar, as they supposed, but an altar built by the hand of God. It was a place of marvellous beauty. It is just so with the Word of God. How often we come to a passage which looks dark, forbidding, and dangerous. You are often afraid that you will fall into some pitfall, but just look up to God in prayer, and let that passage be illuminated with the light of the Holy Ghost, and it becomes full of beauty, transcendent and glorious. (B. A. Torrey, D. D.) Psalms 119:29 Remove from me the way of lying: and grant me Thy law graciously.Lying I. The faculty of lying. Man has a faculty for misrepresenting facts and for deceiving men. The mere possession of this faculty is not necessarily wrong; all depends upon the motives that inspire it, and the uses to which it is directed. II. The professity of lying. Most venal lies spring from the following wrong states of heart.1. Fear.2. Vanity.3. Greed.4. Ambition. III. The habit of lying.1. Popular. How rare are true men in this world of shams! 2. Dangerous. It is inimical to moral health, beset with perils, and leading to moral ruin. (Homilist.) But had not David the law already? No doubt he wanted not the Book of the Law: he heard it, he read it, he professed it; yea, someway he understood it. What, then, is it he craves? Surely, that the law might be so imprinted in his heart, that it might abolish that natural vanity, and deceit of sin, which carrieth him to the offence of God. A necessary petition for these days; wherein the knowledge of the Word is exceeding great, but the zeal, spiritual life, and feeling of the hearts of men is not answerable unto it. They think all is welt, in that publicly they profess it. They hear it with their ears; they speak of it with their mouths; they read it in their books finely bound; though in that duty many fail also. But certainly when they think they have it, they want it; so long as it is not printed in the table of their heart, to frame their motions, affections and actions conformable to it. And this is it which David here craves. (Bishop Cowper.) Psalms 119:30-32I have chosen the way of truth: Thy judgments have I laid before me. The commendable past and the desirable future in life I. The commendable in the past.1. The best choice has been made. The way of truth is the way of reality, in contradistinction to the way of sham and fiction. 2. The best guide has been followed. God’ s Word is the only true guide. 3. The best cause has been adhered to. Whatever else he had given up and forsaken, he had stuck to God’ s testimonies. “ If ye continue in My Word, then are ye My disciples.” II. The desirable in the future. “ I will run,” etc. “ If ye love Me, keep My commandments.”1. The pursuance of the Divine law is essential to human happiness. Man can find no happiness in any way but in the way of God’ s commandments. 2. The enlargement of the human heart is essential to the pursuance of the Divine law. The moral heart of man is sadly contracted by selfishness and materialism. Love alone can expand it, and make it wide enough to embrace God and His universe. (Homilist.) The way of truth I. The way of truth. It is the way of God; for the Lord is the God of truth: it is the way of Christ; for, said He, “ I am the way,” etc. it is the way of the Spirit; for “ the Spirit beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth.” And as all that we know of God--of God who made us by His power, of Christ who redeemed us by His blood, of the Spirit who renews us by His grace--is contained in Scripture, the way of truth” is the way of God’ s Word. “ Sanctify them through Thy truth: Thy Word is truth.” II. To choose the way of truth.1. To determine, with entire honesty of intention, and with full purpose of heart, that you will walk, as far as you know it, in the way of God’ s precepts--entertaining, not only a confident hope, but cherishing a firm assurance, that so doing you shall attain, sooner or later, when the days of your appointed time are past, to the end of God’ s promises. 2. To be careful that, so far as lies in our power, we act out what we have determined; that we do not, like too many, ask one thing in our prayers, and seek another in our practice; that we do not through the after stages engage in any occupation, or devote ourselves to any amusement, or join ourselves to any society, by which our early approach to God may be made to seem hypocrisy, and our very petitions be turned into sin. 3. A continual dependence upon the help of God, as promised for the sake of Christ, and conveyed by the influence of the Holy Spirit; and not only a continual dependence upon it, but a constant expectation of it; and not only a constant expectation of it, but an earnest and frequent entreaty for it. (T. Dale, M. A.) Psalms 119:31I have stuck unto Thy testimonies: O Lord, put me not to shame.The sticking to God’ s testimonies I. What the psalmist means by God’ s testimonies.1. The children of God do not cleave to the bare letter of the Word--the mere vowels and consonants and syllables of Scripture, but to such testimonies as the Lord Himself is pleased to drop into their heart and conscience through the medium of the Scriptures of truth. Now, before we can receive the Scriptures as a revelation from God, it must be shown to us by the Holy Spirit that they were inspired by Himself. 2. But we come to the particular testimonies which God reveals to His chosen. (1) One of the first testimonies that God seals upon the heart and conscience of His children is a manifestation of His own being--I mean His spiritual being; some discovery of Himself as He really is, some manifestation of Himself as He has revealed Himself in the Scriptures of truth. (2) But when we come to a more particular description of these testimonies, we may divide them into two grand classes, testimonies against us, and testimonies for us, that is, in the way of experience. (3) But there are other testimonies of another nature--not so much testimonies against, or testimonies for our interest in covenant mercies, as testimonies of Divine instruction. The Lord has said, for instance, in His Word, that “ the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.” That is a testimony from the mouth of God; and how does the soul first receive, and then stick to that testimony? By the opening up of the depths of corruption in our heart, by the breaking up of the secret fountains of iniquity, that great deep that coucheth beneath. Again, God has said in His Word, “ I, the Lord, hate evil.” Now, this testimony the Lord speaks out of the Word into the hearts of His chosen. He writes it as with a sunbeam upon the consciences of His living family that He abhors evil; and this He transfers from the Word, and stamps upon a man’ s conscience; and he who has never had that solemn truth stamped upon his conscience is destitute of the knowledge of the only true God. II. He who sticks to God’ s testimonies will not be put to shame.1. Sometimes the child of God is afraid that he will be put to shame in the hour of death; lest his religion in that solemn moment should be sifted clean away, and his hope should prove a delusion; and therefore he says, “ I have stuck unto Thy testimonies; O Lord, put me not to shame in that solemn hour when I must stand before Thee, without any one to help, or anything to hope in, except Thyself.” Now, he that sticks to God’ s testimonies will not be then put to shame. He will not die in despair, but he will die in the fear and love of God; or, at any rate, will die with a good hope through grace in His mercy, with some rest of soul, and some sweet confidence that he is His. 2. Sometimes the child of God is afraid of being put to shame openly before men, by being overcome by some sin; but he says, “ I have stuck to Thy testimonies.” “ Thou hast said, ‘ I hate evil’ --I believe it, Lord. Thou hast shown me my ignorance, and inability to keep myself--I believe it, Lord. Thou hast warned me by solemn rebukes; Thou hast hedged me up by inward reproofs; Thou hast shown me what I am, and what there is in my heart;--I believe it, Lord. Let no sin entangle me, no disgrace overtake me, no corruption prevail against me. Let not the enemies of truth shout, ‘ Ah, ah! Ah, ah!’ against me. ‘ O Lord, put me not to shame.’” 3. The soul is sometimes afraid lest a furnace will come, when all his religion shall be proved to be untrue, when Satan shall say, “ It is all a deception; it was not the manifestation of God to thy soul; mercy never was received; it was but excited imagination; it was but the heated working of thy carnal mind.” The soul says, “ I have stuck unto Thy testimonies; O Lord, put me not to shame. I cleave to Thy work, I hang upon it, I have nothing else to cleave to. O Lord, put me not to shame. (J. C. Philpot.) Psalms 119:32I will run the way of Thy commandments, when Thou shalt enlarge my heart.Liberty of heart I. Consciousness of actual captivity. The feeling may be illustrated by the case of a messenger in time of war charged by a great king with an important commission, who on his way is seized by the king’ s enemies, disarmed, stripped, bound, and led away in an opposite direction; longing to be free that he may do his master’ s will, and appealing to his lord very much as the psalmist cries to God in this place, “ Help me, and set me free, that I may do Thy will and accomplish Thine orders.” There is hope in such a state, A man who wishes that he could do God’ s will has taken the first step towards life. The conscience has got free and stretches out its suppliant hands for help; the affections are, however, still in bondage, and the tyrant power of long-formed habits of sin holds the soul oven while it turns its longing eyes to the sweet paths of righteousness, from which, a slave to his own iniquity, it is being borne away. The prisoner in yonder dungeon may madly tear at his chains, or furiously beat his poor flesh against the solid walls that hold him in, but he is not more powerless to snap the strong iron, or wrench open the ponderous stones, than is a poor sinner to break his own bondage. But there is One who can help, One only, One able to help so effectually, that the chained limbs in their delighted freedom shall actually run. That One is God. II. A. Consciousness of narrowness of affection and desire after God. The psalmist craved for more freedom of faith; for warmer and stronger love towards God. There are few Christians who will not have the same feeling, and will not be conscious how small and low is their state of grace; how poor their service to their God, compared to what it should be, and what it might be with God to help them. Nor will it be difficult to trace, in some degree, the causes of this narrowness. With a man it may be a too engrossing occupation in earthly business, too predominant and absorbing a care for earthly success, limiting the times of prayer and interrupting that free and full communion with God without which no growth in holiness is possible. With a woman it may be the troubling about “ many things,” such as kept Martha of old from the feet of Jesus: the absorption of thoughts in her children, her household, and her daily cares. Here, again, our hope is in God. He can enlarge our hearts by more perfectly revealing His own blessed self within them. He enters into the soul, and the soul grows with His presence. His glory and greatness and beauty snap the restraining bonds, and stretch the heart in which He dwells till it becomes capable of peace and joy unknown before. (G. Garbett, M. A.) The secret of moral progress “ The way of Thy commandments.” To many people not an attractive road! It is suggestive of fences, and trespassing boards, of curbs and restraints. “ The way of Thy commandments.” Through the Christian Scriptures the way becomes steeper and more uninviting to the natural man as the centuries move along. The gradient of the moral ideal becomes increasingly precipitous. You may get up the lower and earlier slopes, but when you get to Amos and Hoses and Isaiah the track becomes exceeding steep, until when you get to the Lord Himself the radiant ideal lifts itself sheer and clear as the Matterhorn. “ I looked then after Christian to see him go up the hill, where I perceived he fell from running to going, and from going to clambering upon his hands and his knees because of the steepness of the place.” Yes, the way becomes very steep as we draw near the Lord! Take the teachings of our Lord, map out the way of His commandments, make a contour map of the road, and you will find that you are face to face with a shuddering ascent, an ascent so stiff and steep that some declare it to be the dream of a visionary, the moral prospectus of a fanatic, proclaiming imperatives which are unpractical and impracticable. The moral ideal of Jesus is just overwhelming; so much so, that many do with it as the Swiss did in the olden times with the Alps, build their houses with their backs to the towering heights, and they face the lowlands of human expediency and moral commonplace. Now, let me remind you that the word “ heart” has a much wealthier significance than we commonly attach to it to-day. The symbolic significance of the word in our own day is confined almost exclusively to the emotions. If we say that a man has a big heart we do not refer to the range of his thought, but to the quality of his sympathies. If we say that a man has no “ heart” we mean that the channels of feeling are as dry as a river-bed in time of drought. Nay, we even bring the brain and the heart into distinct and isolated positions. We say that a man has not very much brain, but that he has a very big heart. Now all these modern distinctions must be laid aside when we seek the interpretation of the Word of God. I am not aware that the word “ brain” or “ brains” ever occurs in the Bible. According to the primitive physiology of those times the heart was the mysterious seat of thought as well as of feeling. The heart was “ the seat of man’ s collective energies, the very focus of his personal life.” Moral speed will come with spiritual enlargement. “ I will run when Thou shalt enlarge my heart.” When Thou shalt enlarge my thought. Many of us go slowly because we do not see far. There is no long range of purpose in our eyes, and therefore our feet are sluggish. Our imaginations are not peopled with the glories of attainment, and therefore there is no eager haste in our steps. Napoleon got his men over the Alps by richly sharing with them the promises and purposes of the campaign. Their eyes were filled with the resplendent riches of Italian cities even while they were contending with the stupendous obstacles of the trackless wastes of snow. Their thoughts included the sunny Italian plains as well as the grimness of the immediate toil, and that forward-cast of the eyes gave strength and inspiration to their labours. “ I will run the way of Thy commandments when Thou shalt enlarge my” thought, when my mind is filled with Thy blessed purposes, when even now the eyes of my imagination rove over the celestial fields, and when even now I feel something of the warmth and liberty of the coming noon. The ultimate purpose is not obscure. “ All things that I have heard of My Father I have made known unto you.” “ We have the mind of Christ.” Our minds may be expanded to take in the glorious purpose, and eyes that are held in that vision will most assuredly communicate buoyancy and speed to the feet. Look at the Apostle Paul. The far-off goal was always flinging its kindly ray upon the immediate task. Aye, that is the enlarged mind, which in its inclusive range gives hospitality to the ultimate, and brings the glory of the far-away to relieve the burdensomeness of the present task. That’ s the way to get over the hill, and to get over it at a run! What is the philosophy of it? It is this. Small and exclusive thinking is like a closed and tiny room, in which the inmates become asphyxiated, and reduced to lassitude and languor. Large thinking oxygenates the powers, it lets in the vitalizing wind from the far-stretching moors of truth, all the faculties are toned and braced into strenuousness, and they can move in difficult ways with ease. It may be, too, that further enlargements are required before the desired speed is obtained. “ I will run the way of Thy commandments when Thou shalt enlarge my motions.” The mill will not work if the mill-race is empty! The weakness of many a life is explained by the poverty of its emotions; the emotional energy is only that of a reduced and languid stream, and there is no power to run the mill. There are lives that are seemingly destitute of any great capacity to be deeply stirred. Their storms are only “ storms in a tea-cup” ; they have nothing of the terrific movement of the disturbed sea. They cannot be moved into mighty indignation like the Apostle Paul; “ who is made to stumble and I burn not?” They cannot be constrained into passionate love;” I could wish that myself were separated from Christ for my brethren.” They cannot be upheaved by sullen sorrow, nor made to dance in ecstatic joy. Now see the consequence. We must not expect much speed where there is little feeling. The insensitive are not the strenuous, rather are they the victims of sluggishness and sleep. The man who has no emotional wealth will never be found among the pioneer runners in the moral way. He requires enlargement before he can run! And this very enlargement is provided for us in the grace of God. “ I will take away the stony heart and I will give thee a heart of flesh.” That miracle has been performed in innumerable lives. Love has been born where indifference reigned. And so it is also with the third primary element in the contents of the heart, the factor of the will. Many of us crawl and faint in the paths of the moral ideal because our wills are weak and irresolute. We can run for a while, but we fail in the “ long run.” We are good for a hundred yards, but we are spent at the mile. We begin well, but the end is very near. Our wills are something like the batteries of those portable electric night-lights, good for so many flashes, and good for nothing more. We have volitional spasms, succeeded by a forceless lethargy. We shall “ run the way” of His commandments when God shall enlarge our wills. And that is just one of the wonderful resources of grace. “ It is God that worketh in you to will,” to enlarge your will, to fill it with all needful power, to make it adequate to the attainment of the far-off goal. We shall be “ strengthened with all might by His Spirit in the inner man,” and “ our sufficiency” shall be “ of God.” (J. H. Jowett, M. A.) Soul-enlargement I. Its attainment.1. It consists in-- (1) The true growth of our social sympathies.(2) The true growth of our religious sympathies. 2. It is attainable. Thousands have experienced it. Hearts once encased in sensuality and selfishness, have by the love of Christ widened so as to grasp the world in its sympathies. The narrow-souled atheist has expanded into the greatness of a saint; the mean temporizer has become a moral hero, battling the world for the right. The churlish miser has bounded with an unconquerable love of his race. II. Its development.1. Man is under law, binding him to purity of thought and rectitude of feeling. 2. A willing obedience to this law is the chief end of man. 3. Where this soul-enlargement is, this obedience will be realized. III. Its author. “ Thou.” All the influences of nature, the events of Providence, the means of grace are for the enlargement of the soul. A growing soul is the most interesting object in the universe. (Homilist.) Heart-enlargement The true Broad Church is that in which an enlarged obedience to God’ s commandments is brought about by an enlarged experience of His love; and His commandments and His love are both of them exceeding broad. True spiritual life will widen the soul in its possessions, its perceptions, its will, and its love; it will extend our powers of having, of knowing, of willing, and of loving; and, in one or other of these four, most of our life is included.1. How very little we possess, both in outward and inward things. Our hands are small and the world is large. “ Tell me how I can make my broad acres more broad,” is the request of the rich man. “ Tell me how I can make my narrow holding less narrow,” is the cry of the poor. But a life in God makes us rich, for “ all things are yours; whether Paul, or Apollos,” etc. “ Blessed are the meek; for they shall inherit the earth.” 2. How trifling is our knowledge. We know but little of things in this world, with all our sciences and study, and we know much less about God, and glory, and immortality, and the spirits which live outside the tent of this mortal flesh, or of any of those things which “ eye hath not seen, nor ear heard.” But we believe that for those whom God enlarges, there is an unspeakable increase in the perceptive powers of the soul; they are taught things that are hidden from the wise and prudent. There is knowledge for the simple and lowly ones; for those who, in the spiritual strength they have derived from God, run in the way of His commandments. Looking into the Father’ s face, and into the Saviour’ s heart, the soul can say (John 17:3). And with the knowledge there comes the aspiration (Ephesians 3:17). 3. How little is our will-power. We often want to do right, and the force of habits or of grooves is too strong for us. We have not enough momentum to carry us out or enough moral force to deny the past and to assert the future. The only remedy is the Divine enlargement of heart which comes from the visitation of the Spirit. We carry our brokenness to God; we put our helpless will at His feet, and He energizes it, and sends us back from the altar-steps able to say, “ I delight to do Thy will, O my God.” 4. How small is our capacity for forgiving. Only those who have the Spirit within them, energizing them, can truly love at all. Again, we fall at the Lord’ s feet, and tell Him we have no power even to be civil to some people, much less to love them; scarcely power to put up the weapons of revenge against some; and even to those whom, like the publicans and Pharisees and sinners, we love because they love us, we have not been able to make an adequate return for the low they have lavished upon us. Then God teaches us that there lies in Him the power of enlarging the human affections, and He enlarges our hearts that we, “ being rooted and grounded in love,” --not only in the experimental realization of His love to us, but also in the experimental living out of our love to Him, and to all that He has made and given us,--are able to “ run the way of His commandments.” For that is His new commandment, “ that we love one another.” (J. Rendel Harris.) To do more, we must first of all be more You may see a little child trying to lift a heavy weight, and you tell it that it must wait till its muscles are stronger: it must wait till it has “ become.” This was the way at the beginning in conversion: “ dead works” means that in us there does not dwell force or power to lift the great weight of the commandment or righteousness of God; hence they are useless or stupid works. When you find in your heart your inability to fulfil the Divine commandment, and have not the strength and power you want, though all day trying to lift the heavy weight, you come to God and say, “ It is plain that, as I am, I cannot live out this righteousness, and I come for a new life to live it out. I must have Thine own strength.” Then we understand our Lord’ s saying, “ Except a man be born again,” etc. (J. Rendel Harris.) The successful race I. An attainable object. The city of God, the holy Jerusalem, whose walls are salvation, and whose gates are praise (Revelation 21:10; Isaiah 60:18). II. A way or road along which to proceed.1. The commandments of God are universal in their application; none are exempt from their obligations. 2. They may be designated a “ way,” because they describe a course of conduct, a line of duty, and mark the bounds of good and evil, right and wrong. III. A swift approach towards that which we are anxious to attain. “ I will run.”1. Here is the expression of decision and resolution. How necessary is this for the Christian l How small must his progress be, if any, without it! 2. Here, you see, diligence and earnestness are required: running implies exertion, labour, toil. 3. Here is rectitude of principle, as well as stability of character. 4. Courage and fortitude are both required to ensure your progress towards the holy city. 5. Perseverance is absolutely necessary (Matthew 10:22; Hebrews 10:33-38). It is not the race of a day, or a year; but through the entire course of your life. (R. Treffry.) Heart-enlargement In these words we see the connection between theology and morality. I. There is a heart-relationship between man and God. God is perpetually awakening some dormant energies of our spirits, by which all past achievements live in present efforts and productivities. Glorious is that heart-relationship which there is between man and God. II. Man’ s heart-enlargement is entirely of God. Men, and books, and events are means in God’ s hands of waking all the germinal glories of the human heart, which is in eternal connection with the Divine. Our successive heart-enlargements have been the results of Divine visitations. Our Father works hitherto, and therefore we work. III. On-pressing obedience proceeds from the spiritual expansiveness which God alone produces by His operations within us. (W. R. Percival.) Enlargement of heart the preparation for obedience I. The delightful spiritual state contemplated by the psalmist.1. Emancipation from the thraldom of sin. 2. Deliverance from temptations and afflictions. 3. The expansion of the understanding, and the attainment of just and comprehensive views on all matters relating to our salvation and duty. 4. The love of God shed abroad in the heart. II. This blessed state of heart will cause a corresponding course of action.1. Deliverance from guilt and condemnation brings with it power to serve God. 2. Some of the most valuable lessons imparted by the great Teacher are learned in the school of affliction; and often, after having ourselves suffered temptation, we are the better able to strengthen our brethren. 3. Expansion of understanding in the things of God brings with it increased obligation to “ run the way of His commandments.” 4. The manifestation of pardoning love to the believer in Jesus enables him to love God in return. Without this, our obedience may be that of a servant, but cannot he that of a child. Love is the fulfilling of the law. (L. H. Wiseman.) A heart enlarged The occupation of the heart is the great thing in religion, not because, the heart being mastered, other parts may be overlooked, for religion is the nourisher and not the despiser of intellect, but simply because, in the first place, until the heart is carried there can be no real conversion, for the converted man loves God, and love is from the heart, and because, in the second place, the conquest of the heart involves as a natural and necessary consequence the conquest of the remainder of the man. I. Supposing that by the heart, the whole soul, with all its powers and affections, is intended, how comes it to be true that God by His grace enlarges the soul? We take a man’ s understanding. We are accustomed to think and to say, that through busying himself with scientific inquiries, through all these processes of discipline which are furnished by the study of abstruse and sublime things, through converse with history and with the writings of illustrious men, through the exercising itself on those difficult and unsolved problems which are presented by the mysteries of nature and the fortunes of nations, we are accustomed to believe that by these and similar means the human understanding may be made stronger and more comprehensive. And we are far enough from underrating these prescribed modes of enlarging the mind. But, nevertheless, we are clear upon the point, that nothing more enlarges the understanding than the grace which God pours in upon it when He is engaged in carrying on to perfection the work of sanctification. For, if it be the contemplation of noble and majestic things which causes the understanding to shoot up its stature, and to amplify itself on the right hand and on the left, so that the mind remains dwarfish through not being brought into contact with gigantic truth, where will you find us such a nourisher, such a magnifier of the understanding, as religion, seeing that through the operations of God’ s grace there is a comparative abandonment of a survey of the created, and a fastening of the gaze on the Creator Himself, and the spirit is carried into a region inaccessible to an unconverted man, and is engaged in climbing truths which are never surmounted by the loftiest intelligence, and thus brought precisely into that intercourse with the mighty and the colossal, which tells most on its powers, quickening them into rapid growth, and bringing to light unsuspected resources? God is so magnificent, so wonderful, that it must be an effort to the soul to take in any discoveries which He makes of Himself; but the very effort will be an improving and invigorating thing. The soul will grow, through her strivings to embrace the infinite; the understanding will dilate as more and more of Deity presents itself to the grasp; and thus, from the beginning to the end, God is enlarging the heart. It is one great characteristic of a righteous man that he is gradually conforming his own will to the will of his Maker. It would be Christian perfection to have no will but God’ s will; and though we do not say that this perfection is actually obtained by any of the righteous on the earth, yet there will be a continual advance towards the attainment, so that the identification of wills, if not in every respect complete, will daily become more and more accurate. And a man’ s will being thus gradually exchanged for God’ s, there must be going forward an enlargement of the will. II. You will not require much proof that the running the way of God’ s commandments follows the enlargement of the heart. The enlarged heart includes, as we have shown you, an enlarged understanding and an enlarged will. The enlargement of the understanding supposes you more disposed to follow only what is good. The former, therefore, is the same thing as our discerning more and more of the demands of God’ s law; the latter is the same thing as our determining to act on the discernment. But what is this, save in so many words an enlarged heart producing an ampler obedience? The understanding is enlarged, so that we see more of what is demanded; the will is enlarged, so that we resolve on conforming ourselves to those discoveries of the understanding; and if we both find out more and more of what is to be done, and move more in the course which we ascertain to be right, then we are clearly advancing in the work of obedience. And if, yet further, both these results are to be traced to the heart’ s enlargement as a cause, who can avoid discovering the force of the connection--“ I will run the way of Thy commandments, when Thou shalt enlarge my heart” ? (H. Melvill, B. D.) The secret of speed This was the language of one who did not run; and many still lag behind. We are far more in danger of standing still than of running ourselves out of breath. Most of us have reason to be ashamed of the defects of our obedience, the meanness of our sacrifices, the meagreness of our work, the formalism of our worship.1. The enlargement of the heart is the secret of speed. It implies an increase of light, insight, love, trust, hope, gladness, God touching our spirit anew, and awakening it to a higher and fuller life in Himself. 2. Note how such an enlargement of the heart conduces to a prompter and more acceptable obedience. (1) We may find ourselves impeded by the nature of the path on which we walk. The path of a perfect obedience is high and difficult. What, then, is to be done? Let us seek the solution of the difficulty in the strengthening of the soul; let us crave more of the cherub’ s illumination, more of the seraph’ s fire, and we shall find the path of perfection to be what the angels find it--a summer path of flowers. (2) A traveller may be hindered by obstructions on the road. So the Christian pilgrim finds a variety of trials to be stumbling-blocks in the heavenly pathway. And we are tempted to think that the removal of these barriers is all that is required. But our text is framed on another philosophy. The psalmist had trials and difficulties, personal, domestic, and political; but he does not plead for the removal of these: he simply pleads for a larger heart. Let it please God to enlarge our soul with fresh affection and heroism, and we shall run through a troop and leap over a wall. (3) The pilgrim is impeded by burdens he may have to carry. Riches, honours, pleasures, friend-ships--these get too much hold upon us, and spoil our speed. Are these embarrassing things of earth to be renounced, to be laid aside? It may be well from time to time to chasten earthly desire; but the loftiest teaching of Christianity does not promise spiritual progress through the reduction of material interests and relations. And this was the view of the psalmist. For the acceleration of our speed we do not need less of this world’ s goods and honours, but more inward grace and force. (4) The racer is impeded by superfluous garments. “ The sin which doth so easily beset” is the chief entanglement and arrestment. The unmastered corruption of our hearts fetters us most; like a garment it encircles us, wraps us round. There is but one remedy for this--fresh and fuller spiritual power. A new heart, and ever new, disencumbers of the besetting sin, and gives us the secret of speed. We need not ask for a lower path, a smoother path, or a shorter path to heaven, but for a soul fuller of spiritual enthusiasm; then shall the rough places be smooth, the crooked paths straight. (W. L. Watkinson.) The true way of going to heaven We are to run. It is not wise, right, or safe to live coldly and loosely. Old Donne says, “ Let me go upon crutches, so I go to heaven.” But there are two objections to going to heaven that way. First, no man chooses a pair of crutches when he is offered a pair of wings. No one, surely, ought to go to heaven slowly, painfully, when he can go triumphantly. And the second objection is, that those who go upon crutches hardly get to heaven. “ Lest that which is tame be turned out of the way.” A halting Christian is more likely to be turned out of the way than to continue unto the end; for any trivial thing in the path sends him sprawling on all fours. Away with such tardiness and precariousness! We are to march as conquerors; we are to return with joy upon our heads; we are to mount with eagles--our spirit regal, our mood heroic, our step unfaltering. (W. L. Watkinson.) The secret of power and progress Our progress is not regulated by the state of things about us, but by the fact and intensity of our spiritual life. Great faith, high resolve, and glowing love go over Jordan dry-shod. All difficulties dwindle as the soul expands. Bitter mysteries are solved by a simpler trust. Barren branches blossom and bend as the roots of our life are enriched. Grace abounding, a double portion of the Spirit, the love of God shed abroad in the heart, reawakening hunger and thirst after righteousness, the second blessing leading to the third and so on to infinity--here is the consolation and hope of the saints. Strengthened with strength in our soul, we shall trip no more, crawl no more, stand still no more, but run in the path of life, and “ Even in running think ourselves too stow.” If our heart has become faint and cold, we know what to do. When the fire went out on the altar of the Greeks, it was relighted by the beams of the sun. Let us bring our heart into fresh contact with the purging Fire, the quickening Flame, and difficulty and failure shall be things of the past. (W. L. Watkinson.) Speedy obedience Promptness is one of the brightest excellencies in faith’ s acting. Delay spoils all. Some one asked Alexander to what he owed his conquests, and he said, “ I have conquered because I never delayed.” While the enemy were preparing he had begun the battle, and they were routed before they knew where they were. After that fashion faith overcomes temptation. She runs in the way of obedience, or rather she mounts on the wings of eagles, and so speeds on her way. With regard to the things of God, our first thoughts are best; considerations of difficulty entangle us. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Psalms 119:33-36 Teach me, O Lord, the way of Thy statutes; and I shall keep it unto the end. Ethical instruction I. Ethical instruction is instruction in duty. There is no knowledge so important as the knowledge of our obligations to ourselves, to society, and to God. Scientific instruction is nothing to this, even theological instruction is not to be compared to this in importance. Ethical instruction is the great want of man. This instruction is here represented as instruction in the “ statutes,” the law, “ commandments, testimonies.” All words representing the same thing--duty. II. Ethical instruction is to be sought of God. There is no teaching so difficult as effectual moral teaching. Men are more disposed to learn anything rather than their duty--history, science, philosophy, anything. Hence God alone can effectually teach it. III. Ethical instruction is to be sought of God in order to be practised. Why does the author of these words pray for God to instruct him in His commandments? In order that he might speculate in moral science and talk eloquently on such subjects? No; but in order that he might “ keep it unto the end,” “ observe it with my whole heart,” “ go in the path of Thy commandments.” Moral knowledge is to be practised. (Homilist.) The Divine Teacher and scholar 1. What be these statutes? (1) As a statute-law the Word written sets down limits and rules, how far we are to go, and what to do, and leave undone. (2) As statutes are enforced with rewards and penalties, so are the Lord’ s precepts, in keeping of which is great reward, and no less danger in transgressing any of them. 2. Whose be they? (1) God is the Author of them all. (2) He is the principal object or subject-matter of them. (3) He is the preserver and maintainer of them. (4) They are His by eminency, for the excellence and perfection of them, and to distinguish them from all the laws and statutes of men. 3. Why doth David call the Word the way of God’ s statutes? (1)A metaphor, implying-- (a)That we are all travellers here in a strange country (Hebrews 11:13-14). But the way we know not, nor can man or angel teach us the way, unless God show it to us, as He did to Adam, who could lose his way, but of himself could never find it. (b) That God hath made known the way in His Word; called the way, because it points us the way, as also because it leads us to heaven and happiness, as a way tends to some end, or intended place. (c) That this way and Word of God must be known of us, as the way must be of a traveller. And therefore as travellers, and as David here, we must be ever asking after the way. (d) That as a traveller must keep the beaten and high-way, so must these statutes be pathed and trodden of all the travellers of heaven; neither must we turn out of this way to the right or left hand. (e) That whosoever are out of this way, and transgress these statutes, they wander from the God of peace, and from life, are out of God’ s protection, and liable to all the curses of the law, as men out of the king’ s highway are out of the king’ s protection. Hence it is said of wicked men (Psalms 14:3). These things lie in the metaphor. (2) Then for the singularity of this way: he saith, Thy way, not ways; for God’ s way is but one, but by-paths are many. Many are the sciences, and other knowledges worthy our labour and pains; but David above all desires the knowledge of this one and only way of God and of salvation. 4. Why doth David desire to be taught of God? (1) David had good means, and was most diligent in the use of them; he was a diligent reader, and spent nights and days in meditation of the Word; but yet to all these, and above all these, he desires God’ s teaching, without which all these are in vain. (2) He knows that all other teachers can but teach the ear; God alone teacheth and openeth the heart (Acts 16:14). And whereas Satan and wicked men may have a great deal of speculative knowledge, and go to hell, he desires an inward teacher, and to be inwardly taught by the teaching of the Spirit. (3) He here craveth four things in this one petition, beyond all men’ s teaching: (a) Teach me to attend the way of Thy statutes, that I may understand them, and Thy Word be not a clasped book unto me; neither may I, by missing the right scope, pervert the same to mine own destruction. (b) Teach me to affect the way of Thy statutes, that my heart may melt as Josiah’ s at the hearing of the law, and be pricked and broken with the threats of it, as were those converts that cried, Men and brethren, what shall we do to be saved? (Acts 2:37). When the promises are preached, or promulgated, let my heart dilate and open itself, as the thirsty ground, and rejoice that it understandeth the Word taught, as (Nehemiah 8:13).(c) Teach me to believe Thy statutes; for all true and comfortable knowledge is applicatory; it rests not in the understanding, but is a firm assent in the will, laying hold on the thing known. And this must we pray, seeing all knowledge, not mingled with faith, is unprofitable. (d) Teach me to obey Thy statutes; for all sound knowledge is practical; and to know Christ as the truth is in Christ, is to cast off the old man with his lusts, and put on the new. This must be our prayer, that the Lord would so teach us His way as we may walk in it; that tie would so take us into His school as to become both more skilful and more holy; that seeing not hearers, but doers are justified, our portion may be in their blessedness, that hear the Word and keep it. (T. Taylor, D. D.) God the source of instruction I. Who it is that teaches. II. What it is that God teaches. III. How God teaches. IV. The result of being taught the way of God’ s statutes by God himself. We shall “ keep them unto the end.” (T. Dale, M. A.) The province of reason in matters of religion I shall consider the word reason, as denoting the power, generally, of apprehending truth, and applying it to its proper uses;--a power which distinguishes man from all other animated beings around him, and fits him for performing duties and enjoying pleasures, of which they are totally incapable. That God is our teacher, and that He communicates instruction by His works and by His Word, is one of the first lessons which human reason should learn. After becoming satisfied of this, we are to make it our object to discover what is the instruction which He actually communicates. And as our chief concern is with the truths of revelation, our chief business is H apply ourselves, in the proper use of our rational powers, to the study of the Holy Scriptures. The position which I take on this subject will require that two things in particular should be set aside, as not falling within the province of reason. The first is, attempting to originate truth. And the second is, sitting in judgment upon any of the doctrines or facts, which God makes known. The remarks I have made may furnish a ready answer to a question often proposed to us by rationalists. “ If,” say they, “ we are to bow with such submission to the Word of God, and H receive so implicitly all its doctrines and precepts, and are never at liberty to call in question the reasonableness or truth of any of its dictates; then what has reason to do?” I reply, it has everything to do, which falls within its province; everything for which it was designed; everything to which it is competent.1. The province I have assigned to reason, evidently corresponds with its nature. To learn is an employment peculiarly congenial to the essential properties of the human mind. Every created, finite mind must, from its very nature, be dependent for all its knowledge on the uncreated, infinite mind. While our reason is duly sensible of this, and confines itself to the business of learning what God reveals, its efforts are all natural and safe. But whenever it leaves the place of a learner, and undertakes, by its own power, to originate any doctrine or fact, it undertakes a work which is unnatural and dangerous, and which will inevitably lead to false and hurtful conceptions. 2. Confining reason to the province which I have now assigned H it, will conduce to the honour of God. He is, in fact, the fountain of all created intelligence; and H acknowledge Him as such, is only to treat Him according to truth,--to render Him the honour which is His due. 3. Confining our reason to the work which I have assigned to it, will conduce directly to intellectual improvement. An acquaintance with the truths of religion will enlarge and elevate our understandings; and it will produce this effect in a much higher degree than our acquaintance with objects of inferior value. But there is no way for us H become acquainted with the truths of religion, except by learning them of our Divine teacher, in the use of the means which He has appointed. 4. Confining reason to its legitimate province will contribute in the highest degree to our moral improvement. If we pass in review all that God has made known H us; the holy law He has given us; the sin and ruin of all men in consequence of one man’ s disobedience; the eternal purposes of God; the Trinity; the whole work of the Redeemer; regeneration by the Holy Spirit; the perseverance of the saints, considered as a duty on their part, and a matter of promise on God’ s part; and the everlasting retributions of the future world; we shall find, in each case, that the doctrine which produces the salutary effect is just that which God has clearly revealed, and which every person of common understanding is capable of knowing. It is the belief of the simple truths, the plain, intelligible facts taught in the Scriptures, which has raised the character of the saints to the highest elevation; has given strength to the weak, comfort to the afflicted, and freedom to the slaves of sin; and has prepared the people of God for the most glorious achievements. (L. Woods, D. D.) God the teacher This psalmist held that a man could see nothing unless God showed it to him. He held that a man could learn nothing unless God taught him; and taught him, moreover, in two ways. First taught him what he ought to do, and then taught him how to do it. Surely this man was, at least, a reasonable and prudent man, and showed his common sense. For supposing that you were set adrift in a ship at sea, to shift for yourself, would it not be mere common sense to try and learn how to manage that ship, that you might keep her afloat and get her safe to land? You would try to learn the statutes, laws, and commandments, and testimonies, and judgments concerning the ship, lest by your own ignorance you should sink her, and be drowned. You would try to learn the laws about the ship; namely the laws of flotation, by fulfilling which vessels swim, and by breaking which vessels sink. You would try to learn the commandments about her. They would be any books which you could find of rules of navigation, and instruction in seamanship. You would try to learn the testimonies about the ship. And what would they be? The witness, of course, which the ship bore to herself. The experience which you or others got from seeing how she behaved--as they say--at sea. And from whom would you try to learn all this? from yourself? I trust not. You would go to the shipbuilder and the shipmaster for your information. Just as--if you be a reasonable man--you will go for your information about this world to the builder and maker of the world--God Himself. And lastly; you would try to learn the judgments about the ship: and what would they be? The results of good or bad seamanship; what happens to ships, when they are well-managed or ill-managed. It would be too hard to have to learn that by experience; for the price which you would have to pay would be, probably, that you would be wrecked and drowned. But if you saw other ships wrecked near you, you would form judgments from their fate of what you ought to do. If you could find accounts of shipwrecks, you would study them with the most intense interest; lest you too should be wrecked, and so judgment overtake you for your bad seamanship. Now, the only way to attain eternal life is to know, and keep, and profit by God’ s laws, God’ s commandments, God’ s testimonies, God’ s judgments; and therefore it is that the psalmist says so often that these laws and commandments are life. But some will say, How shall I learn? I am very stupid, and I confess that freely. And when I have learnt, how shall I act up to my lesson? For I am very weak; and that I confess freely likewise. How, indeed? Stupid we are, the cleverest of us; and weak we are, the strongest of us. And if God left us to find out for ourselves, and to take care of ourselves, we should not sail far on the voyage of life without being wrecked, and going down body and soul to hell. But, blessed be God, He has not left us to ourselves. He has not only commanded us to learn: He has promised to teach. And he who wrote the 119th psalm knew that well; and therefore his psalm is a prayer, a prayer for teaching, and a prayer for light; he cries to God--My soul cleaveth to the dust. I am low-minded, stupid, and earthly at the best. Oh, quicken Thou me; that is--Oh, give me life--more life-according to Thy Word. (C. Kingsley, M. A.) Psalms 119:34 Give me understanding, and I shall keep Thy law; yes, I shall observe it with my whole heart.David’ s prayer and resolution I. Their order. Knowledge must necessarily precede obedience, since there can be nothing chosen by the will but what the understanding has first allowed; the will being destitute of all light save what is borrowed: for as the stars derive their light from the sun, so does the will her light from the understanding, that directive faculty of the soul, “ the candle of the Lord,” that light whereby we discern good from evil. II. Their connection.1. Knowledge and obedience are not things inseparable, for one may be without the other; we may have understanding, and yet not keep God’ s law; for knowledge does not change the will, but direct it; it does only rationally persuade, not effectually convert it; so that the will must he sanctified, as well as the understanding illuminated, before our obedience to God’ s law can be answerable to our knowledge of it. 2. We may both understand God’ s law, and keep it. God that employs, enables us; lie that calls us gives us a power to come, otherwise His invitation would be a mockery; tie that saith, “ Depart from evil, and do good,” has doubtless made us capable of so doing. III. The main scope and design of the words. Do this for me, and I do promise on my part to keep Thy law, to meditate upon Thy precepts, and to have respect unto Thy ways, to delight myself in Thy statutes, and not to forget Thy Word. Our obedience must be--1. Sincere. This renders our endeavours acceptable to God, and profitable to ourselves. 2. Universal. Catholic faith without catholic obedience is of little value. 3. Constant. If we faint, we shall never reap; if we are weary of running, we shall never obtain the prize. (E. Lake, D. D.) The need of understanding “ Understanding.” That is what he urgently prays for. If only the poor man could understand what God was about; if only he could detect the track, catch the clue, hear the voice behind him saying, “ This is the way” ? what a relief, what a strength it would be. He is ready, eager, willing; his heart is aflame; he desires keenly to do the right, to walk with God--so, at least, it seems to him; so he thinks. He may discover, later on, that his will is not so strong as he imagines. But, at any rate, as he stands, it is his head, rather than his heart, which he feels to be at fault. He feels, but cannot see; he desires, but cannot decide. That will of God which he would so delightedly follow refuses to pronounce itself and give clear utterance. It vanishes. It hides itself. It is dissipated into hesitating and disappointing negations. Just when he fancied he had got his grip upon it it slips through his fingers. What ought he to do? What ought he not to do? How much does God ask of him? or how little? What is the rule he must obey? If he did but know, he would be loyal enough. “ O give me understanding, and I shall keep Thy law! Yea, I shall keep it with my whole heart.” “ His whole heart,” for then the whole man would go along with what it saw to be so right. The fitness, the meaning, the method, the end would all commend themselves. As the reason joyfully assented, the heart would commit itself to a plan so sound and so intelligible. And there would be no disappointing blunders to check the heart’ s advance; no slips, no doubtful experiments, no foolish hesitation in moments of uncertain suspense. The heart would not cringe in fear, trying its road before it with trembling anxiety. It would go with a swing, sure of itself; sure of its direction, sure of its success. Oh! to have this confidence, this security, this understanding--then he would keep the “ law with all his heart and soul.” “ Give me understanding!” A true prayer for us all! What a lot of harm is done in the world by the folly, the stupidity, the blindness of those who are on God’ s side, and genuinely desire to keep His law! We make so little way in carrying God’ s law into effective action, because our grasp on its principles is so frail, our apprehension of its height and depth is so cheap, and poor, and thin. A whole world of assumptions, moral and religious, are under challenge; and are undergoing the transformation which such challenges enforce. We are compelled to reconsider our familiar language; to recast our phrases; to review our apologetics. A resettlement of the entire position is proceeding, in the sense that the proportion and balance of our modes of expressing and defending our convictions are shifting. It seems as if the world of spirit and of grace had slipped out of our ken--as if we had lost our way in it, and could not move in it with any confidence. It has grown to feel far-off and out of touch--a strange land, where we are not at home. So our religious life conies to a halt, gets in a tangle, grows timid and dolorous. If we did but know better what it is that God is saying to us! If our ears were but open, if our apprehension of Him were but more firm and clear! “ Understanding,” moral insight, spiritual intelligence, an instructed conscience, a purer and truer judgment, a power to decide, to resolve, a skill in discernment. Oh, pray for that--our grievous lack! It can come from God only. He not only commands, but enables us to understand His commands. Yet this is left us--to bring our faculties under His handling, under His discipline. We have got minds; we have got the gift of reason. We can set these to work, with a little more seriousness and efficiency. First, we can recognize that this law of God which we do genuinely desire to keep with our whole heart is no light and easy affair, to be known straight off at a hearing. It is a serious business; and calls upon our reason to search it out. Can we apply the moral law, as Christ gave it to us, to modern life, to commerce, to luxury, to social intercourse? Can the modern conditions of big cities allow for Sunday? Can the Christian ideal of marriage stand the strain of the present freedom of relationship between man and woman? Can it justify its rigidity? Can we say why, or how it should be when we are asked? These questions cannot be answered without thought and care and trouble; they cry out for an intelligent understanding. Oh, grant us understanding “ that we may keep Thy law.” Secondly, it is a prayer that implies the incessant revelation of fresh law to be kept. We desire to serve God not only better than we now do, but better than we yet know how to serve. He has a law for us which is far above out of our sight. His law is making demands of us of which we have as yet no intelligence. Oh, if we saw and knew, how bitter would be our shame at failing Him so totally! Oh, pray to understand more of what He wants of us! Be ever occupied in lifting your standard, in pushing forward your moral frontiers, in raising the demands. (Canon Scott Holland.) On the identity of wisdom and religion Let us survey,, one by one, the characteristic marks of wisdom; and examine whether they are not, singly and collectively, exemplified in the conduct of the man who fixes his heart upon God through Jesus Christ. I. Wisdom selects such objects of pursuit as she discerns a satisfactory prospect of attaining. II. Wisdom sets its affections upon those things which are in their own nature the most excellent. III. Wisdom chooses for its portion those acquisitions which, in the possession, are accompanied with the highest delight. How, then, stands the case with respect to religion?1. Consider the point first with regard to present satisfaction. 2. With respect to the life to come, comparison cannot be mentioned. Whether the blessedness of heaven or the pains of hell be preferable; whether it be wisdom to choose the future rewards of religion, or the future punishments of guilt; these are questions which require not an answer. IV. Wisdom occupies itself in the pursuit of efficient remedies for evils actual or probable. Is this position descriptive of religion? Evils are temporal, or spiritual. Compare as to evils of each class the advantages of the righteous and of the unrighteous. V. Wisdom fixes her attention on those desirable objects which, other circumstances being equal, are the most durable. Is this characteristic of wisdom to be found in religion? How long do the pleasures of sin continue? Suppose that the wicked man grasps his good things, be they what they may, until death. The righteous man, travelling by his side, enjoys his delights unto the same period. So far as to duration, the servant of God is not under any disadvantage. But from the instant of death how stands the comparison? That instant which for ever extinguishes the pleasures of the wicked, sees the happiness of the righteous only in its commencement. (T. Gisborne, M. A.) Psalms 119:36 Incline my heart unto Thy testimonies, and not to covetousness.The bane and the antidote I. The evil of man and its antidote.1. The evil of man is covetousness. This is the root of the moral Upas. 2. The antidote of this evil is Divine truth. The Word of God not only condemns covetousness, but inspires the soul with that love to God and man that expels it. II. The heart of man and its tendency.1. The heart of man is his moral self. According to it so he is, right or wrong. 2. According to its tendency will be his destiny. (1) It has a tendency to covetousness, and this leads to ruin.(2) It must have a tendency to Divine truth, and this requires Divine help. (Homilist.) Covetousness a mother-sin He prays in particular that his heart may be diverted from covetousness, which is not only an evil, but “ the root of all evil.” David here opposes it as an adversary to all the righteousness of God’ s testimonies; it inverts the order of nature, and makes the heavenly soul earthly. It is a handmaid of all sins, for there is no sin which a covetous man will not serve for his gain. We should beware of all sins, but specially of mother-sins. (Bishop Cowper.) Psalms 119:37-38 Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity; and quicken Thou me in Thy way.An exemplary prayer This prayer includes three things:-- I. Diversion from the false.1. Vanity is a bad thing.2. Men are interested in this bad thing.3. Their interest in it is a great evil.4. Deliverance from this evil requires the agency of God. II. Devotion to the true. The way of 1. Practical spirituality.2. Practical benevolence.3. Practical godliness. This is God’ s way. To walk in this way is to walk away from vanity and into all the blest realities of being. III. Confirmation in the right (verse 38). Set me “ steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord.” (Homilist.) Deadness and quickening I. David here prays for deadness in one direction,--deadness to the world, that he may be so dead to it that he will not even look at it: “ Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity.”1. What, think you, does the psalmist mean here by vanity? I think he probably means four things, or one thing which may be seen under four aspects. (1) Frivolity.(2) Carnality.(3) Falsehood.(4) Wickedness in every form. 2. He felt that his eves were inclined to go this way. Alas! we seem to drink up sin readily enough; but we have with care to put good and true thoughts into our minds. This river of our life brings down plenty of snags, the old dead trees from the evil country come floating down the stream; but seldom does it bring to our door a log of the cedars of Lebanon. Such good wood is scarce in this river; but its torrent seems to bear along all that is base and vile. We find another law in our members, warring against the law of our mind, and bringing us into captivity to the law of sin and death, so that we have to cry, with Paul, “ O wretched man that I am!” and with David, “ Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity.” The psalmist knew the evil of a growing familiarity with vanity. For the most part, men do not fall into great sin by sudden surprises. It is sometimes so; but, usually, there are several descending platforms, and the descent is made by slow degrees. 3. He craved Divine help. 4. He expects God to help him in a particular way. He does not say, “ Put out my eyes, O Lord!” but he prays, “ Let me look another way,--a better way.” The way not to be affected by sin is to look at something else. If you have fixed your eyes on Christ the crucified, the risen, the exalted, the soon to come, if your eyes are taken up with Him, you shall find that passage true in many senses, “ Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth.” II. Having prayed for deadness in one direction, David prays for life in another direction.1. He was in God’ s way. If you are not, may He bring you into it at once! 2. Those who are in God’ s way are to pray that they may have increasing life while they are in that way. 3. Nobody but God can give us this life in God’ s way. 4. We need this quickening often. “ Quicken me, quicken me, quicken me,” is the prayer of the soul when first it begins to live. It is the prayer of the Christian when he gets into the stern struggles of life, and the poisonous damps of the world; and the prayer of the Christian when he is about to die is still, “ Quicken me, O Lord, quicken me in Thy way! O Life of life, be life to me! O Spirit of God, breathe into me power, vigour, force, energy! Give me all these by giving me Thyself to be my life.” (C. H. Spurgeon.) How may we get rid of spiritual sloth, and know when our activity in duty is from the Spirit of God I. Explication.1. Spiritual sloth is threefold. (1) Resolving sloth is when a soul is settled upon its lees, and resolves to lie still, and never to stir in that momentous concernment of its own eternal salvation (Proverbs 26:14; Jeremiah 44:16-17). (2) Delaying sloth; when a person intends to look after soul-concernments, but not yet (Proverbs 6:10). (3) Disturbing sloth is when a person doth intend and endeavour to walk in God’ s way; but sloth, as rust, hinders the wheels of his soul from coming to and running in the way of God. 2. Activity in duty is a victorious conquest over the great Goliath, sloth, and riding triumph in the way, work, and worship of God. There are three things which concur and contribute to complete this activity in duty:-- (1) A straining and stretching of the soul to the utmost peg, and highest pin; a putting of it upon the tenter-hooks in service. (2) An unsatiable and unsatisfiable desire or longing for the effecting and accomplishing of a duty. (3) A constant and continual waiting and working until the duty be perfected. II. Corollary. Every man and mortal hath some of the ass’ s dulness and sloth in him; and therefore I have brought a whip of ten strings to scourge this sloth and dulness out of us.1. Keep a strict watch over your eyes at all times, especially when you are in duty. The eyes are the portholes that sin and Satan creep in at. It is accounted a great piece of charity to a man’ s body to close his eyes when he is dead: I am sure it is more charity to our souls to close our own eyes whilst we are living (Job 31:1). 2. Send sin packing, bag and baggage. Sin is the soul’ s sickness. Now, sickness makes men lazy, loath to stir. 3. Frequent a quickening ministry. 4. Make out to the Lord Jesus Christ, whose promise and office it is to make us active and vivacious (John 10:10). 5. Get quickening love to the ways of God. 6. By faith apply the quickening promises, and the promises of quickening. 7. Consider quickening considerations. They that are apt to faint and tire in a journey, carry about their bottles of water to quicken their spirits. Let these considerations be such bottles to you when you tire in the journey of a duty:-- (1) Consider how odious and abominable sloth is to man or God.(2) Consider, sloth exposes you to all manner of sin, especially these two desperate and dangerous ones:-- (1) Sordid apostasy. (2) Spiritual adultery. (3) Consider how impossible it is that creeping snails in God’ s way should ever get to their journey’ s end. “ Fair and softly” goes far, but never so far as heaven. “ The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence,” etc. (4) Consider how equitable it is that you should be as active in the way of God as you were once in the way of sin and Satan (Romans 6:19). (5) Consider how you contradict your own prayers, your very Paternoster, wherein you desire God’ s will should be so done by you on earth, as it is done by the angels in heaven. Now, those winged Mercuries and messengers of heaven do speedily and spritefully execute the commandments of God. (6) Consider you lose the very soul and life of your duty if you do not perform it as for your life and soul. (7) Consider the infinite and wonderful glory, greatness, majesty of Him you appear before and approach unto in your duties. (J. Simmons.) Psalms 119:38 Stablish Thy Word unto Thy servant, who is devoted to Thy fear.Confirmation By the “ Word” here, some understand simply the promise of God. But, in truth, the meaning is far larger, and comprehends the whole Word of God’ s revelation--truth, precept, command, judgment, promise--he prays for the confirmation or stablishment of the whole. I. In respect to its truth. Are there any serious intellectual doubts about the “ Word” of God? About its Divine origin? its inspiration? its great doctrines? These doubts must be dealt with in their own nature, and for what they are. As they affect a man’ s mind he must meet them with his mind--he must examine the evidences which have been adduced for the disputed points, and take time to make the examination complete. If a man, for instance, reads a good deal of the sceptical criticism of the time, and a good deal of light literature, which is not unfrequently spiced by a little scepticism to make it more piquant, and--nothing, or something by the merest chance, in the department of the Christian apology and defence--that is not fair, either to the truth or to the mind. He is not taking the proper way to solve his doubts. He is feeding them. The Book itself should be read. It carries its own light, evidences, defences. To read it is, in many an instance, to find an answer to the objections made against it. Then, again, there are doubts and irresolute conditions of mind which can only be exchanged for faith and fixedness by the instrumentality of work--honest, earnest work for God. “ Exercise thyself unto godliness.” But our text seems especially to remind us that there are some doubts--affecting the Word of God as truth--which will yield only to prayer. Not to thinking, not to “ reading,” not to Christian working--only to prayer. The text is a prayer. It is the looking of the shadowed soul up to the very source of light. “ Stablish Thy Word unto Thy servant;” and unless religion is all a dream, and our hopes in God the greatest vanities of our life, there must be answer. II. In respect to its preciousness. The Gospel is exceedingly precious. When first consciously received, it is accepted with thankfulness and joy. The first love is fed by fresh discoveries, by wondering thought, by rapid acts of faith, by grateful memories, by new-born hopes,--these all make fuel for that holy flame. Alas! that it should change, and cool, and wane, and darken! Just where and when discovery is made of decline and failure, there and then begin renewal and repair. III. In respect to its practical power. If there be one point in human experience more dangerous than another, it is exactly the point between faith and practice, between inward love and outward work. That point, or region rather, is one where Satan has great advantage. He persuades us that it is enough to think truly, to feel tenderly, and that we really need not fritter away the fine bloom and strength of the inner man in constant rounds of dusty activity. Are there not many intelligent Christian people who do very little visibly and expressly for Christ? Our emotion should not be a turbulent and intermittent thing, like the pool of Bethesda, which took motion and gave healing only after it had been “ troubled” by the angel; but rather like “ the waters of Siloah--that flow softly,” but also steadily, and equably, all day long, and all through the year. “ Continuing in Christ’ s Word, we become His disciples indeed.” (A. Raleigh, D. D.) Psalms 119:39-40 Turn away my reproach which I fear; for Thy judgments are good.The dreaded and the desired I. What is here dreaded (verse 39).1. Reproach is of two kinds. (1) The deserved. The man who is false, mean, corrupt, deserves reproach.(2) The undeserved. 2. Now, whether reproach is deserved or undeserved, it is a thing to be dreaded. In fact, it is more to be dreaded when deserved than when undeserved. The best men have been reproached. Even the Son of God Himself was reproached. But undeserved reproach may be well borne. II. What is here desired? (verse 40).1. God’ s precepts are desirable things. “ Thy judgments are good.” They are good in every sense. Good in their origin, in their essence, in their results. 2. A righteous life is a desirable thing. “ Quicken me in Thy righteousness.” Man’ s well-being consists in living in the righteousness of God. (Homilist.) Reproach rolled away A man who had lived for many years the Christian life told me how there was a place in a street in Edinburgh which was associated with a sin. Every time in his early life he passed it, it brought back again the keen remorse and shame. It seemed to stain his life afresh whenever he saw the very place. But when he came to God and gave his heart and life to Christ, the first time he passed that place afterwards his soul, he told me, was filled by a great transport of joy that all that was done, that it was no longer part of his life, that God had forgiven and forgotten and cast it behind His back. And he entered, he told me, for a moment at least in foretaste, into the perfect joy of soul, and he forgot the shame of his youth and remembered the reproach no more. (Hugh Black.) Psalms 119:41 Let Thy mercies come also unto me, O Lord, even Thy salvation, according to Thy Word.A gracious prayer 1. It is in itself a very gracious prayer. (1) It is offered on right grounds. There is no mention of merit or desert. His entreaty is for mercy only. (2) It asks for the right thing--“ Thy salvation.” Do not dispute against God’ s salvation, but accept it in its entirety, just as it is revealed. (3) It is put in the right form. “ According to Thy Word.” He wishes to be saved in the manner which the Lord has appointed. (4) It is conceived and uttered in a humble spirit. He owns his helplessness. He cannot get at the mercy, he wants it to “ come to” him. 2. This prayer maybe supported by gracious arguments. Pray like this. Say, “ Lord, let Thy mercy come to me, for I need mercy.” Do not go on the tack of trying to show that you are good, because mercy will then pass you by. To argue merit is to plead against yourself. Next plead this: “ Lord, Thou knowest, and Thou hast made me to know somewhat of what will become of me if Thy mercy does not come to me. I must perish miserably. I have heard the Gospel, and have neglected it; I have been a despiser of Christ, even when I stood up and sang His praises, for I sang them with a hypocrite’ s lips. The hottest place in hell will surely be mine unless Thy mercy come to me. Oh, send that mercy, now.” This is good and prevalent pleading: hold on to it. Then plead: “ If Thy mercy shall come to me it will be a great wonder, Lord. I have not the confidence to do more than faintly hope it may come; but, oh, if Thou dost ever blot out my sin I will tell the world of it; I will tell the angels of it: through eternity I will sing Thy praises, and claim to be of all the saved ones the most remarkable instance of what Thy sovereign grace can do.” There is another plea implied in the prayer, and a very sweet argument it is--“ Let Thy mercies come also unto me, O Lord.” It means, “ It has come to so many before, therefore let it come also unto me. Lord, if I were the only one, and Thou hadst never saved a sinner before, yet would I venture upon Thy word and promise. Especially I would come and trust the blood of Jesus: but, Lord, I am not the first by many millions. I beseech Thee, then, of Thy great love, let. Thy salvation come unto me.” 3. This blessedly gracious prayer, which I have helped to back up with arguments, will be answered by our gracious God. Oh, be sure of this, He never sent His prophets to preach to us a salvation which cannot be ours; He never sent His apostles to report to us concerning a mere dream; He never set the angels wondering at an empty speculation; He never gave His Son to be a ransom which will not redeem; and He never Committed His Spirit to witness to that which after all will mock the sinner’ s need. No, He is able to save: there is salvation, there is salvation to be had, to be had now, even now. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Psalms 119:42 So shall I have wherewith to answer him that reproacheth me: far I trust in Thy Word.The reproach answered His state was this--depending upon, and trusting to that word of promise which the Holy Ghost had applied with power to his conscience; not relying upon the bare letter of truth, but leaning upon the sure word of promise which had been brought home with power to his heart. Being, then, in this state, he only had a greater hungering and thirsting after further food. What he had already received from God had not brought into his soul lasting satisfaction; it had rather enkindled his appetite for more. Fresh wants called urgently for fresh deliverances; new diseases required anew the healing hand. Being in this state, then, he longs after the “ mercies” of God, and hungers after His “ salvation.” He was driven as well as drawn, impelled by urgent necessity as well as allured by Divine encouragements. An enemy was at hand who dogged his steps, an accuser with a heavy bill of charges was waiting at his gate. I. There are many accusers that reproach a living soul.1. The law of God reproaches every living soul to which it is spiritually applied, for disobedience to it. 2. Our own heart is continually reproaching us, for our shortcomings in all we desire to perform to God’ s glory. 3. Professors of religion are continually casting their reproaches upon us. They treat us as Peninnah treated Hannah. 4. Even the world will sometimes reproach God’ s people for covetousness, worldliness, a slanderous tongue, resentment of injuries, levity, frivolity, carelessness, etc. 5. Satan often reproaches the children of God (Revelation 12:10). II. The inability of the creature to answer any of these reproaches. Can he bring forward his good works? No; the sentence of the law is within, and good works, could he perform them, are merely external things. Can he bring forward resolutions, and promises, and vows to do better for the future? No; these promises, resolutions, and vows spring from the flesh, but condemnation is written in his spirit. Shall he answer these reproaches by his own prayers? No; for the condemnation of the law is written in his spiritual conscience, and only so far as prayer is indited by the Spirit, will it go up out of a spiritual heart. III. The desires and breathings of the soul after such a manifestation of mercy as shall afford a sufficient answer (verse 41). If you will observe, the word “ mercies” is in the plural, there being many mercies; but “ salvation” is in the singular number, there being only one salvation. In what way, then, did he want these “ mercies” ? Merely as standing in the letter of the word? Only as recorded in the inspired word of truth?--as things to look at--as objects hung up, as it were, in a picture, merely for the eye to gaze upon? No; he wanted them in his heart, “ to come to him,” to visit him, to be breathed into him, to be made part and parcel of him, to he the life-blood that should circulate in his veins, to be the very Kingdom of God set up with power in his soul. And why did he want internal mercies? Because he had internal reproaches. Why did he need mercies in his soul? because condemnation was in his soul. It was there the sentence of death was written; it was there the sentence of acquittal was to be recorded. It was there that reproach was felt; it was there the answer to the reproach was to be given. IV. The way in which these answers are communicated. If the law reproaches, salvation in the heart is an answer to its reproach. If our own heart condemns us, to have a sense of God’ s salvation in the soul is an answer to every reproach that the heart can bring. If the world condemns us, casts out our names as evil, imputes to us practices which we abhor, tarnishes our fair fame, and throws upon us every base imputation, if we have salvation in our hearts, it is a sufficient answer to all the reproaches that are cast upon us. (J. C. Philpot.) Psalms 119:44-48 So shall I keep Thy law continually for ever and ever.A noble resolution I. To be constantly obedient (verse 44). What is obedience? Not conformity to the letter of the law, but the incarnation of the spirit of the law It is to have the Divine will not only written in the heart, hut living and reigning in the heart. II. To be morally free (verse 45). Soul liberty is not mere freedom to act, not licence; it is the spontaneous action of love. Where “ the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.” A reigning love for God breaks all the shackles of the soul, and dispreads a sphere of action as wide as immensity. III. To he heroic in teaching (verse 46).1. Here is a resolution-- (1) To speak truth,(2) To speak it in the highest circles,(3) With the greatest boldness. “ Will not he ashamed.” 2. We should be bold in speaking out truths (1) Because it is Divine,(2) Because it is rational,(3) Because it is powerful,(4) Because it is restorative,(5) Because it is universal. IV. To be happy in duty (verse 47). You cannot be happy by merely resolving to be happy, but you can by resolving to obey with a loving heart. Happiness, like a deep crystal stream, follows every step in the path of true obedience. All the creatures in the universe that obey the laws of their natures are happy. V. To be devout in life (verse 48).1. Religious love is devout. “ I have loved.”2. Religious love is contemplative. “ I will meditate.”3. True living is devotion. (Homilist) Psalms 119:45 And I will walk at liberty: for I seek Thy precepts.Liberty I. Liberty is in progressive action. Few can truthfully say, “ I will walk” ; they are carried, they are driven on the way of life, they act not from themselves, but from others. They are mere spokes in the wheel of the social machine. II. Liberty is in the pursuit of right. (Homilist.) Obedience the secret of liberty I. Men in this world are under the reign of law. We can see that this is so in matters of everyday experience. II. The root of bondage lies in disobedience to law, and so is in man and not in God. He says, “ I will walk at liberty, for I seek Thy precepts,” and the reverse of that saying is no less true. A plain truth it is, simple even to self-evidence, and yet how slow men are to take it in. It must be the purpose of any true scheme of redemption to lead those who receive it to magnify the law and to make it honourable. III. Liberty, freedom, enlargement, are found in obedience to God’ s law. (E. Medley.) Conditions of spiritual freedom I. Deep trust is essential to perfect freedom. “ Love casteth out fear.” The return of the spirit of man to God is inward emancipation--to he the child of God and say Father--“ Our Father.” To trust in Him is unshackled freedom. II. Holy living is essential to emancipation. To walk at liberty. Liberty is loving service. Freedom to sin would be vilest slavery. III. Illumination is needful for perfect freedom, knowledge, etc. IV. The spirit of love is needful for full emancipation.1. Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty. 2. Fear not. If this spirit of ours be in earnest, God is working in us. May the light of His Spirit guide us “ to perfect peace” ! (Homilist.) Liberty only in the truth Liberty is not so much a producing force as a product of other forces. It is not so much a power as it is open space within which other powers work. We want to walk at liberty. How can we do it? If we do not thus walk at liberty, there is only one alternative--stay in bondage. If the psalmist studied God’ s will that he might walk at liberty, how much greater is the obligation upon us to do the same, and how much greater our facilities and our encouragement!1. There is liberty from the world. Sometimes men are in bondage to the world in this sense, that the mainspring of their life is to stand well with it, to do what their set, their society, the world round about them, wishes them to do. Sometimes the bondage is aggravated by another feature, viz. the effort to rise higher, to get into another set; and, oh, how aggravated is the bondage under which many thus live and labour! Freedom from that is obtained when we walk according to God’ s statutes. “ Godliness with contentment is great gain;” and these things, the godliness with the contentment, will break these clanking chains of insane and stupid ambition and will prepare you to walk at liberty. 2. There is liberty from bad ways--love of the world, drunkenness, gambling, etc. We learn to walk circumspectly; we learn to keep the heart with all diligence; we learn to hate evil and to do good. We walk securely, for we have been taught of the Spirit to walk with God. 3. There is liberty from bad memories--bad, putrid memories. There may be compunction for the sin, there may be vows against it, there may be honest purposes to resist and overcome it, and these purposes to a good degree carried out; but the horrid, poisonous memories remain in the soul. There is liberty from these to those who walk in God’ s statutes, liberty that can be had nowhere else. “ A new heart will I give you,” etc. 4. There is liberty from fear and terror. With the dark cloud of impending wrath overhanging you, how can you walk at liberty? But take God’ s precepts, know them, believe them, do them, and this terror is removed, this fear is taken away. (John Hall, D. D.) Walking at liberty Liberty and freedom are words not unfrequently used in the Bible in a political, social, and religious sense. How greatly did Israel rejoice in his freedom from the yoke of Egypt. Among the rewards offered to the man who should silence the boastings of Goliath was this, “ that his father’ s house should be made free in Israel.” Both the psalmist and St. Paul recognized it as an essential feature in spiritual life, for the one declares that he walked at liberty when he sought the Divine precepts” (Psalms 119:45); and the other, that “ where the Spirit of God is, there is liberty.” (2 Corinthians 3:17). I. What, then, is true liberty? Whether we choose to call it by this term, or by the Saxon term “ freedom,” it must be evident that it has reference to restraint of some kind. The word emancipation indicates the same. It necessarily implies the removal or absence of something which cramps energies we wish to exert, or impedes acts we purpose to perform. But here a question arises. Is there such a thing in the world as absolute and entire freedom? and if there be, is it worth the having? Alexander Selkirk, on his desolate island, had such liberty. A man may have it now, if he will. Let him only go into a lonely wilderness, far away from human society, there provide for his own wants, and do everything for himself, and he will realize the idea of absolute and entire liberty. No one will restrain, control, or interrupt him; he is at liberty to do whatever his power may be sufficient to accomplish. Whether this absolute and unrestrained liberty be worth much seems to be settled by the fact that very few choose it. But is this the only sort of life in which absolute and unrestrained liberty can be realized? We believe it is. We may safely affirm that a man who had adopted such a course of life could not come out of his isolated position to mingle with other persons without giving up some portion of his liberty. He obtains indeed an equivalent for what he gives, perhaps more than an equivalent; but his liberty is abridged, he is no longer absolutely and entirely free. II. Some of the restraints which are compatible with genuine freedom, and regulate it to good ends.1. The general welfare of society. 2. The rights of other individuals. On passing down the street, you see in an open shop window, or at a door, an article of food or clothing: you greatly desire--perhaps you urgently need it. Why is it that you do not at once exercise your liberty and take it? It is easy to do so; and if it lay in the street you would do it at once. You will reply, that the man inside, in the shop, has a right to it, and you have none. You may buy that right from him, if you please; but until you do, you are no more at liberty to take that article than he is at liberty to put his hand in your pocket and take your purse. His right, then, restrains your liberty, and your right restrains his. 3. A person may say, I admit these restraints and will respect them; but I will do as I please, so long as I do not interfere with the rights and liberties of others. I will enjoy my liberty, and allow them theirs; I will eat, drink, and be merry; I will choose the companionship of those who wish to do as I do; and if I spend my money foolishly, and revel in what you stigmatize as vices, what does it matter, since I allow all others to do as they like? Such seems to have been the liberty which the prodigal son in the parable desired, sought, and exercised. Yet is this liberty of his subject to no restraint? What means, then, that violent headache, that prostration of strength, that empty purse? We find, then, that there is no such thing, except in solitude, as absolute and unrestrained liberty; every man’ s freedom is checked and limited every day and at every turn, and must, of necessity, be so restrained. III. Apply this idea of real liberty to the spiritual life and walk of the true Christian. The Christian is a free man. St. Paul speaks of the liberty with which Christ has made him free. Is this liberty of his, then, absolute, or restrained? He rejoices in the liberty wherewith Christ has set him free, and yet he feels that he is “ not his own, because bought with a price.” He knows, he feels, that God’ s law is a restraint; but he rejoices that it restrains him; for “ he serves God with his spirit in the Gospel of His Son,” and loves his servitude as much as his liberty. In fact, he regards them as identical; much as our Prayer-book has expressed it: “ Whose service is perfect freedom.” St. Paul also unites the two ideas: “ He that is called in the Lord, being a servant, is the Lord’ s freeman; likewise he that is called, being free, is Christ’ s servant.” Conclusion:--1. We should always remember that we are not at liberty to do evil. 2. Let us learn to love the restraints of God’ s law. (Christian Observer.) The nature of liberty Lawlessness, licence, is not liberty. True liberty is found only in obedience to proper restraint. A river finds liberty to flow only between banks; without these it would only spread out into a slimy, stagnant pool. Planets uncontrolled by laws would only bring wreck to themselves and the universe. The same law which fences us in fences others out; the restraints which regulate our liberty also ensure and protect us. It is the right kind of control and e cheerful obedience which make a freeman. (A. T. Pierson, D. D.) Psalms 119:46I will speak of Thy testimonies also before kings, and will not be ashamed.The moral martyr Religion is proposed to us in two different points of view, a point of speculation, and a point of practice. Accordingly, there are two sorts of martyrdom; a martyrdom for doctrine, and a martyrdom for morality. It is for the last that the prophet prepares us in the words of the text. I. The authors, or, as they may be justly denominated, the executioners, who punish men with martyrdom for morality, I understand, then, by the vague term, “ kings,” all who have any pre-eminence over the lowest orders of men, and these are they who exercise tyranny and inflict the martyrdom for which the prophet in the text prepares us. II. The magnanimity of such as expose them-selves to it. III. The horrors that accompany it. IV. The obligation of spearing of the testimonies of God before kings. We ground this on the nature of this duty. You have heard, that it consists in urging the rights of God before great men; and, though it be at the hazard of all the comforts and pleasures of life, in professing to respect the moral part of religion. How often have we denied our holy religion? How often, when it hath been jeeringly said to us, “ Thou also wast with Jesus,” have we sneakingly replied, “ I know not what thou sayest” ? V. The crown of moral martyrdom. A man who can say to God, as our prophet said, finds a rich reward, first in the ideas which a sound reason gives him of shame and glory; secondly, in the testimony of his own conscience; thirdly, in the approbation of good people; and lastly, in the prerogatives of martyrdom. These, if I may so express myself, are four jewels of his crown. (J. Saurin.) Boldness in religion There are several reasons to justify this boldness in religion:-- I. It is a Divine system.1. All the arguments for the Divinity of this book may be ranged under one word--congruity. (1) The congruity of its contents with collateral history. (2) The congruity of its Contents with itself. Though written by different men in different ages, in different lands, there is no essential contradiction. (3) Congruity with our antecedent notions of God. (4) Congruity with man’ s reason, intuitions, wants. 2. What folly to be ashamed of speaking of a book whose author is God Himself. II. It is a rational system.1. In saying this we do not say-- (1) That men’ s interpretations of it are rational. Nor-- (2) That all it contains can be comprehended by reason. 2. Its incomprehensibles answer two purposes--furnish an argument for its Divinity, and a schooling energy for the student. 3. There are two facts in favour of this rationality. (1) That its most thoughtful students have ever been impressed with its reasonableness. (2) That it has ever proved itself the most powerful agent in developing the rationality of mankind. Why, then, should we be ashamed of speaking of a system so rational, a system that can bear the scrutiny of the keenest intellect, the analysis of the severest philosophy? III. It is a powerful system.1. Because it is true. All truth is powerful. 2. Because it is moral truth. Truth for the affections and conscience is the most powerful kind of truth. 3. Because it is remedial truth. Truth revealing provisions for recovering sinners. 4. Because it is embodied truth:--Truth, coming, not in mere proposition or precept, but in example, in the example of God Himself. It is, indeed, “ the power of God.” Every page in the history of its triumphs demonstrates its almighty power. Then you may well glory in it. IV. It is a restorative system. It is a power, not to destroy, but to save. V. It is a universal system. It is not for a class, a sect, a province, a period; it is for universal man. (Homilist.) Guilty silence A silent religion, or a speaking religion--which shall it be? David says, “ I will speak” ;--what do we say? Too often we resolve that we will keep silence. The theme on which David says he will speak is God’ s testimonies. Has he chosen a barren topic? Look at the range, the explicitness, and the emphasis of those testimonies, and you will say that never did man choose so fruitful, so abounding a theme. The fact is that there is not a single aspect of life which lies beyond the circumference of the Divine testimonies. God has anticipated everything, provided for everything. David, then, is ready for all occasions, for all men, at all times, and in all places. What, then, is the urgent practical lesson to be deduced from all this affluent provision? If there is one lesson clearer than another suggested by these circumstances, it is that we are left without excuse if we fail to speak of the Divine testimonies. Opportunities occur every day. Circumstances arise under which no words can be so beautiful, so touching, so pithy, so real. There are many curious and startling inconsistencies perpetrated in connection with this matter of not being faithful to the Divine testimonies. We have before the mind’ s eye a man who is a large employer of labour. He might have an immense moral influence over those who work in his employment. By a wise word here, and an encouraging word there, he might achieve untold good. That man is a member of the Church, but his own servants are perfectly unaware of his piety until they see his name advertised as a speaker at a religious meeting. Is this right? (J. Parker, D. D.) Religion acknowledged There is a splendid tonic in the biography of Hadley Vicars, who, when he was converted, put his Bible on his mess-room table as the best answer to the jeers of his fellow-officers in the British army. (T. L. Cuyler, D. D.) Psalms 119:47 And I will delight myself in Thy commandments, which I have loved. God s commandments to be loved The love of God’ s laws is certainly to be distinguished from the mere outward observance of them. As in the law of Moses, so far more in the Gospel of Christ, religion is “ that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter.” As to the reason of the thing, it is plain that in proportion as we have a regard for any person, we always take pleasure in doing what will please him; and that, if we are indifferent and careless about this, it is the strongest of all proofs that our regard for that person is little or none. In the same manner it is plain that there is no proof so decisive of our love or neglect of Almighty God, as whether we love or neglect His commandments. Scripture also solemnly confirms this most reasonable opinion. “ If ye love Me, keep My commandments.” “ He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me.” “ If a man love Me, he will keep My Word.” And the same kind of warning is to be found in the writings of the apostles, particularly in the Epistles of St. John. And what we particularly observe in it is that, as Christians, we are called to put in practice, not some vague, undetermined, fanciful notions of goodness or virtue, but the plain will and pleasure of our best, I ought to say, our only Friend. The Christian, then, who loves Christ Jesus must of necessity also love His commandments. This being certainly true, it seems no less than necessary for us slit to the best of our ability, to see whether or not we really, as we ought, love what our God commands, and, as the prophet says, “ delight ourselves in it.” For in this respect, as in others, no doubt we may deceive ourselves with false confidence. Yet still there is the utmost necessity that, at the very best, we should bear in mind the solemn caution of the apostle, “ Re not high-minded,” be not too confident of your growth in spiritual grace, of your willingness to endure anything for your Redeemer’ s sake; “ but fear.” (Plain Sermons by Contributors to the “ Tracts for the Times. ”) Delight in God’ s commandments It is not a small progress in godliness to delight in the commandments of God. Our corrupt nature counts them burdenable: but the grace of Christ makes us find His yoke easy, and His burden light. And, indeed, so do His children esteem of it, who have found by experience there is more solid joy in the obedience of God’ s commandments than in the perishing pleasures of sin. And would to God they who of a long time have proved the pleasures of transgression would turn them, and prove by experience, on the other hand, what comfort there is in mourning for sin; ‘ what is the joy of a good conscience, and the sweet inward pleasures of a godly conversation; they should then easily perceive that the delights of the one do by infinite degrees surmount the pleasures of the other. Natural men do some external works of God’ s worship, but not with an inward delight; this is no acceptable service to God. They assemble themselves on the Sabbath with the godly to hear the Word; but what the one doth of delight, the other doth of custom, or compulsion. The Lord looks to the affection more than to the action; and we should not only consider what we do, but how we do it; so to come to the temple, that we come with Simeon, by motion of the Spirit; so to hear the Word, that it be with spiritual joy and delight, as David did. And this also condemns those of our age to whom the Word of the Lord is a reproach and weariness. (Bishop Cowper.) Psalms 119:49 Remember the Word unto Thy servant, upon which Thou hast caused me to hope. Pleading prayer I admire in this psalm very greatly the singular amalgam that we have of testimony, of prayer, and of praise. In one verse the psalmist bears witness, in a second verse he praises, in a third verse he prays. It is an incense made up of many spices, but they are wonderfully compounded and worked together, so as to form one perfect sweetness. My text is a prayer, but there is testimony in it, and there is a measure of praise in it too. I. The prayer. “ Remember the Word unto Thy servant.”1. “ Remember.” That prayer is spoken after the manner of men, for God cannot forget. 2. It is language which has some trace of unbelief in it. 3. The intention of him who prayed this prayer was to ask God to remember His Word by fulfilling it. “ Lord, let me not only be in Thy thoughts, but let me be in Thy acts! Thou hast promised to supply my needs; remember me by supplying my needs. Thou hast promised to forgive my sin; remember me by giving me a sense of pardon. Thou hast premised to help Thy servant, and give me strength according to my day; remember the word by fulfilling Thy Word, and granting strength to me according as I have need of it.” 4. Sometimes this word “ remember” is very fitly used, because it seems to the mind that God is likely to remember something else which would be to our loss. Suppose you and I have been walking contrary to God--then the Lord may remember our sin, and He may begin to deal with us in a way of chastisement, and lay us very low. Then is the time to come in with this prayer: “ Remember the Word unto Thy servant.” II. The pleas which, the psalmist uses.1. The first is, “ Remember the Word.” It is a blessed plea--the Word; for by the Word upon which God has caused His servant to hope is meant God’ s Word. He never makes His people to hope in anybody else’ s word. Let us consider the power, the dignity, the glory of that Word. This is the greatest of all grounds of assurance. 2. The second plea lies in the words, “ Thy servant.” “ Remember the Worn unto Thy servant.” A man is bound to keep his word to anybody and everybody, but sometimes there may be special persons with whom a failure would be peculiarly dishonourable. Among the rest, a man must be true to his servant. 3. “ Upon which Thou hast caused me to hope.” Lord, I have been hoping on Thy Word, and I have acted upon that hope: I believe the Word to be true, and I have pledged the truth of it. That is good pleading. (C. H. Spurgeon.) A genuine hope Hope is an instinct of the soul. As an instinct it implies--1. An instinctive faith in the existence of a future good; 2. An instinctive faith in the possibility of obtaining it. Hope is either the greatest blessing or curse to a man: a blessing when it is realized, curse when it is disappointed. Notice-- I. The ground of a good hope. “ The Word” --1. Not human calculations;2. Not personal merits;3. “ The Word “ . firmer than the everlasting heavens. II. The author of a good hope. “ Thou hast caused.” God--1. Inspires it;2. Directs it;3. Settles it. (Homilist.) Psalms 119:50 This is my comfort in my affliction: for Thy Word hath quickened me. Comfort and quickening I. In our affliction, the word of God quickens to comfort.1. By leading us to God, who is able to bless.2. By showing us that God is willing and waiting to bless.3. By throwing a mild and beautiful light on Providence.4. By spreading before us “ exceeding great and precious promises,” which adapt themselves with a fine flexibility to all the varieties of our experience.5. By establishing in our hearts the anticipation of another and a sorrowless life. II. In our affliction the word of God not only quickens to comfort, but also comforts to quicken. First the Word becomes life, and then comfort; and then, through the comfort, the Word becomes further and fuller life. How?1. By confirming our faith.2. By giving new scope and ardour to gratitude and love. The Divine Word helps us to see that the Divine chastening is the sign and manifestation of the Divine mercy.3. By stimulating the spirit of prayer.4. By spiritualizing our tastes and aspirations.5. By restraining our tendencies to wander from God. (J. P. Barnett.) What is your comfort? In some respects the same event happens to us all: to good men, to great men, to well-instructed men, as well as to the wicked, the obscure, and the ignorant. Each of these can speak of “ my affliction” (Proverbs 14:10). It is a grand matter when “ my affliction” is in each case balanced by “ my comfort.” It was so in David’ s case, and he is a fair representative of all believers. I. Believers have their peculiar comfort. Each tried child of God can say, “ This is my comfort.”1. “ This,” as different from others. Worldly men get their drops of comfort from such sources as they prefer; but the godly man looks to his experience of the Word, and says, “ This is my comfort” (Psalms 4:6). 2. “ This,” as understanding what it is. He knew his consolation as well as he knew his tribulation. He was not like Hagar, who could not see the well which was so near her (Genesis 21:19). “ This,” as having it near at hand. He does not say that, as if he pointed it out in the distance; but this, as grasping it. 4. “ This,” as pleading in prayer that which he had enjoyed; urging upon the Lord the mercy already received. II. That comfort comes from a peculiar source. “ Thy Word hath quickened me.”1. In part it is outward. (1) The Word of God, full of promises, is our comfort (Romans 15:4). (2) The Word of God, full of records of His goodness, is the confirmation of our confidence (Psalms 77:5-10). (3) The Word of God, full of power, is our strength (Ecclesiastes 8:4). 2. In part it is inward: “ Thy Word hath quickened me.” (1) In past experience he had felt the power of the Word in raising him--Into life from death (Psalms 116:8). Into energy from lethargy (Son 6:12). Into higher life from lower (Psalms 119:67). (2) In all things it had been a source of quickening to him. (3) In present experience he was then feeling its power in making his mind less worldly. His heart more prayerful. His spirit more tender. His faith more simple. III. That comfort is valuable under peculiar trials.1. Hope deferred. Quickening enables us to hope on. 2. Trial endured (verse 50). Comfort is most needed in trouble, and there is no comfort like quickening. 3. Scorn suffered (verse 51). We care nothing for mockers when we are lively in spiritual things. 4. Sin of others (verse 53). More grace will enable us to bear up under abounding sin. 5. Changes (verse 54). The Bible has a song for all seasons, and a psalm for all places. 6. Darkness (verse 55). There is no night-light like the Word, enlightening and enlivening the heart. IV. That the form of our comfort is a test of character.1. Some look to wealth: when their corn and their wine are increased, they say, “ This is my comfort.” They mind the main chance: they are worldly (Luke 12:19). 2. Some seek to dreams and visions, omens and fancies, impressions and presentiments: they are superstitious. 3. Some run to sin, drink, gaming, worldly company, dissipation, opium: they are wicked. 4. Some resort to their fellow-men for advice and assistance: they are unwise, and will be disappointed (Jeremiah 17:5). (1) What is your comfort?(2) Has this blessed volume quickened you?(3) If so, look to it under all trials, for it wilt never fail you. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Spiritual quickening I. Effected by the Divine word. How does God’ s Word quicken the soul into supreme love? By presenting Him--1. As the supremely Kind. This quickens it into gratitude. 2. As the supremely Beautiful. This quickens it into admiration. 3. As the supremely Great. This quickens it into adoration. II. Supplying comfort under trial. The soul quickened into supreme love for God can bear up under all the trials of life. “ Whom have I in heaven but Thee?” (Homilist.) Quickening by the Word What energy a text will breathe into a man l There is more in one Divine sentence than in huge folios of human composition. There are tinctures of which one drop is more powerful than large doses of the common dilutions. The Bible is the essence of truth; it is the mind of God, the wisdom of the Eternal. By every word of God men are made to live, and are kept in life. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Psalms 119:51 The proud have had me greatly in derision; yet have I not declined from Thy law. The contemptible and admirable in character I. The contemptible. “ The proud.”1. Who are the despicably proud? Not the men who have formed a true estimate of their powers, and are nobly self-reliant, but the supercilious. 2. In the character of these men there are always two base elements. (1) Servility. They cringe to their superiors; they are the flunkeys of society.(2) Tyranny. Whilst they bow with a slavish spirit to those above them, they are contemptuous and despotic to those beneath. II. The admirable. He is the true nobleman who will dare to pursue the right, regardless of the frowns or smiles of men. (Homilist.) The Christian armed against ridicule I. The persons who assail you. “ The proud.” On the heart, which is so possessed, the Holy Spirit will not, cannot enter. Whether it be right to hearken go such a one rather than unto God, judge ye. II. The means which they employ to draw you from the faith. “ Derision.” Arguments against the truth of your religion you could have confuted; or, had you been defeated, would not have thought yourself disgraced;--but to have your judgment laughed at, the generosity of your spirit denied, your principles scorned, to be branded with the name of simple, coward, hypocrite,--alas! who is sufficient for these things? III. The law from which they would drive you. If it be true that a revelation has been given by God to man, it is not for man to trifle in obedience. (G. Mathew, M. A.) Psalms 119:52I remembered Thy judgments of old, O Lord; and have comforted myself.A blessed field lot memory The Divine Word may be looked upon here-- I. As a field for memory.1. A refreshing field. What flowers bloom, what fruit clusters, what salubrious air breathes here. 2. A large field. It goes back through eternity; it begins with the creation, it embraces the human race, it runs on through centuries into the interminable future. 3. An imperishable field. II. As a source of comfort.1. By the presentation of examples. Noah, Abraham, Moses, Job, Daniel, Paul, etc.; and more,--Christ, the model of all virtue, enduring affliction, overwhelming and undeserved. 2. By the revelation of principles. It teaches that the afflictions of good men are not penal but disciplinary, not sent in anger, but in fatherly love (2 Corinthians 4:17). (Homilist.) The Divinely memorable I. The memorable in the Divine conduct to man. “ Thy judgments.” Whatever the Almighty does is memorable, and ought to be remembered. But there are some things in His conduct to man most strikingly memorable.1. Some things with man generally. The deluge, the confusion of tongues, the burning of Sodom and Gomorrah, the exodus of the Jews, the destruction of Jerusalem, etc. 2. Some things with man individually. Every man is conscious of some memorable event in his life; especially,--if he is a Christian,--his conviction, conversion, etc. II. The memorable in the Divine conduct remembered by man. “ I remembered.” Sad to say, the memorable things in the Divine conduct to man are not generally remembered.1. This is unnatural. How unnatural it is for a child to forget interpositions in the conduct of the loving father. But how much more unnatural go forget the wondrous works of God in His dealings with our race and with ourselves. 2. This is ungrateful. Ought we not to remember the self-sacrificing deeds of our benefactors? This indeed we generally do, we rear monuments to those whom we consider to be philanthropists. But how ungrateful to forget the wonderful mercies of God. 3. This is pernicious. Forgetfulness of God leads to moral deadness, gross carnality, black atheism. III. The remembrance of the memorable in the Divine dispensation blest to man. “ And have comforted myself.” The memory of what God in past times has done for His people is adapted to administer comfort under the trials of life.1. He has always granted strength according to need (Isaiah 25:4). 2. He has always fulfilled His promises. (Holimist.) Psalms 119:53 Horror hath taken hold upon me because of the wicked that forsake Thy law.The most horrible Of all the horrible things in the universe wickedness is the most horrible. I. It is most revolting to our sense of the beautiful. The aesthetical element exists in a greater or less degree in all moral minds. And the Creator has provided for it by flooding, the universe with beauty. The hideous and the ugly shock it with inexpressible pain, but what is so incongruous, so horrible as to see puny creatures rising in rebellion against the mighty Creator? II. It is most revolting to our sense of the reasonable. What is more reasonable than for the greatest Being to be reverenced the most, the kindest Being to be thanked the most, the best Being to be adored the most? Yet wickedness is in antagonism to all this, it is an outrage on all the principles of moral propriety. III. It is most revolting to our sense of the benevolent. In all moral minds there is implanted by the benevolent Creator a desire for the well-being of self and others. But wickedness strikes right against it, it breathes misery to all. (Homilist.) The folly of forsaking the Divine law “ The wicked that forsake Thy law.” Men are like four-year-old children, that, going down to the sea-shore, and finding there a boat with its various appliances, think they will try their hand at navigation. It has been the custom of their elders to have, as a means of navigating boats, sails and oars and a tiller, with a rudder attached; but these children say, “ Let us not be bound to our fathers’ notions.” And so with might and main they heave the mast and sails overboard, cast away the oars, and, unfastening the boat, they climb into it. And then, laughing and saying, “ Now for S voyage of the newest fashion,” they push off, and when once the boat is set free the tide takes her, and as there is nothing to steer her she goes whirling round and round, or drifting in this direction or that, at the mercy of the waves. And when they are far from the land, and night is coming on, and the sea begins to get turbulent, then, without sails, without oars, without rudder, and without the capacity to manage the boat, with their little palms they try, over the side, to paddle her back. But what can these children do towards paddling that masterly boat with the wind and tide against them, and with no power but that of their little palms? And yet they are mighty to manage that boat, compared to men who unharness faith and throw off its spars, its oars, its ordinary means of navigation, and say, “ Now, having got rid of these superstitions, we will paddle our new views and systems in our own way.” (H. W. Beecher.) Psalms 119:54 Thy statutes have been my songs in the house of my pilgrimage.Obligation a privilege When the Eastern traveller takes shelter from the scorching heat of noon, or halts for the night in some inn or caravansary, which is for the time the house of his pilgrimage, he takes the sackbut, or the lyre, and soothes his rest with a song--a song, it may be, of war, romance, or love. But the poet of Israel finds his theme in the statutes of Jehovah. Multitudes of men feel Divine law, Divine obligation, responsibility in any form, authority under any conditions, to be a real annoyance to life. They want their own will and way. The psalmist’ s doctrine is that obligation to God is our privilege. Every man, even the most licentious and reckless, is a pilgrim. But the pilgrimage of the text is made by no sense of restriction. Here is perfect harmony between obligation to God and all the sources of pleasure and happiness God has provided, so that there is no real collision between the statutes over us and the conditions around us. It is a false impression that the very enforcements of penalty and terror added to God’ s law, to compel an acceptance of it, or obedience to it, are a kind of concession that it is not a privilege, but a restriction or severity rather, which cannot otherwise be carried. But terrors are only restrictions to the lawless and disobedient, never to the good. A right-minded people will value their laws, and cherish them as the safeguard even of their liberty. Just so the righteous man will have God’ s statutes for his songs in all the course of his pilgrimage. How would it be with us if we existed under no terms of obligation? The true alternative between obligation and no obligation supposes, on the negative side, that we are not even to have the sense of obligation, or of moral distinctions; for the sense of obligation is the same thing as being obliged, or put in responsibility. In such a case, our external condition must obviously be as different as possible from what it is now.1. There could, of course, be no such thing as criminal law for the defence of property, reputation, and life; because the moral distinctions in which criminal law is grounded are all wanting. The defences of civil society must all be wanting where there is no recognized obligation to God. Having no moral and religious ideas, we cannot legislate. 2. What we call “ society,” as far as there is any element of dignity or blessing in it, depends on these moral obligations. Without these it would be intercourse without friendship, truth, charity or mercy. Where there is no law, there is no sin or guilt; as little is there any virtue. There is nothing to praise or confide in. Enter now the spiritual nature itself, and see how much is there depending on this great privilege of obligation to God. This claim of God’ s authority, this bond of duty laid upon us, is virtually the throne of God erected in the soul. It is sovereign, of course, unaccommodating, therefore, and may be felt as a sore annoyance. When violated, it will scorch the bosom ever with pangs of remorse, that are the most fiery and implacable of all mental sufferings. But of this there is no need; all such pains are avoidable by due obedience. And their obligation to God becomes the spring instead of the most dignified, fullest, healthiest joys anywhere attainable. Consider the truly paternal relation between our obligations to God, and what we call liberty. Instead of restraining our liberty, they only show us, in fact, how to use our liberty, and how to enjoy it, if I may so speak, in great and heroic actions. How insipid and foolish a thing were life, if there were nothing laid upon us to do l It is well that we are put upon doing what is not always agreeable to the flesh. When God lays upon us the duties of self-command, and self-sacrifice, when He calls us to act and suffer heroically, how could He more effectually dignify or ennoble our liberty? Obligation to God also imparts zest to life, by giving to our actions a higher import, and, when they are right, a more consciously elevated spirit. In this article of obligation to God you are set also in immediate relation to God Himself; and in a relation so high, everything in you and about you changes its import. God is in the world, training the creatures for Himself. It is also a great fact, as regards a due impression of obligation to God, and of what is conferred in it, that it raises and tones the spiritual emotions of obedient souls into a key of sublimity which is the completeness of their joy. Before God, all the deep and powerful emotions that lie in the vicinity of fear are waked into life; every chord of feeling is pitched to its highest key or capacity, and the soul quivers eternally in the sacred awe of God and His commandments; thrilled as by the sound of many waters, or the roll of some anthem that stirs the framework of the world. On this subject, too, experimental proofs may be cited. Conclusion:--It is only religion, the great bond of love and duty to God, that makes our existence valuable, or even tolerable. Without this to live were only to graze. How appalling a proof is it of some dire disorder and depravation of mankind that, when obligation to God is the spring of all that is dearest, noblest in thought, and most exalted in experience, we are yet compelled to urge it on them by so many entreaties, and even to force it on their fears by God’ s threatened penalties! (Horace Bushnell, D. D.) The singing pilgrim I. A pilgrim.1. We belong to another country. We are aliens, foreigners, strangers in this world. 2. We are hurrying through this world as through a foreign land. 3. A pilgrim’ s main business is to get on and pass through the land as quickly as he may. 4. As pilgrims, it is true in our case that our relatives are not, the most of them, in this country. We have a few brethren and sisters with us who are going on pilgrimage, and we are very thankful for them; for good company cheers the way. Yet the majority of those dear to us are already over yonder. If I may not say the majority by counting heads, yet certainly in weight the great majority will be found to be in the far country. Where is our Father? And where is our Elder Brother? And where is the Bridegroom of our soul? 5. A pilgrim reckons that land to be his country in which he expects to remain the longest. Through the country which he traverses he makes his way with all speed; but when he gets home he abides at his leisure, for it is the end of his toil and travail. What a little part of life shall we spend on earth! II. A singing pilgrim: “ Thy statutes have been my songs,” etc. Pilgrims to heaven are a merry sort of people after all. They have their trims, some trials more than those which ether men know; but then they have their joys, and among these joys are sweet delights such as worldlings can never taste. The singing pilgrim is a man who has a world of joy within him, and is journeying to another world, where for him all will be joy to a still higher degree. He sings high praises unto God, and blesses His name beyond measure, for he has reason to do so, reason which never slackens or lessens. Oh that we were always as we are sometimes, then would our breath be praise. III. The song book. “ Thy statutes.” The Bible is a wonderful book. It serves a thousand purposes in the household of God. I recollect, a book my father used to have, entitled “ Family Medicine,” which was consulted when any of us fell sick with juvenile diseases. The Bible is our book of family medicine. In some houses, the book they most consult is a “ Household Guide.” The Bible is the best guide for all families. This Book may be consulted in every case, and its oracle will never mislead. You can use it at funerals. There are no such words as those which Paul has written concerning the resurrection of the dead. You can use it for marriages--where else find such holy advice to a wedded pair? You can use it for birthdays. You can use it, for a lamp at night. You can use it for a screen by day. It is a universal Book; it is the Book of books, and has furnished material for mountains of books; it is made of what I call bibline, or the essence of books. We use this Book for a song-book as pilgrims, because it tells us the way to heaven. We often sing as we come to a fresh spot on the route, and bless God that we find the road to be just, as we have read in the way-book, just as our Divine Master said it should be. Well may we sing a song of gratitude for an infallible Word. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Thy Christian’ s song in his pilgrimage I. The light in which David regarded the world was that, of a foreign country, through which he was travelling to his native land.1. The world is a place which the Christian has ceased to love.2. The world is a place which cannot make the Christian happy.3. The world is a place in which the Christian must calculate on trials and difficulties.4. The world is a place which the Christian expects soon to leave. II. The cheerfulness which the Christian enjoys in the house of his pilgrimage.1. His song is a heartfelt song.2. His song is a rational song.3. His song is a Divine song. III. The source of the Christian’ s joy.1. The Bible rejoices the Christian by telling him that though a pilgrim in a foreign land, he shall have all his wants supplied. 2. The Bible brings joy to him by reminding him of the end of his pilgrimage, even his home, and that a peaceful, glorious, and heavenly home. 3. The Scriptures not only tell the Christian of this heavenly home, they cheer his heart by pointing out to him the way which leads to it. 4. The same Scriptures, too, that tell the Christian of his home, and point out to him the way which leads to it, give him the assurance that he shall soon be there. They remind him of the love, the power, and the faithfulness of Christ. Conclusion: Learn from this subject--1. One reason why so many professors of Christianity are habitually comfortless. They do not love the statutes of the Lord; or, if they love them, they do not seek their happiness in them. 2. Highly to value the Scriptures. 3. The extent to which we should endeavour to circulate the Scriptures. 4. The spirit, which becomes the Christian is a cheerful and rejoicing spirit. (C. Bradley, M. A.) A pilgrim’ s songs I. The pilgrim’ s house.1. It is lodgment, not home.2. It is shelter, not safety.3. It affords convenience, but nor happiness. II. The pilgrim’ s song. If God’ s statutes are our song, they supply a theme which can never fail us; for in all situations we have the opportunity of keeping His commandments. In all circumstances, high or low, pleasant or painful, we have to keep the statutes of the Lord. Poverty cannot silence this song; sorrow cannot dispense with it. For in poverty as in wealth, in sorrow as in joy, in keeping His commandments there is great delight. (R. Halley, M. A.) God’ s statutes, the Christian’ s song The human spirit is warmly and delicately alive to many external influences and impressions. Music and song are often called to aid the conceptions and feelings of the heart. And for this reason the believer applies to the Divine law all those invigorating and animating feelings which, in reference to other subjects, the men of this world fetch from minstrelsy and music. I. Song is enlisted to animate loyalty; and the Christian makes God’ s statutes his song in the house of his pilgrmage, because they animate his loyalty to his Sovereign who is in heaven. II. Song is enlisted to animate patriotism; and the Christian makes God’ s statutes his song in the house of his pilgrimage, because they animate his patriotism to the land that is afar off. III. Song is appropriated to cherish the love of home; and the Christian makes God’ s statutes his songs in the house of his pilgrimage because they foster his love of his eternal home in heaven. IV. Song is resorted to by the traveller, in order to beguile the length and weariness of the way; and the Christian makes God’ s statutes his song in the house of his pilgrimage, because they beguile the length and weariness of his pilgrimage journey through this life. V. Song is resorted to for encouraging and emboldening the mind; and the Christian makes God’ s statutes his songs in the house of his pilgrimage, because they encourage and embolden him in the face of the dangers that lie in his way. VI. Song is employed to cherish social feeling; and the Christian makes God’ s statutes his songs in the house of his pilgrimage, because they cherish and develop the social pleasures of religion. VII. Song is employed for the sake of relaxation and amusement; and the Christian makes God’ s statutes his song in the house of his pilgrimage, because his hours of relaxation and amusement cannot be more cheerfully and pleasantly spent than in awakening the music of Judah’ s harp. (A. Nisbet.) Songs in the house of pilgrimage I. True religion is an unsatisfied anticipation.1. It is an anticipation, for there comes out in the language clearly enough-- (1) The consciousness of an indwelling spiritual nature.(2) A consciousness of the greatness of the spiritual nature. 2. It is unsatisfied anticipation. This is suggested by the word “ pilgrimage,” and is implied in the very sentence which tells the joy. This must be to a certain extent the result of the awakening of the religious life. It is quite true, on the one hand, that they who drink up of the water which Christ gives shall never thirst: and yet it is equally true, on the other, that “ we who are in this tabernacle do groan,” not because we are dissatisfied, “ for that we would be unclothed,” but because we are unsatisfied, “ for that we should be clothed upon.” II. True religion is a present joyous appropriation.1. The statutes of Jehovah are the definite and authoritative declaration of the supreme law of right. The good is also the beautiful. The light which flows from God’ s throne excites in us a holy glow (Romans 7:22). 2. It makes all the difference in the world in respect of the aspect of God’ s statutes towards you, on which side of the wicket gate you are. If on the outside, these statutes will lift themselves up as an overhanging mountain burning with tempestuous fires and thundering forth eternal anathemas. But if on the inside, and especially if near the Cross, these statutes will become a firm path, along which your feet will run. 3. God’ s statutes are the instrument of discipline. Take the yoke, and ye shall find rest. 4. God’ s statutes--that is, God’ s ordinances--minister unto us seasons of gracious visitation and exalted spiritual delight. (H. R. Roberts, B. A.) Holy pilgrimage I. What is a Christian pilgrim? He is a traveller, and as such does not expect to meet with ease and comfort, as if he were at home. II. What does a christian pilgrim require?1. He requires decision.2. He requires self-effort. 3. He requires self-control.4. He requires perseverance,5. He requires an assurance of success. God has given us this. II. The grand object of the Christian pilgrim. It is not to visit holy places, but to be holy. (W. Birch.) The cheerful pilgrim I. A good man views his residence in this world as only the house of his pilgrimage. II. The situation, however disadvantageous, admits of cheerfulness. III. The sources of his joy are derived from the Scripture. (W. Jay.) Duty set to music I. Duty set to music.1. This is not a common experience. Men do not generally exult in responsibility and in law. 2. Though uncommon, it is (1) Desirable. Because duty cannot be got rid of, and because its connection with us must be either a source of misery or happiness. It is--(2) Attainable. He who loves the Lawgiver supremely will turn His laws into music. II. Duty set to music in unfavourable circumstances.1. Our earthly life is a house of pilgrimage--strange, unsettled, inconvenient, temporary. 2. Why, in this house of pilgrimage, we should keep up a spirit of cheerfulness. (1) It is our best protection in a world of strangers.(2) It is a permanent possession in a world of change.(3) It is a spiritualizing power in a world of materialism. (Homilist.) The transformation of slavery into liberty Slavery, licence, liberty, law. These four words are often on man’ s lips. Licence is simply permission to do what one wants to do. But it requires no long experience to learn that licence results in slavery. A man sees some tempting bait of pleasure. It conceals a hook of pain. Yet he thinks it is genuine happiness. But having once caught it, and been caught by it, he is held. He may rush and dash every way in mad fury, hoping to free himself. He may even tear himself free, but he can only do it by tearing out a part of his life. It is more probable that, once caught by it, he will be held by it till what once seemed to him perfect liberty becomes to him assured slavery. A man is obliged to watch his mail as a sheriff watches his prisoner. Letters may be coming to him any morning which, if known to those that stand nearest to him, would throw him into prison or clothe his life with black shame. Licence results in sin, and sin results in slavery. Law and liberty are words quite as common to the human lips as licence and slavery. Law and liberty- law is designed to result in liberty. Perfect law does result in liberty, and liberty is simple obedience to perfect law. At first law seems to be slavery, at last law is known to be liberty. The child at the piano would hold her hand in any form convenient to herself. The faithful teacher carefully and forcibly directs the position of each joint. It is hard for the little fingers thus to keep themselves straight, and to strike from the centre of force. The teacher knows that only as there is this slavery at first can there be liberty at last. The soldier is ordered to restrain his appetite, to discipline his body, to keep every power in subjection; he and his commanding officer know that as he thus disciplines and trains himself, making himself subject to rule and order, can he be free and active in the most efficient movement when freedom and swiftness mean victory and salvation of his native land. Several of the experiences of life present occasions when the statutes of God become the songs of man, in which slavery, limitation and hardship become freedom, joy, delight. One such experience is, I think, that which we call conversion. Conversion means at once so little and so much. Conversion does not usually cause us to give up our work or place, hut conversion broadens, deepens and heightens this work. It pushes further off the grey way of circumstance, it lifts far above us the overhanging dark ceiling of fate. Conversion brings God into our life and seems to give life all that liberty which belongs to God, and therefore to His children. “ Thy statutes have been my songs.” A second experience is common to man in which the laws, the statutes of God, may become the songs of man. It is the experience of each of us in which we try to put down some one sin. The love for money, the love for drink, the love for power, the love of any indulgence, each is still strong; but your soul, your God, have become so much stronger that you shut these baying hounds of desire in the kennel of their own deserved fate. You now rejoice so infinitely more at the righteousness of the law that you now can lament the penalty of disobedience. The law has become your song. I say again that the growth of this song element in our appreciation of God’ s law marks the growth of character, A man comes to love God in obedience to the statute, “ Thou shalt love the Lord thy God.” It is obedience to a law; it is far better than disobedience. Yet one who loves in obedience to a command has not much real love. But the little love that is thus begotten begets knowledge, and this knowledge begets more love. At last a man comes to love God without thinking of the command any more than a boy loves his father and his mother because of the fifth commandment. The duty has become a right, the right a privilege, and the privilege a joy. (C. F. Thwing, D. D.) Psalms 119:55-56I have remembered Thy name, O Lord, in the night, and have kept Thy law. Thought It is the glory of man that he can think. We conquer Nature by thought. Thought has stretched out its hand, reached the clouds, caught the lightning, made it stand quivering at our side, ready to waft through rocks and oceans our messages to the ends of the earth. Still more, thought can create new universes. Thought gave Milton his paradise, and Dante his hell. Thank God for the power of thought! I. A grand subject for thought. God’ s name is Himself; and what is He? The Infinitely Wise, Good, Holy, and Mighty One, the Cause, Means, and End of all things in the universe but sin, the Alpha and the Omega. He is the most quickening, the most invigorating, and the most ennobling Subject of thought. By thinking on Him we rise to the true ideal of being, and in no other way. II. A fine season for thought.1. Night is the season of quietude. 2. Night is the season of solemnity. 3. Night is the season of reality. Thoughts that come to us in the night seem far more real than those that come in the day. It is the season when the material gives way to the spiritual. III. A noble result of thought. The highest and the only true end of thought is to lift us into conformity with the Divine will. Thought upon Him will stamp us with His image and bear us into His presence, where there is “ fulness of joy.” (Homilist.) The effect of keeping God’ s law I. The keeping God’ s law promoted by remembering God’ s name. The name of God includes all the attributes of God. If, for instance, I remember the attributes of God, I must remember amongst them a power before which every created thing must do homage, which hath called into existence whatever moves in the circuits of the universe, and which might in an instant reduce into nothing all that arose at its summons; and if I couple with the memory of this Power the thought that the undying principle which I carry within me must become hereafter an organ of infinite pleasure or of infinite pain, subject as it will be to the irreversible allotments of this Power, what is there which can more nerve me to the work of obedience than the remembering God’ s name? For does it not necessarily involve the remembering, that to disobey is to arm against myself throughout eternity a Might before which all creation must bend? And if this be sound reasoning when applied to the power of God, it will equally hold good when justice is the attribute remembered. Let us suppose a man to have mused in the night on the justice of the Creator, so that there shall have passed before him all the instruments of retribution, and he shall not be able to cheat himself with those false delusions which at other times have been woven out of the idea of uncovenanted mercies--will the morning find him as reckless as before, as determined to pursue a course that must end in death? The direct and distinct tendency of the remembrance is to the producing obedience; and therefore in regard of justice, as well as of power, the remembering God’ s name stands closely connected with the keeping of God’ s law. II. The keeping the law rewarded by keeping the law. “ I have kept Thy law. This I had because I kept Thy precepts.” Now, we do not doubt that there is given to every true Christian just that portion of grace which is requisite for the duties appointed him of God. But although without the grace nothing can be done, and with the grace all may be done, it does not follow that because the grace is bestowed the work will be accomplished. Two men may receive the same portion of grace, just as two servants may receive the same number of talents. There may be industry in the one, and watchfulness, and earnestness; in the other there may be comparative indolence, and remissness, and carelessness. What shall be the consequence? The one improves God’ s gift, and therefore grows in grace; the other neglects God’ s gift, and either therefore he is stationary, or he goes back. Grace emanates wholly from God; but, nevertheless, growth in grace depends much upon man. Obedience is like faith--it gathers strength as it goes. We know, indeed, and we tell you again and again, that whatever strength we have in spiritual things comes wholly from God; but a man may be idle, though he may be strong, and a Christian may be remiss, though he have grace. If we do not “ stir up the gift of God which is in us,” we shall drag on languidly and heavily along the path of life, scarce conscious of any of our privileges, harassed continually by doubts and conjecture, surrounded by a darkness which shall perplex and confound us. You are bidden by St. Peter to give all diligence to make your calling and election sure. We must: “ run not as uncertain,” and we must “ fight, not as one that beateth the air” ; out of those efforts of obedience shall evidence continually spring of our acceptance with ‘ God; with greater and greater clearness shall we read our title to mansions in the skies; we shall be happier, and fuller of confidence, and more assured of an entrance at death into everlasting glory. Tell me, then, whether it will not be true, that there is a reward in obedience, and that this reward consists in further obedience; and all according to the experience of the psalmist--“ I have remembered Thy name, O Lord,” etc. (H. Melvill, B. D.) In the night season There is a widespread belief that the powers of evil are especially alert and mischievous during the night hours; that is that the darkness is peculiarly the sphere of malignant spirits, whose realm is the outer darkness of the universe, and whose present occupation is to tempt mankind and do all they can to frustrate the coming of the kingdom of universal righteousness, into which they can never enter. I. It is reasonable for us to associate the night hours with the powers of evil.1. The psalmist points out how the wild beasts move about in the dark seeking their prey, and return to lie down in their dens at the day-break. They are the figure and type of evil spirits who go forth especially at night to persuade men to sin. 2. Temptations come to many people more strongly and seductively at night than in their waking hours. 3. Under the cover of the night men commit many crimes. The darkness is friendly to their misdeeds. II. The psalmist in many places tells of his devotions in the hours of the night. Every night he waters his couch with his tears. In the night he communes with his own heart and searches out his spirit. At midnight he rises to give thanks for God’ s goodness. One might multiply the illustrations, and in every case find this spiritual thought appropriate to them, that by availing oneself of the night hours for prayer, meditation and penitential self-communing, one carries the soul-warfare into the enemy’ s country, as it were. III. The night season is a type of those times of desolation, of melancholy and loneliness which all have sometimes to endure. And it is the way in which we bear ourselves in such circumstances which declares the power and reality of our Christian faith.1. The seasons of sorrow and of despondency are for the most of us veritable night seasons, hours of darkness. And it may be there are more of them than there are periods of sunshine. What then is our conduct in these night seasons? 2. The night season of sin. The only things which our Lord requires for the full pardon of human guilt are honest penitent confession, and genuine effort to amend. 3. The night of isolation, loneliness, it may be of old age, with loss of friends and of such as have taken interest in us hitherto. 4. The night season is the hour of death. What is to be one’ s solace in the hour of his passing? The thinking upon the name, the holy name of the Redeemer of our souls. (Arthur Ritchie.) Psalms 119:57 Thou art my portion, O Lord: I have said that I would keep Thy words.The wealth of life A man’ s portion is that which he deliberately chooses as the chief object of his life, that on which he concentrates” his thought, bestows his energy, lavishes his affection; that which in turn colours him, moulds him. No man need tell us in so many words what is his portion, his life is an eloquent proclamation of that fact. The sensualist who wallows in mire writes this message like the mark of the beast across his brow, “ Lust is my portion.” The pleasure-seeker, whose one thought is selfish gratification, and who flits from gaiety to gaiety like a short-lived butterfly from flower to flower, announces by his whole bearing, “ Enjoyment is my portion.” The avaricious man, whether known as a miser or not, as he surveys the golden pile and smiles over his ever-fattening bank account, tells you, heedless of his shrinking soul, that Mammon is his portion. The student, as he betakes himself to some sequestered nook where he can quiz the angel Truth, and secure sweet whispers from her lips, quietly asseverates, “ Learning is my portion.” It may help us to realize how rich we are in God if I name a feature or two of this portion. I. It is spiritual. One of the saddest phases of life to-day is the disparagement and denial of the spiritual nature of man. The body is too much in evidence to be denied or disparaged. The mind, too, comes in for a good measure of attention, but our real self, our upper self, our spiritual part, has meagre attention. Some deny the existence of the soul, others treat it just as though it were not; and there can be no doubt that the soul of many is an undiscovered world. Yet, in spite of our bad treatment of it, our spiritual nature will assert itself,--“ As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after Thee, O God.” I am not to be put off with matter. It is no use sending ms to Nature--singing streams, flowery meadows, towering hills, shining stars, beauteous phenomena, shifting scenes of splendour cannot satisfy me. I am not to be put off with mind. It is no use sending me to books. I am a person, and only a person can satisfy me. I am a spirit, and only the spiritual can meet my mighty longings. I am immortal, and only the eternal can be enough for me. And so it comes to pass, the moment a man discovers himself, he feels that no earthly portion can cover the whole of his necessity, can slake the whole of his thirst, and so he looks heavenwards, stretches out his little hands to grasp the hands of the Infinite One, and cries, “ Whom have I in heaven but Thee, there is none upon the earth that I desire beside Thee. My flesh and my heart faileth, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever.” II. It is present. The psalmist was not thinking of a far away patrimony which would be his when the river we call death should be crossed. God was then his treasure--“ Thou art my portion.” And we have not to think of God as an estate which we have to die to realize in some distant heaven. That kind of feeling has wrought incalculable mischief in numberless Christian lives. There are those who conceive of their portion as wholly yonder, and they doom the present to sheer emptiness. Be not deceived. The whole of our heaven is not there, a good slice of it is hero. Yonder is the tree of life, but the branches hang over the wall, and the grapes are not too high to be sour. Whatever God will be to us in heaven He is to us in large measure on earth. We need not go through the world as paupers, seeing we have such treasure at hand, Our life need not be a wilderness waste, a flowerless garden, a waterless well, a bankrupt bank, a sunless day, since God is ours. Let us appropriate our treasures; let us seek a present heaven; let us believe that we have in God an unspeakable fund of blessing--a present love, higher than the heavens, deeper than the sea, broader than the earth, and closer than the atmosphere; a present joy, keeping the heart young and warm, the face bright, the tongue musical; a present peace, keeping the soul unchafed and the life tranquil amid the strife of unfriendly voices; and a present grace enough for our sorest need, our darkest hour. III. It is permanent. Many portions are precarious, perishable, evanescent. Millionaires have ore this seen their mountain of gold vanish. Grand estates have exchanged hands by a stroke of the pen. A great preacher says, “ Nothing really belongs to a man if it can be taken from him. What we may lose we can scarcely be said to have. The only thing that is worth calling mine is something that so passes into and saturates the very substance of my soul; that, like a piece of cloth dyed in the grain, as long as two threads hold together, the tint will be there. That is how God gives Us Himself, and nothing can take Him out of a man’ s soul.” As the sun gives itself to the flower, nourishing, painting, and perfecting it, so God gives Himself unto the soul that trusts in Him. We may have all that belongs to God in perpetual possession. He and all He has are ours every day alike. IV. It is satisfying. Pleasure, does that satisfy? It never did; it never can. Xerxes felt, when surfeited with his indulgences, that something more was wanted, and offered a reward to the man who would invent a new pleasure. Wealth, does that satisfy? Nay, it rather breeds dissatisfaction. Social distinctions and worldly honours, are these satisfying? (W. Pearce.) God our portion, and His Word our treasure 1. Observe the close connection between privilege and duty. “ Thou art my portion, O Lord;” this is an unspeakable happiness. “ I have said that I would keep Thy words” --this is the fitting return for such a blessing. Every mercy given us of the Lord brings with it a claim which we ought in gratitude to recognize. 2. Notice very carefully the order in which the privilege and the duty are arranged. The blessing of grace is first and the fruit of gratitude next. The grace given is the root and the resolve is the fruit growing out of it. 3. Each possession not only involves service, but appropriate service, even as each plant bears its own flower. The general principle which calls for service bears a particular application, for each particular Gospel benefit is linked with some special Gospel service. The unspeakable boon of having God for our portion has here fastened to it the peculiar excellence of keeping God’ s words. I. The infinite possesion. “ Thou art my portion, O Lord.”1. A clear distinction. The psalmist declares the Lord to be his portion in distinction to the portion of the ungodly. The seventy-third psalm gives a full and particular description of the ungodly in their prime and glory, when “ their eyes stand out with fatness,” and “ they have more than heart can wish.” But David did not desire to share their short-lived joys, he sought his happiness elsewhere, looking to the Creator rather than the creatures and to eternity rather than time. 2. The positive claim--“ Thou art my portion, O Lord.” He deliberately declares this in the silence of his soul. As for the ungodly, they are boasting of their prosperity, they are girding themselves with pride as with a golden chain; but I dare not seek my joy in such matters, “ Thou art my portion, O Lord.” You see he speaks in the present tense. “ Thou art my portion, O Lord.” There are some things which I have not received as yet, but I have already laid hold upon my God. At this hour “ My Beloved is mine, and I am His.” I know whom I have believed, and I know that He has given Himself to me as I have given myself to Him. Beyond a doubt, Thou art at this very moment my portion, O Lord. 3. The portion itself. “ Thou.” (1) What a boundless portion.(2) How abiding it is.(3) An appropriate portion, in every way suitable go content the soul.(4) In the fullest degree satisfying.(5) An elevating portion.(6) If God be my portion, then my portion is all of grace, for no one can merit God. II. The appropriate resolution.1. The preface, “ I have said.” Why did he not put it, “ Thou art my portion, O Lord; I will keep Thy words” ? No, he writes “ I have said it,” which means deliberation. He had thought over his happiness in having such a portion. What then? His thoughts began to stir within Him and to devise a fit expression for his gratitude, and he at last said, “ I will keep Thy words.” It was no hasty thought, but a determined resolve. I suppose he also means that he had given a distinct pledge. He had opened his mouth to the Lord, and could not go back. 2. The link between the portion possessed and the resolution made: it is not very difficult to discover. God is best known to us by His words. His works reveal Him by a reflected light as ,the moon, but His words display Him by a direct light as a very sun of light to us. How do I know God except by His words? The God of the inspired Word is our God, and because this God is our portion, and we know Him by His words, therefore have we said we will keep His words. 3. What is this work of keeping God’ s words? (1) First, then, there is a Word which above all is to be kept, enshrined in the heart and obeyed in the life. “ In the beginning was the Word.” That very name, “ the Word,” given to Christ puts the highest honour upon every other word of revelation. Beware of trifling or being negligent towards any word of the Lord, since Jesus Christ is the chief and sum of the words of God.(2) The word of the Gospel.(3) Doctrines.(4) Precepts.(5) Promises. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The wealth of the good What is the portion of a good man? Nothing less than the Lord Himself. I. This is an all-comprehensive “ portion.” It embraces everything else: all good in this life and for ever. The man who can say, “ The Lord is mine,” can say, “ All things are mine.” II. This is a soul-satisfying “ portion.” Nothing short of this can satisfy the soul. Man’ s spiritual nature has a deep hunger that the whole universe cannot satisfy, that nothing but God Himself can appease. III. This is an imperishable “ portion.” All inheritances of the earth will pass away, the kingdoms of the world will vanish as a cloud. IV. This is an attainable “ portion.” There are but few men in any generation that can attain an earthly inheritance of any value; but here is a portion open to all, He of[ors Himself “ Seek the Lord while He may be found.” (Homilist,) Psalms 119:58-60I entreated Thy favour with my whole heart: be merciful unto me according to Thy Word. The duties which mark the commencement of the Christian course I. The consideration of our ways.1. He betakes himself to consider-- (1) not the ways of other people, officiously prying into their char-actors, scrutinizing what is amiss in them, etc. (2) Nor the light in ‘ which his own ways are regarded by other persons. 2. But his own ways, as they are in reality, and as they appear in the sight of that God, who trieth the heart and the reins. II. An attention to God’ s word.1. Man’ s sinful and lost state. 2. The great remedy for this. III. Earnest prayer for God’ s proffered mercy and grace.1. The object of his prayer--God’ s favour and God’ s mercy according to His Word. 2. The cordiality of his prayer. IV. An immediate obedience to God’ s commandments.1. The nature of his obedience. It is not the obedience of an angel that never sinned; hut of a sinner under a dispensation of mercy. 2. This obedience is immediate; is net delayed, but attended to at once. (1) Because he is aware of the shortness and uncertainty of his life. (2) Because, even though his life should be spared, his faculties may not. (3) Because, even though both his life and his faculties should be continued to him, the grace of God, without which all attempts at Christian obedience must be utterly vain, may be denied him. (4) Because, even though this most tremendous of all judgments should not be inflicted on him, still, by his delay, he would only increase the difficulties of his obedience, whenever he should set about it. (5) Because by his delay he would lose all that comfort and sweet satisfaction of mind which are the ordinary accompaniments of obedience. (6) Because by such delay he would lose also so many opportunities never to be recovered of doing good to man, and of glorifying the God of his salvation; and-- (7) Because he would suffer materially as to his eternal state; for, though the idea of merit is to be entirely excluded and our admission into heaven is to be ascribed solely to God’ s mercy in Christ; still, through that same mercy, will no sincere attempt at obedience, not even the grant of a cup of cold water given on truly Christian principles, fail of an abundant gracious reward. (John Natt, B. D.) Laws for the bestowment of the Divine mercy I. Principles or laws in accordance with which God shows mercy.1. His own pleasure.2. Through Jesus Christ.3. He limits its highest exercise to the penitent and godly.4. His own glory. II. Why the devout mind would have these laws always observed. (J. R. Page.) Psalms 119:59-64I thought on my ways, and turned my feet unto Thy testimonies. A godly life I. The way into a godly life. “ I thought.” Wonderful act is this; an act which no creature on earth bug man can perform. By thought he has created the civilized world. Let a man think on his “ ways” in relation to God, and the fires of penitence will be kindled within him. II. The urgent need of a godly life (verse 60). When a man reflects profoundly on his ways, he will feel that there is no time to lose; the question of his duty to God becomes terribly urgent.1. The interests involved are momentous. 2. Much time has been lost.3. The future is very short and uncertain (Proverbs 27:1). III. The earthly trials of a godly life (verse 61). Few good men pass through this life without being victimized in some way by the wicked (John 16:33; John 15:18; 2 Timothy 3:12; Acts 14:22). IV. The irrepressible joys of a godly life (verse 62). The joys of a godly man are like the waves of the spring tide, they rise at times beyond the level and break over the barriers. They are “ filled with all joy and peace in believing.” “ At midnight Paul and Silas prayed,” etc. V. The vast fellowships of a godly life (verse 63). “ All them that fear Thee!” How many are the godly? A multitude which “ no man can number.” A good man has the fellowship of the good, VI. The infinite resources of a godly life (verse 64). (Homilist.) History of a conversion I. Reflection. “ I thought,” etc. When a sinner once begins to think he finds many things to think about, as--1. His long-continued neglect of God.2. The fearful number of his sins.3. The many duties he has neglected.4. The world of light, mercy and grace he has resisted.5. The many favourable opportunities he has for ever lost.6. God’ s amazing forbearance and unwearied efforts to bring him to repentance.7. The anxiety felt for him all these years while he felt none for himself. II. Reformation. “ And turned my feet,” etc. Thinking of no use unless it prompts to action. Many a soul takes the first step, but not the second. Here the devil makes a bold stand, and plies all his arts to retain his hold on the sinner. III. Making haste.1. Multitudes lose their convictions of sin by hesitancy and delay.2. One of the strongest tendencies of human nature is to pug off turning to God.3. The devil cares not how a man thinks, or weeps, or resolves, if he can but induce him to wait a little longer! Not so with the psalmist. He made haste, and delayed not his obedience. So will every sinner do, if he means to be saved. (Homiletic Review.) Thinking and turning I. Right thinking--“ I thought on my ways.”1. That this thought upon his ways caused him dissatisfaction is evident; or otherwise he would not have turned. 2. This right thinking upon our ways will suggest a practical change. My soul, sin even now hath not profited thee while it is in the bud, what will it be when it ripens, and its scattered seeds fly over the whole of my being, and turn that which should be a fruitful field into a tangled mass of weeds? Surely it is time for a change. 3. The retrospect we take of our life should suggest that any turn we make should be Godward--“ I turned my steps unto Thy testimonies.” It is no use turning if you do not turn to something better. II. Right turning which grows out of right thinking. “ I turned my feet unto Thy testimonies.”1. Here observe how complete this turn was. A man may turn his head, and turn but little; he may turn his hand--there is not much movement of the whole body in that; but when he turns his feet, he turns himself completely. The turn we sinners all need is a whole turn. The nature must be changed. 2. The turning of the text is also a practical one. “ I turned my feet:” I did not merely say, “ I turned my eyes,” bug I showed the reality of the change of heart by change of life. 3. It must be, moreover, a Scriptural turn, too. “ I turned my feet unto Thy testimonies.” There is a spurious conversion which is not true conversion to God. A man may have another heart and yet he may not have a new heart. We read of King Saul that he had another heart, but he remained unsaved. A man may change his idols; he may change his sins, but may not be changed in heart. 4. The turning was immediate. The actual point of the conversion is instantaneous. I am walking through a wood, and I am going wrong; well, I pause and look about, but whenever I actually turn there is a critical moment when I turn, is there not? It may be that I take some time to consider and look about me; but when I do actually go back there is a particular moment when I turn and take the first step. I desire that this present moment may be the instant of conversion to each one of you who are dead in sin. You have been thinking of your ways, now may you turn your feet to His testimonies. This must be the work of grace. The omnipotent power of God must turn you to Himself. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Self-examination and its results Self-examination is to man a work of much difficulty, and one to which he feels a strong repugnance. To think upon his ways, to “ bring his doings in review before him, is too serious and self-denying an employment for him, and he is never disposed to turn to it. The reason is obvious: he dreads the issue of it. I. If God thinks upon our ways, it surely behoves us to think upon them. If we are accountable to Him for our doings, it would be but reasonable now to sit in judgment on ourselves. II. Whatever evils we now discover by the exercise of self-examination may be remedied. The sins which are detected may be repented of and forgiven. But if these things are suffered to lie hid till the day of the Lord reveal them, the discovery will come too late.1. Think upon your past ways. They are past, but not forgotten. The record of them has been kept. 2. But if it tax your memory too much to recall forgotten hours, and the labour seems too great to ponder over what is so obscured by distance, then look at what is immediately before you. Think of your present ways: your life and conversion at this time. III. If we thus engage in the work of self-examination, the same important result will, through the blessing of God, follow from it, namely amendment of life. Self-examination, when honestly pursued, will discover to us our need of amendment, and the conviction of this is the first step in the way to it. For when once the conscience has been disturbed by the discovery of evil, it will not be pacified till it is in process of being cured. The result will be an improvement which has its seat in the heart, and makes itself visible in the life and conversation. (G. Bellett.) Religious thoughtfulness I. Its exercise. The text supposes that we look at our “ ways” as sinful and needing reformation. Such the fact. Conscience, experience, and revelation testify that “ we have all gone astray,” etc. Think, then, upon--1. The essential evil of a sinful course. 2. The boundless aggravations of our sins. 3. The fearful and fatal end of a sinful life. II. Its results. Such thoughtfulness will--1. Convince us of our sinfulness, and lead us be the only Saviour. The longings of the soul only satisfied in God. 2. Maintain constancy of fixed principle. Illustrate from the “ three Hebrew youths.” 3. Inspire inflexibility of purpose and steadiness of progress. (James Foster, B. A.) The nature and benefit of consideration I. The course which David here took for the reforming of his life.1. This thinking on our ways may signify a general survey and examination of our lives; respecting indifferently our good and bad actions. And this, no doubt, is an admirable means to improve men in virtue, a most effectual way to keep our consciences continually waking and tender. 2. This thinking of our ways may particularly and specially refer to the sins and miscarriages of our lives. (1) The taking of a particular account of our sins, together with the several circumstances and aggravations of them. (2) A hearty trouble and sorrow for them; “ I thought on my ways;” that is, I laid them sadly to heart. (3) A serious consideration of the evil and unreasonableness of a sinful course. (4) A due sense of the fearful and fatal consequences of a wicked life. (5) A full conviction of the necessity of quitting of this course. (6) An apprehension of the possibility of doing this. II. The success of this course. It produced actual and speedy reformation. I do not say that this change is perfectly made at once. A state of sin and holiness are not like two ways that are just parted by a line, so as a man may step out of the one full into the other; but they are like two ways that lead to two very distant places, and consequently are at a good distance from one another; and the farther any man hath travelled in the one, the farther he is from the other; so that it requires time and pains to pass from the one to the other. Conclusion:--1. Consideration is the proper act of reasonable creatures (Isaiah 46:8). 2. This is the end of God’ s patience and longsuffering towards us--to bring us to consideration. 3. Consideration is that which we must all come to one time or other. When we come to die, then we shall think of our ways with trouble and vexation enough; and how glad would we then be, that we had time to consider them? And, perhaps, while we are wishing for more time, eternity will swallow us up. To be sure, in the other world, a great part of the misery of wicked men will consist in furious reflections upon themselves, and the evil actions of their lives. But, alas l it will then be too late to consider; for then consideration will do us no good. (Archbishop Tillotson.) Psalms 119:60I made haste, and delayed not to keep Thy commandments.The folly and danger of irresolution and delaying I. Consider the reasons and excuses which men pretend for delaying this necessary work, and show the unreasonableness of them.1. Many cannot at present bring themselves to it, but they hope hereafter to be in a better temper and disposition, and then they resolve by God’ s grace to set about this work in good earnest, and to go through with it. I know not whether it be fit to call this a reason; I am sure it is the greatest cheat end delusion that any man can put upon himself. Thou hast no reason in the world against the present time, but only that it is present; why, when hereafter comes to be present, the reason will be just the same. 2. The great difficulty and unpleasantness of it. But then it is to be considered that how difficult and painful soever this work be, it is necessary, and that should overrule all other considerations whatsoever; that if we will not be at this pains and trouble, we must one time or other endure far greater than those which we now seek to avoid; that it is not so difficult as we imagine, but our fears of it are greater than the trouble will prove; if we were but once resolved upon the work, and seriously engaged in it, the greatest part of the trouble were over. 3. Another pretended encouragement to these delays is the great mercy and patience of God (Ecclesiastes 8:11). But it is not always thus; and if it were, and thou wert sure to be spared yet a while longer, what can be more unreasonable and disingenuous than to resolve to be evil because God is good; and, because He suffers so long, to sin so much longer. II. I shall add some farther considerations to engage men effectually to set about this work speedily, and without delay.1. Consider, that in matters of great and necessary concernment, and which must be done, there is no greater argument of a weak and impotent mind than irresolution; to be undetermined where the ease is so plain, and the necessity so urgent, to be always about doing that which we are convinced must be done. 2. Consider that religion is a great and a long work, and asks so much time, that there is none left for the delaying of it. 3. Consider what a desperate hazard we run by these delays. Every delay of repentance is a venturing the main chance. 4. Seeing the delay of repentance doth mainly rely upon the hopes and encouragement of a future repentance, let us consider a little how unreasonable these hopes are, and how absurd the encouragement is which men take from them. To sin in hopes that hereafter we shall repent is to do a thing in hopes that we shall one day be mightily ashamed of it; in hopes that we shall be full of horror at the thoughts of what we have done, and shall treasure up so much guilt in our consciences as will make us a terror to ourselves, and be ready to drive us even to despair and distraction. And is this a reasonable hope? 5. If you be still resolved to delay this business, and put it off at present, consider well with yourselves how long you intend to delay it. I hope not to the last, nor till sickness come, and death make his approaches to you. This is just as if a man should be content to be shipwrecked, in hope that he shall afterwards escape by a plank, and get safe to shore. But perhaps thou art not altogether so unreasonable, but desirest only to respite this work till the first heat of youth and lust be over, till the cooler and more considerate part of thy life come on; that, perhaps, thou thinkest may be the fittest and most convenient season. But still we reckon upon uncertainties, for perhaps that season may never be. Some seem vet more reasonable, and are content to come lower, and desire only to put it off for a very little while. But why for a little while? Why till to-morrow? To-morrow will be as this day, only with this difference, that thou wilt in all probability be more unwilling and indisposed then. 6. Consider what an unspeakable happiness it is to have our minds settled in that condition, that we may without fear and amazements--nay, with comfort and confidence--expect death and judgment. (Archbishop Tillotson.) The great Jolly and danger of delaying repentance I. The longer you delay this work, still the more difficult it will be to you, and the more labour and pains you will be put to, if ever you prosecute it successfully. II. By making haste to keep God’ s commandments, we mightily consult the pleasure and comfort of our following days as, on the contrary, by delaying it, we necessarily prepare fears and disquietude, and unavoidable anxieties of mind all our life after. Why, therefore, should we not now begin to live so, as when we come to be old, if ever we be so, we shall wish we had lived? Why should we not now, in our vigour and strength, make some provisions wherewith to sustain and support ourselves under the burden and infirmities of old age? III. Our happiness in the future state will be so much the greater by how much the earlier we begin to be religious. Oh, how happy would it be for such if they would seriously lay this matter to heart, before either a habit of carelessness, or sensuality, or worldly-mindedness hath got possession of them! IV. The infinite hazard we all run by neglecting this work, upon account of the great uncertainty of our present lives. (Archbishop Sharp.) Procrastination I. Procrastination generally. In some cases this procrastinating temper, this disposition to put of[ from the present moment what ought to be done at the present moment, arises from actual indolence, a selfish love of ease; a kind of inertia of mind, a dislike of exertion; a kind of paralysis of spirit, only a voluntary one. In other cases it seems to be traceable to a lamentable want of decision of character--that fine, healthy tone of fixed, deliberate, unalterable resolution, with which every man ought to go forth in the business of life to those things which are proper to be done. It not unfrequently is the result of a timid mind, frightened at difficulty; it is the mark of a cowardly spirit, that starts at shadows--that means to act, but is always calculating the force of difficulties, and predicting opposition where no opposition is. But generally, after all, it is a vicious habit, acquired we may not perhaps be able to say how, by what accidental circumstance or how early; not unfrequently even in childhood, when the judicious eye of a mother should have detected it, and parental solicitude have checked it, and the child would have started in life with the principle that he should never put off till to-morrow what ought So be done and can be done to-day. II. Procrastination is religious matters.1. It is irrational. If religion be false, let it never trouble you; never have another thought about the matter; if true, no longer delay submitting your whole mind and heart to its influence. 2. It is unpleasant, disagreeable, painful. 3. It is disgraceful. 4. It is sinful in the highest degree. 5. It is dangerous. (J. A. James.) Promptitude in duty I. Promptitude in duty is supremely binding. Duty is the supreme end of existence. We are made to “ keep Thy commandments.” Unless we do this our existence will prove a failure, and a curse. Even Seneca has said, “ To obey God is perfect liberty, he that does this should be safe, free, and quiet.” II. Promptitude in duty is supremely necessary.1. The great Creator seems to have made the happiness of all His sentient creation to depend on obedience to His laws. Hence from the microscopic insect, to the huge mammoth, we find pleasures flowing into them through obedience to their instincts. Disobedience is misery in all worlds. 2. Hence the necessity of promptitude in this matter. (1) The sooner it is attended to the better. (2) The longer it is delayed the more, difficult to begin. Both the inclination and the power get weaker with every moment’ s delay. (Homilist.) Second thoughts not the best in religion How often do we hear the saying “ Second thoughts are best” ! And, for the most part, second thoughts are best. In ordinary affairs, there is the greatest likelihood of our acting wrong if we act upon impulse, if we do not take time for reflection, if we judge things according to their first appearance, in place of looking at them minutely and considering all their bearings. In worldly things, in regard of the businesses and intercourses of life, it might perhaps with safety be affirmed as universally true that second thoughts are best. But will now the same hold good in respect of religious things? Are our first thoughts, or our second, ordinarily our best, when the subject of thought has to do with duty towards God, and the saving of our souls? “ I made haste, and delayed not, to keep Thy commandments.” What hurry there is in the sentence! They are the words of a man determined not to wait for second thoughts, as though he knew they would be different from the first, but on that very account less worthy to be followed. And in the foregoing verse, the psalmist had expressed himself to nearly the same effect: “ I thought on my ways, and turned my feet unto Thy testimonies.” Now, let us first look a little practically at the subject. We shall perhaps find ground in the very nature of the case, or in the testimony of experience, for questioning whether in religion second thoughts are best. There may be many theories in regard to the nature of con-science--that principle which acts within us with so mighty an energy; and writers on ethics may have their different suppositions, and propose their different explanations. But we never see that the Scriptural student has any but one theory to adopt, namely, that conscience is virtually the Spirit of God--an instrumentality put into play by the workings of the Holy Ghost; according to the express statement of Solomon--“ The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord.” Herein lies the great reason for what we have affirmed; in a matter of conscience, where the question is between what is morally right and what morally wrong, the first thought is the thought to trust, the first impression the impression to retain. What is whispered, what is suggested to you, at the moment of the question being raised, is whispered, is suggested by that Spirit which, whether or not it be conscience itself, makes conscience its instrument, and secretly touches its springs; but when you hesitate, when you will not follow the Divine impulse, but wait to try whether it will abide certain tests, the almost certainty is that the Holy Spirit, grieved by your unbelief, will suspend His actings, or act with a less direct energy. You are but giving time for the world to pour in its counter-suggestions; for your own corrupt affections to muster their strength; for reason, always swayed by inclination, to arrange something plausible in the way of objection or excuse. Second thoughts!--fruitful parents of “ the second death” ! Second thoughts make infidels, when first would have made believers. Second thoughts tie men to the world, when first would have devoted them to God. Second thoughts crucify the Lord Jesus afresh, when first would have crucified self. Away henceforwards from religion the maxim, “ Second thoughts are best.” Uphold it, if you will, in the concerns of commerce; cling to it in the researches of science; defend it in the arrangements of life; but have nothing to do with it in the suggestions of conscience. If you have not begun in religion, second thoughts will prevent your beginning; if you have begun, they will keep you flora proceeding. They are “ of the earth, earthy.” They produce those waverings, inconsistencies, and backslidings, which are so deplorable, yet so common, amongst religious professors. (H. Melvill, B. D.) Psalms 119:62 At midnight I will rise to give thanks unto Thee because of Thy righteous judgments.Incitements to gratitude I. The particular incitements to David’ s gratitude here specified. “ Because of Thy righteous judgments.” The reference appears to be to the afflictive dispensations of Providence.1. They are judgments, as they are all deserved, in consequence of a violation of God’ s love. 2. They are judgments also, as they are types and representations of the final execution of the warrant of God’ s law against all those who remain enemies to God by wicked works. 3. These judgments are called righteous. Partly because they are the decisions and procedures of a wise and holy God, who is righteous in all His works; partly as they are perfectly consonant with the declared laws of His rectitude, and partly as they are to accomplish righteous purposes, in visiting the wicked according to their deserts, in chastening His people for their profit, that they may be made partakers of His holiness. 4. What is there in these judgments to create the gratitude of a pious mind? There are three aspects in which they may be viewed. (1) As vindications of the Divine government.(2) As they secure the most beneficial consequences and results.(3) As they afford a presumptive proof of the arrival of a crisis, when all the apparent inequalities shall be removed from his administration, and there will be a time of restitution of all things. II. The fervour and ardency with which David expresses his thankfulness. “ At midnight,” etc.1. Our gratitude to God for mercies and for providential deliverances should be ardent and animated. 2. Gratitude should be often expressed in retirement. 3. All times and places are alike to God, at which we tender to Him the sacrifice of praise. 4. This conduct of David should serve to impress us with the value which he set, and we ought also to put upon time. (Evangelical Preacher.) Psalms 119:63I am a companion of all them that fear Thee, and of them that keep Thy precepts. Good society God has made man for society and society for man. The society, however, to which the text points is the society of the highest type, composed of those who fear God and keep His “ precepts.” I. This is the most honourable society. The only honourable society is the society of honourable men, and the only honourable men are those who fear God and keep His commandments. II. This is the most happy society. All good men are happy. III. This is the most growing society. It is large now, composed of an innumerable company of angels, and the spirits of just men made perfect; its numbers increase with every conversion. (Homilist) The best company I. The character of the people of God.1. They fear Him. There is a twofold fear of God:-- (1) A servile fear.(2) A filial fear: this is the fear intended in the text. This fear is promised (Jeremiah 32:40). 2. They keep God’ s precepts. (1) In purpose and resolution; they approve of them all (Psalms 119:117).(2) In affection (Psalms 19:10; Psalms 119:77).(3) They endeavour to observe them; and to observe them all (Psalms 119:1; Psalms 119:28). II. What is implied in being a companion of those that fear God1. A high esteem and affection for them (1 John 4:20-21; Leviticus 19:18; John 13:34; John 15:12). 2. A delight in communion with them (Psalms 16:3). 3. Joining with them in public worship (Psalms 42:1-2; Psalms 84:1-2). 4. A readiness to converse with them (Malachi 3:16; Psalms 15:4; Romans 1:12). 5. To sympathize with them (Romans 12:15; Revelation 1:9; Hebrews 10:33). 6. A readiness to do them good (Galatians 6:10; James 2:15-16; Matthew 25:34). III. The obligations we are under to aspire after such a temper and behaviour.1. The relation we profess to stand in to God. Children of one Father (1 John 3:1). 2. This temper and behaviour are represented as inseparably connected with true love to God Himself (1 John 3:14; 1 John 5:1). 3. Love to all who fear God is mentioned as the most essential and vital part of true religion (1 Corinthians 13:4-8; 1 Corinthians 13:13). 4. Jesus Christ, as our Redeemer, hath laid us under this obligation (John 13:34; 1 John 3:16-19; Galatians 2:20). 5. The utility or profit that resulteth from being a companion of those who fear God (Psalms 87:2). (T. Hannam.) A proper choice of company recommended I. Its influence on our principles. But if you mingle without caution with the men of the world; if you “ come into their counsel,” and unite in their pursuits, you may expect in time to adopt their maxims, and to abandon your own. II. Its influence on our conduct. It is dangerous to form an intimacy with those who despise the laws which ye wish to obey, and are addicted to the practices from which you ought to abstain. By degrees you will venture to copy their manners. But, on the contrary, while the companions of ungodly men are in danger of exhibiting in their own behaviour all the deceivableness of unrighteousness, those whose companions are chosen among the servants of the Lord make use of a powerful means of preserving and improving their virtue. III. Its influence on our enjoyment. In the company of those who “ fear God and keep His precepts,” your happiness will be promoted, whatever may be your rank and situation in life. The best affections of your hearts will be called forth into exercise; and an entertainment will be furnished, of which you may partake without degrading your character, and on which you may afterwards reflect without pain and remorse. IV. Its tendency to prepare us for heaven. (John Johnstone.) Advantages of good companionship I would remind you that for climbers of the Alps the only way of safety is to fasten each other together with a rope, and for you, too, a great way of safety is to join yourself to some one else. Ask your companion if he will allow you to draw a little strength from him. He will most likely tell you in his next breath that that is just what he is wanting himself, and you two together will be stronger than if you had been alone. The young man who lives in lonely lodgings and never speaks to any one has a very poor chance of standing temptation. Christianity is a social thing; that is one reason why Christ instituted the Christian Church and the Sacraments, that there might be a bond of union between all His followers. (Henry Drummond.) Psalms 119:64 The earth, O Lord, is full of Thy mercy: teach me Thy statutes.Man and the earth I. Man realizing the abounding of God’ s mercy on the earth. II. Man imploring God’ s counsels on the earth. “ Teach me Thy statutes.” These statutes are required in order to guide men--1. To a right appreciation of His goodness. 2. To a right use of His goodness. (Homilist.) God’ s bountihood in Nature I. It fills the earth. Goodness streaming from the heavens, flowing in the atmosphere, budding on the earth, sparkling in the river, and bounding in the ocean. II. It entails moral obligation. “ Teach me Thy statutes.”1. A knowledge of the Divine statutes. Unless we know them they cannot regulate us. 2. An instruction in the Divine statutes. We must have God to interpret them to the mind and heart. (Homilist.) A God-filled world The psalmist looks all around and everywhere sees the signature of a loving Divine hand. The earth is full to brimming of Thy mercy. It takes faith to see that; it takes a deeper and a firmer hold of the thought of a present God than most men have to feel that. For the most of us the world has got to be very empty of God now. We hear rather the creaking of the wheels of a great machine, or see the workings of a blind impersonal force. But I believe that all that is precious and good in the growth of knowledge since the old days when this psalmist wrote may be joyfully accepted by us, and deep down below it we may see the larger truth of the living purpose and will of God Himself. And I know no reason why nineteenth-century men, full to the finger-tips of modern scientific thought, may not say as heartily as the old psalmist, “ The earth, O Lord, is full of Thy mercy.” (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Psalms 119:65-67 Thou hast dealt with Thy servant, O Lord.A good man I. The testimony of a good man.1. Concerning God. His kind treatment and faithful promise. 2. Concerning affliction. II. The prayer Of a good man for the highest instruction. III. The experience Of a good man. (Homilist.) Good judgment I. David’ s judgment expressed.1. God had dealt with him. 2. God had dealt well with him. Adding up all our varied experiences, we can truly say that all things have worked together for our good. What strange compounds many of our lives are! The evening and the morning have made the day from the creation; and we have had darkness and brightness; but, putting the whole together, the result has been more than well. 3. God has dealt well with us as His servants. (1) He has given us blessed work to do. To serve God is to reign.(2) He has given us provision.(3) He has given us encouragement.(4) He has given us earnests of the pay which we shall receive at the end of our day’ s toil. 4. He has dealt with us according to His word. The print of providence exactly answers to the type of the promise. II. Good judgment desired (verse 66). David felt that his judgment had been greatly at fault, so that he had made great mistakes with regard to God; and new that he had come to a more correct judgment, he offered this prayer: “ Teach me good judgment and knowledge.” This is what all Christians need,--better judgment--more sound judgment.1. May God help us, for the future, first, to judge His providence better! 2. Next, judge your sufferings better, and learn to believe that it is good for you that you have been afflicted. May our judgments not be, as they sometimes have been, desponding, dark, dreary l 3. Then we shall be able to have good judgment in matters of doctrine. 4. We also need good judgment concerning our temptations. 5. And as to the many false spirits that are gone forth into the world. III. Judgment possessed (verse 67). He seems to say, “ Lord, I am very foolish, yet I have had wit enough given me, by Thy Spirit, to believe that Thy commandments are the best that can be, so I wish to keep them, and to believe that Thy commandments are the best guide to me in life, and therefore I desire to follow them.” (C. H. Spurgeon.) Psalms 119:66 Teach me good judgment and knowledge: for l have believed Thy commandments. Excellence of the law I. What is implied in believing God’ s commandments.1. That we are persuaded of their reality and existence. 2. That we are convinced of their excellence and absolute perfection. 3. That we receive them as of perpetual and everlasting obligation. 4. A holy dread of their rigour and severity. 5. Prayer to God for strength to obey them. II. The importance and necessity of such a faith.1. God’ s commands are a part of Divine revelation, and therefore the proper objects of faith. Being the word of God, they must be received as such. 2. A supposed faith in God’ s promises, and not in His commands, will prove only a delusion. 3. Faith is necessary in order to acceptable obedience. (B. Beddome, M. A.) Psalms 119:67 Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now have I kept Thy Word.The fruits of sanctified affliction 1. Your afflictions, if sanctified, will lead you to searchings of heart. Many sins, long forgotten, are now recalled to remembrance. Then, retiring, into the secret recesses of the spirit, where latent evils are concealed, you view yourselves in a true light, and form the right estimate of your characters. 2. Will dispose you to justify God even under the most trying dispensations. When you reflect on all that God hath done for you, and on your own sinfulness and ingratitude, you will perceive abundant cause to condemn yourselves, and to justify God. 3. Will greatly enhance your estimate of Christ and His salvation. In all His offices, characters, and relations He is most precious to you. 4. Will lead you to a more perfect understanding of the Scriptures. 5. Will work in you patience and submission to the Divine will. “ Tribulation worketh patience.” 6. Will enhance a spirit of sympathy with others similarly situated. 7. Will enable you to form a correct estimate of the things of the world. 8. Will induce in you a more unreserved consecration to the service of Christ. 9. Will excite in you more ardent desires for that glorious condition of existence where sorrow will be unknown. (T. Swan.) Psalms 119:68 Thou art good and doest good.God good in being and good in action I. God good in being. “ Thou art good.” Good in the sense of kindness and in the sense of moral perfection,--the primal Font of all happiness in the universe, and the immutable Standard of all excellence.1. Essentially good. His goodness is not a quality of Himself, it is Himself. 2. Immutably good. Because Himself absolutely unalterable, His goodness is immutable. II. God good in action. “ And doest good.” This follows of necessity, a good being must do good. (Homilist.) The goodness of God I. Describe it.1. It is absolutely pure, and free from everything of a selfish or sinful nature. 2. Permanent and immutable as His existence. 3. Universal. II. Show that it moves Him to do good.1. The goodness of God must have moved Him to form, before the foundation of the world, the best possible method of doing the greatest possible good. His goodness must have moved Him to employ His wisdom in the best possible manner. 2. It must have moved Him to bring into existence the best possible system of intelligent creatures. 3. It continually moves Him to exert His power and wisdom in governing all His creatures and all His works in the wisest and best manner. 4. It must move Him to make the intelligent universe as holy and happy as possible, through the interminable ages of eternity. III. Improvement.1. The goodness of God is discoverable by the light of nature. Actions speak louder than words. 2. Then all the objections that ever have been made, or ever can be made, against any part of His conduct, are objections against His goodness, which must be altogether unreasonable and absurd. 3. Then no creature in the universe ever has had, or ever will have, any just cause to murmur or complain under the dispensations of Providence. 4. Then it is owing to the knowledge, and not to the ignorance of sinners, that they hate God. 5. Then He will display His goodness in the everlasting punishment of the finally impenitent. 6. Then those who are finally happy will for ever approve of the Divine conduct towards the finally miserable. 7. Then while sinners remain impenitent, they have no grounds to rely upon His mere goodness to save them. (N. Emmons, D. D.) The goodness of God I. As subsisting in himself.1. It constitutes the perfection of His nature. Godhead and goodness are convertible terms.2. It is original and underived.3. It harmonizes with all the perfections of His nature.4. It is impressed with the immutability of His will. II. Its display.1. The rich provision which God has made for the happiness of man.2. The mysterious price by which man is redeemed.3. The modes employed for the recovery of man.4. The glorious result of all this in time and in eternity. (T. Lessey.) Pain and pity We will not deny that evil is evil, we will make no hard pretence that pain is anything but painful; but leaving that insoluble problem, we may rest, at any rate, in the conviction that pain and misery are the accidents--to a great extent the avoidable accidents--of life, not its end and object; that happiness and blessing so far preponderate over them that every one of us may sincerely thank God for His creation.1. First, as regards ourselves, pain and sickness are chiefly due to the working of laws which have this obviously beneficent nature that they are meant to warn us against things inherently vile, hateful to God, and destructive to our own nature. Physical anguish and moral remorse, often in the individual, and always in the race, are nothing in the world but a part of the stream of sin taken a little lower down in its course. Man himself, if he would but keep the Ten Commandments, if he would but live in temperance, soberness, and chastity, might, to an immense extent, sweep his own life clean of foul diseases. 2. But even as regards ourselves, pain and sorrow are not only salutary warnings against impurity and excess, but, when rightly borne, they uplift us in every other respect. They help us to endure “ as seeing Him who is invisible,” they make us yearn for unrealized ideals beyond our small moods and our vulgar comforts; they turn us from the near and the present to the distant and the future; they enable us to pass the death-doom on our mean and shivering egotisms. Take even the most innocent of all our sorrows--the aching anguish of bereavement. When we have lost those whom we have loved, has it not been to thousands simply as a golden chain between their hearts and God? 3. I turn to the lessons which pain and sorrow have for us as regards the world in general. I do not hesitate again to say that they are the stern saviours of society, that they have enriched humanity with its noblest types of character, that they have been as the storms which lash into fury the lazy elements lest they should stagnate in pestilence. (1) For, first of all, they save society from itself. “ A dissolute society,” says a thoughtful writer, “ is the most tragical spectacle which history has ever to present; a nest of disease, of jealousy, of ruin, of despair, whose last hope is to be washed off the world and to disappear.” Such societies must die sooner or later by their own gangrene, by their own corruption, because the infection of evil, spreading into unbounded selfishness, ever intensifying and reproducing passions which defeat their own aim, can never end in anything except moral desolation. They go too far, such societies; they overreach themselves; they culminate at last in some hideous crime which awakens the flame of a moral indignation in which all their social shame and gorgeous gluttonies become as scum in the avenging flame. Nor do pain and sorrow only help the deliverers of the oppressed. They tend further to enrich the blood and uplift the ideals of the world. It is the pity for them which kindles the passion of the prophet standing undaunted before angry kings and mocking peoples, and the supremacy of the martyr who wields God’ s lightning while he stands in his shirt of flame. (Dean Farrar.) Psalms 119:69-71 The proud have forged a lie against me. The slanderer, the corrupt, the pious I. The tongue of the slanderer. Slander is--1. Malicious. Its inspiration is envy, jealousy, or revenge. 2. Mischievous. It often lacerates a man’ s heart, and destroys his good name, which may be dearer than life. “ He that steals my purse,” etc. 3. Cowardly. The man who confronts another, strikes him with fist or sword, shows some bravery. But he who injures a man by slander is a miserable sneak. II. The heart of the corrupt. “ As fat as grease” --insensible to moral motives. All the moral nerves of the soul are benumbed by sin. III. The avowal of the pious. The avowal--1. Of a good resolution. 2. Of a blessed experience. Affliction evermore serves the good. (Homilist.) Psalms 119:71 It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn Thy statutes. The uses of affliction I. Afflictions promote virtue, and goodness of heart, as they tend to compose our minds to a sedate and thoughtful disposition and habit. II. Afflictions tend to restrain our appetites and passions within reasonable bounds. III. Afflictions, by means of a sedate and considerate habit, which they produce and confirm, tend to strengthen our minds with fortitude and constancy, IV. Afflictions tend to soften our hearts into tender sympathy and kind affection towards our fellow-creatures. (J. Drysdale, D. D.) Good to be afflicted It is not good for some people to have been afflicted at all, and yet it is not the fault of the affliction; it is the fault of the persons afflicted. It might have produced in them a splendid character if all had been right to begin with; but, inasmuch as all was wrong, that very process which should have ripened them into sweetness has hastened them to rottenness. I hope, however, that I may say of many here present, or that they can say of themselves, “ It is good for me that I have been afflicted;” The inquiry is, How has it been good?1. It has been good in connection with many other good things. We are so constituted that we cannot bear very much prosperity. Some men might have been rich, but God knew they could not bear it, and so He has never suffered them to be tempted above what they are able to bear. Others might have been famous, but they would have been ruined by pride, and so the Lord in tender mercy has withheld from them an opportunity of distinguishing themselves, denying them this apparent advantage for their real good. Where God favours any man with prosperity He will send a corresponding amount of affliction to go with it, and deprive it of its injurious tendencies. 2. It is good to have been afflicted as a cure for evils existent within our nature. David says, “ Before I was afflicted I went astray; but now I have kept Thy Word.” That is the case with many of God’ s servants. They were prone to one peculiar temptation, and though they may not have seen it, the chastening hand of God was aimed at that special weakness of their character. The Lord would have us aware of this, and therefore He often sends trial to reveal the hidden evil. 3. Affliction is also useful to God’ s people as an actual producer of good things in them. Some virtues cannot be produced in us apart from affliction. One of them is patience. If a man has no trial, how is he to be patient? A veteran warrior is the child of battles, and a patient Christian is the offspring of adversity. There is a very sweet grace called sympathy, which is seldom found in persons who have had no trouble. We are told that our dear Lord and Master Himself learned sympathy by being tempted in all points like as we are. He had to feel our infirmities, or else He could not have been touched with a fellow feeling towards us. It is surely so with us. 4. It is good for me to have been afflicted because affliction is a wonderful quickener, We are very apt to go to sleep; but affliction often wakes us up. The whole of some men’ s religion is a kind of sleep-walking. There is not that vigour in it, there is not that earnestness in it, that there ought to be. They want to be waked up by something startling. Our trials and afflictions are intended to do that. 5. Again, according to our text, it is good for us to have been afflicted by way of instruction. Trial is our school where God teaches us on the blackboard. This school-house has no windows to let in the cheerful light. It is very dark, and so we cannot look out and get distracted by external objects; but God’ s grace shines like a candle within, and by that light we see what else we had never seen. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The advantages of afflictions I. They awaken us to serious thought. When, by reverse of fortune, we are deprived of the means of pleasures in which we had too profusely indulged; when the companions of our happier years forsake us; when pain and disease unfit us for tasting our wonted comforts, and forewarn us of death; on a sudden, the enchantment is broken; our conduct, to which we had not hitherto attended, rises in review before us; virtue and vice are exhibited in a light in which we had not viewed them before, and our souls, awakened from the dream of dissipation, commune seriously with themselves. II. They serve to moderate our attachment to worldly objects. III. They serve to exercise and display our virtues. It is the storm that tries the strength of the vessel. IV. They have a natural tendency to improve our pious affections. When the fabric of our felicity falls, we perceive whose hand it was that supported it, and whose hand it is that alone can rear it anew. We feel our dependence on that Providence which, before, we had neglected to acknowledge, and seek, in communion with God, the consolation which our sufferings require. V. They have a tendency to enliven our hope of immortality. The doctrine of a future existence is no longer regarded as a subject of cold speculation; it addresses itself to the tenderest feelings that can arise in the human breast; your minds are prepared to yield to the evidence by which it is confirmed, and you cherish it as your support under afflictions which admit of no other consolation. (W. Moodie, D. D.) The uses of affliction I. It affords opportunity for reflection, without which we can never properly know what we are or what we want. II. It tends to create in us humility. III. It is the means of leading us to repentance. IV. It teaches us to put our trust in the righteousness of Christ. V. It teaches us resignation. VI. It improves our charity. (R. Mant, M. A.) The benefits of affliction 1. It tries and calls forth the exercise of faith.2. It enables us to exercise patience.3. It tends to produce humility.4. It makes us dependent and prayerful.5. It tends to secure our obedience.6. It teaches us to value our mercies.7. It tends to make heaven very desirable. (D. Dickson, D. D.) Affliction beneficial I. In whatever form affliction comes, it is designed by God to do us good. An old writer says: “ Afflictions are used by God, as thorns are by husbandmen, to stop the gaps, and to keep us from breaking out of God’ s ways.” II. The spirit in which affliction should be received. Trials must not be received thoughtlessly and as a matter of course; their cause and their purpose must be carefully studied. The grace of submission must be earnestly sought, that there may be no murmuring, much less rebellion, but patient endurance and resignation to the Divine will. Unwavering trust in God must be exercised. There must also be a willingness to learn His lessons, a teachableness of disposition, an earnest desire to endeavour to extract from our affliction all the profit which it is designed to bring. III. The benefits resulting from affliction if received in a right spirit.1. By sorrow the heart is made tender and susceptible to the influences of the Holy Spirit. Religion is welcomed by the bleeding heart as the choicest and most effectual balm. 2. Affliction rightly endured increases our love for God’ s Word and obedience to His law. 3. Few motives to prayer are more powerful and effectual than those furnished by affliction. 4. Afflictions afford the best possible sphere for the exhibition and for the growth of the graces of the Spirit. How can we know we have faith unless our faith be tested? Hope, like a bright star, is best seen on a dark night; and love is most conspicuous when it clings in spite of perplexity and pain. 5. The benefits of affliction are not confined to the immediate sufferers. If rightly endured by us, others are benefited, both by our example and by the tender sympathy which we are led to feel for them in their distresses. (A. O. Smith, B. A.) Psalms 119:72 The law of Thy mouth is better unto me than thousands of gold and silver.The Bible better than money I. Because it gives us better food. It is well designated the “ word of life,” because by it the life of God is implanted in the human spirit and by it preserved. Christ is “ our life,” and the support of “ our life” ; and the Bible is full of Christ. II. Because it gives us better raiment. It offers you the “ robe of righteousness,” and “ the robe of joy” ;--robes that adorn, protect, exalt, and endure. III. Because it gives us better friends. A true friend is the dearest treasure of earth. Money can give you friends; but they are seldom true. And even the richest friends that money can buy for you are not to be compared with the poorest friends the Bible can give, the true men of earth, the angels and archangels of heaven, “ the spirits of just men made perfect,” “ the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity,” and the praises thereof, these are the friends the Bible offers you. IV. Because it gives us better homes. Money can give you very fine houses. But it cannot give you “ a building of God, a house not made with hands eternal in the heavens.” The Bible can. (J. Dunlop.) God’ s Word better than wealth I. It secures a higher culture. It gives a freedom and a force to the intellect, a depth and a purity to the sympathies, a sensibility to the conscience, an invincibility to the purpose, a refinement to the tastes, a penetration to the eye, and a pinion to the imagination, that no other appliances on this earth can furnish. II. It invests with a higher power. Wealth cannot impart magnanimity, fortitude, courage; but the Word of God does to the highest degree. It enables the soul to glory in tribulation, and to welcome death with rapture. III. It opens up higher enjoyments. Wealth cannot give the enjoyment of an approving conscience, a loving spirit, an ever-brightening future, and the friendship of the everlasting Father. IV. It connects with a higher world. The gold and silver of all the earth can form no connection between us and the celestial state, can procure us no admission into the heavenly world. “ Naked came we into the world,” etc. But the Word of God abides in us, goes with us as our light and our sanctuary. (Homilist.) The preciousness of the Divine Word I. The true nature, of the Word of God.1. Its authority, It is a “ law.” As such it is a rule of conduct; solemnly obligatory; and supported by rewards and punishments. 2. Its divinity. The law of God’ s “ mouth:” Not of human but of Divine origin. The revelation of God’ s mind to man (2 Timothy 3:16; 2 Peter 1:21). It possesses striking evidences of divinity. (1) Its great and sublime doctrines.(2) Its antiquity and preservation.(3) Its renovating influence, sanctifying power, etc. (John 17:17). II. Its inestimable worth.1. In many things it resembles gold and silver. (1) On account of its preciousness. Gold and silver most precious of metals. Word of God intrinsically so (Psalms 138:2). (2) In gold and silver there is much value in small compass. So the Word of God. Of more worth than all the books in the universe. Every word precious, etc. (3) For their purity. Every word of God is pure. The standard of purity (Proverbs 30:5). (4) For their splendour. So the Word of God is luminous, resplendent. (5) For their solidity and weight. Word of God is solid, weighty; nothing trivial or light. (6) For their unconsumable essence. Fire does not destroy, etc. It purifies, and removes only the dross. (7):For their usefulness. 2. But it is better than gold and silver. (1) Better in itself. Heavenly and spiritual in its nature. (2) Better in its object and design. Destined for the soul. (3) Better in its effects. Spiritual and eternal advantages. (4) Better in point of essentiality. (5) Better in point of certainty. Word of God sure. Thieves cannot rob us. (6) Better in point of durability. The Word of God as incorruptible as the great Original from whence it proceeded. Application--1. Bless God for His precious Word. Next to Jesus and the Holy Spirit His greatest gift to man. 2. Prize and revere it. Set your hearts upon it. 3. Seek to be greatly enriched with it. Covet much of it, etc. Lay it up. Dig for it. 4. Use it. Apply it to your diversity of condition. It is profitable for all seasons and circumstances. 5. What shall be the end of those who neglect the Gospel of Christ? (J. Burns, D. D.) The value of the Word of God This is not an utterance in depreciation of gold and silver; precisely the reverse. It sets a high value upon them; and when sentimental pietists declare that they despise money and esteem gold as good for nothing, very many sensible people set it down as so much empty rant and nonsense. Gold is eminently useful in building a house and fitting it up with beauty and splendour, in providing food and raiment, and enabling a man to travel and secure all sorts of legitimate temporal enjoyments; but it makes him no wiser, no purer, no holier--it does not necessarily develop these qualities, or increase his faith, or fortify him against moral and spiritual evil, or expand his love to God and man; it often does the very reverse; while the outcome of God’ s law is always, useful and good. Gold and silver are undeniably serviceable in many other directions which it were wrong and sinful fret to recognize. The progressive amelioration of the condition of our race by which this age is characterized beyond all others is instrumentally due in a large measure to the wise and generous use made of earthly treasures, in promoting religious and scientific education, and, above all, in scattering broadcast over the whole world the Gospel of Jesus Christ. So far as money is used for such purposes as these its utility and value can scarcely be overestimated. Yet we must place it in the category of “ the things which are temporal.” But in seeking to form a just estimate of the value of the Word, let us view it-- I. In relation to intellectual development. The great purifying currents of thought that have elevated our race have been formed and directed by the Bible. This alone should be decisive. Without attempting to sketch the history of its brilliant achievements, it may be said in a word that the nations which do not possess or follow the Book move upon a far lower plane intellectually, morally, and spiritually than those which have it. Paganism, in its highest forms, has been an utter failure. Pagan lands have been, and are now, non-progressive and impure, the abodes of mental stagnation, festering vice and horrid cruelties, while Bible lands are fruitful in all manner of useful discoveries. They lead the van of the world’ s mental and material progress. They revolutionize the commerce of nations. Their railways and steamships unite the ends of the earth and place its products and luxuries within the reach of all. II. In relation to moral culture. It is not necessary to disparage ethical systems of heathen philosophers and others as if they contained no truth. Some of them contained a great deal. But looking over them from the days of Aristotle and Socrates to the time of the latest pagan writer, it may be said of them all that they lacked the great fundamental principle which is the backbone of Christian ethics, namely, an infallible standard by which to judge of right and wrong. This was their radical defect, and what renders worthless or positively injurious many systems of modern times. Men look in vain for the standard of right in self-interest, in utility, in feelings of benevolence, in pleasurable emotions, or in the dicta of unenlightened conscience--these are all shifting and uncertain, and, therefore, unfit to serve this purpose. But the Bible reveals an immutable and infallible standard. By general principles and specific precepts, by a comprehensive summary in the Ten Commandments, by the checkered and wonder-laden history of the chosen people, by the writings of inspired prophets and apostles, and by the incomparable lessons of the Lord Jesus Christ and by His spotless life as the incarnate God, the whole duty of man is enforced. Thus broadly and comprehensively viewed in relation to the moral government and culture of the world, who can doubt that God’ s Word is “ better than thousands of gold and silver” ? III. As an instrument of salvation to man. We may safely say that as a means of grace it surpasses all others. (D. H. MacVicar, D. D.) Psalms 119:73 Thy hands have made me and fashioned me: give me understanding.The right attitude of man in relation to God I. Recognizing God as the author of his existence. “ Thy hands.” I am not the creature of chance or of necessity, the product of the blind forces of nature. I recognize Thy hands, the hands of infinite skill and goodness. He made us.1. Then, to study our constitutions is to study Him. 2. Then His claims upon our activities are absolute. No one has a right to us but Himself. We are His. II. Looking to God as the educator of his spirit. Thou hast commandments concerning us--laws that should rule all the powers with which Thou hast endowed us. I am ignorant of them, enlighten me, I beseech Thee. “ Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?” Thou hast given me a capacity for moral knowledge; but that knowledge I have not. I am in the dark. Kindle within me that light that will enable me to go the way Thou wouldst have me go. I have a wonderful nature that I know not how to use. “ Give me understanding.” III. Imploring God as the perfecter of his being. He knew that God made him for the purpose, and that that purpose could only be realized by correct moral information, a practical obedience to His will. And hence he prays, “ Give me understanding.”1. This plea is rational. It is from the less to the greater. Thou hast made me for Thyself. I want to be Thine by my own willing and devoted service. Thou madest me without my choice or consent. I entreat Thee to give me that, to make my being a blessing to myself and an honour to Thee. 2. It is a powerful plea. It is the cry of a child in distress to a tender parent. It is more than this--it is the cry of a frail, ignorant, dying creature to the loving and almighty Author of its being. I should not have been, had it not been for Thee. Oh, grant me what I ask, and make my being blessed. 3. It is a loyal plea. What I ask for is, not the gratification of my own selfish wishes, but that; “ I may learn Thy commandments” --learn them--practically learn them. (Homilist.) The Creator-Guide Long ago a laconic moralist gave this summary of wisdom, “ Live as you were meant to live.” This sentence recognizes the fact that there is a purpose the discovery of which is man’ s first anxiety and the accomplishment of which is man’ s supreme aim. Now, our Bible tells us that we have to do God’ s will, to serve God, to glorify God, to do good, to do right, to find and to keep in the truth. I think the significance of these phrases will appear if we consider some workmanship of man in relation to its maker’ s purpose. At South Kensington there is a clock made above 500 years ago under the hammer of a Glastonbury monk. It has measured out the moments of fifteen generations of men That piece of mechanism has done and is still doing its maker’ s will. It has served its maker’ s purpose. It fulfils his praiseworthy intention and so praises him. Every stroke of its pendulum is to the glory of the Glastonbury smith. It keeps (so to say) its maker’ s commandments. What he meant it to do it has done well and truly. Think of this clockwork of the brain, this delicate mechanism of thought and feeling. Year in, year out, the restless wheels of desire and feeling, of thought and passion, play into one another and mark results on the solemn dial of life. Matters may be so mismanaged as to put the machinery into a whirl of wild confusion. It is, on the other hand, possible to secure such inward adjustment, such balance, such regulative control, such true impulse, as to make the soul a splendid harmony and the life a utility which men acknowledge with reverence and benediction. With God’ s work, as with man’ s, the essential thing is to be true to the Maker’ s purpose. There is a commandment--a Divine intention to which every one must be true. “ Thy hands have made me, and fashioned me; give me understanding of Thy will and commandment.” Somewhere, at the outset of human story, God did give this knowledge to His creatures. Along the line of the Jewish people that knowledge came in a pure stream--pure compared with its deep pollution as it ran through other histories. Man’ s necessary life-knowledge has two branches. If for the general understanding of religion it is essential to throw the soul directly upon God, much more is that necessary for particular understanding of our individual perplexities. Take the case of the captain of a ship. Education and experience have given him general knowledge of the capabilities of ships, of the ways of sailors, of navigation, of coast-lines, storms and signals. These are the mariner’ s alphabet, and correspond to the Christian’ s general knowledge of God and life of the Saviour and the soul. But imagine the ship’ s captain on a voyage to a new port, in a new ship, with a fresh sort of cargo and a strange crew. His ship gets into storms, or among icebergs. There are break-downs and accidents to ship and tackling. Besides his general sailor lore the captain obviously requires presence of mind, tact, resource, the gift to see what needs to be done, and what can be done in every new emergency. Such readiness for the event corresponds to the Christian’ s application of religious truth to the perplexities of his personal career. About the generalities of religion we are fairly informed. We know what is right and what is wrong. We understand the perils of temptation and we know the grace of God. We know the ways of the world, and we know the truths of Holy Scripture. All this is our miscellaneous sailing-lore. But every day we make a new voyage and venture, in which sudden accidents may happen. Storm or collision may come. We may find ourselves confronted by new circumstances, and we want the quickly-acting instinct of Christian temper so as to be able to say “ none of these things move me.” Can we meet difficulty with patience? Can we take failure with hopefulness? Can we be meek and yet strong, pleasant and yet good, gentle and yet firm? Can we so pass through things temporal as to fail not of things that are eternal? For all this we need more than general knowledge of Divine truth; we require that the power of Christ shall rest upon us. Give me understanding, that for each act and for each step I may know Thy commandment. Nor is this the end of the matter. There are emergencies and perplexities which form a class by themselves. We come to places when it is hard to know which is right--the way on the right hand or the way on the left hand. Infallibility does not belong even to the man whose soul is nearest to God. Insurance against ever making a wrong decision, or taking a wrong step is not gained by the most Christian sincerity and faith. Through all his campaigns the Duke of Wellington never made a serious mistake. Sometimes good men show similar wisdom in the conduct of life’ s stern warfare, but there is no guarantee for this clear and precise practical judgment. Often you must “ Do the sum to prove it.” Do it carefully. Do it honestly. Do it for the most part on your knees. The rest is with God. “ They cry unto the Lord in their trouble and He delivereth them out of all their distresses.” “ If any man lack wisdom let him ask of God.” Keep near to the source of light and direction, not merely in the acts and offices of devotion but in all the sincere aims of daily conduct. (S. Gregory.) God our Maker Thomas Carlyle was once present when a conversation was started between some friends on the subject of evolution. Having quietly listened for a time, the Chelsea sage seized the opportunity of a pause to remark, with considerable solemnity and emphasis, “ Gentlemen, you seem well pleased to trace your descent from a tadpole, and an ape, but I would say with David, ‘ Lord, Thou hast made me a little lower than the angels.’” (J. H. Hitchens, D. D.) Psalms 119:74-79 They that fear Thee will be glad when they nee me; because I have hoped in Thy Word.The good man I. The spiritual interest of the good in each other (verse 74). In what, concerning each other, are they most profoundly interested? Their ripe moral condition. “ Because I have hoped in Thy Word.” Hope in Thy Word implies--1. That Thy Word has truth. 2. That Thy Word has good. We only hope for the good. Good men rejoice in each other, not merely because of secular or intellectual advancement, hut because of spiritual soundness and progress. II. The confidence of the good in God (verse 75).1. Confidence in the rectitude of the Divine procedure. I know it, not merely from the declarations of Thy Word, the testimonies of the good, but from my own experience. I know that all is right. 2. Confidence in the Divine kindness in affliction. “ In faithfulness Thou hast afflicted me.” “ As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten,” etc. III. The appeal of the good to Him.1. Here is a prayer for comfort in affliction (verse 76). 2. A prayer for the preservation from dangers (verse 77). I am not only in sorrow and require comfort, hut in danger and require protection. 3. A prayer for the humiliation of enemies (verse 78). Convince them of the wrongness of their conduct towards me. 4. A prayer for the sympathy of the good (verse 79). IV. The joy of the good in life. “ For Thy law is my delight.” “ I will meditate in Thy precepts.” The law of God stands for His ideas, His purposes, His sympathies, His plans, as revealed in nature and in the writings of inspired men. (Homilist.) Psalms 119:75I know, O Lord, that Thy judgments are right, and that Thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me. Divine rectitude and fidelity I. The truths declared.1. In all the afflictive events of life, we are to recognize, not only a directing and an overruling Providence in general, but also the application of its provisions and dispensations to individuals. 2. All God’ s providential dispensations, not excepting the most painful ones, are in accordance with perfect rectitude. 3. The dispensations of Providence in application to those whom God designs to bless, are the operations of Divine love. II. The certainty expressed. We know also that God’ s judgments are right, and that His afflictive dispensations are but the awful visitations of love. But how?1. From the Bible. The doctrine that there is a comprehensive, minute, all-wise Providence, and that all providential dispensations towards the people of God, however afflictive, are expressions of faithful love, and in close connection and harmony with the “ designs of the Cross of Christ, is conveyed in every part of the Word of God. 2. From the revealed character of God. He is just, and wise, and good. It is our bliss to be assured of this. To His natural perfections of eternity, intelligence, power, and immensity is added every moral attribute in infinite perfection. What He is in Himself, that He is in His doings. III. The state of mind manifested.1. Here is expressed a proper sense of the nature, in themselves, of the painful events which befall us. They are viewed as “ judgments,” and felt to be afflictions. 2. Here is manifested the absence of all disposition to murmur, repine, and rebel against the appointments of God. The language indicates a heart, as well as a tongue, free from hard thoughts of God. 3. This language is expressive of the deepest submission to the will of God. 4. Here is expressed confidence in God, that some gracious design is comprehended in His painful visitations, and that they will terminate in some merciful result. It is faith ascending her watch tower, putting herself in the posture of expectation, and looking out for the blessing, though she does not know from what quarter, at what time, or in what form the blessing will come, yet still believing it will come. (J. A. James.) Man’ s relation to God’ s rule Every man’ s religion takes colouring and character from his conceptions of God. “ I know, O Lord, that Thy judgments are right.” This is the utterance of a sure faith, a faith which has all the certainty of knowledge. And elsewhere we meet it oftentimes, as (Psalms 23:4.) His felt conviction of the Divine presence and the Divine love inspired him with courage, and cheered him with light in the darkest day of his earthly experience. And this position commends itself at once to the highest and clearest reason, and to the deepest affections of man. It is through faith in the perfect and paternal God that the wearied spirit of man finds rest. “ I know, O Lord, that Thy judgments are right.” This is the utterance of a devout soul, faithful and active within its own sphere. What a contrast in spirit it presents to that of the lives which so many libel How many men and women pass their days in an unconscious protest against the Divine providence. Everything to them is a bar, a hindrance, a stone of stumbling, a rock of offence. Nor can cure come to this direful malady of spirit until the thought of God’ s sovereign rule becomes a fixed conviction in the soul and a ground principle of life. This kills that selfishness which, by magnifying our individual importance beyond all proper proportions, becomes the prolific root of discontent. Disappointments come to man and cherished hopes fade. What then? Is hope gone--following health or wealth in their flight? Is trust buried in the tomb? No, for we know that God reigneth, always supreme in darkness as in light, in tribulation as in joy. We know that though clouds and darkness are round about Him, justice and mercy are the habitations of His throne. A very noticeable fact in the ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ is His recognition of the trials of the human lot. One of His earliest utterances was a blessing on the mourners and a promise of comfort. He was Himself a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. Thus He becomes to man the highest revelation of the religion which God requires. And when the most trying crisis of His life was upon Him--when the cross was in view, and the agony of His soul was at its height; yet did He, out, of His living trust in God, nevertheless say, “ Not My will, O Father, but Thine be done.” This is Christ’ s testimony to the great and consolatory truth set forth in our text: that whatever comes to pass in the Divine order of events is right; God rules in and over all affairs and events, and His is the rule of infinite wisdom, infinite justice, and infinite love. (John Cordner.) Psalms 119:77 Let Thy tender mercies come unto me, that I may live. Mercy to live well He prayed before for mercy; now again he prayeth for mercy. The children of’ God have such an earnest desire of mercy, that whatever sense thereof they get, they still cry for more; and sure it is in this life they can never be satisfied. Nevertheless, happy are they who hunger and thirst, for hereafter they shall be satisfied. But if we mark more narrowly, we shall find that David here seeks another sort of mercy than he sought before. For first, he sought mercy to forgive his sins: then he sought mercy to comfort him in his troubles; now he seeks mercy to live and sin no more. Alas, many seek the first mercy of remission, and the second mercy of consolation in trouble, who are altogether careless of the third mercy, to live well. It is a great mercy of God to amend thy life; where this is not, let no man think he hath received either of the former. It is a great mercy of God which not only pardons evil that is done, but strengthens us also to further good that we have not done; and this is the mercy which here David seeks. (Bp. Cowper.) Psalms 119:80 Let my heart be sound in Thy statutes.A sound heart A heathen prayed for a “ sound mind in a sound body.” A sound body is, of all earthly blessings, the most priceless. But a sound heart is a far greater blessing. A sound heart, like the AEolian harp, can catch music from the tempest, or, like the bee, gather honey from weeds and briers. I. A sound heart throbs is unison with the moral laws of the universe. Those laws are the laws of benevolence and truth. II. A sound heart is a united heart,. It has no fissures, no rents, no distractions, it is one whole. III. A sound heart is a strong heart. It does not sink under trial, or quail under danger. “ O happy heart,” says Quarles, “ where piety affecteth, where humility subjecteth, where repentance correcteth, where obedience dissecteth, where perseverance perfecteth, where power protecteth, where devotion projecteth, where charity connecteth.” (Homilist.) Right-heartedness Some follow religion merely for safety from penalty, some merely for its excitement, and others for gain; but the psalmist desires to be “ right” just because it is right, and does not make ashamed. I. The prayer. “ Let my heart be sound.”1. It is a definite prayer. Holiness means wholeness--sound in faith, in charity, in patience.2. It is a personal prayer. “ Let my heart.” II. The occasion for this prayer.1. After the excitements of conversion.2. In a time of temptation.3. When engaged in self-examination.4. In times of persecution.5. In times of work and witnessing for the Saviour.6. In affliction. III. A strong reason for this prayer. “ That I be not ashamed.”1. That I be not ashamed of the profession I have made.2. That I be not ashamed before men, in the ship, in the shop, at the polling booth; that I may live respected and die lamented.3. That I may not be ashamed before God at His coming, but joyfully hear, “ Well done, good and faithful servant,” etc. (D. Brotchie.) Psalms 119:81-88 My soul fainteth for Thy salvation: but I hope in Thy Word.Painful soul moods and their antidotes I. Painful moods of soul.1. Painful yearning (Psalms 119:81-83). (1) The general objects of this yearning. (a) A sense of security. (b) A sense of comfort. (2) The distress of this yearning. (a) Weakening (Hebrews 12:3) (b) Anxious (verse 82). “ Hope deferred,” etc. (c) Consuming (verse 83). 2. Anxious questioning (verse 84). (1) The shortness of life. “ How many are the days of Thy servant?” This means how few, how brief. Why should this life be so short in a world where there are such wonderful results to achieve, and with a being who has immeasurable faculties to develop? (2) The advent of retribution. 3. A sense of injustice (verse 85). His persecutors were (1) Crafty. (2) Wicked. (3) Cruel. II. Antidotes.1. Firm confidence in the Divine Word (verses 81, 83, 87). 2. A spiritual quickening of soul (verse 88). (Homilist.) The Word of God a support As a man binds a tender sapling to a stake, that the wind may not wrench it; or throws out an anchor into the boiling sea, that the ship may be held by it; so must we bind our wavering hearts to the support of the Word of God, and stay the storm-tossed ship of our souls with the anchor of hope, that they may not sink. Psalms 119:83 For I am become like a bottle in the smoke.The wineskin in the smoke Ewald and Delitzsch read, “ Although I am become as a wineskin hung in the smoke, yet do I not forget Thy statutes.” As a possible alternative read, “ For I am become as a wineskin in the smoke, because I do not forget Thy statutes.” The allusion is to the fidelity of a good man under severe pressures of trial and affliction. Though under these pressures he shrinks and wastes, and blackens like a wineskin hung in the smoke of the chimney fire, he still remembers the Divine statutes; he still holds fast his faith in God and duty. Or the allusion is to the secret and reward of this fidelity. For it was a custom of the ancients (Rosenmuller) to hang wineskins in the smoke of a fire for very much the same reason that we sometimes stand a claret bottle on the hearth, in order to mellow the wine by a gradual and moderate warmth, and to bring it to an earlier perfection. In that custom the psalmist finds an illustration of the meaning, and of the mercy of the afflictions to which he has been exposed. They have been sent to act on him like the warm smoke on the wine, to refine, mellow, and ripen his character; and because, under them all, he has refused to part with his faith in God and duty, because he has been true to God and God’ s statutes, they have had their intended and proper effect upon him.1. What was the character of the man who uses this quaint and homely figure? He lived in one of the latest periods of Hebrew literature; when the Jews were groaning under the tyranny of foreign, i.e. of Gentile, rulers, who hated “ the Hebrew superstition” almost as much as the Hebrew obstinacy; and thus we get a valuable glimpse into the larger outward conditions of his life, which every section of the psalm verifies and confirms. He evidently loved the Word of God so dearly that he was never weary of meditating on its different aspects of law and promise, comfort and judgment. His love of God’ s Word, his confidence in God, had been profoundly tried. The time was out of joint. The wicked were in power, and strained their power to injure and abase him. It was his very righteousness, his deference to God’ s authority rather than theirs, his devotion to God’ s will, which provoked their hostility. And yet no comfort came to him through prayer; there was no comfort, save from the Word, which he would not let go. Note one special quality in this man. He is not only a poet, and a man well versed in affairs; he is a poet of a quaint, a peculiar turn, who loves to set himself difficult feats, and takes a singular pleasure in achieving them. He is one who can express a very sincere and even passionate love in an elaborate artifice. We have all known a few such men as this. They have a remarkable power over as many as love them. 2. It is this psalmist’ s constant loyalty of soul, his profound and steadfast devotion to God, God’ s will, and God’ s Word, which we most need to bear in mind. It is his good fidelity which entitles him to teach, and enables him to comfort us. 3. Turn the verse round, and let it suggest the reason of his indomitable faith, his brave and cheerful confidence under the sharpest pressures of trial. Read “ because I do not forget Thy statutes.” Remember what has been said of the customs of the ancient vintners, and you will see the figure of the text suggests to those who do not forget God’ s statutes, that trials are a discipline which refines, mellows, ripens their character, brings them to an earlier perfection than they could otherwise reach, and fits them more rapidly for the service of God and man. (Samuel Cox, D. D.) A picture of a sad life I. Here is a Shrivelled life. The empty leathern bottles, hung up in the unchimneyed houses of the East, get shrivelled in the heat. There are human lives--1. Shrivelled in their thoughts. There is nothing broad or elastic in their conceptions, their whole mental natures run into a few miserable smoky dogmas. 2. Shrivelled in their sympathies. Narrow thinkings and selfish habits contract the soul that should expand into a seraph into a miserable grub. II. Here is an unlovely life. A shrivelled leathern bottle, black with smoke, has nothing in it to admire, nothing to charm the eye or even to invite the touch. Unlovely lives are by no means uncommon. III. Here is a useless life. So long as the bottle is hung up, shrivelled and black in the smoky apartment, it is of no service whatever. What millions there are of every generation who have been of no service to the universe. (Homilist.) A bottle in the smoke I. God’ s people have their trials.1. Sometimes these trials arise from poverty. It is the poverty of the Arab that puts his bottle in the Smoke; so the poverty of Christians exposes them to much trouble, and inasmuch as God’ s people are for the most part poor, for that reason must they always be for the most part in affliction. 2. Our trials frequently result from our comforts. Christian men l you have extraordinary fires, which others have never kindled; expect them to have extraordinary smoke. You have the presence of Christ; but then you will have the smoke of fear lest you should lose it. You have the joy of assurance; but you have also the smoke of doubt, which blows into your eyes and well nigh blinds you. You have your trials, and your trials arise from your comforts. The more comfort you have, the more fire you have, the more sorrows shall you have, and the more smoke. 3. The poor bottle in the smoke keeps there for a long time till it gets black; it is not just one puff of smoke that comes upon it; the smoke is always going up, always girding the poor bottle; it lives in an atmosphere of smoke. So some of us hang up like bottles in the smoke for months, or for a whole year. No sooner do you get out of one trouble than you tumble into another. Well, that was the condition of David; he was not just sometimes in trial, but it seemed as if trials came to him every day. Well, if this is your case, fear not, you are not alone in your trials; but you see the truth of what is uttered here: you are become like bottles in the smoke. II. Christian men feel their troubles. They are in the smoke; and they are like bottles in the smoke. There are some things that you might hang up in the smoke for many a day, and they would never be much changed, because they are so black now that they could never be made any blacker, and so shrivelled now that they never could become any worse. But the poor skin bottle shrivels up in the heat, gets blacker, and shows at once the effect of the smoke; it is not an unfeeling thing, like a stone, but it is at once affected. Now, some men think that grace makes a man unable to feel suffering; I have heard people insinuate that the martyrs did not endure much pain when they were being burned to death; but this is a mistake, Christian men are not like stones; they are like bottles in the smoke. In fact, if there be any difference, a Christian man feels his trials more than another, because he traces them to God. III. Christians, though they have troubles, and feel their troubles, do not in their troubles forget God’ s statutes. What are God’ s statutes? God has two kinds of statutes, both of them engraved in eternal brass. The first are the statutes of His commands; and of these He has said, “ Heaven and earth shall pass away, but not one jot or tittle of the law shall fail till all be fulfilled.” These statutes are like the statutes of the Medea and Persians; they are binding upon all His people. Well, the psalmist said, “ In the midst of my trials I have not swerved from Thy statutes; I have not attempted to violate Thy commands; I have not in any way moved from the strict path of integrity; and in the midst of all my persecutions I have gone straight on, never once forgetting God’ s statutes or commands.” And then again: there are statutes of promise which are equally firm, each of them as immortal as God who uttered them. David did not forget these; for he said of them, “ Thy statutes have been my song in the house of my pilgrimage” ; and he could not have sung about them if he had forgotten them. Why was it David still held fast by God’ s statutes? First of all, David was not a bottle in the fire, or else he would have forgotten them. Our trials are smoke, but not fire; they are very uncomfortable, but they do not consume us. Another reason why, when David was in the smoke, he did not forget God’ s statutes was this, that Jesus Christ was in the smoke with him, and the statutes were in the smoke with him too. God’ s statutes have been in the fire, as well as God’ s people. Both the promise and the precept are in the furnace; and if I hang up in the smoke, like a bottle, I see hanging up by my side God’ s commands, covered with soot and smoke, subject to the same perils. Suppose I am persecuted: it is a comfort to know that men do not persecute me, but my Master’ s truth. Another reason why David did not forget the statutes was, they were in the soul, where the smoke does not enter. Smoke does not enter the interior of the bottle; it only affects the exterior. So it is with God’ s children: the smoke does not enter into their hearts; Christ is there, and grace is there, and Christ and grace are both unaffected by the smoke. Come up, clouds of smoke! curl upward till ye envelop me! Still will I hang on the Nail, Christ Jesus--that sure Nail, which never can be moved from its place--and I will feel, that “ while the outward man decayeth, the inward man is renewed day by day” ; and the statutes being there, I do not forget them. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Psalms 119:84 How many are the days of Thy servant?when wilt Thou execute judgment on them that persecute me? A suggestive question I. God’ s knowledge of the length of man’ s life. To Him there are no accidental deaths, no premature graves. II. Man’ s ignorance of the length of his life. This indicates 1. The goodness of God. Were man to know the exact time of his death, it would paralyze his energies and check his enjoyments. 2. The duty of man--to be always ready, awaiting his summons. III. The trying element in man’ s life. The weight of years, the departure of old friends, the narrowing of the region of hope, the want of purpose not only reconcile him to his fate, but create in him a craving for the long rest of the long, long grave. “ I do not wish to die,” says Cicero, “ but I care not if I were dead.” A man’ s willingness to die is no proof of his religion. (Homilist.) Psalms 119:87 They had almost consumed me upon earth; but I forsook not Thy precepts. David’ s behaviour in trouble I. How he behaved in extreme distress.1. The precepts of God were the constant subject of his thoughts. 2. He was careful to walk in the way wherein he was directed by the Word of God to walk. 3. He patiently submitted to the will of God in all his persecutions and tribulations. 4. His patience was attended with meekness of spirit and behaviour towards the instruments of his calamities. 5. He maintained his uprightness under all the temptations of adversity and persecution. 6. He served God and his country in the best way that he could when he was restrained from serving them as he wished to do. II. What his reasons were for so invariably adhering to his duty.1. He was fully persuaded that nothing happened or could happen to him without the permission of Divine providence. 2. It was of incomparably greater importance in his view to behave dutifully under trouble than to obtain deliverance from it. 3. He knew that his troubles would all come to a happy end. 4. He knew that his troubles would turn to a good account through the grace of God enabling him to make the proper improvement of them. (H. Belfrage, D. D.) When obedience is difficult One of Dickens’ s most enjoyable and helpful characters, Mark Tapley, always kept up his spirits, and the spirits of all those around him, but he was dissatisfied because his surroundings were so pleasant that there was no credit in being jolly among them. At last his circumstances changed, and his surroundings became doleful indeed; but he saw his chance to be jolly with some credit to himself, and manfully rose to the glorious opportunity. In a similar way we may say that obeying when obedience is easy does not count for much; the real test of obedience comes when it is hard to obey, when we are asked to do something that we do not want to do, something that all our nature shrinks from. If we obey then, and, moreover, if we obey cheerfully and even with gladness, we may know that the spirit of obedience is really in us. The essence of Christian life is obedience. It is the key to all progress in character, to all growth in happiness, to all ownership in the Kingdom of Heaven. Any one that realizes this will actually long for opportunities of difficult obedience, as the athlete looks forward with ardour to the laborious practice, since it is the way, and the only way, to the olive wreath. (J. B. Morgan.) Psalms 119:88 Quicken me after Thy lovingkindness; so shall I keep the testimony of Thy mouth. Grappling irons I. His intense desire that he might keep the testimony of God’ s mouth.1. This desire was founded in a high esteem of God’ s Word. He viewed the Divine revelation as coming directly from Jehovah’ s own mouth. Those who have this reverence for God’ s Word will long to cling to it; they will be afraid of misinterpreting it; and they will not venture to add any of their own words to it, lest they be called into judgment for such presumption. 2. This prayer of David’ s, springing from his great reverence for the revealed will of God, includes within it many points of virtue. (1) He means, no doubt, that he desired to be steadfast in the doctrine which the mouth of the Lord had spoken. This meaning of the prayer is worthy of solemn note in these evil days. (2) There is another meaning which will seem to some more practical, though, indeed, it is not so; for there is as much real practice about right thinking as about right acting; and for the understanding to be obedient to God is as vital a thing as for the actions of the life to be conformed to His will. We ought to be anxious to be obedient to God in all His precepts; and our prayer should daily be that we may be preserved in the keeping of the testimony of God’ s mouth. (3) David further desired that he might be preserved in perfect and unwavering confidence in the promises of God. The testimony of God’ s mouth is largely made up of exceeding great and precious promises. Oh, what rich and eternal things hath He promised to them that fear Him! II. His consequent prayer. He did not pray immediately that he might keep the testimony of God’ s mouth, but he offered the next prayer to it, the one which leads up to it right surely. As a man that goeth up to his chamber doth not leap up all at once, but climbeth the stairs, so doth David rise to the keeping of the Lord’ s word by the prayer, “ Quicken me after Thy lovingkindness.”1. This prayer is wisdom. He that saith, “ I shall keep the testimony of God’ s mouth, for I am fully resolved to do it,” had better salt that resolution with prayer, or it will rot like all things, which come of the flesh. 2. This prayer was suggested, I do not doubt, by David’ s inward state. He says, “ Quicken me.” He means that he felt the power of death working in him. Before he is quite numbed he cries, “ Quicken me.” 3. It is a prayer which met David’ s condition. Carefully read the octave of verses with “ Caph” at the head of them, and see how well it fits in at the end of each. Whatever your difficulty, whatever your doubt, whatever your sorrow, whatever your temptation, here is a prayer that meets every case: “ Quicken me after Thy loving-kindness.” 4. It is a prayer especially which answered to David’ s aim in presenting it. He prayed this prayer that he might be enabled to keep God’ s testimony. 5. He presented this prayer on the right ground. He pleads the mercy and love of God. 6. This is a prayer which has a promise attached to it. When I have a lock I am always glad to find a key which fits it. Here is the lock--“ Lord, I feel as if I were dead” ; and here is the key--“ He that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live.” That answers the supplication as a glove fits the hand. III. His holy example.1. Offer the prayer of life when you feel that you are dead. Such a prayer will prove an antidote to the poison of death. 2. Living truth can only be held firmly by living men. Let Jesus reign in your soul, and then He will make you a priest and king unto Himself by His own divine power. 3. Regard God’ s lovingkindness as a source of life. Unhappily, too many have viewed it as an excuse for death. “ Oh, yes,” they say, “ I am one of God’ s chosen; I need not trouble myself about holiness or activity. I shall be saved by sovereign grace.” The man who dares to pervert truth is already a lost man; but he that knows the lovingkindness of the Lord says, “ Quicken thou me, Lord. Such love as this I must translate into life: grant that to me to live may be love.” Those words “ love” and “ live” are very near akin in their conformation; they are joined together in spiritual things, let no man put them asunder. 4. Let Divine aid, whenever we seek it or obtain it, lead us to the practical use of it in obedience. “ Quicken me,” and “ so shall I keep.” I put those words together in that fashion, for they are together. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Psalms 119:89-96 For ever, O Lord, Thy Word is settled in heaven.My solace in affliction I. Here we have strong consolation in certain facts which he remembered. Fly ye to the mountains when the enemy invades the land. Hide in the strongholds of your God.1. The eternal existence of God, which is implied in the continuance of His faithfulness and power. “ The Lord liveth” is the plea of souls harassed and haunted by foes without and fears within. Nothing happens to the Lord at haphazard. What can threaten His existence, thwart His purpose, weaken His power, diminish the tenderness of His heart, or distract the wisdom of His judgment? 2. The immutability of His Word. “ Thy Word is settled in heaven.” “ Thus saith the Lord, The heaven is My throne,” etc. His Word is settled in heaven and issued from heaven, the seat of His government, and it cannot be altered on earth, this distant colony of His empire. We refer to God’ s Word, therefore, in grievous difficulties with great confidence, because we know that every statement it contains is reliable. 3. The faithfulness of the fulfilment of that Word. “ Thy faithfulness is unto all generations.” Those men who have trusted God’ s Word in any generation have always found it true. 4. The perpetuity of the Word in nature. “ Thou hast established the earth,” etc. 5. The perpetuity of the Word in experience (verse 92). II. The delights which he experienced in the time of his trouble. It is in such seasons of acute distress, when this world has no palliative to offer, that God’ s Word can minister infinite delights to soothe the distractions and heal the sorrows of the heart. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The eternal order I. The source of the Divine order. “ Heaven.” The heavens of creation declare the eternal order of the spiritual heavens. Be our views of the methods of creation what they may, it runs in the channels of the eternal order. Reflect upon it thus, as manifested in creation, moral government, redemption--in the infinitely great and the infinitely little. II. Its stability. Thy Word is “ settled” in heaven. It is not established upon the floods, by and by there shall be “ no sea” ; it is not founded upon the hills, by and by “ the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed” ; it is not dependent upon the astronomical heavens, for by and by heaven and earth shall itself pass away; it is settled in Heaven, whose light, strength, and stability is God. Much should be said of the breadth and universality of the eternal order. III. Its permanence (verses 90, 91). The eternal order implies infinite prevision, conscious purpose, consistency of aim, absoluteness of authority, harmony of design, beyond the possibility of chance or change to affect; it is inclusive of all operations, interests, duties, and possibilities; a grand plan, of which Jesus Christ is the Administrator, the Bible, for us men, the completed Revelation and Clue; the Blood the Seal; the Holy Spirit the Agent; and Glory the Consummation.1. Sin is violation of, and opposition to, the eternal Order. It is the way to certain destruction. 2. Salvation is the voluntary falling in, by faith in Christ and a life of holiness, with the eternal Order. “ Thy statutes are my songs.” 3. The practical effect of the contemplation of the eternal Order should be a faith which fears no foe. (Joseph Morris.) God’ s Word fixed in Heaven The great problem in the construction of large lighthouses upon high and necessarily exposed points is, how best to prevent oscillation or swaying of the structure in times of prevailing wind or storm. It may be readily perceived that any variation, however slight, in the direction of the rays of light from the lamps when the lighthouse is in use, as at night, would make very material difference to the mariner far out at sea. Ships guiding their course in the path of the lighthouse beams would he very liable to be thrust from the line of safety altogether, and thus there would be created the danger of serious disaster, if indeed not actually causing loss to life and property. But no such danger confronts the Christian mariner out upon life’ s sea, for God’ s guiding light, the lighthouse of the Scriptures, is “ fixed in heaven.” (G. V. Reichell.) Psalms 119:91 All are Thy servants.All things are Thy servants The psalmist finds God’ s Word in nature, in the whole physical universe. To him the universal order spoke of One who ordered all things according to the good pleasure of His will. Behind all forces and laws he saw a Hand which still governed them, and a Heart which could still feel for those who suffered under the iron necessities of nature. Having found God in the outer world of nature he finds Him also in the inner world of providence. As life can only spring from life, so he believed that our life could only have come from the Living One. And human life is guided through its whole course, from generation to generation, and amid all the changes of time, by the true and faithful will in which it had its origin. If this is too large an inference to draw from the words, “ Thy faithfulness is unto all generations,” it is amply warranted by these other words, “ All things are Thy servants,” and the application of them which the psalmist makes to his own conditions and prospects. What is most difficult for us to grasp is the practical conclusion at which the psalmist arrives. We find much in nature which is friendly; we also find much that seems cruel and inimical to us. The evidence is not all on one side; and hence our verdict often hangs in doubt. It would be an unspeakable comfort to us to believe that all things serve God, and therefore serve us; but how can we believe it in the teeth of the cruel and sorrowful facts with which experience daily confronts us? If it was not impossible for him to believe in the truth and goodness of God, even when God hid Himself from him in clouds so dense and dark as these, it should not be impossible for us to know God better than he did, and have much more reason to trust Him. What else can we do? As we stand before the frowning mysteries of time and change, only one alternative is before us. Either we must understand them all ourselves, or hope to understand them, or we must confide in One who does understand them, though we do not. Therefore our only hope of rest and peace lies in trusting Him from whom nothing is hid, in believing that, because all things serve Him, all must serve us. Is such a faith impossible, or even unreasonable? Not if we believe in God at all, and in the Word of God. Faith is inevitable to those who know as little as we do. The only question is, what we shall believe, in whom we shall put our trust. (Samuel Cox, D. D.) Psalms 119:92-93 Unless Thy law had been my delights, I should then have perished in mine affliction. God’ s Word I. A delight in God’ s Word yields support in afflictions (verse 92). It is impossible to delight in God’ s Word, containing as it does rich promises, and the revelation of a glorious future, without having resignation, fortitude, hope, etc. II. A quickening by God’ s Word yields imperishable memories.1. God’ s Word effects a moral quickening. It is the sunbeam, the rain, the resurrection trumpet. 2. The greatest event in the history of souls is moral quickening. It is a birth, a resurrection, etc. 3. The greatest event is always the most memorable. (Homilist.) God’ s law the delight of His people, in distress I. What there is in the Word of God which tends to the delight of His people in distress.1. The most comfortable discoveries. (1) That God stands in the most endearing relations to His people. He is their Shepherd, Father, Friend, God. (2) That the way was made for the settling of these endeared relations in which God stands to His people by the sufferings and death of His own Son. (3) That God is hereupon become the Father of mercies and the God of all consolation, ready freely to give out all the blessings which Christ hath purchased at the dearest rate. (4) That a way of access is now open, whereby the children of God may come to Him, their Father, upon all occasions, in hope of obtaining mercy, and finding grace to help them in time of need. (5) That the Spirit of grace is come from heaven to take up His abode in the people of God, and to be their Guide thither. (6) That the eternal state of rewards is laid open to their faith. 2. The most comfortable promises, fitted to yield delight from their nature, their number, and their extent. (1) How sweet is the promise of the pardon of sin and acceptance with God when read with application. (2) All happiness is summed up in the promise of heaven at last, and so can’ t hut be big with the truest delight now. (3) The promise of God’ s presence by the way, that all things shall work together for His people’ s good. 3. The most comfortable are examples of God’ s compassion and grace in appearing for His people; as in the case of David, Job, and the three Hebrew worthies that were cast into the fiery furnace, and brought out unhurt. 4. The most comfortable provisions, and these suitable to the various characters which His saints are to bear, and the states they are in while they are in this world. (1) As they are pilgrims and strangers, its precepts and directions mark out their way; showing them the narrow path in which they are to walk; and its warnings and threatenings discover the snares they are to avoid, that they may be safe. (2) As probationers for eternity we are acquainted with our work, and where our strength lies for the doing it. II. The persons to whose delight it actually conduces. They are the children of God, and none else.1. They only are spiritually enlightened to discern the great and comfortable things contained in the Word of God. 2. They have the highest value for it. 3. They have their hearts and ways suited to it. III. How is it that it does this?1. As believed, considered, and applied by the saints. 2. As impressed and set home by the Spirit. IV. When may a child of God find comfort from God’ s Word?1. In the times of great and sore affliction which they fall into while they live. It acquaints them-- (1) That these have been the lot of some of God’ s choicest favourites in their way to heaven. (2) That afflictions are consistent with God’ s special love to His people, and their covenant relation to Him. (3) That afflictions are not only consistent with the love of God, but often the instances of it (Hebrews 12:6-7). (4) That though afflictions are deserved by sin, they are laid upon the people of God with a design to cure it (Isaiah 27:9). (5) That though for wise ends God brings them under the rod, He considers their frame, and remembers that they are but dust, and will not increase the trial, either as to degree, or continuance, beyond what He will enable them to bear. (6) That under times of affliction God has chosen to let out His love more freely to His people than at other seasons. And who would not be reconciled to the rod to know and taste more of His promise to the Church (Hosea 2:14)? 2. It is fitted to delight them when they are called to die; and to do this as teaching them-- (1) That as dying God will be with them. (2) That immediately after death they shall be with Him. V. The nature of the delight or consolation derived from the Word.1. It is truly divine, and the consolation of God. It has the Word of God for its ground, and the Spirit of God for its author. 2. It is real and solid (Psalms 119:14; Psalms 119:54). 3. It is rational and justifiable. 4. It is holy. 5. It is sometimes vigorous and strong. 6. It is the foretaste of heaven, and is working upward to meet that fulness of joy which there is in God’ s presence. Application 1. Is there so much in the Word of God to delight the soul? O what a dark disconsolate place would this earth be without it. 2. Get into the number of the children of God, who are the only ones prepared to take the comfort of His Word. 3. Under all your troubles run to the Word of God for relief; and in conversing with it, pray for the Spirit to enlighten your minds, sanctify your hearts, fit you to take comfort in it, and so to work in you the comfort He hath fitted you for. 4. And as ever you would have solid consolation-- (1) Value and labour after grace and holiness as the ground of it. Be as earnest for grace as you are for comfort and peace. (2) Expect the comfort you need in God’ s way by humbling yourselves and turning to God in case of sin, and by attending His ordinances and the institutions of His house. (3) Wait for comfort in God’ s time, and presume not to prescribe to Him, but continue to pray and look up for it. (D. Wilcox.) Psalms 119:94I am Thine, save me; for I have sought Thy precepts.God the Owner and Saviour of man I. Owner.1. All men are His by necessity-- (1) Absolutely.(2) Indefeasibly.(3) For ever. 2. All good men are His by consecration. This surrender is man’ s primary duty, the one act necessary to give moral worth and acceptance to all acts in life. II. Saviour. “ Save me” --1. From practically ignoring Thy claims. 2. From acting inconsistently with Thy claims. (Homilist.) The believer’ s plea I. The relation to God which is claimed in the text.1. Its origin.2. Its dignity and blessedness.3. The duties involved in it. (1) Loyalty.(2) Diligence.(3) Obedience.(4) Love. 4. The graces exemplified in pleading it. (1) Humility.(2) Faith.(3) The spirit of adoption.(4) Complete and implicit dependence.(5) Love and devotion. 5. The evidence by which this relation is supported:--“ I have sought Thy precepts.” II. The plea which the psalmist founds upon his relation to God. “ Save me.” It is a brief petition, but it comprehends every blessing. It is the craving after spiritual freedom; the longing to be delivered from the bondage of corruption and the body of death, the panting to be transformed, renewed and sanctified. (C. F. Childe, M. A.) Psalms 119:96I have seen an end of all perfection; but Thy commandment is exceeding broad.A sad moral discovery I. The nature of this discovery. “ An end of all perfection.” Material nature is perfect in all its departments and forms; but in human history no perfection is found. It is not found in the thoughts, affections, purposes, or actions of men. It is not found in men individually or collectively. Complete moral perfection is extinct.1. This fact should humble us in the dust. The only property in man is character; and if his character is bad, man has nothing therefore of which to be proud. His own vileness should keep him in the dust. 2. This fact should startle us into effort. In moral imperfection there is guilt, ruin, hell. How to get rid of it is the great question, and should be the great object of life. For this all should labour supremely. II. The means of this discovery. “ Thy commandment is exceeding broad.” Broad!1. Because it embraces everything pertaining to man. Not only his outward actions and audible utterances, but the deepest and most secret feelings of his heart. 2. It embraces everything pertaining to every man. It takes in individuals, families, communities, Churches, and nations. In the light of this law moral imperfection is then everywhere. (Homilist.) An end of perfection I. The sorrowful confession--“ I have seen an end of all perfection.”1. There are severe limits to human knowledge. The wisest tell us their path leads to a point at which there is “ no thoroughfare.” They encounter “ the Unknowable.” All they know is, that there is more to be known. 2. There are severe limits to human enjoyment. The most attractive programme of pleasure palls. The gay monarch offers a fabulous sum for a “ new pleasure.” Restless pleasure-seekers outpace even the devil’ s ingenuity, for even he cannot make the programme hold out. 3. There are severe limits to human examples of excellence. We select our hero, and he enjoys our brief worship. But we find a flaw, and the homage fails. You need only know a man well enough to detect his weakness. A modern celebrity was asked if he believed in perfection: said he, “ No! I have seen too many perfect people.” II. The joyful rejoinder--“ But Thy commandment is exceeding broad.”1. The “ commandment” broadens beyond the limits of human knowledge. It reveals God--His counsels--eternity and its destinies. It presents us with a science of the unseen, and a redemption to which there is no human analogy. 2. The “ commandment” is exceeding broad in the extent of the enjoyment it unfolds. It presents an infinite range of delights to man’ s restless soul. It unseals infinite sources of pleasure. It teaches us to “ joy in God.” It introduces a new, subtler, more refined and inexhaustible quality of happiness. We have Christ’ s “ joy fulfilled in” ourselves. We “ enter into the joy of our Lord.” It ushers us into that Presence for ever, where there is “ fulness of joy.” 3. It is “ exceeding broad” in its provision for human attainment--its ideal. The Old Testament standard reaches the infinite word godly. The New Testament sets before us the example of Him in whom “ dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily” (Colossians 2:9). Man’ s soul can never be satisfied without a definite aim; yet at the same time an infinite aim. Here the conditions meet--“ The stature of a man in Christ Jesus.” Application--And this “ commandment” is nigh thee!--now! (Walter Hawkins.) An end of all perfection The psalmist in this verse speaks of a twofold experience in the form of an antithesis. All life is an antithesis. We touch the transient and the everlasting, the finite and the boundless, the explored and unexplored, at every turn. I. He speaks of the transient and finite. He had observed that there was a great deal of perfection--many good and perfect gifts--in the world.1. In nature. The revolving seasons, the flowers that bloom, the fruit that ripens, and the sun that shines, are each beautiful in its time. But every summer has its winter, every flower dies, all fruit decays, and every day has its night. Transiency and limitation are written upon everything. There must be a constant replenishing, or the universe would be bankrupt. The same forces are preserved and resuscitated by new combinations, and directed to new uses. The conservation of force is a means by which God upholds nature, else it would collapse. 2. In human history. The rise and fall of empires--the might of the sword--the power of governments--the sway of know-ledge--the charm of fame--the influence of wealth--are all transient. It is this “ end” that perplexes men. 3. In religious externalities. Many symbols and ceremonials have come and gone. They have lost their meaning in realities. The pillars of cloud and of fire have vanished: the manna has ceased. The tabernacle, the temple, and their ritual have passed away. Even religious structures like the temple, which, of all buildings, supply the strongest resistance to the wear and tear of time, fall into decay and ruin. 4. In individual and social life. Man exhausts everything. As we advance in life all attainment dwarfs in the presence of new ideals. The ideal of the Hebrew, through the revelation of God, was very high. Contrast the self-complacency of the Greek with the consciousness of non-attainment on the part of the holiest Hebrews. Where there is no conception of holiness there can be no adequate conception of infirmity and sin, and even of non-attainment. So far, however, the psalmist has not said all; nor even the half. It were a sad tale were that all. “ But” is the remedial point in the verse. II. The psalmist speaks of the comprehensive and permanent--“ Thy commandment is exceeding broad.”1. It was comprehensive. It applied to men’ s thoughts and motives, as well as their words and deeds. It touched life and emphasized responsibility at every point. It left no void space, no gap or chink for the guilty to escape. It presented the divine ideal of perfection. 2. It was permanent. Our Lord teaches us that heaven and earth shall pass away; but that not a jot or tittle of the law shall pass. Hence the necessity of the Incarnation and the Atonement. “ The love of Christ constraineth us.” Our supreme hope is to be like Him. “ And every man that hath this hope in Him purifieth himself as He is pure.” He is “ changed from glory to glory as by the Spirit of the Lord,” and thus becomes “ perfect in Christ Jesus.” (D. Davies.) An end of all perfection “ I have seen an end of all perfection.” The man who has set his whole heart on things earthly,--no matter whether successful or unsuccessful,--comes to this at last. We should not care so much for words like these, if we regarded them only as the bitter judgment of one whose plans for life had been thwarted and blighted: we should then esteem them as the jaundiced conclusion of one who disparaged what he could not attain to: it would be a case in point to the ancient fable of the creature that cried down the fruit it could not reach. But the same estimate of this life has been reached by the earnest believer. He too has told us that all that is required that a human being should in this world see “ an end of all perfection,” is that such a one should live in this world long enough to let hasty impressions die away; and to arrive at those “ second thoughts” of it which are proverbially “ best.” Yet while the case is so, that believer and unbeliever alike may express an estimate of the life in the selfsame words, there is this great difference between the two. To the man who has “ set his affection on things on the earth,” it is unmingled bitterness to find that they will not suffice: he has nothing else to look to: if they fail him, then all is lost. But the believer’ s treasure is not in this world: it is laid up where neither moth nor rust can corrupt, and where no thief can break through and steal: he has laid up for himself treasure in heaven: and that grandest possession of humanity, a part in the crucified Saviour, a soul renewed by the blessed Spirit, is a thing whose worth cannot fluctuate nor decay: always and everywhere the one thing needful. I. The psalmist said these words truly, and we may say them truly, as to the happiness this world can yield. The psalmist did not say, and no more do we, that in this world there is no happiness at all. What is said is that there is no perfection of happiness: no life which is evenly joyous or evenly cheerful. The heavy, bitter blow falls now and then; and there are manifold drawbacks from the pleasantest earthly lot; a thousand little anxieties, vexations,--well, there is no better word, worries: things which, if they do not absolutely embitter the cup of existence, certainly deprive it of all right to be called the perfection of worldly good. II. We may say these words with truth, in regard to the excellence of the people we know. III. We have learned to little purpose, if we have not done the same in regard to ourselves: our own good purposes, our own devout feelings, our own faith, and hope, and charity. It is a lame life we lead: it is but a very rough approximation to the right line. In some kind of way we keep to religious rule; but we need not even talk of perfection who know that we come short, in everything we do. (A. K. H. Boyd, D. D.) The temporal and the eternal Those of you who have visited Henry the Seventh’ s Chapel at Westminster Abbey must have noticed in the south-east corner the tomb of Dean Stanley and that of his wife, Lady Augusta There are many words engraven on the stone beneath Dean Stanley’ s tomb, and at the foot of them are the words of our text (P. B. Version). The words may well be taken as an epitome of the Dean’ s life. He saw an end of all perfection, he saw that all things human pass away, but he held on to the great eternal truths of religion, knowing that God’ s commandment, like God’ s love, is exceeding broad. I. The temporal. “ I see that all things come to an end.” We live in a world of change; nothing is lasting, nothing is permanent down here. The little life of man, the little work of man sooner or later comes to an end. “ I see that all things come to an end.” The beautiful summer-time which delights us all changes at last into the long dreary winter. Nature changes, “ the grass withereth, the flower fadeth.” There are changes in public life as well as in private life; changes abroad and changes at home; changes in our own individual lives. The boy changes into the young man; school life is over. The young man changes into the man in his prime; youth is over. And old age creeps on, then cometh the end. Whether it be beauty, or wit, or learning, or pleasure, or honour, or position, or riches, experience will soon show us the end of all these things. II. The writer turns from the temporal to the eternal. He tries to fix our minds on the one Supreme Being who never passes away. “ I am the Lord, I change not.” “ Thy commandment is exceeding broad.” The great Rock of Ages remains unalterably the same.1. God’ s love is exceeding broad.2. His forgiveness.3. His mercy.4. His power to save.5. His Church.6. Heaven. We may differ in opinion down here, we cannot all think alike on earth, but there will be perfect unity there, for heaven, like God’ s commandment, is exceeding broad. (A. E. W. Lait.) Perfection only in God’ s law I. The imperfection that is ascribed to all created objects.1. Everything pertaining to the present world, its riches, honours, and enjoyments so earnestly coveted by carnal minds, will be found greatly deficient in their promised good when weighed in a just and equal balance. Experience proves them incapable of affording satisfaction; they first allure, and then deceive, and raise our expectations only for the purpose of producing disappointment. 2. There is nothing perfect in the Church of God, collectively considered, though it is composed of the excellent of the earth, in all ages and parts of the world. The tares and the wheat grow together until harvest. 3. The same imperfection which marks the general body attaches to the character of individual believers in various degrees; for as is the root, so are the branches. 4. As the psalmist had seen an end of all perfection in others, so also in himself; and this is what the best of men have seen in their own characters as well as he. There is neither intellectual nor moral perfection to be found on earth. II. The perfection that is ascribed to the Divine law.1. It includes the whole of our duty towards God, ourselves, and our neighbour. 2. It extends to all persons and to characters of every description. 3. Its dominion reaches to the inward ‘ as well as to the outward man, the heart as well as the life. It rules over the understanding, for obedience is founded in knowledge; the will, which must be bowed to the will of God; the affections, which are required to be set supremely on Him. 4. It comprehends the manner of our obedience, as well as the matter of it, and shows that nothing can be acceptable but what proceeds from a right principle. Love is the fulfilling of the law, both as to its spirit and design. 5. Its authority is perpetual, reaching forward to eternity. It is a perfect transcript of the Divine mind, and is necessarily as unchangeable as its great original (Psalms 119:89; Psalms 119:152). 6. It is exceeding broad with respect to its sanctions, or the rewards which it promises and the punishments it inflicts. (B. Beddoms, M. A.) Human limitation and Divine breadth The psalmist’ s words imply what Jesus and His apostles taught with far greater fulness, not only that while man changes, God changes not., but that man may rise out of change in boundless progress by active obedience to the commandment, that is, by living and practical communion with the Divine will. The breadth of God’ s commandment The true relation of the two parts of this verse to each other seems to be that of contrast. Here is something called “ perfection” existing among men in a great variety of forms. “ But,” says the psalmist, “ according to my experience and observation, these are altogether too superficial, and too precarious, and too short-lived to make men happy, and the very best of them, the idealisms of human life, as we have seen, can never be attained. But ‘ Thy commandment is exceeding broad,’ and that will do, unless men hinder, what nothing else will do.” “ Thy commandment is exceeding broad;” we say all when we say that it is as broad as the Divine nature, and that is limitless and eternal; beyond all bounds, above all heights, beneath all depths. “ As the man is, so is his strength.” As God is, so is His commandment, word, will, and way. And what does it tell me? It tells me that these earthly and human “ perfections.” which can never be realized, even the partial realizations of which so soon begin to fade and fall into ruin, are yet, if I will, the symbol to my faith of that which will not deceive, will not fail, and that all will come to me through this very law or commandment which is “ exceeding broad,” because it is Gospel. It seems to shut the door of hope, only that it may fling it more widely open. It seems to lock and bar the prison gates, only that they may be burst asunder by a conquering Redeemer, and that the very walls of the prison-house may be thrown to the ground, while the prisoners are called into largeness and eternal liberty. Then they begin to find the commandment of God, in this better, sweeter sense, “ exceeding broad.” It is the high but fair standard to which they conform; it is, at the same time, the power that upholds and strengthens while such conformity is sought. It is an education, a development, a joy that never palls; a prospect that is never darkened, although our eyes are not always open to see it. It is high above us and away beyond us, yet it is always bending down to help us, and never casts an unfriendly look, and never speaks in a harsh tone. It is the very soul of consideration, and tenderness, and grace. It seems to speak to us as though it were a God, and says, “ Cast all your cares on me. I am broad enough, and strong enough to bear them all. I am for God in this world, I--His Gospel commandment, with law, and love, and light in it--I am the will of God and His uplifting power, and all whom I bless I lead onwards to more and more, to better and better, never lowering the standard, never suspending the education, never suffering a limit to be put to it. Ever teaching my subjects that the law of life they have in me is a law of breadth, liberty, enlargement, until the scantiness and the failures of earth are exchanged for the fulnesses and the realizations of heaven.” (A. Raleigh, D. D.) The breadth of God’ s commandment There is an ancient tradition that Abraham, as he stood on the hills above Damascus, was converted to the true faith in one God, from the worship of the heavenly bodies, by observing that the stars, the moon, and the sun, however bright and glorious, at last sank, and were succeeded by others. “ I like not,” he said, “ those that set;” and so turned to the one unchangeable Lord and Maker of all. This, but in a higher and more precise form, is the force of the psalmist’ s argument. He prefers--and we ought to prefer--the commandment, the revelation of God, not only because it lasts longer than anything else, but because it includes, and comprehends, and absorbs into itself all that there is good in everything else.1. “ I see that all things come to an end.” So we may say of all human institutions and customs, especially when we have gone through many lands, and seen many forms of opinion and worship. 2. “ I see that there is a boundary beyond which they cannot pass” --I see that the institutions of the West come to an end almost abruptly when they reach the extremity of Europe. I see that the institutions of the East come to an end no less abruptly when they reach the extremity of Asia. We have followed each to their utmost limit; they cannot pass farther. But there is one thing which is broad enough to embrace them both and cross them both, namely, the commandment of God. 3. “ I see that all earthly pleasures and enjoyments, one after another, have their natural ending.” Not only wicked and selfish pleasures, which last only for the moment of their gratification, but innocent, just, good enjoyments, of necessity come to an end, or pass into something else. “ But the commandment of God is exceeding broad.” God’ s commandment widens, opens, and expands with new interests, enjoyments, affections, hopes, at every successive step we take, till we find ourselves at last in that Presence where there is indeed fulness of joy and pleasure for evermore. 4. “ I see that all human greatness comes to an end.” Every station in life, however great or prosperous, has its drawbacks, its checks, its limits. But moral or Christian greatness is “ exceeding broad.” The basis on which it is built up is as broad and firm as the conscience and heart of man, as the grace and goodness of God. Even the most far-reaching intellect and its effects come to an end at last. Look at those greatest of all monuments of the mind of man--books. How rapidly they come to an end! One Book alone has outlasted many generations, in all nations equally, and that is the Bible; and this is because of its “ exceeding breadth” --because it embraces every variety and element of thought, and every phase of society; above all, because it embodies in every part the moral commandment of God, which endures for ever in heaven, and which speaks not to one condition of life only, but to all. 5. “ I see that all human characters come to an end.” How often do we see those who are good and wise up go a certain point, but beyond that we come, as it were, to a precipice--they break down, as we say; we wonder that, being so good as they are, they are not better; that, being as wise as they are, they are not wiser. One Character there is which is so “ exceeding broad” as to grasp and overlap all others. This is the true sign of the Divinity of the character of Christ. 6. “ I see that human life comes to an end.” Our earthly life, the earthly life of those whom we have known and loved, is cut short by that dark abyss into which we cannot penetrate, and over which our thoughts can hardly pass. But God’ s commandment, and the fulfilment of God’ s commandments, is “ exceeding broad” ; it is broad enough to span even that wide and deep river which parts this life and the next. For it is this which makes this life and the next life one. Knowledge, prophecies, gifts of all kinds pass away, but the love of God and the love of man never fail. 7. Yes, “ I see that all things come to an end.” I see that human systems, human pleasures, human greatness, human wisdom, human excellence, human life, come to an end. But the commandment, the revelation, of God never comes to an end, because God Himself is Infinite--God, whom we adore in His three infinite perfections. (Dean Stanley.) The wisdom of religion Thy law; that is, the rule of our duty natural and revealed; or, in a word, religion, which consists in the knowledge and practice of the laws of God, is of greater perfection than all other things which are so highly valued in this world; for the perfection of it is infinite, and of a vast influence and extent; it reacheth to the whole man, to the happiness of body and soul; to our whole duration, both in this world and the next; of this life, and of that which is to come. I. The reasonableness of religion, which is able to give a very good account of itself, because it settles the mind of man upon a firm basis, and keeps it from rolling in perpetual uncertainty; whereas atheism and infidelity wants a stable foundation; it centres nowhere but in the denial of God and religion, and yet substitutes no principle, no tenable and constituent scheme of things, in the place of them. II. The wisdom of religion.1. True wisdom begins and is founded in religion, in the fear of God, and in the keeping of His commandments. 2. This is the perfection of wisdom; there is no wisdom without this, nor beyond it. (1) The first point of wisdom is to understand our true interest, and to be right in our main end; and in this religion will best instruct and direct us. And if we be right in out” main end, and true to the interest of it, we cannot miscarry; but if a man mistake in this, he errs fatally, and his whole life is vanity and folly. (2) Another property of wisdom is to be steady and vigorous in the prosecution of our main end; to oblige us hereto religion gives us the most powerful arguments--the glorious happiness, and the dismal misery of another world. 3. The next point of wisdom is to make all things stoop and become subservient to our main end. And wherever religion bears sway, it will make all other things subordinate to the salvation of our souls, and the interests of our everlasting happiness; as the men of this world make everything to submit and give way to their covetous, and ambitious, and sensual designs. 4. Another part of wisdom is to consider the future, and to look to the last end and issue of things. It is a common folly among men to be so intent upon the present as to have little or no regard to the future, to what will be hereafter. But religion gives us a clear prospect of a life after death, and overlooks time, and makes eternity always present to us, and minds us of making timely provision and preparation for it. 5. Again, another main point of wisdom is, to do as little as we can to be repented of, trusting rather to the wisdom of prevention than to that of remedy. Religion first teacheth men innocency, and not to offend; but in case we do (as in many things we offend all), it then directs us to repentance as the only remedy. 6. The last character of wisdom I shall mention is in all things to consult the peace and satisfaction of our own minds, without which nothing else can make us happy; and this obedience to the laws of God does naturally procure. (Abp. Tillotson.) Finality and progress One of the greatest fallacies with which we have to contend in modern times is the opinion that everything of the nature of finality in religion--everything of the nature of clear and settled conviction--is opposed to the progress of the world and the liberty of the individual. It is assumed by some that progress consists in a perpetual movement from one position to another, rather than the steady upward movement of a tree from its root or of a building from its fixed foundation. They think of progress as a leaving of the past continually behind us, and an advancing towards the future; and that, consequently, whatever claims to be fixed, immovable, and determinate, whatever says to the advancing waves Of human power and ambition, “ Thus far shalt thou come, but not farther,” puts an arrest upon the progress of the world that ought not to be put, and fetters the legitimate action of the human spirit. Hence the outcry against creeds and dogmas of every kind as things to be entirely shaken off. It is said that they must all of them be of necessity transitional and temporary, because they are attempts to formulate a something--a something that is for ever beyond us, and is no sooner formulated than the mind has already travelled beyond its own conception. What I wish to point out is that we cannot escape finality in some shape or form if we are to think at all. We must have clear and settled convictions of some kind; but this finality of thought, when truly come to, is not in the least degree opposed to liberty or progress. It is indeed the very starting point and permanent ground of all that is true in the progress of the world. The text appears to afford a very suitable basis for such a theme. The psalmist says, “ I have seen an end of all perfection.” There is the finality, the fixed and determinate position; but he also says, “ Thy commandment is nevertheless exceeding broad” ; there is the room for growth, for progress--there we have the free and indeterminate element. There is, indeed, a certain opposition at first sight between the two clauses of the text; but there is no real opposition. In the ground of the matter they are substantially and essentially one. Take the letters of the English alphabet. Here you have from twenty to thirty absolutely fixed signs--no more than that; and we are not at liberty to add to or to alter one of them. Here we have finality surely. And yet upon that fixed and limited basis all human thought and human speech are built. The Bible and Shakespeare, with all their subtle essence of thought and wonders of expression, are reducible to twenty-six letters. Why is it that no one says, “ What an absurd thing it is to chain the genius of the world to twenty or thirty little signs that can be made upon a sheet of paper! How can those signs, invented, moreover, in remote antiquity, be adequate to the wants of the world to-day? Such finality is the enemy of progress.” To talk in that way about the alphabet would indicate the madman, because the mastering of those twenty-six letters is the beginning of all our progress. And yet that is precisely how many talk in regard to the doctrines and facts of Christianity. They say that to fix anything here is to make progress impossible. What I say is that the twenty-six letters of the alphabet are no more the unalterable basis of all our learning than the essential doctrines of Christianity, as clearly formulated and tabulated as they can be, are the basis of all that is true in the spiritual history and progress of the world. The same thing may be said of any other branch of learning, Bay of arithmetic or of mathematics, with its rigid formularies and absolutely fixed signs. Out of the nine units of arithmetic the whole science of numbers is evolved. Those fixed factors that lie at the foundation of the whole, and out of which the whole arises, put no arrest upon the thinking mind at all. So far from that, the mind could not take one step without them, and it would be thrown into confusion if one of them were altered. What I plead for is that in this matter of finality and progress people should apply to religious truth the common sense they apply to other subjects; and they ought not to object that finality in religion puts an end to progress when they find in every other sphere that it is the very basis and spring of all the liberty we require. The Sabbath law and the Bible, the Church and its Sacraments, with its essential creed--with regard to all these important matters a certain amount of finality has undoubtedly been reached. They represent a certain number of ultimate facts; the essential explanation of which we unquestionably have in our possession. Those ultimate facts, those fixed and determinate conclusions about God and Christ, about life and death, about sin and salvation--those great facts do not stand in the way of the liberty of man or the most perfect freedom of thought. Instead of that, they are the foundation of the world’ s peace, and the perennial spring of all its progress. In a word, the more finality we have truly come to, so much the more liberty and progress we also may have. When a young person goes on from one stage of learning to another, from the letters of the alphabet to numbers, and circles, and squares, and from these, again, to all the definite and fixed forms of science and art, he is coming to finality at every step, he is fixing matters permanently in his mind, from stage to stage, all along the line. Is he thereby putting fetters upon himself? You know that it is not so. You know that he is advancing in the path of liberty and power. Those clear and settled ideas which he takes into his mind, from stage to stage, are but stepping-stones in the upward and onward path of his progress. “ Eternal process moving on from state to state the spirit walks.” And not only may he “ wear all that weight of learning lightly as a flower,” but the whole burden of existence is becoming lighter and lighter to him the more clearly he sees into the heart of the whole. Every clear idea, fixed and final as it is, that takes possession of his mind, is lifting him above the fact of which it is the idea--the otherwise hard and oppressive fact. It is thus that man rises superior to time and circumstances, misfortune and chance. Those clear and settled convictions as they arise within his mind one by one, like stars coming out in the midnight sky, and as they form themselves into a harmony of lights within the being--what are they but the mighty leverage by which the man himself is lifted up out of the bondage of darkness and spiritual death into the light and liberty of perfect truth, and by which he is enabled to breath at last the very atmosphere of eternity? (F. Ferguson, D. D.) God’ s perfect law our despair and our comfort We may read the words in two ways.1. “ I have seen an end of all perfection; for Thy commandment is exceeding broad.” Read in this way they suggest the animating thought that our haunting consciousness of imperfection springs from the bright and awful perfection of the law we are bent on obeying, of the Ideal we have set before us. It is not because we are worse than those who are without law, or who are a law unto themselves, that we are restless and dissatisfied with ourselves; but because we measure both ourselves and our fellows by the lofty standards of God’ s commandment. That commandment is so broad, that we cannot embrace it; it is so high, that we cannot attain to it; it is so perfect, that we cannot perfectly obey it. 2. But we may read the verse in another way, and still derive comfort and encouragement from it. We may say: “ I have seen an end of all perfection in myself, and in the world; but Thy commandment is exceeding broad: that is perfect, though I am imperfect, and in its perfection I find the promise of my own.” For shall God give a law for human life, and that law remain for ever unfulfilled? Impossible! “ The gifts of God are without repentance” --irreversible, never to be lessened or withdrawn. His purpose is not to be made of none effect by our weaknesses and sins. In the law He has shown us what He would have us be. And shall we never become what He would have us to be? Can the law remain for ever without any life that corresponds to it and fulfils it? Nay, God will never take back the fair and perfect ideal of human life depicted in His law, never retract His purpose to raise the life of man till it touches and fulfils that ideal. And so the very law which is our despair is our comfort also, for if that be perfect we must become perfect; its perfection is the pledge of ours. (A. Raleigh, D. D.) Psalms 119:97O how love I Thy law! it is my meditation all the day.Love to the Scriptures I. They are indubitably authenticated and divinely inspired. 1 The concurrent testimony of Jew and Gentile, of friend and foe, borne through successive ages to the present time, ascertains their authenticity and truth.2. Existing rites and festivals attest the truth of sacred history. 3. The veracity and accuracy of the inspired books received additional confirmation from the undesigned coincidences of expression in the writings of the sacred penmen, with the relations of facts and occurrences by others, or those narrated by themselves on other occasions. 4. But it is not mere accuracy for which we contend, but also for the Divine inspiration of the Scriptures. They were written under the direction and influence of the Holy Ghost. II. They are the only infallible depositories of all true theology and morals. III. They have been transmitted to us without any material alterations or corruptions. IV. They have survived the most rigorous attempts of Paganism and superstition to suppress or destroy them. V. The scriptures are every way deserving of incessant and delightful study.1. They develop the origin and destination of man.2. They unveil the dispensations of Divine Providence.3. They unfold the astonishing mysteries of redemption.4. They contain the most sublime morality.5. They reveal the solemnities of eternity. (J. Townley, D. D.) Reasons for Loving the Bible I. Its authorship. It is the Word of God: its contents were dictated by eternal wisdom; its laws are the laws of heaven; its teachings are the teachings of Jehovah. It is an embodiment of the eternal mind God has adopted every method for instructing man. When teaching us about Himself, His milder character is painted in a thousand hues, delightfully blended. Instead of employing a pen, He ordered the sun to photograph His lovelier attributes upon the landscape; while His majesty stands out in bold relief in mountains whose snow-capped heads, towering in haughty grandeur, appear to prop up with their broad based pillar-like support, the spacious firmament. But His mind, in reference to man, is conveyed in the language of men, by inbreathing His thoughts and intentions into the minds of the sacred penmen, and then, by His Spirit’ s infallible unerringness, guiding the hand to write them. When James I. wrote a book for the edification of his son Charles, it was pompously called by that high-sounding title, “ Basilikon Doron” --a royal gift. How much more may the Bible be called “ A royal gift,” since its Author is the King of kings--compared with whose kingliness the greatest and brightest of earthly crowns no more resembles royalty than a crown of thorns does one sparkling with diamonds! Not only is this Book a royal, but a parental, gift-the gift of our heavenly Father: a Book dedicated to, and designed for, the eternal benefit of His children. Yes, it is our Father’ s legacy to us. II. Its contents. The very first sentence of Scripture dispels a dark cloud of ignorance, which for ages enveloped the most learned and far-seeing sages of the Grecian schools. Even to that great emporium of learning, Athens, the world’ s origin was enchambered, locked up in some dark, mysterious recess, to which she herself could find no key. But in the very first sentence of the Bible we see the Omnipotent Jehovah emerging from the still quiet of eternal solitude, speaking His creative fiat, and a world is born. Not only do we learn our origin, but our destiny. This was one of the most perplexing enigmas which the ancients tried--but tried in vain--to solve. A dense mist hung heavily over the boundaries of the spirit world, which no optic glass of man’ s device could penetrate. The wisest and best of heathen philosophers could not follow man beyond the horizon of death. III. Its style. Here one finds the most majestic imagery, the sublimest figures, and the noblest strains of eloquence. Here is found poetry unparalleled for grandeur, pathos, and fire. “ No songs,” says Milton, “ are like the songs of Zion.” Here, in touching, melting passionateness, we are told the most affecting narratives; and here are pictures true to the very life, pencilled from the old world scenery. And though the book is comparatively small, what biographical encyclopaedia ever contained so much useful history? IV. Its power. V. Its suitability for our needs in all circumstances. It is the guide of youth and the staff of old age. No other lamp sheds such a bright, cheering radiance, as this does, to relieve the gloom in the chamber of sickness. It is a garden of healing balm for the wounded spirit; and to those who are tempest-tossed it affords many a peaceful haven to take refuge in. And then, this is the only book which contains light enough to guide us through the valley of the shadow of death. Shining brightest in the dark, it is then more than ever a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. (G. Terry.) The love of the law Many have expressed their indebtedness to this long psalm for encouragement, inspiration, direction. It has been a rod and a staff to comfort them. It might seem at first that such expressions as abound in this psalm cannot be applied to the law as we understand the term. This is an ill-advised opinion, and marks some mental confusion, for in truth law is exceedingly interesting. I do not know of any men who are more enamoured of their profession than lawyers. But I mark that two things are connected with the pleasure which these men have in their calling. There are two terms which are constantly used. I ask what a young man is doing, and I am told that he is studying law. I ask the same question a few years later, and I am told he is practising law. These two things belong in the delight of the man of the law, and are essential to its permanence. It is not enough that one should have a collection of law-books, should occasionally read in them, should admire very many things which they contain; but he must make a patient study of the law, and faithfully apply its principles to the interests of men. Grant me these two things, and I will promise a true delight in the law of the Lord. The law of the Lord includes all the announcements of His will. It embraces the Ten Commandments and all the legislation of Moses. The teachings of the prophets belong in it, and the words of Christ Himself and of His apostles. The term is now to be used in a wider sense than when this unknown psalmist pronounced his eulogium upon the statutes and testimonies of the law. It is the entire will of God, as this is given for the government of our life. I. Why should we love the law of the Lord?1. Because it is the Lord’ s law. It is His nature expressing itself. God is love, and law is love, guiding the men it loves. It is the revelation of His heart. Kings make laws: God reveals them. It is quietly given to us, not amid the thunders and lightnings of Sinai, but by voices long silent, in the pages of the Bible, in our conscience and reason. It is given in principles, not in regulations. It is given in outline, which we are to complete by such precepts as our life demands. 2. The law of the Lord is right. It is perfect, as our Father in heaven is perfect. It fosters the right; it secures honesty in business, integrity in government, charity in society. It enlarges our joy. The fullest declaration we have of it begins with the note of pleasure. “ I am the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt.” So the Sermon on the Mount, more strict in its requirements than the Decalogue, opens with the Beatitudes. “ Blessed and blessed,” and from this beginning, the Teacher gives His precepts that the kindness of His heart may be fully enjoyed by those who hear Him. The law gives security also. It is the rule of the best. It is the guidance of the wisest. You wish to sail in the ship which has the best captain, and the one who is furnished with the best charts and compasses. In all our way through this world, with its confusion and its peril, we should love the law of the Lord which will guide us safely and in honour. 3. Again, the law of the Lord is the law of heaven. Its principles belong in all the worlds. The loftiest angel and the humblest man of all the redeemed observe this taw with delight. The best proof that men are going to heaven is that they love the law of God before they reach its gate; that they delight to meditate in the law, to follow its commands, to live in its control. Unless this is true of us here, it can be little pleasure to anticipate the life in a world where the law of the Lord wilt surround us like the atmosphere, to be breathed in to-day and for ever. 4. Finally, we should love the law of the Lord because it is the law of Christ. It pervaded His life. “ I came not to do Mine own will, but the will of Him that sent me.” “ I do always those things which please Him.” II. If we approve this which has been said, and agree that we should truly love the law of the Lord, the question may still come to our minds, By what means shall I love it? I cannot compel my affection, though I could readily bring myself to obey the statutes. Yet delight in the law would not be more difficult than obedience if we would take the steps which lead to it.1. If we are to love the law of the Lord, it is essential that we should know it. It has those attractive qualities which will commend themselves to any honest mind. It comes to us as the heart of God, and our heart will respond to it if we are true. It is not by admiring it afar off, by passing it upon the street and becoming familiar with its appearance, by being courteous and showing it favours, but by knowing it as one knows his friend. You think you knew the law of the Lord; but have you lived with it, taken it into your counsel, walked with it? 2. We find the love of the law by taking it from Christ. It is expressed in His life, it is spoken by His lips. The melody of a song depends greatly upon the voice of the singer. The law of the Lord has too often been spoken by human lips which had little grace upon them. Hear Christ teach the law. Mark the tone of His voice, the accent, the emphasis. See the radiance of His face. Mark the grace and truth which are upon Him, and the love of the law will spring readily in your heart. I wish that I could persuade you to try this. To do the will of God is a pleasant thing. Let us believe it, and live in the delight of it. 3. But if love delays to come, let us obey with all the heart we have, and all which rises at our summons; let us do the things which God would have us do. This will be right, and the beginning of right living, and the love will grow with the doing of His will till meditation will be delightful and obedience will be the freedom of a great joy. It is a good sign when a man loves the law of the Lord. One may be judged by what he loves. “ There is something magnificent in having a country to love.” There is something magnificent in having a God to love, and in having the heart to love Him. Happy man, that he can find solace in the statutes of God! Happy is he in his companions that they can enjoy the singing of his testimonies! Thus they charm away the weariness of the march, still their minds for the night, gather hope for the morning. (A. MeKenzie, D. D.) Psalms 119:99-100I have more understanding than all my teachers: for Thy testimonies are my meditation.--Inward virtues to the truth of the Gospel 1. By obeying the commands of Scripture we learn that these commands really come from God; by trying we make proof; by doing we come to know. Now, how comes this to pass? It happens in several ways. (1) The Bible tells us to be meek, humble, single-hearted, and teachable. Now, these are qualities of mind necessary for arriving at the truth in any subject, and in religious matters as well as others. On the other hand, impatient, proud, self-confident, obstinate men, are generally wrong in the opinions they form of persons and things. Prejudice and self-conceit blind the eyes and mislead the judgment, whatever be the subject inquired into. (2) Those who are trained carefully according to the precepts of Scripture gain an elevation, a delicacy, refinement, and sanctity of mind, which is most necessary for judging fairly of the truth of Scripture. The pure in heart shall see God; whereas the proud provoke His anger, and the carnal are His abhorrence. (3) Those who try to obey God will evidently gain a knowledge of themselves at least; and this is the first and principal step towards knowing God. 2. The Bible, then, seems to say, “ God is not a hard master to require belief, without affording grounds for believing; only follow your own sense of right, and you will gain from that very obedience to your Maker, which natural conscience enjoins, a conviction of the truth and power of that Redeemer whom a supernatural message has revealed; do but examine your thoughts and doings; do but attempt what you know to be God’ s will, and you will most assuredly be led on into all the truth: you will recognize the force, meaning, and awful graciousness of the Gospel Creed; you will bear witness to the truth of one doctrine, by your own past experience of yourselves; of another, by seeing that it is suited to your necessity; of a third, by finding it fulfilled upon your obeying it. As the prophet says (Malachi 3:10). (J. H. Newman, B. D.) The intellectual power of revelation - I. The power of religious knowledge. II. The inferiority of mere intellectual attainments. The meanest student of Scripture is wiser than the most learned professor of scientific knowledge. He is wiser--1. Scientifically. Boasted science is all chaff; after all, it comes back to the Scripture. 2. Morally. No system of ethics is perfect but the Scripture system. 3. Practically. No other writers can tell of what is beyond and what is the course to be pursued in relation thereto. III. The power available, to all. Meditation on God’ s testimonies. Meditation includes--1. Reading. This is the first step. 2. Digesting. Dwelling on, feeding upon, making them part of our intellectual selves. 3. Carrying out in action. The real test of all consists in development and the outward proof of the inward principle. (Homilist.) The only path to the highest wisdom I. Meditation on the Divine. It is by meditation alone that men become philosophers and artists; by it they penetrate the veil of phenomena, descry and grasp the eternal principles that govern the universe. By it alone we can get mental nourishment. From the impressions that are made upon us, the observations we make, and the thoughts that flash through us from the works we read. It is the digestive faculty of the soul. As the best food taken into the stomach is not only useless, but injurious to the system if not digested, so the richest information rather encumbers than strengthens the soul if not reflected upon. But the subject of meditation must be Divine in order to reach the highest wisdom. “ Thy testimonies.” Meditations upon human history, speculation, or enterprise, will conduct to a certain kind of wisdom, but not to the highest wisdom--the wisdom that cometh from on high. II. Practising the Divine. “ I keep Thy precepts.” it is only as a man translates his ideas into actions that they become part of himself. The greatest ideas of God are comparatively worthless unless embodied in life. In temporal matters the highest philosophy helps on the world just as its theories are reduced to practice. “ Genuine work alone,” says Carlyle, “ what thou workest faithfully, that is eternal as the Almighty Founder and World Builder Himself.” (Homilist.) Psalms 119:103 How sweet are Thy words unto my taste! yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth! The best Christmas fare I like this way of describing the reception of God’ s Word as a matter of eating, for a man cannot eat God’ s Word without living. There is a reality about the faith which eats; there is a something there most sure, which contains the elements of salvation, for tasting is a spiritual sense which implies nearness. This idea of tasting God’ s Word contains the thought of receptiveness. A man may hear a thing and, as we say, it goes in at one ear and out at the other; but that which a man gets into his mouth till he tastes it, and it is sweet to his palate, well, he has received that. Tasting is also a personal matter. There is no possibility of my eating for you. I. I call your attention to an exclamation. The text contains two notes of exclamation or admiration. It is evidently the utterance of one who is somewhat surprised, one who has a thought which he cannot adequately express. The thought is also one which gives much delight to the writer, for he exclaims, “ How sweet,” etc.1. It is a matter of wonder to many to find the Gospel so sweet when the soul first tastes it. 2. This may also be the exclamation of a soul cheered by still tasting the Gospel. 3. I reckon that this language of exclamation and admiration will also come from the most advanced saint, increasing in knowledge of the Gospel, the believer who has studied the Word of God most earnestly, and who has had the deepest experience in it. Other books are soon done with, but the Bible is never fully understood. II. Take the text as a statement, a cool statement of matters of fact. He never speaks more than the truth even when he is most emphatic, so that I am sure that David means to tell us here that God’ s words were sweet to him.1. They were unutterably sweet: “ How sweet!” but he does not tell us how sweet they were. There is no describing the flavours of a royal banquet, there is no picturing to a man who has not the sense of smell the fragrance of a delicious perfume; and you must personally know the sweetness of the Word of God, for to us it is positively unutterable. 2. This much, however, the psalmist does utter: he tells us that God’ s words are surpassingly sweet, for, says he, “ They are sweeter than honey.” 3. He also says that all God’ s words are thus unutterably sweet to him. 4. And at all times. III. A repetition. “ How sweet are Thy words unto my taste!” Well, that is all right, David; we understand you. “ Yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth!” Is not that saying the same thing twice over? Yes, and intentionally so, because God’ s Word is sweet to His people in many ways, and many times over.1. As I have already said to you, it is very sweet in its reception. When we first take it into our heart, and feed upon it, it is very precious; but, spiritually, men are something like ruminating animals, they have the power of feeding again, and again, and again, on that which they have once received. 2. But do you not think that the repetition in the text means something else, namely, that while, first of all, Christ’ s Word is very sweet to cur taste, there is another sweetness when we get it into our mouth, not so much for our own eating, as speaking of it to others? There is great sweetness about the declaration of God’ s words. 3. There is a very special sweetness about preaching Christ, in the public proclamation of His Word. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The Scripture as honey I. Honey is exceedingly sweet to the taste (Judges 14:18). II. Honey, if it be added or put into other things that are bitter, will take away in a great measure their bitterness. So when the soul is under affliction, temptation, persecution, for Christ’ s sake, if God be pleased to add some of the sweet promises of the Word--how wonderfully is the bitter abated. III. But notwithstanding that honey is so sweet and pleasant, yet there are some men who do not care for it. Sinners are so glutted with the filthy trash of this world that they loathe the honeycomb. IV. Naturalists affirm that honey is of a healing nature, and serves for a great number of uses. V. Honey is also of a purifying efficacy. (Anon.) Psalms 119:105 Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.The Divine lamp God’ s Word as a lamp is-- I. Ever needful. Man needs a guide through life. His mental eyes are dim, and the road is drear, intricate, and dark. II. Always available. It Suits every path in life. The path of the young and aged, the celibate and the married, the rich and the poor, the merchant, statesman, and philosopher, etc. III. All-sufficient. It throws light on every conceivable step in life, and the light is clear and sufficient. None need stumble anywhere who hold it before them. IV. Inextinguishable. It burns as brightly in the hands of the youngest disciple to-day as it did in the hands of the old patriarchs. It is a quenchless light. The advancing intelligence of humanity will never supersede its necessity or dim its lustre. (Homilist.) God’ s guiding light for heavenward travellers I. It directs the intending traveller to the starting-point--to the point whence he must set out on his heavenward journey. It takes him to the Cross, it bids him look to Jesus, and then to set out with holy resolution for the celestial city. II. It warns the traveller--having now commenced his journey--of the perils that will beset his path. III. It shows the traveller how he may safely advance along his journey step by step. It is not only “ a light to the path,” showing which is the right way, but a “ lamp to the feet,” showing whether the traveller is keeping in that path. This step-by-step help it furnishes by laying down general principles to be faithfully and conscientiously applied by the Christian (Romans 12:1). By plying him with motives, the force of which, if he is a Christian, he must feel (1 Corinthians 6:20), in all the details of his life, and by giving specific precepts, as notably is done in the closing portions of some of the epistles (Ephesians 4:1-32., etc.). IV. It assures the traveller that the hoped-for termination will be reached. It is important there should be light on the traveller’ s starting-point; of equal importance that there should be light on the goal at which he hopes to arrive. If this be shrouded in darkness he will lack the stimulus of expectation to hold on his way. He will be ready to halt by reason of the discouragements and difficulties he meets with. (J. F. Poulter, B. A.) The lamp of the Word I. Every man has a path of his own. God has undoubtedly fashioned our hearts alike; that is, there are certain broad resemblances which every heart bears to every other heart. There are also equally well-known and accurately marked differences. Each man possesses the same elements, so to speak, but has them in different proportions. Contend as we may, our natural bias, our education, our position, the general and trivial events of our lot, do help to make our paths, which seem outwardly parallel, like two lines running side by side, yet as two lines still, separate and distinct. II. Our paths are manifestly divergent; yet in one respect we find them alike: they are often shrouded in gloom.1. The very lamp itself sometimes perplexes. “ The Word of the Lord tries” us: its principles, its promises, even its facts. 2. Perplexity arises from duty. We feel great difficulty in coming to any decision; not because we are reluctant to obey, but because we cannot quite see which has the first and Superior claim. 3. Perplexity comes from bereavement, and comes to all of us, sooner or later, from this source. We find it hard, in the first paroxysm of sorrow, to see anything but harshness in our loss. We think of others we could have better spared. III. In all our darkness God’ s Word supplies the true illumination. “ Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.” This light is pre-eminent. God has not left us without other aids to lessen the darkness. Reason is a light kindled by Jehovah Himself. Companions are as lights. But this light of God’ s Word stands before all other lights. Reason helps; this helps reason. Companions help; this helps companions. When we are ready to receive them, there are no words that they can utter so cheering and so full of comfort as the words of God. (J. J. Goadby.) Human life Three thoughts are here suggested concerning human life. I. It is a walk. “ My path.” In this walk--1. There is no pausing. “ Every beating pulse we tell leaves but the number less.” 2. There is no returning. Every step takes us into the new and unknown. II. It is a walk requiring light. The path of our life is not only very intricate, but, morally, very dark. Black clouds of ignorance, sensuality, and superstition obstruct the rays of sun and stars. III. It is a walk for which light is provided. (Homilist.) Religion the constant guide and friend of man Wouldst thou then make religion the guide of thy life, wouldst thou have her truly to be a lamp to thy feet and a light to thy path?1. Combine her with all thy occupations. Ask her often, ask her particularly on every critical and doubtful occasion, and ask her always in the sincere intention of following her precepts: how thou shouldst regard and prosecute thy affairs, in what dispositions thou shouldst conduct them, what views thou shouldst have in them, how thou shouldst begin and finish them, what thou shouldst do and omit at every time, in every place, according to the particular emergency? 2. Let her be thy constant companion in society, thy counsellor in thy intercourse with others. Ask her how thou shouldst regard, judge of, treat mankind, thy brethren, how thou shouldst be disposed and behave towards them. 3. Let her be thy friend and companion in solitude. There hearken the more attentively and sedately to her suggestions, her doctrines, her encouragements, her consolations, her demands. There grow more and more familiar with her and ever enjoy more completely the happiness of this familiarity. Accompanied by her, solitude will never be a burden, never seem tiresome or tedious to thee. Informed and enter-rained by her, the solemn hours of silence will be thy most delightful hours of recreation. 4. Let her be the partner in all thy joys and pleasures. She would by no means oppose or disturb thy joys and thy pleasures. 5. Let her be also thy friend and comforter in affliction. (C. J. Zollikofer.) My lamp In the text the Word of God is compared to a lamp or lantern such as that which is carried on dark nights in country places in all lands. I. Like a lighted lantern on a dark lonely journey it is a pleasant companion. A lamp cannot, indeed, talk with us, or even listen to our voices, but its cheerful light, close by us, and going on continually with us, takes away our loneliness, and we feel that “ a light is pleasant company.” II. The Word of God is a protection against danger III. The principal value of a lamp is that it shows us the way: and it is in this respect especially that the truth of God is most precious to us. (R. Brewin.) The Bible a lamp There are many kinds of lamps, all of them having different uses and yet all of them intended to give light, but in very different places. Let us look at a few of them.1. There are beacon lamps. Out upon the coast, here and there, all along there are these lamps. They are lighted as soon as it grows dark. As the ship comes up the channel, these lights, all of them different, show the captain of the ship where he is, and he knows by their help how to steer the ship so as to get to port in safety. God’ s Word does all this. It shows men the true way, and keeps them from wreck and death. I have heard of men putting strange lights on the rocks, so as to mislead the sailors, and then the doomed ship has coma ashore and been lost. Now there are spiritual wreckers, who want to have you and What you have got. These wreckers have false lights, the word, not of God, but of man. Shall I show you two or three of these false lights? When a boy or girl does not wish to go away from school or chapel these wretches will sneer, “ I would not be tied to my mother’ s apron string!” But what says the beacon? See it how it flashes. “ Forsake not the law of thy mother.” Another of these false lights is, “ It’ s only once.” “ Just this once, I won’ t ask you any more.” Ah! you are in peril if you listen to this. Look to the beacon. “ My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not!” There is yet another of these false lights I will show you. When you are hearing the preacher, and are beginning to think you had better be a Christian while young, the wreckers will show their false light: “ Plenty of time yet.” But what says the beacon? “ I love them that love Me, and they that seek Me early shall find Me.” 2. Did you ever hear of what are called hurricane lamps? There is a kind of lamp so made that you might carry it in the wildest of storms, and the strongest wind could not blow it out. Now, the Word of God is a hurricane lamp--it will not blow out. Oh! how Satan has tried in times of persecution; but you know when the Word of God gets into a man’ s heart there it sticks. You may, some of you, before you die, be persecuted for your religion. You may have to smart for being lovers of God, but don’ t be afraid. The Bible was made, like the hurricane lamp, to stand the storm. Not so with the schemes and plans of evil, they shall all be put out. 3. The Bible is an invalid’ s lamp. When people are ill, and have to lay awake all the night in pain, they don’ t want to be left in the dark; and yet, they, don’ t want any glaring light. They want a cheerful, yet soft light, and there are parts of the Bible just suited, such as “ The Lord is my Shepherd.” “ Let not your hearts be troubled.” “ Came out of great tribulation.” “ I will give to him that is athirst.” “ Neither shall there be any more pain.” 4. The Bible is a signal lamp. You have noticed the signals at night, when you have been in the train. There they are, white, green, red. Do you know what white means? “ Come on!” Yes, that is it; and the Bible says to those who are doing right, “ Come on, you are on the right track; come on. All is well. Go ahead!” But what does the green light say? “ Caution! Slowly! Beware!” Yes; when the driver sees that he knows that it will be wise for him to slacken speed, and look about him. And so says the Word of God, when it sees that there is need for caution. When a man is wanting to be rich, and there is some danger that he may be tempted to make money at the risk of his soul, then the lamp signals: “ Godliness with contentment is great gain.” “ They that will be rich fall into temptation.” But can you tell me what the red light means? “ Stop!” “ Danger!” “ Shut off the steam!” Yes, all of these. Oh! how the Bible calls out to men. If people would but mind the red light of Scripture we should have a great deal less of sin and sorrow. (T. Champness.) The wonderful lamp I. What sort of a lamp is the Bible?1. It sheds wonderful light. (1) The length of time during which it has been shining. When Adam sinned, the Saviour who was afterwards to come was like kindling one little thread in the wick of this lamp. And then, as other parts of the Bible were written, the lamp burned brighter and brighter, till Jesus came and the New Testament was finished. And now for near two thousand years this lamp has been fully lighted and burning all the time. (2) The distance to which it shines. All the way from heaven to earth. (3) The power with which it shines, No tempest that ever beat, no wind that ever blew, no atmosphere, however foul, can put it out. 2. It yields wonderful comfort. (1) Under the trials of life. (2) In the prospect of death. 3. It affords wonderful safety. This world is like a great coal-mine, and all its inhabitants are like miners. The sins that abound here are like this dangerous gas, and, when they come in contact with our evil passions, violent explosions are often produced, and great damage is done. We need a safety-lamp to show us where the dangers lie, and help us to escape from them. And just such a lamp we have. The Bible is a safety-lamp which God has invented for this very purpose. It will always warn us when danger is nigh, and show us how we may escape it. II. What should those who have this lamp do with it?1. Use it themselves. 2. Send it to others. (R. Newton, D. D.) Lantern lessons I. This lamp and light guides us. It shows us our lost state, how far we have wandered from God, how sad our condition is, and that we shall surely perish unless we find the way of life. It shows us Jesus. II. This lamp and light guides us with safety. What pitfalls, what temptations, what snares and covert assaults of the wicked one it keeps God’ s people from! III. This lamp and light guides us with comfort. (J. B. Johnstone.) The lighted lamp:-- I. For the dark. The Gospel was first brought to our land about the year 600 by a missionary named Paulinus. Eadwine was then king. His wise men gathered to consider the new faith. To many of them its charm lay in the light it throws on the darkness covering men’ s lives--the darkness of the future as of the past, To be without light is among the greatest of calamities; to get light after darkness the sweetest of blessings. II. For our use.1. This lamp is for the feet. Our museums abound with beautiful lamps taken from ancient tombs. Such-like is an unused Bible by the side of a dead soul. A lamp he has, but sees not, neither does he walk in its light. But all the light the Bible gives is meant to guide you. 2. As it is a light for the feet, you must hold it low. It is not for the head merely, to fill you with curious notions: it is for the feet, to guide you in your actions. The motto of the early Church was, “ Hearts on high,” and they might have truly added, “ Light and eyes low.” 3. You must use it always. Never live without its light. III. For a time only. It is a thing of the night, not of the day. (J. Wells.) The Bible the best parlour light In parlours all aflash with gaslight, and gleaming mirrors, and blazing chandelier, and candelabra, there may be Egyptian darkness; while in some plain room, which a frugal hand has spread with hospitality and refinement, this one lamp may cast a glow that makes it a fit place for heavenly coronations. God’ s lamp hung in the parlour would chill no joy, would rend no harmony, would check no innocent laughter. On the contrary, it would bring out brighter colours in the picture; it would expose new gracefulness in the curtain; it would unroll new wreaths from the carpet; it would strike new music from the harp; it would throw new polish into the manners; it would kindle with light borrowed from the very throne of God all the refinements of society. Oh that the Christ who was born in a barn would come to our parlour! We need His hand to sift the parlour music. We need His taste to assort the parlour literature. We need His voice to conduct the parlour conversation. (T. De Witt Talmage.) The Bible the best street lamp When night comes down on the city, crime goes forth to its worst achievements. Not only to show honest citizens where to walk, but to hinder the burglar, and assassin, and highwayman, and pickpocket, we must have artificial lights all over the city. I remember what consternation there was in Philadelphia when one night the gasworks were out of order and the whole city sat in darkness. Between eleven o’ clock at night and three o’ clock in the morning, in the dark and unlighted places of the town, crime has its holiday. If the lamplighter ceased his work for the week the town would rot. But there is a darkness beyond all power of gaslight. What is the use of police-station, and almshouse, and watchman’ s club, if there be no moral and religious influence to sanction the law, and to purify the executive, and to hang over legal enactment the fear of God and an enlightened public opinion. The first want of such a city as that is the street lamp of the Bible. (T. De Witt Talmage.) The Bible the best store lamp What is the reason so many who started in merchandise, with good principles, and fair prospects, and honourable intentions, have become gamblers, and defrauders, and knaves, and desperadoes, and liars, and thieves? They did not have the right kind of a store lamp. Why is it, in our day, merchandise is smitten with uncertainty, and three-fourths of the businesses of our great cities is only one huge species of gambling? And why are ten thousand of our business men ridden with a nightmare enough to crush Hercules and Prometheus? It is the want of a right kind of store lamp. Oh, what thrones have fallen, what monuments have crumbled, what fleets have sunk, what statues have been defaced, what barbarisms have been created, what civilization retarded, what nations damned, all for the want of the right kind of a store lamp! (T. De Witt Talmage.) The Bible the best church lamp Glorious church lamp, this Bible. Luther found it in the cloister at Erfurt, and he lifted it, until the monasteries and cathedrals of Germany, and Italy, and France, and England, and the world saw its illumination. It throws its light on the pulpit, making a bulwark of truth; on the baptismal cup, until its waters glitter like the crystals of heaven. It strikes penitence into the prayers and gladness into the thanksgiving. It changes into a church John Bunyan’ s prison, and Covenanter’ s cave, and Calvin’ s castle, and Huss’ s stake, and Hugh M’ Kail’ s scaffold of martyrdom, Zwinglius carried it into Switzerland, and John Wycliffe into England, add John Knox into Scotland, and Jehudi Ashman into Africa. (T. De Witt Talmage.) Light to get home by In the stress and vicissitudes of our earthly pilgrimage we know it as a lamp for our own difficult way: “ Thy Word a lamp unto my feet.” This recalls Charles Kingsley’ s phrase. On a dark, misty night he was cheerful, for, said he, “ there is light enough to get home.” That is all we really need--light enough to get home--and, if we follow His Word, that at least we shall not miss. We need not too wistfully and anxiously anticipate long futures, but live and walk from day to day in the light vouchsafed. (W. R. Nicoll.) Psalms 119:106I have sworn, and I will perform it, that I will keep Thy righteous judgments.The psalmist’ s solemn resolution I. The object of the psalmist’ s purpose was to keep the righteous judgments of God. This implies--1. Labouring to get a true knowledge thereof; to understand aright what God has been pleased in His wisdom and goodness to reveal to us. 2. Receiving the truths thereof in the love of them, and submitting to all that God has declared, as being worthy to be received by us 3. Treasuring them up in our minds, and there labouring to preserve them, as we would something valuable which we were afraid of losing. 4. Living under the influence of them; not being carried down by the torrent of the times; not making custom the rule and model of our conduct. II. The nature of the psalmist’ s purpose: that is, in what spirit or temper of mind such a purpose may be supposed to have been formed.1. The psalmist meant to express his serious purpose. 2. It was not a hasty but a deliberate purpose. 3. The determination before us is not the language of self-confidence, but a proper humble purpose and resolution. 4. This resolution has nothing in it of the spirit of procrastination and putting off: there is no mention made of any future, time when he would devote himself to this work. (S. Knight, M. A.) The power of virtuous resolutions Solemn resolutions and vows have always been considered as powerful means of enabling men to abstain from vice and to practise virtue. Philosophers, as well as divines, have acknowledged their influence, and recommended it to their disciples, to form them with care. False religions, as well as the true religion, enjoin them, in order to determine their votaries to steadiness in those practices which they inculcate upon them. What then is the nature of that influence and power which may justly be ascribed to virtuous resolutions? I. A resolution of virtue lays us under an obligation to be virtuous. It binds the soul with a bond (Numbers 30:2). To depart from evil and do good is the proper business of man. To resolve upon it is our highest wisdom; it is necessary to our present peace and to our future happiness. In proportion to its importance is the baseness and the ignominy of inconstancy in pursuing this course after we have resolved upon it. II. A virtuous resolution impels us to virtue by rendering it an object and aim to us. This sets it in our eye as what must be practised, as what must not be on any account neglected, as the centre in which all our thoughts, and views, and exertions must ultimately terminate: this gives the whole soul a prevailing and habitual bias to it, and predisposes us to resist every temptation to vice, and to embrace every opportunity for virtue. III. A virtuous resolution contributes to our practising virtue by rendering the practice of it agreeable to us. This is the natural consequence of that habitual bias which resolution impresses on the soul. When a temptation occurs, it excites the vicious passion to which it is addressed; this passion produces an aversion to the virtue which opposes it; but the general determination to all virtue, which resolution has impressed, combats this aversion, reconciles us to the restraint of inclination, renders it an easy yoke, to which we submit with cheerfulness, and which we persist in bearing with alacrity and joy. IV. A virtuous resolution has great influence on our improvement by putting us on the diligent use of all the means necessary for fulfilling the resolution. The means of holiness are clearly revealed: careful study of the Divine law, fervent prayer for the Divine assistance, circumspect vigilance against evil, unwearied diligence in every good action which opportunity permits; these are the direct and immediate instruments of virtuous improvement. V. Virtuous resolution instigates us to virtue by suggesting the motives to it, keeping them in our view, and fixing our attention on them. Duty, honour, utility; enjoyment in life, and comfort in the hour of death; present peace and eternal happiness; conscience, gratitude, hope, and fear; all conspire in urging us to holiness. Before their combined force all the most specious pleas of vice must vanish. Lessons:1. Since virtuous resolutions are such powerful instruments of virtuous practice and improvement, we ought to form them with the greatest sincerity, firmness, and care. 2. Having sincerely resolved to practise universal holiness, let us diligently and faithfully fulfil the resolution. 3. We may learn to judge whether or not our virtuous resolutions be properly formed end properly maintained. If they fortify your sense of obligation; if they keep you habitually attached to holiness as the one thing needful; if they strenuously resist the corrupt propensities of the soul; if they prompt you to use the means of improvement with uniform diligence; if they render you forward to recollect and to dwell upon the motives to virtue; they have not been formed in vain. (A. Gerard, D. D.) Psalms 119:107I am afflicted very much: quicken me, O Lord, according unto Thy Word.A common condition and an indispensable blessing I. A condition that is common to man. How varied the afflictions of men, personal and social, physical and mental--disease, poverty, bereavement, oppression, etc. Our human afflictions may be divided into two classes.1. The penal. All the sufferings of wicked men come on them as righteous punishment. 2. Disciplinary. To the genuine disciples of Christ afflictions are the chastisements of the Father. II. A blessing that is indispensable to man. The quickening of the spiritual nature, the soul.1. In faith. Faith in God. 2. In love. Supreme love to the supremely good. 3. In hope. Hope for a complete transformation into the image of his God. (Homilist.) Psalms 119:108 Accept, I beseech Thee, the freewill offerings of my mouth, O Lord, and teach me Thy judgments.An aspiration of piety This short prayer cries out for two things. I. For Divine acceptance of true worship. “ Accept, I beseech Thee,” etc.1. Worship is an offering. It is the soul offering its highest devotions. 2. Worship is an offering proclaimed “ of my mouth.” The soul rings out aloud in speech and song its devotion. 3. Worship is an offering of “ freewill.” No constraint; it goes out as the aroma from the rose, as the beam from the sun. II. For Divine instruction. “ Teach me Thy judgments,” or laws.1. Knowledge of the laws of God is the most important of all knowledge. 2. This most important knowledge can only be imparted by God. (Homilist.) God’ s acceptance of our sufferings It is a great grace that the Lord should accept anything from us, if we consider these three things. First, who the Lord is. Next, what we are. Thirdly, what it is we have to give unto Him. As for the Lord, He is all-sufficient, and stands in need of nothing we can give Him. As for us, we are poor creatures living by His liberality; yea, begging from all the rest of His creatures; from the sun and moon; from the air, the water, and the earth; from fowls and fishes; yea, from the worms; some give us light; some meat, some cloth; and are such beggars as we meet to give to a King? And thirdly, if we well consider, what is it that we give? Have we anything to give but that which we have received from Him? (Bp. Cowper.) Sincere offerings There is nothing so small but if it come from a good heart God will accept it: the widow’ s mite; a cupful of cold water; yea, and the praise of our lips, although it have no other external oblation joined with it; but, where men may do more and will not, it is an argument their heart is not sincerely affected toward Him, and their praises are not welcome to Him. (Bp. Cowper.) Psalms 119:109-112 My soul is continually in my hand. Religion Religion is here presented in three aspects. I. As a deeply felt need in the immediate prospect of death. “ My soul is continually in my hand.” That is, my life is in constant danger: death confronts me. II. As a spirit of persevering faithfulness through all trials.1. It is a persevering spirit. “ Yet I do not forget Thy law.” 2. It holds on through all trials. “ The wicked have laid a snare for me, still I erred not.” 3. It holds on through all trials to the end, “ Even unto the end.” III. As a precious inheritance and a permanent joy.1. Genuine religion is an inheritance. “ A heritage for ever.” It is the only intrinsic, inalienable inheritance. 2. Genuine religion is a permanent joy. “ For they are the rejoicing of my heart.” True goodness never fails to flood the soul with joy. It is indeed a well of water. (Homilist.) Man’ s bodily life Let “ soul” here stand for man’ s bodily life, and then we have two thoughts suggested. I. It is something outside of himself. The human frame, with its complicated parts and various organs is no more the man than the house is the resident, the costume the wearer, the harp the lyrist. We carry it in our “ hand.” II. It is sometimes that he must surrender. This implies--1. A sense of temporariness. 2. A sense of obligation. We should always be ready to present our bodies, as well as our souls and spirits, a sacrifice unto God. (Homilist.) Psalms 119:110 The wicked have laid a snare for me: yet I erred not from Thy precepts.The snares laid for a good man I. Here is a particular proof of the world’ s hatred to the godly--they have laid snares for me.1. The instigation to this injurious practice. Unquestionably it originates in the enmity of the heart against God. For it is this, in the persons and character of the pious, which the impious dislike. They are also instigated by Satan, the common enemy of the people of God. Besides these excitements, there are others of a somewhat subordinate character. Not unfrequently the wicked are actuated with envy, when they see the righteous exalted to stations of honour and influence; this is illustrated by the case of Haman. It sometimes happens, too, that the righteous have offended the profligate in reproving them for their sins, and this has roused their enmity, as was the case with Herodias. 2. The various forms in which this practice appears. Sometimes it is by specious temptations to sin. Thus, the Scribes and Sadducees endeavoured to entangle Christ in His talk. There have been instances, too, where wicked rulers have laid a snare for the righteous (Daniel 6:7-8). The wicked have aimed at corrupting the principles of the pious by offering to bribe them with the honours and riches of the world. They have thus resembled their father the devil, who took our Saviour up into the mountain, etc. 3. The agents in these temptations--they are called, “ the wicked.” And are not these acts flagrantly wicked? For they are contrary to the law of our creation. They are chargeable with double guilt--not that of their own sin only, but that of those who by the snares they have laid for their feet have been entangled and brought into bondage. 4. The effects of their ensnaring machinations. In many cases, alas, they are successful, for they have caught the righteous in their net, and tormented them by their persecutions even unto death. But their moral success has to be far more deplored. Many a youth, ere his understanding has been established in the first principles of truth, has been led away by their errors, the “ cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive.” But, happily, there are many instances in which their artifices are altogether unsuccessful. “ Yet,” said David, “ I erred not from Thy precepts.” II. The means of his preservation. Instead of being seduced by the smiling enticement of some, or terrified by the frowns and oppressions of others, he had not departed from the path of duty laid down for him in that Word which was the rule of his life.1. A pious man cannot but be conscious of his determination to adhere to the path of duty, and of the degree of that adherence. 2. A subject of genuine godliness may sometimes hold up his own example to imitation (Philippians 3:12-14; Philippians 3:17). 3. A possessor of piety may and ought to acknowledge his obligations to preserving grace. Can you say, “ I know whom I have believed” ? Then how much you are indebted to your Lord. Raise your memorial pillar on this spot and write upon it, “ Hitherto the Lord hath helped me.” 4. One principal means of this preservation was the Word of God. (Evangelical Preacher.) Psalms 119:111-112 Thy testimonies have I taken as an heritage for ever: for they are the rejoicing of my heart.--The Christian’ s privilege, joy, and life I. The Christian’ s privilege. “ Thy testimonies.” The blessings here offered are--forgiveness of sin; reconciliation with God, and communion with Him; peace of conscience; the guidance of God’ s Holy Spirit through life. II. The Christian’ s joy is the evidence of his privilege: he lays claim to the spiritual blessings of which the Gospel testifies, because they are the very joy of his heart. III. The Christian’ s life (verse 112). When we speak of “ claiming God’ s testimonies’ as our “ heritage,” it is evident that we look upon the Bible as a book of promises: when, as in the present case, we speak of “ fulfilling God’ s statutes,” then we regard the same book as a book of rules for the conduct of life. Now the servant of God regards it in both these points of view.1. His diligence and care. 2. His perseverance. “ Alway, even unto the end.” (J. S. Pratt.) The Bible the book for all time I. Shown by the past growth. In every century this Book has been assailed by critics of various kinds. The various forms of criticism have often helped men and have helped the Church to a better understanding of their own book. But the critics have gone while the books are here. May we not say of the Bible what was said about the Church to the King of France, when Henry IV. threatened to persecute the French Protestants? “ Sire, it is the part of the Church, on whose behalf I speak, to endure blows and not to give them; but let me remind your majesty that the Church is an anvil that has worn out a great many hammers.” May we not say of the Bible that it is an anvil that has worn out a great many hammers? and I venture to think it will wear out a great many more. II. Shows by the future growth. There is nothing in the Bible provincial in tone, merely local in character, and restrictive in its application. There is a Divine system in the Book, just as there is in nature. If you wander through the woods when the wild flowers are out, it seems as if they were growing at random, in no order; yet botanists will tell you that there is among them a Divine order in the class and genera of these flowers that seem so wild. And when you look up to the sky on some starlight night it seems as if there were but points of light scattered at random over the face of the sky, and yet we know that there is such Divine order in the starry firmament that you can predict the times of planets and follow the course of nature with the utmost accuracy. And so there is in this Book a Divine system, but very different from our mechanical system, which men very soon outgrow. We know very well that, though men change and times alter, it will always be true that the pure in heart shall see God: it will always be true that self-sacrifice is a nobler thing than self-indulgence, whether a man lives under a republic or under a limited monarchy; it will always be true that integrity and uprightness are nobler than selfish meanness and trickery. The very qualities upon which this Book lays stress are fundamental to the noblest human nature, and cannot be affected by any change of time which the centuries may bring. III. Shown by the unalterable fact. The main fact in this Book is one which time cannot alter; it is the great fact of the life and character of Him who is the brightness of the Father’ s glory, and the express image of His Person. IV. Shown by the unchanging need. The tragic quality of life, the burden of weary hearts, the trials of the way--all these continue. Manhood is ennobled by the old virtues, stained with the old sin and burdened with the old sorrows, and so long as that is true they will want some one on whom to loan the weary, burdened heart--some one who can say to them, “ Son, daughter, be of good cheer; thy sins, which are many, are all forgiven.” (John Brown, D. D.) The believer’ s heritage of joy I. Make a map of this estate.1. A heritage of truth in the testimonies of God.2. God’ s covenant is our heritage.3. The greatest testimony of God in all the world is Jesus Christ; and we are complete in Him, He is all and in all to us. II. Take possession of the estate.1. By a deliberate choice.2. By faith--a personal grip.3. By holy diligence. III. Consider the holding.1. It is a perpetual holding. It is not dependent upon any one life; it is dependent upon three lives, and those three lives are the life of the Father, the life of the Son, and the life of the Holy Ghost; and they are all eternal, and so shall the joy and the wealth of every believer be. We have taken this inheritance for ever. 2. Sometimes we possess certain things which are ours, completely ours, but then they are not ours for ever, because they fade; but our inheritance will never fade or pass away. 3. There is no way of taking this heritage except taking it for ever. That conversion which is not radical and thorough is of no use. IV. Enjoy the possession. First, David had taken God’ s testimonies to be his possession, for they had made him glad; and, secondly, that was the reason why he took them to be his possession, because they made him glad. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The gate to the heritage I. An inheritance suggests the past. The heir, as he looks at the bundles of deeds and certificates, as he inspects the various tenements, and walks abroad over the acres of pasture and forest, or examines the vast mining or manufacturing establishments, sees in these the results of a long and laborious past. In like manner the testimonies of God point us back of themselves. A mountain, with its crags, and peaks, and forests, may be a picturesque object to the eye, or a good standpoint for an outlook; but it will have a far deeper interest for us if we know with what throes the strata piled themselves up, what powers of the air cut the peaks into those fantastic shapes, if we can read the stories of earthquake, and fire, and deluge, and iceberg written upon those rocks. So, it is not enough that we receive and enjoy the testimonies of God. We do not truly inherit them if we fail to study them. Their value to us lies largely in their history. If we sit down with the apostle’ s words, “ all things are yours,” and begin to examine our heritage, we shall be led irresistibly back to the past. For instance, what a heritage of years we shall find wrapped up in that sentence; years that have yielded their rich result to the present. How slowly God has suffered our heritage of experience, and tradition, and example to accumulate: how prodigal He has been of time. And, in the growth of these long, weary centuries, what a rich variety of testimonies God has accumulated. How many laws of conduct, for instance, have taken shape in the various situations in which the men of the Bible history have been placed; how many shining examples of distinct virtues--patience in Job, faith in Abraham, etc. And, once more, it is always an affecting thought to an affectionate son, that his father’ s estate was accumulated with toil, and self-denial, and suffering. It comes almost with the power of a reproach to his sensitive heart, that he is to inherit in comfort and tranquillity that which recalls so much struggle, and pain, and anxious thought. And this fact attaches in a peculiar sense to God’ s heritage of testimony. Beyond any other book, the Bible has evolved itself out of sorrow. That is the reason why it responds to the instincts of the race as no other book does or can. The heritage of God’ s testimony in the Word is a veritable battle-ground, its greenest and most fruitful fields moistened with blood, and covering the relics of the slain. II. But let us look now at this heritage as it stands related to the future. From the associations and memories of the past, the heir turns to study what capacity for development there is in the estate; to examine the investments and to see how they promise. He may be disappointed; he may find that a good part of the estate has become unproductive, and can never be made to yield what it did in his father’ s time, or he may find that it contains sources of wealth of which his father never dreamed. The psalmist, in thus inspecting the heritage of God’ s testimonies, is evidently well satisfied with the prospect, though he takes the longest possible outlook: “ Thy testimonies have I taken as an heritage for ever.” And we may safely share his satisfaction. The man who chooses the Word of God as his moral inheritance may do so in full confidence that it will amply meet the demands of his whole future, and of the whole future of his race. No one can read the Bible long without seeing that it is prophetic; not only in the sense of occasionally predicting the future, but in that its facts imply other facts H follow; present sockets, into which future facts are to fit. Its utterances are folded in upon themselves like a flower. You see certain petals already exposed to the light; but you see within the circle of these something more which is to unfold in its season. This heritage of the Word grows richer with time. The preacher who thinks he has exhausted a text will find another sermon in it when he goes to it again. The man who goes through his Bible for the fiftieth time finds it richest in fresh treasures. (M. R. Vincent, D. D.) Hereditary religion I. The claim asserted by David--God’ s testimonies he asserts to be his own heritage. Speaking as a Jew, he declares with feelings of thanksgiving and triumph that he from his birth has had a rightful possession of God’ s revelations. Whilst other nations have been left in darkness, some never visited with the light of truth at all, others at best having to become proselytes, they, the Israelites, knew God from their mother’ s womb. Now, in examining into the cause of David’ s thankfulness, we are brought across the broad subject of ancestral religion. How far and on what grounds is it a matter of gratitude to God that we in this kingdom have not had to hear, late in life for the first time, the proclamation of the Name of the Lord, but have been born and bred in the midst and under the influence of Christian institutions? If we had not received it as a heritage we might never have enjoyed it at all. Which of us is certain that if he had met Christ face to face in the valleys of Judah we should not have despised Him? II. David claims God’ s testimonies as his inheritance, not for the brief period of this mortal life, but for ever; as though implying that they would hereafter form the source of his joy and triumph. The Divine Word and testimonies are to remain for an inheritance of delight to the saints. What is this? Why, it is that the knowledge and contemplation of God and His attributes shall form the eternal occupation and pleasure of the blessed in heaven. For ever! aye, when our present tastes and feelings shall have long passed away, and we stand upon the shores of another land whose features we cannot surmise, and hear other sounds whose echo imagination cannot catch; when He that sitteth on the throne shall have made all things new, still, if among the saved, shall we throw ourselves upon the old revelations of God, and cleave to them as the noblest of the things prepared for those that love Him, and so find the words of David, words of earth, still true when earth is no more: “ Thy testimonies have I claimed as mine heritage for ever.” (Bp. Woodford.) The Divine Word’ - I. As an inheritance.1. It is the most enjoyable.2. It is the most extensive.3. It is the most enduring. II. As an inheritance only personally attained. Earthly inheritances often come to men irrespective of effort or choice. But he who would enjoy this inheritance must choose it and win it by his own struggles under God. (Homilist.) Psalms 119:112I have inclined mine heart to perform Thy statutes alway, even unto the end.The means of giving the heart a right inclination The necessity of labouring for ourselves, and our entire dependence on the grace of God, are not incompatible; and so we find that the psalmist, while in one place, speaking by the Spirit, he makes this prayer to God, “ Incline my heart unto Thy testimonies,” makes this declaration in another place, speaking by the same Spirit, “ I have inclined,” etc. I. Using those means by which the grace of God is communicated to us. If succour is at hand to aid the infirmities of our nature, and we seek it not, then our helplessness is our own fault. II. Presenting to it such considerations as are likely to work effectually upon it. “ Communing with our own heart,” as the psalmist speaks; reasoning with it, and pressing on its attention such truths as are fitted to influence it. 1. The nature of the Divine commands. They are holy, just, and good. 2. The claims which God has upon our obedience. III. The forming of Godly resolutions. The recollection of any specific engagement which we have made with an earthly friend will, if our hearts are at all right with him, prompt us with an earnest desire to fulfil the service to which we have pledged ourselves; and the like effect, we may assuredly expect, will result from the remembrance of our vows to God, if they have been seriously and sincerely made. IV. Holding intercourse with those who are thus disposed. The effects of fellowship on the human mind are great indeed, nor is it possible to keep ourselves out of the reach of its influence. We are so formed, that sympathy is the natural result of intercourse, and we insensibly acquire a similarity of tastes and habits with those with whom we often associate (Proverbs 27:17). If any man, therefore, wishes to have his heart inclined to God’ s statutes, he will avoid, as much as may be, communication with those who disregard them. He will choose as his daily companions, his familiar associates, his bosom friends, those who will be likely to turn his thoughts to God, and by their example, their conversation, and by their imperceptible influence on the mind, may incline his heart to keep His statutes. (G. Bellett.) Psalms 119:113I hate vain thoughts: but Thy law do I love. The hated and the loved I. The hated. “ I hate vain thoughts.” The number of these is legion, the variety all but endless. Vain thoughts may include worthless thoughts on true subjects as well as on false. Vain thoughts are--1. Always worthless. They are empty, vapid, unsatisfactory, and unenduring. 2. Always criminal. Man is endowed with the thinking faculty in order to think accurately, righteously, and devoutly. 3. Always pernicious. Vain thoughts are the weeds, the fungi, the parasites, the mildew of the soul. II. The loved. “ Thy law do I love.” Why should the Divine law be loved?1. It is a revelation of the morally beautiful. It is the transcript of the mind, that which is the “ beauty of holiness.” 2. It is a guide to the truly happy. It is a map to guide to the heavenly inheritance, a compass directing to the celestial shore. (Homilist.) A lust hate and a just love I. A just hate. “ Vain thoughts” are of two classes.1. Thoughts on vain subjects. 2. Vain thoughts on true subjects. All such thoughts are evil in themselves and powerful for evil. Thought is the mightiest power in the world. Bad thoughts should be hated as devils; good ones cherished as angels. II. A just love. The law should be loved--1. Because it is the expression of the highest moral beauty. It is the transcript of the Divine heart. 2. Because it is a means to the participation in the highest moral beauty. By obedience to the Divine law men come to share in the beauty of God, the beauty of holiness. Love and hate are really one in principle. We must always hate the opposite of what we love. (Homilist.) On wandering thoughts in religious duties I. Their nature. Wandering thoughts are the disorderly motions of the soul in the time of God’ s worship, by which the mind is diverted or disturbed in the performance of the duty.1. The time: when engaged in the duties of religion.2. What draws our thoughts aside. (1) Sometimes things in themselves evil and sinful.(2) Sometimes things good in themselves, but evil because they are unseasonable. II. Their causes or occasions.1. The depravity of our nature.2. Allowance of sin.3. Being over-careful and troubled about many things.4. Slight thoughts of God and His service. III. Their bad effects.1. They render our duties vain and burdensome.2. They hinder communion with God.3. They induce us to think hardly of ourselves.4. They bring guilt upon the soul, and lead to a curse instead of a blessing. IV. Directions for their prevention or cure.1. Wash your hearts from wickedness.2. Endeavour to maintain an habitual spirituality of mind.3. Attend to religious duties with earnest desires of the presence of God.4. Depend not upon your own strength.5. Use means to bring your heart into a suitable temper.6. Set the Lord always before you. (S. Lavington.) The government o/ the thoughts I. What are vain thoughts? Not only all such as are in themselves useless and frivolous, but all such as, though not without their importance at their proper times, are allowed to encroach upon the time and attention due to others of equal or greater importance--all such as, by their connection with improper and hurtful inclinations, tend, when encouraged, to fix and strengthen them--all such as indicate the existence of unkind and unchristian feelings--all such as indispose us to the labours and duties of our stations--and lastly, all such as tend to make us undervalue the principles of a pure morality, or distrust the foundation of religious faith and obedience. II. How may they be avoided or controlled?1. The mind must have its attention directed, and its interest awakened to instructive and important subjects, 2. We must acquire a habit of confining our attention to the subjects and employments which we think deserving of our choice. 3. We should make a diligent use of all our opportunities for storing our minds with sound and practical knowledge. 4. We must avoid the sources of all impure or immoral fancies, whether we have reason to apprehend their existence in our usual books or our usual companions. 5. We should acquaint ourselves with the writings, and seek the society of those whom we may consider either as masters, or, at least, as anxious and successful learners, of the same art. 6. “ The words of the pure,” and “ the lips of knowledge,” if it be that knowledge which “ maketh wise unto salvation,” will second with powerful persuasion another direction that may be given for guarding against the influence of “ vain thoughts.” It is this--to rest on firm and deep foundations, and to build up for ourselves, with good and durable materials, a real conviction of religious truths. 7. A well-grounded and hearty belief in Christian truths, beside the awful consideration which it opposes to the encouragement of “ vain thoughts,” disposes the mind to an employment, the recommendation of which is another direction of the right government of the thoughts. That employment is, frequent meditation on the duties and interests which owe a principal part of their sanctions and importance to the doctrines and principles of religion. 8. Frequent, humble, and earnest prayer for deliverance from the evils which we wish to avoid, and assistance to persevere in the pursuit of those things which are “ pure, lovely, and of good report” --prayer for that spirit of wisdom and godly fear, which will keep both our hate and our love directed to their proper objects. (A. R. Beard.) On vain thoughts I. The peculiar kind of thoughts alluded to in the text.1. All thoughts, the indulgence of which is positively sinful. (1) Some have reference to God. Fretful, discontented, and distrustful thoughts. (2) Others refer to our fellow-creatures. Suspicious, slanderous, and calumnious thoughts. (3) Others have reference to ourselves. Proud, ambitious, impure and lascivious thoughts. 2. All thoughts, the cultivation of which is likely to lead to no practical benefit. 3. All thoughts inappropriate to the seasons on which they are cherished. II. The effort which should be made for suppressing vain thoughts.1. Such thoughts are the natural and spontaneous choice of the human mind. 2. The powerful influence of the thoughts in regulating the dispositions and conduct. 3. Our responsibility to God for the right exercise of thought. III. Some means which may tend to counteract vain thoughts.1. Seek the attainment of a renewed and sanctified heart. 2. Cultivate an habitual remembrance of the divine inspection of the thoughts. 3. Let the mind be occupied as fully as possible with thoughts of an appropriate and useful character. 4. Earnestly implore the assistance of the Holy Spirit to guide and control the thoughts. (Essex Remembrancer.) Psalms 119:114-117 Thou art my hiding-place and my shield: I hope in Thy Word.The Guardian and Support of souls I. The guardianship of god enjoyed. “ Hiding-place” is a place of protection, a place where the enemy cannot discover you. “ Shield” is an instrument of protection, that which prevents the arrow or the sword from touching the life. The two expressions mean safe guardianship. What a Guardian is God!1. His guardianship does not circumscribe liberty. Not like the “ hiding-place,” it allows ample room for the development of all the powers, and satisfaction for all the desires. 2. His guardianship is sufficient for all purposes. It protects from all evils, material and spiritual, all enemies, human and satanic. With the enjoyment of this guardianship there is “ hope in Thy Word.” II. Deliverance from the wicked desired. “ Depart from Me, ye evil-doers.”1. The expulsion of evil companions is at once the duty and the interest of all men. “ The companion of fools shall be destroyed.” “ Come out from among them.” 2. The expulsion of evil companions is necessary in order to obey God. “ For I will keep the commandments of my God.” III. The support of Heaven implored. “ Uphold me,” etc. The words imply--1. Consciousness of the ruin of a fall. “ That I may live,” implying, If I fall I die. A moral fall is soul death. 2. Consciousness of liability of a fall. “ Hold Thou me up.” I cannot stand without Thee. I totter on the verge of ruin, I am unable to support myself. “ Hold Thou me up, and I shall be safe.” (Homilist.) God our hiding-place and shield I. The relation which God sustains to the Christian.1. “ My hiding-place.” God is thus described as a refuge, as a place of security and retreat from the trials and agitations of the world without; just as a vessel may find a hiding-place in the calm and shelter of the haven, guarded and hidden by the rocks. There may be a pirate-ship upon the sea beyond, and a storm may be hurling its fury upon the waves, but within the shelter of the high rooks all is secure and undisturbed. 2. Again: under the figure of a “ shield,” the Almighty is represented as the Defender of His people. Both the figures convey a like meaning of protection; still their application will admit of, perhaps, a variety of difference. We may take the former case as implying refuge in the hour of sorrow and sadness; One to whom we can look in trust and hope at all times, and find in Him a source of peacefulness amid the din and anxieties of the world in which we live. In the latter case we seem to be brought from obscurity and retirement into the open battlefield of life, where the shafts of temptation are flying around us, where the sounds of struggle meet our ears, where latent feelings are awakened and passions roused. Into the “ hiding-place” of God the soul retires as into her quiet home away from the noise and stir of life; behind the “ shield” of God the soul takes her stand as behind her rampart when the hosts of the enemy are encamped round about her. II. The basis of Christian hope--“ I hope in Thy Word.” There is a twofold and mutual recognition conveyed in this passage. God recognizes man in his helplessness and dependency, and man recognizes God in the mercy, and compassion, and goodness of His character and relationship to His creatures. And thus the basis of Christian hope is to be found in the Divine testimony, conveyed in the writings of Moses and the prophets, of Christ and His apostles. This testimony has also its response in the human heart and life, and so produces its evidence in the actual experience of our common nature. What rule of faith so high--what standard of morals so perfect--what criterion by which we may judge of right and wrong so infallible as the Scriptures? We hesitate not to bring them to the bar of public opinion unbiased by prejudice, for the very freedom of that opinion shall witness in favour of their claims, and give evidence to their truthfulness and authority. They can bear the most powerful tests of human wisdom and judgment, and the more they are examined, the brighter, and broader, and deeper becomes their excellency. (W. D. Horwood.) Psalms 119:115 Depart from me, ye evil-doers; for I will keep the commandments of my God.“ Go!” and they go “ You go your way,” he says in effect, “ and I will go mine; I am for obedience, you are not for that, and you are asking the wrong man to be your companion. Away to your own sort!” I. Here is a dismissal that there is absolutely no help for if we will be faithful to God. So incongruous are evil companionships. Two attempting to walk together who as to destination and route are not agreed! Darkness assaying fellowship with light! How contrary the self-seeker to the child of God! What a great gulf between the worldling and the follower after holiness! Strange that association should be thought of. But there is a policy in it. There is a tempter. Ungodliness is eager for recruits. To company with evil men is to walk into the snare. All worldly currents are against godliness, how soon the heart may be drawn from the living God, how mighty the influence of those with whom we voluntarily associate, how soon divine love may be robbed of its fervour, and tenderness of conscience become less. Evil men are the messengers and tools of Satan, and as a matter of course seek to make others like themselves. With what craft-this is often done. II. Here is a dismissal that when it is meant is always understood, and speedily takes effect. There are many ways of uttering that “ Depart.” There is the formal way, and the timid, apologetic way, and the half-hearted and wavering way. Evil-doers can always tell how much real force there is in that word. And when without any nonsense or faltering they are told to go, they go. Give it forth, not rudely, but with all the truth and strength of your soul. (B. E. Hawkins.) Psalms 119:116 Let me not be ashamed of my hope. The Christian’ s sheet-anchor I. That we may not at last be ashamed of our hope, it must originate in a change of the temper of the heart. The carnal mind must be regenerated. Old things must pass away and all things become new. God must be loved and Christ received by faith. II. That we may not at last be ashamed of our hope, it must render us holy. “ Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Now Christ can, in no other sense, be in the believer, than as His doctrines form our creed, His temper reigns in our hearts, His example guides our steps, and His love engrosses our affections. III. That we may not at last be ashamed of our hope it must bear examination. “ Prove your own selves.” IV. That we may not at last be ashamed of our hope, it must live without an effort. We shall bend all our efforts to be holy and our hope will support itself. V. The hope that maketh not ashamed is always interrupted by sin, while the hypocrite retains his hope unimpaired in the midst of transgression. VI. That we may not be ashamed of our hope, others must have a higher opinion of our piety than ourselves. VII. That we may not, at last, be ashamed of our hope, it must put us upon earnest endeavours to reach the object of our hope. If heaven is the object of our hope, we shall endeavour to bring so much of heaven down to earth as possible.1. The subject should urge us to examine ourselves, and render us willing to be examined. 2. The subject should render us submissive and thoughtful in every scene of life by which God tries our hope and proves our faith. 3. If our hope is such that we expect not to be ashamed of it at the last, let us not be ashamed of it now. 4. In that hope, of which we shall not at last be ashamed, we may now rejoice. “ Which hope we have,” says an apostle, “ as an anchor of the soul,” etc. 5. To so live as to sustain a high hope of heaven is the way to die in peace, with anticipated prospects of future blessedness. 6. To live with this high hope is to speak when we are dead. 7. This subject should show the ungodly how unprepared they are to die. What would be a preparation to die is a preparation to live. (D. A. Clark.) A great good and a great evil I. A great good. Hope always implies--1. A future. 2. A good in the future. 3. An attainable good. II. A great evil. Shame. Some are ashamed of that which cannot be helped, ashamed of the poverty of their ancestry, the supposed uncomeliness of their person, or of the condition in which they have been placed in life. Some are ashamed of that in which they ought to rejoice, ashamed even of the Gospel. Some are ashamed of that of which they have been guilty. This is remorse, and remorse is misery. III. A great evil rising out of a great good. We are ashamed of our hope--1. When the object has proved to be worthless. 2. When the object has proved to be unattainable. (Homilist.) Christian hope In the first clause there is the language of a man in great distress; nevertheless he is not in despair, for when you proceed to the second clause you find the psalmist speaking of his hope; he had not let go his hope. Though visited with so much calamity, and encircled with so much of peril, he still keeps down the rising fear, that after all he may be disappointed, and earnestly beseeches of God not to suffer him to be “ ashamed of his hope.” It is very beautiful and instructive to observe how hope thus triumphs over trouble. We may go further, and declare that hope is nurtured by trouble. The text may be thought to indicate this; for David evidently speaks as if, having been carried through his trouble, he was yet to find his hope in all the beauty of its vigour. Now, there is no better way of interpreting Scripture than that of using one part as a commentary on another. We wish to show you from our text that hope may spring from tribulation; but this which is only hinted at by the psalmist is largely asserted by St. Paul, when he says, “ tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope.” Here we have the stops which are missing in our text, and we may therefore supply them. We need hardly premise that the apostle speaks only of those who bear tribulation as Christians should bear it--who receive it as appointed of God, and desire to be improved by the fatherly chastisement. It is far enough from true, as a general proposition, that tribulation worketh patience; for how often do you observe in people of the world that they grow more fretful and irritable as their sorrows are multiplied; the chief effect of continued affliction being to sour the temper, and strengthen in them a habit of repining and murmuring. But let us take the ease of those in whom a work of grace is going forward, who are striving to submit themselves to the operations of God’ s Spirit; and how true it is of them that “ tribulation worketh patience!” The soul reasons with itself--“ Is not God the best Judge of what is good for me? Shall I be unwilling to suffer, when the Captain of my salvation was ‘ made perfect through suffering?’ So long as I withstand God, does it not prove that I need the chastening rod? Does it not provoke Him to chastise me yet again?” And thus is patience wrought out by tribulation; not by tribulation in itself, by the mere onset of trouble, but by tribulation bringing (as it will bring) the Christian to reflection and to prayer. Let us proceed to the second step in what we may call the apostle’ s commentary on the words of the psalmist, and let us see whether patience will not further work experience. The word “ experience” properly denotes the putting something to the proof, making the sort of trial which is made of metals, by placing them in the fire, in order to the detecting and disentangling the dross. Hence the experience here mentioned by St. Paul must be the ascertaining the precise worth, veracity, and power of the consolations and promises of God. “ Tribulation worketh patience,” in that suffering brings the Christian into an attitude of submission and acquiescence; but when he has been schooled into resignation, and made to wait meekly on the Lord, he is not left without heavenly visitations. Amid the pains of sickness, the infirmities of age, the corrodings of grief, what support is communicated! what strength! what joy! And from experience how natural, how easy the transition to hope. It is next alleged by St. Paul, which the psalmist held fast in the hour of his affliction, that tribulation worketh patience, patience experience, experience hope. He in whom patience has wrought experience is one who, having put to the proof those Scriptural promises which have reference to circumstances such as those in which he has been placed, has found them made good, accomplished in himself, and thereby proved to be of God; but what now can be such a reason for expecting the fulfilment of promises which have respect to future things, as the having experienced the fulfilment of other promises, both made by the same Being, which have respect to present things? Surely he who has tried the chart and found it correct, so far as he had the power of trying it, has the best ground for confidence in that chart with regard to ports which he has never yet entered. With how immediate, then, and direct a succession does hope follow on experience! Experience is a book in which there should be daily entries, and to which there should be daily reference. If we do not register our mercies, or if we never recount them, they are not likely to throw light upon coming events. But what a precious volume is our experience, if we record it with accuracy, and then do not let it lie idly on the shelf! the dust on the covers attesting how little it is used! Answers to prayer, what encouragements to pray: Promises fulfilled, what arguments for expecting their fulfilment! Mercies bestowed, what grounds for confidence that mercies will not be withheld! But if patience lead to experience, shall not experience yield some richer fruity Yes, verily, he who has “ tasted that the Lord is gracious” is the last to doubt that the Lord will be gracious; he to whom promises have been fulfilled should be the last to suspect that promises may fail; and if every mercy received whilst patiently enduring may serve as a pledge, or earnest of future bestowment, oh l how true that as “ tribulation worketh patience, and patience experience,” so doth experience generate hope! And, therefore, though David was in trouble--trouble which almost made him despair of life--he would not let go his hope; he had been in too many troubles beforetime for this; he had been too well disciplined; he had had too great experience of the faithfulness and lovingkindness of God; and if he, in his first prayer, exclaims, like one almost disheartened--“ Uphold me according to Thy Word,” in the next, like one who takes courage from the past, he gives utterance to the bolder words--“ let me not be ashamed of my hope.” Christian “ hope maketh not ashamed.” It paints no vision which shall not be more than realized; it points to no inheritance which shall not be reached. How should it make ashamed, when it altogether rests itself upon Christ, who is not “ ashamed to call us brethren” ? This is the secret of its difference from every other hope; Christ is the source and the centre of our hope--Christ, in whom all the promises of God are yea, and in Him amen; and if Christ can deceive us, if Christ can fail His people in their extremity, if Christ can want either the will or the power to save those who commit themselves to Him, then, but not otherwise, may the believer be ashamed of his hope. (H. Melvill, B. D.) Psalms 119:117 Held Thou me up, and I shall be safe. The Christian’ s security I. The man of god presenting himself before the throne of grace, with a humble acknowledgment of his sense of exposure to difficulty and danger, and his sense of his own helplessness in himself. No man ever went to the Lord and said, “ Hold Thou me up, and I shall be safe,” but the man who felt that he was exposed to danger, and that he was too weak to take care of himself. II. The conduct of a Christian man under all that feeling of exposure and helplessness. He is not overpowered, he is not overwhelmed; but he goes to the Lord, and he says--“ Hold Thou me up, and I shall be safe.” III. The Christian’ s confidence of his security when the Lord sustains him. There is no doubt about it, no uncertainty in the matter, “ I shall be safe.” There is not a trial, or difficulty, or temptation for which a covenant supply has not been provided. (W. H. Krause, M. A.) Prayer for Divine upholding and preservation I. A lively concern for his spiritual preservation. II. A solemn apprehension of his continual moral danger. III. A consciousness of his entire weakness and inability to uphold himself. IV. A firm confidence in the all-sufficiency of Divine grace. V. A prayerful frame of mind, or a spirit of supplication. If I believe that I am too weak to support myself, and if I am desirous of my safety, I shall naturally go to the strong for strength. If I behold a number of enemies for which I am no adequate match, I shall never engage with them alone, but rather inform the Captain of my salvation, who will come to my escape, who will go with me, and “ teach my hands to war, and my fingers to fight,” and make me “ more than a conqueror.” (W. Jay.) My hourly prayer I. Upholding--God’ s holding us up.1. It implies a danger. (1) The way is slippery.(2) We are not sure-footed.(3) There are cunning foes that seek to trip us up.(4) Nor is this all, though it is quite enough; for sometimes the difficulty of keeping our balance is not caused by the way itself, but by the height to which God may elevate us. Anything which leads to self-esteem leads to the utmost jeopardy.2. How does God keep His people upright? (1) By angels.(2) By the ministry of the Word.(3) By chastisement.(4) By giving great aspirations, high ideals, noble desires.(5) By giving His people plenty to do. It is a grand way of keeping us right,--never to let us have an idle ten minutes, nor a spare napkin to wrap a talent in. II. Two blessed things that come out of this holding up.1. We shall be safe. (1) From all real harm.(2) From descending into grievous sin.(3) Enjoying great restfulness of heart. 2. Watchfulness attends such sacred safety, and is at once its fruit and its sign. A holy man--a man made holy by God’ s grace--has great respect to every command of God. (C. H. Spurgeon.) “ Hold Thou me up” There was once a very good clergyman who was extremely fond of this text, and he often repeated it to himself. As he was very clever and wise, he feared lest he should become proud and so offend God. So he obtained a wine-glass without a foot, and round the rim had these words written, “ Hold Thou me up, and I shall be safe.” Then this singular glass was placed on his writing-table, where he could see it continually. Thus it was a kind of picture of himself, to remind him that without God he could do nothing good. The wine-glass, if held in its master’ s hand, would hold what was placed within it, and so become useful. But if ever it tried to stand on its own account, it would fall over, spill its contents, and perhaps be injured. I. A little slip may cause a great fall. An express train in the west of England suddenly stopped all at once because a tiny pin had slipped out of its place. Be careful of little temptations and small sins. All the falls recorded in the Holy Scriptures came from trifling acts. Eve only ate a fruit, but she was expelled from the Garden of Eden. Moses only spoke a few angry words, and yet for them he was shut out of Canaan. A blunder committed in a moment may cause a great deal of mischief, as men learned to their sorrow when the great warship “ Victoria” went down. The brave admiral somehow forgot himself and gave a wrong order, but it caused the loss of a great ship, and also of a great many valuable lives. When we have overcome a sin or temptation, or performed a good action; when we are in company with those who are evil or thoughtless, and when we feel impatience or petulance rising up within us, we should utter this prayer, for we are then most assuredly in peril. II. Then never let us forget that we have a great God to trust in. Mr. Wesley once heard a woman lamenting because she had broken her china crucifix. “ Now,” she sobbed out, “ now I have no one but the great God to trust in.” “ But what a blessing she had the great God to trust in,” said Mr. Wesley. Now, if you will look at your Bible, you will see a little word at the head of this section. Above the 113th verse is the word Samech. That word means a prop or pillar, and teaches us that God is the upholder of His people: He supports and sustains them. “ I found it sweet and comfortable to lean on God,” said Brainerd; and many others have felt the same. (N. Wiseman.) Severed Item God we fall Samson, whom no earthly power could subdue during the twenty years that he was energized by the Spirit of God under his Nazarite vow, yet as soon as his locks were shorn was weak as another man. David, who, while he walked with God was the man after God’ s own heart, yet at length, when out of communion, could be guilty of the most appalling sins. We have no strength of our own to stand against temptation. The longest life, the most devoted service, is no security against a fall. I remember, when a young man, seeing, at a lecture on magnetism, a piece of soft iron brought on the platform and shown to be unable to hold up a needle. A coil of copper wire was then put round it, and connected with an unseen battery. Now it held, first nails, next chisels and other tools, till all the weights of the institution were brought, and it sustained them every one by the magnetic power. At a signal the wire was cut, and they all fell to the ground. It could no longer hold up the smallest thing. Its magnetic power was not in itself, but in its connection with the unseen battery. (Signal.) I will have respect unto Thy statutes continually.--Having respect to God’ s commands A holy man--a man made holy by God’ s grace--has great respect to every command of God. Before he moves he looks round him to see whether he shall transgress by his proposed movement. You have heard of the child whose mother said, “ John, you have broken one of the commandments,” and he answered, “ Mother, those commandments are awfully easy to break.” With such natures as ours sin is a very easy thing. You break the law before you know it; and unless a man has respect unto all the commandments he will soon be trespassing and getting into mischief. We ought in our daily life to walk as one that has to tread among eggs or delicate china. Heedless and Too-bold soon rush into sin; but the genuine believer feareth always. “ You are very jealous of how you act,” said one to a saint of God. “ Yes,” he replied, “ I serve a jealous God.” “ You are too precise,” said another. “ That is a crime,” said he, “ that God will never charge any of His children with.” A conscience tender as the apple of an eye is what we want. To be alarmed even at the distant approach of sin is the safeguard of a child of God. Those who dally with vice will rue such dalliance when it cannot be undone. If somebody told me that there was a cobra at the far end of my room, I should look round me for the door: I think such venomous creatures are near enough if they remain in their native jungles; I do not desire their interesting society. So should it be with sin. We should flee from it at once, avoiding its first appearance, hating it in thought and word before it hatches into act, abhorring even the garment spotted by the flesh. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Psalms 119:120 My flesh trembleth for fear of Thee; and I am afraid of Thy judgments.The trembling flesh I. The psalmist, in this section, contemplates God’ s wrath against sinners (verses 118, 119). Then apparently his thought goes on to his own case, and what is likely to be his own sentence. He is disturbed by the contemplation of that sharp judgment which he must undergo in the day when his soul shall go forth from the body. II. The expression which he uses is a very remarkable one. “ My flesh trembleth for fear of Thee.” When a man’ s body reveals his fright it has quite mastered him. III. Is not this a servile fear, unbecoming the Christian who has given himself up to be our Lord’ s disciple?1. There are, however, among professing Christians those who, by weakly continuing in some evil habit, have reduced themselves to the condition of servility. 2. There are professing Christians who have no very especial besetting sin of the mortal type, who yet go on without fervour and without making any progress in the spiritual life. They know that they have many faults, small faults in the world’ s eyes, yet which, when tolerated, make the life thoroughly un-Christlike. They acquiesce in these. It does not make much difference what the defect of character may be, the grievous thing about it is that there is no faithful persistent effort to conquer it. Wherever there is found a soul like that it may well be permeated with servile fear as it contemplates the judgment, for that sort of offenders will not find mercy in the day of their sentence. 3. There are many more who ought to feel a servile fear of the wrath of God when they contemplate their lives seriously because they are not doing all that they can to put away their sins. IV. Those who are most in earnest in seeking to prepare themselves for the judgment of the last day are the ones who tremble most at the thought of that judgment. And with very earnest souls it ceases to be a servile fear because they trust themselves more and more unreservedly to the Divine mercy. The secret of perfect trust is perfect self-distrust. And there is nothing which helps more to a realization of one’ s unworthiness than the contemplation of the just judgment of God as He reveals it in Holy Writ. (Arthur Ritchie.) Psalms 119:121-123I have done judgment and justice.What every man should do, and what every man requires I. What every man should do. “ I have done judgment and justice.” The whole moral code of the universe may be reduced to two words--Be just.1. Be just to self. Properly train your own faculties, discipline your own affections, regulate your own activities. 2. Be just to other creatures. Whether they be small or large, irrational or intelligent. The meanest insect as well as the greatest soul hem claims on you. 3. Be just to the Creator. The kindest Being thank the most, the greatest Being reverence the most, the best Being adore the most. II. What every man requires. “ Be surety for Thy servant for good;” or, as some read, “ Interpose for Thy servant for good.” There is a thing here which every man requires, viz. the merciful interposition of God. “ Be surety” --interpose--“ for Thy servant.” Unless He, in mercy, intervenes on our behalf, we are ruined for ever. Every awakened soul hungers for this, it is the great hunger of the soul. “ Mine eyes fail for Thy salvation.” (Homilist.) Psalms 119:124-126 Deal with Thy servant according unto Thy mercy.In these words we have a prayer I. For merciful treatment.1. Not according to Thy justice. This would involve our ruin. 2. Not according to the mercy of men. This would be worthless. But “ according to Thy mercy.” That mercy is all-compassionate, all-sufficient, and all-powerful. II. For moral instruction. “ Teach me Thy statutes.” “ Give me understanding, that I may know Thy testimonies.”1. God has given us statutes, laws for the regulation of our conduct. 2. These statutes are to be obeyed. Obedience to them is essential to our well-being. 3. These statutes, to be obeyed, must be understood. Hence the force of the prayer, “ Give me understanding.” III. For divine intervention to terminate wickedness (verse 126). There is a sense in which men cannot make void God’ s laws. They cannot annul them, they cannot modify them. They can neither remove or lessen their obligation. The only way in which they can make them “ void” is by practically ignoring them; and this is an evil which God will put an end to. (Homilist.) Psalms 119:126-128 It is time for Thee, Lord, to work: for they have made void Thy law.“ Time for Thee to work” The psalmist was surrounded, as would appear, by widespread defection from God’ s law. But instead of trembling as if the sun were about to expire, he turns himself to God, and in fellowship with Him sees in all the antagonism but the premonition that He is about to act for the vindication of His own work. I. Calm confidence that times of antagonism evoke God’ s work for His Word. It is ever His method to send His succour after the evil has been developed, and before it has triumphed. Had it come sooner, the priceless benefits of struggle, the new perceptions won in controversy of the many-sided meaning and value of His truth, the vigour from conflict, the wholesome sense of our weakness, had all been lost. Had it come later, it had come too late. So He times His help, in order that we may derive the greatest possible benefit from both the trial and the aid. II. Earnest prayer which brings that Divine energy. The confidence that God will work underlies and gives energy to the prayer that God would work. The belief that a given thing is in the line of the Divine purpose is not a reason for saying, “ We need not pray; God means to do it,” but is a reason for saying on the contrary, “ God means to do it; let us pray for it.” And this prayer, based upon the confidence that it is His will, is the best service that any of us can render to the Gospel in troublous times. III. Love to God’ s Word made more fervid by antagonism.1. Such increase of affection because of gainsayers is the natural instinct of loyal and chivalrous love. If your mother’ s name were defiled, would not your heart bound to her defence? 2. Such increase of affection because of gainsayers is the fitting end and main blessing of the controversy which is being waged. We never fully hold our treasures till we have grasped them hard, lest they should be plucked from us. No truth is established till it has been denied and has survived. 3. Such increase of attachment to the Word of God because of gainsayers is the instinct of self-preservation. The present conditions of opinion remands us all to our foundations, and should teach us that nothing but firm adherence to God revealed in His Word, and to the world which reveals God, will prevent us, too, from drifting away to shoreless, solitary seas of doubt, barren as the foam, and changeful as the crumbling, restless wave. IV. Healthy opposition to the ways which make void the word of the Lord. Let not the contradiction of many move you from your faith; let it lift your eyes to the hills from whence cometh our help. Let it kindle into fervent enthusiasm, which is calm sobriety, your love for that Word. Let it make decisive your rejection of all that opposes. Driftwood may swim with the stream; the ship that holds to her anchor swings the other way. Send that Word far and wide. It is its own best evidence. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) The present times I. What are those evils existing in our country and time which seem to render the present a season that needs God’ s special interposition?1. The prevalence of infidelity. 2. Consider the taste for pleasure, which at the present day is continually increasing and pervading all ranks of society. 3. Nor must I forget that confederation which is undoubtedly going forward at the present time to rob us of our English Sabbath. 4. Is the Church in that spiritual state that any of us could wish? Has not the spirit of trade, by its intensity, by its rash speculations, by its absorbing power, by its money-loving spirit, eaten into and eaten out the heart of the vital piety of the Church? II. The influence which the evils that I have mentioned ought to have upon the Church’ s mind.1. Should it not produce a deep and heart-affecting concern over the prevalence of iniquity in the world, and the comparative lukewarmness of the Church? 2. With this must be connected the spirit of earnest, believing, prevailing prayer. 3. All this is to be an individual concern. (J. A. James.) Time for the Lord to work The Christian who is wholly satisfied with the outlook on the condition of society either possesses a faith of unusual and heroic fibre, or has but feebly mastered the moral phenomena around him. I. A melancholy fact. “ Men have made void Thy law.”1. By assailing its authority. (1) You assail the authority of law when you deny the Personality of its source, and this is the form in which the assault upon the authority of law has been conspicuously made in our days. I refer to that subtle and pathetic theory of the universe which finds in pantheism a sufficient explanation of all its phenomena, whether physical or moral. (2) But the authority of the law of God can be assailed in other ways, as, for example, by palliating the gravity of its transgressions. The fact of sin must lie at the foundation of any system of religion which has to assume the form and function of a redemption; and where sin is denied, or reduced to a hardly culpable minimum, then the redemptive idea seems disproportionate, exaggerated, and almost preposterous. (3) Another way in which men make void the law of God by assailing its authority is by restricting the area of its rule. To imagine that there can be a sphere in which the aims and activities of men can be released from the authority and sanction of God, is to suppose that there are spheres in which He ceases to be God, and to claim the homage of His creatures. 2. There is another method of making void the law of God, and that is by disparaging its sufficiency. And it is seen mainly in its relation to that law which is the highest revealed to man--the law of the Gospel, the perfect law of liberty, the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus. II. The urgent appeal. “ It is time for Thee, Lord, to work.” Such challenge is the privilege of earnest men. It is the violence which takes heaven by force. God does not resent it. He hears, invites, answers it. But when He arises to work we know not what will be the form of His operations. He worketh according to the counsel of His own will; and who knows but that when once He awakes, and puts on His strength, it may not he confined in its results to the immediate and exclusive quickening of the spiritual life of the Church, but may be associated with providential upheavals and convulsions, which will fill the heart Of the world with astonishment and dismay. There have been times when God has worked, and the signs of His presence have been seen in terrible shakings of the nations, in the ploughing up from their foundations of hoary injustice, in the smiting of grinding tyrannies, and in the emancipation of peoples whose life had been a long and hopeless mean. There have been times, too, and many, when He has worked through the elements of nature--through blasting and mildew, through floods and famine, etc. But this working of God will also take other shapes. Will it not be seen in the inspiration of the Church with faith in its own creed, so far as that creed has the warrant of the Divine Word? Then we may expect a wondrous effusion of the Holy Spirit both upon His Church and the world which is still estranged from His law and love. Can that be the Gospel in its fulness and efficacy which is unmindful of the personality and the agency of that Spirit whose functions were to be so lofty, so searching, So beneficent, and so enduring?. (E. Meller, D. D.) The Divine patience exhausted through the making void the law It is of great importance that men be taught that there are limits even to the forbearance of God, and that it is possible so to presume on it as to exhaust it. “ They have made void Thy law.” They have reduced the Divine precepts to a dead letter, and refuse to receive them as a rule of life. But what effect will be produced on a truly righteous man by this extraordinary prevalence of iniquity? Will he be tempted, by the universal scorn which he sees thrown on God’ s law, to think slightingly of it himself, and give it less of his reverence and attachment? On the contrary, this law becomes more precious in David’ s sight, in proportion as he felt that it was so despised and set aside that the time for God to work had arrived. The verses are connected by the word “ therefore.” “ They have made void Thy law.” What then? is that law less esteemed and less prized by myself? Quite the reverse; “ they have made void Thy law; therefore I love Thy commandments above gold, yea, above fine gold.” This, then, is the second truth presented by our text-that there is greater reason than ever for our prizing God’ s law, if the times should be those in which that law is made void. It is obvious, in the first place, that, in days such as these, there is the very finest opportunity of giving honour to God. To love His commandments above gold, whilst others count them but dross, is to display a noble zeal for His glory, and to appear as the champions of His cause, when that cause is on the point of being universally deserted. The prorated, moreover, runs, “ Them that honour Me, I Will honour” ; and the season, therefore, in which the greatest honour may be given to God, is that also in which the most of future glory may be secured by the righteous. To adhere boldly to the cause of righteousness, when almost solitary in adherence, is to fight the battle when champions ere most needed, and when, therefore, victory will be most triumphant. Let, then, saith the psalmist, the times be times of universal defection from godliness--I will gather warmth from the coldness of others, courage from their cowardice, loyalty from their treason. Indeed, as I gaze on what is passing around me, I cannot but observe that Thy law, O God, is made void, and that it is therefore time for Thee to work. But I am not on this account shaken in attachment to Thy service. On the contrary, Thy law seems to me more precious than ever, for in now keeping Thy commandments I can give Thee greater glory, and find greater reward. What then? it may be that they have made void Thy law; but from my heart I can say, “ therefore, on that very account, I love Thy commandments above gold, yea, above fine gold.” But we have yet another mode in which to exhibit the connection between the verses. We have hitherto supposed the strengthened attachment which David expresses towards the law, to have been produced by the fact that this law was made void. But we now refer it to the fact that it was time for God to work. We consider, that is, that when the psalmist says, “ therefore I love Thy commandments above gold, yea, above fine gold,” the reason is to be found in the character of the times, in the season being one at which God must bring judgments on the earth. “ Since Thy law is made void, it is time for Thee, Lord, to interfere in vengeance; and on this account, because Wrath must be let loose, therefore I love Thy commandments above gold, yea, above fine gold.” And if this be regarded as the connection between the verses, you will readily admit that there is abundant force in the reason of the psalmist. If there be one season at which, more than at another, the righteous feel the worth of revelation, and the blessedness of obeying its precepts, the season must be that of danger and trouble. Whether the danger and trouble be public or domestic; whether it be his country, or only his own household, over which calamity hangs; the man of piety finds a consolation in religion which makes him more than ever prize the revealed will of God. There is a beauty and energy in the Bible which nothing but affliction can bring out and display; and men know comparatively little of the preciousness of Scriptural promises, and the magnificence of Scriptural hopes, until placed in circumstances of difficulty and distress. “ It is time for Thee, Lord, to work.” “ They have forsaken Thy covenant” , etc.; and the Judge of men must arise, and vindicate His insulted authority. But I know on whom the mark of deliverance will be set when the men with the slaughter-weapons are commanded to pass through the land. I know that where there is obedience to Thy law, there will be security from Thy wrath. And hence that law is more precious in my sight than it ever was before--“ it is time for Thee to work; therefore I love Thy commandments above gold; yea, above fine gold.” “ It is time for Thee, Lord, to work.” There is much in myself which requires the processes of the refiner, much of the corruptible to be removed, much of the dross to be purged away. But if it be needful that I be cast into the furnace of affliction, I have Thy precepts to which to cling, Thy promises on which to rest. I find that Thy Word comforts me in the prospect; I know that it will sustain me in the endurance; and hence, because it is time for Thee to work, therefore is Thy word dearer to me “ than the gold, yea, than the fine gold.” (H. Melvill, B. D.) The worker most wanted At different periods in the world’ s history, in particular places and with respect to particular acts, transgression has been so common and flagrant, that there has been danger of the law of God being cancelled, and the law of sin everywhere written instead. Such times have needed special interpositions, which are tacitly asked for in the text. I. The complaint. To make void God’ s law is to misinterpret it, to encumber it, to ignore it, to defy its penalties, or to deny its obligation. II. The appeal. They have made void Thy law--“ it is time for Thee, Lord, to work.” There are three works possible here. The vindication of the law by punishment, the republication of the law, and the restoration of men to obedience. And which of these is the greatest? Punishment causes the law to be honoured in the punished, but not by them. The promulgation of the law puts it forward in work, but not necessarily in deed. The restoration to obedience honours it in spirit and in life. And while a man of God may live in times rendering the promulgation of law needful, and may see punishment desirable, the main desire of his heart will be that God will honour His law in the restoration of men to true obedience. (S. Martin.) Psalms 119:127-131 Therefore I love Thy commandments above gold.God’ s Word God’ s Word is here revealed in several aspects-- I. As a prize. It is “ above gold.”1. It is intrinsically more valuable than gold. It contains the mind of God.2. It is relatively more valuable than gold. It procures greater blessings. II. As a law, “ All Thy precepts.” As a law--1. It is to be righteous--“ Concerning all things, to be righteous.2. It is to be practical, “ I hate every false way.” III. As a revelation. As a revelation it is--1. Wonderful, “ Thy testimonies are wonderful.”2. Spiritually enlightening. “ The entrance of Thy Word giveth light.” It lights up the soul. IV. As a necessity (verse 131). It is the air without which you cannot breathe, food without which you cannot live. (Homilist.) Psalms 119:129 Thy testimonies are wonderful; therefore doth my soul keep them.Wonder an element of religion “ The Scriptures,” says an old bishop, “ are wonderful with respect to the matter which they contain, the manner in which they are written, and the effects which they produce.’’ What, then, is the Bible? The reply is this--the Bible is the history of sin; and so viewed, it stands forth, indeed, as a record surprisingly wonderful. It may be said that it is in a measure the history of righteousness also; but indeed the history of God’ s righteousness is the history of man’ s sin. There is a strange unity in the Bible thus viewed. It is not on the excellency of this or that portion, but upon their unity and self-completeness, that we would base our assertion of the wonderfulness of the testimonies of God. Let us, then, assuming its wonderfulness, inquire how this should produce obedience. The whole of this psalm is occupied in setting forth the Divine law in every variety of aspect, and David’ s own appreciation of it; and it is observable that it is on the depth, the vastness, the wonderfulness of God’ s Word that he dwells. In the text he assigns, expressly, the motive of his own obedience. His language is not that of a deep thinker, who has examined and understood more thoroughly than his brethren; it is that of a child gazing upwards to the firmament, and impressed with an awe which it cannot explain; it is language not of reason, but of faith: not of understanding, but of astonishment, in which he sketches the impulse of his own obedience. His spirit, as he meditated upon God’ s law, beheld therein a mighty mystery, wide as the east from the west; and as he gazed, he saw in that law unsearchable doctrines, and dispensations not to be accounted for, and rules and regulations laid down but not explained; there was much which might be regarded as superfluous, much which man would have ordered otherwise; so, as he pondered, he marvelled; and then his heart grew at once humbled, yet elevated, by the mysterious web that was around him. Now, if it be true that wonder is closely connected with reverence, that in short the marvellous exerts in religion, as in other things, a great power over the soul of man, then we shall cease to be surprised that the Almighty has not spoken more clearly. Strip religion of whatever baffles the understanding, and you will have a system quite incapable of enlisting the heart in its cause. No deeds of high, unselfish heroism, such as those which have rendered everlastingly illustrious the names of apostles and confessors; no lives of self-denying exertion like those which adorn the annals of missionary enterprise will be produced by this religion of reason. “ His Name shall be called Wonderful.” By such title did the Hebrew prophet proclaim Him, around whose cradle all Christendom is about to gather. Wonderful in His nature, being both God and man; Wonderful in the ordinances of His kingdom; Wonderful in His continual presence with His people; Wonderful in the dispensations of His grace. Even, then, as Wonderful, let us bow down before Him; never seeking to rend, with unhallowed hand, the veil that is upon His face; never recoiling from His Word by reason of its marvellousness; never trying to bring Him down to us because we cannot rise up to Him. Yea, rather, in the wonderfulness of all that emanates from Him, let us recognize a propriety. Rightly viewed, the incomprehensibleness of Christ is a bond to obedience. His statutes are wonderful, and therefore should our souls not resist, but keep them. (Bp. Woodford.) The testimonies of God I. Why are the Divine laws here called “ testimonies” ?1. Because they bear testimony to the goodness of God in condescending to guide men by His law. 2. Because they bear testimony to the holiness of God. 3. Because they bear testimony to the respect that God has for the happiness of His creatures. He has connected the highest pleasures with obedience. 4. Because they bear testimony to the wisdom and justice of God. They are adapted to the present imperfect state of man, going upon the principle, where little is given little will be required, and where much is given much will be required. II. The character of the divine testimonies. “ they are wonderful.” How?1. In respect of the discoveries they make of God. Look to people without these testimonies. How ignorant of the Supreme! 2. In respect of the discoveries of God’ s providence. 3. In respect of the provision which the Scriptures discover for our repentance and pardon. 4. In respect of their universal application to us. 5. In respect of the assistance which they offer in the keeping of them. (1) A Divine Agent to strengthen, that is, the Holy Ghost.(2) Sublime motives to stimulate and encourage us. 6. In respect of their weight and importance. They determine the eternal conditions of men. III. The practical regard which a good man has for the Divine testimonies. “ Therefore doth my soul keep them.”1. As a precious treasure of knowledge.2. As objects of affection and study.3. As the rules--the guiding lights of my conduct.4. As embodied in my daily life and practice. (J. Walker, D. D.) The admirable nature of the Divine oracles I. His profound admiration of the Divine oracles. They are “ wonderful” in their--1. Style and composition. (1) Wonderfully simple and plain.(2) Wonderfully grand and sublime.(3) Wonderfully concise and expressive. 2. Contents. (1) The most interesting records of facts.(2) The most astonishing displays of truth.(3) The most admirable and perfect rules of life.(4) The most animating promises,(5) The moat tremendous threatenings. 3. Efficacy. (1) Alarming the sinner.(2) Consoling the mourner.(3) Transforming the most degraded.(4) Supporting the believer through life and over death. II. Their practical influence.1. He treasured them up in his memory. 2. He kept them in exercises of faith. 3. He held them in constant esteem, and embraced them with earnest affection. 4. He kept them in obedient practices. (Sketches of Four Hundred Sermons.) The wonderful character of God’ s testimonies 1. They are wonderfully adapted to the purposes intended, and are fully adequate to all the wants and necessities of mankind. They are consonant to right reason, and adapted to promote our true interest; they confer upon us the highest benefits, and the loss of them would deprive us of the richest treasure. They secure the honour of God, and the rights of the creature. 2. They are wonderfully expressed; there is in them a mixture of the greatest majesty and simplicity. 3. They are wonderfully consistent and harmonious. The laws of men often militate one against another; but there is no discord or contrariety in the laws of God. They all bear the impress of infinite wisdom, purity and goodness. 4. They are wonderfully extensive. 5. They are wonderfully useful and important. 6. They have been wonderfully preserved. Conclusion:1. If the Divine law be so wonderful, what must the Gospel be? (Ephesians 3:1-10). 2. If the law and Gospel are so wonderful, what must their Author be? (Job 11:7). 3. The reason why men treat the Divine law with contempt is because they are not acquainted with its excellence, and their eyes are not open to behold its dignity and glory (Hosea 8:12). 4. If God’ s Word is so precious and important, let us manifest a suitable regard towards it. (B. Beddome, M. A.) Psalms 119:130 The entrance of Thy words giveth light: it giveth understanding unto the.The power of the Word I. The entrance of the word.1. Generally “ Thy Word,” as used in the text, includes the whole of Divine revelation from its fret announcement in Genesis of a Redeemer to the last vision of the Heavenly Sanctuary by the beloved John on the Isle of Patmos. 2. Specifically, the “ entrance of Thy Word” is the gift of the Son of God (John 1:1-14). II. The effect of the word.1. The Word gives us light doctrinally. (1) As to a satisfactory explanation of the world of nature and her laws.(2) As to the power and dignity of man.(3) As to the problem of evil.(4) As to the method of redemption. 2. The Word gives light practically as to the duty of nations and individuals. (1) By the ethical and judicial law which God’ s Word reveals.(2) By a better civilization which it ushers in under a new national spirit. 3. “ The entrance of Thy Word” gives us light experimentally. (1) Reveals our moral condition, “ dead in trespasses and sin.”(2) As to our personal salvation and regeneration. Here we get the full light of God’ s promises.(3) As to Christian duties to God and our fellow-men. (A. A. Johnson, D. D.) The light of God’ s Word 1. The light-giving quality of God’ s Word. It is significant to find that the old saints found in the earlier revelation they received in the Old Testament precisely the same peerless power of holy illumination as we can testify to in the perfected message in Jesus Christ. There is nothing that more strikingly reveals the underlying unity and identity of the sacred Scriptures. The volume and momentum of the revelation have varied, but its essential power to quicken and enkindle the human soul has been steadfastly maintained from the first wonderful utterance of the Divine voice in its sacred pages. 11. This quality furnishes a high test of its divinity. “ The opening of Thy Word giveth light” means not only that God’ s Word gives light, but that this light divinely grows with the growing revelation or understanding of the Word. As the Word opens before the soul the Divine shines forth from it more clearly, and the glory of the present God becomes more wonderful. And the more we know of the Gospel of Christ, the more irresistibly Divine and beautiful will it prove itself to be. III. The Word of God imparts this light by the divinest means. The Word translated “ giveth light” is the same Word which is used concerning God in verse 135--“ Make Thy face to shine upon Thy servant.” As His face shines upon us, He makes our hearts shine back upon Him and upon the world. He does not illuminate our path mechanically, but sets His light within us livingly. He does not use us as passive reflectors of His brightness, but as burning and shining lights. (J. Thomas, M. A.) Revelation and conversion Trees are known by their fruit, and books by their effect upon the mind. It is not the elegance of its diction but the excellence of its influence by which a book is to be estimated. I. The work of the Word of God in conversion. Not apart from the Spirit, but as it is used by the Spirit for divers ends, all needful to salvation.1. To convince men of sin: they see what perfection is, that God demands it, and that they are far from it. 2. To drive men from false methods of seeking salvation, to bring them to self-despair, and to shut them up to God’ s method of saving them. 3. To reveal the way of salvation, by grace, through Christ, by faith. 4. To enable the soul to embrace Christ as its all in all. By setting forth promises and invitations, which are opened up to the understanding and sealed to the heart, etc. 5. To bring the heart nearer and nearer to God. Emotions of love, desires for holiness, devotion, self-searching, love to men, humility, etc. these are all excited, sustained, and perfected in the heart by the Word of God. 6. To restore the soul when it has wandered. Renewing tenderness, hope, love, joy, etc., by its gentle reminders. 7. To perfect the nature. The highest flights of holy enjoyment are not above or beyond the Word. Nothing is purer or more elevated than Holy Scripture. The Word also slays all sin, promotes every virtue, prepares for every duty, etc. II. The excellence of this work done by the Word. The operations of grace by the Word are altogether good and not evil; and they are timed and balanced with infinite discretion. The Word of the Lord works marvellously, perfectly, and surely.1. It removes despair without quenching repentance. 2. Gives pardon, but does not create presumption. 3. Gives rest, but excites the soul to progress. 4. Breathes security, but engenders watchfulness. 5. Bestows strength and holiness, but begets no boasting. 6. Gives harmony to duties, emotions, hopes, and enjoyments. 7. Brings the man to live for God, before God, and with God; and yet makes him none the less fitted for the daily duties of life. III. The consequent excellence of the Word.1. We need not add to it if we would secure conversion in any special case, or on the largest scale. 2. We need not keep back any doctrine for fear of damping the flame of a true revival. 3. We need not extraordinary gifts with which to preach it: the Word will do its own work. 4. We have but to follow the Word to be converted. It fits a man’ s needs as a key fits a lock. 5. We have but to keep to it to become truly wise: wise as the aged, wise as necessity requires, wise as the age, wise as eternity demands, wise with the wisdom of Christ. (1) Cling to the Scripture.(2) Study the whole revelation of God.(3) Use it as your chief instrument in all holy service. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The light of truth I. The words of God are a light. No effect can rise higher than its cause, and nothing can impart what it does not possess; that which gives light on its entrance into the human heart, must be light, or at least have the property of communicating light. The sun in the firmament diffuses its beams, but has no power of giving sight: a man who is born blind, or who has lost the faculty of seeing, is strictly in darkness, notwithstanding the existence of day. In like manner, the holy Scriptures are a light from Heaven; they spread the most essential knowledge, and are adapted to produce the most beneficial effects; but multitudes are not savingly benefited by them: their minds are still dark, and their hearts remain impenitent and unholy. II. Something hinders the admission of this light into the heart.1. Principally it is sin; the love of sin: these are opposed to every dictate of heavenly truth, and counteract its salutary effects. 2. The influence of the world. 3. Unbelief. 4. Prejudice. III. These hindrances may be removed. By whom and in what way is this change produced? “ God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts.” The Spirit applies the truth with almighty energy. By His agency the Word becomes effectual in them that believe, so that every obstacle is removed, every barrier subdued. IV. When obstacles are removed, and the word of truth enters, the most beneficial effects are produced.1. The right knowledge of ourselves. 2. The true knowledge of God. 3. The knowledge of Jesus Christ. 4. The way of salvation by the Cross of Christ is learnt. 5. It discovers to us the snares and dangers of the wilderness through which we pass; it informs us of the enemies we have to encounter, and the numerous evils to which we are exposed. 6. Its entrance in the heart helps us to form a just estimate of earthly things: it detects the emptiness and vanity of the present world, and all its concerns, and makes us acquainted with what is infinitely better--heavenly and eternal good. (T. Kidd.) Value of God’ s Word I. A great blessing.1. Light is the chief means of knowledge. 2. Another effect of light is cheerfulness (Ecclesiastes 11:7). 3. Light is productive of healthy growth. II. The means of its communication. What is the psalmist’ s idea? Is it the glory of the daybreak--the “ opening” of the earth, and air, and sky by the beams of the rising sun? Or the “ opening” as of the seed-sprout, or the bud that unfolds its mysterious and beauteous pleats to the light of day? “ The opening of Thy words,” i.e. the hearing them and getting at their secret meaning, the blessed messages of love, of pardon, peace. Where are these “ words” of God? All around us in His works and ways! (J. E. Flower, M. A.) God’ s truth clear and simple The powerlessness of philosophy consists in the fact that it is profound and obscure; the strength of Christianity that it is profound and clear. One of the most illustrious German thinkers said on his death-bed, “ I carry one regret with me to the grave, that of having been understood by but one man in the world; and he has only half understood me.” A system like that was not destined to live, and Hegelianism is already dead. But Jesus Christ made every truth to shine, and herein consisted His greatness. The Scriptures for the common people A priest observing to William Tyndale, “ We are better without God’ s law than the Pope’ s,” “ I defy the Pope and all his laws,” Tyndale replied; and added, “ If God spare my life, ere many years I will cause the boy which driveth the plough to know more of Scripture than you do.” (Quarterly Review.) Psalms 119:131-133I opened my mouth, and panted, for I longed for Thy commandments.Holy longings Here we have David desiring, praying, pleading, and setting forth very clearly what he pants after. May you and I have the same burning desires; and at the same time may we clearly know what we are panting for, so that we may the more intelligently pursue it, and thus go the nearer way to obtain it! I. Longing ardently after holiness (verse 131).1. The man of God longeth after the Lord’ s commandments. Many religious people long after the promises, and they do well; but they must not forget to have an equal longing for the commandments. 2. The psalmist, having told us what he longed for, shows the strength of those desires; for he had been so eager in his pursuit of holiness that he had test his breath. Are you ready to faint? Underneath are the everlasting arms. 3. See how resolved he was. Even though you open your mouth and pant with weariness, yet keep your face set like a flint towards holiness, and let your case be that of one who is “ faint, yet pursuing.” 4. Note that the follower after holiness seeks renewed strength. Why does he open his mouth and pant? Is it not to get more air, to fill his lungs again, to cool his blood, and to be ready to renew his running? 5. He was dissatisfied with his attainments. His opened mouth and panting heart betoken desires which are not as yet fulfilled. 6. Yet, let no tinge of discouragement mingle with your dissatisfaction: this man is hopeful of better things. He opens his mouth because he looks for something to fill it; he pants because he believes in water-brooks which will relieve his thirst. II. Pleading fervently for the holiness he desired (verse 132).1. He believes in God’ s power to bless him, and hence he turns to Him, and cries, “ Look Thou upon me.” Great sinners may be grateful for a look, for it is more than they deserve. Great saints may rejoice in a look; for it means much when the eye which looks is the eye of Omnipotent Love. 2. He appeals to mercy. 3. He pleads as one who loves God. 4. He employs the grand plea of use and wont. 5. He joyfully accepts God’ s method. We kiss the rod, because the Father who uses it designs to kiss us. We assent to the processes of grace that we may enjoy the results of grace. It may so happen that if God sanctifies you, He may have to grind you very small: cheerfully yield yourself to the mill. If this is the way in which He deals with those that love His Name, do not desire any different treatment. III. Enlarging intelligently upon the favour he seeks (verse 133).1. Now, let us see how the psalmist puts it. His cry is for holiness, and he describes it as being ruled by the Word of God. “ Order my steps in Thy Word.” The different sects have differing ideas of holiness, but the reality of holiness is only one. It is this--“ Order my steps in Thy Word.” 2. He would have holiness in every step of his life. 3. He would have every step ordered. We can never attain to the right proportion of the virtues unless the Lord Himself arranges them in order for us, Do not tell me it is easy to be holy; you want not only the different graces, but all these in order due and measure fit. O Lord, help us! Order our steps. 4. He would have every step full of God: he would have each one ordered of the Lord. He would receive his strength, his motives, his guiding influences direct from the Lord. 5. He would be wholly delivered from the tyranny of sin. “ Let not any iniquity,” etc. I fear that many professors have never understood this prayer. One man is a splendid man for a prayer-meeting, a fine man for a Bible-class; but at home he is a tyrant to his wife and children. Is not this a great evil under the sun? Another man is stern and honest, and he inveighs with all his might against every form of evil, but he is hard even to cruelty with all who are in his power. One is generous and fervent, but he likes a sly drop; another is good-natured and pleasant, but he puts it on in his bills at times, and his customers do not find the goods quite of the quality they pay for. Beware of pet sins. If you let a golden god rule you, you will perish as well as if you let a mud god rule you. Be this your constant cry--“ Let not any iniquity have dominion over me.” (C. H. Spurgeon.) The satisfying power of Divine things These words may be considered as expressing the very earnest longing of the psalmist for greater acquaintance with God in spiritual things; and then, in saying, “ I opened my mouth, and panted,” he merely asserts the vehemence of his desire. Or you may separate the clauses: you may regard the first as the utterance of a man utterly dissatisfied with the earth and earthly things, and the second as the expression of a consciousness that God, and God only, could meet the longings of his soul. “ I opened my mouth, and panted. Out of breath with chasing shadows, and hunting after baubles, I sit down exhausted, as far off as ever from the happiness which has been earnestly but fruitlessly sought. Whither, then, shall I turn? Thy commandments, O Lord, and these alone, can satisfy the desires of an immortal being like myself; and on these, therefore, henceforward shall my longings be turned.” We shall regard the passage under this latter point of view. I. The insufficiency of created things to supply the wants of the soul. Let the soul be set to the survey of any created good, and however enamoured of that good, its decision will be that its limits are discernible; and in making this decision its own capacities, unconsciously, it may be, but not the less surely, will enlarge so as to be greater than the good, and thus make hopeless the attempt at filling them therewith. The soul, in fact, grows with what it receives; and unless the horizon of a good be like the natural horizon, which recedes as fast as you approach, the soul will quickly pass the boundary line, and present again a void which craves to be filled. But this can be affirmed of no good save the Almighty Himself. God is that alone perfection of which I can see no end; with all others, the higher I ascend the more conscious am I that the horizon has a shore, however distant, and with the greater elasticity does my spirit spread itself, so as to embrace the expanse of wonders; but with God, the loftier my point of survey, the firmer my persuasion that the ocean is without a shore. II. The power there is in God’ s commandments of filling our capacity for enjoyment. We suppose that, had it been left with ourselves to draw the comparison, we should not have represented this man, who was exhausted by a fruitless search after happiness, as longing after the commandments of God. We should have been inclined to fix on the favour of God, or on the joys which He communicates to His people, rather than, with David in our text, on His commandments, as affording that material of satisfaction which is so vainly sought in any earthly good. But let the matter be carefully examined, and we shall find that it is strictly for the commandment that the wearied soul ought to long. The whole law of God is summed up in one commandment, the commandment of love; but in what does man’ s happiness lie, if not in obedience to this commandment? We deny the possibility of satisfaction of soul, so long as there is nothing of reunion with God. The human soul has been torn away from God, and all that restlessness which it manifests, until again linked into friendship, is an irrepressible evidence of the disruption. In its ceaseless but unavailing endeavours to find a resting-place in finite good, there is an ever-powerful testimony that it has fatally wandered from its home; its fruitless searchings after happiness in the creature are the melancholy evidences of alienation from the Creator. Indeed, fraught as the soul is with the consciousness of immortality--a consciousness which, however for awhile overborne by the tumult of passion, starts up frequently in every man, and forces itself on his attention, it is not possible that there should be aught but disquietude, so long as there is no sense of being at peace with the Almighty, And thus, even if you consider not the peculiar nature of God’ s commandments, there would be enough in the fact that they are God’ s commandments, and therefore to be obeyed, if we would not be everlastingly and unutterably wretched, to certify us that in God’ s commandments must happiness be sought, and that therefore those commandments must be longed for by any one who has exhausted himself in a search after good. But we must go beyond this. We must give heed to the fact that the commandments are summed up in love. Think of a man who knew nothing of envy, who was altogether free from jealousy, nay, who had not only purged himself from these corroding passions, but who had so identified the interests of others with his own, that he felt what befell them as befalling himself; and this would be the man who would obey the command, “ Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” And can you imagine a happier individual? Can you ever take the measure of his happiness? But the love of man is not all which the commandments require; they require love of God; and this makes them adequate to our every capacity; for it is certain, first of all, that ere I can love God I must know myself reconciled to God. In loving God we throw from us the burden which, if unmoved, must press us down everlastingly into the depths of wretchedness; and we take hold of immortality, as purchased for us and prepared, and reserved. We turn this earth, from a scene of jarring passions and petty rivalries, into one broad stage upon which to labour for the extension of the kingdom of Christ. We concentrate our affections on objects whose contemplation enlarges the soul, whilst their boundaries are unapproached by the mightiest expansion. If I love God I shall be continually travelling on His perfections, and continually discerning that I am as far off as ever from their limits. I shall be continually stretching the soul, that it may enclose what is Divine, and continually finding that what is Divine is too vast to be thus circumscribed. And therefore the command that I love God, oh l it is a command that I develop the immortality of the soul; that I employ my desires till they are as broad as my duration; that I prove myself too capacious for creation. Earth, and moon, and sun, and stars! He who made you all can alone occupy that spirit which, with this narrow framework of flesh as its centre, spreads its circumference wheresoever ye travel in your glorious wanderings. And if such be God’ s commandments, we may well set these commandments in contrast with every good from which those who are yet strangers to God would gather their happiness; and I can no longer wonder that a man worn out by the pursuit of earthly things, so that he exclaimed, “ I opened my mouth, and punted,” should turn to the law of the Most High as alone adequate to his capacities, and break into the utterance, “ I longed for Thy commandments, O Lord.” (H. Melvill, B. D.) Psalms 119:132-135 Look Thou upon me, and be merciful unto me. Prayer for mercies vouchsafed to the good I. Direction in the right way. We are all travellers on an unknown road, and we want direction. Order my footsteps. II. Defence against our foes. The dominion of evil is the greatest curse. There is a danger of having this dominion established. God alone can prevent it. III. Deliverance against malignant foes. Man oppresses man everywhere. Who but God can deliver from the oppression under which humanity groans? IV. THE favour of Almighty God (verse 135). God’ s approval is man’ s heaven. (Homilist.) A page from a royal diary I. David’ s brief petition. “ Look Thou upon me.”1. His own eyes had failed him (verse 123).2. Man’ s eye had misjudged him (verse 134).3. He knew that God’ s eye perceives what His servant needs.4. He leaves all with God.5. God’ s look will be a sign of Divine favour.6. God’ s look would prepare him for future obedience. II. David’ s humble confession. “ Be merciful unto me.”1. His prayer grew out of this confession.2. By this petition he evidently sought forgiveness.3. Upon this ground alone he sought for the blessing he desired. III. David’ s tacit profession. “ As Thou usest to do,” etc. David hardly dares to say that he does love God’ s Name, but he does practically say it by praying that God will treat him as He treats those who do love His Name. Some of those who love God best are not the loudest in proclaiming their love. The true child of God does love His Lord’ s Name. This includes--1. The person of God.2. The character of God.3. God’ s revelation.4. The glory of God. IV. David’ s gracious aspiration.1. He would be dealt with as saints have always been dealt with. Well, you know what He used to do to those who loved His Name; He used to come and visit them. For instance, there were Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. These all had visits from the Lord, as did Moses, when God was in the burning bush. God not only used to visit those who loved His Name, but He used to instruct them What teachings they had from Him! What revelations and manifestations of Himself! Lord, teach me as Thou usest to teach those who loved Thy Name! How patient also He was with them! They had many faults and failings, and they grieved His Holy Spirit; but He forgave them, and went on teaching them; and when they fell and wandered from Him, He restored them, and brought them back again. Then you know the Lord was always faithful to those who loved His Name. When He made them a promise, He always kept it. But notice this also, the Lord used to whip them when they needed it; those who loved His Name were chastened. Asaph said, “ All the day long have I been plagued, and chastened every morning.” Well, suppose you should have the same treatment, you can thank God that He is doing to you as He used to do to those who loved His Name. 2. I think also that, when using these words, David meant that he was quite willing that God should deal with him in His usual way, in His regular order. He did not want to have some special railway thrown up for him, in which he could ride first-class to glory; but he was willing to go the old way, the way the holy prophets went, and the saints, and martyrs, and confessors of God; that is to say, he did not want salvation without holiness, he did not want justification without sanctification, he did not want pardon without regeneration. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Fellowship with the righteous I. There are some who love God’ s Name. His Name means His perfections, His nature, His being, Himself; and they who love His Name mean those who love Himself. II. His mercy is the source of all the goodness they experience. III. The Lord has been always accustomed to deal mercifully with them. He was merciful to them when He frowned, as well as when He smiled; when He denied, as well as when He indulged; when He took away, as well as when He gave. What use ought we to make of this? IV. His mercy towards them should encourage us to implore mercy for ourselves. Beggars naturally love to go to a door where others have been successful, especially where none have ever been sent empty away. This, indeed, is never the case among men. No earthly benefactor, however disposed, can afford universal relief. But we have everything to inspire our application at “ a throne of grace.” In what He has done through every age, we see His resources and His bounty. And we know that He is unchangeably the same. V. We should be anxious to secure the mercy that is peculiar to them; and not be satisfied with His common kindness. VI. We should be content if God deals with us as He has always dealt with His people. While he could not be satisfied with anything less than their portion, David asks for nothing better; he implores no singular dispensation in his favour, no deviation from the accustomed methods of His grace. (W. Jay.) The plea of use and wont The psalmist employs the great plea of use and wont; for, says he, “ As Thou usest to do unto those that love Thy Name.” Use and wont generally have great weight in a court of law. A friend said to me, “ How will such a suit go? The case has never been before a court until now.” I answered, “ Are you sure that what was done is according to universal and long-established custom? for, if so, though there be no law, the custom of the trade will stand.” Custom among men reaching far back holds good in court; how much shall the custom of the eternally unchanging God decide His future acts? The psalmist pleads the Lord’ s own custom; and this is a grand plea with him, because He is unchanging. If you think it a good plea, urge it at the throne. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Psalms 119:133 Order my steps in Thy Word: and let not any iniquity have dominion over me.Ordered steps I. Complete subservience to the will of God.1. “ Order.” He is a man who wishes to be under orders, he is willing to obey the Lord’ s commands, and he is anxious to receive them, and to be made to carry them out. 2. “ Order my steps in Thy Word.” Once we lived without any order, or plan, or method; but the grace of God makes us methodists in the highest possible sense. It makes us live according to God’ s method; and our prayer is, that we may never be disorderly, but that in all things, just as the universe is arranged by God, and all the stars keep their appointed courses, so we may be made to take our proper places, and may be kept in them, joyfully obedient to the will of the Most High. 3. “ In Thy Word.” He was perfectly satisfied with God’ s revelation; he had not so much of it as we have, but there was room enough in it for all his steps. He wanted no greater liberty than the Bible gave him. II. Careful watchfulness.1. He does not say merely, “ Order my life,” but, “ Order my steps.” Godly men desire to be kept right by God even in the little things of life. 2. That prayer means, “ Order my ordinary dally life.” Do not many think that religion is only something for Sundays? 3. Let us especially pray about all our advances. It is by steps that we go forward. III. Comprehensive obedience. It has two clauses, the positive and the negative. “ Order my steps in Thy Word;” that is, “ Lord, make me positively to do the right thing!” Then, “ let not any iniquity have dominion over me” ; that is, “ Lord, preserve me from any thought, or word, or deed which would be contrary to Thy mind and will!” He is the right sort of believer who is an all-round Christian, one who is positive for doing the right, but who is equally determined not to do the wrong. IV. Cautious apprehensiveness. He means, “ Lord, I am afraid to take a single step without Thine orders, I am afraid to put one foot before another for fear I should go wrong!” “ Happy is the man that feareth alway.” He that was too bold was never too wise. He that leaped before he looked, looked very sadly after he had leaped. He shall go right who knows where he is going, is careful about the road, and afraid lest he should go astray. He is the man who prays, “ Order my steps in Thy Word.” (C. H. Spurgeon.) A soul conscious of its dependence on God I. For guidance. “ Order my steps.” The human spirit is destined to move on and on for ever. It needs a guide; it cannot guide itself, nor can any finite creature do so.1. There is but one safe Guide. If He “ order” our “ steps,” two evils will be avoided. (1) Moral stumblings. Souls are everywhere stumbling on the path of life, they fall, and often receive fatal injuries, “ Hold Thou me up and I shall be safe.” The other evil avoided will be-- (2) Unhappy destination. The path of life, whilst it may have no real end, but run on through ages interminable, has one awful crisis that decides the ultimate fate of the traveller, and that crisis is death. 2. If He order the steps of the soul, the crisis will be the constant brightening and beautifying of the path. II. For emancipation. “ Let not any iniquity have dominion over me.”1. This is the worst of despotisms. (1) It is the most criminal. There are despotisms social and political that are calamities, not crimes: the poor victim cannot avoid them. Not so the despotism of sin. A despotism which, in the first place, he never ought to have allowed; but having allowed, he should break away from and become heroic and free. (2) It is the most powerful. A man might become such a victim of worldly despotism as to be imprisoned in a dungeon and cut off from all fellowship with living men. Still his soul may be free. Paul and Silas. But sin manacles the soul, shuts out its light, and binds its faculties in chains mightier than adamant. (3) It is the most enduring. Death will put an end to all worldly despotisms; in the grave the slave is free from his tyrant. But death has no power to put an end to this slavery of the soul. 2. This is the most prevalent of despotisms--co-extensive with the world of unregenerate humanity. (Homilist.) A well-ordered life This is not the prayer of an unconverted man, or the cry of an awakened sinner thinking to find salvation in good works; it is the prayer of one who is saved, and who knows it. Note each word of the text. “ Order.” David looking abroad saw order ruling everywhere; he would have his life in harmony with the universe. “ My steps:” he is anxious as to details. He would have each single step ordered in holiness. “ In Thy Word.” Not by Thy Word, nor according to Thy Word. The sentence means that, but it means far more. Not by Thy Word, as though it were a law hanging up upon the columns in the market-place; but in, as though it were engraven in my heart and encompassed all my ways. “ And let not any iniquity,” etc. This expression is weaker than the first, pitched upon a lower key: as if he would say, “ If, O Lord, my steps cannot be so ordered as that I shall be altogether without sin, yet let not any iniquity gain the mastery of my spirit. O, my Lord, suffer no iniquity to sit down on the throne of my heart and make me its serf and vassal.” But now, keeping to the first sentence only, we note-- I. That a holy life is a masterpiece of order. Holiness rejoices in symmetry, proportion, harmony, order. That--1. Of conformity to rule. We have the rule given us in living characters in the incarnate Word. I fear me there are hundreds of Christians who do not scruple to do things without once pausing to use the plumb-line of Christ’ s example to see whether their actions are upright. But the truly Christian heart will ever seek to proceed according to the Divine mind. 2. That which is arithmetical. Things are never in order when the second is before the first, and order in life consists very much in seeking first the kingdom of God. Oh, it is well with the Christian when he has learned his notation table well, and gives the first thing the first place. 3. That which is geometrical. There should be progress in Christian life, and if the advance be by a constant multiple, how greatly will a man increase. He who did a little for Christ when but a babe in grace should do more as a young man, and most of all as a father. 4. The order proportional. All Christians should endeavour so to balance their lives that there shall not be an excess of one virtue and a deficiency in another. Courage some will have till they are rude. Modesty in otters will sink into cowardice. It is only in the life of Jesus that you see this order most of all: it shall perplex you to discover what virtues shine with purest radiance. 5. That of relation. We stand not alone; we are all the centres of circles, and innumerable lines intersect each other in the region of our hearts. Now, we should seek for right relationship with God and with all men and things: with the Church and our own families. 6. There is an order of period: the order of the celestial Almanack: duties done at due time. Holiness consists not in the rushing of intense resolve, which, like Kishen, sweeps everything before it, and then subsides, but in the constant flow of Silvah’ s still waters, which perpetually make glad the city of God. The tree that God commendeth bringeth forth its fruit in its season. It is the fault of numbers that their virtues are always too late. 7. The order of suitability. What would be right enough for one man is not so for another. What is suitable to She worldling is not She measure of the Christian’ s service. “ What do ye more than others?” is a very pertinent question to all of us. II. The rule of this order. “ In Thy Word,” not according to my wishes, which would be mere self-will. Nor according to profit of this world: nor according to the rule of pleasure: nor according to impressions, but “ in Thy Word.” III. The director whom David had chosen. God Himself. Much will depend upon the model that a man takes, and the captain under whom a man serves. A commanding officer, last week at Aldershot, was obeyed by his soldiers with that prompt discipline which is peculiar to the British soldier; but through some mistake he managed to dash together two parties of dragoons, so that one or two were injured and one man killed outright. When God orders us no harm can come then. David’ s prayer is for a loving heart, an illumined mind, guidance of the Spirit, to have the love of holiness; to be not tempted above what he is able--this prayer means all these things. Christians, seek holiness would you extend the Church’ s power; would you enjoy peace in your own souls. And you whose steps are not ordered in God’ s words--some of you are halting. Decide now. Others of you are hypocrites. How will you bear the judgment of God? Trust in Jesus now. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The gate to the drill-ground I. The psalmist recognizes and accepts his obligation to be subject to moral order. He prays that his daily life, not only in its large outlines, but in its details, its “ steps,” may be ordered. We need a rule of life, and we need also to become established in a habit of loyalty to that rule. The prayer, “ Order my steps,” is a prayer for habitual subjection to Divine order. A religion which does not regulate a man’ s life is no religion at all. It contradicts its own name; for, according to its derivation, religion is something which binds together God and man, and therefore puts the whole of man’ s life in contact with God. All spiritual influences, however high they are lodged, gravitate inevitably to men’ s ordinary level of life. “ As he thinketh in his heart so is he.” II. The psalmist recognizes the source and centre of all moral order. “ God is its centre and God’ s Word its manual, and to God he addresses himself in prayer that he may be drawn and kept within the sphere of His heavenly order. The Bible brings to bear upon a man a variety of influences, all tending to the ordering of his steps.1. It centres him. Whatever the Bible is, it is, first of all, a revelation of God. It keeps God before him continually. All its own movement centres in God, all its sanctions are God’ s. There is no detail but is referred to God. There is no escape from God. 2. It regulates him. The statutes of the Lord are right, and are meant, as some one has quaintly said, “ to set us to rights.” It does not make itself superfluous. It does not bring man into the sphere of God’ s order, and leave him there, but it leads him along in that order, ordering every step until he steps from earth to heaven. 3. It restrains him. There is no order without restraint. Restraint is implied in guidance. Yonder planet which fulfils its appointed course in its orbit, and century by century traverses the same unvarying track, moves, indeed, under a power which propels it from the centre, but it moves also under a power which holds it to the centre. And nothing in the Bible is more striking than this union of impulse and restraint. 4. It establishes him. The Bible brings the element of fixedness more and more into our lives. III. Having acknowledged the obligation to be under moral order, having recognized the source and centre of that order, having prayed that he might be introduced to that Divine order and kept in it, the psalmist naturally prays to be delivered from the consequence of moral lawlessness: and that consequence is expressed in a word--subjection. In his prayer that iniquity may not have dominion over him, he utters the truth that sin is servitude; the truth which Paul expressed in (Romans 6:16). (M. R. Vincent, D. D.) Life a series of steps He who travels over a continent must go inch by inch. He who writes a book must do it sentence by sentence. Life is made up of little things--little courtesies, little kindnesses, pleasant words, genial smiles, a friendly letter, good wishes, and good deeds. One in a million, once in a lifetime, may do an heroic action. But the little things that make up our life come every day and every hour. If we make the little events of life beautiful and good, then is the whole full of beauty and goodness. (Christian Weekly.) The Bible a chart The Bible is a chart. It teaches men how to steer where the sandbank of temptation is, where that rock of danger is, where that whirling vortex of passion is. The Bible is a chart of salvation; and if a man only knows his course by this, he will go through life with all its storms and come safely into the port of heaven. (H. W. Beecher.) Symmetry in Christian character Some men’ s lives are out of perspective. Do you remember Hogarth’ s caricature of a picture without perspective, wherein a man appears to be fishing in a river, but is really standing far away from it; a sparrow in a tree looks like a huge eagle, and a man on the top of a hill is borrowing a light from a candle held out of the window of a house down below on the other side of a river. Without perspective good drawing is impossible, and without proportion a complete life is impossible. A man may be, in many points, a good man, and yet he may have so much of one virtue that it may become a vice, and he may have so little of another virtue that it may be a grave defect. We can never attain to the right proportion of the virtues unless the Lord Himself arranges them in order for us. O Lord, help us. Order our steps. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Psalms 119:135 Make Thy face to shine upon Thy servant; and teach me Thy statutes. Christian obedience and support I. The character of the petitioner. The true servant of God is distinguished by--1. Renunciation of the service of sin. 2. A rational and deliberate choice of that service in which he is invited to engage. 3. An entire devotedness to the Lord’ s service. 4. All the activities of Christian obedience. (1) Sincere.(2) Cheerful.(3) Universal.(4) Persevering. II. The import of the petitions.1. “ Cause Thy face to shine upon me.” He here prays for-- (1)Increasing discoveries of the Divine glory. Unsearchable wisdom, almighty power, unchangeable love, invariable truth.(2) The enjoyment of the Divine favour. 2. “ Teach me Thy statutes.” This implies-- (1) A fervent desire for an increasing knowledge of the important truths.(2) A supplication for growing experience of its sanctifying power and rich consolations. (T. Chalmers, D. D.) Psalms 119:136 Rivers of waters run down mine eyes, because they keep not Thy law.The wail of the good over the sins of the world I. They are the tears of order. Discord in sound is a cause of distress to a soul highly attuned to melody. But moral disorder is far more distressing to the soul of the truly spiritual, loyal and good. It is impossible for a man who has been brought into harmony with the eternal will of God and the order of the universe not to be distressed beyond measure at the pandemoniums that sin has created. II. They are the tears of philanthropy. It is the nature of love to desire the happiness of its object and to grieve over its misery. Its heart desire and prayer to God is, that it may be saved. But sin plays sad havoc with men, involves them in miseries, and sinks them to hells. In a world of misery a genuine philanthropist cannot therefore but shed “ rivers of tears.” III. They are the tears of piety. What can be more distressing to a man than to see the object of his strongest affections insulted, misrepresented, wounded, and bitterly opposed? This is what sinners do in relation to God; they transgress His precepts, they rebel against His authority, they aim to thwart His plans and wound His heart. What can piety do, therefore, but shed rivers of tears? (Homilist.) Glorious tears I. The tears of a patriot. He knew that those who obeyed not the laws of God were pernicious citizens and would endanger the commonwealth. “ Righteousness exalteth a nation,” but righteousness is obedience to eternal laws. II. The tears of a philanthropist. He knew that those who transgressed the Divine laws sinned against their own souls and endangered their own interest. He knew that all the sorrows and miseries sprang from disobedience. III. The tears of a religionist. He loved the great God, and he was grieved to hear His Name profaned, His precepts violated, and His authority contemned. (Homilist.) Grief for the mice of men If we mourn for sin truly, it will excite our grief wheresoever and by whomsoever it is committed. But, like all our sympathies, it will be excited more powerfully by the sins of those with whom we are more intimately connected, and by such of them as come mere immediately wit, bin the sphere of our own observation. We are to mourn more especially, though not exclusively, for the sins of our own land, of the city in which we dwell, of the Church with which we are in immediate fellowship, of the congregation of which we are members, and of our own families. I. Trace these rivers of grief to their springs.1. Grief for the sins of men springs from love to God. Sin is a violation of the authority of God, and an offence to the essential purity of His nature. It insults His majesty, and reflects dishonour (so far as a created act can do) upon all His attributes. 2. It springs from love to the law of God. Christians must reckon every sin as a violation of that law which the Son of God hath magnified, and made honourable, and vindicated by His obedience in our nature and in our stead. And God, by the agony and death of His Son, has stamped sin with the broad and burning brand of His hatred. 3. It springs from love to the sinner. 4. There are personal feelings which stir this grief and enter into its composition. When we see a person in distress, it frequently reminds us that we were once afflicted in the same or a similar way--a recollection which strengthens our sympathy, if it is not the spring from which it directly flows. In like manner the saint is made to recollect his former sins, and his grief for them mingles with that which he feels for the present sins of others. II. The leading qualities of this grief.1. It is genuine. (1) This is evinced by its impartiality. The sincere mourner is grieved for the sins of friends as well as of enemies,--of those of his own religious connection as well as those of other denominations,--for the sins of his own family as well as those of his neighbours; nay, he is more sensibly affected with the dishonours done to God by those who are most intimately connected with him--“ the provoking of sons and daughters.” He is grieved for all sin. (2) The genuineness of these tears is evinced by the ease with which they flow. Take a person of tender feelings to a scene of distress, and the tear will instantly start to his eye on beholding it. The mere sight of sin draws forth the sorrow of a godly man. 2. This grief is generous and seemly. Such tears become Christian men--men of stature and valour; for, as one has expressed it, “ it is the truest magnanimity to be sensible on the point of God’ s honour, which is injured by sin.” 3. This grief varies, especially in its expression, in different persons, and in the same person at different times. This is common to it with other gracious dispositions in the hearts of men who are but partially sanctified, and whose exercise, in this their sublunary state, resembles the tide which ebbs and flows according to the varying influence of the moon. 4. This grief is habitual. David in the text does not say, rivers ran, but run. Paul could call God to witness that he “ had great sorrow and continual heaviness in his heart “ for his unbelieving and impenitent countrymen. As long as Christians are in this world they will have reason for this feeling. 5. This grief is influential and profitable. It may be useful to others; it will be useful to ourselves. “ By the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better.” (T. McCrie, D. D.) Christian grief because of transgressors I. The dishonour done to God by the violation of His law. If a man of warm loyalty were living amongst traitors, it would wound him to the quick to hear the king whom he honoured continually reviled. If a man of warm friendship were with the enemies of the object of his love, it would surely grieve him to observe how this friend was hated and despised. And what are such feelings, in comparison with those which should arise in the man of real piety, when he beholds on all sides denial of God and defiance of His laws? What loyalty is comparable to his, seeing that the principle takes its greatness from the greatness of the object, and that it is to none other than the Lord of heaven and earth that he has given his allegiance? What friendship is comparable to His? II. The ruin which transgressors are bringing on themselves. The man who, like the psalmist, believes implicitly the Word of God and is thoroughly persuaded that all its threatenings will be executed. It is with him no matter of conjecture or speculation whether a life of wickedness will terminate in an eternity of misery. And who are these victims of Divine justice? Are they not; his fellow-men, his brethren after the flesh, those for whom he would bitterly sorrow if he knew them exposed to some great temporal calamity? Shall he, then, be unmoved by their everlasting wretchedness? III. The injury which they are causing to others. It is said by the psalmist, in regard of God’ s commandments--“ In keeping of them there is great reward.” The reward is present as well as prospective. It is no small part of this reward, that such is the nature of God’ s commandments, and such the intimate and indissoluble connection between obedience and happiness, that in proportion as the commandments are kept, the worst forms of evil are banished, and the best of good introduced. Shall it not, then, be with a genuine and deep sorrow that the righteous man, eager for a period of universal happiness, beholds the transgressors who are deferring that period, and prolonging the reign of confusion and misery? Who will say that his grief would be excessive, greater than the occasion warranted, if he were to weep over men’ s sins with such a weeping as that of the psalmist? (H. Melvill, B. D.) Christian compassion essential to Christian effort I. The occasion of Christian compassion. II. The nature of Christian compassion.1. It is distinguished by its Divine original. It is a creation of God in the soul.2. It is distinguished by its depth and intensity.3. It is characterized by its powerful practical influence. (1) Prayer.(2) Personal exertion. (T. Brookes.) The concern of the righteous for evil-doers I. Because they offend and sin against God’ s law. Before we can experience anything of this jealousy for God and His Word, we must, like David, learn to know Him, not merely on the report of others, but by our own experience; not merely to have heard His Word, or read it, but to have felt it, and partaken of it, and enjoyed it. II. On account of the happiness and peace sinners sacrifice by not keeping God’ s law.1. Oh, what an amount of present blessings do men lose by not keeping God’ s law! What joy in believing, what comfort of the Holy Ghost, what deep, genuine, abiding, solid peace! 2. Such are the present blessings which the believer enjoys; but who can describe those which are laid up for him at God’ s right hand for evermore? III. On account of the sorrows and miseries which they bring down upon themselves. IV. On account of the aggravated guilt under which they perish. Oh, what reason have we to weep over those whom we daily see putting off Christ for something they like better than Christ! (N. Ashby.) Saved by a tear A man had gained great notoriety through his profligate habits. His wife urged him one evening to remain at home, and not to go to the saloon. He became angry, and went out of the house, leading his little girl by the hand. The child, knowing how much the mother suffered, begged the father not to go to the saloon that night. He took her up in his arms, and on putting his face close to hers his cheek was wetted by a tear. He said, in telling his experience some time afterwards: “ My anger completely melted away. I determined to go back home and make my wife happy.” If he had fought against the influence of that tear, it might have been his destruction. Certainly it was a manly thing to surrender to the tear of love. Cease to oppose God, and with angry words to fight against the influence of friends who would save you from ruin. (Sunday Circle.) Won by tears One time I was preaching in Chicago, and when I gave out the invitation a man stood up. He was an enormous fellow, weighing twenty-two stone, and I thought to myself, “ You have caught a magnificent specimen to-night.” After the meeting was over I went down and sat behind him and talked to him. He said: “ Let me tell you how I came to take Christ to-day. I have been a church-goer all my life, but I only went to criticize, and when men got up in the prayer-meeting to talk I took out a little notebook which I kept, and wrote down what they said, and afterwards watched to see how their daily life agreed with what they said. I said to myself: ‘ All these Christians are hypocrites.’ My heart was as hard as stone; I was perfectly indifferent. I was taken very ill, and one day when I lay down I thought I was dying. A man came to me, and asked if he might pray for me. I said: ‘ Well, if you want to pray for me, I have no objection, if it will do you any good. If you will enjoy it, pray away.’ He knelt down beside my bed, and I watched him. I though I was dying, but I wasn’ t a bit frightened. I was perfectly callous and hardened, and as this man prayed for me I watched him out of the corner of nay eyes. As I was watching him out of the corner of my eyes, I saw a tear rolling down his cheeks, and I said to myself, ‘ Here is this man, a perfect stranger to me, and he is weeping over my sins and over my lost condition.’ That broke my heart. That is why I am here to-night. That is why I got up and asked for prayer. That is why I have taken the Lord Jesus. I tell you, you will win more men and women by your tears than you will ever win by your arguments.” (R. A. Torrey, D. D.) Psalms 119:137-144 Righteous art Thou, O Lord, and upright are Thy judgments.The testimony of a tried saint I. His testimony concerning God.1. Concerning the Divine character (verses 137,142). (1) God’ s righteousness has no standard but Himself What He does is right, not because it conforms to anything outside Himself, but because it conforms to His nature. (2) God’ s righteousness agrees with the moral constitution of the universe. Universal conscience agrees with it. “ Just and right are Thy ways.” 2. Concerning His Word. (1) Faithful. His Word is truth. (2) Pure as the purest gold, free from all dross, pure as the purest sunbeam, absolutely free from all erroneous thoughts, from all unholy sentiments and passions. II. His testimony concerning himself.1. Zeal for the Divine (verse 139). How few can say they are zealous for the right, person! When he saw the utter forgetfulness of his contemporaries of God, his heart glowed with zeal for the Divine glory. 2. Love for the purity of truth (verse 140). Some may love the truth on account of the beautiful form in which it is presented, the power of its suggestiveness and the sublimity of its speculations. But this man loved it for the sake of its purity. 3. Consciousness of self-insignificance (verse 141). How insignificant is the greatest man in comparison with God--His character and manifestations! 4. Joy in suffering (verse 143). His interest in the Divine Word bore him up and made him happy even under suffering. 5. A desire for further knowledge. “ More light” is what he wanted. (Homilist.) Psalms 119:140 Thy Word is very pure; therefore Thy servant loveth it.Religious affections spring from love to Divine things 1. A love to Divine things for the beauty of their moral excellency is the spring of all holy affections. 2. There is given to believers a new, supernatural sense, which perceives the beauty of holiness and is affected thereby. A holy object calls out a holy affection. The beauty and sweetness of holiness as found in God forms the grand object of a spiritual taste and appetite. 3. This moral beauty in God leads to the adoration of God by saint and angel. Conclusions.1. By this all may try their affections, their love and their joy. Graceless persons see no beauty in holy things. 2. The natural mind may have a great sense of God’ s greatness, wisdom and power: that is, of His natural attributes. 3. This sense of the natural mind may affect men in various ways--fill them with awe and terror, or with joy and praise. Hence too much stress may be placed upon the mere natural discoveries of the natural attributes in God. Man may be overwhelmed by a sense of God’ s greatness and majesty, and yet be without a particle of love to Divine things. But to the spiritual mind the natural attributes of God are all the more engaging because they are supplemented by His moral attributes. 4. And so, I may add, what love to Divine things do those possess who seem to be filled with worldliness, and are so fond of operas, theatres and frivolous amusements? (Homiletic Review.) God’ s Word tried to the uttermost (P. B. Version:--Notice a few of the ways in which the Word of God has been tried and found perfect. I. By prophecy. Things, and events, and persons have been foretold and described in it with the minutest detail, and they have all in due time been accomplished; as the seed of the woman predicted in Paradise, the deluge, the birth of Isaac, and Abraham’ s numerous posterity, the respective characters of Jacob and Esau, the future history of the twelve tribes, foretold by Jacob on his death-bed, the prophet like unto Moses, the 430 years of Israel’ s wanderings, the deliverance from Egypt, and possession of Palestine, etc. II. By miracles. Tried to the uttermost has the Word of God been by miracles of every variety, performed on every element, on the living and the dead, on fire and water, on Satan and his legions, on disease, the brute creation, and especially by the Resurrection and Ascension of our Lord. III. By persecution. Satan and wicked men have often tried to quench this spirit from Heaven. As Ahab hated Michaiah, and for the same reason, because “ he told him the truth,” men have fettered and silenced and destroyed the Word of God. Jehoiakim was not the only one who cut and burnt the sacred Scriptures. It has been tried to the uttermost in the furnace of persecution, and the result is that it is “ very pure,” proved more manifestly than ever to be from heaven. IV. By science. V. By experience. Thousands, millions have proved it to be God’ s power unto salvation. It has enlightened, renewed, comforted, and saved them. (John Harding, D. D.) Psalms 119:141I am small and despised: yet do not I forget Thy precepts.The common lot I wish to speak of our own separate lives. To the most wearied of you all, I would teach that there is hope. I would say, in spite of every trial which God’ s disguised mercy may send you, in spite of every humiliation which man’ s undisguised malice may inflict upon you, Respect yourselves! Value at its true estimate the soul which God has given to you; believe in the splendour of its possibilities and the glory of its immortality. “ He,” says Milton, “ who holds himself in reverence and due esteem both for the dignity of God’ s image upon him and for the price of his redemption, which he thinks to be possibly marked upon his forehead, accounts himself a fit person to do the noblest and godliest deeds, and much better worth than to deject and defile with such debasement and pollution as sin, is himself so highly ransomed and ennobled to new friendship and filial relationship with God; nor can he fear so much the offence and reproach of others as he dreads and would blush at the reflection of his own severe and modest eye upon himself, if it should see him doing or imagining that which is sinful, were it even in the deepest secrecy.” Thus, then, should we view our personal lives in that inherent grandeur which man can neither bestow upon them nor diminish. And we need thus to feel the sanctity of our beings. Do I net interpret the thoughts of many of you aright when I say that they are very often weighed down by depression and discontent. I ask whether many of you are not secretly saying in your hearts, “ Oh that I had a higher position, a wider influence, a larger scope” ? “ What boots it for me,” some of you will say, “ to come day after day through the weary streets to the dingy office, to copy and east up accounts till I am grey-headed and cast aside, or retire upon some miserable pension?” Or, “ Why am I a humble tradesman, harassed by incessant anxiety about my business?” Or, “ Why is no higher lot assigned to me in life than that of standing behind a counter to weigh sugar or measure ribbons?” Or, “ Why am I a poor, lonely woman who has apparently missed many of the natural ends of life, whom there are none to praise and very few to love?” And so, more or less, all but a few of us have a lot in life, as has been described, all the harder to bear because in the pathos of it everything is below the level of tragedy, except the passionate egotism of the sufferer. Ah! how many of these discontented murmurs rise from false notions and exaggerated claims; how many of them would vanish if, having food and raiment, we would be therewith content! Our complaints and miseries rise in no small measure from our failure to grasp the real meaning, and to understand the universal experience of life; they rise because, dropping the substance we grasp at the shadow; they rise because we take for solid realities the bubbles which burst at a touch. A child crying because it cannot have the moon is not more foolish and ignorant than we are when we suffer ourselves to be unhappy because wealth, and rank, and success, and power come to others and not to us. Keep God’ s commandments, and you, small and of no reputation as you may be, are much greater, and bettor, and happier than another who has all earthly gifts, and does not make his moral being his primo cars, as heaven is greater and better than earth. You sigh for riches; the Book in which you profess to believe pours silent contempt on gold. You wish for rank; the man who has the longest ancestry has no longer ancestry than yourselves. He and you are descended alike from the gardener of the lost Eden. You wish for genius, but he who increaseth knowledge very often increaseth sorrow. It is one of the most elementary lessons in life to know that these little earthly distinctions dwindle into absolute insignificance compared with real things, as time dwindles into nothing when compared to eternity. The world may, perhaps, hold you to be commonplace and insignificant people; but the world needs these hardly less than its gifted ones. It would be a woeful thing for the human race if all that is insignificant and all the commonplace were to be thrust to “ stand there” or “ sit there,” under others’ footstools, for the commonplace and the insignificant are the vast majority. Ninety-nine out of every hundred of us are in this sense, in the sense of the world, altogether commonplace and insignificant. Is it not the masses and the million who make mankind? What else have been the countless generations who lie under the miles of gravestones and ever extend-hag pavements of tombs and sepulchres? How many of all those who lie in the catacombs or in the cemetery, in the marble monument or mountain cave, have left even the shadow of a name? Our lot, then, is nothing exceptional, nothing to complain of, nothing to be depressed at. It is just the common, the all-but-universal lot. It has nothing to do with the essential meaning of life. (Dean Farrar.) Psalms 119:144 The righteousness of Thy testimonies is everlasting: give me understanding, and I shall live.Alive I. Consider this prayer in its simplicity.1. It is a suitable prayer for the awakened sinner. Christ is our life; but we need understanding, or we shall miss it. 2. It is equally applicable to one who is a Christian, and who is struggling against temptation. 3. It will often well up from the heart of the suffering believer. 4. It is suitable for workers. I want to get alive to the utmost; not only having life, but having it “ more abundantly.” I have some life in me, thank God; but I want it to quicken me more completely. 5. It is a very proper and blessed prayer for aspiring minds in the Church of God. 6. Last of all, when we shall not be so much aspiring saints as expiring saints,--when we come to lie upon our last bed, and to look into the unseen, then may we still pray after the same fashion. II. The prayer is to be more fully opened up.1. Here is a want confessed, because it is deeply felt. 2. The prayer is evidently put upon the footing of free grace. Understanding must be a gift from God. 3. The psalmist speaks of understanding in a general way--“ Give me understanding” --as if he wanted the faculty for use in many directions. We bear within our own natures so much to confuse, and confound, and entangle, that if we are not taught prudence and understanding we shall certainly never escape from the mischief that is within us. 4. Still, while the understanding sought for in the prayer is evidently of a general character, the former portion of the verse links it with a special understanding of the Word of God; and, oh, beloved, we need above all things to understand what God has revealed. Take care first that you know it. III. Now we will go deeper, laying bare the argument of this prayer.1. I think he means this--that the Word of God, when it is practically and experimentally understood by the mind, is a pledge of life. Do you think that God would take one of us to be His child and teach us His Word, and then after all permit us to be condemned to die? Is that His fashion? 2. The understanding of the Word of God is life, because we are told that the Word of God is the “ living and incorruptible seed which liveth and abideth for ever.” Very well, then, if that seed is sown in my heart, my heart must live for ever. There can be no death where the seed is incorruptible. If the Word of the Lord be living within us, then there is within us a life eternal. 3. The Word of God is not only the seed of life, but it is the food of life. “ Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God shall man live;” and if you live on the word that cometh out of God’ s mouth you cannot die. 4. The understanding of God’ s Word is the very flower, and crown, and glory of true life. When a man so understands God’ s Word as to experience it, and to practise it, he has reached a high point of spiritual culture, and his life will be loaded, like Aaron’ s rod, with buds, and blossoms, and fruit unto God’ s glory. He will be such a man that he shall only need to take one step and be in heaven. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Psalms 119:145-146I cried with my whole heart; hear me, O Lord: I will keep Thy statutes.Cries of distress Do we, or do we not, desire to get rid of every evil way? Are we anxious to be sincere and without offence, holy in our character, and obedient to God’ s statutes in our lives? I. Every man who desired purity of heart and character will betake himself to prayer. While struggling after purity he will soon discover that he is unable to reach it of himself. Sin will destroy us if we do not destroy it. Pray often, for sin will tempt often. Cry mightily, for Satan will tempt mightily. Innumerable snares will he place in your path; let your countless entreaties outnumber his devices. II. The man who desires to walk in God’ s way not merely prays, but he resolves. He will find out what God’ s statutes are; and when he has found them out, he will keep them, cost whatever it may. Need I say that nobody becomes holy against his will? No man keeps God’ s statutes without he exercises a resolve to do so. David sought after a thorough allegiance and a perfect conformity to the will of God. He says, “ I cried with my whole heart; I will keep Thy statutes” ; not some of the statutes that were agreeable to him, bur all of the statutes that had the Divine sanction. The true seeker for holiness is one who, while he resolves on obedience to God, will dare to be singular, if no man will accompany him in it. “ I cried with my whole heart; I will keep Thy statutes.” He meant to do it, though he should be without a companion, lie was prepared to stand alone. III. The man who is thus seeking purity, while he prays and resolves, if he be really wise and taught of the Spirit, will have a deep sense of his own weakness and depravity (verse 146). As though he should say, “ Oh, Lord, I am praying and resolving; but my prayers want Thine answers, and my resolutions need Thy might to fulfil them. My prayers--what are they? My resolves--what can they do? My God, I want sifting, I want sifting. Oh, save me, and then I shall keep Thy testimonies.” Before ever we can keep God’ s testimonies we must be saved. We must he saved first from the guilt of the past, from our sinful selves. We whose nature is evil cannot do much with so bad a nature to baffle all our efforts to cleanse our way. This nature must be removed and a new nature implanted, or else, whilst the old nature is extant the old evil will assert itself. Lord, save me, save me; change my heart; renew my spirit; make the fountain clear; set the mainspring right! Oh, Holy Ghost, regenerate me, and, if Thou do this, then, not till then, shall I keep Thy testimonies. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Psalms 119:148 Mine eyes prevent the night watches, that I might meditate in Thy Word. The inexhaustibleness of the Bible There is something very surprising in the fact--but that it is a fact admits of no debate--that the Bible is not of a size to alarm any one, be his time ever so occupied, and yet that it is of a size to engage all his time, be that time ever so completely at his disposal. You cannot find the individual, however many the years, and however great the diligence, which he has given to the study of the sacred volume, who feels that there is no more to be learnt from that volume; and that it is useless for him to re-peruse that volume. Yet, on the other hand, if you wish to guide a man into an acquaintance with “ the things which belong to his peace,” and accordingly press upon him the duty of reading the Bible, you can be met with no plausible excuse from the greatness of the prescribed task. It is not a huge library; it is only a single, and not very large book, which we entreat him to investigate; and with what fairness can a man of the most engrossing occupation plead “ want of time “ as his apology for refusing? We say again, this is one of the most extraordinary things to be observed in regard of the Bible. If the inspired writings together had filled a vast array of volumes, the great mass of men would have argued that the quantity sanctioned neglect. In our every endeavour at enforcing on them the duty of studying the Scriptures, we should have been met with the apparently reasonable statement that the necessary engagements of life forbade the embarking on so gigantic an undertaking. Then, on the other hand, had the Bible not been of so condensed and comprehensive a character that its chapters are libraries and its sentences volumes, the “ righteous of the earth,” having nothing but this single book to study, would presently have been left with nothing to study--nothing to ponder. A few short weeks would have finished a common book of the same size. What, then, is it but the Deity in the Bible which makes it like a fire for ever consuming and yet for ever unconsumed? These are two features which, in their combination, strongly mark off the Bible from all other books: these are two features, I say--that it is so small, that in regard of its study no one can be afraid of making a beginning; and that it is so large, that no one is ever able to make an end: and he who “ prevents the night watches” may always find fresh matter for meditation. Who amongst us that is accustomed to read the Bible with diligence and prayer can be ignorant that the contents of this Book seem to grow with the being examined; so that in place of exhausting, we multiply materials of thought? and that passages in which we observed no particular beauty or force, though they had been a hundred times read, will suddenly strike us as being full of the most valuable meaning, and words which we had overlooked as unimportant, dilate into sermons, preaching to us of duties and unfolding mysteries? There are texts in the Bible which we have often given up as hopelessly obscure; but with greater experience has come greater light; and dark sayings have burst forth as amongst the most brilliant and precious in Scripture. He is, indeed, a rare character amongst Christians who should feel the want of a larger Bible! There may undoubtedly be many points on which men long for fuller information, and many subjects which they may wish elucidated with greater clearness than is derivable from the pages of Holy Writ--but can any say that there remains nothing for him to examine in Scripture; that he has gone the whole length that revelation would carry him, and that he is at a standstill for want of a larger Bible? A larger Bible! Who is there of us who will dare to say that he has so exhausted a single chapter of the Bible that he may be confident that there is nothing more of instruction, nothing more of warning, nothing more of consolation to draw from its statements? And if it he thus true that the Bible is still unexhauted, though the world has for many centuries been diving into its treasures--that there are yet unexplored stores and riches to stimulate the industry and recompense the toil of every lover of its glorious truths, then must it on all hands be admitted that the Bible is adapted in its size, as well as in every other respect, to the capacities of human kind, since now in the old age of this creation, the sacred volume still presents fresh veins of precious ore, like a mine which, the more it is worked, the more it seems to contain and to yield. And since the world, if we may so express it, will not have finished the Bible when the concerns of humanity are wound up, and time itself shall die in eternity, then, indeed, we may well assent to the saying of St. John, that had all which Christ did been written--had, that is, great additions been made to the inspired volume of God Himself--“ the world could not have held the books.” But we also learn that the student of Holy Writ will never come to a stand in the study, as though the book were mastered, and had nothing further to yield to patient inquiry: nay, not even if from youth upwards to extreme old age, he could give as descriptive of himself the words of David in our text--“ Mine eyes prevent the night watches, that I may meditate in Thy Word.” (H. Melvill, B. D.) Psalms 119:151 Thou art near, O Lord. The nearness of God I. God is near us in the hour of human desertion. We are never in reality alone, never in reality deserted. On our right hand and on our left the Invisible walks. II. God is near us in the hour of temptation. When an army goes forth to battle, a true leader goes forth with it. In the supreme moment of his destiny, whether of downfall or triumph, God always stands by a follower. III. The nearness of god to us is seen in the various experiences of our life and growth. Now it is hard to analyze the sources and causes of growth. Ask the rose how it grows. Say to it, “ Whence came your sweetness and the royal colour of your leaves?” and the rising volume of its fragrance is your only answer. It cannot say how much it owes to the sun, how much to the shower, how much to the cloud, nor whether day or night brought most of perfume and beauty to it. So it is with the soul. You ask some aged Christian whence came her purity, her patience, her calm reliance and that hope of hers,--and can she tell you? No! She only knows that she is as she is through the grace of God. You may grope in darkness or walk in light, but He unto whom the light and darkness are one is over with you. (W. H. H. Murray.) The nearness of God I. The momentous import of the solemn fact. I hear people speaking of loneliness, and saying how chill is life, how bitter is their lot! What an implied insult to a God who is ever so near! II. A few of the consequences which this important fact involves.1. Then God knows all about us. 2. He not only knows us, but sees much to abhor. 3. He can also appreciate the good. The presence of God, then, should excite two vast opposing influences. It is deterrent to the bad, it is a help to the good. (Homilist.) Nearer, my God, to Thee Even in view of our folly and our failure, we who love the Lord will still rejoice that God sees us. We cannot hide our secret sins from Him, and I do not think we wish to. I. In what senses is God near to His people?1. He draws near to them by virtue of the sacrifice of Christ.2. Moreover, through the indwelling of the Spirit the Lord is near to us, not merely above us and about us, behind us and beneath us, compassing us about with songs of deliverance, but dwelling in the human heart. II. To whom does God thus specially approach?1. To the lowly.2. To the prayerful.3. To those who are in trouble.4. To the broken-hearted. III. What is the result of this Divine proximity?1. Recognizing this, we shall feel strong. If the Lord is near, it matters little who else is near, friend or foe.2. His presence should make us very watchful.3. If we know that God is near, we shall begin to want Him to be nearer still. (T. Spurgeon.) Psalms 119:157-160 Many are my persecutors and mine enemies.-- The trials and traits of piety I. The trials of piety. They are twofold--objective and subjective.1. Objective. “ Many are my persecutors and enemies.” “ In the world ye shall have tribulation,” etc. The seed of the serpent is always darting its venomous sting into the sensibilities of the seed of the woman. 2. The subjective. “ I beheld,” etc. Transgressors here points especially to apostates from Divine truth. In sooth all sin is moral apostasy, and all sin strikes sorrow into the heart of the pious. II. The traits of piety.1. Steadfast adherence to truth. “ Yet I declined not from Thy testimonies.” Whatever happens, hold fast to truth. 2. Loving devotion to rectitude. “ Consider how I love Thy precepts.” It is characteristic of a godly man that he delights in the law of God. 3. Devout craving for a higher life. “ Quicken me,” etc. “ I count not myself to have attained,” etc. Excelsior! is the watchword of the Christly soul. 4. A settled consciousness of the truth of God. “ Thy Word is true,” or, “ Thy Word is truth, and every one of Thy righteous judgments endureth for ever.” That is the sum total, and each unit of the sum of God’ s commandments is truth and perfection (John 3:33). (Homilist) Psalms 119:158I beheld the transgressors, and was grieved; because they kept not Thy Word.Christian grief over transgressors One of the influences and results of true piety on the heart is to move its sensibilities on behalf of the interests and welfare of others. One example out of many is presented to us in the text, the author of which was most probably Ezra, to whom, as the priest of Jehovah, pertained the duty of purifying the people from their abominations on their return from captivity, and of settling the institutions by which, when restored to the land of their forefathers, they were to be recovered. He had taken a survey of the state of society, both in his own country and in other nations, and his spirit was stirred within him. I. A contemplation of the prevalent habits and character of mankind. “ I beheld the transgressors.”1. God has actually established a law for the government of mankind. 2. There is amongst mankind a prevalent and a fearfully extended rebellion against this law. 3. The case of those who are in the attitude of rebellion against the Divine law should, by pious minds, be made the matter of frequent and serious contemplation. II. A record of the emotions which this contemplation properly and specially produces upon the pious mind. “ I beheld the transgressors, and was grieved.”1. For what reasons this emotion must be excited. (1) Because transgression is so insulting to God.(2) Because transgression is so fatal to the happiness of mankind. 2. To what conduct this emotion should prompt. (1) To personal nonconformity and separation from the transgressions which we witness, and over which we mourn.(2) To personal exertion in the diffusion of that truth which God has appointed as the instrument to reconcile and to save. (J. Parsons.) Tearful concern for the godless The evangel is not in the first place a denunciation of sin, nor a pronouncement of punishment. It is an announcement of good news. “ Dr. Dale once said to me in his study that he knew of only one man who had the right to speak of the possibility of a soul being lost. ‘ Who is that?’ I inquired; and he answered, ‘ Dwight Lyman Moody. The reason is that he never did it without tears in his voice, and never without passing on to proclaim how that man could be saved.’” (Campbell Morgan.) Psalms 119:160 Thy word is true from the beginning.The Bible--God’ s Word Civilization, intelligence, morality, and general prosperity unmistakably mark the pathway of the Bible. These are the results that follow its introduction, or they are the signs that mark its coming. Or if these evidences of civilization precede the Book, they precede it as the rays of the morning sun precede the sun itself. I. The word of God would be exposed to objection, and also liable to rejection by reason of the natural state of the human heart. All truth is truth, but the truth of the Bible differs from other truth in an important particular. The truth of the Bible is addressed specially, not to the intellect, but to the ethical or the moral character, and hence it involves moral accountability, and is, therefore, imperative in a sense in which truth ordinarily is not imperative. The Book is the true reformer. It begins with the heart, and it requires changes there, and the evidences of which are also to be apparent in the life. Hence the disinclination of the unregenerate man to consult the Bible either for counsel or instruction. Hence also the ignorance of what the Book really contains. II. The pride of the human reason also interferes with the study and the reception of the Word of God. This remark applies more especially to those who profess to be the more learned among their fellow-men. In some departments of knowledge they are entitled to the advanced position which they profess to have attained. But their knowledge is ascribed to discovery. New truths in science are said to be discovered, and their discovery is ascribed to the superior knowledge or wisdom of the discoverer. But the Bible is a revelation, and not in any sense merely a discovery of the human reason; and as such it also claims acceptance by the human reason, and that without any distinction of persons. But this again is not agreeable to the speculative turn and the ambitious spirit of the human mind, which has been accustomed to discover truth rather than to receive it in the ordinary manner. He who saw with clear and open eye the mystery of the human soul, accounted for His rejection on the one hand, and for the feeble influence of the Gospel on the other, by saying that “ men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.” The same truth applies to the acceptance and to the rejection of the Bible. Not the want of sufficient evidence, but a moral cause, and often also a bad life is the strongest objection to the Bible. But the folly of the objection to the Bible, by reason of the purity of the heart and the uprightness of the life which it requires, is manifest in the fact that as any believe in a righteous God, to that extent also must there be a revelation possessing the characteristics of the God who makes it. The Book must bear the impress of its Divine Author. III. But why should the Bible be rejected in view of its character and its influence on the earth? It is the most remarkable Book in the world’ s literature. It is the basis for the religion of the civilized nations of the globe. It is everywhere the conserving companion of civil and religious freedom. It is the rock upon which governments must rest; it is the reflection of the Divinity, and the hope of humanity. It has been called the “ Star of Eternity,” and rightly so, since only by its light the bark of man can cross the Sea of Life and reach the shores of immortality securely. It has been most truthfully said, that whilst the Bible comprises in bulk not more than the three-hundredth part of the Greek and the Roman literature extant, yet it has attracted and concentrated more thought upon itself, and has produced more books than all the Greek and Roman literature combined. This attraction and concentration of thought has also been on the part of those nations that occupy the very forefront of civilization, science, and learning. Said Thomas Carlyle, “ There never was any other book like the Bible, and there never will be such another.” And when one said to Carlyle, “ There is nothing remarkable in the Book of Proverbs,” Carlyle’ s reply was, “ Make a few.” Yes, make a few only. Ordinarily the philosopher writes books for those who are devoted to philosophy. The scientist writes books adapted to the student of science. The statesman writes books for the sage and the statesman. But in the Bible we have fishermen writing books for the philosopher. Men in the shepherd’ s tent writing books for the statesman. Tax-gatherers writing books for teachers, judges, and legislators. Herdsmen writing poetry and prophecy. Physicians writing history and theology. No, there never was any other book like the Bible, and there never will be such another. IV. “the Word of the Lord endureth for ever.” And so the Bible has come to stay. As long as there is a living soul upon the earth, so long also will that Book remain in the earth. It is the Word of God; and the Word of God and the human soul, which is also God-given, are in need of each other, and whilst the one remains here so also will the other. (J. B. Helwig, D. D.) True from the first Take this declaration in many ways. Take it as a reference of a documentary kind. God’ s Word will be before us as a book or scroll, the scribe will refer to page one, line one, and he will go with us through every line and paragraph, and show us that the Word is true in root, and core, and origin, that the first syllable is a syllable of eternal, tranquil veracity. That would be the poorest way of all to take. A mere scribe never can be great. Yet even the scribe has his argument and his illustration, and we cannot do without the assistance of the scribe: we pass through the portal into the temple, we pass through the letter into the spirit; let us make a right use of the vestibule. Blind are they and foolish to themselves who tarry in the portico, thinking it the king’ s banqueting chamber. Look at the text from another and totally different point of view, namely, as covering all the instincts, desires, and aspirations of man’ s original moral constitution. In this sense it is true from the beginning; that is to say, the moment we begin to be, it begins to talk to us. The Bible is the dawn book; it whitens the east of our development, and goes with us through all the changing cloud and all the accumulating degrees until we wester towards our setting. If the Bible is not true in this sense, it cannot be true in any other. It is a moral revelation. If it can only join us at certain points in life, then it is an accidental book. The psalmist, with all the riches of his experience, with all his minute, personal, and kingly knowledge of life, says, “ Thy Word is true from the beginning.” That is to say, it is not a guess, not a happy answer to a bewildering enigma. It comes to us with the authority of being right--true. The square was right before the building was put up, or before the square itself as an article in timber was ever made. The plumb-line cannot lie; the geometry of the universe is the text-book of all material, substantial, and permanent progress. The plumb-line does not by trial and use become true; it has not to be fastened down to something; let it alone, and it will swing itself into harmony with “ the process of the suns.” Thus we come upon the greatest argument for inspiration, namely, the sufficiency of the Bible to meet us in all the need, and pain, and service of life. First thing in the morning, last thing at night, in the market-place, in affliction, in intellectual bewilderment, in moral self-disgust, everywhere, the Bible will join us, interpret us to ourselves, and interpret God to humanity. This, and not some cunning or skilful display of words, is the great and unanswerable argument for the inspiration of the Bible. What have we to do, then, with this Book of God? Test it. Lean upon it; draw out of it all that is in it, so far as your hunger and thirst require; put it to the proof, and if it fail you after honest trial, say so. But be sure of your interpretation. No Scripture is of any private interpretation. We must not use the Bible for purposes of sorcery or witchcraft, or prostitute it to any debased uses. We can only read the Bible aright in the spirit of the Bible itself, and we can only test the Bible aright when we test it honestly, broadly, continually. What is the testimony of people who have so tested it? “ Thy Word is true from the beginning.” (J. Parker, D. D.) “ The sum of Thy Word is truth” (R.V.):--That is to say, the total of it; in other words, it amounts to truth; in varied phrase it brings together all the elements that are necessary to constitute the sum-total of moral and spiritual truth; or, in still varied words, without it we should have parts of truth, little glimmerings and aspects of truth; but having Thy Word, we have Truth. Who translated that Word so? He who offered the intercessory prayer with Gethsemane in front of Him, with the shadow of Golgotha already falling upon His beautiful, but marred, face. Said he, “ Thy Word is truth” ; sanctify them by Thy Word; make them holy; complete them; set them apart to consecration by Thy Word. “ Thy Word is truth.” Thus the voices join. What wonder if He who thus spake should, a few days afterwards, have begun at Moses and the Psalms, and expounded to wondering, saddened hearts all the things concerning Himself! The psalmist had said: “ The sum of Thy Word is truth” ; and He, greater Psalmist, with the blood-sweat soon to ooze from His bent brow and face, had said in prayer to God, “ Thy Word is truth.” Thus age speaks to age, as “ star unto star speaks light.” (J. Parker, D. D.) Psalms 119:161 Princes have persecuted me without a cause: but my heart standeth in awe of Thy Word.A common fact and a rare experience I. A common fact. The history of persecution and martyrdom has been, if not always inspired, sanctioned and enforced by “ princes.” Their conduct in this respect is--1. In direct antagonism to the Divine intention.2. Gradually alienating the hearts of people from their class. II. A rare experience.1. Reverence for God’ s Word. The meaning of this, perhaps, is, I have a greater dread of violating Thy law than I have of all the persecuting powers of princes or potentates. This is right, this is sublimely noble.2. Delight in God’ s Word (verse 162).3. Loyalty to God’ s Word (verse 163).4. Gratitude for God’ s Word (verse 164). (Homilist.) Psalms 119:162I rejoice at Thy Word, as one that findeth great spoil.Great spoil How often is this idea repeated in Scripture! It is developed by our Lord in several of His parables, and touches us all very nearly. I. The discovery of the unexpected. Religion is full of surprises. A flash of Divine light will startle us with some new meaning in every line. The religious man is ever finding.1. He finds new depths of his own possibilities.2. He finds new regions of intense existence.3. He finds new glories in all he sees.4. He finds the unfathomable height of infinite love.5. He finds the unspeakable wisdom of almighty purposes. The deeper he digs the more he discovers. II. The obtaining great possessions--“ Finding great spoil.”1. Finding implies obtaining without cost. He who obtains eternal life does so without money and without price. 2. Finding implies activity. It may not mean seeking, for we may find without seeking. But no man can “ find” unless he has his eyes open. The possession discovered is great. There is nothing mean in God’ s kingdom--all is great. What is greater than soul-life? What is greater than heaven? What is greater than eternity? Great spoil! (Homilist.) Great spoil It is a figure taken from men of war, who, after they have overcome their enemy, divide the plunder among them. This expression is most natural as coming from David. David had been a soldier from his youth up, and he knew personally and literally what it was to divide the spoil. How I like to hear men both in prayer and praise speak like themselves! So must it be with the soldier: if cold, dead propriety rules him you will not know whether he is a soldier or a citizen; but let him grow enthusiastic, and his speech betrayeth him; wars and rumours of wars are in his utterances; he sings and prays to martial music. I. This great joy is sometimes aroused by the fact that there is a Word of God.1. This is true if we regard the Scriptures as a revealing of God. After going up and down in the world searching after Deity it is a great delight to come upon a book in which the one only living and true God has unveiled Himself to those who care to behold Him. It is a great “ find” for a man to discover that after all he is not left in a fog to grope his way, but that God has kindled a sun that honest hearts may walk in the light of it and in that light see all things clearly. 2. We also prize it as the guide of our life. This Book tells us the right and bids us follow it; it teaches us the way of wisdom, and the path of understanding, and supplies motives for walking therein. 3. More than this, a word from God apprehended in the soul is a sure pledge of mercy. Consider what words those words of God are; how full of love, and grace, and tenderness. 4. Holy Scripture, when it comes to us with power as the Word of God, is the beginning of communion with God. II. Frequently the joy of the believer in the Word arises out of his having had to battle to obtain a grasp of it.1. We have had to fight over certain doctrines before we could really come at them. 2. What a fight there is sometimes over a promise. 3. Sometimes the hardest fight is round a precept. 4. A sharp warfare often goes on over the threatenings. 5. Yet, once more, this is true about the Word which reveals Christ. We know not Christ aright till we are conformed to what we know of Him. If Christ be lovely we shall not understand that loveliness till we are in a measure lovely ourselves. We must get to be like Him; and oh, when we do, then every lineament of that dear face will be conspicuously and transcendentally charming to us, because we have come to it through suffering. III. At times the joy of the believer lies in enjoying God’ s Word without any fighting at all.1. The Word of the Lord is often as spoil found, not fought for. The promise lies before me on the way, and I find it, and by the law of the kingdom of grace it becomes mine for the finding. What joy is this? 2. The spoil, however, must have cost somebody else most dear, though it has cost us nothing. Ah, what a fight--Gethsemane and Calvary! Life, light, peace, joy, holiness, immortality, heaven,--all these are brought back by our great Conqueror, who has taken the prey from the mighty, and brought back the lawful captives, leading captivity captive. O, brethren, we do rejoice when we get a hold of the precious treasures of the Word as Jesus Christ’ s spoil, fought for by Himself, and then distributed to us. IV. There is a joy arising out of the very fact that Holy Scripture may be considered to be a spoil.1. A spoil is the end of the uncertainty. When a man has in experience fought up to confidence in the Word of the Lord, or has had it effectually laid home by the Holy Spirit to his own soul, then he reaches the end of the controversy so far as he himself is concerned: he is dividing the spoil, for he says, “ We have known and believed the love which God hath,” etc. 2. It is the weakening of the adversary for any future attacks; for when they divide the spoil they say to one another, “ The invaders will be here again, no doubt, before long; but they will not have this great gun to turn upon us; we have spiked it. They may again take up arms; but their force is broken.” Every doubt a man conquers by resting on the infallible Word has weakened the power of unbelief within him, and strengthened his faith. 3. In dividing the spoil there is always a sense of victory, and so there is in believing God’ s Word. In getting firm hold upon the faithful testimony of our God, we achieve a conquest over doubts, fears, disquietudes, and all our proud judgments of God. 4. In dividing the spoil there is profit, pleasure, and honour. When we can say that the things which God has revealed are ours, then we are rich beyond a miser’ s dream; and when we can hold them against all comers, then that which we believe becomes our honour and gives glory to us, and glory to faith, and chief glory to Him who wrought our faith in us by His almighty Spirit. 5. The spoil is a prophecy of rest, and so is that delightful dividing up of the Word of God, and the appropriation thereof by faith. “ Ah,” said the Romans when they spoiled old Carthage, “ we shall never see another Hannibal at our gates, nor dread the ships of Carthage in our seas.” They had overcome their most potent adversary when they utterly spoiled her, and when they looked for a long period of peace. And that is the joy of receiving the Word. When we can believe that Jesus took our sins, and suffered for them on the tree, we are no more troubled as to the guilt of sin. When we believe that our heavenly Father overrules all things for the good of His people, then sorrow and sighing, fear and fretting flee away. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Psalms 119:164 Seven times a day do I praise Thee.David, the model of praise David was a model of praise-- I. For temporal blessings. We do not praise God, as much as we ought, for our temporal blessings. II. For spiritual blessings. This is what he means in one place, when he says that God’ s statutes “ are more to be desired than gold,” etc. (Psalms 19:10). This is what he means again, when he says, “ Because Thy lovingkindness is better than life,” etc. III. Of growing praise. When he had learned to praise God for His mercies, he went on praising Him more and more. When he first began to praise God, he only speaks of doing it once a day (Psalms 59:16). Then it seemed as if he thought that once a day was not often enough to praise God; and so (Psalms 141:2). Then he speaks of (Psalms 57:17). That was three times a day. And then, here, in the text, he says: “ Seven times a day will I praise Thee.” This shows how the spirit of praise was growing in David. IV. Of universal praise. He says in one place, “ All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth” (Psalms 25:10). He meant to say that whatever God does to His people He does in mercy and in love, and therefore we ought to praise Him for it. And so we see that David had learned to thank God for everything; and in this way he became the model of universal praise (Psalms 119:39; Psalms 119:62; Psalms 119:71; Psalms 34:19). He had learned to thank and praise God for everything that He did for him. And we should try to follow the model that David has set us in this respect. (R. Newton, D. D.) Psalms 119:165 Great peace have they which love Thy law: and nothing shall offend them.The glowing testimony of the good This is the testimony of-- I. Philosophy. Moral remorse, malign passions, dark forebodings, battling impulses, these are the source of all inner tumult; but, in the nature of the case, where the soul is in a loving ruling sympathy with God’ s law, such elements of distress cannot exist. II. Scripture (Proverbs 3:13; Philippians 4:7; John 14:27). III. Experience. In proportion to the amount of the low of God in the heart of a man is his peace--with his own nature, his conscience, and God. (Homilist.) The lover of God’ s law filled with peace I. A spiritual character. “ They which love Thy law.”1. Love lies deep, it is in the heart: it is not a thing of the surface, it is of the man’ s own self. As a man loveth so is he. To love God’ s law is to have the very nature and essence of our manhood in a right condition. 2. This inward and spiritual love to God’ s Word includes many other good things. (1) A deep reverence for it.(2) This advances to rejoicing in it.(3) Further than this, we receive Holy Scripture with emotion.(4) Great gratitude to God for His Word is formed in the believing heart. 3. This love is productive of many good things. (1) Meditation on it.(2) Courage in defence of it.(3) Penitence for having sinned against it.(4) Patience under suffering.(5) Holiness. 4. If in any of us there is a love of the law of the Lord, this is a work of the Holy Spirit. II. A special possession. When Orientals meet each other their usual salutation is “ Shalom” --“ Peace be to thee.” The word does not mean merely quiet and rest, but happiness or prosperity. Great peace means great prosperity. Those who love God’ s law have great blessedness in this life as well as in that which is to come. In loving the law of God we have intense enjoyment and real success in life.1. Great restfulness of the intellect.2. A pacified conscience.3. Peace in heart.4. Peace as to our desires.5. Peace in resignation to God, acquiescence in His will, and conformity to it.6. A happy confidence in God as to all things in the past, the present, and the future. III. A singular preservation. “ Nothing shall offend them.”1. Intellectual stumbling-blocks are gone.2. No moral duty shall be a cross to them.3. They can stand alone. Solitude does not offend them. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The greatness of God’ s peace Its greatness appears from-- I. Its being the result of love to the Divine law. II. Its being identically that peace which Christ bestows upon His own, which He designated His peace, and which none but He can bestow. III. Whether, therefore, you contemplate the agent or the agency, you behold here a peace so grand and so elevating, that the possessors of it must embrace the whole law with their whole souls. They can except against none of all the gracious commandments. There is not one thing you can put them on, whether to do or to suffer, which, in the strength of that heavenly love, and by the help of that grace, they will not go into for their Saviour. (John Bruce, D. D.) The happiness of holiness I. We are surrounded by law. The law holds our entire being in its grasp--our heart, our secret acts, our words, our life, and there is no escape: nor is there any breaking of the law with impunity. II. We can have no true peace while out of harmony with law. The consciousness of wrong-doing brings a weight upon the soul (Psalms 32:4; Psalms 38:4). An unwillingness to submit creates internal strife (Romans 7:12-24): therefore there is no peace to the wicked. III. How can harmony with Divine law be attained? By pardon through the atonement. By the renovation of our nature, so that the law is written on the heart (Hebrews 8:10)--so that the heart delights in that which the law enjoins (Ezekiel 36:25-27). IV. Great peace results from this harmony.1. Absolutely perfect peace with and in God: the King is now our friend: loyalty is natural--“ perfect love casteth out fear.” 2. Peace with ourselves--the internal war is ended. Conscience is at rest, duty is a delight. 3. Peace with all mankind so far as lies in our power. 4. Peace with the universe, for when we are in harmony with law we are in harmony with God, and therefore with the whole God-pervaded universe. (C. O. Eldridge, B. A.) Submieeion and peace Loving the law of God, not only with delight in the vehicle of its expression, but with inward submission to its behests, we shall have-- I. The peacefulness of a restful heart. Such a heart has found an adequate and worthy object for the outgoings of its affections. Base things loved always disturb. Noble things loved always tranquillize. For our hearts are like the creatures in some river, of which they tell us that they change their colour according to the hue of the bed of the stream in which they float and of the food of which they partake. The heart that lives on the will of God will be calm and steadfast, and ennobled into reposeful tranquillity like that which it grasps and grapples. II. The calm of a submitted will. If you were ever on board a sailing ship you know the difference between its motion when it is beating up against the wind and when it is running before it. In the one case all is agitation and uneasiness, in the other all is smooth, and frictionless, and delicious. So, when we go with the great stream, in not ignoble surrender, then we go quietly. It is God’ s great intention, in all that befalls us in this life, to bring our wills into conformity with His. Blessed is the ministry of sorrow, and of pain, and of loss, if it does that for us. And disastrous and accursed is the ministry of joy and success if it does not. III. The peace of an obedient life. When once we have taken it (and faithfully adhere to the choice) as our supreme desire to do God’ s will, we are delivered from almost all the things that distract and disturb us. Away go all the storms of passion, and we are no more at the mercy of vagrant inclinations. And as thus we may be delivered from all the agitations and cross-currents of conflicting wishes, inclinations, aims, which otherwise would make a jumble and a chaos of our lives, so, on the other hand, if for us the supreme desire is to obey God, then we are delivered from the other great enemy to tranquillity--namely, anxious forecasting of possible consequences of our actions, which robs so many of us of so many quiet days. “ I do the little I can do,” said Faber, “ and leave the rest with Thee.” And that will bring peace. IV. The peace of freedom from temptations. “ Nothing shall offend them.” The higher love casts out the lower. Which is best, to overcome our temptations, or to live away up in the high regions to which the malaria of the swamps never climbs, and where no disease-germs can ever reach? That elevation is possible for us, if only we keep in close touch with God, and love the law because our hearts are knit to the Law-giver. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Of the inward peace and pleasure which attends religion I. Religion is apt to remove the chief causes of inward trouble and disquiet.1. Doubt and anxiety of mind. 2. Guilt of conscience. II. Religion ministers to us all the true causes of peace and tranquillity of mind. Whoever lives according to the rules of religion, lays these three great foundations of peace and comfort to himself:--1. He is satisfied that in being religious he doth that which is most reasonable. 2. That he secures himself against the greatest mischiefs and dangers by making God his friend. 3. That upon the whole matter he does in all respects most effectually consult and promote his own interest and happiness. III. The reflection upon a religious and virtuous course of life doth afterwards yield a mighty pleasure and satisfaction. (Abp. Tillotson.) Love of God’ s law a source of peace I. The character of those whom the psalmist describes. They love God’ s law. At the outset of religion our thoughts are generally fixed on God as a God of mercy and compassion. We almost lose sight of His other perfections: but this cannot last. And when we come to survey Him as the Just One, the Holy One, the Faithful One, as well as the Merciful One; the more we consider God as a combination of perfections--oh, we shall presently see that there is no safety for us unless and until those perfections are all and each on our side. But when this feeling is engendered, and we are brought naturally to love the law just as we do the redemption, we satisfy the law. The law is not merely admired, not merely reverenced, the law is loved--loved as what it was worthy of God to give--what it was worthy of Christ to fulfil, and what Christ has fulfilled by a Suretyship which leaves not one jot to be exacted from the sinner. And why have they “ great peace” ? Because there is no attribute of God to which they who love the law cannot find themselves reconciled. II. Take the character thus deciphered, and examine why it happens that there are not stumbling-blocks to those who possess it. Suppose we take certain of the hindrances which men meet with in following Christ, and endeavour to show you in each how, through loving the law, the obstacle is surmounted. For instance, the unequal distribution both of good and of evil in this life is often a perplexing thing to the righteous. But now observe--he who loves the law is exactly equipped for surmounting this offence. In being brought to love the law, a man has been brought into acquaintance with each and every attribute of God. Therefore he is quite assured of the justice of God; he is quite assured of the faithfulness of God. Again, when afflictions come thick on the godly man, they have a tendency to stagger him, or to serve as a “ stumbling-block.” But it will certainly be the man who loves God’ s law who is best prepared to meet such impediments; for it is required by the terms of the law that we should know God’ s attributes, and take delight in them all. Knowing each attribute, loving each attribute, he will be meekly confident that the issue must be right, though the process may be dark. And there are other kinds of offence, or stumbling-blocks, which may be met with by the Christian. Living, as we all must live, in some considerable degree, in association with our fellow-men, we are necessarily exposed to an influence, direct or indirect, excited by their conduct; for you can scarcely find the man of whom it can be truly said, that he is independent of the behaviour of others; that is, in the sense that his own moral character is not likely to be either advantaged or prejudiced by the deportment of those about him. Look, for example, at the faults and inconsistencies of religious professors. The faults of any one religious professor--covetousness, for example--ambition--the love of show--the ready association with the world--the facility in keeping piety out of sight, when it is likely to keep him out of favour--all these inconsistencies, put forth in the name of one professor of godliness, are calculated to damp the ardour of a hundred others, and bring into disrepute all those realities of religion, which, being removed, there remains nothing but the skeleton of Christianity. Who, we want to know, is best prepared to meet this offence? He who is a lover of the law. If I have reached the point of loving the law, if I love God because He hates sin, if I love God because He will punish sin, if I love God because He requires “ holiness in the inward parts” --and all this, yea, and a vast deal more is love of God’ s law--then I have such an acquaintance with God as puts me far beyond the reach of accidents or contingencies. I know God--if the expression may be allowed--thoroughly; I know Him too well, under those very aspects with which the generality of Christians are least familiar, to render it necessary that I should infer His properties from what is done by others, or from what happens to others; and thus my love of the law gives me practically independence on the conduct or intercourse of my fellow-Christians; and I can overleap the obstacles which their failures may have thrown in my way; and thus I can verify the assertion “ Nothing shall offend” those who “ love the law of their God.” (H. Melvill, B. D.) Peace amid troubles I. A possession.1. There may be peace without great peace. But Christians have great peace. It appertains to a great subject, the soul; it eases great anxieties, those which have to do with our relation to God, and it has an abiding greatness of power, for no man taketh it away. 2. This peace is connected with obedience. The renewed spirit is under the law of the spirit of life. A living Christ rules as truly as a code! He says, “ thou shelf not” more successfully. Take the spirit of true love. If I really love, shall I injure in thought, word, look, deed? Not I. The law will rule me everywhere; it will be the law of the spirit of life.3. Love will be the affectional bond. Here is the strength of the Christian man l Sin becomes distasteful to him--its bread bitter, its waters brackish. In fact, duty is like drawing a triumphal ear; and wearing the thorn-crown is like bearing some insignia of highest order. II. An exemption. “ Nothing shall offend them.”1. Circumstances do not hurt them, or are not a stumbling-block to them. They are not too careless to despise them, or too heartless, in a human sense, to refuse to extract all the honey out of life’ s flowers that they can. Things present, as well as “ things to come,” are theirs. 2. Temptations do not hurt them. Arrows glance harmlessly aside from the impenetrable shield of the Christ-filled soul. 3. Death does not hurt them. How can it? They surely have been meetening for it. It is not always longed for, but it is prepared for. (W. M. Statham.) Psalms 119:166-168 Lord, I have hoped for Thy salvation, and done Thy commandments.A justifiable hope There is a true hope and a false hope, a justifiable and an unjustifiable hope--the words direct us to the former. I. Here is a hope that has a justifiable object. What is the object? “ Thy salvation.” What does the real salvation of man involve?1. Restoration to lost holiness. The soul was created in the image of God, that is, in moral perfection. That image it has lost, the restoration of that is salvation. The restoration of purity, love, spiritual freedom, loyalty. 2. The restoration of lost usefulness. The soul was made to be useful, to render by its true thoughts, pure sympathies, and wise counsels, service to other souls. But this usefulness it has lost. As a rule, men are injurious to each other. Salvation is the restoration of this usefulness. All souls ministering and inter-ministering to the good of one another. Now, is not this a justifiable object of hope? This is the hope which God has set before us in the Gospel. II. Hero is a hope that has a justifiable reason. The reason here assigned for this hope is devotion to the right. A man who is loyally and livingly devoted to the right has undoubtedly a justifiable reason for “ hoping for salvation.” It cannot be purchased, it cannot be given, it must grow out of the soul devoted to rectitude. (Homilist.) The doing of God’ s commandments Set upon the practice of what you read. A student in physic doth not satisfy himself to read over a system or body of physic, but he falls upon practising physic. The life-blood of religion lies in the practical part. Christians should be walking Bibles. Xenophon said, “ Many read Lycurgus’ s laws, but few observe them.” The Word written is not only a rule of knowledge, but a rule of obedience; it is not only to mend our sight, but to mend our pace. David calls God’ s Word “ a lamp unto his feet” (verse 105). It was not only a light to his eyes to see by, but to his feet to walk by. By practice we trade with the talent of knowledge, and turn it to profit. This is a blessed reading of Scripture, when we fly from the sins which the Word forbids, and espouse the doctrines which the Word commands. Reading without practice will be but a torch to light men to hell. (T. Watson.) Psalms 119:168I have kept Thy precepts and Thy testimonies: for all my ways are before Thee.A sincere summary, and a searching inquiry (with verse 176):--These two verses form a paradox, both true, and true of the same man, at the same time. I. Our first text is a sincere summary of a godly man’ s life. Looking back, he can say of it in general, “ I have kept Thy precepts,” etc.1. It is needfull that we should have so lived that this shall be the summary of our life; for if we have not so lived, what evidence have we that we have been born again,--that we have passed from death unto life,--that we have been delivered from the bondage of sin, and brought into the way of holiness? 2. Whenever a man can truly say, with the psalmist, “ I have kept Thy precepts and Thy testimonies,” it is a fruit of grace. 3. This summary of life is excellent for its breadth. “ I have kept Thy precepts and Thy testimonies.” I feel that I am as much bound to believe right as to act right; and it is just as truly a sin to believe error, when I can learn the truth, as it is to commit iniquity. 4. It is excellent for its length. 5. It is excellent from its cause. The psalmist kept God’ s precepts and testimonies because all his ways were before God. He felt that God was watching him, he lived under the consciousness of God’ s presence with him both by night and day. 6. It is excellent from its use. It is an argument for the Gospel which the most sceptical cannot refute, and it is a most blessed way of propagating that Gospel, for men are more often convinced by our actions than by our words. II. The psalmist, after he had spoken thus, and spoken quite sincerely and truly, yet felt that he must close his long life’ s summary in another fashion. He then uttered our second text, which I called a searching scrutiny: “ I have gone astray,” etc. The life of a believer may be like that of Job, “ perfect and upright,” but when it comes under the scrutiny of an eye that is illuminated by the Spirit of God, and touched with the heavenly eye-salve, quite another verdict is given; and, tremblingly, with many tears, the confession is poured into the ear of God, “ I have gone astray like a lost sheep” ; followed by the petition, “ Seek Thy servant” ; and the renewed declaration, “ for I do not forget Thy commandment.” (C. H. Spurgeon.) Psalms 119:169-176 Let my cry come near before Thee, O Lord: give me understanding according to Thy Word.A model prayer I. The earnestness it breathes. “ Let my cry come near before Thee, O Lord.” This prayer is not a statement, not an address, but a “ cry” denoting great fervency. Importunacy is the essential characteristic of true prayer. “ The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” II. The mercies it invokes.1. Spiritual light. “ Give me understanding according to Thy Word.” In a moral sense we are blind and foolish. 2. Soul deliverance. “ Deliver me according to Thy Word.” Through the fall, souls are embarrassed, imperilled, and enslaved. 3. Divine help. “ Let Thine hand help me.” We talk of self-helpfulness. This alone is a fiction, a dream. No hand can really help us but the hand of God. 4. Continued existence (verse 175). He wishes to live, not for any selfish ends, but in order to praise the Lord. III. The pleas it urges.1. The testimony he pleads is the testimony of God. He prays for what was Divinely promised. All true prayer must be guided by the Divine Word. 2. He pleads his resolution to praise God (verses 171, 172). He resolves to lay out the remainder of his days in the service of his Maker. “ Unto Him be glory,” etc. 3. He pleads his delight in the Divine law (verse 174). Those who fully appreciate what they have from God are warranted to expect, and qualified to receive, more. IV. The confession it makes (verse 176). This is true of all (Luke 15:4; Matthew 18:12-13). Gone whence? From the knowledge, the image, the companionship of God. Whither? Into the wilderness of moral darkness and confusion. This is our helpless condition. Christ came to seek and to save the lost, blessed be His name! (Homilist.) Psalms 119:173-175 Let Thine hand help me; for I have chosen Thy precepts.The character and requests of a truly godly man I. His character.1. His choice is the precepts of God. 2. His object of desire is God’ s salvation. With respect to earthly things, nature is contented with a little, and grace with less. Not so in spiritual things. Here grace is insatiable; the more it has received, the more it desires. 3. His source of joy is God’ s law. Here he chooses the term “ law” for denoting the whole revelation of God’ s will, to remind us of the inseparable connection between privilege and duty, faith and obedience, holiness and comfort; and to teach us that we ought to be thankful to God for the direction tie hath given us in the road to heaven, no less than for the promises by which we are assured of the possession of it. II. His leading requests. He prays--1. For strengthening and upholding grace. “ Let Thine hand help me.” 2. For quickening grace. “ Let my soul live.” This was the life for which David prayed; a confirmed sense of pardoning mercy, larger measures of sanctifying grace, communion with his God in a present world, and the full and everlasting enjoyment of Him in heaven. The life for which he prays is no other than the salvation for which he longed. He had tasted of its sweetness, and he thirsted for more. “ Let my soul live,” saith he; to which he subjoins, “ and it shall praise Thee.” III. The ultimate end for which David was so earnest in his requests for help and life, and the improvement he proposed to make of both. He prayed for upholding and quickening grace, that he might be better qualified for the service of his God, to whom he had devoted himself and his all. Thus he prays (Psalms 51:12; Psalms 51:18; Psalms 51:15). And the principal reason for which he was desirous to obtain Divine consolation appears from the use he intended to make of it (verse 32). (R. Walker.) Psalms 119:174I have longed for Thy salvation, O Lord; and Thy law is my delight. Longing for salvation I. The state of mind of which he was the subject. This phraseology implies, that of all other benefits, none are of such great value as the salvation of the soul; also that we cannot save ourselves, neither is salvation to be hoped for from the hills or the mountains, or from the creature in any form which it can wear. It is “ the grace of God” alone that “ brings salvation.” Then in what does this salvation consist? It consists in emancipation from the curse of the law, deliverance from the anger of God. It is a salvation with the possession of the blessings of forgiveness, of renewal, of progressive sanctification, of preparation for the joys in the immediate presence of God and of the Lamb. II. The grand test by which we may judge of the integrity of this ardent desire which is here expressed, “ Thy law is my delight.” The law of God presents us with the first and most beautiful exhibition of God’ s moral character and His attributes. The law of God, by its types and shadows, directs us to the grand remedial means--the great propitiation which was to take away the sin of the world. The law of God, considering it as embracing the whole lively oracles, points us to the Saviour, Christ the Lord. The law of the Lord says, that those who come to Him He will in no wise cast out. There is everything, therefore, in the Word of God, and in the Gospel of our salvation, to awaken our reverence, our admiration, and our most affectionate desire. (J. Clayton, M. A.) David’ s longing and David’ s love I. His longing. By salvation is meant here no other thing but that which in the Scripture is sometimes called “ life eternal,” sometimes “ the kingdom of heaven,” sometimes “ the glory which shall be showed” hereafter, sometimes “ the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living,” sometimes “ the price of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus,” sometimes “ an inheritance, immortal and undefiled, which fadeth not” ; in a word, those unspeakable, and not to be conceived, blessings, “ which God hath prepared for those that love Him.” This was the object, the mark of David’ s longing. This salvation he calleth the Lord’ s (Thy salvation); because, as for us, it is neither an inheritance which we are born unto, nor a purchase which by any desert we can compass, so it is the Lord’ s every way: it is He which hath first prepared it: it is He which hath freely disposed it according to the good pleasure of His own will: it is He which reserveth it in heaven for those who are reserved unto Jesus Christ. There are three things required of a Christian: first, by a feeling of sin to seek Christ. Secondly, by a holy faith to find Christ. Thirdly, by newness of life to dwell with Christ. The first of these three is the same longing for salvation which I entreat of; and therefore, as in a ladder there is no coming to the upper step but by the nethermost, so there is no dwelling with Christ, which is the height of happiness in this life, but by finding Him; found He cannot be but by seeking; to seek Him and to long for Him are all one; no man seeks Him but he which longs for Him, and no man longs for Him but he will care to seek Him. II. His love. “ Thy law is my delight.” It is not enough for a man to say he longs and desires to be saved, unless he make conscience to use the appointed means to bring him thereunto. It had been but hypocrisy in David to say he longed for salvation, if his conscience had not been able to witness with him, that the law was his delight. It is mere mockery for a man to say he longeth for bread, and prayeth to God every day to give hint his daily bread, if he either yet walk in no calling, or else seek to get by fraud and rapine, not staying himself at all upon God’ s providence. Who will imagine that a man wishes for health, who either despiseth or neglecteth the means of his recovery? God hath in His wisdom appointed a lawful means for every lawful thing: this means being obediently used, the comfortable obtaining of the end may be boldly looked for; the means being not observed, to think to attain to the end is mere presumption. There is nobody almost, but if he be asked, for shame he will say he loveth God’ s Word, and that he were a very wretch if he should not. But come to the undeceivable marks and unseparable signs of this love, it will then appear that God’ s Word hath but a very few friends. The very sign of love to the Word of God is love to the public ministry thereof in God’ s Church: the reason is plain. He which loveth the Word unfeignedly, must needs love the means by which the Word shall become most profitable unto him. The next sign of love to the Word is the private use of it. If a man should be stinted to one meal a week, he would have a pined body at the week’ s end; what shall then become of our souls if we think it enough that they once a week be fed with the Word of God, and do not give them some other private refreshing. The third sign of love to the Word is love to the obedience of the Word. If ye love me (saith Christ), keep My commandments: so, if we love the Word, we cannot but make conscience to do that which is commanded by the Word. The reason is this: he which truly loveth the Word must needs tender the credit of it, and labour by all means to maintain it. Now, it is the greatest honour to the Word of God that may be, when men which possess it are ruled by it, and walk according to it. The fourth sign of love to the Word is hatred of all false religion which is contrary to the Word. I hate vain inventions (saith David), and again, I esteem all Thy precepts most just, and hate all false ways. The last sign of our love to the Word is to love it when the profession of it is most despised. This is noted as a special fruit of David’ s love. Examine but this one psalm (verses 23, 51, 61, 69, 110, 141). (S. Hieron.) Psalms 119:175 Let my soul live, and it shall praise Thee.The love of life vindicated Setting aside those who love life only for reasons which ought not to have such weight with them, and who would prolong it only to abuse it, I shall show you some better reasons for this attachment; derived from nature, from society, and from religion. I. We naturally love life; and this argument alone is sufficient to prove the innocence of that love. II. We love life for the sake of society, and the connections we have contracted in it. A husband and a wife,--living in the happiest union, and looking forward to a great length of days, and to many comforts,--are threatened with sudden separation by death. Can any one blame the tender and lively regrets which both of them experience at this unlooked-for parting? And again; a man whose high station enables him to render important services to society may, without presumption, wish on this account for a lengthening of his days. III. We may love life from a principle of piety and religion.1. Since life is a gift from God’ s bounty, a favour which He grants to us, why should we not love it in this point of view? Why, when it pleases the great Disposer of our days to prolong the course of them, should we not testify our joy by the sincerest thanksgivings? 2. Religion attaches us to life by another consideration, in which all of us are greatly concerned: and that is, the imperfection of the great work of our salvation; the just awe and fear of appearing at God’ s judgment-seat before we have set our accounts in order, and made our preparations for eternity. 3. One more consideration, very consistent with such true humility, is--that of our good example; the light of which we may innocently, and even holily, wish to shine still longer, “ in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation.” (S. Partridge.) Psalms 119:176I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek Thy servant; for I do not forget Thy commandments.The Christian, conscious of departure from God We have in this verse the description of a believer--not as he ought to be--not as he would wish to be--but as he is. It is not a fancy picture; it is a picture of life. I. It is as honest confession. It is upright; and downright. He does not throw the blame upon the world’ s seducements, and say--“ That was too great an enemy for me, it overcame me.” He does not throw the blame upon Satan. Neither does he throw the blame upon the flesh that was in him; though we know that was the source of the evil. He takes the whole blame to himself “ I have gone astray like a lost sheep.” II. The prayer: “ Seek Thy servant.” It implies that he had got so far that he did not know his way back. Quite evidently: “ I have gone astray, seek Thy servant,” I cannot find any way of return. III. The plea: “ For I do not forget Thy commandments.” There are periods in a believer’ s life in which he not only has one evidence, but he has a hundred evidences of his adoption. But there are periods when it seems almost reduced to the little spark on the ocean. Here is that little spark--“ I do not forget Thy commandments.” Do not think it a mere point of memory. No, it is something more than that. “ Though I have gone from Thee, though I have left Thy precepts, though I have not followed them as I ought to have followed them, yet ‘ I do not forget’ they are sweet to me; I love them; I wish to have them written out in my heart.” Conclusion--1. The tendency there is in sin. It is not contented with making us miserable; it wants to destroy us, and that for ever.2. The weakness of the believer. Like a lost sheep.3. The faithfulness of the Holy Spirit. He puts this plea in the heart.4. The kind Restorer of this wandering sheep.5. Beware of whatever leads to going astray. Love of the world, idleness, etc.6. Seek that which promotes the life of God. Live upon Christ. (J. H. Evans, M. A.) . Psalms 120:1-7 Psalms 120:1-7 In my distress I cried unto the Lord, and He heard me.The Songs of Degrees How came this and fourteen following psalms to be put together, and to receive their distinctive title? It has been suggested that they were thus called from peculiarity in rhythm; but perhaps, in this respect, some of them might with as much correctness be described as songs of the goings-down. The opinion is equally doubtful that the heading was given them because, when they were chanted, the volume of voice and music gradually ascended. As much might be safely conjectured of many other psalms. It is not less a flight of fancy to explain the title as meaning Songs of the Steps, attaching the fifteen songs to the flight of fifteen steps in the Temple which led up from the common court to that of the priests; there being no evidence that the Levites were accustomed, in the great festivals, as they mounted from court to court, to halt on every step while singing, with the accompaniment of the flute, that song of the fifteen which corresponded with it in number; or no proof that the stair existed before the time of Herod. Nor can the allusion be to the carrying up of the ark to the tabernacle prepared for it by David; for the authors of half of the Songs of Degrees were not then born. Some conclude that these psalms were composed when the Jews went up from Babylon to their own country (Ezra 7:9). It is not a sufficient objection to this view that they are not called songs of the going-up, but of the goings-up, inasmuch as there were more ascents than one from Babylon to Jerusalem after the seventy years’ captivity; and there is no need to question that some of them were originated by circumstances of the return. But we take it that what the emancipation and its incidents suggested was, not more the composition of new songs than the adoption or adaptation of well-known hymns that had long been popular, and were suitable to the case of the returning Israelites. Fifteen were chosen; and, we may believe, scribes could not copy faster than the work was in demand. God directed the choice, and has preserved the Songs of Degrees for the use and edification of His Church to the end of time. It is not very difficult to see how appropriate were these select songs for the pilgrimages to Jerusalem. Patriotic, short and pithy, with key-words, and catch-words, they were easy to remember, and pleasant to repeat. Plaintive and low sometimes, blending with the thoughts of the aged and the sighs of the feeble and weary, they were as frequently lively and buoyant, tying the bounding youth to the slow pace of the caravan. Depicting demesne scenes, they brought to mind the dear ones left at home in the fatherly care of Jehovah. They contained sweet allusions to David’ s piety, and the immortal harp he had tuned for the tribes on Mount Zion, and to Solomon’ s magnificent and tranquil reign. They told of the beauty of the city, the splendour of the Temple, and the glad solemnities of the festival to which the pilgrims were going, or from which they were returning. Songs of defiance and triumph they were, of faith, hope and charity, of gratitude and joy, declaring the mighty deeds, watchful protection, bountiful providence and redeeming mercy of the Lord. Who, they demanded, could injure the servants of Him who had saved His people from their Egyptian, Arabian, Philistine, Babylonian and Samaritan foes? The songs of the pilgrims encouraged and strengthened them to persevere in the roughest places and against the greatest dangers. Songs of the Ascents these are, as aids in the goings-up of worship. A good hymn is wings to the soul; and the saint is a living psalm-book. The child of God often feels, when singing choice words, that his Father’ s hand is helping him higher. Not only on the long journey to the feast and back were the Israelites “ singing pilgrims” : they delighted in their sacred songs along the road and in Jerusalem, because they loved them at home. Hymns are for use in domestic and private devotion, as well as public services. The psalm-book is a looking-glass for you. In its writers, and the saints of whom they write, you may see yourself, and your experience and duty. Behold them at home, in the street, in the temple, in profound distress, in bitter conflict, looking to God, trusting in His mercy, waiting for His interposition, and triumphing in His salvation; and not merely resemble them in situation and want, but, so far as they set you a good example, in disposition, language, meaning and behaviour. Nothing can be fitter than this scroll of songs for the pilgrim to carry in his bosom, as he flies from Destruction, and aims at the Heavenly City. There is no stage in his progress in which it will not supply his heart and lips with appropriate -thought and expression. (E. J. Robinson.) A good man with bad neighbours Whoever is the author of the psalm he represents himself as a good man. He had prayed, and his prayer had been answered, and in the last verse he says that whilst his neighbours were for war he was for peace. But his neighbours were distinguished by two great evils--slandering tongues and querulous tempers. I. Slandering tongues (verse 2). Slander is a common and a very pernicious evil. “ How frequently,” says Sterne, “ is the honesty and integrity of a man disposed of by a smile or a shrug! How many good and generous actions have been sunk into oblivion by a distrustful look, or stamped with the imputations of proceeding from bad motives, by a mysterious and seasonable whisper.” I. The slanderous tongue was terribly painful to the psalmist. He speaks of it as--(1) Sharp arrows of the mighty.(2) Coals of juniper. 2. The slanderer deserves appropriate punishment. II. Querulous tempers (verses 5, 6). There are in most neighbourhoods those of irascible, choleric, petulant tempers, always ready for angry wrangling and disputation. Like a tinder box they only require a spark to produce an explosion. Shenstone says, “ I consider you very testy and quarrelsome people in the same light as I do a loaded gun, which may, by accident, go off and kill one.” What are you to do with people of this irascible make? Do not contend with them, do not return their spiteful and malignant utterances. As well endeavour to quench the lightning with a spoonful of water. As God made such tempers they have their use. Out of them come the severe critic, the inflexible censor, the savage warrior, the denunciatory preacher. On the contrary, show them kindness. Though much may depend upon their physical organization, the querulous spirit may be exorcized from them, may be utterly overcome. Such reformations have been effected, and Christ’ s Gospel of kindness, mighty for that purpose, will one day turn all such natures into love. (Homilist.) Uncongenial society I. Its characteristics (verses 2, 6, 7). This is the very climax of bad society! There is nothing more damaging and dangerous than “ lying lips” ; nothing more viperous than a “ deceitful tongue” ; nothing more distracting and disagreeable than a spirit of strife and contention, etc. II. Uncongenial society in its results.1. Inflicting punishment on itself (verses 3, 4); piercing; scorching and consuming. 2. Inflicting distress on the Christian (verse 1). Causing-- (1) Misery (verse 5)(2) Self-vindication (verse 7). (J. O. Keen, D. D.) Psalms 120:2 Deliver my soul, O Lord, from lying lips. Lying lips A watch that cannot be depended upon is of very little use. It may have a beautiful gold case, it may be sparkling with jewels, but yet it will be of no service to me as a watch unless I can depend on what it tells me about the time. And so one of the things by which we judge of the real value and worth of men or women, of boys or girls, is this--Are they truthful? Do they mean what they say? Are they really what they seem to be? If so, then they are like a watch that keeps good time. But one of the effects of sin on our hearts has been to take away from them the love of the truth, and to incline them to lying. I. The disgrace which attends lying.1. It should make little difference to us what wicked men consider to be disgraceful. But if anything will bring shame and disgrace to us, in the opinion of God and of good men, then we should be very careful not to do that thing, whatever it may be. But there is nothing that will do this sooner than lying (Proverbs 6:17; Proverbs 12:22). 2. It is always disgraceful to follow the example of a very wicked person. But we know that Satan is the most wicked person in this world, or in any other. He is “ the father of lies” (John 8:44). When we tell lies, we prove ourselves to be the children of Satan. And there cannot be a greater disgrace in the world than to be closely related to such a person, and to have it proved that he is our father. But liars are not only the children of Satan; they are his servants also (Acts 5:8). Lying is Satan’ s work. And when we engage in lying, we let our hearts become Satan’ s workshop. 3. In some parts of India, if any person is proved to be a liar, he receives the penalty of the law, which requires that his mouth be sewed up. The offender has his hands tied behind him. He is led out to a post in a public place, to which he is tied, and one of the officers of the government, appointed for that purpose, sews up his lips with a needle and thread. Then he is allowed to go. And every one who sees his closed lips, and the blood flowing from them, can say to himself, “ There goes a liar!” What a disgrace that sewed-up mouth would be to a man! David tells us that “ the mouth of them that speak lies shall be stopped” (Psalms 63:11); Solomon tells us that “ a lying tongue is but for a moment” (Proverbs 12:19); and in another place David says that “ lying lips shall be put to silence” (Psalms 31:18). We are not told how God will do this; but we may be very sure it will be in some way that will fasten shame and disgrace on those who have not prayed earnestly, as David did, in the language of our text, “ Deliver my soul, O Lord, from lying lips.” II. The injury that it does.1. The first sin ever committed in our world was a lie. It was in the Garden of Eden. Satan was tempting Eve to break God’ s commandment. He did it by telling her a lie, and getting her to believe it. And now it is impossible for anybody to count up all the injury that has been done by that sin. That one sin was like poisoning a fountain, and then all the water that flows from it is poisoned too. 2. And when we tell a lie now, we never can tell where the injury that springs from it will stop. It is just like loosening a great rock at the top of a mountain, and letting it go rolling and plunging down the side of the mountain. Nobody can tell how far it will go, nor how much injury it will do before it stops rolling. Telling a lie is like letting a wild beast out of a cage. You can never tell how many people that animal will wound or kill before he is caught again. Telling a lie is like dropping sparks in powder. It is sure to make an explosion, and no one can tell beforehand how much harm that will do. Telling a lie is like going out from the plain beaten path into a tangled wood. You can never tell how long it will take you, or how much you must suffer, before you get back again. III. The punishment that follows it (Proverbs 19:9; Revelation 21:27-28). But it is not only after death that punishment follows lying. The Bible shows Us how God often punishes people for lying even in this life. There we see Gehazi telling a lie, and the very same day on which he told it brought the punishment. And then we read about Ananias and Sapphira. They agreed together to tell a deliberate, dreadful lie; and they were both struck dead with that lie upon their lips. (R. Newton, D. D.) Psalms 120:4 Sharp arrows of the mighty, with coals of juniper.“ Sharp arrows of the mighty, with coals of juniper” Thy arrows are not pointless, and thou aimest them with some precision; but on my side is the Almighty Warrior. Thou art able to scorch me for a season; but the vengeance of my Deliverer upon thee is a burning fire that never shall be quenched. He shall more than pay thee in thy own coin. Seeking my ruin, thou destroyest thyself. Thou fallest on thy own sword, and into thy own flame. Nay, thou drawest down upon thee the two-edged sword of the mouth of the Almighty (Revelation 1:16; Revelation 2:16; Revelation 19:15; Revelation 19:21). Thou provokest to thy eternal perdition the “ Consuming Fire” (Deuteronomy 4:24; Deuteronomy 9:3; Hebrews 12:29). They who use the tongue as an arrow shot forth with inflamed combustibles wrapped about it to set fire to the habitations of others, bring upon their own dwellings and themselves “ sharp arrows of the mighty, with coals of juniper” (Ephesians 6:16). By “ coals of juniper” or “ broom” is meant the most vehemently and longest burning fuel, and by “ sharp arrows of the mighty” the vengeful weapons of the conqueror. Both figures denote ways and instruments of punishment, and are here employed to picture the defeat and ruin that will come from Jehovah upon His people’ s enemies (Psalms 7:13; Psalms 45:5; Psalms 140:9-11). “ The Lord is a man of war: the Lord is His Name” (Exodus 15:3; Isaiah 42:13). “ He shall redeem their soul from deceit and violence: and precious shall their blood be in His sight” (Psalms 72:14). They who stir their tongues against His children shall have Him move His tongue against themselves. Do men live by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God? It is equally true that by His voice they die. He has but to speak, and they perish. Tremble at the terror of the Lord, “ sharp arrows of the mighty, with coals of juniper.” The language of the wasted and weary, the psalm is also that of the confiding and persevering. Why should the Lord’ s people allow lying lips to divert them from the work which He has given them to do, and for which He will find them means and opportunities according to His pleasure? Let the false tongue call them presumptuous, ambitious, incapable, insane: the city and temple of God will yet be completed. They will think less of the adversaries around them, and more of the Master and Friend among them and over all. Their foes may be Strong and fierce as Mesech, and wild and false as Kedar; but the Mighty One who delivered them before is their present Saviour. In the renewal of their distress, they cry to the Lord as formerly; and He repeats His mercies, giving them peace even when there is no peace. (E. J. Robinson.) Correspondence between transgression and retribution The world’ s sin is the world’ s punishment. A correspondence is frequently observed between the transgression and the retribution. The evil we had prepared for others recoils one day upon ourselves; and the cup we had mingled for others is afterwards applied to our own lips. He who sows serpents’ teeth need not look for a joyous harvest. This law of correspondence seems to be here indicated. Similar figures are employed to express the offence and the punishment of the wicked (Jeremiah 9:3; Psalms 64:3). But let the slanderer be upon his guard. There is another bow besides that in his possession. The arrows are sharp and burning; and when they are sent from the bow by the arm of Omnipotence, nothing can resist their force, and in mortal agony His enemies bite the dust (Psalms 7:12-13; Psalms 7:16; Psalms 64:7). This train of thought is also pursued in the illustration of fire. James (James 3:6) compares the tongue of slander to fire. Such is the tongue, and here is the punishment: coals of juniper, remarkable for their long retention of heat. And yet what a feeble illustration of the wrath of God, which burns down to the lowest hell! “ His lips are full of indignation, and His tongue as a devouring fire.” Liars are excluded from heaven by a special enactment of the Sovereign; and all of them “ shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.” (N. McMichael, D. D.) Psalms 120:5 Woe is me, that I sojourn in Mosech. The sojourn in Mesech Mesech was the son of Japheth, from whom were descended the men who inhabited that most barbarous of all regions, according to the opinion of the ancients, the northern parts of Muscovy or Moscow, and Russia. The inhabitants of the tents of Kedar were the descendants of one of the sons of Abraham, who had taken to nomadic habits, and were continually wandering about over the deserts; and were, besides, thought, and doubtless were, guilty of plundering travellers, and were by no means the most respectable of mankind. We are to understand, then, by this verse, that the people among whom the psalmist dwelt were, in his esteem, among the most barbarous, the most fierce, the most graceless of men. This has been the cry of the children of God in all ages. You have longed to be far away from this dusky world, so full of sin, and traps, and pitfalls, and everything that makes us stumble in our path, and of nothing that can help us onward towards heaven. I. First, then, a word or two in justification of the psalmist’ s complaint. I will not say that it is thoroughly commendable, in a Christian man, to long to be away from the place where God’ s providence has put him. But I will say, and must say, that it is not only excusable, but scarcely needs an apology.1. Think how the wicked world slanders the Christian. There is no falsehood too base for men to utter against the follower of Jesus. 2. Besides, the Christian is conscious that evil companionship is damaging to him. If he is not burnt, he is at least blackened by contact with the ungodly. 3. The continual process of temptation which surrounds the Christian who is situated in the midst of men of unclean lips. II. Having thus spoken a word of justification for the psalmist’ s complaint, I am going, next, to justify the ways of God with us, in having subjected us to this dwelling in the tents of Kedar.1. It is right and just, and good that God has spared us to be here a little longer; for, in the first place, my brothers and sisters, has not God put us here to dwell in the tents of Kedar, because these, though perilous places, are advantageous posts for service? That was a noble speech of our old English king, at Agincourt, when he was surrounded by multitudes of enemies, “ Well, be it so. I would not lose so great an honour, or divide my triumph. I would not,” said he, “ have one man the fewer among my enemies, because then there would be a less glorious victory.” So, in like manner, let us take heart even from our difficulties. The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge; Jehovah-Nisei is inscribed on our banner. 2. You never will wish, I am sure, to get away from the tents of Kedar if you will recollect that it was through another Christian tarrying here,--when, perhaps, he wanted to be gone ,--that you are this day a Christian. If you were to go to heaven now, perhaps you would go almost alone; but you must stop till there is a companion to go with you. 3. Perhaps our Master keeps us in the tents of Kedar because it will make heaven all the sweeter. III. A word of comfort to the Christian while placed in these apparently evil circumstances. Well, there is one word in the text that ought to console him in a case like this. “ Woe is me, that I sojourn” --thank God for that word “ sojourn.” Yes, I do not live here for ever; I am only a stranger and a sojourner here, as all my fathers were; and though the next sentence does say, “ I dwell,” yet, thank God, it is a tent I dwell in, and that will come down by and by: “ I dwell in the tents of Kedar.” Ye men of this world, ye may have your day, but your day will soon be over; and I will have my nights, but my nights will soon be over, too. It is not for long, Christian, it is not for long. The end will make amends for all that thou endurest, and thou wilt thank God that He kept thee, and blessed thee, and enabled thee to suffer and endure, and at last brought thee safely home. This, however, is not all the comfort I have for you, because that would look like something at the end, like the child who has the promise of something while it is taking its medicine. No, there is something to comfort you during your trials. Remember that, oven while you are in the tents of Kedar, you have blessed company, for God is with you; and though you sojourn with the sons of Mesech, yet there is Another with whom you sojourn, namely, your blessed Lord and Master. Brethren, ye may be comforted yet again with this sweet thought,--that not only is God with you, but your Master was once in the tents of Kedar; not merely spiritually, but personally, even as you are; and inasmuch as you are here too, this, instead of being painful, should be comforting go you. Have you not received a promise that you shall be like your Head? Thank God that promise has begun to be fulfilled. What more can you want? Is not this a sufficient honour, that the servant is as his Master, and the subject is as his Sovereign? (C. H. Spurgeon.) Murmuring, its cause and cure The disposition of which such words as these are the indication is familiar to all of us. We continually observe it. We at least occasionally experience it. It is the disposition to regard ourselves as unfortunate in our circumstances or surroundings, and to fasten upon them the responsibility of our own indolence or failure. I. Aimlessness is the mother of murmur. Take all the men you know who are always complaining of everything and every one, and I think you will find that they are persons who have no perceptible object in life, and of whose continued appearance upon the stage of this world you can give no account; except that it is not the will of Providence that they should die, and that it is not their own will that they should commit suicide. II. There is such a thing as spiritual aimlessness, and it is precisely the same in kind as that with which we are all familiar. It is of this that I am about to speak. It, too, is the parent of murmuring. From it springs dissatisfaction with our circumstances, impatience of our position, weariness of our enforced employments, and a general state of feeling leading up to such an exclamation as that of the text. III. What, then, do i mean by spiritual aimlessness? To make this clear we must understand what is spiritual aim. There are a great many kinds of aim connected with, and even tending towards, religious objects, and yet you may have any or all of them distinctly before you, and be all the while spiritually aimless. There is aim in the conversion of the heathen, the correction of religious error, the building of churches, the government of the Church in general, the improvement of ritual or of worship in some church in particular, the teaching of the young, the visiting of the sick, the comforting of the afflicted. But there is one from which all these ought to spring--one in which they ought all to centre--one to which they ought all to be subservient. That one is the salvation of your own soul. We all need to keep before our minds “ the end (aim) of our faith even the salvation of our souls.” That faith is “ the substance of things hoped for: the evidence of things not seen.” That faith includes--nay, that faith is a belief that “ all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose” --that from His love neither tribulation, nor distress, nor persecution, nor famine, nor nakedness, nor peril, nor sword shall separate us, that, “ in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us.” And so, in proportion to the reality and constancy of that faith, will be our power to repress each rising murmur, of which I have taken the text as an example. IV. At the very best such a murmur is the expression of a regret that we cannot do more for God. And so its obvious corrective is the deepening of our conviction that even so He may be--nay, He certainly is--if we really “ love Him above all things,” doing more for us than if He “ gave us our desire and sent leanness withal into our soul.” Perchance we are right in our belief that other positions, companionships, or employments would tend to the fuller development of that part of our constitution--intellectual, moral, or spiritual--to which we feel as towards some favoured child. But are we so sure that the course we should mark out for ourselves would tend to the forming of our characters “ all round” ? No. We do not believe in the love of God if we do not believe that He is doing what is best towards such a formation of us; which, after all, is conformity, as far as we can be conformed hero below, to the perfect character of Him whoso name we bear, whose life is our example, whose death is our hope. (J. C. Coghlan, D. D.) Mesech and Kedar The language is metaphorical, for the same people could not be in opposite countries remote from each other, and the two races did not intimately mingle in any border land. The implacable people among or near whom the children of the captivity had to work and wait, whether degenerate countrymen, oppressive Chaldeans, or, more probably, malicious Samaritans, were no better than the fathers of the Muscovites or the offspring of Hagar. In the same way we speak of the Goths whom we encounter, Arabs in our streets, and heathens in Christendom. The psalm, passing from figure to fact, explains itself in the concluding verses. “ My soul hath long dwelt with him that hateth peace.” By Mosech and Kedar are meant the disturbers of Israel. The missionary abroad, persecuted by ungrateful pagans, and maligned and hindered by immoral and envious settlers; the evangelist at home, whom Pharisees pronounce a low person, and infidels despise; the Methodist, nicknamed by one party a schismatic, and by another now patted on the back, and then cuffed and kicked; the Christian student, in a class composed mainly of disdainful unbelievers and provoking worldlings; the religious workman hated by intemperate associates for his purity, and cursed by blasphemers among them for his piety; the God-fearing apprentice, under an ill-tempered taskmaster who construes his mistakes into proofs of hypocrisy, and among thoughtless shop-mates who ridicule his habits of devotion and his scrupulous behaviour; the converted youth whose parents are not ashamed of being without sittings in the sanctuary, and whose brothers and sisters are Sabbath breakers; any one of these tried saints of the Lord, and many another sufferer from proud and false tongues, may use the words, “ Woe is me,” etc. (E. J. Robinson.) Grace independent of ordinances When there was no rain from heaven, God could cause a mist to arise and water the earth (Genesis 2:6); even so, if the Lord should bring us where there be no showers of public ordinances, He can stir up in our souls those holy and heavenly meditations, which shall again drop down like a heavenly dew upon the face of our souls, and keep up a holy verdure and freshness upon the face of our souls. Egypt is said to have no rain; but God makes it fruitful by the overflowing of its own river Nilus. And truly if God bring any true believer into a spiritual Egypt, where the rain of public ordinances doth not fall, He can cause such a flow of holy and heavenly thoughts and meditations as shall make the soul very fruitful in a good and a holy life; and therefore we should oft, in such a condition, believingly remember, that if we do our endeavour, by private prayer, meditation, reading, and such like, God is able, and will, in the want of public ordinances, preserve the life of religion in our souls, by private helps. (J. Jackson, M. A.) Forced association with the ungodly Religious people are sometimes forced by the necessity of their lives to associate with those who are worldly and irreligious. “ Woe is me, that I am constrained to dwell with Mesech, and to have my habitstion among the tents of Kedar.” How shall those who have to dwell in the tents of ungodliness keep their souls from being contaminated by bad examples? The following anecdote furnishes a useful hint. A certain nobleman, we are told, was very anxious to see the model from whom Guido painted his lovely female faces. Guido placed his colour-grinder, a big coarse man, in an attitude, and then drew a beautiful Magdalen. “ My dear Count,” he said, “ the beautiful and pure ideal must be in the mind, and then it is no matter what the model is.” He in whose heart and mind is enshrined the beautiful and pure idea of Christ has a model after which to shape his life, and then it is no matter about other models. (Quiver.) Psalms 120:6 My soul hath long dwelt with him that hateth peace.Haters of peace What an appalling picture have we hero of unreasonable and wicked men! As they love lies, so they hate peace. Is not this the very spirit of him, who was both a liar and a murderer from the beginning? They hate that which is beloved by all the good. What holy and gentle delight is associated with the very name of peace! Peace resting upon our bosom, and soothing all its cares: peace resting upon our households, and folding all the members in one loving embrace: peace resting upon our country, and pouring abundance from her golden horn: peace resting upon all nations, and binding them together with the threefold cord of a common humanity, a common interest, and a common religion! The man who hates peace is a dishonour to the race, an enemy to his brother, and a traitor to his God. He hates Christ, who is the Prince of peace. He hates Christians, who are men of peace. Destitute of internal peace himself, and reluctant that any should possess a blessing in which he himself has no part, it is his incessant effort to sow the seeds of alienation, and to fan the flames of discord. And just as the foul bird of prey scents the battle from afar, and flees to the field of carnage, so you find the haters of peace perpetually prowling around scenes of contention, that they may lend a helping hand to the work of Satan. (N. McMichael, D. D.) . Psalms 121:1-8 Psalms 121:1-8I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills. Guaranteed security I. The godly man’ s need. “ Help.” Can never outgrow this: dependence the characteristic of the creature: “ help” must be had in the conflict or it will end in defeat, in the toil or it will issue in failure, in the pilgrim-march or we faint and fail by the way, etc. II. The godly man’ s attitude: Looking for help--“ I will lift up my eyes,” etc. He waits--he expects--he obtains. The truest vision is soul-vision. Looking up in solicitation, contemplation, expectation. “ Up,” from the mud and mire of earth, and the sins and sorrows of self. “ The hills” expressive of strength, “ the strength of the hills is His” : of majesty--of stability, “ the everlasting hills” : of veneration, “ the silence of the hills breathes veneration” (Mrs. Hemans); striking and suitable emblem of Him to whom all might, and majesty, and duration, and reverence belong. III. The godly man’ s confidence: “ My help cometh from the Lord,” etc. He is assured that He who made the heavens and made the earth would rather let the sky fall and the earth perish from the want of His support, than that he should suffer injury from the withholding of His help. Help alone cometh from God: help does and ever will be vouchsafed, etc. IV. The godly man’ s safety: “ He will not suffer,” etc.1. Safety guaranteed from the highest source: “ the Lord is thy Keeper” (verse 5). His wisdom, power, love, all His attributes a royal battalion--bodyguard around him, unceasingly around him (verses 3, 4). 2. Safety guaranteed to the whole man, under all circumstances, through all time, from all evil (verses 7, 8). (J. O. Keen, D. D.) The good in time of need I. His attitude.1. God is the only true help of the soul. He alone can raise it from its fallen condition, break its fetters, heal its wounds, energize its faculties, and set it on a course safe and prosperous. 2. To Him the godly soul instinctively looks in trial. The worldly man in trial looks to earthly things for succour and support, to social sympathies, to human friendships, to Church officers, but the good man turns at once to God, feels that from Him alone the necessary help can come. II. His protector.1. The universal Creator.2. A sleepless Guardian.3. The all-sufficient. III. His confidence (verse 7). (Homilist.) Looking to the hills We see the exile, wearied with the monotony of the long-stretching, flat plains of Babylonia, summoning up before his mind the distant hills where his home was. We see him wondering how he will be able ever to reach that place where his desires are set; and we see him settling down, in hopeful assurance that his effort is not in vain, since his help comes from the Lord. “ I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills;” away out yonder westwards, across the sands, lies the lofty summits of my fatherland that draws me to itself. Then comes a turn of thought, most natural to a mind passionately yearning after a great hope, the very greatness of which makes it hard to keep constant. For the second clause must be taken as a question: “ I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills. From whence cometh my help?” How am I to get there? And then comes the final turn of thought: “ My help cometh from the Lord,” etc. I. The look of longing. “ I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills” --a resolution, and a resolution born of intense longing. It comes to be a very sharp question with us professing Christians, whether the horizon of our inward being is limited by, and coterminous with, the horizon of our senses, or whether, far beyond the narrow limits to which these can reach, our spirits’ desire stretches boundless. Are, to us, the things unseen the solid things, and the things visible the shadows and the phantoms? We see with the bodily eyes the shadows on the wall, as it were, but we have to turn round and see with the eyes of our minds the light that flings the shadows. “ I will lift up my eyes” from the mud-flats where I live to the hills that I cannot see, and, seeing them, I shall be blessed. Further, do we know anything of that longing that the psalmist had? He was perfectly comfortable in Babylon. There was abundance of everything that he wanted for his life. But for all that, fat, wealthy Babylon was not Palestine. So the psalmist longed for the mountains, though the mountains are often bare of green things, amidst the lush vegetation, the wealth of water and the fertile plains. Do we know anything of that longing which makes us “ that are in this tabernacle to groan, being burdened” ? Unless our Christianity throws us out of harmony and contentment with the present, it is worth very little. And unless we know something of that immortal longing to be nearer to God, and fuller of Christ, and emancipated from sense, and from the burdens and trivialities of life, we have yet to learn what the meaning of “ walking not after the flesh but after the Spirit” really, is. Further, do we make any effort like that of this psalmist, who encourages and stimulates himself by that strong “ I will lift up my eyes” ? You will not do it unless you make a dead lift of effort. II. The question of weakness. “ From whence cometh my help?” The loftier our ideal, the more painful ought to be our conviction of incapacity to reach it. The Christian man’ s one security is in feeling his peril, and the condition of his strength is his acknowledgment and vivid consciousness always of his weakness. “ Blessed is the man that feareth always.” “ Pride goeth before destruction.” Remember the Franco-German war, and how the French Prime Minister said that they were going into it “ with a light heart,” and how some of the troops went out of Paris in railway carriages labelled “ for Berlin” ; and when they reached the frontier they were doubled up and crushed in a month. Unless we, when we set ourselves to this warfare, feel the formidableness of the enemy and recognize the weakness of our own arms, there is nothing but defeat for us. III. The assurance of faith. The psalmist asks himself: “ From whence cometh my help?” and then the better self answers the questioning, timid self: “ My help cometh from the Lord,” etc. There will be no reception of the Divine help unless there is a sense of the need of the Divine help. God cannot help me before I am brought to despair of any other help. If we conceit ourselves to be strong we are weak; if we know ourselves to be impotent, Omnipotence pours itself into us. We read once that Jesus Christ healed “ them that had need of healing.” Why does the evangelist not say, without that periphrasis, “ healed the sick” ? Because he would emphasize, I suppose, amongst other things, the thought that only the sense of need fits for the reception of healing and help. If, then, we desire that God should be “ the strength of our hearts, and our portion for ever,” the coming of His help must be wooed and won by our sense of our own impotence, and only they who say: “ We have no might against this great multitude that cometh against us,” will ever hear from Him the blessed assurance: “ the Lord will fight for you.” “ Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord.” (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Looking up The text would be better rendered, “ Shall I lift up mine eyes unto the hills? Whence should my help come? It cometh from Jehovah, who is high up above the hills; even from the Maker of heaven and earth.” Palestine is a mountain-land; and such a country exercises a strange fascination over its inhabitants. What a holy power the great mountains have over us all! They seem to be so near to God, so full of God, that they bring us near to Him, and they fill us full of Him. They make us “ look up.” And that is precisely what we all need to have done for us. I. World-drawn, we look down, and so are weak. We are in the world; in a thousand subtle ways we are kin with the world, we are subject to its influences, caught by its whirl of excitement, absorbed by its pressing claims, and easily we may become of the world as well as in it. But everything the world presents to us is below us, beneath us; and it so keeps us looking down, that at last the habit of down-looking grows upon us. How powerfully we are all drawn by world-interests! The influence of the world begets a downward look, a sort of set of the eyes and heart downwards. What do we see when we thus fix our gaze? Nothing elevating, inspiring, ennobling, much of self, of man, and of things. Much of conflict, and struggle, and loss, and pain, and change, and dissatisfaction. Much of man, and his things, that perish with the using. Much of man, and the fashion of this world that passeth away. Human grandeur, which, seen from above, is all of tinsel. Human successes, that are touched by the chill hand of death, and fade sooner than the summer cloud. What do we see when we look down? The hurry and bustle of thousands who, along with us, are hasting to be rich. The physicians, driving to homes that are full of pain, and grief, and fear. The mourners going about the streets. And the shadow of God’ s curse on sin resting darkly everywhere. It is this downward, earthward looking that makes us so weak: so weak as those who, being made in the image of God, ought to be strong in the strength of God. II. God-drawn, we look up, and so grow strong. God is ever calling. If we would stop and hush awhile, we might hear the voice of God in our souls, ever saying, “ Look up! Look up!” Observe the gracious mission God has entrusted to the mountains.1. Looking up, we find nothing of man’ s, it is all of God up above. 2. Looking up, we feel how pure God’ s snow is. 3. Looking up, we find God’ s clouds are glorified. 4. Looking up, we may hear the voices of the hills saying, “ The mists and the storms are all outside us; they are not us. We abide firm through all the changes. The mists pass swiftly about us, and pass away. The storms wildly rage about us, but the winds die down, the rains stream off, the thunder-voice is quieted, and we come forth again, only cleansed and purified.” It is a message from God for us troubled, sorrow-stricken, storm-tossed men and women. 5. And the hills seem also to say, “ Up above is more sunshine than storm. Down below, man’ s smoke lies heavy over the towns, and God’ s clouds seem dark; but it is almost always sunshine up here.” These are the messages that seem to come from the hills. “ Look up! Look up morel” (Robert Tuck, B. A.) Excelsior! - I. Who is it that ascends?--The Christian ascends. II. Whither? Heavenwards: to the everlasting hills. III. From whence? From this vale of tears. IV. By what steps? By faith and repentance. (C. A. Fowler, M. A.) The mountaineer’ s psalm I imagine the psalmist had either dwelt under the mountains, or had climbed some of their steep sides. Palestine, it is true, was not a mountainous country, like Switzerland; but still, it had its mountains, notably Hermon, which is over 9,000 feet above sea-level, and usually covered with a cap of snow. In a small way the psalmist might have been, probably was, a mountaineer, and so knew the unique feelings which come to one in lofty places. The special point I want to enforce is this--that what the mountains are to the lower, that God is to the higher life of man. I. Invigoration comes from the mountains. Every one is conscious of this. In the valleys there is beat and the languor it produces. On the mountains there may be heat from the sunlight, but there is the tonic which comes from glacier or snow-field. In the valley the air is heavy and depressing. On the mountains the air is light and exhilarating. And so exertion which is impossible down below, is possible and easy higher up. And what the mountains are to the body God is to the soul. He is the true invigorator. In Him is our help found. Like the body, the soul needs invigoration, and that invigoration is found only in God. Immunity from evil comes only from an invigorated spiritual nature--and such a nature comes only from the sense of God. II. There come from the mountains wide outlooks. Down in the valleys the outlooks are narrow. You can see the valley sides, and it may be you can catch the sight of some solitary peak shining with snow, but all is limited. You cannot look into the valleys near, or see the peaks that lie beyond. But move upward to the hills which frame in the valley, or, better still, climb some lofty peak, and the whole land lies before you--peak after peak, valley after valley, till you are almost overpowered with the sight. And it is so when we lift our eyes to God. With Him in our heart we get wide outlooks. Look at the world from the standpoint of God. Lord Salisbury once advised people who were talking ignorantly about foreign affairs, and who knew little of the geography of the world, to turn to large maps. I venture to bid those depressed at heart to take wider outlooks--to come up out of the valley where the little drama of the present is being enacted, and remember that there is still One “ who sitteth upon the circle of the earth,” and who will guide the world, in spite of its aberrations, into the way of righteousness and peace. III. The mountains may remind us of the lowliness of man and the greatness of God. Down in the cities of the world man seems the great factor. He is in evidence everywhere. His works face us at every turn. But up among the mountains man and his work fade from view, and God and His work alone are in evidence. God is nearer to us in flower and tree, valley and mountain, than in any buildings made with hands. And the voices which have gone deepest into the hearts of this generation are not the voices of men who dwelt amid the crowded haunts of men, but of those who in the quietness of the country heard the voice of God. Wordsworth amid the dales of Cumberland; Tennyson amid the heather-clad slopes of Surrey, or by the sea at Farringford; and, before and beyond all these, the Christ Himself, who said to His disciples, “ Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest awhile.” (W. G. Horder.) Looking up and lilting up Hills have a fascination for those brought up among them. How Israel in Babylon sighed for their much-loved hills! How the Swiss away from their own country pine for the mountains of their native land! Jesus loved the hills. His chosen walks were among them. The hills were His sanctuary for prayer, His temple for worship; from the hills of Capernaum He preached; the crest of Tabor was the scene of His transfiguration; on the hill of Calvary He was crucified; from Olivet He ascended. There is an affinity between souls and hills. Especially for those who have become acquainted with their own solemn depths and sublime heights. The outward world tends to awaken the sympathy of the thoughtful for the true order which has been lost. It pictures to him both sides of his nature--his real and his ideal life, the life he lives, and the life of which he dreams, and for which he prays. The hills represent heights that he ought to attain--the deep places, depths of degradation into which he has fallen. Though imprisoned by a sinful darkness, and fettered by a chain of evil habits, the hills will not allow him wholly to forget his lost heights of freedom, peace, and blessedness, to which, now and again, he fain would, but feels he cannot return. The way of ascent is difficult. There is a broad and easy way, but it leads to deeper depths and heavier bonds. But ha the deepest depths, and under the heaviest burdens, he ever and again remembers the heights, though the corresponding life may, long since, have been transferred to his dreams. There are no heights like those to which the soul rises ha the exercise of faith--heights incredible to the senses. By faith, we finite creatures, with a sense-experience only of the finite, nevertheless apprehend the infinite; by faith, we creatures of “ flesh and blood,” shut in by the material, discover our only true home to be in the spiritual; by faith, we mortals, in a world of mortality, anticipate immortality; by faith, we poor slaves of a manifold bondage look for perfect liberty; by faith, we, the offspring of earthly parentage, claim God for our Father, and Heaven for our home. These are some of the heights of which the hills are representative, and to which they point, hills of hope, and help for our original and eternal nature. From “ the hill of the Lord” we receive help for the valley. If we look up we shall receive light for our way, and be led in a plain path. The hill of the Lord is to the pilgrim who looks up what the compass is to the mariner who finds his course by it through the troubled waters of the pathless sea. For those who look to Him, the Lord opens up “ a way in the desert,” a path through the woods, and turns the sea into dry land. “ In the presence of their enemies He prepares them a table” and causes them to “ lie down in peace,” and goes before them in the way--a guardian, guiding Presence “ a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.” In this short psalm the writer is so full of the protection and help of Jehovah that he cannot find terms enough in which to express the rich fulness of his icy and confidence, Fifteen times in eight verses he assures Israel of the “ help, keeping,” and “ preservation” of God--at all times; under all circumstances; for every one, with respect to his whole nature and history; for time and eternity. Oh, what hills of hope and help there are for the upward use of our eyes, altitudes of our own nature as seen in Jesus, which, like Alpine summits, far above every storm-swept height, look down in the mute eloquence and sublime repose of their eternal state invitingly on all below! The men who permanently bless the world are men who look up, and receive that which, travelling down “ the starry road of the Infinite’ s abode,” fills their eyes with reverence and a grand hope, and inspires their souls with a divine disdain of earthly goods and worldly honours, as being unworthy of man’ s “ chief end.” This habit of looking up will teach us to understand the use of trouble in the valley. Let us learn to regard all that troubles and disturbs us in our health, our home, our circumstances as the means by which God calls upon us to look up,--to disengage ourselves from earthly entanglements,--to prepare to ascend. By the trouble to which we are born, He seeks to wean us from the love of earth, that He may woo us to the love of heavenly things and the spiritual life of our eternal home. (W. Pulsford, D. D.) Lift up the eyes of the soul This verse would be a suitable inscription for a church entrance. It is a scripture to be repeated when walking to the temple. If ever the eyes are strained towards heaven, it is by rose who go to the sanctuary, or long to do so. Yet it is possible to join the assembly of God’ s saints, and not lift up our eyes to the hills. Some who make excursions seem to see all the meaning of their journey in what they take with them, others go chiefly to refresh themselves in the contemplation of God’ s flowers and trees, rocks and rivers, valleys and hills. Of travellers climbing together to a mountain summit, there are those who, on reaching it, as if they had done all, lie down till the moment for returning; while their wiser companions, as if there were something for which they had been at the trouble of ascending, stand on the top, and look forth earnestly. They admire the prospect, and mark the direction of a more lofty mountain which they intend to gain, and how the road lies by which they will have to travel thither. Our feet are to visit the hill of the earthly Zion, that our hearts may get a better view of the mountain of the Lord’ s house in the heavenly country. The object in attending the services of the sanctuary is to “ hear of heaven and learn the way.” (E. J. Robinson.) Hills Hills make us look up. It is well they do so, for all that is necessary for our life here comes from above. An artist whose eyes have been much accustomed to look up, has painted some very beautiful pictures of sunset skies, which astonish many people who visit the Kensington Museum in London. They have never seen such gorgeous sunsets, and for the good reason that they have not looked for them. We lose much by fixing our eyes upon the things beneath and seldom looking up. A king once asked a duke if he had seen an eclipse of the sun on the previous day. “ No, sir,” replied the nobleman, “ I have so much business on earth that I have no time to look up.” By looking up the wise men of the East were led to the Saviour, who then lay an infant in Bethlehem’ s manger. By looking up many a downcast heart has rejoiced to see the morning’ s sun rise, which seemed to speak to them of brighter days yet to come. But there is another kind of looking up that is necessary to give joy and true satisfaction to the soul. The high hills, the lovely skies, and the glowing sunsets should lead us to look higher up still--even to the Lord who made the heavens and the earth. This looking consists of real faith in God and in His promises. It is the soul looking beyond itself and all that is earthly to the Rock that is higher than we are. “ Looking unto Jesus” is the secret of all true joy in the Christian life. It is as we look up with the eye of faith that the beauty of the Saviour is reflected upon us, and we are made like Him. But the hills have a few more lessons for us.1. They give us a taste for what is beautiful. Some of the prettiest scenery in the world is amongst the hills. It is there we find “ flowery glens and mossy dells, where happy birds in song agree.” It is there we behold the delightful waterfalls and other beauties of nature. We have read of a traveller who went to America to see the Falls of Niagara, and who, after a long, weary journey, was within a few miles of them, and inquired of a man if the rumbling noise he heard was that of the Falls. The man replied that perhaps it was, but he had never been there, although all his life he had lived so near them. But it is not always that people have the time and the means for travelling, and so they are to be excused. There is, however, no excuse for people being ignorant of the beauties of the Kingdom of God. The Holy Spirit opens the eyes of all who come to Christ to see spiritual sights which gladden the heart and prepare the soul for heaven. Travellers tell us of beauty in other lands far surpassing anything we have ever seen here. And there is also a heavenly land which is so fair that its glory can never be told us, as we have no language to express it or mind to conceive it. 2. The hills are very valuable to us. Their lofty summits cause the moisture of the air to descend rain or snow to refresh and make the earth fruitful. Then they give motion to the water, and thus keep it from growing stagnant or impure. Otherwise the water would have disease and death in it. Our souls, too, require heavenly rains to descend to refresh them, and to make them bear the fruits of the Spirit. We need the pure river of the water of life to flow through our souls to keep them in the love of God. 3. Hills praise God. They are commanded to do so in Scripture. One way by which they praise God is by producing holy desires in the hearts of men. They often cause people to think of the greatness and the glory of God. And they daily witness to His power and wisdom. We also are commanded to praise God, and we can do it consciously, which the hills are unable to do. We ought to praise God by the adoration of our hearts, the fruit of our lips, and the devotion of our lives. 4. The hills and the love of God are contrasted (Isaiah 54:10). How blessed it is to know that when the hills shall have passed away there is something that shall abide! Yes; the love of Jesus shall remain, and we shall dwell in the enjoyment of His glorious presence. His love was manifested upon a hill, which of all hills should never be forgotten--the hill at Calvary. This hill speaks of the amazing love of God in giving up His only Son to die for us, and of the matchless love of Christ in bearing our sins in His own body on the tree. (John Mitchell.) The far-away look In one of Dr. Miller’ s helpful anecdotes we are told of a Christian woman, a busy editorial worker, whose eyes began to trouble her, until she was obliged to go to an oculist to see what was the matter with them. She told him she thought she needed a new pair of glasses. The oculist told her that what she needed was not new glasses, but rest for the eyes. That, she told him, was impossible. Her work compelled her to sit all day bending over a desk, reading and writing. The wise oculist asked her where she lived, and found it was in full sight of the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Alleghanies. “ Go home,” he said, “ and do your work as usual, but every hour or so leave your desk, and go and stand on your porch and look at the mountains. The far-away look will rest your eyes after the long strain of reading manuscripts and proof-sheets.” That is what Sabbaths are for--the far-away looks. We all need them--an hour or two on Sunday, if no more. Then--and here is the lesson for many a busy housemother who must prepare meals even on Sunday for her hungry children, who must often nurse the sick ones or stay at home with the little ones--if anything calls one away from the rest of soul and body, remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said that God wants mercy (kindness, goodness, helpfulness) even more than sacrifice. From whence cometh my help.--The help of the hills Let me speak of the helpfulness of the mountains as a sign, not a measure, but an imperfect sign of the helpfulness of God. The most sheltered spots of earth are mountain guarded. When we rejoice in the valley, let us remember only the mountain made it possible. Is it protected from devastating storms such as involve the plains in their fury? It is because the mountain has guarded it. It has broken the hurricane’ s wing and the cyclone’ s wheel. Is it alive with meadow streams that sing their gladsome song to the green grasses that bend over to listen? It is because the mountains sent the streamlets flashing down, pure as crystal and full of tonic for every living thing in the valley. Has there been an abundance of rain? The mountain nurtured the storm full of menace, but so full of blessing that when it saw the fields suffering for its baptism, it opened its veins of life with the lightning’ s lance, and became balm and benison to the blighted fields. Not only so, but the mountains give their fresh wealth to supply new soil to the valley. The storms that scar their old sides are ploughing up fresh soil for the cornfields and the valley. And the streams are the carriers that, plunging gaily from steep to steep, carry it down. The Alleghanies help to make the Ohio Valley. The Rockies enrich the Missouri, the mountains of Central Africa make the exhaustless granary of the Nile delta. Oh! the help there is in the stern hills Oh! the blessing God is to this low world! How He comes to shield from storms. How He sends upon us the living streams of His truth. Yes, how He bends Himself to be the nourishment and strength of His people! Consider the influence of the hills on the civilization of the world. They have been the nurseries of heroism, of physical and moral strength. The early Turanians, who displaced the stagnant barbarism of Asia with a rude vigour, descended for their work from the mountain ranges of Siberia. The Modes and Persians, who came down like messengers of Divine judgment on the effeminate luxury and showy splendour of Babylon, came from the hill country. The Spartans who filled the Thermopylae Pass were mountain men. The Waldenses, who held their own for liberty, held it in poverty and pain among the pinnacles of Piedmont--held it against all the cultured and disciplined power of the cities on the plains. Their natures were as rugged as the grey Alps around them. It is a grand preparation for heroism to be obliged to fight life’ s battle under the stern conditions of the mountains. They do not smile on easy living. They are severe masters, but they enforce the lesson. He who has overcome the mountains has overcome many other things at the same time. But I do not believe that the chief value of mountains as promoters of heroism is of a physical sort. At last heroism has a moral base. Mountains make tough animals. They are the habitation of daring wild beasts, but they also work on those moral qualities which make great patriots. They affect men’ s thoughts. They appeal to a man’ s reverence. They overawe him with power. They work on his conscience. To face Mont Blanc is itself a sort of judgment day. It says “ God.” There is absolutely no support for tired human spirits but in the idea of God, and that which that idea implies. To the mountain of Sinai you must look for the quickening of conscience; to the mountain of Calvary for salvation from sin. As the mountains lift themselves above the world in a “ stillness of perpetual benediction,” so God rises to our faith and hope above these storm-driven plains of time. His Fatherhood overhangs us like a perpetual benediction. He helps us with a help that is quite sufficient, and that sustains us amid all circumstances; yea, with a help that makes us indifferent to circumstance. To men accustomed only to the light of reason and calculation it is difficult to present the spiritual help of the Lord. It cannot be explained. But it is the one profound fact that makes the difference between the submissive and meek-brewed; yea, the rejoicing saint and the complaining and rebellious sinner. I have often asked friends, “ What is the source of the contented lives the Swiss peasants live amid their secluding mountains?” Contented and peaceful they undeniably are, and that, too, in poverty and toil from beginning to end. It seems as if the genii of the mountains from unseen sources beyond the storms brought unfailing peace and comfort as the streams that spring from the snows water their flocks and their pastures. The reservoir never fails. Now, God’ s sustaining grace is like those streams of Alpine blessing. You cannot quite trace; you certainly cannot explain it. The child of God who perhaps has nothing but poverty and pain, misery and misfortune, as the world reckons, somehow holds a boundless peace, and the martyr who smiles in his agonies is not a more conspicuous example of this strange unseen help of God than is the quiet patient soul who, in ordinary ways of uneventful living, holds a steadfast faith and a happy hope in God. (C. L. Thompson, D. D.) Help needed and provided It, was “ help” and only “ help,” which he looked for from his God; and help is not that which dispenses with exertion on our part, but rather that which supposes such exertion. Helping a man is not the doing everything for him, and leaving him nothing to do for himself; but rather the assisting him in his efforts,--making those efforts effectual, when perhaps without aid they would be insufficient and frustrated. It is help, and nothing more than help, which is promised throughout the Scriptures. “ Help us, O God of our salvation,” is the burden of the supplications of David; and St. Paul, when he would found an argument for boldness in approaching the mercy-seat, on the fact of our having “ an High Priest who can be touched with the feeling of our infirmities,” does not apply it to the expecting more than mercy and help--“ That we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” There cannot be a more dangerous delusion than the supposing that the operations of Divine grace are such as to supersede the necessity for exertion, or such (so to speak) as will make us religious in spite of ourselves. The Spirit will not force us to pray; but if we yield to His impulse, and endeavour to pray, He will “ Help our infirmities,” and enable us to pray effectually. He will not make it impossible for us to be overcome of temptation; but if we strive against it, He will so come to our assistance as to ensure us the victory. He will not bring to maturity the virtues implanted by Himself without requiring from us any of the processes of moral husbandry; whilst the showers and the sunshine are altogether His, the labour and the tillage must be ours. (H. Melvill, B. D.) Psalms 121:2 My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth.Turning creation to account This, indeed, is turning creation to account. It is thought a great thing to have a patron who is distinguished by his rank or his deeds. The man is envied who can look up for help to kings, or princes, or nobles; but the meanest believer may say of the Lord who ‘ made heaven and earth that He is engaged for his succour and protection. This, we say, is turning creation to account. This is pressing the forests, the mountains and stars into our service; and making them minister to our comfort and assurance. There is not an impress of power on the visible universe but is a message to the Christian, telling him not to be afraid. Every glorious demonstration of Almightiness which is set forth in the processes of nature, or in the revolutions of systems, does but announce to him what a guardian and upholder he has. Yea, and it is not only when God is revealed as a God of providence--a God who is “ about our path and about our bed” --that it is comforting and elevating to think of Him as the Lord who “ made heaven and earth.” I like to remember that it is said of the Redeemer, even of our Lord Jesus Christ--“ By Him were all things created, that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible.” If He was crucified in weakness, he was nevertheless the Being at whose word arose all the magnificence of the material universe, and the “ thrones, dominions, principalities and powers “ of the spiritual creation. And, therefore, when it is even the hill of Calvary to which I look up, where there seems presented no spectacle but one of ignominy and death, I can gain confidence from the fact with which the psalmist was encouraged. Yes, blessed Saviour, our help is indeed from Thee! We must lift up our eyes to Thee--to Thee extended on the cross--if we would be enabled to escape Divine wrath, and obtain an inheritance in the kingdom of heaven. But we recognize in Thee more than the persecuted man, borne down by the malice and fury of the powers of darkness; we behold in Thee, even when we see Thee on Calvary, “ the brightness of the Father’ s glory and the express image of His person.” And the proud and the unbelieving may wonder at, or even ridicule, our expecting assistance from one who died the death of a malefactor; but we bow before Thee on the cross; we look towards Thee on the cross; and owning the ever-living God in the suffering man, we exclaim in holy confidence, our “ help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth.” (H. Melvill, B. D.) Psalms 121:3 He will not suffer thy foot to be moved.“ He will not suffer thy foot to be moved” Any of you who have tried to climb the hills know that that is just the great danger of it. One slip, and you may go sheer down hundreds of feet, and be dashed to pieces. Do we not use this expression to cover the idea of safety? We talk about the “ sure-footed” guide, and the “ sure-footed” mountaineer, the man of keen eye and cool nerve, and of muscles like iron all over his body; a man who can be depended on. If he gets a foothold for his foot, he will put his foot there, and keep it there, until he gets another as good. So is the Christian. Why, in one sense, we are engaged in a perilous journey. We are going up. We are climbing. To brace yourself to climb the Matterhorn is a small thing compared with this girding of your mind to be sober and climbing right up from hell to heaven. And that is the climb for every one of us. (John McNeill) The Christian’ s stability The North Pole is perpetually roving within the limits of a circle sixty feet in diameter. What is the North Pole to-day is not the North Pole to-morrow. The true North Pole has been known to travel more than four feet in a week, while sometimes it has required more than a month to cover a yard. Suppose that you and I were to sail from opposite points to discover this turning-point. We will say that you, with your astronomical instruments, planted your flag upon the exact North Pole six months ago, and then went away. I, arriving to-day, make equally accurate calculations and plant my flag also upon the true North Pole. My flag is probably forty feet from yours, yet neither of us is in error. To-morrow the elusive little tip-top of the earth will have slipped away from both of us. And if I were to claim a building site the corner-stone of which was marked by this North Pole, a strange predicament would follow. I should have to place my fences upon castors, and keep them continually moving in order to mark strictly my own reservation. So it is with too many Christian lives. Want of stability in the Christian faith and life is one of the great--one might say the greatest--hindrances to the true development of Christianity among us. We are constantly veering round in our faith and life, following the latest “ new belief,” accepting every modern “ faith,” or doubting some established Christian doctrine. Let us be more stable in our religion. (Signal.) Psalms 121:4 Behold, He that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.God, the Keeper of Israel Why was this added? Was it not enough to say, “ He that keepeth thee will not slumber” ? Nay, this is not mere repetition. In the one sentence God is spoken of as the Keeper generally of His Church, or people; in the other sentence as the keeper of the believer individually. And the transition from the believer to the Church is exquisitely beautiful and comforting. For the individual, on being told of the wakefulness of his heavenly Keeper, might say--“ Can I dare to hope that one so insignificant as myself is to be the object of so unwearied attention?” And why not, “ O thou of little faith” ? Thou art a member of that body which God hath purchased to Himself at inestimable cost. Dost thou not know, that to touch this body is to touch “ the apple of His eye” ? and is not the body touched, if touched in the very least of its members? If thou canst believe that “ He that keepeth Israel never slumbers,” is not the wakeful eye upon thyself? What is “ Israel” but the aggregate of such units as thyself? and how can “ Israel” be incessantly watched if a single unit be overlooked? Or there is another way, in which the third and fourth verses may be connected. There is nothing of selfishness in religion. It does not content the believer that great privileges are his; he longs to share them with others; they seem but half enjoyed, unless enjoyed in fellowship and communion with multitudes possessing “ like precious faith.” Does his heart, then, bound at being told--“ He that keepeth thee will not slumber” ? Yes, but his joy is not full till the celestial voice adds--“ He that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.” Then he feels--“ There is a blessed company who share with me this unwearied protection. I am not alone, and I would not be alone, in the favour of that glorious Being, who made heaven and earth.” Friends, kinsmen, children, all may be included. There is room for an innumerable multitude:--oh! that an innumerable multitude may suffer themselves to be gathered under the shadow of His wings. (H Melvill, B. D.) The wakeful eyes of God I. The Lord keeps Israel--1. As a shepherd keeps his sheep--by feeding them, by supplying all their needs, and also by guarding them from all their adversaries. He keeps the flock with vigilance so that it is not diminished either by the ravaging of the wolf or by the straying of the sheep. 2. As a king keeps his jewels. God hides His people in the casket of His power, and protects them with all His wisdom and strength. 3. As a governor keeps the city committed to his charge. II. He shall neither slumber nor sleep.1. Think of God’ s eyes as never wearying of His people. Infinite patience! 2. God is never forgetful of His people for a single moment. 3. God is always ready to show Himself strong on behalf of those who trust Him. 4. God is never asleep in the sense that He ceases to consider us. You and I, in thinking of one thing, often forget another; but it is not so with God. He is so great that His centre is everywhere, and His circumference is nowhere; and you, dear brother or sister, may be the very centre of God’ s thoughts, and so may I; and all His redeemed may at the same moment have His thoughts fixed upon each one of them. (C. H. Spurgeon.) There is no sleep with God His eye is ever upon His people for good. That great eye never closes. That great eye is as bright and piercing as ever, and not for a single instant is the vigilance relaxed. A poor woman, as the Eastern story has it, came to the Sultan one day, and asked compensation for the loss of some property. “ How did you lose it?” said the monarch. “ I fell asleep,” was the reply, “ and a robber entered my dwelling.” “ Why did you fall asleep?” “ I fell asleep because I believed that you were awake.” The Sultan was so much delighted with the answer of the woman that he ordered her loss to be made up. But what is true, only by a legal fiction, of human governments, that they never sleep, is true in the most absolute sense with reference to the Divine government. We can sleep in safety, because our God is ever awake. We are safe, because He never slumbers. (N. McMichael.) All preserved for Israel’ s sake As He preserved the ark for Noah’ s sake, and Goshen for the ancient Israelites’ sake, and all that were in the ship for St. Paul’ s sake, and all that were in the bath for St. John’ s sake, and all that fled to the tombs of the martyrs in Rome, when the Goths sacked the city, for the Christians’ sake: so at this day He supporteth all kingdoms and states for the Churches’ sake. The world is as a hop-yard, the Church as the hops, kingdoms, states, and commonwealths as the poles; and as the owner of the hop-yard preserveth the poles and stakes carefully, not for themselves, but that the hops may grow upon them: so God preserveth all states and societies of men, that they may be a support to His Church. We may take this note higher, and truly affirm that He keepeth heaven and earth for her sake; the earth to be as a nursery for her children, to grow awhile; and the heaven for His garden and celestial Paradise, whither He will transplant them all in the end. Wherefore, although the world never so much scorn, and contemn, and malign, and persecute God’ s chosen, yet it is indebted to them for its being and continuance; for God keepeth the heavens for the earth, the earth for living creatures, other living creatures for men, men for Israel, and Israel for the elect’ s sake. For their sake it is that the heavens move, the sun, moon and stars shine, the winds blow, the springs flow, the rivers run, the plants grow, the earth fructifieth, the beasts, fowls, and fishes multiply; for as soon as grace hath finished her work, and the whole number of the elect is accomplished, nature shall utterly cease, and this world shall give place to a better in which righteousness shall dwell. Yet when heaven and earth shall pass, this word of God shall not pass; for He that now keepeth militant Israel in the bosom of the earth shall then keep triumphant Israel in Abraham’ s bosom. (D. Featly, D. D.) Psalms 121:5-8 The Lord is thy keeper. Divine protection A celebrated traveller--after an absence of three years, during which he had walked across the continent of Africa from east to west, through vast regions never before trodden by the foot of the white man--recently received an enthusiastic welcome home. As he approached the quiet Kentish village where he had spent his boyish days, his first act, before entering his much-loved home, was to pass through the portals of the church where his aged father ministered, and, humbly kneeling, offer his devout thanksgiving to that God who had watched over and preserved him in all his wanderings. Among other appropriate Scriptures this psalm was read. It was a touching scene! Many hearts heaved with emotion, and many tears were shed, as the reader,, in trembling accents, uttered the words, “ The Lord is thy keeper,” etc. It was a fitting acknowledgment of that Divine goodness which had safely conducted the weary, sun-burnt traveller through all the perils of his great and adventurous journey. I. The Divine protection is ample and efficient.1. It is ample. “ The Lord is thy shade.” He surrounds His people, and guards them at every point of attack. The foe must be able to pierce the invulnerable, and conquer the invincible, before he can touch the feeblest saint who is sheltered by the wings of God. 2. It is efficient. “ Upon thy right hand.” As the enemies of God’ s people are ever standing at their right hand to frustrate all their efforts in well-doing, so Jehovah is at their right hand to encourage and sustain those efforts, and restrain their enemies. II. The Divine protection shields from the most open assaults. “ The sun shall not smite thee by day.” The worker in the dismal mine, the traveller by road, or rail, or sea, the toiler surrounded by the most destructive materials, is alike under the shadow of the Divine protection. III. The Divine protection guards from the effects of the most secret treachery. “ Nor the moon by night.” The Divine Sentinel never slumbers. He can never be outwitted by the cunning of the most malicious. IV. The Divine protection is a defence against every evil. “ The Lord shall preserve thee from evil: He shall preserve thy soul.” He protects from the evil of sin and of suffering. He turns away the evil that is feared, and alleviates and sanctifies the evil He permit. V. The Divine protection is realized amid the active duties of life. “ The Lord shall preserve thy going out.” The good man is directed in the beginning of his undertakings, and shielded by the Divine presence during their active prosecution (Deuteronomy 28:3-6). He is safe wherever his duties carry him--in the workshop, the street, the busy mart, on the restless sea, or in strange and distant countries. VI. The Divine protection overshadows the rest and quietness of home. “ And thy coming in.” Evening brings all home; and the weary one, after the toils and dangers of the day, enjoys the peace and rest of his home all the more because he knows he is encircled by the Divine guardianship. And when the shadows of life’ s eventide gather round him, he fears not. The Lord will preserve his coming in--his tranquil entrance into the heavenly home! VII. The Divine protection is unremitting. “ From this time forth and even for evermore.” Lessons--1. Offer grateful praise for the protection of the past.2. Fear not the most furious assaults of the enemy.3. Put all your confidence in the Divine Protector. (G. Barlow.) The Lord our Keeper I. The keeper.1. Those who are redeemed need to be kept (Exodus 23:20). 2. He who is our Redeemer is also our Keeper (Psalms 121:5; 1 Samuel 2:9; Isaiah 42:6; John 17:11). (1) He keeps us in His power (1 Peter 1:5).(2) He keeps us by His peace (Philippians 4:7). II. The keeping.1. As in a tower (Proverbs 18:20; Psalms 18:2). 2. As in a bank (2 Timothy 1:12). 3. As in a sheepfold (Psalms 23:1; Psalms 80:1). 4. As behind a shield (Psalms 84:11). (1) Safe (Psalms 31:20; Psalms 121:5-8; Jude 1:24).(2) Holy (John 17:11; John 17:15; 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24).(3) Happy (Isaiah 26:3; Psalms 32:7).(4) Ceaseless (Isaiah 27:3; Psalms 121:3). III. The kept.1. They renounce their own keeping (Proverbs 3:26; Psalms 127:1). 2. They commit themselves to be kept (1 Peter 4:19; Psalms 31:5). 3. They trust Him to meet them (2 Timothy 1:12; Psalms 31:23). (E. H. Hopkins.) Kept by God 1. The Lord is my Watchman! I remember that in the days of my boy-hood when my father was away from home, it was sometimes my duty to lock up the house. I used to try every door and every window, but never went to bed with a feeling of peace. I never gained an assurance that everything was safe. I feared that some door remained unlocked, or, if I were sure about the doors, some window would haunt me through the night and disturb my rest. But when my father was the “ watchman,” and had gone round the house and seen to the doors and windows, I “ laid me down in peace and slept.” I could trust his vigilance and his care, and the trust was the parent of restful contentment. “ The Lord is thy Watchman.” Our Father does not leave us to our own self-discovery; He tries the doors and windows of my being. He knows the state of the locks. He knows every room in my personality, and just what are the chances of each room being burglariously entered and despoiled. Our Father especially watches over our safety in the seasons of the night. When sorrow is in the home, when death is at the gate, when calamity blackens the sky, the heavenly Watchman is always near. “ He keepeth watch over His flock by night.” 2. He is not only my Watchman, He is my Defence. (1) Now let us remember that our Father is sometimes compelled to provide defences for us in ways that are not agreeable or welcome. Defences may sometimes seem the agents of cruelty. The cruelty, however, is only apparent. There is no cruelty in the act of a father who places barbed wire fencing round the edge of the precipice. There is no unkindliness when we put the barbed wire round the mouth of a perilous well. The thorny hedge may keep us from the more dangerous ditch. Have we not sometimes heard people speak in this wise: “ Ah, well, his present illness is no doubt saving him from a greater one.” Only the other day I heard a doctor say, speaking of a certain patient: “ His fever was his salvation.” In the feverish fire something was consumed that might have been productive of a more perilous disease. And our Father sometimes sends the fire into our life in order that He might keep us from something infinitely worse. The fire in the forest wards off the wild beasts; and in the fire which God sometimes permits to dwell in our life many things are seared away, and many things are destroyed. In the fire of tribulation superciliousness is destroyed, and so is callousness and every form of pride. The Lord is our Keeper, and in apparent cruelty He pours out the treasures of His heart. (2) Now let us mark the thoroughness of our Father’ s “ keeping.” “ He shall keep thee as the apple of the eye.” How wonderful is the figure I The delicate, sensitive organ, the eye, is protected by the bony framework like an encircling cave. The exquisite instrument is enthroned, as it were, in walls of rock. And just as the eye is protected with these strong encircling ramparts, so my Father will protect me. “ He is able to keep you from falling.” It is an exquisite figure; the mother is training her little one to walk, and while in great timidity and uncertainty it moves from step to step, the mother’ s arms almost encircle it, and most surely prevent it from falling. And I, too, am learning to walk, am learning to walk as a child of light; and my feet are so uncertain, and my resolution is so Wavering, that I need the encircling care of the everlasting arms. “ The Lord is thy keeper,” and “ He is able to keep you from falling.” (J. H. Jowett, M. A.) God our Keeper This verse refers to God during the day. For, oh, when we get out during the day, end go down to the town there, and go about our daily business, we are apt to think: Now, we do not need all that our minister has been preaching to us about--God’ s care, and God’ s keeping, and God being our nursing Father. During the day we will kind of “ forge ahead” without Him. Nay; do not make that mistake, for you will not. Let God be your Keeper down in business there. I speak to you business men. Suffer the word of exhortation. On some grounds I have no right to speak to you. I stand here and speak for God, and say, when you go back to the office, before you take that budget of letters and open them, look up to God, and say, “ Now, Thou art to help me here--here among these papers, and manuscripts, and these clerks, and this business of per cents., and I do not know what all.” Aye, they are dangerous things--“ per cents.” Oh, Heaven help you! You need God among the per cents. You will lose your soul among the per cents, and the ledgers. Remember the overshadowing Presence, and, while it keeps you, may it also sanctify you. “ The Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand. The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night.” Travellers in tropical countries know the great danger from a stroke of the sun, or a stroke of the moon, or from lying out at night in the mists and the damps. All the dangers of the way are met and forestalled by this great and mighty Keeper of His people. (John McNeill.) Safety in God’ s keeping The Lord is “ thy Keeper,” but not thy jailor. His keeping is not confinement, but protection. When you commit your ways to Him, He does not abridge your liberty; He only defends you against evil. Psalms 121:7-8 The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil Preserved Item all evil Lawyers, when they are drawing up important documents, frequently con-elude with some general terms to meet any emergency which may possibly occur. They do this on the principle that what is not in may be supposed to be intentionally left out. In order to guard against this inference, they are not content with inserting a number of particular cases; they conclude with a general statement, which includes everything, whether expressed or not. A similar formula is inserted here. It is of great importance that the feet of travellers be kept front sliding as they pursue their journey. It is of great importance that they be preserved from heat by day and from cold by night. But other dangers await them, from which they require protection; and lest the suspicion be entertained that no provision is made for these being surmounted, they are all introduced in the saving and comprehensive clause. No matter what may be their character, no matter from what quarter they may appear, no matter when they may come, and no matter how long they may continue, the declaration covers them all. Divine grace changes the nature of everything it handles, and transforms everything it touches into gold. Afflictions are overruled for good; and the virtues of the Christian life are developed with unusual lustre. “ The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil.” (N. McMichael.) Preservation in unguarded moments “ Guard me when I am off my guard,” prayed one the other day. It was a wise prayer, for it is not the danger against which we have fortified ourselves, the temptations which we know and are watching, which are so likely to compass a fall as some unthought-of point where no peril was suspected. Look back over the days, and you will find that their failures have nearly always been in unexpected places. The task which seemed so easy that you scarcely thought of seeking help for it, the good temper which is yours naturally, the endurance manifested so many times that you were quite confident of finding it ready for any stress--just in these things came surprise and defeat, the weakness that wounded your self-respect and left you heart-sore. You gather your forces for the struggle you foresee, you arm against the enemies whose power you know, but, when human watchfulness has done its utmost, there is still a wide margin for that urgent petition: “ Guard me when I am off guard.” (J. R. Miller, D. D.) He shall preserve thy soul.--Soul preservation I. This soul preservation is divine. “ The Lord shall preserve,” etc. No one else can preserve it--1. In the right train of thought. Wrong thoughts are dangerous. 2. In the right objects of sympathy. Wrong affections are dangerous. 3. In the right course of action. One step out of the proper path is dangerous. II. This soul preservation is complete.1. It is a preservation guarding from all evil. 2. It is a preservation extending over all activities. In solitude and in society; in business and in recreation; in all engagements and in all scenes; the shield of His protection is over it. He is with it in all its “ ins” and “ outs” of life. III. This soul preservation is everlasting. From henceforth “ even for evermore.” Who shall tell the events, the ages, the requirements of the soul in that “ evermore “ ?1. The soul is to live a life of dependence for “ evermore.” 2. The Lord will be its support for “ evermore.” (Homilist.) Thy going out and thy coming in.--The God of the threshold The title of this psalm, “ A song of ascents,” is one which it holds in common with a small group of the Psalms. Its reference is to the ritual usage of the psalm by the pilgrims, as they made their way up to Mount Zion. And yet it is not inappropriate to its spirit. The author’ s thoughts are lifted up, and our hearts and eyes rise with them. The whole atmosphere of the poem is homely and domestic. It sees the world framed in a cottage doorway. The mountains are not peaks of vision; they are the boundaries and the horizons of his prospects. The threshold of homo fills the foreground of the picture. “ Going out and coming in” are its simple lines of motion. The hearth and the field are thus suggested to us. We see the labourer go out into the light of morning with an uplifting of the heart to the dawn-clad hills. We watch him returning to the homestead in the evening, and pausing with his hand upon the door for a last glance at the mountains, as they gather their grey cloaks upon them, the sentinels of his security. And as the psalm closes, one almost expects to see the light in the cottage window, shutting out that wizard world which is just suggested in the superstitious fear of the rising moon. This psalm might have been the work of some Hebrew Burns, following his plough, in glory and in pride, upon the mountain side. Its religion is very simple, and yet all his creed. “ The Lord Himself is thy keeper;” that is the summary of his creed. “ He that keepeth Israel shall not slumber nor sleep.” The foot kept from stumbling, the head shielded from the heat of the noonday sun, the blessing and the preservation of the threshold, these are the simple promises of the psalm. And wrought into them there is the recognition of the spiritual dignity of man. The souls of His children are precious in His sight. And my mind dwells with satisfaction upon these elementary and yet large outlines of life, as it is here presented to us. I am fascinated by the thought of the God of the threshold. As I said just now, the home is the centre of the picture. It is the beginning and the end of the daily journey. The motions of it are reckoned not by the points of the compass; its wanderings are not eastward and westward, but homeward, or away from home. “ The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in.” For we, whose life moves in a somewhat narrow and restricted sphere from day to day, very easily form the habit of prosaic and dull outlooks, regarding our life as an ordinary, common affair. We go out without wonder; we return without surprise. We lose that fine fancy of our childhood, which made a journey into the next street an expedition, and brought us back from the woodlands as travellers from a far country. It is quite true that such a diminished sensitiveness saves Us from many terrors that might otherwise play upon us. But it is equally true that that crippled imagination robs us of half the zest and joy that life might otherwise possess. How much is covered for us by these simple phrases, as we take them in their widest meaning--birth and death, sowing and reaping, expenditure and income, giving and receiving, earning and spending, adventure and peace--all of them may be summed up and expressed for us in those phrases, “ our going out,” and “ our coming in.” And if we were to take these symbolic suggestions of them, we might find the promise of the text applicable to them all. But let us dwell, at any Fate to begin with, upon the simple and most natural sense of the text. Day by day we do actually and literally go out and come in. The phrase marks the ordered sequence of our ordinary existence--that daily life of the trivial round, and the common task of which we sometimes complain that nothing ever happens; that it is wholly commonplace. And yet the commonplaceness of it is surely in ourselves. The ordinary daily life that most of us live is, if we be spiritually alert, far less certain and far more adventurous than we conceive. It is only while we take a very superficial glance upon our life, that we can speak of ourselves as knowing the daily conditions under which we have to live. To the spiritually alert the street is as hazardous as the wilderness; and the office and the shop are to us as foreign lands. We may not meet a lion in the path, it is true; but we meet, every day, men and women who surprise us with the revelation of unexpected possibilities, and of unhinted thoughts, and whose action is a thousand times more difficult to forecast. We do not all pick up sovereigns in the gutter as we wander forth; but spiritual gold may wait for us at the corner of any street, and the words that alter the destiny of a life be spoken in the clamour and rumble of a railway platform. For the upbuilding and moulding of character the common events of ordinary life have a significance of quite unplumbed possibility. We may meet the spiritual adventure of our existence within a few yards of our own door. And God may come to meet us, supreme, in the street that our feet have trodden every morning. The path where we have enjoyed such quiet communions, may be changed in a moment into the scene of temptation and disaster. Any morning and any hour may bring to us the opportunity of either denying or entering into, and sharing the larger and fuller communion of our Lord. And it is just that which sets an expectation upon the threshold of the morning, and sends a man forth with a thrill that is partly of hope and partly of fear. Everything, anything, the supremest things may happen to-day. His going forth is always momentous. He knows that there is not the remotest likelihood that he will return again in the evening exactly the same man as he went forth. Changes will have come and impressed themselves upon his being; temptations will have been met and battles have been fought. And so he goes forth with trembling, with the awe of his hesitant and uncertain destiny upon him. The question prompts itself in one’ s thought whether all of us whom our Christian faith ought to have awakened to the intense possibilities of daily life in spiritual things--whether all of us do live that daily life with a sufficient seriousness, and the sense of its value in the moulding of Our destinies. Do we go out, too, each day as to a spiritual adventure? To go out--as I fear some of us do--to go out day by day without a sense, a zest of hazard in life, to stumble through our daily temptation without the sense of what we are meeting, or what perchance we are avoiding, speaks, as I said just now, a dulled and crippled imagination. On the other hand, to be finely sensitive and responsive to the menaces and suggestions of life, if that were all, might be just as crippling to us. Hope and fear might simply neutralize one another, and the uncertainty of our destiny keep us hesitant and unwilling to adventure ourselves in such a hazardous quest at all. And if I would have you pause upon the threshold, it is not simply that we may correct the thought which has been too carelessly and flippantly going forth to its daily life, but that we may take counsel of the God of the threshold and find our strength and assurance in Him. This word of the psalmist: “ The Lord is thy keeper; the Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in” --how rich and heartfelt it is in its quality! It was surely worth our while to pause to gather the richness of such a promise. This promise of the preservation of God over our going forth and our coming in, can only be realized by those whose purposes are in accordance with the will of God. The confidence of God’ s presence is not something that we can conjure up at will. It is hot something which by constant reiteration we can impress upon our memory and get into our hearts, except it be confirmed by the testimony of our own conscience and by the assurance that the purposes and plans we have before us are holy in the sight of God. There is no promise of preservation for a Jonah fleeing from the purposes of God; for a Saul who is found to transgress and to fight against God. If we are to reap the rich promise that a text like this holds for us, then we must meet the challenge that it presents to our souls. And only as our purposes are clean and pure in the sight of God can its protection accompany us wherever we go. “ The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in.” The returns of life are not less momentous than its going forth. There may be something of an over-sensitive morbidness in it, but I confess for one that whenever I have been away a few days from home, it is hardly possible to approach it again through the familiar streets without a vague sense of apprehensiveness. What may have happened in the hours of absence? And it is quite true that in the commonest day of our ordinary life, just as we ourselves do not return the same men that we went forth, so there have been changes in the home in our absence, which mean that the same presences will not wait for us there. The home also has its temptations, its spiritual disciplines, as well as the office and the shop. And it may be that our development during that time has not been upon the same lines, has not been even upon parallel lines; and so when we meet again there is a new point of contact to find. We may be coming home joyous and satisfied from a day in which everything has gone well to a home where the pressure of small tasks has weighed too heavily and has produced irritation and griefs. We have to readjust our relations. And how often is it true that we miss the point of contact. That instead of falling at once into a new harmony our moods strike a discord. So this second half of our text, while it means first of all to me that God, through the absences of our daily life, protects our home for us, and watches over those who dwell there, I think means more subtly that God has to protect our home from us sometimes. As we pass the God of the threshold to get into the street in the morning, we have, as it were, to pass through God on our return at eventide. Some of the things that have irritated, and bruised, and chafed during the day, and that ought not to be carried back into the home with us, have got to be slowed off, that so we may meet in peace, and our peace not return to us as a guest that finds no place. “ The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil. He shall preserve thy soul. The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in, from this time forth and even for evermore.” (W. C. Piggott.) Preserved in life and in death It is a promise which should be kept in mind in all our business, in all our movements; amid all the changes and chances of this mortal life. We shall ever more be defended by that ready help, which supposes an eye that cannot close--an arm that cannot fail. But I know of a “ going out” and of a “ coming in,” where we shall especially need the preserving care of our God; and to these, as to every other, may the promise be extended. There is a “ going out” from this world,--there is a “ coming in” to the next world: the departure through death from the present scene, and the entering on the unknown futurity. But “ the Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in.” Christ Jesus, according to His own declaration, has the keys of death and the invisible world; He, therefore, it must be, who dismisses the spirit from the flesh, and opens to it the separate state. And why should the believer shrink from the act of dissolution, as though it would be something tremendously awful, when he is thus assured that the Redeemer Him-self will officiate (as it were) at the taking down of “ the earthly house of this tabernacle” --be with Him at the “ going out” and the “ coming in,” which he is so ready to invest with terror and dismay? (H. Melvill, B. D.) . Psalms 122:1-9 Psalms 122:1-9I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord.A pious patriot I. Rejoicing in the opportunity for assembling for public worship (verses 1, 2).1. One of the grandest social duties of religious men--to invite their neighbours to religious worship.2. The delight that may be expected from the right discharge of this duty. II. Highly appreciating the various advantages of his country (Psalms 122:3-5). He rejoices in it because--1. It was a scene of material beauty.2. It was the scene of religious worship.3. It was the scene of civil justice. III. Earnestly desiring the prosperity of his fatherland (Psalms 122:6-9).1. He invokes for it the highest good--peace and prosperity.2. For the strongest reasons. (1) Personal (verse 6).(2) Social (verse 8).(3) Religious (verse 9). (Homilist.) The communion of saints I. Before worship (verses 1, 2).1. The joy of a common purpose. Men cannot help approaching one another in approaching one common object.2. The joy of a common hope. II. During worship (Psalms 122:3-5).1. The exceeding beauty of unity.2. The secret of this admirable unity. (1) One object of worship.(2) One priesthood.(3) One ruler and king. III. United worship itself (Psalms 122:6-9).1. The invitation. “ Jerusalem which now is” is not without faults, nor yet without foes. All the more need for her true children and friends to pray for her “ peace.” It is part of their duty. It is part, also, of their wisdom. “ They shall prosper that love thee.” When we meet to say “ Our Father,” let us say also, “ Thy kingdom come.” 2. The response to the invitation--to its request--to its reasonings. (1) The request is right, and we will gladly accede to it. “ Peace be within thy walls, and prosperity within thy palaces.” May all be right internally and externally too. (2) The reasoning also is sound, and we are prepared to act on it. “ For my brethren and companions’ sakes,” and because I feel that good to them is good to myself as well, “ I will now say, Peace be within thee.” “ Yea, because of the house of the Lord our God,” in which house and its common worship this feeling is so especially realized, “ I will seek thy good.” (W. S. Lewis, M. A.) The Christian’ s pleasure at being invited to God’ s house Probably this psalm was composed for the use of the Israelites when journeying up to worship at Jerusalem on the great annual solemnities. We stand in one of the valleys of the Promised Land, whilst it yet flowed with milk and honey, and the children of Abraham had not been exiled for their sins. We see a company approaching: they are a band of one of the distant tribes, and they are hastening to be at Jerusalem on one of the grand anniversaries. As they advance, we catch the sound of their voices: they are beguiling with psalmody the tedious pilgrimage. We listen attentively, and at length we can distinguish the words, “ I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord. Our feet shall stand within thy gates, O Jerusalem.” Louder and louder grows the melody: the thought of the glories of the city, in which Jehovah specially dwelt, cheers the weary travellers; and the surrounding mountains echo the beautiful invocation, “ Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love thee. Peace be within thy walls, and prosperity within thy palaces.”1. Now, it is not required of us to undertake any wearisome journeys: we are not called to incite one or the other by holy melodies to the leaving of our homes, that we may seek the Lord at some distant shrine. But, nevertheless, we are still bound to the duty of public worship; the privilege is left us, though graciously freed from inconvenience; and it may be as necessary as ever, seeing that the removal of difficulties is not unlikely to produce indolence, that men should exhort one another with the words, “ Let us go into the house of the Lord.” We know, of course, that there is a sense in which the Almighty “ dwelleth not in temples made with hands” ; “ heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain Him;” how much less the houses which His creatures build l But, nevertheless, just as He may be said to dwell especially in heaven, though, in virtue of His omnipresence, He is equally everywhere, because in heaven He manifests Himself with greater brightness than in any other scene; so may He be said to dwell specially in our churches, if He there give extraordinary tokens of that presence which must indeed be the same in all departments of creation. And when a true servant of God goes up to the sanctuary, it is in the humble but earnest hope of gaining greater knowledge of doctrines which concern his salvation, of gathering fresh stores of that manna which “ cometh down from heaven,” and of drinking a fresh draught of “ the water of life.” Neither is it only on account of the advantages derivable from the preaching of the Word that the sincere Christian is earnest in attending the sanctuary. There is a charm and a power to him in public worship, in the being associated with a multitude of his fellow-men in acts of prayer and praise, which would draw him to God’ s house. It is an inspiriting and elevating thing when numbers loin, with one heart and voice, to ask Divine protection, and celebrate Divine love. There is more of the imagery of heaven in such an exhibition than in any other to be seen on this earth. But we must not omit, in our survey of reasons, why a Christian is glad, when invited to the house of the Lord, that in this house are administered the Sacraments, those mysterious and most profitable rites of our holy religion. 2. We have hitherto enlarged on the motives to joy which are furnished by the ordinances of religion: we will now examine whether there be not also motives in the finding that others associate themselves with us in those ordinances, yea, incite us to their most diligent use? And what more evident than that, if it be a joyful thing to the Christian to go up to God’ s house, it must be yet more joyful to go up with a throng? Anxious himself to obtain spiritual strength, it will delight him to mark the like anxiety in others. For there is nothing selfish in genuine religion: on the contrary, it enlarges and throws open the heart, so that the safety of others is eared for in proportion that one’ s own seems secured. 3. It is one of the predictions of Isaiah in reference to those days when the dispersed Jews are to be restored, and Jerusalem made “ a praise in the earth,” that “ many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountains of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob.” Who would not be glad to have it said unto him, “ Let us go into the house of the Lord,” when the saying implied that God had at length fulfilled His mightiest promises, that His banished ones were gathered home, and that there had broken on this creation days for which kings and righteous men had longed, days when “ out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem,” till earth, in its remotest tribes, yield homage to the Christ? We may not live to hear the summons thus applied; but we may show our desire for the glorious triumphs which Christianity has yet to achieve, by the earnestness of our endeavours to promote its diffusion. (H. Melvill, B. D.) Gladness about worship These words show us that the psalmist was thinking-- I. About worship. “ The house of the Lord.” That, to the pious Hebrew, was the scene and symbol of worship. There are two aspects of worship, both of which are right. One is, that in the house of the Lord we get from God what, as sinners and sufferers and suppliants for others, we seek. The other is, that we give to God the adoration and praise He condescends to receive. II. About social worship. “ Let us go.” The solitary worship in “ the still hour ‘ and in “ the quiet resting-place” is good. But prayer has special promise attached to it when “ any two agree” ; and praise has special glory when “ young men and maidens, old men and children” blend their hallelujahs. III. About invitation to social worship. There are times when, to the neglectful, or the depressed, or the sinful, this human invitation seems an echo of the Divine welcome. There is gladness(1) because God may be worshipped.(2) Because others are worshipping God.(3) Because others are caring for us. (U. R. Thomas.) Gladness in the prospect of Divine worship The house of the Lord suggests such subjects of thought as these--they may not come to us in this order, but they are such as these:-- I. Thoughts of the Lord Himself. The house of the Lord. A gladdening thought this to David, and to every man who knows God as Jesus Christ teaches His disciples to know the Father. There may be very little gladness through simply saying “ there is a God” ; but surely joyfulness must spring up in the soul when a man can add “ O God, thou art my God.” II. Thoughts of the various glorious manifestations of God. III. Thoughts of His mercies. IV. Thoughts of the exercise and the act of worship. How pleasant to praise! What relief is there in the confession of sin! How soothing is prayer! V. Thoughts of meeting God as He is not met elsewhere. VI. Thoughts of receiving special blessings from God. VII. Thoughts of the communion of saints. VIII. Thoughts of enjoying a privilege in the performance of duty. (S. Martin, M. A.) The good man’ s joy in the engagements of the sanctuary I. There he is warranted to expect the peculiar enjoyment of the Divine presence. To an affectionate friend nothing is so delightful as his friend’ s society. To a fond child nothing is dearer than the embrace of his father. He delights when absent to return to him. Such is the emotion with which a sincerely pious mind welcomes the coming of the Sabbath, and the returning solemnities in the house of God. And this is a state of feeling that must continually increase in proportion to the increase of his spirituality and piety. II. The gratification thus expressed on approaching to the house of god, springs also from the happiness of a near and intimate association with our brethren in all the exercises of united devotion. III. The truly pious man will rejoice in approaching to the house of the Lord, because of those sacred and solemn employments so congenial with his best feelings there awaiting him. For there may he freely, and in concert witch his brethren, engage in those avocations, and delight himself with those pleasures, which are to be his business and his felicity for ever. IV. We shall rejoice to enter again into the house of God, because of the progressive improvement in all our character there constantly experienced. And in order to the attainment of this advance in the Divine life, derived from all the engagements of the sanctuary, meditate much on their importance. Seek to approach in a state of sacred preparation. Think not of man, but of God. Remember that you stand immediately before Him. Call frequently to mind the account you must render hereafter, and ask with solemnity of spirit how you would be able even now to render it. Be not satisfied, unless you can discern, after each season of devotion, some benefit experienced; some grace attained or strengthened; the soul melted into deeper humility on account of sin, or else kindled into loftier exultation, and conscious of a purer love for all the joys of pardon, and the hope of glory. (R. S. McAll, LL. D.) Happiness and worship To know a real and undying happiness, the soul must be bent away from earth and bound back to God. This is religion. But how few know it to be so in this mammon-worshipping world. How few can catch at the sentiment of this text, and breathe it through the heart--“ I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord.” Tell the world it will find happiness anywhere but in religion, and it will go anywhere, and will never give up the hope under its vain Search. But tell it that the springs of abiding gladness are here, in the house of the Lord, that they are within the reach of all, and you will immediately find its credulity changed into incredulity, and its activity into idleness. Now, why is this? The more I search into it, the more am I convinced that what is wrong are the false conceptions that have been steadily growing up in our midst as to what the Church is, and the mistaken relations we have been entertaining to it. To a great many people who have enough of religious sentiment left in them to forbid them wishing to see the Church entirely effaced, it is anything but gladness to be told to go into the house of the Lord. They have no inclination to be in the sanctuary, but a very strong desire to be anywhere else. All this is the fruit of a mistaken notion of what the Church is. They regard it very much as a schoolboy regards compulsory attendance at school, not as a privilege, but as a hardship; not as offering untold benefits, but only as so much restraint and drudgery that ought to be escaped from as much as possible. And so, when they do go, it is under a sense of constraint or decency, to bestow favour and not to expect good. But if these are glad to escape church attendance and to be let alone, there are also those who are really glad when the Sabbath invitation summons them to the church, but of whom it can, nevertheless, be said that they are not worshippers; they are simply sermon-hunters. But if people are glad to go to church sometimes because they hear clever sermons, just as if they are drawn to a hall to listen to some great political orator or candidate, so are there some who enter church neither to be instructed nor amused, but to bear themselves as critics and judges, and to take no other part in the service. This also grows out of a false conception of the Church. For it is not a place where man is at liberty to sit in judgment on his fellow, or where the instrument is greater than the hand that wields it; but the place where men ought to be humble and not presumptuous, and where they ought to serve and not judge. But if the influence of the Christian Church has been hindered and impaired because of the false notions with which we have so often entered it, we have also weakened it and prevented its power by the wrong relations we have borne to it. It has been to us too long no more than an earthly temple of stone and timber, with a human voice sounding in our ears, and human creatures like ourselves our only companions. It has been to us the resort of habit, and the place where by inherited faith we have been trained from childhood to repair to. But the stone and timber of the sanctuary are no more than the stone and timber of any other building, neither are those we meet with here other than those we meet with in the world, nor yet is the habit acquired nor the faith inherited which carries us to the sanctuary of any value. Our true and sole relation to the place is not in the visible, but in the invisible. When we repair to it we ought to see nothing, and feel nothing, and desire nothing but God. For it is “ the house of the Lord.” We have to please God, and this is how we will please Him, by remembering, when we are in the house of the Lord, that He is there, to receive our praises, to hear our prayers, and to instruct us not after our own choosing, nor with the words of man’ s wisdom, but in the simplicity of the truth. This is worship therefore when we sing, and when we pray, and when we listen for spiritual edification, and not because we have an itching ear. Then shall carping criticism be dead, and the small shall become really great; for the poorest sermon shall have much in it then, and the best sermon shall have more spiritual momentum, and all the Church’ s service will be worship, and the Church shall awake and put on her strength, and God shall be glorified; and we shall find enduring happiness and salvation in the harmony of the new life. (R. Sinclair.) Inducements to public worship It should be a source of joy to us, even as it was to David, to be regular and punctual in our attendance upon the public means of grace-- I. With a view to God’ s honour and glory. If, on the one hand, the devout and humble worshipper contributes, as he most undoubtedly does, to that great end, then, I ask you whether it does not follow, upon the other hand, that his unnecessary or inexcusable neglect to attend the services of the sanctuary positively dishonours God? II. For our own spiritual refreshment and edification. We have our own individual cares and anxieties, and our own hard struggles in the race of life, and ofttimes we feel so worn and fagged with the hurry and bustle of the world that we are well nigh ready to sink beneath the pressure upon us, and we experience an intense yearning for rest, an earnest longing for something--perhaps some of us scarcely know what--but something that certainly we find not in the whirl of business or the excitement of pleasure. Ah! thank God, that peace which the world cannot give is to be found here, here in the house of prayer. Every time these doors are opened for public worship, God awaits His hungry, and thirsty, and fainting people, and whispers to each poor, needy, longing soul, “ Come unto Me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will refresh you.” III. That we may become examples for good to those around us. Let me assure you that when you give up for a time the sweet converse of friends and the cheerful glow of the bright fireside, and turn out, it may be, into the blinding snow, or the pelting rain, or the dismal fog, that you may go into the house of the Lord, you do far more by these your silent, but practical, examples than we can hope to accomplish by any amount of persuasion. It was a noble answer that an old saint of God who had been for years very deaf once gave to her minister when he asked her why she was so constant in her attendance at church:--“ Though I cannot hear, I come to God’ s house because I love it, and I love the service, and I wish to be found in His ways, and He gives me many a sweet thought upon the text when it is pointed out to me. Another reason is because I am in the best company, in the most immediate presence of God, and among His saints, the honourable of the earth. I am not satisfied with serving God in private; it is my duty and privilege to honour Him regularly and constantly in public.” (J. F. Haynes, LL. D.) Gladness of God’ s house Why glad?1. That you have a house of the Lord to which you may go. David’ s zeal for God’ s house. The incident with Araunah. Removal of the ark to Jerusalem. His reasoning about a house for God. His large liberality toward building the Temple. That which costs us nothing we do not prize. When our money and labour and brain and heart go into God’ s house, we are “ glad when,” etc. 2. That any feel enough interest in me to say, “ Let us go,” etc. 3. That I am able to go to God’ s house. That my Sabbaths are my own. Sabbath and government and capital--the right of the working-man. That I have bodily health. That I have mental health. Able to-day, may not be to-morrow. 4. That I am disposed to go. “ Where there’ s a will there’ s a way.” Many excuses, but true of the mass of non-church-goers, that they have not the will. (J. G. Butler.) Psalms 122:2 Our feet shall stand within thy gates, O Jerusalem.Jerusalem The psalm was probably written by a pilgrim to Jerusalem at some time previous to the Babylonish Captivity. On the one hand, it is clear that “ the house of the Lord,” the ancient Temple, was still standing; on the other, the reference to “ the house of David” and the anxious prayer “ for the peace of Jerusalem,” its walls, its palaces, seem to point to a later period than that of David. The pilgrim who composed the psalm would have belonged to one of the ten separated tribes; but he had remained after the general defection true to the divinely-ordered worship at Jerusalem, and his psalm may well have been composed on the occasion of his first visit.1. Now, one thing that would have struck a pilgrim to Jerusalem who should approach the city, as was natural, from its north-eastern side, would be its beauty. Possibly this pilgrim had seen Damascus straggling out amid the beautiful oasis which surrounds it in the plain of the Abana, or he had seen Memphis, a long strip of buildings, thickly populated, extending for some twelve or fourteen miles along the western bank of the Nile. Compared with those Jerusalem had the compact beauty of a highland fortress, its buildings are seen from below standing out against the clear Syrian sky, and conveying an impression of grace and strength that would long linger in the memory. No doubt in the eyes of a pilgrim in these old Jewish times, as afterwards, the physical beauty of Jerusalem must have suggested and blended with a beauty of a higher order. The beauty of the world of spirit imparts to the world of sense a subtle lustre which of itself it could never possess. “ Walk about Zion, and go round about her, and tell the towers thereof; mark well her bulwarks; set up her houses that ye may tell them that come after.” And why? “ For this God is our God for ever and ever. He shall be our guide unto death.” 2. And secondly, Jerusalem was the centre of the religious and national life of Israel. Jerusalem was what it was in a good Israelite’ s eyes less on its own account than because it contained the Temple. “ Yea,” cries the pilgrim, as he looks out on the fair city beneath him--“ yea, because of the house of the Lord our God, I will seek to do thee good.” And so, although the city of Solomon and its Temple passed away, and a new city and a new temple rose upon the ruins of the old, pilgrims still came up with the old psalm upon their lips and in their hearts: “ Our feet shall stand in thy gates, O Jerusalem.” 3. And a third characteristic of Jerusalem, which appealed to religious pilgrims like this psalmist-pilgrim, was, if I may so phrase what I mean, its unworldliness. This appears partly in its situation. Jerusalem was not on the sea, or on a navigable river. The little stream of the Kedron was dry for the greater part of the year in ancient days as now, and nothing but rude mountain-paths connected the city with Egypt on one side or with Syria on the other. It was thus cut off from those activities of commerce and intercourse with distant countries which are essential to the material well-being and development of a great capital. 4. As the centuries went on, Jerusalem, thus dear to the heart of Israel as being what it was in itself, became yet dearer to it by misfortune. Of all that is most beautiful in life, sorrow is the last consecration. Sorrow is the poetry, no less than the discipline of humanity. Certainly, if one thing is clear from Scripture and from experience, sorrows such as those of Jerusalem are the result of sin. And yet this could not kill out the sense of blessing which attached to the sacred spot in the eyes of successive generations of pilgrims. Thinking only of the sure mercies of David, thinking with the apostle of a later age, that the gifts and calling of God are indeed without repentance, again and again under Manasseh as under Hezekiah, under Jehoiakim as under Josiah, they uttered their song, “ Our feet shall stand in thy gates, O Jerusalem.” The events which make Jerusalem what it is in Christian eyes do not belong to the Old Testament. That wonderful self-manifestation of the Eternal Being among men which began at Bethlehem and Nazareth reached its climax at Jerusalem. On the hills around this favoured city, along its streets, in the courts of its great sanctuary, there walked in visible form, One who had already lived from everlasting, and who had folded around His eternal person the body and the soul of the sons of men. Just outside its walls, He condescended to die in agony and in shame only that He might rise in triumph from His grave, and on a hill hard by He went visibly up to heaven to reign for ever in glory. He conferred on it in Christian eyes a patent of nobility which will only become invalid when His Gospel disappears from among men. But the Jerusalem of Christian thought is no longer only or mainly the city of David. It is, first of all, the visible and universal Church of Christ. The towers and walls and shrines of the ancient city, as faith gazes on them, melt away into the outline of a sublimer prospect--that of redeemed humanity through all the Christian centuries gathered and harmonized into the city of God. This was what St. Paul meant when, writing to the Galatians, he contrasted with Jerusalem “ that now is which is in bondage” --that is, to the Romans--“ with her children” ; the Jerusalem “ that is above,” or, as we should say, “ the spiritual Jerusalem that is free, and is the mother of us all.” That vast society in whose ample bosom the souls of Christian men from generation to generation find shelter and welcome and warmth and nourishment is the reality of which the old Syrian city was the material type. This is the Jerusalem of the Christian creed--“ I believe in one holy Catholic Apostolic Church;” this is the Jerusalem of, perhaps, the greatest work of the greatest teacher of the Christian Church since apostolic days--Augustine’ s treatise on “ The City of God.” There may be controversies among Christians as to the exact direction and extent of its wails, just as there are controversies among antiquarians as to the extent and direction of the walls of its material prototype, but as to its place in the thoughts and affections of all true Christian men there should be no room for controversy. No other association of men can have such claims on the heart of a Christian as the Church of God. What if sin and division have marred its beauty and its unity. The old Jerusalem did not cease to be Jerusalem in Jeremiah’ s eyes because of the sins of the priests, of princes, of peoples which he so unsparingly denounced. The factions which rent the city that fell beneath the legions of Titus did not kill out` the love and the loyalty of its noblest sons. The true remedy for disappointment and sorrow on the score of shortcomings and differences within the sacred city is to be found in such prayers as those which we offer in our holiest service to the Divine Majesty, beseeching Him to inspire continually the universal Church with the spirit of truth, unity, and concord. And this earthly Jerusalem suggests another city, a true haven of peace, with which the visible Church of Christ is already in communion, and into which all those true children of Zion who are joyful in their King will one day be received. (Canon Liddon.) Psalms 122:4 Whither the tribes go up. The church the centre of union The church is still the centre of union. To this sacred place the tribes of God are ever going up, in accordance with the Divine statute, “ to give thanks unto the name of the Lord.” All local peculiarities, all national distinctions, vanish in the house of God. The Asiatic and the Esquimaux, the Red Indian and the Islander of the Southern Ocean, the African and the European, assemble here as one family; and, throwing aside all sectional feuds and rivalries, they worship on the same holy mountain. The great bond of union is Christ, and, joined to Him who is our living Head, we are members of one another. All one in Christ. There is one Father, one Redeemer, one Holy Ghost. There is one condemnation, and there is one redemption; one cross of atonement, one throne of grace, one home in heaven. Whenever believers meet, they can sing the same psalms, and repeat the same prayers. The New Jerusalem, the metropolis of the universe, where the Son of David is seated upon His mediatorial throne, is the eternal centre of worship and of union. To this true Holy of holies the tribes of Israel are always going up, “ to give thanks unto the name of the Lord.” Pleasant it must have been to witness company after company of pilgrims arriving at the earthly Jerusalem, to worship Jehovah at His solemn feasts. But how much more delightful to behold their disembodied spirits, borne upwards on the wings of angels, passing through the pearly gates of the New Jerusalem, and placed in triumph before the jasper throne! They come from the east and the west, from the north and the south. Each day, each night, accessions are made to the number of the redeemed, and new voices added to their jubilant songs. And then, too, the assemblies never break up, and the festivals have no end. There is peace within the walls, and prosperity within the palaces: peace flowing on as a majestic river, unruffled with storms, and unchafed with any impediment: prosperity, ample as the desires of the glorified spirit, and immortal as its nature. (N. McMichael.) Psalms 122:5 For there are set thrones of judgment. True worship and correct thinking The words of our text are the very last we should expect to find in a psalm of praise and adoration. What had thrones of judgment, the place where disputes were settled, and deeds justified or condemned, to do with pilgrims who hungered for the living God? But a little reflection leads us to see that it was a true spiritual instinct that connects the sanctuary with the judgment-seat and worship with the criticism of life. Maybe there was a geographical proximity between the temple and the civil court, but we would fain believe that it was a much deeper connection, a spiritual association, that dictated the words of our text. For, as a matter of fact, we cannot prostrate ourselves before God without seeing all the facts of life in their true light and estimate all our thoughts and deeds at their true value, for “ there are set thrones of judgment.”1. True worship leads to just valuation and correct thinking. In the hurry of life God becomes a shadow, and in the controversies of thought He becomes a symbol; but when we bow our heads with adoration and awe, we place ourselves in an attitude to see the King in His beauty; and all the time we are engaged in worship, God is quietly reasserting His supremacy over our lives. In industry and commerce we are daily tempted to consider our fellow-men as means towards an end, bound to us by the cold relationship of a cash nexus or a business transaction. As we move in the social life around us we are tempted to group our fellows according to caste and class, to clique and circle, but when we escape to the sanctuary and turn to the great sacrifice of Christ for forgiveness, we see our fellow-man as he is, a fellow-sinner for whom Jesus died, a brother saint, heir of God and joint-heir of Jesus Christ. The sanctuary corrects the estimates of the world, and the thrones of judgment modify the rules and maxims of men. Outside the sanctuary property assumes vast dimensions, inside it dwindles into an incident of life. Outside sin is an inevitable trifle, inside it is the one tragedy of the world, crucifying Christ and wounding God. Outside, eternity is a guess and a chance, a dream and a shadow, but inside it is the great reality, the place of adjustment, reunion, and satisfaction. As men in a mist see every object disfigured and exaggerated, so in the atmosphere of worldliness we see everything out of its true shape and perspective, but in the sanctuary there are thrones of judgment. In worship we unconsciously escape from the dominion of maxims and thoughts that are merely worldly and material. 2. The reasons for this beneficent effect are not far to seek. (1) Worship brings a man to the right standpoint. Vision is so often a matter of position. To learn how to see is to learn where to stand. The attitude of worship is a vantage ground which commands spiritual prospects and unseen landscapes, the land that is very far off, the world in its need, and the King in His beauty. (2) Worship removes the disturbing element. Inaccurate judgments are due to passion and prejudice, to interest and greed, and all these are forms and modifications of selfishness. It is self that spoils the vision and upsets the balances. But worship is the surrender of the self, the renunciation of the great obstacle and the solemn repetition of our Saviour’ s words--“ Not My will but Thine be done.” Self is displaced and God is enthroned, and as the result the worshipper thinks as his Lord thinks, and his judgment is just and his valuation accurate. (3) Worship quickens all the faculties of a man’ s life. We often see amiss because we do not see with the whole soul. Our judgments are wrong because they are partially made. It takes a man in the full totality of his gifts to see God and to understand God’ s world. But there are many influences which rob us of this full-orbed activity. First of all there is sin. The man that has sinned away his purity has not only spoiled his character, he has mutilated his soul and robbed himself of the power of seeing God; and it is the same with the man who has become material, cynical, pessimistic, or self-sufficient. Then there is specialism. The age is more and more an age of specialization. Men are simply compelled to throw their whole energy into certain lines and to neglect certain parts of their nature altogether. You all remember the lament of Charles Darwin that he had lost the taste which once he had for music and poetry, and had become a mere machine for observing facts and grinding laws out of them. It is an undisputed fact that many men are in a parallel condition to-day, and to be in this state is to look at God and the world with half an eye and half a soul. The corrective for all this is worship, for reverence is the highest activity of the soul. Like the fly-wheel in a factory, it calls into movement all the multitudinous wheels of man’ s complex personality. Worship steadies the reason, chastens the emotions, vivifies the imagination, braces the will, spurs the spirit of inquiry, and gives unto man the full and free possession of all his faculties vitalized and alert. (4) Worship gives to the soul that hospitality which saves it from being deluded by dogmatism and self-sufficiency. There is more light to break forth from God’ s world and God’ s Word, and our hardest task is to keep our eyes open and our hearts hospitable towards the dawn. But this is the attitude of worship, for, as the shell on the shore is open to the waves of the sea, as the bud on the tree is open to the rays of the light, so is the soul of the worshipper open to the mysterious influences that perennially stream from the unseen and the unknown. (T. Phillips, B. A.) Psalms 122:6-9 Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. The good of the Church I. Wherein the good of the Church consists.1. Peace. Not that which results from mere inertness or indifference, but that which co-exists with the highest degree of spiritual life and energy; a peace which springs from unanimity, all being of one mind and one judgment as to the great and paramount questions of Christian doctrine and duty, and displaying one toward another, with respect to minor points, the spirit of humility and kindly forbearance. 2. Prosperity. Not that which is implied in high worldly distinctions; but the gracious presence of Cod with His people, and the abundant continuous effusion of His Holy Spirit upon them. II. The means by which the good of the Church is to be promoted.1. “ Love” to the Church is indispensably requisite in order to fit us for rendering to her any effective and acceptable service. Under the influence of this principle, we shall be always ready to engage in any service which may promote the glory of God and the prosperity of His cause; we shall not be discouraged or driven aside by the difficulties that may obstruct our course; we shall patiently endure the infirmities and faults of other men; we shall, in one word, be “ steadfast, unmovable,” etc. (1 Corinthians 15:58). 2. Prayer is one direct means of securing the good of the Church (Isaiah 62:6-7; 2 Thessalonians 3:1). 3. There must also be corresponding exertion (verse 9). Every person, however humble his station, possesses some degree of ability to promote the good of the Church: let his gifts and influence, of whatever kind they are, be prayerfully and assiduously devoted to this object. III. The considerations which should urge us onward in this course of duty to the Church.1. A regard for our own benefit. “ They shall prosper that love thee.” We may with absolute certainty take this promise in its spiritual import. The prosperity of the soul is, after all, our truest and highest prosperity. 2. Another incitement to seek the good of Jerusalem is supplied by philanthropy (verse 8). Whatever concerns the welfare and salvation of our fellow-men concerns us. Our brethren and companions in the kingdom and patience of our Lord Jesus Christ, as members of His visible Church on earth, are obviously and directly interested in all that affects its peace and prosperity. By conserving the peace of the Church, and promoting its prosperity, we therefore contribute to the personal happiness and social elevation and improvement of mankind, in the most direct way, and upon the largest scale. 3. Above all, piety to God should stimulate us in this course (verse 9). All we are and have, and all the good we still hope to realize throughout the vast future of our being, comes from God. Our obligations to serve and glorify Him are infinite, indissoluble, eternal. And is the Church His house, wherein He condescends to dwell? Then with what unremitting solicitude and assiduity should we seek its good! (W. Herren.) The prosperity of the Church I. In what the prosperity of the true Church consists.1. Doubtless, we must take, as a leading feature, though not to the disregard of others which are essential in themselves, that of a faithful and fully preached Gospel. 2. Purity of doctrines. 3. Strictness of discipline. II. Who are the persons who are commanded to pray for the peace of Jerusalem, and seek its prosperity? They are Christians. III. The means by which this end is to be accomplished. Our first duty is that of earnest prayer for the prosperity of all people in the Church of Christ, and then sedulous and vigorous effort in order to promote it. (J. S. Elliott.) Prayer for the peace of the Church I. The object for which we are to pray.1. That saving peace may be given to many persons. 2. For the peace of the congregation to which we belong. 3. For the peace of that branch of the Church with which we are connected. 4. For the peace of the whole Church of Christ. II. The command to pray for the peace of the Church. “ Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.”1. The persons to whom it is addressed. It is given to all the children of God. 2. Those persons who have broken the peace of the Church and who are to be overcome by prayer. Even good people, by an inadvertent word or deed, or by a mere blameworthy course of action, have done much to injure the cause of Him whom yet they love so much. 3. Him to whom prayer is to be offered. It is to be made to God. He is the hearer of prayer. He only can deliver the Church from the unhappy effects of the inadvertencies of friends, or from the malignity of enemies. III. The prosperity promised to those who pray for the peace of the Church. They will prosper--1. By receiving an answer to their prayer. 2. In their souls. 3. According to the fulness of the meaning of the promise. It embraces our every interest, whether of body or of mind, or as connected with one’ s family, or with the congregation or Church to which we belong, or with the Church at large. It is a God-like promise. (John McKay.) Prayer for the prosperity of the Church encouraged I. The peace of Jerusalem. This implies--1. The piety of its members. 2. A spirit of inquiry, promoting conversion. 3. The prevalence of brotherly love; the spirit of union; the disposition to bear one another’ s burdens, relieve one another’ s wants. 4. Conscientious and diligent attendance on all the ordinances. 5. The due exercise of discipline. II. The exhortation to pray for the peace of Jerusalem. There should be stated seasons of prayer for the Divine blessing on the Church: its prosperity will thus be secured, because it is His own concern; it is the sphere in which His glory is displayed; while it provides the only means of saving men. We should pray that He may set His hand a second time to His work, as it concerns the success of His Church. III. The promise, connected with the exhortation in the text, ensures their own prosperity to these who seek that of the Church. (R. Hall, M. A.) A eulogy of the Church 1. God established it. The Temple of Solomon was builded by human hands and royal treasures. The king put his own money into it, but God was the real architect and builder. So the Church of Christ to-day is the purchase of the Redeemer’ s blood. It is God’ s instrumentality to bring the race back to God. 2. The history of what it has accomplished is another ground of loving, loyal attachment to the Church. It is more than an idea, it is an influence; more than a mere plan, even a power and blessing. It has brought light into human darkness, joy to human grief; it has brought help to the weary and fallen, inspiration H those who were disheartened. 3. It is the only regenerative power to which we may look for the future. Break down the Church of Christ, what else can bring salvation? Education, philosophy, science, and commerce, all the material wealth of the earth cannot take the place of the truth of God, of which His Church is a witness and herald. Take away the Church and you take sway the Gospel itself. In this materialistic age the Church exalts man’ s spiritual needs. Amid conflicting speculations, when men are saying, “ Lo, here! lo, there,” the Church of God points out the true way of life. The Church is the school of the soul. It defines real manhood. The Church aims at the “ perfect man in Christ Jesus.” In Him we are “ complete,” and by no other method of discipline and culture. 4. We should love the Church because it is our birthplace. When welcomed to heaven it will not be nationality or language that will characterize us. It is “ in Zion” that this man and that man will say, “ I was born.” 5. The Church is our mother. She has fed us and nourished and taught us. We cannot but love her. She cared for us in weakness and spiritual infancy. Surely we should be base indeed to neglect her. 6. The Church is our home. This world is beautiful, but it is but the mere environment of our spiritual life, an incident in our absolute and eternal destiny. The soul can only find a home, restful and satisfying, in this fellowship with Him and His chosen ones we call the Church of Christ. (C. M. Griffin, D. D.) The duty of praying for the peace of the Church I. What this peace is.1. The removal of evils. 2. The enjoyment of positive blessings. Jerusalem’ s prosperity is spiritual. It is produced by the light of God’ s countenance, and by the communications of His grace. When under these, the children of Zion grow in knowledge, holiness, and comfort, and enjoy all their privileges undisturbed; then Jerusalem hath peace. II. Reasons why we are to pray for the peace of Jerusalem.1. Because God commands us not to hold our peace, till we see her peace. 2. Because of her relation to the God of peace. She is the house of God; the city of the great King; the object of His special providence. 3. Because of her relation to the Prince of Peace. She is His spouse, His body; she is built on Him. 4. Because her peace is purchased at a dear rate, even the blood of the Mediator of peace. 5. Because she has many enemies without, ready on all occasions to disturb her peace. 6. Because she has disturbers of her peace within. (T. Boston, D. D.) Pray for the peace of Jerusalem I. The nature of the good contemplated. The prosperity of a Church is seen in its--1. Spirituality. (1) Of ministers.(2) Of people. 2. Purity in discipline.3. Unity and harmony.4. Multiplication and extension. II. The means of attainment proposed.1. Prayer.2. Love of Zion.3. Exertion. III. The motive. Many lose sight of their connection with Zion as a body; if so, you will never prosper in your own souls. (J. Summerfield, M. A.) Prayer for the peace of Zion The singer’ s emotion at sight of the city breaks into exhortation to his fellow-pilgrims to pray for its peace. Verse 6 contains a play on the meaning of the name of the city, which, as we now know from the Tel-el-Amarna tablets, was called “ The city of peace” before the Israelitish conquest. The prayer is that the omen of the name may be fulfilled. The returning exiles were compassed about, by foes, and the name seemed rather irony than prophecy. The Church too, has enemies to confront, and needs ever to offer this prayer. It is a true instinct which has led the Presbyterian Churches of Scotland to close the annual general assemblies with singing this part of our psalm, in the version which touches deep chords in many hearts:-- “ Pray that Jerusalem may have Peace and felicity.” A similar play of words lies in the interchange of “ peace” and “ prosperity,” which, in the Hebrew, are closely alike in sound. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) They shall prosper that love thee.-- Love to the Church of God I. The specified object of pious affection, on--the Church of God. Here we include the whole body of believers, united under Christ their common head, together with the ministers, officers, laws, regulations, immunities, and designs of the Messiah’ s kingdom (Ephesians 4:11-16). This holy attachment is founded on the most reasonable basis.1. Uniformity of character. Dante has somewhere said, “ Conformity of character is the bond of friendship.” Whatever may he thought of this maxim in its general application to human nature, it certainly is strictly true when applied to the Christian, in reference to his affectionate attachment to the cause of truth. 2. The exhibition of the Divine perfections. 3. The invulnerable security of the Church. 4. Its increasing prosperity and final glory. II. The distinguishing evidences of its existence.1. Sorrow in the time of calamity bears testimony to the sincere affection of the friends of Zion. 2. Pious exultation in the day of prosperity. 3. Zealous effort to promote the interests of the Church. Those who are sincerely attached to herd labour to extend her boundaries, in the earth, by the diffusion of Gospel light--the administration of affectionate reproof--the repetition of earnest entreaty--the breathing of fervent intercession--and the communication of pecuniary assistance, supported by a due consistency of character. These are so many additional proofs of pious affection (Jeremiah 26:12; Jeremiah 26:15; 1 Corinthians 9:19-23; Exodus 36:4-7; Nehemiah 4:15-23). III. The declared advantage resulting from it:--“ They shall prosper.”(1) In their reputation. Their ardency of affection--their deep humility--their unwearied patience--their unbending integrity--and the general consistency of their character, procure for them the esteem of all who are like-minded, and very frequently even the approbation and confidence of unconverted men (Acts 26:28; Acts 27:43). (2) In their spiritual enjoyments: their capacities are enlarged--their faith increased--their union with Christ strengthened--and their anticipations of heavenly felicity multiplied (1 Timothy 6:6-8). (3) In their benevolent enterprises: their children and households instructed and regenerated--the harmony of the Church promoted--the progress of impiety and profaneness impeded--and their ungodly neighbours and friends converted from the error of their ways (Psalms 1:3). (4) In their temporal pursuits: although the religion of Jesus Christ does not warrant the expectation of opulence and grandeur, yet it secures to its adherents a regular supply of necessary things (Psalms 37:25; Luke 12:31). This subject teaches:--1. That our professions of religion are of a very suspicious character, if unaccompanied with a corresponding zeal for the cause of God. 2. The folly of lukewarmness in matters of a religious nature (Revelation 3:16). 3. That genuine piety tends to promote the general welfare of its possessor (1 Timothy 4:8). (Sketches of Four Hundred Sermons.) On the love of our country I. The grounds on which love for our country rests.1. As the seat of all our best enjoyments in private life. 2. As the seat of true religion. 3. As the seat of liberty and laws; a mild, wise and happy government. II. The duties to which love of our country gives rise.1. As private men and Christians, let us cultivate those virtues which are essential to the prosperity of our country. The foundation of all public happiness must be laid in the good conduct of individuals; in their industry, sobriety, justice, and regular attention to the duties of their several stations. Such virtues are the sinews and strength of the state; they are the supports of its prosperity at home, and of its reputation abroad. 2. Let us join to the virtues of private men those which belong to us in a political capacity as subjects and citizens. These must appear, in loyalty to our sovereign, in submission to the authority of rulers and magistrates, and in readiness to support the measures that are taken for public welfare and defence. (H. Blair, D. D.) On the love of our country I. The genius and nature of useful true, consistent patriotism.1. It is a feeling natural to the human mind; the simple, the noble effect of qualities that are amiable and engaging. 2. It is also strongly approved of, beautifully enforced, and solemnly recommended by the language and example of unerring truth. II. How this disposition ought always to be cherished and invariably expressed.1. By yielding a due obedience to her existing varied laws. 2. By carefully suppressing, not abetting, or encouraging, in the smallest degree, anything that wears a hurtful, seditious, inflammatory aspect. 3. By uniformly performing such actions as may best advantage the state. III. Some of those obligations, under which we are laid thus to think, and thus to act.1. We are inhabitants of Britain, subjects of a free constitution, of wise and happy laws. Encircle the constitution with your love and obedience. Crown it with your prayers, and be glad that you are Britons. 2. Another obligation under which we are laid thus to think and thus to act, naturally springs from that countenance and protection which our present Church arrangement has new for so long so happily enjoyed. (A. Stirling, LL. D.) On the love of our country It is incumbent on us to love our country, and to pray for the peace thereof, on account of-- I. Our intimate connection with its inhabitants. If it be natural to the human mind to contract an attachment to those with whom we are united by the ties of affinity and the intercourse of society, then the love of our country is a natural and well-founded affection. It seems to be as natural as the affection of mothers and children, or that between brothers and sisters. It arises out of the very constitution of man, as formed by the hand of God, and is one of the first principles of human nature. II. Our friends and relatives who belong to it. For many generations past, this has been the land of our ancestors from whom we are descended, and whom we naturally venerate. Here are the sepulchres of our fathers and mothers, the objects of our first and purest affection, whose memories are still dear to us. This is the residence of our friends and neighbours, of our connections and relatives, of all those with whom we are most closely united, and in whose welfare we are most deeply interested. Their happiness, as well as our own, is connected with the public welfare. III. The civil freedom we enjoy. It is true there may be some defects in the constitution, which experience has discovered, and which time may remedy. And there may be some shameful abuses in the administration which provoke the indignation of the public, and call loudly for redress. Yet, in the midst of these grievances, our situation is preferable to that of almost all nations upon earth. IV. Our religious liberty. The rights of conscience are respected, and every man is at liberty to draw his own faith from the Word of God, and to worship the Supreme Being in his own way. (A. Donnan.) Psalms 122:7-8 Peace be within thy walls. The peace and prosperity of Jerusalem The leading elements which constitute a prosperous Church are-- I. Purity of doctrine. It is fashionable to sneer at doctrine, to talk flippantly about “ gnawing at the dry bones of doctrine,” to endorse the sentiment of the poet who would hand over doctrine to bigots to fight about and would be satisfied with “ the right life.” There is a fallacy here. How can we tell what the right life is if we do not learn it from doctrine? As believers in the fact of a revelation, and that the Bible contains that revelation, we maintain that the man “ whose life is in the right” is a man who knows what the doctrine of God’ s Word is concerning right living. II. Spirituality. True religion is a life as well as a belief, a life founded upon a belief, but always a life. That life is produced by the Holy Spirit, who takes the things which are Christ’ s, and shows them unto us. True religion has to do with the spirit of man. It cleanses the fountain, and the streams which issue therefrom are pure. The man who has spirituality is a man of religious principle. He is the same whatever he does and wherever he goes. He is the same in politics as in ecclesiastics. He is a Christian in buying and in selling, a Christian at home and abroad, on land and on sea. III. Brotherly love. The Church is a family, the Head of which is Christ. The same spirit that is found in the Head is also found in the members of the family. Now, just as the members of a family love one another because of their blood-tie--relationship--so the members of the household of faith should recognize and exemplify their oneness in Christ. A minister was once asked what he thought of the doctrine of the mutual recognition of the saints in heaven. He replied, “ I am much more concerned about the duty of my people to recognize one another here upon earth.” The reply was caustic, but perhaps it was needed. Christians should love one another. They have the same Saviour and the same Spirit, and they travel the same journey. Alike they have encouragements and discouragements, conflicts and victories, duties and trials, and at last they shall be received into one everlasting home. IV. Earnest work. By exercise muscle is developed and the whole system is maintained in a state of vigour. Persons engaged in mental or sedentary employments cannot with impunity disregard this law of health. Just so is it in the domain of the spiritual. Exercise is necessary for spiritual development and spiritual strength. Here is another view: God has made Christian work imperative. He is pleased to employ His people in saying to them, “ Go, work in My vineyard.” As among them there is a great variety of talent, so in the vineyard there are many kinds of work. Every gift, no matter how humble, can find a field for exercise. (John Currie, D. D.) Psalms 122:9 Because of the house of the Lord our God I will seek thy good.Christian patriotism I. The Christian’ s patriotic vow.1. He will honour the King. 2. He will obey the laws, not merely for wrath, but for conscience sake. 3. He will use his influence to promote obedience in others. 4. He will personally contribute with cheerfulness to the support of the government by which he is protected. 5. He will discountenance to the utmost all those arts of evasion by which the revenue is defrauded and diminished. 6. He will unite with those who sigh and cry for the abominations of the lands. 7. If Providence should call, he will fight as well as pray. II. The motive to this vow.1. It is our native land. 2. The excellence of its constitution. 3. We have a life-interest in our country. 4. We should aim to do justice to the memory of our ancestors, by transmitting, unimpaired, to our posterity, the invaluable treasure of civil and religious liberties which we ourselves enjoy. 5. The house of the Lord is the glory of the land. The ark of the covenant is with us. Our privileges as Christians are great and many. And this consideration will preponderate over all others in the minds of those who truly love our Saviour’ s name. (W. Newman, D. D.) The house of the Lord I. God’ s Church as His house.1. It is reared by Himself. (1) The wisdom of the Architect.(2) The firmness of the foundation.(3) The suitableness of the materials.(4) The efficiency of the work. The power is all His own. 2. God’ s house is essentially spiritual. There are spiritual capacities, spiritual desires, spiritual purposes, spiritual exercises. 3. The house of God is intended for His own use. (1) His dwelling-house.(2) His banqueting-house.(3) A house of births.(4) A house of sacrifice.(5) A house of prayer.(6) A house of praise. II. Our individual membership therein. Real godliness is kept up and maintained by secret communion with God, spiritual intercourse with the Most High, under the movings of the Holy Ghost, in the name and for the merits of the Lord Jesus, by sweet, familiar, filial addresses to God the Father. Yea, you want more? The Father’ s love-tokens in reply, the Saviour’ s kind word in support, and the influence of the Spirit, as green olive trees in the house of the Lord. III. Devotedness to the house of the Lord. Seek her extension, her peace, and her privileges. (J. Irons.) . Psalms 123:1-4 Psalms 123:1-4 Unto Thee lift I up mine eyes.The prayer of the eyes The prayer of the eyes. Have you never seen it in the eyes of patient poverty, of distress, of oppression, of the sick child? This prayer recognizes God’ s glory (verse 1) and God’ s graciousness (verse 3). It is the prayer of silence, of deference, of reverence, of trustfulness. It is beseeching, waiting, observant prayer. All this is implied in verses 1, 2. It is the prayers of eyes that watch carefully the signs of “ the hands” of the King. I. That watch for His directing hand.1. In things temporal.2. To spiritual service. II. That watch for His delivering and vindicating hand. He will avenge His people for the sorrow produced by the “ scorn of easeful souls,” and by the “ spite of the proud” (verse 4). No law acts more surely than the law of retribution. III. That watch for His supplying hand. What ministers wait on maul Even God becomes man’ s minister; and employs all natural forces and all angelic beings, and all the agencies of grace on man’ s behalf. IV. That watch for His correcting hand. The contempt and scorn of the enemy are often His discipline, bitter disciplines that “ exceedingly fill” the soul of the humble people of God with shame and grief. But eyes of prayer look beyond the disciplines to the glory which they forecast, and are patient. V. That watch for His rewarding hand. Alsted has called this psalm “ The Eye of Hope.” And an upward glancing expectant hopefulness is the very spirit of it. The prayer of the eyes is the prayer of expectation; and the vision of the King shall yet broaden into the vision of the inheritance which awaits His true people, who now have few friends and comforters. (R. Corlett Cowell.) The devout suffering soul I. The attitude of a devout soul.1. Up-looking (verse 1). Physically, man is the only being on earth upon whom the Creator has conferred an erect countenance, as if his very physical formation were intended to teach him that his eyes should be raised towards the skies, and that he should hold intercourse with Him who dwells in heaven. Other animals look down upon the ground, their faces are bent towards the earth. Man is God-like, erect, with native honour clad. The heathen themselves recognized this seal of divinity on the brow of man, and, in the beautiful language of the Greek, the word “ man” describes him as a being whose honour it is to look up. But mentally so conscious are we of dependence on God, that even the worst of men are forced at times to look up to Him in the heavens. “ From Him alone cometh our help.” This is the regular attitude of a devout soul, looking up to the Infinite. Is there a more sublime mood of being than this? The millions are looking down to worldly things and worldly pleasures, and the highest objects on which most look are the little social magnates of the hour. But the true soul looks up to the Infinite Father. 2. Up-looking for a practical purpose (verse 2). The hand is the symbol of power, by the slave’ s eyes being turned towards his master’ s hand is meant that he watches carefully for the least intimation of his will. Or the hand may be taken as the instrument of giving, and the reference may be to the slave’ s absolute dependence on his master. Or it may be the chastising hand that is meant: as the slave looks with entreaty to his master’ s deprecating punishment (Isaiah 9:13), so the psalmist’ s eyes are turned wistfully to God, until He have pity. The tone of the psalm, however, indicates hopeful trust rather than humble submission. The future of His people is entirely in His hands: He will be sure some day to have mercy on His own. II. The need of a suffering soul (verse 3). Some suggest the circumstances narrated in Nehemiah 2:19; Nehemiah 4:1-5, as suitable to the composition of this psalm: others prefer the times of persecution under Antiochus Epiphanes: others, again, suggest, on the grounds of similarity of language, common authorship with Psalms 120:1-7. What is the need of a suffering soul? Mercy--to calm, succour, strengthen, guide, and deliver. IV conclusion:--.This psalm is a lesson of meekness. When we ere fancying ourselves scorned or forgotten, what have we to do but to look up to God and entreat His favour? It is pity for ourselves, and not vengeance on our foes, that we should seek. At the same time, we must be ready to obey like slaves waiting for some token of their master’ s will. (Homilist.) The habit of looking upward Dr. Culross told of a Spanish fable about a family that had nothing very remarkable about them, but there was this which seemed to signalize them from other families in the neighbourhood--every member of the family had a peculiar habit of looking upward. They became scattered in the course of years, hut wherever one of them went, somehow or other they were always known by their neighbours and friends by this one peculiar habit. That is a very good family to belong to, and I trust that all here to-night do belong to it, and live looking upward. You know that story about Michael Angelo. He was so accustomed to look up at the fresco ceilings of the various churches and cathedrals upon which he worked, that he actually got into the habit of looking up. His head seemed to get that peculiar direction given to it, so that even when he was walking along the streets of Rome, there he was, looking upward. Let us remember, then, this first thing that we are called upon to do in the motto--“ Look up, not down.” (J. S. Poulton.) Psalms 123:2 Behold, as the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their masters.Watchful eyes The man of God, who wrote this psalm, had been taught to look to God in a very remarkable manner, and I call your attention to it, in the hope that many of you will do likewise.1. His eyes were reverentially fixed upon the Lord. He looked to God’ s hand, wherever it was, with deep reverence: “ as the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their masters.” Travellers tell us that, when they go into the house of a wealthy person in the East, the master will give certain signs to his slaves, and refreshments are brought in; but, except when they are called, the servants stand at a distance, watching for the slightest motion of their master’ s hands; they do not have the liberties that we happily accord to our servants; but they are just nothing and nobody, mere tools for their master to use as he pleases. And, as to the maidens, I have heard that the women in the East have a harder time of it with their mistresses than the men do with their masters, and that the lady of the house is a more severe taskmaster than her husband is. So the maidens watch their mistresses very carefully, for they are sorely afraid of them, and they look with great care and fear to see what “ Madam” would have them do. Now, casting aside everything of human fear out of the figure, this is the way in which we ought to look to God. 2. The truly sanctified man looks to God’ s hands with obedience as well as with reverence. Orientals, as a general rule, speak far less than we do, except when they sit around the fire, at eventide, and tell their tales. But an Eastern master seldom speaks. A gentleman went, some time ago, into an Eastern house, and as soon as ever he entered, the master waved his hand, and the servants brought in sherbet. He waved his hand again, and they brought dried fruits; then he moved his hands in a different way, and they begun to spread the table; and, all the time, not a word was spoken, but they perfectly understood the motion of his hand. They had to look sharply to see how the master moved his hand, so that they might do what that meson meant. We have not very much of that dumb action amongst us; but, on board a steamboat, you may see the captain moving his hands this way or that, and the call-boy is ready at once to pass the word down to those who are in charge of the engine. That is just how the child of God should watch the hand of God, in the Bible, and in providence, so as to do at once whatever he plainly perceives to be his Lord’ s will. 3. Then, also, our eyes should be absolutely fixed upon our Lord. The eyes of servants ought to be so directed to their masters that they not only see the sign, but obey it, whatever it means. It may be a very little thing, but yet the little thing should not be neglected. The smaller the matter is, the more careful we should be to attend to it, if it would please the Lord Jesus Christ. Do not be so clever, you servants who fancy that you know better than your Master, for perhaps He may find somebody else to be His servant if you behave like that. Suppose I was starting on a journey, early in the morning, and I said to my servant, “ I should like a cup of coffee before I start,” and suppose that, when I came down, she brought me a glass of cold water, I should ask her, “ Why did you do that?” If she should reply, “ Oh, sir, I thought that the water would be better for you than coffee!” I should say, “ Well, I am very much obliged to you for thinking of me in that considerate way; but I shall have to engage another servant who does what she is told.” So I advise you not to alter or judge God’ s Word, but obey it. 4. Our eyes are to be turned to the Lord solely. The Eastern servant is not allowed to think; it is no business of his to have his eyes upon his master’ s guests; they are to be fixed upon his master. And the maiden does not think it to be her business to watch the movements of the hand of the lady who calls to see her mistress; her eyes are to be on the hands of her mistress. She does not dare to take them off, for, perhaps, just when she is looking out of the window, or gazing in curiosity at some object, her mistress may be waving her hand, and she may not see it; and then there will be a serious scolding and possibly something worse when the mistress gets her alone. So you and I must not take our eyes off our God at any time; but His way, and His will must be our sole law; and for this we must live, that we may please Him whose servants we are, for has He not bought us with His precious blood? So we are not our own, we are “ bought with a price.” (C. H. Spurgeon.) Until that He have mercy upon us.-- Perseverance in waiting God’ s time A single glance will sometimes gain the blessing, as a single stroke will sometimes gain the battle. But this cannot always be calculated upon. The blessing sought for is sometimes delayed, as a trial of our faith. The blessing itself, much as we prize it, may be of less importance than the discipline, through which alone it is to be obtained. And hence a test is sometimes applied to believers, whether they can cling to God, and continue instant in prayer, even when lie seems to turn His back upon them, and pay no heed to the voice of their supplication. This appears almost an invariable principle in the Divine government. At times the Church is reduced to a very low condition, and religion has lost its vitality and power. A feeling of utter helplessness is produced, and fervent prayers are offered up, that the Lord would arise and have mercy upon Zion. And He regards the prayer of the destitute, and does not despise their prayer. He is raised up out of His holy habitation; He appears in his glory; the mountains tremble before Him; and large numbers are brought to a knowledge of the truth. Is not this the history of the Church, as recorded in the Sacred Volume? Is not this the history of the Church, since the canon of Scripture was completed? Is not this the history of modern missions? Bring the Church to a thorough conviction that none but the Holy Ghost can convince, subdue, and save the human soul, and revivals of religion take place as a necessary consequence. (N. McMichael.) Psalms 123:4 Our soul is exceedingly filled With the scorning of those that are at ease.Man disregarding man I. Man’ s disregard for man explains the social sorrows of the world. Were all men lovingly interested in each other, would there be pauperism, fraud, oppression, persecution, war, etc.? II. Man’ s disregard for man reveals the moral apostasy of mankind. The constitution of the soul, with its moral sense and social sympathies, as well as the Bible, assure us that man was made to love his brother, that no man should seek his own supremely, but each another’ s weal. Sin has broken the social bond, shattered the social temple, unstrung the social harp. III. Man’ s disregard for man proves the world’ s need of a Redeemer. If men do not care for men, who is to help the world? There is only One who can do it, and that is Christ. He came for this purpose, He came to redeem men from all iniquity. (Homilist.) Antagonism against God’ s people The quarrel is very old, and easily explained. It is the antagonism between darkness and light, between sin and holiness, between Satan and Christ, between hell and heaven. And though it may not be pleasant to be mocked and calumniated by these men, what a humiliation it would be to receive their praise! How low would you sink in your own esteem, were they to make flattering speeches, and tell you that you had done famously! That is a patronage from which one would instinctively recoil. Be thankful that they can use no other weapons than calumny and contempt. The Jews had to contend at the same time with open violence. Were their power equal to their will, they would deprive you of your civil rights, they would confiscate your property, they would confine you in dungeons, they would burn you at the stake. In Athens, they would have condemned Socrates, the greatest and best philosopher of antiquity, to drink the cup of hemlock; and they would have banished Aristides, because they were tired of hearing every one call him Aristides the Just. In Jerusalem, they would have goaded on the senseless rabble, and swelled the ferocious shout, “ Not this man, but Barabbas.” In St. Andrews, they would have sat at the castle windows, and feasted their eyes when good Patrick Hamilton was consuming in the flames, and they, would have gone in afterwards, and dined with an unimpeachable appetite. In slave countries, they would tar and feather the missionaries, who proclaim to the degraded negroes the unsearchable riches of Christ. The same satanic spirit still reigns; and can we be too grateful that these enemies of the Cross are kept in chains! We live in a land of civil and religious freedom; and they cannot go beyond the boundaries of misrepresentation and scorn. They may show their teeth and growl, but they cannot bite. They may curse you, but they cannot lay a finger upon you. (N. McMichael.) . Psalms 124:1-8 Psalms 124:1-8 If it had not been the Lord who was on our side.God in the troubles of the good I. Acknowledged as the Deliverer from great troubles (Psalms 124:1-5).1. The words represent the great troubles from which the Almighty wrought deliverance, as springing out of the hostility of man. 2. The hostility of man is represented by two figures-- (1) As the rage of wild beasts (verse 3).(2) As the rage of rushing waters (verses 4, 5). II. Praised as the Deliverer from great troubles (verses 6, 7).1. Temporal. Israel in Babylonian exile. 2. Spiritual. Without figure, the unregenerate soul is in thraldom, and the Gospel alone can deliver it. III. Trusted as the Deliverer from great troubles (verse 8). This trust is founded--1. On His past goodness.2. On His glorious name.3. On His unbounded resources. (Homilist.) The Church in various aspects I. The Church rightly estimating her danger (verses 3-5, 7). II. The Church rightly recognizing her Deliverer (verses 1, 2, 8). III. The Church rightly expressing her gratitude (verse 6). This psalm abounds with striking figures, which, intelligently explained, may be forcefully applied. (J. O. Keen, D. D.) Ifs and thens To this writer the nation’ s life had been full of “ ifs” and “ thens” --its saddening possibilities with their dreary consequences. If we had stood alone, if God had not been round about us, if unerring wisdom had not thought for us and worked for us when the calamity threatened,--then had we been as the bird in the snare of the fowler, then had we been overwhelmed! Ifs and thens,--possibilities and their consequences. I. Human possibilities may be under Divine control. Whenever God calls a life into existence, He fills it to the brim with “ ifs” and “ thens,” with possibilities and their consequences. Take the first recorded scene in human life, remembering that it is highly symbolic. “ And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the Garden of Eden, to dress it, and to keep it;” that was a life of far-reaching possibilities, which God made still clearer by laying down His “ if” and “ then” : if man obeyed, then all would be well; if he disobeyed, then all would be ill. God has treated every life since upon the same broad, universal Scale; and we need to bear in mind constantly, earnestly, that our life is arranged in the same fashion. II. Divine deliverance follows Divine control. God has filled each life with its possibilities that there may ever be the supreme need for His guidance. God has not stereotyped life for us. Each sets up his life’ s story from founts of movable type; it may be in this way, it may be in that, as we set the type. This makes life so magnificent, so awful. But when God is on our side, when we have chosen Him for our controller, when we set the type of life as He directs, then the printed page comes forth at last fair and clear upon imperishable parchment; and God shall read its record before assembled worlds, and pronounce it “ well done,” for it will be His work done by us under His superintendence and by His strength. Let the life be under Divine control, and it must be crowned with Divine deliverance as surely as sunrising brings the light. (G. Davies.) Why God’ s people are afflicted Why should believers need to be rescued from the teeth of the wild beast: why not prevent the wild beast from laying hold of them? Why should they need to be delivered from the snare of the fowler: why not prevent the snare from being set? Why should they need to be snatched from the swiftly rushing torrent, which is just about to overwhelm them: why not keep back the floods of waters, and bid their proud waves be still? Afflictions are sent by God. I. To promote our spiritual improvement. The branches are pruned, and they bring forth more fruit: the flowers are crushed, and they yield their precious perfumes: the gem is cut deeper, and it sparkles with new lustre: the gold is thrown into the crucible, and, purified from the dross, it shines with greater splendour than ever. Once, in company with a clerical friend in a rural district, I paid a visit to a member of his church, whose affliction had been severe and protracted. He was a stone-mason. His sufferings had evidently been sanctified; and, some remarks being made in connection with this, he said, “ I must have been a very hard stone, sir; for I have needed a great deal of hewing.” II. To test our sincerity. Not on a review day can the brave man be distinguished from the coward. Amidst brilliant uniforms, and waving banners, and the sounds of martial music, and applauding spectators, you cannot discriminate the true man from the counterfeit. But the real character is known, when comes the tug of war, and the enemy is before you, and friends and companions are falling thick around you. So it is in the Christian warfare. Far more moral courage is demanded for a sick-bed than for a field of battle, where men are urged on to the work of mutual destruction. And who can tell what a hallowed influence may proceed from afflictions, when endured in an uncomplaining and cheerful spirit! (N. McMichael.) The Lord on our side 1. The figures employed describe the situation of God’ s people in any place or age, when they suddenly find themselves overtaken by calamity, when sorrow bursts upon them like the mountainous wave on a ship, when floods of ungodly men make them afraid, when they seem to feel in their flesh the teeth Of slander and malice, when they are unexpectedly entangled in perplexities and difficulties like the bird in the snare. So the early believers in the Messiah were troubled by Jewish and Roman persecutors, saints in many lands have been worried by Papal wolves, the evangelists of the last century were mobbed by worldly men, and the Christians in Madagascar and British India were more recently assailed by heathen foes. So the man of business is smitten by misfortune, disease springs upon its unsuspecting victim, and a family is diminished by death. So the convicted sinner is stricken by the terrors of God’ s law, the convert has to fight against the world, the flesh and the devil, and the righteous soul is in heaviness through manifold temptations. All the cry is, what can be dons? How may we escape? Who will help us? 2. If Christians, we can profitably call to mind many escapes from evil. 3. It becomes us carefully to trace blessings to their source. The poet is less particular to describe the danger and the escape than to proclaim and praise the great Deliverer. We did not save ourselves. It was not the stamp of our foot that quieted the earthquake, not the sound of our voice that stilled the tempest, not the might of our arm that slew the lion, not the power of our hand that rent the network. It was lint any creature except as sent by God, armed with a portion of His strength, and for the sake of Jesus Christ, that in any degree accomplished our salvation. (E. J. Robinson.) Psalms 124:6-8 Blessed be the Lord, who hath not given us as a prey to their teeth.Thanksgiving for deliverance 1. It is our duty after delivery from dangers to acknowledge not only God’ s power for us, but His goodness also towards us, and to acknowledge Him the fountain of all blessedness upon that occasion (verse 6). 2. As the Church’ s enemies are superior to her in worldly strength, so also in policy, craftiness, and worldly wit, as the fowler is craftier than the bird. 3. According as the danger is fearful, so is the delivery sweet and joyful (verse 7). 4. It is as easy for God to deliver His people out of their enemies’ hands, even when they have the godly in their power, as to break a net made of thread or yarn, wherewith birds are taken. 5. The fairest fruits of our by-past experience is to glorify God by confidence in Him for time to come. 6. Then is our confidence in God to be delivered from evil well bottomed, when we consider the Lord’ s omnipotency manifested in the creation of the world, and held out by His Word unto us: for so much doth the psalmist teach, when he maketh mention of the name of the Lord, and the work of the Lord, in professing of his confidence. (D. Dickson.) Psalms 124:7 Our soul is escaped as a bird. Soul manumission I. It is a liberation from a miserable bondage.1. It is a bondage of the man himself.2. It is a bondage associated with a sense of guilt.3. It is a bondage from which God alone can deliver. II. It is a liberation into a happy freedom. The freedom of the soul consists in the freest exercise of its intellectual faculties and spiritual powers. The freedom of the soul consists in being unconstrained by any force bur love for the infinite. “ It is a glorious liberty.” Glorious on account of the hero who achieved it--glorious on account of the immortal blessedness it secures. (Homilist.) The bird escaped from the snare I. The soul compared to a bird.1. It is a little bird, too--a sparrow, or one of the sparrow kind. “ Our soul is escaped as a little bird” --not as a great bird that could break the net and free itself by its own force. A little bird fitly represents our soul when we are lowly in heart. In our unregenerate condition we think ourselves eaglets at the very least, but we are not great creatures after all. We talk of great men: we are all little in God’ s sight. If He cares for sparrows, be sure He cares for souls, and when you think least of yourself, yet believe that the Lord regards you. 2. Again, our soul is like a little bird because it is so ignorant. Birds know little about snares, yet they know so much that “ surely in vain is the net spread in the sight of any bird.” Even this slender wisdom is more than men display, for they fly into the net when it is spread in their sight; aye, into the selfsame net out of which, in God’ s providence, they have just been permitted to escape. So foolish are we and ignorant, we are as birds ready for the lure, till the Lord teaches us wisdom; and even then we need hourly keeping, or we are entrapped by the destroyer. 3. Our soul is often like a little bird because it is so eager and venturesome. How birds will trust themselves in winter around traps of the simplest kind if but a few crumbs are used as bait! Alas, men are equally foolhardy: they see others perish, yet they follow their ways. 4. The little bird, also, when once taken in the net, is a good comparison with the soul captured by sin, for it is defenceless. 5. Souls are also like birds because they are the objects of snares. II. The snare.1. It is concealed. Always suspect that in a temptation to sin there is more than you can see. Never say that it is a little thing; for great evil lurks in a little fault. Death and destruction hide under apparently small offences. 2. Snares and traps are usually attractive. The poor bird sees seeds which he is fond of, and he goes for them, little judging that he is to give his life in exchange for brief enjoyment. So it is with Satan. He tempts us with pleasures, with the lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life: we taste the sweet, and are pierced with the smart. 3. Satan’ s snares, like the fowler’ s, are sadly effectual. Multitudes upon multitudes are the victims of their own passions, victims of that hellish art which makes evil appear to be good. God save us from being taken in these most deadly snares! III. The capture. How came the bird to be taken?1. It may have been through hunger. If you are extremely needy, you may be tempted to do wrong to provide for your wife and family; I pray that you may never yield to the temptation, but trust in God, and He will deliver you without your putting forth your hand unto iniquity. 2. Other birds are taken merely by their appetite. They are not excessively hungry, but they enjoy certain choice seeds, and the fowler knows it; and he scatters such around the trap. Easy of body, indulgence of taste, the joy of being admired, the sweets of power and position, all these and many more have been the fowler’ s baits. 3. Some persons are entrapped by fear. Birds have rushed into the net for fear of danger; many persons have become great offenders against God through lack of moral courage. They are afraid of the laughter of fools. They cannot bear the sarcasm of the so-called wise; and so they suppress truth, and join in sin to escape scorn. 4. Some little birds are lost by love of company. The fowler has a decoy-bird which sings sweetly or coquettes pleasantly, and the other birds must needs follow it. In the Church of God we lose many members by ungodly marriages. IV. The escape.1. It is due to God alone. 2. It is achieved by power. “ The snare is broken” --the meshes torn with a strong hand, the steel trap dashed to pieces. 3. The escape is complete. Our deliverance must be entire, or it is not true. V. The lesson. It ought to teach us--1. To sing. 2. To trust. 3. To watch. “ Let them not turn again to folly,” is one of God’ s own cautions to His people. He has brought you up out of the horrible pit; do not play near the edge of it. He has set your feet on a rock; what have you to do with the miry clay? Get away from the slippery ground, and on the rock let your goings be established. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The escape of the soul from danger I. A melancholy fact supposed.1. The sources of temptation are various. (1) Inward.(2) Outward. Satan and the world. 2. The nature and limits of the power of temptation. 3. From no quarter, perhaps, are we more exposed to danger than from former habits of once-indulged and unrepented sin, because there is a constant predisposition, without great watchfulness, to yield again to pursuits upon which the sinner has once entered. 4. Our safety is found in early resistance. II. A joyful triumph expressed. We may justify this joy in experiencing the Divine protection under those dangers which threaten the stability of our faith and hope--1. From our knowledge of the mournful results of temptation in the ease of others. 2. Because evil resisted and overcome is an occasion of inward satisfaction and happiness. Temptation foiled is happiness begun. 3. Because every such victory is a pledge and precursor of final conquest. III. A practical improvement demanded.1. Rejoice that the power and grace of Christ are equal to the worst extremities of human character and condition. 2. Remember the power of prayer. 3. Importance of habits of watchfulness and self-denial. 4. Temptation is only for a season. (S. Thodey.) Psalms 124:8 Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth.The best helper I. God is everywhere present. Sometimes those who would help us are afar off. Not so God; He is “ a very present help in trouble” (Psalms 46:1). II. He has everything we want ready at command. Is it money, grace, friends, comfort, guidance, strength? He has of these things more than we can possibly need. III. He is a very willing helper. He invites us to call upon Him in the day of trouble (Psalms 50:15). IV. He is a loving and tender helper. His kindness is often called “ lovingkindness” (Deuteronomy 33:27). V. He never fails to help his people. VI. He is an everlasting helper (Psalms 90:12). (R. Brewin.) The Church’ s confidence The confidence here expressed by the Church is founded upon two things. I. Past deliverance. “ Our help is in the name of the Lord.” When placed in perilous circumstances, one’ s faith is much increased by thinking upon the times of old, and musing upon the years of the right hand of the Most High. We learn there that affliction is no strange thing, and that God can afford us all requisite aid. He has done so before, and He can do so again. As to Himself, He is “ the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever.” As to His agents, there is no diminution in their number, or decrease in their power. II. The Divine omnipotence. He who defends the Church is the Creator of the universe. Yes! He who hung those stars in heaven, and filled their lamps with everlasting oil: He who made the earth, with its golden corn, and its purple grapes, and its dark olives. My Father made them all; and a single look at the green earth, and the swelling ocean, and the burning stars, is enough to rebuke our distrust, and to infuse a serene gladness into our troubled spirits. Would that we had more of this holy confidence; and how much of the peace and joy of heaven would be ours, even when travelling through the wilderness to the land that is afar off. (N. McMichael.) . Psalms 125:1-5 Psalms 125:1-5 They that trust in the Lord shall be as Mount Zion.Trustfulness I. Trustfulness in its supreme object: “ The Lord” (Jeremiah 17:5-8). II. Trustfulness securing inestimable blessings.1. Stability (verse 1).2. Divine nearness (verse 2).3. Protection from the power and oppression of wickedness (verse 3). III. Trustfulness seeking the good of others (verse 4). Its nature to do so, being unselfish, generous, and jealous for the glory of God. Others kept good for goodness’ sake. IV. Trustfulness pronouncing the fate of apostates, and the tranquil experience of itself and companions (verse 5). (J. O. Keen, D. D.) The community of the good I. The security of the good ensured (Psalms 125:1-3). The good are “ they that trust in the Lord.” Such are--1. Firmly established (verse 1).2. Safely guarded (verse 2). (Isaiah 54:10; Zechariah 2:4-13).3. Ultimately delivered (verse 3). “ Rod” here means sceptre, and the “ lot of the righteous” the land of promise. The generic idea is that the power of the wicked shall not always extend to the good; one day the community of the good shall be out of the dominion of wickedness for ever and ever. “ He shall bruise Satan under our feet.” II. The prosperity of the good invoked (verses 4, 5).1. The invocation specifies the character of the good (verse 4). “ To be good” is to be “ upright in heart,” and to be “ upright in heart” is to be right in our loves, our aims, and activities. The “ goody” are common, the good are rare. 2. The invocation pictures the character, and foretells the doom of the wicked (verse 5). (Judges 5:6; Psalms 58:8; Psalms 109:23; Matthew 7:22; Matthew 24:51.) (Homilist.) Divine surroundings I. The security of the people of God.1. Between them and all evil is-- (1) The almightiness of God.(2) His unerring wisdom.(3) His unchanging love. 2. This Divine surrounding affects-- (1) The spiritual interests of His people.(2) Their temporal necessities.(3) All providential experiences.(4) Their sorrows. II. Their stability. Mount Zion cannot be removed, but abideth for ever; even so, they that trust. Having a hold of God, they cannot be permanently injured in their highest and eternal relations. Moved they may be, but never removed; “ perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed.” “ The Lord is round about them even for ever.” (J. M. Jarvie.) The mountain-girdled mountain This little psalm looks very much like a record of the impression that was made on the pilgrim as he first topped the crest of the hill from which he looked on Jerusalem. Two peculiarities of its topographical position are both taken here as symbols of spiritual realities, for the singularity of the situation of the city is that it stands on a mountain and is girdled by mountains. There is a tongue of land or peninsula cut off from the surrounding country by deep ravines, on which are perched the buildings of the city, while across the valley on the eastern side is Olivet, and, on the south, another hill, the so-called “ Hill of Evil Counsel” ; but upon the west and north sides there are Do conspicuous summits, though the ground rises. Thus, really, though not apparently, there lie all round the city encircling defences of mountains. Similarly, says the psalmist, set and steadfast as on a mountain, and compassed about by a protection, like the bastions of the everlasting hills, are they whose trust is in the Lord. I. The simple act of trust in God brings inward stability. The word here translated “ trust” literally means to “ hang upon” something. And so, beautifully, it tells us what faith is--just hanging upon God. Whoever has laid his tremulous hand on a fixed something, partakes, in the measure in which he does grasp it, of the fixity of that on which he lays hold; so “ they that trust in the Lord” “ shall be as Mount Zion,” that stands there summer and winter, day and night, year out and year in, with its strong buttresses and its immovable mass, the very emblem of solidity and stability. II. This same attitude of realizing the Divine presence, will, and help, will bring around us the encircling defences. “ As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the Lord is round about His people” --a very real defence, but a defence that it takes an instructed eye to see; no obvious protection, palpable to the vulgar touch, and manifest to the sensuous eye, but something a great deal better than that--a real protection, through which we may be sure that nothing which is evil can ever pass. Whatsoever does get over the encircling mountains, and down to us, we may be sure is not an evil but a very real good. Only we have to interpret the protection on the principles of faith, and not on those of sense. When, then, there come down upon us--as there do upon us all, thank God!--dark days, and sad days, and solitary days, and losses and bitternesses of a thousand kinds, do not let us falter in the belief that if we have our hearts set on God, nothing has come to us but what He has let through. III. Simple trust in God, in some measure, assimilates the protected to the Protector. Mountains girdle a mountain, and so my trust opens my heart to the entrance into my heart of something akin to God. It makes us “ partakers of a Divine nature.” The immovableness of the trustful man is not all unlike the calmness of the trusted God; and the steadfastness of the one is a reflex of the unchangeableness of the other. “ As the mountains are round about Mount Zion,” God is round about the people that are becoming Godlike. Mark further the significant repetition of the same expression in reference to the stability of the man protected, and the continuance of the protection. Both are “ for ever.” That is to say, if it is true that God is round about me, and that, in some humble measure, my heart has been opening to be calmed and steadied by the influx of His own life, then His “ for ever” is my “ for ever.” And it cannot be that He should live and I should die. The guarantee of the eternal being of the trustful soul is the experience to-day of the reality of the Divine protection. And thus we may face everything--life, death, whatsoever may come, assured that nothing touches the continuity and the perpetuity of the union between the trusting soul and the trusted God. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Trust in the Lord, the condition of stability and safety I. Trust in the Lord is the condition of moral stability. Such a soul is firm in its--1. Love.2. Faith.3. Purpose. II. Trust in the Lord is the condition of Divine security. How often mountains protected nations! The free winds that sweep the summits, and thunder at the sides, seem to inspire the people with an invincible love of freedom. And mountains, too, have often proved the asylums of freedom. But no mountains have guarded a people as God guards those who trust in Him. The Eternal God is a refuge, and underneath are the “ everlasting arms.” He “ is a fire round about” them, and their “ glory in the midst” of them. (Homilist.) Mountains trust in God I. The mountain as an emblem--1. Of God’ s defence (Psalms 62:2; Psalms 62:6; Psalms 18:2; Psalms 71:3). 2. Of God’ s strength. Those who have stood at some great height amid the sloping snow-field, bristling barriers of ice, and peaks of untrodden rock in the higher Alps, far from organic life, even of the smallest kind of vegetation, have felt some thrill of perhaps inexpressible awe. The grandeur of the vastness and power of the scene proves our own utter helplessness and littleness. Looking from ourselves and our little finite limits of thought and act out into the large unrealized infinity of God’ s great power, written in earth and sea and sky, and in the mind of man, the soul feels lost. But remember that all this expression of power is but the symbol of the strength of a Father’ s love. 3. Of God’ s everlastingness. II. Trust in God gives--1. An inspiration of success.2. A happy heart, in spite of everything.3. Submissive decision of character. There is something supremely exhilarating and sublime in the spectacle of the good man who, in the strength of what he believes to be Heaven-sent guidance, goes intrepidly forward, noting little of what opposes and may attack, though death itself hang its sword above his head, though the world seem to shake in ruins around him. Though, as it were, the very earth be moved and the mountains be carried into the heart of the seas, the regular, constant, unwavering pursuit of his ideal is the one motive of life. So Daniel braved in quiet reverence the decree which opened the den of lions; the three witnesses to God argued not a moment, though the flames and heat of the fiery furnace were in front of them. (C. E. Harris.) The immovability of the believer The metaphor in the text was drawn by the pilgrims from the hill before them; or, if the psalm does not belong to pilgrims, but to all Israel, they took the comparison from that mountain with which they were best acquainted. If they might not all see Lebanon, which lay at the northern extremity of the land, if they might not all behold the excellency of Carmel, or gaze upon the heights of Hermon, yet once in the year they must all look upon Zion, “ whither the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord, unto the testimony of Israel.” The emblem was therefore a familiar one, and I wish sometimes that we were more apt at sanctifying to holy uses the common objects which are round about us: these streets and houses, our own country, and our own home. I am afraid our eyes are open when we seek emblems of sadness and we find them on every hedge and in any garden-plot; but we should also look at home when we want metaphors of thanksgiving with which to set forth our security and our comfort in the Lord. I. A lowly people. They “ trust in the Lord.” A very simple thing to do. It needs no effort of intellect to trust, and it needs no laborious education to learn the way; trusting in the Lord is simply depending where there is unquestionable reason for reliance, believing what is assuredly true, and acting upon it. Trusting in the Lord is taking at His word One who cannot lie, or change, or fail; and certainly this is no great feat if we look at it from the carnal man’ s own point of view. At the same time, it is very right. Should not a man trust in his own Creator? Does He not deserve to be trusted? Has He not always been faithful? Moreover, is it not wise? What can be wiser? Those of us who have tried trusting in God have never found it fail, whereas when we have trusted in men we have been disappointed. II. The security of believers. God’ s children undergo a variety of experiences. To-day their hearts are a place of sacrifice, and to-morrow a battle-field; by turns their soul is a temple and a threshing-floor; but whatever their ups and downs may be, they shall never be removed from their ordained and appointed place: by the grace of God they are where they are, and where they shall be. They shall never be effectually removed from that place before the Lord in which infinite love has fixed them. III. The evident reason for all this. Why is it that they that trust in the Lord shall not be moved?1. Because they are trusting in the truth. They have not believed a lie, and therefore they shall not be swept from their foundation. They are trusting in One who will not deceive them and cannot fail them. They have laid their foundation on a rock, have they not? 2. They are trusting where their reliance is observed and welcomed. God loveth to have many dependants about Him. It is His way of revealing Himself and manifesting His glory. If this is what He desireth, if He seeketh such to worship Him, who believe that He is, and that He is the rewarder of them that diligently seek Him, why should He reject their suit? 3. It is not the nature of God to cast away any who rely upon Him; on the contrary, He is very careful that faith should never have less than she has expected. He respects the courage of faith: He never confounds it. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Steadfast trust Believers are too often tossed about in their minds, and suffer great shakings and movings of heart because they do not trust in the Lord as they should. These things ought not to be, for we ought to be steadfast and immovable; but by reason of infirmity and immaturity many are tossed to and fro as with a tempest. Still, even in these, deep in their soul their faith is earnestly keeping its hold, and does not permit them altogether to drift. At the back of a great deal of grievous unbelief, when we are in a depressed condition, there lives a faith which is not moved, but in secret takes hold as for dear life, biding its time till better days shall come. It is only by realizing the everlasting, abiding love of God that they that trust in the Lord shall come to feel steadfast as Mount Zion which shall never be removed. The man of God may know that he is safe, and yet there may be such a rush and tumult in his experience that he may not be able to understand himself or realize his true position. This may happen even to more advanced believers; but as we grow in grace the tendency is to reach a more even and equable condition. Experienced believers are not to be put about by every puff of wind; nay, they come at last to hold on their way in the teeth of all ill weathers, and, like hardy mariners, make small account of the lesser storms of life. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Psalms 125:2 So the Lord is round about His people. The Divine protection The 125th Psalm is of the returning exiles. They are only about fifty thousand. They have made the difficult journey across the desert sands. They have reached Jerusalem. It is an utter ruin--walls levelled, Temple destroyed, everything in confusion. There are Samaritan enemies, too, and all sorts of obstacles, as they set about the enormous task of rebuilding, reorganizing. How unable, defence-less, they seem to themselves! But if, to-day, one stands in what was the Temple area at Jerusalem and looks about him, he will see, rising above him and around him, on the east the Mount of Olives; on the south, the Hill of Evil Counsel; on the west, the ridge beyond the valley of Jehoshaphat; on the north, the high ground about Scopas--all these loftier than Jerusalem. Well, one day the singer of this psalm did stand there amid the ruined Jerusalem, did feel his own helplessness and shetterlessness; but, seeing how Jerusalem was girded by the higher hills, he saw the only real refuge for helpless and shelterless man anywhere, viz. in God; and, getting figure for his trust in what he saw, he bravely sang: “ As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the Lord is round about His people from henceforth even for ever.” Think, then, of the Divine protection of man, helpless and shelterless in himself. I. God stands about His people, as the mountains do about Jerusalem, with protecting atonement of sin. II. God stands about His people, as the mountains do about Jerusalem, with the protection of discipline administered with infinite and loving wisdom. For a forgiven man is by no means a perfect man. III. God stands about His people, as the mountains do about Jerusalem, with the protection of proffered help for the daily duty. IV. God stands about His people, as the mountains do about Jerusalem, with the protection of a final and triumphant deliverance. (W. Hoyt, D. D.) The security of the Church I. The Church as a whole is secured by God beyond the reach of harm. She is ably garrisoned by Omnipotence, and she is castled within the faithful engagements of the covenant. How often has the Church been attacked; but how often has she been victorious! The number of her battles is just the number of her victories. Foes have come against her; they have compassed her about, but in the name of God she has destroyed them.1. Persecution has unsheathed its sword, and sought to rend up the Church by its roots, or fell it with its axe. Tyrants have heated their furnaces, have prepared their racks, have erected their stakes. But has the Church been subdued? 2. But by and by the devil grew wiser. He saw that overt persecution would not suffice for the putting down of God’ s Church, and he therefore adopted another measure not less cruel but more crafty. “ I will not only slay them,” said he, “ I will malign them.” Did you ever read in history the horrible reports which were set afloat in the early ages of Christianity concerning the Christians? Never were men so fearfully belied. The very heathens, who revelled in vice, despised the followers of Jesus on account of crimes which the voice of the liar had laid to their charge. A few years elapsed and the mud which had been cast upon the snow-white garments of Christ’ s Church fell off from them, leaving them whiter than before. But the devil has adopted the same plan in every period. But has the Church suffered through their slander, or hath ever a solitary Christian lost aught by it? No; the Lord God who set the mountains round about Jerusalem has so put Himself about His people, that no weapon that is formed against us shall prosper, and every tongue that riseth against us in judgment we shall condemn. 3. Again Satan learned wisdom, and he said, “ Now, inasmuch as I cannot destroy this people, neither by sword nor slander, lo, this will I do; I will send into their midst wolves in sheep’ s clothing; I will inspire divers heretics, carried away by their own lusts, who shall in the midst of the Church promulgate lies and prophesy smooth things in the name of the Lord. And Satan has done all this with a vengeance. In every era of the Church there have been numberless bands of heretics. Now, this is one of the attempts of the enemy to put down the truth; but he will never be able to do it, for “ As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the Lord is round about His people from henceforth even for ever.” 4. The craftiest invention of the devil, with which he seeks, in the last place, to put out the Church, is a device which has amazed me above every ether. “ Now,” says Satan, “ if I can quench the Church, neither by persecution, nor slander, nor heresy, I will invent another mode of destroying her.” And I have often marvelled at the depths of deceit which are centred in this last invention of Satan. Satan seeks to divide the Church, to set us apart from one another, and not allow those who love the same truth to meet with each other and to work together in love, and peace, and harmony. But, despite all this, the Church is secure, for God hath set Himself round about her “ even as the mountains,” etc. II. The fact which relates to the Church includes in it every member of the Church. God has fortressed His people; so that every believer is infallibly secure. The Christian is fortified and secured from all harm. And yet, O child of God, there be many that will seek to destroy thee, and thy fears will often tell thee that thou art in the jaws of the enemy.1. Providence will often seem against thee, thine eyes shall be seldom dry; it may be funeral shall follow funeral; loss shall follow loss; a burning house shall be succeeded by a blasted crop. The Christian in this world is not secured against the perils which happen to manhood. Oh! child of God, it may seem that all things are against thee; perhaps all God’ s waves and billows will go over thee; but, oh I remember, that neither famine, nor hunger, nor poverty, nor sickness, nor weakness, nor contempt, can separate thee from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus thy Lord. 2. Again, you may be tempted by the world; traps may be set for you on every hand, you may be tempted by your flesh; your corruptions may have great power over you, and often stagger your faith, and make you tremble, lest you should be utterly overthrown, and the devil may set upon you with fiery darts; he may pierce you with foul insinuations, he may almost make you blaspheme, and with terrible suggestions he may drive you well-nigh to despair. 3. And thou mayest, too, be overcome by sin. Thou mayest fall. Conscience will whisper, “ How couldst thou be a child of God, and yet sin thus?” And Satan will howl in thine ears, “ He that sinneth knoweth not God.” And so thou wilt be ready to be destroyed by thy sin. But do thou then, in the hour of thy dark distress, read this verse--“ As the mountains,” etc. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Psalms 125:3 Lest the righteous put forth their hands unto iniquity.Hands put forth to iniquity The shepherd would keep his sheep from straggling. His distress is that all in Israel are not true Israelites. Two sorts of people, described by the poet, have ever been in the Church. The second class, instead of being at the trouble to “ withstand in the evil day,” will “ put forth their hands unto iniquity.” Rather than feel, they will follow the rod of the wicked. They will “ turn aside unto their crooked ways,” sooner than risk temporal and material interests. If they do not give themselves fully to the Egyptians or Philistines, Babylonians or Samaritans, they go far in compliance to gain their favour, and sometimes so far as to share in their plunder. Slipping from the King’ s highway into the tortuous by-paths of selfishness and compromise, they are without excuse. No sufferings in God’ s service are reasons for unfaithfulness and apostasy. His grace makes us able to drink whatever cup His providence administers. He adapts our trials to our strength, and proportions our strength to our trials (1 Corinthians 10:13). The way of escape is never crookedly parleying with false friends, but always direct obedience to the will of God. At the worst, it is death; and then the worst is best. Whatever may happen from the rod of the wicked, it is of the greatest moment to shun the wickedness of their rod. The treacherous and pliable exchange the lot of the righteous for the portion of evil-doers. (E. J. Robinson.) Psalms 125:4 Do good, O Lord, unto those that be good.--Two principles may be deduced from this prayer.1. If you desire good, you must first be good. “ Do good, O Lord, unto those that be good.” It is generally understood that if we would do good to others we should first become good ourselves. But it is here stated that human goodness, with all ire imperfections, has an attractive power, and is the best possible condition for obtaining more good. The rule is universal: “ Unto every one that hath, it shall be given, and he shall have abundance.” Grace once received, prepares the way for a larger supply. Having tasted and felt that the Lord is gracious, our desires are enlarged, and our capacities for knowing more of the fulness of God are increased in a corresponding degree. The nearer we approach perfection, the higher we would climb. The more conformed we become to the image of God’ s Son, the more do we long for a complete transformation, through the Lord, the Spirit. 2. The Divine promises furnish the best encouragement for prayer. The present intercession has its basis in the preceding verses. “ They that trust in the Lord shall be as Mount Zion, which cannot be removed.” “ The Lord is round about His people from henceforth even for ever.” Nothing can be clearer and more decided than the promise; and will any one assert that prayer is thus rendered unnecessary, if not presumptuous? Shall we say, The promise is made, and God may safely be left to accomplish His own designs? No! The argument runs in the opposite direction. Holy boldness in prayer proceeds upon the principle that God has a sincere desire to bestow the very blessing for which intercession is made. (N. McMichael.) Psalms 125:5 The Lord shall lead them forth with the workers of iniquity: but peace shall be upon Israel The time of trial 1.In the time of trial, there will sundry be found hypocrites, counterfeit dealers, misbelievers, who will shift for themselves, and turn aside from the obedience of faith, by their own crooked courses. 2. God will decipher hypocrites, who do not trust God, or do not adhere to the obedience of faith in time of trouble and trial, and will put them as corn-pliers with the wicked, in the same reckoning with His open enemies. 3. To look upon the judgments of God, pursuing backsliding misbelievers in time of persecution, should be a strong motive to make professors constant in the obedience of faith, on all hazards in time of trial: for the punishment of the wily misbeliever is set down here to teach men to be honest and stout in the faith and obedience of God. 4, Whatsoever trouble the Lord’ s people shall be put unto in the time of trial, they shall still remain in God’ s favour and grace; and when the Lord hath purged His Church in some measure, by winnowing corrupt hypocrites out from among His people, the Church shall be restored to her peace. (D. Dickson.) Peace shall be upon Israel.-- The peace of God’ s people Theirs is a peace which the world can neither give nor take away. Tumult there may be without, but there is tranquillity within; and probably not the less so because there is tumult without. The music in a room does not fall with less pleasure on the ear, and less move the soul with its wondrous harmonies, because at times, during a pause, you hear the wind raging outside, and the rain rattling against the windowpanes. What can disturb him upon whom the Divine countenance is shining, and who pillows his head on the bosom of Jesus! If there be wars and rumours of wars in the world, it is not the fault of the Christian. He has been at the foot of the Cross, and he has learned there, that he who loves God must love his brother also. “ Receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved,” he has no apprehensions as to its stability. He has no feeling except of pity to the poor victims, who are involved in fields of slaughter, in the shakings of nations, and the revolutions of empires. Their roots shall be as rottenness, and their blossoms shall go up as dust, who would dim the starry brightness of the Redeemer’ s glory, and keep back the world’ s regeneration. Peace shall be his at death. The Christian knows in whom he has believed. No unknown Redeemer stands beside his bed. No unknown hands are thrown around him. And there shall be peace in heaven. No jarring discords are there; but the delightful anthems of gratitude, which burst almost unconsciously from the hearts of the redeemed. How pleasant the murmurs of the crystal river of life, which glides so gently between its green banks! How softly the wind breathes, as it stirs the branches of the tree of life, distilling odorous dews! How sublime the repose of that magnificent city of our God! (N. McMichael.) . Psalms 126:1-6 Psalms 126:1-6 When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion.A political fact that is emblematic, and a human experience that is common I. A political fact, emblematic of moral restoration. The political fact here celebrated is the return of the Jews from Babylonian thraldom, through the interposition of Cyrus.1. The political restoration was great. It was a restoration from exile, bondage, and destitution of religious privileges. And are not souls in their unregenerate state exiles alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, slaves “ carnally sold under sin,” destitute of true religion, without God and without hope in the world? 2. It was Divine. Who else can effect the salvation of the soul? II. A human experience common to most men.1. A great difficulty to realize at once a great and unexpected event (verse 1). There is mercy in this. Could we fully realize such events as they occur, our nervous systems would be shattered, our mental powers would be paralyzed. Thank God for this dreaming faculty, a faculty which weakens the force of terrible events. 2. The irrepressibility of strong emotions (verse 2). There are emotions to which souls are susceptible that cannot always be suppressed; they are electric, and must break in thunder and flash in lightning. These emotions are useful, they clarify the atmosphere and bring in the sunny and serene. 3. The inspiring force of success (verse 2). 4. Love for others increasing with increased blessings (verse 4). He who practically appreciates the blessings he receives from Heaven will desire that others may participate in the same. He who is good will do good, he who is truly pious will be philanthropic. 5. True happiness comes out of suffering (verse 5). (1) It comes out of the sufferings of others. How much of the enjoyments of the men of this age have come out of the sorrows and tears of the men of past generations! (2) It comes out of the sufferings of ourselves. Godly repentance is the essential condition of spiritual enjoyment. “ Through much tribulation,” etc. 6. Genuine work for others, however painful, will be prosperous (verse 6). (1) Philanthropic acts are seeds. There is a germinic life in every noble act, a life capable of indefinite multiplication. (2) The sowing of these seeds is often very painful. “ Sow in tears.” Parents, ministers, missionaries, all will attest this. (3) However painful, their harvest will reward the sower amply. They will yield “ sheaves.” They fall into the soil of human souls, and this soil is fecundant and imperishable. (Homilist.) Captivity and deliverance: - I. Our state by nature.1. Captivity to sin. 2. Captivity to the law. II. Our deliverance. The regenerating Spirit does not create in us new faculties. He rather purifies the old. He gives a right tendency and direction to those which already exist, and causing the wandering affections to flow in their proper channel. One immediate result of this Divine work is that of our being “ turned again” unto God. III. The emotions by which this deliverance is accompanied.1. The emotions which are produced in the bosom of those whose “ captivity is turned again.” (1) Surprise. To feel that sin which had hitherto exercised so powerful a sway over our hearts, and found us at all times so easy a prey, has now “ no more dominion over us” ; is not this matter of surprise? To find that Satan, that cruel taskmaster, who had so long led us captive at will, has lost his tyrant-power, and is now beaten down beneath our feet; is not this matter of surprise? (2) Joy. Because Satan is foiled. Because the soul is saved. Because the glory of God is secured. (3) Praise. 2. The emotion which is produced in the mind of those who merely observe this deliverance. (John Gaskin, M. A.) Captivity turned I. The captivity of Zion.1. A degraded state.2. A wretched state.3. A guilty state.4. A helpless state. II. Deliverance from captivity.1. Cyrus was a type of Christ, the great spiritual Deliverer; and if we are ever brought out of our spiritual bondage we must be content to owe our liberty to Him alone.2. This deliverance is openly proclaimed and freely offered.3. None are excluded. III. the feelings with which they received the tidings of this deliverance.1. Joy.2. Manifested in praise.3. Prayer. (R. Davies, M. A.) A psalm of deliverance Luther refers to the great and universal captivity of men under hell and the devil, and says it was a small matter for the Jews to be delivered from their bondage compared to our deliverance from these enemies. Sure I am that when the Lord so suddenly and wonderfully, and beyond their expectation, turned their captivity and took them home, our friends were, on that morning,. “ like men that dreamed,” even those who had good understanding of the promises. To be delivered in the awful moment of death from sin, and sorrow, and pain, to enter in at the gates of the city with the sound of trumpets in their ears, must have seemed to them a too blessed dream. We know the men and women of whom we speak, and we know something of how happy they must be now. Loyal as they were to us and home, we know their roots were struck deep in another homo than ours. While they sat with silent harps by the rivers of Babylon, they thought of the sweetness, the beauty and blessedness of that far-off city. We saw them as if they were in a dream, and we could not hide from ourselves how ripe they were to have their captivity turned. Neither can all the sorceries and incantations of the great Babylon so intoxicate and seduce us, but that we shall take our places with them. Can it be that they have forgotten us? Are they so full of joy and so happy that this world and those they loved before never come into their minds? No, we cannot believe it. They have not forgotten us. They are now priests to God, and sometimes we can almost read our own names on their breastplates. As often as the High Priest says, “ Father, I wish that they may be with Me where I am,” we may hear them cry, Amen. While they were yet on this earth, when they saw a new sight, or read a new book, or heard a good sermon, have we not their letters at home where they write, “ I thought all the time of you. I did not half enjoy them because you were not there. I must stand on that hill-top, see that gallery, read that new book again with you” ? And as they walk the streets of the New Jerusalem this night thinking of us, they ask, How long shall it be? When shall it be? They think how our hearts will swell at the sound of the trumpets; and as they walk by the living waters, they cry, O that they were hero to share my cup! Too literal critics find an enigmatical contradiction between the beginning and, the end of this psalm; but there is no enigma here. The hands of the redeemed trembled on the harp-strings when they thought of those they had left behind. It was not for those who pined in their captivity for whom they feared, but for those who prospered. John Calvin says that Daniel raised his banner in Babylon that believers might hold themselves in readiness to return. Paul has given us a banner with words inscribed in blood and gold, “ for our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory,” and as it waves in the wind, we see on the reverse scroll (2 Corinthians 5:1). (A. Whyfe, D. D.) Psalms 126:2 Then was our mouth filled with laughter. The rapture of deliverance I. The joy of the returning Jew.1. Bewildering. (1) The suddenness of it.(2) The instrument of it. Cyrus--a heathen. 2. Rapturous. (1) Babylon left behind.(2) The exiles nearing home. 3. Reasonable. II. The joy of a returning sinner.1. Look at him before return. (1) A wanderer from his home.(2) In bondage. 2. Look at his Deliverer. 3. Look at the deliverance. III. To the experienced Christian.1. Is your piety joyful? 2. Ought it not to be so? (F. Tucker, B. A.) The laughter of the ransomed God’ s glorious deliverance always seems too wonderful to be real. Even the apostle who finds his fetters dropped off and his dungeon door swung open, is like unto them that dream: “ he wist not that it was true, but thought he saw a vision.” So in modern times, when Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton, the abolitionist, heard that the long fight was at last finished and every slave on British soil was a free man, he broke out instinctively into the joyful verse: “ Then was our mouth filled with laughter and our tongue with singing.” (T. H. Darlow.) Then said they among the heathen, The Lord hath done great things for them.--Heathen and Christian witnesses for God I. God had done many things for His ancient people. Their exile was a punishment for their great national sin, and their return meant a revocation of that punishment. But greater blessings are possessed by God’ s Church in these days. In place of mere ceremonialism we have truth itself--naked, transparent truth. Nor should we lose sight of our individuality. The Church is a congregation of individuals, and it may be said of these not only in their corporate condition as a Church, but separately and individually, “ The Lord hath done great things for us.” II. These great things are observed and acknowledged by others. The heathen recognized the blessings bestowed on the chosen people, while to the released captives their return to their old and beloved city seemed too good to be true. Our spiritual blessings are not so easily recognized by others as the return of God’ s people was by the heathen. But in looking at Christian countries the heathen could not but be struck with the benefits that civilization, liberty and Christianity afforded. It ought also to appear to the ungodly neighbours of Church members, that even in a temporal sense God had done great things for His Church, and that conversion had been followed with blessed consequences of a temporal kind, though they could not see the gift bestowed upon the inner life. But whether outsiders recognized these facts or not, it is your duty to be God’ s witnesses, and to tell relatives and friends and fellow-townsmen what great things God had done for us. III. These great things demanded a special recognition, both from observers and recipients of blessings. There was danger lest the blessings were recognized and the Giver forgotten. Perhaps one of the tendencies of modern times is the exclusion of God from almost everything outside the Church--from education, from legislation, from civil and political and national affairs, from commerce, and from many other things besides. There ought to be a recognition of God not only within, but outside the Church. I am thankful that there is a recognition of God in this country. The motto on the Royal arms--“ Dieu et mon droit” --shows a recognition of God in the highest place in the State. I am thankful that the Imperial Parliament does not sit on Sundays. What is that but a recognition of the Divine law and of Him who said, “ Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy.” Every time I pass the Royal Exchange in London I cannot help noticing the inscription, “ The earth is the Lord’ s and the fulness thereof.” What a reminder is that place to the merchants, to the Bank of England, and to the Mansion House, the seat of the greatest of municipalities just opposite, that there is a Diviner God than Mammon. One of the most startling statements I ever heard of was that made by a learned scientist, that an examination of nature did not lead him up to God. Just think of some one shying that St. Paul’ s Cathedral, with its architecture and traditions, did not lead to a recognition of the great architect, Sir Christopher Wren. What are your acknowledgments to God? (T. McCullagh.) Psalms 126:3 The Lord hath done great things for us.Great things for us I. The fact propounded. Note the personality of the statement. “ For us.”1. As regards our country. Where is there country so fair or land so fertile as ours? Where is such freedom and peace enjoyed? 2. As regards our religious privileges. We have a pure faith, an open Bible, and freedom to worship God as we think best. 3. As regards our individual wants. Homes, friends, food, sustenance, health, etc. 4. As regards our spiritual welfare. We were vile--we are made pure. We were far away--but are now brought nigh. God has done His part in all this, and if our eternal happiness is not assured the fault is ours, not His. II. The feeling. “ Whereof we are glad.” These Jews had been deprived of their privileges for some considerable period, and then, in the desolation of their spirits and in the misery of their servitude, they began to realize the mercies they had so thanklessly enjoyed. Do we not often tempt God to take away our privileges and to deprive us of our mercies? (J. J. S. Bird, B. A.) Grateful acknowledgment of Divine goodness I. A pleasing statement. What “ great things” God hath done for His people--1. In redemption.2. In conversion.3. In the bestowal of Divine freedom.4. The enjoyment of Church fellowship.5. By providential interpositions and deliverances.6. By spiritual advancement. II. A joyful statement. This gladness implies--1. Sensibility.2. Real enjoyment.3. Heartfelt gladness.4. Social gladness. “ For us.” III. Application.1. Mourn your ingratitude and forgetfulness.2. Pray for quickening grace.3. Anticipate the time when you shall be made eternally glad. (Helps for the Pulpit.) Great things I. The Lord’ s work acknowledged. God is at the head of all our affairs. Many will not give God the glory. Nebuchadnezzar (Daniel 4:30); Herod (Acts 12:21; Acts 12:23). II. Its greatness recognized.1. Greater things than we deserved.2. Greater things than we knew. Greater things than we expected. III. An interest therein claimed. What advantage is there if we cannot say “ for us” ? The Jews knew what God had done by the edict of Cyrus. They must take advantage of it. God only opened the way, and constrained them to walk in it. IV. Joyful gladness expressed.1. Why are we glad? (1) The work is so great.(2) The work is done.(3) The work is done well. 2. How should we show our gladness? (1) By a cheerful countenance.(2) By willing labour.(3) By generous gifts. V. Application.1. Has the Lord done aught for you?2. Have you acknowledged His hand?3. Has it made you glad?4. What are you expecting in the future? (The Study.) Christian gratitude for the goodness of God: - I. What things have been done for us?1. National.2. Domestic.3. Personal. II. Who hath done them? III. How can we, for whom the Lord has done great things, most properly express our joy, and most profitably evince our gratitude? Those, certainly, may rejoice in benefits received whose consciences only testify to them of judgments deserved. Every one whom God has spared may warrantably believe that he has been spared for purposes of mercy. (T. Dale, M. A.) Personal experience forceful In most of the reviews of Mr. Morley’ s “ Life of Gladstone” attention has been called to the fact that whilst the whole work is a literary masterpiece, the third volume is far above the two previous ones in picturesque and stirring power. The events it records took place under the writer’ s own eye, and in them he took a prominent part, and this has given an ease, a freedom, and a force of description that no secondhand reports or most reliable documents can give. That which we have for ourselves seen, tasted, and handled is the part of our testimony that tells and brings conviction to others. (H. O. Mackey.) Psalms 126:4 Turn again our captivity, O Lord.The thankful pray For they have proved the use of prayer. As prayer found cause for praise, gratitude sees reason for renewed supplication. “ The Lord turned Himself to the turning of Zion.” God returns to His people when they return to Him (Deuteronomy 4:30-31; Deuteronomy 30:1-3; Deuteronomy 30:9-10; Nehemiah 1:9; Job 42:10; Psalms 145:18-19; Isaiah 10:21-22; Isaiah 55:7; Isaiah 59:20; Jeremiah 31:8-9; James 4:8). He liberated the exiles when they repented and offered supplication. If they have reached Mount Zion, there is still need for them to pray. Jehovah’ s gracious hand has so lifted them a degree higher on the footsteps of His throne, that they may be nearer His inclined ear with their petitions. Let them say to Him, in the language of humble dependence, “ Turn again our captivity, O Lord, as the streams in the south.” Thou art to the soul like rain and fountains to the fields. Drought disappears before Thy breath; and the touch of Thy merciful feet clothes earth with beauty and plenty. And, from their past experience, from the constancy with which God has kept His word, from His demonstrated and eternal unchangeableness, they expect that for which they pray. Faith pleads the promises of Him who cannot lie (Genesis 8:22; Psalms 85:1-13.). “ Thou art the same Lord, whose property is always to have mercy.” Thy sure mercy we look for. A praying and praising heart is ready for showers of blessing (Joe 2:21). (E. J. Robinson.) As the streams in the south.-- The streams in the south In the East the rivers in the dry seasons are little more than fleeting streams, and sometimes they are entirely evaporated by the powerful action of the sun’ s rays. The rainy season comes, and the beds, forsaken of the ancient river, begin to receive their annual tribute from the fruitful clouds, and the mountain-torrent, rolling in its accustomed channel, causes the streams to return again, changing the sandy waste into the majestic river, raising the sewer’ s hopes, replenishing this parched land with the long-desired verdure, and man and beast again rejoice in the earth’ s abundance. Thus prayed the pious psalmist:--“ Turn again our captivity, O Lord, as the streams in the south” : that as the inhabitants of these sultry regions rejoice in the return of the reviving streams, so we, restored to our beloved country and temple, may rejoice in the long-expected deliverance. (W. Brown.) Psalms 126:5 They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. Sowing and reaping Painful work often finds pleasant reward. The way through the Red Sea and the howling wilderness leads to a fair and fruitful land flowing with milk and honey. Such is God’ s law of compensation, always and everywhere working out its infallible result in the experience of His chosen people. Trace this principle-- I. In those whom God ordinarily employs in effecting the greatest good of others. Those who gain liberty for a nation, who achieve great things in art or literature, who are the leaders of great movements. They did none of these things, nor are such things ever done, without great personal self-sacrifice. They have had to sew in tears ere they, or any whom they sought to help, could reap in joy. Did Moses, or Joshua, or Gideon, or any of the old prophets sow without tears? or, having sowed in tears, did they fail in due time to realize the joy of harvest? Did not Athens poison her greatest philosopher and expatriate her grandest orator? Was not the most eloquent advocate of the Roman cause that ever raised his voice in the Roman Forum banished by the authority of a Roman senate, and beheaded by the perfidy of a Roman triumvirate? Did not the Copernican system of the universe long hang trembling on the lips of hated and persecuted men before it dared to stand forth and speak boldly to the world? and was it not afterward in the person of Galileo imprisoned, and in his books made to pass through the fire to Ignorance? Did the great discovery of Harvey cost him no pain or weariness? or were the works of Bacon, Newton and Shakspeare fully appreciated while they lived? And the artists who live for ever in their productions--the painters, sculptors, architects, musicians, who have filled the world with the triumphs of their genius--did they not toil, for the most part, in disappointment, and poverty, and sorrow, little esteemed during life, to be almost deified after death? The pioneer settlers of this new continent sowed the wilderness with their tears, and the heroes of American independence fattened her soil with their blood. II. In the sphere of religion and morals. Whenever any great evil has been averted, or any signal triumph of truth and righteousness achieved, it has ever been at vast personal cost. See the Bible histories of all the heroes of the faith. Read St. Paul’ s account of his sufferings. And thus it was that Christianity, whose throne was a manger, whose diadem a thorn-wreath, whose victory the crucifixion of its Author, whoso triumphal pageant a funeral procession to a borrowed tomb, whose earliest champions a little band of despised and persecuted fishermen, is now filling the earth with its voices of jubilee, and peopling paradise with the subjects of its redemption. What painful sowing was there in the dark and dismal catacombs of Rome, in the gardens of Nero, and the Flavian amphitheatre. But the blood of the martyrs has ever been the seed of the Church. In the days of the great Reformation the life of Martin Luther was a perpetual conflict with error, but it filled all Continental Europe with God’ s blessed evangel, and on the same ground Dollinger and his noble compeers have lately renewed the good fight of faith. But look we higher. Who are these arrayed in white robes, with palms, and lutes, and starry diadems, and whence came they? “ These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore are they before the throne,” etc. They are all witnesses that the seed which your fathers scattered fell not all upon the rooks, among the thorns, and by the desert wayside. And this is your consolation--that however hard the toil, and however unpromising the seed-time, and however tardy the advent of the genial spring, an unweeping eye shall wash the field, and a celestial dew shall water the soil, and a creative power shall quicken the germ, and in due time the whitening grain shall summon the reaper’ s sickle, and the harvest of joy shall have come. (J. Cross, D. D.) The connection between present duties and future reward I. Some of the occasions on which we are called to go forth weeping.1. Over our religious profession. There are many struggles between light and darkness; many battles between sin and holiness: nature and grace are at enmity one with another, and must be so till “ this corruptible shall put on incorruption, and this mortal shall put on immortality.” 2. In the discharge of our duty. 3. When under the marked displeasure of God. II. The precious seed which we are expected to bear.1. The seed of cheerful self-denial. 2. The seed of patient perseverance. 3. The seed of perfect submission to the will of God. 4. The seed of genuine holiness. III. The happy results experienced. Even here we taste the fruits of the Spirit, the fruits of Divine love, and we become partakers of that happiness which the world cannot give, and which it is not in the power of the world to take away. But however much we may gather here, and whatever be the satisfaction which we experience from the blessedness of the harvest of Christianity in this world, the day of judgment will be the great harvest when we shall reap the labours of all our sowing. (W. Yate.) Spiritual husbandry Consider the text in its application to-- I. The Jews as a nation (Deuteronomy 32:3; Jeremiah 21:9; Leviticus 26:41-42). When they are thus brought to “ sow in tears,” they shall undoubtedly “ reap in joy.” This seems to be the favourite theme of the prophets, especially of Isaiah (Isaiah 60:1; Isaiah 35:10). This is the event which the Jews themselves ardently long for; it is that for which they earnestly pray on the day of atonement; “ O our Father and our King, discover Thy glorious majesty to us speedily; arise, and be exalted to the eyes of all living, and gather our dispersions from among the heathen, and assemble us that are scattered from the extreme parts of the earth, and conduct us to Zion Thy city with songs, and unto Jerusalem, the city of Thy sanctuary, with everlasting joy.” II. Ourselves individually. Sorrow and suffering are the result of sin; and sin is interwoven with our very nature. But the Christian has not done with sorrow and tears, although through faith, which is of the operation of the Spirit of God, he has been led to trust in that Saviour who died for him, and the burden of transgression has been rolled from his oppressed spirit. Could the veil which now separates us from futurity be drawn aside, and those regions of everlasting happiness and sorrow which strike so faintly on the imagination be presented fully to our eyes, it would occasion, I doubt not, a sudden and strange revolution in our estimation of things. Many are the distresses, for which we now weep in suffering or in sympathy, that would awaken us to songs of thanksgiving; many the dispensations which now seem dreary and inexplicable, that would fill our adoring hearts with thanksgiving and joy. III. The missionary’ s labour and reward. As the poor missionary stands on the boundary of the vast wilderness, or goes forth to its culture “ bearing the precious seed,” he must needs “ weep” to think how little of the territory he can occupy. But though he weeps, yet shall he “ rejoice.” As surely as the grain sown in the earth shall vegetate and bring forth fruit in its proper season, so surely may we expect the principles of the Gospel to spring forth in rich luxuriance, proving incorruptible seed, and yielding fruit, some thirty, some sixty, and some a hundred fold. (W. Carter, B. A.) Sorrowful labour I. We are often called to labour in which we have little joy.1. The call to labour, for instance, may continue when those whom we hoped to gladden with our diligence and fidelity are gone. 2. All earnest labourers are liable to fits of despondency; Christian labourers certainly not less than others. Overwork, perhaps, is followed by reaction, or the too eager hope is disappointed because we see not any results for all our doing. We think that our fellow-labourers are not as earnest as we, that we alone are bearing the burden and heat of the day. Then there comes up the question, what is the use of all our toil? 3. We may be called to work in which we feel but little special interest; work which is to us perpetual self-denial. Our hopes may all tend to one sphere of effort; duty may sternly compel us to another. 4. We have often to work amidst ungracious men, with no hope at all that our labour shall be successful. There are other and happier labourers in other and more promising fields; why should we be hero toiling to no avail? II. God rewards us according to our fidelity, and not according to our gladness.1. Christ has never said, according to your gladness be it unto you; not even according to your hopefulness be it unto you; but according to your faith. And faith’ s triumph is seen in that it can live and labour when the light of joy is quenched; that it can call off the hopes that hover round an earthly brightness, and bear them up through darkness to the throne of the Invisible. 2. Our confusion of the reality of faith with the eagerness of feeling, our making so much of the cheerfulness of work instead of the work itself, shows that we are expecting the increase of ourselves rather than from God. The work is done; it leaves our hands, henceforth it is in His. The seed is sown; His seed is under His own care. He gives the dew of His benediction, the fruitful force is that of the ever-working Spirit. Not for nothing is it that God’ s great ceaseless call to us is to do the work which He has given us; for, indeed, this is all we can do. We can be faithful to His call of duty, He is faithful to His promise. III. Our text speaks not only of sheaves for the sowing, but also of rejoicing for the tears. The very tears are a seed that shall have a joyful springing; the sorrow shall return again in joy. The sorrowful sowing is a testimony for God, and this shall bear its fruit in icy. There is a striking contrast between the taunt of those who carried the Jews away captive, “ Sing us one of the songs of Zion” ; and this saying among the heathen, “ The Lord hath done great things for them.” The patient labour of the exiles, the quiet toil of those who could not sing, won the heart of their oppressors. They were glad when the captives were restored, and sent them away with kindly gifts. Israel’ s patience was the patience of faith; and Israel’ s faith was a witness to the fidelity of Israel’ s God. The patience and faithful effort of sad but trusting souls, Christian faith abiding unshaken though joy has gone out of the life; here is a lesson which cannot fail of impressiveness. It reaches to the unbelieving, and constrains them to thought concerning the Gospel; it cheers the heart and strengthens the faith of all believers. Each new revelation of God’ s grace that comes on us as a surprise reproves us that we did not always rejoice as those who might be sure that all God’ s ways are love. But it is blessed to feel ourselves reproved that our God may be exalted; we welcome the humbling lesson about ourselves which makes us more fully know how good He is. The joyful reaping that follows a tearful sowing prepares us for new trials of our faith. There may come again to you a time of tears, a time of sorrowing toil; but you know whose hand will at length wipe away all tears; you know that there is no seed-time but will at length yield its rejoicing sheaves. (A. Mackennal, D. D.) Weeping and reaping: I. An inspired provers. A proverb is often helpful; an inspired proverb ought to be to us an inspiration. Write it down at the head of all your difficulties and in the midst of all your struggles; it is one of God’ s own pithy sayings, a maxim He Himself has made--“ They that sow in tears shall reap in joy.” II. A personal experience. It is as though one shouted of his success, and announced Jehovah’ s triumph. By this he would record his gratitude, and encourage his hearers. If the moss in the desert could stimulate the fainting traveller, if a flower outside the prison wall could speak comfortably to the prisoner in his dreary dungeon, if a solitary star shining through the blackness of the night could bring hope and guidance to the storm-tossed mariner, may I not believe that this experience of David, or whosoever the psalmist may have been, long years ago, will be as a ministering angel to such as are tempted to think that the seed is wasted, that the harvest can never be, that their hopes are dashed to the ground to rise no more for ever? III. A prevailing principle.1. In everyday life. Scientists and inventors have toiled, and moiled, and thought, and struggled for many a long year. They have, for the most part, received little help from others. One or two perhaps espoused their cause and helped them through, but the rest either jeered and sneered, or else looked on complacently as if to say, “ We shall see what we shall see, but we do not think it will come to very much.” It was a sowing season; aye, and if we had been behind the scenes we should have seen that it was a weeping-time as well. Some of these sowers died in obscurity. Many of them did not live to see their talent and their skill appreciated, but there was a harvest-time for all that, or if it has not yet arrived it is yet to be. On the other hand many of them did reap the reward of their talents; the proverb held good in most instances. So with philanthropists, and merchants, and discoverers; so indeed with all of every class. There are exceptions, of course, to this rule, but the exceptions proved the rule. Sometimes another reaps where one has sown, but for the most part the maxim holds good. Those who are honest, and earnest, and self-denying in their toil, those who wait awhile shall live to see success, and to reap reward, 2. In spiritual matters. (1) Was it not just so in the matter of our conversion? Oh, for more sorrow of a godly sort! Oh, for more of the repentance that needs not to be repented of! May the tears flow till Jesus dries our eyes! (2) The same is true of the matter of backsliding and restoration. If you have wandered, come back, but come with streaming eyes and wounded spirit, come with firm resolve that, God helping you, you will never do the like again. (3) Apply the same truth to Christian service. 4. And to suffering. IV. The proverb, the experience, the principle is also a precious promise. We have here--they make my eyes to shine with gladness--two of God’ s “ shalls.” These are absolute affirmations from the lips of Jehovah, who speaks, and it stands fast. (T. Spurgeon.) Seed-time and harvest: - I. The sower.1. He recognizes a field of labour.2. He employs his activities in the field.3. He often toils with few co-operatives.4. He mourns over his arduous work. II. The seed-time.1. It only lasts for a limited period.2. It is often marked by adverse influences.3. In anticipation of the seed-time the necessary seed must be secured. III. The harvest.1. It is certain.2. It may be sometimes late.3. It is sometimes bountiful.4. It is compensating. (H. Peach, B. A.) The agriculturist a picture of the Christian reformer I. In the nature of his operation. The work of each is--1. Necessary. The Creator does not do for the creature that which He has given the creature power to do for itself. The life of the world depends upon the work of the agriculturist. The work of the Christian reformer is equally necessary. If ignorance, error, and wrong are to be replaced by knowledge, truth, and right--if righteousness is to spring out of the earth--the Christian reformer must work. 2. Righteous. 3. Divine. 4. Productive of wonderful results. II. In the mode of his operation.1. Both have to disseminate a divine thing. The “ seed” of the one is like the doctrine of the other; both are charged with life, and both are capable of indefinite expansion; both require suitable soil for their germination and development; both are perfect in themselves. 2. Both have to work in faith. 3. Both have to work under trial. The agriculturist sometimes “ goeth forth weeping.” This was often the ease with those oriental farmers who lived in neighbourhoods infested with those wandering herdsmen who neither so.wed nor reaped themselves, but obtained what they required by plundering the cultivators of the soil. Such farmers, therefore, often carried their seed from their houses with anxiety and fear, and very often they found it necessary to have armed men to protect them in their operation. The Christian reformer has trials in his work How much distress does he experience, not only from the opposition of the world, but from the apathy, narrowness, and inconsistency of its professors! III. In the issues of his work.1. The manner of their return. They shall come with all the fruits of their labour. The pious parent, the Sabbath-school teacher, the missionary, the minister,--all shall return with the fruit of their labours. It shall be found then that none ever laboured in vain. 2. The certainty of their return. The traveller who goes abroad in search of undiscovered lands, like Franklin, may return no more; the merchant who goes to foreign markets in quest of gain may return no more; the hero who goes out to chastise a foreign foe, like Raglan, may return no more; but the true Christian reformer shall return. His harvest must come. Yes; when the battles of the world shall be over; when the markets of the world shall be closed; when the governments of the world shall be dissolved; when the Gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world; when the purpose of mercy shall be fully realized; then, “ doubtless,” the men of every age and clime, who have wept, and toiled, and prayed for the spiritual cultivation of the world, shall return. (Homilist) Sowing in tears: - I. Sowing as compared with reaping is a very laborious process. The land must be cleared, the soil broken up, the stones and rubbish removed, etc. That which is reaped in a few hours has cost him in the sowing many long weeks of toil. It is so in the spiritual life. The hard labour is at the beginning. The fallow ground and the stubble are to be broken up. The agony is at the gate that opens into the narrow way of a religious life. All after experiences are comparatively facile and pliant. II. Sowing as compared with reaping is a lonely work. The reapers go in bands with shout and song; but the sower goes alone. And so in those spiritual processes connected with the new birth, each heart “ knoweth its own bitterness.” Over those inner furrows of the soul goes no sower but the man’ s own conscience in the sight of his God. III. Sowing as compared with reaping is in an untoward season. The sower must be out in the rough winds of March, under the dark, leaden sky, and upon the cold, clammy earth. It is so in spiritual things. The harvest is in revival periods of warmth and enthusiasm, but the sowing must be in times when the church is cold and everything looks discouraging and gloomy. IV. Sowing as compared with reaping is a self-denying work. The farmer takes from his granary corn which he needs for his present supply, and scatters it that it may fall into the ground and die. The initial processes of religion involve self-denial. Man must be grown up. Many selfish aims and ambitions fall into the ground and die, that out of them may spring a higher and nobler life--the life that we live by the faith of the Son of God who loved us and gave Himself for us. (T. D. Witherspoon, D. D.) Psalms 126:6 He that goeth forth and weepeth.Tearful sowing and joyful reaping All life is a sowing. Some sow to the lusts of the flesh. A chosen company sow to the spirit. These often sow in sadness, for such sowing involves self-denial and struggling against the flesh. But their reaping will compensate them. Now this holds good in regard to the whole spiritual life, but it applies also to individual incidents in that life. To prayers offered amid tears. To the daughters of affliction, the sons of pain. But we take the text in regard to every Christain worker. I. Describe his service. It is said of him, he goeth forth. What does this mean? This, that he goeth forth from God. God has sent him. It is a sin beyond all others to take up the ministry as a mere profession. And this going forth is from the place of prayer. Our truest strength lies in prayer. But the word tells of the whither as well as the whence. And this going forth is away from the world, “ without the camp,” aye, and beyond the range of ordinary Christian labour. “ He that goeth forth,” not he that sits at home, shall win the reward. “ And weepeth.” What means this word? As the former word told of the mode of service, so this tells of the man himself. A man who cannot weep, inwardly if not internally, cannot preach. He must be sensitive, tender-hearted, a man in earnest. Some one asks, “ Why does he weep?” Because he feels his own insufficiency, because of the hardness of men’ s hearts, because he is often disappointed. Blossoms come not to be fruit, or fruit half ripe drops from the tree. Next, we read, “ he beareth precious seed.” This an especial point of success. There is no soul-winning by untruthful preaching. The Gospel, and that only, will serve. Tell it out as those who know it is precious, not flippantly, or as though we were retailing a mere story from the “ Arabian Nights.” And as those who know that the truth is a seed. Do not speak of it and forget it, or think of it as a stone that will never spring up. Believe there is life in it, and something will come of it. II. The worker’ s success. “ He shall come again” to his God whence he set out, come in thanksgiving and praise. “ With rejoicing,” yes, even in his very tears, but mainly in his success. Many have asked whether every earnest labourer may expect to have this. I have always inclined to the belief that such is the rule, though there may be exceptions. It seems to me that if I never won souls I would sigh till I did. I would break my heart Over them if I could not break their hearts. I cannot comprehend any one trying to win souls and being satisfied without results. With sheaves. As an old expositor says, he comes with the wains behind him, with the wagons at his heels. They are his sheaves, for though all souls belong to Christ, they yet belong to the worker. God puts it so, “ bringing his sheaves with him.” III. The golden link of “ doubtless.” The promise of God says so. The analogy of nature assures you of it. God mocks not the husbandman. And Christ assures you of this. Think, too, of those who have already proved it. See the triumphs of missions. Therefore be up and doing. You who are not saved, I ask you not to sin, but to come to Christ. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The sower and his harvest: - I. The qualities and requirements of the successful sower.1. He “ goeth forth.” This shows a set purpose, a fixed and definite design. It also suggests that the work is done at some personal cost, some self-denial. 2. He “ weepeth.” The burden of souls is laid upon him. A trifler must fail; this thorough earnestness is essential to success. 3. He “ bears precious seed.” The seed is the living word for a lost world; truth for souls wandering in fatal error; “ the glorious Gospel of the blessed God.” It is precious, because it is the gift of God’ s love by Jesus Christ; because of the price paid for it; because of its fruit, peace, love, joy in the Holy Ghost. How does he bear it? Best of all forms, the only perfect mode is in the heart; so that out of the abundance of the heart the mouth may speak. II. The character of the harvest promised.1. It is abundant. For seeds in the hand there shall be sheaves on the shoulders. 2. It is gladdening. The sower goes forth weeping; he returns rejoicing. 3. It is sure. (J. McTurk.) Sowing and reaping I. The seed.1. Its origin is Divine. 2. Its vitality. 3. Its value. “ Precious.” (1) Because it is a Divine gift.(2) Because it meets human necessity.(3) Because of its blessed, practical results.(4) Because it is adapted to all classes.(5) Because it has no equal, and nothing can take its place. II. The sower.1. His energy--“ goeth forth.” He does not waste his precious time in berating other sowers, or in telling what wonders he is going to do in the future; nor does he allow his zeal to evaporate in sentiment or song. But he “ goeth forth.” We have a sufficient number of word-critics and analyzers; we want more men who would rather scatter the seed than argue about its constituent elements. 2. His emotion--“ weepeth.” Why? (1) Felt responsibility.(2) Discouragements in the way. Poverty, ignorance, drunkenness, sensuality, a disposition to cling to sins and force their way to perdition.(3) Lack of appreciation and sympathy.(4) Meagre results of former sowing.(5) Inability to reach the masses, who need us most. 3. His errand--“ Bearing precious seed.” The bread of life for a perishing, famine-stricken world. The God-sent sower is a man of one work and one kind of seed. He is not a drawing-room evangelist; he “ goeth forth.” He is not a man of business, he is not a politician, he is not a scientist. He is a worker for God, a sower of the seed. He preaches Christ, not himself; God’ s thoughts, not his own. III. The success.1. Certain.2. Inspiring.3. Remunerative.4. Individual ownership. “ Their sheaves.”5. Palpable results. “ Bringing.” Then to sow is to reap. (T. Kelly, D. D.) The home and foreign fields compared Some think the mission cause is less popular now than formerly. This opinion may be true to some extent. There may not now be the excitement which, we are told, prevailed at first. For this several reasons may be assigned. The novelty has passed away. Other institutions have sprung up to divide public interest. But the chief reason no doubt is, that experience is bringing out the real nature of the work undertaken as it was never brought out before. Does not very much of the disappointment and complaint which we sometimes hear expressed at the result of mission work arise from wrong expectations? I. As to the soil, what a contrast this presents to that at home.1. Look at its extent. Those who know nature and mankind only in small countries like our own cannot conceive the proportions they assume in the world’ s great continents. There is not a greater difference between the hills which we call mountains, and the streams which we dignify as rivers, and those elsewhere, than there is between humanity here and humanity there. It may be thought at least the moral greatness is with us. As to superior civilization, much of this is prejudice, which a wider acquaintance with the world dissipates. I confess that the only indisputable point of superiority in us, as far as I know, is in the possession of a pure and true religion. Take this away, and we should be no better than the rest. But as to material size and numbers, we are comparatively insignificant. Place a man on a peak of the Alps or Himalayas, and what an overwhelming astonishment comes over him. A like feeling is experienced by one who finds himself moving among the world’ s great populations. In this country we have thirty millions to deal with--thirty millions to save, one by one. But you might divide China alone into twelve such countries, with twelve times thirty millions. You might cut up India into six such countries, with six times thirty millions. The mind is lost even amid such numbers; but what would it be in measuring entire continents? The number of mission-converts is often compared with the total population of the world. But it would be fairer to make the comparison with the number actually brought under Christian influence. Missions, though universal in spirit and aim, are not so in fact. Compare the ground gained with that actually attempted, and the disproportion will appear less. 2. Contrast, again, the nature of the two fields. In this respect the conditions are as opposite as they can be. At home Christian agencies are more nearly adequate to the work to be done. It is true there is much religious destitution. But what sort of destitution? Not so much destitution of ministers and sanctuaries as of the religion which would make more ministers and sanctuaries necessary. Must there not be more religious success and growth before more of these outward products of religion will be seen? But Christian churches are not all. Our whole country is professedly Christian, and has been a thousand years. A thousand years of history are in our favour. Our doctrines are the doctrines generally received. Besides a powerful Christian literature, the general literature of our country is Christian in spirit. The stamp of the Bible is on our national character. All this is an incalculable gain to the cause of truth. The way of the preacher is made easy. Directly you go into a heathen country, this state of things is reversed. When we speak of the wickedness and spiritual apathy of heathen lands, we may seem to mention nothing special. Are these unknown at home? Bad as the state of morality may be here, we assure you there is worse than your worst. Heathenism makes the same sins blacker. If there is so much wickedness where so many checks are at work, what must there be where most of these checks are unknown, and religion herself becomes the patron of vice? Converse with the priests, read the lives of the deities, observe the images of impurity and cruelty--“ lust hard by hate” --which surround you in worship. As to the practical effects of idolatry, its very nature is degrading. In judging of mission work, then, many forget that abroad we meet with all the old hindrances, and others still more formidable. II. Let us look also at the sowers. In this respect we may think there is no room for difference. The same agencies will suit either field. Let us see. What is the state of things at home? First, the language is the preacher’ s own. He has not to plunge into the difficulties of a new tongue and literature. Again, the machinery is provided to his hand. In both respects how different abroad! In many parts a difficult language, imposing long and hard toil, blocks the very threshold. The labourer may be full of zeal. His soul, like Paul’ s, may be stirred by what he sees. But he is dumb. For long he is a child learning to speak. Take the other point. Suppose you have a system of agencies formed and at work. Many could most efficiently keep it going who would not be equal to originating it. It is evident that on both grounds the mission-field requires special gifts--mental adaptation, a spirit of enterprise, skill to create and organize. There must be these special qualifications-for the special work which lies before us in other lands. Even the best labourers must often lament their insufficiency. They often feel the terrible disadvantage at which they labour. Every seed as it falls into the earth is wet with tears wrung from earnest, anxious souls. “ The sun goes down on a life of faithful toil, and little impression is made on the waste, few ears are gathered. What a contrast between the present beginnings and future destiny of the Gospel! The Church goes forth weeping; she returns with sheaves rejoicing. Now wrong has the majority; the triumph seems to be with error; faith struggles for mastery in one place, for existence in another. All this will be reversed. Instead of sowers weeping, you will hear shouts of reapers rejoicing--shouts which ring louder and sweeter for the years of working and waiting which have gone before. Instead of a few bright patches of fruitfulness, enough to keep faith alive, the world’ s wide field shall stand thick with sheaves--sheaves of souls dearly ransomed and hardly won. Meanwhile what is our duty? To sow on. Let not weeping hinder sowing. Sow money, sow sympathy and prayer, sow lives of earnest work for Christ. (J. S. Banks.) The hope of the spiritual sower If it takes six months for nature to restore to the farmer his reward, how much do you think is needed before this world is made to rejoice and blossom like the rose? We must be patient, we must be generous, we must be far-seeing; and we must remember that all the money that is sunk in schoolrooms and sunk in good teaching, all the money that seems occasionally to be flung away--I do not mean anything foolish--in this field of education, will be bearing fruit when we are dead. And upon the thoroughness of the education in England during the years to come will depend our prosperity and our position amongst the nations of the earth. We ought to be thankful for our army and navy, but in the future nations are to depend less upon armed men and more upon intelligence. Or if you take the ease of social reform in any of its departments, why, it is over fifty years since men began to work at the temperance cause, and sometimes it does not seem to have advanced greatly. But it is advancing, and habits of temperance and self-restraint are spreading amongst the people. We may not in our days see a sober and thrifty nation; but some day, when this land is delivered from the curse of drunkenness and the improvidence which follows it, people will rise up and bless the sowers in the sleet of past days. And, if that be true of education and morality, what will you say to religion--to recast a single soul in the character of Jesus Christ? To recast a whole race will take centuries; but it is going to be done l He that works for a speedy return works for a passing return; he who works for eternal ends must work deeply and wait patiently. He may die before the vessel comes into harbour, but he is going with the tide that is to carry her into harbour. The throne of God is established in righteousness and not in unrighteousness. Did not Christ, living and dying, triumph over this world? It is with such that this man allies himself, whom you may think so foolish and short-sighted. He places himself beside the throne of light; he places himself beside the throne of Jesus Christ. If he is beaten, he is beaten, when every one of us is beaten, and the whole human race is beaten, and nothing remains but ruin and chaos. If there be order, he wins; if there be righteousness, he is going to come out conqueror. “ Well,” you say, “ I like to see a little.” Well, then, my friend, will you remember that your life is not the whole life of the Kingdom of God. And although the class you are going to teach this afternoon in that back street is just a little bit of heaven begun, as well as you can begin it, it is not the whole kingdom of heaven. What do you think of the prophets now, and especially the prophets who prophesied the Messiah in heathen Babylon and decadent Jerusalem, and who died and never saw the promise, and never saw the prophecy fulfilled? And now, behold, we have seen everything they said come true, and generation after generation has blessed them for their words. Courage yourselves with the Psalms, with Amos, with Hosea, and the second of Isaiah! What do you say of the prophets? They gave up all they possessed and went out and preached the Gospel. And some preached in heathen cities, some in Europe, some Asia, and we do not know where some of them preached. And they died. So far as we know most of them were martyrs. (John Watson, D. D.) Harvest joys: We are just in the middle of harvest. We are reaping; we are bringing our sheaves home: and we, too, reap with joy, more or less; we bring our sheaves home with rejoicing. There are many good reasons for this. The harvest, you all know and feel, is the end and crown of the year,--the end, not in the same way in which winter is the end of the year, as closing its eyes, and laying it in its grave, but as being its consummation and fulfilment. It is the end for which the seasons roll round in their busy course. It is the end for which the earth opens her womb, and pours out her fatness. It is the end for which the sun looks down with his fostering fatherly smiles upon the earth, and cherishes her day by day more and more, according as she can bear it. Moreover, here, too, there is need of tears: there is need that the bosom of the earth should be torn up by the ploughshare. She likewise must go forth on her yearly way weeping, when she bears her precious seed; or she will never come again rejoicing, bringing her full sheaves with her. God has blessed the work of your hands: He has given you a good harvest: it will bring you in much profit. Let it be your care then that the poor shall also be partakers in the blessings, which God’ s bounty has poured out for them as well as for you. When any prosperity betides a household, it is right and fitting that all the members of the household, from the highest to the lowest, should partake in that prosperity, that all should be invited to a fellowship in the same rejoicing. So may the servants in a household be encouraged to feel that they are united to their masters by some other bond than the iron chain of necessity,--that there is something in their faithful services beyond the worth of money, and which no money can repay,--that they are moral beings, with hearts and souls, with consciences and affections,--that they are to show this in their conduct, and that their masters also are to show their conviction of this in all their dealings with them. In this manner does it behove you to show your thankful conviction that the harvest is indeed a blessing, and not to thwart God’ s gracious purpose, that it should be a blessing, not to you alone, but to all men, of every class and condition. For this is what renders it truly precious. The earth rejoices because she is made God’ s minister to pour forth her treasures for the support of mankind. And this is a further reason why you also may lawfully rejoice in the harvest. Joy for any outward good that befalls ourselves is narrow and selfish and barren. But joy for any good we may be enabled to do to others is of a right kind. It is a joy which has the purifying spirit of love in it, a joy such as the angels feel when they are sent on God’ s errands of mercy. This is the great privilege granted to you whose calling is to till the ground. You are employed by God as His ministers for the good of your brethren. It is through your means that the race of man is sustained and enabled to live from year to year. It is at your hands that God gives us our daily bread. For this thought, moreover, should be always present to your minds; that that which you do, you do not of yourselves and by yourselves, through any strength of your own arm, or any wit of your own head, but only through the power of God, as His servants and ministers. When we look at the harvest as the gift of God, then it becomes a ground of pure and unmixed rejoicing. As he who is truly suffering from want and distress is thankful if you give him a small alms, and is the more thankful if your alms be large, so, if we are really convinced that the harvest is the gift of God’ s bounty, then, even if the harvest be a scanty one, we still rejoice and are thankful to God, from whom we had no right to claim or expect anything richer; and if the harvest be abundant, we are the more exceeding thankful. Indeed this, you will ever find, is one among the many benefits which arise from the habit of looking at all the events and dispensations of this world as the appointment and ordinance of God. You will be confident that, whatever their immediate appearance may be, they are good, and are designed for good. You will be delivered from all repining on account of them. What, ever they may be, you will be thankful for them. If the dispensation be grievous, you will discern something that required to be chastened and corrected: and for that chastening and correction you will be thankful to Him whose chastening is a sure proof of His love. If, on the other hand, the dispensation be such as even the natural heart welcomes with delight, your rejoicing on that account of it will be doubled, when you look on it as a token of your heavenly Father’ s bounty. (J. C. Hare, M. A.) The certain reward of good works Our text, taken in its largest significance, is to be classed with those passages which speak of the reward of good works, and use that reward as a motive to their performance. There can be nothing clearer from the Bible than that though man can expect nothing for his works, so that his best actions, if tried by their own merit, would produce only wrath; he will, nevertheless, be judged by his works, and receive a recompense, of which these works will determine the extent. It is impossible that man should gain any reward, if you connect with reward the notion of merit; but it is quite possible that while that which is bestowed is of grace and not of debt, yet there may be a rigid proportion maintained between his actions and his condition, so that his final allotment will be dependent on his works, as though those works could establish a right to some portion of happiness. And when this principle has been settled--the principle that though We cannot merit from God our actions will decide our condition--we may speak of good works as to be hereafter rewarded, because they shall as actually regulate our portion as though that portion were a recompense in the strictest sense of the term. If, then, it be lawful to speak of reward, we may certainly speak of the husbandman who “ goeth forth weeping, bearing precious seed,” as coming “ again rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.” It will frequently happen that we have no means of ascertaining that any beneficial results have been produced by our most earnest and disinterested labours; and it is quite possible that no such results have yet followed, and that they never will follow. The minister may have toiled in vain; the parent may have striven in vain; the philanthropist may have been generous in vain. Not only may it be true that none of these parties can discern any fruit of their exertions and sacrifices; it may be further true that no fruit whatsoever has been yielded; so that minister, and parent, and philanthropist have apparently spent their strength for nought. And yet, even in this extreme case, you can only suppose that the retributions of eternity will abundantly prove the statements of our text. The “ precious “ seed has been sown; the man perhaps “ weeping” as he sowed it, and our decision must be, if we shut out the appointments of the future, that it is utterly lost, and will never, in any fruit, return to its original proprietor. But, if you bring those appointments of the future into the account, you presently discover the falseness of such a decision. You show that God has kept an exact register of our every effort to promote His glory and the welfare of our fellow-men, and that whatever may have been the success of that effort, it will receive a recompense proportioned to its zeal and sincerity. There must be no such thing as the giving up in despair, because hitherto we seem to have been toiling in vain. We cannot tell that it has been in vain. We know that the remark is often made that the children of religious parents turn out worse than those of worldly; but we have no faith in the historical accuracy of this remark. Now and then there will be striking and melancholy cases; and these cases the more noted because occurring in families upon which many eyes have been fixed, are taken as establishing a general rule, and that a rule which concludes against the worth of religious education. But we are persuaded that the sum total of the evidence from fact is immeasurably the other way; and we have no hesitation in appealing to this evidence as corroborating the gracious description of our text. It will sometimes happen that the parent’ s efforts are frustrated, so that neither during his life, nor after his death, is the prodigal child reclaimed from his wanderings. But ordinarily you have the spectacle of the old age of a father and a mother cheered by the piety of their offspring. If the sons and the daughters have been carefully trained in the way they should go, then adherence to it will be generally amongst those rich consolations which God ministers in their last days to parents. (H. Melvill, B. D.) Better plant than build If a man builds, Nature straightway sets to work to undo his building. Rust eats into the iron and decay into the wood, and little by little time ravages and destroys. But if a man plants, Nature proceeds to complete his unfinished work. He sows a seed, and behold wheat; he plants a cutting, and behold a tree. Such is the difference between working alone and working with God. He who sows truth in human hearts works with God. The seed drops into the heart; lies there; is long hidden; sprouts; pushes forth the blade and ear, and finally the full corn. Not at once, often only after long delay; but it fails not. Heaven and earth shall pass away; all things material decay. “ But My words shall not pass away;” truth is imperishable. (Lyman Abbott, D. D.) . Psalms 127:1-5 Psalms 127:1-5 Except the Lord build the house.Authorship of this psalm Various considerations taken together require the opinion that this middle Song of Degrees was composed by Solomon. It suits the time of peaceful house-building and civil settlement and progress during which he reigned. It uses a word answering to his name, Jedidiah, meaning beloved of the Lord, and seems in connection with it to refer to the promise of “ a wise and an understanding heart,” unasked “ riches and honour,” and, if he should prove faithful, length of days, made to him “ in a dream by night.” So “ He giveth His beloved sleep,” or “ to His beloved in sleep” (2 Samuel 12:25; 1 Kings 3:5-15). It appears to suggest that the claims of the temple to the efforts of builders are superior to those of any other intended erection. And it agrees with Solomon’ s sententious style in his Proverbs, one of which exactly expresses its substance and teaching: “ The blessing of the Lord, it maketh rich, and He addeth no sorrow with it,” or, “ and labour adds nothing thereto” (Proverbs 10:22). (E. J. Robinson.) Blessedness in labour, in rest, and in fatherhood I. Human labour without God.1. Its possibility. 2. Its fruitlessness. (1) It does not secure the approbation of the great Master.(2) It does not yield moral satisfaction. II. Human repose (verse 2).1. A generally recognized blessing. (1) Bodily. The labouring world hails the hour when its exhausted frame can lie down to sleep.(2) Mental. To have the mind free from the harassing cares and painful annoyances of life. All desire this. 2. The repose of a true worker is a special blessing. The bodily repose He gives to His “ beloved” in the stillness of the night has a special value--the pillow so soft, and the bed so guarded. The mental repose He gives is also of a far higher kind. It is the repose of conscience, the repose of a soul centring all its loves and hopes in Him. III. Human offspring (Psalms 127:3-5). The tutor of Alexander the Great once proposed the question, whether a large family be a good or an evil? And he answered his own question thus, “ Everything depends on the character of the children. If of an excellent disposition, blessed is the father that hath many of them, if of a bad disposition, the fewer the better, and, still better, none!” (Homilist.) The true source of success I. No house stands that God does not build, whether the house signify the home, the business, the character, or the church; for human sufficiency is a foundation of sand (Proverbs 14:11). II. No city is safe that God does not keep, whether interpreted politically as belonging to the State, or religiously as being that of the heart: for the arm of flesh is a bulwark of mud (Proverbs 11:11; Proverbs 29:8). III. NO labour is profitable that He does not bless, whether it be manual or mental: for without grace it increases sorrow or multiplies wickedness (Proverbs 10:16). IV. No sleep is peaceful that He does not give, being broken by searing dreams or prevented by devising schemes (Proverbs 4:16). V. No family is blessed that is not a heritage of Him (Proverbs 3:33). (J. O. Keen, D. D.) All things are of God 1. Nothing is here said against labour. The Bible has no sympathy with indolence. We are commanded to be diligent in business as well as fervent in spirit; to work with our own hands, that we may have lack of nothing ourselves, and have something to give to him that needeth. (1) Labour is a necessity.(2) Labour is honourable.(3) Labour is pleasant. It promotes cheerfulness, preserves our faculties in healthy exercise, and gives elasticity to both mind and body.2. Nor is there any censure of watching. A city contains property that is valuable and lives that are dear; and, should there be external enemies, it is surely an act of common prudence to station sentinels on the walls, lest an unexpected attack be made. 3. What, then, is the evil hero condemned? It is placing an undue confidence in our working and in our watching. The spirit rebuked is the presumption which ascribes success to our own exertions, and which carefully excludes Jehovah from all consideration. A house is built; but the Lord is never thought of. Watchmen are appointed to protect the city; but no reference is made to the Keeper of Israel, who neither slumbers nor sleeps. An enterprise is entered upon, involving important issues; but in all the calculations there is no more place left for God than if He were asleep in the depths of the heavens, and took no cognizance of human affairs. What is this but atheism? (N. McMichael.) The Divine Builder The Lord builds the house. This is our first great consideration: we are very apt to forget it; we think it is our work, but “ He that built all things is God.” The Lord builds the State. Civil society is a house not made with hands: its component parts show the finger of God; language, sympathy, law, are of God. But how true is it that the Church is a house built by God! Men may persecute or aid it, but “ except the Lord build,” etc. The Church of God is like a house for security and strength. As you have never heard of men living anywhere without houses of some kind, so we have never heard or read of Christians living anywhere without forming communities, families, or churches. Dissolve the family, and society would perish; dissolve the Church, and Christianity would perish! Then let us consider how the Lord builds the house. “ Upon this rock I will build my Church,” etc. “ Other foundation can no man lay,” etc. “ Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.” (B. Kent, M. A.) The Lord, the Builder The old Latin maxim “ Ex nihilo nihil fit,” “ From nothing, nothing comes,” is the starting-point in all our reasonings concerning God’ s work on earth. It cannot have sprung from nothing, it must therefore be due to some positive force acting first upon, and then through it. That force must have intelligence in order to impart intelligence to the work of its hand; and all the wise, and curious, and intricate phenomena of the universe testify that nothing short of an infinite intelligence could have poured such streams of power and wisdom along the channels of creation. That infinite intelligence we call God. The methods by which God brings about the accomplishment of His purposes on earth--since those purposes include and shape matter and mind--are simply the methods by which He shapes matter and mind, so as to elaborate from them separately, and from their interworking, whatever result it is His pleasure to secure.1. When God wishes to accomplish any purpose, lie shapes toward the result which He desires, all those blind forces of nature which have in them any co-operation with it. When He wishes to give the peace of plenty to any land, He sendeth forth His commandment into the air, and up to the sun, and forth to the winds, and out upon the seas, and along the furrows of the soil; and His word runneth very swiftly to nil genial and fertilizing influences, and they obey His behest with their marrow and fatness, and so He fills its borders with the finest of the wheat. And when the rigours of winter are a needful preliminary to any work of His, He giveth snow like wool, and scattereth the hoar-frost like ashes, and casteth forth His ice like morsels, until no man can stand before His cold. And when that work is done, and milder airs are more salubrious for His designs, then He sendeth out His word and melteth them; He causeth His wind to blow, and the waters flow. And so fire, and hail, and snow, and vapour, and stormy wind fulfil His word; and mountains and all hills, fruitful trees and all cedars, beasts and all cattle, creeping things and flying fowl praise the Lord by performing His decree which they cannot pass. 2. When God wishes to accomplish any purpose on earth, He sways that intelligence which needs to be brought into co-operation with His design by motives. This influence is exerted in innumerable forms. Sometimes it is by direct pressure, and by the presence of the immediate and most obvious motive of which the subject will admit; as when He secures, the choice, by the sinner, of “ that good part which cannot be taken away,” by urging upon his soul the guilt of disobedience, the beauty of holiness, the joy of forgiveness, the danger of delay, or the awfulness of death in sin. Sometimes it is by a circuitous and indirect approach that the work is accomplished. Some meteor, in the eventide, flashes its sudden and vanishing brilliance across the arch of heaven; or some white-winged cloud trails its evanescent shade along some sunlit slope, and the mind--so often dull to all teachings--is opened to snatch the moral of the scene, and goes away, sadly reflecting on the dangers that accompany a life that is fitly emblemed by the falling star, and the fleeing shadow. Or the sight of a coffin, or a hearse, or a cemetery--it may be, in some moods, of a church, or even a Bible--will start the mind upon a train of meditation which the gentle and gracious Spirit may cherish into a motive strong enough to overturn and overturn within the soul until He is enthroned there whose right it is to reign. 3. This being so--the empire of matter and the empire of mind being alike in subjection to His pleasure--it follows, since lie who can absolutely and entirely control all matter and all mind must be invincible--that God can do anything which He pleases to do, whatever it may be. He can make a Word, or make an unwilling man willing, just as easily as a carpenter can drive a nail--because He knows how to do it, and has the means with which to do it, and the power by which to do it. So it follows, also--since God’ s control covers all things, and His volitions are the cause of all things--that nothing can be done in this world which God is not pleased to aid, or, at least, to permit. (H. M. Dexter.) The Master-Builder “ Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it.”1. That is true even about a house of stone and lime. To build a house is the most interesting thing almost that any mortal man undertakes to do for himself. When a man does set about building a house, he is usually settled in life as far as it falls to him to make a settlement. The house he builds is very likely the house in which he means to live and to die. If he does not literally rise up early and sit up late, and eat the bread of sorrows, nevertheless he is sure to have an extraordinary amount of interest in his house, and most men who do build a house for themselves worry the architect and obstruct the workmen with their anxiety to have everything in it just according to their mind. But, for that very reason, because building a house is such an interesting and serious thing in any man’ s life, surely he ought to feel then, most of all, that his life is in God’ s hand, and that it depends on God whether this great undertaking in which he is engaged is going to turn out well for him. 2. It is true, also, if we take the house in the sense in which it is so often used in the Bible, of a family. To build a house, in the Bible, often means to found or bring up a family; and further down in the psalm we have a reference to that sense (verse 3). “ Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it,” and the most anxious fatherly and motherly care can come to nothing, indeed, is likely to come to nothing, just in proportion as it forgets God, and in forgetting God becomes nervous, and fretful, and repellent, where it ought to be able to attract. 3. Then, again, this text is true if we take the house in the sense that it is often used in the Bible, of a nation. “ Except the Lord build that house, they labour in vain that build it.” There is a place, and there are duties for statesmen and for town councillors, for all persons who take the responsibilities of the public upon them; but it is not the anxiety of statesmen, it is not their own wisdom and their own intelligence, it is not their own plans for enlarging territory, or opening up new markets, or anything of that kind on which the security and strength of the people are built. There is just one thing on which a nation can be built up, and that is the goodwill of God which is given to the righteous. Righteousness exalts a nation. 4. But this text is true especially when we think of the house of the Church. We often speak of the Church as the house of God. In the New Testament we read of Christ as its foundation, of the Church being built upon Him. One of the great picture-words of the New Testament is the word “ edification,” and “ edification” means the act of building, or of being built. It is truer of the Church than of anything else in the world, that “ except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it.” (1) For instance, we want to build the Church up in numbers. We want to see the Church grow. We want to see those who are outside coming in. Now, we might wish that in quite a selfish sense. We might be members of a very small congregation where half the pews were not let; or we might be members of an ecclesiastical party that was in a very small minority in the country, and might want new recruits. If these were our objects, then, of course, we would have to achieve them out of our own resources. It would not be a thing in which God had any interest. But if we want to build up the Church in numbers in a real sense; if we want to bring those who are far away from Christ near; if we want the love of Christ made known to those who do not know it; if we want those who are lonely and solitary, and, perhaps, selfish, to be brought into the home and family of love, and to give and receive all kinds of loving services and to find a home for their lonely souls in the house of God and the family of God--if that is what we are striving for, surely we feel at once that we cannot do that ourselves, that the only power that can reach people for that end and bring them into the Church is the power that God Himself bestows. (2) We want to build the Church up not only in numbers, but in security. We want the Church to be a safe place. The Church ought to be a house so secure, so defended, so vigilantly guarded that it would be impossible for any assault to prevail against it and impossible for any of its members to be lost. Now the only way in which we can get the right spirit of watchfulness, the spirit that will enable us so to watch that we will not lose any, is to get it from the Lord Jesus Himself. “ He that keepeth Israel slumbereth not, nor sleepeth.” It is only when we come to God, and get the Spirit of God put into us by God Himself, it is only then He uses us to build up His house into a safe, secure dwelling for the children, out of which they cannot be lost, that the house will be built up as it needs to be. (3) We want to build up the Church, not only in numbers and in security, but, above all things, in character, in holiness, and in love. I have no doubt that in every Church there are many people deeply dissatisfied with their own characters, knowing very well that judged by any standard of holiness and love they are very far from what they should be. I have no doubt there are plenty here who are striving against their sins, sometimes rude, gross sins, evil lusts and passions, falsehood, slothfulness, selfishness, greed, envy, pride, self-will, and sins like that, and not only striving against them but failing, and being disappointed and defeated in their struggle. And even people who have not got any harsh, rude offences like that to strive against at the beginning, may be striving for finer and more beautiful parts of the Christian character, and just with the same sense of being defeated and disappointed. And the reason of it in almost every case is this, they are doing it alone, and it cannot be done alone. “ Except the Lord build that house, they labour in vain that build it.” “ Work out your own salvation,” not because God leaves that for you to do, but because it is God that worketh in you both to will and to do, in furtherance of His good pleasure. (J. Denney, D. D.) Co-workers with God I. What we may not expect, namely, that God will build the house without our labouring, that God will keep the city without the watchman’ s waking, or that He will give us bread without our toiling for it. This principle may be applied to--1. Our ordinary life. One of the things which Christianity cannot bear is laziness. If in business I am not diligent I cannot expect to prosper. If I wish to be a man of learning, I cannot get it simply by praying for it; I must study, even to the weariness of the flesh. If a man be sick, he may trust in God as much as he wills; that should be his first thing, but let him also use such remedies as God has given if he can find them out, or learn of them from others. 2. The great matter of our salvation. 3. Our spiritual growth. If a man will not feed himself upon the bread of heaven, can he expect that he shall grow strong? 4. Our Christian work, in trying to bring souls to Christ. We cannot expect to see men converted if we are not earnest in telling them that truth which will save the soul. It is the work of the Spirit to convert sinners; to regenerate must be ever the sole work of God; yet the Lord uses us as His instruments. II. What we may expect; We may expect failure if we attempt the work without God. We may expect it, and we shall not be disappointed. III. What we should not do.1. In our ordinary affairs we should not fret, and worry, and grieve. 2. In the matter of the soul’ s salvation a man should be anxious, yet his salvation wilt never come by his working, and running from this one to that and the other. “ It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows,” for to those who are in Christ, to those who simply believe on Him, “ He giveth His beloved sleep.” 3. Now, with regard to growing in grace, I believe that it is much the same. It is foolish to be always fretting and worrying, and saying, “ I am not humble enough, I am not believing enough, I am not this or that” ; go to Christ, and rest yourself on Him, and believe that what He has begun to do for you and in you He will certainly perform and perfect. 4. Here comes in again our working for the Lord. It is a sweet way of working for Christ “ to do the next thing,” the next that needs to be done to-day,--not always forecasting all that we are going to do to-morrow and the next day, but calmly and quietly believing that there are so many days in which a man shall be able to walk and to work, and while we have them we will both walk and work in the strength of God. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The building of the house of life Man’ s history upon earth is mainly, alas! the history of a struggle to establish lives, homes, and States on a basis which is not God’ s foundation, and by a rule which is not God’ s law. This is the enterprise of man’ s self-will, his perverted and prostituted freedom, through all the ages; and God from on high has never ceased to confound it, to write on it Babel, and to lay it by the shattering shocks of His providence in the dust. The concord of man’ s thought and activity with God’ s is the secret upon earth of all true, real and abiding work. The human builder and workman may be masters of their art and zealous in their craft, but the fundamental question is, are they building by the rule that God has made known to them, and on the lines which He has laid down? And it is equally the test of all lofty and noble art. The poet is a maker, it is the exact meaning of the word; it matters not whether he works in word, in colour, in clay, the principle is the same. Is it a dream of his own vain fancy, or is it a vision of God; is it what the Lord hath said or shown to him that he is interpreting to his fellow-men? Man, of all beings, is made for this lofty fellowship, this high co-operation of thought and will with his Maker. Man, made in God’ s image, can understand God’ s plans, meanings, and ends. A Newton can think out after Him the thought by which He made the creation; a Paul can grasp and expound the plan by which tie redeemed and will renew the world. Man is so constituted that God can work in him without marring his freedom; nay, thought, word, and work in the human only rise to their full completeness when they are the fruit of inspiration; that is the effectual in-working of that living Spirit who quickens all that lives in all the worlds. First, let us look at the bearing of this principle on the building of the house of life. By this I mean those principles and habits of moral judgment and action which are the true house of the soul, wherein it dwells, and from which it comes forth to work benignly or malignly for itself and mankind. Of that house man is the architect, not God; that house he is daily building, and that building will abide and be the home or the prison of the soul through eternity. Nature and the world furnish the materials; the form and the substance of the structure you create for yourselves, it is yours, your own, your work, the product of your being, your shame or your crown while that being endures. A nature with certain temperaments and tendencies comes to you, how you know not, whence you know not, save that it is God’ s gift to you, your endowment, your talent, your capital in life, by wise trading with which your wealth will grow. I speak of this as God’ s gift; by His various endowment of men, the rich diversity of original gift and faculty, He maintains that splendid variety, that action and reaction of widely diverse agencies and influences which it is His aim to secure both in the physical and human worlds. And thus He keeps the constant pressure of His hand on both. From God, too, comes the will and the power to work upon the original endowment, and to give it the shape and the form in which the inner heart delights. Character grows like a picture or a statue by innumerable light touches on the rough substance of the nature. Moral habits of action are beaten out like a path by the multitude of light footsteps which pass to and fro. There must be the will and the moral judgment to determine the direction, and then it is the daily footsteps which form the habit of the life. And it is a terrible power, this power of framing fixed judgments and habits of action, vast and awful are the issues to which it tends. You may make holy, beautiful, blessed activity as easy and natural as the outflow of light from the sun; you may make them as hard, as impossible as courtesy in a churl, or a generous impulse to a base miser’ s heart. Daily the house is being built, daily the soul is becoming clothed or cased in its habit, and is settling the form and possibility of its future. And first, if you would build wisely, look to the foundations. And build daily in conscious, blessed dependence on the co-operation of a higher hand. Remember that in this matter you are the fellow-worker, the fellow-helper with God, whose interest in your building transcends your own. Daily, hourly, let there be a guiding of your choice, a strengthening of your hand, a blessing of your work from on high. Let the Divine Spirit dwell in your spirit as in His temple; let Him fill your life with the light of His wisdom, let Him touch your heart with the glow of His love. (J. B. Brown, B. A.) Except the Lord keep the city.--God keeping the city I. “ Except.” --God may not keep the city. Can anything be more false than to attribute human wretchedness in our towns and cities to causes outside men themselves? Without self-restraint, without the high virtues of temperance, purity, and providence, gold, if it could be picked up in the streets, would only feed disease instead of bettering life! That man is a mere charlatan who hides the great truth that the drinking saloons, the music halls, and the gay Alhambras of our great towns are ruining the moral excellencies and energies of our people! II. “ Except the Lord.” --Moral life is the strength of a city. Can anything so demand our sympathy in this age as the movements which have to do with moral life? And we must remember all elevating movements have to do with moral life. Christianity works in detail, and Christian life is itself preserved by care for detail. Given impression at the house of God, given conviction of sin and coming to Christ, then come the after years, the idle hours, the temptations, the innumerable besetments, and if you can thus provide for the healthy development of character, you are doing much to save the England of the future, to bless your country, and to hold up the pillars of the State. And where all our aesthetic and intellectual pursuits have the shield of Christianity east over them, when the genius of the Gospel pervades our institutions and inspires our efforts, we may look for that keeping of which our text speaks. III. “except the Lord keep.” --All cities need keeping. Can anything be more secure than a city kept by God? Whether it is applied to a kingdom, or to a people, or to the wonderful heart of man, the word is suggestive. A city, a place where wealth is, where treasure is, where active, energetic power is. We seem to see the watchmen on Jerusalem’ s gates! Men able to sweep the horizon and to note the advancing cavalcades. We are taught in the text that all watching is vain without God. IV. “except the Lord keep the city--the watchman.” Can anything be so mistaken as to suppose that God’ s keeping excludes human care? We must watch, although God keeps. This truth is familiar to us all. We act upon it in the world, though we are mystified by it in the Church. God keeps the rain in the great reservoir of the clouds, and the winds in the hollow of His hand, and regulates them with a view to the preservation and productiveness of the land. He keeps the seasonal He keeps watch over all the processes of nature, and He says to us, break up the fallow ground, plough, harrow, and sow. So God would not have us watchless because He is watchful. No! this fact is to be an incentive to us to activity, not an excuse for negligence. We are reminded by our Saviour to watch and pray, lest we enter into temptation! and when we have done all, we are to rest on Christ as our only sure protection. V. “except the Lord keep the city, the watchman--waketh but in vain.” We can never do without God! We may be what the world calls awake, wide-awake, but our own skill, or cunning, or craft will not save us. I was wise, says the man; I secured the best, the ablest physicians for my children. I was wise, says the voyager in the Cunard line, they never had a shipwreck yet. Stay, stay, “ Except the Lord,” oh! do we think enough of that; we have been kept in going out and in coming in, but who has kept us? (W. M. Statham.) Psalms 127:2 To eat the bread of sorrows.The bread of toil and the fruit of righteousness Labour is the law of life, and to this law nothing in God’ s Word is opposed. “ Man goeth forth unto his work and to his labour until the evening” is a description good for all time. “ Active in business,” if we may believe St. Paul, is a truly Christian habit. But the question is, What form ought this activity to take? Work may be done in two moods or tempers, as is hinted in the text: it may be done in spite of God, or it may be done through Him; it may be done in a spirit that regards Him not, or it may be done in a spirit which leans upon Him. In the first case, the bread of toil is not secured at all, or when secured is verily “ the bread of carefulness,” anxiety, disappointment. In the other ease the bread of toil is not “ the bread of carefulness” or anxiety, but the bread of peace. God gives it to His beloved in their rest. I. The best results of any thought or any effort of ours are reached unconsciously. Sir Isaac Newton, lying on his back in an orchard, and gaining a perception of the great law of gravitation from the sight of a falling apple, is a familiar type of the principle I am describing. Yet it offers no premium to idleness! The watchful calculations have been made; the inevitable reasonings have been faithfully traversed, but at last the result, the reward, the “ bread” of all has dropped, as it were, upon the faithful worker out of heaven. You have heard, perhaps, of the great musical composer who always slept with a pencil and paper within reach, that at the very moment of waking be might register the inspirations of harmony that had visited him in his slumbers? And many of us, who are neither musicians nor philosophers, have had experience of the very same thing. We have gone to bed perplexed with tangled reasonings, embarrassed with ill-marshalled cogitations; we have looked away from them all, and committed ourselves and our thoughts to God; and lo! we have risen in the morning to a clear perception or an unquestioning resolution. It was in vain that we delayed taking rest to eat the bread of carefulness. God has given it to His beloved in their sleep! II. In, through, and yet beyond their labours, God gives to His own people the assurance of peace--a peace which, while it may be manifested in the success of their plans, is not overthrown by the failure of them. To those who know of a surety that the “ never-failing providence” of a Father “ ordereth all things both in heaven and earth,” the desire becomes an assurance that things “ profitable” shall be all given, and things “ hurtful” put away. III. Of all God’ s gifts the highest and best is peace. If we take the text according to the common reading, we do no violence to the word “ sleep” by interpreting it as spiritual restfulness. If we read it as declaring the condition under which God’ s people have their bread given them, we are near the same truth. If God feeds His own as they sleep or rest in Him, then that sleep or rest, whether as given or as used, may be regarded as hallowed of God, as even appropriated by Him to be the channel or vehicle of His benedictions to the soul. “ The fruit of righteousness is peace,” and in the fruit have we, as wrought up and comprehended, the gifts of earth and heaven, the fatness of the soil and the warmth of the sunlight, the soft showers of the morning and the dews of the eneningtide. So does this Divine peace, which “ passeth all understanding,” alike in its source, channels, and influences, carry to the spiritual life of the Christian the highest evidence of the near presence of God. (A. S. Thompson, B. D.) So He giveth His beloved sleep.--Sleep During sleep the brain becomes inactive, consciousness and volition are in abeyance; in the body the expenditure of energy is curtailed, the constructive forces dominate the destructive. It is a time of building up the system after the tear and wear of a day. God is the great giver of sleep. I. The sound sleeper. Exercise of body and mind in the day promote sleep at night. II. The bad sleeper.1. There is the ambitious man who sits up late at night planning for to-morrow; by and by he goes to bed, his mind still full of business. You can see this man rolling from side to side of the bed. What is he doing? Is he formulating some great scheme for the benefit of his fellow-men? No, not likely; he is planning how he can make money. He has the “ gold fever,” and when people have fever of any kind their body is diseased and they cannot sleep. Such an experience is the first step to a lunatic asylum. 2. The man with the evil conscience. Sin, like a terrible worm, is gnawing his inner life; the fire of sin is raging within, and the hot flames drive sleep away. III. The good sleeper. Our text should read--“ He giveth His beloved in sleep,” as if He imparted a gift to them in the quiet hours of the night. Sleep itself is a precious gift; it helps us to forget the cares and worries of daily life. We could not live amid life’ s great anxieties unless God came to us night by night, breathed upon us the spirit of peace and rocked us to sleep; as the mother rocks the tired child to rest, so does God stand by the bedside of His beloved and give them sleep. The beloved of the Lord can lie down at night without fear; the day may have been hard and trying, enemies plotting and slandering, but in the arms of God His beloved find peace. (W. K. Bryce.) God’ s beloved Here there is a beauteous blending of two opposite yet not wholly dissimilar elements. The love of earth rises towards, and is crowned by, the love of heaven. The absent husband and father in his affection and gratitude sees not only the fond wife, or dutiful child fulfilling his wish in the work of the house, or the tillage of the field, or the care of the vineyard. He has another, a fairer, holier vision. When every voice in that distant home is hushed in the stillness of the night, when each busy hand or foot is at rest beneath the potent spell of sleep, he sees “ the angel of God’ s presence” as constant in his guardianship of that sacred dwelling and of those loved ones as amid the busy hours or varied needs of the day. He sees how those sleeping ones are nestled beneath God’ s protecting wing more gently and faithfully in their defenceless, unconscious moments, than when they were astir in the house or diligent in the field. He learns how the God of all grace loves his wife and children more and better than he; that the Perfect Father sheltereth and blesseth His beloved even while they sleep, even when they cannot be actively doing His will, or returning His goodness, or chanting His praise. I. Let us try to realize a little more fully the beautiful significance of the fact that those whom we love and live for are, in deed and truth, very much more “ God’ s beloved.” One of the deepest roots and sublimest fruits of the Christian religion is this: the conviction that all earthly things at their truest and best are but shadows, types, symbols of the heavenly; that the love of earth is hut the reflection or parable of the fairer, diviner love of heaven. Hence to a pure-minded, noble-hearted man, the love of wife or child is next to the influence of God’ s unspeakable gift--the Christ, the deepest baptism or sacrament in holy things which Heaven bestows. Statistics furnish many suggestive hints in this direction, telling how wedded life tends to lessen coarseness and crime in the homes of the people. Keen observers of life note these sacred facts, as did she who penned those almost idyllic words: “ In old days there were angels who came and took men by the hand and led them away from the city of destruction. We see no white-winged angels now. But yet men are led away from threatening destruction: a hand is put into theirs which leads them forth gently towards a calm and bright land, so that they look no more backward; and the hand may be a little child’ s.” I say we trace these helpful conditions of the better life, but only the Searcher of hearts, only the Father of our spirits can fully know what founts of blessing, what angels of mercy, what sacraments of heaven are found amid marital, parental, filial ties, winning men from ways which are selfish, and hard, and low, and uplifting them towards whatsoever things are pure, and just, and true. And what follows, when men are thus sensible to these higher claims, alive to these holier voices? Do men interpret these messengers of good only in the light of their own welfare or gratification? Are they not rather prepared thereby to believe and understand how all these earthly affections are but the disclosure and the promise of those that are heavenly and eternal? II. Let us call to mind two of the chief indications that we are “ God’ s beloved.”1. There is one which by its very nature stands foremost in all reasoning on this subject. I mean God’ s estimate of children. Jesus--the only adequate explanation of whose wondrous person seems to me to be this, that He was the very love of the. Father “ manifest in the flesh” --Jesus in nothing gave so much God’ s estimate of our being, our nature, our destiny as in His tribute to the greatness and sacredness of each child. Now, what Jesus thought of the infancy or the childhood, that, by parity of reason, and the very nature of the deep underlying relationships, He thought equally of the youth, the manhood, the womanhood, the old age. 2. Again, we find the strongest assurance that we are “ God’ s beloved” in the general scope and spirit of the Gospel of His Son. Every age that Gospel becomes more literally and explicitly “ glad tidings” to the world. They are glad tidings which tell of endless ages upon ages, to which centuries are but as days or moments, in which God has means and room to satisfy the cravings of His good nature in the good of His children. Oh what founts of goodness, of care, of sympathy do these purposes reveal in the Divine nature! What confirmations they afford of the eternal love which shone so brightly in the face and cross of Jesus Christi What assurances they should inspire within our hearts that none among us, however unknown, however forlorn, however despised, will ever be able to reproach his Father with neglect or unkindness, or to charge God With having made him an outcast or an orphan! III. Let us seek to comfort one another with some of the practical hopes in the present which this fact of our being “ God’ s beloved” allows and demands. It tells of tokens, of alleviations, of compensations from the heart of the Perfect Father to the hearts of His needy, suffering children, far beyond the measure of our sympathies or the spirit of our prayers. The poor brain may be beclouded, and reason have lost its reign, yet what calm moments, what lucid intervals have been known to come at the hour of prayer, or at the mention of the name of God. The poor sufferer in his prostration may have become unconscious, and seem to be deaf to all around, or have passed beyond our power to comfort or to aid, and yet what endless communications there may be within the Soul, what soothing glances from “ the angel of God’ s presence,” what gentle foldings of the protecting wing, what sweet foreshadowings of the meaning and the end! (J. T. Stannard.) God’ s gifts in sleep I. Protection (Psalms 121:3-4; Psalms 91:1; Psalms 91:5; Psalms 91:9-10). II. Refreshment (Ecclesiastes 5:12; Jeremiah 31:26). III. Enlightenment (Genesis 46:2; Daniel 7:1; Acts 16:9; Acts 18:9). No one is foolish enough to think that there is a Providence--a voice from God--in all our dreams. Perhaps most of them are self-originated. But unquestionably there are gifts of God--revelations of God to His tried, and sorrowing, and faithful ones in sleep. There are, perhaps, few of His children who have not heard His voice in the night. He not only protects and refreshes us, but enlightens us. Let us not despise those good and perfect gifts which come from above in the hours of gloom and loneliness. Let us thank and bless God for all those precious things which He giveth to His beloved while they sleep. (A. G. Maitland.) The peculiar sleep of the beloved The sleep of the body is the gift of God. So said Homer of old, when he described it as descending from the clouds, and resting on the tents of the warriors around old Troy. And so sang Virgil, when he spoke of Palinurus falling asleep upon the prow of the ship. Sleep is the gift of God; and not a man would close his eyes, did not God put His fingers on his eyelids; did not the Almighty send a soft and balmy influence over his frame which lulled his thoughts into quiescence, making him enter into that blissful state of rest which we call sleep. True, there be some drugs and narcotics whereby men can poison themselves well nigh to death, and then call it sleep; but the sleep of the healthy body is the gift of God. He bestows it; He rocks the cradle for us every night; He draws the curtain of darkness; He bids the sun shut up his burning eyes; and then He comes and says, “ Sleep, sleep, my child; I give thee sleep.” I. There is a miraculous sleep which God has sometimes given to His beloved--which He does not Now vouchsafe. Into that kind of miraculous sleep, or rather trance, fell Adam, when he slept sorrowfully and alone; but when he awoke he was no more so, for God had given him that best gift which He had then bestowed on man. The same sleep Abram had, when it is Said that a deep sleep came on him, and he laid him down, and saw a smoking furnace and a burning lamp, while a voice said to him, “ Fear not, Abram; I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.” Such a hallowed sleep also was that of Jacob (Genesis 28:12-15); Joseph (Genesis 37:5-9); Daniel. II. He gives His beloved the sleep of a quiet conscience. I think most of you saw that splendid picture, in the Exhibition of the Royal Academy--the Sleep of Argyle--where he lay slumbering on the very morning before his execution. You saw some noblemen standing there, looking at him almost with compunction; the jailor is there, with his keys rattling: but positively the man sleeps, though to-morrow morning his head shall be severed from his body, and a man shall hold it up, and say, “ This was the head of a traitor.” He slept because he had a quiet conscience: for he had done no wrong. Then look at Peter. Did you ever notice that remarkable passage where it is said that Herod intended to bring out Peter on the morrow; but, behold, as Peter was sleeping between two guards, the angel smote him? Sleeping between two guards, when on the morrow he was to be crucified or slain! He cared not, for his heart was clear; he had committed no ill. He could say, “ If it be right to serve God or man, judge ye” ; and, therefore, he laid him down and slept. III. There is the sleep of contentment which the Christian enjoys. How few people in this world are satisfied. No man ever need fear offering a reward of a thousand pounds to a contented man; for if any one came to claim the reward, he would, of course, prove his discontent. We are all in a measure, I suspect, dissatisfied with our lot; the great majority of mankind are always on the wing; they never settle; they never light on any tree to build their nest; but they are always fluttering from one to the other. This tree is not green enough, that is not high enough, this is not beautiful enough, that is not picturesque enough; so they are ever on the wing, and never build a peaceful nest at all. How few there are who have that blessed contentment--who can say, “ I want nothing else; I want but little here below--yea, I long for nothing more--I am satisfied--I am content.” IV. God giveth His beloved the sleep of quietness of soul as to the future. O that dark future! The present may be well; but ah! the next wind may wither all the flowers, and where shall I be? The future! All persons have need to dread the future, except the Christian. God giveth to His beloved a happy sleep with regard to the events of coming time. V. There is the sleep of security. Solomon slept with armed men round his bed, and thus slumbered securely; but Solomon’ s father slept one night on the bare ground--not in a palace--with no moat round his castle wall,--but he slept quite as safely as his son, for he said, “ I laid me down and slept, and I awaked, for the Lord sustained me.” VI. The last sleep God giveth His beloved is the sleep of a happy dismission. Dear servants of Jesus! There I see them! What can I say of them, but that “ so He giveth His beloved sleep” ? Oh! happy sleep! (C. H. Spurgeon.) Gifts in sleep (to children):--The beginning of the psalm is plain enough. Many a house has been built beautiful and strong; and perhaps the very night before the family were to go into it a fire burned it all down. The same with a city; the guards kept watch, but the enemy got in and the town was burned and destroyed. When people see things like that they say, “ We can’ t prevent accidents happening; it is God that does it; it is all in God’ s hands.” Then the poet goes on to say something more. “ You toil as hard as you can; you rise early and sit up late; and you are doing all that in order that you may get bread to eat; and do you know that in all that work of yours you cannot do without God’ s help? It, would never get you your food if God didn’ t give it you. God is not asleep when you are sleeping.,’ It is not only our food and our houses God gives us when we are asleep, but the better things He gives us too. When I was not thinking of it many of the sweetest friendships that have made life better and brighter have come to me--they were not sought for. Where men give themselves to be guided by God the best things come to them. I didn’ t plan them; they were dropped into my life somehow. When people are converted it is constantly most unexpectedly. (W. G. Elmslie, D. D.) Psalms 127:3-5 Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord. Children--Divine gifts Children come not into the world by chance or fate. God sends them as His gifts. I. They are gifts of great value.1. They are of great value in themselves. (1) The intellectual possibilities of a child. In the babe which the mother for the first time presses to her bosom, there may be powers that will work out into the greatest of poets, sages, apostles, reformers, even angels. (2) The emotional possibilities of a child. What capabilities of love and hate, wrath and tenderness, rapture and misery. 2. They are of great value to the parents. (1) Look at the influence of a child on the mind of a parent. It unseals a new fountain of love. It creates a new world of interest, it supplies new motives for diligence, sobriety, and virtue. (2) Look at the power of a child to bless the parent. It comes with the filial instinct deeply planted in its nature, an instinct which, as it rightly develops itself, makes the parent the object of its strongest and purest affection, its most loyal and devoted service. When God gives to parents a loving and loyal child, He gives that which is of more worth to them than lordly estates, or even mighty kingdoms. II. They are gifts involving great trusts. III. They are gifts that may become great curses. Man has a faculty of perversion. In nature he can turn food to poison, make the quickening sunbeam his own destroyer, and transform the blessings of Providence into curses. Thus he can deal with his own child, his choicest gift from God. (D. Thomas, D. D.) About children I. Children are a Divine treasure. God prizes children because they are--1. His images. 2. His instruments. From a holy child the Most High can let His glory shine forth as truly as from an aged saint. In the goodness which He can form in the young, there is an attractive beauty by which all hearts are melted, and which is fitted to convince the proudest gainsayer. It is not the largest flowers which the gardener cherishes most tenderly, or to which he points his visitors as the best proof of his skill and taste. II. Children are a Divine gift.1. One of inestimable value. They are to take our places when we go away--to repair the losses caused by the removal of others--to labour in that with which we are now busy--to carry on and to carry further whatever of noble and useful effort we have begun--not merely to replace but to surpass us. 2. One of happy influence. They diffuse a Divine harmony over the hearts of those who take them as from God, and train them as for Him. They keep alive our noblest feelings. To them we owe much of that tenderness of heart, which is so imperilled by the business, and cares, and wickedness of the world. They are a witness from God which we cannot suppress. III. Children are a Divine trust.1. We must strive to show them a right example. 2. We must give them a careful training. 3. We must show a kindly interest in them. 4. We must give them our fervent prayers. (A. MacEwen, D. D.) Children--God’ s gift What we want is for every father and mother to be moved be say when a little one is put into their arms, “ This child is a heritage from the Lord, a sign of the Divine favour towards us, a precious charge of love to be brought up in His nurture and admonition.” I. Try to estimate their worth. As God’ s gifts they possess an inestimable value. Nothing He sends can be worthless. The humblest flower which “ He pencils into beauty by a ray of sunlight is not to be overlooked. Of every work that bears the mark of His creative touch, however insignificant, the exhortation may be uttered, “ Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones.” How much more shall it be said--and said by the Master of men Himself--of those little flowers of humanity that spring up and bud and blossom in our homes. The hopes of two worlds, of time and eternity, meet in every child born into our homes. Have we ever realized as completely as we might do what they are and may become? If we have attempted this, then all relationships in which they may stand to us are as nothing compared with this, that they may become heirs of immortality and eternal life. II. Try to understand their individual characters. A family is a little world. Each member of it has a personality of his and her own. But what that is who can tell? There is no magic method of discovering it. God has hot intended to save us the trouble of constant watchfulness by sending with each child a tabulated description of its character. Everything is unformed, yet there is a distinct individuality lying and working underneath, and that manifests itself as education and circumstances develop the mind and heart. What we have to do is to wait, and watch, and guide; acknowledging the existence of variety, yet training it in wholesome ways. III. Try to appreciate the power of your influence. Do they learn from us to honour and to attain the highest principles? Do they see that we as Christian men and women esteem godliness and truth above all other things? Let our influence be such as to nurture in them a fervent love of what is right because it is right, and a profound abhorrence to all that is mean, selfish, double-minded, impure, un-Christlike, and then will their minds respond with quick sensitiveness to all forms of goodness, and turn with spontaneous hatred from that which is contrary to uprightness and truth. (W. Braden.) The pleasure given by children There is a pathetic passage in the autobiography of Herbert Spencer, which was published some time ago. At the age of seventy-three he wrote, “ When at Brighton in 1887, suffering the ennui of an invalid life, passed chiefly in bed and on the sofa, I one day, while thinking over modes of killing time, bethought me that the society of children might be a desirable distraction.” And so he wrote to a friend, “ Will you lend me some children?” The children were sent to him, and of them he wrote, “ instead of simply affording me a little distraction . . . afforded me a great deal of positive gratification.” And the great scientist who had no children to love longed for the gifts that had not been bestowed upon him. Psalms 127:4 As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man, so are the children of the youth. Children likened to arrows 1. An arrow is small, but powerful. One slew Ahab. Latent capacities of a child. 2. An arrow must be sharpened. A child must-be educated, its faculties developed. Note its natural sharpness. 3. An arrow travels far. Who can measure the influence of a child? 4. Its power depends upon the strength and judgment with which it is sent. A lesson to parents. 5. It is firmly imbedded, is the twig is bent, so it will grow. 6. Let us not send into the world poisoned arrows. (Homiletic Review.) Children as arrows Children, you may perceive here what is the duty which you owe your parents. You are to protect them in their old age, and be to them as arrows in the hands of the warrior. Protect them from the assaults of poverty, should they require your assistance in this respect. Poverty and old age are unsuitable companions: let it be your pleasure to alleviate this distressing yoke as far as you can. They did not leave you to the cold charity of strangers when you were more feeble than they now are. Why should you act differently towards them, and pay back your debt with an immense ingratitude? You are to protect them under all the infirmities of declining years. If you cannot bear with the fretfulness of disease, and with the deepening shadows of those to whom under God you owe your existence, and who toiled for you and watched over you when you could do neither for yourselves, what sympathy can be expected from others? (N. McMichael.) . Psalms 128:1-6 Psalms 128:1-6 Blessed is every one that feareth the Lord.The blessed tendency of true piety The subject is the blessed tendency of true piety, and the truly pious man is described as one that “ feareth the Lord” and “ walketh in His ways.” I. Its tendency is to make business prosperous (verse 2). This stands in splendid contrast to the terrible threat which Moses addressed to the Israelites of old, should they break God’ s law (Exodus 25:35; Deuteronomy 18:40). II. Its tendency is to make the family happy (verse 3). Ungodly families are stars wandering from their orbits, but a truly pious family, small though it be, is an orb rolling round the eternal Sun of Righteousness, and from it deriving its life, its light, and its harmony. III. Its tendency is to make the country blessed (verses 4, 5). “ Righteousness exalteth a nation.”1. In material wealth. Truth, honesty, integrity, in a people; are the best guarantees of commercial advancement. Credit is the best capital in the business of a nation as well as in the business of an individual, and credit is built on righteous principles. 2. In social enjoyments. According as the principles of veracity, uprightness, and honour, reign in society, will be the freeness, the heartiness, and the enjoyment of social intercourse. 3. In moral power. The true majesty of a kingdom lies in its moral virtues. IV. Its tendency is to make the life long (verse 5). There should be a full stop after the word “ Children,” and the word “ and” is not in the original. Genuine piety tends to long life.1. Long life depends upon obedience be the laws of our constitution, physical, mental, and moral laws. 2. In order to obey the laws of our constitution, those laws must be understood. 3. In order to understand those laws, man must study them. They will not come to him by intuition, inspiration, or revelation. He must study them, study nature. 4. In order to study them effectively he must have supreme sympathy with their Author. (Homilist.) The labour question and Christianity Prevailing distress among the poor, calamitous conflicts between Labour and Capital, call for earnest thought, and wise and faithful utterance from the Church of Christ. Working-men claim their right “ to secure the full enjoyment of the wealth they create,” and they certainly have a right to a larger “ share in the gains of advancing civilization.” How is this to be realized? I. Not by Socialistic revolution and Communistic confiscation and redistribution. These methods are contrary alike to nature, reason, revelation and experience. II. Organization, bureau registration, co-operation, arbitration, legislation, etc., are largely empiric and artificial expedients, productive at best of only partial and superficial amendment. III. The Christian religion will secure whatever is good in the above, and, besides, will produce the only radical and permanent cure.1. It teaches and realizes a Brotherhood of Humanity, embracing rich and poor, in which, it one member suffer, all suffer. 2. Its golden law strikes at the selfishness of the rich in refusing to consider the poor, secures the immediate relief of Christian philanthropy, and the permanent improvement of “ things just and equal” (Colossians 4:1). “ A fair day’ s work, etc., fair day’ s wage.” 3. It gives best promise of regulating the labour-market by checking over-crowding in the easier callings, substituting conscientious choice and providential guidance for the unreasoning selfishness which makes time and means for pleasure the great consideration--e.g. City factory and sewing-room always crowded, farm and domestic service rarely if ever fully supplied. 4. It imparts dignity and self-respect through union and fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ, a brother mechanic, and the only perfect model of what the working-man may be and ought to be. Thus alone can he realize his ideal aristocracy of “ industrial and moral worth,” instead of wealth and birth. 5. It secures him the best of all help, Self-help, and puts him in the way of working out his own salvation. The fruition of such culture will be, from his own stock, trusty and efficient representatives who “ shall stand before kings.” 6. It will make his home the scene of highest comfort, purest and most stable domestic happiness and family welfare. (W. M. Roger.) Piety in its principle, development, and blessedness Here we have-- I. Piety in principle. The love to God that constitutes piety is characterized by two things:--1. Predominancy. Most men have a kind of love for the Supreme, that flows through them with other natural emotions, but attains no ascendancy over other sentiments, no control over the other faculties. The love to God that constitutes piety must be the controlling disposition. 2. Permanency. Perhaps, in most minds, the sentiment of love to God, of gratitude, adoration, and even of reverence, arises at times: especially when moving amidst the grand and beautiful in nature, or experiencing the enjoyment of some special blessings. But this sentiment, to become piety, must be crystallized, and settled as a rock. It is the embryo of all excellence in all worlds. It is a seed out of which grows all that is beautiful and fruitful in the Eden of God. II. Piety in development. How is this principle rightly developed? Not in mere songs and hymns, and prayers, and ceremonies, but in conduct. “ That walketh in His ways.” “ His ways,” the ways of truth, honesty, purity, and holy love. True piety is not a dormant element sleeping in the soul, like grain buried under the mountains, it struggles into form, and takes action, it walks, and its walk is onward and upward. III. Piety in blessedness. (David Thomas, D. D.) On religion I. Religion is pleasant. No man ever performed an action which was wise and good, such as supplying the wants of the industrious poor, relieving the distress of the orphan, or vindicating the character of the worthy from unmerited detraction, without meeting the reward of beneficence in that very hour. He will feel a secret satisfaction, which can never be equalled by the pleasures of sense. He may not be able, it is true, to execute all his laudable designs; but the very consciousness of good intention is more delightful than the triumphs of successful iniquity. “ This is the way of religion--walk thou in it.” II. Religion is profitable. The very duties which religion inculcates, it cannot have escaped your observation, have a natural tendency to procure the comforts and conveniences of life. Health, honour, riches, and that good name which is better than riches, are, in many cases, part of the recompense of religion. Religion embraces both the temporal welfare of individuals, and the prosperity of states and of empires. “ Blessed is every one that feareth the Lord, that walketh in His ways.” Blessed are the young; blessed are the aged; blessed are the prosperous; and blessed the afflicted. (T. Laurie, D. D.) Relation of gladness to godly fear G. K. Chesterton remarks--“ The fear of the Lord is the beginning of pleasure.” When life ceases to be a mystery it ceases to hold the secret of joy. The world that has banished awe has banished wholesome laughter. The ages that have known most of religious fear are the ages from which have come the most lyrical notes of Christian joy. Those older ages lived and breathed and rejoiced in God amidst their dark theologies. Bernard of Clairvaux had stern, stupendous ideas of the Deity, and yet it was he who sang-- “ Jesus, the very thought of Thee, With sweetness fills my breast.” Samuel Rutherford was steeped in all the rigours of a Calvinism which touches the very springs of awe in the human breast, and yet from him came the love letters of Christianity--letters too sacred for any except our most solitary moods. The moment we cease to tremble before God we cease to know joy. (W. C. Piggott.) Psalms 128:2-3 For thou shalt eat the labour of thine hands.Piety the charm of the poor man’ s home Here are three things which are essential materials to make a good home. I. A godly and industrious father. He is blessed--1. In himself.2. In his business.3. In his family.4. In his Church.5. In his country. II. A godly, home-keeping mother. Here are two features of a Christian wife: what she is--“ a fruitful vine” ; and where she is--“ by the side of her house.” As the fruitful vine afforded shade as well as grapes, the figure imports comfort as well as a family. III. A circle of godly and home-loving children. What is it to be like “ olive-plants” ? The olive-branch in Scripture is the emblem of peace, and the olive oil is the emblem of grace. Peace and grace are lovely features in a child, and when peace and grace take possession of the heart of a whole family, Christian people love to visit their dwelling. (J. B. Owen, M. A.) The morality of business It is most likely that the psalm was written shortly after the return of the Jews from their exile in Babylon; when the nation was once more, in a sense, mistress of its destinies, and could look out on the beloved native land as its own again. We can all understand what an impulse this feeling would give to the cultivation of the soil; how cheerfully the husbandman would go forth to his daily task, expecting literally to “ eat the labour of his hands” ; and with what fresh interest and dignity his work would be invested, when he could look forward to enjoying the fruit of his toil in freedom and peace. But if these were, as it is likely they were, the associations of the moment, still, there is nothing that should prevent our giving the words the widest possible application. The dignity and the happiness with which the commonest hand-labour was associated in the eyes of the psalmist, are the privilege and the glory of labour always and everywhere. To suppose that we gain in true dignity and real happiness by ceasing to labour and studying to idle easily and gracefully through life, is the greatest folly that ever possessed the brain of man. We know who it was who said, “ Six days shalt thou labour,” --and, doubtless, it was said in the interest of the individual, as well as of society at large. And certain it is, that he who would rest with real enjoyment on the seventh day, must labour on the six. When I speak of “ The Morality of Business,” I give to the word “ business” the widest possible meaning, as that which occupies a man’ s energies, whether of mind or of body, and makes him busy. In considering the morality of business, then, I think we may lay it down as an invariable rule that, so far as the employer is concerned, his business should be so conducted that he himself, and every honest workman under him, shall be able to take a real interest and pleasure in it; and that, so far as the workers are concerned, they shall be dissatisfied with themselves unless they do really feel such an interest, and take such pleasure, in their work. The workman has a just ground of complaint against his employer, if he is required to do anything which tends to destroy an honest man’ s pleasure in his work. I have often wondered why Trade Unions do not turn their attention to this point, and support their members in refusing to do fraudulent and dishonest work,--work which, if traced out in its results, can be proved to be ultimately in the highest degree hurtful and disastrous to the whole community, as well as to the particular employers and workpeople who are guilty of it. Such a matter as this would surely be far more worthy of the efforts of Trade Unions, as well as far more beneficial both to their members and to society at large, than are some of those which frequently claim and occupy their attention. On the other hand, if the workman has a just ground of complaint against his employer, should he be required to do anything which can destroy an honest man’ s interest in his work,--undoubtedly the employer has an equally just ground of complaint against his workpeople, if, whilst he is doing his part by them, they fail to throw into their work that interest, and to take that pleasure in it, which will both further their own happiness and at the same time promote his success. A great deal of the mischief from which we are suffering is due to the fact that we overrate enormously the worth of money, and still believe, in spite of our Saviour, that “ man’ s life does consist in the abundance of the things which he possesses.” Money can command much; but it cannot command the happiness which makes life sweet, and worth having, to us. This must be sought in quite other ways;--through the daily labour, of which our psalmist says, “ Thou shalt eat the labour of thine hands: O well is thee, and happy shalt thou be;” through patient continuance in well-doing; through the diligent discharge of our daily duties in all the various relations of life. (Canon D. J. Vaughan.) Psalms 128:3-4 Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine.A pattern wife There are trailing slatterns, like brambles and nettles, who leave conspicuous in a dwelling what they should conceal, and choke with unsightliness and discomfort what ought to be kept clear; who cause what would be attractive to offend, render what is repulsive more so, and, themselves the most forbidding objects, drive their toil-worn husbands to the seat of the scornful and the bower of sin. The woman pictured in the song is not to be seen lounging at the door, an idle gossip, with something to say to every passer-by, but attends to her duties in the interior of the dwelling, and, like her husband, fears the Lord (Proverbs 9:13-14; Amos 6:10). The clinging vine is a symbol of attachment, grace, and fruitfulness, dressing the props and walls to which its curling tendrils hold, with leaves that shade the verandah and cool the house, and enriching them with clusters of juicy fruit “ that maketh glad the heart of man” (Psalms 104:15). The pious and loving wife, the screen, the adornment, and crown of the God-fearing husband who is her support and strength, so spreads the table that, however plain, it is a feast; so pours the water that it turns to wine; so smiles that all the room shines with comfort and pleasure; so speaks that the house is full of charming music; so lives that the master is happy everywhere because most happy when at home. (E. J. Robinson.) Wedded happiness Dr. Cuyler, who has just celebrated his golden wedding, says he has made up his mind that there is no place like home. At a meeting he said, “ I have just returned from my delightful golden wedding trip. And I have no desire to depart. In fact, I have the fullest sympathy for that eccentric, eloquent preacher who, during his last hours, tossed about in uneasy pain, and then summoned his family, who said to him, ‘ Don’ t be troubled. You will soon be among the angels.’ ‘ What do I care about that?’ he answered; ‘ I am satisfied with the good woman, who is better than any angel I have ever read of.’” Psalms 128:5-6 The Lord shall bless thee out of Zion. Blessing out of Zion 1. What measure soever of things temporal the Lord shall give to the man that feareth Him, He reserveth unto him all the promises of righteousness and life which the Lord’ s Word holdeth forth to the Church, and of those he shall be sure. 2. The godly man shall not want succession, if God see it good for him, or if not children of his body, yet followers of his faith and footsteps in piety, whom he hath been instrumental to convert. 3. Whatsoever estate the Church of God be in during the godly man’ s life-time, he shall behold in the mirror of the Lord’ s Word, and in the sensible feeling of his own experience, he shall perceive and take up the blessed condition of the true Church of God, and rejoice therein all his days. (D. Dickson.) And thou shalt see the good of Jerusalem all the days of thy life.-- Religion the highest good Is Christianity a good thing for man? Has it fulfilled worthy ideals? Does it give a satisfying revelation of God? Is it pitilessly opposed to all fresh light which comes from nature and science? Would the world get on as well or better without it? I. The good of Jerusalem is seen in that it speaks good of man. The Christian revelation stands supreme in the honour, worth, and dignity it puts on man; he is sacred from the first, as having been made in the Divine image; sacred, so that even in solitude, where he can do no harm to others, he can sin against himself, by sullying the Divine image in his soul. Take away the Christian ideal, and human life becomes altogether a different thing in kind!--an altogether inferior thing, a mean thing enough, something which may be made more or less civilized, more or less worth living, but bereft of loftiness and grandeur. The Gospel alone in this great universe reveals man to himself, and in doing that it transfigures all else. Walking in the light of Christ, under the influence of His Cross and under the inspiration of His Spirit, life has a noble purpose, sorrow a sweet sanctity, suffering a sublime consolation, and death itself is a stingless transition to glory, honour, immortality, and eternal life. II. The good of Jerusalem is seen in that it is a present good. It is unfair to the Gospel to represent it as a system of future felicity, to be purchased at the surrender of present good, as profitable only for the life that is to come. The Christian morality has its seat within the soul. It is not a righteousness built up from without, but makes the good man out of the good treasures of the heart. Christianity rests alike its morality and its religion on the answering convictions of the great soul within us. Because we have the truth within us we can hear and know God’ s voice. Thus, too, the Christian nations have had a morality of the Home, as well as of the State; a morality that has condemned slavery, even when it was sleek and profitable; a morality that has made divorce an evil; a morality that has made the thought of evil and the imagination of vice guilt before God. The Gospel has been tested, lived, and tried enough to make us say, “ Thou shalt see the good of Jerusalem all the days of thy life.” III. The good of Jerusalem is seen in that it is the highest good. Its ideal of good is not mere outward prosperity and pleasure. It can sacrifice these. It can feel a thrill of higher joy, as these, if needs be, are trampled under feet. It can bring a deep delight even when the crown of thorns is on the temple, and when the sword of human power is at the heart. We can get no joy of heroism, in the mere utilities and expediencies of earthly life. The highest good may be to drain the cup of sorrow; the highest good may he in bearing a cruel cross. Whether you think of the good of Jerusalem as meaning a restful conscience, a life at peace with God, or a joyful hope of immortality, it is the higher good, and could the sainted heroes and martyrs of old time come back to earth from the felicities of heaven, they would choose the good of Jerusalem to all other good which this world could offer them, did it exclude conscience and Christ. IV. The good of Jerusalem is seen in that it is a unique good. None can present aught like it to us, in type or kind. It stands alone. We cannot, I know, exactly analyze the morality, the honour, the civil integrity, the home fidelity, the philanthropic charity, the moral earnestness of English life; something may come from custom, something from native instinct, something from public estimate, but he must be impervious to truth who does not acknowledge how very much we owe to what my subject means by Jerusalem. There is a might of influence at work in it which has no other fountain so high, no other channel so deep, no other onward flow so vital and Divine. V. The good of Jerusalem is seen in that it is a prospective good. All that goes to make a saintly character here, goes to make heaven there! The innumerable array of saints, who walk in white, surround us, like the snow-clad mountains around Jerusalem, and with them we look to enjoy through eternal ages the good of Jerusalem all the days of our life, where there are pleasures for evermore. (W. M. Statham.) The happiness of a godly life In every age the practice of religion and virtue has appeared to all prudent inquirers the likeliest and surest way to avoid the miseries of life, and secure the enjoyments of it. The first advantage which the psalmist promises to the pious comprehends in general health and success in their affairs (verse 2). The next is a particular blessing of the nearest concern; the possession of domestic and conjugal felicity in the midst of a large and well-ordered family (verse 3). But still, as good persons can never thoroughly relish their own private welfare, if the community suffers at the same time, or calamities are likely to befall it soon, an assurance is given them in the last place that their exemplary obedience to the laws of God will, through His mercy, contribute to their being witnesses of the prosperity, both of their country and their descendants, during a long course of years (verses 5, 6). In which concluding part of this most pleasing view even of the present condition of religious and virtuous persons, we have it signified to us-- I. That a large portion of their happiness consists in the flourishing state of their country. Everything hath an influence on our enjoyments, in proportion to the share which it hath in our affections. And affection to the public never fails to be remarkably strong in worthy breasts. It shows a rightness and greatness of mind, capable of being affected by a common interest: it shows the most amiable of virtues, love, towards a large part of our fellow-creatures, and implies nothing contrary towards the rest. For the real good of every people in the world is compatible with the real good of every other. To rule and to oppress is no good to any: and peace and liberty and friendly intercourse for mutual convenience all the nations of the earth may enjoy at once. II. That the happiness accruing to good men from the flourishing state of their country is greatly increased by the prospect that their own posterity will continue to flourish with it. How strongly must such a hope induce them to secure by good example and instruction this highest honour and blessedness to such as are to inherit their dignities! And how warm a return of most affectionate gratitude will they merit and receive from mankind, if virtue and liberty shall not only be supported by them in the present age, but transmitted to succeeding ones, by their pious care of forming their progeny to the knowledge and the love of public good! The prospect only of “ children’ s children” would have little joy in it without that of “ peace upon Israel” : without a reasonable expectation of their contributing to the true glory of the family, from which they spring, and the true happiness of the nation over which they are to preside. But when due provision is made for this, both sovereign and people may take up the words of the psalmist (Psalms 127:4-5). III. That both depend on the Divine benediction (Psalms 127:1-2; Psalms 127:4). It is not indeed possible for us in many cases to discern particularly in what manner the providence of God conducts things: but we may plainly discern, in general, that as the whole course of nature is nothing else than the free appointment which He hath been pleased to make; as the motions of the inanimate world proceed from those which He originally impressed upon it; and all the thoughts and actions of intelligent beings are doubtless absolutely subject to the influence of their Maker; since we see they are greatly subject, and often when they perceive it not, to that of their fellow-creatures; it must be in His power by various ways--perhaps the more effectual for being unknown--to dispose of everything so as may best answer His wise purposes of mercy or correction. And as He evidently can do this, it is likewise evidently worthy of Him to do it; for the highest of His titles is that of the moral governor of the universe; and therefore we may firmly believe the Scripture assuring us that He doth it in fact; that He makes all things work together for good to them that love Him, and curses the very blessings of those who love Him not. (T. Seeker.) Seeing the good of Jerusalem The good of Jerusalem was an universal benefit; and it is a source of rejoicing to every believer. His interest is identified with the welfare of the Church; and God blesses him when He blesses Zion. Is it not so? There is no security for national peace, no security for domestic happiness, except through the diffusion of that truth of which the Church is the depositary. Wherever Christianity appears, she waves the olive-branch to the shouting nations, and elevates those affections which make home the scene of quiet, enduring bliss. Mankind are all lying under the curse of a broken law; and it is the belief of the Gospel alone which reconciles man to God, delivers him from the plague of his own heart, makes him holy and useful on earth, and prepares him for the blissful activity of heaven. These things being so, the Christian is delighted to see the Church raised up from the dust, and enlivened with the presence of the life-giving Spirit. A burden is taken off his mind when he beholds a breach made in some huge wall of heathenism or Mohammedanism, through which the minister of Christ may enter, unfurl the banner of redemption, and scatter abroad those leaves of the tree of life which are for the healing of the nations. He watches with intense interest the operations of Divine providence, and loves to trace the majestic steps of Him who is making all things subservient to His own glory and to the salvation of the world. For this he labours, and for this he prays. His work sends him to his prayers, and his prayers send him to his work. (N. McMichael.) And peace upon Israel.-- Peace upon Israel O happy land, where Home and Church and State are one system of which the common lifeblood is religion! No other nation thrives like that in which piety is pure and prosperous. Through one rejoicing citizen or household God makes many happy; and the good man is blessed in the blessedness he diffuses. It is a circle of blessing, the Lord, the saint, and the neighbour; closet prayer, family worship and temple service; the Home, the Church and the State. Like the cloud falling upon the earth, the river running to the sea, and the ocean rising to the sky, it is a perpetual round of fertility, beauty and thanksgiving, regarded with complacence by the radiant Artificer enthroned in the heavens. All goes on together. It is not the Church blest now, the government next, and then the citizen, but each supporting and supported by the rest, and all depending on God’ s unfailing blessing. The Christian country is His habitation, His vine is the branching Church, and His olive-plants are God-fearing people. The profitableness of walking in the ways of the Lord is not the brightness of a transient summer. No winter comes to chill the felicity, and check its circulation. “ Thou shalt see the good of Jerusalem all the days of thy life.” Those days shall not be few. Nothing so surely as holy wisdom and understanding prolongs life. It is interesting to see some aged statesman toiling for the public good, though he must soon leave all the work to others. A more beautiful and useful sight is a Christian still cheerfully praying and labouring for the Church’ s and the country’ s welfare as he draws near the grave. Work on, old pilgrim. Thou mayest not live to enjoy the results of philanthropic movements in which thou art taking part. The longest life closes at last; and prosperous Israel outlives the happy Israelite. Do not, therefore, fret. Thy reward will follow. The true Israelite survives the outward Israel. The land thou lovest and servest is a type of the better land which thou shalt shortly enter. According to ancient thought, not only the life that now is, but that which is to come, is indicated in the double sentence, “ Happy shalt thou be, and it shall be well with thee.” The Source of thy blessedness will not dry up, but gush forth more plentifully in the valley of shadows. The Spring of thy joys will more nearly reveal Himself in death. After ages and ages, more than ages will remain to thee of perfect felicity. Never declining, ever advancing, thy bliss will be eternal. For ever and ever “ blessed is every one that feareth the Lord; that walketh in His ways.” Religion on earth is the seed in the ground; its mighty growth is in heaven. (E. J. Robinson.) . Psalms 129:1-8 Psalms 129:1-8 Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth.The persecuted condition of godly men on this earth I. As suffering under the hand of wicked persecution. The persecution here referred to was--1. Of early commencement (verse 1). It is ever so; the persecutions of godly men begin in this life in the very youthhood of their religion. 2. Frequent in its occurrence. 3. Violent in its character (verse 3). (Isaiah 51:23; Micah 3:12.) This language finds its application in-- (1) Christ.(2) His Church. II. As engaging the merciful interposition of heaven (verse 4).1. He is engaged in sustaining them. The bush burned on, but was not consumed. The branches were torn up, but the roots struck deeper. Not all the enemies of Christ “ prevailed” against Him. Heaven always sustains the good. 2. He is engaged in delivering them. The plough is fastened by “ cords” to the yoke of the oxen, and they draw its tearing iron through the ground. If you would stop the plough you must cut the “ cords.” This is the figure, God in righteousness will one day stop the plough of persecution, He will deliver His people out of all their troubles. III. As rising triumphantly over all their enemies (Psalms 129:5-8). Persecutors will be utterly routed, driven back with burning shame, with panic dread. This was the case with Pharaoh, Sennacherib, with Haman, Herod; aye, with persecutors in every age. “ I will break your church in pieces with a hammer, if you do not obey me,” said a French monarch to a Protestant pastor. Calm and dignified was the reply: “ This anvil has broken many a hammer.” (Homilist.) Persecuted, but not forsaken The life of the Lord Jesus Christ is the picture of the life of His people. “ As He was,” says Paul, “ so are we also in this world.” This is so remarkably true that, in the Psalms, we sometimes can hardly tell whether the writer is describing himself or the Lord Jesus. Shall the disciple be above his Master,? Shall the servant be above his Lord? If they have persecuted Him, they will also persecute us. I. First notice, concerning Israel’ s affliction, whence it came: “ Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth.” Who was it that afflicted Israel? The text says, “ they.” And why is the word “ they” used? Because to enter into particulars would rather obscure the sense than impress anything upon the memory. “ They.” I hardly like to think of who they are who, in many cases, have afflicted God’ s true servants; but it is still true that “ a man’ s foes shall be they of his own household.” A woman is just brought to Christ, and her greatest trouble comes from him whom she loves best of all living mortals; her husband becomes her terror. Outside, in the world, the Christian man frequently meets with those who would rejoice to see him halt, who try to make faults where there are none, and exaggerate little mistakes into great crimes. He is a pilgrim through the midst of Vanity Fair whom the traders there cannot understand. In his case, that ancient word is again fulfilled (Jeremiah 12:9). II. How does this persecution come? The psalm says, “ Many a time” ; that means very often. So, then, you who are faithful to God must expect that you will frequently be assailed. III. What is the reason for all this persecution? There are two reasons; and the first is the hatred of the serpent and his seed. There are two things that are inconceivable in length and breadth. The first is the love of God to His people, which is altogether without limit; and the next is, the hatred of the devil, which is and must be finite, for he is only a creature; but, still, it is as great as it possibly can be. Still, there is a higher reason for the persecution of the saints. The second reason is because God permits it. Why does He permit it? Well, very often for your safety. The Church of God has often been preserved by persecution; she was never purer, she was never truer, and she never lived nearer to God and more like her Saviour, than when she was persecuted. Next, it is for our trial and testing, to separate the precious from the vile. Satan, in persecuting the saints, is simply a scullion in Christ’ s kitchen, cleansing His pots and pans; they never are so bright as when he scours them, and it is a scouring with a vengeance. Yet, in that way, ha separates, or God through him separates, between the precious and the vile. IV. The blessings which come to the tried children of God through their troubles. I do so enjoy the reading of that part of the psalm where it says, “ But they have not prevailed against me.” You see a troop of horsemen riding into the very midst of the battle, and you lose sight of them for a moment amidst the dust and smoke; but out of the middle of that cloud you hear the brave captain’ s cry, “ They have not prevailed against me.” You see that little band advancing into a yet more crowded host, all glaring upon them like wolves. Surely they will be cut to pieces now; but in the very centre of the struggling mass you see the banner still waving, and again comes the cry, “ They have not prevailed against me.” That is, in brief, the story of the Church of Christ, and that shall be the story of every man who puts his trust in God; he shall have to say, at the close of every trouble,--aye, and even in the midst of it,--“ They have not prevailed against me.” What is the reason why the enemy cannot prevail against the saints? “ The Lord is righteous.” He may delay the overthrow of His people’ s foes; but He will in the end take their part, and display His almighty power. For the present, He is patient; He bears long with the ungodly; but He will not always do so. The fact that “ the Lord is righteous” is the pledge that the wicked shall not prevail over His saints. Then notice the next sentence: “ He hath cut asunder the cords of the wicked.” Literally, “ He hath cut the traces of the wicked.” They are ploughing, you see; and, in the East, the oxen are fastened to the plough by a long cord. What does God do in the middle of their ploughing? There are the bullocks, and there is the plough; but God has cut the harness; and how wonderfully He has sometimes cut the harness of the persecutors of His people! Look at the way He did this for our poor hunted brethren in Piedmont. They were likely every one of them to be crushed; and, apparently, there was nobody to protect them. The Duke of Savoy, whose subjects they were, had given them up to be destroyed. The next country was France, and the King of France was a Roman Catholic, and as eager for their destruction as was the Duke. But, one day, Oliver Cromwell sent for the French ambassador, and said to him, “ Tell your master to order the Duke of Savoy to leave off persecuting my brethren in Piedmont, or he shall hear from me about the matter.” “ Sire,” said the ambassador, “ they are not the subjects of the King of France; he has nothing to do with them. The Duke of Savoy is an independent prince; we cannot interfere with him.” “ I do not care for that,” replied Cromwell; “ I will hold your king answerable if he does not stop the Duke of Savoy from persecuting the Piedmontese.” And they knew that “ Old Nell” meant what he said; so, somehow, the King of France managed to interfere with that precious independent prince, and told him that he had better cease his persecutions, for, if he did not, Oliver Cromwell would take up the quarrel. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The afflictions and triumphs of the Church of Christ I. The afflictions and triumphs of the Church of Christ. Scarcely was the Church organized, after our Divine Redeemer’ s ascension into heaven, when she was assailed by three descriptions of enemies, either all at once, or consecutively, viz. the prejudices of authority and human wisdom,--the violence of persecution,--and the errors and heresies of false teachers. In all these respects the Church has been afflicted from her youth, yet her enemies have not prevailed against her. II. The impressions which the contemplation of the afflictions and triumphs of the Church of God ought to produce upon our minds.1. In the Church, always afflicted and persecuted, yet still subsisting,--like the bush, burning but unconsumed,--behold a confirmation of our faith, and an evident demonstration that the religion of Jesus Christ is from God. 2. Further, the conformity of our own reformed Church, as well as of all the other orthodox Protestant Churches, with the primitive Christian Church, in her afflictions and triumphs, furnishes us with an irrefragable proof of the truth of the holy religion which they and we profess. III. What, now, are the practical instructions which we may derive from the important topics which we have been considering?1. Since God has, in His mercy, called us out of papal darkness into the marvellous light of the Gospel, let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; seeing that it is based, not upon unauthorized human traditions, but upon the foundation of the prophets and apostles, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner-stone;--the great and fundamental object of all the predictions of the prophets, and of the preaching and writings of the holy apostles. 2. Let us devoutly bless the Father of Mercies, who remembered the Church of Christ in her low estate, for His mercy endureth for ever; and through whose propitious aid, and providential interpositions, the Reformation was accomplished, and our civil and religious liberties have been secured and transmitted to us. 3. Let us pity and pray for those nations of the earth who are yet under the yoke of papal dominion and superstition,--would that I could say, are groaning under it. 4. Above all, since the Almighty, when lie bestows extraordinary favours upon man, expects from him a proportionate return of gratitude, let us remember the solemn obligations under which we are individually laid, as Protestant Christians, to exhibit a corresponding excellence of Christian character, as the necessary result of “ a true and lively faith” ; since we enjoy advantages and privileges which involve the possessors of them in no ordinary degree of moral responsibility. (T. H. Horne, B. D.) Affliction may strengthen Care must be taken not to make too much account of the effect exercised by the great convulsions of nature on the moral condition of a people. The need of this precaution is well shown by the social history of Iceland. This country has for the thousand years of its history been subjected to imminent peril from the instability of the earth as well as from the inhospitable nature of its climate. In almost every century of the world’ s history famine caused by the accidents of the earth and air has menaced the life of the population. Many successive volcanic outbreaks, attended by serious earthquakes, have convulsed this island, and yet amid these mishaps the people have maintained the highest measure of social order in any state of which we have a history. The Icelanders have had the moral strength to rise superior to such afflictions. In this state, as in certain individuals, chastise-merit which would have destroyed weaker natures served to affirm the vigour of the strong people. (Shaler: “ Aspects of the Earth.”) Psalms 129:4 The cords of the wicked.Cumulative power of cords of sin “ The other day,” says the Rev. F. B. Meyer, “ I had to address some two thousand children, and, fearing that I might fail to secure their attention, I called a lad of twelve into my pulpit, and proceeded to wind around him a long knotted entanglement, first cotton, then string, next twine, next small cord, afterwards rope, ending with a chain and padlock. Of course he could break the cotton, but this led swiftly to the string, and this to a stronger, and so on, till at last the clasp of the padlock made him fast, my prisoner, ‘ bound by the cords of his habits.’ And I think those boys and girls will never forget the lesson of the inevitable connection between thoughts--acts--habits--character--destiny.” Psalms 129:6 Let them be as the grass upon the housetops.The unholy life Such a life is-- I. Transient (verse 6). Wickedness is inimical to longevity. What are all-the possessions, pleasures, the pomps, and grandeurs of unholy men l Mere fading flowers of the field. II. Useless (verse 7). Ungodly men may leave behind them their worldly possessions that may become useful to others; but what they leave behind them morally in the way of sound teaching and life-example is worth nothing; nay, it is worse than worthless. III. Unblessed (verse 8). Who can bless the memory of the wicked, the memory of those who have lived lives entirely selfish, sensual, secular, utterly regardless of the interests and rights of others? They can only be cursed. (David Thomas, D. D.) Unstable prosperity In the East, the houses have generally flat roofs. These are covered with a kind of compost or cement. This should obstruct all vegetation; but if chipped and broken up in any part, grass seeds carried there by the wind take root and grow. The plant springs up rapidly, from the thinness of the soil, and from its warm exposure. From its elevated situation it is seen at a distance, and makes a goodly show. But the same causes make the plant feeble and shrivelled, and it withers before it reaches maturity. Who would covet such prosperity as this? It is not the tall, majestic tree, which has withstood the winds and storms of centuries. It is as grass; not even as grass sown in the humble valley, full of moisture, and rich in beauty: it is as grass on the housetop, which dies before the ears are fully formed. Their prosperity has no stability: its roots are not deep in the Divine blessing. (N. McMichael.) An emblem of Israel blest by the Lord is a wide field of thickly-growing corn stirred by gentle breezes under a ripening sun. As the labourers, humming or shouting snatches of cheery song, bind the sheaves, and carry load after load away, they receive friendly salutations from people passing by. Nearly two hundred years before this psalm was produced, Isaiah sketched the pride, impotence and ruin of Israel’ s foes. They that hate Zion are “ as the grass on the housetops, and as corn blasted before it be grown up” (Isaiah 37:27). The flat roof of an Eastern dwelling is no more the place for vegetation than Jerusalem is a proper field for Gentile and Samaritan ploughers; but so long as there are winds to blow particles of earth into crevices and corners, dews and showers to moisten the drifted dust, and birds of the air to sow seeds, the best cemented housetop is not proof against the appearance of straggling and struggling blades. The enemies of Israel shall be “ as the grass upon the housetops, which withereth afore it groweth up,” which for want of nourishment at the roots dries and dies before it can be pulled: “ wherewith the mower filleth not his hand; nor he that bindeth sheaves his bosom.” Let who will express approbation of the salutations interchanged by Mohammedans when they meet, so long as they do not speak of them as if they originated with Turks and Moors. Such greetings are the remnant, in many countries, of a beautiful primitive custom. The Book of Ruth supplies a delightful glimpse of a harvest field thirteen hundred years before the Christian era (Rth 2:4). The thought is ridiculous of housetop harvesting occasioning such benedictions. Equally out of question is it for the Church’ s adversaries to be blessed by God or man. (E. J. Robinson.) Psalms 129:8 The blessing of the Lord he upon you. Mutual benediction Although mutuality is beautiful, we are not to be, as Christians, dependent on it. “ Bless them that curse you.” “ Being reviled, we bless.” Our responsibilities are the same, under all conditions of human life. Bug it is a pleasant and helpful thing when there is mutuality of blessing. I. The spirit of the Christian life is that we should live in others. This is not merely a doctrine of abstract truth; it is a revelation of the life of God in Christ. He came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life,--His life of thought, His life of toil, His life of pity and compassion, His life of sorrow, His life of suffering, even unto death, for our sakes. So His whole history was a benediction, and He has left us as partakers of the Divine nature through Him the legacy of His joy and of His peace. II. There are special occasions for the ministration of blessing; seasons when we are more alive to our own mercies; seasons when our warm fire-light contrasts with the cold hearths of the poor; seasons of health and strength, when we are called to sympathize with hopeless and incurable disease. III. The spirit of blessing is the spirit of universal ministry. We are not all called to do the same thing, we are not all called to be bishops, or deacons, or teachers. There are diversities of operation. God chooses His instruments, calls them to their work. You cannot find the man or woman, child or father, master or servant you cannot bless. You may be ineloquent, but you can bless with a look. You may find yourself so nervous that your words are inaudible before man, but for you the whisper at the Throne of Grace is possible. IV. The spirit of mutual blessing acts as a reminder of mercies. We are too apt to forget them, too apt to take them for granted, too apt to have the blessing and not to trace it up to the great Giver. Perhaps I have taken God’ s mercies as though it was natural and proper for me to receive them, as though the consciousness of having done my duty ought to lead me to expect reward; as though my endeavour ought to have been so honoured; as though living a pure life I ought to have health; as though being friendly I ought to have friends. The text reminds us it is “ the blessing of the Lord.” We shall never know the meaning of the word “ blessing” until we look back upon life from the great battlements of heaven, and see all the way that the Lord led us in, to humble us, to prove us, and to try what was in our heart. V. The spirit of mutual blessing is the spirit of the sanctuary. “ We bless you in the name of the Lord,” and in another part we read, “ We bless you out of the house of the Lord.” That is to be, as I take it, the spirit of the Church, and the Church has need to learn in all ages that lesson. The Church of Christ is to be the Church of restoration. If a man err, we are to restore such an one in the spirit of meekness. If men are cast down, we are to lift them up; we are to strengthen the hands that hang down and the feeble knees, and to say to them that are of a fearful heart, “ Thy God reigneth.” (W. M. Statham.) An ancient salutation This ancient salutation still lingers in the East. And a delightful thing it would be were there a greater manifestation of courteous and devotional feeling in the harvest fields at home. Beyond the sacred circle of the Church, there is no sight so cheering under the broad vault of heaven as a rich field of corn, and the reapers cutting it down. It fills the heart with gladness, and sends the thoughts upward to Him who sends His sunshine, and rains, and dews, and crowns the year with His goodness. An abundant harvest is an unmixed benefit. It sometimes happens that the prosperity of one man is purchased at the expense of others; and that, to make his lamp burn brightly, many a lamp is extinguished, or sends forth a faint and flickering light. But here all are gainers, and none are losers. And hence we can ask the Divine favour to descend upon those who are engaged in cutting it down; and we can say with an enlightened conscience, The blessing of the Lord be upon you: we bless you in the name of the Lord. The reapers, too, on the harvest field should recollect, more than is always done, that God whose bounty is seen in every handful of corn they lay hold of. Why should God be so distant from us, when engaged in the ordinary pursuits of life? Why not acknowledge Him in all our ways? Why should it be supposed that He has nothing to do with us, and that we have nothing to do with Him, except on Sabbaths and in sanctuaries? Why should not the law of kindness be on our tongue, and the spirit of courtesy sweeten our daily intercourse? Why should we not care for each other’ s welfare, and supplicate God, in the fine devotional feeling of the ancient world: “ We bless you in the name of the Lord” ? (N. McMichael.) . Psalms 130:1-8 Psalms 130:1-8 Out of the depths have I cried unto Thee.A prayer for deliverance The psalm should probably be regarded as antiphonal; it is composed of several stanzas which were sung responsively by different voices.1. In the first stanza (verses 1, 2) the speaker is a devout Israelite, who is feeling keenly the misery of his circumstances. The metaphor appears to be taken from a shipwreck; and, on the lips of a Hebrew, the picture would be one of unutterable horror. We Britons love the sea. But to the Jews the sea was an object of terror, a cruel and devouring monster, greedy of its prey, and smiling only to deceive; the symbol of treachery, unrest, and desolation. What were those depths out of which the psalmist cried to God? Were they the calamities which beset him and his countrymen? Or were they his overwhelming sins? To a Hebrew mind these were indistinguishable. It was an inveterate belief among the Israelites that, just as prosperity was the reward of goodness, adversity was the punishment of sin; and, wherever adversity alighted, sin must have been there before. This theory added to the sufferings of the Exiles an element of distress which we can hardly appreciate. It appears very plainly in our psalm. Here is a devout Israelite plunged, like the rest of his countrymen, into the depths of disaster. As a Hebrew this could only have one meaning for him, namely, that God was visiting their sins upon him and them. 2. The second stanza (verses 3, 4) is the response of a neighbour--probably an old man, who had lived into a calmer and stronger faith than the other had yet attained to. Though his words are addressed to God, they are a reply to his companion. First he glances at the vexing problem which, as we have seen, was at the bottom of his companion’ s trouble--why righteous men should suffer so terribly. His answer is the rough-and-ready one, that in God’ s sight no one is righteous, and beneath His pure and searching scrutiny the fairest lives show very foul. This is just the theological commonplace, so shallow and irreverent, that all men alike are sinful and deserve equal condemnation at God’ s hands. It is quite true indeed that we are all sinners; but we are not all sinners to the same extent, and God will not blindly treat us all alike. The man speaks more truly when he leaves off theorizing and testifies to his own experience of God. “ Thou dost not watch for iniquities, but with Thee is the forgiveness.” God, he means, is not a stern tyrant, never satisfied with our efforts to serve Him, ever watching for mistakes and searching them out. He is right willing to forgive us even at our worst. The closing line of this stanza is a surprise. We should have expected, “ with Thee is forgiveness that Thou mayest be loved” ; but we read instead, “ that Thou mayest be feared.” On the lips of a Hebrew “ the fear of God” meant very nearly devout reverence. It is the Old Testament phrase for the true worship, and our psalmist means that, were there no forgiveness in the heart of God, there would be no worship in the heart of man. Religion would be impossible were God a relentless and merciless avenger. 3. In the third stanza (verses 5, 6) the first speaker replies, “ You tell me God forgives! Have I not besought His forgiveness till I am weary? But all to no purpose. For His word have I hoped--for some assurance of His forgiveness; but not a whisper has broken the pitiless silence.” The figure in verse 6 would go home to the Exiles. How often, as they camped outside Babylon and sat sleepless and tearful through the watches of the night, had they seen the sentries pacing the ramparts of the city and hailing the flush of dawn in the eastern horizon which told them their weary vigil was near its close! No figure could more pathetically express the psalmist’ s eager expectation of the dawning of God’ s mercy on his long night of sorrow. 4. In the concluding stanza (verses 7, 8) the bystanders chime in. “ My soul hath hoped in Adonai,” the despondent man had said; and the chorus echoes, “ Hope, Israel, in Jehovah.” The second speaker had declared his faith that “ with Jehovah is the forgiveness” ; but, ere it closes, the psalm reaches a still grander assurance. “ Hope in Jehovah, for with Jehovah is the lovingkindness, and plentifully with Him is redemption.” It is a great belief that God forgives, but an unspeakable greater that, in spite of all that seems to prove the contrary, He has in His heart towards us an infinite lovingkindness and a purpose of final and complete redemption. The psalm ends with a prophecy of great salvation and boundless peace in store for Israel. To the Hebrews “ redemption from iniquities” would mean not merely a spiritual deliverance, but the removal of all the disasters and sufferings which sin entailed. And this triumphant assurance of a future unstained by sin and unvexed by sorrow is born of that twofold faith, so simple yet so grand, that there is in the hears of God a boundless lovingkindness, and that He is working out, by means of all our varied experiences, our ultimate and eternal redemption. (D. Smith, M. A.) The commendable conduct of man under trial I. Imploring heaven (verses 1, 2).1. Heaven alone can deliver. 2. From the greatest depths Heaven can hear the cries. This appeal, therefore, is-- (1) Commendable.(2) Wise.(3) Right.(4) Necessary. II. Confessing sin (verses 3, 4).1. He identifies suffering with sin. All evils, physical, intellectual, social, religious, and political, spring from moral evil. 2. He identifies deliverance with God’ s mercy. (1) God is so merciful that He does not “ mark iniquities,” that is, He does not keep; regain them. Malign natures never forget injuries, benevolent natures cannot retain them. (2) God is so merciful that He forgives men their iniquities. The highest form of love is the forgiving love. (3) Because He is thus so merciful, men can trust Him. “ That Thou mayest be feared.” Not servilely, but trustfully, lovingly, loyally, cheerfully. Had He not forgiveness in His nature, what rational soul could reverence Him? III. Waiting on God (Psalms 130:5-8).1. This implies-- (1) Trusting in God. Trusting in His wisdom, goodness, and rectitude. (2) Expecting from God. Expecting that He will interpose in mercy, and grant the necessary relief. (3) Vigilance of soul. It is not a passive state of mind, it is watchful and earnest. 2. He exhorts Israel to trust in the Lord-- (1) Because there is mercy with Him. The mercy which the sufferer requires, mercy to succour and deliver. (2) Because there is plenteous redemption with Him. There is no limit to His redemptive willingness and ability. “ Where sin abounded grace doth much more abound.” (3) Because all Israel will one day be redeemed. The author, undoubtedly, had the belief that all evil will one day be swept from the face of the earth. (Homilist.) From the depths to The heights I. The cry from the depths.1. The depths are the place for us all. 2. Unless you have cried to God out of these depths, you have never cried to Him at all. The beginning of all true personal religion lies in the sense of my own sin and my lost condition. If a man does not think much about sin, he does not think much about a Divine Saviour. 3. You want nothing more than a cry to get you out of the depths. There is no way for you up out of the pit but to cry to God, and that will bring a rope down. Nay, rather, the rope is there. Your grasping the rope and your cry are one. “ Ask, and ye shall receive!” God has let down the fulness of His forgiving love in Jesus Christ our Lord, and all that we need is the call, which is likewise faith, which accepts while it desires, and desires in its acceptance; and then we are lifted up “ out of the horrible pit and the miry clay,” and our feet are set upon a rock, and our goings established. II. A dark fear and a bright assurance. The man’ s prayer is, as it were, blown back into his throat by the thought, “ If Thou, Lord, shouldst mark iniquities, O Lord t who shall stand?” And then--as if he would not be swept away from his confidence even by this great blast of cold air from out of the north, that comes like ice and threatens to chill his hope to death--“ But,” says he, “ there is forgiveness with Thee, that Thou mightest be feared.” So these two halves represent the struggle in the man’ s mind. They are like a sky, one half of which is piled with thunder-clouds, and the other serenely blue. It needs, first of all, that the heart should have tremblingly entertained the contrary hypothesis, in order that the heart should spring to the relief and the gladness of the counter truth. It must first have felt the shudder of the thought, “ If Thou, Lord, shouldst mark iniquities” in order to come to the gladness of the thought, “ But there is forgiveness with Thee!” And that forgiveness lies at the root of all true godliness. No man reverences, and loves, and draws near to God so rapturously, so humbly, as the man that has learned pardon through Jesus Christ. III. The permanent, peaceful attitude of the spirit that has tasted the consciousness of forgiving love--a continual dependence upon God, Like a man that has just recovered from some illness, but still leans upon the care, and feels his need of seeing the face of that skilful physician that has helped him through, there will be still, and always, the necessity for the continual application of that pardoning love. But they that have tasted that the Lord is gracious can sit very quietly at His feet and trust themselves to His kindly dealings, resting their souls upon His strong word, and looking for the fuller communication of light from Himself. “ More than they that watch for the morning.” That is beautiful! The consciousness of sin was the dark night. The coming of His forgiving love flushed all the eastern heaven with diffused brightness that grew into perfect day. And so the man waits quietly for the dawn, and his whole soul is one absorbing desire that God may dwell with him, and brighten and gladden him. IV. The personal experience becomes general, and an evangel, a call upon the man’ s lips to all his brethren. “ Let Israel hope in the Lord.” There was no room for anything in his heart when he began this psalm except his own self in his misery, and that Great One high above him there. There is nothing which isolates a man so awfully as a consciousness of sin and of his relation to God. But there is nothing that so knits him to all his fellows, and brings him into such wide-reaching bonds of amity and benevolence, as the sense of God’ s forgiving mercy for his own soul. So the call bursts from the lips of the pardoned man, inviting all to taste the experience and exercise the trust which have made him glad: “ Let Israel hope in the Lord.” And then look at the broad Gospel that he has attained to know and to preach. “ For with the Lord there is mercy, and with Him is redemption.” Not only forgiveness, but redemption--and that from every form of sin. It is “ plenteous” --multiplied. Our Lord has taught us to what a sum that Divine multiplication amounts. Net once, nor twice, but “ seventy times seven” is the prescribed measure of human forgiveness, and shall men be more placable than God! (A. Maclaren, D. D.) A cry out of mental distress I. Soul-depths.1. Darkness.2. Doubt.3. Sorrow.4. Sin. II. Soul-crying. “ As spices smell best,” says Trapp, “ when beaten, and as frankincense is most odoriferous when cast into the fire, so do men pray most and best out of the depths of trouble.”1. The cry of self-helplessness appealing to Omnipotence.2. The cry of earnest entreaty. III. Soul-apprehensions (verses 3, 4). Jehovah is strict to “ mark,” but slow to execute judgment. No sin escapes His eye: His entry against us is correct, but His mercy restrains hasty justice and holds back the due deserts of our iniquities. IV. Soul-waiting (verses 5, 6).1. Patient hopefulness.2. Eager expectation, begotten of strong faith. Waiting, hoping, expecting, never can be disappointed: through it the “ cry” of distress becomes changed into the chorus of victory. (J. O. Keen, D. D.) Encouragement for the penitent I. David’ s distressing condition (verses 1, 2). Before God fills a soul, He empties it. II. David’ s penitential confession (verse 3). III. David’ s ground of hope (verse 4). We are told that when Darius heard that the Athenians had captured Sardis, he was indignant, and vowed vengeance on the city. He went out into the open air, and sending an arrow towards the heavens, he appealed to the god, Jove, and vowed that he would destroy the city, and at the same time commanded one of his servants to enter into his presence every noon, and cry, “ Remember Sardis.” Is it thus that God deals with us? No! He waits not to smite, but to heal; not to punish, but to pardon; not to ruin, but to regenerate. Consider--1. The promise of God (Exodus 34:6-7; Psalms 86:5; Romans 10:12; 2 Peter 1:4; James 5:2). 2. The death of Christ. 3. God’ s acts. Manasseh, David, Saul of Tarsus, Zaccheus, Bunyan, all obtained forgiveness, and so may you. IV. David’ s attitude towards God (verses 5, 6). Seasons of spiritual depression, though painful, are profitable. They excite earnest desires, and prepare the mind for the reception of richer blessings. V. David’ s encouraging exhortation (verse 7). Some tell us that a man must tumble into the Slough of Despond before he can become a rejoicing believer. David thought it better policy to try to prevent them falling into that slough. Despair paralyzes. Hope invigorates. VI. The encouraging promise (verse 8).1. Sinner, are you in the depths? Looking on your past life, do you see little else but sin? Looking beyond the grave you see no light. No ray of hope lights up your impenetrable gloom. The stars shine brightest at night, and the promise of pardon beams with the brightest lustre when we are on the borders of despair. Hear it, and rejoice. “ He shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities.” 2. Believer, do you pray for grace to destroy sin, and fill your heart with love? The blessing you desire shall be granted. This is no doubtful speculation, no untried theory. Ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands, have obtained pardon and purity through faith in Christ. (H. Woodcock.) The pilgrim song of penitence I. The cry (verses 1, 2). He needs an entire renovation; only the Creator can bestow that. He needs absolution; only the Being offended can grant this. To Him, therefore, to Jehovah he addresses himself. He prays earnestly and perseveringly. II. The indirect confession (verses 3, 4). If Jehovah should take the matter in hand, no escape would be possible. For He is the all-seeing God, from whom nothing can be hid. Other standards are deflected and partial; this is uniform and steadfast. Its Author cannot be deceived, and will not be mocked. Who, then, shall stand when He rises up? The question answers itself. None; no, not one. III. Expressions of longing and hope. (verses 5, 6). President Edwards, during a long sickness, observed that those watching with him often looked out for the morning eagerly. It reminded him of this psalm; and when the dawn came it seemed to him to be an image of the sweet light of God’ s glory. For such longing is not unsatisfied. They who have it experience the Beatitude, “ Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled.” Longings for earthly goods are often disappointed, but never the conviction which leads a man to say, “ My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.” IV. The exhortation (verses 7, 8). Divine grace is not easily exhausted. There is enough and to spare. With Jehovah is the lovingkindness, shown in creation’ s fulness, the array of fruits and flowers, the song of birds, brilliant skies, all that pleases in air, earth, and sea, the countless blessings that come upon the just and the unjust. Nay, with Him is “ abundant redemption,” deliverance for the lost and undone. It is not a scant provision, but liberal. There is no end to its riches, no limit to its efficacy. It extends to all vices, crimes, and shortcomings of heart, speech, or behaviour--can make sins of scarlet as white as snow, such as are red like crimson to be as wool. (T. W. Chambers, D. D.) Pardoning mercy I. The prayer.1. The blessed Object to whom he repaired. He well knew that “ vain is the help of man.” 2. The earnest spirit which he manifested (verses 1, 2). The repetition is very emphatic, and shows how extreme was his need, and how anxiously he implored the Divine Being to interpose on his behalf. II. The musings in which he indulged (verses 3, 4).1. Solemn. “ If Thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities,” etc. On such a supposition we must all perish, and that for ever. 2. Joyful. “ But there is forgiveness with Thee,” etc. This is evident from-- (1) The titles He assumes (Exodus 34:6).(2) The rites He has instituted (Leviticus 16:21-22).(3) The scheme of redemption He has provided. Gethsemane and Calvary.(4) The commands He has given (Isaiah 55:7; Acts 17:30).(5) The longsuffering He manifests.(6) The many instances in which His pardoning mercy has been exercised, III. The course pursued (verses 5, 6). His waiting was--1. Sincere. “ My soul doth wait.” (1) Diligence in use of means.(2) Expectation of blessing. 2. Intelligent. “ In His Word do I hope.” 3. Ardent (verse 6). (Expository Outlines.) Thy depth of repentance This psalm is the outpouring of a broken heart, crushed because of sin. I. The simile--“ Out of the depths.” A fitting image of intensity of grief. We cast about ordinarily in the shallows and level plains. We rise to the mountains to sing. Are they not nearer heaven? We sink to the depths to weep. The depths and cavities of the rocky Palestine were inaccessible and filled with noisomeness and pestilence. Thank God, life is not all depths. Thank God that even in the depths He can hear--from the gloom, the bewilderment, the despair. The depths indicate a fall. It is natural to get lower. It is not a natural place of resort. The depths also indicate carelessness. The circumspect will take heed to his ways. All sin leads to despair. II. The action--“ I cried.” No word could more fitly express the soul’ s action when in the depths. It indicates--1. Consciousness of danger. Some are engulphed and unconscious. 2. Absence of formality. There is no time for a well-ordered prayer. The circumstances are too tragic to permit of the consideration of grammar or propriety. Deliverance is life. 3. Sense of helplessness. The strong man can do nothing. At the same time there is a sense of hope. There is one thing which the most convicted sinner can do--he can cry. III. The helper--“ To Thee, O Lord.”1. Here is some one at hand. He is able to hear. 2. Here is some one of ability. The depths are God’ s kingdom as well as the heights. He is a strong deliverer. 3. Here is one of willingness. He is ready to save, waiting to be gracious. Oh, it is good for a sinner to be in the “ depths.” He would not cry unless he felt their mortal woe. (Homilist.) In the depths I. The children of God do fall into depths. In this plight we find David often, though a man after God’ s own heart (Psalms 6:2-3; Psalms 88:2, etc.; 40:12; and Jonah, a prophet, Jonah 2:2, etc.; and Hezekiah, Isaiah 38:13; and Job especially, Job 6:4). But why is this thus, seeing our Head, Christ Jesus, hath suffered for us?1. That we may know what Christ suffered for us by our own experience, without which we should but lightly esteem of our redemption, not knowing how to value Christ’ s sufferings sufficiently, which is a horrible sin (Hebrews 2:3). 2. By our sufferings we know what a bitter thing sin is. 3. By our afflictions and depths we manifest God’ s power and glory the more in our deliverance: for the greater the trouble is, the greater is the deliverance; as the greater the cure is, the greater credit the physician gets. 4. Many times, by less evils, it is God’ s manner to cure greater; and thus He suffers us to feel wrath, to cure us of security, which is as a grave to the soul; as also to cure spiritual pride, that robs us of grace (2 Corinthians 12:7). 5. These depths are left to us to make us more desirous of heaven; else great men, that are compassed about with earthly comforts, alas, with what zeal could they pray, “ Thy kingdom come,” etc.? No; with Peter they would rather say, “ Master, it is good for us to be here” (Mark 9:5). 6. God works by these afflictions in us a more gentleness of spirit, making us meek and pitiful towards those that are in depths, which was one cause of Christ’ s afflictions: He suffered that He might help and comfort others. He suffered Peter to stumble, that, when he was converted, he should “ strengthen his brethren” (Luke 22:32). II. Though Christians fall into depths, yet God upholds them that they sink not down into them without recovery.1. For the Spirit of God is in them, and where it is it is stronger than hell, yea, though the grace be but as a grain of mustard seed. 2. As there are depths of misery in a Christian, so in God there are depths of love and of wisdom. 3. Faith, where it is, unites the soul to Christ, and to God through Him, and draws down Divine power--to lay hold on the almighty power of God by true and fervent prayer,--at whose rebuke the waters of affliction flee away (Psalms 77:16); and so the stronger the faith is, the stronger is the delivery, for it is of a mighty power, enabling us to wrestle with God, as Jacob did. Thus when we lay hold on God, and God on us, what can drown us? 4. It is the nature of God’ s working to be by contraries: in His works of creation, making all things of nothing; in His works of providence He saves by little means from greatest dangers. III. Afflictions stir up devotions.1. Let us interpret God’ s dealings with a sanctified judgment. He is a wise physician, and knows when strong or gentle physic is most requisite. Sometimes God by great afflictions doth manifest great graces, but so as notwithstanding they may be mingled with a deal of corruption; and it is God’ s use that hereby His graces may be increased, and the corruption allayed, to bring down the greatest cedars, and to eclipse the greatest lights. 2. Let us oppose desperations by all means, by prayer, by crying; and if we cannot speak, by sighing; if not so, yet by gesture, especially at the time of death, for God knows the heart. For then it stands upon eternal comfort. And therefore let us do anything to show our faith fails not. We must know that every one shall meet with these enemies, that would cause us to despair if they could, for this life is a warring and striving life. We shall have enemies without and within us that will fight against us. IV. Observe by the example of this holy man that prayers are to be made only to God, who knows our wants, supports us and binds us up; and it is only Christ that doth this. None can love us more than He that gave Himself for us. He is our eye whereby we see, our mouth whereby we speak, our arms whereby we lay hold on God; and therefore it is an intolerable unthankfulness to leave this “ fountain opened for sin and for uncleanness, and to dig to ourselves cisterns that will hold no water” (Jeremiah 2:13). (R. Sibbes.) Deep places 1. By the deep places is meant the deep places of afflictions, and the deep places of the heart troubled for sin. Afflictions are compared go deep waters (Psalms 18:17; Psalms 69:1). And surely God’ s children are often cast into very desperate cases, and plunged into deep miseries. To the end they may send out of a contrite and feeling heart such prayers as may mount aloft and pierce the heavens. Those that are furthest cast down are not furthest from God, but nearest unto Him. God is near to a contrite heart, and it is the proper seat where His Spirit dwelleth (Isaiah 66:2). And thus God dealeth with us, as men do with such houses that they are minded to build sumptuously and on high, for then they dig deep grounds for the foundation. Mark hereby the dulness of our nature, that is such, that God is forced to use sharp remedies to awaken us. When, therefore, we are troubled either by heavy sickness, or poverty, or oppressed by the tyranny of men, let us make profit and use thereof, considering that God hath cast His best children in such dangers for their profit; and that it is better to be in deep dangers praying, than on the high mountains of vanity playing. 2. By the deep places may be understood also a heart deeply wounded with the considerations of sin and God’ s justice, for God will not accept such superficial and scurvy prayers, which come only from the lips, and not from a contrite and broken heart. Let not men think to find mines of gold or silver in the streets; no, they must dig into the bowels of the earth for them. So, let us not deceive ourselves thinking God’ s favour may be gotten everywhere, for in the deep places it is to be found. (A. Symson.) Psalms 130:3-4 If Thou, Lord, shouldst mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? A psalmist’ s question and answer I want to cheer some of you who at present hardly dare to pray. Yet you are the very people who may pray; you who think that the Lord will never hear you are the people whom lie is certain to hear and answer. When you are cleaned right out, when even the last rusty counterfeit farthing has been emptied out of your pocket, and you stand before your God as a wretched, starving, and bankrupt beggar, your abject poverty and dire need will commend you to His mercy and love. I. First, we have a confession,--a confession which it will be well for every one of us to make (verse 3).1. The psalmist may have felt that, if a human witness had been appointed to mark his sin, he might have been able to stand; but he says, “ If Thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, who shall stand?” You have sometimes had a white pocket handkerchief, and you have admired its whiteness; but when the snow has fallen, and you have laid your handkerchief upon the newly-fallen snow, it has looked quite yellow instead of white; and so is it with the holiest life when it is placed by the side of the life of Christ, or looked at in the light of the perfect law of God; then we see how stained and defiled it really is. So, Lord, we might stand up before our fellow-men, and plead “ Not guilty,” when they belie and slander us, as they do; but, before Thy holy presence, “ if Thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?” 2. The psalmist also speaks of a special form of guilt. He does not say, “ If Thou shouldest mark open and overt transgression,--the breaking out of bounds, and going astray in the paths of evil” ; but he says, “ If Thou shouldest mark iniquities.” Pull that word to pieces, and it becomes in-equities” --whatever is not right in the sight of God. If He were to mark those in-equities, who could stand before Him? Not one of us could do so. 3. Notice, next, how the psalmist inquires, “ Who shall stand?” If there were any way of getting into heaven by a back door, or of hiding our sins from God’ s eye, we might have some ground of hope; but there will come a day when we shall stand before God like prisoners at the bar. David, who probably wrote this psalm, had known many good men in his time, and he was accustomed to associate with the excellent of the earth; yet he says, “ O Lord, who shall stand?” And I may repeat his question now, since God has marked our iniquities, “ Who among us can stand in His sight upon the footing of our own good works?” Echo answers, “ Who?” II. The psalmist’ s confidence (verse 4).1. We know that there is forgiveness with God, because we have been informed by revelation concerning the character of God; and we find one prominent feature in the character of God is that “ lie delighteth in mercy.” 2. Moreover, this impression, conveyed to us by the general tenor of the Scriptures, is deepened by the direct teaching of the Gospel. Why did Jesus come into the world to be a Saviour if God does not delight to save the lost? Why did He offer an atonement if it were not that sin might be put away by that atonement? 3. Further, we are assured that God will forgive sin because we have so many definite promises to that effect. This blessed Book is as full of promises and proclamations of mercy as an egg is full of meat. It abounds in messages of love and grace; it tells us that God willeth not the death of the sinner, that He delighteth not in judgment, for that is His left-handed work, but that His compassion freely moves towards the blackest and vilest of sinners when they repent, and return unto Him. III. The consequence of forgiveness. “ There is forgiveness with Thee, that Thou mayest be feared.” Thus, you see, the doctrine of free forgiveness actually produces in man’ s mind a fear of God. You might have thought the psalmist would have said, “ There is no forgiveness with Thee, that Thou mayest be feared” ; but it is not so.1. The opposite of our text is very manifest. When there is no forgiveness, or when a man thinks there is none, what is the consequence? He is driven to despair, and despair often leads to desperate living. If there is no hope of forgiveness, then there is no proper fear of God. 2. Many are abiding in a state of carelessness, because they really do not know whether there is any pardon to be had. When a man is in doubt as to whether he can be forgiven, he says, “ I am afraid it would be a very long process, and I do not know whether I should get it even then. Perhaps, however, there is no pardon to be had, so I might become a religious man, and yet miss the forgiveness of sins.” That is the thought of many, and therefore they become torpid and lethargic, careless and indifferent; but when the Holy Spirit teaches a man that there is forgiveness to be had, he would leap out of his very body rather than miss it. 3. How encouraging, too, is the belief that there is pardon to be had! But, more, how sanctifying is the actual reception of it! Walk carefully, prayerfully, humbly before God and men, putting your trust, not in yourselves, but in Christ alone, and you shall then find, in your experience, the best exposition of the text, “ There is forgiveness with Thee, that Thou mayest be feared” ; for you will prove, by your own fear of God, which is continually before your own eyes, that His free, rich, sovereign grace, manifested in your pardon, did not produce in you indulgence in sin, but gave you the sweet liberty of walking in holiness, and in the fear of the Lord. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The sinner without excuse before God I. Explain the meaning of the assertion. If Thou, Lord, shouldst execute the decrees of justice, and punish everything that is done amiss, the holiest man on earth would not be able to abide the trial; how much less would such a sinner as I be able to stand? II. Confirm this truth from scripture and experience.1. It is the constant doctrine of the Holy Scriptures; it is the uniform language of humility and penitence there (Psalms 143:2; Job 9:2-4; Job 40:4-5; Job 42:5-6; Psalms 19:12; Lamentations 3:22-23). 2. I shall propose three general subjects of examination. (1) Hew many duties have you omitted which you must be sensible you ought to have performed? (2) How often have you been guilty of express transgressions of the law of God? (3) How many blemishes and imperfections cleave to those very duties which you endeavour to perform in obedience to his will? III. Practical application.1. How great is the deceitfulness of sin! How astonishing the blindness of sinners! 2. If the holiest cannot stand before God, if no flesh living can be justified in His sight, how fearful must be the state of those who are lying under the guilt of atrocious, aggravated, and repeated crimes! 3. If any Christian desires to keep his ten-science tender and faithful, to have a deep, growing and humbling sense of his own sinfulness; if he would bar the gate against the entrance of pride, or banish it after it has obtained admission; if he desires to walk humbly and watchfully, let him live as in the presence of God, let him often sift himself at His awful tribunal. (J. Witherspoon, D. D.) Psalms 130:4 But there is forgiveness with Thee, that Thou mayest be feared.Divine forgiveness I. We are indebted to Revelation alone for the knowledge of this fact, that there is forgiveness with God.1. The heathen, who have no revelation, and deists, who have rejected revelation, could not form any proper idea on this subject. The only other grounds of knowledge are reason, and the light of nature; but neither can these guide us to the fact which is here stated. We could not infer, from God’ s essential goodness, or from the works of nature, that He would forgive sin at all. It does not necessarily depend on His existence, or on His goodness. It must depend entirely on an act of His will;--but whether He will, who can tell? 2. If we could prove from the light of nature that God would forgive sin, it is still evident that we could infer nothing as to the persons to be forgiven--the extent to which the blessing was to reach. An universal act of indemnity--free forgiveness of all sin, could never have entered into the minds of men. No; this would be regarded as a licence to sin. No; some sins only will be forgiven; some persons only will be pardoned;--but which, and who? Who can possibly tell? 3. As to the way in which forgiveness is to be obtained, we could learn nothing by the light of nature. Men have not been satisfied with repenting; they have looked out for sacrifices--for an atonement. Whence came pilgrimages, penances, mortifications, sacrifices? All these things show that men were convinced that something more than repentance was needed. So that it is clear we are indebted entirely to revelation for the knowledge of the way of forgiveness of sins. This way is by the satisfaction made by Christ, and received by the Father. II. In the forgiveness thus promised, and flowing to us through this channel, peculiar characters are marked down, which are almost as astonishing as the fact itself.1. It comes to all persons, and reaches to all crimes, with only one exception. That exception is “ the sin against the Holy Ghost.” 2. This forgiveness takes place at the time of repenting and believing. The Gospel puts the blessing of forgiveness in the present tense:--“ Thy sins are forgiven thee” ;--“ Thy faith hath made thee whole” ;--“ In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.” 3. This forgiveness is invariably followed by the special fruits of the Divine favour. It is not barren and unproductive. If God pardon us, it is that we may come nigh unto Him--that we may hear His fatherly voice--that we may become the depositaries of His grace and the objects of His love. 4. This forgiveness is renewed and perpetuated. (J. Leifchild.) Divine forgiveness I. It is not an act that takes place outside of the offender. When a human father forgives his offending child, or a human sovereign his offending subject, it is an outward act. But Divine forgiveness is an inner change, it is a moral revolution; the soul breaking away from its past--its past masters, purposes, and life. II. It is not an act prompted by entreaties. A father forgives his offending child because of the child’ s importunate appeals, and the king his rebels for the same reason. But Divine forgiveness is uninfluenced. He is essentially a forgiving God, and no entreaties need alter His purposes of mercy. III. It is not an act exercised with limitation. In human forgiveness there is a limitation to persons, only a few of the offenders are selected for the favour. Limited also to time. He who has been forgiven more than once is not likely to receive such a favour again, and his chances decrease with every repetition of the offence. But in Divine forgiveness there is no limitation. “ Abundantly pardon.” “ Seventy times seven.” IV. It is not an act of excited sympathy rather than plan. The forgiving act of man is generally excited by commiseration for the offender, it is not the plan of his life, it is an occasional act. But Divine forgiveness is a plan settled, eternal, immutable. His forgiveness delivers men not only from the consequences of sins, but from the sins themselves. “ He sent His Son to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.” (David Thomas, D. D.) Hope of forgiveness with God After considering our own miserable and guilty state, and how little any plea which we can offer will avail before the holiness and justice of God, it is proper to turn our eyes to His mercy, as the only foundation of our hope and peace. I. Give a brief view of the discoveries which God hath made of His mercy, as the foundation of the sinner’ s hope; or, in other words, show what reason we have to believe that there is forgiveness with Him.1. The patience and forbearance of God towards sinners, in the course of His providence, is the effect of His mercy. Even this affords some faint hope that there may be forgiveness with Him (Jonah 4:2). We may add to this His continual benignity and kindness to all His creatures, not excepting the evil, the unthankful, and the unholy. The native tendency of both these is to lead the guilty to repentance, as we are told (Romans 2:4). 2. God hath revealed Himself in His Word, as merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and slow to anger (Exodus 34:5-7; Psalms 103:8; Micah 7:18; Isaiah 1:18; Isaiah 43:25; Isaiah 55:1; Isaiah 55:6-7; Malachi 3:17). 3. But that nothing may be wanting for the complete illustration of this truth, observe that it appears in the clearest manner from the Gospel of Christ that there is forgiveness with God (John 3:16; 1 Peter 1:18; Hebrews 6:18). II. Point out the connection between the mercy of God and His fear.1. A discovery of the mercy of God is absolutely necessary to His being loved and served by those who have once been sinners. There can be no religion at all, either in inclination or performance, if there be no forgiveness with God. How should any so much as attempt what they believe to be an unprofitable labour? 2. As a discovery of the mercy of God is absolutely necessary to our serving Him at all, so it is perhaps of all others the most powerful motive to induce us to serve Him in sincerity. Nothing whatever more illustrates the Divine glory. It presents Him as the proper object of worship, of confidence, and of love. 3. But, further, even taking fear in a more limited sense, as signifying a holy reverence and dread of the power and majesty of God, there being forgiveness with Him, is so far from weakening, that it strengthens this fear; and that on the two following accounts. (1) The infinite obligations we lie under to Divine mercy must serve to improve our sense of the evil of sin, as committed against so good and so gracious a God, and to increase our abhorrence of it. (2) Forgiveness with God tends to increase our fear and reverence of Him, from the manner in which, and the condition on which, it is bestowed. Every circumstance of this dispensation of Divine mercy is calculated to abase the sinner, and leave him nothing whereof to glory before God. III. Practical improvement.1. Learn that none can understand, embrace, or esteem the mercy of God, but those who are convinced of their sin and misery. 2. Observe that the publication of Divine mercy, that the illustration of the riches of Divine graze in the Gospel, hath not the least tendency to lessen our sense of the evil of sin, or the obligation we lie under to obedience: on the contrary, it serves greatly to improve both the one and the other. 3. See the difference between a real and Scriptural discovery of forgiveness with God, and that careless security which arises from a presumptuous reliance on His general mercy. The one prevents conviction, the other produces it. 4. See of how much moment it is to the Christian to keep clear views of the mercy of God, as well as of His own interest in it. The moment he loses the comfortable sense of peace with God, his chariot-wheels are troubled, and he drives heavily. It makes his duty burdensome, and his trials insupportable. 5. See in what way you may most effectually, and most certainly, preserve your peace with God, viz. by the frequent exercise of penitence and confession. (J. Witherspoon, D. D.) The design which God has in forgiving sin I. A declaration of mercy.1. It proceeds from the free, spontaneous motion of God’ s good pleasure. 2. The sins and offences that are the subject-matter of it. (1) Their number is numberless. (2) Their magnitude. We have them painted out to us in their colours (Isaiah 1:18), with a crimson tincture, and a scarlet dye: with a redness and a blushing; sin thus wearing the colour of shame. Yet in the same verso we have forgiveness changing their hue to the whiteness of snow and the innocence of wool. 3. The persons on whom this pardon is conferred, who are men; that is, very worthless and inconsiderable creatures, in comparison of those to whom the same pardon is denied. II. The end of such a declaration, which is fear and obedience. “ There is forgiveness with Thee, that Thou mayest be feared.”1. What this fear is. There are three sorts of fear: an anxious, distracting, amazing fear; a slavish and servile fear; and a filial, reverential fear. Now, there is this difference between these three sorts of fear; that the first is properly the fear of a malefactor, the second of a slave, and this last of a son; which is that alone that is designed in these words: and indeed there is good reason that God should require it, since He intends to turn His servants into sons. And is it not equal to require a son’ s affection where He resolves to bestow a son’ s inheritance? Besides, this affection is of all others the most sedulous, diligent, and serviceable, and therefore there is a more than ordinary significance in those words (Malachi 3:17). 2. How God’ s forgiveness may be an argument to enforce this fear. (1) Because the neglect of the fear of God, upon supposal that He has forgiven us our sins, is highly disingenuous. (2) Because the neglect of God’ s fear upon the account of His forgiveness, besides the disingenuity of it, is also most provoking and dangerous. III. Deductions.1. The different nature of Christ’ s spiritual kingdom from all other kingdoms in the world; and that not only in respect of the external administration of it, that it is not bolstered up with pomp and show, and other little assistances of grandeur and secular artifice; but chiefly in respect of that which is the main instrument and hinge of government and subjection, the fear of the subject. 2. Upon what ground every man is to build the persuasion of the pardon of his sins. It is the temper of most persons to be more busy about their assurance than their obedience; and to be confident of their reward, while they should be solicitous about their duty. (R. South, D. D.) There is forgiveness I. My first head is taken from the first word of the text: “ But.” Here is h whisper of hope. “ if Thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? But” --Oh, the sweet music of that little word! It seems to come in when the terrible drum of alarm is being beaten, and the dreadful clarion of judgment is sounding forth. There is a pause with this word, “ But there is forgiveness.” It is a soft and gentle whisper from the lips of love.1. This comes into the soul after a full confession of sin. When thou hast knelt down before God, and acknowledged thy transgressions and thy shortcomings, and thy heart is heavy, and thy soul is ready to burst with inward anguish, then mayest thou hear this gracious word, “ But there is forgiveness.” 2. This whisper of hope sometimes comes to the soul by the Spirit of God as the result of observation. David, Manasseh, Saul of Tarsus, have been pardoned; why not I? 3. This whisper comes also in opposition to the voice of despair, for despair says to a soul under a sense of sin, “ There is no mercy for you; you have sinned beyond all limits, your death-warrant is signed, the verdict has been given against you, there remains nothing for you but everlasting warnings.” Nay, soul, God’ s Word against thy word any day! God’ s Word says, “ There is forgiveness.” 4. This whisper of hope is an answer even to the law of God. There is another mountain besides Sinai--Zion; there is another lawgiver besides Moses--Jesus. II. An assurance of the Word of God. “ There is forgiveness.”1. Turn to the Old Testament, end you will see that it reveals sacrifice,--lambs and bullocks, and goats. What did they all mean? They meant that there was a way of pardon through the shedding of blood; they taught men this, that God would accept of certain sacrifices on their behalf. Then turn to the New Testament, and there you will see it revealed more clearly still that God has accepted a sacrifice, the sacrifice which He Himself gave, for “ He spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all.” 2. Notice the broad indefiniteness of the text. “ There is forgiveness.” Where God draws no limit, do not you draw any. If God sets the door wide open, and says, “ There is forgiveness,” then come along, you sinners, whoever you may be, from gaols and penitentiaries, come along from your Pharisaic places of boasting and self-righteousness, come along with you, for there is forgiveness even for you. Ye rich, ye poor, ye learned, ye ignorant, ye that know nothing, know at least this, “ There is forgiveness.” 3. Notice, too, the immediate presentness of the text. Our version has it, “ There is forgiveness,” but there is not even the verb in the Hebrew. The translators put in the words, “ There is,” so we are to read it, “ There was forgiveness” ; “ There is forgiveness” ; “ There will be forgiveness as long as life lasts.” But I like it as it stands here. “ There is forgiveness” to-night; “ there is forgiveness” now; “ there is forgiveness” where thou sittest, just as thou art, just now. III. A direction of wisdom: “ There is forgiveness with Thee.” “ With Thee.”1. Hearest thou this, dear heart? Thou art shrinking from thy God; thou art anxious to run away from Him; that is where the forgiveness is, with God. Where the offence went, from that very place the forgiveness comes. 2. God has it in His immediate gift--waiting for thee. 3. And if it be with God, then there is a way for thee to get to it, for there is One come who stands between thee and God. There is a Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; but you do not need a mediator between Christ and yourself, you can come to Him just as you are. IV. A design of love. “ There is forgiveness with Thee, that Thou mayest be feared.” Do you not see how it is that men fear the Lord because He forgives their sins?1. It must be so, because, first, if He did not forgive their sins, there would be nobody left to fear Him, for they would all die. If He were to deal with men after their sins, He must sweep the whole race of mankind off the face of the earth; but there is forgiveness with Him, that He may be feared. 2. Next, if it were certain that God did not pardon sin, everybody would despair, and so again there would be nobody to fear Him, for a despairing heart grows hard like the nether millstone. Because they have no hope, men go on to sin worse and worse; but there is forgiveness with God that He may be feared. A man who has been forgiven is afraid that he should go and sin again after such love and such mercy. He is melted down by the goodness of the Lord, he does not know what to make of it. For a time he can hardly believe that it is true. Look! it is a singular way to come to fear God; but believe that you are forgiven, prize your forgiveness, know that your sins are blotted out, cling to the Cross, and so all that sweet fear of God, by which is meant the whole of piety, will abound in your soul. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Forgiveness of sin I. Only God can release a guilty conscience; only He can speak peace to a soul in distress. This ought to comfort us, that we have to do with a forgiving God (Nehemiah 9:31). There is none like to Him, to whom it is natural to remit and forgive sin. It is His name (Exodus 34:6): “ Forgiving iniquities, transgressions, and sins,” all manner of sins; sins against knowledge and against conscience; with Him is plentiful forgiveness. II. As God only forgives sin, so He ever forgives sin. It is always His nature, as the fire always burns; as He is Jehovah, He is merciful. Christ is “ the Lamb of God,” that doth take away the sins of the world. It is a perpetual act; as we say the sun doth shine, the spring doth run. He is (Zechariah 13:1), that “ fountain that is opened for sin and uncleanness.” Mercy is His nature, and forgiveness is an effect of His mercy. III. God’ s mercy is free, and from Himself. Though in us is sin and iniquity, yet in Thee is mercy; and therefore God saith (Ezekiel 36:22). Yet must not this be understood so as if it were freely and only from God the Father, excluding Christ. But therefore it is, in that we shall stand in need of no satisfactory merits of our own. IV. The best Christian and most gracious man alive needs forgiveness of his sins; for where the conscience is enlightened it will discover what corruption it finds, and so the necessity of being delivered. We must daily pray, “ Forgive us our sins,” yea, the best of the disciples must do it. If we come not with this petition, “ our sins are written with a pen of iron, and with the claw of an adamant” (Job 19:24). V. This mercy and forgiveness is general to all that cast themselves on His free mercy. It is Satan’ s subtility to persuade us at the first that sin is nothing; but when it is committed, and cannot be recalled, then he tells us it is greater than can be pardoned. No; the Gospel is the power of God to salvation to all that do believe. Let none despair. It is a greater sin than the former. He pardons all persons: Manasses the sorcerer, Cornelius, Zaecheus, persecuting Paul. The parable of the lost sheep, the lost groat, the prodigal son, testifies it. God offers it freely, “ Why will you die, O house of Israel?” (Jeremiah 27:13). He complains when it is neglected: “ O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how oft would I have gathered you together!” (Matthew 23:37). “ He threatens” because men will not hear, and “ He pardons all sins.” There is no disease above the skill of this Physician. He healeth all thy sins and all thy infirmities (Psalms 103:1-3). (R. Sibbes.) Fear, the fruit of Divine forgiveness “ That Thou mayest be feared” How does that follow? There is forgiveness with Thee! a blessed truth that! I. There must be something peculiar about God’ s forgiveness that it leads to fear. Had my text in connection with God introduced scenes of terror--the great white throne; the books of judgment; the falling heavens; the dying sun; the departing earth; the pit; the smoke of torment; the worm that never dies, and the fire that is never quenched--all hearts would have responded like an echo to the text, and this question had trembled on our lips, “ Who shall not fear Thee, O Lord, and glorify Thy name? for Thou only art holy.” But this is not the way. And how is it, that while the parents who constantly forgive are not feared, God, with whom is forgiveness, is? Why is it that forgiveness does not in His ease, as in theirs, breed insolent presumption? II. Let me explain those peculiar characters in the forgiveness of God which breed fear, not presumption, in the forgiven.1. The manner of the forgiveness sets forth the holiness of God and the evils of sin in the strongest light. Turn to the Cross of Calvary, to that august and awful spectacle on which angels, suspending their songs, are gazing in silent wonder. By that bloody tree, under that frowning sky, the earth trembling beneath our feet and the sun darkened above our heads, does sin seem a light and little thing? 2. The manner of forgiveness sets forth not only God’ s hatred of sin, but His love to sinners in the strongest light. It is hard be say whether it most illustrates His hatred of our sins or His love of ourselves. It, costs man nothing to forgive, but it cost God His Son. I cannot fathom, and I dare not fancy the feelings of the eternal Father, when He saw the Son whom He loved with infinite affection spit upon, scourged, reviled, bleeding, dying on the accursed tree. But how must He have loved you for whom He gave a Son so loved! And how will the love this breeds in you make you fear to dishonour or displease One who has so loved you--securing your forgiveness on such an immovable foundation and at so great a price. (T. Guthrie, D. D.) Forgiveness and fear 1. The text is true to human nature because, in all strong characters, whether high or low, despair that is blank and absolute does not excite fear, but stuns and paralyzes it. In Scott’ s tale, the desperado dies believing nothing, hoping nothing, and also fearing nothing. Religious despair is reckless. “ There is forgiveness with Thee, that Thou mayest be feared;” for while man utterly hopeless can attain to a gigantic and almost sublime defiance, yet brave men who set their teeth to die, and would have perished with indomitable valour, have wept like children when the unhoped-for deliverance came. So that fear is, after all, the dusky shadow of hope, lengthening, no doubt, like other shadows, as the sun withdraws, but vanishing, like them, when the darkness is complete. 2. The text has also much to tell us about the nature of the forgiveness of God. So far is the forgiveness of God from any carelessness about the moral law, that He once proclaimed Himself, in the same sentence, as forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin, and yet by no means clearing the guilty. And again, “ Thou, Lord, art merciful, for Thou rewardest every man according to his work.” For, indeed, no act was ever done which left the doer exactly as it found him. Just as the Church can never in this life return to Eden and its fruit-groves, though her pilgrimage in the desert may lead her to the splendours of the New Jerusalem; so it is with each individual soul. The mercy of God may bring us to a better place than that which we relinquish, but to the place we forfeit we never may return again. And yet, O unhappy man, it is because there is forgiveness with God, and because He does not cease to care for your sinful soul, that He thus disquiets you. Go down upon your knees, and thank Him that He lets no soul shrivel and dry up without strong pains; thank Him for this noble misery, which forbids you to grow base tamely, which makes it the true penalty of being knavish, not that other men suspect you to be a knave, but that, deep within, the clear, strong voice of your own conscience calls you so. “ Thou, Lord, art merciful, for Thou rewardest every man according to his work.” For now observe that the corrosive pains of remorse are capable of being transformed into the humbling, but sweet and infinitely wholesome sorrows of penitence and restoration. (C. A. Chadwick, D. D.) Psalms 130:5-6I wait for the Lord. Waiting, hoping, watching I. Waiting.1. This is the constant posture of all the saints of God. Fancy not that in heaven they have no emotion but that of joy; we know that all their emotions are joyous, but among them is this one,--that they, too, are waiting until the Lord shall again manifest Himself, for, in the day of His appearing, those disembodied spirits shall put on their resurrection bodies. 2. The children of God, on earth, are frequently in the posture of waiting as individuals. Do you not wait to be able to serve God better? Are not some of you waiting to have your tongues unloosed,--waiting to have your hearts enlarged,--waiting for better opportunities of doing God’ s work, or for more grace to use the opportunities you have,--and waiting for the Divine seal upon the efforts which you have put forth? I know that is so; and if we could get all that, we should still be waiting,--waiting to see all our families saved,--waiting to see all our neighbours saved. 3. It is a very blessed posture, for waiting tries faith, and that is a good thing, because faith grows by trial. Waiting exercises patience, and that is also a good thing, for patience is one of the choice gifts of God. Waling endears every blessing when it comes; and thus we get two joys,--the joy of waiting for the joy, as well as the joy of enjoying the joy when it comes. II. Hoping.1. Hope is the reason for waiting. 2. Hope is the strength of waiting. 3. Hope is the sweetener of waiting. But make sure that your hope is a good hope, that it is a well-founded hope, that it is a happy hope, that it is a hope that “ maketh not ashamed,” that it is a hope that fixes itself on Christ alone; for if you have not that hope, you will not wait; and if you do not wait, you will not receive. It is the waiting soul that gets the blessing. III. Watching. He that waits, and he that hopes, learns to watch. First notice the figure here used, and then observe that the figure is exceeded: “ My soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning: I say, more than they that watch for the morning.”1. First, what is the figure here used? With steady and weary tramp, the watchman has gone from one tower to another speaking to his brother sentinel as he has met him, keeping to his beat all through the dreary, cold, rainy, windy night; and he says to himself, “ I wish it were morning.” As he exchanges the watchword with his companion, he says, “ I wish it were morning. My eyelids are heavy; my head begins to ache with this constant watching for the enemy; I wish it were morning.” Have you never been in that posture? 2. But the figure is exceeded by the fact, for the text says, “ My soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning.” We have been watching longer than they who guard the city towers. The sentinel has only a few hours’ night-watch; but some of us have been watching for these thirty years, some of you for these fifty years; ah, some of you for sixty years! I do not wonder that you have a stronger desire for the morning than they have wire have only watched for one night. Besides, you expect so much more than they do, for when the day comes, what does it bring to them? A little ease for the sentinel, a little rest for the nurse; but they will have to go back to the nursing or the watching as soon as the shades of night return. You and I are waiting for a daylight that will bring us endless rest and perfect joy; well may we watch more than they that watch for the morning, for theirs is but the morning of a day, but ours is the morning of an eternity which shall know no end. They do but watch for the sun with his passing beams; we watch for the Sun of Righteousness whose glory makes heaven itself. Well may we grow eager when we think of what is yet to be revealed in us. Well may our hunger increase as we think of the sweets that are reserved for us. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The quiet life in its dependence There is a true dependence and a false dependence. The one is the fatalistic faith of the Arabs and those Easterns who have become stolid in character, and who denude death of its horrors, to some extent, by the idea of fate. But faith and fate are different things. There always runs through the Psalms the golden thread of the personality of God. True dependence is in a person, a living God, upon whom weariness can lean, and in whom weakness is made strong. I. True dependence is restful in God. There are two beings hers--God and the soul. If I am to depend upon God, I must look within upon my own life and see whether I so live that I can fairly lean on the great Father and depend upon Him. It is here that the beautiful question of a child’ s relationship to the Father comes in. May a wicked man say, “ I depend upon God; He will bring all things right” ? Look at this matter fairly. Is our dependence such as ought to characterize one who seeks the help and favour of God? Are our objects His objects? Are our aims His aims? Is the life we are living only an edifice to worldly ambition, or is it a temple fitted for the skies? I am to wait for the Lord. But while I am waiting, what am I? Is it the dependence of a child, seeking to do God’ s will; looking thoughtfully around to know how the life may glorify Him? It is waiting that is so difficult. But in our hours of waiting, painful as I deem them to be, God comes very near to us. We pray more at such times. I think that these long trials make the hungry eyes look longingly over the sea to earth sight of the sails of the vessel in which God’ s angels are coming! I think the long night makes us hopeful for the dawn of the day. I think that whilst we wait, we learn more of that purifying consciousness of dependence that slays our pride, and feeds our humility. There is much that is disciplinary in this, “ I wait for the Lord.” II. True dependence is watchful. In this world, when we are dependent upon anything, we always get ready. If houses of business think there is to be a spring trade in something that appertains to artistic beauty or modes of dress, and men are dependent upon this for revival of trade, they watch for every sign of plenty. They can do nothing until the “ wave” comes. But the “ wave” would be no use to them if they had not stocked their warehouses. “ My soul waiteth for the Lord, more than they that watch for the morning.” You like to be watched for. You like the little children in the summer-time to say, “ Father is coming.” The fisherman likes to see his wife and daughter on that old pier watching for him. God likes us to watch for Him. III. True dependence is hopeful. “ In His Word do I hope;” for “ God is not a man that He should lie, or the Son of man that He should repent.” And in that Word the true believer does hope continually. It is not the testimony of the past only, it is the experience of the children of God to-day, that the promises--and they are greater in number than the stars--all the promises of God in Christ Jesus are yea and amen. IV. True dependence is complete. “ He will redeem Israel from all his iniquities.” I like to follow that thought out, and to feel that quiet dependence upon God is personal in regard to one’ s own life of sin and transgression. I like to follow it out in regard to one’ s family life, and to feel how God will work if we only trust Him. (W. M. Statham.) Waiting I. The object of the Christian’ s waiting. He waits for the development of God’ s purposes, for the accomplishment of God’ s will, for the coming of the Lord to his soul, in all the fulness of His grace to scatter the clouds of ignorance, be overpower the strength of temptation, to silence the upbraidings of conscience, to purge his soul of corruption, to confirm his faith and holy resolutions, and so to deliver him from the dangers of sin, the sharp pang of sorrow, and the misgivings of unbelief. II. The spirit of the Christian’ s waiting.1. Patience. To wait for the Lord is to rest in Him, to abide in Him. 2. But this patience is not a mere passive submission, as the slave bows his head under the yoke he cannot throw off. All the active qualities of the Christian life are associated with that waiting for the Lord, which the spirit of patience invests with peace. 3. While he waits for the Lord, he does so with an earnest expectation and desire. 4. With loins girt and lamps burning. III. The encouragement by which the spirit of waiting is sustained. The faith of man is built upon the faithfulness of God. There is a promise for every need, and certainty in every promise. (A. J. Macleane, M. A.) The soul waiting for God I. By whom can this language be appropriated?1. By the penitent. 2. By the backslider. 3. By the afflicted Christian. 4. By the Christian about to die. As the long absent child, arrived at the door of his father’ s house, pants for admittance there, so does the soul of the believer, on the threshold of eternity, wait for its God. II. On what ground may the language of the text be appropriated with confident expectation.1. “ The Word of the Lord,” it should never be forgotten, “ is a tried Word.” It has cheered the gloomy, and strengthened the feeble, and animated the dying. 2. The extent of a Christian’ s privileges no mind can embrace. Take him at his worst state, in the difficulties of his first approach to God; in subsequent darkness; or in death; having still an interest in the promises of God, he claims an inheritance which monarchs might envy, and which angels delight to share. (O. A. Jeary.) The estate and disposition of the holy man after his prayer Though he had formerly sense of mercy and pardon, yet he waits for more full and sweet apprehension thereof. In them we may observe, first, though God be exceeding gracious, yet there is matter of waiting, so long as we live hero on earth, for He gives not all the fulness of His blessing at once. Though He may give taste of pardon of sin in present, yet not presently deliverance out of danger (Proverbs 4:18). There is no day that is perfected in an instant; and the reasons hereof may be--1. To force us be search our souls, whether we be fit for blessing; whether we be thoroughly humbled, and have thoroughly repented or not. Thus dealt he with Jonas, and thus with the children of Israel for Achan’ s cause. 2. It may be a means to stir us up to more earnestness in seeking: to make us like the woman of Canaan, more earnest the more she was repelled. 3. He gives us occasion of waiting, to show the truth and soundness of His graces in us; otherwise should we have no means to try how the grace in us would serve us in time of need. 4. Hereby God doth endear those favours that we want, that it may come the more welcome to us, and we be the more thankful for it. Thus God dealt with this holy man; and thus doth He with His Church. For while we live here we are always children of hope; not miserable, because we have a sweet taste of what we hope for, and not perfectly happy, because we want fulness. Before Christ, they hoped for His coming in the flesh; since Christ, we look for His “ second coming in glory” ; in grace we look for glory; and when our souls are in glory, they look for the redemption of the bodies, and for the day of restoring of all things. 5. This should whet in us our desires and prayers for our heavenly estate; and not make our heaven here on earth, but desire earnestly the full harvest, by considering how excellent the first-fruits of glory in this life are; and with the creature (Romans 8:19), “ wait, and expect, and long, and groan for the time of the dissolution of all things” ; and make this a note to discern of our estate; for it is a certain infallible token of a good frame of spirit in us, if we can long for that better life in the fulness that we have here; that we can desire to be with Christ. Furthermore, note this as a difference between the estates of the wicked and the godly. The wicked must look for worse and worse continually. His best is here, and while he hath this world; but the godly, their worst is here, their best is to come. (R. Sibbes.) Psalms 130:6 More than they that watch for the morning.The Christian watchman I. This world is a night, The morning presupposes the night, and this world most properly is compared to a long winter’ s night which is very uncomfortable. The night also is cold, wanting the sun which warmeth the earth; so is the world a shadow of death, a dark dungeon. II. Christians are watchmen. Every particular Christian ought to be a watchman; for he hath enemies both spiritual and corporal, continually assaulting him, to destroy both his soul and his body, for which cause our Saviour often exhorted his hearers to watch and pray, and by nature we fall asleep, as the apostles did in the garden, and Jonas in the ship. Therefore it is good we should be careful to watch over our ways. The watch looks to the enemy without, but we have more need to watch over our domestic and inward enemies, lest they surprise us, even our lusts and concupiscences, our pride, our avarice, our malice, all which are like to overthrow our soul. Let us, therefore, watch, lest we be surprised. III. Comfort and light must come from above. The watchman waiteth for the day, and he is very glad when he seeth it break, for then he knoweth the sun is rising upon the earth, which will enlighten all the world. No comfort is to be found on earth for a Christian soul in this dark night; we must look to the day dawning, when Christ in that day of His glorious appearing shall come to deliver His Church from all miseries: which all Christians should earnestly attend, and fervently pray with the spouse, Come, Lord Jesus. The watchman looketh about to see the sun spread out his beams; he knoweth that light doth not come from below. We should turn our eyes from the world, because here is no comfort, and look unto Christ Jesus sitting at the right hand of the Father, from whom only we may expect a comfortable deliverance out of all our miseries. IV. The light cometh in the morning. Before break of day is greatest darkness, and then the sun ariseth, and by his beams expelleth the same; the light cometh not till the morning. The apostles rowed all night, till they were become weary, and out of all hope, and then Christ came in the fourth watch and relieved them, being then in a most desperate ease. So the Lord, although he tarrieth to let us see our own weakness, yet no doubt He will come: He dealt thus with Jacob, he wrestled all night with him till the break of day, and then blessed him; David, after he was long pursued and persecuted by Saul, yet at last got rest and ease. The Jews were nearly destroyed by their enemies, but God raised up saviours to defend them. Despair not, then, and disquiet not yourselves; be not discouraged, howsoever ye see the Church, which is, as the disciples’ boat, tossed to and fro by the waves of persecuting tyrants. Look to heaven, for the day of her deliverance is at hand; yea, that everlasting deliverance, When the Sun of Righteousness shall arise and shine on her for ever. (A. Symson.) The hope of the good in sorrow I. The object of his hope in his sorrows “ I wait for the Lord.” This implies two things--1. A belief that the Lord would appear for him. He seemed as if He was hidden from him now. The clouds of his sorrow concealed Him, as the mists of the earth conceal the sun, but he knew that He would come, and he waited. 2. A belief that at His appearance he should have relief. He would not wait if he felt there would come no deliverance, still less if he felt that his sorrows would be aggravated by the event. God will come to deliver His people out of their sorrows. “ I know that my Redeemer liveth,” etc. II. The ground of his hope in his sorrow. “ In His Word do I hope.”1. His Word promises deliverance to the good in sorrow. 2. His Word is infallibly true. What He has promised must be fulfilled. III. The earnestness of his hope in his sorrow. “ My soul waiteth for the Lord more,” etc. This implies--1. The intensity of his distress. His soul is in the midnight of sadness, and he looks with stronger solicitude for relief than they that watch for the morning. In a suffering world there are thousands every night who watch earnestly for the morning. The man tossed on the bed of agony watches for the morning; the prisoner in his cell watches for the morning; the mariner in the storm watches for the morning; the general who has to decide on the coming day the destiny of his campaign, watches for the morning. None, however, watch more anxiously for the morning than the soul in anguish watches for its God. 2. The certainty of his deliverance. The night always appears long to the sufferer; still the morning comes at last. The sun comes mounting the steeps of heaven, chasing the darkness away, brightening the landscape, and pouring gladness into the world. Even so deliverance will come to the good. (Homilist.) Approach of dawn Day will soon break to those who long for it in the gloom or shadows of night. God’ s world never stands still. From the creation, when “ the evening and the morning were the first day,” light has followed darkness, and dawn has come from dusk. This is a thought for every weary soul to whom it seems as if daylight would never come. If there is no dawn here, there is dawn not far ahead, and we shall see it before long. “ Out of the darkness of night The world rolls into light; It is daybreak everywhere.” (Great Thoughts.) Watching for the morning In the year 1830, on the night preceding the 1st of August, the day the slaves in our West Indian colonies were to come into possession of the freedom promised them, many of them, we are told, never went to bed at all. Thousands and tens of thousands of them assembled in their places of worship, engaging in devotional duties, and singing praises to God, waiting for the first streak of the light of the morning of that day on which they were to be made free. Some of their number were sent to the hills, from which they might obtain the first view of the coming day, and by a signal intimate to their brethren down in the valley the dawn of the day that was to make them men, and no longer, as they had hitherto been, mere goods and chattels--men with souls that God had created to live for ever. How eagerly must these men have watched for the morning. (F. W. Aveling.) Psalms 130:7 Let Israel hope in the Lord. Israel’ s hope; or, the centre of the target When we meet with a man who has been in special trouble, and he has escaped from it, we are anxious to know how it came to pass, in order that, if we are east into similar trial, we also may resort to the same door of hope. The other day you saw a man blind, begging ill the street, and now he has an eye bright as that which sparkles on the face of a gazelle, and you cry in astonishment “ Tell me who was the oculist that operated on your eyes; for I may be in a like case, and I should be glad to know where to go?” Here, then, we have a gale of knowledge opened before us. This psalm is called “ De Profundis” ; its teaching is not only profound, but practical. I. In obtaining Gospel blessings the first exercises of faith must be towards God in Christ Jesus, and not towards the blessings themselves.1. This is the most natural order which faith can follow. Look first to the Giver, and then to the gift. Look for the Helper, and then for the help. 2. This is the necessary order--first to Christ, and then to His yoke, and to His peace. 3. It is also the easiest order. Do not try to believe in pardon in the abstract, but in Jesus the Sacrifice and Saviour, who has once for all appeared to put away sin. By looking to Him you will be saved; and what is easier than to look? 4. I believe that, in every case wherein the soul finds peace, this is the actual order. We may go about after pardon, renewal, and holiness, but we find no rest unto our souls while hunting for these. As a matter of fact, we look unto Him and are lightened, and not by any other means. II. All exercises of faith in reference to other things must be in connection with the Lord. As the stars called “ the Pointers” always point to the pole-star, so must our faith ever look to God in Christ Jesus. Having begun with Jesus, our faith must not look elsewhere. I would do nothing without Jesus. I would not even wish to repent except my eye were upon the Cross. I would not hope to think a holy thought except as my soul still gazed upon. Jesus my all. Away, away with every idea of mercy except it be mercy received through Jesus, for He alone is full of grace, and of His fulness must we receive. Mercy flows through Christ alone. So is it with “ plenteous redemption.” What a grand utterance that is--“ plenteous redemption” ! Is there not rare music in the sound l It means plenteous forgiveness for plenteous sin, through a price paid, a ransom given. In Christ only can you find this. “ With Him is plenteous redemption.” Do not dream of finding redemption in ordinances, in prayers, in tears, or in anything but the life and death and person of the Son of God. “ Plenteous redemption.” Why, that means deliverance from the bondage of many lusts, freedom from the thraldom of strong passions, a ransom of captives from fierce taskmasters. (C. H. Spurgeon.) With Him is plenteous redemption.-- Plenteous redemption As the mighty ocean, while, from the beginning of the world, it has supplied rain and dew to water the hills and vales, and continents and islands, is undiminished; as the light of the sun, though for thousands of ages it has brightened the planets, and the broad expanse of heaven, still pours its dazzling radiance on countless worlds, so with the benefits of the Saviour’ s death. I. This redemption is ample and unlimited. St. Paul was certainly not deceiving Christians when he taught them to pray for “ all men” (1 Timothy 2:1), which would be mere mockery, if all might not come to a knowledge of the truth. The Prayer Book has not been leading us astray when it has made us say so many times, and with such earnestness of heart, “ That it may please Thee to have mercy upon all men.” If Christ died only for the “ elect,” where would be the propriety of such petitions? II. It cannot be exhausted, and provision has been made for each one of us. One of the lay preachers who accomplished so much good in Scotland amplified and re-echoed the sentiment--“ It was not a live lamb that was tied to the door-posts of the Israelites in Egypt; only its blood was sprinkled over them. It is not the life of Christ that saves, nor imitations of His life; but His death, His blood.” (J. N. Norton.) Plenteous redemption I. Redemption implies captivity to the penalty and power of sin; release into safety and liberty; and the ransom of the obedience and suffering of Jesus. Faith secures release by appropriating the work of Christ, which abolishes penalty, and the work of the Holy Spirit, which regenerates and so changes the whole nature as to deliver from penalty. II. This redemption is plenteous.1. In the breadth of forgiveness, covering all offenders and offences, and removing them out of the sight of God. 2. In covering the breadth of man’ s need, Christ saves to the uttermost (Hebrews 7:25). Mind, heart, conscience, and will all purged by the power of redeeming blood. 3. In the freedom and fulness of infinite grace such a price--such love--such provision even for non-partakers. III. It is with him. God the Father devised, the Son executes, the Spirit applies the scheme. No hope or help in man for himself or fellow-man. (Homiletic Review.) Plenteous redemption “ Redemption” is a word which has gladdened many ears, when there was no heavenly sound in its blessed chime. Apart from any theological use of it, the word is a very sweet one, and has been melodious to many hearts. In those days when piracy was carried on continually along the coast of Africa, when our fellow-Christian subjects were caught by corsairs, and carried away captive, you can well understand how the burdened soul of the manacled slave, chained to the oar of his galley, was gladdened by the hope that possibly there would be redemption. His cruel master, who had forced him into his possession, would not willingly emancipate him; but a rumour came, that in some distant nation they had raised a sum of money to purchase the freedom of slaves--that some wealthy merchant had dedicated of his substance to buy back his fellow-countrymen; that the king himself upon his throne had promised to give a liberal redemption that the captives among the Moors might return to their homes. Truly I can suppose the hours would run happily along, and the dreariness of their toil would be assuaged, when once that word “ redemption” had sounded in their ears. So with our fellow-subjects and our fellow-men, who once were slaves in our West Indian settlements. We can well conceive that to their lips the word redemption must have been a very pleasing song. O there are many sonnets in that one word, “ redemption” ! Now, ye who have sold for nought your glorious heritage; ye who have been carried bondslaves into Satan’ s dominion; ye who have worn the fetters of guilt and groaned under them; ye who have smarted beneath the lash of the law; what the news of redemption has been to slaves and captives, that will it be to you. It will cheer your souls and gladden your spirits, and more especially so when that rich adjective is coupled with it “ plenteous redemption.” I. Redemption. What has Christ redeemed? His redemption is a very compendious redemption. He has redeemed many things; He has redeemed the souls of His people; He has redeemed the bodies of His people; He has redeemed the original inheritance which man lost in Adam; He has redeemed, in the last place, the world, considered in a certain sense--in the sense in which He will have the world at last. “ The whole creation,” said Paul, “ groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now” ; waiting for what? “ waiting for the redemption” ; and by the redemption I understand that this world shall be washed of all her sin; her curse shall be removed, her stains taken away, and this world shall be as fair as when God first struck her from His mind. This Christ has redeemed; this, Christ shall, and most assuredly must, have. II. “ plenteous redemption.”1. It is “ plenteous” when we consider the millions that have been redeemed. 2. It is “ plenteous,” again, if we consider the sins of all who are redeemed. S. Remember, again, that this “ plenteous redemption” is plenteous because it is enough for all the distresses of all the saints. Your wants are almost infinite; but this atonement is quite so. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Psalms 130:8 He shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities.Sin shall be overthrown Once, in the theological seminary, Dr. Robinson burst out before the class and said, “ Gentlemen, drive these four stakes down--sin is a tremendous evil; God is not the author of sin; God is not impotent before sin, but will control it; God gives to every man a power sufficient for his salvation.” That is a good stake to drive down in this strange world--“ God is not impotent before evil, but wilt control it!” Out of the clouds and darkness shall shine forth the righteousness and judgment which are the habitation of God’ s throne. He shall cause the wrath of man to praise Him; the remainder He shall restrain. Satan himself shall surely be seen to be but the hewer of wood and the drawer of water for the sublime temple of the Divine purpose. God shall bruise Satan. How evidently this shines forth in the cross and death of our Lord and Saviour! Satan’ s apparent triumph there was his worst defeat. (W. Hoyt, D. D.) . Psalms 131:1-3 Psalms 131:1-3 Lord, my heart is not haughty.The negative and positive excellencies of true religion I. Negative.1. Freedom from superciliousness.2. Freedom from restlessness.3. Freedom from worldliness. II. Positive.1. To have the soul fixed on the supremely desirable for ever.2. To have the soul fixed on the attainable for ever. Is the Lord desirable? Aye, supremely so. Is He attainable? Undoubtedly. He comes within the reach of all that hunger and thirst after Him. (David Thomas, D. D.) The humble and tranquil mind In this brief psalm there are three different states of mind described. The first is humility: the psalmist disclaims for himself all pride and ambition (verse 1) The second is tranquillity. The psalmist claimed for himself that he had attained to complete spiritual quiet, to perfect rest of heart (verse 2). And the last state of mind is that of immortal hopefulness, sustained in vigour by the thought of the wisdom and goodness of the Lord (verse 3). The psalmist claims for himself that he has attained that which in other psalms he longed for, and prayed for, and chided himself because he could not get. In another psalm he exhorts himself: “ Rest in the Lord,” etc. In another he chides his wandering spirit for restlessness, and says, “ Return unto thy rest,” etc. And what in other psalms he strives after and prays for, in this psalm he has attained. Here is the fulfilment of the promise, “ Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee.” Let us now confine ourselves to his spiritual quietude; for, as we need the example of his lowliness to rebuke our pride, so we need his quiet to rebuke our disquiet and unrest. We have to do with three portions of time--the past, the present, and the future; with three sources of disquiets--the retrospect of sins past, the sins of the present, and the gloomy anticipations of the future. There is in every man’ s heart a silent fountain of disquiet and unrest. Sometimes the hand of remorse, sometimes the hand of dissatisfaction, and sometimes the hand of foreboding comes, and the fountain is opened and fills the spirit with its bitter waters. Nor is there any guarantee for our spiritual quiet, till we have found something to master remorse for the past, dissatisfaction with the present, and foreboding of evil for the future. First, we must get peace of conscience, an assurance of God’ s forgiving love. I believe that Christ bare my sins on the tree; when I rest on that fact my assurance of perfect and everlasting forgiveness, it is then that I am sprinkled with the blood of Christ and washed in the fountain. It is only this that we can rest on, only this that will smooth and silence our spirits. For the dissatisfaction that arises from the present, there is one remedy--to cultivate such a faith in the wisdom and goodness of God’ s providence as will make our submission to Him in affliction cheerful and comparatively easy. Meet all the calamities that come upon you in a right spirit, and say, “ Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Thy sight” ; thus the troubled spirit is smoothed and silenced. Those fears that come from the anticipation of the future--how are they to be lulled? By cultivating the same faith in God. God is love to-day. God will be love to-morrow, and for evermore. God is wisdom to-day. He will be wisdom to-morrow, and the next day, and for evermore. God is king to-day, and God will be king to-morrow, and for ever. (C. Vince.) Lowliness and meekness The compiler of the Songs of Degrees saw a connection between this psalm of David and the anonymous hymn preceding; for each of them contains the exhortation, “ Let Israel hope in the Lord.” He seems to have regarded that, and may himself have composed it, as a fit introduction to the present. The same spirit of patient trust and love breathes in them both; but in David’ s the situation appears to be more happy. Different stages in the career of the son of Jesse are pointed out as the occasion of the psalm. One is when Saul and his servants treated him as an aspirant to the crown. Not so, he seems here to say. The Lord knows that I am not traitorous and ambitious. If I fight, it is in self-defence, not for self-exaltation; and I would be content never to war at all. I am in the hands of Providence. Another time in his life selected, with some countenance in the fact that it is the theme of the next psalm, is when he brought up the ark to the new sanctuary on Mount Zion (2 Samuel 6:21-22). Equally well the psalm may agree with other situations in his history. Disclaiming pride, showing humility, and recommending hope in the Lord, it is a permanent song of Israel, suitable for all seasons. From the point of view of those for whom the Songs of Ascents were collected, a meaning of this psalm seems to be that, though brought back to their own land, yet the Israelites must not be a haughty and defiant people. Pride is a disease of the heart. David offers a sound heart to the Lord. “ Lord, my heart is not haughty. In the same way he submits himself to the Physician in Psalms 139:23-24. It is like Peter’ s appeal (John 21:17). Lowliness is recommended throughout the Bible in statements, precepts, and examples; and passages which show the danger of pride proclaim the blessedness of humility. Without it nothing is pleasing to God. Our incarnate Lord taught it by example, symbol, and speech (Matthew 18:1-6; Mark 10:13-16). Childlikeness is not childishness, but the halo of the saint, the likeness of the angel, the mind that was in Christ. A subdued and quiet spirit is serenity at home, equanimity in business, wisdom in learning, God’ s pursuing smile. The character of the weaned child before the Father of spirits should be retained in youth, through manhood, and into age, growing more and more in heavenly promise. Why should not the watchful soul, ransomed by the Son, endued with the Spirit, loved by the Father, be childlike to the end? O Wisdom of God, our Pattern and Saviour, whose love surpasses that of women, and on whom we more depend than the weaned child on his mother, we would listen to Thy guiding voice, cling to Thee with even and peaceful hearts, and be little children in Thy protecting arms (Psalms 18:27; Psalms 51:17; Psalms 138:6; Proverbs 11:2; Proverbs 16:19; Proverbs 18:12; Proverbs 22:4; Isaiah 57:15; Micah 6:8; Matthew 11:29; Matthew 23:12; Luke 18:14; Romans 12:3; Romans 12:10; Romans 12:16; Ephesians 4:2; Philippians 2:3; Colossians 3:12; James 4:10; 1 Peter 5:5). (E. J. Robinson.) Nor mine eyes lofty.--Pride shown by the eye Pride has its seat in the heart; but its principal expression is in the eye. The eye is the mirror of the soul; and from it mental and moral characteristics may be ascertained, with no small degree of precision. What a world of meaning is sometimes concentrated in a single glance! But of all the passions, pride is most clearly revealed in the eyes. There can scarcely be a mistake here. We are all familiar with a class of phrases which run in pairs. We speak of sin and misery; holiness and happiness; peace and prosperity; war and desolation. Among these may be numbered the proud heart and the haughty look. A proud look is one of the seven things which are an abomination unto the Lord. It is said of Him, “ Thou wilt save the afflicted people; but wilt bring down high looks.” And hence David makes the acknowledgment: Lord, Thou knowest all things. Thou knowest that pride has no existence in my heart. Thou knowest that no pride flashes forth from mine eyes. (N. McMichael.) Neither do I exercise myself in great matters, or in things too high for me.--Divine mysteries to be studied with humility 1. The deep things of God should be approached by us with all lowliness of heart; and they should be studied, as it were on our knees. There are mysteries in the Divine nature which cannot be understood (Job 11:7). An inscrutable darkness rests on all those points where the Divine and the human elements come into contact. The purpose or the foreknowledge of God: how can it be reconciled with our responsibility? How can the Eternal Spirit touch the springs of the heart, and move them at His pleasure, without destroying the moral freedom? How can the Divine and the human natures meet together without confusion, so as to form the one person of our adorable Redeemer? A loving humility is of more value here than theological science. If we would understand Divine things we must first love them, and place ourselves under the teaching of the Holy Spirit. One cannot admire enough the prayer of Anselm, a profound divine of our own country, in the eleventh century. “ I do not seek, O Lord, to penetrate Thy depths. I by no means think my intellect equal to them: but I long to understand in some degree Thy truth, which my heart believes and loves. For I do not seek to understand that I may believe; but I believe, that I may understand.” 2. Meanwhile, amidst this partial darkness, there are two topics of consolation. (1) On all matters connected with our salvation, whatever difficulties may exist in theory, there are none in practice. (2) What we know not now, we shall know hereafter. (N. McMichael.) The responsibility of thinking The text carries us into the region of thought. It recognizes the responsibility of thinking. It presupposes the possibility of choosing and refusing in the entertainment of subjects. It implies that there are wholesome topics of thought and unwholesome; and that a man is just as much bound to discriminate in the things he thinks of as in the employment of his hours, the formation of his habits, or the selection of his friends. Most men know perfectly well that they can control thought--that they can make “ the porter watch” the comings in as well as the goings out--the entrances of thought as well as the exits of action. But the remarkable thing in the text is the enlargement of the responsibility of this self-control from the nature and quality, to the scale and size, of the thoughts. We can well believe that the holy and devout psalmist did not suffer his heart to entertain licentious and lascivious thoughts--that he did not compose these sweet songs, or wend his way towards Zion, with the love of sin allowed in him, or with the power of sin reigning. He speaks not of low but of high thoughts--not of grovelling but of soaring imaginations--as the disallowed and discountenanced inmates. And there can be no doubt that there is a danger in this direction. There are not only evil desires, sinful lustings, to make frightful havoc of the life and of the soul; there are also speculations and rovings of thought, which give no other warning of their nature than this, that they belong to districts and regions beyond and above us--that they are fatal to the quietness and the silence of the spirit--that they cannot be entertained without reawakening those restless and unsatisfied yearnings which were just beginning to still themselves on the bosom of infinite love. Of this sort, sometimes, are the ambitions of this life. Ambition has a use as well as an abuse. St. Paul himself, who had counted all things loss, yet, thrice in his epistles, speaks of ambition as his life. We use ambition in our education. We waken up drowsy energies by proposing to them prizes of effort. We bid them even “ strive for masteries.” Competition itself, though it be the near kinsman of that “ emulation” which St. Paul puts among the works of the flesh, is yet enlisted among the soldiers of Jesus Christ, if so be it may sublime itself at last into an effort which desires no man’ s crown. Nevertheless, we all feel that there is an ambition “ which o’ erleaps itself,” not more in the arrogance of its successes than in the extravagance of its expectations. There are men who would have been not only happier but greater if they had been less ambitious. There are men whose humbler efforts would at least have been respected, but whose more adventurous seatings have ended only in ridicule. That which is true in the ambitions of this life, whether professional or intellectual, is not less true in religion. It might seem that the psalmist wrote of this--it is for the sake of this, certainly, that we make his words our text to-day. They are exemplified within the Church, and without. They are exemplified in the treatment of Revelation--by believers, by doubters, by foes. The doctrine of the Trinity has been turned oftentimes, from a “ mystery” in the Divine sense, into a “ mystery” in the human. The soul should have calmed and hushed itself in that presence, as before the revelation of a Father, a Saviour, and a Comforter, not three Gods but one God--each Person necessary to the repose and to the activity, to the comfort and to the life, of every one of us, as we struggle along the path of difficulty into the clear light and into the perfect peace of a world in which God shall be all in all. Instead of this, speculation has been busy, and controversy has been busy, and logic has been busy, and rhetoric has been busy, and the whole matter has been referred and relegated from the tribunal of the soul to the tribunal of the intellect--theologians have exercised themselves in matters too wonderful for them--prayer has been intermitted for wrangling, and every nutritious particle has been extracted and exterminated out of the bread of life. It is impossible to live the life of this age and not to inquire. Close ear and eye--scepticism is in the air. It was always in books, now it is in society. But how shall a young man in such times, educated or uneducated, exercise that calming and hushing, that behaving and quieting which the text speaks of? Who shall prescribe the right to speculate, and the no right? Who shall lay down the conditions, present or retrospective, under which a rational being, ordained or unordained, shall be at liberty to exercise himself in great matters, foe high for him or for any man? It cannot be done. We will not say that there is always a want of seriousness in the scepticism of to-day, None the less there may be many a grievous error, many a deep-lying fallacy, in the process of that search. I will name two. There are those who, as soon as a doubt enters, cease instantly to pray. They count it an insincerity to call upon Him in whom they are not certain that they shall always continue to believe. If there be a word of truth in the Gospel, the way of faith is the way of prayer, and the man who has ceased to call upon the God of his life is no longer so much as an inquirer whether that God has spoken to us in His Son. Let the cry go forth even into the darkness--it shad “ calm and hush,” it shall “ behave and quiet” the soul that would inquire, the soul that would know. “ They worshipped” although--yea, “ they worshipped” because “ they doubted!” Yet one other thing. Many, when the faith is shaken, count it an insincerity to listen to any evidence but what they call the logical. They resent it as almost a fraud put upon them if any one offers the moral beauty of the Gospel, or the spiritual satisfaction to be found in it, or the cumulative force of recorded effects and consequences of believing, as furnishing, alone or altogether, any argument at all in belief of the Revelation of Jesus Christ. If mathematical demonstration is impossible, then, for them, it shall be impossible to believe. That conviction which the first Christian doubter made to hang upon the sight and upon the touch, they suspend upon the cogency of the Christian syllogism as it stands for the nineteenth age. We protest against this splitting and parcelling of the being. The man is one, and but one. Intellect, and heart, and conscience; the power to judge, the power to admire, the power to adore; the instinct of truth, the instinct of good, and the instinct of beauty--all these things must march as one towards the investigation of the Divine: the thing which we believe must be the satisfaction of them all, and each one must contribute its quota to the evidence, and its voice to the verdict. The counsel of the text is the counsel of wisdom, when it makes reverence, when it makes humility the condition of all knowledge that is worth the name. We may so educate and so discipline our own soul as that health shall be the reward. (Dean Vaughan.) Things too high for me It is something to know that there are such things. To know that well is to be wise. What is one of the secrets of power? It is to keep within your own ability; you can describe a circle six feet in circumference, but not seven feet. To know that is true wisdom. To know that I cannot write the “ Iliad” saves me time; it amounts to a revelation; it guides, limits, chastens my ambition. To know that you are not a statesman is half the battle of life. God has not put the flame of statesmanship within you, nor the flame of poetry, nor the flame of music. It is when people are trying to be and to do what the Divine election never intended them to be or to do that they are foolish and weak, and that life ends in futility. To know this and to do it would remodel our whole life.1. Who can understand the mysteries of Providence? They are too high for me. Here is a soul all purity, and yet God seems to frown upon that poor life more and more. That life has no opportunity, no home, no work, no joy, no song. Oh, it is sad! How is it? We cannot tell; we must wait; in centuries to come we shall know. But I have noticed that even such a soul complains less than the people who look upon it. The soul has its own inmost delights; it says--It is well; I must wait for the Lord patiently, and at last I will see why it was; meanwhile, I have bread to eat that the world knoweth not of” there is a general impression that I am forsaken, but in my soul I know that God is with me. This is a mystery of grace. God’ s children are not so forsaken as they sometimes appear to be; the Lord knoweth His own, and He will not deny His own autograph, His own seal of love. 2. Who can understand Providence itself? It is its own greatest mystery. There is a greater mystery than the mysteries of Providence, and that greater mystery is Providence itself. The greatest mystery is God. What is Providence? Shall we break up the word into provideance? “ Provide” --it is the word of a housewife; provide--see for, prepare for, arrange for; they will be back presently from the plough, have the meal ready; from the school, be ready with the little feast; from abroad, have the welcome ready prepared. This is providing for, seeing for, seeing after, being eyes to the blind and feet to the lame. This is the mystery of the Divine rule. It is too high for me. 3. But need we go so far away as to speak of the mysteries of Providence and of Providence itself? There is a mystery quite as great, and that is me itself. Who am I? What? Whence come? What is this life, this palpitation, this perpetual wonder and mystery? I think, I pray, I disbelieve, I harden myself into distrust; I have said, in moments of madness, “ There is no God.” Why, I am a mystery myself; the me stands next to the God in mysteriousness. If men would heed this doctrine they would be quieted often. Why go out of themselves to find mystery? The greatest mystery is at home--your own soul. Understand man, if you would understand God. So then we are humbled down into little services, domestic ministries, fraternal action of sympathy and healing and assistance. Yes, that is so. We do not need our wings yet. There is no humiliation in growth. Let us realize this doctrine and be sober-minded. Let us do just what little we can do. Yet it is not little, but very much; for God directs it, God accepts it, man needs it; all love is a gift Divine. 4. Here is a lesson to those who have great spiritual ambitions; men who want to be great readers of Divine mysteries, of Providence, of the plans and purposes of God. The Voice says--By and by, in a century, in a millennium, thou shalt see God. This is a hidden hope; this is not a mere sentiment, it is an inspiration, a source of strength, a great confidence; hold it and be strong. And here is a lesson to those who want to push their inquiries too far here and now. There be those who say to the preacher, and the teacher, and the expositor--How so? Explain this; what about this mystery? What is the answer to this great question? The answer is--Wait: what thou knowest not now, thou shalt know hereafter. 5. Here is a great lesson for all those of us who wish to live to-day, simply, earnestly, usefully. A man may stretch himself so high to see things beyond the stars that he may fall over the next stumbling-block: it should be ours to look around us, and below us, and see what we can do that is useful. Do not be the great man, the grand, mysterious soul, the cloud-flier, the planet, discoverer and wanderer, but keep thee near the shore, and keep thee near the haunt of poverty, and the bed of pain, and the nursery of childhood, and the school where ignorance seeks to be taught; be faithful in few things, and God will make thee ruler over many things. (J. Parker, D. D.) Psalms 131:2-3 As a child that is weaned of its mother.The weaned soul hoping in the Lord In the same hour in which the soul of man is by grace weaned from itself and-its own high thoughts, it begins to hope and rejoice in the Lord Jesus Christ. Yet, for a man to have the Lord alone for his confidence seems, to the unrenewed mind, the highest presumption; to put a present, an immediate trust in the Lord for all the future, in time and in eternity, is thought to be unhallowed boldness, and not humility or weanedness of heart. The whole dealings of God with man bring us back to the ever memorable words of the Lord Jesus (Matthew 11:25-26). I. The first weaning of the soul the grand event of a man’ s history. When God begins to deal with you in saving grace. He weans you from self, in its various forms, according to our Lord’ s teaching (Matthew 16:24). This self-denial includes weaning from the world, from your own will, from your own strength. II. The joy in the Lord that springs up in every weaned soul. The Lord your is now ransom, your righteousness, and the well of living joy within you. III. The daily weaning of the soul through life. The soul has to be weaned from all that must be forsaken, from that which may be either granted or denied, and from its own wisdom and way in the kingdom of heaven on earth. IV. The earnest desires and the fruitful work of every weaned soul.1. The weaning of the soul from self and from its own earthly affections neither stupefies the mind nor quenches the fire of all nobler desires. 2. The gracious weaning of the soul prepares and fits us for fruitful work. In grace, the helplessness of the child is combined with the strength and energy of the man. Except we receive the kingdom of heaven as a little child, we cannot enter therein; yet it is the same kingdom of heaven that suffereth violence, and which the violent take by force. (A. Moody Stuart, D. D.) The weaned child An aged minister once made the confession to another concerning this passage--“ I wish it were true of me; but I think I should have to make an alteration of one syllable, and then it would exactly describe me at times: ‘ My soul is even as a weaning rather than a weaned child,’ for,” said he, “ with the infirmities of old age, I fear I get fretful and peevish and anxious, and, when the day is over, I do not feel that I have been in the calm, trustful frame I could desire.” And we have often to make the same confession. We wish we were “ as a weaned child,” but then we are not. To the child weaning is one of its first troubles, and no doubt it is a terrible trouble to the poor little heart. But it gets over it somehow. It is a very happy condition of heart which is here indicated, and I desire to promote it in you. So-- I. Let us think what the psalmist meant by it. Look at the context and you will see that he meant--1. That pride had been subdued in him. “ Lord,” he says, “ my heart is not haughty, nor mine eyes lofty.” We are all proud by nature. The Lord Mayor is not a bit prouder in his gold chain than the beggar in his rags. Great I grows without any watering, for the soil of nature is muddy, and the rush of pride takes to it mightily. You need never be troubled about a man’ s keeping up his opinion of himself; he will be pretty sure to do that. David could say, “ My heart is not haughty.” His brother Eliab said that he was proud when he went down to carry his father’ s present to his soldier brothers, but it was not so. Whatever faults he had, he certainly had not that of vanity. Now, it is a great blessing when the Spirit of God keeps us from being proud. After all, we are nobodies, and we have come of a line of nobodies. The proudest peer of the realm may trace his pedigree as far as ever he likes, but he ought to remember that, if his blood is blue, it must be very unhealthy to have such blood in one’ s veins. The common ruddy blood of the peasant is, after all, far healthier. 2. And next he tells us that he was not ambitious. “ Neither do I exercise myself in great matters.” He was a shepherd; he did not want to go and fight Goliath, and when he did he could say, “ Is there not a cause?” Else he had kept in the background still. We shall never be as a weaned child if we have got high notions of what we ought to be, and large desires for self. Baruch thought he was somebody, tie had been writing the Word of the Lord, had he not? But the prophet said to him, “ Seekest thou great things for thyself? Seek them not.” We often seek after great approbation. And sometimes we are ambitious to do great things in the Church. The great destroyer of good works is the ambition to do great works. He is the best draughtsman, not who draws the largest but the most perfect circle. 3. He was not intrusive. “ Neither do I exercise myself in great matters, or in things too high for me.” Many men vex themselves because they will do what David did not. They want to understand everything. Some want to shape the Scriptures to their creed, and they get a very nice square creed too, and trim the Bible most dexterously; it is wonderful how they do it; but I would rather have a crooked creed and a straight Bible, than I would try to twist the Bible round to what I believe. The same evil comes up when we want to know all the reasons of the Divine providence. Why this happened and why that. When we begin asking, Why? Why? Why?--what an endless task we have before us! Now, from the simile itself we gather that the condition of heart David spoke of was like one who was able to give up his natural food. What nature loves the soul gives up. And that he had conquered his desires. Paul had, for he had learnt in whatever state he was therewith to be content. And doubtless, also, therewithout. And that as the child depends upon its mother entirely, so he depended upon the Lord. II. The excellence of this condition. Desires will no longer worry you. You give your thoughts to something better than the things of earth. Note the psalm which follows this, for there David declares he will build for the Lord of Hosts. When you are free from fretting, worrying, and self-seeking, you are free to work for the Lord. III. Is this state attainable? Certainly. David said, “ My soul is even as,” etc. Not that he hoped it would be. What is the way to get it? The psalm tells us. “ Let Israel hope in the Lord.” “ Easier said than done,” says somebody. Yes, except by faith; but to faith it is easy enough. You unconverted, may the Lord make you first a child, and then “ as a weaned child.” (C. H. Spurgeon.) The nature and effects of a weaned disposition of soul I. From what does grace wean the soul?1. From the dry breasts of the world (James 1:27; 1 John 2:16). (1) From the profits of the world (Hebrews 11:26).(2) From the pleasures of the world.(3) From all worldly comforts whatsoever, making it take up its rest in God (Luke 14:6). 2. From the foulsome breasts of sin, so that it loathes that which it loved before. II. How is the soul weaned from these things?1. Grace lays gall and wormwood upon these breasts, and so embitters them to the soul that it is made willing to give over sucking them (Hosea 2:6-7). Now, there are two things that serve to embitter these breasts. (1) Continual disappointments from them. Though the man is always seeking satisfaction from them, he can never get it. Like the prodigal (Luke 15:16).(2) Severe wounds arise from them. The man leans with great delight on the broken reed; and, ere he is aware, it pierceth through his hand. He sucks eagerly at the breast, and, instead of milk, wrings out blood. 2. The Lord fills the soul with better things (John 4:14). III. What are the effects of a weaned disposition of soul?1. The weaned soul is a resigned soul. (1) To the will of God’ s commandments.(2) To the will of His providence. 2. The weaned soul is cheerful, and not fretful in its resignation. What God does is not only well done, but best done; so says the weaned soul. 3. The weaned soul stands on other grounds, when created comforts are with him, and even when created streams are running full: he draws his support in both cases from God as the fountain. 4. The weaned soul will stand without them when these are gone, for they were not the props on which his house rested. Such a soul can adopt the prayer of Hab 3:17-18. 5. The weaned soul uses creative comforts passingly. They follow the directions of Paul (1 Corinthians 7:29-31). 6. The weaned soul casts itself upon the Lord, without carnal anxiety, as the weaned child depends on the mother’ s care (Philippians 4:6). (T. Boston, D. D.) Weanedness of soul I. Its nature. It presupposes a power left in the soul of loving and desiring. It is not the destruction of its appetite, but the controlling and changing of it. A weaned child still hungers, but it hungers no more afar the food that once delighted it; it is quiet without it; it can feed on other things; so a soul weaned from the world still pants much as ever for food and happiness, but it no longer seeks them in worldly objects. There is nothing in the world that it feels necessary for its happiness. This thing in it it loves, and that thing it values, but it knows that it can do without them, and it is ready to do without them whenever God pleases. Could you give up all you have at God’ s call? and when you had done so, instead of saying, “ There goes all my happiness,” could you say with a calm, though perhaps with a bleeding, heart, “ I can be happy still; my best treasure is yet left” ? Then yours is a weaned soul. II. Its sources. Our souls are as fast bound to the world as they were at first, or faster. We shall never leave it of our own accord. It is God’ s own right hand that must draw us from it. And how? The figure in the text will partly tell us.1. By embittering the world to us. 2. By removing from us the thing we love. 3. By giving us better food. Worldly pleasures debase the soul; they dispose it to sink deeper and deeper in its search for happiness, and to take up with viler things; the soul is always the worse for them: spiritual pleasures exalt the soul; they give it a distaste for all that is low and vile, and teach it to aspire to the very highest objects. III. Its advantages.1. It will save us from much sin. 2. It will keep us quiet under our many troubles. (C. Bradley, M. A.) Submission I. What is implied in this representation of submission to God.1. That we labour to be satisfied with what God appoints. 2. That we can do without what God does not appoint. 3. That we have higher comforts than those which God sees fit to deny. II. The considerations which are adapted to cherish such a submission.1. All the events of Providence are a discipline for promoting the welfare of good men. 2. Jesus Christ submitted to the will of God. 3. The demand of submission in its present form is only temporary. Submission is the character and blessedness of heaven; but there are no evils to be submitted to there. III. The advantages which result from this submission.1. It creates a just and a religious independence of men. 2. The submission which has been represented inspires with hope in God. 3. This submission quickens our desires for heaven. (Essex Remembrancer.) The suppression of self-will This is one of the shortest of the Psalms, and one of the most beautiful. It is unique. The grace of Christian humility is here before its time. The bird sings before the sun has risen. The spirit of Jesus is here. We almost expect the psalm to conclude with the words, “ Blessed are the meek.” God’ s benediction of peace rests upon a lowly soul. The hand of God has gently rocked a weary spirit to rest. The Authorized Version does not give the full meaning of the text. We should read, “ As a weaned child upon his mother, so lies my soul upon me.” The subject, then, is the suppression of self-will. Let us think of the good which is possible through failure, of the beatitude of disappointment, the peace of defeat. We see men putting forth all their powers in some noble cause, but the good results are strangely withheld. They conceive holy designs, which, like that of David to build a temple, are frustrated. Jesus Christ will not have even His work preferred before Him. The final sacrifice which some men are called upon to make is not the sacrifice of a pleasure, or the relinquishment of some precious treasure; it is the sacrifice of a dear purpose by which they hoped to bring glory to their Lord. They are required to turn from the path of hallowed service, to renounce the holy enterprise. John Ruskin has told us how, when he came into clearer light, his hope of some better service was cut off by failure of health. “ Just when I was coming out of school, very sorry for having been such a foolish boy, yet having taken a prize or two, and expect now to enter upon some more serious business than cricket, I am dismissed, by the Master I hoped to serve, with a ‘ That’ s all I want of you, sir.’” To give up what is dear to them is for some men comparatively easy, but to give up what they deemed dear to Christ,--to bind on the altar of sacrifice the one offspring of our heart, which gave such fair promise that in it men should be blessed,--that is hard. But it has to be done to the bitter end. No angelic voice stays the descending knife. Now, it is not difficult to see that, in many cases, these disappointments and failures are inevitable. Men are prone to exaggerate their powers, and to minify the hindrances which are before them. They have an attractive programme of bills which they propose to carry, but they underrate the forces of obstruction, and it is not in their power to enforce a closure. Now, there is no more searching test of character than disappointment. How charming the way in which John the Baptist accepted the narrowing sphere, and acquiesced in the circumstances which consigned him to comparative obscurity and silence. “ He must increase, but I must decrease.” That exquisite humility gives the transfiguring touch to a noble soul. It sheds a softened splendour upon the granite peaks of his character. It is possible for a man to be victorious even in defeat. Success may be good, but failure may be better. Disappointment brings a richer dower than achievement. No man need be ashamed of failure, or afraid of it, after the Cross of Christ. Now, this weaning of the soul, this spirit of chastened submission, this complete suppression of self-will, this hearty acquiescence in the will of God, do not come easily to a man. The soul does not gain these heights without struggle. This psalm, tranquil as it is, bears traces of sore conflict. There is in it the echo of a storm. “ Surely I have behaved and quieted myself.” The word “ behaved” here bears a meaning which we do not now attach to it. It means to hold in, to restrain. The psalmist has known tears, protests, demands, complaints. Passion and pride have raged like swelling waves. But all this is over now. “ Lord, my heart is not haughty,” etc. He does not seek “ a position above him involving duties and responsibilities too heavy.” He accepts the limitations of his life, and adapts himself to them. He is at last “ willing, having tried all other ways, to try just God’ s.” Observe, this is not a state of torpor, which leads one to retire from service, and sit, with folded hands, in dull inaction. Nor is it a state of weakness, in which a man ceases from effort because it seems to fail. It is a submission that is full of hopefulness. It implies a persuasion that, though we seem to fail, God’ s cause never fails; a calm conviction that, though the good result is deferred, it will surely come. There are men who, when thwarted, hindered, disappointed, foiled, in the midst of their broken purposes and crushed hopes, cry, “ Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Thy sight.” When that hour comes the soul enters into rest. “ Abraham made a great feast on the same day that Isaac was weaned.” There are rich feasts for weaned souls. The joy of conquest is poor beside the ecstasy of renunciation. The complacency of attainment, the pride of achievement, the flush of success, grows pale before the peace of disappointment. If there is one way in which, more than in any other, God is glorified upon this earth, it is when a man takes the bitter cup of disappointment, and says, “ Nevertheless, not as I will, but as Thou wilt.” Such men are victorious over defeat by accepting it. Surrender is the supreme grace of the Christian soul. When a man bows meekly down before the will of God, he has reached the highest good. (J. Lewis.) The quiet mind This psalm is called “ a Psalm of David,” and there seems no sufficient reason for doubting that it comes from his pen. Probably it belongs to one or other of the few peaceful seasons of his troubled reign, in which he was at leisure to practise that self-discipline which makes men strong, and those habits of meditation which make men wise. We have here a rare and a beautiful state of mind; and there are two expressions in this second verse which will help us to understand it. “ I have behaved and quieted myself;” literally, “ I have stilled and hushed my soul.” The idea seems to be that of checking and restraining himself. The man has reproved his wayward impulses; he has arrested unreasonable ambitions and unseemly desires; he has taken himself in hand, and has dealt firmly and faithfully with that turbulent compound. His mind, for a time long or short, and from causes which he does not explain, has been like a troubled sea; and he has ruled the raging of its waters, and hushed the violence of the storm. The second expression is more striking still. For some reason or other the psalmist has not only been in a stormy mood, but in an uneasy, fretful, unsatisfied mood as well. He has been like a child passing through its first troubles. There is no vehemence in what he is here alluding to. His soul is not in arms. It is irritation, disappointment, unsatisfied desire, with perhaps a general sense of not being able to make the thing out. But it is all over now. From many a source of earthly joy and satisfaction he has had to wean himself away. And he has done it. The painful business is over; and in the sweet content of a tranquil, satisfied, and assured mind, his “ soul is even as a weaned child.” Humility--a just estimate of oneself, a just conception of what one is, what one has a right to demand from life, what one really has a right to be angry and disappointed over; a clear perception of our relations to a Divine Being, to this great and wondrous universe in which we find ourselves, and to man, our brother and fellow-traveller: this is the sweet secret of peace, now and always. Have you ever known pride happy? You could as soon find a cone standing unsupported on its apex. Pride, in every form of it, is a monster with many mouths; and some of them are always crying, in all the bitterness of unsatisfied desire, “ Give, give!” Notice here how thoroughly in this matter David is at one with a Greater than David (Matthew 11:27-28). Not until we have brought down those high and haughty minds of ours; not until we have learned, I do not say the sad, but the sober look; not until lofty imaginations are in the dust at our feet, imaginations which in every direction are their own scourge,--can we know anything of the weaned condition of David’ s mind, or enter “ into the rest which remaineth for the people of God.” I hardly know which to admire the more in David--his profound wisdom, or his profound piety. Certainly it is as sure a mark of wisdom to know the limits of inquiry in any direction, and reverently to bow to them, as it is within such limits to reverently prosecute such inquiry. And the piety of it all is quite as great as the practical wisdom. It is so eminently characteristic of a true and trustful child to be able and willing to say, “ I cannot understand these things; but my Father knows all about them.” Is that childish talk? Then let me be a child. I have read somewhere, “ Of such is the kingdom of heaven.” Do you tell me that it is not knowledge? I say, it is better than knowledge; for it comes of the love that shall endure, when knowledge shall have “ vanished away.” (J. Thew.) Psalms 131:3 Let Israel hope in the Lord.Hope in the Lord Humility is the root of hope. Hope is the blossom of meekness. As these graces of the true child develop themselves in the heart of a man, he cherishes the Divine, the sublime conviction that it is God the Spirit who is working within him, “ both to will and to do.” I. A large portion of experimental religion, and of the Divine life within a man, may be considered under the form of hope. Religious experience is a strong and well-grounded expectation that the promises which God has made to us will not be broken. Such expectation will triumph over the delusion of our senses, over the bitter accusations of our consciences, and the apparently stern decrees of God’ s providence. “ We are saved by hope.” A young Christian begins by hoping for salvation, and the earnest worker hopes for his reward. God’ s servant bears his precious seed and casts it into the furrows, but he could not do so without the hope. All the strongest intuitions of faith are of the nature of hope. We are “ prisoners of hope” so long as we are pent up in this “ durance vile” of flesh and death. The essence of faith is to “ turn to the stronghold,” and look for the changeless life beyond the reach of our present turmoil, temptations, and disappointment. II. There are certain characteristics of hope expressed in this psalm which we can at once transfer to our own experience.1. It is a Divine hope, “ hope in the Lord” ; “ hope thou in God” ; “ truly my soul waiteth upon God.” The confidence of Israel in their own destiny and deliverance sprang not from their strange history, not from their own mental power, not from their value in their own esteem, not from their deserts, but from the Lord Jehovah. The root of their being was the eternal, ever-living, holy, faithful, covenant-keeping God. He could not be untrue, and He had promised. 2. It is a diffusive hope. The hope of the psalmist was strong enough to quicken the hope of all around him: he sang, “ Let Israel hope in the Lord.” A Christian’ s hope should be so thorough and earnest, and rational and life-giving, that he should be able to say by his very look, “ I hope in the Lord, why should not you?” and should thus move like incarnate sunshine through this dark world, the messenger of peace to ,broken spirits, the conqueror of death to the death-doomed, the minister of joy and gladness. 3. It is a practical hope. This characteristic is to be gathered out of the words “ from henceforth.” It takes its start from the actual circumstances in which we are placed. Some one exclaims, “ May I not wait until I have received some clearer evidence of the love of God? May I not wait until this mystery of His providence shall be solved? May I not wait until I see whether the promises of God are more decidedly vindicated?” No! take the hint of my text, and in the hour of your deepest depression “ hope in the Lord from henceforth.” 4. It is an eternal hope. “ From henceforth, even for ever,” is the watchword of our psalm. Our hope should and must take the long “ for ever” in. It has to do with unchanging realities, with an everlasting salvation; it looks forward to unseen things; it anticipates the ultimate fulfilment and accomplishment of all things that have been spoken by holy prophets since the world began. (H. R. Reynolds, D. D.) Confidence in God 1. His nature invites our confidence. Boundless in love, He longs intensely to do us good. Infinite in knowledge, He is acquainted with every aspiration of our heart. Unsearchable in wisdom, it is easy for Him to form the best plans for accomplishing His purposes. Omnipotent in power, all agencies are at His disposal, and none can stay His hand from working. 2. His deeds also invite our confidence. They furnish the most instructive commentary on His character. He has uniformly manifested Himself as a God who delights in mercy: He has never failed to succour those who hoped in Him. (N. McMichael.) Hope evermore Tennyson sings of “ the mighty hopes which makes us men.” Have you ever thought of the worst loss which can come to a man? Loss of property? That is a sad loss, but not the worst. Loss of friends? That is a sad loss, but not the worst. Loss of opportunity? Nor is that the worst of losses. Loss of hope, when the heart dies, and the courage fails, and the hands hang listlessly, and a man begins only and sadly to drudge--this, the loss of hope, is the blackest loss. “ I’ ve just got back from Washington, where I’ ve been since the election, trying to get an appointment,” said a politician. “ Gave up hope, eh?” said a sympathizing friend. “ Oh no,” was the quick reply. “ I came home to hope. It’ s cheaper to hope here.” I like that: hope any way. Get, if you must, the cheapest place to hope, but hope!” (W. Hoyt, D. D.) . Psalms 132:1-18 Psalms 132:1-18 Lord, remember David, and all his afflictions.The house of God This psalm was probably composed on the occasion of the installation of the ark in the place provided for it in the temple. Solomon himself may possibly have been the author; but it is more likely that it came from the lips of one who had been a companion of David as well as of his son. I. The idea of the house of God (Psalms 132:1-6). David’ s was an agitated life; but he found time to think for the house of God. Many whose lives are very full do so still. Some of those who care most for Christ’ s cause and spend on it unceasing energy are the most occupied of business men. Where there is a will there is a way; let only the passion for doing good be present and the time and the means will not be wanting. David was not allowed to carry out his pious intention; but, at great trouble and expense, he collected the materials of which Solomon subsequently made use. Thus one soweth and another reapeth. The good cause descends from generation to generation; and the godly are linked to one another by the sacred task which fills the ages. II. The occupation of the house of God (Psalms 132:7-9). The temple is now supposed to be complete and ready for occupation. In verse 6 the worshippers express their desire to enter the sacred precincts, and expression is given to the sentiments of awe and humility with which this should be done. But something more than the presence of worshippers is needed to constitute God’ s house: the presence of God Himself is requisite; and, in the next verse, He is requested to take possession of the habitation prepared for Him. Who does not know how empty the Sabbath may be, and how secular the church, when God’ s presence is not felt? But, when He comes down and breathes His own influence through the soul, then worship is real, and the church truly a house of God. III. The supports of the house of God (Psalms 132:10-18). In the remainder of the psalm the sacred poet recalls two oracles of the past in support of his prayer. The first is a promise, confirmed by an oath, which was given to David, that to the fruit of his body God would give the throne. And from this the inference is drawn that God will support the son of David in his great national undertaking, and the kings of the future, who will be the conservators of the sacred building. Here we perceive one of the secrets of the art of prayer: it lays hold of God’ s promise and pleads it. The other oracle refers to God’ s choice of Zion as His seat. Jehovah had announced that if a habitation for Him were built there, He would make it His rest for ever; and from this centre He would send out streams of blessing over the whole land. These glowing promises may by us be applied to the Church; and what is said about David may be applied to Christ. But these promises may also be applied to the temple of the individual soul. How blessed is the soul of which God has taken possession with the words, “ This is My rest for ever,” etc. (J. Stalker, D. D.) A prayer for the house of David I. David’ s anxiety to build a temple (Psalms 132:1-5; 1 Chronicles 22:14-16). We are to worship God with our best, and His house should always surpass the houses of His worshippers. II. The removal of the ark to Zion (Psalms 132:6-10). The reference in verse 6 is to David’ s experience in the days of his youth, when he used to hear of the ark in his native town, although he had never seen it. On its return from the Philistines the ark was for twenty years in the forest-city, Kirjath-jearim (1 Samuel 7:2), where it was out of sight, and, in a large measure, out of mind. Here David found it (2 Samuel 6:1-23.), and brought it up to “ the city of David,” to Jerusalem. Having been installed in the capital, it was used for its appointed and appropriate purpose, and the psalm recites the feelings and words of the people in view of their privileges. III. The covenant made with David (Psalms 132:11-13; 2 Samuel 7:1-29; Psalms 89:28-37). IV. The promise based on the covenant (Psalms 132:14-18). This strophe, although it is not expressly so stated, rehearses the words of God Himself, resuming and enforcing the terms of the original engagement. Jehovah declares that Zion is His resting-place. Here Jehovah sat as upon a throne, and manifested His royal state by the blessings lie bestowed upon His people. These blessings are set forth with detail and emphasis. In the concluding verses the poet reverts to the main theme, the grace given to the house of David and the promise linked inseparably with that lineage. The horn is a common Biblical emblem for strength and prosperity (Deuteronomy 33:17; 1 Samuel 2:10; Psalms 75:10; Ezekiel 29:21; Revelation 5:6), and to say that a horn should sprout or shoot forth for David is to convey the idea of some signal descendant who should fulfil all that David suggested. The psalm closes with a contrast between the scion of David’ s house and his foes. They are to be clothed with shame and wear it as a garment, while on the contrary the crown upon his head sparkles with jewels, its lustre undimmed, its splendour unfading. (T. W. Chambers, D. D.) The song of the builders I. Preparatory work. The picture of my text may be a rebuke to the slothfulness of us all, to the feeble wavering purposes of Divine services which we languidly entertain and partially carry out, to the preference of our own comfort to God’ s work, which leads us all to give but the superfluity of our time, or of our means, or of our sympathy, to the service of our brethren, or, what is the same thing, to doing the work of God. But it should come with a special message to men, and emphatically to women, of comparative leisure and freedom from corroding frets and consuming toils. Brace yourselves for continuous service, give yourselves in resolved self-dedication to it, and fling behind you your leisure and regard for your own selfish repose, that you may lay some stone in the Temple of God. II. The prayer for God’ s blessing on the work. The prayer rests upon the profound conviction of the incompleteness of all our organizations and works if taken by themselves. The Temple may be finished. But something more is needed. Not till the ark is in the Holiest of all, and the cloud of glory fills the house, could they say, “ It is finished.” And the lesson is of everlasting importance. It is true for all ages of the Church. None, perhaps, ever needed it more than our own. We need to guard ourselves most jealously lest we come to pug the instrument in the place of the power, to “ burn incense to our own net, and to sacrifice to our own drag.” If ever we do that, then we shall soon haw to say, “ We have toiled all night and caught nothing.” III. The Divine answer, which more than fulfils the psalmist’ s desires. The prayer had pointed to David’ s swearing to the Lord as a plea on which its petitions rested. The reply points to a mightier oath than David’ s, as the ground on which God’ s mercy is, sure. The king “ sware to the Lord.” Yes, but “ the Lord hath sworn to David.” That is grander and deeper. Another parallel of the same kind occurs between the former and the latter parts of the psalm. The one alleges David’ s finding out a habitation for the Lord,” as a plea. The other replies, “ The Lord hath chosen Zion,” etc. A mightier will than David’ s had determined it long ago. State this in its widest form, and what does it come to but that great truth, that God’ s own love is the cause, and God’ s own promise, based upon His unchangeable nature, the guarantee for all His merciful dealings with us? He is His own all-sufficient reason. The day shall come when the weary work of the ages shall be accomplished, and the glory of the Lord shall fill that wondrous house. In that lofty and glorified state of His Church the prayers of earth shall be surpassed by the possessions of heaven. Here we ask that. God would dwell with us, and there “ the tabernacle of God shall be with men,” etc. Here we ask for righteousness as our garment, and there it shall be granted us to be arrayed in “ fine linen, clean and white,” etc. Here we ask for joy in the midst of sorrow, and there “ they shall obtain joy and gladness,” etc. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Psalms 132:6-7 Lo, we heard of it at Ephratah: we found it in the fields of the wood. Hearing, seeking, finding Long before David’ s time, the ark of the Lord had been almost forgotten by the children of Israel. The first thing, therefore, for David to do was to find the ark; for it was a central portion of the Divinely-ordained ceremonial. But I am not going to talk so much about David finding the ark as to think of some who are in the condition in which I once was, when I desired to find God. I longed to meet with Him in the person of Christ, in His own appointed way, but I could not find Christ. My heart was dark, my eyes were holden, and I looked everywhere but in the right place. I. My first remark will be that, like David, we wish to find the ark, that ark being Christ.1. Now, concerning that ark, the first point to be noted is that it was covered with a golden mercy-seat, which was the place of forgiveness when it was sprinkled with the sacrificial blood. Those who came to it, through the high priest, knew that God had accepted them, and forgiven their sin. You and I know that we can never meet with God except at the mercy-seat, which is Christ Jesus the Lord. Christ made an atonement, a propitiation, for our sin; He “ offered Himself without spot to God.” By the way of His pierced body, that rent veil, is the only means of access for a sinner to a holy God. 2. The ark was a throne of grace. God sat there, as it were, upon a throne of mercy; and to us, to-day, the Lord Jesus Christ is the throne of grace. God in Christ Jesus is our reigning God, stretching out the silver sceptre of His mercy, and accepting all who come unto Him. 3. The ark was the place of God’ s manifestation. As much as could be seen of God’ s glory was seen between the cherubim; and if thou wouldst see the glory of God, thou must look into the face of Jesus Christ. 4. There were within the ark three notable things,--first, the tables of stone, which God had ordered to be placed there for preservation; there was, next, the golden pot with manna, and then there was also Aaron’ s rod that budded. Now, if you come to Christ, you will find in Him all that these things represented, and all that you want. (1) There is preserved the complete, vindicated, and honoured law.(2) Spiritual food.(3) The rod of Christ to rule us. II. Knowing what we do about Christ the ark, we desire to find Him.1. David thirsted to find this ark immediately, and so much in earnest was he that he said, “ Surely I will not come into the tabernacle of my house,” etc. Oh, when it comes to this pass,--that you must have Christ, then you shall have Christ! 2. Next, David sought the ark most reverently, for he recognized it as being a token of the presence of “ the mighty God of Jacob” ; and you and I must seek Christ reverently. 3. But while David thus sought very reverently, yet observe that it was with intense desire that he might receive this ark when once he found it. And, oh! if you want to find Christ, let it be with this desire, “ Oh, that He may come and live in my soul, and be my own personal Christ! I do not want merely to hear about Him, to be taught about Him; I want to have Him, and, if He is to be had, I will have Him. If there is grace beneath the sky for a poor sinner, then I, the chief of sinners, will not rest until I find rest in Him.” III. Knowing what this ark is, and then desiring to find it, we have heard where it is: “ Lo, we heard of it at Ephratah.” “ We heard of it.” And is it not a blessed thing that we have heard about where Christ is? Some here present have long heard of Christ, and you are always hearing about Him; is it not time that you should get further than merely knowing and hearing, and should intensely seek until you find him? IV. The next words are, “we found it.” You remember the learned Grecian who, when he had made a discovery while in the bath, leaped out of it, and ran down the streets crying, “ Eureka! Eureka! I have found it! I have found it!” Oh, those are the best words in my text, “ We found it.”1. David said that he found it “ in the fields of the wood” ; that is, where he did not expect to find it. Have not many of us found Christ where we never thought we should find Him? 2. In the case of David finding the ark, it was not only where he could not have expected it, but it was in a place that was despised,--a rustic place,--“ in the fields of the wood.” Perhaps the Lord may lead you to some very plain minister, without any polish, or talent, or ability. I knew one who found the Saviour down a saw-pit, and another who found Him in a hay-loft. 3. “ We found it in the fields of the wood” may perhaps mean that you will find Christ where you lose yourselves. V. “we will go” : “ We will go into His tabernacles.”1. Now that we have found where Christ is, and we can go to Him, we will have Him. We will go to God in Christ: “ we will go into His tabernacles.” It is a blessed thing to see a soul on the go towards God when Christ becomes the Way. 2. “ We will go into His tabernacles,” and we will dwell there. We will dwell with God; we will get back to the Father’ s house where there is “ bread enough and to spare,” and there will we stop. We will go to learn of God, we will be the disciples of Christ. We will go, and we will go at once. VI. And then the last word is, “we will worship” : “ We will worship at His footstool.”1. In lowly reverence, we will bow ourselves down in the very dust, for we are but dust and ashes even when we are saved. 2. “ We will worship at His footstool” ; that is, with deepest solemnity, for even His ark, His temple, is but the footstool of the great King. 3. But let us worship there with great joy. His “ saints shall shout aloud for joy” ; and, as they bow at his footstool, it shall not be as slaves, but as His chosen and accepted ones. 4. Let us also bow there very gratefully, blessing God that He has brought us to His feet. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Psalms 132:7-9 We will go into His tabernacles.The devout worshipper’ s resolution and ardent prayer I. His resolution.1. Attendance at the house of God. Not merely as a duty, but as a delight.2. Devotion in the house of God. To worship in spirit and in truth; to meet with God in His holy temple. II. His prayer.1. For the manifested presence of the Saviour.2. For the sanctification of God’ s ministering servants.3. For the abundant joy of God’ s faithful people. (J. G. Breay, B. A.) Public worship I. Its reasonableness. It is true that God is a spirit, and they that worship Him should worship Him in spirit and in truth. It is true that private worship should be regularly observed; and it is true that, without the homage of the heart, no external ceremony can be of any avail. But still it is surely reasonable that our feelings should be expressed in words, and that these words should not be uttered in secret alone. Has God gifted us with the power of speech, and should not this faculty be employed in the worship of the Giver? Has He blessed us with social capacities, and should we not return His kindness by meeting in these capacities, for the purpose of promoting His glory? Is it not regarded as greater honour to even an earthly benefactor, and a stronger proof of our attachment to Him, to speak of His praise to others, than simply to confine this feeling to our own bosoms? In like manner do we testify our love and gratitude to God by public expressions of worship to Him, while we incur blame by neglecting the opportunities that offer for this purpose. Besides, there are certain blessings we receive of a public nature, and which, therefore, ought to receive a public confession. There are certain wants which we need supplied, of a public description, and the supply of which ought, therefore, to be petitioned for, in our public capacity. II. Its advantages.1. God regards with delight His humble worshippers. 2. This duty is full of the most rational delight to the soul of man. Worship is the noblest exercise under heaven. 3. Worship has a tendency to excite us to the more faithful discharge of duty in general, to improve the various graces of the Christian life. 4. How well calculated, too, is the house of God for begetting in the bosoms of men proper sentiments with regard to themselves! It humbles the pride of the great; it fills with contentment the poor. It levels for a time the difference which the distinction of ranks makes in society. 5. It is a means of our preparation for heaven. (R. Macnair.) God’ s house and worshippers I. Men should approach God’ s house in a holy frame of mind. They should put off the garments spotted by the flesh, and put on the clean linen of the saints; they should wash their hands in innocency, and their consciences in the blood of the Lamb before they enter this habitation of God, and draw near to His holy place. II. Men should offer within it holy worship; and this worship should consist of an unblemished sacrifice and a pure oblation. III. Men should carry away with them the spirit of their worship, in order to influence their lives. “ True religion,” says an old and quaint divine, “ is no way a gargleism, only to wash the tongue and mouth to speak good words; it must root in the heart, and then fructify in the life, else it will not cleanse the whole man.” (G. F. Fessey, M. A.) On the sanctuary If, with half the interest which their temporal concerns excite, men would reflect upon the nature of public worship, its reasonableness and advantages, they would, with one mind, perceive it to be a duty which they cannot excusably nor safely neglect. I. Consider yourselves in your social capacity. Free men from the restraints of religion, and leave them to the passions of nature, and the world will soon be converted into a scene of wickedness, debasement, and misery. But how is a general sentiment of religion to be preserved? Doubtless, one of the best means is the consecration of a part of our time to the holy purpose of recognizing the sovereignty of the Deity, and learning His will. Besides, it is the natural tendency of this duty be civilize the manners and the affections. Ideas of subordination are cherished, when all feel that they are accountable to a superior power. Mutual regard and fidelity are promoted when all assemble together as brethren, before one common Parent, with sentiments of humility and hope. II. Consider yourselves in your relation to God. It results from our moral capacity that the glory of this Being, who hath given us existence, and so highly endowed and exalted us, should be the supreme object of our live. Now, He is glorified by our virtuous demeanour in His world, and by our private bosom acknowledgments of Him as our Lord and benefactor; but He is more especially and suitably glorified by us when we unite together to offer Him, in the presence of each other and the universe, the devout homage of our hearts and lips. This is the greatest tribute we can bring Him; a tribute which nature dictates and reason recommends. III. Consider the demands of the religion you profess. What was the conduct of our blessed Lord with respect to public worship? For our example, His custom was to go into the synagogue every Sabbath day. What was the practice of the primitive Church; the happy few who had been often with Him, and knew His will? (Acts 2:42). What are the express or implied precepts of the Gospel upon this subject? (Hebrews 10:25). Why, indeed, did our Lord ordain holy mysteries, which are social in their nature, very forms of public worship? Why did He appoint a ministry in His Church, and promise to be with this ministry, “ even unto the end of the world” ? Are not these expressions of His will that His disciples should assemble together, to preach, and hear His Word, and to worship the Father in spirit and in truth? (Bishop Dehon.) Psalms 132:8-9 Arise, O Lord, into Thy rest, Thou and the ark of Thy strength.Blessings on the sanctuary I. The temple is here called the place of rest, or the abiding place of God. II. The temple, gorgeous as it was, was incomplete and valueless without the ark. In all ages the ark in the Temple is its life. Still the quick heart within the man, and you will have the stately skeleton soon. Withdraw the magic vapour, and the wheels whirr no longer, and the most exquisite contrivances are mute and motionless machinery. Take the breath from the great organ’ s heart, and in vain you bid it discourse its harmonies. III. Look at the other blessings which are asked for, either obviously or by direct implication in the psalm.1. The ark of God’ s strength in the Temple implies that God’ s power is in the Temple, and He waits to exert it in the Word, in the minister’ s appeals, in the people’ s prayers. 2. The prayer proceeds to ask that the priests may be “ clothed with righteousness,” which is, in fact, a petition for universal purity. It is a prayer not only for us who minister, but for you who hearken, that we may, all of us, be robed always, robed already, in the new linen, clean and white, in which the saints were seen in heaven. 3. The third blessing that is asked for is holy joy in God, which has its foundation in oneness with God, both in favour and feeling, and which has its outlet in the appropriate expressions of praise. (W. M. Punshon, LL. D.) The gracious presence of God in His own ordinances, an object of earnest desire to every acceptable worshipper I. The glorious Object to whom the people of God present their supplication, in the view of a solemn appearance before God in the ordinances of His worship--Jehovah Himself.1. He, to whom this great name belongs, is the independent, self-existent God, whose being is in and of Himself; and who gives being to all His words and works. 2. He is the eternal, and, consequently, the unchangeable God. 3. He is the fountain of all blessedness, as well as of all being. Indeed, if He is the one, he must needs be the other. If He is independent, He cannot but be all-sufficient. 4. He is Israel’ s own God. In our applications to Him, therefore, on this and on every other occasion, we ought still to view Him as Jehovah, our God: our God by His own gracious grant and promise; our God by virtue of that everlasting covenant, which is sealed to every worthy communicant at the sacramental table. This will encourage us both to be fervent in our supplications for His presence, and confident in our expectations of it. II. The place into which God is here invited, or where His presence is desired; called, in the text, His rest. The Church of Christ may be called God’ s rest on a twofold account.1. On account of His Divine pleasure and satisfaction in her, much beyond the pleasure that a weary or burdened person has in a place or state of rest. 2. On account of His constant and perpetual residence in her. III. The invitation which they humbly, yet confidently, address to Him. “ Arise.” The manner of expression here used, especially when applied to the Church, intimates the following things.1. That, in taking possession of His rest, it is necessary that God should make signal displays of His power. 2. That there may be times when God seems, in human reckoning, inactive and negligent about the affairs of His Church. 3. That though Zion is God’ s rest, there is, and always will be, much work for Him to accomplish in her. IV. The manner in which He was desired and expected to accept the invitation. They did not ask Him to be present, unless in a manner adapted to the dispensation under which they lived, and under those symbols by which His presence among them was always exhibited and secured. They only wished Him to be present, along with the ark of His strength. This imports--1. That the people of God had an earnest desire after the symbol itself, and expected not to enjoy the presence of God, in the same comfortable manner, without it. 2. That they could not be satisfied with the symbol, without the thing signified and represented by it. 3. But the principal thing to be attended to about this ark of God’ s strength was its being the most lively type of Christ. This intimates-- (1) That they desired the presence of Christ as Mediator, and the benefit of His mediation, as well as the presence of God Himself. Indeed, these two can never be separated.(2) That they neither expected the presence of God, nor desired it, otherwise than through Christ. Out of Christ God is a consuming fire. V. Improvement of the subject. It affords us--1. Matter of wonder, gratitude, and praise; in that we enjoy the symbols of God’ s presence, and have access to worship Him according to His own appointment. 2. Matter of reproof to all who satisfy themselves with outward privileges, and matter of warning to all who enjoy them, against such a fatal mistake. 3. Matter of encouragement to all in this company who have business with God to-day. 4. Matter of consolation to all those who mourn for the low state of the Church in our day, and for the very low state of the work of God in her. 5. Matter of trial to all present; particularly to those who intend to eat the sacramental bread and drink the sacramental cup. (John Young, D. D.) Psalms 132:9 Let Thy priests be clothed with righteousness.A righteous pulpit We hear advocated, on platforms and elsewhere, different kinds of ministry. Some are urgent for a talented ministry. Some are urgent for an educated ministry. They insist on culture. Some are urgent for an evangelical ministry. The great want, however, is a righteous ministry. I. A ministry that advocates the principles of rectitude. The Sermon on the Mount should be the text and the imperial inspiration of every teacher. II. A ministry that advocates the principles of rectitude Is an honest way.1. Conscientiously, believing in them. 2. Consistently, living them. 3. Independently, disregarding alike the frowns and smiles of men. A ministry, in fact, that “ commends itself to every man’ s conscience in the sight of God. III. A ministry that advocates the principles of rectitude for a right purpose. Not for popularity, not for greed, not for sect, but for right. Such a ministry as this the people will believe in, trust, and follow. (David Thomas, D. D.) And let Thy saints shout for joy.-- The connection between a pious ministry and a happy Church True piety has ever a cheerful character; our religion has no sympathy with gloom (Proverbs 3:17). We dare not speak of uninterrupted enjoyment. Christians live too much beneath their privileges to admit of this; and, even though they should attain perfection, how could they escape suffering in a world where sin so much abounds? It would be preposterous to expect it. But, making all deductions, the believer has far more pleasure than the man who rejects the overtures of Divine compassion. Is it not so? Would you not like to know that your sins were pardoned, every one of them, no more to rise up in judgment against you? Would you not like to know that God was your friend, and that He would never leave you nor forsake you? Would you not like to know that the bondage of death is removed, for Jesus has disarmed the grisly monster of his sting? Now, these are some of the benefits of which genuine believers are partakers; and an interest in them is obtained by believing in the Son of God, who is the Strength and the Saviour of suffering man. Would you not be happier, as well as better, could you say, All these are mine? Make the experiment for yourself. Surely it is worth the trial. Linger no longer. Close at once with God’ s own free terms. Permit Him to save you in His own way, and there shall be no disappointment. (N. McMichael.) Joy in the Lord Joy is both full of insight and medicinal. Our best poets delight to depict its power in each of these ministries. Wordsworth said it was “ with an eye made quiet by the deep power of joy that he saw into the life of things.” Then he felt sensations sweet passing into his pure mind, with tranquil restoration. Then he came to know that blessed mood in which the burden of the mystery of this unintelligible world is lightened; and he became a living soul. If this be the ministry of the joy of nature, surely the “ joy of the Lord” would lighten many dark problems in life, lift many a burden, change the home and the business of many a weary and tried child of God, and fill them with brightness and song. Psalms 132:13-16 For the Lord hath chosen Zion. God’ s choice of Zion He giveth a reason for the absolute promise of Christ’ s coming to rule the spiritual kingdom of Israel, or the Church, because the Lord had chosen Zion in the type, and the universal Church under the figure, to be His chosen Temple and habitation, wherein He delighted. Whence learn--1. Where God will settle His sanctuary, there tie will settle His kingdom also: Zion must not want a king; for the reason here, why the Lord will with an oath set up one who shall be the fruit of David’ s body upon the throne, is “ because He hath chosen Zion.” 2. The Lord’ s pitching upon any place to dwell in, or persons to dwell among, cometh not of the worthiness of the place or persons, but from God’ s good pleasure alone. 3. The Lord resteth in His love towards His Church, accepting the persons, prayers, and service of His chosen people; lie smelleth a sweet savour in Christ here, and His love maketh His seat among His people steadfast. 4. What is promised under typical figures is really everlasting, not in regard of the figure, but in regard of the signification: “ For this is my rest for ever,” is true only in respect of the Church, represented by Zion. 5. No reason is to be craved for God’ s everlasting good will to any person or incorporation; His pleasure may suffice for a cause. (D. Dickson.) Zion and her provision I. God’ s choice of His Zion.1. The sovereignty of God, which is exercised towards His creatures. 2. This choice is a choice of love (Ephesians 2:4-5; Jeremiah 31:3). II. The purposes for which God has chosen Zion. God desires Zion--1. For His habitation. 2. For His rest. Where He takes up His abode, it is for ever. III. The blessings promised. In 1 John 2:12-13, you have the family of God set forth from infancy to manhood; from weakness itself, to perfect strength; from sin’ s dominion and degradation, to salvation’ s honours and glories; from the captivity of Satan, to a full victory over him; from the love, power, and guilt of sin, to the enjoyment of all the Gospel blessings, promises, and treasures in Christ. (C. Parvey.) Psalms 132:15I will abundantly bless her provision.An abundant blessing promised to the Church upon her spiritual provision I. The glorious speaker--God Himself.1. The God for whom a habitation has been prepared in the Church. If you enjoy the blessing of God upon your provision, you will cheerfully contribute your mite for preparing Him a habitation. 2. The God who hath chosen Zion, and taken up His habitation in her. By this means He knows every circumstance relative to her and to every one of her members; lie is ready to hear all the requests of His people, and to grant them without loss of time. 3. The God from whom all her provision comes. As He knows what provision is suitable to every one’ s taste, and to every one’ s need, He knows what blessing is proper to make every one’ s provision effectual for affording him the promised satisfaction. II. The party spoken of--Zion. The Church is spoken of in the feminine gender, chiefly to put us in mind of two things.1. Of her weakness and helplessness, considered in herself. 2. Of that happy relation that subsists between Christ and her. So close and intimate is that mysterious relation, that it can be compared to no other earthly relation--so fitly as to that between husband and wife. He has betrothed her to Himself for ever. He nourishes and cherishes her as a loving husband the wife of his youth. III. The benefit promised--a blessing. As soon as any person is brought into a state of union with Christ, and is blessed in Him,--being justified freely by the grace of God; not only is that person adjudged to happiness, but that sentence has an effect upon all that he meets with in the course of Providence. All the common benefits of life have a commission from God to be means, not merely of rendering his present life happy, as far as happiness is attainable here,--but likewise of preparing him for eternal happiness, and of conducting him to it. Yea, the trials, afflictions, and miseries of this life, are all under an appointment of God, to be conducive to the same end (2 Corinthians 4:17). IV. The more immediate subject of this blessing--her provision. The-spiritual Israel have nothing of their own to support the life of their souls: and the wilderness, through which they pass, affords nothing fit for that purpose. They behoved, therefore, to perish, if their Heavenly Father did not give them the true bread from heaven, which is no other than the flesh and blood of His own eternal Son, which He gave for the life of the world. V. The degree in which this blessing is bestowed--abundantly. (John Young, D. D.) I will satisfy her poor with bread.--The poor-laws of the Bible Those who are not familiar with the Bible, especially with the Old Testament, might be disposed to smile at the statement, that if we could get the poor-laws of the Bible fairly administered, there would be an end to the miseries and complaints of the poor. God has from the beginning made the poor man’ s cause His own. His aim has been to stir men up to consideration and sympathy, by identifying the poor with Himself in His account with mankind. “ He that hath pity on the poor lendeth to the Lord.” That is the principle; the claim of the poor on men is the claim of God. And throughout the Old Testament God announces and enforces His provision for the poor (Deuteronomy 15:7-11; Isaiah 58:6-8; Nehemiah 8:10). The principle runs through the whole Book. Whatever men felt that they owed to God they were to pay to the poor. Would it be possible to place their claim on a surer and firmer foundation? And there is a tenderness in the tone of the Bible about the poor and helpless, which is unmatched, as far as I know, in any ancient literature; and it is one of the most sacred traditions which the elder dispensation handed down to the Christian Church. But there is nothing in the way in which the Bible deals with the question which gives countenance even for a moment to the notion that bread is the great necessity of man. God’ s cure of disease is always radical; therefore the method is slow, deep, and, on the surface, long invisible. And herein God’ s method differs essentially from the various panaceas for social wrong and misery which have been promulgated in various ages by the philosophers. Bread is precious to those who use life nobly. But he who should assure bread on a sufficient scale to all men, and make no provision for their spiritual culture, for their concord, brotherly love, energy, industry, and perseverance, would miss the deepest elements of human misery, would, in the end, nourish it fearfully, and would hasten, instead of retarding, the overthrow of society. God, in His method of dealing with the problem, considers the “ what then?” He takes things in their true order, the heavenly order, the order of their necessity. He does not flood the world with plenty, and leave man to wrangle and wrestle over the partition of it. He would first cure the radical selfishness and wickedness out of which in the long run all absolute poverty springs. It is a mistake to use the term Christian Socialism, under the idea of commending the Gospel to those who favour Communistic views. The Gospel aims at an ideal which, as a dream, has haunted the imagination of every great world reformer who has ever pored over the dark problems of society, but it aims at it by a path which is all its own. It begins from within, and works outwards; it puts love in the heart, and then sends plenty. All true abundance springs out of love. There was a movement in the early Church which had, no doubt, a communistic aspect, and which some may connect with the essential spirit of Christianity, and regard as the only true form of life in the Christian society (Acts 2:42-47). It seems to have been confined to the Church at Jerusalem, and there it was carried too far and lasted too long. We find from apostolic records that the Church at Jerusalem became rapidly the poorest and the most helpless of all the primitive Churches, and was compelled to throw herself on the charities of the Gentile Christian world (Romans 15:25-27), and this history is very important and instructive. It reveals the inevitable issue of a communistic administration of the temporal affairs of men. The rights of property were most carefully guarded in the early Churches, as we gather from all the apostolic epistles; while brotherly love and the most large and constant charity were enjoined on the most sacred grounds. There is nothing that God reiterates more earnestly than the poor man’ s claim. There is nothing that God sustains more mightily than the poor man’ s cause. There is nothing that God avenges more awfully than the poor man’ s wrong. “ Would God that I could see it,” many a poor man cries; “ but, as far as I see, the masters that profess most are often the hardest; and those who say that they have most to do with God, and from whom we might hope to find what God can do to help us, are too frequently known as grinding the faces of the poor.” Well, there is truth in this, alas l no doubt; but be very chary of attaching value to the criticism of employers by the employed; their judgment will be constantly narrow, selfish, and unjust. But ye masters, remember the higher judgment. Ye are My witnesses, saith the Lord; ye, who say that ye know My name. Beware how you drag it through the mire of selfish and sensual lives, and put it before all men, and especially before the poor, to an open shame. We may all take the warning home. But ye poor, be just. Do not charge on God the wrongs and evils which He is doing His best by His own patient but radical method to cure. He hates the grinding of the face of the poor more entirely, I believe, than He hates any evil thing that is done under the sun. Be just. See how God is fighting your battle in all ages, and maintaining your cause against the oppressor. There is one method by which God is always maintaining the cause of the poor, which they are very slow to recognize and to honour, and that is against themselves, against their own idleness, improvidence, and lust. Man’ s folly and sin do not withhold, do not restrain, God’ s mercy, or we had none of us been here. But while He pities, He educates and purifies. Side by side with the pity there is the hard, stern rule, that “ if a man will not work, neither shall he eat.” Giving is the cheapest and easiest form of charity. To take poverty by the hand and lift it is harder work, and demands a resolution, the ultimate spring of which is on high. Self-help must be the message of our visitors and almoners. We must have done with the pampering method of the constant dole. Help the industrious and necessitous over a crisis that they may help themselves again. Stir up the energies of the indolent and dependent. (J. B. Brown, B. A.) Psalms 132:16I will also clothe her priests with salvation.A consecration sermon I. The Promiser “ I” : that is, the Lord; the most true, the most constant, the most powerful God; most true and sincere in the declaration of His purpose, meet constant and immutable in the prosecution, most powerful and uncontrollable in the perfect execution thereof. These glorious attributes and perfections of His, so often celebrated in Holy Writ, do ground our reliance on all God’ s promises, and do oblige us, notwithstanding the greatest improbabilities or difficulties objected, to believe the infallible performance of this. II. The persons whom the promise mainly regards.1. Priests; that is, persons peculiarly devoted to, and employed in, sacred matters; distinguished expressly from the poor (that is, other meek and humble persons); and from the saints (that is, all other good and religious men). 2. Her priests; that is, the priests of Zion: of that Zion which “ the Lord hath chosen” ; which “ He hath desired for His permanent habitation” ; which He hath resolved to “ rest and reside in for ever.” Whence it plainly enough follows that the priests and pastors of the Christian Church are hereby, if not solely, yet principally designed. III. The matter of the promise. “ I will clothe,” etc. The least we can imagine here promised to the “ priests of Zion,” will comprehend these three things.1. A free and safe condition of life: that they be not exposed to continual dangers of ruin; of miserable sufferance or remediless injury: that the benefits of peace, and law, and public protection shall particularly appertain to them. 2. A provision of competent subsistence for them: that their condition of life be not wholly necessitous, or very penurious; but that they shall be furnished with such reasonable supplies as are requisite to encourage them in the cheerful performance of their duty. 3. A suitable degree of respect, and so high a station among men, as may commend them to general esteem, and vindicate them from contempt. IV. The reasons.1. God’ s honour is concerned in the safe, comfortable, and honourable estate of His priests; and that on account of those manifold relations, whereby they stand allied, appropriated, and devoted to Himself. They are in a peculiar manner His servants, stewards, ambassadors, co-workers, etc. 2. The good of the Church requires that the priesthood be well protected, well provided for, and well regarded. 3. Common equity requires this. Is there any office more laborious, more vexatious than theirs; accompanied with more wearisome toil, more solicitous care, more tedious attendance? (Isaac Barrow, D. D.) Psalms 132:17I have ordained a lamp for Mine anointed.A lamp ordained for God’ s anointed I. Christ as God’ s anointed,1. He is a Redeemer and Saviour of God’ s choosing. 2. Called and sent of God. 3. Prophet, Priest, and King of His Church. 4. Thoroughly fitted and furnished for His work, by an unmeasurable effusion of the Holy Spirit. II. The lamp that God has ordained.1. This lamp was first set up in the purpose of God from eternity, or in the council of peace, when the whole plan of salvation through Christ was laid. 2. This lamp was first lighted in this louver world, immediately after the fall in paradise; when a dark and dismal night of woe and misery was spreading itself over our first parents, then a gleam of light began to break out in the first promise (Genesis 3:15): and afterwards unto Abraham (Genesis 22:18). 3. The lamp of the Gospel shone typically and prophetically during all the Old Testament period, before the coming of Christ in the flesh. It shone, as it were, under a veil, and only among the Jews. 4. After the coming of Christ in the flesh, and His resurrection and ascension into heaven, the lamp of Gospel light was brightened, and the light of it was made more general and extensive. The veil of types, ceremonies, and prophecies, was rent, and, by the commandment of the everlasting God, carried unto all nations for the obedience of faith, Christ being given of God for (Acts 13:47). 5. Ministers of the Gospel are, as it were, the lamp bearers. They are commissioned by Christ, to preach the Gospel, to teach all nations. III. The ordination of this lamp.1. God has ordained the places and parts of the world where it shall be set up and shine (Romans 11:33). 2. As He ordained the places where the lamp shall be set up, so He ordained how long it should shine, before it be lifted to another part of the earth. He ordained how long it should shine among the Jews, viz. until Christ came. He ordained how long it should shine in the Churches of Asia, before He came and removed His candlestick. He has ordained how long the Gospel and a faithful ministry shall stay in any parish or congregation also. 3. He has ordained what souls or persons shall be converted, edified, or built up, by the Gospel: when He sends it unto any nation or congregation of Zion (that is, the place where the Gospel-lamp is set up), “ it shall be said this man and that man was born there,” etc. 4. He ordains by what instrument or minister the Gospel-lamp shall be brought unto a people or particular person. Paul is ordained for the Gentiles, Peter for the Jews, and every one of the apostles and other ministers, led by the ruling hand of the sovereign Lord, to labour in this, or that, or the other spot of His vineyard. 5. He ordains what fruit and success a minister with his lamp shall have, what number of souls shall be edified, and who shall be hardened and blinded by His light. (E. Erskine.) A lamp for God’ s anointed I. God’ s anointed (Psalms 45:7).1. He was chosen to be God’ s anointed (Isaiah 42:1).2. He was called and sent by God (Isaiah 42:6).3. His investiture in His offices (Isaiah 42:7).4. Fulness of grace for His great work (Colossians 1:19). II. The lamp ordained for God’ s anointed.1. Some of its discoveries. (1) It shows a trinity of persons in the Godhead (1 John 5:7).(2) It reveals the everlasting counsel (2 Samuel 23:5).(3) It demonstrates the mystery of the incarnation (2 Corinthians 5:19).(4) It discovers the doctrine of substitution (Psalms 89:19).(5) It shines into the grave, and shows Christ’ s resurrection and ours (Hebrews 7:25).(6) Its light shows man’ s darkness and salvation (Psalms 119:104). 2. Some of its properties. (1) It is a lamp of Divine formation (2 Timothy 3:16-17).(2) It is a dazzling brightness that this lamp sheds (John 9:39).(3) It has an assimilating power (John 15:3).(4) It is a profitable lamp (Psalms 119:105).(5) It is a lamp of general use (Luke 2:10).(6) It is an ancient lamp (Jeremiah 6:16).(7) It is a durable lamp (Psalms 119:89). III. The reasons why God has ordained it.1. To the honour of His Son Jesus Christ (John 5:39).2. To perpetuate His name to all ages (Romans 9:17).3. For the gathering of His people (Isaiah 55:11). (T. B. Baker, M. A.) Psalms 132:18 His enemies will I clothe with shame: but upon Himself shall His crown flourish. The Redeemer’ s glory, and the confusion of His enemies I. The confusion of His enemies. ’ Tis an astonishing and melancholy fact that such a government should have enemies, but evidently it is so (Psalms 2:1-12.). The opposition of Jews and Gentiles only a specimen of the opposition of human nature in all ages. Describe the enemies. In individuals--pride, unbelief, self-righteousness, inconsistency. The same enmity in the world on an extended scale; carnal policy, etc., arising from inveterate hatred of religion is too humbling and too holy. Christ’ s enemies are clothed with shame when their machinations are detected. Ariel, etc. (Milton), Gehazi. When their own plans defeat themselves. Haman, Esther, Mordecai. The cross as peopling heaven. The stone, watch, seal at Christ’ s tomb established the fact of His resurrection. Persecution drove out the disciples to spread the Gospel. II. The prosperity of His reign. This consists in--1. The settled and undisturbed title to His crown. 2. When His counsels are wise, and the laws of legislation are pure, salutary, and securing to the subject his liberties and immunities. 3. When His laws are administered in prudence, firmness, and integrity. He died for the ungodly; therefore He is just and the justifier of the ungodly. 4. When His realm consists of extensive empire, when other rulers are His subjects and willingly receive His laws into their administration. 5. When His subjects are happy and united. III. The certainty of both. (Homilist.) A flourishing crown Look at Melvile when standing before King James. Danger threatened the Church of Christ in that kingdom, and upon the prosperity of the Church depended the stability of James’ throne. Melvile and others obtained a private audience of the king, and, among other points, Melvile reminded James of his duty to his Saviour. There are two kings in Scotland, said the Covenanter, King James and King Jesus, but King Jesus reigned hero before King James, and His authority is supreme. That bold and uncompromising speech carries us back in thought to another scene equally momentous and interesting. Paul, that bold champion of his Master’ s cause, standing in the midst of an infuriated crowd, fearlessly told them that while Caesar had his claims to sovereign power, there was another King, one Jesus, who had His claims also, but they were superior to Caesar’ s claims. It is recorded of the first and the greatest of the Caesars that such were his capacious powers that he could at once keep six pens racing to his dictation on as many different subjects. That may be true; but Christ can attend to the affairs of the whole world at once! Crowns have always been highly valued. What schemes to obtain them! what bloodshed! what treachery! With what pomp and pride they have been and are still worn! No crown like this! (E. Digby.) . Psalms 133:1-3 Psalms 133:1-3 Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity.True socialism The subject of this poem is genuine socialism or unity of souls. Not theological unity, religious dogmas divide but can never unite. Not ecclesiastical unity; no laws made by any Church, though signed by all its members, can unite souls. Not mechanical unity, the unity of organizations either political, religious, or commercial. Unity of soul implies unity in the supreme affection, the supreme aim, the supreme rule. I. It is good.1. Because it harmonizes with man’ s social constitution. It is what man’ s social nature craves for, his greatest hunger is for loving companionship. It is what man’ s social nature needs. He needs the ministry of friendship from the cradle to the grave. It is what man’ s social nature pictures as its grandest ideal. Social unity is regarded by all peoples and nations as the perfection of society. 2. Because it harmonizes with the teaching of the Gospel. Christ inculcated this unity, and prayed for it, that “ they all may be one.” The apostles everywhere exhort to it, “ be of one mind one toward another.” II. It is delightful.1. It is delightful to witness. To “ behold” it in the family, the Church, the nation. All jealousies, envies, rivalries, wars, banished from the scene, and utterly unknown. “ Peace like morning dew distils, and all the air is love.” 2. It is delightful to experience What a delicious fragrance there is in social unity, to feel one with all, and all with one another. This gives to the social atmosphere a delicious perfume. III. It is beneficent (verse 3). It does not mean that the dew falls alike upon the two mountains, but that the moisture that gathers on Mount Hermon is caught up by the sun, and falls in refreshing showers on the distant heights of Zion.1. This unity is peaceful. How silently falls the dew! How serenely moves society where all its members are inspired with love one towards another, no clash, no jar, no grating of the wheels. 2. This unity is refreshing. It gives to the whole social sphere perpetual freshness, verdure, and beauty. (Homilist.) Church unity Short though this psalm be, it is difficult to find a sweeter. Some link it with the period of David’ s call to the throne, and imagine that it was suggested by all Israel coming to him at Hebron, and saying, “ Behold, we are thy bone and thy flesh,” and then anointing him king. The strength and health of a nation lies in its unity. And this is true, likewise, of a Church. Note-- I. The grace. What is meant by “ dwelling together in unity” ? It is no mere absence of quarrelling, for that may be owing to the quiet of death. Enter the mortuary attached to the hospice of St. Bernard. There are the frozen corpses of those who have perished ha the snow. They stand upon their feet against the wall. Some have been there for years waiting for friends to recognize and claim them. And there are no quarrels there. But it is the chili of death that keeps them so still. Nor is it dwelling apart in order to have peace. As Abraham separated from Lot. It is a humiliating way of obtaining peace. As if two souls were like two chemicals--kept apart they will do no harm, bring them together and they will explode and shatter everything. Nor is this unity merely engagement in one work. But it is for a member to be actuated as by one soul. One soul in many members. It includes serving one another in love, and it has often to be cemented by forgiveness. Now, such calls for special notice. “ Behold.” And it is “ good.” For it is God’ s will for us. It obeys the new command of Christ. It is one of the chief proofs of our discipleship. It makes the communion of saints good and edifying. II. The illustrations. This unity is said to be like--1. The anointing oil upon Aaron’ s head (Exodus 30:23-25), which shows that it was made of several different compounds, all precious in themselves. Various are the spices, all “ principal” in themselves. The myrrh of love. This takes the precedence. Full measure of this must be found. With this, also, there must be the sweet cinnamon of gentleness, the sweet calamus of meekness, the cassia of longsuffering, and the olive oil of forgiveness. No wonder that the compound was most fragrant. Aaron was not qualified to minister until thus anointed. 2. The dew of Hermon So this unity comes from above: cools the air and makes fruitfulness abound. Uniteth not for men. III. Its benefit. “ There the Lord commanded the blessing.” Not for us is it to command a blessing; we can but beg for it. But where is it that the Lord thus commands His blessing? Not where anger and strife, discord and division abound--these have turned many gardens of the Lord into howling wildernesses. But where love reigns--where the holy oil anoints pastor and people alike. May this oil never cease to flow upon the Church, and this Hermon never lack its dew. (Archibald G. Brown.) Solidarity Solidarity is but another name for unity, How the solidarity--the interrelation, the interdependence--of our twentieth-century life, by means of which we are enabled to know so much more, do so much more, be so much more, than men could when seas were separations instead of chances for ferries, when telegraphs did not make the round world throb, puts emphasis on the power and blessing of the unity which is the psalm’ s theme. I. What this unity is.1. It is not a levelling uniformity. It does not mean that one gathered into the unity must think, feel, do, precisely as does every other one also gathered into it. There is large chance for individuality in a real unity. 2. It does not mean an outward and iron compulsion. A minister was once asked if his Church were united. “ Yes; all the members of it are frozen stiff together.” That was not unity. 3. It is association. In a real Christian unity there is a holy tendency toward this togetherness. 4. It is a general and including similarity of aim and feeling. 5. It is variety of gift and service, each ministering in its own way to the common end (1 Corinthians 12:12-26). 6. It is mutual esteem. 7. Mutual forbearance. 8. Co-operation for the best interests of the brotherhood. II. What this unity does.1. It attracts (verse 2). It diffuses its gracious influence far and wide, and at the same time calls into the sphere of its influence. People love to come to it and be with it. How true this is of a thoroughly harmonious and united Church! 2. It refreshes (verse 3). It brings the refreshing of shared, of achieving, of rejoicing service. 3. It commands the Divine blessing. III. Application.1. Each one of the brotherhood is charged with the preservation of this unity. 2. Failure to keep it deprives our Lord of one of the evidences of the truthfulness of His mission. 3. The unity we most deeply need is thorough personal unity with the one Lord and Brother, that thus we may really enter into the power and blessing of this great grace of unity with each other. (W. Hoyt, D. D.) A good and pleasant prospect I. The sight propounded.1. The duty commended--unity or agreement (Ephesians 4:3; 1 Thessalonians 5:13; Colossians 1:20). There are two ways especially in which the Gospel is a Gospel of unity betwixt man and man. (1) It is so, as it teaches it, and commands it, for so it does at large and in the proper scope and intent of it; it teaches us as to deny ungodliness, so to deny uncharitableness: and as to live righteously and godly, so likewise to live quietly and peaceably in this present evil world. (2) It also works and transmits it where it comes in the power of the Spirit going along with it. As it is a transforming doctrine in other respects, so especially in this amongst the rest as changing the hearts of those that do truly believe it, and receive it into a disposition like unto itself. It changes and alters men’ s evil natures, and transforms them into contrary qualities; it takes away their natural fierceness, and makes them mild and tame, and to live in peace with other men. 2. The subjects of this unity--brethren. (1) Brethren by nature and blood, and carnal generation, such persons as are children of one and the same natural parents: these are such of whom unity is required, who are brethren in the first, and primitive, and original acceptation of the Word by us; and there is nothing more unworthy when it is otherwise. (2) Brethren in a civil sense, by custom, contract, or employment, or civil association, which is that which does more properly belong to yourselves; these are likewise brethren, and have peace and love and unity charged upon them. (3) Brethren in a spiritual sense, from the principles and considerations of piety and Christian religion, these are again brethren: that profess the same faith, that worship the same God, that are members of the same Head, that expect the same heaven and salvation and future inheritance. There are none who have a better title to this appellation of brethren than such, and consequently none who have peace and unity more required of them, even in that consideration likewise. 3. The manifestation of this unity--dwelling together. Unity is much expressed in communion and sociableness of conversation, and as expressed in it, so likewise preserved by it, and nourished and kept up from it: those that forbear to meet in their persons, they do not so easily meet in their affections, nor in their hearts one with another; whereas that it is a very great help, and means, and conducement to this. It makes friends and Christians so much the better to understand one another, and to be accepted with each other’ s dispositions, to know one another’ s natures, and to discern one another’ s graces, and to be sensible of one another’ s perfections, and so consequently to receive the more comfort and benefit one from another. There is a very great advantage in such occasions and opportunities as these are, both for the doing and receiving of good. II. The invitation to the observing of it.1. As an excitement of faith. Behold it to believe it. 2. As an engagement of affection. Behold it to admire it. 3. As a provocation to obedience. Behold it to practise it, and to imitate it, and to conform unto it. (T. Horton, D. D.) Christian unity 1. If our Christianity is genuine it must bear its own witness in the happy accord of our Churches, in the fraternal attitude of the various branches of the Church of Christ, and in the mutual love and helpfulness of believers. 2. Unity is not only essential to the Church’ s vindication, but to her progress as well. The folly of the corps of a great army wasting their energies and opportunities in contentions over the merits of the various military codes and manuals of arms would justly excite contempt. A spectacle more pitiable still is that of rival denominations of Christians pausing in the great battle with sin and Satan to contend one with another over non-essential forms and dogmas. The multiplied variances and rivalries of sects are sources of bewilderment to the heathen, and stumbling-blocks in paths of missionary effort. 3. Again, unity is necessary to the development and growth in grace of the individual believer. Grace is an exotic that blooms only in an atmosphere of peace. The frosts of envy and the fires of contention blight and consume it. A Christian at enmity with his neighbour cannot discharge his duty to mankind. 4. Our estimate of the value and bliss of unity will be enhanced by attention to those intimations the Scriptures afford us concerning the life of the redeemed in heaven. There shall be the consummation of the Church’ s unity. (S. G. Nelson.) Christian unity I. What it is. II. Its excellence. III. Means for attaining it.1. The first thing needful is for each one of us to be united to Christ: without this, we shall in vain expect to be “ members one of another.” “ He is the Head over all things to the Church;” and to Him we must be united by faith. 2. Let us be “ gentle towards all men” ; willing to hope the best, and to make every allowance for the infirmities and imperfections, and even the errors of those who walk not with us in the things of God. 3. Practical co-operation. If we would “ walk together as friends in the house of God,” we should act together in the service of our Master. (T. Preston, M. A.) Unity of the Christian brotherhood “ Many things,” says Bishop Horne, “ are good which are not pleasant, and many pleasant which are not good. But unity among brethren, whether civil or religious, is productive both of profit and of pleasure. Of profit, because therein consisteth the welfare and the security of every society; of pleasure, because mutual love is the source of delight, and the happiness of one becomes, in that case, the happiness of all.” I. The nature of Christian unity among brethren.1. They all receive the same infallible standard of belief and practice--the oracles of the living God. 2. An ingenuous and open avowal of the truths whereto they have already attained. They must not disguise their convictions in deference to the judgment of others; nor even seem to approximate towards any view which is not, according to their conscientious judgment, founded on the Word of God. 3. Cordial acceptance of Christ and His great salvation. II. Several means which subserve its promotion. The cultivation of “ a meek and quiet spirit.”2. Habitual watchfulness against rash and uncandid judgments of our brethren. Let mutual jealousies and envyings be repressed as destructive of brotherly affection; and let there be no rivalry but that of provoking one another to love and good works. 3. Prayer--offering our united adorations, confessions, and thanksgivings at the throne of grace. (J. Smyth, D. D.) The excellency of union I. Its nature.1. A oneness of sentiment.2. A union in point of affection.3. A sameness of principles.4. Co-operation. II. Its transcendent excellence.1. Its moral fitness.2. Its pleasing appearance.3. Its beneficial influence. III. The means of its promotion.1. We must avoid a spirit of evil surmising, and guard against hard and uncharitable thoughts in reference to our fellow-professors, resolutely resisting every inclination to evil speaking and detraction. 2. As we are regularly dependent upon God for strength and support, it is of the utmost importance that we maintain constant communion with Him by fervent prayer; also that we uniformly regulate our conduct and conversation by the sacred Scriptures; steadily and conscientiously using every means which has a tendency to unite us more closely to our Christian brethren. This subject--1. Excites to close and serious self-examination.2. Teaches us that discord in religious societies impedes the progress of the Gospel.3. Describes a line of conduct for us in the future part of life. (Sketches of Four Hundred Sermons.) Unity among brethren I. In what respects men are brethren.1. By creation.2. By regeneration.3. By ecclesiastical ties. II. “ what course we must pursue to promote unity.1. Form correct views of our relation to God and one another.2. A correct sense of justice between man and man.3. Distinguish between men and their religious opinions.4. Make suitable allowance for the infirmities of human nature.5. Put the best possible construction on the conduct of our brethren, and be always ready to forgive an injury. III. Arguments for the pursuit of this course.1. The peace of society requires it.2. The honour of our holy religion.3. It is one of the best evidences we can give of the genuineness of our Christian experience.4. Life will soon be over, and Christians hope to dwell together in perfect unity in the kingdom of heaven. (T. Spicer.) Let heaven’ s brotherhood come in all the earth “ Behold!” This is more than look! Looking is a shallow thing compared with beholding. To behold is to hold yourself on to the object in view. As though the inspired poet had said, Hold your eyes, hold your hearts in the contemplation of the blessed society and joyousness of men and women whose hearts beat in perfect unison with God and with each other. Sing of your fathers and mothers, sing of your wives and husbands when their funeral is over; sing that their death is past and their blessed life begun. How good and how pleasant it is for them to be at home in their paradises, with their kindred immortals! Our brothers and sisters above know that their unity is not of their own making; they know that they owe it to the one Life--the Life of the Lord’ s Love in them all. And they are quite as resolved to lead down this one Life into our bosoms as we are resolved to call it down. They are by no means losing heart, for their hearts live and beat in the all-patient, infinite Love of our common Father. On the contrary, they are fuller of hope and courage than ever; for the foretold consummation is nearing, and they are waxing stronger and stronger in the potency of Christ. The marriage of heaven and earth is coming (Revelation 22:1-21.). Let us believe that the hosts of our luminous friends above are intent on opening more direct pathways to our hearts, and that we and they are drawing nearer. The kingdom of heaven’ s law of enrichment is through giving, for giving enlarges the capacity of receiving, “ Are they not all ministering spirits,” who seek to intertwine their affections with our affections, in order to inweave heaven in our structure, and thus to make for us a more abundant entrance and welcome among them? The question which we must ask ourselves is, Are we making a corresponding use of our life in the flesh? Are we acquiring energies for future service and for higher honours and rewards? Do our deep wants awaken deep and intense prayers? Are we turning our temptations and sorrows to account by becoming more powerful in spirit? Jesus returned from His wilderness combats “ in the power of the Spirit.” Were a child buried and still alive, with what anguish it would cry for help that it might be delivered and brought home! Are our cries piercing the heavens that we may be recovered from our lost estate, and inherit the eternal life with all our Father’ s household? If so, we are making essential and eternal profit out of our temporary earthliness. To become members of the all-blessed family we must be individually purified, enlarged, and unified. So long as we are mere segments of corrupt and dying humanity we shall never be appeased, nor realize our Father’ s purpose concerning us. We must be made whole. We must unite heaven and earth, God and nature in our personal experience. With the material universe, as a veil before our eyes, we must persistently hold the heavenly universe in our affections and thoughts. (J. Pulsford, D. D.) The unity of believers The oil here specified was very sacred. It was prepared with four ingredients--myrrh, cinnamon, calamus, and cassia. Its composition was thus a skilful union of diverse materials. Here were mingled the bitter, the aromatic, the sweet, the fragrant, substances very dissimilar, all compounded in the pure beaten oil. The prescription was Divine. The mystery and glory of true Christian oneness arises from its composite character. Men holding the same opinions in science, or philosophy, or theology, find it pleasant to dwell together in unity. True Christian brotherhood must be sought, not in doctrinal agreement, but in spiritual affinity. It is to be of spirits who are “ in Christ.” Life in Him is the basis, and variety the charm. The music of the true Church of God is a harmony rather than a melody. The garments of our King smell of myrrh and aloes and cassia, not one fragrance alone. This truth has never been fully recognized by the Church. The Word of God is as full of commands to live in unity with the people of the Lord as it is to be separate from the people of the world. Separation from those who are His is as wrong as union with those who are not His. It is the downflowing and condescending that is common to both figures in the psalm. The precious ointment flows from head to beard, and from beard to the skirts of the garments. And the dew of lofty Hermon floats down to the mountains of Zion. The oneness of true believers is not to be cultivated amongst a select few, who have attained the lofty heights of some defined doctrinal scheme, but to pour out its fertilizing influence upon the lesser hills of Zion. And if this idea of downflowing be the true one, the figures are singularly suggestive. For the refreshment of the cool evening dew was far more precious in Zion than on Hermon. And assuredly the lesser hill had by far the greater honour. It was the lowly Zion, and not the snow-capped Hermon, that God chose for His tabernacle and the fountain-head of His blessing. It is the grandeur of the Christian life that the strong should bear the infirmities of the weak, and not please themselves. In the Hebrew the holy oil is said to descend upon the mouth of Aaron’ s garments. This has suggested a curious ancient comment. By the mouth, which the Chaldaic version translates the speech, is said to be meant the breastplate or Urim and Thummim, which was the mouth of the oracle of God. And in the second figure of the psalm the suggestion is that of condescending to come into contact with that which is of higher honour. The unction of holy love is to flow over our utterance. If we think we have the oracles of God we must speak the truth in love. On the lower edge of Aaron’ s robe were the golden bells which put forth sweet sounds wherever he went. All the music of our lives is to be sweetened with the consecrating unction of holy affection. (J. H. Cooke.) Unity not uniformity Let a difference be observed between “ unity” and uniformity. The one is a Divine, the other a human thing. Acts of uniformity are the product of man. God only can make us the subjects of sacred “ unity.” Uniformity we get in trees and hedges hacked, cut, and clipped, so as to reduce them to a common size and shape. “ Unity” without uniformity we get in the trees of the forest, all growing according to the course of nature, of diverse shape, and size, and worth, but dependent for their wild strength and beauty on the same genial influences of nature, as they stretch out their thousand branches and myriad leaves to catch the light, and air, and dew, and showers of heaven. Uniformity we have in the classified assortment of flowers, arranged in pots or plots of ground according to their size and colour, no one sort allowed to mingle with another. “ Unity” is the gathered bunch, worthy of the admiration of every beholder, whose difference of form, colour, and odour only adds to the loveliness of the flowers, which are all bound by one cord, enclosed in the one vessel, and made to drink of the same vital element,--the liquid stream of life. We are told that it is highly probable that in the wide domain of material nature there are to be found no two things alike, not even two drops of water, or two flakes of snow. Who ever knew two human faces alike? or two voices with precisely the same cadence? or two human forms identical in every particular? Is it, then, a thing of astonishment that in the mental and moral world there should be differences of thought, and judgment, and feelings? “ One star differeth from another star in glory,” but amid all the varied glories of the “ heavens” there is no want of “ unity.” (Anon.) Church union necessary to prosperity Without union no Church can be prosperous. This, indeed, is applicable to all societies, whether small or great. A divided family: how unamiable! how helpless! A divided kingdom--a kingdom distracted with rival factions, and where the general welfare is overlooked: how can it stand! Its internal feuds tempt its stronger neighbour to make war upon it, and the aggression succeeds. And with still greater emphasis does this hold good as regards the Church. In this sacred territory no power is recognized except the law of love, and when this disappears the Spirit of God has no choice bug to depart. And when the Spirit is thus grieved, and flies from the scene of discord, who takes His place? Satan, who glories in dissension, and who has no other pleasure than the dark and hateful one of vexing the Church of Christ, and of luring men’ s souls to perdition. In the Church, if anywhere on earth, peace should reign. If men’ s minds are agitated by wars and rumours of wars, there should be one place where angry passions are unknown. Let the winds and the rains beat upon the Church: within its hallowed walls harmonious sounds should alone be heard. “ In the house of God,” it was said nearly thirteen centuries ago, “ in the Church of Christ they dwell with united affections, in concord, and in singleness of heart. And therefore came the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove. A creature of cheerfulness and simplicity; bitter with no gall; fierce and violent with no savage beak and hooked talons; delighting in the dwellings of men, living together, and rearing their young in an house; flying side by side in their wanderings from their nests; sweetening life with society, and a natural affection; manifesting their peace with gentle kisses; and in all things living according to a law of love. Such simplicity, such love, should be seen in the Church; and from the dove the love of the brethren should take its pattern.” (N. McMichael.) Pleasantness of unity It is a pleasant thing for the saints and people of God to agree together; for the same word which is used here for “ pleasant” is used also in the Hebrew for a harmony of music, such as when they rise to the highest strains of the viol, when the strings are all pub in order to make up a harmony; so pleasant is it, such pleasantness is there in the saints’ agreement. The same word is used also in the Hebrew for the pleasantness of a corn field. When a field is clothed with corn, though it be cut down, yet it is very pleasant--oh, how pleasant is it!--and such is the saints’ agreement. The same word in the Psalms is used also for the sweetness of honey, and of sweet things in opposition to bitter things. And thus you see the pleasantness Of it, by its being compared to the harmony of music, to the corn field, to the sweetnees of honey, to the precious ointment that ran down Aaron’ s beard, and to the dew that fell upon Hermon and the hills of Zion: and all this to discover the pleasantness, profitableness, and sweetness of the saints’ agreement. It is a pleasant thing to behold the sun, but it is much more pleasant to behold the saints’ agreement and unity among themselves. (W. Bridge.) Nature of vital union The idea of unity does not demand the monotony of similarity, but unity in variety. Not the oneness of a trellis that supports the vine, or a pile of trellises, but of the plant which, with tendrils, leaf, and fruit, rears aloft in the summer air. Not the oneness of a stone or a pile of stones, but of a palace in which so many different materials and contrivances combine to shelter human life. Not the oneness of a child, but of a family of children who differ in age, character, and temperament, and chosen pursuits in life, bug are one in love and tender sympathy. (R. Venting.) Believers united The Rev. Dr. Cuyler, seeing at a Union meeting a Congregationalist deacon and a Quaker and a Methodist standing with clasped hands, and flanked by Baptist and Presbyterian clergymen, said, “ It reminded me of the time when we college students were standing thus in the chemical lecture hall. The electric current leaped from the charged battery through the whole circle in an instant.” Thus will it be when the whole body of believers are linked to each other and to their Head. (E. P. Thwing.) Unity by higher life and fellowship Two men may start to ascend some lofty Alpine peak from points many miles apart down in the valley. They climb the steeps, they scale the narrow ledges that overlook the chasm; at times they are shrouded in the cloud-mist, and you begin go say they will never meet. Ah! but wait a while. Before the night falls they reach the sun-gilt summit, and, resting their weary limbs and refreshing their hungry and thirsty spirits, they find time and taste for pleasant intercourse before they fall asleep in the little hostel on the mountain-top. So many who seem hopelessly divided in opinion and creed when on the lower plane of life and experience, have only to climb to loftier heights of Divine truth to discover their oneness in the Lord, and their enjoyment of His bounty, and therein their fellowship one with the other. More abundant life is the Divine philosophy of more abiding unity between Christians. (H. O. Mackey.) Strength in unity Take up a thread, untwist it, and you shall find that it is made up of several threads, untwisting which, you shall find that they, also, are made up in the same way, and so on, and so on. Fit symbol of the true relationship of each member of any human family, or of the larger family of the Church, or the great Church of Churches, the Church of the living God. The various threads, so weak alone, become strong and mighty when twisted together; and, just as any cord is easiest broken where one or more of the threads are separated, so is it in the Church. Just because of increased strength in unity, in disunity there is increased weakness. If thou canst not take the place of a bigger thread, thou canst very easily take that of a lesser; and of the least the biggest are made. (Sword and Trowel.) Psalms 133:2 It is like the precious ointment.Unity compared to oil 1. It is precious ointment. It is not to common and ordinary use; oil of any consideration whatsoever, but the best and choicest that could be lighted on: like that wherewith Mary Magdalene anointed Christ before His passion (Mark 14:3). Such was this whereunto the concord of brethren is compared here in this Scripture. To set forth unto us the preciousness and excellency of it. It is a virtue of very rare account, and so to be esteemed of by us. It is such which carries a good name and report with it, and accordingly like that is also better than precious ointment. 2. It is compared not to oil enclosed and shut up in a vessel, but to oil effused and poured forth abroad, which is more significant, as that which does cast forth a special fragrancy and odoriferousness with it. Look how a box of precious ointment when it is broken casts forth such a smell as does refresh the nostrils and brains of all such persons as are made partakers of it. So in like manner the unity of brethren is very sweet to all that observe it. 3. It is not the anointing only of some Levite, or common priest, but the anointing of Aaron himself, who was the highest priest of all, and therein a special type of Christ, as prefigured, and shadowed out in him. 4. It was not oil which rested only upon Aaron’ s head, but ran down upon his heard, and froth thence further to the skirts of his garments, which is a lively description to us of the property of this grace of love and brotherly agreement. It is such as does not rest itself only in those who are the next and immediate subjects of it, but it conveys itself to many others. Love it is of a very diffusive and communicative disposition. (T. Horton, D. D.) Psalms 133:3 As the dew of Hermon.The spirit of brotherhood like dew I. Brotherly love is silent, not demonstrative. Nothing in nature is more silent than the dew. The rain rattles, the wind howls, and the ocean booms, but the dew descends serenely and unheard. Genuine love is never noisy. The deepest emotions are always the most silent; the shallowest the most tumultuous. II. Brotherly love is vital, not mechanical How refreshing is the dew! It gives new life and verdure to all it touches. Brotherly love is independent of organizations, it is independent of all social mechanisms. III. Brotherly love is Divine rather than human. Whence comes the dewy It descends from above. All true love comes from God, as all light from the sun. (David Thomas, D. D.) Brotherly love I. It is a sure bond of union. Hermon is in the north and Zion is in the south: morning by morning the sun, Nature’ s great distiller, extracted moisture from the snow-peaked Harmon, and the clouds wafted southward shed their treasure on the hill of Zion. Thus the various parts of the land served one another in God’ s natural order. So brotherly love with its mutual service binds the home, the city, the land. No system of unity can be otherwise founded if it is to be secure. Force directed by selfishness can never make a true bond. II. It is God’ s method of benediction. “ For there the Lord commanded the blessing.” The psalmist recognizes in the periodical worship of Zion an occasion of this brotherly love, and speaks therefore of the love as God’ s blessing vouchsafed there. And all such love has its source in God. Apart from Him we should not know its delights. It is the way He promotes our happiness by filling us with a desire to help one another. We are severally channels of God’ s help. III. It is heaven; begun. “ Even life for evermore.” What can this phrase mean but that true love is immortal. Has not St. John taught us that to truly and purely love is to share the life of God? In so far as we love, then, we already have imparted to our life an undying element--we participate to that extent in the “ pleasures that are for evermore.” (W. Hawkins.) As the dew 1. As the dew comes down from the heaven above upon the earth beneath, so is brotherly unity, in its production and increase, the gift of the Divine spirit of love, the fountain of blessing to the whole Church. 2. As the dew descends silently and imperceptibly, till if covers the whole face of the ground, so is the affection of Christian brethren diffused amongst themselves by a quiet and gentle progress, till the plentiful appearance, and happy effects of it, are manifest to the world. 3. As the dew, consisting of many millions of drops, refreshes the fruits of the earth by their joint influence, so is the Church edified by the love of many; its prosperity and fertility depend upon the united love of all its members. (W. Jones, M. A.) The dew of Hermon The dew of Hermon and the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion, to which the psalmist referred--differs entirely from the ordinary dew of our country--and is a phenomenon peculiar to Palestine and the East. It is a soft mist that comes from the Mediterranean during the summer, when the heat is greatest, and the country is burnt up with the terrible sunshine. It is attracted by the inland heights, and condensed in copious moisture upon their sides, and creeps down upon the plains, reviving and refreshing every green thing. It comes first of all to Mount Hermon, and helps to keep up its unchanging robe of snow, and to fill its springs, and feed its cedars, and then it flows down and makes the corn to grow green in the valleys, and the vines to swell out their purple grapes in the vineyards, and the lilies to unfold their crimson radiance in the fields. And it is to this wonderful phenomenon that the psalmist compares the unify and harmony of those who dwell together as brethren. It is a most beautiful and expressive image. For just as Mount Hermon that is high above the plains and valleys of Palestine, benefits them by its clouds and rains and streams, imparts to them the blessings it receives from heaven, and thus becomes essential to their life and well-being; so these plains and valleys in turn have helped to elevate and maintain Hermon on his throne, and send up to it their evaporations and radiations to become the sources of its spotless snows, its billowy clouds, and its sparkling streams and cooling winds. They help it as much as if helps them. They are mutually dependent upon each other. The lowly plain does not envy the lofty mountain; nor does the lofty mountain look down in contempt upon the lowly plain. They are associated together in physical harmony. They are there in the close relation to each other appointed by Him who weighs the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance; and they could have no other position or shape or function. The one could not do or even be without the other. So would the psalmist have the inhabitants of the Holy Land to live. Let the religion of Ephraim be like the all-pervading fragrance of the holy oil of the temple in Judah; and let the religion of Judah be like the moisture that is borne from the snowcapped Hermon in Ephraim, and falls in refreshing drops upon the dry southern hills of Judah. The covenant people had lost the blessing through their division; they were weakened, and, in consequence, were carried away captive, and their land was made desolate. But now, if they become reunited and continue, in mutual harmony and brotherly kindness, to help and encourage each other ha She good work for which God had prepared and called them; if they observe together the same ordinances of religion, and preserve together the purity of their national faith, then God would remove the threat, and command upon them the blessing, even life for evermore. Their land would become once more a land flowing with milk and honey; and they themselves would be once more a holy nation, a royal priesthood, a peculiar people zealous of good works. And so would it be with every family and Church and nation still that dwelt together in the unity and harmony of love. God would command there the blessing, even continuous and prosperous life. Especially in the Church would this goodness and pleasantness of brethren dwelling together in unity be felt. When will Churches recognize the fact that they are meant to provoke one another not to envy and jealousy but unto all good works? When will their members learn the great truth that God bestows the blessings of salvation upon individuals, not that these blessings may be confined to them, but that they may be diffused by them? But the earthly Hermon is only the type of the heavenly--the shadow of something grander and more enduring. There are everlasting hills to which we are to lift up our eyes, rocks higher than any in this world. From them come to us the dew of grace, and the river that flows from the throne of God and the Lamb; and God there indeed commands the blessing, even life for evermore. (H. Macmillan, D. D.) For there the Lord commanded the blessing.--Commanded blessing It is an allusion, possibly, to great persons, to a general, or an emperor: “ Where the word of a king is, there is power.” The centurion said, “ I say to one soldier, Go, and he goeth, and to another, Come, and he cometh; to a third, Do this, and he doeth it.” So God commandeth one ordinance, “ Go and build up such a saint,” and it goeth; He saith to another ordinance, “ Come, and call home such a sinner,” and it doth it; God’ s words and work go together. Men cannot enable others, or give them power to obey them; they may bid a lame man walk, or a blind man see; but they cannot enable them to walk or see: God with His Word giveth strength to do the thing commanded; as in the old, so in the new creation, “ He spake, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast” (Psalms 33:9). But there the Lord commands His blessing, “ even life for evermore.” The stream of regeneration, or a spiritual life, which shall never cease, but still go forward and increase, till it swell to, and be swallowed up in the ocean of eternal life, “ even life for evermore.” (G. Swinnock.) Even life for evermore.-- Eternity The thought of eternity is in us all--a presentiment and a consciousness; and that universal presentiment itself goes far to establish the reality of the unseen order of things to which it is directed. The great planet that moves on the outmost circle of our system was discovered because that next it wavered in its course in a fashion which was inexplicable, unless some unknown mass was attracting it from across millions of miles of darkling space. And there are “ perturbations” in our spirits which cannot be understood, unless from them we may divine that far-off and unseen world, that has power from afar to sway in their orbits the little lives of mortal men. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Unending life We, of this century, often smile over the foolish alchemists of long ago, forgetting that such is man’ s love of existence that in all ages he has eagerly sought some true “ elixir of life.” And whether that supposed but ever elusive boon be pure gold, as with the early alchemists, or “ extract of mutton,” as Professor Kedzie calls the elixir of Dr. Brown-Sequard, the motive of search is the same. So, “ though great the hope and slow to die,” no ancient nor modern alchemy can prolong existence, which hath for each of us been set beyond the point Divinely determined. How strange is it, then, that men are so slow to seek that One who is our life for evermore, who by His loving grace offereth life and immortality to all! (G. V. Reichel.) . Psalms 134:1-3 Psalms 134:1-3 Behold, bless ye the Lord, all ye servants of the Lord.Man blessing the Lord and the Lord blessing man The two first verses of this psalm--the last of the Pilgrim Psalms--are addressed by the congregation to the priests and Levites who had charge of the temple during the night (1 Chronicles 9:27-33). The last verse seems to be the answer of the priests in dismissing the people with a blessing. I. Man is here represented as blessing the Lord. “ Bless ye the Lord.” That is, praise ye the Lord--worship Him, worship Him in spirit and in truth. II. The Lord is here represented as blessing man (verse 3). This is the usual form of priestly benediction (Numbers 6:24).1. The Author of the blessing. “ The Lord that made heaven and earth.” What a condescension in Him, what an honour for us! 2. The condition of the blessing. He will bless us on the condition that we bless Him or worship Him. So it ever is, there is a Divine blessing in worship. (Homilist.) Pastors and people It seems unnecessary, and is perhaps impossible, to determine whether this last of the fifteen Songs of Degrees was meant for the pilgrims on their arrival at the temple, or when they appeared within its courts, or on their departure from its sacred threshold. Adapted to particular occasions, yet it was not unfit for repetition anywhere, outside or within Jehovah’ s dwelling-place, on the road to or from Jerusalem, with the lips or only in the mind. It includes a greeting and a reply. An exhortation to ministerial duty, expressing encouragement and approval, is answered by an affectionate benediction. As the two commandments of our Lord condense the law, this brief dramatic song is a summary of worship.1. It is to be expected of ministers that with humble gladness they deem themselves, and show that they wish to be considered “ servants of the Lord.” They are also servants of the Church (2 Corinthians 4:5). But they may no more follow the will of men, as if blind slaves to the congregation, than their own independent will, “ as being lords over God’ s heritage” (1 Peter 5:3). It must be their great concern to ascertain, obey and teach the will of their Supreme Master. Having received Divine instruction, they must, in a becoming spirit and manner, fearless of consequences, speak and act accordingly (1 Corinthians 4:1-4; 2 Timothy 2:3; 1 Peter 4:10). The address in the psalm implies a call upon ministers to speak in their lives what they say with their lips, and be themselves the blessing they pronounce. The margin reads, “ Lift up your hands in holiness.” “ Cast out first the beam out of thine own eye,” etc. (Luke 6:42). “ Be thou an example of the believers,” etc. (1 Timothy 4:12). Merit the title we give you of “ servants of the Lord.” Deserve, as far as possible, to praise Jehovah for the congregation, and in His name to bless His people. 2. What the people of God require their pastors to be and do they aim at for themselves in prayer and practice. Language like this in the psalm, addressed to the Lord’ s servants in the place “ where prayer is wont to be made,” implies the possession of a praying spirit, and an engagement to offer prayer. We cannot turn our wishes and counsels into prayer without also, in our relation and degree, turning them into practice. The psalm implies that all who use it, in the spirit of it, people as well as pastors, are servants of the Lord; and in nearly every respect the duty of ministers of religion exhibits that of their fellow-worshippers. And not only in the worship of the temple and the reading of the sacred volume, but in the cleanness of your hands, in the purity of your hearts, in the holiness of your lives be as consistent as you would have your ministers. (E. J. Robinson.) The pilgrims’ farewell to Zion The pilgrims are going home, and are singing the last song in their Psalter. They leave early in the morning, before the day has fully commenced, for the journey is long for many of them. While yet the night lingers they are on the move. As soon as they are outside the gates they see the guards upon the temple wall, and the lamps shining from the windows of the chambers which surround the sanctuary; therefore, moved by the sight, they chant a farewell to the perpetual attendants upon the holy shrine. Their parting exhortation arouses the priests to pronounce upon them a blessing out of the holy place: this benediction is contained in the third verse. The priests as good as say, “ You have desired us to bless the Lord, and now we pray the Lord to bless you.” (C. H. Spurgeon.) Which by night stand in the house of the Lord.--The charge to thy watchers in the temple This psalm, the shortest but one in the whole Psalter, will be more intelligible if we observe that in the first part of it more than one person is addressed, and in the last verse a single person. No doubt, when used in the temple service, the first part was chanted by one half of the choir, and the other part by the other. Who are the persons addressed in the first portion? The answer stands plain in verse 1. They are the priests or Levites whose charge it was to patrol the temple through the hours of night and darkness, to see that all was safe and right there, and to do such other priestly and ministerial work as was needful; they are called upon to “ lift up their hands in” --or rather towards--“ the sanctuary, and to bless the Lord.” The charge is given to these watching priests, these nightly warders, by some single person--we know not whom. Perhaps by the High Priest, perhaps by the captain of their band. They listen to the exhortation to praise, and answer, in the last words of this little psalm, by invoking a blessing on the head of the unnamed speaker who gave the charge. I. The charge to the watchers. “ Bless ye the Lord.” It is because they are the servants of the Lord that, therefore, it is their business to bless the Lord. It is because they stand in the house of the Lord that it is theirs to bless the Lord. So for us Christians. We are servants of the Lord--His priests. That we “ stand in the house of the Lord” expresses not only the fact of our great privilege of confiding approach to Him and communion with Him, whereby we may ever abide in the very Holy of Holies, and be in the secret place of the Most High, even while we are busy in the world, but it also points to our duty of ministering; for the word “ stand” is employed to designate the attendance of the priests in their office, and is almost equivalent to “ serve.” “ To bless the Lord,” then, is the work to which we are especially called. And then there is another lesson here, and that is that all times are times for blessing God. Although no sacrifice was smoking on the altar, and no choral songs went up from the company of praising priests in the ritual service; and although the nightfall had silenced the worship and scattered the worshippers, yet some low murmur of praise would be echoing through the empty halls all the night long, and the voice of thanksgiving and of blessing would blend with the clank of the priests’ feet on the marble pavements as they went their patrolling rounds; and their torches would send up a smoke not less acceptable than the wreathing columns of the incense that had filled the day. And so as in some convents you will find a monk kneeling on the steps of the altar at each hour of the four-and-twenty, adoring the sacrament exposed upon it, so in the Christian heart there should be a perpetual adoration and a continual praise--a prayer without ceasing. What is it that comes first of all into your minds when you wake in the middle of the night? Yesterday’ s business, to-morrow’ s vanities, or God’ s present love and your dependence upon Him? In the night of sorrow, too, do our songs go up, and do we hear and obey the charge which commands not only perpetual adoration, but bids us fill the night with music and with praise? Well for us if it be anticipating the time when “ they rest not day nor night saying Holy! Holy! Holy!” II. The answering blessing (verse 3). May we venture to draw from this interchange of counsel and benediction a simple lesson as to the best form in which mutual goodwill and friendship may express itself? It is by the interchange of stimulus to God’ s service and praise, and of grateful prayer. He is my best friend who stirs me up to make my whole life a strong sweet song of thanksgiving to God for all His numberless mercies to me. Even if the exhortation becomes rebuke, faithful are such wounds. It is but a shallow affection which can be eloquent on other subjects of common interests, but is dumb on this, the deepest of all; which can counsel wisely and rebuke gently in regard to other matters, but has never a word to say to its dearest concerning duty to the God of all mercies. And the true response to any loving exhortation to bless God, or any religious impulse which we receive from one another, is to invoke God’ s blessing on faithful lips that have given us counsel. But observe, further, the two kinds of blessing which answer to one another--God’ s blessing of man, and man’ s blessing of God. The one is communicative, the other receptive and responsive. The one is the great stream which pours itself over the precipice; the other is the basin into which it falls, and the showers of spray which rise from its surface, rainbowed in the sunshine, as the cataract of Divine mercies comes down upon it. God blesses us when He gives. We bless God when we thankfully take, and praise the Giver. God’ s blessing, then, must ever come first. Ours is but the echo of His, but the acknowledgment of the Divine act, which must precede our recognition of it as the dawn, must come in order that the birds may wake to sing. Our highest service is to take the gifts of God and with glad hearts to praise the Giver. Our blessings are but words. God’ s blessings are realities. We wish good to one another when we bless each other. But He does good to men when He blesses them. Observe, too, the channel through which God’ s blessings come--“ out of Zion.” For the Jew the fulness of the Divine glory dwelt between the cherubim, and the richest of the Divine blessings were bestowed on the waiting worshippers there. And no doubt it is still true that God dwells in Zion, and blesses men from thence. The New Testament analogue to the Old Testament temple is no outward building. A material type must have a spiritual fulfilment. In the true sense, Jesus Christ is the Temple. In Him God dwelt; in Him man meets God; in Him was the place of Revelation; in Him the place of Sacrifice. “ In this piece is one greater than the temple,” and the abiding of Jehovah above the mercy-seat was but a material symbol, shadowing and foretelling the true indwelling of all the fulness of the Godhead bodily in that true tabernacle which the Lord hath pitched and not man. So the great Fountain of all possible good and benediction, which was opened for the believing Jew in “ Zion,” is opened for us in Jesus Christ who stood in the very court of the temple, and called in tones of clear, loud invitation: “ If any man thirst let him come unto Me and drink.” There is another application of the temple symbol in the New Testament--a derivative and secondary one--to the Church, that is, to the aggregate of believers. In it God dwells through Christ. Receiving His Spirit, instinct with His life it is His Body, and as in His earthly life “ He spake of the temple of His ‘ literal’ body,” so now that Church becomes the temple of God, being builded through the ages. In that Zion all God’ s best blessings are possessed and stored, that the Church may by faithful service impart them to the world. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Watchers by night Who are these night watchers, and to whom does the psalmist refer? Probably there were guards or sentinels set to pace the sacred courts and to trim the lamps which burned dim within that holy place, which was the presence-chamber of the great King. The gloom must have been oppressive, and sometimes they must have trembled as they paced the long corridors and looked up at the vast vault overhead, through which a dim lamp or two shot a feeble ray like a star seen through the rack of clouds on a stormy night. To cheer these watchers, and to impress on them that solitude is not awful if God’ s presence be there, this psalm was probably written. It was written for us, too, who have to pass through the same solitude, and to stand by night in the house of the Lord. There is, then, a night-time of sorrow and suffering here on earth, during which we may be said to be like watchers in the outer courts of God’ s temple. But there is a completer sense of the passage than this, and it is to this second sense that I wish to turn your attention. It is well to take the calm expression of the psalmist, and apply it in this way, “ Ye that by night stand in the house of the Lord.” In this temple there is an inner shrine, where all is dark, and yet amid the solemn gloom God’ s presence is felt to be inexpressibly near. No conception of the middle or waiting state between death and the general resurrection is so near the mark as this. Suspended activity, but not suspended consciousness--this sets us thinking what can be the occupation of those who are set to stand as watchers by night in the house of the Lord. May it not be that this is the very counteraction necessary for the undue activities of our too busy, bustling existence on earth? Now, are we willing to be watchers by night in the house of the Lord? I use the term “ night” in two senses. There is a night-time of sorrow here, and of separation hereafter from those we love on earth. We have to pass through these two seasons of watching--an evening and a midnight watch, as I may describe them by way of contrast. It is the faithful watcher on earth who will stand by night and watch in the house of the Lord during the interval between death and the Resurrection morning. Season of solitude here, in which we get spiritual strength through loneliness and isolation from our fellow-men, will prepare us for that midnight watch when we are called within the veil and there stand and wait for the full morning of Resurrection blessedness. What hours of weariness under pain and privation of the usual outlets for activity in the affairs of life many of us are to pass through God only knows. Some have had to pass through long years of such watching. Our soul, then, waits for the Lord--in the pathetic language of the psalmist, “ more, I say, than they that wait for the morning.” But such discipline has its uses. Silent suffering is a school, and hours of loneliness are also a school quite as much or even more than racking pain or positive privation. It disciplines us in faith and patience. It strengthens the character by forcing us to see that all our fresh springs must be in God and in Him alone. In all this Christ was our example, and, more than this, our forerunner. (J. B. Heard, M. A.) Hours of watching need not be lost They may by prayer and praise become times of spiritual power. All earth is the temple of the Lord. Many have to keep night watches. Some, through sleeplessness, wait anxiously for the morning. Some have to sit in the sad sick-chamber by the side of the fevered, restless sleeper in disease. Some on the ship’ s deck look out on the black, hissing waters and watch the stars roll by. To them comes the exhortation, “ Lift up your hands in prayer and bless the Lord.” Let a spirit of devotion engage your thought and feeling. Amidst the forces that affect men, who can estimate the influence of holy night watchers who call on God in prayer? The Lord blesses out of Zion. The refreshing showers which cleanse the plants and bedew the flowers, which fill the watercourses and cause the rivers to roll, take their rise in quiet uprising mists often by night. So the showers of blessing the Lord God pours out on His people spring from the quiet mists of prayer ever uprising to the heavens from holy souls in retirement. It is the Divine plan. For the blessings of His grace He will be sought. “ More things are done by prayer than this world dreams of.” Hear a mythic tale. One night Rabbi Ben Israel sat through the dark hours in anxious thought, desiring to know the forces at work in the nation, lie would trace effects to their cause. When an aged beggar knocked at his door and asked for food, the rabbi rose from his meditations and gave him his own supper, which he had not touched. Then the stranger told him he was an angel in disguise, and bid him come forth, as he was about to visit the man of greatest power in the city. First they took their way towards the palace, and the rabbi said to himself, “ Surely it is the king,” but the stranger led him past the royal entrance. Then they turned and went to the quarter where the general of the army lived, and the rabbi thought, “ Surely it is the captain of the host,” but they passed his door. They passed the abodes of men of wealth, great councillors, and that of the high priest, but visited none of these. At length they came to the gate of the temple, which opened at the touch of the angel. They passed the outer court. The angel pointed out to the rabbi the Levite in charge, who was lifting up his hands in earnest prayer for the people. Then the rabbi learned that, as the Lord is the most powerful of all, and has all the hosts of earth and heaven under His control, the man who can prevail with Him must be the mightiest on earth. Prayer can do more than the merchant’ s gold, the soldier’ s sword, or the king’ s sceptre. (J. H. Cooke.) Psalms 134:2 Lift up your hands in the sanctuary.The sanctuary The uses and meaning of this word “ sanctuary” are very interesting and instructive. In all countries and in all ages the word has been used to denote a place set apart for special and sacred uses: among the heathen, to the temples of their first deities; among the Jews, to the temple of the true Jehovah; among ourselves, to the places of our holy assembling. But there is a yet deeper sense in which this word “ sanctuary” is used of a holy place. It is made to denote the sacredest part of sacred places: among the heathen, to the inner shrines of their gods; among the Jews, the Holy of Holies, into which the high priest alone could enter; among ourselves, that sacredest part of our sacred places where the mysteries of the blessed Sacrament are celebrated. Then, again, the word is used to denote a place of refuge: such places the heathen had in their shrines of justice; such places the Jews had in those cities of refuge of which we read in the books of Moses; such place we have had in Christendom until very lately; places, as the lawyers call them, places of sanctuary. One of the last of these was in the precinct of the Savoy in London; I believe there is one still remaining in the palace of Holy-rood in Edinburgh. Then, again, the word “ sanctuary” is used to denote a place of purification. Such places the heathen had, and still have, in their various rites of ablution; such places the Jews had in the ceremonies of purification; such places we have in the font of holy baptism. And then, lastly, this word is used to denote a place of rest and refreshment, of joy and of hope. Such places both heathen and Jew had in those groves which they used to plant, and those wells which they used to dig in the arid, burning deserts, where the pilgrims found shelter from the sun, and water to quench their thirst. Such places we have in Christendom in abundance. Every hospital in this city, every orphanage, every penitentiary, every almshouse, every school,--all these are places of sanctuary, where the young can be taught to love and serve God, where the sick can be healed and gladdened, where the orphan can be cherished and cared for, where old age can be tended and sheltered from the outside world. There are times in the most sheltered life when we long to find some quiet refuge where we may pour out our souls before God. We need constant cleansing, and the word denotes a place of purification. We are ever tempted to think that in this sin-stained world such purification is impossible, and there are some who find purity in the seclusion of the convent or monastery. But most of us must find it whilst in contact with the world’ s dangers and difficulties, and we may do it without missing our way. Ye may be in the world without being of the world. This aim of purity may consecrate all we do, and we can never rest until our aim of purity is every day higher, and our attainment every day richer and truer. The sanctuary is a place of refreshment, and of joy, peace, and hope. In this hard-working world we need a place where the world cannot worry us. At the time of the plague in Milan a great cardinal used to say that if it had not been for the morning and evening rest in the sanctuary he should never have been able, as he did, to pass through that trial of strength and courage which his devoted work in the city involved. And when we enter the sanctuary for rest, and for a blessing, our work itself becomes a rest and a stimulating refreshment. Lastly, the sanctuary is the home of hope. Whatever the world may have to promise us in the day of prosperity, it offers us nothing when the day of darkness and distress comes, or when disappointment overtakes us. This beautiful grace of hope may not seem so necessary for us when the sun of our life is shining brightly, when friends are many, and fortune is favourable, and prospects good; but wait until the days of loss and sickness come, when friends have taken to themselves wings, when you are covered with disaster; wait till you follow to the grave a wife, a sister, a brother, a friend; then where shall tope be found? Not on earth, not in the world, but in the sanctuary we learn what true consolation is. That hope gives us to know even hero something of the life which is beyond, a hope of immortality. (H. White, M. A.) Psalms 134:3 The Lord that made heaven and earth bless thee out of Zion.Mutual benediction We may suppose these words to be addressed to the sacred sentinels by the head of their course, or by the captain of the guard, or even by the high priest. We can imagine the captain of the guard coming in during the night watches, and saying to the priests who were guarding the temple (verse 1). Or we could imagine the high priest, when the watch was set for the first part of the alight, going to the priests who were under his control, and addressing to them these same soul-stirring words. Now our text is the response of these sacred sentinels. As they listened to the captain of the guard, or to the high priest, telling them to worship by night in the courts of the Lord--to lift up their hands in the sanctuary, and bless the Lord--they answered him, “ The Lord that made heaven and earth bless thee out of Zion.” So that here you have brought before you the interesting and instructive subject of mutual benediction--the saints blessing each other. I. Jehovah--the fountain of blessing. There is in the Divine nature an infinite and everlasting disposition to do us good; and connected with that infinite and everlasting disposition to do us good are all power, all knowledge, all wisdom, absolute independence and eternity of being. And we find actual blessings on God’ s part according to that capacity. He does not bless as His creatures bless--often unwisely, often insufficiently, often half-heartedly--but when God blesses, He blesses with all that is within Him; with all that can be employed in that particular act and work of blessing. II. The heavens and the earth, evidence of Divine capacity to bless. While we, of course, look chiefly and supremely to the manifestation of God’ s goodness in our Lord and Saviour, we ought not to overlook the expressions of His care and kindness which we find in the grass of the field, and in the very dust which we tread beneath our feet. III. The Church a channel of blessing. The Church is the conservator of Divine revelation,--the Church is the offerer on earth of true worship--it consists of a company of priests, a royal priesthood, part of whose mission is “ to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.” The Church is the heritor of the covenants. God’ s covenants are made with His Church, and His promises are addressed chiefly to His Church. The Church is the scene of special Divine ministrations, God shows Himself to His Church as He does not to that which is called the world. It is also the scene of special heavenly influences: and in a sense next to that in which God is said to reside in heaven, the Church is the dwelling-place of the Most High. Now, what is it to be blessed out of Zion? It is surely to be blessed with Zion’ s blessings, and to have Zion’ s endowments and gifts rendered sources of advantage and profit to us. IV. The saints as the means of spreading the blessing, and that, too, by the spirit of blessing. “ The Lord that made heaven and earth bless thee out of Zion.” “ Bless thee!” You know where this was first said, and when. The Fountain of Blessing first said it. He said it in Paradise to our first father and mother when, beautiful in holiness, and glorious in uprightness and goodness, they came fresh from His hand. As their Creator, He said to them both, “ Bless thee” ; and we have learned to say, “ Bless thee,” from our Father in heaven, the Fountain of Blessing. We never should have said to each other, “ Bless thee,” had not God taught us; and when we say it, we but echo His voice. “ Bless you,” said the Son of God to the multitude around Him. And, “ Bless you,” said He emphatically to His apostles when He was about to leave them--when He was about to ascend from Olivet, and depart out of their sight. “ He lifted up His hands, and blessed them.” “ Bless you,” said the apostles to the Churches. How full of benedictions are these glorious epistles! “ Grace, mercy, and peace be with all who love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity.” “ The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.” And what has this to do with spreading the Divine blessing? Much every way. Such benediction, when sincere, and when not a mere form of words, is prayer. And every promise that is made to prayer is made to benediction. So that he who is possessed by the spirit of blessing, and who expresses it in his behaviour, and in his deportment, is constantly supplicating the throne of the heavenly grace on behalf of others. V. The riches involved in the Divine benediction. It means, The Lord speak comfortably to thee. It means, The Lord keep thee; the Lord be thy shepherd; the Lord restore thy soul when thy spirit wanders; the Lord keep thee in the paths of righteousness for His name’ s sake; the Lord hold up thy goings in His paths, that thy footsteps slip not; the Lord be thy light and thy salvation; God be thy refuge and strength, thy present help in trouble. May morning follow the night, and the night be driven away by the lifting up of the light of the countenance of the loving God--by expressions of His love adapted to the time of sorrow, and to the state of depression and despondency.” “ The Lord give thee peace,” --that is, prosperity, well-being, health in the soul, comfort in the heart, rest, joy, quiet in the spirit. (S. Martin.) The universe I. The universe had an origin. The heaven and the earth are not eternal, they had a beginning (Genesis 1:1). II. The originator of the universe was One. “ The Lord.” He created it alone. There was no one to instruct Him in planning it, no one to aid Him in building it up. III. The One Originator of the universe is the object for universal praise. “ Bless the Lord.” True worship should be, therefore--1. Unaided. There is no one to share the praise. 2. Enthusiastic. This One Being should be the all-in-all of the soul. 3. Incessant. He is ever-present, ever-giving, ever-sustaining, ever-inspiring. (David Thomas, D. D.) God, more than His gifts At a camp at Goshen, N.Y., a minister was shouting to inquirers to persevere in seeking the blessing, when Rev. Dr. Inskip, the master spirit, cried out, “ Get the blessing! Hump! Get the Blessert” Says Monod: “ You cannot separate any one gift of Christ from Himself, from His person. He that hath the Son hath life.” (E. P. Thwing.) . Psalms 135:1-21 Psalms 135:1-21 Praise ye the Lord.The sublime object of worship I. In His absolute goodness (Psalms 135:1-3). He is “ good” --essentially, eternally, infinitely, immutably. II. In His relative kindness (verse 4). Britain is more favoured than ever Palestine was. It is the land of liberty, Bibles, churches, etc. III. In His transcendent supremacy (verse 5). He is King of all kings, and Lord of all lords. IV. In His sovereign operations (Psalms 135:6-12).1. In material nature (verses 6, 7).2. In human history (Psalms 135:8-12). V. In His endless existence (verses 13, 14).1. His character is everlasting.2. His remembrance is everlasting.3. His kindness is everlasting. VI. In His unapproachable greatness (Psalms 135:15-18). Idols, what are they to Him? What are the highest objects of the earth to Him? Conclusion--Do not the aspects in which the author of this ode presents Jehovah manifest His supreme claim to the hallelujah of all souls? (Homilist.) Psalms 135:4 The Lord hath chosen Jacob unto Himself.A strange yet gracious choice This is a psalm of praise all through. It is to be sung to the highsounding cymbals. There is not a low note anywhere; it is all robust, exhilarating, joyful. It is “ Hallelujah!” from beginning to end; and it did not seem possible to the psalmist that he could omit from it the high jubilant note of election; for if there is anything that makes believers’ hearts sing unto the Lord, it is the recollection that He has chosen them, and fixed His love upon them. I. The choice.1. Divine.2. Sovereign--irrespective of character.3. Most gracious.4. Very wonderful. When you have told me why He chose Jacob, I shall then try to find out why He chose me; and if I should find that out, probably you will at the same time discover why He chose you. God never acts unreasonably; yet He does not find His reasons for acting in men, but within Himself, in His compassion, in the eternal counsels of His own will. II. The reason or result of God’ s choice.1. That we might know Him.2. That we might keep His truth alive in the world.3. To keep up His worship.4. That He might commune with us. III. The separation which grows out of this choice. He led Israel out into the wilderness that there He might speak to their hearts. He drew them away from men; He made them live solitary and alone, like eagles on the rock, that they might dwell there with Him, and have no strange god among them. Blessed are the people who enjoy this separation; but unhappy are the men and women who talk about election, and yet have never known the separation which stamps their election as being a matter of fact. IV. Their elevation. “ His peculiar treasure.” God’ s people are everything to Him; there is nothing that you have, that you account rich or rare, that is anything to you in value in comparison with what God’ s people are to Him. His delight is in them: the pleasure which God has in His people is truly wonderful. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Psalms 135:5I know that the Lord is great.A great God Right views of God lie at the foundation of all right religion. If our views of God are spiritual, scriptural--if they have a sanctifying tendency in our souls--we are right in other things. If we are wrong in this, we are wrong in all things: like the error in the proof-sheet, all goes through wrong. If we are right here, we are at the foundation of all that is right. I. The greatness of God. God is great. If I look at Him in His being, He is great; if I look at Him in His perfections, He is great; if I look at Him in creation, He is great; if I look at Him in His providence, He is great; if I look at Him in His law, He is great; and still more gloriously does He appear great in the greatness of His Gospel. II. The certainty which David seemed to feel of this being the truth. “ I know” it, he says. There was a special inspiration, I doubt not; but he was led into the school of holy experience; he knew that God was great; and so does every child of God. He knows that He is great in His regenerating grace. Equally great is the work of revealing Christ. He has given you His Son, He has given you His Spirit, He has given you Himself, He has given you His Word, He has given you His promises, He has given you the foretastes of heaven; and He expects from you the very best that you have, to be given up to Him to be His own, because He is a great God. (J. H. Evans, M. A.) Psalms 135:6 Whatsoever the Lord pleased, that did He.The activity of God I. God acts. He is the great worker,--never resting, never failing, never wearying,--the worker of all workers, the motor in all motions. II. God acts everywhere. In the heavens He rolls the massive orbs of space; on the earth He maketh the grass to grow and clotheth the earth with verdure. III. God acts from and for himself.1. From Himself. Our activity is often excited and controlled by something external to ourselves. His never. Nothing is extra. No ruling principles or persons, not all the hierarchies of intelligences, nor the rushing forces and forms of universal matter can excite Him. His action is that of absolute spontaneity. He is responsible to no one. 2. For Himself. There is no other reason for His activity but what pleases Him. The chief measure of any moral intelligence is the gratification of His predominant disposition. In God this is love. Hence His pleasure in creating the universe and sustaining it is the diffusion of His own happiness. His pleasure is the pleasure of His creatures; His happiness and theirs are identical. (David Thomas, D. D.) Psalms 135:16 The idols . . . are silver and gold.The gold-god Idolatry consists in giving to any object, whether animate or inanimate, the work of man’ s hands, or the work of the Divine hands, the love and worship which belongs to the Supreme Existence. “ Thou shalt have no other God but Me.” But to have Him means to love Him with all the heart, mind, and strength. The god of the man is the object he most loves. Hence gold is a divinity, and by no means an insignificant one, perhaps the chief. I. The gold-god is the most popular of the gods. It is said that ancient Greece and Rome had not less than thirty thousand divinities, and that in modern heathendom, at present, their name is legion. But throughout this civilized world the gold-god reigns supreme. Tell me, is there aught besides that engrosses so much of human thoughts, human affections, human plans, activities and time, as gold? Civilization everywhere multiplies the shrines, the altars, and the devotees of mammon. II. The gold-god is the most mischievous of the gods. The ponderous wheels of Juggernaut’ s chariot have crushed millions; Krishna, Moloch and other heathen divinities have tortured and destroyed their devotees, but is there a divinity in the long roll of idolatrous worship more terribly destructive than the gold-god?1. How soul-debasing! It deadens the sense of virtue, blinds moral perceptions, seals up the social sympathies, manacles the moral faculties, and chains that soul made to wing the immeasurable regions of light and truth to a mere clod of dust. It is a law that the soul can never rise above its god. 2. How peace disturbing! It keeps its devotee in a constant tumult. It breaks the harmony of families, disturbs the order of society, raises nations into war and bloodshed. “ Midas,” says Carlyle,” longed for gold and insulted the Olympians. He got gold so that whatever he touched became gold, and he, with his long ears, was little the better for it. Midas had insulted Apollo and the gods: the gods gave him his wish, and a pair of long ears which also were a good appendage to it. What a truth in these old fables!” (David Thomas, D. D.) Psalms 135:21 Blessed be the Lord out of Zion.Thankfulness I. The psalmist’ s expressions of thankfulness.1. We are taught by the whole of this psalm that these expressions spring from a grateful memory. Everywhere around him he beholds some memorial of the Divine goodness, some landmark of the ancient inheritance of his fathers, some footprint of the Divine mercy and power, which has lingered on from generation to generation, through calms and storms, judgments and blessings. And surely we also can recall the past, with its evidences of God’ s love and pity. 2. The expressions of thankfulness, observe, are specially appropriate to the Church in her present state of trial. It is “ out of Zion” the voice of blessing is to go up to heaven. It is in our gatherings on the Sabbath that the heart is to give free scope to its grateful memories and feelings. The Church of God is still in the wilderness; but though in the wilderness, battling with wrong, and with the visible and invisible enemies of her path, still she is able to raise the anthem--“ Blessed be the Lord out of Zion, which dwelleth at Jerusalem.” II. The reasonableness of this thankfulness.1. This might be urged from the Divine Presence of “ the Lord, which dwelleth at Jerusalem.” It was the fact of this recognized Presence, this “ Shield,” this “ Refuge,” this “ Strength,” which gave the deep, full impulse to the thankfulness of the Jewish heart; so should it act with us. There is no comfort so great and so lasting to a right-minded Christian man as the consciousness of the Almighty Presence. 2. The reasonableness of thanksgiving arises, too, not only from a sense of duty, and of manifold blessings bestowed from day to day, but also from the gracious truth that God’ s dwelling is to be found on earth; that He has not deserted it, nor given it over to destruction. And the fact that this meaning is conveyed to us by the naming of Jerusalem is very certain. Thus we are not directed to look for the Divine Presence out of our own spheres of existence, far away beyond the limits of our comprehension, but to look for it at our very doors, even within our own hearts. Is not this a cause of thankfulness? 3. In the fact of God’ s dwelling at Jerusalem we find another reason for thankfulness in the form of His dwelling, namely, the symbol of “ the Shekinah,” the visible glory between “ the wings of the cherubim overshadowing the mercy-seat.” Thus, in the presence of Christ, our God and Saviour, we have a protection, a shelter, and a security against danger. (W. D. Horwood.) . Psalms 136:1-26 Psalms 136:1-26O give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good.The eternity or God’ s goodness This is a reason for praising Him-- I. In the material universe (Psalms 136:1-9). When the grandeur of nature overawes you, when its terrific phenomena, thunders, earthquakes, volcanoes seem to overwhelm you, still praise Him. There is goodness in all. II. In the history of mankind (Psalms 136:10-26).1. In the deliverance of His people (Psalms 136:10-16). 2. In the destruction of despots (verses 17-22). 3. In His regard for all (Psalms 136:23-26). All men have enemies, foes to their virtues, their interest, their happiness. He delivers them. All men require nourishment. They live by the appropriation of the fruits of the earth. He “ giveth food to all flesh.” His “ mercy endureth for ever,” and thus should we praise Him in all. (Homilist.) A song, a solace, a sermon, and a summons I. A song.1. For all singers. Let young and old, rich and poor, instructed and ignorant, saved and unsaved, take part in it. Let us bless God for the eyes with which we behold the sun, for the health and strength to walk abroad in the sunlight; let us praise Him for the mercies which are new every morning, for the bread we eat; let us bless Him that we are not deprived of our reason, or stretched upon the bed of languishing; let us praise Him that we are not cast out among the hopeless, or confined amongst the guilty; let us thank Him for liberty, for friends; let us praise Him, in fact, for everything which we receive from His bounteous hand, for we deserve little, and yet are most plenteously endowed. 2. But the sweetest and the loudest note in the chorus must always be reserved for those who sing of redeeming love (Psalms 136:10-12). Even now by faith we wave the palm branch and wrap ourselves about with the fair white linen which is to be our everlasting array, and shall we not this day give thanks to the name of the Lord whose redeeming “ mercy endureth for ever” ? 3. Further on our poet invites the experienced believer to join in the psalm (Psalms 136:16-22). Just as some among us, whose voices are deep, can take the bass parts of the tune, so the educated saint, who has been for years in the ways of the Lord, can throw a force and a weight into the song which no other can contribute. II. A solace. We have many troubles, and we need comfort; God is willing that we should be comforted.1. I shall use the text as a solace to the past. The year is all but gone. Have we not found, up till now, that His mercy has endured for ever? 2. Our text is also a very sweet consolation as to the present. Have we at this moment a sense of present sin? Then, “ His mercy endureth for ever.” 3. As to the future. Ah! we are poor fools when we begin to deal with the future. It is a sea which we are not called upon to navigate. The present is the whole of life, for when we enter into the future, it is the present. When these fingers cannot perform their daily work, when my brow is wrinkled, and I can scarcely totter to my toil, what shall I do?” Ah! “ His mercy endureth for ever.” III. A sermon. “ His mercy endureth for ever.” Then--1. Let our mercy endure. 2. Let us learn the duty of hoping for everybody. 3. See the duty of hoping for yourself. IV. A summons. “ His mercy endureth for ever.”1. Is not that a most loving and tender summons to the wandering child to return to his Father? to the backsliding professor to approach his God? to the chief of sinners to humble himself before the mercy-seat? There is mercy--seek it. There is mercy in Jesus--believe in Him. 2. Believers, the summons is also meant for you. It says this, “ His mercy endureth for ever” ; therefore let your love to souls continue; let your labour for conversion abide; let your generosity to God’ s cause abound; let your endeavours to extend the kingdom of Christ endure evermore. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The duty of praise and thanksgiving I. The duty, It implies--1. A grateful sense of the Divine benefits. Here the duty begins, though it ends not here; in acts of the mind, in attentive meditations on the loving-kindness of God, and lively warm affections produced and cherished by these meditations. 2. A suitable expression of gratitude. The heart will awaken the tongue, and the affections of the inner man direct and influence the actions of the outward. II. The persons called upon.1. The whole world of mankind are by the psalmist invited to pay their common tribute of praise to their supreme and universal Lord; even all the nations of this widespread and many-peopled earth, by whatever name, or language, or religion they are distinguished; seeing how much soever they differ in these and other respects, they all partake of the light of reason, which discovers a God to them, a first and most perfect Being, and directs them to make Him the universal object of their worship, and trust, and obedience. 2. The Church of God is more immediately and expressly spoken to. 3. All those are particularly called upon to give thanks who have received any fresh or remarkable instances of the Divine favour and interposition on their behalf; such as have been prospered in their designs, and perhaps beyond their own expectations; or have been happily disappointed (for frequent experience shows there are such things as happy disappointments), have had light and comfort in a day of trouble; succour in threatening dangers and temptations; have been raised up from beds of sickness, or blessed with extraordinary measures of health; have had considerable turns in their lives, and seen the hand of God guiding and overruling events to their good. III. The reason or foundation of it heres assigned.1. Men should give thanks unto the Lord, because He is good. Other perfections challenge our reverence, and fear, and admiration; this demands our gratitude. 2. Men should give thanks unto the Lord, because His mercy endureth for ever. This may be understood-- (1) In opposition to the anger of God.(2) To the favour of men.(3) More absolutely of the unchangeableness and perpetuity of the Divine mercy. Application.1. Does religion invite and oblige us to give thanks unto the Lord, because He is good? and does a great part of religion consist in the duty of thanksgiving rightly performed? then, certainly, religion can neither be an unreasonable nor a tiresome service. 2. Since the mercy of the Lord endureth for ever, let us resolve that we will serve, and praise, and trust in Him for ever. (H. Bonar, D. D.) For His mercy endureth for ever.-- God’ s goodness and mercy I. God’ s goodness.1. Goodness is the perfection of things for which they are desirable; perfection imports freedom from all defects, and fulness of all excellences, and is chiefly seen in the being, working, end of things; that which hath the noblest being, and therefore end, and therefore operations, is ever best and most desirable; desire is the reaching of the soul after that that likes us, because it is like us. Now the all-sufficient God is His own Being, His own end, His own act, or rule in action; yea, He is the Author of all good, the end and desire of all things (in natural respects), and therefore the perfection of all, and so all perfection and goodness. 2. God is-- (1) Essentially good.(2) Causally good.(3) Eminently good.(4) Originally and absolutely the only good. Uses-- 1. God is good, let us put it to good use; first, for humbling, see what we were once, good; for of goodness can come nothing but goodness; secondly, what we are now by nature, bad; for first, we are sunk as far from God as hell is from heaven. 2. See what we should be, good; goodness is ever admirable, and therefore (saith the philosopher) imitable. Now, Psalms 119:68 tells us that God is good, and doth good, and He is our copy and rule. First, therefore, we must be good, and then do good; first the sap must be good, and then the fruit, for as things be, so they work. II. God’ s mercy.1. It is everlasting. (1) His essential mercy is everlastingness itself; for it is Himself, and God hath not, but is, things. He is beginning, end, being, and that which is of Himself, and ever Himself, is eternity itself. (2) His relative mercy (which respects us, and makes impression on us) is everlasting too, in a sense; for the creatures, ever since they had being in Him, or existence in their natural causes, did ever, and ever will, need mercy, either preserving or conserving. 2. Reasons. (1) From God’ s nature. He is good. Mercy pleaseth Him. First, it is no trouble for Him to exercise mercy. Secondly, it is His delight; we are never weary of receiving, therefore He cannot be of giving; for as it is a more blessed thing to give than to receive, so God takes more content in the one than we in the other. (2) From His unchangeable word and covenant (Isaiah 54:10). (3) From our need; every creature is compounded of perfection and imperfection; the first is the ground, the second is the object of mercy. Uses-- 1. Dwell upon the mercy of God.2. Put it to use.3. Be ye merciful, as He is--to men’ s souls, bodies, estates, names. (R. Harris, D. D.) Psalms 136:4-9 To Him who alone doeth great wonders. God the wonder-worker Altering a little the language of Coleridge, I would say, “ All true science begins with wonder, and ends with wonder, and the space between is filled up with admiration. If we turn to Providence, the history of the nations, the history of the Church, what centuries of wonders pass before us! It is said that wise men only wonder once, and that is always; fools never wonder, because they are fools. The story of the Church is a constellation of miracles. I cannot venture upon themes so vast as Creation and Providence. Shall we turn to the works of Grace, the wonders of Redemption? If we consider the glory of grace surrounding the Cross, which is the wonder of wonders, we are upon a boundless ocean. I. God is working wonders of mercy now.1. In the salvation of the lost.2. In the preservation of believers.3. By maintaining His Church and the cause of truth in the midst of the world. II. These wonders are still great. Many apparent wonders can be explained, and, henceforth, the wonder is gone. Certain nations wonder at an eclipse, which to the astronomer is a very simple affair. Now, you cannot explain away redemption, regeneration, and the pardon of sin: these great wonders of almighty love are all the greater the more you know of them. Many wonders, also, are diminished by familiarity. The wonders of grace are such, that the more you see them the more your wonder grows. Those who are most familiar with the Lord think the most of Him and of His grace. The wonders of Divine grace are so great that they can never be eclipsed by any greater marvels. III. These great wonders are wrought by God alone. When the Lord uses means in the salvation of a soul, He takes care that nobody shall praise the means or ascribe the salvation to the agent. He has many ways with His most useful servants of making them keep their places; and you will notice that as soon as ever any one of them begins to grow rather large in his own esteem, he is usually met with weakness and barrenness. We must keep self out of the way. We must put ourselves absolutely into God’ s hands, that He may use us in the winning of souls, and then we must send the great I down, down, down, till it is buried out of all remembrance. IV. For these wonders God is to be praised. Holy wonder is like sweet incense, but love must set it on a blaze with a burning coal of gratitude. If you will begin to praise the Lord for His great wonders of mercy, I will tell you what will happen to you.1. First, we shall find His nature revealed to us. “ O give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good.” We shall begin to see the essential goodness of God, and then we shall the better understand the manifestations of it as seen in ten thousand ways. 2. Next, while praising for His wonders, thou wilt learn to adore His Godhead. “ Give thanks unto the God of gods.” It is a grand thing to be deeply impressed that God is God. 3. If thou wilt keep on praising Him for His wonders, thou wilt come to know somewhat of His sovereignty. “ O give thanks unto the Lord of lords,” for He rules over all things, both in heaven and in earth, and in all deep places. We can trust our God with unlimited power; and it is a part of our worship that we should never question whatever He may do. “ It is the Lord; let Him do what seemeth Him good.” 4. Still, when thou praisest God for the wonders He has wrought for thee, and for others, let the climax of thy praise be this, that “ His mercy endureth for ever.” Magnify with all thy faculties of mind and heart; with memory, and hope, and fear, and every emotion of which thou art capable, the changeless mercy of God. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Psalms 136:17-22 To Him which smote great kings. Mercy in the destruction of tyrants I. The mercy of God recognized in the destruction of tyrants.1. It appears in their own destruction. (1) If there be no future state it puts an end to their miseries. (2) If there be, as we believe there is, a state of future punishment, the sooner the incorrigible sinner dies the better for himself; the longer he lives the more guilt he contracts, and the greater his guilt the greater his agonies in a world of retribution. 2. It appears in the relief afforded to the race. When such demons in human flesh are cut down, the world breathes freer, obstacles are swept from its path of progress; when the Pharaohs are engulfed the human Israel can march forward to promised lands. II. The praises of God celebrated on account of the perpetuity of His mercy.1. Because Divine mercy will always work for good. Therefore, the longer it continues, the better. 2. Because the future ages of the world will require mercy. There will be much for mercy to do on this planet yet, before the race will be brought hack into harmony with God. 3. Because we ourselves shall ever be dependent on mercy. (Homilist.) Sihon and Og, or mercies in detail These six verses reiterate the same fact. Is the tautology tedious; do the chimes weary you with their monotony? For my part I like a repetition in the tune of a psalm as well as in its language. No doubt one verse instead of these six might have sufficed. It might have run thus, “ Who slew famous kings, Sihon, king of the Amorites, Og, king of Bashan, and gave their land for a heritage to His people, for His mercy endureth for ever.” That would have comprehended all the sense. But by this repetition we learn that it is well to dwell long and to dwell deliberately upon some of God’ s dealings with Us. This is the theme on which I want to thread a few reflections. And-- I. It is well to deliberate long over the merciful side of God’ s judgments. We might have thought it more natural if we had read, for His justice, or, for His vengeance endureth for ever. But though terrible for these tyrants, it was a great mercy for others. When tyrants die nations have time to breathe. When lions fall, or the wolves are slain, the deer and sheep have time to rest. Not mercy to the one man, perhaps, to Nero, Caligula, Tiberius or the like, but to the millions who groaned under his abominable rule. And so of huge systems of error and superstition which have oppressed men. They have passed away, and others shall, “ for His mercy endureth for ever.” II. Each mercy deserves to be remembered. See with what special point and emphasis each instance is put. They are thus given--1. Because each mercy we have received is undeserved. In the very chapter which tells of these victories of Israel their murmurings and the fiery serpents that chastised them are told of also. It was to these people God gave these repeated victories. 2. Not one could be dispensed with. Had the Lord stopped when Sihon was slain, what would have become of Israel? 3. There was a peculiarity about each mercy. You never had two mercies from God that were quite alike. 4. But if any mercy deserves to be particularly remembered, it is early mercy. The children of Israel had not got their hands into fighting yet. They were young recruits. And so with ourselves, how we ought to remember God’ s mercy to us in the beginning of our career. III. Each mercy does really in itself deserve separate contemplation. How we dwell in detail and fulness on our troubles. Should we not do so also with our mercies? When I have got some trouble of my own, I think I generally find myself turning it inside out and showing every bit of it--every point of it--upside down, the wrong way up, the right way up, and all ways. Ought I not to do the same with my mercies? IV. Continued benefits are a special proof of enduring mercy. For God to give one mercy might not prove that His mercy endureth for ever, but when no sooner is one given than another follows, and another follows that, the unbroken succession of wave upon wave in ceaseless regularity does show that His mercy endureth for ever. And is not this what so many of us have to tell of? V. The overruling of trials is a subject to dwell upon with delight. Israel did not expect to have the territory of Sihon and Og. Their land was on the other side Jordan, but since they attacked them as unexpected foes, they got out of them unexpected territory. Unexpected trials often issue in unexpected advantages. VI. That all this should be for the same persons further shows that “ His mercy,” etc. For whom does Sihon, does Og, fall but for Israel? All is for them, undeserving, evil, full of provocation as they were. Is there one of us who might not justly be in hell before the clock ticks again, if it were not that His mercy endureth for ever? Do any say, “ My sins are strong, how can I master them?” Cannot He who slew great kings, yea, famous kings, cannot He slay them? (C. H. Spurgeon.) Psalms 136:23-24 Who remembered us in our low estate.Raised from low estate I. By apostasy from God we are reduced to a condition of great degradation.1. By sinning we have lost all moral excellence.2. All sources of supply are forfeited. II. God remembered us in this our low estate.1. He devised a way of escape from our thraldom.2. He remembered us in the day of our conversion.3. Since our conversion to Himself, how many have been the seasons of distress in which God has remembered us! III. Such remembrance could only arise from the mercy of God. (Isaac Mann.) . Psalms 137:1-9 Psalms 137:1-9 By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept. The tears of memory and the cry for vengeance I. The tears of memory (Psalms 137:1-6).1. Their sorrow had reference to the loss of the highest blessing--Zion, where their nation met their God to worship Him, etc. 2. Their sorrow was deliberate and all-absorbing. Now these tears of memory-- (1) Reveal one of the most wonderful faculties of our nature, the faculty of memory. (2) Reveal a view of retribution opposed to modern scepticism. Modern sceptics say we pay our moral debts as we go on, that retribution for sin is prompt and adequate here. Not so, memory brings up the sufferings of the past. (3) Reveal a view of our mortal life terribly solemn. We do not, as the brute does, finish with life as we go on; we are bound by memory to re-visit the past, and to re-live our yesterdays. (4) Reveal a futurity which must reverse our present calculations. How different do things appear to the eye of memory to what they do to the eye of sense. II. A cry for vengeance (Psalms 137:7-9). (Homilist.) The patriot’ s psalm This psalm celebrates the splendid constancy of the Jews amid the oppressions of the Babylonian captivity, and is the production of some son of Korah or Asaph. The knowledge and love of music was widespread among the Sews; and it was most natural that the Babylonians, who were great musicians themselves, should ask their captives to sing them a song of Judaea. Whether they did it in scorn and mockery, or from genuine interest, the thought of singing of home was none the less painful to the exiles. The whole of the later books of the Old Testament are full of this consuming fire of Israelitish patriotism, a patriotism which burns in every nation under heaven, and in no nation more strongly than our own. Where it is trampled on, it breaks the oppressor like a potter’ s vessel; where it is respected, it binds nations together in the strongest of bonds. So deep, so strong is the divine passion for fatherland in every human breast. Yet, loyal as you are, and lovers of old Caledonia, with heart and hand ever open to a “ brither Scot,” you are free-born subjects of another country, owning another sovereign, like Andrew Melville, and fellow-citizens with the saints. Henceforth heaven is our home, our true and only home, and hero we are strangers and pilgrims. Many of the younger Jews had been born in captivity, but none the less did they love far-off Jerusalem, for their fathers talked of nothing else. The very fact that they had never seen it made them dream about it the more. So we often in imagination cross the Jordan and the wilderness, and enter one of the many mansions. We read and read again Revelation 21:22.; the “ Pilgrim’ s Progress,” and the “ Paradise,” and call curses on ourselves if we ever forget what we read there. The Jews sat down by the rivers of Babylon with a set purpose to weep. They deliberately intended to weep, and they had a never-failing specific for bringing tears to their eyes. It was deep, silent, solemnized, and deliberate weeping, reserved for a time when the Babylonians were not by. Nor do we intrude with our weeping into your feasts and dancing, nor hang our heads like bulrushes over the wine-cup; but never for one moment do we forget Jerusalem. Materially, the Jews lost little or nothing by having to migrate to Babylon. They were not slaves as they had been in Egypt, but prosperous colonists, and some of them were so well to do, so contented, that they let Zion and Jerusalem slip from their minds. Yet there was ever a remnant (or elect) whom no material prosperity could ever satisfy, who said, better a cottage in a vineyard in Jerusalem than a palace here. Asaph did not sell his harp nor tear its strings to pieces; he only hanged it on a willow-tree against the time he knew was coming. Then he struck it to some purpose, as we know in this far-off island of the sea. Not till her golden gates have closed and all her glorious children have gone in, will Jerusalem awake to her own full joy, and then will be heard the voice of mirth, and gladness, and feasting, the sound as of many waters, and the harpers harping with their harps. (A. Whyte, D. D.) Injurious retrospection The psalm opens with words of which the melancholy sweetness blinds us from seeing the evil tendencies which lie hid in them. “ By the rivers of Babylon,” etc. Are the words so sweet? Is there not suppressed bitterness in them? What right had these exiles to sit down and weep, when it was God who had brought them to Babylon? What right had they to fold their hands and hang up their harps when God had told them by His prophet Jeremiah to build houses, and seek the peace of the city to which they were led captive (Jeremiah 29:5-7)? God sends trouble to make men look forward, not backward. Living back in an irrevocable past is worse than mere waste of time. So it proved with the captives by the waters of Babylon. They thought upon the wrongs, but not upon the wrongful dealings of Zion. Zedekiah’ s broken oath to the king of Babylon (Ezekiel 17:16), and their own intrigues with the enemies of Nebuchadnezzar were forgotten; the destruction of Jerusalem and the joys of their neighbours on the day of destruction were remembered too well. (W. E. Barnes, D. D.) Psalms 137:2 We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof.Harps on the willows I. Every man has a harp. The harp was the well-known instrument for the accompaniment of song. Its music was sweet and delightful. When calamity fell upon the nation their harps were silenced, etc. And thus it is with all our lives. We have the elements of joy in them, the powers of song and gladness, and there is no man who has not the capacity and the occasion for delightful mirth.1. Think of the constitution of our nature, wherein a place is secured for joy. The body is attuned to pleasure. How exquisitely has God harmonized the sound and the sense! 2. What a harp man possesses in physical nature if he would only let its music be heard. Every sight and sound, every scene and action, all things fair and good, and bright and godly, are but fingers of Nature’ s skilful hand, which will touch the strings of the harp of our being, and wake their perfect tones of rapture. 3. Man has the harp for pleasant accompaniment of happy song in the region of the immaterial and the intellectual. The joy of learning--when it is indeed learning worthy of the name; the discovery of the unknown; the pursuit of the law which underlies obscure phenomena; the search for causes; the enumeration of effects--these and others afford keen and lasting delight. 4. The pleasure which belongs to the still higher sphere which we are privileged to enter. (1) Let me remind you of that sacred melody which is attuned when the joys of the spirit are experienced. The sinner seeks his Saviour, and finds the pardon of Father and of Friend. The best music of all the Christian poets fails far short of the rapture which dwells within the forgiven heart. And with what language shall we tell of the occasions for harping that have occurred so often since the first forgiveness! Have there not been Bethels of a Divine covenanting, Horebs of refreshment, and Red Sea passages of deliverance and triumph? Prayer has had its blessed answers, and meditation its holy raptures. (2) Remember, this harp must be tuned and practised on. Let Zion re-echo with your songs. II. But sometimes the harp has to be hung upon the willows.1. It is thus when disease invades our bodies or sorrow smites the soul. Songs are not suitable to funerals, and harpings in the house of mourning are out of place and impertinent. 2. There are some silences still more profound that fall upon the music of our life. The father whose eldest son forswears his father’ s faith, and throws away his father’ s virtues, and wins only a name that will be a dishonour among men--such a father has little heart for harpings, and is, indeed, in a silent land of bitter exile. 3. And then how useless is the harp when we ourselves are in the hours of spiritual distress. God is absent, and we know no gladness till He shows His face again. They sang a hymn when the Master was among them, even though when they rose from the supper it was to pass to Gethsemane, and Pilate’ s bar, and Calvary. But their hearts had no desire for singing in the suspense and numb agony of the hour when the Christ lay dead. And so it is with the Christian still. III. But though there is no heart or place for song, and the harp must be laid aside, it needs not to be cast away. They had been foolish and wicked men of Israel if they had flung their harps beneath the running river, and thus deprived themselves altogether of the means of melody when the days of joy came back again (Ezra 3:9-13). So, cast not away your harp. The weather will clear and the soul will awake to gladness when the sunshine comes. And the sickness will depart, and the strengthened frame shall recover its wonted sense of health and vigour. Yea, and there shall be some hours of gladness even for the wailing weary heart that sickens over the sinfulness of child and friend. It was a sad home when the prodigal was far away. But one day the father saw the returning son, ragged, worn, and disgraced, and that night there was music and dancing in the long silent homestead. And thou, too, depressed and cast-down Christian, throw not away thy harp. There shall be peace, and joy, and fulness of blessing yet for thee. God shall show Himself, and Christ will yet return. (Lt. D. Bevan, LL. B.) Psalms 137:3 Sing us one of the songs of Zion.The phases of psalmody The noblest employment of which the nature of man is capable is the worship of his Maker. One of the elements of the worship is the rendition of praise, and in the songs of Zion we are amply provided with material for this purpose. I. The song of the pardoned penitent. This song can be sung by him who no longer looks to his own righteousness for salvation, but whose desire is to be found in Christ as the righteousness of God. II. The song of the adoring creature. This song is sung not for any special gift received, but in contemplation of the great acts of God--His past acts in the Church and in the world--for the laws of nature--for all those marvellous exhibitions of power and wisdom that are before our eyes. III. The song of the recipient of mercy. This is well brought out in Psalms 103:1-22. The mercies that are renewed to us daily are not to be taken as a matter of course. Count up your daily mercies and sing. IV. The song of the Heaven-round pilgrim, “ Thy statutes have been my songs,” etc. God’ s people should not go on their way as if to be a Christian were the most gloomy thing hi the world. They are commanded to “ rejoice.” Let us attain to the apostolic stand and come “ to Zion with songs.” V. The song of the sorrower. “ He giveth songs in the night.” Where sufferings abound, consolations abound. God never lays one hand on us but He lays the other hand under us. Paul and Silas sang in prison in the night. VI. The song of the sanctuary. The service of song in public worship was very prominent under the old dispensation. Music should be edifying; not a sensuous enjoyment, but a part--a noble part--of the worship of God. VII. The song of Zion which is to be sung by the glorified above. That song is to be the utterance--the ceaseless utterings--of their gratitude and praise for all the eternal love wherewith they were loved, for the grace by which they were redeemed, kept there, sanctified there, brought there--“ Salvation to God and to the Lamb.” Are you in training for that choir which is in heaven--for exchanging the songs which we sung in a strange land for the songs of the New Jerusalem and all her beauty? (J. C. Miller, D. D.) Babylonian captivity 1. Certainly there are many men and women to whom this psalm will be full of a touching significance if they look back on the time when they first found themselves alone in London. A young man, after being brought up with loving care in the country, is sent with a book of the Lord’ s songs packed by his mother in his trunk to serve his time at some business in our modern Babylon. Will he not be ready to shed tears on his first Sundays spent in town when he thinks of friends at home singing one of the songs of Zion, in which he can no longer join, deterred perhaps by the ridicule or want of sympathy of strangers? And the very desire of others that he should “ keep up his spirits” and be a “ jolly fellow” --such jarring requests will only increase his heaviness. What should such a young man do? Let him, before his better feelings grow cold, resolve rather to forget the cunning of his hand if he be an artisan, or the cunning of his business faculty if he be in a merchant’ s or lawyer’ s office; let him resolve to forget these or never to acquire them at all rather than to forget the love of his home and the worship of his mother’ s God--in one word, Jerusalem. 2. When travelling abroad did Englishmen remember Jerusalem, and prefer her above their chief joy, they would realize the presence of One who could dispel the loneliness of a strange land, and deliver them from the many temptations of friendlessness. 3. Again, there are many generous souls whose best impulses are imprisoned by circumstances over which they have no control. Bound men have got into square holes, and find no scope for the best energies of their nature. Children long to help their parents; but they are far from home, or their desire is in captivity, by reason of poverty, ill-health, or anything else. Parents cannot do all they desire for their children. Let these, and all who find themselves in adverse circumstances, think of Israel weeping on the banks of the Euphrates--let them think of how she waited patiently on the Lord in poverty, in humiliation, in a strange land, full of sin and scoffing; and of how He delivered her from Babylon in His own good time, as of old He delivered the same Israel out of bondage in Egypt. (E. J. Hardy, M. A.) Psalms 137:4 How shall we sing the Lord’ s song in a strange land? The Lord’ s song in a strange land The temple music had a reputation even among the heathen peoples of Central Asia; and it seemed natural that the sacred words and music, which had for ages set forth the worship of the one true God, should furnish a more refined amusement for the cultivated pagans who had trodden down the sanctuary and had enslaved God’ s people. But the heart of captive Israel beat true to what was due to the honour of God, and to the memories of their ancient worship. “ How shall we sing the Lord’ s song in a strange land?” Nay, this request of the heathen oppressor that the captives should sing the Lord’ s song for his aesthetic gratification nerves the psalmist to a sterner mood. He cannot forget how, in those dark hours, a race of kinsmen by blood had cheered on the heathen foe in his work of destruction. Already he sees the approaching capture of the city by Darius Hystaspis. Her young children are dashed against the stones by the Persian invader. But, meanwhile, if the psalmist is asked to prostitute his gift by singing the old temple songs merely to amuse the heathen, there are many reasons which make compliance impossible. “ How shall we sing the Lord’ s song in a strange land?” I. The Lord’ s song.1. It meant for Israel all that was precious to the soul; but for the Babylonians it meant merely entertainment, merely a newly incited curiosity, merely a new sensation in the world of art. There was nothing common to Israel and Babylon in their way of looking at it. 2. Any ancient hymn of king or prophet which had passed into the service of the sanctuary bore that name. There is one prayer with which no other prayer may compare, and which alone in Christendom bears the name of the Lord’ s Prayer. But there is, at least on earth, no one psalm or hymn which bears the name of “ the Lord’ s song.” Whatever may be the case with the new song of the everlasting future, the religious hymnology of earth is, and always has been, almost infinitely varied in its expression; and yet at bottom it is one--one in its motive, one in its spirit and its effort, one in its surrounding moral atmosphere. 3. What is it but the ascent of the soul towards the infinite and the eternal, the upward bounding of the understanding, the expansion of the affections, the effort of faith, and hope, and love, to utter themselves somehow in praise? Although the words, the languages, the rhythms, the melodies, should be most dissimilar, this--this, the true song of the Lord; springing out of the very heart of the people of revelation, and embodying its creed in poems of the most different ages and characters--this it was which could not be uttered for the mere gratification of pagan Babylon--could not, at least, without profanity. 4. If it had only been the old poetry of the Hebrews--only their ancient music--they might, perhaps, have consented to render it before a Babylonian audience. But, for the Jews, language was a much more sacred tiring, speaking generally, than, I fear, it is to us. The Jews did not conceive of language as a something which might be stripped off thought, like bark from the surface of a tree. For them, thought and language always went together. 5. It sounded through the corridors of the soul before it took shape in language, and resounded beneath the vaults of the temple; and this--this sense of its reality, made it impossible for a good Jew to prostitute it for the benefit of a pagan audience who might think of it as a new sensation in art. 6. Poetry, music, painting, architecture, all have their place in the sanctuary of God. And what has once been given to Him is His--His irrevocably--His for ever. Poetry or music which has been dedicated to Him, and which has lifted souls up to Him for many a generation, cannot be divested of its purpose, and made the amusement of the unbelieving, without wounding Him to whom it was given by the faith and love of the gifted dead. II. In a strange land.1. This was apparent, first of all, in the difference of the language. Although the Baby-Ionian tongue had affinities with the Hebrew, it was practically for the Jews a foreign language. We know how it affects us, when we first go abroad, to hear another than our mother tongue being talked all around us. It produces, at least at first, a sense of isolation; and this must have been deepened in the ease of the Jews by the fact that they certainly did not go to Babylon for their own satisfaction. In time, no doubt, the captive Jews learned much of the language of their conquerors, and, in fact, brought it back with them to Palestine; but at first it was a barrier between them; and this would, of itself, have made them unwilling to sing the Lord’ s song in their own ancient Hebrew to strangers who could not follow it. The language of religion is, and must be, unintelligible to those who do not share the faith and the feelings which prompt it. “ The natural man perceiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” And the sense that this is the case often makes a Christian, when in general society, retire into himself, lest he should break his Master’ s precept against giving that which is holy unto the dogs, and casting the pearls of heaven before swine. If the soul is to sing the Lord’ s song with the lips as well as with the heart, it must be among those who can speak its own language. 2. Babylon was the land of material wealth; it was the great world-city of the ago. It had its attractions, no doubt, but it was not the place in which to sing “ the Lord’ s song.” That song proclaimed in its very earliest notes--witness the one psalm of Moses, “ Domine, refugium” --it proclaimed the insignificance of this human life at the best--the poverty, the perishableness of all that belongs to time. The soul of man is, after all, finite; and when the soul is filled with this world there is no room for the next. We could not ourselves well sing the “ Gloria in excelsis” in the Stock Exchange or in a West End club; and the Jews felt that Babylon was not the place for singing the song of the Lord which had been the joy and the glory of their ancient sanctuary. 3. Babylon was a land in which life was overshadowed by a vast idolatry. Now, how could the old psalms of Israel, instinct with the memories of David’ s life and of Solomon’ s glory, and of the solemnities of the now destroyed temple, be sung in such an atmosphere as this? If sacred associations were to have any value--if sacred words were to mean anything, could they be prostituted to the amusement of a race which was devoted to a hideous and cruel superstition? No. Captive Israel might sing the songs of the captivity, such as was this very psalm itself. It might sing these in secret assemblies of the faithful; but to render the old temple hymns before a heathen crowd of idolaters--this, this was impossible. Is not the Christian soul often carried captive, nowadays, into the Babylon of unbelief or of half belief? Is not the place in our thoughts which is due to God often tenanted by abstractions, which are just as senseless as the idols of Babylon--creations, it is true, of our thoughts, instead of being creations of our fingers? “ Nature,” “ force,” “ law,” and what not--generalizations of our own minds as we look out upon the universe around us--these are, too often, placed upon the throne of the one infinite, eternal, self-existing Being. 4. There hung over all the magnificence of Babylon a dense atmosphere of sin, which made it impossible for the servant of God to sing his song--to do more than complain: “ How long, O Lord? How long?” And the regenerate soul may be carried captive, some of us must know, too well, into this Babylon of deadly sin. It may be carried captive; it may at once make its escape and return. Happy are they with whom it fares thus. But, supposing that the soul is detained in Babylon--supposing that habits of evil are formed, and that the enfeebled will is held down by bolts and bars which it cannot break--then how is it “ to sing the Lord’ s song” ? How is it to mount upon the wings of desire and hope to the throne of the All-Holy, whose laws it the while sets steadily at defiance? How can we sing the praises of our Maker, if we have not reason to be thankful to Him for the gift of an undying existence?--or the praises of our Redeemer, if our hearts do not tell us that we have been washed with His blood, and have not defiled our garments?--or of our Sanctifier, if we know that we have grieved Him, and that He has taken Himself from us? Better far--I had almost allowed myself to say--better far sing the songs of Babylon itself, than burn out the last surviving tenderness of the conscience by a service which cannot be but as odious to God as it is degrading to ourselves. 5. We may well, indeed, feel, all of us, that this life is an exile from our true home, and that, while we live it, we cannot, at our best, sing aright the song of the redeemed. The new song of the four awful creatures, and of the four and twenty elders before the throne of the Lamb--the new song which go man could learn bug the hundred and forty and four thousand which were redeemed from the earth--the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, which is sung for ever and ever by them that have gotten the victory over the beast, and that stand on the sea of glass having the harps of God--what is all this but a description of the psalmody of the blessed, with the volume and with the perfections of which nothing that is heard on earth can compare? (Canon Liddon.) The difficulty of singing the Lord’ s song in a strange land 1. I cannot doubt that we have felt it at times despondingly. I cannot sing the Lord’ s song. Difficult as I find it to pray--difficult to confess sin, difficult to ask for grace, it is still more difficult, I find, to praise; to perform that highest, that most unselfish of all offices of devotion, which is the telling forth, in the hearing of others, in the presence (we believe) of the communion of saints, dead as well as living, what God is, in act and in counsel, in power, wisdom, and love, in creation, redemption, and grace, in His Son our Lord Jesus Christ, and in His Spirit the Lord and Giver of life. (1) The very life which we live here in the body is a life of sight and sense. If we wish to realize heaven, to meditate upon eternity, to hold converse with Jesus Christ, to ask something of God, it has all to be done by strenuous resolution; by drawing down, as it were, the blinds of the mind against the sights and sounds of our street, and opening the windows of the soul to let in the light of another world. All this is difficult. And without this we cannot worship. (2) The feelings of the present life are often adverse to praise. The exiles in Babylon could not sing because they were in heaviness. God’ s hand was heavy upon them. Now the feelings of many of us are in like manner adverse to the Lord’ s song. Some of us are in great sorrow. We have lost a friend--we are in anxiety about one who is all to us--we know not which way to turn for to-morrow’ s bread or for this day’ s comfort. How can we sing the Lord’ s song? And there is another kind of sorrow, still more fatal, if possible, to the lively exercise of adoration--unforgiven sin. (3) There is a land yet more strange and foreign to the Lord’ s song even than the land of unforgiven guilt--and that is the land of unforsaken sin. 2. But there is a land, could we but reach it, where praise is, as it were, indigenous. In heaven praise bursts forth spontaneously from all the blessed--it is their voice--they cannot speak but in praise. But how shall we sing it? May not heaven be a strange land to us, though it is the native land of the Lord’ s song? The Lord’ s song will sound for ever in heaven; but shall we be there to sing it? It takes a lifetime to make heaven our own land. O how many things go to this! Heaven means--we have no other definition of it--where God is. Then, if heaven is to be our land, it must be by our knowing God--God in Christ. We must know Him in His holiness as the God of purer eyes than to behold iniquity. We must know Him in His love. We must know Him in His power as the Resurrection and the Life, able to re-create in His own image those who have most utterly lost and sullied it. Then we shall be no strangers in the land that is very far off, because it is the land where we shall see the King in His beauty, and praise Him for ever with joyful lips. (Dean Vaughan.) The Lord’ s song in a strange land Babylon stands for the kingdom of this world; Jerusalem for the kingdom of God, which is above. We are sitting by the waters of Babylon while on this earth, where nothing continueth in one stay, we watch all things eddying and drifting by us, slowly or quickly carried away down the stream of time. Of course we can but too easily learn to acquiesce in our exile, content with Babylon, and forgetting Jerusalem; and then this psalm has nothing to say to us but to condemn us for not being able to make its words our own. And often in some shape does the question flash into his mind, “ How shall I sing the Lord’ s song in this strange land?” Many, indeed, of the songs of Zion are sung by us with but little effort. Those that tell God of our past sins, and present weaknesses, and that cry sadly but hopefully for pardon and help through Christ, readily, I say, do they come forth from every heart that knows its own history. But the Lord’ s song in its highest sense, the song which sings unto the Lord only of the Lord Himself, and forgetting man loses itself in giving glory and praise unto Christ, does a melody of this kind never seem as much out of place in our heaviness as it once seemed by the waters of Babylon? When a man is down of heart about himself, or those whom he cares for, when things have been going amiss with him in mind, body, or estate, through the week just past, and he is anxious indeed as to what another week will bring forth, then here on Sunday morning it may seem somewhat inopportune and out of place for him to have to say to others even as they say to him, “ O come, let us sing unto the Lord,” etc. Not a few of us here now have, I doubt not, some secret care or sorrow pressing sore upon us, and yet we ought to have been singing, “ My soul doth magnify the Lord,” etc. And does it not, I say, cost us a struggle in this our heaviness to put our hearts into such words of joy? Does not this earth sometimes seem a strange land, indeed, in which to sing the Lord’ s songs? And yet these songs of the Lord are really among the strongest helps and aids to our comfort. The more I am feeling some evil of this land of my captivity, the more thankfully let me, while I may, make my escape from it by fixing my heart upon my Saviour. (John Gray, M. A.) Sin takes all the music out of our hearts Music suggests perfect harmony of character. To have a musical instrument that will adequately express musical thought in sound and harmony requires very care-fully-selected woods as to acoustic properties for its construction. John Albert, who has been called “ the Stradivarius of America,” died the other day at the age of ninety years. His great success in making violins, that won him fame through the world, was as much due to the care with which he selected the woods from which they were made as to his skill as a workman. So much depended on the proper woods that Albert sought them sometimes at the risk of his life. Once he lay for weeks between life and death, the victim of an accident while he was on the hunt for a certain wood in an almost impassable forest. Ole Bull, the great violinist, pronounced him one of the great violin makers of the world because he possessed the greatest knowledge of the acoustic properties of woods of any man living at that time. Surely if a violin maker must pay such great heed to the character of the wood out of which he constructs a violin, in order that he may make it a perfect interpreter of musical thought to human ears, we should not wonder at the care of God in seeking to so purify and cleanse our hearts that they shall be resonant, and responsive to the slightest touch of the Holy Spirit, and thus be able to interpret the melodies of heaven. (L. A. Banks, D. D.) Psalms 137:5-6 If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning.Recollection and preference of the Church of Christ I. The object of recollection and preference by the Christian. The Church of Jesus Christ--the universal Church, consisting of all, throughout the world, who believe and obey the Gospel.1. The Church of Jesus Christ is the dwelling-place of God.2. It is the light of the world.3. It is the depository of ordinances and truths requisite for the weal of the human race.4. It is the sanctuary of salvation.5. It is a type of the Church in heaven. II. The emphasis with which the Christian expresses his recollection of, and preference for, the Church of Jesus Christ.1. Because of its wonderful revelations.2. Because of its sacred exercises.3. Because of its ennobling associations.4. Because of its momentous interests--truth, righteousness, joy. (P. J. Wright.) Religious public-spiritedness I. What it is. It is love to the Church of Christ, regulated by knowledge, and prompting to zealous and steady activity in advancing the Church’ s interests. It is in the kingdom of God on earth what patriotism is in the body politic. It directs and rules him; he lives for the Church; he consecrates to her welfare all that he is, and all that he has. II. How it is to be exemplified.1. By self-denial for the sake of the Church. This includes a disposition to forego everything, however innocent and lawful in itself, which we cannot enjoy without doing less than we ought to do for the interests of religion. 2. By identifying ourselves with the interests of the Church. 3. By promoting the purity of the Church. Not only is the Church of Christ a holy community, but holiness is the very thing which distinguishes it from the world. 4. By strenuously maintaining the integrity of the Church. It is not a mutilated, vitiated Christianity that is to convert the nations. It is when the Church goes forth in all the might of her Divine simplicity and integrity that she will take the world captive to Christ. 5. By labouring for the extension of the Church. III. What are the considerations which should stimulate, the operation of a religious public spirit?1. Consider what is due to God. Is obedience due to Him? Well, cherish and exemplify public-spiritedness in religion, for God requires it of every one of you. Is gratitude due to God? due to Him more especially as the God of the Church? Cherish and exemplify public-spiritedness in religion: there is no “ sacrifice of praise” more pleasing to the Lord. 2. Consider what is due to Jesus Christ. 3. Consider what is due to the Church. 4. Consider what is due to a perishing world. Will you not pity it, pray for it, do all you can to reclaim it? (D. Young, D. D.) Patriotism I. Some of its characteristic features.1. A spirit of enterprise in behalf of religion. The Jew professed his religion in Babylon; he did not merge his Judaism in Babylonianism. He stood out in Babylon a Jew. Why not stand out a Christian? “ I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ,” says one. You are not to blow the trumpet; but there is another thing you are not to do--you are not to hide the light; you are not to place it under a bed, or under a bushel, or hide it in a cupboard. 2. A lively sympathy with the state of the Church. 3. Zeal for the Church’ s purity. This must be tempered with prudence and steeped in charity. 4. Prayer and effort for the Church’ s prosperity. II. Some of its leading principles. They are to be found in the Bible.1. The love of God. This love has prompted the noblest exertions. Shall I take you over the traces where this public spirit has displayed itself? shall I take you to the spots where apostles suffered, where martyrs bled, where confessors were burnt,? Shall I take you to Smithfield and its fires, or the Grass Market in Edinburgh and its martyrs’ fires? What prompted men to such a nobility? It was this mighty principle--the love of God, the love of Christ. 2. A consideration of the connection subsisting between a Christian and Christ and His Church. No Christian lives to himself. The Christian is no isolated man; he is no solitary soldier. He feels himself one of a brotherhood; one of a great fellowship. 3. In proportion as we feel not only for our own things, but for the things of others, and especially for the things of grace, and Christ Jesus, just in that proportion do we most promote our own honour and our own happiness. God, in constructing the human heart, putting it together--putting his labours together, and lacing them together, has so adjusted the chemistry of the heart, the mechanism of the heart, that, if you do good to anybody--either to the body or soul of a man, especially the latter--if you do good, a feeling of pleasure will weave all around the pulsation of your heart; for it is your law, your constitution. God has made you all, so that you cannot do good and not promote your own happiness and your own honour. (J. Beaumont, M. D.) How to preserve and increase patriotism By keeping in remembrance the virtues and principles of the noble and patriotic men who laid the foundations of this republic. While the memory of the immortal Washington and his co-patriots is green, and the principles of his “ Farewell Address” are cherished by us, we are safe.2. By honouring with suitable memorial services those who have sacrificed ease and fortune and life itself at their country’ s call, in behalf of liberty, principle, the right. 3. By the enactment of wise and equitable laws, and a faithful and impartial execution of them. Never was the necessity of this greater or more imperative than now. 4. By elevating patriotism into a Christian virtue. Patriotism without piety; patriotism divorced from Christianity and the institutions of religion; the State, civil society, politics, given over to infidelity, to ungodliness, to the tyranny of human passions and selfish seeking, cannot be long maintained. And here is our greatest danger to-day. (Homiletic Review.) Religious attachments Do cultivate religious attachments. Do not let all things be equally common: do let us have a little enthusiasm about some men, and some places, and some books, and some scenes. Oh, it is not living to live with a person to whom all places are alike,--who does not know what he is eating, whether it is the very best or the worst. There is no comfort in living with such an individual, on whom the best of your things are wasted. There is no comfort in living with an individual to whom all systems, and all churches, and all rituals are alike. Do have your preferences,--not that you may antagonize the preferences of other people, and make yourself unpleasant to those who may differ from you; but do get to love some particular seat in the church--some particular corner. A man cannot go slick down to hell, surely, if he loves one little bit of the sanctuary better than he loves any place else on the earth. Oh, we can surely get hold of him there: we can surely touch him through that one little preference. It is a very poor hold to have upon him, but it is better than nothing. Do you mourn your distance from Zion, and are you unable to sing when you are in far-off Babylon? There is hope for you. One day the Jew that hung his harp upon the willow shall take it down. (J. Parker, D. D.) Psalms 137:7-9 Remember, O Lord, the children of Edom in the day of Jerusalem.Imprecation against the enemies of the Church 1. False brethren are the chief instruments of persecution of the true members of the Church whensoever they find occasion. 2. Whosoever do delight in the Church’ s calamity, and do endeavour the Church’ s ruin by word or deed; by their stirring up of others to afflict them; or by any oppression which may tend to the Church’ s prejudice, when the Lord is visiting her, their sin shall not be forgotten of God in the day when the Lord judgeth His people, but shall be severely punished. 3. No less will suffice the adversaries of the Church than the utter ruin and razing of it to the ground. 4. The estate of the Church at the worst is better than the estate of Babylon, or any estate of her adversaries, how prosperous soever at the best; for albeit the Church be in captivity and oppressed, yet she shall not be destroyed, but it is not so with her adversaries. 5. Faith is neither blinded by the prosperity of the wicked, nor by the adversity of the Church, but doth see through the prospect of the Lord’ s Word, both her approaching delivery of the Church and the ruin of her enemies. 6. As the enemies of God’ s Church have measured out unto the Lord’ s people, so it shall be measured back again and more, for a reward unto her adversaries. 7. There is a happiness, wherein blessedness doth not consist, which neither is a part or branch of blessedness, nor a proper mark of blessedness, but only signifieth some happiness in the consequence of a man’ s work, tending to the glory of God and good of His Church; and such is the happiness of the Modes and Persians here spoken of, who, whatsoever were their corrupt intentions in their war, did work, albeit not as religious servants, yet as God’ s instruments, a good work of justice upon the oppressors of God’ s people, and a good work of delivery of the Lord’ s people. 8. Albeit it be a sinful thing to satisfy our carnal affection in the misery of any man; yet it is lawful in God’ s cause to wish that God be glorified, albeit in the confusion of His enemies; and here great need is to have the heart well guarded with the fear of God, for wherewise to allow the dashing of little ones against the stones might make a man guilty of savage cruelty. (D. Dickson.) . Psalms 138:1-8 Psalms 138:1-8I will praise Thee with my whole heart.Moral features of a good man’ s life I. The grand resolve of a good man--to serve God (verses 1, 2).1. Entirely. “ I will praise Thee with my whole heart.” Unless the Almighty is thus served He is never served at all. 2. Courageously. “ Before the gods,” etc. No shame, no timidity, but exulting courage. 3. Intelligently. He is infinitely good and true. II. The noble testimony of a good man (verse 3). What good man who has ever prayed could not furnish similar testimony? III. The sanguine hope of a good man (verses 4, 5).1. This hope implies a very desirable object. To have all the kings of the earth praising God, what patriotic, philanthropic, and religious ends could be more desirable? 2. This hope implies a reasonable expectation. Would it not be natural to expect that when kings heard of God, the words of His mouth, they would worship and serve Him? We have here-- IV. The theological belief of a good man (verse 6).1. No creature is too humble for the Divine regard. He is not so taken up with the vast as to ignore the minute, so sublimely exalted as not to condescend to the meanest. 2. No creature is too vile to escape His notice. “ The proud He knoweth afar off.” V. The sublime confidence of a good man (verse 7).1. The universal law of human life. What is that? Progress, walking. Implying-- (1) A constant change of position. (2) A constant approximation to destiny, every step leading nearer to the end. Life is a constant walk. No pause. A rapid walk. “ Swifter than a post.” An irretraceable walk. 2. The saddening probabilities of human life. “ In the midst of trouble.” The path is not through flowery meads and under azure skies, but rugged, tempestuous, perilous. 3. The grand support of human life. “ Thou wilt revive me.” The support is all-sufficient, the only effective and ever available. (Homilist.) Open praise and public confession David was vexed with rival gods, as we are with rival gospels. Nothing is more trying to the soul of a true man than to be surrounded with vile counterfeits, and to hear these cried up, and the truth treated with contempt. How will David act under the trial? For so should we act. He will-- I. Sing with whole-hearted praise (verse 1).1. His song would openly show his contempt of the false gods: he would sing whether they were there or no. They were such nothings that he would not change his note for them. 2. It would evince his strong faith in the true God. In the teeth of the adversary he glorified Jehovah. His enthusiastic whole-hearted song was better than denunciation or argument. 3. It would declare his joyful zeal for God: he sang to show the strong emotion of his soul. Others might be pleased in Baal, he greatly rejoiced in Jehovah. 4. It would shield him from evil from those about him; for holy song keeps off the enemy. Praise is a potent disinfectant. If called to behold evil let us purify the air with the incense of praise. II. Worship by the despised rule. “ I will worship toward Thy holy temple.”1. Quietly ignoring all will-worship, he would follow the rule of the Lord, and the custom of the saints. 2. Looking to the Person of Christ, which was typified by the temple. There is no sinning like that which is directed towards the Lord Jesus, as now living to present it to the Father. 3. Trusting in the one finished Sacrifice, looking to the one great Expiation, we shall praise aright. 4. Realizing God Himself. III. Praise the questioned attributes.1. Loving-kindness in its universality. Lovingkindness in its speciality. Grace in everything. Grace to me. Grace so much despised of Pharisees and Sadducees, but so precious to true penitents. Concerning the grace of God, let us cling close to the doctrine and spirit of the Gospel all the more because the spirit of the age is opposed to them. 2. Truth. Historic accuracy of Scripture. Absolute certainty of the Gospel. Assured truthfulness of the promises. Complete accuracy of prophecy. IV. Reverence the honoured word. “ Thou hast magnified Thy Word above all Thy name.” God has magnified His sure word of testimony beyond all such revelations as we receive through creation and providence, though these declare God’ s Name. The Gospel word is--1. More clear. Words are better understood than nature’ s hieroglyphs. 2. More sure. The Spirit Himself sealing it. 3. More sovereign. Effectually blessing believers. 4. More complete. The whole of God is seen in Christ. 5. More lasting. Creation must pass away, the Word endures for ever. 6. More glorifying to God. Specially in the great Atonement. V. Prove it by personal experience. “ In the day when I cried Thou answeredst me,” etc. He had used his knowledge of God derived from the Word.1. By offering prayer. “ I cried.” What do men know of the truth and grace of God and the virtue of His Word if they have never prayed? 2. By narrating the answer. “ Thou answeredst me,” etc. We are God’ s witnesses, and should with readiness, care, frequency, and courage testify what we have seen and known. 3. By exhibiting the strength of soul which was gained by prayer. This is good witness-bearing. Show by patience, courage, joy, and holiness what the Lord has done for your soul. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Whole-hearted praise before the world He who praises God with his whole heart is like a man on fire, he is terrible to the adversaries of the Most High. When the great Spanish Armada was ready to swoop down upon the English coast, our brave Admiral Drake took some of his small ships, and placed them where the wind would carry them right among the Spanish fleet. He filled the vessels with combustible material, and set them alight. Then the wind just took the fire ships and drifted them up against the Spanish galleons that floated high out of the water, and exposed a vast surface to the air, and one and another of the big unwieldy monsters were soon in a blaze, and a great victory was won without a blow being struck. So, I like to get a red-hot Christian, full of music and praise unto Jehovah, and just let him go, by the influence of the Holy Spirit, right into the middle of the adversaries of truth. They cannot make him out, they do not know how to handle a man of fire. It was a wise plan, this of David, of getting in among the heathen gods and singing to the praise of Jehovah. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Courage in praising God Singing unto Jehovah before the gods was good for David’ s own soul. It is perilous to attempt a secret fidelity to God, it is so apt to degenerate into cowardice. A converted soldier tried at first to pray in bed, or in some secret corner, but he found it would not do; he must kneel down in the barrack-room before the others, and run the gauntlet of the men’ s remarks; for until he had done so he had not taken his stand and he felt no peace of mind. It is needful for our spiritual health that we come out distinctly upon the Lord’ s side. Psalms 138:2 Thou hast magnified Thy Word above all Thy Name. The Word of God the highest manifestation I. It is the highest manifestation of the Divine character.1. The Bible is a manifestation through moral mind. This is greater than material nature; for the following reasons:--Moral mind is an uncompounded essence. It is a Divine offspring. It is a self-modifying agent. It is an original fountain of influences. You cannot predicate these things of matter. 2. It is a manifestation through the moral mind of a unique personage. Compare Christ with the greatest men. II. It is the highest manifestation for the highest end.1. It is a restoration. Restoration is a greater work either than destruction or sustentation. 2. It is the restoration of immortal souls. The restoration of a wrecked vessel may be a great work, the restoration of a dead flower is a greater, that of a body is still greater, the restoration of a disorganized empire is still greater, but that of an immortal soul is the greatest of all. 3. It is the restoration of a condemned criminal to a high position in the Divine empire. “ Kings and priests,” etc. 4. It is the restoration of a diseased soul to immortal health and ever-increasing energy. (Homilist.) The honour God puts upon His Word I. What is meant by magnifying this word above all thy name?1. It means putting special honour upon it; and this God has done-- (1) In the manner of revealing it.(2) In the subject-matter of the revelation itself; and--(3) In the special care He has taken to preserve it in its integrity and entirety. 2. It means giving it the first and chief place in the system of truths and agencies for the enlightenment and salvation of the world. And this is what God in His providence, as well as in His Sovereign purpose, has done. (1) The Scriptures alone reveal God in Christ.(2) The Scriptures alone direct the perishing soul to the Lamb of God which taketh away sin.(3) The Scriptures alone teach the immortality of existence, the resurrection of the dead, and the certainty of future awards and punishments. II. How God magnifies His Word.1. By making it the power of God in the conversion of the soul. The only voice that can calm and inspire hope is the voice that sounds from Calvary out of God’ s written Word. 2. By making it a sanctifying Word. Nothing but this will make them holy and fit for heaven. The philosophies and teachings of men never did and cannot do it. 3. By making it a comforting and a saving Word. It is the Christian’ s solace. It helps him over life’ s rough way. It is food, and drink, and shelter to him in his pilgrimage. It sweetens every cup. It kindles hope and assurance as the end draws nigh. It lights up the death chamber and puts the words of victory on the lips of the departing saint. (Homiletic Review.) God’ s Word magnified I. Explain.1. God’ s “ Word” is revelation in general, especially the doctrines of salvation--those which we justly call the fundamental principles of the Gospel. 2. God’ s “ Name” is His renown. Whether in His works or in His providence, He has fastened it upon His Word above all others (Psalms 111:1-10.). II. Apply. God has magnified His Word above all other displays of Himself, of His eternal power and Godhead, and of the glory of His dominion--1. As a revelation of His nature. 2. As an instructor in His works. 3. As an interpreter of His providence. 4. As a declaration of His will. 5. As a manifestation of His grace. 6. As an exhibition of His perfections. 7. As the instrument of His power. By this He subdues and renovates the obstinate and rebellious hearts of men. (W. Collyer.) Psalms 138:3 In the day when I cried Thou answeredst me, and strengthenedst me.Successful prayer I. The cry.1. A deep sense of need.2. A feeling sense of inability.3. Earnestness of supplication.4. Confidence in God. II. Its successful issue.1. God heard his cry.2. He answered it.3. Immediately.4. Imparting strength to his soul. (1) To work.(2) To resist enemies.(3) To suffer.(4) To be firm and persevering. III. Application.1. Learn the saint’ s remedy in trouble--to cry unto the Lord, etc.2. The importance of soul-strength. When obtained, exercise it, etc.3. The efficacy of fervent prayer. God will hear and bless, etc.4. The duty of recounting God’ s gracious answers to our supplications. (J. Burns, D. D.) Psalms 138:5 Yea, they shall sing in the ways of the Lord.Singing in the ways of the Lord According to the connection, this is spoken of kings (verse 4). That time has not come yet, so let us sing all the more. We may (verse 6). If we do not, surely the stones of the street will cry out against us. I. “ they shall sing in the ways of the Lord.”1. Gracious persons take pleasure in the things of religion. 2. They do not go out of God’ s ways to get their songs. They shall sing “ in the ways.” Alas! I have heard of some who go here and there, as they say, “ to get a little pleasure.” What? You find no pleasure in the ways of God? Then you are a hypocrite. 3. They sing as they are actively engaged in the ways of the Lord. Soldiers march to battle ,with sound of trumpet and beat of drum, listening to music while they march; so Christian men go on their pilgrimage, and keep step to the sound of joyous psalms and hymns. 4. The children of God sing in the ways of God because they are in a case for singing: in a right state of mind for singing. (1) When we are in the ways of the Lord we are strong; “ they go from strength to strength.” When we walk as God would have us walk we are made strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Well may that pilgrim sing who is made strong by the mighty God of Jacob. (2) You have safety also; for in the ways of the Lord all His servants are protected from danger. In the king’ s highway “ no lion shall be there, neither shall any ravenous beast go up thereon.” You shall be “ kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation,” in the ways of the Lord. Well may that traveller sing who is perfectly safe! (3) You have also guidance. (4) And provision. II. “they shall sing of the ways of the Lord.” Not only are God’ s ways the place of their song, but its subject.1. God’ s ways to us. Predestination, redemption, etc. God’ s ways are such gracious ways, such wise ways, such holy ways, such ways of wisdom and of lovingkindness, that in any company we may talk about them, and in every place we may sing of them. We will sing of the ways of the Lord with us. 2. Our ways to God. (1) A good road.(2) Good company.(3) Good accommodation.(4) Fine prospects.(5) We have daylight to travel by, for we are not the children of darkness. III. Those who sing in the ways of God also sing of the Lord of the way. “ They shall sing in the ways of the Lord,” and then some read it, “ That great is the glory of the Lord.” That is the subject of their song. When they sing about the Lord of the way this psalm supplies us with the points of their song.1. God’ s lovingkindness (verse 2).2. God’ s truth (verse 2).3. Answered prayers (verse 3).4. God’ s condescension (verse 6).5. God’ s delivering mercy (verse 7).6. Final preservation (verse 8). IV. They shall sing to the Lord of the way, as well as of the Lord of the way. “ They shall sing in the ways, for great is the glory of the Lord.”1. Let us take care that all our songs are to the honour and praise of God, for if we ever sing to our own praise it will be idolatry. I fear much public worship, is thus marred. Our singing should be such that God hears it with pleasure--singing in which there is not so much art as heart--not so much of musical sound as of spiritual emotion. They shall sing to the glory of God. 2. If you and I sing with the Spirit and the understanding, we shall increase the manifested glory of God by bringing others to sing in His ways. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The joy of believers in the way of obedience I. The ways of the Lord.1. The way in which God walks in regard to us. (1) Nature.(2) Dispensations of providence.(3) Dispensations of grace. 2. The way in which we walk in regard to Him. (1) Obedience.(2) Inclination. II. How the people of God are to be affected in them. They not only walk in the ways of the Lord, but “ sing” in them. This implies acquiescence, approbation, satisfaction, pleasure, delight. Whence springs this “ singing in the ways of the Lord” ? We may look after some of the near sources of it.1. Conviction. The believer is “ able to give a reason of the hope that is in him,” and he is able to give a reason of the joy that is in him. 2. Renovation. Now he is born of God, therefore he savours “ the things which are freely given him of God.” 3. Experience. Oh, what delightful hours were those in which I have taken sweet counsel, and gone to the house of God in company;--in which I have seen His power and His glory there! 4. Fellowship. “ I am a companion of all those that fear Thee, and of those that keep Thy precepts.” 5. His prospects and anticipations. “ Eye hath not seen,” etc. 6. The accommodation. Everything is provided for these travellers that shall make them rejoice and “ sing in the ways of the Lord.” Guidance, defence, strength, etc. (W. Jay.) Psalms 138:6 Though the Lord be high, yet hath He respect unto the lowly.God’ s greatness and condescension I. What is here asserted respecting God. He is “ high,” i.e. glorious, majestic, infinite in every excellent and glorious attribute. II. The cheering declaration which accompanies this assertion. “ Yet hath He respect unto the lowly.”1. A character described. (1) Possessed of a humble and contrite heart.(2) Earnestly hungering and thirsting after righteousness.(3) Coming to Christ for the blessings of salvation.(4) Every Christian grace is connected with this lowliness.(5) The Scriptures represent those who were most eminent for piety as wearing this grace: Job, Daniel, Paul. 2. The great God is here represented as manifesting peculiar favour to the lowly. (1) Forgiving mercy.(2) Introduction into His family.(3) Grace.(4) Glory. (John Pike.) Humility I. As it affects the judgments which we form of ourselves. Humility, as distinguished from meanness, and opposed to arrogance of mind, consists in forming a just and moderate opinion of our own endowments and merits. It disposes us to examine our character with impartiality--it suffers not self-love to magnify our good qualities--it contrasts our imperfections with our virtues--it compares our own excellencies and defects with those which are discernible in the characters of others, and permits us not to rise, in our own esteem, above the rank which we really possess among our brethren around us. II. As it affects our conduct towards our brethren. To the low it condescends without degrading the character--to the high it pays its homage without assentation or servility. Founded on a moderate conception of our own ability, it disposes us to listen with respect to the opinions of others; arising from a just sense of our own imperfection, it teaches us to make allowance for their errors and defects. In its external manner it is placid and unassuming. It expresses itself by the mildness of its look and the gentleness of its language. It claims not--it expects not any extraordinary attention; its own importance is forgotten amidst its courtesy to others. III. As it prepares us for discharging, in the most becoming manner, our duties to God. In the presence of that God whoso majesty fills the heavens and the earth the humble prostrate themselves on their native dust. Their own limited knowledge is annihilated in their esteem when they consider the height and the depth of the judgments of God; and their own imperfect goodness is lost to their view when they contemplate that diffusive bounty by which the universe is blest. Feeling and acknowledging the feebleness of their minds, they receive with gratitude the revelation of heaven. In their religious services there is no ostentation. Their employment is with God alone. It is to acknowledge His favours, of which they confess themselves unworthy; to bewail their transgressions, which they recollect with heartfelt sorrow; to adore the mercy which continues to regard them; to repeat the vows which they regret to have broken, or to bless the grace which has enabled them to perform it. (W. Moodie, D. D.) Psalms 138:7 Though I walk in the midst of trouble, Thou wilt revive me. Human life I. The universal law of human life. What is it? It is expressed in one word--walking. Life is a “ walk,” a journey. It is constant action, and constant action onward. Life is never stationary; it is always on the move; it is motion.1. Constant change of position. Every step puts us in a fresh point of space, and surrounds us with something new in scenery. So with life. 2. Constant approximation to destiny. The grave for the body; retribution for the soul. II. The saddening probabilities of human life. Life is not only a walk, but a walk often “ in the midst of trouble.” Since the introduction of sin into our world, it has never been a walk of unmingled pleasure. All here meet with trials on the way; but some more than others. Physical--bodily pains and diseases; moral--the conflict of passions, the remorse of conscience, and the dread of death; social--disappointments in business, the treachery of false friends, the corruption of the world, and the bereavement of death. III. The grand support of human life. “ Thou wilt revive me.”1. God is an all-sufficient support. He is equal to all our emergencies. “ He is our refuge and strength,” etc. There is no enemy from which He cannot deliver us; there is no trial under which He cannot support us; there is no danger from which lie cannot rescue us. In the fiery furnace, in the surging waters, in the “ valley of the shadow of death,” He is all-sufficient. 2. He is the only effective support. No one else can support you. “ Put not your trust in princes.” 3. He is an available support. Available to all at any time. “ Call upon Me in the time of trouble and I will deliver you.” (Homilist.) The Christian’ s comfort in the midst of troubles I. The Christian’ s troubles. They arise from--1. The world within. An evil heart of unbelief; prone to distrust God, to dishonour God, to wander from God. 2. The world without. Bodily affliction, worldly trials, opposition from the world, etc. 3. The world beneath. Satan distils his venom in secret. II. The Christian’ s comforter. Though he walks in trouble, he does not walk alone. Though persecuted, he is not forsaken; though cast down, not destroyed.1. God can enter the inner world and bring comfort there, and spread a banquet within, and open a little paradise (Psalms 94:19; Job 35:10; Psalms 27:5). 2. God can enable us to meet the world without. So He enabled Jacob to meet Esau; Elijah, Baal’ s priests; David, Goliath. 3. God can effectually subdue the world beneath. “ Bruise Satan under your feet.” III. The Christian’ s confidence. What it is proved.1. What He is--God of mercy. 2. What He has done. 3. What He has promised to do. (Evangelist.) Psalms 138:8 The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me. Choice comfort for a young believer As every state has its dangers, so the peril of religious concern is despondency. Thoughtfulness soon degenerates into distrust, and holy anxiety easily rusts into unbelief. The more a man looks within him the less he can trust himself, and the more a man looks around him the more he feels that he is in danger, and he is apt to say, “ I shall surely one day fall by the hand of the enemy.” He is fearful as to the result of future temptations. Now I want to meet such fears. I. Here first we see that God fills us with assurance. “ The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me.” Then--1. God is really at work on our behalf. Get a grip at this, thou troubled one, and by a personal faith say, “ The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me.” Thou hast come to Jesus and trusted thy soul in His hands, then it is certain that the Lord hath brought thee to this state of mind. Every effect has a cause, and all spiritual faith is created by the Holy Ghost. Since then, the Lord has begun to save you, your confidence must be that He who began this good work will continue to operate in your soul. “ The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me;” not, “ I will perform it myself.” 2. There is the full assurance that He will be at work still in order to complete that which He has commenced. Have you obtained a religion which is not the work of God? Then I would exhort you to get rid of it. Do as the man did with the bad banknote, throw it down on the highway or into a ditch, and run away from it. But, and if the religion you have received is the work of God, then be certain that He who began the work will perfect it. The psalmist affirms-- 3. That He will complete the work. Did the Almighty pause in the middle of creation and leave His work unfinished? How, then, would the record run? That God had made the light, but had not made the sun? That He had made the waters, but had not divided them from the land, or said to the sea, “ Hitherto shalt thou go, but no farther” ? No, the first day of creation was a guarantee of the five which followed it and of the grand rest day which crowned the week. Here, then, is your confidence. You are anxiously asking Him, shall I persevere to the end? You shall be kept and perfected by the Lord in whom you trust. Now carry this confidence into everything. Into providence. The Lord will perfect that which concerns you there. You have a plan on hand. If it be God’ s plan for you for life you will carry it through. God often perfects that which truly concerns us by taking us away from that which never ought to concern us. But that crown of life which you have submitted to His wisdom, which you have taken up in obedience to the plain indications of His providence, which you follow out with integrity, walking before the Lord and committing your way unto Him--that crown of life shall have His blessing, and none shall be able to put you on one side. The Lord told David he should be a king. It did not look very likely, but since such was the Eternal purpose, there was no keeping the son of Jesse out of the throne. But this is more especially true in the work of grace in the heart. And it is also true of the work of grace all around us. II. The Lord gives us rest in His mercy, for what says the text, “ Thy mercy, O Lord, endureth for ever.” See how this works in us rest from fear. “ Alas!” sighs one troubled heart, “ I fear I shall fall into many sins between here and heaven.” But sing in your heart, “ Thy mercy, O Lord, endureth for ever.” The blood of atonement will never fail. Then up comes another fear. “ I do not see how I am to be perfected My nature is so vile.” The answer is the same. The Lord will bear with you and forbear. Some of God’ s children are the crookedest people that ever were in this world, and it must be sovereignty which chose them, for they are by no means naturally desirable or attractive. But His mercy endureth for ever. And some will pass through great affliction and some will experience a great many wants. And the hour of death will come. One man of God always feared death; but he might have spared himself his wretchedness, for he fell asleep one night in apparently excellent health, and died in his sleep. He never could have known anything about dying, for on his face were no tokens of pain or struggle, nor was there any reason to believe that he ever awoke till he lifted up his eyes amid the cherubim. And so, if we do not die shouting victory, we hope that we shall peacefully fall asleep, “ for His mercy endureth for ever.” “ He will perfect that which concerneth me.” Now do all of you who are just beginning life put yourselves and all your circumstances into God’ s hand and there leave them. III. The Lord puts it into His people’ s hearts to pray, and supplies them with a plea. “ Forsake not the work of Thine own hands. Persevere in what Thou hast begun.” This is a prayer which you and I may well bring before God, whose workmanship we are. A man takes his money into the bank and leaves it. He does not come back in a quarter of an hour and say, “ Have you my money safe? I want to see it.” The bank would not desire such a man who has no confidence in them. Let us not act so by Christ. Put in your all with Him and leave it there. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Confidence in God I. The striking expression of believing assurance.1. What we are to understand by “ that which concerneth me.” This I apprehend, as it regards David, and as it regards every Christian, may be summed up in two things--the work of providence without them, and the work of grace within them. All that concerns present safety and future glory are thus secured. 2. “ The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me.” When it is in progress He will not leave it or suffer it to be marred--He will carry it forward through its successive stages until it be finished to the glory of His name. II. The unchanging foundation of assurance. It is from the mercy of God that He works for us, and works in us. “ Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us.” His mercy and His grace are the grand springs of all the happiness and blessings we possess, and of all the hopes that inspire the heart and animate the soul. And as God thus begins the work of a sinner’ s salvation from mercy, it no way depends upon our merit or worth. He takes His motives entirely from Himself. He does it because it is the good pleasure of His will to do it. III. The earnest prayer accompanying this confidence. “ Forsake not the work of Thine own hands.” As they are the works of His hands, they must be very dear unto Him,--He cannot but love them and delight in them, and He rests in His love. Conclusion--1. How great is the gratitude that is due to God from His saints, how innumerable are His blessings, how vast His mercy, how rich His grace and lovingkindness. 2. What encouragement the sinner has to seek God, seeing He is a God of such mercy. 3. Rejoice, ye saints of God, that you have a great High Priest who is passed into the heavens, who now appears in the presence of God for you. (John Jack.) The saints’ final perseverance secured by the mercy of God I. The psalmist’ s confidence. The work of grace in the soul of man is but a begun work. I know it is perfect as it regards its principle; but as it regards its actings it is most imperfect. Look at our light; how feeble is it! How little do we see of sin’ s sinfulness--of the baseness there is in ingratitude! What a dim sight have we of Jesus! the glory of His person, the perfection of His atonement, His perfect righteousness, the sufficiency of His grace, the tenderness of His humanity, the sympathy of His nature--Friend--Brother! How little one enters into the holiness of His example! Now all this does prove that it is but a begun work. And yet, says David, “ The Lord will perfect” it. It is His own; He will maintain it, He will deepen it, and He will finish it. Here is a blessed confidence in God, that He, who had “ begun the good work,” would “ perform it” in the midst of all its ebbs and flows and changes; acknowledging it to be but a begun work, and yet declaring--“ The Lord will perfect it.” But the words imply more than this. It would seem as if David did say--He will give me the entire, the full and complete and everlasting possession and enjoyment of Himself in heaven. Faith shall soon be lost in sight; hope shall soon disappear in certainty; and prayer shall cease, and give way to endless praise. II. The basis of his confidence. What is it? You may say, It is the promise. The promise is not the foundation. There must be a foundation for the promise. And what is the foundation of the promise? God; God in Christ. And here is a particular attribute, a particular perfection in God, singled out--signalized. “ Thy mercy, O Lord, endureth for ever.” There is a sweetness and a power in the very monosyllable, “ Thy mercy” ; because it is peculiar to God, it is His own property, it distinguishes Him. The mercy of the creature is finite; the mercy of Jehovah is infinite. The mercy of the creature is changeable; the mercy of Jehovah is unchangeable. The mercy of the creature was of yesterday; the mercy of Jehovah is from everlasting. It began in election; and when does it end? Never; but it issues in eternal glory. III. In what did it issue? Carelessness? So say many. But the issue here is--prayer. “ Forsake not the works of Thine own hands.” It is a beautiful conclusion; it is a beautiful consequence; it is a blessed deduction. Because Thou “ wilt perfect” ; therefore “ forsake not the works of Thine own hands.” It is common-sense--the common-sense of religion. “ I am, as Thy creature, wholly dependent on Thee; without Thee, faith must die, and hope expire; without Thee, love must decay and perish.” (J. H. Evans, M. A.) Faith in perfection I. The believer’ s confidence.1. A Divine confidence--“ The Lord.”2. A confidence for the future--“ will.”3. A large confidence--“ perfect.”4. A broad confidence. “ Whatever concerns me,” says he, “ the Lord will perfect.” II. The ground of this confidence--God’ s mercy. Is it not a strange thing that the advanced believer, when he reaches to the very height of piety, just comes to the spot where he commenced? Do we not begin at the Cross, and when we have climbed ever so high, is it not at the Cross that we end? Mercy must be the theme of our song here; and mercy enduring for ever must be the subject of the sonnets of paradise. None other can be fit sinners; nay, and none other can be fit, grateful saints. III. The result of this confidence. It leads to prayer. (J. H. Evans, M. A.) The discipline of life A friend said to me one day, “ How sad it is that we cannot devote ourselves more constantly to our own spiritual culture! There are so many utterly unspiritual things to be done or gone through with, that it is really very little time that we can give to the great work of this life--our preparation for a higher and better life.” This would have been well said, were it not that the very condition of things complained of is a providential necessity of God’ s appointment, and therefore undoubtedly better for us than any method that we might deem preferable. If the soul, and God, and heaven are not fictions, we are constrained to believe that the Divine providence orders our discipline here with a view to our surest nurture and our highest good, that its school is our best school, its designated way the best way for us. I doubt whether the concentrated devotion to the soul for which the devout often yearn is the fit mode of educating the soul. Probably, even to the most religious mind, the cloister has never been so favourable to the growth of piety as the duties of an active life or of a Christian home would have been. A good man somewhat given to cant, meeting Wilberforce one day, said to him, “ Brother, how is it now with your soul?” and was shocked beyond measure by the philanthropist’ s reply, “ I have been so busy about those poor negroes, that I had forgotten I had a soul.” Yet there can be no doubt that by means of “ those poor Negroes” Wilberforce’ s soul had been growing a great deal faster than that of his friend, who had perhaps spent half his time in counting the pulse-beats of devotional feeling. In speaking thus I would not have it inferred that I hold emotional piety in low repute. I look upon it as the Alpha and the Omega, the source and consummation of all that is excellent in man. But perpetual and over-anxious watching may do as little for the plants of God’ s planting in the heart as for those of our own planting in our gardens. Nor would I have it supposed that I undervalue the direct offices of piety, whether secret or social. I regard them as an essential part of the plan of Providence. But God trains us, for the most part, in ways which we should not choose for that purpose, and sometimes in ways which we are prone to regard as injurious rather than helpful. To some of these methods of the Divine providence I ask your attention. There is hardly anything of which we are more apt to complain than routine-work, especially that in which not hand or foot, but brain and soul, are compelled to go over the selfsame round day after day and year after year. We are sometimes inclined, in our weariness, to resort for terms of comparison to the very Tartarus of our classical studies--the rock of Sisyphus and the sieve of the Danaides. Yet we might look for our parallel in the opposite direction; for is not the administration of this glorious universe, for the most part, a routine? Has not the infinite Creator, for unnumbered aeons, renewed, day by day and year by year, the same unvarying round of beneficent ministries? And if we may be permitted to speak of that self-consciousness in which our own has its birth, must we not think of this routine as a part of God’ s supreme felicity, while ever new love, mercy, and compassion flow in the course of universal nature, and breathe in the benignant will, which is no less essential from moment to moment than when in the beginning it moulded chaos into form, life, and beauty? Now, so far as God’ s Spirit is in us, our routine-work shall be exalted, hallowed, glorified, made more and more like His. Is it for the benefit of others, and is it lovingly wrought? If so, those affections which are so essential a part of the soul’ s best life are exercised, fed, and strengthened by it, and we thus become--though it be without our distinct consciousness--enlarged in our sympathies, broadened in our charity, better tithed for every genial ministry of earth and of heaven. Or is our life-work one which has prime reference to self, yet imposed upon us by necessities of subsistence or position which we cannot evade? If so, it is of God’ s appointment--a part of our Divine service; and if it be pervaded by the true spirit of service, it is a routine only in appearance--in reality, it is a revolution on an even higher plane, in an ever larger orbit; and we shall find in God’ s good time that it has been training us for the unwearying service of the heavenly temple. Yet again, is our routine, as it probably is, one which admits, with every new revolution, of more of mind, and soul, and strength? Then, wearisome though it be, it is a healthful discipline, equally for the powers which it calls into exercise, and for that conscientious fidelity in our appointed sphere, which must concur with trained and tried capacity in fitting the steward of the few and small things committed to his earthly trust for the larger stewardship of the heavenly life. Another subject of frequent complaint is the waste of time in unavoidable, bug unprofitable, social engagements. The hours which, if taken from more laborious pursuits, we would gladly devote to entertaining or lucrative intercourse with equals and friends, the wise and the brilliant, those whose converse is our privilege and our joy, must often be spent where we give, and receive nothing in return, wit may be, with those whom we see fit to call dull and stupid, or frivolous and empty, or with the impertinent and importunate,--with those who claim sympathy to which they seem to have no right, or aid to which they can proffer no title other than their need. Can this be a part of our spiritual education? Yes; and a most essential part. It comes to us through the ordering of Providence, and is therefore, no doubt, better for us than the great things which we would gladly do instead, but for which the opportunity is not afforded us. We shall one day own that no time has been better spent, if on these occasions we have exercised patience, forbearance, unwearying kindness, persevering helpfulness, if we have given pleasure, diffused happiness, relieved burdens, cleared perplexity, shed sunlight on those who live under the shadow, quickened dull minds, lightened heavy hearts. But in such ways as I have spoken of, solid portions of time that might have been given to our own mental culture are often invaded and frittered away. Can this be good for us? Yes, if Providence so wills. Growing knowledge is, no doubt, an unspeakable benefit; yet we may be gee impatient for its acquisition. We may feel too much as if this world gave the only opportunities for mental cultivation and growth. A part of what we may regret that we lose here will be of no interest or worth to us when we go hence; and for all that we can then desire and need there is ample room in the limitless future. Another often uncomfortable method of spiritual discipline consists in the seemingly excessive annoyance and mortification occasioned by what we account as slight mistakes, follies, and faults. In the vexation and discomfort which we bring upon ourselves by some momentary and almost unconscious deviation from the fitting and the right, we often have an impressive practical commentary on the text, “ Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth!” But in these experiences we have a most essential and blessed part of our providential education. How should we ever recognize our failures and faults, did they not leave these vivid traces in our experience? Equally is Providence educating us by those trials and griefs--the lighter and the heavier--which belong to our condition as mortals. But it is never go be forgotten that the ministry of affliction is wholly contingent on our receptivity. The sands of the desert drink in the spring rains, but are not fructified by them. The untilled field returns their blessing in unsightly and noxious weeds. But in the prepared soil they reappear in growing grain and swelling fruit-buds--the prize of faithful toil, the hope of the year; and those dreary, chilly, sunless days of the early rain are the harbingers of all that is bright, beautiful, and gladdening in garden, field, and orchard. Thus the dews and rains of God’ s afflictive providence in some souls are absorbed and lost, and leave no sign; others they sour, or madden, or hopelessly depress; but where there are already germs of the heavenly Father’ s planting, they quicken growth, they create inward grace and beauty, they fructify all peaceful thoughts, pure desires, and holy aspirations; they ripen the harvest whose reapers are the angels. But not only through these sadder ministries is God’ s providence perfeering that which concerneth us. Equally is all that is mirthful and gladdening a part of our education for our immortal being. How vast is our receptivity of gladness! How kindly the necessity--not only in childhood and youth, but under our severest cares and labours, and even under the burden of many years--of recreation and pleasure! Thus by His various discipline is God perfecting that which concerneth us, giving us a far better education than we could plan for ourselves. Let us yield ourselves lovingly to the training of His providence, assured that, ordered by Him, all things shall work together for our good. (A. P. Peabody, D. D.) The Divine purpose concerning us Every man’ s character is a germ capable of large development. There are slumbering possibilities in us all. We are made for ends known to God, and there is an ideal in His mind concerning each one of us. I. The psalmist’ s triumphant conviction. “ The Lord will perfect.” This is what we need to impart interest to life. There is no cry so pitiful as “ Nothing to live for.” On all hands there are disappointed folk who, thinking of condition rather than character, find life “ tame.” But once let a man or woman reach this assurance that through all the various scenes of life God is moulding them, and even by the “ strokes of doom” fashioning them “ to shape and use,” and all the life sparkles with glad significance. II. The grounds on which the conviction is based.1. God’ s mercy. “ Thy mercy, O Lord,” etc. This must ever be our first appeal, to mercy. For which of us has a flawless record of submission to the Divine purpose? With our past of perversity; what can we do but cast ourselves on God’ s infinite pity? And in Christ we have the plan of God’ s redeeming mercy made known to us as it was not to prophet and psalmist of old. We see that mercy has provided for the ruined life to be restored and built up again according to the plan of the great Architect. 2. God’ s justice. “ Forsake not the works of Thine own hands.” This is a plea that every reconciled soul may urge. “ Thou hast made me: I reverently challenge Thee to complete Thy work.” He is a “ faithful Creator,” and if you are seeking to answer the end for which He made you, His everlasting honour binds Him to fulfil His part. How full are the New Testament pledges to this effect that He will complete His work in our character-- Philippians 1:6. (Anon.) . Psalms 139:1-24 Psalms 139:1-24O Lord, Thou hast searched me, and known me.God’ s exhaustive knowledge of man This lyric has always been the subject of praise. Aben Ezra said there was none like it in the five books. Lord Brougham spoke of it as “ that singularly beautiful poem” Herder said that language utterly failed him in its exposition. Erskine of Llinlathen wanted this to be before him on his death-bed. The title ascribes it to David, an ascription corroborated by its originality and majesty and its correspondence with psalms undoubtedly Davidic. Probably the Aramaic colouring is a mere dialectic variation, existing during the whole period of Hebrew history, and occasionally coming to the front as circumstances suggested it. I. The Divine omniscience (verses 1-6). The poet multiplies expressions to indicate how complete is God’ s knowledge of him. Whether he be at rest or in motion, in every posture and state, God knows him. Not only his outward acts, but the thoughts from which they spring are at once discerned. Nothing can escape Jehovah’ s eye, for He is behind and before, i.e. on all sides of man, and His hand is upon him to restrain and control. The strophe closes with a frank confession of the writer’ s impotence and awe. He cannot comprehend it, which is not strange, for how is the finite to comprehend the infinite? But he knows it and bows in reverence before the sublime truth. II. The Divine omnipresence (verses 7-12). God is everywhere; not only above all as transcendent, but also through all and in all as immanent in nature. This thought is expanded and enforced by its application to all measures of space. Were man to scale the azure vault overhead, it would only confront him with the Divine personality; were he to sound unimaginable depths in the other direction, the result would be the same. H a man mounted on wings, not those of the sun (Malachi 4:2), nor of the wind (Psalms 18:10), but of the dawn, and pursued the farthest flight westward, if he should fly with the same swiftness as the first rays of the morning shoot from one end of the heavens to the other, still he would not get beyond the Divine presence. Beyond the sea, and far out of the sight of man, God’ s hand would lead him, and God’ s right hand grasp him. III. Omnipotence in the creation of man (verses 13-18). The singer revolves in mind the secret processes of man’ s birth and development, and gratitude overflows into praise. He sees how he has been made to differ from the inferior creation in constitution and destiny. It is a fearful distinction (Genesis 28:17). Any signal manifestation of Jehovah’ s presence, however favourable, inspires awe. The consideration of this single ease leads to the general statement that all God’ s works are marvellous, a statement which the writer reaffirms as from an experimental conviction of its truth. In the next verse the curious growth and unfolding of the embryo is referred to. It goes on in secret, as far from human vision as if it were deep down in some subterraneous cavern, but God sees it and directs the mysterious and complicated tissue, as if it were a piece of delicate embroidery. Even in its most rudimental form, invisible to any other ken, it is still open to His eyes, and He determines all its subsequent development, recording in His book the days to come, i.e. the various events and vicissitudes of life, even before one of them existed. Struck by this view of God’ s omniscience as embracing the beginning, the unfolding and the completion of all things, the singer bursts out into a recognition of its value. To him God’ s thoughts, i.e. His plans and purposes as displayed in these miracles of creation, are precious beyond measure. Nor are they few or slight, but amount to a vast sum, more numerous than the sands of the sea. They are ever before David as an object of adoring wonder, not by day only, but by night; not merely in the watches of the night, but even in his sleep. His meditations are continuous. His communion is unbroken. IV. The practical application (verses 19-24). The greater any man’ s nearness to God, the more intense is his abhorrence of the impiety which disowns or despises the living God. Nor does such a feeling indicate malevolence. “ When a foul crime has been perpetrated, tender-hearted Christian women who would not harm a hair of the enemy’ s head, but would rather feed him, will express keen resentment, and will be disquieted in mind till they hear that the perpetrator has been convicted and duly punished.” The conclusion of the strophe is striking. The poet returns to the opening words of the psalm, and prays for a new experience of Jehovah’ s searching scrutiny, that he may not be given over to self-conceit. The petition is a proof of humility. Although he had averred so strongly his aversion to the wicked, he prays that this may be no mere outward separation. The All-seeing Eye may detect in him some way that leads to sin and sorrow, though he is unconscious of it. Hence he entreats God to see and disclose it, and then taking his hand to lead him in a way which, unlike the way of the wicked (Psalms 1:6), does not perish, but ends in everlasting life. (T. W. Chambers, D. D.) God’ s omniscience and omnipresence I. Some Scriptural views of the Divine omniscience and omnipresence. God is everywhere present--1. By His presence. 2. By His power or agency. 3. In the immensity of space. 4. In highest heaven. 5. In hell. 6. We cannot get away from God’ s presence. 7. Human inspection is very limited. But God’ s eye penetrates the darkest abode, the deepest cell, the obscurest corner, the blackest night. 8. Men only see what a man says and does; God sees all that a man is. “ To Him all hearts are open, all desires known.” God knows us, not relatively, but personally. 9. Specially with His people. “ Where are you going?” said Collins, the infidel, to a poor but pious man. “ To church, sir,” was the reply “ What to do there?” “ To worship God.” “ And can you tell me,” said the infidel, “ whether your God is a great or a little God?” “ He is both, sir.” “ How can He be both?” “ He is so great that the heaven of heavens cannot contain Him, and so little that He can dwell in my heart.” II. Lessons.1. If God is omniscient and omnipresent, then the moral character of His creatures is unveiled to His gaze, and clearly and distinctly known to Him. 2. If God is omniscient and omnipresent, then the final judgment will be a time of full and complete revelation, as well as a time of righteous retribution (Sir 11:14; Revelation 20:12). Will the disclosures of that day fill us with joy, or cover us with shame? 3. The importance of an interest in Christ. 4. Try to cherish an abiding sense of God’ s presence. 5. Pray at all times and in all places. 6. Be comforted in every time of trouble. (H. Woodcock.) The all-seeing God I. Is there an all-seeing God? If not, whence our own existence? Whence our expectations of reward for doing right, of punishment for wrong-doing? Whence the material universe? Whence the original plan, stupendous beyond conception, more minute than the most powerful microscope can reveal, which must have preceded the first act of creation? Whence the march and trend of history, always revealing “ a power not ourselves, which makes for righteousness,” and which sweeps away opposition like dust before the oncoming storm? Who conceived the character of Christ, in an age overlaid and penetrated through and through with error? Whose works of grace, in that same earth, have steadily built up a kingdom of love, of peace, of righteousness? If there is a creator of the universe, He must also be its sustainer: He cannot press material forces into service and go and leave them, as we do a windmill to draw water, for all force depends upon Him for its existence. He who superintends all must be all-seeing, and He who presides over all history must take cognizance of every event. II. What concern has our life, here and hereafter, with the omniscience of God?1. That exquisite pleasure in sin, which comes from its fancied concealment, is utter folly. 2. God is patient with wrong and sin, because He sees the end from the beginning. 3. Patience under trial and strength in adversity thrive under the all-seeing eye. 4. The friends of God are glad in the sure hope of being more and more consciously under His eye. 5. Corresponding judgments await those who, shrinking from that all-seeing eye, with a repugnance predominant and increasing, must abide its searchings for ever. 6. How priceless the blood of Calvary, in which the saints have “ washed their robes and made them white” ! (Monday Club Sermons.) The all-seeing and all-present One I. The all-seeing One.1. He sees the whole of an object. At best we can only see the outside of a thing, the curve, the angle, the colour. 2. He sees the whole of every object. How few are the objects we see even thus externally and partially! Some are too small and some too distant. But He sees all, His eye takes in the immeasurable universe. 3. He sees the whole of everything at the same time. II. The all-present One.1. He is present everywhere, in the entirety of Himself. 2. He is present in all things, yet distinct from all things. Practically, this subject serves three important purposes.1. To refute some popular errors of human life. (1) There is the error that supposes that formal worship can be of any real worth. “ God is a Spirit,” etc.(2) There is the error that imagines that death will make some fundamental alteration in their relation to God. 2. To reprove some prevalent impieties in human conduct. (1) Atheism.(2) Indifferentism. 3. To reveal the supreme interest of human life. Cultivate a loving affection for Him. (Homilist.) God and ourselves This psalm sings of--I. God. 1. His omniscience. (1) He knows our actions, ways, words, thoughts.(2) His knowledge of us is entire, complete. 2. His omnipresence. He is in-- (1) Heaven.(2) Unseen world.(3) Everywhere.(4) In the dark as well as the light. 3. His omnipotence (Psalms 139:13-16). 4. The separate, personal thinking of God toward every one of us. (1) Innumerable.(2) Constant. II. Ourselves. Our relation toward such a God should be--1. That of adoring and constantly thoughtful reverence (verses 17, 18). 2. That of siding with Him against evil (Psalms 139:19-22). 3. That of welcoming the Divine searching (verses 23, 24). Said Milton, speaking of his travels abroad when a young man: “ I again take God to witness that in all places where so many things are considered lawful, I lived sound and untouched from all profligacy and vice, having this thought perpetually with me, that though I might escape the eyes of men, I certainly could not the eyes of God.” 4. That of a prayerful seeking of the Divine guidance (verse 24). (W. Hoyt, D. D.) God’ s knowledge of man One of the most remarkable characteristics of a rational being is the power of self-inspection. Like the air we breathe, like the light we see, it involves a mystery that no man has ever solved. Self-consciousness has been the problem of the philosophic mind in all ages; and the mystery is not yet unravelled. But if that knowledge whereby man knows himself is mysterious, then certainly that whereby God knows him is far more so. That act whereby another being knows my secret thoughts and inmost feelings is most certainly inexplicable. I. God accurately and exhaustively knows all that man knows of himself. He may be an uncommonly thoughtful person, and little of what is done within his soul may escape his notice; nay, we will make the extreme supposition that he arrests every thought as it rises, and looks at it; that he analyzes every sentiment as it swells his heart; that he scrutinizes every purpose as it determines his will; even if he should have such a thorough and profound self-knowledge as this, God knows him equally profoundly and equally thoroughly. Nay, more, this process of self-inspection may go on indefinitely, and the man grow more and more thoughtful, and obtain an everlastingly augmenting knowledge of what he is and what he does, so that it shall seem to him that he is penetrating so deeply into those dim and shadowy regions of consciousness where the external life takes its very first start, and then he may be sure that God understands the thought that is afar off, and deep down, and that at this lowest range and plane in his experience he besets him behind and before. II. God accurately and exhaustively knows all that man might, but does not, know of himself. Though the transgressor is ignorant of much of his sin, because, at the time of its commission, he sins blindly as well as wilfully, and unreflectingly as well as freely; and though the transgressor has forgotten much of that small amount of sin, of which he was conscious, and by which he was pained, at the time of its perpetration; though, on the side of man, the powers of self-inspection and memory have accomplished so little towards this preservation of man’ s sin, yet God knows it all, and remembers it all. He compasseth man’ s path, and his lying down, and is acquainted with all his ways. And here let us look upon the bright as well as the dark side of this subject. For if God’ s exhaustive knowledge of the human heart waken dread in one of its aspects, it starts infinite hope in another. If that Being has gone down into these depths of human depravity, and seen it with a more abhorring glance than could ever shoot from a finite eye, and yet has returned with a cordial offer to forgive it all, and a hearty proffer to cleanse it all away, then we can lift up the eye in adoration and in hope. The worst has been seen, and that too by the holiest of beings, and yet eternal glory is offered to us! It is perfectly plain from the elevated central point of view where we now stand, and in the focal light in which we now see, that no man can be justified before God upon the ground of personal character; for that character, when subjected to God’ s exhaustive scrutiny, withers and shrinks away. Before the Searcher of hearts all mankind must appeal to mere and sovereign mercy. Justice, in this reference, is out of the question. Now, in this condition of things, God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him might not perish, but have everlasting life. The simple question, then, which meets us is, Wilt thou know thyself here, and now, that thou mayest accept and feel God’ s pity; or wilt thou keep within the screen, and not know thyself until beyond the grave, and then feel God’ s judicial wrath? The self-knowledge, remember, must come in the one way or the other. It is a simple question of time; a simple question whether it shall come here in this world, where the blood of Christ “ freely” flows, or in the future world, where “ there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin.” (W. G. T. Shedd, D. D.) God’ s presence The fact that God is always present and knows every minute trifle in our lives, and that His unerring judgment will assuredly take count of every detail of our character and our conduct, neither exaggerating nor omitting, but applying absolute justice; this truth is one of those which lose force from their very universality. God has made us so. We become unconscious of everything by long use. We could never discharge our duties properly if we were to be perpetually distracted by the consciousness of what was around us: and, above all, we might be daunted by the perpetual thought of the presence of God, and so be paralyzed instead of helped. There is, therefore, nothing wrong in our forgetting that we are in the presence of God any more than there is anything foolish in our forgetting that we need air to breathe or light to see by, or that if we fall we may hurt ourselves: just in the same way as we very often, and quite rightly, forget that we are in the company of men who will take notice of our faults. The right state of mind plainly is to have the thought of God’ s presence so perpetually at hand that it shall always start before us whenever it is wanted. So that whenever we are on the point of doing or saying anything cowardly, or mean, or false, or impure, or proud, or conceited, or unkind, the remembrance that God is looking on shall instantly flash across us and help us to beat down our enemy. This is living with God. This is the communion with Him, and with Christ, which unquestionably helps the struggling, the penitent, the praying, more than anything else. And this perpetual though not always conscious sense of God’ s presence would, no doubt, if we would let it have its perfect work, gradually act on our characters just as the presence of our fellow-men does. We cannot live long with men without catching something of their manner, of their mode of thought, of their character, of their government of themselves. Those who live much in a court acquire courtly manners. Those who live much in refined and educated society acquire refinement insensibly. Those who are always hearing pure and high principles set forth as the guides of life learn to value and to know them even faster than they can learn to live by them. From the just we learn justice; from the charitable we catch an infection of charity; from the generous we receive the instinct of generosity. So, too, by living in the presence of God and, as it were, in the courts of heaven, we shall assuredly learn something of a heavenly tone, and shake off some of that coarse worldliness, that deeply ingrained selfishness, that silly pride and conceit which now spoils our very best service. In short, to live with God is to be perpetually rising above the world; to live without Him is to be perpetually sinking into it, and with it, and below it. And lest the presence of God should be too much for us, Christ has taken human nature on Him, and has provided that He will be always with us as long as the world shall last. How shall we learn to walk by His side? The daily prayer in the closet, the endeavour to keep the attention fixed when praying with others, either in our regular services or in family worship the regular habit of reading the Bible at a fixed time, the occasional reminders of ourselves that God is looking on,--these are our chief means of learning to remember His presence. But yet there is another, not less powerful than any, which deserves special mention. Our hearts will put us in mind of God’ s eye being upon us every now and then involuntarily. The thought will flash across us that God sees us. And this will generally be just when we are tempted to do wrong, or perhaps just when we are actually beginning to do it: some secret sin of which no one knows or dreams perhaps, some self-indulgence, which we dare not deny that God condemns. Then is the moment to choose whether or not we will live in the presence of God; then when the finger of conscience is pointing to Him and saying, “ He is looking at you.” (Archbishop Temple.) God all-seeing In the mythology of the heathen, Momus, the god of fault-finding, is represented as blaming Vulcan, because in the human form, which he had made of clay, he had not placed a window in the breast, by which whatever was done or thought there might easily be brought to light. We do not agree with Momus, neither are we of his mind who desired to have a window in his breast that all men might see his heart. If we had such a window we should pray for shutters, and should keep them closed. God omniscient While the Americans were blockading Cuba, several captains endeavoured to elude their vigilance by night, trusting that the darkness would conceal them as they passed between the American war-ships. But in almost every case the dazzling rays of a searchlight frustrated the attempt, and the fugitives’ vessel was captured by the Americans. The brilliant searchlight sweeping the broad ocean and revealing even the smallest craft on its surface is but a faint type of the Eternal Light from which no sinner can hide his sin. (Weekly Pulpit.) Psalms 139:3 Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. God knows and takes strict and accurate notice of all our ways This is so, because-- I. God rules and governs men. But this could not be without such knowledge. And so at times He governs men’ s secret projects.1. By discovering them, making them known to others.2. By preventing them.3. By turning them to other ends than men purposed (Isaiah 7:7; Genesis 45:5). II. He gives laws to regulate them. III. He will judge them.1. He does so in this life where He often gives foretaste of the future (Deuteronomy 29:18),2. In the day of judgment (Luke 12:2). IV. He is omniscient and omnipresent (Proverbs 15:3; Hebrews 4:13). Then--1. Presumptuous sin is atheism.2. Let secret sinners be afraid. Such are those who sin in thought and desire only. God judges such, for they are the roots of sin. Spiritual wickedness is worst wickedness. And they are the product of the man himself, as his actions sometimes are not. And there are secret sins not only thought, but acted, only concealed from men (2 Samuel 12:12; Habakkuk 2:11; Genesis 4:10). God will judge them.3. Let sincere-hearted Christians be comforted. The same sun-rising and break of day that terrifies the robber is a comfort to the honest traveller. Thou that, art sincere, God sees that sincerity in thee that others cannot discern; perhaps thou canst not fully discern it thyself. And He will exalt thee. (R. South, D. D.) The record of our lives: - I. That record is complete. II. That record may be presented to our condemnation. Men are making efforts to recover the secrets of another’ s brain. It is hard to conceive what the possibility means, as suggested by the results of rapid photography in the vitascope. It is not position that is presented, but action; even the change of face with change of thought. It is the publication of a partial set of records. Who could risk the scrutiny of their whole lives with such publicity? III. But that record can be blotted out. A photographer can remove the sensitive salts in a bath. The picture then has no existence and cannot be exhibited; But we cannot trust our forgetfulness to do this, nor man’ s charity. But God in mercy has provided a cleansing flood. (W. J. Gregory.) God’ s winnowing The word in the Hebrew original for “ compassest” is “ winnowest.” This calls up before the mind an image which helps to illustrate the meaning of the verse in a most interesting manner. The mere compassing of our path by God is an elementary, commonplace truth which requires no argument or proof. It is a truism which loses very much the power of truth through our familiarity with it. But when we substitute the winnowing of our path by God’ s dealings with us, we have not in that case a commonplace fact, but a most suggestive and instructive metaphor. Harvest operations in the East are all carried on in the open air, for the weather at that time of the year is uniformly fine. When the corn is reaped it is not piled into stocks, or gathered into barns, as with us, but threshed on the spot, on some piece of rising ground, beaten hard and smooth, and exposed to the wind. The sheaves are heaped on this spot, arranged in a circle, and over them are driven rude, heavy sledges of wood, having their under-surface stuck full of sharp pieces of hard basalt. Oxen are yoked to these sledges, and a man stands on them to increase their pressure, while another man drives the oxen round and round upon the sheaves until they are mashed to pieces, the straw being broken and crushed, and the grains of corn separated from it. When the grain is all threshed out in this manner, the heaps of mixed corn and broken straw are tossed up before the breeze with a shovel; and then the grain, being heaviest, falls straight down, and the broken straw and chaff, being lighter, is carried by the wind, and forms a heap a little farther on. This explanation will make perfectly clear the allusion of the psalmist: “ Thou compassest, or winnowest, my path.” It refers to the oxen going round and round on the sheaves laid on the threshing-floor, in order to separate the corn from the straw and chaff. In like manner, the psalmist, by a bold figure, represents God going round and round our path by His dealings with us in providence and grace, in order to purify our nature, and to separate the good from the evil. God humbles Himself to do for us the work which the oxen do for the corn. We are valuable to Him as the corn is to the husbandman. How patiently do the oxen plod on hour after hour, going their constant round, treading down the corn until their task is accomplished. And so how patiently and unweariedly does God compass your path with His providences and gracious dealings, till He has fulfilled in you the good pleasures of His goodness, and prepared you for being presented faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy. Life to every one is a common round of continual beginnings and endings. Each day is a little circle returning where it began. Our range is as narrow as that of the ox that treadeth out the corn among the heap of sheaves. And all this is apt to become monotonous and wearisome. Some are so consumed by ennui that life has lost all relish for them; and some have grown so tired of pacing the irksome daily round that they have put an end to it by violent means. But surely it gives a new zest to life if we realize that all this constant doing of the same things, this constant going round and round the same little circle of daily duties, is not a treadmill penance, a profitless labour like weaving ropes of sand, but is designed to bring out and educate to the utmost perfection of which we are capable all that is best and most enduring in us. And surely it heightens the interest immeasurably to be assured that God has not merely ordained this long ago as part of His great providential plan for the world, but that He is daily and hourly superintending the process of our discipline and education by His personal presence, compassing our path, going round with us in the circle of life’ s toils and duties, and causing all our experiences, by His blessing, to work together for our good. He will not go round on your sheaves with His heavy dispensations oftener than is required to separate the chaff from the wheat; and you may be certain that not one grain of good in you will be destroyed, not one element of lasting benefit will be injured--only the chaff will be blown away and the straw removed. (H. Macmillan, D. D.) Psalms 139:6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me.God’ s all-knowledge If we had to take our trial for our lives before the tribunal of an earthly judge, there are probably three questions which we should ask ourselves with no little anxiety: Has the judge himself the power, or does he represent some one who has the power, to enforce the sentence which he may pronounce? Is the judge a man of that integrity of character which is fearless when interpreting the plain sense of the law that is to be administered, and equitable when some indistinctness in that law obliges the interpreter to fall back on his own sense of what is probably right? Can the judge command the means of knowing enough of those facts upon which his decision must be based to judge righteous judgment, to have himself and to inspire others with the assurance that innocence is acquitted and that guilt is punished? When we turn our thoughts upwards to the Judge of all men, we know how a serious believer in God must answer such questions as these. I. But, as we look more closely at the subject, certain features of the knowledge which is possessed by the Divine mind stand out before us more distinctly. They show how that knowledge differs from knowledge as it exists in ourselves, and they enable us to understand how the knowledge which belongs to God, as God, is knowledge of an extent and of a kind which makes it certain that when seated on the throne of judgment the Holy Judge of all the earth does right.1. And first of all, then, so far as we know, all, or nearly all, of our knowledge is acquired, and most of it is acquired at very considerable cost of time and labour. Now, nothing corresponding to this can hold good of the mind of God. God does not acquire His knowledge; He ever possessed it. Acquisition implies ignorance to begin with; it implies a limited prospect which is gradually enlarged by effort; it implies dependence upon intermediate sources of knowledge, upon books, teachers, the testimony of others, evidence, experiment. All this is inadmissible in conceiving of the Divine Mind which never could have been ignorant, never dependent upon anything or any person external to itself for obtaining information. Man may be very--nay, utterly ignorant--not, indeed, without grave loss, but certainly without forfeiting his manhood. In man, knowledge, however important, is yet an accident of his life: it is conceivably separated from it. In God, on the other hand, knowledge is not a separable accident, a dispensable attribute of His existence. As God, He cannot but know, and know on an infinite scale. In God, as St. Augustine finely says, to know is the same thing as to exist. There can be in Him no progress from a lower to a higher plane of knowledge, still less from ignorance to knowledge. In Him all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge have ever been exactly what they are. Now, consider how this bears on the duties of a judge. A human judge, whatever his knowledge of the statute book, whatever his experience of proceedings in the courts, is dependent upon the evidence which is brought before him, when charging the jury or when forming his own judgment. If the evidence is confused or imperfect, if it is perjured or untrustworthy, still it is all he has to go upon; he must do the best he can with it; he has no means of arriving at a bound at the truth of the facts independently of that which is deposed to before him. Alas! however excellent his intentions, however absolute his integrity, he cannot escape a liability--the human liability--to make mistakes. In the Divine Judge this liability does not exist, because His knowledge of facts, not being acquired by weighing evidence, is ever and immediately present to His mind. He sees everything--men, events, characters--at a glance, and as they are. 2. And as human knowledge is acquired, so it is liable to decompose in our minds. It is less easily acquired than it is forgotten. Here, again, we must see that nothing corresponding to this process, so familiar in the experience of the human mind, is even imaginable in the mind of God. It knows “ no variableness, neither shadow of turning.” All that is, all that might have been and is not, all that might yet be, whether it is to be or is not to be, is eternally present to it, and it could not forfeit its hold upon any part of this, to us, inconceivably vast field of knowledge without ceasing to be itself. And here, again, the Divine Judge must differ from any human judge. No human judge can prudently trust his memory even to retain what is brought before him in a case that lasts but a few hours; he can only trust his notes. Memory, he knows, is treacherous; it gives way just when we need it most; it refuses to recall a date, a name, a figure, a fact, unimportant generally, but of critical importance then and now Its impotence is, so we think, as capricious as are its good services. In the Awful Mind above and around us nothing like this is possible, because it does not ever, as we do, look back upon any fact as upon something past; it is always in contact with all facts, whether, from our point of view, they be past or present or future, as eternally present to it. 3. And, once more, human knowledge is very limited. “ We know in part.” As the generations of men who devote themselves to the work of marshalling and increasing the stock of human knowledge succeed each other, each generation is largely occupied in showing how defective was the knowledge of those who immediately preceded it, while it knows that in turn it, too, will be exposed to a like criticism on the part of its successors. So far are we men from possessing the field of universal knowledge that a man never entirely masters any single subject. In the Divine Mind, on the contrary, we cannot conceive partial knowledge of any subject whatever. God knows all, because He is everywhere. The Omnipresent cannot but be also omniscient. What need is there to say that the knowledge of the human judge is, I will not say partial, but very limited indeed? Were it otherwise, how superfluous would be the machinery which now justice adopts in order to achieve its ends. How different with the Divine Judge! He can gain nothing from any external source of knowledge, and nothing can intercept or divert His all-surveying, all-penetrating, all-comprehending intelligence. II. Of this knowledge possessed by God there are some features which, from their bearing on life and conduct, deserve special attention.1. Thus God knows not only what is known to the world, or to our relations about each one of us; He knows that which each of us only knows about himself. His eye surveys our secret thoughts and words and ways. He has sometimes revealed this knowledge through the mouth of an inspired servant, as when Elisha discovered his double-dealing with Naaman to the astonished Gehazi, or when St. Peter proclaimed their crime and its punishment to the terrified Ananias and Sapphira. 2. He knows, too, the exact measure of our individual responsibility for the corporate acts of the societies to which we belong--the Church, the nation, the parish, the family. 3. And, once more, He knows what each one of us would be in other circumstances than those with which He has surrounded us. He knows this because He sees our inmost dispositions, and sees us as we are. Yes, in thinking of the judgment we have to think not only of the power, not only of the goodness of the Judge, but of His limitless knowledge, that awful attribute of a knowledge which searches us out in the depths of our being, which plays upon us, around us, within us, every moment of our lives with a penetrating scrutiny that nothing can elude; that knowledge before which the night is as the day, and the future as the present, and the possible as the actual, and the secret things of darkness as the most ordinary facts of daylight; that knowledge which nothing can impair, nothing can disturb, nothing can exaggerate or discolour; the calm, majestic, resistless outlook of the Eternal Mind will become real to us--real to you and to me--as never before in our experience. There are two resolutions which the thought of that meeting should surely suggest. The first resolution, if we can, to know something really about ourselves before we die, to dwell no longer, if hitherto we have so dwelt, on the surface of life, to see ourselves with eyes not of our friends, not of our own self-love, but, so far as may be, as the holy angels see us, as He sees us who is the Lord of angels, our Maker and our Judge. Each day some few minutes should surely be spent in the regular and fruitful practice of self-examination. And the second resolution is to fly for refuge to that one Friend who can make a true knowledge of self bearable to each of us. We can dare to be true not only because our Redeemer and our God is Himself the Faithful and the True, but because He is the All-merciful, because, if we so will, He has searched us out and known us even here, that at the last great day He may make us trophies not of His awful justice, but of His redeeming grace. (Canon Liddon.) Psalms 139:7-10 Whither shall I go from Thy Spirit? The omnipresence of God I. Lay down some positions.1. God is intimately and essentially in all parts and places of the world. One of the heathen, being asked to give a description of what God was, tells us most admirably, “ God is a sphere, whose centre is every-where, and whose circumference is nowhere” : a raised apprehension of the Divine nature in a heathen! And another, being demanded what God was, made answer, that “ God is an Infinite Point” ; than which nothing can be said more (almost) or truer, to declare this omnipresence of God. It is reported of Heraclitus the philosopher, when his friend came to visit him, being in an old rotten hovel, “ Come in, come in,” saith he, “ for God is here.” God is in the meanest cottage as well as in the stateliest palace; for God is everywhere present and sees all things. 2. God is not only present in the world, but He is infinitely existent also without the world, and beyond all things but Himself (1 Kings 8:27; Isaiah 66:1-2). 3. As God exists everywhere, so all and whole God exists everywhere, because God is indivisible. II. Rational demonstrations.1. God is present everywhere. (1) From His unchangeableness.(2) From His preservation of all things in their beings. 2. But God exists not only in the world, but infinitely beyond the world also. (1) From the infiniteness of His nature and essence.(2) From the infiniteness of His perfections.(3) From His almighty power.(4) From His eternity. III. Answer some objections.1. These places which speak of going to, and departing from, places, seem to oppose God’ s ubiquity, because motion is inconsistent with God’ s omnipresence (Genesis 18:21; Habakkuk 3:3). I answer: These and the like Scriptures are not to be taken literally, but as accommodate to cur capacity and conception, even as parents, when they speak to their little children, will sometimes lisp and babble in their language; so God oftentimes condescends to us in speaking our language for the declaring of those things which are far above cur reach. 2. The Scripture tells us that hereafter in heaven we shall see God as He is: but is not that impossible? I answer, Such Scriptures are not to be understood as if the capacities of angels, much less of men, are, or ever shall be, wide and capacious enough to contain the infinite greatness of God. No, His omnipresence is not comprehended by angels themselves, nor shall be by man for ever; but it must be understood comparatively. Our vision and sight of God here is but through a glass darkly; but in heaven it shall be with so much more brightness and clearness that, in comparison of the obscure and glimmering way whereby we know God here, it may be called a seeing of Him face to face, and knowing Him as we are known by Him. 3. It may seem no small disparagement to God to be everywhere present. What! for the glorious majesty of God to be present in such vile and filthy places as are here upon earth? To this I answer-- (1) God doth not think it any disparagement to Him, nor think it unworthy of Him, to know and make all these which we call vile and filthy places; why, then, should we think it unworthy of Him to be present there? (2) God is a Spirit, and is not capable of any pollution or defilement from any vile or filthy things. The sunbeams are no more tainted by shining on a dunghill than they are by shining on a bed of spices. (3) The vilest things that are have still a being that is good in their own kind, and as well pleasing to God as those things which we put a greater value and esteem upon. (4) It reflects no more dishonour upon God to be present with the vilest creatures than to be present with the noblest and highest, because the angels are at an infinite distance from God. There is a greater disproportion between God and the angels than there is between the vilest worm and an angel; all are at an infinite distance to His glory and majesty. IV. Application.1. Is God thus infinitely present everywhere, and thus in and with all His creatures, then what an encouragement is here unto prayer. The voice in prayer is necessary-- (1) As it is that which God requires should be employed in His service, for this is the great end why our tongues were given to us, that by them we might bless and serve God (James 3:9). (2) When in private it may be a help and means to raise up our own affections and devotions, then the voice is requisite, keeping it still within the bounds of decency or privacy. (3) In our joining also with others, it is a help likewise to raise and quicken their affections; otherwise, were it not for these three reasons, the voice is no more necessary to make known our wants to God than it is to make them known to our own hearts; for God is always in us and with us, and knows what we have need of before we ask it. 2. As the consideration of God’ s omnipresence should encourage us in prayer, as knowing that God certainly hears us, so it should affect us with a holy awe and reverence of God in all our prayers and duties, and in the whole course of our lives and conversations. Certainly it is an excellent meditation to prepare our hearts to duty, and to compose them in duty, to be much pondering the omnipresence of God, to think that I am with God, He is present in the room with me, even in the congregation with me, and likewise in my closet, and in all my converse and dealings in the world. How can it be possible for that man to be frothy and vain that keeps this thought alive in his heart? (Bishop Hopkins.) Omnipresence of God I. The important truth which is here set forth. II. The striking and emphatic manner in which this great truth is here presented (verse 7). III. The effects which the contemplation of this sublime theme should produce.1. Let the believer draw from it the consolation which it is so peculiarly adapted to impart. “ Fear not, for I am with you.” 2. The omnipresence of God is adapted also to admonish. 3. This subject is full of terror to the ungodly. (Expository Outlines.) The encompassing, all-pervading God This psalm is as near an approach to Pantheism as the Bible ever gets; yet it is wholly distinct from Pantheism. It does not make everything a part of God, but insists that God is in everything and every place. The writer feels Him in every movement of the circling air, and hears Him in every sound. God is here, and there, and everywhere, in the heights and in the depths, in the darkness and the light, filling all star-lit spaces and searching each human heart. I. The spirit and presence which no man can escape. It is a bit of his own story. He had not always found peace and joy in the overshadowing of Divine love. There had been a load upon his conscience, and torturing guilt in his heart. He had endeavoured to run away from the wrath which his sin had provoked, from the unsleeping justice which pursued him, from the witness of God in his own reproaching conscience. He had tried to silence the rebuking voice, to quiet the disturbing fears, to forget his own thoughts and hide himself from himself. And the effort had been vain, impotent, impossible. Everywhere he heard the still small voice, and felt the Unseen Presence. Everywhere God makes Himself felt by men, in kindness, if possible, and if not, then in wrath. Men must believe in Him; they cannot help it. Kill their religion a hundred times, and it has a hundred resurrections. It is in all men. It is the fire which never goes quite out. Atheism is never more than a wave on the sea of humanity, which rises, falls, and quickly disappears. God will not let Himself be denied and forgotten. He speaks in too many voices for that; through nature and conscience, sins, penalties, and guilty terrors; through life’ s changes, uncertainties, sorrows, and misfortunes; through pain, and death, and human gladness, and human mystery; through returning seasons and unerring laws; through the works of righteousness and the wages of iniquity, He is ever about us. His presence is in every heart, and He laughs at the folly which thinks to escape Him. II. Rest and confidence and joy which His Spirit and presence give to those who recognize Him every-where, and walk in His light and love. If a man aspires after goodness, he will wish to be always near the one Source of goodness. If he is making a brave fight against his sins, he will always want to feel the mighty hand upon him from which alone comes victory; and if he is worn and worried with the dark problems and mysteries of life, nothing will satisfy him but the thought that Divine light and wisdom are moving and working in all that darkness. Get to feel that His light and wisdom are everywhere, that His love, pity, and forbearance are everywhere, that His providential care is everywhere, that His ear is everywhere open to your prayers, and His mercy is everywhere on the wing to bring you answers, and then your remotest thought will be how you can escape Him. Your every-day cry will be, “ Come nearer, make Thyself felt. Compass me about, hold me fast.” It is the all-pervading presence of God that makes life bearable to him, and the one thing which makes the Christian life possible. If God were not in your place of business your hearts would grow hard as nails. If God were not in your homes your sweetest affections would become stale and sour. If God were not in your places of temptation you would never enter them without falling. If the Spirit of God did not visit you in the thronging streets and the giddy world you would degenerate into coarse worldliness. If He were not everywhere, painting Himself afresh on your hearts and minds, you would lose all sense of His beauty. If He were absent from your scenes of sorrow, if you did not feel His hand holding yours in hours of pain, and by the death-bed side, you would be overcome with fear or die of heart-break. We live because He lives everywhere. We hope because He revives His promises in us everywhere. (J. O. Greenhough, M. A.) The cry of the sage, the sinner, and the saint Look at this language as used-- I. By the sage The philosopher has asked a thousand times, is God everywhere? Or is there a district in immensity where He is not? Taking the language as his question, he assumes--1. That He has a “ presence,” a personal existence: that He is as distinct from the universe as the musician from his music, as the painter from his pictures, as the soul from the body. 2. That His presence is detected as far as his observations extend. He discovers Him far up as the most powerful telescope can reach, and down in the most infinitesimal forms of life: and he concludes that He is present where the eye has never reached, and where the imagination has never travelled. II. By the sinner. In the mouth of the sinner this language means--1. Thy presence is an evil. His presence makes the hell of the damned. The rays of His effulgent purity are the flames in which corrupt spirits burn and writhe. 2. Escape from Thy presence is an impossibility. III. By the saint. In the impossibility of escape I rejoice; for “ In Thy presence there is fulness of joy,” etc. (Homilist.) The omnipresent God I. God in all modes of personal existence. These are all covered by the contrast between heaven and hell, than which no words would suggest a completer contrast to every thoughtful Hebrew. Heaven was the scene of the highest personal activity; it was the abode of Him with whom was “ the fountain of life” ; there dwelt cherubim and seraphim, angels and archangels, all rejoicing in the highest exercise of thought and the noblest powers of service. Hell--or the grave, the place of the dead--was the end of thought, the cessation of employment, the abode of silence and corruption. And yet, dark and lonesome as was the thought of dying, there was this one ray of comfort in the prospect--that death was of God’ s appointment; as much as the heaven of His own abode, it was beneath the rule of God. There are times when to us, too, there is unspeakable rest in the assurance that God is in the appointment of death as truly, though not as clearly, as He is in His own heaven. How many who dreaded the desolation of bereavement have found that God is there. They are not alone, for the Father, the Saviour, the Comforter, is with them; the discipline of bereavement is as Divine as the sweeter training of companionship. Did we but see what noble issues have been wrought for men by death; how it has refined affection and chastened passion, and given scope to patience, and cultured hope; how it has surrounded men’ s pathway with angels, and breathed a saintlier spirit into common lives; we should gain a nobler vision than before of the presence and meaning of God in death. II. God in the yet untrodden ways of human history. The ninth verse gives us an image of the psalmist, standing by the sea-shore, watching as the rising sun broadens the horizon, and brings into view an islet here and there, which, by catching the sight, serves but to lengthen still more the indefinite expanse beyond. The fancy is suggested, half of longing, half of dread, what would it be to fly until he reached the point where now the farthest ray is resting, to gaze upon a sea still shoreless, or to land in an unknown region and find himself a solitary there? But he is not daunted by the vision; one presence would still be with him. Vast as the world may be, it is contained within the vaster God; his fancy cannot wander where he would be unguarded and unled. He still could worship; he still could rest. How wonderfully history confirms faith. The lands towards which the psalmist strained his wondering vision have come at length into the record of civilization. Even while he was musing God was preparing the countries in which, in due time, the Gospel was to develop, and the races by whom it should be spread. Could he now take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, he would find God here, revealed in the progress of Christendom, and the force of Western civilization. When Christ sent the apostles on their untrodden way He gave them a blank page on which to write their history. He did not reveal to them “ the times and the seasons” ; He only assured them that wherever they went He was with them. All was obscure except their faith that, as seed will grow, and leaven will spread, so the kingdom of God should advance. The presence of God in human history meant the reign of Christ in human history; where have the faithful gone and not found their God? III. God in the perplexities of our experience. Most men probably look on spiritual conflict at first as a necessary evil; something which it were well if we could avoid, but which, since we cannot avoid it, we must go through with what heart we may; and they look to God to keep, and, in due time, to deliver them. But when, in the review of their struggles, they perceive what progress they have made by reason of it; how it has enriched their character, not only strengthening their piety, but also enlarging its scope and adding to their graces; when they find what a wise and benignant influence it has enabled them to exercise; what power of comfort it has given them, they begin to see that the conflict itself was of Divine appointment, and to cherish a larger, nobler view of God’ s purpose and of man’ s discipline. They perceive that the obscurity, equally with the clearness, of a spiritual experience is ordained of God. (A. Mackennal, D. D.) The present God There was something almost to be envied in the simple, easy, undoubting faith in the ever-present Spirit of God that breathes in the devotional portions of the Old Testament. Science had not begun to be. Men saw and felt circumambient force on every side, and with the instinctive wisdom of their ignorance this force was to them the varied yet immutable God, Himself unchanged, yet in manifestation ever new. We think ourselves, in point of intelligence, at a heaven-wide distance in advance of them. But has not our ignorance grown faster than our knowledge--as every new field that we explore in part abuts upon regions which we cannot explore, and every solved problem starts others which cannot be solved? If science has ever been antagonistic to faith, it has not been by superseding it, or even by interfering with it, but simply because the new knowledge of nature that has flashed with such suddenness and rapidity upon our generation has so filled and tasked the minds of not a few, that they have ignored for the time the regions where light still fails and faith is the only guide. But there are among the grand generalizations of recent science those that help our faith, and furnish analogies that are almost demonstrations for some of the most sacred truths of religion. Among these truths is that suggested by our text--the presence of the Divine Spirit with and in the human soul. Now, to the soul of man, bathed in this omnipresence, receiving all thought and knowledge through its mediation, living, moving, and having its being in it, what can be more easily conceivable than that there should also be conveyed to it thoughts, impressions, intimations, that flow directly from the Father of our spirits? It has been virtually the faith of great and good men in all time. They have felt and owned a prompting, a motive power, from beyond their own souls, and from above the ranks of their fellow-men. Inspiration has been a universal idea under every form of culture, has been believed, sought, recognized, obeyed. At all other points there has been divergence; as to this, but one mind and one voice. You could translate the language of Socrates concerning his demon into the most orthodox Christian phraseology without adding or omitting a single trait, and not even St. Paul was more confident than he of being led by the Spirit. But there is no need of citing authorities. Who of us is there that has not had thoughts borne in upon him which he could not trace to any association or influence on his own plane, seedling thoughts, perhaps, which have yielded harvest for the angel-reapers, strength equal to the day in the conflict with temptation, comfort in sorrow, visions of heaven lifted for the moment above the horizon like a mirage in the desert? These experiences have been multiplied in proportion to our receptivity. As the message on the wires is lost if there be none to watch or listen at the terminus, so at the terminus of the spirit-wire there must be the listening soul, the inward voice, “ Speak, Lord, for Thy servant heareth.” But while we thus acknowledge God in the depths of our own consciousness, can we not equally feel His presence in the glory, beauty, joy-giving ministry of His works? Are they net richer to our eyes every year? Has it not happened to us, over and over again, to say, “ Spring, or summer, was never so beautiful before” ? This is true every year to the recipient soul. Not that there is any added physical charm or visible glory; but it is the Spirit of our Father that glows and beams upon us, that pours itself into our souls; and if we have grown by His nurture, there is in us more and more of spiritual life that can be irradiated, gladdened, lifted in praise and love, with every recurring phase of the outward world. Is not this ordained, that the vision of Him in whom are all the archetypes of beauty, and whose embodied thought is in its every phase, may be kept ever fresh and vivid--that there may be over new stimulants to adoration and praise--that with the changing garb of nature the soul may renew her garment of grateful joy, her singing robes of thanksgiving to Him who has made everything beautiful in its time? But God is still nearer to us than in the world around us. “ In Him we live, and move, and have our being.” When I reflect on the mysteries of my own being, on the complex organism, not one of whose numberless members or processes can be deranged without suffering or peril; when I consider my own confessed powerlessness as to the greater part of this earthly tabernacle in which I dwell, and the narrow limits of my seeming power as to the part of it which I can control; when I see the gates and pitfalls of death by and over which I am daily led in safety; when I resign all charge of myself every night, and no earthly watch is kept over my unconscious repose--oh, I know that omnipotence alone can be my keeper, that the unslumbering Shepherd guides my waking and guards my sleeping hours--that His life feeds mine, courses in my veins, renews my wasting strength, rolls back the death-shadows as day by day they gather over me. Equally, in the exercise of thought and emotion, must I own His presence and providence. (A. P. Peabody, D. D.) Universal presence of God The laws and forms of nature are only the methods of God’ s agency, the habits of His existence and the turns of His thought. Each dewdrop holds an oracle, each bud a revelation, and everything we see is a signal of His presence, present but out of sight. Every colour of the dawning or the dying light; every aspect of the changing seasons and all the mysteries of electricity make us feel the eternal presence of God. “ Shores,” says one, “ on which man has never yet landed lie paved with shells; fields never trod are carpeted with flowers; seas where man has never dived are inlaid with pearls; caverns never mined are radiant with gems of finest forms and purest lustre. But still God is there,” (R. Venting.) Psalms 139:8 If I make my bed in hell, behold, Thou art there.God’ s presence in the under-world We are told that the Jew had no knowledge of a heaven for the soul, that the only future he knew was that of a mysterious under-world where the spirits of the dead reposed. It is this under-world which the psalmist here designates by the word translated “ hell” ; it is the universal Old Testament name for the place of the dead. But, in the hands of this writer, the under-world becomes well-nigh as fair as the upper; it receives the very glory of heaven. What is the glory of heaven? Is it not the fact that to depart is to be with God? The heaven of Christianity is not beautiful to its votaries by reason of its pearly streets and golden gates; it is beautiful because it is conceived to be the home of God. Now, this is the thought which the psalmist makes his own. He, too, recognizes that the joy of heaven is the joy of being with God; but, to him, God is everywhere. To say that at death the soul does not ascend is not necessarily to say that it is banished from heaven. God is in the under as well as in the upper world; and the pure soul will find Him there as in all places. Death cannot rob a good man of his God; whither can he flee from His presence? That presence will follow him equally whether he ascend up into heaven or whether he make his bed in the unknown under-world. However unknown it may be, it is not outside of Him; and whatever is not outside of Him may be the heaven of the soul. Such is the thought of the psalmist, a thought which flashes a ray of glory around the Jewish vision of death and throws back its light on the Jewish doctrine of immortality. We see that the Judaic faith in God had enclosed within itself a hope of eternal life. The Jew did not, like the Greek, conjure up the images of a locality which the disembodied soul would inhabit after death; he had no figure in his imagination wherewith to body forth his conception of the dark vale. But he knew of a Presence that belonged alike to his own world and the under-world, the Being of the Eternal God; and, in that knowledge, death itself ceased to be a foreign land. It lost much of its strangeness. It held something which the earth held, and that the source of all that is in earth or heaven, the very life of the universe. (G. Matheson, D. D.) God’ s omnipresence If you were called to take some such awful journey as Virgil and Dante have fabled in their poems when their heroes descended into the dread Avernus, you need not tremble, though it were said of you, as of them:-- “ Along the illuminated shade, Darkening and lone, their way they made.” If, I say, you were bound to traverse the sepulchral vaults, and all the gloomy dungeons of Hades, yet you need not fear, for “ underneath are the everlasting arms.” (C. H. Spurgeon.) Psalms 139:9-10 If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea. Christianity the universal religion The traveller who passes from one quarter of the globe to another feels that the encircling sky which girdles in the ocean is but a type of the unseen power that surrounds us all. It is the expression of the same truth as that which drew from the first navigator who, from the shores of England, reached the shores of America, “ Heaven is as near to us on the sea as on the land.” The philanthropist whose wide charity embraces within its grasp the savage and the civilized man--the white man and the negro--feels that the hand of God is with him in his enterprises, because in the face of all his fellow-men he recognizes, however faintly and feebly expressed, the image of the likeness of God. The philosopher who endeavours to trace out the unity of mankind, and the unity of all created things, consciously or unconsciously, expresses the same truth--namely, that the Divine eye saw our substance yet being imperfect, and that in His book were all our members written, which day by day were fashioned and evolved, while as yet there were none of them--while all was as yet rudimental and undeveloped, alike in the individual and in the race. The heart-stricken, lonely, suffering, or doubting soul, who sees only a step before him, who can but pray, “ Lead, kindly light, amid the encircling gloom” --he, too, can echo the old psalmist: “ The darkness is no darkness to Thee; the darkness and light to Thee are both alike. Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him.” But in the especial form of the words of the text there is a peculiar force, which it is my purpose to bring before you . . . The psalmist wishes to indicate that God could be found in those regions of the earth into which it was least likely that any Divine influence should penetrate, and he expresses it by saying, If I were to take the wings of the morning; if I were to mount on the outspreading radiance which, in the eastern heavens, precedes the rise of dawn, if I were to follow the sun on his onward course and pass with him over land and ocean, till I reach the uttermost parts of the sea, far away in the distant and unknown west, even there, also, strange as it may seem, the hand of God will lead me, the right hand of God will hold me; even there, also, beyond the shadows of the setting of the sun; even there, beyond the furthest horizon, the furthest west of the furthest sea, will be found the Presence which leaps over the most impassable barriers. That which seemed to him so portentous as to be almost incredible, has become one of the familiar, we might almost say one of the fundamental, truths of our religious and social existence. Not only in the East, so we may venture to give his words their fullest and widest meaning--not only in the East, consecrated by patriarchal tradition and usage, but in the unknown and distant islands and seas of the West, the power of God shall be felt as a sustaining help and guiding hand. I. The contrast between the East and the West is one of the most vivid which strikes the mind of man. Of the great geographical impressions left on the most casual observer, none is deeper than that which is produced when a child of the Western civilization sets foot on the shores of the Eastern world. And so in history, two distinct streams of human interest have followed always the race of Shem and the race of Japhet; and the turning-points, the critical moments of their history, have been when the two streams have crossed each other and met--as on a few great occasions--in conflict or in union.” It is the very image which is presented to us in the splendid vision of the evangelical prophet in Isaiah 60:8-9. “ Who are these that fly as a cloud, and as the doves to their windows?” They are the “ isles” ; that is, the isles, and coasts, and promontories, and creeks, and bays of the Mediterranean and Atlantic shores. “ The isles shall wait for Him, and the ships of Tarshish first.” Tarshish--that is, the West--with all its vessels of war and its vessels of merchandise. The ships of Tarshish first, and of Venetia, and Carthage, and Spain--these first brought the shores of Cornwall, the name of Britain, within the range of the old civilized world. All these, with their energy and activity, were to build up the walls and pour their wealth through the gates of the Heavenly Jerusalem. And so, in fact, it has been. Christianity, born in the East, has become the religion of the West even more than the religion of the East. Only by travelling from its early home has it grown to its full stature. The more it has adapted itself to the wants of the new-born nation which it embraces, the more it has resembled the first teaching and character of its Founder and of its followers. Judaism, as a supreme religion, expired when its local sanctuary was destroyed. Mohammedanism, after its first burst of conquest, withdrew itself almost entirely within the limits of the East. But Christianity has found not only its shelter and refuge, but its throne and home, in countries which, humanly speaking, it could hardly have been expected to reach at all. The Christian religion rose on the “ wings of the morning” ; but it has remained in the “ uttermost parts of the sea,” because the hand of God was with it, and the right hand of God was upholding it. II. Consider what were the peculiar points of Christianity which have enabled it to combine these two worlds of thought, each so different from the other. In its full development, in its earliest and most authentic representation, we see gathered the completion of those gifts and graces which East and West possesses separately, and which each of us is bound, in his measure, to appropriate and imitate. And, first, observe, on the one hand, in the Gospel history, the awe, the reverence, the profound resignation to the Divine will, the calm, untroubled repose which are the very qualities which the Eastern religions possessed, at a time when, to the West, they were almost wholly unknown, and which, even now, are more remarkably exhibited in Eastern nations than amongst ourselves. Christ has taught us how to be reverential, and serious, and composed. He has taught as no less how to be active, and stirring, and manly, and courageous. The activity of the West has been incorporated into Christianity, because it belongs to the original character and genius of its Founder, no less than its awe and its reverence. Again, in every Eastern religion, even in that which Moses proclaimed from Mount Sinai, there was darkness, a mystery, a veil, as the apostle expressed it--a veil on the prophet’ s face, a veil on the people’ s heart-a blind submission to absolute authority. There was darkness around the throne of God; there was darkness within the Temple wall; there was in the Holy of Holies a darkness never broken. To a great extent this darkness and exclusiveness must prevail always, till the time comes when we shall see no longer through a glass darkly. This we have in Christianity, in common with all the East; but yet, so far as the veil can be withdrawn, it has been withdrawn by Jesus Christ and by His true disciples. He is the Light of the world. In Him we behold the open face, the glory of the Father. Again; there was in all Eastern religions, whether we look Godward or manward, a sternness and separation from the common feelings and interests of mankind. We see it, as regards man, in the hardness and harshness of the Eastern laws. We see it, as regards God, in the profound prostration of the soul of man, displayed first in the peculiarities of Jewish worship, and to this day in the prayers of devout Mussulmans. And this, also, enters in its measure into the life of Christ and the life of Christendom. The invisible, eternal, irreproachable Deity, the sublime elevation of the Founder of our religion above all the turmoils of earthly passion and of local prejudice--that is the link of Christianity with the East. And, on the other hand, there was another side of the truth which, until Christ appeared, had been hardly revealed at all to the children of the older covenant. In Christ we see how the Divine Word could become flesh, and yet the Father of all remain invisible and inconceivable. In Christ we see not merely, as in the Levitical system of Christianity, man sacrificing his choicest gifts to God; but God, if one may so say, sacrificing His own dear Son for the good of man. III. What do we learn from this? Surely, the mere statement of the fact is an almost constraining proof that the religion which thus unites both divisions of the human race, was, indeed, of an origin above them both; that the light which thus shines on both sides, so to speak, of the image of humanity is, indeed, the light that lighteth every man. There is no monopoly, no sameness, no one-sidedness, no narrowness here. The variety, the complexity, the diversity, the breadth of the character of Christ and of His religion is, indeed, an expression of the universal omnipresence of God. It is for us to bear in mind that this many-sidedness of Christianity is a constant encouragement to hold fast those particles of it we already possess, and to reach forward to whatever elements of it are still beyond us. Say not that Christianity has been exhausted; say not that the hopes of Christianity have failed, nor yet that they have been entirely fulfilled. In our Father’ s house are many mansions. In one or other of its many mansions each wandering soul may at last find its place, here or hereafter. (Dean Stanley.) Psalms 139:12 The darkness and the light.The changes of the sky What is the lesson conveyed by the great alternate changes of the sky? Now it is sweetly luminous, and now a solemn darkness. Strictly speaking, as we all know, there is no change in the sky at all. It is always an infinite darkness, and always lit up by myriads of stupendous suns. But we should not know this if the earth did not turn on her axis, and successively face the sun, and again turn away from him. To the turning of our planet from the sun we owe our knowledge of the universe. In the symbolism of its darkness and light we have our sublimest revelation of God. Light which is called God, and is God, issues for ever from the Infinite Bosom of His darkness. Darkness and light are both alike to Him; for He is as much one as the other. The Son of God, the only-begotten Light, reveals the “ Father of Lights,” as suns reveal the ether. God presents Himself in the light, but also conceals Himself; as we both present ourselves, and hide ourselves, in our garment. “ Thou coverest Thyself with light as with a garment.” As the infinite ether is hidden by the daylight, even so is God hidden by the light of the angelic heavens which reveal Him. Therefore, all those who dwell in the Eternal Light worship the unseen God, and live “ as seeing the invisible.” They know that light is but His effluence. They worship the Light as God, and, again, with silent, ineffable adoration, they worship what is behind the Light. (John Pulsforal, D. D.) Psalms 139:13-18 For Thou hast possessed my reins: Thou hast covered me in my mother’ s womb. God as the Creator of man I. He created man, who is a wonder to man’ s self (verses 13, 14). II. He created man, who comes by the process of evolution (verses 15, 16). The oak is not less a Divine creation because it came out of the acorn, nor the acorn a less Divine production because it is composed of various substances of the earth: and man is not less the creation of God because he came by a process of evolution. III. He created man, who appears by a Divine plan (verse 16). Everything in the universe, from the smallest to the largest, is constructed on a fixed and unalterable type. In truth, the whole creation existed in His mind in archetype millions of years before it took its present form. “ In Thy book,” metaphorically, God is represented as having written a “ book” ; it is the book of an architect, full of plans. There are the plans of worlds and systems that have all been and are no more. The plans of all that now exist, and the plans of all that are yet to appear.1. Because God works by method, we should study all His works as revelations of Himself. 2. Conformity to His methods should be the supreme aim of all our activities. Whatever we do out of keeping with His plans will come to ruin, and involve us in distress. IV. He created man, who is capable of appreciating his thoughts (verses 17,18). God’ s thoughts are indeed absolutely “ precious.” They are original, all comprehensive without succession, infinitely beneficent, immutable, and essentially holy. (Homilist.) Psalms 139:14I will praise Thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.Man adoring his Maker I. The expressive declaration--“ I am fearfully and wonderfully made.”1. The wonders and mysteries of the human frame are little thought of, or understood, by the children of men; yet surely we may say, “ The finger of God is here.” Our body is a congeries of wonders from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot. The different parts are so finely, delicately, and exquisitely made that it seems as if the least thing must disjoint, disorder, or derange them. Our life is an affair of beauty, symmetry, utility, and of mystery. The configuration and the construction, the composition and the articulation, the perforations, the compressions, the expansions, the attrition, the compensation, the exhaustion, the restoration, the secretion, and the excretions of the body all prove it to be “ fearfully made.” The mouth, the eye, the ear, the head, the brain, and the lungs, with the heart contracting four thousand times in an hour, and sending out with unerring accuracy at every contraction one ounce of blood, are all proof of the fact. The varied apparatus for breathing, for nourishing the system, for moving the limbs, for the reception of aliment, and for the ejection el waste, all demonstrate the truth of the text. The varied secretions of the system, and the gastric juice, all of them being different in consistency, in colour, in taste, in smell, and in their uses in the animal economy; some of them thick, others transparent, some bitter and others sweet, all adapted either to cleanse, to lubricate, to defend, to digest, or to nourish, are so many confirmations of the statement that we are “ fearfully made.” 2. The language of the text also applies to the soul. Man is not only an animal, but also a spirit. That spirit is in the body, but not of it. So different from it, it yet influences it, and is influenced by it. It is lodged in it for “ an appointed time,” and then to leave it, to be again reunited indissolubly to it, and there to abide for ever. This is the most wonderful part of man; it is mind, spirit, soul; the breath of God “ breathed into his nostrils, and man become a living soul.” The first man, Adam, was made a living soul. Mentally, he is fearfully and wonderfully made. As a spirit he possesses the power to think, to learn, to know; he is capable of intermeddling with all wisdom, of receiving continuous supplies of wisdom and knowledge. What a power is this! It allies us to angels, to Deity! Do we value sufficiently our mental endowment? Are we careful to improve our power of reflection? Do we act as thinking beings--as creatures who must go wrong unless we exercise our minds in relation to the past, the present, and the future? 3. Socially; we are “ fearfully and wonderfully made.” We are linked one to another, all the world round, and from generation to generation. We are ever being brought under the influence of others, and in our turn influence those around us. We may forget it, may doubt it, or deny it, and neglect it, yet it is so; all through our existence, in childhood, youth, manhood, or old age. This influence is being ever exerted, wherever we are, whatever we do, wherever we go--at home, abroad, in quiet or in active life. Oh! how it becomes us to be guarded, lest our being shall be a curse to any immortal spirit instead of a blessing; lest we lead them astray, and cause them suffering here and hereafter; or lest it be thus with ourselves! Let us indeed “ watch and pray, lest we lead or fall into temptation.” 4. Morally, man is “ fearfully and wonderfully made.” These natures of ours are distinguished by a moral sense, as well as by a mental power and a social influence. We are gifted with a sense of right and wrong, of which we can never be divested to all eternity. We can understand the difference; can choose the evil and reject the good; or we are at liberty to choose the good and repudiate the evil. The choice is our own act; the praise, the blame our own. We may be driven to choose between conflicting duties; never obliged to choose between criminal acts, or to act criminally at all. We may be virtuous or vicious; range ourselves on the side of heaven or hell; walk with the wise, or choose to be the companions of fools. Do we regard aright this fearful responsibility? Do we live as if thus distinguished from the rest of the terrene creation? II. A becoming resolution. “ I will praise Thee.” Let us not forget that we have much to praise God for. He is our Maker, He has blessed us with existence, and it will not be His fault if that blessing be turned into a curse. He it is that has so long held our souls in life. He has rightly framed us. He has endowed us with reason, He has favoured us with health, He has provided for our comfort, and supplied our ever-recurring necessities. We should praise Him for His marvellous wisdom, skill, power, and benevolence in thus building our “ house of clay” ; and endowing us with such mental powers, and for putting us into such social relations with each other, and in blessing us with such astounding spiritual possibilities for time and eternity; fully meeting and providing for the wants of our fallen spiritual natures as He has done also for the physical. We should praise Him for opening up to us through Jesus Christ His Son all the stores of Divine wisdom and knowledge, and giving us through Him free and constant access, “ the fulness of the Godhead,” “ the unsearchable riches,” the riches of His grace, the treasures of His love, and the immensity and eternity of His love. (Thomas Lord.) The growth and perfection of the natural man’ s body and mind I. The progress of man’ s natural and intellectual life from its first principles to maturity. II. Practical lessons.1. Here, then, you will find, if you have hearts to perceive, overwhelming proofs of the power, the providence, the wisdom, and the goodness of God. 2. If God has made these wonderful provisions for the formation and growth, the perfection and happiness of man; if He has endowed him with talents for comprehending the excellence of the work and the glory of its Maker, with a principle of self-action, deliberation, and choice of measures, man is bound to employ his parts and properties of body and mind with a special regard to God’ s glory, as the main end and purpose of His own creation. 3. The formation, increase, and maturity of our bodily parts and intellectual faculties, the provisions that are made for their sustenance and development, and the wondrous processes by which they attain to their measure of perfection are strong presumptions of the truth of what the Scriptures teach us of the resurrection of the body: and may be considered as a pledge and assurance that this portion of God’ s counsels and prophecies will be fulfilled. (Bishop Bethell.) Man fearfully made 1. The expression imports the dignity of man in comparison with other creatures in this lower world. Man is so made that the sight of him impresses a terror on the beasts of the earth. Many of these are superior to man in strength and activity; and, were it not for this dread of man which is impressed on them, our life would be a state of anxiety and terror. Now, if God has given us dominion over the beasts of the earth, we ought to exercise it with justice and humanity. And if man is made superior to the beasts, he should conduct himself in a manner becoming his natural superiority. Reason is the dignity of man. Then only we maintain our dignity when we act as reasonable beings. If passion and appetite triumph over reason, we lose our superiority to the beast, and become as the horse or mule, which has no understanding. 2. We are fearfully made, as our frame demonstrates the power, wisdom, and presence of God. Such a wonderful composition as man could not be the effect of chance. It must be the work of an infinite, independent, all-wise Creator. And God demands, “ will ye not tremble at My presence? Ye have a revolting and a rebellious heart.” But we need not go out of ourselves. Shall we not tremble at His presence, when we see Him around us, and feel Him within us? He is not far from every one of us. Shall not His excellency make us afraid? Let us fear, love, and obey Him. This is our whole duty. 3. We are fearfully made, as the Creator has impressed upon us evident marks of our immortality and accountableness. In the present state we find ourselves capable of progress and improvement: but we never rise to the perfection to which, in a longer space, we might attain. Must there not, then, be another state in which we may reach the perfection of which our nature is capable, but which is unattainable here? 4. In respect of our frailty. Such is the tenderness of our frame, that in this rough and dangerous world in which we live, we are always exposed to casualties and wounds, diseases and death. It may, therefore, with much propriety be said, “ we are fearfully made.” Let religion possess our hearts, and peace will attend our path, and hope will brighten our prospect. We may take pleasure in infirmities, for the power of Christ will rest upon us. For us to live will be Christ, and to die will be gain. (J. Lathrop, D. D.) The fabric of the human body Wonderful as a piece of architecture, as Solomon’ s Temple was, the fabric of the human body is far more wonderful and far more exquisite in its beauty. It is passing strange that while men can be passionate enthusiasts in the matter of being collectors and students of moths, of first editions of books, or even of postage stamps, such vast numbers of them are content to remain in ignorance of that cabinet of marvels which is nearer to them than anything else, which they carry about with them everywhere, and upon the well-being of which depends not only so much of their comfort, but also the highest effectiveness of their lives. (R. G. A. Bennets, B. A.) Psalms 139:15-16 My substance was not hid from Thee, when I was made in secret. Daily growth God, being one, the author of nature as of grace, worketh harmoniously in both His kingdoms. And as in other ways, so in this: in both He createth and hath created by a single act; in both He carrieth on His work, silently yet in majesty. God created us, gave us life once, and then preserves it. Men grow in stature (blessed are they if in wisdom, too), they know not how; they eat, they drink, they sleep, are nourished, they know not how; and so day by day, and year by year, pass through the stages of life, through childhood, youth, to manhood, and mature years. So should it be in our re-creation. In Holy Baptism He re-creates us in His own image; passes His hand upon us, puts the first germ of spiritual life within us, to grow, be nourished, expand, flower, bear fruit, until it take into itself all our old nature, and we become wholly new. “ Fearfully indeed and wonderfully are we made;” a marvel to the blessed angels and to ourselves. Strange, through what variety of accidents, griefs, joys, terrors, fears, death, life, His encircling providence girding us round shall have fenced in our way; and He who has all creation at His command shall have made all creation, good and bad, great and small, natural and moral, the holiness of angels and men and the malice of Satan, work together to the salvation of His elect. And this amazing everlasting work is going on continually. “ Which day by day were fashioned.” It is the very marvellousness of God’ s works in nature, in the Church, in each single soul, that they go on so noiselessly. “ Axe and hammer are not heard,” but the house of the Lord is raised without hands. Day by day we rise, and night by night tie down, and see not, except rarely, the growth of others or our own. Did we make ourselves, we might well be concerned that we see not what we are becoming; now we may trust that, although in secret, still we are being fashioned into “ a vessel fit for the Master’ s use.” Still, although we know not where we are, how much has been, or is being, wrought in us; what our progress, we must know that something is being wrought. We may not be conscious that we are growing in grace, but we must be that we are acting under grace. We may not see how direr our path is (that we shall see as it becomes straighter), but if we are moving upward we must make efforts, and feel them. Pray we for the grace of God to do each single act, as He shall will, to His glory, and He will lead us whither as yet we know not. But although God forms us day by day, yet are there, from time to time, seasons of larger growth, as in nature so in grace. God, in His mercy, gives us fresh starting points in our Christian race. Some such most of us perhaps have passed; too many, it is to be feared, have wasted. Such are childhood’ s earliest trials. The bitter fruits we have felt in ourselves from some one sin of childhood, some neglect of God’ s loud warning or His call, may make us sorrowfully estimate the deep value of such calls, had we obeyed. Such periods, again, when used aright, are Holy Confirmation and the first Communion. Yea, so full is this of the richness of God’ s treasure, that thoughtful persons have said that none ever went far astray whose first Communion was diligently prepared for, and received and treasured holily. And when these and other seasons have been wasted, God in His mercy visits us anew, but mostly in an austere form. “ A mighty and strong wind” must “ rend the rock” of our stony heart “ before the Lord” ere He can speak to us in the “ still small voice.” (E. B. Pusey, D. D.) Psalms 139:17-24 How precious also are Thy thoughts unto me, O God.Thoughts of God The sense of God’ s nearness brings thoughts of God. The devout soul cherishes these thoughts, and they become to it a joy unspeakable. One thing arrests attention. It is the sense of God as a “ fellow-person” which this good man had. I. How precious to me are my thoughts of Thee. The Jew associated the thought of God with everything. To him the grand things of nature were full of God. The mountains were the “ hills of God” ; the winds were the “ breathings of God; the thunder was the “ voice of God.” The saints of God, in all the ages, have found one Being who is in everything, who is the life of everything, but they have found that they could enter into personal relations with Him.1. Our thoughts of God are started by the history of His dealings with our fathers through the long ages. 2. By our studies of His handiwork. 3. Our best thoughts are started by our own personal experiences of His gracious dealings. For our lives have been so full of God. That seems to us now to be the supreme charm of them. 4. Our thoughts take on some new forms since we have had the helps and suggestions of our saving relations with the Lord Jesus. II. How precious to me are Thy thoughts of me. It is a joy unspeakable to be assured that God is thinking about us, and is even enjoying His thoughts about us. Nothing can be more delightful than to feel that by our loving obediences, our sweet spirit of submission, and our devoted services to others, we are starting happy thoughts in the mind of God. We forget that as He “ takes pleasure in His people,” we must be giving Him pleasure. There can be little comparison between God’ s thoughts of us and our thoughts of God. We can get to know something of the thoughts of God, and fill our souls with the richest consolations, as we read His mind and heart. The smile on His face shines through the veil of nature, and we can tell what He is thinking that makes Him smile. His whisperings are heard in the sighing of the evening breeze, and the tender tones tell us what love-thoughts are cherished in His heart. Have we made enough of the signs which help us to read the thoughts of God? His thoughts take shape as “ exceeding great and precious promises.” When we are cherishing loving thoughts concerning some earthly friend, we find that we cannot satisfy ourselves without devising and bestowing some gift. And it is just the same with God. He could not satisfy Himself with merely cherishing loving thoughts about us. He must do something for us. He must give something to us. He must give Himself to us in some gift. And what shall it bey It shall be His most cherished possession, His dearest and best, His only-begotten and well-beloved Son. That is indeed an unspeakably precious gift. Cannot we read the thoughts of God by the help of that gift? How the Father-heart of God must have yearned over His lost children! “ How precious are Thy thoughts.” We are wrapped about with God’ s loving thoughts, and they keep us warmed and cheered. (Robert Tuck, B. A.) The precious thoughts of God I. Thoughts of mercy.1. That mercy is free--free as yon arch of heaven above our heads; free as the sunlight that shines upon all and everywhere. 2. That mercy is full. It never asks how many or how black are our sins. 3. That mercy is exhaustless. If I may say so, it has no superlative. Whatever in all the past ages of the Church He has done for any soul He can exceed that. 4. That mercy is ready. 5. That mercy gets glory to itself out of the very sins which it forgives. II. Thoughts of love. He knows our frame. He remembers that we are but dust. He tempers the trial, and brings good out of it. And He is always doing this all our lives through. III. Thoughts of glory. To fit us to mingle in the society of heaven is God’ s purpose--a purpose which He keeps steadily in view in all His providential dealings with us. (A. C. Price.) God’ s thoughts concerning us To think is to exercise the prerogative of an immortal soul; thus are we distinguished from the lower animals, who certainly cannot carry on any continued process of thought. By this power we reflect the image of God. The human intellect is man’ s crowning possession, that which makes him immortal. But if it is so wonderful, the power and possibility of thought to man, what shall we say of the thought of God? It is this fact which has inspired this sublime psalm and culminates in our text. No wonder David was carried out of himself at the thought of God’ s thoughts concerning man. The infinite shone in upon him, and ha caught a vision of the limitless expanse beyond. Of these thoughts he declares-- I. They are precious. “ How precious also are Thy thoughts unto me, O God;” costly, highly valuable. Who shall measure the value of God’ s thoughts to man? What currency could express their preciousness? For His thoughts are not vagrant like ours, going a-wool-gathering hither and yon, without direction or purpose. Every one becomes a creation, a star, a living creature, a cataract, a gleaming cliff, a beautiful human soul. II. The sum of them is great. Great in their totality. The summary of them is beyond us. If we consider them in their generic outline they are great. We may fathom one little fact in God’ s world, a single thought, bug how can the human mind take in the whole outline? Who knows the mind of God? What can we do with our finite minds to compass divinity? How vain and weak is man face to face with the Author of all life. How humble and reverent it should make us when we consider the works of His hands and our own feeble undertakings. “ How great is the sum of them.” III. They are incomprehensible. David felt as Milton after him, that he was only picking up shells on the shore of that vast ocean he must sail so soon. How wonderful is life, in its minute forms. What delicate beauty. What exquisite harmony. What undeviating law runs through all life. (G. F. Humphreys.) God’ s thoughts of us I. Loving. He thought of us when we were plunged in hopeless ruin, and His great heart of pity went out, after us. But with what complacent love He thinks of those who heed His calls and are loyal to His leadership! II. Constant. He never forgets. Husbands and wives think of each other often and tenderly when separated. So the fond mother and her darling child. But their thoughts are interrupted by necessary attention to other matters. By the very limitations of their own nature they cannot hold their minds incessantly upon one person, however dear. Not so with God. Great events do not divert Him. He may have worlds to create and govern, but He is not so absorbed in them as to forget us. No exigency can arise for which He is not fully prepared. Nothing can fake Him by surprise. III. Personal. God does not think of us in a crowd, as forming indefinite parts of a great mass-meeting. He singles us out and thinks of us individually--as if there were no other person in the universe. We are compelled to divide our thoughts and loving attentions between the different ones that come into the charmed circle of our friendship. But God thinks of me as really, as definitely, as personally as He does of the seraph nearest the throne. IV. Helpful. We may think of a person, but have no disposition to help him. But God has a disposition to help and the ability to help, and He lives and thinks of us on purpose to help. The outgoings of His loving heart are benedictions upon our heads and benefactions upon our daily pathway. (H. Johnson, D. D.) Our thoughts about God’ s thoughts I. God’ s thoughts of us.1. That the infinite Jehovah thinks of us is absolutely certain. I know that the notion of some men is that the world is like a watch, and that God has done with it as we do with our watches--that, is, wound it up, put, it under His pillow, and gone to sleep. But it is not so; for in this great world-watch--to keep up the figure--God is present with every wheel and every cog of every wheel; there is no action in it apart from His present putting forth of power to make it move. Now, as God thinks and must think of the whole material universe which He has created, much more does He think of men, and most of all of us who are His chosen people. God must think of us; the blood would not flow in our veins, nor would the breath make our lungs to heave, nor would our various bodily processes go on without the perpetual exercise of His power. God must think of us especially in all the higher departments of our being, for they would speedily come to nothing apart from His constant care. 2. God’ s thoughts of us must be very numerous. One or two thoughts would not suffice for our many needs; if He only thought of us now and then, what should we do in the meantime? But He thinks of us constantly. 3. His thoughts of us are very tender. He looks upon His people as a father upon a child. How often He has screened us from trouble! How frequently He has prepared us for a trial, so that, when it came, it did not crush us! How often He has rescued us out of sore perils! How often He has visited us in the night, and given us songs amid our sorrow! 4. Very wise. 5. Very practical. His thoughts are really His acts, for with Him to will is to do. II. Our thoughts upon God’ s thoughts.1. There is no other thought that can for a moment be compared with it. 2. How delightful it is to he thought upon by God. 3. How consoling. 4. The thoughts of God often move the souls of Christians, strengthening them in faith, arousing them to love, bestirring them to zeal. III. Our thoughts upon God himself.1. They bring us near to God. 2. They help to keep us near to God. 3. They help to restore to us God’ s presence if for a while we have lest it. “ When I awake” that means, “ I have been asleep, and so have lost the consciousness of God’ s presence.” Have you never known what it is, at night, to be quite sorry to go to sleep because you have been so full of holy joy that you were afraid you might lose it while you were unconscious? “ When I awake, I am still with Thee.” I think it means also, “ When I wake up from any temporary lethargy into which I may have fallen, I am still with Thee.” We all get into that state sometimes; sleeping, though our heart is awake. We wish to be more brisk, more lively; but we cannot stir ourselves up. We have fallen into a kind of stupor. What a blessing it is to be roused out of it, possibly by a severe affliction, perhaps by an earnest discourse! Then the awakened one says, “ Now I have come back to Thee, my God. There was a something within me that could not forget Thee, even for a while, though it lay still and dormant.” (C. H. Spurgeon.) The thoughts of the Infinite appreciated by man I. They must be discovered.1. There must be a revelation of them. (1) in the material world.(2) Events of history.(3) Bible. 2. There must be a capacity to interpret the revelation. That is the distinction of man. 3. The capacity must be rightly employed. We must study the revelation. What is the scientist in quest of with his lenses, retorts, laboratories? The thoughts of God in nature. What is the Biblical critic in search of in investigating the meaning of Scripture? The thoughts of God in the Bible. II. They must be compared. We get the impression that one fabric is more precious than another, one stone more precious than another, one life more precious than another by comparison. Thus we are to get the impression of God’ s thoughts by comparing them with ours. They are--1. Absolutely original. All human thoughts are derived. 2. Comprehensive--taking in the whole of a thing, and the whole of everything. 3. Unsuccessive. 4. Infinitely useful. 5. Everlasting. 6. Essentially holy. Thus His thoughts are not as our thoughts. III. They must be appropriated. As light is precious only to the man who sees, food only to the man who participates, beauty only to the man who admires, so God’ s thoughts are only precious to the man who appropriate them. (Homilist.) Precious thoughts God has thoughts, and they are infinite in number, in compass, and in importance. Some of His thoughts are expressed, many more remain unexpressed. There are at least three modes of expressing thought. One is by acting them. Creation, with its complicated laws and systems, is nettling more than God’ s thought expressed in act. Another mode of expressing thought is by speech. God has gifted man above the brute creation with the power of speech. God has conveyed some of His thoughts to men through the medium of speech. Moses heard His voice on Sinai; He spoke to Abraham, to Jacob, to Samuel, and others, and to these, His servants, the Divine voice was a vehicle to convey Divine thought. Under the dispensation of the Incarnation, God made extensive use of speech, in the Person of our Blessed Lord, to convey His thoughts to the children of men. Another mode of expressing thought is by writing. Men convey thoughts through the medium of books. In the Bible you have a volume of God’ s thoughts in writing. I. Thoughts, in order to be precious, must be good. morally good--good in themselves, and good in their influence on those who embrace them, pure and purifying. Millions on earth, and millions more in heaven, can bear testimony that God’ s thoughts have elevated the mind, given to the heart quickening impulses towards virtue, and kindled aspirations after God and purity. II. Thoughts to be precious must be true--great intellects sometimes waste their energies on the untrue and unreal. They live in an ideal world, a creation of their own fancy, and by their writings allure many into the same world of dreams and allegory. You must give the intellect reality, substance, truth, in order to satisfy its deeper cravings. In the Bible we have a volume of God’ s thoughts, and they are all true. Some portions have been written in poetry, but it is not the poetry of fiction or fancy, but the poetry of truth, eternal truth. III. Thoughts are sometimes precious because of their originality. It is truly refreshing to come in contact with a great mind, who conducts you into loftier mental altitudes than usual, opens out landscapes of thought where the mind may revel with a transport of joy over thoughts which are fresh, noble, and pure. In the Bible we have a volume of God’ s thoughts, many of them original, belonging exclusively to God. They were hidden in the bosom of God before the beginning of creation, and God only could make them known to the intelligent universe. IV. Thoughts, in order to be precious, must be benevolently related to me. The Bible assures me that God’ s thoughts are benevolent and merciful. The Gospel is the out-breathing of the great Father’ s love towards His rebel children, the yearnings of His heart over His prodigal family, the advertisement of His anxiety to see His alienated creatures return, and of His willingness to forgive and forget their infinite wrong. V. Thoughts, in order to be precious, must be practicable. The scheme which the Gospel reveals is not hypothetical; it is not the offer of a boon on conditions which are impossible. It is gloriously possible. It is the proclamation of an all-sufficient remedy, that redemption is effected, that it is free for all, that every difficulty has been removed, every claim met, and that now nothing is wanting on the part of man but an open heart to receive and welcome the gift Divine. This is God’ s thought, and it is precious. (R. Roberts.) God’ s unexpressed thoughts Some of God’ s thoughts are expressed, but many more remain unexpressed. His unexpressed thoughts, we believe, infinitely exceed both in number and grandeur His expressed thoughts. Some think science is making very rapid progress in the discovery of God’ s thoughts in the realm of matter, but the progress is slow when compared with the infinite multitude of thoughts which yet remain to be disclosed. Think of the sunbeams. They have been irradiating the world from the very beginning of creation. Think, again, of the iodine in the seaweed. It has been there ever since the sea lashed its shores first. The sunbeam is God’ s thought, the iodine is God’ s thought; but there is a third thought, springing from the combination under certain conditions of the ray of light and the iodine. You take the iodine from the seaweed, sprinkle its vapour on a piece of glass, hold that glass in the sunlight, stand in front of it, and you have yourself photographed. This third thought of photography has only been recent]y discovered. The thought was present to God when He created the first ray of light and put the first drop of iodine in the seaweed, and yet it has taken man thousands of years to discover that thought, so simple now that we know it. So still there are infinite abysses which we cannot fathom, and infinite heights which we can never reach. We have only reached the alphabet of knowledge as yet. We are in the infancy of our being, mastering with difficulty our elementary primer. Neither the youth nor the manhood of mind will be reached by us in this world. We shall all die mere infants in knowledge. But there is mental manhood in store for us somewhere in the universe of God. We fondly hope and firmly believe that in heaven God will reveal to us His deeper and higher thoughts. We are now groping outside and knocking at the door of the temple of truth. Then we shall be admitted into the interior, and perhaps feel ourselves at first bewildered with its infinite vastness, The universe, with its infinitude of worlds and its unknown immensity, is that temple, and it is full of God’ s thoughts. Those thoughts are expressed in endless variety in every star and system, in perhaps myriads of systems never yet brought within the range of any telescope. They are written on orders of beings and intelligences of which now we have no conception, and of which the universe may be full. In our vast explorations we shall meet God’ s thoughts at every step we take, in the very atmosphere which souls breathe, in the canopy which encompasses them, in every spirit that flits by, or that pauses to commune with us, in the fresh and novel scenes which every system will open out to us. When we travel over infinite space, when the universe is laid open to our inspection, when there is no limit placed on our scrutiny of its infinite mysteries except the limit which a finite creature must ever feel when he has to do with the Infinite, fresh revelations of the Godhead will burst upon us, and with greater rapture than now we shall exclaim, “ How precious are Thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them!” (R. Roberts.) Psalms 139:18 When I awake, I am still with Thee.A Christian awakening with God I. His disposition.1. It is the care and endeavour of a good man when he awakes to be still with God. (1) The time. (a) When not asleep, and so hindered by the necessities of nature. A godly man is careful to be with God in every performance and in every condition, both in regard to-- (i.) Habitual inclination. He is always with God in disposition and affection; and-- (ii.) Actual application. He is careful still to repair to God, and to draw near to Him, whensoever he can. (b) As soon as I awake. 2. In what respects a Christian, when he is awake, may be said to be with God. (1) By meditation. (a) Our thoughts are precious things, being the immediate issue of our souls, and are not to be lightly bestowed by us, especially our first, thoughts. And on whom can we better bestow them than on Him that helps us to them, and without whom we are not sufficient of ourselves so much as to think (2 Corinthians 3:5)? (b) This is to be understood especially of such thoughts as are settled and deliberate and composed such thoughts as a man sets himself to with intention, and suffers to abide in him; these are for the most part suitable and agreeable to the frame of his heart. Now, because a godly man has his heart full of heaven, and God, and goodness, and the graces of the Spirit, therefore are such things as these very often and early in his thoughts. (2) By communion. Look at friends when they meet in a morning, they have their mutual greeting between them--a loving and friendly salute one of another: even so is it with its due proportions betwixt God and the soul, the soul speaking to Him, and He returning upon it by way of reciprocation. (a) Confession of sin. (b) Petition and supplication. (c) Praise and acknowledgment. (3) By action and the businesses which are done by us; when we “ awake to righteousness and sin net.” 3. The ground and equity of it. (1) Our waking thoughts are our first thoughts, and the first of everything is of right God’ s. (2) Our waking thoughts are freshest thoughts; that is, the nimblest and quickest, and most active, and fullest of life. As God deserves the first, so He deserves the best. (3) Our waking thoughts are our quietest, and freest from commotion: that is the fittest time and season for converse with God, wherein we have least distraction and perplexities and troubles from the world. (4) Our waking thoughts are our purest and freest from pollution: these things are the fittest for God, which are most like to Himself. II. His privilege.1. It secures from dangers (Psalms 26:1; Psalms 3:5; Psalms 4:8; Psalms 91:5; Psalms 23:4). 2. It quickens to duty; keeps the heart in a holy frame and temper all the day after. 3. It prevents from sin and temptation--at least the prevalencies of it. III. How we may attain to this blessed condition.1. Walk with God in the day. The duties of religion are linked together, and come off more easily in the conjunctive performance of each other. Thus reading and hearing, and meditation and communion of saints, conscionably and religiously performed, do so much the better dispose to more immediate communion with God; and the actions of the day have their impressions and reflections upon the night. 2. Lie down with God in the evening. That which we think of last we shall be ready to think of first; and as we conclude the foregoing day, so we are likely to begin the following. Therefore it should be our care, as much as may be, to have God and the things of God in our thoughts when we set ourselves to rest. This is the happiness of a Christian that is careful to lie down with God, that he finds his work still as he left it, and is in the same disposition when he rises as he was at night when he laid to rest. As a man that winds up his watch over night, he finds it going the next morning; so is it also as I may say with a Christian that winds up his heart. This is a good observation to be remembered, especially in the evening before the Sabbath. 3. Observe God in the morning. A man that would be with God when he wakes must observe how God is with him. We shall find sometimes that God Himself doth awaken us, and does desire communion with us (Isaiah 50:4). (T. Horton, D. D.) Morning thoughts To an earnestly devout mind there is no hour in She day to compare with the morning hour. “ Evening calms the mind” when the heat and the tumult of the day are past. Not without good reason did that ancient figure meditate “ in the fields at eventide.” But the morning hour largely determines what he shall meditate upon as he walks those grassy slopes. Let me show you how, by a godly man, that morning hour may be used to do at least something towards flinging into the day a light sweeter and pleasanter than its own. I. It may be so used as to impart, in some sort at least, a spiritual tone to the entire day. Busy men are wont to complain, “ In crowded street and busy mart the mind cannot get itself fixed on higher things.” Much, however, can be done, and in this way. When that light--so sweet, so pleasant for the eyes to behold--looks in upon us, and the tasks and duties of the day begin to marshal themselves before us, let the mind be imbued with the Christian temper--let it be pitched, so to speak, in a Christian key; and though God through the day may not be “ in all our thoughts,” He will not be far from every one of them. II. A day begun in this fashion acquires a certain practical steadiness. You have noticed, I am sure, how a day entered upon without thought, without prayer, has invariably turned out a very confused and unsatisfactory thing. There are more battles to fight than those which are won and lost on fields of blood; and the bravest, steadiest soldiers are not the men who have leaped from their beds and rushed into action. They are the men whose heads have been cleared and cooled, and whose mental and spiritual nerves have been braced by meditation and prayer. III. This kind of prayerful forethought gives a certain desirable speciality to the day. We cannot, it is true, make every day a feast-day, but we can redeem our days from a spiritless sameness. Is my work monotonous? (and whose work is always teeming with freshness of interest?) let me redeem it from being anything like drudgery by baking it up every day as a new trust. Is it uncongenial? (and whose work is always to his taste?) let me place it day by day on the highest grounds. Oh, how often would many of us turn from the incumbent disagreeable, if we did not carry it to a loftier tribunal than any our personal feelings can furnish. (J. Thew.) Morning meditation Accustom yourself to a serious meditation every morning. Fresh airing our souls in heaven will engender in us a purer spirit and nobler thoughts. A morning seasoning will secure us for all the day. Though other necessary thoughts about our calling will and must come in, yet, when we have despatched them, let us attend to our morning theme as our chief companion. As a man that is going with another about some considerable business,--suppose go Westminster,--though he meets with several friends on the way, and salutes some, and with others with whom he has some affairs he spends some little time, yet he quickly returns to his companion, and both together go to their intended stage. Do thus in the present case. Our minds are active and will be doing something, though to little purpose; and if they be not fixed upon some noble object, they will, like madmen and fools, be mightily pleased in playing with straws. The thoughts of God were the first visitors David had in the morning. God and his heart met together as soon as he was awake, and kept company all the day after. (S. Charnock.) Psalms 139:19-22 Surely Thou wilt slay the wicked, O God: depart from me, therefore, ye bloody men. Indignation against the wicked I. Here is a fact in relation to the moral government of God. That fact is the ultimate ruin of the wicked. “ Surely Thou wilt slay the wicked, O God.” The wicked will ultimately be ruined.1. This fact agrees with the dictates of conscience. The consciences of mankind the world over proclaim it. 2. This fact agrees with the principle of moral causation. Sin brings ruin, every act of transgression carries with it its penalty, and tends to death. 3. This fact agrees with the declaration of the Bible, “ Be sure your sins will find you out.” “ He that soweth to the flesh,” etc. II. Here is a fact in the experience of pious men. “ Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate Thee?” Whether these words breathe piety or not, they suggest a fact in the experience of all godly men. It is this--antipathy to the character that is opposed to God.1. The fact is a necessity. From the laws of our mental constitution it is impossible for us go love those who hate the object we most love. Love makes the twain one, hence it is impossible for a man truly to love God and not hate that which is opposed to Him. 2. This fact is an excellence. It is morally right and grand to see the godly man rising up in indignation against all that is opposed to the character and will of God. (Homilist.) Psalms 139:22I hate them with perfect hatred; I count them mine enemies.Righteous hatred What, then, is a perfect hatred? What may there be which is right, worthy, and fruitful of good, in the perfection of hatred? If we look go the Hebrew psalms for an answer, we notice that such expressions of hatred as occur in them are usually of an official character; they are expressive, that is, not so much of personal feeling as of the kingly consciousness. They are portentous with the indignation of a people against wrong. But even when we read some of the imprecations of the psalms as expressions of a national sense of wrong we cannot always, with our gentler Christian training, prevent the feeling that the royal psalmist did not entirely succeed in his desire to attain to the perfection of hatred. We must look to Him in whom all the moral energies as well as prophetic strivings of the life of the true Israel were fulfilled, if we would learn in what spirit of hatred of all wrong may itself reach perfection. In the light of His life we may say, then--1. That a perfect hatred of evil proceeds from love. A perfect hatred will be an expression of a tremendous love. It cannot be perfect if it does not proceed from love, as nothing can be right without love. The great hatreds of sin among prophets, reformers and martyrs have always been characterized by this pure flame and passion of love for man. All thought of self was consumed in their intense sense of justice. Because they loved the people, because they loved their city, because they loved their country, they faced the evil, they defied the wrong, they gave their lives in grand protest of their death against the sin of the world. So was it superlatively with the Christ. Because God so loved the world, the Son of His love came from heaven to live a life of daily protest against all its suffering and shame. This, then, is one note and test of any hatred of evil, by which we may search our conduct and purify our passion of righteousness: Does our sense of wrong proceed from love? Does our rebuke of any evil express love? 2. It will be an orderly hatred. Anger, which is to be condemned, is an outburst of feeling, a tumult of words, a violence of deed; but no sign of our disorder of passion ever appeared in the Christ’ s condemnation of sin. His wrath against human wrong was as orderly as His love of the Father. It was the pure calm of a soul at white heat. Herein, then, lies another test for us to use in searching our hearts. Are our judgments outbursts of feeling, or are they revealings of the moral order of our lives? If mere outbreakings of passion, they may belong to the whole company of the powers of confusion in the disorder of our world’ s sin; but if really Christlike, there will be in them both the restraint and the power of the moral order of Christ’ s life against the sin of the world, 3. It is a working hatred. This follows both from the motive of it, which is love, and from the orderliness which is always distinctive of the law of love. Christ’ s hatred of sin was a working hatred. He did more self-exhausting work in His three years of life for men and against their sins than any human soul before or since has ever endured. Right hero is the difference too often between us and our Christ. We speak the momentary word of right and do no more. He spoke the word of eternal right, and put the love of His life behind it. We feel the evil and pass on; He felt the sin, and did not pass by on the other side. We express our feeling of moral indignation, and leave the poor world to right itself; He spoke the words of eternal life, and gave Himself to be crucified that the wrong world might be made right. 4. It is a sacrificial hatred of sin. The psalmist had not comprehended this diviner element of it. His Messiah was the Lord coming to judgment, not to bear the cross. But the true Messiah, when He came, was the suffering Son of God. He bore our sins; He suffered in our stead. What is the mightiest protest against wrong ever witnessed in this or any possible world? What but the Cross of Christ. Wherein lies the Divinest condemnation of sin to the eternal ages? In the sufferings of Christ, the just for the unjust. What is the satisfaction of the law by which sin is condemned with a perfect condemnation? Oh, not in punishment, though eternal punishment were its due; but in the infinite pathos of the suffering for it of the Son of God’ s love. Thus we come in the end to the same characteristic of perfect hatred which we found at the beginning and motive of it; it ends as it began, in love. It ends in forgiveness, as it began in condemnation; both forgiveness and condemnation being part and process of the same eternal love of God in Christ. We might say with equal truth, God so loved the world, or God so hated the sin of the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him might not perish, but have everlasting life. For our God is one God, and in loving righteousness and hating iniquity He is the same God over all, blessed for ever. (Newman Smyth, D. D.) Psalms 139:23-24 Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts.Man addressing God I. Man requesting Divine scrutiny.1. Reverence manifested. “ O God.” He realized God’ s presence, and his soul was filled with awe. 2. Thorough investigation invoked. “ Search me,” etc. Not that God was to thus obtain information unknown to Him before; but the asker, penetrated with a sense of sinfulness, desires God to search his heart, that the heart--with all its tendencies, passions, evils--may become known to himself through God’ s inquest. II. Man desiring Divine discipline.1. Severe testing. “ Try me.” 2. Moral discrimination. “ Know my thoughts,” etc. III. Man imploring Divine leadership.1. Spiritual ignorance confessed. 2. Divine condescension besought. 3. Perpetual guidance implored. (M. Braithwaite.) God the heart-searcher This is the language of prayer; but it is prayer almost in the tone of a challenge. Taken in connection with its context, it is a claim on the part of the speaker to a spotless innocence. The words of the psalmist are, in the full sense, proper only in the mouth of His Divine Son and Lord. Has, then, the text no meaning for the sinful, struggling followers of Christ? Yea! the followers of the Messiah are His members as well as followers. The prayer of our text, then, is not out of place in the mouth of a true-hearted Christian. He may offer it. In the name and strength of his Divine Surety and Head he is bound continually to cherish the spirit of one whose soul will break forth into the prayer, “ Search me, O God,” etc. I. To know hearts belongeth only to the Lord. This is an attribute distinctively His own, not shared in any measure with any created being.1. God’ s knowledge of the heart differs from that which man or angel has in this, that it is immediate. God knows,--as it were, sees, the very spirit, and its every act and state. Man knows only certain outer signs which the spirit makes, from which he infers its thoughts and feelings. 2. The knowledge of God, and of God alone, is unintermittent and all-piercing. It alone is eternal in duration of exercise, and it alone is able to compass the infinite relations even of one spirit. And to be the Searcher of hearts is to have an incessant and all-piercing glance into the inner being and most extended relations, not only of one spirit, but of all spirits, human and angelic. To form, therefore, a truthful estimate of the moral character of any one soul, the Searcher of hearts must know the attitude it would assume if brought into the presence of each creature, and also the attitude it would assume to every manifestation of His own infinite nature. II. He knows the heart necessarily: He cannot but know it.1. Then to Him are known all the dark mysteries of iniquity which men carry about locked up in their breasts. You yourself may sometimes forget it; He never does; and He intends with a changeless purpose to discover you to the whole world in due time, to put you to open shame, and bring you to condign punishment. Struggle no more in the fruitless labour to conceal your sin. In shame and sorrow of deep repentance hasten to make confession to the Searcher of hearts; to make confession not only of your black secret, but of all the ills with which your life is filled. Cast yourself upon His mercy. “ The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth from all sin.” 2. Then all hypocritical profession of the faith is vain. You may be wickedly deceiving yourselves as well as your fellow-men, like the young man in the Gospel ready to say of the commandments, “ All these have I kept from my youth up,” and in truth very near the kingdom of heaven; but the Lord marks with unerring certainty that beloved lust, that precious thing of earth, reserved, which you will not give up for Christ. And it, no matter how trivial, no matter how godlike, digs a gulf fathomless and bridgeless between you and life. 3. The Lord searcheth the heart; and, if so, “ the Lord knoweth them that are His.” With this truth Paul comforted himself and Timothy amid the desponding thoughts with which the apostasy of certain flaming professors in the Church of Ephesus was crushing them. With this truth, too, comfort yourself, O child of God, amid the painful doubts which the humble heart is so ready to entertain of its own sincerity and steadfastness. (James Hamilton, M. A.) Prayer to God to search the heart Note the psalmist’ s-- I. Intrepidity. Here is a man determined to explore all the recesses of his own heart. Did Bonaparte, did Nelson, did Wellington ever propose to do this? Were all the renowned heroes of antiquity present I would ask them all if they ever had courage to enter into their own hearts. If you stood upon some eminence and saw all the ravenous and venomous creatures that ever lived collected before you, it would not require such courage to combat them as to combat with your own heart. Every sin is a devil. II. Integrity. He wished to know all his sins, that he might be delivered from them. III. Wisdom.1. He prefers his prayer to God Himself. God is the only Being in the universe that knows Himself--that peruses Himself in His own light. In the same light He sees all other beings; and hence it follows that, if other beings see themselves truly, it must be in the light of God. 2. He begins with his principles: his desire is to have these tried by a competent Judge, and to have everything that is evil removed from them. This is an evidence of his wisdom. The heart and its thoughts must be made right before the actions of the life can be right. IV. Earnest desire. “ Lead me in the way everlasting.”1. The way Thou hast marked out for salvation. 2. The way of Thy law, in all the purity and spirituality of its requirements. (W. Howels.) God’ s search This heart is a labyrinth more intricate than the mausoleum of the ancient kings. There are in our souls doors that have never been opened, languages which have never been translated, enigmas that have never been solved, monsters that have never been hunted down, and it was in the appreciation of that fact that the author of my text cried out, “ Search me, O God, and try me.” I propose to show some of the ways in which God explores a man, and the use that comes of it.1. God searches a man by His Holy Spirit. Here is a man who feels he is all right. A few inconsistencies, perhaps, and a few inaccuracies; but upon the whole he is in tolerably good condition. The Holy Spirit seizes him. Why now does he tremble? Why now that grief-struck look? Why now can he not sleep at nights? The Holy Spirit has come upon him. He finds there are inhabitants in his soul that he never dreamed of. The reptiles begin to uncoil and to hiss at him. The man says, “ Can it be that I have been carrying such a nature as this forty, fifty, sixty, seventy years?” And he immediately begins to apologize, and he reviews the better points of his character. He says, “ I don’ t owe a man a dollar.” God says by His Holy Spirit, “ You have robbed me of your whole lifetime.” The man says, “ I am not arrogant, I don’ t take on airs.” The Holy Spirit says, “ You are too proud to kneel.” The man says, “ I am moral.” The Holy Spirit says, “ You have had many an unclean thought.” The man rouses up. He says, “ I must get away from this; I must get into the fresh air. I must go to business.” The Holy Spirit says, “ You cannot go to business; this is the mightiest of all businesses--the business of the soul.” Then all the past sins of the man’ s life come before him troop by troop. From that point many repent and live. From that point many turn back and die. 2. God searches a man by prosperity. He was amiable, he was kind, he was generous, he was useful, while he was in ordinary circumstances; but by sudden inheritance, or by the opening of railroad communication with his land, or by some stroke of commercial genius, he gets a fortune. God is going to search that man by his prosperities; He is going to see whether he will be as humble in the big house as he was in the small one; He is going to give him enlarged resources, and see whether his charities will keep pace with those resources. When he was worth so much he gave so much. He is worth twice as much now. Does he double his charities? God says, “ I will explore that man, I will try that man, I will search that man.” Fifteen years ago the man said, “ What good I would do if I only had the means!” He has the means now. What does he do? Of every dollar we make God demands a certain percentage. If we keep it back, it is at our peril. The old story of the miser who died in his money-chest, because the lid accidentally fell down and fastened him in, was a type of ten thousand men in our day who are in their own money-vault finding their sepulchre. Whatever be the style of your prosperity, by every dollar Shall you make, by every house that you own, by every commercial success that you achieve, God is searching you through and through. 3. God explores a man by adversity. Some of you are going through that process now. You say, “ How beautiful it is when a man’ s fortunes fail to see him throw himself back on spiritual resources.” Yes, it is very beautiful, but it is hard to do. There are many people who suppose they have Christian faith, when it is only confidence in government securities. They think they have Christian joy, when it is only She exhilaration that comes from worldly successes. God, after a while, sweeps His hand across the estate, and it is all gone. The man first scolds the banks. He says they are not clever; they ought to have allowed him a discount. Then he scolds the Congress, because it imposed a tariff. Then he scolds the gold-gamblers, because they excited the markets. He does not understand that all the time God has him personally in the crucible. 4. God explores us often through the persecutions of the world. How we admire all those pictures which represent the sufferings of Christi Why? Because we admire patience, and we admire it although we may have but very little of it ourselves. And we sit down on the Sabbath, and we study patience, and we say, “ Give us patience. What a beautiful grace it is--patience!” and on Monday morning a man calls you a liar, and you knock him down! That is all the patience you have. How little we understand how to bless those who curse us. It is the general rule--an eye for an eye,. grudge for grudge. 5. God sometimes explores us by sickness. From other misfortunes we can run away, but flat on our backs, pain in the head, in the heart, in the limbs, we cannot run away. No school, however well endowed, however supplied with faithful instructors and professors, can so well teach you as the school of a sick-bed. People wonder at the piety of Edward Payson, and Richard Baxter, and Robert Hall. How did they get to be so good? It was sanctified sickness. 6. God tries us with bereavement. He searches a man by taking away his loved ones. An author describes a mother who had lost her children, saying to Death, “ Why did you steal my flowers?” Death said, “ I didn’ t steal them; I am no thief; I transplanted them.” “ Well,” said the mother, “ why did you wrench them away so violently?” And Death said, “ They would never be wrenched away but that you held on to them so violently.” Oh! how hard it is when our friends go away from us to realize that they are not stolen, not wrenched, but transplanted, promoted, irradiated, emparadised. But unless you have had bereavement you do not know what a bad heart you have. We do not know how much rebellion of soul we possess until God comes and takes some of our loved ones away. (T. De Witt Talmage.) Our Searcher You may say to your clerks, “ Now let us search into our accounts and balance our books,” but while you are doing it do not forget to pray, “ Lord, search me.” I. Let us ask the Lord to search our principles. Our government have now appointed officers to see that ships which are outward-bound are not deeper in the water than the “ load-line” of safety. Now, like a ship, every man has a load-line; and he says within himself, “ Beyond that line I will not go.” Nevertheless, many men do go beyond their lead-line, and founder in the sea of vice. Every man draws the line somewhere; and, alas! it is generally as far off the standard directed by Christ as it can possibly be. Men make “ load-lines” for themselves, and say, “ I am all right on this side the line.” But what does the Bible say about it? Is your line in the correct place for the salvation of your soul? A thief will steal, and draw his line, saying, “ I will not hurt or murder anybody.” Most men draw a line of conduct somewhere, and say, “ I am all right so long as I do not pass beyond that line.” How important to pray this prayer, “ Search me, O God!” II. Let us ask of God to search our profession. You may say, “ Ah, I have got you there; I make no profession.” Don’ t you? Why, you must be a rogue indeed if you make no profession of honesty or gratitude. What, have you never told anybody you were thankful to God for having created you? Are you not thankful to Jesus for having died for you? Christianity means honesty, virtue, truth, gratitude to God, and helpfulness to our neighbour; and do you make no profession of these? Well, if you don’ t I should not like to meet you in a lonely road at night. Of course you make professions. You profess to be honest, upright, and lovable. Now, let us ask God to search our professions. Do we act accordingly? III. We also should ask God to search our lives. We often fall and wander from the way. The text goes on to say, “ and see if there be any wicked way in me.” But we need not say “ if” ; we know full well that there is much wickedness in us. It may be the Lord will show us that we need to be more resolute. O brothers, be decided to give up sin. Rouse yourselves! It is all nonsense for you to complain clay after day, saying, “ I cannot help myself!” Have you not the power of God to help you? IV. We ought to ask God to search our character. Do you remember reading of the Californian mine swindle? Some men went into the interior and plastered pieces of silver upon the rocks. Then they got up a grand Mining Co. Limited, and people believed them. Engineers saw the silver on the rocks and then reported favourably of it: it was all a sham. But it is not so in your case. You are not barren rock. There is a streak of gold in every man. If it were not so Christ would not have told us to preach the Gospel to every creature. God has given you the power of noble manhood, and you shall not be disappointed if you press towards it. If you strive for the manhood that thinks nobly, speaks truthfully, and lives virtuously, you shall attain it. V. Ask God to search your soul. Is it pardoned? (W. Birch.) Prayer for self-knowledge I. True religion has its seat is the heart. The man of real godliness has not only “ a name to live,” but he lives. There is a consistency in his character. The Gospel not only enlightens his understanding, but shines into his heart; not only delights his imagination, but captivates his affections. It makes his conscience tender, his thoughts humble, peaceful, holy. II. Hence the truly religious man is anxious to know the real state of his heart. True, he may find this self-examination painful and humiliating, but this makes no matter to him. He feels that he has the salvation of an immortal soul at stake, and he is not to lose that soul for the sake of being kept easy in his follies and proud in his sins. III. The sincere Christian is not conscious of having within his heart any one cherished sin, It is one thing to have iniquity entering the breast, and another thing to harbour it and have it reigning there. St. Paul felt a sinful “ law in his members,” but he felt it as “ warring against the law of his mind,” as opposed to the habitual frame of his soul, to that holy and heavenly principle which made him “ delight in the law of God after the inward man,” and enabled him to “ walk, not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” Every Christian also feels the same warfare within. Sin tempts and harasses him, and sometimes brings him into captivity, but it cannot hold him in bondage; it cannot make him quietly submit to its hated laws. We soon see the prisoner struggling with his vile oppressor, and bursting its bonds. Trampling his lusts underneath his feet, we hear him exclaim, “ I thank God through Jesus Christ my Lord.” IV. Yet he often suspects himself of some undetected iniquity. The best of our actions, the brightest of our graces, the most holy of our dispositions, the most fervent of our prayers, and the most ardent of our praises, are blended with so much that is evil that we despair of separating the one from the other, and are often ready to faint with disquietude and fear.” V. Is the midst of his perplexities the sincere Christian has a firm and lively belief that God knows his heart. Like David, he knows that “ the Lord searcheth the hearts,” and “ understandeth the thoughts,” and “ compasseth the path,” and is “ acquainted with the ways” of the children of men; and, like David, he is willing to be searched, and prays to be tried by this omniscient God. VI. He applies to God for self-knowledge and instruction, He can show us wherein we are right in our judgment of ourselves, and wherein we are wrong; what there is to be brought low in us, and what to be raised up; what we must endeavour to get rid of, and what to obtain. Laying open our hearts, He can discover to us the sin which is lurking there, and, like a worm at the root, secretly marring our comforts and withering our graces; and, shining on the work of His own hands, He can make visible to us the wails of that spiritual temple which He has begun to raise up for Himself within our souls. VII. He who seeks instruction of God must be willing to submit himself to God’ s guidance. We often pray for instruction without being mindful of the necessity of this submission. Our supplications are sincere, but we know not what we ask. We forget that the Saviour employs various methods of showing His children their hearts. Affliction, frequent and severe affliction, is the school into which prayer often brings a man, and in which he first learns to know himself and his God. It is in the furnace that the gold is proved and distinguished from the secret dross. But the path of tribulation is not the only path which we must be content to enter. If we wish our prayers to be answered, we must be prepared to walk in “ the way everlasting.” And what is this way? It is that way of access to the Father in which the patriarchs and prophets, the glorious company of the apostles and the noble army of martyrs drew near to Him--the way of reconciliation through the blood of His Son. It is that highway which is called in the Scriptures “ the way of holiness.” (C. Bradley, M. A.) On being known of God This psalm is a psalm of gladness, or deep and tranquil satisfaction in the all-searching God. It is full of humility, the profound humility of one who feels that he cannot hide himself from God. But profound as is the lowliness, equally marked is the joy of David that God knoweth him altogether. The end of the psalm is a prayer; David does not deprecate the searching of his heart by the all-seeing One, he invokes it. I. The blessedness of God’ s knowledge of our loyalty. This is the subject suggested by the context. David is declaring that he has neither sympathy nor part with the wicked. “ Do not I hate them,” etc. He appeals to God whether this is not so. “ Search too,” etc. Am I not right in affirming my love for Thee? Is not my heart set upon my God? Are not all my thoughts for Thine honour? The consciousness of sin, rather than that of righteousness, is the distinguishing mark of Christian experience; nor will this contrast between Jewish and Christian piety seem strange to those who compare the Gospel with the law. The sanctity of Jesus makes all our righteousness appear as filthy rags. The love of God is far more searching than the precepts of the stony table; the heart that might have been unmelted at the demands of law is broken by the claims of affection. The loyalty that might pass unreproved, did we but think of what we are bidden, proves but poor as an expression of our gratitude, our response to God’ s affection. The Hebrew saint contrasted himself with the sinner; Christians, searched by the Spirit of holiness and love, rank themselves among transgressors. We have to bewail many a failure, many an imperfection, but a loyal-hearted Christian should be true to himself and declare his devotion too. At least the heart is firm in its allegiance; whatever your folly and your weakness, you mean, with all sincerity, to serve God. Now, it is an immense comfort to us to be able to rest on God’ s perfect knowledge of our loyalty to Him. He knows the heart that is set on serving Him; He can distinguish between ignorance and ill-intent; He is not misled by the result; He sees integrity of purpose, and marks the desire to hold true to Him; and He will bring out the righteousness of His servants, making it clear as the light. He will also correct the hidden faultiness (verse 24). II. The blessedness of God’ s knowledge of our struggles. One of the reasons why we should not judge our fellows is that we do not know the men. We see the temptation yielded to; we know not the many temptations that have been resisted, how hard was the struggle to resist. The compassionate God takes account of all this; and hence, for the returning sinner, it is better to fall into the hands of God than into the hands of men. Signs of feeble piety, too, we can mark. God knows all that makes even that feeble piety a very victory of faith. We note the uncertainty of temper, we hear the captious phrase; only one eye takes note of the depression and bitterness of soul out of which this is wrung. How hard is the ignorance of the world; how hard, too, the inconsideration of the Church! God does not break the bruised reed nor quench the smoking flax. Here, too, mark--the refuge of the struggling spirit is not in self-sufficiency, not in self-justification. It is a perilous thing to balance our failures with our temptations. We are not the proper judges of ourselves; our leniency would be our undoing. We need not only to be searched but also to be purged, and He is at once compassionate and firm. “ Search me, O God, and know my heart” --see it all; what is pitiful as well as what is evil try me, and know my thoughts: and see,” etc. III. The blessedness of God’ s thorough knowledge of our sins. You know how frank confession becomes when all motive to concealment is gone. A wise parent who has detected his child in a fault which must be taken notice of will at once tell the little one he knows all. With fatherly sensitiveness for a child’ s conscience, he will remove the motive for concealment, that the confession may be full. God’ s perfect knowledge of our sins takes away the motive, because it removes the possibility, of concealment. He who has feeble conceptions of God’ s searching vision will be full of evasions; he will be full of self-deceit. The complete conviction of transgression follows, and does not precede, the feeling that God knows it all; for honesty in our dealings with ourselves we need to be searched of God. The Gospel offers immediate cleansing to the conscience; and its cleansing virtue lies very much in the fact that it brings so near to the sinner the God who has searched him, and who knows him altogether. It begins by speaking to us of our sins, with most considerate sympathy our Father shows Himself aware of all the pollution we would confess. The Cross of Christ supplies us with the self-condemnation we require, and with the condemnation speaks of tenderness and pardon. IV. The power which our every good resolve derives from the fact that we can make it known to God. Such things crave an utterance; we are more faithful because we are pledged. But we may not speak of them to men: lest we become vain; lest after failure put us to shame; lest our good resolutions evaporate in mere talk. There is sweetness, too, and force in our uttering our love to God, our devotedness to Him. Of these things, also, we may not speak to our fellows, yet they must be breathed into some ear. We can ask our God to mark them, and we are confirmed in them by the fact that they have been noted of Him. V. The blessedness of the fact that He who knows us thoroughly is our helper and our leader. A map is something for the traveller, but children-travellers as we are, we want the guide and controller of our way with us. “ See if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” There is one way, and only one, to blessedness and goodness. God’ s way is the same and everlasting. Why, then, are we wanderers? Why are we not always making progress therein? Alas! there are ill ways within us; it is our way to be indolent, wilful, to run after deceitful pleasures, to stray in folly, to sit down in sloth: and our leader knows it; and He will search these out and bring us past our perils. God will help us; that is our confidence and joy. We shall go on, well and truly on, for we have One above to lead us. (A. Mackennal, D. D.) “ Search me, O God” Why should the psalmist ask for what he has just declared to be necessary from the very relation of men to God? Is he asking anything more than he declared to exist apart from his asking? Or, what is the meaning of his prayer? Now, the answer to these questions must be guided by two considerations. One is that the prayer for searching is only a part of the psalmist’ s desire, and the answer to it will be but the first step in the process of which he longs to be the subject. Search, in order to cleansing, is what he asks; and that is more than necessary to Divine omniscience. Again, the prayer is not merely a petition. It is the expression of a willingness to submit to the search. He began by recognizing the fact; he ends by welcoming it; rejoicing in it and desiring to experience it in his own case. I. The longing for the Divine search. There used to be a contrivance in some prisons, where solitary confinement was the rule, by which somewhere or other in the wall there was a little hole at which, at any moment, the eye of the jailor might be glued. And men have gone mad because they sat there and felt that they were never free from possible inspection. To a great many of us, “ Thou God seest me” is as unwelcome as the consciousness of the little hole in the wall and the jailor’ s eye was to the criminal. We think of God as an inspector, a spy, a jailor; and we shrink and shut up all the petals of our hearts that He may not see what is there. Adam and Eve concealed themselves in the garden; and their sons and daughters are made cowards by their consciences, so that “ Thou God seest me” is an unwelcome thought to very many of us. But it may be made a welcome one. If we are quite sure that the Eye that looks upon us is the Eye of a loving Father we shall not shrink from it, but turn to Him, and say, “ There must be wisdom with Thee; Thou lookest with other and clearer eyes than ours, and Thou shalt look me through and through.” But we have here not only the thought of welcome, but I think there is suggested, too, that of helping God in His search by frank confession. A man that says truly, “ Search me, and know my heart,” will not be unwilling to go to God and make a clean breast of it, and tell all that he knows of his weakness and his sin. II. The longing for the discovery of hidden sin, “ I know nothing against myself, yet am I not hereby justified,” said the apostle; “ but He that judgeth me is the Lord.” Similarly the psalmist does not know what there may be lying, lurking and skulking in the depths of his heart; wherefore he refers himself to God, and asks that He will come and dig into its depths. That suspicion of unrecognized evil in myself is one that we should always carry with us. By arrangement of mirrors a man can see his outward form all round. But you cannot do like that with your souls. The difficulty is that the inspector and the inspected and the instrument of inspection are all one and the same, as if star and astronomer and telescope were one. So no wonder that we make--as every autobiography that ever was written shows that men make--huge mistakes in estimating what we are. There are secret faults in us all. And so the psalmist said, “ Lord, I see a bit of myself, but it is only a little bit; and there must be, deep down, many things that I have not detected yet. See, then, if there be any wicked way in me.” This prayer for the discovery of the hidden evil is based also on the confidence that God can and will cast out from us all the evil that He discovers in us, and the search for which the devout heart is eager is a search with a view to a purpose--viz. the ejection of the detected evil. There is another thing to be remarked about this prayer for the detection of undiscovered evil, and that is that one way of answering the prayer is by making us more quick to see the hidden sin. The thought that He is searching my heart will make my conscience more sensitive. And one of His ways of answering the petition is to open my eyes that I may behold the unsuspected evil in myself. III. The longing for a Divine leading unto the everlasting way. Into that way we shall be led if we have spread our hearts out before God, and loyally helped Him in His search, and welcomed the blessed light of His face. He will lead us, partly by Providence’ s pointing our course, partly by ejecting the evil, partly by giving to us new aims, aspirations, and desires; partly by strengthening our feet to run in the paths of holiness which He has before prepared that we should walk in them. The end of the Divine search is the Divine cleansing. God looks upon us in order that He may lead us into the way of peace. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Self-examination I. What is implied.1. That he had searched and tried himself.2. That his own searching was ineffectual, or at least not perfectly satisfactory.3. A firm belief of God’ s omniscience. II. The springs of this desire.1. We are liable to be mistaken in the ideas we entertain as to our state.2. Such mistakes are very dangerous. The house built upon the sand not only falls, but falls when it is too late to build another.3. If God do not search us in a way of mercy, He will do it in a way of wrath, either in this world or the next. (B. Beddome, M. A.) Self-examination: - I. “see if there be any wicked way in me;” --any corruption concealed, any lust harboured, any vicious appetite indulged, any sinful course persisted in. It may refer either to mental errors, or evil practices.1. It does not imply that the psalmist thought himself entirely free from sin. He knew there was much sin in him, and committed by him: and hence his pathetic lamentations (Psalms 38:1-22; Psalms 51:1-19.). 2. He hoped that sin was not predominant. 3. Though sin did not reign, yet he was afraid that more sin remained in him than he was aware of. 4. What of this nature he was ignorant of, he desires to be taught (Job 13:23). II. “ and lead me in the way everlasting.”1. The object he had in view. (1) The way of acceptance with God, Christ (John 14:6).(2) The way of sound doctrine.(3) The way of instituted worship.(4) The way of holiness and obedience. 2. The desire. (1) Need of guidance.(2) A- sense of his need.(3) He entertained high and exalted thoughts of God, as every way capable of the work he here assigns to Him (B. Beddome, M. A.) Self-examination It is a good sign when we are afraid of self-deception and court the scrutiny of God; when we are willing to know the worst of our own case, and desirous to judge impartially. For by thus examining ourselves, and submitting to Divine examination, believers are distinguished-- I. From the formalist, who will take no notice of the state of his heart in religion. Many, like the Jews of old, go to the sanctuary of God, and sit as His people sit, and hear as they hear, but “ their hearts are far from Him.” This is no sweeping charge, for if their hearts were “ right with God” they would worship Him at home as well as in their sanctuary, and in the sanctuary by sacraments as well as by prayer or praise. It is, therefore, a good sign when the claims of all duties are seriously weighed, and the state of the heart towards and in them is chiefly regarded. II. From the reckless--those who dare not search their heart before God; they are afraid of its whispers, and conscious that a full disclosure of its secrets even to itself would be almost as humiliating as the exposure of them to others. Thus the matter will not bear thinking of, and therefore appearances are kept up at all hazards. III. From the inconsistent, or those who are unwilling to be led out of every “ wicked way.” It is the grand characteristic of “ faith unfeigned” that it is willing to be kept back from all sin and to be led in the way everlasting. “ Examine yourselves, therefore, whether ye be in the faith, prove yourselves,” etc. (Robert Philip, D. D.) Imperfections detected Here is a beautiful diamond, it is apparently pure white, and it sparkles with lustre. A look with the naked eye and you are satisfied the stone is without fault, a most precious and costly gem of the first water. The expert now puts into your hand a magnifying glass of great power and tells you to look at the centre of the stone, and inquires what you can see, and in reply you say there is a black speck at its very centre. To the natural eye the stone was pure white, entirely without fault; but with the assistance of this powerful glass some startling revelations are brought to light. It is equally true respecting the life of a believer, without any exception. There is a class of people in existence who claim they are capable of a perfect life in this world, and are very enthusiastic in advancing their views in public; but if the mirror of God’ s truth were put to its proper use it would surely introduce them to the painful mystery of human life, and, under the powerful search-light of the Word, they would be surprised to detect the hidden faults and specks of imperfection in the holiest life. (R. Venting.) And know my thoughts.--Man accountable for his thoughts I. While no one can read the thought of another, he cannot understand perfectly the processes and character of his own. The most occult of all sciences is that which concerns itself with questions how we perceive any truth, or receive any impression, or think at all. No object to which you can turn your attention is so full of perplexity as the attention itself that you pay. Whence arise these thoughts, that are drawing their trains perpetually through the mind? What are the laws that govern their intricate and disturbed order? How far are they involuntary and beyond our strongest efforts of control? What sets them in such opposition to one another, and often to our own wish? What makes them so easy and so intractable; so clear and confused; so rapid and slow; bewildered with dreams and delirium, and true and radiant as the light? We have little to answer to questions like these. There is One that knoweth. “ Search me, O God, and know my heart.” II. But, impenetrable as are the thoughts of man, he is accountable for them to an extent which it is serious to consider, and which he does not consider enough. There is a proverb that “ thoughts pass toll-free.” And it is a truth that would be worth the mentioning, where a just liberty is brought into question; where either a political or a religious tyranny has set up the barriers of its proscription against the rights of the mind. It would show that no “ receipts of custom,” and no iron hindrances can stop the progress of the understanding, which moves on with the confidence of an invisible being, and stays no question. But it is a proverb very ill applied when it gives licence to every roving imagination; when it pretends to hide us from the heavenly inspection; when it encourages the heart to grow libertine; when it denies that we are amenable in this secret region to Him from whom nothing is concealed. What are worldly thoughts but worldliness itself; and corrupt ones but corruptness of mind; and proud ones but haughtiness of heart? Who shall say, then, that thoughts cost nothing?1. They may cost us our liberty; that very freedom which they profess to enjoy in the greatest perfection. They have their habits, like everything else in man, and may be brought slavishly under the dominion of them. “ Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts,” is a striking example in the prophet of that figure of speech which reserves for the final word the most emphatic expression. For long after the foot and the hand, and the will itself, are withdrawn from iniquity, these subtle agents may be about their usual work of evil suggestions. They may refuse to retire, haunt with their empty shades the spots where they once stimulated to action, and torment the conscience that they can no longer betray. 2. They may cost us our reason. And what a price to pay for their mismanagement is that I They may be so ardent as to grow wild; or brood upon one point till they have no sight nor power for any other, and the healthy mind shall lose all its soundness. 3. They may cost the innocence of the mind, as well as its sanity;--they alone, though confined ever so closely within the breast. Man does not always judge so, for he is satisfied if the claims he makes are answered. He looks but at the outward appearance. But there is One who looks deeper than that, and to that One the great account is due. “ Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” Only they can. The heart is the eye that is made to gaze towards Him; and if that be clouded, the whole heaven is hid, however circumspectly the steps may be directed along the earth. No need of any purpose to do mischief. No need of any perpetrated guilt. Where the thoughts are base, the soul is polluted; where they will acknowledge no discipline, it is nigh to be undone. III. We make of great account the climate in which we live; and the air and the weather are unfailing topics everywhere. Why will we not make of still greater that inward temperature and breath of the spirit by which we are continually surrounded;--that can carry sunny remembrances through rainy days, and need not mind much the troubles that are abroad and the east wind, since they themselves are “ at rest and quiet” ? We esteem it of high consequence what house we occupy, and what its accommodations are,--where it is situated, and how it fronts. But the house of his own thoughts is the true dwelling of man. Let it receive none but worthy guests. Let it face the sky where the light is the longest. Let it be built for the ages to come. (N. L. Frothingham.) Psalms 139:24 See if there be any wicked way in me.Secret sins I. The true Christian may plainly be known from all others by three things:-- 1. He does really rejoice in all the attributes of God. He adores His justice, loves His mercy, confides in His power, bows to His wisdom, is glad that He knows all things. 2. tie is anxious to know the worst of his case. He is candid with himself. He greatly desires that his aims, his heart, and his motives should be right. He fears the treachery of his own heart. 3. He hates all sin, wars against it, loathes it, and never will be satisfied till he is rid of it. He would not follow any wicked way. He would do nothing contrary to the law of God. II. That we may deal aright with our secret sins, let us--1. Think much of the all-seeing purity of God. His holiness is a flaming fire. 2. Often compare our acts, and words, and hearts with the perfect law of God. The commandments are spiritual. If you have wrong views of the law you cannot have right views of sin, and so you may lose your soul. 3. Hide no sin from your own eyes, and refuse not to confess it before God. 4. Be careful not to subject your principles to needless trial. “ We cannot hinder the birds from flying over our heads, but we must not let them light and build nests in our hair.” 5. Set a double guard against those sins to which you are very liable. Are you easily made angry? Then avoid men who are apt to provoke you. Are you inclined to undue sadness? Then study the promises and seek the society of cheerful Christians. Are you fond of high living? Rather shun than seek convivial gatherings. 6. Remember that there is no danger of your hating sin too much, or of your being too watchful against it. 7. Cease to hew out broken cisterns which can hold no water. Cease to rely on human wisdom, power, or goodness. Cast your care on Him who careth for you. Often commit your soul to Christ. 8. When you have done your best, remember that you may be mistaken. Earnestly offer the prayer, “ Search me,” etc. (W. S. Plumer, D. D.) The way of sin is the way of grief It is worthy of remark that “ wicked way” may be translated “ way of grief.” The way of sin is the way of pain and grief: it is a grief to God who would save you from it; a way of grief and pain to you if you walk in it; a way of grief and harm to others who suffer by your deeds. Get rid of it, come out from it, for it is the way of death. The way of unbelief, the way of vanity, the way of selfishness, the way of worldliness, the way of sluggishness, the way of self-dependence, the way of disobedience, the way of forgetfulness. Oh, how many, many are the ways, the tastes, the leanings within us that bring us peril, pain and grief. Let us seek a holy riddance of them, one and all, that we may move steadily, only, undistractedly, in the way of purity and peace! The everlasting way! All other ways end in sorrow, finish in gloom, suddenly terminate in night. There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof is death. The old, true, tried way has no terminus. It leads from grace to grace, from glory to glory. Discovery of concealed sin Those people in India, in the last plague, gave no end of trouble to the sanitary authorities because they would hide away the corpses in the back of their hovels, and when the dead-cart came round said that there were no dead in the house; and so the corpse remained to poison the atmosphere and kill some more of them. If we keep our sins huddled up in the back premises of our nature and try to put a screen between them and God by impenitence and locking our lips against confession, then God cannot cast out the sins that we cling to, and will keep. But if we go to Him and say, “ See if there be any wicked way in me. Come into the very innermost recesses of my soul, and whatsoever is there smite with Thy searching light,” which, like the old Greek legend of the arrows of Apollo, will slay the pythons, then God will answer the petition, and we shall be delivered. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Lead me in the way everlasting.--The way everlasting Since we must have a way, it is of the highest importance that our way should be a right one; important, because if it be not right we shall not long be happy in our course, since the happiness of those who follow the path of evil is fleeting as a meteor, mocking as a will-o’ -the-wisp, deceptive as the mirage, frail as a bubble on the wave, and unsubstantial as a phantom of the night. I. A remarkable attribute of the right way--it is “ the way everlasting.”1. It is most certain that the way of many men cannot be everlasting. (1) The way of the sinful is not so. I hope with regard to some that their way will last but for a very little time, for it is the way of evil. May they soon turn from it! May their road be so hedged up by God’ s providence and grace that they may be compelled to take another road. (2) The way of the merely moral man is not a way everlasting. (3) The way of the purposeless and dilettante is not everlasting. (4) The way even of some religious people is not the way everlasting. The hypocrite, the Pharisee, etc. 2. The right way--the way of faith in God and of a life that flows out of faith in God--the way indeed which Jesus trod, is the way everlasting-- (1) Because it is a way which was mapped out upon everlasting principles. Truth will never die; the stars will grow dim, the sun will pale his glory, but truth will be ever young. Integrity, uprightness, honesty, love, goodness, these are all imperishable. (2) Because no circumstances can by any possibility necessitate any change in it. (3) Because such a way even death itself shall not terminate. II. The confession. This remarkable confession and prayer should suggest two Things--ignorance and impotence. When we say, “ Lead me,” if it is a blind man, it means ignorance; he cannot see the way, and therefore he needs to be led, though he may be strong enough to walk if he only knew the way. “ Lead me, Lord,” also signifies impotence if it be judged of as the child’ s case; he needs to be led in another sense, because he has not strength enough in his little feet to go without the help of his mother’ s hand.1. Our want of knowledge. (1) Imperfect judgment.(2) Vitiated affections.(3) Wrong influences. 2. Our want of strength. We need to ask of God to give us will, which is the real power. III. The prayer. How comprehensive it is!1. Because of its object--the whole man, his intellect, emotions, tongue, actions. 2. Its modes. God leads by the law, by the life of Christ, by the Holy Spirit, by ministers, by good books, etc. 3. Its issues. “ The way everlasting” --a holy life, a happy death, and a heaven to crown it all. 4. The persons who may fitly use it. Who is there whom it would not suit? (C. H. Spurgeon.) . Psalms 140:1-13 Psalms 140:1-13 Deliver me, O Lord, from the evil man.God preserves His servant To put Luther out of harm’ s way for a while a prudent man took him prisoner, and kept him out of the strife in the castle of Wartburg. Luther could not be buried alive in ease; he must be getting on with his life work. He sends word to his friends that he who was coming would soon be with them, and on a sudden he appeared at Wittenburg. The prince meant to have kept him in retirement somewhat longer, and when the Elector feared that he could not protect him, Luther wrote him: “ I come under far higher protection than yours; nay, I behold that I am more likely to protect your Grace than your Grace to protect me. He who has the strongest faith is the best protector.” Luther had learned to be independent of all men, for he cast himself upon his God. He had all the world against him, and yet he lived right merrily; if the Pope excommunicated him he burned the bill; if the Emperor threatened him he rejoiced because he remembered the words of the Lord. “ The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh.” When they said to him, “ Where will you find shelter if the Elector does not protect you?” he said, “ Under the broad shield of God.” (C. H. Spurgeon.) Psalms 140:6-7I said unto the Lord, Thou art my God.David’ s five-stringed harp (with verses 12, 13):--There are five things in my text to which I want especially to draw the attention of any who are in sore trouble, and particularly those who are in trouble from enemies who are seeking to ruin them. I. Possession asserted (verse 6).1. What was the possession? The Lord Himself. If God be your God, all things are yours, for all things are in God, and the God who has given Himself to us cannot deny us anything. 2. The claim. He exhibited his title-deeds. 3. Who was the attesting Witness? It is a very easy thing to say to the minister, “ The Lord is my God” ; but it may not be true. It is a very solemn thing to be able to say to Jehovah, “ Thou art my God.” True believers have dialogues with their God; they are accustomed to speak with the Most High. “ I said unto Jehovah, Thou art my God.” 4. The occasion. When he was in trouble. I said unto Jehovah, “ Thou art my God.” Men said I was a castaway; but I said, “ Thou art my God.” They said I was without a friend; but I said unto Jehovah, “ Thou art my God.” II. A petition presented. “ Hear the voice of my supplications.”1. His prayers were frequent. When you have double trouble, take care that you have double prayer. 2. His prayers were full of meaning. “ Voice.” 3. His prayers were meant for God. 4. He could not rest unless he had the Lord’ s attention. III. Preservation experienced (verse 7).1. God had been David’ s Armour-bearer. Has it not been so with us in days past? Have we not had our heads covered when God held His shield above us? Have we not been guarded from all hurt by the providence and by the grace of the Most High? 2. God had guarded His most vital part. 3. God had been the strength of his salvation. IV. Protection expected (verse 12).1. He is the Judge of all the earth, and shall not He do right? 2. Moreover, God is a compassionate Friend; and when He sees any of His dear saints very poor and afflicted, do you not think that, when they cannot take care of themselves, He will take care of them? V. Praise predicted (verse 13).1. Praise is assured by gratitude. 2. By holy confidence. 3. By abiding in fellowship with Him. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Psalms 140:8 Grant not, O Lord, the desires of the wicked.The desires of the wicked inadmissible I. Some of the desires of the wicked.1. That there is no God. They dare not submit their conduct to Divine inspection, and would be glad if there were no Being to inspect. But against this desire the godly oppose their prayers. And there are good reasons why they thus feel. If there were no God, everything must immediately be thrown into a state of confusion. Chaos would return. 2. If a God do and must exist, sinners wish Him to be a mere spectator of the affairs of the world. The grand objection they have to His existence is, that if He exist He must have the reins of government. But the saints not only desire God to reign, they wish Him to manage all the affairs of creation. They consider their own safety and that of others to depend on this special care of God. 3. If God must exist, and must be an active agent in governing the world, the wicked are desirous that He should work without any plan. They are afraid of Divine decrees. They fear that these decrees do not favour them. The righteous, on the other hand, found all their hopes of salvation, both as it regards themselves and others, on the purposes of God. 4. Sinners desire happiness and heaven without holiness. Between these two God has established an indissoluble connection. He has decreed that holiness shall be the only path to happiness. But this connection sinners wish to destroy. They hate holiness wherever it appears, and yet they intend to be happy. The righteous, on the contrary, love nothing so much as holiness. 5. Sinners desire that Christians may walk disorderly, and so dishonour the religion of Jesus. Against these falls the saints pray, and are grieved when they take place. They love their fellow-saints. Every spot that appears in their garments grieves their hearts. They feel some of the same distress on such occasions as is felt when they go astray themselves. 6. The wicked desire to remain ignorant of their own characters. The righteous daily pray the favour of being acquainted with themselves. 7. Wicked men are very desirous that there may be no day of judgment. They do not wish the final inspection of Omniscience. In such desires the righteous cannot unite. It is their ardent wish that there may be a day that shall bring every deed to light, and pass an impartial judgment on all the actions of men. 8. The wicked are very desirous to be left to act without restraint. Nothing do they desire more. In this particular the children of God, and all holy beings, oppose their wishes. It would ruin the world to have them gratified. Free the wicked from restraint and there would be but little difference between earth and hell. II. Inferences.1. The monstrous wickedness of the heart. 2. The nature of regeneration. It is a universal change in the desires of the heart, in the affections of the soul. 3. The great difference between the righteous and the wicked. 4. Why sinners do not desire or relish the society of the righteous. They have opposing desires. (D. A. Clark.) Psalms 140:12I know that the Lord will maintain the cause of the afflicted, and the right of the poor. God and the poor We read in the text that God “ maintains the cause of the afflicted and the right of the poor,” and we may think that there is not much evidence of this. If society is under God’ s control how is it that it is such a chaos? There seems to be no order. Yet in the midst of the apparent confusion God is ruling. He holds the winds in His fists, and the water in the hollow of His hand. What gave the psalmist this assurance? I. His knowledge of God’ s character. We read of the pity of God, of the compassion and mercy of God in the Old Testament. Hence the numerous passages relating to God and the poor. “ He delivereth the poor in their affliction.” “ Thou hast prepared of Thy goodness for the poor.” “ Whoso mocketh the poor reproveth his Maker.” “ Thou hast been a strength to the poor.” “ Break off sins by showing mercy to the poor.” Hence also the provision made for the poor. The gleanings of the fields and of the vineyards and oliveyards were always to be left for them. The spontaneous productions of the sabbatical year were also to form a part of their provision. Kindness to them was enjoined as a sacred duty and as a precious privilege. II. His sense of justice. The psalmist speaks of “ the right of the poor.” Some would assert that the poor have no rights, except the right to starve, or get out of the way. The wealthy classes have rights. Oh yes. The sacredness of property is more inviolate than the sacredness of the Sabbath. “ The rich man’ s wealth is his strong city,” and around this strong city there are walls built by legislators. Let wealth have its rights; and let poverty have its rights too. If it is right to strengthen the weak, to lift up the feeble, to comfort the sorrowful, to heal the afflicted, to provide for the poor, then God will maintain that right. He that implanted in man this sense of justice, shall He not be just? Justice may appear tardy, but “ ever the right comes uppermost, and justice shall be done.” “ I know that the Lord will,” etc. If they have no other friend, the afflicted and poor have a Friend in heaven, whose righteousness is like the great mountains, whose mercy endureth for ever. III. His knowledge that God raised helpers for the feeble and oppressed. Charity was exercised then. It was a part of the Jewish religion. The rites of hospitality were then observed, and are in a large measure observed now in the East, with great care and faithfulness. Not an enemy was betrayed who had come into a tent for hospitality. There is a fountain of sympathy in the human heart. God has made the heart, and kindled in it the emotions of love and pity. Love God, and you will be constrained to love man. Keep the first table of the law, and you will be impelled to observe the second. God is not poor, and needing our alms. But around us are men, made in the similitude of God, capable of holding fellowship with God, of thinking upon His name, and loving Him, and love to God can express itself in service to men. This is the essence of religion--love. The apostle says that all is vain without this. (J. Owen.) . Psalms 141:1-10 Psalms 141:1-10 Lord, I cry unto Thee.An invocation for the truly desirable in human life: - I. Divine attention to human aspirations (verses 1, 2).1. For immediate attention.2. For favourable attention. II. A complete guardianship from wrong in life (verses 3, 4).1. He prays against Wrong in words. Who shall tell the evils that flow in the world every day from unguarded speech? “ The tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity.”2. He prays against wrong in practice. (1) Let my heart not be inclined to practise wicked works with wicked men.(2) Let it not be inclined to participate in the pleasures of wicked men. III. A readiness to receive righteous reproofs (verse 5). What greater necessity have all than the society of men who shall reprove, rebuke, exhort? IV. The maintenance of a devout and believing soul in the midst of our enemies (verses 6, 7).1. Devotion.2. Confidences-- (1) In the success of his teaching.(2) In the subjugation of his enemies. V. Ultimate deliverance from all enemies (Psalms 141:8-10). (Homilist.) Psalms 141:2 Let my prayer be . . . as incense.The incense of prayer Throughout the Old Testament you find side by side these two trends of thought--a scrupulous carefulness for the observance of all the requirements of ritual worship, and a clear-eyed recognition that it was all external and symbolical and prophetic. I. The incense of prayer. The temple was divided into three courts, the outer court, the holy place, and the holiest of all. The altar of incense stood in the second of these, the holy place; the altar of burnt offering stood in the court without. It was not until that altar, with its expiatory sacrifice, had been passed that one could enter into the holy place, where the altar of incense stood. There were three pieces of furniture in that place, the altar of incense, the golden candlestick, and the table of the shewbread. Of these three, the altar of incense stood in the centre. Twice a day the incense was kindled upon it by a priest, by means of live coals brought from the altar of burnt offering in the outer court. And, thus kindled, the wreaths of fragrant smoke ascended on high. All day long the incense smouldered upon the altar; twice a day it was kindled into a bright flame. I need not dwell upon the careful and sedulous preparation from pure spices which went to the making of the incense. So we have to prepare ourselves by sedulous purity if there is to be any life or power in our devotions. But I pass from that, and ask you to think of the lovely picture of true devoutness given in that inflamed incense, wreathing in coils of fragrance up to the heavens. Prayer is more than petition. It is the going up of the whole soul towards God. Do you realize that, just in the measure in which we set our minds as well as our affections, and our affections as well as our minds, on the things which are above, just to that extent, and not one hair’ s breadth further, have we the right to call ourselves Christians at all? Remember, too, that the incense lay dead, unfragrant, and with no capacity of soaring, till it was kindled; that is to say, unless there is a flame in my heart there will be no rising of my aspirations to God. Cold prayers do not go up more than a foot or two above the ground; they have no power to soar. There must be the inflaming before there can be the mounting of the aspiration. It is because we are habitually such tepid Christians that we are so tongue-tied in prayer. Where was the incense kindled from? From coals brought from the altar of burnt offering in the outer court; that is to say, light the fire in your heart with a coal brought from Christ’ s sacrifice, and then it will flame; and only then will love well upwards and desires be set on the things above. II. The sacrifice of the empty-handed. What is implied in likening the uplifted empty hands to the evening sacrifice? First, it is a confession of impotent emptiness, a lifting up of expectant hands to be filled with the gift from God. And, says this psalmist, “ because I bring nothing in my hand, Thou dost accept that, as if I came laden with offerings.” That is just a picturesque way of putting a familiar, threadbare truth, which, threadbare as it is, needs to be laid to heart a great deal more by us, that our true worship, and truest honour of God, lies not in giving but in taking. In our service we do not need to bring any merit of our own. This great principle destroys not only the gross externalities of heathen sacrifice, and the notion that worship is a duty, but it destroys the other notion of our having to bring anything to deserve God’ s gifts. And so it is an encouragement to us when we feel ourselves what we are, and what we should always feel ourselves to be, empty-handed, coming to Him not only with hearts that aspire like incense, but with petitions that confess our need, and cast ourselves upon His grace. See that you desire what God wishes to give; see that you go to Him for what He does give. See that you give to Him the only thing that He does wish, or that it lies in your power to give, and that is yourself. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) The twofold aspect of prayer Prayer is designed not only to be serviceable to man, but honourable God. It is a tax (redounding indeed with unspeakable benefits to the tax-payer, but still a tax) laid upon our time; just as almsgiving is a tax laid upon our substance; and if we would render unto God the things that are God’ s, the tribute-money must be faithfully and punctually paid.1. Think of yourself before you kneel down, not simply as a suppliant for help, but as a priest addressing himself to offer sacrifice and to burn incense. The time of the morning or evening oblation is come; the altar is ready; the incense is at hand; the sacerdotal robe of Christ’ s righteousness waits to be put on; array thyself in it; and go into the sanctuary of thy heart, and do the priestly ministration. 2. It was the quaint but excellent saying of an old saint that a man should deal with distractions in prayer as he would deal with dogs who run out and bark at him when he goes along the street,--walk on fast and straightforward, and take no notice of them. Persevere in presenting yourself to God during the period for which the prayer ought to last, and would last under happier circumstances. He loves to draw out perseverance in prayer, loves the indication thus given that, amidst all discouragements, the soul clings obstinately to Himself; and very early in the world’ s history He signified His approval of this temper of mind by rewarding and crowning, as He did, Jacob’ s struggle with the Jehovah-Angel. It must be remembered that this quiet, resolute patience, even amidst the disorders and distractions of our own spirit, is probably the most acceptable offering which can be made to the Most High. 3. But definite practical rules may be given, which will not be long acted upon without giving a better tone to our devotions. There are parts of prayer which cannot be selfish, which directly seek either the interests of others, or the glory of God; see that these parts be not absent from your prayers. (1) Intercede for others, and acquire the habit of interceding. Consider their wants, trials, and difficulties, and bear them upon your heart as you bear your own before the throne of grace. Intercession is a priestly service. Christ, the great High Priest, intercedes for us all above. And we, if we would prove ourselves members of God’ s royal priesthood upon earth, and perform with fidelity those spiritual sacrifices which we were consecrated in baptism to present, must intercede for others. (2) Let praise--not merely thanksgiving, but praise--always form an ingredient of thy prayers. We thank God for what He is to us; for the benefits which He confers, and the blessings with which He visits us. But we praise Him for what He is in Himself, for His glorious excellences and perfections, independently of their bearing on the welfare of the creature. In praise the thought of self vanishes from, and is extinguished in, the mind; and therefore to be large and fervent in praise counteracts the natural tendency to selfishness which is found in mere prayer. (Dean Goulburn.) The incense of prayer Doubtless the Jews felt, when they saw the soft white clouds of fragrant smoke rising slowly from the altar of incense, as if the voice of the priest were silently but eloquently pleading in that expressive emblem on their behalf. The association of sound was lost on that of smell, and the two senses were blended in one. And this symbolical mode of supplication, as Dr. George Wilson has remarked, has this one advantage over spoken or written prayer, that it appealed to those who were both blind and deaf, a class that are usually shut out from social worship by their affliction. Those who could not hear the prayers of the priest could join in devotional exercises symbolized by incense through the medium of their sense of smell; and the hallowed impressions shut out by one avenue were admitted to the mind and heart by another. As the evening sacrifice.-- On evening prayer 1. As God hath sanctified the morning and evening to His service by positive laws, so He has made the face of nature, in those seasons, to invite religious sentiments, and rendered them, peculiarly, fit for devotion; for, in the evening the hurry of the world ceases, its noise is hushed, and nature itself seems to pause in a delightful calm, that man may recollect himself after the hurry of the day, that his agitated passions may subside, and his mind, without distraction, offer its grateful homage to its Maker. The evening and the morning, as it were, turn the leaf, and invite us to read the existence, the wisdom, the power, and goodness of God, engraven in different characters, and displayed in a new scene of wonders. The greatness of the stars, their number, the regularity of their motions, the swiftness of their course, the exactness of their periods, the immensity of their bulk, the profoundness of their silence, at once humble and exalt the heart, lay it in the dust, and raise it to heaven. 2. And as the Creator made the face of nature to inspire evening devotion, so it is strongly recommended by the example of our blessed Saviour; for when the crowds were dismissed, and the business of the day done, He generally retired to offer the evening sacrifice of prayer and praise. 3. Gratitude should prompt us to acknowledge the goodness of God through the day; to thank Him for that food and raiment which He bestowed; for guarding us from the open violence and hidden snares of our temporal and spiritual enemies; for shielding us from accidents and infectious diseases; and, above all, for keeping us from ignominy and atrocious crimes, from the pangs and shame and punishment of notorious sins. 4. Evening devotion is extremely useful, and very effectual, for wearing off those ill impressions that our minds receive during our intercourse with the world. There is nothing, next to the grace of God, more likely to preserve us unspotted from the world than beginning and ending every day with the fear of God and the exercises of fervent devotion. 5. Evening devotion is still further necessary, in order to make our peace with God. In many things we offend all; and besides those flagrant crimes for which our consciences reproach us, there are many sins of thought, word, and deed that escape our observation. Can we, then, with a quiet mind, lie down under this load of guilt without so much as supplicating with our families the forgiveness and mercy of our God? 6. As evening devotion is necessary to obtain pardon of the sins we committed through the day, so is it also to obtain the preservation of our lives through the night. A sleeping man is a prey to every accident: if a fire surround him, he is insensible of his danger, and may be stifled or burnt before he recover from a state of insensibility; if an enemy approach him, he can neither resist nor flee; the decays Of time, or an earthquake, make his habitation totter over his head; he is unable to retire, and may be buried in its ruins; the very animals that lodge under his roof may take away his life; nay, a wrong position in his bed may make soul and body part. Can we then sink down into this helpless state without putting ourselves under the wings of Divine providence, and soliciting the protection of Omnipotence? (J. Riddoch.) Psalms 141:3 Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth; keep the door of my lips.The regulation of the tongue I. Importance of the subject. The use of speech is seldom considered morally. Unless on some very particular occasions, people imagine that it is perfectly optional with them what they speak and how they speak--saying, with those in the time of David, “ Our lips are our own; who is Lord over us?” Hence numberless words are daily uttered with indifference, and never thought of again; and if ever people confess or pray, speech never makes an article either in their confessions or prayers II. Danger of transgression.1. From the depravity of our nature. The stream will always resemble the fountain. 2. From the contagion of example. 3. From the frequency of speech. 4. From the extent of our obligation. (1) There is the law of prudence. This condemns silliness and folly--for no one has a licence to talk nonsense. This condemns all that is impertinent and unsuited to the place, the company, and the season. (2) There is the law of purity. This forbids all ribaldry: and not only everything that is grossly offensive, but all indecent allusions and insinuations, however artfully veiled. (3) There is the law of veracity. This condemns everything spoken with a view to deceive; or spoken so as to occasion deception; and which may be done by a confusion of circumstances; by an omission of circumstances; by an addition of circumstances. (4) There is the law of kindness. This condemns all calumny and tale-bearing; the circulation of whatever may be injurious to the reputation of another. This requires, that if you must speak--if you must speak--of another’ s fault, you do it without aggravation; that you do it, not with pleasure, but pain; and that if you censure, you do it as a judge would pass sentence upon his son. (5) There is the law of utility. This requires that we should not scandalize another by anything in our speech; but contribute to his benefit by rendering our discourse instructive, or reproving, or consolatory. (6) There is the law of piety. This requires that we should never take God’ s name in vain; never speak lightly of His Word, nor His worship; never charge Him foolishly; never murmur under any of His dispensations. It requires that we extol His perfections, and recommend His service. III. Inability to preserve himself.1. This conviction is well founded. “ Without Me ye can do nothing.” 2. This conviction is continually increasing. As the Christian, in the course of his experience, is learning to cease from man, so is be also taught to cease from himself. 3. It is a conviction the most happy. You need not be afraid of it. This self-acquaintance will only reduce you to the proper condition of a creature, and prepare you for the reception of Divine supplies. Our misery is from our self-sufficiency; it is pride that ruins us. IV. The wisdom of applying to God for the assistance we need.1. God is equal to our preservation. However great our danger, He can keep us from falling. Whatever difficulties we have to encounter, or duties to perform, His grace is sufficient for us. 2. His succours are not to be obtained without prayer. He has a right to determine in what way He will communicate His own favours; he is infinitely capable of knowing what method is most consistent with His own glory and conducive to our good--and He has revealed it; and however freely He has promised His influences, He has said (Ezekiel 36:37). 3. Prayer always brings the assistance it implores (Isaiah 45:19; Matthew 7:7). (W. Jay.) Sins of the tongue I. Foolish talking (Ephesians 5:4).1. Some persons are so indisposed to sobriety of thought, and have so long accustomed themselves to regard seriousness as bordering upon stupidity or gloom, that the gravest concerns lose in their conversation every symptom of importance. The wisest reflections are encountered with unmeaning laughter; and conclusions of the highest moment are repelled by a paltry effort at a jest. 2. Of another class, more numerous, and, if it be possible, equally thoughtless, the conversation is altogether and uniformly idle. Day after day, at home and abroad, you hear nothing drop from their lips which manifests a cultivated mind, or a desire of mental improvement. Everything is trifling. II. Those which arise from impatience and discontent.1. Of this description is hasty and peevish language in common life. Thus domestic comfort is perpetually invaded by little uneasinesses, little bickerings, little disagreements; and at length perhaps falls a sacrifice to the multiplication of inconsiderable wounds. Is this to be kindly affectioned, tender-hearted one towards another? Is this to walk in love? Is this to imitate the gentleness of Christ? 2. But some men advance to bolder manifestations of impatience and discontent. Not only is their fretfulness querulous, vehement, and acrimonious in domestic and in social life; but, after tormenting man, it shrinks not from insulting God. They repine at His dispensations: they murmur against His providence. Having received so much is this your gratitude, to be indignant that you have not obtained more? Does not He who knows all things discern whether it is better that you should enjoy a greater or a less portion of His gifts? III. Those which may be regarded as the offspring of contention. “ Be ye angry, and sin not” If anger in its lowest degree overtake you, beware of transgression. Sin after sin is the usual consequence of anger; and among the first sins which arise from anger are sins of the tongue. The irritated mind unburdens itself in passionate language. When the heart glows with resentment, heat and vehemence of language betray the inward flame. The tongue of rage blazes fiercer and fiercer; and abstains from no injury towards man or towards God. Is this to be the disciple of the meek and holy Jesus? Is this to imitate Him who, when He was reviled, reviled not again, etc.? Wily does the Almighty permit provocations to assail thee, but to prove thee, to know what is in thine heart, whether thou wilt keep His commandments or no; whether thou wilt obey the headlong impulse of wrath; or strive through the grace of thy God, and for the sake of pleasing Him, to remain unmoved? IV. Those sins of the tongue which owe their origin to vanity and pride. The boastful man speaketh of himself and seeketh his own glory. His heart is lifted up; his mouth uttereth proud things; he giveth not the honour unto God; he vaunteth himself against the Most High. Not unfrequently wickedness itself becomes his boast. He openly triumphs in the violence with which he has borne down an opponent. Solicitous in every circumstance of life to magnify himself, he speaks contemptuously and degradingly of others; and the more contemptuously and degradingly in proportion as he apprehends that they may be advantageously compared with him, or may stand in the way of his enterprises and projects. V. Censoriousness. Some persons are censorious through carelessness; some through selfishness; some through anger; some through malice; some through envy. According to the difference of the sources from which censoriousness springs, its guilt is more or less flagrant. But even when it arises from carelessness, deem it not a trifling sin. You are not careless concerning your own character, your own welfare. Are you not to love your neighbour as yourself? VI. Those sins of the lips which originate in a busy and meddling spirit; sins which, if not in themselves of a deeper hue than some which have already been mentioned, often prove more extensively destructive to the peace of society (Ecclesiastes 10:11; Proverbs 11:13; Proverbs 17:9; Proverbs 18:18; Proverbs 26:20; Leviticus 19:16; 1 Peter 4:15; 1 Thessalonians 4:11). VII. Those offences which fall under the general description of deceit. Of these the most prominent is open falsehood. The liar destroys the foundation of all confidence, whether in the public dealings of men one with another, or in the retirement of domestic life. The falsehood, however, of the lips frequently shows itself in the form of slander, which is but a more refined, and therefore more mischievous, mode of lying. What were the engines of sin by which ruin was brought upon mankind? An open falsehood and a disguised slander. As the imitators, the slaves, the children of the devil, all liars, whether they deal in open falsehood or in lurking slander, are objects of detestation to Almighty God (Proverbs 6:17; Proverbs 12:22; Revelation 21:8). VIII. Violations of modesty (Colossians 3:8; Ephesians 5:3-4). There is no sin which is more odious in its nature, more expressive of a depraved and polluted heart. Christ hath called you unto holiness. You are required to be holy, as He was holy; pure, as He was pure. IX. Profaneness. This sin comprehends every irreverent expression concerning the Deity, His titles, His attributes, His providence, His revelation, His judgments. (T. Gisborne, M. A.) Psalms 141:5 Let the righteous . . . reprove me.The reproof of the righteous I. The character of one who is qualified to give reproof.1. One whose life is habitually consistent with his profession.2. One who is influenced by proper motives. (1) Aversion to sin.(2) Love to those whom he reproves.(3) Concern for the happiness and honour of a Christian brother.(4) Love to God and zeal for His glory. II. The manner in which reproof should be received, and the effect it should produce.1. The manner. (1) It must be esteemed a kindness.(2) We must be willing to part with every sin.(3) We must be truly humble. 2. The effect. (1) It brings to repentance.(2) It raises the reputation. III. The manner in which we should requite those who reprove us. As sanctified reproof constrains us to pray for ourselves it will dispose us to pray for reprovers. A spirit of prayer is never a selfish spirit; it embraces all mankind, and enables us to offer fervent supplications in behalf of our enemies; much more will it dispose us to pray for those whom we love, and to whom we are indebted for acts of kindness. (Essex Remembrancer.) Advantages of Christian reproof I. The obligation to this duty (Leviticus 19:17; Proverbs 9:8; Proverbs 24:15; Luke 17:3; 1 Timothy 5:20; 2 Timothy 4:2). III. The character of those who are to administer reproof to others. “ Let the righteous smite me.” Let the sincere, humble, constant Christian, who is blameless and harmless, the child of God, without rebuke, let him administer reproof. Let the conscientious man, who endeavours to keep himself always in the love of God, who is a pattern of righteousness and peace, reprove and rebuke others. This is Christian reproof, and has the weight which God designed it to have. III. The spirit is which it is to be administered.1. It must be in the spirit of true Christian meekness. (1) Mingled with a sincere and tender compassion for the offender there must be a humbling conviction of our own frailty and liability to sin, and while we reprove him we must cherish a holy fear of falling ourselves. (2) All harshness, abruptness, overbearing and censoriousness are utterly opposed to the spirit in which Christian rebuke is to be administered. 2. It must be administered in a spirit of real kindness and brotherly love for the individual reproved, and with a sincere desire to do him good. 3. It is to be administered in a spirit of firmness and fidelity. This is not inconsistent with Christian meekness and gentleness, nor with fraternal kindness and tender benevolent desire to do our offending brother goad. IV. The happy effects to be realized.1. It will free the Christian who performs this duty from being partaker of other men’ s sins, and will give him a peace of conscience which he cannot otherwise enjoy. 2. It is often the means of breaking the spell and delusions of sin on a brother’ s mind which have withstood all other influences. 3. It will prevent the evil of talebearing and backbiting. 4. It will promote amongst Christians a spirit of brotherly love and prayerfulness for each other. (D. L. Carroll, D. D.) How we may bring our hearts to bear reproofs I. How reproofs may be duly received.1. It is desirable on many accounts that he who reproves us be himself a righteous person, and be of us esteemed so to be; for as such an one alone will or can have a due sense of the evil reproved, with a right principle and end in the discharge of his own duty, so the minds of them that are reproved are, by their sense of his integrity, excluded from those insinuations of evasions which prejudices and suggestions of just causes of reflections on their reprover will offer unto them. Especially, without the exercise of singular wisdom and humility, will all the advantages of a just reproof be lost where the allowed practice of greater sins and evils than that reproved is daily chargeable on the reprover. 2. The nature of a reproof is either-- (1) Authoritative. (a) Ministerial. (b) Parental. (c) Despotical. (2) Or fraternal.(3) Or friendly. 3. The matter of a reproof is duly to be weighed by him who designs any benefit thereby. II. Why we ought to receive reproofs orderly or regularly given unto us, esteeming them a singular privilege.1. Mutual reproofs for the curing of evil and preventing of danger in one another are prime dictates of the law of nature and that obligation which our participation in the same being, offspring, original, and end, to seek the good of each other, doth lay upon us. 2. Whereas the light of nature is variously obscured and its directive power debilitated in us, God hath renewed on us an obligation unto this duty by particular institutions, both under the Old Testament and the New. 3. A due consideration of the use, benefit, and advantage of them will give them a ready admission into our minds and affections. Who knows how many souls that are now at rest with God have been prevented by reproofs, as the outward means, from going down into the pit? Unto how many have they been an occasion of conversion and sincere turning unto God! III. What considerations may further us in their due improvement.1. If there be not open evidence onto the contrary, it is our duty to judge that every reproof is given us in a way of duty. This will take off offence with respect unto the reprover, which, unjustly taken, is an assured entrance into a way of losing all benefit and advantage by the reproof. 2. Take heed of cherishing habitually such disorders, vices, and distempers of mind as are contrary unto this duty and will frustrate the design of it. Such are-- (1) Hastiness of spirit. (2) Pride and haughtiness of mind. 3. Reckon assuredly that a fault, a miscarriage which any one is duly reproved for, if the reproof be not received and improved as it ought, is not only aggravated, but accumulated with a new crime, and marked with a dangerous token of an incurable evil (Proverbs 29:1). 4. It is useful unto the same end immediately to compare the reproof with the word of truth. This is the measure, standard, and directory of all duties, whereunto in all dubious cases we should immediately retreat for advice and counsel. 5. The best way to keep our souls in a readiness rightly to receive, and duly to reprove such reproofs, as may regularly be given us by any, is to keep and preserve our souls and spirits in a constant awe and reverence of the reproofs of God, which are recorded in His Word. 6. We shall fail in this duty unless we are always accompanied with a deep sense of our frailty, weakness, readiness to halt, or miscarry, and thereon a necessity of all the ordinances and visitations of God, which are designed to preserve our souls. (J. Owen, D. D.) A wise reprover Mr. John Wesley, having to travel some distance in a stage coach, fell in with a pleasant-tempered, well-informed officer. His conversation was sprightly and entertaining, but frequently mingled with oaths. When they were about to take the next stage, Mr. Wesley took the officer aside, and, after expressing the pleasure he had enjoyed in his company, told him he was thereby encouraged to ask of him a very great favour. “ I would take a pleasure in obliging you,” said the officer, “ and I am sure you will not make an unreasonable request.” “ Then,” said Mr. Wesley, “ as we have to travel together some time, I beg that, if I should so far forget myself as to swear, you will kindly reprove me.” The officer immediately saw the motive, and felt the force of the request, and, with a smile, said, “ None but Mr. Wesley could have conceived a reproof in such a manner.” (Weekly Pulpit.) For yet my prayer also shall be in their calamities.--Intercessory prayer Passage difficult, but we take the meaning of our Authorized Version, and would speak-- I. Of the duty of intercession for the people of God.1. Take as our first key-note the word obligation. The new nature in us teaches us this as does the law of the elect household. And our membership of the body of Christ, and our obligation to the intercession of others, urge this. 2. Honour. It is this to be permitted to pray for the saints, for so we are brought into close fellowship with Christ. Especially when we think what we once were--beggars for ourselves at mercy’ s door. Avail yourselves of this honour. 3. Excellence. Such intercession benefits those who use it, for it will suggest go you to know your brethren, and will bring love with it; and will lead you to kinder judgments, and to self-watchfulness. Have we not cause to be ashamed on account of our neglect of this duty? 4. Extent. He would pray for those who had displeased him; who had said, perhaps, severe things to him. And especially when they were in trouble. Men of the world leave their companions when they get into trouble as the herd leave the wounded deer. But we should stand by such. II. For sinners also we should intercede. It is the most essential thing we can do. We cannot change their hearts. Such prayer will fit you to become God’ s instrument, and will make you go to work hopefully. It is a very horrible thing to think of persons being buried alive, put underground by their friends in their coffins while yet there was breath in their bodies. Let us mind that we never bury a soul alive; I am afraid we are in the habit of doing it. We judge of such an one that he will never be converted, all effort would be useless. But we have no right thus to seal a soul’ s death-warrant or to limit the grace of God. In this prayer all can aid. Some things many of you cannot do, but this all can. And especially when sinners come into calamities. We may win them then. Let us all intercede more. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Psalms 141:7-8 Our bones are scattered at the grave’ s mouth.The scattered bones and the uplifted look The text presents in a very vivid way an aspect of death most familiar, but most striking, and it also expresses the thoughts and the earnest prayer that rise in a soul at such a sight. You have walked in an old graveyard and seen the bones scattered at the grave’ s mouth. There are few whom this sight does not make to think. You remember Hamlet in the graveyard with the skull of Yorick, the king’ s jester. What a pathos and tenderness are there. With that text in his hand, how touchingly he discourses on our poor fleeting human life. “ The flashes of merriment that set the table in a roar” --“ the infinite jest” --all come to this. The bones that were so carefully nurtured, that cost so much, are knocked and tossed about and thrown into a heap. Every man who contemplates such a spectacle--bones strewn about as if they were but chips and sticks where men had been chopping wood, must either go away with a dangerous sense of the vanity and worthlessness of human life, or with a spirit made intense, and raised in prayer to the infinite God. I. Our union wits past generations and the intense reality of our present life. Observe the use of the word “ our.” He looks at the bones and speaks as if they were partly his own, as if they belonged partly to living men. He identifies himself with those past generations. This human life that we are living now is not a new thing. It is old, very old. I understand all the struggles and wide experience of the past, for it is all in me. That history is mine. It seems as if I had lived then and been a part of all this. It is good for us go look back over the past and feel our identity with our race. It makes us humble. It makes us tender and kindly. It fills us with compassion for the human family. We are ashamed at times and vexed and grieved; but we are also elevated and enlarged as we look back over the generations that are gone. They are gone, and how fleeting they have all been. It is like a dream to think of all these past generations of men. Their existence seems a shadow. But let us not think our present life shadowy. No; that is not the lesson which the writer of the psalm learnt from the scattered bones. He learnt intensity. “ But mine eyes are toward Thee, O God the Lord. In Thee is my trust. Leave not my soul destitute.” Life is new and momentous to us. It is as momentous as if it had never been lived before and would never be lived again. When you think steadily of God, it seems as if there were none but God and you standing over against each other. The man who keeps his eyes directed toward God feels life new and fresh, although the bones of many generations are scattered around him. II. In the text we see the littleness and the greatness of man.1. The scattered bones proclaim the littleness of man. These are the remains of thinkers, poets, kings, lovers of men, great inventors, famous disputers. 2. Yet, when I think of man in his weakness turning his eyes to the infinite God; when I reflect that man can think of a boundless and perfect One, that man looks to Him, that he has an eye that sees the invisible God: that he claims the society of the Maker of all worlds, and is restless till he finds it; when I reflect on man as putting his trust in the living God amidst all the mysteries of time; when I think of man standing over the grave where his dearest ones lie, where the ruins of his hopes are, and saying there, “ I believe in God; I trust in God; He will not leave my soul destitute” ; then I see the greatness of man. III. A melancholy prospect and a rising above it.1. The prospect before us all is this: by and by our bones will be scattered about the grave’ s mouth. By and by you are forgotten, and the white relics that are thrown up by the shovel of the grave-digger are quite unknown. They have no name. Does it not seem like a horrid dream that we should be all coming to this? Surely it cannot be true. We all know too well that it is true and no dream. 2. There is just one remedy, one antidote, one means of conquering all thoughts of this kind; and the text presents it. “ Mine eyes are unto Thee, O God the Lord.” I see a glorious Being, infinite, eternal, everywhere present, absolute love and truth and holiness. The fact that I can think of this Being of itself inspires hope and courage. It cannot be that the eyes that look to Him can moulder into dust. Eyes that cannot but look to Him are not doomed to grow dim. He Himself has invited me to look to Him, and the sight of His face gives me joy. (J. Leckie, D. D.) Mine eyes are unto Thee, O God.-- Eyes steadfastly fixed on God The determination to do a certain thing involves the possibility and sometimes the probability of not doing it. The regal faculty of will controls the use of other faculties, which may be exercised in different ways and in different degrees according to its resolve. The desires and aspirations of the soul, like the organs of the body, may be employed in this direction or in that, and of all created beings on earth man has most freedom. Some creatures have eyes adapted for a use which is special and limited. The beast or bird of prey, for example, has for the pupil of its eye a vertical slit, in order that it may look up and down for its victims. The ruminants--oxen, horses, and the like--have a horizontal slit, in order that without special effort they may look for the succulent grass which spreads on each side of them in a fertile meadow. But we have circular pupils--in other words, we have no bias in one direction more than in another, and thus even in these lower capacities God gives us a hint of our responsibility for choice and of our power of will which makes our life a moral probation. Hence you may resolve as the psalmist did, “ I will look up,” or you may not so resolve. (A. Rowland, B. A.) . Psalms 142:1-7 Psalms 142:1-7I cried unto the Lord with my voice.Religion in the trials of life: - I. The trials here represented. He speaks of himself as--1. Overwhelmed (verse 3).2. Walking in snares (verse 3).3. Destitute of friends (verse 4).4. Greatly reduced (verse 6). 5. Greatly persecuted (verse 6).6. Imprisoned (verse 7). Ignorance, poverty, affliction, all these imprison. II. The religion here displayed.1. Religion manifesting itself in prayer to God. A practical realization of our dependence on our Maker is true prayer, and this is the essence of religion. Prayer is not language, but life: it is the soul turned ever to the Almighty, as the flower to the sun, as the river to the sea. 2. Religion manifesting itself in practical confidence in God. (1) Confidence in His personal superintendence. “ Thou knowest;” not merely the path of material universes and spiritual hierarchies, but “ my path.”(2) Confidence in His protection (verse 5). (1) “ My refuge.” What a refuge, vaster than the universe, strong as Omnipotence.(2) “ My portion.” Everything without Him is nothing worth, nothing with Him is everything, satisfying, glorious. 3. Religion manifesting itself in unbounded trust in His goodness (verse 7). (Homilist.) David’ s prayer in the cave “ A prayer when he was in the cave.” The caves have heard the best prayers. Some birds sing best in cages. I have heard that some of God’ s people shine brightest in the dark. There is many an heir of heaven who never prays so well as when he is driven by necessity to pray. I. The condition of a soul under a deep sense of sin. A little while ago you were out in the open field of the world, sinning with a high hand, plucking the flowers which grow in those poisoned vales, and enjoying their deadly perfume. To-night you feel like one who has come out of the bright sunshine and balmy air into a dark, noisome cavern, where you can see but little, where there is no comfort, and where there appears to you to be no hope of escape.1. Well, now, your first business should be to appeal unto God. Get to your knees, you who feel yourselves guilty; get to your knees, if your hearts are sighing on account of sin. 2. Make a full confession unto the Lord. 3. Acknowledge to God that there is no hope for you but in His mercy. In the cave of your doubts and fears, with the clinging damp of your despair about you, chilled and numbed by the dread of the wrath to come, yet venture to make God in Christ your sole confidence, and you shall yet have perfect peace. 4. Then, further, if you are still in the cave of doubt and sin, venture to plead with God to set you free. You cannot present a better prayer than this one of David’ s (verse 7). My old friend, Dr. Alexander Fletcher, seems to rise before me now, for I remember hearing him say to the children that, when men came out of prison, they did praise him who had set them free. He said that he was going down the Old Bailey one day, and he saw a boy standing on his head, turning Catherine wheels, dancing hornpipes, and jumping about in all manner of ways, and he said to him, “ What are you at? You seem to be tremendously happy” ; and the boy replied, “ Ah, old gentlemen, if you had been locked up six months, and had just got out, you would be happy, tool” I have no doubt that is very true. When a soul gets out of a far worse prison than there ever was at Newgate, then he must praise “ free grace and dying love,” and “ ring those charming bells” again, and again, and again, and make his whole life musical with the praise of the emancipating Christ. II. The condition of a persecuted believer. Here is a godly man who works in a factory, or a Christian girl who is occupied in book-folding, or-some other work where there is a large number employed; such persons will have a sad tale to tell of now they have been hunted about, ridiculed, and scoffed at by ungodly companions. Now you are in the cave.1. It may be that you are in the condition described here; you hardly know what to do. You are as David was when he wrote ver. 3. You are like a lamb in the midst of wolves; you know not which way to turn. Well, then, say to the Lord, as David did, “ When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, then Thou knewest my path.” Have confidence that, when you know not what to do, He can and will direct your way if you trust Him. 2. In addition to that, it may be that you are greatly tempted. David said, “ They privily laid a snare for me.” It is often so with young men in a warehouse, or with a number of clerks in an establishment. Young Christian soldiers often have a very rough time of it in the barracks; but I hope that they will prove themselves true soldiers, and not yield an inch to those who would lead them astray. 3. It will be very painful if, in addition to that, your friends turn against you. David said, “ There was no man that would know me.” Is it so with you? Are your father and mother against you? Cultivate great love to those who, having come into the army of Christ, are much beset by adversaries. They are in the cave. Do not disown them; they are trying to do their best; stand side by Side with them. 4. It may be that the worst point about you is that you feel very feeble. You say, “ I should not mind the persecution if I felt strong; but I am so feeble.” Well, now, always distinguish between feeling strong and being strong. The man who feels strong is weak; the man who feels weak is the man who is strong. III. The condition of a believer who is being prepared for greater honour and wider service. Is it not a curious thing that, whenever God means to make a man great, He always breaks him in pieces first? David was to be king over all Israel. What was the way to Jerusalem for David? What was the way to the throne? Well, it was round by the cave of Adullam, He must go there and be an outlaw and an outcast, for that was the way by which he would be made king. Have none of you ever noticed, in your own lives, that whenever God is going to give you an enlargement, and bring you out to a larger sphere of service, or a higher platform of spiritual life, you always get thrown down? Why is that?1. If God would make you greatly useful, He must teach you how to pray. 2. The man whom God would greatly honour must always believe in God when he is at his wit’ s end (verse 3). Oh, it is easy to trust when you can trust yourself; but when you cannot trust yourself, when you are dead beat, when your spirit sinks below zero in the chili of utter despair, then is the time to trust in God. If that is your case, you have the marks of a man who can lead God’ s people, and be a comforter of others. 3. In order to greater usefulness many a man of God must be taught to stand quite alone (verse 4). 4. The man whom God will bless must be the man who delights in God alone (verse 5). Oh, to have God as our refuge, and to make God our portion! 5. He whom God would use must be taught sympathy with God’ s poor people (verse 6). If the Lord means to bless you, and to make you very useful in His Church, depend upon it He will try you. 6. If God means to use you, you must get to be full of praise (verse 7). If thou art of a cheerful spirit, glad in the Lord, and joyous after all thy trials and afflictions, and if thou dost but rejoice the more because thou hast been brought so low, then God is making something of thee, and He will yet use thee to lead His people to greater works of grace. (C. H. Spurgeon.) David’ s prayer in the cave Life and liberty are sweet; but we may pay too dear a price even for the sweetest things. David is now at liberty; he has escaped out of the prison-house of Gath; but he has made his escape and obtained his liberty at much too great a price. For years past the name of Gath had been the proudest name that David’ s flatterers could speak in his willing ears. But after his disgraceful escape from that city to David’ s old age, it brought a cloud to his brow and a blush to his cheek to hear the name of Gath. We all have our Gaths. There are people and there are places in our own past life the very name of which, the very neighbourhood of which, throws a bolt into conscience and brings a blush upon the cheek. If we purchase a name, or a place, or an office, or wealth, or even a home, if we purchase any of them at the cost of truth or of justice, or of honour, or self-respect, or fair play to our competitor, we will find, when it is too late, that we have sold ourselves for naught, and have poisoned the very wells of life. So David discovered it to be when, for his liberty, he degraded himself in Gath, deceived Achish, and was hurried out of the land and escaped--a free, indeed, but a dishonoured man--to the Cave of Adullam. But then, it is out of such degradation and shame that weak and evil men rise on stepping-stones of their own transgressions to true honour and wisdom, to stable godliness and exercised virtue. “ I will take sentry myself to-night,” said David to his captains one Sabbath evening. Wrapping around him the cloak that Michal had worked for him in happier days, and taking in his hand Goliath’ s sword, David paced the rocky shelves, and poured out his full heart to God all that Sabbath night. All in the great cave did not sleep, or all at once; and it was nights like these--when their captain shared their dangers and assured their fears, as they heard his step and listened to his deep sweet voice--it was nights like these that did more to turn the rough and ill-used men into heroes and saints than all their sufferings and all their other discipline. David says: “ I cried that night unto the Lord with my voice; with my voice unto the Lord did I make my supplication.” I went out alone, and “ I poured out my complaint before Him,” and “ I showed Him” that night all “ my trouble.” We are never content. What would we have given for a full report of all that David said about himself and his cause to God that night? We are thankful for this dramatic 142nd psalm; but it would have been a grand piece of devotional literature, aye, of national history, had we had all that David said to God that sentinel night; but what he did say was not fitted or intended for any human ear. We know that from ourselves, from our own sentinel Sabbaths. We too have troubles and complaints that our ministers do not touch upon in all their most searching Sabbath Day exercises, any more than God touched upon David’ s here in the cave. But David seems only to have one “ complaint,” and yet it was so blessed to him that it compelled him to spend the hours of the night alone with God, Keep your complaints for God, my afflicted brethren; keep your complaints for God, and for the silence of the night. No one will listen to your trouble but God; no one has time, no one has attention to give to your sorrow but God. You will only expose yourself, and weaken yourself, and humble yourself, if you take your complaints to preoccupied men. Like David, some of you may to-night be labouring and anxious under some complaint against your master, or against some of your relatives; or some of you may have received an insulting, threatening, blackmailing letter, like Hezekiah. I do not say you are not to show that letter to a lawyer; but you must show it first to God, and then, if possible, to a lawyer who knows God. Send all your house to bed to-night before you answer that letter, and again show it to God in the morning before you post it. “ I poured out my complaint before God; I showed Him all my trouble. When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, then Thou knewest my path.” “ The Lord,” says Newton, “ is not withdrawn to a great distance from you, His eye is upon you all the time, He sees your case, and does not behold it with indifference, but observes it with attention. He knows and considers your path, and not only so, but He appointed it and all the outs and ins of it. Your trouble began at the hour He appointed; it could not begin before, and He has marked the degree of it to a hair’ s breadth, and its duration to a moment. He knows, likewise, just how your spirit is affected to-night under the trouble, and He will supply you, if you will take it--He will supply grace and strength in due season, and as He sees they are needful. Therefore, hope in God; for you, like David, shall yet praise Him.” To be imprisoned by God was better to David than to be set free by man. In David’ s best moments, as sometimes when sentinel in Adullam, David felt that God’ s prison-house was a very hermitage, sanctuary, a grand pavilion, as he signifies elsewhere, into which God takes the soul to show it His “ marvellous lovingkindness.” David had broken out of God’ s prison in Gath before the time, but he has never ceased to repent of that insane act. And if at any time he felt the banishment of Adullam--and he had a thousand thoughts during these lonely hours--he soon recollected who held the keys; and, though the door had been opened, he would not have escaped. God Himself conspicuously delivered David henceforth. God is David’ s jailor, and whatever time David feels his close detention, he betakes himself anew, in all his guilt, and lies, and playing the madman and the fool to earnest, believing, and waiting prayer: “ Bring my soul out of prison that I may praise Thy name” ; and then, as the new day broke in the east, and the shades of the night fled away, the day-star of hope arose in David’ s heart, and the present prayer seems almost to be prophetic. He foresaw the Lord not only as his refuge in every future time of trouble, but also as his alone “ portion in the land of the living” ; he saw himself set free from every prison and from every persecutor, with his “ righteousness brought forth as the light, and his judgment as the noonday.” “ Bring my soul out of prison” was his last word to God, as the day broke in the east, “ that I may praise Thy name: the righteous shall compass me about; for Thou shalt deal bountifully with me.” And how well was that hope fulfilled to David, how bountifully did God deal with David, and how hath the righteous compassed David about, as rapt listeners compass round the sweetest music, as rejoicing fellow-worshippers compass round a miracle of Divine grace. “ There was no man that would know me,” complained David in the day of his deep dejection. But all men whose knowledge is worth the having know David now. All righteous men compass him about now, and rejoice over him that his God, and their God, brought “ his soul out of prison,” and dealt so bountifully with him. (A. Whyte, D. D.) Psalms 142:3 When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, then Thou knewest my path. Affliction and consolation I. The dejection which he felt.1. A painful consciousness of past guilt.2. An oppressive endurance of present trouble.3. A keen anticipation of future ills. II. The refuge that he sought. “ Then Thou knewest my path.” It supposes that God was consulted about his path, that the case was distinctly brought before God in prayer, and that the case was one which would bear to be submitted to the Divine inspection. III. The mercy that he found. God did bring his soul out of prison. Every wish was accomplished (Psalms 18:1-50.).1. By the kindness of friends (1 Samuel 23:16).2. By promises of His Word.3. By events in Providence.4. By consolations of His Spirit.5. By translating from earth to heaven. (S. Thodey.) A memorial of past troubles I. A humble appeal. “ Thou knewest my path,” --Thou knewest that my cause was just, and the steps which I took for obtaining redress were holy.1. The path of prayer (verse 1). 2. The way of faith,--choosing God for his portion, trusting Him as his refuge, expecting bountiful treatment at His hands (verses 5, 7). Without this choice of God as our portion, and confidence in Him, prayer is mere selfishness, and has nothing to distinguish it from the cries of the lost. II. A contrite confession. Thou knewest how impatient I was even when professing meek submission. I could bear the great trial of Saul’ s persecution, but not the lighter one of Nabal’ s churlish insolence. Thou knewest the crookedness of my path, when by false pretences I evaded an enemy and deceived a friend; using sinful artifice where I should have relied in truth upon the God of truth. III. A thankful acknowledgment of the Lord’ s gracious conduct towards David when his spirit was overwhelmed. “ Then Thou knewest my path:” Thou didst approve my course; and therefore didst support and comfort me under my trials. But how much greater occasion has the believer in Christ to make this thankful acknowledgment! Conclusion--1. Let the children of God lay their account for sufferings and sorrows here below: heavy sorrows and dreadful sufferings, it may be. Such things are appointed for us, because needful, as is the furnace to separate the dross from the pure ore. 2. All trouble should lead us to God--not from Him. There is in the blessed God health and cure for all diseases of the mind; balm in Gilead, and a never-failing Physician there. 3. Let us all cherish the thought that God knows our path; in the fullest sense of the words knows our every step. To the sincere Christian, to the upright soul this truth is full of comfort. (C. Hodgson, M. A.) In the way where I walked have they privily laid a snare for me.--The dangers of youth I see before me a class of young men about to go forth into the world. I know their way will be strewed with dangers. By all the love I bear them I am constrained to point out to them some of their perils. I. The dangers of youth.1. A- general exposedness to temptation. Full of passions easily excited, and warm as the current of their youthful blood; led on by an imagination as active as their youthful limbs and mostly unchecked by experience,--forming images which are constantly mistaken for realities,--which inflame and mislead the passions and bewilder the judgment; set down as strangers in the midst of a world whose objects and inhabitants present destructive blandishments to their inexperience,-whose beauties and amusements, in the absence of the love of God, are fat, ally adapted to their youthful tastes; how can they escape? at least, how dreadfully exposed are they. 2. Under all these exposures they are constantly forming habits, as uncontrollable and despotic as an Eastern sultan, and harder to be dethroned. Through inexperience and incaution, and the impetuosity of their youthful passions, they are liable to become petrified in evil habits, as fixed as the coral reefs of the ocean. 3. Young men, as they enter into business, are in danger of settling down into the love of the world, into views and aims confined to themselves and their own circle, separating them from the great republic of man, and keeping them from employing their powers and their property in promoting the happiness of the human family. 4. Another danger to which young men are exposed is indolence in action; betaking themselves to no profession, or pursuing it saunteringly, unsteadily, and to little effect; wasting life in idleness or in pleasure; in either case enervating the man in both body and soul, and making him a burden to himself and a disgraceful cumberer of the ground. 5. Young men are exposed to theological errors of every form and every degree of criminality and danger, from the slightest obliquity respecting a positive institution, up to blaspheming infidelity. II. The defences to be set up against them.1. In regard to the last-mentioned danger my advice to you is, first of all, settle your minds on the question whether the Bible is a revelation from God, and such a revelation as will guide believers into all truth unmixed with error; in order that your faith may rest on the testimony of God and not on the authority of men, you ought to find the fullest evidence that God has spoken, and spoken in a way to furnish a safe and sure rule of faith and practice. All this being settled in the affirmative, you ought to lose no time in grounding yourselves on a system of doctrines drawn from the obvious meaning of that book, supported by the general analogy of faith. Subject your reason to the Divine teachings. Put it to school to Christ as a humble pupil. 2. Avoid all kinds of professional business arid all occasions which are specifically fraught with temptation. 3. Avoid all connections with bad men, and, as far as possible, with men whose influence would tend to warp you from the truth, or from a correct course of judging or of acting. 4. Vigilantly guard against the beginning of every evil habit, in heart, intellect, or conduct. By watchfulness it is easy to prevent the first irregularity; but who can vanquish an evil habit? 5. Let your reading be safe. Not many novels, not u perpetual round of angry politics, not a constant poring upon theological errors. 6. Let it be a settled rule to make some advance in knowledge every day, and every day to bring to pass something for the good of mankind. 7. Establish the settled habit of prayer. Without prayer you have no security against one of these dangers. Without Christ you can do nothing. These rules you will find it hard to keep with a fallen nature, and impossible unless you observe another; which leads me to say-- 8. That in the outset you must devote your hearts and souls and lives to the service of God. Without doing this you will not pray effectually, and of course will have no security against one of these dangers. Without this you will be the enemies of God: and what security against any evil can an enemy of God Have in a world which He governs? (E. D. Griffin, D. D.) Hidden snares Recently it was announced, as one of the latest discoveries, that a kind of telescope had been constructed which would enable any one looking through it to see far away down into quiet seas, and gaze on the wrecked and sunken ships that lie there. If only we had such an instrument in the spirit realm which we could put into the hands of men and women infatuated with sin, and so show them the moral wrecks of even last year! What a gift for a young man or woman as a permanent warning against the perils of life--the opening of their eyes to the devices of the destroyer! (H. O. Mackey.) Psalms 142:4 No man cared for my soul God’ s care for each life With normal natures happiness begins with the thought that God has time to care for each life. In a world where no grain of sand escapes Nature’ s notice, where there are no runaway stars or suns, where a Divine Ruler leads a beautiful world out of darkness, fire-mist, and chaos, man cannot support the thought that there is no place for him in God’ s loving providence. So momentous are those events named a betrothal, a marriage, the death of babe, or mother, or statesman, that men wish to associate them with a Divine Friend. Indeed, the most bitter cry that ever arises from human lips is this one: “ No man cared for my soul.” In a world full of conflict, full of labour, whose fruitage is often sorrow, man fulfils his journey across the wilderness towards the promised land, supported by the thought that the angels of God’ s providence go before him. Standing under the midnight sky, looking into the realm where stars twinkled and suns blazed, Job found it easy to believe that man moves forward under the convoy of an intimate Friend. From the thought that the millions of orbs making up the community of the sky are Divinely controlled, the mind passes easily to the larger thought that God is carrying individual men and nations upward toward a sublime culmination. But if the scholar finds a unifying power in the heavens, the historian finds a providence in the history of nations, in that each country has its special task, each generation its own contribution. For multitudes this great truth of God’ s overruling cars has been eclipsed by reason of the vastness of the universe. At one time the East stood close beside the West. Now the telescope has crowded back the horizon. In Newton’ s day the sun was known to be ninety millions of miles away. To-day, in comparison, the distance to the fixed stars, the distance to our sun is like the distance to the threshold of one’ s next door neighbour. Science has enlarged the universe in space, but it has enlarged the soul of man a thousandfold more. The new science has caused the mind to rise up, clothed with infinite majesty and beauty. Earth knows only one thing vast enough and precious enough to justify an overruling providence and care--the human soul. Can a human mind shape the innumerable threads into one beautiful whole, and the infinite God be unable to control fifteen hundred millions of men, leading them toward one great purpose of happiness and righteousness? The laws of light and heat, the laws of gravity and soil are so delicately related as to encourage the thought that all the mechanism of the starry world is arranged for the embroidering of violets upon the lap of spring. The vastness of Nature does but enlarge the scope of God’ s providential purpose. The thought, God cares for man, has also suffered injury through the over-emphasis of the reign of law. Science exhibits man as moving forward enmeshed in laws of heat and light and gravity. By law the winter recedes, by law the summer advances, by law the harvests are ripened, by law the clouds are lifted, by law the rivers are filled. Soon men began to spell the word Law with a capital “ L,” and Force with a capital “ F.” Gently law and force led the Infinite Being to the edge of the universe, and bowed Him out of existence. Men decided that law could build the world if it was spelled with large letters instead of small. But nothing could have been more foolish than this over-emphasis of law. Merchants do, indeed, have one law, by which the office opens at eight, and another law by which it is closed at six, but if some foolish person should think that these rules which the merchant has enacted have built up his trade so that it is no longer necessary to have a merchant or an inventor, and all the businesses get along by the rules and need no presiding mind, we should have that which would answer precisely with the amazing thought that the laws of nature have done away with the necessity of God. Man has certain habits that are the rules of his life. God’ s habits are Nature’ s laws. And but for their stability the universe would be without flexibility. Thus science, that once threatened to do away with Providence, has now, through the reign of law, established providence. For laws are flexible, not alone for God, but for man, who, through them, makes this world a fruitful and beautiful paradise. Now, for the individual life, how unspeakably precious this declaration of God’ s loving care! In hours of weakness, when baffled and beaten, when man perceives how vast is the sphere in which he is moving, how mighty are the forces whirling about him, he yearns for some power strong enough and wise enough to overrule events, and from defeat lead forth to victory. It is not enough that there is a providence over summer and winter, by which the barn and storehouse are made to overflow. In the midst of the fierce strife man cries out, “ No one cares for my soul.” Nature has no personal friends. On the battlefield a thousand men may lie in the orchards and thickets, weltering in their life blood, but the boughs heed not the prayers, the trees shed no tears. In the olden times, when the knight went into battle, he carried with him the name and face of his beloved one. One look upon that face armed him for his conflict. Dying, upon that face his last look fell. It is said that man’ s name is written upon God’ s hand. With the coming of each sun comes the loving providence, and after each day’ s going the great God remains. Happy is the man who feels that God cares for him, that he journeys forward under Divine convoy, that his Father is Regent of universal wisdom and represents the whole commonwealth of love, and commands all nature to serve His child. Such a man is weaponed against every enemy, and is invincible. He who ever carries with him this sense of God’ s loving providence is fitted to pass through fire, through flood, through all the thunder of life’ s battle. God cares for you--then you cannot live too long, and you cannot die too soon, for heaven ever lies all about you. God cares for man--then from every storm there is a harbour. (N. D. Hillis.) A bad social state I. A wrong social state. Each taken up with himself, and none concerned for his neighbours, is manifestly wrong.1. It is unnatural. The constitution of our nature,--endowed as we are with social longings and sympathies, and with faculties suited to render service one to another,--proves the unnaturalness of social indifference. What is morally abnormal is morally wrong. 2. It is unrelational. We are all the offspring of the same common Father, all united by the bonds of consanguinity. Indifference, therefore, is manifestly wrong. 3. It is un-Christian. Christ lived and died for our race, and His apostles exhorted us to care for others rather than ourselves. II. A miserable social state. Though there may be much in a man’ s temperament, character, and procedure to alienate him from others,--he may be unsocial, irascible, and grossly immoral,--all this does not justify his fellows for utterly disregarding him. In truth it forms a strong reason why they should be interested in him. (David Thomas, D. D.) The care of souls This psalm is the last one of eight which are, not unreasonably, associated with the persecution of David by Saul in the south country of Judah (see the heading). It was an anxious, lonely, wearisome time; all the harder to bear because David knew he was innocent of any evil intentions concerning the Lord’ s anointed. But it was, in some respects, a best time for David. Then there was a great crying after God. In his despondency, when everything seemed to be going wrong with him, David took up the idea that nobody really eared for him. And when a man gets into that mood and mind he is in grave danger of becoming reckless. If David had gone on to say, “ And even God does not care for me,” he would have become altogether desperate, and would have said, “ Then why should I care for myself? Why should I any longer try to be true, and good, and faithful? Why not let things go? Nobody cares for my soul.” By his “ soul” David would mean his bodily life; and the history tells us that, just matching the exclamation of this psalm, towards the end of the persecution spoken of, David bitterly and hopelessly exclaimed, “ I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul.” He was wrong in that. Some one did care for his soul, both in the lower sense of his “ life,” and in the higher sense of “ his spiritual welfare.” Taking the word “ soul” in its higher sense, there are many around us who may use the words of the text. I. Caring for souls is not the work of the world. Caring for one another in all the ranges of the material and the moral is the world’ s work. Our interest in each other as worldly men and women is limited to physical well-being, social comfort, educational progress, and moral goodness. Not until man is quickened himself with the higher spiritual life is he in the least likely to concern himself about the possibilities of the higher spiritual life for others. There is such a thing as seeking the welfare of the race. There have always been philanthropists moved by “ the enthusiasm of humanity.” But their efforts do not go beyond the removal of disabilities, and reformation of abuses, and uplifting in the social and intellectual planes. But man is no mere body with a material environment. God has “ breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.” Man has become a “ living soul.” He is a spirit, and we must find spirit forces if we would deal with his most real necessities. II. Caring for souls is the proper work of the Church. From the Church’ s point of view men are perishing; they are dying in their sins, and she, and she alone, has the evangel that can save the perishing and quicken the dead. The Church of Christ may do, and ought to do, all that the philanthropist would do; but it must do more. The Church exists to do just what its Divine Lord did, seek and save the lost. Its work is to devise and carry through schemes for the salvation of souls, and whatever form its agencies and efforts may take, this, and nothing less than this, must be at the heart of them. (Robert Tuck, B. A.) The reproachful outcry We are all sympathetic with physical disaster, but how little sympathy for spiritual woes! There are men in this house who have come to mid-life who have never yet been once personally accosted about their eternal welfare. I. Unsatisfied longings. You feel as you go out day by day in the tug and jostle of life that it is every man for himself. You can endure the pressure of commercial affairs, and would consider it almost impertinent for any one to ask you whether you are making or losing money. But there have been times when you would have drawn your cheque for thousands of dollars if some one would only help your soul out of its perplexities. There are questions about your higher destiny that ache, and distract, and agonize you at times. You sometimes think till your head aches about great religious subjects. You wonder if the Bible is true, how much of it is literal and how much is figurative law, if Christ be God, if there is anything like retribution, if you are immortal, if a resurrection will ever bake place, what the occupation of your departed kindred is, what you will be 10,000 years from now. With a cultured placidity of countenance you are on fire with agitations of soul. Oh, this solitary anxiety of your whole lifetime. You have passed up and down the aisles of churches with men who knew that you had no hope of heaven, and talked about the weather and about your physical health, and about everything but that concerning which you most wanted to hear them speak--viz. your everlasting spirit. Times without number you have felt in your heart, if you have not uttered it with your lips, “ No man cares for my soul.” II. Man’ s extremity. There have been times when you were especially pliable on the great subject of religion. It was so, for instance, after you had lost your property. Everything seems to be against you. The bank against you. Your creditors against you. Your friends suddenly become critical against you. All the past against you. All the future against you. You make reproachful outcry: “ No man cares for my scull” There was another occasion when all the doors of your heart swung open for sacred influences. A bright light went out in your household. Within three or four days there were compassed sickness, death obsequies. A few formal, perfunctory words of consolation were uttered on the stairs before you went to the grave; but you wanted some one to come and talk over the whole matter, and recite the alleviations, and decipher the lessons of the dark bereavement. No one came. Many a time you could not sleep until two or three o’ clock in the morning, and then your sleep was a troubled dream, in which were re-enacted all the scene of sickness, and parting, and dissolution. Oh, what days and nights they were! No man seemed to care for your soul. There was another occasion when your heart was very susceptible. There was a great awakening. There were hundreds of people who pressed into the Kingdom of God; some of them acquaintances, some business associates, yes, perhaps some members of your own family were baptized by sprinkling or immersion. Christian people thought of you, and they called at your store, but you were out on business. They stopped at your house; you had gone around to spend the evening. They sent a kindly message to you; somehow, by accident, you did not get it. The lifeboat of the Gospel swept through the surf, and everybody seemed to get in but you. Everything seemed to escape you. One touch of personal sympathy would have pushed you into the Kingdom of God. III. A startling revelation. Instead of this total indifference all about you in regard to your soul, I have to tell you that heaven, earth, and hell are after your immortal spirit--earth to cheat it, hell to destroy it, heaven to redeem it. Although you may be a stranger to the Christians in this house, their faces would glow and their hearts would bound if they saw you make one step heavenward. No one cares for your scull Why, in all the ages there have been men whose entire business was soul saving. In this work Munson went down under the knives of the cannibals whom he had come to save, and Robert McCheyne preached himself to death by thirty years of age, and John Bunyan was thrown into a dungeon in Bedfordshire, and Jehudi Ashman endured all the malarias of the African jungle; and there are hundreds and thousands of Christian men and women now who are praying, preaching, living, dying to save souls. IV. A stupendous intervention. No one cares for your scull Have you heard how Christ feels about it? I know it was only five or six miles from Bethlehem to Calvary, the birthplace and the deathplace of Christ; but who can tell how many miles it was from the throne to the manger? From the first infant step to the last step of manhood on the sharp spike of Calvary a journey for you. Oh, how He cared for your scull V. The Father’ s patience. A young man might as well go off from home and give his father and mother no intimation as to where he has gone, and, crossing the seas, sitting down in some foreign country, cold, sick, and hungry, and lonely, saying: “ My father and mother don’ t care anything about me.” Do not care anything about him! Why, that father’ s hair has turned grey since his son went off. He has written to all the consuls in the foreign ports, asking about that son. Does not the mother care anything about him? He has broken her heart. She has never smiled since he went away. All day long, and almost all night, she keeps asking: “ Where is he? Where can he be?” Oh, do not his father and mother care for him? You go away from your heavenly Father, and you think He does not care for you because you will not even read the letters by which He invites you to come back, while all heaven is waiting, and waiting, and waiting for you to return. (T. De Witt Talmage.) The duty of caring for souls: - I. What it is to care for the souls of others.1. A deep and heartfelt conviction of its worth. The soul is spiritual in its nature, noble in its capacities, and eternal in its duration. 2. A deep and thorough sense of the danger to which it is exposed. 3. Tender solicitude for its welfare. 4. Zealous exertion for their salvation. II. On whom this duty devolves.1. On the heads of families. 2. On all the members of the Church. 3. Pre-eminently on ministers. III. The great evil of neglecting this duty.1. It is cruel. A man would be considered cruel who saw one of the “ beasts that perish” in danger, and did not attempt its rescue. He is cruel who, having it in his power to relieve the necessitous, or save the perishing, does not do it. But the cruelty of the man who, knowing the danger of souls, does not care for them, is beyond expression. 2. It is ungrateful. If others had not cared for us, we must have perished. 3. It is criminal. 4. It is fatal. Fatal to those who are perishing, and fatal to those who have a name to live; fatal to all genuine piety, fatal to all ardent love to the Saviour’ s cause, fatal to zealous exertions for ethers, but especially fatal to our own souls. (Sketches of Four Hundred Sermons.) A cry from the depths I. A striking testimony.1. Man has a soul. 2. Man’ s soul is of priceless worth (Matthew 16:26). 3. Man’ s soul requires to be cared for. It needs-- (1) Light (Proverbs 19:2; Hosea 4:6; John 3:16-21; 1 John 1:5-7).(2) Freedom (John 8:32; Romans 6:12-18; Psalms 119:32).(3) Holy nurture (John 6:51; Hebrews 6:1-2; 2 Peter 1:5-8).(4) Christian help and companionship (Ecclesiastes 4:9-10; Galatians 6:1-2; Romans 12:10; Hebrews 10:24-25; 1 Corinthians 12:12-26). II. A mournful complaint.1. Want of sympathy (Matthew 27:4; Psalms 69:20; Amos 1:11; Matthew 18:33; Ephesians 4:32). 2. Unbrotherly neglect (Deuteronomy 20:1-20; Deuteronomy 3:7; Genesis 4:9; Isaiah 58:7-12; Galatians 6:2; Exodus 3:18). 3. Heart-killing repulse. III. A heart-touching appeal.1. To man. Pity. Sympathy. Brotherly help (Acts 16:9). 2. To God. No one cries to God in vain. The poor may look to the rich in vain, but God is the helper of the poor (Psalms 10:14). (W. Forsyth, M. A.) Carelessness for the soul reproved: - I. How the soul is usually regarded.1. How many a child may say, “ My parents cared not for my soul. They were attentive to my body, and to my bodily health and preservation. They sought my temporal comfort; they got me bread to eat and raiment to put on. They felt for me when I lay sick upon my bed; they spared no trouble to do me service and to get me well again: but they cared not for my soul.” 2. How many a servant may say this? A servant is as capable of knowledge, of holiness, and of happiness as a master. “ God is no respecter of persons.” 3. How many a neighbour may say this. If a neighbour meet with some sad accident, or what we usually call a misfortune, what a concern do we all feel for him but who cares for his soul? who feels concerned for that? II. Why especially it should be cared for.1. Because it is the noblest part of the creation. It is in what regards the soul that “ man is but a little lower than the angels.” It is the soul that reasons, hopes, fears, recollects, anticipates. It is the soul that is imperishable: the body returns to the dust again; the spirit to Him who gave it. 2. On account of its vast capabilities. 3. Because of the price paid for its redemption--the blood of Christ. 4. Because if lost it will remain lost and unredeemed for ever. (W. Mudge.) Isolation of soul: - I. When this complaint may be made.1. When they are at a loss with respect to soul concerns, and have none to instruct them in difficulties nor advise them (Isaiah 41:28). 2. When they have wandered out of the way, and have none to reprove them. 3. When they are visited with affliction, either in their persons or families, and have none to pray with or for them. As secret, so social prayer is a duty; and intercession is a necessary part of both. 4. When they are under distress and anguish of mind, and have none to comfort them. II. Improvement.1. In passing this censure, let us take care that we be not mistaken. Let us not give way to groundless jealousies, or be suspicious of our friends without a cause. 2. If none care for our welfare, what a mercy is it that God has excited in us a care of our own souls; that we are not in that stupid, insensible state in which we once were, and perhaps continued for many years! If others neglect our souls, it should more and more awaken our serious concern and anxious solicitude about them. 3. What a still greater mercy it is that God cares for our souls. 4. In order to avoid the charge in our text, let us not fall into the contrary extreme; and whilst we are busily concerned about others’ souls, let us not neglect our own. (B. Beddome, M. A.) Caring for the souls of others If we think only of ourselves, of our own comfort, or convenience, or safety, our selfish-Hess is most inexcusable. It is not only vast regions, dark and dead, through the debasing influences of heathenism which beckon onward the philanthropist and the Christian to help, but there is an important work to be done at our very doors.1. Take the case of some poor child that you know of; a child left to the tender mercies of an ignorant, heartless parent; a child suffered to run at large without even the appearance of control. This neglected child might be brought to Sunday-school and church; might be taught to shun even petty dishonesty as a sin; might be kept from speaking the language of demons; might at least be shielded from the more alluring forms of temptation. 2. You are on friendly and familiar terms with many irreligious people, over whom you might easily exercise some influence for good. They visit often at your.houses, and you chat with them daily on the street. If all of us who claim to be Christians would show by our conduct that we really eared for the souls of those who are living unmindful of their obligations to God, our labour of love would be wonderfully blessed. 3. Even when people have become members of God’ s family, the Church, they need and long for the kindly sympathy of those who belong to the household of faith. 4. There are those who, having learned by sad experience the folly and wretchedness of a life of sin, would gladly return into better ways if they only knew how to accomplish it. (J. N. Norton, D. D.) Neglected souls Vedius Pollio was a wealthy and luxurious Roman patrician. In his magnificent villa at Puteoli there reclined one day at the epicure’ s sumptuous table, with many other distinguished guests, the Emperor Augustus. A slave, waiting upon the company, let fall a costly crystal vase, shattering it in fragments upon the mosaic pavement. Instantly the unfortunate wretch fell at the imperial feet, piteously pleading for his life. “ Why?” exclaimed the master of the world; “ what danger to thy life?” The trembling supplicant replied that he expected, according to his lord’ s custom in such cases, to be east into his fish-pond as food for his lampreys. A cloud of wrath darkened the monarch’ s brow; and, fixing his keen eye sternly upon his host, Augustus arose, seized a staff, and dashed to pieces all the crystal ware before him, in a terrific tone exclaiming--“ Know thou, O miscreant and murderer! that one human life is worth more than all the crystal vases in the world!” This must have happened while One was walking the hills and vales of Palestine, who, had He been present, might have told the haughty Roman of something far more valuable even than human life. He teaches us that the soul is worth more than the earth and all its material contents, and that there is nothing in all the Creator’ s visible works to be named as its approximate equivalent in value. In creation the body was first constructed, and then tenanted by the “ living.” The soul is the life of the body, and the body is the servant of the soul. The soul uses the body as its vehicle of thought and feeling, its means of communication with the outer world; while the body ministers to the soul with all its members and organs, bringing it intelligence from all quarters, and enlarging and multiplying its joys. This, then, is the primary excellence of the soul--its spirituality; to which we must add its splendid intellectual faculties, which render it so far superior to all mere animal existences, and capable of indefinite progress and improvement. Its powers of reasoning, comparing, combining, abstracting, analyzing, classifying, imagining the unseen, forecasting the future, recalling the past with all the vividness of present reality, creating for itself ideal scenes amidst which it moves as in a fairy realm--these are strictly human faculties in which it is approximated by no other order of creatures within the range of our observation. And to the growth of these faculties we can assign no limits, and none to the knowledge which the soul may acquire by their exercise. ‘ But far loftier than its intellectual are its moral capabilities and capacities. It has a living conscience, and is responsible to a divine law. There are voices within which proclaim its immortality. There are hopes and longings which reach into other worlds. There are instincts which earth cannot satisfy, and faculties which time cannot mature. Will Jehovah cut short the career of a creature capable of eternal progress? Does He delight in such abortive creations? Man is at present but in embryo, at best but in chrysalis, and death is only a change in the mode and the circumstances of his being. For this glorious truth we are indebted to the Holy Book. All Divine revelation proceeds upon the principle of man’ s admitted immortality. What wonder that God cares for it, Christ dies for it, angels watch over it, and demons strive to control its destin! And how ought you and I to estimate its value, tremble for its danger, labour for its rescue, and rejoice in its salvation! And what a fearful accusation against us is the voice of a world’ s sins and sorrows continually crying in the car of God--“ No man careth for my soul” ! May no accusing voice in judgment, no wail from the ranks of the reprobate and the ruined ever reach our ears--“ No man cared for my soul!” (J. Cross, D. D.) “ No man cared for my soul” What an amount of pathos is contained in this expression! How sad that any human being should ever have occasion to utter it! As long as any Christianity is left in the world, as long as common humanity even has not wholly deserted it, no one, we should think, would be so utterly forlorn as to be obliged to say, “ No man cared for my soul.” That the sensual and the worldly should not care for the souls of their brethren might not indeed surprise us; but that Christians should not is truly wonderful. If we feel it a duty to feed the hunger and clothe the nakedness of the body, much more should we endeavour to feed moral hunger. But there will be other voices heard on that day uttering expressions of gratitude to those who have cared for their souls; for the word spoken in season which determined the undecided will in favour of right; for the wise counsel, the pure precepts of love, the faithful rebuke, the cordial sympathy, the kind encouragement which have turned many to righteousness. They will say, “ We were without hope, and you gave it to us. We were living in godlessness and sin, and your affectionate warnings opened our eyes to the perils of our condition. You came to us in our doubts with cheerful encouragement, in our despair to lead us to look to God. You have taught us the true value of life; you have set us in the right way. Others have done much for our outward prosperity, and we thank them; but you have made our souls alive, and you are the greatest of our benefactors.” Why, then, do we not have more care for souls? It is partly because the god of this world has blinded our hearts; because, not being spiritual, we do not feel the reality of spiritual things; because we do not feel the infinite value of souls, the terrible evil of sin; because we have not faith in ourselves, in our own power of doing good by anything we can say; because we have not faith that God will help us to say what we ought; and because, moreover, we sometimes say as Cain did, “ Am I my brother’ s keeper?” though in a different spirit from that in which he said it. We carry independence in religion too far, till it becomes mere individualism; and we neglect the great law of love, which binds soul to soul, and ordains that no man liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself. There is still another feeling which prevents us from direct attempts to help each other’ s soul,--the feeling that more can be done indirectly than directly; that we can do more for others by the influence of a good life and good example than by direct exhortation or advice. There is, indeed, great weight in this consideration. Certainly one way, and perhaps the most important way, in which we can help the souls of others is by manifesting good principles, living convictions, faithfulness to right, a tender and loving humanity in our own lives. Yet I cannot but think that direct influence might often with advantage be added to indirect; and that, without urging upon reluctant minds spiritual considerations, without prematurely pulling open the folded end of the spiritual life, without violating the sacred retirement and holy privacy of the interior soul, we may yet, if we are watchful, find many opportunities of saying words of direct counsel, which shall come at the right time, shall fall into the right place, and be like seed, to bear thirty, fifty, and a hundredfold. But though Christians are not faithful to this duty, though their love grows cold, and though many are obliged to say, “ No man cares for my soul,” yet there is One who always cares for the souls of all His children. God cares for souls evermore. All souls are His, and He will not let them go without many an effort to draw them up to Himself. He sends many blessed influences, He sends many holy providences ever to those who are neglected and forsaken by man. (J. Freeman Clarke.) The soul neglected “ Two things a master commits to his servant’ s care,” saith one, “ the child and the child’ s clothes.” It will be but a poor excuse for the servant to say at his master’ s return, “ Sir, here are all the child’ s clothes neat and clean, but the child is lost!” Much so will be the account that many will give to God of their souls and bodies at the great day. “ Lord, here is my body; I was very careful for it. I neglected nothing that belonged to its content and welfare; but for my soul, that is lost and cast away for ever. I took little thought and care about it.” (J. Flavel.) Psalms 142:5 Thou art my refuge and my portion in the land of the living.God in Christ, the believer’ s refuge and portion I. Concerning the refuge.1. God in Christ is the refuge itself (Isaiah 4:6; Zechariah 3:8; Zechariah 6:12; John 1:14; Isaiah 32:2; Deuteronomy 33:27). 2. This refuge is by a legal destination a refuge for lost mankind (2 Corinthians 5:19; John 3:14-16; Titus 3:4). (1) For the oppressed (Psalms 9:9; Psalms 72:4; Romans 16:20).(2) For outcasts (Psalms 142:4-5).(3) For debtors (Isaiah 25:4).(4) For criminals liable to death by the law (Hebrews 6:18). 3. The gate of this refuge through which sinners enter is the vail of the flesh of Christ, rent, torn, and opened to let in the guilty creature unto Jehovah as a refuge (Hebrews 10:19-20). 4. The covert in this refuge is the righteousness of Christ (Jeremiah 23:6; Philippians 3:9). (1) The satisfaction of Christ’ s death and sufferings (1 John 2:2).(2) The righteousness of Christ’ s life and conversation, who obeyed the commands of the law as a public person, as well as He suffered the penalty of it in that capacity (Romans 5:19).(3) The holiness of His birth and nature (Hebrews 7:26). 5. The several apartments in this refuge for the various cases of the refugees are all the attributes and perfections of God the Lord Jehovah (Proverbs 18:10). 6. The boundaries of this refuge are the everlasting covenant (Psalms 46:7). 7. The sinner’ s entering into the refuge is by faith. II. Concerning the portion.1. The same God in Christ, who is the refuge for poor sinners, is also the portion for them to live by. 2. God in Christ is what one may live on (Psalms 16:5-6). In Him man has a dwelling-place (Psalms 90:1); raiment (Revelation 3:18); meat and drink (John 6:55); and all in a word (Philippians 4:18; 2 Corinthians 6:10). And hereto belongs the sanctification of the soul in the beginning, progress, and consummation of it, as that which is for the perfecting of the soul (1 Corinthians 1:30). (T. Boston, D. D.) Psalms 142:7 Bring my soul out of prison.The soul in prison I. The prison into which so many souls are cast. David said, “ In the way wherein I walked, the hunters laid a snare for me.” No one had better intentions than David; and I believe that nobody has better intentions than ourselves. But the best of wishes will do us little benefit unless we have brave resolves. To intend well is one thing; but if the intention stop short of action, it is worth nothing. When we intend well without practical resolution, it seems as if a trap were laid for us. We are oftenest caught in what seems our strongest point because we do not guard and watch ourselves where we are unconscious of weakness. Therefore, we all need to take heed lest we also be caught tripping. David further said, “ The hunters are stonger than I.” What makes our enemies strong? It is one’ s own weakness, the result of sin. David again cries, “ Bring my soul out of prison!” It is a blessed thing when a man feels that his inclination to sin is like having his soul in prison. What man who is worthy of the name would not prefer liberty to bondage? II. The way to get one’ s soul out of prison. We read in Bunyan’ s marvellous parable that when Christian had been beaten sore by a giant and thrust into Doubting Castle, he gave himself up to misery and despair. But one day he said, “ Why, what a fool am I to stay here in all this wretchedness, when I have in my breast a key to unlock the gates of Doubting Castle.” And taking out the key he found it fitted the lock, and he escaped. It was, says Bunyan, a key called Promise. This should teach us that when we seek in God’ s Word and find His promises, they are to us as a key to open the door of the prison into which our sins have thrust us. Would you have this priceless, this wonderful key always within your reach? Then hold on to God’ s promises, which apply to every individual case. (W. Birch.) Man, morally considered I. Man’ s moral imprisonment. All sinners are in a state of bondage. They are “ spirits in prison.” Like fallen angels they are in “ chains of darkness.”1. A state of darkness. Justice shuts out the light from the prisoner in the cell. How morally benighted is the unregenerate soul l Having “ the understanding darkened.” 2. A state of confinement. Materialism--intemperance--avarice--prejudice--unholy associations and habits manacle his faculties. 3. A state of criminality. A prisoner is under sentence of condemnation. So every sinner is a moral criminal, condemned alike by God and by his own conscience. II. Man’ s moral liberation. “ Bring my soul out of prison.”1. A consciousness of its wretched condition. “ O wretched man that I am,” etc. How can I become free? Who can level those massive walls, who can break those fetters? 2. A consciousness that God alone can deliver. “ Bring my soul.” He feels he cannot emancipate himself, nor can his fellow-men effect his deliverance. Hence to Him he looks who came “ to preach deliverance to the captive,” etc. III. Man’ s moral mission. “ That I may praise Thy name.”1. Deep in the heart of all men is the feeling of obligation to worship God. 2. Moral misery consists in this, the soul feeling its obligation to worship, and yet unable to do so through the enthralling influence of its corruptions. Hence the text may be regarded as the prayer of every sin-convicted soul. (1) I must worship Thee; my conscience urges this as an essential condition of my peace.(2) I cannot worship Thee in my state of moral captivity.(3) Come Thou, therefore, to my deliverance and set me free. (Homilist.) A cry from prison I. A wretched condition. Some of the prisons in which we sometimes find ourselves confined. Fearfulness.(1) Lest our conversion is only a sham.(2) Lest we may not be finally saved.(3) Dread of death. 2. Carelessness. (1) About our soul’ s prosperity.(2) As to the use of our privileges. 3. Discontentedness. 4. Selfishness. (1) In belief.(2) In prayers.(3) In efforts. II. A suitable petition. It is expressive of--1. Consciousness. The spiritual dead feel not their awful condition. 2. Helplessness. We can do nothing; but He is faithful who has promised. 3. Tenderness. “ Bring.” The invalid cannot bear harsh treatment. And our compassionate Lord deals gently with us. Doubtless David had former proof of this, hence his present cry. Further, this would necessitate God’ s coming Himself, not even trusting His loved ones to His ministering spirits. “ Come Lord Thyself, and bring my soul out of prison.” Then it was a petition of-- 4. Completeness. “ Bring my soul out.” It is well for our souls, when we get so dissatisfied with our prisons as to want to leave them entirely. III. A justifying reason. How could David praise God’ s name?1. By making known His wondrous power. 2. By living near to God. 3. By warning others of their danger. (A. H. Stote.) “ Bring my soul out of prison” I. The mercy implored. Consider it as the language of 1. An awakened sinner.2. A disconsolate Christian, when oppressed or persecuted, or under trouble. II. The end for which this mercy was desired. Mercy wanted calls for prayer; and the earnestness of the prayer should correspond with the magnitude of the blessing we implore. Mercy received requires praise; and the more importunate the prayer, the more animated will be the praise in return.1. Praise may be considered as mental.2. Vocal.3. Practical. (B. Beddome, M. A.) . Psalms 143:1-12 Psalms 143:1-12 Hear my prayer, O Lord, give ear to my supplications.A penitential soul in prayer I. The reasons urged.1. A consciousness of moral unrighteousness (verse 2). No man will ever pray rightly until he is made deeply conscious that he has no claims whatever upon the favour of God, and that his necessities, if relieved at all, must be relieved by sovereign mercy alone. 2. A terrible sense of danger (verses 3, 4). 3. An encouraging reminiscence of God (verse 5). 4. An intense craving of the heart (verse 6). There are two figures here indicating the craving of the heart after God. The first is taken from human life. As the suffering child stretches forth its hand to its mother, as the dying patient to his physician, as the drowning man to the rope thrown out for his rescue, so the soul of the penitent stretches out Jim hands to God; he must have Him or die and be lost. God is the necessity of necessities, the Supreme need. Another figure indicating the craving of the heart after God is the longing of the parched earth for fertile showers. II. The blessings invoked.1. Soul deliverance (verse 7). This has been provided in Christ. 2. Soul guidance (verse 8). Let the morning dawn on me, and The night of darkness and sorrow depart, and show me the way in which I ought to walk,--the way of rectitude, of safety. 3. Soul loyalty (verse 10). 4. Soul quickening (verse 11). There must be life to struggle for deliverance, life to follow the Divine guidance, to reach the level land of rectitude, and to walk in it. (David Thomas, D. D.) Prayer illustrated As an example and illustration of prayer this psalm teaches us--1. That we should approach God in the full belief that He is the “ Rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.” 2. We should appeal to Him not only as merciful, but also as faithful and righteous. 3. We should come as sinners imploring pardon. 4. Thus coming to God, we should seek comfort by uttering our grief in His presence and casting all our care on Him. 5. We should direct our thoughts from our sorrows to Him before whom we bow, and contemplate His character and former mercies. 6. Encouraged by such contemplation we should with renewed confidence present our petitions. 7. Expecting consolation in the path of obedience alone, we should pray to be enabled to do the will of God. 8. In our prayers we should renew the consecration of ourselves to God, and seek protection, deliverance and salvation as His “ servants.” “ I am Thine, save me.” (Newman Hall, LL. B.) Psalms 143:4 My heart within me is desolate.Trouble of soul He spake before of his external calamities; now he confesseth the infirmities of his mind, that he was wonderfully cast down in heart and troubled in his soul, so that his strength was almost gone (not like the strength of a whale fish, or of a rock), but being ready to drown with sorrow, he was sustained by faith and God’ s Spirit, he swam under these evils. Our Saviour Himself confessed of Himself, “ My soul is troubled to the death.” God knoweth our mould, we are not stocks without passions or perturbations; we are not like lepers, whose flesh is senseless; but we are sensible of evils, that we may run to God for help and comfort. Had not Job his own perturbations and griefs, which made him utter hard speeches, for which God rebuked him, and he afterwards repented? yet God affirmed that he spake better of him than all his friends did. Can a ship sail along with such a constant and direct course in stormy weather as it were calm and before the wind? it is enough that it directeth the course ever towards the port, albeit it be forced to cast board twenty times. So God careth not albeit we be troubled in our course to heaven. Let us ever aim at the port of eternal glory, howsoever we be disquieted with contrary winds and tempests, God will pass by all those our frailties and imperfections, and will at last deliver us from them all, if in the midst of those our extremities our heart set itself toward heaven. (A. Symson.) Psalms 143:5I remember the days of old. The ministry of memory I. As a necessity of human nature.1. By the laws of proximity, likeness, contrast, we are every day thrown back on the past, made in some measure to relive the hours that are gone. 2. This necessary action of memory shows-- (1) The conscious unity of human life. However long we have to live, though for ever, from the beginning our life is one. (2) The wondrous frugality of life. Our spiritual life throws nothing away. Memory manages all with the most sparing economy. It gathers up every fragment, so that nothing is lost. (3) The growing importance of life. What a world lies behind the old man--nay, within him. (4) The inevitable retributiveness of life. II. As a moral obligation of human nature. “ I remember the days of old.” Every man should voluntarily and religiously do this with the past of his life. He should not allow the past to come up to him merely involuntarily, and thus become its victim. He should deal with it so as to make it serve the true interests of his spiritual being. He should make the past--1. Promote evangelical sorrow within him. The memory of the past must sadden all souls. 2. Promote thanksgiving to God within him. What impressions will the past give man of God’ s forbearance--God’ s guidance--God’ s guardianship--God’ s ever-flowing goodness! 3. Promote an invincible purpose to improve. The memory of past disappointments should warn us against extravagant hopes. The memory of abused mercies should lead us to a greater appreciation of our present blessings. The memory of lost years should lead us to turn every hour of the present to a right spiritual account. (Homilist.) Remembrance of the past I. The past enables us to know ourselves.1. We have embodied our character.2. We have reacted on and moulded them.3. Hence the past shows what we are. II. The past is fitted to suggest rules for the guidance of the future conduct.1. It has brought to light our tendencies.2. It has shown what is dangerous in our circumstances.3. It has revealed the temptations before which we are in danger of falling. III. A consideration of the past will prepare us for the exercise of confession, and will shut us up to Christ.1. Confession should be minute--history portrayed.2. This requires a knowledge of the past.3. A sight of our sin drives to Christ.4. For this sight we must turn to the past. IV. The consideration of the past will dispose us to thanksgiving, and will furnish us with materials for praise.1. Thanksgiving is difficult, and is neglected.2. It should be minute, ranging from, etc.3. It should involve lively and strong feeling.4. The knowledge and the deep feeling are dependent on, etc. Individuals. V. The consideration of the past will stimulate us to redeem the time.1. The whole life of man is short.2. How much shorter has it become to us!3. Had it been spent aright, its increased shortness would not be a matter of regret.4. But only look back! VI. The consideration of the past will produce deep and solemn impressions of the frailty of man.1. Look back to your childhood.2. Where are the companions of your youth? Stages marked by grave-stones--mourner--stranger on earth. VII. The consideration of the past will show the utter folly of depending on the things of the world for support and enjoyment.1. Ungodliness is an attempt to dispense with God and still be happy.2. Each man makes the experiment.3. You have made it.4. What is the result? A failure! VIII. A consideration of the past will confirm the believer in the choice he has made.1. The most important part of a believer’ s life is that which follows his conversion.2. In reviewing it-- (1) You see the temporal consequences of your act.(2) You see the spiritual consequences. IX. The past will show to the ungodly his eternity.1. Alas! the sinner is not qualified to see his eternity in his time. X. The past shows to the believer the comparative measure in which he shall reap hereafter. Between the believer’ s present conduct and future glory--1. There is no connection of merit.2. But there is a connection of congruity or fitness. (Jas. Stewart.) Reflection 1. Reflection signifies to think again on what we have already thought, already conceived, to think on it more circumstantially, more steadily, more expressly, and to do this on set purpose and with consciousness in the design of dwelling longer on these thoughts, in order to dissect and analyze them, to obtain a clearer conception of the matter to which they relate, to study them in their several parts, in their principles and consequences, to compare them with others, to observe their analogies to us and to other objects, and thence to draw conclusions in regard to our conduct or to our happiness. 2. It also signifies, by the repeated representation and consideration of what we have already conceived and know, to endeavour to discover or to understand other things which we either do not yet know, or whereof we have only a dark and confused idea, or in regard to which we are still uncertain, whether they be true or false, thus or otherwise constituted. 3. Reflection has commonly in view the examination of some or all of the following questions: What is the object and the nature of it? What results from thence? Is it true and certain, and why is it so? What relations does it bear to me and my happiness? How should I act towards it? In other words, by reflection and consideration we endeavour to render our conceptions and ideas of objects more clear, more complete, more certain, more interesting and useful to us. 4. The reflecting man endeavours to render the objects, the doctrines whereon he reflects more profitable to him by applying them to his conduct, by deducing from them such principles and rules as may regulate him for the rest of his life. Thus he learns real, practical wisdom, and without that all human reflection is of no great value. (G. J. Zollikofer, D. D.) I muse on the work of Thy hands.-- God’ s works to be appreciated, for they declare Him I heard of a good man who went down the Rhine, but took care to read a book all the way, for fear he should have his mind taken off from heavenly topics by the beauties of Nature. I confess I do not understand such a spirit--I do not want to do so. If I go into an artist’ s house I do that artist a displeasure if I take no notice of his works under the pretext that I am quite absorbed in himself. Why not enjoy the objects in which our heavenly Father has set forth His wisdom and power? Delight yourself in all your heavenly Father’ s handiwork, and make it to be a ladder by which you climb to Himself. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Delight in God’ s works The same thing will appeal differently to different people according to capacity, sensibility, experience. One may look on a flower with the eye of a florist, another of a market gardener, another of a botanist, another of an artist. William Blake saw angels amid the swaying corn or nestling in a tree. A scene which is dull and uninteresting to the listless eye may be transformed by a touch of creative and interpretative imagination; as James Swetham says, “ Gerhard Dew threw a glory over our very pickled cabbage.” Culture and restraint. (Hugh Black.) Psalms 143:8 Cause me to hear Thy lovingkindness in the morning.How to have a good day There are days and days. There are days of darkness such as this psalm illustrates. Many think that David sung this psalm when he fled from Absalom. I. It was a dark day for David.1. It was a day of hard environment. “ The enemy hath persecuted my soul.” Think of David fugitive, and climbing, in sackcloth, the slopes of the Mount of Olives. There are days when everything seems to go against us. 2. It was a day for David of clean discouragement. “ He hath smitten my life down to the ground.” Have you not been in such a discouraged day? 3. It was a day of despair. When hope has gone out and despair has come in, your hands hang and your step stops. 4. This was a day for David when memory made contrast (verse 5). The only comfort for the soul in such plight is the memory of better days. That is a very bad, enervating mood when one, instead of looking forward, is perpetually looking backward. Oh, the brave apostles Though prisoner in Rome, “ forgetting the things which are behind.” II. How to get out of such a dark day and mood into a good day.1. By prayer. “ Cause me to hear.” The soul addresses God; turns resolutely Godward. 2. By beginning the day with a sense of God. “ Cause me to hear Thy lovingkindness in the morning.” Count your mercies and begin the day by doing it. There is a way of looking at disadvantage in the light of advantage. Mr. Edison, partially deaf since childhood, was told by a specialist an operation would help him. He answered, “ Give up an advantage that enables me to think on undisturbed by noise or conversation? No, indeed.” 3. By constancy in trust. “ For in Thee do I trust.” Trust, and keep on trusting anyway. 4. By determining to do, and at all hazards to do the right. “ Cause me to know the way wherein I should walk.” Notice that--the praying and the walking; the search for the right and the resolve to do it. Darkness shall surely flee from such a soul. Such turning of dark days into good ones makes--character! (Homiletic Review.) “ In the morning” I. The morning comes after the night.1. The night of mourning. “ Our light affliction,” etc. This is higher and sweeter than the motto on the sundial, “ I count only the sunbeams.” The child of God will count, to his wealth and joy, the darkness also. The night is glorified in the morning “ lovingkindness,” as night-formed dew is in the morning sun. 2. The night of conflict. The morning of victory will come. 3. The night of weary waiting. There is a morning of fruition and satisfaction. 4. The night of sin. Oh the morning of fresh and wondrous purity! II. The morning comes before the day. God’ s lovingkindness brings morning--the harbinger of a long day. Always, only morning; pointing on to a day whose “ sun shall go no more down.” A day of joy. “ Everlasting joy shall be upon their head.” A day of work. When men have a journey to make, or work to do, they start in the morning. So let us seek God’ s morning lovingkindness.1. In the morning of every day. Let me hear Thy lovingkindness in the morning, that this whole day may be blessed and fruitful. 2. In the morning of life (Proverbs 8:17). 3. In the morning (at the beginning) of every new undertaking. Begin with prayer for God’ s lovingkindness and blessing. 4. In the morning of this year. It is still pure and sweet. Let its future hours be devoted to God. (Homiletic Magazine.) Cause me to know the way wherein I should walk.--The way wherein we should go The text may be said to comprise every other prayer. If God gives His servant “ to know the way wherein he should walk,” and strength to walk in it, peace, and order, and liberty, and joy will soon come. Life is difficult. It is difficult every day; on some days, and at some times, unusually so. Are there not continual circumstances and trials and duties of ordinary life which, in one way or another, make life a continual difficulty? Think of the number of things that are to be believed, that are to be renounced, that are to be examined, that are to be distinguished in themselves and from other things, that are to be tentatively dealt with, that are to be done, that are to be left undone, that are to be waited for, that are to be suffered. All these are included in the “ way wherein we should walk.” Take some of them in succession. I. Opinions and beliefs. There can be no living way for a man that does not involve these. A man is more than a growing tree or a grazing animal. Even those who speak slightingly of opinions, and lay stress rather on what they call spirit, and instinct, and practical action, when they rigorously analyze their own thought in this matter, are obliged to confess that in one form or another, separated from other things, or solvent in them, opinion and belief must be comprehended in spirit, even in instinct, in a measure, and certainly in practical action. But how hard it is now to form opinions and settle beliefs! Harder perhaps than it has ever been before, not only because we have more than the common amount of scepticism in the world, but because (as I verily believe) men are in some ways more sincere and more earnest than they have ever been before. They cannot so easily subscribe creeds, composed of many, and some of them hard enough propositions. What, then, are we to do? From this hour any one of us, if we will, may be of “ them that believe to the saving of the soul.” How? By bringing the whole case fully and earnestly before God. “ Cause me to know the way wherein I should walk, for I lift up my soul unto Thee.” There, and there only, you have the whole case; the meeting, and, in a measure, the settling of the difficulty. If we come really to Him, we have solved the difficulty, we have come into the new and living way, and God will make that way more and more plain before our face; whereas if we abide among the exterior things--examining, considering, comparing, putting this opinion against that, and working the whole matter simply as a high intellectual problem, without ever making the last and highest appeal--we have no certainty of a good and true issue. II. Conduct. Even those who know the way they should go, so far as it consists of beliefs, convictions, principles, find it still in their practice to be a way of continual difficulty. It is easy to say, “ Act on principle.” Of course we must act on principle, but on what principle? What is the right principle for the case? Or what is the proper combination of principles? And how are they to apply?1. It will sometimes be that all is dark as to what is about to happen in the immediate future, and yet action must be taken at a certain time; and, in order to be well taken, preparation must be made for it now. And that darkness, perhaps, cannot be made any less by our intellectual activities, or by our moral impatience. We may knock at the doors of the future with all our importunity, but they will not open a moment before the time. What can we do? We can pray. We can use this text, and get the benefits it carries, “ Cause me to know the way wherein I should go, for I lift my soul to Thee.” 2. Or the case is exceedingly perplexed and intricate. It lies all open before us. There is nothing more to reveal, and yet we cannot understand it. Our way, “ the way wherein we should go,” lies right through the heart of those perplexed and ravelled things, and our “ going” is sure to alter them somewhat, perhaps much. What shall be the ruling principle of our action? Shall we go quickly or slowly? And shall prudence or firmness have the reins? Who can tell us? And in this pause what can we do? We can ask Him who knows the way that is all unknown to us to “ cause us to know it,” so that, as we tread it step by step, and make it thus our actual way, it may prove to be indeed the way of righteousness and peace. 3. Or the case, in its two sides, is perfectly balanced. There is nothing to choose between them. We may cast the weight of our action on this side or on that with equally good conscience. And yet, out of the choice we make, a very different class of results will spring; and other things will come in then, and issues never contemplated as possible will arise. So that there is a right side, a “ way in which we should go,” even when no human wisdom could give any sufficient reason why the one side should be taken rather than the other: How shall we find it? How, but by coming to Him who knows all ways that human feet are to tread. He has His eye on that best way, that perfect way, that Christlike way, which my feet ought to mark, and if I come to Him to ask about it, it may be that, while I am yet speaking, the light of revelation will illumine it, the finger of Providence will point to it, and the voice that has directed so many pilgrims will say to me also, “ This is the way, walk ye in it.” (A. Raleigh, D. D.) God’ s pathway for the soul of man The psalms of the rebellion differ from the psalms of the persecution under Saul, in that a strain of penitence mingles with the narrative of misfortune and suffering. That an ambitious young man should have so easily overthrown a strong government was itself suggestive. Absalom’ s success could not be really accounted for by his good looks, or by his popular manners, or by his splendid retinue, or by the widespread discontent of the tribe of Judah with David’ s domestic policy, The truth was that the old respect for him had been largely undermined by his conduct; and under a system of personal government, respect for the ruler is essential to social safety. David’ s own conscience ratified the tacit verdict which his people had passed upon him; and when he fled across the Jordan, while Absalom took possession of his palace and his throne, he recognized the hand, not of his undutiful son, but of his Lord and Judge. And thus, in the last of those seven psalms, which have for so many ages nourished and expressed Christian repentance, David mingles with his pathetic review of his reverses a loyal prayer for mercy and guidance. I. “the way that I shall walk in.” David was thinking, no doubt, of some path across the mountains of Gilead, by which he might hope to make good his escape in that hour of danger. But that was not all. David would be thinking also of other “ ways.” For the soul of man is perpetually moving, in whatever direction, through the wilds of moral and intellectual space: and the various directions which its thought, feeling, and action take, are variously characterized in Scripture. On the one hand we read of “ the way of understanding, the way of righteousness, the way of truth,” “ the way of God’ s testimonies,” “ the way of wisdom,” “ the way of life,” “ the way of good men,” “ the way everlasting,” “ the right way,” “ the way of the Lord,” “ the way of peace” ; and on the other we are told of “ the way of the froward,” “ the way of evil men, the way of man’ s heart,” “ the way that is not good,” “ the way that seemeth right unto a man, while the end thereof are the ways of death.” And so particular types of human life, “ the way of David,” “ the way of Asa,” “ the way of Jehoshaphat,” contrast with “ the way of Cain,” “ the way of Jeroboam,” “ the way of the house of Ahab,” “ the way of Manasseh.” And thus the expression comes to mean a certain moral and mental temper, or a body, or System of doctrines, or precepts, whether false or true, which claim to be, and are treated as forming the path to a higher or to a lower world. Above all, we must not forget that the spiritual sense of this expression has received a consecration which can never for long be absent from Christian thought. We know who has said, “ I am the Way.” II. This petition for guidance, like all serious prayer, implies a faith, a faith which at once dictates and shapes it. The lex credendi is also the lex supplicandi. Two truths, at least, prompt and govern the prayer.1. The first is, that one path enables each man to correspond with the true ideal of his life. “ The way that I should walk in.” One path only is perfectly loyal to the highest truth that has been placed within each man’ s reach. Only one path, and not many, enables each man to make the most of his faculties and of his opportunities, to develop most harmoniously his intelligence, his affections, his will, his character; to satisfy most adequately the just claims that others may make on him; to satisfy the demands of Him to whom the gift of existence itself is due. 2. And the second implied and governing truth is this--that there is one Being, at any rate, who sees and can tell each one of us what this his path should be. A clear sight of the track along which each of His responsible creatures should walk with the view of making the best of the gift of life, is the least that can be ascribed to an Intelligence that knows no bounds, and to a Will by whose good pleasure we each and all exist. A willingness to show each one of us what He thus sees to be the best for each may be reverently taken for granted in Him who is not only and chiefly Power and Intelligence, but also, and especially Goodness. III. How does God answer this prayer?1. First of all, and generally by the language of events, by that importunity of circumstances which, in different degrees, accompanies every human life. It matters not that the environment of every life can be traced to antecedents, and these to other antecedents that have preceded them till the long evolutionary process is lost sight of in the distant haze. It matters not because, first, we know that a point must at last be reached where no material antecedent is discoverable, and where bare existence can only be accounted for by the fiat of a Creative Will; and secondly, because the relation of each antecedent to that which precedes and follows it, the direction and law of this long evolutionary sequence--if so we must provisionally term it--itself implies, no less than its first impact implies, a presiding and guiding Mind. 2. But independently of that which belongs to single lives, there are certain broad characteristics of the pathway which God has traced for the soul of man. Man’ s will, as well as his understanding, needs the guidance of truth. Man’ s character needs the discipline of sacrifice. And He who said, “ He that followeth Me walketh not in darkness,” said also, “ Let a man take up his cross and follow Me.” What then are the characteristics of this truth which can furnish true guidance to the soul of man, and which thus is the answer to the prayer of the psalmist? (1) It will first of all be positive, and not merely negative truth. The psalmist prays God to show him, not the way in which he should not walk, but the way in which he should. (2) Again, the truth which is to serve as the pathway to the human soul must be definite. The road that will bring us home at last must be plain to the eye, and firm beneath the feet. It must not lose itself in a forest; it must not sink away into a morass. The psalmist prays for guidance; and indefinite guidance is all but a contradiction in terms. (3) Once more, the truth which will conduct the soul heavenward must be truth which the soul knows to be independent of itself. “ Show Thou me the way I should walk in.” The truth that will support our steps is true, whatever we may think or feel about it. It has, in modern phrase, an objective existence. (4) Yet, once again, the truth that is to form a pathway for the human soul will be in its import specially practical; “ The way that I should walk in” suggests practice rather than speculation. Christian truth is nothing if it be not practical. God’ s Word is a lantern unto the feet, and a light unto the path; Scripture is profitable for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, as well as for doctrine; Jesus Christ came to purify to Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. Surely a Christian should not read his Bible or repeat his creed without asking himself the question, What does this statement say to me, what does it suggest, what does it command, what does it reprove in me? How can it contribute to lighten my path through time towards eternity? What dangers does it unveil, what encouragements does it proclaim, what obstacles does it remove, what efforts does it warrant? This practical instinct is always energetic in a seriously believing Christian, it is an inseparable corollary of the prayer, “ Show Thou me the way I should walk in; for I lift up my soul unto Thee.” (Canon Liddon.) The guiding hand There is no need more imperatively felt by the Christian than that of Divine guidance.1. We must admit that God has an ideal or plan for each one of us in life. We also know how weak and unwise we are, and that light is needed outside of ourselves. Now we know that the Bible is a historic revelation. What was written aforetime was given for our learning. So by looking back over the history of the Church we are helped in the discovery of God’ s will. 2. Three special methods were used in ancient times to reveal the will of God. Dreams, the Urim and Thummim, and prophetic teaching. (1) The dream then, as now, was often incoherent, uncertain and misleading, but we have every reason to believe that God did, at times, send with a dream a firm conviction that it should be acted upon. (2) Again, the mysterious oracle was a method of guidance. The Urim and Thummim was used by David, but after his day it ceased. It gave the yes or no to the inquirer. (3) As the priestly office waned, the third method, the prophetic, came into prominence. The prophet did not necessarily predict, but “ uttered forth” truth as to the past and present, as well as future. 3. The important thing is not the agency through which God reveals His will, but the fact that in some way He will lead them who trust in Him. Therefore the psalmist says, “ Cause me to know the way wherein I should walk, for I lift up my soul unto Thee.” The lesson is one of faith in God’ s guiding hand. This mode of Divine direction is wholly unlike the method seen among heathen and superstitious people. It is spiritual, exalted and progressive. A moral discipline is needed, a heart in sympathy with God. The spirit of truth guides us into all truth. If we are willing to do the will of God we shall know the way. 4. The spirit of prayerfulness should be cultivated. It is on the knees that we learn the lesson of trust. It is there we are brought face to face with God. Let us, therefore, always lift our soul unto God, and, above all, seek the aid of His Holy Spirit. The example of Christ is a guide; the advice of His true disciples is helpful; our own common sense is to be used, but above all, the direction of the Holy Spirit is to be sought and followed. He will keep us from perverting the truth we hear to our own ruin. 5. Finally, if after honestly following what light you have, the issue is not what you supposed or wished, rest patiently in God till He clears the darkness. If you have erred, make it sure “ that He has forgiven, and then cheerfully go forward, saying, “ My times are in Thy hand,” knowing that all things are working together for good to them that love God and are sincerely doing His will. (A. Foster, D. D.) Knowledge and love of spiritual guide The relation resulting from the intercourse of an Alpine traveller with his guide, writes Dr. Parkhurst, is not exactly like anything else. The one whom you had employed in this service would henceforth stand to you quite apart from other men. The peculiar quality that is in your intimacy has not resulted merely from your walking so long together; nor has it come because of your fellowship with one another in peril, or perhaps even in suffering. You learn to know your guide by obeying him, and you learn to love him by committing yourself to him and trusting him. Something about our Divine Guide, Jesus Christ, you can learn from the Scriptures; something, too, you can gather from the testimony of other men. But if you want to know Him you have got to obey Him, and if you want to love Him you must first trust Him. (Christian Endeavour Times.) Psalms 143:9I flee unto Thee to hide me.Soul flight I. How? On the pinions of thought our souls often fly more swiftly than lightnings to the remotest periods and places. This power of flight is the glory of our nature; it defies granite walls and massive chains and bolts. II. Whither? To Him, the eternal Source of all life, and of all good, we should ever direct our flight. We should fly to Him in all our difficulties. III. Why? There is danger. (David Thomas, D. D.) Flight to God I. A perception of danger. No man will flee if he is not afraid; there must be a knowledge and apprehension of danger, or there will be no flight.1. Men perish in many instances because they have no cause of danger. The noxious air is not observed, the sunken reef is not seen, the train rushes to collision unwarned. Ignorance of danger makes the danger inevitable. (1) Men will dare to die without fear of hell.(2) Men will sin and have no dread of any ill consequences.(3) Men will play with an evil habit and will not believe in its power to enslave them.(4) Men will toy with a temptation and refuse to see how certain it is to lead them into actual wrong-doing. 2. Every man is really in danger. The sinner is asleep on the top of a mast. Young and old are both in jeopardy. Even the saints are in peril of temptation from many sources. 3. Some dangers are slowly perceived. Those connected with sweet sin, those which grow out of a boastful mind, those which are countenanced by the examples of others, etc. The more dangerous the serpent, the less likely to be seen. 4. The spiritual man is led to perceive dangers by inward monitions, by a spiritual sensitiveness which is the result of devotion, by experience, by perceptible declensions, or by observing the effect of certain things upon others. II. A sense of weakness. No man will flee for hiding if he feel able to fight the matter through in his own strength.1. We are all weak and unable to cope with sin. 2. Some think themselves mighty men of valour, but these are among the vary weakest of the weak. 3. Past failure should teach us not to trust our own strength. 4. In a deep sense of weakness we are made strong: in fancied strength lies the worst form of weakness. III. A prudent foresight. “ I flee unto Thee to hide me.”1. He would not venture into the danger or wait till it overtook him; but he took time by the forelock and fled. Often this is the highest form of courage. 2. Escape through fear is admirable prudence. It is not a mean motive; for Noah, “ moved by fear, prepared an ark.” 3. While we can flee we should; for time may come when we shall be unable. David says, “ I flee” : he means--“ I am fleeing, I always do flee unto Thee, my God.” A man should not live like a beast, who sees no further than the meadow in which he feeds. He should foresee evil and hide himself; for this is common prudence (Proverbs 22:3). IV. A solid confidence. “ To Thee to hide me.” He was sure--1. That there was safety in God. 2. That he might flee to God. 3. That he might flee there and then. V. An active faith. He did not lie passive, but aroused himself. This may be clearly seen--1. In his fleeing to God. Directness, speed, eagerness. 2. In his after-prayers. “ Teach me to do Thy will; lead me; quicken me.” (1) Expect your share of enemies, and prepare for them.(2) Secure your best friend. Be reconciled to Him in Christ Jesus.(3) Make constant use of Him. Flee to Him at all times. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The flight of the soul Never was there an eagle with reach of wing long enough, or with pinions of sufficient strength to mount so high or fly so far afield as the soul of man. God has made us so like Himself that it is impossible for the mere accidents of poverty or wealth, of physical bondage or freedom, of pleasant or unpleasant surroundings, to dictate the spiritual history of the soul. The soul dictates its own destiny. It has the power to fly from its environment and take up its abode in an entirely different atmosphere. A wicked king could shut John Bunyan up in prison at Bedford, but he could not chain his soul there. God gave him wonderful soul-flight from that little jail. Now, if we inquire into the secret of John Bunyan’ s joy and peace, we shall find that it was but a realization of our text. Bunyan fled from his sins to God, and found refuge in the forgiveness of God through Jesus Christ. He started low enough, for he was a poor, drunken Bedford tinker, of no account to anybody till his Christian wife prayed for him and pleaded with him, until he fled for refuge to the Cross, and lost there the burden of his sin. And that is my message; that God is a refuge for every poor sinner who will flee to Him. But the fleeing is our part. We are free men and women, and God will not drive us into the kingdom. He will give us visions of the beauty of it, He will show us His own sympathy and love, and fling wide open the doors to the city of refuge; but unless we rise up and seek the refuge, we shall perish outside. (L. A. Banks, D. D.) Flight from danger unto the Lord We must fly to the Lord for shelter, not to an arm of flesh. The bird flies away to the thicket, and the fox hastens to its hole; every creature uses its refuge in the hour of danger, and even so in all peril or fear of peril let us flee unto Jehovah, the Eternal Protector of His own. No moat, portcullis, drawbridge, wall, battlement or dungeon could make us so secure as we are when the Lord of Hosts environs around. Our ramparts defy the beleaguered hosts of hell. The Lord of Hosts stands between us and their fury, and all other evil forces are turned aside. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Psalms 143:10 Teach me to do Thy will; for Thou art my God. The delight of the godly I. The godly man’ s prayer. Humility, teachableness, sense of his own ignorance should characterize the Christian; as also the greatness and glory, the wisdom and power of Him who is his God. II. The godly man’ s delight.1. What is the will of God? (1) Our sanctification (1 Thessalonians 4:3). (2) He wills that we should render Him most hearty thanksgiving for all the mercies with which He so bountifully blesses us (1 Thessalonians 5:18). (3) He wills that by our well-doing we should adorn the Gospel (1 Peter 2:15). “ The Christian is the true evidence of Christianity” (Drummond). “ Adorn the Gospel.” Let the jewels be set in gold. 2. Knowing His will, having learnt it, we must do it, and do it heartily. 3. The more we do what we have been taught, the more will the Lord our God reveal to us of His will. (H. B. Saxton.) The supreme desire of the devout soul I. The supreme aim of the devout soul. The tempest blows him to the throne of God; and when he is there, what does he ask? Deliverance? Scarcely. In one clause, and again at the end, as if by a kind of after-thought, he asks for the removal of the calamities. But the main burden of his prayer is for a closer knowledge of God, the sound of His lovingkindness in his inward ear, light to show him the way wherein he should walk, and the sweet sunshine of God’ s face upon his heart. There is a better thing to ask than exemption from sorrows, even grace to bear them rightly. The river of the water of life that proceeds from the throne of God and the Lamb is not sent merely to refresh thirsty lips and to bring music into the silence of a waterless desert, but it is sent to drive the wheels of life. Action, not thought, is the end of God’ s revelation and the perfecting of man. II. The Divine teaching and touch which are required for this conformity. The psalmist betakes himself to prayer because he knows that of himself he cannot bring his will into this attitude of harmonious submission. And his prayer for “ teaching” is deepened in the second clause of our text into a petition which sets the felt need and the coveted help in a still more striking light, in its cry for the touch of God’ s good spirit to guide, as by a hand grasping the psalmist’ s hand into the paths of obedience. You and I have Jesus Christ for our Teacher, the answer to the psalm. His teaching is inward, and deep, and real, and answers to all the necessities of the case. We have His example to stand as our perfect law. He comes into our hearts, He moulds our wills, His teaching is by inward impulses and communications of desire and power to do, as well as of light to know. A law has been given which can give life. As the modeller will take a piece of wax into his hand, and by warmth and manipulation make it soft and pliable, so Jesus Christ, if we let Him, will take our hard hearts into His hands, and by gentle, loving, subtle touches, will shape them into the pattern of His own perfect beauty, and will mould all their vagrant inclinations and aberrant distortions into “ one immortal feature of loveliness and perfection.” III. The Divine guarantee that this practical conformity shall be ours. The psalmist pleads with God a double motive--His relation to us and His own perfectness. “ Thou art my God; therefore teach me.” “ Thy Spirit is good; therefore lead me,” etc. Note, then, first, God’ s personal relation to the devout soul as the guarantee that that soul shall be taught not merely to know, but also to do His will. If He be “ my God,” there can be no deeper desire in His heart than that His will should be my will. And so desiring, He does it, not from any masterfulness or love of dominion, but only from love to us. And, on the other hand, if we have taken Him for ours, and have the bond knit from our side as well as from His, then the fact of our faith gives us a claim on Him which He is sure to honour. The soul that can say, “ I have taken Thee for mine,” has a hold on God which God is only too glad to recognize and to vindicate. And whosoever, humbly trusting to that great Father in the heavens, feels that he belongs to God, and that God belongs to him, is warranted in saying, “ Teach me, and make me to do Thy will,” and in being confident of an answer. And there is the other plea with Him and guarantee for us, drawn from God’ s own moral character and perfectness. The last clause may either be read, “ Thy Spirit is good; lead me,” or “ Let Thy good Spirit lead me.” In either case the goodness of the Divine Spirit is the plea on which the prayer is grounded. The goodness here ,referred to is, as I take it, not merely beneficence and kindliness, but rather goodness in its broader and loftier sense of perfect moral purity. So that the thought just comes to this--we have the right to expect that we shall be made participant of the Divine nature. So sweet, to deep, so tender is the tie that knits a devout soul to God, that nothing short of conformity to the perfect purity of God can satisfy the aspirations of the creature or discharge the obligations of the Creator. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Active obedience to the will of God I. Aspiration revealed. The great essential to a religious life is active obedience to God’ s will. The knowledge is not in itself religion; but the Christian is “ that faithful and wise servant whom the Lord, when He cometh, shall find so doing.” Hence perfection of character consists not in knowledge, but obedience, because--1. Obedience is superior to knowledge. It is possible for a man to have a Scriptural creed and to have an ungodly heart. The question must ever be, “ Is thine heart right?” For “ if ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them.” 2. Knowledge alone is positively criminal. How vast the dishonour done to God, when, with a perfect knowledge of duty, the man is neglectful of his privilege, and refuses the obedience which of right he owes to God l The possession of the knowledge will be but an aggravation of the offence. II. Deficiency acknowledged. It was a practical deficiency--1. As the knowledge of God’ s will in the particular circumstances of life. 2. As to the knowledge of the hindrances to the performance of God’ s will. 3. As to the practical skill of doing the will of God. III. Desire expressed. Like the psalmist, we must seek to be taught obedience to God’ s will.1. In the particular circumstances of life. It must be our prayer in the minute detail of life to fulfil the will of God. “ He that is faithful in that which is least,” etc. 2. In dealing with the hindrances to its fulfilment. The best and holiest must feel that they have reason to prostrate themselves before the Lord. He knows the ills and difficulties of life, and He will help us to overcome them. The mysteries of life must quicken us to place ourselves under the guidance of our heavenly Father. 3. In its active fulfilment. “ Teach me to do Thy will.” Self-reliance gives place to self-confidence, and hence the necessity to trust in God and not in self. (G. Bainton.) Prayer for Divine teaching I. The psalmist’ s need.1. He felt that he was ignorant, and needed Divine illumination. He desired that God’ s will might be made clear to him (verse 8). 2. He felt that he was weak, and needed strength to do, as well as enlightening to know, God’ s will. II. The psalmist’ s prayer. “ Teach me to do Thy will.”1. He felt it to be his duty to do so. He would observe that all nature, man only excepted, does the Divine will and never swerves from it. 2. He felt that God’ s will was best. He knew that He had pleasure in the prosperity--spiritual and temporal--of His servants (Psalms 35:27). He would seek to acquiesce in the will of God, who sometimes takes away temporal blessings that man’ s affections may be more completely fixed upon his Creator, and causes him to pass through the furnace of affliction that when he is tried he may come forth as gold (Job 23:10). III. The psalmist’ s plea. “ For Thou art my God.”1. He had realized to some extent God’ s love towards him. 2. He rejoiced in His love and desired to have God for his portion for ever. 3. He loved God and sought to do the things that please Him. (H. P. Wright, B. A.) At school: - I. The prayer.1. Its character. (1) Holy.(2) Humble.(3) Docile.(4) Acquiescent.(5) Believing.(6) Practical. 2. Its compass. “ Lord, teach me to do Thy will, whether it is the will of the great ones of the earth, or the will of my influential friends, or the will of my loudtalking neighbours or not. Help me to do Thy will, to take my stand, and say, ‘ As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.’” It is a blessed prayer. The more we look at it the more we see in it. 3. How ought God’ s will to be done? (1) Thoughtfully.(2) Immediately.(3) Cheerfully.(4) Constantly.(5) Universally.(6) Spiritually.(7) Intensely. II. The answer.1. There is a reason for expecting it. “ Thou art my God.” 2. It needs to be answered. No one but God can teach us His will. 3. It is answered. (1) In Jesus Christ, as our Example.(2) In sacred biographies.(3) In every line of the Bible.(4) By the teaching of the Holy Spirit. (C. H. Spurgeon.) “ Teach me” An argument to move God to teach him, because He is his God, and doth trust in none but in Him. As if David should say: Thou promised me help of Thy free favour, help me then in this my danger. Whereby he would teach us two principal lessons. First, by this that he desireth God to teach him to do His will, because He was his God, we learn that it is not in our own arbitrament or choice to do God’ s will, but His special grace, who preventeth us by His favour, and becometh our God, and after frameth us to do His will and obey Him. Secondly, that if He be our God, and we will call upon Him in our troubles, it were requisite we should frame ourselves to obey Him. If He be our God, where is His love and obedience? If He be our Father, where is His honour? So he must of necessity be an atheist who saith in his heart, there is no God; who professeth God in his mouth, and in his works denieth Him; following his own pleasure in place of God’ s will. (A. Symson.) The doing of God’ s will “ Thy will be done” is not a prayer of resignation only. Something is to be done. It calls for action, not passivity. The will is to be done by men. When we pray that men may do it, if we pray honestly, we mean that we are ready to do it. Are we? Are we doing it? Is what we have planned to do to-day just what we think is the will of God? (F. W. Faber.) Thy Spirit is good.--The good Spirit I trust that we shall never fail to see that on God’ s good Spirit we are dependent for all good things, and that that Church is doomed to waste away to absolute nothingness and uselessness which does not draw its fresh supplies of strength each day and hour from God the Holy Ghost. I. First, we shall, I hope, be disposed to say “ Thy Spirit is good” when we remember His relationships. Whence is the Spirit? from what quarter does He reach to us? With whom is He associated? from whom does He proceed? By whom has He been sent forth to dwell amidst the Church, and in God’ s people’ s hearts? The answer is of course familiar to you.1. This Spirit is good because He is the Spirit of God, He is God Himself. He is good because God is good. 2. Moreover He is spoken of as the Spirit of Jesus Christ, the Spirit of God’ s Son. Now, Christ is good. His very enemies declared that they could discover no sort of fault in Him. 3. He is spoken of as the Spirit of promise. The Spirit of promise is bound to be a good Spirit, for He is God’ s promise and Christ’ s promise. Our earthly fathers, so far as their judgment goes, give good gifts unto their children; our heavenly Father cannot fail even in His judgment. II. We shall be still surer of this fact, I hope, when we consider His attributes. I have only time, of course, to glance at them.1. He is mighty, how mighty it is not for human tongues to try to say. He is almighty; there is no limit to His power. “ Thy Spirit is good” we may well exclaim, when we think both of His terrible acts, and of the might of those acts of mercy which have made Him renowned and revered to every believer. “ Thy Spirit is good.” He is as mighty now as He was then. What God hath done, God can do. We are straitened in ourselves. The Spirit is omnipotent still. Let us both test and trust His power. 2. He is gracious and gentle. 3. He is wise. 4. He is true. 5. He is holy. All that is sweet, and lovely, and pure, and of good report pertains to Him. III. Further, I want to call to your mind His several offices, for these are proofs that He is good. What He does, as well as what He is and whence He comes, substantiates this fact. He creates. By Jesus Christ the world was made, and “ without Him was not anything made that was made,” but the Spirit co-operated with Him. “ And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” In the creation of man, as in all else, God the Spirit was engaged, as well as God the Father and Christ the Son. Is He not a good Spirit, then? Now, the Holy Ghost is still engaged in this sacred service, creating, recreating, making hearts new, bringing chaos out of the void, brooding over the darkness and disorder and transforming them into brightness and beauty. Proceed, good Spirit, with this good work, till all things are made new. ’ Tis He who quickens and illuminates, ’ tis He who teaches and leads. It was the Holy Ghost who led the children of Israel in the wilderness. The fiery cloudy pillar was the outward sign of Divine guidance, hut it is written, “ Thou gavest also Thy good Spirit to instruct them.” In special cases, where much wisdom and judgment were required, the Holy Ghost was the Author of these good things. Still He seals His saints, still He is the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry, “ Abba, Father.” It is even now His blessed function to bear witness with our spirits that we are the children of God. He has not forsaken His task of comforting the sorrowful: He is to this day the Paraclete. IV. The same truth is exhibited or rather illustrated by the various emblems by which the Holy Spirit is described in the Word of God. He is spoken of as a fire. In such guise He sat upon the heads of the disciples. He is the Spirit of burning. You know that fire is a good servants, if a bad master, but the Holy Ghost as fire is good both as master and servant. He is willing to serve us as well as to employ us, and as fire He lights, and cheers, and warms us. The Holy Spirit may be compared to dew-cheering, beautifying, fertilizing. The Holy Ghost is compared to a dove, that gentlest of feathered fowl. In this semblance He lighted upon Jesus. Listen to the voice of this celestial turtle dove as it is heard in our land, for it speaks of spring-time come and summer-time about to appear. He is compared to the wind, a mighty rushing wind. Get into the draught of that wind, I beseech you, it is a trade wind that wafts us to our desired haven. True, it destroys, but it destroys only what we are better rid of Dead wood, broken branches, withered leaves, these He sweeps away as with a bosom. They are better gone. “ Thy Spirit is good.” In whatever form He works or acts upon us He is welcome. (Thomas Spurgeon.) Psalms 143:11 Quicken me, O Lord. What is religion? In the New Testament the word “ quicken” sets forth an idea which is at the very core of religion. Dead in trespasses and sins originally, the man, as Christ makes him, is alive for evermore. Regeneration is a quickening; sanctification is the continuance and evolution of that quickening which began in the new birth. It is a remarkable thing that the same word “ quicken” should occur in the Old Testament only in the Psalms, and there almost always as a prayer. The great advantage of the prayers for quickening, and the expressions about it in the Psalms is, that they show us the meaning of the idea and instruct us about it. What quickening is comes out in the result; and the result is variously expressed thus--quicken us and “ we will call in Thy name,” and again quicken me, and “ so I shall keep the testimony of Thy mouth” ; or, again, as a cure for worldliness the prayer is offered, “ Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity; quicken Thou me in Thy way.” The idea in these prayers is, that the praying soul does not care as it ought for these good things, but knows and confesses that this is a great defect; and consequently asks that it may have the power to care for them. You may remember the case of Darwin, who tells that through devotion to study he lost his interest in music and poetry, going so far as to say that the power to appreciate these which he used to have had died out for want of use. He was sorry for this, and he might be supposed to wish for and even to pray for the restoration of that faculty so exquisitely delightful and so much to be desired. He might be supposed to take steps to re-awaken it. His feeling, if not his words, would be, “ Quicken me in this; make me sensitive in this. Let my ear have the power to appreciate, and my heart the sensitiveness to feel the power of music and of genuine poetry. Quicken me.” That is just what the prayer means in higher matters still. Each one of us has lost many faculties and powers through sin. Our heart is hardened. We cannot see the good, the beauty of some things that are really good. Nothing is more common than to see this illustrated in different ways in different men. How many have a taste for what is intellectual, artistic, natural--for works of philanthropy and charity? How many have the ear that can hear the cry of the needy, or the heart to feel for the oppressed? Are not some so unpitiful and uncharitable, and cruel that they are not aware of their heartlessness? Surely then this is the time when with deep humility and penitence the prayer should be offered for quickening; that the things to which the soul is now sensitive and rejoices should cease to delight, and that the power should be given, or should be restored, of delighting in the true, the good, the beautiful as these are approved of God, and of all right men. Surely the heart’ s cry should be--“ Quicken me so that my soul will respond as the soul of Christ to the will of the Father, and to the deep necessities of those in sin and suffering. Quicken me that I may so prize the good that my soul shall, as the soul of Christ, pity the lost, the perishing, the sinful. Quicken me, so that my present insensitiveness, and callousness, and very blindness should disappear, and something of the gentleness, the penitence, the pitifulness, the self-sacrificingness of Christ may be awakened in my soul. Quicken me that I may be a man, not a monster--a man with a heart and a conscience; and not a mere human animal with a covetous eye, a grasping hand, and a selfish, unsympathetic nature. Quicken me that in me the image of God may be renewed, the lost likeness restored, and the family tie of sonship reconstituted. (T. M. B. Paterson.) The Spirit’ s quickening influence In the winter and early spring there seems to be no life in the garden and field and forest. Everything looks dead--twice dead. But it is not so really. Under the surface roots are full of ferment, seeds are swelling, and within the bark of the trees is as much movement as m a city’ s noisy streets. Every fibre is tingling with vital force, and the sap is coursing along the minute channels, and all that is wanted is the breath of the south wind, the warmth of the smiling sun, and the branches will burst into buds, and the earth break out with laughing flowers. So in souls that seem dead, twice dead, the Spirit of God is often at work, and one earnest heaven-sent message calls out the buds of penitence and faith, and it is seen as a very garden of the Lord. Spiritual winter may hold a springtide of blessing and resurrection glory in its chill grasp, but He who commands both can easily transform the one into the other. Psalms 144:1-15 Psalms 144:1-9 Blessed be the Lord my strength, which teacheth my hands to war, and my fingers to fight. The Lord teaching us to fight I do not know what that “ Book of the Wars of the Lord” was which is referred to once or twice in the Old Testament; but I apprehend the Book of Psalms was such a Book to the Israelites, and that it has been such a book to Christendom. We may call it a collection of prayers, hymns, thanksgivings,--what we please,--but a record of fights it assuredly is. And this sentence, which occurs in one of the latest portions of it, is a fit summary of its contents, and a kind of moral to be drawn from the whole of it. I am far from thinking that this sentence applies exclusively to what we designate spiritual conflicts. I should suppose that David, or whoever the writer of the psalm was, gave thanks that he had been able to fight with the Philistines and Ammonites. Nay, I should think he gave thanks that he had been obliged to fight with them; that he had not been allowed to rust in the ease which he would have chosen for himself. Man is made for battle. His inclination is to take his ease: it is God who will not let him sink into the slumber which he counts so pleasant, and which is so sure to end in a freezing death. “ Blessed be the Lord God, who teacheth the hands to war, and the fingers to fight!”1. This thanksgiving is one of universal application: there are some cases in which we shrink from using it, and yet in which we are taught by experience how much better we should be if we dared to use it in all its force and breadth. There are those who feel much more than others the power of fleshly lusts. To withstand these is with them, through education, or indulgence, such an effort as their nearest friends may know nothing of. Oh, what help, then, may be drawn from the text! There is One who does know exactly what I am, and what I can bear. The constitution, the circumstances, are understood by Him; He has ordained them for me. And yet He is not tempting me to sink; He is tempting me to rise. He has allowed me to enter into this conflict that I may come out of it a humbler, sadder, stronger man. He does not desire me to fall in it. The falls I have had are all so many motives and goads to put that trust in Him which they show me that I cannot put in myself. 2. Violent desires or passions remind us of their presence. The fashion of the world is hemming us in and holding us down without our knowing it. A web composed of invisible threads is enclosing us. It is not by some distinct influence that we are pressed, but by an atmosphere full of influences of the most mixed quality, hard to separate from each other. How natural it is to yield to these influences! how very mischievous the effort to resist them often appears,--yes, and is! For how many a man becomes impatient of the habits of that particular society in which he is born; fancies that the habits of some other must be better in themselves or be better for him; flings himself eagerly into it, and finds that the chain which bound him before is more closely about him now. If it galls him, that is something to be thankful for. Blessed be the God of Israel for this! since surely it must be He, and no other, who shows us that we do not want to be loose from government, but to be under a stricter and a more righteous government than that of accident and convention and the floating opinion of an age; that we do not want to be more but less under the yoke of our own fancies and conceits; that self-will and vanity have been the great destroyers of all freedom and manliness in us and in our race; that these have built up that false world which has become our prison-house. Blessed be the Lord God for this! since to such awakenings of the conscience in men we owe all great and earnest reformations, all victories over desperate abuses which private interests established and sustained. 3. Least of all is there any natural energy in us to contend against that enemy who is described in Scripture as going about seeking whom he may devour. There is a natural, and therefore a very general, impression of his existence; there is a sense in all men that in some form or other he is not far from them. But the impulse among rude people is to conciliate the adversary who, as their consciences tell them, has had, and still has, such dominion over them. He is a god whom it is worth while to persuade with litanies and sacrifices that he will spare his victims. By degrees, if there is no counteracting force, he is certain to become the god: he will demand all services for himself. Among the civilized it is otherwise. They are inclined to regard the devil as a fiction of the nursery; it is the shadow of a name which cannot be banished from conversation, nor quite from the thoughts, but it means nothing. Yet something steals over these refined people which they know not exactly how to describe. Apathy, loss of power, despondency,--these are some of the names which they invent for it. Is it not true, then, that the time which boasts to have outlived the evil spirit is the one which is most directly exposed to his assaults? May it not be that our progress, which is not to be denied, and for which we are to feel all gratitude, has brought us into a closer conflict with the spiritual wickedness in high places than our forefathers were ever engaged in? Our progress!--cause for thankfulness, if this is the result of it! Yes; blessed be the Lord God of Israel, who teacheth our hands to war, and our fingers be fight. Blessed is He for bringing us into immediate encounter with His own immediate enemies, that so we may know more than others did of His own immediate presence! It is a terrible thing indeed to have the spirits of indolence and indifference and vanity all about us, and to think that they are mere names and abstractions. But it is a glorious thing to be roused up to the apprehension of them as real enemies, from whom none but a real Friend, an actual Captain of the Lord’ s host, can deliver us! (F. D. Maurice, M. A.) God as our General During the Jacobite rebellion of 1745, Colonel Gardiner, the friend of Dr. Doddridge, and Christian soldier, who was afterwards killed at the battle of Preston-pans, went to Stirling to a meeting of the gentlemen of that town to devise means of opposing the Highlanders, who were approaching under Prince Charles. Wishing to encourage his listeners to make every effort, he dwelt on the deficiencies of the opposing army, showed them its weaknesses, and somewhat boastfully declared that if he were only at the head of a certain regiment which he had formerly commanded he would not fear to encounter the whole rebel force, and he was sure he would then give a good account of them. Just then the Rev. Mr. Erskine, who stood by the Colonel’ s side, whispered into his ear, “ Say under God, Colonel.” At once Gardiner turned, and the hero of a hundred fights replied, “ Oh, yes, Mr. Erskine, I mean that, and with God as our General we must be conquerors.” Christians should never forget that God is their General. It is He who is in command, and who brings the victory. Psalms 144:3-4 Lord, what is man, that Thou takest knowledge of him! The vanity of man; and Christianity its antidote We must take care, in denouncing human depravity, and declaiming on human misery, not to decry human nature; for that would be a procedure of a plainly immoral and irreligious tendency, instead of being praiseworthy; and it would involve untruth. The temple is in ruins, and “ the Great Inhabitant is gone.” But still we meet, here with a broken shaft, and there with a mutilated wreath; although all only sufficient to awaken melancholy remembrances, and make us say, “ Here God once dwelt.” And yet “ man is like to vanity” ; and the moment we have read the text it finds an echo in our bosoms. I. The vanity of man. There are two words in our Bibles with which we are familiar, Death and Vanity. They are both employed to express the desolate estate into which man’ s fall has plunged him. Death sometimes includes the sin of that estate as well as its penal consequences. So sometimes does vanity. It is sometimes used as but another name for sin (Psalms 12:2; Job 15:35; Romans 1:21; Ephesians 4:17). But it appears to be the more appropriate function of the Bible-word to express the penal consequences of sin (Job 15:31; Psalms 78:33; Romans 8:20). Sin has driven all the originally solid and desirable out of man. It has left him the lifeless, bloodless, unsubstantial ghost of what once he was.1. The life of man is perishable and ephemeral. 2. It is very far from yielding him satisfaction while it lasts. Man cannot find what he was made to find. He is like a long-lost child, with faint and melancholy recollections lingering in him of a sunny land and a pleasant home. And, closely connected with this, man cannot make of life what he has shrewd suspicions it was given to him that he might make of it. It is soon to end; and yet he knows that he has not been turning it to the right account; and, what is worse, he feels that even yet he cannot do so. Go then it must, and he can make nothing to his satisfaction out of it. II. Christianity the antidote of human vanity.1. It brings redemption by the Son of God. 2. It brings regeneration by the Spirit of God. 3. It gives faith in God. 4. It opens up the glorious spiritual world to view, and intercourse, and hope. (H. Angus.) Man I. An intellectual problem.1. What is man in his constitution? (1) What is he corporeally? Medical science, from the beginning, has concerned itself with this question, and, as yet, has reached no satisfactory solution. (2) What is he mentally? Psychology has pondered on this question for ages, and has not, up to the present hour, reached a satisfactory explanation. (3) What is he morally? Ethical science has employed its most earnest efforts in order to find out whether man is a moral being or not, and, if he is, what are his distinguishing faculties, and what his ultimate destiny. 2. What is man in his relations? His relations to the material and the spiritual, the human and the Divine. 3. What is man in his character? Has he fallen from a higher type of character, or is he gradually rising out of a lower? Is his moral character a progressive evolution? Here is the problem, “ What is man?” “ Truly,” says Sir Thomas Browne, “ the whole creation is a mystery, and particularly that of man.” “ Man,” says Carlyle, “ stands in the centre of nature, his fraction of time encircled by eternity, his hand-breadth of space encircled by infinitude.” II. A religious sentiment.1. The exclamation assumes that the Almighty does take special notice of man. The shepherd is interested in his one lost sheep. The housewife in her one lost piece of silver. The father in his one lost son. 2. The exclamation breathes the spirit of amazement at this. It is so contrary to what might antecedently have been expected, so contrary to what a guilty conscience would have foreboded. (David Thomas, D. D.) Worthless man much regarded by the mighty God I. Scriptural solution of the question.1. As a creature of God, man is-- (1) A piece of modified dust, enlivened with the breath of God (Genesis 2:7; 1 Corinthians 15:47).(2) A potter’ s vessel, that is easily dashed and broken (Psalms 2:9; Romans 9:21).(3) Grass (Isaiah 40:6-8).(4) The drop of a bucket, etc. (Isaiah 40:15).(5) Nothing, and less than nothing (Isaiah 40:17). 2. As a fallen creature, man is-- (1) Diseased, overrun with a loathsome leprosy from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot: the disease of sin has invaded the very vitals, insomuch that the very mind and conscience is defiled and wasted, etc.(2) Ugly and loathsome (Job 15:16).(3) Impotent and helpless.(4) Rebellious.(5) Condemned.(6) Noxious and hurtful.(7) Noisome.(8) Dead (Ephesians 2:1) II. What is imported in God’ s regarding man, or making account of him.1. That he is yet not beyond God’ s notice and observation. 2. That the regard God shows unto man does not flow from anything in himself. 3. That it is the fruit of His own free grace and sovereign will and pleasure. 4. That God has no need of man. 5. That God’ s mercy and love unto man, and the son of man, is of a preventing nature: man is not seeking after God when He takes knowledge of him in a way of mercy. 6. That whatever man be, however despicable, low, and inconsiderable, yet God treats him as if he were some great and considerable person. Hence He is said to magnify him (Job 7:17). III. Wherein doth God discover His regard unto man?1. Take a short view of the regard that God shows in common unto all men. (1) Observe what regard God showed unto man, that petty, poor creature, at his creation. (2) Consider the regard God shows unto man in the course of His common providence, and that notwithstanding his apostasy. (a) Although we be all transgressors from the very womb, yet He continues a succession of men upon the earth. (b) See the wonderful care that God has in and about the formation of man in the womb. (c) Whenever man is brought into the world, although he is the most helpless creature in himself, yet He has provided the best of help to cherish and preserve him. 2. Take a view of the good of His chosen. (1) Before time.(2) In time.(3) After time ends, in eternity (1 Corinthians 2:9). IV. Show that this is truly wonderful and surprising.1. It is surprising, if we consider God’ s infinite and amazing greatness and glory. 2. It is surprising, if we consider what man is, what a poor, inconsiderable, contemptible creature he is, both as a creature and as a sinner.3. It is surprising and wonderful, because it cannot be conceived or expressed; it runs beyond all thought and all words. V. Application.1. See hence the folly of all such as are taken up in admiring any created excellency, either to be found in themselves, or others of the human raze, without running up to the fountain head, an infinite God, from whom all being, beauty, glory, and excellency doth flow. 2. See hence the horrid ingratitude of sinners in waging war against God, who is so good and so kind unto man. 3. See hence the way and method that God takes to “ lead sinners to repentance” : why, He just pursues them with His kindness, and draws them “ with cords of a man, with bands of love; knowest thou not, O man, that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?” 4. Is God so good and so kind to worm man? then see hence, what a reasonable command the first command of the law is, “ Thou shalt have no other gods before Me.” 5. See hence the criminal nature of the sin of unbelief, which is a saying upon the matter, God is not to be trusted, notwithstanding all His kindness, pity, and love to man. 6. Is God so kind to man? worm, worthless many Is the regard that He shows to us so surprising and wonderful? then let us discover a regard to Him, and to everything that belongs to Him. (1) In His works of nature.(2) In His works of providence.(3) In His Christ.(4) In His Scriptures.(5) By attending His courts. (E. Erskine.) The Divine condescension I. The Great Being who regards--Jehovah.1. Infinitely blessed in Himself. (1) Independent.(2) All-sufficient. 2. He has dominion over all. 3. He is well acquainted with all our conduct. 4. He hates sin with an infinite hatred. II. The object regarded--man.1. A most mean object. 2. A most frail being. 3. Singularly poor. (1) Spiritually destitute.(2) Spiritually deep in debt.(3) Unable to escape his creditor. 4. Spiritually loath-some. 5. Full of malignity. III. The nature of the regard shown by God to man. God hath shown his love to man--1. By assuming wonderfully gracious characters. David exclaimed, “ Lord, what is man,” etc., immediately after he had been surveying some of God’ s principal titles. “ Blessed be the Lord my strength,” etc. 2. By conceiving many kind thoughts about his welfare. 3. By uttering many gracious expressions to him and concerning him. 4. By acting a gracious part towards him. 5. By conferring favours upon him. 6. By what He has endured for him. (E. Brown.) A fourfold wonder Consider man-- I. In a state of nature. “ Of few days, and full of trouble.” “ As soon as we are born, we go astray, speaking lies.” “ Lord, what is man?” An immortal creature, and yet his immortality uncared for! A corrupt creature, and yet no holiness sought! A blind creature, and yet no sight implored! A redeemed creature, and yet that redemption slighted and forgotten! II. In a state of grace. “ Old things have passed away.” Old habits, old associations, old acquaintances, no longer please. “ All things have become new.” The man has new motives, new desires, new feelings, and he delights in the society and friendship of new companions. III. In a state of torment. “ Man dieth; man wasteth away; he giveth up the ghost, and where is he?” The wicked will rise “ to shame and everlasting contempt.” IV. In a state of glory. “ Whom He justifies, them He also glorifies.” He gives grace, and He gives glory, and no good thing will He withhold from you, if you are only His children, washed in His blood, sanctified by His Spirit, and robed in His righteousness. (C. Clayton, M. A.) Psalms 144:4 His days are as a shadow. Human life a shadow I. A shadow is compounded of light and darkness; for when no object intercepts the light of the sun, or when the light of the sun is withdrawn, no shadow is produced. In like manner, the state of man in the present world is made up of joy and sorrow; while, as in the emblem, the latter greatly preponderates. II. A shadow seems to be something, when in reality it is nothing. If you grasp it, you prove its emptiness. The pleasures, riches, and honours of the present world seem important to the eye of the carnal mind when viewed at a little distance; they attract attention, excite desire, and are eagerly pursued. But when, the object being attained, they are closely examined, how empty and unsatisfactory do they prove! III. A shadow is the subject of continual changes, till at length it finally and suddenly ceases. In the morning, when the sun first rises above the horizon, it is weak and extended to a great length. Towards noon it gains strength, and is contracted in its dimensions. From thence to sunset it gradually becomes less distinct, and at last suddenly and wholly disappears. Man, survey in this emblem thy life l How lively and affecting the description! (Cf. Job 14:1-2; James 4:14). IV. A. Shadow cannot exist longer than the sun’ s continuance above the horizon, and is every moment liable to annihilation by the intervention of a cloud. In like manner, human life generally lasts but threescore years and ten, or four-score years; and may, by a sudden accident or the power of disease, be much curtailed. V. A shadow, when gone, leaves no track of its existence behind. This also is the case with the riches, pleasures, and honours of the world. This world is no further substantial, or of importance, than as it stands connected with the next. (The Christian Guardian.) Psalms 144:5 Touch the mountains, and they shall smoke.The kindling of the heart It must be striking indeed to any one living in the neighbourhood of a chain of volcanoes to see those mountains which have long lain dormant suddenly tremble and throw up smoke. It must seem to them as though God laid His finger on the mountain peak, and called its hidden forces into activity, as the touch of a musician on the key of an instrument awakes a musical note. Some such scenes, transacted in the moral world, are quite as striking as those which occur in the material world. There are human natures which are cold and impassive, which become full of emotion and glow with heat at the touch of God. It was so at Pentecost. Before that day how faint-hearted, narrow-minded, short-visioned were the apostles. But how changed were they after the cloven tongues had rested on their heads. Fear was banished, their caution had disappeared, trampled down by their zeal, their understandings were illumined, their hearts burned with the fire of love, it was woe to them if they preached not the Gospel. “ If He do but touch the mountains, they shall smoke.” And now, what are we to learn from this? That there are times when God touches the heart, and the emotions are stirred. Perhaps the conscience is agitated by remorse for sin, perhaps with a sudden pang of sorrow for wasted opportunities, perhaps it quakes with fear of the judgments of God, perhaps there comes the flame of Divine love touching the heart, as a taper touches the wick of a candle, bidding it flame. And what then? If the feeling be allowed to be transient, if it be not followed up by an act of will, accepting the call, responding to grace, if it be followed by no resolutions, no struggle for amendment,--then it is the old story of Felix, and Agrippa, and Simon the Sorcerer over again. But, oh! if the touch of the finger of God calls up the long dormant will, if resolutions of amendment are formed, and a struggle be entered on which is to continue through life, then it is the old and beautiful story over again of Magdalen penitent and loving much, of Peter weeping and rising courageous to die for his Lord, of Saul the persecutor becoming Paul the preacher of righteousness, of John Boanerges transformed into the apostle of love. If ever your heart is stirred, at once turn the emotion to account, transform the feeling into practice. Then the feeling does not pass away for ever, it has left its trace, it has stirred your whole being, and has begun to transform your life. The whole mount of your heart will quake with the consciousness of sin, and your affections will smoke altogether as an offering of a sweet savour to God. (S. Baring Gould, M. A.) Psalms 144:10 It is He that giveth salvation unto kings. The care of Providence in defence of kings God in the government of the world exercises a peculiar and extraordinary providence over the persons and lives of princes. I. Upon what account any act of God’ s providence may be said to be peculiar and extraordinary.1. When a thing falls out beside the common and usual operation of its proper cause. 2. When a thing falls out beside or contrary to the design of expert, politic, and shrewd persons, contriving or acting in it. 3. When a thing comes to pass visibly and apparently beyond the power of the cause immediately employed in it. II. How and by what means God does after such an extraordinary manner save and deliver princes.1. By endowing them with a more than ordinary sagacity and quickness of understanding above other men (1 Kings 4:29; Proverbs 20:8; Proverbs 25:5). 2. By giving them a singular courage and presence of mind in cases of difficulty and danger (1 Samuel 10:9; 1 Samuel 11:6). 3. By disposing of events and accidents in a strange concurrence for their advantage and preservation. 4. By wonderfully inclining the hearts and wills of men to a benign affection towards them (2 Samuel 19:14). 5. By rescuing them from unseen and unknown mischiefs prepared against them. 6. By imprinting a certain awe and dread of their persons and authority upon the minds of their subjects (Daniel 5:12). 7. By disposing their hearts to such virtuous and pious courses as He has promised a blessing to; and by restraining them from those ways to which He has denounced a curse. And this is the greatest deliverance of all; as having a prospect upon the felicity of both worlds, and laying a foundation for all other deliverances. III. The reasons why Providence is so much concerned in the salvation and deliverance of kings.1. They are the greatest instruments in the hand of Providence to support government and civil society in the world. 2. They have the most powerful influence upon the concerns of religion, and the preservation of the Church, of all other persons whatsoever. IV. Some useful deductions.1. The duty and behaviour of princes towards God. It shows them from whom, in their distress, they are to expect, and to whom, in their glory, they are to ascribe, all their deliverances. 2. Does not God by such a protecting providence over kings point out to us the sacredness of their persons? and command a reverence where tie Himself thinks fit to place an honour? Does not every extraordinary deliverance of a prince carry this inscription upon it in the brightest characters, “ Touch not Mine anointed” ? (R. South, D. D.) Psalms 144:11-15 Rid me, and deliver me from the hand of strange children.A wise, patriotic prayer I. The cultivation of moral worth amongst young people is of vast importance to a state. The moral character which the patriot here desiderates for the young people of his country is presented in two ways.1. By a moral contrast (verse 11). 2. By a metaphorical description (verse 12). (1) Growth.(2) Strength.(3) Beauty. II. The connection between the moral worth of young people and the physical prosperity of a country. The patriot prays for the moral excellence of the young people, not merely for their own sake, but also for the sake of the prosperity of the state (Psalms 144:13-15).1. All the provisions necessary to the material happiness of mankind must come from the earth. All the food we require--vegetable and animal--and all the clothing we require, God has shut up in the earth, as in a chest, for our use. There in their rudimental elements are the corn and the cattle, the costumes to screen us from the scorching sun and protect us from the cold winds. 2. These provisions require for their development the suitable agency of man. It is for man to unlock the chest, to bring out the germs and to cultivate them into fruition. Even Paradise would not yield provisions without the tilling hand of Adam. 3. This suitable agency can only be guaranteed by the moral rectitude of the population. A high moral tone of character will stimulate the study of agricultural science, ensure industry, economy and temperance. Thus “ godliness is profitable to all things.” Thus, and thus only, can a state prosper (verse 15). (David Thomas, D. D.) That our sons may be as plants grown up in their youth.--Moral reform essential to national prosperity I. What are the elements of national prosperity?1. Independence. 2. Competent affluence. 3. Sufficient and suitable means of employment for all classes. 4. Freedom. 5. Good laws, well administered. 6. Peace--internal and external. 7. A government and magistrates of a good and excellent kind. 8. A revenue competent to all the purposes of a wise and righteous government. II. These elements of national prosperity and happiness cannot be obtained or preserved except by the influence of true religion.1. The nature and tendency of what is opposed to religion. (1) Selfishness, which makes the heart hard.(2) Indolence and improvidence.(3) Intemperance.(4) Impurity.(5) Disregard to God. 2. True religion produces all those qualities which are the immediate spring and cause of prosperity and happiness. (1) A regard for God.(2) Thoughtfulness.(3) Truth.(4) A deep sense of the value of time, and the end of human existence.(5) Industry and diligence. 6. Attention to duty. 7. Temperance, chastity, etc. (J. P. Smith, D. D.) Ideal youthhood: - I. Its elements.1. Strength. (1) Moral.(2) Intellectual.(3) Physical. 2. Beauty. Not veneered impotency, but polished power. 3. Religiousness. All must be inspired by the Divine. 4. Usefulness. No indolent living for oneself, but a self-sacrificing devotion to the good of others. II. Its realization. Three things necessary.1. Original capacity. (1) Religious instincts.(2) Moral capabilities.(3) Intellectual faculties.(4) Physical powers. 2. Appropriate culture. (1) Based on a radical moral change.(2) Suited to the varied constituents of our being. Our religious nature must be cultured, by forming us to habits of worship. Our moral nature must be cultured, by forming us to habits of truthfulness, purity, honesty, and love. Our intellectual nature must be cultured, by forming us to habits of study. The mind must be disciplined and stored with useful knowledge. Our physical nature must be cultured, by forming us to habits of health. Suitable food, pure air, due exercise, and avoidance of sensual indulgence. 3. Voluntary co-operation. (1) Realize the true object of life. Why are you here? Why are you to be cultured?(2) Make the most of your opportunities. Yours, as English-born in this century, are very great. See that they are eagerly seized and diligently used.(3) Be actuated by the highest motives. Not selfish, but benevolent and pious motives wilt lead you on to ideal youthhood and ideal manhood. (T. Baron.) The ideal young man and young woman 1. The young man is compared to a tree which is, of course, not inside the house, but out in the open; not sheltered within the walls, but exposed to all the vicissitudes of the atmosphere and to changes of climate. He has gone forth to battle with the forces of the world, and to do his work in it. Firmly rooted in the ground, he grows up (as the psalm says) “ in his youth.” He throws out his faculties and powers freely in every direction. The rough winds of life blow around him, but he wrestles with them, and heeds them not: indeed, the blast of difficulty only serves to fix him more deeply in the soil, and contributes to his courage and his strength. He grows upward: there is nothing interposing itself between him and heaven itself--no overhanging vice, no deadening sin or stiffing worldliness, to stunt and dwarf his development. He expands because he reaches out towards the sky. What a graphic picture of the ideal Christian gentleman in the prime vigour of his youth! with nothing squalid, or mean, or miserable, or petty, or unclean, or false about him; but with all his thoughts pure, and all his aims noble, and all his tendencies in the right direction: his life an example and a blessing, a help and a strength to those who come in contact with him. 2. Now turn to the other side and observe the contrast. Here we have something in the house, and not outside of it. It is not a tree: it is a graceful column. It is not intended for rough contact with the crowd. It is rather the ornament and the blessing of the house itself. And it is sculptured into forms of exquisite beauty. You will observe that no clumsy workman has been engaged in producing it, but that, although it may be intended for an ordinary household, it is hewn and fashioned in such a way as to be fit for a palace. The daughter--that is, the young woman here depicted--is spoken of as a column. Not characterized, as some columns are, by sturdy, massive strength, but rather marked by gracefulness; rather a slender-shafted column than anything else, she is yet no mere piece of ornamentation, but does her part in the sustaining and upholding of the household. If a girl cannot go out into the world and labour, so as to be able to contribute by her earnings to the maintenance of the family (and few can do that), at least there are many conceivable ways in which she may contrive to lighten the burden laid upon the shoulders of her parents. Parents grow old; and what in their younger days was easily borne becomes (occasionally, at least) irksome, and sometimes almost intolerable, to their failing strength and their clouded faculties. Or sickness comes into the household, and calls for patient nursing. Or little brothers and sisters require management, and perhaps teaching. Or it may be a blight falls upon the family prosperity; and then there must be a curtailing of accustomed comforts, and a necessary taking up of somewhat uncongenial occupations. But the imagery points net only, I think, to the work done, but also to the manner in which it is done. A pillar may support a rock, or help to support it, and yet be a coarse and clumsy sort of affair after all. It may be rough, instead of being polished. But this pillar spoken of by the psalmist is polished; and not only polished, but adorned with lovely sculptures. And there it stands before us, in its quiet gracefulness and beauty, a most engaging and most attractive object. Now, what is meant by this? External accomplishment? Well, yes, perhaps--nay, probably yes--the grace of a self-possessed and ladylike manner, the charm of a cultivated taste, of a musical voice, of a pure style--all the advantages, in fact, of a well-used education. These are things by no means to be despised. And, indeed, it were much to be wished that the girls of our ordinary English families, when their course of instruction is over, would take up, if only for their own sakes, some definite study--some branch of science, or some field of literature, or some period of history, or some foreign language, or some department of music, or of painting--something which shall find them occupation, and furnish a sphere for the faculties which God has bestowed upon them, and which at the same time shall not interfere with their duties, but rather make them more fit for any higher work for God and their fellow-creatures in which they may be called upon to engage. However, the polish and the gracefulness of which I speak is rather that of inward life and character, than that of outward accomplishments. It is the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is, in the sight of God, of great price. It is the tender consideration, the loving sympathy, the unselfish regard, the purity, and the gentleness, and the compassion which, if they are to be found anywhere in their highest perfection, are surely to be found in the women who are true followers and disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ. (G. Calthrop, M. A.) Plants grown up in their youth The ancients, in their building arrangements, did just the opposite of what we do. We construct our houses with the garden in front or behind. They build them with the garden inside. And so when you entered the porch you found yourself in a court, with the rooms all round. In the houses of the wealthy this court was laid out with wonderful taste, adorned with shrubs and trees, with fountains and fishponds, and elegant statuary. In some instances it was paved with coloured marbles, shadowed by olive and acacia trees, and surrounded by a piazza, whoso entablature rested on columns or pilasters (called by the Greeks caryatides), which were commonly carved after the figure of a woman dressed in long robes. Now, I think I catch the idea in my mind of the sacred poet. Two objects in that central court specially arrest his eye; the one being the young but sturdy trees that grow up so vigorous within the enclosure, and the other the polished pillars or pilasters that stand so gracefully around; and to his mind they are respectively the suggestive emblems of the sons and daughters of a pious and prosperous household. For young men David desired-- I. A healthful frame; a strong, robust, vigorous physique. It has been said that, as righteousness is the health of the soul, so health is the righteousness of the body. You who have a sound and well-disciplined body, with the appetite and elasticity that go along with it--even though you cannot boast of more than a mediocrity of talent, and are unpossessed of wit and imagination--will outstrip, in the race for real happiness and usefulness, those nervous and morbid creatures whose only compensation is the occasional gleam of a fitful and spasmodic genius. II. A solid character. The figure in the text is tropical, and certainly the writer had in his mind’ s eye some such tall and stately species of growth as he refers to by name in another psalm, where he says, “ The righteous shall flourish as a palm-tree; he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon.” “ Character,” says Foster, “ should retain the upright vigour of manliness; nor let itself be bent and fixed in any specific form. It should be like an upright elastic tree, which, though it may accommodate itself a little to the wind, never loses its spring and self-dependent vigour.” I have often seen mere youths whose dignity of bearing was like a coat of mail to them, and to others was a perpetual sermon. “ Under whose preaching were you converted?” said one young man to another. “ Under no one’ s preaching,” was the reply, “ but under my cousin’ s practising.” Ah! a consistent life, whose manifest aim is not the pursuit of pleasure, but the performance of duty, is mightier in its testimony than all the eloquence of the pulpit. In like manner you may be lifted above the common level, notwithstanding all the natural difficulties which would keep you down; aye, these very difficulties may be ultimately the means of your elevation. III. A hidden life. Doubtless, what chiefly struck the eye of the psalmist as he looked on those young trees was their exuberant vitality. Whence the height of their stems, the extension of their branches, the greenness of their foliage, the fulness of their bloom? There was a life within, which, springing from the root, made itself felt to the remotest leaf and fibre. Under the warm and genial influence of a tropical climate, sheltered within the enclosure, yet open to the light and rain and dew, those trees were no doubt pictures of full luxuriant life. That life came from God. It is equally so in the spiritual domain. Each of you needs that which no human power can communicate, and without which the fairest religious profession is only a painted corpse. Personal and saving religion is no development from within, no product of moral evolution; it is something whose germ must be imparted to you by the Holy Spirit; and without which germ you are, in the sight of God, absolutely dead. (J. T. Davidson, D. D.) The education of character 1. Let me speak, first, to parents and to teachers. What ideals have we as parents for our children; and what ideals have we as to the kind of education which will best secure these ideals? I think it is true that we as a nation have an unreasoning distrust of ideals. We know ourselves strictly practical, and we condemn ideals as visionary and futile. But is it visionary, is it useless to try to form some notion of the best and truest and completest life possible for our children, and the best means of attaining it? What would we wish their lives to be? How may they best be trained for such lives? Knowledge, we say, is power; and too often it seems to be that the acquisition of knowledge is the goal of education. Our ideas of education are shaped by the periodical visit of the examiner or the inspector. The temptation is to aim at immediate results and plant the kind of crop which will spring up quickly and be easily harvested, rather than at such patient development and training of powers as will produce solid and permanent results, though we may have to wait for the harvest. But there is a greater power than knowledge--it is character. What tells in the long run is character. True education will be such a training as will draw out, develop, strengthen the faculties which each child possesses to fit it for its duty in life. It will aim at awakening intelligence and stimulating the growth of character. It will take account of the mysterious complexity of our nature--body, mind, soul, spirit--with their mysterious correlation and interaction, so that a due balance may be preserved; the flesh help soul, and the soul help flesh. It will remember, too, that each human being is a distinct personality, and true education is the individual’ s development according to the truth of his own personality, or for the action which lies within range of his capacity. Such education of the character must be religious education--that is to say, it must be carried on in a religious atmosphere by teachers who regard it as a religious work and connect their teaching by their own examples. Religious education is not merely or mainly instruction in religious subjects, in Bible or Catechism for a certain time in the day, but education carried on in a religious spirit. “ If I were to have to choose,” said Bishop Creighton, “ between two systems of education, in one of which purely secular teaching was to be given by a religious man, and in the other religious teaching by a secular man, I should have no hesitation in saying which system I would choose in the interest of religion as well as education. I would rather have the religious-minded leader though the subject he taught were secular, because I know that the devotion of his heart would penetrate whatever he did, and perchance the fire that was in him might fall on others with whom he came in contact, and kindle a corresponding flame in their hearts.” Our ideal, then, will be an education which will develop the individual personality of each separate child for the action which lies within the range of its capacity, which will aim, above all, at the development of worthy character, and which will find its sanction and obligation for conduct in the relation of the child to its Father in heaven, who has taken it into covenant with Him. 2. I want to say a word, next, to those who, though not yet in a position of responsibility towards others, have left school and are emancipated from the discipline of education imposed upon them from outside. You are responsible for self-education. To each of us is entrusted the building up of our own character; to fulfil that duty we must not only guard against moral faults, we must improve every talent we possess, we must widen our interests, we must sharpen our faculties careful effort. And why? For your own sake. Many a life has been wrecked for want of taking a chart and setting a course and steering steadily along it with steady purpose instead of passing hither and thither, the sport of every wind and circumstance, until it was driven upon some sandbank, where it stuck fast hopelessly or was dashed to pieces against the rocks, which if they had known they might have avoided. 3. I just want to say one word to those who are still under the discipline of school life. Boys and girls, use your opportunities. It matters quite as much how you learn as what you learn; perhaps more. By the way in which you do your lessons you are surely acquiring, mentally and morally, habits of attention, concentration, thoughtfulness, industry, trustworthiness principally, or habits of carelessness, desultoriness, slackness, indolence, indifference. There are plenty of lessons which will not be of any direct use to you in after life; there are none which will not have served some useful purpose in developing intelligence and building up character. (Prof. Kirkpatrick.) Plants and corner stones This is a weighty prayer expressed in a poetical way. Poetry, it is scarcely needful to say, is not inconsistent with the deepest earnestness and the greatest solidity of thought. Indeed, it may be said that the highest degree both of solidity and earnestness finds its fit utterance in terms of the imagination. You will observe that this verse depends upon the preceding one--“ Rid me and deliver me from the hand of strange children that our sons may be as plants.” It is implied that the separating of the strange and false is necessary to the true welfare of the others. Strange children are those of an alien spirit, who had a tendency and purpose entirely foreign to that of Israel. Their pleasure was in the unreal, the hollow, the false. Their life was not controlled by the truth of God, but swayed by caprice, passion, and false ideas. The young are peculiarly susceptible to such influences. They are sometimes absolute slaves of those of their own age who are more vigorous, confident, and aggressive than themselves. Hence the force of the prayer, “ Rid me from strange children that our sons may be as plants.” This connection also shows, if anything were needed to show it, that the psalmist has in view the qualities of the soul. I. Both figures express, in different ways, the notions of fixity and substance. Both plant and column are fixed and steady. The plant is fixed by its roots into the earth: the column fixed into the building. Fixity is essential to both. Young men and young women, will you remember this: fixity of root, of foundation, is the first necessity? Be rooted. Strike into the great truths and remain there; else there is no reality, no substance. All men acknowledge the need of fixed principles and beliefs. You must have a fixed belief about the rising of the sun and its setting. There must be a fixed belief in the seasons, in the coming of winter and spring and summer and autumn. If men did not hold these beliefs fixed as the basis of their activity the human world would come to a stop. So life must be rooted in fixed belief in God, and the way of reconciliation and fellowship with Him. This belief alone gives meaning and purpose and substance to life. The more you are rooted and fixed in great truths the stronger and more substantial you will be. II. Growth and permanence are both set forth in the text. Growth belongs just as necessarily to the conception of a plant as permanence does to that of a column. I have been speaking of the necessity of fixity, of having the root fixed in great truths. Does this seem to any one inconsistent with growth? How can we be growing and changing if we are fixed? If we are indissolubly bound to anything how can we grow? I ask, how can the plant grow, immovably fixed to one spot? How does it grow but by being fixed? Growth of soul and spirit is the result of holding firmly to great central truths and drawing the very pith of them into the being. With the strength of these in him one lays hold of more. These great truths lead the soul to more. They cry for more; they guide and direct and clear the horizon, and give man a spirit, courage, and impulse for more. Growth and permanence must go together. III. In the plant and the column we have represented individualism, separateness, independence, and, on the other hand, combination, unity, mutual help, and support. The true conception of human life is the union of these two tendencies. He is the best and strongest man who is individual, self-reliant, independent, and yet has the woman’ s love for the general reason, generous trust, wide sympathies; and who trusts above all things the deep feelings which he has in common with all men. IV. The text spears of two different kinds of beauty--that of the plant, the beauty of nature; that of the sculptured column, the beauty of culture. These are two sides of the same: the one is not to be attributed to man specially, and the other specially to woman. We are reminded that all beauty of soul must be the result both of nature and of cultivation. That the soul may be beautiful, it must be a living soul, living by contact with the infinite, in fellowship with God. This is truly the beauty of nature, the deepest nature. Young men and young women, let us think that we have a God who delights in our happiness, a loving God. And let this make us glad. Such a gladness has a powerful influence. The gladness of a devout heart has a healing, sweetening, purifying influence on the whole being. Remember also that you owe it to the world and to God to cultivate your mind and heart. This is your time to grow. Your first duty is to grow mentally, morally, spiritually yourselves. Your fresh enthusiasm is given you for the purpose of growth. Try both how devout you can be, and how well stored and educated your mind can be made, and you will be a mighty force in the world for good. (J. Leckie, D. D.) Plants and stones (To children): This verse is very easy to understand, because it teaches us what boys and girls ought to be like. I. Boys. God wishes to see them like “ plants grown up in their youth.” Like plants, not like weeds. Do you know the difference between plants and weeds? I will only name one or two. Weeds are not wanted; plants are prized. Some boys grow up like weeds. A whole wagonload of weeds is not worth anything. The best thing that can be clone with the weeds is to burn them up out of the way. Now, there are some boys who grow up like thistles, or like nettles, or like docks; there is no demand for them. They are not wanted in offices, nor in shops, nor on ships, nor in factories, or warehouses, or schools, or colleges. They are not wanted in America, or Australia, or New Zealand, or, in fact, in any part of the world beside. But plants are valued in many ways. Some are prized for their beauty and fragrance, as the flowers; some are healing, medicinal plants; and some are valued, like the strawberry plants, for the good fruit they bear. Boys may, if they will, be valued in all these ways at once. Now, boys, what will you be? Plants or weeds? This is the time in which to make your choice. Like Samuel, know the Lord from your boyhood; for (Job 28:28). The voice of Wisdom says to you (Proverbs 8:17). II. Girls. Let us now see what message the text has for them. It desires that they may be “ like corner stones, polished after the similitude of a palace.” What does that mean? First, it teaches that girls should have in their characters great firmness and strength. Like a rock, or a massive corner stone, they must never be moved from the place God has appointed for them. There is a great deal of difference between a rock and a sponge or an india-rubber ball. One is solid, firm, and unyielding, the others are soft, pliable, and may be pressed into any shape whatever. Some girls are like sponges; they will be persuaded to do almost anything, without thinking whether it is right or wrong; while others, having chosen the right way, are like a splendid corner stone that has been placed in the wall of a building, there to abide as long as the edifice lasts. Nothing can move them from their foundation. But a corner stone also unites two sides of a building. It looks along both sides of a wall, and joins them both together. In this way sisters may be the bonds of a household. In many homes that are commonly very happy little differences do sometimes occur. Let it be your special work to soothe and heal them. It is almost impossible to say how great is the power of gentle sisterly love in any home. There is one thing more for you in the text, and that is the phrase, “ polished after the similitude of a palace.” This is a very beautiful figure. The daughters of the Church are not only to be firm and immovable in all that is good, and like bonds of union in their homes and everywhere else, but they ere to have a finish, a smoothness, and perfection of character about them that will make them fit to be placed in the palace of the King. (R. Brewin.) Plants and cornices If we alter “ corner stones” into “ cornices” we get a clearer meaning; and as one of our most eminent scholars prefers this rendering, reminding us that “ Syrian architecture still delights in ornamenting corners of rooms with variegated carved work,” we may accept the charge without misgiving. (A. H. Vine.) Soul culture A piece of marble blasted from the quarry may stand as a symbol of strength, but when transformed by the skilful hand of the sculptor it changes into a thing of exquisite beauty. Education in its highest form blends strength with beauty. The higher life abounds in attractive graces. Soul culture develops and blooms into beauty. One of the poets of Israel, with the vision of palaces before him, offers a prayer that the daughters of Judah might be as corner stones, polished into brilliant beauty after the similitude of a palace. (R. Venting.) That our daughters may be as corner stones, polished after the similitude of a palace.-- The model young woman The charming young woman is one of the most useful and beautiful objects of earth; God’ s improvement on man; His masterpiece; a being inspiring those who meet her with all good desires, and worthy of all reverential admiration when one beholds her adorned with the perfections that her Creator has ordained for her glory; Jehovah’ s choicest gift to Adam was such a maiden.1. The charming young woman whom we all know was a girl as long as she could be, and when she passed to the stature of womanhood she put on strength, but not a bit of coarseness or mannishness. She became a womanly woman. Now she is proud of her sex and makes others so. She is sincere and frank. There is no mask on her face and no humbug in her make-up. She loves truth for its own sweet sake. She is full of conscious moral power, and never feels the need of having recourse to that common weapon of weaker feminines--falsehood. Out of such materials the brave Deborah, the virtuous Vashti, the consecrated Esther, and the patient Virgin Mary were composed. 2. The charming young woman is full of fine feelings. She loves and cultivates the beautiful, and her soul naturally clings to the elegant in nature, as it does also to the spiritual splendours of God. Her fine feelings recoil from unreined gush and lawless sentiment, but easily run into the ways of generous charity. She has tears for suffering and kindly ministries for those who need. Yet in peril or necessity there are principles to guard, or to nerve to heroic effort. The days she tenderly played mother to her dolls were true forerunners of the devoted services of her maturer years. She may be beautiful of features, but is generally not so. “ Beauty is vain.” Flattery or worshipping self before a mirrored shrine usually spoils our handsome girls. 3. The charming young woman does not rest her power of fascination upon her shapeliness nor her array of second-hand clothes borrowed from the ostrich and silk-worm. Her charm-power is from within. Her ideal is industrious. She abhors a sublimation of herself into a mere fitness to occupy a glass case, too fragile to move, too mightily fine for any vigorous use. She is a princely one, after the style of Rebecca the water-drawer; Rachel the shepherdess, and Tamar the maiden baker. These were all worthy daughters of kings. Our model is independent in the superior sense, not in the “ I don’ t care far any one” import of the term. She cares for everybody. She cares too much on the one hand to be a dead weight on any one, and on the other band she cares too much for herself to be the slave of a capricious “ They say.” 4. Our charmer is pure in heart; the “ racy” jest or double-meaning pun is quickly scouted out of her presence, even when she is among the intimates of her own sex. Her purity is her panoply; a glance of her sincere eye would be to the insinuating rake like a section of the day of judgment. She has principles, and lots of them. She knows why she has them, and keeps them for constant use and not for parlour dress-parade or donation to other people. She is pious. Religion and women were made for each other, and each needs the other. A young woman with no bent easily to accept the Saviour gives evidence of a radical defect in her nature. (A. S. Walsh, D. D.) Psalms 144:14 That there be no complaining in our streets.English pauperism English pauperism is a peculiar product of this island. You see nothing like it anywhere else. Those who have heard me speak on this topic know what an essential difference I draw between pauperism and poverty. Poverty is a relative term. Man may be poor, and yet may be healthy and very happy, and may not need your sympathy. But pauperism describes the conditions of those unhappy fellow-citizens of ours in such wretched circumstances that it is absolutely impossible for them to maintain themselves and their families in health and decency. Now, this kind of extreme poverty or pauperism is quite different from anything that you witness anywhere else. As a distinguished minister of my own church, Dr. Rigg, said a quarter of a century, ago, in a book which he published on the subject of Education, English pauperism is “ a national institution, a legacy from mediaeval times and dregs of an outworn feudalism.” In other words, the peculiar pauperism which exists in this country arises from the fact that the people have been divorced from the soil. (H. P. Hughes, M. A.) Remedy for pauperism Many who have no sympathy with abstract committees would be delighted to help particular cases. If any such committee were able to put affluent men and women into direct relations with some starving families, it would be a great gain every way. This suggestion is not novel. It was made five years ago by a gentleman at the second conference we ever held. Suppose we could get every household represented here to look after one destitute household. Instead of giving their charity here and there, suppose I could introduce you to one family--husband, wife, and children--all in great need of work. You could in various ways assist with practical sympathy and advice as well as with money. I do not know how many families there are likely to be out of work. Suppose 20,000 or 30,000 are in this condition, and suppose I could get 20,000 or 30,000 men and women to undertake to be a real friend to one family each, it would not be a great strain upon their purse or time, and it would be an untold blessing. Oh, that we could do something to bring together into direct personal contact the unprivileged and the privileged! Their separation is the root of the want of social sympathy between them. But let me say that many of those who seem to be the most remote from the poor are deeply touched by their condition, and are extremely anxious to help them. And I think the way suggested by Mr. Arnold White is one of the most effectual. Further, it will be found that if we could only prevent the pauperism occasioned by intemperance, there would scarcely be any pauperism left. (H. P. Hughes, M. A.) Psalms 144:15 Happy is that people whose God is the Lord.A happy people I. Examine what is comprehended in the relation referred to. This may refer--1. To God as the object of religious worship. 2. To Him as the author of every blessing. 3. To the covenant relation in which He condescends to stand to His people. This includes-- (1)Divine acceptance.(2) Delightful intercourse.(3) Pleasing satisfaction. II. Illustrate and confirm the declaration itself. Such persons are happy--1. Because all the Divine perfections are engaged in their behalf. (1) Mercy to pardon their sins, and deliver them from guilt and misery.(2) Wisdom to remove their ignorance, and guide them through the intricate mazes of this world.(3) Power to assist their weakness, and be their guard and defence.(4) Omnipresence to survey them in every possible condition.(5) Holiness to conquer all their depravity.(6) Riches to chase away their poverty.(7) Plenty to supply all their wants. Faithfulness to perform all that has been promised. 2. Because in Him they are assured of finding a refuge in every time of need. 3. Because they are warranted to expect every needful supply. 4. Because in Him they have a friend that sticketh closer than a brother. 5. Because to them all the promises of the Gospel are yea and amen in Christ Jesus. 6. Because they have a sure prospect of being with Him for ever. Learn--1. How mistaken the men of the world are with respect to the people of God.2. How insignificant is the worldling’ s portion.3. How dangerous is the condition of those who have not the Lord for their portion. (T. Lewis.) National religion There is in this psalm the outline-sketch of an ideal people. The tuneful seer pictures a nation whose every citizen is animated by the love of God, a community in which each separate soul is governed and guided by the wisdom which is from above. Redeemed by Divine grace, every man lives to the full the manifold life that is in him. There is no discord between a man’ s duties and his desires, no disproportion and no inequity between the functions of the flesh and those of the mind and spirit. Every man achieves and sustains a large and harmonious life. Recognizing the fatherhood of God, every man realizes and ministers to the brotherhood of man. Freedom is unrestrained by law because conditioned by love. Selfishness is banished under the gracious constraint of truth and charity. Righteousness is wedded to peace. The sunshine of plenty is unsullied by shadows of want. Progress leaves in its train no accumulation of poverty. Law is no longer an imposed coercion but an indwelling and spontaneous rule. Culture is sweetened by piety. Power yields to the loving dominance of gentleness. Religion is crowned with humanity. And upon this happy nation bountiful Nature, as the minister of God, showers the blessings of abundance and content. This splendid ideal, lifted up by Hebrew bard and preacher, given them by inspiration of God, naturally found its clearest expression, its most attractive unfolding, in God’ s Messiah. It was the declared purpose of our Lord Jesus Christ to inaugurate upon earth this kingdom of heaven. With suggestive repetition He spoke of this kingdom, this new society or body politic. He ever looked beyond, while He looked redemptively at, the individuals who gathered around Him. He saw as from a mountain-top the distant beauty of a new heaven and a new earth, and He saw that the path to it lay through the slow achievement of individual conversion. But the end was clear to Him, and certain. The kingdoms of this world are to become the kingdoms of our God and of His Christ. And that is our dream because it is Christ’ s. I. Here, then, we emerge into the broader outlooks and ideals of a truly national movement in religion. It is a movement to win England for Christ through the regeneration of every Englishman by the Spirit. We may get, we ought to toil for, more Christian laws, fairer conditions and better prospects for the people. We may, through the social elevation of men, and through the cleansing of their environment, help to advance them to a higher stage of life. By the organization and impact of Christian opinion we may prevent national iniquity and promote public righteousness. All these instruments of battle and victory are within the Christian armoury. But only through new men can new nations emerge, and only through the patient evangelization of our people can our country become a truly Christian land. II. Let me now remind you that we are moved to this high effort by reverence for Christ and loving passion for men. The first of these motives has already been emphasized. It springs from the belief that everything was made for Christ as well as by Him; that the nations are His inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth His possession. It proceeds upon a broad conception of Christ’ s work as the redemption to God of all life’ s departments and faculties, of all earth’ s dominions and resources. It is fired by the determination to lay at Christ’ s feet everything the world counts glorious, and to place on His head the many crowns. Nothing smaller can satisfy our gratitude or reverence. We cannot rest content till the world for which He died acclaims Him Saviour and King. And we are stirred to the same endeavour by our compassion for men, and by our belief that the Gospel holds the secret of all wealth and joy. It is new life men need, the new life of a pardoned and accepted and endowed soul. And because we possess the secret of it in the Gospel we cannot rest. Its possession is an impulse, its experience a contagion. Its incoming peace creates an outgoing sympathy. We can only keep it by giving it; the heart would break did the mouth not speak. Yes, the enthusiasm of humanity is the essential effect of Christ in the heart. III. It is in no sense derogatory to the sublime spirituality of our theme to say that by love of country, not less than by promptings of piety, are we impelled to this broad mission. Our desire to see England, the land of our birth and love, foremost among the nations in the cause of Christ and humanity, is a distinct and legitimate factor in our zeal. “ Patriotism” is a noble word, and it stands for a grand quality. The England whose glory shines through many clouds, whose fair fame has won affection and scattered blessing the wide world over, is the England of the martyrs, the confessors, those speakers for God who made room for man, whose blood has been the seed of religion and liberty. It is the England of the missionary, the explorer, the emancipator, the philanthropist; the land of the open Book and the free charter, of the pious home and the sacred sanctuary, of the day of rest and the progressive faith; the land where heroes and saints have wrought to make life possible and to stir the grand enthusiasms of a broad humanity. That is our England. Round her our affections cling. For her our prayers arise. In her our faith and hope find anchorage. Love of such an England is love of all mankind through her. The patriotism which is loyal to such a land is the initial form of an enthusiasm for humanity. Hers is the opportunity, and hers the obligation, to lead the world to the knowledge of Christ; to teach mankind how to blend culture with piety, intelligence with faith, spiritual aspiration with practical service, and freedom of action with gracious constraint of obedience. Yes, that, and that supremely, is England’ s mission. IV. Is it possible our dream may be realized? I for one dare believe no less. But as to its probability, that depends. Others before us were called to do God’ s work, and they perished miserably because of failure. That fate may be ours. Should we grow into a nation of idlers, sensualists, atheists, our candlestick will surely be removed out of its place. It depends upon Christian men and Churches whether our sun is to sink in storm. If we would have England saved for her noble destiny, we must be more true in faith and practice. To that noble undertaking let me once more call you. Then shall the past of our country pale before its future. Our song shall be without discord, our glory shall be as the glory of the Lord, and in the gathering of the nations around the throne of the King our fatherland shall be foremost in service and reward. (C. A. Berry, D. D.) The happiness of those whose God is the Lord As a child in any of the families in our midst can only be happy by being docile and obedient and trustful to the wise and benevolent guidance of a godly father, or to the tender leading of a gentle and saintly mother, so, we all acknowledge at least, can we experience the highest good of the soul only by being reverent and truthful towards Him who is the Parent of us all--in whom we live and move and have our being. To be thus is to have Jehovah for our God; and only in this way shall we be happy. Now, if this is true, as unquestionably it is, of individuals, it follows that it must also be so of large collections of individuals or of nations; and this is the idea which the psalmist had principally in his mind when the words of the text were uttered. The true happiness--may I not go farther, and say the true prosperity?--of a nation will rise or fall, advance or recede, just as the love of God and the practice of justice and goodness and generosity and forbearance are or are not prevalent among the people, from the sovereign and the advisers of the crown downwards to the very humblest in the land. The true recognition of God or a conscientious regard for goodness and straightforward dealing, existing to any extent in a vast community, is a solid ground of hope in the midst of national distress or under the cloud of national calamity. If ten righteous men had been found in Sodom that city would have been saved from the destroying fire. Not only a ground of hope, therefore, but also a token of safety--of returning prosperity, of reappearing happiness. It was so as to the experience of God’ s ancient people, commemorated in the psalm from which our text is taken. The wrath of God had kindled against the apostate race; the proud tyrant of Babylon had been permitted to carry them away on account of their sins; but by and by this affliction became a purifying process. The love of God returned to their hearts, and the darkness began to brighten; and here there is anticipated in lofty strains a renewed golden age of power and plenty, of prosperity and happiness. The youth of the land are to be marked by native strength and vigour and freedom, whilst the maidens in their polished gracefulness and quiet beauty are to resemble the exquisitely sculptured forms which adorn the corners of some magnificent hall or chamber of a palace. Plenty both in the produce of the field and in flocks and herds is to be granted by a kindly-disposed Heaven; the very streets of their towns and villages are to re-echo to nothing but sounds of joy and thankfulness. Happiness is to prevail, but that simply because goodness is to be the national characteristic. Not one of us can fail to see most clearly his duty in this connection. We love our country, and we desire to see it great and glorious and free and happy; but let us recollect that the only way in which this result can be obtained is by the individual members of the community devoting themselves to the honest service of goodness--in their homes, at their business, in the company into which they go, at their everyday work, always and everywhere. Thus only shall we be happy individually, and also as a people. (W. M. Arthur, M. A.) . Psalms 145:1-21 Psalms 145:1-21I will extol Thee, my God, O King.The Kinghood of God, and the glory of His providence: - I. The Kinghood of God (Psalms 145:1-13).1. Absolutely incomparable. (1) Majesty incomprehensible.(2) Reign perpetual.(3) Power tremendous. 2. Supremely praiseworthy. (1) By all.(2) At all times.(3) For ever. II. The glory of His providence (Psalms 145:14-21). His kindness to--1. Fallen man. 2. Universal life. The-- (1) extent;(2) seasonableness;(3) readiness;(4) completeness of His providential care. Whatever the wants--corporeal, intellectual, moral, social--He satisfies all. 3. His kindness to the genuinely pious. (1) Its spiritual activity.(2) Its transcendent privilege. (a) Nearness to God. (b) Satisfaction of desires. (c) Salvation from all evil. (3) Its worshipping spirit. (David Thomas, D. D.) The happy duty of daily praise If I were to put to you the question, “ Do you pray?” the answer would be very quickly given by every Christian person, “ Of course I do, and every day, and often in the day.” But let me change the inquiry, and say, “ Do you bless God every day?” I am not sure the answer would be quite so certain, so general, so prompt. Praise is certainly not so common in family prayer as other forms of worship. Be this our resolve: “ I will extol Thee,” etc. We ought to do this, for it is due to God, and praise is pre-eminently characteristic of the true child of God. It is singularly beneficial to ourselves; if we had more of it we should be greatly blest. Besides, unless we praise God here how are we preparing for our eternal home? Now to help in this joyful duty of praise let us turn to our text and see in it-- I. The resolve of personal loyalty.1. He pays homage to God as his King. 2. He personally appropriates God to himself by faith. “ My God.” That word “ my” is a drop of honey, nay, like Jonathan’ s word, it is full of honey. And-- 3. He is firmly resolved to praise God. My text has four “ I wills” in it. And-- 4. He himself will do this. No matter what other people do. Let none of us lose our own personality in the multitude, saying, “ Things will go on very well without me.” Each one of us must praise God. 5. And he will be always doing this In the second clause of our text we have-- II. The conclusion of as intelligent appreciation. “ And I will bless,” etc.1. He presents the worship of inward administration. Therefore he blesses the Divine name. 2. And he meant that he wished well to the Lord. To bless a person means to do that person good. If we cannot give anything to God, we can desire that He may be known, loved and honoured by all men. It seems that David studied the character and doings of God, so that he found nothing in God which he could not praise. And he is very intense over this. “ For ever and ever.” The words run parallel with Addison’ s verse which tells that “ Eternity’ s too short to utter all Thy praise.” Somebody cavilled at that once, and said, “ Eternity cannot be too short.” But in poetry and in praise “ the letter killeth.” Language is poor when the soul is on fire. III. There is also the pledge of daily remembrnace. “ Every day will I,” etc. For the greatness of gifts we have already received demands it. To-day it becomes us to sing of the mercies of yesterday. Each day has its mercy, and should render its praise. If we cannot praise God on any one day for what we have had that day let us praise Him for to-morrow. There is a seasonableness about the praising of God every day. For the praise of God is always in season. The last sentence tells-- IV. The hope of eternal adoration David believed, therefore, that God was unchangeable, and in the immortality of the soul. And his resolve was that while here he would ever praise. But yonder we will praise him better. (C. H. Spurgeon.) God’ s chosen people extolling their Sovereign King I. The sovereignty here asserted.1. In the heart.2. In the Church.3. Over all things--in heaven, earth, hell. II. The experience claimed. “ My God.” He is my Father, and has made me an heir of His kingdom. III. The vow recorded. “ I will extol Thee.”1. With the praises of the lips.2. With the vigour of the new and inner man.3. With the valour of faith. (R. C. Dillon, D. D.) Christ the King of saints Rev. Thomas Spurgeon, preaching on “ Ecee Rex,” tells the story of a soldier’ s death. He was wasted with disease and just about to pass into the unseen world and answer to the muster-roll above. Despite his weakness he sat himself upright in bed, lifted his hand to his forehead in a military salute, and said, “ The King,” and so died. Psalms 145:2 Every day will I bless Thee.A goodly occupation I. The duty imposed.1. It is purely voluntary. Whatever we do must be done “ not grudgingly, or of necessity.” To do it against our will is to render mechanical service. In that there is no manhood. 2. It is personal. David appealed to others (verse 21), for he would have others similarly engaged. But he did not wait for them. Commenced himself: led the way. So must we. 3. In harmony with his understanding, judgment, and feelings. Only so far as there is this agreement or harmony is there any hope of a successful performance of this duty. 4. But how can we bless the Lord? (1) By extolling Him.(2) Praising Him.(3) Loving Him. II. The time set apart. “ Every day.”1. This possesses considerable advantage. Clocks that require “ winding up” once a week, or once in eight or fifteen days, or longer period, are more likely to be neglected than watches and clocks which require daily attention. Then no need of reckoning up. Cannot well go wrong, for it is an “ everyday” work. 2. This is comprehensive; for does not mean, as in case of watch or clock, a particular Nine, but all the time. In other words, that all our life should be devoted to this purpose. 3. Nor is this unreasonable; for only according to the measure whereby we have been blessed. 4. Therefore makes a business of it. Not occasional or spasmodic, but the regular, uninterrupted course. Conclusion--“ Keep, therefore, and do” this, “ for this is your wisdom and your understanding.” (J. H. Thompson.) Daily devotion I. An obligation. As such it calls forth--1. Reflection. Providence is a great panorama; the Bible is a vast picture-gallery; the human race is an endless orchestra; and the whole an exhibition of infinite wisdom, power, and love. The true observer is filled with calmness, reverence, worship, and his soul ascends Godward in the incense of universal adoration. 2. Thanksgiving. We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, and in the calmness of our forgiven heart we look up to the Giver of all our perfect gifts. Every day we bless Him for the Bible, for the Saviour, for the guidance of His Spirit, for the communion of saints, and for the hope of life eternal. II. A fit accompaniment to daily duties. The late Princess Alice chose for her personal motto the lark. Her reason for it was that the lark soared high in the heavens to praise its Maker, and then descended to make its nest on the ground. It was a beautiful sentiment, and will apply to the godly: “ Give us this day our daily bread” --that is the cry of devotion to be followed by work. Sir Thomas More stipulated when he took office under the government first to look to God and then to the king. III. Our stay in trial. IV. A witness for Christ. Our places of worship are only open at stated times, and the Gospel preached at appointed hours, but he whose soul knows the blessedness of communion with God is a daily minister of religion. Fletcher of Madeley and his brother, when they were boys, went on Lake Geneva in a boat. After a while the mist swept down, and completely enveloped the lake. The boys soon lost their points, and kept on rowing about in the dark. At eight o’ clock all the bells in the town began to peal in honour of a great event. The boys heard the bells, turned their boat towards the sound, and were soon safely landed. Let every Christian peal the bells of grace to direct the mariners who are in the darkness towards the haven of rest. (D. Davies.) Praise unintermittent Suppose some one entering heaven were to say to the redeemed, “ Suspend your songs for a moment! ye have been praising Christ, lo! these six thousand years: many of you have without cessation praised Him now these many centuries. Stop your song a moment; pause and give your songs to some one else for a moment.” Oh l can you conceive the scorn with which the myriad eyes of the redeemed would smite the tempter. “ Stop from praising Him! No, never. Time may stop, for it shall be no more: the world may stop, for its revolutions must cease; the universe may stop its cycles and the movings of its world; but for us to stop our songs--never! never!” (C. H. Spurgeon.) Psalms 145:3 His greatness is unsearchable.The unsearchableness of God God transcends all thoughts; notwithstanding this, men should search after His greatness. I. Searching after His greatness is a righteous occupation.1. It agrees with the profoundest instincts of the soul. 2. It is stimulated by the manifestations of nature. 3. It is encouraged by the declarations of the Bible. 4. It is aided by the revelations of Christ. II. Searching after His greatness is a useful occupation.1. There is no occupation so quickening to the soul. Feeling after God is an inspiration. 2. There is no occupation so humbling to the soul. The idea of the Infinite drives all vanities from the soul, and brings it down from the heights of pride into the deepest valley of humiliation. 3. There is no occupation so ennobling to the soul. The idea which brings us down into the valley of humiliation stimulates us to climb the heights of moral greatness. III. Searching after His greatness is an endless Occupation. “ Canst thou, by searching, find out God?”1. All holy intelligences have ever been pursuing this work. 2. The endlessness of this pursuit agrees with-- (1)The inexhaustible powers of our nature.(2) The strong instinct for mystery within us. (D. Thomas, D. D.) Psalms 145:4 One generation shall praise Thy works to another, and shall declare Thy mighty acts. The law of the generations The Church that stood aloof from missions would now be as much condemned as formerly it would have been commended. And how much has been done in the varied mission fields. Now, all this you inherit. Next to the Gospel of salvation, no generation of men have ever had such a trust committed to them as is committed to you. May God help you to be faithful. For, besides being an inheritance of natural succession, it is also a moral entrustment. It constitutes part of your stewardship. How, then, will you treat this missionary inheritance? Two extremes are to be avoided: you may slight and disesteem it, or you may stereotype and superstitiously regard it; you may treat it as a puerility, or you may embalm it as a relic. You may become men of faith, and hope, and charity, or men of captiousness and self-conceit; you may have an intelligent reverence that will wisely build on the foundation that your fathers have laid, or you may have a foolish self-conceit that will be contented with nothing less than to dig it up and lay a foundation afresh for yourselves. There was wisdom in the world, let us believe it, before we were born; and we may not unbecomingly sit at our fathers’ feet. Both these extremes you will avoid. As to your relationship to the future, it will be your duty--1. To qualify yourself for thus standing in the succession of the generations. But this you cannot do unless you yourselves be personally converted to God. None but the spiritual can possess the spiritual. Alas, here is a possibility of the succession failing. The pious and devoted sire may have in you a godless son. You cannot succeed him in the work he did for God. You care not for your own soul, how, then, can you care for the souls of others? 2. Form missionary and self-denying habits. But these can only be formed in early life. Those who have done this have been, and are, the most useful in the Church. 3. If you would reap the present rewards of spiritual service, begin your spiritual sowing whilst you are yet young. Life will be too short for both sowing and reaping if you do not. To induce you to give yourselves to this glorious service, remember how much depends upon it. You, humanly speaking, are indispensable for the transmission of truth to posterity. Think of your honoured fathers, how they loved this work. Think what an honoured name you may leave behind you, and the gratitude that will follow you. Think of the plain Divine command and the “ blood that will be required at your hand,” if you make not known the Gospel. Think of the moral grandeur and transcendency of your work. Think of the final issue and glory of it. By this motive Christ sustained His Spirit. Look on to that blessed time. (H. Allon, D. D.) Duty of the present to the coming generation I. The duty.1. To declare, or make known, the works of God to succeeding generations, and especially to that generation which immediately follows us. His works of (1) Creation.(2) Providence.(3) Redemption. 2. For one generation to praise God’ s works to another. While they communicate a knowledge of His works they must speak highly of them. While they tell what He has done, they must add, He has done all things well. When they describe His works of creation, they must extol the wisdom, power and goodness which are displayed in them. While they communicate a knowledge of His works of providence, they must applaud them as infinitely wise, holy, just, and good. And while they exhibit the wonders of redemption, and God’ s works of grace to the following generation, they must accompany the exhibition with those glowing expressions of admiration, gratitude, love and icy which this grand display of all God’ s perfections ought to call forth from those for whose benefit it was made, and whose everlasting happiness it is designed to promote. II. Reasons.1. The natural relations which exist between the present and the next generation. 2. Each of the successive generations of mankind is the natural and rightful heir of the generation which preceded it. 3. For the religious knowledge and the means of acquiring it which we possess, we are indebted, under God, to preceding generations. 4. We transmit to our posterity a corrupt and depraved nature which, unless its influence is counteracted by religion, will render them miserable hero and hereafter. (E. Payson, D. D.) The praise of time This is a glorious note in a noble strain, expressing a deep truth, a lofty thought. The psalmist looks down the whole stream of time. He beholds the world in all its various stages and conditions; pure in its first infancy, polluted in its fallen ruin; struggling through the gloom of ignorance and clouds of judgment; advancing in knowledge, in wealth, in power; reaching the zenith of maturity, and declining to the western horizon. Through all the entangled web of time he sees one continuous thread; he hears one note ever the same. The praise of God sounds forth unbroken and unchanged. Age answers ago in unfolding His attributes. Life to life, land to land proclaim His majesty and power, His goodness and love. I. We may consider this as the decree of God. He who made the world has willed that it should praise Him. The Most High has imposed this task upon the ages. He who formed man from dust has decreed that by him His glory shall be shown. The works of God carry out His decree. The sun and moon proclaim His power. Day and night utter His wisdom. The seasons declare His bounty and His faithfulness. The fruits of the earth call forth thanksgiving. Even war, and famine, and pestilence work His will. And the history of man, even yet more strikingly, set forth God’ s glory. This truth is ever written--“ The Lord is King.” He rules. “ None can stay His hand, or say unto Him, What doest Thou?” Look at Pharaoh. Hear him ask, “ Who is the Lord, that I should obey His voice?” He little thought how his own history should answer the question. Listen to Nebuchadnezzar,--“ Who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hand?” Yet his burning fiery furnace has borne witness for two thousand years,--“ Trust ye in the Lord for ever.” The mysteries of affliction teach the same lesson. The erring has been thus brought back, or the faithful confirmed, or God’ s power displayed (John 9:3). And the Church of Christ is a standing witness of the same great truth. II. We consider the text, also, as expressing the resolution and work of Christ’ s Church. Praise is the rightful attitude of the redeemed (Psalms 107:2). It is the natural outpouring of the renewed heart. Mercy felt, love appreciated, salvation embraced and enjoyed is sure to beget true thanksgiving. So David wrote the matchless 103rd psalm. So Paul and Silas could not refrain from singing praise in Philippi’ s dungeon. Nay, we are told that God has chosen His people to praise Him (Isaiah 42:21; 1 Peter 2:9). And even angels cannot sing the new song which belongs to the saved from earth alone (Revelation 14:3). And the people of God have ever claimed their holy privilege. They have sung of creation and of providence, and the wonders of redeeming love. God has never left Himself without this witness in the world. Conclusion--1. What are we doing to make our generation one of praise? We have received a pure faith; are we taking care to hand it down? 2. Do we possess in ourselves that salvation which alone enables us truly to praise? Have we tasted that the Lord is gracious? Can we thus say, “ O taste and see” ? 3. How glorious shall be the praise of heaven! Now one age to another, one land to another, praises God. What shall be the glory of the song when every age and every land shall sing “ Salvation” ; when those who sang creation (Job 38:7), and redemption (Luke 2:13), and grace (Romans 8:1; 1 Timothy 1:15): shall all unite in praise; when teachers, taught; ministers, people; Jew, Gentile; bond, free; when prophets, apostles, martyrs, from Abel to the last saint of time, shall join in the song of Moses and the Lamb? (W. S. Bruce, M. A.) Psalms 145:6-7 And men shall speak of the might of Thy terrible acts: and I will declare Thy greatness.How “ the unspeakable” is spoken of Various are the ways in which men speak of the Lord. There is an ascending scale in the four sentences of our text. We hear-- I. The awestruck talk. “ Men shall . . . terrible acts.” There have been times m human history when men have thus spoken. As often the flood, the destruction of Sodom, the judgments on Egypt, on Canaan. So, too, in regard to Nineveh, Babylon. When such acts are abroad turn them into prayer that men may learn God’ s lesson from them. Such acts leave deep impress; the boldest blasphemers are silenced then. II. The bold discourse. “ And I will declare Thy greatness.” After the many have spoken in awe I will deliver my soul with courage. It is the right time for this. I heard it said of a certain preacher by one who was no ill judge, though a simple countryman, “ I have heard many preachers, but I never heard one that seemed to make God so great as that man does.” That was high praise--too little deserved in our day. All divinity is now to be shaped according to man, and from man’ s point of view. Men are such wonderful beings in this nineteenth century that we are called upon to tone down the Gospel to “ the spirit of the age” --that is, to the fashions and follies of human thought as they vary from day to day. This, by God’ s help, we will never do. But after the awestruck people talking of God’ s mighty acts, and then the child of God coming in with his personal testimony, we have-- III. The grateful outpouring of thankful spirits. “ They shall abundantly utter the memory of Thy great goodness.” The Hebrew word tells of a bubbling up, as of a full fountain, a springing well. Did you ever tell the story of your life to anybody to the full? Did you ever write it? I am sometimes not a little amused, certainly not surprised, when I get, as I did this week, a letter upon foolscap, twelve sheets, twenty-four pages, all filled up with the story of a man I never saw, who lives far away in the backwoods. Nothing will do but he must tell somebody or other what God has done for him, and he has selected me to hear it. But I like the instinct that makes a man feel, “ I must tell what the Lord hath done for me.” IV. Listen to the select song. It is of “ Thy righteousness.” David says in Psalms 51:1-19. that he will sing aloud of this. Is it not a strange choice? God’ s righteousness is a terror to many. But see how God’ s righteousness is preceded and succeeded by mention of His goodness. It is righteous mercy and merciful righteousness. What a horror it would be if we had an unrighteous God. But He is righteous in all that He reveals, commands, decrees, does; in all His judgments, but especially in Christ Jesus. To sing of God’ s righteousness is in our day one chief mark of real conversion. If we were more sanctified we should be less tempted to cavil at the righteousness of God. Here is a man who takes down his Bible, and he reads, “ These shall go away into everlasting punishment.” “ Can’ t bear it,” says he. It is because you do not know the mind of God fully, or else, terrible as it is, you would say, “ It must be right if God determines it.” The modern men blot out from God’ s Word what they like, or they lay it aside altogether. But when the soul is brought to know God it does not question His Word or His doings any more. Men dream, and then assert their visions as truth. If there be a “ larger hope,” so be it, but let me not preach it as a doctrine. Let us each learn to say, “ I will sing of Thy righteousness.” (C. H. Spurgeon.) Psalms 145:7 They shall abundantly utter the memory of Thy great goodness.The philosophy and propriety of abundant praise This is called David’ s psalm of praise; all through it he is inflamed by strong desire that God may be greatly magnified. I. The method of securing the abundant utterance of the Divine praise concerning His goodness. Our text gives the mental philosophy of such praise, and shows the plan by which it may be secured.1. By careful observation. “ They shall abundantly utter the memory of Thy great goodness.” Now, in order to memory there must first be observation. If we want to remember His goodness we must let it strike us, we must notice it, consider it. Too many fail to notice that the goodness they receive is God’ s goodness. They put it down to other causes. If we are willing to see it we shall not lack for opportunities. It is everywhere. David notices especially its greatness. And this evident if we consider those who receive it. What have we done to deserve it? And then, the greatness of God the benefactor. “ What is man that Thou art mindful of him?” And then the evil from which it rescues us; and the actual greatness of the benefits bestowed He giveth like a King; nay, He giveth like a God. Observe the goodness of God carefully for your soul’ s good. 2. By diligent memory. Memory collects facts and afterwards recollects them. The matters before us are recorded by memory, but the tablet may be mislaid; the perfection of memory is to preserve the tablet in a well-known piece, from which you can fetch it forth at the moment. How are we to strengthen our memory as to God’ s goodness? Be acquainted with the documents in which His goodness is recorded. Observe the memorials, baptism and the Lord’ s Supper. Treasure up your own personal experience. I have heard that the science of mnemonics, or the strengthening of the memory, lies in the following of certain methods. According to some, you link one idea with another: you recollect a date by associating it with something that you can see. Practise this method in the present case. Associate it with the objects around you. Let your bed remind you of God’ s mercy in the night watches, and your table of His goodness in supplying your daily needs. All around us there are memoranda of God’ s love if we choose to read them. There is the old arm-chair where you wrestled with God in great trouble, and received a gracious answer: you cannot forget it; you do not pray as well anywhere else as there. That thumbed Bible--that particular one I mean, all marked and worn, out of which the promises have gleamed forth like the stars in the heavens. Oh for a clear remembrance of the goodness of God. Classification is another help. Also making notes of things. You know the day in which you lost that money, do you not? The Black Friday or Black Monday up in the City; you have indelible notes of such things in your memory. Have like ones of notable benefits that you have received. Then, besides observation and memory, let there be-3. Utterance. “ They shall abundantly utter.” The word contains the idea of boiling up or bubbling like a fountain. It signifies a holy fluency about the mercies of God. We have quite enough fluent people about, but they are many of them idlers for whom Satan finds abundant work. The Lord deliver us from the noise of fluent women; but it matters not how fluent they are if it be on the topic now before us. Open your mouths; let the praise pour forth. Be so occupied constantly. “ Abundantly” means that. Just as the singers in the temple repeated over and over again, “ His mercy endureth for ever.” Your memory will lose strength unless you utter what you know. Then-- 4. Sing. “ And shall sing of Thy righteousness.” Parnassus is outdone by Calvary; the Castilian spring is dried and Jesu’ s wounded side has opened another fount of song. Lift up, then, your music till the golden harps shall find themselves outdone. II. The motives for such praise.1. We cannot help it. “ If these should hold their peace,” etc. “ Oh,” said one in his first love, “ I must speak, or I shall burst.” 2. Other voices are clamorous to drown all such praise. 3. It will do you such good. The past, the present, the future will all be lit up with delight if we are wont thus to praise God. We shall find nothing to grumble at or complain about, but everything to rejoice in. 4. And it does such good to other people. “ While here our various wants we mourn, united groans ascend on high” --so says Dr. Watts, and I fear truly; but very few will be attracted by such utterances. Is it good reasoning if men say, “ These people are so miserable that they must be on the way to heaven” ? We may hope they are, for they evidently want some better place to live in; but then it may be questioned if such folks would not be wretched anywhere. We have glorious reasons for being happy; let us be so, and soon we shall hear persons asking, “ What is this? Is this religion? I always thought religious people were mournful people.” There is a blessed seductiveness in a holy happy life. And such happy utterance will help much to comfort others. Many are sorrowing from various causes: therefore be happier than ever you were. That venerable man of God, now in heaven, our dear old father Dransfield, when it was a very foggy morning in November, used always to come into the vestry before the sermon and say, “ It is a dreary morning, dear pastor; we must rejoice in the Lord more than usual. I hope we shall have a very happy service to-day.” He would shake hands with me and smile, till he seemed to carry us all into the middle of summer. Lastly, let us thus praise, because it is the way in which God is glorified. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The goodness of God Have you not known and felt the presence of that Being, whose Infinitude is not only displayed in power and wisdom, but also in Love? Remember the sweet hours of childhood, when the clear, blue sky of day, and the dark blue sky of night opened upon you like the eyes of your preserving angel. Think how a thousand reflections of the Eternal goodness have played around you, from heart to heart, from eye to eye of mankind, as one light shines from sun to sun and from world to world throughout the universe. (Jean Paul Richter.) Memory of God’ s goodness salutary Augustine tells of one to whom God was so wonderfully kind, and the man was so wonderfully bad, that at last he grew astonished at God’ s goodness, and since the Lord continued to load him with benefits, he turned round and cried, “ Most benignant God, I am ashamed of being Thine enemy any longer. I confess my sin and repent of it.” Psalms 145:8 Slow to anger, and of great mercy.Sin a provocation and a misery I. The provocative power of sin. God is susceptible of provocation.1. He is not cold intellect.2. He is not indifferent to moral conduct.3. His nature revolts at sin.4. However great His displeasure, He controls it. II. The misery-producing power of sin. It has turned our Eden into a vale of tears. (David Thomas, D. D.) Psalms 145:9 The Lord is good to all. The goodness of God Goodness is the same quality in all beings which have understanding, in God, in angels, and in men; it is, and it must be, the same in kind, differing only in degree. Now goodness in us is a disposition and an endeavour to promote the welfare and happiness of others; and from this notion of human goodness we may frame some conceptions of the Divine goodness, and say that goodness in God is a disposition to bestow at all times and in all places upon all His creatures all the good which, according to their several natures, they are capable of receiving, and which it is reasonable that He, as the wise Governor and Preserver of the whole, should bestow upon each individual.1. That God is good appears from the necessary connection between goodness and other Divine perfections. God is supremely wise, and knoweth, beyond a possibility of mistaking, what is best and most beneficial for the whole; He is almighty, and able to execute His purposes; and possessing everything in which happiness consists, He can be under no temptation to hurt and to oppress others. 2. To suppose that God is not good is to suppose Him weaker and more imperfect and worse than the worst of His creatures. In men every sin is general, and in particular every sin against the rules of goodness may be ascribed to the temptation of present profit or pleasure, to a power which the mind hath of fixing its thoughts entirely upon the object which it desires, and of overlooking the ill consequences arising from it, and in some measure to error and mistake. But God, if He were an evil being, would be disposed to evil neither by mistake, nor temptation, nor passion, nor advantage, and would choose evil purely as evil. And upon this absurd supposition, instead of the Best and Greatest, He would be the lowest and the meanest of all beings; for nothing can be great that is not good. 3. That God is good appears also from the goodness which is seen in His creatures, in men. Goodness in this world is exercised in some degree by many, and is esteemed and commended by almost all. If this disposition be found in some measure in us, it must be most eminently in our Creator, from whom this and all other virtues must be derived. It is the observation of a great philosopher that the artist loves the work of his hands better than his work would love him if it were endued with sense and reason; and that the person who confers a great benefit upon another loves him whom he obliges better than the obliged person loves him. To which it may be added, that parents generally love their children more than they are beloved by them. And yet, in all these instances, gratitude, one would think, should make the love of the inferior to be the strongest; but experience shows that it hath not this effect. These observations may be reduced to this general truth, that love descends more than it ascends; and we may be permitted, I think, to apply this to God and to ourselves, and to say that our great and good Creator and Benefactor loves us far better than even the most dutiful of us love Him. 4. The goodness of God appears in its effects, in the blessings which we receive from Him. 5. Another proof of the goodness of God is to be taken from the testimony of Scripture. (J. Jortin, D. D.) Objections to the goodness of God 1. Objections are taken from the evil that is in the world, which may be comprised under these two sorts, the evil of sin, and the evil of pain. God is either the author of all these evils, or at least He permits them. How can this be reconciled with His goodness, and how could they enter into a world created and ruled by a beneficent Lord, who is good to all, and whose tender mercies are over all His works? To this difficulty two general answers may be made, in which a humble and modest mind may acquiesce. (1) We are so incompetent judges of God’ s providence that we ought not to charge Him with want of goodness from those evils which we see and experience. (2) In all questions of this nature it is the part of every prudent inquirer to consider the difficulties on both sides, and to embrace the opinion which hath the fewest. By this way of judging the question before us is soon decided; for there are many unanswerable proofs of God’ s goodness, there are many absurdities which follow the denial of it; and the difficulties which attend it arise in all probability from our limited capacity and imperfect knowledge, which cannot discover the whole plan and system of Divine providence. (3) From these general answers let us now descend to a consideration of particulars. It was an act worthy of our beneficent Author to create a variety of beings endued with reason and capable of immortal happiness. But a rational agent must be a free agent; for to reason and to act require and imply choice and liberty; and every created and free being must have a power of sinning, unless he had the perfections of his Creator; which is impossible. Thus the evil of sin entered into the world in such a manner that it cannot be charged upon God and prove any want of goodness in Him. If we consider the evil of pain as the consequence of sin, we must acknowledge that we are deservedly subject to it, and that beings who act perversely and unreasonably ought to suffer for it. The pain to which the good are liable, if it be to them an occasion of exercising many virtues, and of qualifying themselves for greater rewards in a better state, is profitable and desirable. The pain to which the bad are exposed, if it may, as it certainly may, be useful to them to reclaim them from sin, and to remind them to seek happiness where it is to be found, is also of great advantage; and, if it have not this effect upon them, it is a punishment which they deserve. 2. The doctrine of future punishments, as it is contained in the Gospel, hath often and often been made an objection to the Divine goodness, and to the truth of Christianity. Yet it seems not hard to weaken all its force by the following suppositions, which are founded both in natural and in revealed religion. (1) There are, as we have shown, many plain, direct, and undeniable proofs of God’ s goodness. (2) The punishment of sin is not to be accounted an act of arbitrary power, proceeding merely from Divine appointment; for in all government correction is absolutely necessary for the reformation of offenders, or for the good of the whole. (3) We are told that God hath committed all judgment to His Son, to Him who loved us, and died for us, and who cannot be supposed to join no clemency to justice. (4) We know also both from reason and revelation, that the recompenses and the punishments of the age to come shall be and must be infinitely various, and proportionable to the good and to the bad actions and qualities of men. (5) We are told likewise, that when judgment shall be pronounced every mouth shall be stopped, stopped not by outward violence, but by inward conviction. All nature shall assent to the equity of the sentence, and it shall be impossible to make any rational objection to it. (6) The doctrine of the future state of retribution is usually delivered in figurative expressions, which of course are somewhat obscure and ambiguous, and it is of the same nature as prophecy, which is never fully understood till the event explains it. So we must wait for the event before we can form a sure judgment concerning it; and in the meantime objections must be unreasonable, and may be rejected as such. (J. Jortin, D. D.) The goodness of God I. What is the proper notion of goodness as it is attributed to God?1. More general in opposition to all moral evil and imperfection, which we call sin and vice; and so the justice, and truth, and holiness of God are in this sense His goodness. But there is-- 2. Another notion of moral goodness which is more particular and restrained; and then it denotes a particular virtue in opposition to a particular vice; and this is the proper and usual acceptation of the word goodness; and the best description I can give of it is this, that it is a certain propension and disposition of mind whereby a person is inclined to desire and procure the happiness of others; and it is best understood by its contrary, which is an envious disposition, a contracted and narrow spirit, which would confine happiness to itself, and grudgeth that others should partake of it or share in it; or a malicious and mischievous temper which delights in the harms of others, and to procure trouble and mischief to them. II. This perfection of goodness belongs to God.1. The acknowledgment of natural light. “ The first act of worship is to believe the being of God; and the next to ascribe majesty or greatness to Him; and to ascribe goodness, without which there can be no greatness” (Seneca). 2. The testimony of Scripture and Divine revelation (Exodus 34:5; Psalms 86:5; Psalms 119:68; Luke 18:19). 3. The perfection of the Divine nature. (1) Goodness is the chief of all perfections, and therefore it belongs to God. (2) There are some footsteps of it in the creatures, and therefore it is much more eminently in God. III. The effects and the extent of it.1. The universal extent of God’ s goodness to all His creatures. (1) In giving being to so many creatures. (2) In making them all so very good; considering the variety, and order, and end of them. (3) In His continual preservation of them. (4) In providing so abundantly for the welfare and happiness of all of them, so far as they are capable and sensible of it. 2. The goodness of God to men. (1) That He hath given us such noble and excellent beings, and placed us in so high a rank and order of His creatures. (2) That He hath made and ordained so many things chiefly for our use. (3) His tender love and peculiar care of us above the rest of the creatures, being ready to impart and dispense to us the good that is suitable to our capacity and condition, and concerned to exempt us from those manifold evils of want and pain to which we are obnoxious. (4) The provision He has made for our eternal happiness. (J. Tillotson.) Man’ s care of God’ s goodness “ The Lord is loving to every man” (P. B. Version). Every man implicitly owns this when he says, “ Life is sweet.” How much of unconscious enjoyment flows through us from day to day of which we take no heed, until some disturbance takes place, some obstruction occurs in the channel of communication with the world without. The blessing of sight, the joy of looking out on the green pasture and the trees--we can only fully appreciate when these windows of sense are darkened. We see the blessing and the joy of hearing by contrast with the deprivation of the deaf, and of speech by contrast with those of the dumb. If it were not for suffering, awakening reflection, we should ignore this great sum of unconscious good which the “ long blue hours serenely flowing” have brought us from day to day. And then this good of reflection itself--how great! To hold up the magic mirror of memory, to see our past therein, not as it was when present, mixed with much that was painful and repulsive, but beautified, idealized, glorified by that poet-soul which is within us all. If we could all paint, or versify, or compose in music, we should all leave works of art behind us, the material of which should be drawn from our own experience. We should leave behind us songs like this ancient Hebrew psalm. Your own personal impressions must always be worth more to you than those of any other thinker, however profound. What, then, are our impressions about the world, about the existing constitution of things? May we venture to speak for one another on such a point, and say that while with each of us there are “ mixed” impressions, on the whole the impression of good preponderates? We are governed greatly by our temperament in these matters; our minds are of different tone; but upon each and all of us, may it not be said, the world and life have left impressions of something exceedingly beautiful, exceedingly precious, though profoundly mysterious? In passing through a gallery of paintings, and studying the style of the different masters, we gain much insight into the turn of feeling and of fancy of the particular painters. One man steeps his views in light; another throws the sombre hue of melancholy thought upon rock, and river, and waterfall, and mountain height. One will suggest the majesty of Nature and the littleness of man; another will use the grandest effects of Nature but as the background to human passion and action. Each seer makes something different of the world and of man; each artist adds something to the world as we see it, or takes away something that we had found there. And all these different representations, suggesting feelings so various in the mind of the observer, from sadness to gaiety and exhilaration, unite in one point: they are all representations of that which is beautiful. And with all our diversities of natural feeling and experience--if we should try to describe the print that life has made upon our minds--we should, whether in stumbling accents or in eloquent strains, be describing something that has been, in part painful, in part pleasurable, but in both pleasure and pain profoundly interesting, unspeakably beautiful and holy; something in part severe, in part humorous in its expression, but in this mixture of severity and of humour, truly loving and gentle in its purport. These passive impressions teach us more than we can learn from books. Whether we leave our mark upon the world or no, it is certain the world leaves its mark upon us. And is it not the fact that the longer we live the better worth reading the inscription becomes? Do not men become more tolerant as they grow older? Does not the fact of evil give way before the far greater fact of good as the explanation of life? If men ever try to build up systems of theology again, they must choose out new ground and build on fresh foundations; on the ground and foundation of our text, that the Lord is loving to every man, and that His tender mercies are over all His works. Not only our passive impressions and the general pictures which insensibly form in our minds as the result of experience of the world--but in our active life we have evidence that points the same way. This little world within--what an undiscovered country it is still to every one of us! We never know what we can do till we try, the proverb says. We never know what we are until we have wrought ourselves into deeds. And the very power seems to come by the exertion. Cells full of energy seem to open in the mind at the touch of need, and not before. People are surprised at what they can do and bear upon an emergency. There is indeed a marvel in the life of mind, of soul. So long as we study this we shall be believers in miracles. All that is supposed to pass outside the mind that is marvellous can be but parables of the life of the soul itself. First and last, we must seek for God at that shrine; there the living oracles must be found; and it is the deepest superstition if we suppose that Scripture, however sacred, souls, other than our own, however inspired, can do aught for us except help us to bring to light and read a little more distinctly the inscription and record of God upon our own souls. The discovery of ourselves and of our vocation means some fresh discovery of the meaning of God to us. The return to Nature, the falling back on what is original in us, the exertion of ourselves according to the proper bent and direction of our faculties--all this, giving distinctness to the picture of ourselves, gives at the same time distinctness to the picture of the God who is good and loving to every man. Then we may extend these reasonings from ourselves to the rest of the creation. If I feel that God is good to me, I have a reason for believing that He is good to others like me. Some seem nearer to God and to know more of His secrets than I do. Others seem less favoured. Yet why should I doubt, concerning the most miserable and pitiable, that the tender mercies of the Eternal are over him, as over me? Thus may we reason from the particular to the general--from the truth learnt in our own hearts to the truth of the vast universe of which we form a part; and conversely. At times we may see more clearly the universal than the particular truth. We may see that the world is the expression of an infinite benevolence, we may need to see that our personal being is the expression of the same. Let us then remember that the great Power which throbs through the universe is the same Power which causes our heart to throb, our brain to think. So may we end in “ Feeling God loves us and that all that errs Is a strange dream which death will dissipate,” in endorsing from our own life-experience the words of the psalmist. (E. Johnson, M. A.) Universality of God’ s goodness God’ s pity is not as some sweet cordial, poured in dainty drops from a golden phial. It is not like the musical water-drops of some slender rill, murmuring down the dark sides of Mount Sinai. It is wide as the whole scope of heaven. It is abundant as all the air. If one had art to gather up all the golden sunlight that to-day falls wide over all this continent, falling through every silent hour; and all that is dispersed over the whole ocean, flashing from every wave; and all that is poured refulgent over the northern wastes of ice, and along the whole continent of Europe, and the vast outlying Asia and torrid Africa--if one could in any wise gather up this immense and incalculable outflow and treasure that falls down through the bright hours, and runs in liquid ether about the mountains, and fills all the plains, and sends innumerable rays through every secret place, pouring over and filling every flower, shining down the sides of every blade of grass, resting in glorious humility upon the humblest things--on sticks, and stones, and pebbles--on the spider’ s web, the sparrow’ s nest, the threshold of the young foxes’ hole, where they play and warm themselves--that rests on the prisoner’ s window, that strikes radiant beams through the slave’ s tear, that puts gold upon the widow’ s weeds, that plates and roofs the city with burnished gold, and goes on in its wild abundance up and down the earth, shining everywhere and always, since the day of primal creation, without faltering, without stint, without waste or diminution; as full, as fresh, as overflowing to-day as if it were the very first day of its outlay--if one might gather up this boundless, endless, infinite treasure to measure it, then might he tell the height, and depth, and unending glory of the pity of God! The light, and the sun, its source, are God’ s own figures of the immensity and copiousness of His mercy and compassion. (H. W. Beecher.) His tender mercies are ever all His works.-- On the mercy of God Mercy, as it is ascribed to God, may be considered and taken two ways. I. For the principle itself; which is nothing else but the simple undivided nature of God, as it does manifest and cast abroad itself in such and such acts of grace and favour to the creature. Which very same essence or nature, according to different respects, is called wisdom, justice, power, mercy, and the like. II. It is taken for the effects and actions flowing from that principle by which it does so manifest and exert itself. Which also admit of a distinction into two sorts.1. Such as are general, and of equal diffusion to all. 2. Such as are special, and peculiarly relate to the redemption and reparation of fallen man, whom God was pleased to choose and single out from the rest of His works as the proper object for this great attribute to do its utmost upon. Now it was the former sense that was intended by the psalmist in the text, as is evident from the universality of the words. It was such a mercy as spread itself over all His works; such a one as reached as wide as creation and providence. It was like the sun and the light, to shine upon all without exception. And therefore we are not at all concerned here to treat of the miracles of God’ s pardoning mercy, as they display themselves in the satisfaction and ransom paid down by Christ for sinners: for it would be a great deviation from the design of the words to confine the overflowing goodness of a Creator to the more limited dispensations of a Redeemer: and so to drown a universal in a particular. For the prosecution of the words there is no way that seems more easy and natural, and withal more full, for the setting forth of God’ s general mercy to the creature, than to take a survey of the several parts of the creation, and therein to show how it exerts and lays itself out upon each of them How many and vast endearments might we draw from God barely as a Creator! Suppose there had never been any news of a Redeemer to fallen Adam; no hope, no after-game for him as a sinner; yet let us peruse the obligations that lay upon him as a man. Was it not enough for him, who but yesterday was nothing, to be advanced into an existence, that is, into one perfection of the Deity? Was it not honour enough for clay to be breathed upon, and for God to print His image upon a piece of dirt? Certainly it would be looked upon as a high kindness for any prince to give his subject his picture; was it no act of love, therefore, in God to give us souls endued with such bright faculties, such lively images of Himself, which He might have thrust into the world with the short and brutish perceptions of a few silly senses; and like the beasts, have placed our intellectuals in our eyes or in our noses? Was it no favour to make that a sun which He might have made but a glow-worm? no privilege to man that he was made lord of all things below? that the world was not only his house, but his kingdom? that God should raise up one piece of earth to rule over all the rest? Surely all these were favours, and they were the early preventing favours of a Creator: for God then knew no other title, He bore no other relation to us; there was no price given to God that might induce Him to bid Adam rise out of the earth, a man rather than a spire of grass, a twig, a stone, or some such other contemptible superiority to nothing. No; He furnished him out into the world with all this retinue of perfections upon no other motive but because He had a mind to make him a glorious piece of work; a specimen of the arts of Omnipotence; to stand and glister in the top and head of the creation. Wherefore all the hard thoughts men usually have of God ought by all means and arts of consideration to be suppressed: for the better effecting of which we may fix our meditation upon these two qualities that do always attend them: (1) Their unreasonableness.(2) Their danger. 1. And first for their unreasonableness. All such thoughts are not any true resemblances of our Creator, but merely our own creatures. All the sad appearances of rigour that we paint Him under are not from Himself, but from our misrepresentations: as the fogs and mists we sometimes see about the sun issue not from Him, but ascend from below, and owe their nearness to the sun only to the deception of the spectator. 2. The other argument against men’ s entertaining such thoughts of God is the consideration of their exceeding danger. Their malignity is equal to their absurdity: for whosoever strives to beget or foment in his heart such persuasions concerning God makes himself the devil’ s orator, and declaims his cause; whose proper characteristic badge it is to be the great accuser or calumniator. (R. South, D. D.) Psalms 145:10 All Thy works shall praise Thee, O Lord; and Thy saints shall bless Thee. Twofold worship I. God’ s works.1. They reveal Him--as the building the architect, or the book the author. 2. They obey Him--never transgress His orders, or neglect His behests. II. God’ s children.1. They reveal Him more fully. There is more of God seen in the rays of reason, the sparks of fancy, the sensibility of conscience, the volitions of will, of one soul than in all the beauty of the landscape, or the brightness of the heavens. 2. They obey Him more loftily. (1) Intelligently.(2) Consciously.(3) Freely.(4) Happily. (D. Thomas, D. D.) Concerning saints Do not throw yourselves back in your seats, and say, “ This will be a sermon for saints, and therefore we need not attend.” For the first clause of our text gives you a fair word and a kindly hint. “ All Thy works shall praise Thee, O Lord;” for if you are not Jehovah’ s saints you yet are His “ works.” Every created thing appears to praise God by its very existence. “ The heavens declare the glory of God,” etc. Arouse thee, then. Thou art a creature, if not a new creature, in Christ Jesus. Adore thy Benefactor. Yet the text is mainly for a special people; “ Thy saints shall bless Thee.” All throughout the Word of God there is kept up a very clear and sharp distinction between those that fear God and those that fear Him not. So note-- I. God has a people whom He calls His saints. Who are they? Are they all dead? It is supposed so, for it is the usage of the Popery around us to call men saints who have been long in their graves. Somebody wrote me the other day about his “ sainted mother.” What did he mean? Had the Pope canonized her? Or did she become a saint by dying? When Paul wrote to the Churches he called the members of them saints. They were living men and women of whom he thus spake. They were like ourselves, and often inferior to ourselves. I believe that the Church of God to-day, as a whole, is better than the Church of Corinth. What is it to be a saint? Some people do not want to “ know, for with them it is a term of contempt. They say, “ Oh, he is one of your saints!” They lay emphasis on the word “ saints” ; as if it were something disgraceful or at least hypocritical. Whenever I have that said to me (and it has happened more than once), I take my hat off out of respect for the title. I had rather be a saint than a Knight of the Garter. I have sometimes heard of the “ latter day saints.” I do not know much about them, but I greatly prefer the “ every day saints.” Holiness must be a part of ourselves; it must be our nature to be saintly. Saints are not perfect people. Some will say of themselves that they are free from sin. But I have never met with such. A certain great painter had been accustomed to perform great feats with his brush; but one day, having finished a picture, he laid down his palette, and said to his wife, “ My power to paint is gone! Oh,” said she, “ how is that? Well,” he answered, “ up to this day I have always been dissatisfied with my productions; but the last picture I have painted perfectly satisfied me, and therefore I am certain I shall never be able to paint anything worth looking at again.” To be dissatisfied with oneself is to be capable of higher things, but to be satisfied is to have lost the very faculty of progress. We cannot, therefore, be satisfied with ourselves; still we know, also, that sin has not dominion over us, and in this we do and will rejoice. But saints are--1. Those whom God hath set apart for Himself.2. Called effectually by His grace. And they are to be known-- 1. By their holy life. “ Without holiness no man shall see the Lord.” A man is described in Scripture, not by his infirmities, but by the general run and current of his life. We say of a river that it runs to the south, although there may be eddies along the banks which run in an opposite direction. Still, these are an inconsiderable matter. The main stream of the Thames, wind as it may, runs ever towards the sea. And the main stream and current of the saint’ s life is Godward. “ But,” says one, “ holiness is imputed.” It cannot be imputed. The righteousness of Christ is, but holiness is quite another term, and God’ s Word never speaks of the imputation of holiness. Where shall we find these saints? “ Nowhere,” says slander, but that is not true; there are many of them, the ornaments of our households, the pillars of our Churches, the delights of our communion and the glory of Christ. And they are God’ s saints; “ Thy salts shall,” etc. The devil has his saints, and Rome hers, and self-righteousness and ceremonialism theirs; but God has His own. II. They are placed in the first rank. All God’ s works shall praise Him, but His saints shall bless Him, because they are in a peculiar manner God’ s works. He has twice created them: they stand in a covenant relation with Him. None but Christ’ s own people can be said to be interested in the covenant of grace. “ I pray for them,” said our Lord; “ I pray not for the world.” God’ s tenderest consideration is given to them. He cares for all His works, but His children, what care He gives to them. No farmer has as much care for his barn-door chickens as he has for his own little chicks indoors. “ Like as a father pitieth his children, so,” etc. How God has loved us, and does so, even when we have forgotten Him. One said to me the other day, “ What will become of Gordon?” I answered, “ He is safe enough, I believe; for he has given himself into the band of God, and He will take care of him.” To this the questioner replied, somewhat flippantly, “ It may be so; but, you see, he is so dashing that he gives God a great deal to think of and to do.” I did not like the expression, but still it is true of us all. The office of “ Preserver of men” is no sinecure in the hands of God. And how God visits us. He visits the earth and waters it, but how He comes to His people. And at the end they shall be crowned with glory and honour. III. They render a special homage. God’ s works “ praise,” but His saints “ bless” Him. Praise has not in it those elements of warmth which belong to blessing God. You can praise a man and yet have no kind regard for him. No doubt after Waterloo the French soldiers praised Wellington, but none of them blessed him. They would say, “ He must be a marvellous warrior to have overcome Napoleon,” but they could have no love for him. Praising God is good, but blessing him is better. The lily lifts itself upon its slender stem and displays its golden petals and its glittering ivory leaves; and so it praises God. And the sea, and the birds. But they cannot bless Him. Only His saints do that. Let us do so more and more. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Psalms 145:11 They shall speak of the glory of Thy kingdom.Christian conversation It is much to be regretted that true children of the Lord often talk too little of Him. What is the conversation of half the professors of the present day? Honesty compels us to say that, in many cases, it is a mass of froth and falsehood, and, in many more cases, it is altogether objectionable; if it is not light and frivolous, it is utterly apart from the Gospel, and does not minister grace unto the hearers. One of the great lacks of the Church nowadays is not so much Christian preaching as Christian talking,--not so much Christian prayer in the prayer-meeting as Christian conversation in the parlour. How little do we hear concerning Christi I. A subject for conversation.1. The glory of Christ’ s kingdom. (1) Make known His mighty acts. Tell it the wide world o’ er that the Lord of hosts is the God of battles; He is the conqueror of men and of devils; He is Master in His own dominions. Tell ye the glory of His kingdom, and rehearse “ His mighty acts.” Christian, exhaust that theme if thou canst. (2) Then, in speaking of the glory of Christ’ s kingdom, talk of its glorious majesty (verse 12). Tell of the crown of grace which He wears continually; tell of the crown of victory which perpetually proclaims the triumphs He has won over the foe; tell of the crown of love wherewith His Father crowned Him in the day of His espousals to His Church,--the crown which He has won by ten thousand hearts which He has broken, and untold myriads of spirits which He has bound up. (3) Talk of its duration, for much of the honour of the Kingdom depends upon the time it has lasted (verse 13). 2. Christ’ s power. (1) Upholding (verse 14).(2) Exalting (verse 14).(3) Providing (verse 15). II. The causes which will make Christians talk of the glory of Christ’ s kingdom and His power?1. One cause is, that it is the kingdom of their own King. 2. The Christian must talk of the King’ s victories because all those victories were won for Him; he recollects that his Master never fought a battle for Himself,--never slew an enemy for Himself. He slew them all for His people. 3. The Christian must talk of it because he himself has had a good share in fighting some of the battles. You know how old soldiers will “ shoulder their crutch, and tell how fields were won.” Recollect that you have been a soldier in the army of the Lord; and that, in the last day, when He gives away the medals in heaven, you will have one; when He gives away the crowns, you will have one. We can talk about the battles, for we were in them; we can speak of the victories, for we helped to win them. It is to our own praise as well as to our Master’ s when we talk of His wondrous acts. 4. But the best reason why the Christian should talk of his Master is this, if he has Christ in his heart, the truth must come out; he cannot help it. III. What would be the effect of our talking more of Christ’ s kingdom and power?1. The first effect would be that the world would believe us more. 2. If our conversations were more concerning Christ, we, as Christian men, should grow faster, and be more happy. In this way you would remove bickerings better than by all the sermons that could be preached, and be promoting a true evangelical alliance far more excellent and efficient than all the alliances which Than can form. 3. If we oftener talked of Christ like this, how useful we might be in the salvation of souls! Souls are often converted through godly conversation. Simple words frequently do more good than long sermons. Disjointed, unconnected sentences are often of more use than the most finely polished periods or rounded Sentences. If you would be useful, let the praises of Christ be ever on your tongue; let Him live on your lips. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Declaring God’ s doings Of one of the statues in the Campanile, Florence, it is said that Donatello, when giving it the last stroke of his chisel, exclaimed in enthusiastic admiration, “ Speak!” So Christ, when He calls men from their sins and recreated them in His own image, says, “ Tell what things God hath done for you.” The glory of Christ’ s kingdom I. In its origin. It was the object of the divine and eternal purposes of the Father; an object to which all other purposes were subservient. It entered into the councils of the Eternal before the foundation of the world was laid. It was a grand design, intended to include the reign of God over the mind and heart of man; a purpose to establish a kingdom, the subject, s of which should be raised to be partakers of the same nature as their Sovereign. II. In the manner and spirit of its administration (2 Samuel 23:1-4; Isaiah 11:4-5; Matthew 11:28; Luke 17:21; Romans 14:17; 2 Corinthians 3:3; John 10:4-5; John 17:24; John 14:3). III. In the character of His subjects.1. They are enlightened: they have just conceptions of things; they are delivered out of darkness, which envelops the rest of mankind, as the children of Israel had light in the land of Goshen when the habitations of the Egyptians were in darkness. 2. They are renewed: the Spirit of God changes their heart; they are made imperfectly, yet truly holy; they have a principle in them that aims at perfection; their characters are mixed, but the best part struggles against the worst, and will finally triumph. 3. They have in them a preparation for perfect blessedness. IV. In the privileges attached to it.1. Peace.2. Dignity.3. Immortality. (R. Hall, M. A.) The glory of God’ s rule I. In the universality of its extent. His kingdom extends over all, over all matter, and over all mind. It includes the microscopic atom and the mightiest orb; the lowest fiend and the sublimest angel. II. In the righteousness of its foundation. God has a right to rule the universe.1. On the ground of proprietorship He owns all.2. On the ground of capacity. No one else has the power.3. On the ground of character. He is infinitely good. III. In the benevolence of its operations. Unlike all human kings, He rules not for His own aggrandizement or interest, but simply for the good of His subjects. IV. In the indestructibleness OF ITS NATURE. Human kingdoms have in them the seeds of decay; they chase each other from the scene like the clouds before the wind. All of them are but as little bubbles on the stream, by a breath or a touch they are broken and lost. But His kingdom will endure for ever. (David Thomas, D. D.) Psalms 145:13-14 Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom.The greatness and condescension of God What we admire in these verses is their combining the magnificence of unlimited power with the assiduity of unlimited tenderness. It is of great importance that men be taught to view in God this combination of properties. It is certain that the greatness of God is often turned into an argument by which men would bring doubt on the truths of Redemption and Providence. The unmeasured inferiority of man to his Maker is used in proof that so costly a work as that of Redemption can never have been executed on our behalf; and that so unwearied a watchfulness as that of Providence can never be engaged in our service. Whereas, no reason whatever can be derived from our confessed insignificance, against our being the objects whether of Redemption or of Providence--seeing it is equally characteristic of Deity to attend to the inconsiderable and to the great to extend His dominion throughout all generations, and to lift up those that be bowed down. No one can survey the works of ,Nature and not perceive that God has some regard for the children of men, however fallen and polluted they may be. And if God manifest a regard for us in temporal things, it must be far from incredible that He would do the same in spiritual. There can be nothing fairer than the expectation that He would provide for our well-being as moral and accountable creatures with a care at least equal to that exhibited towards us in our natural capacity. So that it is perfectly credible that God would do something on behalf of the fallen; and then the question is, whether anything less than redemption through Christ would be of worth and of efficacy? But it is in regard to the doctrine of a universal Providence that men are most ready to raise objections, from the greatness of God as contrasted with their own insignificance. They cannot believe that He who is so mighty as to rule the Heavenly Hosts can condescend to notice the wants of the meanest of His creatures; and thus they deny to Him the combination of properties asserted in our text, that, whilst possessed of unlimited empire, He sustains the feeble and raises the prostrate. What would be thought of that man’ s estimate of greatness who should reckon it derogatory to the statesman that he thus combined attention to the inconsiderable with attention to the stupendous; and who should count it inconsistent with the loftiness of his station that, amid duties as arduous as faithfully discharged, he had an ear for the prattle of his children, and an eye for the interests of the friendless, and a heart for the sufferings of the destitute? Would there not be a feeling mounting almost to veneration towards the ruler who should prove himself equal to the superintending every concern of an empire, and who could yet give a personal attention to the wants of many of the poorest of its families; and who, whilst gathering within the compass of an ample intelligence every question of foreign and home policy, protecting the commerce, maintaining the honour, and fostering the institutions of the State, could minister tenderly at the bedside of sickness, and hearken patiently to the tale of calamity, and be as active for the widow and the orphan as though his whole business were to lighten the pressure of domestic affliction? And if we should rise in our admiration and applause of a statesman in proportion as he showed himself capable of attending to things comparatively petty and insignificant without neglecting the grand and momentous, certainly we are bound to apply the same principle to our Maker--to own it, that is, essential to His greatness that, whilst marshalling planets and ordering the motions of all worlds throughout the sweep of immensity, He should yet feed “ the young ravens that call upon Him,” and number the very hairs of our heads: essential, in short, that, whilst His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and His dominion endureth throughout all generations, He should uphold all that fall, and raise up those that are bowed down. We would add to this, that objections against the doctrine of God’ s providence are virtually objections against the great truths of creation. Are we to suppose that this or that ephemeral thing, the tiny tenant of a leaf or a bubble, is too insignificant to be observed by God; and that it is absurd to think that the animated point, whose existence is a second, occupies any portion of those inspections which have to spread themselves over the revolutions of planets and the movements of angels? Then to what authorship are we to refer this ephemeral thing? What it was not unworthy of God to form, it cannot be unworthy of God to preserve. But up to this point we have been rather engaged with removing objections against the doctrine of God’ s providence than with examining that doctrine as it may be derived from our text. In regard to the doctrine itself, it is evident that nothing can happen in any spot of the universe which is not known to Him who is emphatically the Omniscient. But it is far more than the inspection of an ever vigilant observer which God throws over the concerns of creation. It is not merely that nothing can occur without the knowledge of our Maker; it is that nothing can occur but by either His appointment or permission. We say either His appointment or permission--for we know that, whilst He ordereth all things, both in heaven and earth, there is much which He allows to be done, but which cannot be referred directly to His authorship. It is in this sense that His providence has to do with what is evil, overruling it so that it becomes subservient to the march of His purposes. Oh! it were to take from God all that is most encouraging in His attributes and prerogatives if you could throw doubt on this doctrine of His universal providence. It is an august contemplation, that of the Almighty as the Architect of creation, filling the vast void with magnificent structures. We are presently confounded when bidden to meditate on the eternity of the Most High: for it is an overwhelming truth that He who gave beginning to all besides could have had no beginning Himself. And there are other characteristics and properties of Deity whose very mention excites awe, and on which the best eloquence is silence. But whilst She universal providence of God is to the full as incomprehensible as aught else which appertains to Divinity, there is nothing in it but what commends itself to the warmest feeling of our nature. And we seem to have drawn a picture which is calculated equally to raise astonishment and delight, to produce the deepest reverence and yet fullest confidence when we have represented God as superintending whatever occurs in His infinite domain--guiding the roll of every planet, and the rush of every cataract, and the gathering of every cloud, and the motion of every will--and when, in order that the delineation may have all that exquisiteness which is only to be obtained from those home touches which assure us that we have ourselves an interest in what is so splendid and surprising, we add that He is with the sick man on his pallet, and with the seaman in his danger, and with the widow in her agony. And what, after all, is this combination but that presented by our text? If I would exhibit God as so attending to what is mighty as not to overlook what is mean, what better can I do than declare Him mustering around Him the vast army of suns and constellations, and all the while hearkening to every cry which goes up from an afflicted creation--and is not this the very picture sketched by the psalmist when, after the sublime ascription, “ Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and Thy dominion endureth throughout all generations,” he adds the comforting words, “ the Lord upholdeth all that fall, and lifteth up all those that be bowed down” ? (H. Melvill, B. D.) Christ’ s kingdom everlasting Bishop Galloway, in his book on “ Missions,” gives this significant illustration: “ In the published accounts of the burning of the famous mosque at Damascus a few years ago, there was a suggestive coincidence, if not a striking prophecy. It was built on the sacred spot where once stood the old Byzantine church, dedicated to St. John the Baptist. In building this Moslem temple one of the Roman arches was blended in the superstructure, on which was a Greek inscription from the Holy Scriptures. After the great fire the arch was found in place, bending over the ruins, bearing these words: ‘ Thy kingdom, O Christ, and Thy dominion endureth throughout all ages.’” (The Advertiser.) Psalms 145:14 The Lord upholdeth all that fall, and raiseth up all those that be bowed down. The God of the unsuccessful The Bible, being a book for humanity, is a book for the weak, the fallible, and the disappointed. A large part of it is devoted to the erring and the unsuccessful. Take its biographies. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Elijah, Job--every one of these biographies is the story of a faultful man. Then, so much of its counsel and warning is directed at servants of God and disciples of Christ. Not only guide-posts, but-danger-signals, are set up all along the way of life. It was to His own disciples that Christ said, “ Watch and pray that ye enter not into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” By far the larger part of its promises is to the sorrowful, and afflicted, and disappointed. When Christ invited the weary and heavy-laden to rest, He invited a restless and burdened world. When the Bible addresses the strong, it is to point them to the true source of their strength, to warn them against presuming on their own wisdom, and to commend the weak to their sympathy and helpfulness. The whole matter is summed up in the psalmist’ s statement of God’ s attitude toward His children at large. It is that of pity based on knowledge of their infirmity. I speak, as the psalmist does, of men and to men who recognize and honour the law of God, and are honestly striving to keep His laws. The words do not apply to the indolent who interpret the invitation to east their care on God as a “ permit” to cast off all care about their own souls and lives. They do not apply to those who are indifferent to God and who wilfully defy His law. The psalmist settles that in verse 20. I am speaking, then, to you who honour God; who are making an honest fight for the truth and the right; who are trying to keep your lives pure and to make them useful. I know that you fall as I do, and are often bowed down. I know that you are not all successes, either from a worldly or a religious point of view. Now, first, in relation to your worldly affairs. You have stumbled and fallen in the path which you thought would lead you to success and victory. Well, look at the text. O merciful, wise, tender love, which, even while it denies what we long for, bends over us while we lie prone and weeping over our disappointment, and sets us on our feet again and bids us follow God and not the devices and desires of our own hearts. He may thus set us on our feet that we may walk another way from that on which we were going. The fall may be a blessing in disguise, a monition to abandon that way. Many a man has found that to give up the thing he desired and take something less and lower was not a sorrow after all. Or, suppose God means to admonish you by your fall to go more slowly after your desire. “ He that believeth shall not make haste.” God will not let us pursue one remote end to the neglect of all that lies by the wayside. Success in life is not the gaining of that one end at the end. It is the right adjustment to all that lies in the track of each day. So God lets you walk, upholds you, teaches you to walk. He is doing you a greater service by upholding you, so that you can move on and win the strength, and discipline, and experience which come through walking circumspectly, than if lie had let you go straight to the thing you coveted and sit down and enjoy that. Disappointment need not mean wreck. It will not if God is in it. Sometimes it seems as if God’ s policy toward a man is to keep him down, and yet keep him walking and working. That develops the highest type of moral heroism. It is a higher and greater thing for an unsuccessful and disappointed man to keep rising from his failures and to struggle on his way leaning on God’ s hand to the very end, than for him to succeed before the world. God has a testimony to bear to the world through His sons and daughters no less than to them; and He bears that testimony most emphatically in showing the world that His hand can keep a man a man, with an honest soul and a persistent purpose in him, amid all his falls and disappointments. And as to the matter of Christian experience and the falls and stumblings which are along that line--I know that the ideal which at once beckons and reproaches us is that of a steady growth in faith, and love, and goodness, and Christian power. It is the true ideal too. Let us never lower it: never cease striving for it. Let us never admit to ourselves that yielding to temptation is anything less than sin: that sin is other than vile. Tried by the high ideal of the Gospel you are not a religious success, only trying hard to be. That is the saving clause. God is on the side of the unsuccessful but honestly-striving. You find in yourself a constant tendency to stumble. If Satan desires to sift you as wheat, Christ prays for you. He is bent, not on raising up you and your sin together, but on raising you out of your sin and making you a man in Christ Jesus in spite of your temptation and weakness. (M. R. Vincent, D. D.) Recuperative grace An Eastern parable represents a man as falling down by the way, and getting so broken up by his fall that he lay there eleven years. One day an old friend came along and began to commiserate and encourage him, and forthwith he poured out the story of his sorrows, and began to tell the ether what a dreadful thing it was to fall down. “ Ah, yes,” said the friend, “ but I know something much worse than falling down.” “ Why,” said he, “ what can be worse?” And the other answered, “ Not getting up again.” Thank God for recuperative grace! When we were boys, at our wrestling matches we were not considered down until we said “ Down,” and some of us refused to stay down long enough to count. Beloved, don’ t make the mistake of not getting up again. Be brave in spite even of yourself and your own failures and weaknesses. Remember that “ the Lord upholdeth all that fall, and raiseth up those that be bowed down.” Psalms 145:15-17 The eyes of all wait upon Thee.The Divine dealings and attributes We lose a great deal by taking verses by themselves, considering them as detached and isolated passages in place of noticing how closely they may be connected with the context. For instance, if we take as our text the last of these three verses, “ The Lord is righteous in all His ways, and holy in all His works,” no doubt we should find abundant material of important discourse, for when the psalmist throws in the word “all His ways, all His works,” there is a largeness of assertion, in reference to the Divine dealings, which displays strong faith and close examination. But when you read the two preceding verses, “ The eyes of all wait upon Thee,” etc., you naturally ask, how came the psalmist to pass so directly from contemplating the goodness of God, as displayed in the arrangements of providence, to the expressing in such unqualified terms his conviction as to the righteousness of all God’ s ways, and the holiness of all God’ s works? What connection is there? How does the one thought or belief originate in the other? The word “ righteousness,” as used of God, most frequently denotes that perfection whereby God is most just and holy in Himself, and observes the strictest rules of equity in every proceeding of His creatures; and when the psalmist asserts God to be “ righteous in all His ways, and holy in all His works,” he evidently means that every dispensation is marked both by justice and goodness, that, however unable we may be to discern or apprehend the reasons for each separate dealing, we are bound to infer, from the very nature of God, that there must be reasons worthy alike of infinite wisdom and infinite lovingkindness. Now the psalmist must be considered as using the language of faith when he speaks of God as “ righteous in all His ways, and holy in all His works” ; for every one who observes and studies the actings and dealings of God, whether with our race generally or with individuals in particular, must know that there is much which cannot now be explained, whose fitness is matter of faith, but; certainly not of demonstration, the Divine judgments being, as they are elsewhere described by David, “ a great deep.” In the course of His providence God frequently acts upon grounds, and orders things in methods, which we have no ability to discover and to trace; and we can exclaim with St. Paul, “ How unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out.” But whilst we allow that the language is the language of faith, let us consider a little more closely whether there is any reason for surprise that God’ s dealings should be inscrutable, and utterly past our comprehension. You are to remember that even amongst men the dealings of the wise are often founded on maxims which are not understood or appreciated by the great mass of their fellows, so that conduct appears unaccountable which nevertheless proceeds from the very highest sagacity. Is it, then to be wondered at if God, whose wisdom is as far above the wisest upon earth as the heaven is above this lower creation, should be incomprehensible in His actions, often doing very differently from what ourselves would have done, and proceeding in a way which appears to us the least likely to produce the desired result? Besides, what place, comparatively, would there be for faith if there were no depths in the Divine judgments, if every reason were so plain, every design so palpable that no one could do otherwise than acquiesce in the fitness and goodness of all God’ s appointments. In any case of affliction, when trouble is now laid upon a man, the difficult, but, at the same time, profitable, duty is that of submitting meekly to the chastisement in the assurance that God doeth all things well, though to our apprehensions His proceedings may be dark. Let God remove the darkness of His proceedings, and let everything be as luminous to us as it is to Himself, and this duty, instead of being difficult, would cease to demand any effort; we should then walk by sight, and not by faith, and there would be nothing in bearing sorrow patiently when we saw the precise end which it was accomplishing, or the precise benefit which it was securing. There is something very beautiful in the imagery of the psalmist, “ Thy righteousness is like great mountains; Thy judgments are a great deep.” The “ judgments are a great deep,” the immense ocean, unfathomable by any human line; but the “ righteousness is like the great mountains,” giants of the earth, whose foundations are washed by unfathomable waters, whilst their summits lose themselves in the clouds. The mountains are to be considered as rising out of the waters and girding them around on every side. We know, from the parts of the mountains which are visible, that there are lower parts concealed from us by the waters, and are confident that the hidden parts meet the base around which the waters lie. And thus we should learn, from the righteousness which is conspicuous when we look towards the heavens, that there is a righteousness all around those lower obscurities which we are unable to penetrate, that the foundations which are beneath the waves are of the same material as the summits which are above, and which often glow with sunlight, though they may be sometimes shrouded in mist. God’ s judgments are likened to the sea, whose depths we have no power of exploring; but out of this sea, at the same time encompassing and containing it, rise towering mountains, and these are the righteousness of God--that righteousness within which all His dealings rest, which may be said to hold them in their embrace, as the roots of the everlasting hills the multitudes of the waters, and which again, like the mountains, may be so discerned above the billows as to leave no doubt of its existing beneath. And as the hills which encircle a deep lake not only form by their foundations and sides the reservoir into which it is gathered, but make a mirror of their surface in which they glass their tops; so not only does the righteousness of God enclose and hold His judgments, but often so images itself that an attentive eye may catch the reflection. What, then, have we to do, when we launch out into the deep, but to remember the mountains which soar on every side, over whose massive, but far spreading, roots we may be sure that we are voyaging even when no line could take the soundings of the mighty abyss? We should never feel lost, as it were, in the judgments, if we kept in mind the righteousness of God; we should never be so far from land as to feel adrift on a boundless waste if faith were in exercise--faith in the perfections and attributes of our Maker--for there would be always some peak of the everlasting hills discernible by faith, some eminence coming out from the vast gatherings of cloud, serving as a beacon in the midst of the tempest. We can, however, imagine a man to have prepared himself, according to our foregoing directions, for surveying what is inexplicable in God’ s dealings by fortifying his belief in God’ s attributes. Still, when his eyes are on the great deep, it will be hard to keep faith in full exercise: he will be apt to forget, as he gazes on the dark, unfathomable expanse, the principles of which he thought himself so certain, and he will feel, “ Oh for some distinct, some visible evidence of that goodness of God which seems so opposed by all this darkness, and all this confusion!” And you shall have it, the psalmist seems to exclaim; I will summon men of every country and every age, from the north and the south, from the east and the west; send hither the young and the old, I will summon every beast of the field, I will summon every fowl of the air; let the sea give up its multitude, let every leaf, every flower, every water-drop, pour forth its insect population--who feeds the innumerable throng? who erects their storehouses? who gives the supply for all these tenants of earth, sea, air? How comes it to pass that, morning after morning, the sun awakens huge cities to life, and causes the silent forest to echo with the warblings of birds, and calls into activity thousands of creatures on every mountain and every valley, and yet out of all this interminable throng thus revivified every dawn there is not the solitary being for whom there is no provision in the granaries of nature? “ The eyes of all wait upon Thee; Thou openest Thy hand, and satisfiest the desire of every living thing.” Every planet, as it marches on, is moved by God; every star, as it revolves, is turned by God; every flower, as it opens, is unfolded by God; every blade of grass, as it springs, is reared by God--“ He preserveth man and beast.” Aye, and if in place of suffering thought to wander across the spreadings of the universe, and nowhere can it reach the spot in which God is not busied, and nowhere find a creature of which He is not the life--if in place of this you carry it down to the inhabitants of this lower creation, what a picture is spread before it by the simple fact that in every department of animated nature the Almighty is momentarily engaged in ministering to the myriads whom He has called into existence--that from the king upon his throne to the beggar in his hovel, from the grey-haired veteran to the infant at the breast, from the lordly lion to the most insignificant reptile, from the vast leviathan to the tiny animalcule which we know only by the microscope, there is not to be found a solitary instance of a being neglected or overlooked by God, not a single case of life sustained independently of God, or that could last one second if God withheld His inspiration. And with this picture to turn to, after gazing till the vision has ached on the great deep of God’ s judgments, ought you not to be always able to refresh yourselves in the midst of dark and intricate dispensations, and to get quit of the doubts and suspicions which may be raised by the apparent want of a strict moral government? Indeed, my brethren, there is not a morsel of food which we eat, there is not a bird which cheers us by its wild music, there is not an insect which we see sporting in the sun which ought not to reprove us if we mistrust God because His ways are unsearchable. Can it be that God is unmindful of the world, or that He is not studying what is for the good of His creatures, when He shows Himself attentive to the wants and comforts of the very meanest living thing, and whilst He regulates the course of the stars, and marshals the ranks of the cherubim and the seraphim, He bends down from His glorious throne and applies a guardianship as close to the ephemeral insect that floats by in the breeze, as though it were the only animate production, or the only one that required His providential care? (H. Melvill, B. D.) Harvest thanksgiving The earnest Christian cannot look abroad upon the face of Nature with a careless eye or an unmoved heart. By him God is seen in everything, and what others ascribe coldly to the operations of Nature he traces directly to the finger of God. The most insignificant flower is eloquent to him of his Creator’ s goodness; the meanest insect that crawls beneath his feet speaks to him of God; and as he stands upon some mountain height and surveys the outstretched landscape, as he gazes upon the gorgeous panorama of wooded forest and sparkling stream, well-cultivated plains and waving cornfields, his heart glows within him with a sense of devout admiration, and he readily responds to the psalmist’ s language. I. Our dependence upon God. In our calm moments we all acknowledge that without God’ s help we are helpless; without His blessing we cannot prosper. But such is the monotony of human life, such the regularity of events, and, I must add, such the subtle pride of the human heart, that this truth often becomes obscured and lost sight of. We need some sudden shock, some reversal of our present state to convince us of our own personal nothingness and our entire dependence upon God. The man endowed with a strong and healthy constitution is scarcely alive to the value of health. If he thinks about it at all, he traces it to his own early rising and freedom from anxiety, his moderation in all things, his temperance and active exercise. But let the smallest portion of his bodily organism be deranged--let some secret fever germ enter the stream of life and poison the man’ s blood--let him be cast upon a bed of sickness, so that the slightest effort becomes intolerable, and the commonest functions of the body are attended with pain, and he at once becomes sensible of his dependence upon a Higher Power. He learns now what he might otherwise never have learned, that his own health is not absolutely in his own hands, but that it is “ in God he lives and moves and has his being.” Thus he rises from the bed of sickness a wiser and better man; he has more sympathy in his heart for others, and more gratitude towards the Great Giver and Disposer of all things. A similar danger attends those that are engaged in the cultivation of the land, the danger, I mean, of forgetting God. The honest farmer who rises with the lark and takes a praiseworthy pride in his earthly calling is, we will assume, on the whole successful. He is kind to his labourers, and these cheerfully perform the tasks assigned to them. The seasons come round, and each brings with it its own duties. The land is tilled, the seed sown, and at the appointed time the labours of the husbandman are crowned with an abundant, harvest. On the other hand, his neighbour--a farmer like himself--is thoughtless and thriftless. He desires to get on, but lacks common judgment and common energy. His plans do not succeed. His cattle die. His land is impoverished for want of proper cultivation. His harvests are poor, and there is a look about the whole place that tells of coming poverty and ruin. And then how great the danger to the successful farmer; the danger of tracing success in his case to his own energy and enterprise, his own skill and industry, and overlooking altogether the hand of God. It is true that honest industry is generally in this world, and through God’ s own appointment., rewarded with success. It is true that God has promised that “ while the earth remaineth, seed-time and harvest . . . shall not cease,” but we are surely abusing that promise, and as surely taking too high a view of our own powers if we fail to realize our dependence upon God, and to acknowledge His goodness in giving us the appointed weeks of the harvest. II. The duty of acknowledging our dependence upon God. If it be wrong on the part of a son to despise or dispute his father’ s claims upon his regard and affection; if it be contemptible pride on the part of a pensioner to be ashamed to speak of his benefactor or to recognize his obligations, then it is a sin of no ordinary character to forget Him upon whose daily bounty we live, and to whom we owe the varied blessings we enjoy, Hence, my brethren, to the Christian mind there is something peculiarly pleasing in our gathering together in the house of God this day. Whatever our occupation may be, we are all (indirectly at any rate) dependent upon the labours of the husbandman. We are all interested in a good harvest. A bad harvest means scarcity of bread, and scarcity of bread means suffering to many hundreds and thousands of our fellow-creatures; and on the other hand it is not easy to exaggerate the tendency of an abundant harvest to spread throughout the country a general spirit of peace and contentment. Again, our meeting together on this occasion may be regarded as an emphatic protest against, the scepticism of the day. Men of science are pushing their researches into the varied realms of Nature. Phenomena hitherto considered inexplicable are referred to general laws, and second causes are thus usurping the place of the first great cause. Thus the Creator is, as it were, thrust out of His own creation, and it is sometimes argued as though God had originally called this world into being, and then left it to itself--to be guided and controlled by those eternal laws that were at its creation impressed upon it. Now, against this cold and heartless philosophy our meeting together this day is an emphatic protest.. We thus acknowledge our belief in the universal presence and agency of a Personal God. (C. B. Brigstocke, M. A.) God’ s grace and bounty meted out William Huntingdon told the story about, a farmer who, when one of his daughters was married, gave her a thousand pounds as a wedding present. There was another daughter, and her father did not give her a thousand pounds when she was married, but he gave her something as a wedding present, and then he kept on pretty nearly every day in the week sending her what he called “ the hand-basket portion with father’ s love.” And so in the long run she received a good deal more than her sister did. I do like when I get a mercy to have it come to me with my heavenly Father’ s love, just my daily portion as I need it; not given all in a lump so that I might go away with it into a far country, as we are sure to do if we have all our mercy at once, but given day by day, as the manna fell, with our heavenly Father’ s love every time a fresh token of infinite grace and infinite love. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Psalms 145:16 Thou openest Thine hand, and satisfiest the desire of every living thing. The Creator ministering to the wants of His creation How does the Almighty provide for His creatures? I. Personally. “ Thou.” The pseudosage ascribes the fruits of the earth to the elements and laws of Nature. But the Bible, which is true science, ascribes them to God. God has not left Nature, He is in it, the great Spirit in all the wheels of its machinery. There is a Personal God in personal action, in all Nature. II. Easily. He has only to open His hand. There is no labour, no effort; simply “ Thou openest Thine hand.” How easily God rolls ponderous globes and massive systems through immensity! To communicate good to His creatures is easy work to Him.1. It is agreeable to His heart. He has not to struggle as we often do against inner propensions and habit in order to show kindness. It is a gratification to His benevolence. 2. It is nothing to His power. It costs Him no effort; the whole universe arose at first by His word. III. Abundantly. “ And satisfiest the desire of every living thing” --from the minutest to the largest, from the microscopic insect to the mighty archangel. (Homilist.) Thanksgiving for harvest I. The one great benefactor. He is named by David (verse 1) as his God and King; and such is Jehovah unto all His saints. Their Proprietor and Preserver, their Ruler and Portion in a gracious and peculiar sense. But in the text God is adored as good to all, the one great Benefactor of every living thing. We do not forget that the support which God vouchsafes unto all, and the supplies which He grants to every living thing are not direct and immediate. These, in many instances, reach the creatures through the intervention of numerous channels, various agencies and instrumentalities. God does not now, as of old, rain bread upon the earth--and neither while preserving man or beast in His precious grace is the hand of the Lord seen, or His voice heard, or His glory visible. Still, He Himself is the one great benefactor of all flesh, of every living thing. In Him our breath is, and His are all our ways. II. The multitude and variety of the dependents. “ Every living thing.” Yes, the king in his palace, and the spider which shares the chamber with the monarch; the old man, staff in hand from very age, and the infant smiling on its mother’ s lap; the mariner in his ship in the midst of the sea, and the ploughman with his oxen in the peaceful valley; the senators in their council-hall, and the birds singing in the branches of the forest; the rich man feasting in his mansion, and the sheep which stray on its lawns; the cattle upon a thousand hills; the poor blind man begging his bread from door to door, the faithful dog which guides his sightless steps,--toward all these, and multitudes greater far, and in varieties more perplexing still, does our God open His hand and satisfy the desire! III. The freeness and liberality of the gifts. “ Thou openest Thine hand.” No doubt in the course of Providence there are seasons of famine or of scarcity. We are to have the poor always with us, and we discover constant instances of poverty or destitution. There have been years that the locust did eat, and the canker worm, and the caterpillar, and the palmer worm--God’ s great army which He sends against us. Even mid the joy of this plentiful harvest we have to lament blight and failure in a portion of the produce of the earth. These, however, are exceptional seasons, and, as judgment is God’ s strange works, as these occur they are to be regarded as reproofs for sin, meant to instruct the earth in righteousness, and that man having “ cleanness of teeth” appointed him may be taught his weakness, and turn unto the Lord. IV. The satisfaction which the gifts afford. “ Thou satisfiest the desire of every living thing.” Is it any comfort, is it any relief to us to obscure the perfections of the one great Benefactor, and to conceal His administration in all the earth, to say that the satisfying of the desire of every living thing is the effect of natural laws, the order of the earth; and that while it remaineth “ seed-time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease” ? Thus may speak philosophy falsely so called, and with such crude and false reasoning many may be content. Natural laws, and the order of the earth, forsooth! Who ordained these laws, and who keeps them in operation? Who appointed that order, and preserves it from derangement or disturbance? Revelation teaches us to ascribe all this to God. Reason is fully satisfied only when admitting His dominion in the universe. (John Smart, D. D.) The Satisfier of all desires (with verse 19):--You observe the recurrence, in these two verses, of the one emphatic word “ desire.” Its repetition evidently shows that the psalmist wishes to run a parallel between God’ s dealings in two regions. The same beneficence works in both. Here is the true extension of natural law to the spiritual world. I. Two kinds of pensioners.1. “ Every living thing.” Life makes a claim on God, and whatever desires arise in the living creature by reason of its life, God would be untrue to Himself, a cruel Parent, an unnatural Father if He did not satisfy them. “ He is a faithful Creator;” and wherever there is a creature that He has made to need anything, He has hereby said, “ As I live, that creature shall have what it wants.” 2. Then take the other class, “ them that fear Him” ; or, as they are described in the context--by contrast with “ the wicked who are destroyed” --“ the righteous.” That is to say, whilst, because we are living things, like the bee and the worm, we have a claim on God precisely parallel with theirs for what we may need by reason of His gift, which we never asked for--His gift of life--we shall have a similar but higher claim on Him if we are “ they that fear Him” --with that loving reverence which has no torment in it,--and that love Him with that reverential affection which has no presumption in it, and whose love and fear coalesce in making them long to be righteous, like the object of their love, to be holy like the object of their fear. It comes to this--wherever you find in people a confidence which grows with their love of God, be sure that there is, somewhere or other in the universe of things, that which answers it. II. Two sets of needs. The first of them is very easily disposed of. “ The eyes of all wait upon Thee, and Thou givest them their meat.” That is all. Feed the beast, and give it the other things necessary for its physical existence, and there is no more to be done. But there is more wanted for the desires of the men that love and fear God. These are glanced at in the context, “ He also will hear their cry, and will save them” ; “ The Lord preserveth all them that love Him.” That is to say, there are deeper needs in our hearts and lives than any that are known amongst the lower creatures. Evils, dangers, inward and outward; sorrows, disappointments, losses of all sorts shadow our lives in a fashion which the happy, careless life of field and forest knows nothing about. What is the object of desire to a man that loves God? God. What is the object of desire to a man that fears Him? God. What is the object of desire to a righteous man? Righteousness. And these are the desires which God is sure to fulfil to us. Therefore, there is only one religion in which it is safe and wise to cherish longings, and it is the region of the spiritual life where God imparts Himself. Everywhere else there will be disappointments--thank Him for them. Nowhere else is it absolutely true that that He will “ fulfil the desires of them that fear Him.” But in this region it is. Whatever any of us want to have of God we are sure to get. We open our mouths and He fills them. In the Christian life desire is the measure of possession, and to long is to have. And there is nowhere else where it is absolutely, unconditionally, and universally true that to wish is to possess, and to ask is to have. III. Two forms of appeal. “ The eyes of all wait upon Thee.” That is beautiful! The dumb look of the unconscious creature, like that of a dog looking up in its master’ s face for a crust, makes appeal to God, and He answers that. But a dumb, unconscious look is not for us. “ He also will hear their cry.” Put your wish into words if you want it answered; not for His information, but for your strengthening. IV. The two processes of satisfying. “ Thou openest Thine hand.” That is enough. But God cannot satisfy our deepest desire by any such short and easy method. There is a great deal more to be done by Him before the aspirations of love, and fear, and longing for righteousness can be fulfilled. He has to breathe Himself into us. God’ s best gifts cannot be separated from Himself. They are Himself, and in order to “ satisfy the desires of them that fear Him” there is no way possible, even to Him, but the impartation of Himself to the waiting heart. He has to discipline us for His highest gifts, in order that we may receive them. And sometimes He has to do that, as I have no doubt He has done it with many of us, by withholding or withdrawing, the satisfaction of some of our lower desires, and so emptying our hearts and turning the current of our wishes from earth to heaven. Not only has He to give us Himself, and to discipline us in order to receive Him, but He has put all His gifts which meet our deepest desires into a great storehouse. He does not open His hand and give us peace and righteousness, and growing knowledge of Himself, and closer union, and the other blessings of the Christian life, but He gives us Jesus Christ. We are to find all these blessings in Him, and it depends upon us whether we find them or not, and how much of them we find. Expand your desires to the width of Christ’ s great mercies; for the measure of our wishes is the limit of our possession. He has laid up the supply of all our need in the storehouse, which is Christ; and He has given us the key. Let us see to it that we enter in. “ Ye have not because ye ask not.” “ To him that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance.” (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Satisfieth: It is God’ s own word. It is not in the world’ s vocabulary, much less in the devil’ s. This, too, is love’ s word. Love is never satisfied until there is a perfect satisfaction. So, then, here is the salvation of our wishes. Nurse your aspirations, encourage your desires. They cannot be too great since God waits to satisfy them. Wishing is not an idle folly when we bring our wishes to God. Then our desires do become pure prophecies; the whispers of God’ s love to the soul. Be not afraid of your desires; let the soul be thrilled with the thought of heroism, adventure, nobility, grand deeds grandly done. Take these to God, for He hath need of them, and He knows how to turn these wishes to account. This is the very meaning of our salvation, to turn the idle poetry of our wishes into solid fact that blesses men. It is to inspire the very loftiest longing and to fulfil that which He inspires that Jesus Christ has lived and died and risen in His resurrection power. Do you but give yourself right up to God, and no dream of good is there, no blessed vision of service but shall come to pass. He satisfieth the desire,--the desire of every living thing. (M. G. Pearse.) All needs freely supplied A man who engaged a passage on a coasting steamer was in straitened circumstances, and had but a small sum left when his ticket was paid for. Part of this he invested in bread and cheese, thinking the cabin fare too expensive for his limited means. After a while his bread tasted fiat and stale, and his cheese became hard and mouldy. To aggravate matters, he was obliged, three times a day, to inhale the odours from the cook’ s galley, and the delicious aromas drove him almost frantic. Finally, when within a day’ s sail from the port of destination, he grew desperate. Seeing the steward bearing a huge platter with a turkey, he waylaid him at the entrance of the dining-saloon, and said: “ See here, I haven’ t much money, but I have stood this thing as long as I can. How much will a dinner like that cost? Cost!” exclaimed the steward; “ why, man, it don’ t cost you anything, it’ s all paid for in your passage.” Our God has made abundant provision for our welfare on the journey heavenward. We do not need to live on dry bread and mouldy cheese. He sets a rich table for all who trust Him. Christ’ s command is: Eat and be filled. Psalms 145:17 The Lord is righteous in all His ways. The Divine ways I. God has many ways of dealing with His universe. God’ s ways are His methods of action.1. He has settled methods of action in relation to His inanimate universe He has a way of managing the seas, and the stars, and all the blind forces of Nature. 2. He has settled methods of action in relation to His sentient universe. The smallest insect and the hugest mammoth He manages by their instincts. 3. He has settled methods of action in relation to His moral universe. (1) With the unfallen. The myriads who retain their pristine virtues. (2) With the fallen. These include the impenitent and the repentant. He has methods of dealing with them, they are settled and unalterable. II. In all God’ s ways He is absolutely righteous.1. This is a matter of necessity. He could not but be righteous: whatever He does must be right because He does it, for there is nothing higher than Himself, nothing outside of Himself. He is absolutely irresponsible. What the infinitely wise, holy, and loving does, must be “ righteous.” 2. This is a matter for rejoicing. How blessed the thought that He, with whom we have to do, on whom we are absolutely dependent, to whom we are amenable for all our conduct, and who will settle our destiny at last, will never do us wrong, will always act righteously. Moral--Trust in Him. (David Thomas, D. D.) Psalms 145:18-21 The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon Him.God and His people I. The persons who are favoured with the Divine presence.1. They call upon God.2. They call upon Him in truth.3. They desire Him.4. They fear Him.5. They cry unto Him.6. They love Him.7. They praise Him. II. The favours which the Lord manifests to His people.1. He is near them.2. He will grant their desires.3. He will save them.4. He will preserve them.5. They shall be with Him for ever. III. The destruction of the wicked. “ He will destroy” --1. Their expectation (Proverbs 10:28-29).2. Their souls and bodies in hell (Matthew 10:28). IV. Improvement.1. See what great encouragement there is for prayer.2. What incitements to filial confidence in God.3. What reasons for gratitude and praise.4. And what terror to the unbelieving. (T. B. Baker.) Psalms 145:20 All them that love Him. Love to God I. On what account God is to be loved, and is loved by His saints.1. For Himself (Psalms 8:1).2. As their chief, yea, only good (Psalms 73:25).3. For the blessings of His goodness communicated to them (Psalms 6:9).4. For the various relations in which they stand toward Him (Psalms 18:1).5. For His great love to them (1 John 4:19). II. How, and in what way and manner, love to God manifests itself.1. In a desire to be like Him (Ephesians 5:1).2. In making His glory the supreme end of all their actions (1 Corinthians 10:31).3. In desiring of, and delighting in, communion with God (1 John 1:3).4. In a carefulness not to offend Him by sinning against Him (Psalms 97:10).5. In parting with, and bearing, all, for His sake.6. In a regard to His house, worship, and ordinances (Psalms 84:1).7. By a value for His Word, His Gospel, and the truths of it.8. In love and affection to the people of God. III. The nature and properties of the love of God.1. It is universal; a love of all that is in God and belongs unto Him; of all His attributes and perfections, not of His goodness, grace, and mercy, and of Him for them only: but of His holiness, justice, and truth; and of all His commandments, which are to be respected (Ephesians 6:23-24).2. It is superlative; exceeds all other love, or love to all other persons and things.3. It is hearty and sincere; a love without dissimulation; not in word, nor in tongue, but in deed and in truth.4. Should be constant; such is the love of God to His people, He rests in His love towards them.5. It may be increased; the apostle prays for an increase of it, and he thanks God for it that it did abound (1 Thessalonians 3:12; 2 Thessalonians 1:3). IV. The happiness of such that love the Lord.1. They are loved by Him (Psalms 63:3).2. They are known of God (1 Corinthians 8:3; 2 Timothy 2:19).3. They are preserved by Him (Psalms 145:20; Psalms 31:23).4. They have many instances of mercy, kindness, and respect shown them (Exodus 20:6). Hence David prays (Psalms 119:123; Proverbs 8:21).5. All things that occur unto them in the present life are for their good (Romans 8:28).6. Great things are laid up and reserved for them that love Him. (T. Hannam.) . Psalms 146:1-10 Psalms 146:1-10 Praise ye the Lord.Hallelujah I. The grandest resolution (verses 1, 2).1. The author’ s belief in the existence of his soul. When this conviction comes, the whole universe is transfigured, and God is brought down from the region of debate and speculation into the realm of consciousness as the Reality of realities. 2. His belief in the duty of his soul to worship. This is to have the whole soul transported with the sense of His immeasurable love and the transcendent loveliness of His character,--to have the soul following Him as the planets follow the sun, drawing from Him harmony of movement, radiance, and life. The words imply-- 3. His conviction that he must rouse himself to the work. “ O my soul.” No soul can worship unless it rouses. Man has the power of self-motion and self-resolve. We cannot be carried up the lofty heights of true devotion; we must climb the rugged slopes ourselves. Ten thousand voices from above are constantly saying to us, “ Come up hither.” II. The unreliability of mankind (verses 3, 4).1. Men’ s bodies are dying. 2. Men’ s purposes are perishing. The great shores of destiny are crowded with the wrecks of purposes that have been broken, unfulfilled hopes, unrealized plans, etc. Wherefore, then, “ put trust in princes” or in mankind? Sooner a house built on the sand, and in defiance of the laws of gravitation, to shelter you from the tempest, or the most fragile canoe to bear you in safety over the Atlantic billows. III. The happiest condition (Psalms 146:5-9).1. The “ God of Jacob” is-- (1) All powerful.(2) Absolutely truthful.(3) Infinitely merciful. 2. Here, then, is an Object on which to rely, “ Trust in Him who liveth for ever.” IV. The wrongdoer’ s destiny (verse 9). “ The way of the wicked He turneth aside.”1. From what? From all that can render their existence worth having,--from pure friendship, from peace of conscience, from pure loves, from bright and unquenchable hopes. “ He turns them aside.” 2. How? Not by His will, not by the force of circumstances, not by the influence He exerts, no; but by their own free agency they turn themselves “ upside down,” they go of their own accord on the broad way that leads to destruction. (David Thomas, D. D.) “ Hallelujah” I am sorry to see that great word, Hallelujah, Hallelu-Jah, praise to Jah, Jehovah, become so hackneyed as it is, by talk about “ Hallelujah lasses,” and Hallelujah--I know not what. The Jews will not even pronounce the word Jab, or write it; it seems a great pity that it should be thus draggled in the dirt by Gentiles. “ Praise ye the Lord.” Whenever you make use of the word Hallelujah, let it be with the due reverence which should be given to that blessed name, for remember, “ the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh His name in vain.” (C. H. Spurgeon.) His last song A touching story is told of an old Methodist, a singer of no mean order, who was afflicted with a cancer on his tongue. He went to a hospital for an operation, and there this pathetic incident occurred. Holding up his hand, he said, “ Wait a bit, doctor; I have something to say to you.” The operator waited, and the patient continued, “ When this is over, doctor, shall I ever sing again?” The doctor could not speak; there was a big lump in his own throat. He simply shook his head, while the tears streamed down the poor fellow’ s face, and he trembled convulsively. The sick man then appealed to the doctor to lift him up, with which request the physician complied. He said, “ I have had many a good time singing God’ s praises, and you tell me, doctor, I can never sing any more after this. I have one song to sing, which will be the last. It will be a song of gratitude and praise to God as well.” Then, from the operator’ s table, the poor man sang one of Dr. Watts’ hymns, so familiar to many:-- “ I’ ll praise my Maker while I’ ve breath.” (Sunday Circle.) Psalms 146:3-4 Put not your trust in princes. Dependence on man forbidden I. Mankind are naturally disposed to do this. The young depend upon the old, and the old upon the young. The poor depend upon the rich, and the rich upon the poor. The servant depends upon his master, and the master upon the servant. The subject depends upon the ruler, and the ruler upon the subject. The child depends upon its parents, and the parent on the child. Is it strange, therefore, that such creatures as we are, in our present state, should depend too much upon each other? We early form this habit, which is constantly strengthening through all the changes and periods of life, and which God originally intended we should form and cultivate. But He never meant that our dependence upon each other should be a just ground of our renouncing our supreme dependence upon Himself. II. God has forbidden them to do this.1. He has required them to place their own supreme dependence upon Himself. 2. He has forbidden them to trust in themselves. III. Why He has forbidden it.1. Because mankind are so very unfit objects upon which to place supreme dependence. (1) Mortal.(2) Frail;(3) Fickle.(4) Absolutely dependent on God. 2. To preserve them from the numerous dangers and disappointments to which such undue confidence exposes them. 3. Because it tends to alienate them from Himself, and fix them down in ease and security, upon a false and fallible foundation. 4. To prevent their ruining themselves for ever. (N. Emmons, D. D.) The forbidding of carnal confidence 1. What a man doth most trust in, that he esteemeth most of, and praiseth in his heart most; therefore doth the psalmist set us upon God, as on the right object of trust, and diverteth us from the wrong, that he may teach us to make God the only object of praise. 2. Because the main object of our carnal confidence naturally is man in power, who seemeth able to do for us, able to promote us to dignity and riches, and to keep us up in some state in the world; therefore must we throw down this idol in particular, that we may place our confidence in God the better. 3. To cut off carnal confidence in man, that neither mean men may trust in great men, nor great men may trust in the multitude of mean men, we must remember that no man is naturally better than his progenitors, but such as his fathers were, such is he--that is, a sinful, weak, and unconstant creature. 4. The reason why we should not put trust in man is because he can neither help himself nor the man that trusteth in him when there is most need. 5. He that cannot deliver himself from death is not to be trusted in, because it is uncertain how soon death shall seize upon him. 6. Whatsoever the good will, or purpose, or promise of any man can give assurance of, all doth vanish when the man dieth. (D. Dickson.) Man too frail for our support We may lean on the creature without falling for a time, even as one doth against a crazy fence; but eventually the prop giveth way, and injury if not death ensues. God alone is safely to be trusted. (Anon.) Psalms 146:4-5 His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth.The philosophy of death The text refers to-- I. The destiny of all.1. A special day--the day of death.2. A striking view of death.3. Man’ s last earthly home.4. The cessation of mental activity. II. The peculiar privileges and happiness of a certain description of character.1. Sustained by the God of Jacob.2. Expecting all good in and from God.3. The blessedness of this character. (J. Burns, D. D.) The mortality of human thought I. All hypothetical thoughts are mortal. They are like the leaves of the forest, whilst some of them begin to wither and fall ere autumnal winds have touched them, they all fall dead at last. The heaps of dead leaves which the gardener every day in autumn sweeps up from the well-wooded swards under his care are emblems of these hypothetical thoughts. Do I undervalue such thoughts? No! Each of these rotting leaves had its charm and has its use. At first it quivered with life and sparkled in the sun; and its decay, no doubt, plays a useful part in the economy of nature. Hypothetical thoughts! Do not despise them. Who can tell the quickening impulses, the beneficent sciences and arts that have come out of them, and will come again? Albeit they must all perish as they touch reality. As the grandest billow, when it breaks on the rocky shore, falls to pieces, so the most majestic hypotheses of men are wrecked as the mind touches the stern realities of eternity. II. All sensuous thoughts are mortal. In the Scriptures we read of the “ fleshly mind,” “ fleshly wisdom,” and of those who “ judge after the flesh.” How much of human thought is started, shaped, and swayed by the senses! Their springs of movement are in the senses. Their horizon is bounded by the sensuous. Now, such thoughts are mortal. They must perish. They are dying by millions every moment, and they must all die at death. “ In that very day his thoughts perish.” III. All mercenary thoughts are mortal. I mean those thoughts that are taken up with the question, “ What shall I eat, what shall I drink, and wherewithal shall I be clothed?” Thoughts that are concerned entirely with man’ s material interest in this world, and are limited entirely to time. The worldly schemes and plans of men are all perishing and perishable. Were all the wrecked purposes of all the business men in London for one day fully registered, we could almost say the world itself would not contain the books. (David Thomas, D. D.) Lost thoughts At death a man sees all those thoughts which were not spent upon God to be fruitless. A Scythian captain having, for a draught of water, yielded up a city, cried out, “ What have I lost? What have I betrayed?” So will it be with that man when he comes to die who hath spent all his meditations upon the world; he will say, “ What have I lost? What have I betrayed? I have lost heaven, I have betrayed my soul.” Should not the consideration of this fix our minds upon the thoughts of God and glory? All other meditations are fruitless; like a piece of ground which hath much cost laid out upon it, but it yields no crop. (I. Watson.) Psalms 146:5 Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help. The God of Jacob Few of God’ s names are more suggestive than the one in the verse before us--the God of Jacob. It is very instructive, for example, and very comforting too, to find that God is willing to have His name so closely associated with that of a human being. The vastness of the material universe, with all its myriad hosts of suns and stars, sometimes staggers our faith, and makes us wonder if human life can really be the object of the Almighty care and love. To all such questionings we find an answer in this beautiful name. The God of unfathomable Space and immeasurable time is not unmindful of the life of man, The Lord of all those starry hosts--He also is the God of Jacob. And then this name shows, still further, that God cares not only for human beings, but for individual souls. The God of Jacob must be-- I. One who loves great sinners and pardons great transgressions. Sometimes a man feels as if he were too far gone in trespasses and sins to lift up his head in the presence of God, too full of utter selfishness and worldliness to dream of ever becoming a child of God at all. To such a man I would say, Just look at Jacob. If God became that man’ s God, surely He may become your God also. And sometimes one who has begun the Christian life, but has been overtaken in a fault, or in some other way has been backsliding in the path on which he started, loses heart and cries, It’ s useless for me to try to begin afresh; my nature is so weak, and the world around me is so strong. Again I would say, Look at Jacob! Bethel was Jacob’ s trysting-place with God; but long after Bethel was past Jacob sinned, and sinned again. And yet God did not forsake him or cast him away, but kept His hand upon him and carried him through, until, at last, He set his feet upon a rock and established his goings. II. One who hears a sinner’ s prayer. It is these prayers of Jacob which form the great redeeming feature of his character, and which, eventually, work out the man’ s salvation. With all his earthliness and selfishness he was a man who believed in God, and who believed also in prayer. The fact that he had a very sinful heart is no proof that his prayers were hypocritical. It teaches us, rather, that we must not wait untill we are saints before we begin to pray, for it is only by praying that we shall ever rise to any kind of sainthood. III. One who purifies His sons by painful trial. Jacob has been called “ a Janus, with two faces, one turned upwards to heaven, the other downwards to hell.” But Jacob was more than a Janus, for Janus only had two faces, while Jacob had two hearts. His two names point to his two natures--Jacob and Israel, the natural man and the spiritual man, the supplanter of his brother and the prince of God. Now, here was the problem of Jacob’ s life: How is the natural man to be spiritualized; how is the sinner to become a saint; how is the Jacob nature to be cast out, and the Israel nature to prevail? And this was the answer which God gave on every page of Jacob’ s history, It can only be done by sore and bitter trial. As a refiner of silver or gold deals with the impure but precious metal, so did God deal with this wayward child of His love. He sent him sorrow upon sorrow, until all the earthiness and dross was purged out of his heart, and Jacob became, not only in name, but in very nature, Israel, the Prince of God. (J. C,. Lambert, B. D.) Happiness I. Happiness in a worldly sense is an impossible attainment. This is proved--1. By the wants, calamities, passions, and weaknesses of human nature. Each of these would prevent the attainment of happiness. 2. By the changing, transitory nature of the world and its contents. That pleasure which can be dashed away in a moment cannot be happiness. 3. By the fact that all here are under the dominion of sin. Sin blights all things, sin embitters all things, sin brings a curse on all things. II. Happiness in a spiritual sense is a possible and a blessed reality. The reasons for this, given in our text, are two-fold--assistance in the present and hope in the future.1. Assistance in the present. The God of Jacob is his help. Notice that a man may have difficulties and yet be happy. God is his help. Oh, what a help! His power, greatness, goodness, all exercised on the Christian’ s behalf. 2. Hope for the future--“ Whose hope is in the Lord.” Hope, even in the present, can give happiness. But this hope will one day be realized and its fruition will be perfect joy. It is in the Lord our God that perfect happiness is only to be found. May we seek Him for our help and make Him our hope. (Homilist.) Psalms 146:6 Which keepeth truth for ever.Truth as an attribute of God He “ keepeth truth for ever” -- I. In nature (Psalms 19:1-14.; Job 37:1-24.). II. In the region of moral being and life. He keepeth the truth of them for ever. In all ages, in all worlds, these impalpable things, truth, honour, purity, righteousness, charity, are one and are the same. He who has learnt to love them here has eternal kindred; he who has knit his soul to them here has eternal communion; he who has dared to die for them here has eternal renown. The Greek sage was right. The sisters of the unseen realities, which have the rule of us here, await us behind the veil. In vain shall we betray them here, if they affront us there with their retributions, and exact their penalties through eternity. If truth, honour, duty, be transitory and mundane things, the temptation is terrible to shirk them. They cost much, and to him who holds them in slight honour they bring slight rewards. But if “ He keepeth their truth for ever” ; if He who is eternal lives by them, works by them, and will so live and work for ever, it lends an awful force to the man who is ready on earth to live for them and die for them; and it blasts with an awful eternal desolation the life which dishonours them and treads them in the dust. III. In the covenant of redemption. I. The truth of reconciliation. He declares that He is absolutely reconciled to us in Christ Jesus. That truth He keepeth for ever. Meet Him in Christ. Your sin has for ever vanished from before His face. Your soul is for ever under the heaven of His smiles (Colossians 1:19; Romans 5:1-11; Ephesians 1:3-12; Galatians 3:21; Galatians 4:7). That truth He keepeth for ever.2. The truth of regeneration (Galatians 4:4-5). If your life is built on this rock, God’ s calling of you as a son in Christ, if your hope is rested in this sovereign purpose of the Lord God Almighty, to present you complete in Christ in the day of the manifestation of the Son of God, then there is nothing in the universe which is stronger; nothing on earth, heaven or hell, nothing out of yourself can tear you away. And this is the end which God is pursuing through the whole of your discipline (Hebrews 12:1-12). He keeps the truth of this purpose for ever. To bring out the filial character, to enable you to comprehend His paternal character, is the great end of all you are called to endure. 3. The truth of His covenant engagement concerning man and the universe with His Son. We have His purpose and His love to trust to; but both grounds of assurance assume their strongest form and convey the surest hope when we contemplate the covenant which was established with the God-man when He finished the work which the Father had given Him to do. We are ever haunted in our endeavours to realize God’ s faithfulness by the thought of our own unfaithfulness, our utter unworthiness of such fidelity, such love. That we may have strong assurance God established His covenant with us as a covenant with the God-man, the well-beloved Son. Not what we are before the Father but what He is, our advocate, representative, and living head, is then the question. The building up of the spiritual universe under Him as its head, the redemption of the creature, all created things from the bondage of corruption, the realization of the ideal beauty, purity, and splendour, which has haunted like a dim dream in all ages the imagination of mankind, the completion of the New Jerusalem, the filling up of the muster-roll of its citizens, the gathering of the crowned victors of the spiritual battle around the throne of the Captain, to shine and reign with Him in the palaces of eternity,--these are assured to Christ by the terms of the everlasting covenant. And these the God “ who keepeth truth for ever” will evermore secure. (J. B. Brown, B. A.) Psalms 146:7-9 The Lord looseth the prisoners.The Lord’ s famous titles There are five famous titles of God here. I. Emancipator. He looseth those in mental, moral, and spiritual bondage. II. Illuminator. The Lord has opened the eyes of many a man who could not see himself, and so proved how blind he was; and could not see the Lord, and so showed still more how blind he was. The Lord has given the inner sight to many a man who was without spiritual understanding, to whom the Gospel seemed a great mystery, of which he could make neither head nor tail. III. Comforter. He “ raiseth them that are bowed down” with--1. Bereavement.2. The burdens of life.3. Inward distress.4. A sense of sin. IV. Rewarder. He “ loveth the righteous” --with a love of complacency, communion, favour, and honour. V. Preserver.1. He “ preserveth the strangers.” Father is dead, mother is dead, friends are all gone, and even in the very village where you were born you are a stranger; come along, your God is not dead, your Saviour liveth: “ The Lord preserveth the stangers.” 2. “ He relieveth the fatherless and widow.” If you turn to the first books of the Bible, you will see there God’ s great care of the fatherless and the widow. Who had the tithes? Well, the Levites; but also the poor, and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow (Deuteronomy 14:28; Deuteronomy 26:12). Now, then, you who feel like widows, you who have lost your joy and earthly comfort, you who feel like the fatherless, and cry, “ No man careth for my soul,” oh, may the sweet Spirit of the Lord entice you to come to Him. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Jesus--the Liberator Liberty--a free country! Those are words dear to us all. We love and honour the memory of those who in the old days fought for England’ s freedom, We read with pride of the Swiss hero who flung himself upon the Austrian spears and made a way for liberty. But what shall we say of Jesus, who gives us the truest liberty, whose service is perfect freedom, who loosest men out of prison? There are few words which have been more misused than that word liberty. Well might the French woman, victim of the Revolution, point to the Statue of Freedom, as she came to die upon the scaffold, and say, “ O Liberty, how many crimes have been committed in thy name!” “ Truly,” says one of our great preachers, “ there are two freedoms--the false, where a man is free to do what he likes; the true, where a man is free to do what he ought.” “ The Lord looseth men out of prison.” He looseth out of the hard prison of the ancient law, and setteth our feet in the large room of grace, and bringeth us into a wealthy place. He looseth out of the prison of sin and death, the prison of the curse. He who went down into Hades, and preached to the spirits of the fathers in prison, hath broken for us the gates of brass, and smitten the bars of iron in sunder. Are there none of us who are prisoners--captives and slaves to our own bad passions, our own undisciplined will, evil habits of our own making? If so, and if we have the will to be free, Jesus, the Liberator, will loose us, even though we be in the innermost prison of sin, and our feet made fast in the stocks of evil habits. But we shall never be free till we know that we are in prison, till we feel the chain. The young man following his own lusts and pleasures, walking in his own way, talks to us of his freedom; he knows not that he is a prisoner, and so he will not cry to the Lord to set him free. (H. J. Wilmot Buxton, M. A.) Psalms 146:9 He relieveth the fatherless.The fatherless relieved The Lord “ relieveth the fatherless” -- I. By exciting the compassion of others in their behalf. The feeling of sympathy is one of the noblest affections of our rational nature. To be without compassion for the miserable and the helpless is a strong indication of deep moral depravity. That all are not thus depraved must be owing to the distinguishing goodness and grace of God.1. Even among those who are still in an unregenerate state we find many who are easily affected with the calamities of others, and who listen with eagerness, as well as with deep concern, to the tale of woe. 2. When Christians behold others around them in poverty and affliction they ascribe it to undeserved mercy that they themselves are not in similar, or even in worse, circumstances. This thought moves their compassion. II. By exciting the liberality of others towards their support.1. Even those who are strangers to the power of His grace are often led by a natural principle of benevolence, or perhaps of self-gratification, to abound in alms-deeds. But more especially the Lord endows many of His own servants with a kind and liberal spirit. Being conscious that they have nothing but what they have received, they consider themselves as stewards, who are bound to be faithful. They endeavour, therefore, to honour the Lord with their substance, and with the first-fruits of their increase. III. By stirring up others to active exertions in their behalf. IV. By rendering the exertions of others, and especially of His own servants, effectual for this end. V. More especially by bringing them to an acquaintance with Himself, and sometimes by placing them in stations of usefulness, and even of eminence in the world. (D. Dickson.) Psalms 146:10 The Lord shall reign for ever.The eternal reign of Zion’ s King I. The King to be proclaimed--Jehovah, the Triune God.1. The Three Persons of the Deity are included and pointed out as the joint-covenanters for Zion’ s salvation. 2. He is the avenger of Zion, and the judge of their cause. 3. He is endeared to Zion by His signify. 4. The union is eternal. I want a Christianity that not only brings me to heaven at last, but that brings heaven down to my soul now, that I may gain the foretaste of eternal bliss even in a world of sorrows. Blessed be God, I know something about it. II. The interests of His kingdom.1. The safety of all His subjects, because they are His own peculiar care. 2. The undivided allegiance of His subjects. 3. The statutes and laws of His kingdom are inimitable and immutable. III. Its never-ending duration. The King eternal, immortal, hatch spoiled death, and taken away his sting; and He has removed its terrors, and for ever put away the second death, so that none of His subjects can by any possibility enter upon it; for on such the second death hath no power. They are blessed and holy, having been made partakers of the first resurrection from the death of sin to a life of righteousness. And because our King is immortal, and dieth no more, and lives for ever--cannot grow old--without beginning of days, or end of years, so are all His subjects; for I hear Him thus proclaim for their encouragement, “ Because I live, ye shall live also.” IV. Hallelujah. Oh for more exalted strains! Oh for stronger language! Oh for a fuller vocabulary, and boundless ideas to be thrown forth as with a cataract, and without reserve, to glorify, and honour, and exalt the precious name of Jesus; for all the voices in heaven are thus employed. And how should this encourage the subjects of His grace on earth! (J. Irons.) . Psalms 147:1-20 Psalms 147:1-11 Praise ye the Lord.Genuine worship: - I. The transcendent excellence of true worship (verse 1).1. It is good. (1) It accords with the constitution of the human soul.(2) It accords with the Divine command.(3) It agrees with the genius of the universe. 2. It is pleasant. It is the grand end of our being, the paradise of our nature; worship is not a means to an end, it is the grandest end, there is nothing higher, it is heaven. 3. It is “ comely.” Is it not a fitting and a beautiful thing that the greatest Being in the universe should be the most earnestly thanked, that the best Being should be the most profoundly reverenced, that the kindest Being should be the most enthusiastically adored? II. The supreme object of true worship.1. What He is in Himself. “ Great.” 2. In relation to His creatures. (1) To the human family. (a) Building up useful institutions (verse 2). Schools for the ignorant, hospitals for the diseased, asylums for the poor, etc. (b) Uniting scattered peoples (verse 2). By the promotion of one language, by the extension of free trade, by the abolition of political and religious difficulties, and by the advancement of one creed--Christ, and one code-His example. (c) Healing broken hearts (verse 3). (d) Rectifying human conditions (verse 6). (e) Disregarding martial force (verse 10). (f) Interested in saintly men (verse 11). (2) In relation to inanimate nature. He is at work-- (a) In the stellar universe (verse 4). (b) In the atmosphere (verse 8). (3) In relation to mundane life (verses 8, 9). (David Thomas, D. D.) Master motives to praise The psalms of David, like Christian experience, begin with the blessing of the separated life, and they end with a torrent of praise. The final four psalms each commence and finish with Hallelujah! We may all share in Christ’ s coronation; none are too weak to bring their praises, none so mighty but He is mightier. The motives I would urge upon you are very simple. I. Because of what God is.1. His character is seen in His works. His understanding is infinite, there is no limit to His power. He is in all things that He has created. The same power made a world and moulds a raindrop. The same wisdom names the stars and knows each blade of grass on the mountain-side. If our spirit be not warped we shall never lack cause for praise. A friend of mine tells me that the way to be always thankful for the weather is to keep a garden; if it is fine you can enjoy the flowers; if it is wet you can stay indoors and say how good the rain is for the garden. If our soul be like a watered garden and we recognize that the Lord cares for us, trial and sunshine will alike bring praise, and we shall ever be able to say, as an old man I know always begins his public prayers, “ Lord, we thank Thee for our being and for our well-being.” 2. The motive of all His works God finds in Himself. Learn more of Him. Live more with Him and you will praise Him more, until perhaps you will find language, even the language of the Psalms, too unworthy of what He has taught you of Himself, and you will sometimes just be silent and adore. II. Because of what praise is.1. It is good. (1) If we praise God as we ought we shall be kept from praising ourselves. Surely that is good. I have heard that most self-made men are very apt to praise their maker; indeed we are all liable to sing the praises of self. The sure way of escaping this danger is to fill your heart and mouth with praise to God. (2) Praise leads us to value truly what we receive. The goodness becomes great when the memory of it is abundantly uttered. Praise is the plural of pray. 2. It is pleasant. A Puritan writer says there are some things good and not pleasant, and there are some things pleasant and not good, but there is one thing both good and pleasant, and that is for brethren to dwell together in unity. To which I would only add they should unite in praise. Praise is the instinct of the regenerate soul. What is natural is always pleasant. If your joys abound, praise God. It will shed a glow on the mountain, put a bloom on the grape, add moss to your rose. If sorrow is your portion, praise; however ill your lot you can find something to evoke thanksgiving. 3. It is comely. What can we do but praise? Gifts are bountifully given to us, and we have nothing to offer in return but thanks. We can only give Christ our sins and our praises, if He take the one shall we withhold the other? Nay, let Him have all. We shall see that praise on our part is comely if we lay hold of the marvellous truth that by and by God will praise us (1 Corinthians 4:5). (W. T. Fullerton.) Praise I. What is praising? As applied to men, it has a limited use, differing in degree, rather than in kind, from that which is employed in devotion. It is the expression of pleasure, of approval, of gratification in an action, in a course of action, or in the contemplation of one’ s disposition. All men are limited by manifold imperfections, and therefore it is that praise, as applied to men, must always be partial, and must be but occasional. Applied to God, praise is the experience and the utterance of the soul’ s admiration and joy in view of the Divine character, or its exhibitions in His moral government, in His providence, and in His grace. Praise always implies admiration and joy, and a disposition to make them known. What dispositions are implied, then, in the act of praising God? It implies, first, a knowledge of Divine manifestations. That is, praise is not merely the utterance of a feeling of pleasure or of gladness that wells up in the heart. Praise is something that is excited in our mind by the knowledge, or the supposed knowledge, of God. The act of praising implies, also, a moral taste that feels and enjoys the noble attributes of God, and the development of them. That is, it implies a moral sensibility to Divine element. It implies, likewise, gratitude, love, joy in the Lord. It is not an act of mere reason, nor of mere will, although both reason and wilt may be implicated in it. It is an overflow of feeling. It may take place consciously. It may take place with preparation through thought and instruction. But the highest forms of praise are spontaneous, irresistible, full of interjections. Such is the praise of the heavenly host. It is that utterance of the soul in its rarer moments, when before it passes, in sublime order, the Divine character, the Divine nature, the Divine government, and the soul is kindled with the prospect, and it gives forth, in language, or with feeling manifested, its own gladness and admiration. The Christian exercise of praising implies a degree of continuity. It is a disposition. It springs from a soul that is always seeing, more or less, the admirableness of God’ s nature and government, in grace and in providence. Moreover, the act of praising implies faith. That is, those who come to God with praise, as with prayer, must believe that He is. It is impossible to kindle the soul and to pour it forth toward a shadow; toward any being that stands in doubt in our convictions. Besides, the act of praising implies enthusiasm, soul-glow. But it is lyrical. It may dwell in the thoughts, but it is very apt to overflow the rim of thought, and to spill out in words and expressions. II. In what is it to be distinguished from prayer? Why sometimes it is prayer. Prayer is the generic of which praise is only a specific element. Every address made consciously to God, whether of supplication, of confession, of simple communion, or of ecstatic praise, is prayer. Prayer, comprehensively, is the soul’ s communion with God. Praising, then, as one of the elements of prayer, and as distinguished from the other forms of prayer, is not supplication: it is asking nothing. It is not confession: it is not pouring out what we are. It is the soul’ s expression of admiration in view of the Divine excellence. It is gladness expressed; it is gratitude expressed; it is joy expressed--and all with reference to the manifestations of God Himself. (Henry Ward Beecher.) A praiseful spirit It is related that Beethoven had his piano carried to the middle of a beautiful field, and there, sunbeams and cloud shadows playing together on the grass, and birds performing their impromptu oratorios, he composed some of his great pieces. We are to come beneath the broad canopy of God’ s love, and, encompassed by innumerable mercies, we are to make music--the music of thankfulness for tokens of Divine goodness abounding in our lives. Psalms 147:2-5 The Lord doth build up Jerusalem. The greatness and gentleness of God The text reveals the constructive side of the Divine government. I. As shown in the building of the Church.1. “ The Lord doth build up Jerusalem,” etc. That He should do so shows-- (1) That the Church is self-demolished.(2) That it is self-helpless.(3) That God is the Gatherer, the Redeemer, and the Builder of the Church. 2. It is not God’ s purpose to destroy. It is His very nature to preserve, extend, complete, and glorify. He does destroy, but never willingly. His arm does not become terrible until His heart has been grieved, until His patience has been exhausted, and until the vital interests of the universe have been put in peril. II. As seen in the gentle care of human hearts. “ He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds.” Still, you see how constructive and preservative is God. His work is edification, not destruction. Who cares for broken-hearted men? Who has patience with the weak and faint? The greater the nature, the greater the compassion.1. The personality of God’ s knowledge. He knows every bruised reed. Hears suffer in secret; there is nothing hidden from God! 2. The infinite adaptations of Divine grace. Every heart, whatever its grief, may be healed. There is “ a sovereign balm for every wound.” 3. The perfectness of Divine healing. Other healers say, “ Peace, peace, when there is no peace.” Others “ heal the hurt of the daughter of My people slightly.” We are not healed until God heals us. God offers to heal us; our disease and our sorrow are challenges to prove His grace. What of the responsibility of refusal? III. As seen in the order, the regularity, and the stability of creation.1. Creation is a volume open to all eyes. Read it, and see the might and gentleness, the wisdom and patience of God. Jesus Christ taught us to reason from the natural to the spiritual: “ Consider the lilies,” etc; “ Behold the fowls of the air,” etc. (1) God takes care of the great universe, may I not trust Him with my life?(2) Where God’ s will is unquestioned, the result is light, beauty, music: why should I oppose myself to its gracious dominion? 2. Let the Church be of good courage. “ When the Lord shall build up Zion, He shall appear in His glory.” “ The gates of hell shall not prevail.” (J. Parker, D. D.) He gathereth together the outcasts of Israel.--Good cheer for outcasts Does not this showy us the great gentleness and infinite mercy of God? And as we know most of God in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ, should it not charm us to remember that when He came on earth He did not visit kings and princes, but He came unto the humble and simple folk. I think you may judge of a man’ s character by the persons whose affection he seeks. If you find a man seeking only the affection of those who are great, depend upon it he is ambitious and self-seeking; but when you observe that a man seeks the affection of those who can do nothing for him, but for whom he must do everything, you know that he is not seeking himself, but that pure benevolence sways his heart (Matthew 11:29). I also see here an illustration of His love to men, as men. If you seek only after rich men the suspicion arises, and it is more than a suspicion that you rather seek their wealth than them. If you aim only at the benefit of wise men, it is probably true that it is their wisdom which attracts you, and not their manhood: but the Lord Jesus Christ did not love men because of any advantageous circumstances, or any commendable incidents of their condition: His love was to manhood. Another thing is also clear. If Jesus gathers together the outcasts el Israel, it proves His power over the hearts of men. I. To whom may this text apply?1. The very poorest and most despised among men. The Lord Jesus Christ looks with love on those whom others look down upon with scorn. 2. Those who have made themselves outcasts by their wickedness, and are deservedly cast out of society. 3. Those who judge themselves to be outcasts, though as to outward actions they certainly do not deserve the character. Now, listen, thou who hast condemned thyself. The Lord absolves thee. Thou who hast shut thyself out as an outcast, thou shalt be gathered; for whereas they call thee an outcast, whom no man seeket, h after, thou shalt be called Hephzibah, for the Lord’ s delight is in thee. Only believe thou in Jesus Christ, and cast thyself upon Him. 4. Backsliders. 5. Depressed Christians. 6. Those who suffer for righteousness’ sake, till they are regarded as the offscouring of all things. Blessed are those who are outcasts for Christi Rich are those who are so honoured as to be permitted to become poor for Him l Happy they who have had this grace given them to be permitted to lay life itself down for Jesus Christ’ s sake! II. In what sense the Lord Jesus gathers together these outcasts of different classes.1. He gathers them to hear the Gospel. 2. He gathers them to Himself--to blessedness and peace through reconciliation with the Father. 3. He gathers them into the Divine family--makes them children of God--heirs with Himself. 4. In due time He gathers them into His visible Church, and He gathers them into His work. 5. He gathers them into heaven. III. Lessons.1. Encouragement to those who are unworthy, or who think themselves so, to go to Jesus Christ to-night. 2. If Jesus Christ received some of us when we felt ourselves to be outcasts, how we ought to love Him! 3. Let us always feel that if the Lord Jesus Christ took us up when we were not worth having, we will never be ashamed to try and pick up others who are in a like condition. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Psalms 147:3-4 He healeth the broken in heart. God’ s relation to sorrowing souls and to starry systems I. His relation to sorrowing souls. “ He healeth the broken in heart.” There are broken hearts and wounded souls in this world. The whole human creation is groaning. God works here to heal and restore. Christianity is the restorative element He applies--the Balm of Gilead--the tree whose fruit is for the healing of the nations. II. His relation to starry systems. “ He telleth the number of the stars.”1. Those who deny God’ s active relation to both souls and stars. These comprehend those who deny the existence of God altogether, and those who admit His existence, but deny His superintendence in the universe; the latter regard all the phenomena and changes of nature as taking place not by the agency of God, but by the principles or laws which He impressed upon it at first. The universe is to them like a plant,: all the vital forces of action are in itself, and it will go on until they exhaust and die. 2. Those who admit God’ s active relation to stars, but, deny it to souls. They say that it is derogatory to Infinite Majesty to suppose His taking any notice of broken hearts. He has to do with the great, but not with the little. There are two or three thoughts which make this objection appear very childish. (1) One is that man’ s great and small are but notions. When I say that a thing is great, all I mean is that it is great to me. To God there is nothing great nor small (2) Another is that what we consider small are influential parts of the whole. Science proves that the motion of an atom must propagate an influence to remotest orbs; that all created being is but one great chain, of which the corpuscle is a link, which, if touched, will send its vibration to the ultimate points. In the moral system facts show that the solitary thought of an obscure man can shake empires, produce revolutions, and reform society. (3) Another thought is that--even on the assumption of our conception of magnitudes being correct--we have as much evidence to believe that God is as truly at work in the Small as the great. (4) Human souls, though in suffering, are greater than the stars in all their splendour. (5) There is higher evidence to believe that God restores souls than that He takes care of stars. The highest proof is consciousness. I infer, from my understanding, that God governs the heavenly bodies, but I feel that “ He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds.” This thought gives to its objection a contemptible insignificance. 3. Those who profess faith in God’ s active relation to both, but who are destitute of the suitable spiritual feeling. Antecedently, we should infer that, wherever there could be found a thinking moral nature like man’ s fully believing in this twofold relation of God--His connection with the heavenly bodies, and with all pertaining to the history of itself--there would be developed in that nature, as the necessary consequence of that faith, life, humility, and devotion. It is said that “ an undevout astronomer is mad” ; but an undevout believer in God’ s connection with the universe and man is impossible. Wherever, then, we find apathetic, proud, undevout men professing this belief, we find hypocrites. 4. To what class, in relation to this subject, dost thou belong? Thou wouldst probably revolt at the idea of belonging to either of the former two; but the latter, for many reasons, is worse than either: it is to play the hypocrite, and disgrace religion. Get, then, the true faith in the subject--the faith that will produce this true quickening, humbling, devotionalizing effect--and thou shalt catch the true meaning of life. (Homilist.) Healing for the wounded I. A great ill--a broken heart. The heart broken not by distress or disappointment, but on account of sin, is the heart which God peculiarly delights to heal. All other sufferings may find a fearful centre in one breast, and yet the subject of them may be unpardoned and unsaved; but if the heart be broken by the Holy Ghost for sin, salvation will be ire ultimate issue, and heaven its result. A broken heart implies--1. A very deep and poignant sorrow on account of sin.2. Utter inability to get rid of it. II. A great mercy. “ He healeth The broken in heart.”1. He alone does it.2. He alone can do it.3. He alone may do it.4. He will do it. Did Saul of Tarsus rejoice after three days of blindness? Yes, and you shall be delivered also. Oh, it is a theme for eternal gratitude, that the same God who in His loftiness and omnipotence stooped down in olden times to soothe, cherish, relieve, and bless the mourner, is even now taking His journeys of mercy among the penitent sons of men. Oh, I beseech Him to come where thou art sitting, and put His hand inside thy soul, and, if He finds there a broken heart, to bind it up. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Christ’ s hospital I. The patients and their sickness.1. Those whose hearts are broken through sorrow. The text does not say “ the spiritually broken in heart,” therefore I will not insert an adverb where there is none in the passage. Come hither, ye that are burdened, all ye that labour and are heavy laden; come hither, all ye that sorrow, be your sorrow what it may; come hither, all ye whose hearts are broken, be the heart-break what it may, for He healeth the broken in heart. 2. Those whose hearts are broken for sin. 3. Hearts that are broken from sin. When you and sin have quarrelled, never let the quarrel be made up again. II. The Physician and His medicine.1. Jesus was anointed of God for this work.2. Jesus was sent of God on purpose to do this work.3. He was educated for this work. He had a broken heart Himself.4. He is experienced in this work.5. His medicine is His own flesh and blood. There is no cure like it. III. The testimonial to the Great Physician which is emblazoned in the text. I understand it to mean this.1. He does it effectually.2. He does it constantly.3. He does it invariably.4. He glories in doing it. IV. What we ought to do.1. Resort to Him.2. Trust Him.3. Praise Him. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Power and tenderness A great deal of what we call the scepticism of the present day is merely the protest of the human mind for unity. The spiritual world has so often been described as being so utterly unlike this, its laws have been so persistently spoken of as contradictory to the laws of this; warring continually against it, that you could almost think sometimes that if these two worlds are governed at all they must be governed by two different, contradictory, and even antagonistic deities. Man does not like this. It perplexes him. His allegiance becomes divided. He does not like to feel that he belongs to one world, and that he lives with one set of facts, whilst he is working and thinking and studying, and that he is in another world and with another set of facts when he worships and prays. Now, these words start from the fullest recognition of both. The reality of both is implied. I. The same God holds sway in both worlds. “ He healeth the broken in heart. He telleth the number of the stars.” The revelation of God is twofold. There is the revelation that He gives in the spirits of men--the revelation that comes to us of God’ s handling of the souls of men; and there is the revelation which God gives in this material creation outside. Now, let me ask you, shall we not understand God better by keeping the two together? Is it not a loss to separate them? Let me say that the best commentary upon the Bible is science, and the best commentary upon science is the Bible. There are scientific questions being discussed in England at this present moment that never will be settled until people approach them from the spiritual standpoint. And, let me add, our religious conceptions would be strengthened, would rest upon a firmer foundation, and would be healthier and sweeter, if we always remembered the things that have come to us through the physiologist, through the biologist, through the geologist, and through all the men of science. The complete, true understanding of God comes through remembering that He who telleth the stars is also the same who healeth the broken in heart. II. There are certain great principles that prevail in both worlds. Oh, there is a difference! There is plenty of difference. Why, I have only to read my text again. Broken hearts belong only to one sphere. The shadow of a great disaster is upon our souls. There is nothing like it elsewhere. “ The sunshine has a heart of care,” said the great English novelist who tried to write poetry and failed; but the care was in her own heart. “ The whole creation groaneth and travaileth together in pain until now,” said the Apostle Paul. The song of creation is set in the minor key. There is a little bit of something there besides poetry. Suffering is everywhere. Ask the doctor, and he will tell you that pathology is as broad as physiology. One is the shadow of the other. But let us steady our hearts. The same hand that keeps and helps and soothes the poor, bewildered, sorrowing creature, is the Hand that keeps the stars. If we could impress upon ourselves that the soul is as much under law as the body, that the well-being of the soul is determined by conditions as fixed and inexorable as the conditions that determine the well-being of the body, we could command spiritual influences with the same absolute certainty that we could command physical influences. “ There is a law of gravitation,” you say; “ there is a law of the combination of chemical elements.” Do not talk nonsense in a church. There is a law of pardon, there is a law of prayer, there is a law of spiritual health and sanctification. In an instant this morning you can, if you like, bring yourself into the current of help which will carry you up to the feet of God. Oh, if we but believed that all spiritual felicity is as much within our reach as the nearest law of nature! “ Wilt thou be made whole?” I saw a young boy, the other day, making experiments with an electric battery. The place was full of electricity; but the connection was not established. Just one thing, and the current was complete. “ Wilt thou be made whole?” “ Yes.” Then the current is complete. Cast yourself on the promises of God like a strong man casting himself into the tide. As truly as God leads the stars, can He, will He, heal the brokenhearted. (J. Morlais Jones.) Psalms 147:4 He telleth the number of the stars.The stars and the Cross As the best, known constellation in our northern hemisphere is Ursa Major , so the best known, probably, in the southern hemisphere is Cruz Australis, or “ the Southern Cross.” Each side of our globe has, therefore, its own most conspicuous sign, or group of shining stars. But it is the privilege of those who reside at or near the Equator to command a view of both of these beautiful constellations. Standing within the vicinity of the Line, and looking up, the eye can sweep a wide celestial dome, which includes the Northern Plough on the one side, and the Southern Cross upon the other. Now, it is of extreme importance that intelligent Christians should be able to behold at the same time the two hemispheres of nature and of grace. In the same field of vision we should embrace the Plough and the Cross, and intelligently identify the God of nature with the God of grace. The psalmist David always did so, and notably does so in the passage before us. What particularly strikes me here is the marvellous combination of Divine act. I find three statements, each of which commands our admiring thought, but the union of which--for they are closely bracketed together--is positively startling. Slightly varying the order, for the sake of convenience, I would take the whole as a descending climax, a diminuendo bar, of which the three steps are these:1. God in the heavens: “ He tolleth the number of the stars: He calleth them all by their names.” 2. God in the Church: “ The Lord doth build up Jerusalem; He gathereth together the outcasts of Israel.” 3. God in the home of the afflicted: “ He healeth the broken in heart; He bindeth up their wounds.” I. God in the heavens. Do we not well from time to time to turn away from the distractions of this lower world, from the petty interests of this mere grain of sand on which we dwell, and, lifting up our eyes in intelligent contemplation to the glorious canopy overhead, to muse on the magnificent empire of Him “ who alone spreadeth out the heavens, and treadeth on the waves of the sea; who maketh Arcturus, Orion, and the Pleiades, and the chambers of the south; who doeth great things past finding out: yea, and wonders without number” ? Oh! it will deepen our sense of the condescending love of God shown towards His Church and towards His afflicted people, when we behold His stately and majestic march over the fields of immensity, and see His own hand kindling and trimming every one of those innumerable lamps of heaven! II. God in the Church There is, as we all know, a literal sense in which the scattered tribes of Abraham’ s family shall yet be gathered in. “ He that scattered Israel shall gather him as a shepherd doth his flock.” Not more certain is the fact of his dispersion than is the decree of his restoration. A day is coming when Jacob’ s captivity shall be turned. But the words have also a wider meaning. Blessed be God, He hath devised means whereby His banished of all nations may be brought back; and He is daily, by those means and in all lands where the Gospel is proclaimed, gathering in the outcasts to His fold; and let me say that never have we better evidence that God is in any particular locality building up His Jerusalem than when the outcasts are being gathered in. The surest token of a prosperous Church is zealous and unwearied effort on the part of its members to win the lost and the lapsed around it to Christ. Oh! let us be stirred by the view of the Divine condescension, by the thought that He who sitteth on the circle of the universe, whose arm swings the solar system round yonder star Alcyone, and who holds in His hand the reins of all those stellar steeds that bound around the circuit of immensity, stoops down to this little planet on which we dwell, not only to build up upon it a Church of ransomed men, but even to go out after those who have been poor outcasts from His fold. III. God in the chamber of the stricken heart. Oh! is it not a marvellous conception: away from the Bible, man never entertained the shadow of such a thought: the Mighty and Eternal One, from whose hand worlds upon worlds are sent forth like sparks from the blacksmith’ s anvil, or like chaff from the summer threshing-floor, bending to the humblest ministry of mercy, and putting liniments round the wounded heart! Ah! it is only the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ that can make the text intelligible. Only in New Testament light can we interpret this mystery; but the person and the mission of the Divine Redeemer make all plain. His mediatorial arms stretch “ from the highest throne in heaven to the place of deepest woe.” In Him the majesty of Divine Omnipotence comes down to the door of human poverty and sorrow. (J. T. Davidson, D. D.) “ He telleth the number of the stars” Sir Robert Ball says, “ The number of the stars visible in England without a telescope may be estimated at about three thousand. Argelander has given to the world a well-known catalogue of the stars in the northern hemisphere, accompanied by a series of charts on which these stars are depicted. All the stars of the first nine magnitudes are included, as well as a very large number of stars lying between the ninth and the tenth magnitude. The total number of these stars is three hundred and twenty-four thousand one hundred and eighty-eight, and yet they are all within reach of a telescope of three inches in aperture. It almost invites us to the belief that the universe which we behold bears but a very small ratio to the far larger part which is invisible in the sombre shades of night.” Sir Robert Ball himself estimates the number of the stars at no less than one hundred millions, and an even higher estimate still is given by some astronomers. (R. Brewin.) The geometry of God It was truly said by the famous astronomer Kepler that “ God is the great arithmetician.” He counts everything that He has made. He makes all things in fixed numbers. He forms the flowers according to certain numerical relations, so fixed and precise that the Linnaean system of classification was based upon them. The roses have five divisions, the lilies three, the seaweeds, lichens and mushrooms two or four, and every other part of their structure is arranged in fives or threes or twos, or by multiplying these figures. Even the little fringe around the mouth of the seed-vessel of a moss growing on the wayside wall, which you can hardly see with your naked eye, if you magnify it with a lens you will find it arranged in exact numbers--four, eight, sixteen, thirty-two--a series in which every number is the double of the preceding one. The leaves of plants are all arranged around the stem on the same principle, and a fir-cone is one of the most beautiful illustrations of it. Crystals are constructed with mathematical regularity. You cannot unite the chemical elements of Nature to form a compound body by chance or in any proportion you please. (H. Macmillan, D. D.) Geometry of God God counts the number of the stars, and He arranges them in the heaven-s not by chance, but according to a fixed system. In the Solar system, for example, the intervals between the orbits of the planets go on doubling as we recede from the sun. Thus Venus is twice as far from Mercury as Mercury is from the sun; the earth is twice as far from Venus as Venus is from Mercury; Mars is twice as far from the earth as the earth is from Venus, and so on. In this way the planets are arranged in the sky around the sun in the same numerical order as the leaves are arranged around the stem of a plant or the scales around a pine-cone, or the teeth around the edge of the seed-vessel of a microscopic moss. And that extraordinary law, the most universal of all laws, which everything throughout the universe obeys--the law of gravitation--is also expressed by a numerical formula: the force of an object thrown into the air decreases just in proportion as the distance is increased; it decreases according to the square of the number expressing the distance; so that at twice the distance the force of gravitation is not twice less, but four times less; at thrice the distance nine times, and so on. (H. Macmillan, D. D.) Human mind fails to grasp the number of stars In one of the most recent, standard works upon astronomy it is stated that in Great Britain the number of stars visible to the naked eye does not exceed three thousand. So accurate are the charts of the heavens that are now prepared that every individual star is there; the disappearance of one or the arrival of another would be at once discovered and recorded. Three thousand probably strikes you as being a small figure; but stay a moment. If you make use of a common binocular field-glass you will at once discern ten times as many as with the unaided eye, and if, laying aside the field-glass, you look through a good ordinary telescope, the tens will immediately become hundreds; while if you should have the rare privilege of beholding the celestial dome through one of the great astronomical instruments, the hundreds will become thousands, and you will be fairly bewildered at the sight. Our great telescopes can show at least fifty millions of stars; nor is this all, for, through the recent wonderful development of celestial photography, millions more are discovered registering their existence upon the sensitive plate. (J. T. Davidson, D. D.) Psalms 147:8 Who covereth the heaven with clouds.The sky It is a strange thing how little in general people know about the sky. There is not a moment of any day of our lives when Nature is not producing scene after scene, picture after picture, glory after glory, and working still upon such exquisite and constant principles of the most perfect beauty that it is quite certain that, it is all done for us, and intended for our perpetual pleasure. And every man, wherever placed, however far from other sources of interest, or of beauty, has this doing for him constantly. The noblest scenes of the earth can be seen and known but by few; it is not intended that men should live always in the midst of them; he injures them by his presence; he ceases to feel them if he be always with them. But the sky is for all; bright as it is, it is not, too bright nor good for human nature’ s daily food; it is fitted in all its functions for the perpetual comfort and exalting of the heart; for soothing it and purifying it from its dross and dust. Sometimes gentle, sometimes capricious, sometimes awful; never the same for two moments together; almost human in its passions, almost spiritual in its tenderness, almost Divine in its infinity, its appeal to what is immortal in us is as distinct as its ministry of chastisement or of blessing to what is mortal is essential. And yet we never attend to it, we never make it a subject of thought, but as it has to do with our animal sensations; we look upon it all by which it speaks to us more clearly than to brutes, upon all which bears witness to the intention of the Supreme, that we are to receive more from the covering vault than the light and the dew which we share with the weed and the worm, only as a succession of meaningless and monotonous accidents, too common and too vain to be worthy of a moment of watchfulness, or a glance of admiration. If, in our moments of utter idleness and insipidity, we turn to the sky as a last resource, which of its phenomena do we speak of? One says it has been wet, and another it has been windy, and another it has been warm. Who among the whole chattering crowd can tell me of the forms and precipices of the chain of tall white mountains that gilded the horizon at noon yesterday? Who saw the narrow sunbeam that came out of the south, and smote upon their summits until they melted and mouldered away in a dust of blue rain? Who saw the dance of the dead clouds when the sunlight left them last night, and the west wind blew them before it like withered leaves? All has passed unregretted or unseen; or, if the apathy be ever shaken off, even for an instant, it is only by what is gross or what is extraordinary; and yet it is not in the broad and fierce manifestations of the elemental energies, not in the clash of the hail, nor the drift of the whirlwind that the highest characters of the sublime are developed. God is not in the earthquake nor in the fire, hut in the still small voice. They are but the blunt and the low faculties of our nature, which can only be addressed through lamp-black and lightning. It is in quiet and subdued passages of unobtrusive majesty; the deep and the calm and the perpetual; that which must be sought ere it is seen, and loved ere it is understood; things which the angels work out for us daily, and yet vary eternally; which are never wanting and never repeated; which are to be found always, yet each found but once. It is through these that the lesson of devotion is chiefly taught, and the blessing of beauty given. (John Ruskin.) Who maketh grass to grow.--The grass Every spring there is repeated before our eyes a phenomenon which in the beginning was a miracle. Let us, in imagination, view the scene where, on the first sand beach that was heaved up from the water-covered globe, the grass came forth to prepare the way for the subsequent spread of life. To one whose world showed nothing but sand and water, what a miracle the first appearance of sprouting grass! Here is something wonderfully new, moving of itself amid motionless particles, and by some hidden power of its own thrusting them aside and mysteriously increasing in body and bulk, while they remain as they were. Such a thing of life entering such a world without life is plainly supernatural be that world. Mark here that all the subsequent stages of advancing life have likewise been successively supernatural, each to its predecessor. As the grass is supernatural to the sand, so is the ox to the grass, so is the man to the ox, so also is the spiritual Christ to the natural man. Here is a lesson in the grass for those who fancy that science has eliminated the supernatural, and put miracles out of the audience-room of reason. There was, once at least, an indisputable miracle. It was when life first broke the dead uniformity of an inanimate world. Life is the thing most unaccountable in origin, but most manifest in fact, most common in form, most mysterious in power, the thing most natural, but also most supernatural, being the producer of nature, not its product. Life, says the scientist, can come only from life. The world which has it not can have it only from beyond the world. Thus the living grass was the primeval witness to the living God. “ Through every star, through every grass-blade,” said Carlyle, “ the glory of a present God still beams.” And so this ancient psalm of praise to the Author of the humblest of living things reads to us its primitive lessen of God as the all-originating Life of all that lives, whom to know is life eternal, whom to forsake is death indeed. Let us, then, further contemplate that primeval sea-beach, where life has begun its everlasting process. We there see the grass first by its strong roots fortifying the shore, as one may observe to-day where the beach-grass aids to build the dunes; then by its annual decay forming a soil in which nobler forms of life may root. “ Time and I,” said a statesman, “ are enough.” So might the feeble but persevering power of the grass say. As the land slowly rose above the sea, the grass went on with its spreading preparations for the further advance of life, making the soft for edible grains and fruits to grow from, till at length the animal tribes came forth and found their sustenance secure. Thus is the grass a parable of the way of God, which we have ever to imitate. Every good thing we bring to pass has first to wait for the period of grass to do its work, slowly preparing the conditions of a permanent advance. Wearisome sometimes is this humble method of patience, the creeping which precedes running, gaining each day an atom of goodwill, a grain of influence, a trifle of experience and education. To our impatience at such slow gain the grass reads its lesson, “ Despise not the clay of small things.” The small thing is the beginning of the large thing. The grains and fruits will grow when the grass has made the soil for them. In the grass is the first glimpse of the coming cedars. The great reform which frees a race of slaves must wait till the beginnings of humane sentiment have risen in a humble band of protestants against legalized iniquity, the agitators whom society trod under foot like the grass, but who kept on growing and making soil for the edict of emancipation. Such is the quiet work that no record is made of till its results appear in the better life of succeeding times. The Christian family is doing it; the school, the Church is doing it; the germinating power of ideas is doing it in little circles of reformers everywhere, ridiculed, perhaps, because at present so powerless, but educating the fundamental sentiment from which better and stronger institutions are to spring. (J. M. Whiten, Ph. D.) Grass Consider what we owe merely to the meadow grass, to the covering of the dark ground by that glorious enamel, by the companies of those soft and countless and peaceful spears! The field! Follow but just for a little time the thoughts of all that we ought to recognize in those words. All spring and summer is in them, the walks by the silent, scented paths, the rests in noonday heat, the joy of herds and flocks, the power of all shepherd life and meditation, the sunlight upon the world, falling in emerald streaks and falling in soft blue shadows where else it would have struck upon the dark mould or scorching dust, pastures beside the pacing brooks, soft banks and knolls of lowly hills, thymy slopes of down overlooked by the blue line of lifted sea, crisp lawns all dim with early dew, or smooth in evening warmth of varied sunshine, dinted by happy feet, and softening in their fall the sound of loving voices, all these are summed up in those simple words--the fields--and these are not all. We may not measure to the full the depth of this heavenly gift in our own land; though still as we think of it longer, the infinite of that meadow sweetness--Shakespeare’ s peculiar joy--would open on us more and more, yet we have it but in part. Go out in the spring-time among the meadows that slope from the shores of the Swiss lakes to the roots of their lower mountains, there, mingled with their taller gentians and the white narcissus, the grass grows deep and free; and as you follow the winding mountain paths beneath arching boughs all veiled and dim with blossom--paths that for ever droop and rise over the green banks and mounds, sweeping clown in scented undulation steep to the blue water, studded here and there with new-mown heaps, filling all the air with fainter sweetness; look up towards the higher hills, where the waves of everlasting green roll silently into their long inlets among the shadows of the pines, and we may, perhaps, at last know the meaning of those quiet words, “ He maketh the grass to grow upon the mountains.” (John Ruskin.) Psalms 147:9 To the young ravens which cry. The ravens’ cry “ Naturalists tell us,” says Caryl, “ that when the raven hath fed his young in the nest till they are well fledged and able to fly abroad, then he thrusts them out of the nest, and will not let them abide there, but puts them to get their own living. Now, when these young ones are upon their first flight from their nest, and are little acquainted with means how to help themselves with food, then the Lord provides food for them. It is said by credible authorities, that the raven is marvellously strict and severe in this; for as soon as his young ones are able to provide for themselves, he will not fetch any more food for them; yea, some affirm the old ones will not suffer them to stay in the same country where they were bred; and, if so, then they must needs wander. We say proverbially, ‘ Need makes the old wife trot’ ; we may say, and ‘ the young ones too.’ It hath been, and possibly is, the practice of some parents towards their children, who, as soon as they can shift for themselves, and are fit in any competency to get their bread, they turn them out of doors, as the raven doth his young ones out of the nest. Now, saith the Lord in the text, when the young ones of the raven are at this pinch, that they are turned off, and wander for lack of meat, who then provides for them? Do not I, the Lord? Do not I, who provide for the old raven, provide for his young ones, both while they abide in the nest and when they wander for lack of meat?” I. God hears the young ravens; will He not hear you?1. I argue that He will, first, when I remember that it is only a raven that cries, and that you, in some senses, are much better than a raven. The raven is but a poor, unclean bird, whoso instant death would make no sort of grievous gap in creation. If thousands of ravens had their necks wrung to-morrow, I do not know that there would be any vehement grief and sorrow in the universe about them; it would simply be a number of poor birds dead, and that would be all. But you are an immortal soul, formed in God’ s own image. True, the raven is not sinful, as you are. But what does this prove? Why, that you are a creature capable of sinning, and, consequently, that you are an intelligent spirit living in a sense in which a raven does not live. You are a creature moving in the spirit-world; you belong to the world of souls, in which the raven has no portion. Doth God care for flesh, and blood, and bones, and black feathers, and will He not care for your reason, your will, your judgment, your conscience, your immortal soul? Oh, if you will but think of it, you must see that it is not possible for a raven’ s cry to gain an audience of the ear of Divine benevolence, and yet for your prayer to be despised and disregarded by the Most High. 2. There is a great deal of difference between your cry and the cry of a raven. When the young ravens cry, I suppose they scarcely know what they want. They have a natural instinct which makes them cry for food, but their cry does not in itself express their want. They have no articulate speech. But you do know what you want. Few as your words are, your heart knows its own bitterness and dire distress. Moreover, you have a multitude of arguments ready to hand, and you have an understanding with which to set them in array and marshal them to besiege the throne of grace. 3. Remember, that the matter of your prayer is more congenial to the ear of God than the raven’ s cry for meat. All that the young ravens cry for is food; give them a little carrion and they have done. Your cry must be much more pleasing to God’ s ear, for you entreat for forgiveness through the blood of His dear Son. It is a nobler occupation for the Most High to be bestowing spiritual than natural gifts. 4. The ravens are nowhere commanded to cry. When they cry their petition is unwarranted by any specific exhortation from the Divine mouth, while you have a warrant derived from Divine exhortations to approach the throne of God in prayer. 5. The cry of a young raven is nothing but the natural cry of a creature, but your cry, if it be sincere, is the result of a work of grace in your heart. When the raven cries to heaven it is nothing but the raven’ s own self that cries; but when you cry, “ God be merciful to me a sinner,” --it is God the Holy Spirit crying in you. 6. When the young ravens cry they cry alone, but when you pray you have a mightier one than you praying with you. Hear that sinner crying, “ God be merciful to me a sinner.” Hark! Do you hear that other cry which goes up with his? No, you do not hear it, because your ears are dull and heavy, but God hears it. There is another voice, far louder and sweeter than the first, and far more prevalent, mounting up at the same moment and pleading, “ Father, forgive them through My precious blood.” II. If you have cried unsuccessfully, still cry on. “ Go again seven times,” aye, and seventy times seven. Remember that the mercy of God in Christ Jesus is your only hope; cling to it, then, as a drowning man clings to the only rope within reach. If you perish praying for mercy through the precious blood, you will be the first that ever perished so. Cry on; just cry on; but, oh! believe, too; for believing brings the morning star and the day-dawn. But stay a while, I have something else to say. Is it possible that you may have already obtained the very blessing you are crying after? “ Oh,” say you, “ I would not ask for a thing which I had already got; if I knew I had it, I would leave off crying, and begin praising and blessing God.” Now, I do not know whether all of you seekers are in so safe a state, but I am persuaded that there are some seeking souls who have received the mercy for which they are asking. The Lord instead of saying to them to-night, “ Seek ye My face,” is saying, “ Why criest thou unto Me? I have heard thee in an acceptable hour, and in an acceptable time have I succoured thee; I have blotted out thy sins like a cloud, and like a thick cloud thine iniquities; I have saved thee; thou art Mine; I have cleansed thee from all thy sins; go thy way and rejoice.” In such a case believing praise is more suitable than agonizing prayer. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Psalms 147:11 The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear Him, in those that hope in His mercy. Fearing and hoping Great kings are wont to have their favourite objects, in which they delight with a peculiar pleasure. Many monarchs have gloried in “ the strength of a horse.” Their squadrons of cavalry have been their confidence. Others have taken more delight in “ the legs of a man.” The thews and sinews of their soldiery have been their boast. You must have noticed in the Assyrian sculptures the importance that was attached by the workmen and by the monarch also to “ the legs of a man.” They represent the warriors as brawny and strong, swift in running, and firm in holding their place in the day of battle. But our God takes no delight in cavalry or infantry, no armies of horse or foot soldiers give him any gladness; the Lord takes pleasure in very different persons from these. His delight, His joy, His solace,--if we may use such a word,--are found in other company than that which is martial, He turns His eyes quite another way. I. The objects of Divine favour as here distinguished. They are distinguished--1. From physical strength. 2. From mental vigour. 3. From self-reliance. 4. From any mere capacity for service which exists in any of us, whoever we may be. II. The objects of Divine favour as they are here described.1. These are things which relate to God. God’ s favour is displayed to those who fear Him, and who hope in His mercy. Thou art truly what thou art towards God; and God regards thee according to what thou art in reference to Himself. 2. This description of character applies to true servants of God in their earliest and weakest form. 3. It comprises the noblest form of religion in the very highest degree of it. Let us grow as we may, we shall always fear God. Perfect love casteth out the fear that hath torment, but not that filial fear which is here meant, that child-like reverence and holy awe of the Most High; that shall grow and shall deepen, world without end. And as to hope, why, we had hope when we began our spiritual life; but we have hope still, and that hope will continue with us,--I will not say in heaven, though I think it will, for there is something to hope for in the disembodied state, we shall hope for the day of resurrection; and there will be something to hope for even in the resurrection, for, throughout the ages we shall have a good hope that still we shall be “ for ever with the Lord.” 4. The persons favoured of God are represented as a sort of sacred blending of different characters. These two things, fear of God and hope in His mercy, go well together, and what God hath joined, let no man put asunder. III. The blessings implied in this Divine favour. If you fear the Lord, and hope in His mercy, God takes as much delight in you as you do in your dear child; and far more, because God’ s is an infinite mind, and from it there comes infinite delight, so that He views you with infinite complacency. Can you believe it? You do not view yourself so; I hope that you do not, but God sees you in Christ. He sees that in you that is yet to be in you. He sees in you that which will make you to grow into a heavenly being, and therefore He takes delight in you. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Man’ s pleasure and God’ s pleasure (with Psalms 103:2):--Man’ s pleasure in God’ s works, God’ s pleasure in man’ s renewed spirit--these are the two themes suggested by these words.1. That men have an instinctive pleasure in looking on the beauties spread before their eyes in the visible world is sometimes disputed, and yet this enjoyment shows itself in very unlikely places, and among classes that have had no special training. The poor, ragged, ill washed child of a London court finds a pleasure it takes no pains to conceal in flowers (when it sees them), in the bright, fresh, green leaves of the early spring, in the meadow dappled with daisies, and in the field ablaze with buttercups. The rudest and most untrained minds are not insensible to the beauties of a summer’ s sunset, to the flashing mirror of the sea, or to the hoary grandeur of mountains. The same feeling exists, in a greater or less degree, among uncivilized peoples; and some of them have expressed their motions in rude poetic outbursts, as striking as they are spontaneous. It does, however, greatly add to the devout man’ s delight in all visible things to think of them as the visible words and thoughts of God. In this view of things the Hebrew bards far surpass the sweet singers of all time. To the devout Hebrew God was in all things, and all things spoke of Him. This was their great charm to him, that they helped him to see something of the Lord his God. And to any man who so looks on the visible creation there will never be wanting ladders by which he may climb up to higher and purer thoughts of Him who made all things. That the study of God’ s works deepens our pleasure in them is the testimony of every student. The more these works are “ sought out,” so much the more will our delight in them increase. The objects themselves, animate and inanimate, are so manifold that their wonders seem to open before us as we advance. In all we may see God’ s “ excellence in working.” That it is possible to educate the eye in looking upon these various works of God, and so of intensifying the delight in them, is obvious. If we never look upon the objects of interest and beauty around us save in a dreamy way, or with a half-shut eye, we miss much of the pleasure which comes from minute, careful, and accurate observation. It surely ought not to be thought a waste of time to consider attentively that which God has thought no waste of His almighty energies to create; and the power of seeing, which alone comes of careful seeing, will bring before us new pleasures with every new revelation. Our very love of our Father who made them all should surely stir us to look at the things around us, and to look with open and patient eyes, until our sight becomes trained by looking, and no touch of the Divine Artist escapes our eager and loving eye. 2. But when I speak of man’ s pleasure in God’ s works, I do not forget that God Himself has pleasure in them. The song of the redeemed in heaven proclaims this joy (Revelation 4:11). The song of creation tells us also that as each part of the work appeared before the eye of the Divine Worker, He pronounced it “ very good.” But God’ s greatest pleasure is in man’ s renewed spirit. “ The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear Him, and in those that hope in His mercy.” The pleasure which men feel in beautiful flowers, in spreading landscapes, in hoary hills, in flashing lakes, and in the great expanse of the outstretched sky or open sea, has no regenerative power. It is felt by men who say that they have no rest in God. They are not insensible to the glories spread before them; they say that they are insensible to that which gives God the greatest pleasure--the renewed heart. Their delight is with the glory which fades before their eyes; God’ s with that which endureth for ever. To the great Former of all things, beautiful as the earth is, and sky, and sea, one unselfish deed, one sincere and devout prayer, one soul pouring out its holy trust into His ear, gives Him a higher and deeper joy. Nay, “ There is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth.” Two elements in man’ s changed nature are spoken of by the psalmist as producing God’ s pleasure. One is fear, the other is hope. But fear and hope are not opposed to each other. They are one; they spring from the same root; they yield the same flower; they are, in other words, but two sides of the same truth. There is no true fear of God unless you hope in His mercy; there is no true hope in His mercy unless you fear God. The fear and the hope alike give pleasure to Him. (J. G. Goadby.) God takes pleasure in them that fear and hope in Him I. A general description of God’ s people.1. He takes pleasure in their persons (Daniel 8:23; Ephesians 1:6). 2. He takes pleasure in their graces, and those heavenly qualifications which are in them. (1) As they are His children, regenerated and born again to Himself (Hebrews 12:10; 2 Peter 1:4).(2) As they are His workmanship, created by Him in Christ Jesus to good works (Ephesians 2:10). 3. He takes pleasure in their prayers (Job 42:8; Acts 10:3; Proverbs 15:8). 4. He takes pleasure in their services. II. Upon what account especially God does indeed delight in them. 1, Their fear of Him. Fear is the aweband of the soul, which restrains it, and keeps it in good order, and preserves it from miscarriage. It is the spur of the soul, which quickens it, and excites it, and provokes it to the doing of good: so much fear of God, so much innocency and uprightness.2. The second is the grace of hope, or faith, of those that hope in His mercy. As the Lord takes pleasure in the former, so in this likewise. He delights in His servants more especially, as they give greater testimonies of their faith and dependence upon Him. The more that any cleave unto Him, the more doth He take care of them, and pleasure in them (Psalms 33:18). (T. Horton, D. D.) Hope and fear balanced A holy fear of God must be a check upon our hope, to keep that from swelling into presumption; and a pious hope in God must be a check upon our fear, to keep that from sinking into despondency. I. As to the concerns of our souls, and our spiritual and eternal state.1. We must keep up both a holy dread of God and a humble delight in Him; both a reverence of His majesty, with a fear of incurring His displeasure, and at the same time a joy in His love and grace, and an entire complacency in His beauty and bounty, and that benignity of His which is better than life. 2. We must keep up both a trembling for sin, and a triumphing in Christ, as the propitiation for sin. 3. We must keep up both a jealousy of ourselves, and of our own sincerity; and a grateful thankful sense of God’ s grace in us, and the workings of that grace. 4. We must keep up both a constant caution over our goings, and a constant confidence in the grace of God. 5. We must keep up both a holy fear lest we come short, and a good hope that through grace we shall persevere. II. As to our outward concerns relating to the body, and the life that now is.1. When the world smiles upon us, and our affairs in it prosper, yet then we must keep up a holy fear, and not be too confident in our pleasing prospects; not flatter ourselves with hopes of the great advancement and long continuance of our peace and prosperity; but balance the hopes which sense suggests with the fears which reason and religion will suggest. 2. When the world frowns upon us, and we are crossed, and disappointed, and perplexed in our affairs, then we must keep up a good hope, and not be inordinately cast down, no, not in our melancholy prospects, about our health, our safety, our name, our relations, and our effects in the world. (1) Hope in God’ s power: be fully assured of this, that how imminent soever the danger is, He can prevent it; how great soever the straits are, He can extricate us out of them, can find out a way for us in an untracked wilderness, and open springs of water to us in a dry and barren land: for with Him nothing is impossible, nor is His arm ever shortened, nor His wisdom nonplussed. (2) Hope in His providence; and believe not only that He can do anything, but that He does do everything, and whatever the event is, God does therein perform the thing flirt is appointed for us, and takes cognizance of us and our affairs, how mean and despicable soever we are. (3) Hope in His pity and tender compassions; which, in the day of your grief and fear, you are to look upon yourselves as the proper objects of. (4) Hope in His promise; that word of His upon which He hath caused us to hope, and which we have all the reason in the world to build upon, for not one iota or tittle of it shall fall to the ground. Though he has not promised to deliver us from that particular evil we have a dread of, or to give us that particular comfort and success we are desirous of, yet He has promised that nothing shall harm them who are followers of Him; nay, that all things shall “ work together for good,” etc. III. As to the public concerns of the Church of God, and our own land and nation.1. We have always reason to keep up a holy fear as to public affairs, and to be apprehensive of trouble before us, even when things look most promising. (1) We are a provoking people. Atheism, vice, etc. (2) We are a divided people; and what can be expected, but that a kingdom divided against itself should be brought to desolation? (3) God has told us that in the world we shall have tribulation; all the disciples of Christ must count upon it, and not flatter ourselves with hopes of an uninterrupted tranquillity anywhere on this side heaven. 2. There are three things which may encourage our hope, and keep the balance even against all our fears, as to the concerns both of the Protestant Churches abroad and our own nation. (1) The word which God has spoken to us; which (whatever other props our hopes may be supported with) is the great foundation on which they must be built, and then they are fixed. (2) The work which God has begun among us. (3) The wonders which He has wrought for us. (Matthew Henry.) Psalms 147:12 Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem.Crowning Christ in city life Some time ago, in one of the reviews, a writer gave a picture of the London of the future, when all sanitary and political improvements shall have been perfected. No dust in the streets, no smoke in the air, no noise, no fog, spaces everywhere for flowers and sunlight, the sky above always pure, the Thames running below a tide of silver; but think of the city of the future in whose life, laws, institutions, trade, politics, pleasure, the righteousness of Christ shall find full and final manifestation. Where is the poet, the painter, who shall paint for us that golden city, so holy and clean? It is painted for us in the Book of Revelation, in the “ Holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, having the glory of God,” etc. (W. L. Watkinson.) Psalms 147:13-20 He hath strengthened the bars of thy gates. Piety exulting in Divine goodness I. In the general prosperity of society. He recognizes the good hand of God--1. In the rebuilding of the city (verse 13). 2. In the restoration of peace and prosperity (verse 14). II. In the beneficent mutations of the weather (Psalms 147:16-18). Men are in the habit of complaining of the weather as too hot or too cold, too wet or too dry, too stormy or too calm, but in these very changes there is mercy. They are required in order to make the earth fertile and fruitful, and to stimulate humanity to a thousand industries. Whilst men of science ascribe meteorological changes to what they call laws, and the multitudes are ever grumbling with the weather, true philosophy ascribes all not only to the agency of God, but to the benevolence of that agency. III. In the moral revelations to mankind (verse 19).1. God’ s word not only acts on material nature, originates, fashions, sustains and controls it, but on human souls. In the one case it conveys His resistless energy, in the other His moral reason and influence. 2. He reveals His moral laws to men-- (1) By the retribution of history,(2) By the intuitions of conscience,(3) By His written Word, and(4) By His blessed Son. To some His moral revelations are fuller than to others. (David Thomas, D. D.) Psalms 147:14-15 He maketh peace in thy borders.Peace at home and prosperity abroad: a Missionary Sermon The prosperity of the Church is described in this psalm. I. What are the points which constitute the healthiness of the Church at home? To begin with the most important--the true piety of all her members. If we could to-morrow bring into the Church a sufficient number of ungodly but moral men to double our numbers, our subscriptions, our places of worship and our missionaries, it would be a curse and not a blessing. Next, the soundness of that Gospel which we proclaim and preach. When I have read the conflict between the mighty man who made these walls echo with his voice, Mr. Whitefield, and that other mighty man, equally useful in his day, Mr. Wesley, I have felt that they contended for the same truths, and that the vitality of godliness was not at issue in the controversy. But there are vital truths, and for these we must contend even to the death. The spirit of union. We must needs have divers communions, because we cannot see eye to eye in discipline, while nevertheless we are really and vitally one. I am sure the more we come to know each other, the better we love one another. Constant activity. The Church gets dull, listless and heavy at times. Abundant prayer. II. The connection between a healthy home Church and the spread of Christ’ s Kingdom abroad. It is clear enough. The whole missionary enterprise will fall to pieces, bit by bit, if we be not in spiritual health. There is a well of water springing up, and the people of the district flock to it. Suddenly the secret spring begins to fail; by some means or another the water is gone to another place, and the spring is no more there. Soon would it come to pass that where multitudes of men and women were wont to drink with joy and gladness there is not a single person to be seen. So with our missionary success should the Church at home degenerate. The inconsistencies of English Christians have proved one of the greatest barriers to Christ’ s Kingdom in other lands. III. Then if all this be true, then let us remember that it must also have a connection with our own personal standing in the sight of God. If one member be unhealthy in the body, the unhealthiness of that member does to a degree taint the whole. If every man mended one all would be mended. Responsibility to God for the souls of men is cast on each one of us. When you stand by the grave of some neighbour, can you look down into the grave and say, “ I did all that was in the power of mortal man for that soul’ s salvation” ? No, you cannot. I am afraid that none of us, or but very few, when we hear of the death of friends, can say, “ If that man perish, I did not leave a stone unturned.” Who has done all he might? (C. H. Spurgeon.) The Divine efficiency illustrated in the blessing of peace I. The peace of nations.1. A blessing. 2. A promised blessing. 3. A blessing for the improvement of which nations are accountable. 4. A blessing in which the Church hath interest (Jeremiah 29:7; James 4:1). II. The efficiency of the Lord our God in the peace of nations.1. The peace of nations is within His all-comprehending purpose. The time in which the peace is concluded, the articles, the nations comprehended in it, and, in a word, every circumstance is according to the pleasure and purpose of the will of God, who hath foreordained whatsoever cometh to pass. 2. The Lord disposes the events of war in such a manner as to open the way to a peace. Victories and conquests on the one side, and losses and defeats on the other, are balanced by His wisdom and justice, and overruled for hastening and facilitating accommodations between the belligerent and contending powers. 3. Inclinations to peace, formed by His invisible and unperceived efficiency in the minds of princes and cabinet ministers, are called into exercise and motion by the operations of His providence. 4. Negotiations for peace are begun, and carried on, and con-eluded under His eye. 5. The conditions of peace are settled by His efficiency. 6. The success of negotiations for peace is of the Lord. III. Praise the Lord’ s efficiency in the peace of nations.1. Believe His efficiency. 2. Confess it. 3. Rejoice in it. (A. Shanks.) Filleth thee with the finest of the wheat. The blessing of plenty I. The good mentioned. “ The finest of the wheat” is--1. A blessing (Zechariah 9:17). 2. A promised blessing (Joe 2:23-24). 3. A blessing which, without impeaching the goodness and faithfulness of the promiser, may be denied, confiscated, and cursed. 4. A blessing for which they who receive it are accountable. The Lord is our judge as well as our benefactor. 5. A blessing in which the Church hath interest. In the members of this holy society there is a bodily and a spiritual part. The Lord is the former and nourisher of them both. II. The efficiency of the Lord our God in filling us with the finest of the wheat.1. The discretion which prepareth the land for sowing the wheat is inspired and taught by the Lord. 2. The dying of the wheat under the clod. 3. The revival of the wheat. 4. The springing and growth of the wheat. 5. Wheat-harvest is of the Lord. He appointeth the weeks, and by His power in the atmosphere disposeth winds and clouds and rain to keep it back, or bring it forward, to make it prosperous or calamitous, according to His counsel and pleasure. III. Conclusion. Use the finest of the wheat, and all the goods of the season--1. Thankfully. 2. Wisely and discreetly. 3. Charitably. 4. Temperately. 5. Believingly. (A. Shanks.) Psalms 147:15 His Word runneth very swiftly. The swiftly-running Word A word is the expression of the mind, the manifestation of the man. “ peak,” said the old philosopher, “ that I may see thee.” More of a man is seen in his words than in anything else belonging to him. You may look into his face and be mistaken; you may visit his house and not discern him; you may scan his business and misunderstand him; but if you hear his daily conversation you shall soon know him. And this is so with the Lord our God. If you wish to know God you must know His Word. That Word takes several forms. At first it came forth as a fiat: “ Let it be,” and it was. Then as a command, giving statutes to men. Then as teaching, promise, threatening. But chief of all is the Word, of whom it is said, “ In the beginning was the Word.” Now, by that Word God most of all speaks out His heart. But to all forms of God’ s Word the truth of the text applies. I. The lessons it teaches.1. That the Divine Word still works. All things continue by virtue of it. Else had they long since ceased to be. 2. And with the same degree of force His Word “ runneth,” that is to say, it keeps its ancient pace. 3. But silently. 4. Effectually. Nought can set it aside. 5. And all this in the realm of grace as well as nature. II. Some particular instances of it. Creation; providence; mercy. But especially is this seen in Christ, the eternal Word. How diligent He was. See this truth, again, in the matters of grace. Conviction of sin; regeneration; justification. And so the individual heart can be speedily revived and quickened, and Churches likewise. III. What should we learn from all this?1. The seeking sinner can be saved now. 2. The Word can overtake those who run away from it. Sheep never run so fast after the shepherd as away from him. 3. The Lord can at once give us light and peace. “ I have a great trouble,” say you; “ and if I do not get help by Monday night I do not know what will become of me.” Well, God can deliver you by Monday night, for His Word runneth very swiftly. He can cause your dry rod to bud and blossom and bear fruit in an hour. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The Word of God We may take the Word of God to mean any expression of the will of God. Such an expression may be the text of a language or the execution of an act. It is the mind of God coming into form, within our apprehension and beyond it. There are two kinds of testimony by which the Deity is revealed to us. There is a message from God which is brought to us very swiftly from afar, and proclaimed in a speech without words; and there is a witness also nearer home, delivered in the same silence within the human heart and addressed to the human consciousness. They are both described in this psalm (verses 3, 4). Here is a witness speaking to us of God; and here is God His own witness speaking within the human soul. Let us speak of this second testimony, God’ s witness of Himself. I. In the teachings of men. We acknowledge with thankfulness that God has selected channels for the conveyance of His mind to men, outside the acknowledged authorities of Christian truth. God draws near to the prayer of a heathen, and permits Himself to be touched by the eager apprehension of the seeker. There are times when the God nature within man moves him to seek a power above himself. In those terrible conflicts, common to most men, where passion and judgment contend for the mastery, there are certain perturbations of thought and feeling which are inexplicable on any other supposition than the nearness of a great Presence; and men feel after it if, haply, they may find it. Some of the finest compositions in the literature of the classical world describe these searchings after God. The attitude of the mind in this warfare is to the last degree pathetic. There is within it a feeling that it has a right to that which it cannot find, and it wanders through a wilderness of anxious conjecture, crying out in the desert, “ Where is the way, and the truth, and the life?” This partial revelation, even when not supplemented by Christian truths has in every age accomplished a great mission. And we cannot praise too generously those noble students of life who have taken the rudiments of this law and framed systems of morality for the conduct of men and the government of states. II. God’ s witness of Himself in the person and revelation of Christ. Every preceding revelation, in whatever form presented and wherever found, points to Jesus Christ. Whatever men were prompted to inquire after in respect of their origin, in respect of the limitations of their knowledge, in respect of the destiny of their intellectual powers, in respect of the design of their creation, is answered in Christ either in exact terms or in affirmative events. The feeling of men after God is expressed in two ways: by thinkers in abstract reasonings and speculations, and by the common people in embodying their hopes and fears in the imageries of worship. Both these forms of search touchingly represent a common humanity. The philosopher cannot rest in abstract ideas; the idolater can find no satisfaction in the incarnations of his own passions. They start from remote points; they meet together in the region of despair. They are both men, and there are depths of want in each of them which neither science nor superstition can reach. But in the person and teaching of Christ both these typical forms of search are anticipated and satisfied. Here is a revelation from the lips of the great Teacher Himself in which the most subtle and exacting demands of metaphysical thought are met, and the sublimest ideal of the imagination is surpassed, “ God is a Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” A kindred revelation is the answer to the cry of the peoples of the earth. The problems of human suffering and sorrow which from the first have perplexed and defied the wisdom of the wise are not only unravelled in the light of Christ’ s doctrine, but their very springs are explored, and exhausted in the consummation of His work; and the death to which they lead is a new birth of life from which they are shut out. It is the love of God in its aspect of pity and sympathy for the sufferings of men which is destined to conquer the world. This new attribute of tenderness, new outside Christianity, invests the Christ of the Gospel with a strange power, which Buddha never possessed, to attract and charm the races of the East. Here is the distinction between him and the Man of Sorrows. Christ is not for Himself, but for us. It is this contrast which is just now awakening the curiosity of the educated and stimulating the hope of the masses in India. This unselfish love, which is the master-spirit of the Gospel, is the regenerating force of personal and national life. Every nation has its special need, some want made conspicuous by the ruling condition of the people. It may be truth, it may be righteousness where truth is known, it may be freedom, it may be a pure and strong family life, it may be the reign of kindness, but whatever it be, in personal or national demand, a Gospel of universal love meets the condition equally of every people. I want no other evidence of the divinity of its mission. This Gospel is God’ s witness of Himself. It is the Word of God, and the Christ of these Scriptures is its central light, a light that brings within our sight and interprets the remotest past, and its illimitable ray pierces the unfolding destinies of the future. The scope of the transit of this Word is all time, and it runs very swiftly from age to age. But we must not interpret swiftness to mean merely or chiefly the rate of apparent transit, or the distance popularly covered between two periods. We must bring into the account the obstacles removed, the revolutions accomplished, the victories achieved. And these in their nature do not admit of exact calculation. Many of them belong to a sphere of which we have no present knowledge. When in making our estimate of the progress attained we have arrived at a certain figure, we have the right to extend the record and bring in unseen results. In this sense of transit God’ s Word always runs swiftly because His Word is His Will. It goes straight to its object. There can be no resistance even to check it, for the opposition it meets is made the instrument of its advancement. But there is another element of meaning in the idea of swiftness as applied to the movement of the Word of God. It is running to reach an end: the goal it is destined to win is the accomplishment of a purpose, which I have no hesitation in saying has been the dreaming prophecy of all times, of all history, and of all races. The purpose is not to make the Word a mere literary factor in the education of mankind, but a spiritual power to change the nations--first to give individual man a new soul, then to rebuild the fallen structure of family life, then to change the aims and policy of governments, to make a new earth wherein shall dwell righteousness. The progress of this advancing change was never so rapid as it is this day. The world has been prepared for it by a series of unprecedented occurrences, under the influence of which change is inevitable and becomes not a temporary innovation, but a tide of deep and irresistible current. Take this example, which has been furnished within the period of my public life--the nations fifty years ago and the nations to-day. Then--how well I remember it! throughout the great non-Christian world there was rest--the rest of immemorial usage, the rest of torpor, the rest of insensibility. India was asleep, and China and Japan. There had been in the mind of these vast empires an almost unbroken slumber for ages. Now, thank God! there is unrest; instead of that fatal peace, a sword, not the military weapon, but the dividing edge of truth, the unrest of awakened intelligence, the unrest of a disturbed faith, and that is unrest; of doubt, of suspicion, of uncertainty; the unrest of an eager search for new foundations of belief, and for new principles of society and of life. If I ask which of the active forces of thought and change has had most influence in bringing this about, the educationist will point to the achievements of science, and the amazing triumphs of modern education, the statesman will attribute it to the political knowledge which has quickened and informed the public opinion of nations, resulting in the displacement of effete institutions, and in broader, more enlightened, and more enterprising methods of government. Without disputing the contributions of these immense agencies, and omitting for the present the pervasive influence and activities of the great Churches, I wilt venture to place beyond any single institution, both in the range of its power and in the ever-expanding effects of its operations, the British and Foreign Bible Society. Nothing is easier than to point out that these newly Christianized peoples are living far below the religion of the Bible which has made them what they are. I am afraid that we are in the same condemnation. But there is the standard to rebuke them; and to live under its rebuke is to have a constant incentive to recover what they have lost. Use it or misuse it, believe it or reject it, attach it to myth, parable, or picture, the indestructible power is there, a savour of life or a savour of death. When we consider that the Bible Society is the angel of the, Churches, in going before them to lodge this Word in the languages of the earth and make straight the missionary’ s path to the intelligence of the nations, we are bound, as the disciples of Jesus, whose Gospel it is the province of the Word to reveal, to sanctify this glorious institution by our prayers, to strengthen it by our co-operation, and to support it by our gifts. (E. E. Jenkins, LL. D.) Psalms 147:16-18 He giveth snow like wool.Frost and thaw Looking out of our window one morning we saw the earth robed in a white mantle; for in a few short bourn the earth had been covered to a considerable depth with snow. We looked out again in a few hours and saw the fields as green as ever, and the ploughed fields as bare as if no single flake had fallen. It is no uncommon thing for a heavy fall of snow to be followed by a rapid thaw. These interesting changes are wrought by God, not only with a purpose toward the outward world, but with some design toward the spiritual realm. I. The operations of nature.1. The directness of the Lord’ s work. When we can look upon every hailstone as God’ s hail, and upon every floating fragment of ice as His ice, how precious the watery diamonds become! When we feel the cold nipping our limbs and penetrating through every garment, it somewhat consoles us, and makes us willing to endure its hardness, when we remember that it is His cold. When the thaw comes, see how the text speaks of it--“ He sendeth out His Word.” He does not leave it to certain supposed independent forces of nature, but, like a king, “ He sendeth out His Word and melteth them: He causeth His wind to blow.” He has a special property in every wind; whether it comes from the north to freeze, or from the south to melt, it is His wind. 2. The ease of Divine working. A man puts his hand into a wool-pack and throws out the wool; God giveth snow as easily as that: “ He giveth snow like wool.” A man takes up a handful of ashes, and throws them into the air, so that they fall around: “ He scattereth the hoar-frost like ashes.” Rime and snow are marvels of nature: those who have observed the extraordinary beauty of the ice-crystals have been enraptured, and yet they are easily formed by the Lord. “ He casteth forth His ice like morsels” --just as easily as we east crumbs of bread outside the window to the robins during the wintry days. 3. The variety of the Divine operations in nature. When the Lord is at work with frost as His tool He creates snow, a wonderful production, every crystal being a marvel of art; but then He is not content with snow--from the same water He makes another form of beauty which we call hoar-frost, and yet a third lustrous sparkling substance, namely glittering ice; and all these by the one agency of cold. 4. Consider the works of God in nature in their swiftness. It was thought a wonderful thing in the days of Ahasuerus when letters were sent out by post upon swift dromedaries--it was a new invention when one man upon a dromedary travelled till the animal’ s speed began to fail, and then passed the mail bags to the next messenger, who, similarly mounted, bore them onward in hot haste. In our country we thought we had arrived at the age of miracles when the axles of stage coaches glowed with speed, but now that the telegraph is at work we dream of stretching out our hands into infinity; but what is all the rapidity of anything we can ever attain to compared with the rapidity of God’ s operations? 5. Consider the goodness of God in all the operations of nature and providence. (1) Think of that goodness negatively. “ Who can stand before His cold?” You cannot help thinking of the poor in a hard winter--only a hard heart can forget them when you see the snow lying deep. But suppose that snow continued to fall! What is there to hinder it? The same God who sends us snow for one day could do the like for fifty days if He pleased. Why not? And when the frost pinches us so severely, why should it not be continued month after month? We can only thank the goodness which does not send “ His cold” to such an extent that our spirits expire. (2) Not only negatively, but positively there is mercy in the snow. Is not that a suggestive metaphor? “ He giveth snow like wool.” The snow is said to warm the earth; it protects those little plants which have just begun be peep above ground, and might otherwise be frost-bitten: as with a garment of down the snow protects them from the extreme severity of cold. II. Those operations of grace of which frost and thaw are the outward symbols.1. There is a period with God’ s own people when He comes to deal with them with the frost of the law. The law is to the soul as the cutting north wind. Faith can see love in it, but the carnal eye of sense cannot. It is a cold, terrible, comfortless blast. This cold makes the sinner feel how ragged his garments are. He could strut about when it was summer weather with him, and think his rags right royal robes, but now the cold frost finds out every rent in his garment, and in the hands of the terrible law he shivers like the leaves upon the aspen. The north wind of judgment searches the man through and through. 2. When the Lord has wrought by the frost of the law, He sends the thaw of the Gospel; and when the south wind blows from the quarter called “ promise,” bringing precious remembrances of God’ s fatherly pity and tender lovingkindness, then straightway the heart begins to soften, and a sense of blood-bought pardon soon dissolves the heart of stone; the eyes fill with tears, the heart dissolves in tenderness, rivers of pleasure flow freely, and buds of hope open in the cheerful air. Oh, happy day! Miriam’ s joy at the Red Sea, when she led forth the damsels, exclaiming, “ Sing unto the Lord, for He hath triumphed gloriously!” was all outdone in our case. Our strain was more jubilant, our notes more full of joy, and our hearts more exulting when we sang, “ He is my God, and I will extol Him; He is my father’ s God, and I will exalt Him.” Praise ye the Lord, my brethren, and my sisters, as ye recollect that “ He sent His Word, and melted all their fears: He caused His wind to blow, and made the waters of your joy to flow, and our soul was saved in film.” (C. H. Spurgeon) The Lessons of the snow This is a very striking picture of winter. It would be difficult to find one more vivid. It is worthy of a Greenland or Esquimaux poet, if poetry can flourish in such regions. It is at first sight a strange thing that such words should have come to us from an Eastern land--a land of heat--in which it is more difficult to ward off the sun’ s rays than to grapple with cold. No one can read these words, however, without feeling that they come from one who had seen with his own eyes that of which he speaks. How is this to be accounted for? It may be said that Mount Hermon, which is visible from wide tracts of the Holy Land, is often covered with snow. Doubtless this is so. But no vision of snow on a far-off mountain-top could have given an idea of cold powerful enough to have produced this description. Multitudes of Hindoos can lift their eyes and see in the far distance the snow on the Himalayas, but they get from it no notion whatever of frost, or ice, or cold. The snow of a far-off mountain adds a new beauty to the scene, but scarcely suggests to one who had never felt it the idea of cold or frost. The explanation must be sought in other directions, and chiefly here, that the climate of Palestine is much colder than its geographical position would lead us to expect. I have heard travellers in Palestine say that in the early months of the year they suffered far more from the cold than the heat. Whilst it is the opinions of some careful observers that the changes which have been made in the country have rendered the winters less severe than they were in the olden time. An incidental proof of this occurs in Scripture: when the manna fell in the wilderness, to what was it compared? To a round thing as small as the hoar-frost; whilst we hear in the 78th Psalm that even the sycamore trees were destroyed by frost. So that there must have been times when the cold was really severe; not, it may be, every year, but occasionally taking the people by surprise, awakening their astonishment. To this is, perhaps, due the vividness of the description before us. Think of the snow as-- I. A witness to the Divine power. Any worthy thought of God must include this. We often speak of the power of God. But how utterly faint and weak are all our efforts to realize it. It is high, we cannot attain unto it. When our thoughts of it are the largest, they fall infinitely below the great reality. It is well, therefore, to use all aids which come in our way that may enlarge our conceptions of this power. We hear much--too much--in our day of the power of man. There is an abundance of human glorification. I will not deny that man-has done much; but how has it been accomplished? Simply by directing the mighty forces which God has called into being. Man is a director, not a maker. He can guide, not create. Let the men of science do their best to devise, and the men of action their best to carry out, their plans; give there time and space to any extent, and could they cover with snow the land, or bind with ice the waters in a single county--to say nothing of the whole kingdom, or the continent of Europe? They would not attempt such an enterprise; they would not risk the failure they know would follow. If we saw things as they are, and not as they seem, if we judged a righteous judgment, we should talk less of the power of man, and more of the power of God. “ Only God is great” (Mahomet). II. A witness to the quietness of the Divine working. The method is almost as wonderful as the result, both are in the deepest sense Divine. If men have a great work to be done, how much stir and noise and tumult are found l Go to the place where great locomotives are made, and the noise is enough to deafen you, the heat will almost blind you, the tumult will be distracting to you. Go even to the place where instruments of music are made, and it will be found a Babel of discord rather than a temple of harmony. God changes the aspect of a country or a continent, robes it in purest white; but no workers are seen scattering the snow, or binding the waters, or unloosing the wind. There is no stir, or tumult, or noise. If we could trace the snow and ice back to their source, we should find them due to some subtle atmospheric change utterly invisible, utterly intangible to men. The great factory would be found in the heavens, no mighty machinery, no great array of workmen. More subtle--more spiritual I had almost said, would the process be found to be. It is so in far higher matters. We are tempted in these days to trust to great organizations and societies for the bringing in of the Kingdom of God;--“ we worship our net and burn incense to our drag” ;--we occupy ourselves with our implements; we fancy that success depends on these. It is not so. The highest work is done by more spiritual methods. It is almost independent of machinery. It lies in a higher realm (John 3:8). The greatest results follow not when men are trying to perfect their machinery, or arrange their organization, but when their eyes are lifted to the hills from whence cometh their help. III. A witness to the beauty of the Divine working. Think of the purity of the whiteness of the snow. Think of the loveliness of the frost-patterns on window and tree. Think of the delicate grace with which it clings to all things. Think of the soft lines and lovely surface of the newly-fallen snow. It might have been otherwise. The snow might have come and covered the earth in sable blackness, the frost might have hung the earth as in garments of gloom, the clouds might have made the sky hideous to look upon. Beauty might have been only in the completed work of nature--aye, not even there. The beauty of the world is too much taken for granted, and so it fails of its true purpose in our hearts and lives. It has a meaning and mission. The great Father was bound to provide a dwelling-place for His children--a place in which they could live. He has made it a very palace of beauty. It is surely the height of ingratitude to take it all for granted and look upon it with dull or unthankful eyes. IV. A witness to the defiling influence of men. The snow comes to us as a thing of utter purity, but how soon it is defiled, not so much by the earth as by men. Where nature has full sway it retains its purity, but where men do congregate how soon does its glory depart. So, too, often we defile God’ s fair gifts--so we, too, often mar His works. Purity, beauty, grace too often flee before man’ s approach. It is folly to deny all this. He that covereth his sin shall not prosper, but he that confesseth and forsaketh it shall find mercy. V. A revelation of purity. The snow makes even things we call white to look utterly unclean. We dare scarcely call them white in its presence. It is thus when we stand near to Him who is the pure image of God, in whom was no sin. We may think ourselves pure as we move among men; the feelings of the Pharisee may, in many subtle ways, creep over us; we may credit ourselves with a holiness we do not possess, but when the Divine purity is revealed in Jesus Christ, when He comes to us an image of perfect holiness as the snow is of perfect whiteness, then how black we seem--how our sin is brought to light! “ God, I thank Thee that I am not as other men” becomes “ God, be merciful to me a sinner.” How poor even our virtues seem in His light. We may think ourselves rich and increased with goods, and that we have need of nothing; but in His presence we shall know that we are poor and blind, and miserable and hated, and from the deepest depths of our natures will rise the cry, “ Create in us clean hearts, O God, and renew right spirits within us.” (W. G. Horder.) Winter voices There can be no doubt that winter, as well as the other seasons, speaks to us of God and of His ways. Now, to some of the voices of the winter let us listen a while. I. Who can resist His will?1. Nature cannot. The tremendous power of “ His cold” the winter makes sternly manifest to men. 2. Man cannot. When Napoleon, in his madness, invaded Russia, the roll of his cannon, the tramp of his legions, the squadrons of his cavalry, and the long train of his military array, seemed so endless that it looked as if the land he had invaded must yield to such irresistible might. But God sent the winter. Softly, silently, relentlessly, day after day, the snow came down. Keen was the cold northern blast, and beneath the might of the winter that vast army crumbled away and perished. “ The best generals in my army,” said the Russian Emperor, “ are Generals January and February.” II. “be ye also ready.” On the heads of many of us the hoar-frost of the winter of life is very visible. Have we harvested in our hearts the love and faith and fear of God? Is all ready for the last long winter that must surely and speedily come? III. Behold God in all winters. Men now are apt to talk overmuch of the laws of nature, of force, of eternal order; and other such phrases are plentiful enough. But they serve, too often, to shut out from men’ s minds the thought of God. Practically they come to look upon the universe as if it were a great machine, working on and on and on, but without heart or soul or will in it. And we are much exposed to the influence of such thought. Well, therefore, is it to be reminded--as in such simple but august words as these of this psalm we are reminded--that God is the Author of all. “ Thou hast made winter” (Psalms 74:17). And what it is so well to recognize in regard to the natural winter is even more important to us to remember in regard to the winter of the heart. For there are moral and spiritual conditions, caused generally by providential circumstances in our lives, which are aptly symbolized by the natural winter. There are such, and they settle down upon the soul with a drear and desolating power. The home bereaved; health failing; our riches making to themselves wings and flying away; poverty threatening, etc. Remember, these are all sent by God. They are in-eluded in His covenant of grace. “ Be not afraid; only believe.” IV. “it is good for me that i have been afflicted.” God never tears love out of any severity that He sends. The sternness of God--and He can be stern, as winter shows--is ever a merciful sternness (Romans 11:22). See in history of Manasseh, David, Israel, and in histories manifold, proof that the goodness of God is in the winter as well as elsewhere. “ Our light afflictions which . . . work out for us,” etc. V. “i can do all things through Christ who strengtheneth me.” “ Who can stand before His cold?” asks our text. “ I can,” and “ I can,” and “ I can,” reply a multitude of voices. See the speakers. Look at them, how they leap and play; they are ruddy, and comely, and strong; how their merry laughter and joyous shout ring all down the ice over which they are wildly careering. Yes; they can stand the cold, and will, it is likely, be very sorry when the thaw sets in. Now, why is this? It is because they are full of life. Their blood courses healthily through their bodies. They brim over with a joyful vitality. What a lesson this is. Only let us have life--the life Christ gives--and the cold of poverty, trial, sorrow, death--“ His cold,” in whatever form it comes, as in some form it will come, we shall be able to bear, and to this last voice of the winter we shall be able to add our “ Amen.” (S. Conway, B. A.) Winter scenes The frost and the snow and the ice serve a great purpose in the physical economy, so that without the cold of winter we would have no spring bursting with renewed life, no summer with its warmth and invigorating growth, and no autumn with its rich fruit. In the same way there is a Divine purpose in those harder and more stern experiences of our human life. Like the snow, the frost, and the ice, trials and difficulties and sufferings come from the hand of God, and are the greatest of blessings in the formation, correction, and development of our character, if they are rightly used. God produces and controls, and uses them for His own purposes in us, and by their means He disciplines our character, and induces in us greater spirituality of heart. He holds in His hands all things and all trials and all sufferings; and when He is spiritually recognized by us, He imparts to our souls power to bear them, just as the blade of grass holds the hoar-frost, or the water bears the ice, or the earth the snow. As the earth is richer and more productive by the processes of winter, so the right endurance and the right use of sufferings and difficulties and trials make us nobler and greater, and more Christian in feeling and spirit and life, and give us a greater inheritance of blessing and joy for ever. We must not, however, regard winter from a mere utilitarian point of view. In its greatest severity it is a scene of beauty most sublime and ennobling. The frost and the ice and the snow clothe the earth with a robe richer and more attractive and magnificent than the most splendid pageant or brilliant display of kings or kingdoms. The scenes of winter are capable of exercising a powerful influence over our imagination in ministering to its wealth, and also over our heart and judgment, and the emotions and habits of our life. In the wisdom and power necessary to create and put into form such a scene as has been described we have a manifestation of God’ s glory. The creative power displayed in a snow-storm taxes the highest flights of imagination, it gives action to the noblest powers of mind, and it is a source of joy to the heart which recognizes the Divine Father in it all. It affords occasion for the exercise of holy admiration and devout gratitude to the beneficent Creator, who not only weighs the mountains in scales, pours the rivers into the oceans, and rolls planet upon planet through immeasurable space; but who also forms the smallest flakes of snow, and straightens the rivers of water with ice, and beautifies the earth with hoar-frost. And the study of such a Divine glory as this is intended by God to exert a salutary influence upon our character, both social and religious, Hence the profusion of wonders and attractive beauty with which God has crowded this world, in order that we may examine and admire them, and by them may rise from the admiration of nature to the admiration and love of God, who is both the God of nature and the God of redemption. That we may really admire, we must carefully examine and study the works of God; for without study the novelty and brilliancy which lie on the surface will soon cease to interest us. In order to interest our minds and benefit our hearts, and so to have a moral and spiritual effect upon us, we must devoutly look into the inner nature and forms of things, and acquire a relish for research and study. In this way we became possessed of a source of happiness of which nothing can rob us--a sweet voice from the works of God falls upon our souls with blessed power--there is unfolded to us a marvellous display of Divine skill and benevolence which, during our earthly pilgrimage, impart to our hearts confidence in God, and make us hope for higher developments and nobler enjoyments in the world of spirits. Our spiritual nature, too, finds in the snow Divine comfort and encouragement. Snow has been employed by the sacred writers to symbolize that purity and spiritual excellence which God offers to all men in the Gospel of His Son, Jesus Christ. Snow-water is peculiarly fitted for washing all impurities of the hands, and making them white and clean. The washing of the soul by the power of God effects a spiritual purity whiter than snow. The words of pardon to guilty men, made known in the Gospel, will melt their hardened and ice-bound hearts to repentance and newness of life. And when this Gospel of forgiveness is heartily believed and practically received into the life, God, who gives snow like wool, scatters the hoar-frost like ashes, casts forth His ice like morsels, and by His Word melts them again, and makes the waters to flow, is able by the Word and power of His Son to restore warmth and energy to cold and weak hearts, and to impart purity and grace to sinful and corrupt souls, until they become whiter than snow, brighter than hoar-frost, and purer than ice. (W. Simpson.) The benefits of snow This comparison expressly indicates one of the most important purposes which the snow serves in the economy of nature. It covers the earth like a blanket during that period of winter sleep which is necessary to recruit its exhausted energies, and prepare it for fresh efforts in the spring; and being, like wool, a bad conductor, it conserves the latent heat of the soil, and protects the dormant life of plant and animal hid under it from the frosty rigour of the outside air. Winter-sown wheat, when defended by this covering, whoso under-surface seldom falls much below 32° Fahr., can thrive, even though the temperature of the air above may be many degrees below the freezing point. Some districts, enjoying an equable climate, seldom require this protection; but in northern climates, where the winter is severe and prolonged, its beneficial effects are most marked. The scanty vegetation which blooms with such sudden and marvellous loveliness in the height of summer in the Arctic regions and on mountain summits would perish utterly were it not for the protection of the snow that lies on it for three-quarters of the year. But it is not only to Alpine plants and hibernating, animals that God gives snow like wool. The Esquimaux take advantage of its curious protective property, and ingeniously build their winter huts of blocks of hardened snow; thus, strangely enough, by a homoepathic law, protecting themselves against cold by the effects of cold. The Arctic navigator has been indebted to walls of snow banked up around his ship for the comparative comfort of his winter quarters, when the temperature without has fallen so low that even chloric ether became solid. And many a precious life has been saved by the timely shelter which the snowstorm itself has provided against its own violence. But while snow thus warms in cold regions, it also cools in warm regions. It sends down from the white summits of equatorial mountains its cool breath to revive and brace the drooping life of lands sweltering under a tropic sun; and from its inexhaustible reservoirs it feeds perennial rivers that water the plains when all the wells and streams are white and silent in the baking heat. Without the perpetual snow of mountainous regions the earth would be reduced to a lifeless desert. God giveth snow like wool, and chill and blighting as is the touch of snow, it has protective influences which guard against greater evils. (H. Macmillan, D. D.) Psalms 147:17 Who can stand before His cold? His cold In former days religious people were too much given to introducing the Deity directly into the workings of nature and the movements of history. The consequence was, that our forefathers made the Creator responsible for details, rather than for great leading principles and modes of action. In these last days there has been a marked recoil among thoughtful people from the old ideal. In certain intellectual quarters some have even gone to the other extreme; and, as usually happens in extremes, these cultured people of to-day have dropped into as great errors as their less cultured predecessors. As they represent Deity oftentimes, it would seem as if they had divorced Him from both nature and history; so that it is impossible to discover where His operation comes in, if it comes in at all. In the rich religious light of to-day it ought to be possible surely to bow before a God walking in the dignity of infinitely wise laws, and working in the silent majesty of infinite power; but also thinking, feeling, loving, in the interest of creatures on whom He has conferred a dignity first among living things. I. His cold as a symbol of power. The power that can, in a few hours, bridge over the mightiest rivers with a pavement secure and stable, in strength and smoothness surpassing far the grandest of engineering feats; the power that can split up the rocks of the mountains, like cordwood under the axe of the feller; the power that can laugh at all known human powers, or forces arrayed against it; that must surely be a fit emblem of Him who sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and before whom the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers--Him who weigheth the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance. May we have the true religious vision to see Him, and the ear to hear His voice. II. The wisdom displayed in “ His cold.” Water alone among bodies expands under cold. That anomaly explains how a small quantity of water getting deep down into the crevices of a mountain will, on freezing, split up its adamantine rocks as easily as a child sunders the petals of a buttercup. It explains why ice floats and does not sink; why the clayey soils so retentive of moisture are pulverized in winter, and made ready for the harrow in spring; why myriads of insects secreted in the soil are killed off in the torpid state where their parents thought they had found a secure nest for them against the rigours of the cold; and why cold is the best disinfectant if it be intense enough--destroying instantly the germs of disease as they appear in decaying vegetation, or foul garbage, or in impure drainage. What foul and hurtful thing “ can stand before His cold” ? The greatest blessing of all, however, is to be seen in the freezing of the flowing river. Because water expands under cold its specific gravity diminishes in the process of freezing, and so frozen water floats upon the unfrozen and heavier water below. By that means the ice-pavement is formed, which, on the one hand, is of immense value both to animals and man, and, on the other, preserves for the finny tribes their natural habitat intact. III. The goodness of “ His cold.” That standing exception of water alone expanding under cold, while other bodies contract, is not the least of many clear tokens of our almighty, all-wise Father’ s care and goodness in the operation of His cold. Indeed, we might call it the greatest material blessing we can enjoy in that connection, for it is essential to our very existence. Still, after all, it is in the spiritual blessings which the material blessings suggest that the best blessing lies for devout souls. What stimulus to our spiritual nature in the contemplation of the Deity putting forth His mighty power and exercising His mighty mind to protect and provide for His creatures, as well as to expand and elevate their thoughts by the grandeur of His power in the works of His providence. III. The method of “ His cold.” Silently in the stilly night, under the jewelled canopy of heaven, a giant’ s hand is laid upon” rippling stream and solid land. Then, without the slightest sound of contending forces, or cry of pain, the vastest display of power under the mighty heaven is presented to thoughtful mortals, when the morning breaks, and eager life, awaking to its daily toil, finds the throne of the ice-king set up once again. What need we more impressive to inform us of a present divinity than such a feat of Divine workmanship? What a sublime consistency in work proclaiming abroad the sublime worker! All silent might; resistless power revelling in silence. What a lesson here also of the Divine majesty! No noisy demonstration in His grandest works; no straining after effect; no giant-like effort to secure success. In all His wide dominion self-confident, self-possessed, and modest, the great God marches silently through all the seasons working wonders as He goes. (J. E. Hill, B. D.) “ Who can stand before His cold?” “ Not we,” say the frozen lips of Sir John Franklin and his men, dying in Arctic exploration. “ Not we,” answer Schwatka and his crew, falling back from the fortresses of ice which they had tried in vain to capture. “ Not we,” say the abandoned and crushed decks of the “ Intrepid,” the “ Resistance,” and the “ Jeannette.” The highest pillars of the earth are pillars of ice--Mont Blanc, Jungfrau, the Matterhorn. The largest galleries of the world are galleries of ice. Some of the mighty rivers are at this moment lying in captivity of ice. The greatest sculptors of the ages are the glaciers, with their arm and hand and chisel and hammer of ice. The cold is imperial, and has a crown of glittering crystal and is seated on a throne of ice, with a footstool of ice and sceptre of ice. One-half of the industries of our day are employed in battling the inclemency of the weather. The furs of the North, the cotton of the South, the flax of our own fields, the wool of our own flocks, the coal from our own mines, the wood from our own forests, all employed in battling these inclemencies, and still every January, with blue lips and chattering teeth, answers, “ None of us can stand before His cold.” I am glad that the God of the frosts is the God of the heat; that the God of the snow is the God of the white blossoms; that the God of January is the God of June. The question as to how shall we warm this world up is a question of immense and all-encompassing practicality. In this zone and weather there are so many fireless hearths, so many broken window panes, so many defective roofs that sift the snow. Coal and wood and flannels and thick coats are better for warming up such a place than tracts and Bibles and creeds. Kindle that fire where it has gone out. Wrap something around those shivering limbs. Shoe those bare feet. Hat that bare head. Coat that bare back. Sleeve that bare arm. It is useless to preach to bare feet, and to empty stomachs, and to gaunt visages. Christ gave the world a lesson in common sense when, before preaching the Gospel to the multitude in the wilderness, He gave them a good dinner. It is the powerful heater--is the glorious furnace of Christian sympathy. The question ought to be, instead of how much heat can we absorb? how much beat can we throw out? Warm greeting, warm prayers, warm smiles, warm Christian influence. There are such persons. We bless God for them. We rejoice in their companionship. I have been for twenty-seven years studying how to make the Church warmer. Warmer architecture, warmer hymnology, warmer Christian salutation. All outside Siberian winter, we must have it a prince’ s hothouse. The only institution on earth to-day that proposes to make the world warmer. Universities and observatories, they all have their work. They propose to make the world light, but they do not propose to make the world warm. Geology informs us, but it is as cold as the rock it hammers. The telescope shows where the other worlds are, but an astronomer is chilled while looking through it. Chemistry tells us of strange combinations, and how inferior affinity may be overcome by superior affinity; but it cannot tell how all things work together for good. Worldly philosophy has a great splendour, but it is the splendour of moonlight on an iceberg. The Church of God proposes warmth and hope--warmth for the expectations, warmth for the sympathies. Oh, I am so glad these great altar fires have been kindled I Come in out of the cold. Come in, and have your sins pardoned. Come in by the great Gospel fire-place. That is the way the cold world is going to be warmed up by the great Gospel fire-place. All nations will come and sit down at that banquet. While I was musing the fire burned. “ Come in out of the cold, come in out of the cold!” (T. De Witt Talmage.) Psalms 147:19-20 His statutes and His judgments unto Israel.The Law of Moses That Law which God delivered to His own people, and for which just returns of praise are here made to Him, shall be the subject of our present inquiries, particularly the end and design of it, and its perfections, and also some defects in it which the Christian revelation hath enabled us to discover.1. From the Scriptures we learn that God chose the children of Israel, as He had promised to Abraham, to be His peculiar people; that He miraculously rescued them from slavery; that He gave them the quiet possession of a fruitful country; that He wrought many wonders for their preservation; that He delivered precepts to them, the observance of which necessarily separated them from other people; that He raised up a succession of prophets to instruct them or correct them; that He ruled over them Himself in a singular manner. After He had preserved them a distinct people for more than fourteen hundred years, He sent His Son to them, who was born amongst them, and came to make a new and a better covenant, to which both they and all other nations should be invited, and to teach a more pure and spiritual religion. This Messias was obscurely represented in their religious ceremonies, and promised in the Law and the prophets; and as the time of His coming approached, the predictions concerning Him were more full and clear. If We consider the Law as intended to instruct the Jews in moral truths, and to keep up the worship of God in the world, we may observe that these ends were sufficiently secured. From the Law and the prophets the Jews might learn that God did not so much delight in ceremonial observances, as in piety, justice, and charity; from many expressions in them they might suppose and hope that a quiet possession of the land of Canaan was not the only reward of well-doing, but that God reserved for these who loved Him a better recompense in a better world. In those books they might find descriptions of God’ s goodness and mercy proper to raise their trust in Him, and to encourage them to amendment and repentance, gracious promises of pardon, and a promise of future blessings, of which the Messias should be the author and dispenser; which may be said to belong rather to the Gospel than to the Law, and to be founded upon all that Christ did and suffered for mankind. And as good laws naturally tend to make good subjects, and a good religion to make good men, so the lives and behaviour of some worthies recorded in Scripture are witnesses to the excellence of the religion which they had received, and by which they were guided. They were remarkable for piety to God, and for a disinterested love of their country, they preferred their duty to all worldly advantages, and endured with patience cruel persecutions, even to death, for the sake of a good conscience. Another end of the Law was to preserve the people of Israel distinct and separated from all nations. Many precepts were appointed for this very purpose: “ I am the Lord your God, who hath separated you from other people: ye shall therefore put difference between beasts clean and unclean.” That having a diet peculiar to themselves, they might be restrained from eating with the Gentiles, and so from learning their idolatrous and vicious customs. Another end of the Law was to set up a form of government differing from all others, in which God Himself should be the King, and rule over the people in a most remarkable and wonderful manner. Another end for which we may suppose the Law to have been given was that it might be in some measure a light to enlighten the Gentiles, to spread the knowledge of one God, and so to preserve it that it might not be quite obliterated by idolatry. 2. I shall now make some remarks on the defects and imperfections of the Law. Though that part of the Law which was ceremonial served for good and wise purposes, yet, considered in itself, and compared with the Gospel, it was a weak and imperfect institution, fitted only for children in knowledge, and also a burthensome and severe ordinance, as the apostles testify. St. Paul hath represented the state of the Jews as a state of infants and slaves. He says that whilst they continued under the Law they were children, and that their rites and ceremonies were rudiments adapted to the low capacities of children, and designed to train them up and prepare them for the Gospel; he says also that they were slaves, that they had received the spirit of bondage to fear, because they were obliged to the performance of external services which in themselves had no goodness, and compelled to the observance of them chiefly by servile motives, by the fear of punishment. The Law was defective, also, in that it was not a general revelation of God’ s will to mankind, nor indeed of its own nature fitted for universal use. It seems confined to the people to whom it was delivered, in its promises, in its threats, in its rewards and punishments, in several duties and conditions which it required, in the ceremonies, sacrifices, feasts, and customs which it appointed. It admitted proselytes indeed; but it could not have been the religion of any other nation; and the number of the proselytes, though considerable enough sometimes, when compared with the number of the Israelites, or Jews, yet when compared with the Gentile world, was so small, that the psalmist might well say in the text, God hath not so dealt with any nation, neither have the heathen knowledge of his laws. From the defects of the Law it seems reasonable to suppose that it was not designed to continue always. Therefore God, by the prophets, added from time to time new revelations to the Law, removing some of its obscurity, and allaying some of its severity, and also promised greater discoveries to be made in His appointed time. Thus was the Law a preceptor to the Jews, as the apostle speaks, to bring them to Christ; a dispensation appointed, in condescension to the weakness of that people, to train them up and fit them by degrees for the reception of the Gospel. 3. I shall now proceed to vindicate the Law of Moses and the Jewish religion from some objections which have been raised against them, both in ancient and in modern times. First, sacrifices were disliked by some learned and respectable philosophers; and for this and other reasons Judaism appeared to them an injudicious and a superstitious religion. We must therefore observe that sacrifices were not appointed as the most excellent way of serving God, or even as a practice good in itself, but partly in condescension to the weakness of a stubborn people, partly by way of fine and punishment for their transgressions, partly as emblematic ceremonies showing the heinous and dangerous nature of sin which deserved death, and partly as a figurative representation of the atonement to be made by the Lamb of God who should take away the sins of the world. Secondly, God never commanded sacrifice as a thing of its own nature right and fit, but only as useful or necessary by way of consequence. It was usually a rite by which men renewed a covenant with God, and it supposed some transgression, so that if men had never sinned it would have had no place. When God accepted it, He approved it only as it was a testimony of contrition, a humble acknowledgment of unworthiness, a desire to honour Him with a present, and to be received again into favour and alliance with Him. Another objection to the Jewish religion is taken from the bloody wars which the Israelites waged with some nations, and with some cities, by Divine command, and in which they were directed to give no quarter to their enemies, but to put them all to the sword. But it is strange that any one who believes in God should think this to be an insuperable objection, a difficulty not to be removed, and a full confutation of the Jewish religion, because such sort of reasoning will overset natural as much as revealed religion. It will prove, if it proves anything, that God cannot suffer diseases and calamities to destroy so many of His creatures every day; for diseases and calamities are in some sense of His appointment, and arise from the constitution and the nature of the things which He hath created. Another objection to the Old Testament is that Moses and the Prophets had not just notions of the Divine perfections, and ascribe to God things unworthy of Him. Thus, for example, they represent God as punishing the children for the faults of the parents, as being the author of evil, and as obnoxious to human infirmities, and to the passions of grief, anger, and jealousy. As to God’ s visiting the iniquities of the fathers upon the children--First, this threatening being annexed to the commandment against idolatry, is not properly personal, but rather national. Secondly, God still reserved to Himself a power, by a particular providence, to show favour to particular persons who should distinguish themselves by their good behaviour, and carefully avoid the vices and iniquities of their forefathers. Thirdly, when the nation was degenerated, and was punished for it, and the righteous and the wicked were involved in the same public calamities, God was able to make a compensation to the least guilty and the more innocent, partly in this world, and fully in another world. As to the objection that they represent God as the Author of evil--by this way of speaking they never meant to remove the guilt of wicked actions from men and to lay it upon God; they only intended to acknowledge the superintending providence of God, and to declare that no event took place without His knowledge and permission. In this sense they held that He created both good and evil, and that there were not two Gods, two Principles, or First Causes, but only one Author of all, of all those powers and qualities which the righteous employ to good purposes, and of which sinners make a bad use. As to those passages of Scripture in which God is clothed with human infirmities, and subject to human passions, these things are spoken in condescension to our capacities, and arise from the imperfection of human language, and the necessity of representing things spiritual in a way suitable to our conceptions. Another and a common objection to the Old Testament is taken from the behaviour of those illustrious persons who are represented as holy men and servants of God, and some of whose actions are not condemned in Scripture, and yet are not justifiable. First, we must remember that the doctrines of morality in those ancient times were not so perfect as those of the Gospel; and, therefore, proper allowances must be made upon that account. Secondly, the history of the Old Testament is often vary short and concise; and as we know not all the circumstances, we should rather incline to judge too favour-ably than too severely of the actions of good men which are of an ambiguous nature, and to admit of any candid apology which may be suggested for them; at least, we should suspend our judgment in such eases, and not decide too hastily. (J. Jortin, D. D.) . Psalms 148:1-14 Psalms 148:1-14 Praise ye the Lord from the heavens.The great, the greater, and the greatest: - I. The great. Sun, moon, stars, etc.1. How boundless in variety. 2. How immeasurable in extent. II. The greater.1. Rational and responsible existences. (1) Angelic existences. (2) Human existences. 2. This moral universe is greater than the non-moral. (1) It reflects more of God. It mirrors His spirituality, His freedom, His conscience, etc. There is more of God seen in one holy soul than in the whole stellar universe. This moral universe is greater because-- (2) The non-moral is but the symbol, the instrument, the tenement, the garment of the moral. Great as is the non-moral universe, what is it without moral mind? A theatre without a spectator, a school without a pupil, a temple without a worshipper, a house without a tenant. III. The greatest. What is the greatest? “ The Lord.” “ His name alone is excellent; His glory is above the earth and heaven.” Greatest because--1. He is the Author of all. 2. He is the stability of all. 3. He is the law of all. The whole universe is His will in action. (David Thomas, D. D.) Psalms 148:3 Praise Him, all ye stars of light. Lessons of the stars 1. One of the most impressive lessons we learn from a study of the stars is the immensity of creation. As they crowd the sky on a clear, bright night we see the beauty and force of the words employed of old to express the increase of Israel--“ God hath made thee as the stars of heaven for multitude.” The distance between the furthest planet and the nearest star is twenty-one billions of miles. If we could travel as fast as light travels, we should go round the world four hundred and eighty times a minute; and yet, travelling at the same rate, it would take us three years and seven months to get to that nearest star. The distance of Sirius is so great that it would require a journey of twenty-one years to reach it. There is another star, visible by the naked eye, so far away that we could not cover the distance in less than seventy-two years. Travelling at the same rate, it would take seven hundred thousand years to visit the group, remote and cloudlike, which Sir William Herschell discovered with his telescope. 2. We learn from the stars the existence of abiding law and order in creation. The celestial bodies perform their revolutions in fixed periods; and though some seem an exception to this rule, yet they only exemplify it the more strikingly, for their irregularities, occurring at stated times, have as much method as their uniform movements. Byron sings of-- “ A pathless comet and a curse, The menace of the universe.” But now it is known of some, and may be inferred of all, that they are as obedient to law as the planets themselves. Another illustration of law we have in the elliptic movements of the planetary bodies. We owe to Kepler the discovery of the fact that they all move in elliptic orbits--that if you draw a line from the planet to the sun, the areas described by that line in its motion round the sun are proportional to the times employed in the motion, and that the squares of the periodic times are as the cubes of the distance. The first of these is a law of forms, the other two are laws of numbers. By their mutual attractions the planets sometimes produce disturbance among themselves. Through observing the irregular movements of Uranus the astronomers discovered Neptune; yet even at such times order reigns. The primal law of gravitation, discovered by Sir Isaac Newton--that law which keeps all the stars in their places and regulates the descent of a snowflake--abides for ever. Law and order are seen in the motions of the double stars. In many parts of the heavens two or more stars are seen, apparently near each other, and mutually connected as part of a system. In some cases these companion stars revolve round each other; in other cases two or more revolve round a common centre. They are at a much greater distance from each other than the furthest planet of our system is from the sun. The period of their revolution varies from thirty to upward of seven hundred years. Yet they all travel according to fixed law. And this reign of law is observable in the most remote part of the heavens as much as in the nearer. Every fresh discovery reveals its existence and operation.3. The stars remind us of the beauty and grandeur of creation. In the spheroid shape of the planets and their satellites we have beauty of form. Then we have degrees of magnitude and brightness. It requires the light of a hundred stars of the sixth magnitude to make that of one of the first magnitude. One star differeth from another star in glory. There is a variety of colour as well as of size and lustre. “ Through the clear, transparent atmosphere of a Syrian night, without any optical aid whatever, one star is seen to shine like an emerald, another like a ruby, a third like a sapphire, and a fourth like a topaz--the whole nocturnal heavens appearing to sparkle with a blaze of jewels.” There are individual stars, each shining in a splendour all its own. There are starry clusters which hang in the heavens like fruit in the tree. Some are extremely irregular in shape, while others show regular forms of a round, spiral, or other tendency. The Great Bear is a grand and striking constellation. Pleiades glitters and quivers with radiance like a breastplate of jewels. Orion, with his brazen girdle, is not only the most glorious constellation in the heavens--he is also one of the few visible in all parts of the habitable globe. 4. The stars witness for God. An atheistic leader of the French Revolution said one day to a Christian villager: “ We are going to pull your church-tower down, so that you may have nothing left to remind you of God, or religion.” “ You will not only have to pull down the church-tower,” said the man, “ you will also have to blot out the stars before you can destroy all that reminds us of God. They speak to us of Him.” (1) They speak of His living, all-pervading presence; and so illustrate Christ’ s words, “ My Father worketh hitherto.” He upholds them by the constant acting of His power. (2) They bear witness to God’ s condescension and care. While they speak of His majesty and power, they speak at the same time of our littleness. Yet the power that made and upholds the stars made and upholds man. (W, Walters.) Psalms 148:8 Snow and vapours.The glaciers as prophets From the visible we divine the invisible. In what is physical we find parables concerning the spiritual, and even discern natural law in the spiritual world. The Teacher of teachers took often His texts from the freer Bible of Nature when He would expound either the constitution of His Kingdom or the attributes of Deity. To-day let us “ enter into the treasuries of the snow,” and remind ourselves of some precious lessons therein. Snow is the vapour of water crystallized. The atoms of which all matter is compounded tend, when free, to assume the crystalline form, and by water, which is a solvent of nearly all substances, atoms are generally set free, and in their freedom they combine. So we get rock crystal from the resolution of flint, Iceland-spar as a crystalline form of the atoms of chalk, diamonds from carbon, and snow-crystals from the moisture aggregated in clouds directly the temperature is low enough to freeze that moisture. When the air is calm six-rayed stars are produced, as we can see with the naked eye when they are caught on a cold surface. Their being driven together by currents of air causes their beauty and their individuality to be lost in the shapeless snowflake. The colder the air, the smaller the crystal. Can we doubt that their geometrical form is an evidence of the active presence and action in nature of an orderly mind? That the structure of all crystals being based on mathematical laws and relations shows the handiwork of a grand Geometrician of the Universe? Catch some snow-crystals. So ordered in beauty are they, that we feel that to them also has been whispered, “ Be ye perfect, even as your Father is perfect.” Tiny is each, but perfect in beauty of form. On our microscopes we may have learned to inscribe, Maximus in mini-mis es--Immeasurably great art Thou in Thy least, O God! The lovely sculpture of diatoms in the vegetable kingdom, of the tests of infusoria in the base of animal life, and the remembrance that only the most infinitesimal number of their inconceivable hosts can ever be seen by the eye of man, that only their Maker can delight in their absolute perfection, bids us burst out with a creed that is a commandment. We can, we must, aim at perfection, for nothing short of perfection expresses and imitates the quality of the Divine mind and work. So beautiful is each, and yet how varying. Over a thousand forms of snow crystals have been noted, albeit all have the necessary unity of being six-rayed. There is no act of uniformity here, or anywhere in Nature, for uniformity is man’ s ignorant parody of the unity which alone God desires and creates. But now let us trace these crystals and these flakes, not backwards but forwards, as one might who saw them falling softly on a mountain top. Into quite other thoughts than those of beauty and goodness will they lead, and what has been as a guiding star may now become a beacon of warning. Tiny is each, and well nigh without weight. Can such as they have had relation to the valleys from which we have ascended, the ravines we have clambered up? Have they anything to do with the hard blue ice of the glacier, its crevasses, and its graving of even the granite rocks? Light, and falling noiselessly; white from the entangled air of the flakes and from the blending of the prismatic colours in their reflection from the minute faces of the crystals; yet in their multitude causing pressure as they lie sheet upon sheet; and this pressure gradually eliminating the air until neve, half snow and half ice, is formed. But still the pressure increases by fresh falls of snow above, and at last the neve becomes the blue, airless ice of the glacier. But this mighty field of ice remains not level or at rest; surely, and without pause, it is moving downwards, although imperceptibly to the eye. Nor is it without effect on all it touches. It chisels out with its imbedded stones grooves in the cliffs that bound it and form its bed; it smoothes, as with a vast plain, the hardest rocks over which it crawls, and leaves these testimonies graven in the rock to be read in ages far in the future when and where the glacier itself has ceased to be. Now in all this we may see a parable of the usual course of moral evil, from its beginning in the almost unnoticed venial sin which is unresisted as being considered unimportant, continuing by repetition and aggregation to gather force and destructive power, until at last there is the fixity of evil that mightily affects its surroundings. So light is each snow-crystal as it falls; so trivial it seems that little bit of self-love, or self-will, or self-confidence, the slight exaggeration, the only momentary harbouring of an evil thought; that questionable additional one per cent of profit; the pride that is little more than the consciousness of success; the resentment which seems justified, that, considering each one by one, and forgetting the cumulative weight of numbers, the sense of sin is as yet unroused, and watchfulness appears unneeded while still it is the day of small things. And even the snowflake, formed when crystals have been blown together, is felt only when falling on the uncovered and uplifted face, and then but as a touch--no bruise, and certainly no wound resulting, no burden felt; and so white still from the entangled air. So together with the venial sins there is yet so much of the atmosphere of habitual grace, such spiritual vitality still, such activity in good works, that there seems no prospect of the elimination of the air of heaven that may in time turn the snowdrift that a wind may move into the ponderous and crushing, dark and airless ice of the glacier. Yet the process is natural when once begun. The multitude of imponderable crystals causes weight. The superimposition of small forces creates the power that hardly can be resisted. Gradually the snow-beds change into neve as their pressure forces out the air; and gradually, unnoticed and unresisted, little sine chill the heart, dull the sensitiveness of the conscience, and form first the tendency and then the habit of coldness and apathy towards the interests, and invitations, and even the commands of duty towards one’ s higher life-duty towards one’ s neighbour, and duty to God. Not that overt evil is as yet apparent: neve to the casual glance is not so very different from snow. Respectability remains, morality is not apparently lost: the hardness of the airless ice is not yet produced. But it is only a question of time and of the continuance of increasing pressure as snowstorm upon snowstorm and winter after winter thickens the superincumbent mass. At last the ice is formed--airless, hard, and ready to destroy. To the eye, at any given moment, there seems no motion, and only by minute and scientific observation is the downward flow noted and calculated. Is it not so in the moral decadence of the human spirit? One day brings no obvious deterioration of character. The lethargic and frozen spirit thinks and avows that it is much as usual from year to year, and yet all the while, visibly enough to the grieving eye of its Creator, its Redeemer, and its Sanctifier, the continued downward course is rendering any arrest of this deathward progress less easy. Acts create habit, and habit forms permanent character assuredly, though perhaps as unobservedly, as snow changes into neve, and neve into the glacier. But, again, we observe the dead, descending stream of ice not merely in itself, but as it affects all it touches. No man liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself is an axiom true in the economic, the social, the natural, and the spiritual order of things. How absolutely impossible is the existence of any trust in the common saying, “ He is no man’ s enemy but his own,” and still more in the popular excuse, “ If I do it, I injure no one but myself.” The cold heart must chill other hearts. Not only the fervour of zeal, but the paralysis of indifference and inaction is contagious. Our friends, our associates, and the greater number who, unknown to us, yet must be and are influenced for good or evil by what we say, or write, or do, and by the greater eloquence of what we are, form, as it were, the banks of the river of our life, and each atom of that bank is thrilled by our motion. Do they seem of sterner stuff than we? Yet even the granite cliffs are planed by the softer ice of the passing glacier, and scored by the fragments of rock it has absorbed. And, lastly, the scars remain when the glacier has disappeared, melted away by a kindlier climate. Glaciers in England passed away ages before historic or even traditional memory, but their effects remain. Not only “ the actions of the just smell sweet and blossom in the dust,” but equally are unrighteous deeds a source of infection long after the doers are forgotten. These thoughts have been solemn--sombre if you will--but nature is a school-room, not simply a playground, and it is by enduring hardness, intellectually and spiritually, that one becomes the soldier of Christ, the prophet of God. Our mountain rambles derive their charm from the mixture of what is ever terrible with that which is lovely; black precipices linger in our mind as well as the wealth of flowers in the meadows; the startling roar of an avalanche echoes in our memory as well as the soft harmony of bells and rivulets below; and so, while mostly we are noting with thankful glee all things that seem sparkling ripples on the stream of a Maker’ s love, the undertone of warning may well be heard--Be wooed to life; be scared from death. Sing thy Eucharist at the evidences of the love; chant also thy Litany at the reminder of the necessary justice of God. (J. W. Horsley, M. A.) Stormy wind fulfilling His word.-- The Divine use of destructive forces Some of us may remember a walk through a park on the day after a hurricane: leaves, twigs, branches wrenched violently from their trunks strew the soil in every direction; oaks which have stood erect perhaps since the days of the Plantagenets now lie prostrate. Nor is vegetable life the only sufferer. The eye rests on what may remain of a nest of young birds dashed from their shattered home upon the ground; or perhaps here and there the carcase of an animal which had run for shelter beneath the cover of a tree already tottering to its fall. Or we are on the sea coast, the angry waves are subsiding, and as we watch them they presently lay at our feet the timbers of what we know a few hours ago must have been the home of human beings; and then one and another fragment of a ship’ s furniture is floated up, and then, perhaps, at last, a human body, so bruised and gashed by its rude contact with the rocks as to be scarcely recognizable. “ Fulfilling His word.” Somehow or other, then, His word is fulfilled in this devastation and disfigurement of that which His own hands have made; and the agent which inflicts it obeys some law as regular as that which governs the motion of the planet, although with more complex conditions. In its early history this earth seems to have been the scene of a series of catastrophes, each of them the product of existing law, each of them the preparation for some higher forms of life. As we pass from the physical and inanimate world and enter the human, the spiritual, and the moral, we find new and rich applications of the words before us. Here the wind and the storm become metaphorical expressions, having, however, real counterparts in the passions and the agency of man. Here, too, as elsewhere, we watch them fulfilling God’ s word. I. Let us begin with the State. Every reflecting person must know how intimately the well-being of mankind is bound up with the maintenance of social order, and the stability and vigour of existing institutions with good government, with the due security of life and property: It is the State which organizes and combines the conditions of well-ordered human life. The State answers in the social life of man to physical nature in man’ s animal life. Its strength and unvarying order are the guarantee of man’ s well-being; and yet the State is exposed to destructive storms which rival in their sphere the most violent catastrophes of nature: and the question is how such storms are fulfilling God’ s word.1. There is, for instance, the storm of invasion, the extreme and most dreaded result of the storm of war. Never, probably, before the establishment of the Roman Empire were such blessings as well-ordered government can secure secured for so large a proportion of the human family as was then the case. Upon the subjugation of a number of petty States continually at war with each other, the Romans established a vast system of law and police, which was almost conterminous with the civilized world. It extended from the Euphrates to the Straits of Gibraltar, from the Grampian Hills far into the deserts of Africa. This wonderful political edifice, which was begun by the soldiers of Rome, which was built up and completed by her lawyers and her administrators, was such that its seeming strength and its compactness and its practical wisdom made men believe that it would last for ever. But the centuries passed, and moral corruptions, imported chiefly from the East, ate out the very heart and fibre of Roman strength; and then there came the storm of the barbarian invasions. On they came, Goths, and Huns, and Vandals; on they came, wave after wave, breaking upon the enfeebled defences of decaying civilization; on they came, wrecking cities, devastating provinces, breaking up altogether the old fabric of society, and establishing in its place a state of things from which Rome had delivered the world, a number of petty States constantly at war with each other, and lacking in not a few instances the primary conditions of social order. And yet this wind and storm, we can see it, fulfilled God’ s word. Rome had done its work, and the evil which festered under its ordered splendour at last greatly outweighed the good that could be secured by its longer continuance. It left to the world its great conceptions of law and rule that were never better appreciated than in our own day; it had to make room for new and vigorous nations instinct with a healthier spirit, guided from the infancy of their existence by a Divine religion; and the scenes of ruin in which it perished had a sanction which has been justified by the event. 2. There is the storm of revolution, more dreadful in its extreme phases than the storm of invasion or the storm of war, just as cruelty or wrong at the hands of relations is more unendurable than at the hands of strangers. Such a storm was that which burst upon France in the closing years of the eighteenth century. We may go far, indeed, to find a parallel to the Jacobin terror in point of deliberate ferocity perpetrated in the name and in the midst of an advanced civilization. The brutalities of the Committee of Public Safety are the more revolting from the contrast which they present with the lofty professions of a sensitive philanthropy amid which the Revolution was ushered into being. And yet, as we look back on those terrible years which occupied the whole attention of our grandfathers, we can trace in them, too, the wind and storm fulfilling God’ s word. The old society which was thus destroyed was inconsistent with the well-being of the greater part of the French people; and the agonies of the Revolution have been counterbalanced by the exchange which millions have made of a life of great hardship and oppression for a life in which all men are equal before the law. He who makes the clouds of human passion His chariots, He who walks upon the wings of the wind of human violence, He permitted a company of pedantic ruffians, who for the moment controlled the destinies of France, to work its miserable will, because He had in view a larger future which would show that, however unconsciously, they were fulfilling His high purposes of benevolence and justice. II. In the Church, the Divine society, we trace the operations of the same law. The Church is exposed to storms which in her higher life correspond to the storms of invasion and the storms of revolution in the life of the State.1. Thus there is the storm of persecution which in Scripture is distinctly ascribed to the agency of Satan. It might well have seemed to the first Christians hard and almost unintelligible that the almighty and loving Father should have called out from among mankind into existence the society of His true children and worshippers only to expose it to the fierce trial which beat on it with such pitiless, with such well-nigh incessant fury during the first three centuries of its existence; and yet as we look back we can see that this education in the school of suffering was neither needless nor thrown away. If the Head of the new society had been crowned with thorns, the members could not expect to be crowned with roses, and withal to be in true correspondence and communion with the Head. If the storm of persecution swept round the cradle of Bethlehem when the holy innocents were sent to their appointed thrones by the sword of Herod; if it beat with relentless fury upon that cross where He hung, the Infinite and the Eternal, expiating human sin, it could not but be that His members would be perfected through suffering. 2. And there is the storm of controversy. Between the sacredness of Divine truths, and the angry passions which rage around them when the floodgates of controversy have been opened, there is the hideous contrast which we all feel most deeply in our best moments; and yet the wind and the storm of controversy have their place and use in God’ s providential government of His Church. If St. Paul had not withstood St. Peter to his face at Antioch, it seems probable that, humanly speaking, the Church of Christ would never have exceeded the dimensions of a Jewish sect. If Athanasius had not opposed Arius at Alexandria, it is difficult to see how, but for a miraculous intervention, the Church would have continued to teach the Divinity of Jesus Christ. If Augustine had allowed Pelagius and his coadjutors to pass uncontradicted, Western Christendom at least would have ceased to believe that we are saved by grace. The controversies of the sixteenth century plunged a large part of Europe into spiritual anarchy; but at the same time they cleared away mists which else must have hung in ever-thickening corruption over the face of Christendom. Our own age has not been wanting in its full share of religious disputes, and we have not escaped the heart-burnings and the other evils which always accompany them. But those winds and storms of controversy have in their measure fulfilled God’ s word by rescuing from oblivion almost-forgotten truths; by reminding Christians of a truer and higher standard of life and practice which they had well-nigh forgotten; by bringing out into the sunlight the agreement which often underlies apparent differences, as well as the deep differences which often traverse a specious agreement; by persuading men of goodwill to combine courage in defence of truth with a chivalrous and charitable bearing towards its opponents; by deepening our sense of the preciousness of that well of truth of God which is itself attested by our misunderstandings, by our struggles, by our faults of conduct and of temper which accompany the effort that is made to recognize and to proclaim it. Yes, even controversy may have its blessings. III. And not less applicable are the words to the experience of individual life which is assailed by storms that in their various ways fulfil the will or word of God. There are the outward troubles of life; loss of means, loss of friends, loss of reputation, the misconduct of children, the inroads of bad health, the slow decay of hopes that once were bright and promising; these things are what men only mean when they use the metaphor in their common talk. The storms of life also represent disasters and failures of a more or less external kind. And no doubt when they fall upon us in quick accumulation they do break down nerve and spirit, they do lay us low, as the psalmist says, “ even to the dust.” But these storms most assuredly are not seldom our best friends if we only knew it. They break up the class of alliance which the soul, despite her higher origin and destiny, is ever too ready to make with the outward world of sense. They throw us back from the realm of shadows upon the other kingdom which is so close to us, which we forget so easily, but where all is life. Life is full of illustrations of the truth that these storms are meant to fulfil and do fulfil God’ s word by promoting the conversion and the sanctification of souls. There are, for instance, souls who are exposed to fierce intellectual trials, because in no other way, as it seems, would they or could they learn the patience, the courage, the humility, the self-distrust which are so essential to the Christian’ s character. There is no doubt a dreadful risk lest the violence of the storm should wear them out and they should sink disheartened and lie down and die. But the struggle need not be given up in any case; and God’ s grace is sufficient for all who will seek it, since “ His strength is made perfect in weakness.” (Canon Liddon.) God’ s word fulfilled in Nature We are apt to think and speak as if everything had been made for us--as if the sun and moon and stars, the mountains and hills, the fruitful trees and all cedars, beasts and all cattle, creeping things and flying fowl had had no other object but our pleasure and comfort. Whereas, in truth, all these were designed to praise God. First, then, each of these glorifies the Lord by obeying its Maker’ s will. The fulfilment of His design in making them is, according to His own appointment, the proof that He has wrought them well, and therefore that He is worthy to be praised. They also praise Him by accomplishing His work. Sometimes He entrusts them with special commissions. The fire which came, at Elijah’ s prayer, to decide the people’ s choice between Baal and the Lord, fulfilled a distinct word of God; so did the hail which destroyed the crops of the Egyptians; so did the cloud which received our ascending Lord; and the mighty wind which raged around Jonah’ s ship; and the great rain which began in the little cloud of promise granted to the kneeling prophet. And so, again, the glory of God is subserved by these, when they awaken the minds of His sons and daughters to consider in these material forces the operations of His hands. How good it is, what honour is rendered to the Lord of all things, when we are taught by those sights and sounds of nature which are the instruments of God, to discern even Him the Lord Himself, in the snow-storm, and the ocean tempest, and the prairie fire, and the great hailstones, and the impenetrable mists! How gloriously, too, all of these may extol Him by suggesting analogies to us--teachings of that spiritual world, whereof we find so many pictures and parables around us on all sides. These are not fanciful--God forbid that we should think so. They are employed again and again by our blessed Lord, in His Gospel doctrine, when He is showing the heavenly meaning of earthly scenes. And as the Everlasting Son, so also the Eternal Father, does, in Gospel prophecy, use just this imagery (Isaiah 55:10-11).1. One of the very first lessons to be learnt from such visitations is our utter dependence upon God. Look at the way in which the complex machinery of this great country has been suddenly put out of gear by a few hours’ snow--how our postal service, our telegraphs, our common business, our markets, our trade, our schools, our mutual intercourse have been interrupted as in a moment by the tiniest particles of snow joining together against us in irresistible masses--a great army of the Lord, as mighty as the locusts of His sending. Here is, indeed, a disclosing to us of the power of God to hold us down, and to show us His great strength at any time. 2. Since we are entirely dependent on Him ourselves, we should remember, with a self-denying charity, those whom He has suffered to be smitten by the rushing waters, or the raging wind, or the cutting frost and snow. There must not only be,--though He does desire this,--the fruit of our lips giving thanks to His Name: besides this, we must not forget to do good and to distribute, for it is with such sacrifices that God is well pleased. 3. Though the heart is the seat of holy gratitude, the lips are the gates through which it passes to the throne of the heavenly grace. Should net our prayer be this, the familiar petition which yet is too little our own: “ O Lord, open Thou our lips; and our mouth shall show forth Thy praise” ? (G. E. Jelf, M. A.) God’ s hand in the wind and storm God’ s hand is in the wind and storm. He raises it, He directs and rules it, and He stilleth it again. I. God employs the stormy wind to fulfil His threatened judgments. I do not say or suppose that men who perish in the storm are sinners above others, more than were the men on whom the tower of Siloam fell, or the men whose blood Pilate mingled with the blood of their sacrifices. We are forbidden to judge of any man’ s eternal state by the manner of his death. But we know and are assured that death is never an accident--that in every case, and as the common effect of sin, it is always a judgment; and that, so often as it is brought to pass by the stormy wind, this is the minister of the judgment which God has decreed and threatened. II. The stormy wind fulfils God’ s word of promised mercy. Directly, and by its proper effect, it is the executioner of judgment; indirectly God makes use of it for the very opposite result. For need I tell you that God pursues a plan of mercy on behalf of our world, as well as judgment, which in His wonderful working doth in part accomplish it by the very judgment which He sends abroad on the earth? The same events in providence, you know, work to the most opposite ends in regard to different individuals--as the pillar of cloud, which threw fear and confusion into the host of Pharaoh, animated the camp of Israel with courage and confidence. And who of you all, that are careful to mark God’ s dealings with you, but has, in connection with the storm, reason to sing of mercy as well as of judgment--that, amid your frequent exposures, you have been preserved--that you have been delivered from those dangers in which this and that other of your messmates have perished? This surely demands of you, at the least, that you acknowledge the riches of God’ s goodness and forbearance and longsuffering to you-ward, as not willing you should perish, but that ye should come to repentance. III. The stormy wind fulfils God’ s word as serving in many ways to promote the great end of moral discipline.1. To recall men to the sense of a forgotten God. 2. To rebuke and chastise men. 3. To try the grace of God’ s people, to explore its weakness, or to manifest its strength. (J. Henderson, D. D.) Psalms 148:9 Mountains and all hills.Mountain pictures in Scripture In Scripture mountains are used to set forth-- I. The place of special communion with God. The Bible often refers to mountains as if, in a special sense, they belonged to God. Actually all things are God’ s--valleys as well as hills, plains as well as mountains. But I believe you never meet with God speaking of these other things as He does of mountains. He doesn’ t say, “ My valleys,” “ My rivers,” but He does say, “ My mountains.” And when we stand and look at a mountain, with its top piercing the clouds, the thought may well come to us, If the valleys and plains have been given to man, God has reserved the mountains for Himself. If man is able to scale them he is unable to live upon them. And there are some whose summits can never be reached. Yes, if we want to banish little earth-born thoughts, and cares, and troubles, if we would exclude them by the entrance of greater thoughts, then climb the mountain, go to its summit if you can, and you are likely to come back another man. It is in accord with all this that our Saviour, when He wanted His three disciples to lose sight of earth while they beheld His heavenly glory, took them away to a mountain-top. And whenever He Himself wanted to leave the world behind Him, and to find a place where He could feel His Father to be very near, and have intimate communion with Him, “ He went up into a mountain to pray.” II. God’ s great power. The old Hebrew teachers, when they wanted to show the people how strong the arm of Jehovah was, used, in effect, to point to the mountains, and say, “ Let me tell you what Jehovah can do with them.” Isaiah is rich in imagery of this sort. At one time the prophet wished to make the people feel the immense disparity between themselves and God, and he asks them the significant question, “ Who hath weighed the mountains in scales?” When the prophet again wishes to tell us what mighty things God has done, and especially to call attention to the quiet, easy, noiseless way that God can bring about marvellous events, how splendidly he effects this by saying, “ The mountains flowed down at Thy presence” ! When Jeremiah wished vividly to picture to the people the terrible judgments which his prophetic eye could see that God was about to bring upon their land because they had been rebellious, among other things he says: “ I beheld the mountains, and, lo! they trembled.” When Nahum seeks to make the impenitent sinner sensible of the terrors of the Lord, even though He is slow to anger, he says, “ The mountains quake at Him, the hills melt, and the earth is burned at His presence.” And Habakkuk shows that Jehovah’ s power is not to be trifled with when, more than once he says, “ The mountains saw Thee, and they trembled.” Yes, these immovable hills tremble when they see God; and what, then, will impenitent sinners do--men who take no notice of what God has to say to them; who keep their thoughts bound down to earthly things, and never acknowledge God in any of His ways? III. Great antiquity and unchangeableness (Habakkuk 3:6; Psalms 90:2; Isaiah 54:10). IV. Symbols of immense obstacles and difficulties (Matthew 17:20; 1 Corinthians 13:2).1. The pathway of every individual life has its obstacles. Not only do we pass through cloud and sunshine, and along rough places and smooth, but sometimes we have to confront obstacles which seem to be as much beyond our power to move aside as the high mountain would be. But take courage, friend! for if you can’ t remove it, if you can’ t get it out of your way in an instant--as most of us in our impatience would like to do with all our mountain-difficulties--yet by steady and persistent effort you may master the mountain and get the right side of it by and by. 2. But mountains are put, too, in Scripture as symbols of difficulties which lie in the way of Christ’ s conquest of the world. The Alps lay in the way of Hannibal and Napoleon when they were seeking to conquer Italy; and vaster mountains still seem to lie in the way of Christ’ s conquest of the world. The unwillingness of the people to listen to the message of reconciliation is a mighty mountain in the way of the victorious march of the Saviour; and even when they listen the unbelief and cold indifference of men stand out like a vast mountain with snowy summit and ice-bound sides. We might well believe that these difficulties would never be overcome if God had not said they should be. But God can make even these icy mountains shake and tremble and melt away. The thing that is impossible with men is possible with God. Out of these very mountains God can make a way. He can convert a Saul, the persecutor and unbeliever, into Paul, the persuasive preacher. And if we have faith we shall not only climb mountains by an incessant effort, but we shall be able to put some of them out of the way (Isaiah 40:4-5). (J. Clarke, B. A.) Mountains declare the majesty of God’ s handiwork The majesty of the Creator is set forth anew in the recent classification of nature’ s vast work of what Warren Upham, of the United States Geological Survey, terms “ mountain-building.” Mr. Upham says that he finds six modes of mountain construction throughout the western hemisphere; namely: folded, arched, domed, tilted, erupted, and eroded. The Appalachian-Laurentian systems are specimens of the folded mountain range; parts of the Cordilleran belt in Western United States, of the arched construction; the Henry Mountains in southern Utah, of the domed; the Sierra Nevadas, of the tilted; the Andes range, of the erupted as seen in the traces of grand volcanic-action throughout the entire extent; and lastly, the remnants of vast areas once uplifted, specimens of the eroded mode of mountain architecture. (Homiletic Review.) Psalms 148:12 Both young men and maidens.Happy work for everybody I. What it is to praise the Lord. Praise is the heart singing. We want the heart that sees and feels how kind our heavenly Father is, and loves Him for everything. One day as I was going along the road I saw a large coil of telegraph wire lying in a heap. There keeping itself all to itself, dull and heavy, it was the very last thing that you would ever expect to get any music out of. Soon afterwards, as we were going that way again, my little girl said to me, “ Hark! what is that playing?” I pointed up to the wire--the same wire that lay coiled up in heavy silence. Now it was stretched along from post to post, and was making music the whole day through. And so it is with us. We keep our love in to ourselves and wrapped around ourselves, and then there is no music. But when our love stretches away to Jesus, then it makes the constant music of praise--at home or at school, at work or at play. II. Reasons why we should praise the Lord.1. Because He has loved us, and given Himself for us. 2. We are the only creatures in the world that can praise Him. After all, the dragons and great deeps can’ t really praise Him, nor the sun or stars. It is like the telegraph wire again. When the wind has come to the wire, then the music comes. The air that is in this chapel is blown into the organ, but it has no sound until it comes through the organ pipes. So all things in God’ s great world are dumb until they come to us. We are the harp and the organ by which their praise is to go up to heaven. 3. Praise is the only thing that we can give to the Lord. 4. Loving praise is the only thing that can satisfy our loving Lord. 5. It is the happy work that we shall do in heaven. Let us practise it down here. (M. G. Pearse.) Psalms 148:13 Let them praise the name of the Lord.Universal praise due to God I. The goodness of God to the irrational creatures. Although Nature is out of joint, yet even in its disruption I am surprised to find the almost universal happiness of the animal creation. On a summer day, when the air and the grass are most populous with life, you will not hear a sound of distress unless, perchance, a heartless schoolboy has robbed a bird’ s nest, or a hunter has broken a bird’ s wing, or a pasture has been robbed of a lamb, and there goes up a bleating from the flocks. The whole earth is filled with animal delight--joy feathered, and scaled, and horned, and hoofed. The bee hums it; the frog croaks it; the squirrel chatters it; the quail whistles it; the lark carols it; the whale spouts it. The snail, the rhinoceros, the grizzly bear, the toad, the wasp, the spider, the shell-fish have their homely delights--joy as great to them as our joy is to us. Goat climbing the rocks; anaconda crawling through the jungle; buffalo plunging across the prairie; crocodile basking in tropical sun; seal puffing on the ice, ostrich striding across the desert, are so many bundles of joy; they do not go moping or melancholy; they are not only half supplied; God says they are filled with good. The worms squirming through the sod upturned of ploughshare, and the ants racing up and down the hillock, are happy by day and happy by night. Take up a drop of water under the microscope, and you find that within it there are millions of creatures that swim in a hallelujah of gladness. The sounds in Nature that are repulsive to our ears are often only utterances of joy--the growl, the croak, the bark, the howl. The good God made these creatures, thinks of them ever, and will not let a ploughshare turn up a mole’ s nest, or fisherman’ s hooks transfix a worm, until, by Eternal decree, its time has come. God’ s hand feeds all these broods, and shepherds all these flocks, and tends all these herds. The sea anemone, half animal, half flower, clinging to the rock in mid-ocean, with its tentacles spread to catch its food, has the Owner of the universe to provide for it. We are repulsed at the hideousness of the elephant, but God, for the comfort and convenience of the monster, puts forty thousand distinct muscles in its proboscis. I go down on the barren seashore and say, “ No animal can live in this place of desolation,” but all through the sands are myriads of little insects that leap with happy life. I go down by the marsh and say, “ In this damp place, and in these loathsome pools of stagnant water there will be the quietness of death” ; but lo! I see the turtles on the rotten log sunning themselves, and hear the bogs quake with multitudinous life. When the unfledged robins are hungry, God shows the old robin where she can get food to put into their open mouths. Winter is not allowed to come until the ants have granaried their harvest and the squirrels have filled their cellar with nuts. God shows the hungry ichneumon where it may find the crocodile’ s eggs; and in Arctic climes there are animals that God so lavishly clothes that they can afford to walk through snowstorms in the finest sable, and ermine, and chinchilla, and no sooner is one set of furs worn out than God gives them a new one. He helps the spider in its architecture of its gossamer bridge, and takes care of the colour of the butterfly’ s wing, and tinges the cochineal, and helps the moth out of the chrysalis. The animal creation also has its army and navy. The most insignificant has its means of defence--the wasp its sting, the reptile its tooth, the bear its paw, the dog its muzzle, the elephant its tusk, the fish its scale, the bird its swift wing, the reindeer its antlers, the roe its fleet foot. We are repelled at the thought of sting, and tusk, and hoof, but God’ s goodness provides them for the defence of the animal’ s rights. II. The adaptation of the world to the comfort and happiness of man. The sixth day of creation had arrived. The palace of the world was made, but there was no king to live in it. Leviathan ruled the deep; the eagle, the air; the lion, the field; but where was the sceptre which should rule all? A new style of being was created. Heaven and earth were represented in his nature. His body from the earth beneath; his soul from the heaven above. The one reminding him of his origin, the other speaking of his destiny--himself the connecting link between the animal creation and angelic intelligence. In him a strange commingling of the temporal and eternal, the finite and the infinite, dust and glory. The earth for his floor, and heaven for his roof; God for his Father; eternity for his lifetime.1. The Christian anatomist, gazing upon the conformation of the human body, exclaims: “ Fearfully and wonderfully made.” No embroidery so elaborate, no gauze so delicate, no colour so exquisite, no mechanism so graceful, no handiwork so divine. So quietly and mysteriously does the human body perform its functions that it was not until five thousand years after the creation of the race that the circulation of the blood was discovered; and though anatomists of all countries and ages have been so long exploring this castle of life they have only begun to understand it. Volumes have been written of the hand. Wondrous instrument! Behold the eye, which, in its photographic gallery, in an instant catches the mountain and the sea. 2. I take a step higher, and look at man’ s mental constitution. Behold the benevolence of God in powers of perception, or the faculty of transporting this outside world into your own mind--gathering into your brain the majesty of the storm, and the splendours of the day-dawn, and lifting into your mind the ocean as easily as you might put a glass of water to your lips. Watch the law of association, or the mysterious linking together of all you ever thought, or knew, or felt, and then giving you the power to take hold of the clue-line, and draw through your mind the long train with indescribable velocity--one thought starting up a hundred, and this again a thou-sand--as the chirp of one bird sometimes wakes a whole forest of voices, or the thrum of one string will rouse an orchestra. Watch your memory--that sheaf-binder, that goes forth to gather the harvest of the past, and bring it into the present. Your power and velocity of thought--thought of the swift wing and the lightning foot; thought that outspeeds the star, and circles through the heavens, and weighs worlds, and, from poising amid wheeling constellations, comes down to count the blossoms in a tuft of mignonette, then starts again to try the fathom-hag of the bottomless, and the sealing of the insurmountable, to be swallowed up in the incomprehensible, and lost in God! 3. I take a step higher, and look at man’ s moral nature. Made in the image of God. Vast capacity for enjoyment; capable at first of eternal joy, and, though now disordered, still, through the recuperative force of heavenly grace, able to mount up to more than its original felicity; faculties that may blossom and bear fruit inexhaustibly. Immortality written upon every capacity; a soul destined to range in unlimited spheres of activity long after the world has put on ashes, and the solar system shall have snapped its axle, and the stars that, in their courses, fought against Sisera, shall have been slain, and buried amid the tolling thunders of the last day. (T. De Witt Talmage.) Psalms 148:14A people near unto Him.Believers near to God I. The position of the people near to God, or the relationship indicated by nearness.1. A legal nearness. “ Made nigh by the blood of Christ.” 2. A covenant relationship. A solemn mutual pledge, sealed at the Cross. 3. A filial relationship. Not more certainly will affection be felt in the heart of both parent and child among the families of men than in the “ Abba Father” of the believing soul, and the tender pity of God’ s gracious bosom. 4. A mystical union between Christ and the soul. All His becomes yours, and yours becomes His. 5. Partakers of the Divine nature. II. The privileges of the people near to God. What shall we say to that protection which this nearness ensures to your soul, seeing that the place of your defence shall be the munitions of rocks, that your bread shall be given you, and your water shall be sure? Jehovah is like a wall of fire about His people. What shall we say of that provision made for you in this wilderness, where every possible want of the body and the soul meets its full and perpetual supply in the riches of Divine goodness, which are all pledged to you by the love and faithfulness of your covenant God? What shall we say of the promises “ exceeding great and precious,” made to all collectively, and to one by one personally. What shall we say of providences, all arranged by wisdom which never errs, and love which never fails, and controlled by power that is never weary, so as most effectually to promote the salvation of your souls? III. The transforming efficacy of this nearness to God. See how it will and must operate from principles necessarily at work.1. There is the solemnity of your position. If God’ s nearness be fairly and fully recognized, if He be seen as He is, and you seen as you are, in the light of His purity, will you, can you, dare you be contented to remain in the corruption of nature? 2. There is admiration of God’ s character. Let His character be seen and felt as revealed in the way of pardoning sin by the Cross in infinite power and wisdom, holiness and truth, all displayed in sweet harmony and ineffable glory, while mercy casts her bright radiance over them all to assure the trembling sinner, and constrain him to draw nigh; then can you see all thee perfections engaged on the side of the sinner, engaged to sanctify and save his soul, and feel not a lofty admiration of the beauty of the Lord? 3. But admiration begets desire. If we feel admiration for any person, do we not wish to make him a friend? The moment that admiration of anything ceases, desire to have and enjoy it ceases too. But the beauty of the Lord is manifested to your faith just that you may feel the kindlings of desire to be His, and to be like Him in His loveliness. 4. But surely the soul that has such desires will frequently, solemnly, and closely commune with this infinitely lovely and blessed God. Such communion gives a consciousness of the reality of Divine things, and is fitted to stir you up and spur you on in the effort to become like your God. It thus necessarily leads to-- 5. Imitation. This is the end of the process, imitation of “ God manifest in the flesh.” His Word will make you wise. His truth will render you truthful. His justice will move you to rectitude. His sovereignty will make and keep you lowly. His purity will lead you to holiness of heart. His mercy and pity will make you tender, and loving, and gentle. (John Walker.) Nearness to God I. In what respects true believers are near to God.1. The awful breach is healed, and they are reconciled. The separating wall of sin is broken down, and they have boldness and access with confidence to Him who would otherwise be a consuming fire. 2. The power of sin is subdued, and they are near as to union and likeness. Nearness, as to the former, is by the blood of Christ: the latter is by the influences of the Holy Spirit. 3. They are near as to communion and fellowship. Jacob had his Bethel, David his hill Mizar, and Paul, though sometimes pressed out of measure, had also his raptures in the third heavens (Isaiah 12:1). 4. They are near to Him in a way of endearment, being precious in His sight. They are near to His heart, and to His eye, and His ear is open to their complaints. 5. They are so near to Him that they will soon be with Him--at home, and at rest. Faith gives you an interest in the Divine favour, and death will bring you to the full enjoyment of it. Your warfare shall be accomplished, and the victory complete. II. The reasons why this nearness is matter of exultation and joy.1. This nearness is lasting: those who are thus brought near to God shall be for ever near. 2. Those who are near to God have God also near to them. He will guide, protect, and comfort His people amidst all their difficulties and dangers. 3. They have blessings and privileges which none else can enjoy. They may hear from Him, and He from them; may contemplate His glorious majesty, and commune with Him, as it were, face to face. 4. Being near to God, they are also near to heaven. Improvement-- (1) How vain are all our hopes of happiness without God (Psalms 73:27). (2) Let us be reconciled to those providences which tend to bring us near. The severest trials are often among the means which God employs to bring us to Himself. (3) Let nearness to God be the object sought after in every holy duty, both public and private. We may as well be in Geshur as at Jerusalem, unless we see the King’ s face. (4) Not only let us desire to be brought near in a way of interest, but to keep near in a way of communion. This will soften afflictions, heighten our mercies, fortify us against the fear of death, and be our best preparative for heaven. (5) If the Lord’ s people be near and dear to Him, let them be so to us. (B. Beddome, M. A.) The privilege of dwelling near to God Communion with Christ is the happiest life. If you gained all the world, and did not lose your soul, but only lost the light of Christ’ s countenance for a few days, you would make a poor bargain. There is heaven in every glance of His eye. There is infinite joy in every word of His mouth when He speaks comfortably to His servants. Go not away from Him. Be like Milton’ s angel, who lived in the sun. Abide in Christ, and let His words abide in you. Closer, closer, closer, this is the way to spiritual wealth. To follow afar off, and live at a distance from Christ, even if it does not make your soul to perish, yet it will wither up your joys, and make you feel an unhappy man, an unhappy woman. (C. H. Spurgeon.) . Psalms 149:1-9 Psalms 149:1-9 Sing unto the Lord a new song.The song of the saints 1. The elect, regenerate, or true believers have a song of their own for mercies proper to them, beside the praise which they have to give for the Lord’ s work round about them, and therefore they have a proper reason to praise God for their own particular. 2. The song of the redeemed elect and converted is a new song which shall never wax old, nor be cut off, an everlasting song. 3. It is God’ s ordinance that the worshippers of the Lord should have assemblies and meetings wherein publicly and jointly they may glorify the Lord in proclaiming cheerfully His praise. (D. Dickson.) Cumulative praise Mr. Moody says: “ There is much more said in the Bible about praise than about prayer. The Psalms are nothing but praise, and as David got nearer the end of the journey he seems to have thought of little else. So it is with Christians--the nearer they get to heaven, the more they praise God. Everything that God has created except the heart of man praises Him. I knew a man who always used to praise God under any circumstances. One day he came in with a severe cut on his finger, and said, ‘ Praise God, I didn’ t cut it off.’ Let us also praise God that our misfortunes are no worse.” Psalms 149:2 Let the children of Zion be joyful in their King.The children of Zion joyful in their King I. Believers in their character as “ the children of Zion.”1. Zion is here used as the name of “ the kingdom” of which all believers are the subjects. 2. But while believers are subjects they are also children. (1) They entered “ the Kingdom” by birth--“ born of God.”(2) Inherit it--“ brethren of Christ” --“ sons of God” --“ heirs of God” --joint-heirs, etc.(3) High place in the Kingdom--children’ s interests and affection. “ Behold, what manner of love,” etc. II. Jesus Christ in His character and office of “ King of Zion.”1. Anointed. “ I set my King upon my holy hill of Zion.”2. A Legislator. “ The Lord is our Lawgiver.”3. An Administrator. “ Zion, Thy God reigneth.”4. He subdues to His laws. (1) His people are under authority.(2) None else can, without sin, be called the King of Zion.(3) Believers must not yield obedience to any other in Zion.(4) Submission to Christ’ s officers is submission to Christ. 5. He defends His subjects (Galatians 4:22). III. The children of Zion “ joyful”1. Joy--a fruit of the Spirit--“ Reioice in the Lord.”2. Joy--a command--“ Be joyful.”3. Joy--a feeling, often beautifully expressed in the prophecies and “ songs of Zion.”4. This joy a most natural and proper feeling. They possess-- (1) Deliverance.(2) Acquaintance.(3) Safety. IV. The children of Zion “ joyful in their King.” They rejoice--1. Because Jesus Christ the Lord reigneth. 2. Because of His greatness and glory. (1) He is a Divine King--the Eternal God.(2) He is a Kinsman and Brother.(3) He is a Redeeming King. 3. Because of the blessings which He has and gives.4. Because of the relations in which He stands to them.5. Because of what He has done for His people--for them--in them.6. Because of what He will still do for His people-- (1) For each of them.(2) For the whole house. (a) On earth. (b) In Heaven--throughout eternity. (J. Stewart.) The children of Zion joyful in their King I. Believers are “ the children of Zion.”1. Zion is often used as an emblem of the Church of God (Psalms 2:6; Isaiah 28:16; Romans 9:33; 1 Peter 2:6). (1) It was stable (Psalms 125:1); so is the Church (Matthew 16:18). (2) It was secure (Psalms 48:3; Psalms 48:11-12); so is the Church (Ephesians 5:29). (3) The situation of Zion was exceeding beautiful (Psalms 48:2); so is that of the Church (Matthew 5:14). (4) Zion was a holy mountain; because on Mount Moriah, which joined it on the north-east, the temple of God was built (2 Chronicles 3:1; Psalms 48:1); the Church is holy (Ephesians 5:27). (5) Mount Zion was peculiarly loved by God (Psalms 88:2); so is the Church (Ephesians 5:25). 2. Believers are children of Zion by birth. Naturally we are all “ aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise” (Ephesians 2:11-12). 3. Believers can continue children of Zion no longer than while they retain faith (Hebrews 10:38). 4. Zion is emblematic of heaven (Hebrews 12:22; Revelation 14:1; 1 Corinthians 2:9; Revelation 22:4; Revelation 22:10-21). 5. Believers are children of Zion by a title to heaven (Acts 26:18; Ephesians 1:18; Colossians 1:12; 1 Peter 1:3-4). II. Believers have a “ King.”1. Royalty is the centre of supremacy. A king is a supreme governor. God in this sense is the King of believers. 2. Royalty is the source of legislation. God is the Legislator of His people. His code is more pure than any ever conceived by the human mind for the perfection of human jurisprudence (Romans 7:12). 3. Royalty is the fountain of protection (Job 1:10; Psalms 5:12; Psalms 27:1; Psalms 37:17; Psalms 37:39; Psalms 55:22; Psalms 118:8-12; Psalms 146:3-6). III. Believers should be “ joyful in their King.”1. Because He is the most glorious and dignified of all beings. (1) Consider His nature. He is the independent Jehovah.(2) Consider His moral attributes. 2. Because by His charter they enjoy great privileges and immunities. He communicates to them through His Spirit an evidence of their acceptance (Romans 8:16); and through His Word exceeding great and precious promises (2 Peter 1:4). They possess peace and joy (Romans 14:17; Romans 15:13). 3. Because the monuments of their great men are protected. The Bible is a record of the saints. In it are contained monuments of their patience, meekness, courage, faith and heavenly-mindedness, Here we are taught to admire their virtues, and excited to follow their example (Hebrews 6:12). 4. Because their enemies are totally inefficient to disturb His government (Deuteronomy 33:26-29; Psalms 93:1). 5. Because His kingdom will ultimately be universal, and all opposing powers will be destroyed. IV. Remarks.1. How great and glorious is the moral elevation of a believer, and how insignificant does the honour of this world appear contrasted with the dignity of a Christian! 2. How great should be our solicitude to become subjects of the spiritual kingdom of Jehovah. 3. How indefatigable should we be in spreading the knowledge of God by personal instruction, by example, and by the dedication of property, talents and influence! (Sketches of Four Hundred Sermons.) Believers joyful in their King I. The Lord Jesus is our King.1. He is in person and character pre-eminent-above all others even of the saintliest, and wisest, and noblest. 2. To each believer He is a King to be obeyed. When His blood cleanses us, His love rules us. 3. He is King in the midst of His Church. Secular courts have no authority in the Kingdom of Jesus. 4. He will be seen to be King in the day of His second advent. II. His royal character.1. Was there ever such a Prince as our Emmanuel, if we think of His person, His pedigree, His descent, His nature? This King of ours is not only the flower and crown of manhood, but He is also very God of very God. He is God over all, blessed for ever: the Son of the Highest. 2. His deeds of love to us. 3. His glorious achievements. 4. The principles of His government. They are fountains of peace and purity. III. The benefits of His reign.1. He is the Creator of His own empire. Each one of us must own for himself, and all of us together unitedly, that He hath made us, and not we ourselves; by His sovereign grace He has chosen, and redeemed, and called, and sanctified us, therefore will we be joyful in Him. 2. While our King has created His own kingdom, He has also sanctified and sustained that kingdom. Let the streams rejoice in the fountain, let the walls of the temple be joyful in the foundation. 3. It is He who has saved us and given us peace. 4. Is there anything that is needful which He has not given? Is there anything that is good that He has withheld? Have we any virtue? have we any praise? Then not unto us, not unto us, but unto His name be the glory. Nor is it alone in the past and in the present that we are debtors; we look forward to a future of obligations. IV. Let us be joyful in the continuance of the Redeemer’ s reign.1. The ages past have not taken away from the length of His reign. 2. The age of our King has not enfeebled Him. 3. As to His Kingdom, there is no fear of its failing. V. Let us obey Him with delight. Let us take into our hands a duty and a thanksgiving, a precept and a praise. Let us make up our whole life of the intertwisting of duty and delight. Let us be holy and happy. Let us turn obedience into gladness. That which else were drudgery we will exalt to a priestly sacrificing as we serve the Lord with gladness and rejoice before Him. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Our King in joy The Book of Psalms ends in a sacred tumult of joyous praise. He who ends this life with praising God will in like manner begin the next. Let us begin below the music which shall be prolonged through eternity. Like the birds let us welcome the break of day, which, when life is closing, faith discerns to be near. Concerning this joy, note-- I. It is peculiar to a certain people. “ Let the children of Zion be joyful,” etc. No others can be. But ye children of Zion, be thus joyful--1. Because of your loyalty. Ye delight to think that “ the Lord reigneth.” But we are also-- 2. Attached to His Person. It is not merely His throne, but Himself, that is dear to us. When any thus rejoice they sink themselves in Him, and this heightens our joy. And so does the admiration we feel for Him. II. This joy has a most proper object. For we should rejoice to be ruled by Him, and that He is Lord of all, and that His power is so great, and His glory likewise. The old poem of one of our writers sings of the “ Man of Ross,” and declares that every good thing in the town is owing to him and his benevolence. So that if you asked, “ Who built this fountain?” or, “ Who founded yonder school?” the one answer was, “ The Man of Ross.” So surely if you ask us concerning our privileges, our hopes, yea, the vast all that we possess, our answer is, “ We owe them all to our King.” Therefore let us be joyful in Him. III. This joy is permanent in its source. Everything here below is uncertain. Many are the reasons for our disquietude. Nevertheless let us be joyful in our King. Yes, though ministers and Church members fall off from true doctrine; though there be many backsliding Christians, and so few zealous and really Christlike; though our own hearts be so cold, our prayers so unworthy, our work so scanty and our fruit so rare. Your bottle, like Hagar’ s, may be dry, but yonder is the well of water which never can fail you. And when you come to die, then will he the time to be more than ever joyful in your King. IV. This joy has certain occasions for its more especial display. When does a nation rejoice in its king? At his coronation. So, when Christ was crowned in our souls. At the royal marriage. So, when Christ united us to Himself. When peace is proclaimed after war. So, when peace was made in and for our souls. At victories. When He keeps His jubilee. On his levee days, when He receives His friends. V. And this joy is sure to have practical results. An Eastern merchant of great wealth had in his employ a workman of great skill and genius in all works of art. But by some means this workman had fallen deeply into debt, and was sinking deeper day by day. He grew more and more depressed, and as he sank in spirit his old skill and power declined with it. Each product of his hand revealed less power. Meanwhile his creditor became more and more exacting, and at last threatened to sell the poor man’ s children as slaves, according to the law of the land, unless he was paid his debt. This weighed yet more heavily upon the poor man’ s soul, and his work was worse and worse. At length the merchant inquired of his steward how it was that this workman, once so renowned, was now producing nothing worthy of his former fame. “ No masterpieces come from him now, and our name suffers in the market and in the esteem of the merchants. How is all this?” “ My lord,” said the steward, “ he is daily of a sorrowful countenance and forgets to eat bread. He keeps a long and cruel fast, for he is drowned in debt and that to a cruel creditor, and his soul pines like the heath of the desert, and therefore his hand is slow as that of an herdsman, and his eye dull as that of the owl in sunlight. And this is why his hand hath forgot all its wonted cunning.” “ Send for him, bring him hither,” said his lord. He came. His lord told him that his debt should be all paid, and he and his set free. How that man worked afterwards! (C. H. Spurgeon.) Psalms 149:4 For the Lord taketh pleasure in His people.The objects of the Divine delight I. The people refereed to.1. They bear the Lord’ s name. They are His disciples, subjects, servants, soldiers.2. They bear the Lord’ s image (2 Peter 1:4).3. They possess the Lord’ s Spirit. He directs, comforts, and sanctifies them. 4. They are zealous for the Lord’ s glory. II. The Lord’ s delight in His people.1. In their persons.2. In their graces.3. In their services.4. In all their concerns.5. At all times, and in all circumstances. (J. Burns, D. D.) The Lord’ s delight in His people, and His designs towards them I. The delight which the Lord has in His saints.1. Who are the Lord’ s people? “ The meek.” (1) As it respects God, it implies poverty of spirit; humiliation of heart arising from a sense of guilt, and a feeling of corruption; submission and resignation to His will; silence and patience under His rod, and a surrender of our own natural desires and inclinations to His overruling appointments. (2) As it respects man, it comprehends lowliness of mind, and a readiness to prefer others before ourselves; gentleness of disposition and behaviour; forbearance under provocations. 2. Why does He take pleasure in them? Because they are His people, purchased by His blood, renewed by His Spirit, redeemed by His power. 3. In what respects does He take pleasure in them? (1) He delights in the exercise of their graces towards Him.(2) In their services.(3) In their prosperity. II. His gracious designs concerning them.1. The happy effects of religion even in the present life. 2. They are “ predestinated to be conformed to the image of the Son” ; and when they awake up in another world, it will be after His likeness, without any remaining blemish, defect, or spot. (E. Cooper.) God’ s pleasure in His people I. The class of character described.1. The title they bear. “ His people” -- (1) By Divine choice,(2) By regenerating grace.(3) By personal dedication. 2. The spirit they evince. A humble, contrite spirit, softened by the power of Divine grace, and melted by the love and compassion of Christ. II. The extent of privilege enjoyed1. As the objects of Divine complacency. 2. As the subjects of the Divine munificence. (1) The inestimable blessing--salvation. This consists in a deliverance from evil, and the enjoyment of all good--pardon, peace, joy, hope, heaven. (2) The manner of its application. “ Beautify.” How beautiful does the believer appear, arrayed in the garments of salvation, clothed with the robe of righteousness, and bringing forth the fruits of the Spirit--worshipping God in the beauty of holiness--going to the sanctuary to behold the beauty of the Lord. How beautiful, with the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit. How beautiful, laden with the fruits of righteousness, and resigned to the will of God under trials. How beautiful in death! (E. Temple.) God’ s delight in His people I believe that every true sculptor can see in the block of marble the statue that he means to make. I doubt not that the artist could see the Laocoon of the Vatican after he had chipped for a little time the figure of the serpent, and the father, and the sons all standing out in that wondrous group, long before anybody else could see it. And the Lord takes pleasure in His people because He can see us as we shall be. “ It doth not yet appear what we shall be,” but it does appear to Him. In the case of His mind and the shaping of His eternal purpose He knows, dear sister, though you are now struggling with your fears, what you will be when you shall stand before the blazing lamps of the eternal throne. He knows, young man, though you have but a few days turned from sin, and begun to struggle with vice, what you will be when, with all the blood-washed host, you shall cast your crown before His throne. Yes, the Lord takes delight in His people as knowing what they are yet to be. (C. H. Spurgeon.) He will beautify the meek with salvation.-- Beautiful for ever I. The character to be aimed at.1. Towards God. Entire submission to (1) His teaching.(2) His chastening.(3) All the influences of His Spirit. 2. Towards men--gentleness. 3. In themselves--lowliness. II. The favour to be enjoyed by them.1. Peace of mind. 2. Delightful contentment. 3. Great joy. 4. Holy character. As men and women, who are what they ought to be in Christ, grow old, their temper mellows, and their whole spirit ripens. III. The good results to be expected.1. God will be glorified. 2. By our meekness Christ is manifested. 3. This meekness makes a Christian attractive. If we want to draw others to Christ, we must let them see how sweetly blessed is the Christian life, and how a man can be sternly upright, and yet at the same time be blessedly cheerful,--how he can be dead against sin, and yet full of holy love to the sinner,--how he would not, to save his life, budge an inch from that which is right and true, and yet would give his life away if by blessing another he might bring glory to the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord beautify us thus with salvation, and great good will come of it! (C. H. Spurgeon.) The meek beautified with salvation I. Their character. “ Meek” --1. Towards God. (1) Under the Word of God--its threatenings, commands, truths and doctrine.(2) Under the dispensations of His providence. 2. Towards man. The Christian knows that others have as much or more to bear with him than he has to bear with from others; this tends to humble him, and to keep him meek. He endeavours to “ show all meekness to all men” ; “ in meekness instructing them that oppose themselves.” II. Beautified with salvation.1. The garment of salvation. It was wrought out by the Son of God, and, like Himself, is “ holy and without spot.” 2. The graces of salvation (Galatians 5:22-23). 3. The glory of salvation. How beautiful will he be with the palm of victory in his hand, and the crown of glory on his head, and sitting down, with the wedding-garment wrought by the Son of God Himself, at the marriage-supper of the Lamb! (W. Bolland, M. A.) Beauty To be religious is just to be like Jesus, and salvation, in the text, means religion; the meek there spoken of are persons who are gentle, and sweet, and kind. Now, there is something beautiful about the gentle, and sweet, and kind, although they may not be religious. How much greater, then, must be the beauty of such persons when they have, with their good qualities, religion also, with all its heavenly sweetness! Religion is not equally beautiful in all who profess to have it; a disagreeable temper may mar that beauty. The chief beauty of religion is found in the gentle, and sweet, and kind. And this beauty is seen in the face of religious people and also in all their kind acts. Bad tempers and unkind dispositions make the faces of people ugly, while sweet tempers and kind dispositions make them pretty. It is very hard to beautify some people even with religion. Some are sweet in temper and some are sour. It is a difficult thing for an artist, out of a piece of wood that is tough, and crooked, and knotted, to carve a beautiful image. And so it is not an easy task, out of some one in disposition very much like that piece of wood, to make a religious person beautiful in face and in action. But this can be done. Now, if the heathen man in old times, without any one helping him, learned to be gentle and sweet and kind, there is no one, surely, no matter how bad the disposition may be, who cannot, with God helping, learn the same lesson. I am sure that you all want to be beautiful. How can you become so? Some people think that any one can be made beautiful by wearing rich clothes and nice ornaments; but this is not what the Bible teaches us. It says (1 Peter 3:3-4). Every child can have such adorning by getting and keeping a sweet religious disposition, and by doing kindly religious acts. We have seen such beauty as this. At first, may be, we thought that some one had not a bit of beauty, but we found in that one a lovely soul and saw a lovely life; and then the plain face changed at once, and, in our sight, it became, like the soul and life, lovely too. (W. L. Spottswood.) Transfigured One of the most beautiful sights in the world is the Bay of Naples. No one who has ever seen it on a quiet summer evening, and watched it as the night gathered and through the darkness the flashes of fire from the summit of Vesuvius, like some torch of God, lighted it, can ever forget the scene. But scientific men tell us that that lovely Bay of Naples is the crater of a worn-out and flooded volcano. In the early morning of the world’ s history it was perhaps the greatest volcano on earth; it belched forth from its heart floods of seething lava. At last it sank down and down, its fiery heart was quelled, the lava ceased to flow, and in from the Mediterranean, perhaps first in some glorious day of storm, swept the white caps of the sea and overflowed the crater and filled it full, and to-day the beautiful waters lie in peace and mirror back the shining heavens above. So many of our lives are like the crater. Passions have swept over us and left us worn out. But God’ s grace can fill our empty lives and make them sweet and beautiful and peaceful. (Sunday Circle.) Psalms 149:5 Let the saints be joyful in glory. The saints in glory I. Their name. “ Saints.”1. Because they are separated. Not the world, or the god of this world, but the God who made and redeemed them, is their Master and Lord; God’ s service is their service; God’ s will is their law; God’ s Word is their rule. 2. Because they are sanctified. By the belief of the truth as it is in Jesus their eyes are turned away from viewing vanities, and are turned towards holy objects of contemplation. II. Their honour. “ In glory.”1. The state of glory. Heaven--eternal rest, but not inaction. 2. The place of glory. The holy city is all glorious, “ having the glory of God,” within, above, and around. Its sky is ever cloudless, its light is ever clear, its sun never sets, and its day never ends. 3. The society of glory. 4. An eternity of glory. III. Their joyfulness.1. Wholly joyful. 2. All joyful. 3. Ever joyful. (G. Robson.) Hallelujah Once, when the seraphic Samuel Rutherford was preaching, he came ere long to speak on the high praises of the Lord Jesus Christ. That was a theme upon which he was at home, and when he reached that point, and had spoken a little upon it, the Duke of Argyle, who was in the congregation, cried out, “ Now you are on the right strain, man; hold on to that.” I. Some reasons for praise.1. The delight of God in His people--their prayers, and their praises. 2. The beauty He puts upon His people. This text may be read in three different ways. First, as in our version, “ He will beautify the meek with salvation!” Next, “ He will beautify the afflicted with deliverance.” Hear that, you afflicted ones; jot it down for your comfort. And, next, “ He will beautify the meek with victory.” The men that cannot fight shall be beautified with victory. When the fighting men and those that stood up for their own rights will find themselves covered with shame, “ He will beautify the meek with victory.” II. Special phases of praise.1. Glorying in God. By anticipation and by foretaste we have already obtained the life eternal, therefore, “ let the saints be joyful in glory.” “ I cannot get up to that,” says one. Try. At any rate, get as far as this: wherever there is grace there will be glory. Grace is the egg, and glory is the hatching of it. Grace is the seed, and glory is the plant that comes out of it. Having the egg and the seed, we have practically and virtually the glory; therefore, “ Let the saints be joyful in glory.” 2. The next special kind of praise is joy in special circumstances: “ Let them sing aloud upon their beds.” (1) This is a message for the time of sickness. Praise the Lord when you are ill; sing to His glory when you cannot sleep; sing when the head aches, for that is the highest kind of praise that comes out of the body that is racked with pain. “ Let them sing aloud upon their beds.” (2) Your bed? Why, that is the place of seclusion! There you are alone. Commune with God upon your beds, and sing His praises, if not aloud with the voice, yet aloud with the heart. (3) Upon your bed? Why, that is the place of domestic gathering; for the bed here meant is a couch, on which the Orientals reclined when they ate. Sing the Lord’ s praises on your couches; that is, when you gather in your families. (4) The bed of death. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Psalms 149:9 This honour have all His saints.The honour paid to saints departed The honour here alluded to is that of being special favourites with heaven and instruments in the hand of God for the conversion of sinners to repentance. “ Saint,” in its original meaning, is a person set apart for the service of God, and in that sense “ holy.” This was the general title of Christians in the New Testament. They were considered as persons separating themselves from the rest of the world, professing and practising holiness in all manner of conversation. I. What honour in fact was paid to them after their decease.1. From the records of the primitive Church it appears that, whilst the number of converts in each place of worship would admit of it, the names of all who had departed this life in communion with their brethren were particularly recited with praise to God, and offered with great solemnity at the altar in the Eucharistical service. 2. As the increase of numbers soon rendered this usage impracticable, a general oblation of them was substituted in the room of it. (1) The general oblation of praise to God for all His saints departed we make upon a peculiar festival, marked out by our Church for this pious purpose. Even for the glorious company of the apostles, for the goodly fellowship of the prophets, for the noble army of martyrs; and indeed for the holy Church which hath been throughout all the world. (2) Our more particular acknowledgments of praise to Him for the illustrious examples and pious labours of His most eminent and renowned champions we reserve (as Christians did in the time of Tertullian) for the yearly return of their respective martyrdoms. (3) By both we plainly symbolize with the practice of the Church in her earliest and purest ages. II. What of this kind is, or is not, proper to be paid them.1. The limitations to be set to it. (1) The saints departed are no fit objects of our prayer to them, are entitled to no sort of religious worship from us (Matthew 4:10; Revelation 22:8-9). (2) But may we not be permitted to ask the intercession of saints departed, and through their mediation with the Lord of all things, in whose Presence we may suppose them standing, to seek a redress of our several grievances, and a supply of our respective wants? No! not this! For as we have but one God, so we have but one Mediator (1 Timothy 2:5). (3) If any degrees of a supposed uneasiness in departed souls, upon the delay of the resurrection, should be conceived to require our prayers and intercessions that God would remove or lighten them, these the charity of our Church hath indulged to us in her burial office, where we beseech Almighty God that it may please Him of His gracious goodness shortly to accomplish the number of His elect, and to hasten His kingdom; that so we, with all those who are departed in the true faith of His holy Name, may have our perfect consummation and bliss both in body and soul in His eternal and everlasting glory. 2. What of this sort may with safety be allowed to us? (1) We are to praise God for the benefit of their labours, through which we have been brought out of darkness and error into His marvellous light. (2) The lustre of their example is another circumstance deserving our praises to God, which will best be expressed in our imitation of it. (3) From the rest which they now enjoy from their labours, and from the blessedness of those who die in the Lord, we may comfort ourselves with the prospect of following them, and of partaking with them in the joy of our common Master. (N. Marshall, D. D.) The best lot the common lot Our present aim is to point out some of the choice gifts and privileges which pertain to all saints, but of which through mistaken ideas many deprive themselves; our anxiety is to encourage the most distrustful of God’ s people to claim the fulness of the blessing of the Gospel of Christ. We specify-- I. Communion with God. That all have a personal and equal access to the heavenly Father is a precious truth.1. Yet thousands, from a sense of personal unworthiness, touch not the sacramental cup, shutting themselves out from this fellowship with their dying Lord. They cheerfully acknowledge a fitness in others, whilst they sorrowfully fail to find that fitness in themselves. “ This honour have all His saints.” If Christ received only perfect ones to His table, He would sit there alone; but He receives sincere souls, whatever may be their faults, and sitting with Him they become perfect. 2. This same self-depreciation expresses itself in the straitened supplication and lowered expectancy of many of God’ s people. The Old Testament is full of glorious records of the power of prayer; the New Testament is not less rich in similar instances; and we know still that God’ s ear is not heavy nor His arm shortened. Here, again, we bring in the idea of privilege, and limit marked answers to prayer and large answers to prayer to special men and extraordinary times. Yet is God’ s Word most clear in this matter, levelling all up to the open throne. In our sorrow, feebleness, want, danger, fear, any of us may come to God with the confidence of Moses, the importunity of Jacob, the undeniableness of Daniel, the sweet, filial freedom of Jesus Himself. Let us act like princes of God. II. The influence of the Holy Spirit. There is unquestionably much that is sovereign in the gifts and movements of the Spirit of God. Gifts of healing, utterance, interpretation, etc., are peculiar to certain epochs and persons. The Spirit divideth “ to every man severally as He will.” But the grandest influences of the Holy Ghost--His enlightening, quickening, purifying powers--are imparted without partiality. His sovereign gifts and appointments are secondary; His essential and choicer influence is poured forth with undistinguishing richness on all receptive hearts. Let us make the great surrender, let us live in resolute purity, and concealed depths of our nature shall be broken up, unsuspected powers evoked, latent forces and talents shall surprise us into greatness. Those who can hardly stammer a testimony shall become clear and bold as golden trumpets filled with God’ s breath; the coldest glow as shining braziers full of live coals; the harshest characters become “ musical instruments, and that of all sorts” ; the weak pottery strong and bright as adamant; the coarse, crooked instrument a polished shaft; and the vessels of wood and iron shall be transmuted into vessels of alabaster and gold full of incense and odours. III. The witness of the Spirit. For each doubting soul there is assurance: a scroll for every bosom. The prodigal son moaned: “ I am no more worthy to be called thy son; make me as one of thy hired servant:” ; and this sentiment of mistrust is so deep in our heart we fail to see when the robe and ring are positively ours. Seek the sense of sonship as something belonging to you, waiting for you, and you shall not walk in darkness. Seek it with resolution. Plead for it in this very hour. IV. Entire sanctification. We believe in the ability and purpose of Christ to cleanse us from every defilement, and to keep us in perfect purity of flesh and spirit. But are all to be thus saved? Here we falter. We think some are destined to attain pre-eminent excellence, whilst others must abide frail and faulty. Is the young student taught that some impracticable barrier separates him from the highest intellectual excellence? On the contrary, he is taught to cherish a sense of brotherhood with the illustrious spirits of all time. And it would be fraught with endless mischief if we were to deny the student the hope of utmost mental eminence. Surely then we ought to hesitate to place any gulf between the grandest characters of the Church of God and the lowliest of its members. The purpose of God is not realized in the occasional brilliant fruition of a Leighton, a Baxter, a David Stoner or a John Smith; God watches over His vineyard, watering it every moment, to the end that every flower should be full of beauty, every plant reach the ideal grace, every branch bend with the largest, ripest clusters. V. Even into our ultimate glorification we carry the depreciating idea of ourselves. Many of God’ s people live with the hope of just getting through at last; they believe “ they shall not arrive in the ship, but float ashore on a plank” ; they figure to themselves some subordinate place in heaven they will be thankful to secure. A false humility is about as bad as a false ambition; and it will be well for us, thinking as meanly as we please about ourselves, to cherish to the full the great promises and immortal hopes of Christianity. (W. L. Watkinson.) . Psalms 150:1-6 Psalms 150:1-6 Praise God in His sanctuary.Worship I. Its spirit is exultation. Is there gratitude in it? Yes, gratitude of the highest type and degree, and gratitude is an element of joy. Is there admiration in it? Yes, admiration of supreme excellence, and the mind admiring beauty, whether artistic or natural, physical or moral, is the mind in rapture. Is adoration in it? Yes, adoration of the most transcendent order, the adoration of ineffable excellence, and the mind adoring is the mind in ecstasy. Talk not of worship as a means to heaven, it is heaven itself. II. Its reason is supreme. Praise God--1. Because of His works. (1) Creation.(2) Redemption. 2. Because of His transcendent excellence. III. Its obligation is universal. (David Thomas, D. D.) The hallelujah chorus Throughout the last five psalms we discover no wail of penitence, but a heightening tone of jubilant and adoring praise. The melody swells higher and louder until it reaches its climax in the “ doxology” or “ hallelujah chorus” of this psalm, where everything that breathes is summoned to join in the grand oratorio! It is a rigging finish to such a splendid collection of spiritual songs. Praise is the poetry of worship--the loftiest mood of the devout soul--the outflow of adoring affection--the rhythmic language of holy joy and loving gratitude. I. Where the chorus is to be rendered (verse 1). The song and the sanctuary, the chorus and the cathedral, are admirably suited to each other. II. Why (verse 2). For His “ mighty acts” in daily life, according to the “ excellent greatness” of His love as Father, compassion as Benefactor, power as Deliverer. III. How (Psalms 150:3-5). “ Whoever despises music,” says Luther, “ I am displeased with him, Next to theology, I give a place to music, for thereby all anger is forgotten, the devil is driven away, melancholy, many tribulations, and evil thoughts are expelled. It is the solace of a desponding mind.” IV. By whom (verse 6). Here the psalmist reaches the climax in his exhortation; he has exhausted language; he can particularize no more; he rushes to the culmination; he demands a universal outburst of adoration; he calls upon all in whom the breath of life is to help swell the “ hallelujah chorus!” O what a thrilling crash of melody! what a volume of perfect harmony, when animate and inanimate creation, with all creatures, rising rank upon rank, order above order, species above species, purged from corruption, delivered from all evil, and attuned to the euphony of the skies--when “ everything that hath breath,” the consecrated breath Divine--“ shall join in one harmonious song, and crown Him Lord of all!” (J. O. Keen, D. D.) The evolution of praise: Have you ever noticed the general advance which is presented in the Book of Psalms from the confessions, prayers, and conflicts of the earlier parts of the book to the truly sublime outburst of praise which, in the 150th Psalm, crowns the whole, and leaves us purely praising the Lord in an endless hallelujah? This advance, checked and broken at times, going back and standing still, and then pressing forward again, is a reflection of all Christian life, and is specially to be observed in the life of prayer. 1. As a general rule it is likely that the life of prayer finds its earliest expression in asking God for earthly gifts, deliverances, and helps. But some never pass far beyond this stage. I am in pain; I cry to God to relieve me. I want greatly to succeed at an examination, and I pray about it. My father or mother is ill, and I go to my own room, and, perhaps in a flood of tears, implore Him to make my loved one well. I have, later on, difficulties about money: I pray God to help me in some unexpected way. Definite petition for tangible earthly good is the first step in this “ Jacob’ s ladder” of prayer. 2. Time passes on, and brings the Strange experience of the soul’ s awaking. The thought of spiritual realities surrounding us is borne in with vivid freshness on the heart. I learn that I have sinned, and that God is holy. Judgment to come is a real thing. I must live for ever, and where shall that eternity be passed? “ Out of the depths I cry unto the Lord,” and I say, “ God be merciful to me, a sinner.” I ask a direct gift, but it is now no earthly blessing that I crave, but life for my sinful soul: “ I am a sinner; save me, O Lord; Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me” (Psalms 32:1-11; Psalms 51:1-19; Psalms 130:1-8.). This is a prayer for every stage. Were it not so, our Lord’ s own Prayer would, after a time, in Christian experience, go out of date. Yet here, again, the fact is observed that, as we go forward, these petitions form a smaller proportion of our prayers. There are other things which, to a great extent, come to press more on the soul for utterance. 3. For, thirdly, comes the long period of conflict and of self-discipline, during which our greatest desire is for growth in grace; for the development, under the Holy Spirit’ s direction and help, of the life of holiness. This noontide, as it may be called, of the Christian’ s day is a time of self-cultivation, of imitation of Christ, of temptation, fall, and rising again; of Christian work; of growing knowledge and experience. “ Teach me to do Thy will, O my God; show me the way in which I should walk.” And here, again, the Book of Psalms is a very storehouse of petitions. In the greater part of this book you find an almost endless variety of states of religious life and feeling. 4. Up to this stage prayer for our own selves, our body, soul, and spirit, has filled up most of our interest. But now, as love and sympathy grow--direct results of the grace which has been given through those earlier stages of prayer--we begin to find a habit of intercession developing within us. The family is the limit of our first real intercession. But the circle soon widens. It widens when we come to love our Sunday scholars, our school companions, our near neighbours, our colleagues in work. It widens much when, with a glow of real interest, we first bear before God the names of our enemies. “ Father, forgive them: this is intercession indeed. Nothing grows more rapidly than this habit of spiritual intercession; nothing brings us nearer to Christ. 5. And yet, even at this more advanced stage of the life of prayer, the Christian soul, as it rises, must not stand still. As the eternal kingdom is neared, there are heard faint echoes from the heavenly choir, and their song is all a song of praise. The course of prayer has been like the course of the Psalter, and the Psalter ends with hallelujah! “ Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord!” (Archdeacon Wynne.) A psalm study Psalms 150:1-6 is a Jewish hymn of praise; but it would not be out of place to describe it as the Psalm of Prepositions, seeing it is only by marking those words that we light on the progression of thought. I. The sphere of praise. “ In His sanctuary,” etc.1. Saints on earth.2. Angels in heaven. II. The reason. “ For His mighty deeds.” The cross of love will become all the more marvellous if it be viewed as the central picture of a universal spectacle. What a new incentive to praise when the universe of the scientist, that staggers us by its vastness and startles us by its awfulness, is recognized as the sphere also of Divine love; and when the Cross is interpreted as focussing eternal power in its tenderness and pity. III. The measure and quality. “ According to His excellent greatness.” Our praise, to be worthy and acceptable, must be dominated by a due sense of God’ s character. IV. The use of instruments. Any musician, apart altogether from questions of moral qualifications and religious fitness, can “ play” : only a worshipper can “ praise.” Whether, then, the instrument be an organ or a harp, a violin or a trumpet, it must become a medium between the soul and God. V. The inclusion of all. “ Let every breath you breathe praise the Lord.” Thus rendered, it is not an extensive appeal addressed to the universe, including birds, animals, insects, fish; so much as an intensive appeal addressed to the audience already in mind. The thought is climatic. Breathing, with its double function, is to become symbolic of prayer and praise. By every inspiration we are to take in more than breath, viz. the oxygenized air of the Divine presence; and by every expiration we are to give out more than breath, viz. the thought and feeling of the very soul. A worshipper may say when thinking of the service of praise and his own limitations, “ I cannot sing, nor can I play, and speech is inadmissible.” “ Granted,” replies the psalmist, “ but you can breathe: let that exercise become a medium between you and God. If the vocal and the instrumental be denied you, the inspirational is not.” (H. Elderkin.) The duty of praising God I. The motives.1. Creation.2. Preservation.3. Redemption. II. With what heart and mind we are to perform this service. He that singeth hymns, and psalms, and spiritual songs must make melody in his heart unto the Lord; he must hold faith and a good conscience; he must also have a mind superior to the world and its low enjoyments and cares; for that soul which is chained down to the earth, no praises, no, not the finest harmony in the world, can lift up into heaven. III. The blessed and salutary effects.1. The first and immediate effect is, that it serves abundantly to confirm our strength and confidence in God; it fixes the heart upon the contemplation of Him who is the object of our praise, awakens in us a devout attention to heavenly things, increases the powers of the mind, and leaves it serene and pacified in a manner that cannot be expressed. 2. Another effect of it is the same with that which the hosannas of the children produced, who sung and celebrated our Lord when He appeared in the temple at Jerusalem; their hosannas to the Son of David silenced the adversary. 3. The last and most blessed effect of all others which our giving praises to God in this world will have upon us, is, that it will entitle us to praise Him for ever in the next; and nothing but beginning to do it here will make us capable of it hereafter. (W. Jones, M. A.) Psalms 150:3-5 Praise Him with the sound of the trumpet.Musical instruments in worship 1. Albeit the typical ceremonies of musical instruments in God’ s public worship, belonging to the pedagogy of the Church, in her minority before Christ, be now abolished with the rest of the ceremonies, yet the moral duties shadowed forth by them are still to be studied, because this duty of praising God, and praising Him with all our mind, strength and soul is moral, whereunto we are perpetually obliged. 2. The variety of musical instruments, some of them made use of in the camp, as trumpets; some of them more suitable to a peaceable condition, as psalteries and harps; some of them sounding by blowing wind in them; some of them sounding by lighter touching of them, as stringed instruments; some of them by beating on them more sharply, as tabrets, drums and cymbals; some of them sounding by touching and blowing also, as organs: all of them giving some certain sound, some more quiet, and some making more noise; some of them having a harmony by themselves; some of them making a consort with other instruments, or with the motions of the body in dancings, some of them serving for one use, some of them serving for another, and all of them serving to set forth God’ s glory, and to shadow forth the duty of worshippers and the privileges of the saints. The plurality and variety, I say, of these instruments, were fit to represent divers conditions of the spiritual man, and of the greatness of the joy to be found in God, and to teach what stirring up should be of the affections and powers of our soul, and one of another, unto God’ s worship; what harmony should be amongst worshippers of God, what melody each should mike in himself, singing to God with grace in his heart, and to show the excellency of God’ s praise, which no means nor instrument, nor any expression of the body joined thereto, could sufficiently set forth; and thus much is figured forth in these exhortations to praise God with trumpet, etc. (D. Dickson.) Office of music in Divine service Thanksgiving, a consciousness of the goodness and glory of God, the soul’ s joy in God--how seldom do you find an utterance of this in the prayers of the sanctuary. There is a provision, even in our churches, for the excitation and expression of praise. It is the song-service of the church. But the first and most fatal difficulty in this is that we have no religious music; or, rather, that the music of the church is for the sake of music, and not for the sake of praise, it expresses the aesthetic or art-feeling about praise--not heart-feeling. It is aimed at a wholly different thing from that which music was designed to be in the sanctuary. In the household, music aims at a domestic feeling. A mother’ s lullaby is sung in the family. No one Would expect a mother to sit by the side of the cradle and attempt to sing Handel’ s “ Messiah,” or to execute the difficult passages of an opera. Something sweet--a simple carol--is the mother’ s song. The child knows it, and feels it. It is aimed at a domestic effect. In songs of patriotism that express and excite that feeling the music becomes subordinate. The most patriotic tunes in vogue have no merit as tunes, but they possess a subtle element that stirs up a patriotic feeling in the heart, and it therefore answers the end of music. Multitudes of tunes in the church of God are hewn out of symphonies, and oratorios, and operas. They are music as operas, and oratorios, and symphonies, but they are trash in God’ s house. In many cases the better a tune is, the worse it is in the service of the sanctuary. For the office of music in Divine service is praising. (H. W. Beecher.) Psalms 150:6 Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord.The breath of praise I. Praise in every age is one of the most important parts of worship. The holiest saint, what is he in the sight of God by nature? A poor sinner, born, no doubt, again of the Spirit, made a new creature by the Holy Ghost. But what does he owe it to? He owes it all to the free grace of God. “ By the grace of God,” said the great apostle of the Gentiles, “ I am what I am.” And ought not this creature, delivered from such a miserable state of death and condemnation, redeemed and renewed to cultivate continually the thankful spirit? Let him pray by all means; but let him also praise. II. There is no part of Christian worship that so tends to unite Christians, if they really take it up in spirit and unity, as praise. Men who cannot agree on the platform agree when they come to sing praise. III. There is no part of worship which so trains and fits us for heaven as does the service of praise. In that world there will be no more need of prayer, for all will be supplied; no more need for sacraments, for we shall sit face to face with Him who shed His own blood for us, gave His own body for us; no more need to search diligently for the things written for our learning. They will be swallowed up in sight, and will be absorbed in certainty. Praise will be the one grand employment of the inhabitants of heaven. (Bp. Ryle.)